《Nanomancer Reborn - I've Become A Snow Girl?》
Chapter 1 - Snow Girl
Chapter 1: Snow Girl
"Where do we start? How about at the beginning?
"I was a vige girl. Typical except for the fact that I was a little prettier than average.
"Normal family, normal life. I wasn¡¯t that interested in a partner. But then again, I was still just a child. Romance wasn¡¯t really on the table.
"It was during my 14th birthday that my vige was raided. Parents were killed yadidadida... you get the idea. I was shocked at first but got over it since I had more important matters.
"I was taken into an underground facility. I was blindfolded at the time so I didn¡¯t know where, though now I do and it was so far away from my vige I never bothered to return.
"They experimented on my body. I¡¯m pretty sure they said something about there being millions of previous experiments as well. I forgot the number. But would you believe it if I told you those scientists or whatever didn¡¯t give me anaesthetic!? Ridiculous right? I could have died from shock.
"s, I didn¡¯t.
"So there I was, the first sess of their experiments. I became the first Nanomancer. A mage wielding the powers of science along with magic. I could theoretically make anything I want should I have both the mana and the understanding.
"And obviously, as the first sess, they put some fail-safes into me. Made it so that I couldn¡¯t revolt.
"Time passed, I continued to improve and they never gave me a chance to learn something to help me leave their control.
"Then Mr Hero came with his posse. Raiding theb as he had the understanding of the underhanded deeds they have done.
"I was sent to intercept them as a defence but Mr Hero took pity on this missy. Disarming me, he proceeded to destroy thebs before he came back with a device to free me from control.
"I was grateful yes, but I didn¡¯t feel a blind worship to Mr Hero. I mean sure he saved me, but I didn¡¯t mind being killed you know.
"He offered me a ce into his party and I epted since I had nothing else to do.
"We levelled up together, grew stronger together. Well, I grew a little too strong.
"Ah, if you¡¯re wondering about levelling then I¡¯ll tell you about what everyone calls the system. Though you probably already know. We receive it the moment we are born. Our attributes, our race and our growth is recorded by the system.
"I did wonder where the system came from at one point of my life, but the more hung up you are about these details the more restricted your life will be. So I just epted it as a part of my life.
"So I was saying, I became too strong and the Hero became wary of me. His own ego and Heroplex couldn¡¯t stand someone stronger than him so he recreated the device and tried to block my powers.
"The device only took a little of my power making me just a little weaker than the hero.
He killed me in the end and I woke up again here. Out in the snowfields with Mr Wolves growling at me.
"And the rest you know. Well ¡¯knew¡¯ since you are in fact the skull of the wolf I killed." A girl said as she looked at the decapitated head of a wolf amongst other corpses.
"Goodness. Not even an hour here and I¡¯m already talking to a bloody head." She muttered standing up.
She had long ck hair and azure eyes. Her skin was pale as it made her seem like a doll. Currently, she was wearing a silk-like white dress which fluttered gently. She was roughly 5ft 3 a little on the short side of height. But then again, she was a snow ¡¯girl¡¯ at this moment in time.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 3
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 190/250
MP: 390/500
STR: 10
VIT: 10
INT: 30
AGI: 20
DEX: 15
DEF: 10
Unassigned points: 15
(Adult Human Male Average: 20 points)]
"I¡¯m a god damn ss cannon." Shiro muttered sitting on a corpse.
The most important stats for a Nanomancer was no doubt INT, AGI, DEX and STR.
INT/ Intelligence to provide her with the mana needed to formte her equipment. AGI/ Agility so that she could dodge. DEX/ Dexterity so she is able to handle the weapons with better proficiency and reload faster. STR/ Strength so she could actually lift the weapons.
Though that¡¯s not to say VIT/ Vitality and DEF/ Defence were not useful. They were, but the four aforementioned stats were the focus of her ss, Nanomancer.
However, with the addition of Snow Girl. She wasn¡¯t too sure how to distribute her stats. From what she knows, Snow Girls were a low ss monster ranking roughly in E ranks. The ranks go from the lowest E to the highest SSS.
Although Snow Girls were the lowest rank of E. When they be a Snow Woman or Yuki Onna, they belong to the C to B ranks. This was one of the main reasons as to why people would kill Snow Girls when possible to avoid them evolving.
Snow Woman were known for their magic as it allowed them to wield the power of Ice. They were annoying foes since they would slow your reaction time down or even downright cause you to fall into aa due to the drop in temperature.
From what she understands of the Snow Girl ss, it would probably be most beneficial to juice up the INT stat due to the fact that they would give her both mana and magic damage.
"Since Nanomancer is already a MAX level SSS tier ss, most of the skills are unusable due to myck of mana and strength." Shiro muttered looking at her ss skills.
[Snow Girl:
Avable Skills-
Tier 1 Ice Magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice]
[Nanomancer:
Avable Skills-
Dagger Creation]
"Hmm... I¡¯ll put 10 points into AGI and 5 into INT first. I¡¯ll focus on the restter since these two matter the most to me right now." Shiro muttered. Her dagger creation was redundant at this moment of time. She neither had the strength or mana to sustain the dagger or multiple daggers for that fact.
Therefore, her best bet was to go with a Snow Girl¡¯s magic offence for now.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 3
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 250/250
MP: 430/600
STR: 10
VIT: 10
INT: 35
AGI: 30
DEX: 15
DEF: 10
Unassigned Points: 0]
Due to the nature of the Nanomancer ss, each of her skills needed an insane amount of mana to sustain since the ss itself wasn¡¯t meant to be possessed by a low level person. It¡¯s not a SSS ss for nothing.
*GRRRRR~
Shiro paused when she felt her stomach rumble with hunger.
Looking over at the wolf corpses, her mind started to drift.
¡¯What do monsters eat in the first ce? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve heard of Snow Girls being carnivores.¡¯ Shiro thought.
"Hmm... Mana stones maybe?" She muttered as she reached out for the wolf¡¯s heart.
*PSSHT PSSHT PSSHT
The sound of flesh and blood rang out while her hands searched around inside the wolf¡¯s body.
Crushing the heart, she sighed since there were no mana stones to be found.
Low level monsters like these wolves had low chances of dropping mana stones to begin with.
"Urg. I want food." Shiroined whilst she searched the other bodies.
Yet none of the corpses had any mana stones.
"Haaa.... Just my luck. Forget it. [Collect]." Shiro said as she collected her loot from the wolves.
Mana stones had to be manually excavated because the moment she chooses to collect, the wolves bodies would disintegrate into natural mana before scattering. This includes the mana stone which would just be a waste.
"Mn?" Shiro paused when she smelled an enticing aroma. The source seemed to be the mana the wolves disintegrated into.
"Ah! I can eat this!" Shiro eximed as she quickly sucked all the mana into her mouth. Though she pouted a little since she had reacted a little too slow causing her to waste the mana from the start.
Rather than a meal, it was like she drank a soup. Neither filling nor unfilling. She was satisfied for now.
Turning back to her inventory, she had a look at the bounty.
[Wolf Fangs x4]
[Wolf Pelt x4]
[Wolf Eye x7]
[Broken Bones x10]
"Che, just a bunch of misceneous items. This missy isn¡¯t a cksmith nor a pharmacist. Give me a weapon or something." Shiroined before she scrapped the items for some gold coins.
[Currency Gained ¨C 40 USD]
"USD? Isn¡¯t the currency of Aria; gold, silver and copper?" Shiro muttered seeing the unfamiliar currency.
"Maybe I¡¯m far into the future and the currencies changed?" Shiro concluded. She did have another theory which was world travel, but that was a bit ridiculous.
Sitting down, Shiro hugged her legs as she finally decided to look at her surroundings.
While it was a snow forest, Shiro knew she was in a dungeon. Probably around the low to mid levels of the tower due to the low levels of the wolves.
"[Location]" Shemanded.
[Snow Forest Dungeon 2F]
"Snow Forest? Doesn¡¯t that mean my magic would be weak to the dungeon boss?" Shiro said seeing the location. Even if she did spend all of her points to focus around her Nanomancer ss, using a cold weapon such as a dagger would do minimal damage to the boss. Heck, unless she creates a gun, she wouldn¡¯t be able to use her Nanomancer ss to clear dungeons.
"No! This missy has just received a second chance. I refuse to be trapped in this dungeon... wait. Since I¡¯m a Snow Girl am I a monster spawned in the dungeon?" She paused in realisation.
"Can I even get out? Killing the boss means a dungeon reset. A dungeon reset means wiping all the monsters before restoring them again. Wiping all the monsters means also wiping me out. ARG! HOW DO I LEAVE!" Shiro shouted in frustration. She had just been given her seco- no third chance if you included her escape from the facility. How could she let a dungeon lock her down?
Though it seems like her shout had attracted unwanted attention. Or would it be wanted since she was needing food anyways.
More wolves seemed to have appeared as Shiro turned towards them.
"Come here Mr Wolves. This missy is just a harmlessdy." She smiled softly. Though the scent of blood on her just made the wolves bare their teeth.
¡¯Why aren¡¯t they attacking yet?¡¯ Shiro thought since they seemed to be wary about something.
She decided to turn around and run before ¡¯tripping¡¯ over nothing.
"Aiya~ I¡¯ve tripped. How can I run away~" She said peeking over at the wolves who did nothing.
"Seriously?! You did nothing?" Shiro said and she crossed her legs.
She seemed to have gained an idea as she waved her hand around beforeying on her back.
"Since you mutts don¡¯t want to attack, this missy will sleep. I need some bodyguards anyways." She said closing her eyes.
[MP: 250/600]
During her wait, she heard the sounds of flesh being ripped causing her opened her eyes to five wolves being impaled by the traps she set down earlier.
She wasn¡¯t afraid of them not working since she had already tested out the traps on the first batch of wolves. The only downside to this was how much MP it would use. It was abination of spells which whenbined, expressed more potential than normal Tier 1 spells.
The idea ofbining spells was learnt during her time in the hero¡¯s party. Even though her Nanomancer ss didn¡¯t need it, the mage had always said it was better to learn as much as you could in case of unexpected situations.
Looking through the hearts of the five wolves, she found a single piece of Mana stone the size of a pinkie.
Throwing the piece in her mouth, she chewed it as she found the taste simr to candy.
Licking her lips, she couldn¡¯t help butin at the low drop rate of the mana stone.
"[Collect]" She said once more causing the wolves¡¯ bodies disintegrated. This time she made sure to drink everyst drop of the mana.
Scrapping the misceneous items once more, she gained 50 USD.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 3->4
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 250/250
MP: 430/600
STR: 10
VIT: 10
INT: 35
AGI: 30
DEX: 15
DEF: 10
Unassigned Points: 5
Bnce: 80 USD]
Each level up from 1 to 20 gave a person 5 points. The first 20 levels were more of a testing period as it didn¡¯t really matter how one distributed their stats. The levels after 20 were where one would start to focus on their main attribute. It is also at level 20 when a person would get their first ss up. At the ss up, they would start to gain a certain amount of passive points per level which shows you which area you want to ce your focus in.
Plugging the points into areas she knows she would have to ce her attention on, Shiro nodded at her stats.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 4
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 250/350
MP: 480/650
STR: 11
VIT: 11
INT: 36
AGI: 32
DEX: 15
DEF: 10
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 80 USD]
Dusting herself, she looked around for a temporary home as camping in a dungeon wasn¡¯t umon. Therefore, the knowledge about how to camp safely was required to be learned.
Due to ack of resources, as well as the fact that she can¡¯t be bothered. Shiro decided to perch herself on a tree.
Hugging the tallest branch, she looked for the obelisk. The obelisk was a panel which allowed you to either climb higher into the tower or lower.
Her aim was to see if she can leave this dungeon as it was disadvantageous for her ss tobat the boss.
"Found it." Shiro smiled seeing the tower towards her left.
The tower seemed to be made from a matt ck material as the neon green lights made it stand out against the surroundings. When the light is red, it means you cannot use the obelisk. There are a few situations concerning the inability to use the obelisk. The mostmon being a boss fight. Unless the party is dead or the boss is dead, they wouldn¡¯t be able to use the obelisk.
Due to the lighting getting darker, the monsters be more frenzied. Therefore travelling to the obelisk right now would be a bad choice.
Laying her back on the branch, Shiro looked up at the starless sky. Her peaceful aura made her seem profound right now as if she was thinking about something deep. Something that would make a person question the very meaning of life.
¡¯I wonder if I can eat a wolf should I cook it, though it seems like I¡¯m living off mana instead.¡¯
...or not.
Monster meat can be collected and cooked. Though without sufficient storage, most would just choose to [collect] the drops as the body would disintegrate.
There are benefits to monster meat, some grants temporary buffs to stats whilst some were poisonous.
There were some monster meat that even granted permanent increments to one¡¯s stats such as dragon flesh which increases DEF, STR, AGI and VIT. Which is why every part of a high-ranking monster was precious and should be harvested without failure. Though raw flesh would be more harmful than beneficial.
Naturally, humanoid monsters didn¡¯t escape this fate either. Snow Woman flesh seemed to grant a significant increase to one¡¯s INT. That being said, female humanoid monsters like the Snow Woman were also used as high quality ¡¯stress relief¡¯ for the high-level adventurers.
Shiro wasn¡¯t unfamiliar as she has seen humans mating with a humanoid monster weaker than them.
The mostmon monsters to mate with were beings such as Elves and Female Beast kin who retain more human features than beast.
But due to the ufortable terminology of monster¡¯s, they were more widely epted as Demi-Humans or lesser humans.
Looking at her arm, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder if someone would try to eat her. Both figuratively and literally.
¡¯If they try to ¡¯eat¡¯ me, freezing their crotch and crushing them should do the trick.¡¯ Shiro thought with slight humour but understood the consequences of being caught when she is still weak.
Setting a few traps around her, Shiro closed her eyes as she fell asleep.
Chapter 2 - [Leader Class]
Chapter 2: [Leader ss]
Standing atop the tree, Shiro looked around to find some easy prey for breakfast.
"Bear, level 10. Bear, level 8. Bear, level 15." Shiro muttered seeing a few bears roam around.
She wanted to look around for a few wolves but it seems like they¡¯ve moved territories as the Bears invaded the local area.
The main reason for migration would be due to a stronger monster spawning or a leader ss monster expanding its territory.
Monsters have sses within their ranks as well. These go from [No ss], [Rare ss], [Elite ss], [General ss], [Vice Leader ss], [Leader ss], [Noble ss], [King ss] and so on. The rest wasn¡¯t important for now.
Shiro was currently a [No ss] type monster.
The ss is set up in a way that a D rank [No ss] could most likely defeat an E rank [General ss] with rtive ease. The higher the ranks, the more this disparity bes. An S rank [No ss] could clean its ass with a B ranked [King ss] monster.
That being said, being awarded a [-ss] is a feat in itself. A ss is only awarded when the monster undergoes a mutation after reaching the peak of their ss. For example, if Shiro underwent a mutation of her Snow Girl ss at the peak of level 20, she would gain a [Rare ss] or an [Elite ss]. Though it would only happen if she doesn¡¯t ss Up. When she does, the [ss] would then disappear.
Rubbing her stomach, Shiro decided to hunt at least one bear to fill her stomach up before leaving.
Walking around carefully, Shiro make sure to single out a low-level Bear.
[Bear LVL 6 ¨C Empowered]
"Oh damn. There really is a leader ss here on the 2nd floor." Shiro muttered seeing the status of the bear.
Empowered meant that the monster was getting a buff from the leader ss monster. A LVL 6 empowered bear would be roughly the same as a LVL 12 or 13 normal bear.
¡¯Can I defeat him? Hmm....¡¯ Shiro thought as she needed to be careful. She was just a harmless LVL 4 Snow Girl right now. Neither her mana nor stats allowed for her to be ballsy to challenge an Empowered bear. Not that she has any balls to begin with. They belonged to males.
¡¯Nope. This missy is outta here.¡¯ She thought and decided to retreat. Maybe if she was a LVL 10 Snow Girl, she may stand a chance.
Ignoring her hunger, she treaded carefully to not draw the aggression/aggro of the monsters whilst moving towards the obelisk.
Though the situation made her want to cry. The frequency of high-level Empowered bears became moremon the closer she went. Meaning the Leader ss bear took refuge near the obelisk.
¡¯Can I not get a break?!¡¯ Shiro thought in her mind as she had to keep quiet or else her life would be forfeited.
Retracing her steps, she returned to the outer circle of the bear territory.
¡¯If I kill a few wolves and level up, I should be able to sneak past or at least survive long enough to use the obelisk.¡¯ Shiro thought, making her target for now; Reach level 10 and kill a few bears.
###
It took her 3 days to level up to LVL 10 as not only did the Bear¡¯s territory increase causing her to slow down, but the number of Wolves she needed to kill to level up once increased as well.
However, she had to bear it for the sake of survival.
But her hard work paid off as she felt slightly confident to fight against the lowest level Empowered Bear.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 4->10
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 550/550
MP: 1200/1200
STR: 11->15
VIT: 11->20
INT: 36->45
AGI: 32->40
DEX: 15
DEF: 10
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 2300 USD]
There was another benefit to killing the wolves to reach LVL 10. She had managed to gain a few item drops from the wolves. Though some were downright useless.
A person has six main equipment slots. Head, Shoulders, Chest, Arms, Pants and Feet. In addition of the six main slots, there are a few minor slots. To name a few would be, Earring, Rings, Ne, Crown, Bracelets and so on.
Whilst there wasn¡¯t a limit to how many essories one can have, the more essories a person wears the faster they break. This was due to the fact that the mana gathered around the essories would repel one another. With too many, the mana damaging each essory increases causing them to break faster. The bestbination so far would be two earrings/two rings, a ne and two bracelets.
Shiro¡¯s current equipment was:
[Helmet ¨C None
Shoulder ¨C Wolf Light Guards
Wolf Light guards (White) LVL 5
+5 INT
Chest ¨C Wolf Light Armour
Wolf Light Armour (White) LVL 5
+5 INT
+2 DEF
Arms ¨C None
Pants ¨C Wolf Light Pants
Wolf Light Pants (White) LVL 5
+10 AGI
Feet ¨C None]
She only chose these pieces since the others would hinder her speed too much. That and also most of them didn¡¯t suit her since they were either heavy pieces of armour or the stat bonuses brought more negative than positives. One being the Wolf Heavy Guard. It was a piece of green equipment but the -10 SPD and the +10 DEF would destroy her current bncing. It was more effective for a tanker but not for her.
As for the Equipment Grade colours, they go from: White -> Green -> Blue -> Purple -> Orange -> Red -> ck -> Rainbow.
In her loadout, she was also missing a few pieces of equipment since she didn¡¯t receive them. Wolves were more of a low-level grind mob that helped low-level people to get stronger. No other purposes. Therefore, getting a few drops from them were pretty lucky.
Bears on the other hand...
Shiro smiled thinking about the potential drops.
Her current stats with the boost of her equipment was:
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 10
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 550/550
MP: 1700/1700 (1200+500)
STR: 15
VIT: 20
INT: 45 (+10)
AGI: 40 (+10)
DEX: 15
DEF: 10 (+2)
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 2300 USD]
()= Equipment Bonus
The equipment wasn¡¯t visible since it had three options. Visible ¨C Energy ¨C Hidden.
Visible was as it says, visible. Energy means having a faint energy outline of the equipment over what you¡¯re already wearing. Hidden means not viewable at all. A homeless person could be wearing a full set of Purple equipment for all you know.
As for weapons, she didn¡¯t get lucky enough to procure a weapon. But it wasn¡¯t too bad since she probably wouldn¡¯t be able to make use of it in the first ce.
Stalking her prey, Shiro waited for the LVL 5 bear to be far enough away from the rest before striking.
Her goal was simple, strike the weak point.
Unfortunately, the weak point was the anus.
The Bear seemed to sense danger as it wanted to turn around and fight the danger. However, the spear was already travelling up its ass.
Shiro made sure to run around the Bear before making a block of ice to stop the Bear¡¯s screams from reaching the other monsters.
"Hush Mr Bear. Just a little anal probe!" Shiro shouted quietly as she used Ice to trap the Bear down.
The Bear thrashed around wildly causing the Ice to show signs of breaking.
"Come on, just a little further." Shiro said as she hopped behind the Bear and continued to push the spear.
The Bear seemed to have gained a sudden boost, clenching its anus and snapped the Ice Spear in half.
*CKK!!!
The Ice broke as well freeing the Bear. Turning around, it red at her with bloodshot eyes.
[Bear LVL 5 ¨C Empowered + Enraged]
"Hm, I like to say that your anus muscles are very healthy" Shiro smiled as it served to make the Bear angrier.
It opened its mouth to scream but Shiro made another spear and stabbed it through the mouth pushing it down the throat.
Since the first spear still had a piece inside the Bear¡¯s anus, Shiro grinned before sping her hands together.
Her MP dropped quickly as the two spears joined together skewering the Bear to death.
"Yikes, killed through pration of both holes even though you¡¯re a male. You have my condolences." Shiro prayed even though she had a grin on her face.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 10->11
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 550/550
MP: 480/1700
STR: 17
VIT: 20
INT: 47 (+10)
AGI: 40 (+10)
DEX: 16
DEF: 10 (+2)
Unassigned Points: 5->0
STR +2 INT +2 DEX +1
Bnce: 2300 USD]
Making sure the Bear was dead, Shiro dug her hands into its heart as she pulled out a Mana Stone the size of her thumb.
"A little bigger than the Wolves I guess. But then again, it¡¯s still just a level 5 Bear." Shiro said chewing the stone.
Once again, the stone tasted like candy. But this time it had a fruitier taste than the Wolf mana stone.
[Bear Paws x2]
[Bear Pelt x3]
[Bear Eyes x1]
[Bear Heavy Arm Guards (Green)]
[Bear w Gauntlets (Green)]
"Wow~ Two green drops straight away." Shiro smiled whilst she drank all of the mana from the corpse.
Although she couldn¡¯t use the equipment from what she could tell, she could still recycle it using her Nanomancer ss.
It would make it so that the equipment she crafts using Nanobotster would be more powerful than what it would be without recycling some trash equipment.
With the Nanomancer ss, she was a walking recycling machine.
Leaving the area quickly, Shiro sat on the tree and watched the three newly arrived Bears look around the area where theirrade fell.
¡¯With my current stats, I would probably put up a decent fight with a top tier E rank adventurer.¡¯ Shiro thought since her highest stat was halfway to the three digits.
To be a D rank adventurer, one of the requirements was to have a three-digit stat in any given area. Naturally, with a D rank adventurer being 5 times more powerful than average men could only mean those higher up in the ranks were monster amongst men.
They could sneeze and identally kill you.
While she was almost three times as strong as average men, Shiro knew any random D rank adventurer could swat her to death.
Standing up, Shiro smiled seeing the three bears leave.
Targeting another low-level Bear, Shiro jumped across the trees as she would asionally swing on a branch to increase her distance travelled. Since she is a Snow Girl, she also had the choice of floating, but that would take quite a bit of MP per second and not worth it in this moment of time.
[Bear LVL 7 ¨C Empowered]
Silently forming another spear, Shiro grinned before she took aim towards the anus of the bear.
Mana gathered in her palms as the spear shot towards the ass.
However, luck was not on her side since the bear stood up in this moment resulting in the spear hitting the hide and shattering.
The Bear¡¯s head swivelled towards her location causing Shiro to pause feeling the anger rising in the Bear.
"I¡¯m sorry?" Shiro apologised with a twitching smile. This fight could have been much easier if the bear didn¡¯t suddenly stand up.
*WRAAAANNN!!!!
The Bear roared, alerting the nearby Bears as Shiro quickly turned and ran with all her might.
¡¯Oh hell no.¡¯ She thought in her head. She didn¡¯t dare to look back.
The previous fight seemed easy as she had made sure to target the weak points of the anus and the mouth. But if she aimed for the hide, then not only would it deal minimal damage, it would also incur the bear¡¯s wrath. But that¡¯s not to say that probing the bear wouldn¡¯t.
Quickly thinking up a solution, Shiro dashed towards the Wolves with four Bears chasing behind her.
She didn¡¯t need to see their tag to realise they were Enraged. Just their roars gave her a hint.
It didn¡¯t take long for Shiro to reach the Wolves since she understood their pattern over the course of the few days she took to hunt them down.
Allowing the Wolves and the Bears to fight, Shiro escaped.
The sounds ofbat and roars rang out behind her as she sighed in relief.
¡¯Sorry Mr Wolf. But this miss needs her life more than you.¡¯ She thought, leaving the area quickly.
After making sure she was far away from the sounds ofbat, she targeted another lone Bear.
[Bear LVL 6 ¨C Empowered]
This time, she took extra care to remember the Bear¡¯s movements as she stabbed it in the anus without any mistakes.
Instead of connecting two spears together, she opted to make the spear explode into shards which then expanded to kill the Bear.
It proved to be a better method since not only did this method help her level up a few times, the Bear¡¯s wouldn¡¯t be able to endanger her as much.
In a single day of hunting Empowered Bears continuously, she managed to reach LVL 16.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 16
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 1200/1200
MP: 1950/1950
STR: 27 (+3)
VIT: 25 (+8)
INT: 53 (+10)
AGI: 45 (+10)
DEX: 16
DEF: 10 (+4)
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 4200 USD
Equipment:
Helmet ¨C Empowered Bear Helmet
Empowered Bear Helmet (Green) LVL 10
+3 STR
+3 VIT
Shoulder ¨C Wolf Light Guards
Wolf Light guards (White) LVL 5
+5 INT
Chest ¨C Wolf Light Armour
Wolf Light Armour (White) LVL 5
+5 INT
+2 DEF
Arms ¨C Empowered Bear Paw Guard
Empowered Bear Paw Guard (Green) LVL 10
+2 DEF
+5 VIT
Legs ¨C Wolf Light Pants
Wolf Light Pants (White) LVL 5
+10 AGI
Feet ¨C None]
Chapter 3 - Dungeon Mutation
Chapter 3: Dungeon Mutation
Her task today was to scout out the [Leader ss] Bear.
If the situation is good, she would try to defeat it or rather try to escape as fast as possible. If it is bad, she¡¯ll still escape as fast as possible.
¡¯Aiya~ So many high-level bears.¡¯ Shiro thought seeing the Bears in the area.
[Bear LVL 20 ¨C Empowered]
[Bear LVL 18 ¨C Empowered]
[Bear LVL 20 ¨C Empowered]
[Bear LVL 20 ¨C Empowered]
Most of the bears were close to or at LVL 20. She had to make sure that she doesn¡¯t draw their ire before she reached the obelisk.
The reason as to why she needed to reach the obelisk today was due to the fact that the Bears have almost conquered the entire floor. Staying longer wouldn¡¯t be advised.
Zipping through the trees, Shiro made sure to try to be as quiet as possible.
It was only after a few hours did she finally reach the edge of the forest. The obelisk stood in front of her but so was the bear.
[Ice Elemental Bear LVL 20 ¨C Leader ss ¨C Empowered]
It only made it worse that it was an Ice Elemental Bear. Her Tier 1 Ice magic can¡¯t even be used to clean its ass.
¡¯The [Leader ss] title will probably give it some Ice resistance, not to mention the fact that it is an Ice Elemental Bear.¡¯ Shiro thought while she looked at its hulking figure.
Standing at 3 meters, the bear had void ck fur with Ice protruding out of its spine. The Bear¡¯s eyes glowed blue as he looked at his guards.
He had 5 LVL 20 Bears around him and reached out for one of them.
*BANG!
Hitting one of the Bear¡¯s, the [Leader ss] Bear threw the corpse into his mouth as he began to chew.
¡¯Did... Did he just one shot a LVL 20 empowered Bear?!¡¯ Shiro thought, her eyes widened in shock.
Sure, she may have heard how strong a leader ss was, but seeing one was another matter in itself.
¡¯I will definitely die if I try to face it with my Ice magic. I need to leave using the obelisk.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Staying still in her ce, she surveyed the Bear¡¯s movements to check when it was most optimal for her to reach the obelisk.
It took a few hours of observation, but she came to the conclusion that every moment was the most optimal as the god damn Bear didn¡¯t move a single bit.
She tried to draw its attention by throwing rocks to create noise in another location but the Bear sent his underlings instead.
Throwing the rock once more, Shiro decided to make a run for it when the Bear had the least amount ofpany.
¡¯NOW!¡¯ She thought dashing in a bee line towards the obelisk. Her heart was pounding with nervousness since the [Leader ss] locked onto her almost instantly.
Quickly making a block of Ice to substitute as a shield, Shiro hoped it would block the Bear¡¯s paw long enough for her to avoid it.
The Ice was nothing more than air as the paw easily shattered it. Jumping forwards, Shiro protected her head with her arms whilst she tried to roll.
*BOOOMMM!!!!
The ground shook since the paw missed her narrowly. However, it still sent her flying forwards causing her to roll heavily across the ground.
[HP: 680/1200]
"Urg... God damn Bear." Shiro muttered feeling pain all over her body.
The Bear didn¡¯t give her a chance to recuperate since a second paw was already heading towards her.
Thankfully, the force of the first attack sent her next to the obelisk.
[Obelisk Teleportation]
[3F]
[2F] <-
[1F]
Immediately tapping 1F, Shiro saw her vision shift as she was teleported to the edge of a forest.
Sighing in relief, Shiroid back waiting for her HP to regenerate.
When a person used the obelisk, it wouldn¡¯t teleport them to another obelisk. Rather, it teleported them to the edge of the floor and he/she would need to make their way to the obelisk once more.
Lucky for her, this meant that she was closer to the entrance of the dungeon.
Taking a few pieces of mana stones she kept in her inventory for rations, Shiro chewed on them whilst she thought about the previous fight.
¡¯His STR was higher than I thought. To shatter a Tier 1 Ice block like it was air means his STR is around the 200¡¯s or higher. A LVL 20 [Leader ss] Bear should be roughly a LVL 30 to LVL 40 [No ss] Bear monster.¡¯ Shiro thought when she realised that this meant the Ice Elemental Bear was akin to a Low/Mid-Level D Rank monster.
¡¯No wonder he took half my HP with a missed attack.¡¯ She thought in relief that the paw missed. If it hit, it would definitely kill her in one swat.
¡¯This miss has been hit by a variety of attacks. I refuse to be killed like a fly!¡¯ Shiro thought in her mind as she stood up. She wanted to leave the Dungeon as soon as possible.
The gate of a Dungeon was as it says. A giant gate. It wasn¡¯t too hard to spot since a giant set of doors could be seen not too far from her.
Walking towards the door, Shiro could see the engravings on the door itself.
"Bears, Wolves, Ice Elementals... Just a typical E rank Dungeon huh?" She muttered as the gates of a Dungeon would give people some idea of what was inside the Dungeon itself.
Seeing movement on the doors, Shiro became vignt as she quickly hid behind some trees and looked at the gate opening with narrowed eyes.
A party of 5 appeared and they seemed to be novices since their equipment was rather sub-par. The aura they emitted gave Shiro no danger either as she understands she could probably kill them easily in a 1V1.
*CRRRRR
The doors slowly closed when the party of five entered. They were chatting without care as if they were having a pic.
"!!!!" Her attention was drawn away when she saw movement on the door.
The initial carvings and images shifted as they morphed and the overall picture changed.
Dungeon Mutation.
There was a low chance of a Dungeon Mutation happening since it would change the Dungeons fundamentals. Out of a hundred Dungeons, there would probably be one or two that would mutate.
Right now, the dungeon was changing as an orange light appeared in the centre of the forest.
[Dungeon Mutation urred]
[Current Location ¨C Fire Elementals Charred Forest 1F]
[Rank ¨C E+/D-]
¡¯Fire Elementals? Lucky for me.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile, this meant her Ice would actually do something. She could probably grind for a few levels and maybe challenge the Ice Elemental Bear. Or rather a Fire Elemental Bear due to the mutation.
One question remained in her mind though.
¡¯Why wasn¡¯t I affected?¡¯ She thought.
¡¯Could it be that I¡¯m technically not a part of this Dungeon? So if they beat the Dungeon and the Dungeon wipe urs I should be safe from it... Let¡¯s not gamble for now.¡¯ She thought as her hypothesis could be wrong and erase her ass from the face of this Dungeon.
The party of five seem to be panicking too since they hit the door a few times but it refused to budge.
Sneaking closer to them, Shiro wanted to see if she could gather some information about where she was and which time period.
Peaking her head out slightly, she exposed her two azure eyes as she nced over.
The scout seemed to have noticed something since he shot an arrow towards where she was.
"Ah!" Shiro was surprised at how they shot without warning. Quickly ducking, she looked at the arrow embedded into the tree.
¡¯How rude!¡¯ She thought, turning back to the group.
[Xin Feng¨C LVL 15 ¨C Swordsman]
[Jin ¨C LVL 14 ¨C Archer]
[re ¨C LVL 15 ¨C Priest]
[Bonney ¨C LVL 14 ¨C Assassin]
[Trevor ¨C LVL 18 ¨C Guardian]
They took their positions with Trevor at the front, Xin Feng and Bonney behind him. Jin and re were situated at the back.
Trevor mmed his shield down as he shouted at her.
[Taunt Failed]
"Huh? Aiya! You five want to kill this miss!?" Shiro shouted jumping back to avoid another arrow.
Sliding slightly on the ground, she looked up to see the Guardian charging towards her with his shield.
Conjuring up a block of Ice, she blocked the charge causing the Guardian to be stunned for a moment.
Rolling to her side, she avoided the stab of the assassin. Her instincts were kicking in since she wasn¡¯t the strongest person in her previous life for nothing.
Mid-roll, she aimed her palm as a Tier 1 Ice bullet shot towards the Assassin.
The assassin was hit, but her body shed with a white light healing her up.
"Tsk." Shiro clicked her tongue before she retreated back into the forest. A group fight was disadvantageous for her right now. They were weaker than her if she fought them 1 on 1 but this was currently a 5 v 1.
Shended on a branch and quickly stabilised herself.
Looking at the five who were vignt against her, an idea entered her mind as she gave them a provocative sneer.
###
This was supposed to be our graduation exam. We had to conquer the E ranked Dungeon before we leave.
We were at the top of the ss so the teachers were confident in us beating the Dungeon.
"Check your minimaps. We don¡¯t want to be ambushed near the entrance." I called out to my long-time friends.
"I know I know." Jin, our scout, replied.
Our group talked for a little while but we froze when we felt the mana jump.
"Feng! This Dungeon is mutating!" re shouted out whilst me and Trevor tried to open the door but failed.
"We¡¯ll have to wait for the teachers to send in D ranked members or higher to pry this door open." I said with a frown. The situation wasn¡¯t looking too great but we could survive as long as we hold our ground and wait for rescue. Some would try to clear the Dungeon but we knew better.
Mutated Dungeons meant the monsters became stronger so it would be suicidal to try to proceed without ample preparation.
Only when there were no other options would a party try clear one unprepared.
Jin seemed to have picked up a monster because he shot towards the location where the monster was.
"Ah!"
We heard a soft voice cry out in surprise as we became vignt.
[Shiro ¨C LVL 16 ¨C Snow Girl]
[HP: 1200/1200]
[MP:1950/1950]
A named monster!
There were instances where a monster would be named. Not only would they give more loot, the EXP you would get for killing one increased by a lot as well.
Even if she wasn¡¯t named, we would have needed to kill her anyways since she could go get reinforcements which would endanger our safety.
We looked at each other before we entered a formation the school taught us.
Trevor used Taunting Shout but the Snow Girl seemed to be unaffected. Jinunched another arrow to see if he could hit her.
Dodging backwards, she opened her mouth as she started to talk but all we heard were wordless echoes.
"Feng, I think she might be an intelligent monster." Trevor said with a frown.
"I think so as well." I replied. This would make the fight harder because she could very well lure us into a trap.
Trevor charged towards her with Shield Bash in hopes of stunning her. However, what he hit was a block of Ice as Bonney quickly tried to stab her so Trevor would be safe.
The Snow Girl rolled on her side before firing an Ice Bullet at Bonney. re didn¡¯t dawdle as she quickly healed Bonney up.
"Jesus, it¡¯s like fighting an instructor." Bonney said with a frown whilst we looked at the Snow Girl standing on the branch.
"Isn¡¯t a Snow Girl supposed to be a weak E rank monster?" Trevor said keeping his guard up.
"But this one is a named monster. We can¡¯t judge named monsters with the same logic." I replied as my friends nodded gravely.
The Snow Girl seemed to pause for a moment before shing a provocative sneer. She turned around and disappeared into the forest leaving us here.
"Hmm... Don¡¯t follow. Even if she does bring reinforcements, we need to wait for the teachers." I said as my friends agreed. Chasing after her would bring us more danger.
###
"They didn¡¯t follow?" Shiro muttered seeing the five not following her.
"And here I thought they were greenhorns. Seems like they know the more important basics." She said sitting down on the branch.
"Hmm... current goals, current goals. Number 1 ¨C Reach LVL 20. Number 2 ¨C Leave this Dungeon." Shiro muttered while a ming fox jumped at her.
She waved her hand as a spear of Ice stabbed the fox through the mouth killing it instantly.
Since it was a fire attribute monster, it had a weakness towards Ice and water resulting in an instant kill.
"Weak." Shiro said, kicking her legs back and forth.
Her initial goal was to lure the party in the forest so she could ambush them and capture them one by one. Now that was out of the window, she¡¯ll have to find out about her surroundings when she leaves the Dungeon.
Chapter 4 - LVL 20
Chapter 4: LVL 20
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 16->18
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 1900/1900
MP: 3550/3550
STR: 32
VIT: 27 (+15)
INT: 55 (+40)
AGI: 50 (+15)
DEX: 17
DEF: 10 (+9)
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 9200 USD
Equipment: (Tap to disy)]
This was her stats after a day and a half of hard work. While the mutation brought higher level Fire-based monsters, they were still under level for Shiro.
"Continuing to hunt these mobs would take forever to level up again." She muttered.
She was currently chewing a few Mana Stones as the fire attributed ones tasted like strawberry.
Making her way to the obelisk, she saw the guardian.
[Fire Spirit Golem ¨C LVL 15 ¨C Elite ss]
The Fire Spirit Golem stood at roughly 2.5 meters tall. Made from dark brown rock, it had fire ring out from every crack on its body.
"Elite ss? Should be a challenge." Shiro said while she chewed on the stones.
Spreading her palms, electricity and metallic effects sparked as they started to twine together.
"My mana has reached enough for me to make use of my dagger creation. Though not as intended, it should work like a charm on you." Shiro said with a grin.
Two daggers formed in both her hands as they had neon blue veins travelling down the de. The Daggers took 1000MP each which would be fine if she was higher level. But right now, each dagger was just a little under a third of her total MP.
[Nano Crafted Ice Dagger (Blue) ¨C LVL 18
+10 Piercing
+10 Sharpness
+10 Ice Element
Durability ¨C Until stored MP runs out
MP ¨C 1000/1000]
*RAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
The Golem cried out causing molten rocks to separate from its back and shoot towards her.
Sidestepping some of the rocks, Shiro frowned seeing her HP drop a little due to the slight AOE(Area Of Effect).
[HP: 1750/1900]
As the tworge boulders shot towards her, Shiro twirled both daggers in her hands before throwing them towards the rocks.
When the daggers hit the rocks, Shiro clenched her fist as Ice started to spread outwards from the daggers.
During her time hunting the Fire element monsters back on the first floor, she had managed tobine both sses together in some instances such as now.
When crafting the Dagger, Shiro inserted Tier 1 magic in the centre which made the Dagger akin to a grenade that can be detonated at any moment she wants.
The sudden contrast of temperature created through her Ice caused the boulders to explode due to Thermal Shock. As the boulders exploded, Shiro flexed her fingers causing the daggers to fly back into her hands as if they were maised.
Running towards the Golem with narrowed eyes, she threw one of her daggers at the face.
Seemingly understanding the danger the daggers possess, the Golem made a small rock to counter the dagger.
Shiro took its reaction into ount as her second dagger shot towards the leg.
Stabbing the leg of the Golem, Shiro didn¡¯tbust the dagger but instead used it as a foothold.
Jumping up, she grabbed the first dagger then twisted her body before she stabbed it into the Golems chest.
Combusting both daggers, the force sent the Golem stumbling backwards as Shironded lightly. She quickly scanned her own HP and MP to see how they were holding up.
[HP: 1450/1900]
[MP: 1150/3550]
Shiro frowned at the damaged she took to her HP since just being near fire caused her HP to drop a little every second. It was one of the negatives due to her being a Snow Girl.
Seeing the Golem stand once again albeit with visible damage on its body, Shiro couldn¡¯t help butment the fact that she can¡¯t see its HP.
Flicking her wrist, both daggers reappeared in her hands.
[MP: 490/1000]
[MP: 410/1000]
She sighed slightly at the remaining MP in each of her daggers but decided to make due for now.
The Golem stood up tall as it brought its arms above its head.
mming both arms down, Shiro quickly jumped upwards to avoid the tremors as she threw the daggers at the Golem¡¯s arm joints.
The Golem¡¯s arms solidified causing the daggers to bounce off. Opening its mouth, fire element surged towards it and a ball of fire was being created.
"Ah right. A breath attack." Shiro said as she remembered most Elemental Type [Elite ss] or higher monsters were capable of breathing out a breath of their respective elements.
Quickly utilising the float passive of Snow Girls, she avoided the fire breath.
Her breathing fluctuated due to her being so close to the fire. Conjuring up some Icy Mist to cool her down, Shiro panted while shended hard on the ground.
[HP:650/1900]
[MP: 700/3550]
"Tsk." She clicked her tongue as she stood up.
The Golem mped its mouth shut whilst it red at her.
She walked towards the Golem before slowly increasing her speed into a full-on sprint. With her AGI reaching 65 points, she was three times as fast as an average human adult.
The daggers unhinged themselves as Shiro caught them in mid-air. Turning her body without slowing down a single bit, she threw the daggers back into the face of the Golem with increased momentum.
Making three Ice Spears, she threw two which locked down on the Golems legs whilst thest one hit the cranium.
The force caused the Golem to open its mouth as the two daggers entered inside.
"Goodbye~" Shiro grinned as she detonated the daggers. This time she made sure the daggers would use everyst drop of MP stored inside them to give the Golem a devastating blow.
*BOOOOMMM!!!!!
The explosion of Ice shot into the air causing Shiro to whistle at the impact.
The fire that came from the Golem died down, signalling her about the Golems death.
"Hehehe~ Loot loot my loot~" She sung lightly as she jogged towards the body of the Golem.
Rummaging through the rocks, she found the Mana stone the size of two fingers.
Lifting the stone above her face, she peered through the stone as it seemed like the stone held a ball of fire inside.
Unable to contain her grin, she threw the stone into her mouth and smiled blissfully at the taste.
The stone had a sweet outer shell with the taste of oranges. Once you get past the outer shell, a jelly-like inner area weed her as a burst of vour exploded in her mouth.
Giggling slightly, Shiro enjoyed the Mana Stone slowly whilst she collected her bounty.
[Fire Giant¡¯s Shield (Green) LVL 15]
[Fire Spirit¡¯s Ring (Blue) LVL 15]
[Fire Giant¡¯s Greaves (Green) LVL 15]
[Fire Giant¡¯s Guard (Green) LVL 15]
[Fire Giant¡¯s Titanus Cleaver (Blue) LVL 15]
[Fire Source Stone x10]
[Fire Stone Dust x42]
[Fire Giant Essence x1]
[Red Gem x3]
[2000 USD]
"Oh my, three green drops and two blue drops. You are one fat sheep big guy." Shiro said looking at where the Golem once stood.
She didn¡¯t need the Shield so she recycled that. Inspecting the other pieces, she couldn¡¯t help but grin when she saw the ring.
[Fire Spirit¡¯s Ring (Blue) LVL 15 - Ring
+20 INT
+10 DEF
Skill ¨C Fire Spirit Blessing
Fire Spirit Blessing ¨C Activate to receive a 20% increase to magic damage and 20% fire damage.
Duration ¨C 20 seconds
Cool Down ¨C 2 Minutes]
[Fire Giant¡¯s Greaves (Green) LVL 15 - Legs
+15 DEF
+10 STR
-15 AGI]
[Fire Giant¡¯s Guard (Green) LVL 15 ¨C Arms
+10 STR
+5 DEX
-5 AGI]
[Fire Giant¡¯s Titanus Cleaver (Blue) LVL 15 ¨C Greatsword
Requirements ¨C 40 STR
+20 Sharpness
+15 Fire Element
+5 Ignore Defence
+5 Heavy Damage
-20 AGI
-5 Attack Speed
Skill ¨C Fire Giant Empowerment
Fire Giant Empowerment - +100% strength, +50% damage, -80% speed
Duration ¨C 1 minute
Cool Down ¨C 5 minutes]
"Hmm... Everything apart from the ring is pretty much unusable for me." Shiro muttered. Recycling everything except for the Ring and Greatsword since the sword itself may have some usester, she equipped the Ring and checked her stats.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 18->19
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 650/2050
MP: 300/4550
STR: 32
VIT: 27->30 (+15)
INT: 55 (+60)
AGI: 50 (+15)
DEX: 17->19
DEF: 10 (+19)
Unassigned Points: 5->0
Bnce: 11,200 USD
Equipment: (Tap to disy)]
"1 more level and then I¡¯ll reach LVL 20. I wonder what¡¯s the ss Up after Snow Girl..." She muttered as she reached out for the obelisk.
Teleporting back to the 2nd floor, what was a snow forest now became a scenery of fire and burnt trees.
"I¡¯m back~ Miss me?" Shiro called out with a smile.
There was a bear in front of her and it was a LVL 7 Empowered Fire Bear.
Sending out a single Ice spear, she killed the bear easily.
###
Collecting the corpse of another Bear, Shiro stretched her body since she had finally reached the first minor turning point. LVL 20
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 20
ss: Snow Girl (+), Nanomancer
HP: 2550/2550
MP: 4000/4550
STR: 32->35
VIT: 30 (+25)
INT: 55 (+60)
AGI: 50 (+15)
DEX: 19->21
DEF: 10 (+27)
Unassigned Points: 5->0
Bnce: 14,600 USD
Equipment:
Helmet ¨C Fire Spirit Crown
Fire Spirit Crown (Green) LVL 10
+10 INT
Shoulder ¨C Fire Spirit Guards
Fire Spirit Guards (Green) LVL 10
+10 INT
+5 DEF
Chest ¨C Fire Spirit Dress
Fire Spirit Dress (Green) LVL 15
+20 INT
+10 VIT
Arms ¨C Empowered me Bear Paw Guard
Empowered me Bear Paw Guard (Green) LVL 15
+10 DEF
+15 VIT
Legs ¨C N/A
Feet ¨C Fire Spirit Boots
Fire Spirit Boots (Green) LVL 10
+15 AGI
+5 INT
Ring ¨C Fire Spirit¡¯s Ring
Fire Spirit¡¯s Ring (Blue) LVL 15
+20 INT
+10 DEF
Skill ¨C Fire Spirit Blessing
Fire Spirit Blessing ¨C Activate to receive a 20% increase to magic damage and 20% fire damage.
Duration ¨C 20 seconds
Cool Down ¨C 2 Minutes]
Pressing the (+) next to her Snow Girl ss, she saw the current branches that were open to her.
[---Snow Girl---]
ss Up Choices:
A ¨C Ice Girl
B ¨C Snow Girl ¡ï
C ¨C Snow Spirit
When a ss has a ¡ï next to it, it means having the same ss but with added benefits. It is something simr to a prestige. The more you stay on the same ss, the more benefits you get.
The highest amount of ¡ï¡¯s you can get on a ss is 5¡ï¡¯s. With more ¡ï¡¯s, the subsequent ss Up¡¯s would also increase in the potential one would have.
A Snow Woman derived from a 5¡ï Snow Girl would be much more powerful than a normal Snow Woman.
Naturally, the ss Up conditions for getting a ¡ï would get harder the more ¡ï¡¯s you choose.
Therefore, not many would persist until 5¡ï¡¯s as the conditions may be downright suicidal.
Yet some would still choose this option due to the fact that you wouldn¡¯t lose any of the skills you have already learnt and instead get more skills added onto your arsenal.
An example of this would be advancing from a Swordsman to a Shield Knight. You would lose some of your sword skills but in return gain a set of skills to better utilise your sword and shield together.
However, if they chose to ss Up to a Swordsman¡ï. Their already existing skills would gain a boost to their power.
[Ice Girl]
Further attuning yourself to the power of Ice, you gain a substantial boost to all Ice rted skills.
+100% Ice damage
+75% Fire Vulnerability
Bonus Skills ¨C
Tier 2 Ice Magic, Heart of Ice, Ice Movement]
[Snow Girl ¡ï]
Remaining on the Snow Girl ss, you increase your fundamental skills.
+50% Ice Damage
-25% Fire Vulnerability
Bonus Skills ¨C
Tier 2 Ice Magic, Snow Magic Skill Line, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura]
[Snow Spirit]
You chose to forsake your physical form as you target the spiritual.
+Physical Damage Nullification
+100% weakness to Holy Magic/Fire Magic/Soul Magic/Day Light
Bonus Skills ¨C
Tier 1 Soul Magic, Tier 2 Ice Magic, Cold Aura, Passive Flight, Race Change ¨C Snow Girl -> Spirit]
Shiro immediately struck Snow Spirit off her choice of ss Up paths. She wanted to keep her physical body ok? She didn¡¯t want to be evaporated the moment she left the dungeon.
This left only two choices. [Ice Girl] and [Snow Girl¡ï].
[Ice Girl] would give her more Ice magic damage but would also increase her weaknesses.
However, if she chose to ss Up into a [Snow Girl ¡ï], the ss Up requirements would also increase.
"Heh, more fun for me." Shiro chuckled as she tapped [Snow Girl ¡ï]. The other options disappeared as it locked on to the ss.
[Snow Girl ¡ï]
ss Up Requirements:
[-] Conquer E Rank Dungeon Solo
[-] D rank Mana Stone
[?] 100 INT
Chapter 5 - Estimated Rank: D
Chapter 5: Estimated Rank: D
[Snow Girl ¡ï]
ss Up Requirements.
[-] Conquer E Rank Dungeon Solo
[-] D rank Mana Stone
[?] 100 INT
"Conquer E rank Dungeon Solo? So that confirms my hypothesis. I won¡¯t die if the Dungeon Resets." Shiro said with a small smile after reading the requirements.
Walking calmly towards the obelisk, Shiro killed any Bears that tried to attack her.
There was a small benefit to trying to level up even though she reached LVL 20. She¡¯ll still get points per level, but it wouldn¡¯t be as muchpared to the point bonus after ss Up.
Right now, she¡¯ll get 5 points per pseudo level up. But if she levelled up after ss Up, she¡¯ll get 20 points instead.
Each level after ss Up is equivalent to four pseudo level ups. However, the exp needed to level up would still be the same. Therefore, it is always advised for people to aim for ss Up.
A consequence of not ssing Up would be needing several times the amount of exppared to others when levelling up from 21 to 22.
This is due to the fact that the person would have umted several pseudo levels thus increasing the amount of exp needed.
As if understanding the danger Shiro possessed, the Bears started to back away while she walked calmly towards the [Leader ss] without any hindrances.
"Hey there big guy. Remember me?" Shiro said looking at the hulking 3 meter Bear in front of her.
[Fire Spirit Infused Bear LVL 20 ¨C Leader ss ¨C Empowered]
The bear had experienced quite a few changes of his own as he had little to no fat on his body. His muscles were chiselled which served to make him more menacing.
What was Ice on his back now became a column of fire raging to the beat of his heart. His eyes glowed a menacing red as he focused on the tiny Snow Girl who stood in front of him.
"Wow~ You¡¯ve been juicing uptely huh? I can barely see a scrap of fat on you." Shiro said holding her chin.
The Bear swiped his right paw towards her as Shiro smiled.
Jumping up, shended on the top of the paw softly.
Running up the arm of the Bear, Shiro created a dagger in her hands.
[MP: 3550/4550]
Reaching near the head of the Bear, Shiro¡¯s eyes became cold as she plunged the dagger towards the eye.
The Bear tilted his head to avoid the dagger while he swiped his other paw at her.
Before the paw could build up any momentum, Shiro had already frozen a scaffold-like structure on the Bear¡¯s body stopping the paw.
"Come on~ Do you really expect me to let you hit me with that paw of yours? My frail body can¡¯t handle it ya know." Shiro grinned as her dagger destroyed the Bear¡¯s right eye.
Exhibiting great flexibility, Shiro stepped on the back of the dagger and kicked as hard as she could.
The force sent her through the air, but shended softly with a smile.
[Fire Spirit Blessing Activated ¨C For the next 20 seconds you will gain a 20% increase to magic damage and 20% increase to Fire damage.]
Clutching her hand, Shiro caused the dagger to blow up with all of the stored MP.
*BOOMMMMM!!!
The resulting explosion caused the ground to rumble as Shiro stumbled. Restabilising herself, she looked the head of the Bear.
"Ouch." Shiro muttered unconsciously since she could see parts of the Bear¡¯s skull. The muscle fibres were pulsing as they tried to join back together but failed.
*WRRAAAANNNN!!!!
The Bear roared in madness, charging towards Shiro.
Jumping onto the tree branch, Shiro jumped once more as shended behind the Bear.
The Bear didn¡¯t turn around as the mes on his back grewrger.
Creating a block of Ice, Shiro hopped backwards whilst she saw the Ice block melt in mere seconds.
Raising both her arms slightly, two Ice Spears materialised as she threw them both towards the Bear.
After throwing the spears, she quickly created a third spear.
With a slight dy, she twisted her body and threw the third spear with all of her might.
The first two spears were aimed towards the arms of the Bear as thest one was aimed towards the chest.
*CRR CRR!!!
The first two spears made contacts and froze over instantly, locking both arms into the ground.
Thest spear made contact as well. However, fire erupted around the Bear as he covered his entire body in a mass of mes.
"Shiro frowned seeing her n go out the window.
The Bear roared, sending tens of fireballs hurling towards her.
Freezing the ground beneath her feet, Shiro started to skate around as her agility helped increase her momentum.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOOM!!!!
Most of the fireballs missed but for the odd few which were on target, Shiro created her own Ice Bullet as it cancelled each other out.
Shiro narrowed her eyes whilst she crouched down and started to manually construct a ramp.
Under the paw, through the legs, around the back, over the head.
A roller coaster seemed to have been created as Shiro manoeuvred around the Bear causing it to not be able to lock onto her.
Little by little, an orb of Ice formed around the bear. Seeing the orb of Icepleted, Shiro made a ramp straight up.
Making two spears, she threw both of them with a slight gap between them.
The first spear was countered with a fire breath whilst the second one took its ce.
Bringing her hands together, Shiro controlled the Ice Orb she created and fused it together with the second spear. This caused the weight of the spear to increase dramatically as it crushed the bear beneath it.
Not allowing it a moments rest, Shiro made a Nano Dagger and tried to decapitate the Bear whilst it couldn¡¯t retaliate.
She frowned as she saw the dagger fail to cut deeply into the neck.
"Che, we¡¯ll do this the hard way then big guy." Shiro said as she flicked her wrist and a second dagger materialised.
Stabbing the dagger through the tongue and jaw of the Bear, she froze it in ce to make sure it couldn¡¯t move.
Making one more dagger, she twirled them both as she cut away at the face of the Bear. Layer byyer, the Bear¡¯s cries became more painful.
It tried to thrash around crazily but Shiro kept a constant supply of mana to the Ice locking the Bear down. This prevented the Bear from leaving since the Ice always regenerated.
The Bear had also tried to coat his body with fire, but the Ice was mostly concentrated near Shiro so it didn¡¯t melt as easily. He could only suffer while Shiro slowly killed it.
After a few minutes of constant attacking with her two daggers, Shiro panted heavily seeing the Bear finally die.
The skull of the Bear had lost most of its flesh as Shiro scraped it to the bone and destroyed the brain.
"Pui! What a pain." Shiro said spitting out some blood that got into her mouth.
Standing up, she dismissed the ice. Carving a hole through the torso leading to where the heart would be, Shiro frowned when she realised she couldn¡¯t reach it due to her small arm length.
"Ha...." She sighed with fatigue as she brought up her two daggers and carved away.
After digging for a while, she finally saw the heart. The heart itself was roughly two-fifths of her body size.
Rummaging around in the heart, she pulled out a Mana Stone the size of arge chicken egg.
"[Collect]"
The body disappeared and Shiro drank as much mana as she could.
Looking over at the list of loot, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but nod and appreciate the reward. At least it was worth her efforts.
Rewards consisted of a bunch of misceneous items fit for cksmiths, pharmacists and alchemists. It also included several pieces of armour which were mostly (Blue) Ranked and a single Lucky Skill Stone.
Selling the misceneous items, she recycled the equipment she didn¡¯t need.
The equipment that remained were:
[Fire Spirit Infused Power Gauntlet (Blue) LVL20
+20 STR
+15 VIT
-10 AGI
Skill ¨C Power Boost
Power Boost ¨C +100% damage, +15 STR, +30% Damage Taken
Duration ¨C 20 Seconds
Cool Down ¨C 5 Minutes]
[Empowered Fire Bear Guards (Blue) LVL20
+20 DEF
+15 VIT
+ 5 STR]
[Fire Spirit Empowered Hammer (Blue) LVL20
Requirements: 60 STR
+30 Blunt Damage
+15 Momentum Boost
+15 Fire Element
-10 Attack Speed
Passive Skill ¨C Reduced Weight
Reduced Weight ¨C Reduces the Weight of the weapon by 30%.]
The passive skill of the hammer was impressive as it would help counter the -10 Attack Speed. Shiro decided to save the hammer until she outgrew the level since it may help her. Recycling it right now would just be a waste of loot and might cause her to regret itter.
Turning her attention to the Lucky Skill Stone, she couldn¡¯t help but put on a slightly bitter face.
[Lucky Skill Stone (Purple) ¨C Disguise
Disguise ¨C Disguise your status from under any peeking eye.
Cost ¨C 100MP upon activation. Will take another 100MP each time someone peaks at your stats.
Duration ¨C Until cancetion
Cool Down ¨C None]
There were a few types of Skill Stones. Lucky Skill Stones, Cursed Skill Stones, Blessed Skill Stones and normal Skill Stones.
Lucky Skill Stones gives you the skill you need at that moment in time.
Cursed Skill Stones give you a skill that would act like a double-edged sword.
Blessed Skill Stones would evolve one of your existing skills. This can be whichever skill you choose.
And finally, a normal Skill Stone which would give you a random skill ording to your level. However, the skill may not be fit for you as it may be for a different ss.
Shiro pulled a slightly bitter face due to the timing.
A Lucky Skill Stone was one of the rarest items, and it was a known fact that when you get this stone at a high level, this Lucky Skill Stone could very well give you a logic shattering skill.
In her past life, she had only ever heard of a handful of people getting the Lucky Skill Stones and never saw one.
Yet, this Lucky Skill Stone was wasted to get a Disguise skill. Was she supposed to be happy or sad?
She got a skill she needed but on the other hand, she wasted such a good item. It was akin to spending a million gold to buy a loaf of bread.
¡¯Be grateful for what you get I guess?¡¯ She thought, crushing the stone and learnt the skill.
She checked her total stats with her new equipment included.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title ¨C [Elite ss]
Title Bonus - +10 In every stat
Level: 20
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 1430/3800
MP: 20/4800
STR: 35 (+25) +10 Title Bonus
VIT: 30 (+40) +10 Title Bonus
INT: 55 -> 60 (+50) +10 Title Bonus
AGI: 50 (+5) +10 Title Bonus
DEX: 21 +10 Title Bonus
DEF: 10 (+32) +10 Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 5->0
Bnce: 20,100 USD
Equipment: (Tap to disy)]
Through killing the [Leader ss] Bear, she had managed to pseudo level up once. Since her equipment was changed, she lost +10 INT so she invested all 5 points into INT to try to make up for a little of that lost damage.
Looking at the destroyed surroundings due to the fight, she couldn¡¯t help but rub her nose slightly.
¡¯This is just the destruction caused when I use my Ice powers. When I get the higher level Nanomancer skills, I would be the enemy of nature preservation.¡¯ She thought as the destructive prowess that came with the Nanomancer ss was incredible.
She hopped onto a tree branch while she waited for her health to regenerate.
Taking this chance, she decided to see how the [Disguise] skill worked.
[Current Disy:
Shiro ¨C LVL20 ¨C Snow Girl ¨C Elite
HP: 1430/3800
MP: 20/4800]
Seeing this, she now understood what the party of 5 saw when they looked at her.
¡¯But why can they see my HP and MP?¡¯ She thought as she started to disguise it a little.
[Shiro ¨C LVL20 ¨C Ice Mage]
¡¯There.¡¯ She thought with a smile. That way she can avoid them peering into her remaining HP and MP.
When her HP and MP were full, she touched the obelisk and tapped [3F]. Her vision cleared as she examined the room in front of her.
The room was surrounded with a ck marble type material. Large pirs supported the roof as red gs could be seen hanging from the top. Towards the back of the room, a towering throne could be seen as a figure sat on the throne with an air of nonchnce.
It had ck armour with neon orange highlights. It didn¡¯t wear a helmet as a ball of fire can be seen where the head was supposed to be.
"One fight after another huh? I¡¯m game." Shiro grinned.
[Fire Spirit Knight ¨C LVL 20 ¨C BOSS]
###
"Where¡¯s the obelisk guardian?" A man asked as 7 people approached the obelisk.
"That¡¯s weird...." Another man muttered seeing the signs of battle.
"What there anyone else in the Dungeon except for you guys?" He asked.
The people he was looking at was the party of 5 Shiro met before. After waiting for 2 days, rescue came. Due to the time difference inside the Dungeon and the outside world, 1 day in the dungeon was 1 hour outside.
The backup was 2 D rank adventurers who were tasked to conquer the mutated Dungeon with the help of the party.
"There was no one apart from us." Xin Feng replied.
"Then the most likely situation would be a monster shing with the obelisk guardian." The first man said as the party of 5 perked up.
"Why would a monster fight the guardian?" Trevor asked.
"It¡¯s umon but not unheard of. When a monster in the dungeon reaches a certain amount of intellect and strength, they will be freed of the dungeon¡¯s constraints. At this point, they¡¯ll be able to leave the Dungeon." The first man said frowning at the destruction.
"Ken, what ss do you think the monster is? Has it reached D rank?" He asked.
"No it hasn¡¯t. But it¡¯s not far, Peak E ss." Ken replied.
"Then we don¡¯t have to worry. A single Peak E ss won¡¯t be able to solo an E rank Boss. It needs a party of 5 E ranks coordinating well with each other to beat one." The first man said in relief.
Entering the second floor, they made their way to the obelisk once more.
They froze seeing the destruction magnify by a few times.
"D rank?" The man asked with a serious face.
"Definitely." Ken replied.
"Alright! Everyone prepare yourselves. The two monsters¡¯ may very well be fighting right now. We¡¯ll take advantage of this and finish them both off." He said as they nodded.
The party of 5 was nervous as they gulped unconsciously.
When their vision cleared, they froze in shock.
"!!!"
The entire room was encased in ice as there were some parts thicker than others. Melted sections could also be seen as they knew whatever happened here was beyond their league. This shouldn¡¯t be something a single E ranked could output.
¡¯The Snow Girl!!¡¯ The party of 5 though collectively since she was the only one staying in the Ice Element System whilst everything turned to the Fire Element System.
The first man¡¯s expression turned serious as he turned to Ken.
"Record this down. Saturday, 24th, January 2045. E rank Dungeon 14. Location, New York. Entry, Dungeon Monster Escape. Estimated Rank, D." The man said as Ken nodded and wrote everything down.
"Do you guys know anything about the monster?" The man asked turning to the five.
Xin Feng looked at his friends and nodded.
"We have a clue. It was a named monster called ¡¯Shino¡¯ or something. S, H, I, N, O. Her race was Snow Girl." Xin Feng said as the man nodded.
"Put this through the guild." The man said as Ken entered everything into his device.
[Name ¨C Shino
Estimated Danger Rank ¨C D
Race ¨C Snow Girl
Additional Information ¨C Soloed an E rank Mutated Dungeon.]
The first ever record of Shiro in this world was a misspelt file...
Chapter 6 - City
Chapter 6: City
After defeating the boss, Shiro decided to teleport to the closest teleport shrine. Teleport shrines were naturally erected buildings as they provided a waypoint for people to use as transportation.
The teleport shrines were usually in the shape of a great tree hundreds of times bigger than people. There would be an obelisk-like object inside the teleport shine as it would allow a person to choose which teleport shine they wanted to go to.
However, the range of teleportation was limited to what you¡¯ve already discovered. Example being if there were two shrines at point A and B respectively. If you haven¡¯t discovered point B, then you won¡¯t be able to teleport to that shrine. But there is a way to bypass this.
There are two main options and those are; Link and party. Link is when two shrines bes linked to each other meaning even if you haven¡¯t discovered the shrine, you would be able to teleport. The other was party, this is when the party leader teleports everyone in the party. This however, was then limited by the shrines the party leader himself/herself had been too.
What confused Shiro the most was why she could use it as well. She¡¯s never heard of a monster being able to use the teleport shrine so she was surprised. And here she was, being prepared to be dropped in the middle of a forest outside the Dungeon.
Looking around her, she saw that there were a few people patrolling around. Just from the vibes they gave her, she knew they should be mid to top ss D rank roughly LVL50.
Her appearance surprised a few people as she was a gorgeous young girl. Her height and face gave them the idea that she was roughly 13 to 16 in age. She looked around with both curiosity and nervousness making people believe that she was lost.
Not wanting to hold the line up, Shiro walked out of the teleport shrine. She was shocked at the different architecture that was visible before her. Both thenguage and building type was different from the one she was used too.
She could understand what the people around her was saying, but she can¡¯t speak nor could she read theirnguage.
¡¯My priority should be learning about where I am at this current moment in time. But I also need to be able tomunicate.¡¯ She thought as she sought out one of the patrolmen.
[Liam LVL46 ¨C Knight]
"Mn? Hello miss, how can I help?" He asked with a smile.
Shiro opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. She frowned in annoyance as Liam looked at her.
"Could it be that you can¡¯t talk right now?" He asked unsure.
Shiro¡¯s eyes brightened and nodded quickly.
"Are you able to write?" He asked.
She shook her head.
"Hmm....You obviously understand what I¡¯m saying but you can¡¯t speak or write. Can you read?" He asked as she shook her head.
¡¯How the hell did she live her life till now.¡¯ He thought.
"Are you lost?" He asked.
Shiro shook her head but then decided to nod it. She wasn¡¯t lost directional sense wise, but she didn¡¯t know which city she was in.
"Do you know where your parents are?" He asked again as she shook her head.
"Do you know who your parents are?"
She shook her head again.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯ll take her to the guild for now. Maybe they can find out her background.¡¯
"Liam Wilford Calling in, is anyone free right now?" He asked over a device.
-This is Jason Mathews. I¡¯m currently free. -
"Are you able to take my patrol for now? I¡¯ve got a girl here who doesn¡¯t know who her parents are. She¡¯s mute, can¡¯t read nor write. But she can understand people. I¡¯m going to take her to the guild and get her checked out."
-Got it, give me your location. -
"Teleport Shrine number 2. I¡¯m just outside it."
-Ok,ing over now. -
"We¡¯ll go to the guild and see if we can find out anything about you ok?" Liam said as Shiro nodded.
Taking the moment to inspect her, he saw her disy.
[Shiro LVL 20 ¨C Ice Mage]
¡¯Eh? LVL 20 Ice Mage? She¡¯s as strong as a peak E rank adventurer. So young as well.¡¯ He thought seeing her LVL.
As she was walking away, he realised what she was wearing. She wore a simple white dress and that was it. No socks or shoes.
¡¯Did she run away from home or something.¡¯ He thought with sympathy.
Jason arrived not too long after as he and Liam chatted.
Shiro sat by the side as she decided to check out her stats since she had nothing else to do.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title ¨C [Elite ss]
Title Bonus - +10 In every stat
Level: 20
ss: Snow Girl, Nanomancer
HP: 3800/3800
MP: 4800/4800
STR: 35 (+25) +10 Title Bonus
VIT: 30 (+40) +10 Title Bonus
INT: 60 (+50) +10 Title Bonus
AGI: 50->60 (+5) +10 Title Bonus
DEX: 21 +10 Title Bonus
DEF: 10 (+32) +10 Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 10->0
Bnce: 35,000 USD
Equipment: (Tap to disy)]
All of the drops she received from killing the dungeon boss was heavy armour which decreases speed but gave her STR, VIT and DEF. They weren¡¯t useful for her so she recycled everything using her Nanomancer ss.
Right now, she was almost finished with her ss Up.
[Snow Girl ¡ï]
ss Up Requirements.
[?] Conquer E Rank Dungeon Solo
[-] D rank Mana Stone
[?] 100 INT
The only problem left was the D rank mana stone. In order for her to obtain one, she¡¯ll need to kill a D ranked monster and get the stone. While it may not be hard, trying to find the right Dungeon would be the hard part.
She could search for D ranks out in the wild, but there was always a certain danger thates with trying to find the monster out in the wild. While you¡¯re trying to hunt E rank, a C rank might just show up and kick you to theherworld.
"Miss Shiro, are you ready?" Liam walked over as Shiro nodded and stood up.
Following the patrolmen to the guild, Shiro looked around in curiosity.
"Do you want me to exin some of the shops here?" He asked as he could see her curiosity. Seeing her nod, he took it as a cue and started to point at a few shops.
"The shops in this district is civilian clothing. They deal with clothes that don¡¯t contain any sort of benefit. Civilian clothing if you will. We have the food court, the market...." Liam continued to exin as most of the shops in this area was for civilians.
"And now from here on we have the facilities aimed towards adventurers.
"We have the Alchemist/Pharmacist association who deals with anything potion rted. You¡¯re also able to register with them and take a test to officially be an alchemist.
"Next is the cksmiths association. They deal with anything weapon and armour rted.
"And finally, the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. They deal with anything adventurer rted. Its government funded and registers every adventurer in the world and provide them with benefits. Naturally not every adventurer since a few would opt out of this.
"There are other associations but these are the big three and the ones you would most likely visit." Liam exined as Shiro nodded.
Looking at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild in front of her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the enormous building. Standing at more than 50 floors from what she could tell, the building had a sleek and smooth design.
¡¯Wow~¡¯ She thought unconsciously.
"Come on." Liam said with a smile as they walked towards the reception.
Liam and the receptionist talked as he exined the situation to her. Shiro sat by the side as she watched the adventurer¡¯s walk around.
¡¯Odd, howe the adventurers here are all E to D ranks. There¡¯s hardly any C rank or above. Actually, none for that matter.¡¯ Shiro thought.
However, what she was most surprised about was how the Demi-Humans are interacting with everyone. Elf¡¯s, Beast-kin and other subspecies weren¡¯t umon. But they weren¡¯t treated as ves either.
This was different from what she remembered as there was heavy discrimination against the Demi-Humans.
"Miss Shiro." The receptionist called out as Shiro turned towards her.
"Would you like to follow me to the examination room?" She asked as Shiro nodded.
Liam followed along as they walked towards the elevator. Pressing the button for the 25th floor, thedy turned towards Shiro.
"This examination will be recognising your mana signal and track your identity. Hopefully, this should allow us to find your parents." She said with a smile.
Shiro nodded but she could already guess the results.
When they arrived on the 25th floor, they entered a private room with an orb and aputer next to each other.
"Just ce your hand onto that orb and it¡¯ll read your mana." Thedy said as she sat in front of theputer.
Shiro nodded as she ced her hand on the orb. Liam stood beside them without saying anything.
[Data not found]
As expected, there were no records pertaining to her identity. She was a mystery.
"This shouldn¡¯t be... Give me a second." Thedy said as she started to tap away at the keyboard.
"Strange... It¡¯s as if you don¡¯t exist. No records, no matching mana, no nothing." Thedy frowned as she turned to Shiro. Even if you didn¡¯t register with the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, there should still be some records.
"Where were you before you came here?" She asked.
Shiro shook her head showing them she didn¡¯t know.
"Haa.... Alright, head to the lobby and wait for me there. I¡¯ll have to ask my superiors about this." She said as Liam nodded.
Returning back to floor 1, Liam went to buy a few sandwiches for Shiro to eat.
Sitting down, he saw her look towards the city.
"Are you perhaps curious about the city?" He asked as she nodded.
"The city is called New York. It used to be one of the most popted cities in the world." Liam started to talk as Shiro turned to him and listened earnestly.
"New York was even more popr than the capital. However, after what we now im as the ¡¯Great Metamorphosis¡¯ the city now became a location for the weak. The very world itself changed as thend expanded. What we knew of Earth is now just a mere fraction of the current world.
"As for New York City, the city is now located in the centre of a cluster of Dungeons. Each of these Dungeon¡¯s don¡¯t surpass D rank in scale making this a prime location for people to train themselves up and never return to. When an adventurer ovees D rank, they would leave for the other cities.
"They provide the adventurers with more benefits and more facilities. Not to mention, exploration of the great unknown. The adventurous hearts of many were awakened with the ¡¯Great Metamorphosis¡¯.
"Factions also create subsidiary branches in this city to find anyone with potential and send it to the main branches." Liam said as Shiro raised a hand to stop him.
"Hm? Are you interested in Factions?" He asked as she nodded.
"Factions are what people create outside of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. There are millions of Factions already made and more stilling. However, there are five main Factions who haven¡¯t been toppled since the start of the Great Metamorphosis.
"The Great American Dream Faction led by the Tanker Hero James Thomas.
"Tian Long Faction or Heavenly Dragon Faction. This Chinese faction is led by the Martial Hero Ling Tian.
"Lumia¡¯s Blessing Faction. This British faction focuses on providing everyone with support. This is led by the Healing Hero Rachel Victoria.
"The God¡¯s Pantheon Faction led by the Mage Hero Ilya Ivanova. Some may think this is a Russian Faction but they¡¯re wrong. This is a multi-national Faction which the leader is determined through a selection process.
"And finally, the Rising Sun Faction led by what I would like to call ¡¯The Yandere¡¯. Surname Minamoto, given name Keiko. She is Minamoto Keiko, the assassin ¡¯hero¡¯ who kills without mercy." Liam said as Shiro nodded. Her aura became cold however at the mention of Hero.
She hates Heroes, she was betrayed and killed by one after all. From what she knew, they were egotistical hypocrites.
However, she too knew why they were called Heroes. It wasn¡¯t their morals or what they do, it¡¯s their ss Title and power.
She didn¡¯t know the specifics, but she knew that getting a Hero title grants you a lot of benefits. The Hero who killed her had the title [Light Bearer Hero], the title granted him control over the element [Light] as it could increase his speed and increase the temperature of his attacks. There were more benefits but those were the ones she could recognise.
¡¯[Light Bearer Hero]... If only I can see you one more time.¡¯ Shiro thought as her killing intent surged outwards.
She suddenly remembered where she was and quickly restrained the intent. Peaking slightly at Liam, she saw that his face was slightly pale.
She tilted her head as she gestured her confusion.
"Hm? Oh it¡¯s nothing." Liam replied.
¡¯What was that?!¡¯ Liam thought nervously looking around. The sudden killing intent made him hold his breath and cold sweat run down his back. He couldn¡¯t locate the source as the killing intent was so dense and it covered quite arge area around them. He would have never imagined the source to be the young girl sitting in front of him.
However, what no one realised was Shiro¡¯s name turning ck when she had thought about the [Light Bearer Hero]. When she restrained her killing intent, her name returned back to white.
Chapter 7 - D rank Mana Stone
Chapter 7: D rank Mana Stone
"Sorry for the wait." Thedy called out as she walked over.
"Since Miss Shiro doesn¡¯t have an identity right now, the superiors have asked me to create one for you. As you are also unable to read or write, you are eligible to enter the school and learn from there." Thedy said as Shiro thought about it.
¡¯Since I don¡¯t have an identity, travelling from ce to ce would probably be difficult. I can also learn more about this world in the school.¡¯
She nodded her head eagerly and shed a happy smile.
¡¯How cute.¡¯ Both thedy and Liam thought seeing her smile.
"We¡¯ll just need you to take the rank examination and we¡¯ll send you to the school. Lodging and other services will be provided free of charge as apart of the current education scheme." Thedy said as they followed behind her.
This time they entered what seems to be like abat room as there was a stage in the centre.
"The examination is simple. We¡¯ll first check your mana density. Then we¡¯ll test yourbat prowess to see your rank." Thedy smiled as Shiro nodded.
"Since we¡¯ve already scanned your mana, we just need to do thebat test." She said walking up onto the stage. She rolled her sleeves up and gestured to Shiro.
[Emilia LVL50 ¨C Berserker]
¡¯You want me to fight you?!¡¯ Shiro thought as it showed on her face.
"Hahaha, I¡¯m not going to fight you seriously. Rather you attack me and I evaluate your performance." Emilia giggled slightly.
Shiro nodded and walked onto the stage.
Her concentrated peaked as this was a good chance to see how she fares against a LVL 50 D rank adventurer.
Emilia¡¯s smile faded slightly as she was surprised at the concentration and pressure Shiro was emitting.
"Whenever you¡¯re ready." Emilia said and Shiro nodded.
Ice started to spread outwards from her feet as the entire stage became coated with ayer of Ice.
Emilia smiled before stamping downwards and cracked the Ice.
In the time she took to stamp down, Shiro was already near her.
¡¯Fast.¡¯ Emilia thought.
Shiro punched towards her as Emilia hit the side of Shiro¡¯s hand and deflected the punch.
She followed along with the momentum and punched with her other hand. Ducking quickly, Emilia tripped Shiro¡¯s legs as her body was suspended slightly.
Emilia quickly pulled back as Shiro created Ice around her and slid backwards.
She raised her hands as Ice Spears formed next to her.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Emilia dodged and punched the sides of the three Ice Spears shattering them easily.
By the time she retracted her punch, Shiro was back in her reach.
Shiro punched towards her stomach as Emilia tried to dodge backwards.
Her movement was suddenly stopped as an Ice block was preventing her from moving.
*BOOM!
She managed to catch Shiro¡¯s punch before it hit her stomach while her other hand was aimed at Shiro¡¯s face. Simr to how Emilia blocked her punch, Shiro had already created a piece of Ice to link her spare hand and Emilia¡¯s hand together stopping her to exerting force.
Sensing danger, Emilia quickly jumped backwards as Ice exploded out from Shiro.
Not giving her a moment¡¯s rest, Shiro flicked her wrist as ice wrapped around Emilia¡¯s legs to stop her from moving.
Shiro dashed towards Emilia as she twisted her body and threw an ice spear with increased momentum.
Emilia¡¯s face became serious as she punched downwards. Her hands glowed for a moment before that glow disappeared.
The punch shattered the ice as Emilia flipped backwards avoiding the spear.
"Alright you pass. Combat experience is definitely above a E rank. Mana is above E rank. However, you haven¡¯t ssed Up yet so we¡¯ll leave you with a E+ Rank. Would that be fine?" Emilia said stopping the examination.
Shiro nodded.
¡¯Thatst move was definitely the move [Ground Pound].¡¯ Shiro thought as it would have damaged her quite a lot considering Emilia¡¯s stats.
"Please head to the lobby while I set up your identity." Emilia smiled.
Seeing Shiro leave, Emilia sat down and took a deep breath.
"Who is she really?" Emilia muttered.
Looking at her hands, Emilia clenched her fists.
¡¯It was like I was fighting a senior adventurer just without the strength. The pressure she emitted and her instincts didn¡¯t match her current strength. I almost made use of my skills against her. No normal E rank nor D rank can force me to do this.¡¯ Emilia thought.
Most people in the city knew about the D rank Ex adventurer Emilia. Though they don¡¯t know the exact reason of why she quit to be a guild staff. What they did know was that herbat prowess and skills allowed her to face off against low C ranked adventurers. For her to be forced to almost use her skills against a E rank LVL20 was unbelievable. The enemy was an Ice mage at that too.
###
As they walked away from the scene, Liam couldn¡¯t help but nce over at Shiro.
"Miss Shiro, where did you learn to fight like that? Aren¡¯t you supposed to be a mage?" He asked as she turned to him.
¡¯Is he being serious?¡¯ She thought hearing him ask her that question.
Shiro pointed at her throat then her mouth as Liam facepalmed.
"Ah right. Can¡¯t talk." He muttered.
Sitting back down, Liam brought out the sandwich he bought before.
"Hungry?" He asked as Shiro nodded.
Taking the sandwich into her hand, Shiro took a bite.
¡¯Tasteless.¡¯ Shiro thought with a slight frown but made sure he couldn¡¯t see it.
"How is it?" Liam asked.
Shiro smiled as took another bite. This time, she hid a mana stone in between as she ate with a happy smile.
Liam sighed in relief. He was hoping the sandwich was to her liking.
Shiro finished the sandwich as she saw Emilia walking towards them with a smile.
Sitting down, she put a few things on the table.
"First is your ID. You can always apply for a new one if you lose your old one." She said pointing at the card.
When making her ID, she did see another simr entry as it was a record about an escaped monster.
However, the system clearly showed Shiro being a human Ice Mage. Not to mention, the monster was called Shino, not Shiro.
[Name: Shiro
Estimated Age: 13
Rank: E+
ss: Ice Mage
LVL: 20]
"This book is a guide on all the facilities in the city. You can also find a map of the whole city in this guide." Emilia said opening up the book.
Shiro could see the guide written in an unfamiliarnguage as she tilted her head.
"If you can¡¯t read don¡¯t worry. I let them know about this so you can press on a location you¡¯re curious about and it¡¯ll exin it to you." Emilia smiled and pressed on the cksmith Association.
-The cksmith¡¯s Association is the gathering point of people aspiring to craft weapons and armour. You maymission a custom-made armour/weapon or check out an artisan¡¯s wares. ¨C
"See." Emilia smiled as Shiro nodded hearing the audio cue.
"In this file are the documents needed for the school transfer. Everything you need to know is in there and once again, audio cued. Instructions are inside and it will tell you what to do." Emilia said handing her a file with paperwork inside.
"When you find the reception, just give this file to the receptionist and she¡¯ll sort things out." Emilia singled out a file as Shiro nodded.
Shiro then pointed at the two stones as she looked at them in surprise.
[Artificial Skill Stone ¨C Mini Map]
Mini map ¨C Disys a map of your surroundings as well as the general location of monsters nearby.
[Artificial Skill Stone ¨C Inspection]
Inspection ¨C Shows the name, level, ss, HP and MP of a monster.
¡¯Artificial Skill Stone?! They can make those?!¡¯ Shiro thought in shock. She heard about the Skill Stones being dropped but never being made.
"These two stones are what is given to every adventurer. These help tremendously out in the field and the creator made it a requirement for everyone to have one of each." Emilia chuckled slightly seeing Shiro¡¯s surprise. It reminded her of a little kid when they¡¯re given a new toy.
Shiro grabbed the two stones and looked at Emilia just to make sure she wasn¡¯t high or something.
"Go on." Emilia gestured as Shiro learned the skills.
[Passive Skill Gained ¨C Mini map]
[Skill Gained ¨C Inspection]
As the passive skill suggested, a Mini Map could be seen on the top right corner of her vision. It allowed her to see the surroundings as well as white dots to represent humans.
Her icon was the shape of an arrow as it was also white. This was due to her [Disguise] Skill changing her disyed race to human with the addition of changing her ss from Snow Girl to Ice Mage.
Going through a few more formalities with the help of Liam, Shiro had her identitypleted and was ready for school.
They settled with her being around 13 due to her features being still quite immature.
¡¯Let¡¯s see... Found it.¡¯ Shiro smiled as she pressed on the images with a hammer and coins.
-Auction Building ¨C Find the items you want and either bid or buy them. ¨C
For her ss Up, she needed a D rank mana stone. The stone shouldn¡¯t be too hard to procure as both cksmiths and Pharmacist need it in their respective crafts.
Considering the fact that this city is a ce where E to D ranks hang out, there should be quite a few pieces of D rank mana stone.
Making her way to the building, she entered it and was greeted by a well-decorated room. The main hub had electronic disys showing you what items were on sale as well as the auction rooms the items were being sold in.
¡¯This is just like the Terminal back in Aria. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard to use.¡¯ Shiro thought as she tapped the screen.
Theyout was simple as it showed items that were popr, rmended and suitable for neers.
Above this, there was a bar that shows ¡¯Write what you need¡¯ and a search button next to it.
¡¯.... This missy can¡¯t talk, read or write. What the hell does any of this mean?!¡¯ Shiro thought as her face was frustrated. She thought they would have pictures to show which item was on sale and the price. Yet she didn¡¯t think that there were so many misceneous items that it covered the entire page. The categories were written instead of pictures so she couldn¡¯t look for mana stones that way either.
¡¯Maybe someone can help me.¡¯ Shiro thought as she looked around and walked to the closest person near her.
She couldn¡¯t speak so she tapped his arm to get his attention.
"Che, don¡¯t bother me." The man said ring at her.
¡¯...¡¯
She decided to look for people that seemed to be working here instead.
"Hello, how may I help?" A man asked as she walked over to the reception.
Shiro took out a mana stone as she pointed at it.
"You wish to put a mana stone on sale?" He asked but she shook her head.
"You want to buy mana stones?"
Shiro gave him a nod.
"You can find mana stones on those terminals." The man said pointing over at the terminals.
She shook her head.
Going through the constant back and forth of not knowing what Shiro want to convey, the man became annoyed.
"You need help but won¡¯t tell me what you need help with. Is this a joke?" He said with a frown.
¡¯Joke my ass! If this missy could speak, I wouldn¡¯t even be asking you would I?!¡¯ Shiro thought in her head with frustration.
Gesturing towards her throat and mouth, she made an X sign showing him she couldn¡¯t speak.
"You can¡¯t speak?" He asked as she nodded with a roll of her eyes.
"Alright, so you want to buy a mana stone right?" The man asked feeling a little guilty.
Shiro nodded as he tapped away at hisputer.
"What rank do you need?" He asked.
¡¯Why are you still asking that question? Did you forget that this missy here can¡¯t speak?¡¯ Shiro thought as she looked at him with a nk expression.
"Oh right erm. Put 1 finger up for E rank and 2 fingers up for D rank. For C rank and higher, you would need to look for it in a bigger city." The man said as Shiro held two fingers up.
"D rank, ok. The lowest price for a D rank Mana Stone is 25,000 USD and is currently under bid in room 6." The man said as Shiro nodded.
"You¡¯ll have to use a terminal if you want to bid." The man continued.
"Since you don¡¯t know how to use one, I can do it for you. ce you hand onto this crystal and it¡¯ll subtract the required USD from your ount." The man said showing her the bidding page and the crystal.
Shiro nodded as she touched the crystal.
[Transfer 26,000 USD?]
She saw this on her interface as confirmed. The number on the bidding page jumped up to 26,000USD as the man was slightly surprised.
Even though the young girl in front of him was a LVL 20 adventurer, he didn¡¯t think she¡¯ll hold that much money.
The bid finally ended with the final cost being 30,000USD.
Shiro waited patiently as the man went to retrieve the item.
"Please double check that you have the right item before you leave." He said handing her the mana stone.
[D rank mana stone]
-A D ranked mana stone taken from the corpse of a Hobgoblin.
Shiro nodded as she jogged out of the auction house.
¡¯She can afford a 30,000USD mana stone but no shoes or socks?¡¯ The man thought watching her leave.
Shiro sat down near a fountain as she looked at her interface.
[ss Up requirements met. Would you like to ss Up into Snow Girl ¡ï?]
Chapter 8 - Lyrica
Chapter 8: Lyrica
[ss Up requirements met. Would you like to ss Up into Snow Girl ¡ï?]
Shiro was about to confirm when she realised something. ss Ups for a monster maybe differentpared to the ss Up a human would experience.
In her past life, she remembers seeing a monster evolve before their eyes and it was a spectacle. You couldn¡¯t not see it. A beam of energy emerged from the monster as a cocoon formed around it.
If that was to happen in the middle of a za...
Shiro shivered slightly thinking about the consequences.
¡¯The best way would be for me to enter a Dungeon. I¡¯ve got some time before I need to head towards the school dorms where I would be studying for now so I should be fine.¡¯ She thought as she brought up her map.
She remembers the Dungeon signs being that of a tower. There were several E rank Dungeons nearby and the closest one was just a 5-minute jog away from where she was.
Storing everything away in her inventory, Shiro jogged over to the Dungeon.
Due to her high AGI, it didn¡¯t take too long for her to arrive.
This Dungeon was a public one as anyone can enter when they want to. There are restrictions to how many people can go in there at a time though. If a Dungeon is higher than level 10, one would need at least a party of 5 E ranks to enter.
From what she could hear from the surroundings, this Dungeon was a particrly weak Dungeon so anyone can go in. Even solo.
It was good that she could enter alone. However, even if she couldn¡¯t, she would have just find another chance to ss Up.
Her task was simple. Go in, ss Up,e out. Nothing more nothing less.
Entering the Dungeon, she saw that she was in the middle of a in. Slimes were jumping around as one tried to attack her.
[HP: 3795/3800]
¡¯...¡¯ Shiro looked at the blue slime which dealt 5 damage to her.
Crouching down, Shiro gave the slime a smile as she reached out her hand.
Tapping the would-be forehead of the slime, she froze the slime instantly and shattered it.
Jogging a safe distance away, she made sure that no one is around her before confirming the ss Up.
Blue light appeared near her as it formed a silk-likeyer which wrapped around her body.
Shiro could feel her powers increasing as she gained knowledge about her new skills.
[ss Upplete]
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 21
ss: Snow Girl¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 3800/3800
MP: 4800/4800
STR: 35 (+25)
VIT: 30 (+40)
INT: 60 (+50)
AGI: 60 (+5)
DEX: 21
DEF: 10 (+32)
Unassigned Points: 20
Bnce: 5,000 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Power Boost(Equipment), Fire Spirit Blessing(Equipment).]
The silk cocoon unwrapped itself as Shiro sighed in relief.
¡¯Thankfully I didn¡¯t ss Up back in the za.¡¯ She thought before checking out her new skills.
[Snow Magic:
Magic which has high synergy with Ice magic. Snow Magic is primarily used to obscure sights, used as a medium for Ice magic and control enemy movements to a certain extent.
Current output power: Tier 2(Matches Tiers with Ice Magic)]
[Faded Snow Movement:
Turn a portion of your body into snow as you increase movement speed and gain a certain amount of damage nullification. With enough MP, you may even regenerate a limb (Unusable at this moment in time due to low MP).
+50% movement Speed
-30% damage taken
Cost: 300MP upon activation, 50MP per second]
[Cold Aura (Passive):
The area around you will always be cold and fluctuate depending on your anger and bloodthirst.
+10% Ice Efficiency
+10% Snow Efficiency]
She smiled seeing Faded Snow Movement as it would help her a lot in a fight.
After she had ssed Up, it rewarded her with 20 points straight up. She put 10 points into her INT, 5 points into AGI and thest 5 into DEX.
This bumped her total MP to 5300.
Walking back to the Dungeon gate, she left with a light smile.
The people were surprised seeing her exit so fast as they saw her enter a few minutes ago. But they shivered slightly when she walked past due to the low temperature.
As she was walking, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but notice some changes to her skin. After her ss Up, her skin became much smoother and soft looking that she couldn¡¯t help but give it a pinch and poke.
Her skin was cool to the touch as it was rather refreshing.
¡¯How nice.¡¯ She thought.
To outsiders, a beautiful young girl was walking whilst prodding her own arm.
As she made her way to the school, she saw the building situated in the middle of several open fields. There were branches connected to the main building as she could see a separate building which seemed to be the lodging.
Walking over, Shiro looked at the students in curiosity. Most of them were well dressed and seemed to be curious about her as well.
Well.... Mostly the fact that she¡¯s barefooted even though Shiro herself doesn¡¯t really mind.
Arriving at the lodging, she checked her guide once more to make sure the location is correct.
Matching up the map in the guide with her own minimap, Shiro sighed in relief.
Knocking on the door, she heard a beep as an audio cue kicked in.
-Due to theck of Student ID, please state in simple words the reason for your arrival. ¨C
¡¯*******!!!!! Like hell I can speak!¡¯ Shiro cursed in her mind as this was annoying her. She wished she could learn how to write thisnguage quickly so she can actuallymunicate. Though it still wouldn¡¯t help in this situation as she needed to speak.
While she could try to speak out, it would just seem like she¡¯s opening her mouth without actually saying anything. Maybe it was due to her monster physiology, but no recognisablenguage came out of her mouth. In fact, no noise came out except for a few cries like Ah or Oh.
As Shiro¡¯s frustration grew, the temperature around her dropped as frost could be seen forming over the device.
"Erm, hello? Excuse me?" A shivering voice rang out behind Shiro as she calmed down quickly.
Turning around, she saw what seemed to be an Elf.
She had long blond hair, pointed ears, emerald eyes, a delicate face and modest body proportions. Her height was roughly half a head taller than Shiro.
She sighed in relief as she felt the temperature rise again.
[Lyrica LVL 10 ¨C Elven Swordswoman]
While Shiro was inspecting Lyrica, she was also inspecting the Shiro.
[Shiro LVL 21 ¨C Ice Mage]
"Wow! Level 21!" Lyrica said astonished at Shiro¡¯s level.
"Erm, so I saw you struggle with the voice recognition. Do you need help?" She asked with some nervousness in her voice seeing Shiro stare at her so intently.
Shiro nodded and held up a piece of paper. She remembered Emilia telling her to show this to thedy at the reception so it might help her out here.
"Hm? Let¡¯s see... Er name, Shiro. Age...13?! Disabilities... Mute? Ah so that¡¯s why." Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but smile wearily as it was truly unfortunate.
For those without a Student ID, they had to state the reason of why they were visiting. Yet the girl in front of her was mute so how could she state the reason as to why she was here?
"Here, I¡¯ll take you inside." Lyrica smiled as she scanned her ID and opened the door.
¡¯What a nice girl.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Following her in, they walked towards the registration till.
"Excuse me." Lyrica called out as a middle-ageddy walked up.
"Lyrica? Who¡¯s this?" She asked peeking over at Shiro.
"Err.. She¡¯s Shiro. And she seems to be a new student. She¡¯s mute so she couldn¡¯t get in." Lyrica said as she gestured towards Shiro.
Seeing that the woman in front of her should be the receptionist, Shiro brought out the files.
The woman saw the files and understood what Shiro needed. Taking the files, she started to work away at herputer.
Shiro wanted to say thank you to Lyrica but could only sigh since she wouldn¡¯t be able to understand her.
"Done. Here is your student ID. Your room is on the 3rd floor room 306, next to Lyrica¡¯s. You can help each other out." Thedy said as Lyrica nodded.
"I¡¯ll show you the way." Lyrica said eagerly as she went to grab Shiro¡¯s hand.
However, she flinched slightly feeling how cold her hands were.
Shiro frowned at her hands and could only give Lyrica an apologising smile.
"No worries. Is it something you can¡¯t control? I saw it get colder when you got annoyed outside." Lyrica said as Shiro nodded.
Shiro was surprised at how observant she was.
Lyrica walked in front of Shiro as she showed her the way to her room.
"So your uniform should arrive tomorrow. Your timetable should be on the tablet. As for the lessons, we can choose whichever lesson you want to go to. You just need to be able to pass the end of year exams." Lyrica said as they arrived.
Shiro pulled out her file as she showed it to Lyrica.
Pointing at the words, Shiro shook her head.
"The information is wrong?" She asked.
Shiro pointed again as she shook her head.
"Is there something missing?" Lyrica asked taking a second read of the information.
Shiro frowned but gained an idea.
She pointed at her throat and made an X sign.
"I know you¡¯re mute." Lyrica nodded.
Shiro then made a writing motion and made an X.
"You can¡¯t write either?"
Shiro nodded. She then pointed to her eyes before pointing at the words and made another X sign.
"You can¡¯t read either?!" Lyrica said surprised.
¡¯How did she survive till now?¡¯ Lyrica thought as she had an idea of what Shiro was asking.
"You want me to help you with reading and writing?" She asked not sure.
Shiro nodded quickly with a smile.
"Oh that¡¯s simple then. I can teach you about it every day when you have time." Lyrica smiled as Shiro nodded.
Entering her room, Shiro sat down on a chair and leaned backwards. Her mind started to wonder as she thought about the girl she just met.
¡¯That girl, Lyrica... She shows symptoms of a low self-esteem. Not only was she concerned over the impression she made on me, she was also slightly reluctant to put herself first. Her body posture showed that she tried to make herself seem smaller than mine.
Rather than saying when she had time to teach me, she was worried about whether or not ¡¯I¡¯ had time to be taught.
The most likely causes of this are poor performance or family issues.¡¯ Shiro thought looking at the wall connected to Lyrica¡¯s room.
¡¯I should see if I can solve this for her as payment for teaching me how to read and write.¡¯ Shiro thought. She wasn¡¯t the type to repay hatred with 100 times the hatred. Nor was she one to repay kindness with 100 times the kindness.
However, she did like to treat people who gave her a good impression. A whim if one had to ssify this.
For a girl like Lyrica who treated her well on the first meeting, Shiro would try to help her resolve a problem in return for that kindness.
###
Lyrica who returned to her room sat by her bed.
¡¯Was my impression on her ok? Was she freaked out by me? What if she doesn¡¯t want to be friends with me? I should be fine right? I mean she wanted my help.
She needs MY help. Someone actually needed MY help. But what if I disappoint her with bad teaching?¡¯ Lyrica thought with a nervous frown.
"I was too hasty... What if I can¡¯t teach her well enough." She muttered with a sigh.
Looking at her tablet, Lyrica searched up the best ways of teaching reading and writing.
###
Waking up to a frozen stiff bed cover, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched as she knew this was most likely going to be an ongoing problem.
She looked over at the clock and saw that it was 7:30 AM.
¡¯Hmm, a little early I guess.¡¯ Shiro thought as she rubbed her stomach.
Taking out a few mana stones, she threw it in her mouth as she had a look at how man E ranked mana stones she had left.
[E Rank Mana Stone x132]
¡¯132? Shouldst me for a while. Though with that being said, I should probably hunt a few more monsters to get my stock filled.¡¯ Shiro thought as she noticed her increased intake.
Previously, 3 to 5 mana stones could help her through the day. Now, 5 mana stones were a small snack for her.
Considering the pattern, Shiro was sure she would eventually need to eat a warehouse full of E rank stones just to fill her stomach.
*Knock Knock Knock
Shiro heard the door knock as she walked over and opened the door.
¡¯Lyrica?¡¯ Shiro thought seeing her still in her pyjamas. She had dark circles under her eyes as she pulled out a thick notebook.
"I¡¯ve done it.... I¡¯ve found the best way to teach reading and writing to you." Lyrica said as she smiled.
Her eyelids were drooping every so often as Shiro frowned slightly.
¡¯Did this girl stay up all night topile this?¡¯ She thought.
Shiro held the helms of her pyjama as she dragged Lyrica back to her room.
Shiro pointed at the bed as her eyes bore into Lyrica¡¯s.
"Huh? Shiro you want me to sleep?" Lyrica asked as Shiro nodded and took the notebook. She pushed Lyrica onto the bed gently as she looked at her.
Shiro made a sleeping motion as she pointed at the pillow. Her eyes seemed to only take yes for an answer.
Lyrica decided to relent to thefort of the bed.
The moment she closed her eyelids, she fell asleep almost instantly.
¡¯Heh, what a foolish girl.¡¯ Shiro though as she covered her up.
She sat down as she looked at the notebook in her hands.
[Efficient Notebook for learning reading and writing.
Creator ¨C Lyrica Valenstaine]
Shiro could only sigh seeing the effort Lyrica put into making this even though they¡¯ve barely met.
¡¯As the first person I¡¯ve met at this school, I¡¯ll give you some privileges.¡¯ Shiro thought before turning to the notebook. She wanted to see if she could decode this notebook and study on her own.
Chapter 9 - Hidden Proficiency
Chapter 9: Hidden Proficiency
"Mn....." Lyrica slowly opened her eyes as she felt refreshed after sleeping.
¡¯Oh right! Shiro!¡¯ She thought as she instantly sat up.
She looked around and was surprised seeing Shiro at the desk with lots of paper around her.
Currently, Shiro had tilted her head back as it seemed like she was fatigued.
Noticing that Lyrica had woken up, Shiro grabbed a notepad and quickly wrote something down.
[You¡¯re awake.]
She looked over with a smile.
Lyrica was both shocked and surprised.
"You learned reading and writing in the time I was asleep?! How?!" Lyrica asked.
[Decoding. I matched my audio cues saying the words with the alphabet. I slowly decoded what each letter sounded like and memorised it.] Shiro wrote down as Lyrica couldn¡¯t believe someone could learn a wholenguage in the time she was asleep.
"Unbelievable..." Lyrica muttered.
[Is it really? We live in a world with Dungeons and monsters. I think learningnguage in a day isn¡¯t that shocking.] Shiro wrote down with a grin.
"I suppose so." Lyrica said as it made sense.
[So what lesson¡¯s do you have?]
"Lessons? I take swordsmanship, Close Quarter Combat and Dungeon Exploration." Lyrica replied as Shiro nodded.
[Then I¡¯ll take those lessons with you.] She smiled.
"Eh?! What about yours? Aren¡¯t you an Ice Mage?" Lyrica asked slightly flustered.
Shiro smiled as she flicked her fingers and a sword made from Ice appeared.
[Close Quarters Combat is important for a mage as well.] Shiro wrote down.
[That and also you¡¯ve helped me greatly.]
"No, it¡¯s mostly because of your efforts. I didn¡¯t do anything." Lyrica shook her head as she didn¡¯t believe in her own contribution.
[Without your help, this would have taken much longer. Being able to recognise thenguage today will help me greatly.] Shiro wrote down as Lyrica became embarrassed.
[Since you¡¯ve slept for the entire day, you want to go eat?]
"Eh? Ah! It¡¯s 8PM!" Lyrica said shocked as she held the clock.
[It¡¯ll be my treat.] Shiro wrote down.
"You really don¡¯t have to. I can afford it." Lyrica said looking at Shiro.
[If you don¡¯t let me do this, I will be angry.] Shiro frowned slightly.
"Fine..." Lyrica said as she quickly dressed up.
They walked towards the food court as Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but ask a few questions.
"Shiro, howe you don¡¯t have shoes or socks?" She asked.
[I woke up this way. It¡¯s doesn¡¯t matter though since it doesn¡¯t hurt.] Shiro replied.
"How did you manage to get to level 21 even though you¡¯re 13?"
[I kill monsters and level up obviously. That being said, how old are you?]
"Me? I¡¯m 15 and only a level 10..." Lyrica said slightly depressed.
[No worries. Since we can explore Dungeons, I can help you level up quickly.]
"Why are you so nice?" Lyrica asked.
[You showed me kindness so I¡¯ll naturally reply with kindness.] Shiro smiled as they arrived.
They ordered some food and started to eat away.
Shiro only ordered a sandwich as she hid a few mana stones inside or else the sandwich would taste just like water. It doesn¡¯t fill her up either, only mana stone does.
Lyrica seemed nervous as she kept fidgeting whilst they ate.
[What¡¯s wrong?]
"Mn? Oh its just that this makes us seem like friends."
[Are we not though?]
"Eh? Um I guess but you don¡¯t want to hang out with me."
[Howe?]
"Well... you might get looked down upon because you¡¯re hanging out with me. Everyone is at least level 13 plus when they reach the age of 15. Yet I¡¯m still at level 10." Lyrica said.
"A genius like you who¡¯s reached level 21 at the age of 13 shouldn¡¯t be hanging out with trash like me." Lyrica sighed.
[Then what do you think about those people at a higher level? Some have a difference of 50 levels yet they¡¯re at the same age. Are they still trash?] Shiro wrote down.
"Of course not. They had the talent to reach such a high level after all." Lyrica replied.
[Then have you heard of those people who jump levels to challenge their superiors?]
Lyrica nodded as she proceeded to say;
"Experience can make up for theck in stats."
[Then we just need to give you more experience. Not to mention, your ss seems to be different from the normal starting ss. Maybe it¡¯s because of your elven heritage, but it may need more EXP for you to level up once.] Shiro wrote down.
"It can¡¯t be." Lyrica denied.
"The ss Elven Swordswoman is the basic ss of every Elf who chooses to use the sword." Lyrica said as Shiro felt her smile twitch.
¡¯This girl...¡¯ Shiro thought as she was denying herself a little too hard.
She remembers the Elven sses. At the start, they were basic sses. Butter on, they be harder to ss uppared to normal sses.
This is because everyone had a chance at obtaining the Special ss [Elven Sword Saintess].
Each type of weapon had its own [Saint] ss. Examples being, [Elven Archer Saint], [Elven Axe Saint] and [Elven Dagger Saint].
However, there was only one shot at this ss Up and if they failed, they had to go with [Elven Grand Swordswomen]/[Elven Grand Archer] Etc...
The only reason Shiro knew about this ss was due to the Elf in the [Light Bearer Hero]¡¯s party.
She had the ss and exhibited superior battle prowess than even the hero at certain moments in her life. Shame she died during arge battle that raged on for 5 days and 5 nights.
[Then why don¡¯t we work together? You can help me while I help you in the dungeon.] Shiro smiled.
"Eh? How would I help you?"
[I can¡¯t speak so there are some limitations in my life. Not only that, I don¡¯t know anything about myself. So having a friend stay with me helps a lot.] Shiro wrote down making up a reason.
Lyrica¡¯s eyes brightened up as she grabbed Shiro¡¯s hand whilst ignoring the cold.
¡¯!!!¡¯ Shiro was shocked seeing her suddenly grabbing her hand.
"You can count on me!" Lyrica said as Shiro could only chuckle slightly.
After they finished their meal, they walked home with Lyrica feeling happier than ever.
Shiro shook her head with a smile.
But it was during this that an idea suddenly popped into her mind and a grin formed on her face.
Tapping Lyrica¡¯s shoulders, Shiro showed Lyrica her note pad.
[So you know how Elf¡¯s have longer life expectancy than humans? Wouldn¡¯t that mean you¡¯re currently a lot younger in human years? So you aren¡¯t under level, but rather you¡¯re looking at this using the wrong age system.] Shiro wrote down as Lyrica paused.
"That does seem to be the case..." She replied feeling embarrassed.
However, age doesn¡¯t really matter. The higher level you are, the more mana you have stored inside you. The more mana you have, the more it vitalises your body.
This made it so that you¡¯re able to live for much longer than normal. But Shiro won¡¯t tell Lyrica that since she had just managed to give her some hope.
[Therefore, you have no reason to feel down.] Shiro wrote as Lyrica nodded.
"You¡¯re right!" Lyrica smiled.
Returning back to their rooms, Shiro found a package next to her door.
¡¯It¡¯s probably the uniform.¡¯ She thought as she took the package inside with her.
Inside the package was an assortment of clothes. A set for winter and a set for summer.
The summer uniform was a short-sleeved grey dress with a red bow tie. The skirt stopped around her knees as the uniform also came with ck knee socks and shoes.
The winter uniform, on the other hand, was earmuffs, scarf and a long-sleeved white shirt with a ck vest. It included a uniform jacket as it was also grey in colour. A separate skirt that reached her knees and ck tights.
Folding up the winter uniform, Shiro ced the summer uniform ready for tomorrow.
Before sleeping, she checked her timetable for the lessons she¡¯s applied for.
[Lessons]
-Swordsmanship
-Magic
-Close Quarters Combat
-Dungeon Exploration
She chose to apply for Magic as there may be some interesting concepts in this new world.
¡¯The first lesson tomorrow is Swordsmanship. I have decent Swordsmanship but it can definitely improve.¡¯ Shiro thought before falling asleep.
###
"So Shiro here will be studying with everyone. She¡¯s 13 so be patient with her. Oh also she¡¯s mute so she¡¯ll be carrying her notepad around with her." The teacher called out in the swordsmanship ss.
A girl raised her hands as the teacher gestured for her to speak.
"Why is she in the Swordsmanship ss? Isn¡¯t she a level 21 Ice Mage?" The girl asked.
[That¡¯s because learning some swordsmanship will be helpful for mages as close quarters are our weak points.] Shiro wrote down.
"As Shiro mentioned, this is beneficial to her. Many high-level mages know some form of close quarterbat to keep themselves safe." The teacher nodded.
"Sit wherever you like." She said as Shiro nodded.
Walking over to Lyrica, Shiro sat next to her as she could hear a few mutters around her.
[Hey.] Shiro smiled as Lyrica nodded.
"Try not to talk to me too much. They¡¯ll look down on you." Lyrica whispered.
[I don¡¯t care.] Shiro wrote as they focused on the ss.
The ss itself was pretty simple for Shiro. It focused on the stances and which part of the body you need to focus on when using the sword.
While Shiro found this pretty boring, she could see Lyrica writing down notes earnestly.
The theory lesson was over soon and it was time for demonstration. Everyone paired up as Shiro could see a bunch of people wanting to pair up with Lyrica.
However, she rejected all of them.
[Howe you don¡¯t want to go with them?] Shiro asked.
"They just want to suppress me. Because I¡¯m level 10, my stats are lower than theirs. I can¡¯t really gain any form of experience sparring against them." Lyrica replied with a sigh.
[Them I¡¯ll spar with you.] Shiro smiled.
"Eh? But aren¡¯t your stats much bigger than mine?"
[I won¡¯t attack actively. You try to break my guard ok? Land a hit on me and you win.] Shiro wrote down as she picked up a wooden longsword.
Lyrica nodded as she too picked up a wooden longsword.
[Ready when you are.] Shiro wrote down as she held the sword with one hand.
Lyrica nodded as she ran towards Shiro with her sword.
Shiro only smiled as she ced the t side of the de on her palm and parried Lyrica¡¯s sword.
Shiro allowed her sword to slide down the de as she was about to attack.
Lyrica drew the de upwards to try block but Shironded a light attack on her shoulder.
Her eyes narrowed as she had a suspicion about Lyrica¡¯s moves.
Not giving up, Lyrica held the sword in a reverse grip as she shed with Shiro once more.
This time, at the very moment the swords shed, Lyrica let go of her sword as she held it in an upright position. She twisted the sword as it moved Shiro¡¯s sword downwards.
Shiro smiled as she crouched down and tripped Lyrica up.
"Again!" Lyrica said as she had a smile on her face.
They continued for several bouts as Lyrica kept getting knocked down. To outsiders, she was taking a beating. To Shiro, Lyrica was improving quickly.
¡¯This girl is smart. She quickly corrects herself when she finds out what went wrong. If it wasn¡¯t for the other students suppressing her with their attributes, Lyrica would most definitely not have this self-esteem issue.¡¯ Shiro thought as she hopped back and slid on the ground slightly.
¡¯However, her movements seem a little awkward at times. It¡¯s like she¡¯s trying to use a staff rather than sword.¡¯
She raised her hand to get Lyrica to stop. Picking up the notepad, Shiro started to write something down.
[You¡¯ve improved a lot Lyrica. So smart.] Shiro praised.
"It¡¯s just dumb luck." Lyrica said as Shiro shook her head.
[I have an idea. Do you want to give it a try?]
"An idea? What idea?"
Shiro walked over to the teacher and got her attention.
[Do you have a handle without a wooden de?] She asked.
"A handle? Yeah we do. What do you need it for?"
[I think Lyrica¡¯s moves match a different weapon better. I want to see if I can use my Ice to find out the weapon.]
"I see. Since you have an idea give it a try." The teacher smiled as passed Shiro a wooden handle.
[Thank you.] Shiro wrote down as she jogged back to Lyrica.
The temperature around her dropped as Ice started to coagte on both ends of the handle.
As the Ice finished, Lyrica was surprised at what Shiro held in her hands.
It was a dual-ended de. On either side of the handle was a double sided sword as Shiro lightly threw it over to Lyrica.
[Give it a try.] Shiro wrote down as Lyrica nodded.
Holding the weapon, Lyrica waved it around as she became more proficient.
"Wow! Shiro, this weapon is really easy to use." Lyrica said surprised at how easy it was for her to use it.
¡¯I knew it.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile. What Lyrica experienced was hidden proficiency.
Hidden proficiency was a situation where the body would exhibit movement habits for a certain type of weapon. It wouldn¡¯t show up on the status board so it was hard for people to know which weapon suited them. Most of the time, it was custom made weapons.
For those who did discover their hidden proficiency, theirbat prowess soared as their body movements were designed to fit that weapon.
While the dual ended de wasn¡¯t exactly Lyrica¡¯s hidden proficiency, Shiro already knew the weapon was something simr to the dual ended de.
She noticed this during the fight as Lyrica would always fall back on using the bottom of her sword when she was forced into a tight situation.
When used with a longsword, it is suicidal. When used with a dual-ended sword, it was effective.
[Try attacking me now.] Shiro wrote down as Lyrica nodded.
Twirling the de, Lyrica charged towards Shiro.
Parrying the top down sh, Shiro twisted her body as she dodged the other end of the de.
Lyrica didn¡¯t let her loose as the de followed Shiro¡¯s movements like a ghost.
Parrying her attack several more times with a few close calls, Shiro was surprised at how powerful Lyrica¡¯s hidden proficiency was.
Even though she was suppressing herself until she was roughly level 10 in stats, it was still amazing for Lyrica to sneak in a few close calls.
The spar finished as Lyrica panted heavily. Shiro, on the other hand, was fine as always.
[Congrattions Lyrica. You¡¯ve found the weapon you¡¯re really good at.] Shiro smiled and showed her the writing.
"It¡¯s all thanks to you Shiro." Lyrica replied happily feeling her confidence rise.
Shiro was an enigma for her. The moment she arrived; Lyrica felt her life change. Shiro gave her confidence and even a weapon she was strangely proficient in using. If Shiro never appeared, Lyrica doesn¡¯t know what kind of a state she would still be in.
Chapter 10 - Bet
Chapter 10: Bet
After the spar, it was time for lunch. Both Lyrica and Shiro went together as Shiro bought some sandwiches once again.
[Do you want to go Dungeon Exploringter? We¡¯ll try to get some money so we can make you that new weapon.] Shiro wrote down whilst eating a mana stone filled sandwich.
"Eh? What do you mean?" Lyrica asked.
[Don¡¯t you need the dual ended sword? We¡¯ll save up some money so we can go get one made for you. Then you¡¯ll be able to do Dungeons much easier.]
"Well... A higher level Dungeon needs at least 5 people. I¡¯ve always been on my own so I don¡¯t really enter Dungeons most of the time. When I do, the loot goes to the other people since they have more contribution than me." Lyrica admitted with slight shame.
Shiro frowned hearing about this.
[It¡¯s fine. I had my ss Up so I should be a D rank adventurer. Right now I¡¯m a E+ because I didn¡¯t ss Upst time.] Shiro exined showing Lyrica her Guild ID.
"Even then, we need 2 D ranks to enter the level 10+ Dungeon." Lyrica said as Shiro frowned.
¡¯Troublesome.¡¯ She thought.
[Is there a way to get a permit to enter the Dungeon with just us 2?] Shiro asked but Lyrica shook her head.
Shiro tried to think of solutions but couldn¡¯te up with one.
To level Lyrica up, the best way was for them to enter a Dungeon higher level than 10. She was able to enter alone into the public Dungeonst time was due to the monsters being level 5 or below. That and also she was a E+ rank adventurer.
A woman walked pass as she paused seeing what Shiro had just wrote down.
"You want to enter a Dungeon with just the two of you?!" She said as Shiro turned to her.
[Madison LVL 14 ¨C Swordswoman]
She had brown hair tied in a ponytail, ck eyes and a average face that had its own sense of beauty.
[Yes, is there anything wrong?] Shiro wrote.
"Maybe not for you, but this loser would drag you down." Madison said pointing her finger at Lyrica.
Lyrica shrunk back, not daring to meet her eyes.
Shiro frowned seeing her confidence shrinking once more.
[I¡¯m a level 21 Ice mage. I can make up for what shecks.] Shiro wrote down as her surroundings started to drop in temperature.
"Even as a level 21 Ice Mage, you¡¯ll run out of MP eventually. The loser here will just draw in more enemies and cause you to suffer losses." Madison said not relenting.
[And how would you know that?]
"I know because she was in my party once." Madison said as she red at Lyrica causing her to shrink back further.
Shiro paused as she realised that this was a prime opportunity.
[In 1 Dungeon run. I can guarantee that she levels up to 12 at least. That should prove her worth.] Shiro wrote down as Madisonughed.
"Level 12? EXP is calcted in terms of contribution in the party. With a hindrance like her, it would take forever to level her up once." Madison said.
[I can guarantee her a high contribution percentage easily.] Shiro smiled.
"Big words for a little girl." Madison said seeing what Shiro wrote.
[How about this then. I want you and 2 of your friends to fill in the gap in our team. Me and Lyrica will proceed with the Dungeon. We¡¯ll have a single day inside the dungeon or an hour outside. If I don¡¯t get her level to at least level 12, I¡¯ll serve under you and help you level up to 20 instead.] Shiro wrote down as both Lyrica and Madison felt their jaws drop.
"S-S-Shiro?!" Lyrica said shocked at what Shiro was wagering.
¡¯Having a level 21 assist me will make me level up much faster.¡¯ Madison thought.
"What do I have to do if I lose the bet." She asked.
Shiro smiled as she knew she had Madison hooked.
[For 5 days in a week, you¡¯ll help me and Lyrica fill the numbers needed to enter a dungeon.]
"5 Days... 3 at most." Madison said as Shiro nodded. Being able to enter the Dungeon 3 days in a week was worth it.
¡¯Even if I lose, 3 days isn¡¯t too bad.¡¯ Madison thought.
[We¡¯ll sign an agreementter so neither of us can go back on our words.] Shiro wrote down as she remembered the school allowing bets but they must be under a contract.
"Alright. I just hope you don¡¯t back out." Madison replied.
[Don¡¯t worry I won¡¯t. We¡¯ll do the bet today since the Dungeon Exploration ss will start soon.]
Shiro gestured for Lyrica to follow.
¡¯Heh, just a kid in the end. I¡¯m an Ice system focused mage. My magic can help lock down monsters making it easier for my teammates to kill them. This is basically a one-sided bet.¡¯ Shiro thought with a grin.
That and also the fact that there was a slight loophole in the agreement. She never stated how many times they¡¯ll be running the dungeon in a day. A day is 24 hours, she can spend 24 days in the dungeon if she wanted.
As they left the food court, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but be anxious.
"Shiro, you shouldn¡¯t have done that. EXP is calcted in contributions. I doubt I¡¯ll be able to get enough contributions to level up twice. Not to mention, you¡¯ll basically be her servant!" Lyrica said sounding anxious.
[Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s only till level 20.] Shiro grinned.
"How can I not worry!? The average for level 20 is 16 to 18 years old. You¡¯ll have to help her for at least 2 years or more!"
[I¡¯ll be making the dual ended sword for you using my Ice. My INT is pretty high so it should help you in terms of contribution. You¡¯ll be killing the monsters while I¡¯ll be restraining them. This way, you should be able to get enough contribution.] Shiro wrote down.
"But your freedom is at stake!?"
[Oh please. If I can level up to 21 even though I¡¯m 13 years old, I¡¯m bound to have a few tricks up my sleeve.] Shiro said shrugging her shoulders.
¡¯Well, the truth is that I reached level 21 in just a few days.¡¯ Shiro thought.
"Even so. That¡¯s your freedom at stake for 3 fill-ins." Lyrica frowned.
[It¡¯s just till level 20. If anything, I¡¯m counting on you.] Shiro grinned.
"Ha... You make reaching level 20 quickly sound so easy." Lyrica sighed.
[Don¡¯t worry about it too much, just focus on increasing contributionster when we do the Dungeon.]
###
"You didn¡¯t cower out." Madison said as she had her arms crossed.
[Neither did you.] Shiro wrote down as she walked towards her.
Lyrica walked behind Shiro as she tried to muster up the courage to face everyone with her head held high. However, her nerves got the better of her as she started to shrink herself a little again.
¡¯Haaa.... This girl has a long way to go.¡¯ Shiro thought with a weary smile.
"So I¡¯m the observer for this bet. Madison Wilcroft and her two friends will agree to fill up Shiro and Lyrica Valenstaine¡¯s party for 3 days every week.
In return, should Shiro and Lyrica Valenstaine fail their side of the bet, Shiro will help Madison Wilcroft until she¡¯s reached level 20. Is that correct?" The teacher said as Shiro nodded.
"Since I have received the confirmation, please sign the contract as you won¡¯t be able to go back onto your word until both parties have agreed." The teacher said as both Shiro and Madison signed the contract.
"The bet shall start the moment you enter the Dungeon." The teacher called out after authenticating the contract.
Shiro added the three people in front of her to the party.
[Shiro LVL 21 ¨C Ice Mage] Party Leader
[Lyrica LVL 10 ¨C Elven Swordswoman]
[Madison LVL 14 ¨C Swordswoman]
[July LVL 13 ¨C Mage]
[Karol LVL 13 ¨C Swordswoman]
Seeing that everyone is in a party, Shiro nodded and entered the Dungeon.
[Serpent¡¯s Cavern 1F]
¡¯Serpent¡¯s Cavern is a level 12 Dungeon meaning the Boss should be around level 15 give or take.¡¯ Shiro thought as she pulled out the sword handle the teacher gave her before.
*CRRR
Ice froze over both ends of the handle as Shiro threw the sword over to Lyrica.
"We¡¯ll stay here and wait. Hopefully, you don¡¯t waste too much of our time ande back." Madison sneered as Shiro only shrugged.
[Come on Lyrica.] Shiro wrote as Lyrica nodded.
Leaving Madison, July and Karol behind, Shiro and Lyrica dashed into the caverns.
The caverns were oddly lit up yet still dark as they couldn¡¯t see too far ahead of them.
Shiro and Lyrica dashed through the caverns without stopping as per agreed on. Shiro¡¯s speed was much higher than Lyrica¡¯s so she slowed down just to made sure they were together.
[As we agreed before, I¡¯ll lock down the serpents and you decapitate them ok? Quick and simple.] Shiro showed Lyrica the note as she nodded.
Shiro turned her focus in front of her as two serpents were being picked up on the Minimap.
Shiro quickly made two Ice spears as she threw them towards the Serpents.
Missing the serpent¡¯s bodies, the spears created an arc that locked them in ce.
[Cave Serpent LVL 10]
[Cave Serpent LVL 8]
Without needing to be reminded, Lyrica already know what to do.
She slid on the ground slightly as she twirled the de in a spinning motion. Jumping up, she did a flip whilst the de itself decapitated the two serpents.
[Contribution ¨C
Lyrica 65%
Shiro 35%
Madison 0%
July 0%
Karol 0%]
"[Collect]" Shiro said. However, to Lyrica, Shiro just opened her mouth and said nothing.
The serpent¡¯s bodies faded as Shiro quickly brought out her notepad.
[Next.]
Lyrica nodded as they charged towards the next lot of serpents.
###
"Wah?! They¡¯ve already killed some monsters!? And that loser got 65% contribution as well!" July called out as Madison turned her attention towards her friend.
"Madison, if they actually do this I hope you remember what you promised us." Karol said as Madison nodded.
"I know. I¡¯ll pay you guys for every hour we have to fill for their team. No biggy." Madison said but her heart was pounding due to nervousness.
¡¯How is she getting so much contribution?!¡¯ Madison thought with a frown.
###
It took a while but Lyrica levelled up to LVL 11.
"S-S-Shiro! I levelled up!!!!" Lyrica cried out in happiness and hugged Shiro whilst ignoring the cold.
Shiro smiled wearily seeing Lyrica¡¯s enthusiasm.
[I know. Come on, let¡¯s get as many levels as we can for you. My MP can still hold up for a while.] Shiro replied holding up the notepad.
"Alright!" Lyrica replied as Shiro refroze the sword to make sure it kept its sharpness.
After clearing out a majority of the beasts that were in front of them, Lyrica didn¡¯t manage to level up again. Most of the mobs were below LVL 10 making the EXP gain lower.
[We¡¯ll just kill the obelisk guardian then. That should level you up to 12.] Shiro wrote down as Lyrica was panting heavily due to how much she had been moving.
"Can we handle it?" She said taking a short break.
[We should be able to. Though I¡¯ll have to let my MP regenerate to full. You should take this chance to recover some of your stamina as well.]
"Hey Shiro. Isn¡¯t this bad for me? Like, I¡¯m levelling up quickly but my experience would be limited." Lyrica said after a while.
[It¡¯s good that you know. However, this is just to get your level up to par with everyone else so they don¡¯t look down on you. Afterwards, we¡¯ll be able to challenge Dungeons 3 days a week with the trio filling up the missing spots.] Shiro replied.
"But 3 runs per week is still a little short. I wish I can get more experience." Lyrica replied with a sigh.
[When did I ever say we¡¯re going to do a single run a day? I said 3 days a week and never specified how many times they had to apany us. For all we know, they could apany us for 24 days inside the Dungeon or 24hrs outside. A single day.] Shiro showed Lyrica her note with a grin.
"Hahaha, Shiro that¡¯s mean." Lyrica chuckled seeing the trap Shiroid out for the trio.
"But wouldn¡¯t they retaliate?" Lyrica asked.
[Nope. It¡¯s part of the contract after all. They can only me themselves for not reading carefully. Not to mention, this missy here is a level 21 while they haven¡¯t even ssed Up yet.]
"Sometimes I wonder if you¡¯re really a 13-year-old Shiro. You seem so much more mature than I am." Lyrica said as Shiro shrugged.
[The physical body doesn¡¯t represent the mentality. One can be old yet have the heart of a child. Or be young and have the mindset of an adult.] Shiro wrote down as Lyrica nodded in agreement.
"Shiro is a smart, scheming and is a powerful person. In a good way of course." Lyrica grinned.
¡¯And you are a hopeless person who needs guidance.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile but didn¡¯t say out loud. She had a feeling that Lyrica will be someone great as long as she got the help she needed.
This whim of her¡¯s may prove to be more beneficial than she had expected.
Chapter 11 - Winning The Bet
Chapter 11: Winning The Bet
[Giant Rock Serpent LVL 15 ¨C Elite]
"..."
[...]
"You didn¡¯t need to write the three dots." Lyrica whispered over to Shiro.
[I didn¡¯t. But I still did in the end.] Shiro grinned.
"Are you sure we can take that on? My attacks will hardly work on rock." Lyrica asked as they were currently hiding behind arge boulder.
[I¡¯ll use a hammer I have in my storage. What I need you to do is to rack up contributions so you can get some EXP as well.] Shiro wrote down.
[When the fight starts, I want you to see if you can hit it at any weak joint. If you can¡¯t, try to use the sword to lock it down.]
"Alright. But how would I do that?"
[How else? Stab it through the mouth.] Shiro replied rolling her eyes.
"Stab it through the mouth?! That¡¯s really dangerous!" Lyrica whispered over.
[You can also stab it in the anus. I¡¯ve tried it with a bear and it worked wonders.] Shiro suggested.
¡¯Is this girl serious?¡¯ Lyrica thought hearing the suggestion.
"Erm, Shiro. Stabbing a monster through the anus isn¡¯t the mostdy-like thing you can do you know?" Lyrica said.
[And? We¡¯re here to kill that monster. Not take it out on a dinner date.] Shiro wrote down.
"...True." Lyrica replied after a short pause.
[Alright, when I draw its aggro, you attack. Got it?]
Lyrica nodded as Shiro took out the hammer she received from the boss back in the first Dungeon.
The hammer needed 60 STR but Shiro had just enough. 35 STR from base stats and the extra 25 from equipment. This brought her up STR to exactly 60.
[Fire Spirit Empowered Hammer (Blue) LVL20
Requirements: 60 STR
+30 Blunt Damage
+15 Momentum Boost
+15 Fire Element
-10 Attack Speed
Passive Skill ¨C Reduced Weight
Reduced Weight ¨C Reduces the Weight of the weapon by 30%.]
Lyrica didn¡¯t know what kind of hammer it was but she knew it was a good weapon. However, her most important question was;
¡¯How the hell is she carrying that hammer?! Isn¡¯t she a mage?!¡¯
Hammers, Axes, Greatswords and other heavy weapons had a requirement on STR.
As a mage, Shiro¡¯s STR had to be low, yet she¡¯s carrying this weapon without problems.
Looking at the 4-meter-long serpent with grey scales, Shiro readjusted her grip on the hammer.
She stepped hard as she dragged the hammer behind her.
Sprinting towards the serpent at full speed, Shiro started to freeze the ground beneath her as her momentum increase further.
Hitting the peak of her speed, Shiro elevated the Ice and made a ramp.
"It¡¯s hammer time!" Shiro shouted with a grin even though Lyrica couldn¡¯t hear her.
To make sure she dealt the most amount of damage, she activated the skill that came with her [Fire Spirit Infused Power Gauntlet (Blue) LVL20]. The skill was [Power Boost] which gave her an 100% increase to damage and +15 STR for 20 seconds at the cost of receiving 30% more damage during the 20 seconds it was activated.
Jumping off the ramp, Shiro twisted her body as she used her entire strength to smash the hammer against the serpent¡¯s head.
*BOOM!!!!
The collision caused a miniature shockwave to explode out as the serpent recoiled backwards.
*SSSSS!!!!
It hissed at her with a re.
Wrapping its body up into a coil, the serpent¡¯s head shot towards Shiro as if the head itself was spring locked.
Shiro flicked her finger upwards creating a ramp. The ramp had a gentle curve which redirected the serpent¡¯s attack.
The ramp redirected the serpent¡¯s attack in a clockwise direction so Shiro twisted her body anticlockwise. The hammer and the head met up as the two forces shed once more.
¡¯Am I even needed here?¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself as she knew Shiro could probably kill the boss on her own.
Even though she was thinking that, her body bolted into action the moment she recognised the fact that Shiro had the serpent¡¯s aggro.
She kept her body low as she twirled her dual ended des.
Stabbing the de into the ground, she vaulted herself upwards as she shed at the back of the serpent.
The shes only made a few shallow scratches as Lyricanded and retreated.
However, she had identally retreated into the path of the tail as she shut her eyes and brought up her hands to protect herself.
*CRRRR!!!!
Lyrica heard a freezing sound as she reopened her eyes.
The tail was frozen a few meters away from hitting her. She turned towards Shiro and saw that she was crouched as a trail of Ice extended from her palms towards the tail.
"T-Thanks." Lyrica replied stuttering slightly as her nerves were a little tense right now.
Shiro nodded as she kicked back and hit the serpent on the side of the jaw. Following her momentum, the hammer stuck the serpent on the underside of the jaw.
¡¯Wow!¡¯ Lyrica was amazed at how Shiro was fighting. All of her movements seem natural as it didn¡¯t matter if she was using a foreign weapon or not. It was as if she knew the best ways to utilise each of their strengths.
Shiro looked at Lyrica before holding up a finger and did a pushing up motion.
"....Fine." Lyrica said as she made a slightly bitter face.
Making sure she had a firm hold on the dual ended de, Lyrica ran behind the serpent as she looked for the anus.
She started to be flustered after not being able to find it.
"I can¡¯t find it!" She shouted out as Shiro looked over at her.
Blocking another strike of the serpent, Shiro became slightly annoyed at the serpent.
*BANG!
She hit the jaw of the serpent as she sent it stumbling backwards.
Holding the hammer with one hand, Shiro started scribbled something down before kicking the notepad towards Lyrica.
In the time she was writing, Shiro dodge every one of the serpent¡¯s attacks without much problems.
Lyrica picked up the note as she read what Shiro wrote down.
[The cloaca or anus of a serpent is 3/4ths down the body. You¡¯ll have to lift up a scale and the hole should be present. There is only one hole so you can¡¯t miss.]
¡¯How does she know where the anus is so well?!¡¯ Lyrica thought in her mind. However, she trusted Shiro¡¯s knowledge so she took the chance to search for the serpent¡¯s cloaca. It was made easier due to Shiro freezing the tail as it didn¡¯t move too much.
It didn¡¯t take long for her to find the scale that lifted up and expose the anus.
Lyrica held her breath as she tightened the grip on her de.
¡¯I¡¯m sorry.¡¯ She apologised as she plunged the de in with as much strength as she could.
*SSSSAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
The serpent screamed as Lyrica backed off. The serpent¡¯s body rampaged as it broke the Ice locking down the tail easily. The serpent locked onto Lyrica instantly as it forgot about Shiro.
Seeing the back exposed, Shiro dashed towards the de.
"Open those cheeks for this miss!!" Shiro shouted as she uppercutted the hammer into the de.
The force caused the de to shoot through the body of the serpent ande out the torso after piercing the heart.
The serpent writhed around in pain for a short while before copsing.
Shiro supported the hammer on her shoulders as she had a happy smile on her face. Being able to let loose and kill a monster or two felt therapeutic.
[Contributions ¨C
Shiro 80%
Lyrica 20%
Madison 0%
July 0%
Karol 0%]
Unfortunately, even with the 20% contribution of the boss, Lyrica didn¡¯t manage to level up.
Shiro didn¡¯t want to waste this corpse so she searched for the mana stone before storing it away.
"[Collect]"
The serpent¡¯s body faded away as Shiro checked the total loot drop for the 1st floor run.
9 Green Armour Pieces, 1 Blue essory, 5 Green Weapons and a bunch of misceneous items.
[Are you a cksmith or Alchemist?] Shiro wrote down.
"Eh? No I¡¯m not." Lyrica shook her head.
[Then I can sell the misceneous items?]
"Go ahead. I don¡¯t need them." Lyrica replied as she sat down and rested.
Getting confirmation, Shiro checked through all the gear that would be helpful for neither her or Lyrica and recycled them all. What she was left with was 2 green pieces beneficial for Lyrica.
On the other hand, Shiro¡¯s harvest was a green piece and the Blue essory.
The pieces for Lyrica was as follows.
[Serpent¡¯s Arm Guard (Green) LVL 10
+10 STR
+5 AGI]
[Serpent¡¯s Scaled Boots (Green) LVL 10
+15 AGI]
Both of these items focused on the STR and AGI stats which was good for adventurers that use a sword.
As for the equipment Shiro chose for herself, they were as follows.
[Serpent¡¯s Head Crown (Green) LVL 15
+15 INT
+5 STR]
This was better than her previous headgear which was:
[Fire Spirit Crown (Green) LVL 10
+10 INT]
Switching out the gear, Shiro experienced an upgrade of +5 in INT and a +5 in STR.
In addition to this, the Blue drop from the boss was a head essory.
[Crown Serpent¡¯s re (Blue) LVL 15 ¨C Head essory
+15 INT
+10 Mental Resistance
Skill ¨C Lesser Fear
Lesser Fear ¨C Focus your gaze on a person or monster lower level than you and inflict a Lesser Fear Status. If the target¡¯s level exceeds 20, the skill will have no effect.
Cost: 200MP
Duration: 1 Second ¨C 5 Seconds
Cool Down: 30 Seconds]
Not only did it give her +15 INT, but it also gave her the Skill Lesser Fear. The skill Lesser Fear causes the monster¡¯s body to freeze up making it very useful. This would make it much easier for her to help Lyrica rack up the contributions.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 21
ss: Snow Girl¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 3300/3800
MP: 1500/6300
STR: 35 (+30)
VIT: 30 (+40)
INT: 70 (+70)
AGI: 65 (+5)
DEX: 26
DEF: 10 (+32)
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 18,400 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Power Boost (Equipment), Fire Spirit Blessing (Equipment). Lesser Fear (Equipment).]
Shiro walked over to Lyrica as she passed her two pieces of equipment.
[Your bounty for the 1st floor. These two were the best for you since the stat bonus they give are beneficial for using the sword.]
"Thank you." Lyrica smiled as received the two pieces of equipment.
[Shall we challenge the floor 2 boss?] Shiro wrote down with a smile.
"Floor 2? I don¡¯t know. I feel like it¡¯s more beneficial if I try to fight it fairly. I can gain more experience that way." Lyrica replied as Shiro nodded.
[Then after we clear out the second floor, I¡¯ll freeze the boss and we¡¯ll use the obelisk to return back to floor 1 ok?]
"No problems." Lyrica smiled.
###
Clearing out the second floor was an easy task. Most of the monsters that were present on this floor were level 10 to 13 Rock Serpents.
To fight these Rock Serpents, Shiro would use Lesser Fear on the monsters whilst Lyrica would stab them through the head. This proved beneficial as Lyrica¡¯s contribution was always above 75% giving her most of the EXP.
When they cleared the floor out by roughly 60%, Lyrica levelled up fulfilling their side of the bet in only a few hours.
Unfortunately, none of the drops could be used so Shiro recycled everything.
As previously agreed on, Shiro froze the obelisk guardian while they used the obelisk to return back to the first floor.
Walking calmly back to the three girls, Shiro and Lyrica saw Madison¡¯s bitter face as Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but feel slightly giddy inside. The foreign feeling of proving people wrong was amazing.
[So I take it as our win?] Shiro smiled showing Madison the note.
"..." Madison frowned in annoyance as she red at Lyrica.
¡¯It¡¯s all her fault! Who told her to level up, she should have just stayed as a low level loser.¡¯ She thought.
Shiro frowned as she could feel Madison¡¯s hostility.
The temperature started to drop as Shiro looked at her coldly.
[Make a move, go on. I dare you.] Shiro wrote as she smiled with a menacing aura. Madison shivered seeing that smile and quickly ran out the Dungeon with her two friends.
Shiro shrugged as the temperature returned back to normal.
As they exited the Dungeon, the teacher walked up to Shiro.
"As you have won your side of the bet, Madison Wilcroft will fill up your party numbers for 3 days a week." The teacher said as he passed her contract to her.
Shiro nodded taking the contract.
[Thank you.] She wrote down as she left with Lyrica.
After walking for a while, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but notice Lyrica¡¯s conflicting gaze.
[What¡¯s wrong?]
"Well... It¡¯s just that you basically put a few years of your life on the line just so that we can run Dungeons. Why are you doing this? Even if you said it was payment for helping you with reading and writing, I can¡¯t help but wonder." Lyrica said as Shiro paused.
[It was a whim of mine. Life is full of twists and turns. If you don¡¯t actively seek them out, then life wouldn¡¯t be as interesting. Meeting new people, making new friends. All of it starts with a whim. The whim may be something more, or it may just be another day of my life. Don¡¯t dwell on it too much.] Shiro smiled showing her the writing.
"So it¡¯s just a whim? Yet for me, it has be something more." Lyrica muttered.
[Don¡¯t sound so depressing. We just got our chance to run Dungeons for 3 days a week.] Shiro smiled patting Lyrica¡¯s shoulders.
"You¡¯re right." Lyrica replied as they walked home.
Shiro gave Lyrica a wave before entering her room. Undressing herself, Shiro wore just a in shirt and underwear as she grabbed the tablet andid on the bed.
¡¯Since I¡¯m thinking of making amission for Lyrica¡¯s weapon, I need to find the prices.¡¯ She thought as she searched up the web.
After scouring around for a while, Shiro found the cksmith¡¯s website.
¡¯Hm... It¡¯s not too expensive.¡¯ Shiro thought seeing the prices.
[Average Commission for Green Grade Custom Weapons]
Must provide materials yourself.
Basic deposit: 5,000 USD
LVL 5 ¨C 5,000 -> 10,000 USD
LVL 10 ¨C 11,000 -> 50,000 USD
LVL 15 ¨C 50,000 -> 75,000 USD
LVL 20 ¨C 100,000 -> 200,000 USD
Over LVL 20 ¨C 200,000 USD +
Chapter 12 - Blacksmith
Chapter 12: cksmith
[I¡¯ll be exploring the town a little today so I won¡¯t be back untilte.] Shiro wrote down as Lyrica nodded.
"Ok, take care Shiro." She replied.
Leaving the school in her uniform, Shiro walked towards the cksmiths association.
On her way there, she saw a familiar figure patrolling the streets.
Walking towards him with a light smile, she tapped his arm like the first time she saw him.
[Thank you for your helpst time Liam.] Shiro wrote down while Liam looked towards her.
"Ah so it was you miss Shiro." Liam smiled.
"You¡¯ve already learnt how to read and write?! That was fast." Liamplimented.
[I had a friend to help me study after all.]
"Hou~ Already made a friend huh. Nice going." Liam smiled.
[Anyways, I was here just to say thanks so I won¡¯t bother you on your duty any longer.] Shiro smiled giving him a wave before leaving.
Liam only smiled before he carried on his duty.
Reaching the cksmiths association, Shiro walked up to the counter.
[Hello, I would like to check the prices formissioning a custom weapon.]
"For that, you¡¯ll need to ask the individual craftsmen for their prices depending on what your weapon is. The craftsmen are over to the left." The receptionist said simply.
Walking through the area of craftsmen, she would asionally check out their wares and see the quality of the weapons they¡¯re producing.
¡¯Hmm... each of these weapons are in poor condition.¡¯ Shiro thought examining the weapons.
Picking out the cksmith who seemed to have the best quality, Shiro lined up.
However, the queue moved at such an abysmal pace that even Shiro was getting impatient.
In the time she was waiting, Shiro decided to pull up her tablet and browse the on information around the surrounding Dungeons.
¡¯There are around 28 E ranked Dungeons nearby. Each of these Dungeons ranged from the lowest being level 2 and the highest being level 20. The Dungeon I was in was a level 10 to 15 Dungeon that mutated into a level 20 Dungeon.¡¯ Shiro thought reading about the Dungeon.
¡¯As for D ranks, there are 15 Dungeons. 5 being level 21 to level 35. 3 being level 35 to level 40. And finally, thest seven are level 40 to level 50.¡¯
She was currently level 21 so she was still a while away from level 50.
Waiting in line took an hour before Shiro finally reached the front.
"What do you need? Keep it quick." The person who said this was a man who looked like he was in his early 20¡¯s. He had ming red hair and red eyes. His hair was short and spiky. Measuring around 6ft 4 and looking around 20 to 25 years old in age, he wore a cksmith¡¯s uniform.
*DING DING DING DING
He hammered away at the metal rhythmically.
[Helion LVL 50 ¨C Pugilist]
Shiro wrote something down before tapping his arm.
"If ya need something just say it." He said not turning around.
¡¯In hindsight, I should have brought Lyrica with me.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Shiro decided to walk around the bench as she stood in front of him and showed him the note.
[I want tomission a custom weapon for my friend. The handle should be around 30cm with two des attached to either side of the handle. The des themselves should resemble longswords. Also I¡¯m mute so I can¡¯t talk.]
*CLANG!
Helion dropped his hammer immediately seeing the girl in front of him. She had clear azure eyes and long flowing ck hair. Her height was 5ft 3 and a modest body build. Holding the sign in front of him, she seemed almost defenceless.
Seeing his reaction, Shiro furrowed her brows slightly and wrote down another sentence.
[Excuse me?]
Shiro waved her hand in front of his face causing him to snap out of it.
"Ah em. Well, er can you tell me what you mean by the weapon?" Helion said as he coughed slightly.
Shiro took out the handle and remade the Ice dual ended de Lyrica used.
[The de looks like this.] Shiro wrote down handing him the weapon.
"Hmm, it¡¯s definitely an umon weapon." Helion said whilst he inspected the weapon.
"What level is your friend?" He asked.
[Level 12.]
"Level 12... So it should be more worthwhile to make a level 15 weapon rather than 10. Hmm... What types of attributes does your friend need the most?" He asked looking over at her.
Seeing Shiro look down and start writing on the notepad, he couldn¡¯t help but admire her a little longer.
[I¡¯m estimating the stats she needs are AGI, STR and DEX since she¡¯s a swordswoman.] Shiro wrote down.
[So what materials do I need?] She asked.
"It really depends. The higher level the source of the material, the higher level the weapon will be. So I¡¯d say you¡¯re looking for serpents scales, scorpion stingers, bear bones, a core and a E rank mana stone." He replied as he started to draft up a design.
"What do you think?" He asked eagerly.
Shiro was slightly taken aback at how fast he worked.
The design showed the bear bones being used as the handle with the core and E rank mana stone slotted in the bone marrow. The scorpion stingers and the serpent scales mixed together to make the des causing the dual ended sword itself to look menacing.
[How much is it?]
"Erm it¡¯s all on¨C"
*Tap tap tap
Shiro tapped three times on the notepad to get his attention on the note. She wasn¡¯t about to let him say it¡¯s all on me.
"5,000 USD deposit and it should be around 75,000 USD." Helion replied as to not displease the young girl in front of him.
[Ok, give me a list of the number of materials so I can keep an eye out for them.] Shiro wrote down while Helion took a pen and started to write the materials down.
[List Of materials]
20x Scorpion Stingers
50x Rock Serpent Scales
2x Tough Bear Bones
5x Red Gems
1x E Rank Mana Stone
[Thank you.] Shiro wrote down before she started to walk away.
¡¯Rock Serpent Scales can be obtained in the Dungeon near the school. Tough Bear Bones can be obtained back in the Dungeon I woke up in.¡¯ Shiro thought since she would have to clear quite a few Dungeons to get everything she needs.
¡¯Not to mention, I need around 75,000 USD to pay for weapon.¡¯
She sighed as she decided to see how much money her level 15 Blue Grade greatsword would give her.
Walking to the auction house once more, she tapped away at the terminal and found the weapon section.
[Level 15 Weapons]
Serpent¡¯s Fang LVL 15 (Green) Sword ¨C 28,000 USD
Scorpion¡¯s Stinger Knife LVL 15 (Green) Dagger ¨C 30,000 USD
Golem¡¯s Fist LVL 15 (Green) Power Gauntlet ¨C 30,000 USD
...
...
Howling Wolf¡¯s w LVL 15 (Blue) w Gauntlet ¨C 150,000 USD
¡¯Oh damn, 150,000 USD for a level 15 Blue Grade weapon. A w weapon is a slightly unique weapon so it could either be more expensive or cheaper. A greatsword is moremon so it should fetch a decent price.¡¯ Shiro thought.
¡¯If I want to get the most out of this weapon, I¡¯ll need to factor in a few variables to make sure the price goes up.¡¯ Shiro thought bringing up her tablet and searched for anybat events that will happen soon.
¡¯There is a Faction recruitment in a months time that will test the adventurers. I can probably hype up the weapon using this as leverage. Not to mention, the skill has a 100% increase in strength and 50% increase to damage. The -80% speed can be made up for using other equipment but the skill itself is pretty good even for people around level 30.¡¯ Shiro thought as she searched for a few key items she needed to take notice of.
Finding everything she needed, Shiro had a calcting glint in her eye.
[I wish to put a weapon on sale.] Shiro wrote down and showed it to the receptionist.
"If you wish to put an item on sale, please go to the second floor and ask the receptionist there." The receptionistdy replied.
Shiro nodded as she looked for a set of stairs. It didn¡¯t take too long since the staircase wasn¡¯t hidden at all.
Arriving on the second floor, Shiro was surprised at the sheer amount of people selling misceneous items.
¡¯Maybe it¡¯s because the cksmith¡¯s association is nearby.¡¯ She thought.
Clearing her head of these thoughts, she walked towards the receptionist.
[I wish to put a weapon on sale.] Shiro showed the receptionist the same note.
"Understood, please follow me to the inspection room." The receptionist replied, gesturing at Shiro for her to follow.
Waiting in the inspection room, Shiro waited for a few minutes until a woman walked in.
[Hilda LVL 35 ¨C Ranger]
"So I heard you wanted to sell a weapon young girl. What do you have to sell?" Hilda asked.
Standing up, Shiro reached out her hands as she summoned the sword she received back in her first Dungeon.
[Fire Giant¡¯s Titanus Cleaver (Blue) LVL 15 ¨C Greatsword
Requirements ¨C 40 STR
+20 Sharpness
+15 Fire Element
+5 Ignore Defence
+5 Heavy Damage
-20 AGI
-5 Attack Speed
Skill ¨C Fire Giant Empowerment
Fire Giant Empowerment - +100% strength, +50% damage, -80% speed
Duration ¨C 1 minute
Cool Down ¨C 5 minutes]
"A Blue Greatsword?!" Hilda eximed in surprise. Blue weapons that were put on a sale were rare.
Even then, most of them were umon weapons.
However, in front of her,id a Blue grade level 15 greatsword that came with its own skill. Since the weapon is a moremonly used weapon, the prices would increase.
"Little girl, are you sure you want to put this weapon on sale?" Hilda asked looking over at Shiro.
[Yes I do. I¡¯m an Ice mage so I have no use for a greatsword.]
"That is true... How about this, the auction house will give you 200,000 USD upfront if you sell this to us." Hilda said as Shiro shook her head.
¡¯Does she think I¡¯m just your everyday little girl?¡¯ Shiro thought.
[I wish to put it on bid so I can get the most out of this weapon. I still need to purchase some materials after this.]
"What if we trade you 200,000 USD and the materials you need for the greatsword." Hilda asked.
[400,000 USD and materials.]
Hilda frowned at the price.
"Too much. 200,000 USD and materials for the weapon."
[Miss Hilda, there is a Faction recruitment in a months time. Using that as an excuse, you can hype up the weapons actual value for more than 500,000 USD.] Shiro wrote down and smiled calmly.
She crossed her legs whilst waiting for Hilda¡¯s reply.
"Even so there is no guarantee that it will surpass 500,000 USD. 300,000 USD and materials and not a bit less." Hilda said as she realised the girl in front of her wasn¡¯t going to get tricked.
[Miss Hilda. May I remind you that the auction house isn¡¯t my only way to selling items. I can in fact wait until the Faction Recruitment to sell this. I wonder how much money I¡¯ll get by them?] Shiro smiled with slightly narrowed eyes.
Hilda became slightly nervous inside as Shiro was correct. They could make a fortune using the event.
"I¡¯ll have to ask my superiors about this." Hilda said as Shiro nodded.
[I¡¯ll wait 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the deal is off.]
Hilda nodded, quickly leaving to call her superiors.
Shiro sat there calmly while she waited. Naturally, there is also the chance for them to try rob her, but she¡¯s already set up a few freezing traps to slow them down. She¡¯s also able to escape through a few narrow ces using Faded Snow Movement.
Hilda returned after around 3 minutes.
"My superiors have agreed to your price of 400,000 USD and materials. Provided that they aren¡¯t too expensive."
[I need, 30x Scorpion¡¯s Poisoned Stinger. 50x Rock Serpent¡¯s Crown Scales. 2x Hobgoblin¡¯s Bones. 5x Element Gems. And a D rank mana stone.] Shiro wrote down causing Hilda to narrowed her eyes lightly.
"Too much. 300,000 USD and these materials."
[Then the deal is off.] Shiro wrote down decisively as she stood up and walked towards the door.
"Wait!" Hilda called up surprised that Shiro was so decisive.
[Miss Hilda. 450,000 USD and the materials. Not a bit less.] Shiro smiled. She had the upper hand in this arrangement so she had to take advantage of it.
Hilda frowned seeing the price rise once more. The quota her superior gave her was 500,000 USD and the materials she needed.
However, the total cost of materials must not surpass 150,000 USD.
"450,000 USD is fine. Though the materials are a little too much." Hilda said after a deep breath.
[Then how about 20x Scorpion¡¯s Poisoned Stinger. 50x Rock Serpent¡¯s Crown Scales. 2x Hobgoblin¡¯s Bones. 5x Reinforcement Gems and a D rank mana stone?] Shiro wrote down subtracting 10x Scorpion¡¯s Poisoned Stinger and downgraded the Element Gems slightly into Reinforcement Gems.
"That is fine." Hilda nodded as it was within her quota.
Finishing the trade, Shiro confirmed the items she received before leaving.
¡¯Hehehe, my harvest isn¡¯t too bad.¡¯ Shiro thought with a grin.
The materials needed originally was the E rank versions of the materials she received in the end. This should make the weapon Helion creates much better and have a good chance of reaching Blue in ranks. The level requirement may also increase, but he can mix it with E rank materials to decrease the requirement.
Of course, it¡¯s also depended on the craftsmanship of the cksmith himself.
Chapter 13 - Blacksmith (2)
Chapter 13: cksmith (2)
Shiro made her way back to Helion as she queued up once more.
"Tell me what you need and keep it short."
Once again, Helion greeted with the same greeting without looking back.
Shiro shook her head as she walked around likest time and showed him the note.
[I¡¯ve got everything I need.] She wrote down.
"Eh? It¡¯s you." Helion said surprised at how quick she came back and immediately stopped everything he was doing.
Shiro started to ce the D rank variants of each material onto the table.
[Would these be ok? They¡¯re a rank higher.] Shiro wrote down as Helion started to examine the materials.
"Yeah they would actually. I can probably mix some of this with metals to make the E rank weapon and use the remainder to make the D rank weapon. These should help carry your friend for a while before he or she needs to change weapons. Ah also, I need an E rank mana stone for the E rank weapon." Helion said as Shiro nodded.
[I¡¯ll be counting on you then. How much do I need to deposit first? Market price please.] Shiro wrote down.
"For an E rank custom weapon would be 5,000 USD. For the D rank it would be 50,000 USD." Helion replied with a weary smile. He wanted to get on her good side by giving her some benefits but it seems like his intentions were seen through.
[Ok, I can give the money straight away. Do you know how much the final price would be for both weapons?] Shiro asked.
"Around 300,000 USD for the D rank weapon and 75,000 USD for the E rank."
"But if it¡¯s too much for you I can give you a little discount." Helion offered.
[No it¡¯s fine. I can afford it.] Shiro shook her head.
Helion could only smile bitterly. The only time he wanted a customer to not have enough USD for his items she actually had enough.
"Alright, shall I build it today?" He asked as Shiro thought about it and nodded.
[Please.]
Helion nodded as he turned to the queue.
"I¡¯ll be doing a bigmission today! Come back tomorrow!" He shouted out as the queue dispersed.
Shiro raised an eyebrow seeing this.
[They seem rather obedient.] Shiro wrote down.
"If they¡¯re not, I can just cklist them." Helion shrugged.
He walked back into his workshop as he started toy out the materials.
50x Rock Serpent¡¯s Crown Scales, 2x Hobgoblin¡¯s Bones, 5x Reinforcement Gems, an assortment of different metals, E ranked mana stone and a D rank mana stone.
[Is it ok if I waited here while you work?] Shiro wrote down.
"OF COURSE!" Helion replied with a little too much enthusiasm.
Shiro only chuckled slightly as she pulled up a chair by the side and sat down. Crossing her legs, she rested her head on her left hand whilst her spare hand searched on the.
Shiro was currently looking at the Dungeon avable around the area so she can n the level up schedule for both her and Lyrica.
Helion paused slightly as he admired Shiro. Shaking his head, he started to work away as he brought materials out.
The process could be narrowed down to 6 main steps.
1: Forging ¨C The step to get the metal into the desired shape.
2: Annealing ¨C Cooling the metal over a long period of time making it soft and easy for grinding.
3: Grinding ¨C Sharpening the edges of the metal.
4: Hardening ¨C Heating up the metal and cooling it quickly to harden the de.
5: Tempering ¨C Heated up to a lower temperature than the temperature during hardening, it is cooled quickly. Repeating this step several times will allow the de to be strong but not brittle. It will also retain some flexibility.
6: Completion ¨C This step adds the handle, guard and pommel. It is the finishing touch needed for the weapon.
But before that, he needed to make the main material for the sword. Since most of the materials are D ranked, he needed to mix it with some E rank metals to lower down the level of the final product.
Grabbing some metals, Helion heated it up in the forge until the metal was almost coloured white.
Pulling the metal out of the forge, Helion¡¯s face and aura became serious.
Sensing the change in aura, Shiro looked up from the tablet and watched carefully.
Grabbing the hammer, Helion¡¯s muscles tensed up as he raised it up above his head.
The hammer burst into orange mes just before Helion stuck it down.
*DING! DING! DING! DING!
Rhythmic hammering rang out. With each strike of the hammer, the metal was slowly ttened down. Sparks flew everywhere as Helion¡¯s concentration hit its peak.
Helion stomped down as it caused some of the materials to beunched up into the air. Reaching out his arm, the materials he needed maised over to his hand.
¡¯Pugilist¡¯s ground stomp and attraction force. Ground Stomp causes the enemy to be air born for a slight moment whilst Attraction Force pulls the enemy towards you. For him to use both skills to help him make a weapon is quite innovative.¡¯ Shiro thought with a slight smile.
When Helion used both skills, his other hand wasn¡¯t idle either as he continued to hammer away.
He took 5x Rock Serpent¡¯s Crown Scales and lined them up along the entire piece of metal. This time, he infused more mana into his hammer before he continued to hammer down with increasing speed and intensity.
Pulling the metal slightly off the metal workspace, Helion mmed the hammer on the middle of the metal as he folded it over.
Repeating the process for a few more times, Helion finished the first piece of alloy that he was going to use for one of the des.
Helion then wrapped the alloy in a fireproof material to let the alloy cool down slowly.
He then continued to make the second alloy for the second de that will be included in the weapon.
Repeating what he did with the first alloy, he set it aside to let it cool slowly.
While the first two alloys were cooling down, Helion started to make the 2 des for the D rank dual ended weapon.
This time, instead of mixing it with metal, Helion was patient as he heated each of the Crown Scales before hammering them together piece by piece. 20 pieces of Rock Serpent¡¯s Crown Scale was needed to make a single de.
As the heap of scales were pure white due to the heat, Helion started to hammer it into shape.
Grabbing 10 pieces of Scorpion¡¯s Poisoned Stinger, Helion crushed the tip of the stinger and lined them up along the edge.
Shiro¡¯s eyes glimmered slightly when she observed how he hammered away at the materials. On point of contact, he would shift his wrist ever so slightly so that the Stingers would fold upwards and over the Scales. In between the gap, he would sew dense mana fibres melding the two materials together.
Once he finished with the two des for the D rank weapon, he turned his attention back to the first two alloys he made for the E rank weapon.
Heid the two alloys in front of him as he pressed all five of his fingers on the workbench. Runes spread out from each of his fingers as it formed a circle around the two alloys.
Shiro could tell that Helion was speeding up the cooling process while not damaging the de itself.
Infusing mana into the des whilst he was cooling them down, he ensured that they didn¡¯t lose any of their attributes while softening up to be sharpened.
As he finished the cooling process, he set the D rank des to experience the same cooling.
During this, he took the alloys to the grinding wheel as the wheel itself was reinforced to be able to shave away at the alloy.
Sparks flew everywhere while Shiro watched in interest. It was fascinating watching a craftsman focus on their work.
Their pacing, their concentration and their finesse when making their crafts intrigued her.
When she makes her Nano craft weapons like the dagger, it was akin to pouring molten metal into a mould.
None of this intricate process was involved.
The joy of watching anything grow from almost nothing to something was calming. It was a feeling that didn¡¯te with the almost instantaneous creation of her Nano craft weapons.
As Helion finished sharpening both alloys, he raised it up above his head as he examined the edge.
Nodding in satisfaction, he took the D rank des and proceeded to sharpen them as well.
The time needed to sharpen the D rank des were much longer than the time needed for the E rank alloys. This is due to the fact that the D rank des retained most of their hardness even after softening them up.
Now that all four des were sharpened, Helion stuck all of them into the forge as he started to heat them back up.
After waiting for a while, he pulled out the four des and ced them into a basin of cold water.
*CHSSSSSS
The sound of red hot material touching the cold water hissed out as the cold water boiled almost instantly.
Repeatedly heating up and cooling down the metal, Helion finished the Tempering stage.
Taking the des to the grinder, he grinded it down onest time to give the des a cleaner look to them.
The materials he had left were 2x Hobgoblin¡¯s Bones, 5x Reinforcement Gems, an E rank mana stone and a D rank mana stone.
He collected the shavings from the des which were the result of grinding them down.
Putting the shavings into a bowl, he sat down and started to work on the bones.
Cutting the bones in half down the centre, he scraped out all the bone marrow.
Adding a liquid to the shavings which acted like glue, he filled up the inside of the bone as he embedded 1 Reinforcement Gem and the E rank mana stone.
A neon blue light started to spread from the mana stone as roots seemed to travel long the liquid shavings.
Slotting the other half of the bone back on top, Helion covered the entire bone in the liquid shavings.
Getting the E ranked alloy des, Helion attached them to either side of the bone handle and waited for it to set.
As the liquid shavings solidified, they formed a sort of natural grip as it made it harder for the weapon to slip out of a person¡¯s hand by ident.
Setting the E ranked de aside, Helion started working on the D ranked handle.
The requirement for this was much higher as he crushed 2 of the Reinforcement Stones and mixed it with the liquid shavings. This, in turn, coloured it a greyish red.
Recing the bone marrow with the new liquid shavings, Helion embedded the D ranked mana stone in the middle while the final 2 reinforcement stonesid on either side of the mana stone.
Simr to what happened with the previous weapon, neon lights started to spread from the mana stone but the amount of ¡¯roots¡¯ it formed was many times more than the E rank mana stone.
Doing the final touches of slotting the bone together as well as coating it in the remaining liquid shavings, Helion attached the D ranked des to the handle.
Shiro could see the ¡¯roots¡¯ spread out from the handle and along the t side of both des.
Waiting for a while, Helion only let go of the handle when the ¡¯roots¡¯ carved themselves onto the de.
"Alright done. The products were better than expected. The E rank will cost 80,000 USD and the D rank will cost 320,000 USD." Helion said handing both weapons to Shiro.
[Unnamed Custom Weapon LVL 15 (Green+)]
Creator: Helion
Requirements: LVL 15
+15 Sharpness
+10 AGI
+10 DEX
+10 Poison
+15 Durability
+5 STR
[Unnamed Custom Weapon LVL 30 (Green+)]
Creator: Helion
Requirements: LVL 30, 220 STR
+40 Sharpness
+20 AGI
+15 DEX
+20 Poison
+15 Piercing
+20 STR
[Thank you. So how do I pay?] Shiro wrote down.
Helion took out a crystal as Shiro recognised it to a simr crystal to the one back in the auction house.
cing a hand on the crystal, Shiro transferred 400,000 USD and the 55,000 USD total deposit. Thus leaving her with a measly 19,000 USD.
"If you need any other weapon beingmissioned, juste to me. I can guarantee I finish it in one day." Helion replied smiling but Shiro could see him sweat profusely from how hard he worked.
[I¡¯ll take you up on that offer. Take care of yourself.] Shiro smiled as she walked away with the new weapons.
Helion paused seeing Shiro¡¯s smile. Ignoring the fact that she looked 13 to 15, her beauty was in a league of her own. Just a smile was like a cool breeze on a hot day.
Walking back to her room, Shiro took out both weapons andid them on the table.
Looking over at the level 15 unnamed weapon. Shiro decided to name it [Dual Ended Poison de].
As for the D rank weapon, she wanted to run a little experiment.
With her experiences of the Nanomancer ss, she would be able to make small trinkets that don¡¯t exceed her current limit. But the next item she was going to make might be pushing it a little.
Lightning and metallic particles swirled around her open palms as Shiro closed her eyes.
She started to extract mana and twined them in her open palm. The mana converted into Nano bots as Shiro took out an E ranked mana stone and stuck it into the swarm of Nano bots.
The metal started to wrap around the stone itself as Shiro envisioned a blueprint she remembered from her past life.
Making a few corrections so that it fit a level 30 rather than a level 200+, Shiro could feel her Mana drain at an absurd speed.
Sweat dripped from her forehead as she furrowed her brows.
¡¯Energy Compartment... Conversion Compartment... Distribution Vents... Mana Diffusion Compartment...¡¯ Shiro thought as an orb was being created on her palm.
"Fuuuu....." Shiro breathed out heavily as she reopened her eyes.
ncing over at her MP, she couldn¡¯t help but smile bitterly at how much MP she needed for the Nanomancer ss.
[MP: 200/6300]
She had to keep at lease 200MP as a fail-safe for her Disguise skill.
However, when she looked at the tiny orb that needed 6100 MP, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile.
[Nano Growth Infuser Prototype Mk 1 ¨C LVL 20 (Blue+)]
Chapter 14 - Nano Tech
Chapter 14: Nano Tech
[Nano Growth Infuser Prototype Mk 1 ¨C LVL 20 (Blue+)]
Apply to a weapon at or below LVL 20. Adds the passive skill [Nano Growth] at the expense of consuming some of the weapon attributes.
Nano Growth ¨C Consumes the weapon¡¯s attributes and allow it to evolve. The weapon will lose 5 levels but when evolved to the max level of the Infuser (LVL 20), its final attributes are much higher than the base value.
As this is the prototype, the weapon will only experience a slight increase in attribute growth when it reaches level 20.
The orb in Shiro¡¯s hands is one of the most beneficial items she could create with her Nanomancer ss. It took the growth like properties of her Nanobots and it would infuse it to a weapon.
As for the reason it would evolve the weapon, it was due to the unique reaction the Nanobots had to mana.
When a person¡¯s level grew, the mana would also grow along with them.
The Nanobots recognised this growth and it would increase the levels of the items the host could make. However, the level will never exceed what the host¡¯s level was.
The [Nano Growth Infuser] was something Shiro had designed in her past life. At the max capacity she had managed to reach, it increased a weapons attribute by more than 80%. However, she wasn¡¯t able to see if it could go any further due to her death.
Her initial goal was to make a level 30 version of the Infuser. However, it seems like she¡¯ll be using it on the E ranked [Dual Ended Poison de] instead.
[Skill Activated: Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1]
Although it says the skill was activated, Shiro could barely make use of it with her minuscule amount of MP.
Nano Tech Engineering, in its essence, was the Nanomancer¡¯s core skill. It was the skill she would use if she wanted to create anything on the run.
Examples being armour, vehicles and even bunkers. Thergest creation she had ever made in her lifetime was the flying fortress ¨C Seraphim.
The flying fortress was one of the key factors in ending a battle that had raged across the continent.
Spanning over several tens of miles in diameter, she had an army help her make use of all the functions Seraphim came with.
Cannons, Rail Guns, Drones, eleration, Barriers etc.
Raining destruction onto thend below, her flying fortress turned the tides of war into a one sided ughter.
Musing at the memory, Shiro shook her head as she stored the D rank weapon away.
She then focused her gaze on the E ranked [Dual Ended Poison de].
Her hands hovered over the handle as she dropped the Infuser.
Before the Infuser touched the handle, it started to shift aspartments opened up andtched itself onto the handle.
Shiro could see metal tendrils slowly eat away at the materials as it spread outwards onto the de.
From the centre of the Infuser, a fan could be heard spinning as Shiro recognised the sound to be the Infuser mixing its mana with the weapon.
A neon blue like pulse travelled along the tendrils as it slowly covered the entire weapon.
It took a while toplete the fusion, but the Infuser had seeded in converting the weapon into a growth type weapon.
The organic handle was now decorated with mechanical detail lined with neon blue. Both des also underwent this change as there was a constant neon blue pulse that travelled from the handle to the edge of the de.
[Nano Tech Infused Dual Poison des (Blue+) LVL 10/20]
Creator: Helion
Upgrader: Shiro
+10/30 Sharpness
+10/25 AGI
+10/20 DEX
+10/20 Poison
+10/30 Durability
+10/25 STR
Passive Skill: Nano Growth
Requirements to Evolve into LVL 15:
5x E rank Mana Stone
2x LVL 15 Sword type weapons
Seeing the upgrade, Shiro smiled in satisfaction. However, there was just a slight problem with this.
It exposes the fact that she is a Nanomancer.
¡¯Now time to see if this works.¡¯ Shiro thought as she attempted to use disguise on the weapon.
[Skill failed]
Shiro sighed seeing this.
¡¯No wait... Actually, this might work...¡¯ Shiro thought as she waited for her MP to regen.
When she recycles her equipment using the Nanomancer ss, she¡¯s able to reprint the skills that came with the equipment to a new one at ater date. Naturally, she would keep the original skill stored in her data bank.
Same goes for her inherit skills.
When her MP regenerated to full, Shiro closed her eyes as she envisioned the skillpartments. It was more like an addon than anything.
Printing the skill [Disguise] onto a small nano chip, Shiro inserted it into the Infuser.
She smiled seeing the Infuser take the skill without any bacsh.
Inserting mana into the weapon, she tried to use [Disguise] once more.
Her smile widened as she saw it seed.
This was because the Disguise skill only disguised the information of the possessor of this skill. So her theory was if she imprinted the skill onto the weapon, it would be able to disguise itself as the weapon now became the possessor of the skill.
Editing the information a little, she was left with this.
[Dual Ended Poison des (Blue) LVL 10/20]
Creator: Helion
+10/30 Sharpness
+10/25 AGI
+10/20 DEX
+10/20 Poison
+10/30 Durability
+10/25 STR
Requirements to Evolve into LVL 15:
5x E rank Mana Stone
2x LVL 15 Sword type weapons
The Disguise skill will be active continuously until the weapon ran out of durability.
With this, she¡¯s managed to hide any signs of her involvement along with the fact that it was Nano tech. Of course, she couldn¡¯t go without a failsafe.
Gathering mana, Shiro created a mana recogniser addon as she ced it into the Infuser.
The Mana Recogniser addon was a simple device that acted like a lock. Should someone with a foreign mana try to ess the Nano bot infused weapons, the Nano bots would undergo a self-destruct phase that wipes out all traces.
She decided to save the D ranked equipment for now since Lyrica was still far from level 30.
Checking the time, Shiro saw that it was 10:48pm.
Storing the Poison des, Shiro walked over to Lyrica¡¯s room and knocked on the door.
"Ah Shiro! You¡¯re back,e in." Lyrica said as she gestured for Shiro to enter her room.
Shiro nodded as she took out her notepad.
[I¡¯ve got your weapon ready.] Shiro smiled.
"That fast?!"
[Yeah. This guy called Helion made it on the spot.]
Taking out the sword, Shiro watched with a smile as she waited for Lyrica¡¯s expression.
"..." Her jaw was open as she looked back and forth from the weapon and back at Shiro.
*Pa!
She gave herself a p to make sure she wasn¡¯t dreaming.
"Shiro! This is a growth type weapon! How did he even make it?!" Lyrica shouted in surprise.
[I don¡¯t know. But this weapon is yours now.] Shiro smiled.
"EH?! How much do I owe you?" Lyrica asked.
[Nothing. Think of it like this. If you use this weapon to rack up your contributions in the Dungeon, I won¡¯t have to restrain myself as much.] Shiro wrote down.
[I also found out that there is a faction recruitment in a month¡¯s time. It would prove helpful if you train yourself up for that event.]
"Now that you mention it, you¡¯re right." Lyrica paused. The faction recruitment was just around the corner. If she could get her level up as quickly as possible, she¡¯ll be able to join one.
"What about you then? Except for that hammer, I don¡¯t see you use any other weapons." Lyrica asked.
[I¡¯m an Ice mage. My magic is my weapon.] Shiro wrote down with a roll of her eyes.
[And also, did you forget the fact that I can make weapons with my Ice?]
"..." Lyrica avoided eye contact as she just realised how stupid of a question she had just asked.
"So which faction are you hoping to join?" Lyrica asked changing the topic.
[I don¡¯t n on joining any faction.] Shiro shook her head.
"Why? Doesn¡¯t factions bring you much more benefits?" Lyrica asked as she was confused about Shiro¡¯s decision.
[I don¡¯t like being tied down to a faction. Any benefit they can provide, I can get with a bit of hard work. It¡¯s not like they force you to be in a faction to begin with.] Shiro shrugged.
The benefits a faction provided included equipment, ess to higher level Dungeons and ess to a raiding party.
The main benefit would be the raiding party. The reason as to why it was called a raiding party was due to the fact that the members involved would be more than 50.
This party of 50 adventurers would challenge therge scale Dungeons with huge bosses that can¡¯t be taken down by an average party of 5 to 10.
In each of the floors of theserge scale Dungeons, they would have a floor guardian rather than an obelisk guardian. The floor guardians were much more powerful than obelisk guardians as they were guaranteed to have a [General ss] title or higher.
There were also raiding parties in the adventurer¡¯s guild, but the mortality rate was muchrger as most of them would be strangers to each other and not coordinate well.
Theserge scale Dungeons were dangerous but the rewards were just as enticing. For normal Dungeons, the party leader would be the one to collect and distribute the equipment.
But for therge scale Dungeons, the rewards are distributed in terms of contribution. Everyone is guaranteed a drop as the party leader has no control over this. The system calctes and distributes.
"Since Shiro¡¯s not joining a Faction I won¡¯t either." Lyrica said.
[Don¡¯t be stupid. I chose not to because I am confident that I can join a public raid and not die.] Shiro wrote down.
"But-"
Lyrica was about to reply but stopped seeing Shiro¡¯s re.
[Unless I see you clear a level 20 Dungeon by yourself, I won¡¯t let you be so reckless.] Shiro wrote down as Lyrica nodded slowly.
[With a faction raid, there will be plenty of healers to help you. With public ones, healers aren¡¯t a guarantee. And even if they are, they may focus on healing one person instead.]
Lyrica nodded at the harsh truth.
[Chin up though, we¡¯ll be challenging a Dungeon tomorrow.] Shiro gave Lyrica¡¯s shoulder a pat before walking out of the room.
Lyrica sat in the same spot as she clenched her fists. She was frustrated that she couldn¡¯t prove Shiro wrong either.
¡¯I need to prove that I can solo a Dungeon even without her help!¡¯ Lyrica thought feeling spurred on to prove Shiro that she has the potential to survive an E ranked raid if they did go to one.
Shiro, who was observing her through the crack of the door, smiled seeing her n work. It was a make it or break it situation that would be extremely helpful for Lyrica¡¯s mentality.
If she rises to the challenge, then that means her low self esteem is almost fixed. When it does, what remains will be a reliable teammate.
As they say, a foolish teammate is worse than a strong enemy.
¡¯Now I just need to make sure I cultivate her confidence but not turn it into arrogance. I also need her to have a sense of situational awareness. Charging into a fight with an opponent much stronger than you is idiotic. And trying to rely on some miracle to happen and save you is ridiculous.¡¯ Shiro thought as she smiled and walked away.
Returning to her room, Shiro changed out of her school uniform and into the dress she first woke up in. She didn¡¯t know what the dress was made from but she did know that it was indestructible. It didn¡¯t provide any benefits though.
She left the school grounds as she opened her tablet to search for the lowest D ranked Dungeon. She wanted to have some time to level up by herself.
[Frag Ant¡¯s Burrow LVL 21 ¨C Floors: 3]
Boss Level: LVL 25
The location was just on the outskirts of the city as it would take roughly 30mins even with her AGI.
Shiro didn¡¯t mind though as she dashed towards the location. She froze the ground under her feet as she started to skate towards the location at a much faster pace.
Taking routes through the alleyways and rooftops, Shiro avoided most pedestrian¡¯s attention.
She didn¡¯t leave any traces of Ice behind her either as that would be troublesome if incidents happened because of this.
In just 20 minutes, Shiro arrived at the Dungeon location.
Hardly anyone was here as Shiro entered the Dungeon before they realised she entered alone.
The Dungeon was simr to the Serpent¡¯s Dungeon. It was housed in an underground area with barely any lighting.
Giving her body a stretch, Shiro created a dagger as she could already see a few Frag Ant¡¯s climbing out of their burrows.
After reaching LVL 21, her daggers took a 1500MP to make a level 21 version. But the benefits it came with were well worth it.
[Nano Crafted Ice Dagger LVL 21 (Blue)]
+20 Piercing
+25 Sharpness
+25 Ice Element
+15 Critical Rate
+15 Critical Damage
Durability ¨C Until stored MP runs out
MP ¨C 1500/1500]
Shiro grinned as snow started to fall. The ground proceeded to freeze from beneath her feet as she dashed the moment the Frag Ant¡¯s head popped out of the ground.
With a single efficient cut, the Ant¡¯s head was sent flying through the air.
Shiro¡¯s grin widened seeing more Frag Ants appear.
"This missy needs to level up quickly. Won¡¯t you be a dear and help out?"
Chapter 15 - Hidden Path
Chapter 15: Hidden Path
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 23
ss: Snow Girl¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 4800/4800
MP: 2500/9300
STR: 35 -> 45 (+30)
VIT: 40 (+50)
INT: 110 (+90)
AGI: 80 -> 90 (+25)
DEX: 35 -> 50 (+20)
DEF: 10 (+45)
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 124,500 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Harden (Equipment), Lesser Fear (Equipment).]
In the 2 hours of constant killing, Shiro had managed to level up herself twice. The points she gained amounted to 40 while the passive point gain made her INT skyrocket.
As for equipment, most of them were green and only one was blue. The skill that came with it was Harden.
[Harden]
Harden¡¯s your skin for increased defence.
+35 DEF and -20% damage taken -20% AGI.
Duration: 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 2 minutes.
She had reced the old equipment that came with skills like Fire Spirits blessing as it would be ineffective once a person out levelled the equipment.
Throwing the D rank mana stone into her mouth, Shiro could already feel the difference between ranks.
She chewed with a blissful smile as she walked towards the obelisk. By the time she reached it, both her MP and HP had fully regenerated.
Hiding behind a rock, Shiro observed the boss.
The obelisk boss was a giant ant which measured roughly 3 meters in length and 1.5 meters in height. Blood red chitin which protected its body, four mandibles that opened in different directions and the metasoma/abdomen of the ant which pulsed with an ominous orange energy.
[Bombard Frag Ant LVL 23 ¨C Elite]
HP: 38,000/38,000
MP: 45,000/45,000
"Che, why can¡¯t my stats be as insane as you guys in the Dungeon ah?" Shiro said feeling slightly unfair that her stats were much lower than the Elite Bombard Frag Ant.
Observing the ant, Shiro could guess the basic weapon it possessed. The main weapon being the mandibles and the abdomen location on his rear. The abdomen wouldy traps around the area when they fight.
These traps would act likendmines which exploded on impact.
Remembering what she read about the Bombard Frag Ant, Shiro understands that setting all of these mines off at the start would be the safest option. Especially since the explosions don¡¯t affect the Ant itself.
¡¯Exploding the mines would take too much on my MP since I¡¯ll have to cover quite an area.¡¯ Shiro thought as she made a dagger in her hands.
Twirling the dagger between her fingers, Shiro grinned.
¡¯Therefore, the best option was to explode the newest mine it nts down and aggro it to my territory.¡¯ Shiro thought as she threw the dagger towards the ceiling.
A pale blue light spread across the roof as Shiro smiled seeing her traps in ce.
Flicker her wrist, she called the dagger back.
[MP: 120/2000]
Injecting more mana into the dagger, Shiro made a second dagger as she was ready to fight.
¡¯Now!¡¯ Shiro thought seeing the Antid another mine.
Throwing the dagger towards the mine, Shiro had already started to dash backwards in case of a chain reaction from the mines.
*BOOM!!!
The mine caused 2 other mines to blow up as smoke obscured her vision.
She could hear the legs of the Ant skitter across the ground as she recalled her dagger.
*KRRRRRR!!!!!
Bursting through the smoke, the Ant charged towards Shiro with its four mandibles opened wide ready to crush her.
Twisting her body, Shiro threw both daggers at the opening before flipping backwards.
As expected, the Ant closed its mouth causing the daggers to bounce off.
Shiro grinned as she clutched her hand causing the daggers to explode into two pirs of Ice. The pirs of Ice was formed in front of the Ant which blocked its path.
The Ant stumbled at the sudden obstacle.
Seeing the Ant stop in its tracks, Shiro activated the traps she set earlier.
*KSH KSH KSH KSH KSH KSH!!!
Several Ice spikes shot down from the ceiling as it formed a cage around the Ant. Some of the spikes struck the Ant¡¯s body as it constructed a scaffold with the other spikes to reinforce the structural integrity.
*KRRRRR!!!!
The Ant cried out in anger when it felt the Ice locking down its movements.
"Sleep my child." Shiro grinned as the temperature dropped around her. Using her Snow Magic, the tunnels became a winter wondend of ice and snow.
The Ant raged as it wanted to try keep itself active but despaired feeling its own movements be sluggish.
Due to the fact that its primary physiology resembles that of an ant, when the temperature decreases, the Bombard Frag Ant would enter a hibernation phase.
Giving Shiro onest re, the ant copsed under its own weight and entered deep hibernation.
"Heheh~ One shouldn¡¯t always fight a hard battle. Fighting smart is just as important." Shiro smiled and walked over to the ant.
[HP: 31,250/38,000]
Its HP was decreasing every second as Shiro made sure it was encased in ice.
cing her palm on the Ice, Shiro started to control the ice so it slowly cut away at the ant¡¯s head.
The more she cut into the skull, the faster the HP of the ant dropped until the brain was in sight.
Without a single shred of mercy, Shiro controlled the ice to destroy the brain, killing the Bombard Frag Ant with it not even being able to retaliate.
Dismissing the ice, Shiro reached towards the heart of the Ant and pulled out the D rank mana stone. Storing the stone away, she collected her loot.
To her disappointment, everything the Ant dropped were misceneous items and equipment that were worse than what she had on.
"Can¡¯t you at least give me something I can use?" Shiro muttered kicking at the spot where the Ant had died.
Recycling everything, she proceeded towards the obelisk.
However, something grabbed her attention as her hand paused just before touching the obelisk.
Walking behind the obelisk, Shiro crouched down and found a hole of sorts. The hole could probably fit a young adult of a modest build as Shiro¡¯s interest was peaked.
Stepping back slightly, Shiro sat down and brought up her tablet.
Searching the information she downloaded for the Frag Ant¡¯s burrow, she saw that a few people discovered this path but never reached the end.
Contemting on whether or not she should enter, Shiro eventually decided to enter since the max level of this Dungeon was 25.
The Dungeon¡¯s adhere to a strict rule and unless the Dungeon¡¯s mutate, no monster¡¯s of higher level will be spawned.
Climbing into the hole without much difficulty, Shiro continued to traverse the hidden path.
As she went along, the path seemed to have started to shrink as an adult would have difficulties entering.
Shiro didn¡¯t have any problems entering since her physiology was that of a young teen. The further she went, the narrower the paths became. Eventually, she had to crawl to proceed through the tunnel.
¡¯Maybe I should turn back...¡¯ Shiro thought as this may just be a meaningless hole.
However, her instinct told her that there was definitely something to be gained at the end of this.
Some Dungeons had a feature where there would be hidden paths. Hidden paths were hard to traverse but gave bountiful rewards.
Shiro knew this path would be hard for any adult to enter and would be impossible for any young teen to enter either. This was due to the fact that the adult was too big and the teen would probably die before entering the tunnel.
A single Frag Ant would have the prowess to kill the teen even if he/she sought refuge in the tunnels.
Since her physical body had no corrtion to her age, she had managed to fit both the criteria of strength and a small build.
Continuing her crawl through the hole, Shiro only felt her frown deepen as she had been crawling for a little too long now.
¡¯Work smart work hard. Since you want to test my patience, I¡¯ll show you what I can do.¡¯ Shiro thought as her fingers pressed down on the walls of the hole.
"Fuuuu....." She let out a breath of cold mist as the hole started to freeze.
Using the skill, Faded Snow Movement, Shiro increased her speed to the maximum and started to slide through the hole.
Her speed started to pick up as she continuously built up her momentum using the ice to give her a push.
After what seemed to be an hour of high speed sliding, Shiro felt the surroundings shift slightly as it was getting brighter.
Making two daggers, Shiro plunged them into the side of the walls to slow her down.
*CRRRR!!!!!!!
The sound of metal dragging across the rocks assaulted Shiro¡¯s ears causing her to flinch slightly.
However, she had achieved her desired effect since she slowed down to aplete stop.
Panting slightly from the amount of strength she exerted, Shiro made her way to the opening of the hole.
Climbing out, her eyes widened to see where she was at.
It was something akin to the inside of a cathedral except that it had no seats. An interior designed with abination of quartz and gold.
Pirs etched with the carvings of holy animals and angles supported the ceilings.
On the ceilings, a heavenly scenery was painted with fine details in every corner.
On the floor, a symmetrical pattern was tiled as it swirled towards a single chest thatid in the middle of the room.
¡¯Why would something like this exist? Hardly anyone would be able to see this.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
"[Location]"
[Tomb of the Holy Dragon Emperor]
"Tomb of the Holy Dragon Emperor?" She muttered as she looked around and observed the room.
Her eye twinkled as she understood the situation.
Walking over to the pirs, Shiro ced her hand onto one of the carvings.
The material was cool to the touch even for someone like Shiro who is a Snow Girl.
Crouching down, Shiro tapped the symmetrical tiles with her knuckles.
"Hmmm...." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she looked around.
This was definitely not a Tomb of a Holy Dragon Emperor. A Tomb of a Holy Dragon Emperor wouldn¡¯t include any cold materials. Especially not one that was so cold to the touch even for her.
A real tomb of the Holy Dragon Emperor would be lukewarm to red hot due to the materials used to craft its tomb. Even without hot materials, it would refuse to be cold materials as a substitute. The Holy Dragon would rather go without a tomb.
¡¯Since this isn¡¯t the real Holy Dragon Emperor¡¯s Tomb, what is it.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
The only thing left around was the chest which was situated in the middle of the room.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro crouched down and ced both palms to the ground.
¡¯Freeze!¡¯
Ice spread out from her hands as it shot towards the chest.
Sensing danger, the chest opened up with arms extending out from the inside. Pushing against the pedestal, the chest dodged the ice.
[Den of the Trickster]
¡¯I knew it.¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing the updated location. The previous cathedral disappeared as the surroundings were illuminated but a blue glow. Crystals hung from the cave ceiling as the tip of the crystal was the source of the blue glow.
Scattered around the ground were several dried up husks of ants and human skeletons. The weirdest thing was why human skeletons remained here even after the Dungeon wipe.
¡¯The adventurer¡¯s probably died to the trickster.¡¯ Shiro thought as this would most likely be why no one had recorded this on the.
[The Trickster LVL 25 ¨C (Elite)]
The Trickster was the next step up from a Mimic, but it still looked like a normal adorned chest.
However, when opened, two sickly thin arms would crawl out from inside. The inside of the chest resembled the mouth of a worm. With row upon rows of teeth, saliva could be seen dripping constantly. Four disgusting tongues could be seen as the tongues themselves seem like they were constructed with a multitude of tongues due to the grooves.
Thankfully she realised sooner that this was a trap. Or else, the moment the Trickster grabbed hold of her, she wouldn¡¯t be able to escape its grasp. Naturally, she could then just freeze it.
However, higher level Tricksters were known to cancel out your skills when in close proximity of their mouth so Shiro would rather not risk that unless she was backed into a corner.
Flicking her fingers upwards, several Ice pirs shot up from around the Trickster as scaffolds started to construct themselves.
The Trickster trembled slightly before it erupted into a mass of flesh.
With the chest as the source, a giant mutted worm-like being could be seen extending out of it. 6 unnaturally long arms with 5 joints thrashed around as it destroyed the Ice. It¡¯s body had no skin as it was just muscle and teeth. It measured to around 4.5 meters in length and had a diameter of 2 meters.
¡¯This one already knows the skill flesh puppet?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Flesh Puppet was a rare skill that a very select few of the Tricksters were known to have. At the cost of its HP, a fleshy puppet was summoned to help it battle. The longer the flesh puppet was activated, the more HP was drained.
"You¡¯re only just a huge target." Shiro said as her pupils glowed a menacing blue.
A blizzard started to form as Ice spread out with her being the centre. The snow fall increased as it eventually epassed the entire room.
With the snow blocking the sight, the overall temperature hid Shiro from the Trickster¡¯s senses.
*IRRRREEEEE!!
The flesh puppet screamed out as one of its arms was pierced by a dagger.
Turning the head towards the dagger, the teeth on his body twitched as it sensed danger.
*BOOM!
The dagger exploded into a mass of ice causing the Trickster to stumble from the force and use its arms to stabilise itself.
Two floating blue lights tracked it down as another dagger hit the face and exploded.
*KSHHHH!!!
The Trickster was enraged as the flesh puppet shrank its body down before expanding out with teeth extending for several meters.
Shiro frowned seeing this as two of the teeth that extended outwards had almost hit her. If not for Faded Snow Movement that turned a portion of her body to snow and mist, it would have pierced her left shoulder and right thigh.
Moving towards the Trickster, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she dodged the teeth strikes.
Mana started to gather at her palms as the sheer amount of mana she was gathering became visible to the eye.
¡¯Focus and explode.¡¯ Shiro thought as she was within touching distance of the flesh puppet.
*BOOOMMM!!!!!
A giant explosion of ice fanned out as it cut the flesh puppet in two before freezing the bisected part of the puppet.
The chest shivered seeing the puppet die as Shiro didn¡¯t give it the chance to escape.
Her two eyes glowed menacingly above the chest while she summoned a Ice spear and pierced the chest.
Twisting the spear, the tip erged like a blowfish as a multitude of ice spikes prated and destroyed the Trickster.
Chapter 16 - [Hundred Blade Frag Ant]
Chapter 16: [Hundred de Frag Ant]
Landing softly, Shiro breath out a wave of cold mist as the snowfall lightened up before stoppingpletely.
[MP: 3400/9300]
Her MP usage wasn¡¯t too extreme as the main catalyst for the blizzard was her passive Cold Aura.
As a seasoned veteran inbat, she could control the amount of bloodlust she exhibited. By pushing the limit of her bloodthirst, she could actively freeze her surroundings without using MP and instead, make it more efficient to use her Ice magic.
Kicking the fragments of the chest away, Shiro was disappointed that there were no mana stone to harvest.
"[Collect]"
"Oh my, well isn¡¯t this something..." Shiro muttered seeing the loot.
It wasn¡¯t that the loot was bountiful. It was just a single key.
[Tier 2 Trial Key]
A key to ess the Tier 2 trial ¨C [Silvermoon Keep]
Rmended Level: 40
This was a concept Shiro was unfamiliar with. There had never been a mention or a rumour about Trial Key¡¯s back in her previous life. An unfamiliar concept means undiscovered adventurers.
And undiscovered adventures mean undiscovered opportunities.
Storing the key away in her inventory, Shiro had a smile stered on her face as just thinking about the mystery of this key made her giddy.
"With that being said, I should probably enter when I¡¯m level 45 or something." Shiro muttered since the rmended level could potentially mean the minimum level needed to survive. Barely.
Looking around as she now had the time to inspect her surroundings in much greater detail, Shiro saw that there was another room connected to the room she was in.
Walking through the crack in the walls to reach the room, she saw the location update once more.
[Trickster¡¯s Abode]
"Trickster¡¯s Abode? The thing had a house?!" Shiro muttered.
Walking through the cave walls, she eventually found the abode as she was surprised at what she saw.
A clear stream circled a small ind in the centre of the cave. From the ind, a simple wooden bridge was present to connect the tunnel and the ind together.
A single lone cabin stood atop the ind as it gave Shiro a feeling of loneliness.
Illuminated by glowing stctites, the scenery almost looked mystic.
Walking over, Shiro came up to the door of the cabin.
¡¯The cabin seems to have been here for a long time...¡¯ Shiro thought seeing all of the dust that had gathered over time.
Opening the door, Shiro coughed slightly from all the dust.
The interior was simple. A bookshelf and a rocking chair. Besides the rocking chair, was a small table.
A decorated bookid on top of the table as it seemed like a grimoire of sorts. A grimoire was a book that contains a skill and most often than none, a tale.
Picking up the book, Shiro opened it to give it a quick read.
[Grimoire of the Broken]
In life, I was a genius. A master of disguise.
There was no one who I couldn¡¯t fool.
Yet, because of this talent, I had lost sight of myself. Trapped in a myriad of personalities that had be too real for me to forget.
In my struggle of multiple personalities, someone gave me light. No matter the personality, she epted them.
Only one thing became amon factor amongst my thoughts. My love for her.
But who knew she was the princess of the royal family?
Her family hated me, who was but a trickster, a clown suffering from his own talents.
Afraid that their daughter was tricked by me, they interrogated me.
Oh, howughable. My talent who broke me internally was fixed by her. Yet, it was her family who broke me once more.
Same question different answers.
That was the interrogation in its simplest form. No personality agreed with the other as the answers I gave was nothing but a jumbled mess.
Disgusted with me, they banished me to this Dungeon without her knowledge. She must think I abandoned her...
Trapped in a dungeon that she doesn¡¯t even know existed; I wait for my time toe.
To whoever reads this, I hope that you may find it in you fulfil a dead man¡¯s wish and pass on my message to my love.
There is only one thing in my life that will never change. My love for you.
The Trickster, The Broken
Saul Rundall
"..." Shiro was speechless.
¡¯First of all, who the hell do you want me to pass this message too?! I don¡¯t know her name, I don¡¯t know her rough location nor do I know about why the hell this still exists?!¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
When a Dungeon resets, a total wipe should ur. Monster¡¯s, items, everything. So for this ce to exist was strange in and of itself.
And to top it all off, this Saul Rundall gave her a wild goose chase, he never once mentioned the name of that princess.
"Everyone has a love story or two, but I¡¯m afraid you won¡¯t get your wish." Shiro apologised as she flipped to the end of the book.
[Learn Talent: Trickster?]
"A talent?" Shiro muttered. She was somewhat expecting a skill but not a talent. The difference between a talent and a skill was the talent being more natural, more powerful and more efficient.
It requires less MP and it gives you a title. Naturally, there are double sided talents like what Saul Rundall had suggested in his tale.
Shiro could guess that the Trickster talent would develop a split personality should one abuse it too much.
[Talent: Trickster]
All disguise, misdirection and stealth rted skills are 70% more effective.
Title: Trickster
Passive ¨C Perfect Actor
Act in the manner of anyone, fictional or real, without ws.
Curse: Broken
Over time, Perfect Actor would develop a split personality inside you.
"Not worth it." Shiro concluded. Recycling the book, Shiro scanned the books on the bookshelf.
However, she sighed in disappointment when she realised they had nothing important.
Walking out of the cabin, she made her way back to the obelisk.
¡¯I guess in the end, it was an ok trip.¡¯ Shiro thought as her best harvest was probably the key to the [Silvermoon Keep].
Tapping the second floor on the obelisk, her body was teleported away.
*CLANG CLANG!
The moment she was teleported, Shiro felt killing intent and summoned her two daggers.
Looking above her, she could see two ants with des for arms.
"Wow, so hasty to kill me so soon." Shiro grinned at the challenge.
Quickly ducking, Shiro avoided another de as the three des above her head shed with one another.
Her mind worked quickly as she put strength into her arms and pushed the ants up ever so slightly so she could roll out of danger.
Rolling on the ground slightly, she did a flip as she flung her daggers towards the three ants.
*BOOM!
The dagger froze all three ants but Shiro kept a serious face on.
Kicking her body off the ground slightly, she twisted mid-air so that she was parallel to the ground.
*PHEW PHEW!
Two des cut above and below her. If she stayed still, the des would have hit her head and legs.
Reaching out to touch the t sides of the des, Shiro froze the Ants just before shended once more.
In that short exchange, Shiro had managed to freeze 5 Ants.
"Damn, you guys are relentless." Shiromented as she shattered the ice and killed all 5 ants.
"And then I¡¯m left with the rest of you." Shiro said, turning around to an army of floating eyes crawling towards her.
[ded Frag Ant Drone LVL 24]
[ded Frag Ant Drone LVL 23]
[ded Frag Ant Drone LVL 25]
...
Cracking her neck slightly, Shiro made an Ice spear as she crouched down.
"Fuuu...." Breathing out slightly, the temperature around her began to drop.
Digging her feet into the ground, Shiro sprinted towards the army of ants.
*KRRRRR!
The ants cried on in return as started to skitter towards her.
Stepping down as hard as she could, Shiro build up for force and momentum as she threw the spear as hard as she could.
Flicking her fingers, the spear broke apart mid-air.
"Break!" Shiro shouted as each of the pieces exploded into pirs that crushed several ants.
The ants became enraged as Shiro only grinned.
Sliding across the ground, she erected two ice blocks and sent them forward.
*BOOM BOOM
Ants could be seen flying through the air from the force of the collision.
¡¯Not enough, faster, more efficient, more ruthless.¡¯ Shiro thought in her mind as she still wasn¡¯t fighting to her full capacity.
The shorter arm reach, the weaker muscles, the height and the stamina. Everything was a factor that she needed to get used to or else she can kiss full body control goodbye.
Bending her body backwards, she evaded two des as both her hands touched the floor.
When her hands came into contact with the floor, two ice spikes shot up piercing the ants.
Putting strength into her arms, Shiro flipped backwards and slid across the ground.
There was a trail of ice wherever she touched as she could be seen gathering mana in her palms.
*BOOM!!!
Spontaneous explosions rang out with ice spikes shooting out from every direction and skewered the ants.
"An army is fine. But you¡¯re not going to overwhelm me that easily." Shiro grinned seeing the destruction thatid before her.
Clutching her fists, all of the ice shattered killing a majority of the ants. There were quite a few left over but it was just a matter of time before they all be her loot.
...
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 24
ss: Snow Girl¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 5650/7300
MP: 2800/11,300
STR: 45 -> 55(+35)
VIT: 50 -> 60 (+60)
INT: 130 (+100)
AGI: 100 (+45)
DEX: 60 (+30)
DEF: 10 (+65)
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 231,900 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Harden (Equipment), Lesser Fear (Equipment), Sensory (Equipment).]
Panting slightly, Shiro sat down. She had finally killed the entire horde after much difficulty due to the strain they ced on her stamina.
However, her troubles were rewarded with a level up and her MP passing the 10,000 threshold.
Just seeing the 5-digit MP count made her smile with glee as she was a step closer to regaining her former strength. When she does, she can explore this unknown world without much trouble.
As a result of the 5-digit MP count, Shiro had managed to unlock her Sword Creation for the Nanomancer ss. The damage value of the sword would be much higher than the daggers, but she would no longer have the option in throwing the weapon as a catalyst.
However, it was ok because it made up for her less than desired close quartsbat power.
Switching between dagger and sword will help cover both long and short range.
The final benefit she got from the horde was equipment. Recing some of her old equipment, Shiro gained a new skill from the new recements.
[Sensory ¨C Passive]
Natural senses are heightened slightly.
It wasn¡¯t a massive boost, but it was weed since it helped her perceive her surroundings better.
Shiro waited for her HP and MP topletely recover before she started to make her way towards the obelisk.
A few ded Frag Ant Drones wanted to ambush her but failed. They were, in essence, cannon fodder. Without a giant army to swarm the person, they were easy to kill.
Naturally, this was what Shiro thinks. Most parties needed at least a healer to help them kill a [ded Frag Ant Drone]. This was attributed to the fact that their instincts and body control paled inparison to Shiro.
Ignoring the fact that her strength was limited, her control and instincts were the finest even amongst veterans ofbat.
Funnily enough, the closer she went towards the obelisk, the fewer times she got ambushed.
It was weird since the Dungeon ecosystem was mostly correct 9 times out of 10. For an anomaly like this to happen must mean the obelisk guardian is that of a foreign species or that it cannibalises which inflicts fear towards the drone.
From what she read about this Dungeon; The obelisk guardian was a boss called [Hundred de Frag Ant]. Since it¡¯s the same species it the most likely situation was cannibalism.
*Crrrrrrrrr....
The scraping of the des against the ground could be heard faintly as Shiro knew she was getting close.
Stepping forward slowly, she observed the [Hundred de Frag Ant]
[Hundred de Frag Ant LVL 25 ¨C Elite]
HP:80,000/80,000
MP: 20,000/20,000
As its name suggested, it looked as if it had a hundred des acting as legs. Measuring 8 meters long and only 1 meter tall. It was armoured with void ck chitin with two short antennas and a visible jaw.
"..."
¡¯Ant my ass! It¡¯s a god damn giant millipede!!!¡¯
Chapter 17 - Explosion!
Chapter 17: Explosion!
¡¯Ant my ass! It¡¯s a god damn giant millipede!!!¡¯ Shiro thought cursing at the misleading name of the monster.
¡¯No wonder the ants weren¡¯t asmon closer to the obelisk. There¡¯s another species guarding it that¡¯s why!¡¯
Millipedes were different to centipedes. While some may get the two mixed up, there are a few distinct differences.
First off, the Millipede have very short antennaepared to the Centipede. The physiology of a centipede is tterpared to a Millipede which supported a more rounded chitin armour.
The centipede¡¯s legs are positioned outwards like a razor de while the millipede¡¯s legs are tucked under its body.
In addition to this, the centipede was limited to a single pair of legs per segment of its body.
This is where this huge Millipede earned the name Hundred des. Unlike a centipede, the millipede has two pairs of legs per segment. Not only this, each segment is rtively smaller than the centipede¡¯s segments.
With each of the legs beingposed of a razor sharp de, Shiro shivered slightly just thinking about getting caught in those legs. Even with her MP and attack, the millipede would just wear her down in a battle of attrition.
¡¯Millipede millipede... They are scavengers that are ssed as herbivores. Yet obviously, this one wants to chew on meat.¡¯ Shiro thought seeing the ¡¯Ant¡¯ move around.
¡¯Since I can¡¯t base it on the normal standards, I¡¯ll learn as I fight.¡¯ She concluded.
Preparing herself so that her concentration was at its best. Shiro created two daggers for now.
When testing the capabilities of an enemy, one must be between the fine line of the danger zone and the safety zone.
Too far into the danger zone without sufficient understanding can be highly fatal. Yet, staying in the safety zone will restrain the knowledge you receive. Therefore, one must dance around these two zones carefully to get the maximum benefit.
¡¯First, concussive shock. Test the reaction when robbed of its sensory.¡¯ Shiro thought as she dashed towards the millipede.
Twirling the de by the handle, she threw it towards the short antennas. The speed was decreased dramatically as most of the force was focused on making it spin through the air.
The millipede raised its head as the daggers bounced on both antennas.
*CRR!
Freezing the antennas, Shiro jumped backwards immediately seeing the desired effect.
Without hesitation, the millipede rolled into a ball.
¡¯Is that all?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
*KISHIN!
The millipede¡¯s de-like legs protruded from the side of its body while the shell spiked up abnormally like a porcupine¡¯s quills.
She wasn¡¯t sure how the millipede was generating the forces for it to spin on the spot, but she knew it was preparing to go on a rampage.
Pushing her palms outwards, a ramp was created with scaffolds to support the structure.
*KRKRKRKRKRKR
The sound of des cutting through rock could be heard as she knew it was rolling around to try hit everything due to a loss of its sensory.
¡¯Robbing the millipede of the senses will increase fight difficulty. Patterns be random as it would try to attack anything and everything.¡¯ She thought, dismissing the daggers freezing the antennas.
The millipede continued to roll, causing Shiro to frown.
Making a spear of ice, she threw it towards the millipede hoping for it to cause some damage.
Unfortunately, the spear was smacked downwards due to the millipede¡¯s roll and crushed under its armour.
¡¯Armour is absurdly powerful. Fighting head on is not advised.¡¯
Remaining calm, Shiro retracted all of the Ice as she waited for the millipede to unfurl itself.
It was only after 10 minutes of rampaging did it unroll itself.
Her eyes narrowed as she peered past the tens of de legs it had under its body.
¡¯With the des being mostly concentrated on its underbelly, it may be a natural defence due to its weakness.¡¯
Raising up her arms, Shiro gritted her teeth slightly as ice started to form under the millipede.
*CCRRRR!!!
The ice raised the millipede into air little by little as it tried to w away at the ice.
Flexing her fingers, Shiro froze the ded legs in their ce
Making a sharp ice spear, she took aim and threw the spear.
*TSSSSS!!!!
Chemicals sprayed out from under the millipede as Shiro watched all the ice melt visibly.
¡¯It has ridiculous armour, ded feet and chemicals...unless you try to overpower it, you won¡¯t kill it in anytime soon. And if I try to fight it in a battle of attrition, it¡¯s not worth the effort.¡¯
"However... I want to see just how I will pry your shell open." Shiro grinned.
Electricity sparked in her hand as she started to use her new skill. Sword Creation.
Running towards the millipede before the swords even finish being crafted, Shiro stepped down hard as a pir of ice extended out and pierced towards its legs.
Four of the millipede¡¯s legs reacted as it cut the pir into small sections that did it no harm.
"Surprise~" Shiro appeared near the legs as they couldn¡¯t retract in time.
The sword formed fully in her hands as she twisted her body and cut the legs.
*KREEEE!!!
The millipede screamed feeling 6 of its legs cut off in one go.
"Aiya~ Just as sharp as I remembered." Shiro grinned.
The sword was a metallic ck in colour, mechanical details could be seen around the guard and the hilt. It was a simple looking sword but its sharpness was something to be feared.
[Nano Craft Sword LVL 24 (Blue)]
+30 Sharpness
+25 Bleed
+10 Critical Rate
+5 Critical Damage
+30 Severing
Skill: Razor Edge
Use 400MP to gain +20% cutting strength for the next attack.
MP ¨C 3600/4000
Quickly kicking her legs so that she flipped backwards, Shiro avoided the chemicals the millipede spat at her.
Mid flip, she sliced towards the chitin and left a slight groove.
¡¯Hmm, seems like the best way is for me to attack the bottom.¡¯ Shiro thought, preparing herself.
Landing softly, she mmed her hands down and created a wall of ice just under the millipede raising it up into the air.
Once again, the millipede tried to use its chemicals but Shiro was way ahead of it.
Clutching her fist, the ice pirs lifting the millipede up exploded into a myriad of spikes prating its weak lower body.
Chemicals went everywhere as Shiro had to shift her location several times to avoid getting dowsed in corrosive liquid.
Dragging the sword on the ground, Shiro dashed towards the underbelly.
*KRRRRR!!!
The sword ripped through the soft armour with barely any resistance.
Using Faded Snow Movement, Shiro quickly avoided some of the ded feet trying to kill her.
Twisting her body, she escaped from under the millipede.
[HP: 43,000/80,000]
Her attacks proved to be extremely effective as the health was dropping rapidly.
Sensing its doom, the millipede wanted to take her down with it.
Curling into a ball, the millipede¡¯s chitin spiked up as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Oh you M*******!!!" She cursed seeing the abnormal mana density.
Running would prove foolish as her defences are too weak to survive the self-destruction of a level 25 boss.
Shiro quickly dissembled her sword to regain her mana and used [Harden].
[Harden]
Harden¡¯s your skin for increased defence.
+35 DEF and -20% damage taken -20% AGI
Duration: 30 seconds.
Cooldown: 2 minutes.
A silver metallic sheen seems to cover her body as she ced her palm on the ground and used the remainder of her MP to create a giant wall of ice.
*BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!
Layers uponyers of Ice walls shot up in front of Shiro as she quickly braced for impact.
*BOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It felt like the entire Dungeon shook as Shiro was sted backwards from the explosion. Even when her ice walls absorbed most of the impact, the force hitting her body stillunched her backwards.
Rolling on the ground a few times, she made sure to use her arms to protect her head.
When she finally stopped rolling, Shiro quickly put her guard up in case any de ants wanted to ambush her.
"Fuuu....." She sighed out seeing that there was no danger and checked her HP and MP.
[HP: 950/7300]
[MP: 80/11,300]
This was the first time her HP and MP have dropped so low in terms of the overall percentage.
Stumbling on her feet, Shiro limped towards the obelisk.
What used to be the space for a boss fight was now covered in corrosive chemicals, flesh, des and armour.
Looking around, Shiro was sure the walls per pushed back by quite a remarkable amount as the explosion must have taken some of the cave walls with it.
It was a known fact that Dungeon walls are one of and if not THE strongest material known ever. The material scaled up in level as the higher level the Dungeon, the sturdier walls.
For the boss to be able to shave off quite a fewyers of the wall, shows just how absurd that explosion was.
"[Collect]" She collected her look straight away as she knew there won¡¯t be a mana stone.
When the monster self-destructs, the mana stone was used as the source and gathering point.
Therefore, there won¡¯t even be a shard of the mana stone left.
The loot she got wasn¡¯t too bad but she had no use for any of them.
Recycling everything, Shiro sat down by a rock that wasn¡¯t coated in corrosive liquid.
Whilst waiting for her HP and MP to regen, she decided to have a look at her current food stock.
[E Rank Mana Stone x84]
[D Rank Mana Sone x40]
"40 D rank mana stones shouldst me a while." Shiro muttered as sheid on her back and threw an E rank mana stone for her mouth to eat.
It took her quite a while to regenerate everything as she wondered if she should stock up on some health and mana potions.
¡¯It would probably for the best if I stocked up. At least then I can regenerate my health and mana quickly.¡¯ Shiro thought.
However, as handy as health and mana potions can get, they also have their own bacshes. Mainly due to the skill of the creator who made the potion.
Examples being low tier health and mana potions having adverse effectster along in the line.
These effects can be a decrease of total HP, slow MP recovery and so on. Only the higher quality health and mana potions provided barely any adverse effects.
¡¯I think I¡¯ll stick to my Passive Regeneration for now.¡¯ Shiro concluded. There was another skill she would like to get, it was the top tier regeneration skill of monsters called [Cell Rebirth].
It was a skill that is both passive and active as the monster can use its own MP and exchange it for health. The known limits of this skill were the power to regrow anything that doesn¡¯t destroy over 80 to 90% of your body.
Just remembering the sight of a level 100+ monster regenerating all of its lost HP made Shiro curse at the perverted skill.
With that being said, she wanted the skill as well since it would increase her survivability by arge amount. Not only that, she was currently a monster so there may be a chance for that in the future.
Giving her body a stretch, she opened the obelisk and tapped the final floor. The boss floor.
The room was oddly shaped as it had an open sky that was sprinkled with stars. The surroundings seemed to be the ruins of an open Colosseum as Shiro spotted the boss.
The boss had an armoured body like the rest of the ants but there was one HUGE difference.
[Flying Frag Ant Queen LVL 25 ¨C Boss]
HP: 150,000/150,000
MP: 200,000/200,000
The boss hovered in the air was the transparent wings pped at incredible speeds.
"..." Shiro stared at the boss with a nd expression.
Flicking her finger, a huge ice spike shot up as the queen wanted to evade.
Suddenly, the tip of the spike opened up like a flower as the smaller spikes pierced the wings, suspending the queen in mid-air.
"When you expose such weak wings and stay in the same spot, you¡¯re asking to be killed." Shiro said without a smile. Her azure eyes bore into the queen¡¯s eyes as Shiro created two daggers whilst the queen seemed to be shocked.
*KSH KSH!
Slicing the wings off in a few simple movements, Shiro kicked the queen¡¯s head as she leapt off andnded softly.
Enraged, the queen¡¯s body started to erge as the armour became the colour of quartz with a slight rainbow pearlescent tint onto of the quartz.
From the wounds of her old wings, neon blue mana gathered together to form 2 pairs of wings.
"Much better." Shiro grinned at the feeling of challenge.
Chapter 18 - Flying Frag Ant Queen
Chapter 18: Flying Frag Ant Queen
[Flying Frag Ant Queen LVL 25 ¨C Boss ¨C Enraged ¨C War Form]
HP: 195,000/200,000
MP: 300,000/300,000
Not only did the queen¡¯s appearance change, but also her stats. Her HP increased from 150,000 to 200,000 while her MP gained a substantial boost of 100k.
"Let me make the ying field fair first." Shiro said as mana gathered in her palms.
Using her passive cold aura, she enhanced the freezing power of cold aura with her tier 2 ice magic.
*CRRRRR
The entire ruin started to freeze over as Shiro was now able to attack the ant queen wherever the ice was present.
The queen¡¯s eyes glowed slightly when she saw the ice.
Shiro felt her body shiver for a moment as she recognised an iing danger.
Quickly rolling to her left, she turned a portion of her body into snow.
*BOOM!!!!
The spot she was in exploded as Shiro quickly turned to the spot and saw a fire javelin.
"You¡¯ve got to be kidding." Shiro muttered seeing the queen shift to the fire element.
The armour was tinted red showing the element as Shiro realised the queen could probably use all of the basic elements.
Not staying still in the same spot, Shiro pivoted around her hand before flipping once more. Flicking her wrist, 3 ice spears shot out from the ground towards the queen.
A semi-translucent orb appeared around the queen as the ice spears shattered on impact.
"A god damn mana barrier powered by 300K MP, you¡¯ve got to be kidding me." Shiro said annoyed.
She didn¡¯t mind fighting against the queen, but for her to drain 300k worth of mana along with the 200k worth of health was an insane task.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro had an idea.
¡¯I just need to force her to waste all of her mana.¡¯
Using her snow magic along with her ice magic, Shiro changed the weather of the boss room.
Crouching down, Shiro made a ramp towards the boss.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
The boss sent several fire spears towards Shiro as she countered with her own ice spear.
Jumping off the ramp, Shiro made two daggers in her hands and slice towards the queen.
*PON PON PON PON PON!
Several hollow echo¡¯s rang out as Shiro sliced away at the shield.
Swinging her hand downwards, Shiro created another ramp of ice as she dodged a breath of lightning.
Pressing both daggers together. Shiro made a Nano Craft Sword and sliced upwards.
The queen flew backwards, dodging the strike.
Shironded hard on the ground and quickly looked towards the queen.
Quickly flipping backwards, Shiro dodged a de strike from the queen. Mid-flip, Shiro created a dagger and threw it towards the queen.
*BOOMMM!!!
Detonating the dagger, Shiro saw ripples spread out on the mana barrier.
[MP: 250,000/300,000]
"Che, only 50k MP was used so far." Shiro muttered as she mmed her palms onto the ground.
An ice pir shot out the ground as it aimed for the queen.
Opening the mandibles on her mouth, Shiro could see the queen use fire breath to melt the pir.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro caused a giant ice mp to close in on the queen.
*BOOM!
The mp caused a huge ripple in the mana barrier as the queen was jammed between the two mps.
The queen¡¯s eyes glistened as she mmed her arms outwards and destroyed the mp. Pushing more mana into her wings, the queen dashed towards Shiro.
Stomping down hard, Shiro caused a giant wave of ice to shoot towards the queen but she sliced it in half easily.
What greeted the queen, however, was a giant blizzard.
Snow obscured her sights as she tried to sense Shiro but failed.
*BOOM!
A sudden explosion of ice surprised the queen as the attack hit behind her.
Flicking her ded hands, the queen sent several wind des over to try cut Shiro.
Unknown to her, a pair of azure eyes were tracking her.
[MP: 225,000/300,000]
Shiro sighed softly seeing the mana she managed to take off. However, she had already used around 7000 of her total mana leaving her with just 4000.
Making a few tiny ice bullets in her hand, Shiro decided to try increase the queen¡¯s rage so that she would fire offrge scale attacks and drain her mana faster.
*Don don don don
The bullets tapped at the mana shield as the queen looked around but became furious when she couldn¡¯t find Shiro.
¡¯That¡¯s it, keep going.¡¯ Shiro thought.
The queen¡¯s body became a mix of red and yellow as it flew upwards.
Shiro dashed towards a pir and used it as cover.
Lightning and fire gathered around the queen¡¯s mouth as Shiro understood the queen wanting to wipe the area with a single attack.
Pinching three fingers together, Shiro made a thin dagger.
Her goal was for the dagger to interrupt the queen when she¡¯s still charging her attack. However, she needed to time it correctly as interrupting too early wouldn¡¯t drain as much mana and interrupt toote means the queen firing the death beam off.
She eyed the attack as pressure was at an all-time high.
¡¯Now!¡¯ She thought, throwing the dagger with her full strength.
The timing was a little early as the attack was around 75% charged. However, any further would be dangerous territory.
Clenching her fist, she caused the dagger to explode.
*BOOOMMMM!!!
This caused a chain reaction as the breath attack was forcefully stopped. Since it wasn¡¯t fully ready, the attack exploded in the queen¡¯s face.
[MP: 130,000/300,000]
¡¯Not bad.¡¯ Shiro thought since the failed attack managed to wipe out almost 100k worth of mana.
Naturally, this included the charge up and the explosion the barrier absorbed.
However, she too was left with just 2500 MP.
¡¯I should take it down from the skies.¡¯ She thought as having the queen fly around was going to increase the duration of this fight.
¡¯Actually...¡¯ Shiro grinned as she had an epiphany.
She started to sprint towards the queen without cover whilstunching small ice bullets to gain its attention.
The queen red at her hatefully as four of her de legs opened up. Flying towards Shiro, the queen shed her legs at Shiro¡¯s body.
Twisting her body to avoid the des, Shiro grabbed one of the queen¡¯s armour tes.
The force felt like it could tear her arms off as she gritted her teeth.
The queen thrashed her legs around as she tried to kick Shiro off her back.
Using Faded Snow Movement, Shiro avoided the des as she pulled herself on the queens back with some difficulty.
Pressing her palms on the gap between the 2 pairs of wings, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
¡¯Mana Extractor, Transfer Vent.¡¯ Shiro thought as she couldn¡¯t make anything more with the remainder of her MP.
A device was being created in her palms as it ate into the queen¡¯s shell causing her to scream.
The nano bots were ruthless as they ate away at anything blocking their path so they could make the device.
The device had its own limits as Shiro was borrowing from the queen¡¯s mana pool to make up for what shecks.
The Mana Extractor was used to take the mana that was being fuelled into the wings and the Transfer Vent was used to give Shiro some of the mana.
Sweat was dripping from her head as she was pushing her creation a little. What she had unlocked right now was Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1. Both the Mana Extractor and the Transfer Vent were something she should have made when she was Tier 3.
The cost was low, but the physical burden was huge.
Blood started to drip from her hands as the nano bots continued to be produced trying to form the device.
When the device was finished, there was a pool of blood dripping from her fingers as Shiro had to endure the pain.
Her HP was also dropping little by little as she tried to create something out of her league.
Naturally, the queen wasn¡¯t letting Shiro stay on her back. But no matter how she tried to shake Shiro off, she kept an iron grip stopping herself from falling.
[Crappy Mana Extractor Prototype]
-93% efficiency
¡¯I know it¡¯s crap but did you have to title it Crappy Mana Extractor?¡¯
Activating the Crappy Mana Extractor, Shiro let a minuscule amount of MP enter her as the wings of the queen shimmered. The amount of mana that was being absorbedpared to the amount being transferred to her was very inefficient.
However, the main goal of the Mana Extractor was to drain the Mana from the queen.
[MP: 0/300,000]
When the MP waspletely drained, the queen plummeted towards the ground as Shiro kicked off the back andnded on her feet.
She flinched when she felt the pain emanating from her right arm.
[Nano Tech Corrosion ¨C Right Arm ¨C 9 days 23h]
¡¯Figures...¡¯ Shiro thought as this was to be expected. Forcing her body to produce something of a much higher tier had dire consequences. If she tried to make the items 5 tiers higher than her, the bacsh would be permanent.
However, the silver lining was that the queen had lost her entire shield.
[HP: 189,000/200,000]
[MP: 0/300,000]
On the other hand, her MP was full and it was just a matter of time before she drained the queen of her health.
Shiro was about to dash forward but stopped when she felt a shocking pain tense up her nerves.
*SSSSS!!!
Sucking in a breath of cold air, Shiro forgot how much Nano Tech Corrosion truly hurt.
Reaching her left hand towards her right hand, Shiro made a frozen brace as it would hold her arm in ce whilst she fought.
The pain was still there, but it wasn¡¯t as bad.
Flicking her left hand, she created several ice walls as she blocked a sh from the queen. In the time she recovered from the pain, the queen recovered as well.
¡¯Such a waste...¡¯ Shiro thought as she could have dealt the queen so much damage.
Since her right hand was busted right now, Shiro opted to reduce the queen¡¯s health with bombs and long ranged attacks.
Making a dagger in her left hand, Shiro braced herself.
Dashing towards her, the queen opened all four ded arms and cut towards Shiro.
An ice pir erupted under her as Shiro dodged the strike.
She gritted her teeth as she endured the pain from her arm.
Stabbing her dagger into the ice pir, she twisted it and a myriad of ice spikes shot out from the pir.
Due to the close proximity of the queen and the pir, she wasn¡¯t able to block it and was struck several times.
Letting go of the dagger, Shiro controlled the ice to make a gap andunched the dagger into the queen¡¯s face.
*BOOMMM!!!!!
The dagger exploded into a cluster of sharps dealing more damage to the queen.
Enraged, the queen twisted her body and became a cyclone of relentless des.
Shiro hopped off the pir lightly as she made a ramp to cushion her fall.
Flicking her finger upwards, a spear shot up from below the queen¡¯s legs and stabbed into her torso.
Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t able to pierce her torso causing Shiro to frown.
Making sure she kept her distance, she whittled the queen¡¯s health little by little.
[Flying Frag Ant Queen]
HP: 1/200,000
MP: 0/300,000
Here was the biggest problem. Unless one can deal a fatal blow, a monster will stay at 1 HP.
Though the monster will still have a hard time on 1 HP as its armour would be weakened by arge margin allowing for adventurer¡¯s to have an easier time to deal a fatal blow.
Shiro was drenched with sweat as she had been fighting continuously for around 2 hours whilst also enduring the pain from her arm.
Creating a Nano Craft Sword, Shiro threw it towards the queen and it fell just below her feet.
Swiping her left arm, an ice pir propelled the sword into the body of the queen. Killing it for good.
"Finally..." Shiro muttered as she sat down with fatigue.
Laying her body next to the queen¡¯s corpse, she closed her eyes and waited for her stamina to recover.
Chapter 19 - Lucius
Chapter 19: Lucius
When her stamina had recovered, Shiro stood up and made a sword.
She cut the queen¡¯s corpse as she looked for the mana stone.
However, the process took a lot longer for her to do as her right hand waspletely useless right now.
Collecting the stone with much difficulties, Shiro threw it in her mouth as she decided to treat herself to a snack.
"[Collect]." She said as she sat down with a wall of ice behind her that supported her.
The loot was bountiful as she could see more than 4 pieces of blue gear. 1 being an essory, 1 being a weapon and thest two being pieces of armour.
And these were the four that was helpful for her, it didn¡¯t include the ones that were bad for her. The armour was the average armour with the stats of a level 25 gear and no skills. The essory and the weapon were the true prizes.
[A Queen¡¯s Dagger LVL 25 (Blue+)]
+45 Piercing
+35 Sharpness
+25 Critical Rate
+35 Critical Damage
Passive: Element Shift
Elemental Properties change depending on what elemental focused mana you insert into the weapon.
The dagger boasted an incredible piercing stat and the passive was very helpful as well. If she had any other elemental property apart from ice.
Holding the dagger in her left hand, Shiro examined the appearance.
Much like the Frag Ant Queen, the dagger had a white quartz colour. The guard had a rainbow pearlescent sheen as there was an orb in the middle. Right now the orb was greyed out as Shiro inserted her mana into the dagger.
*CRRR
The de seemed to be covered with ayer of ice while the orb glowed with a neon blue. At the same time, the de gained a +20 Ice damage.
"Heh~, that¡¯s pretty interesting." Shiro muttered and decided to try to insert her nano bots inside.
There was a visible reaction as the de trembled and the orb shifted from grey to silver before turning back to grey. Shiro stopped seeing this. Any further and she may risk damaging the dagger as the nano bots were an artificial type of mana.
Now that she realised this, she just understood how absurd it was for an artificial ss to join her through the afterlife.
Shaking her head of the existential questions, she checked her other drops since she couldn¡¯t be bothered to deal with the meaning of life. There isn¡¯t one, you drift along the currents of time. The end.
[Queen¡¯s Protection LVL 25 (Blue+) ¨C Earring]
+40 INT
Skill: Mana Barrier
Funnels your MP into a barrier to stop attacks.
100MP = 50 Barrier HP
The earring is an amazing essory with the skill Mana Barrier. However, she was primarily a run and gun type ofbatant. Both figuratively and literally as it was herbat style with the Nanomancer ss.
But the skill was handy to have around as it would help protect her from any sneak attacks.
Equipping the new equipment, this was her current stats.
[Name: Shiro (Weakened 9 days, 23hrs)
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Level: 25
ss: Snow Girl¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 5700/5700 (True Value 8800)
MP: 13,300/13,300
STR: 65(+45)
VIT: 70 -> 80(+70)
INT: 160 (+140)
AGI: 120 (+55)
DEX: 90 -> 100(+40)
DEF: 20 (+105)
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 294,500 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Harden (Equipment), Lesser Fear (Equipment), Sensory (Equipment), Mana Barrier.]
With the equipment boosting her INT to exactly 300 points, her MP surpassed 13k. Her health was currently only in the 5000¡¯s due to the adverse effects of her making a Tier 3 item with Tier 1 strength.
Shaking her head, Shiro realised she was a little too overconfident with this fight.
¡¯I need to remould my mindset. I¡¯m no longer the SSS ss Nanomancer. I¡¯m just a D ss Snow Girl right now.¡¯ Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
Walking over to the obelisk that appeared in the centre of the room, Shiro teleported to the Teleport Shrine.
The time was 11:15pm and she had plenty of time before she would go to bed.
Pulling up her phone, Shiro decided to search up the technology in the current world. It was kind of hard as she could only use her left hand while the right arm was encased in ice to support it.
¡¯Hmm...Huge Rail Guns, Cold Weapons, Fire Arms, Nukes... seems pretty basic.¡¯ Shiro thought, frowning at the choices she could see.
Naturally, she had no ess to military information. But it wasn¡¯t hard to guess the technology from looking at what¡¯s avable to the public.
With the knowledge she had from her past life, Shiro guessed she could probably propel the current technology by more than 10 years.
In her arsenal, she had a multitude of her ¡¯lovelies¡¯ to be shown to the world.
Advanced coil guns, portable electromaic guns, Nano Tech armour, maic repulsion systems and much more. Her mind was like a trove of technology the current world would kill to obtain.
And naturally, she also knew how to turn someone else into a Nanomancer.
While she was browsing through the technology, she stopped seeing an interesting image.
The image was that of a giant mechanised armour. It was crimson red with neon orange segments. Weapons on both hands and ¡¯wings¡¯ on the back.
¡¯Hmm, the back seems to beposed of several mana propulsion systems which give it flight. The parts connecting the mech like muscle might be crystallised mana fibres. The joins are controlled by a piston system and the mech seems to be highly flexible...¡¯ Shiro thought, looking for some simr concepts.
¡¯I can probably recreate this. While the world may becking in the technology to flesh out concepts, I most certainly can.
The energy used to power the system would be the natural mana conversion generator.
The skeleton of the mech can be reinforced nano tech rods, these rods are many times heavier than desired but the durability makes up for that.
The muscles can beposed of light nano tech fibres twined with crystallised mana fibre. This would give it the flexibility and the durability it needs.
The armour can just be the light nano tech ting and finally, the control system will be the nerve sensory system.¡¯ She thought mapping out a blueprint of the mech in her mind.
The nerve sensory system is a device that connects to your neck. It is situated on the nape as it would detect what the user wants to do through the synaptic cleft and transfer it as an action to the mech. One would normally use this whenbined with floating mana des but Shiro thinks this fits a giant robot better.
As a giant robot, there will always be an innate dy from the console to the extremities of the mech. With the nerve sensory system, she can shrink this dy down many times so make the mech more efficient.
Though that being said, making the mech is another matter in and of itself.
She has two options for making the mech.
A: Assembly through small premade parts.
B: Total assembly.
As the names suggested, the first part is making the mech through several premade parts. The main problem with this is the storage she would need as well as the time needed to assemble the mech.
As for B, she would need a ludicrous amount of mana to create and assemble everything at once.
The benefits would be that she can create the mech anytime she wants, but her concentration but be stable. This is due to the fact that she needs to envision the entire blueprint and not make a single mistake. A small mistake could lead to the entire mech copsing on itself making it a waste of mana.
However, baby steps first. Thinking about mechs at this stage was nothing but a pipe dream. She could barely sustain her expenditure when using a nano craft sword never mind a giant hundred-meter mech.
However, from what she could guess, her next unlocks for the Nanomancer ss are;
Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Defence Creation, Armour Creation and Firearm Creation.
As for what¡¯s after Firearm Creation, it was the more technologically advanced weapons such as the Rail Gun.
¡¯If I guess correctly, then I¡¯ll probably unlock the Bow Creation around the 30,000 MP mark. The bow needs me to create the Nano Tech Fibres so the expenditure will be huge.¡¯ Shiro thought.
However, the Nano Tech Fibres allow for her to output much more medium ranged potential as the prative capabilities of a bow was unmatched until she unlocks Firearm Creation.
Breathing out some cold mist, Shiro tilted her head back.
"I have my work cut out for me..." She muttered with a small smile. Progressing through the levels and unlocking everything slowly excited her.
When she was experimented on to be a Nanomancer, her level was over 200 without her being able to experience levelling up a level by level. She just shot to level 200 straight away when the experiment finished.
Now that she can experience the growth process she missed out on, the feeling was enjoyable. That moment when you level up, when you find a piece of better equipment, when you have to figure your way out of a fight, when you defeat something you couldn¡¯t before and when you surpass your limits. She adored these feelings of growth.
As she was thinking to herself, her quiet and peaceful aura was mystifying.
Walking slowly, Shiro made sure not to increase the pain she felt from her right arm.
*BAM!
A man crashed into her from her right side as Shiro took a sharp breath of pain.
Gritting her teeth, sweat started to fall.
Looking at the person who crashed into her, Shiro frowned.
It was a man as he had void ck hair and crimson eyes. He was around half a head taller than her and quite handsome at that as well.
His body was covered with cuts as blood flowed continuously.
¡¯Strange person.¡¯ Shiro thought as she was about to walk away but felt a hand grab the back of her neck.
¡¯*******!!!!!!¡¯ Shiro cursed as this was just making the pain in her arm worse than what it already was.
"You¡¯re my hostage for now. Please bear with it as I¡¯ll return your freedom once the danger has cleared." He said quickly as his voice was deep and alluring.
Or at least what would have been alluring to others, but Shiro just found the voice to be infuriating.
[Lucius LVL 50 ¨C Shadow Walker]
Lucius put strength into his legs as he leapt over a building and onto the roof.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro push strength into her lower body as she flipped upwards with him still grabbing onto her.
Her left palm aimed at his head while a torrent of snow and cold air covered him.
Lucius frowned when he felt killing intent but realised the temperature was dropping dramatically.
His movements were being dulled whilst frost started to coagte on his body.
Quickly letting go of the girl, he stumbled back in surprise. Even if he was injured right now, not many people should have the ability to hurt him never mind a level 25.
Shironded as she tapped away at the phone. She couldn¡¯t write on her notepad so she had to use the phone.
Using the web app, she typed her line into the search bar since she didn¡¯t have an app ready.
[Don¡¯t you know how to handle ady dipsh*t? Can¡¯t you see I¡¯m injured too?] Shiro typed out.
"Ah, I¡¯m sorry?" He apologised in surprise.
[You do you whilst I do me. Goodbye.]
Walking over to the edge, Shiro crouched down and made an ice ramp back to the ground.
"...." Lucian watched her leave as he looked at his hands and frowned.
*PHEW
Quickly dodging a dagger hastily, Lucian cursed at the girl for wasting the time he just bought for himself.
Quickly putting strength into his legs, he dashed away.
Chapter 20 - Doctor Hoffman
Chapter 20: Doctor Hoffman
It took her a lot longer to reach the dorm as she didn¡¯t want to hurt her right arm.
Scanning her student ID, she saw Lyrica there with a worried frown.
"Shiro!" Lyrica called out as she stomped towards her.
Seeing the ice brace Shiro created for herself, Lyrica felt her worry and rage increase.
"Why are you going out thiste? A beautiful girl like you could get kidnapped ah!"
Shiro smiled wearily seeing Lyrica¡¯s worry.
Pulling out her phone, she tapped away.
[Sorry, I just wanted to level up a little. But look, I¡¯m back and I¡¯m a level 25 now.]
"Yeah that¡¯s great and all, but look at the state of you." Lyrica pointed towards Shiro brace.
"What if you didn¡¯t return one day? I was really worried you know!"
Shiro smiled as she stood on her tiptoes and patted Lyrica¡¯s head.
"Patting my head doesn¡¯t make it any better!" Lyricained with a pout but her anger decreased significantly.
[I know, thank you for worrying about me.] Shiro smiled.
"Haa... what will I do with you." Lyrica shook her head as she held Shiro¡¯s hand.
Shiro flinched a little feeling pain from her arm.
"Ah? Are you alright?" Lyrica was anxious seeing Shiro react so visibly from a gentle touch.
Even when they were fighting, Shiro would barely flinch. Yet here she was, flinching from a tap.
[Yeah I¡¯m fine. Just the boss did a number on my right arm.]
Lyrica frowned as she turned to the receptionist.
"Excuse me, is the school healer still awake?" Lyrica asked.
"He should be in his office. Do you want me to call him over so she won¡¯t have to walk over?" Thedy asked pointing at Shiro.
"It would be a great help if you can." Lyrica smiled.
Thedy nodded and picked up the phone.
"Doctor Hoffman. I have a youngdy injured in the dorm reception. Are you able toe here and make a diagnosis?" Thedy said.
They couldn¡¯t hear what the doctor said but thedy eventually nodded back towards them.
"Doctor Hoffman will being here in a few minutes." Thedy said as Shiro nodded.
There were a few chairs in the reception so Shiro walked over and sat down slowly.
"So Shiro, how did your arm even get like this?" Lyrica asked sitting next to her.
[Got hit a little too hard.] Shiro shrugged with her left shoulder only.
"Can getting hit a little too hard reduce you to a flinching and sweating mess?" Lyrica asked with a raised eyebrow.
[Why do I feel like you¡¯re getting more sarcastic?]
"Just your imagination." Lyrica looked away. She felt really rxed around Shiro as she could joke around with her and y around. Something which she wouldn¡¯t be able to muster up the courage to do with other people.
"That being said, Shiro, how did you level up to 25 so quickly?" Lyrica asked.
[I soloed the Frag Ant¡¯s burrow.]
".... At this point, you can tell me you soloed the level 35 Necron Hollows and I¡¯ll believe it."
[I¡¯m not that insane. There are still limits.] Shiro chuckled slightly before flinching from the pain.
"And so it seems." Lyrica said looking at her arm.
They continued to chat for a little while before they saw a man walking towards them.
[Hans LVL 43 ¨C Combat Medic]
He had long brown hair tied into a low ponytail, brown eyes, a slight stubble and a small cut scar on his chin. He looked to be 6ft 4 and his build was rather robust. His outfit consisted of a pair of ck-rimmed sses, a whiteb coat, ck t-shirt and ck work pants.
Adjusting his sses, he looked at Shiro.
"From what I¡¯m seeing, you¡¯re the one who needs the diagnosis."
Shiro nodded as she pointed to her right arm.
Lyrica sat anxiously as she wondered what extent of the damage was needed for Shiro to flinch with a light touch.
Crouching down, Hans observed the arm. There were no visible damages except the palms and fingers being a little bloody.
"Can you undo this ice?" He asked.
Shiro nodded as the ice started to thaw.
"Hmm..." Hans frowned as he could see Shiro holding back the pain.
Pulling out a tablet, he aimed it at Shiro¡¯s arm before pulling back.
The tablet was like a transportable X-ray machine as it used mana to take an internal diagnosis of the patient.
"What the f*ck!?!!!" He cried out in surprise at the extent of the injury.
"How the hell did you even get this injured just on your right arm!!" He asked looking at Shiro.
Shrugging as a response, she didn¡¯t let him know about the nano bots.
"What¡¯s wrong with her?" Lyrica asked.
"It seems like your friend decided to drop a f*cking house on her arm. Every bone in her right arm is fractured if not broken. The muscles are ripped to shreds, and hell! Her tendons are on the verge of snapping!" Hans said as this was one of the most insane injuries he had ever seen.
"This type of injury isn¡¯t something the potions can heal. If you use the potions, there is a chance that the injury will be permanent. However, her body seems to be actively trying to heal her. I guess it would take anywhere from a week to a month for her arm to heal so, the best course of action is to not give the arm any shock. Let it heal naturally." Hans concluded standing up.
"The most I can do for you is to give you some pain resistant pills." Hans offered.
[Please, that would help a lot.]
Whilst Hans went to get the pain resistant pills, Shiro refroze the cast on her arm.
"Shiro, tell me honestly. How did your arm get that injured? I want to know the truth." Lyrica asked with a deep frown.
[Just an ident when fighting, I¡¯ll be fine after 10 days.]
"But what if something happens in the 10 days? What are you going to do about that?"
[Then I trust my safety to you.] Shiro smiled looking at Lyrica.
"Shiro..." Lyrica muttered feeling a little overwhelmed yet happy that Shiro could rely on her.
"Ahem... here are your pain resistance pills." Hans said interrupting their conversation.
[Thanks.] Shiro nodded and took the pills with her left hand.
Hans walked away as his work was done.
Looking back at Lyrica, Shiro saw that her face was a little red.
[Did you fall in love with Doctor Hoffman or something?] Shiro teased with a grin.
"Blerg, as if." Lyrica shook her head and walked back to her room.
Shiro chuckled before flinching again.
Walking back to her room, she examined the pills.
[High-Quality Pain Resistant Pills]
Pills of high quality that will dull your pain senses.
"Heh~, I didn¡¯t think he would have pain Resistant Pills." Shiro muttered in surprise before popping the pill into her mouth. She felt the pain dull as she sighed in relief.
Sitting up on the bed, she fell asleep.
###
"Doctor Hoffman, why did you make such a reaction earlier?"
"You don¡¯t understand. That degree of injury isn¡¯t normal. When you get hit but something that breaks your bones, there would be a cluster at the point of contact before the injury would disperse. The further it is away from the impact, the sparser the fractions get.
However, her injury was like something made sure everything was broken before stopping. The level of detail to make sure every part of her arm was broken but not disabled astounds me." Hans replied.
"This level of injury is self-made. It¡¯s impossible for a monster to cause this. And knowing her ss being just an Ice Mage, that level of detailed self-inflicted damage is impossible as well." Hans sighed.
"Then what do you think happened?"
"Honestly, I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve never seen anything like this before." Hans shrugged.
"You think she¡¯s hiding something?"
"Maybe. Who knows?"
###
[Urggggg........]
"Shiro, you don¡¯t need to write down your boredom. I can see it." Lyrica replied with a slight giggle.
She understands that Shiro found it boring in the close quartersbat lesson, the knowledge they taught were rudimentary. Not to mention, she was currently injured so she couldn¡¯t join in on the sparring session either.
[I just wanted to verbalise/visualise my intense boredom in this lesson.] Shiro typed.
[Lyrica, you should already know a little more than what¡¯s being taught in this lesson. Since both of us know your power with the dual ended des exceeds the current curriculum.]
"Eh~ That¡¯s true. But we still need to focus for formalities." Lyrica smiled.
[I want to melt... It¡¯s hot and boring.] Shiro sighed as sheid her body t on the desk. She did so in a way that her right arm wouldn¡¯t hurt as much.
In addition to her boredom, the day was quite hot as Shiro felt stuffy just being in a room.
"Hahaha, so you can¡¯t deal with the heat?" Lyrica giggled slightly.
[No I can¡¯t. I hate the sun.]
"But your passive is really helpful isn¡¯t it?" Lyricamented as she felt cooled down next to Shiro.
[Yeah yeah... just treat me like a walking air conditioning.] Shiro waved her left handzily.
"Wow~ You really feel different when it gets hot." Lyrica muttered seeing the unreactive and ¡¯whatever¡¯ vibe Shiro was emitting.
[I¡¯m just not too good when it gets too hot. I¡¯ll be fine when it cools down or when the sun gets blocked.] She just wanted to curl up into a ball and retreat to the corner.
"Shiro, for the spar do you just want to watch by the side?" Lyrica asked as they had to go change for the sparring session.
Shiro didn¡¯t even type out a line as she pointed to her arm.
"..." ¡¯Fine... Pretend I didn¡¯t ask.¡¯
[I can probably join if you want. I¡¯ll just be standing in the same spot using my ice though.] Shiro said as Lyrica shook her head.
"Nope. You should just be good and recover for 10 days. Well 9 not including today." Lyrica said as they walked towards the changing rooms.
There was a mini test today as they had to try touch the teacher once. The main task wasn¡¯t to touch the teacher as it suggests, but rather what the students like to term. SURVIVE.
Shiro was quite interested in the mini test. Unfortunately, her arm didn¡¯t exactly agree with her sentiments.
Rather than fighting outside, they opted to be inside the sparring hall as it was a little too hot. Some students may suffer from a heat stroke.
The hall was huge as Shiro was sure it could fit 4 football fields in a 2 by 2 format. Surrounded by high walls and powerful lights which illuminated the area, this was by far one of the biggest buildings of this school.
Walking away from the group, Shiro sat down and watched the teacher split the teams up for sparring before grabbing a few students for the mini test.
Minding her own business, Shiro browsed the for anything interesting.
Halfway through her search, she saw someone walking towards her and looked up. It was a boy a little taller than her. With average looks and a pair of sses. In his hands was a bottle of water.
[Ted LVL 14 ¨C Archer]
"Erm... f-for you!" He stuttered before putting the bottle down and ran away.
¡¯How cute.¡¯ Shiro thought with a giggle. Seeing the boy work up the courage to give her a bottle of water made her smile a little.
During his run, he turned around slightly to check how Shiro reacted.
Shiro only smiled and gave him a light wave. This in turn caused him to blush a little and had a dumb smile stered on his face.
Looking at the bottle, Shiro picked it up and inspected in.
[Water Bottle]
Just a water bottle, what else do you expect? Vodka?
¡¯This god damn description...¡¯ Shiro thought with a sweat drop.
However, Ted¡¯s actions seemed to have sparked a chain reaction amongst the guys. They walked over and handed her items like towels and chairs. Shiro was getting swarmed by the mob as her annoyance slowly increased.
[Thanks, I¡¯m fine. I don¡¯t need all this.] Shiro typed out with a weary smile.
One of the boys looked at the foldable bed he carried behind him. He sighed slightly before muttering, "Such a shame..."
¡¯********!!! WHY DID YOU BRING A BED?!¡¯
Chapter 21 - Mini Test
Chapter 21: Mini Test
Sending the boys away, Shiro sat down and massaged her eyes.
"Look at you, reeling in the boys." Lyrica giggled as she walked over and sat down next to Shiro.
[A boon/curse I would be rather content with not having.] Shiro sighed.
"Hahaha, a lot of girls would want the attention you¡¯re getting." Lyricaughed seeing Shiro¡¯s struggle.
Shiro rolled her eyes but had a small smile on her lips.
[That being said, don¡¯t you have anyone lining up to take you as their partner?] Shiro asked.
"Ahaha...That¡¯s a littleplicated." Lyrica smiled wearily.
¡¯Seems like she had a story to tell.¡¯ Shiro thought but decided to not pursue this matter.
Feeling a re on her, Shiro turned her head and saw a few girls whispering to each other and pointed at her.
[What do you think they¡¯re talking about?]
"Mn? I don¡¯t think you want to know." Lyrica shook her head. She didn¡¯t want Shiro to experience mental bullying from girls due to their jealousy.
[I kill monsters for a living. I don¡¯t think a lot of things can harm me.] Shiro typed out. She didn¡¯t know what was so bad about what they could be talking about.
Not to mention, Shiro was quite curious about what normal girls do around her age. Due to her unfortunate kidnapping after the vige was raided, she never truly experienced what girls do her age.
"I guess so? But it¡¯s still not very pleasant to be ostracised, so just don¡¯t pay them any attention." Lyrica said.
Seeing her constant refusal, Shiro could only nod her head. It didn¡¯t matter too much if she didn¡¯t know. She had Lyrica to spend her time with anyways.
The spars continued as it was Lyrica¡¯s turn to try ¡¯survive¡¯ against the teacher.
Since she couldn¡¯t use her actual weapon, Lyrica could only settle with a staff. Her movements were a little awkward but she could still put up a much better fight than when she just used a single long sword.
The teacher was dancing circles around Lyrica with a series of careful concise footsteps. However, this didn¡¯t affect Lyrica as her hidden proficiency disyed how powerful it was, with just a mere fraction of its power.
Sweeping clockwise with her foot, Lyrica created a little zone for herself as the teacher hopped backwards slightly.
Smiling lightly, the teacher entered the zone with minimal care. However, that overconfidence bit her back quickly as the staff end entered her view quickly.
¡¯Ohya?~ Lyrica¡¯s already forming her attack domain using the hidden proficiency.¡¯ Shiro thought impressed.
An attack domain was the stage before a full domain. It is a small concentrated area where the fighter would have pure concentration reaching 120%. Not many can break this attack domain without their own.
There are several forms to the attack domain which varies from weapon to weapon. Bow and arrows formed a doughnut shape attack domain. Anything around the mid-range area is the bow and arrow¡¯s home turf.
Staffs have an hourss type of attack domain. The ends of the staff contain the most amount of power, yet the centrecks diversity.
The sword and great sword have very simr attack domains as it is shaped like a semi-circle. It is harder to attack properly when the swordsman tried to strike behind him. But the frontal power held much diversity with an all-rounder type attack domain.
Axes and maces had a much narrower attack domain but their powerpensates. With fast-moving rotations, the axe and maces are the powerhouses.
There are more, but the dagger¡¯s attack domain is one of Shiro¡¯s favourites. It didn¡¯t have the power of the sword nor the range of a bow. However, the piercing and the undisputed closebat prowess along with the diversity made it an attack domain that needed to be feared.
For Lyrica to almost construct her attack domain without even using the staff for long, truly shows the prowess of the hidden proficiencies. Not even Shiro, who used to have full body control, could form her attack domain with her weapon yet.
One may call it unfair for Lyrica to gain the attack domain without hard work, but the hidden proficiency was an inborn gift. A natural talent is apart of one¡¯s fighting prowess and luck yed a big part in life whether one denied it or not.
Tilting her head to quickly dodge the staff strike, the teacher grabbed towards the staff.
Lyrica allowed the teacher to grab as she used the force to propel herself forward and sweep a kick towards her head.
The teacher flipped backwards dodging the kick.
It was a shame that Lyrica¡¯s stats werecking or else she would put up a good fight against the teacher.
"Is this still the same Lyrica? She¡¯s so good at fighting!"
"True true! Seems like it was her level holding her back."
"So I¡¯m looking at her, and is it just me or is she really. Like REALLY, beautiful?"
"Now that you mention it, if you look closer. Isn¡¯t Lyrica really attractive when she¡¯s focused?"
"How did we not notice earlier?"
"She was so quiet before and hardly joined in."
...
Shiro smiled hearing thepliments towards Lyrica. She knew Lyrica was a beauty that only had a slight problem with herck of confidence before. Her small aura and behaviour made it hard for people to notice her beauty since she was always looking down.
However, at this moment, Lyrica was solely focused on the teacher as she wanted to defeat the teacher and prove her worth.
Her gaze was focused as her normally rounded eyes became sharp. There wasn¡¯t the casual smile she had but instead, was reced by a serious frown.
Her expression gave people the feeling of heroism and bravery as she fearlessly charged towards the teacher.
Stabbing her staff towards the teacher, Lyrica transitioned into a vault and gave the teacher a roundhouse kick.
The teacher dodged but it didn¡¯t slow down Lyrica¡¯s assault at all.
Following up on the momentum of her kick, shended on her foot and swung the staff towards the teacher.
Her movements from her hidden proficiency was abination of different martial art movements, the current form was simr to the Chinese Shaolin Monk Staff Arts.
Her spare hand was used to bnce her body while she kept low on the ground, giving her a very stable foundation and a hard to topple bnce.
"A little staff martial arts? How fun." The teacher smiled as her eyes narrowed and she took her own form.
She dashed towards Lyrica, clearly wanting to initiate the fight rather than wait.
Once the teacher entered her attack domain, Lyrica stabbed the staff towards the teacher.
*DON!
mming her palm against the t end of the staff, the teacher stomped backwards to transfer the force before grabbing the staff and hit it with her spare hand.
*SNAP!
The staff snapped in half as Lyrica¡¯s demeanour shattered along with it. Without her hidden proficiency assisting her, Lyrica was just an inexperienced adventurer who was no match for the seasoned teacher.
Lyrica raised her hands in defeat as the teacher was able to wipe the floor with her.
"Learn some hand to handbat. You need to have a back up in case you lose your weapon." The teacher advised as Lyrica nodded and walked away.
Shiro patted the seat next to her as Lyrica sat down heavily. Passing Lyrica a bottle of water, Shiro watched her drink it all in one go.
"Ahh~! Refreshing." Lyrica said feeling rejuvenated.
[Nice work Lyrica.] Shiro smiled.
"Ah, it¡¯s a little frustrating though..." Lyrica smiled sadly.
[Why?]
"I wanted to win so bad. Even with this boost I still couldn¡¯t defeat her."
[Don¡¯tpare yourself like that. You¡¯re trying topare in the wrong territory.]
"I know but you would have won against her." Lyrica sighed.
[No I won¡¯t.]
"What do you mean?"
[Her status, experience and body control, are all factored in when she fights. You¡¯re trying topare with a seasoned veteran with only a limited arsenal and power. That is how you be depressed.] Shiro shook her head. Beingpetitive is good, but there is a limit called the ¡¯Achievable Target¡¯.
Above this target and one would be chasing an unreachable star, thus breaking their spirit more times than boosting it. One had to careful when choosing a target as it would encourage improvement.
"But I thought you said the hidden proficiency was powerful...I still couldn¡¯t defeat her." Lyrica pouted.
[You know how many people would have wanted to strangle you for saying that?] Shiro chuckled slightly.
[The hidden proficiency is powerful but it is just a jump start. It¡¯s not omnipotent as one¡¯s hard work would hone the hidden proficiency further. And even those without a hidden proficiency can defeat the talented with enough hard work.]
"But aren¡¯t there ones you cannot surpass without talent? What about them?" Lyrica asked.
[Are you untalented? Do you not have a hidden proficiency? Have you not grasped the boundaries of an Attack Domain at a young age?] Shiro asked rhetorically as Lyrica had no answer.
[Not many people have the benefit of receiving a hidden proficiency. Be grateful and work hard to further your talent.]
*p!
Lyrica pped her cheeks shocking Shiro.
"You¡¯re right. I can¡¯t be such a spoiled brat." Lyrica said with flushed up cheeks from the ps.
"....ow..."
[Why did you have to hit that hard?] Shiro chuckled.
"It was meant to be a wakeup call for me but it hurts more than I thought...." Lyrica said with little droplets of tears forming.
Shiro only chuckled before wiping the tears away with her fingers which caused Lyrica to blush slightly.
[After resting for a bit, you should keep trying to face the teacher to get experience.] Shiro suggested.
"Ah er right..." Lyrica stuttered as she jogged away to get a new weapon.
Shiro only shook her head.
¡¯Why does this girl get so flustered so much.¡¯ She thought.
"Hey Shiro." The teacher called out.
[Yes?]
"Since you¡¯re an ice mage, why don¡¯t you have a slight spar with me. But you don¡¯t need to move from your space but instead try to attack me with your magic." The teacher suggested.
[Sure. What¡¯s my win condition?]
"Hmm, just restrain me within the time limit?" The teacher smiled.
[Sure. I¡¯ll grab a chair so I can sit down in the middle. Get a littlefy.]
He teacher only shrugged as she waited for Shiro.
Grabbing a stool, Shiro ced it in the centre before sitting down and crossed her legs.
[Ready when you are.] Shiro typed out as a light smile hung on her lips.
Getting her confirmation, the teacher hopped a little on the spot to warm herself up. She¡¯s heard of how abnormal Shiro was from the other teachers and wanted to see if her experience truly matched up with veterans.
"Three!..."
The student¡¯s gathered up in a 50-diameter circle around them as they watched with interest. This was a rare battle between the highest-level student and the sparring teacher. Level 25 Shiro VS a level 35 teacher.
"Two!..."
Lyrica watched in anxiousness as she was worried about how Shiro would fair with her arm.
"One!...GO!"
The teacher shouted as Shiro¡¯s aura changed instantly.
*CRRRR!!!
Ice spread out in a circle with her being the source. The teacher jumped up slightly as she dodged the initial freezing.
Shiro didn¡¯t let her off as she flipped her left hand and several ice spikes shot towards the teacher.
The teacher had a serious expression as she twisted her body and stepped onto the spike before jumping off.
Not even a second afternding, an ice cage was already halfway formed with her inside it.
Roundhouse kicking one of the ice spikes, the teacher escaped the entrapment.
Before she could even sigh out a breath of relief, the broken shard of the ice cage expanded andtched onto her arm.
"Tsk!" The teacher clicked her tongue before clenching her hand and shattered the ice.
Seeing this, Shiro could only smile bitterly and shake her head. Her experience and skill were there but the stats were not.
The teacher could simply overwhelm her with brute strength.
However, she wouldn¡¯t go without a fight.
Her eyes glowed with a slight blue as she snapped her fingers causing an ice forest to appear.
Waving her left hand, spears shot towards the teacher from the ice trees.
The teacher was basically attacked from every direction she could have been. To make matters worse, they were fired with different time intervals as it would be hard for her to strike everything down in one go.
The teacher narrowed her eyes before crossing her arms in front of her and charged towards Shiro.
She decided to end this farce and break through with force.
She saw Shiro¡¯s smile and frowned.
[Such a shame. Perhaps if my stats were a little higher, you may be in a pinch.] Shiro shrugged.
"What do you mean?" The teacher asked with a frown. She clearly had Shiro on the ropes yet why is she still saying that ¡¯She¡¯ was the one in a pinch?
Shiro only smiled as she pointed up.
The teacher looked up as she saw what was waiting for her.
The entire sky was covered with countless spears of ice as each one was rotating to increase prative power.
The teacher felt sweat drip down her back as she couldn¡¯t imagine what would have happened if Shiro was the same level as her. She wouldn¡¯t have been able to dodge that many nor brute force her way through it.
Standing up, Shiro tapped the floor with her foot lightly as the ice started to thaw and retract into her palm.
The teacher stared at Shiro¡¯s back with aplicated gaze. The feeling of jealousy rose up in her as she realised, she only won due to brute strength. When put in an even ying field, she wouldn¡¯t have even reached close to her.
Chapter 22 - Shadow Temple p1
Chapter 22: Shadow Temple p1
"Shiro! That was amazing!" Lyrica ran over as Shiro smiled.
[I stillck an ignore defence attack. Without one, I doubt I¡¯ll be able to challenge those of a higher level too well.] Shiro shook her head.
If she had the stats, she wouldn¡¯t have needed to attack the teacher in so many ways to distract her from the main attack above her. And even then, she would have been able to shrug it off.
"Eh? But ignore defence skills are rare, and even then, you need to be a high level to get a natural skill." Lyrica replied. Defence ignore skills were on high demand as a single one may be the key to turning a battle around.
Shiro too knew this, but what she was counting on was her Nanomancer ss. Each of the firearmse with a passive ignore defence as they dealt heavy damage. The main damage dealer being the sniper rifle.
When charged with mana, the sniper could even help her deal a few million damage to a monster¡¯s HP.
[Call Madison. We¡¯re going to have her fill her side of the bet from before. We¡¯re heading into a Dungeon.] Shiro smiled.
"Right now?" Lyrica asked surprised.
[The Faction recruitment will start in less than a months time. Do you want to still be in the first ss while taking the recruitment?] Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well no but, like... your arm." Lyrica said pointing at Shiro¡¯s arm.
[Aiya. Do I have to exin every time? Don¡¯t worry about it too much. At the very least, I¡¯ll be assisting you from behind while you take vanguard.] Shiro shrugged.
The worry Lyrica showed for her was nice, but it was a little too excessive.
"I see... I know I¡¯m asking a lot but since you¡¯re my first friend, I don¡¯t want you to be hurt so much." Lyrica said as Shiro paused.
She remembered that Lyrica was still just a 15-year-old girl. She wasn¡¯t a seasoned veteran like her, nor was she used to putting up a tough front. Lyrica was just showing simple care towards her wellbeing.
[Lyrica. Why are you so cute?] Shiro grinned patting her head. Seeing Lyrica like this just made Shiro want to pamper her like a child. If she was taller and had busts, maybe burying Lyrica in her breasts while spinning around a little would be fun.
"Ha? W-what brought that thought up!" Lyrica blushed.
[Ai, so cute. I just want to pamper you!] Shiro wanted to have a voice already as she¡¯ll be able to ignore the annoying typing and just talk to Lyrica.
"Who¡¯s pampering who? I¡¯m older than you!" Lyrica called out.
Shiro onlyzily waved her left hand as they went to the lunch hall.
After waiting for a little while, Madison arrived with her 2 friends.
"What do you want?" She asked, clearly not happy.
[We¡¯re challenging a Dungeon. And you should know the rest.] Shiro smiled.
"Which dungeon?" Madison sat down. They had to adhere to the rules of the bet they make, otherwise, they¡¯ll have to deal with the reinforcers that make sure the contract is followed.
[I¡¯m thinking of challenging Shadow Temple level 15-20.]
"..."
"..."
Both Lyrica and Madison looked at Shiro like she was an asylum escapist.
Lyrica tapped Shiro¡¯s forehead as she frowned.
"Shiro, I know you hurt your arm but did you hurt your brain as well?" Lyrica asked as Shiro felt like coughing up blood.
Madison, on the other hand, was too shocked to even speak.
[No I¡¯m not crazy. This is actually done after taking ount of your fighting style.] Shiro shrugged.
[Yours as well Madison.]
"Huh? Wait what mine?" Madison replied shocked.
[Yes. While Lyrica is a more attack orientated fighter, you are more of a defence counter type attacker. Are you trying to advance into a Shield Swordswoman?]
"How- Nevermind. Yeah, I want to be a Shield Swordswoman." Madison replied. It wasn¡¯t too hard to figure out the direction a person wanted to proceed onto by looking atbat records.
So for Shiro to understand, it wasn¡¯t too surprising.
[We don¡¯t necessarily need your two friends there.] Shiro pointed at the two. It would work out if Madison helped them clear the Dungeon, but her two ¡¯friends¡¯ weren¡¯t needed.
"What do you mean?" Madison asked.
[We¡¯re going to clear the Dungeon with you three filling in the numbers. However, to make the run faster, we¡¯re gonna have you y the part of the main tank, Lyrica as the offence and me as the offensive support.]
"What about us?" Madison¡¯s friends asked.
[I don¡¯t have a role for you. You can be meat shields if you want.] Shiro shrugged.
The two were offended but stopped remembering that she¡¯s a level 25 ice mage.
[So as I was typing, Madison you¡¯ll help tank the assassin¡¯s while Lyrica will kill them. I¡¯ll be reducing their reaction speed so it should be easier for you two.] She was initially going to do the Dungeon with just her and Lyrica, but knowing that she¡¯ll not always be around Lyrica, it would be good if she was able to get some experience working in a party.
What better way than to work up in member count. From three members and eventually extending into a full party.
[As for you two, join if you want. Just don¡¯t drag us down.]
"We¡¯re not going to drag you down. Just you wait for us to surpass her contributions." They frowned and pointed at Lyrica.
Shiro only shrugged as she stood up.
[In that case, we¡¯re going to the Shadow Temple straight away. Get your gear if you don¡¯t have it.] Shiro typed out as she stood up.
"What about potions? Don¡¯t we need to stock up?" Madison asked.
"I can answer this!" Lyrica cut in not wanting to be left out.
"Shiro said that low-quality potions in this city have bad effectster on in the line. The best thing to do is let your wounds heal naturally over time." Lyrica replied as Shiro nodded.
[As Lyrica said, the best thing is to let yourself heal overtime.]
"Lyrica may be able to regenerate since she¡¯s an Elf, and you hardly take damage. However, for us, we can¡¯t regenerate. Healing potions or a healer is our best option." Madison replied. Since Lyrica isn¡¯t holding them back, her initial anger with her decreased.
[If that¡¯s the case then you should try to drink as little as possible. Only drink when necessary.] Shiro replied seeing Madison being so cooperative.
[We¡¯ll meet up at the Dungeon in 30 minutes.] Shiro typed out as Madison agreed and left with her friends.
"I thought we¡¯re supposed to be enemies with her?" Lyrica asked tilting her head slightly.
[We were, but that doesn¡¯t mean we should antagonise each other at every moment. Unless they actively go against me continuously or do something unforgivable. I won¡¯t seek out their destruction.]
"Hehh~ Shiro¡¯s kinda like a saint then." Lyrica said.
[Oh please, I¡¯m no saint. I will kill them in the cruellest way possible if they truly anger me.]
¡¯Just ask those scientists.¡¯ Shiro thought as she remembers the sight of the head scientists after she was done with him. The hero killed the other scientists, but she had the honour of torturing him.
Opening him up, keeping him alive, a little ¡¯Red Carpet¡¯ of his organs, using the nanobots to eat him from the inside out and making sure he felt everything.
"What are you smiling about?" Lyrica asked seeing Shiro smile so happily.
[I just thought of a really good memory.]
"Heh~ Is that so. Are you able to tell me?" Lyrica asked curiously.
[Maybe next time.]
###
When it was time to enter the Dungeon, Shiro arrived along with Lyrica.
[Have you prepared everything?]
"Yeah, I just hope you won¡¯t take this too far. The Dungeon is roughly 3 to 7 levels higher than us after all." Madison said.
[Don¡¯t worry, the main goal of this Dungeon run is to level up.] Shiro typed out as Madison nodded.
[Shiro LVL 25 ¨C Ice Mage]
[Lyrica LVL 12 ¨C Elven Swordswoman]
[Madison LVL 15 ¨C Swordswoman]
[July LVL 13 ¨C Mage]
[Karol LVL 14 ¨C Swordswoman]
Seeing everyone in the party, Shiro keyed them into the Shadow Temple and entered without any problems.
When their vision cleared, they saw that they were in a dark forest. The tree¡¯s had no leaves, the ground was bare and the skies were clouded. There was a long distance till the actual temple as this was the first test.
They had to survive the assassin¡¯s onughts while they walked towards the temple.
[I won¡¯t talk this time so either you or Madison take charge.] Shiro said Lyrica as her goal for this expedition was to see how Lyrica developed. Either as a strong teammate or a reliable leader.
"Then I volunteer to be leader." Madison said as Lyrica nodded.
"Sure. But we¡¯ll change roles depending on the situation." Lyrica replied.
"No problems with me. What about you girls?" Madison asked her friends.
"No problem."
"I don¡¯t mind."
"Ok, in that case then, I want to get our formation down. Me and Lyrica are in front with July and Shiro behind us. Karol, you cover our backs in case an assassin targets the mages." Madison said.
Karol nodded and walked behind the group.
"Now let¡¯s go." Madison said.
Shiro could have made a blizzard around them and dulled the assassin¡¯s movements. But seen as though Madison didn¡¯t even ask her what her basic abilities were, Shiro decided to hold back on it or now.
That being said, her blizzard was a double-sided de that would have affected her entire party as well.
*ng ng!
Lyrica blocked two daggers with her de as the party perked up.
"Let¡¯s rush through. The assassins don¡¯t enter the temple." Madison said as the party rushed forwards.
Madison and Lyrica were the main tankers as they would block the assassins while Shiro and July were the ones to clear them up.
"Fire ball." July would mutter every time she used the skill.
For junior mages, they had to visualise their attack skills. Saying out the name would help them get a better picture.
This was due to the fact that the skills they get are more conceptualpared to swordsman skills.
They had skills such a Sword Cross, Sword Rush and Killing Cut. While mages had Tier 1 ice magic, Tier 1 Fire magic and so on.
While the mages had wider selections, they needed to visualise the attack or the power decreases.
Shiro only shook her head before flicking her hands and killed an assassin in one go.
Due to her needing to memorise the myriad of blueprints for her Nanomancer ss, she was used to remembering a lot of things. Simple ice magic and the such were an easy task for her.
July gazed at her with herpetitive spirit ignited.
Feeling the gaze, Shiro only smiled as a littlepetitive spirit amongst children were good.
Trying to rush through the first trial quickly seemed good at first, but with the amount of assassin¡¯s increasing, it became harder to progress.
The pressure on Lyrica was exceptionally huge as she had to block several assassins at once.
This pressure was both good and bad. Good because it was pushing her attack domain closer to maturity. Bad because this was straining her heavily.
Shiro could see the sweat drip from her forehead as she was trying her best to protect the party.
Madison also knew this as the rush approach wasn¡¯t a good option since their speed wasn¡¯t high enough.
They were fine in other departments but they just needed speed.
Shiro shook her head as the temperature started to drop.
Madison paused seeing a snowke drop in front of her. Her arms were getting goosebumps as it was getting colder and colder.
The snow increased at a visible pace as they soon realised it was Shiro causing all of this.
Raising up her hand, Shiro increased the snow before clutching her fist.
The storm expanded as the blizzard howled in their ears.
Their body shivered as frost could be seen forming on their skins.
"Hey! Shiro! Stop it! You¡¯re going to kill us!" Madison shouted.
"Madison, look outside." Lyrica said pointing outside.
The storm was raging as they could barely see past it. There were ice statues for which they could recognise to be the assassin¡¯s earlier.
The only reason why they were freezing up as well was due to the unavoidable side effect of using Shiro¡¯s ice and snow magic.
She was fine, but they weren¡¯t. Even when she did try to let the blizzard avoid their location, the temperature was still dropping significantly.
[Madison, let Lyrica be leader.] Shiro typed out as Madison nodded. Rushing into the fry was an overestimate on her part.
She had just assumed that Shiro will help them clear everything but that wasn¡¯t the case. She only helped as much as needed and never more. Just the bare minimum to keep them alive.
Chapter 23 - Shadow Temple p2
Chapter 23: Shadow Temple p2
[Lyrica you take the lead. How would you exit this situation without my help?]
"Hmm... I would take the time to kill every assassin and secure a resting zone for the moment. Get our stamina back before continuing." Lyrica said as Shiro only smiled.
The correct answer would have been to retreat. If they didn¡¯t have her, they would have party wiped and died right there.
[Lyrica. That would have led to everyone dying.]
"Huh? What do you mean?" Lyrica was puzzled.
[Look outside. How many more assassins do you think there are? If not for my blizzard, do you think they¡¯ll give you guys room to regain stamina?] Shiro asked as Lyrica paused in understanding.
¡¯If Shiro wasn¡¯t here, we wouldn¡¯t even have the time to breathe. Entering deeper would only lead to death. Everyone is under levelled and Shiro is the only high level. Without her, there no hope...¡¯ Lyrica thought as she smiled bitterly.
"The correct answer was we should have left and regrouped a little, right?" Lyrica said.
[Indeed. But since our main goal is to level up, you guys regain your stamina. I haven¡¯t killed them yet, just put them into stasis.] Shiro typed out as they sat down.
After recovering, Shiro waved her hands and the blizzard started to fade away.
[Kill them now before they unfreeze.]
Lyrica only nodded as she dashed towards a group of frozen assassins.
Twirling the dual ended poison de, she smashed two before twisting her body and smashed another one.
Madison was shocked seeing how eager Lyrica was to get EXP through killing the assassins. Running to kill an assassin, she didn¡¯t want to be left out.
[Contributions]
Shiro ¨C 32%
Lyrica ¨C 29%
Madison ¨C 18%
July ¨C 13%
Karol ¨C 8%
The loot received from the assassins were distributed but Shiro didn¡¯t get anything useful. None of them were cksmiths or alchemists so she just recycled the misceneous items.
Resting up for a moment, they walked towards the temple at a leisurely pace.
The reason why Shiro picked the Shadow Temple for the Dungeon to level up Lyrica in was due to the temple in the middle.
It is the Shadow Trial Temple.
The Shadow Trial Temple gave a few scenarios and challenged to the party entering the temple. If they seed in the challenges, they were granted a boost in EXP. Ifpleted to a good degree, they were guaranteed a level up. A great degree was roughly a level and a 20% boost into the next level.
An amazing degree gave almost 2 levels and finally, the perfect degree gave a treasure and 2 levels.
Naturally, one would think about entering the Dungeon when they¡¯re higher level to gain more experience. But, the challenges increase in difficulty dramatically the higher level you are. Which is why Shiro¡¯s main goal was for Lyrica to level up in the temple.
There were 5 challenges as each one represented a stat in one¡¯s status board except for health.
Strength Challenge, Mana Challenge, Speed Challenge, Dexterity Challenge and Defence Challenge.
Each challenge had a boss one had to defeat in the respective category.
This is when it was rmended for one to be a lower level. The lower level you are, the easier the bosses will be and the easier it was to defeat them.
When challenging the trials, they¡¯ll enter separate rooms and won¡¯t see each other¡¯s progress.
Thankfully, the danger of death didn¡¯t appear here as the only dangerous area was the start area.
Entering the dungeon, they were greeted with a pit of ck fire and 6 challenge doors next to the ck fire.
The strength door had the carving of a muscr arm. The mana trial had a magic circle. The speed trial had a carving of a pair of boots. Dexterity a pair or hands and the defence had a shield.
[Which trial do you want to enter?] Shiro asked.
"Let¡¯s do them from left to right. So Strength trial first." Lyrica said pointing at the strength trial.
"No. I¡¯d say we do the defence trial first. Do it while we aren¡¯t fatigued yet." Madison disagreed.
Lyrica frowned as she had her own reason to choose strength.
"If we do strength, we have our full power toplete it. There aren¡¯t any guarantees for the defence trial. We should get what we can, WHILE we can." Lyrica argued back.
"But if we do the defence now, we¡¯ll be able to at leastplete one of each. While not being able to gain a good result from a single door, we can get a decent result from all the doors."
¡¯So Madison is more of a person who focuses on the wider goal, while Lyrica is a person who focuses more on a single goal.¡¯ Shiro thought with interest.
¡¯That meaning Lyrica is better off being the solo teammate that is highly reliable, while Madison is the leader who focuses on the group status rather than a single person.¡¯
"Shiro! What do you think we should do?" Lyrica asked as they couldn¡¯te to an agreement.
[You want my opinion? Then I would say focus on the single rather than overall.] Shiro shrugged.
Choosing the overall good was and never will be a task for her. No matter her power, her control, she¡¯ll rather focus on those who have her favour. Lyrica being the first one in this world to gain her favour.
"Che." Madison clicked her tongue in annoyance while Lyrica beamed happily.
Walking up the strength door, they ced their palms on the cold stone.
[Do you wish to take the Strength Test of the Shadow Temple?]
Clicking yes, they were teleported to another room.
The light was blinding as Shiro was forced to use her left hand to cover her eyes.
When she opened then once more, she found that she was within a medieval castle.rge pirs supported the ceiling as she could see golden chandeliers hanging from the roof. A red carpet wasid out before her and she wasn¡¯t alone.
To her left, a beast with 2 pairs of arms, void purple muscles, golden eyes, two crescent horns with a scaled spine and tail.
To her right, a delicate looking female with light blue hair, pointed ears, golden eyes, standing at roughly 5ft 8, she was a beauty.
[As the first monster to enter the Shadow Temples, you have given permission to attempt the Dungeon Story: Kingdom¡¯s survival.]
"Kingdom¡¯s survival?..." Shiro mutter.
"Did you say something my liege?" The woman asked as Shiro looked over.
"Ah, nothing." She replied.
[Story Quest: Kingdom¡¯s survival.
You are the ruler of the Yin Kingdom of the east. To your left is your lifepanion, the void beast. To your right is your servant, Fei Ling. Forces prepared to invade your kingdom as you have to think your way out of this.]
Story quest. An unfamiliar concept that she had learnt about in her time in the school.
Certain Dungeons contain a story quest where the adventurer is able to partake in the quest. The quests have different objectives as the adventurer had toplete the main one.
Doing so will grant the adventurer bountiful rewards while failing did no harm except for a drop in level.
Shiro¡¯s mind worked fast as acting awkward could decrease your credibility in the situation.
"Fei Ling, can you tell me about the current situation?" Shiro said with a stern face. Her appearance was still the same so it was a little odd due to her tone. However, Fei Ling didn¡¯t seem to notice.
"My liege, we have the Thunder King and his army of 500 thousand approaching with an estimated time of 3 days. The fire queen with her army of 200 thousand in 4 days. The beast kingdom with 10 thousand strong monsters in 2 days and the ocean king blocking out escape through the sea as of this moment." Fei Ling replied.
"How many capable men do we have?" Shiro asked.
"Currently, we have 100 thousand capable warriors ready toy their lives down for the Yin kingdom."
"I see..." Shiro muttered.
"Tell me which direction the enemies areing from."
"Thunder king from the north, Fire queen from the east, Beast kingdom from the west and the ocean king from the south."
¡¯Hmm... the situation is bad for trying to tough it out. The most dangerous is the Thunder King then the Fire Queen. I need to try turn her favour around with enough firepower to defeat the Thunder King. However, not only do I need my own bargaining chip, but I also need to resolve an issue of why they target this kingdom.¡¯ Shiro thought.
She was able to quickly adapt to the quest as her motto had always been to revolve around being flexible.
"Fei Ling, why did they target my kingdom again. This stress has gotten to me." Shiro said massaging her eyes.
"My liege, they target us because of your treasure, did you forget?"
"Do remind me. I have a treasury of items; I don¡¯t know each and every one of them." Shiro shrugged.
"It is an item called the fabricator. We inject mana and it ejects items. Though the items must be detailed and fully imagined by the user. If a single piece of mistake urs, the item is destroyed."
¡¯Fabricator.... For something sounding like that, the mana to material conversion has to be small. Therefore to make the most out of it, I must make something small but powerful....¡¯ Shiro though.
She had an idea for a weapon to help them out but whether or not the fabricator can create it was another problem.
"Take me to the fabricator, I want to check something." Shiro said as Fei Ling nodded.
Stepping out of the throne room from what it seemed, they walked towards the treasury with the void beast behind them.
Curious, Shiro decided to open her status board.
[Temporary Status]
HP: 1,400,000/1,400,000
MP: 5,000,000/5,000,000
She frowned a little seeing her stats as just an HP bar and MP bar.
However, if what she nned can be made, then the HP and MP could just be ignored.
She wasn¡¯t going to fight her way out of a hopeless situation if she could have a hopeful situation.
Arriving at the treasury, Fei Ling brought out an orb.
The orb itself was coloured silver in colour and it was the size of a football.
[Fabricator (Red)]
Can make anything as long as it has the mana and the necessary knowledge.
¡¯Hmm...¡¯ Shiro thought as she decided to test out something.
Closing her eyes, she started to imagine a pistol.
The frame, the recoil spring, the slider, the barrel, trigger, the hammer, extractor, the loader, the grip and so on.
The visualisation of the pistol became clearer as the orb shun with a silver glow.
Fei Ling stood by the side as she watched Shiro use the fabricator.
[Fabricationplete.]
Product = Simple Pistol ¨C MP cost = 3,000,000
Opening her eyes once more, Shiro frowned seeing the insane MP cost. Due to the fact that she was fabricating the pistol out of pure mana, it takes more MP to solidify into a suitable frame.
"Fei Ling. How much mana are we able to extract from our residents?" Shiro asked.
"I do not know, but definitely above 50 million should we include our fighting force. Though if we were to use them as well, I¡¯m not sure if they can protect the kingdom to their full potential." Fei Ling replied understanding that Shiro wanted to use their mana.
"Do we have anything to store that mana if we extract them? If we do, go set up a public donation under the pretence of donating a little mana to help save the kingdom." Shiro ordered. This situation itself seemed fun as Shiro wanted to see if she could trulyplete the quest using an unorthodox method.
First, she needed a few important parts to this. A reactor, a primer, apressor, a remote and the shell.
The reactor must be highly reactive and she needed apressor to condense down the energy.
Getting a general blueprint in her mind, Shiro started to focus on the fabricator.
¡¯From the inside out, the first part is the core. A hollowed sphere of reactive material, followed by the explosivepressor. Inside the hollowed sphere, I also need to add another distributor to get the reaction needed from the core.
Outside of the core, I need morepressors before finally finishing with the receiver what will help detonate all of this.¡¯ Shiro thought closing her eyes.
The fabricator glowed a silver light before it recorded the blueprint sessfully.
Shiro grinned seeing this.
She had no need for an army, no need forplicated rtions to survive. Not if she had this on her side as the tipping point for this war.
She won¡¯t be the one seeking them out, they¡¯ll be the one begging her to stop.
[Fabrication Complete]
Product = Remotely Activated Atomic Mana Pulse Bomb ¨C MP cost = 100,000,000
Chapter 24 - Shadow Temple p3
Chapter 24: Shadow Temple p3
[Fabrication Complete]
Product = Remotely Activated Atomic Mana Pulse Bomb ¨C MP cost = 100,000,000
That being said, just relying on this bomb couldn¡¯t solve everything. With the insane MP cost, the most she could do is to just set it off once.
Forming a rtion with the fire empress would still be advised.
However, just one bomb isn¡¯t enough to convince them, she also needed several. The most optimal number would be two.
With two, they would have the mental thought that she may have another. With that thought imnted, they can¡¯t risk it thus granting her a natural advantage over the rtions.
¡¯First step is to send out a message to the fire queen. Ask for a join operation as the thunder king is the biggest threat. Suggest to her that I have something to show my power and she would be coteral if she rejects.¡¯ Shiro thought.
"But... it¡¯ll be a waste to not make the most of my time here." She muttered.
Being set in a situation like this could provide her with more opportunities.
Martial Arts, technological theories, mana maniption and most importantly, skills for her ice magic.
Since she was focused on nanomancery in her past life, she had no experience with ice magic outside of the rudimentary level. Whilst she did have theories for reaching extreme essences of ice for it to start ¡¯burning¡¯, that was too far down the line that it wouldn¡¯t help for the time being.
Her current arsenal with the ice was very simple, a field which makes it efficient, spears, pirs and the such. She was just throwing ice at people rather than using them to the best abilities.
Walking around the castle, Shiro tried to look for Fei Ling but paused when she realised an important fact.
She was lost...
"....f*ck." Was all she could mutter realising this.
Mustering up mana, Shiro wanted to use ice but realised her mana was that of the shadow attribute.
"Hmm.... If that¡¯s the case then this might work." She muttered as a dark purple mist surrounded her.
Walking towards the wall, her body started to flow into the gaps and walked towards the throne room.
Seeing the void beast still there, she sighed in relief.
"Void Beast, can you go call Fei Ling for me?" Shiro said, not sure if the beast could understand her.
Thankfully, it did as it nodded and started to leave.
Sitting back onto the throne, Shiro started to n out her course of action.
Stage 1: Gather the needed mana for the atomic mana pulse bomb.
Stage 2: Send a messenger to form rtions with the fire queen.
Stage 3: Detonate the bomb in the thunder kings army to weaken them.
This was her n of action in a nutshell. In between each stage, she would need to work hard to make it a sess.
"You called for me my liege?" Fei Ling said as she bowed.
"I need your help with a task. I need to send a message to the fire queen about a friendly treaty. Also, I want you to help me gather books about the use of ice magic, martial arts and technological theories." Shiro said as Fei Ling nodded.
"In which order do you wish that I fulfil these tasks?"
"Help me gather the books first and the public donations. After that, you can send the message to her." Shiro said as Fei Ling nodded.
Sitting on the throne, Shiro felt a little idle. She was just waiting for the jobs to be done and not partaken in the jobs themselves.
"Hmm.... Maybe I should learn some martial arts to improve my close quarterbat." Shiro muttered as this spare time gave her a moment to think to herself.
Closing her eyes, she decided to recount the times she had seen the hero and her party members fight.
Their use of recoil, their use of momentum shift, the centre of gravity, battle instincts and finally, force shift.
Each and every one of them can help a person dramatically should they now even just a little.
Remembering a routine the fighter of their party once did, Shiro walked off the throne and crouched low.
In slow steady movements, she lifted up her left arm to the height of her head and the right arm in front for the attack.
¡¯Lock the joints before the attack, store the kic force. Like a gun, hammer out the force in one go!¡¯ Shiro thought as she slowly reeled her right arm back.
Moving into a stance with a strong centre of gravity. Shiro took a deep breath in and out as her iris¡¯s narrowed.
Punching forward, Shiro used a little too much strength as the momentum carried her body with it a little.
She frowned before looking at her hands.
¡¯My body isn¡¯t suited for powerbat. I need a counter force martial art style. Preferably one to do with flexibility.¡¯ She thought.
Her current closebat didn¡¯t include any styles as she was just barely able to shift her momentum. Her natural advantage would be her instant eleration.
The ability to go from 0 speed to max speed in a single short burst.
While she couldn¡¯t use the ability to her fullest due to the new body, she still remembered the sensation, therefore, making it easier for her.
In the time of her musing, Fei Ling returned with a stack of documents.
"My liege, here are the books you asked for. I found every book regarding to ice magic, technological theories and the most suitable martial arts manuals for you." Fei Ling said cing the books down.
"Thanks." Shiro smiled.
"It was but a simple task. The letter and the hawk are ready. You may write the details and send it off at any moment you want."
Shiro nodded as she picked up the ice magic books.
Seeing the contents, she smiled bitterly as the book was a blur.
¡¯Of course it won¡¯t be this easy.¡¯ Shiro thought as she had another way of getting what she wants.
"Fei Ling, what martial arts do you use?" Shiro asked.
"I use the Yin Style Phantom Arts."
"Do exin the style to me. I¡¯m rather interested." Shiro said as Fei Ling nodded.
"The Yin Style Phantom Arts are a set of martial arts designed for women. It requires excellent flexibility and counter judgement. The main focus is to not be hit like a phantom while striking a shock through their bodies.
When we are hit, we redirect the force in the shape of momentum and strike back at our enemies.
However, that is the fail-safe of the Yin Style Phantom Arts. We should try to not get hit at all if that is possible. The users of this style are like a phantom. Silent yet powerful, without form yet corporeal." Fei Ling replied.
"Oh? Do you think my body suits this type of martial arts?" Shiro asked with interest.
"My liege is a mage, therefore I cannot say. But, I believe with enough effort, one can learn anything even if it¡¯s just the rudimentary." Fei Ling replied honestly.
"Very well. Since that is the case, why don¡¯t you show me the entire Yin Style Phantom Arts?" Shiro smiled. Her memory was incredible so she believes she can remember this style even when she leaves.
As Lyrica had previously stated, take advantage of what you can, WHILE you can.
Fei Ling nodded as she stepped away and walked to the centre of the room.
"The Phantom Arts revolves around 5 main concepts. 1st Phantom, illusionary phantom. 2nd Phantom, speed phantom. 3rd Phantom, counterweight phantom. 4th Phantom, internal feasting phantom. 5th Phantom, the soul stealing phantom." Fei Ling said as Shiro nodded, recording this into her database.
"The illusionary phantom takes advantage of blind spots and misdirection. You are a mirage, so close yet so far."
Shifting her leg a little, Fei Ling raised her arms as she moved in a flowing motion. Before Shiro realised, Fei Ling was already in front of her.
"Trick the eyes, trick the mind. Strike at the weakness."
"Second Phantom. Speed Phantom. A set of footwork that focuses on minimal usage for the biggest gain. The constant contraction and the rxation of your muscles."
In a blink of an eye, Fei Ling was already across the room.
"Third Phantom. Counterweight phantom. This form focuses on the art of redirection as we primarily use the legs to counter. Fourth Phantom. The internal feasting phantom. We focus our strikes like a needle to damage the weakened body being the tough outer shell. Fifth Phantom. Soul stealing phantom. Pure attack, no defence. Go for the kill and nothing less."
Seeing her demonstrate each of the moves, Shiro made sure to record everything down.
A few hours passed in a sh as Fei Ling was patient enough to teach her all the moves.
Closing her eyes, Shiro absorbed the knowledge as she thought aboutbining a few moves with her current arsenal.
"Fei Ling. Let¡¯s have a little spar." Shiro said as Fei Ling didn¡¯t understand.
"My liege, you can overwhelm me easily. Why is there a need for a spar?"
"Because I wish to test out what I¡¯ve learnt." Shiro¡¯s voice rang out from behind Fei Ling as she shivered.
Her guard was dropped for a moment as Shiro had already managed to get behind her using the illusory phantom in the most basic form.
"As you wish my liege." Fei Ling replied as they separated.
They didn¡¯t get into any stance as there were no basic stances for the Phantom Arts.
They had to flexible and adapt to change. From no stance to every stance. They must not stick to anything like the shape of a phantom. Forever changing.
¡¯First Phantom: Illusionary Phantom!¡¯
Their body faded for a moment before reappearing in front of each other. Fei Ling was able to continuously get behind Shiro causing her to frown.
¡¯Second Phantom: Speed Phantom!¡¯
Tapping lightly on the ground, Shironded on the ceiling before rebounding towards Fei Ling.
She casually stepped sideways as she bent her leg towards Shiro.
¡¯Third Phantom: Counterweight Phantom!¡¯
Twisting her body, Shiro kicked simrity and redirected Fei Ling¡¯s kick.
*CRACK!!!
Fei Ling was astonished as she never believed anyone could be able to learn a set of martial arts this well in a few hours. Albeit a little on the rudimentary side, it was never the less impressive of her.
¡¯Fourth Phantom: Internal Feasting Phantom!¡¯
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she pivoted on her right leg as a central point before striking downwards with her left leg.
Fei Ling smiled slightly before stepping back just before the kick hit.
The only downside to Shiro would be herck of reach. Her area of influence was rather short as she had to get close and personal to make the most of her skills.
Even though Fei Ling dodged her kick, Shiro didn¡¯t mind as she could transition into another attack.
Changing the kick into a stomp, Shiro cocked her elbow as force gathered in her arms.
Punching forwards, Fei Ling dodged into the fist and almost phased through like a phantom.
Tapping Shiro¡¯s inner elbow and pushing the fist, Fei Ling redirected the force.
"Tsk." Shiro clicked her tongue as she pivoted on her foot and increased her momentum to kick towards her head.
Fei Ling kept herposure as she crouched down and supported her entire both with just her right arm.
cing her left foot behind Shiro¡¯s knee, she gently kicked Shiro¡¯s torso forcing her attack away.
Flipping backwards, Shiro created some distance as she had a grin on her face.
This was the martial arts she wanted. It fit with her fighting style as well due to the high requirements for body control and flexibility.
"My liege, you are a genius for understanding the rudimentary of the Yin Style Phantom Arts in a short while. However, do keep in mind the weakness of the Phantom Arts. Our reach, defence and the overall attacking options. The Phantom Arts are primarily used for countering therefore, unless they are the attacking force, our exhibited power is reduced by a lot." Fei Ling said with a bow.
"Are you able to write a quick page about the Phantom Art¡¯s?" Shiro asked.
"Indeed, I can." Fei Ling nodded and grabbed a piece of paper before starting to write down the Phantom Arts.
"Just a page will do." Shiro reminded as she wanted to see if she could see the contents.
Looking at the blurred writing, Shiro could only sigh as this meant that she¡¯ll have to develop her proficiency in the phantom artster.
"Forget about this. I¡¯ll send the letter to the fire queen." Shiro said as she sat on the throne and crossed her legs.
Writing down the letter, she gave it to Fei Ling to be sent.
[Time remaining until ever army surrounds Yin Kingdom : 3 days]
Chapter 25 - Shadow Temple p4
Chapter 25: Shadow Temple p4
"Haaa...." The fire queen sighed out. She had ming red hair and scarlet eyes. Wearing a slightly revealing outfit that entuated her enormous bust, she sat in her carriage.
After the pressure from the Thunder Kingdom, she had no choice but to invade the tiny Yin Kingdom. From what she¡¯s heard, the ruler was but a little girl. Little she may be but she was powerful.
Honestly, she hated the thunder king. He was a tyrant, a greedy tyrant who stopped at nothing to gain that of which he wanted.
His newest target, the treasure possessed by the Yin Kingdom¡¯s ruler. The Fabricator. A miracle tool of the red grade that was able to make anything as long as the person had a clear image.
But with the current world¡¯s knowledge and technology, the best they could do was mass produce a few weapons and vehicles. It wasn¡¯t really anything too amazing but what the king wanted he shall get.
"Such a poor little dumpling..." The fire queen muttered.
*Knock knock
"What is it?" She asked.
"It¡¯s a message from the Yin Kingdom. From their queen." A servant said.
"I dare say, you haven¡¯t checked the contents have you?" The fire queen said narrowing her eyes.
From confidential matters like this, having a servant read the letter would be detrimental.
"I don¡¯t dare empress."
"Mn." The fire queen nodded and retrieved the letter.
Opening it up, the queen was shocked.
[Fire queen, I¡¯m going to keep this short. Would you like to form an alliance with me? We both know the power of the thunder king being too big for the world. However, recently, I have managed to develop a weapon of mass destruction using the power of the fabricator. A single use will allow me to wipe out over 200 thousand of the thunder kings men with ease.
As a fellow oppressed ruler¡¯s, I do not wish to involve you in the massacre if I can avoid it. Naturally, you may also choose to ignore my warning and be caught in the coteral. You can think this as a threat, I don¡¯t intend to hide that fact.
But the simple statement remains. Join and live or ignore and die. Your choice.
If you do not believe me, you may see the destruction for yourself in time when the thunder king arrives. Pray that you aren¡¯t too close to the site or else some coteral damage will affect your army as well.
Queen of the Yin Kingdom ¨C Shiro]
"Kek, this little dumpling is rather feisty. Just her writing tells me of her tone." The fire empress muttered.
"Pardon my empress?" The servant asked.
"Nothing, you may leave." She waved her hand.
¡¯For her to adopt an attitude of me being the one wanting the alliance could mean a lot of things. But primarily, it doesn¡¯t matter if I joined or not. She can probably deal with this with her new weapon.¡¯ The empress thought with a serious face.
She had to tread carefully. Between Shiro and the thunder king, she would rather Shiro win as their military power is bigger than Shiro¡¯s. However, if Shiro can give out what she promised, then she really couldn¡¯t hold a candle Shiro and her kingdom. They¡¯ll be the biggest threat.
"Yet for her to ask for an alliance means there are stillplications on her side. She desires this alliance but isn¡¯t solo focused on it. A convenient boon if anything.
Thus, meaning she doesn¡¯t mind using the weapon on me as well... hahaha, I¡¯m guessing she doesn¡¯t see this situation as a threat. But merely a yground for her weapon. Another day in her life." The queen chuckled as she examined the attitude Shiro adopted.
"But... This empress doesn¡¯t like to be threatened. Should the little dumpling¡¯s weapon be not up to standard, she can bet I¡¯ll be going after her head." The fire queen muttered with a cold glint in her eye.
In the end, she didn¡¯t mind whoes out victorious. Rather, she didn¡¯t mind them weakening each other in the war. The more men they lose, the easier it was for her to overtake either of them in the end.
###
"How¡¯re the public donations?" Shiro asked.
"Due to the urgency of the situation, many have been very willing to donate all of their mana. With that being said, a lot of our denizens have already migrated due to the current affairs. Our total tally for MP gathers amounts to 43 million." Fei Ling reported.
"Hais... how far can they even go? If the thunder king is who you say he is, then he¡¯ll rather kill a kingdom than to let a cockroach survive. Running away now is just speeding up their death." Shiro shook her head.
"But 43 million, the weapon needs 100 million. We have 2 more days at most which should be barely enough time. As for the manoeuvres we have to pull after the weapon drops, we will have to adopt a wait and see approach." She sighed.
"My liege, to exin to this servant why you believe this weapon is the turning point?" Fei Ling asked.
"What do you think of a moment in your life that you were met with unstoppable power?"
"Under certain circumstances, I should try to run." Fei Ling replied.
"Now, what if you can¡¯t run?"
"I¡¯ll try to fight."
"And the final question, what if you couldn¡¯t even fight it?"
"I¡¯ll die trying." Fei Ling replied with determination.
"Indeed, but do you think a tyrant like thunder king will be the same?"
"I believe he will still fight as he is stubborn." Fei Ling said unsure as to why Shiro pointed out his strong personality.
"Naturally. Now, I want you to consider his subjects." Shiro said with a glimmer in her eye.
"His subjects?..."
"You still don¡¯t get it. This isn¡¯t a fight between kings and individuals but rather the army. Since he is so oppressive and favours an iron fist. Do you think his subjects are truly loyal?" Shiro grinned with her eye narrowed.
The face which didn¡¯t belong to the body of a young child caused Fei Ling to shiver.
"The faith and anger the people have against the thunder king is our advantage. Humans don¡¯t like to be restrained harshly, it¡¯s their natural instinct. When faced against something so terrifying that it breaks their will they¡¯ll try to leave.
With thunder king¡¯s attitude, he¡¯ll kill the leavers and force them to fight." Shiro exined with a gesture of her open palm.
"When you give that fear an extra push and douse them with promises and a way out, do you think they¡¯ll take that? In other words..."
"A rebellion..." Fei Ling muttered realising Shiro had already simted the situation with the description of the thunder king she had given her.
"Indeed. The thunder king would force his subjects to fight but when I give them that extra ray of hope, I covert his army into my pawns.
With his ego and personality, he would never believe something he did was wrong. So this battle will serve as the guillotine to put a crack into his mind.
And when the fire queen chooses a side due to my weapon, the crack bes a deadly fissure that will split him in half." Shiro smiled sinisterly as she clenched her fist.
"A broken king is no opponent, mere trash by the roadside. Killing him then will be a mercy." Shiro said tilting her head back.
"But that being said Fei Ling... A king is a lonely position. No matter how strong you are, there are times when you are tested. A tyrant like the thunder king has nopanions to support his burden.
No one he can trust, no one who can help him. He is wary of every subject under him. Who will betray him, who will stick with him? The constant pressure ced on him tires him out.
Fei Ling, will you be my right-hand woman? One who I can trust, one who I can leave my back to and one who I can call a friend." Shiro said looking at Fei Ling.
"..."
Fei ling kneeled on her right leg as she ced her hand over her heart.
"To I, Fei Ling, there was no greater honour than to serve you my liege. But I was wrong, the highest honour would be to apany a king not as a servant, but as a friend to support his back and share the burden.
If I were to be as rude, I indeed wish to be my liege¡¯s right-hand woman and friend." Fei Ling said as Shiro smiled.
"Then please call me liege no more. Call me Shiro as you are my friend before servant." Shiro said standing up and ced her hand over Fei Ling¡¯s shoulder.
"Yes, my L- Shiro." Fei Ling corrected herself with a smile.
Shiro grinned seeing the change in attitude.
"Either way, we¡¯re ying the waiting game now. Once we collected enough mana, they¡¯ll be dancing in my palms." Shiro shrugged.
"So let¡¯s use the rest of these days to improve the Yin Style Phantom Arts."
"As you wish Shiro."
###
"Shiro, we got 100 million mana now." Fei Ling said walking into the throne room.
She saw Shiro examining the orb as she looked up.
"Pass me the mana first. Afterwards, keep collecting." Shiro said as Fei Ling nodded.
The storage for the mana was a neon green crystal. Shiro grabbed it and saw the information.
[Extreme Mana Storage (Red)]
100,000,290/500,000,000
"Oh my. A maximum storage of 500 million." Shiro muttered in surprise.
Transferring the 100 million mana to the orb, she returned to crystal back to Fei Ling.
"Try to gather as much as you can. We still have a day left until the thunder king arrives." Shiro said as she nodded.
Leaving the throne room, Fei Ling went to continue with the public donation¡¯s.
[Fabricator Stored MP: 125,000,000]
In her time of waiting, she would deposit all of her MP into the fabricator.
Seeing the 9 digit number, Shiro sighed as it was going to be gone in a few short moments.
[Remotely Activated Atomic Mana Pulse Bomb created. -100,000,000 stored MP]
Looking at the bomb in her hands, Shiro grinned.
The remotely activated Atomic Mana Pulse Bomb or the mana nuke, has enough power to wipe out anything in a radius of 30 miles. Naturally, it won¡¯t activate unless primed with the remote.
Only after the remote is broken, can the bomb be activated using physical force.
The best part about the bomb is that it is almost impossible to dodge. The speed of which it sends out the explosive pulse was too fast for most to dodge. Shiro in her prime with nano tech supporting her might be able to barely outrun it. BARELY. And that was when she was the strongest in the world.
Flicking her hand, Shiro summoned a shadow soldier.
Over the course of an entire day, she managed to figure out some of the skills that came with her current abilities.
Instructing it to ce the bomb roughly 35 miles away from the kingdom, Shiro sent a shadow bird to make sure it was in the correct space.
Covering her eye with her right hand, Shiro saw what the bird saw.
"Go." She said as both the bird and the soldier dashed out the throne room.
There was only 1 day left before the thunder king¡¯s arrival.
Crossing her legs, Shiro had a smile on her face thinking of the surprise she had in stock for him.
"Kufufufu, the feeling of ying someone around your palm is quite enjoyable..." Shiro muttered.
Right now she was like Buddha tricking the monkey king. No matter what the thunder king did, he would lose.
Retreat? Sorry, that just gives her more time to make another bomb.
Attack? Sorry, this miss already has a bomb ready for you.
Hide? Then I can just bomb your kingdom into submission.
The king had to fall someday.
Thunder King Arrival ETA ¨C 1 day.
Chapter 26 - Shadow Temple p5
Chapter 26: Shadow Temple p5
Standing above the city walls, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she was looking through the shadow bird¡¯s vision.
The thunder king¡¯s army of 500 thousand men stomped in sync as it created quite an intimidating scene.
¡¯If that bomb is activated through shock, you all will dead by now. But I don¡¯t want everyone to be dead, only 250 thousand.¡¯ She thought as the bird started to morph.
Seeing a clone of Shirond in front of him, the thunder king stopped the march.
He was a muscr man standing at almost 7ft tall, hulking physic, yellow hair and yellow eyes. He looked to be around his 30¡¯s.
"Have youe to beg?" He sneered, looking at her with disdain.
"Not as much beg, but rather a warning. Turn back now and your men may not die a hopeless death." Shiro smiled.
"HAHAHAHA! Even if you mustered up something with the fabricator, what can you possibly create?" The thunder king grinned as he jumped off his mount andnded in front of Shiro.
Due to the high difference, Shiro had to crane her head all the way back as it wasn¡¯tfortable for her at all.
Looking at Shiro closely, the thunder king started to realise her beauty as he paused.
He was about to grab her chin and get a closer look when she disappeared.
"Don¡¯t fucking touch me." Shiro warned with a cold re as she was behind his head with a de to his throat.
"Kuhuhuhu, join me as my concubine. I¡¯ll let your kingdom live as dowry." The thunder king said.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she stood up and stepped on his head.
Jumped off, shended safely and started to walk away.
"I take this as you agree?" The thunder king grinned.
"Hm? Sure whatever." Shiro said not even looking back.
"I didn¡¯t think you were such a coward. But this king likes the woman being submissive like they should be." The thunder king grinned.
If Shiro was still a Snow Girl, the entire battlefield would have been encased in ice from the murderous intent raging inside of her.
¡¯I¡¯ll agree to sign your death contract.¡¯ Shiro thought as she had already activated the remote.
The bomb should be ticking down now.
"Why don¡¯t you-"
*BBBBBOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
###
The fire empress had increased her pace for thest day as she wanted to see the so-called weapon of mass destruction. Resting on the top of the mountain with her troops, she had her army survey the surroundings for any enemies.
"Hehehe, the little dumpling is brave. She doesn¡¯t have a single soldier out." The fire queen muttered seeing the empty battlefield for which the thunder king arrived at.
"My Empress, do you really believe the young queen of the Yin Kingdom having a powerful weapon?"
"Half and half. Honestly, it¡¯s a gamble. For her to have that much confidence that she sees me as a bonus, must either mean overconfidence. Or that she was telling the truth. For a person to be the ruler, they wouldn¡¯t make threats without some back up in ce."
"What if the young queen was really lying this entire time?"
"She wouldn¡¯t have told me to watch the destructions then." The fire queen smiled.
Soon, she saw Shiro and the thunder king face against each other as she grinned.
"Kuhahaha, just look at that ridiculous height difference." She said in humour.
Standing up, she walked to the edge of the hill they were on and watched in interest.
She saw the thunder king try to grab Shiro¡¯s chin but missed and Shiro was behind his head.
"Seems like it may just have been a false rm." The fire queen said seeing no resemnce of a weapon.
"In that case... READY UP TROOPS! WE¡¯RE GOING TO END THE YIN KINGDOM!" The fire queen shouted.
"URAHH!!!!!-!
*BBBBBOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Light shed as the queen and her army were blown backwards with a tremendous shockwave hitting their bodies.
"Blerg!!!" The fire queen spat out blood as she was knocked back the furthest.
"Urg what the hell!" She called out as she struggled to her feet.
Looking to her right, her pupils shrank in fear.
What was half of a hill was reduced to ashes as there was a giant crater between her and the thunder king¡¯s army.
It was as if God decided to punch the very earth itself. Nothing was spared.
"T-t-this was her w-weapon?!" The fire queen muttered in shock.
"Hahaha...HaHaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! NO WONDER! WHY WOULD SHE EVEN CARE ABOUT ME IF SHE HAD THIS!!!" The fire queen shouted out in insanity and fear. A quarter of her army was eradicated as they were, unfortunately, a little too close.
"My Empress, are you alright?" A servant asked limping over.
"Alright? Yeah... Why wouldn¡¯t I be alright? We¡¯re going to kill the thunder king. Hahaha, what is a king to a god? We at least have hope of killing the king hahahahaha....." The fire queen rambled almost as if she was crazy.
The power Shiro outputted with the bomb was more than anything a mage could do in the world. They just didn¡¯t have that kind of power. And yet, she wanted to fight against that.
###
"Heh, that should convince the fire queen." Shiro muttered as she looked at everything from her shadow birds.
The mana nuke could be controlled as she could choose the shape of the st. She made sure to increase the intensity near the back of the thunder king¡¯s army and the fire queen¡¯s army.
Creating a shadow horse, Shiro dashed towards the remnants of the thunder king¡¯s army.
"Well. I did warn you did I not?" Shiro said as she saw the thunder king struggling to stand up. He had bloodshot eyes as his demeanour was like that of a mad beast.
Infusing mana to her voice, Shiro made sure the entire army could hear her.
"LISTEN UP!! I did not want this war as it was your tyrant of a king. Should you help me end his reign, I can assure you that I will never turn the weapon against my own subjects. Did you not see my earlier disy? I tried to be peaceful but your king does not appreciate the matter. Now that he had forced my hand, unnecessary casualties have been created. Choose wisely and end this farce!"
Hearing Shiro, the army stood up slowly as the thunder king became enraged.
"ALL OF YOU! I AM YOUR KING! DID YOU FORGET WHO¡¯S COUNTRY YOUR FAMILIES ARE IN!" He shouted as it worked to a certain degree.
"Screw you! I have no family!" A soldier shouted back.
*BLERGH!
Whether it was from thement or the st, the thunder king threw up a little mouthful of blood.
Shiro held back augh as she saw the king¡¯s threat fall short.
"If you choose to surrender and help me end this king! I can guarantee your families safety!"
"FIRE QUEEN HAS COME TO ASSIST THE YIN KINGDOM!" A voice called out as Shiro grinned.
Everything was in ce and the king had fallen.
"You! ALL OF YOU! DIE FOR ME!" The thunder king shouted but Shiro cut him off. Clutching her hand, a shadow de appeared as it cut right through his neck when he least expected.
She was about to speak again to the army when she paused. Looking around, Shiro found herself in a dark space.
[Scenario Complete. Unorthodox method ofpletion. Calcting results....
Thunder king¡¯s army would be yours; the fire empresses under you as a servant. The beast kingdom ran and the ocean kingdom gave up.
Evaluation: Though Unorthodox, it was a perfect solution. Out of 4 kingdoms, 2 now serve you and the other 2 are destroyed. All whilst no casualties on your side.
Final rank: S rankpletion due to the use of pure force.
Rewards: 3 levels, 1 treasure, Shadow Empress Title and 200 free attribute points.]
[Shadow Empress:
+ 25% of all stats.
+ 25% stealth
When attacking without the enemy locking onto you (Stealth Attack, Sneak Attack) +50% Critical chance and +%20 Critical damage.]
"Wow~" Shiro muttered seeing the rewards. Though she understands why it was so rewarding.
If it wasn¡¯t due to her treasury of blueprints and knowledge, she would have been hard-pressed to do anything. Facing off against a 500 thousand strong army with just 100 thousand strong wasn¡¯t an easy task. Not to mention, the fabricator couldn¡¯t record the blueprint of an iplete item. You had to visualise the ins and outs.
An easy task for her, yes. Others? Not so sure.
If one were to try form diplomatic rtions, it would be hard to gather the support of the other kingdoms due to the sheer power of the thunder king¡¯s army.
However, despite all of that, shepleted it with a single mana nuke and a small number of mind games.
Distributing her attributes, Shiro couldn¡¯t but grin.
[Name: Shiro (Weakened 5 days, 15hrs)
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress
Level: 28
ss: Snow Girl¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 5700/5700 (True Value 15,500)
MP: 22,900/22,900
STR: 70 -> 120(+45) <+30>
VIT: 100 -> 180 (+70) <+45>
INT: 190 -> 250 (+140) <+62>
AGI: 140 -> 200 (+55) <+50>
DEX: 130 -> 150(+40) <+37>
DEF: 40 (+105) <+10>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 500,800 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Harden (Equipment), Lesser Fear (Equipment), Sensory (Equipment), Mana Barrier.]
With her MP tipping pass the 20k mark, her HP was following up closely. It was just a shame that her weaken state remained unchanged.
The good news, however, would be that the days she spent in the other quest world took off a little of the timer. Thus leaving her with less than 6 days to wait.
As for her final prize, it was the treasure. Her heart pounded in anticipation as she tapped the icon.
"..."
¡¯An egg? Shiro thought.
The egg was ck in colour, roughly the size of a school bag and had purple smoke patterns.
[Shadow Egg]
"Shadow Egg?" Shiro muttered.
[Sign Life Blood Contract?]
Seeing an unfamiliar term, Shiro paused and frowned.
Tapping the writing for the term, she saw the description.
[Life Blood Contract: Forming a contract with your heart blood, you and the beast are connected deeply. A portion of the beast¡¯s skills and power will be shared with you upon maturity. When you die, the beast dies. When the beast dies, you are fine.]
"Well isn¡¯t that a little unfair." Shiro muttered. However, it wasn¡¯t her concern. As harsh as it was, she didn¡¯t want to die because the beast was road killed.
Pressing yes, Shiro¡¯s pupil shrank as she felt like a dagger stabbed into her heart.
Wincing slightly, she coughed up a mouthful of blood.
¡¯M******!!!!¡¯ Shiro cursed in her mind as the blood sttered over the egg.
Absorbing the blood greedily, a dark mist started to flood out as Shiro could see the egg crack little by little.
*Crrrrrr
The crack expanded as Shiro saw the contents.
It was a bird with ck and dark purple feathers. A narrow head, purple eyes, sleek body and long feathered tail.
[Shadow ??? LVL 1]
HP: 2,400/2,400
MP: 5,000/5,000
Seeing the name, Shiro was surprised. When something shows as a question mark, it¡¯s either she was too low level to know it. Or that she wasn¡¯t supposed to know at the moment.
The little bird pped its wings andnded on Shiro¡¯s left shoulder. Rubbing its head against her¡¯s with affection, it chirped lightly.
"...."
¡¯Cute...¡¯ She thought seeing the little bird¡¯s actions.
"Hey, little bird. Are you male or female? I would check but you birds only have an opening for the sexual organ." Shiro asked in humour.
Hearing the question, the bird only tilted its head before pping its wings.
"Then I¡¯m just going to call you Yin. It sounds like a unisex name." Shiro shrugged but flinched.
"Oh right. My arm." She muttered. In the time she did the quest, her arm was fixed. Now that it was back to the way it was, Shiro would need to get used to it again.
"Little Yin, are you able to hide your title ah? It will bring this miss much trouble." Shiro said giving the birds head a little rub.
[Yin LVL 1]
HP: 2,400/2,400
MP: 5,000/5,000
"... well that works."
Giving the bird one more yful tap to the beak, Shiro smiled as she looked for an exit.
[Would you like to leave the resting zone?]
Tapping yes, Shiro felt her vision shift as she was back in the main hall. She saw that Lyrica and the rest of the party were still doing thest test so she made an ice chair and sat down.
Crossing her legs, she tapped her thigh as the bird hopped over.
Shiro couldn¡¯t hold the smile back on her face as she yed around with the bird.
Chapter 27 - 10 C Ranked Mana Stones
Chapter 27: 10 C Ranked Mana Stones
It didn¡¯t take too long as the rest of the party came out one by one.
"Eh? Shiro, you¡¯ve already finished?" Lyrica said in surprise.
Shiro was about to open her mouth but realised she was mute again. Sighing in annoyance, she pulled out the phone and started to type.
[Yes I have. I even got a pet bird out of it.] Shiro typed out whilst giving the little bird a little massage.
"Heh~ It¡¯s so cute!" Lyrica said as she tried to reach out for it.
The bird jumped in shock as it dived into the sleeve of Shiro¡¯s uniform.
"Ahh! Little birdie~ I¡¯m not a bad person!" Lyrica called out to the bird. However, the bird didn¡¯t even peak out as Shiro could feel it shiver in her sleeve.
chuckling lightly, Shiro stood up.
[Now that we¡¯ve finished the trials, let¡¯s head back.]
Walking out the temple, Shiro asked another question.
[So how were your trials?]
"It wasn¡¯t too bad. I could have done better though..." Lyrica sighed, feeling disappointed with herself.
[What about you Madison?]
"Huh? Me? Oh, it was alright." Madison replied feeling surprised that Shiro would ask her as well.
The way back was rather stale as they didn¡¯t really have anything to talk about.
Shiro just yed with the bird the entire time.
Lyrica looked at the bird feeling a little jealous.
¡¯Am I feeling jealous of a bird?!¡¯ Lyrica thought, realising how petty it was.
Shiro only raised an eyebrow seeing Lyrica¡¯s change in emotion.
[Are you alright? What¡¯s on your mind?] Shiro asked.
"Ah, nothing." Lyrica replied trying to smile it off.
Shiro only shook her head. She couldn¡¯t baby Lyrica all the time so if she wanted to figure this out herself, Shiro will let her do just that.
[If you need help just tell me.] Shiro smiled.
"Shiro..." Lyrica muttered.
¡¯...How the hell is this one-sided pink aura being created between them.¡¯ Madison thought. If either Shiro or Lyrica was a guy, then it would make sense. But both of them were girls.
¡¯Unless she¡¯s bisexual? Or just homosexual?¡¯ Madison thought looking at Shiro.
Her expression was calm and didn¡¯t fluctuate at all while Lyrica, on the other hand, was slightly flustered. She would asionally look towards Shiro as well.
¡¯So... Lyrica¡¯s the bisexual?¡¯ Madison thought as she was getting interested.
Leaving the Dungeon, Shiro parted ways with them as she wanted to find some food for her bird.
"Hey, Lyrica." Madison called out as Lyrica stopped.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Erm so ... between you and Shiro." Madison started as Lyrica nodded.
"What about it?"
"Do.. you have feelings for her?" Madison asked. It wasn¡¯t that she disliked her for being bisexual. But rather, it was her first time seeing someone like that so she was curious.
At the mention of having feelings, Lyrica started to imagine certain scenes.
*Poof
Her face became red as she didn¡¯t know what to say.
"N-no we-we¡¯re just really good friends! I still have something to do! GOODBYE!" Lyrica shouted, running away in a panic.
"..."
¡¯She definitely has feeling for her!¡¯ Madison thought with a grin. Getting involved in love stories were definitely the most interesting thing for her. Forget fighting, an interesting love story gets her going.
###
Walking around the city, Shiro pulled out an E rank mana stone.
By logic, since she was a monster and ate mana stones. The bird should eat them too.
Poking its head out of her pocket, the bird looked at the stone before turning away.
¡¯Maybe it doesn¡¯t like to eat mana stone?¡¯ Shiro thought, throwing the E rank stone in her mouth.
After she¡¯s levelled up, the E rank mana stones would no longer fill her up no matter how many she ate.
They were like jellybeans that were sweet to the taste but never filled you up unless you ate an disgusting amount.
Rubbing her stomach, Shiro could onlyment at her hunger since she had a limited amount of D ranked mana stones. A meal for her cost around 90k USD due to the price of D ranked mana stones.
Even if she were to use her savings, it wouldn¡¯tst her more than a few days.
"This miss is literally shovelling cash into my mouth to feed myself...." Shiro muttered with a silent tear.
Her stomach was aching for substance so she could only pull out a D rank mana stone.
The second she pulled it out, the bird looked at it before looking at her. It made a sighing gestured as it grabbed and threw the D rank stone reluctantly into its mouth.
"..."
Shiro felt a twitch creeping up on her mouth as she saw the little bird¡¯s action.
"Little Yin. That was this miss¡¯s meal ok? You can¡¯t just go around stealing it." Shiro said tapping the bird on the head.
She let it be for now as it may grow up to be useful for her. It was a mysterious Shadow Type beast pet after all. Not to mention, she also had the life blood contract with it.
"Ai... Little Yin. You¡¯re lucky that this miss here is nice. Or else you be my soup for tonight."
Pulling out another D rank mana stone, Shiro threw it into her mouth.
Chewing the stone, Shiro enjoyed the feeling of a full stomach.
However, as if learning its lesson, Yin held out its wings and did a pitiful eye towards Shiro.
"...Fine here you go." Shiro smiled wearily as she gave it another mana stone. She could always get more in the Dungeon, only that it requires a bit more work now that she also has to feed Yin.
Yin chirped happily as Shiro giggled slightly seeing this.
Whilst walking, she saw a crowd of people gathered in the distance.
Her curiosity was peaked as she hopped over.
There was a stage in the centre as different people walked up.
"Herees contestant number 20! Will he be able to dodge the arrows and take the number one spot! Let us see!!!" An announcer shouted out.
The contestant in question waited as 10 pirs rose up around the stage.
Breathing deeply, his gaze was focused as he got into a martial art stance with a sturdy centre of gravity.
*Phew phew phew phew!!!
Blunted arrows shot out as he twisted his body to dodge the arrows. Narrowly passing him, the arrows hit a mana barrier that caused the arrow to lose momentum. THis protected the spectators as they could watch without any problems.
No matter where the man went, the arrows followed. He only managed to survive 33 seconds in the field.
"Ohh! Only 33 seconds! Unfortunately, he has not taken the number 1 spot of 2 minutes and 10 seconds! Can anyone take this challenge on! With an entry fee of 30 D rank mana stones and a reward of 10 C ranked mana stones! You heard me. 10!! C RANKED MANA STONES!!! On top of that! Even if you don¡¯t get top ce, there are still prizes for top 10!"
¡¯C RANK!¡¯ Shiro¡¯s eyes glowed with hunger and greed while Yin was the same. It was drooling a little from its beak as Shiro wiped it clean.
"Little Yin, if I do this. I get 8 you get 2 ok?" Shiro said as the bird shook its head.
It put 7 feathers up for itself and 3 up for her.
"Ok listen here little Yin. I¡¯m the one doing the test. SO, by rights, more should go to me."
The bird made a difficult expression and held up four feathers for her and six for it.
"Six for me and four for you most. None negotiable." Shiro said bluntly as the bird shook its head.
"It¡¯s that or we don¡¯t do the test at all."
That was a lie. She wanted the C ranked stones so bad. Just thinking of their taste made her appetite increase.
Hearing the offer, Yin wanted to reject but didn¡¯t dare to. 4 was still better than none.
Nodding its head reluctantly, it retreated back into her pocket.
Chuckling slightly, Shiro looked for what should be the registration area.
It was a simple registration area as it had a leader board by the side with the top 10 ranks and times.
There was quite a big queue as Shiro waited with patience while watching the other contestants.
"Onto contestant number 21! With a flexible build and amazing judgement, can he enter the top 10!"
The contestant in question was a tall and skinny male around 6ft 4.
Nodding, the man signalled for the test to start.
The arrows shot forwards as the man narrowed his eyes, using only his thumb, index and middle finger on both hands. He held the shaft of the arrow and redirected then to another arrow.
His eyes moved around constantly to pinpoint the arrows as it made sure the entire area around him was covered.
¡¯Heh~ he¡¯s using his stats and reaction to simte an attack domain around him.¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing the man pinch arrows out of the air and throw them to another arrow.
However, that proved to be extremely taxing as sweat was pouring out of him.
¡¯He¡¯s finished.¡¯ Shiro thought as she turned her attention away.
"OHH! AND HE¡¯S OUT! With a time of 1 minute and 14 seconds! He¡¯s just outside the top ten!"
Looking towards the leader board, Shiro¡¯s only task was to get the 10 mana stones. Therefore, she didn¡¯t need to pay attention to anyone else.
Rank 1: Ling ¨C Time: 2 Minutes 10 Seconds
Naturally, Shiro didn¡¯t think she can do this easily. There were people higher level than her attempt this but what they don¡¯t have was her experience.
She could easily see all the arrows and react. However, the limiting factors were her arm and physic.
This is where the Yin Style Phantom Arts came in. With the Third Phantom: Counter Weight Phantom, she would be able to exert her body to its maximum potential without harming her arm too much.
Once it was her time to register, the person paused as he looked at Shiro from top to bottom.
Pointing at her ice casted arm, he raised an eyebrow.
[Don¡¯t mind it. Just register me. I have the stones.] Shiro typed out.
"... Ok but I¡¯ll need you to sign this contract so that any injuries would not be on our part." The man said as Shiro nodded.
Reading through the contract, it was as the man said. Any injuries urred in this event will be the participant¡¯s responsibility and should not hold the organisers ountable.
Signing the contract, Shiro walked over to the contestant¡¯s tent as she could see a lot of men stretching their bodies.
Surprisingly, she also saw a familiar face in the tent.
"Ah, Shiro!" Helion quickly jogged over with a smile.
[Hi Helion. Thank you for making my friends weaponst time. It was very well done.] Shiro smiled.
"Ahaha, don¡¯t worry about it. It was a pretty interesting experience for me as well." Helion grinned as he rubbed the back of his head.
[I got some feedback from my friend if you want to hear it.] Shiro smiled. For a cksmith, hearing feedback from their weapon was greatly appreciated as it helped them understand how well they made their weapon.
"Oh? Feedback? Sure,y it on me. Hopefully, it wasn¡¯t too bad." Helion said feeling a little nervous.
Hopefully, he made a decent impression on the youngdy in front of him.
[She said the bnce of the de was great. Located at the middle of the handle, the bnce allowed her to really be flexible with her movements. A great cutting edge and design allowed her to pull out 120% of her strength. She thanks you greatly.] Shiro typed out.
"Phew. That¡¯s good to hear." Helion grinned.
"Ah also, what happened with your arm?" He asked pointing at her arm.
[I got injured in a Dungeon. It¡¯ll take a few days to heal. Nothing major.]
"You should be careful in a Dungeon. Though, why don¡¯t you just use a potion to heal?" Helion asked confused.
[I wanted it to heal naturally in case I get permanent damage from the potions.]
"I see." Helion quickly looked for a chair as he pulled it over for her.
"Here, take a seat."
[Thank you.] Shiro replied, not rejecting his good will.
[Also, just out of pure curiosity. How old are you? The craftsmanship of that de was very nicely done.]
"Me? I¡¯m 25 almost 26." Helion grinned.
[Is that so. You look like it but don¡¯t feel like it. The experience you showed was beyond your age.]
"Hahaha, well my family is a cksmithing family. Since I told you my age, can you tell me yours?" He asked.
[Sure. I¡¯m 13.]
"!!!!"
Helion was shocked seeing a level 28 aged 13. Not to mention, her temperament was way beyond a 13-year-old.
Chuckling slightly at his reaction, Shiro typed out another line.
[Why are you shocked that I¡¯m 13?]
"Well... It¡¯s just that when I was younger. I was in love with a girl who looked my age. After ying with her for a year, I confessed to her. Only then did I find out that she was 32 and married. I was 10 back then." Helion sighed pulling on a chair for himself to sit on.
[So you feel in love with a 10-year-old looking married woman when you were 10?] Shiro typed out holding back augh.
"I know I know... Now I don¡¯t judge by appearance, but rather by temperament." He shrugged.
[What age did you think I was then?] Shiro asked curiously.
"I thought you were above your 30¡¯s." Helion replied truthfully.
[30¡¯s?! This miss has a young temperament, what do you mean by 30¡¯s?!] Shiro asked surprised.
She had always thought she gave the feeling of a person in her 20¡¯s and not her 30¡¯s.
"Well, it¡¯s just how you speak like someone with a tone of experience. Well... type like someone with a lot of experience." Helion said as Shiro thought and agreed. Her age totalled up was definitely above her 30¡¯s.
Whilst they were talking, another contestant walked up to the stage as he wore nothing but a pair of pants, showing off his ripped body.
¡¯This one is a veteran.¡¯ Shiro thought as she could clearly tell thepressed power hiding in that body.
Chapter 28 - Elemental True Armour
Chapter 28: Elemental True Armour
[Den LVL 50 ¨C Martial Artist]
¡¯Martial Artist?¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing the ss. There were times where there would be a different sspared to the base systems.
These sses are simr to hidden professions but are rather taught than discovered. Example being the martial artist ss.
Her guess was for Den to have learned martial arts as a child and when he ssed up, he chose Martial Artists as his ss.
Interested in his capabilities, Shiro crossed her legs and narrowed her eyes just ever so slightly.
Helion, who was beside her, paused seeing this as he understood this pose. It was the pose she pulled when she observed him make the des for her friend. A pose which tells people that she¡¯s curious or interested.
¡¯Perhaps it¡¯s a habit of hers?¡¯ He thought. Her aura was creepily calm and silent as she was entirely focused on the thing that interested her.
Den stood in the centre as his eyes were deadly focused.
Cocking up his arms and legs for maximum explosive potential, he punched out as soon as the arrows were shot towards him.
The first hit connected with the side of the arrow, pulling back, he hit another arrow with his elbow.
She watched with great interest as his hits were urate and powerful.
Den was simr to Lyrica, his attack domain was on the verge of forming as he was able to deal with the initial levels easily.
However, as the arrows increased in speed, he had topensate by guessing the directions.
This gave him a few close calls but nothing major.
However, to Shiro, it was like watching everything in slow motion. Her eyes were tracking everything with ease, but her body was another question.
Seeing and reacting were two different things that were both important.
If you can see but can¡¯t react, you lose. If you can react but not see, you also lose. The delicate bnce between sight and reaction waspulsory for any good fighter.
This is what she was seeing in Den right now. While his sight may not be as good, there was a bnce between sight and reaction.
As for Shiro, she was like stuffing an F1 race engine in a small family car. The engine was powerful but the body of the car can¡¯t keep up.
Force it and the car breaks.
[Say Helion. When you see him fend for himself, what do you see?] Shiro asked wanting to get a third party opinion.
"What do I see? Well... I see that he¡¯s struggling. The arrows are getting closer and closer to him the longer he survives for." Helion said as he was able to track the arrows quite urately.
[What else do you see?] Shiro asked wanting to test Helion a little.
"What else do I see? I see the area around him shrink. I see him locking up his punches for maximum attack." Helion replied putting his hand on his chin.
Shiro smiled hearing the answer. From what she could see from her surroundings, not many people were able to see the detail of Den locking up his arm.
[Can you see his mistake?] Shiro asked.
"Mistake?"
[He shouldn¡¯t be locking up his arms at this stage of the defence. His task is to survive, not kill. He shouldn¡¯t be locking up his arms for that amount of time.
During a defence like this, the best thing to do is to try to conserve your stamina. That being said, his endurance is ridiculous.] Shiro said as the smaller the attack domain bes, the more tenacious Den became.
He was sweating bullets but his eyes were energetic as ever.
¡¯Hold up... Is he developing a technique right now...¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes as she observed everything.
If his main task was to get number 1, he would be conserving stamina. But the longer he goes, the more forces he is using. He was actively pushing his limits higher and higher the more stamina he uses.
He was forcing shut his attack domain to make it stronger the closer it got to him.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro had a grin as it was not often you see a person like Den. Like an oveying ocean current, he was making an area where the arrows couldn¡¯t prate no matter the direction.
The firstyer rotated clockwise. The second anti-clockwise. For any arrow that passes the firstyer, they¡¯ll be stopped by the second.
If it passes the second, it will break due to the colliding forces of bothyers.
[Nevermind. It wasn¡¯t a mistake. But rather, I was looking at it from the wrong perspective. He is discovering and refining a technique to repel the attacks.]
In a few short moments, he was able topletely secure the area with a 3/4th of a meter around him.
Seeing that he seeded, he couldn¡¯t hold back a grin.
"HAA!!!" Stamping down, he caused a shock wave to spread out as it pushed to the arrows away.
"I got what I want. You can carry on with your event." He said simply before leaving.
"Erm.. so it seems that Den has forfeited. Therefore! His time shall not be recorded!" The announcer shouted out.
Shiro and Helion looked at each other.
[Did he just pay 30 D ranked mana stones just to have arrows fired at him?]
"...It¡¯s either that or he just wanted to brag and look cool." Helion replied with a huff.
Shiro shrugged with a slight giggle hearing Helion¡¯s jealousy.
[Don¡¯t worry about it. Since you make weapons, your physic is pretty good. Just strip your shirt and get the same results.] Shiro replied with a smile.
"Then that I shall do!" Helion said as he took his shirt off. His refined physic was in view as Shiro wasn¡¯t too surprised. But the shock factor was still there.
His muscles had a slight bronze colour as she could tell they were powerful.
Helion¡¯s number was 29 as he was 3 spots in front of her.
When it was his turn, he walked out with his muscles proud.
His goal for this was rank 3 ¨C C ranked materials. He wanted to work with them so he couldplete one of the requirements for his ss up.
"Fuuuu....." Breathing out, Helion had fire re up around his body as if he was a warrior of fire.
The fire wrapped around his shoulders, arm guards and neck.
His eyes glowed orange as he made a fire war axe. The axe had two sides while one was an axe and the other a hammer.
"Since this is still my physical ability, it shouldn¡¯t be against the rules, right?" Helion asked.
"As long as it isn¡¯t an area of effect then it is fine." The announcer nodded.
"Then that¡¯s good." Helion grinned.
mming the pommel of the axe into the ground, more fire erupted up as it covered Helion¡¯s body.
What was half armour was now full armour.
Arrows shot towards Helion as he twirled the war axe in his hands and smacked away the arrows with ease.
Shiro raised an eyebrow seeing Helion¡¯s actions.
First off, what he used first was what was known as the Elemental True Armour. When a person reaches a certain proficiency with their respective elements, they gain an armour with that element.
The armour itself takes a lot of MP per second as Shiro also had her own one with the Nano Tech.
But the drain for the Nano Tech True Armour was ridiculous. Just wearing it for even a split second now will drain her.
But the truest surprise for her was how early he managed to unlock the True Armour. The normal average of unlocking the Elemental True Armour was around thete 3rd ss. For Helion to get it during his second ss up... Only genius could be used to describe him.
The Elemental True Armour boosted one¡¯s stats along with their perception. Knocking down the arrows is an easy task for Helion right now.
Stopping at 1 minute and 50 seconds. Helion took 3rd ce. Removing his armour he turned around and was about to wave to Shiro when an arrow pierced his pants and almost entered a certain hole.
"PFFFF!!!!" Shiroughed out loud as that arrow could have gone up his rear.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!" Shiro was clutching her stomach as she almost fell off her chair.
If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that he looked so refreshed having gotten 3rd just to get his rear stabbed, Shiro wouldn¡¯t haveughed this badly.
"Ah Shiro. Don¡¯tugh." Helion said, embarrassed.
[Im soryr itsj ust too funnu] Shiro typed out with difficulty. It was hard for her to type with herughing so hard.
Helion sighed as he let his guard down a little too much. Now there was a hole in his pants where the arrow struck.
Thankfully, there was still a few more contestants before it was Shiro¡¯s turn, giving her time to settle down.
When it was finally her go, she managed to calm herself down.
[Sorry about that. It was just a little unexpected.] Shiro smiled.
"Unexpected is putting it easy." Helion sighed.
Walking up to the stage, the audience started to mutter about Shiro.
"An injured kid is trying this? Is she going to be ok?"
"She even got an ice cast on her arm. Is she going to work with just 1 arm? What a waste of 30 D ranked mana stones."
"I know. How many takeaway¡¯s can I get with the E rank mana stone. Ha...."
Shiro only smiled hearing thements as it was always fun to prove them wrong.
The rules of this survival were simple. No area of effects, no outside help and when the arrow strikes the torso, you lose.
Naturally, this means her cold aura wasn¡¯t allowed.
However, she took this into ount. The main reason as to why she was confident was due to the Counter Weight Phantom together with her observational abilities.
Making an ice spear in her hand, Shiro twirled it a little as she got used to using the spear without her right arm.
In her prime, Shiro was a master of her dagger attack domain and several other weapon domains. The staff and spear were one of them.
Naturally, she couldn¡¯t form a domain right now due to two reasons. First, her right arm. Without the use of her right arm, she couldn¡¯t fully exert the power of her attack domain. The second reason was her body. Due to the different body shape, she had to figure out the best way to use her current body from scratch.
"Little Yin, don¡¯t poke your head out ok?" Shiro whispered as she could feel the bird respond positively.
Giving the announcer a signal, she focused on the devices firing the arrows.
*Click click click click
Out of the myriad of noises blocking her senses right now, she was able to filter out the mechanisms working in the devices and guess which one fires first.
Before it even fired, Shiro crouched low and twirling her spear.
*Phew
The arrow was shot right after and she caught it with her spear.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Giving the spear a light twirl, she redirected the arrow towards the second arrow that fired.
Pivoting on her leg, she used the other end of the spear to redirect another arrow.
Her mind was working like a machine right now as she put it to overdrive. She was listening out for the machine click, seeing the arrows, reacting and redirecting the arrows, repositioning herself before doing the same thing again.
Little did she know, tiny circuitry patterns were showing up in her pupil and hair. However, they were barely visible.
To the people watching, they were shocked speechless. Shiro was looked like she was in a dance.
With only one arm, she was able to redirect every arrowing at her from every direction.
She didn¡¯t do fancy flips, or anything like that. She just pivoted on the spot whilst twirling her spear.
The ice itself left a slight blue trail behind it due to the speed she was twirling it.
Helion sat on his chair in shock. This was the first time he saw her perform and he knew her experiences were vastly more superior than his.
He may be a genius for unlocking the Fire Elemental True Armour, but in an even ying field with Shiro. He would, 100%, get destroyed by her.
Mentally counting down, Shiro decided to stop at 3 minutes. Any further and her body wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up with her, even if she did predict a few moments before the arrow was fired.
Flicking one of the arrows up, she let it hit her torso gently. The devices stopped as Shiro blocked the remaining arrows.
"AN AMAZING PERFORMANCE BY THE YOUNG LADY SHIRO!!!! With an astounding disy of precognitive foresight and body control! Shiro was able to deflect arrows into one another! With a final score of 3 minutes and 22 seconds! She defeated the previous score by a whole minute! We still have a few more contestants till the end. So unfortunately, you are not the winner just yet." The announcer called out as Shiro nodded and walked away.
Sitting back down, she saw Helion¡¯s speechlessness and chuckled.
[Are you alright?] She asked.
"No. I¡¯m just rethinking my life choices and the fact that I, a level 50, was outperformed by a 13 year old level 28..." Helion muttered causing Shiro tough slightly.
¡¯If only he knew that I¡¯m only a few weeks old.¡¯ Shiro thought but didn¡¯t want to break the poor man¡¯s pride.
Chapter 29 - E Rank Raid
Chapter 29: E Rank Raid
There weren¡¯t any more changes a Shiro kept her number 1 spot.
Receiving her 10 C ranked mana stones, Shiro couldn¡¯t hold back the grin and the sparkle in her eyes.
"Wow, you must really have wanted those mana stones." Helion said seeing Shiro about to drool.
[Yeah I did.] Shiro typed out as stored away the C rank mana stones. Keeping 4 out, she put them in her pocket as Yin chirped happily.
"Oh were they snacks for your pet?" Helion asked seeing Yin.
[4 of them were. The rest are for me.] Shiro smiled.
She wasn¡¯t lying. Just that they weren¡¯t used for any other purpose other than filling her stomach.
"Heh~ Is that so." Helion nodded in understanding.
It wasn¡¯t umon for people to keep a few mana stones on them as they never know when they want tomission a weapon or armour to be made.
Yin popped his head out the pocket and swallowed one of the finger-sized mana stone in one go.
Shiro was surprised how it didn¡¯t choke on the stone but what did she know about monster physiology.
[Yin LVL 5]
HP: 5,000/5,000
MP: 10,000/10,000
"..."
¡¯Did the little guy just almost catch up to my MP in one go?!¡¯ Shiro thought in shock.
"Hey, little Yin. Why don¡¯t you eat another mana stone to level up again?" Shiro asked.
Yin made a painful expression as it pointed at its bloated belly.
...
¡¯He wasted the C ranked mana stone!!¡¯ She thought realising this fact. A low level monster couldn¡¯t possibly absorb everything the mana stone gave, therefore, it was surprising Yin didn¡¯t explode into chunks.
"Greedy little fellow. I¡¯ll confiscate your stones for now so you don¡¯t waste them." Shiro said storing away the stones.
Yin wanted to grab them but was too bloated to move. It was as if Yin transformed into a grenade.
To Helion, Shiro fed a stone to Yin who became bloated. She then opened her mouth a few times before closing them again.
"Anyways, I¡¯m going to go back to make a new weapon using my new materials. If you need anythingmissioning, juste to me." Helion smiled and patted his chest.
[Alright. I might need you for something else, but not right now.] Shiro smiled.
Helion felt excited on the inside but curbed it once he remembered that she was 13.
"Sure. Just look for me and I¡¯ll help if I can." He said before walking away.
Now that she was alone, Shiro decided to explore a little before going home.
Before the faction recruitment, she had a few goals in mind.
1) Reach level 30+
2) Complete E rank raid
3) Raise Lyrica¡¯s level to 20+
These are the three tasks she wanted toplete before the faction recruitment. Not only will it give Lyrica the edge in the recruitment, but she will also have a head start.
By doing a raid ahead of time, she is able to get a feeling for how the quests are.
As for why she wants to reach level 30, it was because she gets her first mini ss up.
Since she chose to be a Snow Girl ¡ï, she has smaller level ups that allow her to eventually reach 5 ¡ï¡¯s if she wished.
The tests are given at level 25, 30, 35, 40 and finally, level 45 which brings up to 5¡ï¡¯s just before her level 50 ss up
Walking back to the adventurer¡¯s guild, Shiro looked for the receptionist.
[Hi, I¡¯d like to update my status.] Shiro smiled.
From what she¡¯s read, once she sses up into D ss, she¡¯ll gain ess to more missions, raids,missions and information ess.
"Alright. Can you give me your ID card and ce your hand on the crystal please." The woman said as Shiro nodded.
"It says here that you registered a two weeks ago when you were level 20, is that correct?"
Shiro nodded as a response since her only free hand was holding the crystal.
"Alright.... Done. You¡¯re now a level 28 D ranked adventurer. You now have ess to D rank quests and E rank raid party leader status. With this, you¡¯re able to lead an E ranked raiding party." The woman said as Shiro nodded.
[Name: Shiro
Estimated Age: 13
Rank: E+ -> D-
ss: Ice Mage
LVL: 20 -> 28]
Seeing her updated ID card, Shiro thanked thedy before walking over to a terminal.
The terminal was easy to use as she had to scan her ID card to gain ess to the quests.
There were several types of quests ranging from the easy collection to the hardest Raids.
One could also findmissions from other cities but they were extremely dangerous.
Clicking on the raiding tab, Shiro searched for an appropriate raid.
[E rank raid ¨C Knight Garden LVL 20]
No noobs under level 18!
Adventurers: 29/35
[E rank raid ¨C Knights Garden LVL 20]
Need healers and tankers!
Adventurers: 25/35
[E rank raid ¨C Goblin Castle LVL 20]
Just need to fill numbers! We got D ss helpers! (Must be level 15+)
Adventurers: 34/35
...
...
The list went on as Shiro looked for a suitable one. She needed to make sure the raiding party wasn¡¯t too high levelled due to backstabbers. And that the party wasn¡¯t too low either to not party wipe.
[E rank raid ¨C Spiders Whispers LVL 20]
New party mostly made up of level 20¡¯s.
Adventurers: 22/35
Finding this one to be quite suitable, Shiro decided to apply for this along with a letter.
[I¡¯m a level 28 ice mage with 20k MP. I want to bring my friend who is a level 15 Elven Swordswoman. I can guarantee herbat abilities myself and I will also look after her in the raid. This is to just give her some experience.]
Shiro sent over as she waited for the reply.
After the Shadow Temple, Lyrica managed to level up to 15 by the end of the trip. Boosting her stats by a decent amount.
Since the raid party request was put up not too long ago, the time to wait for the reply was short.
In just a few minutes, Shiro already received a reply.
[We don¡¯t mind that she¡¯s a level 15. However, she¡¯ll have to take care of herself. Not only does she need to do that, we¡¯ll also need to conduct a little test on her if that is fine. Since she needs to that the basic survivability even with you looking after him her. We¡¯ll also need to sign a contract saying her death is not on us. It¡¯ll be on you as you were the one to bring her to the raid.]
Seeing the reply, Shiro nodded in understanding. It made sense. Having a level 28 on the team helped a lot and can help boost the survivability. Evenpensating for a level 15.
However, if the level 28 focuses on keeping the level 15 alive then it may put the entire team in jeopardy. Therefore, a test was needed to make sure the level 15 can survive on their own.
[Yes, that isn¡¯t a problem. Can you give me the time and date of this test?] Shiro asked.
[We¡¯ll do the test tomorrow as we are still waiting for people who meet the bill. The time of the test is 1 pm in the afternoon and the venue will be the training facility just down the block of the adventurer¡¯s guild. Can you give us a basic description of you and your friends as we know who you are tomorrow.]
[My name is Shiro and my friend is Lyrica. I¡¯m 5ft 3, ck hair and blue eyes. Lyrica is an elf around half a head taller than me. She has blond hair, green eyes and a pretty good figure.]
[Ok, see you tomorrow and we hope your friend can match up to the bare minimum. Since an adventurer like you will be a great asset to our party and help boost the survival rate.]
Saving the information to her phone, Shiro walked out of the guild.
Another thing she wanted to do today was to buy the level up requirements for Lyrica¡¯s weapon. Get it to level 15.
The requirements needed to level up Lyrica¡¯s weapon was;
5x E rank Mana Stone
2x LVL 15 Sword type weapons
The E rank mana stones were easy. So was the level 15 sword types initially, but due to this city being quite a low level city, the lower level equipment had priority. Therefore, what would be a easy weapon to get became hard to get.
Walking to the auction house, Shiro smiled remembering how she scammed themst time.
Entering the auction house, she walked to one of the terminals and scanned her ID card.
Searching up level 15 sword type weapons. Shiro frowned seeing none being avable.
¡¯Do I have to get Helion to create them again?¡¯ She thought. The most important fact was the materials as she didn¡¯t know what he needed.
Not to mention, he was probably making his C ss weapon with his newly acquired materials.
Sighing to herself slightly, she walked over to the cksmiths area and looked for anything that fit the bill.
Level 10 spear, level 12 bow, level 8 dagger, level 20 rapier....
There was a myriad of weapons as only a few matched the requirements. Shiro knew that the higher grade the weapon used for upgrade, the better the stat increment.
However, due to the fact that her Nano Growth Infuser was just a prototype. White weapons do an ok job while green would do it perfectly.
Seeing a level 15 green cleaver, Shiro waited in line.
[Can I have that green cleaver.] Shiro asked.
"Gimme 100k USD and it¡¯s yours." The man said as he knew the swords were in demand.
[Sure. Give me the crystal and I¡¯ll pay.]
"?!"
"I¡¯ve changed my mind. Gimme 150k." The man said surprised at the fact that she didn¡¯t even bat an eye at 100k.
Shiro only smiled before looking down on her phone.
[No thanks. I¡¯m not that desperate. 100k was me being nice. Since you don¡¯t want it, I don¡¯t want your sword either.]
She turned around and started to walk away when the man tried to grab her to make her stop.
Dodging out of the way, Shiro looked at the man ndly.
"Ahaha. I was wrong. 100k no problem." The man smiled shamelessly.
[I gave you the chance and you didn¡¯t take it. 50k, take it or leave it.] Shiro grinned.
The man was about to reject when he realised she might leave for good. The cleaver had been there for a while now. Even if the des are in demand, a cleaver wasn¡¯t the best de.
"Ah ok. Sure. 50k USD no problem." The man hurriedly pulled out the transaction crystal.
Shiro nodded as she transferred 50k over. Storing the sword in her inventory, Shiro walked away calmly.
The man thought he got a good deal while really, Shiro was the lucky one. She made sure to put pressure on him by agreeing easily to his first price and left as soon as he changed the price. She made sure her demeanour was unchanged as it put the pressure on him that she¡¯ll leave if he hesitated. With that blocking his rational thought, he would only hesitate for a moment before agreeing to her second price. 50k.
She smiled to herself as the asional scam felt good on the inside.
¡¯Hehe, who else to sc- persuade next.¡¯ She thought as she wasn¡¯t scamming. Just persuading in quick session.
Her next victim was just as short-lived as her first. This time only worse as she managed to persuade the de off him for only 40k.
She was about to head home when she and Helion came face to face again.
He had the face of a broken child who had his heart broke.
[Are you ok?] Shiro asked.
"Why didn¡¯t youe to me if you wanted the swords? I would have made you 2 easily." He said feeling a little betrayed.
[Because I didn¡¯t want to bother you. You also had your new materials so I wanted to see what you did with them first. Not to mention, I¡¯d rather watch you focus and make a masterpiece than to make throw away trash.] Shiro typed out as it was the truth. Well.... It included truths.
"Ah I see... Then you should have just told me." Helion shrugged.
¡¯Too easy.¡¯ Shiro thought.
¡¯No, that¡¯s bad. Don¡¯t think like that.¡¯ Shiro reprimanded herself as it was a bad thought process to have with friends or friends to be.
[I still need to go back to Lyrica so I¡¯llmission something next time.] Shiro smiled as she bid Helion a farewell.
Chapter 30 - Shopping
Chapter 30: Shopping
*Knock knock knock
Knocking on Lyrica¡¯s door, Shiro waited patiently.
"Ah it¡¯s you Shiro!" Lyrica said with a smiled as she was excited. However, her face blushed when she remembered what Madison said.
[I got a present for you.] Shiro smiled as Lyrica weed her into the room.
"A present? You shouldn¡¯t have." Lyrica said but was jumping for joy on the inside.
[You¡¯ll be needing it for what we¡¯re doing next.] Shiro shook her head.
¡¯Next? What are we doing next?!¡¯ Lyrica thought as her face blushed at the thought.
¡¯What is the girl thinking about?¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing Lyrica blush a lot recently.
[Are you ok? You¡¯ve been blushing a lot recently.] Shiro asked as she ced her palm on her forehead.
This caused Lyrica¡¯s blush to deepen as she waved her hand frantically.
"AH it¡¯s fine nothing really!" She said hurriedly.
Shiro only furrowed her brows a little before pulling out the two weapons.
[Here are two level 15 sword type weapons and 5 E rank mana stones. You should upgrade your weapon since we¡¯re going to be doing an E ranked raid.] Shiro smiled as she leaned back slightly and crossed her legs.
"Ah, so that was what you meant." Lyrica muttered with a silent tear falling. She was too focused on the two level 15 weapons that she didn¡¯t see the E ranked raid part.
[What else did you think I meant?] Shiro asked.
"Nothing. Don¡¯t mind me."
Pulling out her dual ended poison des, Lyrica set it down on the ground and grabbed the two level 15 weapons.
cing both weapons besides the poison de, she set up the E ranked mana stones as a pentagram.
Lyrica was following the diagram the system gave her as she was nervous. Unsure if it would work since upgrades always had a chance to fail.
Shiro only smiled feeling her worry.
Her Nano Growth Infuser was special amongst the tools to make a growth weapon. It had a 100% sess rate, the only problem being the initial synchronisation. If the weapon rejects the Nano Growth Infuser, then it doesn¡¯t matter it the evolution rate was 100% since it couldn¡¯t evolve.
Tapping upgrade on her screen, Lyrica watched with anticipation.
From the poison des, the handle glowed a blue silver as metal tendrils slowly crept out from the orb.
"What the hell?!" Lyrica cried out in surprise. She had heard of weapons being upgraded before but never anything simr to this manner at all.
The metal tendrils grabbed both swords as it dug deep into the construction of the des. The de itself ked apart as the nano bots consumed everything with vigour.
The 5 E ranked mana stones started to float upwards as it slowly rotated towards the centre handle. Electricity sparked as the metal tendrils started to spread outwards into the des on either side, reinforcing them.
2 neon blue orbs could be seen on the base of the des as circuitry patterns expanded from them and coated the entire de.
This small upgrade of 5 levels turned the de from a mix of metal and monster parts to almost looking like a piece of alien tech.
"Erm... Shiro..." Lyrica muttered seeing the dual ended de.
"Tell me honestly. This isn¡¯t a normal upgrade is it?" Lyrica asked.
[No it is not. Ibined it with something I found in the Dungeon from before. With it, I was able to make your weapon a growth type weapon.] Shiro replied telling her a little of the truth.
Ignorance was a bliss, and this was the same. Lyrica was too weak to know about Nano Bots right now. A single slip of a word, and Lyrica will be having the entire government after her.
The appearance can be attested to aesthetic choices. But if Lyrica talked about nano bots, then they could no longer bluff their way out of this situation.
"Is that so? But what was the item for it to make such a big difference on the weapon?" Lyrica asked.
[I don¡¯t know but it worked.] Shiro smiled.
"Indeed it did." Lyrica nodded. The new stats for the dual ended poison des surprised her by how good they were for just a level 15 weapon.
[Dual Ended Poison des (Blue) LVL 15/20]
Creator: Helion
+20/30 Sharpness
+15/25 AGI
+15/20 DEX
+15/20 Poison
+20/30 Durability
+15/25 STR
Requirements to Evolve into LVL 20:
15x E rank Mana Stone
2x LVL 20 Sword type weapons
The average sharpness of a level 15 de was only a +15. Even the stat focused ones had only +20. Yet, this weapon was a mix of abilities and still gave her +20 in sharpness.
[So the reason I wanted you to upgrade this de is because you¡¯re taking a test to be on the raiding party of an E ranked Raid. The Spider¡¯s Whisper.] Shiro typed out.
"PFFFF WHAT?!" Lyrica cried out in shock. She was just a level 15 and Shiro wants her to join a level 20 raid.
"S-Shiro! I¡¯ll die ah!!" Lyrica said as Shiro smiled with a slight sadistic vibe.
[I¡¯ll make sure you don¡¯t.]
Shiro grinned as she tapped Yin¡¯s little head.
If Yin was a cat, she¡¯ll look like a kid version of a mafia boss.
"But- but- I can¡¯t do it." Lyrica sighed.
[I believe you can. I want to trust in your abilities to cross levels and your hidden proficiency.] Shiro encouraged.
¡¯She believes in me...¡¯ Lyrica thought as she imagined Shiro saying the sentence.
It repeated over and over again in her mind as she felt a strange sense of power rising up in her.
"I¡¯LL DO IT!!!" Lyrica said as Shiro smiled.
[There you go.]
"But I want a trade!" Lyrica said as Shiro found it reasonable.
[What do you want?] Shiro asked.
"I want a shopping trip with just me and you. You¡¯ll get dressed however I want is that ok?" Lyrica asked, face red.
[As long as it¡¯s nothing lewd. I don¡¯t mind.] Shiro nodded. Dressing up wasn¡¯t a problem for her.
Though she never did anything simr in her past life. It was just her fighting for survival and strength rather than actually doing thing a girl would do.
So this experience would be a fun time for her.
"Alright! Let me get changed." Lyrica said as she walked to her closet. She paused and turned around to Shiro.
[What¡¯s up?] Shiro asked.
"Erm.. can you look away?" Lyrica asked.
[Sure I guess?] Shiro said as she spun her chair around.
Lyrica was acting quite strange as Shiro didn¡¯t understand why.
Shrugging her left shoulder, she waited patiently for Lyrica to finish.
The sound of clothes ruffling could be heard.
"You can turn around now." Lyrica said as Shiro nodded.
"Wao~" Shiro muttered as Lyrica looked as if she had a major make over.
Wearing a light green dress decorated with floral patterns, Lyrica had her shoulders exposed. The sleeves of the dress reached her wrist. The front of the dress reached her thigh while the back reached her calves. In addition to this, she wore white stockings and a pair of small brown boots.
The entire outfit entuated her amazing figure as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but apud as a fellow woman.
Tying her hair into a ponytail, Lyrica stood there with a red face.
"What do you think?" She asked.
[It looks nice. Suits you very nicely.] Shiro smiled.
Hearing the feedback, Lyrica felt joy well up inside her.
"Thank you!" Lyrica said holding onto Shiro¡¯s hand.
Shiro couldn¡¯t write anything due to Lyrica grabbing her hands.
"Ah sorry!" Lyrica let go when she realised Shiro couldn¡¯t type.
[Don¡¯t mind it. But tell me, where are we going to shop? I want something that won¡¯t rip mid-fight.] Shiro said as she didn¡¯t want to start fighting nude in the middle of a boss. It¡¯ll be highly distracting.
That being said, she still had no idea what her dress was made of. It was the first thing she had when she woke up and it was indestructible. But the damage sill passed through to her.
"Well be going to the civilian¡¯s area since we just want to get some casual wear." Lyrica smiled and pulled on Shiro¡¯s arm.
Shiro smiled wearily as she stood up and followed after Lyrica.
When they were walking out of the school, Lyrica attracted several eyes as she was showing off her beauty.
The other students were speechless seeing 2 of the most beautiful people in the school walking side by side. Especially with Lyrica dressing herself up.
To them, Shiro was the type that looked good in anything while Lyrica looked like a gentle breeze on a hot day. Refreshing.
Madison only watched with a grin seeing the two.
¡¯I wonder if Shiro was the one who suggested this or Lyrica. Kuhuhuhu...¡¯ She thought with interest.
Leaving the school grounds, Lyrica brought Shiro to the shop she liked to visit most often.
The shop dealt with dresses and the such as Lyrica had the intention of making Shiro a dress up doll.
"Alright. So in trade of me following you to the E ranked raid, Shiro I want you to dress in whatever I want you to right?" Lyrica asked.
[Yes, that¡¯s what I agreed upon.]
"Then try this on." Lyrica said grabbing a dress and pushed Shiro towards the changing rooms.
Holding the dress, Shiro looked at it in surprise as she shrugged.
[Alright. If you want me to try anything else on just grab them now to make it easier.] Shiro said as Lyrica nodded.
Quickly grabbing a few dresses, she slowly piled up a mountain of clothes.
Shiro felt her mouth twitch seeing this many clothes.
¡¯Does this girl have a fascination about clothes or something?!¡¯ Shiro thought.
Though the truth was Lyrica being more fascinated about herpared to clothes.
The first outfit was a simple one.
A dress shirt coloured light yellow. A pair of ck skin-tight pants that reached around her calves.
Walking into the changing rooms, Shiro took off her dress and was about to put it on when she stopped.
When they did the experiment on her, they had caused a ton of irreversible scarring on her body.
Now that she was reborn, there wasn¡¯t a single blemish on her.
Smiling lightly, Shiro saw her reflection and felt grateful for a second chance at life.
Changing into her outfit, she wore a summer hat and walked out.
"Ah..." Lyrica paused seeing Shiro. Ignoring that fact that she basically had a block of ice on her arm, which she had no idea how she managed to change with that attached, Shiro was extremely beautiful. Almost like a young model.
"Amazing!" Lyrica called out as she grabbed another outfit for her.
Shiro nodded slightly as she took the outfit.
It was a red and gold qipao that exposed a little of her thighs, which she covered with some ck stockings.
The outfits kepting as Shiro yed along. It was surprisingly fun to spend time like this with her friend.
Eventually, they settled with 3 outfits. The first being a snow-white hoody, short jeans and stockings.
The second being a white summer dress and a light blue silk jacket. And finally, thest one was a t-shirt and jeans.
Shiro was about to change back into her normal dress when she realised something off in the dressing room.
There was a camera that wasn¡¯t there previously.
¡¯Someone must have snuck it in when I was away.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Grabbing the camera, she narrowed her eyes as nano bots formed in her palms.
Controlling them to enter the camera, Shiro projected the footage on a small nano screen and saw that they recorded nothing. Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t see the face of the assant.
Wiping out all the stored data, Shiro decided to imnt a mini trap inside that would cause the camera to explode and send sharp shrapnels at the assant.
There was also the chance of someone else picking it up so she installed a fingerprint recogniser. As long as it was the same person, the trap will go off. If it wasn¡¯t the trap wouldy dormant.
Making sure that the camera was disabled. She scanned the room and surroundings to make sure there were no one looking before finally changing again.
"Ha.... Perverts the lot of them." Shiro muttered with a shake of her head.
Picking up the three outfits, Shiro walked out of the changing rooms.
[Lyrica, let¡¯s go.] Shiro typed out as Lyrica nodded.
Due to Shiro trying out different outfits, they attracted a small crowd since Shiro herself was a beautiful girl.
Reaching the till, Shiro eventually paid for everything since they were more expensive than Lyrica thought.
Even though she¡¯s been saving up her money from the previous Dungeon runs, the expenses of clothes were still above what she could afford.
It made sense since the Dungeon gave them a lot of money. Even low-level people can just spend a little of their time in a low-level dungeon to make some bucks. Therefore, the prices had to go up ordingly.
Halfway through paying, Shiro was sure she heard a faint scream as her eyes were cold.
Leaving the store, Lyrica had a satisfied face since she was able to witness Shiro in a lot of different outfits today.
Chapter 31 - Test
Chapter 31: Test
[Let¡¯s go.] Shiro called out as today was the day Lyrica had her test to join the raid.
"Alright. But first, why don¡¯t you get changed to something else. I know your outfit now almost never takes damage but still. Wear something else, be more exciting!" Lyrica said pointing at her in white dress.
[But this is convenient.] Shiro shrugged.
"Convenient isn¡¯t going to cut it." Lyrica said as Shiro sighed and got changed.
She decided to mix and match as she went with a white shirt, short jeans and ck stockings.
Wearing some ck sports trainers, Shiro walked out of her room with Yin perched on her head.
"Pft." Lyricaughed seeing Yin use Shiro¡¯s head like a bird¡¯s nest.
[Let¡¯s go already. We don¡¯t want to bete.] Shiro said as Lyrica nodded.
Since she was undertaking a test today, she wore some easy to move in jeans and a shirt much like Shiro. But her¡¯s were long jeans.
Walking out of the school premises, Lyrica noticed how many sighed were set on Shiro since she changed her outfit.
¡¯What if some bad guy tried to pick her up...¡¯
"Actually Shiro, why don¡¯t you just wear the school uniform." Lyrica said changing her mind.
"...." Shiro was speechless. Didn¡¯t she just tell her to dress up a little and be more exciting?
[We¡¯re not going back Lyrica. Come on.] Shiro said as Lyrica could only sigh sadly.
Walking past the adventurer¡¯s association, Shiro and Lyrica head towards the training centre.
The training centre was massive as it was an underground facility. The first floor consisted of the reception and the terminals to apply for rent a training room underground.
The main reason as to why the rooms were designed underground was to avoid the times where people would cause cracks on the ground. Therefore, berserkers and the like get the lowest rooms to make sure they don¡¯t damage anything too severely.
Walking into the reception, Shiro pulled out her phone and messaged the leader of the raid.
[I¡¯m at the reception with my friend. Where are you?]
"Excuse me. Are you the one who applied to the Spider¡¯s Whisper raid?" A voice called out as Shiro looked up.
The source of the voice was a grown man with a hulking body build.
[Jonas LVL 30 ¨C Axe Warrior]
[Yes I am. I¡¯m mute so I¡¯ll bemunicating with my phone.] Shiro typed out.
¡¯Is this a joke?¡¯ Jonas thought. The girl in front of him was not only a kid, but she was injured on one arm and couldn¡¯t speak.
Already feeling fatigued, he massaged his eyes.
"Ok. Follow me, we¡¯ll be conducting the test." He said as Shiro followed him.
[Lyrica, what are you waiting for? Come.] Shiro said as Lyrica nodded.
Entering the elevator, Jonas started to exin the test.
"There are a few tests that we¡¯ll be conducting. The first being closebat since the spiders tend to fight in close quarters. Next is dodging a multitude of ranged attacks and finally, how she holds up to having both happen at the same time." Jonas said as Lyrica nodded albeit feeling a little nervous.
She was a level 15 doing the recruitment test for a level 20 raid. She couldn¡¯t not be nervous.
Understanding that Lyrica was feeling nervous, Shiro only smiled slightly and tapped her shoulder.
"Hm?"
Patting her head, Shiro smiled lightly.
[I believe in you.]
"Un." Lyrica nodded with a blush feeling more confident.
"Also, Shiro. I¡¯ll be needed to test you as well seen as though you¡¯re injured." He said as Shiro nodded.
She expected this much when she applied. Only people out of their mind would recruit someone injured without knowing their capabilities.
Reaching underground floor 13, the three walked out.
The design on the floor was simple and sleek with white walls.
Shiro only paused slightly as it reminded her a lot of theb she was taken into. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she continued to follow Jonas.
Swiping his ID card on one of the doors, they were greeted with a team of people and equipment within a prettyrge room.
From just her visual estimates, Shiro guessed that the room was roughly the size of half a football field.
"This is the original team. Everyone here is either level 20 or 20 plus. They¡¯ll be the ones to help conduct your test." Jonas said as Shiro nodded.
[Paul LVL 20 ¨C Assassin]
[Erica LVL 23 ¨C Fire Mage]
[Trace LVL 20 ¨C Swordsman]
[Silvia LVL 30 ¨C Grand Healer]
Shiro wasn¡¯t too surprised at the assassin, mage and swordsman. But she was surprised by the Grand Healer.
If she remembered correctly, Grand Healer was a rare ss that only a quarter of all healers obtain.
For her to be in a small party, in this small city, was a most definite surprise.
The reason Grand Healers were called so was due to their healing capabilities. They were able to castrge area of effects as it would heal a whole team rather than just one or two near them.
This was another reason why the Grand Healer were a must-have inrge raid. Naturally, one can also go with a normal healer. But they would need a lot more otherwise they would struggle to heal everyone.
"The first test is the close quarter¡¯sbat. We¡¯ll be having Paul and Trace attack you while little test dummies would also obstruct you." Jonas said as Lyrica nodded.
Walking into the middle of the room, she held out her hand and summoned out the dual ended poison des.
"Wow. That¡¯s a pretty intimidating weapon you have there." Paul said as he pulled out two daggers.
He was a tall and skinny male as he measured up to around 6ft 5. His hair was blond and eyes were brown.
"Don¡¯t joke around. This is the recruitment for a raid. We can¡¯t have a weak link or we¡¯ll die." Trace said unsheathing a sword.
He was slightly shorter than Paul as he was roughly 6ft 3, ck hair and ck eyes.
"Ready." Lyrica said as she twirled the de around her arms to get warmed up a little.
Paul and Trace looked over and Jonas who nodded as activated 4 spider puppets.
Making an ice chair, Shiro sat down and watched with interest.
Paul instantly went into stealth as trace rushed towards Lyrica.
Twisting her body, Lyrica swung her de at him forcing him to parry with her sword.
Paul appeared behind Lyrica ready to attack.
Lyrica wasn¡¯t unprepared as she pivoted on her foot and twisted the second de towards Paul.
*CRRR!!!!
Sparks flew as the three des collided with each other.
One of the spider puppets was about totch onto Lyrica¡¯s leg as she crouched down and jumped up.
This forced Paul and Trace¡¯s des away.
Stabbing the dual ended poison de into the ground, Lyrica put strength into her core and twisted her body.
Kicking towards both Paul and Trace, Lyrica showed great flexibility.
Whilst supporting her body on the de, she had enough stability to do a perfect split and kick towards both enemies.
Jonas was surprised as he looked over at Shiro.
"Why does she fight so well for a level 15?" He asked.
[Trade secret. Less asking more testing.] Shiro replied bluntly.
Jonas only shrugged as it was up to Shiro if she wanted to tell him or not.
Controlling the spider puppets, he made the other 3 jump at Lyrica.
After kicking away her enemies, Lyrica had a serious face as she had to not let the 3 puppets touch her.
She decided to use one of her newest skills gained when she reached level 15.
Readjusting her grip on the handle quickly, Lyrica lowered herself down before twisting her body.
The momentum caused her to start spinning slightly. But that slight momentum was enough to activate her next skill.
de Whirlwind.
Her speed instantly picked up as shended back on her legs and twirled the de around. The silver and blue light that came from the des made it seem like a tornado was around her.
*PA PA PA!
The three puppets were knocked away as a gale was picking up.
When her des reached the fastest they could go, Lyrica twisted her body and shed three times in a row which erupted with de energy.
Trace¡¯s pupils shrank as he quickly activated auto counter on his sword and blocked one of the attacks.
Paul twisted his body as he barely dodged the attack since he was further away from Lyrica.
[I believe she passed the test?] Shiro asked with a grin.
"Indeed she has." Jonas nodded. He wasn¡¯t annoyed at the fact that his two friends lost. But was in fact relieved since this meant a reliable teammate.
"Next is the long ranged test." Jonas called out as Paul and Trace returned.
Silvia tapped her staff on the ground twice as a green light coated the both of them, healing them instantly.
¡¯Instant Heal. A must have skill for a 3rd ss healer. The skill itself while not healing as much as others, heals in one go.¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing the skill.
"This test will have several cannons shooting at you and you must dodge." Jonas called out as Lyrica nodded before pausing.
"Hold up. Did you just say cannons?!" She shouted out. No matter how well her hidden proficiency may be, she didn¡¯t have the capability to dodge a cannon at close range.
"Hahaha, don¡¯t worry. These cannons are simtions of the web shooter spiders. They¡¯ll be shootings around the speed of which the spiders would shoot their webs." Jonas called out as Lyrica nodded.
If that was the case then she could do it no problem.
Seeing her confidence, Shiro only sighed and shook her head.
cing the cannons in ce, Jonas looked over at Lyrica who nodded.
*BAM BAM BAM BAM
Several balls ofs were shot as they expanded in mid air.
Lyrica twirled her des as she cut towards thes.
*Ping~!
Her de bounced off the as she was shocked seeing the toughness of the before it wrapped around her and secured her in ce.
Seeing this, Jonas only sighed.
"Little girl. You were overconfident. The spider¡¯s webs are something even level 20¡¯s would find a little troublesome." Jonas said as Lyrica only nodded disappointedly.
"We don¡¯t need to do thest. You can at least survive on your own. Just watch out for those webs." Jonas said as Lyrica walked back feeling a little down.
Shiro patted her back as Lyrica looked towards her.
"What is it Shiro?" Lyrica asked.
[Don¡¯t feel so down. Just think of it like this, you¡¯re a level 15 who pushed back 2 level 20¡¯s. A feat not many can do.] Shiro smiled.
"I suppose you¡¯re right." Lyrica nodded.
"Alright. It¡¯s your turn now Shiro. Are you ready?" Jonas asked as Shiro nodded.
She walked into the centre as she had a slight smile on her face.
Erica, the fire mage, frowned seeing Shiro not prepare a single spell to be fired.
[How do you want me to do this? Fight you fist to de or finish it in one go?] Shiro asked with a smile.
Paul and Trace frowned a little seeing her confidence.
"Another overconfident one. Let¡¯s finish this quickly." Paul said as Trace nodded.
"Finish in one go if you can then." Trace said as Shiro nodded.
Her eyes were calm as she had a smile on her face.
The temperature started to drop as Shiro did a ¡¯Come at me¡¯ gesture.
Paul went into stealth as Trace dashed towards her.
shing towards her, Trace signalled Paul to do the same.
Couching down, Shiro did a handstand and kicked them both in the groins. This caused both of them to flinch as Shiro expanded her killing intent and used her Tier 2 ice magic to freeze everything around her.
*CRRRR!!!
The fight finished just as quick as it started since Shiro disabled the two.
[I take it as my victory?] Shiro smiled as Jonas shivered slightly. He wasn¡¯t sure if he could do any better if he was to fight her. And he was 2 levels higher than her.
"Yes you are. We¡¯ll do the long-range test now." He said after swallowing his saliva.
Shiro only nodded as she first thawed the ice on both Paul and Trace.
Waiting for the cannons to fire, Shiro gave her body a light stretch
*BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM
Flicking her wrist, five ice spikes shot out the ground and knocked away thes with ease.
"...." ¡¯Why did I even need to test her?¡¯ Jonas thought.
Chapter 32 - Spiders Whisper p1
Chapter 32: Spider¡¯s Whisper p1
"So since you both have passed the test, Shiro passing with flying colours, we¡¯ll include you into our raiding party." Jonas said as Shiro nodded.
[How many people are youcking right now?]
"Ehh... I think we¡¯re justcking 3 now right?" Jonas asked his friends.
"We just need 2 more people to apply for our group and we¡¯ll have everyone." Silvia replied.
"Alright, the earliest we can do would be today. Thetest maybe tomorrow." Jonas said, turning back to the 2.
"Do you want to follow us to get some supplies first then?" Jonas asked.
¡¯If I take Lyrica with me to get supplies, she might get an idea of what¡¯s needed in a raid.¡¯
[Sure.]
"Alright, we¡¯ll go to the shop we normally go to. We¡¯ll get a little discount there." Jonas smiled.
[Lead the way.]
Walking out of the training facility, they headed towards the Alchemists first.
"Hey Lyrica, where did you learn to use your de like that?" Paul asked.
"I-I don¡¯t know. When I use my weapon, my body knows what to do instinctively." Lyrica replied feeling embarrassed.
"Hehh is that so..."
"Paul cut it out. She¡¯ll tell us what she wants us to know." Trace said as Lyrica smiled wearily.
Shiro only smiled seeing Lyrica get the attention.
Meanwhile, Yin was taking most of her time since the little bird was more fun to y with than she had thought.
"Ah um Shiro?" Erica, the fire mage, asked hesitantly.
[Yes?]
"I know I shouldn¡¯t do this, but how do you cast your spells so quickly?" She asked.
For Shiro to be able to freeze both Paul and Trace so quickly meant her visualisation was extremely good.
[I just imagine my spell and fire it. Nothing out of the ordinary. I just imagine my mana holding the atoms and stop them from moving. As for you, it¡¯ll be using your mana to try speed up the shaking of the atoms I guess.] Shiro shrugged.
"Eh? How do I imagine atoms? What do they look like? I¡¯ve tried with the images I¡¯ve seen but they never work."
Hearing this, Shiro paused as in her past life, the technology was slightly more advanced than this world. She could visualise the atom but it was hard to exin.
Just seeing it once can imprint an image into your mind but describing it was another matter.
[I don¡¯t know how to describe it. But I suppose if anything, you should train your mind. Multitask and keep your brain under stress to keep it working.]
"Can you exin further?"
[It¡¯s like this. Imagine having a bunch of arrows fire at you from 360 degrees. Now, I want you to single out the fastest one and fire a fireball at it. While your thinking about your fireball, I want you to single out the second fastest and fire a second fireball. Understand?] Shiro typed out.
Naturally, being able to think that quickly required some talent. This was another strange aspect of her reincarnation.
Most of her body¡¯s specs were the same. The brains processing speed, the hand-eye coordination, the instant eleration from no speed to max. It¡¯s as if this body was modelled after her first life.
The abnormal brain process and senses were strange.
"Ehh?! I don¡¯t get it."
Shiro paused for a second as she had another idea.
[Imagine this. If you y a game with lots of fast appearing targets. You have to single out those targets while nning for the next one.] Shiro typed out.
"I know what you¡¯re trying to say, but I just don¡¯t know how to. My mind can¡¯t think 2 things at once." Erica sighed as Shiro shrugged.
Split thoughts were hard to do normally never mind inbat. Therefore, it wasn¡¯t odd for Erica to struggle.
Thankfully, they reached the store so it didn¡¯t get awkward.
Walking inside the store, they walked straight to the counter.
"TED! I¡¯m here to get some supplies again!" Jonas shouted out.
"COMING!" A voice called back. Soon they saw the person as he was an obese bald man.
[Ted LVL 40 ¨C Alchemist]
"What supplies do you want this time?" Ted asked.
"We want some antidotes, some HP, some MP, reinforcement, berserk, bulwark, frenzy and some fear resistant potions please. Enough for a party of 35." Jonas listed out.
"Hey Shiro, do you know what potions they are? I don¡¯t buy potions often so I don¡¯t know." Lyrica whispered over.
[Antidotes, HP and MP are self-exnatory. Reinforcement increases defence by 20% for a long time, berserk increases attack by 10% and attack speed by 10%. Bulwark reduce iing damage by 25% for 5 hits, frenzy increases attack speed by 30% and fear resistance is self-exnatory.] Shiro typed out from memory.
"I see, but don¡¯t we have healers and supports for those?"
[We do, but, potions and buffs can stack. With potions, you¡¯ll be able to increase your power output by a wide margin to guarantee your safety a little better.
What would you rather have? A singr buff or 2 stacked together?]
"Two."
[Then you have your answer.] Shiro smiled.
Jonas paid for the items as he handed a set to both Shiro and Lyrica.
"When the timees, we¡¯ll call out which potions to use. If you can, try to use the HP potions so the strain on Silvia isn¡¯t as big." Jonas said as Shiro nodded.
She wasn¡¯t nning on using any of the potions since she can handle herself.
Lyrica on the other hand...
[Listen to Jonas. Use the HP potion when you can.] Shiro typed out.
"But I thought you told me to not drink them if I could help it." Lyrica asked.
[Yes. However, this is a raid. We can¡¯t be stringent about our intake. Not to mention, if you die, you can¡¯t worry about future side effects. So if use the potion when you can in this raid.]
"Alright." Lyrica nodded as she trusted Shiro.
"We just got news; the raiding party is filled. We can go to the raid today." Jonas said as he looked up from his phone.
[Right now?] Shiro asked raising an eyebrow.
"Well not right now. Rather tomorrow so I can give the other recruits a chance at arriving." Jonas chuckled.
[Well in that case then can you tell me what time and where?]
"Hmm... We¡¯ll meet up at 10am outside of the Raid Dungeon. Would that be ok?" Jonas asked.
Shiro nodded as it wasn¡¯t too difficult for her.
[Then we¡¯ll see you tomorrow.]
"See you tomorrow."
Leaving the store with Lyrica, Shiro turned to her and typed something on her phone.
[Are you able to tell me the main points one must take notice of when attempting a raid?] Shiro asked.
"Err... I need to make sure the party is high level. I need supplies and info about the raid?" Lyrica asked unsure.
[Almost. When you look for a raid party, make sure the party leader isn¡¯t too high levelled. Make sure he or she is within your range. This makes it so that you¡¯re able to defend yourself if they backstab.
Next, as you said, you need supplies. But what supplies? You need spare weapons, and potions.
Weapons break often in a raid so you need spares. However, your de right now will fit the bill for this raid.] Shiro smiled.
[From what I¡¯ve found, the Spider¡¯s Whisper is made up of a series of bosses and puzzles. 3 bosses, 3 challenges and a final boss. Each of the bosses arerge scaled bosses with the Raid Boss title.
We¡¯ll need to make sure that we are actually able to deliver a final crushing blow or else the fight will never end. Therefore, one must know where our attack lies. If we cannot give them a killing blow, they will stay at 1 HP the entire time.]
"And that¡¯s where the D rankse in right?"
[Yep, D ranks like me, Jonas and Erica are responsible to try deal the killing blow.] Shiro nodded.
"Is there anything else I need to think about?"
¡¯Hmm...¡¯ Shiro thought about what she¡¯s already told Lyrica.
[Don¡¯t touch anything carelessly. You don¡¯t know if it¡¯s a trap.]
"Alright. So in a nutshell..."
[Just follow me and don¡¯t touch anything carelessly.]
"I thought so."
###
Arriving at the location, Lyrica was surprised at the sheer amount of people preparing for the raid.
There were people who had set up a mini tent and rested. Others were doing some light spars.
"Hey you made it." Jonas smiled as he waved to them.
[Yeah. It wasn¡¯t too hard to miss the giant crowd of people standing around here.]
"I suppose so haha. We¡¯re just waiting for a few others. Why don¡¯t you walk around for a bit, get to know your teammates a little." Jonas suggested.
Shiro nodded before walking away with Lyrica.
However, she didn¡¯t look for anyone mostly due to the fact that it was pointless. Trying to understand each other within such a small time frame didn¡¯t do much. It was like a student crunching to revise for a test 10 minutes before the test. Useless struggle.
Looking for a chair or something simr to sit on, Shiro and Lyrica had a mini-tour around the camp.
This aroused some whispers as Shiro was injured and Lyrica was only a level 15.
Whilst walking, a tall woman blocked their way as her face was annoyed.
"Why are brats like you joining the raid? Stay at school or something. Don¡¯t put us all in danger." She said with a frown.
[We won¡¯t hold back the team don¡¯t worry. We already passed the test the leader set.] Shiro replied, hoping to not bare any hostility.
Fighting in a team was a no go in a raid. The discord set in the team could potentially kill everyone due to hesitation to work together.
"You pass the test? Maybe, but don¡¯t tell me that level 15 friend of yours also passed the test." She pointed at Lyrica.
[She did indeed. Do you have a problem with that? If so, ask the leader and notin to us.] Shiro shrugged.
She wasn¡¯t going to show hostility, but it doesn¡¯t mean she likes to be pushed around.
This caused the woman to frown as she walked away towards the leader.
"Shiro I don¡¯t think this was a good idea ah." Lyrica said worriedly.
[Don¡¯t worry about it. This ismon since no one wants to die.]
*DONG DONG DONG!!!
Jonas hit a metal te three times to gain everyone¡¯s attention.
"So I know there are a fewints of having Shiro and Lyrica join this raid. But I can assure you that their capabilities are real. A good way for you guys is to see for yourself." Jonas shouted out.
"We¡¯ll do a tester first. See how we are in the first challenge and first boss. If it¡¯s a struggle, then we¡¯ll stop early since there¡¯s no point continuing to our deaths." He continued.
The raid party talked for a little while as they eventually agreed.
[Thanks.] Shiro thanked Jonas as this would help quite a bit. Disying the abilities to match the talking was the best way to prove yourself.
With the first challenge and first boss being used as testers, it would be easy to show off their overall potential.
It took thest few adventurer¡¯s 20 minutes to arrive as Jonas frowned at their tardiness.
"Sorry, I was in a traffic jam."
Was their excuse. Jonas could only sigh in annoyance as he added everyone into a raid party.
The highest level in the raid party was Jonas being at level 30, followed by Silvia at level 30 and Shiro at level 28.
The lowest was naturally Lyrica, being at level 15.
Entering the Dungeon Raid, they were weed by a ghastly sight.
The location was that of a ruined city coated with webs and nests like structures.
"This is just the appetiser. We¡¯ll need to fight through a horde whilst we go to the main raid. Points to look out for. Webs. Just webs since there will be shooters on the walls. Either kill them fast or dodge their attacks got it!?" Jonas shouted out.
"I take that silence as a yes. Tankers take the front, healers in the middle with mages. Everyone else spread out! LET¡¯S GO!" He shouted as they charged forwards
*KRRRRR!!!!!
An echoing cry rang out as they could see spiders crawling out of the windows of the buildings. Out of the ground and from the bins.
Each of the spiders was the size of a human baby and had a dark purple armour. Several pairs of neon red eyes that glowed ominously and a hairy armoured abdominal area.
[Dark Spider Drone LVL 15]
Chapter 33 - Spiders Whisper p2
Chapter 33: Spider¡¯s Whisper p2
"""URAHHHH!!!"""
Several tanks used taunting shout as it attracted the aggro of the spiders.
Their eyes gleamed red as they swarmed at the tanks.
"MAGES! FIRE!!" Jonas shouted out blocking the strike of a spider.
*PHEW PHEW PHEW PHEW
Fireballs shot out in volleys as Shiro also threw a few spears. The spears exploded out in mid-air as it rained shards of sharpened ice.
Keeping an eye out for the shooters, Shiro made sure to conserve her MP. Especially since her identity will be discovered when her MP runs out.
Lyrica helped out as she would stab at the Spider Drones through the gap of the shields. Even though her sword was sharp, it would leave only a scratch should she hit in the wrong area.
This was made even more difficult since she had less space to move around with the tankers in front of her.
"SHOOTERS INBOUND!" Jonas shouted out.
Shiro immediately turned her attention to the distance as she found the shooters.
They were coloured red and had a much bigger abdominal area.
[Spider Artillery LVL 20]
¡¯One, two, three, four....¡¯ Shiro counted mentally as she realised there were more than 13 shooters crawling towards their general direction.
Flicking her wrist, 10 ice spears rose up around her as she sent them flying towards the spiders.
She made sure each spider had 2 spears assigned to it. The first spear would pierce the head while the second pierced the weapon joint between the abdominal area and the torso.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
Her spearsbusted after killing the spiders, sending shards of ice to the surrounding drones.
While she killed 5 of the spider artillery, the other mages weren¡¯t idle either since they killed the other 8 that was aiming at them.
Shiro only frowned a little since the spiders came very close to shooting their web.
If they did, they would need to dodge or she¡¯ll be forced to smack the web out of the air.
*CRRRRRRR
The ground rumbled as more heavily armoured spiders started to roll out from their burrow.
[Spider Tanks LVL 20]
"Healers! Mass heal! Mages and damage dealers! Shred those tankers first! We¡¯ll hold back the drones!"
Understanding that the tankers were priority, the mages turned their attention over.
Shiro frowned as she couldn¡¯t use any of herrge-scale attacks without affecting the raid party.
Reducing their reaction due to the coldness would be detrimental.
Shaking her head, she decided to focus on the shooters and drones.
Suddenly feeling killing intent, Shiro whipped her head around and shot an ice spear towards the healers.
"AHHH!!!" One of the healers screamed drawing their attention.
When they saw the scene, they were shocked.
Shiro¡¯s ice spear had prated an assassin spider which then branched out and pierce through 5 more assassin spiders.
Clutching her fist, Shiro shattered the spiders into pieces before turning back to the shooters that were about to shoot.
Throwing 4 more spears, she killed two whilst thest one mmed its legs down into the building and shot out a massive ball of web.
"WEB INBOUND! EITHER BREAK IT OR DODGE IT!!!" Jonas shouted out.
Shiro frowned as the web was muchrger than she had thought.
¡¯They definitely can¡¯t dodge this.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. The web was too big and fast for them to dodge.
ncing over at her MP, Shiro decided to bite the bullet and pulled out a MP potion.
Mana gathered in her hands as she spread out her cold aura. The ground started to freeze up slightly as she focused on the web.
Raising up her hand, a giant ice pir erupted out from the side of a building as it knocked the web away.
The party was speechless seeing the sheer size of the pir as Shiro quickly drank the MP potion to recover her mana.
She wanted to keep her MP above 50% at all times just in case anything happens. Such as backstabbing.
"NICE SHIRO! EVERYONE! KILL THE TANKERS!" Jonas shouted out.
Seeing as though the field was slightly frozen over, some of the adventurer¡¯s had some problems with their foothold so Shiro quickly crouched down and thawed all the ice.
The battle continued with a few close calls with assassins and shooters, but they managed to survive the first challenge.
Sitting down to rest, the healers healed the party.
[So how was it?] Shiro asked Lyrica with a smile.
"How was what?" She replied between pants. During the entire time, she was fighting none stop as she needed to pull her own weight.
[The experience so far. With the shooters, the tanks and the assassins.]
"Oh. Then it¡¯s hard. It¡¯s stressful and tense." Lyrica replied getting a towel to wipe her sweat.
[Then everything is ok. I would be more inclined to worry if it¡¯s easy since it makes a person lower their guard.] Shiro said as Lyrica nodded.
She too understood this fact.
"Alright! Let¡¯s have a little discussion about the boss. The next boss is called the spider tyrant. His main weapons are his physical attacks and speed. I want the healers to focus on us tankers since we could be heavily injured at any moment." Jonas said as they nodded.
"The weakness of the spider tyrant lies in its weak underbelly and thin joints. Damage dealers, I want you to focus on these spots."
¡¯But the spinneret of the spider is also a weakness.¡¯ Shiro thought. The spinneret of the spider is where they shoot their webs. Naturally, this means an easy hole to strike at their internals.
Lyrica paused seeing Shiro expression. It was the same one she pulled when she asked her to attack the serpents anus, or the cloaca.
"Erm Shiro. You shouldn¡¯t strike at the spider¡¯s... rear this time. It might overwrite the aggro the tanks get and disrupted the raid team." Lyrica warned.
"...Che." Shiro clicked her tongue seeing the missed opportunity.
¡¯Don¡¯t feel like it¡¯s a shame ah!?¡¯ Lyrica thought.
[Fine. I guess I¡¯ll have to do this fight normally then.] Shiro sighed.
Pulling Yin from her pockets, she fed him a D ranked mana stone as she too was feeling a little hungry.
Making sure that no one saw her, she popped a stone into her mouth and started to chew.
"What are you eating Shiro?" Lyrica asked seeing Shiro chew on something.
[Just a sweet I had. Unfortunately, it was thest one.]
"Shame."
The resting period was soon over as the team walked carefully towards the entrance of the burrow.
Guarding the entrance, the Spider Tyrant could be seen.
It was around 7 meters long, 3 meters tall and 4 meters wide.
It had razor sharp teeth, purple armour with red highlights, 4 pairs of legs each looking sharper than the other and eyes all over its body.
[Spider Tyrant LVL 20 ¨C Raid Boss]
HP: 500,000/500,000
MP: 750,000/750,000
"Aim at the eyes, don¡¯t draw too much of the aggro. Healers focus on the tanks like we discussed and we can win this easily!" Jonas said as he and the group of tanks charged forwards.
"HAAA!!"
They used their respective aggro skills as the damage dealers where nervous. If they identally drew the aggro, they would be gone in an instant.
"DRINK YOUR BULWARK POTIONS!" Jonas shouted out to the tanks.
*CING!
Blocking initial trust of the Spider Tyrant, Jonas grabbed onto the leg as his muscles bulged.
"HAAAA!!!!" He shouted as chipped the razor edge of that leg.
*Crrkkkkk!!!
The Spider Tyrant cried out in anger as it opened it¡¯s mouth.
"TANKERS!" He shouted as 3 tankers dashed in front of him and used Shield Wall.
The Spider Tyrant spat out acid as it hit a translucent barrier.
"Tsk!" Shiro clicker her tongue as she saw the acid fly around. The acid could easily fall onto someone causing them serious damage.
Stomping down, she created an ice pir that touched the acid and froze it entirely.
Thawing her ice, Shiro made an irritated face and gestured towards the spider.
"SPREAD OUT FROM THE TANKERS! DAMAGE DEALERS ATTACK!" Jonas shouted out understanding her annoyance of area of effect.
Shiro and Lyrica nodded at each other as they dashed towards the back of the spider.
Crouching down, Shiro started to construct a ramp as Lyrica started to run up the ramp.
Jumping up, Lyrica twisted her body as she shed at two of the eyes.
*Crr!
The sh only left a shallow mark as the eyes were mostly unharmed.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro made another ramp as it caught Lyrica.
The Spider was furious as one of the legs shot towards her.
Clutching her fist, Shiro created a rotational dome around Lyrica and deflected the leg off.
Using the momentum from the rotational dome, Shiro created a de as it shed towards the leg with increased power.
*BANG!
The de smashed against the leg, causing a wide fracture to run along the armour.
¡¯That armour¡¯s annoyingly tough.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
"Thanks Shiro." Lyrica said as shended next to her.
Shiro nodded as she wanted to give the eyes a stab.
Crouching down, she made an ice pir under her as she jumped towards the back of the spider.
Forming 5 ice spears around her, sheunched them towards one of the eyes as they fused together to one before stabbing towards the eye.
*PUSHI!!
The spear stabbed deeply into the eyes as the Spider Tyrant cranked its body back and cried out from the pain.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro made ramp from the buildings, cushioning hernding. Breathing out heavily, she frowned at her right arm since her manoeuvre just then pushed the limits of her flexibility just then.
"BOMB IT!" Jonas shouted as the tanks had secured the aggro. Now they just needed to bomb it until it only had 1HP and deal a fatal blow.
Opening her palms, Shiro created a nano craft needle and inserted it in an ice spike.
Throwing the spike into the previous wound, her eyes grew cold as she activated needle.
The needle itself wasn¡¯t powerful in terms of armour pration. But when it enters the body, it was another matter in itself.
[Nano Craft Needle LVL 25 (Blue)]
+10 Peirce
Skill: Consume
Consume: Use mana to multiply the amount of Nano Bots present and consume materials near it. The harder the material, the more MP it takes.
MP: 10,000/10,000
She had the idea for this when first saw the nanobots consume everything near it in order to make a certain item.
If she wanted to make a pir in a wall, the nanobots will devour a portion of the wall to make room for the pir.
Therefore, using the same function, she crafted this needle that wasn¡¯t like her other weapons.
Clutching her hands, she activated the skill.
*CKKKKRRR!!!!!
The spider writhed around feeling itself get eaten from the inside out.
Landing back on the ground, Shiro put another mana potion into her mouth.
"Fuu...." Breathing out slightly, she watched her MP get refilled.
Seeing that everything was in control now, she decided to take the back lines and only attack once every so often.
Though she would use her ice to give Lyrica as many opportunities to attack and gain contribution.
The entire fightsted 30 minutes as they finally got it to 1HP.
Unfortunately, Jonascked the stamina to deal it one final blow.
"Is this really how it ends?" He muttered with gritted teeth.
Their teamwork wasn¡¯t wless, but no one died. That was the best news. However, it would all be for nought if they couldn¡¯t even kill the boss.
"Shiro! Do you have anything to give the beast a final blow?!" He shouted out parrying a stab.
¡¯Hmm... I guess it¡¯s not too hard.¡¯ Shiro thought, keeping an eye on her mana.
[I can, but I¡¯m going to need a few buffs and MP regen.] Shiro typed out as she showed it to him.
"SILVIA! BUFF SHIRO UP!" Jonas shouted out as the faster they kill this spider tyrant the better.
Silvia nodded as she mmed her staff into the ground.
"On my authority as a Grand Healer, cast down and empower." Silvia chanted as a magic circle lit up below Shiro.
[Blessing of Empowerment.]
+10% status for 30 seconds. MP regen +100%
Shiro was surprised to see Silvia having Blessing of Empowerment on top of her Grand Healer ss.
She was about to attack when Jonas stopped her.
"Silvia isn¡¯t done yet." He smiled.
"Strength of the mighty, speed of the quick, magic of the unknown."
[Tri Status Boost]
+15% STR +15% SPD +15% INT
¡¯Why didn¡¯t she use this earlier?!¡¯ Shiro thought seeing these buffs. They weren¡¯t something a Grand Healer should have unless she studied buffs relentlessly and improved her mana control.
"I know what you¡¯re thinking. But Silvia can¡¯t use these often." Jonas shook his head.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro dashed forwards.
"TANKS FALL BACK!" Jonas called out as he knew Shiro¡¯s capabilities. Herrge attacks will cause her own teammates danger as they couldn¡¯t avoid it.
Spreading out her cold aura, Shiro expended her mana to increase the freezing potential.
*CRRRRR!!!!!
Ice started to build up around the area as the adventurer¡¯s started to shiver.
Flicking her wrist, snow started to fall as the area around the spider tyrant became a blizzard.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom ¨C Speed Phantom.
Dashing around the back of the Spider Tyrant, Shiro jumped up and was able to get a clear shot of it from above.
Snow started to wrap around her arm as a giant ice sword was being made.
Making a foothold for herself, Shiro made sure it moved as to not put the entire weight of the sword on her body.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Her tiny body shifted as the momentum of the sword swung towards the head of the spider.
Letting go of the sword, Shiro jumped up and flicked her wrist onest time.
Four ice tendrils shot out of the ground as they grabbed onto the handle of the sword and shed it downwards, increasing the momentum further.
*BOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The sword mmed into the weak join of the head and decapitated the Spider Tyrant.
Chapter 34 - Spiders Whisper p3
Chapter 34: Spider¡¯s Whisper p3
"....WE DID IT!!!!" Some one shouted as everyone cheered at the downed corpse of the Spider Tyrant.
"Someone find the mana stone!" Jonas shouted as he sat down.
For raid bosses like this, they had a certain amount of time to collect the mana stone before the body would automatically collect itself.
As for Shiro, she was slowly descending as to not hurt her arm.
¡¯The harvest isn¡¯t too bad.¡¯ Shiro thought as the contributions both she and Lyrica made were decent.
She had a contribution of 15% while Lyrica had 5%.
Landing softly, she walked over to the fatigued Silvia.
[Thank you for the buffs.] Shiro smiled.
"Ah don¡¯t worry about it." Silvia replied.
[May I know where you learned to use the buffs?]
"I didn¡¯t learn from anywhere. I studied text by myself."
[Are you in this party permanently?] Shiro asked. She was nning on making a party to go raiding, and a talent like Silvia couldn¡¯t be let up on.
"Shiro are you trying to poach my teammate? Hahaha." Jonasughed as he walked over.
[Half and half. Having her help out at times would make things easier.] Shiro shrugged not denying this fact.
"I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m in this party for good." Silvia smiled.
[Shame. But if I need your help in a Dungeon run and raid may I ask for your assistance?]
"We¡¯ll see. I¡¯ll have to charge you for my services thought." Silvia giggled.
[Naturally.] Shiro nodded in understanding.
Leaving the duo, she walked back to Lyrica.
[How do you feel about this fight?]
"A little tough, I won¡¯t lie. The defence of that thing was crazy strong." Lyrica sighed.
[Well it isn¡¯t a raid boss for nothing. With bosses like this, you need to have a lot of patience. On top of that, you need to be able to judge the timings. When you can slip in another attack, or when you need to back out.] Shiro smiled.
"You sound like you¡¯ve done raids a lot." Lyrica said.
[I suppose you can say that. When I think about raids and the such, information just floods to my head.] Shiro smiled.
"Heh~ mysterious."
[As mysterious as a 13 year old level 28 can be I guess.]
Shiro shrugged.
Waiting for a little while, they managed to find the stone and the corpse dispersed.
Her loot from the boss was a piece of armour, a weapon and money. The basics.
Scrapping both, Shiro looked over at Lyrica and realised she levelled up.
[What did you get?] Shiro asked.
"I got a level 20 sword. I can use it as one of the ingredients to evolve my de." She replied.
[Hold onto it for now. It mighte in handyter.] Shiro smiled.
As everyone rested, Jonas exined the next section.
"Seen as though we can deal with the bosses without a problem. We¡¯ll continue this fight. The next area is the maze. There are several traps and false entrances. The maze resets with every Dungeon Raid so we don¡¯t know the exact outline. BUT, we are able to know the general path since the maze follows a rough outline."
He then proceeded to talk about the path as it involved using several levers to open doors and progressing through them.
"There are a total of 10 chests, but 7 are fake. We aren¡¯t going to attempt to get them since our main goal is to get the bosses, is that clear!" Jonas shouted out.
"YES!" They replied.
They knew the danger of carelessly picking a chest as it could lead to the entire party dying. That was a thing no one wanted.
After they finished discussing the n, everyone gathered together as they entered the burrow.
The eerie silence freaked Lyrica out a bit as she held onto Shiro.
"Here¡¯s the first divergent. The pattern shows that the lever would be at the end of the right path 70% of the time so we¡¯ll enter there first. If there isn¡¯t a lever, we¡¯ll backtrack." He said as the team followed.
As they progressed with the maze, Shiro mentally mapped the entire area. The maze so far was like a ants hive, cross sections, false paths, levels and the such made it hard to traverse in a short amount of time.
It was only after 2hrs did they exit out the maze without harm.
What weed them was a kingdom. Giant luminescent rocks glowed overhead as it gave the area an ominous purple-blue glow.
Webs and eggs were scattered everywhere as they could see a building, somewhat resembling that of a pce.
Between the pce and them, there was a huge ravine where nothing could be seen at the bottom.
In front of that ravine, a tform could be seen with 3 crystals in three different locations. The crystals were huge as it was hard to miss. Spiders swarmed around the crystals as there were openings for more spiders toe.
"The next bosses are in there. But first, we¡¯ll have to open the gates for the boss. We¡¯ll need to defend three crystals in three directions. We¡¯ll assign 10 people at each crystal and 5 in the middle.
The job of the 5 is to try thin out the herd. But the most important is to shout out the location of the Spider Knight. When you see the knight, you must call out its location and which crystal it¡¯s heading towards." Jonas said as he made sure everyone understood.
"When we know the direction of the spider knight, 2 people from each crystal must go to it along with the five in the middle. This leaves us with 8 people on two crystals, no one in the middle, and 19 people focusing on the spider knight.
The 19 people focusing on the knight must kill him before he reaches the crystal. Once he¡¯s dead, we must grab his head and run to the centre. The head will then glow brightly as the carrier must stand still for a whole minute. In this time, every spider is aggroed to him so we need to defend him.
Simr tost time, 2 people from each crystal must go and help him. This gives us 11 people protecting the carrier.
After the minute has passed, the light around him will glow green. The carrier must them run to any crystal and pass on the light by touching it.
We then repeat this process on the other crystals until we have all three being lit up got it?"
"Yes!" They responded. Everyone here knew the basics as even if they didn¡¯t they can just keep the role of killing the mobs around the crystal.
[I have a question.]
"Go on."
[Let¡¯sbel the crystals 1 to 3. This will make it easier and less confusing.] Shiro suggested.
"Hmm... true. Alright let¡¯s go with that. The crystal closest to us is 1, the one to the left is 2 and the right is 3.
For the people in the centre, it shall be Shiro, Lyrica, Silvia, Josh and Ken. The people for crystal 1 is..."
Jonas proceeded to assign roles as he then picked two people from each team to assist in killing the Spider knight.
"You know your roles, you know where you should be. Now all that¡¯s left is to execute. Let¡¯s go!" Jonas said as they dashed towards the tform.
Shiro froze the ground beneath her feet as her eyes narrowed at the spiders in the centre.
Giving Lyrica a nce, they nodded at each other as Shiro flicked her wrist and spikes shot up, piercing the spiders.
Lyrica put strength into her legs as she dashed forwards. Vaulting up using her dual ended de, she killed all the spiders.
"CENTRE CLEARED!" Silvia shouted out as Shiro flicked her wrist and made her a small tform. This was to give her a better sight of the tform and increase her healing potential.
"CRYSTAL 1 CLEAR!" Jonas shouted out as they made short work of the spiders near crystal 1.
"CRYSTAL 3 CLEAR!"
"CRYSTAL 2 NEEDS HELP!"
Hearing the call, Shiro turned towards them and flicked her wrist. 3 ice spears shot out and broke apart as they pierced the remaining spiders.
"THANKS!"
"ALL CRYSTALS CLEAR! ACTIVATE ON GO! 3! 2! 1! GO!" Silvia shouted as the three crystals erupted with blue light.
*CRRRRAAKKKK!!!!!!!!
Echoes of spiders rang out as they started to flood out from the walls.
[Lyrica, in a while, I want you to carry the head.] Shiro typed as Lyrica was the best option in her opinion. The main reason was due to her level. Being the lowest level here, it was best for her to take the head so others can help cover for her.
"Alright." Lyrica nodded as it was probably for the best.
The spiders continued to crawl in as the team tried their best to kill them the moment they appear.
"SPIDER KNIGHT SPOTTED!! NEAR CRYSTAL 2!" Silvia shouted as Shiro made 5 ramps for them to get to the knights faster.
Two people from each crystal followed as they saw the knight.
The knight was around 2 meters tall, and 3 meters wide. Metallic looking ck armour and slow moving speed.
[Spider Knight LVL 20]
HP: 75,000/75,000
"KILL!"
Flicking her wrist, Shiro flipped the knight on its back as she jumped up and made another ice spike.
Piercing the knight, she kicked off the spear andnded softly.
Lyrica dashed right after and cut towards the fleshy sections between the joints.
The whole ordeal didn¡¯t take more than a few minutes as the knight was killed.
Making an ice cleaver, Shiro cut off the head of the spider and kicked it towards Lyrica.
Dashing back to the centre, the head in Lyrica¡¯s hand glowed just like what Jonas said.
Sliding on her feet slightly, Shiro spun her body as she created a dome around Lyrica and a frozen field in the centre at the same time.
mming her palms into the ground, pirs rose up as they were primed and ready to fire towards intruders.
Quickly drinking another MP potion, Shiro clenched her fist since the spiders were already swarming towards her.
*PHEW PHEW PHEW PHEW!
Spears of ice shot out from the pirs as it pierced a few of the spiders.
They wereing from every direction except up and down. With the help of the others, they were able to keep the spiders at bay whilst still helping each of the crystals.
A minute passed as the head evaporated and absorbed into Lyrica¡¯s body.
"RUN TO CRYSTAL 1!"
"GOT IT! Lyrica shouted back as she dashed towards crystal 1. With Shiro¡¯s ice to help, she was able to arrive in breakneck speeds.
cing her palms on the crystal. The light transferred over as the crystal changed colours.
"NICE! ROTATION 1 IS DONE! 2 MORE! LET¡¯S KEEP THIS UP, EVERYONE!" Jonas shouted out words of encouragement as the overall potential of this raid party was much higher than he expected.
Returning back to their respective location, Lyrica took a moment to get her breath back.
The hardest part to this wasn¡¯t the fact that it was difficult to kill the knights, but rather stamina issues. With the constant bombardment of the spiders, it took a massive toll on their stamina.
"SECOND KNIGHT FOUND! CRYSTAL 3!"
Repeating the process, they managed to pass rotation 2 without problems.
However, at this point, everyone was tired as the defence was getting harder.
Shiro was fine as her method of attack was her magic. As for Lyrica and the other close rangedbatants, they were struggling heavily as they could barely get a moment to take a break.
Since this was thest rotation, everyone was tense and their nerves were strained.
It was in situations like this that a person was tested. Chances of failure or mistakes were at an all-time high as even Shiro was feeling a little nervous. Not because she couldn¡¯t handle it, but rather due to her teammates.
"FINAL KNIGHT! CRYSTAL 2!"
Dashing towards the final knight, Shiro noticed the damage per second decrease dramatically as they had to spend almost 10 minutes to kill it.
Thankfully, it was thest knight so they could get a break.
"STOP!" Shiro shouted out instinctively, seeing what someone was about to do.
They tripped over their own leg as they were about to stab the head of the dead knight. If that happened, they would need to survive for almost an hour for another knight to appear.
Gritting her teeth, she flicked her wrist as she sted the adventurer away, freezing him to the wall.
Silvia understood why Shiro had to do it and quickly healed the adventurer up.
Fortunately, nothing else went wrong as all three crystals glowed green and sent out 3 pulses. This forced the spiders away as they finally had a moment to take a break.
"Fuuuu...." Wiping away her sweat, Shiro sat down with fatigue.
"Good job guys! Take this moment to rest up before the next fight!" Jonas called out as they took a short break.
The guy who Shiro had to st away wasn¡¯t too pleased as he was constantly ring at her.
Seeing this, Lyrica got annoyed at it was the man¡¯s fault that they could have been wiped.
She was about to stand up and walk over when Shiro grabbed Lyrica¡¯s arm.
[Don¡¯t go causing trouble. He¡¯s only ring. If we increase the discord within our party, it will only hinder us and not benefit.] Shiro shook her head.
Lyrica frowned as she could only swallow back her anger.
Chapter 35 - Spiders Whisper p4
Chapter 35: Spider¡¯s Whisper p4
Resting for 10 minutes, the party was back in shape as the support help them regain stamina.
"The next boss is the Spider Royal Guard. Be wary of his speed as he is extremely fast. However, his health is much lower than the Spider Tyrant." Jonas said.
[I can probably hinder his speed with my ice magic.] Shiro suggested as ice was primarily used to crowd control a situation.
"That¡¯s good then. This boss should be quite easy for us. "Jonas nodded in relief.
So far, they have cleared 2 challenges and 1 boss. No losses were sustained, yet.
Taking a moment to discuss the formations, Jonas made sure everyone was prepared both mentally and physically.
After a quick briefing, they walked towards the ravine thatid between the tform and the pce.
There was a rotational switch of sorts as he grabbed it and turned it in a clockwise motion. The more he twisted, the lower the crystals went. A bridge was slowly being constructed with the main material of the bridge being rocks, spider webs and mana threading everything together.
Crossing the bridge carefully, they arrived at the pce doors.
[Do you think there¡¯s a chest here or something?] Shiro asked.
"Maybe, but at this point, we¡¯re just hoping to kill the next boss. Depending on what happens, we might end the raid earlier than expected." Jonas replied. They only had one life. If their firepower didn¡¯t cut it, then there was no point risking such a dangerous endeavour.
Shiro nodded as that was the right decision to make. Risking the lives of party members made for a bad leader. Especially since they knew they couldn¡¯t defeat the boss.
*CRRRRR
The doors of the pce slowly opened as there was a giant hall in their view.
The pce itself was made from a weird hardened mucus type material as it gave the pce a very, insectoid feel to it.
*BANG!
The door closed as the party walked forwards.
In front of them, the Spider Royal Guard stood. Rather than a spider, it was more of a cross between man and spider.
It was around 3 meters tall, a hulking physique, ck armour, 4 pairs of eyes and 4 pairs of legs sticking out of his back.
[Spider Royal Guard LVL 20 ¨C Raid Boss]
HP: 200,000/200,000
MP: 700,000/700,000
"Remember! Keep your guard up, protect the healers and most of all, KILL THIS F*CKER!" Jonas shouted as he and the tankers charged forwards.
The royal guard grabbed two of his legs off as he hardened them up into swords.
*CLANG!!!!
Two tankers charged forwards and blocked the strike.
Grinning with disdain, the royal guard adjusted his grip on the swords and moved the tankers shields away.
¡¯Dangerous!¡¯ Shiro thought as she quickly flicked her wrist. Two ice shield erupted out from the ground as it blocked the royal guard¡¯s legs from cutting the tankers.
It didn¡¯tst long, but just enough for them to pull back.
"Thanks!" They shouted out towards Shiro. They were grateful to have such a reliable teammate in the party as it increased their chances of survival.
Shiro nodded as she mmed her palm into the ground.
The royal guard crouched down and used his legs to propel himself to the roof.
Shiro narrowed her eyes seeing this as it would be annoying to try to freeze him. The royal guard could move faster than the rate of which her ice froze the area.
She could cover the entire room but the raid team would die also.
[Unless I freeze the entire room, I won¡¯t be able to restrain him. I¡¯ll act as support his round.] Shiro typed out to Jonas.
"Alright. You support the healers and the damage when you can." Jonas nodded.
*BANG!
The royal guard pushed off the roof as it caused cracks to form.
3 swordsman¡¯s dashed forwards and used double cut.
Twisting his body, the royal guard dodged the des as he was about to attack once more.
*BANG!
An ice pir hit his stomach as it pushed him back.
He red at Shiro seeing that she ruined his guarantee kills.
"Fuuu...." Shiro breathed out as a snowke-like pattern, made from ice, spread out from her. This would allow her to create ice anywhere in the room without needing to be within a certain distance.
"AVOID THE ICE WHEN YOU ATTACK!" Jonas shouted out as he knew they needed this to survive.
Therefore, they had to be the ones topromise.
The rest of the party nodded as they made sure to step in the gaps of the ice.
The royal guard was enraged as he mmed his swords into the ground. Twisting them, he wanted to send countless webs up from the ground.
¡¯No you don¡¯t!¡¯ Shiro thought as she could tell where the webs wereing from due to the crack in the ground.
Swiping her arm, ice-covered those openings and blocked the webs.
The royal guard red at Shiro as his aggro was shifted to her.
Seeing that Shiro was mostly along without support around her, Jonas¡¯ pupils shrank.
"SH*T! HELP HER!" He shouted.
However, it was toote as the boss was already in front of Shiro.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom ¨C Illusionary Phantom.
Shifting her body behind the royal guard, she grabbed one of the legs and narrowed her eyes.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Twisting her body, she swiped at the royal guard¡¯s legs and lifted him over her shoulders.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 4th Phantom ¨C Internal Feasting Phantom!
*BOOM!!!!!
She mmed the royal guard¡¯s body into the ground as she sent the shock through its entire body, damaging the internals.
Kicking off the royal guard¡¯s body, Shiro created ice on the joints to hinder it.
The rest of the party was speechless as they just watched a 13 year old girl, move, flip and smash the royal guard in one swift moment.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro made a sword above the royal guard and mmed it into the joints.
Making a trail of ice under her, she retreated a safe distance before drinking an MP potion.
"What are you dipsh*ts doing! F*cking hit it!!!" Shiro shouted out as her frustration grew. She had no choice but to push her injured body to use the Yin Style Phantom Arts back to back since the boss aggroed to her. Each subsequence use of the Yin Style Phantom Arts would strain the body, especially the 4th phantom and 5th phantom.
With that single use of the 4th phantom, her right arm was upying most of her mind with the pain.
However, unfortunately for her, her voice couldn¡¯t be heard as they only saw her irritated face and wordless echoes.
Jonas was the first one to snap out of it as he readied his weapon.
"BOMB IT!!" He shouted out as his voice reverberated through the room. The rest of the party dashed towards the downed royal guards hoping to get as much damage in as possible.
Stabilizing herself from the pain, Shiro looked over at the boss.
"URAHHH!!!" A hollowed scream rang out as the boss pushed the adventurer¡¯s away.
The force from his aura exploding out caused slight cuts to the lucky ones and mid to deepcerations to the unlucky few.
"SILVIA HEAL!" Jonas shouted out.
"ALREADY ON IT!" Silvia shouted back.
Meanwhile, the boss had his eyes fixated on Shiro.
¡¯Damn, I pulled the aggro too hard...¡¯ She thought with a frown.
"Fine then big boy. Let¡¯s y." Shiro grinned as she made a spear with the ice and twirled it with her left arm.
The boss charged towards her as it swung the two des in his hands.
Kicking the end of her staff, Shiro sent it towards the boss who smacked it away.
In the time it took to do this, Shiro was already in front of it with another 4 spears aimed at his eyes.
*CLING CLING CLING CLING!
Armour dropped down from behind as it shielded his eyes.
Pivoting on her foot, Shiro jumped on the bosses legs andnded on his shoulder.
Crouching down, Shiro mmed her palm into the shoulder and ice stabbed towards the helmet.
*BANG!
The helmet was forcefully pushed away as Shiro dashed towards the head. Stomping down on the head to get herself a better footing, she plunged her hand into the eyes.
*PUCHI!
Ripping the eye out, Shiro avoided his w as she jumped off the body.
The royal guard had green blood dripping out of his eye sockets as he gritted his teeth.
Crushing the eye, Shiro made a sadistic grin and gestured towards the boss with disdain.
"That all you got?"
It was about to attack her again when fireballs struck its back.
*CRR!!!
Seeing the boss turn his back to her, Shiro sent out more ice pirs as they served as restraints.
The bosses rage shot through the roof as he was getting hit from multiple directions.
Deep red aura red from him as Jonas frowned.
"GET BACK! HE¡¯S GETTING ENRAGED!"
Ignoring this, Shiro dashed towards the boss and went under his legs.
"Since you¡¯re already infatuated with this miss, doesn¡¯t matter if I increase it a little right?" She grinned as ice spears were forming around her.
Seeing this, Lyrica already knew what was going to happen.
"URAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A shouted filled with pain and anguish rang out as his deep red aura dispersed.
"...."
"...."
"...."
Everyone was speechless seeing this.
"Did... did she just dispel the bosses enrage by stabbing it in the ass?" An adventurer asked the same question in everyone¡¯s mind.
The royal guard who had an rming amount of spears pierce his rear could only shake as his movements were hindered greatly.
"Heh, one of the greatest weakness of living beings." Shiro said unable to hold back her grin.
The rest of the fight was rather easy since the boss couldn¡¯t abuse his speed due to... a certain girl.
In this end, Shiro managed to rack up a contribution of 39.5% shocking the team. However, they knew she earned it as she solo tanked the entire time, even though she was a mage.
Lyrica on the other hand, managed to get a 5% contribution. This, however, was mostly due to her taking the advantage and hitting the ice spears that were present in the bosses rear.
[Nice job Lyrica.] Shiro praised as Lyrica did well to take advantage of the weakness she created.
"Thanks. But Shiro. What is it with you and stabbing monster¡¯s butts?" Lyrica asked with a bitter face.
[Well, it¡¯s a good weakness. Enough firepower and size and you can hinder their capabilities by quite a bit through stabbing the anus.] Shiro said bluntly.
"But why do you look like you enjoy it a lot?" Lyrica asked. Every time Shiro stabbed a monster¡¯s ass, she had this sadistic expression on the whole time.
Shiro only shrugged as seeing the monster¡¯s struggle made her feel a little giddy inside.
[Don¡¯t worry about it. More importantly, congrats on levelling up again.] Shiro smiled. The EXP gained from killing a raid boss was many times more than that of normal monsters.
With just killing two, Lyrica managed to level up twice leaving her at level 17. Naturally, this could also be attributed to the fact that her contributions were rather high.
As for Shiro, her 39% contributions allowed her to level up to level 29. Distributing her points, Shiro smiled know that she was a step closer to her 2 ¡ï advancement test.
[Name: Shiro (Weakened 2 days, 5hrs)
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress
Level: 29
ss: Snow Girl¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 5700/5700 (True Value 17,000)
MP: 29,100/29,100
STR: 150 -> 200 (+85) <+50>
VIT: 200 (+70) <+50>
INT: 300 -> 350 (+140) <+87>
AGI: 240 -> 300 (+75) <+75>
DEX: 200 -> 240 (+40) <+60>
DEF: 80 (+135) <+20>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 30,300 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Harden (Equipment), Lesser Fear (Equipment), Mana Barrier.]
With her MP just below the 30k mark, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to unlock her bow creation just yet.
[Say Lyrica, if you¡¯re the party leader right now what would you choose. To go ahead and do thest challenge and thest 2 bosses or quit while your ahead?]
"Hmm... I would quit while I¡¯m ahead since everyone is tired. The raid so far has taken a toll on us and without a good night¡¯s rest. We won¡¯t be in top form to challenge the next ones." Lyrica said as she could tell from thatst fight, that everyone was reaching their absolute limits.
Shiro nodded as what Lyrica said was correct.
[But you forgot another option. We can camp in the dungeon.] Shiro smiled.
"But isn¡¯t it dangerous?"
[Yes, but not in the boss room. The boss room is safe as the boss had upied this area. Once we kill the boss, this ce is open for camping.]
"ALRIGHT! Everyone get the tents out! We¡¯re camping for tonight. We¡¯ll take night shifts and fight the boss tomorrow." Jonas shouted out as Shiro smiled.
[See? Come on. We¡¯re going share a tent so let¡¯s build it ourselves.] Shiro typed out as Lyrica nodded with a blush.
¡¯Sharing tents? With Shiro? What if I roll over onto her or her onto me?!¡¯ Lyrica thought as her blush deepened.
"..."
Shiro decided to leave a note telling Lyrica to help her when she snapped out of it.
Walking away, Shiro started to set up the tent.
Chapter 36 - Spiders Whisper p5
Chapter 36: Spider¡¯s Whisper p5
Lyrica eventually snapped out of it and helped her set up the tent.
[You set up beds. Jonas seems to want to talk to me.] Shiro pointing at Jonas who was waiting by the side.
Lyrica nodded as she went inside the tent.
[Can I help you?] Shiro asked.
"Yeah. Can we have a short walk? I just want to talk for a little bit." Jonas smiled
[Sure.]
Walking to the edge of the boss room, Shiro waited for Jonas to open his mouth.
"Thank you for helping us. Honestly, if you didn¡¯t tank the boss, there was a good chance for us to lose a few members." Jonas sighed.
Shiro only shrugged at this as he knew what he was going to ask.
[If you¡¯re wondering, I just used normal martial arts to tank the boss. If it had hit me once, I would have been in danger.]
"I¡¯ve seen the martial art¡¯s taught around this area. And yours is definitely one of the most advanced ones I¡¯ve seen. Which martial arts allows a 13 year old to m a 3 meter tall boss into the ground?" Jonas asked rhetorically.
[True.] Shiro shrugged. Honestly, she doesn¡¯t know where the Yin Style Phantom Arts lie in terms of quality in the martial arts world. But she did know that this martial arts suited her a lot. More so than her old mish mash ofbat arts.
"But what I wanted to ask was not info about your martial arts but rather, will you join my party?" Jonas asked.
[What?]
"I wish to recruit you into my party."
[No.]
"... Ha.... I thought as much. Care to exin?" Jonas sighed.
[I¡¯m nning on making my own party. This stop in New York is only temporary. I aim for the bigger world. Which is why I wanted to recruit Silvia. A grand healer like her is not often seen, one with buffs as well.]
"I know. Honestly, Silvia is too good for our party. She saved us a lot in the past." Jonas smiled slightly as he leaned against the wall.
[Want to tell me why she¡¯s in your party then?]
"Her father. That¡¯s why. Her father was a good friend of ours and Silvia knew it. However, we couldn¡¯t find a support so every Dungeon Run was dangerous. One day, we just couldn¡¯t handle it and he died. Silvia was determined to be a healer and the best one at that so she can help as many people as she can. The only reason why she stays here is because she wanted to look after us in ce of her father." Jonas said with nostalgia.
[So she is staying in your party in ce of her father. If that is what she wants then I¡¯ll give up. I don¡¯t like to force people against their wills in situations like this. Since she likes to stay in your party, wasted talent or not, it¡¯s her choice.] Shiro typed out.
"...Honestly, you don¡¯t feel the age you look." Jonas replied honestly.
[This miss is only 13. If you need anything else just ask.] Shiro typed as she walked away.
Jonas only shrugged as he returned to his tent.
Opening the tent, Shiro found the inside to bepletely set up. Beds were in ce, and so was some food.
"Hey Shiro. What did he ask you about?" Lyrica asked.
[He just asked me to join his party. I rejected though.] Shiro shrugged.
"Heh~ So he recruited you.... Well I suppose since Shiro is strong. A lot of parties would want you." Lyrica nodded.
[Yes, but I don¡¯t want them. I¡¯d rather make my own party and explore the wide world.] Shiro smiled as she sat down on the makeshift bed.
"Is that so..." Lyrica muttered sadly as this meant that Shiro was going to leave. She didn¡¯t think she would be recruited since she was weak, much weaker and anyone she¡¯s seen especially Shiro.
[Che, look at your expression. Ai so dense.] Shiro shook her head.
"Dense? What do you mean." Lyrica asked.
[Think about it. What have I done for you?]
"You took me to Dungeons, levelled me up, got me a weapon, taught me to fight and brought me to this raid." Lyrica replied.
[Yep. And in the end, you still think I¡¯m not recruiting you?] Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Ah! You¡¯re right!" Lyrica muttered in realisation.
[Right now I¡¯m nurturing your talent. I¡¯m helping you get stronger.] Shiro typed out.
"But I thought you wanted to me to join a faction?" Lyrica asked.
[Just because you joined a faction doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t be in a party does it?] Shiro shrugged.
Naturally, there were factions who force the adventurers to not join other parties. But if that was the case then Lyrica can just leave that faction.
"That is true..." Lyrica nodded as she sat down on her bed.
They talked for a little bit more until it was time for them to eat.
Dinner was nd for Shiro since she couldn¡¯t taste the vours at all. She could only hide 3 D ranked mana stones in her food.
After giving Yin his part of the D ranked stones, Shiro could only sigh at her remaining stock.
¡¯I should probably go solo a few more D ranked dungeons to get my stock refilled.¡¯ Shiro thought.
This time she¡¯ll be more careful as having a 10-day break with decreased stats wasn¡¯t fun at all. Not to mention, she had to be careful every time she exerted her body.
However, by the time they finished this Dungeon, her status debuff should wear off.
Finishing the meal, they returned to their respective tents for the night.
Shiro kept herself in a shallow sleep state to make sure they weren¡¯t backstabbed.
Thankfully, the night passed safely.
"The next challenge is a parkour challenge. Everyone needs to work together since we can¡¯t use mana in this area." Jonas said as the party nodded.
The next section of the Spider¡¯s Whisper raid involved them jumping and climbing through obstacles. One misstep and you¡¯ll fall to the bottom. The higher you go, the more dangerous it gets.
Naturally, with a healer on the team, no one will die on this part.
"We¡¯ll do it in a buddy system. Everyone pairs up and help each other out. You¡¯ll be giving each other a boost to reach the next tform." Jonas called out.
Shiro and Lyrica paired up.
[We can do this easily.] Shiro smiled. Her mobility was top tier for her ss and level. This was because her stats were focused around being a ss cannon. Therefore, she had to have the AGI to dodge.
"Yeah. Want to race up there?" Lyrica joked.
[You sure about that?] Shiro replied raising an eyebrow.
"Shiro, Lyrica, do you two want to be first?" Jonas asked seeing them joke about this section.
[Sure.] Shiro nodded as she gave her body a stretch.
[Lyrica, I¡¯ll give you a 5 to 10 second head start.] Shiro offered as Lyrica nodded.
"Alright don¡¯t regret it." Lyrica said.
Stepping back slightly, she crouched down and held her de.
Stepping down hard, Lyrica dashed forwards as she stabbed her de into the ground and vaulted upwards. Twisting her body, she stabbed it to the side of the walls andnded on the de.
Grabbing the de with one hand, she spun herself beforeunching herself upwards, storing the de into her inventory in the process.
While the process wasn¡¯t perfect, it wasn¡¯t clumsy either. The raid party watched with a cking jaw as they knew they couldn¡¯t do the same. They had high AGI but they doubt they could pull off what Lyrica did.
Shiro only smiled seeing Lyrica made use of her hidden proficiency. Her hidden proficiency would give hints and sometimes act on instinct. By adjusting herself at thest moment, she can force her hidden proficiency to act on her instincts and propel her upwards.
"I may have my work cut out for me, right little Yin?" Shiro said tapping Yin¡¯s head.
However, her smile never faded as she stretched her body.
The entire area was several tens of meters high as Lyrica was only around 10% of the way up.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom ¨C Speed Phantom.
Her figure blurred for a moment as Shiro was already tapping on the walls.
Making sure to step on the gaps, sheunched herself with minimal contact.
Flipping off the walls, Shiro leapt over Lyrica¡¯s head and gave her a wave.
"Shiro!" Lyrica called out in surprise. She thought she had managed to outsmart Shiro through her hidden proficiency but it seems like she was wrong.
Shiro figure blurred constantly as it made her seem like a ghost.
In a short 2 minutes, shended softly at the top on the floor.
Lyrica only arrived after 10 minutes.
"Are we doing the same?" Someone asked Jonas.
"Yes we are." He nodded.
"Wait what?!"
"Of course I¡¯m f*cking joking! Do I look like I can do a flip!" Jonas retorted as they had something else of this.
"Carry this." Jonas said throwing over adder.
They had to resort to usingdders and climb up pair by pair.
The entire area took them an hour and a half as Shiro waited bored at the top.
Coughing awkwardly at the fact that they took so long to arrive at the top, Jonas led them to the next boss.
"The next boss is the second tost boss. The worst part about this is the time limit. We have 30 minutes to kill the Spider King and after 30 minutes, the Spider Queenes out.
Individually, they¡¯re not bad. But together they¡¯re a pain in anyone¡¯s asses." Jonas said as Shiro perked up hearing asses.
She wasn¡¯t really focused on Jonas as she was looking into the boss room.
"Shiro, he means they are annoying." Lyrica whispered over as she knew what the girl was thinking.
[Oh.] Was all Shiro typed as she decided to listen in on the strategy.
"The key to this boss is timing. When the boss fight starts, several waves of enemies will be attacking us with the boss. Within the wave of enemies, there will be a few spiders that are glowing bright red. We need to avoid them at all cost while the main damage team will be fighting the boss. For every 20% of the health lost, the boss will open his giant maws to eat minions. When he does that, we need to throw the bomb spiders inside instead to stop this. This will increase the aggro of whoever threw the bomb but will stop his healing. Do this correctly and we should be able to kill him before the queenes." Jonas exined.
"What about If we don¡¯t do manage to kill him before the queen?" Someone asked.
"Well sh*t get¡¯s annoying. Because the queen will kill any bomb spiders on sigh so we must draw her away. If she manages to kill a bomb spider, the spider king will regenerate the 20% lost health.
If we can¡¯t sessfully draw her away, the fight will never end. As for the strategy for her, her back opens up every 30% health loss and that¡¯s when she¡¯s in a weakened state. Outside of that, her armour is abnormally tough. She¡¯s a tank that can definitely take a beating. Therefore, we need to kill the king before we focus on her. Be careful though, she has fear skills and causes confusion." Jonas said.
"Therefore, when a member is feared or confused, the nearest partner or buddy needs to force feed the fear resistance potion since it has a low duration. If both are feared or confused, the surrounding people need to force feed them. People need to call out quickly to reduce the chances of casualties." Jonas said as they nodded.
Shiro only sighed as the best thing for this was the dispel skill.
The worst part of this was that she could be feared or confused as well. She¡¯ll need to be careful in case she identally killed someone in one go.
After discussing the basic strategies, the raid party got ready to fight the Spider King.
It was a half man with a spider body anywhere under the abs. The spider had dark purple armour while the man¡¯s skin was pure white.
His total height measured to about 6 meters.
[Spider King LVL 20 ¨C Raid Boss]
HP: 600,000/600,000
MP: 750,000/750,000
Chapter 37 - Spiders Whisper p6
Chapter 37: Spider¡¯s Whisper p6
The first thing Shiro did was to secure the aggro of the boss. She was going to be the main tank since she had the least chance of dying to it.
Creating a few spears around her, she dashed towards the Spider King.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
Swiping his ws, the king destroyed the spears.
Shiro frowned seeing this as the king¡¯s observational abilities are top tier.
Twisting her body under his ws, she crouched down and tapped the underbelly of the king with her palms.
*BOOMM!!!
A giant pir of ice exploded as it forced the king tond on his side.
"BOMB IT!"
Someone shouted as magic and skills shot towards the boss.
Getting back up with difficulty, the king was about to attack when Shiro found the perfect opportunity.
Like the sad royal guard, the king was also prated.
"..."
"..."
¡¯WHAT IS WITH THIS GIRL AND ASSES!!¡¯ The adventurer¡¯s thought, feeling an ounce of pity for the boss.
However, that pity didn¡¯t get in the way of them killing it as they continued tounch attacks.
They could only attack since the other adventurers are taking care of the extra spiders flowing into the room.
"BOSS LOST 20%! GET THE BOMB!" Jonas shouted out as the maw of the boss opened up to reveal rows of disgusting teeth.
Someone threw the bomb over but their aim was a little off.
Shiro frowned seeing this as she dashed towards it. Twisting her body, she kicked the spider bomb into the mouth of the king. She made sure to use counter weight phantom as to not set it off early.
*BOOM!!!
The king recoiled back as bomb exploded in his mouth.
"YOUR FATHER COULD SHOOT BETTER THAN YOU! SOMEONE ELSE THROW NEXT TIME!!" Jonas called out angrily at the thrower.
Shiro only chuckled as she understood the joke.
While she was tanking the boss, Lyrica was disying a surprising amount of damage per second.
*CING CING CING CING!
Her de created scratches upon scratches on the armour but the damage was dealt.
Backflipping off the back of the king, shended softly.
A spider tried to jump on her but was killed with a single swipe.
With Lyrica increasing her damage output, the HP of the king was decreasing dramatically.
"BOMB!" Jonas shouted out as this time someone actually threw on target.
60%... 40%.... 20%...
The HP decreased steadily as it reached the final hurdle. Thest bomb.
However, when maw opened up, the bomb spider was a little too far.
"Shiro help me!" Lyrica called out as Shiro nodded.
Lyrica stabbed her de into the ground as she stepped on it andunched her self through the air.
Shiro flicked her wrist as a ramp made from ice was created easily.
Lyricanded without much force as she swiped up the bomb. Throwing it, the bomb flew in a perfect arc andnded in the spider¡¯s maw.
"AAAHHHHHHGGGGGG!!!" Crying out in pain, the king copsed on his own body weight.
"Fuu..." Wiping her sweat, Lyrica walked over to her de.
"ALRIGHT! QUICKLY CLEAR OUT THE MOBS!! WE NEED TO FOCUS ON THE QUEEN!!" Jonas shouted out as everyone pushed to kill the spiders. After the king dies, bomb spiders stopped appearing.
Therefore, they wanted to clear the normal spiders for more room against the queen.
Clearing out a 30-meter diameter circle around them, they gulped as they prepared for the queen.
If they died they would die for good. But, times have changed, it would be hard to go through life without being an adventurer. You just wouldn¡¯t get the required cash to survive. Naturally, you could also work for the government. But, with so many people in the world, who can guarantee a job?
So they risk their lives to survive in this changed world.
*PHEW! PUCHI!
A de wasunched at an adventurer as itcerated deep into his torso.
"SILVIA!" Jonas shouted out. Everyone here was risking their lives, so if they could save 1 or 2 they would.
Silvia quick rushed over to him as she healed him as fast as he could.
Shiro, who saw this, quickly ran towards the queen as she needed to stop her from attacking other adventurers.
Creating a spear of ice, Shiro vaulted herself up as she kicked the end of the spear and sent it to the queen.
*BOOM!
Shiro exploded the spear just before impact as the force send the queen back stumbling.
"Use this chance to prepare!" Lyrica shouted out as knew what Shiro wanted to say.
Shiro gave her a thumbs up.
Creating tworge pirs of ice beside her, Shiro stood like a war goddess protecting the gate.
The queen slowly crawled back up as she red at Shiro. She recognised the girl who stabbed her husband¡¯s anus.
As the dust cleared, everyone could see the queen in her full glory. She was arge humanoid with spider shape designed armour, pale skin, 4 pairs of eyes and long white hair.
[Spider Queen LVL 20 ¨C Raid Boss]
HP: 599,500/600,000
MP: 900,000/900,000
Her initial attack only hit for a pitiful 500 HP damage as the armour was abnormally though.
Shiro only frowned harder as she saw the HP regenerate after a moment.
¡¯We¡¯ll have to keep hitting her to keep her regeneration down.¡¯ She thought.
ncing backwards, Shiro noted that the man was healed.
"TANKERS CHARGE!" Jonas shouted as sweat was dripping down his head.
The person who was heavily injured was one of their tankers, and if they aren¡¯t careful, they¡¯ll be done for.
Dark red smoke started to flow out from the cracks of the queen¡¯s armour as Shiro understand it to the fear skill.
The smoke merged into a skull as it shot towards one of the adventurers.
"ARG!" He cried out as his eye became bloodshot. Before he could even do anything, his buddy stuffed a potion into his mouth breaking him out of the fear status.
"Thanks." He said as he panted.
His buddy nodded as they returned to the fight.
¡¯At least they can react fast enough.¡¯ Shiro thought, thankful for this.
The two pirs beside her extended out with smaller sections as they blocked the queen¡¯s strike.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
She raised her leg and pushed the queen¡¯s arms down before twisting her body and gave the queen another kick.
As Shiro kicked the queen back, Lyrica dashed behind the queen and stabbed her using her de.
"ARH!" The queen cried out as her legs extended out behind her.
Lyrica wanted to dodge backwards as she knew she was in danger.
Shiro erected a shield seeing this.
"AHH!!!" The legs weren¡¯t slowed by the shield as it pierced through and stabbed Lyrica in her abdominal area.
It was about to stab at Lyrica again but Shiro dashed in front of the queen.
She grabbed the leg with her left hand.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd and 4th Phantom ¨C Counter Weight + Internal Feasting Phantom.
Twisting her body, Shiro created a de on her leg as she applied all the force into a sing point.
*CRACK!
The leg cracked as it broke away from the queens back.
Green blood sttered everywhere as Shiro threw the leg away.
Lyrica took this chance to drink an HP potion.
"Thanks." She said as Shiro nodded.
Dashing forwards, Shiro was about to stab towards the queen¡¯s eye.
The queen leaned back as she kicked towards Shiro.
Touching the leg with her left hand, Shiro flipped once before kicking the queen in the face.
Shiro only frowned as her reach was abysmally small since she would have easily ripped the eye out of the queen¡¯s skull.
Dark red smoke erupted out the queen as Shiro was hit but the status debuff.
"OH CRAP!" Lyrica shouted in a panic as she took out a potion. However, Shiro was already nowhere to be seen.
"Huh?" Lyrica muttered in confusion.
She suddenly shivered as snowkes fell from the sky.
"Did Shiro get feared?" Jonas asked with a frown.
"Yeah she did. When I tried to release her she was long gone." Lyrica said with a bit of panic.
"But it seems like it worked out for us instead." Jonas said pointing at the blizzard that was started to pick up speed.
"RUN AWAY FROM THE QUEEN!!" He shouted out.
A pair of azure eyes were seen in the blizzard as Lyrica shivered feeling the killing intent being radiated from Shiro.
"What the hell did she see when she was feared." Jonas muttered with a frown.
Meanwhile, Shiro was smiling like a psychopath in the blizzard as she started down the queen like a hunter and prey.
When she was hit by the fear, a part of her was wondering what she was afraid of. However, what she saw was the light bearer hero. She didn¡¯t fear him, no far from it. She wanted nothing else but to end him.
"Since you want to take his appearance so much lemme fulfil your wish." Shiro grinned as she created a spear of ice.
Dashing forwards, Shiro dodged the queens strike and pinned the arm to the ground.
Her cold aura was in full force as the blizzard was created mostly from her passive.
After freezing the arm, Shiro kicked the queens head.
The kick caused the queen to recoil backwards as Shiro flicked her wrist and 5 spears stabbed towards the queen from different directions.
ncing around, Shiro saw that the blizzard was obscuring everyone¡¯s view as she grinned.
Lightning coagted in her palm as a dagger was formed. The dagger was printed with a skill she recycled from one of the items she scrapped before.
[Nano Tech Ice Dagger (Blue) LVL 10]
+15 pierce.
Skill ¨C Mana Focus.
+10% MP for 5 minutes.
Cooldown: 5 minutes.
Drinking the MP potion, she grinned at her MP count.
[MP: 31,910/31,910]
Naturally, this also means her Bow Creation was unlocked.
Holding the dagger in her mouth, Shiro dashed towards the queen.
Tapping on the knee, she jumped over her as a bow was formed in her hands.
[Nano Craft Bow (Blue+) LVL 25]
+30 Pierce
+50 Power
+50 Pration
+50 Critical Chance
+50 Critical Damage
Skill ¨C Mana Enhanced Arrow
Insert stored mana to increase the power of the arrow fired.
Stored MP: 25,000/25,000
Cost: 1,000 per arrow.
The queen currently had around 85% of her health. There were enemies everywhere around them so Shiro could use her mana without worry that a red dot suddenly appeared.
Creating an ice hook, she used it to pull the bow back in ce of her right arm.
Her eyes were cold as a neon blue arrow coagted on the bow.
*BANG!!
The arrow was fired as it pierced through the armour with ease. Twisting her body, Shiro threw the bow up as she drank a few MP potions.
Pivoting on her leg, she avoided a strike from the queen before roundhouse kicking the head.
The space between them allowed the bow to fall back into her hands as she created another arrow and fired at point nk range.
Meanwhile, everyone outside could only watch the blizzard increase in size and turn the area in front of them into an icy tundra.
They couldn¡¯t see through the blizzard as all they saw were shes of light.
One of the lights pierced through the blizzard.
*BOOM!
A giant crater was formed in the wall as the adventurers near it became pale.
"Whatever happens, remind me not to piss Shiro off." Jonas said as Lyrica nodded.
From what it seems, what Shiro fears most was also what she wanted to kill the most.
One of the adventurers saw the arrow and muttered in disbelief.
"How the hell can there be such a dense arrow of mana?!"
"What do you mean?"
"For it to cause this kind of destruction, it means the mana retained most of its power until contact. Even for me, the mana would disperse in time which is why we use man-made arrows to be more efficient."
"So you¡¯re telling me a mage fires a better mana arrow than you."
"... yes."
The light eventually faded after 30 minutes.
The blizzard faded away as they soon paled at the sight.
Shiro sat on the corpse of the Spider Queen with bloodshot eyes and an evil grin. She barely had a scratch on her as they looked at the mangled corpse of the spider queen.
The most prominent injury was a hole from her rear all the way through to her head. It was a clean hole as they shivered thinking about what could have happened.
Shiro pulled out a potion as she drank it and dispelled the fear status. Her killing intent dropped dramatically as the snowfall ended just like that.
"....."
¡¯IF YOU COULD SOLO THE GOD DAMN FINAL BOSS WHY WAS IT SO HARD TO KILL THE BOSSES BEFORE!!!¡¯
Chapter 38 - Aarim
Chapter 38: Aarim
Seeing that the final boss was cleared, everyone rested up.
Lyrica, who was besides Shiro, fidgeted a bit as she opened her mouth to talk but gave up.
[If you have something to say, say it.]
"Well... I was just wondering what you saw. For you to be that angry, it must have been someone you disliked a lot."
[You thought I was angry? No I wasn¡¯t. I wanted to kill, yes, but I wasn¡¯t angry. Nope, far from it.] Shiro chuckled. For as long as she could remember, she had hardly ever been angry.
"Eh?! That wasn¡¯t you being angry?!" Lyrica cried out in surprise as she looked at the mangled corpse of the queen.
[Nah. She just shifted into someone I really hate don¡¯t worry about it.] Shiro shrugged.
They soon found the mana stone as the body dispersed.
Due to her insanely high contribution, most of the loot went to her.
Shiro flicked her wrist as a bunch of items fell out. These items were the ones not useful for her so they could have it.
[This is some of the loot from the boss. Split it amongst yourselves.] Shiro waved her hand as she dismissed them.
She made sure to keep some of the best loot since it was the result of her own efforts.
"HURRAH!!" They cheered as they split the loot amongst themselves.
"Wait!" Someone shouted out as Shiro realised it was the guy she froze during the crystal stage.
Jonas frowned seeing this as they were lucky for Shiro to even want to share her loot.
"She still has most of the money. What about the items she¡¯s keeping away from us. These could just be trash she kept to divert our attention." He said as Shiro only raised an eyebrow.
¡¯Is this guy stupid? He just watched me solo thest boss and he thinks the adventurers will stand up against me?¡¯
"Think about it! We still have our supplies to fight the boss. Can we really make ends meet? What¡¯s harder to fight? A boss with annoying skills or a weakened girl!" He continued as some of the adventurer¡¯s had greed sh in their eyes.
Lyrica felt her anger rise when she heard all of this. The worst part was people actually believing him as well.
Shiro¡¯s body shed forwards as a dagger was taken out of her inventory.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom ¨C Speed Phantom.
"Come le-!!!!"
His head was ripped off from his torso as Shiro had a dagger in her hand. Red blood was sttered over her face as her eyes turned towards the other adventurer¡¯s who showed greed.
The speed of which Shiro killed the man shocked them as they paled instantly.
[Who else wants to try me?] Shiro typed out as she grinned.
"AHH!!!" Some of the adventurer¡¯s screamed in fear as they ran.
Shiro didn¡¯t mind them as they couldn¡¯t tell the police anyways. Killing in the Dungeon wasn¡¯t umon, but the police will arrest the assants. Naturally, with them trying to rob her first, she would be the defendant.
Crouching down, she looted the man¡¯s corpse as everything inside of his inventory was transferred over to her.
[Beginner Monster Title Gained ¨C You harvested your first human soul as a monster. How many more are toe?]
+1 Stat growth up
Stat Growth Up = Your attribute points will increase in effectiveness. EG: 1 Vit = 50HP is now 1 Vit = 100HP.
Seeing this, Shiro now understood why her counterparts had much more ridiculous statspared to her. Since she had the monster physique, she would naturally get the bonuses from monsters.
If she ughtered an entire city, her stats would go through the roof. However, that¡¯s not what she is like. She wouldn¡¯t go around ughtering those who have no conflict with her.
But if they did, you can be assured that she¡¯ll wipe out the city from the face of the.
After gaining the title, both her HP and MP have doubled due to this.
[Name: Shiro (Weakened 18hrs)
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (0/10 Humans Killed for Title Up)
Level: 29
ss: Snow Girl¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 5700/5700 (True Value 34,000)
MP: 58,200/58,200
STR: 150 -> 200 (+85) <+50>
VIT: 200 (+70) <+50>
INT: 300 -> 350 (+140) <+87>
AGI: 240 -> 300 (+75) <+75>
DEX: 200 -> 240 (+40) <+60>
DEF: 80 (+135) <+20>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 903,200 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Harden (Equipment), Lesser Fear (Equipment), Mana Barrier.]
Standing back up, Shiro looked around and saw that only Lyrica and Jonas¡¯ party were left.
[Only you guys are left huh? Seems about right.] Shiro typed out as she cleaned her face a little.
However, the blood from both the adventurer and the boss stained on her skin a little as it made her look creepy yet cute. Abination Lyrica was surprised that worked somehow.
"Even though I¡¯m a bit annoyed that you killed him without question, I know he deserved it." Jonas sighed. Having trash like that who forgot who killed the boss, wasn¡¯t needed in this dangerous world. Everyone only had one life yet he tried to kill someone who kept them all safe.
[Mature thinking. I like.] Shiro grinned.
Jonas only shrugged while the rest of the party was only a little pale.
The most surprising was the fact that Lyrica waspletely unaffected.
[Lyrica you¡¯re not surprised?] Shiro asked.
"Surprised? No. Just a shame I didn¡¯t end him myself." Lyrica pouted a little.
[Aww how cute.] Shiro smiled widely as she patted Lyrica¡¯s head.
"..."
"..."
Trace and Paul looked at each other.
¡¯THEY¡¯RE F*CKING CRAZY!¡¯
Walking out of the raid calmly, they decided to trade contact info in case they wanted to party up again.
"Thanks for your help during the raid." Jonas smiled.
[Don¡¯t mind it. It was quite rewarding for me as well.] Shiro replied as she wasn¡¯t wrong.
Not only did she increase her level, but she also gained the monster title. Something which she didn¡¯t know about yet was able to boost up herbat prowess by a wide margin.
[As for miss Silvia. I¡¯m always open if you want to join my party.]
"Thanks for the offer. I¡¯ll keep you in mind should I ever need to switch." Silvia smiled.
Shiro nodded as they left for different directions.
[What do you want to do now Lyrica?] Shiro asked.
"I¡¯ve managed to reach level 17. I¡¯m thinking of challenging a level 10 to 15 Dungeon alone." Lyrica said as Shiro thought and nodded.
[I¡¯ll follow you. Make sure you don¡¯t get yourself into something above your level.]
"No. I want to make sure I rely on myself. It¡¯s dangerous but it¡¯ll push me to my limits." Lyrica said with determination.
¡¯Hmm... Babying her all the time would be back. She should be able to take care of herself.¡¯ Shiro thought as she supported her decision of soloing the dungeon. The only problem was her safety.
[Fine but you need to stock up on supplies. If you don¡¯t have enough money, I can lend you 300 thousand USD.] Shiro smiled.
"No it¡¯s fine. I have enough money for some supplies." Lyrica shook her head.
[Then I rmend you challenge the level 10 to 15 Dungeon, Broken Howls. The monsters there are mostly single target ones as they don¡¯t join up in a pack often. You should have an easier time there.] Shiro suggested.
"Alright. Thanks Shiro." Lyrica smiled as she walked away.
Watching Lyrica walk to conquer a solo dungeon, Shiro felt like a parent watching their child grow up.
¡¯Hopefully, she¡¯ll be safe.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Walking towards the auction house, Shiro wanted to get some mana stone to stock up for both her and Yin.
D ranked mana stones averaged around 30k to 40k in USD. C ranks were unbuyable in this city.
Thinking about this, Shiro decided to hold off from buying mana stones. Since just buying 20 would take more than 600k USD.
Looking through the equipment section, Shiro wanted to find any good equipment to recycle so she can take their skills.
"Che. Just a bunch of unless items." Shiro muttered in disappointment. Most of the skills that were included in the items were single value advantages rather than percentage increases. With single value increases, they would do little to nothingter down in the line Shiro had no used for them.
Shaking her head, Shiro walked out of the auction house and decided to visit Helion. She wanted him to make a set of armour for Lyrica as a present.
This was her first time doing a Dungeon solo after all.
Walking to the cksmith¡¯s area, Shiro found her way to Helion.
"Shiro! What brings you here? Got amission?" Helion greeted with a smile.
[Yeah. I want tomission a full set of armour for my friend.] Shiro smiled.
"Got any requirements? Like the amount of ting, leather, chain mail and so on."
[I want it to be half armoured half cloth if possible. Nothing that restrains movement or is too heavy so it slows her down.]
"Hmm, sure. The materials are a little harder to obtain thought. Especially since your friend is quite low of a level." Helion said cing his hammer down.
[I want it to be level 20 armour. I have a bunch of materials from the Spider¡¯s Whisper raid.]
"Show me. I¡¯ll see if it¡¯s enough to make the armour." Helion said as Shiro walked over to the bench.
Arge pile of misceneous items fell out as Shiro made sure to keep them this time as they were gathered from a raid.
Item gathered from a raid are more powerfulpared to normal materials. Especially since the bosses have the title of Raid Boss.
"Hmm, ting, mana reinforced webs, ws, thorax, crown armour, queens extremities... Yeah. I think I can work with this. The only problem is the cloth armour. I can¡¯t make it since its not my forte." Helion shook his head.
[Do you know anyone who can?] Shiro asked.
"Hmm... I know a woman. She¡¯s just a bit... how can I put this? Strange? Her tendencies are a little out of the norm but I can guarantee her craftsmanship is equal or even above mine in aspects." Helion said as Shiro nodded.
[Then can I trouble you to make the chest piece, waist piece, boots, shoulders and gauntlets? The chest piece should only cover the upper torso and not the abdominal area. I¡¯ll get your friend to do the cloth armour.] Shiro typed out.
"Keep the mana reinforced webs since they¡¯ll make good material for the cloth armour." Helion said passing back the webs.
"Her name is Aarim, she¡¯s just 10 minutes away from my shop. The shop name.... well. You¡¯ll know when you¡¯re there. It¡¯s a little out there." Helion coughed awkwardly.
Marking a location on the map, Helion exined the way there before working on the armour Shiromissioned.
Walking out of Helion¡¯s shop, Shiro started to walk towards Aarim¡¯s location.
The shop was located in an obscure ally way. Looking at the sign, Shiro had a nk face as she was annoyed.
[Aarim¡¯s Sexual Pleasure Item Store.]
"...."
¡¯The f*ck.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Double checking on the map, Shiro found that it was indeed the same location.
The name was also the same as well.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro sighed as she entered.
"Wee~ Ohya? Ohya ohya? A cutie~" A woman said as she walked over.
Shiro frowned as the woman had a devilish figure. Slim waist,rge breasts and a revealing outfit.
Her hair was a deep shade of brown, ck eyes and a beauty spot just under her right eye.
[Aarim LVL 50 ¨C Mage]
Shiro was about to type when Aarim tried to touch her chin.
Ice formed around Shiro as she frowned at Aarim.
"Oh my~ feisty one." She grinned.
Turning around, she walked rather seductively to the counter.
"So how can I help, little one?" Aarim grinned.
[Helion rmended me here. I want tomission some cloth armour.]
"Che. That muscle freak still doing this. I made him cloth armour once and the piece of crap rmends me to everyone who wants a cloth armour." Aarim stopped smiled after reading the text.
[If you don¡¯t want to make it then I¡¯ll find someone else.] Shiro frowned as she was about to turn away.
*Bam
The door closed on its own as she turned around to a smiling Aarim.
"Who said I wasn¡¯t doing business. But naturally, I need my payment." She said licking her lips.
Chapter 39 - Outfits
Chapter 39: Outfits
Shiro frowned hearing what Aarim said.
[What kind of business?] Shiro asked.
"Hehehe... Nothing too bad." She grinned as she walked up to Shiro.
Shiro backed off a little as she made sure she could try to fight her way out if anything bad was to happen.
"Aiya, don¡¯t be so on guard. So not cute at all." Aarim shrugged.
[Tell me what you want. No need to get close.] Shiro typed.
"Sure. I just want you to cosy for me." Aarim said pulling out a few outfits.
[What?]
"Cosy. You don¡¯t know what it is?" Aarim asked.
[No I don¡¯t. Care to exin?]
"I just want you to dress up and take photos." Aarim said as she pulled Shiro by her arm into a separate studio.
The studio was quite big as there was a white backdrop, lights around the room and a camera in the centre.
"I want you to model for me while I take pictures of you in poses." Aarim said as she sat Shiro down.
[I have a cast on my arm. Do you honestly think it¡¯ll look good?] Shiro asked raising an eyebrow.
"Don¡¯t worry about that. Naturally, you can unfreeze your cast. I don¡¯t mind. I just want my pictures." Aarim smiled.
Shiro eyed her suspiciously as she eventually nodded.
[What dresses are they? I hope they¡¯re not erotic.]
"I like cute girls that are young enough to be my daughter. Not have them nude." Aarim said with disdain.
[That¡¯s good. But first, I want to tell you what I want. I want an undeyer of cloth armour for my friend. The dress itself should be strong to try to prevent as much ripping as possible.] Shiro typed out.
"Easy enough. I can do that." Aarim nodded as she walked over to a switch.
Pulling the switch, Shiro¡¯s ears perked up as she could hear the inner workings turn and nk.
*CRRR!
A wardrobe dropped out from the roof as Shiro could see an assortment of baby doll dresses and other.
[So you want me to dress up in these outfits?] Shiro asked.
"Yep." Aarim nodded.
[How many do I have to wear before you¡¯ll agree to make mymission.]
"Hmm, wear all of them." Aarim replied after a pause.
¡¯All of them?! There¡¯s at least 100!¡¯ Shiro thought but kept her face nk.
[Too much. Change your price please.]
"Che fine. 100 sets?" Aarim said ying around with one of her fansying by the side.
[50.]
Aarim narrowed her eyes as she saw Shiro try to bargin.
"75. That¡¯s my final offer."
¡¯Helion himself is a really good craftsman. For this Aarim to gain his rmendation must mean she¡¯s good. Wearing some clothes for good craftsmanship is a small price to pay.¡¯ Shiro thought.
[Fine 75 sets.] Shiro nodded.
"Great! Try this one first." Aarim smiled pulling out a set.
The set was a goth lolita dress. It was ck in colour with red frills, a small hat, a bow tie on the waist, white tights and a pair of shoes. The shoes were coloured ck and had wedges.
To top it all off, Aarim handed her a small ck umbre.
"Change into this and we¡¯ll start the photoshoot." Aarim said as Shiro nodded.
Finding a secluded ce to change, Shiro made sure no one could see her change.
¡¯Hmm... this dress is actually quitefy.¡¯ Shiro thought after changing into it. Both the material and the weight of the dress was delicate yet there was a strangeness about them. It was simr to how her white dress was.
Walking out, Shiro typed on her phone and showed it to Aarim.
[What is the dress made from? It¡¯s light and won¡¯t rip.]
"... nice..." Was all Aarim muttered as she looked at Shiro.
Shiro waved her hand as she snapped Aarim out of it.
"Ah ahem. The material I used for this dress was made from the material dropped by humanoid animals. The female ones actually.
For some odd reason, no matter what one did, their dresses never broke apart. Thankfully of course, since perverts would be aiming for them all the time. So I managed to get my hands on supplies of these materials from the other cities and made these dresses. They won¡¯t break inbat so females don¡¯t have to worry." Aarim smiled.
¡¯No wonder Helion rmended her. She actually had the materials which made my dress too.¡¯ Shiro thought.
"Yet the funny part about them is that when you kill the monsters, the dresses break apart along with the monster¡¯s corpse. You get small fragments which then can bebined and sewn together to make more clothes. Naturally, only the maker can change how the clothes look." Aarim shrugged.
She could rip that dress to bits if she wanted to while others can¡¯t.
[In that case then, am I able tomission a dress for myself then?] Shiro asked. She did like a few of the dresses. Combined with the fact that they can¡¯t break, would make them a must-have for her.
Just having a in white dress was a little boring after all.
"Sure but we¡¯ll so 150 sets of clothes." Aarim said gesturing over to the wardrobe with a grin.
[150? Can we do 120? That¡¯s my max. I have things to doter today.] Shiro replied.
She didn¡¯t mind trying out the outfits so she could find abination she really likedter andmission it.
"Sure. 120 is fine. Now get on the stage." Aarim said with an eager grin.
Shiro nodded and walked over. She had decided to thaw her ice cast so she can have a full view on what the dress looked like.
Since she only had a few hours left before her arm fully recovered, she could at least move it a little without it hurting too much.
Opening the umbre, Shiro stood there and waited for Aarim to take a photo.
*SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
Several shutters shed as Shiro kept her nd expression.
"Can you smile for me please~" Aarim said as Shiro nodded.
Shifting her body slightly, Shiro smiled as her pearl white teeth were exposed by the tiny gaps between her lips.
Aarim felt her grin widen seeing such a fantastic model for all of her dresses.
The entire photoshoot continued for a few hours as Shiro was so fatigued by the end of the shoot.
Sheid by the chair as she recast her arm back up. She had already changed back to the outfit she entered the shop in as Aarim was sorting out the photos.
[I¡¯ve done my side of the agreement. Now for the firstmission, I want an outfit for an elf. She has blond hair, and just a little taller than I am.] Shiro typed out.
"That will do. The great thing about these materials is that they adjust themselves. I just need to know her general appearance." Aarim smiled.
[I want this to go under a set of armour. The armour consists of a small torso piece, waist guards, boots and gauntlets.]
"Alright. Now what about your set?" Aarim asked.
[Hmm... I want a piece from the 42nd set. The robe. I want the shirt of the 84th set. The pants from the 3rd set, the boots and stocking of the 24th set. Please dye them into one colour scheme please. White, blue and ck.] Shiro typed out.
"Sure, that isn¡¯t a problem. Nice choices by the way." Aarim smiled.
[So I¡¯ve got this question. Why is your shop called what it¡¯s called?] Shiro asked unsure. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that Helion hard warned, gave her directions and told her Aarim¡¯s name, she would have never found this store.
"Why else? Because I sell things sex rted." Aarim shrugged her shoulders. It was a fact she wasn¡¯t going to hide.
[Why don¡¯t you find a better location?]
"Ehh I can¡¯t be bothered to put effort into that. I¡¯m fine as it is." Aarim said as she pulled out a few machines for my Shiro¡¯smissions.
Hearing Aarim¡¯s response, Shiro only shrugged.
[How long are you going to take to make the outfit?]
"It¡¯s gonna take a day or two to make the outfit. But a few hours to dye your outfit. Wanna stay here and wait?" Aarim asked.
[No it¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll go collected both in a few days. Here¡¯s my contact information, just text me when they¡¯re done.]
"Alright. Make sure toe often little one." Aarim winked.
[Sure. Your outfits are very well done.]
"Ah no I mean for the main merchandise of my shop."
"..." ¡¯The f*ck.¡¯ Shiro thought.
[I¡¯m 13.]
"Age is just a number."
[So is a prison sentence.]
Aarim only shrugged seeing Shiro¡¯s reply.
"Fine. But just remember not to be alone. There are perverts who aren¡¯t as nice as I am. They¡¯ll definitely force themselves." Aarim warned.
[I¡¯ll keep that in mind.] Shiro nodded as she exited the shop.
Stretching her body slightly, Shiro walked out of the alleys.
¡¯It¡¯s been a few hours. I wonder how far Lyrica is in the Dungeon.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Quickly heading back to the dorm, Shiro sat down on her chair and frowned.
¡¯No she¡¯ll be fine.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
Pulling Yin from out of her pocket, she fed it a D ranked mana stone and yed around with him.
"When are you going to be useful ah?" Shiro asked as Yin avoided eye contact.
"Fine fine. I¡¯ll be patient." Shiro smiled and rubbed Yin¡¯s head.
"But if you turn out to be useless, I might turn you into quill soup." She teased.
*Chirp!
Yin chirped in fear as he hid his head.
"Hahaha" Shiro giggled slightly seeing Yin¡¯s reaction.
"You¡¯re cute. I won¡¯t eat you don¡¯t worry."
After ying with Yin for a bit longer, Shiro decided to sleep since it was gettingte.
...
"Helion!" Aarim screamed out as she stormed Helion¡¯s workshop.
"Hey Aarim. Did you like Shiro?" Helion asked looking up.
"Yes I did but you could have just called me over! Why did you have to ask her toe over to my workshop?!" Aarim frowned as she sat down and crossed her legs.
"Hahaha, don¡¯t worry about it. Shiro is easy to get along with." Helion grinned.
"Yeah I know that. But now she knows what I do ah."
"Afraid she¡¯ll avoid you like the other cute models you found?" Helion smiled.
"I¡¯ll hit you." Aarim frowned.
"Hahaha, don¡¯t worry about it. She wouldn¡¯t be repulsed by things like that." Helion shrugged.
"If she did I¡¯ll being for you." Aarim narrowed her eyes.
"Ai. Don¡¯t be like that hahaha. We knew each other since we were children. Both you and I know you won¡¯t hit your childhood friend." Helion grinned.
"And I wish you were wrong." Aarim sighed.
"So you took another interest in a loli? You sure she ain¡¯t a married woman this time?" Aarim grinned.
This caused Helion to slip slightly as he coughed.
"She¡¯s only 13. I¡¯m not that bad." Helion said.
"Right..." Aarim rolled her eyes.
"I heard you got some materials for your ss up."
"Yeah I did. Some C ranked materials. But dang, they¡¯re hard to shape." Helion sighed.
"What do you expect? You only have D ranked strength. Who told you to aim to get the ss, Hammer Saint? You know not many people have gotten that right? Even if you¡¯re a genius, you¡¯re wasting your talents."
"What is talent if not to aim for a higher goal? What about you? Aren¡¯t you going for Mage Saintess as well." Helion gestured at her.
"That being said, how goes your advancement." He asked.
"It¡¯s going well. I¡¯ve done 4 out of five advancements. BUT, thest one is troubling me." Aarim sighed.
"You haven¡¯t done it yet?!"
"No. I can¡¯t just grab any random monster. It has to fit the requirements for a perfect match. Hais... I¡¯ve been stuck on this for so long." Aarim tilted her head back.
Her next advancement was for to reach the ss Veteran Source Mage. After constant study, she had finally found the way to get this ss. Yet when she got it, she was shocked at the requirements.
[Veteran Source Mage ss Up Requirements.]
10 C Ranked Mana Stone
100 D Ranked Mana Stone
1000 E ranked Mana Stone
Solo a D ranked Dungeon
Earn the trust andpanionship of a magic based monster. The monster must have rationality and reach C ss in strength.
Chapter 40 - Set Equipment
Chapter 40: Set Equipment
*Yawn~
Waking up, Shiro rubbed her eyes as she unfroze her cast. Moving her arms a little, she smiled feeling no pain.
With her weakened debuff removed, her HP shot all the way back up to 34k.
"Little Yin, this miss has fully recovered." Shiro grinned as she tapped Yin on the head.
Yin¡¯s body shook a little as it groggily got up. pping its wings, itnded on Shiro¡¯s head and proceeded to sleep again.
"Heh,zy head." Shiro muttered as she stood up. Dressing carefully as to not disturb Yin too much, she walked over to Lyrica¡¯s room and knocked on the door.
"Coming~" A tired voice rang out as Shiro sighed in relief.
Lyrica opened the door with a serious case of bed hair and dark circles under her eyes.
"Oh it¡¯s you Shiro. Want toe in?" She asked.
Shiro nodded as she sat on a chair.
[So was the Dungeon run sessful?] Shiro asked.
"Half and half. I gave up just before the final boss fight." Lyrica said as sheid her body on the bed.
[Why¡¯s that?] Shiro asked.
"Because I struggled a little too much with the second boss. The final boss is and always will be harder than the other two bosses. But since I struggled so much with the second boss, I doubted that I would defeat thest boss." Lyrica said snuggling into her bed covers.
"But hey. I levelled up twice which is pretty good. Since I knew I couldn¡¯t focus on thest boss, I aimed to kill as many mobs as I could." Lyrica smiled.
[Just so that I know, how long did you spend in killing the mobs?]
"Ehh..2 days? Something like that."
¡¯2 days? She spent two days killing none stop huh?¡¯ Shiro thought as she patted Lyrica on the head.
[Good work.] Shiro smiled since Lyrica was able to gain another 2 levels, thus bringing her up to level 19.
"Ah, your arm is fixed." Lyrica was surprised seeing Shiro use her right arm.
[Yep. My arm is entirely fixed now.] Shiro smiled as she flexed her arm a little.
"Congrattions." Lyrica smiled.
[Want to hit up a dungeonter then? I¡¯ll take you to a dungeon and serve as back up. You try solo most of it how¡¯s that?]
"Sure." Lyrica nodded as she nted her face into the cover.
[I¡¯m going out for a bit. I¡¯ll text you when we¡¯re hitting up the dungeon.]
"Sure. See youter." Lyrica waved her hand slightly as Shiro only chuckled.
Walking out the room, she headed downstairs.
"Ah Shiro. Your arm is healed?!" The receptionist called out in shock.
[Yes. It¡¯s recoveredpletely.] Shiro nodded.
"Hmm, wait here. I¡¯ll have Doctor Hoffman check it just in case there is anything else wrong with your arm ok? It was hurt pretty badlyst time." She said.
Shiro only sighed slightly as she knew she wasn¡¯t getting out of the dorm without being checked up first.
Sitting by one of the spare stools, Shiro waited for Doctor Hoffman to arrive.
Once again, Shiro didn¡¯t have to wait long for Doctor Hoffman to arrive.
"Oh. Don¡¯t you look energetic considering the amount of damage on your arm." He said scratching the back of his head.
Putting down his bag, he pulled out a tablet and scanned her arm.
"Holy damn... it really is healed. Not a single mark of damage." Doctor Hoffman remarked as he looked at Shiro.
"What kind of crack did you take to heal up this well?"
[Crack?]
"Just ng for drug." He shrugged as he stood up.
[So howe you¡¯re able toe here so quickly?] Shiro asked as being the school healer means there are bound to be other people needing treatment.
"Because unlike everyone else, I can¡¯t just p an HP potion in your mouth and call it a day." He said giving his neck a stretch.
[Isn¡¯t that a bit irresponsible?]
"Pft. In this age of magic and wizardry, I¡¯m pretty sure pping an almost all-powerful potion in anyone¡¯s mouth fixes them up real nice. The only responsibility for me is to give them the potion. As your strange injury. I can¡¯t just p a potion in you since it didn¡¯t heal the arm. Therefore, I need to be responsible or else I¡¯m pretty sure the principle wille rip me a new one." He shrugged.
Packing his bag up, Hoffman walked away.
¡¯Weird but not necessarily incorrect.¡¯ Shiro thought. He wasn¡¯t wrong with the part about responsibility.
In this new age of magic, near-fatal injuries could just be fixed with a spell or a potion. Responsibility within this area of medicine was no longer a thing.
There were no assigning months upon months of medication for a small wound to be healed, nor was there a need for constant check-ups.
You¡¯re injured? Potion. Next patient please.
It was that simple.
Seeing that she was free to go, Shiro stood up and walked out the school premises.
Going through her checklist of things to do, she realised that there were only a few days left until the faction recruitment.
¡¯If I take Lyrica to a level 15 to 20 dungeon, I should be able to get her to level up. Hopefully, all the way to level 20 or even 21 if we do her ss up.¡¯ She thought.
Checking the time, she walked towards Helion¡¯s shop after seeing that it was almost 9am.
"Oh good morning Shiro. You checking up on the armour?" Helion asked as he yawned slightly.
[Yes. How¡¯s the progress so far?] Shiro smiled as she was the first customer of the day.
"I only got a single boot left to do. If you wait by the side I¡¯ll have it done in no time." Helion said, gesturing at one of the chairs.
Shiro nodded as she sat down.
"So your arm¡¯s fixed now? I was surprised seeing it all cast up and not healed with a potion or spell."
[The damage was mostly unheble and had to be recovered naturally.] Shiro smiled.
"Is that so. Congrattions on healing then. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t give you a discount." Helion said with a slight chuckle. He still remembered how Shiro didn¡¯t want any gifts or discounts the first time they met.
[Thanks.]
Pulling out his equipment, he started to make the final boot as Shiro yed with Yin.
"Little Yin, you have so much mana but can¡¯t do sh*t with it. When can you actually pull your weight?" She muttered teasingly. Even though Yin was only level 5, his power just from his HP and MP alone could bepared to a level 20+.
Yin made a sad face as if Shiro had wronged him. Scooping up the mana stones, it stuffed them into its mouth with a silent tear.
Shiro giggled seeing Yin¡¯s behaviour when an idea struck her.
"Little Yin do you understand me?" Shiro asked.
Yin nodded its head as Shiro grinned.
"Are you a boy?"
Yin tilted her head in disdain and made a spitting motion.
"So you¡¯re a girl?" Shiro asked feeling happy Yin was a girl. Girls were more fun to look after, animal or not.
Yin nodded her head and pped onto Shiro¡¯s shoulder.
Rubbing her head against Shiro¡¯s cheek, she wanted to gain more of Shiro¡¯s affection.
"I¡¯ll love you more if you could fight ah." Shiro said rubbing her head.
Not too long after, Helion had finished the boot as he brought out the other pieces. The moment the pieces came into close contact with each other, a slight silver purple glow encased each on as Shiro widened her eyes in surprise.
¡¯He made set equipment?!¡¯
Set equipments are as it says, worn in sets. With a certain amount of pieces worn, a bonus effect would be triggered as they could be anything ranging from extra points to one¡¯s stats or a set skill.
Set skills were outrageous skills since they needed equipment of the same set to be invoked.
¡¯If I recycle this set armour, I¡¯ll be able to add the set skill to an armour I make in the future.¡¯ Shiro thought as this was a rare opportunity. It¡¯s not every day you see set equipment being made.
Especially if it was for a level 20. Even in her past life, the lowest level set equipment she saw was level 50. She didn¡¯t know if this was good or bad, but she knew it was an opportunity none the less.
"Well... I certainly didn¡¯t expect this." Helion muttered surprised by himself.
[Spider Queen¡¯s Set LVL 20 (blue)]
Head Piece
+10 INT
Torso Piece
+10 DEF
+10 STR
Arm Guards
+10 DEX
+10 STR
Waist Guard
+10 Def
+10 STR
Boots
+20 AGI
Each of the pieces was extremely mediocre on their own. However, the set truly shines when one looks at the set effects.
[Spider Queen Set Effects]
2 Piece - +10 to all status
4 Piece - + 20 to all status
5 Piece - + Previous points (30) to all status and Active skill [Empowered Rampage].
Empowered Rampage ¨C Berserk Type Skill
+ Temporary Empowered Status
+20% attack speed
+20% power
Duration ¨C 1 minute
Cool down ¨C 5 minutes
After effect ends, -40 on all status.
Duration 2 minutes
The 2 and 4 piece effects didn¡¯t interest Shiro but the final advantage was outrageous. Shiro recognised that to be the same skill bosses could use.
A 20% attack speed and 20% power were no joke at higher levels. Even the -40 was something negligible.
"Shame this appeared on a level 20. If it was higher, I wouldn¡¯t even sell it." Helionmented as skills no longer worked if a person was 5 levels higher.
¡¯Hehehehe, this miss can recycle this and use the skill whenever ah.¡¯ Shiro grinned.
This was what truly makes her Nanomancer ss thrive. While she could create weapons, they will and always be skillless nks, except for the long ranged weapons.
With her skill recycle and reprint, she could effectively make the most insane weapon for a limited amount of time, whenever and wherever she wanted.
Hopping over to the equipment she looked at it with a smile that resembled that of a lecherous old man.
[How much?] Shiro asked.
"...600 thousand USD." Helion said after a pause. Considering the strength of this set, it can help someone clear their ss advancement pretty easily. Therefore, the price would naturally be high.
Grabbing the crystal, Shiro transferred the money over without hesitation as this set was too precious. Not only for her, but for Lyrica as well.
It would take her a while before she can get Nano Tech Armour Creation. Therefore, in the time it takes, Lyrica can be using this set until level 25.
[Thanks.] Shiro said as she left the workshop with the armour in her inventory.
Helion could only wave goodbye as hemented the armour not being higher level so he could use it.
*Ding
After walking out the store, Shiro had received a text message and opened her phone.
[Aarim: Shiro, your outfit has finished dyeing. As for the one for your friend, it¡¯ll take me a few more hours to finish.]
Tapping away on her phone, Shiro replied as such.
[Thank you. I¡¯lle to collect itter today.]
Aarim only replied with an okay as Shiro walked towards a D ranked Dungeon.
It was the same Dungeon she fought againstst time, the Frag Ant¡¯s Burrow.
But this time, she had more of a guarantee to kill the boss. Her arrows fired from the Nano Tech Bow housed an astounding amount of prative power.
So much in fact, that should she fire a fully charged arrow at the boss, she¡¯ll be able to shatter the mana shield.
Naturally, the best thing was for her to kill it straight away, before it could put up any form of defence.
After arriving at the Dungeon, she made sure no one saw her enter.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom ¨C Illusionary Phantom.
Entering inside the Dungeon, she could already hear Frag Ants crawling towards her.
"This missy doesn¡¯t have time for you." She muttered as snow started to fall.
Stomping down, ice erupted outwards as it froze the entire area around her.
Walking towards the first boss, Shiro had no mobs obstruct her way since they were either frozen to death or had no way to reach her.
Seeing the familiar Bombard Frag Ant, Shiro created a Nano tech bow and drew back on the string.
Neon blue mana twisted into an arrow as it was notched and aimed towards the Bombard Frag Ant.
Charging up the arrow with a bit more mana, Shiro let the arrow fly.
*BOOM!!!!
The arrow crashed through the ant as it obliterated its body with ease.
"Heh, that Flying Frag Queen better watch her ass." Shiro grinned as she walked to the teleporter.
Chapter 41 - Mages Association
Chapter 41: Mage¡¯s Association
The second floor was just as easy as the first. Charging up her bow, she managed to eradicate the millipede¡¯s armour and skewer it easily.
As for the final boss...
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom ¨C Illusionary Phantom.
Crouching low on the ground, Shiro formed a bow in her hand whilst running around the queen.
Neon Blue mana gathered into an arrow as Shiro pulled back on the string.
Sensing danger, the queen red her mana as a translucent barrier erected around her.
¡¯Prate!¡¯ Shiro thought as she fired the arrow.
*BOOM PING!
The arrow prated the shield due to how close Shiro fired the arrow.
Not even waiting to see how the damage was, Shiro stomped down as 4 ice spears pierced upwards and lifted up the queen.
The queen struggled but Shiro¡¯s arrow was already notched and ready to be fired.
Aiming at the anus of the queen, Shiro grinned.
"This is for my arm." She muttered.
*BOOM!
The arrow fired as it was aimed perfectly at the queen¡¯s anus. Unable to react, she could only wait upon her death due to an arrow up her ass.
*CRRRR!!!!!!!
The cry of the was filled with pain as Yin looked away in pity.
Seeing that the queen wasn¡¯t dead. Shiro dissembled the bow as she created a spear.
Twirling it in her palm, Shiro stabbed it towards the queen¡¯s ass.
Making sure it prated deeply, Shiro twisted the spear as it exploded like a grenade and destroyed the queen¡¯s insides.
HP: 0/200,000
The queen mostly relied on her mana for her shield to defeat her opponents in a war of attrition. Yet, Shiro destroyed that option straight away. This made the queen an easy kill as her main weapon was destroyed.
¡¯How fast the tables turn huh?¡¯ Shiro thought.
The entire Dungeon run took her a few hours as she didn¡¯t focus on collecting the loot. Harvesting the queen, Shiro threw the mana stone into her mouth and left for the 2nd floor with Yin.
The collection itself took longer as Shiro had to search all of the kills she got to get the mana stones.
In the end, she managed to collect over 60 D ranked mana stones.
"Little Yin. You get 25 I get 35 ok?" Shiro said as Yin nodded.
Chirping happily, she greedily ate up 3 D ranked mana stones before falling asleep again.
"Che sozy. Really wonder where you get this trait from." Shiro giggled.
However, the main harvest from the Dungeon was reaching level 30.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (0/10 Humans Killed for Title Up)
Level: 30
ss: Snow Girl¡ï(Star Advancement Ready), Nanomancer
HP: 46,200/46,200
MP: 73,700/73,700
STR: 230 (+85) <+78>
VIT: 250 -> 300 (+70) <+92>
INT: 400 -> 450 (+140) <+147>
AGI: 340 -> 400(+75) <+118>
DEX: 260 -> 300 (+40) <+85>
DEF: 150 (+135) <+71>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 0
Bnce: 531,800 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Harden (Equipment), Lesser Fear (Equipment), Mana Barrier.]
Tapping on the star advancement tab, Shiro paused seeing the conditions for the ss up.
[Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï]
Kill 20 Ice elemental Based LVL 30 bosses
30 Ice Cores
Reach Tier 2 attunement in Ice element
The first two was easy for her as she had her Nanomancer ss to help her out.
However, she had no idea where to get the Tier 2 attunement in the ice element.
She¡¯s heard of reaching higher levels of synergy with your respective elements, hence the Elemental True Armour.
However, Elemental True Armour only came when one reached Tier 3 in their element.
Even now, Shiro doubts her attunement would be Tier 1 if not for her race advantage.
Different races get certain advantages. Now that she was a monster, she knew the hard work one had to put into upgrading. At least it was much harder for a monster.
Not only did you have to first break out of the Dungeon¡¯s control, but you also had to leave the Dungeon. Survive the city, and only then could you start to evolve. Yet for these upgrade requirements, they¡¯ll be hard to achieve outside of a Dungeon.
To ess a Dungeon, one had to sneak through a city to reach it. It wasn¡¯t easy. The life of a monster that is.
Leaving the Dungeon, Shiro decided to look up attunement regarding the ice element.
ording to the web, there is a government-funded attunement hall. However, the tickets to go inside weren¡¯t easy to get a hold of.
The easiest way to get an entrance ticket to the attunement halls is through the mage¡¯s association.
They have the main ess since mages need the attunement more often than warriors and other non-magic based sses.
"Little Yin. Do you think I can get any other attunement? Maybe metal since my ss." Shiro said as Yin chirped in agreement.
"Ai, if only you can talk." Shiro chuckled.
However, before she went to the mage¡¯s association, she wanted to go pick up the outfit from Aarim first.
Entering the shop once more, Shiro paused when she saw a familiar face.
[Hey Liam.] Shiro smiled awkwardly. Liam stood frozen as he dropped whatever he had in his hands.
[I¡¯ll just look for Aarim.] Shiro typed as she walked away.
"Hold on! This is just a misunderstanding!" Liam cried out as he walked over to her.
[Right...]
"Liam. No need to shock her too much. You¡¯ll seem more suspicious if you get into a panic." Aarim said as she giggled.
"Shiro, my brother is here just to check up on me." Aarim smiled.
[Brother?]
"Yeah. I¡¯m her brother." Liam shrugged sitting down. He was just checking up on her to make sure she was making the bare minimum so that she could pass the month. Yet just as he was waiting for her to get the monthly sales, Shiro walked in on him tidying up the store a little.
[Oh I see.] Shiro sighed. When she first saw Liam, she had a good impression of him. He didn¡¯t seem like anyone who would visit this kind of store in broad daylight.
"I presume you¡¯re here to get your outfit and yourmission." Aarim smiled.
[Yes. How far along is the outfit for my friend?] Shiro asked.
"Almost done If you just give me an hour or so I¡¯ll be finished." Aarim smiled.
"Liam, help me out. Go to the 2nd floor, third chest to the left. There should be a set of clothes there. They¡¯re for Shiro." Aarim gestured towards Liam.
Liam nodded before heading upstairs.
[So you two are siblings?] Shiro asked.
She was curious as Liam and Aarim looked nothing alike.
"We¡¯re siblings but not blood-rted. I was adopted into the family and now it¡¯s just me and Liam left. Our parents died a while back." Aarim shrugged.
[I see.] Shiro nodded.
With what Aarim said, the atmosphere instantly turned to awkward as Shiro didn¡¯t really know what to say.
The short time yet long silence felt agonising for Shiro as Liam finally returned with her outfit.
[How much is it?] Shiro asked.
"Nothing. You paid me by being my model." Aarim smiled. It wasn¡¯t easy to have a young model which didn¡¯t run the moment Aarim lead them to her shop. So for Shiro t still model for her saved her a lot of time.
[Hmm I don¡¯t want to owe you anything. Just tell me how much it costs.]
"Che, just like the muscle brain said. 400 thousand USD for both the current outfit and the one in the making." Aarim shrugged.
Shiro nodded as she paid the full amount.
[Is it ok if I go change into my outfit now?]
"Sure. Same asst time, just go to my studio." Aarim said pointing at the door.
"You two do what you need to do. I¡¯ll go back to my shift now." Liam said as he walked out.
[See you.]
"Bye."
Liam left the store as it was just Shiro and Aarim left.
"Welp. I should go continue to make the dress now." Aarim said standing up.
Shiro nodded whilst she made her way to the other room.
Changing her outfit, she looked into the mirror and inspected herself.
She wore a ck shirt, short ck jeans, white stocking, white boots, arge white robe and a pair of white gloves. The robe had a crystal clip in the centre as it held the robe together.
Flipping up the hood, Shiro liked how she could extend the hood out so it hid her face. The designed allowed for that.
Pulling back her hood, Yin cried out in displeasure as the new outfit didn¡¯t have any pockets for her to sleep in.
"Ai calm down little Yin. You have space here see?" Shiro said pointing at her sleeves and the inside of her hood. There was enough room for Yin to restfily.
Chirping lightly, Yin burrowed himself into her hood as her head would asionally peak out.
Chuckling slightly, Shiro rubbed her head.
Walking back to the main room, Aarim was still making the outfit.
"It¡¯s almost done." She said with a shrug of her shoulders.
Nodding, Shiro sat by the side as she watched Aarim put the final touches on the outfit.
Not even an hour passed before Aarim stopped.
"Here. Satisfied?" She asked.
The outfit itself was coloured light green with hints of blue and yellow along with floral patterns, which decorated the edges of the outfit. The dress itself was a sleeveless high cor dress with a skirt that would reach halfway down the thighs. This was paired up with long white gloves and stockings.
[Thank you.] Shiro smiled.
"No problem. Juste here if you need anothermission. Trading with a photoshoot of course." Aarim winked.
Shiro nodded as she stored the outfit into her inventory.
Flipping up her hood, she walked out the street with people hardly being able to see her face due to a mix of height and the cover the hood provided.
At most, they¡¯ll only spare her a nce.
She first went over to the adventurer¡¯s guild since she wanted to update her ID.
[Name: Shiro
Estimated Age: 13
ss: Ice Mage
LVL: 30]
After updating her ID, she walked to the mage¡¯s association and waited in the queue.
In order for her to gain ess to the attunement hall, she needed to fulfil 3 conditions.
1 ¨C Be a member of the Mages Association.
2 ¨C Tier 2 magic user.
3 ¨C Top 50 on the priority list.
First two was easy. The priority list was the annoying part.
Out of so many mages in the city, she had to reach the top 50 in priority. The priority list was a list where they determine who has the most talent to be nurtured.
This gave them a passive ie of a certain amount of mana stones ever week, materials and study logs for magic. And to top it all off, they were granted ess to the attunement hall.
From rank 50 to rank 21, the time you get in the attunement hall was only an hour.
However, even if it¡¯s just an hour, it provided the mages with a substantial boost to their INT stat.
Rank 20 to 11 got 3 hours while the top 10 had 5 hours each.
Shiro¡¯s goal was to reach the top 20 if possible. If she wanted to awaken her attunement to elements faster, she¡¯ll need to spend more time in the attunement hall. Especially since there wasn¡¯t a guarantee to awaken it in one go.
Some may even go a lifetime without being able to awaken whilst others could awaken on their first try.
When it was her turn to speak, Shiro pulled out her phone.
[I would like to register as a mage¡¯s association member.]
"Can you show us your adventurer¡¯s ID?"
Shiro nodded and handed over her ID.
"Aged 13 and level 30?!" The receptionist cried in disbelief. The average age for a person to reach level 30 was around 25. Yet this girl was level 30 when she¡¯s only 13.
"I¡¯ll have to call the branch master for this ok?" She said as Shiro nodded.
A smallmotion was stirred up as the surroundings muttered about what they just heard.
"Did she just say the midget there is a level 30?"
"She¡¯s only 13 at that as well."
"How old is Julia when she was level 30?"
"I think Julia was 21 when she reached level 30. She¡¯s left for the bigger cities since she ssed up, but to think we¡¯ll be able to see someone break her record."
"True true."
Ignoring themotion around her, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she felt a gaze scan her from head to toe.
Looking over, Shiro saw the receptionist walk out with a man, which she presumed to be the branch master.
The man looking around his mid 30¡¯s. He had a thin build, swept-back blond hair, blue eyes, a clean face, stood around 6ft 5 and wore a ck suit.
[Mark LVL 50 ¨C Twin Element Mage]
Chapter 42 - Simulation
Chapter 42: Simtion
[Mark LVL 50 ¨C Twin Element Mage]
"Are you the one who¡¯s level 30 at a young age of 13?" He asked with a small smile.
[Yes I am. I want to register for a membership.]
"I see. I¡¯m afraid we¡¯ll have to do a personal exam to determine your true rank and priority is that ok? It¡¯s not every day we get a young genius like you." He said as he gestured at Shiro.
"Now may you follow me to the testing room."
Shiro nodded as she pulled forward her hood a little. Walking towards the testing room, Shiro wondered what the test was.
"Here is an old generation model of the virtualbat simtor. You¡¯ll be able to enter abat space where your magic is measured." Mark said as he pointed the capsule in the centre.
"This is also what we use to determine the priority list. Top 20 will have to fight to keep their ranks.
Everyone outside of the top 20 will have chances to challenging the top 20 when they¡¯re in top 50.
As for how we determine the top 50, it depends on how well they do in terms of performance average of thest 20 matches."
Looking at the device, Shiro already had a basic idea oh how it worked.
[I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s based on instinctive reactions that you move the body in the simtion. This is so that levels and status don¡¯t matter at all and it¡¯s all about how well the brain can control body right? And to ensure fairness, I¡¯m guessing that you make it so that everyone¡¯s character has the same status, meaning as long as your control and technique is good, you can win.] Shiro typed out as she showed it to Mark.
"Have you seen this before?" He asked surprised that she knew about it.
[No, but it¡¯s easy to guess.] Shiro smiled.
¡¯If it¡¯s based on how well I can control my body then I have an advantage over the people here.¡¯ Shiro thought.
"Hmm. I see, anyways, I want you to enter the simtion and have a spar with me. I¡¯ll determine your priority level." Mark said as Shiro was a special case.
The normal procedure for determining one¡¯s rank was just to do 10 spars with other people and ranked based on performance.
However, for Shiro was a level 30 at the young age of 13, Mark wanted to test her out himself.
Shiro reached out for Yin as she set her by the side.
"I¡¯m going to do this spar for a bit. Be a good girl and sit here ok?" Shiro said as Yin chirped in acknowledgement.
"Is that your pet?" Mark asked.
[Yes, her name is Yin. She¡¯ll sit by the side while we do the spar.]
Getting into the capsule, Shiro closed her eyes as she entered the virtual world.
In front of her, there was a panel for character creation. She was about to remake her body from her past life when she paused.
¡¯This is my second life, no need to be so hung up on my past glory. I may have perfect body control with my old body but I have a new one now. I should aim to get better at my current body.¡¯ Shiro thought as she allowed the capsule to keep her current looks.
Next was magic, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw metal base element magic. Exiting out the world, she flexed her fingers as nanobots entered the capsule. Searching through the records, she erased everything that might link to her being a Nanomancer.
Sighing in relief, she re-entered the simtion and only found tier 2 ice magic.
Finishing up the customisation, Shiro marvelled at the feeling.
¡¯Whilst not as good as the virtual machines in my first life, this isn¡¯t too bad.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Shiro looked around as she saw that she was in a Colosseum type construct.
Cream coloured pirs could be seen around them as there was a spectator stand for the would-be viewers. The arena itself was made from rock and sand as it made it hard to get a decent grip on the floor.
¡¯This might limit my phantom arts a little.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Phantom arts were heavily reliant on footwork and momentum control.
With a surface like this, Shiro would find it hard to use phantom arts to their fullest. The only reason she could use it well with her ice was due to her control over the ice. If not, she¡¯ll be slipping everywhere due to the slippery surface.
Not too far away from her Mark stood
"The test is simple. Demonstrate your magic duringbat." Mark smiled.
Lightning and fire swirled around both his hand as he gestured for her to attack him.
¡¯His elements are fire and lightning. The lightning I can chain away using my ice, but his fire is a bit more annoying.
His main weakness would be mana expenditure since his fire and lightning cost more. With him sustaining two elements, the best way for me to win is to draw out the fight.
Another way would be to bombard him as much as I can.¡¯ Shiro thought as ice and snow swirled around her.
The wind caused her hair to flip around as she looked like an elemental spirit.
¡¯First, I need my area of effect.¡¯ Shiro thought as she mmed her palms down.
Ice rapidly spread out as Shiro visualised the entire process to make sure the ice was extra strong and hard to melt.
Mark jumped back in slightly surprise seeing how fast the ice managed to covered the entire area.
Even though there was a distance of at least 25 meters from her to him, he was almost hit by the ice.
¡¯Her visualisation must be incredible for the ice to spread this quickly.¡¯ Mark thought as hended on the ice.
Sliding slightly, he crouched down and tried to melt the ice with his fire.
His frown deepened when he realised the ice was still mostly intact.
Before he could continue to melt the ice, he had to roll to the left as an ice spikended and exploded in his previous spot.
Flicking his wrist, he shot lightning towards her.
Shiro only smiled as she clutched her hand. A wall made of ice rose up as the outeryer was thawed slightly so there was ayer of water.
Lightning chained along the wall as it dealt no damage.
¡¯His fire can¡¯t melt my ice well enough while the water from my ice blocks his lightning. This match is mine.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
There was also the choice of overwhelming her in purebat prowess, but she had a whole lifetime to hone herself inbat. A person fighting for 30 odd years couldn¡¯tpare to her.
Dashing towards him, Shiro decided to go close-quartersbat.
A spear of ice was formed in her hands as she stabbed towards Mark.
Pivoting on his leg, Mark made a fist of fire as he punched towards her.
Shiro flicked her wrist and the spear spun back towards her. This allowed her to grab the spear with two hands and block Mark¡¯s strike.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Shifting her weight, Shiro pulled Mark towards her as kicked him in the stomach using thebined weight of that instance of him attacking.
"URG!" Mark groaned slightly as his body was sent backwards.
Rolling on the ground, he flipped his body and stood back up.
He only saw Shiro flick her wrist as he saw the area around him darken.
"Oh shit!" He cried out in shock.
Fire and Thunder gathered in his palms as heunched a st upwards, destroying the pir Shiro was about to drop onto him.
Shiro took this into ount as she was already in front of him.
Sliding on her feet, Shiro stabbed the spear towards his head.
*PHEW!
The power of the spear created a small gust as Mark managed to doge his head out of the way.
Fire and lightning gathered in front of him as he aimed it towards Shiro.
Flicking her spare hand, a shield was erected in front of her.
She frowned when she saw the st carving through the ice with ease.
Stabbing the spear into the shield, Shiro shifted her weight as she vaulted over the shield andnded behind Mark.
Her spear was aimed at his rear as she grinned.
¡¯Extend!¡¯
"AHHH!!!"
The match ended just like that. Shiro¡¯s spear was able to prate all the way in and fatally rupture his internal organs.
Leaving the simtion, Mark and Shiro looked at each other.
Shiro had a grin whilst Mark had a pale face. His expression slightly traumatised from having died from anal shock.
"Was there no other way other than what you did? I don¡¯t know maybe stab me through my chest?" Mark said.
The simtion would transfer a little of the phantom pain so that the human brain would still react to the stimulus. However, the feeling of dying due to an anal probe wasn¡¯t something he wants to go through again.
Shiro only grinned as walked over to Yin.
Tapping her head, Shiro ced Yin on her shoulders as Mark had a hand on his ass, still feeling a sting from the phantom pain.
"So your magic control is the peak of tier 2 I¡¯d say. Combat prowess... high. I¡¯ll ce you in rank 20 of the priority list ok? You¡¯ll also have a VIP membership with the mages guild." Mark said as Shiro nodded.
"Pass me your ID, I¡¯ll update it on the system."
Passing over her ID, Mark added a few more lines to her ID.
[Name: Shiro
Estimated Age: 13
ss: Ice Mage
LVL: 30
Mage¡¯s Association Membership: VIP
Priority Rank: 20 (New York Branch)]
Taking back the ID, Shiro wanted to see if she could ess the Attunement Hall.
[Since I¡¯m ranked 20 on the list, am I able to enter the Attunement Hall now?] Shiro asked.
"Ah so that was what you wanted. Unfortunately, you¡¯ll need to wait a day before you can use the Attunement Halls. Today is used by the top 10. Tomorrow is used by the top 20 and so on."
[Alright. What privileges does having a VIP ount give me?]
"You get ess to tomes, materials and skill simtions." Mark said as Shiro nodded.
Skill simtions weren¡¯t anything foreign for her. In fact, they were one of the mostmon things in her past life.
Not everyone can find a grimoire or skill stone, so they resort to simtions and people mimicking the effects of the skill.
With enough proficiency and consistency, you¡¯ll be able to unlock the skill in the system.
Naturally, with a martial art like Yin Style Phantom Arts, it won¡¯t show up on the system. This was due to the fact that it isn¡¯t a skill and rather a set of movements.
In time, she should be able to gain a title though.
Every martial art rewarded a title after a certain time. The first being [(Martial Art Style) Practitioner].
The higher ranked the titles get, the more bonuses it grants you.
[Then for the materials, am I able to trouble you with collecting 30 Ice cores?]
"30 Ice Core!?" Mark said in shock.
Ice cores, while not extremely rare, wasn¡¯tmon either. Out of 10 Ice Type D ranked bosses, only 1 or 2 of them would drop.
To get 30 Ice Cores was equivalent to killing almost 100 plus Ice ranked bosses.
The mages association could afford it but it would still make Mark¡¯s heart ache from the expenditure.
"To get 30 Ice Cores, you¡¯ll have to be in top 10. At most, I can give you is 10. And that¡¯s the upper limit.
¡¯Top 10 huh...¡¯ Shiro thought as a grin slowly formed on her face.
Seeing the face, Mark felt his anus tense up again.
[How do I challenge the top ten for their spots?]
"You¡¯ll have to challenge rank 19 first and work your way up 1 by 1."
[Is that so? How would I challenge them? Is it just by the simtion again?]
"Yes. If the rank isn¡¯t online, you can challenge the rank above them." Mark nodded.
[Alright. I¡¯m going back in.] Shiro said as she sat in the pod.
"The fight will be broadcasted. We have fights broadcasted so that people know about the rank changes."
[Sure.]
Shiro wasn¡¯t too bothered. It wasn¡¯t like she was going to be using her Nanomancer anyways.
Entering the simtion world, Shiro checked out the rankings and saw that rank 19 was avable to be challenged.
Pressing the challenge button, Shiro waited for the match to start.
[Opponent Has epted The Challenge. Teleporting in 10]
Stretching her fake simted body, Shiro waited for the countdown to finish.
The arena was more of a modern arena.
It was a huge room without anything special as there were only a few rooms with ss windows as the viewing tform.
In front of her, was rank 19 on the priority list. Killian.
He had long red hair tied into a ponytail, tall body build, ck robe and a spellbook in his hands.
Shiro grinned as she created her ice spear. The next victim was ready.
Chapter 43 - A*** Destroying Princess
Chapter 43: A*** Destroying Princess
"Fuuu...."
A cloud of smoke was breathed out as Lucius sighed.
After several weeks of pursing from his attackers, he was finally able to escape their reach.
Naturally by that, he means kill them all.
Cracking his neck, he stretched his body.
"Che, old bastards thinking I was an easy target." He spat out as he threw away his cigarette.
Right now, he was mentally worn out and fatigued. He needed a safe location to rest up.
Walking over to the mages guild, he went up to the receptionist.
"Get Mark over here." He said as the receptionist frowned.
"I¡¯m afraid you don¡¯t have the permission."
"Just tell him his lord is here then." Lucius narrowed his eyes.
The receptionist paused hearing this and nodded.
Jogging to the testing room, she soon returned with Mark.
Lucius gestured slightly as Mark nodded.
Walking into a separate room, Lucius sat down on a chair and closed his eyes.
"I¡¯m sorry young master. I wasn¡¯t able to help you since the association was being watched." Mark said as he kneeled down.
"No worries. I was able to kill them in the end." Lucius replied as he sat up.
"That being said. How¡¯s the tasks I gave you?"
"I¡¯m afraid I have little to no progress. The traitors hide their tracks extremely well." Mark reported.
"Hmm..."
Lucius narrowed his eyes as the faction was slowly being overtaken by traitors. Even though he was the young master, his level was only 50, he couldn¡¯t stand up to those old monsters just yet.
"Keep trying to find them. In the mean time, try to get a few good seedlings in the faction recruitment. Having a few new bloods under my control will help against the traitors."
"Understood." Mark nodded.
*AHHH!!!!
The two paused when they suddenly heard a screaming from the main hall.
"Is there anything going on?" He asked.
"Not that I know of- ... I think it might be one of the ranking matches." Mark said pausing when he remembered what a certain girl did to him. Just the thought made him pucker his anus.
"Oh? Is the ranking match that brutal?" Lucius asked with curiosity.
For a match to be brutal, it¡¯ll have to cause a huge amount of damage in one hit before the system sends them out.
For someone to be able to make the spectators cry out like that means they have quite the potentials.
"Its...brutal in its own sense." Mark said after a pause.
Lucius¡¯s interest was peak further as it turned on the TV and tuned into the fight.
"Young master I don¡¯t think you should w-..." Mark¡¯s warning was a little toote as they saw Shiro pierce the ass of the person who¡¯s ranked 18th on the list.
Lucius¡¯s face darkened slightly as he saw how she aimed at the ass of the enemies.
"Actually... isn¡¯t she..." He muttered finding her a little familiar.
¡¯Wait isn¡¯t she the little girl who caused me to waste time!¡¯ He thought when he saw her face.
"Mark. I want you to give me all the information you have on her." He said with narrowed eyes.
"Here, I was attending to her not too long ago so I have her information on me." Mark said handing him the ID copy.
"Hmm... aged 13 and level 30 huh? Interesting." He smiled.
"Try recruit her into our group when the faction recruitment starts." Lucius smiled.
"I¡¯ll try." Mark nodded.
Dismissing mark, Lucius sat on the sat with a smile as he watched her fight.
¡¯How vulgar... yet oddly effective. We humans have little to no protection on our rear, making it a prime weak point. There is a natural entry there to destroy your internals after all. We can protect our eyes, our mouths and other points in front of us. But one would almost never protect their ass.¡¯ Lucius thought.
It was an interesting weakness that Shiro had shown him. It maybe vulgar, it maybe shameless, but it was effective. Male, female, monster, everyone had the weakness par from some.
With such a spot avable, if would be dumb not to attack it.
¡¯The only factor restraining this would be embarrassment. Her face would be awfully thick if she isn¡¯t embarrassed by this. Perhaps I should consider this weakness as well.¡¯ He thought with a smile.
His eyes glowed with interest as he continued to read her records.
Tapping his fingers, a shadow version on him rose up as it bowed.
"Keep an eye on her. I want to see if she¡¯s hiding anything else."
The shadow faded into the cracks of the wall as he continued to watch.
It was during the 4th match did he frown.
"Those movements... why do they seem simr to the martial arts of the founder." He muttered.
The founder of the faction he was in, Shadow Pce, used a special set of martial arts that was lost through time. The Martial arts while only a fragment of the original, allowed her to propel the Shadow Pce up the ranks of the factions out in the world.
The martial arts focused on ghost like movements and was purely a movement type martial art.
It was with this that the founder was titled Ghost.
However, he was witnessing Shiro perform a simr set of movements that fit with the description of the founder¡¯s martial art.
Standing up from his chair, he decided to have a little talk with her when shees out of the simtion.
###
Killing her opponent that was ranked 12th on the list, Shiro flicked her wrist as the ice spear dissembled.
The stands were filled with spectators as it wasn¡¯t every day that you see a challenger fly through the ranks.
Especially one that won with such an... interesting tactic.
"You think there¡¯s something wrong with her?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean she¡¯s always going for the ass, right? She¡¯s also killing them one by one. Doesn¡¯t she know she could fight the top 10?"
"You mean to say she¡¯s setting an example?"
"Perhaps. Either that or do you think she has a thing for.. you know."
"... is she a sadist?"
"Why else do you think she¡¯s fighting them one by one."
"Oh god! Imagine if she fought like this in real life."
"... don¡¯t. This world is cursed enough as it is!"
"You can¡¯t deny it though!"
"I suppose you¡¯re right."
"When she gets into top 10, do you think she¡¯ll get a title as well? Would they even allow it though."
"Hmm, true. Titles are based onbat habits. With a habit like her¡¯s, what do you think she could be called?"
"Erm... Ass Busting Queen?"
"..."
"..."
"How about... Anus Annihtor?"
"Doesn¡¯t feel right."
"Anus Destroyer Shiro?"
"Hmm perhaps."
"Anus Destroying Empress."
"You know she¡¯s 13 right? It says her on her Mages ID."
"Anus Destroying Princess?"
"That. Let¡¯s go with that."
"Anus Destroying Princess... I like that. Has a nice yet evil ring to it."
"Doesn¡¯t it fit her well though? Look at her. She¡¯s so pretty at a young age but her tendencies are a little. Ahem."
###
Tapping on the button for rank 11, Shiro saw that it was forfeited the moment she challenged him.
¡¯Is he afraid?¡¯ Shiro thought as she did fight her way through the ranks easily.
Tapping rank 10, she was happy that he epted.
Rank 10 was called Shane. He was a mage that also focused on the ice element.
As her vision shifted, she saw her opponent.
He had arge robe that covered his body and face, leaving only his eyes out.
His body build was slightly on the small side as he didn¡¯t have a weapon on him.
"You! Why do you keep stabbing at the ass of the mages." He shouted out as he red at her.
Shiro didn¡¯t reply as it was a waste of time.
She only smiled provocatively as she taunted him.
This caused him to frown as a magic circle wrapped around his arm.
Before he could set out his area of control, Shiro was way ahead of him as she mmed her palms down and froze the area.
Crouching low, she made a spear as she dashed towards him.
Stabbing the spear into the ground, she pivoted on her feet as she slid around and behind him.
She was about to stab her spear at him when she quickly shifted her weight and flipped away from him.
Landing on the ice, she slid back for a moment before she stabilised herself.
Shane had a chunk of ice encasing his rear as there were ice spikes shooting out of it.
If she had stayed there, it may have injured her.
Shane only smiled seeing he saw his n work.
Before he could even talk, he saw Shiro with a nd expression as she flicked her wrist.
*BOOMMMM!!!!!!
When she flipped away, she had set down a trap for him.
If a small spear didn¡¯t work then she just needed arger one.
From below his feet, a giant ice pir shot upwards as itpletely obliterated his chunk of ice that protected his rear.
With a single move, his body was split in two as his corpseunched high into the air.
The crowd was shocked as not even protecting your rear with magic could protect your anus.
Seeing that she reached top 10 in terms of ranking, Shiro decided to stop as there had been enough victims for today.
Exiting the capsule, Shiro stretched her body as she picked Yin up.
¡¯Hm? Where¡¯s the branch master?¡¯ Shiro thought as she looked around.
Exiting out of the room, Shiro looked around and saw Mark walking together with another man.
¡¯Wait isn¡¯t he that dipsh*t who handled me roughlyst time.¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
Walking up to them, Shiro tapped away at her phone.
[Mark, I¡¯ve reached top 10. I do believe I¡¯m entitled to my 30 Ice Cores now.]
"Ah erm this..." Mark muttered feeling a little pinch. Not only that, but his young master was here right now.
"It¡¯s fine. Give her the 30 Ice Cores." Lucius said with a smile.
This caused Shiro to narrow her eyes as she wondered about their rtionship.
[Thanks. My address should be on my ID profile. Just send it there.]
"Hang on. I have a question for you." Lucius asked.
[What?]
"Where did you learn your martial arts?"
Shiro frowned hearing the question.
[None of your business. And also, next time remember to handle girls with care.]
Shiro walked away as Lucius only chuckled.
"Handle with care huh? Her methods aren¡¯t exactly the most careful are they?" Lucius muttered.
"You know each other young master?"
"She wasted my time during my pursuit. The old geezers almost caught up to me because of her."
"Should I go and end her?" Mark asked with a frown.
"Leave it. I want to recruit her. No need to kill an uing talent." Lucius shook his head.
What he doesn¡¯t understand are the people who kill what they can¡¯t get. Humanity as a whole is only a small part of this world now. Satellites didn¡¯t work as they wished so they couldn¡¯t scout out the vast world. They tried to send rockets but they would get destroyed by flying-type monsters.
With them forced to abide by foreign rules, they needed every talent possible. Even if they aren¡¯t part of the team, they¡¯re still part of humanity.
All so that humanity can survive in this strange world.
"Give her the cores and support her growth. We need talents like her. Not to mention, she was able to almost freeze me when she was 25 levels below me."
"What?!" Mark was surprised.
He knew that the higher level disparity was between two people, the harder it was to affect the higher level. Yet, for him to still be almost frozen by someone 25 levels below him, tells one volumes of Shiro¡¯s strength.
Meanwhile, Shiro who was exiting the building was looked at with gazes of fear.
Some were holding their rears as they shivered feeling her gaze on them.
"Little Yin, do you think I should have fought a few more people?" Shiro asked.
Yin only chirped as she had seen too much today.
Licking her lips slightly, Shiro narrowed her eyes and looked for anyone unaffected.
This caused the adventurers to shiver in fear as they nned to get the best cksmith in the city to make them an ass te.
One strong enough to protect against anal pration.
Shrugging slightly, she decided to let them off and head home first. She still had her gift of armour and outfit ready for Lyrica.
Chapter 44 - Elven Bladedancer
Chapter 44: Elven dedancer
Returning to the dorm, Shiro knocked on Lyrica¡¯s door.
"Oh Shiro-" Lyrica paused when she saw Shiro¡¯s new outfit. Just seeing the hood frame her cute face and the stockings and jeans frame her thighs made her face heat up.
[You ok?]
"Ah! Yes! Come in." Lyrica said as she quickly gestured for Shiro to enter her room.
[I got a present for you since you challenged the Dungeon solo for the first time. This armour and outfit should help you a lot.] Shiro smiled as she sat down on a chair.
Pulling out the armour and outfit, Shiro gestured for Lyrica to take a look.
"Just... wow..." Was all Lyrica muttered seeing the armour effects.
[The outfit is made from a special material like my first dress. It won¡¯t break or rip, but the damage is still there. So don¡¯t think just because the clothes didn¡¯t rip, you won¡¯t take any damage.] Shiro warned.
"Of course. It would be stupid otherwise." Lyrica nodded.
[We have time to challenge a Dungeon. Want to do it now?] Shiro smiled. The sooner she got Lyrica to level 20 the better, this was so that she could get an extra edge in the faction recruitment.
Lyrica nodded as she too wanted to reach level 20.
Leaving the dorms, Shiro paused as she felt a strange gaze on her.
Pulling her hood forward, she continued to walk whilst looking for the source of the gaze.
She narrowed her eyes when she saw the figure.
It was the shadow clone of Lucius. She only recognised the clone as she too used the same type of clone during the story quest of the Yin Kingdom.
Shiro followed Lyrica as they walked out of the school facility.
[Give me a second, I¡¯ll be right back.] Shiro typed out.
"Alright, I¡¯ll wait here for you."
Walking away from Lyrica, Shiro walked into an ally. The clone followed but not before it felt two hands wrap around his head and neck.
"Next time make sure you don¡¯t make yourself so obvious." Shiro whispered even though she knew he won¡¯t understand.
Twisting her hand, she ripped the clones head clean of the torso as it broke apart.
Dusting her hands, she walked back to Lyrica.
###
Lucius, who was talking to Mark, paused feeling his clones death.
"So she found and killed it." He said with a small smile.
"Killed what?" Mark asked.
"She killed the clone I sent to observe her." Lucius chuckled slightly.
"!!!" Mark paused in shock as Lucius¡¯s shadow clones were very hard to spot. Not only were they small, but they also blended in almost perfectly with the surroundings.
Even for level 50¡¯s, they would find it hard to notice the clone.
"I¡¯m quite interested in her. Make it so that finding out her background is your top priority."
"Understood.
###
Having killed the clone, Shiro returned to Lyrica as they made their way to the Dungeon.
Since Lyrica was level 19 and hitting level 20 soon, they decided to challenge the level 20 Dungeon, Murloc Caverns.
Murloc Caverns featured swamps andnd-basedbat.
The murlocs, wererge, frog-like creatures that walked on both legs. Sickly green skin and blue patterns.
In addition to this, they also had reptilian eyes, humanoid teeth and tentacle-like protrusions from their backs.
With everythingbined, they made for a disgusting match.
Within the ranks of the Murlocs, there are the basic troops to the highest Murloc King. The Murloc King being the final boss of this Dungeon.
There is a total of 3 floors in this Dungeon; the first floor consisting of Murloc troops and heavy tanks, second floor consisted of Murloc mages, troops and shamans. The final floor being the king with all his guards.
With Shiro being a level 30, they were allowed a permit to enter. This was due to the fact that Shiro was a level 30 and rank 10 on the mages priority list. Anyone high in the ranks were able to challenge a E rank Dungeon easily.
Entering the Dungeon, a new question surfaced in Shiro¡¯s mind.
[Lyrica, how did you enter a Dungeon solost time?]
"Eh... I just snuck in Hehehe." Lyricaughed slightly.
[Ah so just like me.] Shiro grinned.
Patting Lyrica¡¯s shoulder, Shiro nodded in approval.
*GLUGLUGLUG
The sound simr to someone drowning rang out as Lyrica took out her de.
Shiro stepped back as this was solo run for Lyrica. She was only the fail-safe.
As the sound came closer, they saw the Murloc holding a small rusted sword.
[Murloc Troop LVL 20]
Lyrica twisted her body as sheunched her weapon forwards.
*BOOM!
The weapon smacked against the Murloc¡¯s sword as Lyrica jumped up and caught the de.
Twisting her body in mid-air, she shed downwards and cleaved the Murloc in half.
Shiro smiled seeing her efficiency since it shouldn¡¯t take too long for Lyrica to reach level 20.
...
After several hours of grinding on the first floor, Lyrica had finally hit level 20.
[Congrattion? What sses are avable?] Shiro asked.
"Erm... I got Elven Swordswoman star, Elven Swordmaster and Elven dedancer." Lyrica said as Shiro considered.
[What benefits and negatives are there?]
"The Elven Swordswoman star gives me and 15% bonus when attacking with swords, a 10% agility bonus and an extra 10% STR when I attack with full momentum. Swordmaster gives me a 20% bonus, 15% agility and an extra 15% STR. But I also lose most of my defence and skills in turn for new ones."
[What about thest one? Elven dedancer?] Shiro asked.
She knew that all elves had a chance to reach Elven Sword Saintess. But she didn¡¯t know about any of the sses that came before it. While she could guess a few, Elven dedancer was certainly a new ss she had never even heard rumours of.
"Oh wow. The Elven dedancer gives me a 20% bonus with swords, daggers and chain whips. A 20% agility bonus and an extra 20% STR. But that requires me to almostpletely abandon my defence."
¡¯Hmm, from what she¡¯s told me, the dedancer seems like a heavy damage orientated ss. It should have either amazing burst damage or long damage over time. From what I¡¯ve seen of Lyrica, this may fit her quite nicely.¡¯
[Which ss do you think you¡¯re going to go for?]
"I¡¯m thinking of dedancer. Being able to end a fight quickly would be handy if I¡¯m going to be soloing Dungeons." Lyrica replied.
[Do what you wish. If I remember clearly, every elf has a chance to get Elven Sword Saintess right? The strength of your ss should be linked to the sses you chose previously. So for you to pick dedancer, your elven sword saintess may be a heavy damage oriented ss.] Shiro smiled.
"Eh?! How do you know about Elven Sword Saintess?! That¡¯s supposed to be one of the secrets of the elf race!" Lyrica cried out in surprise.
[I have my sources. But what do you mean by secrets? Isn¡¯t it supposed to bemonly known?]
"Well since you already know, I guess it doesn¡¯t hurt to tell you. Basically, the rtionship between human and demi-races seem nice on the surface, but we all know they want to oppress us demi-races. Each race is basically exposed to the human race as they know all of our traits. The elven sword saintess is supposed to be a secret against the human race should it evere to that." Lyrica said with a sigh.
"With power like the Elven Sword Saintess at our disposal, the human race can¡¯t sit still. If they knew about it, it¡¯ll cause the humans to be wary and be on guard against the elven race. Eliminating any source of danger that maye to the human race."
[Is that so? Narrow-minded fools. With the human race upying such little of the territory, they still want to oppress the other races?] Shiro typed out as she had a disdainful sneer on her face.
Greed was one of the core parts of the human mentality. Very few could resist the greed which gued their nature and Shiro knows it. But everyone should at least have the ability to rein it in for the betterment of the race.
[You should try hard to get the ss then. Having a hidden proficiency can help you gain the ss.] Shiro typed out.
"Alright. But I have to say, I¡¯m surprised Shiro is so... how can I put this..."
[Open minded?]
"Kind of like that. I¡¯m just surprised that you can be so calm. What if I be an overlord that enves the human race?" Lyrica joked.
Shiro only shrugged.
[Then I take responsibility. But to be honest. I can¡¯t exactly be called a human right now. Demi-race like you would be suitable I suppose.] Shiro smiled.
"Eh?! Shiro¡¯s a demi too? But I thought your ID said human?" Lyrica asked.
[In a world filled with trickery, you need to be good at disguising yourself.] Shiro smiled.
"But what if I tell other people?"
[Then it¡¯s just me miscing my trust.] Shiro shrugged. She didn¡¯t mind telling Lyrica that she wasn¡¯t a human for now. Naturally, she wouldn¡¯t tell her that she was a monster either.
That¡¯ll have to wait.
"Aww Shiro..." Lyrica muttered hearing Shiro trust her enough to reveal her non-human lineage to her. Whilst it wasn¡¯t the full truth, she knew a person like Shiro needed to hide parts of her life to avoid danger.
[So which ss are you going to choose?]
"I¡¯m thinking of going dedancer. My mum has told me about going for stars is good, but the difficulty scales up with each star. dedancer seems to fit me more honestly." Lyrica said whilst tapped the dedancer ss.
"Eh? The conditions aren¡¯t too hard I suppose. Defeat 3 bosses with the sword, dagger and whip. 5 D ranked mana stones. Achieve a 250 point total in STR, AGI and DEX." Lyrica said, telling Shiro about her ss up conditions.
[How many points do you have in total for your STR AGI and DEX?]
"I got 320 in total."
[That¡¯s one conditionpleted. You should aim toplete the rest of the tasks in this Dungeon.]
"Eh? But I don¡¯t have a whip nor a dagger. I only have this dual-ended de which barely counts as a sword."
[I have something for you don¡¯t worry. The main problem is your fighting potential without the dual-ended de. Since your body¡¯s been adapting to the weapon, do you think it remembers some of the movements?]
"Oh, you mean like muscle memory?"
[Yeah.]
"Maybe... but I¡¯m not too sure." Lyrica shook her head.
[You need to make sure you have basic proficiency with every weapon. There will be situations where you would lose your main weapon and have to make do with different weapons. If you train yourself, you¡¯ll be able to use every weapon avable.]
"But that¡¯s hard~" Lyricained. Reaching a basic understanding in every weapon was hard as not only did she need to train in each of them, she needs to make sure she curbs any weapon movement habits she picks up.
Examples being the difference between an axe and a dagger. The heavier weapon types involve the use of momentum control whilst the light weapons, like the dagger, need no such thing. To gain proficiency in everything, she¡¯ll need to make sure her movements don¡¯t collide with different weapons.
[Shouldn¡¯t be. I was able to gain an above basic proficiency in every weapon since I was trained from the time I was a kid.]
"But aren¡¯t you still a kid now?" Lyrica asked with confusion.
[When I was trained younger then. It took me a few years but I was able to curb my habits and get better.] Shiro smiled.
¡¯I need to remember that my current body resembles that of a 13-year-old. I shouldn¡¯t be talking about experiences like I did in my past life.¡¯ Shiro thought.
[Anyways, since you¡¯ve killed most of the mobs on the first floor, let¡¯s kill the obelisk guardian and go up to the second floor.]
"Alright." Lyrica nodded as they made their way to the guardian.
When they arrived, they saw the obelisk located in the middle of an ind and the boss swimming in the water.
Sensing Shiro and Lyrica, the boss dived down before shooting out the water.
*BANG!
The bossnded with a heavy thud as his entire body was exposed to the duo.
He had a slimy and elongated body that was a revolting hybrid between a frog and an eel. The mouth of the Murloc stretched back all the way to his arms as the rows of teeth caused both Shiro and Lyrica to cringe in disgust.
Blue wave-like patterns stretched across his body as the back was decorated with fins.
[Murloc River Guardian LVL 20 ¨C Elite]
Chapter 45 - Purple Dagger
Chapter 45: Purple Dagger
Shiro hopped backwards as she started to float mid-air.
Her robe fluttered slightly while she watched with a small smile.
Lyrica summoned her weapon as she charged at the Murloc.
*GLUPGLUPGLUP!!!
Sidestepping, Lyrica dodged easily as her de glowed with a slight red tinge.
Heated Edge!
shing twice with her skill, Lyrica caused a cross to be burned into the side of the Murloc.
"GLUPGLUP!
Crying out in rage, the Murloc swung his tail as Lyrica quickly slid on the ground, narrowly avoiding the tail swipe.
Stabbing the sword into the ground, Lyrica vaulted herself onto the back of the Murloc.
Twirling the sword, Lyrica caused a multitude ofcerations to appear on the Murloc¡¯s body.
The Murloc¡¯s eyes glowed red as sparks started to flicker around him.
Seeing this, Lyrica quickly jumped backwards, avoiding the lightning.
Pivoting on her leg, Lyrica twisted her body as a gale started to pick up.
Whirlwind sh!
*PUCHI PUCHI!
Two deep ghastly gashes could be seen on the back as Lyrica took advantage of her momentum to increase the damage.
Not wasting the excess momentum, Lyrica shifted her footwork and cleaved downwards.
*BANG!
The de cut deeply into the flesh but wasn¡¯t able to sever the tail.
Lyrica frowned slightly seeing this.
The Murloc retaliated by bending back at an abnormal angle. His mouth opened wide as it wanted to swallow Lyrica whole.
Kicking the bottom of the de, Lyrica dislodged the de from the tail as she rolled out of the way.
*BOOM!!!
A miniature dust cloud exploded outwards as the Murloc¡¯s head crashed against the ground.
Quickly re-orientating herself, Lyrica narrowed her eyes.
The Murloc¡¯s tail could be seen swishing around in the smoke.
*GLUPGLUP!!!
Smashing through the cloud of smoke, the Murloc charged towards Lyrica as she quickly vaulted upwards to avoid being eaten.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
Destroying arge portion of the scenery, the Murloc tilted his head back as it swallowed everything.
"Creepy f*cker." Lyrica muttered with a frown.
The abnormal size of the jaw freaked her out as there was something that unsettled her mentally.
She just couldn¡¯t stand looking at such a disgusting thing.
Meanwhile, Shiro was bing more and more satisfied watching Lyrica fight.
Not only were her movements fluid, but she was also starting to improve on her hidden proficiency.
Adding her own movements to flow from one skill to another, all whilst not disrupting her current tempo.
The subtle shift in her centre of gravity shift to cooperate with her footwork and wrist movement didn¡¯t escape Shiro¡¯s eye.
¡¯At the rate she¡¯s going, she may very well be the youngest to everprehend her attack domain. In this life and in my previous life¡¯ Shiro thought. Having an ally like this would definitely make future Dungeon runs easier as it was hard to solo the higher-level ones.
Just one monster would have people struggling as they all had their own skills that could kill a person quickly.
Whilst Lyrica was fighting the boss, Shiro scanned for his HP.
[Murloc River Guardian LVL 20 ¨C Elite]
HP: 39,300/75,000
MP: 20,590/50,000
¡¯He¡¯s going to die soon.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
The Murloc mmed his hands into the ground as Lyrica dodged.
Stabbing the de deep into the back of his palm, Lyrica twisted her body and gave the de a roundhouse kick.
*BANG!
The kick to the de ripped arge chunk of the flesh out as Lyrica caught the de once more.
Following the momentum, she shed towards the Murloc¡¯s eye.
*GLUPGLUPGLUP!!!
Seeing that Lyrica has it handled, Shiro decided to craft the weapons she needed for the next two bosses.
The whip and the dagger.
Not only that, but Shiro needs to make sure they didn¡¯t break due to the MP durability.
Hiding her hands behind her back, Shiro started to imagine the blueprints.
¡¯The dagger itself needs to be strong, tough and powerful for a level 20 weapon. It can¡¯t be the throwing dagger type I use, it must have high durability.¡¯
Lightning sparked in her palm as metallic fibres started to appear and merge together.
Twisting together, a dagger slowly formed as Shiro made sure eachponent was extra tough.
Constructing a skill chip, she added disguise onto the de.
[Reinforced Orphenium Dagger (Purple) LVL 20]
+20 Pierce
+20 Durability
+20 Critical Rate
+25 Critical Damage
+20 Bleed
+20 Sharpness
Passive: Mana Repair
Mana Repair ¨C Repairs durability when user inserts mana into the de.
Durability ¨C 40,000/40,000
This was the de that Shiro managed to create. Not only was it of the purple rank, but she had used up an astounding 45k MP to make this dagger. For such an amount to be inserted to a level 20 dagger would propel it to the purple grade easily.
Twirling the dagger in her hands, Shiro smiled.
This was a weapon, simr in design to her old dagger. Orphenium was one of the sharpest, yet most brittle materials back then. The only problem was its durability.
The dagger she had now was basically a copy of the dagger at a lower level.
*BOOMM!!!!
¡¯Just in time I guess.¡¯ Shiro thought as she saw the Murloc copse down lifelessly.
Lyrica wasn¡¯t too tired out as she was only panting lightly.
Landing softly next to her, Shiro tapped her shoulder.
[Good job.]
"Thanks. But I should have killed him faster." Lyrica sighed as she sat down.
Hearing this, Shiro only shrugged as wanting to do better was always a trait she liked to see in others.
Collecting the corpse, Lyrica was about to head up to the second floor when she was stopped by Shiro.
[Here take this.] Shiro typed as she passed Lyrica the dagger.
"Hm? A dagger- OH MY GOD A PURPLE GRADE!" Lyrica shouted as her hands quivered.
Purple grade equipment was exceedingly rare even in the front lines. While they may be moremon with lower level equipment, they were still something rarely seen.
"How did you get something like this?!" Lyrica asked.
[No questions. Just use this for the next floor and kill the boss. After that, return it to me and I¡¯ll give you the whip for the final boss.]
Understanding the subtle hint of ignorance is a bliss, Lyrica stopped asking questions.
Entering the 2nd floor, Lyrica adjusted her grip on the dagger several times as she tried to get a better grasp of the weapon.
[Unlike the dual-ended de, the dagger doesn¡¯t have the range or the damage. You have to focus on pinpointing the weak areas and strike there.]
"What do you mean?"
[Understand that like most humans, monsters also have innate weaknesses like the tendons. Cut those tendons apart and they won¡¯t be able to move.] Shiro smiled.
[Break the spine and they copse onto themselves. And naturally, you can also go for the anus but since you¡¯re using a dagger you won¡¯t be able to make use of that weakness.]
¡¯Thankfully.¡¯ Lyrica thought.
[Just make sure you move fast and attack the weak points. Circling around and shing at the tendons is a foundation move every dagger user needs. Beginner or not.] Shiro smiled.
Lyrica nodded as she closed her eyes. She tried to remember the feeling of when she was using the dual-ended de. She needed the muscle memory to help her out during this floor.
Thankfully, the second floor consisted of mages, basic troops and shamans. While the magic was a little harder to dodge, she should be able to handle it.
Sneaking to the first group of Murlocs, Lyrica suppressed her nervousness as she narrowed her eyes.
¡¯There are 3 mages and 2 troops. I should go for the mages first while avoiding the troops. If I deal with the troops, it would be annoying to dodge the magic.¡¯ Lyrica thought.
Taking a deep breath to suppress her nervousness, Lyrica reopened her eyes.
Dashing towards the group, she kept her body low on the ground.
The mages detected her immediately as three fireballs were created and sent towards her.
¡¯Remember the feeling, remember the feeling...¡¯ Lyrica thought as she needed to dodge.
Pivoting on her foot, she sidestepped away from the first fireball.
mming her palms on the ground, Lyrica used the force to slide under thest two fireballs.
¡¯I-I did it!¡¯ She thought in excitement. Making sure to not lose her rhythm so far, she continued her dash towards the mages.
The troops raised their swords as Lyrica flicked the dagger into a reverse grip.
*DING!
The sword came into contact with the dagger as Lyrica twisted her body and mmed a kick to the side of the Murloc¡¯s cranium.
The force caused him to recoil backwards as it gave Lyrica enough room to grab the second Murloc troop.
shing her dagger at his wrist, she caused him to drop the sword.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Three fireballs fired towards her as she used the Murloc as a shield.
*GLUPGLUP!
The Murloc cried out in pain as his back was scorched.
Throwing the Murloc away like trash, Lyrica arrived at the first mage.
Panicking, the mage smashed the staff towards Lyrica.
Grabbing the staff, Lyrica pulled it towards her as the mages lost his bnce.
She used her left leg to kick behind the knees of the mage, causing him to kneel before her.
*PPFFFF!
shing the dagger at the spine and neck arteries in one swift movement, blood started to spray out.
"Pui!" Quickly spitting out the blood that got into her mouth, Lyrica rolled to the side avoiding the fireballs.
Grabbing a hand full of sand and dirt, she threw it towards the mage¡¯s eye.
*PFFF!!!!
In the time that the mage was blinded, she shed his neck leaving only one more target on her kill list.
With the final mage, Lyrica decided to finish it fast.
Twirling the dagger in her hand, she built up the momentum and flung the dagger towards the mage.
*Pa!
Shiro did a facepalm as she saw the dagger fly through the air and was about tond in the ocean. It hadpletely missed the target as Shiro flicked her wrist.
A wall of ice was erected as the dagger struck the wall.
Seeing Shiro facepalm herself, Lyrica knew about her mistake. Sure she may have retained some of the muscle memory, but she still wasn¡¯t used to throwing daggers.
Quickly rolling out of the way, Lyrica dodged the fireball. Grabbing the downed mage¡¯s staff, Lyrica ran to the ice wall and vaulted herself up.
Ripping out the dagger from the wall, she did a backflip andnded softly.
Finishing off the mage with ease, Lyrica sighed.
She was about to talk when an ice spike shot past her face.
*GLU!!!!
A cry rang out as Lyrica looked behind her and saw that it was the Murloc she kicked aside at the start. An ice spike was embedded into his skull as it copsed weakly.
[Don¡¯t let your guard down. Make sure each and every one of them is dead before you look away.]
"...understood."
[Also, why did you throw the dagger? You¡¯ve never trained in dagger throwing at all. How would you expect to throw the dagger with both the uracy and the power needed to kill that mage.]
"I-I just thought it looked easy when other people do it."
[You need to have good control over the flick of your wrist, the strength of your arm and the point where you release the dagger. They all y a part in how to throw the dagger correctly. If any of them arecking, there is a high chance of the dagger not being able to hit the target with enough force.] Shiro typed out as she took the dagger.
Without looking back, she flicked her wrist and the dagger shot in a beeline towards the tree.
[See? It looks easy due to how casual I threw it. But do you think it¡¯s easy to perform?]
Lyrica shook her head.
[Then why the hell did you try to throw it?!] Shiro asked as Lyrica looked down.
Shiro knew she had to be strict with Lyrica at times. As much as she wanted to assist her, if she wasn¡¯t careful, Lyrica would develop bad habits.
[If I wasn¡¯t here to stop that dagger from flying into the ocean, you would have lost your weapon. Even if you had your dual-ended de, what would you do if you had no more weapons?]
"I¡¯m sorry..." Lyrica apologised as she knew she made a big mistake.
Shiro sighed as she passed the dagger back to Lyrica.
[We¡¯re spending a while here to train your dagger arts.] Shiro typed as she pulled out another dagger.
She was going to make sure Lyrica understood the basics of daggers.
Chapter 46 - Whips
Chapter 46: Whips
4 days. It took Lyrica 4 days to get an approval rating from Shiro.
If rated out of ten with 1 being a decent dagger user and 10 being someone on a veteran¡¯s level, Lyrica would get a 2.5. Shiro, on the other hand, would be too far up the scale.
*THUD!
The dagger embedded itself deeply into the cranial bone of a Murloc Shaman as Lyrica massaged her wrist.
The training Shiro gave her was to try to hit a stationary target whilst running around and doing flips. That was just stage one out of 4.
The next stage had involved her hitting a stationary target with Shirounching magic at her, the 3rd stage had her hit a moving target and the final stage being all of the above whilst fighting a crowd of Murlocs.
This type of high-intensity training had allowed her to gain a much better grasp on daggers.
Shiro was about 75% sure that Lyrica could solo the obelisk guardian of the 2nd floor without much hassle.
Just in case, she had made a second dagger which included a maicponent which attracts both daggers together. This was so that she could retrieve the dagger whenever she wished. In addition to this, the more mana she injected into the dagger, the stronger the pull.
Originally, this was a skill for an armour that was meant for tanks. But Shiro decided to add it to the dagger since she had a few ideas with what she could do with it.
[Go challenge the guardian. As always, I¡¯ll be watching. And remember, use every one of your tools. The maic function can be used in many ways that some may not even imagine.] Shiro smiled.
She had some ideas, but the satisfaction of finding out was something she wanted Lyrica to experience.
"Alright." Lyrica nodded as she too felt it was time. She didn¡¯t want to spend too long as she still had the final boss to fight. With a whip at that too.
However, this time she was allowed the leeway to use her dual-ended des because she wouldn¡¯t have the time to get used to the whips. She was just going to test how far she could go with the weapon.
Walking up to the boss, Lyrica took a deep breath.
[Murloc Grand Mage LVL 20 ¨C Elite]
The Murloc Grand Mage was just slightlyrger than the Murloc Mage. It was roughly 3 times as big.
Shiro only yawned slightly as she could probably kill the Grand Mage in a few minutes. With arge body like that, it was basically a sitting duck for her special treatment.
Making herself an ice hammock, Shiroid on her stomach as she watched Lyrica fight the boss at a leisurely pace.
Since the Grand Mage was a huge target, Lyrica needed to make sure she abuses this as much as she can.
¡¯Keep moving, don¡¯t stay in one ce. Strike at the weak points and maybe make it hurt itself with his own magic.¡¯ Lyrica thought as she dodged the mages first strike.
Dashing near the Achilles heel of the Murloc, she narrowed her eyes and shed at them with her two daggers.
She only frowned as she saw them leave only a faint shallow mark.
Not staying in the same spot for longer than needed, Lyrica immediately made her way to the other leg and stabbed down with all of her strength.
The same situation repeated itself as Lyrica only frowned seeing that her overall strength was too low to prate the thick skin of the Murloc.
*BAM!
The Murloc stomped down with his leg as a shockwave was sent out.
"URG!!" She couldn¡¯t help but groan at the hit.
Sliding on the ground slightly, she stabilised herself.
Lyrica felt the temperature rise as she saw a huge fireball shoot towards her.
Taking a deep breath, she dashed around the impact zone as she had to grit her teeth from the heat.
While her clothes didn¡¯t burn, she did feel like she was being cooked alive.
Flicking her wrist, she flung a dagger at the leg as it embedded itself.
Stepping on the dagger, Lyrica jumped up onto the Murloc¡¯s knee and recalled the dagger using the maic feature.
Dodging a palm p, Lyrica ran towards the hip tendon.
¡¯If I can rip the hip tendon, I can destroy his mobility further to create more blind spots for me to take advantage of.¡¯ She thought.
Strengthening her grip on both daggers, she pushed power through her entire body as she used the skill, body reinforcement. A simple skill that boosts your physical potential in short bursts.
*PFF!!!!!
Dashing past the hip area, the daggers dug deep into the flesh as blood sttered everywhere.
During this, Lyrica had lost her hold on the dagger due to the force and the blood attesting against her grip.
Twisting her body, Lyrica recalled the dagger that was stuck in the Murloc¡¯s flesh.
Catching the dagger, Lyrica paused for a moment as she had an epiphany.
¡¯The dagger faced almost no resistanceing back to me. During the moment it came back to me, it had cut open more of the flesh since it was in the way. While it took a little bit more MP, the force of the dagger was something I couldn¡¯t output easily with my current strength. Perhaps if I were to make use of the maic function of the dagger, I can deal more damage to the boss.¡¯ Lyrica thought.
Shiro grinned seeing the glint in Lyrica¡¯s eye.
Standing up, Shiro decided to focus more since it was finally going to be interesting.
Grabbing onto a branch, Lyrica swung herself upright as she wanted to test if she could propel the dagger away as well as pulling it back to her.
Injecting her mana with the intent of repulsion, Lyrica smiled feeling the daggers want to leave her hands.
¡¯I¡¯ll need to time this correctly. Pull the dagger in and swing it before pushing it away to maximise the momentum carrying the dagger.¡¯ She thought. She was about to try out her new idea when a flipper pped towards her.
Quickly using the branch to propel herself away, Lyrica frowned seeing the mage p the tree away.
Even with the thick roots trying to secure the tree down, the mage was able to uproot it with ease.
Thankfully, the mage was now lying on his stomach as he couldn¡¯t move one of his legs due to the severed tendon.
Landing on the ground, Lyrica let go of one of the daggers and dashed toward mage.
Injecting mana, the dagger flew towards her as Lyrica narrowed her eyes to make sure her timing was right.
¡¯Now!¡¯
Twisting her body, she used the inertia of the dagger to sh towards the neck artery of the grand mage.
*PFFF!!!!!!!!
The power behind the dagger caused a huge sh mark to stretch across the neck of the mage.
¡¯Bingo!¡¯ Lyrica grinned as her n worked.
With her attack n working out, it didn¡¯t take too long for Lyrica to kill the boss.
Not only was the boss unable to move, but most of his magic missed their target.
Landing the final blow on the boss, Lyrica sat down heavily andid on her back.
*pa
A cold towel plotted on her face as she removed it to see a smiling Shiro.
[Congrats. Also, good job in figuring out the main form of attack with these two daggers. Inertia. Remember, no matter what, inertia can help boost the power of an attack several times due to momentum.]
Lyrica nodded as she decided toy there for a second with the towel cooling her off.
"Hey Shiro. I¡¯m just wondering, but where did you get the towel?"
[You¡¯ll be surprised at the stuff I have in my inventory. I just grabbed a towel I had inside and froze it before melting it again.] Shiro shrugged.
"I see... Don¡¯t most people store armour, weapons and other important stuff?"
[I do. But it¡¯s just that I also have a bunch of misceneous items inside.]
She wasn¡¯t lying. She did keep a few spare weapons in her inventory that she collected from bosses.
But most of the items inside her inventory were everyday items such as clothes, food, mana stones and survival kits such as tents. Weapons only made up for a small portion of her inventory.
[Make sure to rest properly. Next fight is the final boss.] Shiro smiled.
Sitting on a rock, she decided to make Lyrica her whip.
She was a little confused at the type of whip Lyrica should use. There were several types but the main ones were the un-barbed, barbed and the ded whips.
The un-barbed were used mostly for torture so that was off the list. Barbed whips offered greater attack speeds at the cost of lower damage.
While the ded whips were the opposite. They dealt greater damage at the cost of flexibility, weight and speed.
Depending on the situation, one would switch between the two whips.
However, Shiro finds that annoying and a hassle to switch between whip types during battle.
¡¯If I build the des into the whip, the whip itself should be able to extrude and retract the de length at will.¡¯ She thought as this would essentially allow all three main whip types to bebined into 1.¡¯
Making sure Lyrica couldn¡¯t see the forging process, Shiro made the whip behind her back.
¡¯Each segment of the whip must contain a micro piston that can extrude and retract the des. The activator switch should be near the thumb for easy ess. Each segment should be able to retract and lengthen the whip as well.
¡¯This way the whip is able to switch between long-distance and short-distancebat with ease. The best way to do this is to have the nanobots furtherpact and reinforce the whip when it gets shorter.¡¯
Imagining the structure of the whip, the empty husk in her hand right now had neon blue lights stretch across the body as the internal systems were being added.
Making sure to add the disguise skill, Shiro smiled lightly.
[Orphenium ded Whip LVL 20 (Blue+)]
+25 Sharpness
+25 Bleed
+25 Attack Speed
+25 Status Chance
Passive Skill: de Control, Length Configuration.
de Control ¨C Inject mana when pressing the button to control the length of the des in each segment. The longer the de, the more damage. But attack speed decrease proportionate to length.
Length Configuration ¨C Inject mana to lengthen or shorten the size of the whip. The longer it is, the more damage. The shorter it is, the more durability.
Durability: 45,000/45,000
Standing up, Shiro walked over to Lyrica.
[Here, your whip for the next boss. Try to get a feeling for it.] Shiro smiled as she passed it over.
"At this point, I¡¯m not even surprised at the fact that you pull so many weapons out of your inventory. You can pull out an armoury and I wouldn¡¯t care." Lyrica chuckled.
¡¯Don¡¯t be so sure.¡¯ Shiro thought as she will eventually be a moving fortress with the amount of MP she¡¯ll have in the future.
As Lyrica held the whip, something clicked inside her as a familiar feeling washed over her.
Shiro paused seeing this change.
They looked at each other as Lyrica felt her mind blown.
"You¡¯ve got to be kidding me..." She muttered.
[Give it a try. It¡¯s the only way we can be sure.]
Lyrica nodded as she walked over to the tree.
Lengthening the whip, she injected mana and caused the des to lengthen.
Taking a deep breath, her aura became sharp as she flicked her wrist.
*HUAPISHHHH!!!!!
The whip carved through the air as it sliced the tree in half.
"Just... Don¡¯t say anything Shiro..." Lyrica said putting down the whip.
[Do you know how much I want to p you right now? Who in actual hell has 2 hidden proficiencies?!?!] Shiro typed out as she was honestly surprised at the fact that Lyrica has two hidden proficiencies.
Even in her past life, having discovered a hidden proficiency out of hundreds of millions could propel a nation¡¯s status no matter how bad the proficiency was.
It was unthinkable to have 2, yet Lyrica had one of the most diverse proficiencies on top of that.
[I honestly don¡¯t know what kind of god blessed you or what you won from the gene pool. But I can say for a fact that so many would want to strangle you for your luck. You literally can¡¯tin anymore about people being more talented because you are defying logic right now!]
Shiro said as Lyrica nodded.
"Though I feel a little off bnce."
[Maybe two whips then.] Shiro said as Lyrica nodded in agreement.
[Just practice with one whip for now. I¡¯ll give you the second one in a second.] Shiro said as she nned to drink a potion to regain MP.
Watching her practice, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but have ideas about Lyrica¡¯s new weapon.
¡¯She has abination of two proficiencies. This means her weapon is most definitely a ridiculous hybrid. The main problem is construction. I can¡¯t continue to give her my Nano Craft weapons as they aren¡¯t the solution to everything. Maybe I should recruit Helion and try to help him be a better cksmith.¡¯ Shiro thought as a blueprint of the weapon wasing to her mind.
A slim dual ended de that can separate and transform into whips or two swords. Abination of Lyrica¡¯s 2 proficiencies that is unheard of in the world.
¡¯Perhaps the weapon of the future Elven Sword Saintess.¡¯ Shiro smiled in anticipation.
Chapter 47 - Quad Attunement
Chapter 47: Quad Attunement
Handing Lyrica the second whip, Shiro was able to see the attack domain slowly make its appearance.
With a whip in each hand, a cyclone of silver lights formed around her.
*p p p
Shiro pped her hands as she walked over.
[Do you think you can solo the boss with this?] Shiro asked.
"Maybe. I¡¯m guessing a 50-50 chance." Lyrica admitted.
Sure she has the hidden proficiency, but even her first one took her a while to get used to. To go straight into a boss fight with just a few hours of practice was insane.
[Just try your best. Try to flow into the state of your proficiency and push it further. Go with the flow.] Shiro smiled.
Lyrica nodded as she too knew this. But understanding it and performing it were two vastly different things.
To actually perform what she understands, she would need to train herself relentlessly and hone the feeling of her proficiency.
Flicking her wrists, she retracted the whips and prepared to fight the final boss.
Activating the obelisk, they felt their vision shift as they were in the middle of a huge ind.
The Murloc King was a huge muscr Murloc with ripping muscles. The slightck of fat on his limbs made his arms and leg grotesque whenpared to the hulking torso.
It wore a cape and had tworge swords strapped to his back.
[Murloc King LVL 20 ¨C Elite ¨C Boss]
The guards where basically the heavy troops with slightly thicker armour.
[Murloc Royal Guard LVL 20]
Jumping up high, Shiro made herself scarce as she watched the battle.
Lyrica closed her eyes as she surrendered a little of her control to the proficiency. Her aura changed as she unfastened the two whips.
The king flicked out his hand as 2 royal guards charged towards her.
*HUAPISH! PISH!
Two whip cracks rang out as Lyrica had managed to slice the eyes of the guards through their helmet. This caused them to fall over and clutch their eyes in pain.
¡¯No need to kill them. Disable their sight and focus on the boss.¡¯ Lyrica thought as she flicked her wrist.
The whip shot towards the boss like a serpent hungering for pray.
*CLANG!
Even though Lyrica extended the des at thest moment to increase their power, the king didn¡¯t even flinch as he blocked the whip with one of his swords.
Flicking her wrist, Lyrica retracted her whip and dashed towards the king.
She swung both her whips as they made a scissor motion.
*CLANG CLANG!
Seeing that the king decided to block, Lyrica smiled as she retracted the barbs in time for the whips to wrap around the sword.
Pulling the sword apart, Lyrica created a gap in the king¡¯s defence.
Kicking the king, she jumped back and unwrapped the whips from the swords. Twisting her body gracefully, she whipped upwards causing two deepcerations to appear on the king¡¯s body.
The fight was rather one-sided as the king couldn¡¯t move as fast as Lyrica. Not to mention, the whips took less stamina than the dual-ended des. All it took was a flick of the wrist and Lyrica couldsh him several times.
A battle of attrition was also viable since she could slowly whittle him down until he had one HP.
More of the guards tried to attack her as Lyrica dodged andshed at every one of them. With the whip, everything that was a few meters away from her was in her kill zone.
However, due to the fact that she can shorten the whip if she wanted to, Lyrica was able to adjust her kill zone whenever she wanted. A deadlybination with a hidden proficiency like the whips.
Time passed as Lyrica whittled down the king relentlessly. His HP soon hit 1 as she narrowed her eyes.
Lashing the whip, un-barbed, around the king¡¯s neck, Lyrica jumped onto his shoulders and wrapped it around a few more times.
The king tried to struggle but to no avail.
Lyrica stepped hard on the spine as she pulled back on the whip with as much force as she could muster.
The moment she picked up momentum, Lyrica extended the des as they sliced mercilessly into the neck of the king.
*RIIPPPP!!!!!
The head flew off the king¡¯s shoulders andnded with a hefty thud.
"Fuu..." Breathing out heavily, Lyrica calmed the nervousness that had upied her heart.
[Congrattions.] Shiro typed as shended on the ground.
"UAHH!!! I WAS SO NERVOUS!!!" Lyrica shouted out as she dashed towards Shiro.
Hugged her tightly, Lyrica rxed herself as she snuggled into Shiro¡¯s hood.
Yin pped Lyrica¡¯s head with her wing as Lyrica was invading her area. Lyrica didn¡¯t care as she was having the time of her life.
Shiro decided to allow her to have her way since Lyrica did work hard to kill the boss.
Having rxed for a while, Lyrica removed herself from Shiro and walked over to the boss¡¯s corpse. Her face was blissful as Shiro smiled wearily.
Upon collecting both the stone and the loot, they prepared to leave the Dungeon.
However, Shiro tapped on her shoulder and stopped her.
[Here¡¯s 5 D ranked Mana Stones. Advance your ss now.] Shiro smiled. Most level 20 ss ups only needed 1 D ranked mana stone and yet Lyrica¡¯s Elven dedancer needed 5.
Themotion caused by this wouldn¡¯t be small as it may attract some unwanted attention.
Therefore, Shiro wanted Lyrica to ss up in the Dungeon.
"Eh! But it¡¯s still 5 D ranked mana stones?! That¡¯s like 150 thousand USD!" Lyrica said as she felt awkward for Shiro always giving her items to assist her.
[What are you being surprised about? I can go fight a D ranked Dungeon to get my stock refilled. If anything, I only use them to feed little Yin.]
¡¯And to feed myself.¡¯ Shiro thought. After giving Lyrica 5 D ranked stones to ss up, she nned to fight a D ranked dungeon to not only level up but to replenish her food supplies a little.
"But-"
Shiro cut her off with a snap of her fingers and did the silencing motion.
Understanding that Shiro can be stubborn for certain things, Lyrica epted the mana stones. With her having fulfilled all the requirements to ss up, Lyrica tapped the icon as a pink glow enveloped her body.
Pink and golden lights flickered off her body as they looked like flower petals that surrounded Lyrica.
The light stayed for a while as Shiro knew this would have been a bad idea outside of the Dungeon.
[Lyrica LVL 21 ¨C Elven dedancer]
Seeing Lyrica¡¯s tag change, Shiro smiled.
[Congrattions. You¡¯ve taken your first step into the D ranks.]
"Thank you. I have to say, I feel awfully light." Lyrica said as her agility had experienced a boost from the ss up.
[Take a day or two to get used to this. It would be dangerous to challenge a Dungeon without having decent control over your body.]
"I know." Lyrica nodded.
[As for your weapon, I¡¯ll get Helion to make it.]
Leaving the Dungeon, they headed back to the dorm as it was already deep into the night.
###
The first thing Shiro did the next morning was to look for Helion.
Arriving at his workshop, Shiro was surprised to see the amount of people queueing up.
"Hm?... OH SH*T! IT¡¯S HER!" Someone suddenly shouted as a silver ass te appeared on almost everyone¡¯s asses. For those who didn¡¯t have an ass te, they rushed forwards towards Helion as they wanted to get protection as quick as possible.
The ones at the front helped those without an ass te as a unifiedmunity was working seamlessly.
Shiro was speechless seeing this.
¡¯Only in danger would the humanmunity work in harmony. Is this the same case?¡¯ She thought.
The queue was tense as they all stared at her with caution. By the time Shiro arrived back in the workshop, she was the only one left.
Helion had a grin on his face as sweat dripped off his forehead.
"Ah Shiro! I really need to thank you. Business is blooming now. Just making an ass te earns me so much money." Helionughed as he patted her shoulder.
[Meh. Like some flimsy te can stop my attacks.] Shiro typed with slight disdain.
Helion shrugged.
"So what brings the infamous A*** Destroying Princess to my humble store?"
[I want tomission weapons again.] Shiro typed out as she pulled out a sheet of paper and started to draw out the blueprint she had thought up of.
The design was simr to that of the dual-ended de Lyrica currently had. But instead, the des are able to shift and extend into whips. In the centre of the weapon, the handle is able to disconnect and separate the weapon into 2 whips or 2 swords respectively.
Seeing the blueprint of the weapone to life, Helion was dumbfounded.
"What kind of futuristic tech is this?! I understand what the parts do but how the hell am I supposed to make something like this?!" Helion cried out looking at the design.
[The mechanisms are based on this whip.]
Pulling out the NanoTech Whip she made, disguised as an Orphenium Whip, Shiro separated one of the segments.
Looking at thepact and intricateponents jammed into the segment, Helion was astounded at the craftsmanship.
"How the hell did someone even make this?!" Helion asked as he inspected the weapon.
"No I definitely can¡¯t make this. This is something beyond me."
Turning over to Shiro, he gave her the weapon back.
"Tell me honestly. Did you raid a bloody military site or something? How the hell did you even get your hands on something so insane?" He asked.
Shiro only shrugged.
[So I take that as you can¡¯t make it.]
"No I can¡¯t just yet. Maybe when I ss up several times and have the needed equipment. Otherwise, I don¡¯t see myself making anything close to that."
[In that case then just make me 2 whips and a dual-ended de for level 25¡¯s. For the whips, I want a barbed and a ded whip. The length should be adjustable if possible.]
"Hmm... I¡¯ll see what I can do. Seeing the whip has given me a few ideas about how to let it extend and retract." Helion said as Shiro nodded.
[Do you need any materials?]
"Nopepletely free. But before you say anything, just think about how much I¡¯ve earned from selling ass tes. I got more than enough material needed to make your weapons."
Thinking about what Helion had said, Shiro found it logical as it was indeed true.
[Alright Thank you for your hard work then.] Shiro thanked him as she left the store.
Her next step was her main task. To head to the mage¡¯s association and find out her elemental attunement.
Arriving at the mage¡¯s association, Shiro went up to the receptionist.
[Can I use the attunement hall? I was told I could use it today.]
The receptionist smiled wearily.
"I¡¯m afraid today is limited to the top 20 and not top 10. You would have had the chance to use it yesterday."
[What?] Shiro paused as she realised this was true. During her spree of destroying- ahem. During her spree of ranking up, she had overlooked the fact that she could have entered the hall yesterday.
"But don¡¯t worry. The branch master had already foreseen this and reserved you a spot. The previous rank 10, Shane, wouldn¡¯t be allowed use the attunement hall today. You¡¯ll be taking his spot instead.
[Ah thank you. Can I enter the attunement hall then?] Shiro asked.
"Yes you can. But do note that in the future you have to make sure youe at the right date."
[Understood.]
The receptionist guided her to the second floor. Going through a series of doors, they came up to a huge open room.
She couldn¡¯t see the walls of the room as it felt like she was staring at the night sky. Stars were flickering as Shiro didn¡¯t feel like she was in a room.
"The attunement hall is simple. Sit in the centre and meditate. Slowly use your mana and the elemental attunement would show itself." Thedy said as Shiro nodded.
Sitting in the centre, Shiro patted Yin¡¯s head before closing her eyes.
A pale aura erupted around her as the receptionist decided to leave.
Slowly, the mana started to change as the colours started to appear.
Crystal Blue, Deep Purple, Flickering Yellow and Silver Blue.
A total of 4 colours appeared as it fluctuated constantly.
Chapter 48 - Broken Links
Chapter 48: Broken Links
Crystal Blue of ice.
Deep Purple of the shadows.
Flickering Yellow of lightning.
And Silver Blue of metal.
Four colours swayed around in Shiro¡¯s aura as she herself was unaware. Right now, she was in a state of focus as she brought out the mana from deep within her.
She dived deep into her basic mana construction as the stars above her glowed.
The attunement halls were a special ce. It was designed, crafted and enhanced to allow one to awaken their elemental atonements.
While most would awaken 1 and the rare case of 2 elements. Shiro had 4 elements living in harmony inside her. Each supporting each other and growing stronger at the same time. Making up for one another¡¯s weaknesses.
Originally, she should only have 2 elements. Lightning and metal due to her Nanomancery. Ice came with her reincarnation into a snow girl and shadow due to her contract with Yin.
As Shiro opened her eyes, she realised she wasn¡¯t in her own body anymore.
The area around her was a strange mess of twisted colours, floating tforms, flickering orbs of light and tendrils of mana swaying around gently.
"Am I tripping on some acid?" Shiro muttered. Her body was strange as she was a light silhouette of what her body was.
She could not move physically, but rather with intent.
Focusing to move her body, Shiro frowned slightly.
"It feels a little strange. But I¡¯ll manage."
Looking ahead of her, she saw 4 main tforms that were near her.
She was about to walk ahead when she paused realising where she was.
Right now she was inside her mana realm. The ce which she draws her mana. She remembers seeing the mana realm in her past life.
However,pared to what her previous mana realm looked like; Her current Mana Realm right now was akin to a jumbled mess. Hardly recognisable due to the broken links of colours which resulted in them being crammed together.
Sticking out her hands, Shiro narrowed her eyes as clutched her palm.
A batch of colours started to shake as Shiro focused on separating the link. However, no matter how hard she tried, they refused to budge.
¡¯If the links were all sorted out, my mana efficiency would shoot through the roof. But why would my mana links be broken and scattered?¡¯ Shiro frowned.
Mana link, human or monster, are all aligned and connected. And whilst her elements were in harmony, they couldn¡¯t work to their best abilities.
The effect may not be obvious in the low levels, but when she increases her level and gain higher-tiered spells. The consumption would be many times greater than other people and monsters included.
An example would be if someone couldunch a catastrophic spell 5 times before they ran out of mana, she would only be able tounch it once or twice. And this was including her massive mana pool.
¡¯Broken links and unorganised connections are a rare case. If broken at a high level, the surge of chaotic mana inside a person¡¯s body would cause them to die. However, to break the mana link, a few very careful steps need to be taken as it would be hard to affect them otherwise.
¡¯Not many would go out of their way to destroy the mana link as you can just kill them instead. The only reason someone would do this is when they wanted the person to feel great pain before death.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Then why was I born with broken mana links?" She muttered.
Broken mana links were a huge set back as there were only a few ways to fix them.
Sighing out heavily, Shiro decided to visit her elemental inds first.
Elemental inds are beacons which helps you connect with the elements and enhance their power.
The more developed your ind was, the more powerful your elemental attunement became.
Right now, each of her inds was bare as there is nothing to help her connect better with the elements.
The inds would eventually develop itself further over time. But right now, all of her elements, except for ice, was the lowest in the Tier 0 spectrum. Her ice, on the other hand, was at the peak of Tier 1 and almost reaching Tier 2.
Landing on the ice ind, Shiro sat down in the centre.
Crystal blue lights surged around her as a magic circle was being formed.
Shiro frowned when she felt her fatigue increase at a horrendous pace.
¡¯Broken mana links also obstruct the advancement of Tiers huh?¡¯ Shiro thought.
One would automatically be sent out of the mana realm should their fatigue hit a dangerous level.
The worst part is that that Tiers had to be upgraded in one go. She couldn¡¯t just do it in parts.
Taking a deep breath, she increased the amount of mana that surged towards her.
The ind started to tremble as the ice started to expand across the entire ind.
Shiro¡¯s body started to float upwards as she closed her eyes.
A ball of crystal blue mana appeared around her like a shield. Clutching her hands, Shiro increased the build-up of mana as she had to grit her teeth slightly feeling her fatigue almost reach the limit.
Opening her eyes, she erupted out with a wave of mana that shattered the shield and turned the ind into a frozen tundra.
"KUAH!" Shiro coughed out a slight amount of blood as she was forced back into her body.
Sweat was dripping from her forehead as she frowned.
The broken links were obstructing her from upgrading the ind. If she wanted to reach higher up in the tiers, she needed to fix her mana realm fast, or else there will be a point where she will no longer be able to tier up no matter how hard she tried.
Wiping the blood from her lips, Shiro stood up weakly as she was heavily fatigued.
Yin chirped in worry as she saw Shiro cough up blood.
"I¡¯m fine don¡¯t worry." Shiro smiled and patted Yin¡¯s head.
Check back on her status, she smiled seeing that the upgrade was a sess.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (0/10 Humans Killed for Title Up)
Level: 30
ss: Snow Girl¡ï(Star Advancement In Progress), Nanomancer
HP: 46,200/46,200
MP: 73,700/73,700
STR: 230 (+85) <+78>
VIT: 250 -> 300 (+70) <+92>
INT: 400 -> 450 (+140) <+147>
AGI: 340 -> 400(+75) <+118>
DEX: 260 -> 300 (+40) <+85>
DEF: 150 (+135) <+71>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 0
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 629,500 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Harden (Equipment), Lesser Fear (Equipment), Mana Barrier.]
With a Tier 2 attunement in Ice, her abilities would gain a rough increase of 10% in damage and 10% efficiency.
With this, she only had the bosses left to kill.
[Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï]
Kill 20 Ice elemental Based LVL 30 bosses
30 Ice Cores
Reach Tier 2 attunement in Ice element ?
Wiping away her sweat, Shiro left the attunement halls.
"Ah Shiro." Mark called out after her.
[Yes?]
"You must have done your attunement right? We¡¯ll need to register your attunement onto your ID." He said as he handed her a tablet.
¡¯I¡¯ll hide metal and lightning for now. Shadow will be obvious sooner orter when Yin evolves.¡¯ Shiro thought as she entered Tier 2 Ice attunement and Tier 0 Shadow Attunement.
"Thank you." Mark smiled and took the tablet. While his outer appearance seemed to beposed, he was shocked deeply inside.
¡¯She has two attunements?! A shadow one as well. Perhaps her pet was the one who gave her the attunement, then that means the pet is something special.¡¯ He thought.
[Are my 30 Ice cores ready?]
"Yes, we were about to send them but you can collect them instead. Follow me." Mark said as Shiro nodded.
As she was following Mark, she couldn¡¯t help be think about her broken mana links.
No matter who or what, they will always be born with unharmed mana links. Yet her¡¯s was a jumble.
This meant that it would be either a birth defect or something happened to this body before she upied it.
Snow girls/woman were monsters that can be formed in a few ways. First was the natural way.
Mana would gather near an icy location and slowly gain sentience.
The next was the reconstruction kind. Mana would take the negative emotions of a woman who died in an ice surrounded area and slowly reconstruct them into a Snow girl.
This meant that there was a high possibility that her body was the reconstruction kind.
¡¯Then this means the previous owner on this body had a feud with someone to warrant a broken mana realm.¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
This will make everything a lot moreplicated as she didn¡¯t know who the person was. She could literally walk in a big city and someonee p her head right off her torso.
¡¯I¡¯ll have to keep my face hidden more often then.¡¯ Shiro thought.
¡¯Maybe a lower face mask from Aarim will do the job.¡¯
A lower face mask that can be removed or pulled up at any moment will help her hide her face.
¡¯That being said, I could literally just be thinking about this too much.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
Arriving at a set of doors, Mark had her wait for a moment before he came back with a box.
"In this box is the 30 ice cores that you wanted." Mark said feeling a pinch in his heart. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that his Lord told him to give it to her, he would try to find some other excuse to not give it to her.
[Thanks.] Taking the cores, Shiro walked out of the building.
¡¯With 2/3 tasks done, I¡¯ll just need to kill the 20 ice-based bosses.¡¯ Shiro thought as she searched up for any level 30 Dungeon.
[LVL 25-30 Silver Wolf Forest]
[LVL 30 Yeti¡¯s Mountain]
Out of 5 LVL 30 Dungeons that were in this city, only 2 were ice-based.
¡¯Silver wolves hunt in packs which will be annoying. While every single one of the Yeti¡¯s are like a mini-boss in itself.¡¯
There were benefits to fighting either one but Shiro wanted one that was quick and easy. She did have 20 bosses to kill after all.
Eventually, Shiro decided with yeti as it would be easier to target boss whilst avoiding the mobs if they travelled outside of a group.
Fighting the wolves would just be time-consuming and not to mention, stamina consuming... also a pain in the ass.
Returning to the dorms, Shiro knocked on Lyrica¡¯s door.
"What¡¯s up?" Lyrica asked.
[I¡¯m going to be a little busy tomorrow so I won¡¯t be in the dorm.] Shiro typed, leaving out the fact that she was challenging a Dungeon solo.
"You¡¯re going to be challenging another D ranked Dungeon aren¡¯t you?"
[No.]
"Don¡¯t lie. I know what you¡¯re like Shiro. Just make sure you have supplies and stay safe." Lyrica said with a sigh.
Shiro was a stubborn one. Lyrica knew that while many people would want to avoid danger, Shiro wanted danger to increase her level. How else would a 13-year-old be a level 30?
Shiro patted Lyrica¡¯s head with a smile.
[I got it don¡¯t worry. I picked a Dungeon that was weak against me.]
"Alright..."
###
Shiro left the dorm early in next morning as she arrived before the gate to Yeti¡¯s mountain.
Sneaking her way in, she made sure that none of the guards saw her.
Her vision shifted as she saw where she was. As stated in the name, she was on top of a huge mountain. She could see dangerous cliff sides that would lead to one¡¯s death if they fell down it. The snow was falling gently as the ground was encased inyers of snow and ice.
Normal adventurers would need to get special gear just so that they could fight at a decent level in the Dungeon.
There were no obelisks here on the mountain. Every one of the bosses was at different heights as Shiro tilted her head and looked up.
The mountain could be split into 3 areas of varying heights with the final boss at the very top of the mountain.
Not only did the adventurers have to fight with unstable footing, but they also had to put up withck of air, the biting cold and the asional blizzard that may happen.
However, these did nothing to Shiro as she was unaffected by the conditions.
Chapter 49 - Shadow Buff
Chapter 49: Shadow Buff
Making herself a bow, Shiro stretched herself slightly before jogging up the mountain.
She narrowed her eyes as she saw the first Yeti.
[Yeti LVL 30]
HP: 100,000/100,000
MP: 100,000/100,000
The Yeti was roughly 2 meters tall with white fur and blue skin. Its neon blue eyes glowed in the snowfall as Shiro only smiled.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom ¨C Speed Phantom.
Her body flickered as she jumped to the side of the mountain. Kicking off the wall, Shiro pulled back on her bow as she aimed at the top of the Yeti¡¯s skull.
*BANG!
The arrow shot downwards as it killed the Yeti in one go. The force of the arrow caused the ground to crack and shatter as Shironded not too far away.
Walking up to the yeti, Shiro harvested the mana stone before collecting the loot.
The loot was mostly mediocre as they didn¡¯t provide her with any skill.
Walking away from the Yeti, Shiro continued her way up the mountain.
Looking up, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she contemted about taking a short cut.
¡¯If I take the shortcut, I lose out on potential loot and levels. If I don¡¯t take a short cut, it¡¯ll take longer to reach the boss.¡¯ She thought as Yin popped her head out.
"What¡¯s up little Yin?" Shiro asked as she patted her head.
Yin opened her mouth as she gestured to it.
"You want food?" Shiro asked as she pulled out a D ranked mana stone.
Yin shook her head as Shiro understood what she wanted.
"You want another C ranked stone?! It¡¯ll be wasted you know." Shiro smiled wearily.
Yin tried to pull a pitiful face but failed as it caused Shiro to chuckle.
"Fine. Here." She said as she pulled out the C ranked mana stone.
Yin chirped happily as it ate the stone.
A purple glow covered her body as Shiro realised that Yin was levelling up again.
[Yin LVL 10]
HP: 10,000/10,000
MP:25,000/25,000
Skills ¨C Shadow Buff (Tier 1)
Shiro raised an eyebrow seeing Yin¡¯s stats.
"You finally got a skill." Shiro smiled as Yin chirped in acknowledgement. However, she was a little too bloated to move.
"Aww... Did you eat that mana stone so you could level up?" Shiro asked.
Yin nodded.
"How cute." Shiro chuckled as she tapped her round belly.
Yin could only surrender herself to Shiro¡¯s prodding as she couldn¡¯t move.
"Fine I¡¯ll stop poking you now." Shiro grinned seeing tears form in Yin¡¯s eyes.
cing Yin back into her hood, Shiro made sure to not nudge Yin too much.
The best thing about having a contract with Yin was that she shared her skills. So in effect, she could share the Shadow Buff twice in her party.
[Shadow Buff (Tier 1)]
+5% AGI, +10% stealth and +5% Elemental Resistance for 10 minutes.
Cost: 1,000MP
Cooldown: 30 minutes
The best part of this skill was the Elemental Resistance. With both her and Yin casting this, there¡¯ll be a +10% elemental resistance to the party.
If her future party was to fight a heavily elemental based boss then this skill is a godsend.
Pulling up her hood, Shiro dashed up the mountain.
Turning the corner, she saw a group of Yeti¡¯s that were about to cross paths with one another.
Nocking an arrow, Shiro narrowed her eyes and aimed the bow.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Arrows continuously fired as each one hit the head of a Yeti with pinpoint uracy.
Sliding on her knees slightly, she dodged the attack of a Yeti and fired an arrow towards his spine.
*BANG!
The body was ripped in half as Shiro breathed out heavily.
In a short moment, she had managed to kill off 5 Yetis with ease.
"Tch. If I still have my guns this would be easier." Shiro muttered as her true expertise came from her firearms.
She was a veteran of cold weapons and close quarterbat. However, with the firearms, she was a master with an almost 100% uracy.
Snipers, pistols, machine guns, she was urate with all of them.
People had attack domains which evolved into a zone of control. Within the zone, they had control over everything.
However, she never grasped the zone of control. If anything, she had a mimicry of one. Her versatility with her firearms and uracy made it so that she could defeat those even with a zone of control.
Harvesting the corpses, Shiro smiled seeing her get 5 D ranked mana stones.
"5 out of 5. Nice."
Shiro grinned as she stored them away.
Keeping the bow in her hands, she waited for her MP to regenerate.
The only downside to her bow right now was that each arrow took a minimum of 1k MP and at least 5k MP each to one-shot the Yetis.
And this was when she aimed for the weak points. If she missed a shot, which was rare, it would have just been a waste of 5k MP. A dangerous amount when taking into ount the fact that 5k was equal to almost 15% of her total MP.
Once her MP had regenerated, Shiro continued her hunt.
###
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (0/10 Humans Killed for Title Up)
Level: 31
ss: Snow Girl¡ï(Star Advancement In Progress), Nanomancer
HP: 50,000/50,000
MP: 82,500/82,500
STR: 250 -> 300 (+95) <+98>
VIT: 330 (+70) <+100>
INT: 480 -> 500 (+160) <+165>
AGI: 430 -> 460 (+95) <+138>
DEX: 310 -> 360 (+20) <+95>
DEF: 170 (+115) <+71>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 0
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 1,120,000 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Lesser Fear (Equipment), Mana Barrier, Strengthen (Equipment).
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1)]
On the way to the first boss, Shiro had made sure she killed each and every one of the Yeti¡¯s that came her way.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the bow, Shiromented the fact that she couldn¡¯t exploit a certain weakness.
If she did, she would have opened herself up to an attack.
And while she could use ice, it would be a lot less effective and consume too much mana.
Inserting more mana into the bow, Shiro looked towards where the boss was.
Currently, she was below the boss area so she couldn¡¯t see the boss.
But that didn¡¯t stop her as an arrow was formed in her hands using nanobots.
Nocking the arrow, Shiro shot it upwards with barely any force. Only enough to be around eye level with the area and nothing more.
Clutching her hands, the arrow expanded into a mirror.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro made sure to see if there were any obvious weaknesses.
The boss was a stereotypical Yeti with a few minor differences. There were neon blue patterns spread out across his body, four horns and ice spikes on the elbows and spine.
His arms were abnormally long as they reached all the way down to his feet. In addition to this, his arm had 2 elbows.
¡¯Small eyes which means bad vision. His nose is quite big so he may rely on smell. No ears so he can¡¯t hear. Attack range should be quite far due to his arms.¡¯ Shiro thought as the mirror fell back down.
¡¯I can try to supercharge an arrow and shoot it towards his ass through the mountain, but that has a high chance of missing. Not to mention, the power would decrease by a lot.¡¯ She sighed as she dissembled the mirror.
"Little Yin, hold tight ok? I¡¯ll be fighting a boss." Shiro warned as Yin nodded.
Giving her body a stretch, Shiro narrowed her eyes before dashing up the face of the cliff and towards the boss.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom = Speed Phantom.
Her body flickered as she climbed higher.
Nocking an arrow, Shiro charged it full with MP.
¡¯This should do for now.¡¯ She thought as 7.5k MP was charged in it. She wasn¡¯t na?ve enough to think that this would be able to one-shot the boss but rather, to try to deal as much damage as she could at the start.
The bosses defences would be lowered at the start. Therefore, this was the best chance to heavily injure it.
Jumping over the cliff edge, Shiro saw the boss and pulled back in her bow.
The arrow was shaking as if begging to be fired.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Smashing into the cervical spine just under the skull, the arrow smashed the Yeti into the side of the mountain.
Landing softly, Shiro didn¡¯t let up as she made another mana arrow.
*BOOM!!!
Just as the Yeti climbed out of the wall, the second arrow shot against his torso and sent him back.
Lightning and metal twisted in her palms as Shiro made a NanoTech arrow.
Aiming upwards, Shiro shot the arrow.
*PISH PISH PISH!
The arrow started to break apart as it formed into several smaller arrows. There were tiny rockets that were attached to the tip as they propelled towards the Yeti.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Each of the arrows was an explosive type arrow as cracks started to spread further on the cliff face.
*URAHHHHH!!!!!!
A furious roar rang out as Shiro grinned.
[Tigris Yeti LVL 30 ¨C Elite- Enraged]
HP: 232,000/500,000
MP: 200,000/200,000
"Little bit more than half health taken off huh? I can take that." Shiro muttered with a smile.
Nocking another arrow, she was about to fire when the Yetiunched a huge chunk of the wall at her.
Quickly rolling to the side, she dodged the wall and aimed once more.
The Yeti didn¡¯t give her a break as he had already jumped towards her about to smash down with his hands.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she mmed her palms down.
*BOOOM!!!
The giant wall of ice shot upwards, mming heavily into the Yeti¡¯s body.
While her ice could deal minimal damage, she could still at least use it as protection.
[MP: 58,250/82,500]
Shiro frowned slightly at her MP drainage.
¡¯A little unexpected but not too bad.¡¯ She thought.
¡¯With his reach, I should continue to bombard him with arrows.¡¯
Nocking an arrow, Shiro closed one of her eyes and aimed at the Yeti.
Mana continued to be inserted into the arrow as the Yeti ran towards her with anger.
Aiming carefully, Shiro released the arrow when she had a good shot.
*BANG!
The arrow pierced the Yeti¡¯s right eye before smashing through the brain.
The yeti walked for a little more before copsing in front of Shiro¡¯s feet.
When the arrow was fired, she made sure the arrow acted like a drill to increase the piercing power.
Not to mention the fact that 10k MP was injected into the thing.
Pulling out the mana stone, Shiro collected the body.
Most of the loot consisted of misceneous items while there were only a few worthwhile items. However, the best item in the pile of loot was the Elemental Orb.
[Elemental Orb ¨C Ice Type]
Fuse together with a weapon or armour to give it an ice property.
Elemental Orbs were quite in demand as higher-level ones give you the more powerful versions of the elements.
While she couldn¡¯t use this since she had no need for it, it would be an amazing tool for cksmiths like Helion. He would be able to either infuse this into a weapon or armour with pretty high amount of efficiency.
"I should probably give this to him for Lyrica¡¯s next weapon. Having an ice property would allow her to crowd control the enemies better." Shiro muttered storing away the items.
Sadly, her level didn¡¯t increase but that was fine. She still had quite a distance to travel before she reached the final boss.
However, before she could leave, Yin jumped out of her hood and flew towards a corner of the boss arena.
"Little Yin?" Shiro called out, curious.
Yinnded near an ice boulder before chirping to Shiro.
Walking over, she picked Yin up.
"You want this boulder?" She asked.
Yin shook her head as she made a smashing motion.
"You want me to break it?" Shiro asked as Yin nodded.
Not sure why Yin wanted her to break the boulder, but it wasn¡¯t too much trouble for her.
Making a NanoTech hammer, Shiro jumped up as a rocket behind the hammer increased her momentum.
*BOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!
A shockwave rang out as Shiro saw that the hammer barely chipped a little of the boulder.
"The f*ck?!" Shiro cried out in surprise. For the ice boulder to resist her hammer to this extent means that it was something extraordinary.
Chapter 50 - Yeti Berserker
Chapter 50: Yeti Berserker
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she ced Yin down.
"Little Yin, careful ok? I¡¯m going to give this rock hell." Shiro said as Yin nodded.
Stepping back slightly, Shiro adjusted her grip on the hammer.
Dashing forwards, Shiro jumped up and twisted her body.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
In addition to the counter weight phantom, Shiro also used the rocket to increase her momentum further.
*BOOOOMMMM!!!!
The impact caused the ground to shake, causing Shiro to grit her teeth.
The smash only caused a few fractures to spread out while some of the force still travelled through her body due to the rebound.
"What the hell is up with this stupid boulder?!" Shiro said as she gave it a kick.
Making a skill chip in her hands, she inserted it into the hammer.
[me Spirit Enhancement]
[Power Loader]
[Shock Multiplier]
[st Shell]
Adding four skills that not only increase the power output, but also the elemental weakness. Shiro readjusted her stance.
Making a ramp of ice, she started to skate as she increased her speed.
Jumping off the ramp, she twisted her body and used the skills.
The hammer lit ame as it glowed with a golden light.
*BOOOMMMM!!!!!
The force of both objects colliding caused a shockwave bigger thanst time as Shiro activated the dismantling on the hammer. This was so that the force would travel through the nanobots instead of her.
Thankfully, the force seemed to have done the job as the fracture was getting bigger by the second.
Making a sword, Shiro jammed it in one of the openings before kicking the sword and split the boulder in half.
"Che. Let¡¯s see what¡¯s in here that gave me so much trouble." Shiro muttered as she walked towards the remains of the boulder.
Moving the pieces aside, Shiro was surprised to find a wisp of light hovering in the centre.
[You¡¯ve killed a Snow Girl in the process of formation. Gain title ¨C Fratricide.]
[Snow Girl essence x1]
"... That was a Snow Girl?!" Shiro muttered as she realised that ¡¯egg¡¯ or boulder, was the result of mana trying to form the snow girl using natural means instead of the corpse consuming option.
Since the ¡¯egg¡¯ was a dense piece of mana, its defence would naturally be tough. However, that toughness would go away once it expended itself to form the snow girl.
Looking at the ball of essence in front of her, Shiro could help but smell an enticing scent emit from it.
"Hmm, am I supposed to eat this?" Shiro muttered as she poked and prodded at the ball of essence.
However, before she could consider eating it, Yin nabbed it in her mouth as swallowed it.
"Ai little Yin. You can¡¯t just take it when you want to." Shiro sighed. She wasn¡¯t going to eat it anyways so giving it to Yin wouldn¡¯t be too bad.
After all, cannibalism was something a little ufortable with her. She didn¡¯t even know what kind of adverse effects it could have had anyways.
[Yin LVL 10]
HP: 10,000/10,000
MP: 35,000/35,000
Skills ¨C Shadow Buff (Tier 1) Ice Chain (Tier 1)
Shiro raised an eyebrow when she saw Yin gain an increase of 10k MP and the skill Ice Chain.
This naturally meant that she had the skill as well.
[Ice Chain (Tier 1)
Create a chain of ice around the enemy, locking them in ce for a short amount of time.
Cost: 3,000 MP
Duration: 10 seconds. (Varies depending on strength)
Cooldown: 1 minute.
"Hmm... Interesting." Shiro muttered as it was a rare asion that a mage would have a specific spell skill.
Mages would normally get skills like Tier 1 ice magic or the such. For a specific skill like Ice Chain, it would mean the power output of the skill would be higher.
Compared to an ice chain made from the Tier 1 ice magic, the Ice Chain skill would be around 10% to 20% better.
"Good job Yin. Next time you can help me by locking down the enemies." Shiro smiled as Yin was ecstatic from finally being able to help Shiro.
cing Yin back into her hood, Shiro decided to check out the new title Fratricide.
[Fratricide ¨C You¡¯ve killed a member/sibling of your own race.]
+10% hate from snow girls
+10% respect from snow woman
"Hmm... I suppose if you think about it. All mana-based monsters are siblings since they came from the same source. That being said, why am I getting 10% respect from Snow Woman?" Shiro mutter.
¡¯Perhaps it¡¯s to do with the hierarchy. Strong eat the weak. The snow woman goes through a myriad of challenges to get to where they are. So I suppose killing a member of one¡¯s race isn¡¯t that umon.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Dusting herself, she continued her way up the mountain.
Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw the first Yeti after the boss.
Each of them were much slimmer and had a more elongated body.
Yin chirped in excitement as it couldn¡¯t wait to test out her new skill.
"Give me a moment ok Yin?" Shiro smiled as Yin nodded.
Nocking an arrow, Shiro crouched as she aimed at the Yeti.
¡¯Since they¡¯re slimmer, that means their speed must have increased as well. If I have Yin help me restrain them for a moment, this will make things a lot easier.¡¯
"Little Yin. Restrain him when I say go." Shiro said as Yin nodded and started to fly upwards.
"Go!"
*CRRRR!!
Ice chains shot out from beneath the Yeti¡¯s feet as it wrapped around the legs, torso, arms and head.
*BOOM!
Shiro shot her arrow the moment she saw this. The Yeti couldn¡¯t dodge as the arrow drilled through the Yeti¡¯s skull, killing it instantly.
"Nice job little Yin." Shiro praised with a smiled as Yin danced happily on her shoulder.
Harvesting the Yeti, Shiro and Yin continued their murder streak all the way up the mountain.
There was a moment when more than one Yeti appeared but it was dealt with simply.
Shiro would first shoot one of them before Yin chained up the other one.
With the second one chained, she would take the chance to kill it as well.
And just in case a third Yeti came, Shiro had her Ice Chain ready and waiting too.
Now with Yin being able to help out in the fight, a portion of the EXP went to her as her level jumped upwards.
Whether or not it was due to Yin being very powerful because of her race, or the fact that she isn¡¯t getting as much EXP. Yin was only able to level up 1 time even though they killed so many.
[Yin LVL 11]
HP: 11,000/11,000
MP: 2,000/37,000
Skills ¨C Shadow Buff (Tier 1) Ice Chain (Tier 1)
The level had given Yin 1k in HP and 2k in MP.
Taking a moment for both her and Yin to regenerate back to full, they walked towards the second boss.
Hiding behind a wall, Shiro peeked at the second boss.
The boss was a hulking mass of fleshpared to the first boss.
Its height measuring up to around 3 meters tall, hulking muscles and two gigantic horns that looked like spears.
[Yeti Berserker LVL 30 ¨C Elite]
HP: 700,000/700,000
MP: 100,000/100,000
"Say little Yin. Doesn¡¯t this guy look more like a bipedal bull than a Yeti?" Shiro asked as Yin nodded.
Alright. You know the idea. Let¡¯s go." Shiro said as Yin nodded.
In the time they had been fighting, Yin managed to grasp the timing slightly which made it easier for Shiro.
She didn¡¯t need to shout out go all the time.
Dashing towards the Yeti Berserker, Shiro nocked an arrow in her bow.
*CRR CRR!
Ice chains sprang up from the ground as Yin used her skill.
Making herself a ramp, Shiro jumped upwards and aimed at one of the Berserker¡¯s shoulder tendons.
*BUCHI!
The arrow severed the tendon easily as Shironded near his feet.
Lightning and metal erupted out of the bow as a de was made on one of the edges.
Twisting her body, Shiro cut towards the tendon by the heel of the Berserker.
*BOOM!
The Yeti knelt down heavily as Shiro dismissed the bow and made a whip in her hands.
Lashing the whip around the neck of the Berserker, Shiro wrapped the other end around the legs.
Injecting mana to retract the whip, the Berserker fell on his back.
Lightning sparked in Shiro¡¯s hand as she jumped up.
A greatsword was formed as she had printed several power type skills into the greatsword.
Twisting her body in mid-air, Shiro red at the berserker with cold eyes as she swung the de.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom + 4th Phantom.
Combining both Counter Weight Phantom and Internal Feasting Phantom, Shiro increased her destructive power further.
*BOOMMMMM!!!!!!
A crater was formed under the Berserker¡¯s head as Shiro had aimed for the neck.
However, she frowned when she saw the previous wounds heal back up along with the neck wound.
"Tsk. Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation." Shiro frowned as she knew this skill.
Rejuvenation was a skill that regenerated all damage sustained in the past 5 seconds to a certain degree.
This skill was amon skill that appeared in the skill set of heavy attack type monsters.
The skill was annoying to go against if the monster was higher level since they were smarter and knew how to use the skill to its full effect.
The worst part was that during the time the skill was casted, the monster would have a barrier proportionate to 200% of his health for 3 seconds. This protected it during the time it was recovering.
Flipping off the stomach of the Berserker, Shiro saw the Ice Chains break as the Berserker red at her with bloodshot eyes.
Stomping down, Shiro didn¡¯t let it have the chance to attack her.
A blizzard started to pick up pace as Shiro¡¯s body was hidden in the blizzard.
Activating Faded Snow Movement to gain an increase in speed, she circled around the Yeti.
*BOOM!
Smashing down with its fists, the Yeti cracked the ground as he didn¡¯t give Shiro the chance to attack it again.
¡¯Musclehead!¡¯ Shiro cursed as the Berserker¡¯s solution to her attack was to attack everything and anything around it. Even if it was wasted effort.
Dashing away from the Berserker, Shiro aimed her hands up in the air before clutching them.
A gate frame made from ice slowly appeared as she mmed her hand down.
The gate shot towards the Berserker as it pinned it down from the neck.
*BOOOMM!!
With the gate suddenly smashing against his head, the Berserker was back onto his stomach.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
5 more gates smashed downwards, trapping all his limbs with an extra gate at his waist.
*GRAHH GRAHH!!
The Berserker cried out in struggle as it could barely move its body.
Shiro only smiled as she remade her bow and nocked an arrow.
Pulling back her bow, Shiro was about to fire when the Berserker made an almost human-like sneer.
Light gathered between his horns as Shiro¡¯s pupils shrank.
Dissembling her bow, Shiro dashed to the side as she started to skate away from her location.
*BOOOOMMMM!!!!!!
A st of energy shot towards her previous location was the st spread outwards.
Making a barrier using her Mana Shield, Shiro was sent rolling back due to the force.
It was only after a few rolls did she slow down.
Flipping back onto her feet, Shiro frowned when she looked at her current stats.
[HP: 38,000/50,000]
[MP: 0/82,500]
This was the first time in a while that she had taken damage as Shiro wasn¡¯t pleased.
The sheer fact that the Berserker had Rejuvenation surprised her. However, what shocked her more was the fact that it even had the Tier up version of the breath attack
It wasn¡¯t strange for a D ranked to have a breath attack, but for the Berserker to have a top tier 2/3 breath attack was insane.
If she was hit by that full-on, she would have move definitely died.
Quickly stuffing an MP potion into her mouth, Shiro dashed towards the Berserker.
She needed to take it out quickly before it pulled out another insane skill from his ass.
Remaking the bow, Shiro made sure it was a heavy bow this time. One that boasted the strongest attack power in her arsenal right now.
Drawing back on the strings, mana twisted into an arrow.
Holding the string back, the amount of mana charged in the arrow continued to grow as the Berserker was trying its hardest to struggle out of the gates.
Seeing the gates cracking, Shiro knew she had to attack it soon.
Injecting a few skill chips into the bow, Shiro activated them all.
[Piercing Blow]
[Enhanced Power]
[Latent Power]
[Attack Boost]
[Rotating Shot]
*BOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
The recoil of the arrow being shot sent Shiro sliding back as it pierced the Berserker through the entire length of his body. The entering point being the mouth.
It was only when she saw a clean hole through the Berserker did Shiro rx slightly.
Chapter 51 - [Snow Girl ★★]
Chapter 51: [Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï]
"Fuu..." Breathing out, Shiro walked towards the corpse.
Climbing into the hole she created, she harvested the D ranked mana stone.
"[Collect]"
Once again, the loot was subpar in Shiro¡¯s opinion.
However, if the other adventurers were to know this they¡¯ll want to strangle her since they would kill for her loot. They weren¡¯t like her who could create suitable weapons when she wished.
Recycling the equipment except for a few, Shiro patted Yin¡¯s head as she looked up.
"Not far from the top now." Shiro said.
With the pace she was going at, killing the boss 20 times should be roughly a day or two¡¯s worth of effort outside of the Dungeon.
Inside the Dungeon, however, it would equate to roughly 30 to 50 days.
Climbing higher up the mountain, the next mobs were simr to the Yeti Berserker. They all looked like bipedal bulls that had white fur.
"Wait... Actually, I have an idea." Shiro muttered as she ced her palm down.
A giant sheet of Nanobots spread out as Shiro frowned seeing the surface area only being 10 meters squared.
¡¯Compression system, piston propulsion system, retraction system, sensory system...¡¯ She thought as the trap was slowly being made.
Looking at the trap which bolstered 4 spikes for every meter squared, Shiro grinned while she covered the trap with snow.
She waited for her MP to recharge before taking action. Making a bow in her hands, she aimed it up and shot a shbang arrow.
*BOOM!!!
The arrow exploded into a ball of light as the Yetis had to cover their eyes in pain.
Due to the nature of snow, they reflect light very well as they could cause blindness if not careful.
While the Yetis were used to the light shining off the snow, they couldn¡¯t stand the sudden burst of light caused by Shiro¡¯s arrow.
*GRUAHHH!!!!!
They roared out as their eyesight slowly recovered. When they saw Shiro, they red at her in anger.
Shiro had a slightly sadistic smile on her face as she gestured for them toe with her finger.
*GRUAAA!!!
They roared in sync as they stormed towards her.
However, the moment they stepped on the trap, aser sight appeared and aimed at Yetis.
When it locked on, the spears shot upwards before expanding like a Venus flytrap. Sharp spikes decorated the inside of the trap as it mmed shut on the Yetis.
*GRUAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!
Their screams reverberated in the mountains as they soon died out not too long after, returning the silence back to the mountains.
Looking at the sight in front of her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but giggle as that one trap allowed her to kill 8 of the Yetis.
Regenerating her mana, She walked towards the final boss.
As she continued to kill the Yetis, she couldn¡¯t help but notice the fact that the Yetis were decreasing in numbers the higher up she went.
¡¯I hope it¡¯s not another god damn species again.¡¯ Shiro cursed as she was still a little annoyed from the millipede fromst time. In a Dungeon of ants, a millipede was one of the obelisk guardians.
When she arrived at the highest point, she crouched down to make herself smaller and peeked towards the boss.
The boss was sniffing around as Shiro narrowed her eyes seeing the boss¡¯s appearance.
The boss was unlike the other Yetis. Instead of white fur, he had ck and blue fur. An appearance which made Shiro question whether or not it could even hide in the snow.
His other features include a total of 4 muscr arms that seemed like they could snap a car in half just by tensing themselves.
[Titanus Yeti Ravager LVL 30 ¨C Boss]
HP: 800,000/800,000
MP: 200,000/200,000
¡¯Hmm, I should probably restrain his arms first.¡¯ Shiro thought as she looked over to Yin.
"Little Yin, lock up his arms please." Shiro whispered as she made a bow.
*CRRR CRRR!!!
Ice Chain wrapped around the ravager as Shiro pulled back on her bow.
*GUARRR!!!
The moment he roared, she let go of the arrow.
*BOOM!
The arrow exploded in the mouth of the Yeti as Shiro nocked another arrow.
Pulling back, Shiro split the mana arrow in two and fired them both.
Flexing her fingers, Shiro controlled the arrows to shoot at the Yeti¡¯s temple.
The temple is one of the weakest parts of the skull, allowing Shiro to prate the skull without as much force.
Grabbing her bow at the handle, Shiro twisted them and separated it into two swords.
The ice chain started to break apart as Shiro used her ice chain skill as well to lock the boss down longer.
Quickly making a skill chip, Shiro made an ice ramp towards the boss.
Jumping up, she aimed at the boss¡¯s arteries and shed with several skillsbined.
[Blood Rush]
[Momentum Multiplier]
[Increase Power]
[Increase Sharpness]
[Razor Edge]
*PUSHI!!!!!
The cuts severed both arteries as blood flowed out in huge quantities.
Withrge monsters like the ravager, their blood cirction would be fast seeing as they would needrge quantities of energy to move their hulking bodies.
However, the main point as to why Shiro aimed for the arteries was due to the fact that with such a heavy amount of blood loss, the health would drain much faster.
The boss glowed with a blue light as Shiro only furrowed her brows.
"You and your god damn Rejuvenation." Shiro cursed as she waited for a moment.
As the shield wore off, Shiro plunged one of her des into the ravager¡¯s mouth.
Quickly jumping backwards, Shiro avoided the grasp of his hands.
Clutching her hand, the sword exploded in the ravager¡¯s mouth.
Making herself another sword, Shiro dashed towards the ravager¡¯s legs.
*PFF PFF!!
The cuts appeared around his heels as Shiro severed the tendons.
Jumping up, she twisted her body and sliced at the shoulder tendons.
However, the arms suddenly bent abnormally as they reached out for her.
*BOOM!
Shiro quickly made a pir of ice from the bottom of her feet, pushing her away from the arms.
Looking at the arms that could bend back on itself, Shiro frowned in disgust.
Drinking a mana potion, Shiro made a bow and nocked a nanotech arrow.
Pulling back the string, she dashed around the ravager.
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Ice spike were created in the ravager¡¯s hands as he threw it towards her.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
In addition to the first and second phantom, Shiro activated Faded Snow Movement as well, boosting her speed further.
A blizzard started to pick up as the ravager narrowed his eyes.
Making four swords, one in each hand, he started to swing around him.
"Don¡¯t bother. I¡¯m going rangedbat for a reason." Shiro called out as she was already above him.
*BOOM!
She shot her arrow downwards towards the ravager.
*PING!
The arrow shifted into a giant ded.
Wrapping around the body of the ravager, the des dug deeper into his skin the more he struggled.
Flexing her fingers, Shiro caused the des to rotate.
*GUARRRR!!!
The ravager roared out as blood continued to flow.
Nocking two arrows, Shiro aimed for the arteries once more.
For a boss like the ravager, the best way would be to let it die slowly on his own.
Now that the tendons and the arteries were destroyed, she didn¡¯t need to do anything else.
Jumping up onto a tform, Shiro sat down and watched the ravager coldly. Her bow was ready to fire should the ravager attack her.
After 30 minutes of struggling, the ravager died and copsed weakly.
Dismissing her bow, Shiro collected her loot.
"Che. Nothing useful." Shiro muttered as she made her way back down the Dungeon.
Now she had to repeat this 19 more times for her star up requirement to be met.
###
Shiro wasying on her backzily as she had her legs in the air.
Kicking back and forth slightly, she waited for the 20th ravager to die.
"What an annoying ss up task right little Yin?" Shiro asked as Yin chirped while snuggling up to her cheek.
In the time that they had run this Dungeon 20 times, Yin had managed to level up a lot.
[Yin LVL 18]
HP: 18,000/18,000
MP: 51,000/51,000
Skills ¨C Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1)
With her level up, she learned the new skill Shadow Cloak. Shadow cloak is a stealth skill as it would let you blend in with the shadows. However, due to the fact that the skill was Tier 1, it drained quite a bit of MP per second.
[Shadow Cloak (Tier 1)]
Use the shadows to hide yourself.
Cost: 500MP/second
Cooldown: N/A
Once the ravager died, Shiro saw her ss up requirements beingpleted.
[Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï]
Kill 20 Ice Elemental Based LVL 30 Bosses ?
30 Ice Cores ?
Reach Tier 2 Attunement In Ice ?
With all of the requirements fulfilled, Shiro tapped the star up.
The 30 ice cores appeared around her as they slowly merged to form a crystal cocoon around her.
Her senses were dulled slightly but she could tell her body was getting stronger.
*Ping~!
The crystal shattered as Shiro slowly opened her eyes. She could tell that her senses were increased by quite an amount. This included her status.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (0/10 Humans Killed for Title Up)
Level: 33
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 60,600/60,600
MP: 58,300/97,500
STR: 340 -> 450 (+110) <+140>
VIT: 370 -> 400 (+85) <+121>
INT: 550 -> 600 (+180) <+195>
AGI: 480 -> 550 (+110) <+165>
DEX: 400 -> 500 (+50) <+137>
DEF: 180 -> 220 (+150) <+92>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 400 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 0
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 2,127,400 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch (New), Icy Breath (New).
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Speed Up (Equipment).
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1)]
The only thing the second star did for her was give her two new skills and 20 more points to distribute per level up.
While this was subpar in her opinion, Shiro understood that the more stars she got now, the better her future sses would be.
As for her new skills, one was a passive much like Cold Aura. Depending on her killing intent, she¡¯s able to touch anything and freeze them over without using mana.
[Icy Touch ¨C Passive]
The cold touch of a snow girl can be fatal if one is not prepared. With a single touch, one might be sent into aa.
Effectiveness varies depending on surrounding temperature, killing intent and enemy resistance.
As for the second skill, it was an active type skill.
[Icy Breath]
Expend MP to breathe out a torrent of cold mist which is able to freeze enemies when used with enough MP.
Cost: Varies upon user¡¯s intention.
Cooldown: N/A
"HNN!! Ahhh~" Shiro stretched her body as running a Dungeon solo for 20 times was very tiring.
"Little Yin we¡¯re finally done!" Shiro said as Yin celebrated.
Hopping back on her shoulders, Yin snuggled herself back in her spot.
Chuckling slightly, Shiro left the Dungeon.
Inside the dungeon, around 25 days have passed meaning 25hrs outside.
Massaging her neck slightly, Shiro prepared herself for Lyrica¡¯s lecture once more.
On her way back to the dorms, Shiro was confused as to why she was getting more stares than normal. Especially on her face.
¡¯Hmm... Did my star up change my face or something?¡¯ Shiro thought.
Arriving back at the dorm, Shiro saw Lyrica waiting by the door.
"SHIR---!!!!" Lyrica paused as she saw Shiro.
Her face instantly blushed as she tilted her head back to stop a nosebleed.
However, her eyes continued to stare at Shiro.
[Is there anything wrong with my face?] Shiro asked as she was curious.
"Just take a look yourself Shiro..." Lyrica muttered making sure to imprint the image into her mind.
Taking out a mirror, Shiro was surprised at her reflection.
Her face looked a lot more alluring now as there was less baby fat around her face. Her features were delicate as it made her seem surreal. Her skin had a rosy tint to it, urging people to give her skin a pinch.
One of the biggest changes was her hair. Originally, it had been pitch ck in colour. However, it was now a dark midnight blue with streaks of white ring at the tip of her hair.
¡¯Huh... Well, I may need the lower face mask from Aarim sooner than I thought.¡¯ Shiro thought, storing away the mirror.
She never expected that levelling up a star brought such changes to her physical appearance as well.
Chapter 52 - Auction P1
Chapter 52: Auction P1
Scratching the back of her head slightly, Shiro looked at her new hair with a slightly perplexed expression.
It wasn¡¯t that she didn¡¯t like it but that this meant troubles for herter on. The chances of her body changing more with each star earned were quite high as Shiro couldn¡¯t exin the growth.
[You like this hair? I wasn¡¯t too sure.] Shiro lied as she examined her hair.
"Un your hair is nice. It¡¯s rather unique with the white res around the edges." Lyrica nodded as she made sure her nosebleed was gone.
Pulling out a handkerchief, she cleaned her nose a little.
[Well enough of that. Have you prepared yet?] Shiro asked.
"Prepared for the event?"
[Yeah. Faction recruitment starts in 2 days. You should prepare yourself since we want you to get into a decent guild. With a good guild, the mortality would be lower.]
"True. But I¡¯m not sure if I can get into one. From the previous faction events, I know that there is an introduction then a total of 5 stages and a prize pool at the end." Lyrica said as they walked into the dorm.
[Do you know how the event is going to beid out this year?] Shiro asked as she wanted to test Lyrica.
"The introduction is basically the different factions showing off so people can decide which one they want to join. The intro includes different factions sparring with each other andpeting in some fun events.
"The next stage or the actual stage 1, is the warrior¡¯s division. Every melee type adventurer participates in this event as the challenges vary every time it is held.
"Stage 2 is the mages division. Just like stage 1, every mage participated in this event.
"Stages 1 and 2 aim to thin out the crowd in for both mages and warriors alike. This would leave around a few thousandpetitors in the event.
"Stage 3 is aimed at thinning the crowd even more. Most often, this is a battle royal. They¡¯ll be doing this part in the simtion so people can go all out.
"Stage 4 is a tournament of sorts. They¡¯ll reshuffle the remaining members and put them in several different blocks. Anyone who isn¡¯t top 3 is then eliminated.
"The final stage, stage 5, is where it¡¯s 1 vs 1 fights. The winner of each block will ce in the top 10, 20, 25 etc depending on how many there are.
"The order is shuffled around so the potential 1st ce may be thest ce within the top 20. As for people under the top 20, they can challenge the higher ranks to try to get into the top 20.
"There are rewards for the top 10, top 20, top 50 and top 100. Last time they held the recruitment, they had C ranked items for top 10. The winner had a special C ranked item that boosted his potential up by several folds." Lyrica exined as they went to her room.
Sitting down on the chair again, Shiro crossed her legs.
[So are we going to be registered as adventurer¡¯s or under the school?]
"We¡¯ll be registered under the school when we join the faction recruitment. This is so that the school can have bragging rights if a big faction recruits one of our students." Lyrica said.
[I see. Oh before I forget, I¡¯ll be heading out again tomorrow. Only to get some essories.]
"Mind if you take me along?" Lyrica asked.
[Sure. Though the shop name is a little out there, the private stock is definitely worth it. It¡¯s where I got both of our outfits.]
"Heh~ I¡¯m more curious now. It¡¯s not every day you see such a good outfit too. Not to mention, it doesn¡¯t break." Lyrica said as she nced at her outfit.
[We¡¯ll set off early tomorrow. Goodnight.] Shiro typed as Lyrica nodded.
Walking back to her room, Shiro frowned seeing another shadow.
Flexing her finger, a spike appeared and stabbed the shadow at the temple.
"Tsk. Stalker." Shiro frowned as she set a few traps around her room.
It took an hour before all the traps wereid out perfectly.
Shiro decided to message Aarim as well seen as though she had the chance.
[Shiro: Hey Aarim. Would it be fine if I visited your shop tomission for another essory made from monster cloth?]
[Aarim: How much monster cloth do you think I have avable?!]
Shiro was surprised seeing how fast Aarim replied.
[Shiro: I just want tomission a face mask that I can pull down. ck in colour.]
[Aarim: Hmm... sure. You know the payment right? Modelling again.]
[Shiro: I¡¯m not too sure about this. I have a friending with me.]
[Aarim: You can just do the photoshoot together with your friend.]
[Shiro: I¡¯ll have to ask her tomorrow then.]
[Aarim: If she doesn¡¯t want to, I¡¯ll put it on a tab. You cane model for me when you have time.]
[Shiro: Thank you very much.]
[Aarim: no problems.]
Putting her phone aside, Shiro changed into her nightwear before sleeping.
###
[Would it be ok if you pose for a few outfits with me? The outfits Aarim has are quite nice as well.]
"Are they simr to what we have on now?"
[Kind of. Since these outfits are what I requested, they¡¯re a little different to what she has in stock.]
"Heh~ I mean I don¡¯t see why not. It seems fun." Lyrica said. While her speech was calm, her mind was racing about the type of outfits she could see Shiro wear.
Turning into an alleyway, Lyrica frowned slightly.
"So are you sure the store is in this alleyway?" Lyrica asked.
[The location is a little obscure but it is indeed here. You¡¯ll see it when we get there.] Shiro said as they turned a few corners.
[Aarim¡¯s Sexual Pleasure Item Store.]
"..."
Lyrica blushed heavily seeing the store title as she looked over to Shiro.
Shiro wasn¡¯t phased at all as she entered inside.
"AH! Shiro wait up!" Lyrica called out before following her.
Hiding behind Shiro slightly, they enter the store.
"Wee~ Ah you¡¯re here. And you brought your friend as you said." Aarim smiled as Shiro nodded.
[Yeah, she¡¯s agreed to model with me.] Shiro typed out as Lyrica moved around nervously thinking about the type of outfits they could have.
¡¯Surely it shouldn¡¯t be simr to what her store sign is right?¡¯ Lyrica thought as the image of Shiro wearing something lewd was outside of her character.
¡¯But it may not be that bad.¡¯ Lyrica blushed.
Aarim grinned seeing the reactions and the type of gaze Lyrica looked at Shiro with.
¡¯I should get some of my more spicy outfits out.¡¯ Aarim thought with a grin.
[Nothing lewd.]
"Che." Both Aarim and Lyrica clicked their tongues as Shiro had a nd expression.
Lyrica blushed as her guard was down so her internal thoughts leaked out.
Aarim only grinned wider.
Reaching under the table, she pulled out a face mask.
"This is what you wanted. It zips up at the back." Aarim said as Shiro nodded.
Putting on the mask, Shiro pulled up the fabric so it covered her mouth and nose.
Breathing wasn¡¯t hindered as Shiro pulled out a mirror to check how it looked.
¡¯It¡¯s not too bad. It hides my lower face quite nicely actually. Only my hair is a little more memorable I suppose.¡¯ Shiro thought as she looked at her hair which had a white re at the tips.
"Let¡¯s go to the studio." Aarim said as she pped her hands.
Lyrica nodded as she was much more eager than Shiro.
Walking back to the studio, Aarim revealed her outfit collection to Lyrica.
"Wow." Lyrica muttered seeing the huge assortment of outfits.
[How many are we doing today?] Shiro asked.
"Since it was only a mask, I¡¯ll let you off a bit easier. 30 sets."
"30 sets?!" Lyrica was shocked. 30 sets took quite a lot of time to try on and that wasn¡¯t factoring the modelling time.
"It¡¯s simple,st time Shiro did well over 100 sets for me." Aarim waved her hand as she grabbed an outfit.
Handing it over to Shiro, she also gave a set to Lyrica.
"Now get changed while I set up the camera." Aarim said.
Shiro nodded as she walked to the changing rooms. Undressing herself, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow to her figure. Not only did her face change slightly, but her body also.
Yesterday she was too tired to check, but now she realised she¡¯s grown a little as well. Her bust, whilst still small, grew a little too.
¡¯I wonder what the owner of this body looked like as a grown-up.¡¯ Shiro thought with curiosity.
Changing into clothes made with monster cloth was much easier than normal due to the fact that it was effected by mana.
Expanding the outfit, Shiro put her arms through the sleeves before shrinking the outfit.
Wearing a few more pieces, she was fully changed.
Lyrica was daydreaming as she examined Shiro¡¯s body entirely.
[Are you not feeling well? I¡¯ll do your half of the modelling as well if you aren¡¯t feeling well.] Shiro offered.
"Ah no, it¡¯s fine." Lyrica said snapping out of it. She didn¡¯t know how it was possible but it felt like Shiro¡¯s grown a little.
¡¯If she had a slightly more mature body, it wouldn¡¯t be too bad either...¡¯ She thought to herself.
Copying what Shiro did, Lyrica was surprised at how easy it was to change into the outfit. It was even more so than her current outfit since her outfit was in pieces. These dresses, however, were mostly 1 piece dresses.
"Hmm... if every outfit is this easy, 30 outfits will be done in no time." Lyrica said as she put on the essories.
Shiro only smiled as Lyrica would be eating her own words soon.
Walking out of the changing room, they saw Aarim with everything set up.
"Get on, we¡¯re taking a few photos now." Aarim smiled and gestured to the area with the white back drop.
###
"Urggggggg..." Lyrica groaned as she finally finished doing the final outfit.
[I remember a certain someone saying this will be done in no time at all.] Shiro chuckled slightly.
"Yes I did. However, she took over a hundred pictures with each outfit!" Lyrica said sitting up.
[It isn¡¯t too bad. If you get used to it, you can get through a hundred pictures quicker.] Shiro smiled.
"I suppose but urg... so tiring." Lyricained.
"Since you¡¯ve already got your item, you don¡¯t get a reward ok Shiro?" Aarim said as Shiro nodded.
"As for your friend Lyrica here... catch this." Aarim said flicking over a USB.
Catching it, Lyrica nced at it with curiosity.
"A 3TB USB? What do I need it for?" Lyrica asked.
"It¡¯s 3TB worth of modelling pictures Shiro took including today. You don¡¯t wan-"
"Who said I don¡¯t want." Lyrica said quickly storing it inside her inventory.
Aarim giggled as this was what she expected.
"By the way, I heard that there is a pretty big auction happening tonight. They¡¯re holding it since the faction recruitment is tomorrow. With everyone in the city, they¡¯ll have a bigger audience to take money from." Aarim said as she sat down by the counter. She decided to inform Shiro and Lyrica as they may find something useful int the auction.
[A auction? Is there anything remarkable about it?] Shiro asked.
"Remarkable? Hmm... they said something about a sword being really good for low levels. A blue greatsword in fact. Quite a rare weapon." Aarim said as Shiro paused.
¡¯Isn¡¯t that the sword I scammed to them?¡¯ Shiro thought.
[What¡¯s so remarkable with the sword?]
"They say the skill is a rare percentage skill. It¡¯s able to increase the strength of the user by 100% for a short moment. Since the sword itself is level 15, not only could it help the pass their ss advancement, but it will also help them get an edge over other level 20 adventurer¡¯s that join the event."
[Then what about items?] Shiro asked. Weapons were nice and all, but items held the cake for her.
She could craft a few items, but they were very limited due to her knowledge of them.
"Items... Hmm... I don¡¯t remember a lot but the supposedly best item for the auction is something called an awakening stone. If you don¡¯t know what it is, its an item that¡¯ll help you unlock your elemental attunement or at least enhance it. Tier 0 to Tier 1 with the highest being Tier 1 to Tier 2." Aarim said with a wave of her hand.
¡¯The awakening stone is pretty good I suppose.¡¯ Shiro thought as she too knew about this stone. If one had more than 1 elemental attunement, the stone would have a randomised chance to awaken your main element or the sub-element. For her, it was a chance between 3 elements since the ice was already Tier 2.
¡¯Having an extra element would help I suppose but my MP drain is going to increase.¡¯
She had 3 elements right now at Tier 0 so the moment she used the awakening stone, she¡¯ll gain the skill line for one of these elements. Lightning to improve her attack power. Metal for defence, which was rather useless considering her fighting style, and Shadow to increase stealth.
¡¯I¡¯ll think of more ways to use them when I unlock them.¡¯ Shiro thought as the auction seemed pretty appealing as of this moment.
Chapter 53 - Auction P2
Chapter 53: Auction P2
[Well. In that case then Lyrica, why don¡¯t we go to the auction? I¡¯ve managed to make quite a bit of money in the Dungeons. Not sure how much itpares to others but it should be pretty high up there.]
"Sure. I¡¯m mostly going to go there to keep youpany though." Lyrica shrugged.
The amount of money a high level adventurer earns isn¡¯t something a normal person could estimate. Depending on their skill, they would either be earning well over millions in a week or barely scraps from the monsters over the week.
With the Dungeons being able to give out money, not only was the world economy united into 1, but prices of normal items shot through the roof. The price intion of items that was caused due to Dungeons meant those lower levelled had to risk their lives daily just to barely survive.
Even in her past life, the controversy around the Dungeons was quite high. The benefits they bring allowed the civilisation to revolutionise with new inventions by the minute with mana. However, the negatives made the weak suffer a harsh fate. Where words could have won against strength was but a dream for the weak.
A world where at its core, was a strong preying on the weak society of dangerous upations.
But when the beasts came in hordes and destroyed cities with ease, they realised they weren¡¯t the rule-makers anymore. They were the yers to the rules.
They had to grow stronger to survive, easy as that.
Leaving Aarim¡¯s store, they made their way to the auction house.
[New York Auction Starts at 9 pm.]
"Hmm, 9 pm... It¡¯s 8 pm right now. Shall we wait here for an hour?" Lyrica asked as Shiro nodded.
Looking for a table at a nearby caf¨¦, Shiro yed around with Yin.
¡¯Since there is an auction this big, there¡¯s bound to be robberies after the auction. Since 2 million is obviously not enough, I should take advantage of the chaos.¡¯ Shiro thought as she patted Yin¡¯s head.
With the skill shadow cloak, she¡¯ll be able to hide under their watchful eye since it would be deep into the night by the time the auction finishes.
Looking over at the auction house, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she could see a few figures watching it stealthily.
[Lyrica, I suggest you try to make yourself as unnoticeable as you can during the auction. If you make yourself known. then there is a big chance that you could get robbed at the end of the auction.] Shiro warned as Lyrica looked up.
"Eh? What do you mean?"
[Look above the auction house, the window of the 3rd house to the left, alleyway near the food stand, in the crowd of people looking at the pamphlets and finally look at one of the staff handing out the pamphlets.] Shiro typed out as Lyrica observed them all but couldn¡¯t notice anything wrong.
"Is there anything special about them?" She asked.
[Each and every one of them is observing who in the crowd looks the most wealthy. On top of that, they¡¯re also checking for the ces which have cameras, and which ces to best rob someone. The ones I¡¯ve pointed out just now are only a small portion of these people. There are roughly 30+ of them surveying the area.] Shiro typed out as Lyrica paused in shock.
"Erm Shiro, let¡¯s not participate then." Lyrica said as Shiro only shook her head.
[We are most definitely going. You¡¯ll also be able to have a look at the atmosphere thates with big auctions. Especially since you may be going to the auctions more often in the future.] Shiro smiled.
Having understood the chaos thates with a big auction early on would be better. This was to prevent Lyrica not knowing what to do in the future if she was to purchase a good item.
"Ehhh?! We¡¯re going?! But what if they decide to kidnap you or something?!" Lyrica asked.
[True.] Shiro nodded as she too understood that.
[But I have the confidence of leaving unharmed.] Shiro smiled.
[But the main problem is you, I want you to leave the moment the auction is over. You can observe from far but nothing with 200 meters of the battles that may happen.] Shiro warned with a serious face.
Lyrica nodded in understanding.
...
The hour passed quickly as the time for the auction was at hand.
The sun was already setting but the crowd was still as lively as ever.
2 people were walking side by side as one was a tall male and the other was female.
The male was around 6ft 5, a slim yet powerful build, his hair was short and was coloured ck.
He wore a suit and mask which covered his appearance.
The female, on the other hand, was around 5ft 7, had an alluring figure and had long blond hair.
She wore a suit and mask as well.
"Huan er, how many level 50¡¯s do you think is nning to rob the winners of each bid?" The man asked. His voice was deep and calm. It was as if nothing in this world could make him hurry his pace.
"My-"
"Huan er, I told you to call me by my name outside." He said, cutting her off.
"Nan Tian, I see around 20 of them." She replied nervously.
"Mn, maybe it¡¯s because you¡¯re the same level as them. But there are exactly 47 level 50¡¯s looking at this auction." Nan Tian smiled giving Huan er a nce. The mask was a special type of mask that was made with one-sided material. He could see other¡¯s clearly but they couldn¡¯t see his face.
"I¡¯m sorry that I didn¡¯t manage to see them all!" She said quickly as she bowed.
"Ai... I told you don¡¯t be like that. I¡¯m not strict like those elders. No one is perfect." Nan Tian replied as he gestured for her to stop bowing.
"However, training more is always advised. You need that strength so the greed of humans can¡¯t take over you. I may be here to protect you now but I can¡¯t help you always." Nan Tian said shaking his head.
He paused slightly when he saw two girls walking in the crowd. One of them was quite short while the other was an elf. The short woman had her hood pulled forwards as Nan Tian narrowed his eyes.
Her figure felt very nostalgic as he inspected her.
[Shiro LVL 33 ¨C Ice Mage]
¡¯That¡¯s not the aura an Ice Mage should be emitting.¡¯ He thought. The aura was much colder and more dangerous than what a level 33 Ice Mage should have.
Closing one of his eyes, he reopened them after a few seconds. When he reopened his eye, there was a golden ring in his iris. The golden ring was something unique to him and him alone.
Due to an ident early in his life, a special type of skill was permanently embedded into his right eye. Eyes of Truth, Heavens Eye, God¡¯s Eye. It was known by many names.
However, the main purpose was to allow him to see through every type of disguise.
[Shiro LVL 33 ¨C Snow Girl]
¡¯A snow girl huh.¡¯ Nan Tian thought. Oddly enough, he wasn¡¯t able to see her stats like he could with other people. Furrowing his brows slightly, he turned to Huan er.
"Can you help me gather all the information about an adventurer in this city?" Nan Tian said as Huan er nodded.
Pulling out a tablet, she quickly tapped through the database.
"Name and ss?" She asked.
"Shiro, Ice Mage."
"Here." She passed him the tablet with all of her information.
Reading through all of her information, Nan Tian passed the tablet back.
¡¯Since she¡¯s done nothing wrong and even helped pass a raid with minimal difficulty, I shouldn¡¯t make things hard for her.¡¯ Nan Tian thought as he didn¡¯t mind the fact that she probably killed one of the adventurers.
Human greed was a disgusting thing to see after all. The fact that she didn¡¯t kill everyone in the raid was surprising in itself. She had the capabilities and he knew monsters got stronger the more they killed.
So for her to not kill them for strength made her more humane than over 30% of humanity as a whole.
If she could be humanities ally, then they would benefit mutually.
¡¯Maybe if I recruited her into the sect, I could form a sort of alliance with her.¡¯ He mused to himself.
"Hmm, it seems like the Shadow Faction¡¯s young master also has his eye on her." Huan er muttered seeing the records. While only level 50, she was one of the best hackers the world had to offer.
She was able to easily see the mage¡¯s association¡¯s branch manager¡¯s search for Shiro and she knew he worked under the Shadow Faction¡¯s young master.
"Shadow Faction? Hmm, the faction itself is slowly being destroyed on the inside yet the young master has his eye on her?" Nan Tian muttered.
Looking over at Shiro, he decided to keep a closer eye on this monster who was more humane than a third of humanity. He also wanted to find out where this feeling on nostalgia stemmed from.
Meanwhile, Shiro, who Nan Tian had observed with the Heavens Eye, shivered for a moment.
Feeling a gaze that seemed to know everything there was of her, Shiro frowned and looked around with caution.
"Are you ok Shiro?" Lyrica asked.
[Yeah. Let¡¯s continue to the auction.] Shiro typed out while keeping her guard up.
The queue to the auction was long so both Shiro and Lyrica had to wait for their seats to be assigned.
Due to the fact that she only had 2 million USD, she and Lyrica were ced in the lower stands.
"Basically the poor stands huh." Lyrica muttered as both she and Shiro sat down.
They were assigned to the very back and given an electronic panel to bid on an item.
As for their neighbours, they were two men who were giving them a nce every now and again.
Lyrica frowned as she felt goosebumps rising.
Shiro was tempted to freeze them over with her icy touch but decided against it. She didn¡¯t want to start killing people here after all.
Crossing her legs, Shiro closed her eyes as she waited for the auction to start.
Lyrica only shuffled closer to Shiro due to her repulsion towards the man that sat near her.
Thankfully, there were quite a few cameras around the area so they wouldn¡¯t be harassed.
Inside the auction house, there were several top tier level 50 adventurers to stop the people from causing a hassle.
But when they get out of the auction house, it was no longer their problem.
"WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! TO THE AUCTION BEFORE THE FACTION RECRUITMENT! YOU KNOW WHAT WE¡¯RE DOING, I KNOW WHAT WE¡¯RE DOING. BUT WHILE I KNOW WHAT WE¡¯RE SELLING, YOU DON¡¯T KNOW JUST YET! SO LET¡¯S NOT WASTE TIME AND GET TO THE FIRST ITEM OF THE NIGHT!!" The auctioneer shouted out as Shiro opened her eyes.
"The first item of the night is a type of medicine. Hailed from china, this pill is a medicine that may allow you to jump tiers and defeat those who had ssed up to D rank in strength! Known as the External Reinforcement Pill, this pill increases every single one of your stats by 150 points! The duration is 3 minutes! Plenty of time to turn the tables!" The auctioneer shouted out as Shiro lost interest quickly.
Honestly, 3 minutes was a good amount of time as he said. But who would let someone drink/eat/apply medicine in front of them? Therefore in Shiro¡¯s opinion, the pill was about as appealing as someone¡¯s kidney stones.
"Bidding starts at 400,000 USD with increases of more than 5,000 USD at a time!"
"400,000!"
"410,000!"
"450,000!"
...
"Wow it¡¯s more than 500,000 USD!" Lyrica muttered in shock. The cost of this single pill was insane.
[More than 500,000 USD for trash. Wasting money.] Shiro typed outzily. What she was most interested in was who won the Awakening Pill and who won her scam sword.
"I suppose. But they can also just save the pill for another time. Like in a Dungeon to save themselves from death."
[True.]
The next few items were also unappealing as Shiro wasn¡¯t interested at all.
"The next item is a little special. Graded with the rare blue grade! This weapon is also one thates with a skill! The Fire Giant¡¯s Titanus Cleaver! A devasting great sword for the warriors who are above level 15. With an incredible skill which grants an increase of 100% in strength! This weapon will easily destroy all those who stand in your way!" The auctioneer shouted out as a level 20 warrior walked up to the stage.
"Just so you know the power of the sword, we have a level 20 warrior to demonstrate with us."
The warrior picked up the sword and turned to the right.
A steel dummy rose up as he shed towards it.
*PANG!
The sword went halfway into the dummy.
"As you can see, the sword only travelled halfway into the reinforced steel dummy. And now! Once again with the skill activated!"
A second dummy rose up as the sword red with a bright red.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she realised the warrior wore armour that increased his speed. This offset the -80% speed that came with the sword making it seem more powerful than it should be.
¡¯Tsk, sly bastard.¡¯ Shiro thought as this would easily fool a lot of low-level adventurers in the hall.
Then again, who was she to call them sly? She did scam the auction house with the sword after all.
Raising the sword, the warrior shed once more.
*BOOM!!!
The sword cleaved easily through the dummy as cheers could be heard.
"The bidding starts at 250,000 USD with an increment of 10,000 USD each time! Remember! You¡¯ll be able to earn all this back easily should you enter a good faction!" The auctioneer shouted out.
The final bid settled for 500,000 USD with the auction house barely managed to break even with the price they paid for the sword.
Chapter 54 - Auction P3
Chapter 54: Auction P3
"Hnhnhnhn..." Nan Tian chuckled slightly when he saw Shiro¡¯s sword get sold for 500,000 USD.
With what he¡¯s read from her records, she scammed the Auction house for 450,000 USD and some spare materials.
With this, the auction house made a small profit of 50,000 USD.
¡¯For a mute snow girl to be able to scam the Auction house. Amusing. I wonder if she¡¯s going to fight in the tug of war after the auction.¡¯ Nan Tian thought as he looked over in her direction.
Currently, Shiro had her lower face mask on while her eyes would dart around asionally.
¡¯She¡¯s on guard constantly. How vignt.¡¯ Nan Tian thought with a smile.
Huan er was confused as to why Nan Tian started to chuckle and smile.
"Is there anything funny my- Nan Tian?" Huan er asked correcting herself.
"Nothing. Just finding itughable how the auction house didn¡¯t manage to make as much as they expected." Nan Tian replied with a wave of his hand.
"Actually, do you think we can put something up for auction?" He asked, turning towards Huan er.
"I believe that is within thest segment of the auction. We should be able to if we give them the notice. Do you perhaps want to auction something?" Huan er asked.
"Mn. Give the people more incentive to try to fight for the rewards. Think of this as a taster for tomorrows event." Nan Tian said, pulling out an item from his inventory.
"But that¡¯s! My Lord! You cannot!" Huan er said hastily as she kneeled and cupped her hands.
What Nan Tian had just pulled out was a Potential Awakening Relic. The relic has three charges and each charge will awaken the potential of a single person.
Even though Nan Tian was one of the most important people in the sect, he was still only given 1 Potential Awakening Relic for his subordinates.
Each charge of the Potential Awakening Relic takes years to charge up so each one was priceless. Yet Nan Tian wanted to use the Relic in a tiny auction held in a tiny city? The decision baffled Huan er.
"I know it¡¯s important. But do you think I cannot recover the relic? This is just bait." Nan Tian chuckled as he gave her the relic. He wasn¡¯t worried that the relic would be used since it takes a full 12 hour period to use the relic.
Holding the relic, Huan er had a perplexed face as she still didn¡¯t understand. If he wanted a bait, wouldn¡¯t a low level weapon do the trick? Her lord had more than enough purple grade weapons in his inventory to the point that he could make a small hut with them.
Yet of all things, he chose to auction this relic?! What was his goal?
"Just auction it Huan er. If anything happens I¡¯ll take responsibility." Nan Tian waved his hand whilst looking towards Shiro.
¡¯Show me what you can do, Snow Girl...¡¯ He thought with slight anticipation for what is about to happen.
He wanted to see how much she could do in a situation where it¡¯s the ying field for level 50¡¯s.
"...Understood." Huan er replied as she left the room.
...
Meanwhile, Shiro felt like she was about to fall asleep from the mediocre items that were on auction.
¡¯When will the awakening stone be put on auction...¡¯ She thought, massaging her eyes a little.
"Are you tired Shiro?" Lyrica asked.
[No, just bored. These items aren¡¯t very helpful for me.] Shiro replied.
"Then do you want to sleep for a bit? I¡¯ll wake you up when it¡¯s time." Lyrica offered, hoping Shiro would sleep on her shoulder.
[No it¡¯s fine.] Shiro shook her head.
Lyrica could only sigh in slight regret.
It took over an hour before the main host of tonight¡¯s auction was brought to the front of the hall.
Shiro refocused her attention as she wanted to know who won the awakening stone.
"The next item is the Awakening Stone! An amazing item that will help awaken or enhance your attunements to a certain element! While it can only upgrade to a maximum of Tier 2 in attunement, you must remember that is within the ranges of a top tier D ranked adventurer!!" The Auctioneer shouted out.
"Bidding starts at 1 million credits!"
"1 million!"
"1.5 million!"
"1.55 million!"
...
[They¡¯re paying millions for something they won¡¯t even get at the end of the night.] Shiro typed out.
"Eh? How are you so sure that they won¡¯t be able to get it?" Lyrica asked surprised at how sure Shiro seemed.
[Just a hunch of mine.] Shiro smiled.
The bids were continuously being shouted out as Shiro made sure to memorise who shouted out the bids.
It was only when the bid hit the value of 6 million USD did they stop.
The winner of the auction was who Shiro realised to be one of the top 10 in the priority ranking.
"Rank 4, Lewis Sanders." Shiro muttered as she was about to stand up.
"Before all of you leave, I must inform you about a slight change in the auction tonight. Within the final batch of items, which are sold by adventurer¡¯s yourselves, we have a very special item! The item is called a Potential Awakening Relic! The Potential Awakening Relic is a rare artefact that is used by the factions fighting in the front lines! With a single use of this relic, you can awaken your inner potential! Your strength will outshine your peers with ease!"
"With such a rare item, I¡¯d suggest you not to leave your seats just yet! We will be handing out the items for the winners when the auction ends after all. Whether you leave now orter wouldn¡¯t make a difference." The auctioneer said as Shiro sat back down.
She never expected a Potential Awakening Relic to be auctioned here as well. For a high-level item, it was such a waste for it to be auctioned in this low-level city.
¡¯Who¡¯s so dumb to auction this?¡¯ Shiro thought as she looked around.
Looking up at the higher stands, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she made eye contact with a male on the third floor.
¡¯The third floor is strictly for VIP¡¯s. Why is someone like him looking over here.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Nan Tian only smiled seeing Shiro look in his direction.
He chuckled before waving his hand slightly.
Shiro furrowed her brows and looked away.
[Lyrica. I suggest you go back to the dorm now.] Shiro typed with a frown.
"Is it because of the Potential Awakening Relic?"
[Yes. If there was going to be a fight before, now it will be a blood bath. Those level 50¡¯s will kill without a second thought for the relic.]
"Alright. You shoulde with me as well." Lyrica said but Shiro shook her head.
[This is better for me since they¡¯ll be preupied with the Potential Awakening Stone.] Shiro replied.
Since they¡¯ll be focused on the main item, there¡¯ll be less focus being ced on the Awakening Stone.
But this is a double-edged de.
Since there are fewer people focusing on the stone, that also means less chaos. With less chaos, it will be harder to steal the item/
Not to mention, she¡¯ll have to try to take advantage of the moment the item is taken out of the inventory. There is only a small window of opportunity and if she misses it, there may not be another chance.
"Alright. But you must promise me to not try anything outside of your power ok?" Lyrica said as Shiro nodded.
Lyrica looked at Shiro for a moment before turning away and walked out of the auction house.
¡¯So she told her friend to escape the moment she saw the relic huh? Nice choice.¡¯ Nan Tian thought with a smile.
"Huan er. What are the chances for a level 33 to steal an item in this type of situation?" Nan Tian asked.
"I do believe they have no chance." Huan er replied. Trying to steal anything under the eyes of over 30 level 50¡¯s was a suicidal move for any level 33 no matter how powerful they may be.
"Indeed. But, I¡¯m quite curious as to how we may be proven wrong tonight." Nan Tian said as Huan er looked at him with shock.
"You don¡¯t mean the Ice Mage right?" She asked.
"She seems to want the Awakening Stone more than the Potential Awakening Relic. Good choice considering the tug of war for the relic. But a dangerous choice since she might have to go against 1 or 2 level 50¡¯s for the Awakening Stone." Nan Tian smiled.
"Howe you¡¯re cing so much emphasis on her?" Huan er asked.
"She maybe 13 years old and level 33. But can¡¯t we also do the same to some of the younger sect members?"
¡¯Yeah but have you seen a few week old level 33?¡¯ Nan Tian thought as he was sure the "Shino" that left the Dungeon was her.
Level 33 for a few weeks old was an insane feat that he couldn¡¯t believe happened. This showed her potential as a fighter and more so as a potential ally.
Even more so due to the fact that she was level 20 when she left the Dungeon and soloed the boss of her Dungeon.
"Indeed a 13-year-old reaching level 33 is an easy task in our sect. But do you think they can be the same in New York City? The Dungeons here are low levelled, the items don¡¯t go above blue grade and most of all, everything here is below level 50. Can you really tell me we can get someone to level 33 at the age of 13 with these conditions?" Nan Tian asked. Huan er, as a teammate, was someone you could trust. However, her ideology about the world outside of the sect was a little narrow. She believed the sect was number 1 and no one else could defeat them.
A dangerous train of thought.
"...No I cannot." Huan er replied as she looked down.
"Then you should be giving praise instead. Don¡¯t be so petty with praise." Nan Tian said. Huan er nodded in response.
However, she still didn¡¯t see why Nan Tian had ced so much interest in a small adventurer from a small city. It simply didn¡¯t make sense.
Eventually, the bid for the relic reached an astounding 24 million USD before it was won by a level 50 warrior.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro pulled her hood forward to cover her face along with her facemask.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom ¨C Illusionary Phantom.
Her figure flickered as she disappeared from the auction hall.
Nan Tian widened his eyes slightly in surprise. In the slight moment she flickered; he had lost sight of her.
¡¯Interesting. There wasn¡¯t any spike in mana so it must be a type of martial arts. A little bit simr to the martial arts of the Shadow Temple. Perhaps this was why the young master of the Shadow Temple wanted to keep his eyes on her.¡¯ Nan Tian thought as he too stood up.
"Huan er,e. We¡¯re going to watch this tug of war and see if there are any good seedlings for us to pick." Nan Tian said walking out of the booth.
Huan er followed quietly.
Standing unnoticed at the collection hall, Shiro waited for the winner of the Awakening Stone to arrive.
¡¯There he is.¡¯ She thought as she kept her presence small. Lewis Sanders was a tall man with long brown hair. His face was average but his aura was powerful.
[Lewis LVL 46 ¨C Earth Mage]
Grabbing the stone quickly, he left the building.
Shiro followed him and noticed 2 other people doing the same thing as her.
¡¯So it¡¯s going to be a 4 way battle.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Shadow Cloak.
ck mist wrapped around her as it merged with her body.
Jumping up onto the roofs, her body was barely visible even under the moonlight.
Activating Disguise, she hid her status under question marks.
[??? LVL ??? - ???]
Thisbined with the fact that her appearance and outfit couldn¡¯t be seen properly made for a decent disguise.
Crouching down, she narrowed her eyes at the three who started to fight.
All three of them were mages with Lewis beings the second-highest level.
One of the assants is a level 50 mage and the other was a level 44 mage. With them being a whole 10 levels or more above her, Shiro needed to make sure she did this carefully.
Chapter 55 - Auction P4
Chapter 55: Auction P4
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
Explosions rang out as Lewis blocked the attacks with an earth shield.
Flipping back slightly, he gritted his teeth with anger.
He had thought that he would be let off free since most of the level 50¡¯s were focused on the relic. Who knew a level 50 would still focus on his Awakening Stone.
However, he wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with these guys.
The level 50, Cain, was the 5th rank on the priority list, while the other level 44, Paul, was 6th.
"Lewis! Hand that stone over!" Cain shouted out as his hands lit ame.
"In the simtion you suppressed us. But this is real life so do the right thing and hand it over!" Paul shouted out as well.
"Pui! Surpass me if you have the capabilities. If you don¡¯t, then don¡¯t bother." Lewis replied disdainfully.
Rock covered his body as it created a pseudo armour.
*KSH!
Lightning struck towards Lewis while he mmed his palms downwards.
A pir of earth blocked the lightning, diverting the force into the ground.
"ARG!" Lewis cried out in pain as Cain had managed tond a fireball on his back.
Pivoting on his leg, Lewis caused several rock arms to shoot upwards and grab Cain by the leg.
*BANG!
The arm mmed Cain into the ground with as much force as it could muster.
Paul gathered lightning into his hand, slowly forming it into a dense lightning spear.
Pulling back his arm, he threw the spear towards Lewis.
"URAHHH!!!" Lewis shouted out as the earth wrapped around him.
Gritting his teeth, Lewis resisted the pain and red towards Paul.
However, the moment he turned his back to Cain, Cain controlled the fire to form a giant hammer.
"HA!" He shouted out as the hammer mmed into the back of Lewis¡¯ armour.
*BOOM!!!
His body wasunched forwards, causing him to roll for several meters.
"F*CK OFF!" Lewis shouted out just as his mana started to spike upwards.
A huge rock golem was formed next to Lewis.
Quickly climbing up the rock golem, Lewis controlled the golem to punch towards Paul.
He wanted to get rid of the weakest one of the ying field.
"I¡¯m not that easy!" Paul shouted out.
Lightning twisted around his palms while he pulled his palms apart. Sparks jumped from one hand to another as it slowly gathered in the centre.
*BOOM!!!
The ball of lightning shot forwards, smashing a hole through the golem before dispersing into mana.
Paul had to make sure the lightning ball didn¡¯t cause additional damage as he would be in trouble otherwise. While they could fight the winners of the bids, they couldn¡¯t involve citizens. If they did, a squadron of level 50 patrolmen would hunt them down.
Lewis quickly regenerated the golem back to full HP.
Looking around with urgency, he narrowed his eyes on the skyscrapers.
Raising his hands, rock spikes erupted from the ground causing Paul and Cain to dodge in a panic.
*BAM!
The golem crashed heavily against the skyscraper as Lewis controlled it to climb higher.
Shiro, who was hiding by the roof of the buildings, frowned slightly when she saw where Lewis was running away to.
¡¯Annoying.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Crouching down, Shiro put strength into her legs.
Yin Style Phantom Art: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Her body flickered every so often as she dashed after Lewis.
Jumping up, she used her passive floatbined with her phantom arts to scale the building quite easily.
"Pah! Ha... ha... ha.." Lewis huffed with fatigue.
Shaking his head, he got rid of the slight headache.
This was a problem with earth element mages. While their defence was strong, it took more MP the more damage that stacked up. Holding against the bombardment of a level 50 and 44 wasn¡¯t easy at all.
Shiro hid in the shadows as she waited for the level 50 and 44 to catch up.
*BOOM BOOM!
Two figuresnded heavily on the roof.
"Lewis, you can¡¯t run anymore. Just hand the stone over!" Cain shouted out.
"You know what? Take it. Fight amongst yourself for it!" Lewis retorted.
¡¯While they¡¯re distracted, I should hit them off the roof and run.¡¯ He thought while pulling out the stone.
"Here!" He shouted as he threw the stone.
Pulling back his hands, he quickly made 2 stone spears.
¡¯Chance!¡¯ Shiro thought.
Crouching down quickly, she dashed forwards.
Yin Style Phantom Art: 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Snow erupted outwards as it pushed the three mages away.
"SH*T ANOTHER MAGE!" Cain shouted out as he shielded his eyes.
Shiro managed to grab hold of the stone and store it in her inventory.
¡¯Crap! It was a fake!¡¯ Shiro thought as she saw that it was just a normal stone.
*BZZZ!!
She suddenly heard lightning behind her and quickly reacted ordingly.
Twisting her body, she mmed her palms into the ground and activated her skills.
Icy Touch + Tier 2 Ice Magic.
*BOOM!!!!!
The lightning missed her narrowly as the aftershock sent her back.
"Kuah!" Shiro coughed slightly from the force.
"Hand over the stone girl!" Paul shouted.
ring her mana, Shiro didn¡¯t say anything as ice erupted outwards.
"Tsk! When did this city get such a strong Ice user?!" Cain clicked his tongue as the ice pushed him back once more.
They didn¡¯t have the leisure to inspect her right now since a pause could be fatal.
Shiro quickly turned towards Lewis who was dashing away.
Narrowing her eyes, she flicked her wrist and an ice ramp was constructed.
Dashing towards him, she left the other two on the roof.
"Follow!" Paul shouted as lightning red on his body.
Cain scoffed as he erupted with mes.
Three lights chased after the earth golem through the skies of New York City.
However, most didn¡¯t focus on that as another battle was being raged for the relic.
Nan Tian stood on top of a skyscraper and watched everything calmly.
So far everything was within his expectations.
¡¯It seems like her status as a monster has allowed her to fight the level 50 and level 44 on pretty even ground.¡¯ Nan Tian thought.
"Huan er, do you want to try fight for the relic as well? Compare yourself to the other level 50¡¯s." Nan Tian asked as he looked towards her.
"I¡¯m fine. My speciality lies in hacking and notbat. Maybe if I have my robots with me I might give it a try."
"Alright." Nan Tian replied.
Looking back towards Shiro¡¯s direction, he saw her chase after the golem with quite some vigour.
¡¯Seems like she wasn¡¯t able to get the stone within one try. Probably got tricked.¡¯ Nan Tian thought as he started to float.
"I¡¯ll be right back." Nan Tian said before his body shed away.
Huan er only sighed in frustration. The original goal for them to be here was to look for traces of a ritual being made. Yet now not only did they go off on a tangent, but Nan Tian seemed to be cing a little too much focus on a random girl he saw.
Huan er only pulled up her tablet and hacked all the camera¡¯s around the city.
Focusing on the cameras near Shiro¡¯s fight, she wanted to see just what was so special about her.
...
Shiro made an ice spear in her hand as she twisted her body on the ice.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Throwing the spear with as much force as she could, Shiro then crouched low and increased her speed towards the golem.
*BOOM!!!!
The moment the spear touched the golem, the golem was frozen over instantly.
"AHH!!" Lewis was thrown off the golem as hended heavily across the ground.
"URAK!" Shiro stepped heavily on his chest.
Reaching out her hand, she gestured for him to give her the stone.
Feeling the strength increase, Lewis knew he would be killed if he didn¡¯t give her it.
"Here take it!" He said handing her the real stone.
Making sure it was the real stone, Shiro quickly stored it in her inventory.
Back flipping, she avoided two strikes from the level 50 and 44.
Looking around, Shiro tried to think of an exit n.
However, Cain didn¡¯t let her as he started to attack with lethal force.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Fire spears, bombs, chains and cages erupted around Shiro.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Her body flickered and escaped the bombardment with rtive ease.
Landing on the wall of the building, Shiro¡¯s eyes glowed with a neon blue as her killing intent increased.
A blizzard started to pick up while the surrounding area was beingpletely frozen over.
¡¯Since you want to kill this miss, then it means you¡¯re ready to be killed yourself.¡¯ Shiro thought as her body faded into the blizzard.
Seeing that this was beyond their league, both Paul and Lewis ran away from the scene.
Only Cain remained as he needed the stone to change his life. He needed it to awaken his second element so he could advance with his ss.
mming his palms down, fire erupted outwards. Easily overpowering the blizzard.
Shiro was a small distance behind him with her dagger ready. It wasn¡¯t a NanoTech dagger since she could feel a constant gaze on her. Therefore she settled with one of the daggers she kept spare from the Yeti Dungeon.
Floating slightly above the ground, Shiro made sure she didn¡¯t make a sound.
Creeping up to Cain, Shiro reached out her hand slowly.
Since she was using her 1st Phantom, Faded Snow Movement and Shadow Cloak to keep her presence at a minimum, Cain didn¡¯t notice her.
The moment her arms were almost around his neck, she snapped to action.
*PUSHI!
The dagger slit across Cain¡¯s neck as her other hand dug deep. Feeling the contact with the spine, Shiro twisted it and broke it in the process.
Increasing the effectiveness of her Icy Touch, Shiro froze Cain from the inside out.
[Beginner Monster (1/10 Humans Killed)]
Seeing the counter go up by 1, she knew she had killed him.
Her level increased by a whole level with just one kill.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (1/10 Humans Killed), Fratricide
Level: 34
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 46,300/73,100
MP: 39,200/110,000
STR: 470 -> 500 (+110) <+152>
VIT: 425 -> 500 (+85) <+146>
INT: 640 -> 700 (+180) <+220>
AGI: 560 -> 580 (+110) <+172>
DEX: 530 -> 560 (+50) <+152>
DEF: 230 -> 235 (+150) <+96>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 220 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 0
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 9,420,032 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Speed Up (Equipment).
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1)]
With that kill, not only did she get Cain¡¯s entire inventory, but she also managed to break through 100k in MP.
Suddenly feeling the source of the gazee closer, Shiro flicked her wrist and sent a dagger flying towards it.
"Ai. So feisty." Nan Tian said as he caught the dagger between his fingers.
Shiro¡¯s breath halted for a second as she saw him.
[Nan Tian LVL??? - ???]
¡¯Sh*t! Why would someone of his level be in this city.¡¯ Shiro thought as sweat dripped down her forehead.
"I have to say little snow, nice work." Nan Tian said as Shiro kept a neutral face.
However, her mind was in turmoil hearing what he said.
¡¯Little snow? Who the hell is little snow?!¡¯
"Let me introduce myself. Surname Li, Given name Nan Tian. I am Li Nan Tian. And I have to say little snow, for a snow girl like you to be hidden in this city isn¡¯t easy ah." Nan Tian chuckled slightly as hended in front of her.
Shiro backed off slightly as she couldn¡¯t afford to provoke him.
"Ai don¡¯t be so guarded." Nan Tian smiled as he gently threw the dagger back to her.
[What¡¯s your goal. Since you clearly know what I am, so why aren¡¯t you trying to kill me?] Shiro typed out.
"Seems like your verbal functions aren¡¯t developed yet. Well just think of me having a mild interest in you. I want to see what a snow girl like you can do while blending into human society." Nan Tian said as he walked around Shiro.
"Would you rather me call you little snow or Xiao Xue? One is the English version and the other is Chinese. You choose."
[Don¡¯t call me either. We aren¡¯t close.]
"But we will be. I want to recruit you into my branch of the sect." Nan Tian gestured at her.
[No thanks. I don¡¯t want to join a faction.]
"This isn¡¯t a faction but a sect. A hidden sect to be precise."
[Same thing.]
"Ai so difficult. Hahaha, well just try your best in the faction recruitment event. I¡¯ll be watching~" Nan Tian waved before disappearing in front of Shiro.
Making sure that he was gone, Shiro sat down heavily.
She had a frown on her face as she didn¡¯t expect someone this high levelled to be in the city.
"Tsk. Who the hell gives someone a nickname before they even meet. Right little Yin?" Shiro muttered as Yin popped her head out of the hood.
However, her mind kept on giving her a nagging feeling like she knew him.
Shiro frowned before sighing heavily.
Standing up, she returned to the dorms.
Chapter 56 - Start Of The Event
Chapter 56: Start Of The Event
Huan er had a frown on her face when she saw the fight for the Awakening stone. For a level 33 to kill a level 50 as easily as she did wasn¡¯t normal.
Perhaps she took advantage of the level 50 being weakened due to the constant fighting. But it still wasn¡¯t an easy task.
Especially her use of skills. The strange footwork, the ruthlessness of her action and most importantly, how strong her ice magic was. The level 50 was 17 levels above her yet he was still pushed back.
Nan Tiannded gently beside her.
"Her performance was pretty astounding right?" Nan Tian said with a chuckle.
"It was indeed an eye-opener." Huan er replied reluctantly.
"More importantly, how is the fight for the relic? Anyone looking like they got potential?" Nan Tian asked.
"No. They¡¯re weaker than even the pseudo members of the sect."
"Shame. I suppose it¡¯s time to retrieve the relic now."
Huan er nodded as she stored away the tablet.
Nan Tian ced a hand on her shoulder as their bodies flickered away from the roof.
Meanwhile, Shiro who had just returned back to the dorm, undid her Shadow Cloak and pulled down her face mask. She had erased all of the blood marks with her ice so she looked like she didn¡¯t get into a fight.
Thankfully, the shadow cloak made it so that they didn¡¯t recognise her. The only problem was Li Nan Tian.
However, since he knew she was a snow girl and didn¡¯t kill her, it meant his intentions weren¡¯t hostile.
But Shiro made sure to remind herself that she¡¯ll be careful around him in the future.
Earlier, she had made sure to erase all of the blood marks with her ice so she looked like she didn¡¯t get into a fight.
"Shiro!" Lyrica called out as she hugged Shiro.
Shiro patted her back with a light smile.
"I saw 2 lights earlier and knew one of them was you. You didn¡¯t know how worried I was." Lyrica said as they separated.
[It¡¯s fine. I got it in the end.] Shiro grinned as she pulled out the Awakening Stone.
Lyrica widened her eyes in surprise.
"You mean you managed to steal it under the eyes of a level 50?!"
[Yup.]
"Nice!" Lyrica said, giving her a thumbs up.
Shiro only chuckled as she saw the change in Lyrica. She wasn¡¯t as shy as she was before.
[Since it¡¯s quitete, you should rest now.]
"Yeah. You should rest too. Stealing this under a level 50 and escaping isn¡¯t easy." Lyrica said as she yawned slightly.
Returning to their rooms, Shiro ate a few mana stones since she was quite hungry.
Sitting on her chair, she leaned back slightly.
She pulled out the Awakening Stone and observed the object.
The stone was as big as her palm, a creamy white outer colour. Inside the creamy white colour, were hints of the elemental colours.
[Awakening Stone (Purple)]
A stone that can awaken/upgrade the attunement you have inside your body. This stone can increase your attunement from Tier 0 -> Tier 1 or from Tier 1 -> Tier 2.
The way to use the stone was simple, she just had to run her mana through the stone while she was in a meditative state.
It was simr to what happened when she entered her Mana Realm in the Attunement Halls.
Sitting on the bed, Shiro sat in a lotus position and closed her eyes.
A pale blue aura red around her.
The stone in her hand started to float upwards as it drifted just in front of her face.
*Ping~
The stone shattered apart with a light ss breaking sound.
Slowly, the shards melted into a liquid which gradually coated Shiro¡¯s entire body.
It shifted colours every so often. Changing from silver, to yellow then to a dark purple. It reflected the upgradable attunements Shiro possessed at this moment in time.
*Krrr krrrr krrrr~
Settling with yellow, lightning started to spark around Shiro¡¯s body as her face became pale.
Upgrading her lightning attunement to Tier 1 with broken links was very painful. While not as painful as upgrading her Ice Attunement to Tier 2, it still caused her to grit her teeth.
"Fuuu...."
It took a full 30 minutes before the pain started to fade.
Opening her eyes, Shiro took a deep breath.
Looking down at her hands, she flexed her fingers and saw lightning flicker around them.
"Tier 1 lightning magic... I wonder what I can do with you." Shiro muttered as she knew lightning was one of the more diverse elements. It can act as both crowd control and damage dealer. Crowd control with the paralysis and damage with the sheer destructive power that naturallyes with lightning.
However, she wouldn¡¯t be able to use this Tier 1 lightning magic to the best of her ability.
Even in her past life, she never really focused too much on the elemental aspect to things. She would just blow everything away with her guns.
Controlling the lightning, she tried to condense it into a single strand.
Sweat dripped from her forehead since it was harder than what she had initially expected. She sighed slightly beforeying on her back.
Looking up at the ceiling, she couldn¡¯t help but think about Nan Tian. The stranger who knew about her identity, didn¡¯t kill her and invoked a strange nostalgic feeling inside her.
"Hidden sect huh?" She muttered.
Shaking the thoughts away, Shiro went to sleep.
###
The next morning, Shiro and Lyrica had a quick breakfast.
Yin was still sleeping in Shiro¡¯s hood,zy as always.
"Yin~ I got some food for you~" Lyrica said trying to temp Yin out of Shiro¡¯s hood.
Shiro chuckled slightly seeing this.
"Little Yin, stop beingzy." Shiro said, keeping her mouth movements to a minimal. This was so that it didn¡¯t look like she was talking and instead, eating.
Yin chirpedzily as she pped her wings andnded on the table.
Grabbing the mana stone from Lyrica, Yin pped her wings and flew back to Shiro¡¯s hood.
After they finished the food, they walked towards where the event was being held.
"Shiro, what attunement did you did you awaken or upgrade?" Lyrica asked.
[I got Tier 1 Lightning Magic.]
Flexing her fingers, a streak of lightning swirled around her palms.
"Heh~ But doesn¡¯t that conflict with your base element? You know, ice." Lyrica asked.
[I suppose. But they can also synergise you know. What do you think would happen if I thawed the ice I ced on someone and discharge lightning at him?]
[The lightning would get amplified while also stunning the enemy for a slight moment. This would give me a gap in their defence for me to abuse.]
"I see... I wonder what kind of attunement I have." Lyrica muttered.
[You¡¯ll find out sooner orter. I can let you use the attunement halls in my stead, I think? Well I should be able to since I¡¯m top 10 on the priority list.] Shiro typed out as she wasn¡¯t too sure about whether or not that was allowed.
"Eh?? You¡¯re on the priority list?" Lyrica eximed.
[Yes. I¡¯m ranked 10th.] Shiro replied. However, her rank may have changed since she did kill the previous rank 5.
"Ah I found you- . . ." Lyrica paused when she saw Shiro¡¯s ¡¯title¡¯ for rank 9. Anus Destroying Princess.
Looking over at Shiro, Lyrica nodded slightly.
¡¯Agreed.¡¯ Lyrica thought, agreeing with their nickname for her. She did look like a beautiful princess and had a weird obsession with destroying asses. Having the nickname ¡¯Anus Destroying Princess¡¯ wasn¡¯t too far off from the truth.
"Shiro, you¡¯re rank 9 now."
[Hm, is that so?]
¡¯So they already confirmed Cain¡¯s death.¡¯ Shiro thought. The battle for the itemsst night was intense since they could still see the damage visible on the houses.
There are broken walls, charred roofs and destroyed roads.
However, it seems like this was amon urrence since a few level 50 mages were already fixing up the city.
No one uninvolved was harmedst night. Only the people who took part in the fight were injured.
At most, the news only broadcasted who died inst nights fight.
"Crazy huh? New York has been through so much; it doesn¡¯t even bother stopping it now. They just restrict it." Lyrica said.
Shiro nodded as a response.
She read about this in a few textbooks in school. In the city, there are a few groups, charged with maintaining public security.
The two most important ones where the Patrol Men and the Law Enforcement.
The Patrol Men who did what their title said. Patrol the city and make sure they no one is acting out of line.
The Law Enforcement, on the other hand, was tasked with taking down anyone who was too dangerous or needed to be killed.
If anyone uninvolved with the item fight had died in yesterday¡¯s fight, they would be sent out and track down the killer.
The fate of the killer would be determined through a court hearing. Naturally, if it wasn¡¯t the killer¡¯s fault in the matter, he/she would be let off with a warning. Situations like a curious citizen spectating too closely weren¡¯t umon.
¡¯Adapt to change huh?¡¯ Shiro thought. Since they couldn¡¯t stop the fact that everyone was fighting after items, they just restrained the people they involved.
This satisfied both sides since it would be their fault if they got too curious and died in the process.
Curiosity killed the cat after all. They gave them the chance and the victim still ignored it.
Arriving at the location where the school was going to meet up, Shiro saw Madison waiting there with an annoyed face.
"You! Both you and Lyrica went off to do Dungeon together and didn¡¯t take me! What about my romance?!" Madison said as she walked towards the duo.
¡¯Romance? What?¡¯ Shiro thought confused.
Lyrica blushed slightly as she realised Madison knew how she felt.
[It wasn¡¯t that we didn¡¯t take you. But the Dungeons were a little too high levelled for you.] Shiro typed out as Madison furrowed her brows.
"Look at my level! Does it look low to you?!" She said.
[Madison LVL 20 ¨C Swordswoman]
¡¯Eh? She actually reached level 20 within this short amount of time without anyone helping her like Lyrica did?!¡¯ Shiro thought as she was surprised at this revtion.
"Wow! Level 20! Congrats!" Lyrica praised honestly.
"Thank you." Madison was a little taken aback at how honest Lyrica¡¯s praise was.
[Well since you¡¯ve reached level 20, once you ss up, we¡¯ll take you into Dungeons with us. Since there are 3 of us, we can register for an official party. How¡¯s that?] Shiro suggested with a smile.
"Yep! No problems with me." Lyrica nodded.
"Sure. Just make sure you don¡¯t forget me this time." Madison said with a huff.
"Hahah we won¡¯t. I swear." Lyricaughed.
[Since that¡¯s the case, we¡¯ll set up our party after the faction recruitment. Try to find a faction that allows you to form parties with outsiders if possible.]
"Got it." Both Lyrica and Madison replied.
The trio walked towards the location for their ss.
When the student saw them, the males immediately parted ways like mosses parting the sea¡¯s.
*Bam!
A set of chairs and umbres were set up almost immediately.
Kneeling down almost in sync, they gestured for Shiro to sit in the main chair that had a table next to it.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Shiro raised an eyebrow to this. Looking over at the teachers, she saw most of them with a ¡¯I¡¯m so fed up of these dumbasses¡¯ face.
Seeing as they aren¡¯t stopping this, Shiro found it rude if she didn¡¯t take the freebie.
[Welp, it would seem like our seats have been determined.] Shiro typed out as she walked to the centre chair.
Sitting down, she crossed her legs and pulled down her hood.
Yin flew down and rested on her thighs while a drink was ced on her table.
[Thank you.] Shiro typed out as the student blushed and walked away.
Seeing that Shiro was enjoying the situation to the full, both Lyrica and Madison smiled wearily.
"Let¡¯s join her I suppose." Madison said, walking to one of the seats. Lyrica only sighed and followed.
After a short while, a huge blimp started to approach the location with giant screens attached to the side.
On the screens was the logo for the Faction Recruitment.
¡¯It¡¯s time.¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing the blimp.
When the blimp arrived at the location, the screen shifted to the image of thementator.
"To all who have joined us on this lovely day! WELCOME! TO THIS YEARS FACTION RECRUITMENT EVENT!"
Chapter 57 - Faction Recruitment P1
Chapter 57: Faction Recruitment P1
"To all who have joined us on this lovely day! WELCOME! TO THIS YEARS FACTION RECRUITMENT EVENT!" Thementator shouted out with excitement.
"This year we are joined by some of the biggest factions on the rise! We are even joined by the famous Shadow Temple!"
"We have countless smaller factions so I will tell you about the big 5! Now do remember that this isn¡¯t ranked at all! This is just the top 5 factions in our opinions!
"First! We have Terra¡¯s Might! A faction that is well known for their best tankers that can go toe to toe with the boss! Some of their best achievements involve the clearing of the C ranked raid, Tyrant Earth Gorgon, in just 2 hours!!" The announcer called out as a group of people walked towards the centre stage.
Their uniform was abination of ck, green and gold.
"Haaa!!" They shouted in sync as a huge rock golem in the shape of a dragon appeared behind them.
*URAAAAAHH!!!!!!
The dragon roared out, caused the ground to shake from just its voice alone.
¡¯Huh. How rare.¡¯ Shiro thought as she knew what this was.
The earth dragon golem was abination skill. A rare skill thatbines the might of several mages to form a single avatar. Or in this case, the earth dragon.
While its strength cannot bepared to an actual earth dragon, it was still a fearsome golem.
Flexing its wings, the earth dragon posed with a majestic aura.
*UOHHHH!!!!!!!
The crowd cheered with fervour seeing the dragon.
"Wow! It¡¯s an actual dragon!" Lyrica cheered as well, clearly impressed by the dragon.
Shiro only smiled since she didn¡¯t want to burst Lyrica¡¯s bubble just yet.
The Terra Might walked to the corner of the stage with the dragon posing intimidatingly behind them.
"NEXT! We have the Seraphim¡¯s Call! AKA the holy guild. They are famed for their healers and attackers which harness the light element! With an astounding record of single-handedly protecting a stronghold from a monster wave! They are a rising powerhouse you should keep your eyes on!"
After the introduction, light burst down from the skies while a group of people could be seen walking onto the stage.
*DONG!~
The sound of a bell rang out as quartz pirs rose up from the ground. Mist covered their area of the stage, making them seem more holy.
When they came into view, everyone could see a group of handsome men and beautiful women. They wore outfits that were clearly inspired by the Olympus style of clothing from Greek mythology.
Raising their hands in the air, they snapped their fingers.
With the snap, a portal opened up and a statue of an angel appeared with a golden harp.
A gentle melody rang out as the angel started to y the harp. Each flick of the string gave a buff to Seraphim¡¯s Call.
The angel was a summoning spell that granted the entire party a buff for a short duration.
Shiro watched with a neutral expression, clearly not happy with the whole ¡¯holy¡¯ theme they were going with. It just reminded her more and more of the light-bearing hero.
¡¯Pretentious f*ckers.¡¯ Shiro thought with disdain.
Walking to their side of the stage, Seraphim¡¯s Call had the angel stand behind them.
"With an icy hellscape wherever they go, we have the Winter¡¯s Grace!! One of the strongest contenders to join the high tier factions!! Their ice magic is especially fearsome and could even help one jump levels! One of their biggest achievements consisted for finishing a raid 10 levels above them with no casualties sustained!"
After the short introduction, the stage burst into a snowstorm.
Shiro looked up at the snowstorm with a frown.
Even though she was this far away, she was sure the snowstorm would surpass her¡¯s in every aspect.
Especially the temperature. If she was to be hit by that, she would definitely be frozen over easily.
*Boom!
The snowstorm exploded apart as it started to snow gently in broad daylight. The sunlight reflecting off the snow made it seem like it was snowing diamonds. Within the ¡¯diamond dust¡¯, a group of people dressed in white and blue could be seen.
While they didn¡¯t have a mascot/avatar/guardian behind them, the aura they released was more than enough to make their presence known.
Walking to their side of the stage, they restricted the snow to only fall around them. This made it seem like a portion of the stage was ripped right from a snowy mountain.
"We now have the Shattered Dynasty! Leaving only the destroyed corpse of every monster they see. The Shattered Dynasty¡¯s attack power is not to be underestimated! Armed with a skill passed down through the generations, they hold the title of the supreme spear!"
5 giant spears materialised into existence above the stage.
The spears were gold in colour, measuring about 10 meters long and had a monstrously sharp edge that made people feel like they were getting cut just by looking at it.
The people from the Shattered Dynasty stood atop the spear. Their uniform was coloured gold and red with a hint of eastern culture within their design choice.
Flying over to their side of the stage, the spears hung ominously behind them.
"And finally! We have the famous Shadow Temple!!! There is not much to say about them except for the fact that you, DO NOT! WANT TO BE THEIR ENEMY!!!"
A tornado appeared in the centre of the stage with purple lights appearing at certain intervals.
A pair of glowing purple eyes appeared in the tornado as it brought the sense of unease to everyone.
*Boom!
The tornado scattered as what was inside was an avatar of the grim reaper. A deadly scythe hung on its back while the members of the Shadow Temple stood under the bringer of death.
With all five of the best factions introduced, thementator then proceeded to exin the rules.
"For this years Faction recruitment, we¡¯ll spice things up a little! The first stage will be a king of the hill type of event. Today will be the warrior¡¯s division and tomorrow the mages division. We¡¯ll split up the warriors into several blocks of 1,000 contestants. Each of you will be fighting your way to the top of an artificial mountain. The mountain has severalyers with eachyer only being able to contain a certain amount of people.
"On the topyer, there will be the top 10. Whoever finishes in the top 10 will earn a red ribbon. The nextyer would be the top 100 and the finishers of thisyer will get a blue ribbon. Top 500 will earn a green ribbon and thestyer will get a white ribbon. Naturally, this applies to the mages division as well!
"The ribbons will then be ssified into their own group for this event. The red sector, blue sector and so on. The top winners of each group will get their own rewards with the winner of the red sector having the most bountiful reward of all.
"Due to the sponsors we have in this year¡¯s faction recruitment, the winner will earn a berserk power fruit! This fruit will not only grant you a tremendous increase in stats, but also a suitable berserk type skill for you!" Thementator shouted out.
A group of mages flew into the airspace and spread out their hands.
*GURURURURUR!!!!!
The earth started to shake as tens of arenas rose up into the air. Thankfully, due to the fact that they held the faction recruitment every year, there had more than enough space to amodate the tens of arenas.
The arenas were set up in a way so that the topyer would be bombarded from all sides.
"Alright guys, let¡¯s go draw our ticket lots. Close quarterbat ssese with me." The teacher called out as she was familiar with the process they had to go through.
[Good luck you two. I¡¯ll be watching.] Shiro typed with a smile.
"Watch me get that red ribbon!" Lyrica said as Shiro only chuckled.
"It¡¯s not as easy as you think Lyrica. You¡¯ll see." Madison only shook her head.
The duo stood up as they walked towards the teacher.
Seeing the two walk away, Shiro could only chuckle at how far they managed to progress. Through pushing themselves, both of them managed to reach level 20 and above in a few short days. Without constant struggling between life and death, they wouldn¡¯t be able to advance this fast.
¡¯If I¡¯m going to make a party for us, I would need to fill out the basic formation first.¡¯ Shiro thought as she started to form the basic teamposition in her mind.
¡¯If possible, I wanted Silvia to be my healer since she has the rare ss, Grand Healer. Lyrica will be the vanguard. Helion would also be good as a vanguard. Madison will be the tanker. We¡¯ll definitely need another tanker to help split the burden.
¡¯I can be centre since I can shift between tanker, crowd control and damage dealer. Now I¡¯m only missing an Assassin, an Archer, and another Mage.¡¯ Shiro thought as having every role filled out was important.
¡¯But then again, I am being a little optimistic with the thoughts of Helion and Silvia joining the party. Therefore, with only me, Lyrica and Madison; I need a minimum of 4 more people.
¡¯Once I have the basicposition, the best thing to do next would be to find a second healer. Having to heal the entire team alone would be too much pressure on just one healer alone. She needed to share the burden.
¡¯After getting a second healer would be a second tank.¡¯ Shiro thought as making an efficient party was going to be hard work.
"Ai... so troublesome eh little Yin? Not only do I need 4 more people to make the basic foundation of the party, but I also need another healer and tanker. Not just anyone will do either. I need people I can trust and people who are reliable. Ai so difficult." Shiro said as she yed around with Yin.
Yin chirped in agreement.
Meanwhile, Lyrica and Madison got their numbers and found that they were ced in different blocks.
"Good luck." Lyrica said as she gave Madison a thumbs up.
Madison wrapped her arm around Lyrica¡¯s shoulder and whispered into her ear.
"So how is the progress between you and Shiro?"
"HUEHHH!!!!" Lyrica cried out in surprise. Her odd scream attracted the attention of the surrounding people.
Blushing heavily she looked back at a grinning Madison.
"What do you mean?! There is no progress!" Lyrica said as Madison grinned further.
"So you¡¯re not denying the fact that you¡¯re trying to progress with her."
"NO! GO SHOO!" Lyrica said as she ran away to the arena.
Madison only chuckled as she had plenty of time to watch everything unfold.
Lyrica, who ran away, panted slightly while trying to stop her blush.
However, what Madison said kept ringing in her mind as she looked over in Shiro¡¯s general direction.
Biting her lip slightly, she sighed and turned away.
Walking to the arena, she was given a special armband and weapon.
The weapon and the armband were items that connected to each other. Whenever the ¡¯damage¡¯ caused using the weapon passed a certain threshold, the wearer of the armband would be pushed down ayer.
This would ensure that no one would get harmed too badly while also not restraining theirbat powers by much.
Twirling the sword in her hand, Lyrica made sure she got a general feel for the weapon.
She wanted to get the red ribbon so she could impress Shiro.
"WARRIORS GET READY!" Thementator shouted out as the screen shifted to the different arenas.
"On your marks!"
Lyrica adjusted her footing while she narrowed her eyes at the other contestants.
"Get set!"
She could see the other contestants activating a few of their skills so she too activated hers. It was an aura type skill she got on her ss advancement to Elven dedancer.
[Thousand de Aura.]
This skill increased her speed and power for a limited amount of time. Both the cooldown and bacsh was rather mild so she could use it at the start of this fight.
A silver glow wrapped around her body and the sword she had in her hand. Since it was just a normal sword, she couldn¡¯t fight to the best of her ability.
However, as Shiro once said, that is no excuse. Since she had the hidden proficiency, it meant that her body had the potential to move in such a way with different weapons as well. It was just a matter of practice and experience.
Since she could get into the rhythm with the daggers, she could get into the rhythm with the sword.
"START!"
Dashing forwards, Lyrica crouched low to avoid the initial scramble.
Fighting wasn¡¯t her top priority right now. Getting to the top was. The longer she waited, the harder it would be for her to reach there.
Lyrica¡¯s eyes became focused as her mind calmed down. She was slowly getting into her rhythm.
Chapter 58 - Faction Recruitment P2
Chapter 58: Faction Recruitment P2
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BAM!
Sounds ofbat rang out continuously as Lyrica ducked and dived through the attacks.
Rolling slightly, she slid on her feet and orientated herself.
*Dang!
She blocked a strike from someone else¡¯s sword.
[Han LVL 20 - Swordsman.]
Seeing that it was another level 20, Lyrica sighed slightly.
Shifting her sword, she redirected his de to hit the guard of her sword.
Twisting the sword, she smashed Han¡¯s chin with the tip of her sword.
If the sword was a real sword, it would have been a fatal blow.
With that single attack, the armband registered the attack to be fatal and sent Han flying to the back of the currentyer.
¡¯So hitting any of the fatal area¡¯s counts as a 1 hit kill.¡¯ Lyrica thought.
She was about to continue her run when a sword light shed towards her.
Reactive Guard.
Activating one of her skills, her arms moved to counter the skill easily.
Looking over at the person who sent the sh, Lyrica realised them to be a level 24 Sword Veteran.
Crouching low on the ground, she charged towards him.
Sword lights continuously shot towards her.
Sidestepping the few that she could, she struck down the lights she couldn¡¯t dodge.
Pivoting on her foot Lyrica narrowed her eyes and increased her momentum.
*BAM!
The two swords collided harshly.
Crouching down, Lyrica swept her leg outwards, tripping up the level 24.
shing at the nape of his neck, Lyrica was once again able to go for a 1 hit kill.
Quickly wiping her sweat, she looked around and saw the level 50¡¯s already upying the topyer.
Frowning slightly, Lyrica understood that she wasn¡¯t able to earn a red ribbon with her current power. She was just a level 22 Elven dedancer. The levels were too far apart.
¡¯Then I¡¯ll reach as far as I can!¡¯ She thought.
Putting power into her legs, Lyrica dashed forwards with her sword, ready to be drawn.
*PA PA!
Quickly shing twice, she managed to 1 hit kill 2 adventurer¡¯s that weren¡¯t looking at her.
Using their body as a stepping stone, she jumped forwards.
Focusing her intent on the closest adventurer near hernding spot, she twisted her body and threw her sword.
*Bam!
The sword hit the adventurer¡¯s skull and 1 hit killed him.
Catching her sword when it bounced back, she twisted her body and kicked backwards. The kicknded on the guard of someone¡¯s de forcing it upwards and away from her.
Continuing with her momentum, she dragged the sword upwards.
Frowning slightly at the fact that she didn¡¯t 1 hit kill him, she reached out and grabbed the person¡¯s head.
Pulling him towards her, she stabbed at his chest and eliminated him.
"Karg!" Lyrica cried out in pain as she felt a sword strike at her back.
Quickly rolling forwards, she lessened the impact on her back.
This allowed her to live barely as someone breathing on her could probably tip the damage taken over the limit.
The assant was a level 30 Sword Veteran who had a silver glow on his weapon.
¡¯Sword Enhancement. An aura skill which slightly increases the speed of each sword strike. On top of that, both the strength and Agility of the user would be increased as well.¡¯ Lyrica thought.
Flipping her sword in mid-air, she round-house kicked the pommel and sent it flying towards the Sword Veteran.
Quickly blocking the sword, he was surprised at the fact that Lyrica was already within close quartersbat range.
In on swift set of movements, Lyrica managed to disarm him and chop him on the neck. This caused him to stumble backwards giving Lyrica enough time to grab her sword again.
However, due to the fact that his status was much higher than her¡¯s, he was able to recover just in time to block her strike.
Pulling the sword towards him, he aimed to knee her in the stomach.
Lyrica jumped upwards and dodged his knee. cing her hand on his knee as a support, she kicked him in the forehead. Taking this moment tond softly, Lyrica pivoted her body and mmed the level 30 into the ground. Quickly shing him on the neck, she eliminated him.
Panting lightly, she dashed towards theyer for the top 500¡¯s.
There were a few footholds that protruded from the side of the walls to help participants get to the next level.
Narrowing her eyes, she saw people constantly getting on to the next level and people getting pushed off again.
Pausing for a moment to regain her stamina, she ran up to the footholds.
She was just about to jump when a sword mmed into the side of her torso.
Gritting her teeth from the pain, Lyrica red at the person who had eliminated her.
[Julia LVL 35 - Dual de Warrior]
Her attacker had brown hair tied into a ponytail, an average face and a modest build. Seeing her uniform, Lyrica understood that she was a senior a year higher than her.
Making sure she remembered her face, Lyrica was going to make sure she had her revenge.
Landing at the bottom of theyer once more, Lyrica adjusted her grip on the de. She wasn¡¯t going to mess around anymore and decided to use both berserk skills in her arsenal.
[Thousand de Aura + Willow de Aura]
Thousand de Aura was a skill that increases the attack and speed of the user. However, the Willow de Aura was more of a misdirection technique. It gave the feeling of blurriness and ovey into your movement to confuse the enemy.
Much like the leaves of a willow tree, your image constantly shifts around.
As the two auras activated, there seemed to be several images of Lyrica ovepping with each other.
Dashing forward, she left a slight trail of afterimages, confusing some of the participants.
Seeing 2 adventurers fight in front of her, Lyrica twirled the de and held it in a reverse grip.
Judging the distance with her eyes, she jumped and twisted her body.
The sword struck the first guys neck before following through by shing the other person in half. While they weren¡¯t harmed for real, their arms bands threw them back at the start.
Lyricanded on her right foot before charging forwards again. She was too cautiousst time and wasted a lot of precious opportunities. Right now, she was going to do exactly what her ss was for.
Charging through like an unstoppable sword!
Leaving a trail of light and flying bodies behind her, Lyrica charged towards the nextyer with ruthless efficiency.
While her movements may not be perfect just yet, it was more than enough to deal with people lower level than her. Not to mention, she was taking advantage of the time they were stunned to finish them quickly.
This naturally attracted not only the attention of the participants, but also the attention of the faction executives that came to recruit more people.
Her swordy attracted the attention of the executives of the Sword Pavilion. They were a faction best known for their sword arts. Not to mention, their faction leader was looking for a disciple to pass on her Sword Arts as well.
"We need this girl. Her potential with the sword is one of the best I¡¯ve seen in the arena so far. While some may have better power and control, she is a diamond in rough. If we can nurture her potential and talent, she¡¯ll easily surpass everyone here in thepetition." A woman said as the other executives agreed.
"Not only is her body very flexible, but her judgement is also pretty top tier as well."
"But how will we get her toe of our faction? If we noticed her, it means some of ¡¯bigger¡¯ factions also noticed her."
"Hmm, shall we be blunt with her and tell her that she has the potential to be the sessor to our faction leader?"
"But tell me honestly. What do you think you¡¯ll do? Seed a low tier faction or join arge faction as a recruit?" The woman asked rhetorically.
They all fell silent as it was true. They weren¡¯t able topare to some of the big factions out there in terms of giving out benefits. However, it wasn¡¯t as if they didn¡¯t have any options. Just that the option was thest resort to try to attract one of the best talents in this event.
"Let¡¯s not make a decision just yet. Message the faction leader and ask her if we should try use it to recruit this youngster."
"Agreed." They nodded as this was the proper steps to take. The item itself was simply too important for them to make a decision on the stop. They would need confirmation from the leader first.
However, opposite to their thoughts, the big guilds were barely paying attention to Lyrica since they were focused on the topyer of each arena. They wanted to get the best of the best after all.
Nan Tian who was situated at the top of the skyscraper smiled seeing the performance of Lyrica.
He could tell that there were more to her. Her movements were awkward around the edges, clearly showing the signs of someone who was using a different weapon to normal.
"Huan er, bring up the information on the Student, Lyrica Valenstaine." Nan Tian said as Huan er nodded.
She hacked into the school systems and found her information easily.
Yet, when she saw the information, she had to look back at Lyrica to double-check what the information she had was right.
In the information from the school, it clearly detailed about how Lyrica failed in every ss she was in. Not only was she low levelled and bad atbat, but her personality was always meek.
Yet right now she was theplete opposite.
Her level shot up within thest few weeks and even ssed up to D rank. Herbat standards were clearly above her peers as she could even defeat those of a higher level than her. Not only that, but she was about as energetic as she could be.
Seeing Huan er being doubtful of the information she obtained, Nan Tian became curious as to what she read.
"Is there a problem with her information?" He asked.
"I won¡¯t necessarily say it¡¯s wrong... But rather it¡¯s unbelievable." Huan er said as she passed him the tablet.
"It¡¯s unbelievable for someone like her to change so much on such short notice. Not only was herbat style improved by miles, but her personality did aplete 180. Comparing the both of them would make anyone guess that it¡¯s 2pletely different people with the same name."
"Hmm... Indeed. It is as you say." Nan Tian nodded since the change was a little drastic, even for someone like him.
¡¯Her weapon of preference is a custom-made weapon that looks like two swords have been connected by the handle. Not only that, this change only happened after she met little snow. Heh, seems like little snow is nurturing up someone to be herpanion.¡¯ Nan Tian thought as there were several clues hidden in the records. They all point to Shiro helping Lyrica with both herbat experience and status level.
¡¯If I get Lyrica into the Sword God Branch, perhaps I can get little snow to join the sect as well. This will also give me the chance to exin the sect to little snow. Since she doesn¡¯t like having her freedom restrained, the sect should be perfect for her.¡¯ Nan Tian thought with a happy smile.
The sect he belonged to isn¡¯t well known to themon people. However, the high levelled factions have all heard of the sect. They were amongst some of the best factions in the world and the rules were a little less restricting. They¡¯re allowed to join another faction as long as they respond to the sect¡¯s call for help in times of need.
Naturally, there were a few rules in ce to stop the spreading of the sect. It was a privilege to the talented and not every Tom Dick and Harry could join the sect after all.
¡¯If she knew about this, it would be hard for little snow to find a proper reason to reject joining the sect. It didn¡¯t restrict her freedom and neither did it ce a constant watch over her.¡¯ Nan Tian thought.
"Huan er, after this event, send the clips of Lyrica to the Sword God¡¯s Branch. I want to see if she can gain their approval and receive the invitation to join the sect."
"Ok." Huan er replied simply as she knew Nan Tian never joked around with anything to do with the sect. If he wanted Lyrica to join, that means he sees something in her that will benefit the sect.
Noting down what Nan Tian wanted to do, they refocused their attention back onto the event. Most of the cements were already decided except for a few that still had the potential to attack the nextyer.
In the time they had talked, Lyrica was already closing in onto the nextyer, top 500.
Chapter 59 - Faction Recruitment P3
Chapter 59: Faction Recruitment P3
Lyrica charged forward with her mind scanning everyone she needed to eliminate.
On her path up, 5 people were climbing to the nextyer.
nning out her way of attack, she twirled the sword and threw it to the first enemy.
The sword smashed against his head. An instant kill.
Jumping up, she grabbed the sword while making sure her foothold was in ce. She stepped hard on his body and jumped towards the second victim.
Kneeing him in the ribs, she twisted her body before shing him at the back of the nape.
¡¯2 down.¡¯ She thought.
Tilting her head up, she narrowed her eyes on the third victim.
Compressive Power.
Lyrica used one of the skills that came with her equipment. This skill allowed her to gather the force of her body in one short burst. The bacsh will cause her to freeze up for a moment but she had already nned the next steps.
*BOOM!
She jumped towards the 3rd victim with incredible momentum.
*BAM!
Her sword struck the woman¡¯s head and eliminated her easily. Her body froze up as she expected but her flight path was already determined.
Scraping the sword against the wall, she jammed it in one of the cavities and supported herself from falling. The short 2 seconds where her body was frozen felt long as she narrowed her eyes at the next 2 victims.
It seemed like they knew each other since they were protecting each other¡¯s backs.
[Sam LVL 25 ¨C Swordsman]
[Steve LVL 26 ¨C Swordsman]
Swinging her body onto the sword, Lyrica crouched down and jumped towards the two.
*BAM!
Sam managed to block her strike while Steve took notice and attacked her.
Twisting her body, she avoided the strike. She followed her momentum whilst kicking Steve¡¯s chin.
The caused him to recoil backwards from the force. Grabbing Steve¡¯s cor, Lyrica swung him towards Sam and shed at them both.
Due to the fact that Steve blocked his view, Sam wasn¡¯t able to react to her strike.
Eliminating the duo, Lyrica didn¡¯t have anyone else blocking her path to the top 500¡¯s.
Crouching down, she dashed from one foothold to another.
She left a trail of afterimages since her willow de aura was still active.
Landing softly on the secondyer, she quickly bent backwards as she dodged a sword strike.
¡¯Attacked the moment I reach thisyer. Seems like thisyer¡¯s fight is more desperate than the one below.¡¯ Lyrica thought.
Flipping backwards, Lyrica charged at the assant in a zip zag manoeuvre.
*BAM!
The sword shed with each as they came face to face.
Lyrica didn¡¯t hesitate to headbutt her enemy. The force caused both of them to recoil with pain while she threw her sword at the same moment.
Striking him in the chest, Lyrica eliminated him and sent his body flying back to the start.
"Ssss!" She breathed in sharply from the throbbing pain. Holding her head, she regretted acting impulsively.
A heavyweight seemed to have been ced on her body since both her berserk type skills wore off.
Frowning slightly, she looked around for a ce she could rest for a second.
Naturally, there were none but she was looking for an area with fewer fighters.
Dashing towards the area with only 3 people fighting, Lyrica could already feel her speed drop dramatically.
While it wasn¡¯t to the point where she¡¯ll not be able to fight, it would definitely be a hard fight.
Trying to make sure her presence was as small as possible, she manoeuvred around the trio. This was to make it seem like she was fighting with them while in reality, she was resting.
However, the reality was often disappointing since they found out straight away.
One of the fighters branched off and started to attack her.
"Ku!" Blocking his heavy downwards strike with a lot of difficulty, Lyrica kneeled heavily on her right knee.
[Scott LVL 30 ¨C Axe Warrior]
Gripping her sword with both hands, Lyrica struggled with the power behind his axe.
ncing to the side, she released one of her hands and allowed the axe to overpower her.
Shifting her body to the right, the axe slid off to the left due to theck of weight in her sword.
*BAM!
Having sessfully redirected his sh, Lyrica attacked his torso.
*DANG!
The sword collided with the axe since Scott¡¯s stats allowed him to recover before her attack seeded.
Quickly jumping backwards, Lyrica created some distance between her and Scott.
¡¯The level is too far apart.¡¯ Lyrica thought with a frown. Even when her dedancer ss gave her a huge boostpared to the normal sses, it was still hard to bridge the status gap.
When a person levels up from 1 to 20, they would get 5 points per level up to use.
The average status page for a level 20 all-rounder would be:
STR: 30
VIT: 30
INT: 20
AGI: 30
DEX: 30
DEF: 20
And then a +20 depending on what ss they chose. A mage would have a +20 in INT, a warrior +10 in STR and +10 in VIT etc...
This, however, was a one-time boost.
After level 20, the average ss gave 150 ¨C 175 points for you to distribute and then automatic points depending on your second ss.
Her dedancer ss gave her an astounding 225 points per level not including the automatic status.
In addition to this, she already knew the dedancer ss gave her incredible STR and AGI since just these two stats could bepared to people 2 levels higher than her.
Combined with her hidden proficiency, this made for a fearsomebo.
Even if the sword wasn¡¯t exactly her hidden proficiency, she was able to get into a simr rhythm.
Yet all thisbined was a far cry from what a level 30 could output.
¡¯If I threw my sword like before, there is a high chance I¡¯ll lose it. I can¡¯t fight him head-on either since he is a power-based attacker. Lyrica thought with a frown.
This left her with only the options of suppressing him with speed, which was impossible, and eliminating him in one go. A single attack to breach his defences.
However, that seemed rather impossible as well since she was recovering from her bacsh.
She still had 3 more minutes to go before it wore off and 8 more minutes till she could reuse the skills.
And surviving 8 minutes against a level 30 wasn¡¯t easy.
Brandishing her sword, Lyrica panted slightly as she shifted her body to a more defensive posture.
Scott charged towards her with his axe dragging across the ground. Stepping back half a step, Lyrica stabbed her sword towards the axe so that it would glide along the de and over her body.
*DANG!
Her n worked slightly since the axe did indeed miss her body. But, this resulted in her feeling a lot of the resultant shock through her body.
With her muscles contracted from the pain, it was hard for her to reposition herself to fend against the following attack.
Seeing the axe chop towards her, Lyrica gritted her teeth and threw her body away from the impact zone.
*BAM!
Rolling on the ground heavily, Lyrica was d at the fact that she was able to avoid the axe narrowly.
Scott didn¡¯t mind and jumped towards her.
He used the Axe Warrior¡¯s skill, Ground Impact. This skill would use all the force gathered from his jump and attack with an area of effect skill.
Lyrica started to sweat when she saw his aoe charge up.
Looking around quickly, she cursed at the fact that there was no cover for her.
Narrowing her eyes, Lyrica had no choice but to fight fire with fire.
Her sword shimmered with a pale pink light.
Sword Dance of the Lotus.
Sword dance of the lotus was a skill that allowed her to attack several times like the opening of a lotus flower.
She nned to try to disperse as much of the force as she can before the aoe hit so she could survive.
Using her left hand to aim, Lyrica narrowed her eyes and aimed for the perfect moment. The small interval where he is barely within her reach. The gap where she could make the most of her skill to disperse his momentum.
¡¯Now!¡¯
A neon pink trail of light drifted from the tip of her sword as several lights followed. The streaks of light formed the outline of a lotus and collided with the axe warrior.
*BOOOMMMM!!!!!!
A huge cloud of dust rose up from the impact, attracting the attention of the surrounding participants for a slight second. However, they looked away immediately after since it wasn¡¯t rare for clouds of dust to form in the midst of battle right now.
Lyrica¡¯s body was sent flying out of the dust. Sliding on her hands and feet, Lyrica red at the silhouette of the axe warrior.
While she managed to survive the contact, she was left barely surviving once more.
Checking her armband¡¯s HP, she was pleasantly surprised at the fact that it was slowly regenerating.
¡¯So this was put in ce to stop people from being eliminated as easily the higher up they are.¡¯ She thought.
However, this also meant Scott¡¯s HP was regenerating by the second.
Realising she had to act fast, Lyrica decided to risk it and dashed towards him.
Dragging the sword on the ground, she flicked up a rock before hitting it towards him.
Since the dust was still present, she was able to catch him off guard.
With him being preupied for a moment with the rock, Lyrica dashed around him and cut towards his head.
Sensing danger, Scott quickly ducked. Narrowly avoiding the strike.
Flowing through her movements, Lyrica grabbed the back of his cor and shed the sword across his neck.
"You!" Scott cried out as he wanted to take her down with him.
Unfortunately, or rather fortunately for Lyrica, the force of the armband was too much and he was sent back to the start.
"Fuu...." Breathing out in relief, Lyrica took a moment to rx her body for a moment.
Looking up towards the nextyer, she decided against it.
¡¯If I¡¯m struggling with the top 500, I won¡¯t survive the top 100. They¡¯re filled with level 40¡¯s to 50¡¯s.¡¯ Lyrica thought.
¡¯I should use this moment to hone mybat prowess with people simr level or slightly higher than me.¡¯ She concluded.
After rotating between fighting and resting, Lyrica managed to secure her spot within the top 500.
"And STOP!!!! CEASE YOUR FIGHTING!!! The first quarter of the warrior¡¯s division has finished! May the current participants leave the arena. The staff will clean up before the second quarter can enter."
Walking away from the arena, Lyrica managed to find Madison before they returned to Shiro.
"Madison!" Lyrica called out.
"Lyrica. How did you do in your arena?" She asked.
"Er I only got top 500." Lyrica replied feeling a little embarrassed for saying she¡¯ll get top 10.
"See? I told you top 10 wasn¡¯t as easy as you thought." Madison shook her head.
"Hahaha, yeah you did. Oh yeah, how did you do in your arena?" Lyrica asked.
"Urg! I only got top 1000." Madison replied. Her arsenal mostly focused on defence meaning her attack was trash.
She was able to hold her own in defence but could barely progress.
"No worries no worries. This event was more focused on the attacking aspect after all." Lyrica said as Madison nodded.
"That being said, I¡¯m rather surprised you got top 500. Most of them are filled with level 30¡¯s after all. How did you even hold your own there?!"
"I got lucky." Lyricaughed.
It didn¡¯t take too long for them to return to the area for the school.
She saw Shiro sitting on her chair, rxed as always, with the guys trying to please her.
Naturally, this was limited only to giving her items and no touching allowed.
Lyrica smiled wearily seeing a few ice statues ced aside and knew what probably happened.
[Wee back. How was it?] Shiro asked with a smile.
"I got top 500 and Madison got top 1000." Lyrica reported.
[No I don¡¯t mean rank. I mean in terms ofbat experience. Since you two are still on the lower spectrum of the levels in this event, I want you to experience fighting more than ranks.] Shiro typed, shaking her head.
She expected their ranks to as such since they are basically the two sides of extremes almost. Lyrica with attack only and Madison with defence only.
With this, they won¡¯t be able to get high ranks. However, the more important aspect would be to gain the experience thates with fighting opponents. She could experience fighting in 1 on 1 battles or 5 on 1 battles.
The options were there, they just had to take it.
"I guess I kinda did." Lyrica said since that was the truth. She had to fight tooth and nail to keep her spot in the top 500.
"Same. I was mostly focused on honing my defence." Madison admitted. Since she wanted to her a defence orientated adventurer, she focused on fighting multiple people at a time.
[Then that¡¯s all that counts. If anything, I¡¯ll knock them out for you tomorrow when it¡¯s my turn.] Shiro typed with a grin.
Lyrica shivered seeing the grin. It was one she hadn¡¯t seen in a while and one that would make her pray for the safety of her enemies tomorrow.
Chapter 60 - Faction Recruitment P4
Chapter 60: Faction Recruitment P4
The rest of the warrior¡¯s division didn¡¯t involve anyone they knew, so Shiro decided to take them elsewhere.
Somewhere to hang out for a little while before tomorrow since her mage¡¯s division was tomorrow.
[So where do you two want to go?] Shiro asked.
"Anywhere really. I just want to rest for a bit." Lyrica shrugged.
"In that case then why don¡¯t we go to an amusement park?" Madison suggested with a grin.
[Amusement Park? What¡¯s that?] Shiro asked as this was a foreign term for her.
"!!!" Both Lyrica and Madison were shocked by this. Normally, kids her age would at least know a little about the amusement park. Yet, they could see the honest confusion and curiosity in Shiro¡¯s eyes.
"You¡¯ve never been to an amusement park?! Didn¡¯t your parents take you there when you were younger?" Madison asked.
[No. They didn¡¯t.] Shiro shook her head.
Rather, the only memory she had of her parents were that of peaceful ones. She would help them asionally with chores and y around with some of the younger kids.
Since her family lived in more rural areas, they didn¡¯t have much electronics.
Thinking of her parents made Shiro a little nostalgic and sad due to the fact that they died without seeing her grow up fully.
¡¯Then again, I suppose seeing me get experimented on would bring them more pain.¡¯ Shiro thought with a heavy heart.
Lyrica didn¡¯t know why, but she felt Shiro¡¯s mood take a sudden shift towards sadness.
¡¯Perhaps it¡¯s something to do with her parents.¡¯ Lyrica thought.
"Then let¡¯s go! The amusement park is a ce where you can enjoy yourselves." Lyrica smiled as she grabbed both Shiro¡¯s and Madison¡¯s hand.
"Huh? Wait! WHY ME! I CAN WALK!" Madison cried out, shocked at the sudden increase in speed.
Shiro only chuckled seeing Lyrica¡¯s enthusiasm and decided to y along.
After calming down slightly, Lyrica released the two.
[So what exactly is in an amusement park?] Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s mostly just a ce where you pay money to enjoy rides. There are things like roller coasters, ferris wheels and other adrenalin-inducing rides." Lyrica exined.
[If you want adrenaline then why don¡¯t you fight a monster in a dungeon? That gives you quite the pump of adrenalin.]
"Yeah but that¡¯s to improve yourbat standards. This is to just rx and have fun." Madison replied as she bought herself a drink from the street vendors.
"Want some?" She offered.
[No thanks.]
"I¡¯m good."
They both rejected. Madison only shrugged seeing their response.
[So you say it¡¯s to have fun? Seems interesting.] Shiro typed out as she was quite curious as to what people in this world enjoyed.
And so far from what she heard, it seemed like the amusement park was somethingmon for the children for New York to experience.
Arriving at the amusement park, Shiro was surprised to see the huge rides that were avable.
People were screaming in excitement and raising their hands when they drop down on the roller coaster.
"Since we¡¯re here prettyte, we¡¯ll only go for a few rides."
Shiro looked around with curiosity and pulled down her hood.
Letting her midnight blue hair drift behind her, she attracted the attention of the surrounding civilians.
Yin pped her wings andnded on Shiro¡¯s shoulder.
While she was looking around, she saw cotton candy on a stick and was rather surprised.
Narrowing her eyes, she scrutinised the fluffy pink sweet.
"Shiro are you curious what these are?" Lyrica asked. She had a smile on her face since this was one of the rare times where she would see Shiro acting more like her ¡¯age¡¯.
[Yeah. They look like clouds but theposition of these ¡¯clouds¡¯ are clearly made from sugar.] Shiro typed out since her nose could smell how sweet the cotton candy was.
Lyrica only smiled wearily when she saw Shiro back in her usual character. It would feel rather odd for Shiro to act like a child after all.
"Yeah. They¡¯re called cotton candy and they¡¯re basically sugar stringed onto a stick." Lyrica exined.
¡¯Hmm, that sounds rather interesting.¡¯ Shiro thought. Now that she had a chance at life once more, she should try to experience everything she could.
Walking up to the stand, she paid for cotton candy. While she couldn¡¯t taste it, she was rather curious for the texture.
Taking a bite of the sweet, Shiro recoiled back at the texture. She made a face of slight disgust since it felt like she bit on a clump of string. The string would then fuse together before melting apart into nothing.
"You don¡¯t like it?" Lyrica asked, surprised seeing how Shiro reacted to the cotton candy.
[Not my cup of tea. The texture is a little strange for me.]
"Do you want it little Yin?" Shiro whispered. Yin turned her head away as she reacted the same way Shiro did.
[You want it Lyrica?] Shiro asked since she didn¡¯t really want to waste the candy.
"Can I?" Lyrica asked. Shiro was taken aback at her enthusiasm.
¡¯Seems like she really likes the cotton candy.¡¯ She thought, handing over the sweet.
Madison only facepalmed seeing the slight misunderstanding between the two.
In her opinion, Shiro looked like an older sister who is giving her little sister a piece of candy. While Lyrica looked like she enjoyed the indirect kiss more than the actual piece of candy.
Walking over to one of the rides, they queued up for a while.
The ride they chose was the biggest rollercoaster avable in the amusement park. Since time was short, they wanted to try the best-looking ride first.
Paying for the tickets, they were seated down and secured to the carts.
Shiro frowned slightly since she didn¡¯t have much control over her body due to this.
¡¯If the cart derails or anything of the sort, I might struggle with protecting the three of us.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
The feeling of not being able to control her body to the fullest made her fidget a little.
*ng ng ng~
The cart started to move as Shiro made sure she was in a position ready to jump out and float at any moment.
"ooOOOHHHHMMMMYYYY GOOOODDDDD!!!!!" Madison shouted out since she was surprised at how fast the cart was actually going.
Since the current riders of the coaster were all level 20 and above, they were allowed to increase the speed for more ¡¯thrill¡¯.
Yin gripped hard on Shiro¡¯s robe since she was about to be flung off her shoulders.
*CHIRPPPPPP!!!!
Yin cried out in a panic.
Shiro only giggled and reached out for Yin. cing Yin on herp, Shiro re-evaluated the security since she could see the structural integrity of the ride is as strong as ever.
Seeing that she was rather safe, Shiro decided to rx a little and enjoy herself.
Lyrica felt relieved seeing Shiro smile on the ride.
...
When the ride finished, Shiro was pleasantly surprised at how much she actually enjoyed the roller coaster.
[Not going to lie, that was pretty fun.] Shiro typed out.
[Though not being able to control my body as much did feel ufortable.]
"True, but that¡¯s where the thrilles from." Lyrica grinned.
"Urg. Thrill it maybe, but not one that I liked." Madison replied, looking a little pale. Previously, all the rides she went to were slowed down for the lower levels. But due to the fact that they were all level 20 and above, the speed increased by quite a bit.
Shiro only chuckled seeing the opposite reactions of both Lyrica and Madison. One enjoyed the ride while the other looked like she was about to die.
[We¡¯lle back if we get the chance. But since it¡¯s gettingte we should go home and rest for tomorrow.]
Lyrica and Madison agreed. Since there were more mages than warriors in the city, the mage¡¯s division would start much earlier than the warrior¡¯s division.
As they were walking back home, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw Nan Tian¡¯s figure on the roof of a building.
¡¯What is he doing.¡¯ She thought.
[Head back first, I¡¯ll join you in a second.] Shiro typed out.
"Hm, alright. Just don¡¯t stay out too long." Lyrica nodded.
Once she was out of sight, she hopped onto the roof easily.
[Is stalking a fun past time of yours? I could feel your eyes the entire day.] Shiro typed out with a frown.
"Ai little snow. It¡¯s not stalking but merely observing. You just so happened to be near where I was observing." Nan Tian chuckled.
While Shiro can¡¯t see his face, she could tell he was smiling.
[What do you want exactly? You didn¡¯t try to attack me and now you¡¯re here again. Making yourself obvious to me.] She questions.
"Can¡¯t I take the time to observe an interesting monster I found?"
[Stop beating around the bush and tell me already. Because if you have nothing you want to say then I might as well leave right now.]
"Fine, no fun at all. I want to recruit you and your friend to the hidden sect."
[Not interested.]
Shiro turned around immediately and was about to leave.
However, Nan Tian didn¡¯t let her since he was in front of her once more.
"Ai don¡¯t reject so fast, little snow. I know you don¡¯t like your freedom restrained, but this sect isn¡¯t like that. You can still join other factions. The sect itself focuses on improving the strength of humanity as a whole." Nan Tian tried to persuade.
"Not only that, but you can use all of the resources of the sect. Naturally, you¡¯ll get more resources the bigger your contributions."
Shiro paused when she heard this. It did sound rather good but she didn¡¯t want to take it all for granted.
[What¡¯s the catch.]
"You¡¯ll have to help protect the sect whenever it is in danger."
[Yeah no. I still don¡¯t want to join it.] Shiro rejected.
Seeing that there was no persuading her, Nan Tian only smiled wearily.
¡¯Little snow is so hard to persuade ah...¡¯ He thought with amusement.
Watching her leave, he couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
...
Waking up early the next morning, Shiro wasn¡¯t really in the brightest of moods since she realised she has two stalkers now.
Lucius and Nan Tian.
One was a shadow walker who kept stalking her with his shadow clones, and the other, a high level masked person who was wherever she was.
Sighing with slight annoyance, Shiro changed into her outfit and pulled forward her hoodie. Covering her lower face with her face mask, one could barely see Shiro¡¯s appearance face wise.
She contemted about changing her current outfit so that she could let loose a little.
¡¯If I used the first phantom, I should be mostly ok.¡¯ Shiro thought since the 1st phantom of the Yin style phantom arts helped a lot in terms of stealth.
The ability to minimalize your presence to trick your opponent¡¯s brain and make them ignore you were amazing in the heat of battle.
It was also this that helped her kill the level 50 mage. She was able to strike his weak point when his guard was down. If it wasn¡¯t for this factor, then the fight would most definitely be harder than what it was.
"Good morning Shiro..." Lyrica greeted still half asleep.
[Good morning. You can sleep longer if you want.] Shiro typed out.
"No, it¡¯s fine. I want to see you kick their ass." Lyrica grinned.
Nodding her head slightly, the duo waited for Madison to arrive.
Thankfully, they didn¡¯t have to wait long and made their way to the gathering point.
They mostly chatted about what Shiro was going to do in her arena and she only smiled before typing; [You¡¯ll see.].
This naturally caused Lyrica to shiver for a moment and pray for the safety of her foes.
Stretching her body slightly, Shiro waited at her assigned arena.
Looking around, she tried to single out a few note worth mages. However, luck was on her side since most of the mages near her right now were lower than level 35.
Waiting for thementator to announce the round start, Shiro flexed her fingers slightly.
Frost gathered o the surface of her hand as Icy Touch was activated.
"START!"
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + Cold Aura + Tier 2 Ice Magic + Icy Touch + Faded Snow Movement.
She mmed her palms down which caused a tsunami of cold mist to shoot outwards.
*CRRRR!!!!!
The arena was freezing at an abnormal pace as the participants couldn¡¯t escape the ice locking their feet to the ground.
Shiro¡¯s body flickered for a moment and faded out of view.
Clenching her fist, the ice between the participant¡¯s legs started to tremble. She flicked her wrist and blunted Ice Spikes shot upwards.
"ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Layers uponyers of tearful cries were heard as Shiro eliminated arge group of people in a short burst of time.
Grinning slightly, Shiro dashed towards the top 500yer before anyone else.
Chapter 61 - Faction Recruitment P5
Chapter 61: Faction Recruitment P5
"WHAT!" The executives of the Winter¡¯s Grace called out in shock. To have a freezing power of that magnitude wasn¡¯t easy.
Quickly pulling out a recording of the match, they re-winded the clips until they saw Shiro. Seeing her tiny body and ount information, they were shocked at her age.
"13?! She has this power at her disposal at 13?! Not even the current Ice Matriarch had that power at 13!!"
"Recruit her! Recruit her with everything we have!"
"I second that!"
###
"Hahahaha!" Nan Tianughed seeing the move Shiro used.
At first, he thought the A*** Destroying Title was a joke made by the people but it seems like it was the truth.
"Ai seems like the disciples at the sect would have a hard time if she joined hahahaha..." Nan Tianughed.
¡¯I wonder what she would do to me if we were the same level.¡¯ He thought with amusement. However, that amusement soon turned his smile into a frown.
"Yeah, I should make sure my level is above her¡¯s at all times." He muttered.
###
Dashing towards the secondyer, Shiro set a few traps on the walls.
Since she was still using the 1st phantom, not many people could pick up on her presence.
Her goal was to aim for top 100. Then she¡¯ll be able to have a better bargaining chip for Lyrica and Madison to enter a better faction. Or rather, for them to have more freedom in the faction.
As for why it would give them freedom, it was due to the fact that she¡¯ll be able to promise the faction a one-time assist. With her demonstration of power, they would have no reason to reject.
She quickly slid on her knees and dodged a lightning spear that shot past her.
Without even looking at her assant, she pivoted on her knee and swept her foot in a clockwise motion.
A wave of cold mist was blown upwards, covering Shiro¡¯s body.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro created several ice bullets using the cold mist and sent it towards the assant.
"Arg!"
His body was sent flying due to his armband reaching 0%HP.
ncing left and right, Shiro saw 2 people charging at her with earthen spears.
She jumped up horizontally and spun her body like a torpedo. Grabbing the spears, she redirected them and caused them to stab each other.
With two more eliminated, Shiro was able to have a moment of peace before her next assant charged at her.
He was a closebat mage due to the fact that his fist where glowing with mana.
*BAM BAM!
Shiro countered in a swift set of movements that consisted of using her right hand to push his fist down, and her left hand to smash his chin.
mming her palms into his torso, Shiro caused a short burst of ice to explode on impact.
*BOOM!
¡¯Since I¡¯m one of the first few to reach the secondyer, the people here are more aggressive.¡¯ Shiro thought since the start of the rounds were always the most chaotic ones.
Tilting her head, she dodged another lighting spear. Grabbing it with her bare hands, she continued the momentum and threw it back at the thrower.
Since she had unlocked her lightning attunement, she was able to resist the lightning to a certain degree. This allowed her to throw the spear back.
Naturally, this was mostly attributed to the fact that Shiro had ¡¯overwritten¡¯ the spell to be her¡¯s. By threading mana through the mainposition of the spear, it then converted the lesser branches to be her¡¯s as well.
Seeing more peoplee towards her, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
sping her hands together, she opened them up to reveal a tiny lightning ball.
Thawing the ice on the ground, she created a giant puddle of water to act as her catalyst.
When the attackers realised what she was doing, they paled quickly and tried to jump away.
*BZZZZ!!!!!
Lightning sparked across the puddle and tasered the attackers.
She was about to send a few blunted spears to then when she felt danger behind her.
Flicking her wrist, a giant ice wall erected behind her to block the fireball.
*BOOOMM!!!!!
The force sent her flying forward a little.
Looking up, Shiro saw several other magic circles.
¡¯So destroy the strong first huh? Let this miss entertain you!!!¡¯ Shiro thought as her mana red.
mming both palms into the ground, two giant ice pirs started to form.
*PING!
She shattered the ice pirs, causing a mass of broken ice to float around her.
Due to her experience with constructing items with nanobots, she understood the best structural pattern she needs to go for to create the sturdiest shield.
Clenching her fist, the ice started tobine together piece by piece to create a giant shield that surrounded Shiro.
*BOOM!!!!
The attack barely managed to scrape off the top 2yers of her shield. Her shield had a total of 10yers condensed together.
While her INT may not be able topare to their INT, her knowledge and experience more than makes up for this.
Flicking her wrist, parts of the shield broke off to be blunted spears and shot towards the people who made the spell.
Clutching her hand just before the spear hit, she controlled them to morph into rope-like restraints.
Without a second¡¯s dy, Shiro stomped down and caused several ice spikes to shoot towards them.
Due to the restraints, they couldn¡¯t react and were eliminated.
"Fuu..." Breathing out a breath of cold mist, Shiro took a moment to rest. The moment she stepped onto the secondyer, it was one tense fight after another.
She had to make sure she kept the fights short since long fights were disadvantageous to her.
Especially since they were all either around her level or higher. Prolonging the fights meant she would be worn out faster.
Jogging towards the area to reach the nextyer, Shiro frowned when she saw 3 school seniors blocking her way.
They were all female and Shiro realised the senior¡¯s n to suppress them.
¡¯This happened to Lyrica as well.¡¯ Shiro thought with a re. Since they wanted to supress the younger years, they didn¡¯t deserve any mercy from her.
Crouching low, Shiro dashed towards them. Her pupils glowed with a slight neon blue.
Icy mist was flowing out from her palm as she mmed them into the ground.
*CRRRR!!!!!!
A cage formed around the arena almost instantaneously.
Spikes started to form on the cage bars while Shiro continued her dash towards them.
*PHEW PHEW PHEW!
The seniors blocked the frontal attacks with much difficulty. They were surprised at how much power were contained behind each spear.
Shiro¡¯s body flickered behind them as she grabbed the back of their neck.
*BAM!
She mmed the heads of the closest two seniors into the ground before aiming a palm at thest senior.
*BAM!
A blunted ice spear smashed against his head, eliminating him.
Dislocating the shoulder joints of the two seniors, Shiro eliminated them as well.
Watching the 3 fall back to the firstyer, Shiro watched in disdain.
Turning on her heels, she resumed her dash towards the top 100.
*FUAH!
Several hundreds of fireballs appeared in front of Shiro causing her to frown.
Faded Snow Movement.
Since the fireball covered the view, they weren¡¯t able to see a portion of Shiro¡¯s body fade into snow.
Adjusting her footwork, Shiro flickered through the fireballs and exited rtively unharmed.
Seeing the assant keeping a constant distance, Shiro frowned.
Currently, the range was a heavy weak point of her¡¯s due to the fact that it takes more mana the further away the spell was to you.
Thisbined with her broken links only made for a ridiculous MP consumption no level 33 should have.
¡¯Close range it is.¡¯ Shiro thought, making an ice spear.
Stepping hard on the ground, she caused it to fissure beforeunching forwards.
*BAM BAM BAM!
Twirling the spear in her hands, Shiro managed to destroy all the fireballs that shot towards her. A sudden red glow appeared beneath her feet.
*BOOM!
Shiro quickly jumped back and avoided the mine. Her brows were furrowed heavily since she never expected someone else to know how to set up traps as well.
Setting a trap was normally a skill that level 50+ learned and not something a D ranked adventurer should know.
This was due to the fact that you had to make sure the trap activated correctly and didn¡¯t just set off the moment you ce it down. On top of that, you would also need to make sure the trap could run independently for a short moment.
Sliding on her feet, Shiro paused in shock when she realised she stepped on another mine.
*BAM!
The force caused her to be thrown forwards.
Seeing the familiar red glow, Shiro cursed at how many mines there were.
Stabbing her spear into the ground, Shiro vaulted upwards and over the explosion.
Twisting her body, she aimed the spear at the attacker.
*BOOM!!!
A fire spear was shot out in return.
Landing on her feet, Shiro narrowed her eyes since she knew there were many more mines waiting for her.
Crouching down, Shiro frowned under her mask.
Dashing forwards, Shiro made ayer of ice wherever her feet touched.
Her mind was clocking in overdrive from visualising the structures of the ice.
*Boom boom boom!
Muffled explosions rang out since the mines couldn¡¯t break past the ice.
This caused the caster to panic since Shiro was closing in fast.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Her body flickered out of sight as the ice spread out.
Due to this, the explosions rang out constantly, confusing the caster from Shiro¡¯s real position.
*BANG!
An ice hammer crashed into the back of the caster andunched him forwards.
Rolling on the ground slightly, he saw a neon blue light appear under him.
*BOOM!
Shiro had set up a trap as well since he liked traps so much.
Cracking her neck slightly, Shiro sighed at her MP count.
[MP: 32,400/110,000]
In the few short exchanges, she had already spent a grand total of 77,600 MP. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that her Monster title had basically doubled her status, she would be dry of MP by now.
She was about to pull her face mask down for a drink when she dodged right.
A wind de passed her previous location, bringing up a huge gust wherever it passed.
¡¯GODDAMN IT ANOTHER ONE?!¡¯ Shiro cursed since she couldn¡¯t even have the time to drink a potion.
Ice Chain!
Chains wrapped around the assant while Shiro jumped towards him. Twisting her body in mid-air, Shiro mmed the ice staff into his chest.
*BOOM!!!!
A small crater copsed under the attacker. Shiro wasn¡¯t merciful since the wind de would have given her a deep wound if it had struck.
Kicking his body away, Shiro quickly popped a MP potion in her mouth while dashing towards the top 100yer.
Making two spears, one in each hand, Shiro stabbed the first spear into the wall. Jumping on the spear, her body shot upwards.
Just before she reached her peak, Shiro stabbed the second spear into the wall and increased her momentum through spinning on the spear.
Landing on the 3rdyer with the shortest time needed so far, she quickly made two shields and blocked 2 lightning strikes.
Her opponents were twins around the early 20¡¯s. Lightning sparked around their bodies as Shiro could tell they were enhancing their speed.
¡¯They must be close to Tier 3 Lightning attunement for a pseudo Lightning Armour to make an appearance.¡¯ Shiro thought with concern.
However, she¡¯s wasn¡¯t to be left behind. While she couldn¡¯t manifest an elemental armour, she could match their speed with her skillsbined.
Narrowing her eyes, she increased her killing intent to take advantage of her cold touch and cold aura.
A blizzard started to form around Shiro. Her blue eyes glowed slightly, giving the twins a chill down the spin.
"She¡¯s dangerous."
"Indeed she is."
"Must be eliminated to keep our rankings."
"Full power?"
"Full power."
The lightning red, causing the ground to crack and evaporate.
While their figures didn¡¯t flicker like Shiro¡¯s, their speed was still incredible.
Charging towards Shiro they aimed their finger at her.
Lightning gathered into a bullet and shot towards her.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro¡¯s body flickered out of view before flickering back into view. When it did, her hands her already in front of the first twin¡¯s face.
She was about to grab his face when a bullet shot towards her head at the perfect moment.
This would have been hard for normal people to dodge. However, Shiro was far from normal.
Aiming her left hand away from her, she created a small propulsion force. Combining that with her passive float, Shiro managed to dodge the bullet just in time.
But, as she dodged, the first twin kicked towards her.
Quickly guarding her chest, Shiro was sent flying backwards.
Landing roughly, she frowned seeing the teamwork between the two. While her experiences were indeed greater then theirs, they were winning in terms of stat¡¯s and attunement.
However, this was good for her. She¡¯ll be able to push her body to the limit.
Grinning slightly, Shiro made two ice spears in her hands and charged towards the twins.
Chapter 62 - Faction Recruitment P6
Chapter 62: Faction Recruitment P6
*BAM BANG!!!
Blocking the strikes from both twins, Shiro stabbed the butt of the spear into the ground and smashed the tip against their heads.
This forced them to recoil backwards slightly.
Putting strength into her arms, Shiro lifted her body up and kicked both of them in the chest.
*BZZZ!!
They quickly coated their body in lightning.
Gritting her teeth slightly, Shiro cursed at the feeling of her body tensing up for a moment.
Twisting her body in mid-air, she mmed the spears into the side of their body.
Ice Chain.
Using ice chain on the first twin, Shiro dashed towards the second twin.
She threw the spear at him which caused him to bring up his arms to guard his body.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro fainted her attack while pulling the spear back. She swept out her right leg, causing him to trip over.
mming her palms to the ground, a pir of ice mmed against his back.
Pivoting on her left hand, she dodged a punch from the first twin.
Pulling on his arm, she hit the elbows before following up by mming his own fist into his chest.
"Arg!" The first twin cried out feeling the resultant shock that travelled through his body.
Seeing the first twin stumble backwards, Shiro grabbed his leg and mmed him towards the other twin.
They grabbed each other¡¯s hand and redirected the momentum. Charging at Shiro, their elemental armour red up with more intensity.
Shiro coated her own arms with a stream of lightning to try dampen the paralysis effect.
*BAM BAM!
She redirected their punch at each other with ease.
The twins frowned before jumping into the air.
Lightning surged in their palms as they aimed at Shiro.
She quickly nced at her MP before mming her hands into the ground.
*CRRRR!!!! BOOOMMMM!!!!!
Another shield erupted in front of her as it blocked the beam of lightning.
Since the shield was hastily constructed, she wasn¡¯t able to make enoughyers to reach its maximum effect.
Shiro was flung back due to the force and slid on all fours. Making a small ice wall, she stopped her body from being flung back any further.
She flexed her fingers as lightning and metal sparked in her palms.
Shiro frowned before clenching her hands again.
Stamping down, she caused a blizzard to erupt outwards.
She extended out her index and middle finger. Swiping to the right, needles made from ice appeared in the blizzard.
*KSHHH!!!!!
Thunder struck against the blizzard heavily as the twins weren¡¯t idle.
Since they couldn¡¯t defeat her in terms of close-quartersbat, they were going to beat her in terms of long-rangedbat.
Thunder clouds covered the skies above them while lightning could be seen flickering inside the clouds.
As if the incarnation of Zeus the lightning god, they controlled the lightning to shoot towards Shiro.
Grabbing her ice wall, she converted it to a spear before throwing it into the air. Clutching her hands, the spear expanded out into a giant ice web.
The lightning travelled through the web and dissipated harmlessly.
The twins grew frustrated when they saw this. Lightning had an astounding amount of destructive capabilities. However, it was both weak and strong when pairing with water. Strong, since the water amplified the power.
Yet, it was weak when fought against a water-based element as Shiro had demonstrated. By thawing out the surface of her ice, she was able to redirect the lightning so it didn¡¯t affect her at all.
Creating several lightning balls in their hand, they threw it towards Shiro relentlessly.
Drinking an MP potion, Shiro used her spare hand to create an ice spear. mming it into the ground, she broke it into shards.
Spreading her palms quickly, the shards expanded into ice webs. One for each lightning ball that was going to hit her.
Narrowing her eyes at the twins, Shiro knew she needed to eliminate them quickly. Stomping down, she created a thick pir of ice in front of her.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Pivoting on her left leg, she roundhouse kicked the pir and sent it flying towards the twins.
Taking the chance of the broken pir blocking their view, Shiro¡¯s body flickered towards them.
Striking the pir into dust with lightning, the twin¡¯s frowned at the fact that she was nowhere to be seen.
Their expressing quickly turned ashen when they felt danger behind them.
However, even though they wanted to turn around to the danger, they weren¡¯t able to react fast enough.
The spears mmed into the back of their heads, giving them a concussion, and eliminated them.
Seeing the twins eliminated, Shiro kept a frown on her face.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ve been underestimating humans a little.¡¯ She thought. She had to keep in mind that other people had to chance to skip levels as well and this isn¡¯t limited to her and her alone.
Just the start of this arena was proof. While she may have been one of the first to run, others were still faster. Not to mention, the people she fought weren¡¯t even the strongest people here, they were around mid-tier in the current arena.
If they were the strongest contestants, they wouldn¡¯t have even given her a nce. They would just ignore her and let other people take care of her. Yet, for them to charge at her like this meant that they weren¡¯t the strongest.
¡¯If the mid-tier are this strong, then I should conserve my strength a little.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
She needed to make sure she still had the strength to survive if the stronger contestants came to her.
Using the first phantom and shadow cloak, she narrowed her eyes while observing the surroundings.
Currently, in the top 100, it consisted of level 40¡¯s and 50¡¯s. Very few were level 40 since they would be eliminated by the level 50¡¯s the moment they step up here.
This was due to the fact that if they manage to stay here for more than a certain period of time, a random participant would be sent back to the 2ndyer.
Since that was the case, the level 40¡¯s would obviously attack her since she was only level 34. They weren¡¯t about to lose their ce because of her.
¡¯Since I¡¯m in top 100, I should aim to keep my spot.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Time passed as Shiro continued to keep her spot in the top 100. Naturally, she had to fight at times as to not lose her spot. However, due to the fact that she would sneak attack them, not many of the level 40¡¯s and 50¡¯s knew about a level 34 being in the top hundred.
"STOP!!!! ROUND IS OVER!!!" Thementator shouted out as Shiro looked up and sighed in relief.
Honestly, she couldn¡¯t continue her pace for much longer. There was simply too many level 50¡¯s and there were times where she couldn¡¯t find the right opportunity to eliminate them.
asionally, people near her were sent back to the 2ndyer due to the fact that there were too many people on thisyer.
Thankfully, she wasn¡¯t sent back so she didn¡¯t need to fight her way back up again.
Revealing herself, the surrounding mage¡¯s were shocked seeing a little girl amongst the top 100.
"Was she always here?!" One of the older mages asked.
"How did a level 34 even get up here?"
Ignoring the chatter around her, Shiro hopped down from the stage and walked towards the collection area.
The armbands would record whichyer you were on and when they¡¯re returned to the stands, they¡¯ll give you the respective ribbon.
Queueing up, Shiro could see quite a few level 50¡¯s with frustrated faces.
¡¯Seems like they didn¡¯t do so well...¡¯ Shiro thought. While levels were important,bat standards were just as, or perhaps even better at times.
Take her for example, herbat potential allowed for her to easily skip levels and challenge those with higher stats.
Naturally, this wasn¡¯t the case all the time. Each battle would be one where she had to focus 120% of her concentration since her body simply couldn¡¯t keep up with those that have higher stats than her¡¯s.
When it was almost her turn, she heard the man in front of her cause amotion.
"THIS IS BULLSH*T!!!! What do you mean I¡¯m not allowed a blue ribbon! Can¡¯t you see that I was at the top 100yer for 90% of the match!!" The man shouted out in fury.
"I¡¯m sorry. But your final rank was still only in the top 500 whether you like it or not." The attendant said with an expressionless face.
She was used to dealing with unsatisfied adventurer¡¯s day in day out. This wasn¡¯t anything new.
"BUT-!"
*BANG!
mming her palm on the table, two heavy knights appeared beside the man.
"I¡¯ll have you know that just because I¡¯m an attendant, doesn¡¯t mean you can continue to scream in my face. Leave by yourself or I can make you leave. Your choice." The attendant said coldly.
[Perona LVL 50 ¨C Summoner]
Shiro praised mentally when she saw this. As the ss states, she was of the summoner ss.
While they weren¡¯t the rarest of sses in the higher levels, trying to get a summoner ss on your 1st ss up was a very hard task, The amount of hidden conditions one had to fulfil before level 20 to get the ss as an option was a difficult task.
Naturally, one would discover the tasks after a few generations of test and luck. When one understands these conditions, they can nurture some of the best bodyguards in the world. The advantages they would have if they had a summoner ss as their first ss isn¡¯t something a normal summoner of the 3rd ss up canpare to.
They would have had 2 ss ups to improve on the summoner ss¡¯s strength.
The man flinched when he saw the two knights beside him. Each one radiated the aura of danger, causing him to sweat profusely.
He took his ribbon reluctantly.
Seeing the man finish with what he was doing, Shiro walked up to Perona and handed over her armband.
"Oh?" Perona was surprised when she saw the time Shiro spent on in the top 100. Seeing her made this shock much greater as she wasn¡¯t even level 35 and stayed in the top 100 for most of the match.
"Here¡¯s your ribbon. If you go on our official website and key in the numbers present on your ribbon, you¡¯ll get the location you need to be at. Make sure to bring the ribbon as that is your proof of identity. Don¡¯t try to forge a fake ribbon as we are able to check which one is real and which one isn¡¯t." Perona said handing over the ribbon.
The moment Shiro touched the ribbon, she could already tell the material was different than usual.
Unfortunately, the man caught a glimpse of Shiro with the blue ribbon. The idea that a level 34 got a blue ribbon and him only a green resounded in his mind as rage took over.
"HOW DOES SHE HAVE A BLUE RIBB-GAH!"
With a single flex of her fingers, both knights hadnded a devastating uppercut to his jaw.
"I gave you the chance. Don¡¯t take my words as a joke." Perona said, disdain clearly visible in her eye.
Flexing her fingers once more, the man was carried by the leg and thrown out of the collection area.
*Whistle~
Shiro couldn¡¯t help but whistle a little seeing how straight forward Perona was. Silently giving her a thumbs up in her mind, Shiro walked back to Lyrica and Madison.
When she saw them, she couldn¡¯t help but notice how they were a little unsatisfied and also a little fearful.
[Why do you two look like this?] Shiro asked.
"Shiro! Well, it¡¯s because we barely saw you fight! We saw you at the start and you just disappeared. Then we just saw the victim you left lying around." Lyrica said as Shiro nodded.
Since the people didn¡¯t have a rey function, they wouldn¡¯t be able to notice her since she made their brains ignore her. But the moment they started to rey the clips, they would be able to see her.
[So I know why you look like that but why does Madison look like that?] Shiro asked since Madison looked a little pale and fearful.
"Err... she¡¯s just a little startled at your attack method at the start." Lyrica smiled wearily.
Not only Madison but the students in the school, who saw her attack, was a little taken aback at her attack method at the start.
Naturally, Shiro realised this due to the fact that none of them tried to make eye contact with her. They all looked away the moment she turned towards them.
Shiro only chuckled seeing this.
"So whichyer did you get to in the end?" Lyrica asked.
Shiro smiled before taking out the blue ribbon.
"PFFFTT!!!! TOP 100!!!!" Madison cried out shocked seeing the blue ribbon.
While this attracted the surrounding gazes, Shiro only looked at them before they hastily turned away, not wanting to get their rear pierced as well.
[Yes I got into top 100. Tomorrow we won¡¯t be together since we¡¯ll be in different arena¡¯s due to our ribbons.] Shiro typed out.
[As Lyrica said before, the next stage is most likely a battle royal so we¡¯ll be gearing you two up a little to make sure you get decent finishing ranks.]
Since everything will be done in a simtion, Shiro did have the option of disguising nanotech and tricking the system. However, doing so will increase the chances of her exposing her second ss.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ll have to bother Helion again.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Chapter 63 - Faction Recruitment P7
Chapter 63: Faction Recruitment P7
"Oh hey Shiro." Helion greeted as he saw the trio enter his store. Since everyone was focused on the faction recruitment, not many were paying attention to his store.
[Hi. Are you able to help these two make some weapon and armour for tomorrow¡¯s event?] Shiro asked.
"Eh? You three don¡¯t know?" Helion asked.
"Don¡¯t know what?" Lyrica replied, tilting her head slightly.
"Afterst time¡¯s event, where some rich f*cker got ridiculous items, they banned that. Now, everyone has the same equipment and has to battle it out using their skills." Helion exined as heid back on his chair.
Shiro casually pulled out a chair and sat down as well.
Madison was surprised seeing how nonchnt Shiro was in this environment.
[Is that so. Seems like you got quite a bit of insider information. Want to share it?]
"Pft insider information? I just happen to overhear a few of the staff talk. If you thought I was able to be selected as a member of staff I can say you are dead wrong. I¡¯m only good for lifting a hammer hahaha." Helionughed.
[You say that but not many can use Elemental True Armour at their first ss up.] Shiro praised.
"What¡¯s elemental true armour?" Madison asked.
"Elemental True Armour is when a person coats themselves with a respective element to boost their powers to another level. This elemental armour appears when a person is around the mid to top of tier 3 attunement." Lyrica exined.
"Seems like your friend is pretty knowledgeable eh Shiro?" Helion said while Shiro nodded.
[It¡¯s as Lyrica said. Elemental True Armour appears when a person is around mid to top of tier 3 attunement. Not many people can reach that kind of power when they¡¯re level 50.] Shiro typed out.
"By the way, how old are you Helion?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"Me? I¡¯m 25." Helion replied simply as Lyrica widened her eyes in surprise.
Meanwhile, Madison couldn¡¯t help but be left out from this group. Lyrica had a thing called Hidden Proficiency, Shiro was level 34 at 13 years of age. And now they also had a Helion who was level 50 at 25 years of age.
Shiro raised an eyebrow seeing Madison¡¯s mood.
¡¯Ah she¡¯s kind of like Lyrica in a way.¡¯ She thought since Lyrica also had this problem before her discovery of her hidden proficiency.
[Madison, what sses are avable to you or have you picked one already?] Shiro asked.
"Ah me? The next ss I chose is Knight. This ss will let me be a better tanker." Madison replied.
"Hou~ Shiro, are you nning to make a party?" Helion asked seeing this. Shiro is an outstanding mage, Lyrica was a damage dealer and Madison will be a tank. This from his opinion is a standard foundation for a party. While theycked a healer as of now, they could get er down the line.
[Indeed. Want to join the fun?] Shiro asked, throwing him a simple invitation. She didn¡¯t think anything could attract his attention since there was nothing this party could offer.
"Nah. I¡¯m pretty satisfied with what I have currently. I¡¯m making my way through my own ss up as well. The most important part is that I might ruin the party if you understand me? With a high level like me in the party, the fights be much easier than what they¡¯re supposed to be like. There¡¯ll be no progression otherwise." Helion exined.
[You¡¯re not wrong on that.] Shiro agreed since having someone carry a party was never a good point.
However, she wasn¡¯t nning on letting Helion carry their party. What she wanted was to give him the idea first. Open him up to the opportunity.
Then when they¡¯re higher level in the future, she¡¯ll be able to strike.
After chatting for a little while, they made their way back to the dorms.
[So what ss up requirements do you need toplete for your ss?] Shiro asked.
"Since I¡¯m going for the defensive knight, I just need to sessfully block the attacks of bosses. The bosses must be level 20 or above." Madison replied.
[Is that the main objective?]
"Yeah. I¡¯ve pretty much done the other ones. It¡¯s just this one left."
¡¯Hmm, since we got a few hours left to the day, we should be able to help Madison reach the next ss.¡¯ Shiro thought as she turned over to Madison.
[Why don¡¯t the three of us challenge the Dungeon? We can try level Lyrica up as well as help you ss up.]
"Sure. We haven¡¯t gone to a Dungeon with just us three have we?" Madison asked. Thest time they partied up was during the Shadow Temple Dungeon. However, Madison¡¯s other friends were there as well so it couldn¡¯t really count as partying with just the three of them.
"Well which Dungeon shall we challenge then? Since if it¡¯s too high, I won¡¯t be able to block the boss¡¯s attack." Madison asked.
"Hmm, let¡¯s focus on you Madison. Since I¡¯ve already ssed up, I can wait." Lyrica said.
[Alright. For Madison, we need to focus on how you counter and block against the boss and humans. Since your role is being a tanker, you must focus your mind on blocking every strike along with countering at the right moment.] Shiro said as Madison nodded seriously.
She knew that when it came to fighting, Shiro was always serious. While her go to weakness of attacking the rear was a little shameless, it is a very effective method against both monsters and humans. The only limiting factor is how much embarrassment you could endure.
In this area, it seemed like Shiro was unmatched.
[And for that, I have a great way for you to practise against the boss.] Shiro smiled meaningfully.
"What do you mean?"
###
"My lord. This servant is useless. I haven¡¯t been able to dig up her past. It¡¯s as if she was literally born a few weeks ago. Of all the records I¡¯ve managed to recover, they don¡¯t go further than when she first appeared in the teleport shrine." Mark said as he kneeled towards Lucius.
"Mn." Lucius nodded slightly.
¡¯Strange.¡¯ He thought. Mark was of the best scouts that he had in terms of information gathering. For him to fail in discovering her background only served to propel his curiosity further.
"Don¡¯t mind it. How goes her progress in the event?" Lucius asked.
"She¡¯s managed to reach top 100 with rtive ease. Her friends on the other hand reached top 500 and top 1000 respectively. The elf is the one that reached top 500." Mark replied.
"What about her potential?"
"From her records, it seems like she has a hidden proficiency. As for earlier records and family background, there were signs cover-up. Seems like she¡¯s from arge family."
"Hmm... could it be that she¡¯s from THE Valenstaine family? Though I highly doubt it." Lucius said.
The Valenstaine family he was on about was one of the 7 noble Elven families. All of their offspring¡¯s are famed swordsman/woman who are all well known in the public eye.
Since they were constantly under public scrutiny, the public knew the members of the family quite well. Therefore, Lucius didn¡¯t think that Lyrica was part of the Valenstaine family. Not only that, people having the same surname wasn¡¯t umon. It was like the top Chinese surnames.
Wang, Li, Zhang, Liu and Chen.
These 5 were themon Chinese surnames. And much like these, the Valenstaine name was amon one in the elven race.
"It¡¯s very unlikely she¡¯s apart the Valenstaine family since her appearance doesn¡¯t match." Mark replied.
"True."
Valenstaine had sky blue hair while Lyrica had blond. Though gene mutation could have changed it so Lucius didn¡¯t pay attention to the colour of her hair.
"Well try to recruit them as best as you can. Remember to prioritise Shiro since she¡¯s one of the most talented people we¡¯ve seen even whenpared to the bigger cities." Lucius concluded.
"Understood."
###
"Nan Tian, it seems like Shiro has entered a low level Dungeon with her friends. The Dungeon is a level 20 dungeon and the boss heavily relies on speed."
"Ohya? Seems like she wants to nurture her future tanker in the art of countering." Nan Tian said. Huan Er was slightly surprised at how he came to the conclusion.
Understanding Huan Er confusion, Nan Tian exined.
"It¡¯s because you can easily tell what she wants. I can read her expression like an open book hahaha." Nan Tian chuckled softly.
Huan Er raised an eyebrow.
¡¯How?! She¡¯s literally either smiling slightly or expressionless!¡¯
"But I do wonder why she has so muchbat experience even though she¡¯s so young." Nan Tian muttered.
"Do you think she¡¯s involved with a secret nurturing program of sorts?" Huan Er asked.
"No I don¡¯t think she is. But perhaps it¡¯s not far off." Nan Tian said with narrowed eyes.
He knew that snow girls could form from the corpse of a female adventurer. And that could be the reason as to why she was able to have suchbat experience.
Although, it still doesn¡¯t exin why herbat experience was so vast.
This wasn¡¯t something a D ranked adventurer should have, especially since she left a mutated Dungeon of such low level.
¡¯How peculiar...¡¯ Nan Tian thought as a smile crept up on his face. The more he looked into Shiro, the more secrets she held and the more she interested him.
"How long do I have until I need to return to the sect again?" Nan Tian asked, turning to Huan Er.
"We still have another 2 weeks here."
"Hmmm... extend that to a few months would you?" Nan Tian asked.
"Why a few months?"
"Just put it down as self-discovery hahahaha." Nan Tianughed.
"Self... Discovery?" Huan Er asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes. I want to spend a little bit of time away from work and documents. Discover something that interests me." Nan Tian replied.
"Noted."
Keying in the request, they soon got a response.
"The sect has approved. They gave you an extension of half a year."
"Half a year? Hmm... I suppose that¡¯ll do." Nan Tian muttered a little unsatisfied. While he did say a few months, he had hoped for a year.
¡¯Maybe I should be more straight forward next time?¡¯ He thought with amusement.
Meanwhile, back with Shiro and co in the dungeon...
"SHIRO!!! HELP!!!!" Madison cried out as she blocked another one of the boss¡¯s strikes.
"Madison! Shiro told me to tell you that you can do it! You just need to make sure you redirect the force and create an opening! It¡¯s a fundamental skill every tanker needs!" Lyrica shouted out since Shiro couldn¡¯t talk.
Currently, Lyrica and Shiro was resting by the side while they watched Madison fight the boss by herself.
"HELP ME PLEASE!!!" Madison shouted out as she rolled away from one of the boss¡¯s strikes.
Shiro¡¯s strategy in helping Madison grow stronger was simply to get her to fight the boss on her own and hone her survival instincts.
"Shiro told me to tell you! Just keep going! You know we won¡¯t help you unless you are literally on yourst leg!!"
"ARGG!!" Madison cried out in frustration and mmed her sword into the boss¡¯s body.
The boss was an insectoid boss. It had a lot of simrities with a prying mantis with his ded arms being able to strike out with high velocity.
Madison used several defence bolstering skills and charged at the boss.
shing her sword diagonally, she stepped down hard to increase her power.
*DANG!
The sh of metal against chitin reverberated outwards as the sword could be seen vibrating from the shock.
Madison gritted her teeth from the shock since the boss was able to move its chitin in the way just in time.
Due to the shock, she was left paralysed for a slight moment.
Shiro sighed and flicked her wrist.
*BOOM!
The boss was sent backwards with a st of ice, giving Madison the moment she needed to recover.
"Shiro told me to tell you! Learn from the boss! See how he managed to reflect your attack and leave you stunned for a moment!" Lyrica shouted out.
Madison paused a little as she reyed the previous scenario in her mind.
"God I hope this works." She muttered since she had a slight idea on what she needed to do.
Dashing towards the boss, she sidestepped his sh.
His other de-like w swept towards her as it saw his first attack fail.
Moving her sword into a position to parry the strike, Madison jolted her sword just before the attacknded.
While the force still travelled through her, she could tell it was much weaker than before. The boss however, was sent recoiling backwards.
"I DID IT!" Madison shouted out with joy.
Shiro smiled seeing her growth.
¡¯There were go.¡¯ She thought. The human potential was best stimted during times of danger.
Madison just needed that extra push to learn the technique of redirecting the force.
With this, she¡¯ll hit one of the requirements to be a top tier tanker.
Chapter 64 - Demon Knight
Chapter 64: Demon Knight
Having grasped the technique of redirecting the force, Madison¡¯s sess rate of blocking and creating openings increased by arge amount.
Being able to consistently redirect force and strike the enemy was a huge boon to the party.
Sure Shiro could do it too, but tankers had follow up skills that could allow them to stun the monster for long periods of time.
Parrying another attack, Madison narrowed her eyes before sliding the sword along the boss¡¯s weak point between the armour.
Seeing the boss¡¯s HP get reduced down to 1, Madison knew her role was over.
Tankers rarely had a finishing move they could use to end the boss. Therefore, this job was left for either the mages or the swordsman.
[Lyrica you want to do the honours?] Shiro asked with a smile.
"Sure."
Lyrica summoned her dual ended de and twirled it in her hands to get them warmed up.
Making sure her body was ready, she crouched low and dashed towards the boss.
Her body red with a silver aura along with a pink one.
Madison was curious as to what Lyrica was going to do. Since she had her own fights, she wasn¡¯t able to see Lyrica fight meaning she had no knowledge of her berserk skills.
Lyrica¡¯s body flicked and appeared before the boss.
Stabbing the de under the boss, Lyrica used her arm as a pivoting point.
*BAM!
Kicking down on the de with her heel, she not only demonstrated great flexibility but also burst power.
In a short burst of strength, she was able to lift the boss off the ground.
mming her palms into the boss, she usedpressive power andunched him higher.
Seeing that the boss was ready, Lyrica adjusted her grip on the sword.
The edges of the de set ame with a neon pink radianceyered on top of it.
Twisting her body, Lyrica twirled her de for a moment before stabbing at the boss.
A ming lotus appeared around her with each of the petals striking the boss.
*BOOMM!!!!!!
Madison was sent stumbling slightly when the attacknded on the boss. She couldn¡¯t help but open her jaw wide when she saw the clean holes through the boss. Some of the holes were even located in the hardest part of the boss¡¯s chitin armour.
*BOOM!!!
The bossnded heavily on the ground.
Helping Madison up, they collected the loot.
"Damn, Lyrica that was crazy what you pulled off." Madison praised seeing her burst potential.
"Hahaha." Lyrica onlyughed while feeling a little embarrassed.
[Madison, you should be able to ss up now. Why don¡¯t you do it in here as to not cause amotion.]
"Sure."
Tapping her ss up button, a silver radiance flickered around her.
*DONG~!
The chime of a bell was suddenly heard as Shiro widened her eyes in surprise!
¡¯She managed to fulfil all the hidden conditions for a hidden ss?!¡¯ Shiro thought as the force caused them to back off a little.
*DONG~ DONG~ DONG~
The bell chimes continue to ring out.
A hollow form of a knight could be seen appearing behind Madison. With white armour and golden highlights, it looked just like a holy light.
However, just as Shiro frowned a little, the knight started to flinch in pain.
"GAHHHH!!!!" His cry could be heard as dark crimson chains shot out from the ground.
Stabbing through the body of the knight, it¡¯s armour slowly morphed into the armour befitting of an evil overlord.
Creepy sharp protrusions could be seen around the shoulders, arms and legs. A red cape fluttered behind while neon red lights served as his eyes under the helmet.
His hollowed figure started to ovep with Madison¡¯s as Lyrica became nervous. Shiro held her back and showed Lyrica her phone.
[Calm down. It¡¯s just her ss up. Somehow, she¡¯s managed to fulfil the stringent requirements to get a hidden ss even though she¡¯s already picked the knight ss.]
Gold and ck aura surged the closer the knight came topletely ovepping her figure.
It was only after 5 minutes did the aura start to die down.
[Madison LVL 21 ¨C Demon Knight]
¡¯Demon Knight?¡¯ Shiro thought as she had never heard of this ss at all.
"Madison?" Lyrica called out, slightly worried about how Madison felt after ss up.
ck goo suddenly rose from the ground and covered Madison¡¯s body. Shocked, Lyrica dashed forwards to help Madison.
Reaching for Madison, Lyrica¡¯s hand was repelled by the ck goo.
*BAM!
It struck against her chest heavily and sent her sliding backwards.
Before she could charge at it again, Shiro pulled her arm.
"Shiro!" Lyrica cried out as she turned to her.
Shiro only gestured for her to watch.
The goo shifted for a moment before retreating.
Madison¡¯s brown hair became ck with slight highlights of red. Her face could now be ssed as a heroic type of beauty whenpared to her previous ¡¯girl next door¡¯ beauty.
Her figure became much more entuated with her bust and rear getting a decent ¡¯boost¡¯.
This caused Shiro to look down on her own body and sigh at the fact that she still looked like a kid.
Opening her eyes, Madison looked at her body and moved around a little.
Turning back to Shiro and Lyrica, her crimson eyes bore into theirs.
"...well this feels a little odd and...fortable?" She said as Lyrica sighed in relief.
"You scared me then. I thought the ck goo thingy had consumed you." Lyrica said as Madisonughed.
However, her body hunched forward a little due to her new bust.
[You should get used to your lumps of fat quickly. They might affect you inbat.] Shiro typed with slight jealousy.
She wanted to get her womanly figure soon as well. While it wasn¡¯t to attract males, it was rather for her to be able to fight better since her reach for close quartersbat was abysmally short right now.
[That being said, what can your Demon Knight ss even do?]
"Hmm... I¡¯ve lost most of my original skills and reced with the Demon Knight skill branch. Erm... It seems like I have a lot of damage potential along with tanking potential." Madison said.
"What do you mean by that?" Lyrica asked since most ss only had one or the other. But then they have both, the effects would be weakened.
"Well I have a skill called Demon Knight Manifestation. I¡¯m able to summon the power of either an attack type demon knight or a defence type demon knight into my body.
"The catch is that the MP drain will always be 0.5% MP/second. When I run out of MP, it¡¯ll be taking my HP at a rate of 2% per second.
"I¡¯m also able to turn it on and off when I desire but there will be a gap of 1 minute before I can use it again." Madison said, exining her new skill to the duo.
¡¯Hmm... An MP drain of 0.5% for every second means that she can use this mode for 200 seconds every time granted that she doesn¡¯t use any skills. But there should be a follow up skill that increases her MP regen so that she could sustain this mode for much longer.¡¯
[Do you have a skill that helps you increase your mana regeneration?] Shiro asked.
"Hmm let me check... Yes I do actually. It¡¯s a passive called Mana Drainage. For every sessfulbo break, parry and counter I do, I regain 5% of my mana. I have to do it in that order though. So if I miss a counter, I won¡¯t get the 5% mana back.
"Right now the skill is at Tier 1 so I¡¯m assuming the MP regen will increase the higher tier I go." Madison replied.
Shiro raised an eyebrow to this. While it didn¡¯t seem hard to do, using it effectively would be hard to do since to do abo break, one would need to wait until the bossnds more than 10 hits on a person.
On higher levels, there are boss¡¯s who build up momentum the move hits theynd, so this skill is a double sided de where the reward wasn¡¯t worth the trouble. As of now that is. Perhaps when it tiered up, the requirements and the MP regen would increase making the skill worth the risks.
But the immediate solution for Madison¡¯s Demon Manifestation would be to have a support that could help regenerate MP or have an equipment that contain the Mana Eater skill.
However, if they were to gain an equipment with the Mana Eater skill, Shiro would be the first to send it to the recycling bin and make a skill chip of the skill.
[Should we get an outfit for you. Because it seems like your assets are about to spill.] Shiro typed out with a nk expression since Madison¡¯s shirt looked like it was about to burst.
Madison blushed a little seeing this.
"I can¡¯t help it ok?! Who knew a ss up would increase my breast size!!" Madison cried out as she covered her breasts.
Shiro only shrugged as their initial goal was attained. With her ssing up surprisingly to a Demon Knight, she should fair much better in the simtion.
Upon leaving the Dungeon, they returned to the dorms.
Shiro stood in her room before narrowing her eyes.
Opening the window, she came face to face with Nan Tian.
[And if I didn¡¯t open the window you¡¯ll just be another weird f*cker stalking the window of a young girl.] Shiro typed out.
"But we know each other. Doesn¡¯t really count right?" Nan Tian chuckled.
[No it does count. So what do you want exactly?]
"Nothing. Just telling you that you¡¯ll be seeing me for half a year."
[Are you serious?] Shiro asked with a nk face. She was currently despairing at the fact that this high levelled creep was going to be seeing her for 7 months.
"When was I never serious?" Nan Tianughed while floating in front of her window.
Due to the fact that her room was situated closer to the small forest, Nan Tian was out of the public eye.
However, she was now contemting on a room change so Nan Tian wouldn¡¯t be able to do what he was doing.
"Ah. If you¡¯re wondering about having a room change, don¡¯t bother since I¡¯ll still be able to visit you."
[Shameless.]
"Not as much as you. Who the hell would be as shameless as to go for the ass?"
[Me?]
"...True." Nan Tian agreed.
[Well if you¡¯re going to stalk me why don¡¯t you make yourself useful. Got anything good to sell? Especially with the stunt you pulled during the auction.] Shiro typed out as she turned around and sat on her chair.
"Ai, both of us know that even if I gave you them for free, you won¡¯t be able to use them." He said with a shake of his head.
[Who said I wanted to use them? I just want to buy the ones with nice skills and keep it in my collection.] Shiro replied.
She wanted to see if she could recycle some of the weapons and armours for their skills.
"Letting armour and weapon rust as a collection is rather wasteful don¡¯t you think? Shouldn¡¯t weapons be best used on the battlefield. No point letting them rust without serving their purpose."
[True. If that¡¯s the case then there¡¯s no point you being here is there? Why don¡¯t you go do what you need to do?]
"How hurtful. You¡¯re already chasing away your future branch master." Nan Tian said with fake drama.
Shiro kept her expressionless face on while she watched all of this.
"Fine fine I leave. See youter little snow~" Nan Tianughed before his body flickered away.
"Tsk, creepy b*stard." Shiro muttered.
Locking the windows, Shiro did her routine of setting down traps before falling asleep.
###
Early the next morning, the trio gathered together and walked towards the gathering spot for the second event.
"Hey Shiro, why does it seem like you¡¯re a little cranky every time you wake up?" Lyrica asked.
¡¯Probably because before sleep, I have the Nan Tian stalker. And after sleep, I find out the Lucius stalker came by.¡¯ Shiro thought with annoyance.
In this regard, she much preferred Nan Tian since he at least gave her alone time when sleeping.
[Nothing much.] Shiro replied.
"Period?" Madison asked as Shiro paused.
¡¯Can a snow girl even have a period?¡¯ Shiro thought as she was pretty sure a snow girl didn¡¯t give birth.
[No it¡¯s not my period.] Shiro shook her head.
[Just focus on the task at hand. While this is only the second round so to speak, it is still an important round for you to get noticed by therger guilds. Remember, don¡¯t seek out the fights. Take advantage of already urring ones.] Shiro suggested.
Arriving at the venue, Shiro tilted her head back and stared at the giant building that was coloured a cream white.
¡¯Hopefully, I¡¯ll be able to keep a decent performance record.¡¯ She thought before entering the venue.
Chapter 65 - Battle Royal P1
Chapter 65: Battle Royal P1
"For the second round, each of you will enter the simtion pod and get transported to the virtual world.
"In here, you¡¯re able to let loose and fight to the best of your abilities. Everyone will start with no weapons and no armour, the key is to find them scattered throughout the map. There are 200 yers in each match and only the top 10 will advance into the next round.
"Please note, MP and HP will not be regenerated in this match. You¡¯ll have to find the potionsying around and recover your HP and MP that way.
"During the match, you¡¯ll be able to scour the map to discover items, weapons and armour to give that extra boost in the match.
"As for your character, you¡¯ll only be allowed 1 tier magic for the mages and 3 skills for the warriors. Both the warriors and the mages will be randomised for this stage. Mages will have 50k HP and 75k MP while the warriors will have 75k HP and 50k MP. Other physical traits will be simr to your real-life counterparts except for stamina. Everyone will have the same stamina.
"With that all said! Please enter your pods and we¡¯ll begin the second round shortly!" Thementator shouted out as Shiro did just that.
Entering the pod, Shiro used her nanobots to hack into the system once more and change the system recordings of her status.
Picking Tier 2 Ice magic as her skill, Shiro felt her vision shift.
[Shiro ¨C Ice Mage - LVL 34]
[HP: 50,000/50,000]
[MP: 75,000/75,000]
Her status could be seen under her peripherals and the map was in the top right corner.
Pressing the map, Shiro was surprised at how big it was.
The map itself was primarily constructed of 5 inds with the 5th ind in the centre.
The first ind was designed as a ruined city. The second, a rural vige. The third ind was the desert and the final ind was the forest and mountain range.
As for the centre ind, they couldn¡¯t see anything since it had a huge ¡¯UNKNOWN¡¯ above the area.
¡¯Seems like it¡¯ll reveal itself in due time.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Looking around the starting area, Shiro could see it only beingposed of level 50¡¯s and a few stray level 40¡¯s. However, these level 40¡¯s all range from level 45 onwards.
She was the only odd one out with her level 34.
"Very soon, all of you will be teleported into the air at the four different inds. Each ind will have 50 fighters. And over time, a ring will slowly close in onto the centre ind. The more people there are, the more crowded the centre bes. And if you try to enter the centre ind at the start, there are turrets there to eliminate you.
"The centre will only open when the ring covers the majority of the four inds.
"And without further ado, LET THE SECOND ROUND START!!!" Thementator shouted out a light engulfed the entire starting area.
Shiro shielded her eyes as she felt the wind hit against her.
Opening her eyes, she saw that she was currently freefalling above the city.
Narrowing her eyes, she scanned the people around her.
Most of the were struggling for a moment to reorientation themselves.
Shiro ignored them and turned her attention to the city. Most of the buildings here were either skyscrapers orrge stadiums.
Thinking for a moment, Shiro focused her attention on the skyscraper.
The skyscraper would be the best choice for her due to the fact that she¡¯ll be able to take advantage of the narrow corridors and set down traps for her enemies. In addition to this, she should be able to find a few items in the first aid area.
Flipping her body in mid-air, Shiro made her body streamlined and shot towards the skyscraper at incredible speeds.
Since her control of the body was high, she was able to control her glide towards the skyscraper with near maximum efficiency and speed.
*BOOMM!!!!!!
Shiro suddenly heard the sound ofbat behind her and turned her head.
Elemental attacks littered the skies as they wanted to eliminate theirpetitors as soon as possible.
¡¯Seems like they ignored me because I¡¯m a low level. They think someone else will kill me sooner orter and rather than wasting MP on me, they wanted to kill the other level 50¡¯s first.¡¯ Shiro thought, analysing the current situation.
¡¯This works perfectly for me.¡¯ She grinned while quickly approaching the roof of a skyscraper.
A strange feeling overcame her as her bodynded softly on the roof.
¡¯Seems like a mechanism to make sure no one died on impact. Though I suppose this does save me some MP I can useter.¡¯ Shiro thought. Her initial n was to use her tier 2 ice magic to create a ramp to slow down hernding.
Not stalling for a second longer, she dashed through the door and dropped down to the top floor.
Looking around, Shiro saw a few weapons and armour lying around.
¡¯White grade sword, white grade chest te and white grade boots.¡¯ Shiro thought as she equipped the equipment.
Holding the sword near her waist, she jogged through the floor to find a map of the skyscraper.
¡¯Currently, I¡¯m on the 50th floor. Floors 1 to 20 are for visitors. 21 to 45 are the main offices and floors 46 to 50 are the offices of the big bosses.¡¯ Shiro thought, looking at the panel near the elevator.
¡¯There isn¡¯t a ¨C¡¯
*BOOOMMMMM!!!!!
Her thoughts were cut off when she felt the skyscraper shake from a nearby explosion.
Jogging to the windows, Shiro peaked towards the source.
She could see two mages battling it out in the streets, each attack of theirs rocked the surroundings.
¡¯I need to get all I can before evacuating this skyscraper.¡¯ She thought since she wouldn¡¯t be able to survive if the skyscraper copsed on her.
Quickly dashing through the floor, Shiro picked up anything she could use and discarded anything she couldn¡¯t.
Generally, the start of a battle royal like this would consist of gathering items before actually fighting. Very few would fight unless they set their eyes on the same equipment.
Panting for a moment, Shiro frowned at the fact that her ¡¯stamina¡¯ wasn¡¯t transferred over.
¡¯Seems like I can¡¯t use my martial arts too often.¡¯ Shiro thought since the Yin Style Phantom Art¡¯s was heavily taxing on a person¡¯s stamina. She was only able to use it often due to her monstrous stamina.
However, in this round where everyone basically had the same stat¡¯s as their real-life counterpart, she had lost her advantage of monstrous stamina.
Without her advantage of the Yin Style Phantom Arts, the uing fights will be much harder.
Currently, she had an item called the ¡¯backpack¡¯. It acted like an inventory and allowed her to store her weapons inside.
Unfortunately, it was just a white backpack so she could only store a maximum of 4 items inside. Though it still helped since she didn¡¯t have to carry her weapons around manually.
Her current arsenal included a green sword, a green bow, 20 arrows and a white spear.
Sneaking a nce through the gaps on the wall, Shiro saw that the fight wasing to a close.
Converging the fire into a ming hammer, the attack mmed it into the ground causing tens of pirs of fire to erupt from the ground.
*BOOOMM!!!!
Shiro stumbled slightly since the skyscraper was also affected.
Peaking at them again, Shiro saw the defender get reduced to ashes.
However, before the attacker could celebrate his victory, Shiro saw a streak of yellow.
*BOOM!!!
A lightning streak smashed through the attacker¡¯s chest as he too was eliminated.
¡¯A sniper!¡¯ Shiro thought as she peeked towards the source. Roughly 500 meters away, she could see the residue sparks left behind by the shot of lightning.
Narrowing her eyes, she frowned when she couldn¡¯t make out the sniper¡¯s figure.
¡¯To be able to attack the duo from that far away, he must have either great eyesight or predictive abilities.¡¯ Shiro thought as she suddenly had a feeling of danger.
Abandoning all thoughts of cover, Shiro jumped out the windows with her arms shielding her face from the ss.
Free falling, Shiro swiped her arm upwards and made an ice ramp.
*BOOM!!!!!
A lightning shot pierced her previous location and made a clean hole through the building.
Cold sweat would have appeared if this wasn¡¯t in a simtion.
Flicking her wrist, she made a few odd turns and loops to throw off the sniper¡¯s aim.
*BOOM!!!!
The bullet missed her as the force pushed Shiro off her ramp.
¡¯Crap!¡¯ Shiro thought.
Quickly swiping left, another ramp appeared and softened hernding.
Landing back on the ground, Shiro crouched low and dashed towards a heavily crowded area. This was so that the sniper would have a much harder time predicting her position.
Sliding into some cover, Shiro panted heavily.
¡¯Annoying.¡¯ She thought.
Normally, she would wee a long-ranged fight since she¡¯ll have her arsenal of rail guns, nanotech snipers, nanotech bows and the such. However, right now her crappy green bow will never be able to reach the distance of 500 meters.
Meanwhile, the sniper was frowning at the fact that he missed both shots.
"Tch, her instincts are on point." He muttered, removing his binocrs.
When he dropped into the city, the first thing he searched for was something to amodate his long-ranged fight style. Thankfully, he managed to find a pair of binocrs, graded blue, in the store nearby.
"When did we get someone with such an acute sense of danger." His shots were almost always 100% urate and very rarely would he miss. This was because he made sure to go for shots he knew would hit.
Yet, Shiro managed to dodge both shots he thought would hit.
Looking through his binocrs, he decided to give up on her since she¡¯s had already entered a hard to hit area.
He drank an MP potion while he made a mental note about her appearance.
###
Peaking out of her cover, Shiro no longer had the feeling of danger that was there before. Sighing in relief, she continued her path through the buildings.
Her location was north-west of the entire map. Sighing at the fact that she was about as far away from the centre as she could get, Shiro looked for a Hospital to try her luck for items. While the previous stunt didn¡¯t take too much from her MP, she would only feel at ease with it full.
However, since it was a hospital, Shiro knew that there was a huge chance of encountering someone.
Keeping a bow in hand, Shiro nocked an arrow so she would always be ready to fire the bow.
Sneaking through the alleys, she kept an eye on both the yer count along with the surroundings. asionally, she would see a random mage¡¯s magic spark in the distance, telling her of their position.
Shiro could only shake her head at these people. With such shy magic, they¡¯re basically crying out ¡¯hey! I¡¯m here! Kill me please!¡¯.
It was especially bad due to the fact that this was a battle royal. Without the limitation of holding back, they can easily use their best skills and end people.
Approaching the hospital, Shiro only frowned when she saw the shadow of a person in one of the windows.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro contemted whether or not she should enter the building.
¡¯If I keep my tracks quiet, I should be able to sneak past him with ease. But then again, he might have robbed all of the items...¡¯ Shiro thought for a second before settling with setting a trap to kill them as soon as she could. This was the fastest way to eliminate her peers that were levels above her.
Naturally, this wasn¡¯t without risks. She had to make sure her trap guaranteed the kill no matter how overpowered it might be. Because if not, she would be out of the round.
After all, if you¡¯re dead, you can¡¯t use any of the MP you tried to save for thete game.
Sneaking near the entrance of the Hospital, Shiro narrowed her eyes and estimated the probability of him exiting by the front door.
¡¯Open area, not much cover, great for snipers. My best bet would be the back door where he will most likely exit.¡¯ Shiro thought and circled around. Just as she predicted, she saw hints of his shadow walking away from the front door.
Crouching down, she pressed her palms down and created a magic circle. The circle shed for a moment before fading away.
The door, the floor, next to the lights, drainage, the stairs and the rails. She ced traps in as many directions as she could to guarantee her the kill. Jumping up nimbly from extrusions, shended on the window ledge and looked down.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to recover a little of her stamina. She pulled out her bow and looked towards the entrance.
Nocking the arrow, she held her breath and waited for the perfect moment.
Her ears twitched when she heard echoing footsteps.
Pulling back the arrow, Shiro focused her concentration to 120% since she only had 1 chance to kill him in one shot.
Chapter 66 Battle Royal P2
Chapter 66 Battle Royal P2
*Krrrr....
The door opened slowly as the man looked around cautiously. Seeing that no one was near him, he sighed in relief.
¡¯A little further...¡¯ Shiro thought so she could make sure all of the traps worked to their full potential.
Shiro¡¯s eyes were steady and calm. Watching him walk step by step, she pulled back a little more on her bow. At this point, the strings were nearing their limit so Shiro knew she had to fire the bow soon.
¡¯NOW!¡¯
She let go of her arrow as soon as he stepped into her strike zone.
*BOOMMMM!!!!!
At the same time, the traps set off, sending sharp pirs of ice stabbing towards the man.
The ice pierced through him before he could react, ending him instantly.
His body shook for a slight moment before shattering into light.
"Phew..." Shiro sighed in relief as shended back on the ground.
Thawing the ice as to not give her position away, she checked his loot.
¡¯Blue sword, 5 HP potions, 3 MP potions, green staff, blue bag plus some armour that boosted movement speed and attack power.¡¯ Shiro thought, taking the gear she needed.
Looking back at the hospital, she wondered if there are still items inside for her to loot.
¡¯No. I should keep moving to avoid the other yers discovering me when they arrive here.¡¯
Since her attack had caused quite amotion, Shiro needed to move quickly to avoid the level 50¡¯s that might arrive.
She paused for a second as she had an idea. Scavenging the surrounding trash, she managed to find herself quite a few bottles.
Since this was a simtion, she didn¡¯t know if this would work.
Jumping up, she parkoured from rail to ledge until she was a few floors under the roof.
Climbing through the window of the building next to the hospital, Shiro made sure that her shadow couldn¡¯t be seen.
Looking for a nearby table, she grabbed her sword and cut one of the legs off.
Making a few cuts, she was left with the top of the table leg looking like an h. She then cut the bottom of the bottle off before cing it in the groove of the table leg.
Securing her sword near the bottom of the bottle, she pulled on the stic.
¡¯It works.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile. The bottle started to spin as the knife would cut the stic into one long continuous strip.
Her goal was to make a stic rope for her to hold her weapons for easier ess. While the bag was useful, it still took a while to pull out her weapon. Making it inefficient in battle.
She continued this for several bottles until she had a pile of stic strips next to her.
She started to thread them together to form a rope.
Looking at the final results, Shiro was surprised the simtion even allowed her to do this and even graded it green.
Strapping the rope diagonally across her body, she connected the spear to the rope. She made it so that she could easily pull the spear off her back should it be needed.
Moving around a little, she found that it wasn¡¯t too obstructive which was good news to her.
She peaked out the window and saw that no one had arrived.
¡¯Seems like my position hasn¡¯t been discovered yet.¡¯ Shiro thought as she put a MP potion in her mouth.
After thest fight, she had used quite a bit of MP to guarantee the kill.
[Shiro ¨C Ice Mage]
[HP: 50,000/50,000]
[MP: 64,500/75,000]
Shiro frowned a little when she saw that she was still missing 10.5k MP. A single MP potion regenerated around 20k MP. If she used another potion, it would be wasting an additional 9.5k MP that could have been regenerated.
¡¯Better safe than sorry.¡¯ Shiro thought as she could do quite a few things with 10.5k MP. Especially since her link¡¯s weren¡¯t broken in the simtion world.
Thinking of the broken links, Shiro could onlyment the fact that she didn¡¯t check on the ways to heal them before.
In her previous life, people had already found the fix to broken links, saving the lives of those who were either born with this defect or when a person almost died by having their links destroyed.
Yet, she had never paid it any attention since she didn¡¯t think she would need to know.
However, now that she was suffering from her broken links, she had no idea on how to fix them.
Sighing in regret, Shiro could only try to find the solution herself.
Naturally, she could also try to find herbs or medicine that invoked a full-body rebirth. One that cleansed the body and spurred the hidden potential a person had.
She wasn¡¯t sure if this would fix her broken mana links but it was still hope.
Shaking her head, Shiro decided to put it to the back of her mind for now. She could take her time to find the herbster when she left the city. However, that in itself was a hard task due to the fact that the few types of rebirth herbs she knew grew in ces that were guarded by powerful beasts. As to whether or not she could take the herbs under their supervision was a question that didn¡¯t even need to be asked.
She would die no doubt.
Packing up her items, she left the room with the spear on her back.
She wanted to make her way towards the centre since the ring should be closing soon.
Opening the window, Shiro checked for any enemies before jumping to the next building across from her.
Her travels continued for a while with her being able to see the asional yer being eliminated.
*BRR BRR BRR BRR!!!
rms started to ring out, halting her steps.
[Ring closing]
Seeing the alert, Shiro knew she had to pick up her speed. Looking towards the map, she saw that she wasn¡¯t too far from the first ring.
¡¯I should set up a vantage point so I can see who¡¯s left.¡¯ Shiro thought as she wanted to see how many people were still in her general direction.
Jumping from roof to roof, Shiro approached the top of a small shop and started to set up.
The shop was located a little bit away from the ring. It had a great view due to the fact that none of the buildings and cars blocked her sight of the main road. Meaning whoever ran towards her would barely have any cover to hide in.
Stabbing the spear into the wall, she continued until a hole was poked through. This was so that she could look at whoever ran towards her without giving her position away.
Right now, there were still 10 seconds for the ring to appear so she took this moment to look at the yer list and see who¡¯s still in the game.
¡¯This ind still has 23 yers left. Desert ind has 18, the rural vige has 26 and the mountain area has 31. With 98 yers left, that means another 88 yers need to die before I can enter the next round.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. 88 yers weren¡¯t a small amount especially since most of them were higher level than her.
The main issue came with the ring that was closing in. As the ying field get¡¯s smaller, the chances of running into someone increased. While that may mean 88 yers will be gone at a faster rate, it also meant that there is a higher chance for her to be eliminated.
Peaking through the hole, she checked to see if anyone wasing.
¡¯No one yet.¡¯ She thought.
Checking back with her map, she saw the ring already consume the outer area at an astonishing pace.
Time ticked away by the second while the ring closed in slowly.
By the time the ring was in view, Shiro narrowed her eyes and focused her attention.
She wanted to eliminate someone else and help reduce the number of people left. This would, in turn, increase her chances of survival.
Naturally, the second-best option would be to hide and wait till they pass her. This way, she¡¯ll be able to attack them from behind.
Seeing a faint figure moving from rooftop to rooftop, Shiro vaulted over the ledge and rolled into the store.
Since he was on the rooftops, he would see her hiding on the top of the store. Waiting for him to pass her, Shiro waited to see if she could find anyone else.
¡¯Seems like it¡¯s just him. Anyone else would be consumed in the ring.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Coming out of her cover, she jumped back onto the roof of the store.
Narrowing her eyes towards the skyscr.a.p.ers, she nned her route upwards.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro dashed forwards at one of the slightly taller buildings.
Jumping up, she kicked off the rails and increased her momentum upwards. Grabbing the railing, she swung herself up, adding on to her previous momentum.
After a few swift movements, Shironded at the roof while panting heavily.
Tilting her head back, she saw him bunker down at one of the skyscr.a.p.ers.
Breathing out to calm herself, she looked at the distance between them.
¡¯I need to get past 3 buildings and roughly 30 floors to get to him.¡¯ Shiro thought.
She needed to get to him quickly and quietly to ensure that he doesn¡¯t discover her. Stepping back slightly, she did a short run-up before her body burst with her maximum speed possible.
Due to the insane control over her body, she was able to push it to the maximum speed it could output.
However, if she was in her old body, she wouldn¡¯t even need a small run up. She was able to go from 0 to 100 almost instantaneously.
Jumping across the gaps, she stabbed the spear into the side of the building before using it as a jump pad.
Flicking her wrist, an ice spear formed in her hands. With two spears in hand, she leapt over the railing.
Thankfully, his back was turned away from her.
Twisting her body in mid-air, Shiro threw the ice spear followed up by the second spear.
"Hm?" The sniper was alerted and quickly turned around.
¡¯It¡¯s her!¡¯ He thought, recognising Shiro.
Aiming his finger at the spear, he disregarded the MP cost and shot his fastest lightning bullet.
*BAM!!!
Shiro bent backwards to dodge the bullet.
¡¯Tsk, he reacts fast.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Landing on her feet, she quickly dashed towards him with her sword in hand.
*CLANG!
Metal struck against metal as the sniper also brought out a sword.
Stomping down, Shiro froze the area under them.
Letting go of her sword, Shiro pivoted her body towards the sniper. mming her elbow into his stomach, Shiro them grabbed his cor.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Flipping his body over her¡¯s, she quickly made 8 ice flying daggers in her hands. She jumped up before throwing all the daggers, 4 at a time.
*BOOM BOOM!
The daggers exploded into shards upon contact, dealing more damage to him.
While he was able to react at first, Shiro outpaced him with her other movements.
This allowed her to create a gap in his defence and strike at him.
In the simtion, everyone had either 50k HP or 75k HP. While the body stats may be different, the HP was the same. Therefore, as long as her damage output was enough, he would die before recovering.
Creating more daggers in her hands, she threw them at him before he could even recover from the previous attack.
Gritting his teeth, lightning-sparked around him and shot everywhere.
Making an ice shield, Shiro blocked it whilst creating an ice bear trap.
*BOOM!!!
The trap mped and ended thest remains of his HP.
"Fuuu..."
Shiro quickly threw an MP potion in her mouth while checking out for anyone else who wanted to take advantage of the fight.
Seeing that no one was around, she sighed in relief.
The fight just now was dangerous since a single close call of the lighting bullet took a quarter of her health. Imagining how powerful it was with a direct hit made her shiver.
Checking her loot gain, she was pretty surprised that the man only had a few potions, weapons and a binocr.
The weapons where pretty poor while he only had HP potions left.
¡¯Makes sense since he was a sniper after all. He would barely need to go close quartersbat if he yed his cards right.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Checking in the current progress of the round, she saw that there was a total of 74 people left. Just in that short moment, 14 people had been eliminated including the sniper she just killed.
¡¯With 25% of the overall map already eliminated, there should only be ¨C¡¯
*BOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!
Her attention was suddenly shifted when she saw a huge explosion in the far distance. Her eyes widened as she recognised it.
¡¯Did someone just self-destruct?! How vicious. Taking down other people since he couldn¡¯t win.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Checking the yer count, she was shocked to see the explosion take 5 other yers, not including the killing.
With 6 more yers gone, only 68 more eliminations to go before the top 10 appeared.
¡¯Only 68 more to go before the round ends...¡¯ Shiro thought, gazing towards the centre of the ind.
Chapter 67 Battle Royal P3
Chapter 67 Battle Royal P3
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!!
Shiro peeked above the barriers and could see aplete warzone near the bridges that connected one ind to another.
Due to the fact that the ring was closing in, everyone was being herded up into the centre. Increasing the chances of contact and the chances of conflict breaking out.
Currently, she was 800 meters away from the fight with the binocrs in hand.
During the time she had observed thebatants, 15 people had already been eliminated.
Not only that, she was sure that she could even see the explosions from the other side of the map.
¡¯The ring had already shrunk 3 times. With the next, most of us will be forced closer together and towards the centre ind. I need to find myself some cover before the ring starts to shrink. Otherwise, it¡¯ll be hard to outrun the ring while making sure they don¡¯t find me.¡¯ Shiro thought while observing which building seemed most suitable.
From what she could see, there were 3 suitable building for her to enter. However, the risks on all 3 vary depending on what happens.
The first building was an abandoned house with no windows or doors. While being obscured from sight, any form of noise made inside the house would reverberate for a long time. This was due to the fact that there were no objects in the rooms to dampen out the noise.
If she hides in there, anyone with a slightly keen sense would be able to pick up on her. Not to mention the fact that it was the furthest from the centre. So she¡¯ll have to make another run towards the centre when the ring closes.
The next building was a factory. Although in in sight, the building offered more than enough rooms and covers for her to hide in. As for its location, it was roughly in the middle between the ring and the bridge to the mysterious centre ind.
The bad thing about this would be the fact that it is very close to thebat area at this moment in time. If she tried to get there, the chances of the other yers seeing her would increase by several folds. Not what she wanted.
As for thest building... it couldn¡¯t even be called a full building due to the fact that it¡¯s a toll gate.
The bridges that connected each ind was a motorway. Therefore, at the base of each bridge was the toll gate.
Due to its location, not many would focus their attention on the small booths between the gates. A prime hiding spot for her since her small body would only help her more.
The negatives, however, was the fact that she had to get past 5 people fighting in a free for all right now. Not only that, but a stray shot could just so happen to smash into her booth and kill her.
¡¯One of them might even blow himself up if he lost.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Looking at the current yer count of 53, Shiro wished that they would kill each other with more fervour.
This was because the more people that stayed alive, the more cramped it will get as they reached the centre ind.
Pushing herself into a crouch, Shiro prepared to sneak towards the factory first before making a detour to the toll gates.
Climbing over the railings, Shiro slowly descended the skyscr.a.p.er and made sure to avoid their sight.
By the time shended on the next building, she could see one of the yer¡¯s being on the verge of death.
¡¯Seems like he¡¯s run out of HP potions.¡¯ Shiro thought.
*BANG!!
His body was suddenly sent flying when a warrior mmed his fist into the man.
¡¯HOLY SH*T!!!¡¯ Shiro thought in surprise since the man was sent towards her general direction.
Quickly retreating into the shadows, Shiro held her breath and hid herself.
*BOOM!
Crashing into a metal railing, the man struggled for a moment before dying.
Scattering into a bunch of shiny loot, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
¡¯The chances of himing over here to get loot in a moment is low due to the fight. I should be able to take a few pieces before continuing to the factory.¡¯ Shiro thought while looking at the pile of loot.
Within the pile, she could see several pieces of useful equipment. Primarily a purple grade sword and purple grade bow. As for arrows, she could see only 1 arrow in the pile.
Potion wise, there were none.
¡¯At least with better weapons, I have a better chance of surviving the next few ring closures.¡¯ Shiro thought and decided to risk it. While the chance was low, there was still a chance for the yers toe over to her.
¡¯Since I¡¯m already in the top 100 filled with level 50¡¯s as a level 34. That should be more than enough of a bargaining chip for the lesser-known factions.¡¯
Kicking off the wall to get a burst of speed, Shiro discarded her sword and bow in her inventory.
Rolling forward she stored the purple sword, bow and arrow into her bag in one continuous sequence.
Not pausing to see if they saw her, she dashed towards the factory while staying close on the ground.
*DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN
Her footsteps rang out due to the metal pathway she was running on.
Peeking back for a moment, she sighed in relief when she saw no one chasing her.
Continuing her way to the factory, she jumped up on to the second floor.
Vaulting over the window ledge, she crouched down behind the wall and examined the factory.
¡¯No one is here just yet.¡¯ She thought with relief. Calming herself, she pulled out her binocrs and looked back at the fight.
With 1 of the yers dead, the fight increased in intensity. Each of them wanted to end this fight soon just in case someone wanted to take advantage of them while they were at their weakest.
As the sounds ofbat rang out, Shiro made her way through the factory with rtive ease. Naturally, she didn¡¯t find any loot since a ce like a factory would have already been looted clean near the start.
*Ding~
Her ears suddenly perked up when she heard the sound of metal against metal.
¡¯By the sound of it, it seems like he¡¯s pretty close in the factory. Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
Flexing her fingers, 8 ice daggers appeared in her hands.
Sneaking towards the source of the sound quietly, she climbed up the vents to get a top-down view of the situation.
She could see a blond man sneaking through the factory with two daggers in his hands.
Looking behind him, she saw a piece of metal with a slight dent by the side.
¡¯Seems like he hit the metal while walking.¡¯
Carefully walking through the vents, she waited until he was just under her.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro narrowed her eyes as her gaze became cold.
Carefully unscrewing the vent with the daggers, Shiro prepared herself.
*BAM!
She kicked open the vent and attracted his attention.
"Wha!?" He cried out in surprise when he heard a sound above him.
"Gah!" The vent mmed into his guard, knocking him off bnce.
Twisting her body, she threw four daggers first.
Two for his weapons and two to pin his hands down.
"ARG!" Feeling the pain of the dagger¡¯s stabbing through his palms, the man gritted his teeth.
Landing on his torso, Shiro stepped down hard and plunged the ice through the gaps in the vent and into his eyes.
Twisting the knife sharply, she ended him easily by destroying his brain.
The man¡¯s body exploded into light, leaving a pile of loot on the ground.
Picking up some potions, she ignored the rest since they weren¡¯t needed.
¡¯As long as I burst down their health straight away, I should be able to kill quite a few of them.¡¯ Shiro thought.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ll have to be ying more like an assassin rather than a mage in this round otherwise I¡¯ll never get into the top 10. Meaning... I have to kill without a trace. The more I kill, the safer it is for me.¡¯ She thought as her face was cold. Looking around for a moment, Shiro jumped up onto the pipes and hid her body from sight.
Checking the yer count, she smiled seeing the numbers drop at a visible pace.
Mentally urging them to kill more, she nned her travel route to the centre of the ind.
¡¯Under the bridge will give me no cover and be open to long-ranged magic. Above the bridge will open me up to an all-round bombardment without any cover.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
There were only a few ways to the centre of the ind. Four bridges connect to the centre ind branching from the surrounding inds. Her best bet would be to rush through the ocean.
However, that was only with her original MP count and status. In the simtion, however, it seems like death was around every corner. Literally.
One wrong step and she would be the next to be eliminated from thepetition.
¡¯Actually, if I followed the winner of the current fight outside and use 1st phantom when he looks towards me. I should be able to get to the centre without much trouble.
¡¯Hmm... but that has its own risks. 1st Phantom drains my stamina at an ungodly pace in the simtion. I¡¯ll have to time it perfectly or else I would be discovered.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Peeking out the window with her binocrs, she saw that it was a 1v1.
¡¯Actually, I might be able to kill the winner when he¡¯s at his weakest. But someone else might think the same.¡¯
Shifting her binocrs away from the fight, Shiro tried to see if she could spot anyone else.
¡¯One... two... oh my god, there are three more yers watching this right now.¡¯ Shiro thought as she managed to see slight hints of other yers.
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In addition to this, it didn¡¯t include the hidden dangers of the few that could hide a lot better.
¡¯Yeah no I¡¯m leaving. With three or more of them here, I¡¯ll die if I tried to take advantage. On the plus side, I¡¯ll have a much easier time running to the centre ind.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Making her way out of the factory, she waited for the fight to end. The moment it did, one of the three looking would make a move. And that is when she¡¯ll make a run for the centre ind.
Twisting his body in mid-air, the male warrior¡¯s body lit up with a golden aura. A sword made from mana could be seen in his hands as he swung towards the mage.
"RAHH!!!" He cried out. Exerting as much strength as he could to end the mage.
A de of energy shot out from the sword and shed towards the mage.
Making an earthen shield, the mage tried to block the sword but was unsessful.
"GAH!!"
Hearing the scream, Shiro took it a cue to start running. As expected, two out of the three watching the fight dashed towards the warrior with weapons drawn.
As for thest spectator, he stood by the side watching them as if they were fools.
Since their attention was preupied, Shiro got a free pass ticket to the bridge.
¡¯Since they are fighting right now, travelling from the top of the bridge is a bad idea.¡¯ She thought, leaping over the side of the barrier. Landing on some metal support beams, she hopped the next foothold.
Her eyes kept scanning for the next foothold while her body traversed past the gaps. She needed to make sure she got as much of a head start as she could. Feeling danger, she avoided the foothold and dropped down.
A fire bullet shot past her previous location.
¡¯If I stayed there I would have been hit off the beams.¡¯ Shiro thought, swinging herself back onto the support beam.
Looking up, she saw the attacker at the next major support beam.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro made a few throwing daggers in her hands before dashing towards her attacker.
Shiro¡¯s attacker was a female fire mage.
mming her palms into the support beam, she created several fireballs while heating up the beams to make molten metal.
Waving her hand, the molten metal floated up and shot towards Shiro.
¡¯She melted the metal before making a fireball with the metal in the centre. Smart.¡¯ Shiro praised.
Crouching down, she jumped up and threw her daggers towards the fireballs.
*Boom!
The daggers exploded on impact and created a smokescreen.
Stepping on the side of a metal beam, she then jumped away from her location.
*Boom boom boom!
The molten fireballs hit her previous spot as her attacker lost sight of her.
Flexing her fingers, 4 more daggers appeared in her hands.
Shiro threw the daggers towards the woman before pulling out her purple bow.
The mage hid behind some metal for cover when she saw the daggers.
Smirking at the fact that they missed she had a fireball ready and peeked out from her cover.
However, that was a bad idea since Shiro was upside down in mid-air with her bow pulled back and an arrow aiming at her head.
Before she could even scream, she died from a headshot.
"Fuuu..." Shiro breathed out as shended on the side of a support beam. She was gambling on whether or not the woman would peek out and thankfully, she did.
Looting the potions, Shiro continued her way towards the centre ind. With the sound ofbat bing louder, Shiro knew the third spectator must have joined the fray.
Her goal was to reach the centre ind andy down a few ambushes to help take down a few yers to guarantee her top 10 spot.
Chapter 68 Battle Royal P4
Chapter 68 Battle Royal P4
"GAH!"
shing at the nape of another yer, Shiro looted the corpse and vaulted over the bridge barrier.
Landing under the bridge, Shiro sat back in her hiding spot.
¡¯That¡¯s the 3rd victim.¡¯ She thought as she checked the remaining yer count.
With only 28 yers remaining, 18 more needed to die.
Stretching her body a little, Shiro peeked out from under the bridge. As it stood, only 3 people remain on the ind she came from, not including her.
However, there were battles constantly being raged on the other bridges. Even from her location, she could see people jumping around with swords.
¡¯Hmm... Should I assassinate those on my bridge?¡¯ She thought. If she did, the amount of people who had to die would decrease. On the other hand, if she needed to fight the others, she¡¯d have no meat shield for cover.
¡¯I¡¯ll eliminate 1 and leave the other 2.¡¯ She eventually settled with.
Scouting around with the binocrs, Shiro frowned when she couldn¡¯t see any of the 3 that were still in her area.
"Tsk." She clicked her tongue in annoyance.
Retreating back to her cover, she waited for the fights to settle down.
*BOOM!!!!
A sudden explosion surprised Shiro as the force sent her tumbling off her support beam. Quickly grabbing the edge of the beam, she swung herself back up.
Looking towards the source of the explosion, she cursed seeing the bridge almost entirely gone.
¡¯What the hell is with these guys and self-destructing!¡¯
Frowning at her location, Shiro wondered if she should leave this area too.
¡¯If some ass hat decided to explode themselves, I won¡¯t be able to survive.¡¯
Turning to the centre ind, Shiro tried to look for any cover she could use.
As of this moment, the centre ind is a smooth ck pyramid. There were no ledges or grooves she could use to take advantage of at the moment.
Since the pyramid offered her no help, she looked towards the water.
¡¯There¡¯s the chance that a separate entrance is there. But I don¡¯t know if the water will kill me.¡¯
She knew that in simtions like this, there will always be an out of bounds area. From the looks of things, Shiro believes that there is a 75% chance that she¡¯ll die if she jumped.
¡¯Welp... since there is nothing for this missy to do I¡¯ll just rest for a little bit I guess.¡¯
Hiding in the shadow of the support beams, Shiro sat with her legs dangling off the edge.
¡¯I should probably get some hobbies. Since it¡¯s my new life and all...¡¯ She contemted. While she knew that she wanted to get stronger in this life, she also wanted to enjoy it. If she focused on levelling all the time and didn¡¯t take a break from fighting, then that would be no different from her past life.
A life of only fighting would be quite a boring one in her opinion. A waste of reincarnation that she should change.
¡¯What do I even enjoy?¡¯
The question gued her mind as she didn¡¯t know what she enjoyed as a hobby. Dressing up with the outfits at Aarim¡¯s store? It was fun but not to the point of a hobby.
Thinking of dressing up, Shiro realised that it was pretty much the only rest time she had. Her other spare time was either used for Dungeon running or training Lyrica up.
¡¯Would being active and liking fighting count as a hobby? I suppose fighting for the rest of your life is boring but then again, I do enjoy moving my body around. But that¡¯s not much different from my past life.
¡¯There¡¯s no point thinking about cooking since I can¡¯t taste anything but mana stones...¡¯ She thought with her hand on her chin.
While everyone was fighting for their lives, Shiro was sat under the bridge thinking about what kind of past time she would enjoy.
¡¯Perhaps music. A little bit of music would be quite fun. Nice and calming and quite ther.a.p.eutic.
¡¯Not to mention, I think I¡¯ve heard of musical practitioners being able to confuse enemies using the power of music.
¡¯If Ibine that with my blizzard I might be able to open up their guard more often.¡¯ She thought with a bright smile.
However, that smile soon faltered as she thought of an important fact.
¡¯WHY DID IT LOOP BACK TO FIGHTING?!?!?!¡¯ She cried out in her mind.
Leaning back, she looked up at the sky with a silent tear.
¡¯So I¡¯m a type of muscle head too...¡¯
She had always considered herself someone who was a little more rational. Yet, she just realised that she was also a huge muscle head.
No matter what she decided to think of, it always looped back to how it helps in her survival andbat.
The sudden revtion made Shiro sit and ponder about life for a slight moment since everything she knew was allbat and survival-rted.
Battle tactics, fighting styles, weakness exploitation, ss knowledge and her database of blueprints stored in her mind.
Everything had a link to fighting.
Even music which seemed to be a prettymon hobby was linked to fighting when Shiro thought about its uses.
¡¯Muscle head mage...¡¯ Shiro concluded when thinking about her current outlook.
Chuckling to herself for a moment, she stood back up.
¡¯Who said a person can¡¯t be both a muscle head and a rational person at the same time!
¡¯... I suppose you can¡¯t really. You can switch between the two but not at the same time since their inborn nature areplete opposites.¡¯ Shiro thought.
¡¯Urg, it¡¯s happening again...¡¯ Shiro sighed.
This happened before when she woke up in the Dungeon. She had nothing else to do so she just started to talk to herself. And now once again she was talking to herself since she was literally just waiting for the numbers to drop at this point. She even wondered if having a split personality would keep herpany in moments like this. At least she would never feel lonely if that¡¯s the case.
The wait wasn¡¯t too long since the number reached 14 in no time.
With only 4 more people needing to be eliminated, Shiro became slightly nervous. This was due to the facts that all 4 were on the bridge she was on including her.
¡¯God damn lurkers the lot of them!!¡¯ Shiro cursed.
¡¯That being said I¡¯m not any better~ Not the point!¡¯
Scratching her head in annoyance, Shiro realised that this meant she had to try kill all three enemies in the worst-case scenario. The best-case scenario would be the other bridges fight it out more but as it stood, they seemed to be at a cease-fire due to theck of fighting on her bridge. They wanted her bridge to lose a few yers as well.
The longer they dyed, the closer the ring woulde. Right now, the ring was already at the base of the bridge. In less than 10 minutes, the ring would be within touching distance.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro calmed herself since she knew the more impatient she became, the more likely it was for her to mess up.
Making a dagger, Shiro slowly climbed up the side of the bridge and hung near the shadows. Her cloak billowed slightly in the wind.
"I AM HERE! COME AT ME!"
She suddenly heard someone shout and realised they must have be impatient.
ncing towards the source, she saw an axe warrior with a menacing axe on his back.
¡¯Must have gotten lucky with the equipment.¡¯ She thought with narrowed eyes.
However, this worked in her favour due to the fact that the other two could be seen.
One was on top of the arches. He was a metal-based mage and had wrapped the metal around himself.
When Shiro saw his element, she was rather surprised at the fact that he was a metal-based mage. Metal Mage was simr to her Nanomancy in certain aspects.
However, unlike her Nanomancer ss, Metal Mage was derived from the earth element. In addition to this, Metal Mage was a very difficult ss to obtain.
Not many could obtain the Metal Mage ss due to the fact that it needed Metal Attunement. And to make matters worse, Metal Attunement wasn¡¯t something that could be cultivated by current standards. One had to be born with the Metal Attunement.
Her case was special since metal attunement came as a guarantee with her Nanomancer ss.
Looking away from the metal mage, she turned towards thest yer.
She saw him slowly climb out of a tiny gap between the bridge and the ind.
¡¯Seems like he would have exited sooner orter... You¡¯ll be my target.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes as she pulled up her face mask.
From the looks of it, he didn¡¯t have any weapons or items and just hid here from the start.
With this being the case, Shiro had more reason to target him for her assassination.
Hiding her body, she kept her sight on him to see where he was going.
¡¯Hmm... rather than fighting, he¡¯s relocating since the ring is close to his spot.¡¯
Climbing through the support beams, she approached him while the battle above raged on.
She frowned when she saw his condescending grin stered disgustingly on his face.
¡¯Tsk, little sh*t think¡¯s he¡¯s smart. Let me change that real quick.¡¯ Shiro thought and dropped down behind him.
The man quickly turned around when he felt her presence but Shiro already took that into consideration.
Jamming her finger just behind his jaw bone, she dislocated his mouth before stabbing her dagger in his mouth.
Twisting the dagger, she ced her hand on his lower jaw and pushed her hands apart.
The dagger ripped through his tongue while she managed to further break the jaw bone. Due to the sudden shock of pain, the man wasn¡¯t able to use his magic in time before Shiro jammed her fist into his throat. Grabbing hold of his spine through the flesh, she twisted it ruthlessly, breaking it in the process.
Killing the man effortlessly in a short burst of dexterity, she wasn¡¯t disturbed at all by the realistic sight in front of her.
As expected, he had no loot since he hid like a coward from the very start.
Clicking her tongue in disdain, she climbed up before hiding on top of the bridge. Crouching behind an abandoned car, she peeked towards the duo fighting.
*DING DING DING!!
Currently, the mage was being pushed back due to the power the axe warrior was demonstrating.
shing his axe with impressive momentum, he destroyed all of the mage¡¯s attacks.
¡¯If this continues, the warrior should win in the end.
¡¯However... that¡¯s only if the mage wasn¡¯t a metal based mage.¡¯ Shiro thought with a meaningful smile.
*CRRR!!
Just before the axe could cleave the mage in half, it suddenly bent backwards and mmed into the warrior¡¯s cranium.
"Ah... You¡¯re kidding..." He muttered before dying.
Taking it as a cue, Shiro¡¯s body flickered towards the mage.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom ¨C Illusionary Phantom.
Her eyes were cold and merciless as she shed her dagger at his nape.
*DANG!
Shiro widened her eyes when she saw a translucent barrier protect him.
[Immune]
Seeing the immune, she realised that someone on another bridge died and now only ten people remain.
The mage on the other hand, had cold sweat drip down his back as he would have died if not for the fact that the simtion had saved him.
Looking at the little girl in front of him, he was both shocked and astounded at her. Shocked because she was trackless like a ghost. He couldn¡¯t detect her at all before she struck.
Astounded because she was only level 34 and from the looks of things, killed the 3rd yer on this bridge.
Sighing slightly, Shiro walked away from the mage and towards the centre ind.
*Crrrrr
The pyramid started to open as Shiro could see the inside of the Pyramid. Chained up in the centre, was the body of a huge behemoth. It had deep purple muscles, 6 arms, 2 demonic bull horns and 1 horn in the centre of his head. A pair of golden eyes that had no emotion other than pure rage. On top of this, a jaw filled with rows of horrifying teeth could be seen poking out of his mouth.
Looking around, she could see the yers from the other bridges appearing one by one. Returning her gaze, the yers were rather surprised that one of the top 10 was a young girl who was level 34.
"Must have gotten lucky with her area then." One of the warriors said disdainfully.
He didn¡¯t even both hiding his voice as he wanted Shiro to hear everything he said.
Shiro ignored him since she could see a screen flicker in front of them.
"First of all, congrattions. You are the top 10 of one of the many arenas we have for the Blue ribbon.
"No matter what happens here, you will pass so don¡¯t worry. This segment is purely to test what your cooperative abilities are when thrown with a random party. It is also to let the factions see what you can do when put in an unexpected situation where you need to cooperate with strangers to kill a boss." Thementator said.
"You¡¯re telling me that I have to work together with this let down of a yer?!" The warrior shouted as he pointed at Shiro.
"Bad attitude. Not very good. You never know what could happen and maybe one day you¡¯ll find yourself with a level 20 and have to kill a level 52 boss together. Just deal with it."
¡¯Also, I¡¯m pretty sure that she could kill you before you can even realise it.¡¯ Thementator thought.
"With that being said, you have 2 minutes to prepare yourself before the fight."
The screen turned off as the ten of them looked at each other.
With 7 of them looking at her with disdain or uncertainty, Shiro could only shrug her shoulders.
She could either try proving them wrong or support them with her ice. Naturally, she chose thetter since her ice would probably tickle the boss more than hurt it.
Chapter 69 Behemoth P1
Chapter 69 Behemoth P1
"Before anything else, we should decide on a leader. We can¡¯t have everyone make their own decision after all. Even though miss Shiro here is under levelled, it doesn¡¯t stop us from demonstrating our individual prowess.
"It depends on how well we work together even with a weak link. That being said, we must know that going off by ourselves and showing off is not what the factions want. They want teamwork even amongst strangers." A man called out as everyone gathered.
He had ck hair and ck eyes. In his hands was a crimson spear that Shiro recognised to be higher than a purple grade.
[Julius ¨C Grim Spearman ¨C LVL 50]
¡¯Heh~ He has either a unique ss or a hidden ss.¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing the Grim Spearman ss.
"Since we¡¯ve only known each other for a short moment, we¡¯ll need a decentmander to order everyone so we can make a good impression on the factions. Understand?" He asked.
The others nodded as the main question on their mind was, "Who¡¯s going to be the leader?"
"I propose that I be the leader of the current party. I have previous experiences and my track record includes several level 50 raids where we barely lost anyone." Julius suggested.
"I propose to be the second inmand should your order¡¯s fail during the fight." A woman with long brown hair and sses said.
[Trisha ¨C Fire Witch ¨C LVL 50]
¡¯Fire Witch? So she uses witchcraft spells instead of mage tier spells. Interesting... They say that a witch is a higher form of the mage. While magic is an imitation, witchcraft can be ssified as the real deal. They are much more attuned with nature whenpared to normal magic.¡¯
However, while their powers are stronger than normal mages, they don¡¯t have the diversity of a mage¡¯s tier magic. All of their spells are specific spells learnt from a ck grimoire. As for what type of spell, it depends on theirprehension of the hiddennguage of their grimoire. Each grimoire holds a different type ofnguage system and it¡¯s up to the witch to discover what it means.
Naturally, the grimoire is different from the skill grimoires that Shiro found.
¡¯I wonder how they even decided on which skills she could pick since her grimoire would be a huge database of skills. The most usible oue with be topare her with warriors since her skills are specific skills..¡¯ She concluded.
"I have no problems with that." Julius nodded as he understood the fact that this was necessary. No one couldmand constantly without fail. The tactics they knew may copse the moment the fight started so they needed at least three leaders to give out orders if one failed.
"Do we have a third who can give orders if both me and miss Trisha fail?" He asked.
Seeing as no one volunteered, a man sighed and stepped up.
"I¡¯ll do it. I do have previous experience with leading a party but not much."
[Nathan ¨C Mage ¨C LVL 50]
There were signs of age on his face, giving Shiro the impression that he has been stuck on this ss for quite some time now.
"It is better than no experience." Julius said with a smile.
With the three leaders selected, they needed to form an understanding of the current party.
"So with the current top 10, we have 6 magic-based sses and 4 melee type sses. Unfortunately, since we don¡¯t have a proper tank and support, we¡¯ll have to try to make do with HP and MP potions." Julius said.
"We should first assign the tanks. The metal mage, Axe Warrior and Earth Mage should be a good substitute. If you guys don¡¯t mind that is." Trisha said as the three nodded.
"Then let¡¯s give all our healing items to them and keep only a few to keep ourselves going." Nathan suggested.
"I second that."
Julius pulled out all of his potions, saving 2 HP and 2 MP potions for himself.
Trisha saved 3 MP and 1 HP potion for herself while Nathan did the same.
Pulling out her stock of potions, Shiro saved 2 MP potions since she was just going to be the support. Her item usage would be the smallest in the group.
Gathering up all of the items that everyone donated, that left them with 10 HP and 8 MP potions for each of the pseudo tanks.
"With the tankers set up, we need a general understanding of our damage per second. Seeing that miss Shiro is just level 34, you¡¯ll be mostly supporting with your ice is that ok?" Julius asked, turning to Shiro.
She naturally agreed since that was her intention to start with.
Unfortunately, they couldn¡¯t n everything out since the time was going to run out.
"We¡¯ll adapt as we go through the fight! Let¡¯s win this!" Julius called out.
However, a deafening silence ensued, making it awkward for him. He forgot that they hardly knew each other so this kind of reaction was normal.
*RRAAWRRRRR!!!
Thankfully, the behemoth dispelled the awkward atmosphere with his battle cry.
*PING PING PING!
The chains shattered one by one as it was soon free from his restraints.
"Tankers! Try to grab as much aggro as you can!" Julius shouted out.
Jumping into action, the three pseudo tankers dashed towards the behemoth.
*Flip flip flip flip~
The sound of paper flipping could be heard. Flicking her wrist, a golden aura buffed around the three tankers.
"This will increase their speed, power and defence." Trisha said with a smile.
Nodding in gratitude, the Axe warrior jumped up towards the behemoth¡¯s head. His axe glowed with radiant energy while he twisted his body to increase the amount of force behind his attack.
*BOOM!!!!
The axe mmed into the horn of the behemoth and caused it to recoil back slightly.
He had aimed for the horns in order to create a gap, allowing the two mage tanks to grab more aggro.
Not wasting the gap in defence, both mages attacked.
The metal mage created a giant greatsword and a metal tform to propel him upwards.
shing the sword at the horn, the mage cursed seeing that he was just a littlete since the behemoth recovered.
The Earth Mage, on the other hand, mmed his palms down and created a giant earthen gate to m down onto the behemoth¡¯s back.
"HA!" Shouting out with force, the gates hardened up into a strange type of material. It was coloured ck with hints of purple shining through the gaps. When the behemoth tried to escape his cage, the rock would stretch out for a moment before contracting again with the purple energy acting like rubber.
While the tankers were attacking to hold aggro, Shiro looked around before parkouring up to one of the ledges in the room.
Pulling out her bow, she nocked an arrow and waited for the rest of them to start attacking.
The three leaders were only slightly surprised at Shiro¡¯s agility since they could do it too.
"Warriors follow me, when I give the signal, I want the mages to rain fire on the behemoth."
Running towards the behemoth, Julius¡¯s spear lit up with a chilling blue me.
"HA!"
A burning sh mark could be seen stretch from the behemoth¡¯s wrist to forearm.
Pulsing for a slight moment, the muscles mped the wound shut.
"The f*ck?!" Julius called out in surprise. He had never seen such outrageous regeneration speed in his life.
Shiro, on the other hand, wasn¡¯t phased since she had seen a monster regenerate everything in an instant.
His pause allowed the behemoth to see a gap in his defence and swipe on of his arms towards him.
Snapping out of his daze, he vaulted over the swipe with his spear.
*BOOM!
The arm mmed into the ground and left a slight crater.
*BOOM BOOM!
The other warriors weren¡¯t idle either as their respective weapons mmed into the arm. While the wound regenerated, the HP taken off was still there so they could sigh in relief.
Opening its jaw, the behemoth looked towards the tankers with rage.
"MAGES GO!" Julius shouted out.
A giant fireball erupted into existence as Trisha buffed the fireball for more power.
*BZZ!!!
Lightning sparked around the fireball due to another magebining his spell with the fireball.
*BOOOMM!!!!
As the fireball crashed into the mouth of the behemoth, Shiro waved her hand and made an ice wall to help the tankers stay within range of the behemoth. Once they left a certain range, the aggro would decrease and that wasn¡¯t something they wanted.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
mming its arms into the ground, the behemoth struggled to get out of its bindings.
"RETREAT! The gate is going to break!" The earth mage shouted out.
¡¯My time to shine.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Pulling out 3 other arrows, she had four arrows nocked while ice formed on the tips.
*PHEW!
The arrows shot out, targeting the weakening joints of the gate.
*CRRR!
Exploding into a chunk of ice, Shiro made sure their structure was the best they could be so their overall sturdiness increased by a few folds.
Thankfully, that seemed to be just within the needed threshold as the behemoth failed to escape.
"Attack it!" Julius shouted out while praising Shiro in his mind. The little girl was able to help them more than he thought. Just the strength of that ice told him volumes of her capabilities.
Nathan aimed his palms forward, causing 5 elemental orbs to float around his arm.
"Reduce to ash, convergence of the five elements." He chanted. As annoying as it was, some spells needed to be chanted to increase their overall effectiveness.
The orbs gathered together into a multicoloured orb. Pulling back his arms, Nathan swung the orb towards the boss with increased momentum.
*BOOM!!!!
The orb exploded out into beams of energy just before hitting the behemoth.
Scorched marks could be seen on his muscr body.
*PSH PSH
While the regeneration wasn¡¯t as fast, it was still healing at a visible pace.
"Tsk. Tenacious b*stard." Nathan cursed while preparing his next spell.
When Shiro saw the skill he just used, she felt slight pity for those who died to it. Just being brushed by that skill would leave you dead.
Gathering mana into his hands, Nathan mmed his palms onto the ground.
Semi-translucent arms crawled out from under the behemoth and wrapped around its body. Shiro could see the skin of the behemoth corroding from the arms.
However, the behemoth wasn¡¯t fazed since its body lit up in a deep red aura, sting away the arms. Yet it was still just short of breaking the gate locking him in ce.
Gritting its teeth, the behemoth arched his back upwards as the spikes on his back quivered for a slight moment.
This didn¡¯t escape Shiro¡¯s observation as she knew the general attack pattern of monsters like the behemoth.
Nocking three arrows, she estimated the trajectory before shooting the arrows.
Nocking another 3, she shot them as well.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The arrows smashed against the spikes the moment they shot out from the behemoth¡¯s back, knocking them off course.
*BANG!
The spikes smashed against the walls and caused fissures to run across the surface. The tankers paled slightly when they imagined themselves being impaled by the spikes.
"Thanks!" The metal mage shouted out in gratitude. Shiro only nodded.
If she had missed the timing even by a little, her explosive ice arrows would have not been able to knock the spikes off target.
Nocking another arrow in her bow, she frowned when she saw the number of arrows she had left.
¡¯She must be running low on arrows.¡¯ Julius guessed, seeing her expression.
"Someone throw miss Shiro your arrows!" He shouted out. Since he had a lot of experience in leading parties, he knew the general expression one would have such as running low on arrows.
"Tsk! She shoulda said something sooner!" One of the warriors shouted out. Reaching to his bag, he threw the stack of arrows to her.
Catching the arrows effortlessly, Shiro shot an arrow to the arm that was about to hit the warrior.
*BOOM!
Knocking the arm out of the way, she repaid him for his arrows.
"Warriors retreat! Mages bomb it! Shiro! If you can, secure the gate again! He¡¯s about to break out!" Julius shouted out a chain on instructions quickly.
However, Shiro was way ahead of him as her arrows had already left her bow.
*CRRR!!!
The ice wrapped around the gate once more, securing it in ce.
"Nice!" Nathan praised while his spell was ready again.
"Reduce to ash, convergence of the five elements."
The orb shot beams towards the behemoth but this time a change happened.
Opening its mouth, a second mouth shout outwards like a worm and ate the orb.
"!!!!!"
"HOLY F*CK!! WHAT THE HELL!!!" One of the mages shouted out in shock. The revolting sight of a second mouth along with the fact that it ate a spell shocked the party.
After eating the orb, a multi-coloured pulse travelled through the behemoth¡¯s arteries and lit up his body.
¡¯Why the hell would they give the Berserk Mana Charge skill to a low ranked monster?! That¡¯s not realistic at all!!!¡¯ Shiro cursed.
Berserk Mana Charge was a skill found most often in raid bosses around level 150. The reason being that any lower in level and the monsters would kill themselves the moment they used the skill.
The basic function of the skill was for the monster to consume a mana based attack and multiply their status for a short moment. Depending on how strong the attack was, the more powerful they get and the longer the effectsst.
For a monster in this simtion to have this wasn¡¯t realistic at all.
The way to stop this would be to cut off the cirction before the charge up finished. Naturally, she could already pinpoint the main arteries that needed to be cut.
However, if she did, she¡¯ll be revealing too much as it would be unusual for a level 34 to know how to stop Berserk Mana Charge.
In this situation, Shiro could only think of one line to summarise her current thoughts.
¡¯Welp guess we die.¡¯
Chapter 70 Behemoth P2
Chapter 70 Behemoth P2
*RAWRRR!!!!
The boss screamed out as his muscles bulged.
"TANKERS GET OUT OF THERE!" Julius shouted out as he knew the boss was going berserk.
While he didn¡¯t know how it powered up, he had experienced enough raids and dungeons runs to know what to do.
Dashing towards the tanks, he grabbed the metal mage by the back of the cor.
Dragging back, he threw the mage towards the rest of the party.
"CATCH HIM!" He shouted out.
¡¯He¡¯s going to die.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Trisha flipped her grimoire as her body floated upwards.
*BOOM!
A golden aura erupted out of the grimoire and coated Julius¡¯s body.
Making a serious face, Julius twirled the spear in his hands and intercepted the behemoth¡¯s fist.
*BANG!
The ground shook from the collision, sending a wave of dust outwards.
Shiro shielded her eyes quickly before looking back at the scene.
Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the man still standing. Even though he was literally about to die, he still managed to block the attack and redirect it to the ground.
"I¡¯m a Grim Spearman for a reason. Who said there were only scythe-wielding death gods?" Julius grinned as the blood on his body flowed to his spear. He had picked this skill as one of his life-saving skills since it allowed him to survive 1 fatal attack a week and convert it into attack power.
Naturally, since this was a simtion, he was able to use it without much bacsh.
Tattered armour and robes appeared on his current outfit while the spear in his hands morphed into a demonic spear. The previous crimson colour waspletely gone and instead, a matt ck took its ce.
Neon blue mes lit up on the tip of the spear as Julius jumped upwards.
"I CAN ONLY SHOOT THIS ONCE! TAKE ADVANTAGE WHILE YOU CAN!!!" He shouted out.
Twirling the spear in his hands, he twisted his body in mid-air and threw the spear towards the behemoth.
*BOOOMMM!!!
Hitting the left shoulder of the behemoth, the spear drilled through the muscle and bones with ease.
*GARRRHHHH!!!
The behemoth cried out in pain as the spear had destroyed two of the three arms that were on the left side of his body.
ring at Julius with bloodshot eyes, the behemoth¡¯s centre horn extended out in an instant and pierced his body.
Not wasting his sacrifice, Trisha closed her grimoire.
*FAUH!
The grimoire set aze while a neon red magic circle could be seen behind her.
"I offer a sacrifice of flesh. Devour my enemy in a crimson fire." Trisha said as her HP dropped down dangerously.
*KSH KSH!
The magic circle twisted and turned, slowly expanding itself into a summoning circle.
¡¯Well, I guess I¡¯ll pull my weight too.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Drinking an MP potion, Shiro nocked a single arrow into her bow before aiming upwards.
Shooting the arrow just above the behemoth, she clenched her fist and caused the arrow to explode into a rainfall of broken ice shards.
Throwing away her bow since she had no more use for it, Shiro mmed her palms into the floor. A magic circle expanded out from her palms.
The falling ice shards all morphed into spears at the same time. Flicking its body to aim at the behemoth, the spears arranged themselves around into a formation.
During this, Trisha¡¯s summoning finished as a me giant stomped out from the magic circle.
This was her trump card if she was to lose. She would sacrifice her HP in order to kill her killer in spite. Yet, never would she think she would actually use this skill to take on the behemoth.
A fireball appeared in the me giant¡¯s hands as it sent it flying towards the behemoth.
Just before the fire hit the behemoth, it split apart into fiery chains that wrapped around the behemoth¡¯s neck.
While it was outside of her n, Shiro adapted to the situation. Flicking her wrist, several ice spikes morphed into hooks that locked together with the fire chains. Due to the specialposition of the ice that Shiro created, they were much harder to melt and extremely sturdy. Thus, was able to hold the ming chains in ce.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The ice dragged the chains as they mmed into the walls of the boss room.
Seeing the behemoth pinned to the wall, the party¡¯s morale increased as they prepared their best attacks.
Shiro only frowned as this wasn¡¯t what she expected to happen. If a boss used Berserk Mana Charge, no matter how unrealistic and how low level, they wouldn¡¯t be pinned this easily. This was why she had expended all of her mana to create the formation around the boss.
*Plp Gsh Kuach
The sound of wet flesh shifting could be heard, disturbing the party.
The behemoth¡¯s body shook for a moment before opening his mouth at an unnatural angle. The previous fleshy second mouth that devoured Nathan¡¯s magic could be seen writhing outwards.
*PSH PSH!
The skin ripped apart as several smaller behemoths could be seen. They all were skinless versions of the behemoth and yet, they were still bigger than the average adventurer.
Their bones cracked for a moment before immediately followed by their disappearance.
Shiro¡¯s eyes widened seeing this since her body couldn¡¯t keep up with the mini behemoths speed.
Suddenly seeing the skinless beast in front of her, Shiro tried to sh at the beast with her sword.
*BOOM!!!!
With a single swipe of its ws, it obliterated Shiro¡¯s body into a meat paste. With the ughter of everyone else in the boss room, the only thing left in the room was the behemoth and its minions.
Shiro¡¯s body suddenly shook as she was sent out of the simtion. The sudden shock caused Yin to wake up in surprise.
*Chirp!
Yinined beforeying her body back down to sleep.
Shiro took a deep breath before patting Yin on the head.
¡¯Holy sh*t... Died without even being able to fight back.¡¯ Shiro thought.
While she wasn¡¯t too surprised at the oue, the feeling of not being able to react at all was still fresh.
¡¯When the behemoth ate the magic, the skill changed him from a tank to a puppet control type boss. With the smaller bodies, it was able to output much more speed than normal.¡¯ Shiro thought, stretching her body a little.
While she knew fighting the behemoth would result in a 100% failure, she was still surprised about the amount of damage they managed to output before failing.
¡¯Give credit where credit is due I suppose.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Shaking her head of her thoughts, she ced Yin on her shoulder and climbed out of the simtion pod.
Looking around, she could see the other pods near her were empty.
¡¯Seems like no one else is in top ten near me. Or perhaps there are but they died before I did.¡¯ Shiro thought.
During the short pause, a female attendant had walked over to her.
"Congrattions miss Shiro for entering the top 10 in your arena. ce take this ID badge and enter the main za." She said whilst presenting a gold badge.
[Thank you.]
She took the badge and saw a pin on the back.
[I suppose I should pin the badge to my clothes.] Shiro asked.
"Yes, that is correct."
[Ok, thank you.]
After thanking the attendant, Shiro walked towards the main za.
¡¯I doubt I¡¯ll be able to progress much in the next round.¡¯ Shiro thought. This was due to the fact that the next round would include the yers that reached top 10 in the battle royal and let them fight once more. With everyone at level 50, there was simply no way for her to progress.
¡¯Guess I¡¯ll forfeit the next round.¡¯
It took a short moment for her to reach the main za. Looking at the sea of people, Shiro was quite surprised at the number.
That was because everyone here was within the top 100 in the previous round.
¡¯There is at lease a few thousand here.¡¯ She thought as she stood in an obscure corner.
While she waited for thementator to inform them of the next round, her attention was directed elsewhere since she was curious about how Lyrica and Madison did in their battle royals.
¡¯With Lyrica¡¯sbat standards and Madison¡¯s Demon Knight ss, they both should do pretty well in their arena¡¯s.
¡¯If they had to fight the behemoth, it should be weaker than the one I fought since this one was targeted for level 50¡¯s.¡¯
Looking around, she looked for a ledge she could sit on. She didn¡¯t know why, but after reincarnating, she always liked sitting in high ces and near ledges. I made her feel serene inside.
Seeing the perfect ledge that is just right to see the entire area and obscure enough that not many people will see her, she nned her route to the ledge.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Enjoying the ability to use her martial arts without hindrances once more, Shiro parkoured up to the ledge beforending gently.
Sitting down, she pulled back her hood to reveal her midnight blue hair with white res on the tips.
She closed her eyes and felt the cool wind blow against her face.
Since she was sitting on a ledge near the shadows, not many turned to her. And if they did, they would have just thought Shiro was some lunatic.
Not that she was bothered by it of course. She had received enough gazes of disgust back in her past life so she was immune to the stares they¡¯re giving her.
Reaching in her inventory, she took out a D ranked mana stone and had her lunch quietly.
Seeing her eat, Yin also popped her head out.
"Hahaha, freeloader. You keep eating my stuff but don¡¯t do much." Shiro chuckled for a moment before giving Yin her portion of food as well.
Yin only waved her wings before going to her meal.
Creating a cylindrical piece of ice in her hand, Shiro searched up pictures of a flute since she quite liked the sound the flute made. It was calming to the mind.
¡¯Hmm... The Asian bamboo flute seems to be the easiest ones to make.¡¯ She thought and started to make the holes on the body of the ice.
Adding all of the holes she needed, she looked at the ice flute with satisfaction.
¡¯Let¡¯s see... the more holes I cover, the lower the notes. So I guess I should try the lowest note first.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Holding the flute perpendicr to her mouth, she covered all the holes and flew into the mouthpiece.
*Fuu~
A gentle note flowed out as Shiro nodded in satisfaction.
¡¯This seems pretty easy.¡¯
Uncovering some of the holes, she tried for a higher note.
*BII!!!!
*CHIRP!!!
Yin pped her wings against Shiro¡¯s chest when she heard the ear rupturing sound she made.
"Ah sorry sorry." Shiro apologised since she didn¡¯t expect that a little mistake made the flute sound horrible.
"This might take a while to learn." She muttered, looking at the flute.
Flicking her wrist, she destroyed the flute since thementator¡¯s screen lit back up.
"Thank you all for your patience. Every arena has now finished. With the top 10 of each arena determined, they will proceed to the next round while the unfortunate yers who are eliminated will be out of the event. However, do not worry as the factions will be open for you. For those who have not received a golden badge, please follow the attendants and enter the recruitment zone. Each of the factions have their own stall and you may apply to join." He said with a small smile.
Watching the people leave, he waited until only the top 10 of each arena remained.
"As for our veteran¡¯s here, par from one pleasant surprise, the next round is solo survival linked to your status. We have several puppet master¡¯s with us who will send waves after waves of puppets to attack you. The puppets are linked to your level so you will not be fighting anything out of your league.
"The main part of this round will be endurance and how well you fare in fights that involve you constantly fighting against waves after waves of enemies. They have unlimited stamina and will keep attacking you until you are pinned. The waves will scale up in difficulty the more waves you defeat.
"As for the time and location, please assemble at the main za tomorrow at 6 am. We¡¯ll have arena¡¯s for each of you." Thementator said as the screen flicked off.
Seeing that she heard everything she needed to, she jumped off the ledge andnded softly on the ground.
Surprising the surroundings with her appearance, they didn¡¯t think a little girl like Shiro got a gold badge.
However, the mages who saw her understood why.
"Hey, why are you shivering?" A warrior asked his mage friend.
"If that girl manages to pass the next round, make sure you buy an ass te from the cksmith Helion just in case you see her in the arena."
"Why would I need an ass te?"
"Just trust me on this! It¡¯s mandatory ok!? You don¡¯t know the things I saw..." The mage said with a shake of his head.
He would never forget the image of the previous rank 10 getting split in half from her attack.
The warrior was slightly perplexed as to why his friend was acting that way. But he trusted him and made sure to make a mental note on buying an ass te from Helion.
Shiro, who left the area, was looking for Lyrica and Madison.
[Shiro: Lyrica, where are you?]
[Lyrica: Me and Madi are at the coffee store near the entrance. We finished very early so we¡¯ve been waiting there.]
[Shiro: Ok, I¡¯ming over.]
Looking up from her phone, Shiro wondered about what that meant for their results.
¡¯Since they¡¯ve finished very early, it could either mean their arena was easy or they died early on.
¡¯Let¡¯s hope it was the former.¡¯ She thought with a shake of her head.
Chapter 71 Miners Cavern
Chapter 71 Miner''s Cavern
Arriving at the caf¨¦, Shiro saw Lyrica and Madison sitting face to face at one of the tables.
"Shiro!" Lyrica called out when she saw Shiro.
Sitting down next to her, Shiro brought out her phone.
[So please exin to me how and why you both are in a caf¨¦ and had finished the round so quickly?] Shiro typed out with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah about that..." Lyrica smiled awkwardly.
"Well imagine both me and Lyrica doing pretty good in the round. Then some crazy f*cker appears out of nowhere and blows himself up. Guess what happened next?" Madison said with annoyance.
She was progressing pretty nicely through the round with her Demon Knight ss and then the suicide bomber appeared behind her. Next thing she knew, she was eliminated and sent out of the simtion.
"Yeah... Both me and Madi were eliminated by bombers." Lyrica sighed.
[Hm. That¡¯s quite bad luck.] Shiro agreed.
Thankfully, she had only seen the bombers from afar and not up close. If she did, she would have been eliminated quite early on as well.
"So how did you do in your arena?" Madison asked as she turned to Shiro.
[Finished in top 10 before getting my ass handed to me by a behemoth boss.] She replied with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Oh my. Top 10 in a top 100 battle royal." Lyrica muttered in surprise.
"That¡¯s very nice and everything. But Shiro, you should stop being vulgar. And your habit of going for the... ahem. You might want to stop that or else you won¡¯t ever find a hubby." Madison said with a small smile.
¡¯Hopefully, this should make Lyrica more aggressive. Fufufufu...¡¯
Lyrica paused in shock when she heard Madison.
[Find a hubby? Who said I needed to find one?] Shiro replied without much care.
"Eh? What do you mean?" Madison asked as this was outside of her expectations.
[Well it¡¯s like this. Do I need a husband to walk? Do I need a husband to fight? Do I need a husband to feed myself? And while this may be vulgar, it is the truth. Do I, this missy, look like I need a husband? And if anything, the only use for them is for pleasure. Not to mention, I¡¯m pretty sure I saw items that can substitute for a husband anyways.] Shiro typed out without much care.
"Erm you get a husband for the emotionalpany?" Madison replied as she was surprised by her response.
If she ignored the fact that Shiro was only 13, then it would make sense from a personality standpoint. However, the strangeness of hearing this from a 13 year old was quite an odd feeling.
[I¡¯m pretty sure having a split personality will give me emotionalpany.] Shiro chuckled.
"Erm speaking of finding husbands and everything. Shiro, what do you think about same s.e.x rtionsh.i.p.s?" Lyrica asked, curious as to what Shiro would say.
However, the moment she asked it, she started to regret.
¡¯Urg what if she said she¡¯spletely against it?!¡¯
[Same s.e.x rtionsh.i.p.s. I don¡¯t really know.] Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
[Never really encountered them so I can¡¯t say for sure. But I suppose I¡¯m leaning towards the ok side? Like I don¡¯t mind them.]
"Is that so..." Lyrica muttered. While she seemed calm, her mind was not.
¡¯YES!!! SHE SAID SHE DIDN¡¯T MIND THEM!!! YES!!!¡¯ Lyrica cheered mentally.
"Fufufu... So you don¡¯t mind them huh?" Madison said with a grin. She could easily tell what Lyrica truly thought through her calm fa?ade.
¡¯You¡¯re smiling too much Lyrica~¡¯ Madison thought, seeing Lyrica grin like a child being rewarded with candy.
[Alright enough about romance talk. This kind of talk really doesn¡¯t suit me.] Shiro typed out. She¡¯d much rather talk about levelling up, fighting and training forbat.
[I¡¯m thinking of doing another dungeon run to level up. And this time you two areing with me.] Shiro smiled.
"What level dungeon?" Madison asked.
[Level 30.] Shiro smiled with a slightly sadistic aura.
"Wait what?"
###
*DANG!
Madison quickly parried a strike from the monster with her sword.
Flicking her arm up, she made the humanoid monster stumble backwards, giving Lyrica the chance she needed.
Burning Lotus!
Her dual-ended sword shed against the monster bare chest, leaving hideous scorch marks. The skin was ripped and burnt while the flesh was boiling under the heat.
During this, Madison pivoted on her foot and stabbed the sword into the open wound. Twisting the sword, a shockwave exploded inside the monster, forcing his bones to stab out of its body.
*CLAP!
Lyrica and Madison high fived when they saw the defeated monster.
"Shiro we killed the level 30-!!" Lyrica called out to Shiro but paused for a moment.
*CRACK!
What they saw was Shiro almost effortlessly hitting the monster¡¯s jaw, causing the head to spin all the way around and killing the monster in the process.
Looking at the small mountain of corpses around Shiro, their single kill seemed less and less impressive.
[Next time you should aim for the weak points. The torso is one of the hardest parts of the monster, you should aim for the ass, the mouth, the neck and the temple. These are the weakest parts.]
¡¯Why is ass the first weakness you say?!¡¯ Madison thought.
Currently, they were in the level 30 dungeon ¨C Miner¡¯s Cavern. The monsters wererge muscr humanoids that attack inrge groups. With 4 floors in total, this was one of the bigger dungeons.
[We¡¯ve discovered around 70% of the first floor. Let¡¯s get the other 30% first before going to the next floor.] Shiro suggested.
"Alright." Lyrica nodded.
Looking at their levels, Shiro was quite satisfied with their growth.
In the time they had explored the first floor, Lyrica had risen her level from 22 to 24. Madison, on the other hand, had risen her level from 21 to 23.
The benefits of fighting higher levels are proportionate to the danger they held. And naturally, they would have died to the horde if Shiro wasn¡¯t here.
With how much they struggled on a single mob, taking on more than one at a time will be suicidal.
[Once we get a general feel for this dungeon, we should be able to spend a few days inside here and grind up our levels.] Shiro typed out.
Her main goal was to try to get the duo¡¯s levels near the 30 mark. This was so that they would be able to challenge harder dungeons.
Feeling a send of danger, Shiro flicked her fingers as a pir of ice shot up from behind her.
*GAH!
The ice pieced through the lower jaw of a monster and through the skull, suspending him in the air.
"Every time I see you do this; I still don¡¯t understand how you do it. How do you attack so urately without looking at them?" Madison asked.
[It¡¯s all about the senses. You sense the danger, the bloodl.u.s.t and the aura they radiate. After sensing this, you attack. Simple.]
"What? That sounds like a 6th sense of sorts." Lyrica said.
[That¡¯s because it is. When you see a giant beast, their aura is being red to intimidate you. You can¡¯t see it, touch it, smell it or taste it. But you instinctively know it¡¯s there. However, that¡¯s only when it is sting it fully in your face. It¡¯s like when you feel someone stare at you.
[Lyrica is somewhat special in this regard. While she doesn¡¯t have the ability topletely focus in on these senses, her hidden proficiency is reacting for her. In my case, what I do is manually enhance my perception of this aura to its max. This way, it acts as a radar. I¡¯ll know if danger is behind me and be able to react ordingly.]
"And you keep this radar on all the time? Wouldn¡¯t it be difficult?" Madison asked. She was slightly concerned since it sounds like it would put a lot of stress on Shiro¡¯s mind to be on guard constantly.
[I do keep it on at all times. At the start, it was difficult. The ¡¯radar¡¯ would turn on and off at odd intervals since I couldn¡¯t keep a constant focus on the radar. However, as time went on, it just became second nature to me.]
"What kind of situation requires you to be on guard at all times?" Lyrica asked with a slight frown.
She had understood that Shiro had more secrets than other people after knowing her for a short amount of time. No 13 year old fights with her experience or have the capability to solo dungeons with ease.
Yet, she now found out that she needed to be on guard for the majority of her ¡¯childhood¡¯.
[Dangerous ones. Out in the world, you don¡¯t know what might happen so you must be on guard at all times.] Shiro shrugged.
[Alright, let¡¯s continue with this dungeon. We don¡¯t want to waste too much time after all.]
Madison and Lyrica nodded since Shiro was right. They wanted to make the most out of their time in the dungeon so they could level up quicker.
Dashing through the tunnels, they reached thest third of the first floor.
"Let¡¯s crush through them." Madison said as Lyrica nodded.
Thousand de Aura + Willow de Aura.
Lyrica used both of her berserk skills and crouched down.
*BAM!
Kicking up a cloud of dust, she charged towards the monsters.
Heated Edge + Instant Strike.
Her sword lit up with a crimson glow while her body flickered forwards.
shing her sword, she left two deepcerations in the necks of two monsters.
"Madi! Finish them!" Lyrica shouted out.
"I know!"
Attack Demon Manifestation.
Stomping down hard, a dark red magic circle expanded instantly.
Dark mist wrapped around her body asyers of armour appeared on her body. Her sword morphed itself into a greatsword the size of her entire body.
With the manifestation, her aura also changed, catching Shiro¡¯s attention.
The chaotic, battle-hungry aura was surprisingly dense from what she could feel.
¡¯The demon knight ss must be a pretty high-grade ss...¡¯ Shiro thought.
Twisting her body, Madison swung her greatsword at the monsters.
*BOOM!!!!
Due to the fact that her attack still wasn¡¯t enough to cut through the monsters, it acted as a club instead. Crushing their bones and organs before sending their body crashing into the walls.
Stabbing the greatsword into the ground, Madison twisted her greatsword as a pair of magma pirs stabbed towards the demons.
¡¯Ohya? This attack demon gives her magma attunement this time.¡¯ Shiro thought with surprise.
Her previous demon manifestations gave her Earth attunement, lightning attunement and the such. And yet, this time it gave her magma attunement, the evolved version of the fire attunement.
¡¯Hmm, this is pretty useful. While it might be random regarding which attunement she gets, it¡¯s still handy to get decent attunements on the go.¡¯ Shiro thought.
¡¯However, she¡¯s putting too much effort in ending the two monsters. She would be much more efficient if she practised utilising her skills more.¡¯
Dashing in front of Madison, Shiro wanted to back Lyrica up.
Jumping up, she made 8 daggers in her hands before twisting her body and throwing them across thebat zone.
Clenching her fists, the daggers broke apart into several other daggers.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The moment each dagger hit their target, they exploded into ice mist that froze the monsters.
Taking advantage of the situation, Lyrica dashed through the frozen crowd whilst shing at each of the monsters.
The sudden difference in temperature caused the ice to shatter, killing the monsters in the process.
Keeping up their pace, they chewed through the remaining 30% of monsters on the first floor with ease.
Walking up to the obelisk, they saw the guardian walking aimlessly.
It looked simr to a very fat mole rat that had quite some girth in his arms. 2 Sharp teeth protruded from his mouth followed by patches of hair littered throughout his body.
"He is one UGLY thing." Madisonmentated on what they thought about the boss.
[True. But, do not underestimate it just because it is ugly.]
Making an ice spear, Shiro gestured for them to make the first move.
Nodding at the gesture, Madison used Defensive Demon Manifestation this time.
Heavy armour appeared on her body while her weapon was reced by a sword and shield.
With a refreshed skill tree befitting of tanks, Madison dashed forward.
"HAAA!!!" Using the skill ¡¯Taunting Shout¡¯ to drag aggro, she then bolstered her resistances with ¡¯Iron Skin¡¯.
*BANG!!
The tail of the mole rat smashed against her shield. Sliding back only slightly, Madison readjusted her footing before smashing into the mole rat with her shield.
Repelling Force.
The force gathered from the mole rat¡¯s strike was rebounded back to the mole rat, causing it to stumble backwards.
"I¡¯ve grabbed aggro!" Madison called out.
"Alright!"
Jumping towards the boss, Lyrica brandished her sword and shed towards the neck of the mole-rat.
¡¯Bad timing.¡¯ Shiro thought as she quickly flicked her wrist.
*BANG!
The mole rat had suddenly twisted his head towards Lyrica and chomped down.
However, before it could hit Lyrica, ice chains shot out the ground and pinned it to the ground.
Continuing her sh, Lyrica¡¯s sword only made a shallow wound.
Frowning slightly, she kicked off the mole rat and flipped away from it.
Landing next to Shiro, Lyrica breathed out in relief.
[Try to time your attacks while observing the boss¡¯s muscle movements. Depending on what it wants to do, you can see it through the muscle movements it exhibits.]
"Wait you can see its muscle movements?!" Lyrica asked in surprise. During a fight, the flesh would move everywhere. Yet, Shiro was still able to pick out which ones were the ones to determine what it wanted to do.
[Yes I can. And you¡¯ll be able to as well once you gain enough experience.]
"STOP TALKING PLEASE!! ATTACK IT!!" Madison¡¯s shout was heard while she parried another one of the mole rats attacks.
Hearing the shout, Lyrica dashed forward to assist.
With Shiro ying as support, the fight took a bit longer to finish.
Unfortunately, Shiro still wasn¡¯t able to level up with this fight.
Shaking her head, she could only hope the next few floors gave her enough exp to level up.
Chapter 72 Level 35
Chapter 72 Level 35
*GAHH!!!
With a single cry, the guardian of the 3rd-floor obelisk copsed against the floor.
"Gah! Oh my god! Finally!" Madison cried out as she fell on her back. Panting heavily, she cursed at the previous fight.
"What kind of boss is able to shift a bone through their body to make another arm!?" Sheined.
"This one." Lyrica replied as she was currentlyying face down on the floor.
Shiro only shook her head seeing how dramatic they were being.
"Shiro don¡¯t even think about it. I know that face and we are definitely not overdramatic! Having a third arm suddenly stick out from the belly to give you a punch is definitely not normal!" Madisonined as she turned her head to Shiro.
"I second that~" Lyrica agreed.
¡¯Well... I suppose they are correct.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
[But, you did good against this boss.]
"Would have done worst if Yin wasn¡¯t here chaining up the boss every once in a while." Lyrica reminded them.
There were several close calls where Yin would use her ice chain skill to lock the boss down, saving the girls from a heavy hit.
[Do realise that you two are both level 25 and you fought a level 30 boss. NOT TO MENTION, you survived and even killed it with minimal help from me and little Yin.] During the fight, Shiro saw that the two were holding off the boss quite well so she decided to do a little less in order to push their bodies past their limits.
And as she had expected, the fight had drawn out more of their survival instincts. Allowing them to dodge attacks they would normally have trouble with and increase how often they see an opening they can take advantage of.
However, Lyrica and Madison weren¡¯t the only ones to level up and improve. Yin had increased her level to 20. The only problemid with her ss up.
They had no idea how Yin would ss up. She had already tried feeding her a C ranked mana stone yet it had no effect. It just looked like Yin levelling up passively without actually ssing up.
[Yin LVL 20]
HP: 25,000/25,000
MP: 65,000/65,000
Skills ¨C Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1)
Naturally, with her level up, she was able to gain the skill Shadow Talon. Shadow Talon in itself was a simple skill since it just helped increase Yin¡¯s damage potential up slightly.
As for Shiro, she had not managed to level up despite the fact that she had cleared out a majority of monsters on each of the floors.
¡¯Probably because they¡¯re almost 5 levels below me. I would have to do 2 or 3 runs to actually level up from mobs lower than me due to decreased EXP gain.¡¯ She thought.
However, she didn¡¯t have any idea how much exp she had .u.mted. She could potentially level up with the next kill or after 5 more dungeons.
¡¯Even if I don¡¯t level up during the boss fight, I¡¯ll probably run through the dungeon a few more times with Lyrica and Madison. At least I can also get them some easy levels.¡¯ Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
The sudden jubtion and surprise of a level up were always wee. Just the feeling of tion that fills you after a fight was intoxicating for Shiro. She made sure to enjoy every bit of it since level-ups will be rarer the higher level she was.
Jumping from one level to another may take you months toplete.
[Alright. Since we¡¯ve rested enough, let¡¯s go to thest boss.]
"Urg... Let me rest a bit longer~" Madison cried out in injustice.
Looking at Madison¡¯s figure whilstying down, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but narrow her eyes.
¡¯Maybe I should make her fight until her cow udders be iron pecks. They¡¯ll be more helpful for her since she¡¯s a tanker and not a model.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Madison shivered slightly as she felt endangered. Quickly sitting up, Madison looked around and saw the way Shiro was staring at her b.r.e.a.s.ts.
¡¯SHE¡¯S THE SOURCE OF DANGER!!!¡¯ She cried out mentally.
"Welp Lyrica. C¡¯mon let¡¯s go fight thest boss!" Madison said hastily, dragging Lyrica by the arms.
"Urggg... let me rest longer~!" Lyrica protested while her body was entirely rxed. Resulting in Madison dragging her like a ragdoll.
Shiro chuckled seeing the shenanigans of the duo.
Entering the obelisk, they tapped the icon for the final floor.
They shielded their eyes while the teleport was happening.
Once they reopened them, they saw the boss room. The room was brightly lit as day, which was very odd for an underground dungeon, and had crystals of different colours scattered around the room.
Shiro first looked towards the ceiling in case of ambush before refocusing on the crystals.
There were five colours in total for the crystals and Shiro recognised it to be elemental crystals.
¡¯So it¡¯s an enhancement type boss. It¡¯ll grow stronger depending on what type of crystal it eats during the fight.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Locating the ces where the crystals are, Shiro made a mental note of this.
¡¯I wonder if I will get a boost eating one of these crystals. I know that humans would just be sick and might die if they ate one. But I¡¯m a monster now and I should get the same benefits as these monsters.¡¯ Shiro thought.
"Where¡¯s the boss?" Lyrica asked as the boss hadn¡¯t appeared yet.
"Maybe it¡¯s hiding in ambush?" Madison suggested.
[Good thinking. You should also make sure you check the ceiling of the boss room in case it drops down and attacks you.] Shiro suggested.
Reading the suggestion, the two looked up.
"Since it¡¯s not in front of us, nor is it above us, then can it be under us?" Lyrica asked.
[Nice guess. And yes, you are right.] Shiro smiled as she pointed her finger at an obscure corner. With how the lighting was, they barely saw the scaled back of the boss.
Seeing that it was discovered, the boss¡¯s body shook as the boss room trembled along with the boss.
"Woah!" Madison cried out whilst trying to stabilise herself.
Lyrica reached out for her as she helped Madison stabilise herself. Looking over to Shiro, they were unsurprised when they saw her unaffected. No matter how much it shook, it looked like she was having a gentle walk.
Once the boss had excavated itself from the ground, its entire body was in view. Its main bodypromised of an almost fleshless hybrid of a mole rat and a centipede. With segments of just skin and bone, its fleshless arms reached out for the support pirs near it.
On its back, a scaledyer could be seen, bearing high resemnce to a lizard¡¯s back.
Looking at the almost fleshless, multi-armed, scaled mole rat thing in front of them, Madison had to blink a few times just to make sure she wasn¡¯t seeing things.
"You ever just imagine what would happen if that thing had parents?" Madison asked.
"Nope but if it did, its parents must be pretty wild for the appearance to merge this much." Lyrica replied.
¡¯Hmm... Looks perfect to be skewered. A single ice pir and that thing would look like a barbecue.¡¯ Was Shiro thoughts.
"Don¡¯t even think about attacking the rear." Lyrica said.
¡¯Tsk.¡¯
Seeing that her thoughts were seen through, Shiro inspected the boss.
[Nightmare Miner LVL 30]
HP: 800,000/800,000
MP: 500,000/500,000
¡¯Well he certainly is the nightmare.¡¯ Shiro agreed with the name.
[You know what to do. Madison you tank, Lyrica you¡¯re damage dealer and I¡¯m the support.] Shiro typed out quickly.
The duo nodded as they were pretty used to this now.
"Little Yin, lock him up and blind him if you can." Shiro whispered.
*Chirp!
Yin patted her chest in reassurance before pping her wings towards the monster.
*PING!!!!
Chains shot out from the ground and locked the monster up.
Flying towards the pair of eyes at the front, Yin¡¯s talons lit up in with a deep purple aura.
*KISHK!
Surprisingly, ayer of scales had dropped down and over the eyes of the monster. Protecting it from Yin¡¯s attack.
*Chirp?!
Yin was confused as to whether or not she should attack.
"Little Yin!" Shiro called out to Yin.
Flying back to Shiro, Yin pointed at the monster and chirped in annoyance. Almost as if she wasining to Shiro that the monster didn¡¯t take the attack like a monster should.
"Hahaha, little Yin, the monster isn¡¯t going to let you hit it for free." Shiro chuckled but she wasn¡¯t idle.
Dashing towards the monster, she created 4 ice spears in the air before sending them to the 4 corners of the room.
Pivoting on her left foot, Shiro drew a circle with her right foot. A magic circle rotated into existence while she mmed her palms down and caused the magic circle to light up. When she did this, the ice spears also lit up with a blue glow.
*BOOM!
The spears shattered into shards that surrounded the elemental crystals like a prison cell.
With her preparation done, Shiro dashed towards the boss to support Madison in tanking while Lyrica deals the damage.
*BOOM BOOM!
Redirecting the force of two punches, Madison gritted her teeth for the left-over force from the attack.
Seeing that two punches couldn¡¯t kill the tiny human in front of it, the boss opted to use four punches instead.
Shiro appeared in front of Madison at this moment because she knew Madison would not be able to handle four attacks at once.
Three? Barely. Four? Definitely not.
Making an ice spear, Shiro twirled the ice spear before intercepting the attacks.
In one simple sequence, she redirected the flow of the fist¡¯s, causing them to collide into one another.
[Me and you will tank together.] Shiro typed out with one hand.
"Alright." Madison nodded as she braced her shield once more.
###
¡¯Hm, little snow had entered the dungeon. It should take her a day or so inside the dungeon beforeing out again.¡¯ Nan Tian thought to himself whilst gazing at the city.
"Nan Tian, I¡¯ve found a few traces of the ritual being performed. However, the ritual is muchrger in scale than we had expected." Huan Er reported.
"Mn... Howrge?" Nan Tian asked.
"By current simtions, it should cover roughly 50% of New York city."
"50% huh? Increase that to about 60 to 70%."
"Why?"
"Rituals have the tendency to increase in potential depending on which spots you make as your foundation. Since we are dealing with ck Monarchy, you can guess the rituals they perform are much more powerful than normal rituals." Nan Tian shook his head.
The main reason as to why he was deployed to New York was due to this ritual problem.
While they didn¡¯t know the contents of this ritual, they knew that a ritual of this magnitude had to be dealt with.
"Can¡¯t you just search the entire city for ck Monarchy members?" Huan Er asked. She knew about Nan Tian¡¯s eye which let him see through all disguises, so she was wondering as to why he wasn¡¯t using it.
"You misunderstand the power of my eye. Yes, I can see through disguises, but ck Monarchy members don¡¯t have a title saying that they¡¯re members of the ck Monarchy. My eye cannot see into the mind.
"I can¡¯t just look at someone and know what they¡¯re thinking. Therefore, I cannot just look at someone and say ¡¯they are ck Monarchy members¡¯. That¡¯ll be irresponsible." Nan Tian shook his head.
¡¯But weren¡¯t you able to see the thoughts of the ice mage?¡¯ Huan Er thought, feeling a little sour on the inside.
"So since we can¡¯t make use of my eye, we¡¯ll have to find clues and try to track them down manually. Understand?" Nan Tian asked, turning around slightly.
"Understood."
"Good." Turning back to the city, he wondered about what Shiro was going to do after leaving the city.
Shaking his head, he put idle thoughts to the side for now. He had serious business to take care of first.
###
*BOOOM!!!
Seeing the nightmarish creature finally die to a lethal blow to the head, Madison and Lyrica sighed in relief.
Shiro, on the other hand, was smiling as she had been able to level up with the defeat of this boss.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (1/10 Humans Killed), Fratricide
Level: 35
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï(Eligible for star advancement), Nanomancer
HP: 59,020/85,600
MP: 82,500/131,200
STR: 520 (+110)
VIT: 550 -> 600 (+85)
INT: 750 -> 850 (+200)
AGI: 600 -> 670 (+130)
DEX: 600 (+70)
DEF: 255 (+130)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 220 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 1
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 12,500,001 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1).]
With her level up, she had finally gained the option to increase her star from two stars to three stars.
[Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï (Star Advancement in progress)]
48/200 D ranked Mana Stone
0/5 Ice Spirit Essence
0/1 Ice Heart
Seeing the requirements, Shiro was thankful that they weren¡¯t too difficult of a task for her toplete.
The 200 D ranked mana stone can be gained by running a D ranked dungeon several times. The 5 Ice Spirit Essence was an item you get from bosses near cold areas. The drop rate for the Ice Spirit Essence was rather low so Shiro would probably need to kill quite a few before she reached 5.
Thest item was probably the hardest one but also the easiest one.
¡¯I can probably get it if I scammed the mage¡¯s association.¡¯
Chapter 73 Scam
Chapter 73 Scam
"Since all of us have levelled up, shall we end the dungeon runs for today?" Madison asked.
[Sure. I want to start doing my star up requirements.]
"Ah no wonder you¡¯re still an ice mage. You should be at 2 stars now right? And you¡¯re doing your 3rd star I believe." Lyrica said.
"3rd star huh? I heard that not a lot of people get their fifth star. But quite a few get their 4th star." Madison said whilst stretching her body a little.
[The fifth star is a lot harder since the benefits it gives are much more than what a normal ss up offers. If it wasn¡¯t difficult, it would no longer be fair. Well, fair is pushing it a little but you understand what I mean. The more effort you put into something the greater the potential rewards.]
"True. So what do you need to do?" Madison asked.
[I need 200 D ranked mana stones, 5 Ice Spirit Essences and 1 Ice Heart.] Shiro replied.
"Hmm... I have quite a few D ranked mana stones that I can give you."
Madison pulled out a handful of D ranked mana stones and passed it to Shiro.
"Me too. It isn¡¯t much but it should help." Lyrica said, doing the same as Madison.
With the mana stones filling up her hands, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to reply to them.
"Think of this as payment. Not everyone can get a high levelled and experienced adventurer to power level them up. Therefore, giving you a portion of our D ranked mana stones to help you star up is only natural." Madison grinned.
"Yup yup." Lyrica nodded.
¡¯These two...¡¯ Shiro thought with a weary smiled.
Storing the mana stones in her inventory, she pulled out her phone.
[Thank you.]
"Hahahaha, it should be me and Lyrica saying thank you to you. If you didn¡¯t appear in our lives, I would probably still antagonise Lyrica and perhaps, she might not have found out about her hidden proficiency this quickly." Madison smiled awkwardly. Looking back a few weeks in time, she was indeed a little petty for holding it against Lyrica.
She couldn¡¯t help the fact that her body movement was always awkward due to her hidden proficiency. On top of that, she wasn¡¯t able to get a lot of exp so her level was naturally lower than everyone else¡¯s.
Not to mention the fact that on lower levels, It doesn¡¯t matter since the level differences between 1 and 20 are small, they are just ¡¯trials. Only after level 20 did the differences actually start to matter more.
Smiling at the fact that Madison epted her ws and was able to joke about them, Shiro was d she picked her as a teammate.
"Alright, let¡¯s head out of here and eat our hearts out. I am starving after doing a hard dungeon like this in one go." Madison said, pulling both Shiro and Lyrica by the arms.
"Ehh? I don¡¯t want to eat my heart out though. I¡¯ll get fat!" Lyricained.
¡¯Thank god I don¡¯t get fat.¡¯ Shiro thought as she couldn¡¯t even imagine herself if the mana stones made her fat. With the amount she had to eat, she¡¯d look like a dumpling.
Before they left the dungeon, Shiro made sure to collect all of the elemental crystals.
"What do you need them for? Not a lot of people have uses for them." Lyrica asked.
[Interested about them. Nowe on.] Shiro dismissed as she walked to the exit.
Upon leaving the dungeon, they saw that the time was still rather early.
"Wait! Why is there only three of you?" One of the people at the scene suddenly said.
The trio looked at each other before Shiro grabbed them both by the waist.
Yin Style Phantom Art: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom + 3rd Phantom.
Her body flicked out of the person¡¯s view.
"Wahhhh!!!!" Both Madison and Lyrica cried out in surprise when they saw how fast they were going.
Dashing over the roofs with incredible speed, they were surprised that hardly anyone could spot them.
Naturally, Shiro couldn¡¯t keep this up for long.
Landing not too far away from the dorms, Shiro let the duo back on the ground.
"Fuu...." Breathing out heavily, she calmed her heart rate.
¡¯Seems like using three out of the five phantoms at once is still a little harsh on the body.¡¯ Shiro thought as she could feel soreness from her body.
So far, she had experienced using four of the phantoms. Illusionary Phantom, Speed Phantom, Counter Weight Phantom and Internal Feasting Phantom.
She hadn¡¯t had the chance to use the final phantom, the Soul Stealing Phantom, due to the fact that this phantom needed her to abandon all thoughts of defence. Trading blow for blow.
The 5th phantom was most suited in fights against humans and not monsters.
"Holy! Shiro! What the hell was that?!" Madison asked as she nearly fell because her legs were soft from the experience.
[Martial Arts.]
"Bullsh*t." Madison replied almost instantly.
She had never seen martial arts that allowed her to escape someone¡¯s attention as well as make people ignore the fact that a small girl was dragging two teens by the waist.
[No it¡¯s true. This is the type of martial arts I use. I used it a lot in the event along with fighting the boss.]
[If you remember, when I tanked the boss with you, I was using the 3rd stance/move of my martial arts to redirect the attacks.] Shiro typed out.
She wasn¡¯t surprised at her confusion since she too understood that this martial art was very advanced. Even now, with her memorising everything that Fei Ling demonstrated, she was still at a rudimentary level of understanding.
"Since it¡¯s martial arts, can we learn it?" Madison asked with slight excitement.
[I don¡¯t think it fits your style. I managed to learn it since I met the minimum requirements. If you performed the martial art incorrectly, it would cause more harm than good.] Shiro replied seriously.
Seeing how serious Shiro was been, they knew she wasn¡¯t kidding. Shiro, as a person, was very generous in their eyes. She never shied away from sharing goods or helping them out.
She didn¡¯t ask forpensation and helped them of her own volition.
So her warnings had to be taken seriously.
"Ah such a shame then." Madison shrugged her shoulders.
[Don¡¯t worry about it. You can easily develop your own fighting style. Madison, you¡¯ve already started developing yours. Same with you Lyrica.] Shiro smiled.
[I¡¯ll go to the mage¡¯s association and get the ice heart. You two can head back first.]
"Alright. Take care Shiro."
"See youter Shiro."
Leaving for the mage¡¯s association, Shiro saw an off influx of people walking towards the cksmith¡¯s area.
¡¯Did someone make a good piece of gear or something? Why are there so many people.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Making a note to visit the cksmith¡¯s area after the mage¡¯s association, Shiro thought about how she should scam them.
¡¯Wait... it should be within my rights as the top ten to get the item. Why am I bargaining with them? I should be allowed it since it¡¯s my privilege.¡¯ Thinking of this, Shiro grinned.
Arriving at the mage¡¯s association, Shiro could already feel most of the eyes turn towards her.
Ignoring the strange mixture of gazes of fear, anger, delight, and surprise, Shiro walked towards the receptionist.
[May I order an item?] She asked.
"Yes. What do you need?" The receptionist asked. She didn¡¯t need to use theputer to know who Shiro was since she¡¯s been pretty famous amongst the mages in the guild recently.
She was in Rank 1 for people you don¡¯t want to piss off. The A*** Destroying Princess.
[I would like to order the item, Ice Heart, along with 5 Ice Spirit Essences.]
"You... want the item Ice Heart and 5 Ice Spirit Essences?" The receptionist asked just to make sure she read that right.
While the Ice Spirit Essences weren¡¯t too difficult, the Ice Heart was another problem. There was only 1 Ice Heart in the mage¡¯s association and it seemed to be in the possession of the branch leader.
[Yes that is what I wrote. I do believe that it is within my rights as the top 10 in the priority list to be allowed to order items that will assist me.]
A sly grin crept up on Shiro¡¯s face as she too knew the difficulty of acquiring the Ice Heart. Which was why she never intended to find it herself and instead let the mage¡¯s association find it for her.
"Erm... I¡¯ll have to get the branch leader for you." The receptionist said as she quickly left to pass this bundle of trouble to him instead.
Waiting patiently, Shiro didn¡¯t have to wait long for Mark to arrive on the scene.
"So it seems like we should discuss this in another room." Mark said whilst looking at the little devil in front of him.
[Sure.]
Walking to another room, Shiro sat down on a chair and crossed her legs. Resting Yin on herp, Shiro looked at Mark and waited for him to start the conversation.
Taking a deep breath, Mark looked at Shiro.
"The 5 Ice Spirit Essences are not a problem. Which I believe you know yourself."
[I do.]
"But, the Ice Heart is a little harder to acquire for you." Mark said with seriousness.
[Yes, but that¡¯s only if we consider the fact that you find a second one. Don¡¯t you possess a perfectly good one in your inventory.] Shiro grinned.
Mark could already feel a pinch creeping up to his heart.
He still remembers the pain of her ripping the 30 ice cores from the stock. And now she wanted the only Ice Heart they had.
[Who was it that said, and I quote, "You get ess to tomes, MATERIALS and skill simtions."] Shiro grinned as she had an amazing memory. She still remembers what he had said when she asked him about the privileges of VIP.
"Indeed I have. But, that only applies to materials you can get." Mark said ying it off.
[And yet you have an Ice Heart that you don¡¯t use. Therefore, it is a material I can get and it falls into my right of acquiring the material.]
"I may have use for it."
[No you don¡¯t.]
"How are you so sure?"
[Because if you did, you would have used it already. The Ice Heart is primarily used as a material to upgrade an elemental based ss. You most likely acquired the Ice Heart for your dual element mage and yet, when you found out the elements you had were lighting and fire, you had no more use of the item.] Shiro typed out, guessing the situation from her knowledge.
"...Perhaps." Mark replied.
¡¯SHE¡¯S CORRECT!¡¯
He had initially obtained the Ice Heart to be a fire and ice dual element mage. And yet, he had awakened lightning and fire attunements for his dual mage ss. The sad part was that he couldn¡¯t use it for his next ss up either.
All his effort used to acquire the Ice Heart was shattered with a single realisation of his attunement.
[Now. I imagine the other top rankers would not take it too kindly if they found out that they may be rejected of their privilege even though the branch master has no use for the item. Plus, I need it for a star up requirement so more reasons for you to give it to me.] Shiro grinned.
"Urg!" Mark made a difficult face as he could actually imagine that happening. The thought of losing benefits may cause unease amongst the priority list.
Switching between the faces of agony and helplessness, he pulled out an item that looked like an intricately engraved orb of ice.
"Just... take it. Take it and please don¡¯te back." He said feeling his heart being crushed into several pieces.
[You forgot the 5 Ice Spirit Essences.]
"Urg! Here. Please just leave..." He said, passing her the items.
[Thank you. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯lle back after another 5 levels.] Shiro chuckled slightly.
¡¯PLEASE DON¡¯T COME BACK YOU DEVIL!¡¯ Mark cried out in his mind.
On top of the fact that he needed to give her the item because of his job, he also had to give it to her due to the order of his young master.
With the order of assisting her when he could, he had no other choice but to give her the ice heart.
The feeling of biting a chunk out of your total wealth for an item. ONLY, to find out you can¡¯t use it followed by the fact that you need to give it to a little devil; was a feeling that crushed Mark¡¯s heart.
It was just one scam after another. He entered as a normal man before leaving as a broken one.
Walking out of the mage¡¯s association with the items she needed, she was only short of 93 D ranked mana stones for her 3rd star up.
Walking towards Helion¡¯s shop, Shiro was rather surprised at how many people were gathered here.
By estimates, it was roughly twice as much as usual.
Walking towards the back door that Helion had shown her a while back, Shiro bypassed the queue and walking into his workshop.
When one of the customers saw her, he immediately froze up and dashed out the shop.
"Shiro! Honestly, this is bing quite a love-hate rtionship." Helion said sitting back on his chair.
[You don¡¯t mind the customer leaving?] Shiro asked.
"Oh no. I do mind. That is if they WEREN¡¯T ASKING FOR AN ASS PLATE!!! I HAVEN¡¯T MADE ANYTHING ELSE FOR SO LONG!" Helionined, pulling at his hair angrily.
At the start of the new business boom, all was fine. But when he had to make several hundreds of ass tes that soon reached the thousands, he was getting a little annoyed. AND NOW, he literally made nothing else for so many days that he felt like he was going insane.
[If this makes things better, I want tomission a few weapons.]
"Tell me what you want and I¡¯ll make it right f*cking now." Helion said instantly, grasping at the chance to make something other than an ass te.
Chapter 74 Survival Round P1
Chapter 74 Survival Round P1
[What I need is a level 25 and two level 30 set armour, a level 25 and level 30 pair of swords and shields.] Shiro typed out.
"Now normally I would have probably done everything separately but just for you, and the fact that ass tes are driving me insane, I¡¯ll do it all in one go. Describe them to me." Helion said as he pulled out a notepad and pencil.
[For the armour, the level 25 must be defensive orientated as it is meant for a tanker. However, it must also hold some attacking capabilities since she is a mix tanker. She can act as both attack and defence. For level 30¡¯s, one of them should be a mix like the level 25 and the other one should be only speed and power focused. As for the sword and shield, just make them as best you can with both attack and defence in mind.]
"Hmm, so I¡¯m guessing that one is for the Madison girl and the other for the elf? I¡¯m honestly surprised that you¡¯re already asking for level 25 and 30 armours for them." Helion said as he started to sketch.
[Well I took them to a level 30 dungeon and levelled them up.]
"Hahaha, that¡¯s just like you. Taking them into a dangerous dungeon to level up." Helion chuckled.
Finishing his sketches, he showed them to Shiro.
"How is this? If I started to make them now, it¡¯ll take me around a day or two to make them all." Helion said.
[We¡¯re not in too much of a hurry so it¡¯s fine. How much do I have to pay?]
"The ass te business boom gave me more than enough materials and money tost me a few months. Don¡¯t worry about it.
"And before you say anything, just know that this business boom is due to a certain... tendency of yours." Helion said before Shiro could reject his offer.
[Fine. Just text me when the items are done.] Shiro typed out.
"Alright. Just give me a second." Helion said standing up.
Walking out of the store, he saw the queue of people waiting and could only give up on this business opportunity.
"ALRIGHT GUY LISTEN UP!!!! I GOT A BIG COMMISSION SO IF YA WANT ASS, PLATES GO LOOK FOR SOMEONE ELSE FOR NOW!!!" He shouted out.
Closing the shutters, he ignored cries of injustice.
"Well, I should make a start on the armours now." Helion said with a smile.
[I¡¯ll leave you to it. See youter.]
"See ya Shiro."
Leaving the store, Shiro made her way back to the dorms.
Returning to her room, she sighed seeing a certain figure floating near the window.
Giving Shiro a wave, Nan Tian gestured at the window.
Pulling up a chair, Shiro sat down with her legs crossed. Resting her head on her hand, she pulled her phone out and started typing one. Letter. At. A. Time.
[You should be able to open that window yourself right? Why are you waiting for me to open it?] Shiro asked.
"Well, I wouldn¡¯t be a gentleman if I didn¡¯t wait for your permission would I?" Nan Tian chuckled while opening the window.
[And you stalking a little girl is being gentlemanly?] Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Well... if you put it that way, then it¡¯s not gentlemanly at all. But unlike a certain someone, I don¡¯t watch you while you sleep do I?" Nan Tianughed.
[Urg. Both you and him are the same in my eyes. Stalker to the bone.] Shiro rolled her eyes.
"But would you rather a gentlemanly stalker or a creepy stalker?" Nan Tian asked as he sat on her windowsill.
[Like I said, both are the same in my eyes. But enough about your creepy tendencies. Tell me, what are you here for?] Shiro asked.
"What am I here for? Hmm... would hanging out with a friend need a reason?"
[Yes.]
"Tsk. Fine, let¡¯s just say you should be careful. This city might take a beating in a few days and that might even be the best case scenario. In the worst case scenario, it may start as early as tomorrow."
[Take a beating?]
"What I mean by that is a group known as the ck Monarchy has a ritual being set up in this city. As for the contents of the ritual, I have no idea." Nan Tian said with a serious face.
[ck Monarchy? Sounds edgy.]
"Hahaha, yes. Yes it does." Nan Tianughed. He found it amusing how she wasn¡¯t focused on the city-wide threat but instead, the fact that their group title is edgy.
"You aren¡¯t curious about the ritual they are holding?" He asked.
[I am. But, what can I even do? If they¡¯re nning a ritual in this city, then it¡¯s not something a level 35 like me can stop. The most I¡¯ll do is give my friends a warning about it and nothing else. Plus, with you and other factions in the city, we should be rtively safe.] Shiro shrugged.
"True."
[Also, can¡¯t you pinpoint their location? If you look at the ritual areas you¡¯ve discovered so far, you can reverse draft a ritual diagram and find out the activation sequence. Disrupt that correctly and you stop the ritual.]
Nan Tian was taken back by her line.
"But how would you even know what kind of ritual they¡¯re nning." Nan Tian asked curiously. He had his own idea but was curious to what Shiro had thought about it.
[Well it¡¯s kind of obvious. Once you find a few of the base nodes, you¡¯ll be able to reverse guess the type of ritual. First off, you need to know the types of rituals. The mostmon ones being an attack, defence, summon/sacrifice and totem rituals. Let me ask this first. How big is the ritual and how long has it been since the start of their preparation?] Shiro asked.
"I¡¯d say it covers around 60 to 70% of New York City and that they¡¯ve probably started for almost a month I would guess." Nan Tian replied.
[Well then it¡¯s a totem ritual.] Shiro rolled her eyes. If was very easy to guess what type of ritual based on prep and the size of the ritual.
With the size being 60 to 70% of the city with a preparation of 1 month, then the only option would be totem ritual.
"Why totem? Why not attack ritual?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
[Well, since you¡¯ve discovered tracks due to your estimates, it means they also know. If an attack ritual really took 70% of the city, the materials required would be astronomical. Not to mention, the conditions of an attack ritual is stringent and with you in hot pursuit, they wouldn¡¯t be dumb enough to continue with such a strict ritual. Therefore, it could only mean it¡¯s a totem ritual.]
"If it is as you say, then the only problem left is what kind of totem they¡¯re making." Nan Tian sighed as he leaned back.
[So why are you telling me this?]
"Like I said, it¡¯s to warn you. Get your friends out of the city or something before anything begins."
[Urg. Read carefully would you? I wrote WHY. So give me your reason as to why you are warning me.]
"Hmm... you can guess yourself." Nan Tian replied.
¡¯I can already imagine this asshole grinning...¡¯ Shiro thought, pulling an annoyed face.
Seeing her face, Nan Tian took it as a cue to stop for now.
"Well, since I did what I wanted to do. I¡¯ll leave for now."
[Before you go. Does the governor of this city know? And if so, are they nning an evacuation procedure?]
"Yes, they do. And the evacuation procedures are underway."
[Alright, you can go now.] Shiro waved her hand dismissively.
"Ai... so hurtful to your future sect branch master." Nan Tian sighed with a shake of his head. Flickering away, Shiro only rolled her eyes.
There wasn¡¯t any point to warning Lyrica and Madison about the ritual. The only thing it¡¯ll do is serve to add stress.
With the ¡¯higher ups¡¯ already nning everything out, Shiro decided that she shouldn¡¯t meddle with it and add more variables to their ns.
###
The next day, Madison and Lyrica followed Shiro since they were going to be spectating her fight this round. After their quick eliminationst round, they had nothing else to do.
[See if you can learn anything from the fights.] Shiro typed out simply. There wasn¡¯t really any secret to getting better at fighting other than to experience more fights and learn from others. That was it.
"Alright. We¡¯ll cheer you on." Lyrica smiled before walking to the spectator stands.
Walking towards the main za, Shiro waited for her spot to be assigned.
Seeing a sign that says, [Those who are waiting for slots please check in here.], She immediately knew where to go.
¡¯Well, that sign says plenty.¡¯ Shiro thought. Queueing up at the booth, she didn¡¯t need to wait too long for her turn to arrive.
"May I have your golden badge as proof please." The receptionist said.
Nodding her head, Shiro handed over the badge.
"Hello miss Shiro. You¡¯ll be assigned to area C, slot 210." She replied whilst giving back the badge.
[Thank you.]
Looking at the signs that are scattered around the ce, Shiro found area C without much difficulty. Especially considering the fact that there is a huge banner with a C painted on looming over the area.
Finding her way to slot 210, she saw the mini arena she had to be put in. The arena itself reminded her of diatorial arenas due to the fact that the main area itself was surrounded by several gate ways.
¡¯I¡¯m guessing that these gateways will dispense the puppets that will be attacking me in waves.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Walking up to the arena, she saw a device stuck to the side of the entrance of her arena.
[Insert Badge to confirm attendance.]
She reached out and inserted the badge as the device instructed.
*Bing~
A soft ring rang out as the panel lit up with a green light.
[Attendance has been confirmed. Please enter the arena and wait for the round to start.]
¡¯Hmm, I guess having key panels that instruct the people will save them a lot of manpower.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst entering the arena.
Looking at it from the inside was differentpared to looking at it from the outside.
Only from the inside, did she realise how much space she actually had.
¡¯With such a limited amount of space, it¡¯ll be a pain trying to get a moment of rest between the fights.¡¯ She analysed.
With space like this, even if she usedrge scale magic, it would get filled up in no time.
As Shiro stepped into the arena, a camera lit up to broadcast her participation.
"Nan Tian. That girl had entered the arena." Huan Er reported.
Currently, they were on the roof of the skyscr.a.p.er.
"Hou? Pass me the tablet. I¡¯ll watch it while we work." Nan Tian said with slight anticipation.
Nodding her head whilst feeling annoying inside, she handed him the tablet.
¡¯Little Snow should be able to hold her own against the puppets. But the problemes with her physical attributes. The level 50¡¯s have an advantage over her in terms of stats and stamina, I wonder how she¡¯ll fare in this round.¡¯ He thought, looking at the live feed of her arena.
Meanwhile, Madison and Lyrica were looking at the participant¡¯s list. When they saw Shiro¡¯s name light up, they immediately tapped it and watched the broadcast.
"Hey Madi, how well do you think Shiro will do?" Lyrica asked.
"How well? I¡¯d say around mid to low? Since the level 50¡¯s have ridiculous statspared to her." Madison replied, analysing the chances of Shiro¡¯s victory.
"Really? I¡¯d say she¡¯d be mid to high."
"Why?"
"Well because she has great stamina doesn¡¯t she? Have you seen her tire herself out when fighting monsters? The only time we see that is when she uses her martial arts a lot. But other than that, we¡¯ve seen her fight at full capacity for more than an hour. In my opinion, Shiro¡¯s strength lies in stamina conservation along with sudden bursts of attack power." Lyrica exined.
"...!!!" Madison paused in shock seeing a sudden burst of wisdom from Lyrica.
Blinking twice to make sure she wasn¡¯t hallucinating, she wondered about what just happened.
¡¯Well, people tend to have odd moments of intelligence at random times.¡¯ Madison thought.
"So you believe that she¡¯ll oust the level 50¡¯s?"
"Yes. That¡¯s because of the fact that they¡¯re level 50. Withrge stat¡¯s, there is an equal amount of energy usage. They are like engines that go from 0 to 100% power with each attack. It¡¯ll tire them out quickly whereas Shiro is an engine that keeps a constant 70% output and can change to different output values depending on what she wants to do.
"Naturally, this only works if you consider Shiro¡¯s already huge stamina pool and her fine control of her body. Anyone else and they¡¯d definitely rank lowerpared to the level 50¡¯s." Lyrica concluded.
"When have you ever talked this much?" Madison muttered.
"When ites to Shiro I always talk this much." Lyrica smiled.
"Hmm."
Ignoring the fact that Lyrica seemed to have had a strategist possess her for a moment, they waited for thementator to start the round.
"WELCOME ALL!!! Today, we have the survival test for our adventurers. Each adventurer will have to fight against waves of puppets that are matched to their level. Ranks will be determined by how long you actually survive for. To make things fair, all of the puppets will ¡¯level up¡¯ after a certain amount of time for every participant.
"However, even though we have a surprise contestant that is under levelled, we¡¯ll keep the puppets at level 50 even for her." Thementator said.
Madison and Lyrica frowned hearing this as Shiro was only level 35. With the puppets being 15 levels higher than her, it was going to be a hard fight.
¡¯Level 50 huh? Seems like I¡¯ll have to focus my attention on making the puppets hurt each other.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
"With the introduction finished, LET THE ROUND START!!!"
Chapter 75 Survival Round P2
Chapter 75 Survival Round P2
*Gururururu~
The sound of marching could be heard as the puppets slowly walked out of the gates.
Looking at the puppets, Shiro pulled forwards her hood.
*KSH KSH KSH
The puppets readied their weapon and charged towards her.
¡¯Fast!¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Crouching down, she grabbed one of the spears a puppet held and pulled it towards her.
*BANG!
mming her palm into the puppet¡¯s torso, Shiro sent it crashing back with all of the momentum it carried.
Quickly bending backwards, Shiro avoided a swipe from another puppet.
Looking around her, she saw several chances to counter the puppets attack.
She narrowed her eyes before trapping one of the spears between her calf and thigh. Flipping her body whilst using the staff as a base, she kicked the puppet in the face.
*BAN BAN BAN!
With a single twirl of the spear, she pped the iing spears away.
¡¯I need a little bit of space.¡¯ Shiro thought quickly.
Gathering mana at the tip of the spear, she mmed it into the ground.
*CRRRR!!!!
Ice spread out with her in the centre and froze the puppet¡¯s legs. Whilst this was happening, Shiro was already thinking two steps ahead. Freezing up a de on the edge of the spear, Shiro kicked the body of the spear whilst holding the pommel.
The force caused the spear to swing in a wide arch. Making sure to amplify the speed, Shiro twisted her body to increase the momentum.
*BANG!
The spear broke halfway through the attack causing Shiro to curse in her mind.
With the sudden gap in defence, the puppets charged at her with increased vigour.
"Tsk." Shiro clicked her tongue seeing this predicament. Gathering mana into her palm, she mmed a ball of lightning into the ground.
*BZZZZ!!!!
The lightning travelled through the ice and into the body of the puppets.
While they were still shocked, Shiro made a handful of ice daggers.
She jumped up and twisted her body horizontally whilst simultaneously throwing the daggers.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Colliding urately with the head of the puppets, the sudden explosion of the daggers sent them stumbling backwards.
Landing back on the ground, Shiro wasn¡¯t happy that the puppets were set in a way that was harder for her to take advantage of theirrge numbers. They were spread out just far enough so that they weren¡¯t interfering with each other while also being just close enough to attack her at the same time.
¡¯Since that¡¯s the case, this missy wille to you!¡¯
Dashing towards the group of puppets, Shiro tilted her head and avoided the staff whistling towards her face. Pulling on the staff, she tripped the puppet over before using it as a shield.
*DUN DUN!
Blocking the staff attacks, she flipped the puppet over her before grabbing the two staffs. Lifting her body up, she kicked both puppets in the face before backflipping.
Whilst she was in the air, her mind scanned the entire battlefield and nned a few steps ahead.
Crouching down the moment shended, Shiro aimed both palms outwards as ice spears shot out and pierced the head of the puppets.
Rolling to the side, she avoided the attacks of new puppets that joined the fray.
mming her palms into the ground, she skewered all of the puppets and suspended them into the air.
Suddenly feeling danger behind her, Shiro turned around and hastily made an ice shield.
"Urg!" A muffled cry escaped her lips as the attack shattered the ice shield that she made quickly.
If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that she¡¯s predicting their movements and acting 2 steps ahead, she would have long been buried under their attacks. The speed of level 50¡¯s weren¡¯t something she could react to straight away. She had to n and predict.
What happened then was a testament on how thin of a line she was currently stepping on. One mistake and she was almost eliminated.
Sliding across the ground, Shiro could already feel her tempo being interrupted.
Quickly jumping up, she made a small tform to stand on.
Taking a short break, she examined the arena.
However, she wasn¡¯t able to observe for long as the puppets started to throw their spears at her.
¡¯Oh f*ck.¡¯ Shiro thought as she quickly dropped down from her tform.
Kicking off the wall, she avoided the mass of staffs waiting to attack her.
Shended on the ground and slid for a short moment before stopping. Leaving a small trail of ice, Shiro flicked her wrist as the ice expanded outwards.
Seeing her prep done, she grinned and flicked her wrist upwards.
Before the attack even hit, Lyrica and Nan Tian already knew what was going to happen.
*BANG BANG BANG!
Spears of ice pierced upwards, skewering the puppets and suspended them in mid-air.
For the people who were spectating her at that moment, the sight made them pucker their ass holes in fear.
With her attack, Shiro was able to have a brief moment of rest to regain her tempo. Watching the puppets fade, she knew the next wave wasing.
Waving her hand, Shiro set up a few traps scattered around the arena. These traps would help her control the crowd and limit the number of puppets that can attack her.
Within a few seconds, the next wave of puppets had already appeared and ready to attack Shiro.
Pulling a serious face, Shiro sped her hands as ice jaws sprang up from the ground.
*BANG
As expected, the trap wasn¡¯t able to harm the puppets too much since they were able to block the jaws. However, the jaws had already yed their part.
Dashing towards the crowd, Shiro made two ice swords and shed at the puppets who were busy dealing with holding the jaws apart.
*BAM
The moment she killed the puppets, the jaw mmed shut due to the puppets not being able to hold it open.
Pivoting on her foot, she dodged the spears that attacked her from behind.
She had to make sure that she¡¯s always 2 steps ahead of the level 50 puppets or else she¡¯ll be eliminated easily.
###
"Wow, why do I feel like Shiro knows everything that¡¯s happening?" Madison muttered in awe of Shiro¡¯s performance.
"Prediction I believe. I remember Shiro trying to teach me how to perform like how she does." Lyrica replied.
"She what?! Where was I? I need these lessons too!"
"Well... It¡¯s really hard and your reactions must be fast. Basically, what she does is she runs several prediction lines on where the enemies may walk to, make solutions for them and proceed to make more prediction lines. Every time a new situation arises, Shiro would make a simtion in her mind.
"Naturally, she can¡¯t get all of the situations but just the sheer number she can predict is still incredible. Her brain is almost like aputer, constantly updating with simtions of the events and reacting to them before making new simtions right after." Lyrica boasted slightly.
"Surely not." Madison said as she almost couldn¡¯t believe it. However, she couldn¡¯t deny what she was seeing right now. Shiro was almost like a prophet. Her body moves away from the attacks before they could even make a move.
"It¡¯s true. How else do you think Shiro is keeping up with the speed of the level 50 puppets. While they may be weaker than normal level 50¡¯s due to the fact that they¡¯re just puppets, the sheer number and level difference are enough to overwhelm anyone."
"But then wouldn¡¯t that make Shiro aputer or something? Being able to do that much while also fighting isn¡¯t normal in the least! It¡¯s freaking abnormal!!!"
"When was Shiro ever normal though?" Lyrica asked. She was pretty used to seeing Shiro perform abnormal feats. It was to the point that she would feel off if Shiro did something ¡¯normal¡¯, as it wouldn¡¯t be Shiro anymore.
"Hmm... I suppose. She was never one for normality, was she?" Madison chuckled.
"So I know that she simtes, but we can¡¯t do that. So how did she suggest you learn?" Madison asked.
"She suggested that I just memorize their positions. Memorize the currentyout of the battle and their positions so I always keep a mental note of where they are."
"Goodness, that¡¯s not exactly the easiest either."
"If it was easy, then everyone could do it." Lyrica chuckled since there was no easy path. What Shiro told them was about as simple as it was going to get. The rest depended on how well they performed.
###
[Deploying level 51 puppets.]
Hearing the loudspeakers notify everyone of the increase in level, Shiro narrowed her eyes. Level 51 puppets were going to be much harder than level 50 puppets since their strength had entered the C rank.
With their tier 3 strength equivalent of one¡¯s third ss up, their stats could easily squash the stats of a level 50.
*BOOM!
A fist suddenly mmed against the ground as huge puppets could be seen climbing out of the gates.
¡¯Heavy power type puppet huh? Seems like I¡¯ll need to kill them straight away.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Seeing that she was allowed a moment to breathe due to the power type puppet blocking the way, Shiro stomped down hard. A magic circle erupted out from beneath her while the surrounding area became encased in ice.
¡¯This might be pushing it a little.¡¯ Shiro thought as her body was already reacting negatively to the ability she was going to use.
Ice coagted around her body as it hardened around her shin, forearms, shoulder and head.
Pseudo Elemental Armour.
Since her ice attunement had reached Tier 2 in strength, she was able to formte the beginning of her true elemental armour.
However, due to the fact that her broken links were still unrepaired, she was behind everyone in her formation of elemental armour.
Even now, she could feel that it was a little too early for her.
¡¯But... If I don¡¯t get my body used to the pain, then it will never adapt to this.¡¯ Shiro thought, clutching her fists.
Her desire to repair her broken links were strong but she was helpless. The few ways she knew of repairing her links were too difficult for her to ess right now and to top it all off, she had no idea if they were even avable in the current world. So many new concepts had been discovered here that Shiro wasn¡¯t sure if they existed anymore. Different worlds, different time and different concepts.
What she thought exists might not exist. Therefore, she couldn¡¯t repair her broken links anytime soon. She had to scour the world to find these methods of repairing her body.
When the magic circle settled down, her ice amour could be seen glistening in the sunlight. They were coloured pale blue while a small crown could be seen on her head. In her hands were spiked ice chains that wrapped around her forearms.
Moving her arms around a little, Shiro realised she could extend the chains and retract them with her mana.
Nodding to herself, she looked up and saw that she was just in time since the puppets had just escaped the gateway.
Crouching down, Shiro narrowed her eyes and flung the spike chains to the power type puppets.
*Ding Ding!
Deflecting the chains easily, Shiro wasn¡¯t surprised since she had expected this to happen.
Since the chains were the result of her magic, it meant that she could adjust them however she wanted.
Flicking her wrist, the tips of the chains morphed into ws that grabbed the puppet¡¯s hands.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + 3rd Phantom.
She pulled on the chains andunched her body towards the puppet. Making a spike on the bottom of her foot, Shiro pierced the frontal lobe of the puppet.
Twisting her body clockwise, she exploded the spike to destroy the head of the puppet. While she was doing this, she made sure theposition of the spike was strong enough to pierce the puppet¡¯s outer shell. After destroying the head, she weakened the joints before ripping the arms off and mmed them against the other puppets to push them back.
With the power type puppet dead, she had dealt with the biggest threat.
Quickly turning off her elemental armour before it drains more MP needlessly from her, she looked around at the wave.
However, she couldn¡¯t even look for long when a fist was about to collide with her face.
Quickly making the decision of trading blow for blow, Shiro used the 3rd phantom.
The moment the fist collided with her face, she twisted her body, redirected the force through her leg and roundhouse kicked the pupped in the head.
*BOOM!
The force caused both Shiro and the puppet to be sent back as Shiro slid on her feet. Feeling the sting on her face Shiro was livid.
"Oi asshole. Did you never learn to not punch ady in the face?" Shiro growled with anger in her eyes. While she knew the puppets had no will of its own, that doesn¡¯t mean the conjurer of the puppets were the same. They obviously could have hit her torso or stomach but instead, went for the face.
However, as angry as she was, she knew her limits. Fighting more would only make her sustain even more needless injuries.
Barely dodging a few attacks from the puppets, Shiro walked over to the entrance and pushed the give up button.
*BRRNNN
The green light turned red as all the puppets stopped in their tracks.
[Contestant Shiro has given up. Please leave the arena and await further instructions in the main za.]
Slightly massaging her body, Shiro left her arena.
¡¯If I find out who the hell made that puppet punch me in the face, I¡¯ll make sure they don¡¯t have a lower half!!!¡¯ Shiro cursed.
Chapter 76 Negotiations
Chapter 76 Negotiations
Walking towards the main za, she was stopped by a few staff members.
"Miss Shiro, the organiser would like to have a short chat with you." The staff said handing her a small projection device.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro pulled out her phone.
[Do I call the organiser or he call me?] Shiro asked.
However, before they could even reply, the device started to vibrate with a slight green light.
The staff members gestured for her to answer the call.
{Hello Miss Shiro, how goes your day.} A figure, who was shadowed out, said.
Shiro made an emotionless face as they should know she couldn¡¯t speak by now. Typing on her phone, she held it against the camera.
[You should know that I¡¯m mute right?]
{No, but I do now.} The silhouette chuckled slightly.
{Since you¡¯re mute, you can just listen to what I have to say.
{First of all, I would like to apologise. The initial n was to have you fight against enemies that were scaled to your level. However, we had received several requests from the factions asking for you to be pitted against the level 50 puppet. They wanted to see your potential against level 50 opponents since you had the capabilities to reach this stage.
{I would also like to apologise for my staffs conduct when controlling the puppets. I could see from your face that you weren¡¯t so pleased with the fact that she aimed for your face rather than body. We¡¯ll make sure to give her a warning.}
Shiro nodded when she heard this. While she still wasn¡¯t pleased, she knew that she shouldn¡¯t take things too far.
{Now with those two out of the way, I would now like to congratte you on your sess of reaching this round. The reason I want to congratte you is because we, the government and the organisers of this event, would like to scout you out to join our ranks.
{With factions and different solo adventurer¡¯s out and about, we need to have a ruling authority to keep things peaceful for the weaker people who are living in the world. Because without the government, the factions are free to do whatever they want. If the wrong faction takes over a town, how do you think the civilians will live? Therefore, we need to have the manpower and the talents to keep the world safe for the weaker people.
{And that is why we want to scout you out. We want your help to keep public order in check.}
[Not interested. The only reason I¡¯m joining this event is to help my friends out and not to join a faction.] Shiro declined bluntly. Sure she may apud them for her efforts, however, she wasn¡¯t going to restrain her freedom for the ¡¯greater good¡¯. No, she wasn¡¯t that generous.
{I see. Then I hope Miss Shiro will at least try not to cause trouble. With a certain habit of yours and the fact that the videos have be rather popr on the, a lot of warriors and mages are buying ass tes to protect themselves. A sudden shift in the market almost made a few cksmiths bankrupt. Therefore, I do hope you keep certain habits to yourself and instead, direct them to the monsters.} The man said before closing the call.
Shiro raised an eyebrow before giving the device back to the staff members.
"Thank you for your time." They said before leaving.
"Hmm... Little Yin. Seems like I¡¯ll have to hit other weak points for a while." Shiro muttered, feeling slightly annoyed.
It was like when a smoker couldn¡¯t smoke. There was this irritating itch now that Shiro knew she should stop exposing her attacking method.
*Chirp!
Yin pped her wing against Shiro¡¯s shoulder pulling a face that says "You should have done that from the start!".
Chuckling slightly, Shiro rubbed Yin¡¯s head before tucking her back into her hood.
Walking into the main za, Shiro wasn¡¯t surprised to see that she was one of the early ones to be eliminated from the round.
Looking for a ledge that fits the requirements of a good sigh line as well as being inconspicuous, she crouched down and jumped up to it without much hassle.
Swinging her legs, Shiro searched a few flutepositions to listen to.
¡¯Hmm... Let¡¯s see... 1-hour calming fluteption seems alright.¡¯ Shiro thought as she pressed on the video.
ncing around to make sure that nothing was looking at her, she hid her hand behind her back.
Metal and lightning-sparked for a moment as Shiro created a pair of wireless earbuds. Connecting her phone to her earbuds, she closed her eyes and listened to the music.
The gentle melody made her rock her head and swing her legs in tune. Tapping her fingers, Shiro¡¯s brain worked to single out the notes, how it fluctuated and the length of each note.
She had an idea on how to help her y the flute better. While it may not have ¡¯emotions¡¯ and the such, she¡¯ll be able to y it like a machine or robot.
Her idea was for her to y all the notes of her ice flute and memorize how she yed each of the notes. The changes and the lengths. Next, she would match it up to a songposition she heard.
By following theposition like a program, she¡¯ll be able to hone a basic grasp of how the flute would y out. Listening to the songs y, Shiro enjoyed the melody whilst closing her eyes.
"ANNNDD THE ROUND IS OVER!!!" Thementator shouted out at the top of his voice.
The sudden disturbance made Shiro frown. This was one of the things that just pressed her buttons the wrong way. Pulling her earbuds out of her ears, Shiro crushed them in her palms and reduced them back to mana.
Supporting her body just on her hands, Shiro pushed herself back to the main za.
Landing with a soft thud, she waited to listen to what thementator had to say.
"With this round finished, those of you who have not reached the top 50 are eliminated. Simr to what happened the previous round, you are able to go to the stalls and apply to the faction you want to go to.
"For the people not inside the top 50, please follow our staff to the recruitment area. For those in the top 50, stay behind and await further instructions."
Seeing the staff gesturing everyone through the gate, Shiro pulled up her face mask and hood before following the crowd.
She wasn¡¯t going to look for a faction just yet as she was going to go look for one with Lyrica and Madison. After all, all this effort wasn¡¯t for her to join a faction. But rather to guarantee that Lyrica and Madison get enough benefits for when they join one instead.
Unfortunately for her, before she could even go look for Lyrica and Madison, several of the faction members had already spotted her and made a small circle around her.
While they weren¡¯t the more important higher-ups, it seemed like they were the ones tasked with recruiting her.
"Miss Shiro, our faction the Luna¡¯s Wake will- Gah!"
"Our faction the Opal Tri-!"
"They¡¯re just low ranked factions. The faction I¡¯m a part of, Radiance Anvil, is much higher ranked than the other factions!"
Seeing the mass of recruiters pushing and shoving to tell her about how good their faction was, Shiro got a little annoyed since they were inching a little too close to her.
"ENOUGH!!" A voice filled with authority roared out as a sudden miniature blizzard washed over the recruiters.
With the blizzard both literally and figuratively cooling them down, they looked towards the source of the voice.
The owner was a woman who looked like she was in her mid 30¡¯s. She had long blond hair and violet pupils. Her body proportions wereparable to woman in their 20¡¯s.
However, what shocked the recruiters more was the fact that she was an executive from one of the top 5 in the factions at this event. Winter¡¯s Grace!
[Freya LVL ??? ¨C Ice Arch-Wizard]
"Why are you behaving like immature children!" She said with a frown. The recruiters backed off slightly at her re.
Shiro sighed in relief as she was able to get some room to breathe.
"Miss Shiro, our faction would like to invite you to be a core member of our faction." She said immediately as she saw the other recruiter¡¯s back off slightly.
¡¯Hmm... Winter¡¯s Grace may be a good ce for Lyrica and Madison. Not only can I find more ways to use my magic, but both Lyrica and Madison can also have ess to more supplies.¡¯ Shiro thought.
[I¡¯m sorry. I have a few requirements of my own. Is it ok if we discussed it?]
"Yes, that is no problem. Follow me and we¡¯ll go discuss it." Freya said with a smile.
Before she hade here, she had made sure to do her research. Therefore, seeing her type on her phone wasn¡¯t surprising.
[I¡¯ll have to bring my friends since they¡¯re needed for this discussion.]
"Hmm... Ok, shall I follow you or should we meet up somewhere?" She asked.
[How about we talk this out at a restaurant?] Shiro suggested showing Freya a restaurant that offered private rooms.
"Alright. I just hope I won¡¯t have to wait too long." Freya chuckled.
[You won¡¯t. I¡¯ll get my friends and we¡¯ll be there right away.]
"Then while you do that-"
"Hold it!" A voice cut Freya off as she frowned.
Turning around, they could see a young man In his 20¡¯s. He had ck hair tied into a low ponytail, sharp features and an overall thin build.
"What do you want shattered sc.u.m? Firste first serve." Freya said with a frown.
The man in question was a member of Shattered Dynasty.
[Hua Chen LVL ??? ¨C Constetion Spearman]
"Firste serve? Sure, that¡¯s right. But, don¡¯t you know that patience is a virtue? Better offers mayeter." He smiled.
"Patience is indeed a virtue. But our young master wants her. Are you willing to fight against him for her?" A husky voice called out.
Looking over, they saw a cloaked man with only his eyes visible.
[Kaldar LVL ??? ¨C Ash de]
"Tsk, you Shadow Temple members are always arrogant." Hua Chen retorted.
The three red at each other as each of them wanted to recruit Shiro to their faction.
The girl in question was almost expressionless.
¡¯Annoying... Kaldar is probably part of that stalker¡¯s faction. Shattered Dynasty isn¡¯t what I want so probably Freya is the best pick.¡¯ Shiro thought. While she wasn¡¯t going to join the faction, she still wanted to make sure she got benefits as well.
Flicking her wrist, she pulled out a small piece of paper.
Writing [Meet me at the restaurant in 20 minutes.] on the paper, Shiro folded it up.
While the three were arguing at who was better for her to join, she used 1st Phantom and snuck the paper into Freya¡¯s hand.
Freya paused for a moment as she felt contact, then smiled slightly as she realised Shiro chose her.
"What are you smiling at?!"
"At the fact that your Shattered Dynasty lost to our Winter¡¯s Grace a few days back!" She retorted.
While the three were baring their teeth at each other, no one realised a certain girl missing.
Shiro was already on her way to look for Lyrica and Madison.
"Little Yin, you think I should mess Shadow Temple up to get some revenge and call it even with the stalker?" Shiro asked.
Yin made a shrugging motion since it wasn¡¯t her problem.
"Ai... so unhelpful. What do I even keep you around for?" Shiro asked with a slight chuckle.
*Chirp!
Yin protested by pping Shiro¡¯s chest.
"Hahaha. Only joking." Shiro replied whilst rubbing Yin¡¯s head.
Feeling the touch, Yin closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation.
[Shiro: Where are you two?]
[Lyrica: We¡¯re at the entrance area.]
[Shiro: Coming right now.]
Turning the corner, Shiro made her way to the entrance area.
"Shiro~" Lyrica waved the moment she saw Shiro.
[Heya. Get ready since in 15 to 20 mins, we¡¯ll be discussing important matters with the recruiter of Winter¡¯s Grace.] Shiro smiled.
"Pft!! Winter¡¯s Grace!?!" Madison replied shocked.
She never expected that Shiro would be able to draw the attention of the big five. Well... perhaps she did but seeing it was another matter in itself.
[Were going to be negotiating for benefits. Mainly for you two with me as the bargaining chip.]
"Wouldn¡¯t a smaller faction be better then?" Lyrica asked.
[Yes and no. A smaller faction would have no guarantee and less resources to give you. Bigger factions, while having less resources per person, has better quality.]
"But wouldn¡¯t thepetition be fiercer?" Madison asked.
[Which is why we¡¯re negotiating.]
"So I¡¯m guessing that we are negotiating for stable resources." Lyrica guessed.
[We¡¯re both negotiating for stable resources and more freedom in the faction. If we don¡¯t get freedom, we can easily ignore the negotiations and leave. Since they want me to join, we have the upper hand in the discussion.] Shiro smiled slyly.
She was going to make sure she wrung Freya dry of her benefits before epting. Only more no less.
[I¡¯ll do the texting and you guys watch ok?] Shiro smiled.
"Alright."
Walking to the restaurant, Shiro saw Freya waiting by the side.
Giving Shiro a light wave, she lead them inside the private room she had asked the restaurant to set up earlier.
Sitting down, Freya made a mental note of both Lyrica and Madison.
¡¯Their sses are definitely out of the ordinary. If I can get these two as well...¡¯ She thought.
[As I have stated before, my friends are needed for this discussion.]
"Yes, you have. And why are they important for this?" She asked. Acting as if their ss wasn¡¯t anything special.
Since Shiro was the one she needed to recruit, she knew she had the upper hand. Therefore, she needed to try to pull the terms in her favour.
Understanding what Freya wanted, Shiro only smiled since her initial impression worked.
Now she just needed to make sure the rest of this negotiation goes smoothly.
Chapter 77 Negotiation Success
Chapter 77 Negotiation Sess
[They are important since I will not be the one joining. They will. I keep a strict policy on not restricting my freedom. However, I am also not against connections.] Shiro typed out leisurely.
[What I want is for my friends to join the faction in my stead. However, I will be assisting the faction when I can while not joining as a member.]
"Hmm..." Freya narrowed her eyes slightly. While receiving Lyrica and Madison as members would be good, her main task was still to recruit Shiro.
"I¡¯m afraid that might be a little hard on my side. You should know that my main goal is to recruit you into the faction."
[I do. But, my whole reason for even exposing myself in this event was for my friends. Imagine us as a package deal. You don¡¯t get us separately, only together.]
¡¯The executives told me to get her at any cost. Her talent with the ice element is rarely seen and with the amount of freedom they gave me, I should be able to fulfil a few requirements for her.¡¯ Freya thought to herself.
"I may be able to ept that. But, how do you n for this to happen? And what you mean by not joining us exactly?"
[What I mean is like a hired mercenary. While my friends join the faction, I¡¯ll be a hired mercenary that will be paid for every task I undertake.]
"How much pay are we talking about? And are you going to be exclusively for us or other factions as well."
[I¡¯ll be assisting any faction that my friends join. As for the pay, it depends on how hard the task. I want to have the freedom to reject the tasks if I wanted to or if it is too high above my league. And obviously, the pay must be equal to or higher than my rank. No point working hard to E rank mana stones or the such.] Shiro smiled.
"That¡¯s as good as not joining our faction at all. We want a noticeable connection rather than a flimsy promise." Freya rejected.
¡¯I expected as much. Now I just need to know their baseline.¡¯ Shiro thought. She never expected her to ept in the first ce.
She just wanted to imprint the notion of what she ¡¯wanted¡¯ so that depending on what they finalise the deal on, Freya would think she got a good deal.
[Then what do you suggest?] Shiro asked, throwing the main question at Freya.
"Core disciple. You¡¯ll be a core disciple of the Winter¡¯s Grace along with your friends. While the restrictions are there, the benefits are much more than what others will offer. You¡¯ll even be allowed to pick a teacher to study under in terms of ice magic."
[Core Disciple isn¡¯t too bad. However, you must understand that it means tying a permanent link to the faction right? That is the opposite of what I want.] Shiro shook her head.
"How about elite disciple then. Being under the direct tutge of the upper echelon within Winter¡¯s Grace should be enough of a trade-off." Freya offered.
[I do not need to be in the shoes of a disciple. Do realise that I was able to surpass several level 50¡¯s to get to my position in the event.]
"That is true. But we can both agree that while your close-quartersbat may be incredible, in the art of magic, you have much to learn." Freya said seriously.
[No we can¡¯t as there are other sources of knowledge that I can ess. But, to make this beneficial for both of us, how about a role that involves both our requirements? I want more freedom to move around and for my friends to join the faction. Whereas you want me to be tied down to the faction.]
"Indeed. So what do you suggest?"
[Guest Elder. Or something of the sorts. I¡¯ll be an elder of your faction and provide you with assistance. However, I am not directly connected to the faction in terms of inner workings. This way, we¡¯ll both get what we want.] Shiro smiled.
Freya thought about it and realised that it isn¡¯t too bad.
¡¯Hmm... she¡¯s right. It does fulfil what I set out to do. With her being a guest elder, she¡¯ll still have this connection to us. But...¡¯
"We¡¯ll have to sign a contract. In times of need, there is a requirement for you to assist us." Freya said seriously.
[No problem, however, I need to limit the number of times I cane help. How does five sound? However, I¡¯ll only help if I am able to. So, if it is equal to a suicide mission, you can forget about it.]
"Five is a little... Hmm... Let me ask first." Freya said as five was a little too low. However, if she imagined the future possibilities, then five was also plenty.
Seeing Freya walk out of the room, Shiroid back slightly.
¡¯With my status as a guest elder, I¡¯ll be able to gain ess to arge portion of the resources. Not to mention, I am technically only a half member. I don¡¯t join the faction but have ties with them.¡¯ Shiro thought.
###
Freya, who had left earlier was on the phone to a fellow executive.
"She wants to be a guest elder rather than being a normal member."
{A guest elder? What kind?}
"The mercenary kind. She¡¯ll undertake tasks with the title of guest elder and get paid depending on how hard the tasks are."
{Hmm... while the connection is there, she isn¡¯t exactly within our ranks is she?}
"Yeah. Which is why I wanted to see what the rest say to it before I epted her proposal."
{I think this is outside of our hands. Perhaps you should forward this to Faction Leader and ask her opinion. She sets the rules after all.}
"Do you think this is important enough for her to step in though? She might just tell us to reject her after all, and both you and I know what the leader is like when she¡¯s interrupted for something meagre."
{Don¡¯t worry. Even on the frontlines, you would barely see people who¡¯re able to make such a sturdy shield that can block against level 50¡¯s when they¡¯re level 34.}
"Hmm... fine. It¡¯s on you if the leader deems it to be an unneeded worry."
{Just do it. It¡¯s better to check the leader¡¯s opinion for this.}
Disconnecting the call, Freya sighed before dialling a new number.
###
Somewhere deep in the mountains, a woman was sat on top of a mountain while cold winds blew against her body.
Her hair, sky blue with a hint of green, billowed gently.
Her figure was alluring as she had volume in just the right ces. Opening her eyes, her golden iris¡¯s could be seen.
"Fuu... just shy of Tier 5 Attunement..." She muttered. Flicking her wrist, a freezing mist expanded outwards and froze the mountain over in an instant.
Pulling out a phone she kept secured in a crystal box by the side, in case it was destroyed due to a breakthrough, she unlocked the screen.
¡¯This better be good.¡¯ She thought.
{Leader.}
"Speak." She said coldly.
{The group that went to the New York Faction Event had sent news about an outstanding recruit.}
"Then recruit them. Why did they disturb me." She said with a frown.
{That is because the girl wants to be a guest elder. She wants to retain freedom while still being able to use our resources.}
"Hou... Send me some clips of her ¡¯talent.¡¯ I want to see for myself."
Receiving the files, the woman narrowed her eyes the moment she saw Shiro.
¡¯So it¡¯s her...¡¯ She thought.
Watching the clips, interest and shock slowly emerged as she saw Shiro block an attack from a level 50 with her shield.
Continuing to watch the clips, she smiled mysteriously before turning to the phone.
"ept the proposal. Let her be a guest elder but put a limit on the amount of resources she can obtain. Make it so that she can only increase the upper limit after doing tasks for us." She said with a small smile.
The caller was slightly surprised by the fact that the leader epted but nodded her head. It wasn¡¯t her role to decide what goes on in the faction.
###
"The faction leader has agreed to your proposal. However, there will be a limit on how many resources you can obtain. The limit will naturally be increased the more deeds you do for the faction." Freya said as Shiro nodded.
She expected that the resources will be limited since she wasn¡¯t part of the faction.
[Let me get this right first. Is the pay I get is equal or above my rank?]
"It is." Freya nodded.
[I am allowed to reject a mission if it is above my capabilities?]
"Yes."
[And if I don¡¯t want to do certain missions, I can also reject the task. Is that correct?]
"You¡¯ll be equal to a mercenary that will do tasks for more resources. Just that you have the title of guest elder." Freya replied. Inwardly, she was still surprised at how lenient the leader was towards Shiro.
[Since that is confirmed, what do we do next?] Shiro asked as she gestured for Freya to finalise the deal.
"I just need you to sign a contract to confirm that you are indeed a guest elder and that your two friends be members of Winter¡¯s Grace." Freya said as she handed them a contract. This contract was printed using a portable printer so everything was legalised.
Scanning through the contract and making sure everything was indeed how she wanted it to be, Shiro nodded and signed her name along with her adventurer ID.
[You two need to sign it too.] Shiro said as Lyrica and Madison nodded.
Signing the contract, they shook hands with each other.
"We¡¯ll be leaving for the branch office of the Winter¡¯s Grace in a week or so after the event is finished. I¡¯ll get you once we are ready to depart. Here is my number in case you need to contact me and vice versa." Freya said handing Shiro a line of numbers.
[Alright. Since I am a guest elder now, I suppose you¡¯re my senior?] Shiro asked with a slight chuckle.
"Hahahaha, indeed. I still have other things I need to do so I¡¯ll leave first." Freya said standing up.
[See youter.]
Watching Freya leave, Lyrica and Madison finally decided to speak up.
"Oh my god! Shiro, could you not feel the aura she had!" Madison asked as cold sweat ran down her back.
During the negotiation, they had constantly felt this aura from Freya that they could barely breathe.
"Yeah! I had the thought of just agreeing to whatever so that we can go sooner." Lyrica said wiping her forehead.
[I did feel it. But, I was countering it myself. What she was doing was making her presence known. If they do this during a negotiation, they¡¯ll be able to tip things in their favour.]
"Wait, so you were doing it too?" They both asked surprised.
[Yeah. Just enough to intimidate her a little but not make her lose herposure. We don¡¯t want her to be losing face now, do we? Or else this negotiation would have been long over.] Shiro smiled.
"Eh? How much ¡¯intimidation¡¯ did you output then?" Madison asked curiously.
[Tap the seat she was sat on.] Shiro smiled.
*Dang
"!!!" Seeing the seat frozen, they looked back at Shiro who had a soft smile.
[Overall, I¡¯d say I used around 5% of what I can output.]
"5%?"
[Let me demonstrate. I have a skill where I can freeze things depending on how much ¡¯intimidation¡¯ I output. This is only a small amount of ¡¯intimidation¡¯ I can output.]
Tapping the table, Shiro froze it almost instantly.
"THAT¡¯S A SMALL AMOUNT?!" Madison cried out. Looking at the frozen-over table, she wondered how much Freya felt.
[Naturally, since her level was high, I needed to make sure my output was a lot higher.] Shiro smiled and walked out of the room.
Madison and Lyrica looked at each other and sighed.
"You should get used to it soon." Lyrica said, patting Madison¡¯s shoulder.
"I do. BUT, every time I think I got used to it she one-ups it." Madison shook her head.
"You think she¡¯s part of some super-secret inhuman hit squad?" She asked.
"Inhuman yes. Hit squad? Probably not." Lyrica shrugged and walked out.
Madison shook her head and followed after her.
Walking back to the dorms, Shiro entered her room just to find Nan Tian giving her a wave outside her window.
¡¯Oh f*ck me... not him again.¡¯ Shiro thought with a roll of her eyes.
Opening the window, Shiro sighed and sat on a chair.
[So what do you want now?] Shiro replied already feeling tired.
"I¡¯m just feeling hurt that you half joined another faction before mine. You¡¯re gonna hurt the poor heart of your future branch leader." Nan Tian acted as he sat in his usual spot.
[You said it yourself. I half joined. And also, how the hell did you get info so fast? Did your stalking abilities level up?]
"Hahaha you tter me." Nan Tianughed.
[It wasn¡¯t apliment.]
"Would you join my faction if I gave better benefits?" Nan Tian offered.
"Not only that, we allow you to join other factions as well. Plus, since you¡¯re going to be in my branch, I¡¯ll cut you a better deal how¡¯s that little snow?"
¡¯A better deal huh? I should be able to ask him about the materials needed for my broken links.¡¯ Shiro thought as this was a golden opportunity to scam someone else.
"Ahem, little snow? No need to think of ways to scam me. Hahaha, since you¡¯re going to be in my branch, the resources are naturally open to you." Nan Tian said, reading her expression.
Shiro was about to ask him about the items when she realised a crucial fact.
¡¯Knowledge of these items isn¡¯t something a low ranked adventurer should know. Plus, I¡¯ve only been ¡¯alive¡¯ in this world for a few weeks and he knows it too. I¡¯ll have to make him say the materials instead of me asking for them.¡¯
Chapter 78 Phoenix Rebirth Type Pill
Chapter 78 Phoenix Rebirth Type Pill
[Hey Nan Tian. Can I ask you for something first?]
"Oh? Little Snow¡¯s asking me for something? Well this is pretty unusual." Nan Tian said.
Shiro pulled a slightly annoyed face.
"Alright alright. Sure, tell me what you want and if it¡¯s simple enough I should be able to get it." He chuckled as he knew he shouldn¡¯t push her buttons too much.
As cute as her annoyed face was, he knew he would be in trouble if he went too far.
[I¡¯m asking about an item. Medicine type. I don¡¯t know the name but the effects should be something like a rebirth of the whole body.]
"Expand on ¡¯rebirth of the whole body.¡¯" Nan Tian asked. There were multiple types of rebirth medicine but each effect is slightly different.
There were rebirths as in change races, reset their level, change genders etc... He didn¡¯t know all of them and ¡¯whole body¡¯ was a rather vague term to be working with.
[Something like washing the body and revitalising it. Repairing any hidden injuries no matter how serious and purging the impurities within the body.]
"Ah, you¡¯re talking about the Phoenix Rebirth type pills. Why do you want to know about them?"
For more, visit novelpub[.
¡¯Seems like he¡¯s not suspicious.¡¯ Shiro thought with slight relief.
[Because cleansing the body should increase a person¡¯s potential along with their stats, right? So, a lot of people should want the pill.] Shiro replied.
"Hmm... I suppose. But you should know that a full rebirth would be extremely painful and mostly fatal. People would normally choose a 1 to 5% rebirth." Nan Tian said with a shake of his head.
[I see. I wanted to increase my potential since it¡¯s a little limited right now.] Shiro sighed.
"Little Snow, as a monster, shouldn¡¯t you have the ¡¯monster¡¯ title? Why didn¡¯t you kill more people to level it up? That should help you increase your potential." Nan Tian said.
¡¯How did he know...¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
"It¡¯s pretty easy to guess. Especially since I know that you killed two people now. One in the raid and one for the item."
[True. But, I¡¯m not going to go around killing low level innocent people who¡¯ve never crossed paths with me. I would go for criminals or bandits, but seems like the government is doing a good job of keeping them at bay.] Shiro shrugged.
"Hou~... why do you seem more humane than some humans? I¡¯m pretty sure that over 70% of people would go kill poor and under levelled people just to level up their title. And yet you¡¯re almost like a saintpared to them. And you¡¯re a monster too."
[First, NEVER EVER Call me a goddamn saint. I refuse to have any connection with the likes of some bullshit being known as god. Second, I¡¯m not doing it because it is against my code of conduct.] Shiro typed out with a serious and almost angry face.
Nan Tian paused seeing how much repulsion Shiro had just at the mention of her being a saint.
¡¯Seems like anything rted to the church is a no go for her.¡¯ Nan Tian thought.
"Alright. Then can I call you little snow then?"
[As if you¡¯re going to change just because I said so.] Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Hahaha, true. But following the topic from before, what is your code of conduct? I am rather curious."
[It¡¯s simple. I help people who I find interesting. Ignore people who I don¡¯t find interesting. And if they attack me first with the intent to kill, I naturally kill them in return. I don¡¯t bother with that whole, return kindness with 100 times the kindness and return pain with 100 times the pain.]
[100 times is rather vague. Just say repay kindness with kindness and pain with pain.] Shiro ranted slightly.
"Hahaha, seems like you read a few books? Eastern fantasies tend to include that a lot." Nan Tianughed.
[I just found a few extracts when I was browsing on the.] She shrugged.
"Hmm, do feel free to pay me back with 100 times the kindness though~"
[You sure it isn¡¯t 100 times the pain for all the times you stalked me?] Shiro replied.
"Ah, I never hurt you though. So it¡¯ll be 100 times the stalking. This branch master feels happy that you¡¯re taking so much of your time out to hang out with me." Nan Tian said shamelessly.
[As if. I got better things to do than stalking a stalker. But back on the topic of the Phoenix Rebirth Type pills, do you have any on you?] Shiro asked.
"I don¡¯t have any on me as of this moment. I can probably get one sent over, but it¡¯ll only be a 1% to 2% rebirth pill." Nan Tian replied.
[What do I have to pay?]
"Nothing. Just join my branch and that¡¯ll serve as payment."
"..."
Looking at her unamused face, Nan Tian coughed lightly.
"Fine. Normally a 1 to 2% rebirth pill would cost around 5rge Silver Erin¡¯s. Which in dor terms are around a few trillion give or take? I¡¯m not too sure." Nan Tian shrugged.
[Erin? You don¡¯t use dors?]
"No. With the amount of dors the monsters are dropping, it gets a little out of hand. Therefore, Erin Smith made the premium currency, Erin Coins. These coins are made using a special type of process that only a few people know.
"I don¡¯t know what happened exactly since this was a long time ago, but now the higher-level adventurers all use Erin Coins as the main currency. Dors are only used for lower level adventurers."
[Then what¡¯s the lowest exchange rate for Erin?] Shiro asked, curious about this new currency.
"The lowest Erin coin is bronze. Followed by silver,rge silver, gold,rge gold, tinum and so on. A billion dors equate to 1 bronze Erin coin so 5rge silver Erin¡¯s would be around 50 trillion dors then."
¡¯50 Trillion?!¡¯ Shiro thought. She had never expected a single pill to cost her 50 trillion.
[Then your potential awaken stone from before, how much would it cost in terms of Erin?] Shiro asked.
"In terms of Erin... probably a tinum Erin Coins." Nan Tian said.
¡¯tinum?!¡¯
[And you thought it was a good idea to put it on sale?]
"How else was I going to attract the level 50¡¯s away for you to get the Awakening Stone?" Nan Tian gestured at her.
[True.]
¡¯50 Trillion... How do I even pay that...¡¯ Shiro thought seriously. 50 trillion was indeed arge sum.
However, it was a small price to pay to fix her broken links. Even if it only fixed her links by 1%, it was worth it.
[What exactly do I have to do in your sect branch?] Shiro asked.
"Nothing. The sect is just a ce to nurture talents. Outside of the times where the sect is in danger, you don¡¯t need to do anything."
[But what is in it for the sect? Helping out people with just the demand of assisting when it is in danger seems too good to be true.] Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Ah you see, I had the same thought when I first joined. But it¡¯s the truth. From what I¡¯ve seen, in the many years I have been in the sect, the sect master just honestly wants to nurture talents." Nan Tian Shrugged.
[Seems a little off though.]
"How about I cut you some ck then? You¡¯ll be something like a mysterious sect member that I recruited. You can use the disguise skill that you have to hide your identity. All I ask is that you help me out every so often if you can." Nan Tian said with open arms.
[How often?]
"Let¡¯s say it depends on what you can do. If I have a task within the area you are in, you can help me out a little. Naturally, I wouldn¡¯t ask you if the task is too hard for you.
"But whether you agree or not, I¡¯ll still get you the phoenix rebirth pill." Nan Tian said as his body flickered away.
"!!!" Shiro paused in shock seeing how fast he left.
¡¯#######!!!!¡¯ Cursing at him mentally, Shiro frowned.
¡¯He seems serious about getting the pill. How do I pay him back...¡¯ She thought whilst furrowing her brows.
*BANG!
Smashing her hand against the table, Shiro gritted her teeth in annoyance. There wasn¡¯t a way she could pay him back unless she joined his faction or give him some data on advanced technology. The first was a no go for her since it meant that he could order her around whenever he liked.
The second was also a no go since there was no way she could protect herself if the advanced technology was tracked back to her.
"GODDAMNIT!" Shiro cursed.
"Little Yin! We¡¯re going to the dungeon!" Shiro stood up.
Walking out her room, Shiro didn¡¯t pause and dashed into a level 35 dungeon.
¡¯Who pissed her off?!¡¯ Was the thought of people who saw Shiro¡¯s expression and realised her identity.
Entering the dungeon, Shiro stomped down and reached her hand out. Metal and lightning sparked violently as a spear was constructed along with some gauntlets.
The gauntlets were decorated with a few holes near the hand and elbows. On top of the metal ting, there were a few neon blue circuit-like patterns that turn red the moment Shiro grasped the spear.
Pulling back her arm, Shiro gritted her teeth and gathered mana into the gauntlet.
*KISHHH!!!
The holes on the gauntlets lit up as they revealed themselves to be mini rocket propellers.
"HAAAA!!!!" She shouted out the moment she threw the spear.
*Kish Kach!
Parts of the spear broke off as more rockets revealed themselves. The rockets caused the spear to rotate, bing a drill of sorts, smashing through the dungeon walls and into the next room.
*BOOOMMMM!!!!
*KSHH!
Steam sted out from the gauntlet as the rockets turned themselves off.
"Sorry, this miss is a little pissed." She said while her eyes glowed with a blue colour.
With the newly opened hole in the wall, the monsters started to bunch up together as they charged at her with anger.
mming her palm down on the ground, a giant magic circle erupted outward with a mix of neon blue and yellow.
"Die." She said coldly.
A blizzard appeared with lightning striking around the blizzard. While the spell raged on, Shiro created a nanotech bow along with a few arrows.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM
Each of the arrows were explosive types with each explosion ripping a limb off the monster.
###
Sitting in front of the obelisk for the boss room, Shiro sighed at the fact that she didn¡¯t level up even though she had cleared everything in the first and second floor of the dungeon.
Unfortunately, Yin didn¡¯t ss up either. Looking at the bird resting on her shoulders, Shiro sighed slightly.
¡¯What kind of requirements does Yin even need to fulfil...¡¯ Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
However, a good piece of news would be the fact that she managed to collect all of the D ranked mana stones she needed to star up.
Smiling at the fact that she was pretty lucky with the amount of mana stones she managed to collect, Shiro tapped the star up icon.
Ice started to spread out from where she sat.
*Krrrrrr
A thinyer of ice was formed on the top of her skin as Shiro could feel the changes urring to her body.
*Kin~
A soft shattering sound could be heard.
Looking at her body, she sighed in disappointment seeing as though she barely grew.
¡¯While my body hasn¡¯t changed much it seems like my hair did.¡¯ Shiro thought. Looking at her hair, whichcked any hints of midnight blue, it was instead reced with a baby blue blended colour into a white near the tips.
Scratching her head slightly, Shiro sighed seeing the changes her body goes through with each star up.
¡¯What kind of change would I get for my level 50 ss up I wonder...¡¯ Shiro thought with slight feelings of anticipation.
¡¯Perhaps I might even get a decent body figure. Large b.r.e.a.s.ts are a no go since it¡¯ll throw my bnce off. Not to mention huge b.r.e.a.s.ts are such a pain. Probably medium sized b.r.e.a.s.ts? Yeah. Medium sized b.r.e.a.s.ts seems about right.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Looking at the benefits of [Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï] , Shiro smiled to herself since the benefits she received increased by quite a bit.
First benefit was 30 more points to allocate per level up. This brought her points per level up to 250 free attributes.
Second benefit was a 1% increase to her ability effectiveness. While this may be a small percentagepared to her other bonuses, 1% would eventually be a huge amount the higher her level was.
And the third andst bonus was one that she extremely adored.
[Ice Field Affinity ¨C Passive (Tier 1)]
When the user is exposed to a cold environment, natural healing plus MP regen is increased. EXP gained is also increased.
Effectiveness depends on how cold the environment is along with the tier of the skill.
Every monster would have a preferred area they liked to fight in. Example being if a fire dragon was in a volcano, their abilities would gain a substantial increase in power.
With her being able to create an ice environment and be able to reduce her MP usage, she¡¯d be able to fight longer and harder.
Stretching her body, Shiro walked towards the obelisk and teleported to the boss room.
The boss room was a simple room. Four main pirs that supported the room along with a huge chandelier that hung off the ceiling. The walls were decorated with some simple engravings
In the centre of the room, was an elongated squid-like figure. It had no skin and muscles could be seen stretched along its entire body. No legs as what was there was just a mass of tentacles. Its arms were eerily long with densely packed mouths visible to the eye.
Its face was covered with a tightly stretchedyer of grey skin. No eyes, no nose, no ears. Just a single opening for a mouth.
[Otherworldly Caster ¨C LVL 35 BOSS]
HP: 500,000/500,000
MP: 1,000,000/1,000,000
Chapter 79 Otherworldly Caster
Chapter 79 Otherworldly Caster
Remembering the general tips that the forums gave her for this dungeon, Shiro dashed towards the pirs and made a small ice bullet.
Flicking her wrist, the bullet shot towards the boss.
*MuRhhk!
*BAM!
The bullet smashed against a mana barrier and evaporated into dust. Seeing such a tiny attack, the boss was enraged and mmed his palms together.
*BOOM!!!
A shockwave exploded outwards, erasing everything that wasn¡¯t hidden by the pirs.
¡¯First stage. When the first attack hits the boss, immediately hide behind the pirs. The boss would send out a shockwave that will kill you instantly.¡¯ Shiro recited in her mind.
Waiting a few seconds for the shockwave to stop, she created eight throwing knives in both her hands.
¡¯Stage 2. After the shockwave, the boss would experience a slight weakening period. Damage it as much as you can.¡¯
Jumping out of the pir, Shiro twisted her body and threw all eight knives. However, none of them hit the target. Landing back on the ground, Shiro narrowed her eyes and stomped down.
*BZZ!!!!
Lightning chained from one knife to another as it continuously zapped the boss. Not wasting this chance, she then pressed her palms against the floor and froze the entire room.
Smiling slightly at the fact that her MP was starting to regenerate, albeit a little slow, she created several ice turrets that were situated on the pirs.
Flicking her wrist, ice spears could be seen forming inside the turrets.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
With the barrage of the turrets and lightning, the boss¡¯s HP dropped little by little.
¡¯Stage 3. After dealing as much damage as you can, you have two choices. Either crowd control the boss before it uses his next skill or hide behind the pir. It is rmended to crowd control the boss as the next skill will destroy one pir out of the four.¡¯
Understanding the fact that one crowd control wasn¡¯t going to be enough, Shiro nned to used ice chain at the same moment as Yin. With two crowd controls, there should be a high chance of the boss not being able to break free.
"Little Yin!" Shiro shouted out.
*Chirp!
Dashing out of its cover, Yin pped her wings while Shiro aimed her hand at the boss and clenched it into a fist.
*KRRR!!!
Two sets of chains sprung out from the ground and wrapped against the boss¡¯s body.
¡¯Note for stage 3. If you tried to crowd control, you have 2 main oues. First oue, it is controlled and you have another damaging period. Second oue, it didn¡¯t work and you should hide behind a pir and reinforce it as best as you can.¡¯
*KIN!
Seeing one of the chains had already broken, Shiro knew it was the second oue and rolled into cover.
The mouths on the boss¡¯s arms opened up and devoured the surrounding mana. This naturally included the ice field that Shiro created along with the turrets.
Waiting for the absorption to finish, Shiro pushed her palms against the pir and narrowed her eyes.
Ice crystals formed in front of the pir before rearranging themselves into a multiyered shield.
The moment she had finished the shield, the boss also finished its charge up. Two orbs of light could be seen, one blue and the other yellow.
With both orbs charged and ready, the muscles of the boss quivered as it used its palms to aim both orbs at the pir Shiro was hiding behind.
*BOOMMM!!!!!!
Twosers shot out instantly prating 2yers out of the 5yers the shield had.
Frowning slightly, Shiro made a few more shields between her and the pir just in case.
*PING PING PING!
Smashing through all 5 of the shields, theser mmed against the pir but wasn¡¯t able to prate it. With most of the damage being absorbed by the shields, Shiro was able to prevent the pir from being erased.
¡¯Stage 4. After using its next skill, it will enter a weakened phase once more. Repeat the process of attacking and hiding till the boss reaches half health.¡¯
Crouching low, Shiro dashed out of her cover and towards the weakened boss. With each step she took, ice would expand outwards before it covered the entire room once more.
*KruKkk!
*BANG!
Shiro flipped upwards and dodged the iing w beforending behind the boss. Making two daggers, Shiro jumped on the boss¡¯s back and dragged her dagger through the shoulder tendons all the way down to the hip. While she did this, she made sure that several ice spears were stabbed into the open wounds, decreasing the recovery rate along with dealing critical damage.
*KRRRUKK!!
It screamed out in rage whilst it tried to drag Shiro off his back.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Watching the arm phase through her body, especially through the torso, Shiro frowned at the odd feeling that it brought to her mind.
Shaking off the odd feeling, Shiro deactivated the skills and grabbed the arm. Kicking her left foot at the shoulder joint of the arm, Shiro flipped her body over the boss while dragging the arm with her.
She quickly made a nanotech dagger and threw it towards the shoulder to sever a few more strands of muscle.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Shifting her centre of gravity, Shiro ripped the arm off the torso.
*KKRRRUAHHH!!!!!
Crying out in pain, rows upon rows of teeth could be seen, quivering in anger.
Grinning slightly, Shiro had an idea.
Pulling the arm up to her mouth, she took a huge bite and red tauntingly at the boss.
With her physic being that of a monster, she wasn¡¯t affected in the slightest.
While it couldn¡¯t see since it had no eyes, the boss could certainly understand that Shiro just ate a piece of its arm.
Even though it was currently weakened, it raised its remaining arm as mana rushed towards its palm.
Fire and ice could be seen merging together.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Her body flickered towards the arm. Grabbing the wrist, Shiro kicked at the elbow area.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
*CRACK!
Breaking the arm at the elbow area, Shiro pushed the charging up skill into the face of the boss, scorching it in the process.
With the skill harming it, the boss had no other choice but to deactivate it.
However, that was a bad choice since it gave Shiro more chances to attack the head. Opening her palm, Shiro created a dagger and shed at the mouth of the boss.
Since the skill had the fire element along with the fact that the boss was an INT based boss, there were severe third degree burns on the face of the boss. Even though it had some resistance to the element it was using, it wasn¡¯t enough.
With the third degree burn injury on the face of the boss, it was a prime spot for Shiro to sneak in more damage.
*PSH!!!
Dragging the knife along the face of the boss, Shiro tore a hugeceration from the corner of the mouth, through the cheeks and into the neck.
Jamming her foot in the mouth, Shiro kicked off it andnded a short distance away from the boss. With the force behind the kick and theck of support due to the ripped muscles, the jaw hung weakly on the boss¡¯s face with only a few strands of skin and muscle attaching it to the head.
Pivoting on her foot, Shiro wasn¡¯t finished as there were 3 throwing knives in her hands.
*PSH!
Throwing the knives, she was able to separate the jaw from the head.
However, she continued her pivot and made a spear in mid air.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Kicking the pommel of the spear with increased momentum, Shiro tried to add one more attack in before the weakened phase finished.
*DONG!
A hollowed sound rang out as the spear hit a translucent barrier.
"Tsk, just short." Shiro muttered as the boss had recovered just in time. If not, the spear would have smashed into the brain from the opening at the mouth.
[Otherworldly Caster ¨C LVL 35 BOSS]
HP: 122,092/500,000
MP: 840,000/1,000,000
Looking at the amount of HP the boss had lost, Shiro smiled seeing her attacks that exploited the boss¡¯s weakness worked like a charm.
Naturally, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to do the same if it was a muchrger boss. Her arsenal of attacks, as of this moment, were more suited to small sized boss¡¯s. Forrge boss¡¯s, she would struggle with ripping off a limb or two to try to deal extra damage.
With the understanding that its life was in danger, it immediately skipped to the final stage.
¡¯Final stage. With the boss at low health, it would attempt to kill everything with the remaining amount of mana it has. This is why you need to keep all four pirs if you can. The pirs themselves act as prison bars while the chandelier above the room is the chains that shackle the boss. With less pirs, the ¡¯prison¡¯ would be less secure.
¡¯Break the chains that hold up the chandelier. The boss should be trapped halfway through the chandelier. Use this moment to wrap the chains around each pir and a special reaction should ur. The chains will melt into the pirs and be one with the pir. Take this moment to destroy the remaining health of the boss.
¡¯However, if you do not have enough pirs, the boss would be able to break out. You have around 1 to 2 minutes to destroy the remainder of the boss¡¯s health. Good luck.¡¯
Creating 2 flying knives in each hand, Shiro threw them upwards and detonated the knives. The explosion managed to break the 4 chains that were supporting the chandelier.
*BOOM!
mming against the boss, the weight of the chandelier pinned the boss against the ground.
However... due to theck of an arm, the boss was able to escape from under the chandelier.
". . . . . . ."
¡¯F*CK!¡¯
Cursing at this mentally, Shiro dashed towards the boss as she had around a minute to burst down 100k+ worth of HP.
Creating two daggers, Shiro leapt towards the boss¡¯s head and swung the des towards the temples.
Sadly, the boss erected a barrier, protecting itself from harm.
"Tsk." Clicking her tongue, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Yin Style Phantom Art: 4th Phantom ¨C Internal Feasting Phantom.
She wasn¡¯t too sure if the 4th phantom would be able to help her bypass the barrier, but she had to give it a try.
*BOOM!
Suddenly increasing her output to 100%, her attack struck against the barrier, causing a slight ripple.
Frowning at the fact that the attack did minimal damage to the boss, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
¡¯The boss won¡¯t be able to spare too much mana on the barrier. Meaning, I should be able to break it with a single concentrated attack.¡¯
Quickly drinking a single MP potion, Shiro created a huge spear and a gauntlet, simr to what she did the moment she entered the dungeon.
However, the spear this time was muchrger than before and housed more powerful rockets.
Reeling her arms back, Shiro fired up the rockets at full power.
Yin Style Phantom Art: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Twisting her body, she made sure that she got the most out of a single throw.
"HAAA!!!" She shouted out unconsciously to exert more power into her throw.
*BOOMM!!!!!!
shing against the barrier, the spear tried to drill its way through with the rockets firing at 100% output.
The ripples increased in frequency and Shiro could see panic from the boss¡¯s body gesture.
*KRBOOM!!!! PING!!!
Detonating the spear just before it ran out of power, she managed to break the shield since the force exceeded the threshold of the barrier.
*KRuakKK
Waving the dust away, the boss panicked when it couldn¡¯t see Shiro.
"Up here." Shiro called out, causing the boss to tilt its head back to look at her.
With two daggers in her hands, Shiro had backflipped over the boss near the end of the explosion. Her eyes were cold and merciless as she stabbed the daggers into the open mouth of the boss.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
mming her foot into the back of the boss¡¯s head, Shiro dragged the daggers up the skull and out the back of the neck.
shing the brain into three parts, Shiro killed the boss, albeit a little too close for herfort.
Wiping the sweat off her forehead, Shiro sat down near the corpse of the boss.
Resting for a short while, she collected the mana stone and looted the corpse.
"Hmm... armour, armour, magic ball, sword..." Shiro muttered seeing the loot. Thankfully for her, she almost never needed to bother with the loot due to the fact that she could create her own weapons.
Switching out a few pieces of her armour, Shiro nodded seeing her new stats.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (1/10 Humans Killed), Fratricide
Level: 35
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 86,800/86,800
MP: 29,900/136,200
STR: 520 (+100)
VIT: 600 (+95)
INT: 850 (+240)
AGI: 670 (+120)
DEX: 600 (+70)
DEF: 255 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 1
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 12,840,030 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath, Ice Field Affinity
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering (Tier 1), Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Thorn Mana Shield.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1).]
While the bonus was small, Shiro didn¡¯t mind as one step was still progress.
She was about to call out to Yin but paused. The purple glow on her body increased slowly as Shiro could tell that Yin was ssing up.
Chapter 80 Ritual P1
Chapter 80 Ritual P1
The purple glow wrapped around Yin¡¯s body as a cocoon slowly formed.
Watching the cocoon pulse slightly, Shiro was curious as to what Yin would look like.
*Ping~
The cocoon shattered giving Shiro a good look at Yin.
Her overall size increased slightly along with the fact that the tips of the feather¡¯s had a ck mist effect to them. This made her body look like it was lit with ck misty fire. In addition to this, her tail feathers were also longer.
*Chirp~
Opening her wings, Yin flew over to Shiro andnded on her shoulder.
Seeing Yin up close, Shiro could see more neon purple patterns that decorated Yin¡¯s feathers.
[Yin ¨C LVL 21]
HP: 40,000/40,000
MP: 100,000/100,000
Shiro widened her eyes seeing how much MP Yin has even though she was just level 21.
"What??!! Little Yin. Why is the world so unfair? If I didn¡¯t have my monster title m- Wait. Does that mean you¡¯ll have 200k MP if you killed a human???" Shiro muttered and realised just how insane Yin was.
Puffing up her chest proudly, Yin made a smug face.
Seeing the smug face on Yin, Shiro felt her smile twitch slightly. Gently knocking Yin¡¯s head, Shiro shook her head.
"Don¡¯t get too proud. You may have all of that MP but do you use all of it?" Shiro said as Yin pouted slightly.
Joking with Yin for a little longer, Shiro checked to see if Yin got any new skills that would be shared with her.
[Rift Walker (Tier 1)]
Utilise the powers of shadow and walk between the fabrics of reality. Distance travelled and time inside the rift isrgely dependent on the user¡¯s MP along with Tier. User can only see items and environment inside the rifts. Unless the enemy is also in the rift, the user would not see the enemies.
Current limit: 10 meters
Cost: 1 meter = 5,000 MP/1 second = 1,000 MP
"Rift Walker? What kind of monster are you to have this kind of ability even though you¡¯re only level 21." Shiro muttered. An ability like Rift Walker were mostly seen amongst the monster of level 100+. Yet, Yin had unlocked it at level 21.
*Chirp!
"Yes yes, You are amazing." Shiro praised honestly. Wanting to put the skill to the test, Shiro took a deep breath.
Stomping down with her right foot, her body dematerialised into a cloud of dark purple mist.
Shiro was surprised at what she could see right now. The world was like it was seen through a negative filter. Looking at her body, Shiro was surprised to see her body shifting around like a ghost.
¡¯Hmm... MP cost is a little too intense to be used over long periods. Best way to use it would probably to try burst it. Like... teleportation? I can probably throw the enemies aim off along with my own if I¡¯m not careful. I¡¯ll need to make sure I know where I¡¯m going every time I use it.¡¯ Shiro thought as she exited the Rift.
Walking out of the Dungeon, Shiro made her way back to the dorms. Being able to vent out her frustrations made her much more rxed than before. Plus, Yin was able to ss up so that was another piece of good news for her.
However, the moment she stepped out of the dungeon, she saw a slightly pale green light in the sky.
¡¯The f*cking totem is being activated.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. Crouching down, she jumped upwards andnded on the roof of a building. Parkouring from one building to another, she stopped at the tallest skyscr.a.p.er that was near her.
"Well seems like the timing was pretty good huh? Come to see your future branch master?" A voice called out.
[Like I wanted to see you. I¡¯m going to keep this short, when did the totem start?] Shiro asked.
"It started literally a few minutes before you left the dungeon." Nan Tian chuckled slightly.
[Have you found the main nodes of the ritual? We destroy them, we¡¯ll be able to stop this ritual.]
"I have, but only 6 out of 10. Thest four are well hidden."
While Shiro and Nan Tian were discussing what was happening, Huan Er was surprised at both Nan Tian¡¯s attitude along with Shiro¡¯s domineering aura.
¡¯She¡¯s only level 35 but why do I feel like I¡¯m in the presence of two apex¡¯s...¡¯ She thought.
[I don¡¯t know how much I can do, but since they¡¯re bothering me, I¡¯ll help out with this.]
¡¯I might as well take this chance to level up my monster title if I can.¡¯ Shiro thought. Since prey came walking to her, it would be rude to not ept.
"Huan Er, give her an earpiece." Nan Tian ordered with a gesture of his hands.
Nodding her head, Huan Er passed the item over to Shiro.
[So who is she? A servant of yours? A lover? Are you trying to two time by stalking me?] Shiro asked, wanting to annoy Nan Tian.
"Hahaha, is this jealousy I detect little snow? Don¡¯t worry, she is a disciple being nurtured by the sect. Nothing more." Nan Tianughed. Hearing his thought about her, Huan Er bit her lip in frustration.
[Jealousy? I¡¯d probably be more jealous of a fatty eating McDonalds than I would be jealous of her.] Shiro rolled her eyes.
cing the earpiece in her ear, she was about to jump off but Nan Tian stopped her.
"Just a little tip from me to you. Open itter ok?" Nan Tian said as he handed her a piece of paper. Shiro nodded and jumped off the building.
"...."
"Just say what you¡¯re thinking." Nan Tian said with his back to Huan Er.
"Why are you so nice to her and-... No just the first question. Why are you so nice to her?" She asked.
"Because I see potential. Simple as that." His aura told her that it was all that he was going to say.
¡¯Are you sure?¡¯ Huan Er thought.
Shiro, who had jumped off the building earlier, was dashing to the first of the 4 hidden nodes she pinpointed before.
In her past life she had experienced rituals of arger scale than the current ritual. Therefore, finding out all of the nodes weren¡¯t too difficult for her.
The first hidden node was near an old derelict building that was abandoned mid-construction.
Landing on the building not too far away, Shiro opened the piece of paper.
[I know that you want to kill them to level up your Monster title and I approve.]
"Che, annoying prick. Like I need your permission to do this." Shiro cursed.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom ¨C Illusionary Phantom.
Flipping over the barrier of the building she was on, Shiro narrowed her eyes and dived towards the derelict where the node was.
Faded Snow Movement.
The steel beams phased through her as Shironded on the ground.
Looking around her before turning back at the glowing light in the sky, she estimated the node to be around 30 meters or so below the ground.
"Ah... when did Ist do something like this?" Shiro muttered. Infiltration, assassination andpleting the objective.
She remembered doing this for the nobles back in her world, digging up their dirt before exposing them.
¡¯Fun times.¡¯ Shiro thought as she pulled up her mask and hood.
Making herself a pair of nanotech boots that absorbed sound, she looked around for an entrance.
¡¯Seems like the entrance is a bit further away...¡¯ She thought.
Flicking her wrist, metal and lightning sparked as a device could be seen in her hands.
Pressing the device into the ground, Shiro pressed a button to activate it.
*Boom Boom Boom
Hollowed echoes could be heard as statistics started to appear on the screen of the device.
¡¯Three floors, node being protected on the final floor. Mana signal wise they seem to be peak level 50¡¯s... Whoever did this didn¡¯t want the people to look suspicious when going around the city. Level 50 seems to have been the safe bet...¡¯ Shiro thought whilst dismantling the device.
"This is above what I can handle. One level 50 might be ok but multiple is definitely not ok." Shiro muttered. Taking the earpiece, she tapped it and inserted a few nanobots inside.
###
Huan Er, who was currently trying to scan the city surveince to find more hints about the nodes, paused in shock seeing her device being hacked.
"Nan Tian! We¡¯re being hacked!" Huan Er shouted out in a panic whilst tapping away at the keyboard.
"Hou? By who?" Nan Tian frowned as he walked over. For someone to be able to hack Huan Er¡¯s device in this city was too unusual.
Huan Er had sweat drip from her forehead as her defences were being broken too fast.
[I¡¯m trying to f.u.c.k.i.n.g send you information! Why the f.u.c.k are you shutting it down ah!?] A line of text appeared on Huan Er¡¯s screen.
Both Nan Tian and Huan Er paused in shock seeing this.
[I need to get to the next site. This one is too much for me to handle. Here is the information I¡¯ve gathered so far.]
Receiving a file, Huan Er looked at it sceptically.
"Open it." Nan Tian ordered.
Huan Er nodded and opened the file. Looking at the information about the first node site, Nan Tian only chuckled slightly before his body flickered away.
Meanwhile, Huan Er was still looking at herptop in shock. Even when she was using everything she could, Shiro easily bypassed everything she did.
¡¯But she¡¯s only a level 35 ice mage! How could she hack it!?¡¯ She thought in shock.
###
"Ohya? This one is only 2 floors and has 3 people protecting this node. Cannon fodder are surveying the first floor..." Shiro muttered in surprise.
¡¯Hmm... three seems to be a little too suspicious.¡¯ Shiro thought.
"But... it also seems pretty fun and within limits." She grinned. Standing up, she stretched her body a little and entered the rift.
Due to her experiences with using Shadow Walker back in the shadow temple story quest, she was used to phasing through walls.
Landing on the first floor, she hid in a corner near her before her rift skill turned off.
However, the moment she appeared again, she came face to face with a level 50 cannon fodder.
While the man was shocked, Shiro dialled her output to 100%.
*PUSHI!
Breaking his jaw open, she ripped out his tongue within a short burst. Before the man could even scream, Shiro made a knife-hand and pierced his throat. Gripping the spine, Shiro exerted force and pulled it downwards. The force ripped the spine out of the skull and killed the man quickly.
The main thing about killing enemies higher level than you was to take them off guard. At the start of the fight, their guard will be at their lowest so if she was able to take advantage of that short moment, she could easily breach their defences and end their life.
Not to mention, the man wasn¡¯t able to react in time since most of his attention was redirected to the pain he was feeling.
Storing the man¡¯s corpse within her inventory, Shiro peaked the corner to see if there were more guards.
¡¯No more for now.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Looking at the blood that had sttered around her, she waved her hand and froze them before destroying them.
¡¯The three top tier level 50¡¯s should be just under me.¡¯ Shiro thought as her gaze narrowed.
Entering the rift once more, she phased through the ground.
Materialising herself the moment she was through the floor, she saw a target just below her.
Yin Style Phantom Art: 3rd Phantom + 4th Phantom.
Grabbing the target¡¯s jaw, Shiro pulled it back before mming her knees into the spine.
*CRACK!
The knee snapped the spine in half as Shiro folded the target¡¯s body like a piece of paper. Blood poured out of his orifices due to every one of his internal organs being destroyed. Shiro immediately re-entered the rift.
Appearing behind the second target, she made two daggers in her hands. The first shed at the back of his knee causing him to kneel while the second stabbed his eye and into the brain.
Backflipping into the rift, she dodged an attack of the final target.
*Whistle~
"This rift walker is so much more fun than I thought." Shiro grinned as this skill paired up incredibly well with her fighting style. Due to her amazing memory, she was able to constantly memorise the positions of her enemies. This made it so that the downside of not being able to see anyone in her rift could be ignored.
Appearing above her third andst target, she realised that her target had very weak defences even though he knew she was here.
Not minding that fact, Shiro created a misdirection by freezing his legs.
"Huh?!"
Landing on his shoulders, Shiro wrapped her legs around his head before twisting her body backwards. Making a dagger that extended out from her shoe, she sliced his neck tendons to make the next step easier.
*CRACK!!!
With a single twist of her body, she had spun the head off the man¡¯s torso.
*Bam!
The body copsed as Shiro walked up to the node, not being fazed about the fact that she had just killed 3 level 50¡¯s. If anything, she was delighted as she levelled up to level 36.
However, she ignored her stats for now since she needed to deal with the node that was in front of her right now.
"Ah... so those three were formation experts." Shiro muttered in realisation. The reason as to why their defence were weak was due to the fact that formations expert¡¯s aren¡¯tbat personal. They were more suited inying down traps and barricading off sections of an area.
"Wait... Then because I phased through the floors, I avoided all their traps? Lucky~" Shiro grinned.
Looking at the magic circle that was sealing off the node from being destroyed, Shiro only scoffed since she had destroyed more advanced seals. Flicking her wrist, she broke the seal almost instantly and destroyed the node.
"Two down, two to go."
Chapter 81 Ritual P2
Chapter 81 Ritual P2
Arriving at the third node site, Shiro scanned the ground below her to map out theyers.
"Hmm... this o-"
However, before she could finish what she was going to say, she felt danger from 4 sides and quickly entered the rift the moment she had the feeling.
*BOOM!!!
Four separate attacks missed as they frowned.
"Where did she go?" One of them asked.
"Keep an eye out. Get the guys below to focus as well. We¡¯ve already lost 8 nodes."
"Understood!" Three of the assants replied in sync.
Shiro, who had entered the rift earlier, was hiding near a cement column.
¡¯Seems like our actions were noticed. Not too surprising, but I don¡¯t like people sneak attacking me." Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Her body flickered to the closest grunt who was near her. Dragging him by the cor of his shirt, Shiro manoeuvred her body nimbly around his that it almost made her seem like a snake.
*CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
Dislocating all of his joints, she slit his throat without much hassle.
*BOOM!!!!
A fireball suddenly hit her spot as Shiro just barely managed to enter the rift once more to dodge.
"Che, ruthless." Shiro clicked her tongue.
If she had been any slower, at least an arm would have been blown off.
Frowning slightly, she knew she had to take care of the leader of the group first. He had the best reaction and was also the one who had fired the fireball.
Leaving the rift while in cover, she peeked out slightly.
Her eyes widened when a fire spear was already about to strike her head.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Quickly bending her body back, Shiro gritted her teeth feeling the heat of the spear that narrowly missed her head. Since she was a snow girl, she had a 25% vulnerability to fire damage.
Seeing her HP drop rapidly, Shiro mmed her palms into the ground.
*KRRRR!!!!!
Ice expanded out at an outrageous pace, covering the area and turning it into an icy tundra.
The captain frowned seeing her almost instantons reactions.
"Tsk, troublesome." He scowled. Flicking his wrist, fire columns lit up around the area and melted the ice.
Choking from the heat, Shiro made a slightly painful face.
¡¯Of course I¡¯m against a fire type mage.¡¯ She cursed.
Breathing out cold mist, Shiro surrounded herself in ice to relieve the heat.
¡¯With my 25% vulnerability to fire. I need to deal with the surroundings first.¡¯
"Blizzard it is." She muttered. sping her hands, Shiro opened them to reveal a small orb of neon blue light.
Pinching the light with her right hand, she made three more orbs of light.
¡¯Now!¡¯
Yin Style Phantom Art: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Jumping up, she twisted her body and threw the four orbs in four different directions.
*BOOM!!!!
Blizzard appeared near each of the fire columns as it fought for dominance.
"Futile actions." The captain scoffed before snapping his fingers. The fire columns morphed into fire giants and wrestled the blizzards before destroying them.
Shiro frowned as she decided to give it one more try.
¡¯If I don¡¯t kill him this time, I¡¯ll retreat.¡¯ Shiro thought as she wasn¡¯t too bothered about the fact that she needed to run away if things didn¡¯t turn out well. She wasn¡¯t a headstrong idiot who¡¯ll charge into a battle she couldn¡¯t win whilst also having the option of running away.
If running away wasn¡¯t an option, only then would she fight it out.
Making a magic circle, Shiro suppressed the pain she was feeling inside her body. She gritted her teeth whilst cursing at the one who destroyed her broken links.
¡¯I don¡¯t know who this body belonged to but you can bet that I¡¯ll skewer the killer. They broke the links and I¡¯ll break something else in return!¡¯ Shiro cursed in her mind whilst resisting the pain to activate her elemental armour.
Crystal ice armour formed on her arms, legs, shoulders and head. Seeing her MP drop down rapidly, Shiro got to work.
Jumping out of her cover, she saw the captain being surrounded by the remaining two grunts.
¡¯Three... this might be pushing it a little.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Twisting her body, she dodged two attacks whilstshing the spiked chains at the three.
*DANG!
The two grunts activated their elemental armour as well and blocked the chains. While it wasn¡¯t True Elemental Armour like what Helion has, it was still a pain to fight again.
However, Shiro had already taken this into ount since she wanted them to block her attack. Making an ice spear, she controlled it to shoot towards the captain.
Grabbing the spear effortlessly, the captain looked at Shiro with disdain.
*BZZZ!!!
Before he could speak, lightning erupted out of the spear. He frowned when he felt the numbness.
"Die!"
*BOOM!!!
A sudden beam of energy covered Shiro¡¯s vision as she entered into the rift in a state of panic. She had felt the danger but was barely able to react when she saw the attack.
"What the f*ck was that?!!" She cursed out loud.
Retreating roughly 10 meters away from the area, she exited only to see 3 pairs of legs without an upper torso.
"Huh?" Shiro muttered out in surprise.
"You looked like you were having a bit of trouble little snow. Thought I might help out a little." Nan Tian smiled whilst appearing behind her.
Shiro frowned as this meant that she lost out of three potential kills along with a potential level up.
She turned off her elemental armour before pulling out her phone.
[I had it under control.]
"But why did it seem like he was about to unload a face full of fire bullets at you?" Nan Tian raised an eyebrow seeing her stubbornness of not wanting help.
[Look at their location.] Shiro rolled her eyes and gestured at the three pairs of legs.
Looking over, Nan Tian saw three ice spikes locked and ready to shoot upwards.
[Their guard was focused in front of them. I could have escaped their attack while the ice skewered them.]
"They had their elemental armours. How were you so sure that it¡¯ll even work?"
[Does it look like the elemental armour had an ass te? You think their ass cheeks would be tensed whilst they defended in front of them?] Shiro shrugged.
Nan Tian only chuckled slightly at her logic. It was indeed correct since no one clenches their rear whilst fighting. It would limit their leg movement.
So, her logic of redirecting their focus of abuse this natural weak point was indeed a prime strategy that will work.
[There are 5yers, tens of level 50¡¯s guarding eachyer.] Shiro typed out her findings from before.
"Alright. Stand back, time to show you what your future sect master can do." Nan Tian smiled and walked over to Shiro.
Mana gathered into his palms instantly as a concentrated ball of energy could be seen.
As much as she found the stalker annoying, she had to give praise to his control over mana.
Condensing the mana until it was as small as a green pea, Nan Tian let go of the ball and watched it drop onto the floor.
*SIIIII!!!!!!
Before the ball even made contact with the floor, the floor started to evaporate
The ball of condensed mana released a pulse of energy at eachyer of the underground base, evaporating everyone that was there.
Watching this happen, Shiro widened her eyes as new possibilities surfaced in her mind.
¡¯What if I added one of these condensed mana balls on the tips of the spears. Even if they had protection, the moment the ball exploded inside of them, they¡¯ll be long gone! This will work even for bosses!¡¯ Shiro thought with some excitement.
"I am not going to put one of these on the tip of your ice spear if that¡¯s what you¡¯re wondering." Nan Tian said seeing her excitement.
[Close but no sugar. I wasn¡¯t thinking of letting you do it for me. It¡¯ll take the joy out of it.]
"Joy... huh. So... you don¡¯t just pierce them because it¡¯s a great weak point???" Nan Tian asking with a raised eyebrow along with hidden fears.
[I mean, it¡¯s a good weak point don¡¯t get me wrong. But life is about enjoying things no matter what you do. If I didn¡¯t enjoy fighting, I wouldn¡¯t be fighting. If I didn¡¯t enjoy piercing their asses, I wouldn¡¯t be piercing their asses.]
¡¯I wish you good luck and don¡¯t provoke her.¡¯ Nan Tian prayed for the Winter¡¯s Grace disciples.
"How did this joy evene about?" Nan Tian asked with slightly conflicted feelings.
[Not for you to know.] Shiro shut him down immediately.
In truth, after the hero had handed her the scientists that experimented on her, she had paid them back for everything they did to her and she never expected the feeling of seeing their faces wretched with pain and tears after being probed would be so invigorating. Especially when they pleaded for her to just kill them normally. Her sadistic heart told her to ignore them and continue with what she was doing. A push here, a twist there and before she knew it, they were already dead.
¡¯Good times.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
"Every fibre of my being just told me to not ask about what you just thought so, I won¡¯t. Would you like to destroy the node, or shall I?" Nan Tian asked whilst feeling a slight shiver running down his spine.
[You can do it. I¡¯ll start pinpointing the next node.] Shiro typed out.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian hopped down the hole that the condensed mana ball made whilst Shiro parkoured up some buildings.
Looking at the light that was still shining so brightly and instead, seemed to get brighter, Shiro had an ominous feeling rise up in her heart.
¡¯A totem ritual shouldn¡¯t react like that...¡¯ She thought with narrowed eyes.
Making a short run-up, Shiro jumped over the gap between two skyscr.a.p.ers. During this, she decided to look downwards and saw people being evacuated with surprisingly good efficiency.
¡¯Seems like he was right about the fact that the governor was prepared.¡¯ Shiro thought. However, her thoughts drifted back to Lyrica and Madison.
¡¯Crap, I¡¯ve never told them where I was.¡¯
Opening her text messages, which she made silent, in case the noise warns her enemies, she saw over 100 messages sent from Lyrica.
[Shiro: Sorry, I was in a Dungeon before. Evacuate with everyone else, I¡¯lle find youter.]
[Lyrica: Oh thank god you replied. I was so worried! Where are you right now?]
[Shiro: Not too sure. Don¡¯t worry. Just focus on evacuating first.]
[Lyrica: Alright. See you soon.]
[Shiro: See ya.]
Putting away her phone, Shiro arrived at the final node.
"Is this the final ce?" Nan Tian asked, appearing next to her.
[Yeah. Once we destroy this node, the ritual should stop. But why is the light bing stronger?]
"Hmm... Indeed. This is rather unusual." Nan Tian muttered, narrowing his eyes at the light.
"Let¡¯s destroy the final node and see what happens then." He suggested.
[Alright, let¡¯s smash through it quickly.] Shiro epted his suggestion.
Stepping back slightly, she ran to the ledge of the building and jumped towards the node site.
Understanding what she wanted, Nan Tian followed behind her.
Seeing that Nan Tian was behind her, Shiro continued her fall.
¡¯What is she doing?¡¯ Nan Tian thought, seeing that Shiro made no action to readjust herself.
Entering the rift just before she hit the ground, Shiro phased through it without a problem.
Surprised, Nan Tian quickly flicked his wrist as the ground crumbled allowing him safe passage.
¡¯She can go through walls now???¡¯ He thought with surprise.
Meanwhile, Shiro, who was phasing through the floors, narrowed her eyes the moment she got to the floor where the final node was.
Exiting the rift, her eyes instantly scanned the area for the location of the enemies. Time seemed to move at a slow pace as she locked onto the closest target.
Making a nanotech dagger in an instant, she made sure that it was extremely thin whilst also being sharp.
When she appeared, her target had tilted his head upwards to look at the disturbance. Little did he know, it just made Shiro¡¯s job easier.
shing her dagger, it cut through the side of his mouth, through the neck and severed his left arm.
Landing on her feet, she grabbed the man¡¯s corpse and used it to defend against an iing attack.
Since she made the dagger as quickly as she could, not only did they not see the dagger, but the dagger also broke with one attack.
She was about to make an ice weapon when she stopped. Looking at the remaining enemies being erased by a beam of energy, Shiro dropped the corpse in her hands onto the ground.
[Party pooper.]
"Well maybe. But they were about to fire everything they had at you." Nan Tian shrugged.
Shiro only rolled her eyes before walking over to the node. Destroying it with ease, they jumped out of the underground base.
However, what she saw only made her frown.
"Seems like the totem is a little different than we had thought... How strange." Nan Tian said, voicing out Shiro¡¯s thoughts.
¡¯This is too strange. The totem should be destroyed... Why is it stronger than before?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
"Let¡¯s get back to Huan Er first. We¡¯ll check out the readings and see what¡¯s happening." Nan Tian said seriously. Shiro could no longer hear the yfulness in his voice and knew things were going south.
Chapter 82 Evacuation
Chapter 82 Evacuation
A single shadow could be seen flickering towards the tallest skyscr.a.p.er.
Due to Nan Tian¡¯s incredible speed, he was next to Huan Er way before Shiro could even get to the first building.
¡¯No wonder he¡¯s always there when I¡¯m back at the dorm. He can just spot me and almost teleport over to the dorm.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst vaulting over a few barriers.
After a few minutes, she was back next to both Nan Tian and Huan Er.
[So what¡¯s the situation like?]
"No idea."
¡¯What?¡¯ Shiro thought hearing Nan Tian¡¯s reply.
"Huan Er would you mind exining to Little Snow?"
"Sure. Basically, miss Shiro, the graph of the current mana movement is abnormal. For a totem, the mana direction should normally be outgoing. However, currently, the mana is rushing in multiple directions with the main direction being towards the centre of this entire ritual." Huan Er exined showing Shiro the graph.
[Hand it to me.] Shiro typed out as Huan Er nodded and handed Shiro herptop.
Looking at the live graph of New York, Shiro frowned for a moment as countless simtions ran through her head.
¡¯With all my knowledge about rituals from my world, I should be able to simte a rough estimate of what is happening right now.¡¯ Shiro thought as she looked at the screen.
Tapping away at the keyboard, Shiro started to manually change the values of the current simtion. By changing these values, she¡¯ll be able to change the simtion.
"? Wait those ar-"
"Huan Er. Let Little Snow do her thing." Nan Tian cut her off with a finger over where his mouth would be.
Biting her lower lip in frustration, Huan Er redirected her injustice at Shiro.
¡¯Stare all you want. I ain¡¯t turning around.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst correcting all of the values.
The new values she was imputing right now were basic theories about rituals she still remembered from her old world. While it wasn¡¯t an in-depth theory, it was worth a shot to see if it could work.
Not to mention, Shiro had long prepared a few excuses to exin where she got all of this information.
*Tap!
Pressing enter on the keyboard, the graph started to change. Reading the graph, Shiro¡¯splexion worsened.
"Ah shit..." She muttered without realising.
[Good news and bad news. Which on first?] Shiro asked.
Nan Tian thought for a moment as he looked at her serious face.
"Good news first."
[Good news is that I know exactly what is going on.]
"Hou? Do exin." Nan Tian gestured.
[No. Now the bad news.]
"Huh??" Nan Tian was taken aback reading this.
[Just kidding.] Shiro grinned.
Smiling wearily at her shenanigans, Nan Tian waited patiently. This only caused Huan Er to furrow her brows in annoyance.
¡¯Bitch!¡¯ She cursed mentally.
[Basically, what¡¯s happening is that the nodes were the foundations of this ritual were tampered with. The b*stards who set this up made it so that the nodes were restrictors instead. They were disguised to act as the foundation and the moment we broke the nodes, the residue mana became the activation switches. With all ten activated/destroyed, we manually started the ritual.] Shiro smiled tiredly.
[Seems like not even the defending grunts knew this. To fool one¡¯s enemy, one must fool their allies first.] She shrugged.
"And... that¡¯s the good news? What¡¯s the bad news?" Nan Tian asked.
[We can no longer stop this ritual. We pushed it pass the activation threshold. Whatever it wants to attract/summon here can no longer be stopped.] Shiro shook her head.
"And you think that I can¡¯t do anything even though it¡¯s been activated?"
[Oh I think you can. BUT! Only if it wasn¡¯t for this ritual. Unfortunately for both me and you, our mana signatures were registered into the ritual. Now, if we attack or use mana at the ritual or the things it summons, we¡¯ll only empower it. That¡¯s right, not destroy. E M P O W E R. We can¡¯t do shit in this case o mighty Nan Tian.] Shiro sighed and stood up.
With nothing she could do, she could only go along with the evacuation. It was unfortunate that their good intention of ending this ritual only served to take the biggest support out of this predicament.
Without Nan Tian helping to end the ritual, they had to give up on the city.
Clenching his fist, Nan Tian frowned.
"Seems like ck monarchy was prepared." He said with a low voice. His eyes were cold as he looked back at the light in the sky.
Seeing the light grow stronger every passing second, Nan Tian¡¯s frustration grew with the fact that he can¡¯t help.
Shaking his head, he sighed out tiredly.
[Don¡¯t worry about it too much. You can¡¯t resolve everything in this world. Just retreat with everyone else in this city. We can only leave this to everyone else. Who knows, they might be able to drive back whatever ising by themselves.] Shiro typed out seeing Nan Tian¡¯s frustration.
"Mn. Indeed. But is this really the case? Where did you get this information and how are you so sure of it?" He asked.
[Simple. With a little knowledge on how ritual works, not just totem but the other rituals as well, I can construct a simtion to estimate how the ritual would activate. As for where I got this information, let¡¯s just say it¡¯s there. And you can guess why.] Shiro typed out as she gestured at her head.
¡¯So the previous host of the body knew this information. That probably exins why she knew about this.¡¯ Nan Tian concluded seeing her gesture.
"Hais... Troublesome." Nan Tian said with a shake of his head.
"But this isn¡¯t like any totem ritual that I know of."
[Obviously not. While iplete, whoever made this ritual seemed to be experimenting rather than aiming for this city. They wanted to see how the ritual worked with a new theory and observe the oue.]
"An experiment you say? So... this is an iplete ritual in development?"
[Yeah. Now if you don¡¯t mind me, I¡¯m going back to my friends. Also, feel free not to stalk me.] Shiro typed out as her body flickered off the roof.
"... Huan Er."
"Yes?"
"Send a message for me to the elders. The ck Monarchy must have gotten their hands on a talented individual. They¡¯ve developed a new type of ritual where the nodes act like switches instead. There is no information on how to deactivate the ritual without breaking the nodes. Just know that the higher level members must not destroy the nodes as you will no longer be able to help during the eradication of whatever the totem attracts." Nan Tian said seriously.
###
[Shiro: I¡¯ming to look for you now. Where are you?]
[Lyrica: We¡¯re at evacuation bay 7. People are getting into the train. You shoulde quickly.]
[Shiro: Alright. I¡¯ming over now.]
Turning on maps, Shiro searched for evacuation bay 7.
¡¯Hmm... That¡¯s quite a distance...¡¯ Shiro thought.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro dashed towards the location.
After a few minutes of constant running at her full speed with both the 2nd phantom and faded snow movement, Shiro could see light in the sky reach its peak.
Turning the corner, she could see the mass of people still in the process of evacuation. Looking around, she was able to spot a few elves and ck haired people but not who she was looking for.
[Shiro: I¡¯m here. Where are you?]
[Lyrica: We¡¯re further in. We wanted to wait outside but the patrol seemed adamant about us not going back. So we can only proceed onwards.]
[Shiro: Got it. Keep going, I¡¯ll catch up eventually.]
[Lyrica: See you soon.]
Storing away her phone, Shiro pulled her mask and hood up.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Her body flickered forward as no one noticed her. Scanning everything that she could see, Shiro exerted her visual capabilities to the max in order to find Lyrica and Madison within the crowd of evacuating citizens.
During this, she was even able to spot Helion, Aarim, Liam and Silvia.
¡¯Seems like they¡¯ll be moving to the next city as well. Maybe I¡¯ll be able to try to recruit Silvia to the party in the next city.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Dashing further through the crowd, Shiro was finally able to spot Lyrica and Madison in the crowd.
"You think Shiro will be able to catch up?" Madison asked, asionally looking back.
"Yeah, she¡¯ll be here at any moment." Lyrica nodded.
[You called?] Shiro grinned as she appeared in front of them.
"GAH!!!! Can¡¯t you show up normally?!" Madison shouted out as she almost had a heart attack.
[So you¡¯re suggesting a superheronding? Which one is better? Superheronding or me just being next to you?] Shiro asked as she pulled down her mask and hood.
"Never mind you¡¯re right. Also, when did you bleach your hair???" Madison asked. Lyrica, on the other hand, was widening her eyes to imprint Shiro¡¯s image into her mind.
[I didn¡¯t bleach it. My star up did.] Shiro smiled.
"So... kind of like my ss up?" Madison said.
Shiro only narrowed her eyes slightly being reminded that Madison received a mature body figure after ssing up for the first time. While she only gained a few nano metres in height.
Feeling a chill that ran through her spine, Madison paled slightly as she remembered how Shiro would act when they brought up the topic of her ss up.
"So, er, what do you think would happen when you ss up the second time?" Madison asked to divert the topic.
[No idea. Hopefully, I can fix my throat. Since ss ups can change the physic, it should be able to fix my throat as well.] Shiro shrugged.
¡¯Oh my god... Shiro with a voice...¡¯ Lyrica thought with widened eyes.
###
"Lyrica~ Come to me darling." Shiro said with a gentle gesture of her finger, her voice soft and mesmerising.
"Ah~ But Shiro... We can¡¯t..." Lyrica replied with a slight pant to her voice.
"Who decided we can¡¯t? With strength, you determine the rules. Tell me what I can¡¯t do." Shiro grinned. With a powerful pull of her hand, Lyrica¡¯s body was brought next to her¡¯s.
"Ahh!" Lyrica cried out in surprise.
"Why are you surprised?" Shiro asked as she leaned in closer to her body. Her cold fingers ran down Lyrica¡¯s back, undressing her in the process.
"Let me loosen up a little too..." Shiro said slowly as she too undressed.
###
*Drip drip drip
"Ahhh.... Imma die... I¡¯m going to die of happiness..." Lyrica muttered weakly as her face was entirely red. Blood dripped from her nose even though she tried to block it.
"Lyrica?? Lyrica!! Hang on! I know the image is shocking but not yet! Wait until you¡¯re in a room!!" Madison cried out as she caught Lyrica before she fell.
"Madi... It¡¯s, it¡¯s too much ah..." Lyrica said trying to stop her nosebleed.
"Just...Just hold it back! Just a little while longer!"
. . .
Shiro who was watching this only had one thought.
¡¯The f*ck?¡¯
Looking at Madison who was helping Lyrica with cooling her down, Shiro only raised an eyebrow. There wasn¡¯t much she could do since Madison was currently helping her. Plus, she had the instinctive feeling that if she went over now, it would only make matters worse.
Waiting a few moments, Shiro saw that Lyrica had recovered.
[You feeling ok now?]
"Yeah I¡¯m fine. Just, promise me that you¡¯ll try to fix your voice as soon as possible ok?" Lyrica said with eagerness.
[That was my n.] Shiro nodded. Her not having the ability to speak was rather annoying since she had to type everything out. Even with her fast typing speed, it was still annoying.
Plus, they had to read the text as well.
*BOOM!!!!!
The moment they entered the train, they saw the light explode into a giant portal.
Two ws gripped the edge of the portal before ripping it wider.
*ROARRRR!!!!!!!!!
Its roar echoed through the entire city.
Within the portal, they could see countless pairs of eyes, showing the number of monsters inside.
However, the moment Shiro heard the roar, her body seemed to have shut down as she copsed face first into the train seat.
"Shiro!" Both Lyrica and Madison cried out in a panic as they picked her up and turned her over.
Sitting her properly, they were shocked to see her expression rotate from a nk face to her normal face.
"Shiro?" Lyrica said as she shook her shoulder a few times.
Recovering from her state, Shiro typed on her phone.
[Yeah sorry. Body shut down from fatigue.] Shiro smiled apologetically.
"Fatigue?"
[I levelled up from 35 to 37 in one go. Now imagine how many dungeon runs I had to do.] Shiro lied as to divert their attention.
Looking at her tag, they realised that she was indeed level 37.
"Holy crap! You should rest more!" Madison said as Shiro nodded.
[I was a little too excited at the level up so I got careless.] She smiled.
However, she knew the truth. The moment the monster had roared, it had tried to make her submit to it.
¡¯Tsk, annoying prick.¡¯ She thought. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that her mental resistance was strong, she didn¡¯t know what would have happened.
Chapter 83 Cairosa
Chapter 83 Cairosa
Watching the scenery fly past the train window, Shiro could still see the hulking body of the beast that was summoned by the abnormal portal.
Lyrica and Madison were talking while Shiro decided to update her status since she was level 37. She still had 500 free points to allocate due to the fact that she levelled up twice and each level now gave her 250 points.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (7/10 Humans Killed), Fratricide
Level: 37
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 106,800/106,800
MP: 155,000/155,000
STR: 560 -> 660 (+110)
VIT: 660 -> 760 (+95)
INT: 900 -> 1000 (+240)
AGI: 630 -> 730 (+120)
DEX: 650 -> 750 (+70)
DEF: 300 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 500 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 1
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 23,100,49 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1). Rift Walker (Tier 1)]
Seeing her MP hit 155k exactly, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile in satisfaction.
¡¯With my MP increasing in value, I should be able to use my Nanomancer ss more freely. But that only goes for my cold weapons. With firearms, each bullet would cost MP to make so the cost would be huge. Adding on the fact that my links are broken, I shouldn¡¯t use my firearms often unless I am sure it will kill the boss.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Since Helion, Silvia, Aarim and Liam were all in different evac trains, Shiro didn¡¯t bother seeking them out.
"Shiro. Do you know that the city we¡¯re going to now is much more developed than New York? Though I¡¯m a little worried since that means everything would be higher levelled. With us only being in the 30¡¯s, do you think we¡¯ll be ok?" Lyrica asked as she was a little nervous about the new city. With her spending most of her time in New York, branching out to the outside world was a little nerve-wracking.
Especially since she wasn¡¯t prepared as she had hoped. With the totem and the sudden evacuation of the citizens, she wasn¡¯t able to level up to 50 before leaving.
[Don¡¯t worry too much about it. New areas mean new chances at development. Plus, with us three, we should be able to challenge higher level dungeons since we work well together. Especially with me being level 37. You two could work together in higher level dungeons to level up faster.] Shiro replied.
"True. But with you at level 37, there really isn¡¯t any sense of danger for us. Sure we¡¯re improving fast, but the life and death experience isn¡¯t there." Lyrica said, bringing up a point that was bothering her.
"Right. If we push ourselves to the limit without the failsafe know as little miss Shiro, we¡¯ll be more careful and not as brash." Madison chipped in.
While Shiro¡¯s help was greatly appreciated, they would unconsciously harbour the thought that Shiro will help them. Moreover, every time they take their eye off her, she would have levelled up again.
¡¯Hmm... They do have a point. When I reincarnated, I was still working with the mindset that I was number 1 in the world. But that is dangerous and put me in harm a few times. Perhaps I should work on my technical skills along with levelling Little Yin up while I wait for them.¡¯
[Then what do you suggest? From what I¡¯ve read, the new city we¡¯re going to is called Cairosa. A new city that wasn¡¯t on the old Earth map. The level range is around 40 to 60.]
Cairosa was a city that was near the coast. Situated to the north east of New York, its main industry revolved around dungeon¡¯s, seafood and tourism due to the fact that it¡¯s near the coast.
The monsters that they capture in the sea give them a wide range of temporary buffs that assist them when they¡¯re entering Dungeons.
Compared to New York, the dungeons in Cairosa held more diversity. There were several new types of dungeons but the mostmonly seen new addition was a type of dungeon known as a Hybrid.
The Hybrid dungeons are called such since they consist of both fighting and puzzle-solving. While generally being more time consuming whenpared to normal dungeons, the Hybrid dungeon grants a little more EXP due to the puzzles that are present in the dungeons.
"I heard that the dungeons in Cairosa feature underwaterbat as well. Apparently, the returns of underwater dungeons were a lot higher since the rewards and the dangers were proportionate." Madison said.
[That doesn¡¯t sound very fun. Not only would you need to make sure you have ways to replenish oxygen, but you also have to try work around the environment. With the dungeons being submerged in water, you won¡¯t be able to move as well as you would do onnd.]
[Another thing to note down is that certain skills would lose effectiveness. Lyrica, skills like the burning lotus wouldn¡¯t work underwater.] Shiro shook her head.
Naturally, since it¡¯s underwater, Shiro¡¯s ice magic will act as a double-edged sword. If she wasn¡¯t careful with her passives, she could very well freeze into an ice cube due to her ice touch and ice aura passive.
"I know. So my n for Cairosa is mainly to do a few high level dungeons with Madi till we¡¯re level 35 or something along those lines. Right?" Lyrica said turning to Madison.
"Yeah. We¡¯re going to try catch up to you in terms of levels if we can."
[I¡¯ll mainly be helping little yin level up to our level so she can help out more in dungeons.] Shiro typed whilst tapping Yin¡¯s head.
[However, our first course of action is to find a ce to stay for now. We can try go to a hotel but you need to remember, that the cost would be much higher since higher level adventurers earn a lot more than we do.]
"Hmm... Maybe we can rent a t or something simr?" Lyrica suggested.
"A t would be good. But don¡¯t we need to sign a bunch of papers and contracts for a t? Even if it¡¯s just for a few days." Madison reminded.
"Urg, you¡¯re right..." Lyrica
[I think all of you are forgetting something here.]
"What?"
[The current estimated poption of New York is around 10 or so million. With this many people, do you think there are enough rooms in Cairosa to amodate everyone that evacuated the city? I think the most likely oue would be a huge camping site for everyone who evacuated. Right now, we¡¯re essentially refugees. Hell, I think we¡¯ll be lucky if we can share a tent with just us three. If we¡¯re not, we could be sharing tents with seven other people that we don¡¯t know.] Shiro replied, analysing the current situation.
"Seven?!" Lyrica replied feeling a little nervous. With everyone bunched up together in a small tent, there will be moments where they might nudge into each other. While it can be good news for her since she could have an excuse to be close to Shiro, it also meant that other people would be able to as well.
[Well... I suppose we can always go camp by ourselves. That means we¡¯ll have to buy our own camping sets along with a means of getting food. The cheapest option would be to cook for ourselves.]
"..." Both Lyrica and Madison looked at each other before looking back at Shiro.
"Do you know how to cook?" Madison asked.
[I do. But it has been a long time since Ist cooked and I think I may have lost my touch.] Shiro replied honestly. Cooking was one of the must-have skills for an adventurer. Out in the wild, they have to be able to cook for themselves in order to survive.
However, due to the fact that her physique has now been changed into that of a Snow Girl¡¯s, she ate mana stones to survive and never had the need to cook again.
When she cooked, she would adjust the taste while she cooked. Without being able to taste the food meant that she couldn¡¯t do these adjustments.
"Well, that¡¯s good because both me and Lyrica don¡¯t know how to cook." Madison smiled wearily.
When they needed to eat, they would normally use the money they earned in the dungeon at the school caf¨¦ or buy something from outside. Rarely would they actually cook for themselves.
[You should really learn how to cook.]
"We know. But it¡¯s just hard you know?" Madison said rubbing the back of her head.
[I would teach but I¡¯m not confident of my cooking after so long.] Shiro sighed.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Just having someone being able to cook will help us a lot more since we¡¯ll be paying less money in terms of the food cost." Lyrica smiled.
[True, but then, we¡¯ll need to buy cooking essentials such as a pan. So I do think that camping with everyone else would be a good idea. Not only would the government provide us with food, but we won¡¯t need to bother ourselves with buying everything on short notice. But honestly, the choice is yours. I don¡¯t mind either.]
"Hmm... what do you think about this Madi?"
"Mn? I think we should camp under the government for now. See how it¡¯s like before moving."
"Alright." Lyrica nodded.
[Since we¡¯ve alle to an agreement, you should look at the map of Cairosa and study the city. We¡¯ll be staying here for a while after all.] Shiro smiled before looking at the map app on her phone.
The general outline of Cairosa consisted of three main sections. The high end adventurers, the average wealth and finally, the poor or also known as the slums.
Near the centre of the city is where the rich live. Not only is the ce filled with dungeons that are pretty high level, but the market there was also developed. With a good market, it means finding more helpful items that one would need.
Naturally, there were mansions that were near the coastline. But the majority of the rich lived at the centre.
Next was the average wealth. They lived further away from the centre of the city with most of their residents gathered near the docks and coast. Shiro estimated that this was due to jobs that require them to go out to sea.
¡¯The city does have a huge fishing industry after all. Plus, I believe that the monsters out at sea attack the boats so they¡¯ll need to hire adventurers to help protect them. It¡¯s a mandatory service.¡¯ She thought and searched for where the slums are.
The slums were towards the south of the entire city. It upied only a small area of the entire city but she knew it was going to expand.
¡¯With all of the refugee¡¯s from New York entering the city, the slums would most likely be the first stop...¡¯
With Cairosa being to the north east of New York, it would be safe to assume that the first stop is the slums as it is the closest location to them. Not to mention, it is where the refugees would least disturb the people that live in Cairosa.
Due to this, Shiro wanted to make sure she had a good understanding of the ce.
ncing around for a moment, Shiro made sure that no one was looking her way and inserted a few nanobots into her phone. She waited for a moment as she hacked all the cameras that were near the slums.
Closing one of her eyes, she could see the roughyout of the area.
¡¯Hmm... further north are all the facilities such as a cksmith and guild. In the slums, it¡¯s mostly just decrepit buildings and smuggling routes. I¡¯ll need to mark out areas where I should warn both Lyrica and Madison to not visit.¡¯ Shiro thought.
¡¯Oh? Could this be the ck market?¡¯
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro frowned when she realised that she wasn¡¯t able to find a camera that she could hack near the ck market.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ll have to visit the ce in person... Though I¡¯ll have to level up a little more first. If I enter as a weak level 37, they¡¯ll try take advantage of me.¡¯
Retracting the nanobots, Shiro shook her head before looking at the current map of the world.
Right now, she could see resemnces of the old earth map on the current map. The different continents were now closer to each other, even joined together in some situations.
However, the biggest point to notice was the fact that the old earth was equal to an archipgo in the new world.
¡¯The frontlines seem to be further north where they¡¯re trying to expand their territory whilst also fending off the monsters. They haven¡¯t expanded much in terms of the other directions since they want to develop the northern area first... So should I ever need to go into hiding, the north would be an obvious no go. Probably the east or the south.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
During the time she was on her phone, the city of Cairosa was within view.
Looking at the huge skyscr.a.p.ers along with the huge boats that were docked near the coast, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a little excited.
Chapter 84 Tent Allocation
Chapter 84 Tent Allocation
Getting off the train, Shiro could see the other evac trains stopping by the other gates.
"Please follow the person in front of you in an orderly line. We¡¯ll be heading to camp site 10." Someone shouted out.
"Huh... Shiro you¡¯re right. Seems like we are camping in a huge area with the rest of the refugees." Lyrica said, hearing the announcement.
"Not too surprising I suppose. But how many camp sites and tents do you think they have? Are there enough?" Madison wondered.
The city was big, very big. But she wasn¡¯t sure if there was enough room for everyone who had evacuated.
[Even if there isn¡¯t, there¡¯s the option of going underground as well. By building bases underground, they¡¯ll be able to amodate more people in the shelter.]
"Underground... Urg... it¡¯s definitely going to be stuffy and damp." Lyricained.
[Well, at least it¡¯s better than being hot. I won¡¯t be able to stand the heat.] Shiro replied. Even before she was a snow girl, she hated the heat. With the heat, even if she took everything off, she would still be hot. But with cold, she could just put more clothes on to keep warm.
¡¯Shiro can¡¯t stand the heat... sweaty...¡¯
Before Lyrica could imagine the scene, Madison quickly knocked her on the head.
"STOP! You know what happenedst time!"
"Ah right, er sorry." Lyrica blushed.
Shaking her head at their shenanigans, Shiro had a small smile on her lips.
Following the crowd, they exited the station.
"Wow..." Madison muttered out unconsciously. The city was much more grandiose than they had expected. Tall buildings that had sleek designs making them look like they were brand new. The clear skies and birds that flew around.
Just by looking at the architecture, they could see the city being more advanced than New York.
Travelling to the camp site 10, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but notice the varying gazes of pity, sympathy, disdain, annoyance and curiosity.
[First time feeling those kinds of looks?] Shiro asked seeing Lyrica¡¯s expression.
"Yeah... it just feels a little... ufortable I think?" Lyrica replied not being able to describe the exact feeling she felt.
[Don¡¯t worry too much. You¡¯ll get used to it eventually.]
"Eh? You feel them often?"
[All day every day.] Shiro shrugged. The gazes were tamepared to what she felt in her previous life so they didn¡¯t affect her too much.
"Every day??" Lyrica was shocked. Her heart ached thinking about the kind of experiences Shiro had to go through.
This only became worse when she remembered that Shiro was only around her early teens. She must have been much younger when she felt these stares.
"Mn?" Shiro was surprised feeling Lyrica hug her out of nowhere.
"It must have been hard..." She muttered whilst hugging Shiro.
¡¯Ah... So she thinks the stares hurt me since I am in a kids body right now.¡¯ Shiro thought with a weary smile.
Even though she was an a.d.u.l.t when she felt these stares, Lyrica¡¯s concern was still rather heart-warming. Well... about as warm as the heart of a snow girl can get.
Madison only watched with a happy smile.
Patting Shiro¡¯s head, Lyrica continued to hug Shiro.
[It¡¯s been more than 10 minutes now you know?] Shiro typed out as Lyrica was still hugging her.
"Err... It was meant tofort you at first but you¡¯re so huggable." Lyrica replied with a blush.
Since Shiro¡¯s body was small, it was like she was holding a huge plush toy. Plus, it was Shiro so that scored extra points with Lyrica.
[Huggable?]
"Basically, she likes to hug you a lot." Madison said.
"Is that so..." Shiro muttered even though they couldn¡¯t hear her.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro decided to indulge Lyrica for the time being.
Walking through to the slums in an organised fashion, a huge clearing with hundreds upon hundreds of tents could be seen.
Most of the tents could fit roughly 10 people if they only put sleeping bags inside the tents.
"Ah... So we actually have to share tents with other people." Lyrica muttered with slight despair. The experience of having to share thepany of Shiro with strangers wasn¡¯t something Lyrica was willing to feel.
"Do you think we can camp out whileing here to get some food?" Lyrica asked.
[Perhaps. But it depends on how they n to distribute the tents along with the food.]
"What do you think they n to do?" Madison asked.
[No idea. We¡¯ll have to see what they nned.] Shiro replied.
"Alright! Now that we¡¯re here, please queue up and receive a number for the tent that you¡¯ll be staying in. Male¡¯s will stay with males and females will stay with females. Only when you request to be put with the opposite s.e.x would it be considered. Naturally, if there are no other options, you will also be put together." The staff shouted.
Shuffling around, they started to queue up to receive their numbers. When it was finally their turn, Lyrica spoke up for the three of them.
"Us three want to stay in a tent with the same s.e.x."
"May I have your ID¡¯s please." The staff said professionally.
Receiving the ID cards, he was a little surprised to see that Shiro was only around 13 years of age. However, he continued with the registration as he had a lot more refugees to register.
"Food will be provided during the time you are seeking shelter in Cairosa. The time for food are strict with 3 meals a day. Miss one and you¡¯ll have to wait for the next period where food is served. If you are unsatisfied, you are wee to buy food yourself but do understand that prices here may be higher than normal. The estimated time for when New York is released from the monsters is estimated to be around a month. So please bear with it for now.
"As for the adventurer¡¯s guild, it isn¡¯t too far from here. You should be able to find it by asking the locals or checking on the map. If there are any other inquiries, feel free to ask them now. If questions are raisedter, you can seek out one of our staff that would roam the camp site to make sure everything is in order." The staff exined as Lyrica nodded.
"We don¡¯t have any questions for now. So where is the tent that we¡¯re going to be staying in?" She asked.
"Your tent is in area M number 1893. If you don¡¯t know where it is, please consult with a member of staff and they¡¯ll lead you to the tent." He smiled and handed back their ID cards.
"Thank you."
Taking the ID cards, the trio walked away.
"Area...M..." Lyrica muttered as she looked at the signs that were put up around the camping site.
Spotting a huge M that was painted onto a sign, they made their way to the area.
On their way there, they saw quite a few families with downcast expressions.
"What do you think happened to them?" Madison asked.
[Well considering the fact that they¡¯re a family with children, they most likely had to leave their homes. No one would feel good about abandoning their house after working hard to buy one.]
"But isn¡¯t this temporary? They¡¯ll be able to go back to New York in roughly a month¡¯s time." Lyrica reminded.
[Yes, but as much as they want to look at the bright side, they have to prepare themselves in case the bad oue is what happens. If they just think that everything is going to be ok, they won¡¯t be prepared when everything is not ok.]
"But isn¡¯t that a little pessimistic?" Lyrica asked.
[That¡¯s called being realistic. By not hoping on some random miracle to happen to you, you¡¯ll get a lot further in life.] Shiro replied.
[Plus, if you keep a negative mindset, surprises and miracles feel much better.]
That was the same mindset she had when she was experimented on. She never held hope as it would have broken her mind faster. Day by day of hoping would wear her down quickerpared to when she would think in a negative light.
"You... Isn¡¯t that the same as giving up?" Madison said with a slight frown.
[Who said you had to give up? I can think both negatively and give 120% of my efforts.] Shiro replied with a slight tilt of her head.
Just because she thought negatively doesn¡¯t mean she should give up as well.
"Well... not everyone can be like that Shiro. Morale ys a huge part in this and if people are always thinking negatively, their morale would be low thus limiting their potential." Madison exined.
[I suppose that is true.] Shiro agreed since she too knew that she was a kind of anomaly.
After the experiments, her mental state isn¡¯t exactly the most ¡¯normal¡¯.
Arriving at the tent, they double checked to make sure that it was indeed their tent.
"Welp, let¡¯s hope we¡¯re put together with kind people." Lyrica forced a smile.
Opening the tent, they were greeted by what seemed to be three families. A total of three mothers and four children.
The parents were seated near the centre of the tent while the children were ying in a corner.
When the trio entered the tent, they looked at each other in a short moment of awkwardness.
[Hi, we¡¯re going to be sharing this tent with you. My name is Shiro, nice to meet you.] Shiro typed out as she tried to break the silence.
"Ah my name is Lyrica, nice to meet you."
"Madison. Nice to meet you."
Seeing that the three girls introduced themselves, the woman decided that they should too.
"Sorry about the awkward pause. My name is Ava and these two are my daughters. The youngest one is Sophie and the eldest is Ruby." Ava smiled as she pulled her daughters over.
Her daughters both have brown hair. The youngest had it straightened out while Ruby had her¡¯s tied into a ponytail. Ava on the other hand, had blond hair that was straightened out as well.
Looking at Sophie and Ruby, Shiro estimated their age to be around 8 and 14.
"Say hi you two." She smiled as gestured for her daughters to greet the trio.
"Hi..." They both muttered quietly.
Smiling wearily, Ava apologised with her gaze.
"My name is Christy. My daughter is called Lia and she¡¯s 10 this year."
Christy had short brown hair while Lia had ck hair with streaks of blue.
The final woman was an Asian woman with ck hair tied into a bun.
"My name is Yumi. Pleased to meet you. My daughter is called Kanae." Yumi bowed slightly. Her voice had a Japanese ent to it while being paired with slightly broken English.
"Hello." Kanae whispered before hiding behind Yumi.
With everyone introducing themselves, they started to talk a little about what they were doing before evacuating the city.
"Well, I just worked as a caf¨¦ waitress while my husband worked as an adventurer. With the evacuation, he is now staying with the guys over at their tent. I stopped levelling up in dungeons a while back since fighting everyday wasn¡¯t the life for me. I like working a simple job. Not as dangerous." Ava said.
"Right! I was working as a receptionist at the alchemist guild. Working jobs like that is much more peaceful. Plus, you¡¯ll need to fight everyday to provide a stable ie for the family. Too risky. But what can we do? They are guys after all." Christy shrugged her shoulders slightly.
"My upation was working as a branch manager for a Japanese restaurant." Yumi said simply. She wasn¡¯t able to say as much as the other two but it was enough for now.
"What about you three? From the looks of it, you three are students." Ava asked.
"We¡¯re all students working towards being adventurers." Lyrica replied.
"Even the youngdy there?" Christy asked gesturing to Shiro.
[Yes. I am currently working towards being a high ranked adventurer.]
"Why doesn¡¯t she speak? Also isn¡¯t it hot for you to be keeping the mask and hood up?" Ava asked, feeling strange as to why Shiro was typing on her phone rather than talk.
"Ah, about that. You see, Shiro is mute so she can only type on her phone tomunicate." Lyrica replied.
"Mute? So miss Shiro cannot speak? How unfortunate." Yumi sighed.
Pulling down her mask and hood, Shiro revealed her appearance. The only reason she kept it on was because she got used to it and forgot she had it on.
"Oh wow." The three mothers muttered in surprise seeing how beautiful Shiro was. Especially Yumi.
¡¯She would be a great attraction to the restaurant if she worked there.¡¯
"Mommy. Why does she have white hair?" Sophie asked her mother with curiosity. Not only that, the other children were mesmerised by how beautiful Shiro was.
Seeing their gaze on Shiro, Lyrica was hissing them away like a cat in her mind.
"What a beautiful child!" Ava couldn¡¯t help but praise seeing Shiro.
[Thank you.] Shiro smiled.
"What a shame. If you weren¡¯t mute then the voice might be beautiful as well." Christy followed up, not holding back on the praise as well.
"How old are you this year?"
[I am not sure since I had lost my memories upon arriving in New York. But by their estimate, I should be around 13 this year.]
"Oh gosh. Amnesia, how unfortunate." Ava sighed.
Talking with the three for a little longer, they got to know each other a little more and became closer to one another.
The four children were intrigued by Shiro since she was a little older than them. They took her as a role model to which Madison could only pray that they didn¡¯t ask Shiro to teach them how to fight.
One ass destroying princess was more than enough for this word. They didn¡¯t need four more.
Chapter 85 Teaching Basics
Chapter 85 Teaching Basics
The sun started to set as the time for dinner approached.
"I think we have to head to the central tent to get food." Ava said while she looked at the time.
"We can go and ask one of the staff walking around, just in case we get it wrong." Christy replied peeking out of their tent.
"Or we can cook for ourselves. I have tools with me." Yumi said pulling out a wok.
"We could cook but I don¡¯t think we have the space to cook. There are tents not too far from us and I think it may disturb them."
"Indeed." Yumi nodded and stored her wok away.
[I suggest we should get the government food. It¡¯s free anyways.] Shiro shrugged which caused them tough lightly.
"Indeed. We should take what we can hahaha." Avaughed.
"Yes. Same goes with the market. We haggle the prices down." Christy nodded.
"We should go queue up for food. Or other people will take it ahead of us." Yumi noted.
"You think they¡¯ll allow us to take the food back to the tent for the kids? The chances of losing sight of the kids in a huge crowd are high."
[I could look after them if you want.] Shiro suggested. She could also take this chance to eat a few mana stones while they were away.
"That would be a huge help." Ava smiled.
"Right thendies. Let¡¯s go get some food back for the kiddos." Christy grinned and stood up.
[Lyrica, Madison, keep an eye on what they have. Take a few pictures of the menu and send it my way. I¡¯ll ask the kids what they want when you go get the food.] Shiro suggested.
"Alright." As the five of them left the tent to get the food, Shiro was sitting with the four kids.
"Um... Can I touch your hair?" Sophie asked shyly. Ruby, Lia and Kanae nodded as well as they were rather curious about Shiro¡¯s hair.
[Sure.] Shiro smiled warmly. She had a slight soft spot for kids as they were akin to little bundle of joys that were entertained by the simplest of things.
Naturally, that was only if they were good. If they were acting up, Shiro would be the first one to run away from the scene.
Sophie walked behind Shiro and touched her hair. It was cold and silky to the touch and was somewhat addictive.
Following Sophie, Lia and Kanae also touched it.
Feeling the duo touch her hair, Shiro smiled and chuckled lightly.
"Um... Shiro-nee, what do you do as an adventurer?" Kanae asked while touching her hair.
[Well, I fight big monsters, earn money and level up with my friends.] Shiro replied.
"Is it hard?"
[Yes. But I worked very hard before so now I have it easier.]
"So if I worked hard now, do you think I¡¯ll be the same?" Kanae asked with passion in her eyes.
¡¯Hmm... why not?¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
[Yes I think that you can be the same. But, why do you want to fight monsters so much?]
"Because dad is happiest when he fights. I want to be happy like dad." Kanae smiled.
[You aren¡¯t afraid that it¡¯s dangerous?] Shiro asked, finding Kanae quite amusing.
"Dad always says that without danger, there is no progression." Kanae replied.
[Correct. I must say, your English is very good. How old were you again?]
"Um, I¡¯m 10. My English is good because I was born in New York. My mum wasn¡¯t born here so her English isn¡¯t as good. I had to help my mum out sometimes as well." Kanae said feeling proud of herself.
[Clever girl.] Shiro patted Kanae¡¯s head as the other kids started to envy Kanae a little.
Shiro gave them a feeling of an older sister that they could look up to and y together.
However, Ruby was an exception even though she was a year older than Shiro. She gave them a feeling of a cool quiet older sister feeling while Shiro was the friendly type.
"Can you y with us outside?" Lia asked with expectations in her eyes.
¡¯This reminds me a little of what I used to do back in my vige when I was a kid.¡¯ Shiro thought as she remembered that she used to y with the other kids quite often.
[Sure, why not. But we can¡¯t go too far away from the tent. Otherwise, your parents will get worried when theye back and not see you. We¡¯ll only y outside the tent ok?] Shiro asked with a smile.
"Ok!" The duo replied with clear excitement on their face. The two had wanted to rx and y for a while but were a little scared due to the fact that everyone was being serious.
However, with the addition of a friendly person like Shiro they were able to finally have the time to rx.
Ruby merely nced over at the three before looking back at her phone.
¡¯So Ruby is the type to be on her phone all the time rather than be active.¡¯ Shiro thought before leaving the tent.
[So what shall we y?]
"Um... let¡¯s y tag!" Lia suggested.
[Tag?]
"Basically, we have someone who¡¯s ¡¯it¡¯ and they have to have to touch another yer. The person who is touched bes the ¡¯it¡¯ and they try to touch someone else that isn¡¯t the person who touched them." Sophie exined.
¡¯Hmm... well this is a new game I haven¡¯t heard about.¡¯ Shiro thought. The concept seemed pretty simple, but seeing as the three girls are quite excited, she guessed that the game should be pretty fun.
[So who¡¯s it?]
"You!" The girlsughed and ran away.
Shiro chuckled slightly and decided to go easy on them. It wouldn¡¯t be fair otherwise as not only was she a level 37 adventurer, but she was also a monster that had double stats on top of her martial arts.
Jogging lightly, Shiro caught up to Lia pretty quickly.
"Ah!" Lia cried out with augh and tried to run faster.
Gently tapping Lia¡¯s head, Shiro smiled when she saw Lia giggle with joy.
The trio ran after one another for a short while before turning their attention to Shiro.
"Get her!!" Theyughed out.
Grinning slightly, Shiro floated upwards.
"Ah! Not fair!"
"Shiro-nee! That¡¯s cheating!"
[It¡¯s not cheating. It¡¯s called doing what I can to save myself.] Shiro chuckled as she found teasing the three pretty fun as well. Although she did want to go easy on them, seeing their wronged faces were enough to offset the slight guilt of not going easy.
"Then teach us how to fly as well!" Sophie said as the other two agreed.
[I can do this because of a skill I have. I can¡¯t teach this to you.]
"Ehhh..." The three pulled a sad face when faced with this truth.
[But, there is a way for you to do this as well. You need to be good at studying and level up. When you are high enough level and can control your mana, you¡¯ll be able to make yourself float like I am .] Shiro replied truthfully.
"Ooo!!" The three had sparkles in their eyes as they looked towards Shiro with guidance.
"Shiro-nee, can you teach us?" Kanae asked with a bright and excited smile.
[I can teach you a few basics but the rest would be years of hard work along with training in dungeons.] Shiro reminded.
"Mum always told me to win at the start line rather than during the race. If I can get advice now and make a head start for myself, I¡¯ll be better than people my age." Kanae said causing the other two to nod in agreement.
[Well she¡¯s right. Knowing your basics early on is always good. Plus, this will help you defend yourself if you ever get bullied.]
Landing softly on the ground, Shiro started to think about a basic training n for the girls. Since they were young, what she was going to give them is mostly to improve on their flexibility along with their core strength. With these two, they¡¯ll be able to form the most important foundations for a female fighter.
[First thing for you is to train up your core strength. Or in other words, to train up your tummy. This is so that you can move your body better in the air while also being able to support your body when you¡¯re hanging off ledges or other objects.]
"How do we train up our tummy? Do we eat more so that when we feel like it will burst, we stop and make our tummy get used to it?" Lia asked.
[No, that¡¯s how you get fat. There are several ways to do this and two of the easier ways for you are the horse stance and the L sit.]
"Horse stance?"
"L sit?"
[The horse stance is where you would pretend you are sitting on a horse. Make sure your back is straight, your hands positioned tightly at the side of your body. Your legs must be wide apart to give you a good solid base.] Shiro instructed as she demonstrated.
Her back was straight while her posture was perfect.
Watching her, the trio tried it but failed miserably. Their posture was wonky, backs weren¡¯t straight and they tried topensate for bad bnce by leaning forwards.
Shaking her head slightly, Shiro didn¡¯t mind since they were around the age of ten and beginners were all like this.
"Ah so hard." Lia panted as she didn¡¯t evenst 15 seconds before falling back.
[In my opinion, the L sit is a lot harder. What you do is support your body with just your two hands while you lift both your legs up and make an L shape with your body.] Shiro typed out before demonstrating.
Making two ice blocks, Shiro demonstrated once more. Naturally, her posture was perfect just like her horse stance.
Making six ice blocks for the three kids to try as well, Shiro onlyughed seeing Lia almost do a backflip due to the force she put into raising her legs.
The sight of a 13 year old training three other kids of almost simr height was ratheredic and brought a smile to those who were watching.
"We¡¯re back~"
The four of them turned around as they heard a call. Seeing the five of them return with several containers, the three ran up to their mothers.
"Shiro-nee is training us to be strong like her! If we do it right, we can float!"
"Yeah yeah! You should have seen it mum. We were ying tag and she started to fly in the sky."
"Hahaha, calm down. You can tell us over some food." Avaughed and patted Sophie¡¯s head.
"Shiro... You¡¯re training them???" Lyrica asked with a raised eyebrow. One of her biggest fears for the world was for three more girls to abuse a certain weakness.
[Yes. Only on a few basic exercises to help them out in the future. I was going to teach them about exercises to retain/increase their flexibility but you came back before I could show them.] Shiro shrugged.
[Also, since you didn¡¯t send me a picture, I assume there wasn¡¯t a choice as to what we can eat.]
"No. It mostly a little from every food group and they give it in a huge pack of food. 1 pack per tent, enough to feed 10 people. And since we¡¯re near the coast, they have more than enough fish to go around." Lyrica replied.
[Well I suppose that does make things easier then.] Shiro smiled before pausing for a second.
In the time that she had been teaching the kids and enjoying time with them, she had forgotten to eat a mana stone while she had the chance.
¡¯Hmm, I should probably leave the tent when they¡¯re eating the food. An excuse like taking a breather should give me enough time to feed myself.¡¯ Shiro thought. Setting the food down in the tent, they were rather surprised at how generous the government was. The food here couldn¡¯t feed ten a.d.u.l.ts fully, but it was more than enough for four kids and 5 a.d.u.l.ts. Excluding Shiro since she ate mana stones.
Her n was only for her to eat one or two items before stopping.
They all sat down and started to chat. The kids were talking to their parents about the moments during tag along with what they thought about the training.
Shiro took a moment to step outside the tent and quickly ate 3 D ranked mana stones.
During this, Yin had popped her head out of the hood the moment she detected the D ranked mana stones.
"Hahaha, you little glutton. You appear the moment you smell food." Shiroughed and handed Yin the Mana Stones.
Eating it with satisfaction, Yin tucked her head back into the hood.
¡¯Coming out for food and going back in when she¡¯s full.¡¯ Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
Re-entering the tent, Lyrica had asked Shiro about her ns tomorrow.
[I¡¯m nning to gather some information about the city first before any dungeon activity.] Shiro replied. By gathering information, she meant mapping out the entire slums area and scout around first.
This would make it easier for herter when she decides to go visit the ck market. IF, she needed to go to the ck market.
"I¡¯m thinking of maybe joining a party to level up a bit first. See what it¡¯s like to be in a normal party you know what I mean?" Madison said as she knew how much of an anomaly Shiro was.
"Me too. I¡¯ll join you Madi." Lyrica said as she too wanted to see what ¡¯normal¡¯ dungeons runs looked like.
[So that¡¯s the n. I¡¯ll go scout around; you two go do dungeons.]
"Yup."
Ava, Christy and Yumi only smiled seeing the three talk about their ns.
Finalising their ns, they shifted the sleeping bags around to make sure there was a decent amount of space for each of them before falling asleep.
Chapter 86 Susie
Chapter 86 Susie
Waking up rather early in the morning, Shiro looked around to see that everyone was still asleep.
¡¯Seems like the kids don¡¯t mind the sleeping bags that much.¡¯ Shiro thought as she knew how picky some kids could be with a different sleeping environment.
Getting up quietly, Shiro looked at the time and saw that it was 6am.
¡¯Around sunrise. This should be a decent time to scout out the slums.¡¯ Shiro thought. With the sunrise, there¡¯ll be more shadows for her to hide herself in.
Pulling up her mask and hood, Shiro stepped out of the tent without waking them up.
Looking around, she saw that she still had a few minutes until the sun started to be visible. She could already see slight hints of red in the distance.
¡¯I should try to get this over and done quickly.¡¯
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Her body flickered out of the campsite as she made sure to avoid the staff that were patrolling the area. She didn¡¯t want to expose herself snooping around the slums after all. Even her tent mates only knew that she was going to scout for information. Nothing more, nothing less.
Landing on the side of a building, Shiro started to parkour up to the roof with ease.
¡¯The first task I should do is figure out the territory the slum lords¡¯ control. Once I do, I should be able to manipte their conflict with each other to mask my movements. I also need to figure out how many slum lords there are. If there is only one, then things might get a little annoying.¡¯ Shiro thought, jumping over the gaps between the buildings.
Flipping her body over, she squeezed through the gaps of a few metal supports and didn¡¯t slow down. What she was doing right now was manually mapping out the slum area.
Even though the digital maps gave her quite a bit of detail, it was still good to make sure of everything yourself. Digital information could be tampered with after all. It was still best to do the work yourself to make sure that there were no errors.
After running around the slums area, she had a basic map of it in her mind. The slum wasn¡¯t too big but it wasn¡¯t small either.
¡¯So far from what I¡¯ve seen, the slums seem to be split amongst 3 slum lords. The subtle difference in how theyy out their parts of the slum and the abrupt change from one territory to another suggests that they¡¯re fighting one another for control.¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes. Currently, she was hiding in the shadow of one of the taller buildings in the slum area.
She knew that the slum lords must be high levelled to have this much control in a rtively high level city.
Plus, with the government not shutting down the slums either, it seems like they had a fewplications.
¡¯Wait... could it be that the reason the government located the refugees into the slums were to get the slums to act? If they did, they¡¯ll have a reason to act against the slums.¡¯ Shiro thought as it was strange for the government to ce the refugees this close to the slums. If anything, outside of the city would also be fine and yet, they were in the slums.
¡¯But aren¡¯t they able to act against the slums for ck market, smuggling routes and the such?¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
There was something going on that wasn¡¯t right and being used as bait wasn¡¯t something Shiro liked a whole lot.
¡¯So the potential key points are that the refugees MIGHT be used as bait to draw out the slum lords. The slums potentially have something that stops the government from making a move on them and need a more obvious reason to start attacking the slums. AND, for the slums to have this kind of power, they need to have high levelled leaders along with a decent backer.
¡¯The backer must either be within the government or have enough ¡¯presence¡¯ to push the government back. No reasonable city government would allow the slums of this kind of power to exist in their city.¡¯
Naturally, she could think about this all she wanted but there was no need since she had no intention to remove the slums. Especially since she could also think of a few ¡¯good¡¯ points to keep the slums.
¡¯The slums can act as a fire behind the adventurers. They¡¯ll be pushed into the thought of wanting to be higher levelled. This, in turn, would boost the cities economy since with more high levelled adventurers, the more ie they¡¯ll get from the dungeons and out at sea.¡¯
There are points for both good and bad, as with all things, but Shiro wanted to know the entire situation if possible. With that information, she would be able to n her next actions around it and avoid whatever was happening if need be.
!!!
Quickly suppressing her presence, Shiro made herself an earpiece to amplify the sounds when she saw a few individualsing out of a building.
"What¡¯s the boss been doingtely? I¡¯ve seen him wandering around quite often."
"Dunno. Something about a weapon to help us take down Ice fang and Jade Shark."
"You mean we can finally take care of those f.u.c.kers?"
"Yeah."
"So you got any ideas on what the new weapon is? We gotta need something big since their executives are all C ss adventurers."
"Don¡¯t ask me. Do you think I got the answers? The best I can guess is something simr to R-pike."
"R-pike?"
"You¡¯re new so you probably don¡¯t know. R-pike is a drug boss¡¯s friend made. It¡¯s very addictive and caused an outbreak in the slums a few years back. The authorities almost came at us because of it."
"Wait, I thought drugs don¡¯t affect us as much?"
"But that shit is super concentrated. I¡¯m guessing that if anyone lower than level 30 consumes it, they¡¯ll most likely die straight away."
"Oh my god. You serious?"
"Yeah. How else are you going to make level 50¡¯s addicted to this shit?"
"Damn."
"Don¡¯t think about it. What that shit does to people is f.u.c.k.i.n.g horrifying man. Everyone who took it eventually killed themselves because they couldn¡¯t get another fix."
Shiro frowned as she heard this. R-pike sounded like a drug she knew back in her old life.
That drug had always been known by a code name: S250. That was because it was estimated that only those higher than level 250 could survive a small dosage. That was how potent the drug was. A single drop could have reduced a lush mountain to a poison one.
Naturally, with such a potent drug, making it was just as hard. Just a small cup of the drug took over 20 years of constant efforts to make. Just a single thought of what the cup of the drug did made Shiro shiver slightly.
The rest of their conversation didn¡¯t contain anything important as Shiro left the premises to scout out the other slum lords.
. . .
After scouting out the entire area for almost half a day, Shiro had gained a rudimentary understanding of the slums. The three factions that are trying to take control of the entire slums are the Ice Fangs, Jade Sharks and the Ivory Cobra.
Ice Fangs have the bestbat power, Jade Sharks have the most influence out of the three and Ivory Cobra is the most dangerous. With their arsenal of poisons and drugs that circtes the markets, Ivory Cobra was the gang that the government wanted to take care of the most.
However, even after all this scouting that she did, she still had no idea as to why the government didn¡¯t move.
"Seems like the government are using the refugees as a bait and a cover. Bait for the people in the slums to try attack and cover to trade with the slum lords." Shiro muttered whilst feeding Yin her lunch.
Eating a few mana stones herself, Shiro was going to scout out the only area she left out till now. The ck market.
Flipping over several barriers, Shiro swung herself onto a ledge.
Right now, she was looking at the entrance of the ck market.
With two level 55 guards at either side of the door, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
A person walked up to the guards and whispered something to them.
The guards then nodded and allowed the man to enter the building.
¡¯I can¡¯t use the sonic mapping or else the C ranked members would definitely be able to track it back to me.¡¯ She thought as there wasn¡¯t any way for her to enter the ck market. From what she could tell anyway.
She could risk it and sneak in the ck market but it wasn¡¯t worth the trouble. Her main tasks werepleted. Scout out the slum area and understand the hierarchy.
Once she was far enough, she revealed herself and walked towards the main city of Cairosa. She was going to first update her adventurer¡¯s ID then go to the lowest level dungeon they have and level Yin up a little.
Looking at the bustling streets of Cairosa, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but notice how busy it waspared to New York.
Not to mention the fact that there were a lot more demi-humans from what she could see in the streets. Especially the cat people.
¡¯Probably due to fish?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
However, that was a misconception as fish didn¡¯t make up the cat¡¯s main diet. In fact, it was better to feed cats other meats rather than fish.
Arriving at the adventurer¡¯s guild, Shiro wasn¡¯t surprised to see the building being much bigger than the one she saw in New York.
There were a few unfriendly stares in the crowd since they guessed that she was a refugee. So an influx of unknown adventurer¡¯s from other cities, they weren¡¯t pleased about them taking their bounties.
Shaking her head slightly, Shiro walked into the guild and queued up at the reception.
"Umf!"
A woman rudely barged past her as there was clear intent to make things hard for Shiro.
Shiro only frowned since she shouldn¡¯t make a scene.
But it was also bad if she made it seem like she was a pushover. They¡¯d get the idea that they could keep on pushing her aside.
¡¯What to do... what to do...¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
Her ¡¯opponent¡¯ was a level 50 knight. While she could kill her with ease, that wasn¡¯t a viable option. If she was to fight her ¡¯fairly¡¯ there was still a chance that the woman¡¯s status will overwhelm her.
There was only one option for her.
Pure killing intent!
By directing pure killing intent towards the woman, she¡¯ll be able to single her out without offending the people around her.
Pulling up her mask a little, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the woman.
The temperature started to drop as her killing intent started to flow outwards, singling out the woman.
The woman was about to continue to taunt Shiro when she suddenly felt a hulking aura crash down onto her. She was about to scream when the aura intensified, rendering her speechless. Her muscles tensed up in fear as sweat poured out from her body.
Her mouth agape with paralysing fear.
Ice started to form around where she stood and Shiro knew she had to stop.
Retracting her killing intent, Shiro thawed the ice while the woman copsed on the floor as she tried to shuffle her body away from Shiro as quickly as possible.
"Ah!! AHHH!! AHH!" She wasn¡¯t able to form words as her fear had taken over her instincts. Just looking at Shiro¡¯s cold merciless eyes made her shake with dread.
"AHH!!!!!" Scrambling on her feet, she ran away from Shiro with all of her might.
Scoffing slightly, Shiro redirected her focus back to waiting in the queue.
Naturally, most adventurers only found the situation odd while others didn¡¯t have a reason to act against Shiro since she didn¡¯t attack physically.
From an outsider¡¯s perspective, it looked like the woman had just lost her mind and went crazy.
The adventurers who were waiting for a good show was shocked seeing the grown woman run from the little girl like her life was in danger. The senior adventurers narrowed their eyes a little before ignoring it.
It wasn¡¯t something they could be bothered to deal with. At best, it was like children fighting in a park.
Once she was at the front of the desk, she was slightly surprised to see a cat woman as the receptionist.
"Wee nya. Is this your first time in Cairosa nya?" She asked.
While she was a beast woman, there were more human parts to her than beast. The only animalistic parts were cat ears, a tail and two fangs. The rest of her was human.
¡¯Seems like she is only 1/5th cat woman.¡¯ Shiro thought, looking at the receptionist in front of her.
Her hair was coloured a healthy red and reached her waist. The hair itself took a ¡¯wilder¡¯ appearance instead of being smooth. Her irises were yellow and her overall physique leaned towards the small and nimble side.
Her clothes, on the other hand, was just a simple office woman suit.
¡¯And yet she is still bigger than me.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst looking at the cat woman¡¯s b.r.e.a.s.t and height.
[Susie LVL 50 ¨C Cat Girl]
However, her stare didn¡¯tst too long as she knew it was rude to stare.
[I wish to update my adventurer¡¯s ID card.] Shiro typed out.
"Alright nya. Just give me a second ok nya." Susie smiled and took Shiro¡¯s ID card.
¡¯I don¡¯t remember cat girls needing to say nya at the end of their sentences though...¡¯ Shiro thought with confusion. Beast men had pretty much the same speech pattern as humans.
[Do you cat girls have to say nya at the end? Because I don¡¯t remember that being a race trait.] Shiro asked.
"We don¡¯t. I just like saying it." Susie smiled dropping the nya.
¡¯Well... that was... interesting.¡¯ Shiro thought. During this, she happened to see an ad for the Cairosa auction that caught her interest.
Chapter 87 Strange Rune
Chapter 87 Strange Rune
The ad for the Cairosa auction was pretty typical except for the fact that blue grade weapons were moremonpared to New York. With higher level dungeons, better quality items would naturally appear.
But what caught her attention the most was that the auction even featured a few purple grade items. In the next auction, there were three purple grade items to be won.
A purple grade bow, a purple grade shield and a purple grade item set.
However, there was one difference that surprised Shiro. The auction house allowed the winners to hire guards of different levels to assist them in protecting their items.
With higher level guards, the more money they needed to pay.
¡¯Hmm... that¡¯ll make it a lot harder for people to steal the items.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
She had wanted to try her luck with the purple grade bow and the shield if possible. Bow for her and Shield for Madison. As for the item set, since they didn¡¯t reveal what it was, Shiro wasn¡¯t too interested.
¡¯Since it¡¯s a new city, there may be a few decent items to be won in the auction.¡¯ She thought and decided to join the auction. The date of the auction was two days away which wasn¡¯t too long for her.
"Updated nya. I must say, you are one powerful 13 year old nya." Susie smiled as she handed Shiro¡¯s ID card back.
[Name: Shiro
For more, visit novelpub[.
Estimated Age: 13
ss: Ice Mage
LVL: 37
Mage¡¯s Association Membership: VIP (New York Branch)
Priority Rank: 9 (New York Branch)]
[Thank you. Are you able to give me a guide on all the dungeons and raids in the city?]
"Sure nya. These adventurers aren¡¯t the most hospitable with neers especially since you guys evacuated from New York nya. They think you¡¯re going to take their bounties nyahahaha." Susieughed as she pulled out a pamphlet.
"Since you¡¯re level 37 nya, I suggest you party up with people who are level 40 or more since the lowest dungeon here is level 40 nya." Susie reminded.
[I know. Thank you.] Shiro nodded before leaving the guild.
¡¯Hmm... She doesn¡¯t smell human. Maybe she¡¯s a demi like me?¡¯ Susie thought to herself before continuing her job.
Upon leaving the guild, Shiro already noticed a few unfriendly res directed at her. Amongst these stares, she could even feel fear.
Smiling slightly, Shiro narrowed her eyes before walking towards the auction house. While the auction wasn¡¯t going to start for another 2 days, she wanted to see what items they had for sale outside of auctions.
But before she did that, she felt like she should change her current outfit a little.
¡¯Maybe I should go with a darker colour scheme. A white robe jacket isn¡¯t exactly the stealthiest outfit I can wear considering how much stealth I¡¯ve been doingtely.¡¯ She thought.
While she enjoyed her current outfit a lot; which consisted of a white robe with a hood, white gloves, ck shirt, short ck jeans that stop at her thighs, white stockings, a pair of shoes with short wedges on the heels and a ck face mask, she also wanted to change her outfit a little.
Having the same outfit does get boring every day.
¡¯I wonder if I can get Aarim to customise my outfit. It¡¯s either that, or I buy a new one made from Monster Cloth so it doesn¡¯t break.¡¯ Shiro thought since only the person who made the outfit is able to customise it.
Arriving at the auction house, Shiro walked in before sitting herself at one of the tables and browsed the catalogue.
There was arger assortment of blue equipment along with some rare materials. These rare materials would help cksmiths greatly when they try to make better weapons.
However, none were suited for her or her friends.
The skills that the weapons and armour have weren¡¯t too appealing either. She guessed that they were most likely preserved for the auction in two days time. After all, they would most likely want the auction to have the best items.
¡¯Hmm... Maybe it¡¯s about time that I give Lyrica¡¯s dual ended de another upgrade.¡¯ Shiro thought as she had more MP now. Last time, when she changed Lyrica¡¯s weapon, she only had a measly 6k MP.
However, she now had 155k. which is around 25 times more than before. She could make a much more potent Nano Tech Growth Infuser.
But since Shiro had already modified the dual ended des that Lyrica had, she couldn¡¯t modify it anymore. Especially since the first Nano Tech Growth Infuser was just a crap mark 1 variant. Lucky for her though, she still kept the second dual ended de that Helion created during her firstmission with him.
Returning her focus to the catalogue, Shiro lost interest quickly. She had tried her luck in most of the categories and couldn¡¯t find anything worthwhile.
There was only one tab left and that was live auction. Adventurers who wanted their items to be sold quickly would try their luck in the live auction.
There had been a few stories regarding people managing to snatch themselves a good item for half the cost. Therefore, there will always be people who lurk in the live auction to snatch up the goods before other people discovered it.
Browsing through the live auction, Shiro kept her disinterested gaze on the catalogue.
¡¯Useless, useless, don¡¯t want, trash, too expensive, not for mages...¡¯ She thought to herself whilst browsing through the pages.
However, her finger stopped the moment she saw the item on the second tost page.
Not many had bid for this item as they believed the item to be priced too highly.
[Strange Rune - $5,000,000]
The exact use of the rune is unknown. However, from previous study, the rune will change a certain attribute of a weapon. The attribute has yet to be determined.
Time remaining: 1 day, 2hrs, 23 mins
From the picture of the strange rune, Shiro immediately recognised it to be a Source Change Rune.
The Source Change Rune was a highly valuable rune that when paired with other Source Change Runes, it can constantly change the elemental attribute of your weapon.
By fusing the Source Change Rune with certain elemental crystals, you can make a weapon house the basic elements of; fire, wind, water, lightning and earth. This was extremely important higher up in the levels as monsters of higher levels had a huge variety of resistances that needed to be countered on the go.
Therefore, each Source Change Rune was precious and was yearned by the masses. To make matters worse, these runes were extremely rare and the sources of acquiring these runes weren¡¯t exactlymon either.
¡¯A prime opportunity.¡¯ Shiro grinned.
However, she guessed that the reason as to why they dubbed it ¡¯Strange Rune¡¯ was due to the fact that Rune research wasn¡¯t advanced since they couldn¡¯t decipher the Source Change Rune.
Immediately cing the bid of 5 million dors, Shiro made sure to send a message as well.
[Bidder: I wish to know how many of these strange runes you possess and would like to purchase them all for research.]
She was about to leave the chat when a reply from the seller appeared.
¡¯That fast??¡¯ Shiro thought with surprise.
[Seller: I only have three of these strange runes as they were left by my grandfather. I can sell all three of them to you for $12,000,000.]
¡¯Hmm... 12 million is a VERY cheap price for these runes.¡¯
[Bidder: Would it be possible for $10,000,000?]
[Seller: $12,000,000 is already very cheap.]
¡¯Well he is right about that.¡¯
[Bidder: Very well. In that case, I¡¯ll first pay $5,000,000 for this rune. Then you can meet me on the first floor of the auction house to transfer the other two runes.]
[Seller: Alright, I¡¯ll be right there.]
Smiling at the fact that she managed to get such a good item, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but let a chuckle out.
This attracted a few stares from the surroundings as her genuinely happy face made their hearts beat a tad faster. Even though she was in the body of a 13 year old, just her beauty was enough to make them considermitting a sin.
Since she was the only bidder, the seller was allowed to end the auction prematurely.
Walking up to the reception, Shiro scanned the code that was given to her when she won the auction.
$5,000,000 was taken out of her system as the receptionist handed her the Source Change Rune.
[Bidder: I¡¯ll wait for you at the table near the reception. I¡¯m the girl with the white robe.]
[Seller: Ok.]
Sitting herself back at the table, she crossed her legs and waited for the seller toe.
"Heya cutie. Haven¡¯t seen you around in Cairosa. You new?" A guy asked as he sat down in front of her.
He had short blond hair that was swept to the side, blue eyes, green earrings and wore a rather nice outfit that consisting of a jacket, shirt and jeans.
[Michael LVL 50 ¨C Spear Warrior]
[Yes. I came with the other refugees from New York. I¡¯m just waiting on a business transaction right now.] Shiro typed on her phone without much change to her expression.
This gave the guy the impression that she was a cold beauty type of girl.
"Why don¡¯t you talk to me instead of writing on your phone? I¡¯m sure your voice is just as beautiful as your appearance." He smiled.
[I¡¯m mute. So from what you say, my beauty doesn¡¯t exist then.] Shiro replied with slight amounts of sass.
Without waiting for his reply, Shiro stood up and walked to a different table.
Michael frowned as his eyes followed her. Clicking his tongue, he pulled out a cigarette and took out his phone.
"Same as usual." He said over the phone before leaving the auction house.
Meanwhile, Shiro was feeling a little bored waiting for her seller to appear.
[Bidder: Where are you?]
[Seller: I¡¯ming. I¡¯m just retrieving the other two runes.]
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[Bidder: Alright.]
Sure enough, a young boy sat in front of her.
"Erm... Are you the buyer for the Strange Rune?" He asked shyly with a blush on his face.
He had short brown hair, brown eyes and a very average outfit that just had a shirt and pants.
[Daniel LVL 21 ¨C Fire Mage]
His appearance wasn¡¯t remarkable but wasn¡¯t ugly either.
[Yes I am. I¡¯ll transfer the other 7 Million once I see the runes.] Shiro typed out as she just wanted to experiment on the three Source Change Runes right now.
"Ah yes. Erm here." Daniel said as he pulled out two more runes.
[So how shall I pay? Do you want to make the transaction through the auction house?] Shiro asked.
"I have a payment crystal here." He replied as he pulled out a familiar crystal.
Wondering for a short moment as to why he even has one, she dismissed the thought and transferred $7,000,000 to Daniel for the two Source Change Runes.
[Thank you very much.] Shiro smiled.
"Ah it should be me who thanks you." He replied hastily.
Chuckling slightly, Shiro stood up and walked out the auction house.
¡¯I should probably find somewhere to be alone so I can experiment with these runes. But first, I need to deal with these guys first.¡¯ Shiro thought as she could feel three malicious stares on her.
Walking back towards the slums since she had nothing else to do for the day, Shiro looked for a good ce to wee her new friends.
Turning the corner, Shiro smiled coldly as she flicked her fingers. Thin nanotech wires were spread out as Shiro waited for the three men who were following her.
She wasn¡¯t na?ve to think that the three them are innocent considering the tant hostility and l.u.s.t she could feel in their gazes. Plus, she had heard one of the men, Michael, say "Same as usual", suggesting that they had done this multiple times now.
When the three of them turned the corner, Shiro flexed her fingers as the nanotech wires tightened around their necks.
"Hm?!" Michael was shocked as he felt something touch his skin.
[Hello boys. Rather rude to be stalking a girl with the clear intent ofmitting a crime.] Shiro typed out as she had a casual smile on her face.
Michael only nced at his friends before exploding his aura outwards.
Shiro kept her smile as she flexed her fingers.
The benefit of nanotech wires was the fact that Shiro could change theposition on a whim. Naturally, she¡¯s able to make them into chainsaws if she so wished.
With a single flex of her fingers, razor sharp des extended out from the wires changing their appearance from wires into miniature chain wh.i.p.s.
The miniature chain wh.i.p.s caused thincerations on their necks but it wasn¡¯t fatal.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t aiming for them to be fatal but merely to give her an opening to their necks.
Before they could react fully, a dagger was suddenly formed from the wires and into their necks.
"GAH!" Feeling the dagger embed itself into his neck, the men paled with fright and regret.
Giving them a little wave and a smile, Shiro detonated the daggers.
*BOOM!!!
Their heads flew off their necks as the explosion had destroyed the spine and throat entirely.
Shiro quickly stored their bodies away as she left the area before any guards came.
The main reason to why she was so decisive about killing the three was because she only needed three more victims to level up her monster title. With three fools presenting themselves, it would be rude for her not to ept their offer. Plus, she was probably doing the girls in this city a small favour since three rapists have been taken care of now.
[Beginner Monster title upgrade conditions met. 10/10 Humans killed.]
[Proceed to title up? Yes / No]
Chapter 88 Intermediate Monster
Chapter 88 Intermediate Monster
[Proceed to title up? Yes / No]
Looking at the system tab, Shiro grinned with anticipation. But before she could title up, she wanted to find a secluded location first.
The slums had a lot of empty buildings so Shiro decided to make a makeshift room for now. A ce for her to experiment with the Source Change Runes along with upgrading a new weapon for Lyrica.
Following her mental map of the slums, Shiro arrived at an old dpidated building. The walls were on the verge of crumbling but the overall structural integrity of the building stood strong.
She jumped through a gap in the walls as she ventured deeper into the building.
When she first found this abandoned building, she had thought it was probably a gathering ce or a secret entrance to the trade routes. But to her slight annoyance, the building was literally just an abandoned building.
After a while of exploring the interior of the building, she found a suitable room and cleaned it up a little.
Constructing a simple table with what she had on hand, Shiroid the three runes on it.
"Little Yin, I¡¯m going to be experimenting for a little while. You go off by the side for a bit ok?" Shiro asked.
*Chirp
Yin only stuck out her wing as she gestured for Shiro to give her a few snacks.
"Alright alright, here take them." She smiled and handed Yin a few D ranked mana stones.
Nodding in satisfaction, Yin flew out of her hood andid her body a little further away from her.
Making a chair for her to sit on, she shuffled closer to the table.
The first thing she needed to do was to upgrade her title.
Pressing the Yes button, Shiro widened her eyes as she felt something flow through her mind. Frowning slightly at the feeling, Shiro realised that it was amplified bloodl.u.s.t. However,pared to her own bloodl.u.s.t and killing intent, this was akin to a small droplet.
Scoffing slightly, Shiro immediately dispelled the bloodl.u.s.t that tried to influence her mind.
[Title upgrade: Beginner Monster -> Intermediate Monster.]
[Intermediate Monster (0/50 Humans killed)]
Stat points are now worth 210% of the original value.
Before: 1 VIT = 50 HP, After: 1 VIT = 105 HP.
"Hmm... The Intermediate Monster title makes it so that a single stat point is now worth 210%. Previously it was double or 200%. Next title should increase it to around 225%." Shiro muttered seeing the change in value.
"With each subsequent title up, the blood l.u.s.t I feel would probably increase as well. Hmm... not too bad I suppose since I can control it easily."
Checking her stats, she nodded with satisfaction at the slight increase.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Intermediate Monster (0/50 Humans Killed), Fratricide
Level: 37
For more, visit novelpub[.
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 117,480/117,480
MP: 170,500/170,500
STR: 660 (+110)
VIT: 760 (+95)
INT: 1000 (+240)
AGI: 730 (+120)
DEX: 750 (+70)
DEF: 300 (+100)
For more, visit novelpub[.
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 1
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 11,100,490 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1).]
With her new title, her MP had reached the 170k mark.
By her estimate, a few more levels and she should be able to make the most basic nano tech hand cannon.
The hand cannon had much more firepower and pration capabilities than a nano tech pistol making them one of her go to weapons of choice.
Naturally, if she wanted her favourite weapon which consisted of four Hyper Rail Cannons, two S.S.P.B Gatling Cannons and two rows of Type-A Rocket Missileunchers, she¡¯ll have to wait much longer.
Thisbination could allow her to wipe the city of New York off the face of the earth in a few short moments.
Setting aside her power fantasy from her previous life, she focused on the runes in front of her.
Shiro closed her eyes as she dug up a few old memories about the runes.
¡¯To make use of these runes, I need to wire the mana of each rune to a certain element to create an Element Change Rune. Not only that, I need to then interconnect the Element Change Runes to each other so that when I equip it onto a weapon, I¡¯ll be able to switch between three elemental properties.¡¯ Shiro thought as she pulled out the elemental crystals she collected from the Miner¡¯s Cavern dungeon run.
Since she didn¡¯t have any other elemental sources on her at this moment, these crystals would do for now.
¡¯I have Fire, Wind, Lightning and Water elemental crystals. Since the boss probably already had the earth element, it didn¡¯t need the earth element crystal. I¡¯ll keep it with fire and wind for now.¡¯ Shiro thought as she already had ice and lightning.
She wasn¡¯t going to waste her precious runes on elements she already had.
The only problem was the fire element. As a snow girl, she could potentially harm herself more than harm the opponent should she use the fire element.
¡¯I should probably make an essory that gives me fire resistance.¡¯ She thought while taking out the elemental crystals for both fire and wind.
One was red while the other was green.
She decided to give the wind element a try first as it was going to be the easier one of the two.
Laying the crystals in a pentagram around the rune, Shiro created a pair of sses that will help her during this.
She flexed her fingers as mana scalpels appeared in her hands. She needed to make sure she first rewired the crystals before attempting to connect them to the rune.
While she had seen this done by others before, she had never tried to do it herself.
Calming herself down so that her hands were steady, Shiro controlled the sses to zoom in on certain parts of the crystals. Flipping the lenses, Shiro could see the mana current that surged through the crystal with better rity.
¡¯I need to make sure I don¡¯t sever the current. Reduce the number of pathways while keeping the loop.¡¯ Shiro thought as she moved her scalpel over the crystal.
The scalpel phased through the surface of the crystal and touched one of the mana pathways.
Carefully severing it, Shiro was about to move onto the next one when the crystal blew up.
¡¯&¡ê$%&!!!!¡¯ Cursing in her mind, Shiro grabbed another crystal.
¡¯With one of the pathways severed, the current would be too much for the other pathways to handle. So I need to simultaneously erge the main pathway while severing the others that I don¡¯t need. If I erge the pathway before I sever the others, the current would be too weak and might stop altogether. I need to do them both at the same time.¡¯
This time, Shiro used her left hand to erge the main pathway while the right would sever the unneeded ones.
Sweat dripped off her forehead as she was concentrating on carefully erging the main pathway.
After 10 minutes of extreme focus and delicate actions, Shiro leaned back and sighed in relief.
"Urg... What a pain." Shiro muttered as the stress of needing to erge the pathways whilst severing the others was huge. The main pathway couldn¡¯t be toorge or too small while each severing of the unneeded pathways made it so that she had to adjust the main one as well.
However, if the refiners of her past life saw that she was able to seed in making a single mana pathway in the crystal on her second attempt, they would be shocked. Even intermediate refiners needed more than five attempts to seed when working with unfamiliar objects.
Yet Shiro did it on her second try.
Looking at the elemental crystal that now only had one main pathway, Shiro smiled in satisfaction.
With one down, she needed to repeat this step four more times.
###
Meanwhile, Nan Tian had a frown on his face as he realised the possibility behind the ck Monarchy knowing that he was there.
"For them to set up this kind of trap... Huan er, do you think a rat had appeared in the higher ranks of the sect?" Nan Tian asked with a frown behind his mask.
"Impossible. To be a higher ranking member we need to sign a harsh contract. The punishment is too severe." Huan Er replied.
"Yes, but it isn¡¯t impossible to bypass. You¡¯ve seen how they changed the ritual. Someone must have been able to create a loophole in the contract that won¡¯t punish whoever leaked the information. Or else the elders would have found out already." Nan Tian replied with a shake of his head.
"Forget it. Have the reinforcementse yet? I don¡¯t think the executives of the factions can deal with the final boss. I can¡¯t make a move either or else I¡¯ll help the boss."
"They said that they¡¯ll need roughly 2 days to arrive."
"2 days... Tell them to hurry up." Nan Tian said as he turned towards the battle that is being waged in New York right now.
The high level executives of each faction was fighting to clear out the horde while the final boss was being drawn away by the highest level members. While they couldn¡¯t kill the boss, drawing it away and staying alive was still achievable.
"Tsk." Nan Tian clicked his tongue in annoyance as he wasn¡¯t able to help out at all. He couldn¡¯t even help kill the lowest level monsters or else he¡¯ll boost their power up.
###
"Fuuu..." Breathing out heavily, Shiro looked at the five crystals in front of her in satisfaction.
During this, she had gone through a total of 15 elemental crystals since she had failed in refining a few of them. Her sess rate averaged around 30% which was much higher than what a beginner should have.
¡¯Now that these are done, I should start linking them up to the Source Change stone.¡¯
This step was easier since she just needed to attach the crystal¡¯s mana pathway to the rune¡¯s mana pathway.
During this, she needed to make sure that the efficiency and power wasn¡¯t reduced or else the elemental boost to the rune would be almost negligible.
cing one of the crystals above the rune, Shiro narrowed her eyes as her scalpel was ready to open up a pathway to link both objects to each other.
Carving out the pathways with delicate movements, Shiro was able to have less trouble with these as she already had practice with the elemental crystals.
Once she had carved out the pathway, she connected both the crystal and the rune together.
*Ping!
The crystal shattered apart as it was absorbed into the rune. Examining the pathway, Shiro sighed in relief when she saw that it retained roughly 75% efficiency.
"Not bad I suppose." She muttered as she had wanted at least an 80% efficiency from the transfer.
However, if the refiners were to hear her once more, they would have needed to control the urge to smack her on the back of the head. Having a 75% efficiency, not even two hours after first attempting refinement, was insane.
Proceeding to refine the other elemental crystals into the rune, Shiro didn¡¯t realise the sun had already set.
[Wind Elemental Change Rune (Purple)]
Allows a weapon or armour to change to Wind Affinity. Effects are not permanent and can be turned off.
May be applied and removed for a total of 5 times.
Durability: 5/5
Seeing the finished rune, Shiro couldn¡¯t stop a smile from forming as she felt a little giddy inside. Just a little.
"Since I can use this rune five times, I should probably buy a proper weapon." She thought out loud as she knew it would be a waste tobine it with her nanotech weapons.
Her nanotech weapons were disposable, the rune was not.
Sadly, she hadn¡¯t kept any decent weapons around since she recycled them all for their skills.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ll have to buy myself a decent weapon during the auction.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she stood up.
Stretching her body, Shiro felt the stiffness of her muscles and realised that she must have sat down for a long time.
"Come on Little Yin, we¡¯re leaving." Shiro called out as Little Yin flew over to her hood.
*Chirp~
Pointing at her mouth, Yin gestured for Shiro to feed her again.
"Again? I do wonder where all those mana stones I¡¯m feeding you are going. Level up quicker and pay off this huge debt you owe me ah. Hahaha." Shiroughed lightly whilst giving Yin her food.
Giving herself a few mana stones as well, Shiro sighed as she looked at her current stock of mana stones.
¡¯I should probably stock up on D ranked mana stones again. Perhaps I should go challenge a level 40 dungeon tomorrow solo to maximise my profits.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she exited the building.
"It¡¯s already night?" She muttered out seeing the dark sky.
Shaking her head, she made her way back to the tent.
"Ah Shiro you¡¯re back." Lyrica said as the other kids perked up.
"Wee back Shiro-nee!"
"Wee back!"
"Shiro! Wee back!
Kanae, Sophie and Lia called out as she rushed towards Shiro.
They jumped into her embrace as Lyrica could only look at them with jealousy.
¡¯They¡¯re only kids.¡¯ She chanted to herself as she tried her best to ignore them.
ying around with the kids for a little while, Shiro went to sleep with Kanae and Lyrica on either side of her.
They were rather adamant about being next to her which surprised Shiro but she decided to allow it since it wasn¡¯t much trouble for her
Chapter 89 Giants Heart P1
Chapter 89 Giant''s Heart P1
Stretching herself away, Shiro was surprised to see Kanae hugging her inside her own sleeping bag.
¡¯How did she get in here?¡¯ Shiro thought at first. Her next thought was; ¡¯Sorry I don¡¯t have anything to cushion your head with.¡¯ Shaking her idle thoughts away, Shiro gently nudged Kanae out of her embrace.
"Mn...Shiro-nee?" Kanae muttered as she opened her eyes groggily.
[Shh, go back to sleep. It¡¯s still very early in the morning.] Shiro typed out and ced her finger on her lips.
"What about you? Are you going somewhere Shiro-nee?" She asked while rubbing her eyes.
[Yeah. I¡¯ll be back earlier today though ok?] She smiled.
"Ok~"
Getting her answer, Kanae closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Chuckling lightly, Shiro got out of the sleeping bag and exited the tent.
Her goal for today was give one of the dungeons in this city a try. Her second goal was to try level Yin up as much as possible.
Looking at the sky that had yet to be illuminated by the morning sun, Shiro smiled as she felt like this was a perfect time to assassinate someone. Not that she needed to.
"Morning Little Yin. Get warmed up a little now, we¡¯re going to be levelling you up today." Shiro said as Yin pushed her head out and looked at Shiro before pointing at her mouth.
"Right, breakfast."
Giving Yin a mana stone, Shiro also ate her breakfast while looking at the pamphlet.
The lowest level dungeon are level 40 and there are 4 of these dungeons around Cairosa. The first one is called ¡¯Giant¡¯s Heart¡¯.
Giant¡¯s Heart was a dungeon that seemed like it was inside a giant¡¯s heart. The colour of the stones made the walls look like flesh while the mapyout looked like the heart chambers. Each chamber has a boss that needed to be defeated.
This dungeon was a hybrid dungeon meaning that there were puzzles for her to solve in order to progress through the chambers.
Another dungeon was a pure puzzle dungeon called Ocean¡¯s Sadness. While it was a pure puzzle dungeon, that didn¡¯t mean there were no monsters. Only that the monsters were much less frequent and it only had 1 boss instead of multiple ones.
The third dungeon was a normal floor dungeon called Blood Vale. The monsters there constantly radiated an excessive amount of bloodl.u.s.t that would hinder a lot of adventurers.
The final level 40 dungeon was an underwater dungeon called: Sea King¡¯s Labyrinth. There were small pockets of air scattered throughout the dungeon to help refile one¡¯s oxygen but it was far from enough. It was mandatory for an adventurer to bring a scuba diving set to help them through the dungeon or else they would die by drowning.
Looking at the four dungeons, Shiro eventually settled with the dungeon Giant¡¯s Heart.
That was due to the fact that she believed this dungeon to be the most efficient in levelling Yin up.
The puzzle dungeon wouldn¡¯t let Yin receive enough contribution, the Blood Vale would hinder Yin¡¯sbat prowess and the Sea King¡¯s Labyrinth was underwater so that was self-exnatory. The only option left was Giant¡¯s Heart.
"Giant¡¯s Heart. The hybrid dungeon has five puzzles and four bosses. The puzzles are not too difficult as it requires a little bit of creative thinking. The puzzles would be randomised with different functions being swapped around. However, there is a reset lever and a stone tablet that will exin the final goal." Shiro read the pamphlet out loud.
"I suppose the puzzles are meant to train the person¡¯s way of thinking." She said as she stored the pamphlet away.
The more diverse a mage¡¯s train of thought was, the more variety there were to their magic. With dungeons like these that trained up creative thought, you never knew if it would give a mage a sudden burst of inspiration and allow them to create an attack with their tier magic.
As she made her way to the Giant¡¯s Heart, she couldn¡¯t help but notice a few of the New York adventurer¡¯s heading to the same location.
¡¯Seems like they want to continue to level up.¡¯ Shiro guessed.
Yin Style Phantom Art: 1st Phantom ¨C Illusionary Phantom.
Making sure that no one noticed her, Shiro snuck past the crowd of people and entered the dungeon by herself.
Shielding her eyes as per usual, she frowned when she saw the inside of the dungeon.
"Tsk, it is rather simr to flesh isn¡¯t it Little Yin?" Shiro asked, looking at the flesh coloured stone walls.
Sliding her fingers across the walls, Shiro frowned in disgust as there was a thinyer of slime on the walls. She flicked the slime off her hands as she turned her attention to the first monster she saw.
[Stone Giant ¨C LVL 40]
HP: 150,000/150,000
MP: 50,000/50,000
The stone giant stood at almost 3 meters tall with little to no weaknesses. Rather than a giant, Shiro would probably call it a golem since she couldn¡¯t see any flesh on the surface of the giant.
¡¯Odd... I don¡¯t think I remember seeing a monster like this in my past life.¡¯ She thought to herself.
However, just a quick nce allowed her to determine the type of monster this giant was and which weapon was best suited for fighting monsters like the giant.
¡¯Heavy armour type monsters are mostly weak to pure blunt damage type weapons. A hammer would do just fine in this situation.¡¯
Reaching out with her right hand, metal and lightning intertwined into the shape of a nanotech hammer.
On the back of the hammer, a miniature engine could be seen as it would help give her extra momentum when she needed it.
Holding the hammer with one hand, Shiro considered increasing her strength a little more. If not, her body wouldn¡¯t be able to handle the recoil of her hand cannons.
She extended the handle of the hammer so that it became a two-handed weapon instead.
"Little Yin, I¡¯ll be the one to tank the monster. I want you to rack up as much contribution as you can ok?" Shiro said while Yin nodded and pped her wings.
Seeing that Yin was ready, Shiro dashed forward with the hammer in tow and narrowed her eyes when she was within striking distance of the monster.
Rift walker!
Entering the rift, Shiro avoided the giant¡¯s initial attack.
*BOOM!
Upon leaving the rift, she had twisted her body and activated the rocket boost to increase the momentum of her hammer before mming it into the torso of the giant.
A small indentation could be seen on the torso.
Yin took advantage of the moment when the giant stumbled backwards to activate her skills.
Ice Chain + Shadow Buff.
With the monster chained up, Yin folded her wings and nose-dived towards the monster.
Shadow Talon + Rift Walker!
Taking advantage of the fact that rift walker allowed her to phase through objects, Yin makes sure her speed was at max before attacking the monster and escaping without harm.
Even though the damage caused wasn¡¯t as big as Shiro¡¯s, Yin had more opportunities to increase her contribution since that was Shiro¡¯s goal.
###
Only after almost 30 minutes did the monster finally die.
*BOOM!
Copsing from a finishing blow by Shiro, the monster¡¯s body crumbled into ash.
The moment the boss had died, Yin also levelled up, bringing her level up to 22 in one go.
[Yin ¨C LVL 22]
HP: 42,000/42,000
MP: 110,000/110,000
"So roughly a level 40 monster per level up huh? We should be able to get you near level 30 then." Shiro estimated as she collected the shiny mana stone from the ash pile.
Collecting the loot, Shiro sighed in disappointment. There were no weapons and only a few misceneous items that wasn¡¯t all that useful.
¡¯The loot from these monsters should probably be defence and power focused. The weapons will most likely be heavy type weapons like this hammer.¡¯
Sighing at the potential loot that won¡¯t suit her at all, Shiro proceeded to attack the next Stone Giant.
###
Meanwhile, Lyrica and Madison was partying up with a few familiar faces.
"Hey Lyrica. Long time no see I suppose." Silvia smiled upon seeing Lyrica party up with them to clear a dungeon.
"Yeah, Shiro was gone this morning. Probably trying to solo a dungeon." Lyrica replied wearily.
"Gahaha, anyone who can kill the raid boss solo can probably solo a normal dungeon just fine." Jonasughed.
This was the party of five that Shiro and Lyrica had joined during their first raid together.
Jonas: Axe Warrior, Paul: Assassin, Erica: Fire Mage, Trace: Swordsman and Silvia, the grand healer that Shiro had wanted to recruit.
"Wait what? Shiro killed a raid boss by herself???" Madison asked with a mix of shock and surprise.
"Yeah you weren¡¯t there when we did a raid were you?" Lyrica said as she remember that they weren¡¯t too close back then.
"New friend?" Silvia asked as she looked at Madison.
The males, Paul and Trace, was looking at something else.
"Yeah. She became part of our party after the raid I believe. Also, don¡¯t even think about it. Despite how she looks, Madi is a minor." Lyrica said pointing at Paul and Trace.
"Huh? A minor? With that body!?" Paul asked, wide eyed.
"Yes I am." Madison said with a frown and folded up her arms to try to look threatening.
However, that only entuated her bust further.
Smacking both Paul and Trace on the back of the head, Jonas smiled apologetically.
"Sorry about this. They¡¯re a little stressed since they haven¡¯t been able to unstress themselvestely." Janos said ignoring Paul and Trace¡¯s embarrassment.
"It¡¯s fine. So which dungeon are we heading to today? Should we try to do a full run of a level 40 dungeon?" Lyrica asked.
"That¡¯s the n." Jonas nodded.
While they were talking, Lyrica, Madison and Silvia attracted a few unsavoury nces from people who were in the tall buildings at the slums.
"Shall we?"
"Give it some time. New trade partners should being soon. We¡¯ll get a fewst minute products to jack up the prices hahaha."
"Yeah, why don¡¯t we use them a few times first? Seems like a waste to let them go unused."
"Well, they¡¯re refugees. The main city officials won¡¯t care as much."
"Hahaha, great!"
###
Arriving at the first boss, Shiro nced over at Yin¡¯s level.
[Yin ¨C LVL 26]
HP: 50,000/50,000
MP: 150,000/150,000
After hitting level 25, Yin had also unlocked a new skill.
[Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1)]
Absorb 50% of the damage taken in the past second and redirect it back at 50% the power of what is absorbed.
Maximum damage absorbed is equal to tier.
Current limit: 20,000 can be absorbed. (40,000 total damage)
Example: Attack deals 2,000 damage. Absorb 1,000, redirect 500 damage.
Cost: 5,000 MP Per use.
Cooldown: 10 seconds.
This skill allowed her and Yin to half the iing damage to a certain degree. While it was currently limited to the skill only being at tier 1, the potential this skill held was pretty high tier in Shiro¡¯s opinion.
Unfortunately, since she had been giving Yin most of the contribution, she wasn¡¯t able to level up. But from her estimates, she was pretty close. This boss should potentially help her level up.
The boss in question was much bigger and bulkier than the other giants. Measuring at around 6 meters tall, Shiro had to crane her head back just to see the top of the giant.
The worst part about this was that it required heavy firepower. Something that Shiro wasn¡¯t able to produce just yet since her heavy firepower mainly came from her hammers.
If she tried to use her ice, it wouldn¡¯t have enough momentum and power tond the killing blow.
But that didn¡¯t mean she had no options. She did have a few but she needed to be creative with them.
But before she could care about the final blow, she needed to take the boss down to 1 HP first.
*BZZZ!
Lightning and metal surged around Shiro¡¯s body as she created a pair of boots and gauntlets. The boots increased her overall manoeuvrability while the gauntlet increased her power and throwing speed.
¡¯Seems like this is my limit for now.¡¯ Shiro thought as she could feel the massive strain on her mana links just from creating four pieces of armour.
"Well... I suppose just the boots will be fine." She muttered as the gauntlets disappeared.
Flicking her wrist, a two-handed nanotech war axe could be seen in her hands.
"This should do." She grinned.
*Chirp!
Seeing Shiro ready to start the fight, Yin fly up into the air to provide her with support. While the small fries could be dealt with, Yin knew the most she could do against the boss was help Shiro by restraining it.
With her preparationspleted, she charged towards the boss.
[Reinforced Rock Giant ¨C LVL 40 BOSS]
HP: 500,000/500,000
MP: 200,000/200,000
*URAHHH!!!
Lifting up his arms, the boss mmed his fists into the ground.
*BOOM!!!
The rocket propellers on her boots activated as she glided across the ground, unaffected by the tremors.
There were naturally advantages and disadvantages to her nanotech boots.
The advantages being better aerial manoeuvres and faster speed if she upgraded them more.
The disadvantage, however, was that she could no longer use her 1st and 2nd phantom when airborne using her nanotech boots.
"But..." Shiro grinned coldly.
"This pair of boots is more than enough to deal with you!"
Chapter 90 Giants Heart P2
Chapter 90 Giant''s Heart P2
The word intense could be used to describe the fight. However, that was only if one was to describe what happened to the boss room.
For Shiro, she wasn¡¯t hit at all. Not even once. Her manoeuvrability with her boots were too much for the boss and even with his advantage in stats, he couldn¡¯t do anything to her. Not to mention, when she was paired with her Rift Walker skill, she was untouchable.
With all her advantages, killing the boss wouldn¡¯t be a problem...
*DANG!
Her weapon pinged off the rock hard shell of the boss as the moment it reached 1 HP, it had curled into a solid lump of stone.
¡¯¡ê$%¡ê$!!!¡¯ Shiro cursed in her mind as she didn¡¯t have many options with regards to killing the boss.
She could try to rift walk herself into the boss, but she didn¡¯t know if she¡¯d suffocate as there wouldn¡¯t be enough room.
Looking at the rock the 6-meter giant curled up into, Shiro suddenly had the urge to spit at it in disdain.
"Fine. Since you want to be a useless piece of rock, you can die as a useless piece of rock." Shiro said as she leapt upwards andnded on top of the boss.
Dismissing her nanotech boots and weapon, Shiro mmed her palms onto the surface of the boss.
Metal twisted around her arms as machinery started to form around her.
Once she was done, a device which seemed like abination of both a drill and pile bunker could be seen.
Due to its size, constructing the device wasn¡¯t kind to her body.
Feeling the ache that was slowly spreading through her body, Shiro really wished that she could go find the medicine needed to fix her up.
¡¯Nan Tian said that he would have the Phoenix Pill soon, I should ask him about where I could get these pills next time. While I can¡¯t afford them, I could probably try harvesting them at their source or something simr.¡¯ She thought to herself while she activated the device thatid in front of her.
*CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Four legs mped down on the boss¡¯s shell to make sure that it remained stable.
Flipping a switch, the machine hummed as the drill started to spin.
Shiro grinned while she watched the pressure gage increase in value.
Once it neared max speed, she released the drill.
*BOOM!!!!!
Smashing into the shell, the drill tore through the defence like it was wet paper. To make matters worse for the boss, the drill had its own rockets to keep it from stopping.
Shiro could feel the boss panic due to the drill piercing its body.
¡¯Now!¡¯ Shiro thought as she detonated the drill when she guessed that it was near the centre of the boss¡¯s body.
*BOOM!!!
A huge cavity could be seen with chunks of the boss being thrown across the room.
Since the boss only had 1HP left, its internal defences were rather weak, giving her the perfect opportunity to blow it up from the inside.
Landing inside the cavity, she excavated the mana stone before collecting her loot.
"Ohya? A purple shield." Shiro muttered with surprise. She never expected a purple shield to be dropped from the boss.
[Rock Giant¡¯s Protection ¨C LVL 40 Shield (Purple)]
Requirements ¨C LVL 40, 800 DEF, 800 STR
+150 DEF
+100 VIT
-50 AGI
Skills:
Rock Giant¡¯s Projection:
Summon the projection of a rock giant that protects your entire team.
Damage is reduced by 60% (Limited by level. Loses effect against LVL 55+)
Aggro is increased by 70% (Limited by level. Loses effect against LVL 55+)
Speed is reduced by 80%
Cost: 5,000MP
Duration ¨C 30 seconds
Cooldown ¨C 2 minutes
Rock Giant¡¯s Presence:
Increases one¡¯s aggro on the field exponentially.
Aggro is increased by 70% (Limited by level. Loses Effect against LVL 55+)
Cost: 2,000MP
Duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 3 minutes
Rock Giant¡¯s Stomp:
A ground-shaking stomp that stuns your enemies for a short moment.
Cost: 2,000MP+
Range: Increases with the amount of MP used. (Maximum Range: 15 meters)
Duration of stun: 5 seconds
Cooldown: 1 minute
The benefits the shield gave was incredible in Shiro¡¯s eyes. Especially the skills that the shield provided.
It would help boost the defensive capabilities of any tank that used the shield.
Storing the shield in her inventory, Shiro thought about whether or not she should help Madison upgrade the shield a little. Perhaps even add more skills to it which are taken from her database.
Over time, she had also collected a small pile of tanker based skills that would be helpful for both attack and defence.
Sadly, she barely had any use for any of them.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯ll wait a little while longer until I tell them about my Nanomancer ss. In fact, should I even tell them at all? I can trust them now but what aboutter? What if they sell me out?¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
The more she revealed, the more danger she would be in. Until she was able to disguise her appearance, she wouldn¡¯t expose her second ss.
Not to mention, having a second ss was way too abnormal. Having a main ss and a subss was ok, but two main sses were not.
Looking at the 6-meter tall corpse slowly fading away, Shiro looked towards the huge gate that formed behind where the boss was.
"Seems like it¡¯s time for the puzzles." Shiro muttered as she walked up to the door.
On the door, she could see a tablet with words etched inside of it.
[Clue: Levers]
"Levers?" Shiro muttered whilst reading the tablet.
"What does it mean by levers..."
Looking around the room, she frowned when she found 2 levers hidden by the walls.
¡¯How many levers are there?¡¯
Walking over, she switched the lever on before walking to the second lever and did the same.
Unfortunately, the moment she used the second lever, the first one flicked back up.
"Hmm..." Narrowing her eyes, Shiro got an idea about the puzzle.
¡¯I guess I need to flip all the levers in a certain order or else it¡¯ll reset.¡¯ She thought.
However, there was a small problem and that was that she didn¡¯t know how many levers there were.
Thinking to herself for a moment, Shiro crouched down and ced her hand on the floor.
Metal and lightning sparked as a device was slowly being made.
Simr tost time, it was a device that would help her scan the entire room for the levers. Only this time, she coded it to only react to anything that resembled a lever.
After a few short moments, the device was created.
*Boom
A low pitched sound spread out from the machine as red spots started to appear on the disy screen.
"Hmm... There¡¯s a total of 20 levers in here." Shiro muttered with a frown.
Though this number wasn¡¯t confirmed yet as it continued searching for things resembling the lever. She¡¯d have to check them herself to make sure that they were indeed what she was looking for.
Out of the 20 ¡¯levers¡¯, only 15 were the correct ones.
"So I know the one to my left is the first lever since it stayed there after I flicked it." Shiro said whilst assigning numbers to each of the levers.
With the first lever she flicked as number 1, she assigned the numbers in a clockwise direction.
"Welp, let¡¯s get to work I guess." She muttered as she started to slowly figure out the code for the levers.
###
"Haa!" Lyrica cried out as she cut down another monster.
Right now, they were attempting the Blood Vale dungeon. The reason as to why they chose this dungeon was because Jonas had a supply of potions that increase one¡¯s willpower which was extremely effective against bloodl.u.s.t.
"Wow, just look at her go." Jonasplimented as he watched Lyrica and Madison¡¯s teamwork.
While Lyrica dealt the damage, Madison was able to hold aggro with ease.
So much so that it even put him to shame even though he was slightly higher level than her.
When he and Shiro first met, he was only level 30. Due to what he saw during the raid, he knew he had to get stronger so he and his party pushed for higher level dungeons. One of the only reasons as to why they were able to reap massive benefits was due to Silvia¡¯s incredible healing and support.
With their attempts of higher level dungeons, their levels averaged around 36 while Silvia¡¯s was a little lower at 34.
*BOOM!
Blocking a w swipe with her shield, Madison¡¯s body glowed slightly with a dark red aura.
Teeth started to grow on her shield as a phantom image of a beast attacked the monster.
Trace whistled slightly seeing a significant chunk of the monster¡¯s HP disappear with that one counterattack.
What Madison had used just then was a skill that allowed her to redirect a portion of the damage she took and ignore the monster¡¯s defence altogether. It was a great skill against heavily armoured targets since it deals true damage rather than damage after being cut down by their defences.
"Buff¡¯s please!" Lyrica shouted out as a golden glow encased her body.
Silvia had buffed Lyrica before she had even finished her sentence.
With the buff increasing her attack damage and speed, Lyrica took a deep breath.
Her weapon shimmered with a rosy glow.
dedancer ss Skill: Rose Blossom.
She twirled her sword skillfully around her as waves of vibrant red energy cut outwards, dealing impressive damage for an area of effect skill. The energy made it seem like a rose was slowly blooming. As the number of attacks that were sent outwards increased, so did the growth of the ¡¯rose¡¯.
Once the rose had reached full bloom, Lyrica stopped twirling her sword and stabbed it into the ground.
Rose Blossom Stage 2: Rose Garden.
All of the enemies that had been struck by the initial skill had a phantom rose explode out from their wounds.
Both the Rose Blossom and Rose Garden were self-made skills that was recognised by the system and recorded as a ss skill. She had gained the insight for these skills based on her burning lotus.
The more she used energy wave based attacks, the more she could sense their positions and adjust their flight path.
During their exploration in the Blood Vale, she had attempted to see if she could make a lotus explode out from the wound and to her surprise, a rose had blossomed instead.
Following which, she had received this notification.
[Self-Made Skill recognised. Awarding 200 free stat points. Title awarded.]
[Please name your skill.]
After naming her skill Rose Blossom, since it was what she had thought of the moment she saw the skill, she checked up on her title.
[Creator of Rose Blossom Skill Set (Iplete)]
After experimenting with your insight, you have managed to create the skills Rose Blossom and Rose Blossom Stage 2: Rose Garden. The more you add to this skill the better the benefits of this title.
Current Benefit: 5% Increase in damage when using Rose Blossom Skills.
Just looking at this made her giddy with joy like a child with a new toy. She couldn¡¯t wait to show Shiro her newly created skill and title that she received.
###
"GAH! FINALLY!" Shiro cried out as she finally figured out the code for the 15 levers. The worst part of this was that there were a few dummy codes that seemed like it worked but instead, always sent her on a dead end.
It was only after reaching the first dead end did she realise the truth about the levers. No matter which lever she used, after the 8th lever, they all reset the code.
With this new knowledge, she then found out that there were five start points.
Overall, it had taken her around 2 hours to get the rightbination. If there was just dummy routes at the start of the puzzle, then it may not have taken 2 hours. HOWEVER, there were also a few dummy routes during theter stages which only served to make Shiro want to smash all the levers in and say f*ck it.
With the final lever activated, the doors slowly cranked open to reveal a treasure chest and the pathway to the next boss room.
"Hou? A blue rimmed treasure chest to reward my efforts. How stingy." Shiro said, annoyed at the rewards for her two hour long solving process of the levers.
Opening the treasure chest, she was surprised to see a scroll and a few misceneous materialsying in the chest.
Picking up the scroll, she inspected it.
[Low Tier 3 Attack Magic Scroll ¨C Lightning Hell]
Raising an eyebrow, she was surprised that it was a low tier 3 scroll. At most, she expected a tier 2 and not tier 3. That was because tier 3 scrolls were normally equivalent to an attack sent out by a level 60 adventurer. Even the low tier 3 attack scrolls were equal to the attack of an adventurer which had just ssed up. That being level 51.
"This should be helpful against the bossester on." Shiro muttered as she could imagine their defences increasing the closer she got to the end of this dungeon.
Storing the materials and the scroll in her inventory, Shiro proceeded into the second part of the dungeon.
Chapter 91 Giants Heart P3
Chapter 91 Giant''s Heart P3
The second part of the dungeon required her to dodge the attacks of snipers. However, that was easily avoided with her Rift Walker skill.
Dashing through the long corridor with ease, Shiro looked around for the boss.
¡¯Hmm... Since this dungeon is in the shape of the heart, I should be reaching the second chamber soon.¡¯ Exiting the rift, Shiro slid on the ground for a short moment to dodge 2 stone spears sent out by the snipers.
Making two spears herself, Shiro sent them flying towards the two snipers.
Immediately continuing down the corridor, she found the doorway that leads into the second chamber.
"Finally." Shiro muttered.
However, the moment she entered the room, she felt a strong sense of dread.
Her first instinct was to use the rift walker skill but it was still on cooldown. Without dy, Shiro swiped her hand down as a nanotech shield formed in front of her.
*BOOM!!!!
A beam of energy collided with the shield, almost piercing it in one go.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro twisted her body and dodged out from behind the shield. Luckily for her, she managed to dodge just before the shield crumbled away.
Rolling on the ground, Shiro looked up at the boss.
[Cruel Mechanised Giant ¨C LVL 40 BOSS]
HP: 500,000/500,000
MP: 980,000/1,000,000
The boss had a humanoid lower body butcked a torso and had no arms or head. Instead, in ce of the torso, a shiny blue core that was protected by a translucent barrier could be seen while several ck metallic angel wings floated around the core.
Seeing that Shiro had avoided its attack, the boss shifted its body, controlling a few angel wings to before torso armour to protect the core.
¡¯So the core is the main weak point. Since the wings are floating, it means the joints can¡¯t be abused.¡¯ Shiro analysed immediately.
"Little Yin! Give me support and avoid drawing aggro." Shiromanded as she flipped back onto her feet in time to avoid a few lightning bullets the boss had shot towards her.
*Chirp!
Responding to Shiro¡¯smand, Yin flew upwards and used Ice Chain to try to hold the boss down for a moment while Shiro recovers.
*PING!
The ice chains shattered immediately upon contact.
¡¯High resistance to control type skills.¡¯ Shiro frowned as she kept her body low whilst running around the boss.
Flexing her fingers, four ice daggers appeared in her hands.
She pivoted on her left foot and threw the daggers without decreasing her speed too much.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Each of the daggers was infused with lightning to increase the damage potential. But Shiro only frowned when she saw the daggers deal minimal damage.
Seeing that her daggers didn¡¯t work as well as she hoped, Shiro sent her killing intent out at full power.
The moment she stepped down with her foot, ice spread outwards as it rapidly transformed the boss room into an ice chamber.
Aiming her hand at the boss, Shiro clenched her fist, causing the surrounding mana to go berserk.
*BOOM!!!!!
Tens of ice pirs shot out from every direction and mmed against the boss¡¯s body.
Shiro¡¯s frown deepened when she saw the angel wings protect the boss.
¡¯Seems like level 40 is pushing it a little. But, it¡¯s not impossible.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. While the defence was a little tough, it should be possible for her to fight it in a battle of attrition.
Moreover, unlike the previous boss, once this boss reaches 1HP, Shiro guessed that the mana barrier protecting core would be destroyed. Even if it wasn¡¯t destroyed, it should still be within her limits to kill the boss.
The boss¡¯s wings trembled for a short moment before bursting out with explosive power.
*BANG!
Breaking apart the ice pirs, the torso of the boss opened up once more as the core was visible.
Feeling the mana stir, Shiro knew the beam attack was being charged up once more.
Normally, the best thing to do would be to stop the boss from charging. But right now, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to output that kind of power with her current arsenal.
Shifting her feet slightly, a pair of nanotech boots were formed.
*BOOM!!!!
Shiro had dashed to her right the moment the beam shot out of the core. Pushing the rockets on her boots to their maximum output, Shiro made sure to insert more mana in order to outrun the deathser that was currently trailing behind her.
Once she saw theser falter, she knew the attack was about to end.
She dismissed the boots and dashed forward with her physical power.
A single gauntlet and javelin formed on her right hand as Shiro twisted her body.
Yin Style Phantom Art: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
The rockets activated with a violent burst of power.
"HAA!"
Throwing the javelin with all her power, she attempted to strike the core before the wings close up and protect it once more.
*BANG!
However, her javelin was just a little short as the wings mped down on the javelin and snapped it in half.
Frowning at this, Shiro dismissed her gauntlet and nced at her remaining MP.
[MP: 143,500/170,500]
¡¯Hmm, I¡¯ve already used almost 30k of my MP.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Comparing the damage she caused with her MP consumption, Shiro felt a headacheing as it was most likely going to be another prolonged fight like thest boss.
This time it was worse since the defence of this boss was much higher than the rock giant.
¡¯Since Nanomancer takes too much MP from me right now, especially with my broken mana links, I should try fight it out with my Snow Girl ss. Plus, with my passives, I should be able to reduce my MP consumption by arge margin.` Shiro thought as she started to feel frustrated about her mana links once more.
Shaking her head, Shiro stoppedining mentally and focused on killing the boss.
###
40 minutes. It took Shiro 40 minutes to finally get the boss down to 1HP. During the fight, she wasn¡¯t able to deal any substantial damage, so she could only rely on her passive and slowly whittle down the boss.
Cold Aura, Icy Touch and Ice Field Affinity yed the biggest part in the fight. Cold Aura and Icy Touch helped reduce the MP consumption while Ice Field Affinity helps her regenerate some MP and HP over time since she had converted the entire boss room into an ice chamber that yed to her advantage.
Naturally, the boss had also managed to meltrge portions of the ice away due to its beam attack. There were several scorch marks on the surface of the ice since she didn¡¯t have any need to refreeze the room anymore.
With the boss at 1HP, she just needed a good hit to end the fight.
Taking inspiration from what mages had done during the faction recruitment event, Shiro created two magic circles, one on each hand and overyered the two circles together.
Visualising the effects of each magic circle, smaller magic circles started to form around her before beingbined into the main magic circle.
Once she was done, a grand array of runes and neon patternsid out in front of her. There were threeyers to the magic circle with the thirdyer flickering on and off.
¡¯So I can¡¯t do it without reaching tier 3 in attunement?¡¯ Shiro thought seeing the thirdyer of the magic circle fizzle out.
Shaking her head, Shiro decided to activate her magic with just twoyers of magic circles.
Pushing out with her palm, Shiro controlled the magic circle to expand above the boss.
*KISH! KISH!
Sparks flew as the twoyers rotated in opposite directions. The firstyer glowed with a neon blue light while the outeryer glowed with a neon yellow light.
Multi-coloured lights started to form above the area as the temperature dropped rapidly. Layers of ice could be seen forming on the surface of the boss¡¯s body as the yellow magic circles started to flicker with lightning.
*BOOM!!!!!
Lightning mmed against the boss repeatedly as thermal shock was being activated constantly. The constant change in temperature caused cracks to form on the boss¡¯s body before shattering apart and reduced the pieces into piles of dust.
Once the boss was entirely reduced to ash did she stop the magic.
Walking over to the pile of ash on the ground, Shiro raised an eyebrow before looking up at Yin.
"Little Yin! You can collect the mana stones. Since you like them so much, how about this. You take 60% of the mana stones and I take 40%. But, you have to collect them while I kill the enemies.
Yin pped her wings while thinking about the proposition.
*Chirp!
Flying down, Yin raised 7 feathers up at Shiro.
¡¯$%¡ê^!!! Scam!¡¯ Shiro thought seeing Yin bargaining with her.
"Fine since you want to be like that. 0% shares for you and I¡¯ll just collect them by myself." Shiro said whilst searching through the pile of dust.
Yin ¡¯paled¡¯ at what Shiro said and tugged at her robe in a panic.
*Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!
When she raised 6 feathers as to agree to the first offer, Shiro only huffed and turned her head away.
Tears started to well up in Yin¡¯s eyes as she raised up 4 feathers instead.
Seeing that Shiro was still ignoring her, the tears threatened to spill.
"Pft! A I¡¯m sorry Little Yin." Shiro said as she gave Yin a cuddle and patted her head.
She had wanted to tease Yin a little but didn¡¯t expect her to almost cry.
"We¡¯ll do the first one ok? You get 60% and I get 40%." Shiro said pacifying Yin.
*Chirp!
Yin cried out tearfully and dived into Shiro¡¯s hood.
"Hahaha." Laughing at her reaction, Shiro collected the rest of the loot through the system.
The boss dropped a total of 18 items with 16 of them being crafting materials, 1 weapon and 1 key.
The weapon was an axe so Shiro stored it away. However, her interest was piqued with the key. She still had the key that she received during the Frag Ant¡¯s Burrow dungeon.
The key that she had received was a Tier 2 Trial key for a ce called Silvermoon Keep rmended for level 40¡¯s.
However, this time, the key she received was a Tier 2 Team Trial key.
[Tier 2 Team Trial Key]
A key that will send your party to the trial: (Sword Myth Springs).
Rmended level: 45
"Hmm... I should probably get a party of 5 if we want to challenge this trial." Shiro muttered, storing the key away.
While she had confidence that their little group of three couldplete this, the punishment for failure was a drop in level. Not something that she would like to experience if she could help it. Plus, it wasn¡¯t odd that people would recruit others to help themplete trails.
And on top of this, she could also find a few friends from New York to help out since they knew of her strength. Primarily Helion or Silvia¡¯s party.
"Dungeon, o Dungeon, what kind of time-consuming puzzle do you have for me this time." Shiro said with a slight tune added to the sentence.
Looking at the puzzle tablet, Shiro saw a riddle.
"What can be seen in the middle of March and April that can¡¯t be seen at the beginning or at the end of either month?"
Reading the question, Shiro frowned slightly.
¡¯March and April are in spring, so maybe flowers? But they can be seen at the start and end of the months though... hmmm....¡¯ She thought while furrowing her brows.
¡¯However, since this is a riddle, it should be something outside of the box. Something that probably doesn¡¯t have anything to do with the month¡¯s themselves... the number of the month? The number of letters? The-... wait a moment... No way.¡¯ Shiro thought as she had an idea but wasn¡¯t sure if it was right.
"How do I even write the answers?" She muttered.
As if hearing her question, a pen of sorts ejected out from the side of the tablet.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro grabbed the pen and wrote the letter R onto the tablet.
*CLANK!
Hearing a lock or sorts opened, Shiro was dumbfounded that it actually worked.
"Is that it?" She said as it was much faster than the lever puzzle. However, before she could even celebrate, she saw another door with a riddle etched on a tablet.
"Oh my god..." Shiro said as she facepalmed.
As much as she wanted toplete the dungeon, it simply wasn¡¯t worth the trouble.
Giving up on clearing the dungeon, Shiro had returned early back to the campsite.
"Ah Shiro-nee! You¡¯re back early today." Kanae called out as she ran over to Shiro.
[Have you been waiting for me?] Shiro asked with a smile.
"Yeah. You said you were going to be early today so I couldn¡¯t wait for you toe back." Kanae said as she pulled on Shiro¡¯s sleeve.
[What about the others?] Shiro asked.
"Um, Sophie and Ruby are out shopping with their mum. Lia is ying on her phone." Kanae replied.
[Then what about you? Where you just waiting for me? Or were you doing something else?]
"Well, I was doing what you taught us before. The horse thingy. I can¡¯t do the other one so I tried practising this one. I want you to have a look." Kanae said with excitement.
Seeing her eagerness, Shiro smiled lightly and waited for Kanae to demonstrate.
Suppressing her nervousness, Kanae tucked her arms by her side and crouched down with her back straight. She held her breath as she tried to keep her posture but exhaled heavily not too long after, falling backwards.
Shiro caught her before she fell on the floor.
[That was very good posture. Though there can be a few improvements. I¡¯ll help you out ok?] Shiro typed out. She could tell that Kanae had been practising earnestly, due to the sweat marks on her clothes, so she wanted to help her out more.
Reading her words, energy flowed back into Kanae as she couldn¡¯t wait to get started in training with Shiro.
Chapter 92 Bloodl.u.s.t/Killing Intent
Chapter 92 Bloodl.u.s.t/Killing Intent
After an hour or so of training Kanae, Shiro stopped as too much training would be bad for her. 1 hour was just right to increase her stamina along with her core foundation.
She was also nning on teaching her a few routines that will help out with her flexibility duringbat. That was because being flexible could give you more options during a fight.
However, before she could show her the routines, Shiro saw Lyrica and Madison return from their dungeon venture.
[Take a short break ok? I¡¯m going to talk to Lyrica and Madison for a short moment.]
"Alright." Kanae nodded and sat in the tent.
While Kanae went to rest for a while, Shiro walked towards the duo.
Seeing their levels, she was quite surprised at how fast they levelled up.
[Lyrica LVL 30 ¨C Elven dedancer]
[Madison LVL 28 ¨C Demon Knight]
"Shiro, you¡¯re back quite early today." Lyrica said.
[Yeah. I tried out Giant¡¯s Heart but the puzzles took too long so I gave up.] Shiro shrugged.
[But what about you? You levelled up massively since Ist saw you.] Shiro asked.
"Well, we partnered up with Jonas¡¯ party from the raid before and we challenged the level 40 dungeon, Blood Vale. With Silvia healing us and giving us buff¡¯s, we were able to fight longer and harder. I think we spent five or six days inside the dungeon. Right Madi?" Lyrica said, turning over to Madison.
"Yeah, we spent six days in there. This battle freak here didn¡¯t stop at all." Madison rolled her eyes. With the amount of fighting they¡¯ve been doing; it would freak anyone out.
[Well, your levels had shown massive growth so I¡¯m not surprised.] Shiroplimented.
After the dungeon, Shiro still wasn¡¯t able to reach level 38 which only caused her to sigh. If there were percentages to EXP, she guessed that she would be around 99% right now. She could almost feel the thin wall between levels, ready to break at any moment.
"Oh right, Shiro, I¡¯ve created a self-made skill and got a title for it!" Lyrica said with excitement.
However, hearing what she said, Shiro widened her eyes in shock.
¡¯Self-made skill?!¡¯
Self-made skills weren¡¯t something a level 30 should have. Not to mention, if she gained a title for her skill, it meant that the system recognised the skill to have great potential.
While it can be exined that her dedancer ss is a rare one so anybination would be a self-made skill, the title couldn¡¯t be exined the same way.
Titles for skills were only acquirable when the system determined the skill potential to be at least above a B rank skill.
For Lyrica to create a skill that reached B rank in potential, Shiro only had one word for her.
Genius!
[Are you able to show me the skill?] Shiro asked with visible anticipation and curiosity.
"How about you join us tomorrow for the dungeon run? We¡¯re stuck on the boss right now since our damage per second is a little limited with our party. The defence of the boss is too high for us to bridge the gap and having bloodl.u.s.t suppress us didn¡¯t make things any better." Madison said as beating the first boss not only meant rewards for the team, but also them getting ess to the second part of the dungeon.
From what she had read about the dungeon, the second part had more monsters which also meant more EXP.
¡¯Hmm... I suppose having a purebat dungeon is the best way to help Yin level up. But the biggest question is how they¡¯re supposed to resist the bloodl.u.s.t.¡¯
[How did the lot of you stand against their bloodl.u.s.t?] Shiro asked.
"Well Jonas gave us a few potions that increased our willpower." Lyrica said as Shiro nodded.
[Indeed. But also try not to use the potion when you can. Forcing yourself to stand against bloodl.u.s.t can train up your willpower which is very importantter on.] Shiro smiled.
While she understood that drinking potions helped out massively, it was still bad for your bodyter on in the line. The only reason as to why she was drinking potions before was due to the fact that A, she needed to. And B, her MP consumption was many times higher than others due to her broken links.
Otherwise, she would not use such low ranked potions.
"Jonas told us that to stand against bloodl.u.s.t, we need to have our own bloodl.u.s.t." Madison said.
"Shiro, I know that you have bloodl.u.s.t yourself so how do you increase it in a short amount of time?" Lyrica asked.
She remembered that Shiro had told them that drinking low ranked potions were bad. Therefore, she wanted to cultivate arge bloodl.u.s.t to counter the dungeon.
[It¡¯s simple. You just need tomit genocide. Preferably by your own hands so you understand the feeling of cutting someone down. During this, when you start feeling the emotions of wanting to cut the next person down, that¡¯s when you know your bloodl.u.s.t is starting to affect you. Grasp onto this feeling and control it. Once you do, you¡¯ll be able to direct your bloodl.u.s.t/killing intent at people to try to weaken them.] Shiro exined.
Lyrica and Madison paled slightly at the mention of genocide and remembered that Shiro had a huge amount of killing intent as demonstrated during their negotiation with Winter¡¯s Grace.
"Erm Shiro?"
[Yeah?]
"How did you cultivate your killing intent?" Madison asked.
¡¯Ah, I did it again.¡¯ Shiro thought, realising the fact that she had just tantly told them that shemitted mass genocide to cultivate her killing intent.
¡¯Then again, they¡¯ll know about it sooner orter.¡¯ Shiro thought and decided to y it off.
[Well I¡¯m not too sure. From what I remember, I¡¯ve always had this killing intent.]
Lyrica and Madison looked at each other before back at Shiro.
"So... is there any other way other thanmitting genocide?" Lyrica asked.
[I suppose constantly exposing you to killing intent would work as well, albeit at a much slower pace.]
"Why didn¡¯t you say that at the start!" Madisonined.
[Well you asked for the fastest way did you not? The fastest is not always the best.] Shiro replied, taking this chance to educate them.
"..." The duo didn¡¯t have any words to refute her as she was right. They did ask her for the fastest way to cultivate bloodl.u.s.t.
[If you want, I can expose you to directed and concentrated killing intent for a little while so you can get a feeling for it. While the Blood Vale does have bloodl.u.s.t, it¡¯s not concentrated on you so it¡¯s harder for you to grasp the feeling if you know what I mean by that.]
"I know. So, are we going to do it here or should we go into a dungeon so we can train for longer?" Lyrica asked.
[Baby steps. You need to first grasp onto the feeling of concentrated killing intent. Only after that will we start giving you long term exposures.] Shiro replied.
[Prepare yourselves, I¡¯m just going to give you a quick taste first.]
Lyrica and Madison nodded at her words and took a deep breath to prepare themselves mentally.
During the dungeon, even with the help of the potion, they could still feel the pressure that bore down on them. Now that Shiro was going to focus her killing intent on them, they had to prepare themselves.
[Ready?]
"Yeah."
Seeing that they were both ready, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
¡¯Only a small sliver...¡¯ She though whilst controlling her killing intent. Just enough that a small amount could be felt by both Lyrica and Madison.
While it was a small amount to Shiro, for the duo, it felt like they were staring up at a behemoth.
Their eyes widened as they now knew what the feeling of killing intent was.
Withdrawing the killing intent immediately, Shiro waited for the duo to recover.
The feeling gripped at their throat, preventing them from breathing.
"PUAH! Haaa haa haa..."
It was after a short moment did they snap out of it and copsed onto their knees.
Taking deep breaths, they tried to calm their rapidly beating hearts.
¡¯Ah... Was it still too much for them?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself a little worried about their state right now. She had tried to limit her killing intent as much as possible because she knew what a huge amount of killing intent can do to a person.
They only needed a short moment as Lyrica was the first one to recover.
"How much killing intent was that?" Lyrica asked, her voice still a little shaky from the experience.
[If I had to put a percentage on that. I¡¯d say less than 1% and for a short moment.] Shiro replied after a short moment.
"Less...than 1%?" Lyrica asked hesitantly.
[Yup. Less than 1%.] Shiro nodded.
[You two take a moment to calm yourselves. I¡¯m going to help Kanae out a little more.]
Lyrica nodded while she watched Shiro walk away.
"My god..." She muttered whilst sitting down.
During this, Madison had recovered slightly.
"How many do you think she had killed to get this kind of killing intent?" Madison asked.
"A lot? Well she¡¯s got amnesia so she doesn¡¯t remember anything from before New York. Nothing that gives her a hint of her identity and what she had done before anyways."
"Do you think she could be those type of secret soldiers that had their memories wiped when they¡¯re not on a mission?"
"... You watch too many shows." Lyrica dismissed that thought and focused on recovering her mental state.
"Maybe." Madison agreed as it was just a random thought.
Meanwhile, when Shiro entered the tent, she smiled softly seeing Kanae fast asleep,ying face down on her sleeping bag.
Patting her head, Shiro tucked her inside her sleeping bag.
"Mn? Ah Shiro-nee. I¡¯m awake now." Kanae replied groggily.
[Nope. Go to sleep and rest your body. Since you fell asleep in the short time that I wasn¡¯t here, it means your body needs rest.] Shiro typed out.
"But-"
Shiro ced a finger on Kanae¡¯s lips to stop her from speaking.
[Sleep.]
Pouting slightly, Kanae nodded and went to sleep as Shiro had said. Shiro chuckled to herself and imagined that this is what it¡¯ll be like if she had a younger sister.
¡¯Cute...¡¯ Shiro thought, patting Kanae¡¯s head.
Since Kanae was resting, Shiro thought about Lyrica and Madison¡¯s levelling speed.
¡¯While I aimed to have Lyrica and Madison fight hard battles while being rewarded with EXP, it seems like the more effective way was still to have a party ughter through a crowd of monsters.¡¯
With a healer like Silvia, who not only had a great area of effect healing but also support spells that buffed one¡¯s status, it was no wonder that their levelling speed would be incredible. Adding on the fact that the monsters were level 40 and that they were only in theirte 20¡¯s, the EXP they got was much higher than what they should normally be able to earn.
¡¯Seems like I should start preparing to recruit more people to the party.¡¯ Shiro thought as she was currently level 37, about to hit level 40 soon. With Lyrica and Madison catching up, they will soon have the right to try to recruit people like Helion and Aarim.
The only problem was Silvia since she didn¡¯t want to leave her party.
¡¯I suppose I¡¯ll give it one more try tomorrow and if she still doesn¡¯t ept, I¡¯ll try to look for another healer some other time.¡¯
If she failed in recruiting Silvia, she would need to look for two people instead. One to heal the party while the other to buff the party.
Scratching her head slightly, Shiro sighed in fatigue just thinking about needing to search for people with decent talent like Lyrica and Madison. Not to mention, the need to recruit them as well.
The next morning, Shiro woke up once again to Kanae hugging her body in her sleep.
Smiling wearily, Shiro gently put Kanae back into her sleeping bag. Since this had happened before, Shiro had more experience and was able to put her back without waking her up.
Looking at the time, Shiro left the tent to have some breakfast first.
Namely Mana Stones with a side of Mana Stone.
Chewing the D ranked Mana Stones, Shiro made sure to feed Yin as well.
After waiting for around 10 to 15 minutes, she saw Lyrica and Madison walk out of the tent.
[Ready?] Shiro asked as shended softly in front of them.
"Yeah. We¡¯re going to meet up with Jonas¡¯ party at a caf¨¦ in the city centre first before we go to the dungeon." Lyrica replied.
Following behind Lyrica, Shiro saw that the city centre was rather empty due to how early they were.
Since she just went straight to the dungeons, she never saw the city centre early in the morning.
"Since we¡¯re technically refugees, Jonas suggested that we have an early meetup time so not many Cairosa adventurers¡¯ see us. We don¡¯t want unnecessary trouble after all." Lyrica said as she could see Shiro looking around the city centre.
Shiro nodded at her statement. It made sense since they were the ¡¯intruders¡¯.
Arriving at the cafe, Jonas¡¯ party was shocked to see Shiro¡¯s level.
¡¯Level 37! Even with a healer like Silvia the highest we got was 36. Yet she¡¯s level 37?¡¯ Jonas thought with shock.
Last time, when they saw her, she wasn¡¯t even level 30. But despite that, she had managed to surpass them in level.
¡¯Without a healer like Silvia, I doubt we would have had the same kind of levelling speed.¡¯ He thought with a frown. Levelling up as a group and levelling up solo was different. When solo, you needed to focus on everything whereas in a group, you had more leeway regarding this. Plus, with a healer like Silvia, stamina and healing wasn¡¯t a problem at all.
But right now, it only meant that she was a very dependable teammate for the dungeon.
Chapter 93 Blood Kingdom
Chapter 93 Blood Kingdom
"Good morning." Jonas said with a wave of his hand.
[Good morning. Long time no see.] Shiro smiled and greeted the party.
"Well, it has been a long time. And I can see that you¡¯ve improved a lot in both power and appearance." Jonas praised her.
Herbination of a different hair colour and small differences to her face matched her Ice Mage ss well.
It was as if she was the personification of an ice princess.
[Thank you very much.] Shiro smiled, epting thepliment.
[And Miss Silvia, the offer still stands.] Shiro typed out, throwing the offer out to Silvia once more.
"Hahahaha, not even a minute here and you¡¯re already trying to poach our best member." Jonasughed.
"Thank you for the offer. But as I have stated previously, I wish to help this party first." She smiled, rejecting the offer.
Shrugging her shoulders slightly, Shiro expected this oue.
Sitting down around the table, she got to the main point.
[So the main point of me being here today is to help you guys clear the Blood Vale dungeon. Am I right?] Shiro asked.
"Yeah, we can handle the boss, but our damage is severely limited. The boss was able to heal faster than we can damage it." Jonas sighed.
[Alright I can help out with that. But I have another question for you, how do we split the loot?]
"How about a 60/40 split? Out party would take the 60 since we got more members while you get 40 for your help." Jonas offered.
¡¯60/40 split huh? I was expecting something like 70/30 but this works too.¡¯
[Sure. A 60/40 split is ok for me. Now if you don¡¯t mind, can you exin the boss to me? The web can only provide so much and it¡¯s better to hear it from someone who¡¯s experienced it.]
"Well, the main problem with the boss is how he heals. He would summon a mass of cannon fodder which would simultaneously charge at him. For every fodder he eats, he regains 0.5% of his health. Without this, we would be able to kill him easily. Which is why we need your help. Your ice would be able to freeze them before they even approach the boss."
¡¯Hmmm... Usually, these types of bosses are very simple in terms of fighting skills and the only thing is the healing being a problem. Plus, the loot from these types of bosses are a lot more rewarding.
[Alright. Shouldn¡¯t be a problem. Though I¡¯ll warn you now, I¡¯ll be turning the boss room into an ice field since it¡¯ll make everything easier for me.]
"If that¡¯s the case, then we¡¯ll need to buy some boots that help us walk on ice." Jonas said as slipping on ice during the fight wasn¡¯t something they need.
[Well, you don¡¯t necessarily need it since I can just leave the floor clear of ice. As long as there is ice around the area and the temperature drops, I¡¯ll be fine. If anything, probably a coat?] Shiro replied.
"Mn, that certainly makes things easier. Traction boots aren¡¯tmon around here." Jonas replied, feeling relieved.
"Since the only thing we need are coats, I have a few stored in my inventory." Silviaughed lightly and pulled out a few coats for everyone.
"Shiro?" Silvia asked handing her a coat.
[I¡¯m fine. Since I¡¯m an ice mage, the ice doesn¡¯t affect me.] Shiro smiled.
Once all the coats have been distributed, Jonas started to hand everyone the potion to help with increasing their willpower.
[I don¡¯t need that either.] Shiro chuckled lightly.
"What do you need?" Jonas asked.
[Nothing.]
She didn¡¯t need help against the cold nor the bloodl.u.s.t.
"What about MP potions? I remember you needing a few of them." Jonas asked thoughtfully.
[That¡¯s where the ice fieldes in. I managed to get a skill which makes it so that as long as I am in a cold environment, I¡¯ll be able to increase my MP regeneration and HP regeneration.]
Reading what she had written down, Jonas was shocked as that kind of skill was very rare amongst adventurers.
"Oh wow, that must have helped you out a lot then. Without needing to spend as much money on potions and supplies, it means that you¡¯re able to save up your money for more expensive items.
"Plus, since you¡¯re an ice mage, that¡¯s even better." Jonas said with a smile.
"Imagine if it was a heated environment. Even with MP regen, her magic would be less effective." Erica, the fire mage, said out loud.
"It would be good for you but bad for little miss Shiro hahaha." Traceughed.
Chatting for a little longer while they got prepared, the party walked towards the dungeon.
However, when they arrived at the gate, Shiro frowned when she felt the abnormality of the mana surrounding the gate.
Before she could even warn everyone, she saw them enter without fear.
¡¯¡ê$%$¡ê!!!¡¯ Cursing in her mind, Shiro dashed after them.
*BAM!
A familiar sequence of the gate mming shut could be seen behind them.
Seeing the images on the door shift, Shiro clicked her tongue.
¡¯The dungeon¡¯s mutated into a level 50 dungeon.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
While she kept her calm, the others couldn¡¯t be the same.
Jonas¡¯ party felt the blood drain from their bodies as they saw the new dungeon name.
[Mutated Dungeon ¨C LVL 50 ¨C Blood Kingdom]
The jump from level 40 to 50 was a huge gap in status, especially for the monsters.
With their connection to the outside world severed, it meant that they had to either A, clear the dungeon or B, wait for help.
Since the dungeon had mutated, it meant that anyone else in the dungeon would have been forced out with their dungeon being the only active one.
"Of course the second Mutated Dungeon I experience has to be a level 50." Shiro muttered quietly. While the others were sweating and thinking of a way out, Shiro knew that to open a level 50 mutated dungeon, they needed the power of a peak level 60 to break the defences. Even then, the difficulties of opening the dungeon were high.
Most level 60¡¯s would give up on the dungeon and the people inside. Or in their words: "The faster they die, the easier is it for the rest of us".
She wasn¡¯t unfamiliar with this type of behaviour since it was a rewardless task. Level 60¡¯s had better things to do than to expend a lot of their efforts to open a dungeon just for a ¡¯thanks¡¯.
"What do we do?" Madison asked feeling a little worried.
"I don¡¯t know." Lyrica replied, feeling a sense of despair creep up on her.
Looking around them, they saw trees and forests instead of rocks and cliffs like before. Off in the distance, they even saw a mighty ominous castle that waved a dark red banner. A red moon was shining brightly behind the castle as it gave the ¡¯sky¡¯ a deep red tinge.
"Girls, I believe you know what¡¯s happening as well so I won¡¯t beat around the bush. The dungeon¡¯s mutated into a level 50 dungeon that we have little to no chance of clearing. The best thing we can do right now is to bunker down and wait for the support of the level 60¡¯s." Jonas said with a sigh. Hisplexion seemed to have aged by a few years.
However, before they could continue to talk, a horrific killing intent washed over the party causing them to hold their breaths and copse onto the floor.
Only Shiro was unaffected as she released her own to counteract the killing intent.
*KRRRRR!!!
The ground froze over along with the forest as her passive was freezing everything around her due to the amount of killing intent she was emitting.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she realised the final boss of this dungeon seems to be trying to overpower her.
"Che, you think this tiny thing can overwhelm this miss?" Shiro said as her killing intent exploded out once more but this time with more force.
The tree¡¯s started to crack and shatter from the drop in temperature.
As much as Shiro had wanted to avoid affecting the party, there were simply too much killing intent around them and it was impossible for them not to notice.
Trace, Erica and Paul had long fainted while the rest were barely hanging on.
Lyrica understood this feeling to be what Shiro had shown them yesterday and realised that she was trying to shield them from the final boss.
With the sudden increase of her killing intent, she had overwhelmed the final boss and caused him to retract his own intent.
Seeing that he stopped, Shiro also retracted her own intent and quickly thawed the ice around her.
She then ced each of the party members next to the half destroyed tree.
[Are you ok?] Shiro asked with worry.
"Yeah, just need a moment to recover that¡¯s all." Lyrica replied in a half-conscious state.
The previous sh of intents was simply too much for the elf to handle and yet, she managed to stay conscious the entire time.
Quickly walking over to Silvia, Shiro shook her a little to get her attention.
[Are you able to cast a spell to recover everyone¡¯s mental state right now?] Shiro asked with seriousness.
"Yeah... Just... just give me a second." Silvia said as her face was pale.
Shiro nodded as she had a few cannon fodder she needed to take care of.
She could already sense a few gazes on her as they were approaching the area.
However, what surprised her the most was that Yin was almostpletely unaffected by the sh of intents.
"Little Yin, are you hiding something from me?" Shiro asked with a small smile as she stood up.
*Chirp!
Yin shook her head.
"Fine. Just help me kill these monsters trying to eat our friends ok?" Shiro said as eight flying ice daggers appeared in her hands.
Since the conscious party members could see her right now, she didn¡¯t want to use her nanotech just yet.
*Chirp!
Flying into the sky, Yin looked down to see six, medium sized beasts that were slowly approaching the around.
She waited until they were pretty close to each other before using Ice Chain.
*KRR!
The chains managed to lock down three of the beasts while the other three dashed towards Shiro.
"Only three huh? Not bad." Shiro said as she praised Yin¡¯s timing with locking down half of the beasts.
Dashing towards the beasts, Shiro merged the daggers in her right hand into a sword.
Twisting her body counter-clockwise, Shiro cut the beast from the opening of its mouth before throwing the daggers in her left hand at the other two beasts.
Snapping her fingers, the daggers exploded and froze the other two beasts to the ground.
With two cannon fodders being locked down, Shiro focused on the monster next to her.
Her sword had managed to cut the jaw, albeit barely. Seeing the muscles exposed, Shiro threw the sword at the beast.
*PING!
Biting down as best it could, the beast managed to break the sword in half.
However, before it could even rejoice, Shiro jammed her hands and foot into the mouth and kicked down with all her strength.
*CRACK!
Snapping the jaw off the skull of the beast, Shiro proceeded to grab the upper jaw before flipping forwards and over the body of the monster. This caused the spine to crack but didn¡¯t break.
Frowning slightly, Shiro took advantage of this and dug her heels into the back of the monster¡¯s neck. This gave it the extra force it needed to break the spine and separate the head from the body.
With the first beast down, Shiro aimed her palms towards the two monsters that she had locked down before and clucked her hands.
Two magic circles appeared above and below the beasts as ice spikes skewered the beasts and killed them easily.
With the monsters dead, Shiro didn¡¯t waste any time and immediately dashed towards the rest which Yin had chained up.
Silvia was in awe seeing Shiro¡¯sbat efficiency. Even though they were 13 levels higher than her, Shiro¡¯s experience and instincts helped her take care of them quickly.
"Wow..." She muttered unconsciously.
She could hear the distant sounds ofbat before it became silent once more.
Seeing Shiroeback with blood stuck to her, Silvia knew the little girl in front of her was much more terrifying than what she shows.
¡¯No one should be this calm when killing monsters especially with how she¡¯s killing them.¡¯ Silvia thought with a mix of awe and fear.
[Have you recovered enough yet? We need to hurry since we¡¯ll be surrounded if we stay in the same ce.] Shiro typed out while she pulled out a towel to wipe the blood away from her face. Unfortunately for her, the blood now dyed her white robe with blotches of red.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ll need to get Aarim to dye my next outfit a colour that isn¡¯t easily affected. Probably ck.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Yes, I¡¯ve recovered enough." Silvia said as she stood up with slightly shaky legs. She used her staff to support her body so that she wouldn¡¯t fall over.
Casting a few spells on the party, they slowly recovered.
Lyrica and Madison weren¡¯t too surprised at Shiro¡¯s appearance since they knew that she was quite ¡¯messy¡¯ when fighting close ranged.
However, the same couldn¡¯t be said for Jonas¡¯ party. The sight of Shiro being covered with blood, despite her trying to wipe it off, was disturbing for them.
[I¡¯ll be taking control of this party for the time we are in this dungeon. I don¡¯t trust the level 60¡¯s of this city to go out of their way to help us so that leaves us with one option. Clearing this dungeon.]
Chapter 94 Being Bait
Chapter 94 Being Bait
"Clearing the dungeon?!" They were shocked as clearing the dungeon with their current party was an insane thought.
"Shiro, you know that this dungeon is basically 15 levels above our average party level right?" Jonas said with a frown.
[Yes I do. But, rather than waiting here and risk being surrounded, I¡¯m more willing to challenge this dungeon and survive.] Shiro replied with a serious face.
Jonas paused seeing how serious Shiro was right now. He knew that it was no time to joke around and that the city was most likely going to wait for their deaths before any rescue came.
[But naturally, we aren¡¯t going to challenge the dungeon straight away. No, what we need to do is level everyone up. Primarily Silvia and Madison. And only after that, will we focus on everyone else.]
Jonas agreed since he knew that having a high level tanker and healer would increase their chances of survival.
[Next is supplies. How much food do you have?] Shiro asked.
"I didn¡¯t think we¡¯ll be trapped here so I didn¡¯t prepare much. At most, we can ration it to around 2 meals for each of us before running out. What about you?" Jonas asked.
[I don¡¯t have any food.] Shiro shook her head. All she prepared were mana stones that were meant to feed her and Yin.
[I suppose we can harvest the monster¡¯s for food if we needed to.]
They had Erica for her fire magic so they¡¯ll be able to create a fire to roast the food. The only problem being that it¡¯ll attract the monsters which means more fighting.
Fighting means using energy and they needed to eat food for energy. And it all just loops around.
¡¯There¡¯s also the problem of the final boss sending his killing intent towards us.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
With the boss sending out killing intent, Shiro needed to counter it for the safety of the party. And yet, if she did counter it, it¡¯ll give their position away.
"Annoying." Shiro muttered.
Waiting for a moment for the party to fully recover, Shiro exined the n of action to Jonas.
[Basically, we need to rotate around killing and moving the camp around. If we stay in one ce for too long, the monsters will surround us. While I can fight the boss¡¯s killing intent off, it also means I¡¯ll be exposing our position. The main problem we need to think about is rest and stamina consumption.]
"Indeed. We can¡¯t rest if the monsters surround us, but we can¡¯t rest either if we¡¯re running away. I presume the boss would most likely send out killing intent in waves to determine our position every so often.
"However, if you don¡¯t counter it, our position would be hidden. But at the same time, it is very dangerous to keep ourselves exposed to this kind of killing intent." Jonas replied.
¡¯Hmm...¡¯ Shiro sat down with a difficult face.
"Erm... What if Shiro directed her intent at the boss. Take the initiative?" Silvia asked.
[Exin.]
"Well, if you were to target the boss with your intent, it¡¯ll draw attention away from us. At the same time, it¡¯ll give us the room we need to kill the monsters to level up." Silvia said as she wanted to think of as many ideas as she could in a short amount of time.
"Silvia!" Jonas shouted, causing her to flinch.
"Do you know that this is basically sending Shiro to her death! If she targets the boss with her killing intent, the boss will most likely send out stronger monsters to kill Shiro. Sure we¡¯ll have an easier time levelling up but that also means that Shiro will be in more danger!" Jonas shouted with a furious face.
Silvia paled at what Jonas said since that wasn¡¯t her intention. She was just a little desperate and didn¡¯t think twice about what she said.
"Ah! I- I- I didn¡¯t mean it like that I-" Silvia stuttered.
[No you have a point. This would indeed make it easier for you lot. Not only that, I should be able to level up during this as well.] Shiro replied thinking about the suggestion seriously.
Out of the entire group, she was the most experienced and had the highest level. Not only that, she was pretty confident that she should be able to survive that kind of onught.
"That¡¯s insane!" Jonas rejected the thought immediately.
[No it¡¯s not and it¡¯s what we¡¯re going to do.] Shiro replied standing up immediately.
[Jonas, lead the party to kill strays while I keep the main army busy.]
Walking towards Lyrica, Shiro exined the basic n.
"Well it doesn¡¯t seem like you¡¯ll take no for an answer. Just be careful ok?" Lyrica responded with a tired sigh.
Shiro grinned.
[You know me so well. Good luck, surprise me with your level ok?]
"Yeah, take care."
Crouching down slightly, Shiro dashing into the air and started to jump from tree to tree. A momentter, Lyrica could no longer see Shiro.
Sighing once again, Lyrica walked towards the party, ready to kill some stray monsters to level up.
Meanwhile, Shiro stopped once she made sure that she was far enough. She didn¡¯t want the party to be affected after all.
Looking around, she made sure that there was some cover for her should she need them.
"Alright... Here goes nothing." Shiro muttered and closed her eyes.
*KRRR!!!
The moment she sent out her killing intent, ice started to cover the surrounding areas, immediately turning a portion of the forest into an icy tundra.
She focused her intent towards the castle to make sure that the final boss could feel her hostility.
¡¯Come on... Take the bait...¡¯ Shiro thought as she waited for the monsters to arrive.
*Tutututu...
She smiled once she felt the ground started to tremble.
Making herself a nanotech bow, since no one was here to watch her, Shiro narrowed her eyes and pulled back on the strings.
*URAAA-!!!
Firing her bow at the first monster she saw, the arrow exploded after it embedded itself into the monster¡¯s skull and killed the monster with ease.
Making three more arrows, Shiro jumped into the air and took aim.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!
After firing three arrows, Shiro grabbed the centre of the bow and ripped it apart.
The two halves morphed themselves into swords as Shiro plunged the sword through the neck of two monsters that had jumped up behind her.
At the same time, a magic circle expanded out under the battlefield, causing ice chains to wrap around the monsters.
"Little Yin!" Shiro shouted out.
*Chirp!
A second set of ice chains sprang out from the ground, chaining up more monsters.
Seeing the second set of chains limit the amount of monsters targeting her, Shiro smiled.
Twisting her body horizontally, she kicked both monsters away from her.
Shadow Buff x2.
Both Shiro and Yin activated Shadow Buff as it gave her a total of 10% increase in her speed.
The other bonuses involved stealth and resistances but she didn¡¯t need that at the moment.
###
Hearing the distant echoes ofbat, Lyrica looked over with worry.
"So it¡¯s started..." She muttered.
"Yes it has, now let¡¯s find some monsters to kill. We can¡¯t waste the time Shiro has bought for us. Every second counts." Madison said as she too was worried about Shiro.
###
Since she was fighting an army alone, Shiro knew she couldn¡¯t brute force it.
Mixing between both direct confrontation and guerri tactics, Shiro managed to kill a lot of monsters without sustaining too much damage.
The only problem lied with her stamina. Even though her stamina was huge, she was constantly performing at 120% in order to hold back this army.
Other people would have died long ago but she was still holding on.
Nocking an arrow and shooting a monster that was chasing her, Shiro could already feel her lungs burning.
¡¯How long has it been?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself.
Suddenly feeling a sense of danger, Shiro entered the rift and rolled onto the floor before exiting the rift.
There was a huge fist in front of her that would have squashed her if she didn¡¯t enter the rift.
The monster, who had the fist, was abnormally proportioned with the arms being twice as big as the torso.
His eyes were stitched shut along with it¡¯s mouth.
Seeing the monster, Shiro made a disgusted face before creating two nanotech daggers.
Dashing toward the monster, she stomped down on the monster¡¯s arm.
*KRRR!
Ice spread out from where she stepped and soon covered the entire body of the monster minus the head.
With the head exposed to her, Shiro twirled the daggers in her hands and stabbed it into the eyes of the monster.
Twisting the daggers, she blew the head off the monster¡¯s body before backflipping off of the monster.
"Haa...ha..ha.." Exhaling heavily, Shiro wiped the sweat, blood and flesh off her face.
"This should be the end of the first wave." Shiro thought as she retracted her killing intent and dashed towards the party.
Since they were in the same party, Shiro was able to see their icons on the map.
It didn¡¯t take Shiro too long to find the party as she had been dashing at full speed.
When they came face to face with each other, Jonas nodded and quickly finished off the monster they were fighting.
Running away from the area, they told Shiro to rest up.
Drinking some water, Shiro asked about how long it had been.
"It¡¯s been roughly 3 hours since you started the fight." Jonas replied.
[3 hours?]
"I still can¡¯t believe you pulled it off." Jonas shook his head in disbelief. Holding back a constant wave of monsters for three hours was simply unbelievable for someone around Shiro¡¯s level.
While they rested, they made sure that they were constantly on the move.
During this, Madison brought up a question that had confused her.
"Shiro, if you had that much killing intent, why don¡¯t you just release it all at once? Wouldn¡¯t that paralyse the boss?" She asked.
Lyrica nodded as she was also wondering about that.
[That¡¯s because it¡¯s difficult to output 100% of your killing intent. At that point, it is when you abandon everything just to kill the foe in front of you. You lose yourself in your own desire to kill. The other reason is because with the sheer amount of killing intent I hold; I need to keep it contained at all times. Otherwise, it¡¯ll do more harm than good for both me and you.] Shiro shook her head.
Plus, due to her passive, every time she released her killing intent, the surroundings would be frozen. She didn¡¯t want to push her luck since it would still drain her MP slightly to freeze the surroundings regardless of it being a passive skill.
Paired up with her broken mana links, she might destroy herself if she used too much killing intent.
Even though she didn¡¯t know for sure, she wasn¡¯t too keen on testing out her limits.
She¡¯d release just enough so that it¡¯ll achieve her desired effect and nothing more.
Jumping up in the tree, the party sat down for a moment to fully rest their bodies.
Most of the party took the time to have a power nap so that they could recover as much as possible.
Shiro took this chance to feed both her and Yin without anyone realising.
Once she was full, Shiro checked her updated stats after levelling up.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Intermediate Monster (0/50 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion (New)
Level: 38
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 130,151/130,151
MP: 189,000/189,000
STR: 700 (+110)
VIT: 800 -> 900 (+95)
INT: 1100 -> 1200 (+240)
AGI: 750 -> 800 (+120)
DEX: 750 (+70)
DEF: 320 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 250 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 1
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 19,100,490 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1)]
During her stand against the army, she had also managed to get a new title.
[One Woman Battalion]
Stand against a group of enemies that number more than 400 ande out victorious.
Effects: +2.5% on all stats when fighting against a group of 100+ enemies.
While the bonus wasn¡¯t huge, it was bound to get bigger in the future.
¡¯I guess that the next few titles are One Woman Regiment, Brigade, Division, Corps and finally, One Woman Army.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Shaking her head, she looked through the loot she had collected throughout the battle.
She wasn¡¯t able to collect their mana stones since there were too many of them. Therefore, she had to settle with just getting their loot.
The loot surprised her as it mostly consisted of weapons. However, very few were noticeable since the skills were ratherckl.u.s.tre.
The best weapons she got was a blue grade sword that would be handy should she need to use a weapon in front of the party.
This way, she wouldn¡¯t expose the fact that she was a Nanomancer.
[Blood Beast Long Sword ¨C LVL 50 (Blue)]
Requirements: 1,000 STR
+150 Attack Damage
+150 Sharpness
+50 Life Steal
+100 Durability
+50 Attack Speed
Skills:
Blood Transfusion ¨C
Absorb an enemy¡¯s blood to gain +50 attack damage for a short moment.
Cost: 5,000MP
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 1 minute
With just the requirement of 1k STR, Shiro was able to equip the weapon if she wanted to.
Tilting her head back, Shiro closed her eyes and rested as much as she could.
Chapter 95 Hand Cannon Creation
Chapter 95 Hand Cannon Creation
After resting for a few moments, Shiro woke everyone up.
[We should eat something and get moving again.]
Reading what she had written, the party nodded in agreement.
"Hmm, I¡¯ll distribute the first set of rations." Jonas said whilst he pulled out a few packages.
[I¡¯m fine for rations. Share it amongst yourselves.] Shiro shook her head and jumped up into the higher trees.
Looking around, she scouted to see if any of therger beasts wereing.
¡¯From the looks of it, the final boss hasn¡¯t released any of the mini bosses just yet. Hmm...¡¯ She thought whilst narrowing her eyes.
Another thing that she realised was the fact that the boss didn¡¯t send out his killing intent as frequently as he had before.
This gave the party enough time to rest properly and regain their stamina.
Shiro was about to continue her scouting when Lyricanded on a tree branch next to her¡¯s.
"Shiro, you need to eat. Out of all of us, you¡¯re using the most amount of energy." Lyrica said with a displeased face.
Shiro only smiled wearily when she heard this.
[Trust me Lyrica. I don¡¯t need it. Save it for the rest of you.]
"Nope. I¡¯m not budging on this. You WILL eat." Lyrica said handing her the packaged rations.
Sighing slightly, Shiro took the package and only grabbed half of the contents.
[I¡¯ll only eat half, no more.] Shiro typed out.
Lyrica thought for a second and nodded.
"Fine, but I¡¯m saving this half for you." Lyrica said as she hopped down from her branch.
Chuckling to herself, Shiro unwrapped the contents.
¡¯Some bread and water huh?¡¯ She thought and stored the food in her inventory without them realising.
After waiting for a short moment, Shiro saw the everyone had finished preparing and were ready to head out once more.
[Same n as yesterday. I¡¯ll draw the boss¡¯s attention while you guys level up.]
"Alright."
Setting off in different directions, Shiro stretched her body slightly before preparing herself to fight against another horde of monsters.
###
After fighting for five days, the party was looking rather worn out. Theirplexions weren¡¯t great as Shiro knew they had to kill the final boss soon.
The main problem during these five days was food. Since they were fighting battles every day, they needed arge supply of food.
While they did have a lot of monster meat, they weren¡¯t able to make enough time for them to cook enough meat since the smell would attract the monsters over to where they were.
During this, they were rather surprised at how Shiro¡¯splexion stayed the same. There were lingering suspicions but none voice it out.
In addition to this, Silvia, Lyrica and Madison had experienced a pretty substantial growth to their levels.
[Silvia LVL 35 ¨C Grand Healer]
[Lyrica LVL 33 ¨C Elven dedancer]
[Madison LVL 33 ¨C Demon Knight]
Lyrica had managed to level up three times while Madison had levelled up five times. But that was to be expected since they were killing level 50¡¯s whilst they were only in their level 20¡¯s.
Unfortunately, Shiro hadn¡¯t managed to level up just yet but she knew she was close once again.
However, they weren¡¯t the only ones to level up. Jonas, Trace, Paul and Erica had all managed to level up once.
[Once Silvia reaches level 36, we¡¯re going to eat a full meal, rest up and fight the final boss to get out of here.]
"That fast?" Jonas asked,cking the energy he had at the start.
[I don¡¯t think we have any other choice. Plus, the boss should be getting rather desperate as well since I¡¯ve been baiting him for the past five days.] Shiro shook her head.
She also knew that the longer they stayed in here, something was bound to go wrong. Trace and Paul were already having second thoughts as they would asionally eye the girls in the party.
Shiro didn¡¯t me them too much since they had the mentality that they were going to die.
If they lingered in the dungeon any longer, they might do something they¡¯ll regret.
[Well just know that today is thest day that I¡¯ll be baiting the boss. So you guys better try level up as much as you can.]
"Alright, good luck." Jonas replied as he stood up.
Thinking to herself for a moment, Shiro hid her hands in her sleeves and made something quickly.
[Lyrica, Madison, good luck.] Shiro smiled and patted their shoulders.
"It should be us saying good luck." Lyrica smiled back tiredly. Due to the stress over the past five days, she hadn¡¯t been back to sleep properly. Dark rings could be seen under her eyes while she was looking pretty ragged.
The same went for Madison.
Moving separately, Shiro could only sigh seeing what this dungeon had done to the girls.
¡¯After getting out, I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll be in any shape to do more dungeons for the time being.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Once she arrived her a clearing, she was about to send out her killing intent when she quickly leapt backwards into a fighting stance with eight daggers in her hands.
"Masterrrr sendsss a messageee...." A monster said slowly as he walked out of the shadows.
Shiro was shocked but quickly calmed down.
"What message?" She asked with narrowed eyes.
"Whyyy do you standdd.... Withhh... the huumanssss..." The monster said.
¡¯Seems like he just started to gain intelligence.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Rift Walker.
Appearing behind the monster, Shiro had thin nanotech wire wrapped around the monster¡¯s neck.
*BAM!
Kicking the head and torso of the monster, Shiro decapitated him easily.
There was no point conversing with it. She might as well make her stand clear with her actions.
As soon as she killed the messenger, Shiro could feel hundreds of intents lock onto her.
"Well that saves me the trouble of looking for you." Shiro muttered.
###
*BAM BAM BAM!
Quickly three strikes from the monsters, Madison secured the aggro while Lyrica finished the monster off efficiently.
Over the past five days, they had polished up their movements so that it would use the least amount of energy when fighting the monsters.
While they were fighting, Silvia would cast spells on them to make sure that they were rejuvenated but there was only so much a spell can do. Especially since it was only at Tier 1.
Since the three girls needed the most EXP, Jonas, Trace and Paul only assisted when they needed to.
Trace and Paul looked at each other and could see the desperation in their eyes.
They gulped slightly and shifted their gaze over to the girls.
"Don¡¯t think about itds. Don¡¯t do something you¡¯ll regret." Jonas said, cing a hand on both their shoulders.
"I know the times seem dire but trust in the little miss. No one could hold back a monster horde at level 38 but the little miss did it. How do you think she¡¯ll react if you did what you nned to do?" Jonas asked with a serious face.
During their conversations, he too knew that his two friends were getting desperate and he wanted to help change that.
Plus, he had no doubt that Shiro will kill them in the most gruesome way should theyy a hand on her friends.
Trace and Paul paled slightly as Jonas sighed.
"Just trust in her a little longer. We¡¯re going to fight the final boss after the three girls level up. Don¡¯t decrease our chances of leaving this dungeon alive." Jonas reminded and patted their shoulders heavily to wake them up.
The two made a guilty face and sighed.
"Sorry..." They replied.
"Just keep your head up and don¡¯t lose hope." Jonas smiled wearily.
¡¯Ah... I think I should probably retire after this. Hais...¡¯ He thought as he knew he wasn¡¯t talented. Or else it wouldn¡¯t have taken him this long to be a level 37.
¡¯If I live through this, I should probably settle down with a wife and have some kids...¡¯ He mused to himself as he tried to give himself something to work towards.
###
Wiping herself from all the blood and gore, she realised that there were no more monsters.
"Have I killed the entire army now?" She muttered.
Everyday she was killing arge amount of monsters while employing guerri tactics to make sure she wasn¡¯t in too much danger.
Little by little she had thinned out the crowd without even noticing.
"Will there be enough monsters for the girls to level up I wonder."
Taking this chance to harvest as many mana stones as she could with the help of Yin, she then collected all the loot. With the monstrous amounts of loot she had acquired over the past five days, she wasn¡¯t going to sort through them just yet.
Both she and Yin had experienced level ups during this fight.
[Yin ¨C LVL 30]
HP: 58,000/58,000
MP: 190,000/190,000
With Yin reaching level 30, Shiro had expected a skill but was surprised to see that Yin hadn¡¯t gained a skill.
¡¯Hmm, might take longer then.¡¯ Shiro thought and updated her own status. She had expected herself to level up more but could only sigh at the fact that she only levelled up once despite killing so many.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Intermediate Monster (0/50 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion
Level: 39
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 100,500/133,140
MP: 37,200/215,250
STR: 720 (+110)
VIT: 920 (+95)
INT: 1250 -> 1400 (+240)
AGI: 820 -> 920 (+120)
DEX: 750 (+70)
DEF: 320 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 250 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 1
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 24,700,010 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation (New)
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1)]
With her level up, she had used 150 points into INT in order for her to unlock something that she had been anticipating for so long.
[Hand Cannon Creation]
Cost: 50,000 MP (Minimum)
Bullets: 5,000 Per Shot (Minimum)
With her having ess to her Hand Cannons once more, it means that she¡¯s able to use the blueprints that she loved so much.
Each of these blueprints were specialised and had more diversity than her cold arms. That was because her Nanomancer ss was primarily a mid to long ranged ss rather than close ranged. Plus, there were hardly any cold arm blueprints to begin with.
Shiro couldn¡¯t hold back her grin as this meant that she was able to use her guns once more.
"Ah but this isn¡¯t the time yet. I need to focus on clearing the dungeon." Shiro said trying to wipe the grin off her face but failed.
Only taking a short moment to calm herself did she stop grinning.
¡¯With the main army dead from what I can assume, that means the mini bosses are most likely inside the castle. if they¡¯re with the final boss, it¡¯ll be harder to win. If they¡¯re not, this dungeon¡¯s as good as cleared. With my Hand Cannons as a backup in case things go south, I¡¯ll be able to kill the boss solo.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
The main problem lies with how she¡¯s going to exin to them and the fact that she doesn¡¯t trust Jonas¡¯ party to keep her secret.
¡¯I¡¯ll see how the party fairs without the help of my Nanomancer ss first. If things go to sh*t, I¡¯ll use it then.¡¯ Shiro thought as she made her way back to the party.
When she arrived, she saw Trace and Paul having slight hints of guilt on their faces.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as her face became cold.
¡¯They shouldn¡¯t have... but the devices didn¡¯t pick up anything.¡¯ Shiro thought.
However, she quickly shifted her face back to normal.
[Alright, the monster army had been wiped out. So I guess it¡¯s time to fight the bosses in the castle.]
"Wait, wiped out?!" Trace cried out in shock. He had given up on hope, which is why he was nning something that he would have regretted.
And yet, seeing that a level 39 had wiped out a small army of level 50¡¯s rekindled that hope inside him.
[Yes I have.] Shiro replied but her eyes were cold.
Jonas realised that Shiro had a small idea on what could have happened due to their guilty faces that were obvious to the observant eye.
[So right now, the party is made up of one level 39, two level 38¡¯s, two level 37¡¯s, a level 36 and two level 34¡¯s. Jonas, you and Madison will serve as the tankers. I¡¯ll be supporting both long ranged and close rangedbat. Erica, when we start, I just want you to fire everything you have at the boss. Close rangers will be Trace, Paul and Lyrica. And Silvia, just heal the crap out of the tankers and give us support every once in a while. Any questions?] Shiro typed out.
"None." They all replied.
[Good because we got a bunch of mini bosses and a final boss ahead of us. They¡¯re level 50 but we can win with a healer like Silvia on our team.] Shiro said as she stood up straight.
They started to make their way towards the main castle when Jonas wanted a word with her.
"Both you and I know what was about to happen and I just want to say sorry. The stress had gotten to them. I¡¯ve already gave them both a warning." Jonas said apologetically.
[Since that¡¯s the case then I won¡¯t do anything. Just know that if they did, I would personally open the gates of hell for them.] Shiro replied before regrouping with everyone else.
Jonas only sighed in relief as that meant Shiro won¡¯t make a move on them.
Chapter 96 Frozen Hell Series
Chapter 96 Frozen Hell Series
The way to the castle was quiet since everyone was feeling tense.
Shiro was being vignt as she led the way forward. Since she hadn¡¯t seen any mini-bosses during her fight with the horde, she could guess that the mini-bosses were all in the castle.
When they were closer to the castle, Shiro frowned at the sight of two huge monsters guarding the gate to the castle.
Both monsters were huge humanoid type bosses as they were like a mirror reflection of each other. Both wore pieces of heavy armour and carried great swords.
[Twin Blood Guardians ¨C LVL 50 BOSS]
Twin 1
HP: 300,000/300,000
MP: 500,000/500,000
Twin 2
HP: 300,000/300,000
MP: 500,000/500,000
"Seems like this is the first boss." Jonas said with a serious face.
Just the first boss needed them to tank two level 50¡¯s.
[Alright, this is the n. Madison and Jonas, you two tank twin 1. I¡¯ll tank the second twin with Yin. As for Silvia, focus on Madison and Jonas since I can handle myself. However, send the buffs towards me. Damage dealers aim for Twin 1 first and only after you killed Twin 1 will youe help me out. Understood?] Shiro asked.
The party nodded.
Shadow Buff x2.
Activating her Shadow Buff along with Yin¡¯s, the party was surprised to see the buff.
[This will increase your speed. Try to avoid the boss¡¯s attacks when you can. Now let¡¯s go.] Shiro typed out as she stomped down.
*KRR!!!
Huge ice pirs shot out from the ground as snow started to fall.
Since the ground was only partially frozen, it didn¡¯t cause too much trouble for the party.
*URAHH!!
With the boss¡¯s shout as a cue, Shiro dashed towards the second twin while the party ran towards the first.
[Buff Received]
[Buff Received]
[Buff Received]
Giving the notifications a slight nce, Shiro saw her status increase due to Silvia¡¯s support.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Her body flickered as she quickly dodged the downwards swing of the greatsword.
Flicking her wrist, a ramp was being constructed under her as she approached the boss¡¯s head. A magic circle expanded under her as the ramp morphed into a huge drill.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
Kicking the back of the drill, Shiro flipped her body backwards.
*BANG!
The drill crashed into the chest of the boss, barely leaving a scratch on the skin. However, that wasn¡¯t what Shiro was aiming for. The sheer weight of the drill sent the boss stumbling back away from the area.
This allowed the party to have more room to work with along with the fact that there would be less chances for coteral damage.
"Damn..." Paul muttered seeing Shiro suppress the boss with ease.
"Focus!" Jonas shouted out as he dodged and was being attacked by the boss.
"Right!" Paul replied, snapping out of his shock and attacking the boss in front of him.
###
Shiro, who had pushed the boss back, made sure that she far enough from the group.
¡¯This should do.¡¯ She thought as she sped her hands together.
Opening them once more, a neon white orb could be seen in between her palms. She pinched the orb and stretched it out into a thin line.
While she did this, lights started to appear above the boss as Shiro was freezing the moisture in the air to form crystals that created an array of lights.
She grabbed the line as if she was grabbing a spear and threw it into the air. The moment the ¡¯line¡¯ approached the lights, it started to expand and mmed into the body of the boss.
*BOOM!!!!
The ¡¯line¡¯ was, in fact, a highly condensed blizzard. Combined with the coldness above the boss that even froze the moisture in the air, it sent down a column of cold mist that started to freeze the boss.
Suddenly, a blood-red glow encased the boss¡¯s body.
*BOOM!!!!
*URAHHH!!!!!
Roaring out with rage, the glow shattered the spell Shiro had cast with ease.
"Tch, voluntary berserk." Shiro muttered.
Normally, a boss would go berserk when they hit a certain amount of health. However, with voluntary berserk, they¡¯d be able to increase their status at any given moment.
Grabbing the handle of his greatsword, the boss mmed the sword into the ground.
*CLANG!
Shiro widened her eyes as she instantly jumped into the rift.
Exiting not too far from where she had stood, Shiro saw a huge metal chain that would have crushed her.
Grabbing the chain, the boss pulled hard as the veins on his arms bulged with power.
*BANG!
The boss had pulled a huge metal ball with chains on the surface out from the ground which had left a huge cavity in the area.
Looking at the boss who wielded a greatsword in one hand and a spike ball connected to a chain on the other, Shiro grew worried about the party and the boss they were facing.
*BANG!
Stomping down hard, the boss swung the spike ball towards Shiro.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Shiro dodged the ball with ease while giving Yin a side nce.
Understanding what Shiro wanted, Yin flew upwards and activated Ice Chains.
*KRRR! BANG!
Before the chains could even wrap around the boss, he had swung his greatsword which shattered the chains with ease.
Ice Chains!
Before the boss could recover from his swing, Shiro activated her own Ice Chains and locked him down.
Her main goal right now was to dy the boss, not kill it. She needed to buy some time for the party to finish their boss then they could kill this boss together.
Meanwhile, Madison was struggling a little to tank the boss since his strength was much higher than her¡¯s.
"KU!!!" Madison gritted her teeth as she blocked one of the swings with her shield.
Even with Demon Manifestation summoning the power of a defence type demon knight into her body, she was barely able to handle the boss.
However, she was doing considerably better than Jonas. Each swing of the boss would send him flying backwards from the sheer amount of force and weight behind each swing.
A green glow enveloped her body as her HP was refilled once more by Silvia.
"Thanks!" Madison called out as she swung her sword.
Activating one of her skills, Madison managed to trigger two status effects on the boss. These being bleed and poison.
Unfortunately, the duration of these effects was small as the boss was higher level than her.
What would havested around 10 to 20 seconds onlysted 3 seconds with the boss.
While Madison and Jonas was tanking the boss, Lyrica was currently increasing her contribution at a steady pace since her damage per second was outrageous even against a boss higher level that her.
Countless slice marks could be seen all over the boss¡¯s body as Lyrica would nimbly traverse the boss¡¯s body whilst slicing with her sword that she picked from the pile of loot Shiro had shown to the party.
Heated Edge + Sword Dance of the Willow Tree.
Combining her two skills together, Lyrica twirled her de nimbly and attacked without mercy. Her skills left a trail of scorched flesh along the boss¡¯s body.
However, the boss suddenly grinned and sent chills down the spine of the entire party.
*URAHH!!!!
Roaring out with as much force as it could muster, a red magic circle expanded in the sky.
Shiro, who was currently upied with her boss, looked over and widened her eyes.
"Sh*t!" Shiro cursed out loud.
The skill the boss was trying to use right now was a party wipe skill.
Blood Tribtion.
The skill would cause blood to rain down from the sky. Each droplet that touched you will steal away a portion of your HP.
Making two neon white orbs, Shiro twisted her body and threw the two orbs towards the magic circle.
*BOOM!!!!
The orbs exploded out into giant ice pirs that covered the entire area.
The party was surprised at the sudden ice dome that surrounded them but paled when they saw the blood rain start corroding the ice.
Shiro frowned as she dodged a sh from her boss.
¡¯I need something sturdy to lock down the boss and support the party. They need my help to take down the boss.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Looking at the boss, and idea appeared in her mind as she started to grin.
Jumping back to make some space between her and the boss, Shiro narrowed her eyes and aimed both palms towards the boss. Magic circles appeared in front of her palms while bigger versions of the magic circle appeared to the left and the right of the boss.
"Freeze!" Shiromanded in order to increase the effectiveness of the spell. The word itself acted like a key to fully activate the spell.
The moment she had called out the key word, the mana surrounding the magic circle became berserk while the magic circles themselves radiated with a more threatening aura.
Sensing the danger, the boss swung his greatsword at the magic circle in an attempt to break it before it could even activate.
However, the moment the greatsword came into contact with the magic circles, a cold burst of wind exploded out of the magic circles.
*KRRR!!!!
Wherever the wind touched, it would freeze over almost instantly. Not even a momentter, the boss was entirely frozen.
The ice was around a meter thick just to make sure the boss would have a harder time escaping.
But she wasn¡¯t done yet.
Shifting her hands around, Shiro controlled the magic circles to move above and below the boss.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro tried to sp her hands together but felt an invisible force trying to stop this.
Realising that it was the boss trying to resist, Shiro exerted more force into her arms. Unfortunately, when her hands were around 10cm¡¯s apart from each other, Shiro was no longer able to close the distance further.
This was due to the fact that her mana links were starting to hurt, reminding her that she shouldn¡¯t push it too far.
Releasing her hold on the spell, she saw the boss frozen solid. But due to the fact that she wasn¡¯t able toplete the spell, the boss wasn¡¯t dead yet.
Shaking her head, Shiro nced at her MP and widened her eyes in shock.
[MP: 74,040/215,250]
The spell she had used just now took roughly more than 50k to activate.
Pulling out an MP potion, Shiro sighed and took a quick drink.
Turning away from the boss, Shiro dashed towards the party as they needed to kill one boss first. With her boss frozen, she estimated that it should give them roughly 5 or so minutes.
"Mn?" Her attention was shifted when she saw her system give her a notification.
[Self-Made skill recognised. Awarding 100 free stat points. Title awarded.]
[Please name your skill]
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro didn¡¯t realise that she had just created a skill.
When she had cast her spell, she had imagined the particles stopping to increase her freezing power. That was what the second part of the spell aimed to do. By pushing her hands closer to each other, the less the particles would move. When shepletely closes her hands together, it would erase the enemies HPpletely.
¡¯Hmm... I should give it a good name.¡¯ Shiro thought while dashing towards the party.
*BOOM!!!!
Her attention was shifted away when she heard her previous ice shield crumble away.
"Tsk, system, you can make one for me. I got more important things to do." Shiro said as she crouched down.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
*BANG!
The ground cracked slightly from how much power Shiro had put into her dash.
[Skill Name Generated.]
[Frozen Hell ¨C Frozen Slumber]
[Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete)]
With abination of magic maniption and clear visualisation of the oue, you have created the start of the Frozen Hell Series of Magic Spells. The more spells you create, the more effective this title bes.
Current Benefits: 5% Mana Leech when using Frozen Hell Series of spells.
Giving the notification a slight nce, Shiro was rather surprised that the title gave her the Mana Leech benefit. Mana Leech allowed her to steal a portion of mana from her enemies.
¡¯I should probably make more spells into this Frozen Hell series or whatever. It¡¯s kinda like the Yin Style Phantom Arts in one way I suppose.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself as she saw the party take shelter under one of Madison¡¯s skills that blocked the blood rain.
As for Shiro, she had her Mana Barrier skill so the blood rain didn¡¯t affect her.
The party was surprised when they saw Shiro approach however, she only gave them a slight nod to show that she was going to help.
Without even waiting for their response, Shiro slid on her feet and created a giant ice pir.
*BANG!
The pir crashed against the boss and sent him falling backwards.
Flicking her wrist upwards, four ice pirs stabbed towards the sky and shattered the magic circle.
Turning to the party, Shiro typed out some instructions quickly.
[Kill this boss. Then kill mine.]
The instructions were simple as the party nodded.
Seeing that they knew what to do, Shiro refocused on the boss and dashed towards him with Lyrica following behind her.
Chapter 97 Blood Crystal Armour Set
Chapter 97 Blood Crystal Armour Set
Killing the boss wasn¡¯t too difficult since they basically had three tanks rotating the aggro between them. Shiro, Madison and Jonas.
Whenever the boss swung its sword, Shiro would create an ice ramp that would redirect the swing, reducing the burden on the party by arge margin.
Whittling the health of the boss down, Shiro would asionally nce back towards her boss and see her spell slowly fading.
¡¯We don¡¯t have much time left.¡¯ She thought to herself and increased her damage per second.
Once the boss had reached 1HP, Shiro gestured for everyone to stand back.
Understanding that Shiro had one of the biggest damage outputs in the party, they left the killing blow for her.
Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber.
Six magic circles erupted out around the boss, surprising Shiro.
¡¯Wait wasn¡¯t there supposed to only be two magic circles?¡¯ Shiro thought in surprise.
*CLANG!
Ice Chains erupted out of the magic circles and wrapped around the boss.
Continuing the spell, Shiro slowly closed the distance between her hands. She only smiled when she felt less resistance from the boss since the defences were reduced.
"Freeze!" Shiro shouted the keyword as she mmed her hands together.
*BANG!!!!
The moment she had closed her hands together, the boss was frozen over entirely and shattered intorge chunks of ice.
Analysing the battle quickly, Shiro realised that after the spell had be a skill, it had not only increased in power but also reduced the MP cost.
"We¡¯ll collect the loot in a second, let¡¯s kill the other boss first." Jonas suggested.
Shiro nodded in agreement as the party made their way towards the second boss.
When they arrived, they were rather surprised to see the boss in a half-frozen state. The moment he saw Shiro, he red at her with bloodshot eyes.
[Same strategy asst time only this time, I think I¡¯ll be the only tanker.] Shiro typed out seeing her aggro with the boss shoot through the roof.
The party nodded as it was easy to see the boss being fixated on killing Shiro.
###
The fight wasn¡¯t too difficult since the party had already experienced in killing the first boss. With Shiro being the main tank, Madison used the Attack Type Demon Knight to increase her damage output.
This shocked the party since Madison was abination of both attack and defence. Her attacking power was just as strong as her defensive power, leaving Jonas speechless since he was the same except that his output for both attack and defence was lower than focused sses.
However, from what he could see, Madison¡¯s damage output and defence was definitelyparable to the attack and defence of focused sses. Hell, he even suspected it to be a little higher.
¡¯Why are these three so abnormal???¡¯ Jonas thought to himself. Lyrica was the extreme of attacking power and had little to no defensive options at all. Shiro was a mage that was able to switch between being a powerful attacker and powerful defender. Naturally, her attacks were many times more powerful than her defensive capabilities.
Meanwhile, Madison had the best defence of the group but her attack fell short of reaching Shiro¡¯s and Lyrica¡¯s level of attack.
¡¯If Silvia joined their party, would she be able to discover more of her potential?¡¯ Jonas smiled at the thought.
But no matter what he thought, nothing would happen if they didn¡¯t leave this dungeon.
[We¡¯ll loot up as best as we can. Madison, the bosses dropped a decent set of sword and shield that synergise with each other and increases their stats when paired together.]
Handing her the sword and shield, Madison was surprised at their stats. They were much more powerful than her current gear and would definitely help increase her contributions.
"Why are they so powerful?" Madison asked.
[Mutated dungeon plus the fact that the monsters are level 50. Thankfully, the sword and shield only has the requirement of stats rather than level. Otherwise, you wouldn¡¯t be able to equip them.] Shiro replied.
Most of the gear that she found in this dungeon didn¡¯t have a level requirement and only had a stat requirement.
She guessed that it was due to the fact that this was a mutated dungeon that was originally level 40. The gear was supposed to help the adventurers improve while they were inside the dungeon.
[Lyrica, here are some armour pieces that will increase your attack and speed more than the set armour you have on. While they don¡¯t provide bonuses like your set armour does, their base valuesbined together is more than what your armour gives you.] Shiro typed out while handing her some armour pieces.
These armour pieces gave almost no defence but outrageous attack and speed. The two stats that Lyrica needed the most.
"Thanks." She smiled and equipped the armour.
Shiro didn¡¯t give her the dual ended des since they weren¡¯t upgraded yet. Plus, there were stronger equipment within the pile of loot that she could use instead.
[Silvia, Erica, we¡¯ll share the INT based armour between us while the three of you can pick whichever armour you want.]
Shiro said as she pulled out a bunch of armour and weapons she had been collecting over the past five days.
They were surprised at how much loot there was. Looking at her, they realised that she must have had enough time to loot the bodies while also being able to escape with her life.
This only made them excited as it meant that their chances of survival had increased.
[Loot it quickly, we¡¯ll enter the castle once we¡¯re prepared.] Shiro said as she too started to look through the pile of loot.
With this mutated dungeon, they could effectively equip level 50 equipment while not even being level 50 since the equipment only asked for stat requirements.
¡¯If the mutations weren¡¯t randomised, I might want to stay in more of these dungeons. Shiro thought to herself as she enjoyed the feeling of being able to level up quickly along with sorting through loot.
After looking through the pile of loot, Shiro was surprised to see pieces of set equipment that onlycked a few pieces to be whole.
[Blood Crystal Armour Set (3/6) ¨C Purple]
A naturally dropped equipment set different from a cksmith crafted set since they are more potent in some regard.
Plus, a purple level 50 set wasn¡¯t something cksmiths could create at their level. And when they could, they would have better things to make rather than a low level purple set.
[Blood Crystal Helmet (1/6) ¨C Purple]
+150 INT
+10% Mana Efficiency
+5% Magic Attack
[Blood Crystal Boots (1/6) ¨C Purple]
For more, visit novelpub[.
+100 AGI
-50 DEF
[Blood Crystal Arm Guards (1/6) ¨C Purple]
+100 DEX
+100 STR
+5% Casting Efficiency
[Blood Crystal Set Effect (3/6)]
+100 INT and AGI
+10% suppression against Blood Type Enemies
+10% Damage Against Blood Type Enemies.
While the armour themselves were a little weaker whenpared to normal purple armour pieces, the set would only show its true value when it reached 6/6 pieces collected.
[Does anyone have any pieces of the Blood Crystal Set?] Shiro asked.
"I have two pieces on me." Erica spoke up as she gave Shiro the two pieces. As much as she wanted to keep a purple set equipment, she knew Shiro would be able to make use of it better than her. Rather than momentary loot, she much preferred keeping her life.
"I have a piece on me." Silvia spoke up as well.
[Thank you.] Shiro smiled seeing how they gave her the pieces of a set equipment so easily.
Not many could be like them as they would be driven by greed and didn¡¯t want to expose the fact that they had the loot.
"No it should be us thanking you. If not for your help, we would have lost our lives long ago." Erica said as she didn¡¯t think she¡¯d continue dungeoning after they survived this dungeon. The fear of a dungeon mutating at any given moment left a deep mark on her mentality as she didn¡¯t think she¡¯d be able to enter a dungeon again after this experience.
Shiro could tell what Erica was thinking and only sighed. The mutated dungeons were double edged des that had bigger dangers than rewards.
Erica¡¯s reaction was quite normal for someone who was suddenly thrown in a mutated dungeon more than 10 levels ahead of them.
Not to mention the killing intent they felt at the start of the dungeon. That would definitely leave a mark in her mind.
Shifting her focus, Shiro inspected the remaining three pieces of the Blood Crystal Set.
[Blood Crystal Armour (1/6) ¨C Purple]
+50 DEF
+100 INT
[Blood Crystal Leggings (1/6) ¨C Purple]
+150 AGI
[Blood Crystal Shoulder Guards (1/6) ¨C Purple]
+100 DEF
+100 INT
With all six pieces gathered, Shiro checked out the six-piece set effect.
[Blood Crystal Set Effect (6/6) ¨C Purple] (Set effects don¡¯t stack)
+200 INT, AGI, VIT
+50 Mana Leach
+50 Life Steal
+15% suppression against Blood Type Enemies
+15% Damage Against Blood Type Enemies.
For more, visit novelpub[.
Looking at the effects, just the +50 Mana Leach and Life Steal was enough to make Shiro equip the set.
Immediately equipping the set, Shiro felt her strength increase.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Intermediate Monster (0/50 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete)
Level: 39
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 147,000/147,000
MP: 269,010/269,010
STR: 720 (+100)
VIT: 920 (+200)
INT: 1400 -> 1500 (+550)
AGI: 920 (+450)
DEX: 750 (+100)
DEF: 320 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 100 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 1
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0
Bnce: 32,570,000 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity
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Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation
Frozen Hell Series:
Frozen Slumber
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1)]
Adding the 100 free stat points she received, her MP increased by arge chunk in a short moment.
¡¯With my MP reaching 250k+, I¡¯ll be able to use Frozen Slumber twice and still be able to use Hand Cannon creation for damage per second.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
As for weapons, she was fine without them for the moment.
Once everyone had equipped themselves with stronger gear, Shiro stored the rest of the loot in her inventory ready to be either recycled or given to Helion so he could deconstruct them and get some rare materials out of them.
"Shall we reveal our armours?" Lyrica said as to dispel the tense atmosphere a little.
[Sure, you first?] Shiro replied with a smile.
Lyrica nodded as a set of armour appeared on her body.
The armour would have been considered as ¡¯skimpy¡¯ if not for the fact that she was wearing her outfit. In addition to this, it looked quiteedic beingid on top of her clothes. Especially the fact that her armour included a pair of armoured panties that were connected to her leg armour.
Blushing heavily, Lyrica immediately hid her armour once more.
"PFT!" Shiro couldn¡¯t hold back herugh as the sight of Lyrica¡¯s skirt being crumbled by a pair of armoured panties were hrious in Shiro¡¯s eyes.
"Of all the ces it could have gone... Why is it over my skirt!!!!" Lyrica shouted out. The armoured panties could have gone under her skirt and she would have been fine. But no, it had to go on top of her skirt.
"Madi! You show your armour too!" Lyrica shouted pointing at Madison.
"Hahaha, alright. Give me a moment." Madison replied wanting to dispel her friend¡¯s embarrassment.
However, when the armour appeared on her, it made her look cool whenpared to Lyrica who wasedic.
"... Not fair..." Lyrica said, wanting to cry at the unfairness of the system.
"Shiro what about you!" Lyrica said turning her gaze over to Shiro.
Shiro only shrugged and decided to join in the fun.
However, when she revealed her amour, the party couldn¡¯t help but mutter "Wow...".
The ck, red and silver armour paired up well with her outfit. The chest armour went over her ck shirt but was under her white robes. The boots and leg armour, whenbined with her stockings, highlighted her delicate thighs that could be seen between the gap of the leg armour and her short jeans.
As for the arm guards and shoulder guards, they appeared over her robes, making it look like abat robe.
"Gah! Why is the system so unfair with me?" Lyrica muttered as she kneeled on the floor.
Shiro only chuckled as she looked down on her armour. She quite liked the look of it but still decided to hide the armour. She was fine with her current outfit, though she would prefer if she had Aarim¡¯s help to re-dye the outfit so that blood wouldn¡¯t be easily seen. Not to mention, redesigning the robe a little since she had a few more ideas for the outfit.
[Alright, joking aside, let¡¯s enter the castle.] Shiro typed out as Lyrica stood up with seriousness.
Jonas¡¯ party was shocked at how fast she had switched her attitude. It was like the past 5 minutes never happened at all.
Nodding at Lyrica¡¯s seriousness, Shiro entered the castle with the party following behind her.
Chapter 98 Blood Monarch
Chapter 98 Blood Monarch
The castle was eerily quiet as Shiro kept her guard up. The main thing that they had to look out for was the mini-boss ambushing them. Especially since there were countless hiding spots from what Shiro could see.
"Why are there no monsters at all." Jonas asked with a frown.
[No idea. Maybe they¡¯re waiting in ambush near the final room.] Shiro guessed.
The worst part about a dungeon with a leader is that they¡¯re able to organise their troops. Having already experienced this with the bear leader from the first dungeon she woke up in, Shiro understood just how annoying this was. She had it easy since the bear wasn¡¯t the only monster on the floor of the dungeon so it sent out its underlings to conquer the floor first.
However, whoever was the final boss already ruled this dungeon. They had no other monsters topete with.
Their footsteps echoed through the empty hallways as Shiro nced at the surrounding objects. The objects in the hallway consisted of paintings, armours and some minor decorations.
At first, Shiro thought the armour was the enemy but when she had knocked one of them, she realised that they were purely decoration.
After walking for a little longer, Shiro felt something nag at her senses but she didn¡¯t know what it was. ncing to her right, she widened her eyes when she saw that it was the same room they were just in.
*BANG!!!
mming her palms into the ground, which shocked the entire party, Shiro encased the enter area in ice.
*PING!
A ss-shattering sound could be heard as the party paled when they saw four blood assassins being frozen over along with 2 Blood Illusionists.
"Sh*t! We were in an illusion! Kill them!" Jonas shouted out as he swung his axe towards the assassins.
The rest of the party nodded as they were a little fearful. If Shiro hadn¡¯t frozen the illusionists and dispelled the illusion, they might have died under the attacks of the assassins.
While the party fought the assassins, Shiro took care of the illusionists. Flicking her wrist, two ice daggers shot towards the illusionist.
*DONG! DONG!
The daggers hit a translucent barrier and caused the surface to ripple slightly.
"Tsk." Clicking her tongue, Shiro dashed towards the illusionists. Narrowing her eyes, Shiro sent out her killing intent, causing the illusionists to freeze up. The sudden disruption in concentration weakened the barrier as the ice could be seen encroaching on the barrier.
Once she got close enough, Shiro twisted her body and kicked towards the barrier that was encased by her ice.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
*BANG!
Shattering the barrier with one kick, Shiro was surprised herself.
¡¯Wow the 15% damage and 15% suppression really does make a huge difference.¡¯ Shiro thought.
The illusionist mmed into the barrier of the other illusionist and was stunned for a short moment.
Grabbing the head of the illusionist, Shiro made an ice spike on her knee before mming her knee into the monster¡¯s head.
*CRACK!
Breaking the skull of the illusionist, Shiro killed him with ease.
Shifting her attention to the second monster, Shiro flicked her wrist as a huge ice bear trap mmed shut on the illusionist.
*BANG!
With both of the illusionists taken care of, Shiro returned her attention to the party. There were a few injuries amongst the members but nothing serious. Sighing in relief, Shiro helped kill the remaining two assassins.
[Keep your guard up. We don¡¯t know if we¡¯ll enter an illusion again.] She typed out after killing the final assassin.
Thankfully, they had a much easier timepared to before since the armour they wore had small amounts of suppression against blood enemies. While the suppression wasn¡¯t a lot, it still helped to have that extra bit of damage.
"Yeah... I can¡¯t believe we didn¡¯t realise that we were in an illusion this entire time." Jonas said wiping away some sweat.
[We weren¡¯t in the illusion for long. Otherwise, they would have made a move a long time ago.] Shiro shook her head.
She was about to type again of her phone when she felt a sudden burst of killing intent and dropped her phone.
Quickly flicking her arms towards the back of her neck, Shiro made an ice shield that collided with a dagger.
*PING!
Since the shield was hastily created, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to block the dagger and felt it cut into her back.
"Shiro!!" Lyrica called out in shocked and swung her weapon towards the assassin that attacked Shiro.
[Blood Assassin Captain ¨C LVL 50 BOSS]
HP: 200,000/200,000
MP: 290,000/300,000
*DANG!
The de was easily parried by the assassin as he swung the second dagger towards Shiro.
Shiro gritted her teeth and slipped into the rift.
"Ssss!!!" Taking a sharp breath, Shiro frowned seeing her HP drop due to poison.
She exited the rift roughly next to Silvia. Without even saying a word, Silvia healed her up and dispelled the poison.
Shiro nodded as she looked towards the boss. Currently, Madison had the aggro of the boss secured while the rest of the party tried to limit the boss¡¯s movements.
Dashing forward, Shiro joined in the fight as she had a bone to pick with the assassin.
Flicking her wrist, the Blood Beast Long Sword appeared in her hands. With just the requirement of 1,000 points in STR, Shiro was able to equip it without any problems.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + 3rd Phantom + Blood Transfusion!
Shiro¡¯s body flickered forwards as she stabbed towards the assassin. Twisting his body, the assassin narrowly dodged the de but wasn¡¯t able to avoid the edge from cutting a little bit of his skin.
However, that was enough.
The sword lit up with bright red runes as Shiro twisted her body and shed the sword upwards.
*PSHHH!!!!
Cutting the shoulder joint of the boss, Shiro separated the boss¡¯s right arm from his body.
Her eyes shed with a cruel light as she jammed her arm through the wound and broke the ribs. Grabbing the heart, Shiro crushed it in her hands before freezing the boss from the inside out.
Ripping her arm out of the torso, Shiro watched the assassin copse weakly.
"Pui!" Shiro spat on his corpse disdainfully before dusting her hands of the chunks of frozen heart.
"..."
The party looked at her nkly as they didn¡¯t know how to react. Just now, they were fighting a hard battle against the boss until Shiro came over, cut the boss¡¯s arm off, plunged her hand into his torso and crushed the heart.
She made the boss look weak while in reality, it was hard to do what Shiro had done. Not only did they need sufficient power to cut the arm off, but they also need to be able to take advantage of the short gap in defence to crush the heart. And while they did all of this, they needed to make sure that they were fast in their movements or else the boss would be able to get away.
Picking up her phone, Shiro turned to the party.
[Alright, let¡¯s make our way to the final boss. These types of dungeons normally contain two or three mini bosses and one final boss.]
"Yeah. So either we have one more boss to go or we¡¯re onto the final boss." Jonas said with relief. With this, they¡¯ll finally be able to escape this god forsaken dungeon.
Silvia healed up the partypletely before they started to make their way to the final room once more.
This time, they were able to get to the room without any illusions or mini bosses.
Opening the door slightly, Shiro peeked into the boss room and saw the boss on the throne.
[Blood Monarch ¨C LVL 50 BOSS]
HP: 500,000/500,000
MP: 1,000,000/1,000,000
*BANG!
The boss flicked his fingers as the doors flung open, exposing the party.
"Why are you with the humans?" The boss suddenly said causing Shiro to widen her eyes.
ncing over at the party, she sighed in relief seeing that they hadn¡¯t reacted to the sentence.
[Did you guys hear something?] Shiro asked.
"Hm? Hear what?" Lyrica was confused as all they heard was the boss grunt.
[No I thought I misheard something then. Same as always, me and Madison will tank, you guys support.] Shiro typed out as she dashed towards the boss without waiting for the party.
Brandishing her sword, she shed towards the boss.
*CLANG!
"Traitor! Why are you standing with the humans!" The Blood Monarch said with a low growl to his voice.
"None of your business." Shiro replied as she twisted her body and kicked the boss in the chest.
"Hmph, you dare enter my domain and stand with humans. DIE!"
A portion of the boss¡¯s body exploded into blood mist, causing Shiro¡¯s foot to phase through his body.
Faded Snow Movement.
Shiro used her own skill as the boss¡¯s w phased through her body.
Rolling across the ground, Shiro mmed her hands to the ground.
*KRRR!!!
Ice chains shot out of the ground and tried to wrap around the boss.
However, before the boss could try to dispel the chains, Madison mmed her shield into the back of the boss.
"Gah!" Stumbling forwards, the boss was wrapped up with ice chains.
Backstab!
Tempest Cross!
Piercing Thorns!
Tier 2 Magic: Hell Fire!
Different skills smashed against the boss¡¯s back, causing him to grit his teeth. Turning around, he red at his attackers with blood shot eyes.
Bloo-
Before he could activate his skills, Shiro kicked the back of his knees before shing his back with her sword.
"Grrr... Snow Girl!" He growled.
"Save it monarch." Shiro retorted and mmed the pommel of her sword into his jaw.
Understanding that his situation was dire, the boss bit his tongue and spat out a droplet of blood. The moment the blood touched the floor, it expanded into an eerie magic circle made from blood.
Blood Dragon Manifestation!
*BOOM!!!!!
A shockwave exploded out from the boss, sending the party crashing backwards. Flipping her body in mid air, Shiro slid on her foot before looking at the boss with a frown.
The boss had transformed into a massive dragon that stood around 5 to 10 meters tall. Blood red scales and spikes could be seen all over the dragon as there were hints of ck near the edge of the scales.
Paired with the killing intent that was rolling off the boss in waves, it made him look malevolent.
shing killing intents with the boss, Shiro lightened up the burden on the party before stomping down heavily.
*KRRR!!!
The ground started to freeze as she froze the ground under the dragon.
*BANG!
An ice pir shot upwards but it wasn¡¯t enough to move the dragon.
"Futile Snow Girl!" Smirking with disdain, the dragon noticed that she was currently shielding her allies.
Grinning slightly, mana gathered near the dragon¡¯s mouth.
"You¡¯ve got to be kidding me." Shiro muttered and quickly turned her heels and dashed towards the party that was slightly affected by the bloodl.u.s.t.
Quickly grabbing Lyrica and Madison by the cor with her right hand, Shiro turned to Jonas¡¯ party.
Lyrica understood the situation since she could feel the mana get sucked towards the dragon.
"Grab onto Shiro!" Lyrica shouted out.
Hearing her shout, Jonas could feel her panic.
He grabbed Trace, Paul and Silvia before dashing towards Shiro.
Once she felt the partye into contact with her, Shiro entered the rift.
*BOOM!!!!!!
"GAH!" Trace screamed out in pain as they were just a little slow resulting in his left leg from the calf down beingpletely erased.
"Trace!" Silvia cried out in shock and quickly healed him up. The healing was a little slow as Trace was affected by blood poison status.
[We don¡¯t have a lot of time in the rift. Best thing we should do right now is to move away from here first.] Shiro typed out as they started to move away from their spot.
Since her Rift Walker skill only had a limit of 10 meters, they weren¡¯t able to move too far away.
"THERE YOU ARE!" The boss shouted out as he swiped his ws towards the party.
Shiro made a neon white orb in her hands and threw it at the w.
*BOOM!!!
Exploding out with a mini blizzard, the w was partially frozen over. Unfortunately, that wasn¡¯t enough to shift the w away from them.
Seeing that Shiro¡¯s move failed, Lyrica and Madison charged towards the w. Madison raised her shield while Lyrica shed towards the w.
*BANG!
"GAH!" Both Lyrica and Madison was sent flying backwards from the force of the collision. However, their goal was achieved since the w missed the party.
Looking at the situation, Shiro knew that things weren¡¯t looking good.
Trace was injured with Silvia trying her best to help him regenerate his leg. Meanwhile, the rest of the party didn¡¯t have the required strength to counter the boss¡¯s attacks.
The worst part about this was that the boss was intelligent so it knew to target the weaker party members.
However, Shiro was relieved that the boss was ying with his food. This meant that there would be a gap where she¡¯d be able to take advantage of this weakness.
ncing over at Lyrica and Madison, Shiro was relieved to see that they only had some HP taken off them. Thankfully, there weren¡¯t any major damages.
Frowning slightly at the fact that a few humans had caused his attack to miss, the boss narrowed his eyes.
*URAHH!!!!
A blood red magic circle expanded out from under him.
Blood domain!
Before the domain could activate, Shiro was already working on countering the spell.
Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber!
*KRR!!!
Six magic circles appeared around the boss as chains shot out of the magic circles wrapped around the boss.
*PANG!!!
The domain was shattered before it could even activate which caused the boss to growl angrily.
However, before he could even speak, Shiro started to press her hands closer to one another.
"Freeze." She muttered coldly to increase the effectiveness of her spell.
She had to try to buy some time for Silvia to heal Trace so that he wasn¡¯t a hindrance to her.
Chapter 99 Harbingers Song
Chapter 99 Harbinger''s Song
Her skill, Frozen Slumber, was able to hold the boss back slightly, but she was struggling. Sweat could be seen dripping off her head while she would asionally nce back to check the progress.
"Silvia, hurry up!" Jonas shouted whilst attacking the boss.
"I¡¯m trying!!" Silvia replied feeling the pressure build up.
"ANNOYING!" The boss roared out, annoyed at the fact that a weak Snow Girl was currently suppressing him with her skill.
Blood Arts: Blood Armoury!
Weapons made from blood appeared around him as he narrowed his eyes at Shiro. Since he couldn¡¯t move, he would use long-ranged projectile magic instead.
"DIE!"
Sending the weapons towards Shiro, he wanted to get rid of her first since she was the only one capable of pinning him down. The moment she died; the rest of the party would naturally follow.
Not releasing her hold on the boss, Shiro stomped down as a rotating ice shield was quickly erected in front of her.
*DANG DANG DANG DANG!
Due to the shape and the speed of the shield, the blood weapons were deflected away from Shiro.
¡¯Tsk...¡¯ Shiro thought as she nced back once more. Silvia still hadn¡¯t finished regenerating Trace¡¯s leg just yet.
With her MP being consumed at a disgusting rate, she had to stop her spell soon. Plus, to make matters worse, her links were starting to hurt a lot more.
"Little Yin, help reinforce the chains I have on his body." Shiro said as Yin nodded.
Ice Chains x2.
The boss only scoffed as he sent a shockwave out from his body, shattering the ice chains. Fortunately, the boss still wasn¡¯t able to break out of Frozen Slumber.
"I don¡¯t know how you acquired such a strong skill but know this. I know that you can¡¯t keep this up! A skill like this would take a lot of mana and the moment this skill stops, YOU. WILL. DIE!!" The boss shouted out in an attempt to try to make Shiro conserve her MP.
"Yeah yeah I got it. Now be a good puppy and sit still for this miss ok? My friend needs a little second wind." Shiro retorted.
*PUCHI!
The dragon felt a vein burst as his vision became red.
"WHO THE F*CK ARE YOU CALLING A PUPPY!!!!" He roared out and stretched his body as much as he could.
Shiro gritted her teeth and exerted more force into trying to push her hands together. However, her hands were slowly forced apart from the dragon rampaging inside the spell.
"It¡¯s done!" Silvia shouted out, clearly tired from healing Trace.
"Run!" Jonas shouted out since he could tell that Shiro couldn¡¯t hold the boss back any longer.
Trace quickly nodded and grabbed Silvia by the waist and dashed away from the scene.
*PING!
The spell shattered apart as the boss wed his way to Shiro.
Shiro threw an MP potion into her mouth and dashed towards the boss.
Once she was close enough, she sent out her killing intent and froze the surroundings. The boss, who was hit with the full brunt of her killing intent, halted mid-step before an ice pir mmed into his chest.
"GARRR!!!!" The boss screamed with anger as he powered through the ice pir and broke it apart with brute force.
Shiro jumped up and twisted her body in mid-air. An ice hammer appeared in her hands as she narrowed her eyes at the dragon¡¯s head.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
*BANG!!!
The hammer shattered apart the moment it hit its head due to how much force Shiro had exerted into the hammer. The hit had also sent the boss stumbling back slightly due to the fact that she had hit him on the side of the head, where it was easiest to disorientate him.
Landing softly, Shiro regrouped with the party.
"Since Shiro can¡¯t talk, I¡¯ll quickly exin some strategies that may help us in beating this boss." Jonas said while they were running around the boss room.
"Main problem, the boss¡¯s dragon form. We can assume that this isn¡¯t permanent and that it stops him from using most of his skills. I¡¯m only guessing this so don¡¯t take it for granted. If it¡¯s on a timer, the best thing we can do is to try to dy him a little. Shiro is the main tank since she¡¯s the only one who can actively stand against the boss without being blown away. The rest of us will use long-ranged attacks to damage the boss in the meantime." Jonas said quickly.
Shiro nodded and split away from the group.
Dashing towards the dragon, Shiro made an ice javelin before throwing it urately at the eyes of the dragon.
*Ping!
However, the dragon only batted an eyelid to deflect the javelin. Mana Gathered in his mouth as he prepared to use his breath attack once more.
Shiro only flicked her finger at the boss.
*BOOM!!!!!
A pir of ice shot up and mmed into the lower jaw of the boss, mming his mouth shut and cancelled out the breath attack.
This continued for a few moments as they never intended to go full power at this stage. They just wanted to buy time for the transformation to wear off.
"Perish under the blood moon! Blood Sacrifice!" The dragon shouted out as a red orb was formed above him.
Shiro only frowned before aiming her palm at the orb and clenched her fingers.
12 ice spears appeared and stabbed the orb in an attempt to freeze it.
*BOOM!!!
However, the orb only expanded itself and consumed the spears.
"Hahaha!! It¡¯s usel-!!!"
Shiro mmed the boss with a healthy dose of her killing intent to shut him up.
"Yeah I got it. It¡¯s useless ." Shiro rolled her eyes before snapping her fingers. This time, magic circles appeared around the orb as chains with anchors attached to the end of them could be seen mming into the orb.
*BANG!
The anchors had frozen a portion of the orb before shattering it, causing the orb to destabilise before destroying itself.
"I¡¯LL ERASE YOU!"
Throughout this entire fight, Shiro had constantly blocked his attempts of killing the party. Not only that, everything she said would strike a nerve which only increased his desire to end the little Snow Girl.
His Blood Dragon form was supposed to be a form that tanked a lot of the damage rather than fighting at his full power. Most of his blood arts were sealed, leaving him only with his brute strength and the very few skills that weren¡¯t sealed.
Normally, this would be more than enough to eliminate a party of level 30¡¯s that were even level 40 in strength.
But the anomaly known as Shiro flipped this logic over. Even though she was only level 39, she was able to stand almost toe to toe with him, not giving him a chance at demonstrating his power.
As she said, he was like a puppy in front of her. Only a huge scaly one that used blood magic and could shoot a beam of death out of his mouth.
However, what he didn¡¯t know, was that Shiro was putting up a tough front. Her body was hurting so much that she just wanted toy down and rest her body.
Her face was much paler than usual as her clothes were drenched with sweat. Thankfully, due to the fact that the majority of the room was encased in ice, her ice field affinity was activated allowing her some respite to soothe her mana links.
While it didn¡¯t do much, it was still appreciated.
A few short moments passed as the party paused when they felt the surrounding mana shift. The dragon started to shrink, causing the party to look at each other for a short moment.
"BOMB HIM!" Jonas shouted out and swung his axe.
*DANG!
However, all their attacks only hit a translucent barrier powered by more than 500k worth of mana.
Looking up with bloodshot eyes, Shiro felt a sense of danger wash over her.
"Little Yin! Get Lyrica and Madison into the rift!" Shiro shouted out.
"NOT ON MY WATCH!" The boss shouted out since he was thoroughly pissed off by Shiro.
Clutching his hands, semi-translucent seals could be seen, wrapping around the entire room.
Spatial Seal.
"With this, you can¡¯t enter your rift again." The boss said whilst narrowing his eyes at her.
Twisting his body, the boss kicked Paul, who had tried to sneak attack him, in the chest and caused his ribs to cave inwards.
The party recoiled in shock as they never realised how much power was behind his attacks. And yet, Shiro was able to keep him at bay during his dragon form.
"Shit! SILVIA!" Trace shouted out in panic seeing his friend get his chest caved in by a single kick.
However, Silvia only paled since they could see Paul¡¯s HP empty out signifying his death.
"BASTARD!" Trace charged towards the boss.
The boss had expected him to charge towards him so he made a knife hand and cut towards Trace. Unexpectedly, Jonas had grabbed trace by the cor and threw him away from the boss.
*PUCHI!!!
With a single swipe of the boss¡¯s hand, Jonas¡¯s arm was cut off with ease, exposing his bones and muscles to the n.a.k.e.d eye.
Silvia paled and tried to heal Jonas.
*BANG!!
"Gah!"
Madison had jumped in front of Silvia and raised her shield to try block the strike. Even with the power of a defence demon knight, her body was sent backwards. But thankfully, it wasn¡¯t fatal due to her defence being much higher than Paul¡¯s, but her situation wasn¡¯t that much better.
*BOOM!
An ice trap had sprung up and tried to consume the boss but shattered upon impact.
Shiro only frowned since this meant that she needed something that can pierce his defences. Naturally, that only left her Nanomancer ss.
Looking at the members around, Shiro only sighed as lightning and metal sparked.
Yin Style Phantom Art¡¯s: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Her body flickered out of view.
Shadow Buff x2.
The boss, who had just cut off Jonas¡¯s arm and kicked Madison away, turned towards the only standing target besides Shiro. Lyrica.
His body shed towards her with his hand ready to stab her throat.
However, Shiro flickered back into view in front of the boss with a gun pointed at his head.
*BANG!!!!! PING!!!!!
With a single shot of the gun, it destroyed the barriers threshold and sent a bullet towards the boss¡¯s head.
The boss paled as he turned a portion of his body into blood mist but the danger was still there. Making a quick decision, the boss twisted his body and sacrificed his arm.
*PUCHI!
The force of the bullet tore arge chunk of the arm off, leaving it hanging by a few strands of muscle.
The boss took the chance to create some distance between them whilst trying to heal up his arm.
"Shiro!" Lyrica called out in shock. Her shock was only increased seeing the gun in her hands.
The gun was reminiscent of a revolver hybrid with a desert eagle. The barrel was abnormally long and was paired up with a revolver chamber. The colour of the gun waspletely ck with streaks of red running down the body of the gun. Lightning could still be seen flickering off the body of the gun while smoke drifted out of the tip of the gun.
The thing that confused her the most was that everyone knew bullets hardly worked on monsters. At this point, a human levelled around 30 to 40 could punch harder than a bullet. Yet, Shiro was able to break the shield and rip a chunk of the boss¡¯s arm off with a single bullet.
[Regroup and heal up. I got this.] Shiro threw the phone over at Lyrica before walking towards the boss.
Flicking her wrist, a second hand cannon could be seen appearing in her spare hand as Shiro walked towards the boss whilst dual wielding hand cannons.
[Harbinger¡¯s Song ¨C Dual Hand Cannon ¨C Purple]
+300 Attack
+200 Pierce
+100 Mana Eater
+100 Ignore Defence
+100 Range
The boss looked at her with a frown since those hand cannons sent chills down his spine. Just a single shot was able to take out his mana barrier and still have the force to rip a chunk out of his arm.
"You¡¯ve been having quite the fun time aren¡¯t you?" Shiro asked as her eyes were cold. She didn¡¯t care about what happened to either Trace, Paul, or Jonas. But she wasn¡¯t about to tolerate himying a w on Lyrica, Madison and her future member, Silvia.
"So what." The boss spat out as his arm quickly healed up.
"Let me change that real quick." Shiro whispered into his ear as she had appeared behind him with both weapons aimed up at his shoulders.
*BANG BANG!!!
"GAH!!" Both of the boss¡¯s arms could be seen flying off their sockets.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom + 4th Phantom!
Twirling the hand cannons in her hands, Shiro smashed the bottom of the hand cannons into the boss¡¯s shoulders, causing him to kneel down heavily.
The use of her martial arts hadpletely destroyed the boss¡¯s bones and ruptured some of his internal organs.
Suddenly feeling the barrele into contact with the back of his head, the boss attempted to lunge forwards and twist his body to look at Shiro.
However, the moment he turned around, Shiro¡¯s cold merciless eyes bore into his while her gun pointed at his forehead.
"Bye."
*BANG!!!!
Chapter 100 Shocking Improvements
Chapter 100 Shocking Improvements
[Dungeon Master in ¨C Blood Monarch LVL 50]
[Dungeon Master Domain Broken.]
[EXP refunded.]
"Huh?" Shiro muttered in surprise as she got a few notifications that she had never seen before. New terms such as the Dungeon Master and Dungeon Master Domain had Shiro guessing their meanings. While she could guess what they could be due to their rather obvious names, she wasn¡¯t too sure as to why the domain was ¡¯Broken¡¯ and the fact that EXP was refunded.
However, her eyes only widened in shock seeing her level sudden propel to level 43 in one shot. Meanwhile, Yin had also increased her level to level 35 in one go.
With her level being at level 35, Yin had unlocked a passive rather than an active skill.
[Shadow Affinity (Tier 1)]
Increases user¡¯s shadow attunement to match the Tier. If the attunement is higher, no changes will happen.
+5% Effectiveness, Efficiency and Duration when using Shadow Type Skills.
Currently affected skills: Shadow Buff, Shadow Cloak, Shadow Talon.
But, the question still remains.
¡¯Why did I shoot up to level 43 in one go?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. While she knew that her levelling speed had slowed down considerably after entering this dungeon, she didn¡¯t give it much thought.
[Due to the fact that the host was in the domain of a foreign monster leader, EXP experience gained had been suppressed. Now that the Dungeon Master is in, you are no longer in their territory. Therefore, you are no longer suppressed.]
Looking at the system¡¯s exnation, Shiro only tilted her head to the side.
¡¯Why didn¡¯t this happen back in the first dungeon? I thought it had mutated as well?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
[That¡¯s because the host was within your own ¡¯territory¡¯ as you were born there. However, you were invading the Blood Monarch¡¯s territory so invading monsters would be suppressed while humans aren¡¯t. The moment you killed the Dungeon Master, all the EXP you had .u.mted had been refunded.]
¡¯Why are monsters suppressed?¡¯
[If an enemy monster enters your domain, would you want them to get stronger by killing your underlings? Dungeon Master¡¯s have the option of heavily limiting an invading monster¡¯s EXP gain to avoid the monster getting strong enough to take their throne.]
¡¯Right...¡¯ Turning her attention away from the system¡¯s exnation, Shiro flicked her wrist causing the Harbinger¡¯s Songs to disassemble themselves.
Walking over to the rest of the group, Shiro could see that they had a lot of questions but their main task was to help heal Jonas, Madison and Trace. Paul was already a lost cause and everyone else only had small injuries.
Reaching her hand out to help Lyrica, Shiro pulled her on her feet.
"What was that Shiro? I thought Guns don¡¯t work on monsters." Lyrica asked.
Looking at the party, Shiro noticed that only Trace, Silvia and Lyrica had seen her use her hand cannons.
[That was a pair of hand cannons called Harbinger¡¯s Song. I found them in my inventory. I just never used them since I wasn¡¯t strong enough to equip them.] Shiro replied with half the truth.
She wasn¡¯t lying. With her level-ups, she had just barely unlocked Hand Cannon creation.
Lyrica frowned a little when she saw that Shiro wasn¡¯t lying, but also wasn¡¯t telling the full truth. While it did make her a little sad, she knew that ignorance was a bliss and the fact that a gun could work against monster¡¯s would cause the government to pursue Shiro for her secrets.
"Alright." Lyrica nodded, showing Shiro that she epted that exnation.
Shiro only sighed since she knew what Lyrica was thinking. As much as she wanted to tell her, there were more chances of slip-ups the more she knew.
Walking over to the party, Trace had a slightly nk face seeing the corpse of his dead friend. When Shiro walked over, he gritted his teeth and red at her.
"You! If you could kill the boss, why didn¡¯t you do it sooner! If you did, Paul wouldn¡¯t have needed to die!" Trace shouted out in anger.
Shiro kept her nk face as it held no pity for Trace.
Had they not shown the fact that they wanted to do something regrettable since they thought they were going to die, Shiro would have been willing to expose her cards a bit faster rather than being reluctant since she couldn¡¯t trust the either of them.
However, she was prepared to hold this responsibility.
[Everyone has their secrets. I just didn¡¯t want you guys to know mine.] Shiro crouched in front of him and typed out.
"So for this secret of yours, you were willing to let Paul die!" Trace screamed in anger as he reached his hands out to grab her.
*KRRR!!!
Ice spread out from Shiro¡¯s feet as it froze Trace up on the spot leaving his head exposed.
[Yes. Unless I¡¯m with the people I trust, I would erase everyone who knew of my secret.] Shiro replied seriously.
Should there be any moment where she would need to expose her secrets to people she doesn¡¯t trust or her enemies, she would make sure that she destroyed all evidence that may reveal her second ss.
Trace shivered seeing how serious she was.
"Urg..." Jonas muttered weakly as he sat up from Silvia¡¯s healing.
Seeing that Jonas had woken up, Shiro unfroze Trace and walked up to Jonas.
[How are you feeling?] Shiro ask. Out of his entire party, she only cared for him and Silvia. The rest of the party, Erica, Trace and Paul, she didn¡¯t feel muchradery to.
"Except for the fact that I¡¯mcking an arm, I¡¯m fine." Jonas replied with a smallugh.
[Well, we can wait a little longer for Silvia to heal everyone up.] Shiro typed out with a small smile.
"Oh right, what about the casualties?" Jonas asked as he looked around.
[Paul died, you and Madison had the worst injuries. Erica, Trace, Silvia had light injuries while me and Lyrica are pretty much fine.]
"I see... Paul died..." Jonas muttered as he clenched his fist.
"Jonas! Shiro let Paul die! She could have killed the boss much earlier but she wanted to hide some bullsh*t secret of hers!" Trace shouted out.
"I already know that Miss Shiro had some secrets that doesn¡¯t need to be known by us. How else would she stand against the army? However, be grateful that we¡¯re still alive." Jonas shook his head. Thankfully, Shiro wasn¡¯t one of the more extreme cases where she would kill everyone here in the dungeon to retain her secret.
"You!" Trace gritted his teeth and looked at Silvia.
"What about you Silvia! Surely you agree that it¡¯s Shiro¡¯s fault that Paul died right!" He asked.
Silvia only bit her lower lip and looked away.
She already knew how much Shiro had put on the line to keep the party safe for all this time.
Plus, casualties in a Dungeon wasn¡¯t rare. She had long gotten used to seeing people die, especially in the raids. Only this time Paul was a friend of hers.
Trace only gritted his teeth and red at Shiro with killing intent that he didn¡¯t know he was releasing.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she watched Trace walk away.
¡¯I should tie up any loose ends.¡¯ Shiro thought. She flexed her fingers as two ice daggers appeared in her left hand.
"Shiro, Please. Can you just let him go? He just lost his best friend." Silvia begged as she grabbed onto Shiro¡¯s sleeve.
Giving her a side nce, Shiro sighed and destroyed the daggers. She decided to let him go as repayment for letting Paul die.
[If he causes any trouble for me in the future, just know that I won¡¯t stay my hand this time.]
"Thank you." Silvia replied in relief. She could only hope that Trace wouldn¡¯t be stupid.
However, what they didn¡¯t know was that with her right hand, she had already flicked a small chip that embedded itself inside Trace¡¯s spine. The moment he said a keyword rting to her Nanomancer ss, the chip would kill him whilst making it seem like a natural death.
Letting Silvia heal Madison, Shiro checked the drops of the boss before updating her stats. Who knows if she¡¯d be able to find anything interesting. After all, her gains in this dungeon run were pretty significant.
Especially since she had gained the Blood Crystal Armour Set.
Looking through the pile of loot, there were quite a few super rare materials that would almost guarantee a purple weapon when a cksmith used them.
¡¯I should see if I can rent a workshop for Helion to make Lyrica another weapon. Maybe this time I can get her a de whipbo.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself whilst rummaging through the other loot drops.
Surprisingly, the boss had carried four purple weapons with him. Two swords, an Axe and a Spell Rod.
The two swords here set equipment so they would only show their true potential when paired together.
[Twin Blood Devourers ¨C LVL 50 ¨C Purple (2/2)]
Requirements: 4000 STR
+700 Sharpness (When paired)
+500 Attack
+350 Attack Speed
+150 Life Steal
+150 Bleed
-250 DEF
The swords resembled katanas and were colouredpletely ck with blood-red runes etched to the de of the katanas.
Unfortunately, the katanas were one of the weapons that she hardly used. Not to mention, she didn¡¯t even know if she could dual wield these katanas. Just the 4000 STR requirement was just borderline insanity.
Hardly anyone would push all of their points into STR and neglect the rest of their stats.
Naturally, there were ways to reduce the requirements but by the time they got the titles and items to help decrease the requirements, they would have gotten better weapons already.
Storing the twin katanas away, Shiro looked at the Axe and Spell Rod.
[Blood Warrior Axe ¨C LVL 50 ¨C Purple]
Requirements: 2000 STR
+250 Attack
+250 Momentum Boost
+100 Bleed
+50 Blood Poison
-100 Attack Speed
[Blood Mage Staff ¨C LVL 50 ¨C Purple]
Requirements: 2000 INT
+200 INT
+200 Spell Damage
+10% effectiveness with Blood Type Spells
+100 Life Steal
+100 Mana Leach
Both were decent but Shiro had no use for either of them. While she may be a mage, she was a hybrid mage that could shift to all ranges of attack. Standing still and using a spell rod was not her fighting style. As for the Axe, she could probably hand it over to Madison since she used an axe when she went into the Attack Demon Knight Form.
[Jonas, you¡¯re fine if I take all the loot right?] Shiro asked, ncing over at the wounded adventurer.
"Yeah take it. I have no use for it." Jonas replied. Giving Shiro the loot was a small payment for keeping his life.
Shiro nodded and stored all of the loot away in her inventory.
With the loot sorted, Shiro shifted her attention to her stats. After her EXP was refunded by the system, she had a whopping 1000 points to spent on her stats. Not only that, but the jump from level 39 to 43 also gave her the 4th star up.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Intermediate Monster (0/50 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete)
Level: 43
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 157,500/157,500
MP: 374,010/374,010
STR: 800 (+100)
VIT: 1000 (+200)
INT: 1800 -> 2300 (+550)
AGI: 1100 -> 1500 (+450)
DEX: 900 -> 1000(+100)
DEF: 400 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 1000 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 1
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 0 -> 1
Bnce: 59,103,500 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation
Frozen Hell Series:
Frozen Slumber
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 1)]
Just a single run of this dungeon had benefited her greatly, allowing her stats to shoot through the roof. Especially with her 380k+ MP right now.
Unfortunately, to her confusion, she had not been able to unlock the next firearm which would have been either the shotgun or the sniper. There was also the option of a submachine gun and assault rifles, but she¡¯d rather wait for the Gatling Gun. After all, the submachine guns and the assault rifles didn¡¯t pack the punch she liked.
A heavy-hitting weapon was what really got her blood pumping. The feeling of controlling the recoil, the explosion and the destruction she would cause with her weapons is what made the heavy weapons truly rewarding.
With her Status updated, Shiro looked at the requirements of her 4th star up.
[Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï]
[¡Ì] 3000 INT
[¡Ì] Kill 500 Enemies with ss Abilities
[¡Ì] Pseudo Elemental Armour Generated
[0/5] Jade Ice
[¡Ì] C Ranked Mana Stone
[1/2] Create 2 Skills
Chapter 101 Bath House
Chapter 101 Bath House
Shiro smiled seeing most of the requirements already fulfilled. Unfortunately, she could only sigh at the fact that she needed Jade Ice.
Jade Ice was a drop that would be normally dropped from a level 50 Ice Type monster. While she didn¡¯t have to manually excavate it, it would still take a while for her to obtain the item.
As for the creation of skills, she could take her time to experiment with the Frozen Hell series of spells. She needed to create a few more spells anyways.
ncing back at the party, Shiro saw that most of them had recovered. Only Madison was still a little injured. However, just the fact that she took the brunt of the boss¡¯s attack and still lived was something to be thankful for.
[Alright, let¡¯s get out of the dungeon.]
"Yeah, we can finally leave." Jonas sighed in relief. During the time that Shiro had been updating her status, Silvia had managed to fully regenerate his arm.
[So what do you n on doing after this?] Shiro asked while they were walking out of the castle.
"I¡¯m going to retire." Jonas replied truthfully.
"Wait retire?" Silvia was surprised. If Jonas retires, he would lose his only source of ie.
"Yeah, I¡¯m going to try to settle down with a wife and have a few kids. Hahaha." Heughed.
"Are you nning to get a normal civilian job?" Lyrica asked.
"I don¡¯t know."
[How about you try being a trainer? For a school. You can help younger people fight better so that they¡¯re able to have a bigger chance to survive in dungeons. The mortality rates in dungeons are pretty high after all.] Shiro replied.
"Hmm, yeah. I suppose that¡¯ll work." Jonas nodded.
"But let¡¯s go to a public bathhouse first. We have been stuck in the dungeon for almost a week now haha-ow." Madisonughed but flinched from her injuries.
[True. I look like a mess right now.] Shiro replied. Her outfit was covered with dried blood and a few scraps of flesh while her hair was tangled up with blood as well. Not only that, she frowned at the stench.
[Smell like one as well.] Shiro continued.
"Same for me." Lyrica agreed.
"Hey, shall we also get the kids and all that back at camp toe as well?" Madison asked.
"Oh, that¡¯ll be fun. Want to join us Silvia? Erica? It¡¯ll be like adies night out." Lyrica suggested.
"Sure." Erica agreed since she needed a moment to rx herself.
"Me too." Silvia nodded as well.
"Great. We¡¯ll go back first to see if the kids want to join us. We¡¯ll send you a text when we¡¯re ready."
With the nsid out, they walked towards the gates.
*krrr....
Opening the gates, they were greeted with the sight of a group of people who were surrounding a corpse.
Shiro immediately narrowed her eyes coldly since that meant Trace had tried to release information about her ss instantly.
Slowing down so that she was near Silvia, Erica and Jonas, Shiro showed them her phone.
[A word about what happened inside the final boss room and that is what happens. I had an idea that Trace was going to tell people but I never thought that he¡¯d try to turn the entrance into a bloodbath so soon.]
The three of them shivered in shock as Shiro was able to kill him without leaving their side.
"Excuse me, are you this man¡¯s friends?" A patrolman asked as he walked over.
"Yes. We were in the dungeon together when it mutated and we managed to survive. What happened?" Silvia replied.
"Well I¡¯m sorry but from our scans, it seemed like he had a heart attack the moment he exited the dungeon. I¡¯m sorry for your loss." The man said with a shake of his head.
"Right..." Silvia muttered dumbly.
Walking a little further away from the scene, Shiro walked in front of them before pausing and turning around.
[Well, I do trust that you won¡¯t spread the word. Right?] Shiro asked with a soft smile.
However, when paired with her current appearance, it only caused the three foreign party members to pale.
Madison and Lyrica were ok with it since they knew what people were like. If Trace had told everyone around the dungeon that Shiro had a pair of guns that allowed her to easily kill a level 50 boss, they would have been bombarded the moment they left the dungeon. Thankfully, Shiro was prepared.
Silvia made a pained face as she took a deep breath. She couldn¡¯t believe that her ¡¯friend¡¯ tried to expose his lifesaver to strangers which could have killed everyone.
"I-... I won¡¯t spread the word. But are you sure he tried to expose us?" Silvia asked with a tremble in her voice.
[Yes. The device only reacts when certain keywords are spoken together. Since it had killed him the moment he left the dungeon, I¡¯m guessing that he tried to shout out the fact that I had something to kill a level 50 boss easily.]
"I see..." Silvia nodded.
Jonas could only sigh and shake his head. He had told them to not do something dumb but instead, one died and the other did something even dumber.
"Well, just text me when we¡¯re going to the baths. I might take a little longer though." Silvia said as she forced a small smile.
Watching Silvia and Erica walk away, Jonas sighed once more and walked towards Shiro.
"I¡¯ll talk to her a little. Since I lead raid parties quite a few times, I know how much harm a single person could do. I just want to thank you for protecting the rest of the party."
This caused Shiro to raise an eyebrow.
[You want to thank me for killing your friend?]
"No. I want to thank you for protecting the rest of us. The moment he tried to turn the other adventurer¡¯s against us, he was no longer my friend. He was someone who tried to kill us whilst acting as the third party." Jonas shook his head bitterly.
[I wish it could have turned out differently.] Shiro apologised.
"So do I..." Jonas replied before walking away.
"Well... this dungeon had certainly been rather... Intense?" Lyrica said as Shiro and Madison nodded.
"Yeah, 2 died and the three of us have improved a lot." Madison replied.
"You think Silvia still wants to join us even after the fact that you basically killed both of her friends?" Madison asked as she turned towards Shiro.
[Honestly, I don¡¯t know. We¡¯ll most likely have to try to find a different healer I suppose.]
"Ah, such a shame. She was so talented as well." Lyricamented.
[Before I forget, Madison. I have a purple shield that had dropped from the previous dungeon I went to. It¡¯s has a requirement of being level 40 but the skills are worthwhile. Once we finished out bath tonight, I¡¯ll go upgrade it so that you can equip it earlier.] Shiro typed out whilst she pulled out the Rock Giant¡¯s Protection that she had collected back in Giant¡¯s Heart.
"Oh my god, what are these skills??!!" Madison cried out in shock seeing the effects. While the base stats were rather subpar, the skills that the shields provided where incredible.
[As for you Lyrica, I¡¯ll go upgrade a pair of dual des for you.]
"Ah so the growth type weapon was tampered by you Shiro." Lyrica smiled wearily.
[Well I can¡¯t say the full truth right now but just know that I¡¯m very talented with technology.] Shiro grinned.
"I had my suspicions but to think it¡¯s actually true. So how many levels of growth are you able to upgrade the weapon with? Last time it was 10 levels if I remember correctly."
[Yes it was. I should be able to increase the max level to 45 or something around that.] Shiro replied after a short pause.
With her MP reaching 370k along with the fact that her Nanotech Engineering skill increased to Tier 2 due to her MP, she should be able to make a better version of the Nano Growth Infuser Prototype.
"What about the lowest level? Since before, I needed to add more weapons and items to the weapon to evolve it didn¡¯t I?"
[The lowest level will probably be 30. I suppose that depending on what happens, you should be able to use the weapons all the way till level 50.] Shiro replied.
[Naturally, you¡¯re not allowed to sell these weapons since too many growth type weapons in the market would be suspicious. By having them link back to us, it¡¯ll only create more problems.] Shiro warned.
"Ah we won¡¯t, don¡¯t worry." Madison replied since she wasn¡¯t going to ruin the friendship she had with Shiro for some momentary benefits. She knew that as long as you don¡¯t overstep your boundaries, Shiro was a good friend to keep in contact with.
[I¡¯m not worried. I trust both of you.] Shiro smiled since she did trust both of them. While it wasn¡¯t full unconditional trust, it was enough for her to be ok with letting them know of her secret.
She wasn¡¯t sure if she could trust them fully since thest time it happened, the hero had killed her. But she was willing to give it a second go since she could tell that both Lyrica and Madison were sincere.
[Let¡¯s go get Kanae and see if she wants to join u in the baths.]
"You¡¯re quite attached to Kanae aren¡¯t you?" Lyrica asked.
[Well, it feels like having a little sister if I had to describe it. It¡¯s fun.] Shiro smiled.
"Do you think that in a few years, she¡¯ll join us in adventuring?" Madison asked, curious about their little friend.
[It¡¯ll be interesting that¡¯s for sure. Currently, her determination is strong. If she kept that up, there¡¯s no doubt that she¡¯ll be able to be a great adventurer.] Shiro nodded.
¡¯So... another rival?¡¯ Lyrica thought as she furrowed her brows. She had seen Kanae being overly attached to Shiro during their time in the tents. However, she had ignored it since she was just a kid. But if she was going to join their party in the future, she may need to add Kanae to her radar of people to watch out for.
Arriving at the campsite, their campmates were shocked at the state of their bodies.
"What happened to you girls?" Ava cried out in shock. Especially since all three of them were coated with dried up blood. Especially Shiro.
She looked as if she had walked through a corpse explosion, which wasn¡¯t too far from the truth.
"Well, we were stuck in a dungeon for almost a week inside since it mutated." Lyrica replied.
"Oh god a mutated dungeon." Christy covered her mouth. She remembers her husband saying the survival rates of mutated dungeons were shockingly low. While people could break open the dungeon, not many were willing to go that far for people they don¡¯t know.
"So we were just wondering if you want to go to a bathhouse? Since we were stuck in there for quite a while, we are in need of a good bath." Lyrica smiled.
"Oh that¡¯s a good idea. Hey girls! You want to go to a bath house tonight?" Ava asked as she shouted into the tent.
Kanae was the first one to peek her head out and her face brightened instantly when she saw Shiro.
"Shiro-nee!" She called out and ran towards her.
"AP! Kanae, not yet. We were just in a dungeon so were quite dirty right now. We¡¯re going to a bath house to clean ourselves." Lyrica said as she stopped Kanae from hugging Shiro.
[Lyrica¡¯s right. You should wait till after till after the baths for a hug.] Shiro smiled as Kanae pouted.
"Fine." She replied after a short pause.
Shiro pulled out her phone as she saw Jonas sending her a message.
[Jonas: Hi Shiro, Silvia just needs a moment to calm herself. She won¡¯t be joining you tonight.]
¡¯I expected as much.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since it would be weirder if she dide.
[Shiro: Alright.]
Replying to the message with a simple response, there wasn¡¯t much else she could say.
"Who was that?" Lyrica asked.
[That was Jonas. Silvia won¡¯t be joining us tonight.]
"Mn, I thought as much." Lyrica nodded.
In the end, it was just the ten of them who were going to the bathhouse.
When they arrived at the bath house, they were surprised at how busy it was. With the influx of new York refugee¡¯s, not many were able to wash up so public bath houses were popr at this moment.
In addition to this, most of the people going were all covered in beast blood since they were adventurers.
Due to the fact that most of the people were covered in blood, the bath houses required you to take a shower first to wash away the blood before enjoying the baths. Otherwise, the water would be dyed red from the sheer amount of blood.
When they were getting changed, the three mothers were praising Madison for her body figure causing her to be embarrassed.
However, this only earned her a re from Shiro since she was still annoyed that Madison¡¯s first ss up had matured her body figure.
The bath was rather refreshing as Shiro closed her eyes and enjoyed the bath.
Lyrica also enjoyed the bath, but it was for an entirely different reason.
Chapter 102 Upgrade
Chapter 102 Upgrade
After the bath, Shiro had changed into a more casual outfit. The clothes she decided on was a white long-sleeved shirt that was decorated with small amounts of frills, a ck skirt that reached her knees, white stockings and a pair of boots.
Making sure that her hair waspletely free of dried blood, Shiro was surprised to see her hair back to their silk-like state.
¡¯Could it be that my body stays the same as long as there are no outside interferences?¡¯ She thought whilst running her hands through her hair.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro was happy if that was the truth. It meant that she didn¡¯t need to worry about conditioning her hair.
Walking towards Lyrica and Madison, Shiro informed them about her going to upgrade their weapons right now.
"Eh? That fast?" Lyrica asked.
[Yeah, I might as well get it out of the way now since I got stuff to do tomorrow.] Shiro smiled.
"Alright, don¡¯t take too long toe back though." Madison said as she was still drying her hair.
Shiro nodded before leaving the area.
Yin, who had lost her hood to sleep in, could only perch herself on top of Shiro¡¯s head.
Once she made her way back to her b¡¯, Shiro took out the purple shield and Lyrica¡¯s dual-ended des that she hadmissioned Helion to make.
The first thing to do was for her to make a better Nano Growth Infuser.
Sitting down on her chair, Shiro leaned back before flexing her fingers. Lightning and metal twined together before a device could be seen in her hands.
After upgrading her Nanotech engineering to tier 2 along with the fact that her mana pool was huge right now, the process was quick and efficient.
[Nano Growth Infuser Level 30-50 (Purple)]
Seeing the device in her hands, Shiro smiled and flexed her hands to create a second device.
With the two Nano Growth Infuser¡¯s in her hands, Shiro chuckled when she understood that the moment she put these into the auction, all hell would break loose. Especially if she was able to make ones of a higher level, which she could.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll upgrade the sword first since it¡¯s only a green ranked weapon." Shiro muttered since if she were to do the process manually, she should be able to upgrade it into a purple grade weapon.
*KRRSSSS!!!!
The Nano Growth Infuser hissed when it made contact with the magic crystal. The transformation was much more violent than the previous upgrade since this was the bonafide Nano Growth Infuser and not some prototype.
[Insert materials to enhance the weapon? Y/N]
Pulling out a few of the purple grade materials in her inventory, Shiro epted the prompt.
[Materials discovered.]
[3x Pseudo Blood Dragon Essence, 2x Blood Crystals, 5x Blood Beast Talon, Blood Crystalized Heart.]
Watching the Infuser devour the materials, Shiro smiled with anticipation.
Once the process was finished, a beautiful dual-ended deid in front of her. The des themselves were narrow with the edges being simr to that of a row of teeth. The colour of the des were ck with veins of red that pulsed through the des. The nanotech wasn¡¯t visible since it worked on the interior structure of the de rather than the outside appearance.
[Nano Tech Blood Dragon yer LVL 30/50 ¨C Purple]
+150/350 Attack
+150/400 Attack Speed
+50/150 Ignore Defence
+50/100 Life Steal
+100/250 STR
+100/250 AGI
+10% Suppression against enemies equal or lower level than you
Skill(Locked) ¨C Blood Rain
Blood Rain:
Cause blood to rain down onto the battlefield. Each droplet siphons your enemies HP into yours.
Duration: 5/15 Seconds (Can be ended earlier)
Health Siphoned: 1/5% Health
Cost: 5k MP per Second
Cooldown: 5 Minutes
Upgrade Requirements:
10x Blue de Type Weapons (LVL 35)
1x Blood Crystal
20x D ranked Mana Stones
Looking at the stats, Shiro was rather surprised at the fact that the weapon had gained the party wipe skill one of the guardian twins had used.
¡¯Maybe It¡¯s because I used the Blood Crystallized Heart as one of the materials.¡¯ Shiro thought since the blood crystalized heart was one of the drops she harvested when they had killed the Guardian Twins.
As for the basic stats, they were rather impressive in Shiro¡¯s eyes. While it may lose out a little once it reached level 50, the skill made up for that loss.
Naturally, she couldn¡¯t have the fact that it was a Nanotech weapon revealed so she made a skill chip with the skill, Disguise, to hide a portion of the status. Now the weapon was just shown as Blood Dragon yer.
With Lyrica¡¯s weapon upgraded, Shiro turned her attention to the already purple grade Shield.
Since the Shield had alreadye with 3 skills of its own, she needed to avoid adding more skills since too many skills and the shield would break itself.
¡¯The only thing I need to do for Madison¡¯s shield is to convert it into growth type equipment and buff its basic stats.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since the stats of the level 40 shield were rather disappointing if not for the skills that it came with.
Injecting the Infuser into the shield, Shiro only added a few items to reinforce the basic stats of the shield.
[Nano Tech Blood Rock Giant¡¯s Protection ¨C LVL 30/50 Shield (Purple)]
+150/350 Shield Defence
+100/300 DEF
+100/300 VIT
+100/200 Reduce Knockback
+10/20% Damage Reduction
+50/150 Negate Critical Strike
+50/150 Damage Reflection
Skills:
Rock Giant¡¯s Projection:
Summon the projection of a rock giant that protects your entire team.
Damage is reduced by 60% (Limited by level. Loses effect against LVL 55+)
Aggro is increased by 70% (Limited by level. Loses effect against LVL 55+)
Speed is reduced by 80%
Cost: 5,000MP
Duration ¨C 30 seconds
Cooldown ¨C 2 minutes
Rock Giant¡¯s Presence:
Increases one¡¯s aggro on the field exponentially.
Aggro is increased by 70% (Limited by level. Loses Effect against LVL 55+)
Cost: 2,000MP
Duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 3 minutes
Rock Giant¡¯s Stomp:
A ground-shaking stomp that stuns your enemies for a short moment.
Cost: 2,000MP+
Range: Increases with the amount of MP used. (Maximum Range: 15 meters)
Duration of stun: 5 seconds
Cooldown: 1 minute
The skills of the shield had no changes but the basic stats experienced a huge change.
In addition to this, Shiro grinned when the requirements were wiped from the weapon meaning Madison could equip this shield without any problems.
Stretching her body slightly, Shiro pulled out her phone and checked the dates.
"Hmm, the auction is being held tomorrow. I should probably go alone so that Lyrica and Madison can rest back at the tent." Shiro said as she stood up.
"Come on Little Yin, we¡¯re going back now." She called out.
*Chirp!
Chirping in response, Yinnded on Shiro¡¯s head to make her territory known. Shiro only chuckled slightly at Yin¡¯s behaviour before making her way back to the tent.
[I¡¯m back.] Shiro greeted as she entered the tent again.
This time, Lyrica wasn¡¯t able to hold Kanae back as she leapt into Shiro¡¯s embrace.
"Shiro-nee! Wee back." Kanae said causing Yumi to chuckle slightly.
She smiled warmly seeing Shiro be something simr to an older sister to her daughter. Not only that, but Kanae was rather attached to Shiro as well.
Shiro patted Kanae¡¯s head as she turned toward the slightly jealous Lyrica and Madison, who was only smiling at the situation.
[I¡¯ve finished upgrading your weapons.]
Pulling out the sword and shield, Shiro handed them over to their new owners.
"Oh wow..." They both muttered seeing the stats on the weapons. Understanding that they shouldn¡¯t keep the weapons out for too long, they stored it away in their inventories.
"Thank you Shiro."
"Thank you."
[It¡¯s prettyte now, we should sleep since we¡¯re rather fatigued from fighting in the dungeon.]
"True, I¡¯ve barely been able to keep my eyes open." Madison yawned while stretching her body.
Since they were all tired, they didn¡¯t talk much and went to sleep.
###
The next morning, Shiro woke up a littleter than usual but was still earlier than the rest of the people in the tent.
As always, she moved Kanae back into her own sleeping bag before walking out of the tent.
¡¯So today, I want to go to the auction to look at what they have. I also want to see if I can get Aarim to change my outfit a little since white is not the best colour to be dressed in whilst going on a ughter.¡¯ Shiro thought as her current outfit was what she had worn after going to the bath house.
Feeding herself and Yin some D ranked Mana Stones, she couldn¡¯t help but frown at her stockpile.
Due to the fact that she wasn¡¯t able to take a break whilst fighting, she didn¡¯t have the time to excavate the mana stones. Even with Yin excavating the mana stones when she could, they had eaten more than what they had harvested in the dungeon. This caused her stockpile to be whittled down slowly.
"Seems like I should see if I can buy a bundle of D ranked mana stones as well." Shiro sighed and made her way to the auction house.
However, this time, her appearance had earned her more stares from the crowd. With nothing covering her face and hair, it was hard not to see her.
There were also a few malicious stares originating from the slums area which only caused Shiro to narrow her eyes coldly.
Before she went to the auction house, she made a trip to the adventurer¡¯s guild since it was in the same direction.
Waiting in the queue, she had the asional adventurer give her a second stare since they only casually nced at her before being shocked by her beauty.
"Ah it¡¯s you again nya. How can I help you today nya?" Susie asked.
[Just the same as usual. Update my status please.]
"Sure nya. Just give me a moment nya." She said whilst taking Shiro¡¯s card.
"I¡¯m surprised that you¡¯re already level 43 nya. Normally, people would take a few months to years to get this level nya. What did you do?" Susie asked curiously whilst updating Shiro¡¯s status.
[I was stuck in a mutated dungeon.] Shiro shrugged. It wasn¡¯t much of a secret to keep since everyone knew about mutated dungeons.
"Mutated dungeon nya? You mean the one that mutated yesterday, Blood vale nya?" Susie asked with surprise.
[Yeah. It became a level 50 dungeon.]
"Wow, you entered into the dungeon as a level 35 or something right nya?"
[Level 37]
"That¡¯s still a 13 level difference between you and the monster¡¯s nya. How did you even kill the boss? A shield of a level 50 boss isn¡¯t something that can be broken easily you know nya." Susie asked.
[Trade secret.]
"Well, I suppose that makes sense nya. Here¡¯s your updated card and have a nice day nya." Susie said as she handed back Shiro her card.
[Name: Shiro
Estimated Age: 13
ss: Ice Mage
LVL: 43
Mage¡¯s Association Membership: VIP (New York Branch)
Priority Rank: 9 (New York Branch)]
Storing her card away, Shiro made her way to the auction house.
¡¯It would be great if I can find some Jade Ice. At least I¡¯ll be able to ss up quickly before my 5th star.¡¯ She thought whilst entering the auction house. Sitting down at one of the terminals, she searched for Jade Ice.
"Mn... Only 2 are avable." Shiro muttered with a frown.
"Well I guess it¡¯s fine."
Pressing purchase, she received a receipt and walked over to the counter to redeem her items.
[Two Jade Ice¡¯s please.]
"Thank you, can I have your receipt please to confirm that you are indeed the buyer." The receptionist asked as Shiro did as they asked. Receiving the receipt, the receptionist walked away to retrieve the items.
After waiting for around 3 minutes, they came back with her items.
[Thank you.]
Shiro left the queue while storing her items away.
¡¯Since the auction finale items are three purple grade objects, the previous items should also be pretty decent as well.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Due to the fact that this was going to be a huge auction, it started in the afternoon and was hosted at the biggest hall the auction house had.
As there were still a few hours until the auction house started, Shiro decided to send Aarim a text to ask about the outfits.
[Shiro: Hey Aarim, are you free to chat for a bit?]
Surprisingly, she didn¡¯t need to wait too long for Aarim to reply.
[Aarim: I have a few moments to spare right now. What do you need?]
[Shiro: You see, I need your help with the monster cloth outfit you made for me. I want to see if I¡¯m able to change the design a little and re-dye the outfit from white to ck.]
[Aarim: That isn¡¯t too hard. I¡¯m able to rent a tailoring station in this city so I can work on the outfit. But why do you need to dye it? I think white looks pretty nice.]
[Shiro: It¡¯s because I was stuck in a dungeon. The blood dried up and somewhat dyed the white robe with splotches of red.]
[Aarim: Ah I see, that¡¯s why.]
[Aarim: Okay sure, I can work on it. Do you know where the tailoring association building is? I¡¯ll just wait for you there and you can give me the outfit. I¡¯ll have a look at the state there as well.]
[Shiro: What about the payment? I still owe you a few photoshoots I think.]
[Aarim: Well I¡¯ll just keep it on your tab. I can¡¯t do much about the photoshoot since all of my stuff is back in my workshop and we both know how New York is right now.]
[Shiro: Alright, I¡¯ll meet you up at the tailor¡¯s association soon.]
Putting away her phone, Shiro nced one more time at the clock.
¡¯I should have enough time to see Aarim and make it for the auction.¡¯ She thought whilst walking towards the tailor¡¯s association.
Chapter 103 New Outfit
Chapter 103 New Outfit
Arriving at the tailor¡¯s association, Shiro was slightly surprised that the building was ratherckl.u.s.tre. It was very simple in aesthetic design whenpared to the other grandiose buildings beside it like the cksmith¡¯s association or the alchemist¡¯s association.
Entering the building, the inside was very simple as it had little to no decorations. Just the bare minimum.
Looking around slightly, she pulled out her phone to text Aarim when she couldn¡¯t find her.
[Shiro: Aarim I¡¯m here at the tailor¡¯s association. Where are you?]
Waiting for a moment, Shiro got her reply.
[Aarim: Ok I¡¯ll be there in just a moment. It turns out that a few unsavoury fellows wanted a taste of me, in the most s.e.x.u.a.l context. Taught those bastards a lesson.]
Shiro raised an eyebrow at this.
¡¯Seems like the slums are making more moves now. Especially since a few of them were targeting me earlier today as well.¡¯ Shiro thought as her eyes were cold.
Looking around for a chair, Shiro saw that there were hardly any chairs in the main reception except for a few sofas.
Sighing slightly, Shiro sat on one of the sofas. Since there were only a few sofas avable, Shiro had to share the sofa.
The person who was next to her widened his eyes when he saw a cute girl sit next to him. However, when he looked around, he saw that there were few seats avable so he realised that she didn¡¯t sit next to him because she wanted to.
Crushing the slight hope that had built up, he took this moment to give her another nce.
Her skin was a healthy pale rather than a sickly pale. Hershes quivered slightly as she nced at her phone.
Swallowing his saliva, he found it rather difficult to shift his gaze away.
However, the moment Shiro turned towards him, he shifted his head away in a panic.
Shiro only shrugged slightly since she was used to it. The only thing that bothered her was his unusually long stare.
After 5 minutes of waiting, Shiro smiled when she saw Aarim walk through the door.
"Ah Shiro here you are. Oh my, that outfit suits you rather well huh?" Aarim said with a smile. The current outfit Shiro had on was abination of the different pieces of cosy that she had given her. Yet whenbined, they weren¡¯t too bad.
[Well I needed something to wear while the main outfit is dirty.] Shiro shrugged.
"Oh right, speaking of which, can you show me the state of the outfit?" Aarim asked.
Pulling out the outfit, Aarim was shocked at how much blood had been dried on the fabric.
"Holy hell what did you even do?? Did you decide to suddenly have a spa bath with the finest monster blood with your clothes on???" Aarim cried out whilst grabbing the outfit.
[So are you able to re-design and re-dye the outfit?] Shiro asked.
"Yes, but we need to get the blood out first. Thankfully, the tailoring association has some blood remover in their rooms. Come, I¡¯m going to rent a room first."
Walking to the counter, Shiro waited by the side while Aarim asked for a room. The process was over rather quickly as they were soon led into a room on the second floor.
The room was filled with equipment while there were hardly any room to move around.
"Well, this is a little smaller than expected but I can work with this." Aarim said as she sat down and got to work.
[Straight away?] Shiro asked.
"Well, you are going to the auction are you not? If so, I should make a start on your outfit as soon as possible so that you have something to wear. I mean, it¡¯s either that or you can just choose to wear what you have currently." Aarim shrugged. She had been rather bored recently since she didn¡¯t have ess to her workshop.
Due to the sheer amount of materials she had gathered, she needed to store them inside her workshop rather than her inventory.
While she did carry the rarer materials, none of the basic materials were carried on her so she couldn¡¯t make anything.
However, when Shiro asked her to edit her current outfit, Aarim jumped at the opportunity.
"So any requirements?" Aarim asked while she started to work on removing all of the blood stains.
[Well I mostly want the same but a few small adjustments. First of all, the robe is the main focus of the changes since it¡¯s rather in as it is right now. I was wondering if you can make it more efficient whilst also being pretty.]
"Soo... basically you want me to design one based on what I think would suit you?" Aarim raised an eyebrow.
[Pretty much.] Shiro smiled. She would rather let the designer give her a design.
"Well since I¡¯ve got nothing else to do, this would be fun." Aarim grinned since she enjoyed making outfits.
Shiro nodded while looking for a spot so that she could sit down for a while.
Since she was mostly just waiting for Aarim to make the outfit, she pulled out her phone and browsed around.
¡¯I should probably look for a dungeon that gives me Jade Ice for my star up. I¡¯ve managed to buy two so far, I just need three more.¡¯ She thought whilst looking at the level 45 dungeons.
Most of the dungeons were either underwater hybrids or earth based. There were hardly any that gave her Jade Ice.
Since her search was unsessful, Shiro decided to try this thing called the forums. She had found it during her asional look through the web and found out that most people would ask for stuff in the forums.
[Looking for Jade Ice. If you know where to obtain it or have some to be sold, please inform me.]
Creating a thread, Shiro wrote down a few small details and waited for someone to answer her question.
¡¯Hopefully, I¡¯ll be able toplete this before I reach level 45. If I reach 45 and haven¡¯t done my star up, it would count as a fail and I would lose my chance of upgrading it to 5 stars.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
"Alright, done." Aarim suddenly said as Shiro looked up in surprise.
"Fast right? The equipment here is better than the ones back in my workshop since the tailor¡¯s association is able to power all of these equipment with their stash of C ranked mana stones. I may be able to afford them but in regard to their fuel source, I wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything about it." Aarim shrugged. The cost of everything would be too much for her to sustain long term.
"By my estimates, I should be able to do everything in 3 hours. That should be just enough time for you to make your way to the auction." Aarim smiled.
[Thank you.]
"Don¡¯t be like that. You¡¯re one of the few who still stayed after knowing what I do." Aarim shrugged since most of the girls who had found out about her store and her job immediately stayed away from her.
[Why would I leave? It¡¯s not like your job determined your personality. Ever heard of priests and elementary kids? What would be a ¡¯positive¡¯ job became stained due to it.]
"Good point." Aarim smiled.
Spinning her chair towards the next set of machinery, Aarim looked over at Shiro.
"So I can design it however I like, right?" She asked.
Shiro nodded since she was rather interested at what Aarim would design for her.
[Just try to make the main colour ck.]
"Got it."
###
In the end, it took a little longer than two hours since Aarim was in a state of creativity. She was able to work at a much faster pace than before.
"Here done, why don¡¯t you change into it and tell me what you think?" Aarim asked.
Taking the outfit, Shiro looked around for a small room where she could change her clothes.
"Since this is a room rented for tailors, naturally there¡¯ll be a changing room. Might not be huge but it should work with your body size." Aarim said whilst pointing at some curtains that were shielding the small changing room.
[Thanks.]
Walking inside the changing room, Shiro looked at the outfit and started to change into it.
It was quite a fast process and she was soon finished. Walking out of the changing rooms, Aarim marvelled at her own handiwork.
"Well, it certainly fits you better now that I look at it in real life. I had a small idea of how it would look but seeing and thinking are two different things." Aarim said as she nodded in satisfaction.
Currently, Shiro wore a ck sleeveless robe that had her face mask attached to the neck area. The robe reached the back of her knees as the ck slowly blended into a pale blue. In addition to this, the robe also featured a flew folds and frills that were dyed a sky blue that blended into an ice white. Unlike before, the robes were connected together in the centre which allowed the white undershirt to be seen through the gaps.
Furthermore, she also wore a ck skirt that reached her thighs along with a pair of white stockings.
¡¯Well, this is slightly edgy if I had to say so myself. But, I suppose the ck outfit and my white hair does make a rather nice contrast. Plus, most of my nanotech are coloured ck to begin with.¡¯
[Thank you.] Shiro typed out.
"You¡¯re wee. I had removed the hood since I think that letting the white hair flow out would contrast your outfit a little better. If you don¡¯t like it, I can add the hood back in." Aarim replied.
[No, this is fine.]
It was already enough trouble asking Aarim to help her with re-dying and re-designing the outfit. Plus, she could already make herself a helmet should she want to hide her hair.
"Hmm... you have around 40 minutes till the start of the auction, perfect." Aarim smiled since she was able to finish everything before the auction started.
Not only that, she was able to keep her craftsmanship consistent while also increasing the speed of her creations. If she continues at this pace, she felt that she should be able to increase her tailoring rank at the tailor¡¯s association along with getting a few more benefits.
"You should get going. Try to get a good spot to oversee the entire auction." Aarim suggested.
Shiro thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. If there were any need to rob- ahem. Borrow an item, she would be able to see who was the owner. Plus, now that she had her Hand Cannon creation again, she would be able to kill level 60¡¯s if she took them off guard.
Nanomancer wasn¡¯t a triple S ss for nothing after all. It had one of the best cross level killing capabilities.
After talking with Aarim for a little while, Shiro left the room and walked towards the auction house once more.
Feeling several gazes skim over and asionally linger on her that originated from the slums, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a little worried for her friends.
¡¯Seems like the factions in the slums are about to make a move. They might be nning to start kidnapping some of the girls from New York since we¡¯re literally next to where trade routes are.¡¯ Shiro thought since she still had the mental map she had created the first day she was in the slums.
¡¯I should try to get jade ice as soon as possible and stay near the tent for a few days. I don¡¯t want the girls to be kidnapped when I¡¯m away after all.¡¯
Arriving at the auction house, she wasn¡¯t surprised to see that it was currently busy at the moment. Since this was a higher level city, it meant that thepetition for the final items were that much more intense.
[Hello, what are the requirements to have a seat at the second floor of the auction? One that gives me a good overview of the entire auction room?] Shiro asked the receptionist.
"The second-floor rooms are only reserved for members that have more than 250 million USD. It is also reserved for members that put a rare item on for auction. Naturally, we¡¯ll have to appraise the item to make sure that it is rare enough to grand the seller a spot on the second floor." The receptionist replied professionally.
¡¯Hmm, a rare item. I can probably pick something I got from the Blood Kingdom dungeon.¡¯ Shiro thought since the amount of loot she had gained from the dungeon was outrageous. Especially since she had 100% of the loot.
[I have a few level 50 items I wish to put on sale. Some are even purple grade.]
"We¡¯ll have to appraise the items first is that ok? Due to the items being only level 50, we may not be able to give you a spot on the second floor." She said.
Shiro nodded and followed after her. Entering a room, she saw a man that looked like he was in histe 40¡¯s.
His grey hair was tied up into a low ponytail that made him look rather dignified. His face had a few wrinkles but it didn¡¯t take away the fact that he was rather handsome in his prime. He wore a pair of sses and a suit that was decorated with gold lining to show his identity as a high ranked member of the auction house. On his chest, a badge that showed [Senior Appraiser] could be seen.
[Alfred LVL 50 ¨C Grand Alchemist]
¡¯Seems like he is a retired adventurer or else he would not look this old for such a low level.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Please take out the items you would like me to appraise." Alfred said whilst adjusting his sses.
Following his instructions, Shiro ced all the item¡¯s she wouldn¡¯t mind selling on the table. The sheer amount of the loot caused Alfred¡¯s mouth to twitch. However, his eyes widened when he saw the descriptions and effects of the loot.
Chapter 104 Gold VIP
Chapter 104 Gold VIP
"All of these have no requirements?!" Alfred cried out.
[None.] Shiro smiled.
"Hmm... that means even level 20¡¯s can equip these items. However, it¡¯s mostly a matter of if they¡¯re able to carry the weapons since there is obviously the weight of the weapons hindering them. Otherwise, it ispletely restriction free! Not only that, but the innate attribute of life steal and even mana leech makes these items very valuable." Alfred analysed.
"Are you sure you want to put these out for auction? Wouldn¡¯t you have more use for them?" Alfred asked, unsure as to why she was willing to part with these items.
Every item had a durability value. Over time, items would slowly break apart causing problems during a fight. The damage they took would eventually pass the threshold of the durability and break the item.
This was why most adventurers would carry more than two sets of items on them at all times. Weapons, armours and essories.
And yet, just in this pile, he was able to see several sets of decent weaponry along with armour. While the skills they came with were rather mundane, the base grade and innate stat numbers of the weapon made them valuable.
There were two reasons as to why the little girl in front of him would even take these out.
¡¯Either she already has items that are worth the same or even more than those items or that she doesn¡¯t know their true value.¡¯ Alfred thought to himself. However, when he saw her calm demeanour, he knew that she understood the true value of the items.
Not only that, the calmness in her eyes weren¡¯t something often seen in young adventurers. Especially not any around her age.
¡¯Her files states that she is around the age of 13. But, her calm yet oppressive aura says otherwise.¡¯ Alfred furrowed his brows slightly. Thest time he saw anyone with a remotely simr aura she had now was when he observed a level 100+ government official.
And even then, he was only calm since he could kill everyone on site with a swipe of his hand. This girl in front of him, on the other hand, was only level 43 in the presence of level 50¡¯s. And to make matters worse, his aura paled inparison to this girl.
[Yes, I would like to put these on auction. However, I do hope that I am given a second-floor room to oversee the auction.] Shiro smiled calmly.
"Of course. Let me just inspect the rest of these items." Alfred nodded.
The more he looked through the items, the more amazed and shocked he was. Hardly any of the itemscked the traits of either life steal or mana leech. In addition to this, none of them had restrictions so even low level adventurers could equip these which in turn would lower the mortality rate.
For D ssed adventurer¡¯s, those were priceless lifesaver items that would keep them safe in the dungeons.
Not only that, but they could also help several peak D ss adventurer¡¯s to finallyplete the requirements to advance onto the next ss.
After going through all of the loot, Alfred could only describe this pile of loot as borderline priceless.
"The items here are more than enough to grant you a spot of the second floor. But, you do realise that if you exposed this to other adventurer¡¯s, the chances of them wanting to kill you for these items increases. And if you didn¡¯t know already, thew of killing is out the window on every auction night. If they knew that you had these, you would have parties of level 50 adventurer¡¯sing for your head. Plus, what¡¯s to say that I won¡¯t just take these items right here and now." Alfred said seriously as he wanted to give her a fair warning.
Hearing what he had said, Shiro grinned coldly as she let a little bit of her killing intent leak out.
[If that was the case, I¡¯ll be d to show them exactly how I managed to survive a level 50 mutated dungeon.]
Alfred paled when he felt the sliver of killing intent. Believing that Shiro only let it leak out since she couldn¡¯t control it properly, he knew that she was dead serious about fighting level 50¡¯s should ite to that.
"Well, I¡¯m already retired so I have no use for any of these items. But I do need to warn you to not casually expose your loot to just anyone. The moment some of these items catches the attention of a few uwful people, they wouldn¡¯t think twice about killing you for the items. While you might be able to handle level 50¡¯s, what about level 60? Or even level 70?" Alfred reminded once more as he took out aptop and started to tap away.
Shiro nodded since she too knew that carelessly exposing her loot would bring her grave danger. However, if only he knew that she was still holding back arge portion of the loot that she had earned.
What he called ¡¯borderline priceless¡¯ was only around 20% of her loot. Not only that, but it was mostly the bad loot that she had collected.
She only added a few pieces of high quality equipment to guarantee her spot on the second floor. She didn¡¯t have any use for them anyways, she already had her Blood Crystal Armour set.
Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to upgrade it since it would devour the set bonus and make it unusable. That was one of the smaller down sides to nanotech armour, she wasn¡¯t able to make any set equipment.
After waiting a few short moments for Alfred to finish tapping away at hisptop, an assistant walked into he room and handed him a few files.
"Alright, I¡¯ve registered everything and the manager has agreed to give you a spot on the second floor. Not only that, a few of your items would be featured near the end of the auction along with our main attractions." Alfred said as he handed her a sheet of paper to make sure that everything was correct.
"Not only that, but here is the Gold VIP Auction Card that allows you a loan of 150 million USD with no interest and ess to the second floor rooms. The debt can be paid in items as well."
Receiving both the card and sheet of paper, Shiro nced at the paper briefly and memorised all of its contents.
[Everything is correct. I believe I can go to the second floor of the auction hall now or do I have to wait?] Shiro asked.
"You may go right now if you wish. Ah but do remember, that as the paper had stated, the auction house will take 5% of the profits." Alfred smiled apologetically since he couldn¡¯t choose how much the auction house took. 5% was quite high for an auction house to take from the overall profits. Normally it would be 1-3% instead of 5%.
[It¡¯s fine.] Shiro nodded and stood up.
She was mostly just selling the items to help her get to the second floor. Everything else was just a bonus.
Walking into the spacious auction hall, Shiro made her way up to the second floor. Her appearance caused a slightmotion since they never expected a small girl to have ess to the second floor. However, most of the people only guessed that she was there just to look around.
"Excuse me ma¡¯am. But I need proof to let you enter the second floor." A staff asked as he stopped her from going up.
Shiro nodded and pulled out the gold VIP card.
"I¡¯m sorry for holding you back, enjoy your stay ma¡¯am." The staff nodded and bowed while gesturing for her to proceed onto the second floor.
Upon arriving at the second floor, Shiro saw that quite a few rooms were already upied.
¡¯Seems like the purple items attracted a lot of attention this time.¡¯
Looking down at her VIP card, she saw that she was in room 25. After walking for a short moment, she entered the room.
Unsurprisingly, the room was decoratedvishly with beautifully crafted furniture and crystal chandeliers. The rooms were spacious and she was able to have a good view of the entire auction hall.
Nodding in satisfaction, Shiro sat down on one of the chairs that gave her the best view of the entire ce. Unfortunately, she had to pull it a little closer to the edge since the railings weren¡¯t made with her height in mind.
Her white hair caused quite a few pairs of eyes to turn to her since it contrasted against the dark walls.
"When did we have such a beautiful kid on the second floor?"
"Do you think she¡¯s part of the refugees? I haven¡¯t seen her around at all."
"Jonathan, go gather some information about her. It¡¯s rather odd for a refugee to be able to enter the second floor this quickly. Especially since it¡¯s very hard to have a bank of more than 250 million USD when you¡¯re in a city such as New York."
Ignoring the smallmotion that started due to her appearance, Shiro checked back at the forums to see how the thread was going. It would be best if she could acquire the jade ice quicker. That way, she would need to kill less and avoid the chances of failing her star up.
When she opened the thread, she was surprised to see a few people stating that she could probably ask for some from a high ranking member of the alchemist¡¯s association. This was due to the fact that the material was rather precious since they could be made into empowering potions that worked extremely well in ice type dungeons.
¡¯Hmm... wasn¡¯t Alfred a Grand Alchemist? I could probably ask him after the auction for the Jade Ice. Problem being, if he is willing to sell it to me.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Scrolling through a few of the replies, she found that there was a small vein of Jade Ice not too far away form the city of Cairosa.
The only thing stopping them from harvesting the Jade Ice was due to the fact that the vein was protected by a level 65 Elite grade monster.
Not only that, but because the monster wasn¡¯t restrained by the dungeon, it was many times stronger than its dungeon counterpart.
¡¯I can probably try use my martial arts to steal a few chunks of the Jade Ice if I¡¯m not able to buy any from Alfred. That leaves only one task left, I need to create another skill.¡¯
Creating skills was just a case of making what you imagine a reality. The hardest part about this was for the system to recognise the potential of the skill and actually register it.
An example being her Frozen Slumber skill. Pre-registration, the skill had two magic circles that restrained the monster while it slowly killed them. But, after it was registered as part of the Frozen Hell Series of spells, the skill had increased its magic circles to a total of six which massively increased the spell¡¯s power.
"Hmm... what to do... what to do..." Shiro muttered. Even in her past life, she had hardly created any skills due to the fact that most of herbat prowess came from what she could create and her body movement.
From what she could tell, the Frozen Hell series was just a fluke that she had somehow managed to stumble across.
"Since the Frozen Slumber skill is mostly a control type area of effect skill, I should probably try to make a single target skill that heavily emphasises on my attacking power."
Rubbing her finger on Yin¡¯s head, Shiro pondered about what the skill could be whilst waiting for the auction to start.
¡¯The ice element is primarily focused on control. Even the most offensive skill I know that belongs in the ice element, when boiled down, is just freezing someone really quickly. That being said, I can probably make something that travels straight to the heart and freeze it. They may have strong outside defences but on the inside they¡¯re defenceless.¡¯
Raising a finger, Shiro closed her eyes and started to visualise the skill that she wanted to create. However, even though her visualisation was strong, her body simply couldn¡¯t keep up with the demand.
Her eyes snapped open as she pulled out a towel and brought it to her mouth.
"KAUH!"
Coughing out a mouthful of blood, Shiro winced at the pain.
"Tsk, god damn it." She muttered. What she had visualised was a super condensed snowke that was very hard to melt. What would happen was that the snowke would be inhaled by her enemies and eventually pass by the heart. The moment it did, it would expand itself to pierce the heart whilst also freezing the body from the inside out.
Unfortunately, her mana links couldn¡¯t stand the pressure of creating the snowkes that would essentially one hit kill anyone who breathed near her.
That being the case, she would also need to watch out for friendly fire. After all, a skill wouldn¡¯t be good if it also killed your teammates.
Wiping the blood from her mouth, Shiro took a deep breath and waited for the auction to start.
Chapter 105 Hell Fire Bombardment
Chapter 105 Hell Fire Bombardment
"Thank you all for joining us today at the Cairosa Auction! Since we have quite the stock of items to sell today, especially since we even got a fewst-minute surprises, I¡¯ll cut the small talk and introduce to you the first item!" The auctioneer shouted out as Shiro opened her eyes.
With an auction in a city this big, she should be able to find quite a few useful items.
"The first item to kick of this auction is a Skill Stone! Yes! You heard me right. The fabled skill stone that grants you whichever skill is hidden inside the skill stone! Not only that, but we have a total of 3 skill stones to auction!"
Shiro widened her eyes the moment she heard that.
¡¯Skill Stone already??!!¡¯
Even for a big city like Cairosa, a skill stone should still be extremely rare and yet, there were three skill stones being auctioned.
"The first skill stone has the skill Warden¡¯s Protection. A tanker skill that increases the defences of your teammates. The increase is equal to half of your own defence, plus, it also gives them a barrier that is equal to 20% of your HP! The bidding starts at 50 million! With no less than 1 million increments!"
"I bid 60 million!"
"65 million!"
"80 million!"
Shouts for the prices could be heard as Shiro thought about the item. From what the auctioneer had described, a skill like this was a god send. But naturally, there had to be downsides to the skill as well.
With bonuses like that, the downside would probably something along the lines of weakening the caster.
ncing over at her own ie, Shiro could only shake her head. Right now she had a bnce of 59 million. And yet, the first bet had already put her out of the biddingpetition.
¡¯Welp robbing it is.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and nced at the current highest bidder.
However, they were soon reced by someone on the second floor.
*BING!
An astronomical value of 150 million appeared on the balcony of one of the rooms.
The bidder was a young man with short ck hair. Besides him, were two body guards that looked almost identical. They both wore a suit and ck shades that hid their eyes.
"Oh my, seems like you are rather intent on buying this item huh? Enough that you¡¯ll pay 150 million to get it." A woman called out. She was also on the second floor and wore a dress of red that gave the feeling of elegance.
Paired with her blond hair and alluring aura, it was hard to take one¡¯s eyes off her.
"Hmph, naturally I have a use for this skill." The man scoffed.
"Well if that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll y along with you. 200 million!"
*BING!
Along with her call, the man¡¯s bid was overridden by her bid.
Seeing what she had done, he only narrowed his eyes before increasing the bid to 250 million.
"Oh my, bravo young master, bravo." The woman pped her hands before increasing the bid to 300 million.
"Does your Casaden Family want to oppose me!" He shouted out as he increased it to 400 million.
"Hahaha, of course not. I¡¯m just here for a friendly bid. Since young master Lox wants this item so much, I¡¯ll naturally concede it to you." The womanughed gently before giving up the bid.
Shiro only raised an eyebrow when she saw all of this.
¡¯The woman had no intention to buy the stone to begin with. Seems like a little feud is going on between the two.¡¯
"400 million once! 400 million twice! Three times! Sold to young master Lox!" The auctioneer said whilst hitting his hammer down. He had a grin on his face as the estimated value was around 150 million since the skill would heavily weaken the tank with the defenceless debuff. Yet, the conflict between the two families propelled the price to 400 million.
Young master Lox only grumbled slightly before sitting back down with a frown on his face. The conflict between his family and the Casaden Family had been going on for quite some time now. It was to the point that only one could remain in the city and he was going to make sure that it was his family.
"The second skill stone contains the skill Combust. A simple fire skill that when paired with a strong sense of visualisation, will be extremely deadly. Bidding starts at 10 million! With an increment no less than 1 million!"
"10 million!"
"11 million!"
Compared to thest skill stone, this one was rather tame.
¡¯Perhaps I should get it as well.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and decided to bid.
*BING!
A value of 15 million appeared on her balcony.
The reason to why she wanted to bid was due to the fact that Lyrica could probably make use of it. That being said, she could also make something interesting with it as well. Ignoring that fact that she¡¯s a snow girl and that this could probably injure her as well, she had a theory that she wanted to test out.
But rather than a theory, she wanted to see if she could recreate the Cold Fire.
Fire is a sma and it is hot. That is an obvious fact.
However, if she just changed the gas that was being supplied to create the fire through controlling her mana, she would be able to decrease the temperature of the fire. Not only that, but if she cooled the gas to a low enough temperature, the fire would even start to freeze the things that it came into contact with.
The gas in question was Helium. Helium had the property of being able to dissipate the heat quickly whilst also meeting the requirements of creating the sma/fire.
With Helium being able to dissipate the heat quickly, if she lowered the temperature of the Helium, she would then be able to create cold fire.
(Author¡¯s Comment: This is true by the way. If you go on youtube and search up the video -How to make a cold fire torch- by The Action Lab, you¡¯ll see that cold fire is a real thing. There is also a part 2 where he lowers the temperature so low that it starts to freeze things.)
"Little Yin, I think I¡¯ve just thought of what my next spell for the Frozen Hell Series is going to be." Shiro smiled as she rubbed Yin¡¯s head.
Yin only gave her a side nce before shrugging her shoulders.
Shiro smiled wearily as Yin was ratherzy most of the time.
¡¯Really makes you wonder where she gets it from.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. There were hardly anyone around her that waszy so she couldn¡¯t have copied her behaviour from the surrounding influences. That means it¡¯s probably in her genes to be thiszy.
The bidding continued for a short moment before Shiro won the skill stone for a grand total of 21 million USD.
"Andst but not least, the third Skill Stone contains the high level fire spell Hell Fire Bombardment!"
"What!!"
"Hell Fire Bombardment!"
"They¡¯re selling Hell Fire Bombardment!"
A ruckus was instantly stirred when they heard of the skill¡¯s name.
Even Shiro was shocked at the fact that they were auctioning the skill bombardment.
The skill Hell Fire Bombardment was a tier down version of the Tier 4 destruction spell, Meteor Shower. The skill would summon out a sky full of fire balls that would simultaneouslybust upon impact with the target. Not only that, the skill would also increase the fire damage of your teammates whilst also giving the boss a debuff that weakened their defences.
Such an outrageous skill had a high requirement for learning and yet, it was here in the form of a skill stone. This alone would make the high level adventurers in the area disregard the auction house rules of no fighting inside the premises and kill whoever got their hands on the skill. They couldn¡¯t risk the skill being learnt after all.
Without even waiting for the auctioneer to call out the starting price, a few of the second floor guests had began calling out the prices.
"500 million!"
"600 million!"
"800 million! I¡¯d like to see who dares fight me for this!" Lox shouted out.
"1 billion!! My Casadan Family isn¡¯t afraid of your Sermak Family!"
"ALURA CASADAN! You want me to kill you right here and now! 1.1 billion!" Lox shouted out with rage.
"Who¡¯s afraid of who! 1.3 billion!" She shouted back as fire erupted around her to signify her intent to battle right here and now.
"ENOUGH!" A dominating voice boomed out as a crushing pressure enveloped the entire auction hall.
Lox and Alura who were the target of the pressure quietened down instantly.
Hearing the mbering around the auction hall, Shiro understood that this man was the branch master of the auction house.
He wore a suit that was slightly stretched due to his muscles. He looked like he was in his early 30¡¯s with slight signs of age on his face. His overall visage gave him a heroic handsome type of aura.
"As the current branch master of the auction house, I will not tolerate any fighting inside the hall. Either bid like civilized people or you can scram the f.u.c.k out of my building!" He red at the two.
Feeling his pressure, the two of them sat down.
"1.5 billion!" Lox called out after taking a deep breath.
"1.7 billion!" Alura followed up.
Giving her a side nce, he narrowed his eyes.
"2 billion!"
"2.1 billion!"
"2.2 billion!"
Eventually, the bidding ended at an astonishing 2.5 billion with Alura Casadan winning the final bid.
Lox only clutched his hand as his gaze became cold.
"Go tell the family that Alura has won the skill Hell Fire Bombardment. We¡¯re going to kill her tonight!" He said with a low voice.
One of the bodyguards nodded and left the building.
While Lox was nning on killing Alura, she wasn¡¯t idle either.
"Tell my father to bring some more reinforcements. We never expected the auction house to sell Hell Fire bombardment." She said to her bodyguard.
Meanwhile, Shiro who had watched everything happen, knew that the city was going to experience a lot of bloodshed tonight.
[Shiro: Lyrica, tell everyone to avoid entering the city. There¡¯s going to be a war between two families.]
[Lyrica: Alright.]
Putting away her phone, she waited for the next few items.
The items didn¡¯t cause as much of a ruckus as the Bombardment skill, but they were impressive items by themselves.
However, Shiro didn¡¯t have much use for them since all of her current equipment were good enough as it is.
"The next item is a little special since it is the permission to enter a certain holy ground." The auctioneer said mysteriously which caused a few ears to perk up at the mention of holy ground.
"The holy ground in question is the Mana Springs. Guarded by one of our city¡¯s most powerful family, the Ospar family, the Mana Springs is a ce where you are able to reinforce and increase your mana storage. Just a single dip in these springs can increase your fighting potential by many folds. Bidding starts at 5 million with an increment of at least 500 thousand."
Hearing what the auctioneer had said, Shiro was rather curious about the Mana Springs. This was something she had never heard about back in her old life so she didn¡¯t know if it would help with fixing her Mana Links.
However, just in case, she was willing to see if she could bid a spot for herself. Unfortunately, before she could even ce her bid down, the price had already reached 10 million causing her lips to twitch slightly.
After buying the skill stone, she only had a bnce of 38 million.
¡¯Hmm... I can probably spend more on this since the other items can just be stolen.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst cing a bid of 12 million.
The price continued to climb and only slowed down when it reached 20 million. In the end, Shiro won the bid with a total of 21 million leaving her with only 17 million left in her bnce.
Shaking her head, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh at the cost of items.
The following items were all out of her reach since she didn¡¯t have the bnce to bid for any of them. But, even if she did have the bnce, she wouldn¡¯t have bid anyways since she had no use for them.
She would asionally nce at the people on the second floor to remember their appearance. Especially since most of the people on the second floor had prettyrge influences in this city.
Pulling out her phone she researched a little on both families and were quite surprised by what she had found out.
Both families were quite big in the industry of being hired bodyguards for sh.i.p.s that sailed out to sea. Not only that, but they were also rivals in other markets such as weapon¡¯s production and potion production.
However, even though they were both powerhouses, the Ospar family had always been number one and couldn¡¯t be toppled. While the main reason wasn¡¯t known, there were a few ideas floating around. From their connection torger cities, high level experts and their Mana Spring to the fact that they dabbled in every market and were essentially the core foundation to city of Cairosa. Should the Ospar family ever disappear, the city would be in grave danger.
While she was researching about the three families, the auction continued without stopping and it neared the end of the auction.
Watching the auction, Shiro only smiled when she saw that her requirementless items caused quite the stir amongst the lower level adventurers.
Overall, including her purple grade items that were put on auction, she had earned herself over 150 million USD. Naturally, she needed to wait until the auction ended to im her money and items.
Soon it was time for the final three items that were supposedly the highlight of this auction. However, Shiro didn¡¯t know how they could topple the appeal of the skill stones.
Chapter 106 Nirvana Soul Blades
Chapter 106 Nirvana Soul des
"First, we shall bring all of the remaining items on the stage so you may see which one you wish to buy first." The auctioneer said as severaldies walked up onto the stage with the items in hand.
The purple grade bow, shield and the mysterious item set.
When Shiro saw the item set, she was shocked.
¡¯No wonder they ced that as the final item.¡¯ She thought with a small smile.
The item set in question was a purple+ grade item known as Chaotic Sword Formation. They were different from normal formations as this one was portable. One would gain control over four flying swords that would work in tandem to kill the user¡¯s enemies.
The reason as to why it was known as Chaotic Sword Formation was due to the fact that the swords attack at an outrageous speed. The user only needed to control one sword while the other three would be autonomous and attack in chaotic patterns that wouldpliment how the user-controlled the first sword.
One of the best part about this item set was the fact that the user could set them as automatic defences while they used another weapon such as the axe. They could essentially ignore thoughts about defence since the swords themselves would do it for them.
However, that wasn¡¯t the main selling point of these weapons. The greatest part of these weapons was that they could count as any set material. Meaning that they could enhance the set effects one has without being a part of that set. Example being her Blood Crystal Armour set.
Currently, at 6/6 pieces, the blood crystal armour set gave her a bonus of +200 In INT, AGI, VIT. +50 Mana Leech and +50 Life Steal.
The sword formations would then automatically increase the effect to the next tier, 9 pieces. Even though her armour didn¡¯t have 9 pieces, the swords themselves will upgrade the set.
It was a wonder how this was even allowed to appear at such a low level city.
"Before anyone can bid, I¡¯ll disy the equipment status board for all of you to see." The auctioneer called out as three images appeared in the air through a holographic projection.
[Chromatic Piercer LVL 60 -Bow (Purple)]
Requirements: C ss, 2000 DEX, 1500 STR, Bow Mastery
+600 Attack
+500 Pierce
+300 Multi Shot
+50% Elemental Damage
+150 Arrow Flight Speed
+100 Target Acquisition
+100 Range
Skills: Chromatic Spectrum, Chromatic Focus
Chromatic Spectrum:
When activated, the arrow will split itself into 10 homing arrows that will seek out your targets. Each arrow will have a randomised element associated with it.
+100 Elemental Damage and Piercing when activated.
Cost: 10,000 MP per activation
Duration: Until arrows hit the targets
Cool Down: 5 minutes
Chromatic Focus:
Must be activated whilst Chromatic Spectrum is active. The ten arrows willbine into a single arrow that has increased piercing and attack power.
+200 Attack and Pierce when activated.
Cost: 20,000 MP Per activation
Duration: Until the arrow hits the target
Cool Down: 10 minutes]
Looking at the description for the purple bow, Chromatic Piercer, Shiro was surprised but it¡¯s stats and couldn¡¯t help but nod in appreciation. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that she had her firearms, she would be tempted to obtain this bow.
After reading the description for the bow, she nced at the shield.
[Aegis of Blessed Fortune LV 60 ¨C Shield (Purple)]
Restrictions: C ss, 2500 DEF, 1000 STR, Shield Mastery
+700 DEF
+500 STR
+30% Critical Resistance
+50% Aggro Build-up
+30% Chance of damage reflection
+20% Physical Resistance
+20% Magic Resistance
+10% Luck
Skills: ckout, Fortunate Regeneration, Immobilizing Aura
ckout:
Silence the enemy for a short moment in which they¡¯re not able to use any skills.
+60% aggro during this moment of time.
Cost: 25,000 MP per activation
Duration: Between 30 seconds and 1 minute. (Depends on randomised luck)
Cool Down: 2 minutes
Fortunate Regeneration:
Regenerate health based on all damage taken in the past 30 seconds. Health regenerated ranges between 20% and 100%.
Cost: 25,000 MP per activation
Duration: 2 seconds
Cool Down: 5 minutes
Immobilizing Aura:
Decrease the overall speed (Including attack speed) of the enemy for a short moment of time. Decrease ranges from 20% to 50%.
Cost: 20,000 MP per activation
Duration: Ranges from 30 seconds to 2 minutes
Cool Down: 5 minutes.]
¡¯Hmm... a shield where the strengths of the skills are randomised.¡¯ Shiro thought with mild interest. However, as interested as she was, she could probably find a more consistent shield for Madison when they reach C ss.
That only left the item set. Out of the three, this was what had her attention the most.
[Nirvana Soul des ¨C Flying Sword Formation (Purple+)]
Can only be equipped when the user passes the sword trial linked with these des.
A set of des left behind by the ancients. Embedded with a mysterious power, these des grow alongside their owner should they be worthy.
Skills are tailored to the user after they pass the test.
Users are only allowed one attempt at the test.
Seeing the description on the des, Shiro was surprised at the fact that the des were growth type des.
Even if they didn¡¯t include the fact that they grew alongside the user, Shiro knew that they would cause quite a stir.
However, it seemed like not everyone shared the same thoughts since they were more attracted by the bow and shield rather than the swords.
This could also be attributed to the fact that the sword looked rather average whenpared to the weapons. The Chromatic Piercer was a bow that looked like it was made from a seven coloured crystal while the Aegis of Blessed Fortune looked like a divine relic. Meanwhile, the Nirvana Soul des were in long swords that weren¡¯t decorated at all.
It didn¡¯t seem like a purple+ item and to make matters worse, they couldn¡¯t see the stats either.
This heavily downyed the actual value of the des making Shiro wonder if she could bid for it without actually stealing it.
"We¡¯ll first start with the Chromatic Piercer! Bidding starts at 150 million! With increments of no less than 10 million!"
"200 million!"
The first bid had instantly increased the price by 50 million. This caused Shiro to nce over at the caller and realised who they were.
¡¯If I remember from what I had read, he is someone belonging to the Durmark family. A family who are only inferior to the top 5 and is famed for their archers.¡¯ Shiro thought before turning her attention away.
Whoever won the bow was none of her concern since her eyes were on the real treasure. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, none of the big families seems to know the true value of the des. This caused a few questions to be raised in her head as she searched the web for Sword Formation items.
However, to her surprise, not many knew of the power behind the sword formations. They only knew that they were high grade items.
¡¯Hmm... could it be that not a lot of people passed the test for these swords?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as anyone who passed the test were able to experience an astonishing increase to their battle potential.
¡¯Well it¡¯s good news for me.¡¯
Letting the people bid for the two purple grade items, Shiro waited patiently for the bids to start for the sword formation.
Since her loot from the mutated dungeon earned her more than 150 million USD, she¡¯ll be able to use that to purchase the Nirvana Soul des.
In the end, the Chromatic Piercer was won by the Durmark family for 350 million USD while the Aegis of Blessed Fortune was won by the Sermak Family for 500 million.
"For ourst item, we have the mysterious Nirvana Soul des. This set of swords were excavated from the deep sea ruins thaty buried under the ocean. We were fortunate enough to find this purple plus grade item during ourst excursion to the ruins. Unfortunately, we weren¡¯t able to pass the test to earn the ownership of this item." The auctioneer said as he brought everyone¡¯s attention to the des.
"However, it should be noted that anything graded purple plus will most definitely be more powerful than the Chromatic Piercer and the Aegis of Blessed Fortune. Therefore, we shall start this bid with 100 million USD with increments of no less than 1 million USD!"
"100 million!"
"105 million!"
"106 million!"
Sadly, the nirvana des didn¡¯t garner as much hype as the other two weapons did. The bids were increasing very slowly and Shiro could even see a slight amount of disappointment on the branch masters face when he saw this.
*BING!
120 million.
cing her bid of 120 million, Shiro sighed at the fact that she has basically blown over her entire earnings for today.
The intervals between bids stated to increase as the auctioneer tried to get as much value out of the des as he could.
Eventually, Shiro won the des with 150 million USD.
Standing up from her balcony, Shiro ced Yin back onto her shoulder and started to make her way towards the counter where she would receive her earnings for tonight along with paying for the items that she won.
On her way there, she could see both Alura and Lox ring daggers at each other. However, they stopped when they saw Shiro.
"Young miss, can you spare a moment for a short chat?" Lox asked as he smiled.
Shiro was taken aback at this and pulled out her phone.
[Me?]
"Yes indeed miss Shiro." He smiled. But before he could continue his talk, Alura butted in.
"Don¡¯t fall for that scheming smile of his. Pui, you don¡¯t know how many young girls he had ruined because of his yboy nature." Alura spat out whilst walking over to Shiro and handed her a card.
"The Casadan family would like to invite you for a small chat about a partnership between us. If you¡¯re interested, feel free to contact us through the information on the card." She smiled.
Taking the card, Shiro nodded slightly whilst wondering what she could have done to garner their attention. Especially when one of the biggest families in the city wanted to talk about a partnership with her.
Lox wasn¡¯t going to be left behind and also handed her a card.
"Don¡¯t make the wrong decision young miss. Because after tonight, the Casadan family is bound to suffer a great set back." He said whilst giving Alura a cold re.
The reason as to why they both wanted to form a partnership with the white haired girl in front of them was due to the fact that they had discovered that she essentially carried her team to safety when they entered a level 50 mutated dungeon.
The party members that made up the dungeon consisted of an average level of 34 and when she entered, she was only 37. With those members, there were hardly any chance for them to survive. In addition to this, help wasn¡¯t going toe anytime soon due to two reasons. Number one, they were foreigners of another city and the high level adventurer¡¯s were willing to go out of their way to save them. And two, the loot drops would decrease in quality once adventurers break open the dungeon. This meant that not only were they going to get a debuff for breaking open the dungeon, but there wasn¡¯t even any loot for them. With these two facts, the high level adventurer¡¯s of Cairosa collectively decided to wait for the party to die in the dungeon.
And yet, they had managed to miraculously survive a dungeon more than ten levels above them with a casualty of only two of their members.
Not only that, but she had already levelled up six times within the short amount of time in the dungeon meaning only one thing. She had killed most of the monster¡¯s solo.
With that kind of capability against level 50 monsters, she was definitely a hidden gem waiting to be discovered.
[I¡¯ll be sure to contact one of you.] Shiro smiled politely since it would spell more trouble if she made her stand clear right now.
Not only that, but there wasn¡¯t any point to linking up with either families since she was doing pretty well right now.
The duo nodded before leaving.
Unfortunately, it was a little awkward since Shiro was going the same way. That feeling of heading the same way as someone, even though you¡¯ve just bid farewell to each other, made for a rather weird atmosphere between the three of them.
But once they arrived at the collection counter, the weird atmosphere was dispelled since they were led into separate rooms. Shiro sighed in relief since she really didn¡¯t know how to handle awkward moments like that. If the silence had continued any longer, she was tempted to just say f*ck it and go on ahead of them despite it being a little rude.
Shiro waited for a short moment until a man entered the room. Since one of her items were the main attractions, she was allowed a separate room to collect these items.
"Miss Shiro, here the items that you have won. A skill stone and the Nirvana Soul des along with the money you have earned during this auction. As for how much you need to pay us, that totals up to 171 million USD. Naturally, you can pay 160 million with your earnings and the remaining 11 million with the system bnce." The man smiled and handed her the payment crystal.
Shiro nodded and paid 11 million.
Receiving both her items, Shiro instantly stored them away in her inventory and left the room. She was going to find a good vantage point for the mini war that¡¯s about to break out and hopefully get herself a few items along the way.
Chapter 107 Second Skill
Chapter 107 Second Skill
Leaving the building, Shiro looked around for a short moment before jumping up towards one of the taller buildings.
However, mid-flight, she had received a text regarding her third and final purchase.
[???: Hello miss Shiro, as the winner of the Mana Springs permission, the Ospar family will conduct this transaction at the family mansion. Since this is a permission pertaining the ess of our mana springs, we¡¯ll send you an exact date soon.]
Reading the text, Shiro only raised an eyebrow.
¡¯I was wondering why they never gave me anything regarding this. So the Ospar family did this transaction personally.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. That being said, it was a spur of the moment decision after all. She wasn¡¯t even sure if this will heal her mana links.
Sitting down, Shiro pulled out the skill stone as she nned to create the cold fire before the fighting actually started.
[Skill Stone: Combust]
Create a wisp of fire in your palms that ispletely under your control.
Cost: 500MP/second
Duration: N/A
Cool Down: N/A
Activating the skill stone, Shiro watched it crumbled into dust.
"Let¡¯s hope this works." She muttered as she flicked her index finger upwards. A bright orange me lit up on the tip of her finger.
"Sss!" Shiro winced slightly as she quickly put the fire out.
Frowning at the fact that her fire was still damaging her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh at the fact that she had a 25% vulnerability to fire.
Sighing slightly, she started to work on creating the cold fire. Narrowing her eyes, she started to filter out the Helium in the air so that it would be the fuel to her fire.
Unfortunately for her, the air surrounding her only had a small amount of Helium. However, that was enough for her since the moment the skill was registered, it would take her mana instead of Helium.
After a short moment of visualisation, Shiro took a deep breath and snapped her fingers.
A blue me lit up on her finger as a grin crept up on Shiro face. Unlike the previous me, the blue me didn¡¯t harm her at all. It was even slightly cool to the touch.
However, that me onlysted a short moment before fizzing out.
"Hmm... seems like just making the me isn¡¯t enough to register it as a skill. I¡¯ll need to actually make it viable for battle before the system register¡¯s the attack as a skill." Shiro muttered as she held out her hand. Since the me needed Helium to take form, Shiro needed arge quantity of Helium.
Metal and lightning sparked for a short moment as she narrowed her eyes and sped up the construction process.
Once the item finished its construction, Shiro held a cylindrical container.
[Helium Filter]
The item would help her constantly filter out Helium from the surroundings while she was busy. cing the container on her waist, she connected it with a clip make from nanotech.
¡¯Hopefully, I should be able to gather enough Helium to make a spell out of it.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she pulled up her face mask.
ncing at her white hair, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but notice how much it shines under the moonlight. Furrowing her brows for a moment, she made created a hood, chest armour and some arm guards to help hide her identity.
In addition to this, she also activated her disguise skill and edited what people would see when they saw her.
[??? LVL ??? - ???]
¡¯Perfect.¡¯ She smiled to herself. Plus, with the construction of her hood, Yin had managed to have a new home. While it wasn¡¯t asfy as the old hood, due to the fact that it was made from metal, it was good enough for Yin.
Her goal for participating in tonight¡¯s war was simple. Rob a few people for a few items she had her eyes on during the auction. Most of these items were enhancement potions and other consumables that would help give Lyrica and Madison some extra protection while they were off dungeoning without her. Now that her level had propelled to 43, she was 8 levels above them.
With such a difference, it would do more harm than good if she were to go to dungeons with them. That being said, it was only limited to dungeons. If they were to go into raids or excursions outside of the dungeon, she would join in since the monsters outside the dungeon were much stronger than the ones inside the dungeon.
Crouching on the roof of her building, she narrowed her eyes whilst she scanned the surroundings for enemies.
¡¯Hmm, there are quite a few level 60¡¯s around here. From what I can see, most of them belong to the Casadan Family and the Sermak Family.¡¯
*BOOM!!!
As if signalling the start of the war, several figures rushed out of the auction house and dashed towards their respective families.
Bright orange orbs exploded into life above them as Shiro realised that Alura was immediately casting Hell Fire Bombardment.
Lox gritted his teeth for a moment before flicking his arms upwards.
Magic circles appeared around him as lightning dragons could be seen wing their way out of the magic circles.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
The dragons collided with the fireballs and exploded into a multitude of colours in the sky. Just from a simple nce, one could tell that the dragons had beenpletely suppressed.
¡¯Mn, the power of the Hell Fire Bombardment is as strong as I remembered it to be.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst the floor could be seen slowly freezing around her. Cooling herself down, she couldn¡¯t help but apud Alura for her control over fire. Even with her distance, she could still feel the intensity of the mes.
Without good visualisation and control, that kind of output would be extremely hard, nearly impossible in fact. Not to mention, Alura had cast it without too much trouble showing her talent as a fire user.
However, Lox wasn¡¯t to be left behind either since he was able to conjure up beasts of lightning one after the other without too much dy.
Since he couldn¡¯t surpass Alura due to her power with the Hell Fire Bombardment, he was going to overwhelm her with quantity.
With the two young leaders of each family duking it out, the other members weren¡¯t to be left behind.
Looking at the different types of skills flying through the air, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the fact that it looked like a fireworks disy.
Minutes passed as the casualties shot through the roof. Not only that, but the fight was slowly moving away from the auction house, allowing the other winners of items to leave quickly while they could.
[Thomas LVL 50 ¨C Berserker]
Seeing one of her targets run out of the auction house, Shiro narrowed her eyes and dashed after him.
Yin Style Phantom Art¡¯s: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Catching up with the adventurer, Shiro grabbed the back of his neck and mmed him into the ground.
Sitting on his back, Shiro grabbed both of his arms and had her foot pressed against the back of his elbows so that she could break them quickly if she needed.
Holding both arms with her right hand, she typed out her message with her left hand and showed him the phone.
[Hand over the items you¡¯ve won at the auction.]
Reading the message, Thomas only gritted his teeth as he tried to break out of her grip.
*CRACK CRACK!
Breaking both of his arms quickly, Shiro flipped off his back andnded softly. Flicking her wrist, she instantly created Harbinger¡¯s Song and aimed the gun at the man¡¯s head.
"Heh, we both know guns don¡¯t do shit anymore!" He shouted out whilst lunging at Shiro. Activating several skills that bolstered his defence and strength, his body increased in size as a red glow encased him.
Shiro only nced at him coldly and pulled the trigger.
*BANG!
The bullet shot towards Thomas andpletely destroyed his head.
"Headshot." Shiro muttered and disassembled her hand cannon. Walking over to the headless corpse, she collected the loot.
¡¯Hmm... that¡¯s quite the inventory he had. Not too bad.¡¯ She thought with a nod before parkouring up the side of the building.
Looking at the destruction caused by the two families, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but apud at the fact that they managed to not involve any bystanders.
Not only that, but it seems like most of the houses were already empty.
¡¯Seems like they¡¯ve long evacuated.¡¯
Shaking her head, she looked around for the second adventurer she had her eyes on. The item he won were several spell scrolls that contained high tier D ranked spells.
If she got her hands on them, Lyrica and Madison would have a better chance to finish off a high level boss should they need it.
However, the moment she found her target, she saw that he was being pursued by a two level 50¡¯s.
"Well two more victims doesn¡¯t change anything."
Crouching down for a short moment, she put strength into her legs and ran towards the trio. Making two Harbinger¡¯s Songs, Shiro also created suppressors on the end of the barrels.
Jumping off the roof of her building, she grinned and aimed both guns towards the level 50¡¯s chasing her target.
Suddenly feeling a sense of danger, they looked up to see a girl falling towards them with two guns pointed at their heads.
*TSST TSST
Two suppressed gunshots rang out as she killed the two with ease.
Grinning at the power behind the two hand cannons, Shiro pivoted on her foot and turned towards her target.
*KRRR!!!
Ice shot towards him as it froze his leg.
*TSST
With her target frozen in ce for a short moment, Shiro was able to shoot him on the back of his head.
Disassembling the dual hand cannons once more, she collected the loot before leaving the area.
While there was the choice of earning more loot, she knew that it was better to quit while she was ahead.
Rift Walker.
Her body immediately disappeared from where she stood.
###
Arriving back at the slums, Shiro nced over at the city and saw that the fight was still continuing.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ve underestimated their feud for each other.¡¯ Shiro thought, surprised.
Now that she had obtained everything that she wanted, she made her way towards her b¡¯.
Taking out the Nirvana Soul des, she wondered if she should attempt the trial or not.
"Since I already have my weapons and armour, I¡¯m pretty protected on all fronts. However, if I leave it for Lyrica, it¡¯ll solve her problem of having little to no defence since her dedancer ss is an extreme damage focused ss." Shiro muttered as she debated on whether or not she should give the trial a try or not.
*Dang...
She suddenly paused when she heard the echo of a footstep. While the echo was very quiet, she was still able to pick it up with her hearing.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro stood up.
"Seems like a few rats have found this ce." She muttered before making herself a tiny drone. Sending it out to scan the building, she found two cloaked figures looked around wearily.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro realised that they were from the slums.
¡¯Well it¡¯s the perfect chance for me to try make a new skill.¡¯ She thought with a grin. Leaving her room, she made a pair of sound absorbent boots.
Once she was a room away from the invaders, Shiro created a few nanotech wires and controlled them using her mana.
Once the duo from the slums walked into her wires, she flicked her wrist and tightened the wires around the invaders.
"Huh?!!" They were shocked when their body was suddenly entangled by something that prevented them from moving. Quickly looking forwards, they saw their target reveal herself.
Not too long ago, they had found a target that would have been ssified as high quality merchandise enter this abandoned building and thought that it would be easy.
Little did they know, they picked the most dangerous person out of everyone that came from New York.
Frozen Hell Series: Frozen Slumber.
Waving her hands, several magic circles appeared around the men and chainsshed out at them.
"Gah!" Crying out in pain, they knew that they were in danger. However, no matter what they did, the wires that bound them refused to break. The more they struggled, the more the wires cut into them.
Seeing that everything was set up, Shiro proceeded to try out her new idea for the spell. Throwing the container that had all of the Helium it had gathered towards the duo, Shiro snapped her fingers and a blue me could be seen flickering on her finger. Making a finger gun that aimed towards the container, the blue me shot towards the container before exploding out into a mass fire.
The duo were confused as to why the mes didn¡¯t hurt but widened their eyes when they felt the freezing process increase in speed.
When they opened their mouths to scream, Shiro only grinned as the fire entered their bodies.
Snapping her fingers once more, the cold fire that entered their bodies heated up into Blue Fire. While they looked simr, Blue Fire was many times hotter than normal fire.
With the blue fire burning them from the inside and the cold fire freezing them from the outside, they were in constant agony.
[Self-made skill recognised. Awarding 100 free stat points. Conditions met to be added to ¨C Frozen Hell Series ¨C]
[Please name your skill within 10 seconds or else the system will assign a name]
"Hmm, surprise me system." Shiro smiled and decided to let the system make a name for the skill.
[Skill added]
[Frozen Hell: Azure Soul Fire]
Chapter 108 Life Saving Equipment
Chapter 108 Life Saving Equipment
[Skill added]
[Frozen Hell: Azure Soul Fire]
"Hou~... Azure Soul Fire..." Shiro raised an eyebrow as she nced at the duo who had long turned to ash.
Wondering about what kind of change the skill had experienced, she closed her eyes and thought about the activation process of the skill.
"So it has a requirement of Frozen Slumber to be activated first." Shiro muttered before shrugging her shoulders. She had plenty of time to test out the power of the skill but right now, she had 100 free points for her to use.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Intermediate Monster (7/50 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete)
Level: 43
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 157,500/157,500
MP: 387,135/387,135
STR: 800 (+100)
VIT: 1000 (+200)
INT: 2300 -> 2400 (+550)
AGI: 1500 (+450)
DEX: 1000(+100)
DEF: 400 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 100 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 1
Metal ¨C Tier 0
Shadow ¨C Tier 1
Bnce: 152,900,000 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation
Frozen Hell Series:
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 1)]
Now that she had created her second skill, she was just waiting to gather the rest of the Jade Ice so that she could ss up.
"Hmm... I should probably make a list of what I need to do."
Her first task was naturally to star up before doing anything else. Next was her key to Silvermoon Keep and following which is the Team Trial: Sword Myth Springs.
However, Sword Myth Springs was rmended for level 45¡¯s and both Lyrica and Madison were still quite the distance from level 45.
By then, she would have hopefully gotten her 5th star.
"I also need Nan Tian to help me get that Phoenix Rebirth Pill. That reminds me, I need to deal with a certain assassin stalker as well." Shiro thought as she narrowed her eyes.
Due to themotion back in New York, it seemed like all the factions were required to resolve the totem ritual.
"With the danger of New York unresolved, it seems like it¡¯ll take a while for Winter¡¯s Grace to contact us about going to the faction branch as well." Shiro muttered while she cleaned up the scene.
There was also the problem of the Nirvana Soul des. The best oue were for Lyrica to im ownership of these swords since Shiro believed that it would suit her well.
"Then there¡¯s also the mana springs and the slum lords. Hais... so many things to do. That being said, I wonder how Jonas¡¯ and all that are faring. After Trace and Paul died, Jonas¡¯ retired while Silvia would probably quit as well. She wasn¡¯t looking too well after the dungeon, same with Erica. They¡¯re probably going to avoid me since I¡¯m essentially a guillotine hanging over their heads." Shaking her head, Shiro sighed at the fact that there were so many things for her to take care of.
But, putting aside the tasks that she could only doter, Shiro made her way back to the tents.
Upon leaving the abandoned building, Shiro was surprised to see the fight still going on in the city.
"They¡¯re still fighting??? They really do hate each other, don¡¯t they?" Shiro asked Yin.
*Chirp
Yin only replied with an uninterested tone as she was still a little annoyed at the fact that Shiro got rid of her hood.
After walking for a short while, the campsite could be seen. However, the atmosphere of the campsite was a little odd since quite a few adventurers were patrolling around the adventurer.
"Shiro-nee! Why did you take so long toe back." Kanae cried out as she quickly pulled Shiro into the tent.
[What happened?] Shiro asked.
"Recently, a lot of beautiful aunties and girls have gone missing so they need to patrol around the area. They think it has something to do with the bad guys in the slums and that they¡¯re only targeting beautiful people. With someone as beautiful as Shiro-nee, they¡¯ll definitely target you." Kanae reminded Shiro.
Smiling softly, Shiro nodded and turned to the other girls in the tent.
She could see that all three the mothers and daughters were concerned since this tent had Shiro, Lyrica and Madison, who were definitely above average in the looks department. Especially Shiro.
Surprisingly though, Kanae weren¡¯t as concerned about herself but rather more about Shiro.
Stating that: "You¡¯re not allowed to go out until they sort the problem out."
Shiro found that rather adorable and couldn¡¯t help but pinch her cheeks a little before nodding her head.
[Alright, I¡¯ll stay behind for a short while to train with you ok?] Shiro smiled. She wasn¡¯t in too much of a rush anyway. As long as she doesn¡¯t kill any monsters or humans to level up for the time being, she would be fine.
Kanae nodded her head but kept on hugging Shiro.
Chuckling to herself, Shiro patted Kanae¡¯s head before turning to the slightly sour Lyrica right now.
Seeing her expression, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but think of a child when they got their favourite toy stolen from them.
[Lyrica, I managed to get something good from the auction for you.] Shiro typed out. This caused Lyrica to instantly perk up at the mention of Shiro getting her something.
"What did you get?" She asked curiously.
Pulling out the Nirvana Soul des, Shiro handed them over to her.
[I want you to take the trial and see if you can im ownership of these weapons.]
"Eh? What about you?" Lyrica asked in shock. She never expected the gift that Shiro had given her was a set of Purple+ grade items. Even though they looked in right now, Lyrica knew that there were special items that would change forms once they linked up with a owner. She guessed that it was the case for the Nirvana Soul des.
[You need it more than I do. I have both offence and defence, but your ss only gives you offence. What¡¯s your DEF stat right now?]
"Erm... 50 not including any bonuses from equipment..." Lyrica said embarrassingly. She hadn¡¯t put any points into DEF since her skills needed her to reach a certain amount of STR and AGI. To use these skills, she had fuelled all of her skill points into ces other than DEF.
Hearing what Lyrica had said, Shiro widened her eyes and stared at Lyrica in disbelief.
[How did you survive a hit from the boss???] She asked feeling a little fearful. During the boss fight, Lyrica had suffered a blow which should by logic, end her.
"Well... My HP may or may not have been in the 100 thousands..." Lyrica blushed.
¡¯100 thousand?!¡¯ Shiro thought with shock. If it wasn¡¯t for her monster title, her HP would only be around 70k and her MP would be around 150k. But Lyrica was telling her that her HP was in the 100k range? Shiro simply couldn¡¯t believe that kind of passive point bonus her dedancer ss had given her.
Every ss, once they reached their second ss up, automatically increased the stats upon level up. For her Snow Girl ss, which is currently her main ss due to her race, she would gain a significant boost to INT every time she levelled up. The bonus would outstrip stats like STR or VIT.
However, if Lyrica had 100k HP when she was just in her level 30¡¯s, that meant that the passive bonus was outrageous for her VIT stat.
[Well I guess that¡¯s more reason for you to equip these des then. Hell, even I have 400 points in DEF and I hardly gain any points in that area.] Shiro replied.
However, this time it was Madison¡¯s turn to be shocked. Since her ss was Demon Knight, she needed both STR, VIT and DEF, which is why they were her best stats. Even the lowest out of them were around the 800¡¯s and she knew how hard it was to get 100k health.
"Erm... Just a question from me, but what¡¯s the value of your strongest stat?" Madison asked.
[2400 in INT]
"1200 in STR." Lyrica replied honestly. Her ss was so extreme in the offensive department that her STR, VIT and AGI were outrageous whenpared to other adventurer¡¯s her level. That being said, her other stats were piss poor.
"How the hell is your strongest stat 1200 in STR?!" Madison asked in shock.
"Erm... Race trait of elves, we get more stat points per level along with my ss giving me a lot of stats in STR, VIT and AGI." Lyrica replied with a slight cough.
"Wait, then how the hell was your HP 100k? Even if you had 1200 points in VIT, that would still only be 60k in the HP department." Madison asked.
"Well... I guess you girls can know." Lyrica replied after hesitating for a short moment.
Tapping her chest, a pendant appeared.
[Elven Saint Blessings (Orange)]
In times of danger, the Elven Saint will bless you with the power to survive a lethal blow.
HP x500%.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cool Down: 5 days
Cannot be activated manually
Bound: Lyrica Valenstaine
Looking at the equipment, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but be shocked at the fact that Lyrica had a levelless Orange grade equipment.
Even though it was bound to her, it was still a bad idea should more people know about it.
Shiro instantly hid the jewel with her hand causing Lyrica to blush heavily since it looked like Shiro just reached out for her b.r.e.a.s.ts.
"Ah! Er! Shiro! There¡¯s people here!" Lyrica stammered in shock.
[Hide pendant. Now.] Shiro typed out.
Realising that she was talking about the pendant, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but want to cry since her hopes were shattered once more.
Following her instruction of hiding the pendant, both Lyrica and Madison looked at Shiro curiously. Wondering as to why she reacted rather strongly.
[Don¡¯t show that pendant casually. Even though it¡¯s bound to you, humans will think with the mindset of: If I can¡¯t have it, neither can you.] Shiro warned sternly.
"R-right..." Both Lyrica and Madison nodded.
[Well, now that I know you¡¯re able to survive if anything bad were to happen, I¡¯m not as worried anymore.] Shiro sighed in relief.
Taking out the empowerment potions and different skill scrolls, Shiroid them out in front of them.
[Take these, they¡¯ll help you out massively in times of danger.]
"Eh? Oh wow, all of these should be quite expensive." Madison muttered as she looked at the myriad of potions and scrolls thatid in front of them.
[Just rob a few people on auction night. No biggie.] Shiro waved her hand nonchntly.
Both Madison and Lyrica felt their lips twitch hearing how nonchnt she was.
¡¯Little sis! They¡¯re all in the level 50¡¯s to 60¡¯s ok?!¡¯
Watching Lyrica and Madison split the loot amongst themselves, Shiro turned to the other girls in the tent.
[Since it¡¯s getting dangerous, each of you should keep a life saving item on you as well.] Shiro typed out whilst handing each of them some supplies.
"Thank you." The mothers nodded in appreciation.
As for Kanae, Shiro decided to give her something extra. Within the pile of loot that she had given her, there was a small chip attached to Kanae. The chip would warn her if anything was to happen to Kanae and she would be able to track her down to help her.
Naturally, both Lyrica and Madison had this chip as well.
With everything done, they chatted for a little longer before going to sleep.
###
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro walked out of the tent and nced towards the other camps. She could still see a few adventurer¡¯s patrolling diligently.
Shifting her gaze, she sat on the nearby tree and fed herself. Feeding Yin as well, Shiro opened her phone to look at the news.
Regarding the miniature warst night, the winner was the Sermak family. Alura was currently heavily injured and both families had lost arge amount of adventurers. However, while the Sermak family won, they had also lost the most amount of adventurer¡¯s due to Alura¡¯s Hell Fire Bombardment.
With both families suffering from massive casualties, the city would be peaceful for a while.
After waiting for a short moment, Lyrica woke up but surprisingly, Madison was still sleeping.
[Are you going to tackle the Nirvana Soul de Trial now?] Shiro asked with a smile.
"Yeah, even with my pendant, I need to have something else to rely on for defence. Otherwise, I¡¯ll just be courting death everything I challenge a dungeon." Lyrica nodded.
[Good luck, remember, since it¡¯s a trial, you won¡¯t die. Go wild.] Shiro grinned.
Lyrica nodded and pulled out the four des. Taking a deep breath, she sped her hands together as the surrounding mana started to gather towards her.
This caused the adventurers to look towards her with curiosity but immediately resumed their patrols.
A magic circle appeared under her as her body started to fade. Shiro kept a smile on her face as she watched Lyrica enter the formation. Even if she didn¡¯t im ownership of these weapons, Shiro could probably redesign them using her nanobots. While it may not be as powerful as they could be, it would be enough for now.
Chapter 109 [Snow Girl ★★★★]
Chapter 109 [Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï]
After waiting for Lyrica topletely enter the trial space for the Nirvana Soul des, Shiro hopped off the tree and made her way to the city. Even though she promised Kanae that she would stay put for a few days, she would feel bored if she just did nothing. Therefore, she wanted to use this time to continue her search for the jade ice that would help her with her star up.
Walking along her usual route to the city, Shiro frowned slightly when she felt the presences of two people sneaking up on her.
While normal adventurers would have a hard time discovering them. How could Shiro, who was at the apex in her past life, overlook them?
Sighing for a slight moment, Shiro purposefully exposed an opening for the two to attack her.
¡¯Did they see through it?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a frown.
This frown only deepened as they never took the bait.
¡¯Could I have encountered two experts? That shouldn¡¯t be. Otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have been so easy to discover.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
However, just as she sighed, the two reached out their hands in order to kidnap her.
Even though her mind was wandering, Shiro was still ustomed to multitasking and could react to the situation easily.
Since the two weren¡¯t anyone she knew, all restraints were unlocked as she went into instant kill mode.
*Kacha
Before the two even noticed what happened, Shiro had already broken their elbows. Grabbing their jaws with her hands, she stepped on their foot whilst tugging the jaws down with her full strength.
*PSHH!!!!
While she tugged downwards, her shoulder had collided with their throats and gave her the perfect moment to rip their jaws off. Shiro didn¡¯t know why but a sadistic grin crept up on her face, she could even feel her joy for killing increase every passing second.
Discarding the lower jaws in her hands, Shiro twisted her body so that she faced them. When the two men saw her face, they were both horrified at the fact that she looked like she was enjoying every moment of this.
Her pupils glowed with an ominous blue light as sweat dripped down their backs. They cursed at their boss who had sent them on this mission.
Within the next moment, Shiro had already plunged her hands down their throats whilst making Blue Fire inside their bodies. Seeing their pain, Shiro¡¯s grin only increased as she snapped her fingers and nanobots started to devour them from the inside out.
After a short moment, all that remained of the two were slight traces of blood that had been sttered around the area.
"Hmm, well that was refreshing." Shiro muttered as her expression reverted back to normal. ncing at her hands, she started to wonder to herself.
¡¯Hmm... seems like my restraint towards killing my enemies are harder to control?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Meh, not like I restrained myself much when I killed them anyways." She shrugged her shoulders. It wasn¡¯t as if she never killed anyone before.
However, the fact that her restraints that she had subconsciously ced on herself were loosening was a little concerning.
Making a slightlyplicated face, Shiro sighed.
¡¯I¡¯ve been a little too rxed. I should probably take some time out to rein in all of my killing intent.¡¯
She had been using it quite a lot during the time that she was in the dungeon. Naturally, that meant the control she had over it wasn¡¯t as sturdy.
Once she had arrived at the city, Shiro proceeded to walk towards the alchemist association. On the way, Yin was hungry again causing Shiro to nce at her with an indescribable expression.
"Don¡¯t you think you¡¯re starting to eat a lot more now? Could it be like what happened to me and the E ranked stones?" Shiro asked.
Yin pondered for a moment and nodded.
Shaking her head, Shiro pulled out a few D ranked mana stones and handed them over to Yin. However, Yin had seen a little kid with a lollipop and had the odd desire to make something simr.
Looking at the D ranked mana stone, Yin pped Shiro¡¯s head to get her attention.
"Ow, didn¡¯t I just give you the mana stone? Why did you smack my head?" Shiro asked as she nced upwards.
Looking at the kid that Yin was pointing to, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow.
"You want a lollipop?"
Seeing Yin nod, Shiro took the mana stone from her and made a stick using her nanobots. Naturally, out of people¡¯s sight.
*Chirp!
Chirping in delight, Yin grabbed the lollipop and stuffed it in her mouth.
Looking at Yin, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle at the fact that she was just like a spoiled baby sister.
¡¯Well I suppose that¡¯s not inurate.¡¯
ncing at Yin¡¯s blissful face, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what difference the stick made.
Making herself a lollipop, she also stuffed it in her mouth.
"Oh my. Well this is certainly a little different." Shiro muttered whilst eating her mana stone lollipop.
"Wait... I can get away with eating mana stones if they¡¯re like lollipops!" Shiro thought as her eyes glistened slightly.
There was always the problem of having to hide what she was eating when she went out with people. However, with her makeshift lollipop¡¯s, she would be able to eat mana stones tantly.
Smiling with bliss at the new discovery, the pair of bird and snow girl attracted a few gazes. The fact that they were both eating lollipops with such a happy face caused a few people to chuckle and smile.
Arriving at the alchemist association, Shiro popped a new lollipop in both her¡¯s and Yin¡¯s mouth before entering.
The design of the alchemist association was much more orderly whenpared to the other associations. There were signs everywhere and everyone were working without too much dy in their actions.
In addition to this, the scent of medicine and different concoctions drifted in the air causing her to wrinkle her nose slightly. Since her senses were better than the average person, the stench was especially strong for her.
"Hello, wee to the Alchemist Association. How may I help you today?" The receptionist smiled warmly when she saw Shiro eating a lollipop along with her bird.
It gave her the feeling that she was a curious child looking around the ce.
[Yes, I would like to ask if I could purchase 3 pieces of Jade Ice.] Shiro asked.
"Three pieces of Jade Ice? Hm, we do have some in stock but they¡¯re more expensive than the current market price since the demand is rather high right now." She smiled apologetically.
[That¡¯s no problem. How much is it in total?]
"3 pieces of Jade Ice will cost a total of 39 million USD."
Hearing the price, Shiro felt the corner of her lips twitch.
Paying the money, the receptionist soon returned with three pieces of the Jade Ice.
Sighing in relief that she had fulfilled everything she needed for her star up, Shiro left the building and walked towards a low level dungeon. She didn¡¯t want to star up in the middle of the street after all.
Arriving at the Giant¡¯s Heart dungeon once more, Shiro snuck inside and made sure that there were no enemies around her during her star up.
Looking a her system interface, she pressed yes for the star up.
A blizzard suddenly picked up around her as Yin was thrown backwards.
Shiro had to grit her teeth feeling the piercing cold. After bing a snow girl, she had never one felt cold but this blizzard was different. It was so cold that Shiro could feel as if her entire body was being frozen from the inside out.
Surprisingly, she could even see ayer of ice being formed over her body. Her breaths were bing sharper as her vision was blurring.
ncing around, she could faintly see that the entire chamber had be an ice cave. Thankfully, Yin was safe.
She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her brain and passed out.
###
It was unsure how long it had been, but when Shiro opened her eyes again, the blizzard had long died down. Not only that, there was also not a single thing in the chamber than wasn¡¯t frozen, except for Yin of course.
ncing at her rewards for the 4th star up, Shiro wasn¡¯t too surprised about the bonuses.
[Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï]
300 free points per level up.
2% increased in ice elemental attack effectiveness and efficiency.
Skill gained: Cold Illusions.
Cold Illusions: Activate while in a cold environment. The skill will cast an illusion on your enemies and confuse them during the fight. Effectiveness and duration depends on the difference in strength.
Cost: 1,000MP per activation
Duration: N/A
Cool Down: 5 minutes when the illusion is broken.
With this star up, it only left her 5th and final star up before she could attempt her second ss up.
However, now that her second ss upgrade was just around the corner, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but grow worried due to the fact that the second ss would no doubt need her to increase one of her attunements to Tier 3.
Just upgrading her Ice Attunement to Tier 2 caused such a strong bacsh, she knew that she definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to upgrade to Tier 3 before she healed her Mana Links.
ncing at Yin, who was somehow able to sleep in this situation, Shiro sat down and closed her eyes. She wanted to inspect her Mana Realm and see if there were any improvements. The reason as to why she hadn¡¯t entered before now was due to the fact that one could only upgrade their elemental inds once in a while, paired with her broken mana links, Shiro needed to wait longer than usual before she could re-enter her Mana Realm to upgrade her inds.
After a short moment, Shiro found herself back in her chaotic mana realm.
Looking at the links that were still broken and mashed up, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but want to cry.
If you¡¯re going to reincarnate me, at least give me a working body!
Sighing at her current dilemma, she looked towards her elemental inds. Right now the lightning ind had a few mountains with thunder clouds in the sky and the shadow inds is well...pletely covered in shadows.
The only one left was her Metal ind.
Since the other inds were already at Tier 1, she may as well upgrade the metal ind so that it wasn¡¯t left behind.
Floating over to the ind, Shironded with a soft thud. ncing at the silver strands of mana that were floating around, she narrowed her eyes and raised her hands up.
Mana gathered towards her palm as Shiro could already feel a bit of pain creeping up on her. However, this was unlike when she upgraded her ice ind. The pain wasn¡¯t as intense and the difficulty was easier as well.
After gathering her mana for a short moment, Shiro mmed her palm into the ground.
*KISH KISH KISH KISH!
Metal started to erupt out of the ground as it started to convert the ind into a metal ind.
Once the entire ind was converted, Shiro saw that her Metal Attunement had sessfully been upgraded to Tier 1.
She smiled softly and exited the mana realm. Once she returned to her body, she felt a bit of blood leak out between her lips as just upgrading to Tier 1 still incurred a little bit of bacsh.
"Well that¡¯s sorted." Shiro sighed out as she stood up.
She nced briefly at her stats and noted that not much had changed except that a new skill was under the snow girl tab and her human¡¯s killed increased from 7 to 9.
The next thing she wanted to check was her appearance. Every star up brought her changes to her appearance.
Conjuring up an ice mirror, Shiro nced at her appearance and sighed at the fact that it seemed like her height had not changed at all. However, as her eyes drifted downwards, she widened them in surprise.
"I got tits!" She called out in shock.
While the growth wasn¡¯t huge, what used to be called a runway had now evolved into two speed bumps.
"Umu umu good start!" Shiro couldn¡¯t suppress the smile that crept up on her face. Finally! She was showing signs of growth on the physical side!
Walking with a slight skip in her steps, she scooped Yin towards her chest.
"Fufufu, Little Yin. Guess what? Thisdy is finally growing!" Shiroughed as her body had been guing her mind for so long. Watching her friend, *ahem* Madison, suddenly grow out a pair of melons while she was still in the body that could best be described as jailbait, wasn¡¯t the most pleasant feeling.
She would have been happy for even a little bit of growth in her b.r.e.a.s.t department but it seemed like all of her nutrients went into her height during the previous star ups.
HOWEVER! The runway Shiro is long gone and instead, speed bump Shiro had joined the fight!
Walking out of the dungeon, her delighted mood seemed to roll off of her as it was causing the people around her to feel their moods lift up as well.
A few unsavoury fellows had something else lift up but Shiro wasn¡¯t about to let that destroy her mood of finally growing more on the physical side.
Walking back towards the campsite, she was going to try to get back before Kanae woke up. Or else she may have to sit through a mini lecture about not going to the city since it was dangerous.
Chapter 110 Ascendant Dream
Chapter 110 Ascendant Dream
Arriving back at the camp, she wasn¡¯t ambushed by any people. However, she was surprised that Lyrica was back so soon.
Looking at Lyrica who was sitting in the shade of a tree, Shiro walked over.
[You¡¯ve finished already?] Shiro asked.
"Yeah, I was eliminated quickly." Lyrica forced a slight smile.
[What happened?]
"Well, after I entered the trial realm for the Nirvana Soul des, I was bombarded from all sides by attacks and I had no weapons. I wasn¡¯t even allowed to use my skills and all I had were these four swords.
"Unfortunately, they were barely responding to my mana so I wasn¡¯t able to control them to help me. I only have two hands and with the des being uncooperative, I wasn¡¯t able to survive for long and immediately got transferred out of the realm." Lyrica exined as Shiro thought about it and nodded.
That did make sense since the trial for a set of Purple + grade equipment weren¡¯t going to be easy.
"Mn? Shiro, did... did your b.r.e.a.s.ts grow a little?" Lyrica asked seeing the slight change to Shiro¡¯s body shape.
[You noticed? I just starred up so there were a few changes to my body.] Shiro replied feeling a little bit of happiness well up inside her once again.
However, as soon as she typed that, she realised that she was being a little too open with her emotions.
*Ahem
Coughing slightly, Shiro reined in her happiness and reverted herself back to the moreposed side of her.
[Yeah, my star up changed my body again. It seems like this time the target was my b.r.e.a.s.ts.] Shiro retyped and showed it to Lyrica.
"Heh~... Is that so? Then you don¡¯t think that after you ss up, you¡¯ll gain an "a.d.u.l.t" body like Madi would you?"
Shiro thought for a moment and agreed at the fact that it could very likely be the case. After all, once she sses up, she would be ssified as a C ranked monster.
The closer she got to B rank, the more a.d.u.l.t like she¡¯d be on the physical side because at B rank, she¡¯d be a Snow Woman. Of course that¡¯s only if she doesn¡¯t deviate from her evolution path. However, from what she understood, after choosing to be a snow woman, it would be very hard to evolve into anything after that.
Even in her past life, they were few mentions of the roles after snow woman.
Therefore, it was definitely in her best interest to stray from her evolution path so that she could reach the apex once more.
[Well I hope so. But I think it will take me a while to enter C rank since I need to obtain some medicine that will hopefully cure one of my internal injuries. Otherwise, I can give up thinking about ssing up.] Shiro shrugged with a soft smile.
"Eh? You have internal injuries?" Lyrica asked surprised.
"Wait... could it be what¡¯s causing you to struggle with upholding your spells for a long time?" She asked with a frown.
[You noticed?] Shiro was slightly surprised.
"Well of course. I mean I always look a- Cough! I mean I always check up on how the party is during a fight. And I¡¯ve noticed that you be paler the more you use your magic in a fight." Lyrica replied whilst correcting herself mid-sentence.
"And from what I know, there are only few cases where mages would struggle with spells. Either A, you¡¯re low on mana. B, you don¡¯t have the capabilities to use the spell or C, damaged mana links. Clearly A and B are wrong since you could easily cast those spells so that only leaves C. You¡¯ve damaged your mana links haven¡¯t you?" Lyrica analysed whilst furrowing her brows.
Shiro was pleasantly surprised at how Lyrica knew but only smiled.
¡¯I wish they were just damaged instead of broken, that¡¯ll make things easier!¡¯
[Yeah, I¡¯ve already got someone to order me a pill that¡¯ll help my mana links so you don¡¯t have to worry.] Shiro smiled.
"Hmm... well if it doesn¡¯t work, we can always look for more ways to heal your mana links. I heard that as long as your mana links aren¡¯t broken, it¡¯s not a lost cause."
¡¯But this missy¡¯s mana links are broken ah! That¡¯s the lost cause you¡¯re talking about!¡¯
[Yeah, well since you failed the Nirvana Soul de Trials, I¡¯m going to give it a go.] Shiro replied and stood up.
If she also failed it, she would then convert the des into some normal defensive equipment for Lyrica.
Lyrica nodded and handed over the des.
[Would you like to enter the Trial Realm for the Nirvana Soul des? Y/N]
Looking at the notification, Shiro gave Lyrica a light wave before pressing yes.
Feeling her vision shift, she instantly felt killing intent attack her from all sides.
"Starting already huh!" Shiro grinned and grabbed two of the Nirvana Soul des with her hands.
*DANG DANG!!
Deflecting the attacks that attacked her, Shiro inserted mana to the other two des and frowned.
¡¯No wonder Lyrica couldn¡¯t control these. They require a specific energy path to be activated. Seems like the first trial was to figure out the energy path whilst simultaneously fending off the iing attacks.
*DANG DANG!
Deflecting a few more attacks, Shiro flipped her body backwards as she retreated for a short moment. While she was doing this, she was also splitting her attention in probing the other two des that hung on her waist, slowly figuring out their energy path.
Previously, the moment she entered this Trial Realm, she had already tried to use her magic and passive abilities but to no avail. That led her to understand that in this realm, she could only use the des in her hands.
Naturally, her grin slowly faded since she knew that she should get serious. The only times where she was serious and weren¡¯t distracted were rare.
Except for a few situations after her reincarnation, she was essentially having a fun stroll whilst enjoying the feeling of growth.
Breathing out steadily, her eyes snapped open and werepletely void of any emotions.
Shifting her body to narrowly avoid a few strikes whilst swinging her sword to deflect the strikes she couldn¡¯t dodge, Shiro essentially created a small domain around her that couldn¡¯t be prated no matter how hard and how fast the strikes were. This was her benefit of being able to grasp 100% of her body movements.
While it wasn¡¯t currently at 100%, it was certainly hovering around the 80% mark. During this entire time of her reincarnation, she spent every second familiarising herself with her body. Walking, resting, parkouring and fighting.
The reach of her attacks, the range of flexibility and the limit of her body strength.
With her mindpletely focused on defence and mapping out the energy path of the des, she was akin to a war goddess that had no ws in her defences.
As she continued to defend herself, she also made progress with the remaining two des.
The moment her mind had fully mapped the des, she flooded both des with her mana.
*BANG!!!!
shing away all of the attacks that were aimed towards her, Shiro now had four swords hovering around her that were being controlled with a wave of her fingers.
*DANG DANG DANG DANG!
The swords ring of action created an orb of absolute defence around her.
ncing at the current defence of the other three des that were coordinating with the sword that she was controlling, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but apuse at the power behind the Nirvana Soul des.
Her seriousness was reced by her usual rxed demeanour as she nced at where she was meant to go.
¡¯Hmm... seems like I¡¯m meant to go towards the giant gate ahead.¡¯ She thought when she saw the faint outline of a golden gate into the distance.
With her target set, Shiro flicked her wrist as one of the swords floated in front of her. Hopping onto the sword, Shiro flew towards the gate while the other three des would defend her.
After a short moment of travel, the gate outline became clearer. However, she was also forced tond back on the ground due to the intensity of the attacks that were striking towards her.
Previously, even though she wasn¡¯t too familiar with the des, she could still handle the attacks. But she discovered that the closer she got to the gate, the more intense these attacks became.
Controlling the des to defend her, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw her advancement speed slow down dramatically. She could only take a step forward every few seconds since the moment she did, a small gap would open up in her defences and the attacks would aim for that gap.
This forced her to try to mend her gaps the moment she finished her steps which in turn, would decrease her progression speed.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro nced at the swords and started to memorise their movement patterns. Standing in ce for a short moment, she was able to understand their unique pattern of movement.
Even though it was still chaotic, there were times of order. That was due to the fact that if everything was chaotic, everything would be randomised. Forget keeping her safe, the des wouldn¡¯t even be able to correctly hit the attacks if they were truly random.
However, it was also when it flipped its switch to order, the des would be predictable.
Hence why gaps would appear the moment she took a step.
The only way to fix this would be to find the perfect bnce between chaos and order. Chaos brought unpredictability in both attack and defence. But order, on the other hand, brought predictability and consistency.
¡¯Chaos is best suited for attacks but order is too predictable for defence.¡¯ Shiro sighed. There was also the option of using defensive sword arts with the Nirvana Soul des to defend herself, but she had never learnt any defensive sword art.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro swept her gaze towards the swords that were currently busy protecting her.
"What if I tried to pair it up with my Yin Style Phantom Arts? Perhaps if I try to recreate what each of the phantoms did, I¡¯ll have a better chance." Shiro muttered and started to experiment whilst being bombarded by the attacks.
The best way to develop a technique was throughbat and this was the perfect moment to develop a sword art to be stored in her arsenal.
###
She wasn¡¯t sure about how long it had been but things started to gradually get easier for her. Unfortunately, she still wasn¡¯t able to create a sword technique.
"Hais... it¡¯s not like I¡¯m an avid sword user in the first ce. It¡¯ll be stranger if I dide up with a technique." Shiro shrugged her shoulders. However, her control over the Nirvana Soul des had be much more refined whenpared to the first time she used the des.
Flicking her wrist, the swords orbited around her like satellites. She made sure that they were working on two separateyers with three on the outside and one on the inside that would cover for any gaps that would appear.
While this made it easier for the attacks to slip through the firstyer, they were stopped easily on the secondyer.
But in order for Shiro to do this, she had to simultaneously control two of the swords.
Since the pressure of the attacks had been reduced by a rather significant amount, Shiro walked towards the gates once more but this time with more sess.
Like before, the closer she got, the more attacks would be shot towards her. However, with her twoyered defences, it was still a breeze for her.
[Nirvana Trial des: Stage 1plete.]
Seeing the notification, Shiro was suddenly overwhelmed by the feeling of falling. Looking down, she saw that a hole had opened up beneath her and that she was currently falling towards a small light in the distance.
¡¯Hmm, I guess that¡¯s were stage 2 is going to be held.¡¯ She thought to herself as she controlled the des to help her increase her falling speed.
It didn¡¯t take long for her to arrive at the second stage. Slowing down her speed, Shironded softly on the floor and looked around.
The room she was currently in had the feeling of being a tomb of sorts. There were empty graves and weapons lying around. Further down in the room, there were ten graves that had not been touched just yet.
Oddly enough, Shiro could instinctively feel what this stage wanted her to do. Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to go along with the feeling and walked towards the coffin furthest away from her.
Looking at the gold ted coffin, Shiro ced her hand on the surface and closed her eyes.
A set of seals started to spread out from her palms as the Nirvana Soul des started to experience a change.
Their shapes were melted down before shifting around in an attempt to recast itself. Naturally, Shiro was unaware of this as she was sent into a spiritual realm of sorts where she was in a phantom form.
Looking around, all she saw was a boundless in of white before she suddenly felt pain in her body. It was a familiar pain to when she would overexert her mana links.
Gritting her teeth, she suddenly saw four orbs of light surround her.
Dark purple, neon yellow, sky blue and silver.
She could sense that they were elements but wasn¡¯t sure as to why they would appear in front of her.
Her thoughts were broken when she saw the system notification.
[Compatibility evaluated: 91%]
[Stage 2 passed]
[Nirvana Soul des unlocked and bound to Shiro.]
[Nirvana Soul des (Purple+) -> Ascendant Dream (Orange)]
Chapter 111 Orange Grade Equipment
Chapter 111 Orange Grade Equipment
[Ascendant Dream (Orange) Matches The Owner¡¯s Level ¨C Current level: 43]
+1000 Attack
+1000 Sharpness
+800 Attack Speed
+600 Ignore Defence
+600 Critical Chance
+500 Auto Guard
+30% Elemental Damage
+200% Self Repair Rate
Skills:
Elemental Shift (Lightning, Shadow, Ice, Metal)
Changes the elemental properties of the weapon. Each element brings a corresponding benefit.
Lightning: +300 Lightning damage, +200% damage against Spirit Type enemies.
Shadow: +300 Mana Drain, +200 Ignore Defence.
Ice: +300 Ice damage, increase rate of freezing, +20% of stun.
Metal: +500 Sharpness, +200 Attack, +200 ignore defence.
Cost: 1,000 MP/second and 5,000 MP to switch elements.
Duration: N/A
Cool Down: N/A
Bound: Shiro
Widening her eyes in shock, she couldn¡¯t believe that these swords were able to evolve into Orange grade equipment after being bound with her. Not only that, but these des also had outrageous stats that could even shame her Harbinger¡¯s Song. That being said, the stronger she got, the more powerful her nanotech would be.
Her hand cannons would then evolve into higher grade equipment as well. But as it stood, the Ascendant Dream would be helping her out for a long time.
Before she knew it, she was already back at the underground tomb where she had ced her hand on the coffin. Looking at the Ascendant Dream that was floating around her, Shiro wasn¡¯t surprised at the fact that they had experienced a few changes to their appearance.
Previously, they looked like in long swords that an average soldier would equip. However, now they looked like meticulously designed treasures.
Each of the des where slightly narrower than the average sword and several runes could be seen etched into the face of the de that gave it an ancient immortal treasure kind of aura.
The guards were ck in colour but had a slight purple shine to the metal. Like the guard, the handles were of the same quality except for the fact that there were neon blue lines running along the handle and into a crystal orb, located at the sword¡¯s pommel.
Curious to test out the skill, Element Shift, she activated the Lightning mode first.
*BOOM!
All four floating swords crackled with lightning before calming down.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro saw that their appearances underwent small changes. The runes now glowed a neon yellow colour and the edges of the de were coated with lightning. As for the orb, it had been dyed with a mix of blue and yellow.
The lightning would flicker off the swords before striking against the ground. However, when they approached Shiro, they would flicker in excitement before wrapping around her hand.
Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle lightly when she saw the behaviour of the lightning.
After observing the first Elemental Shift, she then changed it to shadow.
The lightning fizzled out as an ominous ck mist started to roll off the guard of the sword with no clear signs of where it wasing from. The swords had a ck and purple energy coating the sides of the des.
Looking at the four swords that instantly transformed into demonic swords, she raised an eyebrow as she observed the changes.
Simr things happened with the Ice and Metal elements. Ice was sky blue and Metal was silver.
However, following which was the problem of storing the des. It was a hassle to take the des out one by one before a fight along with the fact that it would be hard to react to an ambush.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro nced at the des and decided to stop supplying mana to the des.
Once they lost their supply of mana, the des transformed into orbs of light that shot towards her neck. When the light died down, Shiro could see a ne that had four swords attached to it. Each of the swords where a miniature version of themselves.
"Well, that takes care of that." Shiro muttered while holding the ne.
After a short moment, Shiro shrugged her shoulders and looked for anything else that she could im from this tomb.
Unfortunately, no matter what she did, the other coffin¡¯s couldn¡¯t be opened and there was nothing else she could find even after 30 minutes of searching the tomb.
Shaking her head with pity, Shiro looked for a way out.
[Intent to leave detected. As the Trials have ended, would user like to leave? Y/N]
Tapping yes, she felt her vision sh. Furrowing her brows for a short moment, she noticed that she was back at the spot she was when she left for the trials.
"Shiro you¡¯re back."
Looking at Lyrica who sat on the tree with her elbows on her knees and her hands to her chin, Shiro nodded her head.
[How long was I away for?]
"Hmm, about 30 minutes give or take." Lyrica replied.
¡¯30 minutes? So it is kind of like the dungeons where the time flow is different on the inside.
"So did you manage to get the sword?" Lyrica asked with curiosity.
[Yeah, it¡¯s right here.]
Snapping her fingers, Shiro inserted mana into the swords, turning them into an orb of light.
*Ping~
A soft shattering sound could be heard as the orbs shattered to show four floating swords that hovered around Shiro. Lyrica almost couldn¡¯t keep herself on the tree since she could feel a slight amount of pressure from the des.
"You actually passed!" Lyrica said surprised since she knew how hard it was to control the des.
[Yeah, there was a small trick needed but otherwise, it wasn¡¯t too difficult.]
"Heh... What rank are those swords? I could feel a sense of pressure when you brought them out." Lyrica asked as she jumped off the tree andnded beside her.
[Same as your pendant. Orange.]
"PFF Orange?!!" Lyrica cried out in shock. Orange equipment wasn¡¯t like cabbage that could just be picked up and yet, in the span of a day after she showed them her orange grade pendant, Shiro found a piece of orange grade equipment.
"But I thought it was a purple plus grade? How did it be an orange grade item?"
[Not sure, probably something to do withpatibility. At the final test, I got higher than 90%patibility so that might be one of the reasons.] Shiro shrugged whilst transforming the swords back to their ne form.
Shiro started to exin to Lyrica about the test and she could only smile bitterly. Forget about theter parts, she didn¡¯t even manage to get the swords to float.
Not too long after, Madison joined them for a small chat.
"So what¡¯s our n for now?" Madison asked.
[I¡¯m thinking of holding everything off for a short while. The slum lords are bing a little unruly since they are kidnapping more and more women from this campsite. While I¡¯m not too sure about what¡¯s happening, we should try to protect the people around us for now until the danger passes.]
"Hmm, I agree. A lot of the mothers have given up being adventurers while the kids don¡¯t know how to fight. When pitting them against the people in the slums who are used to killing, it¡¯s an obvious oue. The other adventurers can only do so much so we should try to help as much as we can." Madison replied.
"True. But we should also level up when we can since our levels are a little on the low side right now." Lyrica reminded Madison.
"Shiro is fine since she is able to beat level 50¡¯s anyways but we¡¯re not the same. We got two choices. Level up or increase our battle senses. The more viable option is to level up since we haven¡¯t experienced battles like them. Not only that, but they¡¯ll most likely resort to dirty tactics." Lyrica continued as Shiro nodded in approval.
The only reason as to why she could kill the level 50¡¯s was due to her cheat like ss, her monster title and her previous lifetimes worth of battle experience.
But that wasn¡¯t the same case for Lyrica and Madison. Even though their levels had shot through the roof after they got to know her, they were still students. It was a simr case to giving a child a gun. While they could kill a person with ease, it was also easier for the enemy to snatch the gun from the child.
Lyrica and Madison had the level and firepower but not the experience.
[You two should go to a dungeon as much as you can for 3 days while I protect this campsite. I want you to level up and gain experience at the same time. The best way to do this is to fight a group of enemies. That way, you¡¯ll be forced to keep an eye on your surroundings constantly and keep tabs on all of the monsters.] Shiro suggested.
"Wait... but all the dungeons are basically 5 levels higher than us." Lyrica said as she nced at Shiro. However, she paled slightly when she saw her soft smile that didn¡¯t take no for an answer.
Madison only patted Lyrica¡¯s shoulder.
¡¯Feel the pain of when you only watched me tank a boss!!!¡¯ Madison cried out on the inside as she still held a small grudge over that. Before she had her Demon Knight ss, the best way for training Shiro gave her was to tank a boss by herself when she wasn¡¯t even level 20.
[Go, I¡¯ll protect this camp while you do the dungeons. But I need to warn you about the alleyways. Try to avoid them if you can. A few people from the slums tried to kidnap me when I passed the alleys.]
"Eh? What happened?" Lyrica asked as she wondered about what happened.
[If something bad happened I won¡¯t be here talking to you. That being said, what do you think happened to them?] Shiro grinned.
"Died?"
[Died.] Shiro nodded, confirming her guess.
"Hais... I pity them." Lyrica sighed with a shake of her head. Why did they have tomit crimes? If they just cleared dungeons like normal people, they would have been fine. And yet, they had to try kidnap Shiro as well. And from her knowledge, Shiro may as well be the world¡¯s most dangerous 13 year old.
[Don¡¯t pity the stupid or you won¡¯t have time to think of anything else.] Shiro replied with a roll of her eyes. There were so many people in life who did dumb things even though they knew the consequences. It was to the point that if she walked for 10 minutes in any city, she would be guaranteed to run into a small group of idiots that courted death over stupid choices on more than one asion.
"I suppose." Lyrica shrugged since she wasn¡¯t wrong. With the addition of dungeons in their lives, they could choose to be upstanding if they wanted to and yet, they still chose to be bandits. If they wanted to me anyone, they could only me themselves.
"So tomorrow me and Lyrica will be going to the dungeon while you¡¯ll be back here looking after the camp?" Madison asked.
[Yeah, just enter the dungeon without worries. I¡¯ll just be here guarding the camp. Hmm, though I may step out a few times since I have a few things to do. I got this thing called a trial key, not sure if you two know what it is, but basically it will level me up a bit more. That and also the fact that I have won the permission to ess this ce called the mana springs which is under the jurisdiction of the top family in Cairosa. They haven¡¯t given me a strict time for when I should enter but I believe that it shouldn¡¯t take too long.] Shiro replied having typed out a huge paragraph.
Taking a short moment to read the paragraph, the duo nodded in understanding.
"I heard that the Mana Springs will help reinforce and rejuvenate your mana links. Could it be that you want to take a dip to see if you¡¯re able to heal your mana links?" Lyrica asked.
[Yup.] Shiro nodded.
However, all of this was news to Madison since she didn¡¯t know that Shiro¡¯s mana links were damaged.
All she knew was that the mana links were essentially the second heart to mages. The moment the mana link is damaged or broken, the life of that mage is basically over.
"Hold up, your mana links are broken?! When?! How?!" Madison asked with shock.
[I don¡¯t know. I just woke up with damaged mana links.] Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
"So this whole time from when you were just in your level 20¡¯s till now, you were fighting with this kind of limitation?!" Madison widened her eyes in disbelief.
[Aside from the fact that skills take more MP and that the spells I cast can¡¯t be too strong, I¡¯m pretty much fine. Though if I don¡¯t fix this sooner orter, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to step into C ss.] Shiro sighed.
There were still some time for the New York monster purge to finish so she was wondering about when Nan Tian would get her the phoenix rebirth type pill.
¡¯Hmm... I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m thinking this but I hope Nan Tianes back soon. The sooner hees back, the sooner I can get the pill for my mana links.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
Chapter 112 Persuasion
Chapter 112 Persuasion
With their nsid out, Lyrica and Madison started to look for a decent dungeon where they would be able to gain a lot of levels whilst also being able to gain a lot of battle experience.
An alpha beast type dungeon would be the most favourable.
It was due to the fact that while the monsters were sparse, they were essentially mini-bosses that rewarded a lot of exp. The dungeon where Shiro killed Yetis could also be ssed as an alpha beast type dungeon.
While those two were looking for the dungeon, Shiro was currently eating a mana stone lollipop whilst ying around with her floating des.
She wanted to see if she was able to formte any kind of attack tactic with the des along with seeing if she was able to discover any kind of secret.
¡¯Since the des have no growth limit, it means that they would stay with me even after levelling up to level 200. However, if they could level up that much, it also means that it should gain skills every so often, simr to Yin I believe.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Soon, the other girls in the tent started to wake up.
[Good morning, did you enjoy your sleep?] Shiro asked Kanae.
"Mn? Shiro-nee I can¡¯t see the phone. Hold it closer please." Kanae replied whilst rubbing her eyes since she had just woken up.
Shiro nodded and held the phone closer to Kanae. Since Kanae was lower levelled, her senses were obviously a little weaker whenpared to Lyrica¡¯s or Madison¡¯s. She would need to be closer to the phone in order for her to read it.
"Yeah I enjoyed it." Kanae smiled and nodded at Shiro.
"So what are we going to do today?" She asked.
[Well, Lyrica and Madison may or may not go to a dungeon. I¡¯ll be staying here like I promised. That being said, we can do anything you want. y, train, up to you.]
"Can we train then?" Kanae asked eagerly.
[Sure.] Shiro chuckled at Kanae¡¯s eagerness.
Hopping off her tree, Shiro realised that she had never inspected Kanae for her level.
[Kanae LVL 5 ¨C Swordswoman]
¡¯Hmm, the level is a little low but that¡¯s to be expected. She¡¯ll increase her levelling speed when she gets older and starts to hunt in dungeons.¡¯ She thought whilst biting down on the mana stone lollipop to finish it in one go. Making a new one, she threw it into her mouth.
Yin saw her eating more and smacked her head.
"Ow, fine you get one as well." Shiro said and gave Yin a lollipop as well.
"Shiro-nee, when did birdie like to eat lollipops as well?" Kanae asked.
[Don¡¯t worry about her. Little Yin is a glutton.] Shiro replied.
"So what are we doing first?" Kanae asked whilst stretching her body.
[We¡¯ll be doing exercises where it would increase your flexibility whilst also increasing your foundation strength.]
Shiro then started to demonstrate a few exercises that helped push one¡¯s flexibility to the extreme. When Lyrica and Madison saw Shiro perform the exercises, they were a little curious as to how difficult they were. But, the moment they tried it, they noticed how hard it was to keep the form as it was pushing your flexibility to the extreme.
However, Shiro was performing it easily.
[I want you to do that routine of stretching every morning so that you will grow up with good flexibility.]
Shiro wanted Kanae to take advantage of her young age and still developing the body to increase the base foundations. If she were to perform the routine every day whilst growing up, she would be able to keep and even increase her range of movement.
Even if she wasn¡¯t going to use it for a fight, it was still very healthy for her to keep her body flexible.
And just like that, three days had passed quite quickly.
All she did during these three days were wake up early, go to a dungeon, farm for some food, go home. Not to mention, on the second day, she had received the text about the mana springs.
[???: Miss Shiro. The procedures have beenpleted. Pleasee to the main mansion in two days time. You will also be required to pay the 21 million USD on the day.]
[Shiro: Thank you, what time should I arrive?]
[???: Preferably around 1pm.]
[Shiro: Ok, thank you.]
In addition to scheduling her appointment at the Ospar Family mansion, she had also kept training Kanae to the point where there was not a single day where she wasn¡¯t about to copse from fatigue.
Yumi was obviously livid but Kanae¡¯s determination made Yumi sigh wearily. She was delighted that her daughter was trying so hard to achieve something. However, if that was at the cost of her daughter almost fainting every day, she didn¡¯t want Kanae to suffer through pain like this.
During the third day, Yumi couldn¡¯t hold it anymore and confronted both Kanae and Shiro about this.
"Miss Shiro, I know you are strong adventurer. But I don¡¯t want my daughter hurt like this." Yumi said to the best of her ability. Shiro, who sat opposite her, nodded in understanding.
[I understand your concerns. However, I need to point out that the more we do for Kanae now, the easier herter life would be. It¡¯s easier to cultivate her flexibility now than when she is in her teens and about to reach a.d.u.l.thood.] Shiro replied.
During these three days, she had started to see Kanae as a disciple of sorts. Being a teacher and training the young was something she found to be quite entertaining.
Yumi showed some difficulty in understanding the text in her face but Shiro knew that this was due to the fact that her English wasn¡¯t as good as her Japanese.
She smiled slightly and gestured for Kanae to help her mum.
"Shiro-nee, basically, mum wants to say that she doesn¡¯t want me to get hurt." Kanae said before turning back to her mum.
From her observations of their facial expressions, Shiro could understand that Kanae was trying to convince her mum that she wanted this training while her mum was worried about Kanae¡¯s body condition.
[Kanae, would you mind tranting this to your mum for me? Tell her that in the future, no matter what, there will be a time when you need to enter the dungeons. Times are tough and if you¡¯re weak, it¡¯ll only make you vulnerable.]
"Alright Shiro-nee, hang on." Kanae replied and started to trante.
However, after hearing Yumi¡¯s reply Kanae¡¯s face flinched in anger.
She was about to respond when she felt Shiro¡¯s hand on her shoulder.
[What did she say?] Shiro asked with a smile. She understood that what Yumi said may have hurt Kanae but that was because she didn¡¯t want her to be in any danger.
Taking a deep breath, Kanae clenched her fist.
"She said... She¡¯d rather me stay weak than fight strong monsters and get stronger." Kanae said as she bit her lips.
¡¯Hmm... getting stronger does have its own dangers. The stronger you are, the more dangerous your opponent¡¯s.¡¯ Shiro thought and nodded.
[Well tell her this. It is true that the stronger you are, the more danger you are in. However, in that moment of helplessness when you are almost killed by an enemy in front of you, even though you can clearly defeat them if you were just a little stronger, is the worst feeling ever. Having to be repeatedly saved is disheartening when you could have avoided it if you were just a little stronger. Strength, whilst being dangerous, is also the key for you to surpass those dangers. Staying weak and not fighting is no different from suicide.] Shiro smiled and patted Kanae¡¯s head.
Kanae¡¯s expression lightened up a lot more.
[Not to mention, you can reduce the intensity for now and increase it when your mum can¡¯t see.] Shiro grinned and winked her eye.
Kanae blinked her eyes to force away the tears that had almost built up due to her almost needing to give up on what she enjoyed.
Grinning in a simr fashion to Shiro, Kanae nodded and tranted it for her mum. Naturally, she only tranted the first paragraph and not the second one.
Yumi made a difficult face since Shiro was saying the truth. Both of the options had their dangers, she couldn¡¯t deny that.
"Ha...." Yumi sighed out heavily before speaking some Japanese to Kanae.
"Shiro-nee, mum just agreed!" Kanae jumped in happiness and hugged Shiro.
Shiro smiled and returned the hug. It onlysted a short moment as Yumi pulled Kanae back.
"So mum agreed as long as you are able to make sure that I am not in any serious danger or harming my body." Kanae said after calming herself down.
[That¡¯s a must.] Shiro nodded since that was her intention to begin with. She wasn¡¯t about to let Kanae run into danger hence why she hid a chip on her body. It was so that she could be notified when Kanae was in trouble.
Walking out of the tent, Kanae and Shiro nced at each other before grinning.
*Pa!
High fiving each other, they resumed their training once more.
Yumi could only smile wearily as she looked out from the tent.
Not long after their talk, Lyrica and Madison hade back from their ventures in the dungeons.
"We¡¯re back!" They called out.
[Congrats on reaching level 39 the both of you.] Shiro smiled.
"Yeah, we wanted to get to level 40 but our supplies ran out so we came back earlier than expected." Lyrica confessed.
[Hm it¡¯s fine. You can still go to dungeons tomorrow. Also I have some good news. Yumi has agreed for me to continue to train Kanae.]
"Heh~ congrats Kanae." Madison said as Kanae nodded her head happily. During the three days, Madison and Lyrica would also asionally train with Kanae as well.
Their rtionship was also simr to that of siblings but she was still closer to Shiro much to Lyrica¡¯s dismay.
While they were chatting, Shiro pulled out another lollipop and threw it in her mouth.
"I say Shiro, you¡¯ve been eating lollipops for a 3 days in a row. I don¡¯t think that¡¯s very healthy." Lyrica asked.
[No matter what you say, I¡¯m not giving up my lollipops.] Shiro replied instantly. She had slowly cultivated a love for her mana stone lollipops that made her think about eating them more often. Yin wasn¡¯t much better as she was also eating mana stone lollipops albeit not as often as Shiro.
"Shiro-nee, can I give the lollipops a try?" Kanae asked curiously.
[Sure.] Shiro was long prepared for this and had bought some normal lollipops beforehand.
Handing Kanae a lollipop, Shiro informed them about her departure tomorrow.
[I¡¯ll be going to the mana springs tomorrow so I won¡¯t be here at the camp. I¡¯ll also be out the full day to try this Silvermoon Keep Trial key and see if I can harvest any benefits.]
"So you¡¯re heading to the Ospar family mansion tomorrow?" Madison asked.
[Yeah.]
"Alright, I¡¯ll stay back with Kanae at the camp since my body¡¯s hurting a little from tanking a strong boss." Madison said whilst massaging her shoulders a little.
"I¡¯ll head to the dungeon tomorrow alone. I also have a skill theory to test out and see if I can add it to my Rose Blossom series." Lyrica added on. Ever since she created the Rose Blossom skill line, she wanted to add as many skills as she could in the skill line since it was something she created herself. She wanted to watch the skill series blossom into fruition. Both literally and metaphorically.
[Oh? A new skill idea. If you have trouble with it, don¡¯t be shy about asking for help. Who knows, maybe you¡¯ll be able to help me as well since I got my Frozen Hell series as well.]
They discussed ideas for skills until the sunset. After eating some dinner, to which Shiro only ate her lollipop¡¯s, they went to sleep.
However, halfway through the night, Shiro heard a slight ting of the traps that she had set up. Opening her eyes slowly, they glowed with a cold light.
She shifted Kanae to the side before walking out of the tent. Once she arrived at where the intruder was, she saw a man walking off with a woman struggling on his back. Her body was tied up and her mouth was stuffed so that she couldn¡¯t cry for help.
"Hm?" The man paused when he saw something from the corner of his eye. Turning to his right, he saw a beautiful girl standing on a tree with her silver hair flowing in the wind.
Since the woman was being carried on the shoulder, she wasn¡¯t able to see Shiro.
Blinking for a moment to make sure he wasn¡¯t hallucinating; he saw nothing on the tree and could only frown.
*Thud
The woman was knocked unconscious with a single hit at the back of the neck. Before the man could even register what had happened, Shiro had already plunged her index and middle finger in the man¡¯s eye holes and her thumb into his mouth.
*CRACK!
With a single twist, she ripped off the front part of the man¡¯s face before flicking her fingers and cutting up the rest of his body with her Ascendant Dream. Due to the fact that they were in an alley, none of the patrols had seen her kill the man.
Shiro only frowned before moving the woman to a spot where the patrols would be able to find her.
"Seems like I¡¯ll have to try to clean up the Slum area a little in the next few nights. Maybe a few midnight murders would give them something else to worry about." Shiro muttered coldly before returning to the tent and closing her eyes once more.
Chapter 113 Mana Springs
Chapter 113 Mana Springs
Whilst Shiro was making her way to the Ospar family mansion, she saw that the patrols were causing a smallmotion.
"How did no one realise the man snuck in here and tried to kidnap a woman." A man asked as his face was stern.
The people that he was talking to hung their heads in shame as they couldn¡¯t understand how he was able to bypass all of them and kidnap a woman. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that someone had killed the man and ced the woman on one of their patrol routes, they would have never known someone had actually snuck in.
"I want you to recruit more people to help patrol while you narrow down the patrol area. This way, we¡¯ll be able to react faster if they invade. We also need a few people up on the guard towers to oversee the entire situation. We cannot let another mouse like this one to enter our campsite."
"UNDERSTOOD!"
Smiling slightly at the fact that they were working hard to try to keep the camp safe, Shiro continued her journey towards the city.
However, even though she smiled at the fact that they were trying, she didn¡¯t put her trust in them. If anything, she believes that they are no better than decoration.
If she was the enemy, it would be an easy task to infiltrate the entire ce and kidnap a few people. But she had tomend them for the effort.
Looking down at her phone, she nced at the map to check how far away she was from the Ospar family.
¡¯Oh? So that was the mansion. I had thought that was the city governor¡¯s hall or something.¡¯ Shiro thought as she saw the picture of the mansion.
It was one of the biggest buildings in the entire city. Made from polished white stone, Shiro could faintly see a few runes being etched on the pirs that decorate the outside of the house.
¡¯Hmm... the runes seem like some defensive type runes, but there¡¯s also... attack?¡¯ Narrowing her eyes at the pictures, she realised that most of the pirs had obscured the more important parts of the runes.
"Ah, so it¡¯s a kind of front they¡¯re putting on. By exposing some of the runes, they let the city know that they¡¯re protected. But by hiding the main sections of the runes, they were able to conceal the main functionality thus stopping any thoughts of invading. However, the people who want to invade aren¡¯t able to set up an invasion due to the fact that they don¡¯t have the full idea of the situation." Shiro muttered as she got an idea of the situation.
She had to admit, it was a good move on their part since charging in blindly wasn¡¯t something the selfish people of the slums would do. Not only that, but from what she had read of the mansion, the defensive measures of the mansion would constantly change and no one but the Ospar family knew of all defensive measures.
Since the mansion was easily spotted, she didn¡¯t take long to arrive at the gate. And as the text had said, there was a man dressed in a suit waiting for her at the gates.
His hair was that of a silky ck that had been tied into a low ponytail. A well-proportioned body that didn¡¯t look too muscr nor skinny.
[Gilbert LVL 65 ¨C Mystic Knight Apprentice]
¡¯A Mystic Knight Apprentice!¡¯ Shiro thought in shock. Mystic Knight type sses were no doubt one of the most wanted sses due to their overwhelming attacking power. A ss that can be developed into an S ranked ss was actually used as a family butler?! She didn¡¯t know if she should call the family impressive or stupid for wasting such potential.
"Miss Shiro, I presume? You look much more beautiful in person than your pictures." He smiled and bowed courtly.
[Thank you very much.] Shiro smiled and responded whilst making sure she hid her shock.
"As our appointment states, you will need to pay 21 million USD before I can allow you to enter the family mansion. After that, I will lead you to the mana springs." He said professionally and pulled out a payment crystal.
Shiro nodded and paid what she owed.
"Follow me please." Gilbert smiled once he made sure that the payment went through.
Opening the gates, a dense amount of mana washed over Shiro was she was shocked once more.
"If you¡¯re wondering about the dense amount of mana in our surroundings, it is a by-product of housing the mana springs. Naturally, this kind of atmosphere is most suited to nurturing powerful mages and increasing their perception of mana." Gilbert exined after seeing the slight amounts of confusion and shock that shed on Shiro¡¯s face.
Nodding her head, Shiro somewhat understood why the Ospar family could stay number one. With a Mystic Knight Apprentice as a butler and a location that could only be described as a holy ground for mages, nurturing an expert was almost as simple as waving their hand.
Entering the mansion, she nced around at the decorations and couldn¡¯t help but think of the pces where royalty would live.
They didn¡¯t speak much as his job was only to guide her to the mana springs. A few maids could be seen around the house but other than that, Shiro couldn¡¯t see anyone who would be part of the Ospar family.
Arriving at a set of doors, Gilbert snapped his fingers and scanned a key card. The doors opened to reveal a rather high tech looking elevator.
"Once we take this elevator down, we¡¯ll arrive at the mana springs." He said with a gesture.
Walking into the elevator, Shiro could feel them descending towards the mana springs. In addition to this, the mana density increased the closer they were.
Since she was a monster right now, Shiro could feel her body getting reinforced along with the fact that her senses have been amplified.
"You¡¯ll get a total of 3 hours in the mana spring. After the three hours, the spring would lose effect as each person can only use it for up to 3 hours per day." He exined.
"Once the three hours are up, I¡¯ll be giving you 20 minutes to dress yourself ordingly and will then escort you out of the premises."
Shiro nodded in understanding.
The doors of the elevator slowly opened as they arrived at their location. Looking at the iridescent stctites that glow with a multitude of colours, she couldn¡¯t help but marvel at its beauty.
Gilbert was used to the aesthetics of the mana springs and walked forward.
"In front of us will be the mana springs. There will be changing rooms for you to change out of your outfit along with some towels for your use." He said as they arrived at a neon blueke.
Shiro could recognise theke to be highly condensed mana that had the visual appearance of water. Such a dense amount of mana was rarely seen as this could be used to fuel a giant bomb that will wipe a city off the face of the.
"As a disimer, please don¡¯t think about taking the mana springs out of this location since the moment it leaves the area, it will be reduced back to normal water." Gilbert reminded her.
"And with that, I shall leave you to it and return in 3 and a half hours to escort you out of the mansion."
After saying what he needed to say, Gilbert turned around and left the area.
With gilbert out of the way, Shiro made sure that there were no cameras or anything of the sort before finally able to change out of her outfit with a peace of mind. Once she waspletely nude, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body.
Walking towards the springs, she could already feel her body rx.
Since she was currently a monster, it could be said that the mana was extremely intoxicating for her.
Dipping her left foot in the springs, Shiro could already feel the mana flow into her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation.
She somewhat regretted not taking Yin along with her due to the fact that she was contacted about not taking any pets along with her. Therefore, she could only leave Yin with Kanae and Madison.
"If that little glutton found out that I was in such a good location for us monsters, I think she¡¯d cause a huge fuss." Shiro chuckled slightly.
Unwrapping the towel, shepletely submerged her body in the mana springs, leaving only her head out.
However, the moment she did that, she could feel her mana links strain as if something was tugging at them.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro closed her eyes and sent her consciousness to her mana realm.
Once she arrived at the mana realm, she even had to shield her eyes due to the fact that each of the colours that were present in her mana realm seemed to have taken some medicine that made them glow more so than before.
"SSS!!!" Taking a sharp breath in, Shiro could see neon strands of light trying to separate the tangled mess.
"ARG!" She couldn¡¯t help but cry out since they were being rather forceful about separating the links and tried to reconnect them. The sensation was simr to someone digging their hands into her intestines and start to shift them around.
After several unsessful tries of reconnecting the links, the neon blue strands seem to be frustrated about not being able to fix her mana links and eventually settle with reinforcing her mana inds instead.
Finally relieved of the horrid feeling, Shiro took a deep breath and inspected her mana links. While they weren¡¯t able to fix the mana links, they were sessful in slightly unscrambling the twisted paths. The flow of mana was a little smoother than before.
It was like when a blocked nose was finally unblocked. The feeling was extremely rxing and theplete opposite of the torture that had ensued earlier.
In her feeling of rxation, she didn¡¯t know how long it had been but when the feeling started to fade, Shiro knew her 3 hours where up.
Standing up from theke, Shiro widened her eyes in surprise when she felt her body being more active than before.
¡¯Perhaps it¡¯s because of the unscrambling of my links. It allowed for a better cirction of mana in my body. Maybe that¡¯s why I feel like my physical strength had increased.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Not only that, the mana springs had also increased her attunements to the peak of tier 2.
With her attunements at the peak of tier 2, she had also unlocked their respective skill trees.
Lightning Magic Tier 2, Metal Magic Tier 2 and Shadow Magic Tier 2.
Flicking her wrist, lightning and shadow wrapped around her arm.
Smiling at the fact that this trip was rather rewarding, Shiro stepped out of the mana springs and dressed herself in her outfit.
¡¯Although my mana links couldn¡¯t be fixed, at least I¡¯ll have an easier time casting my magic since the pathways are unscrambled.¡¯
Previously, her links looked like a twisted ball of string where four colours were mixed together. However, after the unscrambling, it was akin to a pipe system. All of the paths were organised and separated from each other.
The only remaining problem was that there were parts missing along with cracks that littered the surface of these pipes.
"Well at least they¡¯re organised now." Shiro muttered.
Walking towards the elevator, she saw that Gilbert had just arrived as well.
However, when he saw her, he was stunned. She was already beautiful when she arrived at the mansion. But after she took a dip into the mana springs, her body had slight changes that made her seem more like an ethereal beauty. Her slightly pale but healthyplexion, when paired with a rose tint, made her extremely adorable.
"Ahem. The three hours are up Miss Shiro. I¡¯ll be escorting you out of the mansion." He said with a cough.
[Alright thank you.] Shiro smiled.
After escorting Shiro out of the mansion, Gilbert nced towards her back while she walked away. Taking a deep breath in, he breathed out heavily and walked back into the Ospar family mansion.
As for Shiro, she was ncing at her arms. The skin was much more delicate but at the same time, it was harder to damage.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom + 2nd Phantom.
Crouching down, Shiro jumped upwards to test her body out to see if her suspicions were true.
"AHH!" She cried out in surprise, seeing how far she had managed to jump.
Landing roughly on one of the roofs, Shiro panted for a moment and suppressed the excitement that welled up in her.
With her mana links unravelled, she was finally performing closer to what her body could truly output.
Even with the limitations of broken mana links along with them being scrambled, Shiro was still able to outperform adventurers due to her innate potential as a monster.
Everyone knew that monsters were more powerful than adventurers of the same level even though they were unsure of the cause.
However, Shiro understood the full picture now. With titles such as ¡¯Monster¡¯ and her body physique, her body strength and stat point performance were off the charts.
The monster title bonus worked for her other stat points. She is twice as strong and twice as fast.
Now that her mana links were one step closer to beingpletely healed, she was finally discovering the potential of having the body of a true monster.
Chapter 114 Silvermoon Keep P1
Chapter 114 Silvermoon Keep P1
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Shiro hopped off the roof of the building.
Now that her strength was bing more monstrous, she had to make sure she controlled it well or else it may harm the people besides her.
Making her way to a clearing, she took out a silver key. This was the second reason as to why she was out today. The Silvermoon Keep.
The trial key of which she received after killing a monster known as the Trickster.
Pushing the key forwards, she made a twisting motion with her hands and a silver door appeared in front of her.
The surrounding adventurers weren¡¯t fazed by this as Trial Key¡¯s, whilst being umon, wasn¡¯t exactly rare either.
Stepping through the door, Shiro found herself in a jail cell of sorts.
[Story Quest: Silvermoon Keep
You are a young mage that came at the behest of your master. The order was to help recover the Keep from the hands of a cult that wishes to revive a great evil thaty dormant on the moon. The key to releasing that evil was in the Silvermoon Keep.
However, on your journey, you were ambushed by the cult members and sold to vers. Your current location is the dungeon of a noble that wishes to have his way with your body...]
¡¯Mn, that¡¯s a rather interesting start to a quest.¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
ncing around, she examined her surroundings in detail.
She had rusted chains connected to her legs and arms, even one on her neck. Cold tiles and hay are beneath her with several streaks of moonlight that would slip through the window and illuminate her jail cell.
An orange hue could be seen flickering pass the jail cell, showing her that a torch was nearby and that she was currently unguarded. This was due to the fact that there were no human shadows around from what she could see.
Naturally, there could still be guards nearby where their reflections couldn¡¯t be seen.
Looking down, she saw that her clothes consisted of a ragged shirt, a long brown skirt and some knee-high boots.
¡¯Well, at least I¡¯m clothed and not on some love bed of a fat noble.¡¯ She thought to herself as she nced at her status board.
Everything was the same causing her to sigh in relief. Although, it seemed like she was only allowed to use her Snow Girl ss. She had no ess to any other element. She didn¡¯t even have her Ascendant Dream weapon on her either.
Touching the cold metal cuffs that locked her wrist, Shiro tried to freeze them but realised that the cuffs were made to absorb mana.
Furrowing her brows, she stood up and peaked out of the barred window on the roof.
¡¯From the looks of things, it should be almost midnight.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and patiently waited for someone toe. Since she wasn¡¯t able to use her mana, she could still kill someone through physical strength.
"Oh my, well it seems like you¡¯ve calmed down a lot more now. Stopped screaming?" A voice called over.
The owner of the voice was a tall blond-haired man. His wore a noble attire that made him look refined but couldn¡¯t conceal the l.u.s.t in his eyes.
[Atticus LVL 50 ¨C Noble Knight]
Shiro was surprised that it wasn¡¯t a fat noble that wanted his way with her but instead, an above-average man. That being said, she still wasn¡¯t going to let him touch her.
Shifting her gaze away, she ignored him.
"Mn, that¡¯s it. Be stubborn, it¡¯ll be more fun to break you that way." He grinned whilst opening the jail door.
Walking towards her step by step, he crouched down and grabbed her chin. Moving her head so that she looked at him, he was confused as to why it seemed like she was looking at a dead man. The disdain in her gaze made him furious.
However, before he could even voice hisints, Shiro wrapped her leg around him and head-butted his nose as hard as she could.
*CRACK!
Breaking his nose, Shiro bit his hand and wrapped the chain around his neck.
"Wait what are you doing stop ARGG!!!" Atticus cried out in panic when he felt the chains around his neck.
*CRACK!!
Kicking his head and torso, Shiro also tightened her grip around the chains. Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to decapitate him but the chains had instead, broken his neck.
Looking at the dead noble who had his head hanging weakly to the side, Shiro spat on his corpse in disdain.
"Is this missy¡¯s body something trash like you can touch?" Shiro said with contempt.
Crouching in front of his body, Shiro quickly searched for some keys before the guards arrive. Since he had managed to shout before dying, the guards were bound to hear it.
Thankfully, Atticus had the keys to her retrains on him.
*CLANG CLANG CLANG!!
The heavy cuffs were unlocked with the key.
"Much better." She muttered whilst massaging her sore wrists. Due to the fact that the cuffs were rather heavy and that they absorbed mana, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to use her full strength. Otherwise, the noble¡¯s head would have been separated from his torso rather than just broken.
Searching his body for anything else she could use, Shiro frowned when she realised that he basically had nothing else of importance.
Not only that, she wasn¡¯t able to [collect] his body either.
"I guess I can¡¯t loot them since this is a trial. All rewards will be given at the end." She sighed and tried to store the cuffs away in her inventory.
Materials that could absorb mana and stop a mage from using their spells were rather rare. So if she was able to get this material and hand it over to Helion, she could make a weapon that could render mages useless. There would be a limit to the amount of mana it can absorb but a little help in suppressing an enemy mage was always wee.
Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to store away this item either.
"Such a shame." Shiro said whilst kicking away the cuffs in frustration.
Suddenly, she could hear the sounds of guards running towards her location. With the sounds their movement made, she could guess that they were wearing heavy armour along with weapons.
¡¯I should take care of them quickly or else it would only slow down my escape. My main task for this story quest is to recover the keep from the cultist¡¯s and stop whatever they¡¯re doing to try to revive a great evil.¡¯ Shiro thought as she looked around for anything that she could use as a weapon.
Seeing that it waspletely bare, she didn¡¯t hesitate to start running towards a staircase that would hopefully take her outside.
"There she is!" Someone shouted out as Shiro could see three guards in front of her.
Scoffing slightly, she decided to test out her newly improved body strength.
*BANG!
Stepping down as hard as she could, sheunched her body forwards and hit one of the guards with her knees.
This caused his armour to cave inwards while he widened his eyes in shock. Not only that, but the force of her knee had also copsed his ribcage on itself and pierced all of his organs.
During this moment, she supported her body with her hands and kicked towards the lower jaw of the other two guards, demonstrating her great flexibility.
*CRACK CRACK!
Her kicks were able to easily break their necks as they fell down weakly.
Shiro didn¡¯t know what level they were but she knew that the had to be low levelled for her to be able to deal this much damage.
Flipping her body forwards, she saw three more guards charging at her above the stairs.
"Ha... such a pain." Shiro muttered and tapped the walls with her fingers.
*KRRRR!!!
Ice coated the walls within a matter of moments.
*BANG BANG BANG!
Three ice spikes shot out from the ice and pierced the guard¡¯s temples, killing them instantly.
Since the staircase in front of her was a spiral staircase, it would be more efficient if she ran along the walls so that she was able to have more room should she need to attack.
Dashing along the walls, Shiro made a handful of daggers and threw them at any iing guards.
"ARG!"
"RET- ARH!"
"HELP!!!"
Sounds of the guards dying like flies could be heard as Shiro couldn¡¯t be stopped at all. Jumping out the doors, she found herself surrounded in a training field.
"So the dungeon was literally next to the training fields huh." She muttered whilst looking at the small army of guards that surrounded her.
"For the murder of the guards of this household, DIE WITCH!" The leader shouted out.
The first row of guards dashed forwards while the back row charged up fire type spells.
"Freeze!" Shiro grinned andmanded.
Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber!
Magic circles surrounded the field and instantly turned the ce into an icy tundra.
Due to their low levels, Shiro was able to sp her hands together with ease and in doing so, erasing their life with a single skill.
*CRACK!
The collective sounds of ice statues breaking could be heard as the previously filled up training grounds emptied out in mere seconds with only broken pieces of the guardsying around, proving the destruction that had ensued with a single activation of Frozen Slumber.
Crouching down, Shiro jumped backwards onto the battlements and nced towards the surroundings, hoping to gain an understanding of where she was.
Shielding her face for a moment from the wind, Shiro saw that she was in a medieval city of sorts. Wooden housesid in neat rows whilst the road was paved crudely with stone.
Naturally, not a single person was out due to the fact that it was deep into the night.
Shiro suspected it to be around midnight due to the position of the moon.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll have to wait till sunrise before I can go scout out for any information." She muttered and jumped off the walls. Her white hair reflected the moonlight, causing it to be extremely eye-catching should anyone look towards her.
"Hmm... I should probably get a ck robe or something to hide my appearance."
Landing softly on one of the houses, Shiro looked for a ce to rest till sunrise.
¡¯I need a ce far from the pce since I killed the noble. Hmm... maybe... I should live in someone¡¯s bas.e.m.e.nt?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in humour.
However, she knew that her best option would be either the sewers or back in the pce.
Contemting to herself for a short moment, Shiro settled with the sewers. Looking around for a sewer entrance, Shiro frowned as she could smell the disgusting stench of the sewers.
"... Yeah well, f*ck that." Shiro then proceeded to break into an inn. Sneaking around the outside of the inn, Shiro climbed through the windows and rested her body on the roof beam of the building.
Shifting her body so that it was mostly out of sight, she closed her eyes and rested her body.
###
The next morning, Shiro sneaked out of the inn and made her way to what seemed to be a bar.
Naturally, since she didn¡¯t have any money on her, she decided to use a little sleight of hand to get herself some funds for her travels.
The coins she managed to acquire were copper silver and gold in colour. Gold is the rarest with her just being able to find 3 coins after a whole morning of scouting.
On her way to the bar, she bought herself arge ck robe that could hide most of her appearance leaving only her face exposed.
However, that wasn¡¯t too much trouble.
Upon her arrival at the bar, a few people were entrapped by her beauty and couldn¡¯t take their eyes off of her.
Releasing a sliver of killing intent, Shiro walked up to the counter.
"Are you able to tell me a little bit about this ce and anything that has been going on?" Shiro asked with a smile.
The barman was stunned by her voice as it sounded rather young but very pleasing to the ear.
"Er- Ehem. How much do you want to know?" He asked with a slight cough and started to polish on of the cups.
"Everything. Down to the small details like the town name and any nearby towns." Shiro replied.
"Well you¡¯ll need to order a drink for that. But since young miss is so beautiful, it¡¯s on me." He smiled and handed her a drink.
"Hahaha, well I¡¯ll have to thank you for saving me some money then." Shiro replied and took the drink.
Casting inspect on the drink, she felt her smile twitch for a moment.
[Ale]
A type of beer brewed using the warm fermentation method. Has a sweet and fruity taste. However, visually, it looks like piss. Who knows, could very well just be sweetened horse piss.
¡¯Were thest two sentences needed?!¡¯ Shiro thought in her mind and brought the ale to her lips.
Naturally, she wasn¡¯t opposed to alcoholic drinks since her physique would just make the ale taste like in water.
And as she had expected, it flowed down without taste.
The barman was shocked at her tolerance and the fact that the littledy in front of him had chugged a huge mug of ale down her throat like it was nothing.
*Bam
mming down the mug, Shiro smiled lightly and turned to the barman.
"Now then, tell me what you know."
Chapter 115 Silvermoon Keep P2
Chapter 115 Silvermoon Keep P2
"Hmm... where to start... This town¡¯s name is called Ark and the noble house that watches over this ce is the house of Utar. The closest surrounding towns are Romsey and Rochdale. You can get to them with two days¡¯ worth of carriage rides." The barman started off.
"As for anything that¡¯s been happening, word on the street says thatst night, the young master of the Utar was killed by a ve he had bought. Ironic really, that guy was never a decent human being." He shrugged whilst grabbing a new cup to polish.
"Hou~... Seems like you don¡¯t really like the young master of the Utar family." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Nah, no one does. Especially women. If he has his eyes on anyone pretty, even if they¡¯re married, he¡¯ll capture the woman and have his way with them. Unfortunately, every time the inspectors came, he was always able to hide the evidence so they can¡¯t do anything to the bastard. You¡¯re lucky youngdy, if you had been a day earlier, I¡¯m sure the bastard would have sent his men over to grab you."
"Hahaha, thank you for the warning. I¡¯ll watch out." Shiro responded with a smile.
"So do you know a ce called Silvermoon Keep? I was heading over there and had gotten lost on my journey."
"Hmm... Silvermoon Keep... Could you be on about one of the most fortified towers in the country?"
"If there aren¡¯t any other Silvermoon Keeps, I believe this should be the one."
"In that case then I suggest you rethink your journey. Rumour has it that a band of evil cultists have made the ce their home. Not only that, but none of the official soldiers had managed to retake the keep due to how fortified it is. Not to mention the fact that the cultists somehow recruited quite a few talented mages into their midst. No one knows what the situation is like at the moment but all we know is that we powerless people should avoid that ce at all costs."
"Is that so... then do you know a ce where I can buy a map of the entire ce?"
"A map? Just go down the streets and turn left. Continue down the road and you¡¯ll eventually see an old man wearing a straw hat, straw bag and a broomstick. His name is Derrick and you can buy a map off him for 5 silvers. It¡¯s expensive but the maps drawn by him are worth it."
"Thank you, tell you what, give me another ale of yours and this time I¡¯ll pay for it." Shiro smiled.
"Alright, that¡¯ll be 50 coppers." He replied and made another cup of ale.
Paying the money, Shiro chugged down the ale and walked out of the bar.
"Damn... thatdies got a stomach for ale alright." The barman muttered in appreciation before continuing his job.
Following the barman¡¯s instructions, Shiro found old man Derrick by the rivers.
"Excuse me, are you Derrick?" Shiro asked politely.
"This one is called Derrick. How can I help you, young miss?" He responded with a kind smile.
"I would like to purchase a map if that¡¯s possible."
"Of course, where to?"
"Silvermoon Keep."
"Hmm, I¡¯d suggest you avoid that ce. Word is that evil cultists have taken over the keep and the army can¡¯t do anything about it." He frowned slightly.
"I know. But I have urgent matters there so I must go."
"Hais... fine. A map for Silvermoon Keep. You should know my price right?" He said whilst shuffling through his bag and grabbed a tied up scrollbelled ¡¯Silvermoon Keep¡¯.
"Yes I do, 5 silvers is that correct?" She asked and handed over the money.
Receiving the map to Silvermoon Keep, Shiro walked away and unravelled the map.
¡¯Hmm... There are two stops before I can get to Silvermoon Keep. Roughly 3 days of travel in total between locations.¡¯ She thought whilst observing the map.
To get to Silvermoon Keep, she had to travel to the town of Hythe first. After arriving at Hythe, she¡¯ll need to then travel towards the west, towards Norbury before she could reach Silvermoon Keep.
If she was fast with her travels, she¡¯d arrive there in 3 days provided that she doesn¡¯t take any breaks. If she was slow, it may take up to a whole week before she could arrive at her destination.
That being said, she wasn¡¯t sure if thest carriage would even go to Silvermoon Keep from all the rumours she had heard. With the town¡¯s folk rmending her to avoid the keep, she doubts the carriages would take her there.
"Which means I can take two carriages to Norbury and then everything else will be on foot." Shiro concluded.
Storing the map away, she made her way to the stables, in hopes of hitching a ride towards Hythe first.
When she arrived at the stables, she saw a small sized caravan recruiting for some bodyguards.
"Excuse me, are you perhaps going to Hythe?" Shiro asked the recruiter.
"Mn? Yeah we are. But our carriages are already full. Plus, we¡¯re only looking for bodyguards now. I doubt a youngdy like yourself can fight well so maybe next time." He replied as he heard her voice. He couldn¡¯t see her face clearly since she only reached his lower chest in height.
"About that, I¡¯m an Ice Mage looking to join some people to Hythe. I can work as a bodyguard if that¡¯s ok with you." Shiro replied, not minding the fact that he thought she couldn¡¯t fight.
"A mage? You?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Take your hood down, I¡¯ll need you to demonstrate your magic and record you into the register if that¡¯s the case."
Shiro nodded and flipped her hood down. Her white hair flowed out behind her as the people of the caravan were shocked at her beauty.
"What kind of magic do you want me to demonstrate? Defensive type or attack type?" She asked.
"Ah ehem. If you can demonstrate both, that¡¯ll be great." He replied as he tried to suppress the blush that had crept up on his face.
"Hm, alright." Shiro nodded.
Stepping back a little, she made sure that there was some space around her. Stomping down, Shiro created rows of ice walls around her in an instant.
The recruiter was shocked at the activation time since it wasmon knowledge that mages needed to not only chant, but also charge up their spells. He had never heard of mages that could cast spells without chanting. Not only that, but the magic took effect almost instantly.
*Click!
Snapping her fingers, Shiro cast an attack type spell this time.
Several ice spikes materialised in the air as they pointed towards the recruiter, threatening to pierce him.
"You pass!" He said as he silently wiped his sweat away.
Mages were powerful but weren¡¯t feared due to their slow cast time and predictable spells. This allowed warriors to approach the mages during this moment and kill them with ease.
However, the situation would bepletely flipped if the mage could perform like what Shiro demonstrated.
¡¯If mages were all like her, the demand for warrior would copse.¡¯ He thought as he couldn¡¯t even imagine what battlefields would be like if mages were all like the young girl in front of him.
Thawing the ice around her, Shiro waited patiently for him to finish her registration.
"Here¡¯s your identity pass for this trip. Just write your name on it and then we¡¯ll discuss your wages." He said whilst handing her a wooden te and brush.
Writing her name down, she passed the brush back to the recruiter.
"So the wages are 40 silvers for the whole trip from here to Hythe. Food is provided. We¡¯ll stop during the night with the guards taking night shifts in case of monster attacks. Would that be fine?" He asked. Usually, the bodyguards would get only 20 silvers, but for someone of Shiro¡¯s talents, he knew he had to double the price if he wanted to recruit her.
Little did he know, even if he offered her nothing, she would have joined anyways.
One of the reasons for her to join the caravan instead of running there herself was due to the fact that she wanted to see if she could ask for some information about the cult and some context to this world from the other bodyguards.
She would have a better chance of sess if she knew the full situation after all.
"That¡¯s fine. So how long till we set off boss?" She asked with a small smile.
"We¡¯ll be leaving once we get two more bodyguards along with some routine checks on the goods that we¡¯re transporting." He replied.
"You can join the other bodyguards and we¡¯ll call for you once we¡¯re ready."
Looking towards where he had pointed, she saw 7 other people waiting patiently, all equipped with armour and weapons.
¡¯So for a caravan of this size, they¡¯re opting to take 10 bodyguards with them on the journey.¡¯ She thought when she saw the group.
Currently, the group had 2 tanks, 3 attackers, a mage and what seems to be a healer.
"Hello. I¡¯m Shiro, an Ice Mage." Shiro greeted with a smile. The moment she saw the healer, she had the idea of learning healing arts from her.
Since she doubts Silvia wants to join her group after she killed her friends, either she gets another healer or learn some healing arts by herself. Enough so that they could sustain the party for now.
Unfortunately, the party members didn¡¯t share the same feelings as her since 6 out of the 7 members just ignored her.
"Um hi. I¡¯m called Reyna. I er am responsible for um healing the party." Reyna replied a little timidly.
She had long brown hair that wasn¡¯t tied up at all. The length of the hair reached past her waist while the bangs framed her face. While her face wasn¡¯t that of an ethereal beauty like Shiro¡¯s, it was definitely beautiful in its own right.
As for her outfit, it was a priest robe that was mainly coloured white with red streaks along the edges.
[Reyna LVL 35 ¨C Priest]
Suppressing her repulsion towards the outfit and the fact that she was clearly linked to a church of some kind, Shiro shook hands with Reyna.
"So Reyna, what kind of healing magic do you use? Are they single target or area of effects?" Shiro asked with a small smile.
"Erm I use a mix of both. Though I¡¯m more specialised in area of effect." She replied, a little taken aback by her question.
"Ah I see. You¡¯ll be very handy inrge scale battles then." Shiroplimented.
She needed to butter up Reyna first before she could ask her to teach her some healing magic.
"Ah thank you."
Shiro did try to strike up a conversation with the other members but they either just blushed or tried their best to look away.
¡¯Well aren¡¯t they the talkative bunch.¡¯ Shiro thought as they were about to set off soon.
Thest two bodyguards the caravan had recruited were both warriors.
However, out of everyone here, Shiro¡¯s goal was Reyna and only Reyna. The others didn¡¯t provide her with enough benefits that warranted her to give them more attention. So after one failed attempt at striking up a conversation, Shiropletely ignored them and left them to their down devices.
"Alright, we¡¯re setting off!" The recruiter shouted out as the ¡¯team¡¯ of ten stood up and surrounded the caravans.
Shiro hopped on one of the carriages and sat down on the roof. Due to the fact that she was, in his opinion, the strongest mage amongst them. The recruiter ignored this and allowed her to stay on the roof of the carriages.
Throwing a lollipop in her mouth, Shiro sated her hunger for a bit since she wasn¡¯t able to find anyone selling mana stones in the town. This made it hard for her to feed herself so she could only settle with the remaining pile of lollipops in her inventory.
The journey was rather smooth sailing with only the asional monster trying to attack the caravan.
However, they were dealt with easily by the other guards. Shiro didn¡¯t even need to move from her spot on the roof.
"So Reyna, what¡¯s your reason for joining this caravan? Or are you perhaps in a party with the other members?" Shiro asked as she offered Reyna a lollipop.
Reyna epted the strange looking candy and ced it in her mouth. She was surprised at how sweet the lollipop was and couldn¡¯t help but nce at Shiro curiously. Everyone knew that sugar was expensive and that not many households would use sugar like how Shiro has. If she had to describe it, it was like she was eating a hardened ball of sugar.
Tasty but at the same time very wasteful.
"I¡¯m a lone adventurer. Normally I would just join a few random parties to earn some money for myself. And since I¡¯m a healer. I¡¯m epted into parties quite often." Reyna replied as she realised she finished her lollipop already.
The fact that she could bite into the lollipop and taste the sweetness spread through her mouth made her drool for more.
Chuckling at the fact that she was basically wearing her emotions on her face, Shiro handed her two more lollipops.
Hopefully, she¡¯ll be able to get Reyna to teach her some healing magic before the trip ends.
Chapter 116 Silvermoon Keep P3
Chapter 116 Silvermoon Keep P3
Setting down camp, Shiro made her way towards Reyna with her ¡¯soup¡¯ in hand.
The meal that they promised was this viscous soup that had a horrid texture in her opinion. Even more so due to the fact that it waspletely nd for her. She couldn¡¯t taste the vour at all.
"Great soup huh?" Shiro chuckled and sat next to Reyna.
"Hahaha... Yeah, it¡¯s not the best but you have to work with it I guess." She chuckled.
"Say, if this isn¡¯t too much trouble for you, are you able to show me some healing magic?" Shiro asked as she drank the soup in one go and stopped herself from throwing it back up.
Making a disgusted face, she put the bowl aside and quickly threw a lollipop in her mouth.
"So was that your main goal?" Reyna asked.
"Main goal?"
"Well, you approached me and were being overly friendly. My best bet was that you wanted something from me." She replied.
"Well, I don¡¯t believe that there¡¯s anyone in this world who doesn¡¯t want something from another person. Whether that be something physical or emotional." Shiro shrugged.
"But yes, part of the reason was that I wanted to see if I could learn healing magic. Another part was because you were the only one to return my greetings." Shiro smiled.
"Well... I can agree with that hahaha. If I didn¡¯t hear them talk a few times already, I would have thought that they were mute." Reynaughed.
"So why do you want to learn healing magic? From what I¡¯ve heard, you¡¯re an impressive ice mage." She asked curiously.
"Hmm... it¡¯s topensate for my party. Currently,we have three members. A tank, an attacker and me, a mage. We need a healer to help us. I did have a candidate but I kinda perhaps killed/let her friend die in an unfortunate ident. Therefore, I am now studying healing magic topensate for the party." Shiro responded casually whilst biting down on her lollipop and pulled out another one before throwing it into her mouth.
She then turned to Reyna and offered her a normal lollipop.
Not rejecting the sweet, Reyna finished her meal and epted it.
"Mn, that will definitely be awkward if you are in a party together." Reyna nodded whilst eating the lollipop.
"Alright. I¡¯m not sure if you can learn it but I can demonstrate it no problem." Reyna smiled and stood up.
"Great, so where do we start?"
"I¡¯ll need a small injury so that I can demonstrate-"
*PUSHI!
Shiro made a knife hand and plunged it into her forearm the moment Reyna said she needed an injury to demonstrate.
"AH! Stop! I said small!" Reyna cried out in shock.
Shiro doesn¡¯t even flinch and tilted her head slightly.
"But this is small? I avoided my bones, my veins/arteries and my tendons. The only thing I damaged was muscle." She replied.
Reyna wanted to smack Shiro across the head for being stupid but inspected the wound. However, to her surprise, Shiro was right. There were only damages to the muscle and nothing else.
She needed to take a second look at Shiro to make sure that she wasn¡¯t dreaming.
"See? Just the muscle damage." Shiro smiled.
Reyna¡¯s mind was screaming out ¡¯what the f*ck¡¯ right now. She had never seen anyone plunge their hand into their arm with such confidence and no hesitation in her life. Not only that, but Shiro didn¡¯t even flinch as if the pain wasn¡¯t even there.
"Is there anything wrong?" Shiro asked, slightly confused about Reyna¡¯s pause.
"Ah er nothing. Doesn¡¯t it hurt?" She asked timidly. Just looking at the blood gushing out of her arm made Reyna flinch slightly.
"Hurt? I mean... It should do. But my pain senses are dulled a little. Plus, it¡¯s not enough for me to actually show some physical reaction to it." Shiro replied casually as she pulled her hand out of her arm.
Flicking her arm to the side, she shook the blood off her hand.
"So can you demonstrate your healing magic?" Shiro asked once more.
Nodding her head, Reyna crouched in front of Shiro and held her hands over the wound.
Closing her eyes, a green glow encased her hands along with the wound.
"Gods of the heavenly order. Bless this priest with the power of miracles. May the spirits mend her wound."
Hearing the chant, Shiro had to suppress the urge to smack Reyna¡¯s hand away, not wanting to be healed by something that relied on the power of a so called ¡¯god¡¯.
Closing her eyes, she sensed the flow of mana and how it healed her wound.
She could feel the mana simte the recovery of her body.
¡¯Hmm, rather than healing, it¡¯s more like speeding up the ¡¯time¡¯ around my wound and letting it recover naturally.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst observing the changes to her body.
"Done." Reyna said after fully healing the wound.
Moving her arm around, Shiro nodded before stabbing her hand into her arm once more.
"What the hell!!!" Reyna cried out in shock. She had just healed the wound and now Shiro¡¯s gone and reopened it.
Without replying to Reyna, Shiro narrowed her eyes at her wound.
¡¯Even though there were some foreign mana in y when she healed my wound, I should be able to recreate the same effects if I were to have enough visualisation and mana.¡¯
Snapping her fingers, a green fire lit up on her hand.
Reyna was shocked that she could barely say a word.
Shiro nced briefly at her hand before moving it over her wound. Slowly outlining the injury, the fire was healing the wound at a visible pace, much to Reyna¡¯s disbelief.
Shiro had the idea of using her fire coupled with the mana maniption of the healing skill so that she could both kill any bacteria or virus that may have infected the wound along with healing it. This way, she¡¯ll be able to avoid any unforeseeable problems.
After a short moment, which was only a little slower than how fast Reyna healed, Shiro¡¯s arm was back to normal.
"Well that was interesting." Shiro muttered as she had unlocked a skill tree much like her Frozen Hell Series only this time, she didn¡¯t make the skill tree but rather discovered the skill tree.
[Skill recognised. Awarding 100 free stat points. Discovered Ancient Healing Art Series.
Ancient Healing Arts: Fire of Life.
A mystic fire that will heal anything it touches. As for how much it can heal, it is solely dependant on the user¡¯s capabilities.
Current Effectiveness: Tier 2
Cost: 7,500 MP per second.
Duration: N/A
Cool Down: N/A]
Seeing that she was awarded 100 free stat points, Shiro put them all into INT before looking back at Reyna.
She furrowed her brows when she saw that Reyna had fell backwards in shock.
"Hello? You alright?" Shiro asked as she reached out to help Reyna up.
"Y-yeah... I¡¯m just currently making peace with the fact that you have just learnt something that took me years to learn." Reyna replied and grabbed onto Shiro¡¯s hand.
"So that¡¯s what they meant about you being an incredible mage. Not only did you not need to chant, but your mana usage was also more efficient than mine from what I could see." She said whilst ncing at Shiro¡¯s tender forearms.
There were no hints of any damage and if one didn¡¯t see her plunge her hand into her arm, they wouldn¡¯t even know that she was injured.
"Well the key to magic is all about visualisation and mana control." Shiro replied as she conjured up the green mes once more.
This time, the mes were much more intense than the initial me she used to heal herself. Amon urrence due to the fact that skills increase in effectiveness once the system recognises it.
Flicking her fingers around, the mes danced around her in a mesmerising fashion to which Reyna couldn¡¯t help but marvel at its beauty.
"I know this is rather odd but are you able to teach me the green me thing?" Reyna asked as she found it quite humorous that their roles had switched quite quickly. Just a few moments ago she was showing Shiro how she used healing magic and yet, now she was asking for Shiro to show her the healing magic.
"Mn? Sure. This me is a mix skill between a fire skill calledbustion and your healing skill. While I can¡¯t directly copy your healing skill, I used my mana control to simte the same movements and got something simr. So unless you also have the fire skill calledbustion or any type of fire control skill, I don¡¯t think you can learn it." Shiro replied honestly.
"Though you can also think of this as an off brand version of your healing. It was only because I couldn¡¯t copy your spell step for step that this skill was created."
"Ah, such a shame then." Reyna sighed but didn¡¯t mind too much. Since it wasn¡¯t something she could learn, due to theck of fire control skills, she wasn¡¯t going to dwell on it.
"MONSTER HORDE!!!"
Someone suddenly shouted out as the entire camp sprung into action.
Both Shiro and Reyna dropped what they didn¡¯t need and dashed towards the front lines.
Once they arrived, they could already see a cloud of dust caused by the collective stomps of the monsters.
Jumping on a carriage for some high ground, Shiro saw that the monster horde consisted of these raptor-like monsters that had swords for arms.
Their blood-red scales were illuminated by the moonlight, creating the illusion that a river of blood was charging towards them.
"MAGES! Thin out the horde!" The recruiter shouted out.
Shiro nced towards the other mages and nodded her head. Unfortunately, the mage ignored her signal as he chanted on his own.
This caused Shiro to frown as the mage was being uncooperative.
¡¯Che, not that I need your help anyways.¡¯ She thought before turning her attention back to the iing horde.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro moved her arms in front of her.
*BOOM!!
As if the mana was suddenly injected by some sort of stimnt, they surged towards her palms.
The suction was so strong that it had even interrupted the magic the mage was casting, much to his annoyance
Ignoring his hateful re, Shiro twisted her palms as six magic circles exploded out around the horde.
"Freeze!" Shiro shouted out whilst clutching her hand. The moment she did this, the magic circle thrummed to life as Ice Chains shot out of the circles andshed towards the monsters. Whilst this was happening, a blizzard had appeared and was freezing everything that was inside its area of effect.
Sadly, the monsters were low levelled so they hardly gave Shiro any EXP.
Seemingly understanding the danger of her spells, the raptors cried out before splitting apart and avoided the blizzard.
Shiro controlled the spell but the movement of the blizzard was too slow.
ncing at the other guards, she rolled her eyes.
"What are you doing standing idle for? STAB THEM!" Shiro shouted out.
Her shout snapped them out of their daze from seeing such a powerful spell and charged forward.
She furrowed her brows when she saw how amateurish they were when thrown in a group fight.
If not for Reyna¡¯s healing, there would definitely be some casualties.
"Screw this. Let this miss show you how it¡¯s done!" She shouted before snapping her fingers. Making it so that her spells automatically controlled itself. She then jumped off the carriage and towards the monster horde.
"!!!"
"What is she doing! Stop her!" The recruiter shouted in shock. A mage¡¯s weak point was naturally their close quarter¡¯sbat potential.
No matter how powerful she was, once she is surrounded by the raptors, there was no doubt that she¡¯ll die!
However, contrary to belief, close quarter¡¯sbat was not her weak point. While it wasn¡¯t as refined as her mid to long rangedbat, it was enough to help her secure her position as the apex in her previous life after all.
Crossing her arms, she made a handful of ice throwing knives before twisting her body and threw all of the knives towards the group of raptors.
*KISHAAA!!!!
All of the knives hit the centre of the head without fail, killing the raptors instantly.
Just before shended, Shiro c.o.c.ked her arm back before mming her palms into the ground.
Ice instantly spread outwards with huge ice spikes shooting out from the ground and threwrge groups of raptors through the air.
Pivoting on her left foot, she did a swiping motion with her right foot and caused a wall of ice to be erected in front of her. This blocked the sh attacks of iing raptors with ease.
"HA!"
She stomped down heavily as the ice wall separated itself from the ground.
*BANG!
The wall broke apart and reformed itself into hundreds upon hundreds of ice spikes that drilled into the bodies of the raptors and shredded them into flying chunks of meat.
With her surroundings cleared, Shiro took this moment to gather more mana around her.
Since her links were organised, this allowed her to enter her Pseudo Elemental Armour for slightly longer periods of time along with the fact that the pain she felt when activating this was decreased significantly. She intended to use this to thin out the crowd as much as she could.
The crystal ice armour appeared on her body as the spiked chain wrapped around her forearms.
Clutching the base of the chains, Shiro twisted her body and send the chains out around her.
*BANG BANG BANG!!!
Whenever the chains touched once of the raptors, it would instantly freeze a part of their body and crush it into dust.
After a few swings of her chains, she retracted them before releasing her Pseudo Elemental Armour state.
ncing around, she nodded in approval since she was able to clear out arge number of the mobs in a short moment.
Watching her walk back, the Warriors only had one thought in their minds.
¡¯F*cking hell!!! Who said close range was a mage¡¯s weak point! Come out and exin this!! I won¡¯t hurt you!!!¡¯
Chapter 117 Silvermoon Keep P4
Chapter 117 Silvermoon Keep P4
The rest of the monster horde was easily cleared out as Shiro sat on the carriage roof as usual and ate her lollipops.
"Want some?" Shiro asked casually as Reyna had long finished her supply.
"...Sure." She replied after a short pause. Reyna couldn¡¯t help but feel a twitch in the corner of her mouth as Shiro casually ughtered a monster horde and offered her a lollipop.
"How did you do that? I though mages were supposed to be weak in close quarters?" She asked as she unwrapped the lollipop and put it in her mouth.
"Well, I trained up my close quarters a lot since I knew it was a weak point. If you know it¡¯s a weak point, why would you do nothing about it?" Shiro replied with a tilt of her head. It should be obvious if one thought about it.
"True... But most mages opted to increase their fire power though. Something like ¡¯kill them before they reach me¡¯."
"That¡¯s stupid. What if the monster was faster than your casting time? Plus, can¡¯t they multitask with fighting and casting? Why the hell do they take years to cast a single spell? Che amateurs." Shiro scoffed.
Little sis! Not everyone can be as ridiculous as you ok?!
###
The horde waspletely cleared out after 30 minutes of fighting.
Due to Shiro¡¯s demonstration of power, the gaze the entire crew sent her was a mix of fear, shock and reverence.
They made sure that she wasn¡¯t displeased at all, she was fed with the best food they had and even somehow made the roof of the carriage into a miniature throne for her.
Not rejecting their kindness, Shiro only chuckled and sat on the throne.
The material of the throne was amazing as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but rx her body and close her eyes. It was soft to the touch and was simr to memory foam that would curve around your body to make sure that it was asfy as possible.
Thetter half of the journey was smoother as they didn¡¯t experience any bandit raids nor did any monsters attack them.
Upon their arrival at Hythe, the bodyguards left after they were paid.
"What are you going to do now?" Shiro asked with a small smile.
"Well, the main reason I came to Hythe was because the healers in the city are struggling with a disease that had appeared in the west. Right now, they¡¯ve quarantined the area off so that no one else can be affected.
[Side Quest: Epidemic]
You have discovered that a rare disease was being spread around the western area of Hythe. You have the choice of curing the disease, finding the cause, or just assisting the healers with helping the infected.
Do you ept the quest? Y/N?
Rewards will be given at the end of the trial.
Seeing the side quest that had suddenly appeared, Shiro thought about it carefully.
¡¯I don¡¯t know about any time constraint with Silvermoon Keep¡¯s cultists. Therefore, the chances of failing the main task could increase if I took the side quest... However, if I was to just help out with healing the affected, I should be able to increase my rewards while still saving myself some time to clear the main quest.¡¯
"Can I help? Since I¡¯ve just learnt a healing spell, this can be both practice and voluntary assistance. Though I won¡¯t be able to help for too long since I need to make my way towards Norbury." Shiro smiled as Reyna was surprised before excitement welled up in her.
"Sure! Come, let¡¯s go quickly." Reyna said as she pulled on Shiro¡¯s hand and ran towards the quarantine zone.
Smiling at her enthusiasm, Shiro allowed herself to be pulled over to the quarantined area.
Upon arriving at their destination, Shiro widened her eyes in shock as the situation was worse than she thought.
Not only are the infected lined up row by row like graves, but theirplexions were horrible as well. Pale skin that was closer to a ghostly white with blotches of purple on their skin. There were lumps all over their body as she could faintly see a yellow puss ooze out from these lumps. Looking up in the air, Shiro could even see the faint signs of spirits being formed.
While the formation of a spirit wasmon for situations like this, there were a small number of solutions that one could use.
Not only that, but she could see the half-formed spirits leaching from the infected, causing their symptoms to worsen.
Unfortunately, it seemed like no one else could see the spirits leaching from the infected.
"Hello, I¡¯m Reyna, the one who signed up to help." Reyna said towards a man who was currently writing something down on a board.
"Reyna? The one who applied in Ark?" He asked.
Shiro could see the dark circles under his eyes, showing theck of rest from dealing with the epidemic.
"Yes, I also have a friend here that can help with healing magic. Her capabilities are no less than mine." She replied.
"Alright, just find yourself an empty spot and start to heal the person. It¡¯s best that go get some protective clothing as well in case you¡¯re affected." He said whilst pointing towards a group of people that were handing people some protective outfits.
The duo nodded and headed over to the stall.
The protective outfit was just ayer of fabric over their entire body and a face mask.
¡¯A little crude and it does f*ck all to protect you from the spirits.¡¯ Shiro thought as she nced back into the sky. The biggest spirit was still only a baby spirit as it hasn¡¯t matured yet. This was good news for her since it meant that she could kill it easier.
Spirits were weak to a lot of things, but one needed to make sure that they could see and hit the spirits first. Not only that, but spirits are also somewhat immortal. Given enough time they¡¯ll reform themselves unless they had an exorcist that could purge the spirits.
Changing into the outfit, they walked towards a few of the infected. Reyna crouched down and started to heal the patients.
Shiro, on the other hand, was making eye contact with the spirits.
Narrowing her eyes, she then crouched down and clicked her finger. A green fire lit up on her hand as Shiro hovered it over one of the purple blotches on the patient¡¯s skin.
*TSSS!!!!!
A sizzling like sound rang out as the fire was burning away the infection. Since her fire was the Fire of life that healed anything it touches, it also meant that it was extremely deadly to diseases.
¡¯Maybe I can purge the spirits with my fire.¡¯ Shiro thought.
"ARGGG!!!"
However, the more she hovered the fire over the infections, the louder the patient¡¯s screams were. This attracted the main healer¡¯s attention as he ran over.
"What are you doing?!" He shouted and was about to push her away from the patient. However, Shiro¡¯s chilling re caused him to pause in his actions before ncing at the patient.
Much to his shock, the patient¡¯splexion was much better than the other infected that they had treated.
The sizzling sound and the screams were due to the green fire that was forcefully purging all of the infected areas.
"Can you tell me what¡¯s happening?" He asked as he had never seen a fire like the one in Shiro¡¯s hand.
"The fire in my hand is one that will heal anything it touches. It is forcefully burning away the infection so naturally they¡¯ll scream in pain. However, once itpletely cleanses then, they¡¯ll be free from the infections." Shiro replied but her hands didn¡¯t stop. She continued to trace the infection and after a few short moments, all of the infection was cleansed.
Not only that, but the man¡¯splexion looked better than before.
"Urg... A goddess?" He muttered while opening his eyes with some difficulty.
"Don¡¯t call me a goddess, I don¡¯t believe in god nor do I want to be associated with one. Now f*ck off and don¡¯te back or else you¡¯ll be infected again." Shiro dismissed his sentence and moved onto the next patient.
Both the main healer and Reyna was shocked at her sudden rejection to god and nced at each other.
"If she doesn¡¯t believe in god how did she heal?" He asked curiously.
"Well... she did say that she recreated the effects using mana." Reyna replied as she didn¡¯t know what to think of this either.
After healing a few more patients and responding with the same lines, Shiro saw that the spirits were getting agitated about her healing everyone.
An idea sparked in her mind as she walked over to the main healer.
"I got an idea that¡¯ll heal the entire area of infected. But there is a slight problem." Shiro said as the healer was curious.
"What¡¯s the problem?" He asked. If she could indeed heal all of the infected, he would ept the idea without a second thought.
"On a visual standpoint, it would look like I set the entire ce on fire. Not only that, but the screams will be quite loud as well."
"..." The healer paused in realisation. It would look like they purged the entire ce due to ack of ability to heal the patients.
There would certainly be a few adventurer¡¯s that will try to stop this even though they didn¡¯t know the full picture.
"And what do you want me to do about it?" He asked.
"Just hold them back and survive." She shrugged.
Taking a deep breath in, he sighed.
"I¡¯ll take care of the intruders. Just heal everyone if you can." He replied.
"Great." Smiling at the response, Shiro walked to the centre of the infected and crouched down.
A neon green magic circle started to expand outwards as sweat dripped from her forehead. Even though her links were sorted out, they were still broken so she couldn¡¯t push it too much.
Thankfully, the skill was still within her limits as the circle covered everyone that was infected.
Raising up her right hand, a green fire lit up in her palm as she mmed it into the centre of the circle.
*BOOM!!!!
"ARGGGGG!!!!!"
Ghastly screams resonated from all of the infected. At the same time, the magic circle had amplified the Fire of life and effectively set the ce aze.
One would need to be blind in order to miss the huge ball of green fire that had suddenly appeared in Hythe.
Naturally, as expected, some of the adventurers were enraged about this.
Shiro could hear the rioting of the adventurers amidst the screams but chose to ignore them.
Thankfully, the fire seemed to be purging the spirits as well since she could see their outline growing thinner as time passed.
After around 10 minutes of burning, the entire ce was free of the infection along with the spirits.
Shiro flicked her wrist and retracted the magic circle.
Seeing that the fire had disappeared, the adventurers checked up on the infected and were shocked at their recovery.
Shiro, the cause of their recovery, had already snuck away and was walking next to Reyna.
"I¡¯ve healed all of the infected. Though I¡¯m not sure if anyone else is gonna be infected." Shiro shrugged nonchntly.
Reyna could only look at Shiro with admiration as she managed to heal everyone with a single idea of her¡¯s.
"I still can¡¯t believe that you¡¯ve managed to make such a strong skill in such a short time." Reyna sighed.
¡¯Well... I didn¡¯t make the skill but rather discovered the skill. Not that she needs to know.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
However, her brows were furrowed due to the fact that the side quest seemed to have just disappeared. It never told her about itspletion or if there were more to do.
¡¯Since I¡¯ve already helped heal the patients and cleared out the spirits, it should amount to something I guess.¡¯ She thought.
"Since the infected are healed, I¡¯ll be making my way to Norbury. What are you going to do?" Shiro asked.
"Me? I¡¯ll probably stay in this city for a while. See if anyone else needs my assistance." Reyna replied.
"Heh~ Is that so. Well, it was fun while itsted. I need to go to Norbury, so I¡¯ll see youter if fate allows it." Shiro said with a small smile.
"Erm before you go, can I have one more of those lollipop things you gave to me before?" She asked as Shiro chuckled when she saw some drool threatening to flow out.
"Sure, here." She said and passed her one of the lollipops.
Bidding farewell, Shiro made her way to the stables once more to see if there were any carriages to Norbury.
However, due to the fact that Norbury was one of the closest towns to Silvermoon Keep, merchants and adventurers have been cautioned to stay away from Norbury.
This resulted in not many carriages actually travelling to Norbury much to her annoyance.
"Young miss, you said that you were looking for a carriage to Norbury?" A man asked.
"Mn? Yeah, you got a carriage old man?" Shiro replied with a side nce.
"Old man? I¡¯m only 34." The man replied with a twitch of his lips.
"Yeah your 34 and I¡¯m 13. Obviously, you¡¯ll be an old man whenpared to me." Shiro rolled her eyes. Her mood wasn¡¯t the best right now as she had spent quite a while asking around for carriages to Norbury but none was up to the task.
"Well what if I said I had a way to Norbury. I heard that you were strong so I want you to guard my shipment of goods to the town." He smiled.
Shiro narrowed her eyes as she knew he wasn¡¯t anyone with good intentions.
"What shipment?" She asked.
"You don¡¯t need to know. A trip to Norbury with no questions asked. All you need to do is to protect my shipment."
¡¯Well, what¡¯s the worst that can happen.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Sure, take me to Norbury and I¡¯ll guard your shipment with no questions asked."
"Deal."
Chapter 118 Silvermoon Keep P5
Chapter 118 Silvermoon Keep P5
"So this is the shipment that you¡¯ll be guarding. We have 4rge carriages and you¡¯re not allowed to peek or ask any questions about them. In return, we¡¯ll pay you 4 gold and a journey to Norbury." The man said whilst pointing at the carriages that were locked tight.
"Can I sit on the roof?" Shiro asked.
"Pardon?"
"Can I, this miss, sit on the roof of these carriages?" Shiro asked once more.
"Er, sure as long as you don¡¯t peek at the shipments."
Nodding her head, Shiro walked towards the carriage situated in the centre of the convoy.
Making herselffy on the roof of the carriage, sheid on her back and crossed her legs.
The man had never seen someone as rxed as Shiro, especially not with her kind of beauty that can only be described as one in a million.
Shaking his head, he started to gather the rest of his crew for their journey to Norbury.
Shiro ignored all of themotion around her as all she needed to do was to rx and guard everything till they reach Norbury. That being said, she was a little curious about the shipment.
However, as a professional, she¡¯ll only look at the shipment once she got what she wanted.
After all, she never said that she won¡¯t look at it after their business is over.
Feeling the carriage shake, she knew that they were setting off so she pushed her senses out to keep an ear out for any monsters or bandits that wanted to rob them.
Strangely however, the carriages werepletely silent. Not a single sound could be heard from them.
¡¯Seems like they¡¯ve isted the sound of the carriages.¡¯ Shiro thought without much care. If they took that many precautions with these shipments, her desire to see what they were transporting only increased.
¡¯Though it could potentially be something illegal since he doesn¡¯t seem like a good person.¡¯ She thought as she flicked her wrist.
An ice javelin materialised above her as she then controlled it to shoot forwards.
*BANG!
The sudden appearance of the javelin shocked the crew as they nced back at Shiro. However, seeing that she hadn¡¯t made any more moves, they continued their travels only to find a monster pierced through the head.
The monster had half of its body camouged with the floor. If not for the fact that green blood was flowing out of his head, they wouldn¡¯t even have noticed the monster.
The man who recruited Shiro narrowed his eyes as he saw her capabilities.
For her to be able to urately see through the disguise of the monster showed that she was extremely capable.
But, perhaps a little too capable as he was slightly regretting the fact that he had recruited her.
He wanted someone who could guard the shipments whilst they could still threaten if they wanted to rebel. However, from what Shiro had shown, trying to threaten her would only result in a situation simr to the monster on the floor.
"What¡¯s the matter? Something wrong? Am I too strong?" A cold voice rang out behind him as sweat dripped down his back.
He could see a few strands of white hair that flowed down due to Shiro hanging over the carriage. Looking up, he could see her cold azure eyes that seemed sadistic almost. As if she was looking at a ything that she could end at any moment.
Her smile that sent shivers down his spine and the fact that she was making constant eye contact without blinking made him feel unnerved.
"N-no. S-strong is g-good!" He replied as his voice trembled slightly.
"Hahahaha, well as long as you bring me to Norbury, I won¡¯t interfere." Shiroughed before moving back to her spot.
The reason as to why she did this was because his eyes had the same look the hero had when he realised that she was growing stronger than him.
Watching Shiro return back to his spot, he could still hear his heart pound. His mind was numb and the regret of bringing her on board was growing by the second.
¡¯What have I done...¡¯ He thought to himself in fear. There was a small part of him that realised that he wasn¡¯t going to be surviving the day but he didn¡¯t want to humour that thought.
###
There were a few monsters that tried to attack the convoy during the trip but Shiro took care of them without a problem.
However, the more Shiro killed, the more fearful the man became. Wanting to get this potential cmity off his carriage as soon as possible, he sped up the journey towards Norbury with the crew barely getting any rest.
But due to Shiro taking care of the monsters, all they had to worry about was driving the carriages.
And so, they arrived at Norbury in only 2 dayspared to the estimated 3 days journey time.
"Young miss we¡¯ve arrived at the location now." He said with a bow.
"Mn, that was rather quick wasn¡¯t it?" Shiro asked whilst narrowing her eyes.
This caused the man to tremble but he still responded.
"Of course. We don¡¯t want to hold you up after all." He replied and paid her the four gold.
"Well alright, I¡¯ll leave now." She said as she hopped off the carriage and walked away from the convoy.
Naturally, she was still going to keep her eye on it due to the fact that she wanted to see what they were transporting.
If it was something that passed her bottom line, kill them all.
If it was something that didn¡¯t pass her bottom line then she would just ignore it.
But first, she needed to double check about the route to Silvermoon Keep along with the current situation of the army fighting against the cultists.
Since her ultimate goal was just to stop them from reviving a great evil or whatever, she could ultimately just kill all of the cultists and it will be A-OK.
Once again, she arrived at the tavern and paid for a cup of ale.
"Can you tell me about the situation around Silvermoon Keep?" Shiro asked.
"The army can¡¯t break past their defences. Too many mages on the battlements that keep them out. Not only that, but something seems to be weakening everyone. More people are getting injured and many more are killed." The barman replied.
Recently, a lot of youngsters like the young miss in front of him hade to Norbury to ask about the situation at Silvermoon Keep. Most were adventurers that were apparently undertaking a quest while others were hero wannabe¡¯s that are seeking to gain fame from this.
"Hou~... What¡¯s the army doing then? For them to persist for this long means that they¡¯ve either recruited more people or reinforcements came."
"A bit of both. Reinforcements from the capital are still making their way here and the army is currently recruiting strong men from the nearby towns to help drive the cultists back. Promises orvish rewards and what not." He shrugged.
"Seemed to work though."
"Bah, sure it works in tricking underaged youngsters to enlist. The little twats haven¡¯t even grown out of sucking on their mother¡¯s teet and they think they can survive a bloody war? Dream on." The barman scoffed.
Finishing her drink, Shiro paid a small tip before leaving the bar.
¡¯So the army is recruiting in this town. Maybe if I join them, I¡¯ll be able to have an easier time sneaking into Silvermoon Keep. Plus, can¡¯t charge me for deserting if I split up from the army and charge into the Keep.¡¯ She thought with a small chuckle.
¡¯But first, time to see what they were transporting.¡¯
Making her way back to the stables, she saw that they finally started to shift the cargo.
She went to the bar first since she knew that they would still be on guard after she left. Especially since she demonstrated her power. Only after making sure that she wasn¡¯t around, would they transport the cargo.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 1st Phantom ¨C Illusionary Phantom.
Trailing the cargo, she saw that they were shifting the cargo to another carriage. While they weren¡¯t looking, shended beside the carriage and broke a piece off of the container for the cargo.
The moment she did that, she was suddenly assaulted with the aura of evil spirits.
Instantly backing off, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw that inside the cargo was a bunch of dead bodies and a crystal that was leaching off the bodies. A simr sight to quarantine zone back in Hythe.
"Hou hou, so they were the ones responsible for the infections." Shiro muttered as a green fire lit up in her palm.
Throwing out 6 fireballs towards all the cargo, she created two ice daggers and started to assassinate the people transporting the cargo.
The first victims were the guards closest to the cargo. Twisting her body, she drove the daggers into their skulls before flicking her wrist, sending their heads flying off their torso¡¯s.
Clutching her fingers, a handful of ice daggers were created. She waited for a short moment as more guards were bound to appear due to themotion.
As she had expected, all of the guards for the convoy had dropped what they were doing and rushed towards her. However, when they saw who it was, they widened their eyes before turning around so that they could run away.
Shiro didn¡¯t let them leave as a single flick of her wrist sent the daggers flying towards the back of their skulls and killed them instantly.
The main culprit, the one who had recruited her into the convoy, was smart and had run the opposite way the moment he heard themotion. He knew that Shiro was the one behind it and wanted to run as far away as he could.
During his escape, he had the urge to turn around to check the current situation. However, he paled when he saw Shiro in the air. She was grinning while several ice daggers were flying towards him.
Before he could even scream, the daggers had pierced his body and killed him instantly.
Thawing the ice daggers, Shiro left the area before anyone could actually realise who she was. Since she was still wearing her hood, all they knew was that the killer could use ice magic.
"Well that takes care of that." She muttered whilst disposing of her cloak.
It wasn¡¯t too hard to see where the army was recruiting as there were literal signs that pointed her to the direction.
The queue for joining the army was surprisingly long. She could see the excited youths that wanted to be a hero by defeating the cultists.
Shaking her head with slight amounts of pity, Shiro queued up patiently and waited for her turn.
After waiting for over an hour, it was finally her turn.
"Name?"
"Shiro."
"Age?"
"Er 13."
"Parents?"
"None."
"Mn fine. ss?"
"Ice mage."
"Take this and go to the left. They¡¯ll test your aptitude to see where you will be stationed." He said whilst handing her a piece of paper.
Following his instructions, Shiro went to the left and saw a small queue of mages.
¡¯Hmm... it seems like there are more warriors whenpared to mages in this trial.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as mages seemed to be a little different in this world whenpared to earth.
Not only did they need to chant for every spell, but the charge up time was also slow.
Standing at the back of the queue, she realised how tall each of the mages were. Even the shortest mage was half a head taller than her.
However, what annoyed her was that all of them were looking at her with contempt. Even though they were amazed at her beauty, they were annoyed at the fact that a midget decided to join the army.
Naturally, if Shiro was to know that they ssified her as a midget in their minds, she wouldn¡¯t mind cutting off their legs to see who was the midget now.
Thankfully, she didn¡¯t need to wait too long as the number of mages were significantly smaller whenpared to the amount of warriors.
"Hmm... name, Shiro. Age, 13? Parentless and an Ice mage. Demonstrate to me an attack type magic and I¡¯ll grade your cast time, and power." The recruiter said whilst looking at her info.
*Click
Snapping her fingers, four ice spears materialised around her, shocking all the mages on scene.
The recruiter¡¯s jaw dropped in shock.
"So what¡¯s my grade?" Shiro asked.
"Ahem, Cast time grade S. Attack the dummy and I¡¯ll evaluate the strength." He said as he coughed a little.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Before he could even blink, the four spears had long pierced the four dummies and pinned them to the wall.
"Grade?"
"Er, power grade S. Take this and go to the captain near the gates. He¡¯ll take you to the carriage for the elite squad." He replied whilst still trying to digest the shock from her performance.
Meanwhile, Shiro, who was the cause of this shock, couldn¡¯t help but sigh at how bad mages were in this world. Even a simple spell that an amateur could do back on earth was enough to warrant an S rank.
¡¯No wonder they¡¯re getting pushed back by the cultists.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. With how easy this world seemed to be, she wasn¡¯t too excited about the rewards anymore.
From her viewpoint, just the fact that she was able to learn healing magic was enough of a reward, Hell, even if she failed the quest now, she wouldn¡¯t even mind.
Chapter 119 Silvermoon Keep P6
Chapter 119 Silvermoon Keep P6
"S ranked Elite? Alright follow me." The captain replied and started to lead her away to one of the carriages.
"Since you¡¯re the only S ranked mage we have, we¡¯ll be stationing you with some warriors to form a small hit and run squad that will be invading the keep while the rest of the army distracts the cultists."
"So do I just like, kill them all?" Shiro asked as her enthusiasm for such an easy quest was at an all-time low.
"Ah? Er yeah." The captain replied a little surprised at her response.
"How many people are in the squad and when do we leave?"
"Including you, there are 5 people in the squad. We¡¯ll be leaving tomorrow morning."
"Mn, who¡¯s going to be the leader of this squad?"
"You can decide that by yourselves. Also, nice enthusiasm but try to turn it down a notch. Invading Silvermoon Keep isn¡¯t an easy task and many had already died." He warned.
"Mn, sure." She dismissed him nonchntly.
His lips twitched slightly in irritation due to her nonchnt reply but chose to ignore it. After all, they were seeking out help from the local people.
"Yo, we got a midget in our squad now huh?" A blond-haired teen said as he poked his head out from the carriage. However, the moment he saw her face in detail, he paused in shock.
"Alex, either get your ass back in the carriage or get out." An impatient voice shouted out.
"Hush Nathan. I am currently burning the image of a goddess in my eyes." Alex replied as he stared at Shiro.
Shiro¡¯s face darkened as she had the urge to not only chop his legs off for calling her a midget, but also associating her with a god.
"Hais... Alex, get the others out. You have a new teammate. Her name is Shiro and she is an S ranked Ice Mage."
Four people stepped out of the carriage as Alex was the first one to introduce himself.
"Oh goddess Shiro, I¡¯m Alex Crowford. An S ranked swordsman." Alex said with a slight bow. He had short blond hair, blue eyes and a rather handsome face. His physique was more on the thin side. Currently, he was wearing a uniform much like the others in the carriage. The uniform consisted for a white robe with gold highlights, a ck shirt and some pants. On top of this, there are some light pieces of armour around the chest, shoulders, arms and legs.
"I¡¯m Nathan. An S ranked swordsman." Nathan followed up with a simple introduction. Unlike Alex, he had dark blue hair that reached his back in length.
"My name is Emilie."
"And mine is Felicia."
"We¡¯re both archers and twins." Emilie and Felicia said at the same time. They looked almost identical except for the fact that Emilie¡¯s hair was longer than Felicia¡¯s and that Felicia had tied her hair up into a ponytail.
All four of them had the same uniform on, so Shiro guessed that it was mandatory for letting others know of their identities.
"We don¡¯t have a healer?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We do have healers but none that are capable enough to actually join this party." The captain sighed.
"Well you five get to know each other. I¡¯ll see if there are any more S rankedbatants. Also, uniforms are in the carriage. You can pick one that suits you."
Watching the captain leave, Alex walked up to Shiro.
"Goddess Shiro, may I know if you are currently seeing anyone?" He asked.
"No. Also, don¡¯t call me a goddess." Shiro replied.
"So who¡¯s the captain of this squad? We can¡¯t just attack without a proper chain ofmand." She asked.
"Well me and Felicia don¡¯t want to be captains so it¡¯s either Nathan or Alex." Emilie replied.
"Out of you two, who has experience in being a party leader?" Shiro asked as she looked at the duo.
"I have some experience in leading the party, goddess Shiro."
"I was in his party." Nathan said whilst pointing at Alex.
"So Alex is the leader? Alright. When we¡¯re fighting, I¡¯ll follow orders to some extent. Though my main task is to just kill the cultists ok?"
"No problem!" Alex smiled.
Sighing slightly, Shiro looked for a uniform in the carriage but frowned when she saw that none of the uniforms was for her size.
"Are there any uniforms smaller in size?" Shiro asked whilst poking her head out.
"Unfortunately, there aren¡¯t any more uniforms smaller in size. The one in your hands is the smallest one they have." Nathan made an apologetic face.
"Hais, forget it then. So what¡¯s the n you have so far for breaking into the keep?" Shiro asked.
"Godd-"
"Okay before anything stop that. Call me goddess one more time and just watch what happens!" Shiro red at Alex.
However, she didn¡¯t release any killing intent since her control was cking a little. She needed to keep a tight seal on her intent until her control returns.
"Ah er... then what should I call you?"
"Just Shiro is fine. So what¡¯s the n?"
"Well, we¡¯ll most likely be entering through the underground tunnel that they had been digging for the past few days. It¡¯ll lead into the dungeon under Silvermoon Keep and we¡¯ll kill our way out from there." Alex replied.
They discussed a few of the tactics for fighting in a group. Both Nathan and Alex will be at the very front with the twin archers at the back. Shiro will be assisting on both fonts since her ss was more suited to that job.
"But Shiro, you¡¯re a mage. You can¡¯t possibly beat a warrior in close range, S ss or not." Nathan rejected the thought.
"Hou hou. Really?" Shiro smiled.
"Yes really. You should be behind the archers since the twins still have some close quartersbat potential with their arrows. But you can¡¯t possibly use your magic at close range without the danger of harming yourself.
"Well in that case then we can go for a little spar then. You try to get close to me to prove that mages aren¡¯t able to use any magic at close range."
"If that¡¯s what it takes to make you understand the difference between mages and warriors then so be it." He narrowed his eyes and unsheathed his sword.
"Great." Shiro smiled and pped her hands. Hopping off the carriage, the other 3 made some space for them to have a small spar.
Small asions like this wasn¡¯t rare in the army since small conflicts would arrive every so often. Strength is what matters so they would fight it out to settle the scores.
"Go missy. Teach him a lesson hahaha."
"Don¡¯t hit her face! Or else you can wait for the rest of us to hit you after this fight!"
The surrounding soldiers cheered in humour as they circled the group and spectated the match.
Nathan took in a deep breath as he narrowed his eyes. A battle between two s ranks wouldn¡¯t be anything like the lower ranks since they were some of the strongest in terms ofbat prowess.
"So do you want to start or shall I? I¡¯ll let you choose." Shiro asked with a small smile.
"Hmph." Nathan only scoffed at her casual attitude and dashed towards her.
*Click
A few ice spears appeared in the air and instantly shot towards Nathan.
"What?!!!"
Everyone was surprised at the cast time. The same went with Nathan but he didn¡¯t stay shocked since he was the target.
His sword shed slightly as he swung it in front of him.
Switching between a normal grip and a reverse grip, he was able to cut down the ice spears with ease.
"Hou, not bad kiddo. Got some capabilities there." Shiroughed as she stomped down.
A huge magic circle expanded out from her and covered the entire area.
Jumping upwards before the circle could even take effect, Nathan managed to avoid having his legs frozen stiff.
Twisting his body in mid-air, he blocked a few ice spears that tried to hit him when he didn¡¯t expect it.
"Whoo!! Go!" The crowd cheered in excitement.
Landing on the ground, Nathan pivoted on his foot and swung his sword horizontally.
A huge wave of fire shot towards Shiro.
She only flicked her fingers as a huge wall of ice erected in front of her and blocked the fire easily.
However, the fire was only a diversion as Nathan had already closed in on her with his sword gliding towards her.
Unfortunately for him, she was long prepared as she was still rxed about this fight.
Before the sword could make any decent progress towards her, a sheet of ice materialised and blocked the sword.
¡¯What?!¡¯ He thought in shock.
Quickly adapting to the situation, he pivoted around her ice block and swung his sword upwards.
*DANG!
What happened next shocked everyone as the small mage was actually able to pinch Nathan¡¯s sword.
If she had used magic then fair enough, they could still wrap their head around that. However, she had used her own strength to stop his sword dead in its tracks. Not only that, but she had actually pinched the sword urately.
The amount of strength needed to mp a moving sword with just their fingers was something that should be outside of a mage¡¯s power and yet, Shiro had done just that.
"Shame, you should really work on your arm strength." Shiro said whilst giving him a side nce.
"I would break the sword but you need it so I¡¯ll let you off with that. Now then, it¡¯s my turn." She grinned.
*BANG BANG!
In a short moment, Shiro had disarmed him and mmed her palm into his chest.
"GAH!"
A single hit of her palm had actuallyunched him into the air.
Flicking her wrist, the ice spears shot towards him and imprisoned him in the air.
"Well? Do you give up?" Shiro smiled as she sat on an ice spear and floated in front of him.
Crossing her legs, she waited for his reply.
"... I yield." He replied after a short moment of silence.
*p
"Great." Shiro smiled and let him down from the makeshift prison she had built.
With her role as the all around supporter that will assist on both fronts, the party discussed a few tactics that they could potentially use.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day, there were no more S ranked adventures so they could only stick with the members they had now.
###
Setting off for Silvermoon Keep early in the morning, the girls and boys were in separate carriages. However, Alex seemed to be infatuated with Shiro as he was walking next to the carriage.
Even when she would re at him or attempt to hit him, he would make a perverted face that instantly repelled Shiro from making a move.
Her logic being, ¡¯If I hit him, it would probably be more of a reward than actual punishment¡¯.
Which, unfortunately, waspletely true since not only did he fall in love with her appearance but also her fighting style.
"We¡¯ll be arriving shortly at the Keep." The driver shouted out as the team looked out the windows.
"Huh, I didn¡¯t expect the f*cker to be so big." Shiro muttered while looking up at the tower that seemed to pierce into the heaven¡¯s themselves. Not only that, butrge walls and smaller towers surrounded the main building withyers uponyers of protection.
"Language." Felicia called out from the opposite window.
"Urg. But how else can I express my current thoughts about the tall bastard?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
During the trip, she had gotten to know the twins a little better with Emilie being the rather childish one of the pair and Felicia being the ¡¯proper¡¯ kind ofdy.
"Perhaps you can say tower instead of the vulgarnguage you¡¯re currently using." She suggested.
"Eh~, but that doesn¡¯t have the same feeling." Shiro responded.
"Fufufu, don¡¯t worry about it Shiro. Feli is just like that." Emilieughed.
"I¡¯m saying this because you are young. If you don¡¯t correct yourself when your younger, it¡¯s harder when you grow up. Not only that, you¡¯ll scare away your potential suitors. What if you don¡¯t get a husband?" Felicia replied.
¡¯This miss had already reincarnated. At this point I don¡¯t think I can be ssified as a youngster anymore.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"If you can¡¯t find a husband, this one will dly take you as my wife!" Alex cried out.
"Scram! Like hell I want to marry you!" Shiro retorted.
"Even if she did want a husband. I don¡¯t think a masochist like you would be on her list of candidates." Nathan rolled his eyes.
"Che, as if I¡¯m a masochist. I¡¯m only willing to let Shiro harm me for fun. No one else."
"That¡¯s the definition of masochist. Dumbass." Nathan scoffed.
Shiro ignored the duo¡¯s banter as they were arriving at the camp.
She almost see the depressing aura of the army as they failed day after day.
¡¯Well it seems like they need something to boost their morals up.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. Not that she¡¯ll take that role.
Her concernsy with stopping whatever was happening in the tower. Nothing more, nothing less.
That and the fact that she could see a god damn shadow dragon resting at the top of the tower.
¡¯Seems like I may have found the final boss for this trial.¡¯
Chapter 120 Silvermoon Keep P7
Chapter 120 Silvermoon Keep P7
After she had gotten off the carriage, everything was pretty simple. The captain would introduce them to the army while all they had to do was to stand still and look pretty.
Naturally, there were a few discontented soldiers that were annoyed at the fact that Shiro was an S ranked mage that was ced in the elite squad.
A few short spars with Shiro shut them up.
Currently, they were in a tent discussing the next steps that they should take.
"The cultists are bunkering down on the secondyer of defence. The moment we break through the first line, we¡¯ll be pincered by the mages so that¡¯s why we haven¡¯t made any decent progress in that front." Themander said whilst pointing at a map of the Keep.
"Can¡¯t you go around the back? Pincer them and spread their man power."
"That would be a good idea if they didn¡¯t have summoned monsters. They seem to have an unlimited amount of summoner¡¯s that can replenish their man power. With everyone monster we kill 2 more appear." Themander sighed.
"Then what if we bombard them with every mage we have? If we continue to bombard them, surely they¡¯ll run out of summoners."
"It isn¡¯t going to be that easy." Shiro suddenly cut in.
"Oh? Why?" Themander asked as he was eager to know of her thoughts. Since she was an amazing mage, she may know something that they don¡¯t.
"The source of the monsters originates from the top of the tower. You can¡¯t see it but there is a huge shadow dragon. Every second, it¡¯s collecting a sort of miasma from every direction. Not only that, but it spawns the monsters from that miasma. So unless we take care of the dragon, we won¡¯t be able to get rid of the monster soldiers." Shiro exined seriously as she had a theory about the dragon.
When she saw the ck miasma, she noticed that it was very simr to the spirit¡¯s aura from the ces where there were infected.
Back in Hythe and the cargo that she had burnt. They had a type of infection that killed the people and fuelled the spirits.
Her theory was that the life force of humans feed the spirits while they funnel their power into the dragon. If Hythe and Norbury had these infected areas, then surely the other towns would also have the infection.
Regarding this, they had two choices. Either destroy all of the infection and the spirits or kill the dragon.
Naturally, the easiest would be to kill the dragon. However, even if she killed the dragon, there was no telling if the spirits would stop. All that they¡¯ll achieve after killing the dragon is make the spirits lose their target. Once that happens, all of the power would be used for themselves, allowing them to grow at an outrageous pace.
"How can you see it then?" They asked.
"Because I can. That and I believe that you should have news about infections breaking out in multiple towns. I believe that it is the work of the dragon so not only do we need to kill the dragon, but we also need to stop the infections." Shiro retorted as she crossed her legs.
"I do indeed have news about a recent epidemic that had been spreading rapidly through the towns. However, from what I¡¯ve heard, healing magic doesn¡¯t work on them. The most it will do is relieve the pain of the patients but not cure them of the infection." Themander frowned.
"That¡¯s because the source of the infection is spirits. You¡¯ll need to find exorcists to actually cure the patients of their infections. Have the exorcists kill the spirits while the healers tend to the patient and you should be able to resolve the epidemic." Shiro waved her hand.
"What¡¯s an exorcist?" Themander asked.
"..."
"..."
¡¯This world is f*cked.¡¯
"Basically, an exorcist is someone who can kill spirits/ghosts/phantoms and the likes. They¡¯ll be able to see supernatural forces and help purge the evil spirits." Shiro tried to exin.
"This is the first time I¡¯ve heard of something like this. But I do know that the saints have a skill that sounds simr to what you¡¯re describing."
"Purification?" Shiro asked.
"Yes."
"Hmm, purification can work but it¡¯s still better to get an exorcist. Because unlike saints who will need to use purification without seeing the target, exorcists will be able to efficiently dispose of the spirits. So unless you have enough saints and enough potions to help them regain mana, it would take a long time to cure the infected. Not only that, but since you can¡¯t see the spirits, you wouldn¡¯t know if a spirit escaped or not and an infection could break out once more in the future." Shiro warned.
"How do we get something we never heard of before?" Themander asked as the corner of his lips twitched slightly.
"Arg! I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m an ice mage, not an exorcist. Plus, I¡¯m only 13. It¡¯s not like I have the key to all the knowledge in the world!" Shiro replied as she had the urge to flip the table.
She didn¡¯t know exorcists trained to get their ss as she never needed that information. With him asking her about how to get one, it was akin to a child asking why the table was called a table and why the sky was called a sky.
¡¯I only know about exorcists ok?! I don¡¯t know how they came to be!¡¯
*cough cough!
Themander coughed in embarrassment as he realised that they, a group of grown men, were depending on a 13 year old for answers. Not only that, but they were listening to her as if she was the leader.
"Ahem. So basically, we should have the saints going from town to town to try to purify the infected and stabilise the situation. Since we can¡¯t fully solve the issue, we¡¯ll have to make do with what we have right now." Themander said as he regained his bearings.
"However, even if we try to stabilise the situation, the pressing concern about what they¡¯re doing inside the keep is still a mystery. And like Shiro had said, there is a shadow dragon of sorts producing the man power for the cultists. I have a suggestion, one of which you already know but with some minor adjustments." He said as he drew their attention to the map.
"Like before, we¡¯ll have you enter the keep through the hidden tunnel that we have been digging for the past few weeks. Once you get inside the keep, I want you to eliminate all enemy forces and try to bring back any intel you can get your hands on. Also, if you find a way to kill the dragon, kill it. No mercy. If the dragon dies, the cultists lose their advantage of manpower. And once they lose that advantage, we¡¯ll be able to storm the keep without any problems." He continued as he nced at the group.
"You can go to the armoury to see if there is anything else that you want to take with you. We¡¯ll start the operation in 2 hours so get yourself ready before that. Meeting Adjourned."
With the meeting over, the group walked to the armoury. Naturally, Shiro didn¡¯t care much as she didn¡¯t need any of the weapons they provided.
However, Alex, Nathan, Felicia and Emilie all got rather significant upgrades in terms of weapons. Not only that, but Shiro could tell that they couldn¡¯t wait to test the weapons out.
"Don¡¯t be so hasty. You¡¯ll have plenty of time to test out the weapons once we get into the keep." Shiro smiled as she sat on some boxes.
"Are you not going to get a weapon? All of the weapons here is worth a fortune outside." Alex asked.
"My weapon is my magic, why would I need to get some cold weapons?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"In case you enter a mana restricted zone or if the corridors are too narrow for you. You can get a pair of daggers to help you with fighting off the cultists." Nathan said whilst throwing a pair of white daggers to Shiro.
Shrugging her shoulders, she didn¡¯t reject the daggers since he does make a point.
After all the preparations were done, they started to walk towards the hidden tunnel that they had dug out. They couldn¡¯t go with carriage since it¡¯ll be too eye catching.
"Here we are. Themander told me to pass this message on to you. Remember, once you¡¯re inside the keep, kill all the cultists no mercy. Bring back any intel and kill the dragon while you¡¯re at it." The guide said as he gestured to the hole in the wall.
"Consider it done." Alex grinned as he led the party inwards.
Following behind Alex, Shiro would asionally nce at the walls. It gave her an odd feeling as if it wasn¡¯t a wall but in fact, a living being.
Narrowing her eyes, she would make a mark on the walls every few steps just in case.
But contrary to her worries, nothing had happened and they sessfully reached the Keep prison.
"Alright, from the map they gave us, we¡¯ll be going up the prison and into the side hall. After that, we¡¯ll clear out the main hall. Emilie and Felicia, we¡¯ll need you to get some high ground and keep an eye out for anyoneing as reinforcements. While you do that, feel free to snipe a few cultists on the battlements." Alex ordered with a rare sense of seriousness.
"Let¡¯s give them hell." He grinned and charged up the stairs.
Following after him, Shiro flicking her wrist as several ice spears materialised and floated around them.
*BANG BANG BANG!!!
Not too long after, the sounds ofbat rang out as the twins started to parkour up the walls and onto the ceiling for some high ground.
Shiro, Alex and Nathan cut down the cultists easily. A single swipe of her dagger was enough to kill the cultists while using her magic was just overkill for them.
The body count increased quickly as they made their way to the main hall. However, the main hall was oddly quiet since there were no enemies at all.
But Shiro knew otherwise. Looking up, she could see the faint outline of a giant arachnid type monster.
10 disgustingly long shadow limbs stretched out from its body along with several tentacle shadows that sprouted from its back. The tentacles would asionally merge into arger tentacle which only served to disgust her even further.
"What¡¯s wrong?" Alex asked as he saw Shiro looking up.
"Shadow monster above us. 10 legs, bunch of tentacles on its back." Shiro summarised quickly before mming her hand into the ground.
*KRRRR!!!!
5 ice pirs shot upwards and stabbed the monster on its back.
"KISHAAA!!!" Suddenly screaming out in pain due to the ice that had pierced its shell, the monster copsed from the ceiling and mmed against the ground, causing a cloud of dust to appear.
The party had to quickly cover their ears from the piercing scream they just heard.
"Focus on keeping your guard up and stay on the run while I kill this monster!" Shiro shouted out as she had no time to entertain her teammates. To put matters crudely, they¡¯re useless right now.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + 3rd Phantom.
Her body flickered and dodged the tentacles that had stabbed towards her.
shing her dagger, Shiro frowned as she realised theck of damage the daggers had done.
Throwing the daggers away, she constructed a few ice spears with a single snap of her fingers.
"KISHAAA!!!" The monster roared out before stabbing all ten of its legs into the ground.
Shiro could feel the ground shake as if something was approaching and flipped backwards and away from danger.
*BANG!!!!
From her view, she could see 10 spikes suddenly pierce through her previous spot.
Grinning slightly, Shiro created an ice tform andunched her body towards the legs/spikes.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
*PUSHI!!!!
Ripping the legs off the monster with ease, she flicked her wrist and sent them flying back at the monster.
Only just understanding the difference in strength between it and her, the monster turned its body and attempted to run away.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t about to let it run.
*BANG!
Clutching her fist, a cage of ice appeared around the monster and mmed it into the ground. #
"KRR KISHA! KSHH!!" Thrashing around the cage, the monster struggled for its life.
"Hou hou, you aren¡¯t getting out of this missy¡¯s cage any time soon." Shiroughed as shended in front of the cage.
The party, who had stabilised themselves, walked over to Shiro.
"So the monster is in the cage?" Alex asked as he nced at the cage sceptically. He could hear the monster, feel the shaking from each of the movements, but he could not see of sense the monster.
"Yeah, I¡¯m going to end it right now." Shiro replied as a spear appeared in her hands.
She stabbed towards the monster with a single swift movement.
However, the monster curled up its body in an act to defend itself.
*DING!
To her surprise, its shell had actually deflected her spear.
Frowning slightly, Shiro narrowed her eyes and observed the new armour.
The armour was constantly rotating to deflect any iing damage. To make matters worse, she couldn¡¯t find a spot for her to attack.
She circled the monster a few times before she found an opening. The natural defence. A part of the body that not many would think about guarding during a fight.
Le dear ol¡¯ rectum.
Previously, she had stopped going for this weak point since there was no need for it. In fact, going for the weak point in those situations would only decrease her killing efficiency.
However, a perfect opportunity had presented itself. Both literally and metaphorically.
Creating a bigger spear, she took aim.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
*BANG!!!Crack!
The party could hear something break as they suddenly felt a sense of sadness for the monster.
¡¯Strange...¡¯ They thought.
Chapter 121 Silvermoon Keep P8
Chapter 121 Silvermoon Keep P8
"Since you four can¡¯t see the monsters, I¡¯ll head up the tower by myself. In the meantime, you can go look for intel to bring back to the camp." Shiro said as she dusted her hands.
Since she was finally able to im the ass of another monster, her mood lightened up considerably.
"Bu-"
"Alex. Are you forgetting who¡¯s the strongest here?" Shiro grinned and walked up the tower without even looking back.
The group looked at each other before sighing. They had to agree with her since they weren¡¯t able to do anything during thest fight. Not only could they not see the monster, but they weren¡¯t sure that they could damage it even if they could see it.
That was due to the coteral damage caused by the fight between the two. When one of the attacksnded near them, they had an instinctive feeling that they would die instantly if it had hit them.
ncing at her back, they sighed before leaving the main hall.
As for Shiro, she easily took care of any cultists that had approached her.
¡¯Now that I think about it, a dragon¡¯s reverse scale is their weak point. Would a shadow dragon have the same weak point and does it even have an anus?¡¯ Shiro thought whilst ripping the head off the body of a cultist.
Throwing the corpse behind her, Shiro nced out the tower window and saw that she was still quite a distance away from the roof.
"Hmm... Who said I had to follow the path inside the tower?" Shiro grinned before leaping out of the window.
Grabbing the ledge of the window, she flipped her body upwards.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + 3rd Phantom + Faded Snow Movement.
Her body flickered up the side of the building. She would either grab onto the protrusion from the wall or make her own footholds from ice.
In a few short moments, she jumped over the roof and saw several cultists around a formation that was powering the dragon.
Her eyes scanned the roof quickly and made a dagger for each of the cultists. Twisting her body in mid-air, she threw the daggers with pinpoint precision and killed them in an instant.
*RUMBLE!!!!! PING!
With theck of cultists that were powering the formation, the formation shattered into spots of light and set the dragon free.
*ROARRRR!!!!!
"SSS!!" Shiro quickly covered her ears from the power of the roar.
Falling onto the roof, she wasn¡¯t able to stand properly and fell onto one knee.
Opening one of her eyes with some difficulty, as she was still disoriented by the roar, she saw that the dragon had swiped its tail towards her.
Widening her eyes, she quickly flicked her wrist as severalyers of ice walls erected in front of her.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
"Tsk!" She clicked her tongue and quickly flipped her body away from the tail.
"Even though this trial is low levelled a dragon is still a dragon huh?" She muttered as she saw the tag above the dragon¡¯s head.
[Cmity Dragon ¨C LVL ???]
HP: ???
MP: ???
During this, she also took the chance to observe the dragon¡¯s appearance. The dragon looked ethereal as the body constantly shifted between mist form and solid state. Not only that, but l.u.s.trous ck scales decorated its body. Blood red eyes and dark spikes covered its entire body. That right, the dragon wasn¡¯t limited to only 1 pair of eyes. Its entire body was filled with eyes.
¡¯Damn it. I should have known that a dragon of its stature wouldn¡¯t be low levelled.¡¯ Shiro cursed inwards.
However, the dragon wasn¡¯t about to let her leave without a fight.
Rearing his head back, the miasma gathered around his mouth as she realised that it was about to release a dragon breath.
"Not on my watch." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she gathered mana around her palm and clutched her hand into a fist.
*KISH KISH KISH KISH!!
Several magic circles erected around the dragon as ice chainsshed towards it inrge quantities. Some of the chains evenbined to form a serpent.
*BANG!
However, the moment the chains wrapped around the dragon¡¯s body, they broke apart with a simple flex of his muscles.
Making a quick decision, Shiro made and ice sword and dashed towards the dragon.
*BOOM!!!!
A ck beam of energy suddenly appeared in her vision as Shiro knew that it was the dragon¡¯s breath.
A magic circle appeared under her, creating a huge tower of ice that propelled her into the air and away from the breath.
Silently wiping away her sweat that had gathered due to how close it was, Shiro looked towards the dragon once more.
*KRR!!
She quickly made an ice tform to propel herself towards the dragon before it could even recover from using its breath.
*PUCHI!!!
*ROARRR!!!!!
Plunging her sword into one of the eyes, she twisted her body and ripped it out.
Enraged by her action, all of his eyes glowed with an ominous red.
*BOOM!!!!
Beams of energy shot out from all of his irises as Shiro had to quickly bend her body back to avoid the beam of light.
During this, she created two ice spears and stabbed them into the ground.
*KRRR!!
Using them as a focal point, Shiro encased the entire roof in ice to trigger her Ice Field Affinity.
Not only that, but the ice caused the dragon to slip, giving her the perfect opportunity to attack it.
She could see that the dragon had some properties simr to a spirit so theoretically, she could use the fire of life against the dragon.
Skating along the ice, she flicked her wrist and created a greatsword in her hand. Activating the fire of life, the side of the sword lit up in green mes.
The moment the fire appeared, the shadows that covered the dragon¡¯s body flickered away in repulsion and fear.
¡¯Great.¡¯ Shiro thought with a grin.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
*BANGG!!!!
She mmed the sword towards the dragon¡¯s leg but it quickly dodged backwards and avoided the mes.
"So this does work. In that case then, try to dodge this." Shiro grinned.
Frozen Hell Series: Azure Hell Fire.
Blue mes lit up all around the roof and it seemed like an army of fireflies had appeared.
*Click
With a snap of her fingers, the fire shifted from the ghostly blue into a lush green.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!
In a manner not unlike the skill bombardment, that Alura Casadan had won during the auction, the life fires shot towards the dragon.
Covering his entire body with his wing, the dragon tried to shield itself from the fire with little to no sess.
Every time the fire struck against the wing, it would leave a scorched mark that caused the dragons blood to ooze out of the wound.
But before she could even rejoice at this fact, the wound had already healed back up.
Understanding that she was too weak to affect it, even with her fire of life, the dragon red at her and ignored the fire that would strike against his body.
"..."
"Err... can we talk this out?" Shiro asked.
*ROARRR!!!!
The dragon wed his way towards Shiro as each of his steps would rip a chunk of the tower out.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro stood her ground and released her killing intent at the dragon.
*BANG!!!!
The dragon stopped dead in its tracks and shivered in fear.
Unfortunately for Shiro, the dragon remembered how she was too weak to do anything. So even though she had such a strong killing intent, he was able to ignore it entirely.
However, that pause was all she needed since she wanted to stop his momentum.
Frozen Hell Series: Frozen Slumber.
Six magic circles appeared around the dragon. But this time, the chains didn¡¯t break easily. Although it did, however, put a lot of stress on Shiro.
Gritting her teeth, she started to force her hands together in order to freeze the dragon.
*FUUU!!!!!!
The longer she held her skill, the bigger the blizzard was.
From an outsider¡¯s perspective, even though they couldn¡¯t see that dragon, they could see the chains wrap around something invisible. Not only that, but the blizzard was almost impossible to miss.
The party, who had separated from her earlier, felt sweat drip down their spine when they saw the power of her skill.
"I didn¡¯t think that she would be this strong..." Alex muttered seeing the blizzard.
"Erm guys, just a thought." Emilie suddenly said.
"Go on."
"So we know that she¡¯s strong right? And that this is one of the most powerful skills she had demonstrated so far. How has she not killed the enemy yet?" She said as they paused in shock.
If she was still fighting even after all the skills they saw fly pass the roof, that meant that she was struggling with the dragon.
"But we can¡¯t see the dragon. How do you expect us to help her out in this situation?" Felicia frowned.
"We see the dragon like how she does." Nathan said as he captured their attention.
"How?"
"Think about it. If the cultist could summon different types of monsters, some of which we can¡¯t see due to what Shiro had shown us earlier, don¡¯t you think that they have a way to see the monster¡¯s themselves?" Nathan suggested.
The group looked at each other in surprise.
"Alright, new n. We interrogate a cultist for some information. Limit it to 2 minutes of torture. If we can¡¯t get anything out of them, don¡¯t waste time and instead search their bodies for something that could potentially help us." Alex said seriously.
"Got it!"
###
Meanwhile, Shiro was still struggling against cmity dragon due to the fact that she could do barely any damage to the dragon.
His natural healing was several tiers above her damage output. So much that she cursed repeatedly at the fact that a monster like this was actually in such a low level dungeon.
Even with her Ice Field Affinity helping her with the MP regeneration, her MP consumption was simply toorge.
"Tsk! F*ck off already!" Shiro shouted out as this was the nth time that she had tried to retreat from this fight but the dragon was simply too strong. His physical attributes were many times above hers to the point that he is just toying with her now.
Ignoring her cries, the dragon flexed his w and sent several strands of miasmashing towards her.
Twisting her body in mid-air, Shiro narrowly avoided the strands of miasma andnded roughly on her feet.
At this point, she had been tossing and turning so much that she looked no different from a beggar. One that looked extremely beautiful of course.
"Alright fine! This miss will go all out against you even if I die!" Shiro shouted out as the mana around her went berserk.
Pseudo Ice Elemental Armour.
Ice armour wrapped around her as she tightened her grip around the spiked chains.
ring at the dragon, she released 10% of her killing intent.
*BOOM!!!!
Due to her passive skill, her killing intent also tranted to freezing power. 10% of her killing intent was enough to cause a huge blizzard to appear. The sheer size of the blizzard had coated the entire main tower of Silvermoon Keep in a sheet of snow.
"So this is her power..." Themander muttered as he watched the situation from the back lines. The sudden appearance of the huge blizzard had shocked them to the core and had told them about her power that of which was so strong that it could even affect the weather around her.
"Tell the soldiers to pull their weights! They¡¯re getting shown up by a 13 year old!" He shouted out before giving the top of the tower another nce.
If all mages had her kind of power, the casualties of the current fight between them and the cultists would be through the roof.
Meanwhile, the party had managed to get some clues about how they could see and take care of the dragon.
"So if what he tells us is correct, there should be a potion of sorts in their storeroom that allows us to see the dragon. In the storeroom should also be a few items that helps them control the dragon so we can use that to help retrain the dragon while Shiro takes that moment to kill the dragon." Nathan said as he threw the passed-out cultists to the side.
"Alright, we need to go as fast as possible. From the way things look up there, Shiro¡¯s reaching her limit as well." Alex replied. They could feel the berserk mana surge around above them but at the same time, the power was weakening at a much faster pace than before.
They weren¡¯t wrong as the elemental armours were always a trump card of sorts. The armour chews through the MP of mages like nothing since they don¡¯t consume values but instead percentages.
Shiro¡¯s face waspletely emotionless as she was using 110% of her concentration. Right now, it was an all or nothing situation.
Chapter 122 Silvermoon Keep Final
Chapter 122 Silvermoon Keep Final
Without a moment¡¯s dy, Shiro charged forwards and whipped her spiked chains towards the dragon.
Wrapping around the dragon¡¯s head, she gave them a gentle tug which in turnunched her toward the dragons head.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter weight Phantom.
*PUCHI!!!!
Just before the collision, she retracted one of the chains and changed it into a sword before stabbing it into the hard outer shell of the dragon. Only this time with more sess.
Twisting her sword, green fire suddenly exploded out from the edges and into the dragon¡¯s flesh, searing it from the inside out.
*ROARRR!!!!
The dragon cried out in pain as his inner defences were much weaker whenpared to his quickly regenerating outer defence. Although he could still heal all of the damage that she had caused, it would take a little longer than healing an outside wound.
Seeing her attack deal more damage than before, Shiro narrowed her eyes and flipped off the head of the dragon. During this, she had also flicked both her chains upwards which caused two shallow cuts along the shoulder area of the dragon.
Not giving it the chance it needs to heal, Shiro flexed her fingers and sent several life fire coated daggers into the wounds.
Bursting into a ball of mes, the fire hindered the dragon¡¯s regeneration.
However, while this was happening, the dragon had already swept his tail towards Shiro.
Shifting her body slightly, Shiro used the momentum of the tail to make some room between her and the dragon.
mming her palms down, the spiked chains on her wrist drilled into the ground. A magic circle erged around the dragon as fissures could be seen forming slowly.
*RUMBLE! BANG!!!
Several huge chains appeared around the dragon and wrapped around him before dragging him downwards.
Twisting her palms, she sent mana through the chains causing them to set aze with life fire. In addition to this, hooks shot out from each segment of the chains which prevented the dragon from removing the chains as easily.
Standing back up, Shiro had to stop herself from falling backwards. She ced her hand on her chest and tried to soothe the pain that she was feeling.
After a short moment of rest, she flicked her finger upwards as ice started to form above the dragon.
A giant guillotine made from ice appeared above the dragon. mming her palms downwards, the guillotine followed her movements and attempted to decapitate the dragon.
However, the dragon only scoffed for a moment as the eyes all over his body glowed ominously. A ck light filled her vision and once it cleared, she saw the dragon split itself into smaller copies which allowed it to escape his bindings along with avoiding the falling guillotine.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro had to deactivate her Pseudo Ice Elemental Armour since any longer and her MP would bepletely emptied out. Right now, her best option was to let her passive work its magic and regenerate her MP.
Each of the dragons nced at each other before slowly merging together. It knew that if it split itself, it would give her more chances to harm it duringbat due to the fact that his power is shared between all of the copies. He would only use this when he is in trouble.
He could tell the potential danger from her attack just now as his instincts were warning him. Even if he could regenerate, it would not be easy.
But the reality of the situation was that he didn¡¯t need to worry at all. Shiro was out of options and could only struggle to even stand straight right now.
"Ha... you tenacious little shit." She cursed whilst ring at the cmity dragon.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro crouched into a low stance and kept her eye on the dragon. Since she couldn¡¯t use her mana right now since it¡¯s slowly regenerating, she was going to use her phantom arts to the best of her abilities.
"Heh, it isn¡¯t often that this miss is pushed to the limits. Make it worthwhile would you darling?" Shiro grinned in an attempt to provoke the dragon.
Clearly it worked since the dragon narrowed the myriad of eyes all over his body.
Without warning, it sent a w swiping towards her.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom + 4th Phantom.
Doing a split, Shiro easily ducked under the w and sent her elbow mming against the wrist of the dragon.
*BANG CRACK!!!!
Due to the fact that 4th Phantom, Internal Feasting Phantom, ignores the outer defences and attacks the insides; she was able to transmit the force against the wrist and fracture the dragon¡¯s bones.
"Is that all?"
Flipping her body around and over the arm, Shiro mmed her heel into the forearm.
Since Yin Style Phantom Arts were a movement and hand to handbat based martial arts, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to use it often with weapons.
Not to mention, she had her Nanomancer ss, so purposefully disarming herself wasn¡¯t rmended just to use the martial arts. Plus, with the kind of output her firearms could produce, she didn¡¯t need to go into hand to handbat.
"Shiro!!" A voice suddenly shouted out, grabbing her attention.
*BANG!
"What the hell do you want?" Shiro shouted back in frustration since that shout had created apse in her concentration. This caused her to miss the timing and couldn¡¯t hit the arm of the dragon for the third time.
Her punch instead hit the ground and caused a hole to appear on the roof.
She had to quickly jump back as the hole was expanding rapidly.
"Ah, right, we can help!" Alex replied as he and the party spread out a little in order to avoid the dragon¡¯s attacks.
After interrogating the cultists, they had managed to find a set of potions that will help them see the shadow creatures.
After seeing the dragon, they were slightly repulsed by how it looked with the myriad of eyes scattered around his body but they didn¡¯t verbalise their disgust. They could tell that the dragon was on a whole new level and they needed to end it fast.
"The dragon we¡¯re seeing right now is walking cmity. His power is sealed away in another dimension. We need to kill the dragon before all of his power is recovered." Nathan shouted out whilst shing at the dragon¡¯s scales a few times. However, theck of damage caused him to furrow his brows.
"No wonder I¡¯m still alive." Shiro nodded since a real dragon wouldn¡¯t let her live this long.
"The cultists had an unholy item that will help them control the dragon to a certain degree. We¡¯ll use that and help you kill the dragon." Alex said whilst pulling out the unholy item.
Shiro paused in shock as she had seen that item before.
"Are you sure that¡¯s the item?" She asked carefully whilst jumping over one of the dragon¡¯s attacks.
"Yes. From the ancient records that we found, as long as we ce this item on the dragon, we¡¯ll be able to influence the dragon." Alex said seriously as he made sure to keep the item safe.
Shiro felt her lips twitch as the unholy item he was talking about is a huge Pink Fluffy Cuff
¡¯Who the hell uses BDSM gear to control a f*cking dragon!!!¡¯ Shiro cursed mentally as she held back on the desire to kill whoever created the item.
"Alright, do you know how to use it?" She asked.
"I¡¯m sure you just put this around the neck right?"
"..."
"I mean sure it¡¯s a little different from normal cuffs. Since it¡¯s pink and fluffy, but I¡¯m sure the ancient records aren¡¯t wrong." Alex said as he had aplicated expression.
¡¯It¡¯s fine. No matter what happens in the dungeon, it stays in the dungeon. No one needs to know outside of the dungeon or else the dragon¡¯s prideful name would be ruined.¡¯ She thought to herself.
However, she couldn¡¯t help but imagine the dragon tied up with some rope, cuffed and chained to a bed.
Weak and vulnerable to whatever they wanted to do...
¡¯Pui! What am I thinking about!!¡¯ Shiro thought and pped herself out of the daydream.
"How do we erge the cuffs? Because that is not holding back the dragon." She asked.
"It said that we can just throw it at the dragon and it¡¯ll contain it." Ale replied as he took a
"That¡¯s it?"
"That¡¯s it."
"Then why the hell are you still holding it?!!! F*cking throw the thing!"
"Ah! Right!"
Alex threw the pair of Pink Fluffy Cuffs towards the dragon, which tried to flee as he understood what the cuff¡¯s could do.
"Get over here!" Shiro shouted as six chains grabbed the dragon by the wings and forced it down.
*BOOM!!!
The cuffs expanded over the dragon¡¯s head and shrunk down into a pink ve cor of sorts. Not only that, but the moment the fluff came into contact with his scales, they hardened up into spikes that easily prated the dragon¡¯s scales.
*ROARRRR!!!
The dragon¡¯s body twitched in pain as he thrashed around in an attempt to rip the cuff off his body. Even to go as far as to start tearing off chunks of flesh.
Shiro paled slightly from the damage it was causing as she would have died easily if it had used the same amount of effort in killing her.
This only showed her that she was akin to a child that the dragon didn¡¯t even need to take seriously.
After a short moment, the dragon started to slow down as the l.u.s.tre on his scales started to dim.
[Weakened Cmity Dragon ¨C LVL 45]
HP: 1,500,230/500,000,000
MP: 120,020/100,000,000
"The f*ck?! it actually worked????" Shiro couldn¡¯t help but mutter in surprise.
Seeing the dragon weakened to this degree, Shiro made eye contact with the other members of the elite squad and nodded her head.
ncing at her HP bar, she sighed in relief since it should be just enough to kill the dragon.
"GO!"
At hermand, the party leapt into action. Emilie and Felicia retreated and shot out arrow after arrow. Each of the arrows would pierce the intended target without miss.
Nathan and Alex on the other hand, dashed up the spin of the dragon and made cuts all over his body.
Due to a certain pink cuff that was sapping the dragon of his strength, his overall physical power was weakened by a lot as well.
Hell, if the dragon was like this a few moments earlier, Shiro could have easily soloed it and ended this trial.
As the party continued their relentless assault against the dragon, his health was dropping rapidly. Even when it used its dragon breath, Shiro could defend against the breath with a fewyers of her reinforced ice walls.
After their roles switched, the dragon could only suffer the beatings with no chance of retaliation.
Shiro was especially ruthless since she suffered so much in his hands. It was to the point that even her party flinched at the brutality.
Every single scale on his back would be ripped out piece by piece. If they regenerated, she would rip them out once more.
*roar...
The dragon cried out weakly as it could feel his timee to an end.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t going to let it have an easy death.
"Since you liked to toy with my this much, this queen will teach you what happens!" She shouted out as she dislocated the dragons wings and ripped them out of their sockets.
*ROARR!!!!
"I¡¯m not done yet!" Shiro shouted whilst repeating the action with the other wing.
Jumping off the back of the dragon, Shiro raised her hands and conjured up two hands made from ice and held the dragon in its ce.
"Wait Shiro what are you doing?" Alex asked.
"Just watch. It¡¯s going to be a surprise hahaha." Shiro chuckled darkly as her eyes glowed with a sadistic light.
She was going to make sure this dragon died of humiliation.
Creating a third arm to lift up the tail, Shiro exposed the dragon¡¯s reverse scale.
A huge magic circle appeared behind its rear and thrummed with a neon blue light.
Both the dragon and the party members could feel the mana surge around the magic circle.
Their collective faces paled since they could guess what she was going to do.
*ROAR!!!
The dragon tried to escape the restraints but couldn¡¯t cause them to budge even a little.
Time was short and it knew it couldn¡¯t escape.
With no other option, it could only choose to self destruct in order to avoid humiliation.
"Don¡¯t think about it!" Shiro shouted out in anger. She wasn¡¯t about to let it escape her revenge.
Her instincts controlled her as she knew that she had to stop the self destruction for two reasons. Number one is because that means she couldn¡¯t pierce his ass and number two is that they would die if it blew up. Naturally, she was doing it for reason two and not one. *Cough*
In order to self destruct, one would need to gather the surrounding mana into their bodies and ignite their bodies as a bomb. As long as she could either divert or remove the mana around the dragon so that it couldn¡¯t blow up, they¡¯ll be fine.
An idea popped into her mind as she flicked her wrist. The magic circle started to shift causing four tendrils to extend out of the magic circle and injected themselves into the dragon¡¯s body.
*GAHRRRRR!!!
The dragon screamed as it could feel the mana getting redirected into the mana circle. The more it tried to suicide the faster the magic circle charged up.
"Shiro, can we talk about this? Why don¡¯t we just kill it normally?" Alex asked.
"Nope!"
*BANG!!!!!
The ice spike pierced the dragon and turned into a famed dish in her past life.
Dragon Meat on Skewers.
Chapter 123 Trial Rewards
Chapter 123 Trial Rewards
The moment the dragon died, Shiro was shocked seeing the world pause in its tracks. It was as if someone had instantly tapped the pause button on the world.
Furrowing her brows, she ignored the frozen sight of the dragon being skewered and looked towards the party.
"Well, I suppose it makes sense that this world will end the moment the trial finished. It is only a fabrication after all." Shiro muttered whilst looking at the party members.
However, seeing the group of people she had interacted for the past few days be frozen and helpless, she couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
[Trial Complete. Grade: B]
"Che grade B? Thisdy has killed the dragon. Why is it grade B?" Shiro muttered.
[Side Quest Completion Grade: B
Main Quest Completion Grade: C
Hidden Task Completion Grade: A]
[Hidden Task Reward: Ancient Healing Arts: Fire of Life.]
[Main Task B Grade Reward: Cmity Dragon Scale, Cmity¡¯s Will (Tier 2)]
"Only two items?! Are you serious! This miss went through all that for two items?" Shiro frowned at the cheap reward.
[Cmity Dragon Scale (Orange) 3/3]
A scale that contains the power of the Cmity Dragon. One is able to use this scale three times to exhibit the power of the Cmity Dragon for a short amount of time.
(Limited to Tier 3 due to B rankedpletion rate.)
Duration: 10 Minutes.
[Due to certain hidden conditions met, you are rewarded with the Cmity Force.]
[Cmity¡¯s Will (Tier 2) ¨C Shadow Attunement Augmentation (Orange)
Your shadows are now embedded with the power of cmities.
Increased Mana Absorption, Poison and Corrosion. (Limited to Tier 2)
Grants a decent resistance to status effects. (Limited to Tier 2)
Increase affinity with Spirits and Corrupted Monsters.]
"... I stand corrected." Shiro said in surprise when she saw the description.
At a nce, the Cmity Dragon Scale seemed like a material that one would use when crafting a weapon or armour. However, what she didn¡¯t expect was the fact that the scale was actually a type of Essence Relic that would house the powers of the monster that dropped it.
While the item isn¡¯t precious to high level adventurers, for her, it was a life saving item. Even though her Nanomancer ss will help her take care of level 50¡¯s, anything in the C ss territory was still a little out of reach for her. But with this, she wouldn¡¯t need to worry about any potential conflicts with the Slums.
When a person is granted power above their tier, they wouldn¡¯t know how to use the power efficiently since they aren¡¯t able to output all of the power at their disposal. However, it was no problem for her since her power easily surpassed Tier 3 in her past life.
With a single experiment that increased her level way past the 200 mark. She was Tier 5 Hero that hardly had a match in the world. Naturally, since the scientists could upgrade her, they could upgrade others.
But the other test subjects didn¡¯t have the same efficiency with the nanobots which resulted in them only reaching level 150/ Tier 5. Even the best subject could only reach the early stages of level 200+.
The problem was the fact that there were experiments happening all over the world. There were so manybs hidden in the world to the point that some even guessed that it was impossible to find all of them even if they spent their whole life searching. So even though they destroyed a lot ofbs, they were far from being able topletely eradicate them.
And amongst her conflicts with the test subjects, she ascended into the legendary Tier 6 which was never seen in the world. She could remember her upgrade having a visible effect in the world.
It was also due to the fact that she had reached Tier 6 before the hero that his jealousy was aroused.
Shaking her head of the idle thoughts, Shiro nced at her level.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Intermediate Monster (10/50 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete)
Level: 44
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 182,700/182,700
MP: 439,635/439,635
STR: 900 -> 1000 (+100)
VIT: 1200 (+200)
INT: 2700 -> 2800 (+550)
AGI: 1700 (+450)
DEX: 1100 -> 1200 (+100)
DEF: 400 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 300 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 2
Metal ¨C Tier 2
Shadow ¨C Tier 2 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Bnce: 163,720,500 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity, Cold Illusion
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation
Frozen Hell Series:
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Lightning Magic (Tier 2), Metal Magic (Tier 2), Shadow Magic (Tier 2)
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 1)]
"Che, the kills didn¡¯t go into my title." Shiro clicked her tongue as she couldn¡¯t help butment the missed opportunity.
If it had included all of the humans she had killed, she could almost guarantee that her monster title would increase once more.
Suddenly, a bright light filled her vision and stopped her musing short. She shielded her eyes and waited for the light to die down.
*BANG!!!!
A sudden hammer hit the back of her head as it send her crashing into the ground.
". . ."
". . ."
". . ."
Lyrica looked in shock as her enemy had mmed his hammer into the back of Shiro¡¯s head.
"What. In. The. F*ck." Shiro said slowly as she slowly got out of small crater without too much visible damage. Her eyes were slight blood shot from the anger she was feeling since she had just left her trial and some random f*ck decides to allow the hammer to make sweet love to the back of her head and force her to facent the ground.
Both Lyrica and the person who had just hit Shiro paled when they felt her killing intent burst outwards.
Ice spread rapidly as it instantly from the man¡¯s body, excluding his head.
"Would you like a run down about what¡¯s happening?" Lyrica asked as she could tell that Shiro wanted an exnation right now.
[Go. Make it short or else I¡¯ll start peeling this fat bastard behind me like a f.u.c.k.i.n.g banana.] Shiro typed out on her phone. Her cold eyes sent shivers down the man¡¯s back as he could tell that she was being serious.
¡¯Tsk, I need to ss up quickly because I swear if I have to type on the phone one more bloody time when I¡¯m angry, I¡¯m going to kill someone.¡¯ Shiro thought angrily.
"So basically...."
###
After listening to Lyrica¡¯s exnation, Shiro could only reluctantly let the man go. He was one of the patrolmen who had seen Lyrica struggling with developing a new skill and volunteered to spar with her.
Just as their spar started, Shiro had returned from her trial and the back of his hammer came into contact with her skull.
[You can go now. The more I see you the more I want to peel you.]
"R-right..." He stammered as he quickly walked away.
After walking away, he couldn¡¯t help but nce back again only to see four swords around Shiro that glowed ominously.
She made a throat slitting gesture which caused him to run without looking back.
Whilst this was happening, he couldn¡¯t help but think back to when he had idently hit her.
¡¯How did she make it out unscathed?¡¯ He thought to himself as he was a Bona fide level 50 hammer master. Even if she was a level 44 tank, she would have taken some visible damage as well. But from what he could see, she was perfectly fine.
However, only Shiro knew what had happened. And the truth was that it definitely hurt. But not to the point where she would be visual about the pain.
Shiro had her guard down since she had just finished her trial but she never expected to get hit the moment she got out. Not only that, but a single hit had taken 75k worth oh HP off in one hit.
That was also the reason as to why she was pissed and wanted to peel the guy like a banana.
If it wasn¡¯t for her Monster title that had effectively doubled her HP, she could have died right there and then.
"Erm... did it hurt?" Lyrica asked.
[What do you think? I just had a 1000lb hammer m into the back of my head. It tickled.] Shiro rolled her eyes.
"..." Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but facepalm when she realised how dumb her question was.
"So how was the trial? Did you get anything good from it?" She asked.
[The rewards were pretty amazing. It¡¯ll help me fight against any level 60 that decide to challenge me. Hell, I¡¯m pretty sure that even if they¡¯re level 70, I¡¯ll be able to fight them on equal ground. Naturally, the item is limited so it¡¯s my life saving item.] Shiro replied.
"Heh~ The item must be pretty high ranking then right?"
[Yep. Orange grade once again.] Shiro smiled.
"PFT! Orange grade again??!!" Lyrica widened her eyes in disbelief. She couldn¡¯t believe that Shiro had managed to obtain so many Orange Grade items in such a short time.
"Shiro-nee!!!" A young voice cried out in excitement as they could see a shadow jump towards Shiro.
As for Shiro, she only smiled and opened her arms for Kanae.
However, Lyrica intercepted the Kanae-missile and stood in front of Shiro like a guardian.
"Oh, Rica-nee are we ying that game?" Kanae smiled and increased her running speed.
Lyrica responded in kind as she too, ran towards her.
Shiro watched with interest since she wanted to see how they improved while she was inside the trial prating a certain Cmity Dragon.
Once they were about to collide with each other, Lyrica reached out and grabbed Kanae by the h.i.p.s before bending her body backwards to suplex her into the ground.
However, Kanae had a happy smile on her face since they had practiced this a few times whilst Shiro was inside the dungeon.
Bending her body backwards, Kanae demonstrated flexibility that was almost on par with Shiro and managed to sliver out of the Lyrica¡¯s hold.
Since Kanae had escaped her grip, Lyrica transitioned her suplex into a handstand and kicked towards Kanae.
Jumping over the kick, Kanae used Lyrica¡¯s leg as a jump pad to propel herself towards Shiro.
"How was that Shiro-nee?" Kanae asked with a happy smile whilst hugging Shiro.
[A lot of improvement. d to see that you haven¡¯t skimped out on improving your flexibility.] Shiro praised whilst rubbing her head.
"Hehe~"
Lyrica sighed as she watched Kanae enjoy a head rub from Shiro.
¡¯Even though she only patted my head once...¡¯ She thought sadly.
Shiro only raised an eyebrow when she sensed Lyrica¡¯s change in emotion.
Smiling wearily, Shiro walked over and patted her head.
Lyrica was a little taken aback and blushed lightly. However, that didn¡¯t stop her from enjoying the head pat.
"Well seems like our princess is entertaining her harem the moment she returns. Hahaha." Madisonughed slightly as she watched this happen from the tents.
Shiro only chuckled slightly in response.
[Any news for me?] Shiro asked.
"What kind of news? Good or bad."
[Both.]
"Well, I suppose we¡¯ll start with some good news. The city has calmed down a lot. The top families are settled down once again as Alura has woken up from hera. Now they¡¯re having a price war so the citizens are partying. In addition to this, me and Lyrica are now both level 40." Madison replied.
[Congrattions. And now the bad?]
"The people from the slums are bing more and more ballsy. We have had 14 cases of missing people during the time you were gone." Madison frowned in worry.
¡¯Hmm... seems like I¡¯ll need to do some hunting tonight or else things will get worse.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
[I¡¯m going to do some clean up tonight. Hopefully, it¡¯ll distract the slums so we can have some peace and quiet.]
"Eh? Shiro-nee are you doing some cleaning?" Kanae asked curiously.
"Your Shiro-nee is going to clean up some trash." Lyrica replied in Shiro¡¯s stead.
"Don¡¯t tire yourself out too much. You¡¯ve just returned after all." Madison chipped in.
Both of them already know what Shiro is like so they know that they can¡¯t dissuade her from killing a few trashes that had nothing better to do with their lives.
[After some cleaning up, we can just have a day out tomorrow. Just the four of us. Plus, I can show you a little something I¡¯ve picked up in the dungeon.] Shiro smiled as she couldn¡¯t wait to show them the Fire of Life.
Chapter 124 Cleaning Up Some Trash
Chapter 124 Cleaning Up Some Trash
After talking to Madison, Lyrica and Kanae for a little longer, Shiro entered the tent and saw Yin weaklyying on her sleeping bag.
Upon seeing Shiro enter the tent, Yin was instantly filled with life and pped her wings towards Shiro.
*Chirp!
Yin cried out her injustice whilst pointing at her belly then to her mouth.
"I¡¯m sure I left you enough mana stones to survive for a week. How are you hungry?" Shiro asked.
Yin paused for a moment before shaking her head.
Suspicion crept up on Shiro¡¯s face as she turned to Madison.
[I¡¯m sure I left Yin enough food for a week. How is she hungry?]
"She ate it all on the first day." Madison rolled her eyes.
". . . . . . ."
*. . . Chirp ~??
"Don¡¯t act cute. You can starve for tonight." Shiro sighed and put a lollipop in her own mouth.
*Chirp!
Yin reached out with her wings for the lollipop with teary eyes but Shiro only ignored her.
###
Sitting on the tallest building in the slums, Shiro looked down with a pair of cold eyes. Right now, she had created a ck metallic hood that would hide her white hair in the moonlight.
Pulling up her mask, Shiro stood up and took a deep breath.
"We¡¯ll test these des tonight." She muttered as her ne glimmered for a moment and four swords hovered around her.
ncing at the swords, she changed them into the Shadow Element form and augmented it with Cmity¡¯s Will.
The moment she augmented the swords, they started to change a little more as the swords looked a little more demonic. Not only did the guard look like it was made with the spine of a dragon, but the de itself became pitch ck and carved with blood red runes. The purple colour hadpletely been erased and instead, reced with the ominous red that seemed to flicker with life.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro ignored that and jumped off the roof. Falling head first, she dived towards the two people that had just exited one of the buildings belonging to the Jade Sharks. One of the top 3 syndicates in the slums.
She was going to cut down on the numbers of all 3 syndicates to get them to behave for now.
"Hunting time." She muttered as Yin poked her head out of the hood.
*Krrr!!!
Ice chains sprang up from the ground as the duo was instantly restrained.
Before they could even scream, Shiro flicked her wrist as two swords struck down.
*BANG!!!!
Upon contact, the blood red runs glowed ominously and started to consume the flesh from the duo¡¯s body.
Even after cutting the duo in half, the corruption didn¡¯t stop until both of them had beenpletely consumed.
"Mn... Well aren¡¯t you a scary sword." Shiro muttered in shock. She never expected the potency of a Tier 2 Cmity¡¯s Will would be so strong.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ll have to avoid using this augment if I can since it¡¯ll consume the mana stone inside the monster¡¯s as well.¡¯ She thought to herself.
However, that was only limited to grunts that could die in one Critical Hit. When pitted against a big boss, the corruption would help her greatly when trying to reduce the boss¡¯s health.
Flipping her body, shended on her foot and charged into the building.
The people inside were shocked but responded quickly by pulling out their weapons and charged towards Shiro.
Lightning and metal twined together in her hands as two hand cannons materialised.
*BANG BANG!
With two shots, she had easily killed the duo closest to her while des orbited around her in order to protect her safety.
Whatever struck against the swords would start to corrode. From her estimates, anything that was below a Blue rank would be a goner while blue rank could only resist the corrosion for a short moment.
If it was toe into contact with the swords for an extended period of time, they would crumble away.
"What the hell!!" Someone shouted out in shock. Not only did a random midget burst into their building and killed two people, but she did it with guns as well. To make matters worse, she had four swords that destroyed weapons that came into contact with them in a matter of moments.
They were about to ship out a new batch of goods but they didn¡¯t expect to be attacked
*BANG BANG BANG!
Flipping over their attacks, Shiro killed three more people before controlling one of the swords to attack the final person in the room.
Landing on the table, she raised both arms and aimed the gun around her just to make sure the room was cleared.
¡¯8 people. That increases the tally to 18. Only 32 more to go.¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
However, she wasn¡¯t about to leave without looking around. Hopping off the desk, she looked around and saw that the room was littered with trash. On the floor was a mix of corpses, blood, money and ying cards.
Furrowing her brows, she decided to look around a little more before leaving since she had more people to kill tonight. She couldn¡¯t stop at just one room.
However, even after searching for a little longer, she couldn¡¯t find anything substantial.
Twirling her hand cannon, she aimed it above her and shot once.
*BANG! THUD!!
The shot had killed an assassin that was crawling on the ceiling.
She had noticed the assassin entering just now and couldn¡¯t help but roll her eyes.
¡¯Trying to send killing intent at me expecting me to freeze is just stupid.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Leaving the room, she crouched down a little and jumped upwards. With a simple flick of her wrist, an ice ramp erected under her feet and helped her reached the roof.
Dashing along the roof, Shiro nced down to the street and saw quite a few people sneaking towards the camping site.
"Nice..." She smiled coldly and jumped towards them.
###
Dropping the head onto the ground, Shiro sighed in fatigue and looked around her. If anyone else came into the room right now, they would pause in shock due to the sheer amount of blood sttered everywhere. Now only that, but there was not a single intact corpse.
"And that¡¯s number 100. Ha...." Shiro muttered as she had killed 140 people tonight. 40 to upgrade her current title and another 100 into the progress of her next title. Unfortunately, after her 50 point mark, she needed 500 points for the next upgrade.
[Proficient Monster (100/500 Humans Killed)]
Stat points are now worth 120% of their original value.
This change had allowed her to increase her HP and MP by a decent margin. Unfortunately, however, she wasn¡¯t able to level up. Most of the people she had killed where level 20¡¯s to 30¡¯s with the rare few who were in their 40¡¯s and a handful at level 50.
With this upgrade, her HP had reached 192.5k and her MP reached 460.57k.
Cracking her neck and the other bones in her body, Shiro yawned slightly and started to walk towards the camp again.
She had a huge hill of loot to sort through. Some of which she would dly throw into a pile and set it on fire. That was due to the fact that at least 20% of the objects she could see were ¡¯tools¡¯ used to spice up one¡¯s night with their partner. Some of which were more extreme than others.
¡¯If I gave these to Aarim, I may be able to clean out my tab.¡¯ Shiro thought as she still owed her a photoshoot.
Shaking her head, Shiro made her way back to the tent so that she could catch some sleep. Even though she could easily go a few days without sleep, it was always better to rest when you can.
###
"So what is it that you wanted to show us?" Madison asked as they had rented a training space in the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.
Lyrica nodded in agreement since she too was a little curious as to what Shiro had obtained in the trial.
[Before I can show you it, let¡¯s have a little spar. I want to see both of you attack me with everything you got. I want to see how far you progressed first.] Shiro smiled.
"You sure?" Lyrica asked.
[Yep. And remember, everything you got. I don¡¯t want a 50% effort. I don¡¯t want you to almost give everything you got. I want you toe at me, like you want to kill me. 120% effort.]
Looking at the seriousness in her eyes, they knew she wasn¡¯t kidding.
Furrowing her brows slightly, Lyrica looked at Madison as the two of them nodded at each other.
"Alright." Madison sighed and equipped her weapon.
Lyrica was the same and equipped her upgraded dual ended des.
As for Shiro, she tapped her ne and summoned her ascendant dream.
The four swords floated with a soft chime.
Once the three of them were ready, they made eye contact and nodded at each other.
"Attack Knight!" Madisonmanded as a dark aura burst out from her and wrapped pitch ck armour over her body. Her weapons shifted into a giant axe since she knew that fighting Shiro defensively would only end in failure. Their best bet would be to face her offensively.
Whilst Madison was powering up, Lyrica dashed towards Shiro with her de twirling besides her.
"Rose Blossom: Vines." Lyrica said whilst she aimed her spare palm at Shiro.
A magic circle with the design of a rose in the centre erupted out from underneath Shiro as rose vines shot out and attempted to wrap around Shiro.
She only smiled as her swords flicked with lightning.
*BOOM!!!!
As if she were incarnation of a lightning spirit, lightning struck around her like a protective guard and shattered Lyrica¡¯s magic circle as a result.
"Urg! Rose Blossom: Bloom!" Lyrica shouted out whilst being flung backwards. Seeing the force of the strike she knew that they had to focus.
The pieces of vines that were broken due to Shiro¡¯s lightning glowed slightly before morphing into roses that shattered into countless petals.
All of the petals sharpened up into des and shot towards Shiro.
¡¯Impressive, but not enough.¡¯
Clutching her hand, a magic circle expanded around the room and turned it into an ice cave.
Frozen Hell Series: Azure Soul Fire.
Blue fire lit up around her and shot towards the petals. Once it lit up a petal, five more fire balls would fly outwards and onto the other petals. In a short moment, she had already frozen all of the petals that Lyrica had conjured up.
As for Lyrica, she was currently in awe at the sight of Shiro being surrounded by lightning and fire. Standing calmly inside the chaos whilst her white hair danced around with each of her movements.
¡¯L.u.s.t?¡¯ Shiro thought confused at what she could see in Lyrica¡¯s eyes.
However, that didn¡¯t stop her. With a single flick of her wrist, a blunted ice spear shot towards her whilst her guard was down.
"Uah!" Lyrica cried out in surprise as Madison grabbed the back of her cor and flung her away.
"Ha!" She shouted whilst swinging her axe at the iing spear.
*BANG!
The collision sent her sliding backwards and stopped near Lyrica.
"I know you want nothing more than to rub one out right now since I have to admit, Shiro¡¯s looking god damn f*ckable right now. BUT, remember her age and the fact that we¡¯re in a fight!" Madison whispered before charging forward.
Lyrica shook her head and dashed forwards alongside Madison.
Madison¡¯s axe started to heat up as magma flowed out of the axe¡¯s de.
Volcanic Mountain Cleaver!
Grabbing one of the floating swords, Shiro smiled and shed towards the side of the axe.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom ¨C Counter Weight Phantom.
*BANG!!!
The force caused Madison to widen her eyes at Shiro¡¯s outrageous strength. She had a few spars with the level 50¡¯s so she knew what the strength of level 50 amounted to and Shiro¡¯s strength was not something a mage should have. Plus, it may even surpass some of the level 50 strength based adventurers she sparred with.
Lyrica took this chance to swing her de towards Shiro in this gap.
However, before her de could even get close enough, it was blocked by three des that flickered with lightning.
¡¯Their teamwork has improved a little.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
###
"Ha.... Ha... ha..." Both Lyrica and Madison panted heavily as theyid on the floor of the sparring room.
The result was as one could guess, a one sided fight that gave Lyrica and Madison no chance of retaliation.
"Ha... can ha... can we see what you wanted to show us now?" Madison asked whilst her chest jiggled to her breathing.
Shiro red at those mountains and wondered if she could reduce their size a little if she ripped them off and healed her using the Fire of Life.
Even though her own body had grown a little due to her previous upgrade, it was still far from what she wanted.
"Shiro... I know you hate my tits but please don¡¯t look at them like they¡¯re your mortal enemy." Madison said as she felt like she could cough up her lung right now.
[Mn. I¡¯ll show you what I got from the trial now.]
*Click
Snapping her fingers, green fire lit up on her finger tips. Waving her fingers, the fire flew towards the duo and expanded to cover their entire body.
Madison was surprised at the fact that her body was healing at a visible pace. Even her fatigue is somewhat relieved.
However, Lyrica¡¯s reaction was a little different since she recognised the me.
"Shiro... Why do you have the Essence me?"
Chapter 125 Essence Flame
Chapter 125 Essence me
"Shiro... Why do you have the Essence me?" Lyrica asked as her face was a little pale.
[Essence me? This skill is called the Fire of Life and it¡¯s apart of the Ancient Healing Arts.] Shiro replied with a slight tilt of her head.
"It¡¯s a different name but it¡¯s the same thing. I just need to let you know that you should never show it to elves." Lyrica said after taking a deep breath.
At this point, even Madison was a little intrigued with what Lyrica meant by that.
"You see, the Essence me is a treasured heirloom of the elves that was lost long ago. When the elves had lost the me, they were no longer able to provide the nutrients to the great forest.
"However, that was not the end of their problem. Without the Essence me, they had lost their biggest healing potential. You see, due to the presence of this me, not many elves had decided to ss up into the healer ss. Thus it left us defenceless and caused us to lose many battles that we could have won with ease before.
"Naturally, losing meant surrendering your will. This period of time is ssified as the dark ages in the elven history." Lyrica sighed.
"During this time, many elves were lost and others used as pleasure tools. We were on the brink of extinction until the Elven Sword Saintess came with power unlike any other. With a single wave of her hand, the skies would be filled with swords that purged all that raised their hands against the elves. With her help, the elves were able to regroup and slowly recuperate.
"Later, the Saintess became the warrior queen of my race andid down the order that should anyone find the Essence me, no matter what, must bring it to the great forest.
"And you know the rest. The elves arrived on Earth and we haven¡¯t been able to find the me ever since."
[But I thought skills can¡¯t be passed on. Plus, my Fire of Life is only limited to Tier 2 right now. Its capabilities doesn¡¯t match your description.] Shiro furrowed her brows.
"That¡¯s because it is just a spark right now. The elves have a myriad of options to nurture a spark into the Essence me. However, you are right that skills can¡¯t be passed on. BUT, a few skills are outside of this rule. The essence me is one of them. You can imagine it to be a torch of sorts. Once you kill the holder, you be the next holder of the essence me." Lyrica said as she clenched her hands into a fist.
Silence ensued the room as Shiro just realised how dangerous her healing skill was.
[So you¡¯re saying that the moment I expose myself to an elf other than you, I¡¯ll be attacked.] Shiro typed out after a heavy sigh.
"Unfortunately yes."
Shiro sat back for a moment as this wasn¡¯t good news at all. She would need to be careful of where she shows this fire or else she¡¯ll be hunted down at a moments notice. While she did have the safety of temporarily entering Tier 3 due to her trial reward, what happens after her three uses run out?
[Well don¡¯t worry about it too much. I just need to be careful of who I expose this fire too right? Plus, I¡¯m sure everything will be fine.] Shiro smiled.
Her attempt at trying to lighten the mood seemed to work a little as Lyrica nodded in agreement.
As long as she didn¡¯t let any other elf see the fire, they¡¯ll be fine.
"Yeah, what am I worried about." Lyrica smiled and stood up.
"Right then, what shall we do for the rest of today?" She asked.
"Well let¡¯s go to the bath house first." Madison said whilst massaging her neck.
[Agreed.]
###
The next day, Shiro was making her way through the city. Her goal today was to hand the items over to Aarim since her inventory was full of it and it was taking up too much space.
"Hmm... Seems like after I killed a bunch of them, the slums have quietened down a little." Shiro muttered since the stares she used to get hadpletely disappeared. Naturally, she was still getting a few stares from the crowd but none from the slums area.
Upon arriving at the promised meeting spot, Shiro saw that Aarim was being approached by 3 men. They were being rather pushy as Shiro could see Aarim¡¯s difort.
Which wasn¡¯t odd since Aarim was a beautiful woman.
"Ah you¡¯re here." Aarim waved as she saw Shiro from the corner of her eyes.
The three men who were approaching Aarim, looked over to see who it was.
However, when theyid eyes on Shiro, they felt like electricity was coursing through their bodies.
No wait... They were being tasered by Shiro right now.
Shiro, who was currently zapping the trio with her right hand, used her left hand to throw a new lollipop into her mouth.
"Shouldn¡¯t you be careful of your output? A few eyes are turned over here." Aarim whispered.
[Not lethal. Just shocking. Think of it like a love tap.] Shiro shrugged before releasing them.
Shaking off the lightning that was still flickering on her right hand, she left the area with Aarim.
"So why did you call me out today?" Aarim asked after they left the area.
[I got a few items for you that I hope will serve as payment since we haven¡¯t found a moment to do some photoshoots.]
"Ohya? A few items? Do go on." Aarim said as she licked her lips a little.
"..." Shiro looked at her with a nk face before looking down back at her phone.
[We should go to a private room. One that won¡¯t allow anyone to spy.]
"Why are you ashamed of having these items? It¡¯s perfectly normal for a girl your age to possess these kind of items. Even though you are passing these onto me, it doesn¡¯t matter." Aarim grinned slightly.
"Pst, by the way, did ya use them?" Aarim asked with a hushed whisper.
"Ha..." Shiro sighed out heavily.
[No these are not mine. I managed to obtain them after I killed a bunch of people in the slums 2 days ago.] She typed and rolled her eyes.
"Ah, so it was you who killed the people in the slums." Aarim responded in surprise.
[They know of me?] Shiro asked as she narrowed her eyes. If her identity ispromised, she¡¯ll need to ughter everyone so that no harm will befall her.
"Ah don¡¯t worry. They don¡¯t know who did it but they do know that you are a mage. A powerful one at that. Not to mention, due to the special type of damage at the scene, they decided to code name who ever caused the mass killing : Noxious Warlock" Aarim said as she tried to suppress herugh.
When Shio heard what the slums had decided to call her, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a little thankful.
While the code name wasn¡¯t optimal, the fact that they guessed her gender was a plus since they won¡¯t think about looking for a female.
"You seem to like this nickname?"
[Well, it¡¯s not bad. They would have less of a chance to find out who I am if they¡¯re looking for ¡¯warlocks¡¯. That and I have a question for you.]
"Shoot."
[How do you know all of this?]
"Well... I have a few connections to know about what¡¯s happening." Aarim smiled.
[Oh?]
"That¡¯s only limited to the slums though. The only thing I know are themon stuff. Nothing more, nothing less." Aarim shrugged as she could tell that Shiro wanted to know more.
[Fine. Shall we go to your tent or something? Mine¡¯s not where I would like to show these items.] Shiro asked as the presence of Kanae at the tent wouldn¡¯t allow her to show these items.
"Sure."
###
"Alright, now, what do you want to show me?" Aarim asked as she sat down in her own personal tent.
*BANG!
A pile of ¡¯toys¡¯ appeared in Aarim¡¯s tent with a heavy thud. The sheer quantity of toys even made Aarim surprised.
"This... You got all of this in one night?" She asked.
[Yeah.]
"Well either you had killed a lot or the people in the slums were quite spicy with their love life." Aarim chuckled before storing everything away in her inventory.
"I¡¯ll take all of this as payment and strike off your tab. Now we¡¯re even."
[Thanks.] Shiro typed out as she prepared to stand up.
"Ah before you go. I have a proposition for you and your friends." Aarim called out just before Shiro left.
[A proposition?]
"You see, since I don¡¯t know when I¡¯ll be going back to New York, I¡¯ve decided to try to procure a few items that I need. However, to get these items, I¡¯ll need to enter the Cairosa Ruins deep in the ocean. And this is where you and your friends wille in. I need you to help me on my way to the ruins since going in solo isn¡¯t exactly the smartest thing."
[Can¡¯t you recruit a few adventurers? I¡¯m sure there are plenty of people.] Shiro asked while she sat back down. She was a little curious about the Cairosa Ruins so this offer did hold some temptation for her.
[Plus, I¡¯m sure that the auction house organises an excursion to the ruins every now and again right?]
"You¡¯re not wrong. However, with how I look, I¡¯m sure there are a few unsavoury individuals who¡¯ll make a move. Not only that, but I would struggle to fight off multiple level 50¡¯s under water." Aarim waved her hand.
[True. Especially with your body, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be more than happy to have a feast.] Shiro nodded her head.
She understood that beautiful woman were always a target for people. If they weren¡¯t strong, they¡¯ll be devoured. Both literally and metaphorically.
". . .I¡¯ll just take that as apliment hahaha." Aarim replied as that wasn¡¯t something she had expected a 13 year old would type.
[So what are the rewards for us?] Shiro asked.
"How about... 45% of all the treasure we manage to excavate from the ruins. Naturally, if all we excavate is the stuff I need, then I¡¯ll pay you in other forms when we exit the ocean."
¡¯Hmm 45% of all the treasure isn¡¯t too bad of a deal.¡¯ Shiro thought as it was a little enticing. However, she wanted to see what other forms of payment Aarim was willing to give.
[What other forms of payment are you suggesting?]
"Hmm... A few more sets of monster cloth outfits? A few sets for each of your party." Aarim offered.
¡¯Seems like the importance of whatever it is in the ruin is quite big for her to offer a few sets of monster cloth outfit.¡¯ Shiro thought since she knew how hard it was to get a set of monster cloth outfit from Aarim. Even she had only managed to get one set and that was what she was wearing.
No matter how she asked, Aarim had refused to give her another set of monster cloth outfit. That was mostly due to the fact that monster cloth was hard to obtain and even Aarim only had a limited stock of monster cloth.
[How many sets?]
"One for you and your friend since you already have one. And two for anyone else." Aarim offered as that was as much as she could offer.
[You¡¯re lucky then. I only have one other party member and her name is Madison. You¡¯ve already met Lyrica.] Shiro smiled.
"I take it as you agree?"
[Well not exactly. I¡¯ll need to do some research about the ce. My and my party are only in our level 40¡¯s so we can¡¯t challenge anything too above our level.] Shiro replied seriously.
Even though both Madison and Lyrica had improved, plus the fact that she could use her hand cannons now, she still needed to be careful of what they face. Fighting in the ocean was a lot different to fighting onnd as controlling your body movement was harder.
To make matters worse, the monster in the ocean had long adapted to their situation so there were a lot faster than them if they were to swim.
"I¡¯ve already done the research. In the area we are entering, the highest level enemy would be a level 50 boss and the average would be around 40 to 45. Perfect for your level."
[But you do realise that we are severely weakened when we fight in the ocean right?]
"I know. Which is why I have already prepared a few counter measures for this." Aarim smiled.
[When are we going?]
"We¡¯ll be leaving city in 2 days, not including today. The time will be 10pm at the northern docks. The trip to the ocean will be around 2 hours long before we enter a submarine to get closer to the ruins before getting out and scuba diving for the rest of the trip. You don¡¯t need to bring anything except for yourselves."
[Alright, I¡¯ll go and ask my party members about what they think.] Shiro nodded before leaving.
While she was on her way back, she was thinking about a few ways to convince Lyrica and Madison intoing to the trip. It was only after 30 minutes of thinking that she settled with an excuse that she was satisfied with. However, it was wasted effort since Lyrica and Madison said yes before even hearing the details of the trip.
. . .
¡¯At least let me use my excuses first!!!¡¯
Chapter 126 BeaChapter Episode
Chapter 126 BeaChapter Episode
"Urg...." Shiro groaned a little since it was extremely hot today.
When she had agreed on the time with Aarim, she didn¡¯t expect there to a heat wave on the same day.
Even though she was using ice to help her cool down, it was still annoying to be constantly cooked by the sunlight.
"Hahaha, Shiroe join us and stop being such a party pooper." Aarimughed as they were currently waiting on the beach. The boat had yet to arrive and they were a little early so they decided to have some fun at the beach while they wait.
Currently, Aarim was wearing a bikini that was coloured entirely ck with a few frills around the edges. Not only that, she also had a waist cloth that covered a bit of her right thigh.
As for Lyrica and Madison, they both wore bikini¡¯s as well but theirs were a little more simple. Lyrica just had a normal white bikini whilst Madison decided to go with a red bikini.
However, to Lyrica¡¯s disappointment, all Shiro wore was her white dress that she woke up with and a straw hat to block out the sun.
[I don¡¯t have a bikini.] Shiro shrugged as she made up an excuse on the spot.
"I got a few bikini¡¯s for you!" Lyrica shouted out as she pulled out five sets of bikinis from her inventory.
". . ."
¡¯Why does she have five bikinis that fit my size?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"See? You have a bikini now." Aarim chuckled.
¡¯Well I guess it¡¯s good to burn some time right now.¡¯
Giving up, Shiro walked over to Lyrica and had a look at the bikinis. Finding one that she felt would suit her, she made her way to the changing rooms.
When the group saw her, they couldn¡¯t help but drop their jaws in shock.
The bikini Shiro chose was a in ck bikini like Aarims. She had a waist cloth that reached her knees as her delicate thighs would asionally peek out due to her movements.
Even Aarim couldn¡¯t help but stare at her smooth skin thatcked any sort of blemish that would ruin her appearance.
As for Lyrica, a trail of blood was slowly dripping out of her nose.
Shiro only raised an eyebrow when she saw all of this.
[So what are we doing?] She asked.
"Ah right. We were going to do some beach volleyball." Aarim snapped out of her daze and pulled out a volleyball.
[If I remember, we can only touch the ball once and we aren¡¯t allowed to let it hit the ground right?]
"Yep. I¡¯ll teach you the rules whilst we y."
As they made their way to thes, they received countless stares from the surrounding people. Especially Shiro. Whilst her body figure wasn¡¯t devilish like Aarim¡¯s, her own charm was enough to draw all of the stares.
Meanwhile, Lyrica was feeling both d and annoyed. d since she isn¡¯t receiving a lot of stares. If she did, she would start blushing due to embarrassment.
However, at the same time, she was annoyed due to the fact that they were staring at her precious Shiro.
"I see that you don¡¯t mind the stares." Aarim spoke up as she saw howposed Shiro was.
[Just ignore them and you¡¯ll be fine.]
When they arrived at the, they split into two teams.
Lyrica was paired with Shiro, to her absolute delight, while Madison was paired with Aarim.
"Remember, you can only touch the ball once and you have to get it over the. If the other team lets it hit the floor on their side of the court, you win a point." Aarim called out as she reminded Shiro about the rules.
Shiro made and OK sign to show that she understood.
"Great."
*Pa!
Aarim hit the ball over the as Shiro dashed towards the ball.
However, Lyrica was also dashing towards the ball. But before they could collide, Shiro flipped her body up and avoided Lyrica at thest moment.
"Tsk!" Lyrica clicked her tongue since she was somewhat hoping for a collision. At least then, she¡¯ll be able to use it as an excuse to feel Shiro up a little.
Shiro, who was still in the air, looked at the volleyball and punched it with all her strength.
*BANG!
". . ."
". . ."
". . ."
Her punch had caused the ball to explode due to the excessive amount of force she had applied to the beach ball.
"I¡¯ll take that as our point then." Aarim smiled wearily and took out a second volley ball.
Shironded on the sand softly and looked at her hand.
¡¯Hmm... Maybe I should reduce the amount of force to 10% and slowly increase if the ball can take it.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
###
In the end, Shiro managed to average her strength around 45% to get the maximum efficiency out of the ball. After she managed to find the sweet spot, they never lost a point.
Shiro was mostly the defender whilst Lyrica was the vanguard. Naturally, Shiro would also attack but after a certain amount of points, they all agreed that Shiro will be defending since Lyrica had almost nothing to do other than watch Shiro.
"I¡¯ll go get us a few drinks." Aarim said as she wiped off the sweat that had built up.
Strangely enough, Shiro didn¡¯t sweat at all to their surprise.
Sitting back down at their folding chairs, Shiro waited for Aarim to return.
Naturally, there were a few people that worked up the courage to approach them but a sliver of killing intent was enough to dissuade them.
Ironically, every time she used her killing intent, she would create an ice cube and put it into an empty ss.
"I¡¯m back~" Aarim called out as she returned with a tray of drinks.
"The boat should be arriving in ten minutes. We¡¯ll finish the drinks then head over to the docks." She continued whilst handing everyone their drinks.
Looking at her drink, Shiro shrugged her shoulders and drank all of it in an instant.
[Alright, I¡¯ll go get changed and wait for you girls.]
Watching her leave, Aarim and the duo blinked before looking at each other.
"Well you saw what she typed. Let¡¯s go." Madison spoke up as she drank her drink quickly.
###
After everyone had changed back to their usual outfit, they made their way to the docks.
"Oh wow, I can see the ship from here." Lyrica said in surprise.
"Nope. That¡¯s not our ship. Our ship is the smaller one next to it." Aarim chuckled lightly.
"What? There¡¯s only the four of us. It¡¯s not like we need anything bigger." Aarim shrugged seeing their stale reactions to the smaller boat.
[She¡¯s right. We don¡¯t need a big ship to begin with.] Shiro agreed.
"Pft, you know I¡¯m joking right? Hahaha, the big ship is ours." Aarim grinned and lead them to the ship.
Lyrica and Shiro looked at each other with a nk face. Both of them were tricked by a few sentences from Aarim.
"Let¡¯s just be patient and keep our mouths shut next time." Lyrica sighed.
Shiro nodded her head in agreement.
"Let me introduce you guys. This is the captain of this ship, Captain Sanders." Aarim gestured towards a muscr white man.
"Hello, my name is Sanders and I¡¯ll be taking you to the ruins today." He smiled.
He had scars running down his face and some connecting to his arms. In addition to this, he had a strong jawline along with a face full of brown facial hair.
"And these are mypanions for this trip. Lyrica, Madison and Shiro. She¡¯s mute so she¡¯llmunicate to you with her phone." Aarim said whilst gesturing to the group.
After some short introductions with the rest of the crew, Shiro sat herself down on the tallest point of the ship and waited for them to set off.
Once again, there were a few individuals who tried to talk to her but she only listened for a short moment. If it wasn¡¯t important, she¡¯ll ask them to leave.
"Set sail!"
Hearing the captain shout, Shiro set her eyes out to the sea.
Feeling the wind blow against her hair and the salty smell that naturally came with the ocean, she couldn¡¯t help but look up at the clear blue sky.
"Hmm... I wonder what kind of loot the ruins will give me." She muttered softly.
*Chirp~
"I have no idea what you just said and I¡¯m not even going to try guess." Shiro chuckled and patted Yin¡¯s head.
*Chirp!
Yin pouted a little since she couldn¡¯t talk and could only chirp.
What Shiro didn¡¯t know was that after she had reached a certain level, she¡¯ll be able to materialise a human body and converse like a normal person. But that will have to wait until they enter the C ss territory.
"Here, will this make you happier?" Shiro asked as she handed Yin a mana stone lollipop.
Giving the lollipop a side nce, Yin nodded happily and put it into her mouth.
Smiling softly, Shiro stroked Yin¡¯s head whilst they waited for the ship to arrive at their destination.
After travelling for around 1 hour and 30 minutes, the captain stopped the boat and stepped out of his cabin.
"Alright! We¡¯re here boys. Get the submarine ready!" He shouted out.
Looking around, Shiro could see that there were quite a lot of people were treasure hunting today. The closest ship to them was only 100 meters away from them.
¡¯Hmm, there are at least 20 sh.i.p.s here.¡¯ Shiro thought before flipping her body off of the roof of the ship andnding next to the captain.
"OH MY GOD! Jesus christ can¡¯t you appear normally?!" Sanders said as he patted his chest.
Shrugging at his response, she walked over to the group since they were preparing to get changed.
"This here is a special suit that I have managed to procure. Using your mana, you¡¯ll be allowed to create small footholds that are made from air and it will be your main source of transport inside the ocean.
"Shiro, I¡¯ll need you to hold off on using your ice and lightning magic if you can since they aren¡¯t the best elements to use in the water. Especially since you may identally cause friendly fire." Aarim warned whilst showing them the suit.
[I¡¯ll just use my des then.] Shiro replied as she tapped her ne.
Shining with a soft light, the ne transformed itself into four floating swords.
". . . That is fine. Though I have to say, you¡¯ve never told me that you had floating swords. Good to know." Aarim nodded her head.
As she guided Lyrica and Madison on how to put on their suit, she had asked Shiro to stand by the side for now since her suit was a little different.
"Since we both know your physique is that of a child¡¯s, I had to custom edit one of the suits to match your size."
*Puchi
Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel like a vein had burst after she was reminded that she was essentially in a child¡¯s body right now.
¡¯God I hope I can get an a.d.u.l.t body faster.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in annoyance.
Looking at the suit in Aarim¡¯s hands, Shiro could see that it was rather well made.
The suit itself was an airtight underwater suit that was coloured ck and red. There was an utility belt on the waist along with a few devices connected around the arms and legs.
"These devices here will filter out the oxygen for you when you¡¯re in the water. These will be the ones that makes the tforms and this one is to help you reach the surface by surrounding you with a bubble of air. Remember, all of these cost mana to operate so you¡¯ll need to manage your mana a little better ok?"
[Understood.] Shiro nodded and took the suit.
Once Aarim had made sure that the three of them knew how to put on their suit along with their functions, she took them to the changing rooms.
Lyrica took a lot longer to change since the suit had highlighted Shiro¡¯s body proportions in its entirety.
After they got changed, they walked back up to the deck and saw that the submarine was already prepared.
"We¡¯ll wait for you up here while you go search the ruins. Just remember, you only have a 3 hour slot to try find anything you want before you are needed toe back up. If you arete, we¡¯ll wait at most 30 minutes before leaving ok?" Sander¡¯s warned since death in the ruins weren¡¯t umon. Just general fights between adventurers could amount to 60% of the casualties while the other 40% was death just to traps and monsters.
"Aiya, don¡¯t worry. We know." Aarim grinned as she had a specialised watch to help notify them of when they should head back up to the surface.
Looking at the rather impressive submarine, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a little excited since this will be her first underwater ruin exploration.
Even in her past life, she only ever went to normal ruins.
"Let¡¯s go." Aarim smiled and activated the submarine.
*CLACK CLACK!
The ws that held onto the submarine unlocked, causing them to plunge into the ocean.
The lights of the submarine turned on as bright lights pierced the dark oceans.
"Let¡¯s go." Aarim smiled as they descended into the deep below.
Chapter 127 Entering The Ruins
Chapter 127 Entering The Ruins
"We¡¯re approaching our drop off point." Aarim called out as she controlled the submarine.
Shiro nodded her head in understanding whilst looking out of the window. She could see that there were two other submarines that were approaching the same area.
"Seems like we¡¯ve gotpany huh?" Lyrica said with a slight frown.
"Indeed. Hopefully we won¡¯t have to fight them for the treasure." Madison chipped in.
"Don¡¯t worry about that. There¡¯s an unspoken rule between adventurer¡¯s that no one is to fight before we enter the ruins. When we do, and we have eyes on the same treasure, only then will we fight." Aarim called out.
"What if they see our appearances though?" Lyrica muttered.
". . ."
". . ."
The four of them looked at each other as realisation dawned on them.
"Oh f*ck." Aarim couldn¡¯t help but curse a little.
[Don¡¯t worry. I can handle them if things get rough.]
Since she had the dragon scales, she had 3 lives essentially. Even though this was probably not the best ce to use the scales, it was still an option.
"Hmm... But we should try to either sneak in ahead of them or after them." Lyrica responded.
"Hey! What did Shiro write? I can¡¯t read it from here." Aarim asked as she was curious.
"Shiro just said that she can handle them if things get a little rough." Madsion replied.
"Heh~... Is that so."
After waiting for a little longer, Shiro could feel the submarinee to a stop.
"We¡¯re here." Aarim said whilst standing up. Stretching her body slightly, she led them to the exit hatch.
"On our suits, we all have a tracker that shows us where the submarine is. When we enter the water, I want you to take a moment for your body to get used to the pressure ok?"
Seeing that everyone understood, Aarim smiled before entering the hatch.
*THUNK!
Aarim was sent shooting out of the bottom of the submarine, surprising the group.
Looking at each other for a moment, they shrugged before following behind her.
*THUNK THUNK THUNK!
A crushing pressure assaulted their bodies as Lyrica and Madison tensed up from the pressure.
Shiro on the other hand, only closed her eyes for a moment. It only took a short while before her body adapted to the pressure.
¡¯Thankfully I left Yin back home with Kanae. Otherwise, it would have been such a pain.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in relief.
Moving her body around for a moment to familiarise herself with the underwater environment, Shiro swam towards Lyrica and Madison with astonishing speed.
"Er Shiro, I¡¯ve just noticed something. How are we going tomunicate?" Lyrica asked over the mic as she saw Shiro swim over.
Shiro blinked her eyes for a moment as she realised that it was indeed a problem.
"Why don¡¯t we stick with gestures for now?" Madison suggested. She had mostly regained her movements since her physique was a little stronger than average due to the fact that she was a tanker.
"So just the gestures for: follow me, yes and no right?"
"Yeah."
Shiro nodded her head in agreement. She didn¡¯t have any objections to following orders since it would be too petty if she wanted to be a leader all the time. Letting someone else take the lead wasn¡¯t too bad of an idea. Especially since she had the capabilities to follow every order and even help make up for someone else¡¯s mistakes.
Waiting patiently for everyone to get used to the pressure, Shiro nced around to make sure that they were safe.
A few people had some intention toe over but Shiro would send out her killing intent to scare them off.
However.
There was only a slight problem with that. When she used her killing intent, she would be frozen into an ice cube since her passive decreased her body temperature to a dangerous level.
Even though she looked quiteedic as an ice cube, her killing intent did its job at scaring away the adventurers that were nning to swim towards them.
Once everyone had gotten used to the pressure, they swam towards each other.
"Alright. From now on, I want you to follow me closely since I¡¯ll be bringing you to the ruins." Aarim said over the mic.
Swimming down, Aarim led the group towards the ruins.
Slowly, the faint shape of a broken-down building could be seen in the distance. Seaweed and other overgrown foliage on the side of the stone pirs and walls.
"We¡¯re approaching the outside walls. For this particr ruin, there are a total of eight entrances. We¡¯ll be going to the entrance closest to the bottom." Aarim spoke with a serious tone in her voice.
The closer they got to the ruins, the more dangers were present. Therefore, they had to make sure that their guard was constantly up.
Shiro knew this fact well as she had been on the lookout since the moment they exited the submarine. Thankfully, there had only been a few monsters that swam near their location but were scared off by Shiro¡¯s presence.
She didn¡¯t know why but could only guess that they had an innate sense of danger towards other monsters.
¡¯Perhaps they¡¯re intelligent so they didn¡¯t attack us.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Naturally, if they were stronger, they would have attacked Shiro without a second thought.
As they approached the ruins, Aarim was a little suspicious about theck of monsters that were supposed to attack them but eventually dismissed it as luck.
Gesturing with her hand, she led them towards the entrance.
The sheer size of the entrance was rather overwhelming. Not even Shiro¡¯s whole body could match up to a single brick that was used to construct the ruin.
The light in their vision slowly faded the further they swam.
Nodding her head, Aarim activated the spotlight that was connected on her shoulder.
"Wow..." Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but mutter.
With some light that allowed them to see clearer, they were able to depict the engravings on the walls. Large scale battle art were finely carved into the bricks.
Different monsters from myths and legends could be seen along with what seemed to be human warriors with a powerful aura around their bodies.
"Did you know that theorist guessed that the battle carved into these walls are actual events that may have happened in another world. The world where these ruins came from.
"Remember, don¡¯t touch anything and follow me." Aarim reminded as they were approaching the danger zone.
Sensing the slight amounts of nervousness in Aarim¡¯s voice, Shiro knew that things were about to get rough. And as she guessed, danger arrived not too long after. The bricks suddenly flipped over to reveal row after rows of crossbows.
Light gathered at the strings which slowly shaped itself into an arrow.
Aarim quickly flicked her wrist and erected severalyers of stone walls between them and the crossbows.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!!
Hearing the loud collisions between the arrows and the stone wall, the party knew that they should move quickly.
Injecting mana into their suits, a torrent of air ejected out of the soles of their feet and propelled them forward.
"I¡¯ll protect us from the arrows while we make our way to the first treasure room." Aarim called out, encouraging the party to speed up.
Soon, a forked path could be seen in front of them.
"Left!"
Once they turned left, they could see a bunch of sharks charging towards them.
Shiro swam a little faster and tapped her ne. A burst of light blinded the sharks which caused them to thrash around in shock.
*KSH KSH KSH!
Three of her swords shed through the sharks, causing blood to drift through the water.
"Gosh. I wish I had passed the test now." Lyrica pouted a little after seeing the swords in action. Shiro only smiled whilst pressing forward.
With one sword as defence and three swords for attack, she was able to clear a path with ease.
"Ai... what a waste of seafood." Madison sighed as she couldn¡¯t help but look at the badly cut fish meat that could have been roasted.
"Madi, you sound like an aunty right now hahaha. One of those that bargains for everything at the markets." Lyricaughed a little at herment.
"Tsk, but you have to admit that it¡¯s a little wasteful. We can cook those and get some temporary stats you know." Madison rolled her eyes.
"She¡¯s right you know." Aarim chuckled whilst defending them from another wave of arrows.
As for Shiro, she only nced back a little before returning her focus on killing sharks that approached them.
Soon, a giant set of doors could be seen. The door reminded Shiro of the doors to a mutated dungeon. The carvings of the door would shift asionally, signifying the death of a monster or human.
"Seems like one of the earlier parties are still stuck inside. Let¡¯s take this moment to go to the next room while they fight." Aarim suggested since they were strangers. Down here, if you extended a helping hand, they were sure to drag you down to hell in order for them to survive.
There was a unanimous agreement between them since they knew the risks as well.
Pushing open the heavy set of doors, they could see the party of adventurers fighting against a giant squid boss.
However, the boss wasn¡¯t alone. A band of electric eels was swimming around the party. Lightning would spark off their bodies asionally and would either zap another eel or an adventurer.
The adventurer, who had been zapped, would be paralysed for a short moment. If they were unlucky, the boss would target and kill them.
Seeing Shiro¡¯s party enter the room, hope filled their eyes as they quickly waved towards them in hopes of getting their help.
However, Shiro kept a cold face on and dragged Lyrica and Madison along with her. She knew that if they stayed for too long, the duo may grow pity for the adventurers.
The party of adventurers panicked when they saw Shiro¡¯s group ignore them and press onwards.
ring at the girls, they looked at each other before nodding.
Shiro frowned when she felt a burst of evil intent from the group.
¡¯So they want to drag us down with them now that they know we won¡¯t help.¡¯ Shiro thought coldly.
Shiro made a signal towards Aarim who could somewhat guess what she wanted to do.
"You want me to take the two of them onwards?" Aarim asked just to make sure.
Seeing Shiro nod, Aarim took Lyrica and Madison out of Shiro¡¯s hands and swam forward towards the next room.
With her hands free, Shiro gathered mana in both her arms.
Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber!
Six neon blue magic circles expanded around the room with the adventurers in the middle of the circles.
Seeing that Shiro was using one of her strongest moves, Lyrica and Madison paled slightly since it may affect them due to the water.
"Quick get out of here. Shiro¡¯s using her Frozen Slumber skill! The entire ce will be frozen!" Madison called out hastily.
Aarim nodded seriously before letting go of the duo. Since they knew of the danger, she wouldn¡¯t need to drag them herself.
ncing back, Shiro smiled when she saw the party swim away.
"Freeze." Shiro muttered coldly before moving her hands towards each other.
*KRRRR!!!!!
Ice chains shot out of the circles as ice spread out from wherever it touched.
The adventurers paled when they saw Shiro use ice magic.
While the chains wrapped around the boss to stop it from moving, a cage of ice was being formed around the area.
Some of the adventurers attempted to break the ice walls with spells and attacks but it didn¡¯t work. For those who had used physical forces, their bodies were being frozen at a visible pace.
"This should do." Shiro muttered with a small smile after she saw that the area was frozen pass 50%.
Stopping the spell, she swam towards the rest of the group whilst waiting for her MP to regenerate.
"You didn¡¯t freeze them all?" Aarim asked.
Shiro only shook her head. The reason to why she didn¡¯t kill was due to the fact that the MP expenditure would be way for huge for herfort. She needed to save some MP in case they needed to fight a bosster on.
"Well let¡¯s forget about that for now. In the next room, everyone will need to solo a mini boss that¡¯s scaled to their level before we can head into the first treasure room." Aarim shook her head and started to swim pass the next set of doors.
Once they reached the next room, a magic circle appeared under their body.
"Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s only a teleport circle. Once you¡¯ve past, you¡¯ll be teleported back here." Aarim called out before her body was teleported.
Shiro quickly grabbed a life saving tool out of her inventory before gesturing at it.
Lyrica and Madison nodded their head since they knew what Shiro was trying to convey.
"Don¡¯t worry Shiro, we know." Lyrica smiled before being teleported. The same went with Madison.
As for Shiro, she soon found herself in front of a giant statue of sorts. The statue was in the shape of a humanoid shark that wielded a trident.
Muscr limbs and gills could be seen on the statues body.
*Crack!
A crack split across the body of the statue as Shiro noticed a few small movements.
Tapping her ne once more, Shiro grinned as four swords appeared around her and pointed towards the statue.
Chapter 128 Ocean Heart Scales
Chapter 128 Ocean Heart Scales
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
shing the four swords against the rock solid body of the monster, Shiro frowned when she realised that the swords were slightly weakened right now and couldn¡¯t do as much damage as it should.
Elemental Shift: Metal.
Shifting the element of the sword to metal for increase sharpness, attack and the added bonus of ignore defence. Glowing with a silver aura, the swords radiated the feeling of danger even for Shiro.
"Go!" Shemanded coldly as she flicked her hand towards the boss.
Two of the swords joined together at the pommel and started to rotate in a clockwise motion.
*BZZZ!!!
Cutting through the boss¡¯s arm like a saw, the two swords created an opening for her to attack.
Shiro narrowed her eyes before swimming towards The arm. Since the arm was only recently destroyed, that means the structural integrity of the boss¡¯s body around that area would be a lot weaker.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom + 4th Phantom!
Combining the two phantoms, one of which allowed her to shift all of the momentum into a certain area and another that ignored defences to attack the internals, Shiro grabbed the two spare swords and twisted her body in order to maximise the amount of momentum she could output.
*BANG BANG!
The collision of the swords with the boss pushed Shiro back as she had to wave her arms and legs around to quickly stabilise herself.
However, the boss didn¡¯t allow that luxury. The trident, which the boss wielded in his spare hand, stabbed towards her without mercy.
*K RRRR!!!
With a single burst of killing intent, Shiro not only caused the boss to pause for a slight moment, but also froze the water around her. The trident would have pierced her body if not for the fact that she had ice helping her out.
¡¯Isn¡¯t this boss a little too difficult for a level 44? If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that I had my monster title, I might have been done for.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Thawing the ice, she quickly swam away from the area and started to circle around the boss.
"Since there is no one else but me and you, I¡¯m free to do whatever I want." Shiro muttered with a cold re.
Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber!
Once again, Shiro gathered mana into her palms, creating six huge magic circles to surround the boss.
"Freeze."
Oddly enough, she was able to sp her hands without much trouble. The result of which caused the boss to freeze into a giant ice cube before shattering apart.
Upon defeating the boss, Shiro saw a magic circle expand out beneath her. The same one that had teleported here in the first ce.
She allowed herself to be teleported as bright lights overwhelmed her vision.
Learning from her previous mistake of letting her guard down after leaving the trial, which resulted in a hammer being mmed against her head, Shiro grabbed two swords to protect herself.
"Hm... Seems like I¡¯m the first one." She muttered once she saw that no one else had returned yet.
*Click
Returning her swords into their ne form, Shiro froze herself into an ice cube in order to activate her passive ¨C Ice Field Affinity.
¡¯Might as well regenerate some MP while I wait for the others.¡¯ She thought to herself.
However, not too long after, she saw Aarim appear back in her spot.
"Aiya, seems like I was a little slower than y-...and you¡¯re an ice Cube." Aarim couldn¡¯t help but mutter when she saw Shiro in a fetal position inside an ice cube.
Shiro only shrugged her shoulders slightly since her MP was still being regenerated.
While it was great that she had 460k worth of MP, it was also a downside. Her regeneration simply couldn¡¯t keep up.
With factors such as her broken links which use more MP per spell along with her Monster title that increases her MP exponentially, her regeneration that¡¯s only tailored to the average MP usage couldn¡¯t keep up.
"But I have to say, you are quite powerful whenpared to the average ice mage." Aarim smiled slightly as she swam next to Shiro.
"I¡¯ve seen a lot of people in my life that started out in New York and I have to say, you are by far one of the strongest. Not only in magical power but alsobat experience. Really makes one wonder where you popped out from." She continued which caused Shiro to narrow her eyes.
"And to make matters more unbelievable, you do all of this with a set of damage mana links am I right? Hell, I don¡¯t even think damaged could be used to describe them. How about..."
"Broken?" Aarim asked, making eye contact with Shiro.
Shiro could feel her heart pound a little but kept a firm gaze. Even if Aarim knew about her broken links, if it went down to it, she would take measures to keep her secret safe.
"Ai, don¡¯t look at me that way. Hahaha. I¡¯m just rather curious about how you could be this powerful even with a set of broken links." Aarim chuckled before break eye contact.
"The only reason as to why I know it¡¯s not damaged an instead broken is because my links had been damaged previously. My mana fluctuation back then, whenpared to your current fluctuation, were like a stable bridge. Every time you use any type of spell, especially your strongest spells, I can feel the turbulence underneath all of that. If I didn¡¯t see you use thatrge scale magic earlier when we met up with one of the other parties, I would have never figured out that you had such a condition to your body."
¡¯She can sense the minute turbulence in one¡¯s mana?!¡¯ Shiro thought in shock. There were few sses that had this capability and each of them was hard to level up.
However, there was only one that required a person to have this kind of mastery over mana at such an early stage.
¡¯She¡¯s aiming to ss up into a Source Mage.¡¯ Shiro thought in surprise.
Source Mages could ss up into a Mage Saintess. They were by far one of the strongest mage sses one could get. And while she didn¡¯t know about the ss up requirements, she remembers her old party members in the hero¡¯s party telling her about how difficult it was to be a Mage Saintess.
"Honestly, I should have noticed earlier." Aarim shook her head.
"From what I¡¯ve gathered, you¡¯ve probably bought the rights to the mana springs to try fixing your broken links right? Hmm... seeing your expression I¡¯m guessing I¡¯m correct."
"Now then. I have some good news and bad news. Good news is that you¡¯re correct in using the mana springs first. If you had used some medicine before the springs, it would have only caused you to permanently fix your links in a messed-up state. Links would be connected to the wrong paths and eventually blow itself up.
"By going to the springs, it should have reorganised your links. This will allow the recovery of the links to be smoother. As to why I know, heh, well it¡¯s because I¡¯ve attended a guest lecture from one of the professors that came from thergest cities. He specialises in research on the body conditions of mages and he had researched about broken links back then. I took the ss since my links were damaged back then and he managed to help me fix them." Aarim smiled.
"Now here is the bad news. For you to fix something like the broken links, you would need a full body refresh. I¡¯ve heard that in the front lines, there is a type of medicine called Phoenix Rebirth Pills. Each one is expensive but they would break down and reconstruct your body slowly. The cheapest pill is only a 1% rebirth.
"Even the 1% rebirth pill is hard to buy due to how expensive they are and the rarity of the materials used to make the pill. Trying to save up for buying a single pill could take years of constant dungeon exploration." Aarim sighed slightly.
"And to make things worse, you¡¯ll need a 100% body rebirth for your links to bepletely healed.
"I don¡¯t think you can fix your links for the rest of your life." She said with some pity in her eyes.
¡¯So she was just worried.¡¯ Shiro thought as she realised why Aarim was pointing this out to her.
Smiling slightly, she shook her head since Nan Tian was already getting her the 2% rebirth pill.
Even though it was just 2%, it should be just enough for her to push her attunement into Tier 3, which is a guaranteed requirement to enter the next ss.
Though there would certainly be side effects to pushing her attunements up like that. 2% was just a leeway for her to give it a final forceful push before her body gives in. Even if she does enter Tier 3, she¡¯ll be weakened for a while.
"Seems like you have a n." Aarim asked with a raised eyebrow.
Seeing Shiro nod, Aarim sighed in relief.
She was a little worried since it would have been a shame for someone like Shiro to have her potential wasted due to mana links.
"Well since you have your own n, just call for me if you need any help, because I had damaged links before, I know about the pain." Aarim offered.
"Ah also, don¡¯t worry about your little friends knowing about your broken links. I¡¯ve set the channel to private right now so they won¡¯t hear anything."
After a few more moments of Aarim essentially talking to herself, they saw two magic circles sh as both Lyrica and Madison appeared.
"Gah! That was such an annoying boss fight!" Lyricained as she didn¡¯t have the same kind of manoeuvrability in the water. Therefore, she couldn¡¯t output her full power. She had to even use a few of her life saving tools that Shiro gave her. Naturally, she saved her Elven Saint Blessing forst since it had a 5 day cool down.
"I was kinda ok with the boss. It was just annoying that it kept moving around. We were basically ying chase." Madison said since she was able to use her attack knight to dealrge amounts of damage.
"Since we¡¯ve all passed the test, let¡¯s get our loot." Aarim smiled.
Leading the party through another set of open doors, they saw an opening in the ground.
"Down here. We¡¯ll swim down for a little bit before we enter a no water area. Be careful and don¡¯tnd face first. It¡¯s there where we¡¯ll have the choice between two items each and we have to pick one." She called out whilst diving down.
After swimming down for a little while, they arrived at the no water zone as Aarim had exined.
Quickly flipping her body before they entered the zone, Shiro managed tond on her feet without any problem. She took off her helmet and loosened her hair since it was quite stuffy for her to keep the helmet on at all times.
"There should be a window in the corner of your peripherals. Click that and the choice for rewards should appear in front of you." Aarim said as she was currently pushing the empty space in front of her, presumably operating the system.
Following her instructions, Shiro tapped the shing icon as two items appeared in front of her.
¡¯Hmm... One¡¯s a blue ranked dagger and the other is an item called Ocean Heart Scale. I doubt Aarim wants the dagger so Ocean heart Scale it is.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before selecting the Ocean Heart Scale.
Checking her inventory, she saw a giant scale that switched between neon blue and royal blue.
[I presume you wanted the Ocean Heart Scale?] Shiro typed out. Due to the fact that they were in the no water zone, she could use her phone without problem.
"Mn, not quite. But it is still helpful." Aarim replied.
That was all Shiro needed to hear as she took out the scale and threw it to Aarim.
"Thanks."
Lyrica and Madison had the same items since the other option weren¡¯t as enticing. Expressing her thanks for the three materials, Aarim stored them away in her inventory.
However, before she could even lead them into the next area, they heard several sshes and a new party of adventurersnded behind them.
"Woah... Boss! Take a look at these chicks!" A person shouted out, drawing the attention of the ¡¯boss¡¯ of the party.
Shiro only gave the party a cold nce before looking away.
All of them were level 50 and easy prey for her. She can take care of them in a few minutes if she so wished.
However, the same couldn¡¯t be said for Lyrica and Madison. Seeing their levels, they paled slightly before covering their bodies a little.
Frowning slightly at their tant stares, the duo made eye contact with Aarim and Shiro before nodding slightly.
"It seems like you guys are a little busy with loot collection. Our party of four will head off first." Aarim smiled as she distracted the party whilst Shiro gathered mana into her palms. A small magic circle appeared out of sight.
"Hahaha, it¡¯s fine. We can go together." The boss said as he tried to seem friendly. However, all of them knew that he was akin to a wolf in sheep¡¯s clothing.
"No it¡¯s fine. Let¡¯s go girls." Aarim called out with no intention of ying around with him.
Watching the girls walk away, the boss frowned before walking towards them.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Several ice pirs mmed down in front of him with power that would seriously injure him.
Looking at Shiro, who was ring at him coldly, he couldn¡¯t help but feel fear for the amount of killing intent that was radiating off of her body right now.
"Hmph." Shiro scoffed before turning around and walking away. They had one warning shot before she went all out to kill them. If they didn¡¯t take her warning shot seriously, she would dly show them the repercussions.
Chapter 129 Grydred The Ancient Behemoth
Chapter 129 Grydred The Ancient Behemoth
"We¡¯ll be diving down to fight a boss together this time." Aarim said serious as they looked at the sink hole leading back into the ocean.
ncing at each other briefly, they nodded before putting on their helmets on once more and dived downwards.
*SPLASH!
Taking a moment to adjust her eyesight, Shiro looked around to see if there were any other paths.
¡¯Seems like it¡¯s just a straight path to the boss.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Following behind Aarim, they swam for around 10 minutes through a series of twists and turns. Naturally, they would take the asional break since their stamina wasn¡¯t unlimited.
Soon, they could see light peek out from the corner.
Gesturing at each other, they pulled out their weapons.
Shiro with her Ascendant Dream, Madison with her sword and shield, Lyrica with the dual ended des and Aarim was weaponless since she only uses magic.
"The strategy for this boss is simple, just hit it till it dies and avoid any attacks if you can. Also, stay away from each other since his attacks chain up to other people close to you. The more it chains, the more damage it deals. If that¡¯s clear give me a nod and we¡¯ll enter the room."
Waiting for a moment for their responses, Aarim swam forward into the room.
*URAHHH!!!!!
As if waking up a century old monster, they could see the entire ruin rumble with random pieces of debris falling pass them.
Spreading out as Aarim had instructed, the party nced at the monster.
Measuring at a minimum of 15 meters long, the monster was a hybrid of different parts from animals. Giant tusks from an elephant, a face of a shark, the elongated neck and body of a serpent, four wing like ps that resembled the wings of a manta ray and a shark tail that was filled with spikes.
Its body was coloured with different shades of teal along with moss growing all over its body.
[Grydred The Ancient Behemoth ¨C LVL 45 (Weakened)]
HP: 1,000,000/????????
MP: 1,000,000/????????
"Grydred The Ancient Behemoth has 3 forms of physical attacks and several magic attacks. Watch out for his head, wings and tail as well as the turbulence that is caused when he swims past you. If you can¡¯t dodge, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll keep you covered with an Earth Wall. But after that, it¡¯ll be down to you to get out of the way before it copses." Aarim called out over the mic.
"Alright. So we just hit it as much as we can right?" Lyrica asked just in case she forgot any strategies needed for this boss."
"It¡¯s just a huge target that fights back a little. As long as you have sufficient distance from each other, it¡¯ll be fine." Aarim reassured.
Shiro, on the other hand, took the initiative to gain aggro since the others aren¡¯t able to swim as fast as her. Which meant that they couldn¡¯t take aggro as well as her.
Elemental Shift: Metal.
Flicking her wrist, she controlled the des to sh towards the eyes of the behemoth. Since the behemoth only had two eyes, if she took care of one and not the other, she should be able to create some more blind spots for the party to exploit.
*BANG!
The sword mmed against the boss¡¯s eye but failed to prate.
¡¯Huh?!¡¯ Shiro widened her eyes in surprise.
The defence of the boss was so outrageous that she didn¡¯t even deal four digit damage to him.
What she did aplish, however, was gain his aggro.
*URAHH!!!!!
Trashing his head towards her direction, the boss¡¯s eyes glowed with a slight blue.
Ice suddenly formed around his head and slowly froze the water surrounding it. Eventually, it had formed a hammer of sorts that smashed towards Shiro.
The sheer size of the hammer made it hard for her to dodge so she could only gather mana around her and use ice to fight against ice.
*KRRRRR!!!!!
Releasing her killing intent in a huge burst, Ice rapidly formed around her before colliding with the hammer.
*BANG!!!!!
The collision caused cracks to form through the ice.
"Kuah!" Shiro couldn¡¯t help but cough up a little bit of blood due to the impact.
Not wasting this moment, the rest of the party attacked the boss.
Aarim floated for a moment as a giant three fold magic circle started to expand out behind her.
Drawing runes into the space in front of her, Aarim continued to enhance her spell.
"Tier 3 Earth Spell: Gaia¡¯s Embrace." She called out the name of the spell in order to increase its effectiveness.
*DONG!!!!
The toll of a bell rang out causing a giant threefold magic circle, identical to the one behind Aarim, to expand out under the behemoth.
*BANG BANG!
Suddenly, two giant arms made from earth erupted out of the magic circle and wrapped around the behemoth.
*CRACK!
The breaking of the bones could be heard which even caused Shiro to flinch slightly.
Looking at the caved in back of the behemoth, she couldn¡¯t help but gulp.
¡¯She should have more spells of this kind.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since a source mage needed mastery over all basic elements and once she did, she¡¯ll be able to amplify the tier of a low rank spell.
With Aarim¡¯s capabilities, she was able to amplify the effects of a tier 2 Gaia¡¯s Embrace into the realms of Tier 3.
Briefly ncing at the boss¡¯s health, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but gawk slightly at the fact that her spell had managed to deal 6 digit damage.
"My other spells are somewhat restricted right now so don¡¯t expect me to use them. I can only use my earth magic for now." Aarim called out.
However, they couldn¡¯t celebrate just yet since the bones of the boss could be seen shifting around.
¡¯Seems like we can¡¯t incapacitate it for long.¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
A few bosses would have the passive to heal any injuries that would incapacitate it such as a broken spine. It was so that they could still fight at peak performance whilst losing health.
Quickly thawing the ice around her, Shiro swam toward the back of the behemoth.
¡¯Since the obvious weak points such as the eyes are shielded, the rest of the body should be a little weaker inparison. I¡¯ll save the ass forter or else the aggro I attract maybe a little too much for me to handle right now.¡¯
Controlling the des to sh against its hide, Shiro smiled when she saw her des draw blood.
¡¯Seems like my guess is right.¡¯ She thought with relief.
ncing at her damage, she nodded her head slightly when she saw her attack do almost 5 digit damage. While it wasn¡¯t optimal, it was at least better than doing damage in the hundreds against a boss that has 1 million health.
Meanwhile, Lyrica and Madison was struggling a little since both of their main elements were fire. And using fire underwater wasn¡¯t the most effective options. Not only did it deal minimal damage, the MP cost also increased exponentially.
"HAAA!!!" Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but shout out. Her dual ended des mmed against the tough hide of the boss and barely did 4 digit damage.
Madison was a little better since her ss was strength based but it wasn¡¯t any better.
While Shiro, Lyrica and Madison dealt damage to the boss, Aarim supported them from the back with spells that protected them from damage.
After a while of attacking the boss, the party noticed a small change.
"Get ready, the boss is preparing the next skill." Aarim warned.
Giving a simple gesture of understanding, the party continued their attack whilst keeping an eye out for the skill.
*URAHH!!! BZZZZ!!!!
Lightning shed around the boss¡¯s body surprising the party a little.
"Move back!" Aarim shouted out. While she did know about the boss¡¯s skill set, she didn¡¯t know the order of which it would use the skills. Especially since it was random all the time.
Thankfully, the party reacted quickly and moved back before the lightning could damage them.
"Stay away from the boss and only use long ranged attacks. Be wary since it will use a lightning breath attack." Aarim frowned. Their luck was pretty bad since the boss had chosen to use lightning early on.
"Use your mana to form a protective shield around you. Don¡¯t forget, your suit is able to help amplify the barrier if you have a mana barrier skill." Aarim reminded as a translucent barrier of energy slowly wrapped around her.
The same happened with the trio as the lightning attempted to hit them but was warded off by the barriers. Naturally, they still suffered a little bit of damage but that was much better than being tasered to death.
Shiro was a little better since she had lightning attunement. Right now it was at Tier 2, which is more than enough to grant her enough protection against the weakened boss that fell into D ss for strength.
Swimming towards the boss, she would asionally activate life fire under her suit secretly to heal herself.
Her damager per second was definitely the highest out of the party since Aarim was focused on covering for Lyrica and Madison.
The fight was an arduous task of trying to not get hit while making sure they could actually deal enough damage to the boss. The worst part was that after the 50% mark, the boss started to regenerate his health which only slowed things down further.
But pushing pass all of that, they were able to knock the boss down to 15% health.
Shiro had kept her MP above 40% at all times since she could feel the asional stares of the party that they had ran into before. While she didn¡¯t know why they were just watching, she could guess that it was either for them to hurt the boss until it was almost dead or to take advantage of them. Whatever it was, Shiro had a n to turn the situation back in their favour.
As expected, once the boss reached 10% health, the party swam towards them from all directions.
Even though they couldn¡¯t hear each other talk, they could see the gloating in their eyes.
"What should we do?" Lyrica asked with a frown on her face. Her first thought was to kill them but then remembered that they were level 50.
"Get out of here first." Aarim said as she started to swim away. The other party didn¡¯t pursue since they were focused on the boss.
Lyrica and Madison followed after Aarim but Shiro stayed back.
"Shiro?"
Shaking her head, Shiro gestured for them to leave first.
Swimming behind the boss, she activated Shadow Cloak to hide herself from the boss.
Losing his target, the behemoth set his eyes on the new party.
*URAHH!!!!
Little did they know, Shiro hid behind one of the boss¡¯s fins and had started to heal it with life fire.
Watching the health bar increase, Shiro frowned for a second before giving up. Her initial n was for the boss to get his health back to full but it seems like she¡¯ll have to go with n B.
Waving her hand, a magic circle appeared behind the boss and aimed towards the most reliable weak point she knew for gaining aggro.
*BANG!!!!
The sudden appearance of an ice spear shocked everyone, including the boss due to the fact that he was on the receiving end.
Seeing the damage that was less than 3 digits, Shiro smiled before swimming away with shadow cloak activated.
As long as she dealt minimal damage, it would mean her aggro would be max since they would realise that someone had just tried to probe it.
The scales on the behemoth trembled before slowly turning red.
[Enraged Grydred, The Ancient Nightmare ¨C LVL 45 (Weakened) ¨C Essence Unleashed]
HP: 3,000,000/????????
MP: 3,000,000/????????
ring at the party with his blood red eyes, Grydred pped his wings once causing several whirlpools to appear around the area.
"GAH!!! What the hell happened to the boss!!" Someone shouted out as the boss who was almost dead regenerated all his health and MP and even tripled it.
"I don¡¯t know but stay away from those whirlpools and retreat!" The captain shouted out with slight amounts of panic. He guessed that the ice spear was the result of the white haired beauty that he had seen before.
Shiro, who was the perpetrator of all of this, had long retreated next to the group. They were hidden in the corner far away from the boss. Since they hadn¡¯t killed it, they couldn¡¯t advance into the next area.
"I never imagined that you would trigger something that had never been recorded in the guide. There were records where Grydred would get enraged but never had there been records where his title would change along with stats. Not only did he be the Ancient Nightmare, his HP and MP tripled. What did you do?" Aarim asked with curiosity. She wondered about what Shiro could have done but nothing came up.
Since the three of them were swimming away, they didn¡¯t manage to see what she had done.
""Must¡¯ve stabbed it in the ass."" Both Lyrica and Madison said at the same time. Their expressions weary since they had gone through this feeling several times now.
"..."
Chapter 130 Level 45
Chapter 130 Level 45
They watched as the enraged Grydred attacked the other party.
Since they didn¡¯t know what Essence Unleashed meant, they decided to hide for now and see how it is. If the situation wasn¡¯t good even after Grydred killed the other party, then they¡¯ll leave as fast as they can.
However, Shiro knew about the status called Essence Unleashed.
¡¯Grydred is definitely a strong monster. Since it has the capability to use Essence Unleashed, that means his previous level should be at least 200.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. Essence unleashed was a skill that is learnt when someone reaches level 200.
The skill Essence Unleashed would activate all the potential within the users body in one burst. Naturally, the result of which is severe weakness that can¡¯t be healed without at least 6 months of rest. This was always ast minute trump card that a person wouldn¡¯t use unless they knew they were going to die. Of course it also meant the damage caused to the surroundings are magnified by several folds.
*BANG BANG BANG!
Even a random gesture from Grydred was lethal never mind a full on hit. The group had to relocate several times in order to keep themselves safe.
Soon, they noticed the boss¡¯s movements slowing down a little.
"Seems like Grydred is running out of juice." Aarim said whilst peeking at the battle.
The casualties of a single use of Essence Unleashed had erased more than 80% of the other party leaving only the captain and a few other members.
"Shall we wait until itpletely runs out of juice then?" Lyrica asked.
"Yup. Even if there are some members left from the other party, if they¡¯re smart, they won¡¯t pick a fight with us." Aarim smiled.
But Shiro had other thoughts. After Essence Unleashed ends, the user will be severely weakened. At that point, killing Grydred will be a piece of cake.
One of the main reasons to why she wants to kill Grydred is because the amount of EXP he gives will definitely be huge/ Especially since he powered himself up during the fight.
Aarim furrowed her brows a little when she saw Shiro ncing at Grydred as if waiting for a certain moment until it struck her.
"You¡¯re trying to steal the kill." Aarim said as her eyes widened.
"You know that if you mistime it, you¡¯ll die right?" Aarim warned seriously.
Shiro only grinned before activating Shadow Cloak. Her body was wrapped with shadows before fading from their sights.
"Seriously, how many spells and attunements does this girl have?" Aarim couldn¡¯t help but ask.
Shiro had demonstrated her prowess with ice, thunder and shadow. Normally, people will only have one elemental attunement. A few exceptional people will be able to gain a second one or like her, gain all five basic attunements.
But cases like her¡¯s were rare since she had spent so long researching each element along with frequent visits to the attunement hall in order to acquire all of her attunements.
Not to mention, she had also used some of her connections to get items to help her sense the other elements.
¡¯No wait... She has a pet with her and I¡¯m pretty sure that pet belongs to the shadow element. But that doesn¡¯t make sense. Even if her pet is that of the shadow element, it doesn¡¯t mea-. . . she shares skills with her pet." Aarim widened her eyes in shock. Not many know about the fact that people could share skills with their pets, which is due to the fact that this is only applicable to top tier pets. The only reason to why she knew was due to the fact that she had learnt a lot during the time she was being taught by the professor when she was trying to fix her damaged links.
Sighing heavily, Aarim couldn¡¯t help but wonder what Shiro¡¯s background was. Not only were her Mana Links broken, which takes some skill for it to not be lethal for her, but also own a top tier pet that could share skills.
Meanwhile Shiro, who was currently swimming towards the fight between the boss and the party, narrowed her eyes as she could tell that the boss was about to reach its limits.
As an adventurer who had seen the effects of Essence Unleashed several times, she knew about the perfect moment to hit the boss for maximum effect.
Taking a deep breath, she started to prep her spell now so that she could fire it the moment Grydred weakens.
Since she was using Shadow Cloak, they couldn¡¯t see the Magic circles that were forming around her body. She had to keep the magic circles close to her or else they¡¯ll see it and it¡¯ll expose her intentions.
Closing her eyes in focus, she started to condense the magic circles. She remembered what Aarim¡¯s magic circles looked like and started to construct her own magic circles using that as a basis.
¡¯Now!¡¯
Snapping her eyes open, she saw the aura around Grydred sh a little before fading away.
Shiro quickly sped her hands together before pushing the circle towards Grydred. The magic circle sparked and separated into 5 identical circles that unfortunately only had 2yers instead of the 3yers that represent Tier 3.
Grydred looked at the magic circles that surrounded it in fatigue. After using Essence Unleashed, it didn¡¯t have the strength to resist any more.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Each of the circles shot 5 ice pirs into the body of Grydred before lightning sparked along it.
Separating her hands, Shiro formed a w hand and aimed it towards Grydred. A yellow magic circle appeared in her palm as she twisted her hand to increase its intensity.
*BZZZ!!!!! URAHHH!!!!!!!
Grydred roared in pain as smoke and lightning could be seen all over his body.
*BOOM!!!!!
Chunks of meat shot in all directions due to the sudden explosion near the abdominal area.
Shiro, who was closest to Grydred at that moment, was pped by a giant b of meat which resulted in her being catapulted away.
Her body was spinning all over the ce as she struggled to reorientate herself.
Frowning slightly, Shiro wondered what that explosion was. During her tumble, she saw the captain of the other party smiling slightly.
¡¯M*therfcker stole my kill!¡¯ She thought in anger.
Flicking her wrists, ice shot out which in turn acted as a foothold to stabilise her.
Crouching down, Shiro jumped towards the captain with all her strength.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 3rd Phantom + 4th Phantom + Shadow Cloak!
The captain, who was currently excited about the fact that he had just bagged himself a bunch of EXP, widened his eyes in shock when he saw the face of Shiro up close. She was currently gnashing her teeth in anger with slight signs of her eyes being bloodshot.
However, before he could even react, a silver light blinding his eyes.
*PUSHI!!!!
The party froze in shock when they saw the head of their captain fly off his shoulders.
Shiro, who was currently in a state of anger, red at the other adventurers.
Flicking her wrists, the other three swords shot towards them with a silver glow. In a few short moments, Shiro took care of the survivors of their party.
"Haaa...." Taking a deep breath, Shiro retracted her sword.
¡¯I suppose I can say I was just finishing the job.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since the original n was for Grydred to kill everyone before they stepped in. Not to mention, they had attempted to steal their kill first.
Even though she didn¡¯t get the huge amount of EXP from Grydred, she had levelled up once from killing the entire party.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Proficient Monster (108/500 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete)
Level: 45
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 123,020/206,250
MP: 120,500/488,070
STR: 1100 (+100)
VIT: 1300 (+200)
INT: 3000 (+550)
AGI: 1800 -> 2000 (+450)
DEX: 1400 -> 1500 (+100)
DEF: 500 (+100)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 300 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 2
Metal ¨C Tier 2
Shadow ¨C Tier 2 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Bnce: 310,130,000 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath. Ice Field Affinity, Cold Illusion
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation
Frozen Hell Series:
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Lightning Magic (Tier 2), Metal Magic (Tier 2), Shadow Magic (Tier 2)
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 1)]
Seeing her level increase to level 45, Shiro smiled in anticipation since it was time for her final star up.
[Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï]
[ - ] Enter the Truth Realm and Defeat your Shadow
"Truth Realm?" Shiro couldn¡¯t help but mutter at the unfamiliar quote. She didn¡¯t know the exact details of levelling up to the 5th star, especially since she was currently a monster, but she did know that it was going to be difficult. Otherwise people wouldn¡¯t have been stuck on the 5th star for so long that they even had topletely restart their level from 1.
However, seeing as the requirement was for her to defeat her shadow, she could infer that it was a quest to improve herself by defeating an identical copy of herself.
"Should be fun." She smiled. She always wondered what it would be like to fight an identical copy of yourself. Since they had the same experiences along with the same set of skills and stats, it would be the perfect moment to surpass her current fighting standard.
"I might even find some inspiration for new skills in there." She muttered.
"Shiro!"
Turning around, she saw the party swim towards her.
Giving them a small wave, Shiro waited for Aarim to exin their next steps.
"Well since Grydred is dead, he should have dropped two items. The items are Ancient Scales and Ancient Sharadon Silk. If it¡¯s ok, can I have them?" Aarim asked with a slight praying gesture.
Shiro nodded and pulled out several pieces of Ancient Scales and Ancient Sharadon Silk that she had received after killing the captain.
"Thanks. Right then, the next stage will be the treasure vault that was guarded by the now dead Grydred. Follow me."
Following behind Aarim, they arrived at a vault door at the bottom of the boss area.
"Was this always here?" Lyrica asked as she didn¡¯t see this vault door before.
"Nope. This only appears after you kill Grydred." Aarim replied.
Waving her hand, a magic circle appeared on the surface of the vault door.
"Alright, thebination of the vault lock changes each time so this may take a while."
The trio swam back a little as they watched Aarim slowly break the lock on the vault door.
Since she had nothing else to do for the meantime, Shiro flicked her wrist and created a foldable chair from ice andid her body on it.
"Hey Shiro, can we have one as well?" Lyrica asked.
Nodding her head, Shiro made two chairs for Lyrica and Madison.
After a while of waiting, Aarim was finally able to crack the vault door.
"Gah! I swear, as fun as it was, it is annoying to do locks like this." Aarim sighed as she cracked her neck.
"Well let¡¯s go. Since we¡¯ve unlocked the vault, we only have a few moments before it relocks and Grydred respawns." Aarim informed them whilst gesturing them to follow behind her into the vault.
"Are there any more bosses after this?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"There are but the things I need are at the start. All the bosses after this don¡¯t drop the items I need at all. However, if you girls are lucky, the vault should give you something that you need." Aarim smiled.
The group dived down into the vault and swam at a steady pace. They had to make sure that they were on guard in case of any unexpected surprises like an ambush from a party that arrived before them.
Thankfully, their worries were for nought since there was no one inside the vault.
"Once again, watch out. It¡¯s a no water zone." Aarim reminded as she flipped her body so that she couldnd on her feet.
"Haa... fresh air. Well, as fresh as it can get I suppose." Madison breathed out in relief. While they could breath in the suits, it was slightly awkward.
"Alright, look around girls. Anything that is glowing with a golden orb above it is something you can im." Aarim shouted out as she walked over to the pile of loot and searched around.
Looking around, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but frown a little as the vault was slightly familiar to her.
¡¯Where have I seen this kind of design?¡¯ She thought.
Walking over to a pile of loot, Shiro saw a golden orb floating above the pile and knew that there was something she could im.
Shuffling through the pile of loot, her hands paused in shock when she saw the item.
"Mtherfcking Light hero!!!" Shiro shouted out in anger as she mmed her fist into the item.
[Aria¡¯s Lucky Charm ¨C LVL 50 (Blue)]
A lucky charm from the world ¨C Aria ¨C. Records state that this is a statue of the Light Bearing Hero who saved the world.
Will block a single fatal attack from an enemy. (Limited to level 55)
Chapter 131 Connection Between Worlds
Chapter 131 Connection Between Worlds
Looking at the so called ¡¯Lucky Charm¡¯, Shiro gritted her teeth in anger. Killing intent rampaged around her with every passing second she spent looking at the item.
*KRRRR!!!
Synchronising with her killing intent, ice spread outwards shocking the party.
"What¡¯s gotten into her?" Aarim asked quickly as she retreated away from the iing ice.
"I don¡¯t know!" Lyrica replied with worry stered on her face. She had never seen Shiro like this before and even in the mutated dungeon, she was never this angry.
Shiro, who was the source of this, couldn¡¯t help but have shbacks of her death. That moment when the hero watched her die.
Her name tag started to turn ck once again. However, no one saw this since they were focused on Shiro herself.
"Shiro!" Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but should out when she felt something terribly wrong with her current situation.
Lyrica¡¯s shout snapped Shiro out of her daydream as she realised that it was just a statue and nothing more. As she calmed down, her name had also returned to its normal white colour.
"F*ck!" She cursed before throwing the statue against the wall with all her strength.
*BANG!
The collision caused the party to flinch a little. As for the item, the throw had caused it to break into several pieces which in turn renamed the item to Broken Aria¡¯s Lucky Charm.
[Broken Aria¡¯s Lucky Charm]
A lucky charm from the world ¨C Aria ¨C. Records state that this is a statue of the Hero who saved the world. However, it was subsequently broken by a certain enraged girl. This item is now useless.
Will block a single fatal attack from an enemy. (Limited to level 55 ¨C Unusable)
Watching her walk away from the pile of loot, they tried to reach out to her but stopped when they saw her malevolent re.
Both Lyrica and Madison paled at the re since it felt like they were being stared down by a powerful monster.
As for Aarim, she was more concerned about what set Shiro off.
"A lucky charm?" Aarim muttered with confusion. The item was no doubt a life saving item for a low levelled adventurer. She couldn¡¯t understand why it would set off her anger.
¡¯Hmm... the item says it¡¯s from a world called Aria. Could it be that she was from that world? She has no background and just sort of popped out of nowhere. But that¡¯s kind of far fetched though... so it must be something to do with the design of the item or she had seen this before. Maybe she associated it with the person who broke her links?¡¯ Aarim though with narrowed eyes.
Storing the item away, she decided to keep it for now and see if she could ask Shiro about it in the future.
Meanwhile, Shiro was currently trying to calm her heart down. After she heard Lyrica¡¯s shout, she calmed down a little and started to think about the item.
¡¯Why is something from Aria in this world?¡¯ She thought with a frown.
When she had reincarnated, she wondered why she was in this world and how she got here. However, if there were items from Aria as well, that meant that there could be a possibility that she could return as well.
"If me and some random item of the bastard could be in this world, then that means there should be a way to travel between them. I suppose they did teach in school that the area we upy right now is only a small part of ¡¯earth¡¯. Since that¡¯s the case, maybe Aria was dragged into this as well, which is why I was reincarnated here as a snow girl." She muttered.
Frowning a little, she held her chin with her hand and started to walk slowly whilst thinking about the possibilities.
"If there is indeed a connection or if Aria had fused with this world, that means I still have a chance to kill the light hero." She muttered with a grin.
"Hahahahaha. . . Looks like there is hope if I have a chance to kill ¡¯gods¡¯ chosen. Hahaha, light bearing hero you better clean your ass." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she had a new purpose. Find a way back to Aria and kill the light bearing hero who had already killed her once.
"Since I have a chance to kill him, I¡¯ll need to get myself back into Tier 6. Most importantly, fix my mana links.
"Nan Tian should still be in New York so if he doesn¡¯t appear before my soon, I¡¯ll go find him and see if I can get the medicine." She muttered.
She needed the Phoenix Rebirth Pill so that she could enter Tier 3 soon without much time wasted. Not only that, but the stronger she was, the easier it would be for her to search for other medicine to fix her links.
Most of the medicine that could fix her are all guarded by strong beasts that at minimum, is Tier 4 in strength.
If she enters the peak of tier 3, with her arsenal of weaponry from her Nanomancer ss, she should be able to kill them.
Hearing some footsteps behind her, she saw the party walking towards her after clearing out the vault of all the things they could im.
"Are you ok?" Lyrica asked with worry.
[Yeah I¡¯m fine now. Don¡¯t worry about it.] Shiro smiled slightly, feeling more cheerful than ever.
"That¡¯s good." Lyrica sighed in relief when saw that Shiro was quite happy since her body posture was a little ¡¯bouncy¡¯?
It was something simr to when you would tell a kid that they¡¯ll be eating at a fast food restaurant soon. Their excitement would radiate off of their bodies in a way not unlike Shiro right now.
Aarim frowned in suspicion since Shiro had just gone from being absolutely livid to happinessnd in a short moment.
"I have to say Shiro, you are one bipr girl." Aarim eventually smiled.
Shiro only shrugged since she couldn¡¯t deny that fact. There were several ways she could act around people.
The bubbly kind that would always try to interact with others. Which is the personality she used in the trial.
The stone cold assassin that would always give people the sense of dread or the confident mage that will use her power to prove her confidence.
And naturally, she was most rxed as herself. Shiro, A snow girl that had a second chance in life and had the purpose of growing stronger so that she could kill a certain hero that had betrayed her.
Of course, there was also the choice of reverting back to the time where she was being experimented. The moment when her psychology was a little twisted and a time where she would also be known as the insane bitch. Obviously, it was fixed with some rehabilitation but she could always simte the effect so that she could creep some of her enemies out.
Thinking about a few ¡¯fun¡¯ scenarios that she could use when interrogating someone, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but grin sadistically.
". . ."
". . ."
". . ."
The party looked at Shiro ndly. In a short moment, she had changed her emotion once again but this time it was that of sadistic joy. All they could think of was ¡¯The f*ck is she thinking about?¡¯.
"Anyways, let¡¯s get out of here. I¡¯ve managed to get the item I needed so we shouldn¡¯t stay here longer than needed."
"How do we get out?"
"There is a teleportation circle in the corner of the vault and it should teleport you back to the entrance. We¡¯ll swim back to the submarine from there." Aarim smiled and showed them to the teleportation circle.
The party took this time to put on their helmets once more/
Shiro, on the other hand, took this chance to memorise the runes and the design of the circle so that she could do some experiments with it if the opportunity everes up.
Plus, some research was always wee.
Activating the magic circle, the party was teleported outside into the ocean before swimming back to the submarine.
"Seems like we still have some time to spare." Aarim smiled when she saw that they could have been in there for another 30 minutes.
"Well Shiro did help increase out clearing time by quite a lot." Madison smiled.
With Shiro in the party, it felt like everything was on easy mode.
"True. Everything is easier with Shiro in the party." Lyrica agreed.
[In that case then you girls can go clear a level 50 dungeon together. I won¡¯t join so that it should prove to be a challenge to you.] Shiro grinned.
"Pui, who said it was easy? Life is never easy." Madison quickly changed her mind as Lyrica agreed.
Shiro only chuckled in response.
[But seriously. I believe that you girls can do it. Both of your sses are some of the best sses avable at this stage so clearing level 50 dungeons should be a piece of cake as long as you don¡¯t drop your guard.]
"You really think so?" Lyrica asked with some uncertainty in her voice.
[I honestly do.] Shiro nodded. She wasn¡¯t lying. Both sses had stat growth and skills far above the average ss. If she had to grade the ss and its potential from the power demonstrated at an early stage, she would say that both sses should be around grade A to S.
Lyrica had the potential to reach Elven de saintess while Madison had the potential to upgrade into a ss she had never seen before.
Just the hidden ss Demon Knight was shocking enough as it is with frightening potential in both attack in defence.
She couldn¡¯t wait for the day where both Lyrica and Madison entered C ss.
"She¡¯s right you know. Both of you have talent rarely seen in people. You shouldn¡¯t waste it by doing something you¡¯re alwaysfortable with. Cairosa has plenty of level 50 dungeons for you to try." Aarim agreed since the party of three had to be one of the most efficient parties she had seen in her life.
Not only that, but the trio¡¯s levelling speed was even more ridiculous. In the short time she had known Shiro, she had levelled up from 29 to 45. The growth of 16 levels was incredible when she considered how short that space of time was.
"Well... I suppose we do need a challenge." Lyrica said after a short moment.
Madison nodded her head in agreement since they did grow fastest when they were challenging dungeons without Shiro¡¯s help.
If they took Shiro into a dungeon, it would be overkill. Level 50 or not.
[When we get back, you girls can go into the dungeon. I need to do something anyways.]
"Could it be your 5th star?" Lyrica asked curiously.
[Yup. This miss is about to level up into a 5 star ss.] Shiro grinned.
"Oh? 5 stars huh. I¡¯ve never seen someone that had managed toplete 5 stars." Aarim called out from the driver¡¯s seat. It wasmon knowledge that the final star was one of the hardest tasks toplete.
With Shiro¡¯s capabilities, she should be able to pass.
"Do tell us if you get anything cool ok?" Madison smiled.
[Sure.]
After a few moments of small talk, the party arrived back at the boat.
"Well you¡¯re back quite early." Captain Sanders said with a small smile.
"I managed to get what I need so here we are." Aarim shrugged.
"Well you heard her boys. Reel them in!" He called out as the ws picked up the boat.
Shiro walked away to the changing room and changed back to her outfit. On the way out, she reunited with Yin who¡¯s first instinct was to ask for some food.
"I¡¯ve only been away for 2 hours and you ran out of food already?! Fat bird!" Shiro couldn¡¯t help but exim.
*Chirp!
Yin pped her wings in protest when Shiro called her fat.
¡¯Don¡¯t you eat more than me!? Shouldn¡¯t you be the fat one?!¡¯ She protested in her mind but it wasn¡¯t as if Shiro could hear her.
Shiro narrowed her eyes in suspicion since it felt like Yin was bing more intelligent as time passed. Not in terms of IQ since she is still a bird brain but rather she felt more ¡¯human¡¯.
¡¯Maybe it¡¯s because she¡¯s levelling up. I heard that top tier pets do take a humanoid form after a certain level.¡¯ She thought to herself, dismissing Yin¡¯s actions as growth.
She would asionally talk with Yin but mostly kept silent whilst sitting on the highest point on the boat. Even though she had calmed herself down, her mind couldn¡¯t help but drift back to the fact that there was a connection to Aria in this world.
¡¯I wonder if they¡¯re still alive...¡¯ She thought with a bit of nostalgia. Not everyone in the Hero¡¯s party was bad.
If they were there at the time of the Hero¡¯s betrayal, she was sure that they would have helped her out. But doubts started to surface again since they were part of the hero¡¯s party and they were with him for longer.
¡¯Would they actually help me when the time called for it?¡¯ She wondered.
Shaking her head, Shiro dismissed the thoughts.
¡¯This isn¡¯t like me. I shouldn¡¯t be doubting everything like this. Plus, even if they are alive, I should move on since it would bring them danger if I got them mixed up with my feud with the Light Bearing Hero.¡¯ Shiro thought with a small smile.
ncing over at Lyrica and Madison who were chatting happily, Shiro smiled contently since those two were sincere with their feelings. However, she wasn¡¯t sure about how long it wouldst in this world. Especially since she went from a pacifist who didn¡¯t like to fight to a killing machine with ruthless efficiency.
"Only time will tell..." She muttered.
Chapter 132 Fight With Her ‘Shadow’
Chapter 132 Fight With Her ¡®Shadow¡¯
Once they returned to the camp, the first thing they did was split the loot.
"I¡¯ll get your outfits done soon. Just give me a text and I¡¯ll show you a few designs." Aarim smiled before bidding farewell.
Unfortunately, none of the loot Shiro had managed to acquire was actually useful for her so she just gave some to Lyrica and Madison before going to sleep.
The next morning, she was making her way to the auction house.
Putting a few of these on auction, Shiro decided that she may as well get some money for the items she didn¡¯t need. While she could indeed recycle a few items for their skills, the items that she had gotten didn¡¯t have any worthwhile skills for her.
The next stop was the adventurer¡¯s guild. She needed to update her status once more.
"Wee nya. Ohya? So it¡¯s you Shiro. Well are you going to surprise me again today?" Susie smiled.
[Maybe.] Shiro shrugged.
Giving Susie her ID, she waited patiently for her to update it.
"Wow, level 45 already nya. If you continue at your pace, you might break the record for fastest ss C you know?" She said before handing back Shiro¡¯s ID card.
Although the difference fromst time was just 2 levels, it should be noted that thest stretch of levels before the peak of a ss was the hardest to level up. That was due to the fact that you couldn¡¯t surpass levels and kill higher level monsters as easily. The difference between level 50 and 51 wasn¡¯t something one can cross.
However, she doesn¡¯t know that Shiro¡¯s stats had effectively doubled so fighting level 51 monsters was still within her reach.
[Name: Shiro
Estimated Age: 13
ss: Ice Mage
LVL: 45
Mage¡¯s Association Membership: VIP (New York Branch)
Priority Rank: 9 (New York Branch)]
After bidding Susie farewell, Shiro made her way back to the camp.
"Wee back. Are you going to give your 5th star up a try now?" Lyrica asked as she had been doing her morning practises.
[Yep. See you soon.] Shiro smiled before tapping the initiate button under her task.
A golden portal expanded beneath her and teleported her away.
Blinking her eyes a few times, Shiro looked around her and saw that she was in an empty field of white. She was currently standing on some sort of marbled floor that stretched as far as the eye could see.
[You have entered the Truth Realm. Prepare to face your shadow.]
Looking at the notification, Shiro¡¯s first instinct was to check what she had on her.
¡¯Right so it seems like I can use all of my skills but no tools. That means Ascendant Dream isn¡¯t allowed either.¡¯ She thought to herself when she noticed theck of her ne.
Flexing her fingers, two copies of Harbinger¡¯s Sorrow appeared in her hands.
Cracking the bones all over her body, Shiro narrowed her eyes in concentration. Since it was to fight an exact copy of herself, it meant that it had her abilities and stats.
[Begin.]
The moment the notification appeared, an identical version of Shiro appeared in front of her with two hand cannons in her hands.
*BANG BANG!
They both shot at the same time. The bullets collided with each other before being deflected in two different directions.
The shadow didn¡¯t pause for long as she crouched down and dashed towards Shiro with Yin Style Phantom Arts.
Inserting mana into her eyes, Shiro made sure that she didn¡¯t lose sight of her shadow.
*BANG BANG!
Shooting twice with her gun, Shiro frowned when the shadow bent her body to avoid the bullets before firing back with her own gun.
Instead of dodging, Shiro shifted her foot which caused a giant ice wall to erect in front of her.
*CRACK CRACK!
The bullet hit the wall and destroyed parts of it but failed to prate.
Her shadow frowned a little before flipping backwards and erected a giant ice pir for herself to stand on.
Pinching her index and thumb together, an ice flute was created in her hands. Bringing the flute to her mouth, the shadow started to y a gentle melody.
Shiro, who was suddenly attacked with a massive headache, had to blink her eyes a few times to try reorientate herself.
However, when she did, she saw ten clones charging at her.
¡¯Flutebined with Cold illusion huh?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. She hadn¡¯t paid attention to the flute since she had other things to do but she never expected the shadow to have ess to everything she had. Even a hobby she decided to pick up on a whim but never practice again.
Pivoting on her right foot, Shiro dodged the first clone and tried to counter attack. But that clone faded into cold mist which in turn froze her arm a little.
Widening her eyes, she quickly jumped backwards and erected several ice pirs for her to create some distance. But to her dismay, her clone was a copy of her with the same attributes. They parkoured through the pirs with ease as some even managed to get ahead of her.
Sliding across the ground, Shiro flicked her wrist, creating several ice spears that shot towards the clone.
*BANG BANG BANG!
Just as she did that, three gunshots rang out as bullets shot towards her.
"HA!" She shouted out and stomped hard onto the ground. Killing intent exploded out of her body and ice formed around her due to her passive.
*CRACK CRACK PUCHI!
Two of the shots were barely stopped but thest shot had prated the wall and pierced her arm.
"F*ck!" She cursed since all three shots were aimed precisely at the same spot.
Quickly activating Fire of Life, Shiro tried to heal herself but froze when she felt danger behind her.
Dodging to the side at thest moment, she saw her shadow with an ice sword in hand.
Just as she had reacted and dodged, the shadow followed up and sliced her sword at Shiro.
Shiro gritted her teeth and bent her body backwards before sending a kick towards the shadow.
However, her kick had only phased through the shadow¡¯s body.
"####!!! Of course she uses faded snow movement." Shiro cursed and quickly rolled away.
"Gah! What a pain in the ass!"
She now somewhat understood what other people felt when she had fought them. But right after she said that, a magic circle appeared behind her.
¡¯HOLY SH*T!¡¯ She thought and instantly activated Faded Snow Movement.
An ice spear phased pass her body.
Shiro paled when she realised that her anal v.i.r.g.i.nity would have been taken by her own shadow if she didn¡¯t use her skill.
Flexing her fingers, several ice daggers appeared in her hands as she activated ice chain to lock down her shadow.
Understanding what she was trying to do, the shadow also used ice chain and locked Shiro down. The two of them spent this time to make eye contact once more.
A magic circle suddenly appeared behind the shadow and shot out an ice spear. Simr to what Shiro did, the shadow used faded snow movement to escape the dreaded spear.
Looking down at the spear, the shadow red at Shiro.
"Who the hell are you ring at hah?! You¡¯re the one who tried to take this miss¡¯s ass first!" Shiro retorted.
The shadow rolled her eyes as the two of them struggled out of the ice chains and made some space between them.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Both of them shot towards each other but their bullets only collided and deflected to the surroundings.
Shiro suddenly had an idea and crafted a special whistle bullet that would let out a sound as it fired.
*BANG!
Shooting the bullet, she also paired it up with Cold Illusions which disorientated her shadow.
However, due to the fact that it was done hastily, she wasn¡¯t sessful in creating illusions but instead, disorientated her shadow.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Three out of the five bullets hit while the other two phased through her body.
Using Yin Style Phantom Art¡¯s to quickly retreat, the shadow activated the fire of life and quickly healed itself.
"You¡¯ve got to be kidding me." Shiro muttered as she couldn¡¯t help but sigh at the fact that her arsenal of skills was so diverse.
¡¯Since that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll have to try to make her run out of MP.¡¯ Shiro thought.
However, just as she had thought that, her shadow mmed her palm into the ground and froze the entire ce over, activating both their passives of Ice Field Affinity.
"Oh right. The passive. . ."
Sighing heavily, Shiro couldn¡¯t help butment about how she had made this quest harder by having such a diverse arsenal of skills.
Now only that, BUT THE SHADOW HAD CONSTANTLY BEEN TRYING TO PIERCE HER ASS!
"What the hell is your problem!!!" Shiro shouted out in annoyance. To have to fight whilst protecting her ass was harder than one would think. The moment her guard around her ass dropped even slightly, an ice spear would appear.
shing with her shadow for a few more times, Shiro knew that this was going to be a long day.
###
As for Aarim, the first thing she did in the morning was research the Item Shiro had broken in a fit of rage.
"Curious..." She muttered. Theposition of the item was a little more advanced whenpared to other life saving items she had seen. The item seals the power belonging to a strong individual and preserves it over a long period of time. Not only that, but once a person had used the power stored inside, they can reuse it as long as they store more power into it.
It was a reusable life saving tool if one had to call it something. Unfortunately, Shiro had broken it.
"But seriously, why was she angry? The statue looks quite handsome and the description of the item said that it was the image of a hero. What could have possibly set her off?" Aarim sighed as she was curious to Shiro¡¯s background.
Someone as talented and as injured as her doesn¡¯t juste out of nowhere.
Shaking her head, she decided to ce the item aside for now and start to design the outfits.
She knew that Shiro liked the colours white and ck, Madison liked ck and red whilst Lyrica liked white, green, yellow and blue.
"One¡¯s an elf, one has a demon ss and the other is a powerful loli." She muttered in humour.
While Aarim was designing the clothes, Lyrica and Madison were thinking about which dungeon they should challenge.
However, they when they were walking through the city, they never expected for them to run into Silvia.
"Silvia?" Lyrica called out a little hesitantly.
"Ah, it¡¯s you two. Heya." She replied with a small but sad smile.
"Do you... want to sit down and have a chat for a bit?" Madison offered since to her, it looked like Silvia could really use some help.
"...sure." She nodded after a moment of silence.
Lyrica took them to a caf¨¦ she knew of near by and sat near one of the window seats.
"Would you like to order anything?" The waitress asked politely.
"No we¡¯re fine for now." Lyrica smiled.
The waitress nodded before walking away.
"So what happened? We never got word back from you. Madison asked.
"Would you actively seek out the killer of two friends for a nice chat? Well I guess friends are pushing it a little since he did try to kill us after the dungeon." Silvia sighed. She somewhat forgave Shiro but the fact that she killed her ¡¯friends¡¯ was still there.
That being said, if it wasn¡¯t for Shiro, they would have either died in the dungeon or died outside due to the mob.
Lyrica and Madison stayed silent since it was a fact they couldn¡¯t deny.
"We can¡¯t change what happened but we will do whatever we can topensate you. I know a life is priceless but we will do what we can." Lyrica sighed.
"Mn you¡¯re still the same. Even after the dungeon, you haven¡¯t changed a bit." Silvia smiled.
"I don¡¯t need anypensation. I just need some ti- Hm.. actually. How about we do something together?" She smiled lightly. She could still remember Jonas¡¯s talk.
Since they weren¡¯t trustworthy under pressure, why spend more thoughts on them? Make better friends who will stay even in the face of life and death.
"Well me and Madi were about to go into a level 50 dungeon. Want to join us?" Lyrica asked.
"Sure." Silvia smiled. It would also be a good chance for her to see if she waspatible with the party. Well, two thirds of the party since Shiro wasn¡¯t here right now.
"Hm? Where¡¯s Shiro?" Silvia asked.
"Oh her? She¡¯s currently doing her 5th star up." Madison replied with a wave of her hand.
"So it¡¯s just us three." Lyrica smiled.
¡¯Probably for the best.¡¯ Silvia thought since it may be a little awkward.
"So which dungeon are we going to?" She asked.
"We¡¯re going to the level 50 dungeon ¨C Ocean Sky Fortress."
Chapter 133 5th Phantom
Chapter 133 5th Phantom
"Ocean Sky Fortress?" Silvia tilted her head a little.
"Isn¡¯t that one of the hardest level 50 dungeons?! You need a party to even kill one of the monsters in there!" She widened her eyes when she realised that they were talking about THAT Ocean Sky Fortress.
"I know. But that¡¯s better for us." Lyrica smiled knowingly.
They had chosen the Ocean Sky Fortress due to this fact.
"Yup. Since Shiro has the power to solo monsters with ease, we should have the same kind of power or else we would just be holding her back." Madison followed up.
"But isn¡¯t that too dangerous?!" Silvia eximed at their recklessness.
"Hehe~ Which is why we have life saving items and you to help us." Lyrica grinned.
"Plus, if we get stronger, we¡¯ll be able to synergise with Shiro better. Without us holding her back, our entire party¡¯s efficiency will go up." Madison agreed.
"..." Silvia was speechless.
¡¯What is this party?¡¯ She asked herself. The normal procedure would be everyone making sure that they could actually handle a dungeon before attempting it. Not to mention, challenging a level 50 dungeon with two level 40 odds was just borderline insane and not to mention suicidal.
"Aiya, just look at your expression. Don¡¯t worry, everything is going to be okay." Lyrica smiled.
"Plus, we had to solo bosses when we were level 20 right Madi? This is just the usual."
"I¡¯m still annoyed at that you know? You two just watched as I, a tanker, fought the boss alone. My damage wasplete trash back then." Madison clicked her tongue a little. Back then, she didn¡¯t have her current ss so her damage output was lower. Not only that, but all her stat points were allocated to focus around defence.
Watching the two go over their adventures, Silvia couldn¡¯t help but feel a twitch creeping up on her eye.
¡¯What the hell is this abnormal party???¡¯ She thought to herself. However, she could really use a change of pace right now.
"Fine, when are we leaving?" She asked.
"Right now." Lyrica smiled and stood up.
Leading the pseudo party to the dungeon, they arrived at the dungeon entrance.
"Well are you all prepped?" Lyrica asked Silvia. Since they hadn¡¯t entered a dungeon with just Silvia, she wanted to double check just in case anything went wrongter on.
"I¡¯m stocked on MP potions." Silvia nodded.
"Oh, try not to use potions unless you absolutely need to. There may be problemster down the line." Lyrica warned.
"Alright."
Seeing that Silvia was prepared, the party entered the dungeon with just the three of them. Much to the confusion of the surrounding people.
"Did.... Did three beauties just enter the dungeon by themselves?" Someone asked out loud.
"Suicidal!!!"
"Why didn¡¯t anyone stop them?!"
"Well we didn¡¯t think they would be stupid enough to enter with just three people!?"
"Well apparently they are!"
"Che, what a pity."
Naturally, the party was unaware of themotion they had caused.
When they arrived inside the dungeon, they saw that they were currently in a room with windows showing them the ¡¯outside¡¯ world.
Silvia nced outside the windows before looking back at Lyrica and Madison. However, she was surprised to see their aura change drastically. Neither of them were joking around nor rxed.
Their face was serious as their eyes were constantly looking around to make sure that they were safe.
"The dungeon is pretty linear. Let¡¯s go." Lyrica said seriously before pulling out her weapon. Madison nodded as ck mist coated her body.
Since it was just the three of them, they had the choice of either killing the monsters quickly with thebined attack power of her and Lyrica or, they could wear it down slowly.
Naturally, she chose the upfront and aggressive tactic of killing them quickly.
Holding a giant axe like nothing, Madison loosened up her joints so that she could be more flexible in battle.
"Eh? Are you not tanking?" Silvia asked.
"Mn? Well no since we would be at a disadvantage. Since there are only three of us, we can¡¯t fight prolonged battles or else we¡¯ll be too vulnerable. Therefore, we¡¯ll fight short battles that end the monster quickly." Madison exined.
"Right..."
While she wasn¡¯t wrong, it only applied to a single powerful adventurer in a lower level dungeon. That way they could exhibit their full power without wasting their stamina on low levelled enemies.
However, they were lower level than the dungeon so the tactic shouldn¡¯t be applied here.
"I really feel like that wouldn¡¯t work though." Silvia said with worry.
"Hm... Well we can see how the first fight turns out. We¡¯ll make some changes depending on what happens." Lyrica said as she finished stretching her body.
Nodding at the two, she took the lead and charged down the corridor.
Not too long after charging out, they found the first monster.
She only briefly nced at the stats before ignoring them.
"HAA!!" She shouted out as she twisted her body and sent out a wave of fire towards the monster.
Madison wasn¡¯t too far behind. She was currently leaping through the air whilst twisting her body to increase her momentum.
"HYA!"
*BOOM!!!
With Lyrica shing the monster horizontally and Madison cleaving it in half, they killed it with rtive ease.
"That should have warned the rest of them. Keep your guard up." Lyrica said with a frown. The battle was a little louder than she had hoped but it wasn¡¯t too bad. At worse, it would have attracted the attention of more than two monsters.
Even then, they had their ways to deal with both of them.
As for Silvia, she was speechless. She couldn¡¯t believe what she had seen.
¡¯Did the two of them almost instant kill a level 50 monster?!¡¯ She thought in shock.
If these two had improved so much in the short time they hadn¡¯t met, she couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine how much Shiro had improved.
"Ah?! Wait for me!" She shouted out when she realised that both Lyrica and Madison had left her behind during her musing and quickly ran after them.
Meanwhile...
"WILL YOU STOP TARGETING MY ASS!!!" Shiro shouted out, dodging another strike from her shadow.
The entire time she had been fighting, the shadow had demonstrated ways of using her abilities that she hadn¡¯t thought of. HOWEVER, its main attack was still targeting her ass.
Twisting her body to avoid an attack, she flexed her fingers and created a handful of daggers before throwing them towards her shadow.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
The shadow shot the daggers out of the air with ease.
"Bingo." Shiro grinned before snapping her fingers.
With the snapping of her fingers, the shards of the daggers exploded and sent out a wave of sound which harmonised to activate alongside her cold illusion.
Unlikest time, Shiro was prepared and created a misty forest filled with ice trees and a severe drop in visibility.
Suppressing her presence, Shiro created a hand cannon and aimed at her shadow.
However, before she could even fire, she had to grit her teeth and quickly bend backwards to avoid the ice spike that had suddenly pierced towards her face.
¡¯How?!¡¯ She quickly asked herself. Her presence was as little as it could be, not to mention, she had even used an illusion to confuse her shadow.
Flipping her body backwards, Shiro widened her eyes when she realised that the ground beneath her waspletely coated with ayer of ice.
¡¯She sensed me through the ice. Cleaver shadow.¡¯ Shiro thought as she didn¡¯t think she could use her ice as an extra sensory option during moments when her senses were hindered.
"Time to finish this." Shiro said seriously. She was going to throw everything she got at her shadow since she didn¡¯t have much mana left.
Stomping down hard on the ground, Shiro caused a b of ice to lift up in front of her as she roundhouse kicked the b to break it into several pieces which then morphed into spears.
She flicked her wrist and sent the ice spears towards her shadow while she created a dagger and a hand cannon.
*BANG BANG!
Shooting twice, which her shadow dodged with ease, Shiro watched as her shadow create a magic circle that expanded across the sky.
Flinching slightly, she noticed that all the ice in the area had fallen under her shadow¡¯s control.
"Oh sh*t..." Shiro muttered as everything switched targets and aimed for her.
Knowing that the situation was dire, Shiro erased all emotion on her face and morphed her gun into a dagger.
Twirling both daggers nimbly along her fingers, Shiro shed apart all the ice spears that shot towards her.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 2nd Phantom + 3rd Phantom.
Gliding across the battlefield, Shiro arrived in front of her shadow who had a slightly creepy grin that unnerved even Shiro.
*BOOM!!!
A dense wave of killing intent sted her backwards, forcing her to flip her body in mid air.
Quickly looking forwards, Shiro tried to track her shadow but widened her eyes when she saw her shadow in front of her with a nano tech sword piercing towards her eyes.
Faded Snow Movement!
However, the shadow wasn¡¯t fazed by the fact that her attack missed and instead glided the sword downwards to attack the non-affected areas.
But Shiro was given enough to time sp her hands and set off and explosion of ice in front of her which forced the two of them apart.
Gracelessly rolling across the ground, she mmed her palm into the ground and shifted onto her feet.
"Ok I have so many questions right now!" Shiro said as she gritted her teeth.
This trial had literally constructed a shadow that knew how to use all of her abilities to their maximum potential.
Not only that, but there were spells that she had no idea she could use. Example being the ability her shadow used to take control of all the ice in the area.
Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t given the time to contemte about her questions since her shadow decided to activate the 5th form of their martial arts.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: 5th Phantom ¨C Soul Stealing Phantom.
A dark aura enveloped her shadow. Her eyes, cold without emotion.
Shiro frowned since 5th Phantom was a risky move of the Yin Style Phantom Arts hence why she hadn¡¯t used the skill yet.
The skill requires the user to give themselves up to their darkest emotions and allow that to control their bodies. Whilst this was happening, the user needed to make sure that their mind is clear and adaptive to make sure that they aren¡¯t consumed by their own ¡¯phantom¡¯.
When they are consumed, there is little to no chance of escape. Rather than stealing someone else¡¯s soul, your own soul is stolen from you.
Not to mention, the stronger the user, the harder it is to resist the phantom. During the Shadow Temple quest, she had only managed to pull this skill off sessfully once and that was under the tutge of Fei Ling. Her teacher, friend and subordinate in the quest.
However, the power granted from the form could only be described as incredible. Not only are her senses enhanced to their limits, but 50% of her stats will also temporarily be converted to assist in pure attack and no defence.
But that only happened when the system grants her the title of Yin Style Phantom Arts Practitioner.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro took a deep breath and decided to push herself to her very limits. Creating two hand cannons along with some nanotech armour, Shiro charged at her shadow that was trying to use 5th phantom.
*BANG BANG BANG!
Shooting at the head and other weak points, Shiro made no change in expression when she saw her shadow deflect the bullets out the air with just bare hands.
Bringing her two guns together, she morphed them into a spear and stabbed towards the shadow.
With the added pressure of trying to survive Shiro¡¯s relentless pursuit and trying to activate 5th phantom, her shadow started to lose her advantage.
However, Shiro didn¡¯t loosen up her attack even when victory was close at hand because she knew how easy it was to turn the tables the moment the 5th phantom was activated.
¡¯The final blow!¡¯ She thought when she saw her Shadow forcefully stop the activation of 5th phantom.
Unfortunately for her, the shadow only smiled with glee.
A horrendous aura exploded around her as Shiro could see a giant magic circle activating all around her. The power of the magic circle far outstripped her strongest skill in her arsenal, which was Frozen Slumber.
The power rivalled that of Tier 3 spells which should have been impossible with her broken links.
"You¡¯ve constructed this from the start of the battle..." Shiro muttered in shock. With small tier 1 and tier 2 magic circles piling on top of each other since the start of the battle, it was no wonder it could exceed the power of tier 3. Not to mention, she had plenty of time to take breaks in between to sooth her links.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro stabbed towards her shadow onest time before the spell could activate.
Seeing the shadow dodge, she converted a part of the spear into a hand cannon and fired it.
*BANG!
Unfortunately for her, the bullet missed the head and instead sted the ear off.
*BOOM!!!
Just as she missed her shot, a giant blizzard smashed downwards into her as if it was the wrath of an ice god. Each snowke that touched her would freeze her body before shattering into shards of ice.
*BANG!
"GAH!"
She was forced out of her trial and smashed against the tree which caused her to spit out a mouthful of blood.
Panting heavily, Shiro could feel that she was on the verge of fainting.
"Outsmarted and outperformed by my shadow..." She frowned before cking out.
Chapter 134 Areas Of Improvement
Chapter 134 Areas Of Improvement
"Urg..." Groaning slightly from the pain she was feeling, Shiro forced her eyes open albeit with some difficulty.
"Hm? I¡¯m in the camp..." She muttered as she looked around her.
She saw that she was alone right now with no one inside the tent.
"Ha...." She sighed heavily. She couldn¡¯t believe that she had just been outsmarted and outperformed by her own shadow.
Since her shadow could use all of her abilities along with the samebat experience, it meant that whatever the shadow did, she could do as well.
¡¯Seems like I haven¡¯t fully understood my potential as a mage.¡¯ Shiro thought since her shadow was a better mage than her.
Not only was her shadow able to cast a tier 3 magic without problem, but she was also able tobine her skills together in ways she had never thought of.
Even a random hobby she picked up such as the flute wasbined with Cold Illusions to disorientate her.
Sitting in silence for a while, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Since the shadow is a copy of me, whatever she can do, I can do as well." She muttered. If she was defeated by her shadow, it meant that she wasn¡¯t fighting to the best of her ability.
She checked her system and noticed that the 5th star up had a cool down after failure. She needed to wait 3 days before she could try the trial again.
¡¯3 days should be enough for me to improve.¡¯
Standing up from her bed, Shiro flinched a little from the pain in her joints.
Moving body around, she found that her body was mostly damaged around the joint areas.
Clutching her fists, Shiro decided to try practise some of herbat skills that she had cked on once she recovered. Naturally, she wanted to improve her close quartersbat the most.
During the fight, while she could hold her own against her shadow, she could tell that she was a little better in her usage of the des meaning she wasn¡¯t utilizing her full power with ded weapons.
¡¯The trial seems to show me what I am currently capable of with my body. What I saw in the trial was me at my best. Seems like I¡¯ve been cking.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself as she exited the tent. When she exited the tent, she saw Kanae practising diligently by the side.
Sweat dripped off her body as she was currently practising different poses to increase her flexibility.
"Ah Shiro-nee! You shouldn¡¯t be out right now!" Kanae cried out in surprise when she saw Shiro. Breaking her pose, she jogged over and started to examine Shiro¡¯s body.
[I¡¯m fine.] Shiro smiled and patted her head.
Looking towards the tree that was next to their tent, she saw the tree damaged heavily on the side showing her where she had hit before passing out. Above that spot, Yin was sleeping as usual.
"You¡¯re not fine. Mum went out to buy some medicine when she saw you puking out blood by the tree." Kanae frowned.
[Let¡¯s wait for her then. I¡¯ll watch you practice.] Shiro walked over to the tree and sat down.
Kanae nodded her head excitedly since she wanted to impress Shiro.
While Shiro watched Kanae stretch and push her flexibility to the limit, she realised that Kanae had always been utilising 100% of her effort.
This led her to realise one of her mistakes.
¡¯I don¡¯t know enough about my own arsenal along with the fact that I underestimated my shadow.¡¯ She thought whilst smiling wearily.
Since her shadow was her at 100% performance, why did she expect to defeat herself with only 80% of her effort?
¡¯I knew it was a shadow of myself with all my skills and nothing else. If I had fully studied my skills, I could have entered the fight with and all out offensive and end the fight quickly.¡¯ She thought with a shake of her head.
Watching Kanae practice, Shiro couldn¡¯t help herself and also wanted to practice.
Pinching her fingers together, Shiro created an ice flute.
¡¯Cold Illusions is great during a fight which can also pair well with my Killing Intent. If I mix the two together, I¡¯ll be able to apply tones of mental pressure.¡¯
Twirling the flute between her fingers, Shiro brought it to her lips and started to y a melody she remembered from the inte. Her mind had stored the way on how to y it along with the finger cements.
Kanae paused hearing the melody but widened her eyes when she saw several Shiro¡¯s around the tree.
3 were sitting on the branches while 4 more were sitting around the tree.
What Kanae didn¡¯t know was that the area around Shiro was currently drenched in Killing Intent. Shiro was concentrating hard on trying to restrain her passive ability so that it didn¡¯t freeze everything she touched.
¡¯Since it¡¯s a passive, I should have some control over it. Since it matches the output of my Killing Intent, it means the power should be controble using other sources. ¡¯ She thought as Ice was slowly expanding outwards.
Feeling the pain suddenly shoot through her body, Shiro flinched and stopped the melody. When the melody stopped, her illusions also faded away.
Breathing heavily for a short moment, Shiro frowned for a moment before looking at Kanae.
[I¡¯ll be right back.]
Entering the tent, Shiro made sure that she was alone before using Fire of Life to start healing herself.
Feeling the soothing energy that was currently flowing through her body, Shiro rxed and allowed the fire to heal her body little by little.
Naturally, due to the ridiculous MP consumption, Shiro knew she probably couldn¡¯t heal her internal injuries in one go.
While she was rxing, she remembered about a few questions she had in the fight.
"How did Shadow sense me through the ice? Then there¡¯s also the problem of her taking control of my ice during the fight." She muttered.
She didn¡¯t know what her shadow had done to control the ice she had created, but she knew it would be possible for her since her shadow performed the task. The only question left is how.
Thinking about all the cases she knew about taking control of someone else¡¯s element during her past life, Shiro was disappointed when she found that none of them fit the scenario she had experienced.
"Hmm..."
Contemting for a while, she suddenly realised a huge misconception she fell into.
"Since I¡¯m a snow girl, a monster known for their attunement with ice and snow, I should have control over all the ice rted elements in my area. Because I¡¯m no longer a human, human logic hardly applies to me anymore. Humans need to train and fight to level up while I, a monster, can get a certain amount of EXP by eating mana stones just like Yin who levelled 5 times through eating a C ss stone. I need to change my thought process to match my current body.
"Monsters can outperform humans in many ways. I¡¯m just not taking advantage of that." She muttered in realisation.
What her shadow had taken advantage of the most was her skill tree she received from being a snow girl. The only time she used her Nanomancer ss was to match up with her.
"So in other words, I¡¯ve only increased my weaknesses by being so fixated with my second ss all this time huh?" Shiro chuckled slightly in disappointment.
She had severely underestimated herbat potential with her ss. Being so focused on her previous ss caused her to neglect the fact that she was hindering herself by not training with her race ss.
Nanomancer wasn¡¯t supposed to be a low level ss to begin with. The fact that she was even allowed to create her gun right now was somewhat of a miracle in itself. By being so fixated on using her guns, which is weakened to begin with due to her low level, she had robbed herself of her potential as a level 45 MONSTER.
"My main focus will be to understand what¡¯s at my disposal for my Snow Girl ss. Once I know what I can do, I¡¯ll be able to predict what shadow will do." Shiro said whilst putting out the fire.
Leaving the tent, Shiro gestured for Kanae toe over to her.
"What is it Shiro-nee?"
[Do you want to y a game?]
"What game?" Kanae asked excitedly.
[We¡¯ll y hide and seek but you¡¯ll be hiding inside some ice. To make it harder for me, I won¡¯t be allowed to look.] Shiro smiled. She wanted to use this to try sense people through her ice like what her shadow did.
"Ooo ok. Are there any prizes?"
[Well if I don¡¯t find you, you win a day out where we can do whatever you want.] Shiro offered.
"Deal!"
Seeing that Kanae had agreed, Shiro cleared some space around her and ced her palm on the floor.
*KRRR!!!
A small ice tower started to construct itself with a myriad of cupboards and crevices for Kanae to hide herself in. The overall length and width of the tower wasn¡¯t big but the height was another question.
The sudden appearance of an ice tower confused the surrounding adventurers for a moment before they ignored it. Since they see people using spells everyday, the sudden appearance of an ice tower wasn¡¯t too unusual.
[I¡¯ll give you 30 seconds to hide yourself before Ie looking for you.]
Pulling out a blindfold, Shiro ced it over her eyes and made sure that she couldn¡¯t see anything.
[I¡¯ll start counting once I sit down in the middle of the first room.]
"Got it."
Walking towards the tower, Shiro used her hearing to point her in the direction.
Sitting herself down, she secretly made a pair of earbuds thatpletely blocked out the sound around her. All she could hear was her own breathing and heartbeat.
cing her hands down onto the ice, Shiro calmed her mind down and wondered about what she could do to sense Kanae.
Her first idea was to use mana. If she was to connect her mana through the ice, she should be able to sense things that way but she knew that wasn¡¯t what her shadow had done. What she had done was more instinctive and faster than slowly infuse mana into the ice.
¡¯I¡¯m a Snow Girl. I should haveplete control over the ice around me.¡¯
30 seconds passed by quickly as it was time for her to look for Kanae but she didn¡¯t move.
2 minutes passed and Kanae was wondering about why Shiro hadn¡¯t moved yet.
5 minutes passed as she got a little impatient.
However, before she could leave her hiding spot, she saw Shiro stand up slowly.
Tilting her head back a little, Shiro realised that after being robbed of her sight and hearing, she was in a state of enhanced sensory where her feeling of touch was increased alongside her mana sense.
When paired with 5 minutes ofplete focus, she noticed how the building waspletely connected to her with nk spots that show the contact of something foreign.
¡¯That¡¯s Kanae¡¯s hiding spot.¡¯ Shiro smiled. Since controlling ice was her passive ¡¯skill¡¯ as a monster, sensing the changes to the ice would have been instinctive to begin with. All she needed was a little time and focus for her to grasp it.
Kanae was getting a little nervous went Shiro started to walk up the stairs without problem. Not to mention, she was even looking towards her hiding spot right now.
An idea popped into her head as she tiptoed out her spot and started to hide herself elsewhere.
What she didn¡¯t know was that every step of hers was akin to a spot of ck on a white sheet of paper.
Tracking Kanae easily, Shiro arrived in front of her.
[Surprised?] Shiro smiled and lifted up her blindfolds. While she did this, she didn¡¯t forget to disassemble her ear plugs as well.
Kanae only pouted feeling a little annoyed that she can¡¯t have her day out.
Seeing Kanae pout, Shiro¡¯s heart softened.
[I¡¯ll take you out anyways don¡¯t worry. I have 3 days spare for now.] Shiro typed out.
"Really?!" Kanae cried out in excitement.
"What are you girls doing?" Yumi shouted out from under the tower. She had just returned from buying Shiro some medicine and she saw both Shiro and Kanae high up in an ice tower.
"I¡¯m ying hide and seek with Shiro-nee!" Kanae replied.
"Don¡¯t be naughty. Your Shiro-nee need to recover. She is very hurt." Yumi frowned.
[Let¡¯s go. We¡¯ll y tomorrow when we have more time.]
"Fine..."
Walking down the tower, Shiro thawed all the ice as Yumi showed her the medicine.
"Mum said that these potions will help sooth your body and help speed up your recovery." Kanae tranted.
[Thank you very much. How much did they cost?] Shiro asked as she didn¡¯t want to be in debt.
"She said to forget about it. Think of it as payment for teaching me." Kanae smiled whilst rolling around.
"Kanae. Don¡¯t roll around." Yumi frowned a little.
"But mum~ Shiro-nee is going to be ying with me all day tomorrow." Kanae replied as she couldn¡¯t wait. She was going to get Shiro to take her exploring everywhere around the city since she never got the chance too.
Seeing her excitement, Shiro smiled softly.
She had three days till the trials refresh. In those three days, she needed to increase her mastery over her main ss, Snow Girl, along with explore more options avable to her with her current arsenal without the use of her Nanomancer ss.
Of course, spending a day with Kanae wasn¡¯t much of a problem. If anything, she could dy her trial a little since she could continuously challenge it as long as she doesn¡¯t reach level 50. Otherwise, she¡¯ll lose her qualification to challenge her 5th star due to the ss upgrade.
Chapter 135 Scouting The Slums: Ivory Cobra P1
Chapter 135 Scouting The Slums: Ivory Cobra P1
After spending the entire day with Kanae, which mostly consisted of just walking around the whole city and exploring some of the shops that they hadn¡¯t been too, they started to make their way back to the camp.
Watching Kanae¡¯s childish curiosity, Shiro felt like she wanted to just pamper her like an older sister.
And naturally as her ¡¯older sister¡¯, she needed to make sure that her little sister can protect herself.
¡¯I should probably buy some martial arts manuals or something simr.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Thankfully, she didn¡¯t need to worry about dangers since there weren¡¯t any auctions anytime soon. She could buy items without worrying about fighting people.
Thinking of this point, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh at the auction system. Anyone who buys an item at the auction is pretty much putting their lives on the line. A risk they knew was there but still took.
Therefore, they couldn¡¯t me anyone if they died trying to keep the item.
Shiro made sure that she warned Kanae about the dangers that she may have to face after she bes a qualified adventurer.
However, she was still wondering about what ss Kanae would choose.
"Um... I want to be a katana user." Kanae said after some thought.
¡¯Ohya? A Katana user huh? I guess I can modify the blood katanas I got from the dungeon and give it to Kanae as an insurance I guess.¡¯ Shiro thought since she had no use for the katanas to begin with. She might as well put it to good use and give it to Kanae.
[Why Katana user?] Shiro asked curiously.
"It¡¯s because I love katanas. The legend around katanas are filled with wonder. I just wish that one day I can find a legendary katana that will cut everything with ease just like in the stories." Kanae giggled happily.
Patting her head, Shiro nodded her head slightly since it reminded her of her childhood. There were always kids that wanted to be like the adventurers and knights that had appeared in their vige.
However, her dream was always just to live a peaceful life in the vige. Even though she was curious of the outside world, she knew the dangers it presented.
¡¯How I¡¯ve changed huh?¡¯ Shiro thought in nostalgia.
If someone told her to live peacefully now, she would reject that thought since she liked to explore and get her blood pumping through battles. Naturally, a little killing here and murder there was always wee.
Walking back with Kanae, Shiro sat on top of the tree and looked towards the city.
It had been a whole day but Lyrica and Madison hadn¡¯t returned yet.
If she had to guess the days they¡¯ve been inside the dungeon, it would be roughly almost a month. On the other hand, she hadn¡¯t felt any changes from the tags she had left on their bodies which meant that they weren¡¯t in any serious danger.
Since they weren¡¯t in any serious danger, she was going to give it another days time. If they hadn¡¯t returned by then, it would be a serious concern.
"Alright, I need a training n for these two days." Shiro muttered in seriousness.
She could narrow down several aspects in which her shadow was superior to her.
Number 1: Spell Casting.
Her shadow had ¡¯better¡¯ understanding about her ice and were able to do more with the power she had been granted. Example being the spell she used to take control of all the ice in the area. Even the ones that wasn¡¯t created by her.
Number 2: Understanding of skills.
The shadow was able to use her skills to their maximum potential. Even with skills that she barely used such as the Cold Illusions.
And finally, number 3. She understood her capabilities.
Her shadow knew what she could and couldn¡¯t do. It was also that fact which allowed her to counter Shiro every step of the way and even have the time to construct a tier 3 spell which Shiro didn¡¯t think she could do.
If she didn¡¯t improve in these three areas, there was little to no chance of beating her shadow.
However, there was an anomaly that will allow her to beat her shadow without improving in these three areas.
"5th Phantom." Shiro muttered with a frown.
The unpredictable anomaly that will heighten her senses to the max and reach a stage normally not attainable by the normal human. Even her shadow wasn¡¯t able to use her 5th Phantom sessfully.
If she was to gamble in the trial, should she activate it sessfully, she would be able to overwhelm her shadow easily.
¡¯But I¡¯m not allowed to master it since it would mean my shadow will be able to master it as well.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
The fact that her shadow knew what she knew and perhaps more since they could demonstrate 100% of herbat potential was a hurdle that was almost impossible to beat.
Normal adventurers would be lucky if they could demonstrate even 60% of their potential while the talented and hard working would reach 75% to 80%.
Even Shiro in her prime could only demonstrate up to 97% of her maximum and that was with perfect body control.
In her current state, if she was lucky, she¡¯ll be able to touch upon 85% maybe 90% if she really pushed it.
But the likelihood of reaching the famed 90% mark was going to be extremely hard in her current state.
"To beat a version of yourself that performs at 100% huh? No wonder it¡¯s the 5th star trial. Normal people, even if they managed to crawl their way to the 4th star, would be stuck at this point. No matter what they learn, no matter what skills they obtain, if they can¡¯t perform up to the 90% mark, they would never pass this chance." Shiro spoke softly.
"Hahaha... And even then, the 90% mark will only give you a fighting chance. Nothing more, nothing less." Shiro chuckled. In her attempt, she had reached around 83% performance and used herbat experience to guide her along the way.
Without these two factors, not only will she lose the fight, but she would also lose her important Anal V.i.r.g.i.nity.
Thinking of this point, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but cover her rear and frown.
"To think she would copy habits as well." Shiro muttered in annoyance.
Naturally, this wouldn¡¯t stop her from targeting the weakness.
¡¯Since I can¡¯t rely on an anomaly like the 5th Phantom, I should aim to improve on the three areas. Tomorrow will be practise on Spell Casting and skill knowledge. The final day would be to familiarise myself with my body and try to perform up to the 90% mark.¡¯ Shiro thought as she finalised her training n for the next two days.
While there was the choice of entering the dungeon to increase her training time, she needed to wait for Lyrica and Madison along with the fact that she wanted to keep an eye on the camp. If she wasn¡¯t here, the tent would be defenceless. While her little murder streak had caused the slums to calm down a little, it was only a temporary patch. It wasn¡¯t a permanent solution.
Sooner orter, they will retaliate.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro decided to go scouting tonight. She was going to enter one of the core areas that belongs to the factions and gain some intel.
ncing at the time, she saw that she still had roughly an hour till sunset.
"An hour to prepare myself is plenty of time." Shiro smiled.
Even though her body was still a little sore and hurt around the joints, she could use the hour to heal her body further.
Looking at the emerald fire that flickered whilst healing her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but be grateful about the fact that she obtained thebustion spell and had met Reyna in the trial. Meeting her had given Shiro the chance to learn this skill.
She decided to take Yin along with her since she might as well take this time to earn Yin some EXP should they be fighting people.
ncing at Yin¡¯s level, Shiro smiled slightly in anticipation. Currently, Yin was level 43 and soon approaching level 45. There is the chance that she¡¯ll learn a new skill at level 45 and hopefully, it would make Yin a more dependablepanion in the dungeons.
After waiting for the sun to set, Shiro told Kanae that she was leaving for a bit before exiting the tent.
Pulling up her face mask, Shiro hid the bottom half of her face and created a hood to hide her hair.
Her body flickered for a moment before disappearing from her spot. In a single moment, she jumped high into the air from her spot by using abination of Faded Snow Movement, 2nd Phantom, 3rd Phantom and Rift Walker.
Landing softly on one of the tallest buildings, Shiro brought up the mental map she created during her previous exploration of the slums.
From her memories, one of the factions were creating a drug simr to a drug dubbed as R-pike. The drug was potent enough to make level 50 addicted and naturally, the new drug would be just as dangerous.
The faction responsible for this was Ivory Cobra, the most dangerous faction of the three.
"If I aimed for thergest faction, I should be able to get more intel." She muttered, eventually deciding on targeting Ice Fangs first.
They had the bestbat power along with the most amount of territory in the slums. Out of the three, she should be able to gain the most information from them. Of course this didn¡¯t mean she was going to leave the other two out. Oh no, all three were going to be investigated.
After all, she couldn¡¯t have trash running amok near her little sister could she?
Making her way to the territory belonging to the Ice Fangs, Shiro was able to avoid the look outs with her 1st Phantom.
Jumping over the edge of the building, Shiro quickly looked for an open window before flicking her wrist and sent out a wire made from nanobots.
Hanging just under the opening, Shiro used shadow cloak to hide herself before creating a nanotech sonic locator which used sound to show her what was inside the room.
¡¯Three guards in total huh?¡¯ She thought. She wasn¡¯t going to kill them since it will create a domino effect and could render all the intel useless.
Reeling herself up with the wire, Shiro entered the rift and vaulted over the window.
Crouching behind one of the furniture, Shiro exited the rift and used Shadow Cloak to hide her presence.
ncing at their levels, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw that they were only in their level 30¡¯s.
¡¯I¡¯m not too sure about my capabilities with Cold Illusion right now so I shouldn¡¯t risk it.¡¯ She thought to herself since she had the idea of hypnotising them with her skill.
Due to the fact that the skill simted what effect she imagined, she should be able to hypnotise them but didn¡¯t want to risk it.
¡¯I¡¯ll kidnap one of them tonight and use them for some experimentster.¡¯
Entering the rift, she left the room with ease.
Making sure that no one was around her, Shiro ced the nanotech sonic locator on the walls of the building before letting it do its work to scan the entire building.
¡¯Hmm... there are 2 bas.e.m.e.nts underground. I can probably find some info on the highest floor and in these bas.e.m.e.nts.¡¯
Disassembling the locator, Shiro made her way up to the highest floor first.
Avoiding the guards around the floors, Shiro was able to enter the highest room with rtive ease.
However, she saw that there was a person inside the room working on some paperwork. Not only that, there was also a safe next to him. She had seen him ce a few doc.u.ments in the safe before locking it up.
Shiro frowned when she saw this since it would be easy for her to hack theputer system for the intel but physical copies were harder to obtain. Especially with the person next to it.
Furrowing her brows for a moment, Shiro had an idea and turned to Yin.
"I want you to Rift Walk into the safe. Around you should be a bunch of doc.u.ments. Grab all of them before rift walking back. Make sure you don¡¯t make too much sound inside the safe." Shiro whispered.
Yin nodded her head.
Her body flickered into the rift before flickering back in a few short moments. In her mouth was several doc.u.ments.
"Good girl." Shiro praised and handed her a lollipop. Yin smiled in satisfaction and started to enjoy her treat.
ncing at the doc.u.ments, Shiro smiled when she saw that there were some times for shipments of -Cargo- written onto the pieces of paper.
Flicking through the rest of the doc.u.ments quickly, Shiro knew she had to return them before he opened the safe again.
"Can you help me put them back into the safe?" Shiro asked. Even though it was a question, both she and Yin knew she wasn¡¯t taking no for an answer.
Nodding her head, Yin took the files back before he noticed.
Before they leave however, Shiro wanted to see what the person had on theptop just in case she missed something important.
Pressing her fingers against the door frame, she created a thin nano tech wire that slowly slivered towards theptop cables.
Connecting to theptop, Shiro closed her eyes for a moment and started to hack into theptop without any of the protection systems noticing.
However, when she connected sessfully and saw the tab he was on whilst writing doc.u.ments, Shiro had the sudden urge to flip a table.
¡¯WHY ARE YOU WATCHING P*** WHILST WORKING?!?!¡¯
Chapter 136 Scouting The Slums P2: Unknown Solution
Chapter 136 Scouting The Slums P2: Unknown Solution
Resisting the urge to charge into the room, Shiro ignored the image she had just seen and started to search theputer for important doc.u.ments.
However, there was nothing of use.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro stood up and entered the rift. Controlling her body so that she fell through the floor, shended in the first underground bas.e.m.e.nt in this building.
Crouching down, she looked around her to make sure that the coast was clear.
The bas.e.m.e.nt was dimly lit with several crates lined up with codes painted on the side.
¡¯ording to the schedule, all of these are supposed to be shipped tomorrow.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Making a filter in her face mask in case of chemicals, she carefully opened one of the crates. Insideid severalyers of test tubes that were surrounded with padding.
The test tubes contained a clear blue liquid while a metal stand kept all the test tubes upright.
¡¯Hmm... could this be the drug?¡¯ She thought with a frown. Grabbing one of the test tubes, Shiro inspected it.
[Unknown Solution]
A never before seen solution that may or may not be harmful.
¡¯Why is something that belongs to the Ivory Cobra here in the territory of the Ice Fangs?¡¯ She thought with suspicion. The worst part of this was that the ice fangs seem to be in the dark about this.
¡¯Seems like there are rats in the Ice Fangs that sold the faction out to the Ivory Cobra.¡¯
Holding the test tube in her left hand, Shiro flexed her right hand as several strands of metal started to twine together.
After a short moment, she created a chemical analyser that should allow her to see what the drug¡¯s effects were.
While she let the machine scan the drug, Shiro started to look around the bas.e.m.e.nt but only found test tubes containing the clear blue liquid and nothing else.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wondered what they were going to do with such arge supply of the drugs.
*Ding~
A soft ringing sound rang out, informing Shiro about the contents of the liquid.
Reading its effects, Shiro frowned.
¡¯Has effects of increasing a person¡¯s power greatly but in return, will amplify their thirst for battle. Side effects can vary with the mostmon being an insatiable thirst for more of the same drug. If they aren¡¯t provided the drug within 10 hours time, they will begin to rampage with severe cases of muscle swelling and boils that will appear randomly through the body. If not given the drug in 24 hours, they will w themselves to death from the pain.¡¯
"Users below level 50 will NOT be able to resist the side effects." Shiro muttered with a frown.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro wondered about what she should do. The main problem was the fact that there were tons more of this drug and she didn¡¯t know where they were produced and nor did she know about the other locations where they¡¯re hiding the drug.
Not only that, she didn¡¯t even know if this was the only drug type they had. There could be other variants.
¡¯I should see what¡¯s in the second bas.e.m.e.nt first.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. She had an idea of how she could stop this but she needed more evidence first.
Making a phone, she took a picture of the entire bas.e.m.e.nt along with the drugs.
Her idea was to gather enough evidence so that she could force the government to make a move. If they didn¡¯t, she¡¯ll publish the evidence along with a recording of the effects on a test subject. That way, she could force the adventurers to make a move along with the 3 big families.
Making her way to the second bas.e.m.e.nt, she saw that there were more of the same drug.
¡¯Thankfully the drug isn¡¯t diffusible through the air. Otherwise, it would be on the level of a Tier 4 disaster when ced in a low level city like this one.¡¯ Shiro thought in relief. Thankfully, the drug¡¯s effects disappear when dispersed in the air.
Entering the rift, Shiro jumped out of the building one go before reappearing in the sky.
ncing down at the slums, she narrowed her eyes since there were a lot of buildings she needed to scour through before she has enough evidence. Not only that, she was going to make a digital map of the area.
Tracing her finger in the air, she created aptop whilst falling. Landing with two soft taps, Shiro made a drone and threw it up into the air.
A map was slowly being constructed on theptop with her current building coloured red. The other buildings were coloured in a slightly tranted blue that concreted against the red.
She was going to construct a map so that when she does pass on the information, they¡¯ll be able to close in on it as quick as possible.
Naturally, with the size of the slums, she would need several days to explore the entirety of the area. Which is why she wasn¡¯t going to give them the full map. She was going to force them to attack the entirety of the slums to make sure the drug is contained.
There was the chance that the government will use the drug instead. However, it wasn¡¯t her problem since it will give the other governments a wake up call to be more thorough with their selections in case of corruption.
She wasn¡¯t a strategist so she didn¡¯t have all the answers. But in theory, this would be better than letting the slums keep this dangerous drug.
Shiro spent the next few hours looking through buildings from all three factions and managed to dig up some dirt on all three.
Ivory cobra are responsible for the dangerous drugs and had managed to sink their teeth into the territories of the other factions. She didn¡¯t know how, but around 5% of the ice fangs were taken over while the jade sharks were worse with 15% being taken.
To make matters worse, no one knew about this. They still think the buildings are under their control but the reality of the situation was different.
However, the Ivory Cobra wasn¡¯t the only one acting withrge ns. The Ice Fangs had been developing themselves in other towns nearby so their manpower were constantly expanding. Especially in the town of Huckston. The faction had practically taken over the town at this point. And with that, they¡¯ve started to set up a dark alliance of sorts with a mysterious backer who none of the lower echelons knew about.
As for Jade Sharks, they had been sneaking strong adventurers from overseas to help thembat the Ice Fangs.
With all three making big moves in the dark, the government would have no other choice apart from eradicating them.
Looking her map that had been highlighted with spots of red, Shiro started to add tags to all of them beforepressing it into several info ch.i.p.s.
Looking at one of the patrol men that belonged to the Ivory Cobra¡¯s, she decided to take him for her experiments. Let them have a taste of their own medicine. Literally.
Jumping into the rift, she appeared beside him and knocked him out easily by backhanding the side of his head.
*BANG!
mming against the wall, the man dropped in a slump.
"I didn¡¯t kill him by ident did I?" Shiro muttered as she walked over to him and crouched down. Picking him up, she saw that he was still alive and sighed in relief.
Carrying him by the scruff of his neck, Shiro dragged him to her b¡¯ that she had created in an abandoned building. Well, calling it ab would be a push since it was just an empty room with some tables and chairs.
Throwing the man on the chair, Shiro pulled out a vial that contained the drug.
She snapped her fingers and created a camera to film the entire process.
Creating some wires that tired around the man¡¯s body, she started to tighten them to wake the man up.
"Arg! Huh? Where am I?!" He cried out in a panic. When he saw Shiro in front of him, he was first in a daze.
However, before he can even continue to look at her, Shiro stabbed both his eyes with her fingers and gauged them out of his eye sockets.
"Hmph." Scoffing slightly, she flicked her hand and threw the eyes away.
"AHHH!!!!!" The man screamed in pain from having his eyes gouged out.
Grabbing his neck, Shiro stopped him from screaming and poured the drug in his mouth. His body convulsed a little before his veins started to bulge up.
Even though he was only level 35, his strength was almostparable to the strength of a level 50. However, even though that was the case, he was easily restrained by Shiro¡¯s wires. All she needed to do was flex her fingers a little before he started to squirm in the chair.
He couldn¡¯t use his skills either since the wires were constantly devouring any mana he used to power a skill.
Turning on the recording, Shiro had 24 hours until the results of the experiment will show.
"I¡¯ll deposit the intel tomorrow when I got the recordings." She muttered as she set up several traps and locks around the ce so that no one can disturb her experiment.
Furrowing her brows from the screaming in the background. Shiro flicked her hand and created a mouth gag that blocked out the sound.
Leaving herb, Shiro made her way back to the tent. She will be training her spell casting and skill knowledge after all. The best way for this will be self study along with a small lecture with Aarim if possible. Since she could cast tier 3 magic with ease, she should be able to learn something from her.
###
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro saw both Lyrica and Madison back at the tent.
Smiling in relief, she left the tent and started to list out her skills that she could use in the trial.
"I could use my entire Snow Girl skill tree which consisted of; Tier 2 Ice Magic, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath, Frozen Hell Series and Cold illusions. Others are passives. I also had ess to all of Yin¡¯s Skills. Not to mention, Tier 2 lightning, Metal and Shadow Magic. While I do have my Nanomancer Skill Tree, the Shadow hardly uses it but I shouldn¡¯t cross it off the list either." Shiro mumbled to herself as she started to make a list in her mind.
She decided to categorize her magic into 3 sections. Offensive, Defensive and Synergistic.
Her best skills in the offensive category would be her Hand Cannon Creation, Lightning Magic, Icy Touch and Frozen Hell Series.
Defensive will be her Ice Magic, Armour Creation, Metal Magic, Absorption/Redirection (Yin) and Rift Walker (Yin).
While Absorption/Redirection was only at Tier 1, everything that will help her in the battle was wee.
The final category was synergistic and it was one of the aspects where her shadow excelled at. In this category, she had included the skills: Cold Illusions, Ice Chains and Combust.
While Combust was a fire type skill, she was able to use it to create both the Fire of Life and the Azure Hell Fire.
Since her weakness was fire, her shadow¡¯s weakness should also be fire.
"Weakness huh?" She muttered.
However, her eyes slowly widened when she realised the possibly of an option she hadn¡¯t considered before.
Whatever she excelled at; her shadow also excelled at. Therefore, it also meant whatever her weakness were, are also her shadow¡¯s weakness.
And her greatest weakness that had gued her mind...
"Mana Links..." She muttered in realisation.
Since her shadow¡¯s mana links were in the same condition, it meant that she can break them during the fight. The only question is how she was going to break the mana links.
There weren¡¯t many known ways to break mana links since most people would just kill the enemy unless they really wanted them to suffer.
However, even though she knew of the ways, she couldn¡¯t experiment with this idea right now. Otherwise her Shadow would also know of the final product of her experiments.
Her best bet was to finalise the skill and the theory inside the trial. That way, her shadow will be clueless about this.
But... If she fails this time, the next time she fought her shadow, it would only be annoyed due to the fact that her shadow will have ess to the mana link breaker. Her next fight will be akin to an all or nothing situation.
Of course it was all possible due to the fact that she had rearranged her links with the help of the Mana Springs.
This gave her the chance to break them apart and the rampaging energy should devastate her shadow¡¯s body leaving her severely weakened.
Storing the idea in the corner of her mind for now, Shiro started to figure out ways she couldbine her skills.
Unfortunately for her, her mind kept drifting back to the Mana Link idea.
"Urg..." Groaning in annoyance, Shiro sighed since the thought of being able to develop a mana link breaking skill made her want to finalise it as soon as possible.
Chapter 137 Simulated Battle Against Cairosa Mages
Chapter 137 Simted Battle Against Cairosa Mages
During the day, she tried to contact Aarim about teaching her magic but it was unfortunate that she was a little busy right now. and couldn¡¯t teach her.
"Hmm... Since she¡¯s busy, I guess I¡¯ll go to this cities mage¡¯s association and fight some people in the simtion." She muttered. She was going to use everything apart from her Nanomancer Skill Tree.
If she was to fight people higher rank than her with only her magic, it should help her increase her mastery over the skills.
Making her way to the city, Shiro arrived at the mages guild. The design of the guild wasn¡¯t unlike the one she had seen back in New York. Only this time, the size of the building was a littlerger.
[Excuse me, where can I find the simtion pods to fight other mages?] Shiro asked the man at the counter.
"5th floor, second room on the right." He replied after a short pause.
"Er if you want, I can show you the way."
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro shook her head.
[No thank you.]
Seeing her walk away, the man couldn¡¯t help but sigh in disappointment.
Upon arriving at the 5th floor, Shiro was slightly surprised at the amount of level 50¡¯s walking around.
¡¯Well I suppose it makes sense since it¡¯s a higher level city.¡¯
Looking around, Shiro entered the 2nd room on the right and saw several rows of pods with people inside.
"Ohya? Seems like a lot of people are fighting today." Shiro muttered.
It didn¡¯t take her long to find a vacant pod and sat inside it. She needed to scan her ID card to make sure she was a mage.
Flexing her fingers, she sent a strand of nanobots to tamper with the pod so that she could hide her data.
She closed her eyes and soon found herself inside the za of the simted world. There were several rooms around her that had screens that showed the fight inside.
¡¯Where do I find random opponents?¡¯ She wondered whilst searching through hermand panel.
Finding the tag for matchmaking 1v1, Shiro waited for the system to find her someone to fight.
Whilst waiting, she decided to have a look at one of the screens in hopes of getting some ideas.
The fight she was watching was a fight between two level 35¡¯s.
Spells circles were being constructed one after another as they would make defensive spells and offensive spells.
It wasn¡¯t anything too remarkable as Shiro could deal with it easily.
{opponent found: Entering area.}
Seeing the notification, Shiro took a deep breath. She wasn¡¯t going to use any close quartersbat but instead, focus solely on using her spells.
A light enveloped her body as she was teleported away.
Looking at the disy, she saw that her opponent was also a level 45 mage. But unlike her ice element, she was a fire element.
[Jenna LVL 45 ¨C Fire Mage]
"Ohya? I¡¯m against a cutie huh?" The woman smiled confidently.
"Not many are ice mages since it¡¯s rather weak. I guess it¡¯s your unlucky day." she snickered slightly.
Everyone knew that ice mages were primarily control type mages that focused on applying status effects and using defences spells. While high level ice mages were dangerous, low level mages were a pushover. Especially for a fire mage like her.
Shiro only raised an eyebrow since the woman was doing something no one should do. Underestimate an opponent in a 1 v 1 fight.
Shiro had the urge to attack with ice swords but decided to hold herself back from going into close rangedbat.
*DING!
The bell for the match rang out as Shiro jumped backwards and aimed her palm at Jenna.
*Snap
However, before she could even use her spell, three magic circles appeared around her.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro lowered her palm and swiped around her, erecting a wall of ice to protect her.
*BANG BANG BANG!
Blocking the three fire attacks, Shiro jumped into the rift and appeared besides Jenna.
"Huh?!" Crying out in surprise, Jenna created a magic circle under her and erupted fire around her.
Shiro quickly used Faded Snow Movement to jump back.
"Tsk..." She clicked her tongue. Normally, she would have just used Frozen Slumber to instant kill her but to understand her other skills better, she had to limit herself.
Pinching her fingers together, Shiro created a flute and brought it to her lips.
Jenna was confused about the sudden melody but widened her eyes when she realised her surroundings had changed into a frozen forest with white mist creeping towards her from the edges.
Flicking her wrist so that two magic circles appeared in her hands, Jenna frowned and looked around her for any signs of Shiro.
"HERE!" She shouted out and sted one of Shiro¡¯s clone illusions.
The destruction of the illusion caused cold mist to cover Jenna¡¯s arm and freeze it.
"Che! Burn!" Shemanded as fire erupted around her body, making her seem like a fire spirit.
"You know, I didn¡¯t think you¡¯ll give me such trouble considering the fact that my element counters yours. But in the end. I¡¯ll still win." She said with a serious face.
Raising her hand into the sky, she created a twoyered magic circle that shot out fire arrows around her, disrupting Shiro¡¯s illusion.
However, Shiro was able to avoid it with ease and was about to charge at her for close quartersbat.
Restraining herself, Shiro flicked the flute upwards and clutched her fist. A two fold magic circle appeared around the flute, transforming it into a giant spear that shot towards Jenna.
Narrowing her eyes, Jenna raised two fingers towards the spear and sliced upwards.
*BOOM!
Fire erupted upwards and encased the spear. Unfortunately for Jenna, the fire wasn¡¯t powerful enough to melt her ice.
Widening her eyes in shock, Jenna decided to go all out.
Jumping upwards, five nodes of fire appeared around her and wrapped her entire body.
¡¯So she¡¯s using her elemental armour.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst aiming her palm at Jenna and clutched it.
4 magic circles encased Jenna and attempted to freeze her fire. But before the spell could even activate, the fire exploded around Jenna and shattered the spell circles.
Backing off from the force, Shiro cursed inwardly about her slow cast time. It takes too long for her spells to actually activate which then gives her opponent an opening.
Watching the fire shrink, she saw Jenna in a red dress that had the edges transition into fire which flickered with every movement. In her hands was an orb that flickered with a yellow me.
¡¯She her elemental weapon is a casting orb huh?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. A casting orb would increase a mage¡¯s cast time and spell power by a pretty significant margin which only spelled trouble for her.
Shimmering with a bright yellow light, the orb in Jenna¡¯s hand floated upwards as several magic circles fused together to form a three fold circle. The symbol of a tier 3 spell.
Smiling slightly, Shiro had been preparing her own threefold spell since the beginning of the battle.
Using her left hand to grab the wrist of her right hand, Shiro gritted her teeth and sped up the construction of her own Tier 3 spell.
*KSH KSH KSH!
Sparks flew around as her magic circle appeared in the sky, covering the entire arena in its shadow.
When she had used cold illusions, she had masked the presence of her Tier 3 spell so that Jenna wouldn¡¯t have realised.
Looking up in shock, Jenna didn¡¯t know what to say.
Each of theyers of the spell represented a different element. The outermost ring was dark purple in colour, representing the shadow element. This would allow the spell to absorb the mana from attacks to a certain degree and construct itself faster using that mana.
The second ring was lightning that would increase the destructive of the spell.
Thest and final part of the magic circle, the core, was neon blue in colour which represented her main element, ice.
Twisting her right hand clockwise, the circle followed her motion as eachyer started to rotate against one another. Shadow and Ice turned clockwise while lightning turned anti clockwise.
"Die!" Jenna panicked and quickly redirected her own tier 3 spell towards Shiro.
"Heh." Grinning slightly, Shiro stomped down and created a metal dome around her which tried its best to resist the fire.
"Four elements?!?!"
The sight of Shiro being able to use four elements shocked Jenna since not many could achieve this feat.
However, her shock didn¡¯tst long since if she didn¡¯t kill Shiro now, the Tier 3 spell that was activating above her right now would kill her.
*BOOM!!
"Yes!" Crying out in joy, Jenna cheered seeing Shiro¡¯s metal defences blow up.
"Boo~" Shiro whispered behind Jenna, not knowing if she could hear her or not.
cing a palm on her back, Shiro activated Icy Touch with a burst of Killing Intent.
*KRRRR!!!!
Jenna couldn¡¯t even react when she was turned to ice.
To make sure that she died, Shiro pulled back her fist and punched the ice to shatter it along with Jenna.
*CRACK! BANG!!!!
{Winner}
She only rxed herself when she got the notification.
During the moment when she had used her metal to defend her body, Shiro activated Rift Walker to appear behind Jenna.
While it did work, she knew it would fail against her shadow since a single use of Faded Snow Movement would cause her palm to miss.
This brought up her next point of concern. How she would use her Mana Link Breaking spell if she couldn¡¯t touch her Shadow.
¡¯I¡¯ll need a way to disrupt her Faded Snow Movement otherwise it¡¯ll be a pain.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
Research about Snow Girls was a must since there were bound to be people who had figured a way to counter the Snow Girl¡¯s Faded Snow Movement.
It was unfortunate that she hadn¡¯t countered many Snow Girls in her past life and even if she did, a single bullet to the head was the result of the fights. She didn¡¯t need to worry about the skill.
Shaking her head, she decided to opt forbat against higher level adventurers. She could deal with level 45¡¯s easily but that wouldn¡¯t push her to her limits.
Changing the matchmaking settings, Shiro waited to fight against level 50¡¯s.
###
In the end, Shiro fought against level 50¡¯s for several hours. Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to win every fight due to the fact that she restrained herself in order to increase her proficiency with spells.
However, she did gain a small fan club which were entranced by her beauty. But once they researched about her online, they found old records of her fights back in New York and couldn¡¯t help but pale slightly.
Naturally, Shiro had no knowledge of this.
Exciting the pod, she gave her body a stretch and left the mage¡¯s association.
*Grrrr
Flinching slightly at her hunger, Shiro grabbed a bunch of mana stone lollipops and ate them. Of course, she didn¡¯t forget about Yin and fed her also.
"Che, seems like this miss¡¯s pantry is running dry." Shiro pouted slightly when she saw only 3 mana stone lollipops left inside her inventory.
"Yin, we¡¯ll go to a dungeon tomorrow to refill on mana stones ok?" She asked as Yin nodded in excitement.
Entering the dungeon meant chances of levelling up. Which then meant she could enter C rank quicker.
Making her way back to the slums, Shiro looked at the time and saw that she still had several hours before the 24 hour mark.
"What shall I do for thest few hours?" She muttered but nothing came up. Shrugging shoulders, she decided to make her way to theb first.
Arriving at the room, Shiro disabled the defences and walked inside.
"Holy sweet mother of hell what the f*ck?!" She couldn¡¯t help but curse in surprise when she saw the state of the man.
He had several cases of extreme muscles swelling to the point that it started to split apart. Boils could be seen especially around his eyes as his hollowed eyes only made it worse since she had gouged them out the night before.
Some of his body had started to break down with flesh rotting with a green and purple colour.
The only way she knew he was alive was due to the fact that she could see his lungs move. That right, there was a hole exposing a portion of his lungs for the n.a.k.e.d eye.
"Hmm..." Looking at the fact that he was still alive, Shiro grinned sadistically since she was somewhat curious about how he would react to certain action under the effects of the drug.
Pausing the recording Shiro crouched in front of him and created a rob with ice.
Narrowing her eyes in curiosity, Shiro poked his lungs which caused his legs to twitch.
"Hehe~" Grinning like a kid who had found a toy, Shiro decided to spend thest few hours to prod any holes she could find on his body without killing him.
If anyone could hear Shiro, all would think the ce was haunted since the mixture of a happy giggle and muffled screams could be heard.
After a few hours of ¡¯fun¡¯, Shiro stopped since she needed to record the time up to the 24th hour where he would die from the effects.
Pressing resume on the camera, Shiro sat back and waited.
The closer they got to the 24th hour, the more the man¡¯s body would convulse.
Once it hit the 24th hour, the man¡¯s body suddenly swelled up like a balloon. Shiro quickly made an ice wall to protect herself.
*BOOM!!!
Exploding into a fountain of puss and flesh, Shiro made sure that the recording was fine before sighing in relief.
¡¯After a few edits, it will be perfect to distribute to the government and the higher echelon on the 3 big families.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Chapter 138 Information Dissemination
Chapter 138 Information Dissemination
The first thing that she had to do was to edit out all the parts that included her and any clues that may lead to her identity.
However, before she could edit, she needed to clean everything up. Everything means the puss, blood and flesh that was spread out around her b¡¯.
After spending a few minutes of freezing and destroying the mess, Shiro pressed her palm against her table and created aptop.
Her first task was to shorten the recording so that it was just a few seconds long. All she needed in the recording was the moments when the person¡¯s body would have the most drastic changes.
"Hmm... What if I made it so that each hour is 2 seconds long and change it into real-time at the 10-hour mark, 20-hour mark and at the 24th-hour mark." She muttered whilst her finger tapped away on theptop.
"But I did pause it for thest few hours since I was having fun." She frowned.
Eventually settling with the idea of edited the entire film to only show small sections every four hours, Shiro didn¡¯t take long to create 4 ch.i.p.s that held the recordings along with the maps and the intel she had gathered.
"Right then, the first stop will be the government building then the three big families." Shiro muttered as she brought the map up and checked the locations of each of them.
¡¯The closest building to me is the government building followed by the Casadan Family, Sermak Family and finally the Ospar Family. Hardest forst huh?¡¯ She thought in slight humour whilst preparing herself to break into a government building.
"Yin, you go back to the tent for now. The next part is dangerous and would be hard if I have you with me."
Yin thought for a moment before nodding and flew away. As harsh as it was, Yin was a slight hindrance for her next mission. Not to mention, in a situation where she may potentially fight level 60¡¯s, she would rather not look after Yin whilst trying to fight.
Making sure that her face was covered with the face mask and hood, Shiro exited the building and started to make her way to the Cairosa Government Skyscr.a.p.er.
The Skyscr.a.p.er was around 75 stories tall and wasn¡¯t hard to miss when she looked towards the city.
ncing around to make sure that no one could see her, Shiro flicked her wrist and sent a hook upwards.
*ck
Ittched onto the side of the building and started to reel Shiro upwards while she used Shadow Cloak to keep herself hidden.
Using two hooks to climb towards the top, she was able to traverse the side of the building quickly.
She checked on each of the floors she passed on and found what seemed to be the main office on the 70th floor.
¡¯Hmm... They have 5 floors spare. Curious.¡¯
Looking up at the five floors above her, Shiro grinned and decided to peek over the window ledges.
On the 71st floor, Shiro saw a man who seemed like he was in histe 40¡¯s. While his face held some wrinkles, his body was muscr andpact with muscle.
[Arthur LVL 75 ¨C Arcane Warrior]
¡¯Aiya, so he¡¯s one of those geezers that stay in low-level cities huh?¡¯ Shiro mused.
The problem with people like him was the fact that they couldn¡¯t face monsters of equal level or higher level for them to level up. In which case, it meant that they slowly s.u.mbed to their life spans.
Her interest instantly waned since she had no curiosity regarding people who couldn¡¯t level up anymore at this low of a level.
However, even though her interest had waned, she still checked out what the other four floors contained.
¡¯A level 76, 78, 73 and 79 huh? Well I suppose in a city where the dungeons only go up to 60, they can be called powerhouses.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst climbing down the skyscr.a.p.er.
Kicking her body off the side of the building, Shiro entered the rift and phased through the window with ease.
"Now, where shall I leave this." She muttered while looking around. She wanted to make sure that the files are the first thing the governor sees.
Thinking for a short moment, she decided to just leave it on the desk with a short note.
Of course, she took precautions to make sure that it couldn¡¯t be traced back to her.
Nodding in satisfaction, Shiro jumped out the window and made her way to the Casadan Family.
When she arrived, she had to avoid quite a few Casadan Guards that were patrolling outside the building.
¡¯Seems like they¡¯re on high alert.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. Her guess was that they were taking extra steps to make sure that the heir of the family is safe. Especially with the fact that she was injured to the point of aa during the battle on auction night.
Unsure of the floor print of this mansion since it was less straightforward whenpared to the skyscr.a.p.er, Shiro bnced herself on the ledges and scouted out the mansion.
"Young Miss, you shouldn¡¯t be up at this time. Master has specifically told you to rest well for a period of time."
"Tsk, the healers have already healed me. Tell my old man I¡¯m fine." A young voice replied in annoyance.
"Young miss, be careful of your tone and speak."
"We¡¯re not outside. Why do I need to care about appearances?"
¡¯Hm? Doesn¡¯t that voice belong to Alura Casadan?¡¯ Shiro thought and peeked over the edge of the window. She saw Alura in a nightgown while two maids were following her.
"Even so, as a member of the Casadan Family, one must keep up their appearance at all times."
"Like I care about that in the house. Didn¡¯t a few of our scouts bring back a tube filled with drugs? Why isn¡¯t my old man doing anything about it?" She red at the maids.
"All of us know that the drug is highly dangerous from the rumours we¡¯ve heard. If we don¡¯t make a move, a lot of people will die." She continued.
"It¡¯s not that the master doesn¡¯t want to make a move but rather he can¡¯t young miss. He simply doesn¡¯t have enough evidence and they don¡¯t know what the drug does either. While rumours can be a source of intel, it is highly questionable." The maid bowed.
"... Arg!" Alura cried out in anger and punched the wall.
"Coward!" She cursed.
"Better safe than sorry is it not? Or has the old man gotten senile?! Is he seriously debating about whether or not he should save lives." She gritted her teeth.
¡¯So Alura Casadan wants to make a move against the slums but her father doesn¡¯t want to huh? Interesting...¡¯ Shiro thought with a small smile. If she tipped Alura with the intel, she should be able to let her convince her father to mobilise the Casadan family. As for the exnation on where she obtained the info, she could just say her scouts or secret agents attained the info.
Following behind the group, Shiro kept herself hidden outside of the mansion.
Eventually, the maids convinced Alura to give up for now. Watching her stomp back to her bedroom, Shiro phased through the walls and hid herself in one of the corners.
"Urg! What to do..." Alura scratch her head in annoyance as she walked around her room impatiently.
As for Shiro, she couldn¡¯t reveal herself since it increases the chances of revealing her identity.
However, an idea suddenly struck her mind as she pressed her palms against the floor and activated Cold Illusions.
Alura instantly went on guard when she realised her surroundings had changed. A paper note suddenly drifted in front of her as she grabbed it and read what it said.
[Do you wish to make a move against the drugs that the Ivory Cobra is making?]
Furrowing her brows, Alura created a ball of mes.
"Who¡¯s there?" She asked cautiously.
[It doesn¡¯t matter.]
[What matters is what you want to do.]
"Heh, what can a girl like me do?" Alura retorted whilst keeping an eye out for who ever was doing this.
[You can use the intel I have gathered to mobilise the Casadan Family in order to eradicate the three factions currently resting in the slums.]
"Hou? And what intel will that be?"
[Doesn¡¯t matter if I tell you since I n on distributing this to the other families. Of course, if you guys don¡¯t make a move, I suppose revealing everything to the city and causing mass panic is also an option in getting rid of this gue.]
"For something that seems to be of good intentions, aren¡¯t you being a little careless with the lives of people?" Alura narrowed her eyes.
[In moments like these, a few sacrifices are bound to happen. If you think about it, the casualties probably already shot through the roof during the development phase of this drug. But I have no more time to waste on you. Either you use this data and avoid mass panic, or I can release this data all over this city and force everyone to move against the slums. Your call.]
Alura didn¡¯t say anything since the illusion had already faded away. In front of herid all the notes and two data ch.i.p.s.
"Seems like the notes are for proof..." She muttered. Unfortunately, the notes seemed like they were printed off so they couldn¡¯t track the handwriting back to someone.
Looking at the two data ch.i.p.s, Alura gave in to her curiosity and opened her spareptop in case of viruses.
Looking at all the maps and concise information on all the factions along with what they were working on in the dark, Alura couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes. While there were some parts where it was undiscovered, just this alone was more than what her scouts had found.
As for the second chip, it contained a video filebelled: Consequences of the drug.
With the title being self-exnatory, Alura watched it seriously. Even though the video was only a minute long, each passing second caused herplexion to worsen.
Taking a deep breath, Alura had to calm herself since the drug was worse than she had thought.
"No this cannot wait any longer." Alura stood up and grabbed the two data ch.i.p.s. Making sure to take the notes with her, she stormed out of her room.
"Young-"
"Shut up. Tell my old man I need a talk with him. This is serious." Alura shut her maid up instantly.
Flinching from hermanding tone, the maid could only obey.
Meanwhile, Shiro was currently making her way to the Sermak Family.
However, unlike what she had to do with Alura, all that she needed to do was leave the data on the family head¡¯s desk. It was easy since he had just gone to the toilet.
"And now the Ospar Family..." Shiro muttered outside of the Sermak Family Mansion.
She had previously been to the Ospar Family due to the fact that she had bought the ess to the Mana Springs.
Back then, she had seen the defences of the building and wasn¡¯t sure if she could sneak her way inside without being found. Even if she used rift walker, she may identally activate another formation and send the entire building on high alert.
"I¡¯ll find out when I get there I suppose." She shrugged slightly.
Upon arriving at the mansion, Shiro started to observe the mansion and saw that all the runes were glowing with a soft red light.
"Hmm... what a pain." She frowned.
"Well if it works, it works. If it doesn¡¯t then never mind."
Crouching down, Shiro narrowed her eyes and made a break for the mansion.
Avoiding the patrols, she stepped on the grass.
*Krrrr~
A formation slowly lit up below her as she instantly started to analyse the patterns and check what kind of formation this was.
¡¯Attack Type Spell. Fire Arrow and Fire Wire based methods.¡¯ She thought, just reading the basic information about the formation.
Twisting her body so that she was almost parallel with the ground, Shiro avoided three rows of Fire Wires that cut towards her along with some Fire Arrows.
Rift Walker!
Making her way pass the formation using the memorisedyout she had recorded the moment the formation activated, she reappeared on the edge of the formation.
Jumping up, she activated Rift Walker a few more times to avoid the formations and hid herself on the roof.
Watching the guards rush towards the formation, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw Gilbert. He was the Mystic Knight Apprentice that had escorted her to the Mana Springs the first time she had been here.
He crouched down near where she had stepped on the grass and frowned. Tracing her steps, his frown only deepened since the steps were too far apart.
¡¯What could have made these steps?¡¯ He wondered to himself. If the intruder had jumped in the air, the formation would have easily shot them to death. But from what had happened, the formation seemed to lose the target for a short moment before finding them again.
"Increase the security measures. Do not and I mean DO NOT let our masterse to harm." He ordered as the guards nodded their heads.
Looking around him at the formations that failed to stop the invader, he frowned before re-entering the mansion.
Chapter 139 Mana Disruption Bullet
Chapter 139 Mana Disruption Bullet
Shiro was currently sneaking through the entire mansion whilst sweat dripped off her face.
¡¯How many formations do you need inside a house?!¡¯ She cried out in her mind.
Every few seconds after dodging a formation led to another one. This allowed the guards to slowly catch up to her since they could just follow where the formations where active. Especially Gilbert.
She couldn¡¯t help but curse at how good his tracking skills where. There were several close calls that she couldn¡¯t have escaped if not for Rift Walker.
As the pursuit continued, Shiro slowly mapped out the mansion but frowned when she couldn¡¯t find the master bedroom.
¡¯Hmm strange...¡¯ She thought to herself.
Just as she was about to continue her search, she sensed Gilbert getting close once more and entered the rift.
Positioning herself above and behind a statue she lowered her presence and used Shadow Cloak for extra insurance.
She saw Gilbert crouching down where she was previously.
"Tsk!" He clicked his tongue in frustration. The intruder was a sneaky one this time since no matter how hard he tried; they would just disappear like a phantom.
¡¯This is too strange... I¡¯ve already gotten intel that both the Sermak Family and the Casadan family had intruders that passed them some vital information about the slums. Could they be doing the same here?¡¯ Gilbert thought with a frown.
Seeing Gilbert think about the situation, Shiro decided to pass the information onto him. She remembers that he was a butler. As a butler, he would have the chance to interact with the master of the Ospar household.
Pinching her fingers together, she created a flute and raised it up to her lips. Activating Cold Illusions, she saw Gilbert instantly pulled out a sword and stand on guard.
"Come out." He said calmly as his sword lit up with a ck, purple and blue aura. Every flicker of the aura seemed to draw a picture of the gxy with stars shining ever so slightly.
*BANG!
When a metal te appeared in front of him, he immediately shed his sword but was surprised when he saw the metal te almost unscathed.
¡¯What a brute!¡¯ Shiro thought with annoyance. She had the feeling that he was going to sh at anything that appears so she used her Nanomancer ss to create a te so that she could test him out first. She didn¡¯t actually think he would sh at the first possible moment.
While he was paused in surprise at the fact that the metal te was almost undamaged, Shiro took this chance to disassemble it and send out a piece of paper.
[What a brute. What if I had sent important information instead? You would have destroyed that you know?]
Shiro decided that since she was going to pass the information to him, she was going to mess with him a little.
"Since you have the capabilities to send this information to the two lesser families and even threaten them with spreading this out, I believe you have multiple copies." He replied seriously.
[Hou hou~ And what if I said that was a lie?]
"Then too bad. We can just mobilise with the two other families when the timees."
[And if the entire thing is a ruse? What if I made it up and just wanted to take the families for a ride?]
"Why would you use so much effort in making something so believable just so that you can mess around with us?"
[Well, there can be a lot of reasons. The fact that the families cause destruction across the city could be one.]
"..." Gilbert had nothing to say since that is indeed the truth. Every time the families fight, it was always the civilians that suffer even if they¡¯re not injured. Properties would be damaged and shops might bepletely destroyed.
[Silence huh?]
There were no more messages after that as the cold illusion faded away.
Gilbert sheathed his sword away as his heart was heavy. He was about to inform the other families that this may be a ruse until he felt something in his pocket.
There were two data ch.i.p.s and a paper message.
[Just kidding~ Of course you¡¯ll get the data as well. Do remember to eradicate the slum factionspletely ok? ?~]
"...."
*BANG!
Punching his fist against the wall, Gilbert wanted to give the culprit a p or two for messing with his emotions.
"F*ck!" He cursed out.
Meanwhile, the culprit in question, was giggling outside the mansion since she had a camera on the ch.i.p.s which showed her his expression after reading her note.
"Now then, tomorrow should be the time where I¡¯ll get to fight my shadow again." Shiro muttered as her grin faded away.
She had already done all that she needed to do. Gather information and distribute it. If they don¡¯t make a move, then she¡¯ll show this to every adventurer in Cairosa and force them to move.
###
"Are you sure you want to challenge your shadow straight away?" Lyrica asked as she and Madison were seeing Shiro off.
[Yeah, the faster Iplete this the better. Plus, if I get stronger, my shadow will get stronger as well.] Shiro smiled since she had already informed the duo about the contents of her 5th star up.
"Don¡¯t get too hung up though Shiro. I¡¯ve heard that you can ss up even without getting the 5th star. Last time you failed, you suffered quite the bacsh didn¡¯t you? If it wasn¡¯t for your Fire of Life, you would probably still being bed right now."
[If you always take the easy route, life would get boring.] Shiro shrugged.
"True."
"Well good luck Shiro. By the way, we¡¯ve got a surprise for you after youe out so send us a text when you¡¯re ready." Lyrica smiled.
Shiro nodded with a smile as she was teleported back into the Truth Realm.
Her emotions instantly faded as there was no more messing around anymore. Since she knew herself and what she could do, she didn¡¯t need to hesitate. Last time she allowed the shadow to take the initiative and that caused her to be on the defensive.
This time was going to be different.
[Begin]
Seeing her shadow form once more, Shiro immediately mmed her palm into the ground and sent out her killing intent.
*KRRR!!!
Shadow furrowed her brows and quickly activated Faded Snow Movement to prevent herself from being frozen.
*CLING CLING CLING!
Since she had used Faded Snow Movement on her legs, that meant her upper body was exposed.
Ice chains wrapped around the Shadows torso and secured her in ce.
She attempted the same on Shiro but it was dodged easily due to the fact that her shadow had struck an illusion.
When her ice chains sprang up, she synchronised the Cold Illusion with the sound the chains made and created an illusion of her.
While she was countering her Shadow every step of the way, she was also forming the skill for breaking the Shadow¡¯s Mana Links.
Naturally, she was still going for the kill. Breaking the Mana Link was just an added bonus.
¡¯The Mana Link is situated in one¡¯s Mana Realm. When the person uses mana to power a spell, the links would gather the mana from the realm/ their reservoir and send it through the caster¡¯s body. I need to track the mana back to the source and destroy the links that way.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst twisting her body to the side and avoided an ice spear that aimed for her rear.
Grabbing the ice spear with her bare hands, Shiro sent her mana into the spear and rewrote the spell so that it was her own.
"Ha!" She shouted out whilst throwing the spear towards Shadow with 3rd Phantom to boost its power.
*BOOM!!!!
Shiro wasn¡¯t particrly surprised when her shadow managed to dodge the spear.
¡¯To track the mana back to the mana realm, I¡¯ll need to sense their body whilst they cast a spell. However, I can also flood their entire system. While that doesn¡¯t track to the mana realm since it¡¯ll close itself off to protect the links, I¡¯ll be able to restrain Shadow for a short moment. In that time, the mana realm will eventually reopen itself to heal her.¡¯
Seeing her Shadow Clench her palm to create the same magic circle that took over her ice, Shiro flicked her wrist and created a hand cannon with a special bullet she was working on in the day.
While she could overwrite a spell to a certain degree, she wasn¡¯t able to expand it to a domain like her Shadow which is why she created a substitute option instead.
[Mana Disruption Bullet]
A bullet that sends out a pulse of mana that would overwrite parts of the magic circle to break it apart.
The effectiveness of this bullet depends on how much MP was used to create it.
*BANG! PING!
The magic circle shattered apart as her Shadow shot towards her with a hand cannon.
Twisting her body, Shiro created some heel guards and proceeded to roundhouse kick the bullet out of the air. It was an easy feat for Shiro since she knew where the bullet was going. After that, it was only a matter of timing.
"Pui." Spitting in disdain, Shiro disassembled her gun and charged towards her Shadow.
Rift Walker!
Her body phased into the rift. Shadow knew what she was doing and copied since the risk of Shiro appearing near her was dangerous.
However, both of them never expected the rifts to be connected. Shiro could see Shadow¡¯s surprise in front of her as both of them were in the rift together.
She reacted quickly to take advantage of this as she clenched her hands and activated Ice Chains.
Shadow quickly left the rift to avoid the chains.
Rolling heavily against the ground, Shadow looked up to keep an eye out for Shiro would follow after her.
mming her palms down, Shadow erected a rotating barrier of Ice that protected her from Shiro¡¯s strike from behind her.
Unfortunately for Shadow, this had caused her to be stationary.
Frozen Hell Series: Frozen Slumber.
*CLING CLING CLING!
Six chains wrapped around the barrier, forcing it to stop. Cracks started to appear all over the dome as the spell started to crumble the barrier to ice dust.
Activating Rift Walker to escape from the spell, her Shadow created two hand cannons and shot at the magic circles, destroying them with the Mana Disruption Bullets.
¡¯Makes sense.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst appearing behind her shadow.
*BANG!
Sending a palm at her Shadow¡¯s back, Shiro barely managed to flood her body with Mana before she used Faded Snow Movement to disperse most of the damage.
However, it was perfect for Shiro since it allowed her to take a quick glimpse at where the mana came from.
While the route wasn¡¯t perfect, since the Mana Realm closed itself right after using Faded Snow Movement, she had memorised roughly 65% of the route.
¡¯Wait... it¡¯s the same as mine.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes as she realised the 65% she had memorised was the same as hers.
¡¯I suppose it¡¯s because she¡¯s a direct copy.¡¯
Looking at her Shadow who seemed to be frustrated about being suppressed by her, Shiro sneered in order to provoke her Shadow.
Unfortunately, she kept her calm and instead, activated her Pseudo Elemental Armour.
Flicking the spiked chains on her wrist, Shadow sent both chainsshing towards Shiro who activated Faded Snow Movement to dodge.
However, Shadow grinned since her goal was aplished. Wherever her chains passed, a magic circle appeared in the air. The sheer quantity was too much for Shiro to avoid.
To make matters worse, one of the chains had detached itself andtched onto Shiro¡¯s body to drain mana from her.
"So you¡¯re also learning while you fight huh? A little toote though." Shiro smiled as her body exploded into ice mist.
Shadow widened her eyes when she realised that she was just an illusion.
*BOOM!
A palm stuck against her back one more time as she saw Shiro appearing behind her. She could feel mana w its way through her systems and invade her Mana Realm.
She realised that after she collided with the ground, Shiro had activated Cold Illusions to wait for the perfect moment to strike.
"You¡¯re not the only one who can be a sneaky b*tch." Shiro said whilst pulling the trigger and shot Shadow in the head.
Since her Mana Realm was being invaded, she wasn¡¯t able to activate Faded Snow Movement.
*Ding~
A victory sound rang out as Shadow started to fade away along with all the damage that had .u.mted in the truth realm.
Once she confirmed that she had won, Shiro panted heavily and copsed on her back. During the entirety of that fight, she was abusing the hell out of her own mana links to perform as best they could. While she did that, she had to endure the pain whilst also controlling her body to try to fight on at an even footing with her Shadow.
During this fight, she had avoided close quartersbat as much as she could since she knew her shadow could perform better. Hence she stuck with long range and trickery which thankfully, paid off in the end.
Furthermore, the stress of forcing her body to constantly attack with little to no defence wasn¡¯t something Shiro liked to experience.
But the sight of trial passed caused her to smile.
An ice cocoon wrapped around her, sending her into a deep slumber.
Chapter 140 The 5th Star
Chapter 140 The 5th Star
It was unknown how long she had slept for but when Shiro reopened her eyes, she felt like her entire body was stiff.
"Urg..." She groaned as she tried to stretch her body.
Cracking her neck, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but notice a slight increase in her height.
"Ohya? Have I finally be an a.d.u.l.t?!" She muttered in excitement.
Quickly conjuring up an ice mirror, Shiro was shocked at her own appearance.
She was now just a little under 5ft 5 which can be considered as a short a.d.u.l.t. Herplexion looked rosier than before and her iris changed from azure to pure ck. In addition to this, her features became a little sharper which detracted from the childish feeling that was previously there.
Unfortunately, her b.r.e.a.s.ts didn¡¯t increase at all.
However, her attention was drawn away from her chest since she was slightly entranced by her own appearance. She didn¡¯t know what exactly happened, but it was as if her ¡¯Charm¡¯ just received a +5000 in stat points.
"Wow..."
Raising her hand, she touched her own face.
"Eh? A crest?" She muttered in surprise. A snow crest of sorts on the back of her right hand.
She had a few questions but decided that it was best to see what the star up had brought her first.
[Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï]
Title Gained: Ice Princess
Point gain per level increased to 500 per level.
Skill Gained: cial Domain (Tier 2)
Converted Ice Magic and Snow Magic into cial Magic (Tier 2)
[Title: Ice Princess]
A beautiful being that holds control over all the ice around her vicinity.
Gained Ice Princess Insignia, cial Domain.
"Ohya? This miss is now a princess huh?" Shiro chuckled slightly at the title.
[Ice Insignia]
+50% affinity with Intelligent Ice Based Monsters
+50% Hostility with Intelligent Fire Based Monsters
+65% Cold Element Resistance
+80% affinity with cold elements
[cial Domain (Tier 2 ¨C Grows with user)]
All ice magic used within a 200-meter radius around you is yours to control. Any ice you create can be controlled almost freely. Increase affinity with cold type spells.
Can¡¯t be overwritten unless the enemy is 20 levels above you.
The fact that the skill can¡¯t be overwritten unless the enemy is 20 levels above her was extremely useful. Even though 20 levels difference will be rathermon in the future, she understands that this skill was currently Tier 2.
Now to mention, the difference of 20 levels was an insane amount at this current period of time. To make matters worse for her enemies, even if they were Tier 3 level 60, as long as they were an ice-based mage, they would be helpless against her.
As for cial Magic, Shiro had seen this a few times in her past. This was essentially an evolved version of Ice Magic much likeva and Magma to Fire Magic.
However, for her to be able to unlock this near the peak of Tier 2 was unthinkable. The elements would only evolve when one reaches the peak of Tier 3. She knew this because one of the requirements to reach tier 4 is to evolve one¡¯s element.
"Status."
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Proficient Monster (108/500 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete). Ice Princess
Level: 45
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 103,000/206,250
MP: 132,000/488,070
STR: 1100 (+100) <+300>
VIT: 1300 (+200) <+375>
INT: 3000 (+550) <+887>
AGI: 2000 (+450) <+612>
DEX: 1500 (+100) <+400>
DEF: 500 (+100) <+150>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Ice -> cial ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 2
Metal ¨C Tier 2
Shadow ¨C Tier 2 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Bnce: 310,230,000 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 cial magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Faded Snow Movement, cial Aura, cial Touch, cial Breath. Ice Field Affinity, Cold Illusion
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation
Frozen Hell Series:
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Lightning Magic (Tier 2), Metal Magic (Tier 2), Shadow Magic (Tier 2), Combust.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 2)]
With her ice magic changing to cial magic, Shiro was slightly curious about its power.
*click
Snapping her fingers, Shiro created a cial spear in her hands.
"Oh my..."
She could feel the structure differences between the cial spear and the ice spear. If ice spear can be described as a twig, then the cial spear is a tree. Not only is it stronger and sharper, but its resistance is also higher.
Not only that, but she could also insert more mana into the spear to increase its power.
¡¯I don¡¯t even think my current capabilities with my Nanomancer ss will prate my cial magic.¡¯ She mused to herself since her hand cannon simply doesn¡¯t have the prating power required to break past something that¡¯s supposed to be unlocked in Tier 4.
"Now that I¡¯ve got my 5th star, all I need is to reach level 50 then I¡¯ll rank up. Though I still need Nan Tian to give me the phoenix pill."
Sighing slightly, Shiro exited the trials.
When she reopened her eyes, she saw that the entire camp was currently empty.
"Eh? Where did everyone go?"
She opened the tent and saw that most things were left behind except for valuables.
"Hmm..."
Shiro narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she had an idea of what could have happened.
¡¯It¡¯s either the families have decided to attack straight away or that a party is going on.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Leaving the tent, Shiro jumped up and sent out a pulse of her mana for Yin to feel.
Since she was her pet, she would recognise her mana signature almost immediately. And as expected, Yin soon appeared out the rift andnded on Shiro¡¯s shoulder.
"Ya miss me?" Shiro grinned.
Yin who only just took a look at her face paused in shock.
"Hahaha, charmed are we?" Shiroughed and tapped Yin¡¯s head.
Yin only turned her head away with a huff.
After messing around with Yin for a short moment, Shiro walked through the ally¡¯s and towards the city.
"Ah, I should probably put on my face mask." Shiro said whilst pulling up her face mask along with making a hood.
Yin, who had been reunited with her long-lost home, the hood, dived in with joy.
Patting Yin¡¯s body lightly, Shiro narrowed her eyes and scanned the buildings around her.
She could tell that there were several people who seemed to be nervous but were analysing the perfect opportunity to strike.
¡¯Hou... So it seems like the families are pushing the slums back. I should do my part.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Creating a tiny drone in her hands that was barely visible to the eye, she flicked it upwards and examined the people who were watching her.
¡¯Ivory Cobra huh? No mercy then.¡¯ She grinned when she saw the markings unique to Ivory Cobra.
Walking to one of the building walls, she gently ced her palm and activated cial Touch. Since her control of Ice had been significantly improved with her Ice Domain, she no longer needs to release killing intent to activate it. Rather, killing intent will only amplify the effects.
*KRRRRR!!!!!!
Ice spread quickly as the building was soon encased in a thinyer of ice.
Before the faction members could even react, Shiro twisted her palm and created a neon blue magic circle.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!!
cial spears shot out of the ice and pierced all of the faction members within the room.
"Bingo~" Shiro grinned seeing her kill count increase.
Walking calmly through the alleys and killing any faction member¡¯s she could sense, Shiro eventually found herself in front of a barricade.
¡¯Eh? A barricade?¡¯ She thought in confusion.
However, her face instantly became nk when she felt a thin sliver of killing intent aimed towards her.
Shifting her heels a little, ice exploded around her to form a barrier that warded off several attacks from a 180 degree cone in front of her.
Focusing on who send an attack at her, Shiro flexed her fingers a little as 10 cial spears appeared in the air.
"STOP! DON¡¯T HIT THE WRONG PERSON!" Someone suddenly shouted out as the situation came to a halt.
Shiro merely nced through her barrier without emotion which caused those who were watching to pale slightly. Her ck eyes were like a void that they couldn¡¯t see the end of.
The nk face and killing intent she made caused them to feel like they were confronting an absolute monster that couldn¡¯t be defeated.
Alura quickly jogged over and saw that Shiro was unharmed. However, she paused in her footsteps seeing her gaze.
Merciless.
If they had truly wanted to fight her, there will be no turning back.
Quicklyposing herself as much as she could, Alura approached Shiro who dropped her barrier.
"Sorry about that. We¡¯re currently rounding up every member that belongs to the three factions in the slums so they¡¯re a little trigger happy. Why haven¡¯t you evacuated yet?" She asked.
[Busy. Didn¡¯t hear.] Shiro replied with a shrug.
After her experience with her Shadow, she had understood that she should always take the initiative.
Hence the moment they attacked, she instantly enteredbat mode and prepared her counterattack.
¡¯She feels different... More dangerous...¡¯ Alura thought with slight amounts of fear. The feeling she gave her before was just a talented mage but now, it was akin to an unsheathed de. Harmless when the t side hits but always ready with the sharp edges.
No matter whates, she is always ready to kill.
"Oh by the way, we would appreciate some help with cleaning out the slums. Would you like to join?" Alura offered as she wanted to see if her capabilities had changed.
If it has, and she became as dangerous as she felt, then she was someone they absolutely had to try bringing to their side.
[Why not.] Shiro nodded since she was the person who stated this whole operation against the slums. It would be rude to miss out on the fun wouldn¡¯t it?
"Ok, I¡¯ll quickly brief you on the n. We¡¯re currently surrounding the entire slum area and not letting any of them escape. The elders of the adventurer¡¯s guild and the families are acting as support for when the bosses of the factions appear. Our job is simple and that is to kill all members of the factions."
[Easy enough. So why are we waiting here and not entering?]
"Just wait." Alura smiled.
Not long after, 5 beams of light shot up into the air. Each representing a different element.
"5 Element Cage. You people from New York might not know this but this is one of our city¡¯s trump cards. Do you think living by the ocean is easy? The beasts that maye up ashore will wreck the city easily. Hence the elders banded together to create an original spell that cages in the enemy with all 5 elements.
"This has the power to restrain the level 80 Juvenile Hydra." Alura looked up at the spell with slight amounts of pride.
Looking at the 4yered spell that was creating a cage around the slums area, Shiro focused intently at the blue section since she realised something she could never do before.
¡¯I can see it... I can see the flow. I can control that part of the spell.¡¯ She thought whilst staring at the 5 element cage.
She felt like she could override the entire spell just with a simple flick of her fingers.
¡¯Could this be what the insignia meant? A +80% affinity with cold elements allows me to understand any spell that uses the cold element better...¡¯
ncing down at the light blue crest on the back of her hand, Shiro smiled slightly.
*BOOM!!!!
The ground shook with thepletion of the spell.
"Everyone! Kill them all and leave none behind!" Alura shouted out as they charged into the barrier.
Shiro didn¡¯t dawdle either since she was eager to test out the capabilities of her 5 star Snow Girl ss.
*CRACK!
Stomping down with all her strength, Shiro cracked the pavements and charged pass the group.
¡¯Fast!¡¯ Alura widened her eyes when she saw Shiro easily overtake speed type adventurer¡¯s with ease.
Kicking her body off the side of the buildings, Shirounched her body into the air and brought her hands together.
Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber!
With her evolution of Ice type spells into cial types, it naturally meant her strongest attack has also gained a buff.
She could feel her control over the spell improve substantially and converted the mana that would be used to create the chains into the main magic circle.
While the magic circle that appeared was only two fold and not three, showing that it was still within the range of Tier 2 spells, the sheer area covered wasn¡¯t something a tier 2 could match up too.
"Freeze."
*KRRR!!!!
The circles lit up with a blue light, causing a blizzard to instantly appear in the slums area freezing anything it touched.
But with the increased range, the power would naturally suffer. And to make matters worse, if she tried to increase the power, it would only strain her mana links further. However, power was never the goal.
Ice Domain.
The skill allowed her to almost freely control any ice she creates.
Meaning...
"This entire ce is now under my control." Shiro grinned as she could sense everyone¡¯s location through her ice.
Chapter 141 Additional Benefit
Chapter 141 Additional Benefit
Flicking her wrist, she created several tall pirs of ice on the buildings which are more dangerous.
Alura instantly recognised the marked buildings as the ones that housed the drugs. She did spend the night memorising the entire map she had gotten from the mysterious person after all.
"Focus on those buildings first!" She shouted out.
She didn¡¯t want to use her Hell Fire Bombardment just yet since she doesn¡¯t know what might happen if ites into contact with the drugs.
If it reacts and disperses into the air, it would be aplete disaster for Cairosa.
¡¯I¡¯ll take this chance to get some kills for my title.¡¯ She thought whilst tapping her ne.
Four swords appeared around her as a few of the adventurers recognised it to be the purple set equipment sold at the auction.
"She¡¯s managed to pass the weapon¡¯s trial!?!" Someone shouted out in surprise.
After the auction, a staff had released information about the trial online and they hadughed about what a waste the weapon was.
Trying to control the swords whilst being bombarded by attacks wasn¡¯t an easy task. Especially since they weren¡¯t allowed to use their magic either.
However, seeing Shiro summon the swords which radiated with a dangerous light caused them to grit their teeth in jealousy.
¡¯If a little girl could do it, why couldn¡¯t I?¡¯ They thought to themselves.
But when Shiro red back at the few who had looked at her with jealous, they quickly shifted their eyes away.
"Che... Cowards." Shiro scorned slightly.
"What did you say!" One of them shouted back as he just heard her ridicule him.
"Oh? You can hear me?" Shiro widened her eyes.
"Do you think I¡¯m deaf?! Of course I can hear you!" He gritted his teeth.
His response only caused Shiro to smile since this means she couldmunicate without her phone.
"Hahahaha!"
The crowd was stunned hearing Shiro¡¯sugh as some even slipped from a moment of distraction.
Her voice was like a gentle breeze that rxed their entire body and trapped them in its wonder.
"This miss can finally talk!" She grinned.
"Don¡¯t ignore m-"
He was cut off when he saw Shiro suddenly appear in front of him. Her sword rested on his neck as her emotionless eyes bore into his.
"This miss is in a good mood right now. Do you want to ruin it?" She spoke, ndly.
The man paled as sweat dripped off his back. He couldn¡¯t even react to her approaching him. Now that she had her de to his neck, he had less of a chance to survive if he should fight her.
"N-no."
"Good boy." Shiro smiled before jumping away.
"I thought you were mute?" Alura asked suspiciously.
"Turns out my voice is back." Shiro shrugged.
"Then I suppose congrattions are in order."
"Thank you."
Seeing the two beauties talk casually whilst killing any faction member that had approached them, the adventurers couldn¡¯t help but feel like the two were on a stroll rather than cleaning out a dangerous faction.
Even though they couldn¡¯t see the entirety of Shiro¡¯s face, just from her figure, voice and eyes, they knew she was beautiful.
Even Alura felt a little defeated since her opponent was only 13 as well. That meant there were plenty of time for her to grow up and gain more of an a.d.u.l.t charm.
"So how about we have a small chat about cooperation after this?"
"We shall see. I still need to meet up with my friends and level up after all." Shiro replied with a soft chuckle.
"Indeed. I have to say though, you¡¯ve changed quite a bit since thest time I saw you at the auction." Alura said as she couldn¡¯t help but admire Shiro¡¯s skin condition. It was as if it was a nk sheet of snow. Soft and cold to the touch. If only she knew.
Since she was a fire mage, she could feel the coldness that radiated from Shiro, suggesting her prowess as an ice mage.
"Don¡¯t remind me of change." Shiro rolled her eyes slightly as she could still remember how much Madison had changed after her ss just.
¡¯Mn? That being said... Alura seems to have quite the bust as well...¡¯ Shiro thought whilst ring at Alura¡¯s b.r.e.a.s.ts.
"Eh? What¡¯s wrong?" Alura asked as she covered her chest. From the way Shiro looked at them, it was as if she was a hunter that was about to kill a prey.
"Ever feel like they¡¯re a hindrance? Maybe work them into pecs will help withbat." She replied whilst still ring at the b.r.e.a.s.ts.
A faction member tried to sneak up on her but she killed him with a single swing of her sword.
"I¡¯m a mage, I don¡¯t need muscle power."
"Hou, but you know, having physical power is good for survival. It¡¯s not like the lumps of fat does anything after all. You can still b.r.e.a.s.tfeed with smaller b.r.e.a.s.ts."
"I can¡¯t exactly change them though..."
"Hmm... maybe surgery will do."
"And that¡¯s my cue to leave. Goodbye." Alura replied as she hastily left the area. Any longer and she felt like there would be no turning back.
"Mn." Shiro only nodded slightly before jumping up to the tallest building in the area.
Looking around at the surroundings, she could see signs ofbat slowly converging towards the centre of the slums.
¡¯Seems like they¡¯re making good progress.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
*BOOM!!!!
"...too soon."
Feeling the mana that exploded outwards near the centre of the slums, she could tell that the high level¡¯s are making a move.
And as she had expected, three people appeared on the roof. Two women and a man.
The first woman had long ck hair with green highlights while the other had pale blue hair. Their figures were rather simr including the face.
¡¯Could they be twins?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since the only difference between them would be the hair.
"If your faction didn¡¯t try to make the f*cking drug, do you think the city would make a move!?" The blue woman shouted with a re.
"Don¡¯t me me when it was your faction who leaked the intel." The ck haired woman scoffed.
"Ladies-"
"Shut the f*ck up Erick!" They both shouted out.
"Urg!"
"Che, let¡¯s just kill all of them now and move to a new city. It¡¯s not like mother said we had to settle our difference in just this city."
"But this would have been over if you didn¡¯t pull something as stupid as developing that drug."
Watching the three nonchntly talk whilst tantly releasing their mana pressure, Shiro narrowed her eyes and used Shadow Cloak to get closer.
[Lianna LVL 78 ¨C Tainted Poison Master]
[Lianni LVL 76 ¨C Corrupted Frost Monarch]
[Erick LVL 77 ¨C Dread Reaper]
Lianna was the one with ck hair and green highlights whilst Lianni was the one with blue hair.
As for Erick, he seemed rather in. But to Shiro, he felt the most danger.
¡¯Since his ss has the title Reaper, that means he is closely rted to the death element. Annoying...¡¯ She thought.
While Lianni might be within her limits due to her control over ice, Lianna and Erick would kill her with a single p.
Of course, that was considering the fact that she didn¡¯t use the Cmity Dragon Scales that would boost her power up to Tier 3.
Once that happens, she¡¯ll be able to eliminate the three of them quickly.
But as it stands, she had no chance against them.
"Just use your poison already Lianna. It¡¯s not like the city has a cure for it." Lianni said whilst crossing her hands.
She made a sitting motion and an ice chair appeared under her.
Erick only took a step back and waited for Lianna to do her thing.
"Tsk." Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Lianna gathered mana into her palms and raised it up.
Her eyes glowed with a dim green whilst a three fold magic circle appeared in the air.
Shiro frowned when she saw the circle since poison type mages were the worst kind of opponent to fight against.
Depending on their proficiency one could even get poisoned just by being in their presence.
However, due to the fact that she had received the cmity¡¯s will augment in one of the trials, she had certain resistances to poison. While only limited to tier 2, it was just enough for her to stay in Lianna¡¯s presence without being poisoned. Of course, this could also be attributed to the fact that her proficiency with poison hadn¡¯t reached an extreme point yet.
¡¯Well this is out of my limits so the elders can take care of this.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself whilst evacuating the area.
And as she had guessed, not long after the magic circle appeared, 4 elders charged towards the trio with weapons in hand.
¡¯Seems like the four of them are rather enthusiastic." Shiro muttered whilst ncing back asionally. She could see Lianna being able to hold her own against 2 elders whilst Lianni and Erick both too one each.
As for her suspicion about Erick, it was proven right since he held a scythe made from shadows. The scythe would shift around with thin hands that would reach out to restrict his opponent. Not only that, the scythe could also take the form of other weaponry.
Even with her Faded Snow Movement and Rift walker, it would be annoying to be caught by those hands. The moment that happens, it would be game over for her due to the disparity of their stats. Not only that, he may possess more skills that could kill her with a single swipe.
Reaching the edge of the cage, Shiro was allowed to leave after presenting her ID card. The surrounding adventurers red at her with scorn but she red back.
This caused the adventurers to pale and quickly look away.
¡¯Hmm, now that I have my voice back, I should surprise Lyrica and Madison.¡¯ Shiro chuckled slightly at the thought of trolling her friends.
[Shiro: I¡¯vee back from my trials and helped out a little with clearing out the slums. Where are you now?]
[Lyrica: We¡¯re in the city centre. The adventurer¡¯s guild has opened up a few floors to house the refugee¡¯s for now. You¡¯ll find us on the 12th floor.]
[Shiro: Alright, I¡¯ming now.]
Making her way to the adventurer¡¯s guild, Shiro used the elevators to arrive at the 12th floor.
Before she entered the room, she used 1st phantom and waited for someone else to open the door so that she could enter the room without anyone noticing.
Giving the room a quick nce she was able to find Lyrica and Madison almost immediately. Everyone else that was in the tent was also with them. Naturally, that included Kanae.
Grinning slightly, Shiro sneaked up behind the duo.
"Hmm.. Shiro said she¡¯ll be here soon so where is she?" Lyrica muttered whilst checking the time.
"Shouldn¡¯t be too long."
"Shiro-nee said she¡¯lle so naturally she¡¯ll be here soon."
"I know that but it shouldn¡¯t take this long just to arrive."
"Kanae¡¯s right you know. I¡¯m already here." Shiro grinned and popped her head between the three of them.
"&^¡ê&^¡ê"$&%&^%¡ê$!!!!!" Lyrica, Madison and Kanae cried out in shock seeing Shiro suddenly appear.
Whilst they were screaming, both Lyrica and Madison sent a fist towards her on instinct.
However, it was blocked easily by Shiro.
"Shiro-nee!" Kanae cried out after recognising Shiro. While there was some changes such as her height, her eyes and her features bing sharper, she knew it was Shiro.
Hugging Shiro by the neck, Kanae identally strangled Yin who was resting in Shiro¡¯s hood.
She was dreaming of eating mana stones when a huge mana stone suddenly appeared and crushed her.
*Chirp!
"Ah sorry Yin!" Kanae quickly apologised and let go.
Yin groggily poked her head out of the hood before resting her body on Kanae¡¯s head. At least if she rested here, there would be less of a chance to get strangled in her sleep.
"Ah! Shiro you can talk now?!" Madison asked in surprise.
"Yep. Afterpleting my trial, I can talk now." Shiro smiled and pulled down her hood and mask.
Lyrica, who was already entranced by her voice, widened her eyes when she saw Shiro¡¯s face.
The charm that it radiated was unlike before. It was more dominating in an aspect. While the ck irises were a little off putting since it made her a little unreadable, it was overshadowed by her charm.
*Bang!
"Ah she copsed." Madison muttered as she looked pass Shiro and saw Lyricaying on her back.
"Why does she always do that. Is my face really that shocking?" Shiro frowned slightly and touched her jaw.
"... You really have no idea do you?" Madison raised an eyebrow.
"Idea of what?" Shiro furrowed her brows since she wasn¡¯t too familiar with what girls do in their teenage years. While she did experience a little of it before being captured by the scientists, she had forgotten about it due to her memories focussing more on the slightly traumatic events.
¡¯Well... Traumatic is pushing it a bit I guess.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
As for Madison, all she could do was facepalm and hope for the best.
Chapter 142 Supression
Chapter 142 Supression
"So how did you fix your voice?" Madison asked whilst taking a sip of some juice. She couldn¡¯t help but repeatedly take a nce at Shiro¡¯s face.
"I¡¯m not too sure. Maybe because I got my 5th star?" Shiro shrugged with a small smile.
¡¯Wow...¡¯ Madison couldn¡¯t help but think, seeing that smile.
"I guess we don¡¯t have to wait till C ss for your then huh? Lucky."
"Indeed. So what was this surprise that you wanted me to see?" Shiro asked.
"Ah about that. We were going to tell you but it was kind of cut short due to the whole slums situation."
"Heh~ Is that so."
Leaning back a little, Shiro threw herst Mana Stone lollipop in her mouth and frowned.
"Say, why don¡¯t we hit up a dungeon or something? I need to get some mana stones for little Yin. She¡¯s running out of food."
¡¯And so am I.¡¯ Shiro thought since this was herst meal.
"Ah you need D rank mana stone? I got some here. Me and Lyrica had been in the dungeons for the past few days so I got some spare."
"Is it ok?"
"Yeah just take them. It¡¯s not like we¡¯re low on cash." Madison waved her hand lightly.
epting the mana stones, Shiro got two and threw it lightly towards Yin.
*Mofu mofu
"Kanae..."
"What is it Shiro-nee?"
"Why are youtching onto the back of my head like a ko?" Shiro asked with a weary smile.
"Because Shiro-nee is like a cold pillow." Kanae replied as her eyes started to close.
"Aiya! You¡¯re drooling!" Shiro cried out in slight panic and quickly pulled Kanae off the moment she felt saliva run down her hair.
"Ah sorry." Kanae quickly apologised since it was sofy for her to hug Shiro that she almost fell asleep.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Just try not to drool ok?" Shiro patted her head and sat her between her legs.
Waving her hand slightly, Shiro froze the saliva in her hair with ease and crumbled it to dust.
"Seems like your control over ice has improved." Madisonplimented seeing how effortless it was.
"Obviously, otherwise I wouldn¡¯t be a 5 star ice mage would I?"
"Urg..."
"Ohya? Seems like Lyrica¡¯s waking up." Shiro said whilst looking over at Lyrica¡¯s direction.
"Madi? I just had the wildest dream. Shiro appeared behind us and she could talk. Strange huh?" She replied whilst rubbing her eyes.
"Yo~ It¡¯s not a dream. Fufu, this miss has her voice back." Shiro grinned while giving her a little wave.
"..." Lyrica looked at Shiro and pulled her cheek to make sure she wasn¡¯t dreaming.
"Eh!! What happened to your face and did the trial fix your voice?"
"Hmm... it¡¯s kind of like what happened to Madi I suppose. When I finish the trial, my body experienced a change. As for my face... maybe I got a hidden charm stat? Hahaha." Shiro chuckled.
"What happened to your eyes then and what about that crest on your hand?" Lyrica asked curiously.
Previously, her blue eyes were like the sky, full of curiosity. However, after her trial, her eyes was like an endless void that caused one to not know what she was thinking about.
But that only made Lyrica want to find out more. She wanted to reach the end of that void and see what she was thinking about.
"Well I don¡¯t really have control over my eyes changing. As for my crest, they¡¯re a reward I got from the trial. I can control all the ice around me regardless of who created it."
"So your saying, if an enemy used ice against you, you can steal it?" Madison widened her eyes in shock. She knew the 5th star was strong since hardly anyone managed to reach the 5th star in the history of the current world. However, she didn¡¯t think it would be so powerful.
The fact that they couldn¡¯t use ice against Shiro meant she was the perfect counter to all ice mages. Even more so than fire mages.
"Yup." Shiro smiled.
*BANG!!!
Their conversation was cut short when something crashed into the side of the building.
Naturally, Shiro instantly enteredbat mode and flicked her wrist the moment she felt the building move. Ice wrapped around them and protected them from any debris that tried to crush them.
Of course, she didn¡¯t forget to protect Kanae¡¯s mum and the other tent mates.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro saw that it was a bloodied woman with blue hair.
¡¯It¡¯s Lianni.¡¯ She thought with narrowed eyes.
"Get out of here." Shiro said quietly not wanting to startle Lianni.
Even though her control over ice had improved significantly, she wasn¡¯t arrogant enough to think that she could suppress Lianni enough so that none of the bystanders would be affected.
A fight between high levels would also cause a huge amount of destruction. The only exception is when one side is suppressed to the point where they can¡¯t retaliate.
"Pardon?"
"Get out of here." Shiro repeated sternly.
Lyrica and Madison nodded their heads and grabbed Kanae.
Yin pped her wings andnded on Shiro¡¯s head. Her face was also serious since their lives are linked. If Shiro dies, she dies as well.
ncing back slightly, Lyrica and Madison saw who Shiro was looking at and paled.
¡¯A level 76 Corrupted Frost Monarch!!!¡¯ They thought with shock.
Before their tent mates could even cry out in surprise, the duo had grabbed everyone and dashed out.
Their actions caught the attention of Lianni.
"Che, that geezer should being soon. A few hostages should be fine." She said and aimed her palm at the group.
Before the ice tendrils could even reach them, Shiro dashed in front of the attack and swiped left with her hand.
*BOOM!!!
"!!!" Lianni was shocked feeling her ice magic being ripped from her grasp.
Narrowing her eyes at Shiro who tapped her ne and summoned four swords, Lianni knew Shiro was the biggest threat in the room.
However, before she could even decide what to do, Shiro had already started to attack her.
¡¯I need to restrain her for a short time.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she couldn¡¯t allow Kanae to see a scene of carnage just yet. She was too young and as her ¡¯big sister¡¯ she won¡¯t allow it.
All she needed to do was to buy enough time for the person who sent her flying to arrive. Once he arrived, her job would be finished
Lianni tried to block the four swords with her ice magic once more but that was a mistake.
Ice Domain!
With a simple click of her fingers, the ice spread apart like a blooming flower and exposed Lianni to the swords.
"Don¡¯t get c.o.c.ky!" She shouted out in anger and reached out for the swords. Raising her palm, Lianni sent out a pulse of mana which caused Shiro to widened her eyes in shock.
Rift Wa-
*BANG!
"GAH!"
Her body wasunched backwards from the pulse and smashed against the wall. Coughing up some blood, Shiro gritted her teeth and stood back up.
She had opted for Rift Walker instead of Faded Snow Movement since she would still beunched back. Faded Snow Movement would only turn a small portion of her body into snow. The mana pulse Lianni had sent out hit her entire body rather than just a small part.
However, she wasn¡¯t able to enter the rift quick enough so her body had to suffer the damage.
Thankfully, she was also making some mana absorption equipment with her nanotech armour creation skill as a back-up.
If not for that, she would literally be on her breath.
"Since you can control ice, I might as well use mana on its own you brat!" Lianni gnashed her teeth in annoyance. The humiliation of being suppressed, even just for a moment by her, wasn¡¯t a feeling she was going to tolerate. Not to mention, they were 31 levels apart!
What was the strangest urrence was that she was still alive after all that!
"Hehe, might want to look behind you." Shiro grinned.
"Hm?...!!!!" Suddenly sensing something approaching fast, Lianni turned around and raised her palms quickly.
A three fold magic circle appeared in front of her and erected a multiyered ice shield.
However, all would have been fine if not for the fact that Shiro was nearby.
"Break!" Shemanded and clenched her fist.
*PING!
On hermand, the ice shattered apart causing Lianni to re at her in anger.
*BOOM!!!!
A golden arrow pierced Lianni¡¯s shoulder and ripped her left arm out of its sockets.
"Sh*t!!" Quickly drinking a potion, her arm started to regenerate.
She couldn¡¯t stay here for long.
"Just you wait!" She threatened before her body started to turn to ice.
"Did you forget what I can do?" Shiro smirked and flexed her finger at Lianni once more.
"^%$^¡ê$"!!!!" Cursing out loud, Lianni had to resort to reinforcing her body in order to run away.
Chuckling to herself, Shiro coughed up a bit of blood again.
"Che... The hit of a level 76 really isn¡¯t something one should take." Shiro muttered whilst wiping away the blood on her lips.
One of the elders appeared not too long after with a golden bow in hand.
"Thanks." He nodded to Shiro since he was grateful for her actions. While he didn¡¯t know what she did, he knew she had a part in taking down Lianni¡¯s shield due to his amazing eyesight.
Watching him dash away, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but blink.
"He actually took the time to thank me before continuing the chase?" She muttered just to make sure.
"Stupid." Shiro clicked her tongue. While she did appreciate his thoughts, that just allowed Lianni more time to escape. She would rather him kill Lianni than to thank her.
Shaking her head, Shiro healed herself with the Fire of Life.
During their short contact, most of the people had managed to evacuate except for a few slowpokes.
Looking up at the cracking ceiling, Shiro narrowed her eyes since this may cause the building to topple.
cing her palm on the wall, Shiro red her mana and used cial Touch.
"Freeze."
*KRRRR!!!
Ice encased the room in an instant and started to fix the gap caused by Lianni¡¯s crash.
It was only after she was sure that the building wasn¡¯t going to copse did she stop.
"Che, they should be more careful." She muttered. If there was no one to make some support pirs for the building, the entire ce could have copsed onto the street of Cairosa.
Leaving the room, Shiro saw Lyrica, Madison and Kanae waiting for her.
"I swear! Danger alwayses to you!" Madison couldn¡¯t help but point out.
"Unlucky maybe? I¡¯ve had worse." Shiro shrugged. Compared to herst life, this life could be described as prettyx.
She didn¡¯t need to worry about tier 5 adventurer¡¯s suddenly appearing and challenging her.
There were a few times where she would be rxing on her day off and a group of level 200+¡¯s would suddenly attack her. Naturally, they were all dealt with ordingly.
¡¯What can be worse than fighting a person 31 levels ahead of you?!!!¡¯ They thought in their minds.
"Well forget about that for now. From what I can see, they should be finishing up the slums pretty soon." Shiro said whilst checking up on her phone for any news. Since Lianni, one of the boss¡¯s of the factions, was pushed back this far, that meant the other members shouldn¡¯t be any better.
"Yeah see? There are updates on final clean ups. Shall we join in?" Shiro smiled and licked her lips a little.
Madison suddenly felt a huge amount of pity for the faction members. If they were lucky, they would die quickly. If they¡¯re unlucky, they may lose something else before dying. That is if they hadn¡¯t lost it yet, she wasn¡¯t one to judge~
"You can also say this is a great time for you to gain EXP and level up." Shiro continued.
"Hmm... Fine I¡¯m in." Lyrica nodded since this was a good chance for her to get used to fighting against other humans.
"Um, can I join? I want to get stronger too so I can follow Shiro-nee. They say EXP is used for level ups so I want to get some too." Kanae said whilst holding onto Shiro¡¯s arms.
"Now you see, you¡¯ll do that when you¡¯re older." Shiro smiled trying to pacify Kanae. She didn¡¯t want to expose her to murder just yet.
"But I¡¯m old now. I¡¯ll get my ss soon and I¡¯ll fight as well." Kanae replied.
"Hmm... How about this. I¡¯ll take you out to get some EXP when you get your ss."
"... Fine." Kanae pouted since she didn¡¯t want to cause too much trouble for Shiro.
"Fufu, good girl. I¡¯ll be back soon." Shiro smiled before looking towards Lyrica and Madison.
"Let¡¯s go."
###
In the end, Shiro managed to raise up her kill count all the way to 230 but was only able to level up once much to her disappointment.
However, it wasn¡¯t too surprising since the majority of the enemies were low levelled cannon fodder.
"Only 4 more levels till level 50." Shiro muttered while looking up at the sky.
The scene would have been stunning if not for the fact that she was sitting on top of a frozen corpse mountain. Then again, it was still stunning but in a different way.
Chapter 143 Joining The Party
Chapter 143 Joining The Party
"Is that everyone?" Lyrica asked whilst looking around.
"It should be. That being said, I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll want to approach the area seeing as though I¡¯ve made a small monument for them." Shiro smiled whilst patting the frozen corpse mountain.
"Right. That would dissuade them from approaching." Lyrica smiled wearily seeing Shiro¡¯sbat prowess sore once more.
"Ai, don¡¯t look at me like that. Both you and Madison have improved a lot. I mean look at your levels. You¡¯ve practically caught up to me now." Shiro chuckled slightly.
Both Lyrica and Madison had reached level 44 which is only 2 levels under her.
Whatever they did in the dungeon for several days must have paid off.
"Umph, let¡¯s go back now." Shiro said as she hopped off the corpse mountain.
"Since we¡¯re all close to level 50, we should push for level 50 plus dungeons to get more exp."
"Ah speaking of dungeons, we want you to meet someone. As for the time, how about tomorrow morning?" Lyrica suggested.
"Hmm... sure. I¡¯m rather curious about what you want me to see." Shiro nodded her head after a short pause.
###
The next day, Shiro waited at a coffee store while Lyrica and Madison went off to bring her the surprise.
"Are you sure this is ok?"
"Yeah it¡¯s fine. Trust us."
"But it¡¯s going to be awkward!"
"Ai, don¡¯t be like that. You wouldn¡¯t know if you don¡¯t try."
Her ears perked up hearing some hushed whispers. She could recognise two of them being Lyrica and Madison while the third one was a little unfamiliar. However, she knows that she¡¯s heard that voice before.
"No way..." Shiro muttered as she had a candidate in mind.
Turning her head over, she saw Silvia standing awkwardly while the duo inched her towards the table.
"H-hi?" Silvia greeted.
Shiro felt a twitch creep up on her lips and raised an eyebrow.
¡¯Why did the hi be a question.¡¯ She thought.
"Hi, it seems like the two of you have some exining to do." Shiro said and turned towards the duo.
"Ah, you can talk now?!" Silvia widened her eyes in shock.
"Yeah... I¡¯m not exining the story for the third time. You two can bring her up to speed." Shiro shrugged and decided to go for some coffee.
Gesturing towards a waitress, Shiro waited patiently.
"What would you like?" The waitress asked.
"Coffee please."
"What kind?"
"huh?"
"What kind?"
Shiro was a little taken aback since she was just used to saying coffee please and getting some coffee.
"What types are there?"
"Well we have a variety. Atte, cappino, espresso, f-"
"Can you just give me a regr coffee?" Shiro asked since she couldn¡¯t taste it to begin with. She just wanted something to drink while waiting for the two to exin the story.
"... So I¡¯m guessing you wanttte then?"
"Sure just go with that." Shiro nodded.
Not too long after, Shiro¡¯s coffee arrived and the duo had just exined the entire story to them.
"So you¡¯ve managed to reach 5 stars. Congrattions."
"Thank you."
Seeing how formal and awkward the two of them were being, Lyrica and Madison looked at each other before sighing.
"I swear... basically, the gist of the situation is that Silvia wants to join our party." Madison said as she got straight to the point.
"Madi!" Silvia panicked seeing Madison say it so bluntly.
"Ah is that all? Sure." Shiro nodded. Since Silvia wanted to join, she would wee her with open arms. Naturally, if she had any thoughts about harming the party, she would end her in an instant.
"Eh?"
"What do you mean eh? We told you Shiro would be ok with it." Lyrica rolled her eyes a little.
"Ah but-"
"No ah¡¯s or buts."
"Well you three can do whatever you want. Silvia is an exception. Just don¡¯t start bringing random people to the party." Shiro said whilst she finished the rest of her coffee.
"Of course. Who do you think we are? No random person can join our party." Madison nodded.
"Good. Since Silvia is joining, we¡¯ll have some slight changes to our ns. We¡¯ll be challenging the level 55 dungeon instead.
"""eh?""" The three of them widened their eyes in shock.
"DIdn¡¯t you say level 50 before?!" Lyrica asked.
"That¡¯s only because we didn¡¯t have a healer. Now that Silvia is here, you think I¡¯ll let you girls ck off by giving you an easy dungeon? Now get your asses ready. We¡¯re going to the level 55 dungeon." Shiro grinned and walked away.
"..."
"Say, don¡¯t you think Shiro¡¯s be more dominating now that she has her voice back?" Silvia couldn¡¯t help but ask. Previously, since she had to use her phone, she couldn¡¯t takemand.
However, not that she had her voice back, her sadistic side seemed to be showing a bit more.
"Hehehe..." Lyrica only giggled at Shiro¡¯s actions.
<_>
¡¯What?¡¯ Silvia couldn¡¯t help but think, seeing the blush on Lyrica¡¯s face.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Lyrica¡¯s Shiro syndrome seemed to have gotten worse after Shiro came back from her trials. Ha..." Madison replied with a fatigued sigh.
"Right..." Silvia replied whilst asionally ncing back at Lyrica.
###
"AHHH!!!!"
The trio of Lyrica, Madison and Silvia was currently running away from a giant dinosaur like monster that had been chasing them.
"Don¡¯t just shout. Kill it." Shiro called out after them.
"WHY DID YOU PROVOKE IT!!!" They retorted since there was a huge ice rob poking out from the dinosaur¡¯s ass.
"Don¡¯t mind the small details. I just want to see how you three work as a team." Shiro grinned.
Currently, Shiro was resting her body on arge tree branch.
Laying on her stomach, she rested her chin on her hand whilst her feet would swing back and forth. She had a yful grin on her face as she watched the dinosaur chase after the trio.
The three of them looked at each other and decided to fight the dinosaur.
"You know what to do." Madison nodded as the three of them turned around.
ck mist enveloped Madison while Lyrica used her Rose Blossom skill set.
Attack Demon Knight!
Rose Blossom: Blood Thorns!
Stabbing her sword into the ground, Lyrica bit her finger and drew a rune in the space in front of her.
A portion of her HP was drained away as blood red thorns shot out of the ground andtched onto the dinosaur.
¡¯Oh? A HP siphoning skill that requires the user to sacrifice some of their HP first huh? Interesting...¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Analysing the skill, Shiro had an idea of what it could do.
¡¯I¡¯m guessing Blood Thorns needs the user to sacrifice some HP to ¡¯summon¡¯ the thorns. After being summoned, the thorns will not only siphon away the HP of the enemy, but also restrain them whilst this was happening.¡¯
As for Madison, after shifting into her Attack Demon mode, she readied her greatsword and nodded to Silvia.
"Blessing!" Silviamanded.
A golden magic circle expended out from under her and encased the duo in a golden glow.
Feeling power run through her body, Madison crouched down and dashed towards the dinosaur.
"HAAA!"
shing at the head, she hoped that it would end the beast in one go. However, a bone armour extended out from the skin and wrapped around the head.
*CRACK!
While her greatsword did mage to create a fracture on the bone armour, it was just a little short from breaking it.
"Huh?!"
"Don¡¯t huh me, RUN!" Lyrica shouted out and grabbed Madison by the neck.
After thatst hit, she could feel the monster bing enraged.
*BOOM!
The skin on the dinosaur started to turn dark red as neon yellow energy flickered off his body.
"Watch out~ It¡¯s is a lightning element." Shiro warned casually. She believes that the three have enough firepower to kill the dinosaur in front of them. And even if they were in danger, she had already ced several safe measures on their bodies without them realising.
Defence Demon Knight!
Shifting her greatsword into a giant shield, Madison gritted her teeth since she could feel the mana gathering towards the dinosaur¡¯s mouth. When a monster gathers mana towards their mouth, it can only mean one thing. A breath attack!
A dark red magic circle swirled around Madison¡¯s shield. Closing her eyes for a short moment, Madison activated her new skill.
Defence Demon Skill: Demon Fortress!
As her skill started to take the form of a giant fortress, the dinosaur stomped down heavily and opened its jaw.
*BOOM!!!!!!
A giant beam of lightning shot out of the dinosaur¡¯s mouth and smashed against the illusionary fortress.
*BOOMMM!!!!!
"GAH!"
Madison was forced back a few steps as cracks could be seen on the fortress itself.
Thankfully, the breath attack didn¡¯tst long since the dinosaur puffed out a cloud of smoke before charging towards them again.
Madison couldn¡¯t move as well since her body had to sustain some of the damage.
Raising up her staff, Silvia cast a healing art on Madison and healed her up almost instantly.
"Thanks!" Madison called out and charged towards the monster with her shield in hand.
Jumping up, she twisted her body and mmed her shield against the dinosaurs head.
While her strength right now was crazily high for her level, it wasn¡¯t enough to overpower a C ss monster.
However, this was part of her n.
Attack Demon Knight!
Using the momentum of the dinosaur throwing his head back to get her off, Madison swung her greatsword and cleaved upwards.
*URAAAA!!!
The dinosaur cried out in pain as his jaw was split in two due to Madison¡¯s uppercut.
While the dinosaur¡¯s attention was focused on Madison, Silvia had stacked several buffs on Lyrica that increase her power across the board.
The edge of her de glowed with a reddish silver glow.
Thousand de Aura + Willow de Aura!
Activating both her berserk skills, Lyrica charged towards the dinosaur and swung towards the already wounded jaw.
"Burning Lotus!"
*BOOM!!!!
Several sword lights pierced through the jaw, stabbed through the dinosaur¡¯s flesh and finally pierced the brain.
The trio kept their guard up whilst ring at the dinosaur.
Its body shook for a moment before the light in his eyes dimmed.
*BANG!
The weight of his body and the force of impact against the floor caused a small cloud of dust to appear.
*Cough cough cough
"Finally." Lyrica said after coughing for a short moment due to the dust.
"Good job." Shiro praised.
They were about to react happily but paled when they saw her sadistic grin.
"Now take on two of them." She continued as two more dinosaurs charged out the jungle with ice spears poking out their ass.
###
"Haa....Ha....ha...."
The trio panted heavily whilstying on the floor.
Every time they killed a monster, Shiro would provoke a few more for them to kill. Naturally, the number never surpassed two but the pressure of having to constantly fight meant Silvia had to heal almost on instinct. The moment either Lyrica or Madison was about to suffer from fatigue, she would cast a spell to rejuvenate them.
Of course, this also meant her technique improved substantially.
"Hmm, not bad at all." Shiro nodded in approval. She was satisfied with Silvia¡¯s performance. After all, the healer was one of the most important roles in a party.
If the healer was bad, the party would eventually crumble.
They couldn¡¯t have a weak link.
Of course, if Silvia didn¡¯t match up to her expectations, she could always train her a little.
"Now that you guys had your fun, it¡¯s my turn." Shiro smiled.
"You call that fun?!" Madison couldn¡¯t help but retort.
"Of course." Shiro grinned.
Tapping her ne, Shiro summoned Ascendant Dream much to Silvia¡¯s surprise.
"What kind of weapon is that?" She asked curiously.
"Something I won in an auction." Shiro replied simply. She wasn¡¯t going to expose the fact that it was an orange grade weapon just yet. After all, even though she wanted to recruit Silvia, she hadn¡¯t spent enough time with her to warrant exposing this kind of information.
Walking away from the party, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Little Yin, you can also take this chance for some EXP. I want to see what happens when you reach level 50."
*chirp!
Soon, the party could hear distant screams that would be cut off abruptly. Silvia couldn¡¯t help but nce at Lyrica and Madison in shock.
"I-is she-"
"Yeah don¡¯t mind it. Shiro¡¯s abnormal." Madison waved it off since it was a normal sight for them to see Shiro y around with monsters higher than her level.
Sometimes they wondered if Shiro was even human.
Of course she wasn¡¯t, she¡¯s a snow woman and on top of that, she was also a feared Nanomancer in her past life. Not that they knew the truth anyways.
After resting for a short moment, the trio started to walk towards the obelisk. On their way there, they couldn¡¯t see any monsters which could only mean that Shiro took care of them all.
"I still can¡¯t believe she¡¯s so powerful..." Silvia muttered with slight disbelief.
Even though she knew Shiro could solo a raid boss when she was lower level, she didn¡¯t think it would be the same now.
"You girls took a while. I was considering the idea of killing the boss alone." Shiro grinned, seeing the trio walk towards her.
"As much as I want to think it was a joke, I know you can probably do it if you tried." Lyrica replied with a weary smile.
"Hehe~ You know me so well. Come on, we got a boss to kill." Shiro grinned before teleporting them to the boss room.
Chapter 144 Emergency Raid
Chapter 144 Emergency Raid
"Heeeh~ so the boss is a giant Dinosaur with wings huh?" Shiro said whilst craning her neck up to see the boss.
While she was marvelling at the boss, the trio behind her was in shock since they were making eye contact with the monster.
It was as if it was contemting about how it should eat them.
"Welp. Let¡¯s clip its wings first." Shiro grinned.
*Click
Snapping her finger, a giant two fold magic circle expanded out from under the boss.
*BANG BANG!
Two giant hands made from ice shot upwards and grabbed the monster¡¯s wings.
Cracking sounds could be heard as the wings were being crushed.
"Don¡¯t just watch ok? Do feel free to attack." Shiro chuckled whilst looking over her shoulder.
"R-right. Let¡¯s go." Lyrica nodded.
While the duo dashed forward to attack the boss, Shiro stood near the back using her swords and cial magic to support them.
Silvia was speechless seeing the support Shiro was giving the duo. Even without them saying anything, she was able to protect them at the perfect moment along with parrying the monster with her ice so that an attack would miss.
¡¯Wow...¡¯ She thought in awe.
"The key thing about being a support is observation." Shiro said, taking this moment to educate Silvia a little.
"While a normal party would have people calling out for support, by the time they call out, it would be too dangerous. Therefore, it¡¯s the healer¡¯s job to look at every party member and attend to them when needed.
"Plus, there should also be a sense of trust between the party and the support. The reason as to why the two of them don¡¯t call out for support is because they trust their backs to me. Unless they need something such as a blessing from you, they would focus on the boss." Shiro smiled.
Silvia nodded her head since she understood this fact. But for them to trust her so intently, it was something rarely seen.
¡¯It must be because she has the power to back it up. She gives them a sense of safety...¡¯ Silvia thought to herself since that was what all healers should aim for. Giving their party a sense of safety.
Whilst providing support for the duo, Shiro smiled when she found an opening.
"Blessing." Shiro called out as a golden glow encased her body.
Raising up her right hand into the air, Shiro twisted her wrist and created a two fold magic circle. Her swords flew upwards and gathered in the centre with a dark purple aura around the des.
Cmity¡¯s Will!
Corruption spread out from the des which caused Silvia to pale.
Since she was a healer, she was more sensitive towards elements that erased life. However, even though she hade into contact with elements which caused her unease, she never felt anything as repulsive as what was being emitted from the swords right now.
The magic circle started to construct a cial trident in which the swords started to embed themselves into.
The light blue colour of the ice suddenly turned dark purple.
"HAA!!!"
Swiping down her hand, Shiro gritted her teeth feeling the resistance from needing to control the trident.
However, before the trident could hit the boss, a blinding light covered their eyes.
*BANG!!!!!!
When they opened their eyes again, they saw Shiro¡¯s cial trident embedded into the dungeon door.
Mutters could be heard around them as they looked around.
"Che, so the dungeon mutated huh? Who¡¯s the unlucky one." Shiro clicked her tongue and retrieved her swords.
[Self Made Skill Recognised. Awarding 200 free stat points.]
¡¯Lucky.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
As for Silvia, after hearing Shiro say the words ¡¯Dungeon Mutated¡¯, her body shook slightly from the memory of their experience from the dungeon mutation.
"Is this what happens when the dungeon mutates and we¡¯re not the ones affected?" Lyrica asked.
"Yeah. When a dungeon mutates, anyone outside of the affected party is expelled out of the dungeon until either the party dies, conquers the dungeon or higher level adventurer¡¯s force the door open and rescue the affected party." Shiro shrugged.
"Huh, interesting. So what shall we do now?" Lyrica asked.
"Well we can either wait till the dungeon opens again or we can leave."
"Let¡¯s wait." Madison suggested since she wanted to tank against the boss a few more times to improve her technique.
"Alright." Shiro nodded. In the meantime, she was going to check out her new skill.
Since she didn¡¯t suggest a name, the system randomly generated one for her.
[Frozen Hell ¨C Cmity Trident]
A corrupted spear that will eat away at anything it touches.
Cost: 50,000 MP
Duration: N/A
Cool Down: 5 minutes
¡¯Cmity Trident... Hmm, this is no doubt one of my strongest skills now. Frozen Slumber is an AOE while Cmity Trident is a single target. With these two, I have both crowd control and boss killers.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Since she had gained an additional 200 stat points, she allocated them all into her INT.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Proficient Monster (231/500 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Ice Princess.
Level: 46
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 220,250/275,000
MP: 272,200/584,320
STR: 1400 (+100) <+375>
VIT: 1800 (+200) <+500>
INT: 3500 -> 3700 (+550) <+1,062>
AGI: 2200 (+450) <+662>
DEX: 2000 (+100) <+525>
DEF: 600 (+100) <+175>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 200 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice -> cial ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 2
Metal ¨C Tier 2
Shadow ¨C Tier 2 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Bnce: 500,400,000 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 cial magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Faded Snow Movement, cial Aura, cial Touch, cial Breath. Ice Field Affinity, Cold Illusion
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Bow Creation, Shield Creation, Melee Weapon Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation, Shotgun Creation
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Cmity Trident
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Lightning Magic (Tier 2), Metal Magic (Tier 2), Shadow Magic (Tier 2), Combust.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 2)]
With her MP passing the 500k mark, she had unlocked the next skill of her Nanomancer ss.
Shotgun Creation.
No doubt the weapon with the shortest range out of her arsenal but one of the most powerful.
ncing at the requirements to use her Shotgun Creation, Shiro clicked her tongue since a single shotgun required 100k MP to create. Not only that, each shot took a minimum of 25k MP.
"Tsk, it seemed so cheap before as well." Shiro muttered in annoyance. When she was in her peak, 100k MP was nothing to her.
However, 100k right now was almost 20% of her total MP.
"Mn? What¡¯s cheap?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"Nothing. Don¡¯t worry about it." Shiro smiled and waved it off.
¡¯I¡¯ll give the skill a try when I¡¯m alone.¡¯ She thought to herself before browsing on her phone for any recent news.
Unfortunately, since the slums operation was so big, it dominated the news. With titles such as ¡¯Slum factions eradicated¡¯ or ¡¯Cairosa finally released from the cancer known as the slum factions¡¯, it was hard to find anything else worthwhile.
###
"Move out of the way!" Someone shouted out, drawing attention to themselves.
Shiro nced up from her phonezily and saw that they were level 60+¡¯s.
"Ohya? Who¡¯s so privileged to have high level adventurers bust them out of the dungeon?" Shiro asked casually.
"Apparently it¡¯s a kid from the Argent Family. He was being level boosted by the Argent bodyguard." Someone replied.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled having gotten an answer.
"M-my pleasure." He blushed seeing her smile.
"If I remember correctly, the Argent Family is ranked 5 isn¡¯t it?" Madison asked sitting up.
"Argent Family. Rank 5, known for their family sword arts that are passed down to the main family members. Their sword arts, Crescent Moon de, allows them to fight with enemies higher level than them on even footing." Shiro recited from memory.
The group of 5 walked up to the dungeon door and nodded to each other.
*BOOOM!!!!!
A reddish gold aura exploded from their body as they pressed their palms against the dungeon door. Upon contact, the door let off a neon blue glow which shifted into the image of a three fold magic circle.
*PING!
The outermost ring broke apart as the party of 5 gritted their teeth.
"Only 2 more rings! Let¡¯s go!" The leader shouted out. The main family had offered them a fortune for saving the youngest son. If they failed, they would suffer quite a penalty. Not only from the Argent family but also the bacsh from the dungeon.
*PING!
Breaking the second ring, 3 of the members were flung backwards with blood flowing out of their orifices.
"Hmm... Seems like their body couldn¡¯t handle the bacsh." Shiro said whilst crouching down near one of the party members.
*PING!!!
With thest ring broken, the remaining two members copsed on their knee¡¯s and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"B team... go in and rescue the target." The leader said weakly into the mic. He needed to have a moment¡¯s rest after suffering from the dungeon¡¯s bacsh.
"Understood!"
Forcing the door open, a new group of 5 teleported into the dungeon.
"Well if we¡¯re lucky, it¡¯ll take less than an hour before we can continue." Shiro said whilst walking back to the trio.
"I guess we should get warmed up then." Madison said whilst looking around her. The other adventurer¡¯s warming up in preparation to re-enter the dungeon.
However, not long after they started to warm up, they heard a bunch of people shouting.
"What¡¯s themotion?" Lyrica asked, stopping her stretch.
"Tsk tsk tsk, whoever is in there is unlucky." Shiro frowned.
"Why? What happened?"
"I don¡¯t know, but the doors changed to a raid door." Shiro narrowed her eyes at the dungeon door.
She could see the images morph around and eventually settled to one that most would see engraved onto a raid door.
"I believe this is called Emergency Raids." Silvia frowned.
"Emergency Raids?" Shiro raised an eyebrow. Once again, this was a new concept that was never in her world. There had always been mutated dungeons but never emergency raids.
"A rare urrence where certain parameters are fulfilled to shift a dungeon into an emergency raid of the same genre. This dungeon is a dinosaur based dungeon meaning the emergency raid will be the same. A dinosaur type raid. However..."
"Since no one has entered before, they don¡¯t know how to beat this raid. Right?" Shiro frowned.
"Indeed. The worst part of this is that once the raid remains unconquered for a week, the monster¡¯s inside will break out. But once that happens, the monster¡¯s are always empowered and enraged. Seen as though this Emergency Raid is roughly level 60 to 65, only a few people inside the city will be able to kill them." Silvia shook her head.
"Well since that¡¯s the case, let¡¯s head back. We¡¯ll do another dungeon tomorrow." Shiro said nonchntly and turned around.
"Eh?" Silvia was surprised at her actions.
"Makes sense. This isn¡¯t our problem to begin with." Lyrica shrugged.
"So what dungeon will we be doing tomorrow?" Madison asked.
"I¡¯m thinking of another level 55 dungeon. Once we get the two of you to level 45, we can do the team trial I got. Sword Myth Springs." Shiro replied whilst ncing over her shoulders.
Seeing their carefree attitude of the serious situation, Silvia couldn¡¯t help tilt her head.
"Hais, I can already tell what you want ask and the answer is we don¡¯t care. A: The dungeon/raid is now 20 levels higher than us meaning we can barely do anything against the monsters. B: Even if we can, why should we? It¡¯s not like we owe them our lives or something. Plus, we don¡¯t know what the raid contains. The chances of death are much higher. You can offer me all the benefits and riches in the world, but this miss here aint gonna risk my life for someone I don¡¯t even know." Shiro rolled her eyes.
Silvia paused since it was logical. No one would risk their lives for people they didn¡¯t know. Not only that, the monsters were 20 levels higher than them. It was suicide to try to help.
"You know... I think most people would at least act concerned before walking away right?" Silvia asked with a slight twitch on her mouth.
"Why would we act? It¡¯s not like we¡¯re performing a live action film." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Nowe on. We¡¯re leaving before this ce gets too crowded. With how each of the families are, they mightpete to see who¡¯s going to get first clear for the raid." Shiro continued with a shrug of her shoulders.
While she didn¡¯t know about Emergency raids, she did know about the first clear rewards for raids. There is apparently a guaranteed high level item that will put even top tier purple grade items to shame.
However, the dangers of a first clear are apparent.
¡¯If I guess right, the families would send out bounties to hire adventurers. Shame I¡¯m not high enough level.¡¯ Shiro thought with regret.
Chapter 145 Entering The Team Trial: Sword Myth Springs
Chapter 145 Entering The Team Trial: Sword Myth Springs
"Is everyone ready?" Shiro asked with a small smile. Currently, Lyrica, Madison and Silvia were around her, preparing themselves to enter the Sword Myth Springs.
"Yeah." They nodded in sync.
While Silvia was only level 40, both Lyrica and Madison managed to hit level 45 after some early morning dungeon grinding.
"Then let¡¯s go."
Pulling out a key, Shiro turned the key and arge portal appeared in front of them.
They entered the portal one by one while Kanae was seeing them off.
"If you want, I can leave Yin with you to protect you." Shiro asked. Only she hadn¡¯t entered the portal yet.
"Yes please." Kanae agreed. She enjoyed ying around with thezy bird after all.
"Take care of her ok? As for her food, here¡¯s 3 days¡¯ worth of supplies. Don¡¯t let her eat all of it.." Shiro smiled before entering the portal.
###
Opening her eyes slowly, Shiro saw that they were in a town of sorts. Looking at the architecture, they couldn¡¯t help but notice the resemnce to old eastern type viges.
Wooden houses were positioned side by side with wooden signs telling what kind of shop it was.
If they looked a little further away, they would see somerge houses with tall concrete walls.
"Hmm... seems like the Sword Myth Springs is set in Ancient Asia." Silvia said whilst looking around.
Shiro nodded her head and nced at their mission.
[Sword Myth Springs ¨C Team Trial]
Legend has it that in the town of Nan Qi, thereys a spring that will grant those who pass all its trials a suitable reward regarding the path of the sword.
Your missions begin as you just arrive in the town as travellers.
Raising an eyebrow at the mission, Shiro checked her inventory to see if they had provided them with things to help them.
¡¯Mn? A golden pouch?¡¯
Bringing out the pouch, she opened it to find 10 gold and silver blocks that looked like weird boats.
She decided to inspect them since she didn¡¯t know what they were.
[Sycee/Yuan Bao.]
A type of currency.
¡¯Simple enough.¡¯ She thought with a shrug.
"Alright girls, let¡¯s have a quick team meeting first." Shiro called them trio over.
"First, we need to blend in so these clothes are a no go right now.
"Next, we need information. We ask the surrounding residents about the legends but try not to draw too much attention." Shiro whispered.
"Hmm... Where should we ask for the information though? We can¡¯t just ask some random people off the streets." Lyrica frowned.
"That I can take care of in the tavern. But as I said, let¡¯s go get some clothes." Shiro grinned and pointed at the shop that disyed clothes.
The girls, especially Lyrica, were excited at the opportunity to try some new clothes.
Lyrica was more excited about seeing Shiro in the clothes rather than herself but that was obvious to both Silvia and Madison. Unfortunately for Lyrica, Shiro did not know of her intent.
Entering the store, the attendant was about to greet them but paused in shock seeing four beauties enter her shop.
"Excuse me, we¡¯d like to buy some clothes." Shiro smiled cheerfully.
The group was surprised to see Shiro¡¯s aura change into a yful young girl.
"Of course. Just follow me." The attendant smiled.
They were a little surprised that the Asian looking attendant spoke fluent English but dismissed it as the trial making things easier for them. Following the attendant, they saw a bunch of clothes that had pretty much the same design but different colours.
"I know what these clothes are. They¡¯re called Hanfu. They are in essence, the clothes that people wore back in ancient China." Silvia whispered to the group.
"Heh~ Then let¡¯s go pick some." Shiro smiled and walked over to the section that contained the most amount of white Hanfu.
Browsing through the selection, Shiro eventually settled with one that transitions from an ice white to sky blue and finally, to a light magenta. There were embroidered patterns along the sleeves and the skirt which gave the outfit more re.
In addition to this, it also came with a magenta ribbon that paired well with the overall outfit.
"Is there a changing room?" Shiro asked.
"Yes, just go up the stairs and turn left. It is there where you shall find a room to change into the clothes." The attendant replied with a small bow.
Nodding her head as thanks, Shiro followed her instructions and changed into the new outfit.
She tried to conjure up an ice mirror but frowned when she realised her magic had mostly been sealed away.
Narrowing her eyes, she had a small suspicion on what¡¯s allowed and what¡¯s not allowed in this world.
¡¯Maybe because it¡¯s ¡¯Sword¡¯ Myth Springs, we can only use swords and sword skills?¡¯ She thought whilst rubbing her chin.
Tapping her ne, she was able to summon her Ascendant Dream without a problem.
¡¯Well I guess we can handle it with just our sword skills.¡¯
While she wasn¡¯t a swordswoman, she could use her Orange Grade Swords to help her out. Lyrica was a sword focused ss so she¡¯s fine and Madison had her attack knight for the greatsword.
That only left Silvia with her being a healer. She didn¡¯t have any sword or skill to help her out in this trial.
"Perhaps we¡¯ll be able to buy her a sword or something simr." Shiro muttered as she prepared to walk back downstairs to pay for her outfit.
"Walking out of the changing room, she saw the three of them ready to change into their new outfits.
"The changing room¡¯s all yours." Shiro smiled.
Silvia and Madison nodded whilst Lyrica burned the image of Shiro in a Hanfu into her brain.
"Is there anything off?" Shiro asked seeing Lyrica¡¯s intense gaze.
"No, it¡¯s perfect." Lyrica replied.
"Perfect? In that case then phew. Go get changed while I pay for this." Shiro said whilst walking towards the attendant.
"So how much is this?" She asked.
"Including the clothes that your friends chose, it¡¯ll be 5 silvers." The attendant smiled.
"Hou~ 5 silvers huh? Are you sure that¡¯s the right price?" Shiro smiled with slight amounts of killing intent.
The attendant paled slightly as she knew she poked the wrong nest.
"*cough* Look at me. I must have grown old and remembered wrong. All of this is only 3 silvers." The attendant corrected herself. She had initially wanted to swindle a few more silvers from Shiro and the group since they looked new to this town. However, she didn¡¯t think the little girl in front of her would be so terrifying.
"Mn, is that so? Then how about you give us 4 of those veils over there?" Shiro said, pointing towards the stand that disyed a variety of veils.
"Sure sure, pick whichever one you want." The attendant fawned over Shiro, hoping to not earn her ire anymore. Especially after feeling her killing intent.
Gently throwing the attendant three silvers, Shiro walked over to the stand and picked up four veils.
While it wouldn¡¯t hide their countenancespletely, it was better than nothing.
Waiting for a short moment, Shiro saw the trio walk out of the changing rooms.
Lyrica chose a light green Hanfu with white and yellow highlights, Madison chose ck and red whilst Silvia shock a simple white one.
"Take a veil and put it on." Shiro called out and passed them three veils to split amongst themselves.
She chose a white veil since it matched Hanfu.
After putting on their veils, the group left the building.
"So where are we going now?" Lyrica asked whilst fiddling with her veil a little. Since it was her first time wearing one, she wasn¡¯t used to it.
"I¡¯ll be going to the tavern to try get us some intel. You girls cane with me if you want." Shiro replied, looking over her shoulder in the process.
"Nah we¡¯re good. I¡¯m thinking we should just go around the town and learn more about it for the first day. Like the way things work around here." Madison suggested.
"Good idea. While you girls do that, I¡¯ll go to the tavern over there for some info and I¡¯ll also get us a few rooms for tonight." Shiro said whilst pointing towards a building in the distance.
"Got it. See youter." Madison nodded as she walked away with Lyrica and Silvia.
They decided that it was best to move as a three since Shiro can handle herself.
Watching them leave, Shiro made her way to the tavern.
¡¯In settings like this, there will always be people who will talk once you share some alcohol with them. Plus, they¡¯re going to drink with this miss.¡¯ She mused to herself.
Entering the tavern, she saw that it wasn¡¯t the same kind of tavern she knew.
Instead of a main counter where you can sit down and drink, there were tables and waiters instead.
¡¯Hmm... In that case, things might be a little more annoying.¡¯
Sitting down on an empty table, Shiro gestured for the waiter toe over to her.
"Hello miss, how can I help today?" He asked politely whilst trying to suppress the blush that crept up onto his face.
"How much is your strongest alcohol?" She asked with a soft tone.
"Ah that¡¯ll be a few coppers for the most basic Baijiu (White Spirit)." He replied with confusion.
¡¯Why would a beautiful girl want Baijiu?¡¯
"Hmm... then can you give me enough Baijiu for a single silver?" Shiro asked.
"dly,ing right up!" The waiter replied. Since she was going to pay, why would he worry about why she wanted their best wine?
Looking at the vase that had a Chinese character written on the side, Shiro unplugged it and smelt the aroma.
¡¯Hm, not bad I guess?¡¯
While she couldn¡¯t taste it, she could most certainly smell the strong alcoholic scent from the container.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro brought the container to her lip and drank a fewrge mouthfuls.
The scene shocked the surroundings guests since Baijiu would normally be drank in small wine cups. Not to mention the fact that one would normally have arge break between shots.
However, looking at Shiro who was downing the alcohol, they couldn¡¯t help but cringe just from the thought of how it would taste.
"Little waiter, why don¡¯t you tell me some interesting stories about Nan Qi." Shiro asked, cing the container back on the table.
"..." The waiter couldn¡¯t respond since he just saw a young girl down around half a container worth of Baijiu in one go.
Shiro frowned a little before waving her and in front of his face.
"Ah! Sorry, can you repeat that please?" He apologised.
"I said, why don¡¯t you tell me some interesting stories about Nan Qi."
"Well other than the Sword Myth Springs, Nan Qi doesn¡¯t really have anything else." He shrugged since everything about Nan Qi was average.
If it wasn¡¯t for the legend of the Sword Myth Springs, hardly anyone would know about this ce.
"In that case then tell me about the Sword Myth Springs." Shiro said, gesturing for him to sit down opposite her.
"Where shall I start..."
###
In the end, Shiro had listened to the waiter talk about the sword myth springs for an entire hour. However, the worst part of this was that she could simplify everything she heard in the hour.
A powerful warrior, unmatched in the world, told everyone where he got his power before being killed by the onught of over 100,000 men.
After him, there had been several other powerful swordsmen who said the same thing which solidified the legend. Therefore, Nan Qi would get visitors all year round looking for the sword myth springs.
While only a few have managed to find the springs, they¡¯ve never divulged the actual location resulting in other people having to look for it themselves.
Some would spend years here with no sess.
"That makes our mission harder doesn¡¯t it?" Madison sighed.
"Not necessarily." Shiro grinned.
"I¡¯ve managed to gather a bunch of main locations that people visit to look for the sword myth springs. Since other people managed to find the springs without knowing about where it is, there¡¯s no reason for us to fail here either." She said unfolding a map she bought.
On the map, there are several crosses that represent the prime locations.
"Is there more that we should know?" Silvia asked.
"In fact, there is. Some of these locations might feature a boss that we have to beat. Apparently it¡¯s randomised so I¡¯m not too sure about their spawns. However, we¡¯ll find out tomorrow once we go to the locations." Shiro smiled before dismissing them back to their rooms.
Storing everything away, Shiro decided to sit by the window for a bit and watched the night sky.
¡¯Lyrica seemed to want to talk to me about something else today. I wonder what she wants.¡¯ She thought whilst waiting for Lyrica to knock on her door.
*Don Don Don
As expected, she heard a knock after a rather short wait.
"You wanted to talk to me?" Shiro asked with a smile whilst opening the door.
"You found out?"
"It was pretty obvious from my point of view." Shiro shrugged with a chuckle.
"What I wanted to talk to you about is a strange feeling I¡¯ve had since entering this ce. It¡¯s like when your attention is dragged towards an item even though you don¡¯t know what it is. I keep having a feeling that I should head towards the north."
"Hmm... that is rather strange. So you say you keep on having the feeling of wanting to go north?"
"Yeah."
"We¡¯ll make our way to the north tomorrow and see what¡¯s going on then. Is there anything else you want me to know?" Shiro asked.
"There is actually another thing. I think I might be having a breakthrough in my hidden proficiency."
Chapter 146 Sword Myth Springs: First Test
Chapter 146 Sword Myth Springs: First Test
"Pardon?" Shiro asked with uncertainty in her voice.
"I think I might be having a breakthrough in my Hidden Proficiency." Lyrica repeated.
"..."
Shiro narrowed her eyes in slight confusion.
¡¯Even though we know what her weapon of choice is, it is still nigh impossible for her to feel a breakthrough so soon.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
The hardest part about advancing Hidden Proficiency is that most of thebat potential is instinctive. The users don¡¯t actively know what they¡¯re doing so it is harder for them to improve on themselves.
That was the nature of Hidden Proficiency. Even though they were a gift from the heavens, the trials that one must go through to improve is equally as tough.
There was no free food in the world after all.
"What makes you think that?" Shiro asked as she wanted to make sure that Lyrica was indeed having a breakthrough.
"Well, when I fight with my dual ended swords, I feel like I can tap into moments where everything slows down. But no matter how hard I try; I can¡¯t go any further. It¡¯s like a small veil is stopping me from advancing. I¡¯m so close yet so far." Lyrica sighed.
"Hmm... That is indeed the feeling you get when you¡¯re on the verge of a breakthrough." Shiro leaned back a little.
¡¯When an adventurer gets this feeling, it is when they¡¯re about to fully form their attack domain. The fact that things are slowing down in her eyes means she¡¯s slowly grasping all the movements in a certain area around them. For Lyrica to have this feeling so soon, she must be working hard to gain experience in fighting.¡¯ She thought with a small smile.
"I believe that what you¡¯re experiencing now is a small bottleneck just before unlocking your attack domain."
"Attack Domain?" Lyrica tilted her head slightly in confusion.
"An Attack Domain is where one is able to grasp everything in the area around them. This is the step before grasping a Full Domain but I¡¯ll tell you thatter. Personally, I¡¯ve never managed to form the Attack Domain so I can¡¯t really teach you about it." Shiro smiled apologetically. She wanted to help but she couldn¡¯t do anything right now.
When she reached her apex, she had her Nanomancer ss to create an entire fortress to help win her battles. There was no need for her to get close to the enemy at all. Therefore, she never even managed to develop an attack domain.
¡¯And I had managed to achieve full body control as well. What a waste.¡¯ Shiromented.
With a talent like full body control, theoretically, it would have been a cakewalk to achieve an attack domain. But in the end, her advantages with range never gave her the chance to form the attack domain.
"Maybe we¡¯ll find out when we fight some monster¡¯s tomorrow." Lyrica sighed whilstying her back on the bed.
"Hehe~ Why don¡¯t you let me sleep here instead?" Lyrica grinned and shifted her body onto her side before patting the spot next to her.
Shiro smiled wearily before walking over.
Lyrica¡¯s excitement was cut short when Shiro flicked her on the forehead.
"Stop messing around and go to sleep already." Shiro chuckled slightly.
"Fine~"
Walking out of the room, Lyrica closed the door and sighed sadly.
"But I wasn¡¯t messing around..." She whispered quietly before walking away.
In the next morning, they gathered just outside the town and prepared to go to the first marker.
"Before we go, let¡¯s see what we can do first. I¡¯m able to summon my four swords but they¡¯re in their base state. I can¡¯t use any of the elemental shifts." Shiro said whilst summoning her Ascendant Dream. While she could use her Nanomancer skills to create ded weapons, that was the limit of her power. She couldn¡¯t make any of her guns or armour.
"I can still use all of my sword skills. But that¡¯s it. I can¡¯t use anything else other than them." Lyrica responded.
"Mn, I can only use Attack Demon Knight." Madison shrugged.
"What about you Silvia?" Shiro asked since she was her biggest concern. Silvia was a healer, all of her experience and skills focused on healing so there was no way she could use the sword.
"Surprisingly, I can still use the most basic healing spell." Silvia admitted while a golden glow appeared in her hand.
"Handy." Shiro nodded her head.
"But take a sword just in case." She said and floated one of her swords over to Silvia.
Grabbing the sword, Silvia was a little surprised by how heavy they were.
"Wow, these things are heavy." She admitted whilst trying to hold the sword steady but eventually failed.
"Really? They feel kinda light." Shiro tilted her head whilst juggling two swords in the air.
Looking at Shiro who was juggling the swords like they were bean bags, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a twitch on the corner of her lips.
¡¯Little miss! I¡¯m not abnormal like you!¡¯ She thought in her mind.
"Shiro¡¯s right you know, these are kinda light." Lyrica said as Madison nodded. They both felt the weight of the swords and swung them around with ease.
¡¯But you¡¯re warrior based sses! Shiro¡¯s a mage!!!¡¯
She only thought this since the moment she dropped the sword on the ground, she could clearly see it sink downwards. While it was true that swords were heavier the higher level you are because of a person¡¯s strength increase. However, even then, it wasn¡¯t something a mage should be able to handle.
Which only meant...
¡¯Shiro¡¯s STR should be ridiculously high!¡¯ Silvia thought in disbelief.
What she doesn¡¯t know is that while Shiro¡¯s STR is indeed higher than average, it was still quite a bit lower than warriors. BUT, the main reason was because her monster title basically doubles the values of each point. One can say that right now, Shiro was a warrior ss adventurer that had twice the attack power of mages her level.
"Hmm, then how about you take two daggers then?" Shiro asked.
Taking out two spare daggers that she had kept in her inventory just in case, she handed them over to Silvia.
She did try to take things other than weapons out her inventory but something was blocking them from being used.
Other than a few exceptions and ded weapons, her inventory was basically for show.
"These are a bit better." Silvia admitted whilst testing the daggers.
"Good, then we¡¯ll see if we can find some low level monsters for you to get a feel for them first. We don¡¯t want to drop you straight into a high level fight after all." Shiro smiled.
However, both Lyrica and Madison paled at that smile since it was the same smile she had when she threw them towards a boss higher level than them.
¡¯You have my condolences.¡¯ They both prayed.
###
"HELP ME!!!!!" Silvia shouted out whilst running away from a level 40 horned rabbit that was chasing after her.
"Just stab it~ It¡¯s that simple." Shiro grinned whilst she was sitting on a tree branch with Lyrica and Madison.
Both Lyrica and Madison watched since they have somewhat gotten used to this now. It was somewhat of a small tradition in their party.
"Shouldn¡¯t we get her something higher level than her? Why just a rabbit?" Madison asked since she felt that Shiro was being biased.
Both she and Lyrica had to face the wrath of a boss while Silvia only needed to fight a rabbit.
"She¡¯s just a healer. I can¡¯t just throw her towards a boss." Shiro shrugged.
"That being said, since we¡¯re in a trial, death¡¯s don¡¯t count..." She then narrowed her eyes towards Silvia.
"I HEARD THAT!!!" Silvia shouted out whilst throwing her dagger backwards.
*DANG!
The horned rabbit only swung its head to the side and knocked the dagger away.
"You forced me to do this!!!" She gritted her teeth and swung the dagger towards the rabbit.
However, the end result was the rabbit overpowering her and knocking her second dagger away.
"F*CKKKKK!!!!" Silvia shouted out and continued to run away.
"She¡¯s cursing now." Lyrica reported.
"Second stage already? Hmm, that was rather quick." Madison nodded.
During this tradition, one would go through the five stages of grief.
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and finally, eptance.
"Please horned rabbit! I¡¯ve always treated your race kindly!!!" Silvia shouted out behind her.
"Ah, the bargaining stage." Lyrica said whilst pointing at Silvia who was on the verge of tears.
"She¡¯s really charging through the stages isn¡¯t she." Shiro nodded.
"Why me!!!!!" Silvia cried out as tears started to flow.
( TT - TT )
"Depression huh?" Madison raised an eyebrow.
"I¡¯m guessing she¡¯ll take a few seconds to enter the eptance." Shiro yawned slightly.
And as she had guessed, Silvia¡¯s face slowly transitioned into the face of a woman who had found inner peace.
¡¯So this is the party. If I want to join, I need to be abnormal myself.¡¯ She thought to herself in enlightenment.
"Wow, she looks quite happy huh?"
"Indeed."
*PUCHI!!!! RIP!!!!!!
<_>
"HOLY SH*T!!! DID SHE JUST BITE THE RABBIT!!!" Madison cried out in shock seeing Silvia bite the rabbit on the side of the neck. She almost fell off the tree because of this.
The horned rabbit convulsed in pain whilst Silvia walked over to her dagger before picking it up.
Crouching beside the rabbit, she stabbed it through the head and ended it¡¯s suffering.
"Seems like she¡¯s epted her situation and awakened a new side of her." Shiro smiled happily.
Jumping off the tree, they walked towards her.
"So how was it?" Shiro asked.
"... Did I just bite a f*cking rabbit on the neck?!?!" Silvia asked in disbelief.
"Yup, congrattions." Shiro replied with a grin.
"Congrattions my ass!!!" Silvia retorted having the sudden urge to flip a table in anger.
However, Lyrica noticed how this small tort- activity had opened Silvia up more to the team. She seemed more rxed around them now.
Previously, she was still a little awkward since she couldn¡¯t just buddy up to Shiro. But now, the duo was joking around with Shiro grinning and Silviaining about her suffering.
¡¯That¡¯s just like her.¡¯ Lyrica smiled softly seeing Shiro integrate Silvia into the party so quickly.
*p
"Alright, now that Silvi¡¯s managed to awaken a new side to her, I think she¡¯s ready for the real test." Shiro smiled.
"Hold up did you just call her Silvi?" Lyrica asked feeling a little jealous.
"Is there a problem?"
"Well you call Madison Madi and Silvia Silvi. What about my nickname?"
"Hmm... Lyrica¡¯s kinda hard to shorten though. Lyri? Rica? Riri? It just doesn¡¯t have the same Lyrica feel." Shiro exined.
"...That...is indeed true." Lyrica nodded her head after a short moment.
"I like Riri, but you¡¯re right. It doesn¡¯t give the same feeling as calling Lyrica well... Lyrica." Madison shrugged her shoulders.
"So out of our party, only me and you don¡¯t have a nickname yet." Shiro smiled and patted Lyrica on the shoulders.
"It fine!" Lyrica nodded her head eagerly since that meant it was one more thing she had inmon with Shiro.
"Sure I guess? Well enough about that, let¡¯s go to the first marker." Shiro shrugged at Lyrica¡¯s behaviour.
###
Once they arrived at the location, they were surprised about the scenery. The marker pointed them towards a huge waterfall that was connected to theke. In the middle of theke was a small ind that had a tall stone tablet situated in the centre of the tablet.
"Seems like we¡¯re a bitte." Shiro said, seeing a few groups waiting by the side.
"Oh? Someone is going to the ind." Madison called out, drawing their attention to the ind.
The group that was rowing a boat to the ind consisted of five people who were basically wearing the same uniform.
While Lyrica, Madison and Silvia was watching the group, Shiro focused her hearing on the surrounding conversations to learn more about them.
¡¯It seems like this group of people are known for their proficiency with the sword. Apparently, they¡¯re from the Severing Moon Sect, a sect famous for their swordsmanship.¡¯ She thought, simplifying all of the things she had heard.
"Wait, why are they burying their swords into the ground?" Lyrica frowned. The group had stabbed their sword into the ground to the point that only the guard and handle could be seen.
After waiting for a while, the five of them looked at each other before nodding and pulled their swords out. Each of the des were covered with a white glow.
*RUMBLE!!!!
Quickly stabilising herself, Shiro made sure the others were fine before looking back at the group of five.
¡¯Water Dragons?!- Wait no... they¡¯re not dragons.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes seeing fiverge dragon-like serpents erupt from theke around them.
However, what happened next caused the surrounding spectators to pale.
The serpent¡¯s hiss caused the sword users to stumble around as if they were in a drunken state. While this was happening, bones would also shoot out of the serpent¡¯s body and attack them relentlessly.
"Holy damn..." Shiro muttered with a frown.
"Can we really do this?" Silvia asked with uncertainty.
"This is a trial; they won¡¯t give us something we can¡¯t do." Lyrica said but she too had her own concerns about this test."
"...Let¡¯s give it a try. It¡¯s fine even if we die since it¡¯s a trial." Madison followed up after a short pause.
While they were talking, the group from the Severing Moon Sect was ripped apart and eaten by the serpents. After having their meal, the serpents retreated back into the water.
While the scene caused several teams to leave in fear, there was still quite a lot of people staying behind to challenge test.
Chapter 147 Sword Myth Springs: A Serpents Gynophobia
Chapter 147 Sword Myth Springs: A Serpent''s Gynophobia
Waiting patiently by the trees, the group watched as each team challenged the boss. While there was a 95% mortality rate, there were times when they would see groups that pass.
The key to passing the test was to survive long enough. Once the time is up, the boss would retreat back into the water. Following this, a silver glow would encase the challengers.
Once it was finally their turn, the girls didn¡¯t say anything but sit on the boat and travelled towards the ind.
"Wow..."
"Anyone know of thesedies?"
"Could they be from a famous sect?"
"Shouldn¡¯t we stop them? It would be a waste for beauties like them to die."
Hearing the chatter around them, Shiro frowned before releasing a sliver of killing intent. She couldn¡¯t have them distracting her party members before an important fight after all.
After being exposed to the killing intent, the surrounding spectators felt like Shiro was much more dangerous than the actual boss¡¯s and shut up immediately. As for the more powerful cultivators, they snapped their eyes open and looked at Shiro in surprise as well as jubtion.
¡¯If a young girl like her has such a powerful killing intent, that means she¡¯s experienced. If I can recruit her into my team, I should be able to conquer the bosses easily.¡¯ They would think along these lines. Each of them started to formte a n to recruit her and while they were doing this, they kept their eye on Shiro so that they could evaluate her potential.
¡¯Let¡¯s see if her potential and experience matches up.¡¯ They thought to themselves.
Upon arriving on the ind, Shiro found that the space avable was surprisinglyrge. Each of them had enough room to spin in a circle with a sword and not hit each other.
"Trial of the water serpent. Bury your sword into the ground to reinforce your sword. Once that is done, survive the onught of the water serpents for 10 minutes. Failure means death." Shiro muttered out whilst reading the sight.
Tapping her ne, Shiro summoned her Ascendant Dream and buried it into the ground.
Lyrica, Madison and Silvia did the same even though Silvia only had two daggers.
Amotion instantly erupted seeing Shiro summon four floating swords.
"She has a Divine Relic!!!" Someone shouted out.
"But I¡¯ve never heard of a divine relic in the form of four floating swords."
"Maybe they¡¯re individual relics? Which could mean she is controlling four divine relics."
Greed started to surface in their eyes.
Frowning at the different stares, Shiro eventually ignored it since she had bigger concerns.
[Conditions met: Challenge starts in 10 seconds. Please prepare yourselves.]
Looking at the system notification, they looked at each other and nodded.
"As nned as before, Silvia will be in the middle of all of us since she¡¯s not too proficient with daggers." Shiro said seriously and pulled out her swords.
Holding a de in each hand, she let the other two float around them as an extrayer of protection.
*RUMBLE!!!!!
Seeing the five serpents appear, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but whistle at how big they looked up close.
*HSSSSS!!!!
"Eh?" Shiro muttered in shock seeing her vision started to blur. Stumbling around in a drunken state, Shiro found it hard to focus her mind on anything.
¡¯This is bad.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Meanwhile, both Madison and Silvia was experiencing the same thing. Lyrica on the other hand, was able to somewhat focus her mind.
*DANG DANG!!!!
Parrying two of the bones, Lyrica then grabbed one of Shiro¡¯s floating swords before shing upwards at another bone.
*CRACK!!
¡¯Damn that¡¯s sharp!¡¯ Lyrica thought in shock.
While she did know that Shiro¡¯s swords where orange grade weapon¡¯s, their quality far surpassed her expectations.
While Lyrica was trying her best at defending the party, both Madison and Shiro were struggling.
Even though Shiro¡¯s situation was slightly better since her instincts were top notch, Madison wasn¡¯t as fortunate.
Protecting her body with her greatsword, she gritted her teeth in pain. Due to her drunken state, she wasn¡¯t able to parry the strikes meaning she could only resort to resisting against it with brute force.
"Come on!!!" She shouted out whilst kicking her greatsword upwards in order to force the bones back.
As for Silvia, since she was being covered by the trio, she could only use her healing spells to try help the party out.
¡¯This can¡¯t go on.¡¯ Shiro frowned after seeing the current situation.
¡¯Right now, I¡¯m barely hanging by using my instinc-¡¯
*DANG!
Quickly parrying two bones with her swords, Shiro flicked her wrist and send them back.
"Motherf*cker! This miss is trying to think here!!!" Shiro cursed out towards the water serpent.
However, the serpents gave her no respite since the attacks intensified.
Shiro who wasn¡¯t even given a break to think clearly, gritted her teeth in anger.
Taking a deep breath, she erased the emotions on her face and tried to push her focus to its limit. Even with the serpents forcing her into a drunken state.
¡¯She¡¯s changed!¡¯ The more powerful spectators thought, seeing a change in Shiro¡¯s aura.
"Silvia, Madison, stay close to me." Shiro ordered seriously.
The duo nodded their head seeing how serious Shiro was right now.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro sent one of her swords up into the air. With only one sword in her hand and three floating around her, she recreated her dualyered defence that she had employed back in the trial to obtain her sword.
However, due to the fact that she also needed to protect Silvia and Madison, her defence had to be spread out. This caused several holes to appear which the serpents took advantage of.
*DANG DANG!
Twisting her body in the air, Shiro deflected the iing bones.
"Tsk! This miss isn¡¯t the defensive type. LYRICA! Are you able to help Silvia and Madison for a bit?" Shiro shouted out since her defence was the weakest. She was a pure attack type that followed the principle of kill them before they hit you.
"Yeah I can. Just go do what you need to do." Lyrica nodded since her current state allowed her to deflect the iing attacks without too much strain.
Hearing her response, Shiro flicked her wrist and retracted her swords so that they floated around her.
"What is she doing?! Isn¡¯t this just sending her teammates to their deaths?!" The spectators shouted out in shock.
From their perspective, all Shiro needed to do was survive for a little longer and they¡¯ll pass. For her to suddenly retract her defences waspletely suicidal.
Ignoring their questioning gazes, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but want to p everyone one of them that was staring so intently.
¡¯This miss is trying to focus in a drunken state! Can you not stare so tantly!¡¯
Crouching down on the ground, Shiro jumped up towards the first serpent.
*HSSS!!!
Shooting out more bones from its body, the serpent red at Shiro, wanting nothing more than to kill the person in front of it.
However, Shiro twisted her body gracefully in the air and dodged the bones. Flexing her fingers, she controlled the swords to help reposition her body on the bones and dashed towards the serpent¡¯s head.
Grabbing two of her swords, she controlled the other two to rip open the serpent¡¯s jaw.
*CRACK!!! HSSS!!!!
The crowd suddenly had the urge to flip a table when they saw Shiro dive into the serpent¡¯s mouth.
"IS SHE SUICIDAL!? CRAZY B*TCH!!" They cursed out in shock.
*RIPPPP!!!!!
Before they could even digest this feeling, they saw Shiro sh her way out of the serpent¡¯s back, snapping the spine in the process.
This scene caused the other serpents to widen their eyes in shock.
¡¯Chance!¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing a perfect chance to kill another one.
Stepping on one of her floating swords, she catapulted her body towards another serpent.
"HAAA!!" She shouted out whilst stabbing both its eyes.
*HSSS!!!!
Switching her grip on the sword into a reverse grip, Shiro twisted her body clockwise and ripped out a chunk of the serpent¡¯s eye.
"Go!" Shemanded as all four swords dived into the eye and started to wreak havoc inside the serpent¡¯s body.
Looking at their fellow serpent brother convulse in pain before dying, the remaining three serpents retreated hastily back into theke.
¡¯OH MY GOD!! Mother! She¡¯s too scary!!!¡¯ The serpents wanted to cry. The thought of revenge didn¡¯t even ur since she could easily kill their brother while in a drunken state. If she was fully focused, would she erase them in an instant?!
Little did they know, THEY WERE COMPLETELY RIGHT!
Landing back on the centre ind, Shiro sighed at the fact that her Hanfu was stained with the serpent¡¯s blood.
"What a waste." Shemented since she quite liked the look of the Hanfu.
"Mn? What¡¯s up?" She asked seeing Lyrica, Madison and Silvia look at her in disbelief.
"What¡¯s up my ass!!! Did you just kill two of the test conductors?!" Silvia felt like she wanted to hit Shiro in the head.
"And?" Shiro tilted her head in confusion.
"Aren¡¯t we supposed to survive? It never stated to kill the conductors." Silvia replied.
"But I mean, it just told us to survive. It never said HOW we should survive. If there are none to threaten us, doesn¡¯t that mean we survive anyway?" Shiro shrugged.
Silvia didn¡¯t what to say since Shiro¡¯s thought process was infallible. It was as she said, the tablet only told them to survive for 10 minutes. There was no mention of if they could attack the attackers or not. They just assumed they had to defence due to the key word ¡¯Survive¡¯.
A short momentter, a silver glow encased their bodies, signifying their sess in the test.
<_>
¡¯It bloody worked!¡¯ The crowd thought in disbelief.
When they saw Shiro kill two out of the five serpents, they were sure that she would fail the test. But reality thought different.
"Well, let¡¯s go onto the next test site then." Shiro smiled and led them away from the area.
Watching the group of girls leave, the spectators didn¡¯t know if the test would continue.
The next group looked at each other before making their way to the centre ind.
Burying their swords, they waited for the test to start.
When they felt the familiar rumble, they sighed in relief.
¡¯At least we can still continue with this test.¡¯ They thought.
The rumble continued for a bit longer before stopping. One of the serpents poked his head out warily and started to look around, making sure that Shiro wasn¡¯t in sight.
It sighed in relief before looking at the next group.
However, when it saw a woman, it widened its eyes and plunged back into theke.
Not too long after, a tail with some ink on the tip started to write something badly on the tablet.
"The hell!" The woman shouted out in anger.
Meanwhile...
"The next spot shouldn¡¯t be too far from us. It¡¯s in a cave behind some foliage." Shiro said, pointing at the map.
Arriving at the location, they were surprised to see that no one was outside.
"Hmm... maybe the test is inside?" Lyrica suggested.
"Might be."
Leading the group into the cave, Shiro frowned seeing the visibility drop massively.
It was as if they walked through a realm and entered a in of darkness.
"Everyone stay close to each other." Shiro called out.
However, when she got no reply, she started to worry.
Moving around, Shiro tried to look her for the girls but she couldn¡¯t feel anything. One of the strangest aspects in this area was that she couldn¡¯t feel the walls either. The longer she stayed here, the lower her eyesight became.
Eventually, she couldn¡¯t see anything but darkness. No shades of ck, no nothing.
¡¯Seems like the trial has started already.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
Tapping her ne, she summoned her swords once more. Holding one sword in her right hand, she allowed the other three to orbit around her.
Suddenly, a dense amount of killing intent assaulted her senses. The density rivalled her own much to her shock.
A feeling of danger washed over her as she moved to the side on instinct.
"ARG!" She suddenly felt a de pierce her left shoulder.
¡¯Ssss! Is this trial scaled to one¡¯s capabilities?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself whilst increasing the defences around her.
Filtering out the killing intent with her own intent, Shiro tried to lock on to the assant. However, she frowned when she realised her other senses being cut off. She could see, hear or touch anything.
Even the feeling of her hand gripping the handle of her sword faded away.
During this, an idea popped into her head.
"Che, what an annoying way to cultivate one¡¯s sense of danger." Shiro muttered with a click of her tongue.
She understood that by cutting off the senses, one would start to rely more on their instincts.
¡¯Fine, I¡¯ll y along for now.¡¯
Rxing her entire body, her aura started to fade. It was as if she suddenly died on the spot.
Allowing herself to sink into her instincts, Shiro waited patiently for the assant to take the bait.
She felt danger overwhelm her from above and flicked her fingers. Two swords stabbed upwards but failed to pierce anything.
"You think a feint can mislead this miss?" Shiro said coldly, appearing in front of her assant.
Her sword plunged into its neck, stopping it in its tracks.
Gripping its face, Shiro sunk her fingers into all the openings she could feel. The eyes, nose and ear.
¡¯A small head.¡¯ She thought before mming the pommel of her other sword into its jaw.
The result of her action was theplete separation of the upper skull to the jaw the to the two opposing forces she applied on the assant¡¯s skull.
Its death returned all of her senses back to her.
Looking around, she saw that she was back outside the cave with a dark purple glow that encased her body before fading away.
"Trial passed huh? Now all that¡¯s left is to wait." Shiro muttered, looking back at the cave. She had to wait for the rest of her party toe out.
Chapter 148 Blood Demon
Chapter 148 Blood Demon
Waiting just outside of the cave, Shiro started to frown.
[yer: -Silvia- Has been eliminated.]
[yer: -Madison- Has been eliminated.]
Furrowing her brows, Shiro started to shake her leg up and down restlessly.
¡¯Two of them have failed, would Lyrica pass?¡¯ She thought with uncertainty.
However, another problem appeared. With both Silvia and Madison now out of the trial, theycked a tank and healer. Since this was a team trial, you were supposed toplete it as a team.
Shiro would look back and forth from the cave and her system. Thankfully, however, she saw Lyrica slowly walk out of the cave. Her body was entirely inured with blood and wounds all over her.
"Lyrica!" Shiro cried out in shock and dashed over to help her.
Looking at Lyrica¡¯s injured, Shiro didn¡¯t even know how she was still standing.
"I passed." Lyrica smiled tiredly whilst rxing in Shiro¡¯s embrace.
"Un, good job. Rest for a little bit." Shiro smiled and patted Lyrica¡¯s head.
Scooping her up into a princess carry, Shiro took her over to a tree and sat her in the shade.
Lyrica would have normally burned the feeling into her mind but right now, she could barely feel the rest of her body.
A single movement would send a pulse of pain through her body.
"Do you have any healing potions on you?" Shiro asked gently. She knew that injured people normally wouldn¡¯t like to have loud noises around them.
"I do but I can¡¯t take them out." Lyrica replied with a shake of her head.
Frowning slightly, Shiro decided to try her luck in town.
"Wait for me here, I¡¯ll go buy some medicine for you."
However, before Shiro could leave, a new concern popped into her head.
¡¯With a beautiful girl like Lyrica injured and defenceless near a tree, isn¡¯t that asking for her to be *ahem* attacked?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Actually, let me move you to somewhere more suitable." Shiro said, changing her mind.
Lyrica only nodded her head obediently.
Scooping her up into a princess carry once more, Shiro made sure that Lyrica wasfortable by using Third Phantom.
By transferring all of the momentum and recoil into her own body, she can avoid harming Lyrica.
¡¯It¡¯s like a bed...¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself. Apart from the wind blowing on her face along with subtle shaking to inform her that they were moving, Lyrica felt like she was currently resting her body on a small ice bed.
Looking around the area, Shiro found an obscure cave that was situated at the side of a mountain. To get to the cave, one would need to parkour from one side of the mountain to the other.
¡¯This should be fine. Not many people can get up here.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"This should be quite safe for you. Wait for me here ok?" Shiro smiled.
"Un." Lyrica nodded her head.
Walking back to the entrance, Shiro looked back at Lyrica before leaping out of the cave.
Dashing through the forest, she soon found herself back at the entrance of the town.
"Now then, where is the pharmacy." Shiro muttered with a frown.
Walking to the first stall she saw, she called over owner.
"Hel-"
"Where can I buy medicine?" Shiro asked, cutting her off.
"Eh?"
"Where can I buy medicine. It¡¯s urgent." Shiro repeated. Considering the severity of Lyrica¡¯s wounds, there is the possibility that she was inflicted with a bleed status. If she doesn¡¯t get medicine quickly, it would rob Lyrica of this golden chance.
¡¯Since she said she could sense something in the north, I can¡¯t let her fail this trial.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Ah, medicine. Right, erm, go down the road and take the right alley next to the tavern. You should be able to spot old man Gu¡¯s medicine shop-"
Before the woman could even finish, Shiro was long gone.
Following the instructions of the owner, she saw a wooden door with the sight, ¡¯Old Man Gu¡¯s Pharmacy¡¯.
*Don Don
Shiro knocked on the door and waited patiently. Of course, that was a slight stretch since if the person didn¡¯t respond in 30 seconds she was going to kick the door down.
"Coming..." A weak voice called out.
*Creak~
A wrinkled hand opened the door.
Looking at the small old man in front of her, Shiro wondered if adventurers could even age like that. It was due to the fact that while adventurers did age, they would retain quite a lot of their fighting power even at thest stages of their life span.
For a person to look this feeble and weak, it was truly a first for Shiro.
"Ah what a surprise. A young girl like you would visit this old man." He chuckled whilst checking out Shiro.
¡¯A slender waist, smooth skin, thin limbs and a beautiful face. While the white hair is a little weird, it¡¯s not bad I suppose hehe.¡¯ He grinned inwardly.
Pulling a face of absolute disgust, Shiro already knew he was nothing good.
"You got any medicine for treating arge amount of sword wounds? Oh and also some disinfectant and some medical bandages." Shiro asked whilst suppressing the disgust in her heart.
"Hou hou, I do but they¡¯re expensive. From the look of things, you¡¯re quite desperate for them aren¡¯t you? From your description, your friend must have suffered quite the injury from the sword trials right?" He said with a grin.
"Hais... I swear the amount of guys I¡¯ve seen that act the same way as you." Shiro said whilst ring at him with disdain.
"Old man, let this princess teach you something..." She continued as she grabbed him by the throat.
"This princess ain¡¯t something you can obtain. F*ck that, you¡¯re not even worth a strand of my hair." Shiro said coldly.
Her eyes radiated merciless killing intent that would destroy everything in life that she hated.
The old man paled slightly before his body started to convulse.
Reeling back in disgust, Shiro threw his body against the wall.
*SPLAT!
The force of her throw turned his body into a meat paste that sent blood and flesh all over the room.
Walking into the room with disregard of the meat paste, Shiro started to shuffle through all the drawers for something she could use.
"Why doesn¡¯t he have anything?" Shiro narrowed her eyes in confusion.
Before she could continue her search, she instinctively jumped through the window and rolled a few times before stabilising herself on her feet.
She saw a ck figure standing near her previous spot.
"Kekeke, as expected. Your instincts are sharp." The ck figure said with joy in his voice.
Looking at the shadow, Shiro realised it to be the blood of the old man that she had killed.
"Che, what¡¯s a blood demon like you doing at this ce?" Shiro questioned with narrowed eyes.
"Ohya? You know of my race? Well I can¡¯t help but admit that this is quite the surprise kekeke." He grinned.
Flicking his hand, he coagted a sword made from solidified blood.
¡¯Eh? He¡¯s not using lethal blood magic?¡¯ Shiro thought with a mix of surprise and suspicion.
Blood demons were known for their dangerous blood magic that is almost impossible to defend against. However, if the blood demon in front of her was using a blood crafted sword instead of lethal blood magic, that could only mean it was restricted to the rules of this world as well.
¡¯Then that means he¡¯s not a true blood demon in essence. But rather just a swordsman with the form of a blood demon.¡¯
Tapping her ne, Shiro summoned her Ascendant Dream and grabbed one of the swords while the other three orbited her.
"Four swords huh? Let me give it a try as well." He chuckled before creating three floating swords as well.
However, before he could taunt Shiro, he widened his eyes when he saw her right in front of him.
*DANG!!!!
Locking swords with her, he retreated a few steps.
"Has anyone told you about taking the initiative and not waste time? No? Let me acquaint you." Shiro said whilst shifting her grip into a reverse grip and twisted her body.
*BANG!
Giving the demon a devastating roundhouse kick to the head, Shiro threw her sword towards him.
*KLING!
The demon was able to raise his hand just quick enough to deflect the sword. But due to the fact that all four swords were linked to her, controlling the sword in the air was an easy feat for Shiro.
Flicking her fingers, Shiro controlled the sword to stab through the back of his hand.
"GAH!"
Grabbing his wrist, Shiro grinned before stomping the back of his elbow.
*CRACK!
The demon gritted his teeth and tried to sh at her but Shiro dodged easily.
Crouching down, Shiro made eye contact with the demon and grinned sadistically.
She stabbed out with her elbow and jabbed the demon on the spine. This caused him to kneel forward.
Shiro took this chance to grab both his wrists and step on the back of his head.
"How dare you! How can a weak human overpower me! A monster!!" He cried out in anger.
"Hahahaha, did this princess not tell you? You¡¯re not the only monster here boy~" Shiro grinned before putting force into her legs and ripped his arms off.
Snapping her fingers, she controlled the swords to stab into his shoulders and lift him up.
He opened his mouth to speak but a sword plunged into his throat and through his heart.
However, his body broke down into a pool of blood before coagting itself back together not too far from her spot.
Looking at the demon panting heavily, Shiro made a nk face before tilting her head and smiled sadistically.
"Seems like you can regenerate. Feel free to entertain this princess ok?" Shiro said with a small chuckle.
ring at her in anger, a creepyugh started to seep out of his lips.
"Hehehe, let¡¯s see how long you can keep this up. Mypanion has your friend, and he¡¯ll be arriving soon."
This caused Shiro to lose her smile as her face became that of a cold assassin.
"Speak of the demon and he¡¯ll appear." The demon grinned before pointing behind Shiro.
"Shiro..." Lyrica muttered weakly, grabbing Shiro¡¯s attention.
Turning around, Shiro saw Lyrica being held by another blood demon.
*DANG!
One of her swords collided with the blood demon¡¯s sword and stopped it from stabbing her head.
Even though she had turned around, it didn¡¯t mean her guard was dropped.
"If you want your friend to pass this trial, you better drop your swords right now." He grinned.
"You know, since this is a trial, death doesn¡¯t mean much." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Why get so hung over a trial? Plus, I think I¡¯ll spare my friend the humiliation of being held captive with her not being able to do anything."
Shiro flicked her wrist before allowing her swords to run rampant around the area, slicing up everything it touched.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!" He shouted out in shock.
"Yes~"
*PUCHI!!!!
Both of the demon including Lyrica was stabbed by the swords and ripped apart. However, Lyrica was still conscious with only her upper torso.
"Why?" She asked with tears in her eyes.
"Stop that. My friend won¡¯t act this way." Shiro said ndly before stabbing her sword into ¡¯Lyrica¡¯s¡¯ head.
*Ping~
The sound of ss shattering rang out as Shiro realised she was still outside the cave.
"Test of heart huh?" She muttered with a frown.
Looking around her, she saw that Lyrica, Madison and Silvia were sitting in a lotus position with sweat on their faces.
"So they¡¯re in the same test."
During that test, she didn¡¯t even know when it had started nor did she know she was inside one. However, when she saw the demon bring in Lyrica is when she understood it was a test.
If she was put into the same situation as Lyrica, she would choose to struggle till her death in order to not implicate her teammates. It was only a trial after all. It didn¡¯t matter in the sense that it¡¯s not a case of life and death.
Not to mention, Shiro understood Lyrica well enough to know that she wouldn¡¯t be fixated by a trial so much so that she would implicate her teammate¡¯s chances. She was just like that after all.
However, if it had turned out that Lyrica really was like that, picking trial over friends, then she could only me herself for misjudging her character.
Looking at Lyrica, Shiro narrowed her eyes as a question popped into her head.
¡¯If the same situation happened in real life, would I still choose to kill the demons?¡¯ She wondered.
She was a selfish person in a way that she only had a look at things that interested her. Other things didn¡¯t matter.
To her, Lyrica was one of the things that interested her hence why she spent so much effort on her.
However, she didn¡¯t think she would actively use her life to protect something that only ¡¯interested¡¯ her.
As cold as it was, she could always move on in life and find more things that interested her.
Of course, that was what she would have thought a while back. But now, the being that had interested her so far had evolved into something precious like family.
Lyrica was almost like a child she watched grow up from her timid self. Following her every step of the way.
Shaking her head of these thoughts, Shiro smiled softly.
¡¯No one knows what they would actually do in that situation. No matter what they say, no matter what they make themselves believe, no one is sure until the moment actuallyes.¡¯ She thought to herself since she was the same.
She could say that she was selfish and would preserve her own life, or she could say she was selfless and sacrifice herself. She could also say that she would make her own path and avoid both of these options. But nothing was certain.
"Goodness, this trial of the heart really messes with ya." She muttered whilstying on her back. She was going to have a short nap whilst waiting for them to pass the test.
Chapter 149 Sword Myth Springs:The Final Tests
Chapter 149 Sword Myth Springs:The Final Tests
"AHH!!!" Lyrica suddenly cried out in shock, waking up Shiro from her nap.
"You ok?" Shiro asked with a frown. She could see Lyrica with a pink glow meaning she passed but she didn¡¯t look too well.
She was currently sweating and touching her right shoulder for a reason unknown to Shiro.
Turning around, she saw Shiro sitting on a rock and instantly went on guard.
"Shiro."
"Sup." Shiro replied casually.
"Tell me, do you like me?" She asked with narrowed eyes.
"Like? Well yeah. You¡¯re my friend." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
*sigh
Lyrica sighed in relief as all strength left her body. Copsing on the ground, she took a moment to calm herself down.
"I¡¯m guessing the trial of heart did quite a number on you." Shiro asked,ying beside her.
"Trial of the heart?" Lyrica asked as things started to be clear to her.
"Yeah, probably something like testing to see if your suited to the path of the sword or some bs like it." Shiro shrugged.
¡¯So it was all just a hallucination...¡¯ Lyrica thought sadly.
"How long were you in the trial?" Shiro asked curiously. She had to wait quite a long time for Lyrica to escape after all.
"Hmm... about a month or maybe more? I¡¯m not sure since I didn¡¯t keep track of time. What about you?" Lyrica asked.
"Not even a day."
"Huh?"
"Yeah I killed everything and ended the trial quite quickly." Shiro yawned and prepared to nap once more to wait for Silvia and Madison.
"What happened in your trial?" Lyrica asked, curious as to why Shiro was able to get out so soon.
"Well, in the trial, Silvia and Madison were eliminated from the cave but you survived. But you were heavily injured so I hid you somewhere and looked for medicine." Shiro said as she recounted what had happened.
"I found a pharmacy at the town but it turns out to be a blood demon. I fought it and was about to kill it when they took you out and held you hostage." Shiro continued.
"What happened next?"
"Well I killed everything. Their impersonation of you was crap. Like hell I would mistake my friend for that fraud." Shiro rolled her eyes.
Lyrica only smiled sadly at her response. In her own trial, she indulged herself for a month before finally realising something was wrong. And yet, Shiro was able to tell what had happened on the first day.
This only proved to her that she was too blinded by her own emotions to notice the change in Shiro¡¯s personality.
¡¯She¡¯s not someone that would love another so easily...¡¯ She thought to herself.
Looking up, Shiro noticed a small change in Lyrica¡¯s eyes.
¡¯Seems like the trial has matured her quite a bit.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile. She could tell that Lyrica would be harder to fool from this point on.
"Hey Lyrica." Shiro called out.
"Yeah? What¡¯s up?"
"Why don¡¯t you rest for a bit." Shiro suggested.
After the stress of such a trial, she knew one would need a decent rest.
"Hmm... Sure. But before that, can I ask for a favour?" Lyrica asked.
"Shoot."
"Can I borrow your thighs for a bit? As a pillow." Lyrica smiled whilst putting her hands together in a praying motion.
"Sure, why not. It¡¯s not too much of a problem." Shiro shrugged as she decided to indulge Lyrica a little.
Lyrica smiled contently while resting her head on Shiro¡¯s thighs.
"Good night." Shiro smiled and pattered Lyrica head.
Nodding slightly, Lyrica fell asleep.
However, a problem started to ur after a while.
¡¯... This princess can¡¯t feel her legs anymore.¡¯
...
...
¡¯F*ck.¡¯
###
""GAH!"" Both Madison and Silvia passed their test at the same time. Looking around in a panic, they calmed down seeing everyone else in the group.
"Seems like you guys have passed." Shiro said with a smile.
"Yeah we have. Thought it looks like you two been having some private moments." Madison said with a smallugh. She could see Shiro lending her thighs for Lyrica to sleep on while patting her head at even intervals as if stroking a cat.
"Anything happen in the trial?" Shiro asked, gesturing them to sit down near her.
"Nah, it was mostly just annoying. Though I still can¡¯t believe I only noticed after a long time." Madisonmented whilst sitting down next to Shiro.
"What about you Silvia?"
"Pretty much the same." She smiled and sat down as well.
"Oh yeah, Silvia, how did you even pass the cave trial? Wasn¡¯t there a small monster attacking you?" Shiro asked as that had confused her.
"Oh, that, well I just kept healing and the monster ran out of stamina. I stabbed it after that." Silvia rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.
"Good job." Shiro smiled since tenacity was one of the healer¡¯s best traits.
If you can¡¯t provide enough damage, the healer would still be healing after they tire you out.
Plus, as a grand healer, Silvia¡¯s mana pool and magic efficiency should be much higher than average.
"Mn..." Lyrica woke up hearing themotion around her.
"You had a nice nap?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Ah yes." Lyrica nodded and sat up with a small blush.
"So shall we go to the next spot then?" Madison suggested.
"Sure, but first, can we wait a while?" Shiro asked.
"Why?"
"Because this miss can¡¯t feel her legs right no- never mind I think I can feeoOOH MY GOD WHAT THE F*CK!" Shiro cried out feeling a static shock through her legs with even the smallest movement.
Looking at Shiro who was trying her best not to move a single muscle, the trio looked at each other before smiling evilly.
"She¡¯s got pins and needles doesn¡¯t she?" Silvia said with a eager grin.
"Yeah she does." Madison nodded.
Shiro, who heard what they said, looked up and made eyes contact with them.
"Hey Shiro."
"Yeah?" Shiro replied through her gritted teeth.
"Remember that day when you let a rabbit chase me?"
"Yeah?"
"Well let¡¯s say this is revenge." Silvia grinned before poking Shiro¡¯s leg.
"&"^¡ê%&^$&^¡ê!!!! Just you wait!" Shiro cried out whilst trying to smack Silvia¡¯s arm away with her hand.
"No swearing." Silvia said, poking her legs once more.
While Silvia was humouring herself with her long awaited revenge, Madison and Lyrica decided to join in the fun.
Shiro, who was subjected to this punishment, started to make ns for her own revenge.
¡¯Maybe I should take them into a level 55 dungeon during their sleep and wake them up near a spawning ground.¡¯ She thought.
The trio didn¡¯t know why but they suddenly felt a shiver. Shrugging it off as cold wind, they continued to poke at Shiro¡¯s legs.
###
After the trio had their fun with poking Shiro¡¯s legs, they continued their way to the other markers.
"Well anyways, there¡¯s 4 more spots near us so we should check them out first." Shiro said pointing at the map.
"Urg, I hope those are a little easier. I can¡¯t stand taking another one of those heart tests again." Madison groaned in annoyance.
"Agreed." Lyrica nodded.
"Well don¡¯t worry about it too much. It¡¯s just a trial. If you really want to earn some decent treasure, I can teach you a bit of my martial arts and get one of my friends to make you some armour and weapons. No biggie." Shiro smiled.
Both Madison and Lyrica¡¯s eyes glistened when they heard the suggestion.
"I want to learn the 3rd Phantom!" Madison replied almost immediately. If she was able to learn the principles behind the Counter Weight Phantom, her tanking capabilities would shoot through the roof.
"I want to learn 2nd Phantom" Lyrica followed up. Since her ss was all about speed and attack, the second would be the most beneficial for her.
That being said, 1st phantom was also a good choice but she couldn¡¯t be greedy and ask her to share all of her skills now could she?
"What¡¯s this about phantoms?" Silvia asked with curiosity.
Lyrica and Madison looked at each other, unsure as to whether or not Shiro would want Silvia to know.
"You see, I use a set of martial arts called Yin Style Phantom Arts. There are 5 stances I suppose and each one has a different effect. The first one makes me almost undetectable, the second one makes me quick, third one allows me to redirect weight and force, the fourth one allows me to ignore defence and thest one is all out kill or be killed." Shiro said with a nonchnt smile.
Since they were going to be teammates, it didn¡¯t matter if she knew about the martial arts. Especially since she uses them all the time.
"Heh~ I didn¡¯t know you practised martial arts." Silvia replied in surprise.
Most mages don¡¯t practice a martial art since they spend most of their time studying and learning spells. At least that was what she did in order to ss up to a grand mage and learn support skills that buffed her teammates.
"Well I don¡¯t actively learn martial arts. This was just a reward of sorts I earned from a trial I did." Shiro shrugged.
They continued to chat for a bit longer whilst making their way to the next locations.
Thankfully, the rest of the trials were just tests of strength that required them to fight bosses as a team.
Naturally, the trials weren¡¯t easy either.
However, Lyrica was practically carrying the team since she almost didn¡¯t allow Shiro to make a move. The sheer density and power behind her attacks allowed her to push some bosses on the defence.
But even though she had improved massively, she was stillcking experience which caused a few openings in her defence to show up. For those, it was up to Shiro and Lyrica to support her.
While they were fighting the boss, Silvia would help by healing them asionally, allowing them to fight at peak power.
Looking at Lyrica. Shiro was curious to know what had happened in her trial that caused her to improve on her swordy so much. But she didn¡¯t pry into it so much since she could tell that Lyrica was avoiding questions that would ask her about what happened.
The duo, Madison and Silvia also noticed this and dropped all questions regarding what had happened in Lyrica¡¯s trial.
Looking up at the night sky, Shiro wondered about whether or not they should continue.
"Do you girls want to rest for now and continue to the rest of the markers tomorrow?" Shiro asked.
"Yeah, Lyrica¡¯s been fighting for quite a while now." Madison nodded.
Since Shiro didn¡¯t have ess to most of her inventory right now, she wasn¡¯t able to pull out a tent.
"Honestly, the best thing to do is for us to just rest in the trees. That allows us to hide our bodies as well as staying away from ground ambush during sleep." Shiro suggested.
Looking up at the trees, the group nodded without hesitation.
After all, it wasn¡¯t strange for adventurers to camp out. Amon urrence.
Looking for a good branch to sleep on, Shiro stretched her body out before rxing herself.
###
Repeating the same process as yesterday, the group fought their way through strength trials. Each of the subsequent bosses was much harder than before. It was to the point unless the three attackers worked together, it would be very hard to pass the trial.
That was due to the fact that during some fights, they discovered that some bosses needed to be hit in certain spots at the same time or else they won¡¯t die.
Shiro tried to use Ascendant Dream to help her but the defences would react instantaneously as if to stop her from attacking weak spots twice.
She guessed this was the case since Lyrica and Madison were given a slight leeway in timing for them to hit the spots.
However, even after they finished all of the marker¡¯s, they still couldn¡¯t find the springs.
"Hmm... You think the feeling you were getting leads to the springs?" Shiro asked.
"Maybe. I mean, the feeling¡¯s grown stronger the more tests I¡¯ve passed. What about you Madi?"
"I don¡¯t have this feeling that you¡¯re talking about." Madison shrugged her shoulders in helplessness.
"Is that so." Lyrica replied with slight disappointment.
"Well no harm in checking it out. Lead the way." Shiro smiled and gestured for Lyrica to lead the way.
Following behind Lyrica, Shiro realised that the path they took should have taken them back to the start but instead it was a different ce.
¡¯Strange...¡¯ She thought to herself since she was confident in her ability to map out an area. For her map to collide with itself was definitely the first time in a long long while.
Plus, it wasn¡¯t as if they had walked up/down a hill either.
However, she trusted Lyrica and didn¡¯t speak up. Greying out the area on her mental map, Shiro continued to edit it whilst walking behind Lyrica.
"It should be near now." Lyrica said, raising her guard so that she was ready for any kind of ambush that may happen.
Hearing her call, the rest of the group also got ready.
Leaving the forest behind them, they saw a huge temple. The temple was made from dark purple material. Cracks and other evidence of its age could be seen on the walls.
Pirs were broken and some bricks were even missing.
Looking at the giant set of doors that disyed rows upon rows of engravings showing different swords, the group couldn¡¯t help but notice a spiritual entity that sat in front of the gate.
[After discovering a temple of sorts, you see an entity guarding the door to the temple. Rumours state that the entity is known as the watcher. He tests the participants onest time before they¡¯re allowed into the springs.]
"Seems like we¡¯re here." Shiro said seriously seeing an update in the trial quest log.
"Step fourth, and I shall test you onest time." The watcher said emotionlessly and turned around to face the girls.
Chapter 150 Sword Myth Springs: Asura Sword Path
Chapter 150 Sword Myth Springs: Asura Sword Path
The girls looked at each other before nodding.
They stepped forward towards the watcher but Shiro was forced back by a barrier.
"What¡¯s the meaning of this?" Shiro frowned.
"Your capabilities far outmatch your friends. You shall take a separate test." The Watcher replied simply.
Narrowing her eyes at his response, Shiro sighed.
"Well good luck girls. I¡¯ll be cheering you on." She smiled towards the trio.
"Thanks." They nodded before positioning themselves in front of the watcher.
Lyrica and Madison took the front lines while Silvia stayed at the back with a dagger in hand.
Tilting his head, the watcher looked at Silvia.
"How did you pass? Logically you should not have passed with yourck of experience with ded weapons. A peculiar situation but nheless, let us start." He said with a shake of his head.
Clicking his fingers, another sword appeared in his hands.
*BANG!
Reacting on instinct, Lyrica was able to barely parry the sh to her neck.
Madison widened her eyes in surprise before twisting her body and swung her greatsword towards the watcher.
A simple flick of his wrist allowed him to deflect Madison¡¯s sword upwards, exposing a gap in her defences.
"Burning Lotus!" Lyrica shouted out, pushing the watcher back and saving Madison in the process.
"Thanks." Madison said, retreating a little to regain her bearings.
Lyrica only nodded simply before dashing towards The Watcher once more.
Twirling her de nimble along her body, she maximised the amount of power she could hold before mming her sword into the ground.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!
Fissures spread outwards, forcing The Watcher to jump upwards to avoid it.
"Madi!" Lyrica shouted out but Madison was long prepared.
Jumping up, Madisonnded on Lyrica¡¯s de who twisted her body and catapulted Madison towards the watcher.
Magma erupted out of Madison¡¯s greatsword.
Twisting her body, Madison started to increase her momentum.
"Crippling Blow!"
*BANG!
mming the magma covered greatsword against eh watcher¡¯s de, Madison sent him flying towards the ground.
However, he didn¡¯t stay for long as his body charged out of the crater and shed towards Silvia.
Lyrica tried to dash back but the watcher threw a sword towards her, forcing her to parry it.
"Silvi!" Lyrica called out in worry.
Silvia narrowed her eyes and readied up her dagger.
Bending her body backwards at an impressive angle, Silvia was able to dodge the sword and subsequently sh the watcher on the chest.
Shiro was surprised at Silvia¡¯s action. Her movement suggested the goal of dodging out of danger but the way she had ced her dagger during that moment allowed her to sneak in a single attack as a bonus.
Looking down at his chest wound, the watcher shrugged his shoulders slightly as the wound closed itself up.
*BANG BANG!
Raising his sword behind him, he was able to block both Lyrica and Madison¡¯s attacks.
"Examinee Silvia has passed. Grade D." He said in a monotone voice.
A golden glow encased Silvia¡¯s body and sent her out of the arena.
"Eh?" Silvia was confused as to what had happened.
"Congrattions." Shiro said with a small smile.
"Thanks, I guess? Why did I pass?" Silvia asked as she had so many questions floating in her head right now.
"From what I can see, The Watcher will scale his strength so that it matches yours. Once yound a hit, you pass." Shiro replied.
"But didn¡¯t Lyrica and Madison also hit him?" Silvia questioned with a tilt of her head.
"They didn¡¯t get a good hit in. The watcher blocked it." Shiro shook her head.
Hearing her response, Silvia looked back at the arena and saw that it was true.
The watcher was able to block both of their attacks whilst countering with his own shes.
Demonic Strength!
Activating her berserk skill, Madison held her greatsword as if it was a normal one handed sword and charged towards the watcher.
*BANG CRASH!!!!
Her sword was able to overpower the watcher and sent his sword flying across the area.
However, even though she was able to overpower him, it left her open for an attack.
Raising up his leg, The Watcher sent a devastating kick to her stomach.
"GAH!"
Madison¡¯s body was set flying back.
Dashing towards her as quickly as possible, Lyrica gritted her teeth and caught her mid-flight. The force sent a shock through her body but she endured.
"You alright?" Lyrica asked, stabilising their bodies.
"Yeah, sorry." Madison nodded.
She knew thatst attack was a risky one that would open her up for an attack but she still went for it.
"Don¡¯t be too eager! Take your time." Shiro shouted out.
"Bystander¡¯s should just watch." The Watcher frowned before clicking his fingers. A second barrier erected around the first one and stopped any sound from entering.
"Tsk, stingy f*ck." Shiro cursed in annoyance.
"Rose Blossom! Pierce!" Lyricamanded as she stabbed her de forwards like a drill. Several rose thorns erupted around The Watcher and stabbed towards him at the same time.
Grabbing his sword, the watcher only smiled before shing his sword downwards.
*BANG!!!!!
A single swing of his sword caused a deep trench to form in the arena as well as shatter all of Lyrica¡¯s thorns.
Pivoting her body to the side, Lyrica avoided the sh and tried to uppercut The Watcher.
However, her de was pinched by his fingers just before it reached.
With both his hands upied, Madison appeared beside him and cleaved his sword arm off.
Looking at his arm, the watcher shrugged before sending out a pulse of mana that forced the duo to step back.
"Examinee Madison has passed. Grade C+." The Watcher said whilst picking up his arm and reattached it.
Simr to what had happened to Silvia, Madison was encased with a golden glow and sent out of the arena.
That only left Lyrica along to face off against the watcher.
"Now then chosen one. Show me what you can do alone." The Watcher gestured for Lyrica to attack.
epting the gesture, Lyrica dashed forwards and started to cross des with The Watcher.
Shiro, who spectated by the side, yawned a little since she could tell The Watcher was slightly biased towards Lyrica.
While it was true that this was thest test, he was also training her.
He would attack her weak spots but decrease his speed enough so that Lyrica could react to them. Otherwise, she would have lost long ago.
¡¯Hmm... Since he called her the chosen one and whatnot, he probably wants her to be stronger. This training might take a while.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
The two of them continued to spar as Shiro got bored and decided to y around with her swords.
Keeping her eye on The Watcher, she started to engrave his movements into her mind.
It was the same process that she had used to learn Yin Style Phantom Arts. She would ¡¯record¡¯ their movements into her mind and continuously simte it until she got it right.
Looking at his sword style, she could tell that it heavily emphasises the point of attacking weak spots.
Parry then attack weak spot. Sneak around then attack weak spot. Counter then attack once more.
Wielding both swords in his hands, The Watcher continuously attacked Lyrica¡¯s weak points.
Not saying a word, Shiro hopped from her branch and walked away.
"Shiro?" Madison called out, curious as to why she suddenly started to walk away.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m just going to practice for a bit." Shiro smiled.
Tapping her ne, she summoned her swords and had them float as if two people were facing off against each other.
*CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!
The four swords repeatedly collided with each other with Shiro making small corrections to their course every so often.
"Hey... Don¡¯t you think that kinda looks like what The Watcher is doing?" Silvia asked, pointing over at Shiro.
"Now that you mention it, yeah it does." Madison nodded her head slowly.
However, since Shiro didn¡¯t know how much the watcher was hiding in his sword style, she could only improvise in some aspects.
Naturally, she could see the massive ws in her improvisations but she was never a swordsman to begin with.
She used guns and giant fortresses rather than swords.
But no one was born a master of their craft. If people could be grandmaster swordsman, why couldn¡¯t she? She did be the apex after all.
¡¯Copying 100% of The Watcher¡¯s sword arts will only limit myself since me and him are different people. I can take inspiration but I cannot just take everything. I need to mould it around my own fighting style.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
*CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!
The swords started to speed up as Shiro continuously analysed her sword style to erase the ws and instead rece them with opportunities. When she included the fact that she had the chance to remaster her full body control, she could be more adventurous with her martial arts.
¡¯I canbine Yin Style Phantom Arts to increase the lethality of this sword art. The Phantom Arts revolve around being almost undetectable as well as counter-attacking. Paired up with The Watcher¡¯s sword art that is all about attacking weak points, I¡¯ll be able to create a decent assassination style sword art that is the extremity of attack type martial arts.¡¯ Shiro thought with an excited grin.
The Watcher nced over curiously as his instincts were telling him that something interesting was about to happen.
However, when he looked over, his eyes widened in shock seeing Shiro merging his sword arts into a mysterious martial arts.
The two was strangelypatible as they both revolve around simr concepts.
*DANG!
"Where are you watching." Lyrica said with a frown as she shed towards his head.
The Watcher didn¡¯t reply as he would spare some of his attention on Shiro.
Moments passed as Shiro continued to refine her newly merged martial arts. It was in situations like this where her ability shined since she could create several tens to hundreds of simtions for her new martial arts. How they would work, where it would fail.
Through constant refinement, her martial arts became smoother with fewer ws.
Eventually, she stopped and retrieved the floating swords.
"She¡¯s done it..." The watcher muttered in disbelief.
In his life, he had ever seen talent like Shiro¡¯s. Even with the chosen one in front of him, he could tell that Shiro was unmatched.
Which led to the question of why wasn¡¯t she chosen?
Just a single nce at his sword arts allowed her to merge it together with her current martial arts. With such talent, surely she was more suitable whenpared to the chosen one in front of him.
Looking at her sword, Shiro smiled with pride.
[Yin Style Phantom Arts has sessfully merged with ???]
[Please name the new arts in 10 seconds or the system shall give a suitable name.]
"Hmm... Surprise me."
[New Skill Set Gained: Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path]
[Title Gained: Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path]
[Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path]
+20% Damage and efficiency with Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path
+20% Stealth
+20% Critical Chance when striking a weak spot
"Hou~ Asura¡¯s Path huh?" Shiro smiled.
Knowledge on the newly evolved Asura¡¯s Path appeared in her mind as she memorised them.
Currently, there were only 2 stances in the martial arts.
Phantom Path and Asura Sword Path.
Phantom path was basically an enhanced version of her original Phantom Arts but she was slightly curious about the Asura Sword Path.
¡¯I should test it out against the watcher when I fight him.¡¯ Shiro thought with anticipation.
Looking back at the arena, she could see that both the watcher and Lyrica were standing still.
"What happened?" Shiro asked in confusion.
"The watcher started to mutter to himself so Lyrica paused for a bit." Madison replied.
"Huh? Lyrica, why didn¡¯t you attack him?" Shiro asked, turning to Lyrica.
"I wanted to but he blocked everything." Lyrica replied. She wanted to cry but had no tears.
She tried to take advantage but the watcher only used one hand to keep her at bay while he would mutter incoherently to himself.
"You, Shiro, did you just learn my sword arts just by looking at me." He asked seriously.
"Nope."
"Don¡¯t lie."
"I didn¡¯t. All I did was ¡¯record¡¯ your movements and get inspiration from them." Shiro shrugged her shoulders before hopping up on the tree branch.
Frowning at her response, the watcher turned back to Lyrica.
"You only have 5 more minutes to try to hit me. If you fail within that time chosen one, then you will be eliminated." He said impatiently. With such a good seedling and talent behind him, he didn¡¯t understand why he had to train the ¡¯chosen one¡¯ in front of him.
Especially since the girl was clearly inferior to Shiro in his eyes.
Seeing his stare that looked down on her, Lyrica gritted her teeth in frustration. She understood that gaze well. It was the gaze of someone who didn¡¯t expect anything of her.
¡¯Just like the students before Shiro came.¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself.
Taking a deep breath, she remembered the help that Shiro had offered her and resolved herself to prove her worth no matter what.
"Rose Blossom: Heart Essence!" Lyrica shouted out as ming red aura burst out from her body.
A hollow image of a rose started to blossom on her chest. The rose itself looked like it was made from ss as blood started to drip into the ss rose container.
Narrowing her eyes, Lyrica bit her lip before spitting blood onto her de.
"Rose Blossom: Blood Thorns!"
Blood runes started to spread out on her de as thorns sprung out of the handle and wrapped around her forearms.
However, she wasn¡¯t done yet.
"Thousand de Aura! Willow Tree Aura!"
Seeing Lyrica stack multiple skills together, Shiro smiled proudly.
Even the watcher became serious feeling Lyrica¡¯s change in aura.
"Time is ticking chosen one. Prove your worth!"
Chapter 151 Sword Myth Springs: Black Rose
Chapter 151 Sword Myth Springs: ck Rose
Dashing towards The Watcher, Lyrica twisted her body and shed her de horizontally.
*BANG!
A single sh in her current state was able to send The Watcher stumbling backwards as he was shocked at her strength.
Before he could even respond, Lyrica shed in front of him and twirled her sword.
"Burning Lotus!"
There were a few shes that were close to grazing him but The Watcher would barely dodge it every time.
However, Lyrica continued her endless assault.
While it was true that she could only sustain her current state for a short amount of time, the closer she gets to the end, the more power she would gain from her skills.
*CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!
Looking at Lyrica who was slowly speeding up, The Watcher couldn¡¯t help but want to increase the amount of power he was disying.
But if he did, he would be breaking the rules of the test.
His strength was supposed to be limited to the challenger and not above it to the point where she couldn¡¯t beat him.
His frustration started to increase as he was being pushed back.
"Why are you holding back! Fight me!" Lyrica shouted out in annoyance.
She could tell that he was keeping his power consistent even when she was using her berserk skills. While she could guarantee a win, she wanted to test her limits.
"Since you have given me permission, that is exactly what I shall do." The Watcher said seriously since it was frustrating to be constantly pushed back.
A blue aura burst out of him and had almost extinguished Lyrica¡¯s red aura in a single burst.
Lyrica was not dissuaded however, instead, fighting intent raged inside her.
*BANG! CRACK!
Blocking one of The Watcher¡¯s strikes, Lyrica widened her eyes when she saw the handle of her sword crack apart.
Unfortunately, she didn¡¯t have the luxury of examining her weapon. Instead, she quickly shifted her grip and wielded her broken de normal swords.
Looking at her stance, Shiro finally understood what she was missing.
¡¯The reason why she can¡¯t break through into her attack domain is because her weapon wasn¡¯t fullypatible. Her hidden proficiency is a mix of dual ended des and dual wh.i.p.s. The best weapon for her would be one that could transform between the two.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
However, for such a weapon, they¡¯ll have to find an extremely talented cksmith with the equipment to match.
Even Helion was helpless at her previous request of the weapon.
But once Lyrica obtains the weapon, her overall attack power would evolve.
While there was also the option of custom making a weapon for Lyrica with her Nanomancer ss, it wasn¡¯t a good solution since she won¡¯t be there all the time. Not to mention the fact that once the weapon runs out of mana, it would disassemble itself.
To make matters worse, the damage isn¡¯t repairable since it can only be repaired by her.
While she wasn¡¯t as proficient with dual wield as she was with her original weapon, Lyrica was still able to hold her own due to her berserk skills.
Shiro also realised that Lyrica¡¯s ss rose container was slowly being filled up with blood.
¡¯Ohya? It¡¯s a berserk skill that charges over time? Interesting...¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
For skills like that, it is weaker than normal berserk skills but the power released at the very end far surpassed that of a berserk skill.
It was a double edged sword in other words. You were weak at the start but itpensates at the end.
¡¯Lyrica knew this hence why she stacked several berserk skills at the start. The result of which wouldpensate for the weakness of her heart essence berserk skill. But once her skill ends... The bacsh would render herpletely weak.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. Lyrica had one chance to end this and if she missed that chance, she would lose this fight.
Continuing her offence, Lyrica smiled when her rose container waspletely full.
Leaping backwards, Lyrica gritted her teeth and gripped the container.
"HAA!!"
Shattering it in one go, blood sttered around her and coagted into armour.
The Watcher went on guard but it was toote since Lyrica had already appeared behind him.
*BANG!
Upper cutting The Watcher into the air, Lyrica gritted her teeth and readied her sword.
"Rose Blossom: ck Rose!"
A ck aura covered her and started to change into a rose.
Scattering into several hundreds of rose petals, they shed towards The Watcher surrounded him in a storm of ck petals.
"Wow..." Madison muttered seeing the petals surround The Watcher and attack him from all directions.
"Che." The Watcher clicked his tongue as he tried to fend himself from the petals. However, they were sharper than he had expected.
One of the petals had even managed to rip his left arm off. Frowning, The Watcher ended the test.
*BOOM!
Releasing his aura, The Watcher dispersed the petals andnded in front of Lyrica.
Looking at her, he narrowed his eyes before reattaching his arm.
"Examinee Lyrica has passed. Grade B+." He said as he dropped the barrier.
"For the examinee¡¯s that have passed, enter the door behind me and it shall take you to the reward area. As for the chosen one, you will have one more test inside the reward area." The Watcher gestured to the door behind him.
Flicking his fingers, he sent the three of them through the door against their will.
"Rather forceful huh?" Shiro said whilst sitting on the tree branch.
"This is not a test but rather request. Would you spar with me? I wish to see the capabilities of your new martial arts that you have developed." The watcher said with a small smile.
"And what would I get out of this?" Shiro asked as she crossed her legs. cing her elbow on her knees, she rested her chin on her hand and smiled lightly.
"A reward?" The Watcher frowned.
"Yes. Surely you¡¯re not telling me to spar with you for free right?" Shiro chuckled.
"Do you not want to test the might of your sword art?" He replied, trying to persuade her.
"Hahaha, this princess has many more targets to practice with. Why should I do it for free just because you asked?" Shiroughed.
"Then what do you want." He asked.
"What do you have?" Shiro grinned. It was the perfect moment to scam something from The Watcher.
Narrowing his eyes, The Watcher said before summoning something in his palm.
"Ohya? You even have the Upgrade Orb." Shiro said raising an eyebrow. The upgrade orb was an item that will help increase the quality of your weapon. The main question for her was how that would affect ascendant dream. The best case scenario for her would be to upgrade it from orange to red.
"Seems like you know what this will do. It will upgrade any purple rank item into orange rank." He said.
However, seeing the sudden disinterest in Shiro¡¯s face, he knew she wasn¡¯t interested.
"Can it effect set items?" Shiro asked after a short pause.
"Pardon?"
"Can it affect set items? Like a full set of armour." Shiro repeated.
Since it couldn¡¯t help her ascendant dream, she may as well enhance her current set of armour. As it stands, her current armour gave her the bonuses of mana leech and life steal.
Both these effects were extremely helpful for her, especially since her mana consumption is much higher than average.
With benefits like mana leech, her effectiveness would increase. Plus, if she was able to upgrade her armour to orange rank, then further augment it with her Nanomancer ss, then this would be an armour that would stay with her for a long time.
"As long as they share the same name and series, I believe this orb should work." The Watcher replied with uncertainty.
"Since that¡¯s the case, I want you to give me something else on top of the orb."
"Hmm..." The watcher became hesitant.
While it was true that he was eager to see what Shiro could do, the upgrade orb itself was quite precious already.
¡¯That being said, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to see another genius like her in my life...¡¯ He thought to himself.
Sighing slightly, he summoned one more item.
The item he held in his hand was a silver dagger.
"This item here contains the power of a high level B ranked Dragon Knight. While this item only has one use left, it should keep you safe for a long time." He said, offering the knife and the orb.
Looking at the knife, Shiro thought for a moment before nodding her head.
"Very well, this princess is satisfied with the rewards." She smiled and hopped off the branch.
Tapping her ne, Shiro summoned her swords and grabbed two of them.
"So are we just going for a spar?" Shiro asked whilst stretching her body.
"I want you toe at me with the intent to kill." The Watcher said seriously.
Summoning two swords of his own, he took a deep breath.
"Very well, get ready." Shiro grinned as her entire aura changed. Merciless killing intent erupted out of her as the form of an asura could be briefly seen behind her.
The sheer density of the killing intent caused The Watcher to hold his breath in shock.
"Come." He said after a short moment to prepare himself.
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path: Phantom Path!
Her body flickered beside him almost instantly.
Everything seems to slow down as he slowly nced to the side and saw the sadistic insanity that was in Shiro¡¯s eyes.
*BANG BANG!
"GAH!"
Just trying to parry Shiro¡¯s swords caused him to kneel heavily against the ground.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t done. Far from it.
Twisting her body, she let go of her swords and grabbed one of the swords floating around her.
Shifting her momentum to maximise the force of her swing, she uppercutted The Watcher and kicked a second sword towards him.
*PUCHI!
The sword embedded itself deeply into his shoulder.
*BOOM!!!
ring his aura, The Watcher removed the sword and gritted his teeth.
Twirling his sword in his palm, he stabbed it into the ground.
"Sword Grave!"
Hundred of neon blue swords floated up from the ground around him and shot towards Shiro.
Grinning slightly, Shiro stomped her foot down and dashed towards the horde.
Shifting parts of her body so that they would barely dodge the swords, she was able to close the distance between her and The Watcher very quickly.
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path: Asura Sword Path!
Killing intent drenched the area as The Watcher realised his movements were bing slightly sluggish.
Looking at Shiro who was grinning murderous hysteria, The Watcher finally felt fear for the first time since he became the guardian of the springs.
"ARGH!!!!" He cried out in pain as the four swords cut into him.
With every cut, Shiro would rotate between the swords to ensure maximum damage. Her physical strength to attack and mana control to remove the swords.
He tried to block her strikes but a single hit with the pommel of her sword would cause him to break his guard almost instantly.
"Sword Possession!" He Shouted out in panic since he could tell the fight would end soon if he didn¡¯t do anything.
A silver pulse was sent out of his body, forcing Shiro to slid backwards.
"Hahaha, entertain this princess more." Shiro licked her lips since she hadn¡¯t had this much fun since using her fortress to erase an entire city in her old life.
The impact and the force of each strike she sent out sent shivers of joy through her body.
¡¯No wonder warriors love battle.¡¯ Shiro thought as her eyes gleamed with excitement.
Looking at The Watcher who¡¯s hair had grown to reach his waist along with a divine sword in his hand, Shiro narrowed her eyes and dashed towards him.
*BOOM!!!
A single swing of his sword created a ravine that split a portion of the forest in half but Shiro had managed to dodge it.
Appearing behind him, she swung her sword towards his neck.
*CLANG!
She wasn¡¯t fazed seeing the sword being blocked but instead, let go of her sword and dragged his hair downwards.
"Long hair doesn¡¯t fit on men!" Shiro grinned and kneed him in the back of the leg and forced him to kneel.
Flexing her fingers, her swords stabbed towards him from different directions.
"Tsk, Divine Sword Protection."
*BOOM!
A golden barrier rotated around him and sent the swords flying away.
As if grabbing an invisible string, Shiro clutched her fist and sent them back to her side.
Jumping over The Watcher, she grabbed one of her swords and pushed mana through the de.
A deep red glow started to flicker on the de.
"HAA!!" Swinging the sword towards The Watcher, Shiro let go of the sword upon impact, confusing him in the process.
However, Shiro ignored his stare as she stepped on one of the floating des and punched the pommel of her sword using her full power.
Asura Sword Path: Piercing the Nine Heavens!
*BOOM! CRACK!
The Watcher widened his eyes in shock seeing arge portion of his torso missing in an instant. Looking at the damage, he could tell that the sword had rotational power in order to increase its effectiveness.
Before he could even stand up, two shes of sword light filled his vision and cut his arms off.
Tilting his head up, he opened his mouth but no words came out.
Looking at Shiro, he simply had no words. White hair flowing behind her while blood covered her parts of her body to create a devilish contrast. Eyes that enjoyed the feeling of ughter along with a maniacal grin that sent shivers down his spine made his blood run cold. And yet, when paired with her unrivalled beauty, he couldn¡¯t help but be enamoured by the scene.
¡¯Simply Perfect¡¯ He thought. Even if he was currently kneeling in defeat, he didn¡¯t mind watching her like this.
"Now then, it seems like this princess has won, wouldn¡¯t you say?" Shiro said with a smile with her swords floating threateningly beside her.
Chapter 152 Sword Myth Springs: Rewards
Chapter 152 Sword Myth Springs: Rewards
"You win." The Watcher smiled as he stood up and regenerated his body.
"You have truly enlightened me today my princess." He said with a bow.
Shiro frowned a little but decided to shrug it off.
"Now I believe you owe me my reward." Shiro said as she returned her swords back to their ne form.
"Of course."
Standing up, The Watcher summoned the items and handed them over to her.
"Since princess was able to easily defeat me in a one on one, your grade is naturally S rank. However, as you are not the chosen one for some heinous reason, I cannot let you peer into the secrets of the sword myth springs." He sighed with regret.
"Well it¡¯s fine. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m a warrior anyways." Shiro shrugged.
"Eh? Princess isn¡¯t a sword cultivator?!" He widened his eyes in shock.
If she was this talented with the sword, logic would have it that she¡¯s a sword cultivator no?
"Nope. This princess is a mage." Shiro chuckled while storing the items away. Looking back at the door, she wondered what else she could gain from this.
"Ah no wonder. But even then, it doesn¡¯t make sense. Why isn¡¯t princess the chosen one?" The Watcher frowned.
Even if she was a mage, her ss could be changed over to suit the final secret of the Sword Myth Springs.
"Aiya, don¡¯t burden me with some crap like the chosen one or whatnot. I had enough of that sh*t before." Shiro rolled her eyes.
In her past life, her capabilities as the Nanomancer were highly valued. While the hero did help resolve some of the cmities that would befall a city, she was what the people had expectations for.
The burden of needing to look after humanity was an annoying one. If you saved them, they¡¯ll expect more and eventually, it bes your natural responsibility. They would expect you to do it without rewards.
And yet, when you fail once, they would me everything on you and forget about all that you have done for them.
She had enough of that already.
"But princess-"
"Hush. Forget about that for now. Tell me what rewards I get from the spring since I got an S rank." Shiro asked.
"Since princess was able to get the S rank, I¡¯ll naturally help you get into the highest possible reward from the door." The Watcher bowed as he gestured his hand at the door.
*CRRRR
Dust and foliage started to fall off the door.
"This door hadn¡¯t been opened since the creation of the Springs. Even the previous examinee¡¯s that had passed never received an S rank. You are the first my princess." The Watcher bowed.
"Interesting." Shiro smiled.
Walking towards the door, she could see a portal on the other side.
"Before I go, I want to ask a question." Shiro said, turning back just before entering.
"Ask away my princess."
"Were the previous chosen ones all human or half human?"
"Indeed they were."
"Then maybe it¡¯s because this princess is not human that I am not chosen. In which case, a boon for me." Shiro smiled and stepped into the door.
The Watcher paused in shock hearing her response.
"Princess...Isn¡¯t a human?" He muttered in confusion.
While The Watcher was digesting this new information, Shiro found herself inside a semi illuminated cave.
Looking around, she could see red nts that looked like a mix between lotus flows and fire.
"ming Lotus Grass huh? Interesting." She muttered with a smile.
ming Lotus Grass helped boost up one¡¯s resistance and power with the Fire Element. It was also a keyponent to precious fire type medicine.
However, she only had one use for it and that was to make the Fire Burst Bullets.
Fire Burst Bullets was one of the best bullets at lower levels. That was primarily due to the fact that it would spontaneouslybust inside a victim¡¯s body.
Against a boss, this was perfect since it would guarantee a critical hit.
Crouching near the nt, Shiro dug them out carefully and stored them in her inventory.
¡¯I¡¯ll start making the bullets once I get out of here.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before continuing through the cave.
On the way, she found more ming Lotus Grass and stored them all inside her inventory.
Reaching the end of the cave, Shiro saw a statue of a woman d in armour with swords surrounding her.
As Shiro walked closer, something beckoned her to ce a hand on the statue.
[S rank rewards distributed.]
[+300 in STR, AGI and DEX]
[Sword Skill: Refraction]
[Berserk Skill: Soul Sword]
Looking at her three rewards, Shiro smiled in excitement.
She didn¡¯t know about the berserk skill but the refraction skill was well known.
[Sword Skill: Refraction]
When striking an enemy, your sword will create several illusions mid swing. Location of the sword can be controlled.
Cost: 2,000MP
Duration: A full sword swing/upon contact with a physical object
Cool Down: 15 seconds
With a skill like this, it would make it hard for her enemy to defend against her sword. If they parry too early, she can adjust her swing slightly and attack them. If they parry toote, they¡¯ll have to take the full brunt of her attack.
"Lucky~" Shiro grinned happily.
Tapping her ne, she activated the skill and swung all four swords and at the same time.
Upon swinging the swords, they gave off a soft golden light before splitting into three swords. With a total of 12 swords swinging in sync, even Shiro would struggle a little to try parry it urately.
"That only leaves Soul Sword." She muttered before checking its description.
[Berserk Skill: Soul Sword]
A sword that represents your nature/soul. By fusing the soul sword with the currently equipped sword, you can amplify its power.
+soul sword buff
+15% increase to all stats
Cost: 30,000MP (Increases as you grow stronger)
Duration: 5 minutes
Cool Down: 5 days
Bacsh: -25% overall stats for 5 days.
"Hou... A sword that represents my soul huh? I wonder what that¡¯s like." Shiro mused to herself.
Shaking her head, she wasn¡¯t about to test it out since it would weaken her for 5 days. That kind of penalty wasn¡¯t something she enjoyed.
[yer: Madison and Silvia have exited the trial.]
¡¯Seems like they¡¯ve finished up.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. That only left Lyrica but she might take a while since she still had one more trial to take as she is the ¡¯chosen one¡¯.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro left the chamber and appeared back at the area just in front of the door. She couldn¡¯t find The Watcher so instead, she called out his name.
"You called Princess?" He responded almost immediately with a bow.
"When my friend finishes her trial, tell her that the rest of us are waiting outside for her." Shiro instructed.
"Understood princess." He nodded.
Shiro was about to leave when The Watcher opened his mouth once more.
"Princess, may this one ask for a favour?" He asked.
"Depends."
"Can you sign a contract with me so that I be your familiar?" He asked respectfully.
"What kind of contract?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Naturally a life and death contract for me. If you die, so shall I. If I die, you¡¯ll bepletely unharmed." He bowed.
"And why would you want to sign this contract?"
"Because I wish to see the heights that you¡¯ll reach in your life. Through all my years of protecting the springs, I have never seen a talent as bright as you nor do I think I¡¯ll be able to see one again."
"Hou, I don¡¯t see why not." Shiro smiled.
Biting her finger, she let a droplet of blood float in front of him.
The Watcher kneeled down and received the droplet as if it was a sacred object. Drawing a rune on his own forehead, he waited for the contract to establish itself.
However, his eyes widened in shock when a ck and purple me burst around him and erase the rune.
"Rejection?!" He widened his eyes in surprise. He didn¡¯t understand why it had rejected his contract since one didn¡¯t have a limit on the amount of life and death contracts.
But when he saw the me, he realised what could have happened.
"Princess, could it be that you¡¯ve already contracted with a beast?" He asked.
"You talking about Little Yin? She¡¯s my first contract."
"What kind of beast is she?"
"A kind of bird. I don¡¯t know since her name was just a bunch of question marks." Shiro shrugged.
"What kind of contract was it?"
"Hmm... I think it was called a Life Blood Contract?" Shiro tilted her head as she searched through her memories.
"Life Blood Contract!!!" The Watcher was shocked as that kind of contract was more brutal than the Life and Death contract. Not only is the person¡¯s life in her hands, but their power is also funnelled into them.
¡¯The Life Blood Contract is a very rare contract that can¡¯t be invoked intentionally. Only a few selected beasts can have ess to this contract?¡¯ He wondered to himself.
Unlike the Life and Death contract, once someone epted a Life Blood Contract, they can only take Life Blood Contracts from then on. That meant the rejection of a life and death contract.
"It¡¯s a shame but it seems like I cannot follow princess." He sighed in regret.
"Oh well, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find someone talented in the future." Shiro shrugged.
"I hope so." The Watcher smiled sadly since he knew this was probably thest time he¡¯ll see Shiro.
"Before you go, I have onest question."
"Shoot." Since he couldn¡¯t sign a contract, Shiro thought she might as well hear him out.
"Princess said that she wasn¡¯t human. Then what are you?" He asked.
"This princess is a snow girl. A monster that controls the cold elements." Shiro smiled.
"Ah, by the way, keep this a secret from Lyrica ok?" Shiro chuckled before leaving the realm.
"A snow girl..." The Watcher muttered.
"What kind of soul sword will she get? One that yearns for the destruction of mankind or will it be one that seeks to rule over everything?" He mused whilst looking up into the sky.
A monster with her kind of personality was rare.
"No... Perhaps her soul will bring salvation instead?"
Seeing her attitude towards her friends, he understood that she wasn¡¯t evil as a whole. She will reach out to those that may need help. However, at the same time, he still remembers the shivers her gaze gave him.
"Why am I even guessing? My princess isn¡¯t someone that can be predicted. Her gaze showed absolute mercilessness and yet she has thepassion to reach out to people. She even gave this old man pity seeing that I cannot follow her hahaha." The Watcherughed mockingly at himself. While he cursed the fact that he was stuck here, he was also grateful at the fact that he could meet her.
Sure, he could form a contract with someone else, but as a man who was feared by all, he wouldn¡¯t kneel before anyone else except his princess. She was the only one in his life to have bested him with ease. Not to mention, she wasn¡¯t even a warrior!
Shaking his head, he sat himself down and waited for the ¡¯chosen one¡¯ to exit her trial.
Meanwhile, Shiro had just left the trial and met up with Madison and Silvia.
"What did you girls get?" She asked.
"I got a new weapon." Madison smiled and showed her a greatsword. The sword itself was ck in colour with deep red highlights. A simple swing of the sword caused the runes to light up. The more momentum in the sword, the brighter the runes shone.
"Hou~ So I¡¯m guessing the sword has an additional momentum multiplier." Shiro said whilst examining the sword.
"Yup. This bad boy will hit harder the more momentum I have. If I jumped off the building, I¡¯ll be able to disy power much higher than my level." Madison grinned.
"That¡¯s only if you survive. Otherwise, what use is momentum power when you¡¯re a meat paste on the ground." Silvia chuckled.
"True." Madison agreed since that is indeed a worry of her¡¯s. While the momentum multiplier was good, she needed to make sure that her body could take it.
"What did you get Silvi?" Shiro asked.
"Me? I just got a defensive tool that can ward against high level attacks 2 times." Silvia smiled lightly and took out a small shield emblem.
While the reward was a little disappointing, she was happy that she got something. After all, she couldn¡¯t do much in the trial.
"Heh~ that¡¯s not too bad. As a healer, you¡¯ll be targeted more if we ever go against other humans. So the fact that you can have something to protect you is good." Shiro said, trying to encourage Silvia.
Because for one, if she had to go through the trouble Silvia did just to get a protective ward, she¡¯ll be pissed to the point that she¡¯ll just rob the rewards giver for more items.
"You know what Silvi? You can get a free outfit from this woman I know. All her clothes are made from monster fabric so you don¡¯t have to worry about them breaking." Shiro offered. She was going to send Aarim a text since she did offer her ¡¯entire¡¯ party an outfit. Technically Silvia was a member so she could get one. Even if she couldn¡¯t she¡¯ll just forfeit her own since she had one already.
"Sure, that sounds good." Silvia nodded.
Chapter 153 New Outfit From Aarim
Chapter 153 New Outfit From Aarim
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro sat on the tree branch and waited for Lyrica to exit out the trial. The first thing she did whilst waiting was attempting to upgrade her current set armour with the orb.
Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t able to upgrade the entire set but instead, gave her the option to upgrade a single piece of armour.
Eventually settling with the helmet, due to the fact that it gave her the biggest INT upgrade, Shiro was pretty satisfied with the oue.
[Demonic Blood Crystal Helmet (1/6) ¨C Orange]
+350 INT
+15% Mana Efficiency
+10% Magic Attack
+20% Life Steal Effectiveness
Passive Skill: Mind Ward
Mind Ward: Defends the user from a certain degree of mental attacks and debuffs that affect the mind.
After upgrading her armour, she started to create the Fire Burst Bullets.
With her stock of ming Lotus Grass, she could make a pretty sizable batch.
However, as she was making the bullets, she couldn¡¯t help but notice how Lyrica hadn¡¯t exited yet.
¡¯What¡¯s taking her so long?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in confusion.
Shaking her head, she decided to check to see if Lyrica left the trialter today since she needed to take Silvia to Aarim.
"Yin!" Shiro called out. Not too long after, Yinnded on her shoulders and held out her wing for a mana stone.
"Che, glutton. This princess is literally out of mana stones at this point. We¡¯ll go to a dungeon either tonight or tomorrow for some food ok?" Shiro said, handing Yin one of her remaining 3 D rank mana stones. She did have a small stock of C ranked stones but she wasn¡¯t about to let Yin eat them now. That was due to the fact that the total EXP she could receive would be reduced as she has not entered C ss just yet.
*Chirp!
Yin voiced her agreement since she too hated the fact that she had to ration her food.
"But don¡¯t worry too much. Once me and you hit C rank, we¡¯ll have an all you can eat buffet ok?" Shiro grinned since she couldn¡¯t wait to chow down on some C ranked mana stones.
*Chirp!
Yin¡¯s eyes glowed with excitement from just imagining the scene.
###
Meeting up with Silvia at a coffee shop, she led her towards Aarim¡¯s rented workshop.
"Now, the woman who you¡¯re about to meet ¡¯might¡¯ disy some unusual items and habits around the ce but you can ignore it." Shiro said as she wanted to warn Silvia beforehand.
"What do you mean by unusual?"
"Unusual as in s.e.x toys and other items." Shiro replied nonchntly.
¡¯HUH?!?!¡¯ Silvia widened her eyes as she couldn¡¯t believe what she had just heard.
"Can you repeat that?" She asked with a small smile.
"Her old shop sold s.e.x toys and s.e.x rted items." Shiro repeated since she understood how unusual it was to ask for an outfit from someone who sold s.e.x items.
Taking a moment to digest the information, Silva decided to see for herself before she judged. Plus, their group wasn¡¯t exactly the most normal so it was fine to have some weird friends.
Arriving at the spot, Shiro looked around and saw Aarim sitting on one of the tables.
"There she is." Shiro smiled.
Looking over, Silvia was surprised seeing an alluring woman with a devilish figure sitting casually at a table.
"You sure it¡¯s her?" Silvia asked nervously since she gave her the feeling that it wouldn¡¯t be good to offend her.
"Yeah, just follow me." Shiro nodded.
Sitting down in front of her, Shiro gestured for Silvia to sit beside her.
"It¡¯s been a while Shiro. Seems like you¡¯ve changed quite a bit." Aarim raised an eyebrow seeing her void ck irises.
"Yes it has, the change also helped me get my voice back." Shiro replied with a chuckle.
*PFFFF!!!!
Aarim choked on her drink hearing Shiro speak.
Before the drink could actually spill towards her, Shiro flexed her fingers and released a chilling mist that froze all of the water.
*ck ck ck
Seeing the pieces of ice that dropped onto the table, Aarim noticed Shiro¡¯s control over her ice had improved dramatically.
"Well damn, I seriously wonder what kind of background you have. Especially since your talent is by far one of the best I¡¯ve seen." Aarim praised.
"You know that I don¡¯t remember anything from before New York. Now then shall we get Silvia¡¯s measurements?" Shiro shrugged it off.
However, Aarim wasn¡¯t convinced since she clearly remembered her having a reaction to the statue back in the underwater ruins. Plus, just the fact that the item was from another world meant Shiro either had a connection to that world or something to do with the statue.
"Fine, straight to the point huh? Follow me." Aarim chuckled and finished the rest of her drink.
Walking besides Aarim, Silvia peeked at her figure and couldn¡¯t help butpare the two of them together.
¡¯Damn...¡¯ She thought to herself in defeat. However, once she nced at Shiro, she felt a little better about herself.
"Oi, you justpared my figure to yours didn¡¯t you." Shiro head instantly turned in her direction as her eyes bore into Silvia¡¯s.
*Cough cough!
"No I didn¡¯t." Silvia replied hastily.
¡¯Why is her intuition so sharp!!!¡¯ She cried out in her mind.
Narrowing her gaze at Silvia, Shiro decided to let it go for now. She didn¡¯t want to waste too much time, especially since she was going to head into a dungeonter today to farm for some mana stones.
"I¡¯ll let you off this time." Shiro frowned before turning around once again.
"Say Shiro, why do I feel like you¡¯ve be scarier now that you¡¯ve got your voice back hahaha." Aarimughed.
"What¡¯s scarier? Being angry whilst talking or through text?" Shiro rolled her eyes since using text would diminish the effect.
"True." Aarim nodded since she wasn¡¯t wrong.
Arriving at the tailors association, Aarim led them to her rented workshop.
The workshop itself was still as cramped as what Shiro remembered but with the addition of 3 outfits hanging by the side.
"Yours is the one in the centre. Give it a try." Aarim gestured.
Unlike her current outfit, this was more in the category of casual wear. It featured a simple sleeveless one piece dress with frills and decorations near the neck and the skirt. It was coloured all ck while the back of the dress is slightly see-through.
Along with the dress came a pair of gloves and stockings that was also coloured ck. Both of them had a silver bracelet around the wrist and ankle area.
As for the gloves, they were the type that was extra long and reached her biceps.
"Why is there so much ck?" Shiro asked whilst ncing backwards.
"Thought it¡¯ll look nice with your hair. Plus, you quite liked your current outfit so I only made a few changes. You can mix and match between the two if you want." Aarim replied with a shrug whilst taking Silvia¡¯s measurements.
"Well, you¡¯re not wrong." Shiro nodded since she did like the colour ck.
Changing into her new outfit, she erected an ice mirror and inspected herself.
¡¯Um, not bad.¡¯ She thought with a smile.
"Does ite with some shoes?" Shiro asked.
"Look down. The middle pair is yours." Aarim replied without looking.
The pair that Aarim pointed out was some ankle boots that had their heels shortened slightly. While it was shortened, it wasn¡¯t to the point where one wouldn¡¯t know.
Slipping into the boots, Shiro checked them out and was quite pleased. Not only were theyfortable, but because Aarim shortened the heels, she was able to still get a good grip on the floor.
¡¯I should invite her to the party so that she can make more clothes for us.¡¯ Shiro thought with a grin/
"Say Aarim, why don¡¯t you join my party?" She offered.
"Nah I¡¯m good for now. Plus, even if I join your party, it seems like you¡¯ve got things figured out. Madison can tank, Lyrica can attack and you can help out with both. Plus, I remember you telling me that your friend here is a healer right? You¡¯ve basically got all the bases covered" Aarim replied as she noted down Silvia¡¯s measurements.
"Well having some extra ranged firepower like a mage isn¡¯t bad either you know." Shiro shrugged.
"I suppose that¡¯s correct. Ah, before I forget, youck a ranger. Getting one would benefit you greatly since they can detect traps and see through stealth." Aarim reminded.
"So many people to recruit." Shiro said as she stored her old outfit into her inventory.
"Alright, it should be rtively easy for me to get Silvia¡¯s outfit since I have a spare that would only need a few adjustments to fit her overall aesthetic."
"Then I¡¯m guessing we¡¯reing her again tomorrow to collect all of them?"
"Yeah pretty much. By the way, you want anything else with your outfit? I might as well do it now since you¡¯re here." Aarim asked as she sat down on her chair.
"Hmm, nothing really. I like the simple design. If anything, probably a hair tie or something." Shiro shrugged.
"In that case then have two. I got a ribbon one and a normal hair bang made from monster fabric. I used it when I was younger but I don¡¯t use them now." Aarim shrugged and passed her a ck ribbon and a ck hairband.
"You liked ck too I¡¯m guessing?"
"Yeah. Now get out of my workshop, I need to start making Silvia¡¯s outfit." Aarim chuckled and shooed them out of the room.
"See you tomorrow." They both said before leaving the room.
Storing the hairband into her inventory, Shiro decided to go for a change of pace and tied her hair into a ponytail.
With some hair flowing down the sides, it framed her face and when paired with her ponytail, gave her a refreshing feeling. Of course, that¡¯s only if they ignored the fact that she was dressed in ck from top to bottom.
But Shiro liked it since it was efficient on multiple fronts. Not only could she wear it casually, she could also use it during the night to hide herself more.
"I¡¯m going to be going into a dungeon for now so we¡¯ll part ways here. See you tomorrow." Shiro smiled.
"I¡¯ll see you tomorrow then." Silvia nodded before leaving as well.
Checking her map, Shiro decided to go to a high level ice type dungeon to farm since she can control all the ice around her. The ice type monsters would be at her mercy.
"Level 50 Luna Ice Forest. A dungeon filled with level 50 Luna Ice Wolves that attack as a pack. Very dangerous, don¡¯t challenge alone." She muttered the description of the dungeon she nned to attack.
Since her main goal was to earn some mana stones, she didn¡¯t need to worry about EXP. The best source of D rank mana stone would naturally be the level 50 dungeons since it is the peak of D rank.
The drop rates and the quality would be much better than normal due to the fact that it is almost C ranked.
Arriving at the location, Shiro instantly drew everyone¡¯s attention with her new look.
Ignoring the stares, Shiro looked around to see how she could sneak into the dungeon.
¡¯Seems like I can probably drop down into the doorway if I sneak above them.¡¯ She thought before leaving the area.
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path: Phantom Path.
Flicking over the buildings, Shiro started to parkour her way down.
Landing softly on one of the ledges, she smiled before jumping into the dungeon.
Opening her eyes, she could see a forest covered with snow.
Her passive was instantly activated as she felt oddlyfortable. As if she was at a long lost home.
"Well this princess is a snow girl. It makes sense." She mused to herself.
Jumping up, she bnced herself on a small tree branch and sent out her senses. Since she is a snow girl, by monster logic, everything that is connected to snow should reveal itself.
¡¯Bingo.¡¯ She thought with a smile.
She could picture a map of the entire first floor with spots of red signifying the wolves.
"Hehe, this dungeon might be bad for most adventurers. But to this princess, it¡¯s my yground." Shiroughed beforeunched herself towards the first group wolves.
They were shocked at her sudden appearance by soon reacted by sending out ice magic.
"Bad move." Shiro grinned.
With a simple flick of her wrist, the ice magic shifted targets and shot back towards the wolves.
Some of the wolves couldn¡¯t react fast enough and was pierced by their own magic.
Tapping her ne, Shiro summoned her swords and embedded then with the metal element, boosting it¡¯s attack power further.
Yin Style Phantom Arts: Asura Sword Path + Refraction!
Her swords gave off a faint light before splitting into 3 copies of themselves.
Seeing the swords sh towards them, the wolves didn¡¯t know which is real and could only try to dodge blindly.
However, even if they guessed right, Shiro could easily switch the location of her sword with one of the refracted copies and sh the wolves that way.
In a single short moment, the previously ferocious pack of wolves that could have killed a group of adventurersy dead in front of her.
"Yin, collect their stones while I kill some more." Shiro ordered as she didn¡¯t bother about their drops.
The best thing that this dungeon could give her was some armour but she already had her set armour that she wasn¡¯t about to rece anytime soon.
Chapter 154 Yuan Tian
Chapter 154 Yuan Tian
After clearing out the entire first floor of the dungeon, her stock of mana stones had been refilled quite decently. While it wasn¡¯t at the level she had hoped, it was enough for her to survive for a week or so. And that was including the fact that she would be feeding Yin, the little glutton.
However, there had been more benefits to clearing out the entire first floor. Yin had managed to level up once more bringing up her level from level 43 to 44.
"Only one more level till you get another skill right?" Shiro asked, not expecting an answer.
*chirp!
Nodding her head, Yin wanted to participate a bit more so that she could get into C rank sooner.
"Since our stock of mana stones should be pretty good now, we can spend more time on the next floor for you to get some EXP." Shiro said as she turned their batch of mana stones into mana stone lollipops.
Throwing one in her mouth, Shiro was surprised to see her level increase to level 47.
¡¯Huh... So I just needed a little more EXP to level up. Lucky~¡¯ She thought to herself.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Proficient Monster (231/500 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Ice Princess, Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path
Level: 47
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 302,500/302,500
MP: 680,570/680,570
STR: 1900 -> 2000 (+100) <+525>
VIT: 2000 (+200) <+550>
INT: 3900 -> 4200 (+750) <+1,237>
AGI: 2600 (+450) <+762>
DEX: 2400 -> 2500 (+100) <+650>
DEF: 700 (+100) <+200>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 500 -> 0
Attunements:
cial ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 2
Metal ¨C Tier 2
Shadow ¨C Tier 2 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Bnce: 720,000,200 USD
Equipment (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 cial magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Faded Snow Movement, cial Aura, cial Touch, cial Breath. Ice Field Affinity, Cold Illusion
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Bow Creation, Shield Creation, Melee Weapon Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation, Shotgun Creation
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Cmity Trident
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path:
Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path
Sword Skills:
Refraction, Soul Sword
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Lightning Magic (Tier 2), Metal Magic (Tier 2), Shadow Magic (Tier 2), Combust.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 2)]
With her stats improving overall, Shiro wasparable to a low grade level 51! And that was considering the fact that they got a bonus due to them being in C ss.
¡¯If I reach level 50, I should be able to hold my own against level 51-55¡¯s even if they¡¯re an entire ss above me. My stats should make up for the difference.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a smile.
Plus, her set armour gave her life steal and mana leech, which allowed her to be self sustaining. Not to mention the fact that she had skills that would buff MP and HP regen along with Fire of Life that would heal her.
When paired with her ridiculous attacking power, she IS the most powerful level 47 in history.
And that was including the fact that her links were still broken!
Making her way to the obelisk, Shiro saw the mini boss awaiting her arrival.
The boss itself was a four tailed wolf with snow white fur, crystal blue eyes and neon blue streaks across its body.
Standing up at around 5 meters, the wolf king sat with an air of royalty.
[Four Tailed Luna Wolf King LVL 50 ¨C Boss]
HP: 2,000,000/2,000,000
MP: 3,000,000/3,000,000
Normally, the wolf king would summon all of his underlings but Shiro had foiled this n. With her ability to sense everything that came into contact with snow in her area, she was able to snuff all of the wolves.
Naturally, this meant the king was alone.
"Might as well give this a try." Shiro grinned as lightning and metal sparked in her hand.
Soon, a double barrelled shotgun could be seen in her grasp. Smooth ck metal with red highlights along the panels.
Loading two Fire Burst Bullets, Shiro crouched down and dashed towards the boss.
"Yin, you might want to get a few shots in before I kill it." Shiro reminded.
*Chirp!
pping her wings, Yin became a blur and shot towards the boss.
Even Shiro was surprised by the extent of her speed.
*PUCHI PUCHI PUCHI!
Deepcerations could be seen on the wolf king¡¯s body, especially near the mouth.
Swiping his tails, a blizzard formed around him in an attempted to freeze Yin.
"Not on my watch." Shiroughed as she snapped her fingers and dispelled the blizzard.
Yin Style Asura¡¯s path: Phantom Path!
Her body flickered under the boss and jammed her shotgun barrel in one of thecerations.
*BANG!!!!!!
The force of the shot sent the wolf king stumbling backwards. However, the recoil had also affected Shiro since she had almost let go of the shotgun.
Fire could be seen erupting from his wound as his HP dropped rapidly.
Reloading her weapon with normal bullets, Shiro gestured for Yin to attack more often.
With the support that Shiro provided, they were able to destroy most of the boss¡¯s health quickly since she had effectively shut down his entire arsenal of skills.
What would have been a rather difficult boss for normal adventurers became a joke in front of Shiro and Yin.
Looking at the boss thatid in a puddle of its own blood, hers eyes softened and crouched in front of him.
"Does it hurt?" She asked, making eye contact.
The wolf king didn¡¯t say anything but close his eyes. From the fight it just had, he somewhat knew of her personality. She would not showpassion for a boss she had just beaten.
"Tsk, no fun." Shiro frowned before pointing her gun at his head and pulled the trigger.
*BANG!
Blood and brain matter sttered everywhere as Shiro flexed her finger and froze everything around her. She liked her new dress quite a bit and she wasn¡¯t about to let some blood dirty it.
Stretching her body, Shiro yawned a little before tapping the obelisk to teleport her to the next floor.
Meanwhile...
"Please let mee with you!" The Watcher asked with a bow.
"Why should I." Lyrica narrowed her eyes with suspicion.
"I wish to see the kind of heights my princess can reach. Due to certain circ.u.mstances, I cannot form a contract with her. Hence I sought you out to sign a contract." The Watcher admitted.
After he saw Shiro leave, he suddenly felt like he would regret this for the rest of his life if he didn¡¯t follow her. Hence why he decided to sign a contract with Lyrica instead.
"And why would I help you? Especially after the way you treated me." Lyrica frowned.
Of course, that was only an excuse. Why should she let some old geezer follow Shiro around? Where¡¯s the FBI when you need them.
"And I¡¯m sorry for that. This old man is willing toy my life down for you just so that I can follow princess in the other world." The Watcher bowed.
"And if I sign a contract with you, what benefits will it give me?"
"You¡¯ll have my full support in unlocking the full potential of your new sword."
"...And would you just be in spirit form?" Lyrica asked.
"No. I¡¯ll have my own body but I won¡¯t be able to use my powers. But that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m useless. I can still use my powers but only in times of need since I¡¯ll need to return to spirit form and enter a deep slumber in order to recover from the bacsh."
"So... You¡¯ll just be a butler?" Lyrica asked with a raised eyebrow.
"...yes." The Watcher replied after a short moment.
"What else can you do?" She asked.
"I can teach you my sword arts."
"Hmm... fine. BUT, how do I make sure that you can¡¯t go against my orders if we do sign a contract." Lyrica narrowed her eyes.
"The contract that we¡¯ll be signing is a life and death contract. If I die, you¡¯ll be fine. But if you die, I¡¯ll die also. Not only that, but you orders will have sway over me. As long as it¡¯s not overboard, I cannot disobey."
"Overboard in what way?"
"Anything that goes against my own moralpass. So things like killing kids or r*pe and the such." The Watcher replied.
"Hmm, sure. So what do I do?" Lyrica asked.
"Give me a droplet of your blood and I¡¯ll establish the contract."
Nodding her head, Lyrica gave him a droplet of blood as he repeated the same thing he tried with Shiro.
A golden glow encased his body as the illusionary image of shackles chained him up before fading away.
His spiritual form started to change as he became a young man standing at 1.8 meters. He had ck hair and ck eyes and wore a white hanfu. While he was handsome, he had little to no effect on Lyrica.
"My life is now in your hands Ly-"
"Call me Young Miss." Lyrica grinned in a simr manner to Shiro. This was her own form of revenge since he had looked down on her before.
Plus, the order wasn¡¯t overboard so The Watcher could only obey her.
"Understood Young Miss." He nodded with a bow.
"What¡¯s your name and tell me about yourself in terms ofbat potential?" Lyrica asked.
"My name is Yuan Tian. Divine Swordsman. Current level is 1 but I can exhibit power 20 levels above you in times of need. So right now, I can perform simr to a level 65." Yuan Tian replied with a respectful bow.
"Alright, follow me. I¡¯m leaving the trial now." Lyrica said since she didn¡¯t want to leave him behind.
"Don¡¯t worry Young Miss, even if you leave me in the corner of the world, I¡¯ll be forcefully teleported to you should you will it or if you¡¯re in danger." Yuan Tian said, informing her about the matter.
"Handy." Lyrica replied with a shrug before leaving the trial.
###
*BANG!!!!!
Firing her shotgun, Shiro killed the second mini boss as only one more boss remained till she cleared the dungeon. From what she remembered, the final boss was a strength type boss that has a high resistance to fire and ice.
Unfortunately for it, even if it was resistant to both elements, her shotgun bullet does not belong to any element.
In order words...
"Wow, this dungeon can¡¯t do sh*t against me." Shiro muttered as she had slightly underestimated her effectiveness in an ice type dungeon.
While she did understand that she had a huge advantage against ice type enemies, she didn¡¯t think that she could suppress them to this extent. Plus, they couldn¡¯t use anything other than ice so they were helpless against her.
Naturally, she wasn¡¯tining but just doing target practice didn¡¯t get her blood boiling. No. It bored the living crap outta her.
"Urg... You know what Yin, why don¡¯t you try fighting the boss alone. I¡¯ll help when he¡¯s using ice magic." Shiro offered since it was a good way for Yin to get more EXP from her contributions.
*Chirp!
Yin didn¡¯t mind since she just wanted to reach level 50 quickly and ss up.
"Great, then that¡¯s settled. You fight the boss along and I¡¯ll only help if it¡¯s using ice magic." Shiro smiled and teleported them into the final boss room.
However, once she entered the boss room, she tilted her head back seeing the size of the boss.
*Whistle~
"Pretty huge." Shiro mused to herself.
Standing at almost 10 meters, blue skin and white hair, the giant was d in thick ted armour.
While the duo was talking, the giant didn¡¯t let them have a break since a two fold magic circle had already covered the entire boss room.
Looking at the magic circle, Shiro only scoffed slightly before flicking it with her finger.
*Ping~
The giant was shocked seeing his magic being destroyed so easily.
"This princess doesn¡¯t even need to use my Mana Disruption bullets for you." Shiro taunted with a grin.
While the giant didn¡¯t know what a Mana Disruption bullet was, it knew that the little girl was looking down on him.
*URAHH!!!!
He shouted out and punched towards her.
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path: Phantom Path.
Flickering away from the punch, Shiro hid herself in the room.
*BOOM!!!
*Ping ping!
Yin¡¯s attacks only bounced off the armour as Shiro frowned.
¡¯Seems like Yin¡¯scking a lot of attack power.¡¯
However, it could be a situation where Yin would have low firepower early in the levels but get exponentially strongerter on.
Seeing her attacks ineffective, Yin narrowed her eyes in annoyance.
*Chirp!
A two fold magic circle started to erge as Shiro could tell Yin was pooling most of her mana into this spell.
"Tsk, don¡¯t make yourself an easy target with this!" Shiro clicked her tongue and aimed her palm at the boss.
Clutching her hand into a fist, several ice chains erupted from the ground and wrapped around the boss as Yin charged up her magic.
*URAHH!!!
The giant tried to struggle but the chains refused to budge.
As the boss was trying to struggle out of the chains, Yin had finished her spell.
*Chirp!!
ck mist started to encroach into the room and slowly crawled towards the boss.
Slipping into his armour, the mist started to eat away at the boss¡¯s flesh.
"Oh damn..." Shiro muttered as she didn¡¯t expect Yin to pull such a powerful spell.
The spell had simr properties to the corrosive nature of her augmented Shadow Attunement but Shiro knew they were slightly different.
While her augment is more closely linked to decay and withering, Yin¡¯s was more ravenous. It was as if it was a beast that had been starved for centuries.
"What kind of beast are you?" Shiro muttered with curiosity.
Chapter 155 New York Cleared
Chapter 155 New York Cleared
Killing the boss with rtive ease, Shiro and Yin left the dungeon with a freshly stocked up pile of Mana Stones.
Of course, she didn¡¯t just leave without any preparations. Using her phantom path, Shiro made sure that no one could see her exit the dungeon.
Checking her phone, Shiro was bombarded by news of New York being finally cleared of monsters spawned by the totem.
"Finally." Shiro muttered with a smile.
With the clearance of monsters in New York, that meant she could get the rebirth pill from Nan Tian along with the fact that she can take Lyrica and Madison to Winter¡¯s Grace.
"Hmm... Maybe I should ask to see if Silvia wants to join them as well." Shiro mused to herself before bringing up Silvia¡¯s contact on her phone.
[Shiro: Have you heard the news? New York¡¯s been cleared.]
[Silvia: I¡¯ve just seen it now. What about it?]
[Shiro: Since the factions are now free, me, Lyrica and Madison are heading to the Winter¡¯s Grace Branch office. Depending on what happens, I can get you a spot as well if you want to join.]
[Silvia: Sure. Since I¡¯m in your party, I might as well follow. Though don¡¯t worry about it if I can¡¯t join. The faction doesn¡¯t restrict party¡¯s right?]
[Shiro: No they don¡¯t. Plus, I¡¯m a guest elder so I should have some say in this.]
[Silvia: Honestly, I¡¯m not even surprised that you¡¯re a guest elder. Plus, with your capabilities, making you a normal member would be idiotic haha.]
[Shiro: True. So that¡¯s settled. I still have some things left to do in this city but it shouldn¡¯t take too long. See you tomorrow.]
[Silvia: See youter.]
Putting her phone away, Shiro made a mental list of all the things she needed to do.
¡¯Contact Freya from Winter¡¯s Grace and see what we¡¯re doing for the faction, get the outfits, meet up with Nan Tian and get the pill.¡¯
"Seems easy enough." She chuckled.
Arriving back at the tent, Shiro frowned when she could see an extra presence in the tent.
Flexing her fingers, she made several ice needles since she could tell the presence is one that was much more powerful than Lyrica and Madison.
Walking cautiously to the tent, Shiro opened it slightly and was weed by the sight of a young man in a hanfu drinking tea.
Lyrica, Madison and Kanae looked over in curiosity but was shocked seeing Shiro¡¯s new look. Hair tied into a ponytail and the new ck dress gave her a slight gothic lolita feeling. It was the kind of feeling that almost made Lyrica want to be a kind of criminal *cough cough*.
"Shiro-nee!" Kanae cried out in joy and was about to jog over when Yuan Tian overtook her.
"Princess!"
However, before he could even get close, he could see two ice needles pointed at his eyes and several wires wrapped around his body.
¡¯When did they appear!?¡¯ He thought in shock.
"Who are you." Shiro frowned and looked past him. Seeing Lyrica, Madison and Kanae still safe and sound, she sighed in relief but didn¡¯t let her guard down.
"It¡¯s me, The Watcher. I¡¯ve signed a contract with young miss so that I can follow you." He smiled and bowed slightly.
"He¡¯s a butler." Lyrica called out from the background.
"Mn." Nodding her head in acknowledgement, Shiro thawed the ice and retrieved her wires.
"So you¡¯re our butler now?" Shiro raised an eyebrow and examined the watcher.
"You look revitalised." Shemented.
"Indeed. After signing a contract with the young miss, I gained a physical body and in turn, allowed this old man to return to my prime." He replied with a smallugh.
"Don¡¯t call yourself old man. Just address yourself as butler." Lyrica called out from the background.
Yuan Tian made a face of difort before sighing.
"This butler understands."
Shiro perked up seeing someone like Yuan Tian being so submissive.
"Lyrica, can you tell me about what happened?" Shiro asked.
"Of course. So basically..."
###
After understanding the situation, Shiro made a face of confusion. For someone like Yuan Tian, signing a ve/ Life and Death contract was going against their way of life. The only reason he wanted to sign a contract with her was due to the fact that she was apparently the best talent he had ever seen.
But for him to sign a contract with Lyrica confused Shiro since she understood that there are most likely people more talented than Lyrica.
"It¡¯s because I want to follow the princess. My intuition told me that I would regret not following you. And in life, this butler had always trusted my intuition. Plus, young miss is a dear friend of princess. As long as I can follow princess, this butler does not mind." Yuan Tian replied.
"Hou, in that case then I wish you can train Lyrica well. Due to my nature and power, I¡¯m not giving her the chance to earn enough experience. Even when I don¡¯t help, I am still a safety that will guarantee her safety. Since you¡¯re a seasoned veteran, you should know that this isn¡¯t good right." Shiro smiled.
"Of course princess. However, I cannot say that I will train her better since yourbat experience seemed to be vastly superior to this butler." Yuan Tian replied as there was a knowing look in his eyes.
During the short moment when Shiro had readied all the wires and the ice needles, he could barely react before his senses warned him of the dangers surrounding him. It was as if he was a fly that had suddenly been ensnared by a spider¡¯s web.
"Haha, perhaps." Shiro dismissed it with augh.
"Ah by the way you two, New York has been cleared so we¡¯ll be making our way to Winter¡¯s Grace sooner orter. We¡¯ll also go to Aarim¡¯s tomorrow to pick up your new outfits." Shiro said, showing them the news on the phone.
"Heh~ I wonder what¡¯s the faction going to be like." Madison muttered whilst leaning back.
"Does that mean Shiro-nee is going to leave me?" Kanae frowned in sadness.
"Unfortunately yes. But, if you train hard and keep yourself safe, I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll meet in the future." Shiro smiled dotingly.
She wanted to take Kanae but that meant separating her from her mother. And she knew that not growing up with parents could possibly result in some bad trauma¡¯s for kids especially in apetitive environment like the factions.
"But how will I find Shiro-nee. The world is so big." Kanae asked.
"Hahaha, it¡¯s easy. Do you think that your Shiro-nee will be average in the future? Just search up her name and you¡¯ll find her in the future." Madisonughed.
Shiro only smiled since it was indeed a possibility. Plus, she was the guest elder at a faction now so there were bound to be some news.
Kanae only frowned since she knew that it was going to be hard even if she tried to track her down.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Once you get strong enough, I¡¯m sure it would be an easy task for you to find me." Shiro said since she understood Kanae¡¯s worries.
"Fine..."
¡¯I should give her a gift before I leave. Something practical.¡¯ Shiro thought. One of the better options would be to give her a growth type weapon that can level up besides her. However, she knew the kind of dangers it could bring.
But at the same time, a growth type weapon will help her massively. Especially since she had a pair of katana¡¯s in her inventory that she had gotten from the mutated dungeon.
¡¯We¡¯ll see.¡¯ She thought, setting the problem aside for now.
After talking to the group for a little longer, Shiro decided to leave the tent since she could tell that Yuan Tian wanted to say something.
Waiting on the tree branch, Shiro smiled lightly when Yuan Tian left the tent as well.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Shiro asked.
"I was just curious of princess¡¯s full power. Since princess has told me that you¡¯re not a warrior and instead a mage, I wish to see just how powerful princess was." Yuan Tian said as he kneeled down onto one knee.
"Hou, I don¡¯t see why not. However, our location is a little too open and would draw many eyes. Come with me." Shiro replied and hopped off the branch lightly.
Walking towards the ruins of the slums, Shiro found a spot where no one would interfere. Plus, it was also far enough from the city that it would allow her to run before any guards arrive.
"So you wish to see me at my most powerful?"
"Yes."
"I can only go as powerful as I can afford is that ok?" Shiro asked since she wasn¡¯t about to reveal all of her power.
"That is fine. I just wish to peer into princess¡¯s strength as a mage." Yuan Tian nodded.
"Then prepare yourself." Shiro said as emotion started to fade from her face.
Stomping down, cial ice spread out instantly as a chilling killing intent enveloped Yuan Tian.
His body instantly tensed up but noticed that wires were already surrounding him. Not only that, neon blue mes floated around him. Each ball of me felt like they could freeze him just by being near him.
And to top everything off, a void ck trident could be seen just above her head. Enveloped by a deep purple aura that seems to consume everything around it, the trident was by far the most dangerous attack at this moment.
¡¯A single move to turn the area into her domain and shut me down from doing anything. Followed up by a trident that will most definitely kill me in a single blow... Princess isn¡¯t even a monster. She¡¯s far worse.¡¯ Yuan Tian thought to himself.
And this was done in an instant as well! A single moment was all that she needed to turn the entire area into a ce that suited her the best. She wasn¡¯t even doing any preparations forrge scale spells as well!
"Happy?" Shiro chuckled seeing the absolute shock and reverence in Yuan Tian¡¯s eyes.
"This butler is content. I am eager to see what you can do once you ss up my princess." He replied, lowering his head as if he wasn¡¯t even worthy to gaze upon her.
"Mn, just focus on training my friend. Once we arrive at the faction, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to go with them as often." Shiro shook her head and retracted everything. The faction was a perfect opportunity for Madison and Lyrica to cultivate their experiences out in the field.
While it was indeed true that they can solo dungeons or fight strong bosses, they needed to work with someone weaker than them. By doing so, they¡¯ll be forced to learn situational awareness and make sure they kept tabs on everyone in the party.
Once they learn that, they¡¯ll be able to perform much better in a team rather than her supporting them all the way with her magic. Plus, Shiro knew that her case was a little special since there shouldn¡¯t be anyone that can support them like this at their level.
Her presence would only cause them to fall intoziness.
"I understand princess."
"Also, we should get you some clothes befitting of a butler. We can¡¯t have you wearing a hanfu all the time now can we?" Shiro chuckled slightly.
"Butler clothes?" Yuan Tian furrowed his brows in confusion.
"Oh you¡¯ll love them." Shiro grinned.
The next day...
"You lied to me!!!" Yuan Tian cried out in betrayal.
The suit felt ufortable for him since he was restricted. Unlike his hanfu that allowed him to have a full range of motion, the suit was basically a prison. Plus, Lyrica had ordered him not to damage it so he could only suffer the pain of being squeezed into a tight suit.
However, the girls had to admit that Yuan Tian looked rather handsome in the suit.
Buying several spare suits for Yuan Tian, the girls talked while waiting for Silvia to arrive. They had arranged the meeting to be in the city centre where they sold clothes.
After a short moment, they could see Silvia walking up in the distance.
"What the hell?!" Was her first reaction upon hearing that The Watcher was turned into Lyrica¡¯s butler.
"Don¡¯t mind the small details." Shiro replied.
"I don¡¯t think that can be called small but whatever." Silvia sighed since she had mentally prepared herself for most things that might happen during her time in the party. The fact that they made a trial mini boss into a butler was justification of her preparation.
Once they arrived at the workshop, Aarim showed them their outfits.
"Here¡¯s Lyrica¡¯s, Madison¡¯s and Silvia¡¯s. Also, you¡¯re not going to tell me to make one for this guy are you?" Aarim asked.
"No don¡¯t worry about him. He¡¯s a butler of sorts so he doesn¡¯t need to fight." Shiro chuckled seeing Aarim¡¯s reaction.
"Phew. Because I¡¯m seriously going to run out of monster cloth at the rate you¡¯re going." Aarim rolled her eyes.
Shiro¡¯s party was the only party that had managed to make her give out 2 sets of clothes. And even then, it was a surprise if she even gave people 1 set since they¡¯re not up for sale. Only those who had her favour would receive one.
Looking at their new outfits, the trio smiled in satisfaction. Lyrica had a sleeveless red and white dress that paired with long gloves and stockings. The dress itself was suited forbat since it didn¡¯t limit her body movement at all.
Madison¡¯s outfit was simr in design but with small alterations. Instead of sleeveless dress and gloves, her¡¯s was just a long-sleeved dress that was coloured a mix of red, dark grey and orange.
As for Silvia, her outfit was more reserved since it didn¡¯t show any skin. Coloured white and green, her outfit gave a calming feeling as healer should do.
Now that the trio has gotten their outfits, Shiro could strike that off her checklist.
¡¯Only a few more things to do now.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Chapter 156 Carnival Games
Chapter 156 Carnival Games
"While we¡¯re still in Cairosa, I want you girls to level up as much as you can. Go challenge level 50 dungeons just by yourselves and when you can beat them solo, challenge level 55¡¯s as a team." Shiro said whilst sitting down on a chair.
They were currently at a caf¨¦ near Aarim¡¯s workshop and were just discussing what they were going to do.
"What about you?" Lyrica asked.
"Hehe, obviously I¡¯ll be shooting for level 50." Shiro ginned. If she became level 50 before meeting Nan Tian, she¡¯ll be able to use the pill straight away.
"Well I know that but what are you going to do in order to reach that level quickly?" Lyrica replied.
"What else would I do? If I can solo level 50 and 55 dungeons, the next option would obviously be level 60 dungeons." Shiro chuckled.
"Plus, I¡¯m quite interested to see what the raids are like in this city." She added on. Due to the geography of the city, the raids in Cairosa feature navalbat.
While she wasn¡¯t a stranger to navalbat, she was quite curious about how people in this world fought on water.
"Heh~ I know that the raids in Cairosa are much more dangerous than the raids back in New York. Back then, we only did a low level dungeon were everyone was confident in what they were doing. However, with the limited movement on a boat, the danger factor of the raid jumps up exponentially." Silvia reminded them.
"Don¡¯t worry about that. As long as it¡¯s not underwater, my ice will be able to handle it." Shiro replied with a smile.
If they fought on top of water, Shiro would be able to create tforms on the water using her ice.
"True." Silvia nodded her head since Ice magic worked wonders in a situation like this.
"Great, but before that, there¡¯s a party being hosted by the New Yorkers. Wanna go?" Lyrica asked, showing them a picture of a poster that she had taken.
"Sure why not." Madison and Silvia were down for the party. As for Shiro, she wasn¡¯t too sure since there was no point in her going to begin with. She couldn¡¯t taste the food and there were no benefits in joining.
"I dunno. I feel like going to a dungeon would be a better use of my time, no?" Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
"Don¡¯t be such a workaholic ande with us." Madison chuckled and wrapped her hand around Shiro¡¯s shoulders.
"Hais... sure I guess." Shiro smiled wearily.
Making their way back to the camping sites, they could see people setting up for arge party. Lights were being hung up as food was being prepared inrge quantities.
Naturally there were also drinks and stalls being set up. Overall, it was something akin to a huge festival.
Sitting on the biggest tree in the centre, Shiro watched as everyone did something to help. Of course, she was using her phantom path to make sure that no one could see her. She¡¯s wasn¡¯t avoiding the work at all. *Cough
Throwing another mana stone lollipop in her mouth, Shiro kept an eye on everyone.
Lyrica and Madison were helping with setting up games stalls for the kids while Silvia was assisting with setting up a first aid area. After all, in parties like this, there were bound to be people who got injured.
As for Kanae, she was enjoying her time with some kids. She would asionally look around to try find Shiro but frowned when she wasn¡¯t there.
¡¯I should probably make her a manual to practice Yin Style Martial Arts. I¡¯ll show her second and third phantom. They¡¯re rtively easy whenpared to first and fourth phantom.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
Second and third phantom only needed one to have a great deal of flexibility along with body control. With someone like Kanae who was following her training guide, she should be able to match these requirements.
However, unlike the second and third phantom, the first and fourth needed more from the user. If used incorrectly, they would put the user in more dangers.
This was also one of the reasons that she didn¡¯t want to teach Lyrica and Madison before. Their body simply wasn¡¯t suited. But now that they¡¯ve levelled up, their stats wouldpensate slightly for theirck ofpatibility. While it wouldn¡¯t be a perfect recreation of the style, it would at least give them some small benefits rather than expose them to danger.
Pulling out a notepad and pen, Shiro tapped the pen on her chin for a short moment before she started to draw on the pad.
The speed of which she was drawing out the picture was incredible since it looked like she didn¡¯t even need to think whilst drawing.
It was an intricate step by step guide of everything that Fei Ling had taught her when she showed her the Yin Style Phantom arts.
How one should position their body with arrows to help show the position. A detailed drawing of a person that is in the pose and ways that one could train it. Since she was able to memorise everything within a day, Shiro didn¡¯t need to do all of the live training so Fei Ling hardly exined that section to her.
¡¯They should be able to learn it with just the basics here.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since this was the best that she could offer them.
Until they were able to control their body like her, she wasn¡¯t going to show them any more since there is only so much high stats couldpensate for.
*Pa
Closing the notebook, Shiro wrote down the title of the martial arts.
[Yin Style Phantom Arts: second + third phantom.]
Nodding her head in satisfaction, Shiro flexed her fingers and made a printer. cing her book inside one of thepartments, Shiro printed out 2 copies before disassembling it again.
Hopping off the tree, Shiro sneaked up behind Kanae and tapped her on the head.
"Ah!" Crying out in shock, Kanae quickly turned around and saw Shiro.
When the other kids saw her, they widened their eyes in shock seeing someone as pretty as Shiro.
"Shiro-nee!!" Kanae hugged Shiro and climbed onto her back.
"Having fun?" Shiro smiled.
"Yeah." Kanae nodded.
"I got a little present for you. You can¡¯t let other people see it no matter what ok? Only you can read this. Don¡¯t tell other people as well." Shiro warned and handed her the book.
However, she didn¡¯t need to worry about other people opening the book since she made it so that if anyone other than Kanae forces the book open, it would start shredding itself. As for how that worked, it was abination of eye scanners and fingerprint scanners.
Kanae¡¯s eyes glistened in joy seeing Shiro hand her a present.
"Thank you." Kanaeughed and hugged Shiro¡¯s head.
Shiro only smiled before letting her down.
"Um... my name is Gil." A young boy said nervously walking up to Shiro.
"Hi Gil, my name is Shiro." Shiro replied with a soft chuckle.
Gil blushed harder seeing Shirough and shyly reached out his hand.
"Can I shake your hand?" He asked.
"Sure, I don¡¯t see why not." Shiro nodded her head.
However, before she could shake hands, Kanae stepped between then and hugged Shiro¡¯s hand.
"No me first." She pouted and proceeded to shake her hand.
Smiling softly, Shiro patted Kanae¡¯s head and shook hands with Gil.
"y nice Kanae. I¡¯m going to go look for Lyrica and Madison. See ya."
"See youter Shiro-nee." Kanae nodded and waved her hand.
Watching Shiro flicker away like a ghost, Gil looked down on his hand and grinned.
Meanwhile, Shiro found Lyrica and Madison resting by the side.
"Yo." Shiro grinned and appeared behind them.
The duo reacted instinctively, pulling out their weapons and shed towards her immediately.
Pinching the swords with ease, Shiro flicked them back to the duo.
"Aiya, what if that was some bystander?" Shiro said with a grin.
"Bystander¡¯s don¡¯t feel like a boss." Lyrica rolled her eyes since the moment Shiro appeared behind them, their instincts were warning them of a strong presence.
Shiro only shrugged in response before pulling out two books.
"Remember how I said that I¡¯ll teach you girls my martial arts? Well in this book there¡¯s the second phantom and the third phantom. You two can learn them both but remember, if any part of your body starts to hurt excessively, stop and tell me." Shiro warned.
"Naturally, only you girls can read this and don¡¯t tell other people about it. Don¡¯t show them either." She continued.
"Got it." The duo nodded.
Shiro¡¯s martial art was definitely powerful and they knew that if word got out that they had the training manual, people would definitely be looking for them.
"Oh yeah Shiro. Where were you earlier? Why don¡¯t you help us se- eh? Where did she go?" Lyrica asked as she realised that Shiro was gone in a blink. Literally.
"Seems like Shiro doesn¡¯t like helping out with preparation." Madison chuckled lightly before sitting back down.
"Huh..."
###
The festival was in full swing once it hit 8pm. Songs were being sted through speakers and people were socialising while having a banquet.
Naturally, there were areas for people to dance, y games,pete in beauty contests and the such.
There were prizes but most people were there just for fun. Their spirit was at an all time high.
Lyrica and Madison were having some fun doing the shooting games since it tested their reaction speed and uracy. Silvia just tagged along for fun since she just enjoyed the atmosphere.
"Hey Silvi, why don¡¯t we try the strength test?" Lyrica asked, pointing at the punching bag with a point meter beside it.
"Eh~ I¡¯ll just watch. You girls can have fun." Silvia smiled lightly.
"Come on, have some fun with us." Madison insisted.
"Hmm... Fine, if you say so." Silvia said after a short pause.
Standing in front of the punching bag, Lyrica pulled her fist back and punched forwards with all her strength.
[64/100 points.]
"Not bad I suppose." Lyrica shrugged.
"Hehe, my turn." Madison said with a grin.
Standing in the same ce Lyrica did, Madison opted for a crushing uppercut instead.
[81/100 points.]
"Yes!" Madison clenched her fist in joy.
"Now then Silvi, your turn." Lyrica urged Silvia with a smile.
Smiling wearily Silvia stood in front of the punching bag.
"I¡¯ll need some buffs since I¡¯m not a fighter ok?" Silvia asked, ncing backwards.
"Go for it." Lyrica nodded her head.
Taking a deep breath, Silvia started to stack one buff after another onto her body.
"HORAHH!!!!!" She shouted out as her fist mmed into the bag. An air current blew past Lyrica and Madison, causing them to pause in shock.
[89/100 points.]
!!!
"How many buffs did you use?!" Lyrica asked with widened eyes. While neither her or Madison used buffs to get their strength up, the fact that Silvia could punch harder than them was still incredible.
"Haha, not too much. Only around 7." Silvia replied feeling a little embarrassed.
The duo didn¡¯t know what to say but Yuan Tian stepped forward.
"You also want a try?" Lyrica asked.
"I do wish to test a little theory of mine." Yuan Tian nodded.
"Go ahead."
cing his palm against the bag, Yuan Tian narrowed his eyes before concentrating his strength into his palm.
*Bang!
[100/100 points.]
"Hou~ seems like there is indeed a little trick to it." Yuan Tian smiled slightly.
"How did you do that?!" Lyrica asked in amazement.
"Armour piercing is what I believe you would call it." Yuan Tian smiled.
After a certain level, all adventurers should have one or more ways to pierce armour. What he did was simply use the shortest path to transfer all the power into the device that sensed the shock. Not only that, he had also used less strength than Lyrica.
"Don¡¯t worry young miss, I will naturally teach you that." Yuan Tian chuckled seeing the eagerness on her face.
"Let¡¯s go meet up with Shiro now. Didn¡¯t she and Kanae go near the ce where all the bars are?" Madison asked.
"Yeah they did, let¡¯s go."
Making their way over, they presumed that Shiro would be enjoy some games with Kanae but instead, she waspeting in a drinking contest against quite a few people.
"Is that all you got boy?" Shiro grinned and chugged an entire jug of alcohol.
Meanwhile, the ¡¯boy¡¯ was actually a 6ft 5 hulking mass of muscle that was sprawled out on the floor.
"And that¡¯s another resounding victory for Shiro!!!" Thementator shouted out in a mixture of excitement and dumbfoundedness.
*WOOO!!!!!!!
The crowd cheered as they couldn¡¯t believe a little girl was beating all of their best drinkers back to back.
One would normally stop a child like her from drinking but she had provided them with her adventurer¡¯s ID that showed her age being 19.
"Hey, how much has she drunk now?" Lyrica asked.
"I think that¡¯s the 24th jug..." Someone replied in disbelief.
¡¯How is she not bloated yet?!?!¡¯ Lyrica shouted out in her mind.
Sitting on the table and crossing her legs, Shiro grinned and looked down at all her victims.
"Anyone else?" She raised an eyebrow.
The reason as to why she evenpeted in this was because the reward was a giant toy bear that Kanae had wanted.
Normally, a woman would get her boyfriend to earn that bear but for her, it was Kanae getting her big sis to win the bear.
Seeing everypetitor passed out, thementator had to rub his eyes to make sure that he wasn¡¯t dreaming.
"The winner is Shiro!" He called out and had someone bring the giant toy bear over.
Letting Kanae hold the bear in her arms, Shiro grabbed one more jug and downed it before walking away.
Looking at Shiro and Kanae, who was currently holding a bear bigger than her body, the crowd only shook their heads in disbelief. They had learnt that on top of her fearsome habit of targeting the ass, she also had a monstrous alcohol tolerance.
Chapter 157 A Certain Kill Stealing Bird
Chapter 157 A Certain Kill Stealing Bird
In the next morning, while everyone was tidying up the festival, Shiro was currently farming away at a level 60 dungeon together with Yin.
She was currently running away from a group of 15 monsters that all looked identical.
They were shrouded by a ck cloth and had a pair of glowing red eyes. Two dangerous scythe like ws peeked out from under the cloth and tried to cut Shiro up the moment they were close enough.
Stomping her foot down, Shiro jumped upwards whilst simultaneously freezing everything around her.
Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber!
Chains erupted out from the ground and held the monsters in ce while Shiro stood on one of her swords to keep herself afloat. While she did have the option of using her float skill, it was just unnecessary use of mana since her swords were already floating.
Clicking both her fingers, a three fold magic circle erupted underneath the monsters.
Grinning coldly, Shiro flicked her finger upwards as a giant ice dragon wed out of the magic circle and swallowed the monsters.
However, they weren¡¯t dead yet since the level disparity meant her skills weren¡¯t doing as much damage as they should. Even if it was a newly developed Tier 3 destruction magic.
Crouching down on her sword, Shiro put force into her legs and shot towards the ice dragon that had yet to be thawed.
Reorientation herself in mid air, Shiro aimed her palm at the dragon and melted all of the ice, leaving the 15 monsters floating in the air.
*BANG!
Kicking the monster that was closest to her, Shiro sent him colliding against the other monsters and bundled them up together.
Twisting her body, she flexed her fingers and created a shotgun.
Fire Burst Bullet!
*BANG!
The recoil caused her to flip backwards, but shended easily and quickly looked up to check the damage.
While she did manage to kill the first monster, the damage was dampened exponentially since he tanked most of the pellets.
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path: Phantom Path!
Flicking her gun upwards, Shiro twisted her body and kicked the gun towards the group of monsters.
*Kacha!
The gun shifted itself into a sword and cut apart any monster that was too slow in dodging.
"Che, missed four." Shiro clicked her tongue.
"YIN!" She shouted out since this was a perfect chance for Yin to get some EXP.
Unfortunately, before Yin could hit them, a blue barrier erected around the four and connected them to each other.
Shiro frowned since they were just a littlete.
*KSH KSH KSH!
Magic circles started to appear everywhere around them but Shiro didn¡¯t get anxious.
While it was indeed true that a single one of these spells were highly dangerous, she had her own counter as well.
Flicking her wrists, two hand cannons appeared in her hands as she loaded then with neon blue bullets.
Naturally, these bullets were the mana disruption bullets she had used against her shadow. A single shot of this bullet would render a magic circle useless as long as she got to it quick enough.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
Shooting her guns none stop, Shiro was able to cancel out all of the magic circles as the barrier around the monsters weakened.
*Chirp!
Seeing a chance appear, Yin shed towards the monsters and flexed her wings. Her feathers glowed with a purple light as she spun her body and sent them shing towards them.
The first set of energy des left glowing spots of light that confused the monsters since they didn¡¯t do any damage.
However, the moment the second set of des hit their body at the glowing red spots, they widened their eyes in shock and pain since they could feel their bodies being sliced apart.
¡¯An amplifying skill?!¡¯ Shiro thought with interest.
An amplifying skill is where it would buff the damage any subsequent skill did. A great skill in raid fights since it allows the rest of the team to increase their damage.
¡¯Seems like Yin¡¯s getting more skills as she gets closer to level 50.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
Since Yin was able to get thest hits in, she managed to get a pretty substantial amount of EXP which increased her level from 44 to 45.
"Ohya? A new skill." Shiro muttered in excitement since she still remembers how amazing the rift walker skill was.
[Dark Seraphim - Finisher]
When used, an area of dark mist would surround the user and hide them from sight. While inside the mist, you will gain increased attack, attack speed but decrease defence significantly. When damage taken inside the mist exceeds a certain amount, you will be ejected straight away.
+60% Attack
+35% Attack Speed
-95% Defence
Duration: 5 seconds
Attack Limit: 2 (Tier 2)
Mist Size: Dependant on the amount of mana used
Cool Down: 5 minutes
Requirements: Can only be used when target is below 10% health
"Hou~ A finisher huh. Not bad at all..." Shiro nodded her head seeing the skill.
A skill like this helps killing strong enemies such as mini bosses but the fact that it has a -95% defence wasn¡¯t desirable. However, for people who were already ss cannons, it didn¡¯t pose a problem.
While she was checking her new skills, Shiro decided to look at her newly made skill.
[Frozen Hell: Ice Drake¡¯s Feast]
Summons a replica of an ice drake that will feast on those inside the designated area. Damage increases depending on how many enemies are inside the area.
Cost: 50,000 Mana
Duration: N/A
Cool Down: 3 minutes
While she was checking her skills, Yin had already harvested all the C ranked mana stones and looked at them with the desire to just eat them all.
"You can have 1 since you did a good job." Shiro decided to reward Yin since she did a good job at timing her attacks.
*Chirp!
Crying out in joy, Yin scoffed one of the mana stones down and experienced another level up. Thus increasing her level from 45 to 46.
"Hais, I wish I could have the same resilience as you. If I ate that, this princess would probably blow up." Shiro smiled with slight jealousy. Being able to level up from a single meal seemed like a dream for her since she doesn¡¯t have the resilience to be able to withstand the effects.
However, at the same time, it was very wasteful since Yin wasn¡¯t able to absorb everything.
*Chirp~
Yin onlyzily replied as sheid herself on Shiro¡¯s shoulder.
Smiling wearily Shiro continued to grind for some levels.
###
"In the end, Yin took most the EXP." Shiro said as she rested her head on the desk.
While they were grinding, Yin was sneaking her final hits in and taking most of the EXP.
Shiro did tell Yin to stop however, she just grinned and continued.
"Ah that¡¯s quite unfortunate." Lyrica said as she nced at Yin who was pecking on a mana stone happily.
Due to her kill stealing, her level increase to 46.
"If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that we¡¯re heading back now, I wouldn¡¯t have ended the grind so quickly." Shiro stretched and looked around her.
Everyone was packing away and getting ready to head onto the train.
"Well we can¡¯t just keep staying in the slum area now could we? Plus, they need to rebuild." Madison said whilst eating a cupcake that they had distributed.
"True, it¡¯s kind of a shame that I didn¡¯t get to try the raid out though." Shiro shrugged.
"You can alwayse back, can¡¯t you?"
"Also true, but why would I want toe back and do a raid I would have already out levelled?" Shiro shrugged since it would just be a walk in the park at that point. Plus, they were going to their faction anyways.
After chatting for a little longer, the train arrived.
Since there would be less chances of them meeting each other anytime soon, Kanae made sure that she spent more time with Shiro on the train.
While this was happening, Shiro took the chance to give Kanae the katana. She had edited it during her free time and now it was a level 5 growth weapon that could reach a max of level 50. The stats were heavily reduced but the effects stayed the same. Plus, she was able to add on some abilities from her stock of skills she received from recycling weapons.
[Crimson Devourers ¨C LVL 5/50 ¨C Purple (2/2)]
+10 Sharpness
+10 Attack
+5 Attack Speed
+5 Ignore Defence
+5 Critical Chance
+5 Critical Damage
+5 Life Steal
+5 Mana Leach
Skills (Passive) ¨C Power Up, Momentum Shift, Serrated Edge
Skills (Active) ¨C sh Strike, Heated Edge, Counter Guard, Lightning Pierce, Blood Devour
Set Effect (2/2) ¨C Increased Sharpness, Attack Speed, Life Steal and Mana Leech
A weapon like this was going to help Kanae all the way to level 50.
And of course, Shiro didn¡¯t forget about safety measures that made sure no one else could ess her weapon.
¡¯Since I¡¯ve hidden the auto disguise skill chip in the weapon, Kanae will find out the skills one by one.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since what Kanae sees right now as only a green variant of the weapon with 1 passive skill.
As she levels it up the other passive skills and active skills would slowly appear.
Naturally, when Kanae received the weapon, her eyes gleamed with joy and vowed to treasure it in her heart.
###
Arriving in New York once again, Shiro wasn¡¯t too shocked at the damage but everyone else couldn¡¯t help but drop their jaw in disbelief.
There was not a single intact building left in New York which made it look like a post apocalyptic city. Craters were spread out all over the city as some were bigger than others.
A single giant crater many times the size of the others could be seen all the way from where they were as Shiro could only guess that it was where the boss had died.
¡¯It¡¯s been a while since Ist saw something like this.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself since a fight between high levels generated roughly the same amount of damage.
However, if it was a battle between two peak Tier 4¡¯s or higher, they should forget the notion of having a city anymore.
"I don¡¯t even know where to start with this." Lyrica sighed.
"Why don¡¯t we get our stuff first. If you have anything left over from before evacuating, you should get that first. In the meantime, I¡¯ll go contact winter¡¯s grace." Shiro said.
"I still have some things left over at my old ce so I¡¯ll head back for now. I¡¯ll text you girls when I¡¯ve got everything." Silvia smiled.
Seeing Silvia off, they made sure to say goodbye to Kanae and her mum before they also made their way back to their old dorm.
"So this is where the young miss and princess lived before." Hemented whilst looking around the city.
"It is and isn¡¯t at the same time. Same ce but obviously as you can see, it¡¯s destroyed." Lyrica replied with a shrug.
"Such a shame though. There were quite a few decent snack ces near our dorm." Madison added on.
While they were talking about the things that were near their dorm, Shiro was keeping an eye out just in case.
Once they reached the school, they could see some students returning.
"Wasn¡¯t he the one that pulled out the foldable bed?" Lyrica asked, pointing at a student.
"Now that you mention it, he is indeed the one that had the bed." Shiro replied after matching his face with her memories.
As more students came back, more and more realised who they were.
"Isn¡¯t that Shiro! How is she level 47!? And look! Lyrica and Madison are also high level!"
Simr whispers could be heard as they were shocked at their improvement. While they did manage to increase their levels, most of them only hovered around level 20 to 30.
Only a selected few were able to get 30+.
"Seems like you thee had quite the reputation. Especially considering the fact that one had even brought a bed for you princess." Yuan Tian chuckled slightly.
"Just some teens being teens." Shiro shrugged.
"Aren¡¯t you a teen yourself? Ah speaking of which, we don¡¯t know your birthday do we? That means we don¡¯t know when you be 14." Madison replied.
"Don¡¯t worry about the date. We spend our time in the dungeons so the physical age is bound to be messed with. Just make it January the 1st or something." Shiro waved her hand dismissively.
"Well I suppose January the 1st does make it easier to remember."
They chatted for a little longer before arriving at the ruins that was once their old dorm.
"Welp, time to dig out our stuff girls." Shiro chuckled.
Thankfully for her, she didn¡¯t have much so she was able to store it all in her inventory. But the same couldn¡¯t be said for Lyrica and Madison.
"My dorms a little further away so I¡¯ll see you girlster." Madison said, making her way to her dorm.
"Yuan Tian, why don¡¯t you help me get my stuff." Lyrica asked.
"As you wish young miss."
"Since I don¡¯t have anything, I¡¯ll go look around for a bit. See youter." Shiro smiled before her body flickered away. She felt a lingering gaze on her and instantly knew who it was.
Chapter 158 Rebirth Pill Gained
Chapter 158 Rebirth Pill Gained
Landing on the school roof, Shiro looked at the man sitting in front of her.
"Nice of you to join me. Seems like you¡¯ve be more beautiful since thest time I saw you. A nice hairstyle with a good outfit to match." Nan Tian chuckled slightly.
Shiro only rolled her eyes before pulling out her phone. She wasn¡¯t going to let him know about her voice just yet.
[Have you got the Phoenix Pill?] Shiro asked.
"Of course. I managed to get the 2% rebirth one for you. If you wanted pills that are higher in quality, you¡¯ll need to level up more or else I¡¯m not sure if you can withstand it. And speaking of level, you¡¯re already level 47. Congrattions." Nan Tianplimented and pulled out a ming red pill that seemed to give off a red glow.
Taking the pill, Shiro inspected it just in case.
[Weakened Phoenix Rebirth Pill ¨C Red]
A pill that will refresh your body state by 2% due to its effects being weakened.
[Thank you.] Shiro smiled and put away the pill. She wasn¡¯t going to eat it just yet since she was going to eat itter.
"You¡¯re wee. You are joining my branch as a mystery member so it¡¯s only natural that I help you." Nan Tian waved it off.
[I don¡¯t like being in debt so if there¡¯s a task that I can do, tell me now.] Shiro asked. Even though he said that all she needed to do was to join his branch as a mystery member, it didn¡¯t feel equivalent in Shiro¡¯s opinion. Hence she wanted to do a few tasks to clear off this debt.
"I don¡¯t have a task for now. The factions are still recovering from clearing the city and the sect hadn¡¯t issued any emergency tasks either. We¡¯re both free for a while."
[We¡¯re?]
"I got a little break from the sect and you¡¯ll be enjoying a small break before bing the guest elder at Winter¡¯s Grace right? That means we¡¯re both free."
[I suppose. Are you going anywhere during your break?] Shiro asked since she got nothing to do right now. She might as well try to dig up some information on Nan Tian considering the fact that he was the branch leader.
"Ohya? Little Snow¡¯s curious about me huh?" Nan Tian smiled widely under his mask.
Shiro only rolled her eyes but didn¡¯t reply since she was indeed curious. As a high level adventurer, he shouldn¡¯t be hanging out in a low level city. The demand for high level adventurers are high since they¡¯re needed everywhere.
If a high level monster reaches a city with no adventurer to stop them, they should just give up on the city and mark it off as destroyed.
"Hmm, let¡¯s see, I think I¡¯ll tag along with you. Right now, you are my main source of entertainment after all." Nan Tian smiled.
[In that case then you might want to help me keep a certain other stalker away then. I already have my hands full with you.] Shiro rolled her eyes since it wasn¡¯t like she could affect his choice.
"Of course." Nan Tian nodded.
He couldn¡¯t let people find out that she¡¯s a monster so soon now could he?
"So what have you been up to during the time in Cairosa?" He asked gesturing for her to sit now near him.
However, Shiro only flexed her fingers and created an ice throne before sitting down.
[I¡¯ve just been helping Lyrica and Madison level up. We¡¯ve also recruited a healer into our party now and I¡¯m going to see if I can pull her into Winter¡¯s Grace as well.]
"Is that so. With your party of four, I¡¯m pretty sure you can clear all the dungeons easily. Plus, it seems like your friend had managed to obtain a pretty reliable butler." Nan Tian smiled and looked towards Yuan Tian.
Feeling Nan Tian¡¯s gaze on him, Yuan Tian frowned before trying to look for the source. However, he wasn¡¯t able to pinpoint the person.
"Is there anything wrong?" Lyrica asked seeing Yuan Tian asked weird.
"Nothing young miss." Yuan Tian shook his head and continued to help Lyrica search for some items.
[His name is Yuan Tian. A butler.]
"And a Divine Swordsman." Nan Tian added on since he was able to see through his ss.
"Did you get anything good in your time in Cairosa? Any weapons or armour?"
[You don¡¯t need to know that much.] Shiro smiled as she rxed herself on the ice throne.
"Fair enough. I¡¯ll probably find outter." Nan Tian shrugged.
[Now that you¡¯ve asked a few questions, shouldn¡¯t it be my turn?]
"I¡¯ll give you 3 questions then." Nan Tian smiled and held up 3 fingers.
[What level are you?]
"Above 100 easily." Nan Tian replied vaguely.
[At least answer in detail.] Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Where¡¯s the fun in that? It would be more entertaining to find things out for yourself after all."
[Fine. What¡¯s your ss?]
"I have a hybrid ss."
¡¯Hybrid ss... that means he is something simr to a magic swords man that is a jack of all trades. But since he is easily over level 100, I guess his ss is a hybrid of at least 3 sses.
[What¡¯s your main weapon of choice?]
"Magic. And that¡¯s three questions. I suppose I¡¯ll have to end our meeting short for today." Nan Tian chuckled before standing up.
[One more thing before you leave.] Shiro typed out before thawing her throne.
"Go on."
"You really should change your stalking habits." Shiro grinned before her body flickered into the rift.
Nan Tian stood in a daze hearing Shiro speak. The softness of her voice rang in his mind as he looked at the spot where shest stood.
Standing still for a little while, he shook his head before leaving the area.
Meanwhile, Shiroughed to herself seeing Nan Tian freeze in shock.
After being surprised by him time after time, Shiro wanted the roles to be reversed.
Stretching her body slightly, Shiro pulled out her phone and sent a message to Freya.
[Shiro: Hello miss Freya, this is Shiro. I just wanted to contact you to see the current schedule on when we should meet up and go to the branch office.]
Closing her phone, Shiro understood that she probably wouldn¡¯t get a response anytime soon since Freya may be busy.
¡¯Well I should probably see if there are any hunts nearby.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since monsters also exist outside of the dungeons.
For strong monsters, people would post up hunt quests that will have them form parties with other adventurers to hunt down the monsters in the wild.
Her current n was to go to one of these hunts solo until Freya contacts her.
Walking over to what would have been the adventurer¡¯s guild, Shiro saw that they¡¯ve made small stall of sorts. Only 1 member of staff and aputer was at the stall while the others worked on clearing up the damage around them.
Eavesdropping on what they were saying, Shiro realised that the stall was set up as a temporary station for adventurers to undertake some quests.
Most of the quests were halted for now as there was an influx of quests to clean up ces or help build. They wanted to rebuild New York to a certain degree before focusing on dungeons after all.
While they were waiting in the queue, Shiro nced on her phone and checked on Cairosa. She was curious about the emergency raid they saw before leaving.
So far, the information gathered about this raid was only limited to the first two bosses.
However, the casualties to reach this far was redacted as to not shock the public on mortality rates.
¡¯The raid is called [Ancient Grave]. An undead type raid that features a lot of undead dinosaurs that have high resistance to physical attacks.
¡¯The first boss is Undead Tyrant Rex. Lethal attacks that one shot anyone who isn¡¯t a level 60 tank. The second boss is Undead Silver Wing. Silver Wing is a flying type boss that has abnormal speed and attack. Due to its nature as a flying type monster, the raid parties haven¡¯t managed to kill it yet. Once its health gets too low, it would fly away and heal itself. The 5 big families are currently holding raid meetings, talking about how to pass this round.¡¯ Shiro thought as she read the forums.
"They¡¯re roughly halfway through the raid since the average raid would have around 4 to 5 encounters/bosses." Shiro mused to herself.
¡¯I should probably join when I¡¯m in C ss. That is if the raid hasn¡¯t been cleared yet.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Obviously, she wanted to give the raid a shot but the fact that she would definitely die with one hit couldn¡¯t be changed.
While it was true that she could kill level 60 mobs, there was still a wide gap before she could take on the bosses. Hence why she only farmed the first floor of the dungeon with Yin.
After waiting for quite a while, it was finally Shiro¡¯s turn.
"Have you got any hunting quests outside of the city?" Shiro asked with a smile.
The receptionist paused for a second before nodding.
"I¡¯ll go have a look right now, hang on." She replied as she tapped away at theputer.
"We currently have 3 open hunts. 2 are level 50 while one is level 25." She said, turning theputer around and showed Shiro the quests.
"Hou... can you show me where they are?" Shiro asked.
"That I can¡¯t do unless you¡¯re level 50." She shook her head since there¡¯s a strict guild policy.
"Hmm... I¡¯m not there yet so nevermind. Thank you anyways." Shiro smiled before walking away.
However, what they didn¡¯t know was that during her talk, she had sent a strand of nanobots to hack into theputer and gather the data about the hunts.
[Level 50 Corrupted Nix]
A water spirit that has inhabited Lake Nora to the south of New York. Do not engage alone as herbat potential is significantly higher due to her inhabiting arge body of water.
Rmended skill set: Lightning
[Level 50 Oam ¨C Tree Spirit]
A named tree spirit that controls a portion of the forest. Be wary of its life drain. Last seen location: Coran Forest, north of New York.
Rmended skill set: Fire, Lightning
[Level 25 Phantom Shifter]
A monster that can shift into the appearance of anyone it had seen. Be wary of their sneak attacks. Last seen location: Huston Vige, south of New York.
Rmended skill set: Any element
"Hmm... Oam and Corrupted Nix sounds interesting. But, not many have applied to kill the shifter." Shiro muttered with a slight frown.
The shifter was an annoying monster that relied heavily on assassination. For low levels, it was a very dangerous monster.
While it is simple for high levels to survive its attacks, the shifters were intelligent monsters that would hide and avoid conflict with high levels at all cost.
Naturally, that meant the high level adventurers would eventually get sick of it and give up. That left the shifter free to roam around.
¡¯I¡¯ll kill the shifter first while making my way to Lake Nora.¡¯ Shiro thought as she might as well take care of it on the way.
Plus, after she had a look at the map location of all these hunts, she found out that Huston Vige was in the centre between New York and Lake Nora.
"It takes a few hours to get to Huston Vige by car. Unfortunately, there¡¯s no train so I can only take the car. It doesn¡¯t help that Lake Nora doesn¡¯t have a train either." Shiro frowned slightly and scratched her head.
A round trip by car would take roughly 5 hours if she didn¡¯t include the time needed forbat and the such.
"Tsk, annoying." Shiro clicked her tongue.
*Chirp!
"Mn? What¡¯s up?" Shiro asked seeing Yin trying to get her attention.
*Chirp!
Yin pointing at her mouth then at her stomach.
"You¡¯re hungry?"
Shaking her head, Yin pointed at Shiro then at her own back. pping her wings, Yin flew around her beforending back on her shoulder.
"You want me to fly?" Shiro tilted her head in confusion.
*Pa!
Facepalming, Yin shook her head before pointing at her mount again.
"So you do want to eat."
Yin nodded her head.
Smiling wearily, Shiro took out some D ranked mana stones but Yin turned her head away.
"You want C ranked one?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
¡¯I suppose we¡¯ve got quite the stock right now. Plus, we can get more anytime.¡¯ She thought to herself and decided to let Yin have one.
Scoffing down the C ranked mana stone, Yin levelled up to 47.
Shaking her head, Shiro looked at the C ranked mana stone in her hand and had the urge to ingest it.
¡¯Don¡¯t tempt fate and fate won¡¯t kill you.¡¯ Shiro thought before storing the mana stone away.
Looking at Yin who was focusing on digesting the mana stone, Shiro felt a little jealous that she could ingest a mana stone and be safe.
"Now then, I should probably rent a motorcycle or something. Cars aren¡¯t exactly the best off road." Shiro mused to herself before looking for where the old car store would be.
Looking at the ruins, Shiro nced around and made sure that no one could see her.
Metal and lightning swirled around her hand as she ced a device on the rubble. Hopefully, she should be able to find a motorcycle inside the broken down building. Even if it¡¯s destroyed, she could just fix it up using nanobots.
"Bingo." She smiled seeing a positive result appear on the device.
Moving the pieces of debris away, Shiro saw a red and white motorcycle snapped in half.
"Hmm... not bad." Shiro muttered before storing it away into her inventory. Going through the blueprints in her mind, she was going to add some parts to the motorcycle that shouldn¡¯t even exist in this era.
Chapter 159 Easy Kill
Chapter 159 Easy Kill
Storing the motorcycle in her inventory, Shiro left the area to look for an isted area for her to modify the vehicle.
Jumping up on one of the destroyed skyscr.a.p.ers, Shiro looked around and saw a few prime locations.
"That one." She muttered, leaping off the building and jumped towards the area using her swords as tforms.
Naturally, she made sure that no one could detect her.
Landing at the location, Shiro surveyed the area to make sure that it was isted enough so that she could go on to modify the motorcycle however she liked.
`I need to make sure that no one could identally stumble in here while I¡¯m working.¡¯ She thought to herself before setting up wires all over the ce.
Seeing the area secured, Shiro nodded to herself and pulled out the motorcycle.
Getting a better look at the motorcycle, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but whistle at how nice it looked.
"Not too shabby at all." Shiro smiled.
Flexing her fingers, she created a few tools to help her repair the motorcycle first.
"The main area of damage is around the centre near the engine. The fuel tank itself is dented and could lead to potential leaks. The wheels are bent with the rotor beingpletely snapped in half. Brakes are non existent and the transmissionpletely in shambles." She muttered whilst looking at the motorcycle in closer detail.
"Fuel tank can be reced by a mana converter. I can probably reinforce the chassis itself for more durability and the wheels will be exchanged for some nanofibre rubber and nano steel. I don¡¯t need the transmission since everything will be controlled manually by me."
Taking out all theponents that she didn¡¯t need, Shiro first made sure that the overall motorcycle itself was usable with mana parts instead.
Flexing her fingers, metal and lightning twined together to form severalponents that she needed.
She created a mask and started to weld the parts together.
*TZZZ TZZZZ TZZZZ
As Shiro was working on fixing the motorcycle, Yin had digested the mana stone and had asked her for one more.
"Just take it." Shiro dismissed Yin and gave her another C ranked mana stone. She wanted to finish this motorcycle quickly, therefore, didn¡¯t waste any time on entertaining Yin. However, the effects of the mana stone seemed to have diminished as Yin wasn¡¯t able to level up.
After several minutes of wielding parts and connecting them through mana channels on the motorcycle, Shiro injected some mana into it and saw the parts light up.
"Bingo." She grinned seeing her modifications sessful.
Naturally, her recement of the parts would make one wonder about whether or not she could have just made from scratch. The answer is yes but it would bare fewer risks if she had a base to work with.
Not to mention, it would also lighten the burden on her mana links.
Her next tasks would naturally be adding new features along with a redesign in the appearance.
Once she was done, the original white and red design was reced by ck and red. In between the panels, a soft neon red glow could be seen due to the mana converter supplying mana to the entire vehicle.
¡¯Now for some upgrades.¡¯ Shiro thought with a grin. This was her favourite part since she was going to add some of the must have upgrades from her old world.
Her first upgrade was the natural mana absorber that would get mana from the surroundings.
The next upgrade would be the chassis converter followed by navigation system, sonic thrusters, off road module, hyper module and the underwater module.
However, after creating these upgrades, she could feel her body hurt from the strain.
"Tsk, seems like this will do for now." She muttered in annoyance.
If she was given more leeway with her upgrades, she could have made this the most insane vehicle of this time.
Though it wasn¡¯t without its risks as well. Hence when she added the chassis converter. With this, she¡¯ll be able to interchange the appearance of her motorcycle.
The first appearance was that of a normal motorcycle which wouldn¡¯t bring any suspicion onto her.
The second appearance was the more efficient appearance that contained parts and concepts not invented in the current time.
She was about to get onto the motorcycle when she realised a small predicament. Her current outfit wasn¡¯t suited for riding a motorcycle. The main problem was the skirt but that can be easily fixed.
Waiting for a short moment for her mana to regen, Shiro flexed her fingers and created a thinyer of nanotech over her entire body. It took a moment but the final shape was some pants and a jacket.
Moving her body around to make sure that the fit was ok, Shiro stored the motorcycle away.
Leaving the area, she made sure she was alone before cing the motorcycle on the road.
"You can sit here." She said, pointing at a small cab at the front.
*Chirp!
Yin chirped happily seeing a small room made just for him.
The inside of the cab was heated up slightly so that she wasfortable.
Snuggling herself inside the small cab, Yin closed her eyes.
Shiro only smiled lightly before pulling up her face mask.
Retying her hair into a ponytail, she hopped onto the motorcycle and turned everything on.
Humming with a softly, neon lights seeped through the edges of the panel, giving it a futuristic look.
Tapping the navigation system, Shiro saw a 3d map appeared in front of her with the route towards Huston Viges highlighted in red.
With her destination and route fully calibrated, Shiro revved the engine before driving out of the city at a moderate pace.
She couldn¡¯t suddenly start speeding through the city now could she?
However, once she left the city, there were no restraints.
Pushing her heel down, Shiro flicked a switch before twisting the handle.
*KISH!!!
The panels started to shift around as boosters formed around the back of the motorcycle.
*BOOM!!!!
Letting out a thunderous pulse of mana, the motorcycle started to elerate faster and faster.
The people looking at her would just see a blur of ck.
Naturally with this kind of speed, one would struggle to see the surroundings. But to Shiro, this wasn¡¯t a problem since she could see everything clearly and control the vehicle without a hitch.
While she was taking shortcuts through the forests, she also took this chance to kill some monsters. Her swords would float around her as she would swing them towards any monsters that would appear in her range and collect the loot instantly without caring about the mana stones.
Of course, there were some monsters closer to level 50 but Shiro easily skidded past them and continue her journey.
It didn¡¯t take long for her to arrive just outside the vige hopping off the motorcycle, she disguised herself.
[Ina ¨C LVL 27 Ice Mage]
That way, the Shifter would let its guard down and show itself. Plus, she didn¡¯t want rumours of her being able to disguise herself so she changed her name to Ina.
"Yin, we¡¯re here." Shiro said, patting Yin¡¯s head to wake her up.
*Chirp
Yin opened her eyes groggily as she looked at Shiro.
"We¡¯re here. But I want you to fly above the vige and keep an eye out until I call for you."
*Chirp
Yin nodded and pped her wings.
Storing the motorcycle away, Shiro got herself into the mindset of a young girl that has a slight heroplex and wanted to help everyone.
"Fufufu, this should do." Shiro grinned. Her entire aura had shifted over and if one didn¡¯t know her personally, they would think that she was a twin.
She even adjusted her hair style and made some contact lenses that changed her eye colour to red.
Her current appearance was a girl with red eyes, a white robe dress, stockings and boots. Naturally, they weren¡¯t monster cloth but instead, normal fabric. As for her hair, she let it down and braided a few strands to frame her face.
Walking with a slight skip to her footsteps, Shiro had a carefree smile on her face but made sure to keep an eye out.
Entering the vige, she naturally attracted some eyes since she was extremely beautiful and her aura waspletely out of ce. Everyone in the vige had a slightly depressing aura due to the Shifter killing people day after day.
"Ano~ Excuse me? Do you know where the shifter is?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Why do you want to know?" The woman nced at her with dead eyes.
"Because I¡¯m gonna kill it. Hehe~" Shiro grinned and showed her a spear made from ice. Obviously, she weakened it to the power of level 27¡¯s.
"...Overestimating yourself." The woman sighed.
"No no. Trust me, I¡¯ve killed a lot of monsters you know." Shiro pouted and conjured up several ice spears that floated in the air.
"...Fine. I¡¯ll get the other viges to tell you what they know." The woman sighed tiredly. She had seen quite a few young adventurerse and not one survived. Anyone higher level couldn¡¯t find the Shifter and gave up.
Following the woman, Shiro saw a few patrolmen walking around.
¡¯Hmm... only level 20. They haven¡¯t even ssed up yet.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Arriving at the vige centre, most of the vigers have gathered.
Shiro make herself a small tform and made sure she was a head taller than everyone.
"So er, my name is Ina. I¡¯m the adventurer that will help you kill the Shifter since he had killed a lot of people. Is this everyone in the vige?" Shiro asked.
"This is everyone." The vige leader nodded his head.
Sending some mana into her contact lens, Shiro sent out a thin pulse of mana to the corners of the vige and found out that he wasn¡¯t lying.
"Ok, so can we all line up? I got a new item from the guild that helps me see who¡¯s the shifter. It will inject some mana into your body and see if you¡¯re a monster or human." Shiro smiled and pulled out a pair of white gloves.
"The guild has something this good?" The vige leader widened his eyes in happiness. The faster they take care of the shifter the better.
"Yes. It was hard to get this from the guild since it was normally a tool used on higher levels. But we can¡¯t just let a monster terrorise this ce can we? As long I¡¯m here, I¡¯ll do my best to help." Shiro smiled sweetly.
"Thank the lord." The leader prayed in relief.
Shiro had to resist the urge to p the old man.
¡¯What do you mean thank the lord?! This princess is going out of my way to help you guys.¡¯
"Yes indeed. Can you bring a table please."
"Of course! Right away."
After they brought a set of table and chairs, Shiro sat down and started to examine everyone. While they do feel a pulse of mana, it was mainly Shiro doing it for effects. While it does allow her to see who is monster and who is human, she doubts the Shifter would be dumb enough to stand at the front.
As she continued to ¡¯examine¡¯ the people, she made sure that her face would slowly drain of colour.
After going through roughly 25% of the people in the vige, Shiro¡¯s face was dangerously pale.
"Miss Ina? Are you ok?" One of the guards asked worriedly.
"It¡¯s fine... just, it takes some of my mana to use these gloves." Shiro replied with a weak smile.
"Why don¡¯t we continue this after a while then? We¡¯ll get you a ce to rest and mark off every who has already been examined ok?" he suggested.
"But..."
"We¡¯re already troubling miss Ina so much. This is the least we can do." He patted his chest.
"In that case then thank you." Shiro said after taking a deep breath.
The crowd slowly dispersed as the guards took the identities of people who had already been examined.
Walking away from the scene, Shiro saw a crying girl by the road.
"What¡¯s the problem darling?" Shiro asked with slight signs of sweat on her face.
"My friends *hick* said that I¡¯m *hick* the shifter." She said between tears.
"Aww don¡¯t cry. Why not let this big sis examine you. That way you can prove you¡¯re not the monster." Shiro smiled and put on the gloves.
However, her legs buckled, causing her to fall backwards.
"Are you ok?" The girl asked with worry.
"Yeah, it seems like I don¡¯t have the mana to use the gloves anymore. I¡¯m sorry. We¡¯ll have to do this tomorrow is that ok?" She smiled apologetically.
"Let me help you." She offered her hand as Shiro nodded and tried to get up but failed.
"It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll just rest for a moment and I¡¯ll be fine."
The girl grinned seeing her so weak. Their location was just right in the way that no one would be able to arrive to help her quick enough. Seeing as this was the perfect moment, she shed towards her with a dagger.
"Idiot." Shiro¡¯s aura reverted to normal in an instant and pinched the dagger.
"Huh?!" The shifter widened her eyes in shock seeing Shiro recover instantly.
She had made sure that Shiro waspletely weak before making a move. Realising she was tricked, the shifter tried to run away but Shiro was faster.
Punching the elbow, she broke the shifter¡¯s arm and ripping off her jaw with ease. Even though the Shifter was in the form of a young girl, she wasn¡¯t fazed at all.
Once it was dead, it would revert back to its original form after all.
It tried to struggle but several ice spears had pierced its body and killed it.
Grabbing the corpse, that was now in its original form, she brought it to the vigers and exined the situation before leaving. They wanted to host a party for her but she rejected with the excuse that she needed to report this quickly.
Getting on her motorcycle once more, Shiro called Yin down before making her way to theke so that she could kill the corrupted nix.
Chapter 160 Water Spirit’s Heart Essence
Chapter 160 Water Spirit¡¯s Heart Essence
¡¯The corrupted Nix, a magic-based monster that has extreme control regarding the element it is attuned with. Basically, the water version of me.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst driving towards the location.
¡¯Unfortunately for her, that means she can¡¯t do sh*t.¡¯ She grinned.
Arriving at theke, Shiro saw that no one was around.
"Well that makes sense. No one would be willing to live next to ake where a strong monster lives."
Storing her bike away, Shiro tapped on Yin¡¯s head and had her rest on a nearby tree since she wanted to receive 100% of the EXP that was awarded from a rtively high level monster.
Walking up to theke. she sent out a pulse of mana to see if she could detect anyone.
Feeling a reaction from the centre, she knew that she found her target.
"No one¡¯s around so I can go full power." Shiro chuckled as she stepped onto theke.
*KRRR
Ice started to form under her feet and created a small tform for her.
Walking to the centre, Shiro saw the surface ripple as water tentacles erupted out andshed towards her.
"So we¡¯re starting already? Fine, this princess shall y along." She said smile and swiped her hand left.
*KRRR!!!
A blizzard exploded out with her in the centre and froze the water with ease.
"Come out." Shiro said casually as if this was just an everyday walk.
The water around her started to shift but the Corrupted Nix didn¡¯t show itself.
"Makes sense." Shiro chuckled.
mming her palm into the ground, a giant magic circle expanded outwards.
Frozen Hell: Ice Drake¡¯s Feast!
*URAHHH!!!!!
A giant ice drake wed its way out of the magic circle and mmed its body into the water around Shiro, freezing them in the process.
"Not done yet." She grinned and put more mana into the magic circle.
Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber!
*KRRRR!!
Ice started to spread out from her as it attempted to freeze the entireke.
Naturally, she didn¡¯t allow it to freeze the entireke but only a small portion since she knew the limits of her links right now. She wasn¡¯t about to reveal her weakness.
Understanding the danger, the Corrupted Nix conjured a giant wave from the areas that haven¡¯t been frozen yet and sent it crashing towards Shiro.
Shiro on the other hand, wasn¡¯t intimidated by the wave at all. Flicking her finger upwards, a giant ice wall was erected around her, protecting her from the wave.
The ice started to crack apart causing Shiro to frown.
¡¯While my ice does counter her water, she can still affect my ice to some degree.¡¯
Stomping her foot down, Shiro created a tall tform andunched her high above theke in order to avoid the crashing waves.
However, the moment she jumped up, several water dragon heads erupted out of the water and thrashed towards her.
"Che, annoying." Shiro clicked her tongue.
Raising her arm above her head, Shiro narrowed her eyes and gathered lightning in her palms. Forming a lightning bolt, she twisted her body and threw the lightning bolt at the iing dragons.
*BOOM!!!
A thunderous boom rang out as the bolt split itself apart to strike all of the dragons.
The water bubbled and started to evaporate. The dragons tried their best to reach her but fizzed away before they could even get close.
Tapping her ne, Shiro stepped on the ascendant dream andunched herself towards theke.
She could pinpoint the Corrupted Nix due to the mana signal she felt from the nix when she conjured the water dragons.
"There!" Shiro grinned.
Frozen Hell: Cmity Trident!
Twisting her body, Shiro grabbed the trident andunched it towards theke.
Just to make sure that the Nix wasn¡¯t able to escape, Shiro followed it up by using ice chain.
However, the chains missed their target.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro flicked her wrist and retrieved the trident.
Activating her passive to float above the water, she clicked her tongue slightly.
¡¯The best way would be to freeze everything but I don¡¯t think my mana links can withstand that kind of pressure.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in annoyance.
The main problem was actually hitting the Nix. Due to her being in arge body of water, she could be anywhere.
"Actually..."
An idea popped in her head as she grinned.
Since she couldn¡¯t strike at her urately, she should just bombard the entire ce to force her out into the open.
Naturally, the best element for this would be lightning.
Dismissing the trident, Shiro stood on her sword and gathered mana into her palms.
Two sets of tier 2 magic circles started to appear as they were bright yellow in colour.
Lightning would spark on the rings every so often as it slowly expanded in size.
Flicking her wrists, Shiro sent the magic circles into the air along with three swords.
*BZZZ!!
Lightning shot out of the first magic circle and coated the swords in a thinyer of electricity.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro controlled her swords to fly through the second magic circle which in turn empowered the intensity of the lightning along with the speed of the swords.
*BOOM!!!!!!!
As if they were streaks of heavenly lightning, the swords collided with theke and sent sparks of electricity ripping through the entireke.
*ARRGGG!!!!
Shiro could hear the Nix cry out in pain as she grinned andunched herself towards the source.
She could see a water spirit crawl onto her ice. Her body would flicker with lightning every so often, causing her to writhe in pain.
Looking up, the Nix saw Shiro and quickly tried to retreat by shifting herself into a body of water.
"Not on my watch!"
Activating ice domain, Shiro mmed into the ice sheet that she had created which caused ice spikes to erupt outwards with her in the centre.
One of the spikes managed to hit the Nix and started to freeze her slowly.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t done. She couldn¡¯t risk the Nix¡¯s escape after all.
Pivoting on her foot, Shiro created several magic circles around her before pushing her arms out and erged them so that they covered the entire area.
"Ice Pce!" Shiromanded as the circles started to rapidly absorb the ambient mana in the area.
*KRRRR!!
Large pce walls erupted upwards, sealing the location and prevented the Nix from having a chance of escape.
Standing in front of a throne made from ice, Shiro stared at the half frozen Nix below her.
Even now, she was trying her best to struggle.
"Futile." Shiro shook her head since everything inside the ice pce was under her control.
"You¡¯re in this princess¡¯s domain now, calm yourself so that you may have a swift death." Shiro grinned and raised her hand.
Rows upon rows of magic circles lit up on the pce walls as spear tips could be seen peeking out from the magic circles.
"Die." She said coldly before bringing her hands down like a queenmanding her army to advance.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
The spears shot forth like an unending tide of arrows and repeatedly pierced the Corrupted Nix who couldn¡¯t move.
The bombardment continued for a while before stopping.
Looking at the spear riddled body of the Nix, Shiro walked over to her and grabbed her sword.
Coating it with shadows that were augmented by Cmity¡¯s Will, she swung the sword down mercilessly.
After killing the Corrupted Nix, Shiro saw a series of notifications appear in the corner of her peripherals.
[Special Monster in: Level 50 Corrupted Nix]
[Awarding bonus EXP due to level difference]
[Special Item Gained]
[Self-made skill recognised: Frozen Hell: Ice Pce]
[Awarding 100 stat points]
[Level up! 47 -> 48]
"Lucky." She muttered with a smile.
Flicking her wrist, she thawed the ice pce and made her way back to Yin.
While she was walking back, Shiro decided to check the item that she had gained.
[Water Spirit¡¯s Heart Essence ¨C LVL 50 Consumable]
Consume to gain a small portion of the Water Spirits Stats.
"Heh~ That¡¯s quite a rare drop." Shiro mused with a smile.
Just like how people could eat monster flesh, one would gain an essence from an elemental spirit that would give the consumer benefits. However, one would normally receive a normal essence rather than a heart essence.
The difference between the two was the amount of bonus they gave. Normal essences would give +200 points in the area the monster was most proficient in. In regard to the water spirit, it would be INT.
However, the Heart Essence would give benefits to all the stats. Plus, it wasn¡¯t limited to 200 points. If the Nix had allocated all her points to INT, that meant Shiro would get quite a substantial amount of INT.
But that also meant that if the Nix had barely put any stats into the area, the points Shiro gets would also decrease.
"Well it¡¯s better than nothing." She shrugged her shoulders before retrieving the Heart Essence from her inventory. Holding the essence in her hand, she saw that it was somewhat simr to a mana stone.
Throwing the essence in her mouth, Shiro could feel a foreign wave of mana pulse through her body before merging seamlessly with her own mana.
[Water Spirit¡¯s Heart Essence Consumed]
[+150 STR, +250 VIT, +650 INT, +100 AGI, +100 DEX, +50 DEF.]
Smiling at the bonus stat points, Shiro checked her stats.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Proficient Monster (231/500 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Ice Princess, Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path
Level: 48
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 350,570/350,570
MP: 548,100/831,600
STR: 2000 -> 2250(+100) <+587>
VIT: 2000 -> 2350(+200) <+637>
INT: 4200 -> 5300(+750) <+1,512>
AGI: 2600 -> 3000(+450) <+862>
DEX: 2500 -> 2800(+100) <+725>
DEF: 700 -> 850(+100) <+237>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 600 -> 0
Attunements:
cial ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 2
Metal ¨C Tier 2
Shadow ¨C Tier 2 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Bnce: 802,045,190 USD
Equipment: (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 cial magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Faded Snow Movement, cial Aura, cial Touch, cial Breath. Ice Field Affinity, Cold Illusion
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Bow Creation, Shield Creation, Melee Weapon Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation, Shotgun Creation
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Cmity Trident, Ice Drake¡¯s Feast, Ice Pce
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path:
Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path
Sword Skills:
Refraction, Soul Sword
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Lightning Magic (Tier 2), Metal Magic (Tier 2), Shadow Magic (Tier 2), Combust.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 2), Dark Seraphim (Tier 2)]
"Two more levels to go till I can see what ss up path I want to take." She muttered lightly.
Considering everything she had done up to her current level, she should be able to get decent ss up options.
However, as she wasn¡¯t too familiar with how monster sses are determined, she could only wait and see.
¡¯I know one of the options would probably lead up to Snow Woman. But I should avoid that since I haven¡¯t heard of anything pass a snow woman so it could limit my growth. The second option should be something to do with how I¡¯ve performed up till now. I¡¯ve mostly gone with guns swords so it could be something simr to a magic swordswoman but monster version.¡¯ She thought to herself as she tried to guess what her ss up options could be.
¡¯The third option tends to revolve around what my attunements are, skills and how I¡¯ve set up my stats. The most likely option would be along the lines of a multi-elemental mage.¡¯
Shaking her head, Shiro smiled lightly and looked for Yin. She could try to estimate all she wants, but in the end, she didn¡¯t choose what ss the system gave to her.
"Yin!" Shiro called out as she saw Yin flying over to her.
"Thanks for waiting." She smiled lightly and gave her a C ranked mana stone.
*Chirp!
pping her wings in happiness, Yin scoffed down the mana stone like it was nothing. This allowed her to level up to 48, the same as Shiro.
"Glutton." Shiro chuckled. She preferred to enjoy the taste rather than to just scoff it all down.
Retrieving the motorcycle from her inventory, Shiro remade her motorcyclist outfit and pulled up her face mask.
Making sure that Yin wasfortable in her littlepartment, Shiro did aplete 180 with the motorcycle and made her way back to New York.
Her expedition on killing two monsters had been pretty fruitful. While the Shifter didn¡¯t give her anything due to its low level, the rewards she got from Nixpensated her quite nicely considering the fact that she had received the heart essence rather than a normal essence.
¡¯Ah I should probably hack into the guild¡¯s systems once more and mark those missions off as cleared.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. If she doesn¡¯t, people would probably waste their time going to the location for nothing.
Chapter 161 Departing For Winters Grace
Chapter 161 Departing For Winter''s Grace
Arriving back in New York, the first thing Shiro did was to make her way to the temporary stall the guild had put up to distribute requests.
Activating Phantom Path, Shiro sent a string of nanobots into the system without anyone realising. Editing the status on the quests, Shiro made fake proof to confirm that the quests wereplete.
With that done, she left the area.
¡¯Mn?¡¯ She felt her phone vibrate for a moment, notifying her of a text.
[Freya: Sorry about thete reply. We¡¯ll meet near the north entrance of New York tomorrow at 9am. I¡¯ll tell you about what we¡¯re doing when we meet.]
[Shiro: Ok thank you. But I want to ask, am I allowed to get one more of my friends into the faction? Her name is Silvia and she¡¯s a member of my party.]
[Freya: It depends. What level is she and what ss?]
[Shiro: She¡¯s level 45 and is a healer.]
[Freya: Age?]
[Shiro: No idea but she¡¯s talented. I can guarantee it.]
[Freya: In that case, she¡¯ll have the same privileges as Lyrica and Madison if that¡¯s alright.]
[Shiro: Perfect. Thank you. I¡¯ll see you tomorrow.]
[Freya: See you tomorrow.]
Closing her phone, Shiro smiled lightly since it meant that Silvia could join them without any problems.
"Now once we pack everything up, we can go to the branch office of the faction." She mused to herself.
Arriving at the dorms, Shiro saw both Lyrica and Madison talking to each other.
¡¯Seems like they¡¯re done.¡¯
"Yo." Shiro greeted.
Turning around, Lyrica froze up slightly seeing Shiro in a different hairstyle, outfit and overall aura. It felt warmer like the kind of feeling a kind older sister would give.
"Shiro?" She muttered in confusion.
"That is my name yes." Shiro replied, tilting her head in confusion.
"If you¡¯re confused Shiro, I believe it¡¯s because it feels like you¡¯ve changed into an entirely new persona along with your outfit." Madison shrugged.
"Ahh, I almost forgot I still have this outfit on." Shiro looked down in realisation.
She found an isted area and surrounded herself with metal to make sure that other people couldn¡¯t see her change.
Changing into the new outfit that Aarim gifted her, Shiro unbraided her hair and let it flow freely.
Adjusting her aura back to what it was normally, she returned to the duo.
"Is this better?" Shiro asked with a shrug.
"Yeah it is. I swear, I don¡¯t get how you can adjust your persona so easily." Madison asked in curiosity.
"Hmm... well it¡¯s like when people get too deep into a role and they stick with it. I just maintain that sensation which makes it seem like I¡¯ve always been like that." Shiro replied.
Her acting skills were all self taught from her time in thebs. She couldn¡¯t tantly re at the scientists with death res now could she?
"Then what about your current persona?" Madison asked.
Shiro narrowed her eyes and stayed silent. A sliver of killing intents started to leak out as both Lyrica and Madison felt a shiver down their spine.
"Heh~ Are you that curious?" Shiro asked ndly.
Madison started to regret her question after feeling the temperature drop around them.
Even Yuan Tian started to be worried since he knew the kind of power Shiro could exhibit.
shing behind the duo, Shiro held their shoulders, causing them to tense up in fear.
"Hahaha, of course it¡¯s my real persona." Shiro had a sh*t eating grin on her face as the previous pressure disappeared like a gust of wind.
"Oh my god! I thought I touched the pandora¡¯s box then!" Madison cried out in relief.
"Ai, don¡¯t worry about it." Shiro shrugged and sat down.
"Though I won¡¯t deny that I have my own little secrets that I can¡¯t tell you." Shiro chuckled and put her index finger on her lips.
"Well it¡¯s only natural that we have our secrets." Lyrica smiled.
"Eh? Both of you have secrets?!?!" Madison widened her eyes after hearing this new piece of information.
"Why? You don¡¯t?" Both Lyrica and Shiro asked with a tilt in their heads.
"First, that¡¯s f*cking creepy when the both of you do it in sync. Second, no I don¡¯t have a secret since before meeting you two I was rtively normal you know!" Madison pouted slightly.
"Hou hou~ So you¡¯re abnormal now?" Shiro asked with a grin.
"...if having a hidden ss is normal then yes. But if it isn¡¯t normal then no." Madison shrugged after a short moment.
"True that. I wonder if I¡¯ll get a hidden ss when I level up." Shiro muttered whilst leaning back.
"Wait, if Shiro gets a hidden ss, can¡¯t she basically destroy everything thates her way? Of course she¡¯s already destroying everything thates her way but like, wouldn¡¯t she dominate them even more?" Lyrica asked with a raised eyebrow.
They both looked at Shiro with questioning stares.
"What? At higher levels it¡¯s going to be a lot harder to kill monsters and humans that are multiple levels higher than you. It¡¯s easier now since the stat disparity between levels aren¡¯t big but the gap will get wider the higher level you are." Shiro replied.
"Then howe you can kill C ss monsters around level 55 and 60 with ease?" Madison replied, throwing the ball back into her court.
"Well... experience?" Shiro shrugged. The truth was naturally due to her monster title that gave her twice the strength of normal level 48¡¯s.
"Bullsh*t." Both the girls replied at the same time.
"Who knows? Maybe I¡¯m one of those people that reset my level to get better sses." Shiro shrugged.
"Then does that mean you¡¯re like a 100+ year old granny?"
"Who the f*ck are you calling a granny!" Shiro replied instantly as if it was a conditioned reflex.
Silence followed after her small outburst.
*cough!
"Well, I can say that I am definitely not older than you right now." Shiro corrected herself.
Her body wasn¡¯t older than them but her mental age was.
"Right now?" Both Lyrica and Madison questioned in suspicion.
"Hmm, how about I give you two questions to try to determine my current age?" Shiro asked, resting her chin on her palms and smiled yfully.
"Two questions? Alright. We¡¯ll discuss this between us first is that ok?" Lyrica asked.
"Go ahead." Shiro nodded.
After whispering to each other for a short while, they stopped and nodded.
"First question, are you older or younger than 13?" Lyrica asked.
"Younger~" Shiro chuckled.
O_O!!!
"Bullsh*t."
"Nope. It¡¯s the truth." Shiro said with a smile.
"..."
The duo paused for a second to think about their next questions.
"If your age is under 13, is it an even or odd number?" Lyrica asked.
¡¯Since I¡¯m not even a year old yet in this body, I would count as only a few months old.¡¯
"It is an even number." Shiro replied.
"Is it 12?"
"Fufufu, no more questions." Shiro grinned a stood up.
"So she¡¯s less than 13 and her age is an even number." Madison muttered in confusion.
"So... she¡¯s like the world¡¯s most powerful 12 year old?" Lyrica asked, turning to Madison.
"I think so? I mean, she can¡¯t be 10 or less than 10 now can she?"
"... It could be possible. It¡¯s Shiro after all." Lyrica replied after a short moment of silence.
Little did they know, she wasn¡¯t even 1 year old yet.
"Now if you girls have finished discussing what my age is, we should go look for somewhere to sleep tonight. We¡¯ll be going to meet up with other faction members tomorrow." Shiro said, informing them of tomorrow¡¯s ns.
Shiro found a decent sized plot of grass that was perfect for a tent.
¡¯We¡¯re only staying here for one more night, no need to be fancy about it.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst setting up the tent.
###
The next morning, the trio woke up rather early. For Shiro, it was normal but both Lyrica and Madison was a little groggy.
"You two should get used to early nights. Isn¡¯t that right Yuan Tian?" Shiro chuckled and looked towards Yuan Tian who stood behind them in a butler suit.
"Indeed princess. One should learn how to operate at around 6 hours of sleep on average and that is being generous." Yuan Tian replied with an understanding nod.
"Well one of you is dead already and the other one is the abnormal amongst abnormals." Madison rolled her eyes.
"Haha, I won¡¯t deny that I was dead once." Yuan Tian chuckled.
"Say, why do you call her princess? Also, Shiro, why do you address yourself as princess sometimes? Are you royalty?" Lyrica asked, curious to see if being royalty was a part of her background.
"Not really. I just call myself princess because of the titles I have. Plus, I like it fufufu~" Shiro smiled.
"I just call her princess because she addresses herself as such." Yuan Tian followed up.
"So it¡¯s just role y but he¡¯s taking it seriously?"
"Maybe~ Haha." Shiroughed since they weren¡¯t wrong.
She did like the title of princess.
Before they went to the meeting point, since it wasn¡¯t time yet, they needed to get breakfast at one of the stalls that the public had set up.
Shiro just bought a simple sandwich that she ¡¯ate¡¯.
Looking at Shiro who was eating lollipops after just eating a sandwich, Lyrica and Madison couldn¡¯t help but warn her of her bad diet of living off lollipops.
"Nope. These give my sustenance." Shiro chuckled. She wasn¡¯t wrong, the only food that fed her was indeed her mana stone lollipops.
While she could feed directly off monster corpses due to them dispersing into mana, it wasn¡¯t as filling as mana stones.
Meanwhile, Yin was enjoying her C ranked mana stones off by the side, ignoring everything that was going on. With the amount of C ranked mana stones she ate, her level increased to 49.
"Well you¡¯re not gonna grow if you just eat lollipops." Madison replied.
"And you¡¯re saying you grew those lumps of fat because of food and not ss upgrade?" Shiro retorted.
*cough*
"Mines a special case." Madison replied with an embarrassed cough.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro eventually dismissed it since she was going to have a ss up soon.
Madison sighed in relief seeing Shiro not do anything.
"Just so you know, if I don¡¯t grow up anymore in my next ss upgrade, I¡¯m going to rip those right off your chest." Shiro grinned.
"Let me enjoy my peace of mind longer please!" Madison cried out.
"But why would you want an a.d.u.l.t body Shiro? You¡¯re younger than 13 aren¡¯t you? I would rather enjoy the moment." Lyrica asked.
"Well if I have an a.d.u.l.t body, I can fight better can¡¯t I? My reach is absolute crap right now." Shiro said, stretching out her hand as a demonstration.
"Why is everything you think of linked to fighting?" Madison sighed.
"Because fighting is life. Live longer, survive, defend yourself and even simple things like feeding yourself in this world requires you to fight for it." Shiro shrugged.
"Well... she ain¡¯t wrong now is she?" Lyrica nodded.
They continued to chat for a bit while Shiro waited for them to finish their food. During the talk, the question of whether or not Yuan Tian needed to eat popped up. All he said was no due to the fact that he is now technically a monster and can live off mana.
As for how he gains that mana, he knows a few skills and techniques for gathering mana from the environment to sustain himself.
Of course, he stores it as a battery so that he can use it in times of need. If he was using mana like how Shiro was, he¡¯ll probably need to eat mana stones constantly as well.
Making their way to the gathering point, they picked up Silvia on the way there since she wasing with them.
Arriving at the location, Shiro was surprised to see a giant manta ray that had armour all over its body.
Around the manta ray, was Freya herself and a few new recruits.
The recruits were naturally charmed by Shiro on sight.
"You¡¯re here." Freya smiled happily seeing Shiro arriving with the girls. She couldn¡¯t see Yuan Tian since he transformed himself back into spirit form and had disappeared from sight.
"We¡¯ll be going to the closest branch of the main guild which is around a 5 hours trip north even with the speed of our mount." She exined.
"These are the new members that had been recruited along with you during the tournament." She said, gesturing at the new recruits.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Shiro and I believe I¡¯m a guest elder if I remember correctly?" Shiro said with a smile.
Her voice was as if a bolt of lightning was shot through their bodies. A beautiful face paired with a charming voice made her irresistible for them. Of course, they didn¡¯t dare disrespect her since she was a guest elder. That meant she had the capabilities to take that role.
"You can talk now?" Freya asked with disbelief written all over her face. From what she could remember, Shiro was a mute and needed her phone tomunicate.
"Yes I can. As for what happened, let¡¯s keep it my own little secret." Shiro chuckled.
Freya nodded her head and respected Shiro¡¯s choice.
"Let¡¯s go now. A 5 hour trip is quite long and we shouldn¡¯t dy it anymore." Freya said whilst patting the manta ray¡¯s head. It glowed with an azure light and erged its body to amodate everyone on its back.
"So where is the branch located?" Shiro asked whilst hopping onto the manta ray.
"The branch is located in the city of Vericia. Also known as the mountain city."
Chapter 162 Vericia
Chapter 162 Vericia
"Mountain city?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, that¡¯s because the city is situated at the peak of several interconnecting mountains. We like to categorise the mountains into three sections. The main mountain, 5rge mountains and the shorter mountains. Our faction is situated at one of the 5rge mountains due to our prestige. However, I¡¯ll give you a warning now and that¡¯s to not offend the city lord. He is literally a one man army that can force back arge wave of high level intruders all by himself. Naturally, he lives on the main mountain. Plus, you cannot miss his residence." Freya replied.
"Heh~ so the city is literally on top of a mountain range?" Shiro asked.
"That is correct." Freya nodded and nced backwards.
Making sure that everyone was on the manta ray, she patted its head andmanded it to fly.
"UWAHH!!" Madison cried out as she grabbed onto the armour for dear life.
"Rx Madi. The mount uses mana to secure everyone so that you won¡¯t fall." Shiro chuckled.
"Why didn¡¯t you tell me at the start?!" Madison asked as she took a deep breath.
"Well I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d react like that." Shiro shrugged.
"Well anyways, Freya, what role do you have in the faction?" She asked, turning to Freya.
"My role is pretty simr to yours. I¡¯m also an elder but naturally, my responsibilities are more binding in terms of rtions to the faction."
"Ah, kind of like an office worker?" Shiro asked.
"Pretty much. I¡¯ll also take this time to exin the ranks we have." Freya said as she realised that this was a prime opportunity.
"The lowest rank is that of a recruit. They¡¯re given a trial period of sorts to demonstrate their prowess. After recruit is normal member, elite member, core member, treasured member, prestige member, protector, elite protector, guest elders, elders, the council and finally the faction leader.
"The prestige members are also known as the sessors since a protector would teach and train the prestige members to be the next generation of protectors." Freya exined.
"Can you skip ranks? Something along the lines of bing a protector without being a prestige member." Shiro asked curiously.
"Well it¡¯s possible. But you have to prove yourself in multiple ways before you can be recognised as a protector. Oh, by the way, did you know that we had to add a new rank just for you? Guest Elders were never a thing in our faction haha." Freyaughed lightly.
The new recruits were surprised to hear that the faction had added a new rank just for the girl in front of them.
Their gazes held the burning question of why she was given this kind of treatment.
"If you guys and girls are wondering, it was because she was able to eliminate a level 50 when she was more than 10 levels under them." Freya said, seeing their questioning gazes. She had the same question asked repeatedly so she wasn¡¯t a stranger to the stares.
"10 levels under them?!" They cried out in shock.
"It was just a simtion. Don¡¯t think about it too much." Shiro chuckled.
¡¯If it wasn¡¯t a simtion, I would be able to eliminate more because my stamina won¡¯t be limited.¡¯
"Ah, another piece of information about your new guest elder, she¡¯s the owner of a pretty interesting title in New York." Freya grinned, wanting to mess around with Shiro.
"What title?" They asked in excitement. For someone to be able to take down level 50¡¯s with a difference of 10 levels was bound to have an awe-inspiring title right? Wrong.
"Her title is the infamous An*s Destroying Princess." Freya grinned.
"Eh?"
The recruits paused for a second, not believing what they had just heard.
"Pardon me but can you repeat that?" One of them asked.
"You didn¡¯t hear wrong. Her title was the An*s Destroying Princess." Freya chuckled.
Shiro only smiled and nodded her head as if she was proud of that title.
¡¯Why aren¡¯t you denying it!!!¡¯ They retorted collectively in their minds.
However, Lyrica, Madison and Silvia didn¡¯t make a single reaction since they had gotten used to Shiro¡¯s shenanigans long ago.
"I think you can still find videos of my matches online. Who knows?" She shrugged nonchntly.
The recruits looked at each other and pulled out their phones one after another.
After watching the matches, blood drained out of their faces as they sat a little further away from Shiro.
Ironically, they had received several adverts on the page that suggested them to buy an ass te for emergencies.
They dismissed it as a joke at first but only now did they realise that the adverts were being serious.
There was even a quote on the advert!
[I couldn¡¯t sleep with a peace of mind until I bought the N#ke ass te. Now I can rest easy knowing that my rear is well protected.]
"Wait, but wasn¡¯t the princess only 13 years old? And it wasn¡¯t too long ago either. Surely that can¡¯t be you right?" One of them asked.
"Look at the name, and ss." Shiro replied without looking back.
"But you¡¯re level 48."
"And who said I can¡¯t level up quickly in Cairosa?" She countered.
"..." The recruit wanted to say no but he knew it was possible. For someone to level up that fast, they would need to risk their lives every day to jump into dungeons with their party. To make matters worse, they would need to challenge higher level dungeons to get enough EXP.
One of the few solutions would be to challenge everything solo but she¡¯s not crazy enough to do that right?
¡¯Nevermind, She is crazy enough to do that.¡¯ They corrected themselves after looking at Shiro once more.
They continued to talk for a little while as Shiro, Lyrica, Madison and Silvia listened patiently.
"Ah before I forget, I should exin what you girls are doing shouldn¡¯t I?" Freya said as this didn¡¯t apply to the recruits. She had already exined what they were doing so she could ignore them for a little bit while exining what the three girls were going to do.
"Your situation is a little different so listen carefully. While you do gain a certain amount of resources to help train yourselves every week, it¡¯ll be less than normal. To increase the amount of resources that you can get per week, you¡¯ll need toplete the faction quests that are posted on our website. There are several types of quests that we put up but here are the moremon types.
"Attack/hunt, guard, rescue and harvesting herbs. All of these quests are self exnatory so I believe that I don¡¯t need to tell you what they mean, I presume." Freya said with a smile.
The trio shook their heads since they had already done their research a long time ago in preparation foring to the faction.
"Good. Other than that, I think all that¡¯s left is to show you around and arrange some rooms for you." Freya said before turning to Shiro.
"As for you, since you¡¯re a guest elder, your quests would be harder than others. Is that ok?" Freya asked.
"Couldn¡¯t be better. Easy missions would be boring after all." Shiro chuckled since she intended to do the hard missions for better rewards anyways.
"You know, lots of people would love to have your spot and have easy missions. That way, they¡¯ll be safer." Freya said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well I suppose you can say that I enjoy doing difficult tasks. Gets the blood pumping." Shiro shrugged.
"Understandable." Freya understood where Shiro wasing from since she too enjoyed the feeling of happiness thates naturally after finishing a hard quest.
They continued to chat for a little while as the scenery flew past them.
Going higher and higher into the sky, the trio and the new recruits started to exhibit signs of fatigue while Shiro was still joking around with a smile.
¡¯She¡¯s fine with the high altitude? Interesting...¡¯ Freya thought with a smile.
Due to the location of Verica, the strain that it puts on the adventurers is much higher. This type of area would help the recruits understand how to conserve their stamina with better efficiency.
Not only that, but due to the fact that there is a severe decrease in oxygen, they would have to be more conservative with their movements. There were more factors that would hinder adventurers but overall, this was the perfect location for newbies to be trained into skilled personnel.
However, all of this was child¡¯s y for Shiro. As a person who had mastered the use of her body in her previous life, this altitude posed no problem for her. Hell, it was no different from normal since she would make sure that she was always in her peak condition.
"Hey Shiro, aren¡¯t you finding it a little stifling to breath?" Lyrica asked as sweat started to form on her face.
"Me? Nah I¡¯m fine. I¡¯ve gotten used to the thin air before so it¡¯s not a problem for me." Shiro replied.
"Got any tips?" Madison asked. The other recruits nodded their head as well since they were curious as to how Shiro waspletely fine.
"Well, the only advice I can give to you is to try and take full deep breaths if that makes sense? Not the kind that is almost like you¡¯re holding your breath but rather deep breath in and deep breath out? Arg! It¡¯s hard to exin. I just learnt with experience." Shiro replied whilst scratching her head.
"No that¡¯s pretty much it. You need to be more proficient with your body in order to make decent progress here in Vericia." Freya said whilst standing up.
"Now then, I formally wee you to the city of Vericia." She smiled and gestured in front of them.
A mass of clouds separated to reveal several mountain peaks above an ocean of clouds.
Each mountain peak was filled with houses andrge buildings.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro could already locate where the adventurer¡¯s guild, auction house and cksmith were located. Not to mention, there was a structure that looked somewhat close to a colosseum.
"We¡¯ll be arriving shortly at the branch guild and it is where we shall part ways. Shiro, you¡¯ll follow me to the main hall."
"No problem." Shiro nodded her head.
Arriving at one of the mountain peaks, Shiro looked at the main building in interest. It was something simr to a giant ce with multiple towers that had banners hanging off the sides, showing what the tower contained.
cksmiths had a hammer and anvil on their banner, mages had a staff, warriors had swords and so on.
In the middle, a giant tower was connected to the other building with bridges between them for easy ess.
Naturally, the biggest tower would have the biggest banner, showing off the faction emblem.
Framed with an icy border, the emblem contained the image of a woman who had 2 pairs of wings made from ice, spreading out from behind her.
The manta ray pped its fins andnded on one of the tforms.
Several people wearing white and blue uniforms walked over to them with a smile.
"For those who have melee type sses, follow me and I shall take you elsewhere to split you into your respective groups." A man smiled slightly.
"Good luck." Shiro smiled, giving Lyrica and Madison a thumbs up.
"You too." The duo replied.
Watching the man leave with a group of people, a woman stepped forward.
"For those who have a magic based ss, follow me. Of course, it doesn¡¯t matter if you¡¯re support or not." The woman said with a small smile.
"Good luck to you too." Shiro turned and patted Silvia on the shoulder.
"Thank you."
After they left, only Shiro, Freya and two others remained in the area.
"I presume you must be the new guest elder. I was never told that you were quite the charming woman." The man said with a small bow.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled slightly to show that she epted his praise.
[Talius ¨C LVL 92 Winter¡¯s Apostle]
¡¯Winter¡¯s Apostle? Never heard of such a ss.¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing his ss.
"I¡¯m Natash, this dipsh*t¡¯s twin sister." The woman replied.
[Natash ¨C LVL 90 Arctic Saintess]
Both of them looked rather simr to one another. Natash was only slightly taller than Shiro while Talius was a head and a half taller than her.
"Natash? Did you forget what I said?" Freya smiled wearily.
"I haven¡¯t." Natash rolled her eyes.
"As you both know, this is Shiro. While her level is still 48 and far from what an elder should be, her capabilities are definitely top notch." Freya smiled.
"While I do trust your decision and wee her in with open hands, the disciples aren¡¯t so nice. They¡¯re suspicious about this elder." Talius frowned.
"I¡¯ve been hearing quite a fewints as well. Some of them even said that if she wasn¡¯t at least C ss, we should reject her." Natash followed up, feeling rather annoyed by the disciples reactions. However, it wasn¡¯t as if it wasn¡¯t uncalled for.
They can¡¯t just promote someone without a proper reason.
"Hmm we need a demonstration to let them see her power." Freya suggested.
"There¡¯s going to be a recruit demonstration in a week or so isn¡¯t there? We can use that chance to show off her skills to prove that she¡¯s worth the role." Natash pped her hands together.
"That¡¯s right. The recruitment demonstration will have all the new recruits show off their prowess to the already existing members to prove their worth. It also allows them to decide on whether or not they want to recruit them into their party for any future missions." Talius nodded his head.
¡¯Hmm, that should give me enough time to reach level 50 and potentially ss up depending on what happens.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"We¡¯ll do that then. Shiro will alsopete in the recruitment demonstration to prove herself." Freya nodded.
Chapter 163 Exploring Vericia
Chapter 163 Exploring Vericia
"Since that¡¯s settled, I¡¯ll show you to your room." Natash smiled and grabbed Shiro by the hand.
Looking down in surprise, she didn¡¯t expect Shiro¡¯s hand to be so cold.
"Shiro, why is your hand so cold?" She asked. While ice type mages do possess a cold body, that¡¯s only inbat. Their body temperature is pretty much normal outside of it.
"Ah just a passive skill of mine. It makes my body cold all the time." Shiro smiled lightly.
"Ah I see. I suppose a skill like that will boost your power with ice magic am I right?"
"Pretty much." Shiro nodded.
Bringing her through the main tower, Natash introduced her to their facilities.
The tower is split into 3 main sections. Commerce Floors, Activity Floors and Research Floors.
Themerce floor is a gathering hub where the different cksmiths and alchemists can meet to sell their items. The activity floors are where they would find jobs that they could do. These jobs include hunting, escorting and the such.
Not only that, the activity floors contain a few sparring rooms along with simtion pods for those who don¡¯t want to spar in real life.
As for the final room, it was the one which Shiro had the most interest in.
"In the research room, it is divided into 3 main sections and 3 subsections. The 3 main sections are the mages research, warriors research and crafts research. The subsections are libraries where members can post parts of their research as exchange for materials that they may need."
"So can I visit here at any time?" Shiro asked curiously.
"No, you have your own research room in your amodation so you don¡¯t have to worry about that. But if you wish to see what other people have done then feel free to drop by here." Natash smiled.
Walking up a set of spiral staircases, they arrived at the very top of the tower. There was a total of 5 doors and the centre one was much bigger than the other four.
Decorated with rare materials and rune formations, Shiro could already tell that it was protecting something precious.
"The four smaller rooms are rooms for us elders. As for the one in the centre, that¡¯s something you¡¯re not allowed to know just yet I¡¯m sorry." Natash said with an apologetic smile.
"No worries. I am getting the privileges close to an elder while not being tied to the faction after all." Shiro shook her head in understanding.
Bringing Shiro to one of the doors, Natash pulled out a golden key card and scanned the electronic pad beside the door.
"This is the elder¡¯s key card. It allows ess to everything in this branch apart from a few areas that are off limits. This is also a proof of your identity."
Stepping inside the room, Shiro could see a queen sized bed, arge desk and a doorway leading to what seems to be the research room. But what attracted her attention more was the sheer amount of mana floating around in the room.
"Seems like you¡¯ve noticed." Natash said with a smile.
"It would be ridiculous not to." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"The room is reinforced by several defence formations along with mana gathering formations. This will help you when you¡¯re trying to make more spells or improve your current spells. You can customise this however you want. As for the recruit demonstration in a week or so¡¯s time, we¡¯ll remind you a day or two before, so don¡¯t worry about it.
"Here¡¯s a map of Vericia and if you want, I can take you around the city." Natash offered.
"If that¡¯s not too much trouble, I¡¯ll take your offer." Shiro smiled whilst ncing at the map that she gave her.
The map was quite detailed in the fact that it showed which factions had which mountain peak along with their general description. It also contained their general use of magic and skills.
Of course, it was nothing in detail due to the fact that the factions had their own secrets.
"It¡¯s not troublesome at all. We¡¯ll be taking one of the mounts so that it¡¯s easier to get around the mountains." Natash chuckled before leading Shiro to the stables.
They could see faction members walking around and they would greet her one by one. Of course, they were curious about the beauty next to their elder, especially the boys.
"She¡¯s the new guest elder. Don¡¯t be rude." Natash said with an air of authority.
Shiro only raised an eyebrow to this as she was very rxed when they were alone.
"She¡¯s the new guest elder?!" They asked with uncertainty.
Scrutinizing her with their stares, the faction members slowly surrounded the duo.
Natash furrowed her brows in annoyance.
"Enough! Do you not have anything else you need to be doing? If so, why don¡¯t we go for a few rounds and let me educate you." She shouted out as the faction members flinched in fear and quickly scuttled away.
After she was sure that they went away, Natash sighed and looked at Shiro apologetically.
"Sorry about that."
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Though I have to say, seeing your personality change all of a sudden was quite the eye opener." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Ah well with how things are, you need to be dominating for them to actually behave. You know the saying of give them an inch and they take a mile? Pretty much that." Natash shrugged.
"That is very true." Shiro nodded.
*Chirp!
Popping her head out from behind Shiro¡¯s neck, Yin pointed at her mouth.
"Eh? When did you bring a pet?" Natash asked.
"I¡¯ve always had her on me. She¡¯s just toozy to greet anyone." Shiro chuckled and handed Yin a C ranked mana stone.
"Wait! She¡¯s only level 49, if you feed her a C ranked mana stone, won¡¯t the energy harm her?" Natash warning quickly. She could feel the mana radiating from the stone and knew it was a C ranked mana stone.
"Ah, about that, Yin¡¯s somewhat special. She can eat C ranked stones." Shiro replied with a smile but deep down she was frowning.
¡¯Seems like I can¡¯t be eating in front of them. They might notice the lollipops are actually mana stones.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Eating the mana stone, Yin¡¯s level increased to level 50, shocking Natash in the process.
"It worked?!" She eximed in confusion.
A purple glow encased Yin¡¯s body and slowly solidified into an egg, simr to the condition of which Shiro first received Yin.
¡¯She¡¯s ssing up already?¡¯ Shiro thought with shock. She didn¡¯t expect Yin to be able to fulfil her ss up options so quickly which resulted in her bing an egg once more.
"It seems like I must offer you a congrattions." Natash smiled.
"Thank you." Shiro said as she pulled out a bag and ced Yin carefully into the bag.
Arriving at one of the stations, Natash took the manta ray mount and gestured for Shiro to hop on.
Controlling the manta ray to survey the city of Vericia, Natash exined what each mountain peak contained in brief detail. She couldn¡¯t possibly remember everything on the spot now could she?
"Would you like to go anywhere before we return to the faction?" She asked.
"Can we visit the auction house? I want to see what kind of items they have."
"Of course.
Making a u-turn with the manta ray, Natash parked the mount at a private location that is given to the faction.
"Ah, before we go, do you have a face mask or something simr? As a woman, I can say that there would definitely be men who would keep an eye on you if they knew you were this pretty." Natash warned. Since Shiro was in the same faction, she was naturally going to help her out.
"I do, but it¡¯s only a lower face mask." Shiro replied, pulling up her ck face mask.
"Hmm... how about I give you something extra." Natash smiled.
However, Shiro narrowed her eyes at that smile since it reminded her of Aarim.
Natash pulled out a pair of sses along with several essories.
"Now hold still." Natash grinned.
"Sure I guess?" Shiro replied since she realised why Natash reminded her of Aarim.
¡¯She also likes to dress people up huh?¡¯
After adjusting Shiro¡¯s appearance, Natash couldn¡¯t help but give her a thumbs up and pulled out a camera.
"Do you mind if I took a picture?" She asked.
"Go ahead." Shiro nodded since she could just think of it as repayment for showing her around the city.
*Snap snap snap
The sound of the camera shuttle could be heard as Natash made sure to take as many pictures in different angles as she could. Obviously all safe for work.
Her current appearance was mysterious in a different way.
Round sses that seemed to be quite popr for girls in east asia and a face mask that obscured her true beauty. Of course, it only made one want to remove the mask to see what was hidden away.
As for her dress, Natash had decorated it with attachable frills and skirts thatpletely remade her dress into a hybrid that gave the feeling of a mage¡¯s robe. Of course, the colours were mainly ck to match her current colour scheme.
As for her other essories, it was just a bag that contained Yin, who was in egg form, and a spell book.
"Perfect." Natash smiled with satisfaction.
"Ah, if you can, try to act out of the norm for you so that they don¡¯t know who you are."
"What kind of persona would you suggest? yful? Kill hungry? Shy?" Shiro asked.
"Shy!" Natash widened her eyes in excitement.
Nodding her head, Shiro transformed her entire aura in an instant. It was now meek and blended with the surroundings making her very hard to notice.
"Oh wow. And here I thought I was good at disguise." Natash pped her hands with praise.
"Um... Thanks." Shiro smiled embarrassingly under her mask whilst fidgeting her body slightly as if she was truly a shy girl.
"OH! MAGNIFIQUE!" Natash¡¯s eye¡¯s glistened.
"Oh my god that just made me wanna hurl." Shiro suddenly said with a face of disgust. Being meek wasn¡¯t for her and even trying to act that way made her want to stab someone.
"F*ck it, imma just go with the silent type." She shook her head and corrected her aura one more.
¡¯Note to self, never try the meek type again.¡¯
"Shame. Oh well, the silent type also works. Here¡¯s a shade stone. It will hide your name and level from people. One time use item and will onlyst for 3 hours." Natash sighed and handed her the item.
"Shade stone?" Shiro raised an eyebrow since she didn¡¯t even know this item existed.
[Shade Stone ¨C Blue]
A stone that will hide your information under a veil of shadows. The effectsst for 3 hours and can only be used once.
Shiro only nodded her head whilst following behind her.
Entering the auction house, there were people who were naturally curious about who Shiro was but her uninterested nk stare caused them to recoil in fear for a moment.
When they made eye contact, the first thought they had was that she was a doll. No emotions.
To make matters worse, her void ck eyes made it even harder to discern her emotions.
Checking the terminals to see what was on sale, Shiro saw that the range of items they sold in the auction house was many times more than New York and Cairosa.
It wasn¡¯t surprising considering the fact that this city was something simr to a gathering hub for factions.
High level items were constantly appearing and disappearing with purple being the mostmonly bought items.
Anything under the purple grade would be forgotten should they not have any interesting skills that warrant attention.
"Have orange grade items ever been sold here?" Shiro asked curiously.
"There has, but..." Natash smiled awkwardly with a scratch of her cheek.
"The problem with selling orange grade equipment is that everyone was going for it and it was a giant catastrophe. The city lord was absolutely pissed hence why he now collects them all and hosts an event every year where people wouldpete. There is still 5 months left before the event starts so you have plenty of time to train for it."
"Heh~ Maybe I might even get an item myself." Shiro joked.
"Well depending on what happens, you might actually have a chance. But I don¡¯t know what the event activity will be this time so we¡¯ll have to wait." Natash shrugged slightly.
"I see. Well that¡¯s something else to look forward to then." Shiro nodded and continued to browse through the catalogue.
Looking at the prices of the items, she could help but sigh at how little her current bnce is inparison.
She was just about to stop browsing when she saw a notification for rapid discount.
"Say, what¡¯s this rapid discount?" Shiro asked.
"Rapid discount? It¡¯s when a bunch of expensive items are put on sale! Ites at random times so we must make the most out of it while we can!" Natash grinned eagerly and started to warm up her hands.
Looking at her eagerness, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but picture the image of a tiger that¡¯s about to pounce on sleeping prey.
Chapter 164 Mana Condenser
Chapter 164 Mana Condenser
While Natash was furiously tapping away at the terminal to buy all the items, Shiro only casually browsed through them to see if she could buy anything.
¡¯Daggers, spell tomes, research papers, disguise orbs, talismans...¡¯ She thought whilst scrolling past the rapid discount page.
"You¡¯re not going to buy anything?" Natash asked whilst keeping her eyes on the terminal.
"Nah I¡¯m good. Not much I can buy." Shiro shrugged since she¡¯s already got everything she needed on her.
"Well just keep an eye out in case you find something worthwhile. This is a rare moment and you should buy stuff even if you don¡¯t need it." Natash suggested.
Nodding her head, Shiro didn¡¯t reject the notion since it was correct. However, in a high level city like this, her current bnce of 800 million can only do so much.
¡¯Hmm... the money is getting quite out of hand. I should probably start converting them down to Erin.¡¯ She thought to herself. Erin was the currency that Nan Tian had informed her about. But even then, she would need to get 1 billion USD before she could even convert it into a single bronze Erin.
And yet, her debt of the rebirth pill totalled up to 5rge silver Erins, 50 trillion in other words.
As the rapid discount slowly reached the end, Shiro had a bored face on since she didn¡¯t need any of the items.
Even the weapons that had skills didn¡¯t intrigue her at all since she had recycled low level weapons with percentage increase base skills. This allowed her to create weapons with those skills at anytime. Not to mention, it wasmon knowledge that percentage based skills are more important than numerical bonuses.
"The hell! Why would they sell this?!" Shiro cried out in shock as the itempletely took her off guard.
[Executioner¡¯s Requiem ¨C Purple Augment]
Illusion Augment
While there were no more details surrounding the item, Shiro understood the horrendous potential it contained.
The Executioner¡¯s Requiem is an illusion augment that synergises massively with sound based illusion skills. It will confuse the opponent whilst also increasing the users overall stats to make it easier for them to kill the victim.
However, while the power is great, the bacsh is just as severe. It would cause hallucinations to the user which would slowly hypnotise them and turn them into a bloodthirsty battle maniac.
When used by a high level adventurer, this item could cause mass destruction since the user would not care about the damage inflicted onto themselves. The only thing on their mind would be to kill everything. The Executioner¡¯s Requiem was currently a purple item but would slowly evolve into a Red Grade item.
Everyone in her old world knew about the Executioner¡¯s Requiem after the tragedy that befell arge city. Due to the nature of the item, hardly anyone could resist against the illusions and werepletely subjected to its power. It was only after the hero¡¯s party was dispatched did the menace finally die and the item was subsequently destroyed.
Naturally, she was a part of that party and knew how much of a pain it was to fight against it. From that point on, a new ssification of items was created for equipment with simr effects to the Executioner¡¯s Requiem. They were known by the ssification of Corrupted Relics.
"What¡¯s wrong? You want an item?" Natash asked, shocked by her sudden outburst.
"Well half and half." Shiro frowned.
"This item, are you able to buy it for me and I¡¯ll owe you the money?" Shiro asked. The item costs 5 billion right now and she wasn¡¯t about to let it fall into someone¡¯s hands. Especially since this was a high level city and her party were training here.
"Sure. Don¡¯t worry about the money since it¡¯s part of the budget given by the main guild." Natash smiled and pressed buy. However, she was a littlete and the item was taken by someone else.
Shiro frowned and flexed her fingers. A string of nanobots entered the terminal and wanted to edit the information.
But before she could make any corrected, red strings suddenly appeared in the terminal and started to survey the area.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯
Quickly retracting her bots, Shiro avoided the detection of a high level hacker that was protecting the system information.
While she was sure that she could defeat him, she knew that she would be discovered quickly should that happen and that was not what she wanted.
"Ah I wasn¡¯t able to get it in time. Sorry, I should have given you a spare ount to buy stuff." Natash apologised.
"Ah no worries." Shiro waved her hand.
The only thing she could do now was to keep an eye out and see if she could kill the user before the bacsh took over the buyer.
¡¯Tsk, annoying.¡¯ She thought.
With the danger of the Executioner¡¯s Requiem causing mass damage in the city, Shiro had to make sure to keep an eye out for the safety of the party.
However, now that Shiro knew items like the Executioner¡¯s Requiem could be sold, she grabbed the spare ount that Natash gave her and made sure to keep an eye out for other items. Fortunately, there wasn¡¯t any more items like the Executioner¡¯s Requiem.
¡¯That makes my job easier I suppose.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. If all she had to do was to keep an eye out for a single item, she could spare the time to do other things such as missions or developing new skills.
After the rapid discount finished, Natash had a satisfied smile on her face and collected all of her items.
Shiro tried to see if she could find the buyer for the Executioner¡¯s Requiem but could only sigh. Trying to find one person in a sea of people that are all redeeming items was a little hard even for her.
¡¯It should be fine. The effects of Executioner¡¯s Requiem is obvious and I should be able to find them.¡¯ She thought with a sigh.
¡¯It¡¯s only the first day and I see a pain in the ass item like this. Tsk, what a pain.¡¯
Returning to the main tower, Shiro and Natash said goodbye to each other and returned to their rooms.
Locking the door, Shiro grinned since she had something she wanted to try out.
"Since the room is flooded with mana, and this princess is a monster, it naturally means I can eat my room in the most literal way." She chuckled.
Setting down Yin in the table, Shiro looked for where mana was most abundant and sat down.
Crossing her legs, she started to drink the mana out of the air. Feeling her hunger diminishing slightly, Shiro smiled seeing this work.
¡¯Though I¡¯m not sure how much EXP this would award me.¡¯
Stopping her actions, Shiro had another idea and pressed her palms on the ground. Since this was her own training room, they wouldn¡¯t bother her.
Metal and lightning sparked rampantly around the room as it converged into a turbine of sorts. Naturally it was a miniature one.
Connected to the turbine was apartment that looked like a 3d printer.
[Mana Condenser]
A device that will absorb the ambient mana in the atmosphere and condense it into a crystal.
While some may think that mana crystals and mana stones were the same, they arepletely wrong. That is due to the fact that the mana stone loses a lot of its mana due to the mana being distributed throughout the monster¡¯s body. As for the mana crystal, it is a pure, untouched piece of condensed mana. Its effectiveness is definitely much better than a mana stone.
The only downside is the fact that it requires a lot of mana along with the fact that it takes a while to form. There had been several mana crystal farms in her old world but it took too much space due to how much mana was drained from the atmosphere.
If you had two mana condensers in close proximity, it would be useless since it would just be wasting the mana to make two half assed crystals.
Plus, the mana was too sparse in other cities for the condenser to take effect. If she had used it before, it would have taken weeks to months for a crystal to be formed.
"By the time I wake up, I should have a full mana crystal for breakfast. Maybe more depending on how much mana is in the air but since they have a formation, it should be more than enough." Shiro mused to herself.
She was about to change into some clothes that were more suitable for sleep but stopped to look at her current appearance.
Due to the sses and the face mask, it was hard to see what she actually looked like but in another way, it was also attractive.
¡¯Hmm... this look is quite alright. I might keep this for a while.¡¯ She thought to herself as she stored the outfit away and put on a nightgown.
Laying in bed, Shiro yawned lightly before ncing over at Yin who was an egg.
"Good night little Yin." Shiro smiled softly and fell asleep.
Waking up the next day, Shiro wore the same outfit as the previous day and checked out the condenser.
Within the chamber, she could see a neon blue and pink crystal that was in the form of a droplet. There was another droplet that was being formed but the size was much smaller.
Opening the chamber to remove the crystal, Shiro made sure to lock it back up so that there wouldn¡¯t be any gaps in the chamber.
Looking at the crystal droplet, she examined it just to be sure.
[Mana Crystal]
A pure condensed source of mana that is more potent than a mana crystal.
Current Potency: Medium C rank
"Perfect." She muttered with a smile.
However, she wasn¡¯t going to eat it just yet since there was no way she could absorb the mana. She couldn¡¯t even eat a C ranked mana stone never mind a C ranked mana crystal that was even more potent than a mana stone.
Storing the mana stone in her inventory, Shiro grabbed her bag and ced Yin inside carefully.
Adjusting the sses on her face, Shiro made her way to the bounty hall.
Shrinking her aura so that she not many would notice her, Shiro walked over to the missions that are suited for level 50¡¯s or above.
Her current identity was disguised as Sophie, a level 48 ice mage.
As for the faction members that did notice her, they were deeply intrigued by who she was since her aura made her feel like a mysterious schr. Not only that, her appearance caused them to wonder deeply about what she looked like.
Some tried to reach out and talk to her but were dissuaded by her uninterested nce. It was as if they were nothing in her eyes.
However, there were still members who only became increasingly curious. Of course, Shiro only ignored them and stood in front of the bounty board that hosted level 50 bounties.
¡¯Hmm... There are a bunch of missions to do with farming for materials that drop from a level 50 dungeon. I might take one of them for now since I need to level up to quickly.¡¯ Shiro thought.
Looking at the missions, she singled them out to three options that best suited her current situation.
[Collect 50 Ivory Jade Lcs]
Destination: Jade Caverns (Level 50 dungeon)
Rmended for 5 member party¡¯s.
[Collect 25 cial Lotus]
Destination: Ice Spirit Hollows (Level 50 dungeon)
Rmended for 10 member party¡¯s.
[Collect 10 Ice King¡¯s Crown]
Destination: Ice King Aephium¡¯s Domain (Level 50 dungeon)
Rmended for 10 member party¡¯s.
¡¯The first and second missions are mostly collection missions that require you to defend against the monsters while you harvest, thest one is just a pure farming missions that wants you to kill the ice king over and over again.¡¯ She thought whilst reading the mission description in more detail.
Naturally, Shiro would pick the one that only needed her to kill the ice king repeatedly. In her opinion, it was better than just sitting around looking for rare materials for hours on end.
As for the mission rewards, it was more resources under her name that would go to Lyrica and the others. Of course that was just the agreement between her and their faction leader.
For the mission reward itself, it was cksmithmission tokens that will have the faction cksmiths make a single item for you. The quality increases depending on how many tokens you have. Plus, she would also get a discount since the poster of the bounty was a cksmith himself.
Taking the bounty chip, she pulled out her phone and registered it under her own faction ount that Natash had given her during the trip through the city.
After registering the bounty, Shiro adjusted her sses and left the bounty hall.
However, a group of three blocked her way which attracted the attention of the surrounding members.
"If it isn¡¯t too much trouble, can we borrow a little bit of your time?" One of them asked.
He had short blond hair and blue eyes, a rather handsome face and a charming smile.
Feeling a few jealous stares from the crowd, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but roll her eyes.
¡¯Does this miss look like I wanted to talk with this twat?¡¯ She thought.
Using Phantom Path, Shiro flicked past them with ease. Her hair fluttered behind her as it left them in shock. Even some of the C ss members couldn¡¯t pick up her movements.
"Sorry, I¡¯m busy." Shiro said, ncing back at them before walking off.
Chapter 165 Shut Up And Let’s Fight
Chapter 165 Shut Up And Let¡¯s Fight
The dungeon, King Aephium¡¯s Domain, was located deep in a cave system on the side of the smaller mountain peaks. While the level was considered pretty low for the city, due to the fact that most of the people are already over the level 50 barrier, it was still quite busy due to the abundance of items and materials that you can get from the dungeon itself.
This dungeon was also known as the holy ground for cksmiths under level 50 due to the fact that the materials dropped are the peak of D ss.
Walking to the docking bay for the mounts, Shiro registered herself for a manta ray mount and hopped on its back.
She had rented it tost her for the whole day so that she could take some more time in the dungeon if she wanted.
Plus, she needed to get 10 ice king crowns so that she would definitely need the full day. Especially since the dungeon was going to be slightly longer.
¡¯From the description of the dungeon, it seems like there¡¯s the chance to get a quest from the system.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
The quest waspletely random so there was no way to guarantee the quest activating except for hoping the system would be nice.
However, the reward for the quest was a choice between two items. The emergency bag or the wish bag.
The emergency bag would give you something that would help you at that moment in time while the wish bag would give you something that you would want. Of course, the bag content was randomised. For all they knew, it could give you some food if you were hungry.
While the reward is amazing, one can only attempt this quest once so they had to choose wisely.
¡¯If I finish the quest, I should probably get the wish bag. It might even give me a rebirth pill.¡¯ Shiro thought wishfully.
Shaking her head, she dismissed the thought and controlled the manta ray to fly towards the mountain.
While on her way to the mountain, she saw several other mounts flying around to different peaks. She could tell that they belonged to other factions due to the fact that their uniforms werepletely different.
¡¯That being said, my ck outfit isn¡¯t exactly the same as the Winter¡¯s Grace outfit now is it?¡¯ She mused to herself.
While she did know that elders had the freedom of wearing whatever they wanted, they would still choose to wear a colour scheme that matches the faction. They didn¡¯t want to be associated with a different faction after all. However, due to the nature of her contract, she was allowed this freedom.
As she was closing in on her destination, Shiro stood up on the manta ray and pulled out a whistle that she had received after renting the manta ray.
The whistle had two buttons, one was to send it back to the faction and the other was to call it to your location. Since she was heading into the dungeon, the manta ray didn¡¯t need to be around.
Stopping the manta ray above the city, Shiro jumped off and blew her whistle.
Making sure that the mount was making its way back to the faction, she looked down and flipped her body so that she was falling head first.
Her actions caused the people on their mounts to widen their eyes in shock. They didn¡¯t expect a crazy girl to jump off her mount and fall head first! It was pure suicidal, or so they thought.
Acting her Phantom Path and float passive, Shironded on the ground gently like a snowke meeting the palm of one¡¯s hand.
Dusting her outfit, Shiro pulled up a map to see where she needed to go in order to arrive at the dungeon.
Ignoring the shocked gazes of the people around her, Shiro started to walk towards the east of the city.
¡¯Seems like this mountain peak is contested by 2 small factions.¡¯ She thought, seeing two types of uniforms that were present in the streets. One is a white and red while the other is green and blue.
There were some small conflicts that she would see while walking past a few stores, but it never escted in severity It was as if they were somewhat afraid of breaking the peace by escting the fight.
"Hm... Could the city lord really be that strong?" She muttered in interest. For a single person to have this kind of effect with just his presence, it really made Shiro curious about his power.
While she was also able to achieve the same effect in her past life, that was considering the fact that no one could defeat her, except for the hero. Adding on the fact that she was able to wipe a city off the face of the, literally, everyone behaved themselves as long as she told them to.
While she was thinking about how strong the city lord was, she did some research on the inte and found out that his ss was called Armageddon Sentinel, a ss specialised for pure destruction.
While there was some information about his skill set and what they did, it was never in detail since the city lord had refused to exin his skills. You don¡¯t want the enemy to study you after all.
Hence all the people could do was to guess his abilities based on what they saw him do in old recordings of his fights.
While the recordings didn¡¯t show everything in detail, Shiro could already tell the lethality of his ss with just a single look.
¡¯If I needed to fight against him, the best ways would be either redirecting his power against him or just straight up deal more damage. His ss seemed to give him certain resistances to crowd control along with increased defence. The best way would be naturally using a sniper from long ranges to constantly bombard him.¡¯ She thought.
Her current MP was 831k, she estimated that once she reached 1 million MP, she should be able to unlock her Sniper Creation.
At that point, she wouldn¡¯t even need to go close ranged to kill her enemies. She could just use her swords tounch herself high into the air and snipe them from afar.
Of course, she wouldn¡¯t actively choose this since just sitting around and sniping felt boring for her. She would only use this if there were no other options.
Arriving at the cave, Shiro saw people walking in and out constantly.
"Seems like I¡¯m at the right ce." She muttered before walking in.
As she walked through the cave, she realised that she was going deeper into the mountain. The temperature was dropping rapidly as ice could be seen on the cave walls.
Naturally, this didn¡¯t bother Shiro since she was a snow girl.
Pressing her palms on the ice, Shiro smiled as she could sense the entire cave system beneath her.
¡¯Interesting... This cave leads to a giant cavity in the mountain where the dungeon portal is. If arge monster breaks out, it could potentially break open the mountain and lead to the copse of the city above it.¡¯
Following the path down, she arrived at cavity and couldn¡¯t help but crane her head back at the sheer size of the dungeon door.
"Well damn..." She muttered.
Before anyone could even talk to her, Shiro walked towards the dungeon door and entered the dungeon alone.
Adjusting her eyes after teleporting, Shiro found herself at the entrance of the city covered in snow and ice.
There were several guards standing on top of the battlements to keep an eye out for intruders.
"No quest. Unlucky." She sighed seeing no change in the system.
Looking up at the guards, Shiro adjusted her sses before a horrifying burst of mana epassed the entire battlement.
Ice spears started to form in the air and shot towards the guards, stabbing them through the head instantly.
Their bodies froze over and crumbled into dust.
"Seems kinda weak for guards." Shiro muttered whilst ncing at the now empty battlement.
Shaking her head, she walked through the gates and casually snapped her fingers.
Frozen Hell: Azure Hell Fire.
Neon blue orbs of fire red around her and shot into the shadows of the gate.
"ARGGG!!!"
Without even ncing back, Shiro could tell that all the assassins that were in the shadow were killed.
"Trying to kill this princess while exposing your killing intent like that. Shame." She scoffed.
Once she was pass the gate, she saw a beautiful city that was covered with a thinyer of snow. However, it was eerily quiet with not a single sign of pedestrians.
"Ominous." Shiro chuckled slightly.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro raised her hand and gathered mana in her palms.
A magic circle was slowly being created above her. As the secondyer of the magic circle was done, more and more mana started to gather in the circle as Shiro furrowed her brows.
Clenching her hand into a fist, a giant snowstorm started to rage through the kingdom.
Sending out her senses to pick up any life signs within the storm, Shiro found quite a few groups of soldiers and hidden assassins.
Grinning slightly, she tapped her ne and summoned her swords.
Her body flickered away from her spot as the snowstorm slowly died down.
One of the assassins were confused about the sudden appearance of the snowstorm and started to make his way towards the entrance. He wanted to see what had caused the storm. But before he could even react, a sword glided across his throat and silenced him. During his fall down, he couldn¡¯t even see the shadow of the assant.
Dashing across the rooftops, Shiro twisted her body to kill each assassin with efficient moves that wouldn¡¯t waste any stamina.
Pivoting on her right leg, she dashed past another assassin while throwing two daggers that pierced their eyes and into their brain.
She wanted to take care of all the assassins first before the soldiers since she could easily kill the soldiers that are bunched up together. However, it wasn¡¯t the same for assassins, she would need to go around killing them individually since they were spread out.
She did this to avoid a situation where the assassins would call the boss in while she was fighting. Even for her, it would be an awkward situation where she could potentially be overwhelmed.
Leaping off the roof of a house, she flipped her body onto the side of a giant cathedral of sorts.
Parkouring her way up to the top, she flexed her fingers and created a bow.
[Nanotech True Sight Bow LVL 50 ¨C Purple]
+1000 Critical Chance
+1000 Critical Damage
+1000 Range
+800 Attack
+500 Armour Pierce
+200 Ignore Defence
Skills: True Sight, Lightspeed, Searing Arrow
The bow itself boasted an incredible crit chance and crit damage set up and could kill in one shot. Only problem being the amount of MP needed per shot.
A basic arrow needed 15k MP while a fully charged arrow could take up to 50k worth of MP.
Naturally, the damaged scaled up to the amount of MP used.
Knocking five arrows, Shiro pulled back on the bowstrings and aimed up into the sky.
Narrowing her eyes, she charged up the arrows before firing them into the sky. Five streaks of neon blue lights could be seen drawing a line in the sky before piercing the head of five different assassin.
"That should be all of the assassins." Shiro muttered in satisfaction.
With all the assassins dead, all she needed to do was kill all the soldiers and the first boss should arrive.
However, due to theyout of the city, everything was in her favour. Especially since there were more than enough cover for her to abuse the boss with her guns.
Creating two hand cannons with suppressors on the barrel, Shiro flipped off the cathedral andnded softly on the ground.
A squadron of soldiers had coincidentally turned the corner as shended.
*TSI! TSI! TSI! TSI!
Firing the suppressed hand cannon with optimal uracy, Shiro killed the entire squad with just headshots.
"Easy kills." Shiro grinned before making her way to the next squad.
###
*TSI!
Killing the final soldier, Shiro felt a burst of mana that came from the centre of the city and smiled knowing the first boss was about to arrive.
Waiting for a short moment, she prepared herself as she saw an armoured silhouette on a horse. He wore a heavy ted armour that was coloured in silver while the horse was extremely muscr to the point that Shiro could feel her disgust increasing every minute. Of all the things that she hated; macho was definitely high up on the list.
Pulling back a supercharged arrow, she narrowed her eyes before firing it.
*BOOM!!!!
The arrow released a golden glow and flew towards the boss.
However, just as the arrow was about to collide with the horse, a mana barrier red around the boss and shielded it from the arrow.
[Imperial General Umak ¨C LVL 50 Boss]
HP: 8,000,000/8,000,000
MP: 9,750,000/10,000,000
"Intruder! For the crime of ¨C"
*BANG!
"Shut up and let¡¯s fight."
Chapter 166 Umak’s Humiliation
Chapter 166 Umak¡¯s Humiliation
Gritting his teeth at her provocation, the boss pulled up the reigns and controlled the horse to charge towards Shiro.
Shiro grinned at the challenge and dashed towards the boss with two swords in hand.
She already had a n but wanted to see what skills the boss has first.
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path: Asura Sword Path!
Twisting her body, Shiro stabbed the shield of the boss over and over again. The two other swords that were floating around her, augmented themselves with cmity¡¯s will and ate away at his mana.
"Impudent!" The boss, Umak, shouted out as his spear glowed with a crimson light.
Stabbing towards her, the image of a dragon followed behind the spear strike.
¡¯One hit damage skill.¡¯ Shiro thought as her body flickered into the rift and dodged the strike.
Appearing behind him, she spun her body clockwise and mmed her sword once more into his barrier.
Watching his MP slowly chip away, Shiro narrowed her eyes and flipped backwards. Flicking her wrists, she threw her swords up and had them float around her while two hand cannons were created in their ce.
Opening the bullet cylinder, Shiro inserted two mana disruption bullets, one in each gun.
Feeling danger in front of her, she bent her body backwards to the point that one couldn¡¯t believe she managed to keep her bnce.
Looking at the spear that passed her face narrowly, Shiro grinned and blew on the spear yfully.
Umak could feel his rage increase as his opponent had the time to smile during a life and death fight.
Pulling back his spear, he twirled it in his hands before pulling up the reigns on the horse once more.
*NEIGH!!!
Lifting up his body, the horse mmed both his hooves down on the ground.
*BANG! CRACK!
The pavement under the horse split apart instantly as the ground under the pavement was also affected.
However, Shiro was able to jump away in time to avoid the stun effect that might have been carried by the stomp.
¡¯A crowd control skill from the horse. I¡¯ll need to be careful in close rangebat.¡¯ She thought whilst crouching slightly as shended.
Just as she was about to shoot her guns, a ming spear appearing in her sights as she was forced to coat her hands in ayer of cial ice.
Flicking her hand cannon up to free her right hand, she grabbed the spear by the handle before twisting her body and sent it flying back to the boss.
"Ssss!" Taking a sharp breath in Shiro frowned at the fact that most of the ice was melted by the sheer temperature of the spear.
Unfortunately, before the spear could even hit the boss, it morphed itself into a ball of mes that reassembled itself in the boss¡¯s hands.
"Is that all you got? Seems pretty dull for a boss." Shiro grinned.
"That¡¯s my question. You seem pretty basic for someone who eliminated the squads." The boss scoffed.
"Hou hou~ So you wish to see me actually try?" Shiroughed as she coughed her hand cannon once more.
"Then I¡¯ll show you just what this princess can do~"
Narrowing her eyes with killing intent, her body flicked into the rift and appeared behind the boss in an instant.
*BANG!
Shooting the barrier at point nk with her mana disruption bullets caused it to shut down for a moment, surprising the boss.
Raising up her second gun, she was about to fire once more as Umak panicked and activated his personal mana shield.
However, seeing her grin, he knew he fell into her trap.
*BANG!
As the second mana disruption bullet fired, it shut down the second shield, leaving Umak exposed to what she wanted to do.
Her sword swung toward him with several copies trailing behind it. Umak raised his spear to block, but to his surprise, he felt no contact with the first sword.
*PUCHI!
"HUH?!?!?!"
Widening his eyes in surprise, the boss was shocked to see the swords sh into his body. He clearly felt no contact with the first swords so they were definitely illusions. And yet, somehow, they were physical andcerated his flesh easily.
*BOOM!!!
Activating his aura skill to push her away, Umak gritted his teeth in pain and looked at her in wariness.
"What¡¯s wrong o¡¯mighty Umak? Can¡¯t block a sword?" Shiro chuckled whilst pointing her sword at him.
"What kind of trickery is this!? Exin now!"
"F*ck right off. As if this princess will exin my skill to you." Shiro rolled her eyes as her body shed into the rift once more.
Appearing above him, she shed down with her sword once again.
Understanding the dangers, Umak rolled off his horse and quickly orientated himself to stab her as a counter.
*NEIGH!!
Her sword stabbed into the horses back as it cried out in pain.
Thrashing around to get her off its back, the horse ignored the fact that it had stopped its master from counter attacking.
"Tsk!" Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Umak decided to sacrifice the horse for damage on Shiro. It was about to be a corpse anyways.
Throwing his spear up into the air, he created fire chains that attempted to wrap around Shiro.
Shiro only gave the chains a dismissive nce before activating her own skill and countered the fire chains with ice chains.
However, in the time she had used to destroy the chains, the spear was already engulfed in a fire storm.
"Die under the wrath of the fire god!" Umakmanded.
The spear transformed into a streak of red that stabbed towards Shiro, who flipped off the horse and mmed her palms into the ground.
Frozen Hell: Ice Pce!
*KRRR!!!
Feeling a burst of mana that wasn¡¯t any weaker than his Smite of the Fire God, Umak widened his eyes in disbelief as he watched a giant ice pce construct itself around him.
*BOOM!!!!!
The spear collided with the pce, chipping away a fewyers of the cial ice.
"How?!?!" He cried out in shock.
"Structural integrity boy. Even though cial is strong, it can be stronger with the right internal structure." Shiro grinned and pointed at her head.
Even without the benefits of her passives and titles, her ice magic would already be stronger than average due to the fact that she could reinforce the structural integrity with her imagery of the actual spell.
A simple task for her since she could even remember all of the blueprints she seen regarding future tech in her mind.
Of course, the average adventurer would find this task nigh impossible.
"Boy, you know what I like to do to people I fight when given a chance?" Shiro asked with a grin while she sat on her throne.
Umak didn¡¯t respond as he stood on guard.
"Che, fine. I¡¯ll let the next moment be a surprise." Shiro frowned a little as she flexed her upwards.
*BOOM!!!
Suddenly feeling an invader in his chrysanthemum, Umak paled in fright.
However, he had a slightly more ¡¯special¡¯ treatment since the ice spear had a shotgun embedded inside.
Waving her hand that had a silver nano tech wire twirled around her finger, Shiro grinned and tugged on the wire before Umak could even shout stop.
*BANG!!!!
An explosion of blood, flesh and organs could be seen as the gunshot ripped through his innards like it was nothing. Looking at Umak who died standing on his feet due to a certain support at the base, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle slightly at the expression he pulled just before death.
Now, a normal adventurer would cringe at the sight of a man missing around 90% of his torso, but Shiro was anything but normal.
Hopping lightly over to Umak, Shiro checked to see if the magic stone was in his heart.
"Bingo." She smiled seeing the neon blue mana stone.
Pulling it out, she collected his corpse and checked her loot.
"Special drop?" She muttered with an raised eyebrow.
[Umak¡¯s Humiliation LVL 50 ¨C Purple]
A protective ward that would defend the user from any attack that doesn¡¯t surpass C ss in strength. At the strongest point, the rear, the ward may even stand a chance against low B ssed attacks.
Item Description: Due to the humiliation and anguish Imperial General Umak felt just before death, he crystallised his life power into an item to help protect them from a humiliating end.
Passive Skill: Soul Rejection
Soul Rejection ¨C This item cannot be used by those who have vited the sacred area duringbat. Especially User ID: Shiro.
Uses: 1/1
Cannot be destroyed.
"Hou..." Shiro didn¡¯t know exactly how to react to such an item. While the effects were indeed impressive since it could potentially block an attack from a B ranked adventurer, just the fact that it singled her out from the passive skill somewhat annoyed her.
"I¡¯m sure it didn¡¯t need to add my name. There should be more people who use this weak point right?" She mused to herself.
Shaking her head, she stored the item in her inventory for now. Who knows, maybe her party could have some use for it.
Dismissing her Ice Pce, Shiro started to make her way towards the main castle in the middle of the city since that is where the Ice King Aephium lives.
During her walk, she could feel several eyes staring at her in a mix of fear and disbelief.
Looking towards the source, she would grin and send a single arrow flying towards them. If they could dodge, she¡¯d allow them to live. If they couldn¡¯t, well they die.
Of course, she wasn¡¯t too lenient. If they stayed for too long enough though they survive the arrow, she would personally make sure they died.
It was just a small game to keep herself upied for a moment whilst walking towards the castle. She wanted to conserve some energy in case the fight was harder than she thought.
Oddly enough, she didn¡¯t meet any other boss that was supposed to be on the way to the castle.
¡¯Could they have gathered in one room together?¡¯ She thought.
Arriving at the castle gates, she tapped it gently and froze it over before shattering it into dust.
"No weing party? Lame~" Shiro sighed as she walked towards the main hall.
While she knew that all the bosses were there, due to the fact that she could sense a cl.u.s.ter of strong mana signs, she was also a little excited to see what she could do against several bosses.
Killing one was easy. But trying to kill several was another question entirely.
Their skills could synergise with each other and make it hard for her to eliminate the bosses one by one.
Of course, she was prepared to get out of there if the need arises. She wasn¡¯t suicidal after all.
*ck ck ck ck
Her footsteps echoed in the empty hallways as if it was a warning sign to the bosses.
*Creak~
Opening the door to the main hall, Shiro looked up towards the 4 generals and one king with her own air of dominance.
Stepping back in shock, the four generals couldn¡¯t help but gulp when their felt her aura. It was the kind that would fight back at everything. Even god itself.
"So it seems like you want to fight me as a group." Shiro chuckled while adjusting her sses.
She had her facemask on so they couldn¡¯t see her expression. However, just from her tone, they knew she had mocking grin.
But remembering the message they received about the tragic death of theirpanion, they knew the girl in front of them was too dangerous to fight alone, in more ways than one.
Aephium looked at her from his throne and slowly stood up. While he wasn¡¯t bigger than his generals, his power and aurapletely overshadowed them.
"I have a proposition." He called out.
"Hou? A final boss that¡¯s wanting to negotiate? Go on, you have my attention." Shiro chuckled and made herself a throne to sit on. Crossing her legs, she rested her chin on her palm and waited for the king to speak of his offer.
"Take off your mask and sses first."
Hearing his demand, Shiro frowned since he was acting as if she was someone who could be ordered around like a servant.
"Now tell me, why should I do that?" Shiro narrowed her eyes with killing intent. Her smile had long faded away as the generals clutched their swords tightly in fear.
The sheer amount of killing intent that was rolling off her sent chills down their spines.
"Because I wish to make you my queen."
[ss up option receive ¨C Imperial Ice Queen]
Additional rewards: +2 levels
"Hahahaha!"
Hearing herugh, the king frowned in confusion.
"Do you think this princess here is an idiot? Taking this ss up would only bind me to this dungeon." Shiro said as her killing intent started to increase.
Her body flickered away from her spot, shocking the generals as they pulled out their weapons.
"Plus, do you seriously think you are worthy to ask me to be your wife? I would say you should kneel and beg for me but even then, you simply aren¡¯t worth the time." Her voice appeared behind the group as they swung their swords towards the source.
However, they widened their eyes when they saw no one there.
*BANG BANG BANG!
In a short moment, one of the generals was dead in an instant due to him taking a shotgun st to the face at point nk. While he did have his barriers, they were useless against Shiro¡¯s Mana Disruption bullets.
"Now this is a situation where it¡¯s not me that¡¯s trapped with you. But rather, it is you who¡¯s trapped with ME." Shiro grinned.
Chapter 167 Ice Age
Chapter 167 Ice Age
After the first general died in a single burst, the other three knew they would have the same ending if they¡¯re not going in at 120% of their full power.
"HAA!!!" All of them used their final trump cards instantly. One even activated his life essence skill that would quickly burn away his life force in return for overwhelming power.
Feeling the explosion of mana in the area, Shiro narrowed her eyes, erasing all signs of yfulness faded from her face.
Sliding backwards, she readied her swords as the generals dashed towards her.
*BANG BANG!
Quickly parrying two swords, she averted them to the side and shed towards them with the remaining two swords that she had floating above her.
However. Before they could meet their target, it was blocked by a spear.
Element Shift: Lightning!
*BZZ!!!
Electricity sparked around the sword andshed towards the general. Unfortunately, it was unsessful since he managed to erect a barrier just in time to block it.
"Imperial Judgement!"
Hearing the shout of the king, Shiro suddenly felt the threat of death from above her.
Instantly looking towards the source of the feeling, she widened her eyes seeing a giant golden sword piercing towards her.
Frozen Hell: Ice Drake¡¯s Feast!
Stomping her foot down, a magic circle erupted under her and summoned the Ice Drake.
*BOOM!!!!!
As the two collided the generals took advantage of the force and pushed Shiro back by a few steps.
All three of their weapons erupted with a golden glow and attacked her body at three different points.
Rift Walker!
Phasing into the rift, Shiro dodged their strikes and appeared behind them.
¡¯First, kill the weak one.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Activating her pseudo elemental armour, she created a hand cannon to break the shield first.
*PING!
Shattering the mana barrier that the generals activated, sheshed the spiked chain around his neck and flipped her body over him before pulling hard at her chains.
However, just as she knew how to use pseudo elemental armour, the boss also activated his. Fire raged around him as it converged together into a ming full te armour.
"Support me!" He shouted out as he summoned two greatswords that were encased in first.
Twisting his body, he swung both swords towards her.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Pulling hard on her chains, Shiro shifted her centre of gravity and parried the two great swords into the ground beside her so that she wouldn¡¯t take any damage from the force.
The two other generals weren¡¯t idle while this was happening. Activating their own pseudo elemental armour, they dashed towards her with their weapons in hand.
¡¯Both my hands are upied with the boss in front of me. I doubt the ascendant dream can parry their strength without me backing it up.¡¯ She thought, seeing the duo dash towards her.
Not only that, she also needed to worry about the king that was preparing his next spell.
Stepping into the rift once more, she reappeared above them with a pitch ck trident in hand.
Cmity Trident!
*BOOM!!!!
The ground broke apart from the force of the trident mming into the ground. While the three generals managed to dodge the impact head on, they were still stunned nheless.
Lashing her chains at the two generals that wanted to support their teammate, she tugged on the chains andunched herself at them.
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path: Phantom path!
*BANG BANG!
Kicking them with as much power as she could focus at the moment, their bodies wereunched towards the back of the hall.
"Now it¡¯s just me and you boy!" Shiro shouted out with a grin since she was given more room now.
Pivoting on her ankle, sheunched her body towards him like a bullet.
Swing her sword at him, all four of the swords were covered with a golden glow that made several copies of the same sword.
In a few short moments, the generals armour was already in tatters due to the fact that he wasn¡¯t able to block the swords at all.
*DONG!!!
A bell toll rang out as a three fold magic circle encased the entire hall.
"No tier 3 magic zone!" Shiro grinned as she flipped her body over the general and aimed her hand cannon at the magic circle.
*BANG! PING!
Destroying the outermost ring, Shiro reverted the tier 3 magic that the king had been working on into a tier 2.
Gritting his teeth in frustration, the king decided to ept the current situation and activate the magic.
The temperature around the area dropped as snow started to fall.
"Ice God Kyfir¡¯s Fractured Domain!"
"Hou hou~ You dare use ice magic in this princess¡¯s presence. And to make it worse, a domain? Man you really are unlucky aren¡¯t you?" Shiro chuckled as the king was confused.
"Let me educate you!" She smiled since she could see his confusion.
A burst of mana exploded out from her body, pushing back the general by a few steps.
mming her palm into the ground, a spider web of mana strands expanded out from her spot and started to corrode away at the domain.
"Impossible!" Aephium cried out in shock. He could clearly feel the domain being ripped from his control and there was no way he could stop it.
Twisting her palms slightly, a pulse of ck mana flowed through the entire formation. ck snow started to fall as it corroded everything it touched. The only exception being Shiro herself.
[Skill Discovered: Ice Demon¡¯s Cmitous Domain]
[Added to the Frozen Hell Series]
Ignoring the notifications, Shiro flicked her fingers and created hundreds of ice spears from the snowkes that were falling.
Thankfully, all she needed to do was to change their shape as the main mana supply had already been taken from the king. If not, her mana links would crumble right around now.
Letting the king deal with the spears, Shiro dashed towards the general once more. She had a small window of time to kill him before the other two generalse as support.
Flexing her fingers, a giant greatsword was created in her hands.
"HAA!!!"
Swinging the sword at the boss, Shiro grinned when she saw his attempt to dodge.
*PING!
The sword broke apart to reveal what was under the ice.
Widening his eyes at the pitch ck trident, the general knew that this wasn¡¯t looking good for him.
Gritting his teeth, he surged mana through his entire body, hoping to reinforce it enough so that he survived the attack.
*BANG!!!!!!!
Looking at the general who was still alive, albeit barely, Shiro chuckled nheless.
"You should have died with that attack. But since you¡¯re at 10% health, you¡¯ve given me some stress relief." She said, pulling down her mask to reveal a stone cold smile.
Dark Seraphim
*BOOM!!!
A giant cloud of ck mist suddenly exploded out with Shiro in the centre.
Since the skill onlysted 5 seconds, she needed to make sure that she got as much fun out of it as she could.
"HA!" Stabbing his swords into the ground, the boss summoned a giant fire array around him as a firestorm started to grow within the dark mist. While he didn¡¯t know what the mist did, he wasn¡¯t about to risk it.
Unfortunately for him, any form of mana defence was useless against Shiro.
"Ah ah ah~ Don¡¯t use a flimsy defence. If you¡¯re going to resist, let this princess have some fun." Her voice tinged with joy was heard softly behind his ear.
A chill shot down his spine as he turned around quickly in hopes of defending against her assault.
However, when he made contact with her pair of eyes that were narrowed in sadistic joy, a question appeared in his mind.
¡¯Who¡¯s the real monster here?¡¯
Grabbing him by the head, she kneed him in the face and broke his jaw with ease.
Since she only had a short moment of time to do whatever she wanted, she made sure that there were no wasted movements.
Flexing her fingers, several strands of wires that were tinged with corruption wrapped around the boss¡¯s body and started to eat away at him.
"AR ¨C!"
His scream was cut short when Shiro jammed a sword straight down his throat.
However, she wasn¡¯t using the ascendant dream but rather a cial ice sword. Meaning, she could control its shape however she wanted.
He could feel the ice melt inside his body before coagting itself into a different shape. It was something that bore a resemnce to a spiked ball that had hooks of varying lengths instead of normal spikes.
"Ever heard of disembowelment?" Shiro grinned before standing on his shoulders and pulled back on the handle.
For more, visit novelpub[.
*PUCHI!!!!!
Just as the mist cleared up, the king was shocked to see one of his general¡¯s dead with most of his internal organs ripped out from his mouth.
Due to the amount of force she used to pull the weapon out, the blood spewed everywhere, especially onto her body.
"Hehe, are you next? Or shall I leave you forst? You did try to make me marry you after all." Shiro turned her head towards the king and giggle slightly.
"That being said, I shouldn¡¯t keep your two other boy toys bored now shall I?" She continued, narrowing her eyes at the remaining two generals.
For the next few minutes, it could only be described as gruesome. While it was a rather quick death, Shiro made sure that it was painful enough so that she felt satisfied.
Looking at the dead body of the king, Shiro excavated the mana stone from his corpse that was anything but intact.
"[Collect]"
Looking at the loot she received from him, Shiro raised an eyebrow when she saw a piece of set equipment.
[Imperial Ice Decree LVL 50 Greatsword ¨C Purple (Part of the Imperial Ice Set 1/6]
+1500 Attack
+1000 Ignore Defence
+800 Sharpness
+15% Chance of stun
Passive Skill:
Frozen Edge ¨C When the sword hits anything, it has a small chance to freeze the target for a short period of time.
Imperial Wrath ¨C For every sessful attack that the user makes, a single point would be added to a counter. After the counter passes a certain amount of points, the user can spend the points to increase the power of the next skill or attack. Counters can be stacked on continuously but will reset once the user stops attacking for more than 15 seconds.
Active Skills:
Imperial Ice Coffin ¨C Encase the enemy in a coffin of ice that will siphon their MP away.
Imperial Protection ¨C Stab the sword into the ground to summon a formation that will protect the user with ice for a short period of time.
Imperial Judgment ¨C Summon a mighty sword that will strike down on your opponent, dealing massive damage. (Increased attack if enemy is on low health.)
While the item is amazing, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh at the restrictions.
[Can only be used by a user with an Imperial type ss.]
"I wonder... If I can lend this to the cksmithing department, they should be able to study the sword¡¯s craftsmanship while giving me some contributions as well." She muttered since this kind of sword would be a waste to recycle. Especially since she didn¡¯t need the skills that the weapon came with.
She already had skills from other weapons that held simr effects.
Shaking her head, she looked at the other loot drops and found the Ice King¡¯s Crown that she needed.
¡¯That¡¯s one down, only 9 more to go.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Looking at the other corpses, she shrugged off the fact that she didn¡¯t get any more set pieces since a full set would increase its value. However, since she had 9 more runs to go, she had more than enough time to farm for the items.
Teleporting out of the dungeon, Shiro jumped back in to kill the bosses once more.
Running through the dungeon over and over again, her clearing speed became incredible since she was able to exploit their weaknesses the moment they fought. Naturally, she managed to bag herself some Humiliation type equipment.
Umak¡¯s Humiliation, Tilfire¡¯s Humiliation, Valen¡¯s Humiliation, Barius¡¯s Humiliation andst but not least, King Aephium¡¯s Humiliation.
Of course the Humiliation type equipment wasn¡¯t the only useful item she got. She also managed to get a few more parts to the Imperial Ice set. Unfortunately, she had a few duplicates so she only managed to collect four out of six items.
Strangely however, the set didn¡¯t give her a set effect at 3 pieces collected. Which only meant that the effect will only appear once all 6 sets are gathered.
¡¯it¡¯s power should be much higher whenpared to normal set effects.¡¯ She mused to herself as she was hopping into her 8th run of the dungeon.
[Quest activated: Ice Age]
The once prosperous kingdom of Astia fell into ruin which resulted in the dead, ice cold kingdom it is now. Your current role will be randomised but the main task is to pave a path out of this fate or find the best oue.
Rewards depend on what you do.
D rank reward: Emergency Bag or Wish Bag (Randomised)
C rank reward: ???
B rank reward: ???
A rank reward: ???
S rank reward: ???
Chapter 168 S Ranked Tutor
Chapter 168 S Ranked Tutor
[Quest activated: Ice Age]
The once prosperous kingdom of Astia fell into ruin which resulted in the dead, ice cold kingdom it is now. Your current role will be randomised but the main task is to pave a path out of this fate or find the best oue.
Rewards depend on what you do.
D rank reward: Emergency Bag or Wish Bag (Randomised)
C rank reward: ???
B rank reward: ???
A rank reward: ???
S rank reward: ???
"Hou~ So the people in this city have only managed to earn the D ranked reward? None have passed the C ranked." Shiro muttered while holding her chin.
Pulling out the ¡¯spell book¡¯ that Natash had given her, which in reality was just a note pad, Shiro wrote down a few key notes.
"First, the kingdom will copse. I need to find ways to avoid this oue. From what I can guess, if I just tell people to evacuate, I¡¯ll just get the D ranked reward meaning I need to take care of what actually caused the kingdom to copse in the first ce."
Currently, she was floating in empty space as she waited for her role to be randomised.
Untying her hairband, Shiro allowed her hair to flow freely while she kept the band on her wrist.
She didn¡¯t know the time period of the quest so she needed to make sure that she wouldn¡¯t stand out too much.
Quickly changing into a simple white dress, Shiro stored away all the other essories.
Looking down at herself, Shiro nodded in satisfaction since she would fit into most timelines right now without standing out too much.
Just as she blinked, she noticed that she was in the middle of a road.
"Eh?" She muttered in confusion.
"Move out of the way!" Someone shouted out behind her.
Quickly hopping to the side, Shiro looked towards the person who shouted at her and noticed that he was currently riding on a horse carriage.
The man was shocked seeing her face.
"Ah er, sorry for shouting." He apologised before continuing on his way. Of course, he would turn around and nce at her a few more times.
As for Shiro, she realised that the clothes he wore was rather well made. If she needed to describe it, it would be a mix of both medieval and modern clothing.
¡¯Seems like it would be fine if I use my normal outfit and sses.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she checked the system to find out about her role.
[You are a travelling schr who was tasked to be the private tutor of the king¡¯s youngest daughter, Lisandra Veil.]
"Heh~ So I¡¯m a private tutor." Shiro muttered.
Since she was given this role, there were going to be things to prove her identity. Checking in her bag, she saw Yin, still in her egg form, while being next to a few books and a card of sorts.
[Name: Shiro
Profession: S rank tutor]
Next to this was a picture of her face.
"How in the hell do they even print stuff?" Shiro raised an eyebrow as she looked back at the city in front of her.
Just looking at the architecture and vehicles told her that they didn¡¯t have the technology to make such an advanced card never mind printing an image.
"Forget it. This is only a system quest." She sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
She tried to ess her inventory but frowned when she realised that she couldn¡¯t do anything with her inventory. She couldn¡¯t take anything out nor put anything in. It was as if the inventory was sealed off entirely.
¡¯Seems like I can¡¯t use the inventory in this quest. No matter.¡¯ She thought to herself since unlike other people, she can create her weapons and armour on the spot.
Since she now understood her role along with a rough idea of what she¡¯s tasked with, Shiro made her way to the main gate.
Unfortunately, she had to wait in line since the soldiers were checking all of the things that people were bringing into the city.
Waiting patiently in line, she took this chance to scan her surroundings a little.
¡¯Most of the people here are below level 10. A single kick from me would kill them.¡¯ She thought, looking at the people that were queueing up with her.
ncing over at the soldiers, she saw that they were a little better considering the fact that they were on average level 20 with a few reaching level 25.
¡¯For gate guards, they¡¯re not too bad I guess.¡¯
Since the mission was level 50, she expected high level ¡¯people¡¯ straight away. However, it also made sense in the way that not everyone could ss up. Plus, one would normally assign high level guards to protect the important personal in the heart of the city so the outer walls would naturally be weakened.
Once it was her turn to get checked, Shiro handed over her bag.
After making sure that the contents were alright, they asked for her ID.
When they saw it was Shiro, one of them whispered to the other and brought over another armed soldier. However, his armour was a little more decorative.
"So it¡¯s the esteemed Miss Shiro, the only S ranked tutor in the country. I wee you into the city of Astia. The king has been waiting eagerly." He said with a slight bow.
"Heh~ You know of me?" Shiro chuckled slightly.
"Of course. Everyone at or above the rank of captain has been informed to treat you with respect should we see you. Plus, those who see you are tasked with showing you to the king himself. Follow me please." He smiled.
Grabbing her bag, Shiro walked behind the captain while he led her through the city.
A few kids would pause and look at her for long periods of time due to her beauty. Shiro would only smile and wave lightly to the kids that looks at her.
"Miss Shiro seemed to enjoy interacting with children." The captain smiled.
"Well they¡¯re cute when they¡¯re young." Shiro chuckled.
"Indeed." The captain nodded in agreement.
They talked for a little while on their way to the castle so that it wasn¡¯t awkwardly silent.
"Captain Richards requests and audience with the king. I¡¯ve brought over Miss Shiro, the S ranked tutor." He said to the guards at the gate.
Hearing his request, the guards passed on the message.
After waiting for a short moment, they told them that only Shiro was needed.
"See you around." Shiro smiled.
"Same to you Miss Shiro." The captain nodded before returning back to his post.
Two guards gestured for her to follow them as they escorted her to the main hall.
¡¯Hmm, this is indeed the same ce.¡¯ She thought to herself. These corridors were naturally familiar to her since she had cleared the dungeon several times now.
*BANG!
mming the pommel of their spears into the ground, the two escorts waited by the gate.
"Goodness, you didn¡¯t need to scare me." Shiro patted her chest in a joking manner.
Pushing open the giant set of doors, Shiro saw two rows of soldiers leading up to the king and queen who were both level 50.
As for the soldiers, they were around level 40.
Looking at both the king and queen, Shiro was a little surprised by their youthfulness but didn¡¯t pay too much attention to it.
"Your highness." Shiro smiled slightly and gave him a small wave.
All of the soldiers frowned when they heard how she had greeted their king. However, when they looked over, theirint instantly faded away.
Just looking at her smile that wasn¡¯t burdened by anything made their bodies feel light.
Even the two royalties ignored how she had greeted them as they were inspecting her.
Both of them couldn¡¯t believe how beautiful she was.
"It seems like rumours are not to be trusted. You¡¯re more beautiful than the rumours state." The king praised slightly.
"I believe that it¡¯s better for one to check for themselves rather than trusting in rumours that could be falsified." Shiro replied.
"Indeed. I shall cut the pleasantries since I believe every second is important for you. Bring in my youngest daughter." The king ordered.
Just as heid down this order, the gates opened once more to reveal a young teen with her hair tied up into a ponytail. She had golden eyes along with light blue hair.
Wearing a modestbat dress, she had a sword hung on her waist.
"Is she my new teacher? Will she leave like the others because they¡¯re weak?" She huffed whilst ring at Shiro.
Shiro raised her eyebrows seeing her attitude.
"Please excuse my daughter, her personality had been like this since she was young." The king smiled apologetically.
"No worries no worries." Shiro chuckled.
"Oi you! You don¡¯t feel strong. In fact, I don¡¯t feel anything so that means you must be very weak." Lisandra called out to Shiro.
¡¯She can get a grasp on other people¡¯s strength?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself whilst ncing at her stats.
[Lisandra LVL 22 ¨C Imperial Magic Swordswoman]
"I like to believe that I¡¯m strong. It¡¯s just that I¡¯m suppressing myself right now." Shiro chuckled as she rubbed her nose. The best way to pacify people like Lisandra in her opinion was to prove that you are more capable than her.
"Lies! Hmph, even father¡¯s guards have an aura when they suppress themselves. But you don¡¯t." Lisandra shook her head.
"Hmm, is it ok if I do a small demonstration your highness?" Shiro asked, ncing back at the king.
"Go ahead, I allow it." The king smiled since Shiro was the only tutor left that could possibly handle his daughter. The other tutors werepletely overwhelmed by her in terms of magic and swordsmanship.
¡¯If the rumours are true, she should be a master of both swordsmanship and magic.¡¯ He thought whilst narrowing his eyes.
"Let¡¯s see... how about I stop controlling my aura so that you can feel it yourself." Shiro smiled.
"What do yo-"
Before she could even continue her words, a horrific burst of pressure erupted out from Shiro.
Fear overwhelmed the guards as they readied their weapons instantly. Their face pale with fright as sweat dripped from their hands onto their weapons.
"Fuu... that should be fine right?" Shiro chuckled as she suppressed her aura once more.
Lisandra was currently sitting on the floor since her legs gave up under her.
Trying to stand up, she was shocked to see that her strength seemed to have disappeared.
"Eh? Why can¡¯t I move." She asked as her voice quivered slightly.
"I believe your body is reacting to my strength. Fufufu, does that prove I¡¯m strong now?" Shiro smiled.
Turning around to see a pale king and queen along with frightful guards, Shiro coughed slightly.
"Was that a little too much?" Shiro asked whilst scratching her cheeks a little.
¡¯You call that a little!?!?¡¯ They cried out in their minds since it was like a powerful monster suddenly descended in the middle of the hall. They weren¡¯t wrong, but they didn¡¯t know that.
"So what will I be teaching her and what¡¯s my payment?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Naturally your reward will be spell books and research papers. As for what you would be teaching Lisandra, please direct her on the matters regarding swordsmanship and magic." The king said after adjusting himself.
"Is that all?" Shiro frowned slightly when she heard that her reward would be spell books and research papers.
"Of course, if you find thatcking, I¡¯ll try my best topensate." The king corrected himself quickly.
"How about ess to the library and all the books that the royal family owns? I won¡¯t take any of them of course. I¡¯ll just read them in my spare time."
"Easy request. Are there anything else?"
"Hmm... how about a daily supply of mana stones since I wish to conduct research in my spare time as well."
¡¯I lied, they¡¯re my daily meals.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. Since she couldn¡¯t ess her inventory, that meant her food supply was also cut off.
"Also easy."
"Oh and onest thing, I promise. Can I get a change of clothes? I forgot to pack some outfits for myself when I left."
"Of course. Just follow the maids." The king nodded and gestured for the maids to take her to get a change of clothes.
Watching her leave, the king sighed and fell limp on his throne.
"My king, are you ok?" The queen asked with worry.
"What do you think?" He smiled tiredly.
"Even though our power has declined to D rank, we still have the experience of being C rank. However, just feeling her aura then made me feel like I was looking up at an unscble wall. Not only that, it felt eerily simr to the feeling I got when we fought against monsters." The king sighed as he covered his eyes.
"If Lisandra could be taught by her, there¡¯s no doubt that she¡¯ll grow much stronger than we can imagine."
"Do you think it¡¯s enough my king? Isn¡¯t it dangerous to have someone like Shiro around her as well though?" The queen asked since she knew the potential danger that Shiro could bring.
"I can only hope that it¡¯s enough. We¡¯ve been constantly sieged by the demons for years now. I can tell that they¡¯ve been growing stronger every year while we¡¯ve lost promising men every battle. With someone like Lisandra holding potential greater than all that we¡¯ve seen, I can only hope that she¡¯s the one to save us all."
Looking outside the windows, the king couldn¡¯t help but sigh at the fate of his kingdom.
Chapter 169 First Tutoring Session
Chapter 169 First Tutoring Session
Stretching her body in front of the mirror, Shiro smiled with satisfaction. The outfit that the maids gave her was that of a mage robebined with some essories and a cloak.
Tying up her hair into a ponytail, she grabbed one of the sses that the maids had provided.
¡¯I swear the technology in this ce is f*cking everywhere.¡¯ She mused to herself.
It was a weird mix of advanced tech and medieval tech.
Shaking her head, stored everything in a bracelet that had its own inventory.
"Is everything satisfactory miss Shiro?" The maid asked.
"Yes it is, thank you." Shiro smiled.
Making her way back to the main hall, Shiro saw Lisandra waiting by the door. However, this time she seemed tamer.
"Teacher!" She bowed with an embarrassed blush on her face.
"Huh?"
"I¡¯m sorry for behaving rudely before!" She continued as Shiro didn¡¯t expect this from her.
"It¡¯s alright?"
"So what are you teaching me today?" She asked with excitement in her eyes.
"Aren¡¯t we supposed to talk to your royal father?"
"Nah forget about him. Let¡¯s get training straight away!" She smiled widely and grabbed Shiro by the hand.
Pulling her away, Lisandra wasn¡¯t able to suppress the adrenalin that was bubbling up inside her.
The maid watched Lisandra pull Shiro away with a soft chuckle.
"Princess seems to be quite content with Miss Shiro." She muttered as the guards nodded their heads.
As the youngest member of the royal family, Lisandra was doted upon by everyone in the castle. However, she herself didn¡¯t want that hence, she took up swordsmanship.
But as she continued to use the sword, she started to enjoy it and it became her hobby. She enjoyed challenging all of the soldiers in the castle to the point it became a routine. But as the soldiers sparred with her, they slowly realised that they had to be serious as to not embarrass themselves.
Before they knew it, Lisandra was already defeating them in spars even though she¡¯s only level 22.
The king heard about this predicament and had hired tutors to help her out but all of them quit mid way due to the fact that they simply could not keep up with Lisandra.
So seeing someone more capable than Lisandra was a fresh feeling. Especially since she hadn¡¯t smiled so excitedly for such a long time.
Meanwhile, Lisandra had already brought Shiro to the training grounds and threw a sword towards her.
"Let¡¯s fight!" She smiled with anticipation.
"Well, sure why not. I¡¯ll see what you can do." Shiro nodded her head and swung the sword a few times to get used to the weight.
"Here Ie!" Lisandra shouted out as she dashed towards her.
¡¯Hou~ She¡¯s fast for a level 22.¡¯ Shiro thought as she raised her sword up to parry.
However, just as her sword was about to collide with Lisandra¡¯s sword, Lisandra¡¯s eyes glowed slightly before her body halted in mid air and transferred her attack into an uppercut that countered Shiro¡¯s guard.
*DANG!
Lisandra widened her eyes in joy when she saw Shiro adjust herself quickly to block the sword.
*DANG DANG DANG DANG DANG!
Swinging her sword continuously, Lisandra never felt so happy before.
She could tell that Shiro was able to block her sword with ease.
"A little rough around the corners, but not bad. Not bad at all." Shiro smiled while casually parrying one of Lisandra¡¯s attacks.
"But is your defence up to par?" She chuckled.
Stomping down on her foot, Shiro broke Lisandra¡¯s guard by flicking her sword upwards.
Bringing her hand towards her face, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she aimed the sword towards Lisandra and pierced towards her.
With her sword still flying through the air, Lisandra knew that she had to do something fast.
"HA!" Aiming her palm downwards, she released a st of air that propelled her upwards towards her sword.
"Not bad, but could be better." Shiro smiled.
Flicking her sword so that the tip aimed towards Lisandra, she kicked the pommel and sent the sword flying towards Lisandra who was still flying through the air.
Instincts overwhelmed Lisandra as she flipped her body over and grabbed the handle of the sword.
¡¯Heh~ She¡¯s kind of like Lyrica in a way.¡¯ Shiro thought, seeing Lisandra rely on her body¡¯s instincts.
Lisandra grabbed her sword that was sent flying by Shiro and narrowed her eyes.
With both swords in hand, shended on the ground harshly.
The des of the swords started to glow as she dashed towards Shiro.
"You forget that I¡¯m a mage as well." Shiro chuckled.
Flexing her fingers, a cial ice wall erected between them.
*BANG BANG!!!!!!
The force of the swords colliding with the wall caused a small pulse of air to explode outwards, surprising Shiro with her level of strength.
¡¯Did she use a berserk skill?¡¯ She thought to herself.
Just as Lisandra was about to jump back, ice bars shot out of the ground and locked her in with no way of escaping. Frowning slightly, she shed towards one of the bars only for the sword to be repelled instantly.
"Lisandra." Shiro called out as she dismissed the ice wall.
"You are a magic swordswoman are you not? Why aren¡¯t you adding more magic to your fighting style?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Erm... I only know a few spells. For some reason, I¡¯m not reallypatible with other magic." Lisandra replied as she sheathed her sword away, understanding that Shiro hadpletely overwhelmed her.
"Now then, I¡¯ll give you two choices. Either you be the most extreme of swordsmanship or I teach you some magic and bnce things out a little. Right now, you¡¯re basically a swordswoman that can use a little magic. Nothing special even though your ss is magic swordswoman. Your potential is being wasted." Shiro offered.
"..." Lisandra stood still for a moment as she contemted about the choices she was given.
"What are you best at Shiro?" Lisandra asked.
"Me? Personally, I¡¯m best at fighting mid to close range. So melee." Shiro replied.
"Then can you teach me melee fighting please."
"Sure. Though we¡¯ll stop for now. I want to n out what I want to teach first ok?" Shiro smiled.
"Of course!" Lisandra nodded her head.
"See you tomorrow Shiro!" She smiled and jogged back to the castle.
"Does that girl do everything at 100% enthusiasm?" She muttered with a soft smile. Even while saying goodbye, Lisandra was still active.
Shaking her head, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she was going to start investigating what could have potentially caused the downfall of this kingdom.
Ever sinceing to this quest world, Shiro noticed that she could use all of her skills. Even Nanomancer.
Meaning she could leave devices around the ce and listen to any gossip that would drift around. Naturally, that involved the main throne room where she heard the king talk about how the demons were constantly sieging this kingdom.
Looking towards the castle, Shiro narrowed her eyes as her body flickered away.
She wasn¡¯t going to question the king and queen just yet since she wanted to understand some background information first.
The best way for her to find out about this would be the library since there were bound to be some history books that may inform her about what had been happening.
However, as she was flickering towards the castle, she paused in mid air as she realised something important.
"Where in the flying f*ck is the library?" She asked no one in particr.
Holding her chin in deep thought, Shiro ignored the fact that she was currently falling towards the ground.
"AHH!!!" One of the maids suddenly screamed when she saw Shiro suddenlynd in front of her.
"Do you know where the library is?" Shiro asked with a soft smile.
Looking at the now known royal tutor, the maid didn¡¯t know how to react to her question since she literally fell from the sky.
"Hello?" Shiro waved her hand after seeing the maid pause in a daze.
"Ah huh? Oh erm, the way to the library is just down the corridor. You¡¯ll see a sign telling you where to go." She replied after snapping out of her daze.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled before flickering away.
Arriving at a hallway with several doors lined up, she eventually found her way to the library.
"Miss Shiro, what brings you to the library." One of the guards inquired. Everyone in the castle knew about the royal tutor and her unmatched beauty.
"Just browsing, don¡¯t mind me." Shiro said, giving him a small wave.
Walking around the library, she craned her head up and saw that it was something akin to a tower of knowledge. There were ledges showing all the different floors. From what she could tell, there were more than 20 floors from what she could see.
"Well damn." She muttered.
¡¯How am I even supposed to find the book I need amongst all of these.¡¯ She wondered. Shaking her head, she looked for anything that might help her and eventually stumbled upon a guide of sorts.
Itbelled what each of the floors contain. Of course, it was only a general outlook on what they may have and not all of the books otherwise the guide would be huge.
"Hmm... seems like history is on the 17th floor." Shiro muttered as she looked towards the 17th floor.
cing the guide back where she found it, she crouched down for a moment beforeunching herself upwards.
Crouching on one of the railings, she reinforced it with nanobots before jumping up once more.
Landing on the 17th floor without too much trouble, she looked at some of the books avable.
"World history, Besinium History, Elf history, Fericia history..." She muttered while scanning through all of the books.
However, she frowned when she felt a presence hid itself in the shadows.
"Why are you even watching me? I¡¯ll let you go this time. Tell the king that I don¡¯t really like having people follow me." Shiro said as the guard hidden in the shadows paused in shock.
¡¯How did she notice me?¡¯ He thought in confusion.
"OI, did you not hear me the first time? Do you want me to repeat myself?" Shiro narrowed her eyes as she flickered in front of the person.
shing towards her on instinct, the guard fell backwards in shock.
*Ping~
The dagger shattered into ice dust as Shiro casually blew on it with icy breath. It was just a simple green grade dagger, nothing special.
"Well?" Shiro asked against after there were no reply.
"U-understood." The guard nodded his head quickly as he left in a hurry.
Once she was sure that she was alone, Shiro sighed before grabbing a few books that may be useful.
Sitting down on a chair, she leaned back before opening the book.
"Hm..."
Quickly flipping through the books, Shiro started to yawn when she found nothing useful.
"Hais..." She sighed as there was only one book left.
Flipping through thest book, she craned her head back after finding nothing useful.
¡¯Do I have to try to negotiate for information without knowing anything?¡¯ She thought to herself since it wasn¡¯t a gamble that she liked to take.
¡¯A few more books.¡¯ She concluded.
While she did get some decent information from the books, it could be summarised into a few key points.
The demons are invading every two years.
They wish to take this kingdom as a stronghold for the rest of their army.
Once this kingdom falls, the other kingdoms will be next.
However, she knew that this was the information allowed to the public due to the fact that this library was akin to the main hub. All the books the citizens have are copied from this archive.
*Bang
Shutting the book in her hands, Shiro nced out of the window to check the time.
"The day is still young. I should be able to sneak into the private library of the king if he has one." She muttered.
Flexing her fingers, a device appeared in her palms. It was a simr device to the one she had used to find out about the hidden tunnels used by ck Monarchy back in New York.
However, unlike the one she made before, this one was more powerful and had a much bigger range.
cing it on the library wall, she allowed it to send pulses through the entire castle. Soon, a 3d map could be seen in front of her.
"Heh~ So the king does have one. Though the private library is in a hidden chamber inside his room. I¡¯ll need to be quick." She muttered before leaving the library.
Making sure that no one saw her, Shiro jumped onto the roof and flickered towards the king¡¯s bedroom.
She would send out small pulses of mana, hardly detectable to the soldiers, and avoid them with ease due to the fact that she knew their positions.
Arriving in front of the king¡¯s bedroom without anyone noticing, Shiro activated rift walker and snuck into the hidden chamber.
"Fufu, let¡¯s see what secrets you hold." She chuckled as she looked towards the stack of books on a bookshelf next to a desk.
Chapter 170 3 Tasks
Chapter 170 3 Tasks
Flipping open the books, Shiro started to frown when she saw some of their contents.
"Verkus, a race of battle hungry parasites that would reanimate a person¡¯s corpse. Ghastis, demons that are made from gas and corpses. Very hard to kill due to their resistance against physical attacks. One must use magic to kill them. Igni Colossus, giant demons that will fire ming rocks towards their enemies. Phantis, shadow demons that assassinate strong soldiers through the battlefield. Krana, the demon equivalent of a mage. Possess powerful life draining abilities that makes them hard to kill."
Reading about the 5 main types of enemies that the kingdom has to face, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but frown.
¡¯Unless the monsters themselves are low level, there is no way that this kingdom could have survived this long.¡¯ She thought to herself.
She had encountered monsters that held simr properties and knew how annoying they could be at a high level. They were somethingmon soldiers could take care of. Not to mention, the Verkus would just reanimate the dead corpses on the battlefield in order to replenish their soldiers. Hence it was a bad idea to constantly fight an ongoing battle with them.
A single sweep of the battlefield after war would be enough for them to recuperate. Not only that, one would need to keep the mindset that they could potentially kill the corpse of their friend.
Flipping through the books, Shiro¡¯s frown deepened as she continued to read.
*Bang
Shutting the final book, Shiro sighed and leaned backwards.
¡¯The demons are constantly invading this kingdom is due to the fact that this is literally the final intact barrier node that¡¯s protecting the continent.
¡¯With a total of 10 nodes spread out through the continent, different kingdoms need to protect the nodes. 9 have already fallen and the high level adventurers were currently holding back the demons on 9 different battlefield. They left this ce under the supervision of the king due to the fact that he was one of the strongest out of all the adventurers. However, after some unknown ident, his level was decreased to 50 with no hope of recovering.
¡¯Currently, they¡¯re walking the thin line of life and death. Every year, the demonse closer to defeating them. They¡¯ve managed to hold them off for now but the previous war had been extremely close.¡¯ Shiro thought whilst ncing up at the ceiling.
Massaging her eyes, she started to try to formte a n in her head.
¡¯The demons will be invading in around a months time in this world, that means I have a month to reach level 50 and to help Lisandra improve since she¡¯s apparently the only one that can save this kingdom.¡¯
Hopping off the chair, Shiro put the books back to their original locations.
¡¯But first, I¡¯ll need to have a small talk with the king and understand the full situation.¡¯
Flickering out of the room, Shiro stood on the rood of the castle and sent her senses out. It took her awhile be she soon found the king¡¯s mana signature not too far from where she was currently.
"Seems like he¡¯s making his way back to his room." She muttered. The queen was just behind him so she could also ask her some questions if she needed.
Jumping off the roof, she entered the rift and made her way towards the duo.
"Care to have a small chat?" Shiro asked as she appeared beside the duo just before they opened the door to their room.
Freezing up in surprise, the king couldn¡¯t believe that Shiro was able to get so close to them without him noticing.
"It¡¯s ratherte, how about we talk tomorrow?" The king smiled.
"Nah, I¡¯d like to talk now. What¡¯s the situation like in regards to defending against the demons?" Shiro asked in seriousness.
"What do yo-"
"Don¡¯t give me that crap. If you¡¯re putting your hope into your daughter that¡¯s only level 22, then I¡¯m guessing the situation¡¯s pretty serious." Shiro interrupted.
"How do- Nevermind... Come in, we don¡¯t want to have anyone eavesdrop on us." The king shook his head as he gestured for her to sit on one of the sofas that was in his room.
Sitting down, Shiro faced both the king and queen with a passive face.
"So, am I going to probe everything out of you or are you going to tell me?" She asked.
"What do you want to know?"
"First, what is up with Lisandra? Her overall strength is too high for a level 22. It¡¯s not normal." Shiro asked seriously.
"Lisandra¡¯s ss is hidden. Not even she knows what ss she has since I used an item to disguise it. When the time is right, it will reveal itself."
"Then can you tell me the ss?" Shiro frowned since she had a theory on the ss.
"No I cannot. It¡¯s better left unknown for now."
"Fine. Second question, what¡¯s the average level of the army and how many people do you have left?"
She was going to put aside Lisandra¡¯s ss for now since she could tell that the king was adamant about keeping it a secret.
"The average level is... ha...30. As for the number of soldiers we have, it¡¯s less than 100 thousand men. Compared to the demon army that has been consistently numbered at around 250 thousand, I¡¯m afraid this is thest year we can hold off for. Unless we can get Lisandra to level 50 in time, the best course of action will be to evacuate everyone." The king shook his head.
"And I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s why you got me to teach your daughter." Shiro leaned back and crossed her legs.
"Indeed. While you are only level 48, the experience and danger I felt from you was definitely more than what a level 48 should have If anything, I suspect that you¡¯re the same as me. Taken down from your prime and had to try to work your way back up."
"Well you¡¯re not wrong about that." Shiro chuckled slightly since she was a Tier 6 legend before. But now, she was turned into a level 48 snow girl.
"How many high level people do we have in the kingdom?" She asked.
"None that are over level 50. They¡¯ve all died during thest battle."
"Hmm, what about hiring mercenaries from outside of the kingdom?"
"We don¡¯t have enough resources for that. Plus, they¡¯re untrustworthy." The queen shook her head.
"Hmm... this is rather difficult." Shiro frowned.
Her quest wants her to solve the issue regarding the kingdom¡¯s downfall. She had two choices, either get them all to evacuate and get the lowest grade or, she could train the hell out of Lisandra and have her repel the invasion.
"I¡¯m going to take Lisandra out of the kingdom for some training in the demon continent. If we stay inside and shield her from danger, we can¡¯t explore her potential." Shiro concluded.
"You can¡¯t! What if a high level demon finds you!" The king instantly rejected her idea.
"Well it¡¯s either that or we can wait in here with no guarantees of getting Lisandra to reach level 50." Shiro retorted.
"Plus, I¡¯m confident in protecting Lisandra from the dangers that maye."
She had several skills that would allow her to run away with Lisandra in moments of danger such as Rift Walker. Not only that, if the situation truly calls for it, she still had the Cmity Dragon Scale and the silver dagger which Yuan Tian gave her. Both items will boost her power up temporarily for her to kill whatever was in her way.
"You can tell me that all you want but I still can¡¯t risk it." The king shook his head.
"Then how can I prove it?"
"..." The king stayed silent.
"Hmm... You know what, ever heard of Hercules?" Shiro asked with a grin. She remembers reading about Hercules¡¯ in her spare time and remembered his 12bours.
"I don¡¯t think I have."
"Well it¡¯s a story about a hero back from where I live. He was a warrior that was given 12 tasks by the king to prove his strength. Why don¡¯t we do something simr? Give me 12 tasks that I need to do and I¡¯ll do them by sundown tomorrow." Shiro smiled.
"So you¡¯re saying that you want me to give you 12 tasks for you to do in order to prove that you can look after my daughter?" The king raised his eyebrow.
"Why not dear? It is also a good chance for Lisandra to know what Shiro is capable of." The wife encouraged.
"Hmm... Very well. I¡¯ll give you some tasks that had been bothering me. While it may not be 12 tasks as you have said, I believe it should prove to be quite hard for you toplete." The king nodded after a short moment.
After hearing the king¡¯s response, Shiro smiled knowing that her n was slowly progressing. Since she needed topletely get rid of the source in order for her to get a rank higher than C, she would need the king¡¯s support. It wasn¡¯t feasible for her to take care of an army the size of 250 thousand soldiers. Plus, that wasn¡¯t taking care of the source but rather treating the symptoms.
All that it will aplish was postpone the destruction to ater date. Not to mention the fact that if Lisandra was their so called hope, why were they still destroyed in the end?
That could only mean that Lisandra wasn¡¯t able to take care of the enemy.
¡¯I can also use this time to level up as well.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she was very close to level 50.
Standing up, the king walked over to the table and started to write down something on a sheet of paper.
Putting down the pen, he handed the sheet to Shiro.
[y the wyvern in harrows edge]
[Recover the Imperium Sword from the Quin Mountain bandits]
[Bring the heads of Redir, Zeriks and Pildrum, the demon generals.
"Only three tasks?" Shiro raised an eyebrow, clearly expecting more from him.
"These three will prove if you clearly have the capabilities. The wyvern in harrows edge have been constantly attacking the outside viges and we aren¡¯t able to do much about it due to the fact that we can¡¯t afford to spare any decent sized squadrons. Plus, if we just sent it a weak squad, they¡¯ll just die for nothing.
"As for the Imperium Sword, it is a treasure that was left behind by the previous generations. Unfortunately, the sword was stolen by my brother¡¯s son who had traded it to the bandits. As it stands, I¡¯m not able to do anything about the bandits since the power of the sword makes him a hard target. Plus, the moment the sword takes blood from the imperial lineage, it will gain a significant power boost for a short moment.
"Finally, the heads of the three generals are the ones who directed the previous battle. If we¡¯re able to take care of them, we should be able to create some turmoil inside the army." The king exined.
"Hmm... sure, I don¡¯t see any problems." Shiro smiled.
The sword could be recovered easily if she¡¯s careful. As for the wyvern and the three demon generals, they may be a little harder due to the fact that they may be higher than level 50.
"Give me a map of their general direction and I¡¯ll make my way over there now. Who knows, I may even get them done before sunrise." Shiro chuckled.
"Just know that you aren¡¯t required to do these. You can still train Lisandra without taking such risks." He said, shaking his head.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Just hand me the map and I¡¯ll get them done. Plus, I don¡¯t risk my life since I have a back up n."
"If you insist."
Walking back to his desk, the king pulled out a map and marked out where all the tasks are located. As for the location for the final task, the demon generals, he could only mark out the estimated area since they weren¡¯t able to pin out their exact location.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled as she received the map.
Entering the rift, she left the room instantly.
"How does she even do that?" The king muttered in confusion since her entire presence disappeared in an instant.
It wasn¡¯t like the assassin¡¯s stealth since he could still somewhat track where they are. But for Shiro, it was as if she entered another dimension. Little did he know that it was exactly what she did.
Meanwhile, Shiro was already dashing towards the Harrow¡¯s Edge to kill the wyvern. While it wasn¡¯t a dragon, wyvern was still valued as a high grademodity. Meaning...
"If I killed the wyvern then cooked its meat, I should be able to get a few stat points in STR and AGI. Who knows, maybe my INT will increase as well." Shiro muttered with an excited grin.
All of the monsters she had met before were rather low ssed so their meat wouldn¡¯t give her any decent increments. But it wasn¡¯t the same for wyverns. Plus, she couldn¡¯t wait to sink her teeth into some meat that actually had some taste.
"Maybe I can make a dragon skewer to roast in an open fire. I do have the skillbust so I can cook the meat."
Meanwhile, a certain wyvern was sleeping soundlessly, unaware of the danger that¡¯s toe.
Chapter 171 Calamity Dragon Arrow
Chapter 171 Cmity Dragon Arrow
Arriving at the Harrow¡¯s Edge, Shiro looked up at the sky and raised an eyebrow.
Harrow¡¯s Edge was a giant mountain range that was filled with dangers around every corner. Even themon monsters that roamed the area were level 50.
¡¯Since themon monsters are level 50, the wyvern itself should be higher than level 50. Either that or it has a title that makes it stronger than the monsters here.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Crouching down slightly, Shiro inserted mana into her legs and leapt up into the air.
Tapping her ne, she summoned her swords and used them as tforms tounch herself higher into the air.
Once she was above the highest point of Harrow¡¯s Edge, she sent out a surge of mana to scout out the premises.
However, once her mana hit a barrier of sorts, Shiro frowned.
"A detection field huh... The wyvern is at least level 60." She muttered.
Wyverns were able toy down a detection field that would inform them of any intruders when they reached level 60. It was also one of the ways for them to know if anyone had trespassed into their nest while their egg was still in its infancy stage.
¡¯I can¡¯t break the barrier with my mana disruption bullets since the wyvern will know that something has entered.¡¯
Landing softly on the ground, Shiro wondered about what she could do.
"Hmm... if the barrier is the checkpoint type, I¡¯ll be fine. But if it¡¯s the constant scan type, it¡¯ll be hard for me to approach it without it noticing." She muttered. The checkpoint type barrier is where it would only detect what happens at the edge of the barrier but not inside the barrier.
On the other hand, the constant scan type barrier will report anything and everything that happens inside the barrier to the caster.
If it was the first kind, it was just a case of Shiro using Rift Walker to sneak past the barrier.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll give it a try. I should be able to handle it even if its level 60." Shiro muttered with a grin.
Walking up to the barrier, Shiro narrowed her eyes before entering the rift.
Exiting the rift just as she passed the barrier, Shiro smiled seeing no mana pulses in her surroundings.
"So it¡¯s the checkpoint kind." She smiled.
"You¡¯ve made a grave mistake wyvern hahaha."
Flickering towards the peak, Shiro floated above the area as she looked down towards the sleeping wyvern.
[me Wyvern LVL 60 ¨C Noble ss]
HP: 20,000,000/20,000,000
MP: 30,000,000/30,000,000
"Hou~ A level 60 noble ss. Interesting..." Shiro smiled with excitement. It was rare for a person to run into a ssified monster. And for them to run into one that¡¯s of the noble ss, it was a literal miracle. That¡¯s only if they could take care of it.
But if they could take care of the noble ss, the loot they¡¯d receive would be more than worth it.
Even Shiro was tempted to use one of the charges from her Cmity Dragon scale against this wyvern just in case. She had a total of 3 charges for the item after all.
Floating towards the wyvern to make sure that she didn¡¯t make a single sound, Shiro circled it to see if a certain weakness was protected.
¡¯Hehe... It¡¯s unguarded.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sadistic grin.
However, even though it¡¯s unguarded, she needed to make sure that she was able to kill the wyvern in one shot.
Taking a step back, she narrowed her eyes and started to think about the best way to draw out all of her power in one go.
¡¯If I use the bow, I can increase the speed and power. Maybe I should include cmity¡¯s trident since it¡¯s currently my strongest single target skill. I should also modify my bow a little so that it amplified the amount of power that¡¯s being released.¡¯
Stepping back slightly, Shiro narrowed her eyes before flexing her fingers, Lightning and metal twirled around her hand as it slowly morphed into the shape of a bow.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro made sure that she reduced the amount of mana being pulsed outwards as to not wake up the dragon before she was ready.
Once the basic shape of the bow was ready, Shiro started to modify it.
¡¯Sonic elerator, Mana Pulse Launcher, Nano Wire Reinforcement, Electromaic Coils...¡¯
*TZZZ!
As she finalised the bow, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile at the fact that all her upgrades werepleted without any problems.
[Nanotech Sonic Pulse Heavy Bow ¨C LVL 48 (purple+)]
+1500 Attack
+1500 Arrow Flight Speed
+1500 Critical Chance
+1000 Critical Damage
+1000 Armour Pration
+500 Ignore Defence
Skills: Pulse Propulsion, Focus Fire, Rail Charge.
Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to add any dragon ying attributes due to the fact that she didn¡¯t have any skills like that within her database. Not only that, but she would need specific materials to merge with her bow in order for it to gain the dragon yer attribute. As for why she needed dragon ying attributes and not wyvern ying attributes, it was due to the fact that a dragon was the evolution of a wyvern. If the ability worked on its next evolution, the current evolution would be weak to it as well.
Looking at the bow, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but hold high expectations since it took her 100k MP to craft the bow.
"Haaa...." Panting slightly from the mana cost, Shiro rubbed her eyes in fatigue.
¡¯Now I just need the trident for the arrow. That being said, I don¡¯t think a trident will be the best shape for pration.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Tapping her ne, Shiro summoned her four swords and arranged them into a new shape.
[Cmity Trident ¨C Spear Form]
Looking at the ice spear that was dyed in ominous ck, Shiro reached out her hand and grabbed the spear by the handle.
"A little big for me to use." She muttered.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro started to condense the entire spear down. The swords that were encased in the ice started to warp a little as they were being forced into a new shape.
¡¯I don¡¯t need to destroy the swords, they just need to be a slimmer version of themselves. A rapier.¡¯
A gust of wind exploded out from the spear as Shiro heard a notification from her system.
[New Skill Created]
[Cmity Dragon Arrow]
Extremely effective against dragon types due to the power of the cmity dragon embedded within the arrow.
"Hou~ Perfect." Shiro grinned.
Nocking the arrow onto the bow string, she narrowed her eyes and pulled back.
As she pulled back the bow, the surrounding mana started to surge towards the arrow.
¡¯Not good.¡¯ She thought since there was a big chance for the wyvern to wake up.
Inserting her own mana into the arrow to help speeds things up, Shiro saw the arrow spark with electricity as the bow had neon yellow circuits light up on the main body.
A blue fire lit up on the tip of the arrow as she recognised it to be the Azure Hellfire skill that she had.
¡¯So the arrow itself will gain properties depending on the type of mana that¡¯s inserted.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she didn¡¯t activate the skill.
"Propulsion Systems ready, Rail Charge Systems ready, Focus Fire Activated." She muttered softly.
*Grr...
The dragon let off a low growl as it was disturbed from its sleep. It could feel a giant wave of mana being gathered behind it like a whirlpool.
Turning its head, it widened its eyes seeing Shiro holding a bow and arrow that was currently emitting a fearsome amount of mana.
"Hello~ Would you stand still for this princess?" Shiro smiled.
"Fire." She said coldly as she let go of the arrow.
*BANG!!!!!!!
The arrow drilled through the wyvern, sending out a spiral of flesh and scales behind it.
Quickly mming her hand down, Shiro conjured up an ice wall to block the meat chunks from hitting her.
*URAHHH!!!!!!!
Thawing the ice wall, Shiro smiled contently seen a clean hole through the wyvern but paused when she saw the wound start to heal.
"Oh are you f*cking kidding me? Tenacity???" Shiro couldn¡¯t help butin. While tenacity wasn¡¯t like Rejuvenation, the skill the Yeti Berserker used, it was still an annoying weapon.
Whenever the user takes lethal damage, it would heal it for 10% of the damage dealt. Since she had insta killed it, 10% of his health meant that it regained a grand total of 2 million HP.
Turning its head, the wyvern red as Shiro before immediately turning back and tried to run.
"Eh?" Shiro was dumbfounded by its reaction.
¡¯Wasn¡¯t dragon types supposed to fight to the death?¡¯ She thought, seeing the wyvern try to run away from her as quickly as it could.
That¡¯s right, the wyvern didn¡¯t think about fighting Shiro and focused on escaping. Its thought process was; if she could insta kill me when I just woke up, wouldn¡¯t that mean she can kill me normally as well with that kind of firepower?
Looking at the wyvern that was pping its wings to run away, Shiro narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Flexing her fingers, she created a second arrow.
"Sss!" She took a sharp breath due to the pain in her links since each arrow too quite a lot of MP to make.
Nocking the arrow, she pulled back and aimed towards the wyvern.
*BANG!!!!!
Quickly turning its head, the wyvern pped its wings and dodged out of the way.
*ROAR!
It roared out in glee when it saw the arrow miss.
However, his joy instantly faded when he felt a sharp object pierce the sacred area.
"Cold Illusion." Shiro muttered with a grin.
Using the sound that erupted from her firing the arrow, she used that as the activator for the illusion to redirect the wyvern into the path of the real arrow.
*BOOM!!!!!!
[Level Up!]
Drilling through the wyvern for a second time, the arrow broke apart after doing its job.
Looking at the wyvern corpse falling in the distance, Shiro wanted to retrieve her loot but could only jog towards it due to the pain she was feeling.
"So I¡¯m limited to just a single bow and two shots of the arrow." Shiro chuckled with fatigue.
Sending out her killing intent so that the monsters knew a more dangerous opponent was walking towards the wyvern¡¯s corpse, she was able to reach the wyvern¡¯s corpse without any monsters attacking her.
Sitting besides the wyvern corpse, she wanted to wait till her mana links stop hurting before she harvested the corpse.
Since she had gotten the notification for a level up, Shiro checked her stats.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Proficient Monster (231/500 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Ice Princess, Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path
Level: 49
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
HP: 440,000/440,000
MP: 548,100/928,070
STR: 2800 -> 3000(+100) <+775>
VIT: 2800 -> 3000(+200) <+800>
INT: 5900 -> 6000(+750) <+1,687>
AGI: 3500(+450) <+862>
DEX: 3000(+100) <+725>
DEF: 1000(+100) <+237>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 500 -> 0
Attunements:
cial ¨C Tier 2
Lightning ¨C Tier 2
Metal ¨C Tier 2
Shadow ¨C Tier 2 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Bnce: 850,950,500 USD
Equipment: (Tap to Disy)
Skills ¨C
Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï:
Tier 2 cial magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Faded Snow Movement, cial Aura, cial Touch, cial Breath. Ice Field Affinity, Cold Illusion
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 2, Bow Creation, Shield Creation, Melee Weapon Creation, Armour Creation, Hand Cannon Creation, Shotgun Creation
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Cmity Trident, Ice Drake¡¯s Feast, Ice Pce, Ice Demon¡¯s Cmitous Domain, Cmity Dragon Arrow.
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path:
Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path
Sword Skills:
Refraction, Soul Sword
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Lightning Magic (Tier 2), Metal Magic (Tier 2), Shadow Magic (Tier 2), Combust.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1), Rift Walker (Tier 1), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 1), Shadow Affinity (Tier 2), Dark Seraphim (Tier 2)]
"Just one more level." She muttered. Just one more level and not only would her MP reach 1 million, but it also marks the start of her ss up into C ss.
But the most important thing at this moment wasn¡¯t her stats.
"Loot time." Shiro grinned as she summoned her four swords.
Controlling the sword to cut parts of the wyvern off so that it could be cooked, Shiro stored them into the bracelet that she had received from the maids.
Since the inventory inside the bracelet was a lot smaller than her inventory, Shiro could only store the best meat inside and anything that wasn¡¯t tagged as Prime Wyvern Meat was scrapped.
Once the inventory was pretty much full, Shiro used [Collect] to receive the rest of her loot.
[Material Gained ¨C Wyvern Bone x100, Wyvern Scales x200]
[Deposited into reward chest. User will receive at the end of the quest.]
Ignoring the notifications, Shiro was focused on the items thatid in front of her.
A crystal and a set of armour.
Just from the amount of mana she could feel from it, she knew it had to be something amazing.
[Kaiser Wyvern Armour Set]
[Wyvern Soul]
Chapter 172 Ataraxia
Chapter 172 Ataraxia
Looking at the set armour, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes in delight. The set itself had 7 pieces and 3 stages of set effects. If she equipped each and every piece, she would gain an outrageous increase of 1,200 INT, 1,000 DEF, 1,000 VIT, 1,000 AGI, 300 DEX and 300 STR. In addition to that, the armour pieces also included effects such as +20% Mana Efficiency, +10% Magic Attack, +10% Fire Resistance and +10% Fire Efficiency.
"Holy sh*t..." She muttered.
On top of the stat increase and effects, two of the armour pieces even came with their own skills.
[Passive Skill: Wyvern Force]
Increase strength for a short moment of time.
+10% STR when activated
[Passive Skill: Harden Scales]
+50% DEF and -50% AGI when activated.
If just the base equipment could be this strong for a level 60 item, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but nce towards the set effects. For a set that had 7 pieces of equipment, head, shoulder, arm, torso, legs, boots and cape, the final effect of gathering all 7 pieces had to be incredible.
[Kaiser Wyvern Set Effect 3/7]
+5% overall stat increase
+500 DEF
+20% Fire Resistance
[Kaiser Wyvern Set Effect 6/7]
+1000 INT
+20% Magic Damage
+20% Elemental Damage
+20% Elemental Resistance
[Kaiser Wyvern Set Effect 7/7]
+10% Increase to DEF, INT, STR
Skill: Wyvern Incarnation
Wyvern blood will run through your veins and boost your overall stats for a short moment of time. However, be warned that the bacsh would hurt just as much as the increase.
+50% Stat for 30 seconds
-80% Stat for 7 days
At this point, Shiro didn¡¯t know what to say other than amazing. While the level 60 armour couldn¡¯tpare to the stuff she made back when she was a tier 6 legend, she knew how much better this set was whenpared to normal level 60 items. Hell, just the set effects alone couldpete against some orange equipment of the same level in Shiro¡¯s opinion. Especially Wyvern Incarnation.
While the skill does weaken the user by 80% for a whole week, it was rare for a low level set to include a skill that increases your overall stats by 50%.
In the realms of C ss berserk skills, this was definitely top tier.
Unfortunately, all of this was restricted to level 60¡¯s so she could only wait patiently to equip this.
But there was also another worry for Shiro. Theck of Life Steal and Mana Leech.
Her current armour set, the blood crystal set, gave her amazing life steal and mana leech so that she could sustain herself better inbat due to her mana links and low DEF. If she were to remove that, she would need to be much more careful with the hits that she could take along with the spells that she could use.
Example being her brand new Cmity Dragon Arrow. For a skill that took so much MP to use, Shiro would be allowed to regain the MP quite quickly by using her current set. But, if she were to use the new set, that MP would essentially be gone for the rest of that fight.
"Then again, I suppose my current set will be useless once I reach level 55." Shiro muttered with a tired sigh.
All equipment will be useless if they¡¯re used by a person 5 levels higher than the level on the equipment itself. So her current set of level 50 armour would be unusable. The worst part of that was that she couldn¡¯t salvage the set effects either.
While she could recycle items for their innate skills as well as to reinforce her own nanobots so that she could make better equipment, she couldn¡¯t take set effects. Otherwise, she would have recycled the set armour that Helion made a while back.
Shaking her head slightly at the fact that she couldn¡¯t use her ¡¯broken¡¯ life steal and mana leech set in the near future, Shiro looked towards the second rewards she had received. The wyvern soul.
[Wyvern Soul]
A crystallised soul force that belonged to a powerful wyvern. Apply it to a piece of armour or weapon to embed it with the mighty power of a being that could have be a dragon.
"Hou~ So it¡¯s an item version of Cmity¡¯s Will." She muttered with excitement. Cmity¡¯s Will was an augment skill that will boost a certain element. As for Wyvern Soul, it was an augment item that will boost a physical element.
Naturally, Cmity¡¯s Will was more valuable since it will stay with her forever. If she didn¡¯t have a growth type weapon like Ascendant Dream, she wouldn¡¯t get this excited for the item since it would onlyst her 5 levels.
"Hehehe~ I wonder what kind of upgrade you will get." Shiro smiled like a child who had just gotten a new toy. Taking off her ne, she ced the Wyvern soul on the surface and nced at her system.
[Merge :Wyvern Soul: with :Ascendant Dream:?]
[Yes] [No]
Immediately tapping yes, Shiro had to shield her eyes from the blinding glow that emerged from the ne.
Once everything died down, she opened her eyes and nced towards her ne.
Previously, it was just a simple ne that had a miniature version of her swords attaching in the centre.
However, it was now a finely decorated gem that had a silver sculpture of an array of swords within the gem.
[Upgradeplete. Ascendant Dream (Orange) -> Ataraxia: Sword of Tranquillity (Orange+)]
"So the weapon now has a name? Interesting..." Shiro muttered with a smile.
Weapons that gained a name were simr to when a monster became a named monster. Their stats underwent an overall upgrade and a skill was gained under that name.
It was also one of the requirements for a weapon/armour to reach red grade in terms of quality. Red grade items would have a skill that corrted to the name it was given.
An example of a red grade weapon would be one of the weapons that her friend, Isilia (The Elven Saintess), had used during her life.
Daenire: Sacred Sword of Nature.
The skill, Daenire, allowed her to control nature itself. Of course, the range was limited to how much mana she used and the same went with the duration. However, it was also because of this skill that she was crowned one of the most powerful people to have ever existed in Aria.
As for the extent of control, it stretched out to everything around her that was ssified as nature. Of course, it also included the sun since it was apart of the concept of ¡¯nature¡¯.
She could choose to summon down a beam of concentrated sma or shut of all the oxygen in the area to suffocate anyone that wasn¡¯t her. She could also choose to copse the very space around her enemies.
Naturally, with the amount of power that Daenire granted her, the MP it required was also astronomical.
"Since the name is Ataraxia, a word that means serene calmness in Greek I believe? Could the skill be something simr?" Shiro muttered in anticipation.
[Ataraxia: Sword of Tranquillity (Orange+)]
Matches Owner Level ¨C Current Level: 49
+2000 Attack
+2000 Sharpness
+1500 Attack Speed
+1300 Ignore Defence
+1300 Critical Chance
+1000 Critical Damage
+30% Elemental Damage
+25% Suppression against enemies of the same level or lower
+20% Self Repair
+15% Life Steal
+5% Mana Disabler
Skills: Element Shift (Ice, Shadow, Metal, Lightning, Dragon), Ataraxia
Bound: Shiro
"Well damn... It even gave me Mana Disabler as an attribute." Shiro said, not being able to suppress her grin.
Mana disabler had a simr effect to her mana disruption bullet. It would cancel out a portion of their spell/ weaken the effect.
For a weapon to have this kind of effect, it was akin to her constantly using mana disruption bullets.
"Element Shift also gained a new attribute, Dragon and I also have the name skill Ataraxia."
[Element Shift: Dragon]
When activated, +500 Attack (doubles for dragon type enemies), +200 Fire Damage
[Ataraxia]
When activated, you enter a state of intense focus. Increases activator¡¯s control over their body. The surrounding area is decolourised into simple ck and white with weak points highlighted in bright red. +30% Damage when hitting the marked spots.
User gain: 40% AGI, 30% DEX, 20% STR
Enemies within your area of control are affected with: -30% Speed, -20% DEF, -10% Reaction and a small chance to lose focus for a short moment of time, exposing their weak points.
Duration: 2 minutes
Cost: 30% of total MP
Cool Down: 1 day
Bacsh: Lose 60% of vision for 5 hours, 50% muscle fatigue
Shiro didn¡¯t know what to say when she saw the description of the skill, Ataraxia. It was basically a guaranteed kill whenever she used it since the enemy would be weakened while in her presence.
While she could see weak points, it didn¡¯t matter too much since she could find them herself. BUT, the fact that she gained increased damage from hitting weak points was certainly something amazing.
If all of her skills were to stack together, her total damage in a single shot would easily kill the wyvern. Hell, she guessed that she could probably kill the level 76 Corrupted Frost Monarch that she met back in Cairosa.
Even though they were 27 levels apart right now, her skill set would allow her to suppress Lianni, the corrupted frost monarch, and attack her at will. Of course, she¡¯ll still need to watch out for her pure mana maniption since Lianni was able to injure her using a simple mana pulse.
Looking back at Ataraxia, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder why it wasn¡¯t red grade.
¡¯If the weapon could gain a named skill, that meant it should be red grade. But why is it orange+?¡¯ She wondered to herself.
Her best guess was that the weapon wasn¡¯t high enough level yet. Since it was only level 49, it was still within the realms of D rank.
Orange grade D rank weapons could exist but Red grade D ranks were basically impossible. The purity and concentration of mana needed for a weapon to upgrade into Red grade wasn¡¯t something a D ranked weapon could offer.
"When I rank up, I should be able to upgrade the sword into the next grade." She muttered before cing the new ne on her neck.
[Store rewards in final chest? All items will be received at the end.]
[Yes] [No]
Looking at the notification that popped up when she went to grab the set armour, Shiro pressed yes and stored them in the final chest. She couldn¡¯t use it right now so it was better than wasting her inventory space on it.
Stretching her body, she marked the Wyvern ying task asplete.
"Now I just need to go get the Imperium Sword from the bandits."
Putting the sheet of paper away, Shiro looked at the map and started to make her way towards the bandit¡¯s hideout.
The Quin Mountain Bandit¡¯s hideout was to the south of Harrow¡¯s Edge. The distance wasn¡¯t extremely far but it wasn¡¯t close either.
It was easy to spot since the glow of their hideout made them obvious in the dead of night.
"Found them already." She smiled whilst dashing through the trees. Looking up at where the hideout was, she could see several guard towers.
¡¯Well since I also need to kill the generals before Lisandra wakes up, so that I can take her out for training, I¡¯ll just steal the sword and kill the chief rather than fight my way in. I¡¯ll waste too much time otherwise.¡¯ She thought to herself as she started to use her Phantom Path to increase her speed.
Combining it with Faded Snow Movement and Rift Walker, Shiro was akin to a missile that made a beeline towards the hideout.
Vaulting over the watchtowers without anyone noticing, Shiro sent out a weak pulse of mana to find out where the bandit chief was. Since the sword was important, the chief certainly wasn¡¯t going to let it out of his sight.
"Found you." She muttered slightly as she phased through the walls of the hideout.
Meanwhile, the chief had just ced down his sword after some practice since he didn¡¯t know when the army would attack him.
Just as he blinked, Shiro appeared in front of him with her fingers reaching for his eyes.
"URG!!" Quickly bending backwards, the chief felt sweat drip down his spine when the fingers barely missed his eyes.
However, even though he dodged the first attack, Shiro wasn¡¯t bothered but instead readjusted herself.
Flipping her body slightly, she hooked his nose and dragged him over her shoulders.
*BANG!
Throwing the ripped off nose to the side, Shiro coated her hand in corrupted shadows and stabbed towards his torso. The shadows ate away at his flesh like a hungry beast that finally saw food.
"MNN!!!!"
The chief tried to scream but Shiro plunged her spare hand into his mouth and destroyed everything inside including the throat and spine.
*PUCHI!
Grabbing the heart after piercing the ribs, she ripped it out and crushed it like a water balloon. A fleshy, bloody, water balloon.
Merely ncing at the half dead chief with no emotions in her eyes, she froze the brain and crushed it into powder before getting off of the chief¡¯s corpse.
[Imperium Sword (Orange)]
"Bingo." She muttered, seeing the weapon. Stepping into the rift with the weapon, she left without anyone knowing that she had killed their chief and stole his prized weapon.
Chapter 173 Three Demon Generals
Chapter 173 Three Demon Generals
Making her way towards the demon continent, Shiro released the disguise she ced on her stats.
[Shiro LVL 49 ¨C Snow Girl]
If she revealed her identity as a monster, the monsters would be less wary about her.
"Hmm... why haven¡¯t there been any demons or monsters yet?" She muttered in confusion.
Shaking her head, she allowed ice to spread out from her since a snow girl not being surrounded by a blizzard would be a weird sight.
Allowing all of her passive to do their job, a blizzard started to spread out within the night. The sheer size of the blizzard made it very hard to miss. Not only that, but Shiro was also ring her mana so that everything near her would be able to detect her.
¡¯If I infiltrate the demon army, it should give me a few opportunities to attack the generals.¡¯ Shiro thought since, unlike the other two tasks, the whereabouts of the demon generals were unknown.
Flexing her fingers slightly, she created a giant ice tree and sat on the tallest branch while looking off into the horizon.
"Hmm... They should have felt my presence by now." Shiro muttered whilst she crossed her legs.
Sending out pulses of mana in regted intervals, Shiro soon picked up arge group of monsters making their way towards her. Within that group, there was 1 signal that was much more powerful than the rest.
¡¯So one of the generals decided to humour me huh? I¡¯ll take it.¡¯ She thought with a smile.
Waiting for a short moment for the branch army to arrive, Shiro made sure her aura was that of a lofty princess that wouldn¡¯t bow down to anyone. Even if it was a demon general.
As they approached, she could hear the rhythmic beat of their footsteps.
"Halt!" The demon general shouted out.
He was a giant demon that measured up to around 7ft tall in height. His skin was dark red in colour and his hair was ck.
His irises were gold but the sclera was void ck. Pair that with a muscr physique and it made for quite the intimidating sight for normal people.
Keeping a hand on the greatsword on his back, he walked towards Shiro in caution. He could feel the danger radiating off of Shiro¡¯s body.
¡¯Even though I¡¯m a level 60 Demon General, this level 49 snow girl isn¡¯t someone to mess with. How peculiar...¡¯ He thought to himself.
[Zeriks The Demon General LVL60 ¨C General]
¡¯Hou~ So another monster with a rank.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes since the wyvern was the same.
¡¯Better loot then.¡¯ She grinned.
Looking at her cold grin, Zeriks¡¯ pupils shrank in fear. Sweat dripped off his skin as he was currently being submerged in her killing intent. Even though he tried to fight back with his own, her killing intent easily overwhelmed his own.
It was like a kid picking a fight against an a.d.u.l.t.
*KRRR!!!
The blizzard started to expand in proportion to her killing intent. Ice formed on the demons bodies as they looked towards Zeriks in hope that he could do something about this.
Gritting his teeth, Zeriks took a step forward.
"Hou~ For a general that can stand up to my presence,mendable." Shiro smiled slightly as she narrowed her eyes at Zeriks.
"I thank you for your praise." He replied. He wasn¡¯t stupid and knew that he would need his brothers to stand a chance against the snow girl.
As a demon who had fought through wars that brought him close to death, he knew the fights he could and couldn¡¯t win. And the current situation told him that there was no way for him to live if he provoked her.
"If I may be rude, can I ask what mydy is doing in the border between the demon continent and the Astia Kingdom?" Zeriks asked carefully.
Shiro narrowed her eyes slightly before opening her mouth.
"Because I¡¯m bored. I¡¯ve already killed the wyvern and I¡¯mcking a bit of entertainment. Say, why don¡¯t we have a fight? You¡¯ll have the honour of entertaining this princess." Shiro grinned as her blood l.u.s.t started to apply more pressure of Zeriks.
"Kuh! I don¡¯t dare. But I do have a suggestion for you, your highness." Zeriks barely replied as he adjusted his way of addressing her after hearing her call herself princess.
"Hou~ Speak."
"Currently, we are going to attack the kingdom in a few weeks to destroy the final node that stops our army from invading the maind. I can guarantee that there are definitely strong opponents within the maind that will entertain you more than what I can provide." Zeriks replied.
"Interesting..." Shiro muttered as she put her hand on her chin.
"Then tell me what you are nning to do." She asked.
"That... I¡¯ll have to ask my brothers about this. It¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to tell your highness, but it¡¯s simply too important to have the lower tier monsters know about this. Not only that, what I know is only a third of the information. My eldest brother is the one to n everything."
¡¯So this elder brother is the strategist of it all. The king did say that these three generals directed the previous war.¡¯
"Hmm, why don¡¯t you take me to your elder brother then? Of course, if you¡¯re lying to me, I wouldn¡¯t mind using you as my entertainment." Shiro narrowed her eyes before retracting her aura.
Flexing her fingers a little, the ice tree shattered into tiny ice shards while the blizzard faded away.
"Lead the way." Shiro smiled lightly as shended in front of Zeriks.
Looking at her face up close, Zeriks couldn¡¯t help but pause in shock. He couldn¡¯t believe that anyone this beautiful could exist. Sure he knew about how snow woman were known for their beauty, but the snow girl in front of him couldn¡¯t be described by the word beautiful.
Seeing Zeriks fall in a daze, Shiro narrowed her eyes and frowned.
Before she could make a move, he recovered himself and lowered his head.
"Please follow me." He said quickly since he could feel his instincts warn him.
Nodding her head slightly, Shiro followed Zeriks into the demon continent.
Looking up at the sky, she could see the colour slowly saturate with an ominous red.
¡¯So this is the demon continent, not too different from the demon continent from Aria.¡¯ She thought to herself.
None of the greenery could grow as there were dead trees and rock formations as far as the eye could see. As they continued to walk for a while, Zeriks raised his hand and formed a magic circle.
¡¯A lock and key huh? No wonder the king couldn¡¯t find their location.¡¯
Controlling the magic circle so that it floated up into the air, Zeriks started to chant in a differentnguage.
Matching up what she is hearing with the records she had gathered back in her old world, Shiro started to trante the ¡¯key¡¯ of the formation.
¡¯Sari, Anvi, Nifir, Caos, Tridim, Ulpir, Mano, Kari, Eril, Ymik.¡¯
¡¯A rather low level demon concealment lock. Anyone that¡¯s 10 levels above the caster would be able to see through the concealment with ease.¡¯ She thought to herself as she understood the lock after tranting the key in her mind.
¡¯Thankfully I joined this demon back to camp. Otherwise, even if I did find this ce by chance, it would be hard for me to escape unless I present the key.¡¯
A small gap opened up in the barrier as Zeriks¡¯ gestured for her to enter.
Walking into the barrier, Shiro frowned slightly when she saw the sheer amount of demons on the other side.
¡¯If all of these demons attack, there¡¯s no way the kingdom will survive.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Just from what she could see and sense, Shiro estimated the rough number of demons to be more than 300 thousand.
Walking through the camp, they arrived at a giant tent.
Inside the tent was two giant demons that were both taller than Zeriks by at least a head.
[Redir The Demon Strategist LVL 65 ¨C General]
[Pildrum The Demon General LVL 60 ¨C General]
"Brother, I have brought the anomaly back. It¡¯s a snow girl that may help us in our fight." Zeriks said.
"Idiot! Why would you bring the danger to us?!" Pildrum shouted out.
"Settle down." Redir narrowed his gaze at Pildrum before looking towards Shiro who had a fearless smile on her face.
"You don¡¯t feel like someone who could output so much mana. Zeriks, are you sure she¡¯s the one?" Redir asked as he tried his best to show no reaction towards Shiro¡¯s beauty.
"I¡¯m sure she¡¯s the one. Especially since..." Zeriks left his words hanging as he gestured to his head.
"Hou...." Redir narrowed his eyes since he knew what that meant.
¡¯She¡¯s dangerous despite her looks and level!¡¯
Covering the lower half of his face, Redir started to think as he tapped on the table with his finger.
"Zeriks, I believe you said that I¡¯ll get my entertainment in the human continent right? Where¡¯s the proof that you said you were going to show me?" Shiro narrowed her eyes while keeping her fearless smile.
Pildrum looked towards Redir as they made a silent agreement.
Reaching out for his sword discreetly, Pildrum was shocked when Shiro suddenly shed out of sight.
"I wouldn¡¯t do that if I was you. This princess doesn¡¯t like people pointing their swords at me." Shiro said with a small giggle.
Half of Pildrum¡¯s body was frozen over with ice while Zeriks and Redir had tried to help but where locked down by void ck chains that corroded their skin.
"Redir was it? Seems like you wanted to test out this princess¡¯s prowess. Your little brother should have told you about my power but seems like you ignored his warnings." Shiro narrowed her eyes while killing intent filled the room.
"Hahaha, a little misunderstanding. It¡¯s a misunderstanding." Redir said with a smile.
"Hahaha! A misunderstanding? Then what if kill your brother? Can I say it¡¯s a misunderstanding as well?" Shiroughed.
"It was my mistake your highness. Since you wish to have entertainment, I¡¯ll surely help you achieve it as we invade the maind." Redir said as he dropped his weapon on the ground. He had his suspicions since Shiro was only level 49. Proved that he was still na?ve about the prowess of monsters.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro thawed the ice and sat on the biggest chair in the room.
"Exin your n." Shiro said as she rxed herself on the chair.
Her aura of dominance could be felt as it reminded the three of their demon king.
"You see, the current n is like this..."
###
After Redir exin the n to Shiro, she leaned back slightly and closed one of her eyes.
¡¯This isn¡¯t good. Their n is much bigger than I thought. As it stands, they¡¯re basically at thest stretch.¡¯ She thought whilst tapping her cheek with her finger.
Every time they¡¯ve invaded, their main goal was always to chip away at the kingdom¡¯s defences so that they can win the most important battle with ease. The high level adventurers that were holding back the demon invasion were constantly fighting without a chance to rest so they¡¯re on the verge of death right now.
They allowed the kingdom to stand for this long due to the fact that if they invaded the maind years ago, the chances of failure would be much higher since the high level adventures would be at the peak of their power.
¡¯Even if I killed these three now, the other generals scattered throughoutnd would still know the n. Then there¡¯s also the problem of a mole inside the kingdom. They¡¯ve been sending the generals everything that happens inside so that they could n around everything that¡¯s happening.¡¯
"Why are you even invading the maind to begin with? What do they have to draw the attention of the entire demon race?" Shiro asked.
The trio looked at one another before nodding.
"In the centre of the maind,y the corpse of a fallen god." Redir said, dropping the bomb.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro red at Redir.
"Exin why the demon race wants the corpse of a god."
"It¡¯s for the demon king to ascend. Once the demon king assimtes with the corpse of a god, he will gain one of the many qualifications needed to be a tier 7 Demigod."
¡¯Demi God!¡¯ Shiro widened her eyes.
Even in her prime, she was only Tier 6 and while she did specte that tier 7 was somewhat rted to being a god, she didn¡¯t think it was Demi God. A stage before God.
Meaning there could be a Tier 8.
¡¯8 Tiers huh? So I was still far from the peak.¡¯ Shiro smiled in excitement.
However, her excitement was cut short when she saw a system update.
[Hidden Main Quest Discovered: Fallen God.]
You have discovered that the reason the demon race is invading is to gain the body of a dead god. Stop them with everything you can.
Protect the kingdom along with the main capital.
Chapter 174 Task Complete
Chapter 174 Task Complete
¡¯What the f*ck? You want this princess to protect the kingdom and the maind??? I don¡¯t even know if I can protect the kingdom!¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she suppressed the urge to flip a table.
"Is there a problem?" Redir asked in worry seeing Shiro furrow her brows.
"Just a small one. Follow me and I¡¯ll take you to the ce I was beforeing here. You need to see this." Shiro shook her head and lied to the trio. She was going to take this chance to kill the three of them outside of the demon camp. This was so that the demons would be confused about whether the generals were alive or not.
"Hmm... Are you able to tell us where it is?" Redir asked. He didn¡¯t want to leave the camp unattended since the demons need constantmands.
"It¡¯s a secret. But I can say that after hearing about what you¡¯ve just told me about, there¡¯s a definite link between the two." She replied.
"Or could it be that you¡¯re suspecting me." She said with a frown.
Feeling her anger slowly increase, Redir quickly bowed.
"That was not my intention. The demons cannot be left without a leader since chaos will break out within the camp. The three of us can¡¯t go at the same time."
"Hmm... fine. Zeriks, why don¡¯t you stay behind and I¡¯ll bring your brothers to the location." Shiro suggested.
Zeriks pulled a difficult face since he was curious about what Shiro was talking about.
"Zeriks, you can go if you want. I¡¯ll stay behind." Pildrum grinned and smacked Zeriks on the back.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah go for it." Pildrum nodded. However, deep inside, it was because he was slightly scared of Shiro. Previously, she was able to freeze half of his body in an instant even though his brothers tried to help out.
Coming to an agreement, both Redir and Zeriks would follow Shiro to the location she mentioned.
Upon leaving the camp, Shiro started to dash towards the Hallow¡¯s Edge with the duo following behind her. Once they were far enough from the camp, Shiro smiled slightly and narrowed her eyes.
*BANG!
mming her palms into the ground, a giant magic circle expanded out as an ice pce formed around them.
"What¡¯s the meaning of this?!" Redir frowned as he and Zeriks quickly created some distance between them and Shiro.
However, she didn¡¯t respond as she tapped her ne and summoned Ataraxia.
Five silver swords floated around her as she reached out and grabbed one of the swords.
¡¯So another element means one more sword for me huh. Interesting...¡¯ She thought to herself.
When the swords upgraded themselves, from consuming the wyvern¡¯s soul, Shiro didn¡¯t check the visual changes due to the fact that she wanted to kill the generals first.
However, quickly ncing at the swords now, she was surprised to see neon red markings on the guard of the de along with ck spines that decorated the sides. But that wasn¡¯t important right now since she had to kill these two quickly.
Rift Walker!
Flickering into the rift, Shiro shed behind Zeriks since he was the weakest.
Asura Sword Path!
Zeriks wanted to dodge but ice chains had locked him in ce.
*BANG!
Just before her sword could cleave into Zeriks¡¯ body, a barrier glowed around him and protected him from harm.
¡¯So it¡¯s the big brother.¡¯ She thought, looking to her side. Redir had a magic circle in his hand that was fuelling the barrier. Even though her sword had managed to disable some of the mana used in the spell, it still wasn¡¯t enough to prate.
Reaching out with her spare hand, Shiro gritted her teeth and tried to clutch her hand into a fist.
Frozen Hell: Frozen Slumber!
*CRRR!!!
Redir grabbed his greatsword and tried to parry off the chains. But the moment they made contact, a part of his sword would be frozen over.
"Zeriks!" Redir shouted out as the situation was dire for the both of them.
"Life Essence Unlock!" They both shouted out as their body¡¯s erged substantially with ck runes spreading through their body, originating from the heart.
"HAAA!!"
*BANG!!!!!!!!
The duo mmed their swords against Shiro who quickly erected an ice wall that was unable to block the strikes.
But before their joy could sink in, it was instantly turned to dread as they saw Shiro¡¯s body fade into snow with her swords still floating around her.
"CAREFUL!!!" Redir shouted out as he felt a deadly amount of mana being gathered just above them.
mming his palms into the ground, a tripleyered barrier was erected with eachyer revolving in a separate direction.
Shiro, who had been charging up her strongest attack since the start of the fight, narrowed her eyes at the barrier and let go of the bow string.
Cmity Dragon Arrow!
*BOOM!!!!! PING PING PING!!!!
Breaking through all threeyers of the barrier in one go, the arrow pierced Zeriks and ended his life instantly. Unlike the wyvern, who was able to survive two shots due to his tenacity, Zeriks didn¡¯t have anything to save his life.
"Che, only one." Shiro clicked her tongue.
Redirunched himself towards Shiro as he twisted his body and shed his sword towards her.
He already knew Zeriks was a lost cause so he wanted to take this time to deal some damage and make the most out of his brother¡¯s death.
While Shiro knew her power output was outrageous right now, she still understood that she was a ss canon. Therefore, there was no way in hell was she about to take his sh head on.
Rift Walker!
Flicking into the rift, she dodged the sh.
*BANG!!!!
"We¡¯re both monsters! Why are you attacking us!?" Redir shouted out as he kept his guard up.
"It¡¯s nothing personal. I just need to kill the three of you for a bigger reward." Shiroughed out as she flickered behind him.
All five of her swords were glowing slightly and created copies of themselves before shing towards him.
Redir spun his body around to deflect the swords but widened his eyes when he felt no contact.
¡¯Another illusion?¡¯ He thought.
*PUCHI!!!
"GAH!!"
The swords dug into his torso and started to eat away at his flesh while his eyes were filled with disbelief.
"HOW?!" He cried out in confusion.
Shiro didn¡¯t reply but instead reached out with her arm and created a shotgun.
But before she could even fire her shotgun, his body split into two and created some distance between them.
"Doppelganger type skill huh." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Crouching down, a magic circle appeared around her legs.
*BANG!
The floor cracked apart as she charged towards the closest doppelganger.
Redir grinned as his body glowed red.
"Self destruction!" He shouted out as Shiro widened her eyes.
Stomping down with her foot, a giant magic circle expanded out from under Redir.
Ice Drake¡¯s Feast!
*URAHHH!!!!
A shattering roar exploded out from the circle as the drake appeared and swallowed him up.
However, she wasn¡¯t done yet. The ice drake was only there to try to reduce the effects of the self destruction.
Rift Walker!
*BOOM!!!!!!
Making some distance between them, Shiro left the rift and furrowed her brows.
"True Demon Manifestation." Redir grinned as his body started to shrink.
*BOOM!!!!
"Ku!" Shiro wasunched back from the aura that was released from Redir.
*BANG!
Crashing against the wall of her ice pce, she couldn¡¯t help but cough up some blood from the impact.
Quickly activating life fire to heal her wounds, Shiro looked up with some difficulty and saw Redir in his new form.
¡¯M*therf*cker... Two berserk skills???¡¯
Measuring around 6ft 3, ck skin and red hair, Redir grinned from the power he could feel coursing through his body.
"HA!!!!"
Releasing an ominous aura, Redir started to walk towards her.
Shiro narrowed her eyes from the pressure since it made her feel slightly ufortable. Just slightly.
"This is the power the demon king had given me. Now prepare yourself." Redir grinned as several tier 3 magic circles appeared around him.
Flexing her fingers, Shiro quickly made two hand cannons that had mana disruption bullets loaded into them.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Even though she tried to break all of the magic circles, there were simply too much for her to destroy.
"Futile!"
Glowing with an ominous light, the magic circles reformed themselves andunched waves upon waves of attacks towards her.
Rift Walker!
A rift appeared in front of her as she attempted to enter the rift.
However, Redir grinned and snapped his fingers.
*PING!
"Analysisplete." He muttered, destroying the rift in the process.
Widening her eyes in shock, Shiro gathered the mana around her and mmed her hand down onto the ground.
*KRRRR!!!!! BANG!!!!!
Unfortunately, her ice wall wasn¡¯t able topletely block the attacks.
Retreating once more, Shiro clutched her torso in pain and red at Redir.
"As the strategist, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s apart of my skill set to analyse skills and shut them down?" Redir chuckled as his confidence started to soar.
"That¡¯s not what I call a strategist. I call that a pain in the ass." Shiro retorted as she healed herself.
Narrowing her eyes, she created a cial ice spear and dashed towards Redir.
"Hmph." Scoffing slightly, he waved his palm and shattered her ice spear.
However, it was a part of Shiro¡¯s n since there were threads of nanotech wire inside the spear.
With a single flex of her fingers, the wires wrapped around him.
"Analysis- Wait what?!?!" Redir cried out in shock as he realised that there was nothing he could reference her nanotech wires to. No records of anything simr could be found.
"What? Can¡¯t analyse something that doesn¡¯t exist yet? I¡¯ll tell you this now, every one of these wires can advance technology by a huge leap. Refined by the minds of many talented scientists, it¡¯s not something you can simply analyse in a few seconds." Shiro grinned.
It was like showing a kid high level math problems. Sure, they¡¯ll be able to read it, but it doesn¡¯t mean they could decipher it.
When the demon analysed her ice magic sessfully, it was due to the fact that he had prior knowledge to study from.
Anyone could solve a maths question if they¡¯ve already been taught the method and knew what each number means. But if they were to be given a question that they had no knowledge about, then they wouldn¡¯t even know where to start. That was the current predicament for Redir.
He could see the fine inner workings but he didn¡¯t know where to start dismantling since there were no gaps for him to exploit. Every time he dismantled a part of the wire, it would fix itself in an instant. It wasn¡¯t something he could brute force his way through.
Nanotech Wire + Cmity¡¯s Will.
Coating the wires in a thinyer of mana, her augmented shadow element started to eat away at his flesh.
"GR! ARGH!!!" Struggling as much as he could, he tried to break out but failed since the wires started to dig deeper into his body. It was to the point that his bones could even be seen.
"I refuse to die!!!" He shouted out as he bit his tongue and spat out a droplet of blood into the air.
¡¯Oh sh*t!¡¯ Shiro widened her eyes as she recognised the move instantly.
Tier 4 ritual spell: Life conversion.
The spell would use one¡¯s life in exchange to summon a tier 4 monster that will attack the enemy with everything they¡¯ve got.
If a person didn¡¯t know what the attack was, they would be toote to stop it.
However, as a person who had already experienced this skill several times, she knew one of the many ways to counter the attack. Coincidently, it was also the only way she could stop the ritual right now.
Kill the caster before the spell can!
With theck of a sacrifice, the spell would copse on itself.
Twisting her body, Shiro created a sword using her nanobots and shed towards Redir.
But rather than shing, the sword broke into shards andtched onto Redir¡¯s body.
"Consume!" Shiromanded as the nanobots entered a frenzied state and started to eat away at Redir.
"ARGGG!!!!!!!!!!"
Blood started to pour out from his body as he writhed in pain.
Gritting his teeth, Redir tried to use mana to destroy the nanobots but all of his mana was fuelled towards the summoning ritual.
"Hahaha, if you didn¡¯t use the summoning ritual, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to let the nanobots consume you from the inside. By using this ritual, not only are you forfeiting your life, but you¡¯re also giving up on the mana you own. Once this ritual starts, there is no turning back. How unfortunate." Shiro grinned sadistically, digging her hand into his torso in order to release more nanobots into his body.
"URG! What are you!!! HOW DO YOU HAVE THIS TECHNOLOGY!?!" He shouted out in pain.
"I¡¯m just a Nanomancer from another world." She replied while ice spread out from her hand and started to crumble him away into frozen dust.
After a short moment, Shiro stood up and dusted her hands. Looking at the pile of dust that was once a demon, Shiro collected his corpse and looked at her rewards.
"Hmm... Armour, greatsword and some misceneous crafting materials. How unfortunate." She muttered.
Naturally, part of the rewards she got from ying two demons were their heads since she needed to present them to the king after all.
¡¯How did I get his head when I reduced him to dust?¡¯ She wondered to herself.
Shaking her head, she dashed towards the demon camp since there was still one more demon she needed to y.
"Sari, Anvi, Nifir, Caos, Tridim, Ulpir, Mano, Kari, Eril, Ymik." Chanting out the ¡¯key¡¯ she required to unlock the barrier on the champ, Shiro made her way towards the main tent.
As for how the fight went...
[Pildrum¡¯s Humiliation]
One of the many victims fallen to method beloved by a certain user. Thankfully, it was done quickly so no one witnessed it. (It was humiliating since he enjoyed it.)
"The f*ck?"
Chapter 175 Lisandras Element
Chapter 175 Lisandra''s Element
Looking at the item that she had received from killing Pildrum, Shiro didn¡¯t know what to say.
A small part of why she chose to target the rear was to satisfy her sadistic urges. *cough*.
But if they started to enjoy it, she wouldn¡¯t get the same satisfaction as she would normally.
Shaking her head, Shiro felt like she wasn¡¯t going to be targeting the rear for a while. She needed to recover after finding out that one of the mighty demon generals was actually such a closet pervert.
"Shame." She muttered while leaving the tent without any of the demon¡¯s sensing her.
She passed through the barrier effortlessly and made her way back to the kingdom. Checking the time through the sky above her, Shiro guessed that it was only one or two hours from the sunrise.
"Now that the three tasks are done, I need to think about where I can train Lisandra along with the whole hidden main quest bullsh*t." She sighed.
Just from reading the quest description that she received, she could see that there were three main steps inpleting the quest.
First, she needed to protect the kingdom. Second, she needed to fight off the other generals at different points on the map. Finally, she would need to stop the demon king from procuring the corpse of the dead god.
There were several questions that Shiro wanted answering but could only hold onto them for now. Questions such as what the nodes did and why can¡¯t the demon king ess the corpse even though he was a tier 6 legend like what she had been in her old life.
Looking down at her hands, she could see herself shake a little from both excitement and fear.
Excitement due to the fact that she now knew the fact that a tier 7 and 8 exist. Meaning that her journey was still long.
However, at the same time, she felt fear since she knew exactly what a tier 6 legend could do.
Sure, she could say that she didn¡¯t feel fear since she fought monsters higher level than her all the time. But that was lying to herself since the power of a tier 6 was something to be feared.
As she had demonstrated in her old life, even 100 tier 5¡¯s were nothingpared to her tier 6 might.
"Since this is just a quest, it should be fine." She muttered in an attempt to reassure herself.
Furrowing her brows, she took a deep breath and gave herself a p on the cheeks.
"What the hell am I even doing, I¡¯ve f*cking died already, I shouldn¡¯t be feeling scared in a quest when it¡¯s ok to die." She cursed to herself and dashed towards the kingdom at a quicker pace.
¡¯I¡¯ve already killed a demon king once so I know most of their skills. The only problem is which area he specialises in. Not only that, but it¡¯s probably impossible for me to defeat the other generals since they¡¯ll definitely be much stronger than the trio I fought today. As a tier 6 legend, he¡¯s bound to have generals that are more than level 100. Some may even be more than level 200 and enter tier 4 for all I know.¡¯ She thought to herself.
"That means that I¡¯ll have to unify the other kingdoms in order to get the best grade in this quest." She muttered to herself.
"What a pain."
Trying to unify all the other kingdoms was something that contradicted the way she fought. She would rather fight it out all by herself if given the option.
But as stubborn as she was, she knew that toughing it out wasn¡¯t going to cut it for this mission.
Landing softly on the battlements, Shiro stretched her body slightly and made her way into the castle.
Once she arrived inside the castle, she phased through the walls and rested above the king¡¯s bedroom.
She was going to tell him the moment he wakes up since she wanted to take Lisandra out to train the first thing in the morning.
After waiting for a while, she sensed movement and knew that he woke up.
Just as she was about to phase through the wall, she heard some giggles along with slight rocking on the bed.
"Wait... what are they do- you¡¯ve got to be f*cking kidding me?!?! First thing in the morning???" She muttered in disbelief.
In her opinion, this was something that should be done at night since obviously, one would be tired after such an invigorating exercise so sleep would be desired after finishing.
But for them to start so early in the morning, she wondered how they made it through the day.
¡¯Wasn¡¯t the king injured? He can still make up for the demand?¡¯ She thought to herself while the duo performing the exercise seemed to get more passionate. At this point, she could even feel the ceiling under her shake.
"As expected from level 50¡¯s." She muttered with a slight nod of her head.
"Wait no! I need to tell them that the tasks areplete." She shook her head and phased through the roof.
Hanging herself upside down from the canopy, she coughed slightly at the duo who were in the middle of the act.
"I¡¯ve done all three tasks." She called out.
"$¡ê%^¡ê$%^&!!!!!" The duo cursed out in shock as they quickly covered themselves.
"PRIVACY PLEASE!" The queen shouted out.
"Not my fault that you two were going at it like wild animals. I could feel the shaking from the ceiling." Shiro said, pointing at her previous spot.
"Why the hell were you up there?!" The king asked as he quickly handed his wife a change of clothing.
"Well I finished the tasks so I came back to report. But as you know, you two were... well... You get the idea." Shiro shrugged.
"Impossible! You did this in one night?!" The king widened his eyes.
"Wrong. You should say that it¡¯s possible in one night." She replied with a chuckle.
"But the three demons were higher than level 50! It should be impossible for you to kill the three of them!" The king cried out in shock.
"Just look at this then." Shiro sighed and brought out the three decapitate heads that were collected from their corpses.
"..." Looking at the three heads in disbelief, the king couldn¡¯t believe that Shiro had actually managed toplete the quest.
There was the problem of finding the three demons since the location of their camp was unknown and they could only guess from the intel they received. That should have taken her quite a while due to their secrecy.
Not only that, there was also the problem of the demon army that wasmanded by the generals. If she really did kill the three of them, the army should have attacked her as well.
"How?" He asked in confusion.
"Assassination." Shiro grinned and ced her finger on her lips.
"What about the wyvern and the sword?"
"Here."
Throwing him a piece of the wyvern¡¯s flesh along with the Imperium sword, Shiro chuckled when she saw his expression of disbelief.
Flipping off the canopy, she sat down on the chair and waited for his response.
"... Hais... fine, just go already. Just give me something to contact you quickly with." The king sighed.
"Oh and also, take the sword with you. It should belong to Lisandra from now on."
"Got it. As for a way to contact me... Hmm... Take this." Shiro said as she created a shard of cial ice. Inside the ice is a thin strand of nanotech wire that would send a signal to her once the ice itself was broken.
"Crush this when the war breaks out and we¡¯ll make it back as fast as we can." She said, handing over the piece of ice.
"Now if you don¡¯t mind me, I¡¯ll go get Lisandra now. See ya." Shiro waved slightly before shing out of the room.
"Ha...." Sighing heavily, the king felt like he was about to get older.
"Are you alright my king? Why don¡¯t we... you know, continue?"
"That might be what I need."
"Oh by the way, feel free to go at it with everything you got now. I won¡¯t being back." Shiro grinned as her head popped out through the wall.
"¡ê&^¡ê&%^%!!!!!"
Leaving the scene with the royal couple clearly disturbed, Shiro sent out her mana to locate Lisandra. Finding her room, she didn¡¯t take long to arrive before the door.
*Knock knock knock
"*yawn~ Teach?" Lisandra yawned as she rubbed her eyes.
"Yo. Get changed, we¡¯re heading out for training now." Shiro grinned.
"Right." Nodding her head, Lisandra closed the door to get changed.
Waiting by the corridor, Shiro nced out of the window as she contemted about what to do about the quest.
¡¯Annoying...¡¯ She thought to herself. The fact that she would need to make alliances between kingdoms was more than a headache for her. Plus, since she wasn¡¯t the highest level negotiator at the table, it would mean that she lost the initiative. Sure, she could threaten them but that wasn¡¯t going to help her finish the quest.
She would need to persuade the power hungry and proud adventurers in order toplete the quest with a decent grade or else it wouldn¡¯t be worth the trouble.
"I¡¯m ready teach!" Lisandra shouted out as she rushed out her door with a giant backpack.
". . ."
¡¯Where¡¯s the half tired Lisandra from a minute ago?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself, seeing Lisandra brimming with energy.
"Store that backpack away in your bracelet. I know you have one." Shiro shook her head.
"But it doesn¡¯t feel like a trip if I don¡¯t carry the bag." Lisandra shrugged.
"Where do you even get that context from? Hais, never mind. Just put it in the space and I¡¯ll bring you to the training area." Shiro massaged her eyes slightly.
Grabbing Lisandra¡¯s hand, she entered the rift and made her way out of the kingdom.
"Is this how you travel all the time teach?" She asked.
"Yeah it is. I get bonus movement speed in here so I just activate the skill whenever I can." Shiro replied without looking back. It was unfortunate that her time in the rift was a little limited, so she had to constantly activate the skill when she left. But other than that, it was one of the best ways for her to travel since no one else could see her.
"Heh~ Are you able to teach me this?"
"No I can¡¯t. This skill was gained through a special source that¡¯s you can¡¯t ess so you can¡¯t learn it. But, it doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t have something simr. Depending on your main elemental nature, you¡¯ll be able to develop a movement that uses that element." Shiro replied.
"My main element is light and another one that I don¡¯t know yet."
"!!!" Shiro¡¯s eyes widened instantly the moment she heard that Lisandra had the light element.
Her breathing became a little uneven as she thought about the b*stard that killed her in her past life.
"Teach?"
"...it¡¯s nothing. I don¡¯t have the light element but I can teach you some of the light element movement skills. The concept should be easy for you to memorise." Shiro replied with a shake of her head.
¡¯She¡¯s not the same as that b*stard. There¡¯s no need to take out my anger on her.¡¯ She thought to herself.
After traveling for a while, Shironded on top of a small hill.
"Where are we?" Lisandra asked as she looked around curiously.
"We¡¯re near the demon continent. What you¡¯re going to do for the next few days, maybe even weeks, will be fighting demons and sparing against me. We¡¯ll rotate around constantly so you can study both. Got it?"
"Wait what? I¡¯m fighting demons?" she asked in surprise.
"Yeah. Unlike humans, monster¡¯s will often have a title that makes them twice as strong as humans. So a level 30 monster would be twice as strong as a level 30 human." Shiro exined.
"However, even though this is the case, humans have been able to win due to their variety of skills. Monster¡¯s take a long time to be intelligent and even longer to be smart enough to develop skills. In the uing war, there will definitely be monsters that have quite arge variety of skills so I want you to slowly get used to their increased stats while also getting used to fighting against me who has a lot of skills. Combine the two and you should be able to hold your own."
Another reason as to why Shiro wanted to do this was because of the fact that Lisandra wouldn¡¯t be able to make the most out of her power if she didn¡¯t get enough experience. If what the king said was true, once Lisandra got her powers unlocked, she would experience a sudden power boost. But if she didn¡¯t have the experience nor the skills to make use of that power, she would be almost harmless.
Like a baby with a gun, sure they have a gun but they¡¯re also a baby and vice versa.
She needed to fix that before the war. Plus, if all things went well, Lisandra may even be her best guarantee in the negotiations toe.
"I see, so what do I do first?" Lisandra smiled in excitement.
Chapter 176 Class Up Choices
Chapter 176 ss Up Choices
"First, I want to see what you can do with your mana control. Experience can be gained much easier if you have some foundations in mana control." Shiro said as she made herself as chair to sit on.
"So do I just do what I can?" Lisandra asked as she didn¡¯t know where to start.
It was like when you¡¯re cooking and someone just says to cook whatever. Out of all the options avable, she didn¡¯t know which one she should pick.
"Hmm, then just show me an aura coating if you know what that means." Shiro replied after a short moment.
Furrowing her brows, Lisandra concentrated her mana to wrap around her body. A golden mana started pulse as it seemed like she was covered in ayer of golden mes.
Looking at the detestable elemental nature being wrapped around Lisandra, Shiro suppressed her disgust and walked towards her.
"Now this coat isn¡¯t too bad, but the overall enhancement and protection are too flimsy." Shiro said as she flicked the aura.
*PING!
Shattering into particles of light, Lisandra was surprised at how easy it was for Shiro to destroy her aura coat.
No one had managed to ¡¯break¡¯ her coat when she was sparring the castle. Not to mention, Shiro was able to break it so effortlessly.
"As you can see, just by concentrating a bit of my mana on my fingertip, I was able to destroy your aura coat. With the way you¡¯ve coated yourself, the defenses were weak and the main points of weakness were obvious. When you coat yourself in mana, it should be a thinyer rather than a fire."
Standing back a little, Shiro red her mana and activated her own mana coat.
*BOOM!!!!!
"Wah!!" Lisandra fell backwards as the pressure that was released by Shiro mmed against her body.
"As you can see, upon summoning the mana to coat your body, you condense that in an instant to not only send out a pulse to push back your enemies, but it also hardens the ¡¯armour¡¯ around your body." Shiro said as she gestured to the thinyer of blue mana that was coating her entire body.
"The faster you condense your mana, the better since the force created through this will push your enemies back a little, giving you the chance to attack them." She exined.
"But before you can get to this stage, we¡¯ll work on condensing your mana."
Helping Lisandra up on her feet, Shiro gestured for her to coat herself in mana once more.
"I¡¯ll help you condense it first so I want you to memorise the feeling ok?" She smiled.
"Un, got it teach." Lisandra nodded her head in seriousness.
Gathering her mana, she coated it around her body once more.
Shiro ced a hand on Lisandra¡¯s shoulder and started to apply pressure onto her mana.
"Urg!" Lisandra flinched back from the pain but Shiro didn¡¯t let go.
"Endure it."
The pain of having her mana condensed by someone else hurt more than what she had expected.
"ARGGGG!!!!" Unable to contain her cries, she howled at the top of her lungs in order to distract her from the pain.
Focusing her mind, Shiro could only condense it quicker in order for the pain to be over quicker.
"Ha...ha...ha...ha..." Panting heavily whileying her on her back, Lisandra nced at the faint goldyer of mana that was coating her body.
"So I have to condense it to be this thin?" she asked with fatigue.
"Yeah, just focus on remembering the current feeling. After that, we¡¯ll be practicing with forming and condensing the aura quickly so that you can deploy it quickly." Shiro nodded her head.
Taking out a few chunks of wyvern meat, Shiro grabbed her sword and stabbed it through the meat.
Grabbing a few pieces of dried wood and other mmable foliage, she usedbust and set them on fire.
The swords floated above the fire as Shiro started to roast the meat. She didn¡¯t have any seasoning on hand but wyvern meat was still wyvern meat.
"Smells nice." Lisandra smiled as she walked over slowly.
"What meat is it?" She asked.
"Wyvern meat."
"Wait what? Wyvern meat? Where did you get it?" Lisandra asked in confusion.
"I killed the wyvern in Harrow¡¯s Edge." Shiro replied while turning the meat over so that it was evenly roasted.
*bam!
"What!? But isn¡¯t the wyvern level 60 or something? How did you kill it?!" Lisandra asked as she lost her bnce due to shock and was currently staring at Shiro with disbelief.
"Hehe, your teacher here is obviously skilled so the wyvern was nothing to me." Shiro chuckled as she continued to roast the chunks of meat.
"Don¡¯t worry about it too much. Once you master your aura along with your skills and battle instincts, you should be able to fight against stronger monsters without too much problem." Shiro encouraged with a smile.
She honestly believed that Lisandra could indeed fight monsters higher level than her, because from what she had seen, Lisandra¡¯s stat points were worth much more whenpared to the average soldier.
They continued to chat for a little while as they waited for the meat to finish roasting.
Looking at the crispy exterior, Shiro got one of her swords and cut into the meat to check if it was fully cooked yet.
"Umu, not bad. Lisa, dig in." Shiro smiled as she handed Lisandra one of therger pieces.
"Wow, that¡¯s quite a big portion..." She muttered.
"You¡¯ll finish it easily don¡¯t worry. The higher level a monster, the more mana their meat would contain. Not only that, but it would also empower your body hence the stat boost that you may receive from eating the meat." Shiro informed her as she opened her mouth and took a big bite out of the piece of meat.
Chewing a few times, she couldn¡¯t help but sigh inside her mind.
¡¯Tasteless as always.¡¯ She thought to herself. It was like she was eating textured water, an odd sensation. Sneaking a piece of mana stone into her mouth, that she had retrieved from killing the generals and the wyvern, she enjoyed the taste that slowly merged with the wyvern¡¯s meat.
"OHHH!!!! DELICIOUS!" Lisandra cried out as her eyes were practically glowing.
"Of course it is." Shiro smiled. While chefs could make it taste better, the original taste was already amazing since meat withrge quantities of mana flowing through them would be very refreshing for the person who was eating it. It was due to the fact that the mana would be synergizing with the consumer¡¯s mana and create an euphorical feeling with each bite.
While it could be addicting, the fact that adventurers burned off everything they ate made this addiction ok.
As Lisandra ate the meat in a frenzy, Shiro only chuckled as she ate the wyvern meat slowly.
As she finished the piece, she heard a series of notifications.
[Effects of Wyvern Meat are active: Gained 50 STR, 50 AGI (Stackable)]
However, Shiro didn¡¯t care about this. It was the next notification that dragged her attention away from the wyvern meat.
[Level up!]
[Level 50 reached ¨C ss Upgrades Avable]
"Finally." She muttered in excitement.
"AH teach, you leveled up, congrats." Lisandra pped her hands as she smiled.
"Thank you, here, you make yourself some roasted meat. I need to see my ss up options." Shiro replied, handing over a few more pieces of meat.
Looking at Lisandra who was busy roasting more food, Shiro smiled before turning her attention back to her ss upgrade options.
¡¯Hmm, only five upgrades. Seems pretty standard to me.¡¯ She thought to herself.
[ - - - Snow Girl ¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï - - - ]
ss up choices:
1) Snow Woman
2) Winter Spirit
3) cial Ice Queen
4) Nanotech War Machine
5) Corrupted Elemental Sylph
Narrowing her eyes slightly at the options, she was surprised to see something to do with her second ss within the upgrade options.
¡¯Snow woman is self exnatory. It¡¯s just a buffed up version of my current ss but instead, has more control over the ice element along with 750 points to spend per level.¡¯ She thought to herself.
¡¯Same with cial Ice queen and winter spirit. These two are just evolved versions of the sses I was given before when I was level 20.¡¯
Previously, when she had reached the peak of level 20, she was given the option of Snow Girl ¡ï, Ice girl and Snow Spirit.
Out of the five sses she¡¯s given right now, three of them were the upgraded version.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯m still offered the chance to be a spirit type monster since I¡¯m still D ss. But once I ss up into C ss, I can only stick with the upgrade tree that they give me unless a hidden ss is achieved. Snow Woman is a no go since there¡¯s nothing after this. As for cial Ice Queen... Hmm... though I know I definitely don¡¯t want to be a winter spirit.¡¯ She thought to herself since being a spirit was simply too disadvantageous for her.
As for Corrupted Elemental Sylph and Nanotech War Machine, she had no knowledge about either of them.
¡¯So out of the 5 sses, I can only logically pick 3 of them if I don¡¯t want to limit my growth.¡¯
[cial Ice Queen]
As the royalty of all beings to do with Ice, you¡¯ll be able to recruit underlings that will be stored within your personal Throne World. All things made of ice shall be under your control.
Race Change: Snow Girl -> Ice Queen
+150% Ice Damage
+80% Fire Vulnerability
Skills: Imperial cier Magic, Frozen Decree, Throne World Manifestation.
Points per level: 750
Additional benefits due to user achieving 5¡ï¡¯s: Upgrade title (Ice Princess) to (cial Ice Queen), Upgrade points per level: 750 -> 1,000, Extra Skill: Ancient cial Weapons.
¡¯Heh~ I even get a throne world.¡¯ She thought with interest.
A throne world was simr to a domain skill but it was slightly more powerful.
If one had to describe it, a domain would be a pebble that someone threw in the river known as reality. Whereas the throne world would be a giant piece of rock. The impact of the throne world was much bigger than the domain.
After checking the description, Shiro turned towards the two that drew her attention the most.
[Nanotech War Machine]
In order to reach the apex of nanomachine magic, you convert your entire body into nanobots. You are a living war machine.
Merging sses: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï, Nanomancer
Race Change: Snow Girl -> Nanomachine
+200% Nanotech efficiency
+50% MP and MP regeneration
+80% Defence against Metal magic
+70% Elemental Vulnerability
Skills: War Machine, Constant Repair, Upload/Download, Constant Upgrade.
Passive: Limitless, Ageless
Points per level: 800
Additional benefits due to user achieving 5¡ï¡¯s: Skill: Constant Adaptation
Shiro frowned as she read the information the system provided about this ss. On one hand, she was given the chance to be ageless and limitless along with the skill adaptation. As for what the skill did, it allowed her to adapt to the type of element/ damage the opponent caused.
However, and this was a big however, was the fact that she would no longer be ssed as a ¡¯living¡¯ being. Recing her entire body with machinery and constantly uploading the main copy and making clones repulsed her to no end. It was basically what the scientists did when they were trying to make the ss.
Experiment, upload the data, download the data onto a new body before experimenting on new subjects again.
It was akin to throwing away her sense of self which she didn¡¯t want.
That only left her with the final ss up option.
[Corrupted Elemental Sylph]
You be the being that controls the elements. One that embodies grace and might at the same time. The elemental sylph. However, due to your nature, the once graceful Sylph has fallen to corruption.
Race Change: Snow Girl -> Corrupted Fae
+150% Elemental Damage
+90% Dark Affinity
+50% Light Vulnerability
+30% MP regeneration
+20% Elemental Resistance
+15% Hostility from light-based enemies
Skills: Corrupted Element Shift
Passive: Draining Touch
Points per level: 750
Additional benefits due to user achieving 5¡ï¡¯s: Title Gained: Corrupted War Maiden. Upgrade points per level: 750 -> 1,000
¡¯Hmm... Interesting.¡¯ She smiled seeing the skill descriptions. Corrupted Element Shift was obvious since her sword has the skill, Element Shift and she could already guess what it did. However, Draining touch helped her out a lot in terms of self sustain.
[Draining Touch]
A chance to drain a portion of MP and HP from your enemies every time you make contact.
But in the end, the most surprising benefit was still the title, Corrupted War Maiden.
[Title: Corrupted War Maiden]
% based increments to your stats the longer you fight for. Increased effectiveness when attacking light based enemies.
The title allowed her to gain more power as the fight continues. Which in most cases is very helpful especially against tenacious monsters that she couldn¡¯t kill quickly.
Overall, it was a close tie between cial Ice Queen and Corrupted Elemental Sylph as both sses have their benefits.
Ice Queen for the extremity of an element while Elemental Sylph amplified her prowess with magic as a whole.
¡¯Decisions decisions... hm.... It can only be you.¡¯ She grinned before tapping yes on one of the sses.
[ss Upgrade Option Confirmed.]
Chapter 177 Upgrade Requirements
Chapter 177 Upgrade Requirements
[ss Upgrade Option Confirmed: Corrupted Elemental Sylph]
The reason as to why she chose this ss was due to the fact that it gave her more diversity whenpared to choosing Ice Queen.
Plus, as a Sylph, she will gain more control over other elements including her ice element. After all, bing an elemental sylph meant ess to all elements. Of course, ¡¯all¡¯ as in the ones she could use. cial, Metal, Lightning and Shadow.
There was also one more reason for her choice. IF she had chosen to be an Ice Queen in order to reach the extremity of Ice, that means she would slowly lose ess to her Metal and Lightning attunement which is needed for her Nanomancer ss.
As a ss that she knew she could reach the apex with, she wasn¡¯t about to give up that chance. Especially since she had another option that she could choose.
[Corrupted Elemental Sylph]
ss Up Requirements:
[ 0/4 ] Tier 3 Attunement in 4 elements
[ 3/1,000 ] C ss mana stones
[ 0/1 ] C ranked raidpletion with more than 30% contribution
[ 0/1 ] Fairy Element Core
[ 0/1 ] Corrupted Demon Core
Narrowing her eyes at the ss up requirements, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder where she¡¯ll get the Fairy Element Core. Unlike normal cores that you gain from fairy¡¯s, the element core is a rare core that has an affinity with all the elements.
From her memories, the drop of this item was mostly random. Not only that, but it was also harder to procure since not many people see this item and even if they did, they would often keep this item to themselves due to the fact that it can boost elemental resistances.
However, the Fairy core wasn¡¯t the only troublesome requirement.
The corrupted demon core, much like the Fairy Element Core, is a rare drop that is gained through killing demon type enemies.
"Two extremely rare materials, a C rank raid and tier 3 attunements? Damn..." Shiro muttered.
"What¡¯s wrong teach? Are the requirements hard?" Lisandra asked as she chewed on the wyvern meat.
"I wouldn¡¯t say hard, just a little troublesome." Shiro smiled.
"Heh~ Then I¡¯m sure you canplete them." Lisandra grinned.
"Of course, who do you think I am?" Shiroughed lightly.
As she grabbed one of the meat chunks that Lisandra had roasted, she briefly nced over her stats since nothing had changed except for her stats. She hadn¡¯t gained any more skills or titles after reaching level 30.
[Name: Shiro
Level: 50
ss: Snow Girl¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï¡ï [+], Nanomancer
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met.)
HP: 508,750/508,750
MP: 1,065,570/1,065,570
STR: 3350(+100) <+865>
VIT: 3500(+200) <+925>
INT: 7000(+750) <+1,937>
AGI: 4550(+450) <+1,250>
DEX: 4000(+100) <+1,025>
DEF: 1200(+100) <+325>]
With her MP finally reaching the 1 million point threshold, she was able to unlock her Sniper Rifle Creation which was definitely going to be one of her strongest Nanomancer skills for a while.
"Say teach, I¡¯ve always wondered but what do you keep in that bag of yours?" Lisandra asked as she pointed at Shiro¡¯s bag.
"In this? I keep my friend in my bag. She¡¯s just ssing up right so she¡¯s stuck in this form." Shiro said, pulling out Yin from her bag.
"Your friend?"
"Un, she¡¯s a close friend of mine." She nodded while stroking the egg.
cing it back into her bag, they chatted for a little longer before finishing their meal.
"Right then, we¡¯ve got a whole day ahead of us for you to improve in using your Aura coat." Shiro said as she stretched out her body a little.
From the way things looked, she estimated that Lisandra should be able to be proficient in this by the end of the day.
Not only that, they also needed to go out hunting demons tomorrow for her to gain more experience along with EXP to level up.
###
Twisting her body, Lisandra grabbed the demon¡¯s arm before kicking it in the stomach.
*BANG!
The force the kick send the demon flying upwards as she crouched down.
Gathering her mana, she narrowed her eyes and activated her aura coat.
*BOOM!
Condensing into a thinyer of armour, she was able to enhance her physical attributes andunch herself towards the demon.
Her sword started to glow with a golden light as her eyes lit up with the same colour.
"HAA!!!!"
Piercing the centre of the demon¡¯s body with her sword, Lisandra twisted her wrist and caused an explosion of light within the demons body.
*p p p
"Not bad at all. Not bad. At. All." Shiro praised.
"Thank you teach. But I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯re going to reprimand me now." Lisandra sighed as she sat down and waited for Shiro¡¯s evaluation.
"Hou? Seems like you want me to reprimand you." Shiro grinned as she created a chair for her to sit on.
Crossing her legs, she rested her chin on her hand and waited for Lisandra¡¯s reply.
"When have you not criticized me?" Lisandra replied with a weary smile.
"Well... You¡¯re right. Anyways, onto the criticising. First of all, body control. You were a little slow in exploiting his weak point. That¡¯s bad.
"In a high intensity fight, a chance like that wouldn¡¯t appear often so you much exploit it as much as you can. Second, aura coat. While the coat wasn¡¯t bad for your level, you want to be faster in creating the aura.
"When I was at your level, I would have been able to kill the demon much faster. Not to mention, I wouldn¡¯t need to chase it through the forest now would I?" Shiro said, gesturing at the damaged forest behind her.
"But teach is special." Lisandra pouted slightly.
"So are you. Your ss is most definitely stronger than my ss so there¡¯s no excuse. Plus, the only reason I say that is because of my mastery over mana and my own body. I can promise that if you were to train hard enough, you can do the same." Shiro encouraged. Naturally, she left the part about her title out since the monster title was truly broken.
"But are we able to do it within the time we¡¯re given? As you have said before, since the three generals are dead, war will break out soon. Are we able to get me up to standard before that time? Father, mother and everyone else is pinning their hopes on me. I don¡¯t know if I can live up to that." Lisandra sighed as she started to draw on the ground with her finger.
Looking at Lisandra who was starting to feel the pressure of having the hopes of everyone on her shoulders, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel pity.
As a person who had reached the ¡¯apex¡¯ of her world, she knew what it was like to have the hope of everyone on your shoulders. The feeling that you MUST not let them down was like a corrosive poison that will slowly eat away at you.
If she just said "Ignore them." That would just bezy since she understood Lisandra¡¯s predicament. She wasn¡¯t able to say no since she felt like that was the wrong choice. A choice that would abandon them and leave them to die.
One that wasn¡¯t befitting of a...
"Hero." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she looked up at the sky.
"Hero?"
"Un. What you¡¯re trying to be right now is a hero. However, it is also this thought process that¡¯s eating away at you. Lisa, I¡¯ll say this now. Hero¡¯s are nothing but a myth since there is no definite ¡¯hero¡¯.
"While you may have saved a few people and are their ¡¯hero¡¯, someone else who perhaps had just witnessed their close one die wouldn¡¯t see you as a hero. Trying to force an excuse that incapable people made up onto yourself will only harm you and not encourage you.
"Therefore, as your current teacher, my advice is to not be a hero. But rather be yourself. Lisandra. You are your own main character."
"Same goes with other people. It¡¯s just that theirzy nature made them a bad main character. By epting their expectations onto yourself, you¡¯re trying to multitask with several stories at once and the result of which would only destroy you slowly like a poison." Shiro said seriously.
"I guess..." Lisandra nodded slightly.
"As I always say, don¡¯t worry about it. Don¡¯t live with stress but allow yourself to rx. That¡¯s how you fully enjoy the experience of life. Plus, you also have your teach here don¡¯t you? I¡¯ll help you fight in your war." Shiro grinned as she pointed at herself.
"Say teach, how old are you? You speak as if you¡¯re an elder at times and sometimes like a kid. Plus, well your body¡¯s rather... Well... Let¡¯s just say that even I got more curves than you." Lisandra asked as she pointed at her own figure.
"OI, are you picking a fight with me?" Shiro asked as her smile twitched slightly.
"*cough* No I¡¯m just a bit curious about how old teach is." Lisandra waved her hands hastily since she knew the pain that woulde if she fought Shiro.
"Hmm... Body wise, I would be around 13/14ish?" Shiro said looking at her body.
"But mentally I¡¯m an a.d.u.l.t." She continued, not willing to tell Lisandra her mental age since she¡¯s an ¡¯a.d.u.l.t¡¯. No more no less.
"Ehhh? I want to know teach¡¯s age not just ¡¯a.d.u.l.t¡¯." Lisandra pouted.
"Fufufu, remember this quote. Curiosity killed the cat. Therefore, I¡¯m an ¡¯a.d.u.l.t¡¯ got it?" Shiro smiled slightly.
Shivering slightly from the smile, Lisandra quickly nodded her head.
However, just as she was about to ask her another question, she saw Shiro turn her head towards their left.
"Seems like someone wants to intrude on our break. Hmm... A demon type around level 45? No level 50. Quite ballsy if I have to say so myself." Shiro smiled as she shook her head.
"How did you know the level and type of the monster? Also, shouldn¡¯t we attack it first before it attacks us?" Lisandra asked.
"I know its level through estimating the kind of reaction I got from scanning him with my own mana. As for how I know the type of monster he is, you can see from the shape of their body. When you scan an area with your mana, you¡¯ll pick up reactions of foreign mana which is in the shape of the owner. I can see that the enemy has horns, wings and an overall huge body physique. This means that the most likely oue would be the fact that he¡¯s a demon.
"Give it a try." Shiro smiled.
"First, gather your mana into a small orb. Then, convert that orb into a pulse that sends a tiny wave of mana through the area. It should give you a rough idea of where everything is."
Nodding her head, Lisandra closed her eyes and tried to recreate the effect. However, she wasn¡¯t able to seed even after a few tries, which frustrated her.
"Don¡¯t rush it. The demon doesn¡¯t know that we¡¯ve already found him. Take your time." Shiro encouraged.
After a few more tries, Lisandra finally seeded in sending out a pulse. Like a radar, her orb sent out waves after waves of pulses as a ¡¯map¡¯ of where everything is slowly started to appear in her mind. Unfortunately, the pulses were too strong and notified everything near them of her presence.
"Now this is a good time for me to teach you about this as well. As you can see, if your scan is too strong, it¡¯ll warn others of your location since they can track your mana back to you. Much like the aura coating, you want to condense your mana pulse so that it¡¯s barely detectable." She said as she flexed her fingers. Ice chains shot out of the ground and wrapped around the demon.
"With decent mana control, you¡¯ll be able to do things like this."
Snapping her fingers, an ice spear appeared above her and shattered into hundreds of pieces of ice.
Morphing themselves into tiny ice needles, they shot towards the demon and started to freeze him little by little with every hit.
As the final needlended on demon¡¯s body, he shattered into a cloud of dust as if he was never there.
"Tada~" Shiro grinned yfully.
Lisandra didn¡¯t know what to say since she literally just witnessed Shiro kill a level 50 demon in an instant.
Walking over to pick up the mana stone that dropped from the demons body along with the loot, Shiro shook her head when she saw a normal demon core as part of the loot.
¡¯I suppose it wouldn¡¯t be so easy now would it?¡¯ She thought to herself.
"Any questions?" She asked as she sat back down.
"A few. Can you tell me the main areas of mana control that I need to work on so that I know what we¡¯re doing?" Lisandra replied since so far, she knew she needed to learn aura and scan.
"Hmm... The basics would be aura, scan, focus, defence and direct mana maniption I guess. These are the foundations to all sses since they need mana in one way or another."
"And I¡¯m guessing you want me to master all of them?"
"Yup. And I have the best way for you to tap into your potential and achieve them. Only question is if you¡¯re willing or not." Shiro grinned.
If anyone from her party saw her grin, they would instantly pale since they knew that grin all too well. It was the grin that promised a near death experience in the form of ¡¯training¡¯.
"I¡¯m ready for anything you throw at me." Lisandra nodded her head.
(Author: No you¡¯re not.)
(Editor: Run. Run, and don¡¯t look back.)
Chapter 178 Truth Behind The Kings Injuries
Chapter 178 Truth Behind The King''s Injuries
It¡¯s been roughly two weeks since Shiro had started to train Lisandra.
Within the two weeks, Lisandra had made significant progress with her overall mana maniption. Her strongest aspect had to be the way she used her aura coat. During this time, she was able to focus all her mana within a small area in order to create a stronger shock. One that would allow her to stun enemies with greater sess.
Of course, this was only achieved due to Shiro cing her in constant danger which forced her to use these abilities in the heat of battle.
Unfortunately, there was one aspect that she couldn¡¯t make any progress on no matter what.
The rotational defence.
If an attacknded on her aura coat with enough force, it would break through quite easily. A way to avoid this would be the rotational defence coat that would direct the attack around you, decreasing the stress on the mana coat.
But since her attention was focused on maintaining the coat, she wasn¡¯t able to let it rotate. And when she did, the coat would be flimsy again.
"The most important part of these are multitasking. You need to be able to set your mind on a minimum of 3 things during the fight. 1, the fight itself. 2, maintaining your coat and finally 3, rotating your coat. These are the bare minimum that you need to do at the same time for you to be effective on the battlefield." Shiro said as she demonstrated with her own mana coat.
Looking at the mana that was rotating around Shiro like a flowing stream, Lisandra couldn¡¯t help buty on her back.
"Teach, I can multitask with two things but three¡¯s pushing it a little don¡¯t cha think? Especially since I¡¯ve only started to improve on the basics since 2 weeks ago." She replied as she rxed her body on the grass.
"I guess. But you can¡¯t make excuses for yourself. That will only hinder your progress." Shiroughed as she handed Lisandra one of thest pieces of wyvern meat she had stored away.
"Sure but I just can¡¯t seem to be able to multitask with three things. Do you have any tips?" Lisandra asked as she sat up.
"Hmm... tips... I do have one which is for you to dual wield while also keeping your mana coat on. However, you¡¯re going to be fighting against swords that are using two different styles of attack so you must keep an eye out for both.
"Oh also, I¡¯ll be attacking you directly with mana so your coat must be durable." Shiro smiled.
"Hmm... if this works then why not." Lisandra nodded her head. After two weeks of life and death training, she had gotten used to Shiro¡¯s ways.
Nodding her head, Shiro tapped her ne and summoned her swords.
"Get up when you¡¯re ready." She said with a small smile.
"Hang on~"
Grabbing the meat with both her hands, Lisandra started to devour the meat like a wild animal.
"... You know what you look like right now, right?" Shiro said as she could almost feel a sweat droplet rolling down her face.
"And? Training is more important than grace." Lisandra said without looking up.
"Done." She smiled after a short moment.
"Goodness. Well at least this should help you digest the food." Shiro smiled wearily.
Lisandra retrieved two swords from her own spacial bracelet and took a deep breath. Getting herself into a stance, she waited for Shiro to begin.
Flexing her finger, Shiro sent two of her swords to attack Lisandra while she herself gathered a pulse of mana in her palms, ready to attack Lisandra¡¯s mana coat at any moment.
*CLANG CLANG!!!
Deflecting the two swords, Lisandra narrowed her eyes and activated her mana coat.
*BOOM!!!
The force sent the two swords flying back for a moment. However, they recovered quickly and shot towards Lisandra once more.
The first sword used Asura Path while the second sword adapted to her movements and used a different style of attack.
Gritting her teeth, Lisandra flicked her sword in a reverse grip and blocked the second sword.
¡¯Now.¡¯ Shiro thought as she pushed out her palm and send a shot of mana towards her.
*BANG! PING!
"Arg!"
The power of the mana shot easily destroyed her mana coat since her concentration had fluctuated the moment she blocked the sword.
"Again!" Lisandra cried out as she flipped herself back on her feet.
Nodding her head, Shiro sent the swords to attack her once more.
###
"We¡¯ll finish here for now." Shiro said as she looked at the barely standing Lisandra.
"Hai~" *Thud*
Chuckling slightly, Shiro carried the fallen Lisandra and sat her up next to the tree.
Today was the 3rd day of trying to get Lisandra to seed in multitasking. While there was progress, Shiro guessed that it was a 30% chance for her to seed since her coating would still fluctuate quite often.
But baby steps.
Right now, the day was split into 2 parts. In the morning, they would go out and hunt demons while at night, they would be sparring against each other.
Just after two and a half weeks worth of training, she had managed to raise Lisandra¡¯s level up to 36 while her own ss up requirement has made some ¡¯slight¡¯ progress.
[ 22/1,000 ] C ss mana stones
Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to run into many C ssed monsters so she could only harvest 19 mana stones.
¡¯Hopefully, there should be more C ssed monsters in the war.¡¯ She thought to herself.
In addition to this, there was also the problem of reaching tier 3 in her attunements.
While she did have the pill in her inventory, she was barred from essing it for now so she could only wait.
*sigh
"What¡¯s wrong teach?" Lisandra asked as she heard Shiro sigh.
"Nothing much don¡¯t worry about it."
"I can see that you¡¯re troubled. It won¡¯t hurt to tell me now would it?" Lisandra replied.
"Mn, well I guess. I need a type of medicine but I left it back in my house. I can¡¯t ess it right now so it¡¯s a little unfortunate." Shiro shook her head.
"If it¡¯s important, why didn¡¯t you take it earlier?"
"Because the effects would be dulled. When ingesting the pill, I would suffer pain all over my body. Sure, I may be able to resist the pain but after some point, the body would automatically shut down to protect itself against your will. AND, if I faint, the effects would be dulled. So I wanted to wait till level 50 in order to maximise my chances of staying conscious through the entire process." Shiro shook her head.
"Another question, why do you need to eat the medicine in the first ce?" Lisandra asked.
"Because I damaged my body and I need the pill in order to repair it."
"Eh?! That sounds like what happened to father." Lisandra said as she widened her eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"Well I think father was around level 100 before, but after his body was damaged, he reverted back to a level 50. Back then, I remember that his life was in danger and the doctors managed to get a pill that reconstructed his body slightly in order for him to keep his life." She replied with furrowed brows.
"Hou? What kind of pill was it?" Shiro asked as her interest was piqued.
"I¡¯m not sure. You¡¯ll have to ask father when you see him again. But I¡¯m sure that if he has any spare, he¡¯ll give it to you." Lisandra smiled.
"I see... By the way, do you know how your father was injured to begin with?"
She was curious as to why such a powerful person was reduced to a level 50.
"..." Lisandra furrowed her brows as she repeatedly opened her mouth and closed them. Not sure if she should tell Shiro or not.
"If it¡¯s difficult, you don¡¯t have to tell me."
"No it¡¯s fine. Basically, my elder brother injured father. He was swayed by the demons and was converted over to their side." Lisandra sighed as Shiro paused in surprise.
"Is that why it¡¯s only you in the castle?" Shiro asked since she wasn¡¯t able to find any of Lisandra¡¯s sibling.
"Yeah, I don¡¯t know what happened but brother wasn¡¯t like that before. He was kind and caring though." Lisandra sighed.
Shiro could see the sadness in her eyes and realised that their rtionship must have been close for her to show this much sadness.
"You care for him even though he almost killed your father?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Well... I don¡¯t know." Lisandra shrugged her shoulders slightly.
Just as Shiro was about to speak, she saw an update in her quest log.
[You¡¯ve discovered the reason as to why the king was injured. Points added to final score.]
¡¯Huh... Seems like I got a bit lucky.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she didn¡¯t think that finding out about who injured the king would increase her final score.
"Well let¡¯s not think about that for now. Rest up well because we¡¯ll be invading an encampment tomorrow." Shiro smiled since she had detected movement towards the north of their current location a while ago. From what she could tell, they numbered around 200 demons strong.
¡¯If my guess is right, this should be the scouting group. The demons should have gotten a newmander by now and they¡¯re preparing for war.¡¯ She thought with a slight frown.
Sitting on one of the tallest trees, Shiro created a telescope and searched towards the north.
¡¯Hmm... seems like they¡¯re making a camp.¡¯ She narrowed her eyes. The situation was advancing quicker than she had expected since the moment they finish setting up camp, they¡¯ll be ready for war.
"If I go around destroying the camps with Lisandra, we should be able to increase the amount of time for her to train while also dying the war for as long as we could." She muttered.
Disassembling the telescope, she opened her bag and took Yin out.
During the time that she had been training Lisandra, she noticed that runes were slowly appearing all over the surface of her egg.
"When will you hatch?" She whispered.
###
"Two demons on the right." Shiro said over the munication¡¯ crystal that she had given to Lisandra. Which in reality, was only a tiny speaker and microphone encased in ice.
While Lisandra was making her way through the camp and killing the demons that she saw, Shiro would point out the demons that she couldn¡¯t see. And if Lisandra wasn¡¯t able to react in time or couldn¡¯t reach a demon, she would finish them off with her ¡¯magic¡¯.
Since Lisandra couldn¡¯t see what she was holding, Shiro only told her that this was one of her most powerful ¡¯magic¡¯. Which was aplete lie.
[Eclipse Particle Cannon LVL 50 ¨C Rail Sniper (Purple+)
+2500 Attack
+2000 Armour Pration
+1500 Critical Chance
+1000 Critical Damage
+40% Lightning Damage
+40% Piercing Damage
Passive Skill: Headshot, Coteral Damage, Charge Up.
Headshot: Increase Damage and 100% crit when the bullet hits the head.
Coteral Damage: Bullets that pierce multiple enemies would explode.
Charge Up: Damage Multiplier is applied when holding down the trigger to activate the particle elerator.
The sniper itself was ck in colour, red highlights along the edge of the tes and had neon blue coils that protruded from the side of the sniper. The coils would gather the ambient mana and passively increase the power of each shot without burdening Shiro as much.
Looking down the scope, Shiro saw a few demon bowmen pull back on their strings.
*BANG!!!!!!!!
Shooting the sniper from her vantage point, Shiropletely decimated the tower due to the fact that her bullet had pierced two bowmen and triggered her Coteral Damage Skill.
"Holy crap teach! You¡¯ve gotta teach me that skill!" Lisandra cried out in surprise seeing Shiro wipe out an entire tower in one go.
"Focus on the task at hand. The boss ising to you." Shiro replied over the mic.
Flicking a switch on the side of the sniper, several magic circles formed around the coils and started to draw in more mana.
*BZZZ!!!
Lightning flickered off the sniper barrel as she could see the charge percentage slowly increase.
While her damage multiplier was slowly increasing, she was spectating Lisandra¡¯s attempt at soloing the boss.
"Top down swing in 2 seconds. Keep an eye on muscle movement." She advised over the mic.
"Parry the right sh then rotate into two upper cuts."
As Lisandra fought the boss, Shiro would advise her about what the boss was doing in order for her to get used to fighting bosses.
It proved helpful since Shiro didn¡¯t need to give as much adviceter on since she could tell that Lisandra was fully absorbing her tips.
Not only that, she was improving in regards to multitasking with three things.
However, the stress was a little too much for her as she started to slow down and mistakes appeared more often.
"Not bad progress. Do you want to end this now and recover? There¡¯s always the next camp for you to fight a boss." Shiro asked.
"...Yes please." Lisandra replied in slight frustration. While she was getting into the zone, she also knew that her body was finding it hard to keep up.
"Ok, retreat as much as you can. Minimum of 50 meters." Shiro said while homing onto the bosses head. The current damage multiplier was 250%, more than enough to kill this boss in one go. Plus, he was only level 40, she was 10 levels above him.
Once Lisandra retreated pass the 50 meter mark, Shiro pulled on her trigger.
*BANG!!!!
Lisandra only saw a thin line of white before she wasunched back a little from the force of the bullet colliding against the ground.
"WAHH!!!!" She cried out over the mic.
Quicklynding on her feet, she looked up and saw the boss missing the majority of his upper torso.
"Holy sh*t..." She muttered.
"Come back, we¡¯ll be heading to the next camp." Shiro chuckled as she disassembled the sniper and stood back up.
Chapter 179 Awakening
Chapter 179 Awakening
As they continued to destroy the demon camps, Shiro managed to pseudo level up due to the amount of bosses she killed during this time. This pseudo level also allowed her to gain a rank much like what had happened to her before.
This time, she managed to gain the rank of General which boosted all her stats by 10%.
¡¯Shame that I can¡¯t keep this title once I ss up.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
In addition to this, she had also managed to collect a total of 46 C ranked mana stones. While it was still a far cry from the ridiculous target of 1,000, it was still progress.
"Can you take care of the boss?" Shiro asked as she saw Lisandra hold her own pretty well against the boss of this camp.
"I can do it!" Lisandra shouted out as she twisted her body and shed the boss¡¯s wrist tendons, forcing him to drop the sword.
Gritting her teeth, she flicked her sword up before kicking the pommel.
*PUCHI!!!
Her sword stabbed through the boss¡¯s mouth and lodged itself tight.
Making a small concentrated orb of mana, Lisandra narrowed her eyes and aimed it at the handle and crushed the orb.
*BANG!!!!!
The force of the orb exploding caused the sword to sh upwards, cleaving the boss¡¯s face in half.
Unfortunately, when Lisandra tried to grab the sword, her hand missed the handle. Her eyes widened in shock as she couldn¡¯t do anything but watch the sworde closer to her face.
*BANG! PING!!!!
Just before the sword could hit her, Shiro¡¯s bullet snapped Lisandra¡¯s sword into several pieces.
"Hais..." Shiro sighed as she looked away from the scope. The moment she saw Lisandra gather mana in her palm, she knew what she wanted to do so she quickly simted the possible travel courses of the sword and prepared to fire the moment the sword killed the boss.
"... Are you angry?" Lisandra asked timidly since she understood the danger she had just put herself in.
"I¡¯m not angry. Just disappointed. Of all the things you could have done, you picked the one that put you in the most risk. You¡¯re a fighter, not a clown. Why are you fighting like you¡¯re performing in a circus?" Shiro asked.
"But don¡¯t you also do it?" Lisandra pouted.
"Yes, because I¡¯ve literally done it all my life. I¡¯m confident enough in my body control to aplish that almost perfectly every time. Are you the same?" Shiro frowned.
"..."
"Hais, forget it. Juste back, most of the camp leaders are now almost level 50. Seems like the demons are getting a little impatient." She shook her head and rested her sniper on her shoulders.
Cracking her neck, Shiro threw a D ranked mana stone lollipop in her mouth.
"Well aren¡¯t you a sneaky bastard?" She said as she flexed her fingers and created a hand cannon.
*BANG!
Without even turning around, she shot her gun and killed the demon that was creeping up to her.
"Phantis huh?" She muttered seeing the type of demon that tried to kill her.
As a demon that relied on assassination, her hand cannon that dealt armour pration was lethal for him.
Twirling the hand cannon, she disassembled it along with the sniper and collected the demon¡¯s mana stone along with his corpse.
Sitting down on a tree branch, Shiro crossed her legs and closed her eyes as she waited for Lisandra to arrive.
After a short moment, she heard some movement to her left and opened her eyes.
Looking at Lisandra who was stretching her body, Shiro hopped off the branch.
"Want to rest a bit or go to the next camp now?" She asked.
"Can we rest a little?" Lisandra asked.
"Sure. But not here, a Phantis type demon tried to ambush me just now so this ce is probably not safe." Shiro shrugged.
While she could take care of them, it would mostly be troublesome since Lisandra needed to rest up.
Nodding her head, Lisandra followed after Shiro.
In the end, they decided to rest in the middle of the forest since the cover the trees provided them would be helpful.
"Since we¡¯ve ran out of wyvern meat, we¡¯ll just eat some of this." Shiro said as she pulled out a few pieces of monster meat that she collected on the way here.
As they were roasting the meat, Shiro paused in surprise when she felt her bag slowly heat up.
Pulling out Yin from her bag, she saw the runes glowing with a purple light.
"Is it about to hatch teach?" Lisandra asked with anticipation.
"I hope so." Shiro smiled as she could feel the runes heat up in her hand. Frowning slightly, she ced it on the ground carefully.
*TSSSS!!!!
The grass started to burn as the runes continued to heat up.
The egg shook slightly as it started to roll towards the fire. Shiro didn¡¯t do anything to stop it since she understood that this was probably required.
"Shouldn¡¯t we stop it teach? It¡¯ll be dinner soon!" Lisandra cried out seeing Yin rolling towards the fire.
"Just watch."
Adjusting herself in the centre of the fire, mana started to roll off her shell and amplified the power of the fire.
"Hmm... maybe she wants it to be hotter?" Shiro muttered in confusion. From what she could see, Yin was actively increasing the temperature of the fire.
"I¡¯ll give you a hand." She smiled.
Snapping her fingers, orbs of fire lit up around her as she slowly increased its intensity.
The fire flickered for a few short moments before the colour slowly changed to a bright white.
"SSSS!!!" Gritting her teeth, Shiro resisted the heat and sent the fire towards Yin.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Yin¡¯s runes exploded with light the moment it came into contact with the mes.
"Step back!" Shiro shouted out. She could feel Yin holding back the mana from bursting out.
Quickly retreating away from the fire that was growing out of control, Shiro released her Ice aura to make things a little morefortable for herself.
*BANG!!!!
A pir of fire suddenly shot into the sky, rendering her ice aura useless.
Quickly ncing down at her hand, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she saw steam being emitted along with her HP ticking away every second.
"Tsk, you¡¯re about to kill me at this rate." Shiro clicked her tongue. A blue glow appeared in her eyes as she mmed her hand down and used her Ice Domain skill.
*KRRRRR!!!!
The area surrounding her instantly froze up and started to resist against the heat.
Lisandra, who was spectating all of this, was having a hard time digesting this.
"Wasn¡¯t that your pet teach?! Why is it attacking you?" She asked.
"It¡¯s not attacking me. This is just a side effect from her evolution." Shiro replied as she noticed a change in the fire.
A streak of ck and purple cut the pir of fire in half and started to contaminate the fire.
*KIIIIIII!!!!!!
An ear rupturing screech rang out as the mes started to morph into the shape of a bird.
Wincing slightly from the cry, Shiro kept her eyes on the bird since she knew it was Yin.
Turning her head over, Yin pped her wings and flew towards them at astonishing speeds.
"KIII!!!!~
Yin cried out happily as she was finally out of the egg.
Looking at Yin who was many times bigger than her, Shiro smiled wearily since she struggled to pat her head.
"Li- nah I can¡¯t call you little Yin anymore can I?" Shiro chuckled.
She wanted to stroke Yin¡¯s feathers but decided against it for now since she could see ck and purple mes flickering on the tips of her feathers.
[Yin LVL 51 ¨C Dark Star Cmity (Phoenix)]
HP: 2,000,000/2,000,000
MP: 5,000,000/5,000,000
Skills: Dark Star Empowerment (Tier 3), Ice Chain (Tier 3), Shadow Cloak (Tier 3), Dark Star Cmity Magic (Tier 3), Rift Walker (Tier 3), Absorption/Redirection (Tier 2), Shadow Affinity (Tier 3), Dark Star Affinity (Tier 3), Dark Star Seraphim (Tier 3), Morph ¨C Humanoid, ???.
"Dark Star Cmity?" Shiro muttered as she raised her eyebrows. Not only did most of her shadow type skills change into Dark Star versions, Yin was also a part of the Phoenix race.
*KI~!
Yin nodded her head happily.
Unfortunately, a few of her skills weren¡¯t shared with her. Morph ¨C Humanoid, Dark Star Cmity Magic, ??? and even Absorption/Redirection was no longer shared with her.
Thankfully, she was still able to use Rift Walker. Plus, she was also able to gain Tier 3 Shadow attunement and Tier 3 Dark Star attunement, which is a branch of fire attunement, from Yin¡¯s passive skills.
A single ss up with Yin allowed her to progress massively with one of her ss up requirements.
[ 2/4 ] Tier 3 Attunement in 4 elements
"Yin you can be a humanoid?" Shiro asked seeing Yin¡¯s skill.
Yin nodded her head again as a purple glow covered her body.
Her form suddenly shrank down into the form of a young girl who was a bit smaller than Shiro.
(In the b.r.e.a.s.t department as well, which brought Shiro great joy.)
She had ck hair that was swept to the side and dark purple hair. Her overall facial shape looked like a mix of Shiro and Fei Ling, whom was Shiro¡¯s attendant back in the Shadow Temple quest where she received Yin.
She wore a ck and purple dress that contrasted with her skin. The dress itself had delicate patterns around the edges which almost made it seem like there were mes dancing in the dress.
"Mom!" She cried out.
"Hold the f*ck up." Shiro replied on impulse.
"Mom?!" Lisandra widened her eyes in shock.
"Why did you call me mom?" Shiro asked as she massaged her eyes.
"Well... You fed me, hatched me and even looked after me." Yin smiled.
"Does mum not want me?" She teared up.
"Urg, you can drop act now you little brat. As if I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re like from the times you¡¯ve leached off me." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"But I¡¯m not acting." Yin pouted.
"Hou hou, do you want me to recount the times that you¡¯ve stolen my kills and ate all the mana stones I gave you in just a day?" Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Fine~ You got me." Yin stuck out her tongue in yfulness.
Jumping on Shiro, she sat on her shoulders and reached out her hand.
"What do you want?" Shiro asked as she tried to pry Yin off her shoulders to no avail.
"Lollipop."
"And the first thing you want from me is food. God you¡¯re still the glutton I knew. Kinda wished that part of you changed with your evolution." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"I¡¯m hungry you know? I was stuck in that egg for weeks and you were eating wyvern meat without me!" Yin pouted.
"Fine fine. But I need the C ssed mana stones for my ss up. You better not eat them all ok?" Shiro sighed and made a mana stone lollipop.
"I won¡¯t, don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s be a snack now that I can gather some mana from the air." Yin replied as she threw the lollipop in her mouth.
Shaking her head, Shiro looked over at the shell shocked Lisandra.
"Lisa, can you hear me?" She called out.
"Ah! Yeah. Did she just call you mum?"
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Yin¡¯s just messing around." Shiro shrugged.
"Uhuh. Though she might as well be my mum since she treats me well~ " Yin said with the lollipop in her mouth.
"You¡¯re just toozy. Now can you get off my shoulders?" Shiro asked as she looked up at Yin.
"Nope. This was my spot to begin with." Yin replied with a shake of her head.
Ever since she was born, Shiro¡¯s head and shoulders had been her territory. She wasn¡¯t about to relinquish her spot to others.
"By the way, how do you want me to call you? Shiro-nee like Kanae, Shiro like everyone else, mom~ or master?" She asked.
"Just Shiro I guess?"
"I see I see. I¡¯ll call you mom." Yin said with a sh*t eating grin.
"Why did you even ask me to begin with?"
"Why not? It¡¯s not like you¡¯re ever gonna have a child are you now? Since I¡¯m gonna be with you, why not just adopt me as your daughter?" Yin suggested.
"Then again, even if you say no I¡¯m still gonna call you mom." She continued.
"... Hais." Shiro sighed.
"Mum~, let¡¯s head to the next camp. I want to show you what I can do." Yin suggested.
"That¡¯s not a bad idea." Shiro nodded.
"Oh but before I forget? Why do you look a bit like Fei Ling?"
"Fei Ling? Hmm... I don¡¯t know who that is." Yin furrowed her brows.
"Never mind then. Probably your ancestor or something." Shiro smiled lightly.
Since she had infused Yin with a droplet of her blood before she was even born from the egg, it was only natural that Yin would take some of her features. But for her to also have Fei Ling¡¯s features meant that she was part of her bloodline.
Which only led Shiro to ask the question of why that was the case.
She already knew that time was a bit strange inside the dungeons since 1 day in here was only 1 hour out there. It wouldn¡¯t be surprising if a dungeon had the time dtion of a few generations.
¡¯If the dungeons had a link to Aria, my old world, it wouldn¡¯t be unnatural for it to have connections with other worlds. Which means, there is perhaps a chance for me to make it back to my world and kill the light hero.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
"Mum, you might want to lower your killing intent a bit. This baby is sensitive to ice." Yin reminded.
"You¡¯re sensitive to ice? What about me? I¡¯m literally weak to fire (because I¡¯m a snow girl right now) and your steamy a** is on my shoulders. Think about how I feel." Shiro retorted with a roll of her eyes.
"It¡¯s fine~ you got my Dark Star affinity don¡¯t you? You should be more resistant to fire now." Yin dismissed lightly.
...
¡¯Can I disown this unfilial daughter?¡¯
Chapter 180 Demonstration
Chapter 180 Demonstration
As they made their way through the forest, towards the next camp, Shiro was currently checking the changes brought to her own body due to Yin¡¯s evolution.
The biggest change was certainly the fact that she now had a fire type attunement. Unfortunately, it seemed like she could only enhance her skills with the element rather than create skills with the element as the mainponent.
An example would be her Ice Drake¡¯s Feast.
If Yin were to try to recreate the skill, she could be able to reconstruct the entire drake out of her Dark Star element.
On the other hand, if Shiro were to try the same, all she could aplish would be to include orbs of dark star around the drake to deal more damage.
Another problem was that she still took a little bit of damage from the fire. Sure she may have the attunement and some resistance to fire, but it didn¡¯t mean she was no longer weak to it. So using the Dark Star element was advised against for now since it was a double edged sword.
Of course, things would change once she ssed up. She would gain an overall increase to elemental resistance along with removing some of her innate weakness as a snow girl.
Not to mention, she was still allowed to keep her Ice Princess title meaning her ice magic was still empowered. Obviously, if she was to lose ess to her ice magic, the title would disappear as well.
Flexing her fingers, Shiro summoned a small flicker of dark star element so that she could see what it looked like.
The me was a mixture of ck and purple along with some white dots that made it seem like it was made from a gxy.
Seeing Shiro y around with the new me, Yin stuck her head forward and blew the me gently.
"You know mum, if your curious about what it can do you can just ask me right?"
"Fine I¡¯ll entertain you. What does it do?" Shiro smiled lightly.
"Fufu, the Dark Star me can consume other fire elements and empower itself to burn harder. When I hatched from my shell a second time, a single spark of the Dark Fire was able to consume the entire pir of fire. If mum didn¡¯t send more fire, I might not have gotten this many benefits." Yin said as she rxed herself on Shiro¡¯s shoulders.
"Oi, don¡¯t rx too much. You¡¯re gonna fall." Shiro reminded.
"You can hold me tighter so that I don¡¯t fall~ This baby is tired. I was just hatched not too long ago." Yin grinned.
"Hou~ Didn¡¯t you say you want to demonstrate your power? If baby is tired then how can you demonstrate your power." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"*cough* Oh wow, I¡¯m suddenly filled with power. Let¡¯s hurry mum." Yin said as she instantly sat up straight. She wasn¡¯t about to miss out on the opportunity of showing off to Shiro now was she?
Lisandra giggled slightly at Yin¡¯s antics while Shiro only rolled her eyes.
¡¯At least she aint a baby.¡¯ She thought to herself.
If Yin¡¯s humanoid form was that of an infant who couldn¡¯t talk, she didn¡¯t know what she would do.
"Oh? I see the camp." Yin called out.
"Let¡¯s stop here then. If you show of when I¡¯m near, I¡¯m pretty sure that I¡¯m gonna melt. (Literally.)"
"Mn, fine. I don¡¯t need to be in human form for this anyways." Yin shrugged as she hopped off Shiro¡¯s shoulders.
Landing softly, she closed her eyes as a purple phoenix mark slowly appeared in the centre of her forehead.
"By the way mum, how much of my power do you want to see?" Yin asked.
"Well a decent amount I suppose." Shiro smiled.
"Got it."
Purple mes wrapped around Yin¡¯s body as she shot into the air.
*KI!!!!
Spreading her wings, Yin gathered the surrounding mana.
*BOOM!!!!!
A tier 3 magic circle suddenly appeared above the camp.
*KII!!!!
Following her cry, the magic circle glowed with an ominous light. Hundreds of orbs started to form around her as she pped her wings and sent the orbs flying towards the camp.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!!
The scene was reminiscent of a meteor storm.
Even Shiro was taken aback by the power that Yin demonstrated with a single spell.
However, this was just the beginning. Once the orbs crashed against something, they would ignite into a giant fire tornado that started to run rampant around the camp.
The mes started to converge towards the centre as Shiro felt arge cl.u.s.ter of mana being sucked towards the convergence point.
¡¯Oh sh*t!¡¯
"Get down!" Shiro shouted out as she quickly grabbed Lisandra and made an Ice Wall to protect them from the heavy gust of wind that would follow after the huge body of mana detonates.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!
Once all of the mes converged in the middle, they started to merge and sent out waves after waves of Dark Star Fire around it.
After a short moment, there was nothing left of the camp par from the giant crater that made it look like a bomb had justnded on the camp.
*KI!!!!
Crying out happily, she made her way back to Shiro.
Shifting her body in mid-air, shended with a soft tap.
"How was that mum?" Yin asked as her eyes showed that she was clearly expecting praise.
"Impressive. But how much mana did it use?" Shiro replied as her smile twitched slightly/
"Errr not that much." Yin coughed lightly.
"You know I can check myself right?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
". . . Mum, believing in your baby is an important step in parenthood ya know? Benefit of the doubt?"
". . . hais."
Sighing slightly, Shiro patted Yin¡¯s head.
Yin thought that Shiro was about to believe her without checking as he felt slightly emotional at the fact that she was indeed giving her the benefit of the doubt.
"Mum..." Yins said emotionally.
However, that was soon changed as she paled from feeling Shiro¡¯s grip tighten instantly.
"You little sh*t. Did you just use 3 million MP on a f*cking demonstration? Ahhh?!" Shiro said as her aura took aplete 180-degree turn. Just looking at Yin¡¯s current stats gave her urge to give Yin¡¯s head a p.
"Ahhhh!!!! Go easy on this baby¡¯s head! I¡¯ll lose my IQ at this rate!" Yin cried out as she tried to get Shiro to let go of her head.
"Hah???? IQ? Where¡¯s the IQ when you decided to use 3 million MP for a single spell. I can see your debuff you know?!" She said whilst tugging on Yin¡¯s cheeks.
"Um tea-"
"Hush Lisa. I¡¯m gonna teach this unfilial daughter how not to be a dumbass." Shiro said, cutting her off mid speech.
"First, your skill is a tier 3 advanced destruction magic from what I can see. This kind of skill is used to finish off a fight not start one. I can see that you have a debuff called Mana Fatigue thatsts for 5 hours. You decided to use a spell that made you almost useless for 5 hours? What are you thinking?!" Shiro berated.
Letting go of Yin¡¯s cheeks, she massaged her eyes.
"If you¡¯re going to demonstrate at least show what you can do in a 1v1 situation and not just bombing the whole area." Shiro continued as she nced back at the teary eyes Yin.
"But didn¡¯t you tell me to show you a decent amount of my power? This isn¡¯t my best skill you know so it¡¯s still ssed as decent. Plus, you never told me to go for 1v1¡¯s." Yin pouted as she rubbed away her tears.
Pausing for a short moment, Shiro suddenly had the urge to say ¡¯listen here you little sh*t¡¯.
"Hais. Forget it. Come on, we¡¯ll go to the next camp. Since you have the debuff, you¡¯re going to watch us for the next 5 hours." She said as she helped Yin stand up.
"Hmph, give me another lollipop. This baby¡¯s emotional state is in turmoil because of you." Yin huffed whilst climbing back on Shiro¡¯s shoulder.
"Fine, here." Shiro rolled her eyes as she handed Yin another C ss lollipop.
"You really are embracing your role as a mother aren¡¯t you teach." Lisandra raised an eyebrow.
"Of course. It¡¯s because this baby is cute and mum can¡¯t resist me." Yin grinned.
"As if." Shiro smiled lightly as she knocking Yin on the head.
"See? yful affection." Yin said while rubbing her head.
"..."
:Just ignore it Shiro and it¡¯ll be fine.¡¯ She thought to herself as they made their way to the next camp.
Splitting up once more, Shiro created her sniper andid down on a high vantage point.
"Say mum, is Lisandra like Lyrica?" Yin asked as she squatted next to Shiro.
"What do you mean?" Shiro replied without turning her head.
"Well, you teach her how to fight and look after her. Kinda like what you do with Lyrica."
"Hmm... I guess? But it¡¯s more for the quest than anything." Shiro shrugged slightly as she shot one of the demons that Lisandra failed to hit.
"Heh~ is that so. Oh yeah, when are you going to open up to Lyrica and the others? We can¡¯t hide the fact that we¡¯re monsters for long, mum." Yin asked as shey on her back.
"..." Shiro stayed silent.
"Or is mum scared?"
"What are you trying to say Yin?" Shiro frowned slightly.
"I may be a baby but I¡¯m still intelligent you know? You¡¯re always hesitating about showing off your powers in front of others. Even in dangerous situations. Why¡¯s that?"
"... I suppose it¡¯s ok if you know. So you know how I got you from a different world?"
"Yeah, and that mum¡¯s a snow girl but is also ¡¯something else¡¯ at the same time." Yin nodded.
From as far back as she could remember, she had always seen Shiro use metal to create all kinds of stuff. She knew it wasn¡¯t metal magic since it felt different and foreign. It felt ¡¯off.¡¯
"Well it¡¯s my second ss. Nanomancer, a ss from my past life. The one I had before I died." Shiro confessed since Yin was going to be with her till death. Literally.
"Wait what?! Mum died once already?!?!" Yin widened her eyes in confusion and shock.
"Yeah, I was a little surprised as well. But ignoring that, the cause of my death was in the hands of someone who I had once recognised as a ¡¯friend¡¯. He saved me from my prison and gave me freedom in a way. But because I was too powerful and surpassed him to be the first one in our world to be a tier 6 legend, he decided to turn his sword against me. Normally I would win, but he created a device to exploit my weaknesses.
"But now that I know that dungeons are connected, there is the chance that I can visit Aria in the future." Shiro narrowed her eyes at the thought of revenge. Her only hope was that she could kill the real him with her own hands and not a simtion type setting like this quest.
From her own estimations, she guessed that the quest had a pool of rewards for first clears or ranks. For Yuan Tian to be able to leave, that meant that the main character¡¯s in quests could be ¡¯taken out¡¯ in a way.
Another example would be Yin. She believed that she was the first one to clear the shadow temple quest to that degree hence she was rewarded with Yin¡¯s egg.
But if someone else managed to clear the quest to the same grade before her, there would be no way that Shiro could have received Yin.
¡¯Which means that if I can find a quest that led back to Aria, there¡¯s a chance that no one had killed the hero yet. But dungeons are inconsistent. I can¡¯t guarantee that I will be able to arrive in the same time frame. The best way would be trying to move into the world manually. If I can be reborn in a new world, the reverse should also be possible.¡¯
"Mum, if you¡¯re not careful you might ¡¯fall¡¯." Yin warned.
"Fall?" Shiro paused hearing the word.
"Your names turning ck mum. I don¡¯t know what it means but something is telling me that once it bes permanent, you¡¯ll ¡¯fall¡¯." Yin said, sitting up straight. There was no more signs of yfulness as Shiro knew that Yin was being serious.
"... I¡¯ll try." Shiro nodded her head after seeing Yin¡¯s concern for her.
Crawling on her back, Yin sighed as she buried her face into Shiro¡¯s hair.
"When your name turns ck it¡¯s eerie mum." She muttered as her breathing became rhythmic.
After a few short moments, Shiro realised that Yin fell asleep.
¡¯She really is tired.¡¯ She thought with a soft smile.
Flexing her fingers, she created a bedsheet and covering Yin inside it. Since she had created it using nanofibre, she didn¡¯t have to worry about it being ufortable.
Gentlyying her besides her, Shiro created a pair of ear muffs that blocked out the sound so that her gunfire won¡¯t startle Yin.
¡¯So whenever I think of killing the light hero my names turns ck and it risks me ¡¯falling¡¯ huh?¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
She had a few theories in mind but that was it. They were theories and nothing more.
Chapter 181 Fortress
Chapter 181 Fortress
*yawn~
Rubbing her eyes, Yin looked up and saw that Shiro was currently carrying her on her back.
"Mum?" She called out.
"Mn? You finally awake sleepy head?" Shiro smiled.
"Yeah. Where are we going?"
"We¡¯re going deeper into the demon territory. They undid one of the barriers to reveal apleted fort so we¡¯re going to be invading it this time." Shiro smiled.
"Are you sure teach? I mean I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to help much since my level is a little low whenpared to the ones at the fort." Lisandra frowned slightly.
"Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯ve already checked out the average level inside the fort and its only 45. You¡¯re not too far away from that so it¡¯s fine."
"Level 45 is crazy for me! I¡¯m only level 38 you know teach?!" Lisandra cried out.
"It¡¯s not crazy Little Lis, mum could kill level 50¡¯s as level 38 you know? I think she could kill them when she¡¯s level 30 if it wasn¡¯t for her injury." Yin chipped in as she made herselffortable on Shiro¡¯s back.
Lisandra wanted to say something but no words came out. The only reaction she had was to widen her eyes in disbelief, an action she had been doing often after meeting Shiro.
"Anyways, you¡¯ll be fine. Think about it this way, if you¡¯re careful with your cement, being alone against a group is beneficial. Not only do they have to worry about friendly fire, not all of them would be able to attack you at the same time. Just be careful with your cement and you¡¯ll be fine." Shiro smiled.
"if you¡¯re not confident, I¡¯ll help you storm the first line of defence. After that, I¡¯ll cover you from above with Yin."
"... Arg it¡¯s not like what I say will change your mind anyways." Lisandra sighed.
Arriving at the fort, they could see threeyers of defences. The outer wall had several sniper towers filled with archers. In addition to this, there was also the presence of Igni Colossus.
With the archers warning the main force about an attack, the Igni Colossus would fling ming rocks towards the intruders.
"It¡¯s not too bad. I can take out the snipers and get rid of their ¡¯eye¡¯ for now." Shiro muttered.
Touching her bracelet, she pretended to take out her heavy bow.
"Wait we¡¯re starting already?!" Lisandra cried out since they were still quite far away.
"We should take care of the archers first. I have a way to get us closer to the fort quickly." Shiro replied.
Drawing back on her bowstring, Shiro created the Cmity Dragon Arrow.
*BOOMMM!!!!!
The formation of the arrow caused a heavy gust of wind to explode outwards as both Yin and Lisandra quickly stabilised themselves.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t done. Since there were multiple archer towers, a single arrow would not be enough.
*KISH KISH KISH!
Splitting apart one by one, Shiro was holding onto four arrows at the same time. Injecting some Dark Star element into the arrows, the tips burst into purple mes.
*TZZZZ!!!!
Lightning flickered off the body of the bow as she aimed it up into the air.
"Little Lis, I suggest getting behind me." Yin suggested.
Tilting her head in confusion, Lisandra did what Yin said.
*BANG!!!!!
The force of the bowunching the arrows into the air caused the ground under her to crack apart as a cloud of dust was created around Shiro.
Arrows left four separate trails of light behind them as they flew through the air.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro estimated that it should be high enough,
Flexing her finger, the arrows split themselves into three copies with each one flying towards an archer tower.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM !!!!!!!
Looking at the explosion of dark purple fire in the distance, Shiro nodded her head in satisfaction since she knew that there were bound to be some fire inside the towers. By adding the dark star element, she was able to amplify the power of her spell.
"Right then, with the towers taken care of, let¡¯s move." Shiro smiled.
Grabbing Lisandra, she jumped into the rift with Yin following right behind her.
"Mum, with Rift Walker bing tier 3, you¡¯ll get a much bigger speed bonus inside the rift and you can also stay inside for much longer as well." Yin said as she was casually jogging besides Shiro.
"I can tell." Shiro nodded.
Looking over at Yin who was keeping up with her easily, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a little grateful that the C ssed enemies that she had faced in this quest were mostly strength based enemies. If she was against a speed type demon, her first instinct would naturally be to run the f*ck away.
Jumping out of the rift, they found themselves face to face with an Igni Colossus.
Throwing Lisandra to Yin, Shiro tapped her ne and summoned her swords.
¡¯No 6th sword?¡¯ She thought as she would have expected the dark star element to give her another sword.
¡¯No matter."
Twisting her body, she shifted Ataraxia¡¯s element to metal for more damage overall.
*PUCHI!!!!!
In a few short moments, deepcerations could be seen all over the demon¡¯s body. He opened his mouth in an attempt to breath fire on Shiro but she flicked a tiny spark of dark star element in his mouth.
*BOOOMMM!!!!!
Combusting into a ball of purple fire, the demon crumbled away into ash.
Walking to the edge of the wall, Shiro looked down and saw several fire balls being shot towards her by a legion of Igni Colossus¡¯s.
"Tsk."
Clicking her tongue, she snapped her fingers and raised her palm in front of her.
*KRRRRRR!!!!!
Ice crystalised in front of her as it continued to spread.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Even though the ice shield was taking heavy hits, there wasn¡¯t a single fracture or dent. At most, it was just a smallyer of ice that was melting from the heat.
"Are you ready Lisa?" Shiro asked.
"Uh... No?"
"Mn, too bad. Get ready then." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Urg, you don¡¯t really take no for an answer do you teach?"
"Little Lis, you¡¯ve been with mum for a while now you should have gotten used to this hehe~." Yin chuckled as she stroke Lisandra¡¯s hair.
"You¡¯re right. Fine, see you in a bit." Lisandra sighed as she hopped off the wall.
Landing softly on her feet, she retrieved two swords and dashed into the crowd of Igni Colossuses.
¡¯Their size is huge and they focus on long rangedbat. While their physical prowess is strong, they have heavy bodies meaning their reaction is a little slow.¡¯ She analysed.
ring up her aura coat, she shed behind the colossus¡¯s legs and shed both her sword at the back of his knees.
Quickly jumping away from the area, she saw the colossus fall and create a domino effect with the other demons.
"Good job." Shiro praised as she snapped her fingers and shattered her ice shield.
Morphing the shards into spikes, she sent them flying towards the demons.
"Make your way towards the main building, I¡¯ll cover you from above." Shiro called out.
"Got it!" Lisandra nodded as she dashed to the nextyer of defence.
"Yin. Care to give me a lift?" Shiro asked, ncing back at Yin.
"Of course, this baby is obedient after all." Yin grinned as she morphed back into her phoenix form.
Hopping on her back, Shiro flexed her fingers and created her sniper.
Yin pped her wings and flew high into the sky.
ncing through her sniper scope, Shiro helped reduced the amount of pressure on Lisandra. While she couldn¡¯t kill them, since the recoil induced by the sniper would fling her off Yin¡¯s back, it was enough to just stun them. It allowed Lisandra to get more EXP and level up.
Plus, she didn¡¯t need the EXP right now.
The more times she pseudo level up, the harder it is for her to level upter on. Right now, with the amount of EXP she had received, she would technically be level 53 but since all the EXP was earned before the ss up, it was wasted as she wasn¡¯t getting as much stat points as she could.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
As she continued to fire her sniper, she started to notice a small problem.
"They¡¯re all long ranged fighters. Nopetentmander would leave their fort like this." She muttered in suspicion.
Sending out a pulse of mana, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to scout out the inside of the fort since her mana was blocked by something.
"No something is definitely wrong. Lisa! Retreat!" Shiro called out over the crystal.
Patting Yin on the head, she gestured for her to go grab Lisandra.
*KI!
As Yin swooped down to grab Lisandra, Shiro made sure to keep her guard up on what could be inside the main building.
Changing her sniper to a bow as to not raise suspicion, she helped Lisandra onto Yin.
"Why are we going back, teach? Weren¡¯t we doing good?" Lisandra asked in confusion.
"We were. But it was unnatural. The demons aren¡¯t idiots. As if they would just defend a fort using long ranged forces. We¡¯re heading back now." Shiro shook her head. There were simply too many uncertainties inside the fort. Plus, she wasn¡¯t about to waste one of her power up items just so that they could escape from something that could have been avoided.
As they left the area, a few pairs of eyes nced towards them from the main building.
"They¡¯re gone? Shame." A feminine voice chuckled slightly.
"Hm, she¡¯s not as dumb as we were told. Previously they just razed through everything but it seems like they do have brains after all." Another replied.
"What do you think of that bird and the weapon she used?"
"Bird looks tasty and the weapon is strong. From the looks of things, the weapon is probably a bow.
"Well it¡¯ll be easy to find the bird when the war does start so we just have to be patient. The king has been waiting for years now."
"Yeah, a few more days shouldn¡¯t be hard."
Meanwhile, Shiro who felt several pairs of eyes lock onto her, felt cold sweat down her back. Each of the stares gave her the feeling of danger as she knew they would be in serious danger if they had continued into the fort.
Even if she had the items that boosted her power to the next ss, the EXP would be wasted along with the fact that she didn¡¯t know how many more there were inside the fort.
Showing Yin the way back to the kingdom, Shiro crossed her legs and started to contemte about everything that she¡¯s learned so far.
¡¯Right now there are 3 Main sections to this quest. Number one is that I have to defend the kingdom, negotiate with the other powerful beings to work together and the final section is to defend the fallen god¡¯s corpse. As for side quests for extra points, one of them is definitely to get Lisandra to level 50 but right now as it stands, that is pretty much impossible if I didn¡¯t want to waste one of my life saving items.
¡¯Then there¡¯s also the fact that I need to ask the king about the medicine along with finding out about what happened to Lisa¡¯s brother.¡¯ She thought to herself as she understood that the more she found out about the quest, the more points she would receive along with a better grade.
¡¯Hais, if I canplete the ss up requirements and evolve, I can probably help Lisa get to level 50 since I wouldn¡¯t mind using one of the charges of the Cmity Dragon Scale. I¡¯ll be benefitting from that anyways. But if I used it now, it¡¯ll only cause me problemster on since the EXP I need would be much bigger.¡¯
Shaking her head, Shiro was in a small dilemma. On one hand, she could use one of her life saving item¡¯s uses to get a better grade in this quest since she knew the rewards were going to be bountiful. But at the same time, she would be making life a little harderter due to the level up¡¯s bing harder.
However, if she was going to save her item, she would be missing out on a good opportunity. If just the base reward is a wish bag and an emergency bag then the rest was surely going to be worth it.
Both choices had their own appeal but Shiro understood that there were bound to be opportunities in the future.
¡¯I guess I¡¯ll see how it goes. If Lisa manages to reach level 50 then that¡¯s a bonus. If not, I still get an item that I need.¡¯ Shiro thought.
As Yin approached the kingdom, Shiro saw several guards gather on the walls.
"Right, they don¡¯t know about you. Yin, let¡¯s walk from here." Shiro said as she hopped off with Lisandra.
Morphing herself back into a human, Yin¡¯s first actions were to climb onto Shiro¡¯s shoulder again.
"You really like this spot, don¡¯t you?" Shiro asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Mn, it¡¯sfy after all." Yin nodded her head happily.
Walking towards the castle, the guards were a little on guard since they just saw a phoenix approach their location.
However, since the phoenix was with the royal tutor, Shiro, and their princess, Lisandra, they let the two pass.
"I¡¯m going to go talk to your father. Take this time to rest ok?" Shiro smiled as Lisandra nodded. She couldn¡¯t wait to sleep in a proper bed since she had been resting out in the wild for almost a month.
Watching Lisandra go back to her room, Shiro made her way towards the throne room with Yin.
She was going to ask him about the demon corpse and the reason for the nodes. But most importantly, she was going to ask about the medicine he took since that could be helpful to her.
Chapter 182 Questioning
Chapter 182 Questioning
"You seemed to have quite the fruitful journey." The king raised his eyebrow after seeing Yin following behind Shiro.
"Indeed. This is Yin, self-proimed daughter of mine." Shiro smiled as she gestured for Yin to say hi.
"I¡¯m not self-proimed mum. You hatched me, fed me and looked after me. If you¡¯re not my mum, who is?" Yin pouted.
"Daughter? Who¡¯s the father?" The king asked curiously. He was also a little concerned since Shiro barely looked legal. Plus, her daughter was almost as big as her!
"Like I said, she¡¯s not my blood daughter. You can think of her as adopted." Shiro sighed.
"Then why does she look so much like you?"
"Yeah, if you¡¯re not my mum, then why do I look so much like you?" Yin grinned as she hopped around Shiro.
Grabbing Yin¡¯s head, Shiro ignored her screams and looked towards the king.
"Anyways, ignoring this dumbass daughter of mine, I got a few questions for you. We should probably talk in private since this is something we don¡¯t want others to hear." Shiro said as she gestured to the guards around the ce.
"Mn... Very well. Come with me and we shall talk in private." The king nodded after a moment of thought.
Leading her to his study, the king sat down on the main chair behind his desk and gestured for Shiro to sit down.
"Yin, sit by the side for now." Shiro said as she handed Yin a C ranked mana stone lollipop.
"Un." Nodding her head, Yin followed Shiro¡¯s instructions obediently.
"Alright, important things first." Shiro sat down as her face was serious.
"Beforeing back, we found a fort not too far from the border. There were several C ssed demons inside and I can guarantee that they will destroy your forces with ease if you¡¯re not prepared.
"As for their preparations for war, I¡¯ve already tried to dy them as much as possible while also training Lisa but as you can tell, there¡¯s a limit to how much I can do. She¡¯s managed to reach level 39 after we invaded the fort but that¡¯s still a far cry from level 50." Shiro said seriously.
Frowning slightly, the king nodded his head.
"It¡¯s as you say. The estimated time for war had been dyed a little so we were able to get more reinforcements from the maind. The average level of the army had been increased up to level 40+ thanks to the time that you¡¯ve bought."
"Hmm... how did you even do that? With me and Lisandra spending almost a month in the demon continent, I was only able to raise her level to 39. So how did you manage to get the EXP needed for everyone?" Shiro asked, raising one of her eyebrows.
"That¡¯s because we¡¯re siphoning theirtent potential in order for us to survive the current tide. No need to think about the future if we can¡¯t make it to that point." The king shook his head.
"Siphoning their potential? What do you mean?" Shiro frowned.
"Within the batch of supplies provided by the maind, there was medicine that helped increase a person¡¯s power at the cost of potential in theirter life."
"Hou~ Do you have one on you now? I want to have a look at this medicine." Shiro narrowed her eyes slightly.
"I do. Here it is." The king nodded and handed her a pill.
[Potential Awakening Pill ¨C Purple]
A pill that will awaken your potential early in exchange for a harder lifeter on the line.
Examining the pill, Shiro could feel a strand of dark mana.
¡¯F*ck!¡¯ She cursed in her mind as she realised what kind of pill it was.
Sighing heavily, she crossed her legs and held her chin while looking at the pill.
Seeing this, Yin realised that something was wrong since Shiro would have this face when she was thinking about something seriously bad.
¡¯This isn¡¯t a potential awakening pill, it¡¯s demon possession pill. While the effects are simr to your body exploding with potential, your mind would be consumed once the maker activates themand. This kingdom is f*cked.¡¯ Shiro frowned deeply.
There was no need to tell the king now since there was nothing he could do. It was better that she didn¡¯t tell him anything so that he could keep morale up and make the most of his army before they died.
From her memories, the cure for the demon possession pill was almost non-existent. Unless one made a powder with the body of whoever created the pill, it was impossible to cure.
However, the fact that such a sinister pill made its way into the supplies meant that there was a spy.
¡¯So right now, not only are our movements monitored, even our army is basically gone. Seems like I¡¯ll have to take matters into my own hands.¡¯ Shiro thought as she looked up from the pill.
"Who has eaten the pill so far?" She asked.
"Just the soldiers in the army. We prioritised on raising the levels of those who were weaker. I¡¯d say more than 70% have eaten the pill now." The king said after checking some doc.u.ments.
"Mn, Well just a warning from me, it¡¯s best that you don¡¯t eat this pill for sudden power gain." Shiro shrugged.
"Anyways, speaking about medicine, what kind of medicine did you eat to recover? From what I heard from Lisa, it seems like you were injured by your own son."
"..." Hearing her question, the king sighed heavily.
Allowing the king a moment to think about whether or not he wanted to tell her, Shiro sat there patiently.
"I was indeed injured by my own son. I don¡¯t know what it was that made him convert to the demon¡¯s side but that doesn¡¯t matter anymore. As for the medicine, it was the Rebirth Pill. It allowed me to hang onto my life." The king replied.
¡¯Hm... Seems like it was a bit too soon. He hasn¡¯t told me any more information about his son. But at least I know the type of medicine he used.¡¯
"Do you have any more Rebirth Pills?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm.... I don¡¯t have anymore on me. But I think I can get some in a few days¡¯ time. I¡¯ll need to put in a request for it thought. Could it be that you want one as well?"
"Yeah. As you guessed before, my body is injured so I was hoping to recover a little before the war so that I could help out." Shiro smiled.
"I see. I¡¯ll put in a request for the potion for you."
"Thank you. Oh also, final question from me."
"What is it?" The king asked.
"Fallen God Corpse and the defence nodes. What do you know about them?" Shiro asked as she smiled lightly.
*BOOM!!!!
The king didn¡¯t even respond as a heavy aura burst out of him.
"Oi! Horny old b*stard who f*cks first thing in the morning! How dare you raise your aura at my mum." Yin frowned as her eyes gleamed with annoyance. Releasing her own aura, the temperature of the room shot up in an instant as she suppressed the king.
"KU!" Covering his mouth, a trail of blood flowed out from the corner of his lips.
"Darling, don¡¯t raise the temperature. You know I hate the heat." Shiro said as she snapped her fingers. A small area around her instantly froze over as it protected her from the heat.
"...Fine." Yin nodded after seeing Shiro¡¯sposed look.
Standing behind Shiro, Yin red at the king and retracted her aura.
"Now then, shall we have a proper talk without you threatening me?" Shiro smiled as she tapped the table and gestured for the king to sit back down.
Looking at Yin with caution, he nodded and sat back down.
"Now then, once again. Tell me what you know about the fallen god corpse and the defence nodes."
"Before that, can you tell me where you got this information?" The king asked.
This information was supposed to be ssified information that very few in the maind knew about.
"I heard it from the three demons when I killed them."
"Why didn¡¯t you bring this up before then?"
"You we¡¯re f*cking your wife in bed. Do you want me to ask you about a fallen god?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"... Fine. What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
"Mn, alright. Where should I start..."
###
Leaving the king¡¯s study with Yin, Shiro had a small frown on her face.
From what the king had told her, the god was supposed to resurrect itself in the future and they were tasked to protect its corpse. The nodes were part of a bigger formation that unless one knew of its foundations, would be very hard to break open.
But for them to be able to sessfully undo the nodes in the other locations meant that someone knew about this formation.
Not only that, but they kept the fallen god¡¯s corpse a secret because of the greed of man. Should one know of the power thates with bing a god, they would stop at nothing to undo the formation so that they could im the power for themselves.
The highest level adventurers in the continent were supposed to protect the body without desiring the power behind the god hence why the god had ced seals on all the ¡¯chosen¡¯ protectors. They were barred from absorbing the corpse and unless they were also a god, they couldn¡¯t undo this seal.
This stopped them from telling others as well since if someone else had the power to be a god, then that spelt big trouble for them.
But the demons had discovered the intel about the corpse and had been sending over waves upon waves of enemies every year in order to im the corpse for their king.
"Hais, what a pain." Shiro sighed.
"If it¡¯s a pain mum, why not just give up?" Yin asked in confusion.
"Because the reward is good. It¡¯s a pain but if you look at it from another angle, this is also good since it means I¡¯m working towards something. The system wouldn¡¯t give me a follow up quest if I wasn¡¯t doing anything." Shiro said as she nced towards her updated quest.
[Hidden Main Quest ¨C Last Stand]
After learning of the current situation from the king, you realised that there was little to no chance for the kingdom to survive since they have ingested the Demon Possession Pill. Not only that, but the threat of a high ranking spy is looming over your head. All of your actions and movements are observed. What will you do?
(Bonus points are distributed depending on how the quest takerpletes the quest.)
Thinking about the soldiers that were basically ticking time bombs that would set off at any moment, Shiro understood that she had to deal with them sooner orter.
"Are you thinking about killing the soldiers?" Yin asked.
"Huh? How do you know?" Shiro asked in surprise.
"How long do you think this baby¡¯s been with mum?"
"Not that long."
"Not the point. But I¡¯ve been looking at mum since the start you know? I know when mum wants to kill someone." Yin replied.
"And is that bad?"
"Not really. But if you kill the soldiers, wouldn¡¯t that decrease your progress in the quest? The king and little Lis would probably be mad that you killed the soldiers." Yin asked.
"I know. Which is why I¡¯m going to drain everyst use out of them." Shiro nodded. You can call her cold but since they were literally going to die anyways, she was going to make use of them so that she could get a better grade.
The next day, Shiro knocked on Lisandra¡¯s door early in the morning.
"Mn, morning teach, what¡¯s up?" She asked as she rubbed her eyes after finally having some decent sleep in a normal bed.
"Well since war is imminent, I want you to help give the soldiers a morale boost. If you help distribute drinks and refreshments to the soldiers, I¡¯m sure that their morale will soar." Shiro smiled lightly.
"Oh! That makes sense." Lisandra widened her eyes in understanding.
"Give me a second!" She said as she quickly ran back into her room and got changed.
Opening the door once more, Lisandra was now in some casual wear as she quickly dragged Shiro to the kitchen and started to get all the maids to prepare the refreshments.
"Seems like you¡¯re quite eager about this." Shiro asked in surprise.
"Of course. I love this kingdom you know? If there¡¯s a chance to boost the chances of victory so that the citizens are safe, I¡¯ll dly do what I can. Especially since it¡¯s just a small task of helping out with the task of distributing." Lisandra smiled brightly as Shiro paused for a moment.
Looking at Lisandra who was so eager to help out, Shiro realised how cruel it would be to have her be the ¡¯carrier¡¯ that infected the soldiers. Her initial n was to have Lisandra being the main contributor so that she could get the most amount of EXP from the soldiers¡¯ deaths and reach level 50.
¡¯I can¡¯t let a young girl like her be mentally traumatised like this.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Shaking her head, she decided that she was going to find another way.
¡¯I¡¯ll still have Lisandra being the carrier since it would be easier to get a mark on everyone. I need to make a main controller though so that I can change the nanobots from a distance.¡¯
"Lisa, you go help distribute everything. I¡¯m going to quickly do some research for us to have a better chance of winning the war." Shiro smiled softly and patted her hair.
"Un!"
Leaving the kitchen, Shiro kept her eyes forward.
"Yin, if I was ever in trouble, how do you think I would react?"
"...If mum was ever in trouble, I believe that you will find a way to ovee it easily."
"Good answer. Let mum show you how I make a new cure to an almost incurable disease." Shiro said with a grin. She was going to show the spy just how terrifyingly adaptive the Nanomancer ss was by curing the disease.
Chapter 183 Conversion Surgery
Chapter 183 Conversion Surgery
Returning to her room, Shiro sat down on the chair and started to think about what she was going to do.
¡¯For all my talk earlier, I really don¡¯t have the confidence. I do know that the pill is the demon possession pill but it should be affecting the conscience along with the body. It might even have something to do with the spirit, I don¡¯t know.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in seriousness.
She wascking in the understanding of the pills and the effects they caused so the first thing she needed to do was to conduct some research.
Of course, she couldn¡¯t just kidnap a soldier and experiment on them so she had to get someone else. After all, the research that she¡¯ll be conducting would most definitely kill the person in order to obtain more information.
¡¯I should probably get a pill from the king and use it on a death row prisoner or something. I might need more pills though for multiple chances of research.¡¯
Shaking her head, Shiro made her way back to the king and collected a few pills.
Since the king only gave her 5 pills, that mean she had 5 chances to find a cure.
"Hm, a little on the short side but it should be fine." Shiro muttered.
"I¡¯m sure you can do it mum." Yin encouraged.
"Thanks Yin." Shiro smiled and patted Yin on the head.
"Go hang out with Lisa for now and help her hand out the drinks. You can help speed up the spread of the bots." Shiro suggested.
"Hmm... fine." Yin replied after a short moment of thought. While she did want to stay with Shiro for longer, she understood that she couldn¡¯t help much and that Shiro needed to figure out a way to cure the pill.
Watching Yin walk away, Shiro started to walk towards the prison cells. The prison had severalyers and the one at the very bottom were those who were fated to die without any exceptions.
Since the king had already given her permission for the prisoners since she said that she needed some subjects to test out her new magic.
Greeting the prison warden, Shiro smiled lightly as she asked him to bring her to the healthiest death row prisoner.
Bringing her to the cell, the warden went back to his post.
"Garrick Drev, convicted of several cases of murder and r*pe." Shiro said as she looked at the young man in front of her.
"Heh, to be able to see such a babe before death, what a fortune." He grinned.
"Mn. Tell me, why did you do it?" Shiro asked.
"Why wouldn¡¯t I do it? It¡¯s not like the kingdom is gonna survive anyways." Heughed out.
"Mn, very well then." Shiro sighed and opened the door to his cell.
"Oh? You¡¯reing in? Why not have some fun with me?" Garrick raised an eyebrow and licked his lips.
"First of all, you clearly don¡¯t need this tongue of yours." Shiro replied coldly as her eyes showed no emotion.
*PUCHI!!!!
"AHHHH!!!!" Crying out in pain, Garrick widened his eyes as he saw his tongue pinched between Shiro¡¯s fingers.
"You don¡¯t need your d*ck either."
Flexing her fingers, an ice dagger shot towards his crotch and cut it off.
Before he could scream, Shiro grabbed his throat and entered the rift.
The warden, who had left earlier, hear a scream and quickly made his way back to the cell. Looking at the tongue and pen*s that was left on the floor, he stayed silent and pretended he didn¡¯t see anything. The man was going to die anyways. It doesn¡¯t matter how he died.
Meanwhile, Shiro brought the man back to her room.
Creating a small separate testing area from ice, so that the actual room wouldn¡¯t get bloody, Shiro locked the man down on a makeshift ice table.
"MNNN!!! MNN!!!!" The man struggled as much as he could but Shiro had already sealed his mouth shut.
"Shh... Don¡¯t distract me when I¡¯m experimenting." Shiro narrowed her eyes and smiled slightly.
Creating a scanner, she wired it up to the man¡¯s body so that she could see everything that was happening. Forcing the pill into his mouth, she made sure he ingested it before looking towards her tablet.
"Hmm... nothing is unusual right now." She muttered as she watched the pill slowly dissolve into his stomach.
However, just as the entire pill dissolved itself, Shiro noticed a change urring inside Garrick¡¯s body.
"Hou? The cells are being infected by demon cells." Shiro muttered. She noticed how his cells were being empowered and converting into stronger, more powerful demon cells.
¡¯But so far it¡¯s just changing the body to express more power. A body that¡¯s closer suited to the demon¡¯s physiques. I can¡¯t see how the maker of these pills could make the demon¡¯s possess the humans...¡¯ Shiro thought in confusion.
Making herself a chair to sit on, she looked over at Garrick and saw that he was trying to escape. His body was expanding as he was forcing as much power as he could to break out of the chains.
"Hmm... you¡¯re speeding up the ¡¯corruption¡¯ by forcing out more potential from yourself. Interesting..." Shiro muttered in interest.
Flexing her fingers, several metal nails materialised over Garrick and stabbed into his limbs, forcing him down on the table.
Creating a face mask for herself, Shiro proceeded to make a scalpel and walked next to the table.
"Now Garrick, I don¡¯t have any anaesthetic on me so the next part may hurt a ¡¯little¡¯ bit okay? But don¡¯t worry, I can definitely guarantee that you won¡¯t survive." Shiro chuckled with some mirth in her voice.
The first experiment was going to be what happens if she forced the demon cells into a dangerous situation. Would they speed up their corruption progress on the host or would they just die out? If it was the first option, her task would speed up much more since there¡¯s at least a guarantee for a reaction. If not, she would have basically wasted a test subject.
*PUSHIII!!!!!!
Tearing into his body, Shiro released several hundred of nanobots inside his body and allowed them to consume their way to the corrupted cells. That way, she¡¯ll be able to give the cell¡¯s a warning to their impending doom and force them to react.
Frowning at theck of reaction, she wondered if it was linked to the kind of fear or mental change the host experienced. Since his sped up their corruption in the search of power, that meant his thought process was definitely linked.
Snapping her finger, she put him in an illusion where he was currently fighting for his freedom. While he was winning, it wasn¡¯t by arge margin and would encourage him to seek out more power.
Looking at the disgusting grin on his face, Shiro had the urge to just end him here and now but restrained herself.
Checking his full body scan, she saw how the chemicals released by his brain was stimting the demon cells and encouraged them to corrode his body more.
Making herself a pair of sses, Shiro zoomed in on to his flesh and started to carve her way towards the infected area. Her sses were basically microscopes that allowed her to see what the demon cells were doing.
¡¯Hmm, they¡¯re kind of like a factory. When he first ingests the pill, a host cell would be created and a link would be formed towards his brain. When he desires power, the host cell would send out ¡¯scouts¡¯ to the other cells and convert them over through consumption. It¡¯s literally killing him and powering him up at the same time. But why?¡¯ She thought to herself.
It¡¯s empowering him and weakening him at the same time which seemed a little unnecessary. If it had the power to convert him into a mindless demon, surely it wouldn¡¯t need to go out of its way to weaken the host right?
Hence the reason why it was confusion Shiro.
It was as if the cells were making sure he couldn¡¯t fight bac-...
¡¯Could that be it?!¡¯ Shiro widened her eyes.
Bringing up all the information she stored in her database about spirit type demons, she noticed that they had to possess a dead or unresisting body in order to take over the person without fail. Generally, they would weaken their target and make sure that their spirit is broken before going in for the possession.
The cells were doing something simr.
They were deliberately preparing the host like he was the ingredients to create the main course.
"Which means that if I stopped them from weakening him, it should reduce the chances of the demon possessing his body. But since the cells are consuming him while producing more ¡¯flesh¡¯ in a way, I can¡¯t kill the cells."
Pausing for a second, Shiro understood that it was probably best to investigate the ¡¯scout¡¯ that the main cell would send out before anything.
Carving off a small piece of his flesh, she set it aside and started to mend it back together. But instead of using healing magic, she used nanobots to heal him. She was basically converting a part of him into machinery to support his life. For now.
Making herself a new workstation, Shiro ced the piece of flesh in the centre and started to experiment on it.
After few minutes let her nanobots devour the flesh since the cells died.
"Since it¡¯s demon cells, could my fire of life affect it?" She muttered.
Carving away more pieces of flesh, Shiro turned back to her workbench and created a small flicker of green fire.
Making it so that the fire tried to heal a small portion of the flesh, Shiro noticed how the demon cells started to die out. But, at the same time, the cells release this chemical that started to eat away at the flesh.
"Seems like when the cells die, they die along with the host." Shiro muttered.
This was a little troublesome since it meant that she couldn¡¯t just on an arsenic rampage in the army in the name of healing. It would literally kill all the soldiers.
"Hais... annoying." She muttered whilst massaging her eyes.
She could kill the corrupted cells but that also meant killing the soldiers. If she left it be, it would be giving more soldiers to the traitor.
She needed a way for her to put the cells under her control so that they won¡¯t kill the human nor weaken them.
"I can¡¯t heal the soldiers either since my skill would kill them. But if I get a normal healer to heal them, it would just give the cells more food."
"Control... Control..." She muttered while leaning back in her chair.
Of course, anyone who saw the scene right now would be freaked out since Shiro was rxing like it was a summer day (Winter since Shiro is a snow girl right now). But in the background, Garrick was now screaming once more since Shiro had stopped the illusion.
"Wait, why can¡¯t I do the same." Shiro muttered in realisation.
Since the cells were already converting the person over, what Shiro needed to do was to infect the demon cells with her nanobots.
It was basically doing the Nanomancer ss conversion on the soldiers but not following it all the way through. The end result would be for her to create an army of cybeic soldiers that were empowered by nanotech.
Thinking of this point, Shiro narrowed her eyes slightly since it was simr to what the scientists did. She was experimenting with the prisoners before exposing more people to the Nanomancer conversation surgery.
"Tsk, this is literally the meaning of the path to hell is paved with good intentions." Shiro clicked her tongue at this hypocrisy. She hated the scientists for what they had done to her but now she had be the same as them.
Shaking her head, Shiro stood up and walked towards Garrick.
"You know how lucky you are? You¡¯re going to be the first person that I attempt to make into a Nanomancer. Well, a quarter of one." Shiro chuckled.
Garrick didn¡¯t respond since all of his energy had been spent on screaming for the past few minutes.
Pinching her fingers together, Shiro focused her mind as she had to make sure she didn¡¯t convert him into a full Nanomancer. She only wanted to take over the demon cells and at the same time, make sure that the soldiers would survive.
*TZZZ!!!
Lightning flickered rampantly around her hand as she was constructing the most important item in the surgery.
The Nano Tech Core.
"SSS!" Taking a sharp breath in, Shiro flinched as she felt her links strain from creating the core.
However, after a short moment, she smiled seeing the item in between her fingers.
[Nano Tech Core ¨C ck]
The core required in the surgery to gift a person the SSS ss Nanomancer, the living war machine that can create anything and everything they think of.
A ck grade item, one that was two ranks higher than her Ataraxia which was Orange Grade and is also the second highest grade of items
(Quick reminder of item grades: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Orange, Red, ck and Rainbow.)
Taking a deep breath, Shiro looked at Garrick before shifting her gaze to his chest.
Narrowing her eyes, she plunged the core through his torso and into his heart.
"ARGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
Chapter 184 Converting An Army
Chapter 184 Converting An Army
Inserting an ample amount of mana into the core, Shiro watched as the core started to convert Garrick into a Pseudo Nanomancer.
Metal Tendrils started to wrap around the heart as it slowly spread outwards towards the rest of the body.
She needed to be careful about how she controlled this conversion since she had to stop at the 25% mark. Just enough so that his body was no longer under the demon cell¡¯s control.
Stopping the conversion at roughly 25%, Shiro widened her eyes as she quickly retreated backwards.
"GAHHH!!!!" Crying out in pain, Garrick could feel his body literally break apart. The nanobots started to turn berserk as Shiro realised that her control over them was slipping.
Frowning in annoyance, she summoned her swords and dashed towards the struggling Garrick.
shing a few times with her swords, she killed him before the nanobots turn him into something else entirely.
"Hmm... Seems like I¡¯mcking something to increase the sess rate of the conversion." Shiro muttered seeing the dead corpse that was still pulsing a little.
Sending over a strand of nanobots, she let them consume the body entirely before going back to the prison for more death row prisoners.
On her way there, she was contemting about what had gone wrong.
¡¯When activating the core inside the host, it would slowly convert their body into that of a Nanomancer¡¯s. If thepatibility is low, the host will die. But since the core I created is a ¡¯child¡¯ core of my own, it wouldn¡¯t be as powerful as my own thus meaning the sess is definitely high. Failing like that is definitely abnormal. How did the scientists do it?¡¯ Shiro thought in confusion.
Back then, she understood that she was the first sessful test subject and was also the most powerful. But this meant that future corrections were also based off of her data. Meaning everything after her was just mass produced frauds that couldn¡¯tpare to her. While the description of the item said that it created the SSS rank ss, it was still much weaker than what a normal triple S ranked ss would be.
If she had to give it a grade herself, it would be SS++. Something more powerful than double S but not good enough to be ssed as triple S.
¡¯Since they could mass produce from my data, why can¡¯t I convert him over?¡¯
Shaking her head, she grabbed another death row prisoner and made her way back to her room.
Repeating the experiment once more, Shiro made sure that she examined the prisoner carefully for any changes that may ur during the operation.
However, even after moving onto the third prisoner, Shiro couldn¡¯t see what went wrong.
Gritting her teeth in frustration, she sat on her chair and red at the empty space.
"Why isn¡¯t it working? My calctions aren¡¯t wrong. The procedure is also correct since I f*cking experienced it myself. I know what they do to create more copies so what am Icking?" She muttered.
Shaking her head, she decided to review what she had learned so far.
During the conversion surgery, the core is nted. Following which, she would imbed it with mana and encourage it to convert the host into a Nanomancer before stopping at 25% conversion.
But it was at this point that the nanobots would suddenly go berserk.
"Hmm... could it be that it cannot stop at 25%?"
Theoretically, the surgery could be stopped midway due to the fact that she could limit the amount of nanobots that are created inside the body. But the reality proved different since the moment she did that, the nanobots revolted in a way and would start to convert the host into something else entirely in order to preserve themselves in a way.
¡¯Maybe because the main objective was topletely transform the host? Since the nanobots are created for the sole purpose by the core during the surgery, stopping it would be denying them of their purpose in life if one was to look at it from another angle.
¡¯Then what if the sole purpose was to just protect the host from demon cells? Rather than giving them the main goal of converting them into a Nanomancer at the start then stopping that process midway, I can make it so that it would only turn them into mechanized soldiers.¡¯ She thought to herself as she started to test her hypothesis out.
Grabbing the 4th death row prisoner, she fed him the demon pill before creating a new Nano Tech Core.
Rewriting the purpose of the core, Shiro smiled seeing some decent progress.
[Weakened Nano Tech Core ¨C Red]
A core that is used to create the S ranked ss ¨C Nanotech Gunman.
"Hmm... Nanotech Gunman." She muttered in interest. She didn¡¯t know that this ss even existed. Plus, the only sses that were rted to Nanotech was her Nanomancer ss, the branch sses that the scientists made after her and the Nanotech War Machine.
She doesn¡¯t remember running into a Nanotech Gunman back in her old life so there was a big chance that this was a branch ss that she created herself.
However, that didn¡¯t matter since the most important matter was still to see if the conversion surgery is sessful.
Imnting the weakened nano tech core, Shiro sat back and observed the changes to the prisoner¡¯s body.
The reaction wasn¡¯t as explosive as the previous experiments and the nanobots were quite tame in taking over the body. They onlytched a small part of themselves to each cell, including the demon cells, and continued to spread all over the body. If she had to describe it, it would be like a parasite.
She was the controller of the parasites that would take over the host¡¯s body and prevent the demon from weakening it. This also prevented the demon from possession since it wasn¡¯t able to rece the original host of the body.
While her original goal was only to heal the soldiers to stop them from being taken over, she had actually stumbled into a way to fully convert the whole army into S ranked ss war machines.
As the nanobots spread all over his body, Shiro waited patiently for his ss to change.
[Terim LVL 37 ¨C Nanotech Gunman]
Smiling at the sess, she also discovered a hidden perk. She had an innate connection to his nanobots. Not only that, she could give him orders that he would follow.
Flexing her fingers slightly, she saw ayer of nanotech armour form around the prisoner.
The suit itself was that of a matt ck with neon blue highlights. In addition to this, there were coils on the back that would gather the ambient mana to help power the suit.
And the best part is that she wasn¡¯t strained at all. She was the one giving themand and not the one executing themand meaning that her broken mana links wouldn¡¯t be a problem if they¡¯re not the one to make the weapon.
Grinning slightly, Shiro ¡¯uploaded¡¯ the blueprint of the sniper into the soldier¡¯s mind and had him create it.
Lightning and metal sparked a little as a simplified version of her sniper appeared in the man¡¯s hands.
"Mn, not bad." Shiro smiled in satisfaction. Since this man was a sessful experiment, she wasn¡¯t going to kill him but instead make the most out of him.
Walking towards the window, Shiro looked around and saw Lisandra distributing the drinks in the distance.
Since she had already made her into the carrier, nanobots were currently infecting everyone in the army.
The next stage would naturally be to convert them into Nanotech Soldiers but she had to do that manually unless she was able to have the nanobots inside each soldier convert themselves into weakened Nano Tech Cores.
Looking at the newly transformed Terim, Shiro smiled ambiguously before flickering away from her spot. Of course, she made sure that Terim couldn¡¯t run away since he¡¯s a valuable resource after all.
Returning with the fifth and final prisoner, she fed him the pill before converting him. She wanted to make sure that it was safe in case anything goes wrong.
With two Nanotech Gunmans by her side, she was going to let them be her controllers.
cing her hand on their heads, she sent shocks through their brain to make them braindead. Linking up both the nanobotwork, Shiro set it up so that they would be the first ¡¯batteries¡¯.
Once everything was prepared, she closed her eyes and linked her connection to the nanobots that Lisandra had infected everyone with and redirected their link to the two ¡¯batteries¡¯ in her hands.
She set down instructions for the nanobots inside both of their bodies and watched as they slowly converted each of the soldier¡¯s nanobots into a Highly Weakened Nano Tech Core. This was due to the fact that they were technically the ¡¯source¡¯ now which meant the sses they make were inferior to them.
Of course, she made sure that the core didn¡¯t convert them just yet since she was going to keep it a surprise for the spy.
Sure she may not have the power she had hoped to get from the army, however, it was better than straining herself for a huge army. Plus, she wasn¡¯t going to get through them all in time. She was just going to focus her attention on the high level soldiers and make them into generals of sorts where theirbat power would be much bigger than the average soldier.
Setting up a few devices on the two battery¡¯s bodies to make sure that they didn¡¯t run out of mana while converting the army, all Shiro had to do now was to nt the core in the high level soldiers herself to ensure that theirbat potential improved.
Making her way over to the training area, she started to wonder about the time she had left in this quest.
¡¯So far I¡¯ve been here for almost a month which is around 30 hours in the outside world. The Recruitment Demonstration was set to be a week from before so I still have a little more than 5 days outside which is around 4 months or so in this ce. But that¡¯s the upper limit so I¡¯d say around 3 months is a safe bet.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Depending on what happened, 3 months should be more than enough time for her to ss up. But that was only if she got lucky with the items. But, seeing as though there were items that she couldn¡¯t get from this ce, that was very unlikely.
"Well if a reward like the wish bag is given as the lowest tier reward, surely I¡¯ll be able to get it inside the dungeon as well right?" She muttered to herself.
Dismissing that thought for now, Shiro arrived at the main camp.
"Miss Shiro, what brings you here?" One of the generals asked. He was level 47 and was by far one of the higher level people she¡¯s seen in the kingdom.
"Can you bring me all of the people who are higher than level 40 and have the rank ofmander or higher?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Of course, but is there any particr reason to this?"
"Hmm, think of it this way, what I¡¯m going to do may seem like nothing but it will y a big part in the war toe. I can¡¯t tell you what it is since the effects would be diminished." Shiro replied.
"Understood." The general replied.
Not too long after, he returned with all of themander rank and above soldiers waiting outside of the tent.
Looking at their numbers, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel the corner of her mouth twitch a little.
¡¯F*ck me, even if you give me a week, I don¡¯t think I can go through all of these people.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Quickly making a mental note in her mind, Shiro decided to make all the generals have cores that would convert around 30% of their body. This will allow them to then give the captains weakened cores that will only convert around 25% and then themanders will have the highly weakened core which will only convert 15 to 20% of their body.
This way, she would only need to focus on the few generals that were in front of her and didn¡¯t need to worry about straining her links too much.
"Generals stand to one side with Captains behind them and Commanders behind the Captains." Shiro instructed as they did as they were told.
Walking up to the first general, Shiro ced a palm on his chest and sent mana into his body.
"Don¡¯t resist, allow the mana to flow through you." She said while nting the seed that would be the core once the time is right.
"Now I want you to store a little bit of your mana into the captain¡¯s bodies. As for the captains, once the generals store a bit of their mana into you, you will then store some into themanders." She called out while moving onto the next general.
Nodding at her instructions, they did as they were told. After all, the king did pass down an order saying that they should follow the royal tutors¡¯ instructions where possible.
Repeating the process with the other generals, she then had some small chat with them before leaving.
"Now that the seeds are sown, the moment the generals are converted, the captains will follow right behind them along with themanders." She muttered in satisfaction.
All that was left for her to do was for her to wait.
Chapter 185 Repair
Chapter 185 Repair
For the next few days, Shiro would asionally train with Lisandra in terms of just basic sparring and improving on techniques. Yin would just eat her mana stones while watching. Of course, since she was eating the stones, Shiro was slightly concerned about her stock decreasing rapidly. She had to sneak out every night in order to hunt some monsters for food so that she didn¡¯t starve herself.
Naturally, she had also asked the King about giving her some C ranked mana stones but the sheer amount that she requested made the king want to flip a table.
¡¯Who the hell needs 1,000 C ranked mana stones!!! Even if your bird is a glutton, she wouldn¡¯t eat that much ok!?¡¯
In the end, they settled with the king getting as many as he could.
"Hais... so bored." She muttered whilst watching the two batteries still working on converting the army. Converting an army wasn¡¯t something that could be done quickly so Shiro could only wait patiently.
*knock knock knock!
Opening the door, Shiro saw a maid with a small smile.
"Miss Shiro, the king has sent a message. Your requested items have arrived." She said with a smile.
"Thank you."
"My pleasure."
Watching the maid leave, Shiro turned to Yin.
"Yin! The king¡¯s got my stuff. Let¡¯s go." She called out.
"Oh? Is mum gonna heal herself now?" Yin asked with excitement.
"Perhaps. It depends on if the pill works or not." Shiro replied as she hid her excitement and showed aposed expression.
But Yin wasn¡¯t fooled.
"It¡¯s just me and you mum, if you¡¯re excited you should show it." Yin rolled her eyes.
"Hehe~ Fine fine. Come let¡¯s go." Shiro grinned like a child with a piece of candy.
"See, I knew it." Yinughed as she jumped on Shiro¡¯s back.
Making their way to the king¡¯s room, Shiro knocked on the door and waited for his response.
"Come in."
Opening the door, Shiro saw the king sitting in his chair while looking through doc.u.ments.
"I heard that my stuff is here." Shiro smiled.
"Yeah, it¡¯s in here." The king nodded and ced a bracelet on the table.
"Thanks, you need me for anything else? If not, I¡¯ll be going now." Shiro said as she couldn¡¯t wait to get a start on repairing her mana links. After all, they had been guing her for quite some time now.
"Actually, I do." The king said, cing down his pen.
"Go on."
"During the battle, if things start to look bad, I want you to take Lisandra and leave this ce. Don¡¯t even bother about the maind since that will be overrun sooner orter. I just wish that you¡¯re able to protect her for as long as possible." The king asked.
"Sure." Shiro nodded her head since that was her n to begin with. If Lisandra was really the only hope, then she¡¯ll make sure that she stays alive.
"Wait is that it?" The king widened his eyes after hearing her reply.
"What? You wanted more? You asked me to keep Lisandra safe and I said yes. What else is there for me to say?" Shiro replied with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe reassure me? Say oh don¡¯t worry the war will be won or something." The king shrugged.
"Pft, please. I¡¯m not your wife. If you want reassurance, ask her when you f*ck in the morning or something." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Hais, why do I even bother? I should have known what you¡¯re by now." The king shook his head with a small smile.
"But I suppose some encouragement is needed. Just focus on doing what you can and I¡¯ll do the same." Shiro smiled before leaving the room.
Looking at where Shiro had stood a moment ago, the king sighed before picking up his pen again. However, he now had a small smile on his face since he felt like destiny was about to change. Even though he did say that Lisandra was theirst hope, he felt more secure with Shiro¡¯s promise.
"Strange..." He mused to himself before focusing on the work on his desk.
Meanwhile, Shiro had already made it back to her room and looked at what was stored inside the bracelet.
There was a single pill along with what seemed to be 150 C ssed mana stones.
[Weakened Heavenly Rebirth Pill ¨C Purple]
Due to the influence of the fallen god¡¯s corpse, heavenly power was spread through thend. This pill will repair one¡¯s body from its very foundations. (Effectiveness 3%)
"Yin darling, would you mind standing guard for a little while?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"I would have done that even if you didn¡¯t say it mum." Yin smiled.
Sitting down in the middle of her room, Shiro set up a few defences just in case. Naturally, she also hid the two human batteries since it would be annoying if other people found out after all.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at the pill in her hands. Once she ate this, she would repair her body by 3%.
Throwing the pill in her mouth, Shiro swallowed and felt a fire rage inside of her.
*BOOM!!!!
A burst of wind exploded out with her in the centre.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro could feel her mana running rampant within her body. Motes of light started to appear around her while a faint golden aura slowly enveloped her.
From her chest, an orb of dark mana red up and shed with the golden aura causing her to flinch from the pain.
"Ssss!!!" Taking a sharp breath of air from the pain, Shiro closed her eyes to concentrate.
While her pain tolerance was indeed impressive, she had to admit that she severely underestimated the pain that came with the rebirth pill.
Every breath she took was akin to breathing in a batch of nails that scr.a.p.ed against her throat. Small movements would send a shock through her body while the gentle wind became swords that cut across her skin.
¡¯Why the f*ck are you fighting against the pill!!!¡¯ Shiro cursed out in her mind. She could feel her own mana attempting to stop the foreign mana from doing anything within her body.
Reaching out with her palm, she created a magic circle and mmed it against her cheek.
"GAHH!!!!" Crying out in pain, she forcefully suppressed her own mana from basically wasting this rebirth pill.
Without the intrusion of her dark mana, the golden aura wrapped around her once more and started to seep into her body.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro sent her consciousness into her mana realm and saw several tendrils of light that started to thread her mana links together. Overwhelmed with joy, she inadvertently let down her guard.
However, she soon realised the mistake due to the bone crunching pain that amplified through her body.
"F*ck." She cursed out before feeling her consciousness fluctuate.
Flexing her fingers, she encased herself in ice to prevent the golden aura from being wasted. This way, even if she falls unconscious, she¡¯ll get the most out of the pill.
Just as she encased herself in ice, her body forced her into an unconscious state due to the pain.
Yin watched with worry stered on her face since she couldn¡¯t do anything but spectate the process.
Unbeknown to the both of them, the golden aura didn¡¯t refine her body but rather, it started to merge with the ice. A gxy seemed to have formed within the ice before scattering apart.
While Shiro was unconscious inside the ice, another 3 days had passed outside. Tension was at an all time high due to the demon armying closer every second.
The scouts that they sent out had mostly died and the few that returned didn¡¯t have any substantial information.
The king sat on his chair as he looked out the window in fatigue. Having done all he could, the only thing left was to wait.
"What else can I do?" He muttered.
Thinking about a particr snow girl that was currently entrapped in her ice coffin like an eternal fairy, the king couldn¡¯t help but shake his head.
However, he couldn¡¯t see the small motes of light floating pass the window. They were converging towards Shiro¡¯s room.
Lisandra, who was in her room at this time, perked up in surprise and shock. She could feel a frightening amount of mana gathering towards Shiro.
Quickly charging out of her room, she ran towards where Shiro was.
*BANG!
Kicking open the door, she saw Yin trying to swat the lights away as if they were flies.
"Get! Away! From! Mum!" She shouted out while pping her arms around.
"Yin! What¡¯s happening?!" Lisandra asked in worry.
"I don¡¯t know! These little pieces of sh*t just appeared and started to surround mum!" Yin replied in annoyance.
While others saw motes of light, Yin could see tiny fairies that snickered at her while flying around Shiro.
Tilting her head in confusion, Lisandra didn¡¯t understand why Yin addressed the motes of light as if they were living beings. However, she felt a familiar warmth with the light.
¡¯Strange...¡¯ She thought while reaching out towards one of the motes. She saw it move back and forth as if it didn¡¯t know where to go.
Retracting her hand, Lisandra turned towards Shiro.
Small fractures could be seen slowly spreading over the surface of the ice as she realised that this meant that Shiro was about to wake up from her ¡¯sleep¡¯.
*KRRR!! CRACK!
More fractures appeared as the motes became jubnt. They gathered towards Shiro with more vigour than before while Yin continued to try her best at swatting them out of the sky.
*BOOM!!!
"Dah!" Yin cried out in shock as a gust of wind smacked her on the back and sent her flying towards the wall.
Lisandra wasn¡¯t spared either since she too was hit in the face by a heavy gust of wind.
"Fuuu... Well isn¡¯t this refreshing?" A melodic voice chuckled.
"Teach?"
"Mum?"
"Sup." Shiro grinned since she felt her entire body full of energy.
Dusting the ice shards off her body, she looked at the motes of light floating around in the air with interest.
She felt like she could connect with them but at the same time, that connection seemed to be blocked by a veil. Thin yet imprable.
Dancing around for a small while, the lights started to fade away as if they were never here.
"Mum, what took you so long?" Yin pouted as she pounced on Shiro.
During the time that she was ¡¯sleeping¡¯, Yin felt incredibly bored. So the fact that Shiro was back gave her a sense of relief.
"Sorry, I was busy upgrading my attunement. Right now, all of my elements have reached Tier 3." Shiro grinned. The reality was that she had finished repairing her body during the first day but had taken the time to upgrade her attunements as well.
Her first target was naturally cial since that was her main element as of this moment.
But after that was upgraded, she noticed how there weren¡¯t any strange movements within the kingdom and proceeded to upgrade her other elements.
"How¡¯s the situation so far Lisa?" Shiro asked, turning to Lisandra.
"Nothing¡¯s happened just yet. If anything, the army¡¯s just a little tense." Lisandra smiled.
"Mn, that¡¯s pretty good then. Honestly, I didn¡¯t think they¡¯d wait this long. It has been almost a week since the fortress appeared after all." Shiro replied with a small nod.
"Since that¡¯s the case, why don¡¯t we take the initiative?" She asked with a grin.
"What do you mean?"
"We start the war instead of waiting for them to invade."
Carrying Yin on her back with Lisandra following behind her, Shiro made her way to the throne room.
"Say mum, you said that your attunements reached Tier 3 right? Does that mean you have the True Elemental Armour now rather than the fake one?" Yin asked with curiosity.
"Yup." Shiro nodded.
"Can you show me?" Yin asked as her eyes brightened with excitement.
Lisandra was the same since she was curious about Shiro¡¯s elemental armour.
"Hmm... Nope." Shiro grinned.
"Ehh!? Even if your darling baby asks you?" Yin frowned as she tried to pull the puppy eyes at Shiro.
Gently flicking Yin on the head, Shiroughed lightly.
"You¡¯re a bird. Why are you trying to be a puppy?"
"Che."
"Be patient. I¡¯ll show you during the war. Though I think you¡¯ll be too preupied with something else to be focusing on me." Shiro chuckled.
While Yin did know that she was creating soldiers, she didn¡¯t know that she was converting the ENTIRE army into her soldiers.
Arriving at the king¡¯s study room, Shiro could feel that the king was alone and knocked on the door.
"Come in."
¡¯Damn, the 3 days seemed to be rough on him.¡¯ Shiro thought after hearing the fatigue in his voice.
Entering the room, Shiro waved her hand lightly.
"Sup, how¡¯s the war efforting along?"
"Fine. What about you? You were in your room for 3 days." The king chuckled.
"Had a small upgrade thanks to the pill you gave me. But damn. Is it me or have you been more active in the morning? You look DRAINED." Shiro grinned.
"Oi! What the hell are you saying?!" He widened his eyes as he looked over at Lisandra.
Seeing Lisandra with a puzzled face, he sighed in relief.
"Haha, but all jokes aside. Let¡¯s help you out shall we?"
"What do you mean?"
"Since the demons haven¡¯t invaded yet, why don¡¯t we abuse them as much as we can and reduce their fighting potential?" Shiro suggested with a dark look in her eyes.
"I¡¯m listening."
Chapter 186 Stalemate
Chapter 186 Stalemate
Standing on Yin¡¯s back, Shiro nced behind her and smiled at the small battalion that she was given.
They were riding on their own mounts but naturally, they couldn¡¯tpare to Yin.
Their average level was 45 and their main task was to destroy as many of the demon¡¯s camps as they can. If they see forts, they¡¯ll do a quick aerial bombardment before retreating.
Naturally, Lisandra was back at home since there wasn¡¯t much she could do in their situation. She was primarily a close ranged fighter while everyone in this battalion, apart from Shiro, was a long ranged fighter.
Approaching the first camp, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Ready your spells!" Shiro shouted out as rhythmic chanting could be heard from behind her.
"Swoop towards their camp please." Shiro asked with a small smile while patting the side of Yin¡¯s head.
*Ki!
pping her wings, Yin dived towards the demons camp.
Shiro crouched down and readied her own spell as she watched the campe closer and closer.
While there was still some difficulty with creating a tier 3 magic circle, she could definitely feel the difference betweenpletely broken mana links and having some healed.
"Fire!" She shouted out as she too activated her spell.
*BOOM!!!!!
A giant snowstorm erupted out from the middle of the demon camp. With a single gesture of her hand, Shiro turned all of the snowkes into deadly razors that cut anything and everything it touched.
Her battalion wasn¡¯t idle either since they too sent their spells flying toward the demon camp.
Within a few short moments, the once lively camp was instantly razed to the ground.
"Stop! Let¡¯s move onto the next camp!" Shiro shouted out.
###
*BANG!!!
"What the hell is happening!?" A demon shouted out while mming his hand into the desk.
They were ready to start the war but due to orders from the higher ups, they had to wait patiently. But this patience only rewarded them with more casualties.
"Sit back down and be patient. The deaths are within the general¡¯s ns." Another demon said, giving him a side nce.
"We¡¯re literally on their doorstep and can¡¯t do sh*t! Plus, I¡¯ve heard that the humans have a powerful mage on their side. Her name is Shiro and she¡¯s primarily an ice mage." He gritted his teeth and sat down heavily.
"It¡¯s only one mage. She can¡¯t do anything."
"I wish. She also has a pet who is part of the Phoenix race."
"..."
"Can you see the problem?"
The second demon could only narrow his eyes since it was indeed a worry.
"Reporting!" A demon shouted out as he barged into the room.
"Speak."
"Camp Ghon, Hui and Dezk have gone silent." He reported as he kneeled down. Sweat dripped off his face since all three camps were quite close to the ce. Since the enemy was able to take care of them easily, that could only mean that theirbat power is outrageous.
"Impossible!" The first demon cried out in shock. Even if she was able to take care of one of the camps, he should have gotten the news much sooner.
"Do you have visual on her?" The second demon asked with a serious face.
"N-no we don¡¯t."
However, just as the demon was about to ask another question, he suddenly paled after feeling a sharp killing intent lock onto him.
His instincts ran while as he wrapped his arms around his head and put up as many defences as he could.
*BOOM!!! PING!!!!
Widening his eyes, he watched as the ray of light smash through his defences with ease. He could clearly feel the mana being ripped from his spell.
There were no explosions or the such. Just a clean line that evaporated everything that it touched.
*Cough!
Throwing up a mouthful of blood, the demon kneeled down heavily as he looked towards where the shot originated from.
"How..." He muttered in disbelief when all he saw was a tiny speck in the distance. Even with his incredible eyesight, he couldn¡¯t see the face of his assant.
As for the other demon, he quickly used all of his berserk skills and flew into the air. Since the enemy could kill the other general in a single shot, he knew they could do the same to him.
"Tsk tsk tsk. How cowardly." A voice chuckled behind him.
Quickly turning around, he came face to face with Yin who grabbed him by the throat.
Her dark purple wings pped gently behind her as her hair fluttered in the wind. Looking at Yin, the only thing that came to the demon¡¯s mind was deathly beauty.
"Since mum¡¯s had her fun with your friend, it¡¯s my turn to have some fun." She said with a smile.
Naturally, the demon tried to struggle out of her grasp but could only look in horror as he noticed how her grip didn¡¯t budge at all.
Reaching out with her finger, Yin drew a vertical line down his face.
"Bye bye~" She grinned before snapping her fingers.
*BOOM!!!!!!!
A de of Dark Star energy erupted from the line she drew and cut the demon in half without any resistance.
However, even after the spell killed its target, it didn¡¯t stop.
Cutting across the fort as coteral, Yin stuck her tongue out yfully while watching the fort get cut in half.
"Whoops." She chuckled.
"Yin, what did I say about coteral damage?" Shiro¡¯s weary voice was heard over the crystal.
"Sorry mum~ But the goal was to destroy the fort anyways so this is fine." Yinughed yfully.
"Fine. But watch out, I¡¯m going to try a little something." Shiro chuckled.
"Hai~ I¡¯ming back now."
Jumping into the rift, Yin appeared besides Shiro and saw that she was currently aiming her sniper rifle into the sky.
"What are you nning mum?" She asked curiously.
"A meteor bombardment of sorts." Shiro replied while keeping an eye on the damage multiplier.
Lightning started to flicker off the sniper as the ambient mana in the surroundings were being absorbed without restraint.
*KISH!!!!
Some of the coils started to smoke due to the sheer amount of mana being stored inside the sniper.
"Mn, better than before but still a littlecking." Shiro muttered in slight disappointment.
Narrowing her eyes, she pulled the trigger.
*BANG!!!!!
The force of the shot caused the barrel to shatter apart and the ground beneath her to crack and fracture.
A ming bullet cut across the sky as the demons that had survived the initial attack by Yin looked up in fear.
As beings that were sensitive towards mana, they knew that whatever was flying through the air would kill them without doubt.
*BOOM CRACK!!!!
Exploding into a giant ball of sma just above the fort, lightning and fire rained down upon the fort as it easily demolished the buildings without restraint.
Since the average level of the demons inside the fort was 50, they died without question to the cmity that had just detonated above them. As for the few miraculous survivors, their miracle didn¡¯tst long since the cmity wasn¡¯t over.
If they survived one wave then the second wave will kill them. If they survived that, a third wave followed shortly.
As long as the ball of sma was still in the air, the waves of fire and lightning continued to ravage the fort.
Of course, it couldn¡¯tst forever.
Every wave that shot out would decrease the size of the sma ball but it was more than enough to decimate everything that breathed.
"What a sight." Shiro smiled.
"Not to burst your bubble mum, but didn¡¯t you just educate me about using too much mana a while back? How much mana did you use with that bullet?" Yin asked with a sh*t eating grin.
"*cough* Yin darling, let mum have this moment ok?" Shiro coughed lightly in embarrassment.
"Nope~. There should be a certain amount of truth between us ok?" Yin shook her head.
Looking away, Shiro didn¡¯t want to reveal that she used over 50% of her mana with a single shot. Plus, that wasn¡¯t including the shot she used to kill the first demon general.
For a single shot to take more than 600k MP was extravagant no matter how you wanted to look at it.
"Here eat this and let¡¯s go collect some loot." Shiro quickly changed the topic and handed Yin a C ranked mana stone.
"Tsk tsk tsk, how could you try to bribe your own daughter like this." Yin shook her head disapprovingly.
Unfortunately for Yin, it would be more convincing if she didn¡¯t take the stone without a shred of hesitation.
"Che, little glutton." Shiro rolled her eyes as she flicked Yin on the head.
"Hue!" Yin cried out feeling the flick.
"Don¡¯t hit this baby¡¯s head! I¡¯ve already lost enough IQ because of youst time mum." She pouted.
¡¯. . . Why does this daughter of mine think that just flicking her head will decrease her IQ?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she looked at Yin like a disappointed mother. The look was simr to that of a mother after her child came back with a test score of 1 even though the max was 100 and had the excuse that it was better than 0.
¡¯It¡¯s still 1 out of 100 ok!?¡¯
Dismissing the thoughts out of her mind, they made their way to the fort.
Collecting the loot that mostly consisted of level 50 armour, mana stones and demon materials, Shiro checked up with the battalion that she had ordered to attack the surrounding camps.
"Reporting, we¡¯ve destroyed 6 camps so far. We saw reinforcement from another fort so we pulled back as you¡¯ve ordered." One of the captains reported.
"I see, good job. We¡¯ll reorganise ourselves at point B." Shiro replied over the crystal. She had two sets of crystals. One so that she could talk with Yin if they were too far away and the other was to keep her linked with the rest of the battalion.
She didn¡¯t want them to find out about her nanotech just yet after all. The spy could be listening.
"Shall we go?" Shiro smiled.
"Sure~" Yin smiled blissfully while eating her mana stone lollipops. She had one in her mouth and another in her hand.
###
After regrouping, they continued to harass the demons through the night. Their casualties were minimal but the same couldn¡¯t be said for their enemies.
Losing a total of 5 forts, 34 camps and several high level members, the demons had taken a severe blow to their forces in a single night.
While the night was fruitful, Shiro was slightly confused.
¡¯They seemed ready to attack at any moment but why were they still waiting at their camp?¡¯ She thought to herself.
Logically, the war should have started a while ago but they were still in their preparation phase.
An anomaly like this couldn¡¯t be ignored.
¡¯They¡¯re not dumb enough to not attack so the chances of this being a part of their n is quite big. But then this changes everything. Why do they want us to attack? What do they have to gain from the destruction of their camps and forts? How does dying the war give them any benefits?¡¯ Shiro questioned.
Arriving back at the kingdom, the king called for a war council after receiving news about the damage they caused to the demon army.
The main topic for discussion is why they haven¡¯t invaded yet.
As the generals discussed the problem, Shiro sat near the window with Yin. Looking at the night sky with narrowed eyes, she wondered about the possible oues of the following war.
From what she had simted, there was an 82% of victory but it is decreased to 39% if she factored in the unknown.
Nanotech gunmen were indeed powerful. But if the hidden agenda of the demon race were worse than she had expected, the Nanotech gunmen would have been created for nought. It was better to prepare some back up ns just in case.
But what else could she do?
She¡¯s already dyed the war, converted an army and even repaired her body slightly.
The threat of a Tier 6 demon king was also there since it was like a guillotine that could end her at any moment.
"We can¡¯t be too passive nor aggressive." Shiro muttered in annoyance.
A stalemate.
"You know mum, if this is annoying you, you can just end this quest right now." Yin suggested.
"Hais, I¡¯ve already invested too much into this. If I don¡¯t get anything in return, I¡¯m literally going to kill someone in the worst way possible." Shiro replied with a frown.
(Reili *Incoherent chanting*: Please don¡¯t be me, please don¡¯t be me, please don¡¯t be me.)
"So kind of like me?" Yin joked in an attempt to lighten Shiro up a little.
"Pretty much. I¡¯ve already spent too much time on you." Shiroughed and flicked Yin on the head once more.
"Gah! I¡¯ve already told you to stop flicking my head!" Yin cried out.
"And I¡¯ve already told you to stop eating my stock. Isn¡¯t this like the 18th C ssed mana stone that you¡¯ve eaten? Should we do a trade? I¡¯ll stop flicking and you stop eating."
"Mum, this baby¡¯s forehead is very tender and soothing. One can get great joy from flicking it, feel free to flick it as much as you want."
"Haha, glutton." Shiroughed and patted Yin on the head.
She just hoped that the demon army would attack soon so that she could get rid of this stalemate.
Chapter 187 Time For War
Chapter 187 Time For War
After the war council meeting was adjourned, Shiro immediately made her way to the roof of the highest tower and sat there with Yin.
Since they had some free time, Shiro wanted to go out of her way to make some extra defences.
*Tzzz!
Lightning flickered around her as she started to install a series of weapon cores onto the tower.
"What are you making mum?"
"A degraded version of the orbital cannon. Normally, I would have something tounch a core into the atmosphere that would expand into a satellite cannon before creating the ¡¯pointer¡¯. BUT, since I don¡¯t have the power to create the satellite yet, I¡¯m going to manually be the pointer while this will be the long distance cannon." Shiro exined.
Once she converts the king¡¯s castle into a heavily fortified nanotech fortress, she could be more assured about the oue of the war.
Spending the night to convert several towers, she saved a few towers to create a defence system for the cannons.
Naturally, the king didn¡¯t know any of this. No one could since the spy could be around every corner. She needed to be secretive about this.
Just as she was finished with the final defence, she saw the sky slowly brighten up.
"It¡¯s already morning?" Shiro muttered, clearly not expecting it to be sunrise this early. Even though she had been working on the defences for a while, there should still be 2 hours left.
However, it wasn¡¯t a sunrise.
Widening her eyes in shock, she saw a giant wave of lightning arrows rushing towards the kingdom.
"Everyone wake the f*ck up! We¡¯re under attack!" Shiro shouted out as she used mana to amplify her voice so that everyone could hear it.
mming her palms into the roof, Shiro pumped as much mana as she could into the defence systems. She didn¡¯t have the time she needed to draw mana from the surroundings so she could only fuel it with her own mana for now.
Resisting the pain she was feeling from her body, she continued to insert an outrageous amount of mana.
"Yin! Take this and point out where the enemy is located." Shiro shouted out while flicking a small device at Yin.
"How do I use this?" Yin asked with a serious face.
"When you see them, throw it at them. Remember, once you throw it, jump into the rift since I don¡¯t want to hit you by ident."
"Got it."
Quickly transforming herself back to a phoenix, Yin flew away.
*Kish! Kish! Kish!
While Yin was flying away, several mechanical structures started to extend from the towers and projected a huge barrier over the entire kingdom.
*BOOM!!!!!!
The impact of the attack against the barrier caused a miniature earthquake to hit the kingdom. Those who were still sleeping woke up instantly.
*CRACK! CRACK!
Several fractures could be seen spreading on the surface of the barrier as Shiro twisted her palm.
Following her gesture, the barrier started to rotate, throwing several arrows to thendscape around the kingdom.
*BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!
Every arrow that hit the ground would cause a huge explosion that decimated everything within the st radius. Looking at the damage, Shiro frowned a little after thinking about the casualties that they could have taken.
Looking down, she could see the soldiers scrambling around in a panic.
"Oh for f*cks sake." She muttered with a roll of her eyes.
Creating a magic circle, shebined it with the defence system.
*BOOM!!!
Shrinking down for a moment, the barrier expanded in an instant and sent the rest of the arrows flying towards the surroundings.
Naturally, this forced the barrier to lose quite a bit of durability and a portion of it shattered apart.
"At least the absorption system seems to be working optimally." She sighed in relief.
If the attack hadnded on her barrier without the absorption system, it would have shattered upon impact. But due to the fact that the barrier siphoned mana from the surroundings along with the mana from the attack, it was barely able to hold itself together.
Watching the barrier slowly stitch itself back together, Shiro quickly encased herself in ice to regain some of her mana.
Now that the initial attack had been blocked, it gave the defence systems some time to fully fuel itself rather than Shiro supplying the mana herself.
Feeling a small rumble in her hands, Shiro saw the coordinates that Yin had given her.
"Perfect." She grinned as her eyes became cold.
Redirecting a portion of the mana to the weapon systems, several huge cannons materialised above the towers as support beams stabbed into the ground.
If one was to look at the castle now, they would see huge cannons aiming high into the sky.
*TZZZ!!!!!!
Lightning thrashed around the barrel as a huge amount of ambient mana was being pulled from the surroundings.
*BANG! BANG! BANG!
Naturally as coteral, some parts of the castle were shattered by the lightning but no one was harmed.
Neon circuits could be seen slowly running its way up the barrel as if symbolised how much power is being charged up.
Raising her hand up, Shiro narrowed her eyes and clutched her fist.
*KISH KISH KISH!
Threeyered magic circles wrapped around the tip of the barrel.
*BANG!
A single beam of light cut across the sky as the support beams cracked under the pressure.
*BOOM!!!!
Splitting the clouds in half, the beam dyed the sky with an ominous red.
A distant explosion and echo signalled the destruction of the attackers.
*BOOM!!!!!
A heavy gust of wind shortly followed the explosion as Shiro quickly stabilised herself as to not get blown away by the wind.
Smiling in satisfaction, Shiro looked back at the cannons.
The castle towers were heavily damaged due to the force of the recoil even with the support beams help.
However, their job wasplete since they were supposed to help her with long ranged units.
Making sure that the defences were back up, Shiro hopped down from the tower and ran towards the council room once more.
"I¡¯m back~" Yin called out as she jumped out of the rift.
"Mn, good job. Follow me, we¡¯re going to talk to the king about the next moves." Shiro smiled before flicking a C ranked mana stone at Yin.
Catching the stone in her mouth, Yin smiled happily and followed after Shiro.
*BANG!
Pushing open the door, Shiro saw the generals standing around the table with a serious face.
"Situation?" The king asked.
"Everyone¡¯s safe for now. The defences I¡¯ve installed on the castle managed to hold up. As for the enemy, they¡¯ve been taken care of." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, seems like we should attack now. Gather the soldiers and we¡¯ll take them on at the borders." The king ordered as Shiro paused in a second.
"Wait, is that it?" She asked with a raised eyebrow
With all that discussion they had previously, she had expected them to have a better battle n.
However, from what she could tell right now, the n was just to group up and smash their army into the demon¡¯s army.
"Yes, why?"
"... Ok listen up. First, facing against them in a head on collision is a f*cking stupid idea. Right now, we¡¯re outnumbered heavily as well as out levelled. (Plus, the spy hasn¡¯t been found yet.)
"Therefore, I say hand me the fullmand of the army. I¡¯ll take over andmand them from a higher vantage point. We need to use brains rather than brawn." Shiro said in all seriousness.
"Miss Shiro, as much as we trust you, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be able to pull it off. We¡¯ve managed to push the demon¡¯s back through sheer will and tenacity so I¡¯m sure the strong men of this kingdom can pull it off again."
"You idiot, did you not just see mum protect your asses right now? If she didn¡¯t put up the barrier, you wouldn¡¯t even have a kingdom left." Yin rolled her eyes.
". . ." The general shut up instantly since Yin had a point. However, as a man, he believed in dying in the glory of battle. Hiding and fighting the enemy in a cowardly way was against how he lived his life.
"Mn, just listen up. Follow mymands and I¡¯ll lead you through this battle. Of course you can ignore me but that will have a different kind of consequence." Shiro smiled darkly since she had the choice ofpletely turning them into her pawns without a shred of conscience.
"Very well. I do hope that you can pull this off." The king nodded his head.
"However, allow me to prepare for battle as well. I shall join in." He continued.
"My king! You cannot! You¡¯re currently injured and the kingdom still needs you." The generals widened their eyes and kneeled down all at once.
"Che, if the king wants to join let him join. He¡¯s one of the most powerful ones here and you want him to stay back?" Shiro rolled her eyes.
"*Cough* You really think differently don¡¯t you? I don¡¯t even know if you think of me as a king." He chuckled in embarrassment.
"Pft, if they saw what you were up to in the morning I think they might have the same thought process. Since you have the vigour for a morning routine, I¡¯m sure you have the vigour for a battle." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"Er, can you stop mentioning that." The king¡¯s face reddened up slightly as he quickly left the room to prepare himself.
"Anyways, gather up your soldiers and meet me at the gates." Shiro ordered.
Leaving no room for discussion, she started to make her way towards Lisandra¡¯s room with Yin following just behind her.
"What are you nning to do for the war mum?" Yin asked curiously.
"Mn... just a little guerri tactics and trickery." Shiro replied after a short moment of thought.
She needed to prepare a backup n for the guerri tactics since the problem of the spy knowing everything is a big one. Not only that, but the fact that she still didn¡¯t know who the spy was gave her headache. She had her ideas but the moment she takes the initiative without solid evidence, her rating for the quest was going to decrease quite substantially.
"Teach! Has the war started?" Lisandra called out from the distance. She was dressed inbat armour, clearly ready for a fight at any moment and the imperium sword hung on her waist.
"Yes it has. Follow me, we¡¯re going to meet the main army at the gates." Shiro nodded as she pulled Lisandra into the rift.
Appearing just outside of the gate, Lisandra widened her eyes in disbelief when she saw the destruction around the kingdom.
Large chunks of ground and forest were reced with deep craters that were still burning from the attack.
Looking back at the fortified castle with a barrier rotating around the kingdom, Lisandra turned to Shiro in absolute shock.
"Did you do all of this teach?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Why? Because aren¡¯t you supposed to be an ice mage??? How is this even possible!" She cried out.
"Ah I haven¡¯t told you but I have another ss. Nanomancer. I can create anything as long as I have the blueprint in my mind." Shiro exined briefly while pointing at her head.
"Don¡¯t exin it as if it¡¯s just a Sunday pic!" Lisandra retorted as she had the urge to flip a table.
"Don¡¯t worry about it." Shiro smiled lightly and waved her hands.
"I swear, in the time that you have trained me, the most used sentence has got to be don¡¯t worry about it." Lisandra replied as she massaged her eyes.
After waiting a short while, they saw the army make their way to the front of the gate.
"Ok listen up!" Shiro shouted out as she used mana to amplify her voice.
"After several years of constant struggle between us and the demons, they have finally had enough. They¡¯re going to bring everything they have into this war."
Hearing her words, some of the soldiers became down cast.
"However! I can say that since they¡¯re bringing everything they have; it is also a prime opportunity for us topletely decimate them! You see that castle? Under my magic, I have transformed it into an armed fortress that held off against the first wave of attacks easily and had even destroyed the attacking unit.
"As the humans who have stood strong against the demon race, are you going to give up now?! I swear to god if you say yes I¡¯ll break you apart first." Shiro finished with a grin.
"NO!!!!!!!!" The army shouted out loud since having a fortress like that point at them was thest thing they wanted. Plus, some of them had even gone to the night raid with Shiro so they knew a little of her prowess.
"Good! We¡¯re going to send these demon¡¯s back to hell where they belong!
"Each of you follow your captain inmand! Captains follow the general! I want this army to split up and move separately. Split yourself into 5 divisions and move out! I¡¯ll give you yourmands once you¡¯re en route to the enemy! Lisandra, you follow me."
Watching the army split themselves evenly into 5 divisions numbering around 20,000 men strong, Shiro smiled in satisfaction. They had several months to know who they were under so finding their higher ups were easy.
"Yin would you mind giving me a lift?" Shiro asked with a smile.
Nodding her head, Yin transformed herself into a phoenix and waited for the duo to hop on before flying upwards.
As the army moved out, Shiro noticed the king and queen within the forefront of the 3rd division.
¡¯So they¡¯re in the middle. Convenient.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a smile.
¡¯Finally, it¡¯s time for war.¡¯
Chapter 188 Spy
Chapter 188 Spy
"Division 1 and 2, I want you to split up and make your way towards Kino Forest. Division 3 stay on course and meet the demons. However, make sure that you¡¯re not too close since our numbers are a little limited. Division 4 and 5, I want you to split up to the left and go to Harrow¡¯s Edge." Shiro ordered over the crystal.
The army was shocked at the sudden presence of a voice near their ear.
"Don¡¯t be shocked. This is a transmission crystal that I¡¯ve set up on your uniforms." Shiro lied without a hint of hesitation.
However, there was still one more thing she had to do. Since it would be strange for her to insert her mana into the king and queen, she was going to use themunicators as a catalyst since she had already set up the needed sequences.
Looking at the army splitting up below them, she narrowed her eyes before turning to Lisandra.
"Take this, you¡¯ll be helping me snipe a few important targets from up here." She said as she handed Lisandra a weakened version of her Eclipse Particle Cannon. The mana and recoil would have been too much for Lisandra if she didn¡¯t weaken it.
"The hell is this?" Lisandra asked in confusion.
"The weapon I used to kill the generals. As for how you use it, just aim down the scope and fire when it lines up with their head. As for the more powerful generals, flick this switch and wait 10 seconds for the charge up." Shiro exined while pointing at the parts.
"Ah right." Lisandra nodded her head.
Looking at the Rail Sniper in her hands, she couldn¡¯t believe that something like this could kill a general.
Shiro only shook her head with a small smile after seeing the doubt on Lisandra¡¯s face.
Looking back at the battlefield, she narrowed her eyes as she could see the demon army in the distance.
"Like hell the enemy is 250k strong. Isn¡¯t this more than 300k units?" She muttered. Just a quick nce allowed her to roughly estimate the enemy¡¯s army size. This meant that she needed to defeat them even though they only had 100k men.
As for their formation, the Ghastis were at the forefront of the army, followed by Krana and the Igni Colossus.
"Hmm.. The Verkus will show upter when casualties start to pile up since they¡¯re corpse parasites. We can¡¯t see the Phantis yet since they¡¯re in stealth. Damn, 300k might just be a small portion of their army nearby." Shiro frowned.
However, the army number wasn¡¯t her only concern. The Ghastis had a high level of physical resistance so they were the perfect tanks to protect the mages, Krana, and the archers, Igni Colossus.
But as she took a better look at the enemy, she noticed that they were holding balls of energy in their hands.
"Wait isn¡¯t that demon essence?!" Shiro muttered in shock.
When demons die, they drop an item called demon essence. But much like mana stones, a small amount is also released naturally into the air upon death.
¡¯Could they have allowed us to attack them for this essence?¡¯ Shiro wondered.
After the attack, they would naturally let their guard down a little. Which meant a prime opportunity to counter-attack for the demons. The fact that they tried to bombard the kingdom proved this and if it wasn¡¯t for Shiro, the attack would have seeded.
Forming a small semi-circle, the demon army started to chant in synchronisation.
"What are they doing...."
Following their chant, the surrounding mana surged crazily towards their location as a 3yers magic circle appeared in the air. A 4th circle flickered slightly as it was struggling to be formed.
"Holy sh*t! They¡¯re summoning an avatar!" Shiro widened her eyes in shock. She now knew why they had been allowed them to attack the camps and the fort.
Using Demon Essence in a way simr to how one would use mana stones, they were trying to summon an avatar to the battlefield. It was what the ck Monarchy did in New York then they summoned a giant monster using the totem ritual.
Swiping her hand in front of her, Shiro made an anti-aircraft cannon and loaded it up with a mana disruption bullet.
*BANG!
Shooting the 4th magic circle, she sighed in relief when she saw it shatter apart like ss.
Tier 3 might be still within reason for her but tier 4 was a definite no go.
"All divisions! Halve your fire for now. The demons are nning to use demon essence to summon a monster. The more you kill them, the more powerful the monster!" Shiro called out to the army.
*URAHHH!!!!!
Just as she had set down the order, an ear rupturing scream could be heard reverberating all over the battlefield.
A giant portal opened up as two pairs of arms ripped it open and forced its way through.
[Ancient Kalis Magnar LVL 85 ¨C Boss (Weakened due to broken summoning circle. Base Level: 150)]
HP: 100,000,000/???
MP: ???/???
It had dark purple scales, four arms, two giant translucent wings that glistened with a myriad of colours and 6 pairs of neon purple eyes that sent shivers down one¡¯s spine with a single look.
"Damn, they really aren¡¯t taking any chances are they?" Shiro muttered with a slightly forced smile.
"Division 4 and 2, I want you to focus fire on the Kalis Magnar! Division 1 and 5 I want you to shoot the Igni colossus in the back. As for Division 1, I want you to take all the focus from the over divisions but don¡¯t fight. Focus on running away while making sure that they aren¡¯t able to attack the other divisions. If you see them trying to attack the other divisions, attack them back." Shiro shouted.
"Understood!" They replied seriously.
Tracing her finger down the body of her sniper, Shiro created a few upgrades as she aimed towards the Ancient Kalis Magnar.
Currently, the Kalis Magnar was the biggest problem on the battlefield. Following that was the Igni Colossus due to their long-ranged power. By getting rid of these two first, the chances of victory would increase.
Of course, she could also allow the soldiers to transform now to increase their power. But, if she did that, she wouldn¡¯t know who the spy was. She had to let them make the first move.
*URAHH!!!
Crying out in anger from the tiny magic that the soldiers sent towards it, the Kalis Magnar snarled before pping his wings.
*BOOM!!!
His body slowly lifted up into the air.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t about to let it attack from the air.
*TZZZ!!!!
Several tier 3 magic circles wrapped around the barrel of her sniper as she narrowed her eyes.
She didn¡¯t need to destroy both wings, just one was needed.
*BOOM!!!!!
Firing the sniper, the recoil instantly smacked her off the back of Yin. But this was the least of her concerns.
Looking towards the Kalis Magnar, Shiro widened her eyes when she saw only a faint scorch on the wing.
"You¡¯ve got to be kidding me!" She cried out.
*KI!!!
Landing back on Yin¡¯s back, Shiro looked at the battlefield with a frown.
¡¯Something must be missing. The system wouldn¡¯t give me a quest that I can¡¯t do. I know that there is a spy, Lisandra is a key member and she also has her sword. Then what am I missing?¡¯
"Division 3, pull back a little more. You¡¯re too close to the enemy! Division 4, put your back into your attacks! They¡¯re too weak!" Shemanded. While she was doing this, Lisandra wasying on Yin¡¯s back while sniping the Igni Colossus.
As the battle continued, the situation started to turn in their favour. Even though the Kalis Magnar was still alive, they were at least able to kill some of the other demons on the battlefield.
Of course the casualties would have increased massively if not for the fact that Shiro was tanking the Kalis Magnar together with Yin.
*BOOM!!!!
Quickly dodging another fire breath, Yin¡¯s facial expression wasn¡¯t looking too good since she was currently on a thin line between life and death. 1 wrong move and it was over.
¡¯How could you expose your darling baby to this kind of torture!!! Bad parent!!!¡¯ Yin cried out her injustice in her mind.
However, she knew that Shiro couldn¡¯t exactly help it either. Without Yin, there was no way that she could have kept the Kalis Magnar busy.
Swooping down with Yin, Shiro had her fly close to the ground while aiming her particle cannon at the boss.
ring at the girl who had been giving him so much trouble, the boss gritted his teeth in frustration.
*URAHHH!!!!
Opening his mouth, it split into three parts as spots of light started to converge together into a golden orb of fire element.
"Yin, once I fire my shot, jump into the rift." Shiro said as she kept her focus down the scope.
The mana that was radiating from the sniper was increasing with each passing second as it was several times more powerful than the shot she fired using the fortress.
*KI!!!
Crying out in acknowledgement, Yin started to increase her speed. This way, she could force the boss to fire his attack earlier.
"ALL DIVISIONS!!! FOCUS FIRE ON THE KALIS MAGNAR WHEN I SAY FIRE!" Shiro shouted out. She was going to bait out the spy with this along with dealing some extra damage.
"READY!"
Just as she was about to say fire, the queen release a dense explosion of darkness element.
"Demonic Possession!!!" She grinned as the soldiers, widened their eyes when they saw their skin slowly turn dark purple like the demons. Since Shiro was going to fight against the Kalis Magnar at full force with the support of the army, she thought that this was a prime opportunity to get rid of Shiro who had been a constant pain.
Even the king was shocked that his skin was slowly turning purple as well.
"How could you..." He muttered in disbelief.
"Hahaha! I f*cking knew it." Shiro grinned as she snapped her fingers.
*BOOM!!!!
A surge of electricity exploded out of every soldier¡¯s body,as nanotech armour wrapped around them. The demon possession was instantly broken as the queen widened her eyes in disbelief.
Even the king was wrapped up in nanotech armour as he was surprised to see his ss change.
[Nanotech Rail Berserker]
Information about the ss instantly flowed through his mind as two heavy axes appeared in front of him.
Instinctively grabbing the axes by the handle, he felt power surge around him as it reminded him of his peak days.
Naturally, with the change in ss destroying all signs of demon possession, the previous debuffs that were ced on his disappeared as well.
"You... You¡¯re a subus." He red at the queen.
The queen didn¡¯t respond as she was trying to figure out how Shiro had negated the effects of the demon seed. She had been overlooking the entire army for a while and knew that everyone had taken the demon seeds.
"Impossible." She muttered.
"Nothing¡¯s impossible." Shiro replied.
*TZZ!!!
The queen¡¯smunicator suddenly burst apart with nanotech wires wrapping around her and stopped her from moving around.
"ALL UNITS PREPARE THE RAIL CANNON!" Shiro shouted out as the soldier¡¯s armours lit up with neon blue circuits and created a weakened version of Shiro¡¯s rail sniper in their hands.
Knowing that it wasn¡¯t time to dawdle on such matters, all units aimed towards the boss while their visors would help them aim their weapons properly.
"FIRE!!!!" Shiro shouted out as she pulled the trigger.
*BOOM!!!!!
All of the bullets crashed against the attack as it exploded on impact. Quickly flying into the rift, Yin retreated from the area.
Appearing besides the queen, the three of themnded on their feet and dragged the queen up by her cor.
"So subus, was being the spy hard?" Shiro chuckled darkly. However, Lisandra ced her hand on Shiro¡¯s arm, causing her to stop.
She could feel the disbelief and fear from every shiver in Lisandra¡¯s hand.
"Is this true mum?" Lisandra asked as her voice cracked slightly. She clearly saw what had happened from above but she didn¡¯t want to believe.
"Che, don¡¯t call me mum. I¡¯ve killed her long ago." The subus tried to spit on Lisandra¡¯s face but was stopped by Shiro.
The spit was frozen in mid-air before crumbling away.
"What did you just say!?" The king widened his eyes in fury.
After his mind was cleared, he remembered how her behaviour took an obvious turn but ignored it due to his ¡¯love¡¯. But now that the subus came clean, he realised that the wife he loved was reced.
"Her scream at the end was f*cking arousing." She grinned fearlessly. Since she was captured, she knew her final oue was death.
"My brother, my mother..." Lisandra muttered as tears started to form.
Shiro stayed silent since she knew Lisandra needed to vent out her frustrations.
"Why... why my brother, why my mother?" Lisandra asked. Her tears started to fall as her grip around the Imperium de tightened to the point of bleeding.
"So many whys child. Just know that I loved every second of it. You mother¡¯s face when she died, your brother¡¯s face when I stole his essence and turned him into a demon. All of it by my hand haha- ARG!!!"
She was cut off when Lisandra¡¯s sword shed against her eyes and blinded her.
The king was shocked at her outburst but allowed her to do what she wants. He knew that Lisandra loved her family the most. More than he ever will. For her to suffer this kind of shock, he wasn¡¯t surprised at her reaction.
"Your judgement... Is death!!" She cried out as a huge amount of light des appeared in the air and skewered the subus. Due to the nature of the holy swords, sizzling sounds could be heard from her body before she turned to ash.
Tilting her head back, Lisandra screamed into the sky in sadness as blood started to leak from her eyes.
Shiro narrowed her eyes at this skill.
¡¯Light Goddess¡¯s Divine Judgement¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Chapter 189 Incarnation
Chapter 189 Incarnation
Light Goddess¡¯s Divine Judgement, a skill that the light hero loved to use when attacking monsters. Due to the holy nature of the skill, it had an increase in damage whenever he used it against monsters.
It was also a symbol to show that he was one of God¡¯s chosen.
*BOOM!!!!!
Light descended from the skies as a pir of energy erupted from Lisandra.
Her blood tears continued to fall as she was releasing all of her anguish.
"All divisions! Attack the enemy and don¡¯t let them get close. Lisandra¡¯s ssing up." Shiro called over the crystal as she knew of this phenomenon.
Whenever a person is given a chance at a ss up regardless of level, example being when she was offered the ss of Imperial Ice Queen, they would be supplied with the missing levels.
Right now, Lisandra was currently experiencing a giant power boost so that she fits the level requirement of the ss.
Clicking her fingers, jet boosters formed on the soldier¡¯s armour, providing them with more options to harass the demon army without being in danger.
"It seems like you¡¯re the reason for this." The king said with a small smile.
"Yeah."
"And here I thought that your ss was just Ice Mage. You¡¯ve been hiding quite a bit from me." He chuckled.
"As if I could tell you. Your mind was being swayed by the subus. Plus, if the enemy knew we had this kind of power, they wouldn¡¯t send their best men towards us now would they?" Shiro grinned.
"True." The king nodded. If the subus had known that she was capable of this, she probably wouldn¡¯t have shown herself. Not only that, but she would have also warned the army and focused on wearing them down before sending in the full force.
"But let¡¯s take care of the Kalis Maganar first. I¡¯ve been dying to show my full strength." Shiro grinned.
"Yin!" Shiro called out.
"Got it mum, let¡¯s not hold back anymore." Yinughed as she shifted herself back into a phoenix.
Hoping on Yin¡¯s back, they shot up into the sky.
"Fuu..." Breathing out heavily, Shiro calmed her mind.
Jumping off Yin¡¯s back, she free falled towards the Kalis Magnar.
Reaching out her hands, two tier 3 magic circles appeared on her wrist.
*BOOM!!!
Nanotech armour wrapped around her entire body. Cont cells could be seen near the back as maic disks appeared behind her.
"Rail Cannon A7, A8, A9 and A10 are online." Shiro muttered coldly.
*KISH KISH KISH KISH!
Materialising near the maic disks, four matt ck rail cannons could be seen with neon blue circuit patterns pulsing on the main chassis.
"Generation 2 Ignius Anti Material Rifle online."
Just as she said that, the hippartment of her nanotech armour shifted to reveal two more maic disks. Nanobots started to converge around the disks as two anti material rifles started to form.
"Mn, this will do for now." Shiro frowned as she started to feel pain once more. However, she was satisfied with the amount of firepower she could produce.
"All systems online, generation 2 Battle Maiden activate." Shemanded. Ambient mana surged towards her, charging up her armour.
Neon blue circuits started to spread through the surface as miniature Ion Thrusters materialised on her armour.
With a thunderous boom, Shirounched herself towards the Kalis Magnar.
Shifting her body in mid air, she aimed all 6 weapons and fire immediately.
*URAHHH!!!!!!
Unlike before, she was able to draw blood from the boss.
"Mn, not bad." Shiro nodded in satisfaction.
Controlling the thrusters with her mind, she quickly dodged the boss¡¯s attack as her increase in speed left a faint trail of light behind her due to the thrusters.
Looking at the constant bombardment against the boss, the king couldn¡¯t help but open his mouth in shock. While he was more powerful than Shiro in his prime, if he were to face off against her at the same level, which is now, he can guarantee an instant death. There was simply no logical way of facing off against that kind of fire power when they¡¯re at the same level.
"Incredible." He muttered.
While Shiro was bombarding the boss, Yin wasn¡¯t idle either. Shifting herself back to her human form, she would send arrows of dark star element towards the boss.
While it did do damage, it was almost negligible.
Sweat started to drip from Shiro¡¯s forehead as she continued her ruthless onught against the boss.
While she did technically have the upper hand right now, it wasn¡¯t easy. A single misstep was all it took for her to be killed instantly.
Looking at the battlefield, she could see that the army was winning so far. Casualties had increased but it was still within eptable range.
¡¯Hmm... Maybe I should leave the boss to Lisa. Even if I kill it, the EXP would just be wasted. That I can¡¯t have. But if I leave it alone, the casualties would shoot up instantly.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Quickly boosting herself up into the air, she aimed all her weapons and fired at one of the boss¡¯s eyes.
*BOOM!!!! URAHH!!!!!
Flinching back from the pain, the boss red at her.
"Minimal damage huh? I guess that¡¯s fine as well." Shiro muttered.
The next moment, the boss spread his wings open as mana gathered around him.
"Oh sh*t!" Shiro widened her eyes. She knew exactly what kind of move this was and the damage it could cause.
Removing the limiters on her weapons she allowed to fire at will towards the boss while she flew higher into the air. The further away she was, the better.
The boss had his aggro on her so the rest of the army wouldn¡¯t be targeted.
Reaching the clouds, Shiro made an air mask before flicking her wrists.
*Kish Kish Kish!
All six weapons disassembled into a swarm of nanobots that reconstructed itself into a giant cannon within her arms.
The Eclipse Orbital Cannon. The strongest weapon she could configure to work in synchronisation with her current armour.
The weapon itself was massive and was almost four times as big as Shiro. Decorated with matt ck panels, Mana Condensing Coils along with Sr Focussing Coils, the weapon was a sight to behold.
While the cannon was charging up, Shiro had to make sure the boss followed her past the clouds. Once she was up there, she¡¯ll be able to redirect the sunlight to overcharge her cannon.
Snapping her fingers, several cial arrows appeared beside her. A single gesture from her caused all the arrows to shoot towards the boss but they did minimal damage. All that they achieved was shattering into a thousand pieces. However, that was what Shiro was aiming for.
Clutching her hand into a fist, the ice crystals surged towards the boss¡¯s rear and formed into a giant ice spear.
"Oh gosh mum¡¯s at it again." Yin flinched slightly while turning her head away.
However, she couldn¡¯t help but open her fingers a little and peak towards the boss just to see its reaction.
Shiro, who had just saw this from the corner of her eyes, felt her lips twitch.
¡¯Oi didn¡¯t you want to look away? Little kids should look at indecent things!¡¯ She thought in her mind but didn¡¯t stop what she was doing.
A threeyered magic circle appeared around her hands as lightning, shadow and dark star element wrapped around the spear.
Both the lightning and darks tar elements were highly destructive and couldn¡¯t be taken lightly. Especially if it was targeting one¡¯s most vital area.
Flicking her fingers upwards, Shiro watched at the spear prated the boss.
"!!!!"
Silence dominated the battlefield for both demons and humans as everyone opened their mouth in absolute shock.
They had just witnessed the boss get pierced by a giant ice spear in the chrysanthemum. Even the boss was sent into shock as he had never felt this kind of pain before.
Due to the nature of the elements that Shiro had infused the spear with, they could hear the sizzle along with smokeing from the rear as the spear was actively cooking and destroying the rear at the same time!
*URAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After the boss recovered from his shock, his first instinct was to scream as loud as he could in order to distract him from the pain that he was feeling.
Crashing against the ground, the boss covered his rear and started to roll around in hopes of dissipating the pain.
Wincing at the unsightly demeanour of the boss, even the demon¡¯s couldn¡¯t me him for rolling around like a child who stubbed his toe.
As for the humans, they took this moment to kill more demons. Naturally, they also pretended to not know Shiro.
¡¯Who is this crazy girl? Coming here and viting the boss, how shameless.¡¯ They collectively thought.
Meanwhile, Shiro massaged her eyes slightly when she saw the boss rolling around. Her initial n was to increase her aggro so that the boss would fly towards her but she didn¡¯t expect his pain tolerance to be so weak.
"Tch, I¡¯ll do it myself then." Shiro clicked her tongue and flew up into the clouds.
Pushing the clouds aside, Shiro shielded her eyes from the sunlight while her weapons started to hum with energy.
Taking a deep breath, she set her thrusters to keep her floating in the air while aiming her weapon at the boss.
Tracing her fingers on the body of the weapon, Shiro started to augment the weapon with herpatible elements.
Tier 3 Lightning, Metal, Shadow and Dark Star.
Feeling the surge of mana above him, the boss gritted his teeth and ripped the ice spear out from his rear and flew upwards
Several orbs of void ck energy appeared around him as he sent them flying towards her.
"Toote." Shiro grinned as she pulled the trigger on her weapon. Not only that, but she flicked her fingers and sent the ice spear towards the boss¡¯s ass once more.
¡¯Leave him alone already!¡¯ The demons cried out in their minds with pity.
*URAHH!!!!
The pain of being pierced again caused the boss¡¯s aim to go awry and missed his shot entirely.
*BOOOM!!!!!!
mming against the boss¡¯s head, the beam of energy drilled into his armour ruthlessly.
Both the augmented shadow element and dark star element ate away at his armour like it was paper.
Blood sttered everywhere as the boss quickly twisted his body so that it wouldn¡¯t hurt him as much. Crashing against his hard armoured back, the beam of energy started to deflect to the surroundings.
Frowning at the oue, Shiro truly wanted to curse the system. Feeling aggrieved by the her current progress, she truly wondered how other people could finish this quest with a higher grade.
¡¯Why the hell would you give me a quest this hard?! This princess is a f*cking reincarnator with a triple S grade ss and could only serve as a back scratcher! Are you kidding me?!¡¯
*DONG~!!!!!
Just as she finished her cursing, she heard a bell toll ring out as the light pir shattered apart to show Lisandra in her new form. 6 pairs of angel wings spread out from her back as long blond hair flowed to her waist. A pair of crystal blue eyes that were still slightly red looked at the sky in sorrow.
She wore a white robe with golden highlights and light ted silver armour around her shoulders, arms, legs and torso.
However, Shiro didn¡¯t focus on any of that.
¡¯Why the hell is her bust bigger than mine! She¡¯s just like Madi! One ss up and she grows up! The f*cking injustice! Where can Iin?!¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while gritting her teeth in frustration. Surely the sylph ss would give her a better body proportion right? She remembered seeing decently endowed sylphs in her old life so she should be the same. This was totally not one of the key reasons for picking the ss up along with more development options. *cough*
[Lisandra LVL 75 ¨C Light Goddess¡¯s Incarnation]
Looking at Lisandra¡¯s level, Shiro¡¯s eyes constricted for a moment. While the hero was dubbed the light goddess¡¯s chosen, Lisandra was actually her incarnation.
Her heart pounded in shock as she couldn¡¯t take her eyes off Lisandra.
¡¯She¡¯s not the one who killed me so why am I directing my anger at her? She¡¯s still the same pupil that followed me around calling me teach.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she shook her head in order to distract herself from the hatred that was boiling up in her mind.
Moving her gaze to Shiro, Lisandra had the urge to run into her embrace and cry out her heart but knew that this wasn¡¯t the time just yet. She had to end this war.
pping her wings, she flickered towards the boss faster than Shiro could track her.
Drawing a thin line in front of her, she pulled out a holy de that sent shivers down Shiro¡¯s spine.
"Divine Augmentation." Lisandra said as sheyered the Imperium de and the holy de together.
Shrouding the Imperium de in a holy aura, light particles started to flicker off the edges as she swung it gently at the boss.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!
A de of light descended from the skies as it cleaved the boss in two and split the earth apart to form a deep chasm that one couldn¡¯t see the bottom of. Not only that, the night sky also brightened up to the point where it was almost indistinguishable from daylight.
One attack from Lisandra was all it took to turn night into day and end the boss that had been troubling them.
Chapter 192 Aurora, The Eternal Ice Maiden
Chapter 192 Aurora, The Eternal Ice Maiden
Sitting on the back of Yin, they made their way back to the kingdom.
During this, Shiro checked the loot that she managed to receive from the goddess. Within her bracelet, there was a total of 5 items. Two materials, one pill, one bag and one jade core.
Out of the five items, the bag aroused her interest the most. From her guesses, it should be either the wish bag or the emergency bag.
[Emergency Bag ¨C Purple]
Gives whoever opened this an item that they need.
Looking at the bag, Shiro¡¯s eyes glistened with joy. Regardless of what this bag gave her, it was definitely going to assist her.
Putting the bag into her pocket, she was going to open it once she checked the other items.
[Divine Metal ¨C Red]
A rare metal that is used to infuse divine essence into a weapon of choice. Can only be used on weapons that has reached the Red grade.
[Heavenly Runes ¨C Red]
A set of runes that will merge with a weapon or armour in order to boost its prowess. Can only be used on a weapon or armour that has reached the Red grade.
Looking at the two weapons, Shiro instantly understood that the goddess had wanted her to give these to Lisandra.
By doing this, not only will she help Lisandra win the war, but also boost her future vessel.
¡¯Unfortunately for her, she doesn¡¯t know that I have a weapon that is bounded to me and can grow.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile. She was going to be a little selfish and keep them to herself.
¡¯System, store these two into final rewards chest.¡¯ Shiromanded in her head.
[Storing failed. As pivotal items of the quest, user cannot store them away unless theyplete the quest without using them.]
Frowning at the system message, Shiro shook her head.
¡¯Seems like it wouldn¡¯t be that easy.¡¯
Setting the two aside in her bracelet, she took out the pill.
[Celestial Pill ¨C Orange]
A medicine that will heal the user to max health as long as they haven¡¯t died. Not only that, it will also embed them with the passive [Celestial Might] for a short moment of time.
¡¯This would probably be good against the demon king.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. However, she wasn¡¯t confident about it due to the fact that the demon king was tier 6!
Looking at the final item, which was the jade core, Shiro inspected it and couldn¡¯t believe what she had just seen.
"Holy sh*t!" Shiro cried out as she was inplete disbelief.
¡¯Heavenly Constetion Jade!! How the hell can she give something like this away¡¯ She thought, seeing the item.
[Heavenly Constetion Jade ¨C Red]
Activate this jade in order to receive a skill corresponding to the heavenly constetions.
(Depending on one¡¯s potential, the amount of Heavenly Constetion Jade¡¯s that can be opened is limited.)
The heavenly constetion jade was an extremely valuable item that she had only seen records of. While it is graded at red, if one was to get a good constetion skill, the value would surpass it easily.
However, at the same time, the risks are also just as big. If they got a weak constetion and weak potential, the jade would be wasted. Not only that, there was a higher grade version of this jade so they would waste their slot if they activated this jade.
"What¡¯s wrong teach?" Lisandra asked, seeing her sudden outburst.
"Nothing, I was just surprised at the item." Shiro quickly shook her head.
Looking at her system, she was given the prompt of whether or not she wanted to activate the jade. And of course, her answer was YES!
*BOOM!
The core in her hands released a blinding light as the skies turned dark.
*Ting~
A light jingle could be heard as stars lit up one by one..
*Ting ting ting ting~
As stars continue to light up, Shiro looked at the sky with anticipation.
*BOOM!!!!
The first star let off a golden light and started to connect to the other stars. Soon, they were all linked together and sent down a beam of energy towards Shiro.
Yin, who didn¡¯t know that this was the result of Shiro¡¯s item, quickly flew to the side to avoid the beam.
"Gah! Yin stop! If this princess isn¡¯t hit by this light today watch me disown you!" Shiro cried out in shock.
Yin tilted her head in confusion before nodding reluctantly.
¡¯Forget it, mum isn¡¯t suicidal.¡¯ She thought.
As the lightnded on Shiro, she felt a foreign energy permeate through her body.
[Due to the state of mana links, only a small portion of the Heavenly Constetion Skill is avable. As host continues to repair your links, more of the skill will be opened. Current progress (3%)]
The light started to fade as Shiro nced at her new skill.
[Heavenly Constetion ¨C Aurora, The Eternal Ice Maiden (Passive)]
All Ice rted Elemental attacks are converted to Eternal Ice.
Gained Title: Eternal Ice Maiden
Gained Eternal Ice Augmentation
Converted True Elemental Armour (Ice) to Eternal Ice Elemental Armour
Shiro¡¯s lips curved into a smile when she saw the skill. That was because even though it was just at 3%, the initial bonus was incredible in her opinion.
Not to mention the fact that she knew of the constetion Aurora since it was one that belonged to her old world!
Aurora, The Eternal Ice Maiden, is the twin sister of Fyr, The Eternal Fire maiden. Back her world, there was a myth surrounding this constetion. During her prime, Aurora had fought a devastating battle of which the result was both her and her sister was killed and shattered into the stars. Those who are born under their constetion would either have enhanced ice magic or enhanced fire magic. Not only that, the reason as to why they were called the Eternal maidens was due to the fact that hardly anyone could melt or put out their magic!
Shiro remembered an ice mountain that was rumoured to have been created by Aurora. When she saw it, she tried to attack it with all her might but could barely make a chip on the surface and that was when she was at tier 6!
If the myths were true, she had gained a massive fortune.
Naturally, even with this passive skill, her ice wasn¡¯t truly eternal since she was only at Tier 2. Anyone in the mid to peak of tier 3 could shatter her ice easily. But the chance of it bing ¡¯eternal¡¯ was good enough.
Smiling lightly, Shiro flexed her fingers as ice started to form around her. This time, the coldness radiating from it was many times bigger than before.
Thawing the ice, she took out the bag.
"Let¡¯s see what we get this time." Shiro smiled and opened the bag.
[Enhanced Fairy Element Core ¨C Orange]
A core received from a very powerful elemental fae. Can be used to ss up.
Shiro¡¯s heart pounded in excitement since this meant she was one step closer to ssing up. Right now, all that she wascking was C ss mana stones, a raidpletion with more than 30% contribution and a corrupted demon core.
"Seems like you¡¯re happy with the rewards teach." Lisandra smiled.
"Indeed. By the way, what happened with your sword?" Shiro asked as she was quite curious.
"You can check for yourself." Lisandra said as she gave Shiro her sword. She wasn¡¯t afraid of Shiro stealing it since she knew Shiro had better things to do.
Looking at the sword, Shiro was surprised to see the passive skill.
[Light Goddess¡¯s Suppression]
Suppresses all demonic beings while in the presence of the light goddess. However, due to the blessing of the light goddess, this is able to weaken the demon king by 90% for 3 hours. (One time use.)
Seeing this bonus, Shiro knew that this was a prime chance. Everything she had received right now clearly gave her a chance at clearing the final step of the hidden quest. However! Even if the demon king was suppressed by 90%, he was still a genuine tier 6 legend!
Her mind turned to figure out a n on how to clear thest step when she inadvertently nced at her ss up requirements.
¡¯F*ck! Who said that raids had to be dungeon generated? Can¡¯t this princess organise the raid?¡¯ She thought in realisation.
Since her goal was to clear thest step, stop the demon king, it didn¡¯t matter if she had to defend or attack! Plus, it can also help her clear one of her ss up requirements.
"Old man!" Shiro called out.
"What?"
"I just had an idea. You know how Lisandra¡¯s sword can now suppress the demon king by 90% for 3 hours? Why don¡¯t we raid his castle with the high level humans?" Shiro suggested with a smile.
"This... is feasible . But they¡¯re weakened after so many years of constant fighting, I don¡¯t think sess is possible." The king frowned. Even a powerhouse couldn¡¯t fight for so many years in a row with barely any rest. While the demon king is weakened, so are they!
"I can heal them to a certain extent so it should be fine. But the main thing is whether or not they can join us to raid the demon king¡¯s castle." Shiro persuaded.
"Mn... there¡¯s still the problem of the battlefield though. They can¡¯t just leave the demons alone or else the citizens will be killed." The king replied helplessly.
"Old man, you forget what I can do, didn¡¯t you? Just get someone that couldmand the army to take over and order them while I made everyone a Nanotech gunner." Shiro grinned.
The king widened his eyes as he realised that this was indeed a possibility.
"Wouldn¡¯t that be too big of a task?" He asked in clear disbelief.
"Nope. The only thing troublesome would be the first ones I create. After that, it¡¯ll spread like a virus and convert everyone else without affecting me." Shiro smiled.
".... Ok. I¡¯ll send out a signal for a gathering of the guardians. We can discuss it there." The king said seriously. If there¡¯s a chance to get rid of the demon king, he¡¯ll take it. Even more so now that Shiro had convinced him with eh amount of trump cards that she kept up her sleeves.
Pulling out a talisman, the king bit his thumb and traced it down the middle before throwing it into the air.
Splitting up into nine pieces, the talisman shot off into nine different directions.
"We should head to the gathering ce now that I¡¯ve sent out the note. I can guarantee that everyone will attend since we are only allowed one note each." The king smiled lightly before pointing Yin in the way towards their destination.
Shiro only nodded before closing her eyes. Sitting in a lotus position, she was going to check her mana realm after her cial magic had been augmented by Eternal Ice.
Opening her eyes once more, she found herself surrounded by 5 inds that were much bigger than before. Naturally, this was due to the fact that each of them were now tier 3.
Floating over to the ice ind, she was slightly surprised at the coldness of the ce.
The entire ind was constructed from ice and snow while modes of pale blue light danced around the ce.
Most importantly, she could see her Eternal Ice Elemental armour within the centre of the ind.
Rather than armour, it was better to describe it as an outfit. The outfit mainly consisted of a sleeveless blue dress, white gloves and white stockings that were connected to the shoes. Not only that, it was also surrounded by several translucent blue raiments that floated around it, giving the outfit a feeling that it was something a celestial would wear.
Just approaching the outfit gave Shiro the chills.
Smiling in satisfaction, Shiro nced towards her true elemental armour on the other inds. It was pretty much the same design but their respective colours that were linked to the element. The only one that was different would be the shadow armour.
The entire outfit seemed like it was made from shadows which made Shiro feel a little embarrassed since it looked like her bare body would be exposed with a gust of wind.
"Forget it, unless I need to, this princess won¡¯t wear the shadow true elemental armour. I¡¯m not an exhibitionist." Shiro shook her head and exited the mana realm.
###
After 2 days of travel, the king gestured for Yin tond since they have arrived.
Looking at their location, Shiro saw that they were going to enter a tall tower in the centre of a giant city, muchrger than the kingdom.
Leading them through the halls, the king pushed open the doors to reveal a grand hall that had 9 authoritative figures sitting on chairs around a table.
"Old bastard, did your speed decrease with your level? How the hell did you take so long to arrive." One of themughed in a joking manner.
"You¡¯re still the same." The king chuckled and shook his head.
"Little Lis, how have you been? Seems like you¡¯ve had quite the experience." He said as he looked over to Lisandra.
"I¡¯ve been fine thank you." Lisandra replied with a polite smile.
"And you two are?" He asked politely. He remembered that in the note the king had sent out, it stated that two very important guests areing.
"I¡¯m Shiro, Lisandra¡¯s tutor and this is Yin-"
"Mum¡¯s number 1 baby." Yin grinned, cutting Shiro off.
This caused them to look at Shiro once more and saw that she looked quite young. At first, they thought that Yin was her little sister or something but to think it was her daughter.
However, they quietly dismissed the thought since there were people who were quite old but looked young due to their power and level.
"Anyways, sit down and let¡¯s discuss how we¡¯re going to kill the demon king. I hear that you have a n?" He smiled and gestured for them to sit down.
Chapter 204 MatChapter Start
Chapter 204 MatChapter Start
"5%!?" The disciples frowned slightly. While 5% was not too much for each of them, she was asking 5% from EVERYONE.
That meant that she could essentially foster her daughters into monstrous adventurers that would take all the best quests.
Even Natash was shocked at her request.
¡¯Holy crap, if she does get 5% from everyone, her overall resources will be more than an Elite disciple.¡¯
"Ahem! Shiro, let¡¯s not be too hasty now. 5% is a bit too much don¡¯t you think?" Natash reminded.
"It¡¯s only 5% out of everything. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m asking for 50% from everyone now am I?" Shiro grinned.
¡¯F*ck! If you¡¯re asking for 50% then you might as well rob the faction vault!!!¡¯ Natash thought as she felt the urge to throw a table at Shiro.
"Fine fine. I won¡¯t do 5% then." Shiro shrugged since she could see the reluctance.
"In that case, how about 2% from everyone? That should be within reason right? After all, I am offering a level 60 set equipment. Think about the resources you can earn with such armour." She chuckled while eyeing all the disciples like they were walking bags of money and resources.
One by one, the disciples started to nod their heads since what she said was logical.
A level 60 set of purple grade armour will no doubt bring them more than 2% of their resources. However, there was still the problem of who will get it in the end.
"If we participate, who will get the item?" One of the disciples shouted out.
"Hm... good question. How about... whoevernds the hit that brings my HP down to 30%?" Shiro smiled.
Looking at each other, the disciples realised that this was indeed a good chance. If they pay just 2% of their resources, they can just wait till thest moment.
"Wait!! You said 2% but how long for and do we have to pay all at once." A disciple asked suspiciously. From what he saw when Yin made Erick sign a contract, it was so ambiguous that Yin had essentially robbed him blind.
If Shiro did the same, it could be 2% of all of their resources over the past 10 years or perhaps forever. If that was the case then everyone would be bankrupt.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the disciples that pointed out her loophole.
Seeing her reaction, all of the disciples who had wanted to join realised that they were about to get robbed and couldn¡¯t help but thank the male disciple in their mind.
"Fine. 2% of your resources over the next 2 years and it can be paid in monthly instalments that is at least 2% of that month¡¯s resources. You can pay more if you wish and I¡¯ll decrease the debt that you owe." Shiro replied after a short moment.
"2 years is a bit too long. Make it 1." The disciple smiled.
"1 year is a bit too short. You can forget about the event then." Shiro smiled back.
Hearing her response, the disciple paused for a moment since this wasn¡¯t what he had expected. From the information that he had gathered, he knew that she was low on resources and needed more.
The fact that she revealed a level 60 set armour, meant that she valued resources more than equipment.
Hence why even if it is for a year, she should still be willing.
Suddenly, countless hateful res were shot in the disciple¡¯s direction.
"Elder! Ignore him! He doesn¡¯t speak for all of us! We¡¯ll settle with 2 years."
"Yeah! Ignore him Elder! He¡¯s full of crap!"
Hearing some of the disciples speak out, the others soon followed since they didn¡¯t want theirpetitors to get an extra edge over them.
Some of them even persuaded themselves by thinking that it¡¯s just 3% for a chance of glory. while others would just follow along with the mob mentality since their chances increase if other people are there to take the fall first. After all, the risks of losing is much greater if they¡¯re alone.
"But I don¡¯t know if I should continue now. It¡¯s a level 60 set armour after all. Now that I think about it, I might be able to get more resources if I use it myself." Shiro furrowed her brows and acted like she was conflicted about what she should do.
"How about I give you 3% then!" Someone shouted out as the others nodded their heads in agreement. Tilting her head back, Shiro closed her eyes and pretended to think.
¡¯It¡¯s a shame that it¡¯s only 3%. Some what hoped for 5% but meh, it¡¯s better than what that dipsh*t suggested.¡¯
"Mn fine. 3% from each of you over a 2 year course." She said after a short while.
Jumping down, she started to pull out nk contracts and wrote down the details before passing it onto the disciples. Naturally, she made a present day printer secretly and pretended to pull it out of her inventory.
While she was distributing the contracts, Natash widened her eyes seeing the eager students and quickly sent a message to Freya about the current predicament.
Once every signed the contract, Shiro nodded her head in satisfaction.
"Hmm, I think the arena¡¯s a bit too small for all of you, don¡¯t you think?" Shiro tilted her head. The total amount of contestants in her ¡¯little¡¯ event was over a hundred disciples. She couldn¡¯t even fit ten of them in a stage never mind a hundred.
"Freya¡¯s got you a ce sorted out." Natash called out as the corner of her lips twitched a little.
After messaging Freya, she got a replyter that said help Shiro with whatever she was doing. Hell, she even rented the city arena for Shiro to use if she had too many participants.
"Really? Well let¡¯s wait for them to finish this event first shall we? After all, we don¡¯t want to stop their chance of entering the faction vault now do we?" Shiro smiled kindly.
The disciples couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful for her suggestion. With this, they¡¯ll have two chances at obtaining something great.
"If you say so. The city arena has been rented out for a whole week for you." Natash nodded.
"Ah before I forget, you might want to be careful since what happens in the arena will be broadcasted. Whenever there is a fight going on, a notification will be sent to everyone who wanted to be notified and they can use a simtion pod to watch the fight. Unless you want the other factions to study you intently, don¡¯t reveal to many trump cards." She continued.
"It¡¯s ok, I understand." Shiro smiled. She had always been holding back since it wouldn¡¯t do her much good if everyone knew that she was literally a walking arsenal of weapons and technology from the future.
Returning to their seats once more, they waited for all the disciples to finish their matches. However, due to the fact that they had a chance to win a level 60 set armour from Shiro after the faction recruitment, they held back a little to make sure that they were at full power for her battle.
Meanwhile, word started to travel around talking about the new elder giving the A group a chance to win a set of level 60 purple grade set armour.
"Hey have you heard?"
"Yeah I have. It¡¯s insane."
"Un. What a shame thought. If I was in the A group, I would have joined as well."
"Of course! Who wouldn¡¯t? It¡¯s just 3% after all. Nothingpared to what you can get if you win the armour."
"Though I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be that easy you know?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well you heard of her two daughters, one¡¯s called Yin and the other is called Lisandra."
"No I haven¡¯t. Go on."
"So the things is that despite the fact that they¡¯re only level 51, they can take care of higher level opponents easily. One has an insane fire element that no one had seen before and the other is highly proficient in her swordsmanship."
"I don¡¯t see what¡¯s wrong with that."
"Oi, let me finish. So both of them can take care of higher level opponents even though they¡¯re only level 51. The mother/elder is the same level as them. But this is where something is fishy. Even though the girl had an insane fire element, which she had lost control of from what I¡¯ve heard, the elder was able to shatter her attack easily with a single ice needle!"
"No f*ckng way. That must be an exaggeration."
"Who knows. There won¡¯t be smoke without fire so some of it must be true. Which means the mother is also abnormally strong."
"You do have a point. But all they need to do is reduce her to 30% health right? Just wait till she¡¯s near that and then attack her."
"Do you think that you¡¯re a genius? Of course a lot of people will think that. But with so many people hanging behind, do you really think she wouldn¡¯t abuse that fact even though she can fight higher level opponents?"
". . ."
"You see the problem now?"
"Yeah. But even then, I¡¯ll still fight since it¡¯s a level 60 set armour for god¡¯s sake. Think about the benefits. Plus, it¡¯s not like you can die in the arena. As long as you¡¯re not killed in one shot, the formation will send you out the moment you reach critical HP."
As rumours spread, it naturally reached the ears of Lyrica, Madison and Silvia.
"The hell!?!?! When did she have two daughters!?" Lyrica raged as her eyes seems to be filled with murderous intent.
"Calm down." Madison smiled wearily since she knew of her friends interest in Shiro. Plus, she had to admit that she too was rather interested in why Shiro suddenly had two daughters.
"How old what she again? Who the hell even went that far." Silvia frowned as she was more concerned about the legal side of it.
"The same person who¡¯s about to lose a d*ck when I see him." Lyrica replied while checking the edge of her sword to make sure that it¡¯s sharp.
"They must be adopted or something. With Shiro¡¯s personality, do you really think that she¡¯ll find love and have children? The two are also level 51 so there is no way that Shiro gave birth to them. If so, even if she must have been bloody pregnant in the w.o.m.b." Madison rolled her eyes.
". . . That is true." Lyrica nodded as she sat back down.
"I say we go have a look at this fight with our very eyes." Silvia suggested.
"Agreed." Both Lyrica and Madison nodded their heads.
###
After the final fight was finished, they started to make their way towards the city arena.
Shiro decided to take the normal mount since they didn¡¯t need to know about Yin¡¯s race for the time being. She was still in the early stages of C ss so she couldn¡¯t expose something as precious as Yin.
Flying over their portion of the mountain city, Shiro could see countless disciples either making their way to the arena to witness this for themselves or heading back home so that they can see it through the simtion pod.
The other city folks were naturally curious about what was happening but many just ignored it and figured that it was a fight between two high level disciples.
Once Shiro arrived at the arena, she jumped down onto the centre arena while Yin and Lisandra sat at the VIP stands.
Looking at Shiro in surprise, many were shocked at her appearance but more so at her physical age. They couldn¡¯t believe that someone this young looking could give birth, especially since Yin was literally a tinier Shiro.
As the participants started to jump down, Natash set up the parameters for the formation. The moment she reached 30% health, she¡¯ll be sent out and the match will stop. As for the disciples, due to their request, they were going to be sent out once they reached 20% health.
Normally, the faction wouldn¡¯t allow this since having an elder beat up the disciples was going to make them look bad. But since they had signed the contract already and sort of forced the Natash to set it to 20% rather than 50%.
The higher ups, namely Freya, allowed this because it will help them ept Shiro¡¯s role as an elder better. She had little to no doubt that Shiro will win this fight despite the odds since she knew of her capabilities. Even as a D ranked adventurer, the pressure that Shiro gave Freya was one that she wouldn¡¯t forget.
Once everyone was on the arena, they were separated into two sides while a referee exined the rules from a floating tform.
After exining the rules, the number 10 appeared in the air and started to count down.
"Fu...." Taking a deep breath, Shiro suppressed the excitement that was bubbling inside her since she was about to fight off arge group of people who were higher level than her. Not only would this ignite her joy, it will also help her understand her new skills better.
The main skills that she wanted to test out was Celestial Armament, Element Shift and Celestial Element Wheels.
Once the timer reached 3, she activated her Element Shift along with Celestial Element Wheels.
Element Shift ¨C Lightning.
*BANG!!!!!
Lightning descended on her spot as it startled everyone in the arena.
However, instead of being injured, Shiro¡¯s body started to change.
Her hair changed from white to neon yellow while the lightning gathered towards her feat and formed two disks that suspended her from the ground.
When the time hit 2, a white and yellow robe reced her dress. The edges of the robe faded into countless streaks of yellow mana that flickered around like lightning.
Finally, at thest second before the match started, Shiro reached out with her hand and summoned Ataraxia ¨C Lightning Shift.
With 6 swords hovering behind her and a sword in her hand, Shiro looked like a lightning goddess that had descended onto the mortal realm.
[MATCH START!]
Chapter 207 Upgraded Sword
Chapter 207 Upgraded Sword
The closest dungeon to their location was the level 55 Hell Scape Dungeon. It contained a hivemind type monster that is of the magma element.
Measuring at only 1.5 meters, their stature was rather thin and weak. But one cannot look down on them because of this. Once they find an opening, their skin will rip apart to reveal highly condensed muscles. The torn skin will them embed themselves onto the target and would heat up rapidly, melting the target¡¯s skin and subsequently their body.
Shiro decided to go to this dungeon for two reasons. Number one was to upgrade her sword and two was to level up.
Arriving at the cave entrance to the dungeon, Shiro saw that they were venturing deeper into the earth. The walls seemed to have been melted over time as their surfaces were rather smooth and looked like hardened wax that was melted beforehand.
As they descended deeper, Lisandra started to pant slightly from the heat as sweat dripped down her face.
"Here." Shiro smiled, activating cial Aura to nullify the heat for Lisandra.
"Thank you."
Once they reached the bottom, they could see a giant door between two pirs. On the door were carvings of the monsters while the pirs contained neon red runes.
Not many adventurers would hang around the door since the heat was almost unbearable. They knew that once they entered the dungeon world, it would be much cooler.
Pushing open the doors, Shiro entered the dungeon with both Yin and Lisandra as a blinding light filled their vision.
Once it was cleared, they saw a burningndscape with not a spec of green in sight. Burnt trees andva rivers could be seen everywhere while ¡¯tiny¡¯ red monsters scoured the location.
Each of them had a ck crystal embedded in their back as Shiro guessed that it was the device the hive leader used to control its followers.
"Can you handle them?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Of course I can. As if they can fight against me." Yin said proudly since this was her territory. As long as the enemy used fire element, she would be able to counter thempletely.
"I know you can. I¡¯m talking about Lisa." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Urg... I call biased."
"You tried to buy an entire restaurant menu. Anyways, how confident are you against them Lisa?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm... Until I fought one, I¡¯m not entirely sure. Right now they feel harmless but I know that they¡¯re dangerous." Lisandra said with a serious smile.
"Well, work together with your sister. I¡¯m going to upgrade my weapon." Shiro smiled as both the girls nodded and spread out their wings at the same time. Flying into the air, Lisandra pulled out her sword while Yin readied a Dark Star Orb.
As for Shiro, she flexed her fingers and summoned both the Divine Metal and Heavenly Runes.
Tapping her ne, she threw all three items into the air before tapping Yes for the upgrade.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Divine mana washed over the entire area as a portion of the dungeon even started to distort. Shifting between volcanic, grassnd and even cial environments, Shiro was surprised at how much of an effect a single upgrade could cause.
"Sss!" Taking in a sharp breath, Shiro kneeled down in fatigue when she realised that all of her MP was drained in an instant. Almost 2 million points worth of mana was gone in a snap as her body felt heavy from the sudden absence of mana.
For a monster, such cases could be lethal.
*COUGH!
Throwing up a mouthful of blood, Shiro grabbed her chest in pain.
"Mum!" Both Lisandra and Yin cried out in shock.
"I¡¯m fine, just make sure the monsters don¡¯te near." Shiro shook her head as she quickly sat down and closed her eyes. Activating her Elemental Field Affinity, which is the upgrade of Ice Field Affinity, Shiro attempted to recover her mana.
While she was battling against the drain of mana so that it didn¡¯t kill her, the pressure being released from her sword increased tremendously the longer she held out for.
Naturally, such a phenomenon couldn¡¯t be missed as the monsters screeched before wing their way to Shiro¡¯s location.
*BOOM!!!!
Dark Star Element rained down on the surrounding hills as Yin created a wall to stop them from advancing.
Unfortunately, the allure of such bountiful mana made it so that the hive lord didn¡¯t care about the casualties and continued to send his minions to breach a wall through the fire.
However, for those that did, all that was waiting for them was Lisandra.
*PUCHI!!!!
Cutting up the demons, Lisandra gritted her teeth as she forced herself to push back the entire horde.
Fighting against high level enemies was one thing but fighting against high level enemies when they don¡¯t care about their lives is another problem entirely.
Tracing her finger against her sword, she covered in a thinyer of mana before shing out horizontally.
A wave of energy swept outwards as the minions were forced backwards by the hit. Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to kill them in one go.
"Tch!" Jumping up into the air, she spread out her wings and tried to gather mana towards her.
"Huh?!" Widening her eyes in surprise, she couldn¡¯t believe how much mana was being taken by the sword. She wasn¡¯t even able to gather 10% of what was needed for her skill.
Furrowing her brows, she clicked her tongue in annoyance. Diving towards the enemy with her sword drawn, she was going to settle this through physicalbat.
While both Yin and Lisandra was trying to hold the minions off, Shiro found herself in a familiar world.
"Isn¡¯t this the tomb?" She muttered with a frown. Looking around, she found herself in the same ce where she had first upgraded her swords from purple grade to orange.
One of the tombs were open as an illusionary image of her old sword could be seen.
"Ten tombs and one is open. Could it be that the rest of the nine are different upgrades?"
Walking up to the tombs, she could feel two of the tomb¡¯s beckoning to her. This time, she decided to take a better look at the tombs sincest time she didn¡¯t care too much about them.
The tomb she had opened previously was decorated with gold ting while the tomb that she needed to open this time had silver and deep red ting.
Carved in the ting were decorative patterns that somewhat described what they contained. The red one had runes while the silver had a divine pce.
Curiosity filled her mind as she nced at the others but noticed that theycked any designs. It was just a in stone tomb.
"Hmm... maybe they¡¯ll only show itself when I get the materials to upgrade it?" Shiro muttered since there was no way that the sword could have known that she¡¯ll get the Divine Metal and Heavenly Runes.
cing her hand on both coffins, a skull splitting pain assaulted her mind as she gained knowledge about the new upgrades.
Before she realised, she was back in the dungeon as her sword floated in front of her. The back of the de was reced by a void ck that held three glowing runes within itself.
Unlike before, the dual edges longsword had essentially turned into a half katana due to the single ded nature of the sword.
Grabbing the sword by the handle, Shiro looked in surprise as one of the runes within the crystal lit up with a soft purple light.
Mana started to enter her body as her MP bar started to regenerate.
"Oh my..." She muttered in surprise after seeing the new stats.
[Ataraxia ¨C Celestial Sword of Elements (Red)]
Matches Owner Level ¨C Current Level: 51
+4000 Attack
+3000 Sharpness
+2500 Attack Speed
+2300 Ignore Defence
+2300 Critical Chance
+2000 Critical Damage
+40% Elemental Damage
+30% Suppression against enemies of the same level or lower
+25% Self Repair
+20% Life Steal
+20% Sword Affinity
+10% Mana Disabler
Skills: Element Shift (cial, Shadow, Metal, Lightning, Dragon, Dark Star, Light), Ataraxia, Celestial Runes (Kara, Lire, Aera)
Bound: Shiro
Reading the effects of the upgraded Ataraxia skill caused Shiro to pause in surprise. Overall, the effects were increased along with the total duration while the bacsh had decreased. On top of this, if she killed anyone within the range of her skill, she¡¯ll be able to increase the total duration by a few seconds.
If she used this within an army, she¡¯ll be able to keep this activated as long as she continues to kill.
As for the runes...
[Celestial Runes]
Kara: Increase mana regen massively. The lower the current MP count, the higher the regeneration. (Consumes Weapon Durability for every second it is activated.)
Lire: Increase Health Regen massively. The lower the current HP count, the higher the regeneration. (Consumes Weapon Durability for every second it is activated.)
Aera: Convert all the damage taken within the past 10 minutes into health and empower the host for 2 minutes. (Consumes Weapon Durability for every second it is activated. Warning: Do not use constantly as bacsh will build up unless given the chance to recuperate.)
Only one rune can be active at any given time.
While she only had three runes, each of them could be top tier items by themselves.
It was also perfect for her since her sword had the trait of self-repair. Therefore, the fact that using the runes consumed durability didn¡¯t bother her at all.
What did bother her, however, was the fact the monsters were still charging towards their location.
Narrowing her eyes at the monsters, she decided to give this weapon a test run for now.
*BANG!
Flickering away from her location, she appeared in front of the closest monster and swung her de.
Her mind seemed to have cleared up as her sword cut through the monster with ease. Reacting instinctively, she flowed through once stance after another.
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path ¨C Sword Path!
Compared to before, she knew that her swordsmanship had definitely improved a little.
[Threshold passed. New Skill Unlocked.]
[Sword Domain]
¡¯Sword Domain!¡¯ She thought with surprise.
Skipping past the attack domain entirely, she was able to achieve the sword domain in an instant. She had never achieved a domain in her old life so she never fully appreciated it but now that she had one of her own, she truly knew the kind of difference it made in closebat.
*PUCHI!!!!
As if walking through a flower field, her attacks were casual but held arge amount of lethality.
Flicking sword upwards, she separated Ataraxia into several copies of itself and had them orbit around her.
¡¯No wonder the guys that had this were so annoyed when they saw me. Despite never having achieved a domain of my own, my weapons were simply too powerful.¡¯ Shiro thought with a soft chuckle.
Now that she had both the domain and the weapon, she knew that she was going to reach greater heights in this life.
"Are you two alright?" Shiro asked as she walked towards Yin and Lisandra.
"Yeah... Ha... just a little tired. You know how hard it is for this baby to fight when you take all the mana?" Yinined slightly.
"Hehe, sorry about that." Shiro scratched her cheeks. While she did know that the phenomenon was going to be big, she didn¡¯t expect it to be THIS big.
"Forget about that for now. Why don¡¯t we clear this dungeon?" Shiro suggested with a smile.
"Sure, I¡¯ll teach him a lesson. How dare he attack three beauties hmph hmph." Yin frowned while stretching her body slightly.
"I agree." Lisandra nodded since the way the minions fought annoyed her quite a bit.
"Good." Shiro grinned. Summoning a second copy of Ataraxia, the three dashed into the crowd of minions.
###
Sitting on the freshly pieced corpse of thest boss, Shiro took this chance to look at the tasks that Nan Tian had given her.
The quests were neatly grouped up into four main categories and several sub categories. Main Categories included; Assassinate, Investigate, Collection and Clear while the sub categories were just the type and the difficulty.
Reading through the tasks, she was surprised that the families in Cairosa hadn¡¯t cleared the emergency raid yet. While they had recovered the people that were trapped, no one had been able to clear the raid just yet. Casualties were piling up and if they don¡¯t clear it soon, the monsters will funnel out of the raid and into the city.
Normally, the city would issue an emergency request but it seemed like they were intercepted since no support had arrived.
The task had two parts to it. Number one was to clear the raid and stop the approaching danger and the second was investigate who or what faction was stopping the information from leaving the city.
As for the reward, it was naturally a Phoenix Rebirth Pill.
"Hou hou~ Since the reward is to repair my body, this princess will naturally ept it." Shiro smiled.
As her current supplier for the Phoenix Rebirth Pills, Nan Tian was like the golden goose thatid out gold eggs.
She wasn¡¯t going to mess with him too much right now but it wasn¡¯t going to be the same in the future. After all, she still had a bone to pick with him for stalking her.
¡¯Speaking of stalking, I wonder where that shadow bastard is.¡¯ Shiro thought with killing intent.
Elsewhere, Lucius suddenly felt a chill down his spine as his a**hole puckered up instantly.
Chapter 223 Entering The Raid
Chapter 223 Entering The Raid
Once the test ended, everyone looked at Shiro like she was an absolute monster. That was because she had finished the entire test with a perfect score and 100% uracy. By the time it was on the tenth round, some of them could barely recognise the targets before they disappeared.
Walking back to the duo, Shiro patted Lisandra¡¯s shoulder and smiled.
"Good luck."
"Un." Nodding her head, Lisandra wondered why Shiro was much better at using the light element despite only getting it recently.
¡¯Hmm... could it be because she copied off of the hero? Even then, you can¡¯t just perform to this extent just by watching.¡¯ Lisandra mused to herself but soon snapped out of it since it was her turn on the test.
Pulling out her sword, she looked down on her hand as she closed her eyes. Remembering what Shiro had done, she wondered if she could do the same.
¡¯No I can¡¯t. Mum is in another league all together. BUT, that does not mean I can¡¯t take her movements as inspiration. For me, there¡¯s a limit to my control and how many targets I can recognise in an instant.¡¯ She shook her head with a smile.
"But just because I don¡¯t have the power to hit all the targets at once, doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t n out my route of attack." She muttered with a smile.
Looking up into the air, she saw the location of each target and nned a route in her mind.
Crouching down, she readied her sword.
"Is she going to jump to the targets?"
"Perhaps. From what we know, she¡¯s a melee fighter isn¡¯t she?"
Smiling at the sounds of discussion around them, Shiro narrowed her eyes at Lisandra.
¡¯I¡¯ve taught you how to control your body in mid air. I taught you how to reinforce your body and I¡¯ve also taught you about how you can control magic. Now what will you do with this knowledge?¡¯ Shiro thought with a soft smile.
The moment the timer hit 0, Lisandraunched herself at the first target. Twisting her body, she shed it in half with rtive ease.
But now was the hard part. Since she was in the air, there were hardly anyways she could move around unless shended once more. She couldn¡¯t summon a sword and step on it either due to two reasons.
Number 1 was that it wasn¡¯t controlled using magic. Without this, the sword will just fall and number 2 is no resistance. If she steps on the falling sword, the only thing that it¡¯ll aplish would be making the sword fall faster.
Smiling lightly, she summoned a sword despite the problems regarding this.
"Oh? Interesting." Shiro smiled as she realised what Lisandra wanted to do.
Tracing her finger along the sword, a row of runes appeared before she mmed her palm into the pommel and sent it flying towards the next target, leaving a trail of light behind it.
Just before the sword hit the target, Lisandra¡¯s body appeared above the sword, shing the target in two.
"What!? She never hit the ground! How did she appear at the target?" While they were discussing several usible theories, Shiro already understood what had happened.
¡¯When she drew the runes down, she set up a path of light in which her movement speed increased. Once the sword was about to hit the target, she exploded a small pocket of mana under her feet, much like what I did against Isaac, stacking the speed gained from the explosion and the path of light to reach her destination. As the flight path was a simple straight line, she didn¡¯t need to worry about any deviations apart from making sure that she could stop herself from going further.¡¯ Shiro analysed with a smile.
"You should learn from your sister rather than eat all day." She said whilst turning to Yin.
"Hmph, she¡¯s a physical based ss and this baby¡¯s magic based. Range isn¡¯t a problem." Yin pouted.
"Tch, but what if she managed to get close to you. If you tried to use your spells up close, there¡¯s a chance for you to harm yourself in the process." Shiro rolled her eyes and flicked Yin on the forehead.
"Ow. Hmph, I call biased." Yin rubbed her forehead.
"Biased my ass. Do I need to buy a family¡¯s worth of steak meals for her in one go?!" Shiro retorted.
"Urg!"
Ignoring the stupid bird, Shiro turned her attention back to Lisandra.
Following her technique, she was able to hit all of the targets that didn¡¯t move. Unfortunately, much like Isaac, she struggled on the target¡¯s that did move.
In the end, she was able to reach round 6 but had failed to reach round 7.
"Good job." Shiro praised since she was able to improve her body and mana control by a decent margin.
"Thanks." Lisandra nodded as she had a smile behind her mask.
After the rest of the members took the test, they were given a few minutes to rest while they looked through the results.
"Miss Nytri, if we were to give you both the roles of fodder clear and target shooting, will you be able to handle it?" The observer asked as Shiro was the most suited to destroy the targets. However, to do so, one would need to kill the cannon fodders that appear in the raid.
"Nope. I¡¯ll have to be paired up with someone since it¡¯s impossible even for me to handle so many things at once." Shiro replied with a smile. Of course, she¡¯s lying but she didn¡¯t want to think about the MP cost of needing to kill all of the mobs along with the targets. Not to mention, she still needed to help with damaging the boss too.
"Hmm... We¡¯ll pair you up with someone else so that you two will be responsible for both fodder and targets. Is that ok?"
"Well, it¡¯s better than being on my own." Shiro shrugged.
From her viewpoint, it was understandable that they wanted to have more people focus on dealing with the boss. However, she knew that Kier wanted to know more about her capabilities and identity. Therefore, she¡¯ll work with someone else for now.
When the break was over, they brought out the fourth boss. However, since everyone understood what to do, there weren¡¯t too many problems. However, where things went wrong was when they identally killed a fodder. Or rather, a group of fodder due to their skills.
This made it so that Shiro and her partner couldn¡¯t hit enough targets since the buff was needed.
me was thrown around as the party was thrown into disarray.
*sigh...
Rubbing her head, Shiro looked at the party that was fighting amongst itself and couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this will be fine.
¡¯For this raid, as long as the mechanics don¡¯t need more than 3 people, I can probably do it with Yin and Lisandra. Of course, we¡¯ll need to be going at full power or else our damage simply wouldn¡¯t match up.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
Right now, if she was to go full power with her Nanomancer ss, not including power up items or berserk, she estimated that she could match 3 or 4 of these so called ¡¯geniuses¡¯ in terms of firepower. But she wouldn¡¯t be able to sustain herself for a long period should she do that.
But if she was to stay in this party, they¡¯ll have to work around their personal grudges first or else the risk would simply be too high for her to bother.
¡¯Honestly, if it wasn¡¯t for this task, I wouldn¡¯t even be here. Nan Tian better give me 2 rebirth pills for this.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
¡¯Hmm... Maybe I can coerce Chen Yu to give me more. Hehe~ Unlike Nan Tian, he¡¯s fun to y around with.¡¯ Shiro giggled slightly when thinking of the things he can put him through. Perhaps she could give him a little ¡¯prod¡¯ so that he¡¯s more obedient.
"What are you smiling about mum?" Yin asked curiously.
"Nothing much, just wondering if I should pierce someone that I know." Shiro replied with a wave of her hand.
"Eh? Who?" Yin raised an eyebrow. She didn¡¯t know who was unlucky enough to find him/herself at the receiving end of Shiro¡¯s spear.
"Someone you don¡¯t know yet." Shiro chuckled softly.
###
For the next few days, the party practiced on fighting the fourth boss along with improving their teamwork.
As for Shiro, she bnced her day with going to the mana springs and practice. Ever since she formed a connection to Nimue, she noticed that both her body and mana started to get stronger everyday without her even needing to raise a hand.
After asking Nimue, it turns out that since she was a monster, her physical body was naturally a little different. With the increase in mana purity, her body was bound to experience some benefits.
Of course, Shiro also noticed the increase in mana but set it aside for now. The most likely reason would probably be because Nimue was going to be leaving with her soon. She¡¯ll naturally take all of her mana with her.
Soon, the day of the proper raid had arrived. All of the party members stood outside the raid door as they adjusted their armour.
"Let¡¯s go." Isaac called out as he was chosen to be the captain for the first raid.
Chapter 224 First Boss
Chapter 224 First Boss
"Let¡¯s go!"
Following behind Isaac, the party marched into the raid door as the spectators cheered.
ncing at the pirs that she had inspected thest time that she was here, Shiro noticed the clear signs of deterioration.
¡¯Hmm... if I¡¯m not wrong, the raid door will be broken in a minimum of 2 days. If we¡¯re lucky, it¡¯ll take more than 4 days.¡¯ She thought while narrowing her eyes.
"Is there a problem mum?" Yin whispered over.
"Yeah. Seems like the raid door will onlyst around 2 more days. After that, there¡¯s a high chance that the monsters inside will be free to escape." Shiro replied seriously.
"So we only have 2 days to try to get the first clear?" Lisandra asked. During the time that they would be idle in their room, Shiro exined to her the benefits to an emergency raid like this and how the first clear will give them a unique item that wouldn¡¯t appear again.
"Yeah." Shiro nodded her head.
"Do you think that we can do it by ourselves? If we get the item in front of this many people, wouldn¡¯t we be targeted? No matter how strong we are, fighting and killing this many young masters and mistresses will only invite trouble." Lisandra whispered.
"It depends. We¡¯ll see how it goes in the raid. We¡¯ve already seen how each of the families have a grudge against one another. They won¡¯t drop this no matter what, even if it¡¯s for the raid. The moment a good item appears, a mini war will break out. If not now,ter when the raid is cleared. Cairosa will be filled with fighting much like what happened during the slums fight." Shiro replied.
"I see..." Lisandra nodded. However, she didn¡¯t know that Shiro had something else in mind.
The first clear rewards are simply too precious to give up and Shiro knows that whoevernds thest hit on the boss will get it. During that time, if she was to substitute it with something that she made and give it to someone else, she¡¯ll not only divert the attention to said person but also keep the rewards.
Naturally, she had a safety known as fake identity. During this time, no one had found out about their true identities. Therefore, she could just get rid of this identity and go on with her life as usual. By the time they found her, she should be powerful enough to hold her own. In addition to this, she¡¯s made sure that her identity was different from her real identity since she hadn¡¯t used any of the skills that she¡¯s known for yet. But once she does, a connection will be formed and that¡¯s not what she wanted.
As she stepped into the raid door, a blinding light covered her vision, forcing her to shield her eyes.
Soon, sounds of rustling and birds chirping could be heard.
Opening her eyes, Shiro saw that they were in a jungle. The nt life and such were much different than the ones she had seen online.
¡¯The jungle of a different world.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Everyone! Formation 2! We¡¯ll have Miss Nytri and the other lower levels kill the monsters for now so that they can level up." Isaacmanded.
"Understood."
With Shiro, Lisandra, Yin and another member of the Hollen family leading the way, the party proceeded through the forest ording to the map that the cartographers had created in the Ospar mansion.
*rustle
Hearing a rustle amongst the bushes, the party instantly went on guard Even though they were confident in killing monsters, being caught off guard will still lead to death. This was no simtion.
However, Shiro only scoffed slightly and pinched her fingers together. Dark Star and Light element concentrated into a needle as she threw it above them.
*BANG!
Widening their eyes in shock, they saw a monster with a clean hole burned through its skull.
"Third rate assassin." Shiro scoffed and proceeded to walk.
Looking at each other in disbelief, the party eventually nodded their heads and followed behind her.
"Mum likes to show off a little huh?" Yin giggled.
"Yeah she does. But sometimes she doesn¡¯t mean too since they are indeed too weak in front of her." Lisandra smiled.
###
Meanwhile, deep in the jungle, a shadowed figure raised its head into the air a few times and sniffed.
"Tch, new intruders. The seem to be quite powerful too..." It narrowed its eyes.
Looking down on the ground, it clicked its tongue at the female corpses thaty on the ground.
"No fun when they¡¯re cold. F*ck! Why did I get this monster body! It doesn¡¯t feel as good as before." He growled and stuffed all of the corpses into its mouth.
"Hopefully I can get some new ymate hehe." Just as it finished saying this, it disappeared from its spot like a ghost.
The only thing that remained was torn clothes, blood and other bodily fluids.
###
Making their way through the forest, none of the monsters were able tond a single hit on the party. Some were able to use the Hollen family member as a cover but was easily dealt with by Lisandra.
In the end, it was only Shiro, Yin and Lisandra leading the party.
During this time, Shiro had managed to level up to 52, meaning that Lisandra was the same. As for Yin, her level didn¡¯t increase at all.
This had pushed Shiro¡¯s mana over the 2 million threshold.
"We should be arriving at the first boss soon." Isaac warned.
Treading through the overgrown foliage, they soon saw a giant armoured lizardthed on the side of a cliff.
[Ancient Armoured Lizard ¨C LVL 60 BOSS]
HP: 30,000,000/30,000,000
MP: 20,000,000/20,000,000
"Guys be careful. While his HP and MP is low for a level 60 boss, his armour stat is off the chart. You attacks that might have done hundreds of thousands to the boss before will only do tens of thousands." Isaac frowned.
"Formation 5, we¡¯ll take care of him as quick as possible."
Shifting their formation once more, the tankers charged forwards Using all of their defence boost skills onto the main tanker, he immediately took the aggro and mmed the giant lizard against the cliff wall.
*BANG!!!!!
Cracks spread out as the cliff started to copse.
"Oh my, seeing his strength after all the buffs in real life is indeed different from the simtions." Alura muttered as the party members couldn¡¯t help but nod.
"Stop being in awe and let¡¯s kill it." Isaac reprimanded while a silver aura enveloped his body.
Nodding their heads, they all readied their skills.
Just as Shiro was about to attack, she noticed a stare sweep past her.
¡¯Hmm... that¡¯s the intelligent monster. I should keep some of my skills hidden for now and weaken my physical abilities too.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and made a lightning sword instead.
Making eye contact with both Yin and Lisandra, Shiro made a small hand gesture which meant suppress. It was something that they had discussed in their spare time.
Sometimes they can¡¯t talk or else their n will be exposed so Shiro made up gestures for suppress, all out, control and so on.
Both Yin and Lisandra nodded their heads and restrained their power output.
Since the first boss had already been killed once, they were in no hurry to kill it.
Time passed as the monster¡¯s health decreased. It was a rtively simple raid since all they needed to do was make sure the tanker was alive. Nothing too strenuous for the healers on the team.
However, during this entire time, Shiro had noticed the intelligent monster carefully inspecting their movements.
His gaze hadnded on her a few times and it reminded her of the eyes of someone who was inspecting each ¡¯dish¡¯.
¡¯ve owners.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. That gaze belonged to one that had owned and bought many ves in his lifetime. She remembered seeing this type of gaze during one of their missions in the hero party. She and her friends acted like merchandise while the other party members were the traders.
Their goal at that time was to find out where they had kept all their ¡¯shipment¡¯ and the end of the mission was naturally the torture of those whoid a hand on the woman.
¡¯Seems like this monster came from another world simr to me or else the gaze would not be so experienced. Tch, trash.¡¯ She thought while clicking her tongue.
Throughout the boss fight, she had ¡¯identally¡¯ flung two attacks at the monster and noticed that it was extremely swift. A speed type monster that was experienced like her.
A troublesome opponent.
Chapter 225 Second Boss
Chapter 225 Second Boss
After killing the first boss, the party took this time to recuperate their stamina. Setting up a temporary camp, they had people stand guard while the main tanker rested for a moment.
Shiro took this time to go around killing the wandering monsters while Yin and Lisandra followed her.
"Did you find out anything?" Shiro asked as she had tasked them with finding anything that could potentially lead them to the intelligent monster.
"No. There was nothing, not even a footprint." Lisandra shook her head.
"Hmm... that¡¯s rather troublesome. I suppose that¡¯s to be expected since the monster is extremely fast." Shiro frowned.
"Shall we warn them?" Yin asked.
"No not yet. If they cause amotion, it¡¯ll make the monster wary of our movements. Right now, we¡¯re using the excuse of hunting to leave the camp so the monster wouldn¡¯t find anything strange about this. But if we tell the entire party, the monster will hear them talking about its existence and that¡¯s something we can¡¯t have. Otherwise, we won¡¯t be able to take it off guard with our attacks, lowering our chance of killing it." Shiro shook her head.
"Anyways, let¡¯s go back to the camp. We¡¯ve killed all the monsters around for now so it¡¯s time for the next boss."
Once they returned to the camp, they started to make their way to where the second boss was.
From their information, the boss was a giant tree that would spawn tiny copies of itself and one had to destroy the copies before focusing on the tree.
Normally, trying to find a specific tree in a forest would be hard but, due to the size and the arena, it was easily spotted. Even from a long distance away, they could see the towering tree that stood above the forest.
"Seriously, even though we knew it¡¯s height, this is a bit ridiculous, isn¡¯t it? How does a tree even get this big? Wouldn¡¯t the nutrients it requires drain the forest entirely?" One of the party members raised an eyebrow.
"Don¡¯t question it. Weunch magical fires with a wave of our fingers and even destroy cliffs. Why is a massive f*ck off tree confusing you?" One of the tankersughed.
"Well I suppose. But aren¡¯t you curious as well?"
"Hmm... A little."
"Monsters are formed from mana. They don¡¯t need any nutrients to speak of when they form. The tree could have been ¡¯spawned¡¯ like this." One of the mages answered.
Shiro nodded to this exnation as well since only mana was needed when a monster first forms. Of course, some other mediums are desired, an example being a corpse for snow girls, but they weren¡¯t mandatory. It only increases the chance of a specific monster being born.
For example, in a ce filled withva, fire based monsters are more likely to spawn due to the environment. But that didn¡¯t mean an ice type monster couldn¡¯t be born. Only that when they are born, they¡¯ll die rather quickly due to the environment and the hostile monsters around it.
Upon arriving at the arena, the boss instantly reacted and summoned his minions. Soon, the arena was filled with what seemed to be a turtle made from wood.
[World Eater Treant Sapling ¨C LVL 60 BOSS]
HP: 60,000,000/60,000,000
MP:67,500,000/70,000,000
[World Eater Guards ¨C LVL 55 ELITE]
HP: 5,000,000/5,000,000
MP: 3,000,000/3,000,000
"Formation 1, healers heal those who are low and supports buff Miss Nytri¡¯s group of three." Isaacmanded while dashing towards the closest group of guards.
Shiro wasn¡¯t too far behind him either as she felt her strength increase.
¡¯Since I¡¯m being buffed, it should be ok to show more of my power or else it¡¯ll be weird.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Flicking Ataraxia into the sky, she summoned out the other copies and had them scatter throughout the arena.
"Try not to make contact with the monster kay?" Shiro called out nonchntly as the party instantly pulled back.
Knowing her destructive power from the tests, despite her holding back, they knew that they¡¯ll be injured heavily if they didn¡¯t listen.
*BOOM!!!!
Two Tier 3 magic circles appeared in the sky as Shiro grinned. Using a mixture of her Lightning and Metal attunement, she summoned down pirs of lightning onto her swords.
Tier 3 Lightning Magic ¨C Lightning Web
*TZZZ!!!!!
Lightning travelled through all of the monsters as scorch marks could be seen all over their bodies.
"Their defence should now be weakened and their reactions will be dull." Shiro informed as she retrieved her swords.
Bending her knees slightly, she grabbed two of her swords and dashed forwards. Twisting her body, she shed all of the monsters that she ran past.
"Kill them all!" Isaac shouted out as worship could be seen in his eyes.
Yin jumped into the air and pushed her palms forward. Creating a tier 3 magic circle, she made two more and threw them towards the monsters.
"Expand!"
Clutching her hands into a first, she expanded the magic circles and activated them.
*BOOM!
Several wh.i.p.s made from Dark Star energy erupted from the circles andshed out at all the monsters within its range.
As for Lisandra, she followed behind Shiro and killed monsters with her sword skills.
While the party fought the minions, the boss would either stab towards them with tree trunks or use leaves to block their vision. But with the existence of talented tankers and archers, they didn¡¯t need to worry too much about these things.
Watching the party coordinate with each other, the monster narrowed its eyes dangerously.
¡¯Hmm... thatmander with the silver aura seems to be the most dangerous out of them. The girl named Alura and the tanker seems to be problematic too...¡¯ He thought while analysing their fighting style.
However, while he could tell that those three were dangerous, he was more concerned about Shiro¡¯s group.
¡¯While her disy so far is not bad even after receiving the buff, she shouldn¡¯t be giving me a sense of death. Some sword sage shouldn¡¯t be a danger to me since they can¡¯t harm what they can¡¯t hit. The fire mage in her group is just a kid and the other girl can only use a sword as well. Logically, these three should pose no threat to me... Hm... and why does the name Nytri ring a bell...¡¯ He frowned in concern.
As an assassin in his past life, he knew that he should trust his instincts. But he simply couldn¡¯t tell why he should be wary of the three girls.
Now that he had the monster title that doubles his stats, he was a monstrous entity amongst the mid levels of C ss despite only being at the early levels. That was the benefits that were brought by the monster title, a privilege he couldn¡¯t experience in his old life.
"Tch, if I had this when I fought that b*stard, he wouldn¡¯t even be able to hit me." He clicked his tongue at the thought of why he died. Shaking his head of the thoughts, he flickered to another spot around the area. Staying in one ce was never good.
Meanwhile, Shiro narrowed her eyes slightly when she felt the source of the gaze disappear.
¡¯So he¡¯s changed spots again.¡¯ She thought to herself. From what she had felt a moment before his disappearance, he had cultivated quite arge amount of killing intent. While it couldn¡¯tpare to hers, it was definitelyrger than average.
The more she felt his gaze, the more serious Shiro¡¯s facial expression became. That was because she could feel suspicion and wariness in his gaze whenever he looked at her.
¡¯Despite having held back on my power output, he¡¯s still suspicious. This might mean that his instincts are sensitive. A seasoned adventurer.¡¯
Furrowing her brows, she cut down another monster as she wondered if she should restrain herself more. But that was quickly forgotten since it would only be more suspicious if she didn¡¯t use any skills.
¡¯I¡¯ll see what happens for now. But since it¡¯s an intelligent and seasoned monster, we¡¯ll probably only get one chance since he¡¯ll be on guard after seeing the return stones. Depending on the situation, he¡¯ll probably attack on the fourth boss since no one had cleared that yet. It¡¯ll be risky to fight him at that moment without being able to ess my full power.¡¯
She couldn¡¯t stay behind after they left using the return stones either since that¡¯ll mean that she had to fight against the boss and the monster at the same time. That would simply be too dangerous even for her.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ll have to try to distract the party or make it so that the monster can¡¯t interfere with the boss fight.¡¯ She narrowed her eyes.
Chapter 226 World Eater Set Armour
Chapter 226 World Eater Set Armour
*CRACK
Ripping her sword out of the Treant¡¯s body, Shiro watched at the second boss crumbled away.
"Fuu... good work guys." Isaac smiled as he called out for everyone¡¯s attention.
"The third boss is as you know, mainly target shooting so we¡¯ll go with formation 6 where Miss Nytri is our focus. Do everything we can to make her job easy since almost all of the pressure is on her." He turned towards Shiro and gave her a smile.
However, Shiro only nced at him for a moment before checking her loot.
There were weapons and armour, some at the purple rank, but they were mostly items for recycling since she had better equipment. Naturally, she had found a set item that caught her interest.
[World Eater Treant Gauntlet LVL 60 Purple (1/4)]
+1200 DEX
+500 INT
+500 DEF
Skill: Root
Root: Summon roots that will restrain your enemies for 5 seconds. (Maybe shorter or longer depending on the difference in levels.)
Number of enemies that can be affected is 3.
Cost: N/A
Cool Down: 30 Seconds
World Eater Set Effect (2/4):
+2000 VIT
+1000 DEF
Skill: Guardian Summon
Guardian Summon: Summon a guardian whose level is equal to yours. It will protect you no matter the cost. (Number of guardians is equal to ss Tier. Tier 1 = 1 Guardian. Tier 2 = 2 Guardian Etc...)
Cost: N/A
Duration: 1 minute
Cool Down: 10 minutes
While the stats were a little low for a piece of level 60 equipment, the skills made up for this deficit. This was especially so for the Root skill. In Shiro¡¯s opinions, she valued the root skill over the guardians since there was a lot one could do in the 5 seconds that the enemy is immobile.
And since the description showed that you can target 3 enemies, she could at least kill one of them in that time.
¡¯This item will help a lot in situations when I¡¯m outnumbered and they¡¯re stronger than me. If I do need to fight against human adventurers, I can use this to root the tankers and attackers while I kill the supports.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Unfortunately, by the time she reached level 60, she had her Kaiser Dragon set armour so this would be left in her inventory to rot. She couldn¡¯t recycle this for the skill either since she couldn¡¯t get skills from set armours.
Otherwise, she would have long recycled the set skill from the spider raid set armour that Helion had created. That was because the set skill was called Empowered Rampage.
The effect of said skill was 20% attack speed and 20% power for 1 minute and the cooldown was 5 minutes. As for the bacsh, it was just a measly -40 points to every stat for 2 minutes. Such a bacsh was nothingpared to the stats she had now. Even her lowest stat, the defence stat, was at 4000 after her level up. As for her highest stat, intelligence, it was at an astounding 16k points.
That was just the base points as well. This didn¡¯t include the title bonus which would propel it pass the 20k mark. A number that was insane for any level 52 to have in a single stat if they didn¡¯t have a ss like her¡¯s.
"Did you get anything good Miss Nytri?" Isaac took the initiative to ask her.
"Mn? Somewhat. I managed to get a gauntlet piece for the set item." Shiro said as she showed the armour. She wasn¡¯t too bothered about them knowing since it wasn¡¯t useful to her at all.
"Would you like to sell it to one of our party members then? We¡¯ll host a small auction while we recover. We can also trade for more useful items from the first boss too." He suggested as everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
Some of them were quite displeased about their items since it didn¡¯t suit them at all, if they could trade it for something that can help them, they¡¯ll dly take the chance.
"Sure." Shiro nodded as she was quite interested in the items that other people have got.
"As we are all privileged adventurers, I¡¯m sure that money isn¡¯t a problem so we¡¯ll trade item for item how¡¯s that? We¡¯ll still have the auction format but instead, we¡¯ll call out the information regarding out items." Isaac asked, turning to the other party members.
After setting up the details, they put up camp and prepared to have a mini auction.
Sitting near the back, Shiro kept an eye out for the monster while also focusing on the auction for any items that were worth obtaining.
Most of the things that people sold were just duplicate set items or materials for cksmiths. During this, she found out that the first boss had dropped a set piece as well, it was just that she got unlucky and didn¡¯t get it.
However,pared to the second boss, the set effect wasn¡¯t as good so Shiro wasn¡¯t too bothered.
In the end, she traded for a piece of the world eater set armour using one of the better individual pieces that she received.
Storing the two away, she nned to give it to one of the girls.
¡¯Maybe this will be helpful for Silvia since she¡¯s a healer. Guardians will protect her better and the root skill will help her make some distance between her enemies.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Since it was getting dark, they decided to sleep first.
Arranging a few people to keep a watch overnight, the party members slept peacefully.
However, Shiro and her two daughters stayed awake.
"Mum, if we were to kill this intelligent monster, do you think the raid will end?" Yin whispered.
"Perhaps. Since he controls this raid, I suppose he is thest boss. And since he¡¯s intelligent, leaving the final room wouldn¡¯t be surprising." Shiro nodded.
"What happens if we were to kill him before the other bosses then?" Lisandra asked.
"The raid will probably force us outside and we¡¯ll lose the chance at the first kill rewards." Shiro replied.
"Hm... that¡¯s a pity then isn¡¯t it." Lisandra frowned slightly.
Nodding her head, Shiro agreed with her statement. But in the end, if the monster was to court death, she would kill it without hesitation.
Just as she was about to sleep, she felt a dense amount of killing intent sweep over the tent.
"Don¡¯t move just yet!" Shiro whispered as she grabbed both Yin and Lisandra who were about to get up.
"If we were to leave the tent quickly, it¡¯ll mean our senses are sharp. We don¡¯t want that. Wait a while so the other members will be the focus." She exined.
After waiting for a short while, they left the tent and saw that most people were dressed and ready forbat.
"Situation?" Shiro asked.
"One of the monsters wanted to ambush us but we¡¯ve killed it. It must be a variant." Isaac frowned as he pointed the dead monster corpse.
However, Shiro knew that this was just a disposable pawn as she could still feel the intelligent monster¡¯s calcting gaze on their camp.
"I see, that¡¯s good then." Shiro sighed in relief. She had to act a little to convince the monster.
###
¡¯Hmm... it seems like my instincts were wrong. If she was really a danger, she wouldn¡¯t have reacted sote to my killing intent. Adventurers can¡¯t control their instinctive reactions to danger after all.¡¯ He thought as he struck Shiro off his list of potential dangers. What he didn¡¯t know was that his killing intent wasn¡¯t enough to invoke this instinctual movement. Her mind had been tempered by far worse.
¡¯I¡¯ll make my move after the fourth boss. Since they haven¡¯t killed it yet, it means that they know nothing about the fifth boss. They will be focusing too much on the boss and expose themselves to me. I only have to wait a few more days then I can have a few more ymates. Hehe, that Alura seems quite fine.¡¯ He smiled crudely.
Sweeping his gaze over Shiro¡¯s group once more, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder what they looked like. It was a shame that their face was covered since he wanted to see what kind of face they had. Their disposition belonged to those that were highly confident.
¡¯I¡¯ll find outter anyway. The more confident they are, the more joy I get.¡¯
###
Suppressing her killing intent, Shiro frowned as she had the urge to throw up.
¡¯The f*cker¡¯s the r*pey kind huh? I¡¯ll make sure to give him some special treatment.¡¯ She furrowed her brows. She could clearly feel the lecherous intent in his gaze. For this kind of person, piercing the rear was only a starting act.
Chapter 227 Problematic Situation
Chapter 227 Problematic Situation
Making their way through the forest once more, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but notice the clear decrease in monsters around the area.
¡¯Perhaps it¡¯s due to the boss?¡¯ She wondered to herself but wasn¡¯t too bothered.
As they approached what seemed to be the spot for the third boss, they saw a giant cavity in the ground with what seemed to be a staircase.
"Seems like we¡¯ve got the right ce." Isaac said as his voice was serious.
From what they¡¯ve learnt from all the intel, once they take the staircase down, they¡¯ll be greeted with a wall of eyes.
The eyes will be closed and one would need to shoot the eyes that open and force them to close. However, the most dangerous part of this boss was that it would take a percentage of health rather than health points.
This meant that they couldn¡¯t rely on tanks to forcefully clear this stage.
"Miss Nytri, it¡¯s up to you now." Isaac turned to Shiro and gestured for her to go down the stairs.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro walked down the stairs calmly. Once they reached the bottom, the stone wall full of eyes greeted them from the opposite side.
Flexing her fingers, light and lightning converged at her fingers.
This caused some of the party members to tilt their heads in confusion since she had never done this in the practices. She had always justunched her swords and hadn¡¯t used magic like she did now.
*PCH!
One of the eyes snapped open as the pupil started to glow with an ominous red.
*BANG!
Firing a small needle of energy towards the eye, Shiro pierced it with ease.
*PCH PCH PCH!
As the first eye was destroyed, several more opened up and red towards her in anger.
"Mages, help me cover the left and right side and I¡¯ll focus on the middle." Shiro said while ncing back at the party.
"Understood!" Two mages replied instantly. They didn¡¯t know why, but the moment she made eye contact with them, they suddenly felt like were staring at a monster that could kill them in a single hit.
Quickly standing beside her, they created a few orbs that would fire elemental spears at the eyes.
While the three of them continued to shoot at the boss, the tankers stood by the side, ready to take a hit just in case. Even though the damage the boss did was percentage-based, they would rather take the hit since the mages might miss a target in the moment where they were recovering.
As time passed, the number of eyes that opened started to increase. Not only that, but the surface area of the boss spread to the other walls like an infection. When they reached the 15-minute mark, most of the walls were covered with eyes and they needed to get all the mages to help out.
For those that weren¡¯t proficient in uracy, they had to sit aside or else they would make more trouble rather than help relieve it.
"We¡¯re almost at the final wave! Keep it up!" Isaac shouted out while he also helped out with hitting the eyes.
On the guide, it said that thest wave was one when each eye would only need a second to charge up their attacks. With the entire wall as a target that they needed to hit, it required everyone to pull their weight.
*PCHI!
"Fire!"
As the final batch of eyes opened all over the walls, countless skills shot out and pierced the eyes. Naturally, there were some that missed but they gritted their teeth and endured the pain.
*Kiiiii!!!!!
An ear rupturing screech rang out as the eyes started to dry out and crumble to dust.
"Fu... We¡¯ve done i- GET DOWN!!!" Isaac shouted out as he red his aura.
Quickly raising his sword, he shed upwards.
*BANG!!!!!!
An explosion rang out as everyone was pushed back.
"ARG!"
The force of the explosion had even mmed a few members into the wall as they fractured their ribs.
Flipping her body in mid-air, Shiro frowned and looked towards what Isaac had attacked.
[Ancient Chimera ¨C LVL 60 BOSS]
HP: 79,500,000/80,000,000
MP: 100,000,00/100,000,000
"The fourth boss?! Why is it here so soon? Shouldn¡¯t we need to go past a maze first?" She muttered in confusion.
"Those whose health is above 60%e help me upy the boss! Healers, get everyone else to at least 50% health! Make sure your return stones are ready! Don¡¯t die a pointless death!" Isaac shouted out.
Checking up on Yin and Lisandra to make sure that they were fine, Shiro looked around the arena and saw that most of the members had decided to give up on this run. Their hands were clenched around the return stone, ready to leave at any moment.
¡¯Tch, cowards. They¡¯ll be no use to the run now that their spirit has given up.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
"You two, you can show off a little, but make sure that you save some trump cards. The monster may very well attack at any moment during this raid." She whispered before summoning Ataraxia.
"Got it." Both Yin and Lisandra nodded their heads seriously as they prepared themselves. Lisandra summoned her weapon while Yin had three orbs of Dark Star Element floating around her.
Now that they had a better look at the boss, they couldn¡¯t help but frown a little.
Shaped like a furry t rex but with three pairs of arms and three tails, the monster could cause lots of coteral damage by just moving around. Plus, they were in a small area right now so it made the situation even more dangerous for the party.
"Yin, keep the tails busy. Use your dark star to restrain them. Lisa, make wounds around the shoulder joints for all six arms. With your mobility, I believe that you¡¯ll make it out of there rtively unharmed."
"No problem."
"Of course."
Jumping up into the air, Yin changed the orbs into wh.i.p.s. Lashing them towards the tails, she left scorch marks on the fur but failed to burn further, much to their surprise.
As for Lisandra, she activated her mana cloak and exploded a small pocket of mana under her foot to give herself some extra lift.
Summoning a second sword so that she could dual wield, she plunged them both into the shoulder des and attempted to pry them up.
*URAHHH!!!!!!!
Thrashing his body around, the boss tried to shake Lisandra off.
However, its rampage was soon cut short as Shiro flickered in front of its eyes.
Twitching her body, she shed Ataraxia horizontally but had failed in removing the boss¡¯s eye due to it closing its eyes in time.
*URAH!
Crying out in rage, a pulse of mana erupted out from its body as it raised all six of its arms. Muscles bulged while mana covered at the fists.
"Earthquake type skill! Everyone watch out!" Shiro shouted out. But just as she looked back at the party, she saw that most of them had crushed the return stone.
"Tch, f*ck!" She clicked her tongue. While she did expect this from them, it didn¡¯t make the situation any less frustrating.
Good news was that two tankers, a healer, Alura and Isaac had decided to stay for now.
Pinging her fingers together, she created a tiny shield that had the skill of absorption and threw it towards the tankers and healers. The shield was disguised as a talisman so that they wouldn¡¯t be suspicious.
As for the skill itself, it would absorb damage at the cost of durability. This was a skill that she had recycled from a rather low-level shield as the damage taken per point of durability was percentage-based rather than point-based. This was because the skill wouldn¡¯t work against a monster that was 5 levels higher than the equipment.
But since her Nanomancer ss allowed her to recycle skills, this was especially helpful for her because she could bypass this w by applying this skill to a high-level piece of equipment. Not only that, but she could constantly repair the shield¡¯s durability since she had installed a mana coil on the edges of the ¡¯talisman¡¯. This would have the item actively gather mana to repair itself and thus bncing out the drain of the skill. Of course, there was still an upper limit to the damage threshold but it wasn¡¯t too much of a worry.
*BANG!!!!
As the boss mmed its fists into the ground, the entire arena started to copse.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro activated her flight skill and dashed towards the other party members. While the shield could absorb damage, it couldn¡¯t stop the environment from copsing.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Unbeknown to them, underneath the arena, was a giant cavern that was dimly lit by soft blue rocks.
Landing safely with both tankers and the healer, Shiro looked up to see Lisandra holding Alura while Yin was ho- No wait, she just let go of Isaac and he was now falling head first.
Quickly adjusting himself in mid air, Isaac managed tond without harm.
"Tch." Yin, Shiro and Lisandra clicked their tongues at the same time.
However, just as she was about to back up, Shiro heard a low growl behind her.
Turning around slowly, she saw the monstrous being that could be the 5th boss.
[Demonic Hell Hound ¨C LVL 60 BOSS]
HP: 100,000,000/100,000,000
MP: 100,000,000/100,000,000
"For f*ck sake." She couldn¡¯t help but mutter.
Chapter 228 Reincarnator
Chapter 228 Reincarnator
The hell hound was entirely made from scrap metal and spiked chains. Neon red lines ran across its body as its three heads red at her.
Quickly grabbing the two tankers and the healer, Shiro dashed out of the way.
"We know nothing about the 5th boss! We can¡¯t fight both bosses at once!" Shiro shouted out towards Isaac and Alura.
"You three get out of here quickly." She said while turning to the people in her grasp.
Hastily nodding their heads, they crushed the return stone and were teleported out of the raid.
Setting its gaze on Shiro¡¯s back, the hell hound snarled for a second before tilting its head back.
*URAH!!!!!
Howling loudly, a red mist enveloped the area as the temperature rose sharply.
Looking at the mist, Shiro furrowed her brows as her instincts warned her of danger.
"KISH KISH!
Flexing its entire body, sparks flickered off the hell hound¡¯s body and into the mist.
"Oh sh*t!" Shiro widened her eyes and quickly mmed her palms into the ground.
A pulse of mana exploded out as it pushed the mist aside.
However, it wasn¡¯t enough. She did consider entering the rift but the intelligent monster¡¯s gaze locked onto her.
¡¯Tch, troublesome!¡¯ Shiro gritted her teeth and created a set of armour under her clothes.
Injecting as many defensive skills as she could, she braced herself for impact.
*BOOM!!!!! CRACK!!!
Her body was flung against the wall as coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Ssss!" Taking a sharp breath in, she nced at her HP and saw that she was down to 45% health despite using all of her defensive skills.
"Mum!." Yin called out as she red at the hell hound with her eyes full of anger.
However, Shiro shook her head at Yin and made a small hand signal.
Suppressing her anger, Yin could only nod.
"Isaac! Alura! Get out of here first!" Shiro called out.
Nodding their heads, they made some distance with the 4th boss and crushed their stones. The only reason that they didn¡¯t use it earlier was to reduce some of the pressure on Shiro¡¯s group of three.
Regrouping with Yin and Lisandra, Shiro took off her mask and mouthed a few words before they pretended to try destroy their stones.
However, acting as if the stones failed, all three of them ¡¯panicked¡¯ for a short moment before looking up at the hole where they fell down from.
"You two, grab onto me." Shiro said as she tightened her grip around her sword.
But before she could do anything, both bosses roared out and charged towards them.
*URAH!!!!!
Quickly stabbing her sword into the side of the wall, sheunched herself up into the air and activated flight. Dodging some of their attacks, Shiro kept her mind focused on the intelligent monster. She could clearly feel his excitement rise as she purposefully let one of the attacks hit her, burning off her cloak and revealing her face.
Twisting her body, she threw Lisandra and Yin up the sink hole and onto the surface.
"Come on!" Shiro cried out as she gritted her teeth.
Beckoning Ataraxia into her hands, Shiro shed apart the boss¡¯s attacks and used the force to propel herself upwards.
"We have to get out of here before the bosses chases us. We¡¯ll need to backtrack a little since the stones don¡¯t work." Shiro said quickly.
"Why though? Didn¡¯t the stone work for others?" Yin asked in ¡¯worry¡¯.
"I don¡¯t know. Let¡¯s just get out of here first." Shiro shook her head and Lisandra nodded in agreement.
Meanwhile, hidden in the trees, the monster¡¯s grin widened as he watched on.
¡¯Holy f*ck! I didn¡¯t expect the hooded girl to be a beauty. Hehe, I¡¯ve hit the jackpot this time.¡¯ He thought to himself as he followed closely behind them.
Unknown to him, Shiro had a grin on her face as well.
¡¯Just keep following.¡¯ She thought to herself.
When they arrived at one of their old camp sites, they stopped for a moment and looked around.
"Phew, I don¡¯t think the bosses are following." Shiro sighed in ¡¯relief¡¯.
Just as she was about to continue, she felt a presence behind her.
"Took you long enough." Shiro chuckled as this surprised the monster.
"Eh?"
Flexing her fingers, nanotech wires enveloped the entire area and wrapped around him.
Yin created a few dark star spears and aimed it at his face while Lisandra pinned him down with both her swords.
"GAH!" He cried out as he tried to struggle.
However, the tensile strength of the nanotech wires were much bigger than he had thought. One moment of carelessness robbed him of all the advantages that he owned.
"So then, are we going to talk about what you¡¯ve been doing then mister reincarnated individual?" Shiro narrowed her eyes as several tier 3 magic circles appeared around them, ready to be activated at anytime.
Looking down at the monster, she saw that it was a humanoid insectoid that had dark purple chitin around his body.
[Kamnar LVL 62 sh Step Assassin]
Widening his eyes, Kamnar didn¡¯t believe what he had just heard.
"What do you mean?" He gritted his teeth as he tried to struggle some more.
"Don¡¯t y dumb." Shiro said coldly.
Flicking her fingers, the wires around his legs lit up with a mix of dark star and shadow element.
Feeling the wire eat away at his flesh, he held back his urge to scream.
A dark red aura burst out of him as his body cracked apart and turned to dust.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro instantly activated her Ice element shift and Celestial Armament along with Celestial Ice Wheels.
A pair of Celestial ice wheel materialised under her feet as her hair shifted to that of a baby blue.
However, she wasn¡¯t done. Since her opponent was reincarnated just like her, she wasn¡¯t going to take it easy on him. Activating her sword skills, Ataraxia and Sword Domain, her mind instantly locked onto Kamnar. Currently, he was trying his best to run away.
Smiling lightly, Shiro flickered into the rift.
###
¡¯Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t!¡¯ kamnar cried out in his mind as he couldn¡¯t believe that she was actually so strong. Not only that, he was forced to use one of his life saving skills to get out of there since he knew that he would be dead if he stayed.
Just as he was about to step on a branch, the rift opened in front of him as Shiro appeared.
"It wasn¡¯t easy catching up to you ya know? Now freeze." She smiled.
*KRRRR!!!
Icy mist erupted out with her in the centre and froze everything within a 10 meter radius. The leaves that were frozen shattered into dust as Kamnar crashed against the ground.
"I know that you¡¯re reincarnated since there¡¯s no way that a monster can have so much experience behind a pair of eyes. Now tell me, which world are you from?" Shiro chuckled as stabbed him through the back.
Digging her hand into the wound, she grabbed hold of what seemed to be his spine and crushed it in half.
Flexing her fingers, a spear appeared behind his rear as Shiro pierced it cleanly into his body.
"ARGGGG!!!!!!!"
Ignoring his cries, she grabbed the spear from inside his body and stabbed it through the centre of his spine. Propping him up so that the spear held him like a hand puppet, Shiro walked in front of him and smiled.
"Shall we talk now?"
Making some more nanotech wires, she made sure the ice prison was quite secure before healing his spine with her fire. The spine healed around the spear, causing Kamnar to writhe in pain.
"What... do... you... want to know?" He squeezed out barely.
"Which world are you from and do you know why you reincarnated."
"I came... from the world of Aria.... I don¡¯t know... but before I woke up in this body.... I was killed due to a person I¡¯ve always hated... for a long time." He said slowly.
"You¡¯re from Aria?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Indeed- wait a minute.... Your name is.... OH MY GOD!" He widened his eyes in fear as he realised who Shiro was.
"GAH! ARG! No!" He cried out as his mind seemed to go into shock.
From his memories, the name Nytri was always taboo and should never be spoken of. As the most powerful user of the god like ss, Nanomancer, she could make you live a life worse than death. Hell, she might not even let you die as she could turn you into a human machine hybrid that would automatically torture you while keeping you alive.
There had been videos and records hidden deep in the archives where he passed them by chance. Just a thought of those videos made his body shiver in fear.
"ARG! GAH!!" He struggled wildly to no avail. He even weed the internal bleeding that came with the spear in his spine since it meant that he could die faster.
However, Shiro only clicked her fingers and healed him with the life fire.
"Seems like you know of me? In that case, you know that you won¡¯t die that easily in my hands." She grinned.
Chapter 229 Situation In Aria
Chapter 229 Situation In Aria
While Shiro was torturing her captive for more information regarding his reincarnation, the party was getting worried as they waited outside.
"Why hasn¡¯t shee out yet?" Isaac said with a frown.
"Do you think that she might not be able toe out? She is currently fighting against two bosses, the fourth boss being one that we haven¡¯t been able to kill and thepletely unknown fifth boss." Alura replied as she too was worried about her safety. While she wasn¡¯t close to ¡¯Nytri¡¯ by any means, it didn¡¯t mean that she wanted her to die.
"Heh, maybe it¡¯s because her return stone was faulty." Lox sneered.
"Shut the f*ck up before I cut you apart." Isaac red at Lox while his silver aura red.
"Hah?! Do you want to fight me now? You think my family is scared of you." Lox frowned as he held out a talisman.
Seeing this talisman, Isaac narrowed his eyes since he recognised it to be an item that boosts up one¡¯s power. In the time that he¡¯s powered up, he could easily call for his family to back him up. Even if Isaac had his sword domain, he couldn¡¯t fight against elders that were in their level 70¡¯s.
He wasn¡¯t like Shiro who could bridge such a wide gap.
Taking a deep breath to calm his rage slightly, he started to think about what he could do to help Shiro.
"Why did the fourth boss appear so early though? Didn¡¯t the intel say that the fourth boss only appears after you pass the maze?" The healer asked anxiously.
As amotion rang out, Kier soon arrived with his escorts.
"What happened?" He asked with a serious face.
"We were ambushed by the fourth boss and forced into their of the fifth boss. Everyone managed to get out with their return stones but Nytri, Lisa and Inya are still stuck in there." Isaac replied.
"What?! That¡¯s a concern. Out of everyone here, there was no doubt that miss Nytri was one of the best adventurer¡¯s we¡¯ve seen. She was indispensable for the fourth boss since she could take care of the mobs and target¡¯s all by herself." Kier furrowed his brows.
"We¡¯ll set up a small camp here for now and we¡¯ll discuss what we¡¯ve found out." He said as his escorts got to work.
###
"So that¡¯s it huh? Hmm... rather curious. It seems that a lot of things have changed in Aria after I died." Shiro leaned back on her ice chair and frowned.
Apparently, after she died, the Light Hero had levelled up quite far into the ranks of Tier 6 where no one could touch him. Using this power, he called for a worldwide abandonment of anything that was rted to nanotech. Not only that, he halted the progression of technology and stopped humanity from advancing further, all because of his fear that someone like her would show up once more.
Creating anything new became taboo and people were stuck with the things they had. Freedom was robbed as everything was monitored. If anyone was caught experimenting or trying to develop new sses and technology, they would be tortured alive and made an example of those he imed to be ¡¯heretics¡¯.
Naturally, the hero still wanted a power simr to what Shiro had in her past life so he continued a private research group that conducted experiments on children who had just awakened their ss. This experiment was to see if they were able to gain a second ss.
Rumours would float around regarding this privateb but no one could do anything about it since the hero was too powerful.
Secretly, groups of people banded together to form a cult of sorts that worshipped ¡¯Nytri Vespira¡¯ as the Machine Goddess. Dubbed the Vespira faction, they would search the world for links to their goddess and used that to fight against the ¡¯Light¡¯ faction. No one knew each other in the Vespira faction to avoid the government from knowing their identities.
Most of the ordinary people and those who were oppressed during the Light Hero¡¯s rule was in this faction. Believing that once they¡¯ve secured a supposed legacy to fight against the light hero, they created a secretwork that would allow them tomunicate and research the sses with one another.
While some people were killed, the faction lived on as the hero ruled like a tyrant.
Fear grew in the hero¡¯s heart as he started to make EXP packs. These weren¡¯t items of any sort. No. They were people who he cultivated from the ground up and once they reached the limit of tier 5 or the start of tier 6, their fate would only be death at the hero¡¯s hands.
Not only that, if death was certain, the hero would detonate the bomb that he imnted in them to make sure that he still received the EXP.
This action caused fear to grow in the hearts of the people as the Vespira faction was enraged by his act.
Unlike his secretb where he researched about the second ss, this was done in broad daylight. It was an ¡¯honour¡¯ to be part of the hero¡¯s power they said. Using it as an excuse to kidnap people from the streets.
Since he was invincible in the world, he may as well drop all formalities and do whatever he wanted.
At this point, even criminals like Kamnar did their best to revolt against the hero.
Before his death, Kamnar was tasked with assassinating one of the higher ups in the Hero¡¯s government and stealing their doc.u.ments regarding the second ss. While one would be suspicious of the mission, since it could be a trap, the Vespira faction had a system to filter the missions out.
Each mission they gave out were put through a series of tests and confirmations to validate the authenticity of said mission.
But despite all of this, missions had their own risks. It was unfortunate that he had ran into the light hero¡¯s royal guards and was killed brutally with his body in pieces. Even if he was a talented assassin, the difference in tiers and equipment was nothing tough about.
When he woke up, he was inside a dungeon with a bug body. Desperately killing monsters and levelling up, he worked his way back up to his stage now. Every time he killed the final boss in the dungeon and tried to leave with the teleport shrine, he would be randomly ced in a different dungeon.
But this time, he was ced in a raid as the final boss. In his attempt to leave the dungeon for good, he ran into Shiro and was ced in this awkward position.
"Hmm... that b*stard had really f*cked up the world huh? Last time I heard about him he had already be a Tier 8 God." Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Wait what? Tier 8 god? I thought there were only 7 tiers?" Kamnar tilted his head in confusion. Ironically, having the spear embedded in his body for the entire time of his exnation had allowed him to adapt to the pain. Now it just felt like an out of ce bone.
"So did I. But when I ran into the bastard¡¯s daughter, who was dubbed the light goddess, she told me that he had already be a god. Hmm... time is quite strange. When I reincarnated, he had just killed me and was in the start of tier 6. In the quest, he was a tier 8 god and when you died, he was in the higher ranks of tier 6." Shiro ced her hand on her chin and closed her eyes.
"Say, your highness, I know that I deserve to die but can you spare me? As a reincarnator, I can¡¯t say I¡¯m as experienced as you, but I¡¯m better than some random level 60 you can find right? If we work together, I¡¯m sure we can level up quickly." Kamnar asked as he held on to a tiny sliver of hope.
"Nope. I don¡¯t work with r*pey b*stards like you." Shiro shook her head firmly. It didn¡¯t matter how good they were, but if they were to break her bottom line, she wouldn¡¯t want anything to do with them.
"I expected as much. Can you at least make my death quick?" He pleaded, epting his fate of death. Who knows, he might get another chance in a world where he doesn¡¯t run into Shiro.
"I can but you must tell me everything there is to know about the bosses. This queen wants some equipment." Shiro grinned.
Chapter 230 Fourth Boss
Chapter 230 Fourth Boss
"The fourth boss is just a mix of the previous three bosses that you¡¯ve encountered. Depending on the amount of damage you deal, there will be 3 wipe out phases where you need to damage his armour, minions and targets." Kamnar exined as he tried to adjust his posture. Having a spear up in one¡¯s ass, and spine, isn¡¯t exactly the mostfortable even if he got used to the sensation.
"Anything else I need to worry about? Berserk skills and such?" Shiro asked.
"Nope. The boss is rather simple if you consider the number of skills it has. An earthquake skill, an area of effect and a single target spell. Most of the time, it just relies on physical prowess." Kamnar shook his head.
"Ok then, what about the fifth boss, the hellhound."
"He¡¯s a bit of a pain in the ass. Defences are extraordinary and every move he makes will spark the explosive dust clouds that he produces. Rather than a skill, it¡¯s more of an active effect where explosive dust clouds are formed with every movement. As for skills, he has a root skill that takes a while to activate and a party wipe skill that floods the entire area in explosive clouds. Unless you can counter this, he will basically deal damage to you at every moment."
"Any berserk skills?"
"There is one. His berserk skill has all of his mechanical parts float around him as weapons connected to spiked chains while his main body shifts between levels of tangibility constantly. It¡¯s a pain to hit him while he can attack you rapidly. Not only that, he gains a boost in his speed and attack." Kamnar replied cooperatively.
"How long does itst for?"
"Around 4 to 5 minutes give or take." Kamnar shrugged his shoulders.
"Why are you not sure?" Shiro narrowed her eyes at his response.
"Because I can¡¯t control the fifth boss. I can control one through four, hence why the fourth boss appeared sooner than expected, but the fifth boss ispletely out of my control so I can¡¯t see all of its skills in detail. Some of them are hidden." Kamnar exined.
"Hmm... troublesome. Oh well, I think I can deal with thest two bosses, what do you think girls?" Shiro asked as she turned to her daughters.
"I think we can do it. Just the fourth boss might be hard because of the party wipe skill." Lisandra smiled lightly.
"Let¡¯s do it. That way, we can get better loot." Yin nodded. However, inside, she was gambling on the fact that Shiro will treat them to a better meal if they seed.
"In that case then let¡¯s go. Kamnar, you¡¯ll be staying alive until we¡¯ve killed both bos- wait a minute. If you can control the fourth boss, can¡¯t you just have it stay still and let us kill him?" Shiro paused as she realised an easy opportunity.
"No I can¡¯t do that. The most I can do is choose where it goes. Combat wise, it¡¯s up to you." Kamnar shook his head.
"Tch. Fine, just have him move to an open area so that I can have an easier time killing him." Shiro said as she stood up.
"Alrig- wait why are youing closer to me?" Kamnar smiled nervously as he saw Shiro circle around him.
"Well would you rather watch with the spear in your ass?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
". . . Do you have any anaesthetic?" He asked as his face paled slightly.
"Nope."
". . . can you give me a moment to prepare myself then?"
"Sure. I¡¯ll do what doctors do and count down from 5 ok?" Shiro smiled.
Kamnar didn¡¯t know why but he became more nervous when he saw that smile.
*Gulp
"Ok, count down please." Kamnar said as he took a deep breath.
"5... 4... 1!"
*PUCHI!
"ARG!!!!!!! WHERE THE HELL WAS THREE AND TWO!?!?" Kamnar shouted out as Shiro pulled the spear out ruthlessly.
"You get more nervous and tense up once if I continued normally. If you¡¯re unprepared, you¡¯re more rxed."
"If you¡¯re that worried about me you could have just thawed it inside me!" Kamnar retorted while a waterfall of blood was gushing out his ass. It made even the worst period look tame.
Healing him up with life fire, Shiro made sure to add some safetys inside his body so that she could kill him at any moment.
"Bring the fourth boss to where we fought the massive f*ck off tree. You should know where that was since you¡¯ve been watching us for quite a while." Shiro smiled lightly as she started to walk towards the aforementioned area.
Kamnar nodded obediently. He had no intention of running since he could clearly feel foreign objects moving around in his body. A clear sign that she didn¡¯t trust him but he didn¡¯t mind. As long as he wasn¡¯t subjected to more torture, he was fine with it.
"Yin, Lisandra, both of you can go full power now. If you want, you can remove that cloak so your wings have more room to move."
"Yes!" Yin agreed instantly as she threw her cloak away. If not for the fact that she needed to hide her identity, she wouldn¡¯t have worn something so annoying to begin with.
Spreading her wings, her speed instantly increased.
Lisandra did the same.
Arriving at the ce, Shiro ced her palm onto the ground and focused her mind.
Nanobots started to spread out underground as she constructed a few traps to help her y the fourth boss.
¡¯I need constructs that restrain, pierce, stun and maybe even one to make the boss airborne.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
As she was making the traps, Kamnar was guiding the boss to their location.
"He¡¯s about to arrive!" He called out.
Nodding her head, Shiro stood up and activated her skills.
¡¯For this boss, speed and firepower is a must. Celestial Lightning Armament should do the trick.¡¯ She thought as lightning crackled around her.
*URAH!
Just as she finished activating all of her skills, the boss had arrived.
"We¡¯re going to do this nice and systematically alright girls?" Shiro grinned as nanobots swarmed around her body.
Creating a set of armour over her Celestial armament, shebined both skills together as her stats were increased once more. Tapping the maic disks around her waist, she created several rail cannons while all 7 copies of Ataraxia floated around her.
"Hit it with everything you have!" She shouted out and fired all of the cannons.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
¡¯That¡¯s not systematic!¡¯ Kamnar shouted out in his mind as this was just spamming all her skills. However, he could understand why the hero was scared of her. For her to be able to create this many life threatening weapons at once, she had power that could easily kill a level 60 despite only being level 52.
He could onlyment at the fact that she didn¡¯t kill him with those weapons as this would have reduced the amount of suffering he had experienced.
*URAH!!!
Shouting out in rage, the boss tried to re at Shiro but the only result was his eyes being stabbed by a sword.
"Who the hell gave you permission to re at this queen." Shiroughed. She was finally able to go full power in this raid after holding back for quite a while.
Growling angrily, the boss wrapped his body in armour. Tiny copies of himself spawned around him as he tried to activate the party wipe skill.
Since Yin and Lisandra were responsible for the armour, Shiro focused on the minions. A visor dropped down in front of her, marking all of the minions with a red glow. Her weapons hummed slightly as Shiro pulled the trigger.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
10 heavy duty bullets flew into the air and shattered apart into tiny pieces which tracked down all of the minions that she marked with the red glow.
*BANG!
Each fragment was able to tear a hole through the minion¡¯s body with ease as small craters were formed as coteral. Dotting the entire battlefield with tiny craters that emitted a small wisp of some due to the bullets, she had wiped out all of the minions within a few seconds.
If any of the party members stayed behind to see her fight, they would think that they¡¯re dreaming since this kind of power was inconceivable for any level 52 to wield.
"No wonder people worshipped her." Kamnar muttered in admiration. Despite having lost her former prowess, the Machine goddess was a figure that one shouldn¡¯t provoke regardless of the situation. One can only hope that she either lets you live or finish you off quickly.
Chapter 231 First Kill Rewards
Chapter 231 First Kill Rewards
As the fight progressed, it became worse and worse to look at. No matter what the boss did, be it the party wipe skill or something else, Shiro had a counter for it. If it tried to use earthquake, her hidden contraptions would stun him, causing his skill to fail.
With Shiro taking care of all the minions and targets, both Yin and Lisandra just needed to fire their skills at will.
Yin¡¯s Dark Star Element and Shadow Element weakened the boss¡¯s defences immensely due to their corrosion effects. As for Lisandra, her support skills and sword buffs allowed her to cause the boss massive amounts of damage.
With both of them working together, the armour was nothing but decoration.
Not only that, there were times where the boss would be airborne and be subjected to another wave of bullets, magic and shes. Dying like this without a chance to fight back wasn¡¯t a fate that raid bosses should face. Especially this one as it had kept the city of Cairosa from progressing any further.
Looking at the lifeless corpse thatid in front of him, Kamnar couldn¡¯t help but shake his head. A pity for it to run into the Machine Goddess.
Ignoring his silent prayer for the boss, Shiro checked the loot.
Since their party was small with only three people, the sheer amount of loot they received was astounding. In addition to this, the rewards for the first clear caused them toment the fact that she didn¡¯t join the raid earlier for the previous bosses.
[First Clear Reward of Ancient Chimera]
+Chimera yer Title
+Chimera Core
+Skill: Chimera Arts
The title was rather straightforward since it allowed her to suppress any kind of Chimera type enemy. On the other hand, the Chimera Core was a weapon augment that allowed her to fuse a few skills together.
If it was just these two, she wouldn¡¯t be too impressed, but it was the skill that really made the first clear worth it.
[Chimera Arts]
Allows one to fuse two elements together during battle.
Cost: 500,000 MP
Duration: 30 minutes
Cool Down: N/A
A single use of this skill would take 500k worth of MP but Shiro thought that it was worth it. Since the skill allowed her to fuse elements together, she¡¯ll be able to create the upgraded forms of each element much like what happened to her Ice when it became cial.
If she was to use this skill on Dark Star and Light, she would probably be able to create something that is simr to sma. Not only that, she could even fuse the different elements with metal. This meant that she could further enhance her prowess as a Nanomancer with this.
¡¯If I had this skill back then, I could have fused the light element with my Nanotech armour to boost up my light resistance by a few folds, allowing me to resist his attacks a bit better. This could be a game changer.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as the possibilities were seemingly endless.
If she were to upgrade each element to their most powerful form and fuse them together, would she create something higher?
"Mum, what did you get?" Yin asked as she walked over.
"I got a skill called Chimera Arts. It allows me to fuse two elements inbat. But it¡¯s only for 30 minutes." Shiro replied.
"Heh~ I got something simr but rather than for 30 minutes, it¡¯s permanent. I only have two elements, so this is fine." Yin smiled.
"Oh? You have Dark Star and Shadow element, so what did you get out of it?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"The product of fusing my Dark Star and Shadow element is Demolition Star element." Yin smiled eagerly.
"Seems like you want to show it to me. I¡¯ll make something now, give me a second." Shiro chuckled.
Flicking her wrist, she sent a strand of nanobots to the side and slowly constructed a thick sheet of metal. However, while it is just a sheet of metal, the hardness and defensive value of this would make the cksmiths in Vericia drool with greed.
"Heh heh~ Watch carefully." Yin grinned as she pushed both her hands outwards.
*BOOM!!!
The mana surged towards Yin, causing charred dust to scatter into the air from the gusts of wind that was formed due to this.
Crouching down a little, Shiro stopped herself from being dragged along as the suction force was much greater than she had expected. As for Lisandra, she stabbed her sword into the ground and used that as a support.
*KISH KISH KISH!
Sparks flickered around Yin as the amount of mana that was being gathered rivalled that of Lisandra¡¯s during her time as the light goddess¡¯s incarnation.
"Copse!" She shouted out as 5yers of Tier 3 magic circles suddenly formed around the sheet of metal.
Widening her eyes at the activation time, disregarding the fact that Yin became a mana hoover for a while, Shiro couldn¡¯t believe that Yin was able to activate each of the magic circles within the half second gap.
Before anyone realised, an orb of light appeared in the centre of the sheet.
*CRACK!
Fractures littered the metals as the orb expanded instantly, consuming everything within its range and left a rather deep crater in the spot.
"Ha.... How was it?" Yin smiled has her face was a little pale.
"Demolition Star Element is very powerful, but the mana consumption is huge. It doesn¡¯t take points, but rather percentage to fuel the spells." She said while falling back onto the ground.
Shiro didn¡¯t say anything as she walked over to the crater and tried to pick up a small piece of debris. But before she could even grab it properly, it scattered apart into ash.
"Hmm... What do you think will happen if you used it against someone that was at a higher level than you?" Shiro asked curiously.
"It depends. Anyone lower level than me will be killed without exception. However, for those who are higher than me, depending on their stats and other factors, the skill may just shatter apart." Yin shrugged.
"So, it¡¯s rather situational if we were to use it to fight against people that are higher level. A bit troublesome but it shouldn¡¯t be too bad." Shiro nodded.
"What about you Lisa? What did you get?"
"Me? Well... I did get a Chimera type skill that allows me to fuse things together, but it¡¯s locked right now. I only have 1 element unlocked so it can¡¯t fuse with anything. Even after all this time, I still haven¡¯t been able to use my second element." Lisandra replied while looking down on her hands. She had known about her second element for a while now but no matter what she had done, she couldn¡¯t find out anything about it never mind unlocking it.
"No worries. As long as you got something out of it, it¡¯s good enough." Shiro nodded her head. She understood that for someone like Lisandra, it may take longer to unlock their second element and that was fine. They had more than enough firepower in the party for now and this was just a fragment too.
If they included everyone, Lyrica, Silvia, Madison and some potential candidates, they could rival a small faction all by themselves.
"Anyways, before we get to thest boss, how¡¯s your MP doing Yin?" Shiro asked as she looked towards Yin.
"Not good. Might take a while." Yin replied.
"Alright, we¡¯ll make a temporary camp for now. Once Yin gets her MP back, we¡¯ll go fight the 5th boss." Shiro said as they agreed.
Sitting around the camp, Shiro looked at the item, Chimera Core.
[Chimera Core ¨C Orange]
An item that can be used on either weapons or armour. One can fuse skills together using this and the effects will be permanent. Use at your own risk as the skills used for the fusion will disappear. The skill produced in the fusion is guaranteed to be better than the materials. However, the skill may or may not be situational.
(Maximum of 3 skills allowed for fusion.)
¡¯Should I gamble or not...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. If she used this, she¡¯ll get a very powerful skill at the cost of three weaker skills.
But the clear downside is that the skill may have harsh restrictions.
A potential situation would be her getting a high rank sword skill but the restrictions could be that she needed to have a sword-based ss.
¡¯What to do...¡¯ She wondered to herself. Right now, her sword technically had 5 skills. Element shift, Ataraxia and the 3 Celestial runes, Kara Lire and Aera. All of them were amazing skills in their own rights.
In the end, she decided to save the core for now since she was bound to get more skills in the future. Who knows, she might even be able to get a skill from the fifth boss.
Chapter 232 Preparing For The Fifth Boss
Chapter 232 Preparing For The Fifth Boss
As the group rested at the camp, the people outside had started to give up on their survival.
"It¡¯s been too long. If she was holding against the fourth and fifth boss, she would be dead by now." Kier shook his head.
"But you¡¯ve seen how powerful she is, I¡¯m sure she¡¯s just finding a way out now." Isaac frowned.
"If she was as powerful as we believed her to be, why hasn¡¯t shee out yet? If she survives against the bosses, she should in theory, reached the exit by now. There¡¯s nothing she can gain from staying inside the dungeon."
"This..." Isaac stayed silent as he didn¡¯t know how to respond. Kier was right. Even if he wanted to believe in Shiro, he had to admit that her chances of survival were quite slim considering the fact that she hasn¡¯te out yet.
No one would willingly stay in a raid with two bosses roaming around. Especially since the fourth one could ambush her at any moment like how it had ambushed them.
Little did he know, the fourth boss had already died against Shiro.
"Give up on her. Even if she is alive, the best thing we can do is clear this raid so that everyone is forcefully ejected from inside the raid." Kier narrowed his eyes.
"Fine. But we¡¯re bringing as many pills and potions as we can. The argent family will help you so that we can decrease the amount of time we spend on each boss." Isaac suggested.
"That is fine. We still have a set of return stones since you guys haven¡¯t gone in for a second time yet. We¡¯re allowed some leeway with how reckless we are." Kier nodded.
People without the fear of death could perform at much better standards than normal. Since they have an item that could guarantee their survival, as it had demonstrated once already, they can fight without worry.
Plus, if they were to bring pills and potions that boosted their overall attack power, along with Isaac who is desperate in clearing this raid, the overall performance of the party will at least double.
¡¯It¡¯s a shame that she¡¯s dead but at least we got some information. I can¡¯t believe that there is a fifth boss...¡¯ Kier thought with a shake of his head.
Straightening out his jacket, he had his escorts call for the other raid members. They were going to clear this raid as quickly as they could.
###
"So then. Just to make sure that my information is correct, the boss has 2 active skill, 1 passive skill and 1 party wipe skill correct?" Shiro asked.
"That¡¯s all I can see yes. I don¡¯t know if there are more skills which he is hiding." Kamnar nodded his head.
"Alright. Root skills that take time to activate are easy to deal since we¡¯re able to cancel its activation. But once it activates, it¡¯ll be troublesome. His passive is also quite easy since all three of us in the party can fly. While I can¡¯t fly as well as you two, it¡¯s enough for now." Shiro said while ncing over at her two daughters. One was a phoenix and the other was an angel.
"When he uses his party wipe skill, I want you to spark his explosive clouds for him. In this time, I¡¯ll grab Lisa and retreat into the rift. This is how we¡¯re going to deal with his party wipe skill. As a boss that passively emits explosive clouds, he is annoying for melee fighters. But it wouldn¡¯t matter if all of us is fighting against him while we¡¯re in the air." Shiro grinned.
Hearing this, Kamnar couldn¡¯t help but wonder what the hellhound did in his life to deserve Shiro as an opponent.
"But I can barely fight from afar. While I do have my light swords, they don¡¯t do too much damage." Lisandra asked.
"Don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯ll be making you a weapon to fight against the boss. I can also use this time to test out my new skill." Shiro replied with a smile.
Her theory was that if Lisandra was to use her rail snipers that have been fused with the light element, a synergistic effect should ur between the two of them, boosting up the attack damage by a few percent.
As for Yin, well she didn¡¯t need to worry about Yin since she could go crazy. Without anyone on the field, she is free to use all of her spells without restraint.
"Do you need me to do anything?" Kamnar asked as he tried to smile. However, as an insectoid, he didn¡¯t exactly have the facial muscles to make a decent smile.
"Er... just wait by the side." Shiro shrugged. He didn¡¯t need him to be taking their share of the contributions and loot now did she?
"Hais... I figured as much." Kamnar sighed.
"Anyways, we¡¯ll sleep for now since it¡¯s getting quitete."
Setting up camp, they went to sleep. Naturally, Shiro had Kamnar sleep outside while bounded by nanotech wires.
The next day, they made their way to the giant hole the Chimera had made when it ambushed them.
Looking down into the hole, they could see the fifth boss sitting there as usual.
"Seems like he doesn¡¯t move around much. Do you think he¡¯s guarding something?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Perhaps. I¡¯ve tried to move him, but he never budged." Kamnar shook his head.
"Well, it¡¯s not our problem. You two,e here, I¡¯ll be making you some armour now." Shiro said as she called the duo over.
cing her palm on their shoulders, nanobots started to spread out and harden into a set of armour.
"You should bring out your wings too so that it won¡¯t hinder your range of motion." She suggested.
Adjusting the armour, she made several boosters and flight stabilisers so that they could readjust themselves quicker should they be under fire.
"This should do it. I¡¯ve already uploaded a few movement and passive buff skills to the armours so you can examine them yourselves to see how they are. As for the weapons, just tap the maic disks around your waist and they¡¯ll create the weapons for you. Naturally, the weapons will have the skills uploaded to them." Shiro exined.
"You can add skills yourself?" Kamnar asked as he had never heard anything about this.
"Of course. As long as I get my hands on a piece of equipment, I can recycle it down to enhance the quality of my nanobots. Not only that, if they have any skills, I¡¯ll be able to store it in my database and ¡¯print¡¯ it out onto any armour I make." Shiro said, pointing at her head.
"Of course, I can¡¯t do anything about set armour. For some reason, I¡¯m not able to receive anything from set armour. It might be because they¡¯re not technically a ¡¯proper¡¯ piece of armour but rather a ¡¯whole¡¯ that¡¯s broken into several pieces? Even if a skill is part of that piece rather than the ¡¯set effect¡¯, I can¡¯t receive the skill. Otherwise, I would have recycled this piece with the root skill ya know? It¡¯s a shame but I can¡¯t reallyin. I¡¯m already getting quite a few skills from individual pieces already." Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
However, Kamnar was speechless.
"Why do you make it sound so simple? This is simply ridiculous ok!? Hell, if all of Aria knew that your ss allowed them to recycle low level percentage skills onto anything you make, they¡¯ll literally revolt regardless of the dangers."
"Aren¡¯t they doing that already though?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, but it¡¯s rather ¡¯tame¡¯ if you can call it that. The only thing we know about your ss right now is that it can make anything you think of and is highly resistant. As long as one has the blueprints to a weapon, they can make it as long as they have the mana. They know nothing about you recycling and printing skills." Kamnar exined.
"Hmm... but isn¡¯t that the main benefit of the Nanomancer ss? While we inherently have two elements and can make anything we want as long as we have the blueprint, it¡¯s just a more powerful metal mage if you boil it down. It¡¯s the recycling aspect that makes it incredible."
"Well you¡¯re right about that. I guess the b*stard must have locked down all information regarding this then. It¡¯s either that or he didn¡¯t know about it either." He replied with a shrug.
"It sounds something that he¡¯ll do. But ignoring the light b*stard for now, we got a boss to kill." Shiro grinned.
Chapter 233 Hell Hound Part 1
Chapter 233 Hell Hound Part 1
Flicking her wrist, she sent out a few spikes made from nanobots that would camouge their presence. After all, if she was to prepare a huge spell, the hound would notice immediately.
Aiming down the sights, Shiro flicked a switch as the ambient mana surged towards her. Activating her Chimera skill and fusing the light and metal elements together, she watched as light particles wrapped around her sniper.
The matt ck pieces of metal turned white with golden highlights around the edges. The ominous red energy surging in the body of the sniper shifted to that of a gentle blue.
Lisandra did the same and tapped the maic disks on her waist. As the sniper was being formed, a strand of light exited Lisandra¡¯s body and entered the sniper.
"Knew it." Shiro muttered as she saw this scene.
From her connection to her nanobots, she could clearly feel Lisandra enhancing the overall power of the sniper.
"Yin, ready your spell too."
Since the boss hadn¡¯t noticed them yet, it was a prime opportunity to deal as much damage as they could.
"Got it." Yin nodded. Remembering what Shiro had told her, she didn¡¯t use her new element due to the phenomenon that it causes. Otherwise, they risk drawing the boss¡¯s attention, ruining their chance.
Pressing both of her palms together, she furrowed her brows as sweat dripped off her face. She was currently condensing a spark of Dark Star element so that she could increase its power. Once it reached its limit ofpression, she would apply anotheryer of Dark Star over it and continue thepression.
The end result was a pure white spot of light that would flicker with slight traces of ck and purple. While it was the same size as a normal Dark Star spark that she would usually make, its power was far stronger.
"Ready?" Shiro asked as her sniper was reaching its limit as well. With her skill that increases the power of the bullet the longer she aimed down, her next shot was already 3 times as strong as what it should be normally.
Both Lisandra and Yin nodded their heads.
"Fire!" She shouted out.
Just as Shiro shouted out fire, Yin released her control on her orb of light and sent it towards the boss.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!
The surrounding cave started to rumble as the attacks met their target. Both Yin and Shiro¡¯s pierced a hole through the Hellhounds body while Yin¡¯s attackpletely annihted his torso.
*URAHHHH!!!!!
Anger overwhelmed his senses as he red at the three that were flying in the air.
With three wounds that would have been extremely lethal for other monsters, it was almost a miracle that he managed to survive.
[Demonic Hell Hound ¨C LVL 60 BOSS]
HP: 55,300,000/100,000,000
MP: 100,000,000/100,000,000
"Tch, only less than half HP." Shiro clicked her tongue as she had wished they were able to deal more damage.
"Anyways, as we¡¯ve discussed, counter all of its skills and let¡¯s kill it." She said while diving towards the boss with two rail cannons in her hands.
*URAH!!!!
Instantly activating his berserk skill, the hell hound knew that it should go all out or else it¡¯ll die.
As the metal armour separated itself from the hell hound, it revealed his true form. A mass of shadows and red mist which would constantly merge together before splitting apart once more.
Four morning starts formed from all the metal on his body and were connected by spiked chains.
¡¯In his berserk mode, he¡¯ll stay like this for around 5 minutes. The damage he takes is probably reduced considering the fact that he¡¯s shifting throughyers of tangibility.¡¯ She thought to herself.
"You two continue to attack! I¡¯ll be tanking as we nned." Shiro called out as she disassembled her rail cannons.
Changing it into a spear, she activated her skills as well to make up for the gap in stats. While she was powerful as a level 53 and could kill most level 60¡¯s with rtive ease, a berserk level 60 raid boss was something that she should be careful with.
Looking at the giant morning star that was flying towards her, Shiro narrowed her eyes and readied her sword. Currently, she had Element Shift, Celestial Armament and Celestial Element wheels activated.
Flickering past the morning stars, she twisted her body and mmed her staff into the chains
*DANG!
"Sss!!" Taking in a sharp breath, Shiro realised that she underestimated how heavy the metal was. Even when she was using Phantom Path to redistribute the weight, it barely budged.
"Wait, if the armour was this heavy, could the boss be weighed down?" Shiro muttered as her eyes widened.
Feeling danger behind her, she instantly used Faded Snow Movement that she retained even after her evolution.
"GAH!" Coughing up a mouthful of blood, she was barely able to avoid the boss¡¯s attack as his w phased through her body.
While the Faded Snow Movement made a portion of her body into snow, it wasn¡¯t able to fully nullify the damage.
Her body shot towards the ground like a broken kite as she quickly readjusted herself.
¡¯Broken ribs and internal bleeding. Tch, what a heavy hitter.¡¯ She thought to herself as she did a quick damage assessment and activated her life fire. In one hit, the boss had pushed her health back to the halfway point.
¡¯An eye for an eye.¡¯ She mused.
Twisting her body, Shiro dodged the hell hound¡¯s next attack. Unlike before, she was now prepared for the sudden change in speed.
Dodging his w and the morning stars, she narrowed her eyes and formed a nanotech gauntlet. Loading it with all of the attack boosting skills it could handle, she punched towards the hell hound.
Phantom Path!
Sending the force through his body, Shiro rendered his defences null. Unfortunately, the damage she dealt was rather small since he was currently in his berserk phase.
But just as she was about to retreat, a second head emerged from the spot where she had punched and attempted to bite her.
cial Touch!
A giant wall of ice erupted around her and stopped the head from damaging her. However, cracks could be heard as the ice started to shatter apart.
"Tch, he¡¯s more troublesome than I thought." Shiro clicked her tongue.
ncing behind her, she saw that the boss used two sheets of metal to block Yin and Lisandra¡¯s long ranged assault. While the sniper was able to pierce a hole in the metal sheets, more sheets would block the bullet¡¯s path, preventing it from harming the boss.
*URAH!!!!
A bad feeling rose up in Shiro¡¯s heart as she quickly entered the rift.
When she exited, she saw three copies of the boss, each in their berserk phase, ring at her. Her previous spot had beenpletely pulverised and was reced by a deep trench.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro decided to use the Shadow Element Shift along with the Shadow Celestial armament. That was because it acted simr to her Faded Snow Movement and had a passive damage reduction. Plus, there were more benefits that suited her current environment. As they were in a cavern, there was plenty of shadows for her to move around in. Not only that, her speed received a massive increase whenever she enters one so it¡¯ll offset the fact that she¡¯s fighting three berserk bosses now.
mming her palms into the ground, a wall of shadows wrapped around her body while all three copies of the boss jumped towards her.
But all they bit was empty air as Shiro had flickered behind them.
After activating the shadow versions of her skills, her outfit was changed into her slightly revealing shadow armour so sheyered a nanotech chest te over the top to cover herself.
The matt ck armour with red highlights worked rather well with the shadow armour as it made her look like a death god, ready to reap the souls of the living.
Twisting her body, a ray of dark sword energy cut deeply into their backs but no blood was spilled.
*URAH!!!
A pulse of mana was sent out from the boss¡¯s body and pushed her back, creating some distance between the two of them.
When the dust cloud settled, Shiro and the hell hound made eye contact as they stayed still. Both were evaluating each other as they were nning their next moves.
Summoning two copies of Ataraxia, she dashed towards the boss.
Celestial Path!
Magic circles appeared around the boss as she merged it with her ice chain skill, creating mana absorbing chains.
Realising that the chains could be dangerous, the boss leapt into the sky and attacked the chains with his morning star.
*CLANG!
As the two collided with one another, the chains were easily suppressed as Shiro clicked her tongue.
Celestial path was great for dealing with mages and magic butcked any physical prowess. This naturally went for her chains as well since their main purpose was to drain the boss of his reserves.
"This fight might be more troublesome than I had expected." Shiro muttered with a frown. All she needed to do was keep it upied for the duration of his berserk skill but that was easier said than.
Chapter 234 Hell Hound Part 2
Chapter 234 Hell Hound Part 2
As the fight continued, the situation wasn¡¯t looking too good for Shiro. Her MP was barely holding on even with all of her skills that boost MP regen.
Celestial Rune Kara, Element Field Affinity, Mana leach and several others that she¡¯s applied to her armour on top of mana coils that gather the ambient mana. All of this wasn¡¯t enough to bnce out the amount of mana she was using to keep up with the boss.
While Yin and Lisandra were able to damage the boss, it was barely able to dent his HP bar.
Unfortunately for Shiro, she couldn¡¯t fly into the air either as the boss clearly demonstrated that he had the ability to ambush Yin and Lisandra if she wasn¡¯t keeping him at bay. By doing so, it increases the chances of those two dying to the boss.
¡¯The five minute berserk limit should being up soon.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she dodged his attacks. There were times were dodging would be difficult since his passive littered explosive clouds around the arena. Lisandra would take care of the cloud by detonating them herself but there were moments where she wasn¡¯t able to shoot them.
Flipping her body backwards, Shiro swiped her hand forward and sent several shadow tendrils to try root the boss. These tendrils were naturally enhanced with Celestial Path as she was preparing for the final phase after berserk.
*URAH!!!!
Dispersing the tendrils, the hell hound became desperate as his movements started to get sluggish.
¡¯Times up!¡¯ Shiro thought as her lips curved into a smile. After a few minutes of intense concentration, the feeling of seeing that light at the end of the tunnel was almost intoxicating. But she knew that if she was to relish in this feeling now, she would expose herself to harm.
Lisandra also noticed the boss¡¯s movements and turned to Yin.
"The boss should be ending his berserk skill soon. Let¡¯s end it in one shot." She said as Yin nodded her head.
sping her hands together, she started to condense her Dark Star element once again.
As soon as the berserk skill ended, the boss¡¯s doppelgangers faded away while the weapons broke apart and reassembled themselves on the boss¡¯s body.
"Chance." Shiro grinned and mmed both hands down onto the ground. The period right after the berserk skill ended is where the user is most vulnerable as they¡¯re experiencing the bacsh. In this moment, they aren¡¯t able to defend themselves since they¡¯re trying to adapt to the sudden change in their body, hence a perfect opening for an all out attack.
Two tier 3 magic circles expanded out from under the boss as shadow tendrilstched onto him and started to drain away at his mana, weakening his resistances. Not only that, but since the shadows were gained from Yin, they had their corrosive effects and started to eat away at the boss¡¯s armour.
"Yin now!" Lisandra called out when she saw Shiro restrain the boss.
*BOOM!!!!
As their attacksnded on the boss in his weakened state, they pierced a hold through his waist and severed his body in half.
Shiro, knowing that the boss may still be alive, stabbed towards the boss¡¯s head to make sure that he¡¯s dead.
Layering her sword with light element, shepressed it into a fine edge and stabbed deeply into his skull and exploded a pocket of mana in his brain, turning it into paste.
A series of notifications filled the edge of her peripherals as she was able to level up to 55.
"Two levels at once. Holy crap..." She couldn¡¯t help but mutter. It had been quite a long time since she had levelled up twice at once since thest time that happened was a special exception.
[First Kill Rewards for Demonic Hell Hound]
+Title: Demon Conqueror
+Skill: Explosive Miasma
+Skill: Demonic Frenzy
Much like the title she gained from the Chimera, she had increased damage and suppression against demonic beings. A useful title for when she heads to the front lines in this world where the demons roam. As for the skill, Explosive Miasma, she can summon an explosive cloud that detonates onmand. Naturally, this was a type of charge up skill that increases damage depending on how much MP she uses.
As for the final skill, it was a berserk skill.
[Demonic Frenzy]
For 5 minutes, you enter a frenzy where all of your stats are doubled. After 5 minutes, you suffer a 90% penalty to your stats for 5 days and will be incapacitated for 30 minutes. Dark type elements receive a 50% increase in effectiveness.
Cost: N/A
Duration: 5 Minutes
Cool Down: 5 Days
While the penalty for this skill was quite harsh since she is basically dead once the effect ends, the fact that it doubles her entire stat board was amazing especially on higher levels. It will allow her to fight people that were much higher level. Not only that, if she stacked it with her other berserk skills, she could potentially fight against level 100¡¯s without the use of level up items.
Naturally, this was under the assumption that the level 100 didn¡¯t use berserk or any status boosting skills. Otherwise, she¡¯ll have to use her silver dagger that propels her to B tier in order to survive.
As for the items that she received for the kill, she got a few weapons and a full set of level 60 Purple Set armour.
However, unlike her level 60 Wyvern set armour that focussed mostly on the INT stat, this one ced its focus on the STR and AGI stat.
¡¯This armour should suit Lyrica quite well since these two stats are what she specialises in.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Once she was done with checking out her items, she looked at her updated stat board. In just a single raid, she was able to increase her level to 55.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Mystic Fae
Title: Shadow Empress, Proficient Monster (231/500 Humans Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Ice Princess, Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Eternal Ice Maiden, Corrupted War Maiden, Chimera yer, Demon Conqueror
Level: 55
ss: Mystic Sylph Queen, Nanomancer
HP: 1,402,500/1,402,500
MP: 3,128,070/3,128,070
STR: 11,000 (+100) <+2,775>
VIT: 10,000 (+200) <+2,550>
INT: 20,000 -> 22,000 (+750) <+5,687>
AGI: 15,000 (+450) <+3,862>
DEX: 12.000 (+100) <+3,025>
DEF: 6000 (+100) <+1525>
< > = Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 2,000 -> 0
Attunements:
cial ¨C Tier 3 (Augmented with Eternal Ice)
Lightning ¨C Tier 3
Metal ¨C Tier 3
Shadow ¨C Tier 3 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Dark Star ¨C Tier 3
Light ¨C Tier 3
Bnce: 27 Bronze Erins + 200.6 Million USD
Skills ¨C
Mystic Sylph Queen:
Tier 3 Eternal Ice Magic, Tier 3 Lightning Magic, Tier 3 Metal Magic, Tier 3 Light Magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Faded Snow Movement, cial Aura, cial Touch, Elemental Breath. Elemental Field Affinity, Fae Illusions, Element Shift, Celestial Element Wheels.
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 3
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Cmity Trident, Ice Drake¡¯s Feast, Ice Pce, Ice Demon¡¯s Cmitous Domain, Cmity Dragon Arrow.
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path:
Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path, Celestial Path
Sword Skills:
Refraction, Soul Sword, Sword Domain
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Celestial Armament, Chimera Arts. Explosive Miasma, Demonic Frenzy.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Dark Star Empowerment (Tier 3), Ice Chain (Tier 3), Shadow Cloak (Tier 3), Rift Walker (Tier 3), Shadow Affinity (Tier 3), Dark Star Affinity, Dark Star Seraphim (Tier 3)]
This had propelled her HP through the 1 million point threshold easily while her MP breached the 3 million mark. While her HP and MP were low for a monster at level 55, the fact that it was apanied by intelligence, battle experience and a plethora of skills made her much more dangerous.
"So then, shall we have a look at what the doggo was guarding?" Shiro asked with a smile as she watched Yin, Lisandra and Kamnar drop down in front of her. Since Lisandra was linked to her, her level was also 55. As for Yin, her level increased to 56.
"Once we¡¯re done with that, I believe it should be my time to go." Kamnar chuckled softly.
"I¡¯m surprised that you¡¯ve epted it so easily. Not that I¡¯ll let you go of course." Shiro shrugged.
"Atonement for my crimes I suppose. I can only me my luck for running into you. Hahaha." Kamnarughed.
Smiling slightly, Shiro walked towards where the hell hound had rested in the time leading up to the fight.
There was a hatch of sorts as the hell hound had been resting on top of it. Opening it with some difficulty, Shiro narrowed her eyes when she felt a burst of killing intent from the room.
"Interesting..." She muttered and jumped down.
Chapter 235 God Slayer Sword
Chapter 235 God yer Sword
Landing softly, Yin, Lisandra and Kamnar followed behind shortly.
The room was dimly lit as it wascking any kind of decoration. From the centre of the room, a sword was stabbed into the ground and emitted an eerie red aura that gave the room a red hue. The entirety of the sword was ck while the sharp end of the de was that of a neon red. Its shape was reminiscent of a mix between a longsword and a katana.
Understanding that the sword was the source of this bloodthirst, Shiro narrowed her eyes and walked up to it.
[Sealed God yer Sword: Akram LVL??? Red]
A sword that belonged to one who was rumoured to y gods. Unfortunately, his fate was unknown as only his sword remained. Those who had attempted to im this sword fell into insanity as their body was taken over by the God yer.
"Sealed God yer Sword?" Shiro muttered in suspicion. She had no idea why a sword like this would even appear in a low level raid. Not to mention, one would find it easily after defeating thest boss.
"Mum, that sword is giving me a bad feeling." Lisandra said as she furrowed her brows. Her skin was a little pale while wings quivered ever so slightly. She didn¡¯t know if it was natural or if it was from fear of the sword.
"Really? I think it¡¯s rather ok?" Yin raised an eyebrow. Unlike Lisandra, she seemed to enjoy this kind of atmosphere since her body was rather rxed.
¡¯Could it be because of her race? Lisandra is part of the Divine Race as her ss is Soul Bound ArchAngel. The divine race is closely tied to god so for her to have this reaction near a god yer sword is rather normal.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Are you going to try and im it my goddess? It may help you fight the b*stard if it really has in god like entities." Kamnar asked.
"Maybe. But there is also the risk of losing oneself. The will of a person who yed gods, I wonder how powerful it is." Shiro couldn¡¯t help but mutter.
At her peak, she was only a tier 6, far from a tier 8 god. A being that could y a god was most definitely stronger than she was at her prime. Whether or not she could im it was quite uncertain.
Everyone stayed silent since they knew that Shiro was thinking about the chances. She could boost her level and use her berserk skills but she didn¡¯t know if they¡¯ll affect the oue.
As she was debating on her chances, she felt the bloodthirst surrounding the sword surge towards her, as if wanting to crush her under its presence.
"You dare challenge me?" Shiro raised an eyebrow and released her own killing intent in retaliation.
*BOOM!!!!!
The dust in the room was blown away from the sh as the trio behind her quickly retreated a little. Just the killing intent from the sword made them feel unsafe never mind thebined might of both Shiro and the sword.
As her killing intent surged, Shiro frowned when she noticed that the sword was keeping up with her with rtive ease.
Taking a deep breath, her face became cold as the temperature dropped rapidly. While she was a Mystic Sylph Queen right now, her origins still traced back to snow girls hence why her ice element was most dominant, despite the fact that she had been using other elements during this time.
Ice spread across the room, shattering some of the loose debris into dust and slowly crept toward the sword.
*KRRR!!! PING!!!
However, when the ice came into contact with the sword, it shattered apart as if it was hit by a great force. While the entire room was frozen over, only the sword was unaffected.
"Hm..." Narrowing her eyes, Shiro decided to im this sword for herself.
"I don¡¯t believe that I can¡¯t conquer you." She grinned and walked towards the sword.
The closer she was, the stronger the retaliation from the sword. Deep cuts and cavities were formed around the room as a result of their shing intents.
When she was just a few steps away from the sword, injuries started to appear on her body as blood flowed down her sleeves.
Ignoring her injuries, she reached out to the sword and pulled it out in one swift movement.
*Thump thump!
A heart beat could be heard as Shiro¡¯s eyes lost focus. The killing intent, which had been filling the entire room, vanished in an instant.
Standing silently, Yin and Lisandra kept their eyes on Shiro, just in case she makes any abnormal movements.
Meanwhile, Shiro found herself standing on top of a mountain while a man, d in demonic armour, evaluated her.
"So you picked up my sword." He said coldly.
"And what if I did?" Shiro grinned. She could feel his pressure crushing down on her as it tried to get her to kneel. Releasing her own aura to offset this pressure, she was able to resist the urge to kneel, albeit some difficulty.
"Out of all the people who had been sent to this world because of my sword, you are the first to have picked it up. A level 55 with the kind of killing intent to match my sword is impressive." He narrowed his eyes.
"Who is the target of your vengeance? Who has offended someone like you?" He asked curiously.
"Why do you ask?" Shiro squeezed out. After he noticed that she resisted his pressure, he had increased it little by little. Right now, the ground around her had sunk down due to this.
"I want to know if you¡¯re suitable for my sword. Even though I am dead, my hatred for the gods burn brightly. My sword shall be used to behead another and I refuse to hand it over to someone useless." He narrowed his eyes.
"Heh, I see no problem in telling. My enemy is the Tier 8 light god, Aekari Lumire." Shiro replied as the god yer became silent.
"Why do you know him? For a proud god like him, it is impossible for him to visit such a newly integrated world like yours." He asked.
"He doesn¡¯t know me in this life. He is my enemy from myst life. I was hispanion long before he was even tier 6 but he betrayed me when I surpassed him in strength." Shiro replied slowly as she was on the verge of kneeling. Putting strength in her body, she kept her knees above the ground.
"Hmm... a reincarnator. This raid had always been a trial grounds for those who hold grudges against gods. This time it was for a man called Kamnar, but it seems like I was quite lucky for you to appear. I do not need to hear your full story since your killing intent is more than enough for proof. But I do need to see one thing." He narrowed his eyes dangerously.
"Oh? And that is?" Shiro asked with a forced smile.
"Your soul."
*BOOM!!!
Before she could even react, a ck chain stabbed into her chest. Reeling the chain back, the god yer widened his eyes when he saw her soul.
"What the hell is that?" He muttered. Of all the souls he had seen, Shiro¡¯s takes the number 1 spot for biggest anomaly.
Normally, a person¡¯s soul should be an illusionary figure of them holding their most suited weapon. The colour of the soul would vary as criminals would have darker souls. But this wasn¡¯t the case for Shiro.
Her soul was shrouded in a pure ck fog that doesn¡¯t allow for one to see its true form. One could only see a pair of glowing red eyes that was filled with dense killing intent. One that even made him feel unnerved.
For the amount of corruption in her soul, she should be a mindless beast right now with a pure ck name icon. But to his surprise, she waspletely ¡¯sane¡¯ and is even unaffected by this.
"If I give my sword to her, what kind of monstrous being would she be?" He chuckled. If she was given enough time, he can guarantee that no god will be able to stand up to her.
"I, God yer Vulcan, now bind my sword, Akram, to a new host. For she shall be the next yer of gods." He grinned, summoning his sword and plunged it into her soul.
Chapter 243 Level 60
Chapter 243 Level 60
In addition to her Monster title getting an upgrade, she had also unlocked two race skills that were unique to her race and ss.
The first skill was something called Queen¡¯s Decree.
[Sylph Queen¡¯s Decree]
A skill that severely reduces the effectiveness of elemental skills and spells. If the enemy within the area of effect is a tier lower than you, there is a chance that any elemental skill and spell is sealed off for the entire duration this decree is active.
Cost: 40% of MP (Tier 3)
Duration: 10 minutes
Cool Down: 20 minutes
With this skill, she¡¯d be able to limit all high tier enemies since their skill set always revolved around a certain element that they have an affinity with. Not only that, if she were to face off against people who were lower tier than her, their elemental skills will all be sealed off.
Once she reached tier 5, arge division point amongst adventurer¡¯s, she¡¯ll be able to seal off the elements of most adventurers. However, her goal was much higher. Once she reached tier 8 god, none will be able to use their full power against her. Of course, that¡¯s only if there wasn¡¯t a tier 9 or higher being.
There was also the fact that she had other skills to suppress her enemies as well.
Nodding her head in satisfaction, she nced at the second skill that she received from levelling up to 60.
[Mystic Empowerment]
Primary Effect: For a short period of time, a single element of your choosing is enhanced with the Mystic property. This will increase the effectiveness of the element by 30% while the cost will be reduced by 20%.
Secondary Effect: When applied to oneself, user will receive a 10% increase to INT, AGI and DEX for 5 minutes.
Cost: 10% of MP (Tier 3)
Duration: 5 minutes
Cool Down: 10 minutes.
This was essentially a weakened version of a berserk skill without any bacsh. Only regret was that it enhanced three statuses rather than the whole board. But that was her being wishful. Most berserk skills would enhance a limited amount of stats with exception to high tier berserk skills.
She had been lucky that all of her berserk skills were some of the best due to their sources.
However, the main benefit of this skill had to be the fact that it was able to enhance an element by 30%. Even at her tier right now, 30% was an astronomical amount never mind what it would be like when she reached the higher tiers.
Laying on Yin¡¯s Back, Shiro looked at the sky while Lisandra sat beside her.
"How are you feeling mum?" She asked in worry.
"It¡¯s fine. Just the bacsh of my berserk skills are a little annoying." Shiro replied with a smile. Suppressing the pain that she was feeling in her body, she sat up and looked at the task sheet that she took from Chen Yu.
Striking the Cairosa raid off the list, she stored it away in her inventory. She wasn¡¯t going to do the other tasks just yet.
But first, since she had reached level 60, she was finally able to equip her Kaiser dragon set armour.
Recing her current armour, she couldn¡¯t help but look at the orange grade helmet and shake her head. She was a little hasty in upgrading it and had wasted a good opportunity. If she had used it on her current armour, the benefits were bound to be impressive.
On the other hand, if she didn¡¯t upgrade it, she wouldn¡¯t have received the percentage increases to Magic Attack, Efficiency and Life Steal Effectiveness. Without these, she would have definitely struggled a lot more.
Shaking the thoughts from her mind, she understood that what¡¯s done was done. Once she was done with equipping her new armour, she checked her stats.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Mystic Fae
Level: 60
ss: Mystic Sylph Queen, Nanomancer
HP: 630,000/2,431,250
MP: 304,050/5,593,750
STR: 15,000(+300) <+3,825> {+2,250}
VIT: 14,000(+1,000) <+3,750> {+700}
INT: 30,000(+2,200) <+8,050> {+4,500}
AGI: 18,000(+1,000) <+4,750> {+900}
DEX: 13,000(+300) <+3,325> {+650}
DEF: 6,000(+1,500) <+1,875> {+900}
< > = Title Bonus { } 7/7 and 3/7 Kaiser Wyvern Set Effect (10% increase to DEF, INT, STR and 5% increase overall)
Unassigned Points: 0
Equipment: (Tap to Show)]
In one night, her HP had shot past the 2 million mark while her MP reached an astounding 5.5 million.
Such numbers were unheard of for a level 60. Not only did her SSS ss give her more passive point increases per level, her monster title doubled their values. Thus, resulting in her monstrous stats right now.
However, she knew that if she were to continue her ughter of humans, her stats would increase more and rival that of top tier monsters such as Yin.
But, if she were to do that, she¡¯d be ignoring her bottom line and doing everything in the name of self-interest. At that point, she¡¯d be no different from the scientists that had experimented on her.
On this road to power, she wasn¡¯t going to abandon her true self.
"How are you feeling mum?" Lisandra asked.
"A little sluggish but nothing too serious." Shiro smiled, moving her arm around to prove that she was fine.
"Don¡¯t push yourself too much. You did just fight a level 85. Most would just die instantly you know?" Lisandra sighed.
"Haha, it¡¯s fine. I got my celestial path and mana disruption bullets. Without these two, even I¡¯ll struggle with a level 85 you know? Plus, it was good luck that she was a mage. If she was a warrior type then the fight would have ended a lot differently." Shiro replied with a soft chuckle.
"You think the people in the city can handle it? Plus, how many people did you kill at the banquet?"
"Hmm... the rest of the people that fled towards the city are rtively high levelled but they¡¯re in a state of panic. As long as the families aren¡¯t ipetent, they should be able to handle it. As for how many I killed, well, it should be enough for them to behave for a while. After tonight, the Argent family and the Casadan family are now the ruling power¡¯s besides the Ospar family.
"However, the Ospar family would be weakened as well since I took Nimue away from them." Shiro shrugged slightly.
"Hue~ That¡¯s kinda evil you know mum. Isn¡¯t their whole mansion and everything they do powered by Nimue? If you take her away, they¡¯ll suffer quite a bit, won¡¯t they?" Lisandra asked.
"Well... I never said I was a good person, did I? Plus, they owe me a little for helping them avert the danger. Count this as payment." Shiro replied with a grin.
¡¯Big sis is a glutton while mum is a scammer. Hais...¡¯ Lisandra thought to herself and signed inwardly.
"Well don¡¯t think about it too much. So how was your experience anyways?" Shiro asked.
"It was hard. I¡¯m better when I fight them face to face since my fighting style is stylised towards one to onebat." Lisandra replied.
"Indeed. If I had to sum it up for you, you¡¯re like a pdin type ss. You can support while also fight on your own. But there aren¡¯t many moments where you can fight one on one so you need to learn assassination as well. Or parts of it anyways. That way, if I do need to send you on some errands in the future, I can at least be sure that you can handle yourself if you were to face off against arge crowd of people.¡¯ Shiro exined.
"I understand." Lisandra nodded.
"Good. As for Yin, well... there¡¯s not much to say is there?" Shiro chuckled and patted Yin on her head.
"You just need to improve your control a little."
*Kii!!!
"But it was thanks to you two that I could fight thedy on her own. Honestly, without you girls, I would have been swarmed and forced to retreat." Shiro smiled gratefully. While being alone was calming, it was still better to move as a group. That way, she could avoid moments of being severely outnumbered.
She¡¯ll have a better chance withpanions to help her.
"That being said, we should party up with the other girls again and go out for one of the faction tasks, shouldn¡¯t we? Travel around a bit you know?" Shiro suggested.
"I¡¯m alright with that." Lisandra nodded since she was curious about the other ces in this world as it is quite different to her original world.
*Ki!!!!
Yin agreed as well because new ces mean new food for her to taste.
"That settles it then." Shiro smiled.
Suddenly, she noticed that her phone had received an emergency email from Natash.
[Hurry back to the faction. We¡¯ve got an important guest visiting us in a few days and apparently, they have connections to your friend. Lyrica Valenstaine.]
"They have connections to Lyrica?" Shiro muttered while furrowing her brows.
"Hmm.. Yin, can you increase your speed? Seems like we need to return to the faction quickly." She instructed.
Chapter 249 Lyricas Background
Chapter 249 Lyrica''s Background
Hearing her nonchnt response, they couldn¡¯t help but feel slightly annoyed.
"What do you mean by they¡¯re visiting us?" Lyrica asked as her face was slightly pale.
"The elven royal family ising in four days to take you away back to the elven continent." Shiro repeated. Sitting down, she handed her a doc.u.ment that she had secretly printed.
When she was in Natash¡¯s office, she took the chance to memorise some of the doc.u.ments revolving around the nobles.
"..." Lyrica stayed silent as she read about their arrival confirmation.
Taking a deep breath, she decided toe clean about her background as well.
"Heh, I don¡¯t know what day it is today but seems like all of us areing clean with our secrets." Lyrica chuckled.
"Well you don¡¯t have to worry about me. Both my parents are alive and well. They¡¯re your average government worker." Madison rolled her eyes since she didn¡¯t have a mysterious background like the two of them.
"And you already know about me." Silvia smiled.
"Mn. Where should I start?" Lyrica asked.
"Wherever you want. We got plenty of time." Shiro replied.
###
After listening to Lyrica¡¯s story, Shiro got the general gist of what was happening. Her father was the king and her mother married into the royal family.
Her father was Edvimar Valenstaine, one of the strongest elven warriors in their era. As for her mother, she was called Talia Faeha, also known as the Elven Saint.
However, before they met, he had been forced into several political marriages that he couldn¡¯t reject. Her father ced the people above his own happiness and only stopped this when he met her mother.
Distancing himself with the political marriages, he focused solely on the family he made with Lyrica¡¯s mother.
Lyrica didn¡¯t know about the inner conflict of what had happened but she knew that the elders weren¡¯t too happy about this. She guessed that it must be because the elders had made a move to deal with her mother that her father was implicated. With both of her parent¡¯s dead, she was very vulnerable and her cousins were more than happy to eliminate someone that had a chance of inheriting the throne.
"With the royal family in the state of conflict, my mum¡¯s maid managed to evacuate me to New York and make all the preparations required for me to live a quiet life without having to worry about the state of the royal family." Lyrica sighed.
Meanwhile, Shiro had a small frown on her face.
¡¯That¡¯s impossible. There¡¯s no way that they would just let a lowly maid evacuate her that easily. No matter how high level the maid was, she would have been caught. Someone must have interfered with the matter and ensured Lyrica¡¯s survival. But who?¡¯ She narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"Is there a problem?" Lyrica asked as she could tell that Shiro was worried about something. Whenever she pulled this expression, she was always in deep thought.
"Mn, a small one but it doesn¡¯t matter for now. I¡¯ll get my answer soon. However, the fact that they¡¯re putting their attention on you is a little troubling. Seems like we were a bit hasty when we power levelled you up before." Shiro shook her head.
"What if we just run? Surely they can¡¯t continue to chase us through the world right?" Silvia suggested.
"What if they send lots of people over level 100 though? A single attack from them will kill us. Even now, four level 100¡¯s areing in four days while they¡¯re also followed by a level 120 powerhouse." Madison reminded.
"While I doubt that they¡¯ll set that much manpower on us, they can still set a bounty for others to kill us." Shiro denied.
Not only that, this wasn¡¯t limited to the underground. The royal family could dub them as terrorists or international criminals. Once that happened, not only will be hunted down by both sides, this will also warn her enemy about her ¡¯survival¡¯.
¡¯Damn. Kuromi, you¡¯ve got quite a lot of enemies don¡¯t you.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Then what do you suggest we do Shiro?" Lyrica asked as she sighed tiredly. While she loved the memories that she had with her parents, she hated her identity as a princess of the elven race.
If it wasn¡¯t for this, she could just be enjoying life with her friends.
"I... Hmm. Honestly, I¡¯m about as lost as you are. If it wasn¡¯t the royal family, I can somewhat handle it. But the fact that they have all this manpower and persuasion over the world is troubling. It¡¯ll be akin to staging a coup but with just the 6 of us." Shiro shrugged helplessly.
One of their options would be to try to convince them that Lyrica doesn¡¯t want to take the throne but Shiro doubted that they will ept that.
Even if they did, as long as Lyrica continues to level up, they¡¯ll keep an eye on her.
"Just level up as much as you can for now. I¡¯ll think of something eventually. After all, we can¡¯t just do nothing for these four days." Shiro smiled.
"Are you not going to join us?" Lyrica asked. It had been a while since theyst partied up.
"Hmm... sure why not." Shiro nodded. She was just going to use these days to refine and create sustainable weapons anyways. Spending it in a dungeon wasn¡¯t a bad choice either since she could still refine the weapons while inbat. It was just that the progress was going to slow down remarkably.
Once that was out of the way, they decided to talk about what each other had been up to recently.
Lyrica¡¯s group had mostly done faction quests and level ups in the dungeon. asionally, they would go to the arena for some experience but that wasn¡¯t often.
"Say, why are you lot still level 50? Shouldn¡¯t you have ssed up already?" Shiro asked as this had been bugging her. She¡¯s seen them a few times now and they were always level 50. She had assumed that this was themying low and using the disguise stone but from the way they describe the process of gathering materials, it seemed like they hadn¡¯t ssed up yet.
"Erm... we¡¯re still level 50 since we haven¡¯t gotten everything for our ss up yet." Lyrica replied with a scratch of her cheek.
"Eh? Shouldn¡¯t it be rtively easy?" Shiro tilted her head.
"What was your ss up requirement?" Madison asked out of curiosity.
"Well my original choice had changed and became a hidden ss. But previously, I needed four tier 3 elemental attunements, 1,000 C ssed mana stones, a C rank raidpletion with more than 30% contribution, a fairy element core and a corrupted demon core." Shiro replied nonchntly.
"PFFFF!! you needed what!?"
They all widened their eyes in horror. Initially, when they saw their ss up requirements, they had thought that it was hard. But after hearing about Shiro¡¯s requirement, they realised that they had it easy.
"What? If anything, the hardest parts out of this was the two cores and the raid. Hell, even if I didn¡¯t do the raid initially in the quest world, then I would have done it a few days ago when I finished the emergency raid in Cairosa." Shiro tilted her head.
"However, with that being said, if I didn¡¯t get lucky with the quest with the rewards, I doubt I would have unlocked my current ss of being the Sylph Queen." She admitted.
"You know, a normal ss up shouldn¡¯t be this ridiculous. Even just the raidpletion is borderline impossible you know?" Madison said as the corner of her lips twitched slightly.
"Is it? I mean, the cores might take some luck but the raid should be ok if you¡¯re skilled enough." Shiro furrowed her brows a little.
"Why what are your upgrade condition?" She asked curiously.
"Some materials, solo C ranked dungeons and only 200 C ranked mana stones." Madison replied.
"Same for me but rarer materials and more C ranked mana stones." Lyrica followed up.
"I just need to heal a lot and study knowledge." Silvia smiled wearily.
". . .huh."
Hearing their responses, she now knew how ridiculous her ss up was. While she did have an idea at first, she never paid attention since in her first life, she was propelled to level 200+ straight away.
"Well we should be able to get you some materials then. In these four days, let¡¯s prioritise on ssing you up." Shiro smiled.
Chapter 263 Plan Part 1
Chapter 263 n Part 1
Hearing the elder¡¯s question, Lyrica furrowed her brows.
"This one does not know. I hope that the elders can educate me on the matter." Lyrica replied respectfully.
"We¡¯ve called you back here because your father¡¯s legacy has been discovered by your brothers."
"My father¡¯s... Legacy?" Lyrica asked in confusion.
"Indeed." The elders nodded.
"Why must you call me back now? Is it because the legacy¡¯s been discovered and you want me to im it for you?" Lyrica asked with a sigh.
From what Shiro had told her, she knew that she needed to be careful with trusting the words of the elders.
"You¡¯re wrong."
Hearing their response, Lyrica looked up in surprise. She could see the sadness in their gaze while looking at her.
"Back then, your father had asked us to keep you away from the city should he fall into an ident and not be able to help you. He wanted you to live a peaceful life away from battles. This was why we had tried our best in making sure that your brothers wouldn¡¯t attack you since you were your father¡¯s favourite child." One of them sighed and tilted her head back. Reminiscing about their deceased king, she couldn¡¯t help but feel emotional.
"But this changed when they discovered the legacy. Knowing that you had the biggest chance to unlock the legacy, Neldor and shor have turned their focus on you. If we didn¡¯t send Blythe to get you soon, you would have been kidnapped by them without anyone knowing. Thankfully, Blythe¡¯s support is stillcking right now so we can suppress him." Another added on and massaged his eyes tiredly.
"But weren¡¯t you displeased with my father?" Lyrica asked in confusion. Seeing the elders expressions, she realized that they were not who she thought they were.
"Child. We¡¯re not that petty. While we were indeed annoyed by his actions, we respected his choice. The elven race¡¯s survival had been ced on his shoulders. What is a little freedompared to the survival of a race? For him to have offered so much of himself for the elven race, allowing him to be with your mother was the least that we could do."
Hearing their response, Lyrica looked towards Shiro for help. She didn¡¯t know if she should trust their words.
"Don¡¯t worry Lyrica, they¡¯re speaking the truth." Shiro nodded her head. She wasn¡¯t surprised that Lyrica was confused since she was as well. But the fact that they were indeed telling the truth couldn¡¯t be denied. Their speech, gestures and subconscious movements couldn¡¯t be faked.
"But if that¡¯s the case, why are you letting my brothers kill each other? Isn¡¯t this just weakening the elven race even more?" Lyrica asked.
"Hais... You see, after your father and mother died, we had to make somepromises or else everything would have been over. Without a stronger leader that could dissuade people from making a move against us, our race would have been enved. Therefore, the best option at that moment was to allow the princes¡¯ to fight each other.
"They would gather supporters and stop the enemy from attacking easily or else they¡¯ll offend therge factions. This was the onlypromise that we found at the time. With the time that this conflict bought, we¡¯ve tried to find a suitable king but none of your brothers fit the role.
"Even your fourth brother, he cares for the people but he had no ambition nor did he have the steeled heart of a king. Having him ascend the throne would only send this race into a slow but inevitable dead end."
"Then how does getting me to return changes the situation? I don¡¯t want to be a ruler either." Lyrica frowned.
"You don¡¯t need to be the ruler. I just hope that you can support your fourth brother to survive this conflict. Even though your fourth brother would send this race into a slow destructive path, we can only hope that he can marry and give birth to worthy descendants in the time that we¡¯re still alive so that we can train them when they¡¯re young." One of the elders shook his head.
"And I suppose that having Lyrica im her father¡¯s legacy will solidify Lyrica¡¯s position am I right?" Shiro asked.
Seeing her cut in, the elders found it a little rude but decided to let it pass for now.
"Indeed." They nodded.
"I¡¯m sorry to be blunt but that¡¯s foolish." Shiro shook her head.
Her response had caused the party to widen their eyes in shock.
¡¯Wasn¡¯t it you who told us not to piss them off!?!?!?!¡¯ They protested in their minds.
*BOOM!!!
A furious aura crashed down into the room as the elders didn¡¯t look too happy.
"I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re Lyrica¡¯s friend but are you challenging us?"
"Yes I am." Shiro grinned as her own bloodl.u.s.t countered their aura.
Feeling her bloodl.u.s.t, they realized that Shiro was no ordinary C ssed adventurer.
"Do you not see the foolishness in your n? Using the fourth prince as a vessel to create a more suitable heir. Was this not the reason for this situation to begin with? Lyrica¡¯s father was used as a political tool to create alliances and heirs. But because of his actions to focus on his true love, he had offended lots of people. If you hadn¡¯t forced him to do that, things would not have escted to this point." Shiro rebutted.
"By doing the same for the fourth prince, you¡¯re only creating the foundations to your own demise. The situation is already tense. If you put so much focus on the fourth prince, which many nobility and factions think has the least chance of seeding, you¡¯re effectively adding fuel to the already raging fire.
"This would only prompt the factions and nobles to eliminate you first since you¡¯re their biggest blockade." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Once that happens, even if you had the best n in the world, it wouldn¡¯t work."
Hearing her reasoning, the elders paused as realization struck them. They had focused on running away and preserving the race and couldn¡¯t see the obvious w.
"However, think of this as an alternative." Shiro grinned. Since she knew the elder¡¯s goal and reasoning, she could finally take the initiative.
If she was to present her solution, not only would it clear Lyrica of her responsibilities as a potential queen, it would also hopefully resolve the elves worry about envement.
Of course, she wasn¡¯t going to put all of her cards on the table. What she was going to show them was just the solution she could get with minimal amounts of effort.
"What you want to do is support the third prince on the outside. Once that happens, both the first and second prince will be on guard since his ss is the most troublesome. This will prompt them to team up and defeat the third prince. However, in doing so, it will also reveal their trump cards to the factions. Should you sneak some extra manpower to increase their power and proof of ¡¯ambition¡¯, the factions would realize how much of a problem the princes are. But at that point, they¡¯ve already helped them a little too much. This will prompt them to work together and split their profits of this country once that happens."
"Isn¡¯t that just speeding our destruction?" The elders narrowed their eyes.
"On the surface yes. But think about this, where have they directed their focus?" Shiro smiled.
"The first and second prince!"
"Bingo." Shiro grinned.
"But that isn¡¯t all. While they¡¯re focused on the first and second prince, they¡¯re also focused on each other. The big factions don¡¯t want one side to be stronger than the other, so they¡¯ll limit the amount of manpower they provide in hopes of reaping rewards with the least amount of casualties. They¡¯ll determine which prince is the weakest out of the two and provide them with help, overpowering the strongest contender. Once that happens, they can then focus on weakening the chosen prince. While also keeping checks on each other.
"And while all of this is happening, the fourth prince is free to be trained. You can also increase his influence among the citizens to ensure his safety." Shiro smiled.
"What do you mean by that?" The elders frowned.
"The power of the popce is bigger than you think. Once he shows his support for the people, he¡¯ll be a target of reverence and give him a ce in the hearts of the people. Once that happens, he¡¯ll be an integral part of this country to the point that the factions can¡¯t easily remove him or else everything they¡¯ve worked towards will be foiled.
"Because once he dies, the people will revolt. This means the copse of the system in this country and a decrease in its value and manpower. Once that happens, any faction that wants to monopolize this ce will have to expend a lot of power to keep it safe. But with their focus on the front lines, they cannot spare too many people so this ce will be more trouble than it was worth."
"How can you guarantee that the people will revolt?"
"They¡¯ve already lost a symbol of peace and protection. If they lose another one, they¡¯ll have to be idiots to not realize the looming threat of having other factions influencing in their country. And it all boils down to one key word. Pride." Shiro narrowed her eyes as her face looked extremely devious at this moment in time.
Chapter 264 Plan part 2
Chapter 264 n part 2
"Pride?"
"Yes. Pride. If they¡¯ve been targeted time and time again, do you think they¡¯ll take it lying down? The pride of being an elf and a being of basic rights will be vited should they do nothing about his death. If the factions are smart, they¡¯ll realize the problem of having someone like the fourth prince toote. Troubled times give birth to heroes.
"Once the elven race bands together to face the enemy that wanted to strip them of their rights, can the factions and government stay there and do nothing? Unless they wanted the entire world to be at conflict and give the demons a chance of killing everyone, they¡¯ll pacify the situation and ensure the elven race¡¯s survival. The consequences of ignoring this or terminating the elven race are bigger than you think. Fear will be nted in everyone¡¯s hearts and doubt will spread." Shiro chuckled.
This was the easiest solution that she had thought up of. While parts may be subjected to adjustment depending on the situation, it was one of the best chances they had at getting what they wanted.
"This... could work." The eldered muttered in surprise since she had brought forth several logical exnations.
Hearts of the people, the greed of the factions and the threat of the demons on the front lines.
"We¡¯ll consider this over the next few days. In the meantime, you can experience top tier treatment from us." The elder nodded and gestured for them to leave.
"Ok. Just make sure that you don¡¯t support the fourth prince for now." Shiro reminded.
Leaving the council room, Shiro saw a few maids waiting outside. Blythe was nowhere to be seen as Shiro guessed that he had been sent away.
"Miss Shiro, would you please follow us and we¡¯ll show you to your rooms." The elven maid bowed respectfully.
"Thank you."
When they arrived at the room, Shiro made sure to set up some formations so that they couldn¡¯t be spied on.
"So what did you want to ask of me?" Shiro smiled and sat down on a chair. Removing her disguise, she returned to her usual look.
"Didn¡¯t you say that you couldn¡¯t make any ns? What was that about?" Madison asked since she remembered about Shiro talking about how she couldn¡¯t make any concrete ns until she had more information.
"I never said I couldn¡¯t make ns. Only I needed more details to make a feasible n." Shiro replied nonchntly.
"Then does that mean you came up with all of that within the time you were in the elder¡¯s room?" Chen Yu widened his eyes in shock.
"Yup."
". . ."
The party looked at Shiro as if she was an absolute monst- correction. Chen Yu looked at Shiro as if she was a monster while the other party members could only leave their jaws hanging in shock.
"How?!" Madison cried out. There was no way that Shiro could have nned all of that with the small amount of time they had in the room.
"Easy. To make this n, I need a few key points. The goal of the elders along with the state of the elven race. Once I have both of these, I¡¯ll be able to make a n." Shiro raised two fingers and crossed her legs.
"The goal was safety of the race with a powerful shield and the most powerful shield as of this moment is obviously the world government. The state of the elven race was a war between the princes. With these two points, I then thought of hurdles that I needed to clear.
"Number 1, the factions. Number 2, the princes. Number 3, the foreseeable future and number 4, the fact that Lyrica doesn¡¯t want to be queen." She smiled.
"Since these were the main hurdles, I devised a way of clearing the hurdles so that we can achieve our final goal. Naturally, this was thought up on the spot so there may be some loopholes that may appearter. But we can fix that by adapting to the situation."
". . . Remind me to never y chess with you." Chen Yu sighed. While she made it sound easy, one would find it hard to present the n to the elders. By showing her own force which could contend with the elders, Shiro was able to level the ying ground and get them to talk with her.
With the amount of pressure that the elders were outputting, normal adventurers would find it amazing if they could think of a n rather than how to survive.
"You overestimate me. While I did sound confident, there are unchangeable variables that I didn¡¯t mention earlier." Shiro chuckled.
"What do you mean?"
"Lyrica¡¯s influence." She turned to Lyrica.
"My influence?"
"Yes. Even if they ce their focus on the first and second prince, the factions will keep a tab on you since you have the highest chance of inheriting your father¡¯s legacy." Shiro shook her head. There were few ways that she could change this but it would risk suspicion and prompt the factions to make a move early. That was the situation that she hoped to ignore since the other pieces weren¡¯t in ce yet.
"But don¡¯t worry about it too much. I¡¯ll do the hard stuff now since you can help me at ater date." Shiro smiled.
"Thank you." Lyrica felt a little emotional since Shiro was trying her best to help her out of this situation.
"No need for thanks. In the meantime, I want to go link up to the teleport shrine so that we can travel freely between New York and Miriel." Shiro suggested.
Meanwhile...
"So my sister has returned. Just when we discovered father¡¯s legacy as well." A voice muttered in displeasure.
"Do you think it¡¯s the elders?" Another voice asked.
"Of course it is. Who else would it be?" The first voice retorted. The owner of the voice was the first prince Neldor. His hair was a deep red while his eyes were golden. Sporting a thin yet powerful physique, his demeanour lived up to his ss of Ascended Sword Emperor.
As for the second voice, it belonged to an emissary of the Rising Sun faction.
"Should I take care of her then? Unlike your brothers, she doesn¡¯t have any support." The emissary smiled.
"No, not yet. I want to see what the elders are nning first. If anything, we can lure my second brother to kill her and give the elders a reason to side with me." Neldor replied.
"If you say so." The emissary shrugged. He was just here to support the prince and not tell him what to do. After all, the faction wanted to see what he could do.
The same situation happened with the second prince as he opted to hang back and see what happens for now. Any rash movements could spark the start of the war after all.
###
Arriving at the Teleport Shine, Shiro ced her hand on the centre tform and registered her mana.
"I should be able to travel to New York right now if I wanted." She muttered with a smile.
Turning to the other party members, she decided that they needed some more levels while they waited for the elder¡¯s response.
"You lot go to a dungeon for now. Prioritize on levelling up Silvia since her support will help a lot in the uing fights. Lisandra, you and Yin party up with Silvia to level her up. Lyrica, Madison and Chen Yu, you three party up and learn how to kill things above your level without Silvia¡¯s help." Shiro instructed.
She didn¡¯t go since she wanted to search for some information in the library. But it didn¡¯t matter too much since the EXP that Lisandra earns is funnelled to her due to Lisandra¡¯s ss. This meant that she could level up while she was in the library.
"Understood." The party nodded since they knew that their best option was to follow Shiro¡¯s instruction for now.
Watching the party leave for the dungeons, Shiro pulled out her phone and searched for where the royal library was. She wanted to uncover some information regarding Kuromi if she could. That way, she could at least guess who her enemies were.
Not only that, she may even find out about the rtion between Kuromi and Yuki.
¡¯I might even be able to find out about her situation right now since in the letter, she said that it was problematic for her to send the letter.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while making her way to the library.
Chapter 266 Royal Library
Chapter 266 Royal Library
When she arrived back at the castle, she was approached by a maid.
"Miss Shiro, I¡¯m the personal maid that the elders¡¯ have assigned to help your group. If you have any inquiries, feel free to ask me." The maid bowed.
[Annie LVL 100 Tempest Queen]
She had blond hair tied up into a ponytail, clear blue eyes and a modest physique. From her appearance alone, Shiro guessed that she was in her early tote 20¡¯s. A very young age to be level 100 considering the standard of average adventurers.
"Hm, since you said so, is it ok if I ask you to show me the royal library? I wish to search for information." Shiro asked with a smile.
"Of course. Right this way." She nodded.
Walking through the corridors, Shiro decided to ask her a few questions.
"So if you don¡¯t mind me asking, how old are you Annie?"
"I¡¯m 26 this year." Annie replied.
"Heh~ 26 years old and level 100 is quite an achievement." Shiro praise.
"Haha, it¡¯s nothing if Ipared myself to you miss Shiro. Despite being looking so young, you¡¯re already level 60. How old are you?" Annie chuckled.
"Well I¡¯m not too sure. I did have amnesia before I met Lyrica after all." Shiro shrugged. If Annie saw her true form without the disguise, she would surely be surprised. Plus, it hasn¡¯t even been a year since her reincarnation.
Constant dungeon runs, quests and raids that were above her level had massively boosted her strength within this period of time. If one didn¡¯t follow her path of constant danger, they would need around two to three years to get to her level. Some may even be longer since they could struggle with killing monsters orck the capability to make the best out of their ss.
"Well one can only stay young for so long. With a few exceptions of course." Annie smiled.
"Oh? Seems like you know someone?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"You could say that. We call her The Immortal Saika since she looks like a very young teen despite being in her 40¡¯s."
"Heh~ The Immortal Saika huh? She sounds interesting." Shiro smiled with interest. It reminded her of what Helion had told her before. How he had fallen in love with a girl that looked his age but turned out to be a 32 year old married woman.
"Hmm... Lolibaba was the word I think? I saw it on the web and I think it means an older woman that looks very young."
"Haha, Saika will be angry if you call her that." Annieughed but realized that she was outstepping her bounds as a maid.
"Ah I apologize for my misconduct." She quickly bowed.
"Ai, don¡¯t worry about it. I prefer people being casual around me. If you¡¯re worried about professionalism, just think of it this way. Since the elders granted us VIP treatment, then I request that you act casual around me or else I¡¯ll be ufortable and it would no longer be good service." Shiro grinned.
"... If that¡¯s what you wish." Annie nodded and rxed herself a little. Since the elders had told her to respect Shiro as much as she could, she was worried about her performance. Thankfully, it turned out that Shiro was rather rxed and didn¡¯t mind her being casual.
"So anyways, back to the Lolibaba Saika. How young does she look and what does she do?" Shiro asked. She wanted some entertainment after hours of researching about herself.
"Hmm... if I had to say, she looked around 13 to 14? Her husband had been pulled away for questioning a few times now. It¡¯s almost be amon sight in this city. As for what she does, she¡¯s a government worker that focuses on public order." Annie chuckled at the memory of seeing Saika¡¯s husband crying out in protest while the new staff that was patrolling the area dragged him away. It had even be a small weing party for new patrolmen who hadn¡¯t seen or heard about Saika and her husband.
"I wonder what causes her to look so young though."
"Apparently, it was because of her race. Her father was a dwarf while her mother was a human. Since she¡¯s a half dwarf, she ages a lot slower." Annie replied while cing a finger on her chin.
As they continued to discuss about Saika and her husband, Shiro found herself quite eager to meet the woman in question. It wasn¡¯t often that one would find someone like her after all.
"Ah we¡¯re here." Annie gestured to arge set of doors down the corridor.
Looking around her, Shiro noticed that the library seemed to be inside the giant tree that the castle surrounds. Looking at the tree, she guessed that it was a world tree but couldn¡¯t be sure.
"Say Annie, what¡¯s with the giant tree?" Shiro asked.
"Ah that¡¯s a Juvenile World Tree Sapling. Unfortunately, it¡¯s not been able to grow at all since the Essence me has been lost. If you don¡¯t know, the Essence me is a treasure of our race that can heal everything that it touches. It had a special effect with the world tree and helped it grow. But now that it¡¯s gone, we can only try to keep the tree alive as best we can." Annie replied with a sad smile.
"Seems like you treasure the tree quite a bit."
"Well the growth of the world tree is a sign of the elven races prosperity. Ever since we¡¯ve lost the Essence me, bad things constantly urred to the elven race. Example being the conflict between the princes." Annie sighed.
Hearing her response, Shiro guessed that the elven race sees the tree as a religious icon of sorts. Much like Jesus for humans, the world tree was just as important to the elves.
"Ah sorry about the depressing tone. Let me open the library for you." Annie coughed lightly and jogged over to the door.
Pulling out an ess key of sorts, a magic circle spread out over the door.
Watching the door open, Shiro peeked through the gap and saw that it was a rather small library whenpared to the public one that she had just visited.
¡¯I suppose that makes sense since the other library was made so that lots of people could ess it.¡¯
The royal library was made up of three floors. On the first floor, she could see several consoles where one would search up the information they required. On the second floor, it was marked down as recipes and the third floor was for martial art manuals.
To ess floors, one would need an ess key. One that wasn¡¯t given to Shiro since she was only allowed on the first floor.
"Say, Annie, who is allowed on the second and third floor?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Only elders and the ruler can ess those two floors unless they were given permission. It¡¯s filled with important doc.u.ments after all. Normal people like me can never hope to see the contents of the books stored in those levels." Annie shrugged but wasn¡¯t too bothered.
Suddenly feeling a vibration in her pocket, Annie pulled out her phone and checked her notification.
"Ah sorry Shiro, I need to leave for a moment. I¡¯ll just be waiting outside ok?" She apologized.
"No worries." Shiro replied with a smile.
After watching Annie leave, Shiro walked over to the consoles and tried to search up more information regarding her identity.
After browsing for a while, she realized something quite surprising. Any information regarding Kuromi had been limited to Japan and the ces near japan. Outside of this, all information about her had either been censored or deleted.
It was as if someone was trying to limit the amount of people that knew about Kuromi.
"Hmm... quite strange." Shiro muttered.
Noting down the fact that her information had been heavily limited, Shiro tried to find other useful information but came up empty. All she found was notes regarding her actions and ball crushing habits.
She had also found some records of ¡¯Shiro¡¯ in the Kuromi¡¯s fan site but was dubbed as someone who was trying to intimidate her. Some people on the site was suspicious but decided to wait for the Asakura family to return from the current Demon Continent excursion before making a decision.
Realizing that this was why the Asakura family hadn¡¯t made a move regarding her identity, Shiro wondered how long it was going to take.
¡¯I may have just offended two tier 4 beings by taking over Kuromi¡¯s body.¡¯ Shiro sighed.
Shaking her head, she looked up at the second and third floor and narrowed her eyes.
¡¯I might be able to sneak into the different floors...¡¯ She mused to herself as a grin crept up on her face.
With her knowledge of magic and her skill rift walker, this should be a breeze.
Chapter 268 Iziuel
Chapter 268 Iziuel
Hearing Nimue speak, Shiro raised her eyebrows in surprise.
¡¯You know who she is?¡¯
{Yes. If I¡¯m not wrong, she¡¯s one of the most prestigious spirits of our race. Iziuel, Spirit of the great forest.} Nimue replied as there was shock evident in her voice.
{I can¡¯t believe one of the most powerful spirits is used as a battery for the elven race...} Her voice choked up in sadness and anguish.
Staying silent, Shiro allowed Nimue to leave her mana realm and materialise herself.
"Ohya? Another one that I seem to find familiar. Feel free to tell me who you are as well. It is terribly boring here alone." Iziuel asked.
"Lady Iziuel, I am Nimue. Spirit of theke. I was once your student." Nimue kneeled down and bowed her head in respect.
"Ah, so my name is Iziuel? Interesting... You say you¡¯re my student but I don¡¯t remember. For as long as I remember, I¡¯ve always been here though. When did I have the chance to gain a student?"
"This was many years ago Lady Iziuel. Since your body is being used as a cursed battery, it is only natural that you¡¯ll slowly lose yourself." Nimue bit her lip.
"I see. How strange. I don¡¯t think I¡¯m a battery though. If anything, I just feel asionally tired and sleep." Iziuel chuckled nonchntly.
Seeing how she was reacting, Nimue felt like her head had been stabbed over and over again. For her mentor to be acting this way, she couldn¡¯t even begin to wonder how many years it had been since she was turned into a battery.
"So that exins why you familiar. But what about your friend next to you? I know that her current form isn¡¯t what she looks like in reality. Could you perhaps reveal yourself?" Iziuel asked.
"Sure."
Undoing her disguise, Shiro revealed her true form.
"Hmm... I still don¡¯t recognise you..." Iziuel sighed.
"Lady Iziuel, that is because who you¡¯re seeing right now is the current queen of the spirit race. Hence the familiarity. As for her level, se may be weak right now but her potential is immeasurable. I can guarantee that she won¡¯t bring the spirit race shame." Nimue gestured to Shiro.
"Heh~ Well I don¡¯t know much about the spirit race so good job?" Iziuel chuckled.
"Lady Iziuel, where are you right now? If you tell us, we may be able to save you." Nimue asked.
"Ah, I don¡¯t know where I am though. It feels like my conscious is ovepping the whole city and my surrounding area is inplete darkness. *Yawn.... Mn, I¡¯m feeling sleepy again... Can youe here often? It¡¯s rare for me to see anyone familiar." Iziuel asked.
"Of course. Buting here is a little troublesome." Shiro shrugged. She didn¡¯t mind giving Iziuel somepany since she felt pity for the spirit.
"Let me deal with that, I can give you permission to unlock the formations to this ce like the other people that visit this ce. But don¡¯t tell them ok? They don¡¯t really like peopleing here if they don¡¯t permit it." Iziuel chuckled softly before her voice faded away.
Taking a deep breath, Nimue sighed and bowed her head a few times before turning to Shiro.
"My queen, can we save Lady Iziuel? I can guarantee that she will be of great use to you. Unlike me, who can just give you passive effects, she¡¯ll be able to grant you an elemental affinity should you link up with her."
"Of course. I was nning to do that the moment I found out that you knew of her. Though we¡¯ll have to wait a while since there are a few problems that we need to sort out first before we rescue her." Shiro smiled.
"Understood. But I hope we can do it soon. Lady Iziuel doesn¡¯t have much time left I¡¯m afraid. Spirits hardly fall asleep and are active all time round. For her to be constantly sleepy, it means that she¡¯s suffering from a severeck of mana. When a spirit experiences that, they will be forcefully put into hibernation in order to speed up mana recovery." Nimue exined.
"So does that mean she¡¯s in a constant state of mana deficiency?" Shiro frowned slightly.
"Indeed." Nimue nodded with a bitter expression.
"Then that¡¯s rather troublesome. The sooner we get her out, the better." Shiro furrowed her brows.
She guessed that the longer she left Iziuel alone, the more damage would have .u.mted in her body. As much as she would like to help but, Shiro didn¡¯t know where she was and what kind of role she yed.
The biggest possibility was that Iziuel was in the world tree but that posed another problem. Elves view the world tree as a religious symbol. If there was anything that went wrong with it or if the power source was to disappear, chaos would spread.
She needed to make sure that she had a recement power source for Iziuel so that the barrier can continue to run.
"I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Go back to the mana realm for now and we¡¯ll think of ways to locate herter." Shiro said as Nimue nodded.
Shifting into mist, she returned to Shiro¡¯s mana realm.
Shaking her head, Shiro turned to the martial arts manuals on the walls.
Her mostcking aspect in terms of martial arts is fistbat. Having one would greatly enhance her power along with synergising with her phantom path since it ignores defence.
Checking through the manuals, she found that most of them were good but weren¡¯t on the level of ¡¯paths¡¯.
¡¯If I choose a mediocre Martial Arts to focus on, it might weaken the effects of what I have currently. My best bet is to find something simr in quality or higher.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Realising that the quality increased the higher she progressed, she decided to go straight to the top.
There was only one manual on the highestyer.
[Ancient Heart Enlightenment (Red)]
A martial art that takes the true nature of your heart and projects it as a body cultivation style designated to you. Warning: Should one desire battle within their heart, this will only amplify the effects. It may lead to a path of no return.
One¡¯s mind will be consumed by a heart demon¡¯s if they are not resolute.
"Hou... Interesting..." Shiro narrowed her eyes and memorised the entire manual.
cing it back, she had a look at the books under thisyer and saw that they were only of the purple rank. ssifying them as mediocre in her mind, she hopped over to the weapon manuals.
Unfortunately, there weren¡¯t any manuals of the red grade and the rest were inferiorpared to her Asura Sword Path.
Picking up a few purple graded sword techniques for the party, she memorised them down and left the area. She couldn¡¯t stay here for too long after all.
Dismissing her illusion, she walked out of the library and saw that Annie was still talking over the phone. Waiting patiently for a while, she decided to go through the Ancient Heart Enlightenment manual in her mind.
¡¯The core concept of the Ancient Heart Enlightenment manual is to act ording to how your heart feels. Without disguising your desires and thoughts, one can focus on any task with their entire being. Should one desire to save people the most, this manual would transform itself to help the user save people.¡¯ Shiro read in her mind.
The initial stages of this manual had no need for fighting but rather, to understand oneself. Once they master this stage, hesitation will disappear from their movements and their fighting style will be smoother.
At the second stage, a set of martial arts would slowly appear in your movements.
The final stage is where the martial arts would have beenpleted and you would have cultivated an unyielding heart, helping you
As she was studying the manual in her mind, Annie finally finished her phone call and saw that Shiro was waiting by the side with her eyes closed.
"Ah I¡¯m sorry! I didn¡¯t realise that you had finished." Annie quickly apologised.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. I was thinking about something anyways." Shiro dismissed it with a smile.
"Even so..." Annie pulled a difficult face.
"It¡¯s fine. Why don¡¯t you make this up to me by showing me to the training rooms?" Shiro suggested. If she knew where the training rooms were, she could get herself a calm location and train the Ancient Heart Enlightenment.
"Of course. Follow me." Annie nodded and showed her to the training rooms.
Memorising where she needed to go for the training rooms, Shiro had Annie show her to the bedrooms.
Chapter 270 Chance Of Success
Chapter 270 Chance Of Sess
Seeing that Helion admitted to being able to upgrade the armour to red grade, despite it having only a 35% chance of sess, Shiro was surprised.
[Shiro: Wait you can???]
[Helion: Yeah. However, the biggest problem with this is that if it fails, the armour is entirely scrapped. Meaning you wouldn¡¯t be able to use it anymore.]
[Shiro: That¡¯s an ok trade for me. Do you want to know the details of my armour so that you can tell me what parts you need to upgrade it to red grade?]
[Helion: Of course.]
[Shiro: Alright, but before that, why are you telling me this? You know how many factions would go crazy if they found out that you can upgrade armour to the red grade at your level?]
[Helion: Yeah but think of this as a favour to a friend. I need practice to improve my technique to begin with. It should be me who thanks you since it¡¯s not everyday that you can run into a purple ranked armour set after all.]
[Shiro: I suppose so. Here is the information regarding my current armour.]
Sending over the information about her armour, Shiro waited for his response.
While she was waiting, she was still wondering about how he was able to do this.
¡¯What kind of ss did he upgrade into for him to be able to achieve a 35% chance of sess for upgrading armour... There must be some serious drawbacks unless the ss that he got was S ss or above.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. If word got out that a newly ssed up C ranked adventurer could have a 35% chance of upgrading armour to the red grade, the world would go crazy.
[Helion: After seeing your armour, I would need some seriously good materials to bring it up to red grade.]
[Shiro: What do you need? I¡¯ll try to get as many of them as I can.]
[Helion: What I need are effects rather than the item itself. Since your armour focuses on defence and intelligence, I would need items from monsters that specialise in that area. The higher quality the better. How much you bring me is up to you but it can¡¯t be more than 10. The next item that I need is a B ssed powerup item. If you don¡¯t know what they are, they¡¯re items that you can use to boost your strength for a certain amount of time. Once you have these two and a bunch of C ssed mana stones, I¡¯ll be able to upgrade your armour. Though I¡¯ll warn you, even if the percentage is 35%, there is still a rtively high chance for you to lose such a good set armour. Are you sure you want to carry this out?]
[Shiro: I¡¯m positive. I¡¯m about to outgrow its level anyways. Rather than waste it, I¡¯d rather try upgrade it.]
[Helion: Fine. Drop by my shop tomorrow in New York. I¡¯ll be postponing my trip for a bit.]
[Shiro: Ok I¡¯ll see you tomorrow.]
Putting her phone down, Shiro leaned back and smiled.
"35% huh?"
"35% of what?" Lyrica asked after hearing her mutter.
"A 35% chance of my set armour being upgraded to red grade. Which means that there¡¯s a 65% chance of failure. Should he fail in upgrading my armour, I¡¯ll lose it forever." Shiro replied.
"Eh?! You actually found someone that can upgrade your armour?!"
"Haha, yup. I have to admit, he¡¯s rather talented." Shiro smiled at Lyrica¡¯s reaction.
"I think that¡¯s beyond talented now. He¡¯s a genius." Lyrica praised.
"Mn, I¡¯ll tell him that when I see him tomorrow. But I¡¯ll have to get some high ranked materials first. After all, upgrading to red grade is pretty hard." Shiro shrugged.
After chatting for a little while, they decided to head off to bed. Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel like she was forgetting something though.
¡¯I¡¯ll probably remember it tomorrow.¡¯ She thought before sleeping.
Meanwhile, Chen Yu was waiting outside the room.
¡¯When can I go back in and sleep?¡¯
###
Waking up the next morning, the first thing that Shiro did was make a mental note of the things that she needed to collect.
¡¯10 defence and intelligence orientated high grade materials. 1 B ss powerup item and a bunch of C ssed mana stones. I¡¯ve already got the B ssed powerup item covered since Yuan Tian gave me the silver dagger that I haven¡¯t used yet. But if I use it for this, it means that I¡¯ve lost a potential lifeline should I need to face off against a B ssed/ tier 4 adventurer.¡¯ She mused while stretching her body.
If she gambled with the weapon, it would mean that she¡¯ll lose an extra life. However, if she were to seed in making a red grade armour, it will most likely scale up with her level much like her swords.
But just in case, she wanted to see if she could get another B ssed powerup item.
Leaving the room, she was shocked to see Chen Yu sitting by the door asleep.
¡¯Ah that¡¯s what I forgot.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Giving him a silent prayer, she made her way to the auction house.
Compared to what she saw back in the old continent, the auction house in Miriel was definitely a lot bigger. There were several floors that correspond to how much capital you had. The more money you have, the higher you can go. After all, there¡¯s no point showing the best items to those who can¡¯t even afford it.
Shaking her head, Shiro wondered whatyer she would get with the amount of money she had on her.
Walking into the auction house, she approached the counter and reported how much capital she had.
Once she was led up to the second floor, the counterdy walked back downstairs and left her to her own devices.
¡¯Hmm, well I suppose she had better things to do than entertain a single guest.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a soft chuckle.
Walking over to the consoles, she searched up the items that originated from Defence or Intelligence focused monsters.
Ironically, she had even found Snow Woman materials but they were valued in the tens of silver Erins. With her capital of only 8 silver Erins, they were out of her reach.
¡¯I wonder if I can use myself as an ingredient. Now wouldn¡¯t that be odd.¡¯ She thought with a chuckle.
{You can my queen. There¡¯s an item called the Tears of the sylph queen. This tear would increase one¡¯s intelligence stat by 10% when consumed. All you need to do is think of something that brings you sadness and collect the tears that fall from your eyes.} Nimue informed.
¡¯Heh~ That¡¯s possible?¡¯ Shiro raised an eyebrow.
{Well you are the Mystic Sylph Queen after all. It would be strange if you couldn¡¯t use your own tears.}
¡¯True. But that¡¯ll have to wait for a bit. Just in case I can¡¯t squeeze out tears, I¡¯ll buy some high ranked materials.¡¯ Shiro replied.
She didn¡¯t know if she could cry onmand since it¡¯s been so many years since she hadst cried.
In the end, Shiro bought 8 Banshee¡¯s Essence and 2 Duhan¡¯s ting. The banshee¡¯s essence was rather cheap considering that they only took 50 bronze Erins. On the other hand, Duhan¡¯s ting cost her a silver Erin each.
Storing the items in her inventory, Shiro sighed at the fact that she only had 2 silver Erins left.
With 2 silver Erins, there was no way that she could buy a B ssed powerup item.
¡¯I wonder if I can substitute it with the Tier 4 suppression field that I took from Sin Yue back in Cairosa. It should be equal to the silver dagger since it affects tier 4 individuals.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Walking out of the auction house with her items prepared, she made her way to the teleport shrine.
She decided that if she couldn¡¯t use the tier 4 suppression field as a recement, she wasn¡¯t going to upgrade her armour. After all, the Miriel was full of dangers with so many people at level 100. If she didn¡¯t have a back up n such as the silver dagger, she¡¯ll be limited to what she could do.
Once she reached the teleport shrine, she picked New York as her target since it was the only ce she could select.
A blinding light filled her vision as her body was teleported to New York.
Chapter 271 Helions Class
Chapter 271 Helion''s ss
When her vision cleared up, she was surprised to see how much of New York had actually been repaired. While there were still plenty of buildings that were copsed, most of the shops and houses are up and running.
Currently, she was back in her original form so a few could recognise her.
Just as she stepped out of the teleport shrine, she saw a familiar face.
"Yo, Liam. Long time no see." Shiro grinned and gave him a slight wave.
"Mn? Oh Shiro. It¡¯s been a while and wow, you¡¯re already level 60." Liam praised in surprise.
"Haha, I¡¯ve had a few fortuitous encounters after all." Shiro replied with a smile.
"I see... wait a moment. Since when could you speak?" Liam tilted his head. From his memories, she had been mute and only used her phone tomunicate.
"Ah about that, you see, my voice was fixed when I ssed up." Shiro chuckled.
"That makes sense. ss up¡¯s do change your body ever so little after all. Who knows, maybe next ss will make you into a mature woman." Liamughed.
"I wish."
If her next ss didn¡¯t make her mature, she was seriously going to question if her body belonged to Kuromi or not. From the images that she seen, Kuromi definitely had a good figure and not a washing board like the current her.
After chatting for a little longer, Shiro bid Liam goodbye and made her way to Helion¡¯s workshop.
Arriving at the location, she saw that his shop was closed and that there was a notice for a leave.
"Is anyone home~" Shiro called out while trying to look for an entrance.
"Look at the sign, the shop is closed." Helion¡¯s voice called out from inside the shot.
Grinning to herself slightly, Shiro entered the rift and phased through the shop.
Hiding herself in the corner, she saw Helion hammering away at a piece of armour.
[Helion LVL 53 Hephaestus¡¯s Chosen]
¡¯Hephaestus¡¯s? Isn¡¯t that the Greek god of cksmithing? He¡¯s actually managed to get a ss with a god¡¯s name in the title.¡¯ Shiro widened her eyes.
Now that she saw his ss, she finally realised why he could even have a shot at creating red grade equipment. After all, Hephaestus wasn¡¯t known as the god of cksmithing for no reason. If he couldn¡¯t even make red grade armour, he shouldn¡¯t be called a god.
Creeping up on him, Shiro tapped him lightly on the shoulder.
"Tch, I said that the shop is clos-..." Looking at Shiro, Helion paused in a trance. It had been a while since he hadst seen her so her recent appearance was something he hadn¡¯t seen yet.
"Boo~" Shiro grinned.
"Wait you can talk now!?"
"Yup. I got my voice back a while ago. I just never had the chance to talk to you since." Shiro chuckled and pulled over a chair for her to sit on.
"Damn, heavens really favour you huh? You have both the looks and voice." Helion chuckled.
"Perhaps. By the way, is it possible for me to use this as a recement for the B grade powerup item?" Shiro asked, handing him the tier 4 suppression field.
"Hmm... perhaps. But I¡¯m not sure. Since the main effect of this item is to suppress, I don¡¯t know if it will help elevate your armour to the red grade. I¡¯ll try though." Helion furrowed his brows.
"Well that¡¯s fine. I¡¯m in a troublesome situation right now so I can¡¯t exactly use my B ranked powerup item as a gamble." She smiled wearily.
"Haha, don¡¯t worry about it. I was thinking that a B ranked powerup item may be difficult for you to get so I¡¯ve tried to think of a way to upgrade it without the help of the B ranked item." Helion waved his hand.
"Oh? What grade did they reach?"
"Purple +. I¡¯m just a small bit away from reaching orange grade with this method. However, with the hammer that I got with my ss up, I should be able topensate for the difference." Helion smiled and showed her his new hammer.
[God Hephaestus¡¯s Hammer (5/5 Uses)]
The personal hammer of the cksmithing god. As you are not at his level, you can only tap into a small portion of the power that resides within this hammer. As the chosen one, you must make the most out of this hammer and gain Hephaestus¡¯s recognition.
Soul Bound: Helion
"Hmm. . . you only have 5 uses of this item though. Are you sure you want to use one them on my armour?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Just think of this as training. I need to use it in the future anyways. Might as well use it for a friend." Helion smiled.
". . .I owe you one then." Shiro smiled.
Unequipping her armour, sheid it on the workshop table along with all the materials that she had collected.
"Now then, I should probably crack on." Helion cracked his neck and stretched his body.
"Do you want to do this in a dungeon first? Upgrading an armour to red grade may cause quite the phenomenon you know?" Shiro asked.
"Will it?"
"Yeah. I¡¯m pretty sure that when you ssed up into your ss, there should have been quite the phenomenon right?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"That¡¯s true. . . It¡¯s also the reason I¡¯m leaving this city. Everyone knows about my ss so the factions are making their way here." Helion scratched his cheek embarrassingly.
"Hais... I¡¯m not surprised. Getting a god in your ss name is pretty much a miracle you know? Here, this might help you a little." Shiro sighed and passed him a disguise orb.
"Oh my, this will definitely help out." Helion smiled and changed his name tag.
"You can also change your appearance since everyone here knows of your ss."
Nodding his head, Helion changed his appearance so that eh resembled an average man with a cksmithing ss.
"So we¡¯re doing this in a dungeon then?" He asked, while storing all of the equipment he needed in his inventory. Naturally, he needed to take out some things to make room for all the tools.
"Ya. I¡¯ll protect you while you forge." Shiro nodded while looking at the pile of items that he had ced aside. She noticed a small pile of what seemed to be blue grade ass tes which piqued her curiosity.
"Those are?" She asked.
"Oh them? Custom orders for people that had moved out of the city and gone elsewhere." Helion replied.
"You still get orders for them?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Of course, while we may not get much news about your ass piercing ways recently, the image has already been embedded to those that had seen you in action. Plus, the ass tes surprisingly don¡¯t conflict with the other armour pieces so that¡¯s extra defence. At this point, even those that haven¡¯t seen your ways, which I doubt, would be buying this to get more stats." Helion replied with a smile.
"I see. . . Interesting, I might ask for one as well since it gives extra stats." Shiro rubbed her chin in interest.
"Haha, I¡¯ll have to spend extra time in making a good enough te for you then." Helion smiled as he finished packing.
"Now then, shall we go?" He asked with a smile.
Leading Helion to the level 21 Frag Ant¡¯s burrow, Shiro tapped her finger on the cave walls.
"Freeze." Shemanded.
*BOOM!!!! KRRRRR!!!
Ice exploded out from her fingertips and froze over the entire floor with ease.
"Jesus Christ... I kinda feel sorry for the ant¡¯s you know? They don¡¯t even know what hit them." Helion muttered.
"Well they caused me a bit of annoyance before when I came here. Especially that queen." Shiro replied with a smile.
Setting down his equipment, Helion ced Shiro¡¯s armour on the table and took a deep breath.
*BOOM!!!!
As if opening the floor gates, mana surged towards him and gathered around his armour.
Pulling out Hephaestus¡¯s hammer, Helion bit his finger and traced it along the handle.
"Awaken." Hemanded.
*FUUU!!!!!
Fire exploded out around him and gathered around the hammer. While this was happening, an illusionary figure ovepped Helion¡¯s body as Shiro guessed that this was an image of the cksmithing god himself.
"You might want to stay back a little for this." Helion warned.
Nodding her head, Shiro followed his instructions. She could clearly see the cave wall slowly melt from the temperature.
Tensing his muscles, Helion mmed the hammer into the armour.
*BOOM!!!!!
A wave of energy shot out from this hit as Shiro was forced back a little.
¡¯Well damn...¡¯ She thought in surprise at the prowess.
Looking at Helion hammering away at the armour while a torrent of energy was being pushed out with every hit, Shiro could only wait for the oue patiently and hope that it would turn out ok.
Chapter 272 Path of Ascendance
Chapter 272 Path of Ascendance
Hammering away at the armour, sweat dripped off Helion¡¯s face. Every hit on the armour would purify and enhance the foundations ever so slightly. Should he fail to control the power behind the hit, it would only cause damage and cause the upgrade to fail.
Stomping down with his foot, he sent the materials into the air and had them converge towards the armour.
While this was happening, Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯The mana¡¯s bing violent. If this continues, I don¡¯t think Helion would be able to control the mana enough for him to upgrade the armour.¡¯ She thought to herself.
As much as she wanted to help, should she interfere, it would only increase the chance of failure.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she stepped back a bit more and watched patiently.
It was unknown how long this would take so Shiro decided to do something productive. After all, spending several hours watching Helion upgrade her armour was a waste of time. She could easily use this to train her newly acquired martial arts.
Sitting down on the floor, she calmed her mind.
As she had previously stated, the first stage was to know oneself and hesitation would fade from her movements.
¡¯Who am I as a person?¡¯ She mused to herself.
In one sense, she has multiple personas that she likes to ¡¯wear¡¯. Even her main one was a by-product of her taking things light-heartedly so that her mind can rx from all the serious things in life.
As one who was betrayed and experimented on, her mental state was always in a state of seriousness where she was suspicious of everyone. When she first became friends with Lyrica, that was her trying to change herself back and enjoy life now that she had a second chance.
But the serious side of her knew that if she was to just rx, she could be killed at any moment. Life was like a venus fly trap. It¡¯ll lure you with a sweet scent only to then consume you.
While she could say that all of it was ¡¯her¡¯ as a being, that wasn¡¯t answering the question of the heart seriously.
If she was to slowly chip away at this collectiveness, she¡¯ll be left with a single element that defines her most basic trait which is the foundation of everything that she chooses to do.
Should that foundation be optimism, it will mean that she had done everything out of the kindness of her heart and believed that everyone was good. Which she could say wasplete and utter bullsh*t.
Should she be truly ¡¯kind¡¯, then she would have never taken up the sword and ughter all those that opposed her.
Then was it anger? That wasn¡¯t it either. If her basic principle was anger, then she would have never extended a helping hand to Lyrica.
If neither the good nor the evil was her, then what was she?
"wed avenger..." She muttered softly with a smile. She is one that wishes to bathe in the hands of her killer and yet desires a normal peaceful life. Which is why she befriended Lyrica.
But she knew that ¡¯normal¡¯ and ¡¯peaceful¡¯ were impossible for her since these are the very things that she fears.
In order to obtain these, she¡¯ll have to give up her power and control. Two that she held close to her heart as she hated the very thought of being unable to do anything.
Thest time she had a normal and peaceful life, she was captured and subjected to torture.
With one side of her that desired violence and hatred, and another that wished to cherish things that she had obtained, she was wed to the point of being the very thing that had the biggest chance of destroying everything she held dear because of her nature as an avenger.
As she continued to ponder about her nature, she decided that her most prominent nature was none other than that of a berserker.
"I am a berserker that treads the path of blood to reach my enemy. I have long given up the concept of normality to chase for more power. I search for allies to stand by my side so that I can increase the chances of achieving my vengeful desire." She muttered with a smile.
A blood red radiance was slowly emitted from her body as she opened her eyes.
-Is that really true?-
A foreign voice whispered in her ear.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked around in suspicion.
Before she could answer, she received several notifications regarding her choice of nature.
[Ancient Heart Enlightenment -> Berserker Heart
Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path -> Path of Ascendance
Path of Ascendance: Berserker Path gained.
Four truth paths discovered:
Phantom Path: Truth of the hidden world.
Asura Sword Path: Truth of weapons.
Celestial Path: Truth of magic.
Berserker Path: Truth of the heart.
Title gained: Seeker of Truths.
Seeker of Truths (Stage 4):
Whenever you use a martial art associated with one of the ¡¯truths¡¯, you temporarily gain a 10% increase in stats.
Stages correspond to the number of truth¡¯s you¡¯ve discovered. The higher the stage, the bigger the stat increase.]
Surprised at the sheer amount of notifications that she received, she took a moment to sort it all out.
¡¯So I¡¯ve evolved Yin Style Asura¡¯s path to Path of Ascendance. Not only does the effects of my martial arts increase, but the risk of losing myself to 5th phantom has also disappeared. I can most likely synergise the 5th phantom with the new Berserker Path to amplify the benefits.¡¯ She thought to herself in surprise.
¡¯To think that understanding a single martial arts manual of this quality could bring so many benefits.¡¯
On top of removing the danger of 5th phantom, she had gained a title that improved her stats temporarily whenever she used her martial arts.
This encouraged her to seek out more martial art manuals of the same quality or higher so that she could discover more ¡¯truths¡¯.
Looking down at her phone, she was surprised to see that 3 hours had passed and Helion was still trying to upgrade her armour.
However, she realised something shocking.
¡¯He¡¯s using so much mana that this ce can barely recover to keep up with demand.¡¯ She widened her eyes in surprise.
Pausing in his swing, Helion¡¯s figure swayed for a moment as he gritted his teeth and mmed the hammer down onest time.
*BANG!
His body was sent flying backwards as Shiro quickly intercepted him and stopped him from mming against the wall.
"How is it?" She asked while looking at the glowing set of armour that was being drowned in an endless torrent of mes.
"I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s in the final stage and all I can do is hope that the preparation was sufficient." Helion replied. He had no more strength in his body and could barely keep his eyes open.
"I see..."
Waiting in silence, they watched the armour closely, hoping that the upgrade would be a sess.
*CRACK!!!
A sudden fracture split across the armour as Shiro widened her eyes.
Quickly mming her palm into the ground, ice erupted out from around the cave and set up several walls of ice between them and the armour.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Exploding into thousands of pieces, the energy that was released by the explosion shattered the defensive walls one by one.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro added more mana to the remaining walls, reinforcing them as much as she could.
*PING PING PING PING!!!
Smashing through her defences, the explosion soon lost its momentum with only two walls left to destroy.
"Hais..." Signing in relief, Shiro thawed the ice and saw the charred aftermath of the explosion.
"Sorry. It seems like the upgrade was a failure." Helion smiled bitterly.
"It¡¯s fine. It was a gamble to begin with." Shiro shook her head.
With her armour shattering into a thousand pieces, there was no way that she could use it again.
¡¯Well I guess I¡¯ll have to farm in some dungeons so that I can get some armour pieces to use until I find the next set armour.¡¯ She sighed.
Letting Helion recover, they made their way out of the charred dungeon.
"Give me a day or so. I¡¯ll try to make you a purple grade armour as a recement." Helion suggested.
"Don¡¯t push yourself too much. It¡¯s the thought that counts." Shiro smiled.
"I understand but I will try regardless." He shook his head in determination.
Making their way back to the workshop, Shiro saw a woman standing in front of the door with a small smile.
"Long time no see." Aarim smiled as her eyes were focused on Shiro.
Chapter 273 Valtrana
Chapter 273 Valtrana
Letting Helion rest on the bed, Aarim gestured for Shiro to follow her for a bit.
"So you had a question for me?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Mn. Let¡¯s choose elsewhere since this isn¡¯t exactly the best ce for the talk." Aarim replied.
As Shiro was following behind Aarim, she looked at Aarim¡¯s stats to see how she was doing.
[Aarim LVL 54 Armageddon Battlemage]
"Eh?" Raising an eyebrow, Shiro was surprised at Aarim¡¯s ss. From her estimates, she had been trying to get the veteran source mage. For her to change her choice at the end, it must mean that it was a hidden ss.
¡¯She probably obtained some good items for her to ss up then.¡¯ Shiro smiled since that was what had happened to her.
Due to the items that she received from the quest, she had unlocked her Mystic Sylph Queen hidden ss. If it wasn¡¯t for her items, she would have gotten the corrupted elemental sylph and might not havee into contact with Nimue or Iziuel.
Arriving at what seems to be Aarim¡¯s new apartment, Shiro followed her in.
"So can we talk now?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Mn. Be straight with me. Who are you?" Aarim narrowed her eyes.
"What do you mean? I had amnesia before I came to New York so I don¡¯t know anything." Shiro shrugged.
"We both know that it is a lie. If it wasn¡¯t, why would you have such a big reaction towards this item?" Aarim ced the broken statue of the light hero onto the table. This was same statue that Shiro had broken when they visited the underwater ruins back in Cairosa.
"I just didn¡¯t like the face of the statue. If reminded me of someone I despise." Shiro responded while ncing at the statue.
"Is that so? Then exin to me, why is it that after I ssed up, you are most definitely the creepiest ¡¯person¡¯ that I have ever met?" Aarim narrowed her eyes.
After ssing up, she had a passive skill where she could see the nature of people as a figure over their bodies.
For the ¡¯nature¡¯ of Shiro, she could see a shrouded figure of ck fog looming over her body with a part of blood red eyes.
*Krk!
Aarim heard a cracking sound as the fog revealed its teeth and curved its lips into a maniacal grin.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she deactivated her skill and looked back at Shiro.
"What are you trying to say?" Shiro chuckled softly as she knew that Aarim was onto something.
Flexing her fingers a little, a tiny trail of ice started to freeze towards Aarim¡¯s feet undetected.
"I¡¯m just curious. If my guesses are correct, then the dungeons are more than what they seem. They¡¯re not fabrications of the imagination but rather fragments from different worlds. For this statue, it came from the world of Aria and I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯re a monster from Aria as well."
"Hou hou~ That¡¯s a rather bold im don¡¯t you think? You might identally offend someone you know?" Shiro kept her smile but her eyes were serious.
"While I do admit that it¡¯s a rather bold im, I have reasons as to why I think is. If it wasn¡¯t the case, then how can you exin everything that you¡¯ve done along with other factors. One of these is the fact that myst requirement for ss up was that I be friends with a C ssed intelligent monster. Out of all the C ssed people that I know, their backgrounds check out which only left you. A girl who literally appeared out of nowhere one day. It just so happened that when you arrived in New York, a monster was filled under the name of Shino. There¡¯s a big chance that the name is a mistake so I based it off of the monster information instead.
"A snow girl that had the power to kill a boss all by herself. When we first met, you were an Ice Mage that couldn¡¯t talk and had a lot of power for someone of your level. Isn¡¯t it so coincidental that everything checks out rather well?" Aarim smiled while resting her chin on her hand.
"If that¡¯s the case, then I¡¯m sure you know that you¡¯re in a lot of danger should I be said monster."
"Possibly. But after knowing you for quite a while, I believe that you¡¯re not like the rest of the monsters. Plus, the only reason that I¡¯m confronting you about this is because I¡¯m curious about other worlds. I want to know the reason for dungeon¡¯s appearance, why the world had changed and most importantly, could monsters just be a form of reincarnation like what the hindu¡¯s believe in? Rebirth based on karma." Aarim replied.
"So you desire knowledge?" Shiro asked.
"Indeed. I tried to be a veteran source mage since it is rumoured that the highest form of that ss tree will show you the truth of mana. Why is it omnipresent and why does it regenerates so fast? Don¡¯t you find it weird? How some areas have more mana while others don¡¯t.
"Should the world be ssified as an open room and the mana is air, it¡¯s almost impossible for one side to have more air than the other. If this is the case, then is the mana being controlled by someone? Who could be so powerful as to supply the entire world with mana. To begin with, what even is mana? Why does it seem inexhaustible?"
"Ha? Like I care." Shiro leaned back nonchntly.
"Eh?"
"I don¡¯t care about questions like that. You can say that I¡¯m taking it for granted but what¡¯s the point of finding out? If you understand everything, life will be boring. Knowing the source of all things will only remove the mystery and beauty of life." Shiro smiled and stood up.
Aarim looked at her in confusion since she believed that finding out about the truth had always been a core foundation of humans. They wish to fill the gap in knowledge which bugs them so.
However, seeing that Shiro had no desire to fill in that gap of knowledge, Aarim could only sigh.
"Say, is the offer to join the party still avable?" She asked with a smile.
"Oh? You still want to join despite believing that I¡¯m a monster? Are you not afraid that this may bite you back?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"When has there been no risks in the world? Plus, if I follow you, who I believe to havee from a different world and is a monster, I may be able to see things I never thought possible." Aarim chuckled.
"Then let me warn you now. The chance of death is quite high should you make the wrong choices."
"I¡¯m willing to take the chance." Aarim replied fearlessly. Despite the fact that Shiro¡¯s ¡¯nature¡¯ was something so ominous, it was surprisingly docile. As if Shiro had control over it and kept it on a chain.
In order to fuel her curiosity along with other things, she wanted to follow Shiro for now.
"In that case then I wee you aboard. We¡¯re currently in the elven capital of Miriel and I only came back recently because I needed Helion to upgrade one of my armours. Unfortunately, now that my armour has been broken into a thousand pieces, I¡¯ll have to go to a raid or farm dungeons so that I can get some new pieces of armour." Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
She didn¡¯t mind having Aarim in the party since she was a strong mage. Even if she found out about her being a monster, the moment she tries to sabotage the party in Miriel, she¡¯ll be dealt with ordingly.
Should the result of her sabotage put them in a near death situation, she¡¯ll disposed of regardless of their past connection.
"So, does the party have a name?" Aarim asked curiously.
"A name?"
"Ya. We can¡¯t just be called ¡¯a party¡¯ by other people now can we?" Aarim replied as if it was a matter of fact.
"Hmm...." Pausing for a short moment, Shiro wondered what kind of name they should have. In her past life, the party she was in had always been known as the hero¡¯s party.
There was no need for a name since everyone knew of the party since the hero was the leader.
¡¯What shall we be called...¡¯ Shiro wondered herself.
"We should discuss this with the others. But for now, how does Valtrana sound?" Shiro smiled.
In Aria, Valtrana was what people had called heretics that went against god. As she was nurturing party members to stand beside her when she finally faces the light hero or rather, the light god, Valtrana was a fitting name.
Chapter 274 Back to Miriel
Chapter 274 Back to Miriel
"Valtrana?" Aarim tilted her head slightly.
"Yeah. It¡¯s just a name that popped into my head. Anyways, I¡¯m going back to check up on Helion. He might have recovered a bit now." Shiro said while stretching her body.
"I¡¯ll follow you after I packed up a little. I still have a bunch of stuff here after all." Aarim gestured to the ridiculous amounts of tailoring equipment in the other room.
"You¡¯re going to be bringing all of that?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Ya. I mean, while I am a mage, I¡¯m also a tailor you know?" Aarim chuckled.
"Fair enough. Just message me when you¡¯re done ok?"
"Got it."
Leaving Aarim¡¯s apartment, Shiro sighed a little.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯ll have to be a bit more careful with how I conduct myself when I¡¯m in the presence of other people.¡¯ She mused to herself.
She couldn¡¯t fully answer Aarim¡¯s question just yet because while she considers her a friend, they¡¯re not close enough for her to reveal herself.
But once they party up more often, she¡¯ll have a better understanding of Aarim and reveal the truth to her then.
¡¯But honestly, monster¡¯s being the reincarnation of people with bad karma... is that even possible?¡¯ She asked herself.
From what she had seen so far, it happened twice. Once with her and the second time with Kamnar. With just these two as evidence, she couldn¡¯t prove the theory. But the possibility was there.
Looking back at the apartment, she curved her lips into a smile and walked away.
###
After making sure that Helion was feeling better, she decided to spend the night over in New York since Helion wanted to make some armour.
In regards to materials, Helion offered to pay for everything himself aspensation for breaking her set armour.
Seeing how adamant he was in regard to this, Shiro could only smile and nod. By the next morning, he had prepared three pieces of good quality armour for her.
[Unnamed Chest Piece LVL 65 Blue+]
+1000 INT
+200 DEF
[Unnamed Helmet LVL 65 Blue+]
+700 INT
[Unnamed Boots LVL 65 Blue+]
+1200 AGI
While they had no skills or effects, they gave her a decent boost in stats. It couldn¡¯tpare to what she had before but they will work for now.
"Hm... Only blue +." Helion frowned slightly.
"Haha, don¡¯t worry about it. You can spend more time to make me some better armourter." Shiro smiled.
"Alright. Just you wait, since I¡¯ve gotten a god¡¯s name in my ss, it would be shameful if I can¡¯t make the best armour in the world." Helion grinned.
"Of course. I look forward to you making the highest grade of armour."
"Dumbass, you¡¯ll have to make sure that your level is high enough first. Don¡¯t cha think that you failed this time is because you were too weak?" Aarim chipped in with a smirk.
"*cough* That might be the case." Helion scratched his cheek embarrassingly.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. I was a bit hasty anyways since the situation is a little problematic in Miriel." Shiro chuckled.
"Wait what do you mean?" Aarim raised an eyebrow.
"You see, we are basically against a whole country right now." Shiro smiled ¡¯innocently¡¯.
"Ah..."
Aarim paused for a moment as her brain tried toprehend what Shiro had just said.
"So you¡¯re telling me that you somehow provoked a country?" She asked dubiously.
"Yup."
". . . Can I ask how?" Aarim massaged her eyes. She knew that Shiro was a troublemaker with the amount of insane things that she does but this was not within her expectations.
"Well Lyrica is elven royalty. Her three brothers want to kill each other and the factions want some power over the country. To keep Lyrica safe, we¡¯ll be against three princes." Shiro replied, boiling down the current situation.
"Can¡¯t you just take Lyrica elsewhere? If she just kept running, I¡¯m pretty sure that they¡¯ll lose interest in her eventually and leave her be." Aarim raised an eyebrow. Even if Lyrica was royalty, if she showed no interest and left the continent, then they shouldn¡¯t pursue her too much.
"Now, that is a great idea should I thought of it sooner. Unfortunately, I have a few things that require my attention in the country so I can¡¯t eject myself out of this situation now." Shiro chuckled.
She realised that if they stayed neutral and did nothing, they wouldn¡¯t need to worry about the elves.
¡¯Seems like I unconsciously justified my desire to fight.¡¯ She thought to herself since she knew that she was a muscle brain at times.
"Hais... is it toote to leave the party?" Aarim sighed.
"Nope. You can leave if you want."
". . ." Aarim paused since she didn¡¯t expect Shiro to be so straight forward.
"*Cough* I think I¡¯ll stay. Plus, I wonder if the elves have any information regarding the dungeons. If I can get ess to their library, I can probably do more research."
"Oh don¡¯t worry about that. I can go to their library at any time." Shiro reassured.
"That¡¯s reassuring." Aarim nodded.
"Ah speaking of the elves, Helion, I heard about a lolibaba." Shiro grinned.
"Lolibaba?" Helion raised an eyebrow.
"Ya. Her name is Saika and she¡¯s quite famous in Miriel apparently."
"PFT!! HAHAHA! Helion, isn¡¯t that the name of the girl that you fell in love with back then!?" Aarimughed after hearing her name.
"Wait what?" Shiro looked at Aarim in surprise.
"I think Helion¡¯s told you about him falling in love with a married woman that looked young right? Well her name was Saika and I remember ying around with her in our childhood quite a bit." Aarim grinned and looked at the embarrassed Helion.
"Anyways, shouldn¡¯t you girls go already? Don¡¯t you have things to do back in Miriel?" Helion coughed embarrassingly and urged them to go back to the elven continent. He hoped that he could forget about that dark history of his.
"Hehe, why don¡¯t we talk a bit more about Saika? Maybe you¡¯ll want toe with us to Miriel and catch up with her." Aarim teased with a grin.
After joking around a bit more, Shiro and Aarim left for the teleport shrine while Helion escorted them.
"Well then, I¡¯ll send you a message when I can make better armour aspensation." Helion chuckled.
"Alright. I wait for your good news." Shiro waved her hands lightly.
"Are you sure you don¡¯t want to join us?" Aarim grinned.
"Just go already." Helion rolled his eyes.
Activating the teleport shrine, their figures flickered for a moment before disappearing.
Shaking his head, Helion smiled and left the area.
###
As for Shiro and Aarim, by the time they opened their eyes, they found themselves in the teleport shrine located in Miriel.
"I need to go to the toilet first. Give me a moment." Shiro turned to Aarim.
"Alright. I¡¯ll wait here."
Making her way to the toilets, Shiro changed her appearance back to what she looked like as Nytri. After all, the elders didn¡¯t know about her original form.
"I¡¯m back." Shiro called out.
Looking over, Aarim looked at her in confusion.
"Shiro?" She called out in confusion.
"Yup."
"You see, I need to hide my appearance a little since the elder¡¯s don¡¯t know what I look like." Shiro whispered into her ear.
"Right... You know, that just gives me more evidence that you¡¯re you know what." Aarim raised an eyebrow.
"Hehe~ Think what you want. Let¡¯s go." Shiro chuckled.
Making her way to the castle, Shiro greeted the guards and told them that Aarim was one of her party members.
"Understood. I¡¯ll notify the elders." The guards nodded since they¡¯ve all received information regarding Shiro and her party. They knew that they were the third princess¡¯s friends.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled.
After greeting the guards, she led Aarim to their room but saw that it was empty.
"Hmm, seems like the party is out levelling up right now."
"I see. Can you show me to the library then?" Aarim asked curiously.
"Sure. I need to go there anyways." Shiro nodded since Iziuel did ask her to visit often. She decided that while she had the chance, she¡¯ll talk to her and see if she could find out more about where she was currently. That¡¯s why, she could at least start nning on how she¡¯ll save her.
Showing Aarim to the library, she excused herself and ¡¯left¡¯ the ce for a short while. In reality, she had just made her way to the top floors.
"Yo, I¡¯m back." She called out with a smile.
"Wee back. So do you have any stories to share with me? I¡¯m interested to know about what happens outside of Miriel." Iziuel¡¯s voice rang out softly.
"Of course. I¡¯ll share some of my adventures in dungeons with you." Shiro nodded and sat down.
For the next hour or so, she shared stories about the quests that she¡¯s gone to. Especially the one where she had found Lisandra.
Chapter 275 Elders Approval
Chapter 275 Elder''s Approval
Shiro talked to Iziuel for a good hour before she felt tired once more. Bidding farewell, she made her way back to Aarim.
Of course, she made it seem like she returned from outside the room or else it might raise some unneeded questions such as why she has ess to floors that are only avable for elders.
"How goes your research?" Shiro asked with curiosity.
"Mn? Oh it¡¯s going pretty well. There are a bunch of theories regarding the dungeons and it even contains a few experiments that haven¡¯t been disclosed to the public yet. Though I have to take everything with a grain of salt since there may be fabrications within these doc.u.ments." Aarim shrugged.
"I see. Well let¡¯s head back. The party should have returned by now." Shiro smiled as Aarim agreed.
When they were on their way back, they saw the party enter the room.
"Yo, I¡¯m back." Shiro called out.
"Ah Shiro, wee ba-?? Wait Shiro, why is Aarim here?" Madison furrowed her brows.
"She¡¯s joining our party for now." Shiro chuckled.
"Heya. There are a few unfamiliar faces so I¡¯ll introduce myself. My name¡¯s Aarim, my hobby is tailoring and I made all of their outfits. I like to research to satisfy my curiosity and one of my current research targets is Shiro." Aarim smiled.
"Yin, mum¡¯s precious baby." Yin popped her head around the corner.
"Lisandra, mum¡¯s second daughter." Lisandra gave her a small wave.
"Chen Yu, currently assisting this party on behalf of my branch master who Shiro calls a merchant." Chen Yu said while massaging his shoulders.
". . . What?" Aarim blinked a few times while looking at Yin who is essentially a mini version of Shiro.
"Let me exin. Bird who can¡¯t stop eating and is essentially a parasite, an adopted daughter who is more filial than this bird who is technically blood rted and Chen Yu." Shiro gestured one by one.
"Wait bird? She¡¯s that tiny purple bird that you had on your head?" Aarim raised an eyebrow.
"Gah! What bird! This baby is a phoenix." Yin pouted while Lisandra smacked her on the head gently.
"A phoenix is still a bird big sis." Lisandra retorted with a small smile.
"Alright you two. Go rest. You seem to have had a rough day." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn." Lisandra nodded.
Gesturing for Aarim toe into the room, they informed Aarim of the current situation. Lisandra, Yin, Chen Yu and Silvia didn¡¯t join in the conversation since they were extremely tired.
Leaning back in her chair, Aarim took a moment to digest everything she had learnt. Naturally, Shiro made sure that Lisandra and Madison didn¡¯t give away the fact that she was a spirit and the existence of Iziuel.
"So we¡¯re just waiting for the response of the elders then?" She asked.
"Yup. In the meantime, the party is trying to level up as fast as they can." Shiro nodded.
"Hm, I can see why you would need that. For a capital full of level 100¡¯s of different factions, and you who essentially wants to take over this country, it¡¯s akin to a death trap. But even if you level up as quick as you can, with how things are progressing, are you sure that you can get to level 100 in time to actually make a difference?" Aarim frowned.
"Nope. What we¡¯re trying to do right now is increasing our chances of sess. Even for us, getting to level 100 within the time constraint would be quite a daunting task. Especially since all the high-level dungeon¡¯s, which are level 75+, are under the watch of other princes and factions. Should we farm in all the dungeons that are below level 75, who knows how long it will take." Shiro shrugged.
"That¡¯s true. But still, if the n is to go sessfully, you¡¯ll still have to face against high level people at some point."
"Oh there are a few ways." Shiro grinned coldly. With the four level 100 puppets that were in the process of being converted, she could easilyy traps and assassinate the people that she wanted to kill. While the conversion would weaken their powers as level 100¡¯s, as long as she was able to pull of the assassination correctly, that weakness would not matter.
"Well it¡¯s getting a bitte now so you should rest. There isn¡¯t a spare bed so you¡¯ll have to make do for no- wait. Can¡¯t we just kick Chen Yu off the bed and have him sleep on the sofa?" Shiro asked as she slowly turned to the sleeping Chen Yu at the corner of the bed, away from all the girls.
". . . forget it. I¡¯ll get Annie to bring us a spare bed tomorrow." Shiro shrugged.
In the end, they settled with Aarim sleeping on the sofa and handed her some pillows and a duvet.
After setting up her makeshift bed, Aarim nced over at the party and activated her skill. She was curious as to what their true nature was.
Yin was that of a graceful phoenix whose feathers seem like purple mes. But for some odd reason, it seemed to be drooling uncontrobly....
Raising an eyebrow, she nced at Lisandra. Her nature was in the form of a swordswoman who had two pairs of wings on her back. However, the wings were slowly turning ck.
¡¯Is she simr to a fallen angel?¡¯ Aarim thought to herself.
Looking at the remaining members, she saw that they were more ¡¯normal¡¯. Normal was a stretch since Silvia¡¯s nature was that of a healer in priest robes while a giant greatsword was strapped to her back.
Smiling softly, she was quite happy with the state of their nature. After all, the more corrupted a person was, the more twisted the image of their nature would be.
In New York, she had even done some cleaning up near her apartment after doing some background checks on her targets.
Which only lead to the problem of Shiro¡¯s nature.
It had no definite image.
¡¯For someone like Shiro, why is her nature so creepy? Is the ck fog a result of it being twisted to the extreme? She did have a ridiculous amount of killing intent when she saw the statue after all. For someone with so much killing intent, it would be weird if their nature wasn¡¯t twisted.¡¯ She thought to herself.
However, what creeped her out was that it wasn¡¯t the full nature.
It was akin to jumping into a shallow pool while there was a deep end on the other side. She knew that she could go deeper to see the true nature but something was blocking this. Whether this be because her skill wasn¡¯t strong enough yet or the fact that she subconsciously didn¡¯t want to find out, Aarim knew that after going to the deep end, there was a slim chance to escape.
¡¯From the records of ¡¯Shino¡¯, it was stated that it was a snow girl. Snow girls are beings that manifest from negative emotion. Could the fact that her negative emotion is the foundation of her body which results in the twisted nature?¡¯ Aarim asked herself as she slowly fell asleep.
Little did she know, Shiro¡¯s nature had been watching her this entire time.
###
The next morning, before the party could even set off to go to another dungeon run, they heard a knock on the door.
"Come in." Shiro called out while giving her body a light stretch.
Opening the door, Annie walked in with a smile and bowed lightly.
"The elders havee to a decision and wishes to see you in their private hall."
"Ah got it. Would you mind leading the way?" Shiro smiled.
"Of course. Follow me." Annie nodded.
Walking through the corridors, Shiro noticed a pair of eyes tracking their party.
¡¯Observers huh?¡¯ She thought with a smile.
On the next step she took, a single nanobot was created and dug through the floors.
Skittering through the floors, it arrived beside the observer and entered his body through the legs.
Suddenly feeling a prick on his leg, the observer quickly checked his body for any abnormalities but found nothing.
Realizing that her nanobot had been nted sessfully, Shiro smiled.
¡¯5th puppet.¡¯ She thought to herself. However, she wasn¡¯t going to start the conversion just yet since whoever had sent him will notice the difference. She¡¯ll have to wait until he returns.
Little by little, she¡¯ll change him so that it seemed natural. After all, a spy couldn¡¯t be caught quickly.
Arriving at the elder¡¯s private quarters, Shiro saw two girls sitting next to the elders and recognised them to be the princesses.
"So then, I heard that you have agreed to my proposal." Shiro called out with a smile.
Chapter 276 Princesses
Chapter 276 Princesses
"Yes. We¡¯ve thought it over and decided that it¡¯s the best course of action right now. Next to me are the two princesses and they¡¯ll be assisting us on our quest." One of the elders nodded.
"Girls, introduce yourselves."
"My name is Syvi Valenstaine. Currently level 98 High Elf Enchantress." Syvi smiled and bowed.
She had short blond hair that was swept to the side and her outfit was simr to Silvia¡¯s priest robes.
"Cyril Valenstaine. Nice to meet you." Cyril bowed with a grin.
"Cyril your ss." The elders smiled softly.
"Ah right. Level 93 Ascended Combat Medic." Cyril corrected herself.
She was on the shorter side and had long blond hair that reached her h.i.p.s. Her hair was on the slightly wilder side with a flick of hair on the very top.
Looking at that flick of hair, Shiro raised an eyebrow and had the sudden urge to either smooth it back down or give it a tug.
"So what are you thinking right now that involves introducing the princesses to us?" Shiro asked.
"You see, everyone knows that the two princesses will support whoever wins the throne in the end. Them showing support to a prince early is akin to us, the elders, favouring one of the candidates. If we follow what you have nned so far, the first and second prince will find out our supposed favouritism towards the third prince. This will hopefully provoke them to make a move early." One of the elders said while sipping some tea.
Looking at the princesses, Shiro narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
¡¯Do they desire the legacy themselves? What motive do they have to help us?¡¯ She thought to herself. But from the looks of things, she knew that she wasn¡¯t going to get an answer so soon. She¡¯ll have to wait and keep an eye on them.
"Is it ok if I chip in with one of my thoughts?" Aarim called out.
"Sure. Feel free to share your thoughts." The elder nodded since they were open to suggestions that may help the country.
"How much urgency do we want the princes to feel? If we were to make our support more apparent and give the third prince more power, it¡¯ll give the other princes more urgency and throw them intoplete war. But if we don¡¯t make them feel enough urgency, we¡¯re just going to be powering up the third prince and making him more of apetitor." Aarim reminded.
"Hmm... we can¡¯t make the situation too urgent since we don¡¯t exactly have the manpower to keep up." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Then how about we show a little surface support then follow it up with some support in the background. The princes will ¡¯happen¡¯ to find out and urge their followers to speed up ns while not making a move just yet." One of the elders suggested.
"That¡¯s is a possible choice." Shiro nodded.
"We¡¯ll do that for now then. On the surface, we¡¯ll allocate more resources and potions for the third prince to nurture his follows. While in the shadows, we¡¯ll provide him with some extra support such as weapons or armour." The elder nodded.
Agreeing upon their current n, they discussed a few situations that may happen along with actions that they should take.
"By the way big sis, what are you going to do about dad¡¯s legacy? You are his favourite after all." Cyril asked curiously.
"Hmm... Well I don¡¯t know much about it." Lyrica shook her head and looked towards the elders.
"About that, it¡¯s currently being monitored by your brothers so we¡¯ll have to wait till nightfall. If we can silence the guards for a short while, we¡¯ll be able to send you to the inheritance and see if you can im it." One of the older elders replied.
"Ah about the silencing part. Leave it to me, I can sort it out." Shiro offered with a smile.
"""Don¡¯t kill them.""" Aarim, Madison and Lyrica called out at the same time.
". . . oi. I¡¯m not that bloodthirsty you know." Shiro¡¯s smile twitched slightly.
¡¯Well your nature says differently.¡¯ Aarim retorted in her mind since she could clearly see the figure getting excited.
"I¡¯m only gonna knock them out. Killing them would only bring annoying trouble." Shiro rolled her eyes. Even she knew that the consequences of killing them would spark a premature war.
"Then that¡¯s settled. We¡¯ll be going into the inheritance area at nightfall. Cyril will follow you as a guide so that you know where to go." The elders smiled.
###
Later that night, the party made their way through the castle using the elder¡¯s passage. Shiro noticed that they were travelling closer to the world tree.
¡¯I might be able to find out where Iziuel is as well.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Making a few more turns, she narrowed her eyes when she noticed a few presences watching over the area in front of them.
"Seems like we¡¯re here." She whispered over.
"Do you need my help in silencing them?" Chen Yu offered.
"Do you think you can knock out people that are potentially at the peak of tier 4 without anyone realising?" Shiro asked.
". . . Nevermind then." Chen Yu sighed. His advantagesy in assassination. Outside of that, he was definitely weaker in terms of power.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. We can¡¯t kill them so it¡¯s disadvantageous for you. When we do get into a war, you¡¯ll prove to be helpful." Silvia encouraged with a thumbs up.
"Thank you." Chen Yu smiled.
Looking at the duo, everyone else in the party had a grin on their faces.
"Be right back." Shiro waved her hand slightly and flickered away.
Path of Ascendance: Phantom Path + Celestial path.
She decided to include celestial path since it would negate any barriers that they may have put up as backup.
Flickering around the area, she found 27 people that were hidden in various ces.
¡¯27 should be within my reach.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Flickering besides the first observer, she activated Fae Illusions and ced her palm against his head.
Sending out a pulse of mana, she stopped all mana output and ced him in a state of mana deficiency.
Injecting a single nanobot into his body, she sent out the simted signal for the brain to fall asleep.
Quickly catching him before he could make a sound, she ced him in the shadows before moving onto the next person.
While the party couldn¡¯t see much of what was happening, Chen Yu certainly noticed.
¡¯What does she even specialise in?¡¯ He wondered to himself.
From what he had gathered, Shiro was able to perform tasks from every ss and even excel in some.
This only makes him question where she had evene from. Someone like this couldn¡¯t go unnoticed. Especially if she made this much of amotion wherever she went.
During the moment he was thinking about this, he realised that Shiro had returned.
"I¡¯m done. We can go now." Shiro smiled.
The party nodded since they expected as such. At this point, they had somewhat gotten used to what she could do, especially after being exposed to such on a day to day basis.
However, that wasn¡¯t the case for Cyril.
"Damn... are they really knocked out?" She asked as her eyes widened in curiosity.
"Yup. But let¡¯s talkter." Shiro smiled.
Walking into the open area, they saw that the observers had been watching a simple corridor. If one didn¡¯t know any better, they would have thought that this was just another walkway in the castle.
"Hehe, it¡¯s my time to shine." Cyril grinned and walked up to one of the doors.
cing her hand on the handle, a magic circle appeared on the back of her hand.
Flickering between tier 3 and tier 4 magic circles, a giant formation slowly appeared all over the corridor.
Looking closely at the formation, they noticed that it was made up of tiny magic circles that was all tier 4 in grade.
¡¯Hmm... that¡¯s quite the formation. I don¡¯t think my celestial path can cancel it out quickly even if I tried. I¡¯ll need to take some time to study this so that I know all the nodes that I need to destroy.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself sincerge formations like this had their own back up sections that make sure the formation continues to work.
Much like the time in the library, this formation required extensive knowledge to decipher. Only this time, it was much more dangerous and more vtile.
"Impressive right?" Cyril smiled.
"Yeah." Shiro nodded while looking at the giant formation.
Having the knowledge to set up a formation like this was helpful in many aspects. Especially if they have a headquarters of such.
¡¯If he was still alive, I would like to learn a little from him.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
After a while, the formation started to unravel as a new door slowly revealed itself. Opening the door, the party could see a pathway leading deeper into the world tree.
"Let¡¯s go." Cyril gestured for the party to follow her.
Chapter 277 Legacy Area
Chapter 277 Legacy Area
Following behind Cyril, the party slowly descended into the depths of the world tree. cing her hands on the wall, Shiro was surprised at the sheer amount of mana that was pulsing through the walls.
¡¯For just the walls to be affected by this much mana, I wonder how the centre area was going to be.¡¯ She thought to herself in surprise.
ncing around for a moment, she decided to see if she could remove a bit of the walls to do some research. Who knows, she might find something interesting since the walls were enhanced by quite arge quantity of mana.
*ck
A tiny nanobot was dropped on the floor and started to crawl up the walls without anyone noticing.
Chipping into the walls, Shiro had it follow them while taking samples on the way. That way, she couldpare the effectster.
"Follow closely or else you might get lost in the maze." Cyril called out with a smile.
"Say, Cyril." Lyrica asked hesitantly.
"Mn? What is it?" Cyril turned her head with a smile.
"It has been bothering me but you said that I¡¯m your big sister right? When were you born?" Lyrica furrowed her brows.
From her memories, her father didn¡¯t create any more heirs since he was satisfied with her and her mother.
But for Cyril to exist, that may mean that her father wasn¡¯t who she thought he was.
"When was I born? Hmm... I dunno. They never told me and I don¡¯t know who my mum is. Hm... now that I think of it, I only remember things that happened a few years ago." Cyril replied while trying her best to remember any childhood memories.
Hearing what Cyril had said, Lyrica paused in confusion.
"They haven¡¯t told you when you were born nor did they tell you about your mum. You only know that we share the same father?" She asked with hesitation.
"Yup." Cyril nodded with a smile.
"Hm..." Frowning slightly, Lyrica was a little sceptical about the situation but decided to hold back on her questions for now.
As they travelled deeper into the world tree, the mana started to coagte into a mist of sorts.
¡¯Hmm... There has to be an item that¡¯s bolstering up the amount of mana in the world tree.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in interest. Out of all the phenomenon that she knew of, few would produce simr effects and the most likely would be an extraordinary item.
"The legacy area should be just pass this area." Cyril called out as they approached a giant set of doors.
Pushing open the door, the party could see a giant hollow room that was filled with flickering lights.
The mana density in this area had increased to the point where the mist had started to crystalize and float around.
In the centre of the room, several barriers were wrapped around a single sapling.
"Is that father¡¯s legacy?" Lyrica tilted her head in confusion. As there was nothing else in the room, the sapling was the only thing that could possibly be the legacy.
"Nope. That¡¯s the core of the world tree. Dad¡¯s legacy is past that." Cyril shook her head.
Walking past the barriers, Shiro noticed that there was a familiar pulse of mana that was being used as fuel.
¡¯Could that be Iziuel?¡¯ She thought to herself in suspicion.
{My queen. I believe that Lady Iziuel is currently powering that barrier. Should we trace that back, we should be able to find her.} Nimue called out from inside her mana realm.
¡¯Is that so? We¡¯ll track it backter. We¡¯ll take a look at the legacy right now.¡¯ Shiro shook her head lightly.
Nimue furrowed her brows in worry but decided to ept it.
{Understood my queen.}
Making their way to the back of the room, Cyril pulled out a pendant, revealing a giant magic circle.
"This is the teleporter to the legacy area. Big sis, just press your hands against it and inject your mana into the magic circle."
"Mn." Nodding her head, she followed Cyril¡¯s instructions.
Before anyone could react, a blinding light filled their visions.
Quickly opening her eyes, Shiro noticed that she was alone in the middle of a burning vige.
Screams could be heard as bandits were killing people all around her.
Seeing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t feel a little nostalgic which confused her.
"Ah? BOYS! Jackpot! Look at this chick over here!" One of the bandits shouted out with a vulgar smile.
Hearing the familiarnguage, Shiro widened her eyes in surprise.
¡¯Arian? How do they know thenguage of Aria.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Looking around, she saw that she had beenpletely surrounded by level 50 bandits.
"Kek, I didn¡¯t think that we¡¯ll find such a jackpot in this sh*tty vige." The bandit sneered as they slowly closed in on her.
"Say, do you know where we are right now?" Shiro asked nonchntly.
"Hah?"
Her question confused the bandits since she was concerned about where she was rather than the fact that she was currently surrounded by bandits.
"Who cares. Get her!"
Looking at the person who had shouted that, Shiro guessed that he was their leader of sorts.
"So you choose death." Shiro sighed.
Her lips slowly curved into a grin as she stomped down with her foot. Ice spread out instantly and froze the bandit¡¯s legs. Those who had charged with more momentum found that their legs hadpletely separated from their body and copsed on the ground.
Ignoring their screams, she swiped her hand horizontally and sent ice spikes through their heads, killing them.
"Now then... I should take care of the rest of the bandits then see if I can find my younger self or something." She muttered.
Jumping on the church, since it was the tallest building in the vige, Shiro raised her hand up and sent out a torrent of snow.
Encasing the entire vige in a blizzard, she knew the location of all the bandits since they touched her snow.
"Freeze." Shemanded.
Every snowke that was in contact with the bandits exploded with ice and sent spikes through their bodies.
"Eh?" Some of the vigers who saw this widened their eyes in surprise as they looked towards the source and saw that a young white haired girl had saved all of them.
Quickly bowing in respect, they started to pray.
However, Shiro ignored this. Searching through her memories, she looked towards where her parents had run away with her.
Stretching her body slightly, she leapt into the air.
She didn¡¯t need to run too far since she saw a heavily injured man next to a few corpses.
¡¯Dad...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself andnded next to him.
"Can you hear me." She called out while healing him with the life fire.
"My wife, my daughter... they¡¯re that way. Quickly, can you go help them?!" He begged while grabbing her sleeves.
"Mn. But what about yourself?" She asked.
"I don¡¯t care about myself! What use is it if they¡¯re dead?!" He cried out and pushed her towards where his wife and daughter had gone.
"Please, I beg of you, go help them!" He bowed his head in desperation.
"...Mn. Don¡¯t worry, I will." Shiro nodded before flickering away.
"Thank you..."
Jumping through the trees, Shiro sighed lightly.
{He is a good father isn¡¯t he? Worrying about you and your mother despite being in so much danger himself.}
¡¯Mn...¡¯ Shiro nodded as her heart felt a little heavy.
While she did regret the fact that he died, it wasn¡¯t something she could change anymore. After all, there was a high chance that this ce right now was just an illusion.
Looking down on the ground, she saw a frail woman stumbling her way through the forest.
¡¯Mum...¡¯
Jumping down, she supported her mother.
"My daughter... I sent my daughter that way... Can you help me check if she¡¯s ok? I need to hurry." Her mother asked as Shiro nodded without a second word.
Seeing both her parents worry about her despite the condition they were in made her heart feel warm.
Quickly healing her with life fire, Shiro carried her on her back and jumped through the forest towards where the scientists had picked her up.
"Thank you for your kindness." Her mother said while keeping an eye out for her younger self.
"Mn. It¡¯s what I should do." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Even so, there aren¡¯t many people wh- there!" Her mother called out while pointing in front of them.
Looking at her younger self who was quivering with fear while the scientists were about to kidnap her, Shiro quickly increased her speed.
Twisting her body, she roundhouse kicked one of the scientists into the other.
Sliding back a few steps, the scientists looked at Shiro in surprise.
"Hou... to force me, a level 75 back a few steps, you must be quite high level huh?" The scientist narrowed his eyes.
"For a sh*tty scientists, I was hoping that kick would have killed you." Shiro scoffed while allowing her mother to get off her back and grab her younger self.
"Step to the side for now and don¡¯t let her see blood." Shiro called out as her mother quickly nodded her head.
"Now then, how should I deal with the two of you?" Shiro grinned as killing intent rolled off her in waves.
Raising up her hands, a stream of nanobots flowed out and formed a pair of hand cannons.
"Genesis Hand Cannons." She grinned.
Chapter 278 Scientist
Chapter 278 Scientist
"Impossible! Isn¡¯t that nanobots!? How do you have it!?" The scientist widened his eyes inplete shock.
As a person who had conducted several hundred experiments with the nanobots, he was familiar with what they looked like and how they worked. And as far as he was concerned, there had been little to no sess with implementing nanobots.
Therefore, it was impossible for the girl in front of them to have the finished and working product.
"Let¡¯s see, if you can defeat me, I¡¯ll tell you." Shiro chuckled.
"Don¡¯t waste your words. We¡¯ll have her corpse if we kill her. We can just conduct some experiments at that time." The other scientist frowned as he pulled out a hand cannon that wasn¡¯t unlike the one in Shiro¡¯s hands.
"Hou~ Seems like you have the hand cannon prototypes already huh?" Shiro¡¯s voice rang out beside his ear.
"!!"
Before the man could react, she had already pulled the trigger and destroyed his hand along with his gun.
"Unfortunately for you, my guns are better." She chuckled.
Twisting on her foot, she activated phantom path and flickered towards the first scientist.
"Tch! Negation field." He clicked his tongue and threw a jewel in front of him.
*BOOM!
Before the negation field could activate, Shiro had already sent a bullet flying towards the jewel and shattered it to pieces.
"Say, aren¡¯t you throwing around something quite dangerous?" She grinned.
Disassembling the pair of hand cannons, she grabbed his wrist and kneed his elbow.
*CRACK!
"GAH!!!" Crying out in pain, the man flicked his spare hand and created a magic circle.
*PHEW PING~!!
Sending an ice shard that was enhanced by celestial path, Shiro shut down the magic circle before it could even activate.
Flexing her fingers, she slit the corner of his mouth apart with a nanotech dagger and pushed his arm deep into his throat.
Kicking off his elbow, she flipped her body back while also making sure that his arm was securely jammed into his mouth.
Turning around, she could see that the second scientist was running away.
"Oi, where do you think you¡¯re going?" Her voice rang out like a creepy rm as the man suddenly felt danger overwhelm his senses.
Turning around, he caught sight of her eyes filled with cold killing intent and froze up in fear.
*PUSHIII!!!!!
Cutting him in half with a nanotech sword, Shiro shattered the remains of his body to ice dust.
"Now then, only one remains." She tilted her head back and smiled. However, she saw that the man had already passed out and frowned.
"Tch."
Clicking her tongue, she cut off his head and destroyed his body.
[Received: Nanotech Research Vol 3]
¡¯Hm?! I can get items from this???¡¯ Shiro widened her eyes.
Since she noticed that she couldn¡¯t get any EXP nor their inventory, she had guessed that this was a simtion of sorts. But for the system to tell her that she received an item, it must mean that this was a quest of sorts.
{Could it be because of the legacy?} Nimue asked in confusion.
¡¯Maybe.¡¯ Shiro shook her head as she wasn¡¯t sure.
Turning to her mother, she saw that she had closed her eyes and was currently making sure that her younger self couldn¡¯t hear nor see any bloodshed.
"It¡¯s over." Shiro called out and crouched next to her.
"Can I see your daughter for a second?" She asked.
"Ah? It¡¯s over?" Her mother opened her eyes hesitantly.
"Mn. I want to heal your daughter in case she suffered any injuries." Shiro smiled.
"AH, right. Here."
Looking at the girl in her mother¡¯s embrace, Shiro had a slightly difficult expression on her face.
The girl¡¯s aura waspletely weak and fragile. The fear in her eyes along with the way she was trying to shrink her body made her seem so feeble. As if she could just be erased at any moment.
This waspletely different to how she is right now. If she didn¡¯t know that this was her younger self, she would think that it was some average weak girl she could find anywhere in a vige.
"Is there a problem?" Her mother asked in worry after seeing Shiro¡¯s expression.
"Mn? Oh nothing. Sorry, let me heal her now." Shiro shook her head.
Flicking her hand, a spark of fire enveloped her younger self.
Her wounds started to disappear one after another as her expression rxed a little more.
"T-thank you."
"You¡¯re wee." Shiro smiled and patted her head.
"Um... prettydy. What¡¯s your name?" Her younger self asked since she wanted to know who had saved her and her mum.
"Shiro."
"Shiro? Weird name. My name¡¯s Nytri." She replied.
"Nytri! That¡¯s rude." Her mother rebuked since she was a little afraid that the girl who had saved them would take offence.
"Haha, it¡¯s ok. Ie from a far away country. I saw your husband on the way here. He¡¯s healed up and he should being now." Shiro chuckled softly.
"Ah! Thank you very much. I don¡¯t know how I can repay you." Her mother asked since they essentially owe them a debt of life.
"How about a meal then?" Shiro replied after a short pause.
After talking for a little longer, they heard her father shouting out their names in worry.
"Amanda! Nytri! Where are you!" His desperate voice could be heard.
"Geral! We¡¯re here!" Amanda shouted back as she tried her best to stand up. However, fatigue washed over her and caused her legs to give up.
Quickly supporting her with her shoulder, Shiro raised an eyebrow seeing Nytri do the same.
{Wow. You were quite filial as a kid weren¡¯t you my queen?}
¡¯Well I was raised by nice parents. I wonder what they¡¯ll think if they realised that their daughter had ended up in this state.¡¯ Shiro smiled softly while looked down at herself.
Shaking her head, she helped her mother meet up with her father.
"Thank you. I truly don¡¯t know what else to say other than you¡¯ve saved my family. Thank you!" Her father bowed as tears welled up in his eyes. The thought that his wife and daughter could have perished had filled his mind with fear when he was running around trying to find them.
But now that he saw them alive and well, he never felt more relieved in his life.
"It¡¯s ok. I can¡¯t just leave you lot to die now can I?" Shiro replied while helping her father up.
She couldn¡¯t possibly have her own father bow to her after all. Even if this was a quest or illusion, Shiro didn¡¯t care. She was just happy that she could see them again after so long.
###
Bringing the family back to the vige, they saw the healers running around trying to help as many people as they could. Those who had died in the raid had a bed sheet covering their body and was set aside so that they could take a note after attending all of those who were injured.
Looking at the amount of people who had died, Shiro shook her head slightly.
Within that pile of bodies, there were people of all ages.
"Do you need any help? I have a skill that can heal people." Shiro called out.
"Yes please, our healers are running out of mana and there are still plenty of people who are injured." One of the nurses nodded in appreciation.
While she was healing those who had been injured, the vige chief walked up to her and asked if she could spare a moment to talk.
"Sure. But I need to heal these people first." Shiro nodded.
"Ah truly a saint sent by the light goddess. It must be her will for you toe help us." The chief sighed while looking at the destruction that spread through the vige.
*Puchi*
Feeling a little irked that she was called the saint sent by the light goddess, Shiro decided to ignore that for now.
"What are you going to do now?" She asked.
"Hais... I think I¡¯ll have to try to rebuild this vige or have them move elsewhere. It¡¯s too dangerous here." He shook his head tiredly.
"Well I¡¯m nning to leave for a city after this. If you want, I can help escort all of you." Shiro offered.
She was rather curious to the limits of the quest/illusion. The current scene could be described as it reading her memories, but what about cities that she doesn¡¯t remember or don¡¯t know of?
Plus, there was also the case of Nanobot Research Vol 3. If there¡¯s a volume 3, that means there are a minimum of 2 volumes. She guessed that if she were to find the old research bases, she could find more research volumes.
While she was helping out with healing the vigers, she didn¡¯t notice that a man was overlooking the entire area where she was in.
"So it turns out that she was your friend huh Isilia?" He muttered with a sad smile.
Chapter 279 Family Meal
Chapter 279 Family Meal
After helping out the healers, Shiro looked around to see what else she could do.
However, the vigers urged her to take a rest with a smile since she had already done plenty for them.
Therefore, Shiro took this chance to hang out with her own family. Well... it was no longer her family in a sense since she wasn¡¯t Nytri anymore.
"Since I¡¯ve promised you, let me cook up a decent meal for you." Amanda smiled and put on an apron.
"Thank you, do you need any help?" Shiro asked.
"No it¡¯s ok. I can¡¯t have our benefactor help cook her own meal now can I?" Amanda chuckled and gestured for her to sit down.
"Haha, just sit down and rx. I can guarantee that Amanda¡¯s food is one of the best in this vige." Gerald said while giving her a small thumbs up.
"I look forward to it then." Shiro nodded her head. She had long forgotten the taste of her mother¡¯s cooking and wondered if the legacy space could recreate the feeling.
Looking over at Nytri who was staring out the window, Shiro walked over.
"What are you looking for?" Shiro asked.
"Mn? Oh I¡¯m trying to find Dalim. I haven¡¯t seen him yet." Nytri replied with a frown.
"Dalim? Is he someone important for you to look for him like this?" Shiro teased with a nostalgic smile.
Hearing her question, Nytri blushed and looked down at the windowsill.
{My queen... are you sure that this is you? If I had to describe it, Nytri is like a delicate flower while you¡¯re... Hmm... a violent venus fly trap?}
¡¯Well do remember that this is me before I was subjected to years of torture by the scientists. It wasn¡¯t odd that I fell in love with a boy. If my memory is correct, he had always helped me when I was in trouble and had a dream of bing a teacher. Do you want to know why he wanted to be a teacher?¡¯
{Sure.}
¡¯Because if he educated all the kids in the vige, they¡¯ll be able to go to the cities and live a better life.¡¯ Shiro chuckled while remembering some of the childhood moments that they shared.
{Shouldn¡¯t kids have dreams that benefit them more than other people? He sounds quite mature.}
¡¯Well he was the type to always look out for others.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
"Um S- Shi? Shico?"
"It¡¯s Shiro." Shiro chuckled seeing her younger self struggle at remembering her name.
"Mn. Shiro, can you tell me how to be strong and pretty like you? That way, I can help Dalim more." Nytri asked politely.
"Hmm... we¡¯ll have to ask your parents then. If you get stronger, there will be a lot more responsibilities you know? That and also you¡¯ll face lots of people who are stronger so once you decide to be strong, you have to keep growing stronger if you don¡¯t want to be eliminated." Shiro patted her head and stood up.
In this legacy space, she wanted to see what life would be like if she hadn¡¯t received the nanobots. That being said, it wasn¡¯t as if she regrets the things that had happened to her. It was just mild curiosity.
Feeling her hair, Nytri frowned in confusion.
Ignoring the confused Nytri, Shiro sat on one of the sofas and looked back at her mother and father working in the kitchen.
{It¡¯s a nice family isn¡¯t it?} Nimue called out while observing the situation from the mana realm.
¡¯Yeah.¡¯ Shiro chuckled before taking out the nanobot research vol 3.
It was a rather simple book and was barely decorated.
Flipping it open on the first page, she started to read while waiting for the food to be prepared.
[After experiments regarding the fusion of nanobots and mana, we¡¯ve discovered that it bes highly adaptive. Whenever a ¡¯will¡¯ is injected through the mana, the nanobots will try their best to shape that ¡¯will¡¯. However, without sufficient information, this would be impossible. Hence why a database of sorts should be implemented within the host.
[However, as the nanobots are highly vtile, the more we inject into a subject, the higher the chance of rejection. We must get past this hurdle first before implementing more changes to the nanobots.]
Flipping through the pages, Shiro found out that most of it was filled with the information she already knew. But half way through the research paper, she discovered that her nanobots, were just the simplest form of this concept.
If one had to describe it, it would be akin to having ess to 30% of the functions and passing it off as whole.
¡¯Hmm.... Does that mean there are higher forms of the base ss? I suppose I did have the nanotech war maiden as one of my ss up options.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in curiosity.
Reading further into the volume, she discovered more concepts that had connections to the ss.
Examples being how it may be able to affect the system due to the fact that there had to be a source for the system. A brain if one could describe it as such.
However, just as things were about to go into more detail, Shiro found that the book had finished.
"Tch. Can¡¯t they just finish on a good end or something. Don¡¯t cut it off when it just starts to get good ya b*stard." She cursed silently while putting the book back into her inventory.
Taking a deep breath, she crossed her legs and leaned back.
¡¯Since volume 3 ended like this, it should mean that there is a volume 4. Volumes 1 and 2 are just as important since they will probably give me more detail regarding the base concept of this ss.¡¯ She mused to herself.
Shaking her head, she flexed her fingers, causing a swarm of nanobots to rotate around her hand.
The key point about volume 3 was focusing on the nanobot¡¯s individual prowess rather than when it shapes itself into an item.
Much like how some mages will control water, if she was to reshape the core structure of her nanobots, she¡¯ll be able to increase their lethality without having to turn them into a gun.
Furrowing her brows, she realised that trying to redesign the core structure of the nanobots was going to be much harder than she had expected.
Much like what happened with her genesis hand cannons, if the bnce was wrong, a bacsh would ur and send a wave of pain through her body.
Even if she had great pain resistance, it didn¡¯t mean she couldn¡¯t feel pain.
¡¯Hais... I¡¯ll probably work on it while I escort the vigers to the new city.¡¯ Shiro sighed softly.
{It¡¯s ok my queen. I believe in you.} Nimue encouraged.
¡¯Mn, thanks.¡¯
"Miss Shiro, dinner is ready." Amanda called out from the kitchen as Geral helped her bring out the dishes.
Looking at the table full of home cooking, Shiro felt a little emotional.
¡¯To think I¡¯ll be able to eat her cooking again, even if it is an illusion...¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
Gesturing for everyone to sit down, Amanda passed Shiro a set of knives and forks.
"Well since you¡¯re the guest, you should eat first." Amanda smiled.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro grabbed the fork and picked up a piece of the closest dish and ced it in her mouth.
Just as she ate the food, memories started to flood her mind of when she ate her parents cooking. From when she was a child to the day they died.
"It tastes just like how I remember..." She muttered as tears started form in the corner of her eyes. She felt like a lump had grown in her throat as she struggled to talk.
"Pardon me for a second." Shiro excused herself and quickly left the house. Dashing into the forest, she sat down on the branch and wiped away her tears.
Taking several deep breaths, she tried to calm herself down. But if someone was here, they would notice that her voice quivered with each breath.
"Seems like I miss them more than I thought..." Shiro muttered while hugging her legs.
All of the emotions that she should have felt years ago came rushing back to her now that she took a break from thinking about revenge. A single meal with her parents was all it took for all the built up sadness to overwhelm her.
Nimue didn¡¯t know what to say since she was rather surprised at Shiro¡¯s moment of weakness. Not that it was a bad thing of course.
After calming herself down, Shiro looked into the sky.
"I¡¯m sorry that your daughter had turned into such a bloodthirsty being." She apologised with a sad smile.
Eventually, she shook her head and looked down at the several crystals that glistened on her palms.
[Tears of the Sylph Queen (Red)]
The tears that belong to someone who rarely cries. Some might say that these might be the only tears that she will drop in her life.
Effect when consumed: +5% element affinity, +5% INT.
All effects are permanent and can¡¯t be stacked. Effect scales up with level.
Chapter 280 Closest City
Chapter 280 Closest City
"Hm... I¡¯ve managed to get 10 tears. Excluding me, if the party were to consume this, I¡¯ll still have 3 left. 5 if Lisandra and Yin can¡¯t eat these." Shiro muttered to herself while throwing one in her mouth.
Putting the rest in her inventory, she made her way back to her old home.
"Sorry about that, I just felt a little homesick then." Shiro smiled apologetically.
"Ah, don¡¯t worry about it. You¡¯re quite young and you¡¯re far from your home so it¡¯s only natural." Amanda smiled in understanding.
"Now quickly eat before the food gets cold." She said, gesturing for her to sit down.
Nodding her head, Shiro sat down and enjoyed the meal.
###
The next morning, the chief had finished asking all of the vigers what they wanted to do.
30% wanted to stay while the other 70% wanted to leave since they felt like it was too dangerous to stay here, especially since so many had died already.
After confirming all those who had died, Nytri was shocked to find out that Dalim was included within the list.
Running away with tears threatening to spill, her mother and father chased after her.
Meanwhile, Shiro looked at all of this and shook her head lightly.
Turning back to the chief, she focused on the task at hand.
"Chief. Since 30% of them want to stay, why don¡¯t we find out why they want to stay first." Shiro suggested.
After all, they couldn¡¯t force them to leave if they didn¡¯t want to.
Nodding his head, the chief started a discussion with the 30% who disagree. While this was happening, Shiro helped load the heavier items into the carriages.
All of these people were essentially moving houses hence why they wanted to make sure that they brought everything they needed.
"Miss Shiro." The chief called out with a difficult face.
"What is it chief?"
"You see, their main reason for staying is because of the memories they have made in their homes along with the fact that their family has been staying here for generations. They don¡¯t want to abandon this ce." The chief smiled apologetically.
"Hmm..." Furrowing her brows, Shiro frowned slightly.
¡¯Tch, troublesome.¡¯ She thought to herself.
"Let me try something first. If that doesn¡¯t work, we¡¯ll leave without them." Shiro shook her head.
Walking over to the group that didn¡¯t want to leave, she coughed lightly to get their attention.
"I know you don¡¯t want to leave this vige but think about it. By staying here, you could be subjecting yourself to more raids in the future. However, if you were to move elsewhere, not only will you ensure that your lineage continues, but you can make more memories and create a new legacy." Shiro said while trying to convince them.
"But then things aren¡¯t the same." One of the vigers protested.
". . ." Looking at that viger, Shiro suddenly had the urge to punch him in the face.
"Nothing¡¯s going to stay the same. After the raid and after so many people died, do you think you can just continue your lives like nothing had happened? That¡¯s just running away from reality. People are leaving because they want things to change for the better. If you just stay in one spot and hope that nothing has changed, you might as well have died in the raid. Plus, even if you don¡¯t want to change, the world will change regardless." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"For those that want toe, follow us but I won¡¯t force you. You¡¯re the maker of your own story, not me." She said before turning around.
Allowing the vigers to make their own choices, she helped out with those that wanted to leave.
After a few hours of packing, everyone was finally ready.
This time, 23% of the initial 30% decided to change their minds while the other 7% stayed stubborn. At that point, Shiro could no longer bother to deal with them.
"Let¡¯s go." Shiro called out since everything had been packed into the carriages. Acting as the bodyguard, she sat in the middle of the caravan and kept an eye out for any monsters or bandits while those who knew of the direction led the way.
As the caravan made their way through the forest paths, they would take breaks to cook and rest since they had a lot of people and they needed to make sure that everyone was well rested.
At night, Shiro would venture off a little and practice the nanobot research volume 3. While she made little to no progress, she knew that her control was slowly increasing.
By the end of the fifth night, she had already sped up the time needed for her to create her guns.
A single flickof her fingers was enough to form two guns and two swords that floated around her.
While the swords were rather weak, it was fine since they were onlyplimentary items. The main focus was her hand cannons that had been reinforced.
Taking a deep breath, she had Nimue materialise beside her.
"You know what to do." Shiro said while closing her eyes.
"Mn. I understand my queen." Nimue nodded before flickering away into the trees.
Rustling could be heard as Shiro kept her eyes closed.
*Shshshshsh
Hearing the sound of leaves falling, her eyes snapped open in alertness.
Clicking her fingers, a wave of nanobots surged towards the source of the sound while a pair of hand cannons appeared in her hands.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Pulling the triggers, she was satisfied to see that every bullet had been pierced and locked in a nanotech cage.
"Mn, not bad. Volume 3 had definitely been helpful. Not only has my nanobots increased their resilience, but their overall speed has also improved greatly." Shiro smiled in satisfaction.
Disassembling her hand cannons, she gestured for Nimue to return.
"Let¡¯s go. By tomorrow, we should be at the next city."
###
Sitting in the centre cart as usual, Shiro could see the distant buildings that belonged to the next building.
Furrowing her brows, she realised that this city seemed to be quite familiar.
"Miss Shiro, we¡¯re approaching Kamure City. We should be able to find ourselves some shelter there." The chief called out.
"Wait Kamure City?" Shiro frowned.
If her memories were correct, the closest city should not be Kamure because Kamure was across the continent and it was where she had eventually escaped from thebs with the help of the hero.
For the city to be the ¡¯closest¡¯ to her vige, confirms that this space was melded to suit her. She had no memories or knowledge regarding the true closest city.
¡¯Hmm... if this space is tailored to me, what is the goal? What does it want me to find out?¡¯ She wondered to herself while the caravan continued towards the city.
¡¯I guess it wants me to find volume 1 and 2 since thebs are close to this ce. But, I need to be careful since the enemies should be around level 100 to 150.¡¯
Shaking her head, she decided to stick to assassination for the next task. As a person who had spent a ridiculous amount of time in thebs, she was quite familiar with the overallyout.
However, she suddenly felt a pair of eyes lock onto her body.
"Chief!" Shiro called out.
"Mn? What is it?"
"Are you able to lead the vigers into the city and find somewhere to stay for now? I need to quickly do something. Here¡¯s an item to help you contact me if you need to." Shiro said while handing him a small device.
Quickly crouching down, she flickered towards where she had felt the gaze.
Seeing some tracks, she knew that the person shouldn¡¯t be too far away.
"Tch, annoying fly." She clicked her tongue and created two copies of Genesis.
Tracking the marks left behind, she soon approached an open area where a man was standing idly in the middle.
"We¡¯ve been monitoring the movements of our scientists that we had dispatched out into the world. For two of them to suddenly die in that vige is quite strange wouldn¡¯t you say?" The man asked while turning around.
"Heh, it¡¯s not like it¡¯s my problem." Shiro smiled while checking his stats.
[Redirm LVL 100 Arena Master]
¡¯Arena master?¡¯ She narrowed her eyes at the strange ss. But the biggest problem was still his level. With a difference of almost 40 levels, she knew that she must be careful.
"Well no matter. As a person with the finished nanobots, we¡¯re quite interested in collecting your corpse for research purposes."
Chapter 281 Redirm Part 1
Chapter 281 Redirm Part 1
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro took a deep breath and thought about what she should do. Her enemy was a level 100 arena master which presented two problems for her.
The first being the fact that he was 35 levels ahead of her which made it so that their stat disparity was huge.
The second problem was the fact that she had no idea what his ss could do so she had to y it a little safe.
If not for the fact that their strengths had such a gap, she would have just brute forced her way through and killed him.
Before she could even speak, she widened her eyes when she felt danger assault her senses.
Quickly crouching onto the floor, she watched as a wind de flew past her.
¡¯Tch, if I didn¡¯t react in time, I would have been cut in half.¡¯ She cursed in her mind.
"Hou, fast reactions. I wonder if that¡¯s your natural response time or if it was the result of the nanobots enhancing your performance. How interesting." He smiled.
"Who cares." Shiro smiled fearlessly.
mming her palms into the ground, she sent out a wave of nanobots.
*BOOM!!!!!
Crashing against an invisible wall of sorts, Shiro furrowed her brows before flicking her wrist.
*KACHA!
Within the swarm of nanobots, several nanotech shotguns were created.
*PING PING PING PING!
However, all of the pellets were reflected as they dealt no damage to Redirm.
"Interesting. Your control over your nanobots allows you to mass produce weaponry uponmand. I¡¯m starting to wonder if I should take you in alive now." Redirm smiled.
"But I¡¯m not in a hurry. I should see your limit first." His voice suddenly appeared behind her as Shiro quickly twisted her body and tried to counter attack.
"GAH!" Before her kick could evennd, he had kneed her in the stomach and sent her rolling across the ground.
mming her hands into the ground, she pushed her body and slipped backwards. Readjusting herself, she tapped her ne and summoned Ataraxia. On top of this, she brought out the god yer sword.
Path of Ascendance ¨C Asura Sword Path + Celestial Path!
Her body flickered towards Redirm as she was prepared to slice apart any magic that he hurls at her.
"Hm... a frontal attack. Not the smartest move I¡¯m afraid." Redirm shook his head and waved his hand.
*BOOM!!!!
Suddenly, a tier 4 magic circle wrapped around his wrist as the ambient mana surged towards him.
"Sh*t! Tier 4!?" Shiro muttered with a frown. Stomping down with her foot, she sent out a wave of ice in an attempt to disrupt him.
*KRRRR!!!!!
Crashing against an invisible wall, the ice was pushed back and couldn¡¯t advance at all.
"Hou... on top of nanobots, you also have the usual elemental magic. From my estimations, your ice magic seems to be superior to most people so I suppose you should be around level 75 to 80 give or take. With a difference of 20 levels between us, you might as well give up." Redirm smiled lightly.
However, he didn¡¯t know that his sentence had set a light bulb off in Shiro¡¯s mind.
¡¯He can¡¯t check my level and can only guess what I am depending on how I perform.¡¯ She thought in surprise. After all, the only reason why she and other people on Earth could inspect items and other people¡¯s level was due to the inspect skill that had been given out by the government. Without this, she would be like the people on Aria who didn¡¯t know people¡¯s levels.
This made them all the more cautious so Shiro knew that she could take advantage of this.
"So you think I¡¯m level 75 to 80? Are you sure?" She grinned while circling around him. She wanted to find a chance for her to cancel out the channelling of his tier 4 skill but from what she had seen so far, there was a barrier of sorts around him that blocked all her attacks.
If she wanted to deal some damage to him, she¡¯ll have to deal with that first.
Pushing her hands forward, she made a w gesture as a tier 3 magic circle wrapped around her arm.
"Cage!" Shemanded.
*BOOM!!!!!
A surge of nanobots exploded out from the ground and surrounded Redirm like a ribcage. Within the swarm of nanobots, tens of nanotech snipers could be seen as Shiro was pushing the limits of her mana links.
It had been quite a while since shest felt an intense amount of pain in them due to the pills that she took, but she must keep in mind that she was only 7% done. 93% of her mana links was still damaged so she couldn¡¯t push her luck too much.
Clutching her hand into a fist, all of the snipers fired in sync.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Bullet holes could be seen in the air as Redirm frowned.
His ss, Arena Master, allows him to set up abyrinth of sorts which allows him to attack people while being shielded. The strength of thisbyrinth is synced up to his INT value and for Shiro to be able to put a crack in it, despite being estimated at level 75 to 80, was an astonishing feat.
¡¯Could this be the nanobots?¡¯ He mused to himself while continuing the channelling of his tier 4 spell. Since his opponent held the finished product of nanobots, he had to make sure that he was careful. After all, he doesn¡¯t know how much of the concept was tranted into reality hence why he was using the most powerful tier 4 spell he could use.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro had the snipers fire more shots while she created the Cmity Dragon Arrow.
However, she couldn¡¯t just fire it on its own. If she did, it would do little to no damage.
Snapping her fingers, she started to thread nanobots through the arrow along with enhancing the skill with her Celestial Path. That way, not only will its prative power increase, but it would also contain magic nullifying properties.
¡¯I need something to fire this with. My physical abilities arecking slightly for this to be worth it.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Furrowing her brows, she decided on making a ballista since a bow would still rely on her physical strength.
But, before she could do that, she activated Fae Illusions. After all, who in their right mind would just let someone charge up an attack without doing anything?
Making it so that her illusion is preparing the arrow, she dashed in the opposite direction and stomped down with her foot.
Nanobots started to converge in front of her as she was forced to retract some of the ones she used to make the cage around Redirm. With the current state of her mana links, this was the limit of how many nanobots she could make.
¡¯I wonder, would this be enough for a small mech?¡¯ She thought to herself. However, with the amount ofponents and reinforcement a decent mech needed, she¡¯ll have to repair her body by at least 15% before she could even think about making the most basic mech.
Shaking her head, she focused on making the ballista. She wanted to make sure that this was the best it could be so that it can kill Redirm in one shot. Otherwise, she¡¯ll only be risking herself.
As the ballista started to materialise, Redirm had finished charging his spell.
"It¡¯s over. Tier 4 Spacial Magic ¨C Domain Lock!" Hemanded.
*BOOMMMM!!!!!!!
A wave mana exploded outwards as a semi transparent dome could be seen surrounding her illusion. Everything within a 20 meter radius waspletely frozen in time.
"Hmph, everything that is trapped in Domain Lock will be stuck until I allow them to move again. Within that time, I am able to do whatever I want." Redirm scoffed while walking in the domain nonchntly.
Meanwhile, Shiro¡¯s true body was not too far from the edge of the domain. Sweat dripped off her face as she was d that she had decided to use Fae Illusions. Thanks to this, she was spared of the skill.
¡¯I need to act quick.¡¯ She thought to herself and retracted all of her nanobots. Since her illusion was still in effect, Redirm didn¡¯t notice anything.
¡¯Compress Form, Enhance Power Flow, Optimising Energy Conversion...¡¯ Quickly changing the ballista into a cannon of sorts that was made entirely forunching the arrow, Shiro knew that she needed to finish this before Redirm realised that what he was trapped was nothing.
"Now then, I should take you back with me like this and put you under containment. Working with a live subject is much better than a dead subject after all." He mused while flicking his finger. This caused the area affected by the Domain Lock to float up into the air. Stepping onto the ind, he ced a hand on ¡¯her¡¯ shoulder but widened his eyes when he saw his hand phase through her.
"An illusion!" He quickly jumped into the air.
However, it was toote since Shiro had already finished making her weapon.
[Orbital Rail Cannon ¨C Trinity LVL 65 (Purple+)]
Chapter 282 Redirm Part 2
Chapter 282 Redirm Part 2
Curving her lips into a grin, Shiro pulled back the mounted Orbital Rail Cannon and aimed it towards the flying Redirm.
Pulling the trigger, a blinding light filled her vision as the Enhanced Cmity Dragon Arrow was sent flying towards Redirm.
"!!!" Suddenly feeling danger, Redirm waved his hand and put up the best shield he could in the shortest time possible.
*PING!!!
To his shock, it was shattered like nothing.
*BOOM!!!!!!!
The force of the explosion sent the surrounding trees crashing down as Shiro tried to shield her body but was helpless.
Flipping her body in the air, she tried to correct herself as much as possible so that she could have a smoothnding.
Unfortunately, the sheer amount of snapped trees made it hard for her since they would m into her body.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, she tried to send out a pulse of mana but was stopped when one of the flying branches stabbed into her stomach and thigh.
"Sss!" Taking a sharp breath in, she turned her body into a giant ice cube.
*CRACK BANG KRRR!!!
Colliding against the ground, she thawed the ice when everything had calmed down.
*PUCHI!
Pulling out the twigs forcefully while ignoring the pain, she healed herself with Life Fire.
"Tch, my MP had been drained quite a bit." She frowned.
"URAHHH!!!!"
Freezing up at the sudden shout, Shiro looked up into the air and saw a heavily wounded Redirm who was ring at her with bloodshot eyes.
He was currently missing his right arm and shoulder while the rest of his body was badly scorched.
"I¡¯ll kill you!" He cried out in anger.
Flickering from his spot, he reappeared besides Shiro and kicked her at the side of her body.
*CRACK!
"PFFF!!!" Coughing out a mouthful of blood, Shiro mmed into an invisible wall that Redirm had set up.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯ She cursed out in her mind and quickly pulled out Ataraxia. Activating two of her Heavenly Runes, she increased the speed of her MP and HP regeneration.
Unfortunately for her, Redirm wasn¡¯t about to let this pass.
Grabbing her sword, he kneed it on the de and snapped it in half.
"Die!"
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
Each of his punches were like cannons while Shiro tried her best at defending.
However, even after she activated her Celestial Armament, he was only rip it apart with his bare hands. She had even tried to use her Rift Walker skill but wall had been put up between her and the rift, stopping her from essing it.
*BANG!
Her body crashed through the invisible wall and rolled across the ground.
{MY QUEEN!!} Nimue shouted out in shock.
¡¯Don¡¯t shout like that... My ear¡¯s f*cking hurt.¡¯ Shiro thought while trying to recover.
ncing at her HP, she realised that things weren¡¯t looking too good for her.
"You know what? This is a good time to test out 5th Phantom along with Berserker Path." Shiro muttered as she closed her eyes.
While she did this, Redirm¡¯s fist was on its way to punch her in the stomach.
*BOOM!!!!
A sudden explosion of force erupted out as ck and red aura red around her. However, she wasn¡¯t done.
Activating Soul Sword, she enhanced the god ying sword.
Her hair shifted from ice white to pure ck while her eyes changed to a blood red colour.
"Fuu..." Breathing out a cloud of cold mist, her killing intent was released relentlessly and froze arge portion of the forest, turning into an icy tundra.
*BANG!!!!!
The ground suddenly caved in as Redirm blocked Shiro¡¯s sword sh with an invisible wall.
Gnashing her teeth, Shiro mmed her hands into the invisible wall and coated it in ayer of nanobots which surged towards him through the gaps.
"Damn it! Crazy b*tch!" Redirm cried out in shock at the sight of Shiro. Her pure killing intent sent shivers down his spine as he quickly retreated.
However, her figure flickered into mist as he realised that it was another illusion.
A pair of hands suddenly grabbed his legs and pulled him into the ground. Struggling as much as he could, he activated his elemental armour and created a cavity in the ground.
Twisting his body, he attempted to kick Shiro in the chest but quickly retracted his leg when he saw her sword. The closer he got to the sword, the more fearful he became.
His instincts told him that whatever he did, he should never touch that sword.
Seeing Redirm retreat, Shiro grinned before tilting her head in a creepy manner.
*BOOM!!!
Dashing towards him while keeping low on the ground, she activated Fae illusions and created 9 copies of her that were doing a different set of movements.
On top of this, she had activated Refraction and Sword Domain at the same time. Running several calctions in her mind, the illusions were able to sync up to her movements, creating a lethal dance of shes where one didn¡¯t know which one was real or which one was fake.
A single touch was all it needed to send someone into shock due to the nature of her soul sword.
[Killing Skill Created: Hollow Deceit]
[Hollow Deceit
When activated, 9 additional copies of you will be created then charge towards your target with different movements. You are able to change ces with any copy during any stage of the skill¡¯s activation. (1 per activation)
Requirements: 5th Phantom + Berserker Path
Cost: 5% of MP
Cooldown: 10 seconds]
Gritting his teeth, Redirm activated his own berserk skill and did his best to dodge.
"Troublesome!" He shouted out. Pushing his hand towards the ground, a tier 4 magic circle wrapped around his wrist and sent out a tornado which rained destruction upon the forest.
Landing on one of the distant tree branches, he held his bleeding shoulder in pain and brought up a healing pill.
But before he could eat that pill, he felt danger assault his senses once more. Quickly jumping up into the air, he was barely able to dodge Shiro¡¯s attack.
Looking up at the fleeing Redirm, Shiro only smiled before standing up straight.
¡¯Damn what is her problem! Why is she giving me such a bad feeling?!¡¯ Redirm thought to himself with worry.
As much as he wanted to ignore this feeling, he knew that he couldn¡¯t since it had saved him many times in the past.
This should be no exception.
Creating an invisible tform to stand on, he took a deep breath and looked towards Shiro¡¯s location.
"!!!" Widening his eyes, he was shocked to see that she had disappeared. Within that short moment where he took his eyes off her, she had actually disappeared from his sight.
Quickly mming his hand down onto the tform, he encased himself in thick walls all around him.
*PING!
Looking behind him, he saw Shiro¡¯s sword shredding through his barrier like it was tofu.
"Damn!" Flicking his fingers, he sent several pirs smashing into Shiro only to see her bend her body in a way that many would ss as physically impossible.
*PING PING PING!
Destroying all of the walls around her, Shiro stabbed her sword towards Redirm.
Gritting his teeth, he decided to run away for now. There was no way that he was going to continue a fight where a single hit could potentially end him.
"You¡¯re lucky this time!" He gritted his teeth and formed a w with his hand. The gravity in the area suddenly increased while his body was sucked into a portal of sorts.
Kneeling heavily on the ground, Shiro looked up at where he was previously and saw that no one was there anymore.
Furrowing her brows, she spat on the ground in annoyance. As much as she wanted to chase after him, she didn¡¯t have a way to follow him. Not only that, but there was also a short time limit on her soul sword which would run out soon.
In the end, she could only sigh in disappointment.
Deactivating all of her skills, she copsed on the ground in fatigue.
Both her HP and MP were about to be emptied out as she took a moment to rest and recover.
"Tch, how annoying..." She muttered. However, she knew that this could be ssed as one of the better oues.
In a fight where she was against a being that was 35 levels ahead of her, she was able to wound him severely and scare him off.
But now that she somewhat understood what the man could do, next time, she¡¯ll be able to finish him for good with the help of her berserk skills.
"Hmph, keep your ass safe till we meet again." She cursed.
Chapter 283 ID Crystal
Chapter 283 ID Crystal
Resting her body for a while, she made sure that she was well hidden in case of anyone stumbling upon her.
After all, she may bump into another level 100 since she was quite close tobs. Who knows if they¡¯ll send reinforcements.
Struggling onto her feet, she flinched slightly from the pain.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, she took a deep breath and activated her Life Fire.
As her MP was still quite low, she had to turn it on and off continuously since she couldn¡¯t handle the MP usage.
"Fu..." Once she was fully healed, she breathed out in relief and looked up into the sky. While she didn¡¯t know the current time, the sky was that of a purple orange so she knew that night time was about to approach.
Shaking her head, she jumped onto one of the fallen tree¡¯s and started to make her way towards the city. But when she got there, she was surprised to see an expedition team full of level 60¡¯s to 70¡¯s.
"Excuse me, what¡¯s going on?" Shiro asked as she pulled one of the bystanders aside.
The man was about to get annoyed but paused when he saw the white haired beauty.
"Ah that¡¯s the emergency expedition team. There had been arge sh of mana not too far from here so they were preparing to defend or fight against whatever caused the problem." The man replied with a blush.
"Ah I see. Thank you." Shiro nodded her head and walked away.
The man wanted to call out to her but eventually decided against it. He didn¡¯t want to offend a beauty like her since it was very likely that she had a big backing helping her.
As she was about to enter the city, she was stopped by a few guards.
"Id please." They asked while sneaking a few nces at her face.
"ID? Ah right. Sure, give me a second." Shiro smiled and pretended to reach into her pocket. She had almost forgotten that Aria had a simr system to earth where everyone would have guild ID¡¯s to prove who they are. However, in Aria, this ID was a little different.
It was given to a person from when they were born and it was in the shape of a crystal. The more bad deeds that you have done, the darker and more damaged the crystal would be. After a certain point, they would shatter and render you ID less. It was impossible to get a second one since this ID was bound to your soul. It was a one time use item so once it was gone, it couldn¡¯t be reced.
Naturally, some may have the concern about losing the crystal but if they were more than 15 meters apart, the crystal would shatter and reappear in their inventories.
Cities would have a verifier to make sure that the crystal was authentic along with a chart to see how ¡¯corrupted¡¯ your crystal was and allow you entry based on that scale. If it was too dark, you¡¯ll be rejected and sent away.
But if it was almost near the limit, they¡¯ll assign you a body guard who will keep an eye on you to make sure that you¡¯re behaved.
In her past life, she never gave a crap about the crystal since they were too weak to even think about stopping her. Naturally, her crystal had long disappeared due to the acts that she had done.
But, she did learn how to fabricate the crystal using her nanobots since it was needed for some discreet operations. It was an easy task for her nanobots since she just had to copy the unique mana wavelength that is recognised by the verifier so that it could confirm that she was aw abiding citizen.
Flexing her fingers, a finger sized crystal appeared in her hands. It was only slightly dark around the edges but was mostly clear.
Presenting the crystal to the guards, she waited for her to be verified.
"Mn, you¡¯re clear. Have a nice day miss." The guard bowed in respect. Since her crystal was almost entirely clear, it meant that she was ssed as a ¡¯good¡¯ citizen.
"You too." Shiro smiled while taking back her crystal.
Walking into the familiar city, Shiro looked around for a moment before using Rift Walker and flickered towards the top of the buildings.
She wanted to locate the vigers so that she could help them out. After all, it is almost an entire vige moving out.
Looking around for a short while, it didn¡¯t take her long to spot them in the distance.
Jumping from one roof to another, shended softly next to them.
"What¡¯s happening?" Shiro asked with a frown since she could see the chief and some over vigers talking to a innkeeper.
"Well the chief is trying to find us a ce to stay for now Miss Shiro. We can¡¯t just sleep in the middle of the streets since the guards would kick us aside." The viger sighed tiredly.
Their travel to the city had taken a toll on them as they were forced to sleep in the wild.
"Hmm... let me have a look then." Shiro smiled.
"Ah, you¡¯re truly kind Miss Shiro. Your presence is such a blessing to our vige." The viger said while trying to hold back her tears.
"It¡¯s what I should do." Shiro waved her hand before walking over to the chief.
"Please, we¡¯ve got an entire vige to relocate. Even if it¡¯s the stables, can¡¯t we just stay there for a short while?" The chief begged.
"No no and no! The guess¡¯s horses take space as well you know? I can¡¯t just let you in. Plus, where do you think you are? Prices in the city are naturally higher. If you can¡¯t afford it, you should have chosen elsewhere." The innkeeper shook his head adamantly.
"But what about the children and the elderly?"
"Che, what about them? I need to take care of myself first." The innkeeper retorted in annoyance.
"Chief, forget about this as*hole. Just set the carriages on the side for now and I¡¯ll help us find a ce." Shiro smiled. If her memory was correct, there should be a spot perfect for them underground since it had served as a smuggling route in the future. They could use this for now and move somewhere elseter.
"But Miss Shiro, we can¡¯t possibly leave everything to you." The chief frowned since he felt guilty for relying on a young girl like Shiro.
"Haha, don¡¯t worry about it too much. If anything, help me out a little and see if you can purchase and deed with the money we¡¯ve gathered. It doesn¡¯t matter the quality since I¡¯ll be remaking the building." Shiro smiled.
Meanwhile, the innkeeper raised an eyebrow and started to examine Shiro as if she was merchandise.
*Puchi!
Feeling his stare, Shiro felt annoyance rise up in her. Wondering about whether or not it was worth it to make him blind or not, Shiro ushered the chief to take the vigers to the side for now.
"Say, I can cut you a deal. You sign a contract with me and I¡¯ll provide you with a ce to stay." The innkeeper smiled and tried to hide his lecherous intent.
"Well thank you for the ¡¯generous¡¯ offer but I have to decline. After all, staying with a pig like you would only taint the living space." Shiro remarked with a smirk and bowed slightly.
"You!" Gritting his teeth in anger, the innkeeper wanted nothing more than to discipline the girl in front of him but he knew that he couldn¡¯t cause trouble in the city. Hence why the only thing he could do was shut up and ept it.
"Che! Don¡¯te running back to me if you can¡¯t find a ce to stay! Pui!" He shouted out before walking back into his inn and mmed the door.
"Miss Shiro, was that wise?" The chief asked in worry.
"Don¡¯t worry, staying with that ass would only bring more troubles. Come with me to the governor¡¯s building. We¡¯ll see if we can buy and deed for cheap." Shiro patted his shoulder.
"If you say so." The chief nodded since she seemed to know what she¡¯s doing.
Having all the vigers stay on the side for now, the chief and Shiro made their way to the governor¡¯s building.
Since he was holding all of the viger¡¯s money, he was rather cautious and made sure that he didn¡¯t lose it. After all, if he lost it, it would mean the end of everyone.
"The more tense and cautious you act, the more suspicious you be. Make sure you look natural and blend in with other people." Shiro advised.
"Ah, ok." The chief nodded and tried to calm himself down.
Arriving at the governor¡¯s building, Shiro narrowed her eyes with a smile before entering through therge doors. Thest time she was here, she had presented them with a mountain of corpses and exposed the things that the scientists had done.
Remembering the shocked faces of everyone who was there, she smiled in joy.
¡¯Good times.¡¯
Chapter 284 New Base
Chapter 284 New Base
"Hello, how may I help you today?" The assistant asked with a smile.
"Hi, do you have anynd deeds for sale? I wish to construct a property." Shiro replied.
"Yes we do, can I know the price range that you¡¯re looking for and how big you want it to be?"
"Give me the cheapestnd deed you have."
"You... want the cheapestnd deed that we have?" The assistant raised her eyebrows. Normally, only those who were rather rich would buy and deed and she had assumed that Shiro was one of them due to the quality of clothes that she was wearing.
However, now that she revealed herself to be poor, the assistant clicked her tongue before browsing through herputer.
"Here are the cheapestnd deeds that we have. Do be careful though since they¡¯re located near the rather shady areas of this city." She said while a holographic screen appeared in front of Shiro and the Chief.
Looking at the list, the chief couldn¡¯t help but pale at the condition of thend. Each one was worse than the other as thest page even showed one that had nothing but a single stalk of grass on it.
But, that was exactly what Shiro had been looking for. In her past life, this plot ofnd was above a naturally formed cave system that extended through the entire city and out of it too.
"This one, I want this one." She smiled and pointed to the final plot ofnd that was only worth a hundred silvers.
". . . you know that there are no refunds, right?" The assistant exined.
"Yup, but before I buy, I want to make sure of a few things first. How high and how deep am I allowed to make my house?"
"Hmm... Height wise, it can¡¯t be taller than the church. As for how deep, it can be as deep as you want as long as it doesn¡¯t cause the city too many problems. Ah also, you¡¯re not allowed any defensive weaponry due to thews and just know that the entire city is scanned daily. If your defensive magic circles and weapons are not registered and given a pass, then the guards will take it as an act of terror and you will be subdued and taken to prison." The assistant exined as she needed to make sure that she goes through the procedures.
Going through a few more points that Shiro would need to know, the assistant finally handed over the contract that she needed to sign.
Signing it without hesitation, Shiro had the chief pay the assistant the money.
"Are you sure about this?" The chief asked dubiously since this wasn¡¯t his money. It was a collection of everyone¡¯s money so they couldn¡¯t waste it.
"Yeah it¡¯s fine." Shiro smiled confidently. Her n was to use the naturally formed cave as the main hub of their new home. After all, thews didn¡¯t say that she isn¡¯t allowed to use naturally formed caved systems as part of her house.
Thankfully, however, there were very few houses that were directly above the cave. So even if they did dig down as much as they wanted, there were only a few points where Shiro would need to make some adjustments.
But overall, this was the best ce they can have to fit their needs for now.
"If you need anything for your home or other questions, feel free to ask now."
"No there¡¯s nothing else. Thank you." Shiro smiled and left with the chief.
"Hm... weird person. Who the hell would even want to build a house near that area." The assistant sighed before shaking her head.
What Shiro does now was none of her problem since she had already signed the contract.
Meanwhile, after bringing the chief out of the governor¡¯s building, they made their way back to the other vigers.
Seeing that they were safe and sound, Shiro sighed in relief.
¡¯Seems like public order is rather decent.¡¯ She thought to herself.
"Everyone!" She called out.
Once she made sure that she had all of their attention, Shiro proceeded to exin to them about their new home that she was going to make,
The building that was above the ground floor would be a resting hub of sorts where all the kids can y while the a.d.u.l.ts socialise.
Everything underground will be things that are necessary such as the kitchen or the bedrooms.
Some were curious about the quality of the ce but Shiro assured that it would be fine.
"Follow me and you¡¯ll understand." Shiro smiled and had them follow her.
Moving through the city, their caravan had attracted quite a few eyes, especially on Shiro, but none dared to make a move.
As they were approaching the plot ofnd, Shiro noticed quite a few shady gazes on her from the windows.
¡¯Hmm... do I need to deal with them to secure the safety of the house? I can¡¯t make any defensive equipment since it¡¯ll be discovered after all.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while entertaining the idea of cleaning up the area.
In the end, she decided against that for now. Until they made the first move, she wasn¡¯t going to attack them.
After walking for a bit longer, they arrived at the empty plot ofnd.
"Stand back." Shiro said while stretching her body.
Marking out the area where hernd stretched out to, which was a 7 by 7 meter area, she ced her hand in the centre and closed her eyes.
The first thing that she needed to make was the house above the ground. For appearance¡¯s sake, she needed to make this look like it could hold at least a third of the people here.
¡¯The church is around 12 floors tall and the surrounding buildings average out to around 5 floors give or take. To keep things safe, I¡¯ll have mine to be around 5 floors as well so that it doesn¡¯t stand out. First floor can be a reception area of sorts so that the vigers can sign in and out to make things easier.
¡¯The second to fifth floor can be whatever they want since it¡¯s for appearance sake only. The important part is what I should be doing for the floors underground. To reach the natural cave system, it¡¯s about 15 to 20 floors down so an elevator shaft would be handy for this area....¡¯
nning out the overall structure of the building, mana surged around her hands as she used her metal element rather than nanobots to construct the house.
While metal was less versatile than nanobots, it used less mana at the cost ofcking in diversity. However, for something like a house, metal was the way to go.
"Can someone make me some ss panels for the windows?" Shiro asked since she rather not waste nanobots for something like ss.
"I can do it!" A viger called out eagerly since they were all wanting to help out Shiro for saving their lives.
"Thank you," Shiro smiled.
Assigning a few more items for them to build so that she didn¡¯t need to use her nanobots, Shiro sped up the speed of production with the help of the vigers.
By the time night had arrived, she had already finished the building above ground.
¡¯Hmm... by the looks of things, I can probably fit around 100 people in the building above ground right now if I¡¯m pushing it. To fit everyone else, I would probably need to clear out 10 or 15 floors worth of area underground.¡¯ She thought to herself since her main task right now was to give them a ce to sleep.
Once that was done, she could get to making the proper house in the cave system tomorrow.
Continuing her excavation, she made sure that she used her nanobots to create an elevator for ease of ess.
*BANG!
Crashing through the ground, she finally arrived at the naturally formed cave system.
"Heh, just as I remembered it to be." She smiled. Now that this entire ce was open to them, they had to start making beds for people to sleep in so that they could get to work first thing in the morning tomorrow.
Gesturing for all the carpenters and any avable wood mages to help out, Shiro had them create simple beds for all the floors.
While they were doing that, she moved all the horses and carriages to the empty cave system and lit it up using her nanobots.
"Right then, everyone rest up. We¡¯ll be refurbishing the ce a little tomorrow." Shiro called out with a smile.
There were plenty of things that she needed them to do tomorrow. The main point being that she wanted to convert a portion of this cave into her headquarters of sorts.
There was also the problem of hiding the location but she had something in mind for that.
For now, this will be her main hub.
Chapter 285 Finding The Labs
Chapter 285 Finding The Labs
Waking up the next morning, Shiro delegated the vigers into different roles.
The main roles were unpacking, setting up the essentials such as the kitchen and those who are buying new items.
Most of the infrastructure and lighting was alreadyid out by Shiro using her nanobots so that didn¡¯t need too much work.
That being said, some of the vigers didn¡¯t feel safe so they started to make some pirs to help secure the structural integrity of the cave.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro let them do what they want. Her main task was to make sure that the spots where the cave ovepped under the building were blocked off so that even if the owners dig down, they¡¯ll be digging past the base. This would hopefully keep it a secret for longer.
Once she had finished giving everyone a task to do, she decided to do some scouting and spying. After all, her main goal for this ce was to the nanobot research volumes.
Seeing her family was a wee bonus but it wasn¡¯t the main focus.
"Shiro!" Nytri called out as Shiro looked over.
"What is it?" Shiro asked with a smile.
It was still a little awkward for her to be interacting with her younger self but she could handle it for now.
"Do you want to y?" Nytri asked.
"Sorry I can¡¯t right now. I have work to do." Shiro apologised and patted her on the head.
"Eh, fine... Can we yter then? When you finish your work?"
"Hmm... if I¡¯m free yes." Shiro nodded after a short while.
Ushering for Nytri to y with the other kids, Shiro smiled lightly.
{Do you desire that kind of life?} Nimue asked.
¡¯Not particrly. I¡¯m satisfied with how I turned out. But, I do have to admit, it looks like I¡¯m having a lot of fun.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{True.}
¡¯However, I am also having a lot of fun in my current life.¡¯
{Also true. So what¡¯s your n for the day?}
¡¯Hmm... the main task is to scout. But a secondary task involves finding a ce for everyone to work and get them a source of ie I suppose.¡¯ Shiro replied after a short pause.
Even though this was a quest of sorts, she might be able to increase her chances of sess if she helped out her vige. It wasn¡¯t guaranteed hence why she put it as a secondary task rather than the main task.
Calling out to the chief, she told him that she was heading out for a bit and handed him a crystal.
"Crush that if there is any trouble and I¡¯lle back as soon as I can. It¡¯ll also create a gun for you so that you can use it as self defence but remember, don¡¯t attack first or else thews will be against you." Shiro advised.
"Understood."
"Also, make sure that no one leaves alone. On top of that, they need to be within view of the main street at all times so they¡¯re not exposed to danger." She exined.
"Got it, take care." The chief nodded.
Walking to the elevator, she saw her mother and father about to go up as well.
"Hey." Shiro called out with a smile.
"Oh Miss Shiro, are you going up as well?" Geral asked.
"Yup. I got some things I need to take care of. What about you?"
"We¡¯re going to do some shopping for some necessities." Geral replied.
"As for me, I need to buy some fresh ingredients for the kitchen since I¡¯ll be helping out with the cooking." Amanda chuckled.
"I see. I¡¯ll be looking for a good meal tonight haha, By the way, take this and crush it if you¡¯re in danger. We don¡¯t know what might happen in this city after all." Shiro smiled while handing them two crystals.
This was a little different to the crystal she gave to the chief since this one will encase them in a suit of nanotech armour. It would protect them while she was hurrying to their location.
After all, she didn¡¯t want her parents to die again, illusion or not. It wasn¡¯t exactly the best feeling that she could experience and she would rather not have to go through that.
"Thank you, honestly you¡¯ve done so much for us." Amanda smiled softly.
"Well I was in a situation like yours way back when I was a kid. So it¡¯s only natural that I do what I can. Of course, I can¡¯t help all the time since I won¡¯t be able to stay for long." Shiro shook her head.
"Mn, were grateful for what you¡¯ve done for us. You¡¯ve helped us set up the foundations for the future." Geral smiled while looking up at the elevator.
"If it wasn¡¯t for your help, I wouldn¡¯t even want to imagine how many of us would have died." He shook his head.
Amanda nodded her head as well since it was the undeniable truth. Without Shiro, all of them would have died.
Chatting for a little longer, they arrived back above ground.
While her parents left for the market, Shiro started to work on how she should hide the lower ground.
¡¯Since they will scan the city everyday, I need to make sure I know the frequency of the device first. Once I know that, I can run some tests to see how I can make it ignore a formation I set down.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Flexing her fingers, she created a few sensors around the house so that she could get the intel she needed. Since it wasn¡¯t a defensive or offensive formation, the device should hopefully ignore it.
¡¯Well I suppose if it doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯ll think of somethingter.¡¯ She thought with a shrug of her shoulders.
Walking out of the house, she stretched her body and flickered onto a nearby roof.
¡¯First things first, I¡¯m going to need to scout out that base.¡¯
Flickering out of the city, she started to travel to the east since that was where the base was.
¡¯The base is located between ake and a mountain. If I remember correctly, there should be four entrances that I can use to infiltrate.¡¯ She thought to herself while imagining the floor n to the base.
{My queen, how do you remember the base so well?} Nimue asked in surprise.
¡¯Nanobots and database.¡¯
{Right... Anyways, I wanted to say that if you transfer me to theke, I should be able to control theke. I should be able to use that to help you either attack or distract them.} Nimue exined since she was a type of water spirit.
¡¯No it¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll only be risking you if I did that. This is only a quest, no need to risk something important.¡¯ Shiro grinned while increasing her speed.
{Damn. My queen, if you were a guy, I would fall for you, you know?} Nimue raised an eyebrow.
¡¯Well too bad I¡¯m a girl. That being said, there¡¯s not really a difference between the two is there? Guys have a d*ck while girls have a v*gina. Outside of that, they¡¯re pretty much the same after the introduction of the system. Even girls can work up ridiculous strength if they wanted to.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
{What about b.r.e.a.s.ts?}
¡¯What about them?¡¯ Shiro retorted with a frown instantly.
{Nothing. Just asking.}
¡¯Mn.¡¯
Landing softly behind a tree, she looked towards where the base should be.
¡¯Hmm... it¡¯s not there...¡¯ She frowned.
{Could it be because thatst time you remembered it, it was way into the future?} Nimue suggested as Shiro nodded.
¡¯That¡¯s the most likely answer. Though their main base shouldn¡¯t be too far from this ce. After all, they could have just expanded over the years.¡¯
Activating Phantom Path along with Shadow Cloak, she flickered towards where the new entrance would be in a few years.
Looking around cautiously, she ced her hand on the ground and created a nanotech scanner.
Activating the device, she waited for it to locate a hollowed out area where the base should be.
Thankfully, she didn¡¯t need to wait too long.
¡¯Hmm... it¡¯s not too far from here. Definitely a lot smaller than the base I remembered.¡¯ She mused to herself. She guessed that it was because they haven¡¯t gotten a huge amount of financial support yet since they haven¡¯t produced any worthwhile products. It was because of her sess they got the funding they needed to expand and perform more experiments.
Curving her lips into a grin, her eyes radiated killing intent.
"Hehehe, time for some payback again." She chuckled coldly. Thinking about what she could do the scientists again made her heart pound in excitement.
Meanwhile, at the base, the scientists continued their experiments without knowing the cmity that was about to befall them.
Chapter 286 Labs
Chapter 286 Labs
Making her way to where the base should be, she would look down on her scanner to make sure that she was on the right track.
One she was around 100 meters away from the base, she put the scanner away and grinned.
"Welp, time to do this." She muttered.
Threading nanobots through the ground, she dug out small cavities so that she wouldn¡¯t reappear in the middle of the earth and suffocate. Plus, she didn¡¯t want to see what would happen should there be no spaces for her to reappear in.
Rotating between using rift walker and nanobots, she was able to steadily approach the base without anyone noticing above ground.
¡¯Hm... it should be just in front of me now.¡¯ She thought to herself and made a small drone with her nanobots.
She couldn¡¯t just appear using rift walker since it may trigger a few rms and that was not what she wanted. This was supposed to be an assassination and reconnaissance after all.
Putting on a pair of sses so that she could see what the drone sees, she found that she was just behind one of the offices and that there was a scientist performing some surgery on a child¡¯s body.
¡¯Tch.¡¯ Clicking her tongue, she narrowed her eyes dangerously.
¡¯Since he¡¯s in the middle of a surgery, that means that he should be in the middle of his shift. The time I need to search through the base for the research volume is to- wait a moment. Can¡¯t I just disguise his death as a violentbustion of nanobots?¡¯ Shiro widened her eyes in realisation.
While there were plenty of subjects who died due to the nanobots consuming them, the scientists weren¡¯t spared either. There were situations where the nanobots would expand and consume everything around them, thus killing the scientists.
This wasn¡¯t exactly a rare situation either since nanobots are highly vtile if not under control.
¡¯Plus, if I was to disguise several deaths under a nanobot explosion, I should put the me on bad research and push their experiments back by a few days.¡¯
In addition to this, she could also use this moment to bring the children away and remove the nanobots from inside them. That way, they¡¯ll be able to live their life without the threat of being consumed.
Finalising her ns, she phased into the room and grabbed the scientist¡¯s head.
"Wah!"
Before he could even react, a violent surge of nanobots was injected into his body, shredding through everything in its path while Shiro made sure that he felt everything and more.
"GA-MNNNNNNN!!!!!"
His scream was cut off short when nanobots exploded out from his throat and started to wrap around his head.
Looking over at the young boy whoid motionlessly on the table with his eyes open, Shiro shook her head in pity.
"Do you want to live?" She asked as he looked over.
Tears started to flow out as he shook his head.
"It hurts... It hurts a lot... make it end please..." He squeezed out weakly.
Feeling a pang of heartbreak, Shiro stroked his hair gently. As he is in a simr situation to her, she understood how difficult it was for him to hold on to his life.
"Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll make the pain end and you¡¯ll feel much better ok? Don¡¯t give up on life." Shiro smiled softly and ced her hand over his chest.
Closing her eyes, shemanded her nanobots to override the ones in his body.
"Sss!!" Feeling the pain of having foreign nanobots flow into her body while being converted, Shiro gritted her teeth and focused on exerting her control over them.
"ARG!!!" The boy cried out in pain. The feeling of having nanobots extracted from him was akin to pulling out his veins.
"Resist! It¡¯s almost over. Once I get these out of you, I can heal you for good." Shiro encouraged.
Honestly, she had underestimated how vtile the nanobots were. It was a miracle that the boy could even respond while feeling the pain of having his insides chewed by the nanobots.
Increasing her pace, she quickly extracted all of the nanobots in his body and coated him with her Life Fire.
For the first time in a long time, the boy was finally able to be relieved from the pain and even feel afortable warmth from the fire.
Carrying the boy in her hands, she looked over at the twitching corpse of the scientists and frowned.
¡¯I let him off too easily...¡¯ She thought before stomping down with her foot.
Allowing her nanobots to run berserk, she quickly phased out of the room and made her way to the surface. She couldn¡¯t possibly carry around a boy while trying to assassinate them now could she?
*BOOM!!!!!
Just as she had left the room, the nanobots exploded out and started to spread throughout the base. rms were triggered as scientists paused in shock before running away from the nanobots. They had to wait for reinforcements so that they could carry out procedures.
While they were trying to run away, Shiro had already arrived back at the surface with the boy.
"How are you feeling now?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Mn, I don¡¯t feel pain anymore." The boy responded slowly while looking down at his hands.
Pinching his skin to make sure that this was real, he started to wipe away at his eyes so that he wouldn¡¯t show Shiro that he¡¯s crying.
"That¡¯s good. I want you to hide here for a while. I¡¯ll be trying to save some other kids so you behave yourself ok?" She asked while setting up a small formation in the nearby bushes for him.
Nodding his head obediently, the boy did as he was told.
Giving him a small wave, Shiro flickered towards the base while ncing at her system screen.
[Nanobot Enhancement 1%]
¡¯So it turns out that absorbing his vtile nanobots had actually enhanced mine.¡¯ She thought to herself in surprise.
{Perhaps this trial focuses on enhancing the quality of which you¡¯recking?} Nimue suggested.
¡¯Maybe... After all, in terms of development and evolution, my Nanomancer ss hasn¡¯t changed at all. It stayed the same.¡¯ Shiro nodded her head at the usibility of the situation.
¡¯If that¡¯s the case, then it¡¯s highly likely that the rest of the girls and Chen Yu would have received the same trial then don¡¯t you think?¡¯
{Perhaps. Though I consider your situation a little more... special? Especially since your ss is manmade. Plus, we¡¯re reliving your memories in a way so that¡¯s also something to think about.}
¡¯True...¡¯
Shaking her head slightly, she decided that she¡¯ll ask themter when she leaves the trial. But right now, she has children to save and scientists to kill.
Making herself a pair of sses, she could see her swarm of berserk nanobots making their way through the base. Naturally, she had set it to only attack members of staff.
That way, she could avoid having the nanobots identally harm the children or consume any doc.u.ments that she may need.
Using Rift Walker to flicker through the base, she absorbed as many nanobots as she could while healing the test subjects.
Repeating this process, she was able to save 60 of them before the reinforcements had arrived and started to control the situation.
During this, she had made sure to look at all the doc.u.ments in the room.
While she didn¡¯t find the full copies of the volumes, she was able to find fragments.
In the end, she had found 5 out of 10 fragments for volume 1 and 3 out of 10 fragments for volume 2. As for 3 and 4, she didn¡¯t find anything for that unfortunately.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro wondered if she should set up some more detonation points so that they would be distracted for longer. That way, she could save more subjects while keeping an eye out for the volume fragments.
However, she decided against that since it would be too suspicious. She had already saved 60 subjects and didn¡¯t want to push her luck too much.
Bringing thest subject she had collected back to the surface, she had everyone move quietly and quickly.
By the time they arrived back at the city, it was almost nightfall.
Handing the guards all of their crystals, Shiro led them towards her house. She hadn¡¯t gotten any signs of the defence crystals breaking so she wasn¡¯t too worried.
Sending them down the elevator in small groups, she kept an eye on her status board.
In a single day, she had enhanced her Nanobots by 53%. If she was to continue this pace, tomorrow, she should be able to fully upgrade her nanobots.
Thinking about the possibilities, Shiro smiled in anticipation.
Chapter 287 Second Class Upgrade
Chapter 287 Second ss Upgrade
For the next few days, Shiro continued the process of sending out berserk nanobots into theb while saving some of the children.
After exining their situation to the vigers, they were quite epting of them. But the children were still a little traumatised so she had built them a separate building for them to all live together.
As for her nanobot enhancement, her progress slowed down a lot since the security increased within thebs.
She had tried to keep her tracks as subtle as possible but it was only natural for them to be suspicious at all the failures.
On the fifth day, her enhancement had finally reached 100%.
Sitting on a sofa within her own house in the underground base, Shiro looked at her system with a smile.
"Now then, I haven¡¯t found any more pieces of the research volumes within thest few days but this should help me powerup quite a bit." She muttered with a smile.
Pressing the yes button for whether or not she wanted to evolve her nanobots, she waited in excitement.
[Stage 1 requirements fulfilled. Nanobots are undergoing evolution.]
[Second Main ss: Nanomancer, will now ss up to Ex Ranked ss Ascendant Nanomancer.]
[May user survive the challenge of having two main sses.]
"Wait what?" Widening her eyes at thest notification, Shiro wondered why it hoped that she would survive the result of having two main sses.
However, before she could theorize some solutions, a bone shattering pain spread through her body.
"GAHHHH!!!!!!" Despite her huge pain tolerance, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but scream out in pain.
It was as if the nanobots were chewing through her bone marrow and slowly grinding her body to dust.
Kneeling heavily on the ground, Shiro tried to suppress her scream but to no avail.
*Drip drip drip drip*
"Ug!!!"
Blood started to drip out from her eyes as they became bloodshot.
Looking at her arms, she could see her veins pulsing slightly while nanobots spread out from her palms and started to eat away at the ground.
{My queen!} Nimue cried out in shock from the mana realm. Materialising herself, she tried to help Shiro up only to be attacked by her nanobots.
"Sss!" Taking a sharp breath of pain, Nimue was shocked that her arm was eaten within a short moment. She tried to regenerate it but it was no use.
"It¡¯s fine! Get back into my mana realm, I¡¯ll deal with this." Shiro squeezed out while her body trembled.
Curling herself into a foetal position, she tried to stop her body from trembling.
¡¯F*ck! Could you at least warn me that I¡¯ll be feeling this much pain rather than just hoping that I¡¯ll survive!¡¯ Shiro cursed out in her mind.
*TSSSSS!!!
A searing sound could be heard as she suddenly felt pain in her eyes.
"GAH!!!"
Suddenly losing all of her sight, Shiro had the urge to w her eyes out to stop the pain.
If Aarim was here, she would be able to see that Shiro¡¯s true nature had been watching her with narrowed eyes.
-Survive... We¡¯ve got so many enemies to torture and kill. They need their internals ruptured and pulled out from their bodies. Their eyes gouged out and crushed. Their mana links shattered like how they did with mine. Survive so that you can carry out both of our hatreds.-
The vigers naturally heard Shiro¡¯s painful cries as they crowded around her house.
"Should we... go inside?" One of the vigers asked with worry.
"Of course we should. That¡¯s a dumb question!" Geral, Shiro¡¯s father, retorted while trying to open the door of Shiro¡¯s house.
Looking at each other, the vigers nodded their heads and tried to help him force open the door.
However, no matter what they did, it didn¡¯t work. Looking around, they decided to try to break her windows instead.
Unfortunately, their attempt to break the window resulted in a failure as it would not shatter no matter what.
"Damn it!" Geral shouted out while punching the window with all his strength.
"Geral!" Amanda called out in worry after seeing his fists draw blood.
"Amanda, can¡¯t you hear her pain? Despite the fact that we¡¯ve only been with her for a short amount of time, she feels close to us. Each cry of hers is like a dagger to my heart. It¡¯s the same feeling I had when you and Nytri were chased by the bandits. It¡¯s hard to bear!" Geral cried out while punching the window once more.
Amanda stayed silent since she felt the same. It was as if their family had expanded by one. While she was out often, they would wait in anticipation for her safe return. Each time she came back with children that she had saved, they would feel an indescribable feeling of pride.
They wished that if Nytri grew up, she would be like Shiro. Strong and dependable. Someone with a heart to save others and not drunk on her own strength.
Just as they were about to continue their attempts on the window, Shiro¡¯s screams stopped.
"It¡¯s over?"
"Someone get adder so we can have a look at the second floor!" Geral shouted out. With the silence, it could mean two things. Either she was fine or that she had died so she could no longer scream.
Gritting his teeth, he hoped that it was just him overthinking it.
When they finally brought over thedder, Geral grabbed it and ced it against the window. Climbing up as quickly as he could, he looked into the room, hoping that Shiro was ok.
"How is it?" Amanda called out in worry.
". . ." Geral stayed silent as he was shocked at the sight.
The entire room was trashed and coated with blood. Within the middle of the room, Shiroid in a puddle of her own blood.
"Someone get a drill or something! Help me crack this window open!"
###
"Urg..." Groaning in pain, Shiro tried to open her eyes but realised that she could hardly move her body.
{My queen! You¡¯re awake!} Nimue cried out in relief.
¡¯What happened?¡¯ Shiro asked in confusion. Thest thing she remembered was that she had epted the upgrade. After that, she was wrecked by a huge pain and that was it.
{You passed out after the pain was too much for you my queen.}
¡¯I see... is that why I can¡¯t move right now?¡¯
{Indeed. Your body is slowly recovering due to the damage that the nanobots had caused. I don¡¯t know why but your recovery speed had slowed down a lot. Normally, you would have been healed a week ago.}
¡¯A week? How long have I slept for?¡¯
{10 days.}
¡¯10 days huh? I suppose the upgrade must be sessful then.¡¯ Shiro sighed tiredly. Even now, she could still feel her body crying out in pain but it was bearable now.
Focusing her mind, she tried to manipte her mana so that she could heal her body with Life Fire.
Thankfully, with her control of mana, she was able to do this despite the fact that her body was entirely immobile.
After a short while, she could finally move her fingers.
Once she could move her body to a decent degree, she forced open her eyes and flinched from the light.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue in annoyance, turned her head slowly and looked around.
"So I¡¯m in my own room." She muttered and forced herself to sit up.
Looking down on her body, she noticed that she was dressed entirely in bandages from head to toe.
However, there was one thing that stole her attention more than others.
¡¯Is my b.r.e.a.s.ts a B cup or a C cup?¡¯ She thought while cing a hand on her b.r.e.a.s.ts.
Realising that they were real, and widened her eyes in a mixture of surprise and joy.
"Holy f*ck did I finally be an a.d.u.l.t again!?"
Quickly standing up, she flinched from the pain but made her way to the bathroom.
Looking at the mirror, she saw her new body and was delighted.
She was around 5ft 7 and had a rather curvy body. She still had her ice white hair but herplexion had be rosier.
However, her eyes had changed the most. Previously, her pupils were pure ck but now, they were pinkish purple with blood red circuit patterns in the pupils.
"How strange..." She muttered. Now that she knew she had matured. She noticed that her voice wasn¡¯t as high pitched as before.
ncing at her status board, she checked out her new upgrades.
Chapter 288 Bonus Rewards
Chapter 288 Bonus Rewards
[Nanomancer ss has evolved into EX ranked ss: Ascendant Nanomancer]
[As the first person in the current world to have discovered an EX ranked ss, you are rewarded with the title: Revolutionary. Bonus rewards are also assigned.]
[Title: Revolutionary]
As the person who had discovered an EX ss, you are given a blessing by the world.
All stats increase by 20%
Rare Item drop chance increased by 50%
Exp needed to level up decreased by 50%
[Bonus Rewards: Origin¡¯s Blessing, Origin Fusion Cell, Origin Element Upgrade Stone]
"God damn... that title is insane..." Shiro muttered in surprise.
The fact that all of her stats had increased by 20% was amazing on its own. However, it had also included the fact that the amount of EXP she needed to level up had been reduced by half.
To make things even better, she had also received some bonus rewards as well.
[Origin¡¯s Blessing ¨C ???]
An item blessed by the origin. When used, user will receive a specially tailored Throne World.
[Origin Fusion Cell ¨C ???]
An item blessed by the origin. When used, user can fuse any number of skills of the same category and receive an upgraded skill as a recement. The stronger and more skills you use as fusion material, the better the final skill.
[Origin Element Upgrade Stone - ???]
An item blessed by the origin. When used, user can upgrade a single elemental attunement by 2 ranks.
"..." Her silence was understandable since a single evolution had gave her 3 items of unidentified grade on top of an incredible title.
The first item allowed her to have a tailored throne world that was an upgraded version of the domain. The second, a skill that while unknown, is guaranteed to be powerful.
And for herst bonus, the item that would increase her element by 2 ranks. While it may soundckl.u.s.trepared to the other two, Shiro believed that this was the best item since 2 ranks were no joke.
Elements always evolve and advance as a person gets stronger. Just like how her ice evolved into cial, elements increase in potency and power the more they evolve.
For an item that increased her elements by 2 ranks, it would mean the power of said element may be equivalent to that of a tier 5¡¯s!
"Amazing..." She muttered while looking at the stone. Out of all her elements, ice and lightning were the ones that she used the most. Ice due to its diversity and lightning due to its power.
While she could choose to upgrade lightning, it would only make it so that it was equal to her ice. That wasn¡¯t what she wanted. In her current situation, both in the quest and the outside world, she needed new skills and powers that would allow her to breach the level difference quickly.
If she were to upgrade her ice element, it would have a bigger effect on those above her level. Plus, ice was innately a control focused element that would slowly turn lethal.
Who knows, if she upgraded it, she may even shatter people to ice dust in a single moment. Even if they don¡¯t, they¡¯ll be immobilised.
"That settles it." She grinned and decided to use the item on her cial Attunement.
[cial Attunement (Tier 3) + Origin Element Upgrade Stone = Astral Ice Attunement (Tier 3)
[Astral Ice]
Ice that stayed frozen even under the searing radiance of the sun.
Feeling a surge of power through her body, Shiro closed her eyes and embraced this feeling. Her temperature started to decrease rapidly as ice mist enveloped the bathroom.
"Fu...." Breathing out gently, the mirror in front of her crumbled into ice dust without a sound.
Clenching her fist, she couldn¡¯t suppress the smile that crept up on her face.
"While only at tier 3, it is already stepping into the bounds of tier 4 despite me only being level 65. Astral Ice... I¡¯ll focus on cultivating you for now." She muttered.
Regting her temperatures once more, she made a new mirror with her nanobots.
However, to her surprise, the nanobots didn¡¯te from her body. Instead, it had materialised in front of her out of thin air.
"Eh?"
Narrowing her eyes, she realised that she could convert all the ambient mana within a 5 meter radius of her into nanobots.
"Does that mean I have a permanent domain on at all times?"
cing her hand on her chin, she realised that she had quite a lot of mysteries to discover about her upgraded nanobots. Being able to materialise them without being in contact was certainly a blessing especially for covert operations.
Shaking her head, she grabbed the other bonus item. One that gave her a specialised Throne World.
Activating the item, her mind suddenly felt faint as she grabbed hold of the sink to stabilise herself.
[Myriad Transformations Throne World Gained.]
"Myriad Transformations?" She massaged her head in pain.
[Myriad Transformations]
A world belonging to entity: Shiro. Within this world, everything and anything is controlled by you. It will change depending on the elemental attunement you choose, whether that be a frozen tundra or a thunderous cmity.
"Seems like I got the jackpot." She grinned when she realised that this throne world was one that incorporated every element she used rather than just one.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to keep herst item for now. The fact that she could fuse ANY amount of skills of the same category was extremely precious and she shouldn¡¯t use it the moment she got it.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Mystic Fae
Title: Shadow Empress, Advanced Monster (21/1000 Human¡¯s Killed), Fratricide, One Woman Battalion, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Ice Princess, Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Eternal Ice Maiden, Corrupted War Maiden, Chimera yer, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary
Level: 65
ss: Mystic Sylph Queen (SSS), Ascendant Nanomancer (EX)
HP: 2,902,012/3,806,250
MP: 7,430,100/9,587,500
STR: 18,000 -> 23,000 <+10,350>
VIT: 17,000 -> 21,000 <+9,450>
INT: 42,000 -> 50,000 <+22,500> {+2,500} (+1,700)
AGI: 23,000 -> 27,000<+12,150> (+1,200)
DEX: 17,000 -> 21,000 <+9,450>
DEF: 8,000 -> 12,000 <+5,400> (+200)
< > = Title Bonus (45%) {Tears of the Sylph Queen +5% INT} (Armour)
Unassigned Points: 0]
Despite her level still being the same, her MP had almost reached 10 million while her HP was bordering on 4 million.
"To think this trial hasn¡¯t ended yet despite there being so many benefits. Lucky me." She grinned.
She still had the research volumes to discover which would increase the power of her nanobots once more.
But right now, she felt like she could fight off a level 100 as long as she used her soul sword. If she used one of her other berserk skills, it would only be overkill.
"I should be able to kill that damned Redirm if I was to fight him now." She mused with a grin.
Flicking her wrists, she summoned out her outfit. Since the outfit was made from monster cloth, courtesy of Aarim, it adjusted itself to Shiro¡¯s body size immediately.
*Whistle~
"Damn, Kuromi is definitely a top notch beauty." Shiro nodded in appreciation at her current body.
Flipping her hair back, she made her way out of her house.
cing her hand on her stomach, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a pang of hunger.
"Tch, effects of sleeping for 10 days huh?" She muttered.
Just as she walked down stairs, she was surprised to see both her mother, father and her younger self in her house..
Seeing Shiro by the stairs, Amanda dropped what she was doing and rushed over to hug her.
"You had me so worried!" She cried out while hugging Shiro with all of her strength.
"Ah? Mo- Amanda, are you ok?" Shiro said while correcting herself quickly.
"Sorry, Amanda had just been worried about your health for the past few days since you caused quite amotion before falling into aa." Geral smiled while eating some food.
"Geral, weren¡¯t you the one who almost begged everyone for us to take care of Shiro since you were worried." Amanda frowned while ring at Geral.
*cough!
"What are you talking about?" Geral scratched his cheek.
Seeing this scene, Shiro smiled softly.
"But Shiro, you surprised me. When we found you, you were covered in a puddle of your own blood. During the time you were unconscious, your body slowly changed into that of an a.d.u.l.t¡¯s." Amanda said while checking Shiro¡¯s body.
"Might be because of my ss upgrading. But do you have any spare food? I¡¯m starving." Shiro chuckled.
"Of course,e, I¡¯ll make you some food right away." Amanda nodded as she ushered Shiro to the table.
After having her meal, Shiro had her parents and her younger self stay the night while she nned on what she was going to do tomorrow.
¡¯With my newly upgraded power, I should be able to raid the base fully while killing their reinforcements.¡¯ She thought while promising to eradicate every scientist in the base tomorrow.
Chapter 291 Leaving The City
Chapter 291 Leaving The City
Walking out of the secret rooms that was filled with corpses, Shiro took this time to save all of the test subjects that were held in theb.
Moving everyone out of the base, she made sure to clear all details about nanobots. After all, this world would be a little better without scientists kidnapping children to perform the experiments.
Looking at the emptyb, the notion of using this as a base popped into her head but there were several problems regarding that. First was the children¡¯s trauma and second was the fact that the otherbs knew the location of this one.
If she really did use this as a base, she would only be increasing the amount of risks around her.
Shaking her head, Shiro ignored the idea of turning thebs into a base.
Once she made sure that everything was cleared up, she took the children back to the vige and had them stay with the other children.
Due to the hardsh.i.p.s that they each suffered, each one of them were like siblings to each other.
Smiling at the fact that the children were slowly getting over their trauma through relying on each other, Shiro called for a meeting amongst all the different leaders.
These leaders included the cksmith leader, the chief and so on.
"So, as you are all well aware, I had been saving the children from a nearby base that had been kidnapping them for experiments. While I have finished clearing this one up, there are plenty more scattered throughout the world. I hope that you can help me find all of these bases so that we can help these children before more are taken." Shiro said while hiding some of the truths.
Her main goal was to naturally find the main base but even after scanning through everything in theputer, she only found the locations of branchbs like the one she had cleared. While she could remember the location based on her old memories, she had to keep in mind that they had shifted the main base several times so there was no telling where the base was now.
"Miss Shiro, we would love to help you, but you must remember, we¡¯re not high level warriors that can help you fight. There isn¡¯t much that we can help out with." One of the leaders said while furrowing his brows.
"Don¡¯t worry about that. What I want you to do doesn¡¯t require fighting at all but rather, surveince using these drones that I have created." She smiled while pulling out several mechanised birds.
She had retrieved this design from her database since it fit the current situation quite well.
Dubbed the P.X 102 Surveince drone, it was capable of camouging itself and hiding its mana signal making it one of the best scouting tools she could make right now. The only downside to this was that it required someone to control it using a controller and the fact that it was difficult to use underground
As for how it would find the bases, once the bird is within 100 meters of a nanobot, it would send a signal to the controller and mark down the location.
Exining the controls for the drone, she made a few hundred drones so that they could cover more ground.
Instructing the leaders to tell the other vigers about her request, Shiro made her way back to her house.
After thest incident, Shiro had offered her parents and her younger self to stay in her house so that they could live together.
While they did reject it at first, they eventually agreed after some persuasion.
Opening the doors, she saw her mother preparing dinner while her father and Nytri sat on the sofa and watched TV.
"Ah you¡¯re home. How was the mission today?" Her mother asked with a smile.
"It was rather productive. I¡¯ve finished off thebs and rescued all the subjects. The next thing on my list is to find the mainb along with some personal things that I need to deal with." Shiro replied with a smile.
Walking up to the table, she started to help her mother prepare some of the ingredients.
"Don¡¯t stress yourself out too much. If you keep going like this, you¡¯ll overwork soon enough you know?" Her father called out with a smile.
"I understand." Shiro chuckled softly.
Spending time with her parents like this was pretty enjoyable since this is how she imagined how life may have been like should the vige not be raided. Of course, that was ignoring the fact that she was going around destroying bases.
###
The next day, she informed them that she¡¯d be going on a trip and that if they needed her, they can just contact her using themunication devices that she had with the chief and her parents.
Of course, this was reserved for important notifications only.
Making sure that she has enough food and mana stones should she need to eat, Shiro made her way to the carriages.
She wanted to get some information regarding the light hero¡¯s hometown and perhaps clear a fewbs on the way.
"Excuse me, have you heard of a ce called Ardvine?" She asked the stables manager.
"Ardvine? Yes, I have. Are you looking for a way to get there?" The manager replied while marvelling at her appearance.
"Yeah, do you know a caravan or carriage that¡¯s going there? I can act as a guard if need be."
"Hmm... if you¡¯re looking for something like that, I think there are two carriages that you can take. The first is a carriage that could only afford hiring some D ranked guards so if you¡¯re someone powerful, I don¡¯t think they can hire you. As for the second one, it¡¯s a strange mix of people since they¡¯re apparently going to do a newly emerged raid or something near Ardvine. You¡¯ll have to get off mid-way and walk the rest of the journey. As for whether or not they¡¯re willing to take you, I¡¯m not exactly sure." The manager shrugged.
"Thank you. Can you show me where the first carriage is?" Shiro asked. She didn¡¯t really care about the payment since it wasn¡¯t like she could bring money from out of this quest to begin with.
"Of course, they¡¯re just around that corner over there. The leader of the hired guards is a guy with red hair so it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to find them."
Thanking the manager once more, she followed his directions and found them soon enough.
The guards that had been hired sat on one side while the carriage was being loaded with goods.
"Excuse me~" Shiro called out with a friendly voice.
When paired with her appearance and newly matured body, it scored a critical hit on the men¡¯s hearts.
"Is this the caravan to Ardvine?" She asked.
"Ah er yes." The merchant replied.
"Is it possible for me to tag along? You don¡¯t need to pay me anything since I¡¯m really just trying to look for a guide there." Shiro smiled.
"Of course! Though about the seating..."
"Don¡¯t worry about that. I can just sit on the roof or walk."
¡¯The roof?¡¯ The merchant thought in confusion. Normally, a beautiful girl would like to be seated inside the carriage so that they don¡¯t have to walk. Not only was the roof hard and dirty, but the seats inside were also padded so that they werefortable. Who in the right mind would give up somethingfy for something like a roof?
"You want to sit on the roof?" He asked again just to make sure.
"Yup." Shiro nodded.
While she was talking to the merchant regarding travel ns, the D ss guards couldn¡¯t take their eyes off Shiro.
Although the reason could be attributed to her appearance, the main cause was theck of pressure they felt from her. It was as if she didn¡¯t even exist. This feeling unnerved the guards since it felt like she could suddenly erupt at any moment.
Meanwhile, the figure that had been observing her all this time narrowed his eyes in thought.
"The time limit is almost up. I¡¯ll move the main base to Ardvine for you to discover. Once you arrive in the city, the time remaining in the trial will only be enough for you to do one task. Without knowing this, would you choose the satisfaction of revenge over power gain or the other way around?" He muttered while flicking his wrist.
Chapter 292 Ardvine
Chapter 292 Ardvine
After settling everything with the merchant, Shiro walked up to the guards.
"Hi, I¡¯m Shiro, a level 65 Cryomancer. I primarily use ice but I¡¯m not limited to ice. I can use other elements but they¡¯recking a little. I¡¯ll be travelling with you till we arrive in Ardvine so I hope we get along." She introduced herself with a smile.
Surprised at her introduction, they half expected her to just ignore them and go off on her on business.
"Ah my apologies for not introducing myself. My name is Adam and I am the leader of this group. I¡¯m a Level 50 Pyr Warlock. I primarily use fire as my element." Adam introduced himself with a slight bow.
"Here are the rest of my teammates..."
Introducing Shiro to the rest of the guards, they talked for a short moment while waiting for the merchants to finish packing up.
"So you have 3 warrior types, 2 mages and a support tanker. What about healer?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Healers are quite hard to get since they¡¯re mostly being taken byrger teams. We mostly use items to make up for this." Adam smiled bitterly.
"I see. Troubled times I suppose." Shiro chuckled.
"We¡¯ve finished packing! We¡¯ll be setting off in 5 minutes." The merchants called out, cutting their conversation short.
"Got it!" Adam replied while standing up.
"Well it¡¯s time to get to work." He smiled.
While the guards stood around the carriage, Shiro sat on the roof with her legs hanging off the side.
"Are youfortable there?" The merchant asked.
"Yup. It¡¯s good." Shiro nodded.
"Then let¡¯s go."
Leaving the city, the carriage travelled without any breaks unless it was at night or for food. Those that are tired would sit at the side of the carriages or on the roof with Shiro.
While they were doing this, Shiro spent most of her time trying to bring the concept of volume 1 of nanobot research into real life.
The problems of trying topress theponents of the nanobots in order to reduce its size was that it became unbnced and easily shattered due to the stress build up.
For her to seed in bringing out the concept, she¡¯ll have to first ovee the hurdle of structural integrity.
While there was little to no sess, Shiro wasn¡¯t too bothered due to the fact that she had the time to burn.
She didn¡¯t need to make a move for the monsters since they were easily handled by the guards.
However, the further away they got from the city, the higher level the monsters became.
From the initial level 20 fodder that was easily dispatched, they started to see level 50 monsters that might cause them to take quite some damage.
Of course, Shiro didn¡¯t just watch and do nothing.
Whenever a level 50 monster appeared, she would just flick her wrist and send out a wave of ice mist.
A single attack was all that she needed to reduce the monster to frozen dust which scattered away into the wind.
Despite the fact that she one shot the monster; it was still within expectations for the guards since they knew that the ss disparity was quite big. It was only natural for a C ss adventurer to kill a D rank monster easily.
However, they started to get worried when a level 60 serpent had appeared before them.
"How is a monster this high level on this route? Shouldn¡¯t it be safe?" The merchant panicked.
Despite the fact that Shiro said she was level 65; most would need a team of C ssed adventurers to face off against a serpent like this.
"Miss Shiro, we should start to retreat." The merchant suggested.
"Nah it¡¯s fine just watch." Shiro smiled as she stood up for the first time on this trip.
Cracking her neck, she narrowed her eyes at the serpent.
"Fuu....." Breathing out some cold mist, her killing intent enveloped the serpent.
The cold mist started to wrap around the serpent, forcing him to inhale some of it.
"No hard feelings." She muttered and snapped her fingers.
*KRRR!!!
Ice spikes erupted out of the serpent¡¯s body as the moment the cold mist had entered its body, it was doomed.
Copsing on the ground and shattering torge chunks of frozen flesh, the serpent died without even being able to hiss.
Looking at the fearsome serpent that had died with a single attack, they realised how powerful Shiro was.
No matter how much INT she has as a level 65, it shouldn¡¯t be possible for her to defeat the level 60 serpent this easily.
"What level are you really Miss Shiro? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever heard of a level 65 being able to kill a level 60 monster as casually as you have. If anything, that¡¯s something a level 80 would do." Adam asked as his smile twitched slightly.
"I am honestly a level 65 haha. It¡¯s just that my title makes my INT a ¡¯little¡¯ higher than average." She smiled. Naturally, she was referring to her monster title which made it so that her points were worth twice as much as they should.
"Sure..." Adam rolled his eyes.
As they continued their journey, there were no more appearances of C ssed monsters.
It was always peak D ss or lower. If the monster was level 45 or above, it was dealt with by Shiro. Anything under that was handed over to the guards since they needed to work for their pay after all.
During this, Shiro kept herself up to date with all the data that was being gathered by the drones.
So far, they had managed to discover 92bs but not one of them was the mainb, much to Shiro¡¯s disappointment.
On the 5th day of travel, they were finally closing in on Ardvine.
Looking at the city in the distance, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow.
Since she had never seen the hero¡¯s hometown nor cared about it in her previous life, she was rather curious as to what it looked like.
However, now that she was face to face with the city, Shiro had to admit that it looked impressive.
Instead of your average city, it was better described as a floating ind that had several roads connecting it to the ground.
Waterfalls poured out the sides of the ind while the surface was covered by tall white buildings and golden arcs.
Within the centre of the ind, a giant cathedral or sorts could be seen with the church¡¯s g fluttering above it.
{That¡¯s quite the impressive city isn¡¯t it my queen?} Nimue remarked.
¡¯Indeed.¡¯
Looking at the whole aesthetic of the ind, while impressed, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but have the urge to vomit whatever she had eaten earlier. The ind practically screamed the message of ¡¯We worship the light goddess¡¯.
Arriving at the front gates, they presented their crystals and were given ess to the city.
Upon taking a single step into the city, Shiro paused and widened her eyes.
Much like how she had installed a sensor on the drone to keep an eye out for thebs, she had kept one on her for good measure. She didn¡¯t expect to feel such a huge reaction from the city as it was equivalent to tens ofbsbined into one.
Even though the sensor could only detect it once it was within range, the sheer density of nanobots made it much easier to detect.
¡¯Tch, with the amount of nanobots I¡¯m picking up with the sensor, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if someone told me this entire city was theb.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while trying to pinpoint the location of thebs.
However, it was also due to its density that made it harder to be found.
"Troublesome..." She muttered with a frown.
"What¡¯s troublesome?" Adam asked curiously.
"Nothing. Sorry, this is where we part. I got some things to deal with." Shiro waved her hand lightly before flickering away.
Jumping from roof to roof, she flexed her fingers and created a more urate sensor so that she could see where the most amount of nanobots were being gathered.
¡¯The cathedral? Strange...¡¯ She furrowed her brows.
If anything, the people in the church hated the Nanomancer ss since it was deemed as heresy to use an artificial ¡¯thing¡¯ to corrupt the sacred system of which the light goddess created.
Little did they know, she was most likely under the effects of the system.
{Maybe it¡¯s because this is a trial?} Nimue suggested.
¡¯Maybe. Either way, this is perfect. Both of my targets are in the same ce.¡¯ She smiled while making her way towards the centre of the city.
Chapter 300 Cyrils Identity
Chapter 300 Cyril''s Identity
"Right then, first things first. The princes. We¡¯ll have the princesses allocate some men and weapons to the third prince. Naturally, you try to hide that it¡¯s your doing but make it so that they¡¯ll find out as long as they try a bit harder. Just do this for now and we¡¯ll talk about the restter." Shiro said while looking at Cyril.
Currently, the best thing to do is give them small tasks to act as checkpoints so that things will run smoothly. After all, a lofty goal at the start would only cause more stress and make them overthink a lot of things.
"Sure. That¡¯s doable." Cyril nodded her head.
"Quick question, is it ok for me to stay here for a second? I got something I want to test out." Shiro asked since she wanted to see if she could lighten the burden on Iziuel with her life fire right now.
"Hmm... Since the world tree sapling is here, I can¡¯t say for sure. Why don¡¯t we head back and talk to the elders first?" Cyril suggested.
"That sounds fair. It would be weird if they trusted someone new to be near a sacred item after all." Shiro agreed. Plus, she was going to ask a little in regards to who Cyril actually is. There were too many secrets around her and she wanted to ask the elders more about it.
Making their way out of the hall, they noticed that the legacy area slowly faded away.
¡¯So all of the mana has been used up...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a sigh.
Shaking her head, she gave Edvimar a silent prayer and promised that she¡¯ll look after Lyrica.
Sneaking out near the exit, Shiro made sure that she knocked out the observers once more.
"Won¡¯t they get suspicious at the sudden gap in knowledge?" Silvia raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe. But, that¡¯s fine. I¡¯m pretty much ready to duke it out with level 100¡¯s anyways. If anything, I¡¯d like to raise my level so that I have better control over the situation." Shiro shrugged.
Now that her Nanomancer ss had upgraded, level 100¡¯s were within reach for her. It was only those executives that were above level 100 that bothered her. Once she annoys any one of them, she could almost guarantee that the city would suffer quite a bit of coteral damage.
After all, those in the B ss or higher are basically walking disasters at this point.
Making their way back to the elder¡¯s room, Cyril reported back that they had obtained the inheritance.
The elders were a little taken aback at Shiro¡¯s appearance but she just told them that the third prince had her wear it as to not attract any attention.
"Hmm... he must have done that to stop the first and second prince from trying to get you." One of the elders muttered.
"Oi, don¡¯t say that in front of the girl." Another elder reprimanded while pinching his thigh.
"Ssss!" Taking a sharp breath in, he suppressed his cries and decided to just spectate and say nothing.
"Well it doesn¡¯t matter anyway." Shiro shrugged since she didn¡¯t really care.
After discussing the main ns for now, she had the elders help the princesses allocate some manpower to the third prince without arousing too much suspicion.
"Girls, why don¡¯t the lot of you go level up some more while I deal with some of the more misceneous tasks." Shiro said with a smile.
"Eh? But don¡¯t you need to level up as well?" Aarim tilted her head in confusion.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. My EXP is linked to Lisa so her kills are my kills and vice versa." Shiro replied.
". . .Damn. But doesn¡¯t that mean that if you both farm at the same time, you¡¯ll be able to level up twice as fast."
"Indeed." Shiro shrugged slightly.
However, neither Aarim or the party members knew that she was technically going four times as fast as the usual levelling speed. If they did, Shiro knew that they would freak out at her insane levelling speed.
Sending the party on their way to level up, Shiro sat down on the chair and looked at the elves with a serious face.
"Now that we¡¯re along, why don¡¯t we talk about some of the more serious things?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Oh? What do you want to talk about then?"
"It¡¯s not required for you to answer but who is Cyril? From what I¡¯ve seen, I don¡¯t think she¡¯s Edvimar¡¯s daughter." Shiro said with a frown.
Looking at each other and hesitating a little, the elders eventually nodded. Since they were going to be working together, telling Shiro the truth was ok.
"You¡¯re half right. Cyril is not the proper child of Edvimar but rather an experiment using his genes. You see, one of the families had wanted to create a being with incredible potential. That¡¯s why when they got their hands on Edvimar¡¯s genes, they started to experiment with how far they could take it. After experimenting, they made tens of children that were a mix of both elf and monster." The elder sighed.
"I¡¯m guessing they wanted to harness the power physique of the monsters then?" Shiro asked as they nodded.
"Yes. The family wanted to see how far they could take the fusion. By the time Cyril was created, we¡¯d already sent people to storm theirbs. Out of all the experiments, Cyril was the only stable one. At the time, we didn¡¯t want to kill Cyril since she was technically just born. That¡¯s why we¡¯ve been raising her while keeping a close eye on her."
"Hm... what monster was Cyril created from then?"
"Vampires. By impregnating a vampire woman with Edvimar¡¯s Gene¡¯s, they were able to create a half vampire half elf that didn¡¯t have the weakness of sunlight or silver. When paired with incredible regeneration, healing and great physical strength, Cyril had managed to dominate even dungeons much higher than her level. Back then, she cleared a level 70 dungeon despite being a level 50 due to the sheer ridiculousness of her healing. She had managed to outlive the boss and slowly chip away at its health. If she needed tond the final blow, she would have some items to help her."
Furrowing her brows, Shiro took a moment to digest the information.
¡¯So Cyril is an experimental being not too far from what I was. Not only that, she¡¯s a mix hybrid between elf and vampires...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{That¡¯s... quite extreme...} Nimue said with a slight frown.
¡¯I suppose so. That being said, she could be a very powerful ally in the war toe you know?¡¯
{True.}
"Anyways, moving that aside for now, I have another question."
"Go on."
"How much freedom are you giving in regards to the situation right now?" Shiro asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean how much authority do I have?"
"Hmm...."
Taking a moment to consider this question, the elders discussed their thoughts beforeing to an agreement.
"Your authority will allow you to do most things without directly consulting us. However, this is limited to anything under allocating manpower. For tasks that are more important, we¡¯ll have the final say." The elders answered.
"That¡¯s fair. Since that¡¯s the case, I got a small favour to ask. Am I allowed back into the world tree? There are some things that I¡¯d like to confirm regarding the legacy space. While the space is gone after Lyrica had imed the contents, there should still be some marks left which may give me an insight toposition." Shiro asked. Naturally, that was a lie since she couldn¡¯t tell the elders that she had the life fire. After all, it is regarded as a holy relic for their race.
Revealing this would only throw everything in jeopardy.
"That..." Hearing her request, the elders hesitated. The world tree sapling is next to where the legacy space was. If they lost the world tree, it would be a huge setback for the elven race.
"Sorry, we can¡¯t allow that unless you havepany with you." The elders shook their heads.
"Understandable." Shiro nodded.
After talking for a little while, she returned to her room.
"Right then, time to sneak into the world tree again." She said with a grin.
{So you¡¯re just going to ignore the fact that they said no?} Nimue asked with a raised eyebrow.
¡¯Well it was either they say yes and go or they say no and I sneak it. Plus, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to harm the tree after all.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
Setting an illusion so that they won¡¯t get suspicious, she made her way back to the world tree.
Chapter 304 Killing The Knight
Chapter 304 Killing The Knight
Leaving a trail of ice behind her, she reached out with her hand and activated a tier 3 magic circle.
Countless spikes protruded out from the ice before beingunched out into the air with incredible velocity.
Looking at the spikes that fell towards him like arrows, the Grand Knight gritted his teeth and punched the ground.
"Aegis!" Hemanded and pulled out an earthen shield. Raising it above him, he attempted to block the arrows.
However, just as he did this, Shiro activated Asura Sword Path and shed towards the shield with all her might.
*BOOM!!! CRACK!!!!
Shattering the shield in half, she jumped into the rift so that she could avoid her own ice. Appearing behind the Grand Knight, she stabbed Ataraxia in his back before grabbing his arms.
Pushing mana into her hands, she activated cial Touch and started to freeze his arms.
With his guard being forced apart by Shiro, the Grand Knight gritted his teeth and activated a berserk skill.
*BANG!
A deep red aura erupted out of him, sending Shiro crashing backwards but she quickly adjusted herself and slid on the ground.
ring at the spikes that weren¡¯t affected by his aura, the Grand Knight spun his spear and threw it like a javelin.
*BOOM!!!!
Shooting out like a missile, it shattered all of the spikes before returning to his hand.
"Tch, what a pain." Shiro muttered with a frown. However, she knew that as long as she prolonged this fight a little, she¡¯d be able to attack him at full force when he¡¯s weakened.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she activated the skill that she learned when fighting against the level 100 Redirm in the trial space.
Killing Skill: Hollow Deceit!
This skill incorporated both the use of 5th phantom and Berserker Path. When activated, it would create 9 additional copies of her of which she could change ces with at any moment. The cool down was 10 seconds and would use 5% of her MP per activations.
However, this skill was worth it since it didn¡¯t take as much mana as her other skills.
As she activated the 5th phantom and Berserker path, her hair shifted from white to ck and her eyes changed to a deep red colour.
Crouching down slightly, she controlled each of the 9 copies to make different movements while dashing at the Grand Knight.
Furrowing his brows, the Grand Knight red at each of the copies and activated a tier 3 magic circle.
An illusionary armour coated his body while he swung towards the closest copy with incredible speed.
Seeing this, Shiro created the Genesis Hand Cannon and shot it towards the armour.
*PING!!!
Widening his eyes, the Grand Knight didn¡¯t expect his skill to be shattered so easily.
Quickly adjusting his spear, he attacked the one who had fired the weapon since he guessed that this was the real body.
Little did he know, she was able to change ces with any of the copies.
Changing ces with the copy that he had first targeted, Shiro twisted her body and shed towards the Grand Knight¡¯s neck.
Suddenly feeling a chill down his spine, the Grand Knight quickly activated another defensive skill but it was useless.
Shattering into countless particles once more, his defence was broken with ease.
"GAH!!!" Crying out in pain, his eyes became bloodshot while he tried to push back her sword that had cut into his neck.
Seeing this as an opportunity, Shiro decided to kill him here and now.
She also deemed it as a perfect opportunity to test out her new skill, Force of Elements.
Injecting mana into Ataraxia, she sacrificed it to regen her MP since she wanted to use the version with all 6 elements. However, doing so would drain 40% of her MP which isn¡¯t what she wanted.
Regenerating her MP, she encased the Grand Knight in a block of ice to stop his movements.
Activating the Force of Elements, 6 orbs of different colours floated around her before slowly merging together.
Forming into a crystal white sword that floated in the air, Shiro felt a little dizzy at the fact that almost half her MP was drained in an instant. Not only that, her mana links were being strained massively due to the mana use, forcing her to kneel down in pain.
The Grand Knight paled a little when he felt the sheer amount of pressure and danger that he could feel when looking at the sword. His first instinct was to run but since he was encased by ice, his movements were halted for now.
Seeing that the knight was trying to break out, Shiro narrowed her eyes and aimed her spare hand towards his location.
Frozen Slumber!
Several magic circles appeared around him as chains shot out and wrapped around the ice block.
Clenching her hands into a fist, the temperatures dropped rapidly, reinforcing the prison around the Grand Knight.
Despite her Force of Element skill being unmissable, she still didn¡¯t want him to get too far.
While the Grand Knight was chipping away at his prison, her skill was finally charged.
A gxy like aura could be seen coating the crystal sword as Shiro designated the Grand Knight as the enemy.
*BOOM!!!
Shooting towards the grand knight, the sword almost escaped the current limits of Shiro¡¯s perception, much to her shock. She quickly thawed all the ice so that it didn¡¯t reduce the power of the sword.
Erging itself once it was above the knight, the sword swung down with indomitable might.
*PUSHI!!!!
Before the Knight could even scream, the sword sliced him in half, ending his life there and then.
"Sss!" Taking in a sharp breath, Shiro was rather surprised at how violent this skill was. Since it had 200% additional magic damage, it essentially tripled her INT value.
While her links weren¡¯t broken, the strain now prevented her from activating any tier 3 skill for a short time. Whenever she did, she could feel pain shooting through her body.
"Damn... I shouldn¡¯t use this skill unless I have to." She muttered while walking to the Grand Knights Corpse.
After killing the knight, her level had increased from 70 to 71. Quickly allocating her stats, she retrieved the Knight¡¯s mana stone and collected his loot.
"Oh my..." Raising an eyebrow to the loot that he dropped, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but blink twice.
There were only two rare items but both were equipment. The first was a spear while the second was a set of armour.
[Ascended Hell knight¡¯s Spear LVL 80 ¨C Purple +]
A spear that belonged to a knight that had surpassed his limits.
+10,000 Attack
+10,000 Armour Pration
+8,000 Attack Speed
+30% Critical Chance
+20% Critical Damage
+15% Parry Chance
Skill: Spear Throw EX, Knight¡¯s Fury
Spear Throw EX:
When thrown, the spear bes a near unstoppable force that ignores 60% of DEF values.
Cost: 300,000MP
Cooldown: 2 minutes
Knight¡¯s Fury:
Every hit you do stacks 1 fury. When you reach 10 fury, your next attack is empowered and deals 100% bonus damage on hit while ignoring 20% of DEF.
Looking at the spear, she realised that this was the answer to her problem regarding defensive monsters.
"If I recycle this weapon andbine it with the kicuncher, I should be able to use the Spear Throw EX since it¡¯s technically shooting out a spear as the ammunition. If that¡¯s the case, then I can probably start to prototype a new sniper that is more kic based rather than magic based." Shiro muttered with a smile.
{But my queen, there is the problem regarding the description.} Nimue called out.
"Oh? What problem?"
{The fact that it says the word thrown. I suppose you would need to throw it manually for it to work.}
"Hmm.... I won¡¯t recycle it for now then." Shiro nodded since she¡¯ll probably do some experimentster to see if that¡¯s the case. Storing the spear away in her inventory, she looked at the armour piece.
[Ascended Hell Knight¡¯s Chest Piece LVL 80 ¨C Purple +]
+10,000 VIT
+7000 DEF
+7000 STR
Skill: diator Aura
diator Aura ¨C Berserk Skill:
When activated, VIT, STR and DEF is increased by an additional 20%
Cost: 10% of MP
Duration: 5 minutes
Cooldown: 10 hours
Bacsh: 80% muscle fatigue and muscle Strain for 5 hours. VIT, STR and DEF are reduced by 30% for 5 hours.
Understanding that this armour is good for Madison, Shiro stored it away before wondering about whether or not she should go into the boss room.
After all, she was a bit injured right now.
{I suggest that you stop here for now. You¡¯ve already gained 6 levels so you shouldn¡¯t risk it. Quit while you¡¯re ahead.} Nimue suggested.
"True. I cane back in a few days once my mana links have recovered." Shiro nodded and made her way out of the dungeon.
Chapter 306 Prototyping The Sniper
Chapter 306 Prototyping The Sniper
"So you have 12 million MP?" Madison asked after massaging her head.
"Yup."
". . . You know what? I¡¯m surprised you don¡¯t have 100 million MP considering the things that we¡¯ve fought." Madison shrugged since she knew of Shiro¡¯s identity as a monster.
Of all the monsters that they¡¯ve fought up to now, most of them had massive amounts of MP. Naturally, they couldn¡¯tpare to Shiro in terms ofbat standards but she had thought that Shiro would be the same. If that was the case, she¡¯ll be more monstrous than she is already.
"Well getting to 100 million EXP would be a pain after all." Shiro replied. If she wanted to get 100 million MP, she¡¯ll have to ughter the crap out of people in order for her to do so.
"Why do you make it seem like it¡¯s usible?" Aarim tilted her head in confusion.
"Well of course it¡¯s usible. Have you not seen the people at higher levels?" Shiro replied with a smile.
Pausing for a moment, Aarim agreed with what she said.
"So what were you doing in a level 80 dungeon?" Madison asked.
"I was trying to get myself some armour. But I had to turn back early since I injured my links a bit." Shiro shrugged.
"Ah before I forget, here you go. I know you¡¯re a while from level 80 but this shoulde in hand when you reach that level." She said while pulling out the chest armour that she had received from the Grand Knight.
"Ehh!? What is this berserk skill!?" Madison widened her eyes when she saw that this skill boosted her most important stats by 20%. Not only that, it also cost 10% of her mana.
"Don¡¯t worry about it too much. I have several skills that boost by the percentage." Shiro shrugged as the Lyrica, Lisandra, Yin and Silvia nodded in agreement.
"Wait so you girls have already received a percentage based berserk skill?"
"Yup. While Silvia might have gotten one because she¡¯s a healer, mine focuses on INT." Shiro replied.
"For my berserk skill, it increases my healing by 100% but the bacsh makes it so that after the period is over, my healing is reduced by 50%." Silvia replied honestly.
"There you go then." Shiro nodded.
Looking at her party members that seems to be quite acquainted with such skills, Madison could only massage her head.
"Goodness I feel like I¡¯m so far behind in terms of knowledge it¡¯s not even funny." She admitted.
"Well don¡¯t worry about it too much. But if it really does get on your nerves, you should visit the library often and see what you find." Shiro suggested.
While the party was talking, the level 100 guards had reported back to the first prince.
Sat in his office, the first prince adjusted his sses and frowned. His blond hair was tied into a low ponytail and his body was on the lean side. If one didn¡¯t know that his ss was Ascended Sword Emperor, they would have thought that he was a mage type adventurer.
"You¡¯re telling me, a level 65 element sage walked into the level 80 dungeon without being detected by you and left before you could even capture her?" He asked, clearly displeased.
"*gulp* That is correct. I have no excuses." The guard nodded since he knew that the prince hated anyone that tried to make an excuse for their mistakes.
Narrowing his eyes, Neldor (First Prince) cupped his chin with his hand and crossed his legs.
"Can you tell me anything about her? Surely you can aplish that right?" He asked with a frown.
"What do you wish to know?" The guard bowed.
"Name and appearance. I want to get a background check."
"Her name is Shiro. As for her appearance, it¡¯s better if you have a look at this." He said and pulled out a photo that was taken from the security cams during theirst talk.
Looking at the picture of the girl, Neldor paused for a moment.
"Hmm... do you know when she appeared in the city?" He asked curiously.
"No clue. We¡¯re looking into it right now and we should get an answer back soon."
"Good. I¡¯ll forgive you for now but know this, I¡¯m disappointed that several level 100¡¯s are able to let a level 65 pass without detections. You can go to the disciplinary quarters and get yourself a level 2 punishment. Don¡¯t let this happen again." Neldor shook his head and gestured for him to leave.
"Thank you, your highness for your generosity." The guard bowed before leaving. Taking a deep breath in relief, he was d that he only got a level 2 punishment rather than 4. At 4, that¡¯s when he¡¯ll be put under torture for a few hours.
Watching the guard left, the prince returned his gaze on the image.
"Interesting... a level 65 that can bypass the guards. Not only that, she is also a top notch beauty. This emperor has never seen such a perfect beauty, I must obtain her one way or the other." He clutched his fist and muttered.
Reaching out for hisptop, he sent a few messages to his followers.
###
Tasking the party to continue their grind in the dungeons, Shiro prepared to experiment with her new sniper idea revolving around the spear throw EX skill.
While she couldn¡¯t make the product, she could sketch out as many blueprints as she wants in real life.
Sitting down near one of theptops, she ced her finger on the side port and injected a small potion of nanobots.
Making herself a private server along with an app that has information regarding all of the pieces that she had in her database, she cracked her neck and started to get to work.
¡¯First off, I need a spearuncher as the base. Otherwise, the skill wouldn¡¯t activate. Second, I need to think about whether or not the spear has to be ¡¯thrown¡¯ or not. If it does, I¡¯ll need to make a different kind of weapon other than the sniper.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while browsing through the list of base parts for the sniper.
Nimue wanted to chip in her thoughts but decided to hold it off for now after seeing how serious her face looked.
Tapping away at the keyboard andbining different parts and simting their chances of sess, Shiro was creating a new kind of sniper every few seconds.
If the government were to know of this, they¡¯d do everything to get a hold on her. Of course, that wasn¡¯t including the fact that she is indeed a literal walking armoury with her Nanomancer ss.
Once that was revealed, she was sure that she¡¯ll be hunted down by the majority of the world.
Finalising a few of the drafts, she set them up into a spare folder and continued to work on the other blueprints.
This continued for 3 days as on the third, Shiro finally stopped feeling pain from her links.
During this time, she had also levelled up to 73 due to Lisandra¡¯s efforts. While it could have been higher if she had tried, it was already a blessing that she was getting levels since she wasn¡¯t going into dungeons herself.
Plus, the party couldn¡¯t go for higher level dungeons just yet because they were quite a few levels behind her.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Mystic Fae
Level: 73
ss: Mystic Sylph Queen (SSS),
Ascendant Nanomancer (EX)
HP: 5,800,000/5,800,000
MP: 13,687,500/13,687,500
STR: 35,000 <+15,750>
VIT: 32,000 <+14,400>
INT: 73,000 <+32,850> {+3,650}
AGI: 40,000 <+18,000>
DEX: 33,000 <+14,850>
DEF: 20,000 <+9,000>
< > = Title Bonus (45%)
{Tears of the Sylph Queen +5% INT} (Armour)
Unassigned Points: 0]
Now that she had recovered her strength back to full and the fact that and her HP had hit a perfectly round 5.8 million points, which brought her great joy, she prepared to test out her blueprints in the dungeons.
Leaving the room, she followed the familiar path and used Rift Walker to enter the dungeon once more.
"Tsk! God damn it, that woman is back." The guards frowned. They didn¡¯t attempt to do anything since the prince had told them to leave her for now.
###
Upon entering the dungeon, Shiro¡¯s first action was to make the sniper.
Flexing her fingers, nanobots started to swarm out of her hands and slowly took the shape of a ballista type sniper. In other words, it looked like a mix of a crossbow and sniper.
As for the main way that the sniper was going to fire the spear, it was through the use of a pressure chamber that was artificially created with her elements. This allowed her to bump up the pressure within the chamber to ridiculous heights.
Recycling the spear weapon that she had got and embedded the sniper with the skill, she aimed towards the first monster she saw and hoped that it would work.
"Live test, don¡¯t kill me please." She muttered before pressing the trigger.
*BANG!
Chapter 312 Lefyr Part 2
Chapter 312 Lefyr Part 2
"He should be inside right now." The elder said while opening the orphanage door.
Entering the orphanage, Shiro saw a handsome elf sitting around a table full of young people. Some looked as young as 5 while others as old as 18.
"We have guests." The elf called out and turned around. Seeing the elders, he quickly bowed in respect. The kids also did the same since they knew that they¡¯ll be someone important if the fourth prince bowed.
"Ah no need. We¡¯re just here to introduce you to someone." One of the elders quickly got him to stop bowing and had the other kids stop as well.
"This is Shiro, someone that will be helping us for a while." The elders said while gesturing to Shiro.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Lefyr Valenstaine." Lefyr smiled and bowed.
"Nice to meet you too." Shiro curve her lips into a smile and bowed back.
"So how would you be helping us?" Lefyr asked while ncing back at the orphans.
"Oh, no she¡¯s not helping with this. Instead, she¡¯s helping us with the problem regarding your brothers." The elder quickly corrected him.
Hearing this, Lefyr¡¯s smile faltered as he shook his head.
"I¡¯ve made my stand clear. I don¡¯t want to fight my brother¡¯s. Regardless of who gets the throne, I can still help the people."
"But-"
"It¡¯s ok. We can save that chat forter. No need to let the children hear about conflict now is there?" Shiro cut in with a smile.
"Prince Lefyr, would you like some assistance with the orphanage?" She offered.
"Of course. You can drop the prince honorific since I don¡¯t exactly care about the role." Lefyr replied with a nod.
Helping out a little with orphanage, Shiro also spent some time ying around with the children.
The elders furrowed their brows a little but decided to follow along since it wasn¡¯t really a loss for them anyways.
As time passed, the sun eventually set and Shiro helped make some dinner. While it wasn¡¯t the best food in the world, they were happy with her helping.
Looking at Shiro, Lefyr gestured for the two of them to step out for a short talk.
"You know, no matter how you help us, I¡¯m still not gonna go for the throne right?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I already guessed. But I suppose you know that I may or may not guilt trip you into doing it right?" Shiro smiled back.
"Mn." Lefyr nodded since he wasn¡¯t an idiot. With her helping him out, she must have a goal in mind much like the other nobles that had approached him in regards to the throne.
"Let¡¯s just say that no matter what you do, we¡¯re still going through with eliminating your brothers since they¡¯re too much of a bother to the country. If you don¡¯t take the throne, it¡¯s either this country bes a matriarchy where one of your sisters leads as a queen or outside powers start to take hold of the country." Shiro shrugged.
"What about having a government? The royal family can just be icons." Lefyr furrowed his brows.
"I¡¯ll be honest with you. I don¡¯t exactly have the best opinion about governments but that¡¯s not to say having a single leader is good as well. I just think that having a single good leader will make the situation a bit better. Having too many opinions would just lead to an internal struggle much like how your brothers are right now." Shiro replied.
Staying silent, Lefyr understood what she meant too.
"While I would love to just solve everything with violence, the casualties would only increase. I doubt Lyrica would like that so we¡¯re doing things the hard way."
¡¯Plus, she¡¯s also the daughter of my best friend so I suppose I¡¯m inclined to help her out a little.¡¯ Shiro added on in her mind.
"Lefyr, you should know by now that you¡¯re probably one of the best candidates right?" She asked.
"I do. But I don¡¯t think being a king suits me. I¡¯ll be forced into a constant state of worry and stress with how to run a country properly. Not to mention that if things go wrong, I¡¯ll need to fight wars too. With the way the system works, people are more inclined to use violence as a solution." He shook his head.
"Not gonna lie. I feel like that was targeting me." Shiro chuckled.
"Maybe." Lefyr shrugged.
"Well you know my goal and you can think about it when you want. There¡¯s not much to say when the person doesn¡¯t want it so I think I¡¯ll take my leave now." Shiro smiled and started to walk away.
Now that she knew about the fourth prince¡¯s attitude first hand, she¡¯ll need to make some adjustments to her ns.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯ll have to run some simtions in regards to the after effects of this war.¡¯ She sighed inwardly.
This was one of those problems that she couldn¡¯t just dust her hands free of the situation.
¡¯What do you say Nimue?¡¯ Shiro asked. She was curious as to what she would suggest.
{I¡¯m not too sure. I¡¯ve never had experiences as a ruler so I wouldn¡¯t know either.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯I may or may not have made apse in my judgement. Either everything works out fine or this country might be f*cked. MIGHT.¡¯
{. . . . I have . . . no words.} Nimue face palmed.
¡¯Well I can try to shoot my way out of it haha.¡¯ Shiro joked while telling the elders that she was going to head back to the castle.
¡¯But on a serious note, I need to find someone to take Lefyr¡¯s ce if he continues to be this way.¡¯
{Why not have Cyril take his ce?}
¡¯Maybe... we¡¯ll wait for now. I mean, if all things fail, we can just have the elders run the country for a bit longer and see how things go.¡¯
Arriving back at the castle, she was slightly surprised to see that the party wasn¡¯t home just yet and decided to sleep first.
But just as she was about to enter her room, she felt a presence close in on her.
"Miss Shiro. His highness the first prince would like to have a small chat with you over some dinner." A masked man said while bowing slightly.
"Oh? At 11pm?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"You maye tomorrow if that¡¯s what you wish. Though I suggest tending to him as soon as possible." The man replied ndly.
"Hou hou? Is that a threat?" Her voice rang out behind him while an ice dagger was next to his throat.
"Think of it more as an invitation rather than a threat. One that would displease his highness should you reject."
"Now, you see, that¡¯s where you¡¯re doing this whole invitation thing wrong. If you haven¡¯t realised, it¡¯s your prince that wants to see me not me want to see him. He has two choices, should he want to see me that badly. Eithere to my door or ask to see me nicely. Even a 5 year old can do that so I¡¯m sure your prince is at least capable of doing that right? Or is he less capable than a 5 year old?" Shiro grinned.
*PUCHI!
Hearing the prince get insulted, the messenger released his killing intent.
"Ap! Little boy, ying with killing intent is a job for the grown ups. Wait a few years then try again." Shiro chuckled as her intent crushed his in an instant.
Cold sweat flowed down the messenger¡¯s back as he shivered in shock.
Never in his life had he been exposed to such an overwhelming amount of killing intent.
"Now go back to your prince." Shiro said dismissively and pushed him aside.
Walking into her room and closing the door on his face, the messenger stood there for a moment before leaving.
###
"So she told you that I should either go see her or ask her nicely?" Neldor raised his eyebrows.
"That is what she said your highness." The messenger bowed deeply.
"Hmm... seems like she¡¯s quite feisty. No worries. This emperor will entertain her for now." Neldor chuckled and stood up.
"Show me to her room." He smiled and gestured for the messenger to lead the way.
Walking to Shiro¡¯s room, he had the messenger knock on the door.
Opening the door, Shiro raised her eyebrows when she saw the prince.
"Oh f*ck I didn¡¯t expect you to arrive in person. What can I do for you prince?" She asked with a smile.
Chapter 313 Important Item
Chapter 313 Important Item
Hearing what she said when she saw him, Neldor¡¯s smile faltered for a slight moment before recovering.
"This emperor heard that if I wanted a meal with you, I¡¯d need toe to you in person."
"Hou, well it seems like I¡¯ve troubled you then." Shiro smiled before attempting to close the door.
"You dare!" The messenger frowned and quickly stopped the door from closing.
"You know, it¡¯s quite rude to try force a dinner with me at this time right?" Shiro raised an eyebrow and showed them the time on her phone.
"Well how about just a small talk then?" Neldor smiled.
"Yeah... how about no?"
Flicking the messenger¡¯s arm off with impressive strength, Shiro closed the door.
Looking at his arm in shock, the messenger couldn¡¯t believe that someone that should be 35 levels below him could force him off this easily.
Turning around slowly, he saw the prince¡¯s face still with a smile. Understanding that the smile was hiding his anger, the messenger stepped aside and said nothing.
"She just rejected this emperor didn¡¯t she?" He asked slowly.
"She did." The messenger nodded with hesitation.
Taking a deep breath, Neldor shook his head and started to walk away.
Following behind him, the messenger nced towards Shiro¡¯s door briefly.
¡¯Stupid woman.¡¯ He thought to himself.
###
Sitting on the bed, Shiro had a smile on her face while looking at a tablet.
During the time that she had flicked the messenger¡¯s hand, she had imnted a nanobot to his sleeve.
Her n was to have it follow the prince and invade hisptop.
That way, she could gain ess to all of his files and see what he¡¯s nning. Naturally, there was the risk of him discovering the bot but she had made sure to camouge the bot¡¯s mana signal.
"Let¡¯s see, now that I have my bot trailing the first prince, I can set him aside for now. I need to find someone linked to the second prince so that I can do the same." Shiro muttered while crossing her legs.
Since she was already in the process of making the third prince¡¯s guards into her puppets, she didn¡¯t need to worry about him.
Tapping her chin for a few moments, she looked up information regarding the second prince¡¯s close aides.
¡¯Hmm... I can find one of his close servants near the mages tower.¡¯
Since the servant was also a mage, he ced a lot of his focus into research unlike Shiro who only needed to level up. This was one of the privileges she had due to the fact that she was a monster.
"Speaking of the mage¡¯s tower, I need to update my guild id. I¡¯m still a level 46 ice mage on the ID." She muttered.
Shaking her head, she did a little more research regarding the second prince¡¯s servant and fell asleep.
When she woke up, she saw that her level had increased from 77 to 78.
{Seems like the girls are still doing the dungeons.} Nimue said as she could see that none of them returned.
¡¯Mn. That¡¯s a good thing though. Now that Lisa is level 78, they can challenge level 80 dungeons if they wanted to. The danger of challenging this despite them being quite a few levels lower than the monsters is good for their development. Not only that, Lisa is also there so I don¡¯t need to worry too much.¡¯ Shiro smiled and stood up.
Stretching her body slightly, she left the castle.
Looking up at the dark clouds, Shiro sighed slightly.
¡¯I think it might rainter today.¡¯ She mused and walked through the city.
Hiding her face with a mask, she tied her hair into a ponytail.
Today was going to be one of those days where she rxed a little since there wasn¡¯t much to do other than set a bot on the second prince¡¯s follower and update her ID.
Two simple tasks.
Arriving at the Adventurer¡¯s guild, Shiro waited patiently in the line.
"So how may I help you today?" The woman asked with a professional smile.
"I¡¯m just here to update my status." Shiro replied and handed her the ID card.
"Understood. I¡¯ll just need to see your face along with a quick test to verify your identity." The woman said while pulling out an orb. Recognising the orb to be the same one that they had used to try find her old ID back in New York, Shiro wondered why they couldn¡¯t find out that she was Kuromi.
¡¯Do you think it has something to do with my enemy?¡¯ Shiro asked Nimue curiously.
{It¡¯s a possibility. That being said, do you think that it may also just be a case of security clearance?}
¡¯Hmm.... Who knows.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
cing her hand on the crystal, she verified her ID as Shiro and updated her card.
[Name: Shiro
Estimated Age: 13
ss: Element Sage
LVL: 65
Mage¡¯s Association Membership: VIP (New York Branch)]
"Miss Shiro, do you know your age? Because your body is clearly not one that belongs to a child." The woman asked while pointing at the age section.
"My age? No idea. I had amnesia when I woke up in New York and that was a while back. I¡¯ve upgraded my ss and my body changed along with it." Shiro replied.
"I see. If you want, we do have a device that is still in its testing phase and it detects a person¡¯s age. The result may not be urate though." The woman offered.
¡¯Hmm... if I did it, it might show my age as just a few months. That would be quite awkward.¡¯
"No thanks. Just put my age down as 18 or something close to that." Shiro replied with a shrug.
In this world where everyone can live hundreds of years if they levelled up enough, age isn¡¯t exactly a focus anymore. Of course, it is still a crime to go for someone underaged but after 18, hardly anyone cares about the age difference. There could be situations where the age difference could be as big as 40 years despite the couple almost looking like they¡¯re the same age.
"Very well." Nodding her head, the woman updated her age and handed the card back to her.
"Have a nice day."
"You too."
Leaving the counter, Shiro stored her updated ID card in her inventory.
Looking around, she noticed that there was quite amotion near the terminals.
¡¯Seems like something fun is going on.¡¯ Shiro thought with an inward grin.
Walking over, she saw adventurer¡¯s in different uniforms arguing with each other.
Recognising the uniforms to be the ones that belong to the Rising Sun faction and the God¡¯s Pantheon. Two factions that support different princes.
¡¯Hou hou~ I see an opportunity.¡¯
Making her aura so that it was barely detectable, she slowly manoeuvred her way through the crowd and arrived at the front without anyone realising.
On the Rising faction¡¯s side, she could hear some japanese being spoken near the back while the people in front spoke in English.
"Are you challenging us? Despite the fact that we took the quest at the same time and we clearly finished before you, you¡¯re ndering us with the act of cheating? Petty!" A Japanese guy said with disdain on his face.
"Ha? You think we were being petty? Then tell us why you could provide enough damage despite your team being mostly supporters and healers."
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro realised that they were in conflict because of the quest they took from the guild.
¡¯Were they having apetition or something?¡¯ She wondered to herself.
ncing towards the people at the back, she was curious as to what they were talking about.
Flexing her fingers, she created an ear piece that would trante the Japanese into English.
"Hey, are you sure we can do this? Violence is banned in the guild you know?"
"It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s not like they¡¯re going to get physical. That being said, I¡¯d rather us finish this soon since we still have to collect our rewards."
"Mn. But are you sure it will work?"
"Not really. The branch leader said that it was important so what else can we do?"
Hearing that the ¡¯reward¡¯ was something important to the faction, Shiro¡¯s interest was piqued.
¡¯Seems like I need to follow them a bit to make sure that the reward is protected. It would be a real shame if they lost it at thest moment.¡¯ She grinned.
Chapter 318 Duan Han Ying
Chapter 318 Duan Han Ying
"So what do you want to tell me?" Shiro asked as she also made herself a chair.
During her time in the library, she had found some information such as her history as an adventurer and rtion with her parents. She hadn¡¯t really focused on her siblings since the media were more focused on her.
-Well how about your allies and enemies first? After all, you need to know who you can trust. That being said, you might make them suspicious since you don¡¯t have my memories, do you?- Kuromi smiled while crossing her legs.
"Well, I guess I can just y it off as amnesia." Shiro shrugged.
-True. Well anyways, you can trust Yuki. From what I¡¯ve seen from the letter, it seems like that guy still has her on lock down.- Kuromi sighed.
"Lock down?"
-Yeah. She¡¯s currently stuck on Frozen Imperial Mountains. Unless she can break through into A ss, there is no way that she can escape from the ce. That being said, once she breaks into A ss, there¡¯s a different fate waiting for her. The only reason that she¡¯s telling you to look for her after getting into B ss is because I had knowledge on how to break open her confinement.-
"Even if you know, how would I know? Plus, it may have been updated after you died." Shiro shrugged.
-You¡¯re right. But remember, you also have that celestial path of yours, don¡¯t you? While I¡¯m not too sure about its range of effectiveness, I can say that it¡¯ll definitely have an impact on her prison as long as you y your cards carefully.-
". . . I¡¯m not going to help her just because you said so. I may even reveal myself to the enemy when I¡¯m low levelled after all. Helping her would bring too many risks." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
-Of course, I understand that, but, the reason as to why Yuki wanted you toe is because the guy is already in a ce where it would be difficult for him to interfere. Though it¡¯s not as if he can¡¯t interfere so you definitely need to be careful. However, if Yuki was able to send you the letter outside of that guy¡¯s attention, I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll have a n for you. I¡¯m guessing that she didn¡¯t want to send you too many letters in case her route is discovered. That would most likely lead to him cutting off all ess to the outside world.- Kuromi replied with a shake of her head.
"Well you¡¯ve been talking about that ¡¯guy¡¯ for a while now so why don¡¯t you tell me his real name and appearance?" Shiro asked.
-His name is Duan Han Ying. While I don¡¯t know his main background, since he has so many powers behind him, I know that he is a level 500 Divine Monarch. His main skill set is shutting down the usage of mana and spells much like you so that¡¯s something to watch out for.-
The moment that Kuromi mentioned Duan Han Ying¡¯s name, her face darkened as killing intent exploded out from her body.
Even Shiro was a little taken aback since the killing intent was almost equal to hers.
¡¯Damn, her killing intent is quite impressive. Give it a few years and it might surpass mine...¡¯ Shiro thought curiously.
"Are you able to show me what he looks like?" She asked.
-I can, just give me a moment. I¡¯m not sure how urate this is but this is thest I saw of him.-
Snapping her fingers, a statue was formed from ice.
It was that of a handsome man who looked like he was in his mid 20¡¯s. He had a set of refined features that made him look a little feminine in a good way. Long hair that reached his back and a fire marking that extended from his right hand to his back.
Memorising the appearance, Shiro turned back to Kuromi who had calmed down a little.
-While there are more people that you can be allies with, the only ones I know for sure right now are Yuki, my sister Keomi, my cousin Keiko and my parents. Mum and dad should being home from the front lines soon so you might want to be careful about what you do.
-You should know Keiko since she¡¯s the leader of Rising Sun. She¡¯s... a little over passionate but you should do fine. As for my parents, I swear to god you better not cause them any harm.- Kuromi warned with narrowed eyes.
"Hou? A family kind of girl huh? Sure. I can do that." Shiro nodded since she would be the same if her parents were still alive.
-Good. I¡¯m already having some trouble sensing my surroundings so I¡¯m guessing that the time we have is running out. Now that you know who you can trust and who you need to watch out for, I¡¯ll give you some extra advice about magic. Because god damn, while you¡¯re good with your guns and body control, your mastery over my magic isplete sh*t.- Kuromi criticised.
-When I was alive, I was quite proficient with most of the elements, but Ice is what I liked to use the most. You need to remember that ice is supposed to be a crowd control type of element rather than killing type. It¡¯s supposed to be used to set up a kill rather than go for a kill. Your frozen slumber skill is an example of this. It¡¯s perfect for setting up a kill since they¡¯re frozen and restrained but on the other hand, Ice Drake¡¯s Feast, Ice pce and even your Ice Demon¡¯s Cmitous Domain is redundant in my eyes. Their focus is on attack rather than control and defence.-
"Mn, that¡¯s true. Though the fact that you can just kill someone by stopping their brain and heart is undeniable." Shiro replied. With her fighting style, she liked to go for the highly aggressive route that would make everything she had a weapon. Even an element that was meant for control.
-And that¡¯s where we differ. You like to go all in for an attack while I go for the prolonged battles where, I can set up for a killing blow. You wouldn¡¯t need to go through a lot of your troubles if you had focused on making a control heavy skill set so that it could synergise with your Nanomancer ss. One is control/defence while the other is attack. Why the hell would you make both attack focused.-
"Ever heard of preferences? I¡¯m used to focusing on attacks anyways." Shiro shrugged. While she didn¡¯t deny that Kuromi had a point, she had been fighting in an aggressive way for decades so it would only be natural that she continued to use this style.
-I know. But! At least focus a little on your Frozen Slumber skill. Damn, I wish I had this kind of skill when I was your level. I only got something like this when I was around level 150 you know?- Kuromi sighed.
Before they could continue their conversation, Shiro saw a notification pop up from her system.
[Preparations areplete. Undergoing refinement of user: Shiro. Optimising skill set.]
-Tch, already huh? Just remember, you can trust Yuki and get her help to work around people I know. You can probably just tell her that you have amnesia. Same goes with Keomi. And remember, please keep my parents safe.- Kuromi clicked her tongue and said quickly before the link between them was cut.
"Got it." Shiro replied with a smile. Since she was using Kuromi¡¯s body, keeping an eye out for her parents shouldn¡¯t be too much of a hassle.
After she replied, she felt a sense of warmth that instantly made her feel sleepy. Unable to keep her eyes open, she fell into a slumber as light wrapped around her body.
###
"So someone had robbed first and second brother? Nice. With the elders and my sisters supporting me, I should have enough capital to recruit a few more people to work with me." Blythe smiled while looking at the report.
"You have to be careful though. Despite both your brothers suffering from a small set back, they¡¯re not going to be defeated that easily." Morthil replied.
"Mn, I know. But perhaps starting some small raids and poaching a few members may be beneficial. We¡¯ll need to focus on guerri warfare since our side is a little weaker though." Blythe shook his head.
"And what if they partner up?"
"Well if they do partner up, I have that item, don¡¯t I? Once I use it, it¡¯ll reverse the situation where they¡¯ll be fighting each other instead of me." Blythe smiled coldly.
"Indeed..." Morthil nodded.
Chapter 319 Upgraded Skills
Chapter 319 Upgraded Skills
"Urg..." Groaning softly, Shiro forced her eyes open and quickly scanned the area around her.
Thest thing she could remember was that she was talking to Kuromi in regards to who she could trust.
"Oh I¡¯m still in the trial..." She muttered.
After understanding her surroundings, she nced back at her stats to see what had changed.
[Element Shift + Celestial Element Wheels + Celestial Armament = Celestial Raiment EX]
[Tier 3 Astral ice Magic +Tier 3 Lightning Magic + Tier 3 Metal Magic + Tier 3 Light Magic + Ter 3 Shadow Affinity + Tier 3 Dark Star Affinity = Tier 3 Element Magic]
[Faded Snow Movement + Rift Walker = Rift Strider EX]
[Sylph Queen¡¯s Decree + Mystic Empowerment + cial Aura + cial Touch + Ice Demon¡¯s Cmitous Domain + Explosive Miasma = Sylph Queen¡¯s Domain EX]
[Passive Regeneration + Blessed by Ice + Element Field Affinity = Monster Skill - Rejuvenation EX]
[Cmity Trident + Ice Drakes Feast + Ice Pce + Cmitous Dragon Arrow = Borealis¡¯ Lance]
[Demonic Frenzy + Soul Sword = Frenzied Incarnation EX]
[Shadow Empress + One Woman Battalion + Ice Princess + Eternal Ice Maiden + Corrupted War Maidan + Chimera yer = Element Empress EX]
[Name: Shiro
Race: Mystic Fae
Title: Advanced Monster (21/1000 Human¡¯s Killed), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Element Empress EX
Level: 78
ss: Mystic Sylph Queen (SSS), Ascendant Nanomancer (EX)
HP: 7.312,500/7,312,500
MP: 16,081,250/16,081,250
STR: 41,000 <+20,500>
VIT: 39,000 <+19,500>
INT: 83,000 <+41,500> {+4,150}
AGI: 47,000 <+23,500>
DEX: 37,000 <+18,500>
DEF: 23,000 <+11,500>
< > = Title Bonus (50%) {Tears of the Sylph Queen +5% INT} (Armour)
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Astral Ice ¨C Tier 3
Lightning ¨C Tier 3
Metal ¨C Tier 3
Shadow ¨C Tier 3 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Dark Star ¨C Tier 3
Light ¨C Tier 3
Bnce: 2 Silver Erins 47 Bronze Erins 257 Billion USD
Skills ¨C
Mystic Sylph Queen:
Elemental Breath, Fae Illusions, Force of Elements, Celestial Raiment EX, Tier 3 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Sylph Queen¡¯s Domain EX, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX, Frenzied Incarnation EX
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 3, Analysis
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path, Celestial Path, Berserker Path
Sword Skills:
Refraction, Sword Domain
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Myriad Transformations Throne World, Hollow Deceit
Shared Skills (Yin):
Dark Star Empowerment (Tier 3), Ice Chain (Tier 3), Shadow Cloak (Tier 3), Dark Star Seraphim (Tier 3)]
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro was rather surprised at how many skills werebined and enhanced. She noticed that most of them had be EX skills.
Normally, such skills would be very rare but she guessed that this was the result of her title, Revolutionary.
"Tier 3 Element Magic, Celestial Raiment EX, Rift Strider EX, Borealis¡¯ Lance and Frenzied Incarnation EX are pretty self exnatory since they¡¯re just the enhanced forms of the base skill." Shiro muttered while having a look at the other skills.
[Sylph Queen¡¯s Domain EX]
When activated:
+100% Element Damage
+20% INT, AGI, DEX for 10 minutes
+30% Element Resistance
If the enemy element affinity is lower tier than you, it is sealed for the entire duration.
Severely reduces the effectiveness of element skills and spells of the enemy.
For the entire duration, you¡¯re able to summon the elements you control at will within the domain. You may ignite certain elements to explode.
Cost: 40% of total mana.
Duration: 15 minutes
Cool Down: 2 hours
[Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX]
Passive Effect: Regenerate 1% of HP and MP every 10 seconds.
Active Effect: Regenerate all Damage suffered in the past 10 seconds.
Cooldown: 1 hour
[Title: Element Empress EX]
All Stats increase by 30%
+50% to Element Damage
When against a group (100+ Enemies), further receive a 50% boost to all stats
Increased Resistance to Elemental Damage
"Well damn... this is quite the upgrade." Shiro smiled in satisfaction.
With her new title, the passive bonus that she received increased from 25% to 30%. That made it so that in total, she now has a 50% bonus in stats with the help of her Revolutionary title.
Not only that, she gains another 50% if she¡¯s against more than 100 enemies.
"I¡¯ve also got the Rejuvenation skill too. It¡¯s in EX form as well."
Dismissing her status board, she looked around for a way out.
Just as she thought about leaving the area, a portal opened up in front of her as she raised an eyebrow.
"Seems rather convenient." She muttered.
Narrowing her eyes, she thought for a moment before stepping through.
Raising up her hand to block the lights, she looked round.
Realising that she¡¯s back at the corridor of which she entered with the other two, Shiro wondered if they¡¯ve finished their trials already.
{You¡¯re finally back my queen! I was worried when our connection was cut.} Nimue called out in worry.
¡¯Yeah. It seems like that trial was a little special since I was able to talk to Kuromi.¡¯
{Kuromi? Wasn¡¯t that the name of the old host?}
¡¯Yeah. It turns out that she¡¯s still around but her soul is iplete. Probably why I was able to take over her body.¡¯ Shiro shrugged before making her way back to their room.
Opening the door, she saw that no one was in and that there was a note on the table.
[Madi and Silvi have already finished their trials but you weren¡¯t back. We¡¯re out doing dungeons right now so we¡¯ll be backter tonight.]
"Hmm... Speaking of dungeons, I want to get myself to level 80 so that I can finally equip the orange set armour. It would prove to be very useful after all." Shiro muttered before pulling up her phone. Challenging the same dungeon asst time wouldn¡¯t be efficient since the dungeon is level 80. With only a two level difference, she wouldn¡¯t be getting as much EXP as she hoped she would.
Therefore, her best option would be to challenge a level 85 or level 90 dungeon.
{Raids can work as well.} Nimue reminded.
¡¯True. Maybe I postpone this a little to do a raid with the entire group. Now that I think about it, I haven¡¯t been spending as much time with the party. Letting them understand how I fight would be quite beneficial in the war toe since they wouldn¡¯t¡¯ be too surprised and cause a small gap to open up in our defences.¡¯
Settling with the idea of going to the raid as a party, Shiro started to do research on the different raids in the city.
The level of the raids averaged to around level 70 while the higher level ones that provided better gear were under the supervision of the princes. Since they¡¯re going to be moving as a group, it would be harder for them to go undetected.
While she could pull them into the Rift using Rift Strider EX, it wasn¡¯t as if the guards couldn¡¯t feel the fluctuations in mana, as provenst time.
"Even after upgrading, Rift Strider EX only gives me a better speed boost, faster entry time and bigger distance covered." Shiro frowned since it was a small dilemma that she had to sort out.
¡¯If the third prince has a high level raid under his supervision, I might be able to use him to my advantage...¡¯
Doing a quick search on the, she was a little annoyed at the third prince only had raids that were level 80 or lower.
"I guess it¡¯s better than nothing..." She sighed.
Preferably, she wanted a level 85 raid so that she¡¯ll have more armour forter.
{You know, everyone else is around 10 to 15 levels behind you so they can¡¯t exactly do a level 80 raid.}
¡¯I know. But, we¡¯re in a situation where we¡¯re against level 100¡¯s. Getting Silvia to be better at healing in tense situations, such as a high level raid, is good at preparing her for what¡¯s toe. That being said, I don¡¯t disagree with what you said since a level 80 raid is still quite risky.¡¯
While she browsed through the list of raids and dungeons that they could do, her mind drifted to what she should do in regards to Keomi.
Now that she knew Keomi was her ¡¯sister¡¯ and that she could get her to help, she¡¯ll have to stage a meeting where they¡¯ll coincidently meet.
*Sigh...
"Troublesome... I need a way to convince her that is amnesia. Not only that, I have to make sure she isn¡¯t too suspicious or it would be annoying."
{You can do it my queen.}
"Of course I can."
Chapter 320 Sunken Dynasty
Chapter 320 Sunken Dynasty
Once she had browsed through all of the raids that were avable for her, she decided to settle with the level 70 raid rather than one that was higher level.
This was for 2 reasons with the first being the party not being ready for anything higher.
Raids weremonly known to be higher in difficulty than dungeons since it required a huge group to clear it. Therefore, it would be best for her to go for one that was level 70.
As for the second reason, it was because the location of the raid was close to the Rising Sun¡¯s branch office.
It would increase the chances of her running into Keomi and talk a little about her identity.
¡¯Even if I don¡¯t run into her now, I¡¯ll probably see herter when the fight starts.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while ying around with her magic.
Thinking back to what Kuromi said, Shiro decided to humour the idea of setting up for a kill.
¡¯She wanted me to focus on Frozen Slumber more since it¡¯s very helpful in terms of setting up for kills. I don¡¯t disagree since I too know how helpful it is but when using it, I¡¯m somewhat immobile since I have to focus on freezing the target.¡¯
{Perhaps you can make a branch skill of Frozen Slumber? One that allows you to have the same effect but while you¡¯re moving?}
¡¯Easier said than done. The problem with that is the effectiveness is much lower. The full potential of Frozen Slumber only appears when I¡¯m stationary and focused on one target.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
The best part about Frozen Slumber was that it restrained the enemy while they¡¯re being frozen. If she was on the move, that restraint could be broken much easier and the enemy can escape the area of effect easily.
¡¯I¡¯ll think of somethingter. For now, I just want to increase my proficiency with the skill. Once I¡¯m more experienced, I can figure out a better mana path for it to travel so that the cost is reduced.¡¯
Moving her fingers around, she had an ice chain flow through the gaps as if it was a snake.
Clutching her hand into a fist, she scattered the chain into countless sparks and looked towards the door.
*ck
"Ah Shiro, you¡¯re back." Lyrica said in surprise.
"Sup. How was your dungeon run?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"It wasn¡¯t bad. With me and Silvi getting some upgrades, we could take most of the aggro and let everyone else kill the mobs." Madison grinned.
"That¡¯s good. I¡¯ve got some decent upgrades too. What do you girls think about going for a level 70 raid? That way, when we do fight, you know a bit about what I can do and support me in the process." Shiro said with a smile.
"Hmm... I¡¯m fine with that. So when do we go?" Silvia asked with a smile.
Since she was the healer/support, knowing what Shiro was capable of would make her healing and buffs more pivotal.
"How about tomorrow? You lot have just finished a dungeon run after all."
While the party was discussing the raid, Aarim activated her skill to have a look at Shiro¡¯s nature. This was because she noticed a change with Madison and Silvia after their trial.
Their natures have be more refined and expressive, signifying their growth.
Since Shiro¡¯s nature was just a ck fog, Aarim was curious as to what it looked like now.
ncing over at Shiro, she saw a hazy version of her with ck hair instead of white.
-Don¡¯t peak so often. Ady doesn¡¯t like a stalker.- The figure or rather, Kuromi, chuckled while shaking her finger at Aarim.
Floating over to her, Kuromi circled around Aarim and traced her finger along Aarim¡¯s chin.
Surprised at the fact that the nature had actually interacted with her, Aarim paled and kept her eye on Kuromi.
-Don¡¯t startle everyone. I just want you to know that it¡¯s rude to keep on peeking at ady.- Kuromi smiled and made her way back to Shiro.
Giving Aarim one more nce, she smiled and shrouded herself in mist before disappearing.
¡¯She can hide herself?!¡¯ Aarim thought in shock.
Now that she knew the nature could hide herself, it meant that the previous times that she had revealed herself was on purpose.
Narrowing her eyes, Aarim disabled the skill and looked at Shiro with a mix of confusion and curiosity.
"Is there anything wrong?" Shiro asked as she sensed Aarim¡¯s gaze on her.
"Mn? Oh nothing." Aarim shook her head and decided to keep it to herself for now.
###
The next day, everyone left the castle and moved as a group. Guiding them to the raid, Shiro brought up the information and did a quick run down.
"The raid is called Sunken Dynasty. It¡¯s one of the shorter raids with only 2 mini bosses and a main boss. There aren¡¯t many small details that we need to worry about so it¡¯s the perfect one for us to practice on our teamwork." Shiro said with a smile.
Bringing up a detailed forum page in regards to the raid, she pointed to the first boss.
"Galia the Unbound Warrior is the first boss that we¡¯ll find. He¡¯s a boss that focuses on using area of effect spell so your healing must be on point Silvi. As for his attack power, it¡¯s on par with a level 80 or maybe even higher so you¡¯ll definitely need to parry his attacks well." Shiro said while turning to Madison and Silvia.
"Got it." They both replied.
"As for his mechanics, there are none that will prevent us from damaging him. BUT, he does have a party wipe skill where he will call in a whirlpool to drown us all. To stop this, we simply need to knock him out of his casting phase.
"After Killing Galia the Unbound Warrior, we¡¯ll face udia the Siren Demoness. Her skill set is heavily focused on brainwashing a teammate for a short period of time. The best way to snap them out of the brainwash is to either use a cleanse type skill on them or just hit them very hard. Once again, she doesn¡¯t really have any mechanics that we need to worry about but she¡¯s just annoying in general due to her skills.
"For the third and final boss, we face the Ancient Kraken. For this, there is a mechanic and that is the fact that every tentacle has its own heart. Unless we destroy all the tentacles, the Kraken will not die. There is also a time limit which is extended whenever a tentacle is destroyed. For this, if our damage is not up to par, he¡¯ll summon an army and regenerate his health once the timer runs out. This is continuously repeated until we kill him or he kills us. Understood?" Shiro asked after briefing them about the bosses.
Seeing the party nod, Shiro smiled.
"Good. Let¡¯s go then."
Putting her phone away, they queued up to enter the raid.
Looking around, they saw several people recruiting members so that they could make a party of 20.
¡¯We must look quite weird as a party of 8 huh?¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
{Maybe they think you already have a group?}
¡¯Perhaps.¡¯
After waiting for a few moments, it was finally their turn. Upon entering the raid, they saw that they were in the middle of a ruined city which was located on an ind. Rain poured down relentlessly as they were in the middle of a storm.
Tall broken buildings could be seen fallen on their sides while waves smashed into the cliffs.
"Hm... just our luck to get the one with the storm eh?" Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle softly.
This raid had three weather variations and storm is by far the worst one. Not only will their footing be slippery, their vision is somewhat obscured so they need to be careful.
"Well I¡¯d say it¡¯s a good thing since it prepares us for moments when we do need to fight in extreme weather conditions." Madison smiled.
*BOOM!!!!
Before their conversation could continue, a beam of light shot into the sky as a portal opened up above them.
A spear fell out the portal andnded in the city while a hazy figure followed behind the spear.
"Well damn, isn¡¯t herge." Lyrica muttered after seeing the first boss.
Standing at a whopping 10 meters, Galia the Unbound Warrior locked onto the party and readied his spear.
Chapter 321 Borealis Lance
Chapter 321 Borealis'' Lance
"Follow the usual party formation. Silvi, put some buffs on Madi. I¡¯ll help her grab aggro while everyone else prepare your best attacks so that we can deal some early damage!" Shiromanded as she summoned Ataraxia and dashed towards the boss.
Flexing her fingers, she made herself an ice ramp so that she could reach it faster.
Frozen Hell ¨C Frozen Slumber!
Raising up her spare hand, she narrowed her eyes and activated her skill.
*KRRRRRR!!!!
Tens of tier 3 ice chains shot out of the circles and wrapped around Galia¡¯s body.
However, before the party could rejoice about her skill, Galia only smiled and swung his spear.
*PING!!!!!
With a single swing, he managed to shatter the chains to pieces causing a hail of ice chunks.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
¡¯Since I now have the monster skill rejuvenation, I can be a little more upfront with my mana usage.¡¯ She thought to herself while controlling the ramp to dodge one of Galia¡¯s attacks.
ncing over at her status board, she decided to use her newly upgraded Celestial Raiment EX.
Choosing ice as the base element, the ambient mana rushed towards Shiro¡¯s body.
*KRRRRRR!!!!!!!
A blizzard suddenly appeared in the area, turning the already ruined city into a frozenndscape.
Controlling the blizzard so that it didn¡¯t affect her party, Shiro nced at her own body and noticed that she had hardly changed.
There was no new armour but rather, her aura had been changed and amplified.
¡¯Hmm... I feel like I can rival the power of tier 4 spells. I wonder if I can cast them now?¡¯ She mused to herself while raising up her hand.
*BOOM!!!!
A fouryered tier 3 magic circle expanded within an instant and shot spiked chains towards Galia. This time, they didn¡¯t attempt to wrap around him but instead pierced his body and tried to pull each of his limbs off.
While this was happening, Madison used her taunt skill on the boss and used Defence Demon Knight mode. In addition to this, she used her newest skill.
"Avatar!" Madisonmanded with a grin.
A 5 meter tall illusionary version of herself appeared as she had it charge towards the boss with a shield bash. This skill was mainly used to secure aggro since it had a small duration.
*BOOM!!!!!!!
Crashing her shield against Galia¡¯s body, Madison was able to push him back by several steps.
"Fire your spells!" Shiro shouted out since both she and Madison had the boss on lockdown.
Hearing hermand, the party nodded.
Both Lisandra and Yin spread their wings and sent aerial bombardments towards the boss while Lyrica and Chen Yu dashed up his body and left countlesscerations across the surface of Galia¡¯s body.
As for Aarim, she finished setting up a peak tier 3 formation as hundreds to perhaps even thousands of meteorites fell from the sky.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
Guiding them to hit the boss, Aarim was able to take off a rather decent chunk of the boss¡¯s health.
¡¯Hou? Seems like her damage with her spells is pretty big.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Seeing everyone doing a decent amount of damage to the boss, Shiro wasn¡¯t about to get left out.
"Since I got a new skill called Borealis¡¯ Lance, I might as well use it on you." She said with a grin.
Activating the skill, she felt her MP drain at an incredible pace.
*KRRRRR!!!
"sss!" Flinching slightly from the cold, Shiro looked at her hand in shock. The fact that the skill had even frozen a portion of her own body, which should be resistant to cold, was a ridiculous notion. While she may be a Sylph Queen right now, her foundation still belonged to that of a snow girl.
When the hell has anyone heard of a snow girl being frozen by her own skill as a side effect!?
Channelling the skill for a short moment, heavy clouds gathered above the city.
A file of information appeared in her mind as Shiro understood how to use the skill.
Shifting her hand into a fist, a fake illusionary image of the Borealis¡¯ Lance appeared in her hands.
"Freeze under the might of winter!" Shiromanded as she gritted her teeth in order to resist the cold.
Throwing the fakence towards the boss, the clouds parted to show a giant icence that was causing a blizzard to form behind it.
*BANG!!!!!!!!!
Before anyone realised, thence had already pierced the boss through the chest and sent a wave of chains out of the wound. Not only did the chains wrap around Galia¡¯s body but the ends also embedded themselves deeply into the group, making it extremely hard for them to be pulled out.
"URAHHHH!!!!!" Crying out in pain, Galia tried to grab hold of thence only to see his hand freeze over instantly.
With each chain freezing the area around it, the entire arena had been turned into a prison for the boss.
As for Shiro, she was currently withstanding the skill¡¯s bacsh.
Her skin was pale as ice formed on the surface of her skin.
"Fuu...." Breathing out a mouthful of cold air, Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯For a skill like this, it¡¯ll do more damage to me the stronger my opponent. Much like Frozen Slumber, I¡¯ll need to concentrate and use more mana should the target be harder to freeze. Seems like I¡¯ll need to build up some more ice resistance if I want to use a more powerful version of Frozen Slumber.¡¯
Shaking her head, Shiro looked back at the boss.
Despite the magnitude of her skill, the party had long limated to her achievements to the point of which they¡¯re not even surprised anymore.
Spells and skills continuously bombarded the boss while Shiro kept him wrapped in her chains.
No matter how he tried to break out, the spell stayed strong.
However, with each passing moment, more and more of Shiro¡¯s body would freeze.
"Do as much damage as you can! I can¡¯t keep this skill up for too long!" She shouted out.
Despite the boost of MP regen with her passive skill, the drain of Boreas¡¯ Lance still used more MP than what was restored.
"Got it!" Lyrica shouted back.
Now that she knew the skill wasing to an end, Lyrica used all of the strength boost skills that she had other than berserk skills.
A soft golden aura spread across the surface of her sword as she dashed up the side of the boss and arrived at his face.
"Sorry about this." Lyrica said and twisted her body.
shing several times in a blink of an eye, she sunk her sword deep into Galia¡¯s eye and shredded it into a pulp.
Blood oozed from his eye socket as Lyrica crawled in and continued her assault. The best case scenario would be that she was able to make her way into his brain but she needed to be careful. After all, there was a small chance that she may be trapped in there.
"PESTS!!" Stomping his foot down, Galia forcefully broke Shiro¡¯s spell and waved his spear into the air. mming it back down, a tier 4 magic circle spread out from under his feet.
Quickly throwing a copy of Ataraxia that was enhanced by Celestial Path, Shiro watched as the first ring of the spell was broken apart.
¡¯Tch, only set it down by one tier huh? Guess that¡¯ll work for now.¡¯ Through though with disappointment.
Since she was still recovering from the bacsh of having her skill forcefully broken, she couldn¡¯t cancel out the whole magic circle with her Celestial Path.
"Knock him out of his casting phase! I¡¯ve already weakened his skill so that it¡¯s only tier 3! Also, Lyrica! Get out of there!" Shiro shouted out.
Following her others, Lisandra and Yin charged towards Galia and mmed their spells into his head.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
Making him take a single step back, Shiro noticed the magic circle fluctuate.
"Keep it up!"
###
"So are all the preparations done?" Neldor asked his assistant with a smile.
"Yes. Negotiations have been sessful and we¡¯ve received some man power to help us fight against your third brother. We¡¯re only waiting for your orders now."
"Good. We¡¯ll see what second brother says first. Otherwise, if he just sits by the side and watches as we take out the third, it would be akin to doing his work for him." Neldor chuckled.
Now that he had thest bit of support that he needed, he could finally take out his brothers and be the king of the country.
Taking a final look at the ns, he smiled lightly before leaning back on his chair.
¡¯If things go well, this war should be sorted out in a week or two.¡¯
Chapter 322 Siren
Chapter 322 Siren
*BOOM!!!!
Kneeling down in defeat, Galia¡¯s body crumbled to ash¡¯s as the party huffed in fatigue.
"God damn I didn¡¯t think he¡¯d try to use the party wipe skill so much near the end." Madison cried out while sitting down.
"Well he was close to death so it¡¯s only natural." Shiro smiled. Compared to others, she was rtively unharmed. Understanding that this was due to her passive skill, she couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful for stealing the key.
¡¯That being said, I did technically take away Keomi¡¯s chance at an upgrade.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Shaking her head, she walked up to the boss¡¯s corpse and collected the loot.
Suddenly, a ray of light shot up into the sky as a nket of weapons, armour and different items fell onto the ground.
"Ah?" Raising her eyebrows in confusion, Shiro looked at the glistening piles of loot with confusion.
"Um... girls, do you know what just happened?" She asked with confusion. Even back in her first life, she had never seen such a phenomenon.
"I have no idea." Madison shrugged.
"Hmm... Isn¡¯t this amount of loot a little big for just a single boss?" Lyrica asked.
"True." Shiro nodded. She wasn¡¯t going to tell them about her title just yet since Aarim and Chen Yu were here.
While Chen Yu seems to be developing something together with Silvia, there was still the possibility that he¡¯d tell Nan Tian about this information.
As for Aarim, well, Shiro naturally didn¡¯t miss all those times that Aarim had looked at her with suspicion so she¡¯ll withhold some of the information for now.
"Either way, I say this is good for us." Shiro chuckled and started to collect the loot.
Unfortunately, the equipment was all level 70 so they were essentially useless to her. But, for the rest of the party, they were amazing pieces of equipment since they¡¯re all graded at Purple.
After sorting out the loot, Shiro distributed them among the party. While they couldn¡¯t equip it just yet, it would help them when they reach level 70.
As for the materials, Shiro kept a few of the better ones since she may need them in order for Helion to upgrade her armour.
"The second boss should being soon. Everyone try to heal up as much as you can without using too much mana." She called out while setting up a few traps around the area. These traps would send out her ice chains when triggers so it should help her restrain the second boss, making the fight easier.
*BOOM!!!!!
Just as she finished warning the party, the surface of the surrounding seas exploded to reveal a giant siren.
She had long turquoise hair, a slightly pale skin that seemed to have scales around the arms and the neck. Her body slowly transitioned into that of a fish roughly around the waist area. Peeling apart as if it was imitating a dress, a little of her cleavage could be seen.
"Hmm... I¡¯d rate her beauty an 8 out of 10?" Shiro muttered since sirens were known to be seductresses.
"An 8 out of 10? I¡¯d say she¡¯s less than 3." Lyrica criticized. If Shiro was a 10, there was no way that the siren would be anywhere close in her opinion.
"No no you¡¯re both wrong. She¡¯s a dead out of 10." Madison grinned while readying her shield.
Activating her taunt skills, she was about to draw aggro when the Siren suddenly opened her mouth.
"AHHHHHH!!!!!!"
A sonic wave shot out and disorientated the entire party.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro focused her mind and looked back at the party. Whenever the Siren uses the call, a party member would be brainwashed so Shiro needed to knock the senses back into them as soon as possible.
Noticing a small change in Chen Yu¡¯s aura, Shiro flickered towards him and roundhouse kicked him in the chest.
"GAH!!!" Crying out in pain, Chen Yu¡¯s body flew back and crashed into a wall.
"You ok now?" Shiro asked.
"Other than the fact that I had the force of god m into my chest, yes. Yes I¡¯m fine!" Chen Yu replied while clutching his chest. Propping his body up with some difficulty, Chen Yu stumbled onto his feet as Silvia quickly healed him up.
"Thanks."
Now that Chen Yu was healed back up, the party turned their focus back to the boss.
Clutching her hand into a fist, Shiro activated the traps that she had set.
*KRRRR!!!!
Crashing through the city, giant chains wrapped around the Siren¡¯s body, restraining all of her movements while also digging into her body. This caused blue blood to flow out of her wounds as she cried out in pain.
"Madi!" Shiro shouted out while sending Madison flying into the air with a giant ice pir.
"Got it!" Madison replied while twisting her body in mid air. Using avatar once more, she mmed her giant shield into the now restrained Siren.
*KSHHHH!!!!!!
Waves tumbled from the force.
Gritting her teeth, the siren raised her hand and shot a torrent of water towards Madison.
Blocking it with her shield, Madison cast a few more skills to secure her aggro.
"I¡¯ve got it! Hit it with everything!" She shouted out.
*BOOM!!!!!
Before she could finish her sentence, Shiro had already sent thunder bolts flying towards the boss. With her Celestial Raiment set to the lightning element, her electric attacks were basically supercharged to deal more damage.
Her silver blond hair fluttered in the wind as she wasn¡¯t finished. The thunderbolts were just a taster.
"Ssss....." breathing out slowly between her teeth, lightning flickered off her body and into the ground.
A giant multiyered tier 3 magic circle expanded out from under her feet.
What she was attempting to do was essentially a lightning version of Boreas¡¯ Lance. Since her control over mana was many times better than the average adventurer, converting the base element of thence should be within her reach.
"Smite!" Shiromanded as she mmed her hand downwards.
Dark clouds gathered while flickers of lightning could be seen in-between.
*BOOM!!!!!!
With a loud crash of thunder, light filled the party¡¯s vision. Once the light cleared, they saw the seared scales of the Siren.
¡¯Tch, the effect is a little different than what I expected.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
While it didn¡¯t continuously paralyse the boss like she had expected, at least she had stunned the Siren for a short period of time. This relieved some of Madison¡¯s pressure so that she could take a short moment to catch her breath.
Repeating the process of stunning the boss and dealing damage, the party managed to whittle down her HP at a constant pace. Whenever someone was brainwashed, Shiro would take care of it and knock the sense back into them.
Half way through the fight, the Siren screamed once more as the party focused to see who was the brainwashed one.
But when they noticed ack of reaction from Shiro, a bad feeling appeared in their hearts.
"Oh sh*t..." Madison muttered.
Before anyone could react, Shiro flickered behind Aarim with her sword drawn.
"Crap! Shield her!" Lisandra shouted out since this was the worst case scenario.
Now that Shiro was the one that was brainwashed, they should give up on the notion of hitting her. They were familiar with her skill Rift Walker after all.
Quickly shielding Aarim, the party rushed towards Shiro while Silvia prepared a cleanse spell.
*PING!
Breaking apart the shield with her sword, Shiro was about to stab Aarim when Yin appeared before her. Using the Rift Walker skill, Yin dragged Shiro into the rift.
"Haaaa!!!" Breathing out a mouthful of air, Aarim panted since Shiro¡¯s killing intent had forcefully stopped her from breathing.
However, before Silvia could even finish setting up her skill, Yin¡¯s body was flung out of the rift with quite a few sword wounds on her body.
"God damn it! I never realised that mum was holding back so much in our training!" Yinined while getting back on her feet.
During her time in the rift, it only took an instant for wounds to appear on her body. She could barely react to Shiro¡¯s attacks as they targeted her blind spots.
"Silvi! Is the skill ready?!" Lisandra asked while setting up a barrier around them. Shiro could appear at any moment so they needed to be ready.
"No need. I¡¯ve managed to break the spell already." Shiro said as she appeared with blood flowing out of her mouth.
When she was brainwashed, she noticed that it was akin to spectating everything you did through a TV. She wasn¡¯t able to move her body at all.
"How?" Silvia asked in confusion.
"I punched a hole in my stomach before leaving the rift." Shiro replied nonchntly while looking over at Madison.
"If you¡¯re done getting yourself out of the brainwash, help me do more damage!" Madison shouted out while trying her best to parry the boss¡¯s attacks.
Nodding her head, Shiro gestured for the party to assist Madison. Since the party was used to Shiro¡¯s self abusive methods, they weren¡¯t too shocked to find that she had punched a hole to get out of the spell.
With Shiro being able to get herself out of the skill as long as the party survives for the first few moments, they were able to bring down the boss without too many problems.
Chapter 323 Premature Start
Chapter 323 Premature Start
Sighing in relief, the party smiled when they saw the dead boss.
With the second boss in, Shiro had managed to level up to level 79 while the rest of the party also gained a level.
[Lisandra LVL 79 Soul Bound Arch Angel]
[Yin LVL 75 Dark Star Cmity]
[Silvia LVL 70 Healing Saint]
[Lyrica LVL 66 Ascended de Dancer]
[Madison LVL 66 Demonic Shield Berserker]
[Chen Yu LVL 68 Phantom de]
[Aarim LVL 64 Apocalyptic Battle Mage}
With Silvia reaching level 70, she was able to equip one of the armours that they had collected.
"Do we want to continue? I¡¯m not sure my mana can keep up the pace after two bosses." Silvia frowned since her mana count right now wasn¡¯t optimal.
"Hmm... you¡¯re right. Let¡¯s head back. The main problem is that you¡¯re the only support. Having another would be helpful. While I can somewhat double as one, my healing isn¡¯t that great." Shiro shook her head.
"Same with me. Most of my skills buff but they¡¯re inferior to Silvia¡¯s since she¡¯s a proper support." Lisandra agreed. Her ss gave her support skills which boosted attack speed and attack damage, of which she cast at every opportunity, but a single use of Silvia¡¯s skills could potentially be twice as potent.
"Let¡¯s end it here then. The risks would be too big if we continue." Lyrica nodded her head. As one that had been overlooking the party for the entire time that Shiro wasn¡¯t with them, she understood that sometimes it was better to call it quits. They can¡¯t respawn like in quests after all.
Death in a dungeon and raid was permanent.
Making sure that they¡¯ve collected everything, the party left the raid before the final boss could even spawn.
Upon leaving the dungeon, the party made their way back to the castle.
They received a few curious gazes from the overseers since the time they took toe out meant that they had managed to kill at least one boss. For a small party like this, one that was almost the same level as the raid, it was an impressive task.
"Say, have we seen these girls before? I think they might be neers to the city." One of the overseers muttered.
"Hmm... you¡¯re right. But with how things are right now, it might not be the best time toe in eh? The princes seem to be on the verge of fighting each other."
"Mn, if not for the protection given by the guild, I would not be doing this job right now. Who the hell would actively go to a city that is literally on the edge of a civil war?"
While the overseers talked amongst themselves, Shiro and the party made it back to the castle.
Upon entering the castle, they were greeted by the sight of frantic staff and maids running around in a panic.
"What¡¯s happening?" Shiro pulled one of the maids aside and asked curiously.
"The princes are about to fight! A notice has just been sent out and all the staff are ordered to evacuate so that we¡¯re not pulled into the conflict. You should evacuate too!" The maid replied quickly before rushing off again.
Shiro furrowed her brows since this was clearly a little faster than she had anticipated. She had hoped that she¡¯ll reach level 80 before having to fight but it seems like the situation doesn¡¯t allow for it.
"Everyone follow me. We¡¯re going to be meeting up with the elders and the princesses." Shiro said seriously before dashing towards the elder¡¯s hall.
*BANG!
Pushing the door open, Shiro clicked her tongue when she couldn¡¯t see any of the elders.
"Damn, where the hell are they." She muttered. Scanning for any clues that may help in the room, she left empty handed.
¡¯Hmm... seems like we¡¯ll have to group up with the third prince first. That way, we can keep an eye on the situation. If not for the fact that I had puppets made previously, I wouldn¡¯t even know where to look for them right now.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in relief.
{My queen, you might want to be a bit careful since that third prince may have something up his sleeve as well.}
¡¯I know. Everyone has trump cards and the third prince will definitely have one as well. For now, I¡¯m just thinking of acting as support since I¡¯ve already had the other two princesses support him. That way, we¡¯ll be less suspicious. After all, he can think that Lyrica is showing her support.¡¯ Shiro replied while turning to the party.
"Since the elders aren¡¯t here, we¡¯re going to meet up with Blythe. We¡¯ll help him for a short period but remember, since we¡¯re not technically on the same side, hold back a little and only show the strength of an average adventurer that¡¯s at your level. That way, we can have some upper hand in the situation."
"Are you sure we want to meet up with the prince? Wouldn¡¯t spectating by the side be better?" Aarim suggested.
"That is what I would normally say but we need to provide extra pressure in order to corner the other princes more. Once that happens, the third prince is bound to let his guard down and that¡¯s when we¡¯ll strike. With all three princes weakened, we¡¯ll be able to kill them. Even if they¡¯re B ss adventurers." Shiro smiled.
"It¡¯s still quite risky but I¡¯ll follow you." Aarim nodded in eptance.
Making sure that this was ok with the rest of the party, Shiro focused her mind to find where her puppets are.
¡¯Hmm... they¡¯re outside of the castle. The prince might wonder why I was able to find them...¡¯ She frowned.
However, if the prince does ask, Shiro nned to just say it¡¯s a secret.
¡¯I suppose it doesn¡¯t matter much even if he doesn¡¯t allow me in. The main thing is for all three princes to fight each other.¡¯
"Follow me, I know where the third prince is." Shiro said as the party followed behind her.
Walking through the city once more, they could see the residents packing up quickly in order to take shelter since they¡¯ve just received the warning about the fight.
"How things can change so quickly with a single announcement huh?" Shiro asked with a smile.
Just a few moments ago, everything was still calm. But with a single announcement, it had be a fight for survival.
"Well there¡¯s going to be a battle between level 100¡¯s. It would be stranger for them not to be packing away. After all, despite us just being a few levels lower than 70, we can do quite a bit of damage to the surroundings already. Think about what a big group of level 100¡¯s can do." Madison replied with a shrug.
"True. Hopefully, they¡¯ll drag the fight outside the city. I don¡¯t want them to ruin what mum and dad had built." Lyrica sighed while looking at the soon to be empty streets.
"Don¡¯t worry. What is broken can be rebuilt. Plus, since they want to be a king, I¡¯m sure they know that they need to avoid damaging the main city." Shiro smiled.
"Mn."
Making their way through the city, Shiro noticed that the signals seem to be getting further and further away.
"Girls, it seems like the third prince is making his way out of the city. Since they¡¯re moving quite fast, I¡¯d say they¡¯re about to fight soon. Let¡¯s hurry up and rendezvous with them."
Crouching down slightly, Shiro leapt up to the roof and started to dash towards where her puppets are.
Looking at each other for a moment, the party nodded their heads and followed behind.
Since Silvia wasn¡¯t as fast as the others, due to the fact that she was a support, she had Chen Yu carry her in order to keep up with everyone else.
But before they left the city, they saw a giant explosion in the distance that sent debris flying into the sky.
"Oh f*ck... they¡¯re starting the fight in the city!?" Shiro¡¯s smile faltered as she quickly thought of some ideas.
"Here are somemunicators. We¡¯ll be doing some guerri warfare instead since we can¡¯t exactly tell who is our friend and who is our enemy." She said while giving each of them an ear piece.
"Silvi, Chen Yu. You two stay together while Madies along. Chen Yu you¡¯ll be the main damage dealer in your small group. Aarim, you¡¯ll be with Lyrica and Lisandra. Your group will be an assassin type group where you kill people then leave immediately. Yin, youe with me. We¡¯ll be observing the situations from the air. Got it?" Shiro ordered quickly since things were progressing much faster than she had thought.
Even if they don¡¯t kill a prince, they¡¯re bound to suffer some casualties.
"Understood." The party replied seriously and put on the ear pieces.
Gesturing for Yin to shift into her phoenix form, Shiro hopped onto her back and flew into the sky.
Camouging the two of them, Shiro created a sniper. She was going to take out some of the executives while the other party members took care of the grunts. Since this was the first fight, she wanted to deal as much damage as possible without revealing too much.
Chapter 324 Reveal
Chapter 324 Reveal
"Chen Yu, your group will be called group 1 while Aarim your group will be called group 2." Shiro said over the mic while aiming her sniper at where the third prince¡¯s group is.
Currently, all the guards were throwing skills around at their enemies which would cause the surrounding buildings to crumble. The citizens that hadn¡¯t managed to evacuate earlier were panicking while trying to avoid the free fire.
"Tch, they have no regards at all." Shiro muttered in annoyance while creating a silencer on the tip of the sniper barrel.
Narrowing her eyes at one of the mages that was about to kill a citizen by ident, Shiro pulled the trigger and sent a bullet through his neck and separated his head from his shoulders.
This allowed the civilians that were about to be killed some time to escape.
"Group 1, go 300 meters to your north and turn left. You should find a stray group that¡¯s inbat. Once you¡¯ve killed them, evacuate the area. If you can¡¯t kill them within 30 seconds, just turn and run. I¡¯ll sort them out. Group 2, make your way to the second building on your left. If you go on the third floor, it should give you a perfect vantage point to take out a few mages on the opposite rooftop." Shiromanded while gesturing for Yin to fly higher.
Aiming her sniper once more, she took out a few more stray mages before changing her location. Whenever she shot her sniper, her location would bepromised so she knew not to stay in the same ce for more than one shot.
Both Group 1 and 2 managed to kill their targets but unfortunately some of the enemies spotted them so they were currently being chased.
"Group 1 make your way through the alley on your next left. Group 2 hold out for a little and buy some time. I¡¯ll be giving you support."
Patting Yin¡¯s head, she had Yin dive down towards the battlefield.
"Yin, we¡¯re going to fight onnd for a few rounds. After that, we¡¯ll be back in the air." Shiro said with a soft smile.
"Sorry if I pushed you a little hard ok? I¡¯ll reward you with some foodter."
Upon hearing the mention of foodter, Yin¡¯s eyes gleamed with greed and increased her speed.
Quickly adjusting herself so that she didn¡¯t fall off, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile wearily.
¡¯In the end, even rivalry can¡¯t spur on Yin like food can.¡¯ She thought with a roll of her eyes.
{Well it is what she enjoys, so naturally she¡¯ll be more enthusiastic about food.} Nimue replied with a slight chuckle.
¡¯True. Also, Nimue, are you able to help me further regenerate some mana so that I can be more aggressive? Even with my passive skill regenerating everything within 16 minutes, I can do more if you give me a boost.¡¯
{I¡¯ll try. I¡¯ve been improving your physique every day in order to help your mana regeneration. But since your mana links are still damaged, it¡¯s a little risky to force it some more. That being said, as long as I¡¯m careful, I should be able to give you an additional 5% boost to your regeneration. But keep in mind that this will onlyst for a short while so when you feel pain, tell me and I¡¯ll stop.}
¡¯Thanks.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
Flipping off Yin¡¯s back, Shiro created a bow and pulled back the strings. Forming a magic arrow, she infused it with her celestial path along with Dark Star element. Ambient mana surged towards her and wrapped around the arrow, making it seem like a gxy was formed inside it.
*BOOM!!!!
Letting go of the strings, the arrow left a trail of light behind it and pierced the attackers.
Killing them instantly, Shiro flicked her wrist and sent ice chains to wrap around Group 1 and the iing group 2.
Just before they were pulled into the rift, Shiro gestured for Yin to attack the enemies that were behind group 2.
"Hehe, you better give me a buffet mum!" Yin grinned while spreading out her wings.
sping her hands together, a densely packed tier 3 magic circle could be seen spinning around her before flying into the sky.
"Burn f*cker¡¯s burn!" Yinughed while fire rained down and targeted the enemies.
Whenever they tried to put some magic defences up, the fire would consume the mana and burn even brighter.
"Language!" Shiro shouted back.
"Mum! You can¡¯t say that, you¡¯re the one who swears the most out of us!" Yin retorted while sticking out her tongue.
{She¡¯s got you there.}
"She¡¯s got you there."
Both Madison and Nimue said at the same time.
"Oi."
Pulling the party into the rift, Shiro had Yin follow behind them while evacuating the location. Since they¡¯re focusing on guerri warfare, taking advantage of their mobility was a must.
As Yin¡¯s Dark Star element burned bright, it attracted the attention of those that were at the peak of C ss. Even in this chaotic battlefield, her fires were increasing in size.
"Who the hell released this spell!" Blythe shouted out in annoyance since the damage continued to spread.
"I don¡¯t know your highness. It seems like another party of people has joined the fight." One of his followers responded while erecting a barrier around them in order to block the iing spells.
"Tch. Annoying. Morthil! See if you can track them down and take care of them." Blythe ordered.
"Understood."
Meanwhile, Keomi had sent a group of people flying away from the force of her punch.
"The thief is nearby." She said with a frown.
Due to her tracking skill, she was able to tell when someone she had set a mark on was nearby. Now that she felt it again on the battlefield, she knew that the thief who stole her key was probably participating in the current battle.
"Which party is she in... the third prince or the second prince?" She muttered while parrying the attack of a nearby enemy. Pivoting on her foot, she punched their elbows, breaking it before kicking them in the lower spine.
*CRACK! PUSHI!!!!
The force of her kick not only broke his spine but also dissected his body in half. Blood spewed out of his wounds as Keomi grinned from the violence.
Cracking her knuckles, she focused her mind on tracking down the thief.
"Got you." She muttered before leaping towards Shiro.
###
"Let¡¯s see, since we¡¯ve made quite the riot in this area, we should move closer to where the other princes are. From what I can see, we¡¯ve taken out the first and third princes¡¯ underlings so we should make our way to where the second prince is." Shiro said while dashing through the rift.
"There are more level 100¡¯s and above near the second brother so we¡¯ll have to be careful." Lyrica warned with a slight frown.
"I know. We¡¯re only going to be hanging out near the edge of the battlefield so we¡¯re not going to be too involved. At least I hope not anyways." Shiro chuckled while lightening up the mood a little.
"True. But knowing you, you¡¯ll probably draw out the strongest enemies and force us into a tough fight." Madison joked.
However, just as she finished her joke, a pair of familiar hands ripped open the rift as Shiro quickly pulled the party back.
"Sup lil thief, this time you can¡¯t run away as easily." Keomi grinned.
"**** I was kidding!" Madison cried out since she didn¡¯t actually want Shiro to draw out one of the strongest enemies.
"You jinxed it. Anyways, Yin, take the party out and fly up into the sky for now." Shiromanded while quickly making a small mask and charged at Keomi.
"Got it mum, stay safe. If you¡¯re not safe, I¡¯ll die and not get my buffet!" Yin reminded before dragging everyone out of the rift.
¡¯God damn it would have been fine if she didn¡¯t mention food.¡¯ Shiro rolled her eyes mentally while swinging Ataraxia at Keomi.
"Hou, you¡¯re taking the initiative to fight me instead of running?" Keomi chuckled while punching the t side of the sword.
*CRRR!!!
A crack appeared along the de as the sword was sent out of Shiro¡¯s hands.
Clicking her tongue, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a little annoyed at Ataraxia¡¯s low durability. Since the weapon could self repair, the downside was that it was more brittlepared to other swords.
¡¯I¡¯ll need to ask Helion to fix this problem when I see him next time.¡¯ Shiro thought while stomping down with her foot.
A tier 3 magic circle appeared and sent an ice spike shooting at Keomi.
"Futile." Keomi grinned and shattered the spike with a single punch.
"Show me your real face!"
Flickering in front of Shiro, she twisted her body and tried to kick her in the face.
Shiro pivoted on her foot and avoided the kick. Even without being hit by it, she knew that the force of that kick was powerful.
¡¯Damn it, I want to show my face but there¡¯s no way that you¡¯re breaking my nose or something in the process!¡¯ She protested in her mind while swinging Ataraxia at Keomi¡¯s leg.
Deflecting the sword, a ¡¯gap¡¯ appeared in Shiro¡¯s defence, allowing Keomi to barely reach Shiro¡¯s mask.
Kicking the mask, the force sent Shiro sliding back a few steps before stopping.
"BIG SIS!?!?!?"
Chapter 325 Reunion...?
Chapter 325 Reunion...?
Widening her eyes at Shiro¡¯s face, Keomi instantly stopped her attack.
"Big sis? Who are you on about?" Shiro tilted her head with confusion.
"What do you mean? Have you forgotten about me?" Keomi furrowed her brows with confusion.
"When you left the house, everyone was worried. Where have you been all this time? And why has your level and ss changed? Did you reset your level?" She questioned while walking up to Shiro and inspected her body.
The fact that Shiro was actually her sister distracted her from the fact that they were literally enemies a while ago.
"Wait hold on, you know me?" Shiro continued to act since she needed this to be believable.
"Of course I do, you¡¯re my sister! Why wouldn¡¯t I know?" Keomi replied.
"I don¡¯t know you. I think it might have something to do with my memory loss since I woke up in New York. I only know that my name is Shiro. Can... you tell me about myself?" Shiro asked as her face was that of concern and curiosity.
"This... wait, I need some proof first. Give me a second." Keomi said while raising up her hand.
Taking a few steps back, she started to use some disguise dispelling items to make sure that she wasn¡¯t hiding her appearance to look like Kuromi.
After seeing her appearance stay the same, Keomi¡¯s eyes brightened up a little and brought out a second item.
"I have a letter from a friend of ours called Yuki. She gave this to me not too long ago and she told me that if I ever see you, I should use this to confirm your identity." She said while taking out a letter that was simr in design to the one that Shiro had received.
¡¯So Yuki had prepared this after knowing that I¡¯m going to Miriel? She¡¯s quite meticulous that woman.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile while grabbing the letter.
Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, she looked back at Keomi.
"How do I know that this isn¡¯t a trap? What if you tried to kill me when my guard is down." Shiro asked with a re.
Feeling a familiar pressure from her, Keomi couldn¡¯t help but get excited. It had been a while since her sister had disappeared and now that she¡¯s reappeared, albeit a different name, ss and even lost her memories, it was still better than her location being unknown or she being dead.
"It¡¯s either you do it yourself or I¡¯ll do it for you. Pick one sis." Keomi smiled happily.
Seeing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow.
¡¯Is it me or did she change her emotions with a flip of a switch?¡¯ She asked mentally.
{I¡¯d say she¡¯s very simr to you. You do the same asionally you know?} Nimue replied with a soft chuckle.
Rolling her eyes, Shiro bit her finger and pressed it against the seal on the back of the letter.
Light filled their vision as the letter opened up.
Taking the letter, Keomi read its contents.
"If you¡¯re reading this, this means that you¡¯vee into contact with Kuromi. Now that I¡¯ve had some chances to think about it, I looked back at some of her recordings and noticed a few changes in behaviour. Her base habits are still pretty much the same but with slight variations. There are slight chances that she may have suffered some damage that altered her memories or changed her personality so I adjusted the seal. The first seal I made when I sent a letter to her was just to test her basic blood foundations to see if there were signs that point at her being Kuromi. This time, I made it so that it also tested her mana coding. With you being able to read this, it means that I¡¯m at least 80% certain that she¡¯s Kuromi.
With that being said, I¡¯ll keep the rest short. I¡¯ve already told Kuromi that I can¡¯t send too many letters since I¡¯m in a bit of a pickle right now. Help Kuromi, stick together and try to make it so that she doesn¡¯t stand out. Thest thing we need is more enemies since she seemed to have reset her level.
By the way, I¡¯ve also sent letters to Keiko so she¡¯ll have one for you when you two meet up. These two are the only letters I¡¯ve sent since I can¡¯t send too many letters.
As you¡¯re both in Miriel, try not to cause too much trouble. I know how much you like to damage your surroundings much like Kuromi so keep it subtle.
Final word, once Kuromi entered B ss again, send her back to Winter¡¯s Grace and ask either Freya or Natash for a ¡¯guidebook.¡¯
Yuki."
Looking back at Shiro, Keomi furrowed her brows and frowned slightly.
"How did you even lose your memory and get your level reset?" She muttered.
". . . you know, I have memory loss. If I knew what happened previously, it wouldn¡¯t be much of a memory loss now would it?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
However, while she looked like she was still joking around, her mind was actually analysing Yuki¡¯s letter.
¡¯It seems like she¡¯s quite prepared. Since I¡¯m the key to helping her out of her imprisonment, she wants to guarantee the sess. Through sending letters to the trusted individuals and the ones that I¡¯ll most likely meet; she can guide me slowly. Hmm... thought I doubt she can send any more letters for a while since sending at least four letters is pretty risky.¡¯
"Damn, even without your memories you don¡¯t change." Keomi sighed while scratching her head.
"So... why are you even here sis?" She asked. It was a little awkward since she realised that she had almost killed her idol/sister.
"I¡¯m just helping out a friend that I met. Since you¡¯re apparently my sister or something, I guess we¡¯re not enemies?" Shiro shrugged before turning to leave the rift. Since Yin had sent the party out earlier, she wanted to regroup with the rest of them.
"Ah wait for me sis!" Keomi called out and followed behind her.
"So can you tell me everything that¡¯s happened? I think we should see cousin after this and see if we can sort out your memory loss."
"Ok you need to stop that. First of all, while you and Yuki think I¡¯m Kuromi or something, all I know is that I¡¯m Shiro and I can use magic. To me, you¡¯re a stranger." Shiro replied while faking her reaction. Since she¡¯ll be interacting with Keomi more from now on, she needed to set up some ground ¡¯rules¡¯ so that her actions don¡¯t seem suspiciouster on.
She needed to seem like she¡¯s sceptical about everything that¡¯s happening around her. After all, anyone would be confused when someone you were fighting with suddenly turned out to be your sister.
"Ah it¡¯s fine. We¡¯ll help you get your memories back. I don¡¯t think we should go back to the house just yet since mum and dad will be more worried about your current condition. Plus, you¡¯re still a mage so they won¡¯t be the most pleased." Keomi smiled since she didn¡¯t mind Shiro¡¯s reaction.
She was just happy that she got to see her sister again.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro left the rift while ¡¯keeping up her guard¡¯ since Keomi was still technically her enemy.
Jumping up on the roof, Shiro looked around to find the party.
"Say sis, does your body still remember how to do our family¡¯s martial art? I know you¡¯ve lost your memory and everything but surely body habits and muscle memory will stay right?"
"Urg, if you want to help that badly, help me find my party." Shiro replied with slight annoyance.
This wasn¡¯t an act since Keomi¡¯s actions of asking her a bunch of questions despite their current situation was a little annoying for Shiro.
"Hai~ Whatever you say sis. But before I do that, your new martial art is pretty good too. You managed to keep up with mest time." Keomi said with a smile before sending out her senses. Since she was a physical based adventurer, her senses were naturally stronger.
When paired with her tracking stills, it didn¡¯t take long for her to find the party.
But before she could even verbalise her findings, Shiro had already leapt towards the party¡¯s location.
". . . Did I just get out tracked by sis?" Keomi muttered in wonder.
Shaking her head, she jogged behind Shiro with a happy smile on her face. In the past, Kuromi had always seemed so out of reach despite her openness.
Now that she had the chance to improve her rtionship with her sister/idol from the ground up, she was going to try her best so that a gap wouldn¡¯t open up between them like before.
Chapter 326 Aunty!?
Chapter 326 Aunty!?
"So, can you introduce me to your party? I¡¯m quite curious as to who they are. Plus, didn¡¯t that girl earlier call you mum? Now that I think about it again, she¡¯s like a mini version of you. Does that make me an aunt? Who¡¯s the dad?"
Seeing Keomi bombard her with a myriad of questions while keeping up to her with a light smile, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but roll her eyes.
"I¡¯ll tell you about the party when we meet up again. As for Yin, I suppose you¡¯re an aunt now. There is no father in this." She replied while hopping over some buildings.
Making some ice daggers, Shiro threw them to her left without even looking.
"GAH!"
Cries of pain could be heard as two assassins fell out of a window with ice daggers imnted in their eyes.
"Holy... Sis, is it just me or has your reaction and sensory awareness gotten better than before? If you went with a fighter type ss, I¡¯m sure mum and dad would be delighted." Keomi¡¯s eyes brightened as she grabbed some roof tiles ad tried to emte the same effect.
*BANG!
Throwing them to where she had sensed some enemies, she peeked around the corner to see if she had hit her mark since there were no screams.
"Ah, I hit them in the chest." Keomi furrowed her brows.
"You didn¡¯t just hit them in the chest, you made a hole THROUGH the chest." Shiro sighed.
Shaking her head lightly, she smiled softly at her actions.
¡¯It¡¯s kinda cute isn¡¯t it?¡¯ Shiro asked Nimue.
{Indeed. Though it¡¯s also sad at the same time. Her sister is no longer here.} Nimue replied while looking at Keomi with pity.
Giving Nimue a silent agreement, Shiro rapidly approached where the party is.
Upon arrival, Shiro instantly brought up her guard since she could see that the party was fighting against 2 level 100¡¯s.
Madison was tanking one of them with the help of Silvia while the others were focusing on the second level 100. With Lisandra leading the charge, they were able to deal some damage but not along.
Activating Celestial Raiment, ice version and Sylph Queens¡¯ Domain, Shiro flickered into the rift and left Keomi alone on the roof.
"Eh? Sis, w-! Her party¡¯s in danger!" Keomi came to a realisation when she saw what was ahead.
Understanding that Shiro could probably take on the level 100 that was fighting Lisandra and the others, Keomi targeted the first enemy. The one that was being upied by Madison.
Crouching down slightly, Keomi disappeared from her spot and reappeared besides Madison.
"Duck!" Keomi shouted out.
"Duck!?" Madison widened her eyes at the sight of Keomi and quickly ducked down to avoid the fist.
*BANG!
Punching the level 100 into blood mist, Keomi huffed in satisfaction.
"Mn, good reaction! You get a pass." She grinned.
Since Madison was able to dodge in time, it meant her reaction speed was pretty solid for someone of her level. This meant that she was worthy enough to be in Shiro¡¯s party.
Turning over to the second level 100, Keomi was just in time to see Shiro crumble his body frozen dust after splitting him in half with an ice spear.
[Level Up!]
Levelling up to 80, Shiro instantly equipped her set armour and felt a rather substantial increase to her stats.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Mystic Fae
Level: 80
ss: Mystic Sylph Queen (SSS), Ascendant Nanomancer (EX)
HP: 8,875,000/8,875,000
MP: 14,100,050/24,362,500
STR: 45,000 <+22,500> (+5,500)
VIT: 42,000 <+21,000> (+8,000)
INT: 86,000 <+43,000> {+4,300} (+10,000) [+51,600]
AGI: 50,000 <+25,000> (+5,000)
DEX: 35,000 <+17,500> (+2,000)
DEF: 25,000 <+12,500> (+10,000)
< > = Title Bonus (50%) {Tears of the Sylph Queen +5% INT} (Armour) [ ]= Armour passive
Unassigned Points: 0
Designating herself as the target to be siphoned, she chose INT as the only stat to be increased. Thus, giving her an additional 60% of her base INT added onto the final result. Unfortunately, she didn¡¯t see any signs of a new skill but she wasn¡¯t too worried. After all, her MP suddenly jumped from roughly 17 million to 24 million in an instant.
"Fuu... let¡¯s get out of here. Since you fought against a level 100 in this location, you will definitely attract some attention." Shiro frowned as the party nodded before turning over to Keomi.
"So... wasn¡¯t she supposed to be trying to kill you mum?" Yin raised an eyebrow.
"Well it turns out that she¡¯s apparently your aunt. Keomi is my sister from before I lost my memories." Shiro confessed while scanning the area around them for any additional enemies.
"Pft! Aunt!?" Yin widened her eyes and looked over at the happy Keomi.
"Lil Yin is cute just like when Kuromi was younger. Call me aunt Keomi." She smiled while shing besides Yin and hugged her.
"GAH! Unhand me woman! Mum! Help!" Yin cried out in shock.
"Listen to your aunt, Yin." Shiro dismissed it with a slight wave.
Grabbing everyone into the rift, they made their way out of the area.
Turning back to the party, she ignored the sight of Keomi stroking Yin¡¯s hair while Yin tried to escape but to no avail.
"As I was saying before Keomi appeared, we¡¯ll be moving closer to where the second prince¡¯s group is. We¡¯ll cause some chaos within their ranks before moving back to the main battlefield.
"As usual, the groups will stay the same. Make sure you don¡¯t stay in a location for too long and you must act fast. I¡¯ll give you some more orders over the mic but there may be moments when you¡¯ll have to make decisions yourself. Two rules. Rule 1, make sure you survive. If you don¡¯t think you can win a fight, don¡¯t go in and risk it. Rule 2, never venture too far into the main warzone. As we are under levelled, this is the most that we can do." Shiro said with a serious re.
Seeing Shiromand the party like so, Keomi smiled nostalgically.
¡¯This part of sis never changes even if she doesn¡¯t remember the past.¡¯ She thought to herself.
"By the way Keomi, you¡¯re supporting the first prince right?" Shiro asked.
"Mn? Oh yeah. But it doesn¡¯t matter too much. Cousin only wanted a better foothold in this country. It doesn¡¯t really matter who we support. We only chose the first prince since it looked like he had the biggest chance of sess." Keomi shrugged.
"Honestly, you can kill the idiot for all I care. Putting up with him is a pain in the ass since he¡¯s too arrogant."
". . . Huh." Seeing how nonchnt Keomi was with the notion of killing the person that she had been investing in for a while was a little surprising.
"I¡¯ll be supporting big sis from now so just ask me anything and I¡¯ll get everyone to change sides." Keomi grinned.
"Wait, what if they don¡¯t want to?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Well I¡¯ll probably just punch themter or something. I don¡¯t usually think too hard about these things." Keomi chuckled.
Poking Yin¡¯s cheeks, she was a little surprised at their bounciness and couldn¡¯t hold herself back from poking some more.
"Wow, they¡¯re like lil dumplings."
"If they were dumplings, Yin would have probably eaten them already." Lisandra said while giving Yin a side nce.
"Gah! Are you picking a fight with me now lil Lis!? Just you wait until this woman unhands me!" Yin protested.
"Oh? Why is that?" Keomi tilted her head in confusion.
"Because everyone here knows that Yin loves food more than anything." Lisandra replied.
"I see! So you want food!"
"Keomi don¡¯t feed her anything. Until shepletes her task, any food will just be an excuse for her to bezy." Shiro cut in before Keomi could pull out food from her inventory.
"Anyways, enough shenanigans and listen up. Our main task for this current ¡¯war¡¯ is to weaken each side by a considerable amount. Anything extra will just be a bonus so don¡¯t go charging to kill an executive just because they seem weak. Think about the situation and the risks before acting ok?" Shiro reaffirmed before smiling.
"Now let¡¯s go kick some ass. Remember, piercing is always an option."
Leaving the rift, the party instantly split apart into their respective groups and dashed through the city.
Gesturing Yin to turn back into her bird form, Shiro leapt into the air.
"Hop on!" Shiro called out to Keomi.
"Hop on to what?"
Without saying anything, Yin changed herself into her phoenix form and carried both Shiro and Keomi.
She could have done this before but there was no need for the others to know that she actually quite enjoyed the hug and hair stroke. It would be embarrassing if they knew after all.
"Woah! Lil Yin is actually a phoenix?! No wonder you said that no father is involved." Keomi praised.
"Mn. Eyes up, we¡¯ll be the more active group in the party. After all, me and you are the ones with the highest level. Naturally, that means we¡¯ll be fighting more peak C ranked and maybe some B ranked adventurers." Shiro reminded.
"You got it Big Sis. I¡¯ll make sure you¡¯re free of danger." Keomi grinned.
¡¯This girl.¡¯ Shiro thought with a soft smile.
Shaking her head, she tracked down a ratherrge group of level 100¡¯s for them to kill.
Chapter 327 Fighting Morthil Part 1
Chapter 327 Fighting Morthil Part 1
"So how do you want to do this?" Keomi asked with a smile.
"What do you mean?"
"Well since I¡¯m quite high levelled, do you want me to be the vanguard or do you have another n?"
"Hmm... I can take on level 100¡¯s as well. The main problem is Yin since she¡¯s a little low levelled." Shiro muttered.
"Ah what do you mean? I believe in lil Yin. She¡¯s a phoenix so naturally she¡¯s unmatched." Keomi smiled while leaning forward to pat Yin¡¯s head.
Hearing Keomi¡¯s evaluation of her, Yin¡¯s mood naturally brightened as she couldn¡¯t hide her dumb grin. Even if she was currently in her phoenix form.
"Don¡¯t praise her too much or you¡¯ll inte her ego." Shiro chuckled.
"Children need to be raised with love, isn¡¯t that right lil Yin?"
*KI!!!!!
¡¯Hell yeah! Listen to aunt Keomi, mum!¡¯
Even without Yin verbalising her thoughts, Shiro knew what she was thinking and could only roll her eyes.
"So we¡¯ll have Yin give us support in the air while we fight side by side. We can afford to stay a little longer so we¡¯ll take out more groups."
"Got it sis." Keomi nodded with a smile.
Jumping off Yin¡¯s back, Shiro had her fly higher into the sky and rain Dark Star Element down onto the battlefield.
"Let¡¯s go." Shiro called out to Keomi who smiled in excitement. She hardly had the chance to fight side by side with Kuromi previously so this was an exciting moment for her. Despite the fact that her sister didn¡¯t remember anything, it could still be called a blessing for them to be together like this.
Flipping her body in the air, Keomi raised her legs above her head and mmed it down with all her might.
*BOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The impact of her kick was equivalent to the devastation caused by a major earthquake.
The force had actually forced some of the buildings up from their foundations and even pushed Shiro back up into the air.
"Don¡¯t destroy everything!" Shiro shouted out while flexing her fingers.
Creating an array of ice swords in the air, she sent them flying at the enemies she could see. Since she had her Sylph Queen¡¯s Domain activated, she further received a 100% increase to her elemental damage and a 20% increase to her INT, AGI and DEX.
However, while the bonus was much appreciated, Shiro flinched a little from the pain that she could feel from her links.
¡¯Tch, despite having so many points in INT right now, I can¡¯t make use of it all. All my spells and mana output is limited.¡¯ Shiro thought in annoyance.
Taking a deep breath, she focused her mind and dismissed the pain that she felt.
"Sorry!" Keomi shouted out with an embarrassed face.
She had been so focused on the fact that she was fighting with her sister that she forgot to control her strength.
¡¯No I need to focus more. Big sis had always emphasised on the intricacies in setting up for everything. Whether that be preparing your body for a sudden burst of impact or for a finishing blow, I must set up a strong foundation for the fight so that everything is in my favour.¡¯ Keomi thought to herself and charged at the closest level 100 while mentally mapping out her course of actions.
Little did she know, her desire to both impress and keep up with her sister, that was fighting with her right now, had actually pushed her to improve on her fighting habits. With Keomi adopting hints of Kuromi¡¯s fighting style, it allowed her to see things in the bigger picture rather than just going head to head with pure brute strength.
Within a few short moments, they were able to clear out several level 100¡¯s and even boosted Shiro¡¯s level up to 82.
"Damn, I¡¯m levelling quite fast. Any more of this and my armour would go to waste without taking out anyone substantial." Shiro muttered with a frown while dislocating a man¡¯s arm and ripped it off his torso.
Sticking her hand in his chest, she frozen him from the inside out and pulled out his entire rib cage.
Throwing it aside, she looked towards Keomi.
{She looks like she¡¯s having fun doesn¡¯t she?} Nimue asked with a smile.
¡¯Yeah. She¡¯s quite efficient as well. Each kill is brutal but efficient. Nice girl.¡¯ Shiro nodded.
During this time, the other two groups had been rather safe as well since they made sure not to venture too far into the fight.
"The battle is slowing down a little now. Let¡¯s move before the main headse to where we are." Shiro called out to Keomi.
"Got it sis, gimme a moment!" Keomi replied.
Activating one of her skills, a deep red aura red around her as she clutched her fist.
Grabbing a man in the face, she twisted her body and started to swing him around like a baton. Each hit would reduce a portion of his body to mush. Once he was basically unusable, Keomi would rece him with someone else.
Once she had finished clearing the group, her entire body was almost soaked with blood.
"You know, you should be a bit more refined. Swinging them around like they¡¯re sticks will make quite a mess." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Well... having a huge amount of strength isn¡¯t exactly fit for a delicate job." Keomi smiled while wiping away the blood on her face.
"That is true I suppose. Anyways, let¡¯s go fight an executive and leave the ce." Shiro chuckled.
Just as they turned to leave the area, they felt a huge source of mana charged towards their locations.
"Yin! Come down here!" Shiro shouted out since she wasn¡¯t about to let Yin face the enemy alone. Even if it was for a short moment.
Doing so would put her in more danger.
Shifting back to her human form, Yin dived down at max speed since she too can feel the power of the new enemy. Such presence made her skin crawl with fear.
"So it¡¯s you. I always knew you were fishy." Morthil narrowed his eyes.
Looking towards the person next to Shiro, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little pressured since they were almost 10 levels ahead of him.
However, once a person reaches B rank, they receive a few trump cards that could turn the tide and help them face off against those higher level than you.
¡¯I¡¯m a level 120 Element Emperor while she¡¯s a level 129 Fighting Paragon. Since she¡¯s a physique based adventurer, I¡¯ll need to keep my distance and keep her rooted with crowd control. That being said, having that Shiro girl and her daughter nearby won¡¯t help me out at all. I¡¯ll need to kill them first.¡¯ Morthil thought while readying up a few spells under his sleeves.
After all, even though Shiro was much lower level than him, there was still a chance that she could continuously harass him with control spells.
"Well woman like me tend to hide secrets. That being said, how does it feel to serve under a perverted f*ck nugget who only thinks with his d*ck?" Shiro provoked with a grin.
"Mn, I won¡¯t waste words on you. Just die." Morthil said casually while swinging his arm.
*RUMBLE!!!!!
Mana instantly turned berserk as the earth started to shift while thunderous clouds gathered above them.
Clutching his fist, Morthil bombarded them from all directions.
"I¡¯ll handle this." Shiro said while stomping down with her foot.
*KRRRRRRRR!!!
Releasing her killing intent and directing it at Morthil, she constructed a giant dome from ice. Making sure that the structural integrity was at its best, she fuelled mana into it without restraint.
*BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!
However, despite this, cracks started to form in rapid session.
¡¯Tch, if only I could increase my output a little more.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
However, just as she thought this, an idea popped into her head.
¡¯Damn, why didn¡¯t I think of this earlier.¡¯ She reprimanded herself.
Snapping her fingers, she created holes in the dome and had it spin around rapidly. Infusing it with celestial path, the dome started to carve away at the elemental attacks little by little.
"Mn?" Raising his eyebrows, Morthil looked at her with surprise.
¡¯She can block my attack?! Tch, I should have gone all out.¡¯ He frowned.
Taking a deep breath, he created a giant tier 4 magic circle under the dome.
"Oi! I think you¡¯ve had enough fun now. Let me show you the consequences of trying to kill big sis in front of me." Keomi cracked her knuckles.
"HAAA!!!" Punching the ground, she shattered the tier 4 spell with ease, much to the shock of both Morthil and Shiro.
¡¯She has something simr to celestial path?!¡¯
Chapter 328 Fighting Morthil Part 2
Chapter 328 Fighting Morthil Part 2
Looking at Keomi who was crushing spells with ease, Shiro wondered why this current world was so different from her old one.
Not only did it have more skills and advanced quests that linked to other worlds, but it had the anomaly of monsters having skills much earlier than they should. Such an example would be the base version of rejuvenation that she had encountered when she saw the yeti berserker way back in New York.
¡¯Could it be that this world is an upgrade? If I was to consider other worlds as tier 1 worlds, they have the most basic sses and spells. My world could be ssed as a ¡¯tier 2¡¯ world since they were able to make artificial sses. However, this world could be called a tier 3 world since everything is much stronger. There¡¯s also the problem of me and Isilia reincarnating into this world as well.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Even when she was thinking of other matters, she didn¡¯t stop fighting.
Flexing her fingers, she created tforms under Keomi¡¯s feet so that she could keep up with her max speed.
"Thanks sis!" Keomi shouted out with a grin.
Taking a deep breath in, she twisted her body in an attempt to punch Morthil.
However, before she could, he activated a second tier 4 spell which caused a giant illusionary elemental barrier to form around him.
Activating Analysis, Shiro scanned the internalposition of the spell and realised that it would reflect damage equal to what it¡¯s hit with. With the current amount of force that Keomi is gathering in her fist, the reflected damage would be huge.
Furrowing her brows, she summoned Ataraxia and created a small pocket of focused mana behind the pommel.
Enhancing the sword with Celestial Path, she sent it flying towards the barrier.
Since the source of damage is a projectile, the reflected damage shouldn¡¯t hit her. Not only that, due to the fact that it¡¯s enhanced by celestial path, it would hopefully shatter the barrier if not weaken it.
Seeing the sword fly past her, Keomi nced back in confusion.
But when the sword came into contact with that shield and even shatter it with ease, much like what she can do, Keomi widened her eyes in jubnce.
One of the hidden effects of the Asakura family martial arts is to grant the user the ability to break apart spells within a certain range of their stats. For ¡¯Kuromi¡¯ to be able to shatter a spell casted by someone 40 levels above her with such ease and even target the weakest part of the spell was almost unreal.
¡¯Could this mean that big sis had been improving on the martial arts without even knowing? If I remember correctly, she never got to stage 3 so she was never able to get the cancelling effect. For the effect to be so potent now, does that mean she unconsciously practices the martial arts? It¡¯s either that or her stats are now off the charts. Might be one of the reasons as to why she reset her level to begin with.¡¯ Keomi thought to herself while restraining the baffled Morthil.
The first time where she stopped his spell could be a fluke but the second time was no fluke.
"Tch! You can stand aside while I kill her first!" He shouted while activating a second spell that rooted Keomi with elemental chains.
If he let Shiro interfere with the fight, he wouldn¡¯t be able to use any spells.
But just as he almost reached her, Shiro grinned and jumped into the rift.
Reappearing besides Keomi, she cut through the binds with an ice dagger that was infused with Celestial Path.
"The most I can do is cancel out his spells. You¡¯ll have to do the damage." Shiro said seriously.
While she did have the option of using the item that she had stolen from God¡¯s Pantheon, she would rather save it till she was in danger alone. After all, the Sealing Incantation would seal a target¡¯s mana for 5 minutes.
That meant that within the five minutes, they were fish on the chopping board for Shiro.
Looking at the situation, Morthil knew that things weren¡¯t good for him so he decided to retreat first.
"Hou hou~ Thinking of running? Tough luck. I¡¯m the most persistent person there is." Keomi grinned since chasing after someone was one of her best ss traits.
As proven with her first encounter with Shiro, even if they enter a sub dimension like the rift, she¡¯s able to rip a path straight to them.
"You don¡¯t need to chase him." Shiro smiled as she flickered next to Morthil.
Activating her Throne World, she pulled everyone inside and chose an Ice as the base for her skill.
"Huh?" Realising that he was in an icy tundra, Morthil¡¯s eyes brightened.
"HAHAHA, you fool! I¡¯m an element emperor, you¡¯ve helped me win this fight." Heughed while Keomi furrowed her brows.
"Big sis, stay behind me. I¡¯ll take care of him."
"Sure. I¡¯ll provide you support." Shiro nodded since she too knew of her limits. While it may look simple right now, the moment that Morthil evennds a single hit on her, she¡¯ll be in danger.
Flexing her fingers, Shiro had spiked chains erupt out from the ground and shoot towards Morthil.
"Keomi, use this. This is able to cancel out his spells. While it may not be as potent as when I use it, it should provide you with more support." She said while handing her Ataraxia.
Keomi¡¯s eyes brightened when she saw Shiro give her a sword.
"Thanks sis." She smiled and corrected her stance.
The Asakura family was a line of martial artists so it¡¯s only natural that they have martial arts tailored to different weapons.
Even though Keomi much preferred using her fists, she also studied the sword manuals in the family library.
"Asakura Sword Form Three: Drifting Shadows." Keomi took a deep breath and adjusted her mind set.
She had already understood what kind of sword Ataraxia was from thest time she came into contact with Shiro. It was a brittle sword that was blessed with the powers of self healings.
Therefore, she needed to strike hard and fast, not giving the opponent any chances of hitting the sword.
Hence why she had chosen Sword Form Three. With this form, her attack speed would be at its fastest, allowing her to protect the weapon while dealingrge amounts of damage.
*BANG!
Kicking up a chunk of ice, Keomi appeared beside Morthil and swung the sword. Within an instant, his body was riddled with sword wounds as he tried to activate a spell.
Unfortunately for him, both the chains that wrapped him and the sword were enhanced by celestial path.
Normally, what he would do is take Shiro out with pure brute strength but with Keomi here, it was almost impossible.
"Damn it! Just you wait!" He gritted his teeth and pulled out an item.
Crushing it apart, a portal opened up behind him.
Seeing this, Keomi tried to stab towards his head but she was stopped by an illusionary barrier.
¡¯It can¡¯t be cancelled?!¡¯ She thought in shock. The barrier that was produced by the portal seemed to bepletely immune from Celestial Path and the Asakura Martial Arts.
Watching Morthil leave the throne world with an item, the duo could only shake their heads.
"That¡¯s unfortunate." Shiro muttered and stopped her spell.
"Sorry sis..." Keomi looked down in disappointment. Despite being 9 levels ahead of Morthil and countering his skill set, she still wasn¡¯t able to kill him.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. From what I¡¯ve heard, fights above B ss are quite problematic since everyone¡¯s physical levels are quite monstrous. Even without traits of cancelling out spells, we don¡¯t have a way of cancelling out items. Therefore, if he gets into a dangerous situation, it¡¯s very hard to stop him from leaving." Shiro shook her head andforted Keomi.
Patting her shoulders, Shiro had Yin turn back to her phoenix form and take them away from the area.
ncing back at Keomi who still seemed a little down, Shiro raised an eyebrow.
{You should reassure her more and confirm the kill you know? I can tell that you¡¯ve set a tracker on him already.} Nimue suggested casually. During that fight, she clearly saw Shiro imnt a nanotech tracker on Morthil¡¯s body when she used the ice chains.
¡¯I suppose so. With Keomi¡¯s help and with Morthil thinking that he¡¯s safe, we can pull off an assassination.¡¯ Shiro nodded.
"Keomi."
"Mn?"
"How well are you at assassinations?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"I¡¯m decent I suppose. Why do you ask?"
"Well, how do you feel about finishing Morthil off with a little assassination." Shiro grinned and showed her a tablet that had Morthil¡¯s current location on it.
Chapter 329 Assassination
Chapter 329 ''Ass''assination
"Hearing what Shiro had just said, Keomi widened her eyes in excitement.
"Wait what? We can go assassinate him?" Keomi asked with delight.
"Yup. During the fight, I managed to put a tracker on his body so that we can find him after he leaves. After all, B ss adventurers are quite troublesome to kill on the first attempt." Shiro smiled.
"But that being said, I¡¯m not too sure about his location so do you recognise this ce?"
Giving the tablet to Keomi, Shiro waited for her response.
"Hmm..... from what I can tell, this should be the watchtower in the northern borders. It¡¯s quite close to the third prince¡¯s camp so we might want to be careful." Keomi furrowed her brows.
"That¡¯s fine. If we do get into a fight with him as well, we might as well take him out in the process." Shiro chuckled.
"Eh? How? Isn¡¯t the third prince supposed to be one of the more annoying ones with his domain magic? With the sheer amount of domains he has, I have to admit that even I might have a hard time dealing with him if he has some help." Keomi shook her head.
"Don¡¯t worry about that. If we are forced to fight him, I can stop his domains with this."
Pulling out the sealing incantation that she had stolen from the god¡¯s pantheon, Shiro showed Keomi its description.
"Wait isn¡¯t that what the God¡¯s Pantheon was supposed to have? Did you steal from them too?"
"*cough* I wouldn¡¯t say ¡¯steal¡¯. It¡¯s just long term borrowing for the bigger picture. After all, they¡¯re enemies with the third prince too." Shiro coughed shamelessly.
Yin rolled her eyes with disdain while making sure that they were out of sight from everyone underneath them. It would be quite problematic if they were spotted.
"Anyways, let¡¯s see where everyone else is. I don¡¯t want them to be near the ce when we fight."
Swiping the screen on the tablet, Shiro saw that group 1, Silvia, Chen Yu and Madison, were currently inbat near the auction hall while group 2, Aarim Lyrica and Lisandra, were fleeing one of the main battlefields.
¡¯Seems like they¡¯ve just finished a battle.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since the earpiece could detect their vitals. It was also able to estimate their mana capacity but that was a slight work in progress so it wasn¡¯t too urate.
Since group 1 was inbat and they weren¡¯t too far, Shiro decided to have Yin fly them closer. She wanted them to be out of danger before giving them their next orders.
"Are we not going to kill Morthil?" Keomi asked when she noticed that they were moving away from the northern borders.
"Not yet, I¡¯m going to help out group 1 then have them regroup with the other group. The fight¡¯s starting to escte in danger since the B ss adventurers are starting to make a move."
Gesturing for Yin to go towards the auction house, Shiro opened the rift to increase their travel speed.
Once they arrived at the location, they were slightly surprised at how well they were standing up to a level 100.
With Madison as tank and Silvia constantly healing her, they were able to keep the level 100 at bay. Naturally, the enemy tried to get Silvia but Chen Yu woulde in and pull her away.
"The situation¡¯s a bit messy but they¡¯re holding their own against the level 100." Shiro muttered while debating on whether or not she shoulde in and steal the kill. If they managed to finish him off, they¡¯ll be able to get more EXP and it¡¯ll feel more earned. If she came in now and took the kill, it would be less productive.
"Let¡¯s watch for now. I want to see what they can do with the current situation."
"Really? I mean, wouldn¡¯t making sure that they survive be more important?" Keomi asked curiously.
"Yes, but I trust that they can do this. If I don¡¯t help, their growth will be much bigger."
". . . I suppose so." Keomi nodded. While she did agree that gaining experience on the battlefield is good and that the most experiencees from life and death, it was still a risk to have them go through that. Especially when the target is your friend.
"Don¡¯t worry though. I¡¯ll make sure they survive." Shiro smiled since she understood what Keomi was worried about.
As the fight progressed, the amount of healing that Silvia could provide slowly decreased since the level 100 started to take things a little more seriously. From what Shiro could see, there were traces of l.u.s.t on his face as he was clearly intent on taking both Madison and Silvia for himself by whittling their mana down instead of outright killing them.
This caused Shiro to want to make a move but seeing the anger in Chen Yu¡¯s eyes, she held herself back.
###
"Silvi, this isn¡¯t looking too good. I want you to give me every buff you can before running away with Madison. I¡¯ll keep him upied. In that time, try to find Shiro." Chen Yu whispered in seriousness.
"Eh? What do you mean! If you dare take him on alone I swear to god I¡¯ll make your life a living hell!" Silvia replied through gritted teeth.
She wasn¡¯t stupid. She knew what he was implying and that was thest thing that she wanted.
"Trust me Silvi, I wish I can do something else but as it stands, none of us will have a good ending if this continues. We can¡¯t send a message to Shiro either since she never told us on how to use the earpiece. If I take him on alone, there¡¯s a good chance that you two might be able to escape and even find Shiro if we¡¯re lucky."
"I don¡¯t give a sh*t! I will bludgeon him to death if I need to. I¡¯ve already had to sit through my party being killed in front of me. I will not sit through that again." Silvia red at him.
Pushing him aside, Silvia pulled out an item that she had been saving for a while.
This item would temporarily allow her to break past her limits and have power equivalent to a level 100. However, since she was a healer, this would only prolong their survival for a while.
Once the bacsh kicked in, they would be good as dead.
¡¯I would die anyways if I don¡¯t use this. Might as well go out with a bang.¡¯ She thought to herself.
{Silvia, can you hear me? Don¡¯t speak. I saw the description of your item, don¡¯t use it since I¡¯m nearby. Are you able to handle it? If you want me toe in and end everything, nod your head. If you want me to watch for a little longer and see if Madison and Chen Yu can break their limits, shake your head. Just know that I¡¯m nearby so I won¡¯t let any of you die.} Shiro said over a private channel.
Hearing what she said, Silvia hesitated for a moment before shaking her head.
There will be moments where they¡¯ll be in danger and Shiro can¡¯te to help. They should get used to not having someone insanely powerful as Shiro so that they can develop themselves more.
{If that¡¯s what you want. But remember, try not to use the item if you can and fight without the help of external sources. Since I¡¯m here, your safety is guaranteed.}
Nodding her head in appreciation, Silvia stored the item away.
"Yu." She called out.
"Yeah?"
"Remember what Shiro said? How one doesn¡¯t tense their a** in a fight? Go for that weak point and don¡¯t give him a chance. Now that he has his guard down, we need to finish him off." She whispered as Chen Yu paused in mild shock.
Taking a deep breath, he nodded.
"How much are you able to buff me? I¡¯ll try to finish him off."
mming her staff down, several tier 3 magic circles shed around Silvia and wrapped around Chen Yu.
"Mark of the Saint!" Silviamanded. This was her secondary berserk buff that would increase a targets stats by 20% along with several boosts such as crit chance, crit damage and armour pration.
Feeling the power flowing through his body, Chen Yu flickered into the shadows and dashed towards the enemy.
"Heh? You trying the same tactic?" The man smirked since Chen Yu had tried to stab him in the back and neck several times but to no avail.
Setting up a barrier around his neck once more, he continued to focus on whittling Madison¡¯s health and mana down.
However, he wasn¡¯t prepared for Chen Yu to go for something else.
"This makes the word ¡¯ass¡¯assination way to literal." He muttered.
Twirling his dagger, he used all of his skills and stabbed towards the level 100¡¯s rear.
Chapter 330 Fighting Blythe
Chapter 330 Fighting Blythe
"URAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Painful howls filled the air as it attracted everyone¡¯s attention in the battlefield.
While screams were naturally part of war, such deeply felt pain was far from natural. Akin to the howls a broken man would have when losing his entire family in front of him, the enemy shouted without restraint.
Despite his ears hurting from the scream, Chen Yu gritted his teeth and did not stop.
Twirling his dagger with impressive dexterity, he dismantled the man¡¯s rear as if it was a chicken being prepared for dinner.
Looking at this scene, Keomi gasped in horror and shock while Shiro grinned with excitement.
¡¯He has potential. I¡¯ll allow him to be with Silvia since he has proven himself worthy.¡¯ She thought with an appreciative nod.
{What the hell are your standards for men to be with the party members?! Poor Chen Yu had to give up a part of him for you to actually acknowledge him.} Nimue protested.
¡¯Well everyone in this party has given up something. It¡¯s called sanity. Chen Yu just gave up shame to be with Silvi.¡¯ Shiro chuckled.
Focusing back on the fight, they saw the party restraining the level 100 through buffing Chen Yu. While the enemy did try to get Chen, Madison was able to draw his aggro away. Eventually, they managed to kill him through constantly buffing Chen Yu.
Looking at the man who was bleeding profusely from his rear while dead on the ground, Chen Yu wiped away his sweat and raised an eyebrow.
"Huh... this weakness is pretty helpful in the end. While it can¡¯t instant kill like with the neck or heart, it can definitely restrain them..." He muttered.
"I swear if you make it a habit I¡¯ll ram my staff up your ass instead!" Silvia humphed in annoyance.
"Don¡¯t be like that Silvi, Chen Yu here makes a good point." Shiro called out with a grin, revealing themselves from the air.
"Shiro! You were watching!?" Both Madison and Chen Yu widened their eyes.
"Yup. Don¡¯t worry about it though, like I told Silvi, I¡¯ll make sure that none of you die. Plus, Chen Yu was able to see how effective the weakness truly is so that¡¯s a bonus." Shiro chuckled.
Sighing slightly, they shook their heads.
"So what now?" Madison asked as they quickly looted the body of the level 100.
"Me and Keomi will be going to the north to assassinate someone so I want you to regroup with Lyrica¡¯s group and make your way to the south. There should be only one orphanage so everyone should stay there for the time being until Ie back. Of course, you can also go roam some more but your mana isn¡¯t looking too good."
Giving the group a tablet that had Lyrica¡¯s coordinates, they talked for a little longer before leaving with Yin.
Since she was still quite low levelled, she would be in grave danger should she follow them to the watchtower.
"Now that they¡¯re gone, shall we make our way over there as well?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Mn, sure."
Dashing over the rooftops, they arrived in front of the northern watch tower rtively quickly.
"Let¡¯s see... we¡¯ll invade from the top and make our way down." Shiro suggested since both Morthil and the third prince were closer to the top and it would make their travel distance shorter.
"I¡¯m fine as long as we can kill them." Keomi smiled while cracking her knuckles.
"That¡¯s good then. Let¡¯s go."
Grabbing Keomi¡¯s hand, Shiro dashed up the side of the building before entering the rift.
###
"So you¡¯re telling me, that Shiro was able to counter you despite being basically 40 levels below you?" Blythe raised his eyebrows.
"Indeed. If she didn¡¯t have Rising Sun to help her, I would have killed her for sure." Morthil frowned.
"Hm.... So that means that there¡¯s a big possibility that she¡¯s with first brother. Since that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll give her one more chance toe to my side before dealing with her." Blythe shook his head.
"But your highness! She¡¯s too dangerous to be kept alive!" Morthil shouted out in an attempt to convince the prince.
"Shut it. How dare you shout at me." Blythe frowned.
Flinching slightly, Morthil could only grit his teeth and ept it.
However, before they could say anything else, they felt mana fluctuate behind them. A portal opened up to reveal Keomi who had a ming fist and a mad grin. Without hesitation, she twisted her body and pushed a hole through Morthil¡¯s body.
*BANG!
Blood sprayed everywhere in the office as Blythe was bathed in the blood of his subordinate.
Widening his eyes, he tried to activate a domain but was stopped when Shiro¡¯s arms wrapped around his head.
"Hush prince, just let us kill Morthil and you can do whatever you want to my body~" Shiro muttered seductively next to his ear. This caused a chill to run through his body as his reactions were dyed.
Giving Keomi the time she needed to properly finish Morthil off, Shiro threw a dagger at his head so that she can get some assistance EXP.
Clutching her fist, Keomi narrowed her eyes and pulled it out of Morthil¡¯s body.
With the hole in his torso, she then forced both fists in and ripped him in half. While this was happening, Shiro had stabbed Ataraxia through Blythe¡¯s back.
"GAH!"
Looking down at the sword that was pierced through stomach, rage filled Blythe¡¯s mind.
Unfortunately for him, the deed was done and Shiro was free to leave with Keomi.
With Morthil¡¯s death, the third prince had lost one of his most powerfulmanders.
"Keomi!" Shiro shouted out while flipping over Blythe. Grabbing Keomi¡¯s hand, she jumped into the rift and fled the area.
"God damn it!!!" Blythe shouted out as his aura became berserk.
Activating a sealing domain mixed with a tracking domain, he searched for Shiro¡¯s whereabouts.
"Found you." He said through gritted teeth. Activating some domains that buffed his speed and self heal, he charged after the duo.
###
"Big sis, he¡¯sing for us." Keomi warned with a frown.
"I know. Setting that aside, have you got Morthil¡¯s loot?"
"Yes I have. Surprisingly, he didn¡¯t carry much on him in terms of useful items." Keomi replied in slight disappointment. Whether that was because the third prince essentially had a cor around Morthil¡¯s neck or the fact that he was confident in not needing items, it was still strange for such a high level being to have such ack of items.
"Well at least we got something. We¡¯ll be traveling out of the rift for now. I¡¯ll set up a diversion." Shiro shook her head.
Jumping out of the rift, theynded on a nearby building. Shiro activated Fae Illusions and had several identical copies of them
*BANG!!
Crashing through the roof of the tower, Blythe red at the illusions with anger.
Furrowing his brows, he tried to find the real one but failed.
"Tch, you dare use illusions against me!?" He frowned and pulled out an item.
Looking at that item, Shiro widened her eyes.
"Oh sh*t, Keomi, we need to run quick unless we¡¯re willing to use everything against him!" Shiro warned while dragging Keomi by the arm.
"Eh?! Why?" Keomi asked in confusion.
"That item is called the Executioner¡¯s Requiem. We¡¯re not ready to fight against that right now. If we try, we¡¯ll need to make sure that we¡¯re betting with our lives on the line." Shiro warned while narrowing her eyes.
One of the other reasons that she didn¡¯t want to fight the relic right now was because of the fact that she¡¯ll need to use her Nanomancer ss if she wanted to guarantee her survival.
Even though Keomi was her sister, it was still a risk to show such an advanced ss to someone she barely knew.
*BOOM!!!!
Arge tier 4 magic circle expanded out rapidly and shadowed arge portion of the city.
Snapping his fingers, Bltyhe grinned while a soft and creepy melody drifted through the area.
Shiro¡¯s face paled slightly as she stumbled on her feet.
"Damn it, he¡¯s already unlocked the second ability." She muttered with a frown.
Executioner¡¯s Requiem had several abilities that would unlock as the corruption spread. Its base ability was a near unbreakable illusion that was limited by it¡¯s huge mana drain. As for its second ability, it was one that would confuse the brain.
If one wanted to move their hand, their leg would move instead. This would be randomised continuously every 5 seconds making it hard for a person to react.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro decided to try her best to dy Blythe so that he runs out of mana. That was the only feasible way that she can guarantee their survival right now.
Chapter 331 Stage 3
Chapter 331 Stage 3
"Keomi, his only current weakness I can think of right now is that he needs a sh*t ton of mana to sustain the item. If we can continuously draw out the fight, we¡¯ll be able to open up an opportunity to kill him." Shiro suggested.
"Big sis, can¡¯t you use that item of yours?" Keomi asked.
"It doesn¡¯t work that way. When the Executioner¡¯s Requiem is activated, it¡¯s hardly affected by any items. Unfortunately, if I¡¯m right, The Sealing Incantation is not one of the items that can stop him right now." Shiro frowned while trying her best at moving her body. But with the second skill activated, once she got a grasp of her movements, she¡¯ll fall right down again.
"But we¡¯re not in any state to fight now are we?" Keomi asked.
Their only saving grace was that Shiro had activated her Fae Illusions so that there were multiple copies. She made sure that each of them was acting the same so that Blythe wouldn¡¯t be able to find the real bodies.
"I know but that isn¡¯t the same for our abilities. What I want to do is use you as a catalyst to use my magic. My body¡¯s a bit damaged right now so if I try to dy him, it would have too many negative repercussions. However, if I funnel it through your B ssed physique, I should, in theory, be able to output slightly more power than I do now. But that¡¯s only a theory so I¡¯m not sure how it would work." Shiro furrowed her brows while moving them into the shade.
"I¡¯m not too sure about the details but I trust you." Keomi replied seriously.
Nodding her head, Shiro reached out and pressed her hand against Keomi¡¯s back.
Closing one of her eyes, she sent a single strand of mana to scout out Keomi¡¯s body for the most optimal pathway.
¡¯Since she¡¯s a warrior type ss, the pathways might be a little differentpared to what a mage has.¡¯ Shiro thought while mapping out the pathways.
Since warriors focused on physique, their pathways would be tougher than what a mage would have but at the expense of fine tuned control. This was why the mages were able to userge scale destruction spells while warriors could only use domains or body refinement.
If she wanted to use Keomi as a catalyst for her spells, she¡¯ll need to adapt to her channels so that it fits to a certain degree.
However, once she finished scanning Keomi¡¯s body, she could only curse her luck.
"Damn it, why the hell are you so good at refining your body?! Your channels are absolutely huge and they¡¯re amazing for huge bursts of power. But for our situation, this is the worst that I can ask for." Shiro sighed.
"Then are we done for?" Keomi furrowed her brows.
"Nope~" Shiro grinned.
"Since your mana channels are huge, it means I¡¯ll have to pump more mana and have a harder time at controlling it. Thankfully for us, I¡¯m good at controlling a huge amount of mana."
If she couldn¡¯t do this, then each spell would have literally thrashed her links. By decreasing their final output and power potential, she can make it safer for herself. Otherwise, a single spell created by over 150 thousand points of INT would cause much more damage than what she had shown so far.
If she had to describe it, it would literally be a natural disaster.
Focusing her mind, she pushed mana into Keomi¡¯s body through her palms.
"Urg!" Feeling the foreign mana enter her body, Keomi flinched from the sensation.
A tier 3 magic circle started to flicker in front of her as Shiro was trying to use her body to construct the magic circle.
"Come out wherever you are! I¡¯ll make your death a painless one!" Blythe howled in the background while sending countless attacks towards all of her clones. Whenever an attack hit, a building would be almost erased from the damage.
Since Shiro could spare a portion of her focus to make sure more illusions were being created in different locations, she was able to avoid the fate of being blown up for now.
¡¯Come on!!! Just a little more!¡¯ She urged in her mind since she knew that she had the potential to make a tier 4 magic circle despite being in C ss. With her INT stat and Keomi¡¯s B ss physique, this should be a feat that they could achieve.
The magic circle flickered a little more as the fourth ring started to form around the outside, symbolising its transition into a tier 4 spell.
"Constructionplete." Shiro muttered with a grin when the fourth ring stabilised itself.
Tier 4 Spell ¨C Frozen Chandelier!
*KRRRRR!!!!
A blizzard surrounded the area that was affected by the Executioners Requiem¡¯s second ability.
Dark clouds gathered in the skies as the temperature dropped rapidly. Within mere moments, the city was turned into a frozenndscape where there was hardly anything that wasn¡¯t frozen.
Breaking though the clouds, a giant ice chandelier could be seen, glistening in the light. Each branch of the chandelier would reflect and amplify the light, blinding anyone that saw it for a split second.
As the person who was closest to the chandelier, Blythe couldn¡¯t avoid this fate either.
"Gah!" Shielding his eyes, Blythe looked away from the chandelier.
*Cling cling cling cling!
Just as he did this, chains erupted from the ground and stabbed towards him. Each one was reinforced with Celestial Path and thus cutting off any spells that he wanted to use in defence.
Quickly making a solid clone and trading ces with it, Blythe made sure that he wasn¡¯t caught for too long since he knew the kind of danger he¡¯ll be in. Despite his attitude, he made sure to memorise everything that Morthil had told him about Shiro.
Since her fighting style seemingly revolves around sealing off the mana usage of her enemies, he¡¯ll need to make sure that he wasn¡¯t caught for too long.
"Tch, annoying." He clicked his tongue. Manoeuvring around in the air, he avoided the chains while sending out attacks to repel them when he wasn¡¯t able to dodge.
Activating a few domains that increased his magic resistance and ice resistance, he flicked his wrist and created several firences and sent them flying towards the sky.
Shattering into a rain of fire arrows, he targeted all the clones.
But when he saw that none of the arrows managed to hit his target, annoyance flooded his mind while his chest heaved in anger.
¡¯That¡¯s good. If I can keep this up, He should be running out of mana in 10 to 15 minutes give or take.¡¯ Shiro estimated.
Thankfully, the Executioner¡¯s Requiem wasn¡¯t at stage four or else it would truly be almost impossible to fight against unless one is prepared.
That¡¯s because at stage four, the users gains the ability to regenerate mana rapidly. This makes it so that the previous three abilities basically be passives since the regeneration was able to almost offset the cost.
¡¯Thankfully, I found this item in the early stages. If I find itter, I might not be able to fight it unless my links are healed.¡¯
Shaking her head, she continued to make sure that the tier 4 spell continued without any problems.
Since she was doing this through a catalyst, there were bound to be a few unnatural fluctuations that she¡¯ll have to sort out quickly.
Not only that, but the person acting as the catalyst would be under quite some pressure as well.
{Say, my queen.} NImue called out.
¡¯Sup?¡¯
{So I understand what stages 1, 2 and 4 are, but you¡¯ve never said anything about stage 3. What happens if he reaches stage three during this fight?} Nimue asked curiously.
¡¯Hmm... if stage three happens, his lethality would reach a whole new level. That is because the ability he gains is the ability to bind and reduce the targets armour to 0 should one of his illusionse into contact. Once that happens, a simple punch from him could be life threatening.¡¯
{Not to be the jinx, but I think there¡¯s a high possibility in him achieving stage 3 considering how things are going right now. IF I remember, you told me that the more the user gives themselves up, the more the relic takes advantage. Blythe seems pretty pissed right now so it might be dangerous.}
¡¯Oh don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve fought someone who used this relic before, I can say that it¡¯s almost guaranteed that he¡¯ll hit stage 3 soon so I¡¯m trying to drain as much mana away as I can before that stage is reached.¡¯
Continuing the cat and mouse game with Blythe, Shiro kept an eye on him to make sure she catches the moment he¡¯s about to reach stage 3. At that moment, his spells would be down for a little while so it was the perfect moment to relocate themselves.
*BOOM!!!!
¡¯Now!¡¯
Cancelling her tier 4 spells, Shiro grabbed Keomi into the rift and dashed away.
Blythe had reached Stage 3 of the Executioner¡¯s Requiem and the risks had just multiplied by several folds.
Chapter 332 Opportunity
Chapter 332 Opportunity
Moving through the buildings as quickly as she can, Shiro made sure to nce back every now and again to see Blythe¡¯s progress in transitioning to stage 3.
During this stage, the user¡¯s mind would be corrupted by quite arge amount, making it so that they will risk almost everything to fight their enemy.
It bes a situation where it¡¯s either you die now or I die trying.
"You know big sis, we can get away quickly if you let me carry you." Keomi reminded since Shiro had just taken the initiative to grab her hand and drag her away.
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro turned and looked at Keomi with a deadpan expression.
Sighing softly, Shiro hopped onto Keomi¡¯s back.
"Is this ok?" She asked since she didn¡¯t want to make Keomi too ufortable.
"Yeah that¡¯s fine." Keomi nodded..
Crouching down slightly, she dashed forwards. The force created from this caused the ground underneath them to crack and shatter.
While they were focused on running away from Blythe, his actions of using the corrupted relic has caught the attention of everyone who¡¯s in the current war.
They had seen two huge tier 4 spell circles expand out with the second creating a huge ice chandelier.
Both the first and second prince were confused since they hadn¡¯t sent anyone of that calibre to fight their brother.
Understanding that it must be the work of a third party, both princes made their way towards Blythe. After all, he must have plenty of good loot in his inventory.
They also wanted to make sure that they see Blythe die since his domains are one of the most annoying things to deal with. Especially when they ce several debuffs on you and it continues to stack.
As for Shiro¡¯s party, after regrouping with everyone, they made their way to the orphanage. During their trip, they clearly felt a huge burst of mana from the north and saw Shiro¡¯s fight with the third prince. After all, Ice Chains were one of Shiro¡¯s defining traits whenever she used her ice magic.
"Damn, since when was Shiro able to cast spells like that?" Madison muttered after seeing the tier 4 spell.
"I think she might have gotten help. Remember her links? I don¡¯t think she can cast such a spell without negative repercussions." Lyrica frowned in worry.
"Do... do you girls want to go over and help her?" Silvia asked since she was concerned about Shiro¡¯s situation.
"No. If you go now, it may hinder mum instead. For her to need to use a tier 4 spell, it must mean that she¡¯s in quite a lot of danger and she¡¯ll need to focus. Mum¡¯s one of those people that fights really well when she¡¯s unrestrained." Lisandra shook her head. After all, she knew how much Shiro cared for the group so if they¡¯re in any danger, it would only distract her.
"But even so, we can¡¯t just run away knowing that she¡¯s in danger." Silvia shook her head.
"Hmm... what if we do this. I can construct a spell but I¡¯ll be needing your help. It¡¯s based on a theory that I found during my time in the library." Aarim suggested.
"What theory is it?"
"The theory is that through using multiple people as checkpoints and have them participate in constructing a spell, they¡¯ll be able to add their own sections and grant effects to the final oue. I¡¯m thinking that since all of us have empowering skills, we can perhaps construct a spell that contains all of them and target it at Shiro." Aarim exined.
"That could work but can we even reach her? The distance is quite far." Lyrica frowned.
"Don¡¯t worry about that. I can do it since I have the most speed out of all of us." Lisandra volunteered while pointing at her angel wings.
"Alright, I¡¯ll see if I can make the spell." Aarim nodded.
Focusing her mind, she pushed her hands in front of her.
An empty set of rings appeared while spell runes started to carve themselves within the empty spots.
"Silvia, since you¡¯re the support, try add some buffs into the spell." Lyrica said while looking over at Silvia.
"I¡¯ll try."
Walking up to the magic circle, Silvia reached out with her hand and attempted to add her own magic into it. However, the moment she did that, the circle destabilised and shattered apart instantly
"Ah!"
The force had sent Silvia stumbling backwards as Chen Yu quickly caught her so that she didn¡¯t hurt herself.
The same happened to Aarim but she stabilised herself before anyone could help.
"Hmm... that¡¯s a bit troublesome. It seems like the main problem ispatibility along with some other factors." Aarim frowned since she had analysed the spell the moment it destabilised. The main cause was due to their mana fighting each other for dominance over the actual spell and caused it to shatter.
"Tch. This idea¡¯s a bust." She sighed while dusting herself.
"So we can¡¯t do anything then?" Lyrica asked.
"Unfortunately no." Aarim shook her head as the party made their way to the orphanage with disappointment.
When they arrived, they were slightly surprised to see the elders along with both princesses treating the wounded while the fourth prince escorted them to the closest evac zone.
"Ah big sis, you came." Cyri called out after seeing the party.
"Yeah, Shiro told us toe here while she made some trouble up in the north. With how things are going, it looks like she¡¯s fighting third brother." Lyrica nodded her head.
"Hmm... that¡¯s slightly concerning. From what we saw from here, the tier 4 spell earlier wasn¡¯t a product of his ss. The most likely situation is that it¡¯s an item." Cyrl frowned.
Before they could say anything else, a dense amount of mana washed over the city as they looked over at the fight in shock.
*BOOM!!!!!
"Er... I don¡¯t think third brother is supposed to have that kind of power." Cyril said while looking at the elders with concern.
"Hmm... Cyril, Syvi, you two go support Shiro since you two are the highest level supports. Shiro¡¯s party, you lot stay here for now since it¡¯s too dangerous. I doubt Shiro would want you in harms way. Instead, you can help us with the injured and escort them to the evac zones." One of the elders instructed.
Both princesses, Cyril and Syvi, nodded their heads and obeyed the order.
Giving the rest of the party some orders, the elders had Lisandra, Cyril and Syvi make their way to the north.
With Lisandra¡¯s speed and ease of transport, this would be the most efficient way.
Grabbing both princesses by the h.i.p.s, Lisandra spread her wings and flew towards the north.
###
Taking a deep breath, Shiro wiped the sweat from her head and looked towards Blythe who had just finished transitioning to stage three. With item¡¯s second skill back up, it was hard to run away effectively.
"If we¡¯re sneaky enough, do you think we can get out of his area of effect?" Keomi asked.
"I¡¯m not too sure. Thankfully, he hasn¡¯t found us yet because of my skill but I wouldn¡¯t count on it." Shiro replied while trying to stand up. Forcing her body against the wall, she slowly nudged herself up on her feet only to fall back down again.
"Tch! We¡¯ll have to dy him again." She frowned.
Activating Frozen Chandelier once more, Shiro knew that this couldn¡¯t continue for too long since there was a limit to how much she can use Keomi as a catalyst.
With little knowledge on how much mana Blythe has, it was a gamble to continue this way.
However, during this, she sensed Lisandra¡¯s presenceing closer.
"Lisa, can you hear me?" Shiro said into the earpiece.
"Mum? Yeah I hear you. I¡¯ming in with some support." Lisandra replied.
"Don¡¯t. If youe closer, you¡¯ll lose control of your body." Shiro replied quickly.
"Eh? Why?"
After understanding the situation, Lisandra frowned and turned to the two princesses.
"Mum said that Blythe has obtained an item called Executioner¡¯s Requiem. The moment we enter his range, we¡¯ll lose control of our body and may be killed on sight."
"That¡¯s bad isn¡¯t it?" Cyril raised an eyebrow.
"Of course it is." Syvi rolled her eyes.
"Say, sis, you think we can clear the debuff if we bolster Shiro¡¯s resistances and use cleanse on her?" Cyril asked.
Since they¡¯re both supports, with Cyril being abat medic and Syvi being an enchantress, they were able to provide both healing and buffs.
"I¡¯m not sure. We don¡¯t know the nature of his item." Syvi shook her head.
On the other side, Shiro¡¯s eyes brightened after hearing what Cyril has said.
"I think we can kill Blythe." She muttered with a grin.
"Lisa, ask them two how often they can use cleanse. If it¡¯s within 5 seconds, we can win."
Chapter 333 Battle Plan
Chapter 333 Battle n
"Hmm... I have several cleanse skills but even after chaining everything, there will be a 3 second gap before I can restart the chain." Cyril replied after hearing Shiro¡¯s question.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wondered if it¡¯s feasible. Since the Executioner¡¯s Requiem refreshes the debuff every 5 seconds, once she cleanses it, she¡¯ll be free to control her body properly for the next 4 seconds.
However, for a high intensity fight like this, that 3 second gap where Cyril can¡¯t cleanse is extremely dangerous.
"Are you able to time it so that you can have a one second gap between each cast? That way, we can somewhat offset the dy." Shiro suggested.
"I can try but I can¡¯t guarantee anything." Cyril shook her head.
"That¡¯s fine. By the way, is your cleanse skill an area of effect or single target?"
"Since I¡¯m abat medic, my skills effect the party. When I use my cleanse, everyone gets it." Cyril smiled.
"Great. That way, Keomi can help us as well. Since Lisa is in the party, she can give you an invite." Shiro said while ncing back at Blythe who was looking around in anger.
Currently, he was taking out his annoyance on the bystander adventurers that were unfortunately caught in the range of the item¡¯s effect.
Using the third stage of his skill, he was popping the heads of adventurers as if they were pockets of air on a sheet of bubble wrap.
"Get out here!!!" Blythe shouted out while crushing a man¡¯s head in his hands.
"Ooo yikes." Shiro muttered seeing the effectiveness of the third skill.
"Say sis, if you whisper to him all seductively like before do you think you can get him out of his anger?" Keomi asked curiously.
"Blergh! Hell no!" Shiro rejected instantly.
The previous action was but an impulse to extend the time for Keomi so that she could properly finish off Morthil. If she didn¡¯t do that and stopped Blythe from using a domain, there was the slim chance that Morthil could survive.
Seeing the pure disgust on Shiro¡¯s face, Keomi was slightly surprised.
"Eh? Didn¡¯t you always pull stunts like this before big sis?" She asked.
Previously, whenever she fought, she would always throw her enemy¡¯s mental state off through provocative talk.
"You forget? Memories." Shiro replied, ming it on amnesia.
"Fair enough."
"Anyways, Lisa, try to make your way here without being detected by Blythe. Cyril, use your cleanse skills so that we can group up and practice on the timings while we can." Shiro instructed.
"Got it."
After Cyril casted her cleanse skill on the party, Lisandra dived low and started to fly towards Shiro¡¯s location.
Since she made sure that she was close to the ground in order to avoid detection, their speed was much slower due to the obstacles.
Once they regrouped, Cyril healed both Shiro and Keomi just to make sure that they were in top form.
"So what¡¯s the n?" Cyril asked since she wasn¡¯t too sure as to how they were going to approach Blythe.
"You see..."
Exining the details regarding his abilities and how they should counter them, Shiro proposed that she sends some clones to harass him first while they get the timing down.
Once she was sure that the group understood what they were doing, Shiro activated Fae Illusions while Cyril practised her timings.
Meanwhile, the first prince was observing the situation from a distant building.
"Hmm... Shiro seems to be fighting third brother but she¡¯s using illusions instead." Neldor muttered while looking at the scene from outside of the item¡¯s effect range.
"Also, do you know why Keomi is with Shiro? I didn¡¯t get any word of this." He asked with a frown.
"I... don¡¯t know what the branch master is thinking. Perhaps they decided to form a partnership considering the danger of the third prince?" One of the Rising Sun executives theorised.
"Perhaps. Either way, let¡¯s wait for now. Second brother is nearby and it would do us no good if we go in too soon. It would only give second brother the opportunity to attack us. Plus, from what I can see, if we get into his range of effect, we may lose control of our bodies." The first prince said while looking at all the adventurers that were affected by the item.
From their struggling expressions and copsed bodies, he knew that going in would be tantamount to suicide.
"That being said, how can Shiro and Keomi move effortlessly?" He frowned since he could see the duo (Illusion) fighting against Blythe constantly.
"Perhaps they used an item to counter the third prince¡¯s skill?" The executive suggested.
"Whatever it is, are you able to get me in contact with Keomi? It would be good to get some information from her right now."
"Understood."
###
Suddenly feeling her phone vibrate, Keomi pulled it out and saw that it was one of her subordinates calling her.
"Big sis, my subordinate¡¯s calling me. I suppose it¡¯s the first prince¡¯s doing." Keomi called out.
"Mn? Oh take the call. And while you¡¯re at it, why not feed them some false information. I¡¯ll tell you what to say." Shiro looked over.
"Sure."
Pulling out her own phone, Shiro started to type down what Keomi should say.
"Hello?" Keomi answered.
"Branch master, you¡¯re fighting the third prince right now?" The subordinate asked.
"Yeah what of it?"
"The first prince is wondering how you can move in the area. From what we can tell, everyone is struggling."
"Oh that, you just need to use a debuff cleansing skill every 5 seconds to counter the item."
"Is that all?"
"Well I suppose it doesn¡¯t harm me for you to know more. You see, I¡¯ve found out that his item has 3 skills so far. The first is solid illusions, the second is this zone that you can see right now which makes it so that you can barely control your body. The third is the worst since it reduces all of your armour and defence to 0 and could kill you instantly." Keomi reported while looking at Shiro with confusion.
She wasn¡¯t sure as to why the first prince should know so much. In her opinion, if they wanted to kill the first prince as well, they should just tell him about the first and second skill so that he¡¯s not guarded against the third skill.
However, Shiro only pointed back at the script since she had her own ideas.
"Eh!? He can reduce your armour and defence to 0!?" The subordinate repeated with shock.
"Yeah, but don¡¯t worry. As long as we make him spend mana faster, we¡¯ll have an opportunity to end him. Are you able to put the first prince on the phone?"
"Ah, sure. Your highness, here, the branch master wishes to speak to you."
"Hello?" The first prince¡¯s voice rang out.
"Neldor, are you able to get some support ss users and help me drain his mana? It would be more beneficial for us. Plus, the second prince doesn¡¯t know the details so it would be a perfect chance to trap him as well. Killing two birds or rather, two princes with one stone."
"Hou~ That¡¯s an interesting proposition. Thought it would take a while for the supports toe so are you able to hold him in this location for now?"
"It should be within my grasps. However, you should note that despite cleansing the debuffs every 5 seconds, it¡¯s still risky so I would appreciate it if the help came as fast as possible."
"Of course. I wish you luck."
Ending the call, Keomi looked at Shiro.
"Big sis, why did we tell him so much information?" She asked.
"You see, by providing the correct information, we can sit by the side while he deals with Blythe. And just before he can kill Blythe, we¡¯ll go in and kill him instead, taking the Exp. If the second prince intervenes, we can take him on since he doesn¡¯t know what the Executioner¡¯s Requiem can do." Shiro smiled while putting her focus back on Cyril. Currently, they had managed to get the timing of the cleanse skill.
If things go right, Shiro should be able to react ordingly within this second and avoid a fatal blow. If not, she can still use her Rejuvenation skill and rewind the damage she suffered within thest 10 seconds.
With this as her trump card, she basically has a second life as long as she¡¯s able to cast it before she¡¯s truly dead.
"Right then, Keomi you¡¯ll be vanguard with me while Lisa will protect the other two. Our goal changed from killing him to just increase his mana expenditure so if it gets a bit out of hand, feel free to just retreat as far as you can." Shiro said with a smile before summoning Ataraxia.
Chapter 334 Supression
Chapter 334 Supression
Gesturing for Cyril to start using her skill to cleanse the debuffs, Shiro jumped up on the roofs with Keomi.
While she could continue to use her illusions, it would be faster to drain his mana if the real one was mixed in every now and again.
"Remember, I¡¯ll attack first and you attack once his attention is on me." Shiro reminded.
"Are you sure? I can take the role as vanguard if you want. I¡¯m higher level." Keomi furrowed her brows.
"Level¡¯s don¡¯t matter right now since he¡¯ll just reduce your armour to 0. Just trust me on this and follow closely." Shiro shook her head.
Crouching down slightly, she waited for the next cleanse before jumping. After all, it would be awkward if she suddenly slipped a moment before jumping.
Twisting her body in mid air, she sent all seven copies of ataraxia shooting towards Blythe.
All of the illusions followed suit and copied her actions along with the activation of refraction, making it seem like a storm of des were about to pierce him.
Narrowing his eyes dangerously, Blythe couldn¡¯t tell which one was the real sword so his best option was to just stop them all.
"Haaa!!" Clutching his fist, a giant tier 3 magic circle wrapped around him as a pulse of energy exploded outwards.
*BOOM!!!!
The real swords were suddenly hit by an explosion while the others were unaffected. Instantly locking onto the real Shiro who had thrown the swords, he charged towards her.
¡¯So he found out about the real swords that easily huh? Well no matter.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Activating celestial raiment EX along with Hollow Deceit, she chose light as the base element in order to bolster her speed.
Flickering away from her location, she reappeared besides him with her sword drawn.
Sword Domain + Asura Sword Path!
*PUSHI!
Within a single moment, several shallow cuts appeared on the prince¡¯s body as Shiro clicked her tongue from theck of damage.
Without a moment¡¯s hesitation, she hopped backwards to avoid his attack since it would kill her in one hit.
Keomi saw this and realised that it was a prime opportunity tond a hit on the prince as he was focused on Shiro.
Flickering behind him, she was about to punch him with her ming fish when her body controls suddenly changed.
¡¯Sh*t! The 1 second gap!¡¯ She thought in annoyance.
With her controls skewered for 1 second, she was open for the prince to attack her.
Thankfully, Shiromanded Ataraxia to lock down Blythe, giving Keomi the time she needed to escape.
ring at the swords that were stopping his movements, Blythe activated another domain as the swords were pushed back by a forcefield.
¡¯Hmm... that second gap is a bit annoying. I¡¯ll have to go a bit more passive so that I can help Keomi avoid lethal damage. Unlike me, she doesn¡¯t have the rejuvenation skill... Wait! Why would I need to go passive if I just make sure that his focus is on me?¡¯ Shiro thought with a grin.
Narrowing her eyes, she released Blythe from the makeshift sword prison.
Flickering beside him with impressive speed due to her light element, she twisted her body and shed towards his neck.
*DANG!!!
Blocking it with a barrier, Blythe reached out for Shiro.
Kicking on the pommel of her sword, she flipped backwards before creating a bow of ice. Since she didn¡¯t want to use her Nanomancer ss right now, she¡¯ll have to make do with magic weapons instead.
The only problem is that they deal more magic damage rather than physical so there was a high chance that Blythe can just ignore it with a barrier.
Drawing back the mana thread bow string, a luminescent arrow formed between her fingers.
*BOOM!!!!!
Firing the arrow just as her timer entered another 1 second gap, she allowed the force to push her back a little.
Flicking his wrist upwards, Blythe created a barrier and reflected the attack back at Shiro.
"Troublesome." Shiro muttered.
Just as the second gap finished, she flipped her body and dismantled the arrow.
Since onerge arrow wouldn¡¯t work, how about several small ones that would cancel out his barriers? While she cannot stop the Executioner¡¯s Requiem, Blythe¡¯s magic should be a piece of cake for her.
Created a small ice tform for her to stand on, she pulled back on the strings once more. Only this time, she enhanced it with both light and her Celestial Path.
"Scatter!"
Firing the arrow, it split apart into hundreds of pieces while Shiro activated Analysis to scan his magic so that she knows where to hit.
Upon activation, the circuit patterns in her eyes started to glow with a red hue. If one was to look at her in the darkness, it would only look like a pair of menacing red eyes.
¡¯Found it!¡¯
Flexing her fingers slightly, the arrows started to curve and target the shield¡¯s weak points.
*PING!!!!
Shattering it to countless pieces, some of the arrows had even managed to pierce his skin.
"Gah!" Crying out in pain, the light element burned away at his flesh.
Quickly pulling the arrows out, he red at Shiro.
¡¯This can¡¯t go on. I need to grab her. That¡¯s all I need then I can kill her easily.¡¯ Blythe thought to himself.
Taking a deep breath, he used domains to enhance his own body.
*BOOM!!!
Taking a step forward, he instantly appeared before Shiro who had widened her eyes in shock.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯ Cursing loudly in her mind, she twisted her body and avoided his lethal jab to the head.
If that had hit, even if she had the Rejuvenation spell, she wouldn¡¯t be able to cast it.
Making a condensed orb of mana in front of them, she detonated it quickly to force the two of them apart.
Taking this chance tond a hit, Keomi jumped up behind Blythe before kicking him down into the ground.
*BANG!!!!
Seeing the ground crack and shatter from the collision, both Shiro and Keomi looked at each other before nodding.
"Syvi! Give us some buffs." Shiro ordered since Syvi was a Enchantress.
"Right on it."
Twirling her staff, several tier 3 magic circles rotated around her as Shiro got several notifications on her system.
[Buff Received]
+20% Crit Chance
+20% Ignore Armour
+20% Attack Speed
+25% Attack/Magic Damage
+20% Movement Speed
¡¯Damn, that¡¯s quite remarkable for someone who hasn¡¯t reached B rank yet.¡¯ Shiro praised in her mind.
Making herself a tform once more, she grinned wildly and dashed towards where Blythe hadnded.
¡¯Under levelled and against someone who can potentially one shot kill me. Damn this danger is exhrating.¡¯ She thought in excitement. Despite the risks, she just couldn¡¯t hold herself back from enjoying the moment.
Making herself two ice daggers, Shiro stabbed towards Blythe who parried with a staff.
"Come on? What¡¯s wrong? Can¡¯t hit me? What¡¯s the point of armour ignore if you can¡¯t hit me?" Shiro taunted.
Pivoting on her foot, she opened up a gap in his defence and flicked one of her daggers up into the air.
Stabbing the first dagger in his stomach, she then roundhouse kicked the falling dagger on the pommel and sent it burrowing into his shoulder.
"Gah you little pest!" mming his staff down, he tried to hit her with several spells but she only jumped into the rift and dodged.
Bypassing the second gap in the rift, she exited behind Blythe and wrapped her legs around his neck.
Falling back into a handstand, she tensed her body and threw him into the air.
Creating a bow once more, she fired it at his back.
*PING!!
Shattering the shield that he hastily put up, the arrow pierced into his shoulder de.
Turning around to focus his attention on Shiro, he failed to realise that Keomi was about tond a hit on the arrow.
*BANG!!!
"GAH!!!"
The force of the punch not only allowed the arrow to pierce through his body, but also send him back down to Shiro who was readying a kick.
Making herself a nanotech ankle bracelet that enhanced her strength and magic damage, she narrowed her eyes and timed her roundhouse kick.
*BANG!
Twisting her body so that she kicked the back of his neck in order to elerate his speed into the ground, a shockwave exploded out with the impact.
*BOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!
A huge cloud of dust exploded upwards as the ground shook from the impact.
During the hit, she could clearly feel that she had broken if not fractured his bone.
Before she could even rejoice, a ck and red energy de shot out from the smoke and pierced her heart.
Expanding in size immediately, it ripped her left arm off along with a portion of her torso.
Widening her eyes, she coughed up a mouthful of blood and fell backwards.
¡¯No way... he reached stage 4 already?¡¯ She thought in disbelief.
Executioner¡¯s Requiem Stage 4 : Dark Orbs will surround the user and attack with 200% speed whenever an opening presents itself. Limited to every 10 seconds.
+300% mana regeneration
Chapter 335 Support
Chapter 335 Support
Quickly activating her Rejuvenation skill Shiro jumped up and grabbed Keomi into the rift. Her flesh was writhing around as it reconstructed itself.
"Just run! Don¡¯t fight him! He has mana regen and attacks now!" Shiro shouted out into the ear piece with worry.
"Eh!? Big Sis, wasn¡¯t your chest just... ripped apart then?" Keomi asked as her face was a little pale.
"Mn? I got healed up, don¡¯t worry. However, I can¡¯t do this again for a while so we need to get out of here quickly. Now that he¡¯s reached stage four, I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s no way we can beat him." Shiro shook her head while moving her newly regenerated left arm.
Thankfully, her dress was made from monster cloth so she didn¡¯t need to run around half n.a.k.e.d.
Preparing herself mentally, she jumped out the rift.
Just as they exited, a flicker of ck and red attacked them and Shiro knew it was the item¡¯s skill.
As much as she wanted to parry it, it has kept the effect gained from stage three. A single touch would render her armour and defence to null.
Therefore, her best bet was to just avoid it.
Activating Phantom path along with her Hollow Deceit, she traded ces with one of her clones while Keomi rolled across the ground.
*BANG!!!!!
Missing the two of them, the des returned back to Blythe¡¯s side.
"Let¡¯s go quickly before the duration refreshes!" Shiro called out.
Gesturing for Keomi to follow her, she dashed away.
At the same time that this was happening, the trio, Lisandra, Cyril and Syvi, had already started to make their way out of the area.
Since Shiro had shouted in such a panic, they knew that the situation was bad. Not only that, Lisandra was pretty sure that Shiro¡¯s HP had reached 0 before regenerating back to full.
¡¯This is bad, I don¡¯t think mum anticipated this oue.¡¯ Lisandra thought with a frown.
At this point, even with the first prince¡¯s help, killing Blythe would be akin to a miracle.
"We don¡¯t want to go too far since my skill has a limited range of effect. Too far and Shiro will be done for." Cyril reminded.
"Got it."
However, they didn¡¯t need to worry about this since Shiro was running behind them.
"Keomi, are you able to ask your subordinate how much longer it will take the prince to arrive?" Shiro asked as sweat dripped from her face.
Even now, she was making ice weapons in order to push back Blythe so that he wouldn¡¯t kill them.
"Sure I¡¯ll try." Keomi nodded.
While Keomi was calling her subordinate, Nimue had spoke up about the possibility of Shiro using her Nanomancer ss.
¡¯With how things are right now, I won¡¯t be able to make a decent weapon without the des killing me instantly. I need to focus on running until the meat shields arrive.¡¯ Shiro replied with a shake of her head.
"They said they¡¯ll need around 3 to 5 minutes big sis!" Keomi called out.
"F*ck! Tell them toe in 1!!" Shiro retorted.
Holding off for 1 minute was already a chore never mind 5 minutes. Despite her links feeling like they were on the verge of breaking, she had continuously thrown out her reinforced ice weapons in order to slow him down. Even a few seconds would be appreciated at this point.
¡¯If I use my Sylph Queen¡¯s Domain EX, Throne World and Frenzied Incarnation EX, I should be able to hold out for a lot longer. However, if I do that, once the timer is up for the berserk skill, I¡¯ll be fish on a chopping board, unable to resist.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Unless she can guarantee that she can take care of the danger within the time that her berserk skill was active, there was no way that she was going to use it since it would only increase her chances of dying.
"They said they¡¯ll try toe as quickly as possible."
"Ok. Also, tell them about his fourth skill." Shiro instructed. Even though they were supposed to act as meat shields, it would do her no help if they just died blindly. She needed to make sure that their death¡¯s were actually worth it.
After informing her subordinate of the skill¡¯s description, Keomi stopped the call and put her phone away.
¡¯How troublesome. If I knew the idiot was going to reach stage 4, I should have just got my hand cannon and shot him when we saw Morthil.¡¯ Shiro thought with slight regret.
Jumping into the rift with Keomi, she quickly dodged the des once more.
This game of cat and mouse continued for another minute with Shiro sustaining injuries every second. While none of them were lethal, the sheer number of them made one pale in shock.
Blood flowed out from each of her wounds, drenching her in her own blood. To make matters worse, she had already healed quite a few of the wounds through using her life fire.
"Say, Keomi, are they here yet?" Shiro asked as her voice was rather weak.
Currently, she had no more strength to run away so she could only make herst stand through continuously making ice shields to protect them. But with Blythe¡¯s strength, they were easily shattered apart.
"I don¡¯t know." Keomi replied softly since she too was injured.
While she could punch the des away, doing so would also harm her since the bacsh would fracture her bones without her armour and defence blocking the majority of the damage.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro decided to have ast stand of sorts with the Blythe using her Nanomancer ss.
"Keomi, can you keep a secret for me?" Shiro asked seriously as her aura red. Ice continuously spread out in an attempt to slow down Blythe¡¯s charge.
"Of course sis, anything for you. But considering our situation, I don¡¯t think I get the choice." Keomi chuckled sadly.
"Then I want you to forget about everything in the next 10 minutes ok? Don¡¯t speak or ask questions of what happens next. Are you able to do that?" Shiro asked while ncing back at her.
"Sure."
After she got confirmation, despite it only being a verbal one, Shiro decided to go for it anyways. No point keeping a secret if she¡¯s going to be dead again.
Lighting sparked around her as she created two versions of genesis in her hands.
Dropping the ice shields, she readied her guns and pulled the trigger.
*BANG BANG!!!
The bullet¡¯s drilled against the des and diverted their directions instantly.
"Che, you had your fun and now it¡¯s time for some revenge." Shiro red at Blythe while twirling her guns.
Dashing towards Blythe, Shiro activated her skill Analysis and made sure to examine his muscle movements so that she could react in time. Not only that, she¡¯ll need to be careful of the des or else she¡¯ll die for good without her Rejuvenation skill helping her rewind her injuries.
Looking at Shiro who was constantly making guns and swords to fight against Blythe, Keomi couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes in shock.
It wasmon knowledge that bullets don¡¯t work on monsters due to theck of mana along with the fact that no one was able to fully integrate mana into the actual guns itself.
However, this knowledge was shattered as Shiro continuously made a variety of guns and slowly pushed Blythe back despite many of her close calls. With shotguns, snipers and even rail cannons being made every second, she had forced Blythe to be defensive.
This made it so that she only needed to worry about the Executioner¡¯s Requiem. While she did try to get a few lethal blows in, Blythe would always use Executioner¡¯s Requiem and trade ces with a clone, causing the shot to miss.
While they looked like they were in a stand still, Shiro knew that she was going to lose within the next few moments.
Despite all of her regeneration, she had less than 2 million mana left which was not even 10% of her total mana.
Once she gets below 1 million, she doubts she can continue to make effective weapons since the mana cost would be over her current budget.
¡¯Tch, seems like it¡¯s the end.¡¯ She thought in annoyance. However, despite this, she was going to struggle and fight on. Even if she loses an arm or a leg, as long as she can fight, she will.
Thankfully however, it seems like she didn¡¯t need to struggle much longer since the first prince had arrived with support.
Chapter 344 Eena - The Goddess Raiment
Chapter 344 Eena - The Goddess Raiment
Looking over at Helion, Shiro silently asked permission to bind the armour to herself.
"Go on." Helion smiled and gestured for her to collect her armour.
[Eena ¨C The Goddess Raiment LVL 97 (Red+)]
+ 10,000 STR
+ 15,000 VIT
+ 20,000 INT
+ 7,000 AGI
+ 5,000 DEX
+ 10,000 DEF
Passive Skill: Ability Siphon
Target anyone and siphon a portion of their abilities.
If you choose to siphon only 1 stat, it will increase the amount taken to 100% of the stat.
If you choose to siphon all stats, it will take 20% of each stat.
Active Skill: Eena
First Cast: When activated, you are blessed by the goddess of stars. All of your elements are empowered with the Astral element, increase your damage by 30%.
In daylight, all of your skills passively gain an increased amount of damage. When it¡¯s night fall, your skills gain increases magic pration and critical chance.
Daylight: 110% Additional Damage
Starlight: 60% Magic Pration, 50% Critical Chance
Cost: 20% of total MP
Duration: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 2 hours
Second Cast: When activated, your weapons are enhanced by Astral enchantment, converting 50% of your highest stat into raw power for 30 seconds.
Cost: 20% of Total MP
Duration: 30 seconds
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Third Cast: Chosen of Stars. ????
Soul Bound: Shiro.
Looking at the stats along with the properties of the skill Eena, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but rub her eyes a little to make sure that she was seeing things correctly.
¡¯Holy f*ck! 50% of my highest stat into raw power!? If Ibine it with my nanotech, wouldn¡¯t I basically have a city destroying weapon at hand!?¡¯ She thought to herself in shock.
However, there was a slight mystery with the armour and that was the question marks in regard to the third cast. The only hint that she had of what it could be is the name, Chosen of Stars.
¡¯Since I¡¯m apparently blessed by the goddess of stars when I activate the first cast, perhaps the third cast is something simr to an avatar?¡¯ She spected while equipping her armour.
Feeling the power surge through her, she designated herself as the target once more and chose to only siphon her INT stat.
[Name: Shiro
Level: 97
ss: Mystic Sylph Queen (SSS), Ascendant Nanomancer (EX)
HP: 12,750,000/12,750,000
MP: 40,750,000/40,750,000
STR: 63,000 <+31,500> (+10,000)
VIT: 58,000 <+29,000> (+15,000)
INT: 120,000 <+60,000> {+6,000} (+20,000) [+120,000]
AGI: 67,000 <+33,500> (+7,000)
DEX: 52,000 <+26,000> (+5,000)
DEF: 37,000 <+18,500> (+10,000)
< > = Title Bonus (50%) {Tears of the Sylph Queen +5% INT} (Armour) [ ]= Armour passive
"Oh damn... My MP is crazy now..." Shiro muttered as she couldn¡¯t suppress the excitement in her mind.
{Erm... not to burst your bubble, but can you use it all?} Nimue asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah." Freezing up in realisation, Shiro understood that she may or may not have been a ¡¯little¡¯ impatient and excited about her new armour.
¡¯Don¡¯t worry, think about the long-term benefits.¡¯ Shiro replied while hiding her embarrassment.
{I am so done. *Sigh* Honestly, you¡¯ve made me flip so many tables in my mind I can probably stack up a tower bigger than the world tree.} NImue rolled her eyes.
¡¯Haha, it¡¯ll be fine~¡¯ Shiro dismissed it with a smile.
"Shiro? Shiro? You okay there?" Helion asked in worry while waving his hands in front of her face.
"Mn? Oh yeah I¡¯m fine what¡¯s up?" Shiro replied with a slight cough.
"Not much. You just sort of spaced out then. Are you sure you¡¯re alright?" He asked again with concern.
"Yeah don¡¯t worry. So, what do I owe you? You can take the rest of the materials if you want for payment since I only got them for the armour. Now that you seeded in upgrading the armour, I don¡¯t have much use for the materials anymore." Shiro offered with a smile.
"Nah it¡¯s fine. I actually got a title and a passive for forging a red grade armour that was blessed by the star goddess." Helionughed since this was quite beneficial for him as well.
"Are you sure? At least let me treat you to a meal or something."
"Sure, I¡¯ll take you up on that offer."
Leaving the dungeon, Shiro brought him to the restaurant and ordered some food.
"So, what are your ns now?" Helion asked curiously.
"Hmm... now that you¡¯ve upgraded my armour, I can challenge harder dungeons, so I¡¯ll probably reach level 100 and get my B ranked ss. After that, I¡¯ll most likely be visiting japan so that¡¯s going to be quite fun. What about you?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Me? Well I¡¯ve just been working on my techniques and making equipment for one of the factions beforeing here for yourmission. As for what I¡¯m going to doter... probably just more crafting. Compared to you lot who grind dungeons, my days are pretty mundane haha." Helionughed.
"Well fighting in dungeons can get quite boring depending on what happens. But generally, I¡¯d say it¡¯s because I enjoy it that I don¡¯t get bored." Shiro replied after a moment of thought.
"I see. Also, how¡¯s Aarim doing? Is she doing well in the party?"
"Yeah. She¡¯s quite focused on research but other than that, she spends quite a bit of time with the party."
"That¡¯s good. I was kinda worried that she¡¯d be a bit out of ce, but it seems like my worries are for naught."
Talking a little more about the party, they eventually reached the subject of ¡¯Rogue Assassin¡¯.
"Ah, I wonder how the guns are made. They seem to be a mix of both magic and hand craft from what I can tell." Helion smiled in thought.
"Heh~ Seems like everyone¡¯s been curious about this person. They don¡¯t even know the person¡¯s gender."
"Well of course. No one has seen guns that effective after all. Though, I¡¯m just curious about itsposition. If we can understand how they¡¯re able to enchant all theponents and make it work, it would be a huge step in the cksmithingmunity. We¡¯ll be able to make more advanced weapons for people." Helion replied.
"But what if the lower level adventurers get their hands on a gun. Wouldn¡¯t that make it so that lower levels be a ughter fest?" Shiro asked as she was curious about his response.
"Hmm... that¡¯s true. But at the same time, isn¡¯t it that was already? With more talented people appearing left and right, high quality swords are being forged in the lower levels. These guns are just the next stage in the process. It¡¯s no longer a matter of ¡¯if¡¯ only when. With the guns proven to be possible to be effective, research would be resumed all over the world."
Hearing his response, Shiro nodded her head in agreement.
Back in Aria, even without the Nanomancer ss, the scientists were able to mass produce the most basic gun for the low levels. Proving that this can happen in the current worldter down the line.
After talking for a little longer, they finished their meal and left for the teleport shrine once more.
"So, I suppose I¡¯ll see youter then. If you need any help or anything like that, just give me a message and I¡¯lle to where you are." Shiro offered with a smile since he had done that for her as well.
"I¡¯ll keep that in mind then. After all, having someone like you back me up is quite reassuring." Helion nodded.
Giving her onest wave, he entered the portal and disappeared.
"Now then, I don¡¯t suppose it¡¯s time to hit level 100." Shiro said, smiling while looking back at the castle.
In that time that she hits level 100, the elders should have gotten enough mana to sustain the tree even without Iziuel, proving that the country can shoulder the burden rather than a spirit.
Targeting a dungeon that had strong independent monsters rather than grouped up ones, Shiro wanted to see how easy it was to kill them alone now that she had received an upgrade.
However, as much as she wanted to test armour skill, she knew that her links couldn¡¯t withstand that kind of stress just yet. After all, with the amount of mana she had now, 20% was no joke.
Arriving at the dungeon gates, she entered without anyone knowing and created two guns.
It was time for her to reach level 100.
Chapter 345 Level 100
Chapter 345 Level 100
Running through the dungeon, Shiro had a gun in one hand and a sword in the other.
Whenever she saw a monster on its own, she¡¯d attack them with her sword before ending them with her gun, shortening her fighting time by several seconds.
With this, she effectively killed a mini boss with just 10 seconds of time. Clearing the dungeon with minimal ease, she arrived at the boss room.
¡¯Say Nimue, should I give this boss a treat or nah?¡¯
{What kind of treat are we talking about here?}
¡¯The exploding instant kill kind.¡¯ Shiro replied with a smile.
{I suppose I should say yes? Saying no would mean their pain is prolonged.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯Very true.¡¯ Shiro chuckled.
Making herself two rail cannons, she chose a high power but low mobility mech suit for the boss since she wanted to kill it before it could reach her.
Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t as powerful as she had hoped it to be but it would suffice for now.
¡¯Ah, I can also ask Keomi to help me get some of the pills can¡¯t I?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while making the armour.
{I thought you would have realised it by now. Since she¡¯s in one of the biggest factions, it would only be natural that she can get a rebirth pill.}
¡¯I¡¯ll ask her after reaching level 100 then. Who knows, I might even have to get tier 4 attunements with my elements first and we both know that¡¯s basically impossible for me right now.¡¯ Shiro sighed.
If it wasn¡¯t for the limiting factor of her links, she¡¯d be able to cast tier 4 spells by the time she was level 80 due to the sheer amount of mana she had with the armour equipped.
Choosing a type of mech armour dubbed Sigurd, heavy armour started to wrap around her.
*BANG BANG!
Several support pirs extended out of the back of the suit, making it so that when she fires her weapons, she wouldn¡¯t go flying backwards due to their force.
Cannons started to appear around the suit, making Shiro seem like an indomitable walking fortress.
Grinning slightly, she didn¡¯t offer the boss some final words but instead, only pulled the trigger with cold hearted excitement.
*BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!
Firing a total of 15 cannons that were connected to the suit, light filled the room. Even the walls, that were normally highly resistant to magic, started to melt due to the st.
As for the walls that were hit directly by the st, the outeryers evaporated instantly as a crater was formed in the wall.
When the destruction calmed down, all that remained of the boss was just a pair of legs that only went up to the knee caps.
Smiling in satisfaction at its power, Shiro collected the boss¡¯s loot. While this set of armour was very powerful, her mobility is basically reduced to 0 and could only sit there and wait for someone to attack her.
Against a powerful opponent, this was less than optimal since they could just punch a hole through her and kill her instantly.
Leaving the dungeon, she prepared to repeat this till she reached level 100.
###
*BOOM!!!!
Killing the boss for the nth time now, of which she had long lost count, Shiro finally saw the long awaited level up notification.
With her level reaching 100, she was finally given the options to ss up.
[- - - Mystic Sylph Queen - - - ]
ss up choices:
1) Luna Sylph Empress
2) Sr Sylph Empress
3) Celestial Sylph Empress
4) Void Ruler
5) Mystic Sylph Queen ¡ï
6) Chosen of Athena
7) Chosen of Aphrodite
"Hou? I actually have 7 ss up choices." Shiro muttered in surprise.
Four of the seven choices were rtively straightforward since they¡¯re a variation of her current ss while the Void Ruler, Chosen of Athena and Chosen of Aphrodite are a little out of the norm.
From what she could tell, Chosen of Athena and Aphrodite were simr to what Helion had with his ss, Chosen of Hephaestus. Only this time, it was the goddess of war and the goddess of love/beauty.
"I suppose I can understand why both of them chose me but surely there are more people suitable in the world aren¡¯t there? Or could it be that there can be multiple holders of these chosen titles?" Shiro muttered in wonder.
Shaking her head, she decided to set them aside first and have a look at the four sses that had something to do with her current ss first. After all, there was a high possibility that she¡¯ll lose her privilege as the sylph queen should she choose the other three sses.
[Luna Sylph Empress]
Blessed by the Luna Celestials, you are now empowered in the night. Gaining the ability to use Luna Magic, you have the power to enchant everyone you deem as an ally with buffs. Every stat is increased by 20% when it is night.
A new channel of energy will be opened up in your body called Celestial Mana.
[Sr Sylph Empress]
Blessed by the Sr Celestials, you are now empowered in the day. Gaining the ability to use Sr Magic, you have the power to heavily buff yourself with the destructive power of the sun. Every stat is increased by 10% when it is day.
A new channel of energy will be opened up in your body called Celestial Mana.
[Celestial Sylph Empress]
Ascending to the realm of Celestials without a blessing, you have no definitive trait. However, as you have no definitive trait, your power scales depending on how many elements you have ess to. Certain elements give additional powerups depending what stage of evolution it is in.
A new channel of energy will be opened up in your body called Celestial Mana.
[Mystic Sylph Queen ¡ï]
An enhanced version of your current ss that has additional benefits.
¡¯Hm... The Luna Sylph Empress seems to be a support focused ss that focuses on everyone instead of yourself. However, what I want isn¡¯t that since we got Lisandra and Silvia for that. As for the Sr, Sylph Empress, while it does focus on myself, it seems that I¡¯ll lose a lot of the versatility I currently have. Since I don¡¯t exactly want to stay with a single element, Luna and Sr variants are probably off the list for now.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
¡¯As for the Celestial Sylph Empress and the star version of Mystic Sylph queen, they¡¯re more my style so it may just be a choice between the two.¡¯
Shaking her head, she checked out the final three sses.
[Void Ruler]
After reaching a certain mastery of your ability to enter a different ne of existence, you¡¯re given the chance to be its ruler. You will obtain abilities that allow you to use the Void in a more offensive manner. However, in choosing to be a Void Ruler, you lose your privileges as a Sylph Queen.
[Chosen of Athena]
Your battle style has impressed the goddess of war. Deeming you worthy of obtaining power simr to her, you are given a chance to be one of her sessors.
Your abilities will now centre around how you can exterminate your opponents with maximum efficiency.
While you do not lose all of your privileges as Sylph Queen, your connection to the race as its ruler is lost.
[Chosen of Aphrodite]
Your beauty has attracted the attention of the goddess of love. Deeming you worthy of obtaining power simr to her, you are given the chance to be one of her sessors.
Your abilities will now centre around how you can charm your opponents into submission and make them your loyal subject.
While you do not lose all of your privileges as Sylph Queen, your connection to the race as its ruler is lost.
"Yeesh, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll need the ¡¯privilege¡¯ of bing their chosen." Shiro raised an eyebrow after seeing the description of the two sses.
First of all, she would prefer not to seduce her enemies since it was not her way of doing things. The only reason as to why she had even done that during the previous fight was to increase their chances of sess. Personally, she had hated the experience.
As for the Chosen of Athena, while it was enticing for her, losing the privilege of being the Spirits ruler was somewhat of a no go for her. You could call it sympathy for the race but Shiro wanted to help the race to avoid the fate of bing batteries like Iziuel.
This was also the reason as to why she didn¡¯t want to be Void Ruler.
"Hmm... so in the end, it¡¯s down to Celestial Sylph Empress and the upgraded Mystic Sylph Queen." Shiro muttered.
While she did want to choose the upgraded Mystic Sylph Queen, this was her entry to B ss/tier 4. If she dyed the upgrade longer, she may be behind in terms of ss benefits. Plus, with the rate of her level ups, she¡¯s afraid that she may fail a star upgrade quest due to her levelling speed.
Therefore, she could only choose Celestial Sylph Empress as her next ss.
Chapter 346 Celestial Sylph Empress
Chapter 346 Celestial Sylph Empress
Clicking the Celestial Sylph Empress ss as her next option, she watched as her clearance tasks were being created.
[Celestial Sylph Empress]
ss up requirements:
[0/5] Tier 4 Attunements
[0/1] Celestial Awakening Stone
[0/1] Ascended Fae Shard
[0/1] B Ranked Celestial Catalyst
[0/3] Celestial Trials Completed Solo
[0/1] Celestial Mana Essence
[0/1] Celestial Empress Decree
Looking at the list of items that she needed, Shiro noticed that there were quite a few materials that she only needed 1 of. Knowing this, the materials were no doubt rare and the worst part is that she hardly knew where to get most of them.
The only one she knew how to obtain was Ascended Fae Shard and that was a piece of a high ranked fairy type monster. As for everything else, she had no idea.
There was also the problem of Celestial Trials since that was something she had never even heard of and she needed toplete 3 of these too!
"Hmm... that¡¯s quite bothersome." She muttered with a frown.
Shaking her head, she could only leave the dungeon and get what she can for now.
Since they were in the capital city of a ¡¯major¡¯ country, there was bound to be some items that she needed in the auction house. Even if there wasn¡¯t, she could have a look through the royal library to see if she could find anything out about them.
Upon leaving the dungeon, she made her way to the auction house and searched up Ascended Fae Shard.
Finding a few at quite the high price, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate and bought one instantly for 30 silver Erins.
"Yikes, that¡¯s almost all of my silver Erins." Shiro muttered while ncing at her money.
Currently, after buying the ascendant Fae Shard, she had 27 silver, 247 bronze and 5.95 trillion USD.
Quickly converting all of the USD into Erins, she got another 59 silver and 50 bronze, bringing her total up to 86 silver and 297 bronze Erins. However,pared to how much a single rebirth pill costs, she needed to have more than 5 times her current amount before she could even think about buying ONE pill.
¡¯If I didn¡¯t have Nan Tian helping me get the pills, I would literally be stuck if I exclude the pills I got from the trial.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
Shaking her head, she tried to search up the items that had Celestial in their name.
Thankfully, she was able to find one of the celestial items but the cost was much bigger than she had expected.
Worth an astounding 3 Large Silver Erins, the Celestial Mana Essence was ced in the VIP section of the auction hall. Meaning only the most prestigious people can obtain the item.
Even if she had the money, she couldn¡¯t buy it.
¡¯But still... 3rge silvers... Even my pill costs 5rge silvers so that¡¯s 50 trillion. Which means a single piece of celestial item that I can possibly get right now is worth 30 trillion. God damn...¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
{Maybe rob the winner?} Nimue suggested.
¡¯I doubt the possibility of that seeding. After thest two incidents, the auction house has prepared extra protection and security for the VIP¡¯s. These include even B ranked adventurers that can possibly break through the rift like what Keomi had done- Wait, speaking of Keomi, isn¡¯t she a branch master of one of the biggest factions? Therefore, it would only be natural that she had a VIP status in the auction house. Maybe I can get her to help me with this item.¡¯
Nodding her head, she started to n out her course of action. She was only going to be in Miriel for a few more days so she wanted to sort everything out first.
¡¯Hmm let¡¯s see, so for now I need to do research about Celestial type items. Meaning another trip to the library. I also need Keomi¡¯s help to get the item from the auction house so I might as well visit her now. There isn¡¯t much else I need to do so it¡¯s only a matter of getting Iziuel before making my way back to Vericia so that I can find out how to contact Yuki. After that, I¡¯ll go to Tokyo Japan to see the guild leader or rather, my apparent cousin.¡¯ Shiro nned out mentally.
Making her way to Keomi¡¯s office once more, she was led directly outside her room since Keomi had informed the receptionists about Shiro and told them that she was a VIP.
However, before she could knock on the door, she heard the sound of the table breaking and shouting.
"GOD DAMN IT! I told you I have no f*cking clue on who the person is. Plus, even if I did, you think I¡¯ll tell you just because you¡¯re from the government! Don¡¯t f*cking kid me!" Keomi roared out in anger while Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Is... your branch master always like this?" Shiro asked the receptionist.
"Mn? Unfortunately yes. Her temper is rather short when dealing with people she¡¯s unfamiliar with." The receptionist said with an apologetic smile.
¡¯Makes sense. She was quite aggressive the first time we met. That being said, I did rob her of her item after all.¡¯
Gesturing for the receptionist to leave, Shiro knocked on the door slightly before opening it.
Seeing two agents that were in suits and a furious Keomi in front of a broken table, Shiro understood that these two must have been the government workers.
[Harris LVL???]
[Tom LVL ???]
Seeing that they¡¯ve hidden their levels and ss, Shiro only shrugged her shoulders as she had expected as much.
"Ah si-Shiro. You¡¯vee at a good moment. Can you tell these two ¡¯gentlemen¡¯ that I was with you when the whole thing happened with the Rogue Assassin? They¡¯re insistent on me knowing who the assant was and even thinks I¡¯m the helper." Keomi asked with a smile.
With Shiro here, they could at least kill the two if need be and just me it on their attitude. It¡¯s not like the government would dere war on their faction just because of two workers.
"Say what you will but we¡¯ve gathered enough evidence to suggest that there¡¯s a high possibility of you being the helper. After all, there was only you and this girl here at the scene when the third prince started his blood bath." Harris scoffed.
"Plus, the same goes for you. Just because you¡¯re from the top 5 factions doesn¡¯t mean the government is afraid of you. You¡¯re just a low tier branch master who is many times weaker than the other branch masters. I doubt they¡¯ll go so far just for you." Tom threatened as his killing intent started to leak out a little.
Feeling a little irked by their attitude to her sister, Shiro suppressed the urge of her making them into skewers instantly.
"Gentlemen, I can prove that she was with me during the period of which the assants killed the first prince. But before we do that, how about a small agreement first." Shiro asked with a dangerous smile.
"Tch, do you think we¡¯ll go for an agreement with you? Plus, what gives you the authority to do so." Tom scoffed however Harris nudged him a little.
"Go on, I¡¯m listening. As for whether or not we¡¯ll take the agreement will depend on the contents." Harris frowned.
"Oh it¡¯s simple really. Justpensate us for the harassment as well as emotional damage so long as I can prove her innocence." Shiro chuckled as the duo looked at each other.
"Fine, I don¡¯t see the problem with that. However, how muchpensation are we talking about?" Harris asked.
"5 Large Silvers. How¡¯s that? Surely it should be within your grasp no?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"PFT! 5 Large Silvers!? Are you trying to make us kill you right now!" Harris warned dangerously.
Hearing their response, Shiro¡¯s smile only grew wider.
¡¯Good, that means their levels shouldn¡¯t be that much higher if 5rge silvers is hard for them. At least this opens up the option of killing them should they take it too far.¡¯ She thought to herself.
"Fine fine, how about 1 Large silver then? Surely that should be within your grasp right?" Shiro ¡¯shrugged helplessly¡¯.
"Hmph, what if you can¡¯t prove her innocence? What can you offer that¡¯s equal to 1 Large SIlver? Trades need to be equal in value after all."
"Intel in regards to the Rogue Assassin. As for what intel, that can wait." Shiro smiled.
Looking at each other, the two eventually nodded since their main goal was to get information anyways.
"Sure, we¡¯ll take the bet. Now then, how will you prove her innocence?"
Chapter 353 Tri Element Crystal Lotus
Chapter 353 Tri Element Crystal Lotus
Storing the pills away for now, she repeated the process for the higher grade pills.
Unfortunately, one of them was unsessful so that was 4% that she wasn¡¯t going to get back.
"Tch, such a shame." Shiro shook her head while looking at the sessful products.
[Enhanced Phoenix Rebirth Pills ¨C Red]
Enhanced with the blood of a true phoenix, the dormant medicinal properties have been brought out. Unfortunately, due to the low quality of the base material, it can only repair your body by 8%.
"Hmm... not bad. After enhancement, it had actually doubled the effectiveness of the pill." Shiro smiled.
Consuming all the pills one by one, she sat down and allowed her body to digest the pills.
While this was all happening, the second prince had finallye out of hiding.
"Hmm... the rogue assassin should have left by now. I doubt he¡¯ll stay so long if this was just a side stop in his trip." The second prince muttered while checking up on the current situation in Miriel. Seeing that his sister was now queen and that the Rising Sun had prepared to pull out of the country, he knew that this was a prime chance for him and the God¡¯s Pantheon to take over.
With both his brother¡¯s down, it was basically a free opportunity.
"Indeed. Though if you want to take the country, you better do it soon since the upper echelon has already expressed their disinterest involving ourselves in this any longer. The fronts lines have be a little chaotic so it¡¯s best that we make our way back." An executive replied while lighting himself a cigarette.
"I understand. Let¡¯s go now then, I¡¯ll gather the remains of my army while you round up those in the faction. We¡¯ll take over the city today."
###
"Fu... I¡¯ve reached 30% exactly now. With a third of mybat ability returned, getting tier 4 attunements should be a walk in the park." Shiro muttered with a satisfied smile.
She could feel the mana in her body being filled with power. It¡¯s like a giant ocean that was ready to burst into a whirlpool at a moment¡¯s notice.
Standing up, she stretched her body a little before pulling out her phone. With this, she¡¯s finished everything that she needed in Miriel so it was time to leave.
Sending everyone a message, she told them to meet up at the teleport shrine.
"Since they¡¯re still doing a dungeon, I have some time to spare. I think I¡¯ll go have some snacks near the teleport shrine." Shiro muttered.
{You know what? I¡¯ve noticed that you¡¯ve been eating snacks quite often. What brought about this change?} Nimue asked curiously. After all, she never expressed too much interest in food but now, she¡¯s having snacks when she has the time.
"Hmm... well it tastes good. It tastes sweet so I like it." Shiro chuckled.
{That¡¯s something a child would say.}
". . . Did you just basically call me a child?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
{I don¡¯t mean it that way. It¡¯s just the way you described your interest felt like how a child would describe it.}
"So you¡¯re still calling me a child?"
{I- urg, you¡¯re messing with me aren¡¯t you.} Nimue paused as she realised what¡¯s happening.
"Ah, I had hoped itsted a bit longer but eh, I had a bit of fun out of it, haha." Shiroughed.
Packing up everything she needed, she gave the elders and the princess a notice about her departure.
After talking for a while, they gave her 10 Large Silver Erins and offered her a martial art manual of her choice from the second level of the library.
"Ah don¡¯t worry about it. Actually, I had essed the second and third level in the first few weeks. There were some handy martial art manuals but I didn¡¯t take any so you can rest easy. Goodbye~" Shiro grinned and jumped into the rift before they could say anything.
Hanging their heads in defeat, the elders sighed tiredly.
"There¡¯s not really anything we can do to hold that girl back, can we?"
"Nope. She¡¯s unrestrained. Both literally and metaphorically."
*Sigh...*
###
Arriving at the caf¨¦, Shiro entered and ordered herself some cake and a drink.
Sitting by a seat at the window, she looked out at the streets with a soft smile.
¡¯Say, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s quite nice to see people rebuilding broken ces like this? Sure they may seem sad but the silent hope to see the ce back in pristine condition can be seen in their eyes. It¡¯s kinda charming isn¡¯t it?¡¯
{I suppose so. Though I¡¯m not exactly the best at discerning expressions like you are.} Nimue shrugged.
{I find that their attitude to restoring something as damaged as this admirable. Like Nimue, I don¡¯t see their subtle emotions but their actions show me what I need to know.} Iziuel followed up.
¡¯Hm... maybe I¡¯m just weird then.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
{I wouldn¡¯t go as far as weird but definitely quirky in a way.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯I suppose so.¡¯
Grabbing a fork, Shiro started to eat the cake with a blissful expression.
Cake wasn¡¯t the only thing that she had. Ordering some other snacks, she continued to eat while waiting for the party.
It was only when she noticed a smallmotion outside did she stop eating her ice cream.
"Mn? What¡¯s happening?" She muttered while trying to look towards the source of themotion.
Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t see the source so she could only choose to finish her ice cream quickly and head out.
Licking the ice cream off the corner of her lips, Shiro gave the waitress some tips and left the building.
Jumping onto the roof, Shiro narrowed her eyes and saw that it was the second prince¡¯s army.
"Hou~ The prince finally shows his face. Perfect time too. I need some exercise after having a good snack." Shiro grinned.
Jumping into the rift, she created her rogue assassin outfit and put on her mask.
Reappearing in the shade of a building, she estimated how long it would take for the second prince to walk into her strike zone.
Flexing her fingers, she created two hand cannons and entered the rift.
While the prince was marching through the streets and towards the castle, Shiro had appeared just behind him with her hand cannon pointed at the back of his head.
"Ah?" Feeling the cold touch of metal, the prince looked back in confusion before paling at the sight of Shiro.
*BANG!!!!!
Removing his head in an instant, Shiro twirled her hand cannon before pointing it at the people that were about to charge at her.
"Move at your own caution. Careful though, my heart¡¯s rather weak so if you move suddenly, I might shoot by ident since you would have startled me." Shiro grinned as she disguised her voice.
Her warning caused the people to freeze up for a moment.
Backing off slowly, they made a path for Shiro to leave.
Chuckling to herself, she collected the prince¡¯s body.
"Thank you for the loot, I bid you good day." She bowed slightly and entered the rift.
Seeing the ¡¯Rogue Assassin¡¯ disappear in front of them, the faction and army members looked at each other in slight embarrassment. They had entered the city with such bravado but the assassin had killed the prince and left with ease.
Hell, a single sentence from him was enough to dissuade them from tempting fate since they knew that they could be killed in an instant.
"Retreat!" The executive shook his head and called for retreat. If anything, he had to be grateful about the fact that the assassin was merciful enough to actually spare them and only go for the prince. At least it¡¯ll be easier to exin to the higher ups since they can just give up on this country.
Removing her disguise, Shiro was walking back to the caf¨¦ while checking the loot that she gained from the second prince. Surprisingly, he had more on him that was useful to herpared to the other two princes.
¡¯Hou, there¡¯s a few items for mages too.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself after seeing the potions, pills and equipment that she could have had some use for if not for the fact that she upgraded her armour due to Helion¡¯s help.
There was one item in particr that had stolen her attention.
[Tri Element Crystal Lotus ¨C Purple]
While it is unknown how much mana is needed to be infused into the lotus, legend has it that when it blossoms, three of your elements will experience a drastic change that will shock the world of mages.
Current charge: 14.7 billion MP/???
Chapter 364 Choices
Chapter 364 Choices
Realising this fact, she then pressed her fingers against the tablet and intruded their systems. As she was asking the receptionist about ways she could potentially send a message to the city lord without anyone knowing the details, she soon found a link to the city lordsputer.
"Since there¡¯s no other way, I suppose I¡¯ll give up then. Thank you for your time." Shiro shook her head.
Bidding farewell with the receptionist, she gestured for Lisandra to follow her.
"I¡¯m guessing you found a way to contact the city lord?" Lisandra raised her eyebrows.
"Yup." Shiro grinned.
Sitting down at one of the caf¨¦s, she ordered a few snacks and pulled out a tablet. Of course, the tablet was something she made discreetly with her nanobots but she made sure it looked like she pulled it out from her inventory.
"Let¡¯s see, how should I do this." Shiro muttered while connecting herself to the city lord¡¯sputer.
She could see that he was currently working on some doc.u.ments that have to do with relocating some of the experienced cksmiths around the city so that it can give the new cksmiths a chance atmissions.
Thinking about it for a moment, she eventually settled with just sending him a notification of amission for now.
###
"Hm... the older cksmiths are taking most of themissions nowadays. I¡¯ve seen more and more apprentices leaving the city. This won¡¯t do. We need them to have a chance as well since this is supposed to be a cksmithing city. Both the experienced and inexperienced should have a chance." The city lord muttered with a frown.
As he was testing out some new allocations, he saw an email pop up in his inbox with the subject ofmission.
Raising an eyebrow, he decided to open it since he made sure that the receptionists know not to send him an email aboutmissions unless it¡¯s something that¡¯s worth it.
Reading the email, he immediately narrowed his eyes as it turns out that this email was not from the receptionists but rather a mysterious person who was asking for amission to upgrade a powerful sword from him.
"Hmm... strange. There¡¯s no identification nor the details of the swords." He muttered in suspicion.
[That¡¯s because this is quite a private matter city lord. I heard that you and two close aides will keep the details of an upgrade silent. Since my sword is rather special, I don¡¯t want anyone else to know of its details except for the people who are upgrading it. If you cannot keep a secret, then I shall bother you no more.]
Widening his eyes, he looked around with a serious expression.
[No need to look around city lord as I am no longer in the hall. But tell me, are you able to keep a secret should themission be interesting enough?]
"Hmm... I am rather displeased about you hacking into my systems but if themission is interesting, I will do it." The city lord replied. While he was the city lord, he is also a cksmith looking for ways to improve himself. The only reason he limited themissions to something powerful and interesting was because weaker weapons don¡¯t give him any more proficiencies nor EXP.
So unless it was something that interested him greatly, he would not bother.
[Great. In that case then what do you think of this sword? It¡¯s rather brittle at the moment due to its self repair passive but other than that, it¡¯s a good sword.]
Sending over a picture, Shiro waited for the man¡¯s reply.
"I can see why you wouldn¡¯t want anyone else to see this now. A sword that is fitted with heavenly runes, can self repair and even make copies of itself. I don¡¯t even think the downside of the runes matter anymore due to this self repair. But you¡¯re right. In terms of durability, it is rather weak. I¡¯m guessing you had it broken in battle a few times?" The city lord replied with interest since it was the first time he saw a sword like this.
If it was him, he wouldn¡¯t want other people to know as well so he could somewhat forgive the fact that this mysterious person had hacked into his systems to send him thismission.
[Indeed. So are you able to upgrade it? Without telling anyone else of course.]
"Depends on what kind of materials that you have and how much you can afford. After all, even though it interests me, I still need to do business haha. But I¡¯ll give you a discount, don¡¯t worry." The city lord grinned while Shiro clicked her tongue.
¡¯Tch, what is it with dwarfs and their business. Aren¡¯t they supposed to be crazy for the equipment?¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows.
[In that case then we can meet up somewhere. I¡¯ll show you the materials I have and if it doesn¡¯t fit your requirements, I¡¯ll just trade them in for the needed parts.]
"Sure, where are we going then?"
[I was thinking, your office since it wouldn¡¯t be good if the city lord was to just leave the building and talk to a stranger now would it? At least I can still stay that I¡¯m a middle man from a faction.]
"Hmm... very well. I¡¯ll notify the receptionist then."
[No need. I¡¯ming now, they won¡¯t even know I¡¯m there.]
Seeing herst message, the city lord frowned in confusion.
"What does this person mean?" He muttered.
However, his question was soon answered as the rift opened up in his ceiling. Seeing two figures drop down, he adjusted himself.
"I suppose you¡¯re the person who messaged me about themission?" He asked with a smile.
"Yup. Since we¡¯re going to be doing business, I suppose having a mask would make it awkward now wouldn¡¯t it?" Shiro smiled and removed her mask. Of course, she had her Nytri disguise on so that he wouldn¡¯t know who she was. Looking at the city lord in front of her, she realised that he too had a disguise since she couldn¡¯t see his level nor ss, only name.
[Thargrem LVL??? ???]
"To think a young girl could just hack into the systems and send me messages. I suppose I¡¯ll have to increase the cyber safety eh?" Thargremughed softly.
He was a rather tall and muscr dwarf who looked to be around 1.6 meters tall. His beard and hair were well kept as he poised himself in a refined way.
"Well just think of it as a special asion. Anyways, here is the sword and the materials. I also have a second set of heavenly runes if you¡¯re able to upgrade the current existing set." Shiro said while handing him the items.
"Hou... colour me impressed. To have two sets of heavenly runes. Sure, I can do that. So how do you want it to be upgraded? Anything specific in mind?" He asked.
"Just increase it¡¯s durability and sharpness. Those two are the main things. As for any additional bonuses, it¡¯s entirely up to you.
"Interesting. Ok, just give me a second then."
With that, he pulled out a pair of sses and immediately started to bring up some doc.u.ments on hisputer. Comparing some files and the swords back to back, he worked away at an upgrade blueprint.
While this was happening, Shiro decided to look around the room to see if there was anything of interest for her.
From what she could see, most of the items in the room were very utility based as there were very little decorative items. Filled with books, pieces of weapons and armour, the office was quite ¡¯serious¡¯.
¡¯Seems like he¡¯s a master of his craft. I suppose that might be one of the requirements to be the city lord of a cksmithing city. He knows what the cksmiths want.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
After a few moments, the city lord stopped what he was doing and looked back at the two who were examining his office.
"So I¡¯ve managed to get a prototype up for now. From what you¡¯ve given me and what we have in stock, I am able to fulfil your base requirements and some more depending on what you want."
"Oh? May I see the options?" Shiro replied with interest.
"Of course. You see, there are three stable choices for now as the others have a lower chance of sess. The first is the bonus ability of switch. With this, you may trade ces with your sword as long as it¡¯s within a 200 meters of you. This ability will have 5 charges and each charge will be regenerated after 1 hour. The second is just a general enhancement of the elemental properties. As for the third, and in my opinion is one of the more interesting ones, you can choose to merge one of your swords with the enemy and make them vulnerable to the element. Of course, this isn¡¯t permanent but the effects shouldst for a decent amount of time and your sword will naturally repair itself ande back to you. So which one will you choose?"
Chapter 365 Ancient Spirit Fire
Chapter 365 Ancient Spirit Fire
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro thought about the benefits of each choice.
¡¯If I chose number 1, it¡¯s an additional lifeline for me. Currently, there are B ranked people who could tear through my rift and get me due to a targeted skill. So if I¡¯m able to use this to blink away, it would be very handy. But at the same time, once I ss up, my rift would also gain a small buff. In addition to this, there is also a limit to the range. Therefore, number 1 is something good to have but not exactly necessary.
¡¯For choice number 2, since I use elements a lot and my ss focuses around the use of elements, it may be quite nice to have as well since the buffs will stack up and the oue would be pretty powerful. But much like the first one, this one is something that¡¯s good to have but not exactly necessary.
¡¯Since that¡¯s the case, I suppose 3 is the better choice. If I embed my sword and use the metal element, I can make it so that my enemy is weak to my Nanomancer ss. However, this is pretty redundant if I had to face up against multiple enemies. My sword can only be embedded into one enemy unless I use my other copies but even then, I can only affect 11 people at once.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself with a frown.
"Am I able to have all three or is that not possible?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Nah, don¡¯t get too greedy missy. The more enchantments you want, the harder it is and the bigger chance of failure. The range of failure could be anywhere from negligible and just wasting materials topletely destroying your sword. It¡¯s your choice but I suggest just picking one since a red grade sword is not something youe across often." Thargrem scoffed. He hade across lots of people who were greedy for more enchantments but they needed to realise that there is only so much the cksmith can do.
If the weapon can¡¯t handle it, it can¡¯t handle it. Don¡¯t force it or else you¡¯re tempting the idea ofpletely losing your weapon.
"Hmm... in that case then I suppose I¡¯ll choose number 2. Having a buff to my element is pretty handy in general." Shiro replied with a sigh.
"Oh? I would have thought that you would choose number 3 or 1 since they¡¯re what I would choose. First choice is a lifeline while the third choice is something that can help the party." Thargrem raised his eyebrow.
"Mn. If I didn¡¯t have my current skill set, I would have probably chosen the first one. But I can already move through space so that would be a waste. As for the third choice, it¡¯s good but we mostly get into team fights so it¡¯s not advised. Therefore, I¡¯ll just go with the passive upgrade to my elements." Shiro shrugged.
"Hmm... smart choice. In that case then follow me to the forge. I¡¯ might as well make it now."
Following behind Thargrem, he opened up a secret passageway and a burst of heat instantly swept over them.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro was rather surprised about this since the materials that made up the walls of his office were actually able to withstand this level of heat.
"Seems like you¡¯re richer than I had thought. The walls are pretty resilient, ay?" Shiro smiled.
"Mn, they¡¯re crafted from a special type stone that can be found in the volcanic seas. I had this office refurbished with this so that my forge can fit in here. That way, I can work whenever I want to." Thargrem replied with a chuckle.
Arriving at the bottom mostyer, Shiro finally found the source of heat for this ce.
¡¯Girls? What kind of fire is that? It reminds me of a spirit and yet it¡¯s not at the same time?¡¯ Shiro questions since the two spirits residing in her mana realm could probably determine what this is.
{Hmm... I don¡¯t have knowledge of anything like this in my memories. The closest thing I can think of is that it¡¯s something simr to your Life Fire. As for the spirit part, I can¡¯t say for sure but it resembles the state I was in before you helped me gain sentience and awaken the memories inside me.} Nimue replied while observing the fire.
From her perspective, she could tell that fire is definitely ¡¯alive¡¯ but it¡¯s almost as if it was in the incubation period and not yet fully formed.
¡¯Hmm, if that¡¯s the case, you don¡¯t think I can take a bit of it and nurture it so that it gains sentience? After all, there¡¯s a good chance that it would eventually evolve into a fire type spirit.¡¯ Shiro suggested.
{So you want to rob this dwarf? If you took a part of it, it has to be the core or else the actual spirit wouldn¡¯t form. So regardless, you¡¯ll be basically taking the whole thing.}
¡¯I suppose so. Hmm... troublesome.¡¯ Shiro frowned in her mind but made sure that this wasn¡¯t visible from the outside.
"That¡¯s quite an interesting fire isn¡¯t it? It feels somewhat alive." Shiro asked while pointing at the mes.
"Indeed. It took me a while to get this Ancient Spirit Fire. It was actually on auction near the front lines. Ever since I heard of its existence, I kept track of it and only recently acquired it for a hefty price. But so far, everything I forged with it has been top notch." Thargrem smiled.
"Hou~ is that so." Shiro nodded.
Looking for a seat by the side, she saw down with Lisandra and crossed her legs. Watching the dwarf pull out his tools and materials by the side, Shiro watched intently in case he tried to pull anything sneaking.
After all, he was now holding the original form of her sword and with it, the ne that usually stores it away for easy handling.
Sure he may not be able to use it, but he could still turn it into anything else.
¡¯Maybe I¡¯m just a bit paranoid.¡¯ Shiro mused and shook her head.
Regardless, she still watched carefully.
As Thargrem was working away at the sword, Shiro couldn¡¯t help butpare it against Helion¡¯s techniques and realised that it didn¡¯t feel as ¡¯lively¡¯.
When she watched Helion work, it was always a show of re, brilliance and concentration. Every step would be done with careful detail and he would pour his everything into making the best item he could regardless of how low the possibilities are.
As for Thargrem, it was cold, cruel and efficient. Much like an assassin cutting down their target, Thargrem¡¯s techniques were highly efficient and had very little to no emotion behind it. Sure the results were good but the process up to the result was ¡¯dead¡¯ in her eyes.
¡¯Hm... I miss watching Helion work. It was always a pleasure seeing him do his thing with such concentration.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Little did she know, she had already lost interest in whatever Thargrem was doing and could only think back to whenever Helion forged.
{My queen, maybe you should kidnap him away next time.} Nimue suggested
¡¯No that would be rude. For someone like him, he needs to be unrestrained and allowed to explore so that he can discover his full potential. For a low level cksmith to have gotten the approval of a god, he has his own trials that he needs to ovee without my presence. Doing so would just be harming his future.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{Oh? That¡¯s quite different to how you treat the other party members no? To them, you¡¯re like a mother bird looking after the chicks. But for him, you¡¯re more harsh and try to offer no support if you can.}
¡¯Hmm... maybe I just have some expectation¡¯s set for him. Seeing his potential and the fact that he can get the recognition of a god, I want him to see him reach the top of the world. ¡¯ Shiro replied with a shrug.
Shaking her head, she focused her attention back on the situation at hand since it seemed like Thargrem was getting into his zone. His work speed increased as his movements soon became a flurry of strikes against the de of the sword. With every hit, the res would flicker and wrap around the sword.
After a few hours, the sword was finally finished as Thargrem mmed his hammer down for thest time.
*BOOM!!!!
A golden radiance exploded out from thatst hammer hit. Sparkles of light trailed behind the radiance as if they were stars in the gxy.
Looking at the sword, Thargrem¡¯s hand couldn¡¯t help but shake a little from excitement since the sword had actually synergised a little with his Ancient Spirit Fire and received an additional enchantment.
[Ataraxia ¨C Celestial Sword of Spirits (Red+)]
Chapter 374 Takemikazuchi
Chapter 374 Takemikazuchi
*ck ck ck
Her footsteps rang out as the passage seemed to be endless. Having walked for quite a while, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder if she should turn back.
¡¯Maybe it¡¯s a trial of patience.¡¯ She wondered to herself while examining her surroundings somore since she had nothing else to do.
The passage was crafted from smooth stone and had metal stands that held torches.
Grabbing one of the torches, she started to flip it in the air while continuing down the path.
"Hmm... how long is this ce." She muttered tiredly.
Looking back, she saw that the entrance had long disappeared.
Shaking her head, she looked forward once more but frowned when she realised a slight inconsistency.
Previously, she had taken the torch from the wall so realistically, that empty stand shouldn¡¯t be seen again. But right now, in front of her, she could see the same stand once more.
"Hmm... tch so it¡¯s this kind of thing." She clicked her tongue.
Pressing her finger against the wall, ice started to spread out. Making sure that the ice freezes in front of her, she closed her eyes and sensed the position of the furthest piece of ice. That way, when the path is repeated, she¡¯ll be able to sense the ice suddenly appearing behind her.
As the ice continued to spread, she felt it appear behind her and knew that she had discovered the loop point.
Walking over to the loop point, she created an ice dagger that was enhanced with Celestial Path.
Scraping it against the walls, she looked for the magic circle so that she could break past this loop quickly.
"Bingo." She smiled when her dagger felt some resistance.
Pushing mana into her dagger, she swiped at the location with her full force.
*PING!!
Tearing the loop apart, she saw that she was only a few meters from the actual entrance.
"Miss Nytri!" The director called out in worry. From his perspective, she had started to walk before suddenly disappearing from his sight. Since he couldn¡¯t enter the passageway, he wasn¡¯t able to check out her condition.
"Hm, there was probably a teleport and illusion trap set up here." Shiro muttered while examining the walls.
Shaking her head, she decided to be a bit more careful.
"Don¡¯t worry director, just a minor setback." Shiro shouted back as she started to walk down the path once more.
This time, since she was on guard, she had been able to cancel out several spells before they could even activate. Finding herself at the top of a staircase, she walked down with caution.
Thankfully, there weren¡¯t any more traps and she proceeded down the stairs safely.
After walking for a while, she saw a giant set of doors at the bottom.
". . . what a waste of stairs. They could have literally just had this door above the staircase if there were no traps right?" Shiro furrowed her brows as Nimue agreed.
Pushing open the door, Shiro felt a bit irked that there were only a single pedestal and a book in the centre of this huge room.
Ignoring the tant waste of space, she picked up the book and looked at its contents.
The book or rather, manual was called the Takemikazuchi Sword Technique.
"Takemikazuchi, the god of thunder as well as the sword god in Japanese mythology. To think that there¡¯s a technique based on this guy. I wonder if it¡¯s authentic." She mused to herself curiously.
After all, one can name a technique anything despite the contents being mediocre.
Reading through the contents, she got a general gist of what the technique was about and she had to admit that it was quite good.
The main essence behind this skill was to strike fast like thunder and with the finesse of a sword god.
At the first stage of training in this manual, you¡¯ll experience a growth in attack speed. If the user has lightning attunement, the manual has a section on how they should manipte their mana in a way that benefits this technique greatly.
As you continue to train in this manual, you¡¯ll be able to strike several times despite looking as if you haven¡¯t moved a single muscle.
With a technique like this, it was perfect for a sneak attack.
"You know what? I doubt the creator of this room would think anyone would leave the manual so I¡¯ll just take it." Shiro shrugged her shoulders and took the manual. She was going to give it a proper read through when she had time.
Making her way back to the entrance of the passageway, she saw that both Hideo and Lisandra were waiting by the side.
"Yo." Shiro smiled.
"Miss Nytri, you¡¯ve finally returned. If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what¡¯s at the end of the passage?" The director asked curiously since he had no knowledge of this ce at all.
"Just another manual I earned for clearing the test. I won¡¯t tell you what it is though since it¡¯s a secret~" Shiro grinned.
"Anyways, can we go to the mage section now? I¡¯ve chosen my manual for the fighter section." She said while pointing at the Mystic Sensory Arts.
"Ah right, sure." The director nodded since it wasn¡¯t his ce to inquire about what she had got. Sure it was in the facility but if the creator decided to gift it to the person whopleted the test then it was her¡¯s by all rights.
Showing them to the mages section, he took them to the B ranked area since she hadn¡¯tpleted the test for A ranked. There was a huge dividing line between B ranked and A ranked so unless she does the test again, he wasn¡¯t allowed to show her the A ranked manuals.
However, Shiro didn¡¯t mind too much since she wasn¡¯t a proper mage to begin with. She just wanted to see how they trained in terms of manuals.
Looking through a few of the manuals, she realised that most of them were just techniques to reinforce your mana cirction and cirction patterns that enhance certain parts of your spell.
Losing her interest, she set the manuals aside since she already had skills that can help with that. She was more curious about the Takemikazuchi Sword Technique.
Saying goodbye to the director, Shiro and Lisandra left the dojo immediately after making copies of their chosen manuals.
###
"So what kind of manual did you choose Lisa?" Shiro asked curiously while they were making their way out of the city.
"What manual? Oh I chose Sun God¡¯s Fury. It¡¯s a manual that increases my swords lethality and speed. If I have affinity to light or fire, its effects are enhanced.
"Hou... interesting." Shiro nodded.
"What about you mum?"
"Me? Well for the S ranked I chose Mystic Sensory Arts. Compared to the other manuals, it may not be as impressive but having enhanced senses is very beneficial." Shiro smiled.
"I see..."
"Are you not curious about the other manual I got?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"I am but if you don¡¯t talk about it, it¡¯s probably something I don¡¯t need to know. Either that or it¡¯s best that other people don¡¯t know. Kind of like your ¡¯Sub-ss¡¯." Lisandra smiled.
Hearing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but grin and hug Lisa from behind.
"Ah why are you so much better than your sister? All she knows is to empty my wallet with food." Shiro praised. Of course, this was just a joke since no matter how much she reprimands Yin about her food intake, she will still indulge her.
Smiling wearily, Lisandra let Shiro hug her.
"Anyways, we¡¯ll be making our way to Mount Fuji during the day and at night, I¡¯ll be training you in refining your senses." Shiro smiled.
Once they left the city, Shio made sure that they were away from public sight before pulling out a motorbike.
"Eh? You had such a thing?" Lisandra asked curiously since she didn¡¯t expect Shiro to be someone who has a vehicle like this.
"Yup. I made it when I was in New York a while ago. Though I¡¯m going to give it some minor upgrades since I¡¯ve improved quite a bit." Shiro replied.
Reinforcing and enhancing theponents to her motorbike, she increased its speed and handling along with a fewbat capabilities.
Changing her clothes into jeans and a sleeveless shirt, Shiro tied her hair into a low ponytail so that it didn¡¯t smack into Lisandra¡¯s face.
"Hop on." Shiro smiled.
Nodding her head, Lisandra sat behind Shiro as she felt a little strange to be sitting on such a vehicle.
"Now, make sure you grab on tight since this thing goes ¡¯¡¯quite¡¯¡¯ fast ok?"
"Ok. Though I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be finNNEEEEE ARGGGGG!!!!!!!"
Cutting off her sentence with a burst of speed, Lisandra did not expect the eleration to be so quick.
Leaving an echo of screams, of which confused the hell out of anyone who heard it, the duo left the city of Kyoto.
Chapter 375 Late Night Training
Chapter 375 Late Night Training
After getting used to the speed, Lisandra stopped screaming as she clung onto Shiro as hard as she could.
"Why didn¡¯t you warn me it was going to go THIS FAST!?" Sheined while trying not to fall off.
"I did, didn¡¯t I?" Shiro grinned.
"Yeah, by saying and I quote, ¡¯Quite fast¡¯. This isn¡¯t quite fast!" Lisandra retorted.
"Ai, small details. Anyways, now that you got used to it, I¡¯ll increase the speed some more."
"Wait, it can go faster?" Lisandra widened her eyes.
"Yup."
Activating the camouge option, she hid their presence and narrowed her eyes.
*BOOM!
elerating once more, Shiro leaned forward so that she won¡¯t be hit in the face by all that wind pressure. Naturally, there was something else she had to worry about but her passive healing was doing a good job at stopping Lisandra from breaking her back.
###
Setting up camp for the night, Shiro looked over at Lisandra who seemed worn out from the trip.
"Mum... can we not just walk?" She asked tiredly.
"Nope. That would take too much time after all. That being said, we should be able to reach Mount Fuji tomorrow morning once we wake up." Shiro chuckled.
"Urg..."
"Anyways, enough about that. Since it¡¯s night, what better time to get you some training ay?" Shiro grinned.
With Lisandra¡¯s current state, the training will be much much harder.
Flinching slightly at the mention of training, Lisandra forced her body up and took a deep breath.
"Ok so what do I do?" Lisandra asked.
"First, take this blindfold. I made it in a way so that it should stop any light from reaching your eyes. Removing your sight temporarily." Shiro replied while handing her a pitch ck blindfold.
"I would give you something to remove your hearing but this will do for now. We¡¯ll get you up to par without your sight first." Shiro smiled.
Guiding her to the nearby forest, she had Lisandra stand in the middle.
"For the first training, I¡¯ll be attacking you from different locations rapidly with blunted ice weapons. Your job is to either deflect or dodge them. Got it?"
"Understood." Lisandra nodded. This was just the same as the test so it wasn¡¯t an unfamiliar concept to her.
What she didn¡¯t know was that having a person conduct this test was much harder than a robot. One reason would be the fact that Shiro would control and release her killing intent at will. With her intent distracting Lisandra, she could set up several feints as well as ¡¯traps¡¯ for her in order to throw her off her rhythm.
Grinning slightly, she held blunted ice daggers between her fingers and jumped from the branch.
Flipping her body in the air, she threw the daggers quickly before jumping into the rift.
Exiting behind Lisandra, Shiro made more daggers and threw them towards her back.
Suddenly feeling danger from two sides, Lisandra knew that Shiro wasn¡¯t going to take it easy on her.
Getting into a stance, she pivoted on her foot and roundhouse kicked all the daggers that were attacking her from above while punching the daggers behind her.
¡¯Seems like this level is quite simple for her. I¡¯ll make things a bit harder then.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
Flexing her fingers, hundreds of nanotech wires spread out through the area, making it seem like a spider¡¯s nest.
Layering the wires with ice, she made it so that she could attack Lisandra from every direction all at once.
Flicking the wire, hundreds of ice daggers were created and fired simultaneously.
"Oh crap." Lisandra muttered since she felt danger surround her in an instant.
###
After a few rounds of this difficulty, Lisandra had quite a few wounds on her body despite the weapons being blunted.
¡¯Hmm... this isn¡¯t very good now is it...¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows.
Just as she thought of this, a great idea popped into her mind.
¡¯If Iyered the daggers with life fire, it would heal her up. Her stamina will also be restored a little so this is perfect!¡¯
Hearing this idea, Nimue widened her eyes and instantly felt pity for Lisandra and whoever Shiro will train in the future.
Snapping her fingers, her daggers lit up with a green me and shot towards Lisandra.
As her training continued, all of Lisandra¡¯s wounds were being healed so that she could continue at peak form.
Seeing that Lisandra was doing pretty well at this stage, despite a few blunders here and there, Shiro decided to let her get used to this before progressing.
Setting aside a portion of her attention to help Lisandra train, Shiro pulled out the Mystic Sensory Arts so that she could do some training herself.
The core aspect of this manual was to have her manipte her mana in a certain way constantly until it bes second nature for her. That was just stage 1. As she continues to control her mana this way, her senses will continue to get better and be permanent. At this point, everything will be pushed past the limit.
Of course, she could just stop it at stage 1 and make it so that she could turn it off at will but the enhancement to her senses were negligible so it wasn¡¯t worth it.
Following the instructions on the manual, she furrowed her brows since she felt a little ufortable with manipting her mana through her body like this. Not only that, since around 60% of her links were still damaged, trying to change the mana path like this was going to be much harder than normal.
Shaking her head, she decided to just train it to stage 1 for now. On the other hand, the Takemikazuchi Sword Technique should be achievable for her right now.
¡¯Hmm... another mana path changer. Why do so many techniques that I found require me to change the path of my mana. Can¡¯t I just change the spellposition or something.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
{Perhaps it¡¯s because all the techniques you choose are physical based. Think of it this way, you¡¯re a vampire but you¡¯re trying to learn how to change into a werewolf. But before you can think about fully bing a werewolf, you then think about changing into a demon. Each martial art is supposed to either be trained on its own or synergise with a simr art. With so many conflicting ones in your arsenal, it¡¯s no wonder you¡¯ll have to change your pathways.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯If that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll probably have to try to merge a few of these together if I can then. I wonder if I can make the Takemikazuchi Sword Technique into a path? That way, it gains some passive bonuses from my titles.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
So far, she had four paths. Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path, Celestial Path and Berserker Path.
With her title¡¯s effect, every time she used one of the paths, she gained a 10% increase to her stats temporarily. With more paths, the bigger this increase will be.
However, thinking up of this point, she couldn¡¯t help but nce at her Berserker Path once more.
¡¯Hmm... you know? At first I thought I was a berserker but it seems like I¡¯m wrong. Berserkers are mindless killing machines that don¡¯t think at all. I¡¯m not a brainless muscle head... mostly anyway. It seems like I¡¯ll need to re-evaluate myself to see what kind of person I am. Berserker just doesn¡¯t feel right. What do you think Nimue? What kind of person do you think I am?¡¯ Shiro asked curiously.
{What I think? Hmm... I want to say conqueror but that¡¯s not right either. You don¡¯t conquer ces and take over thend. Tyrant¡¯s not correct either... I would probably call you a dominator then.}
¡¯Dominator? Perhaps. Though it still feels off hmm... So many things to do. Mount Fuji, two martial art manuals, refinement of old ones and training Lisa.¡¯ Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
{True. Though I suppose you do have two months to burn. Speaking of burning, you should probably increase Lisandra¡¯s training intensity since it looks like she¡¯s gotten used to it again.}
¡¯Good point.¡¯ Shiro nodded after looking back at Lisandra.
With her fire constantly healing her, she was able to concentrate past her limits for an extended period of time. This allowed her to improve rapidly as she was able to deflect most of the daggers.
Tapping her chin, Shiro smiled when she thought up of a way to make things harder for Lisandra.
Snapping her fingers, ice daggers started to be fired at a faster pace while her killing intent assaulted Lisandra¡¯s senses.
Being caught off guard by all of this, Lisandra was bombarded for a good while as she suppressed her shouts and tried to look for a better way out of this.
"Don¡¯t just think about using your body. You must use your mana as well to enhance your attack speed. Create a burst behind your elbow to elerate your arm and a second burst point at your fist after punching out. That way, you can attack and retract in an instant.
"If you don¡¯t do this quick enough, I¡¯ll increase the difficulty for a short while." Shiro called out with a smile.
Nodding her head, Lisandra tried her best. But reality wasn¡¯t so kind as she was reduced into a sandbag throughout the night.
Chapter 376 Emergency Quest
Chapter 376 Emergency Quest
The next morning, Shiro decided to go a little slower on her bike since Lisandra¡¯s fatigued body was currently sleeping on her back.
Wondering if she should make her motorbike into a car instead, she travelled towards the base of Mount Fuji in a rtively slow pace that allowed Lisandra to sleep soundlessly.
Disguising the bike¡¯s appearance so that it looked normal, Shiro arrived at a nearby town that was situated next to ake.
Looking at the great mountain not too far away in the distance, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but whistle at how impressive the mountain looked.
Of course, that was only because since the top is covered with snow, it meant that she could theoretically thrive at the top.
"I wonder how big my spells would be if I used the snow to my advantage." Shiro muttered with a smile.
*Yawn.~
"You up? Did you rest well?" Shiro asked as she felt Lisandra wake up behind her.
"Mn... good enough I guess. Where are we now?" Lisandra asked as she looked around in a daze.
"Oh just a vige/town near the base of Mount Fuji. Unless it¡¯s something important, I¡¯ll only be investigating the celestial trial a little before making my way to Tokyo. The trial won¡¯t be open for another three months after all." Shiro smiled.
"I see... in that case then can I go get something to eat? I¡¯m a bit famished afterst night." Lisandra rubbed her eyes a little as Shiro suppressed her urge to just hug her.
¡¯Damn why is Lisa so adorabletely?¡¯
{Maybe because your attention is on her instead of Yin who just eats?} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯That... might be the truth in all honesty.¡¯
Shaking her head, she sped up her bike a little and made her way to the closest restaurant she had on the map.
During this, she decided to have a look at their levels.
"Hmm... most of them average out around level 80 give or take with quite a few at level 100 or above too." Shiro muttered.
"It doesn¡¯t really matter to you does it mum? Though, I do wonder if I can kill a level 100+ by myself. I do have a few berserk skills and buffs to enhance myself." Lisandra wondered.
"Don¡¯t try it without me being close since the only reason I could is because of my current skill set and some luck. At their level, just a single attack could spell doom for you." Shiro warned since fighting B ss was noughing matter.
If not for the fact that she had several powerful skills to help her out, she would not challenge them, not even with her Nanomancer ss.
She was many things but suicidal was not one of them.
"Hmm, just curious though. If the whole party could kill B ranked people when they¡¯re level 100, we should be able to kill a B ranked boss right?" Lisandra replied.
"Depends on what kind of boss we¡¯re talking about. If it¡¯s a raid type boss, f*ck no. if it¡¯s a dungeon type boss, f*ck yes we can." Shiro chuckled.
"I see... oh by the way, how would you rate my performance mum? With the inclusion of your killing intent, it was quite hard to concentrate and pick out the real danger but I think I can get the hang of it soon." Lisandra asked as she had an excited shine in her eyes.
Smiling wearily, Shiro wondered why Lisandra was such a battle maniac. This kind of gaze would not be present should she be talking about something else and yet, here it is the moment she speaks about training.
{She kind of takes after you in that regard since you do nothing but research and fighting.}
¡¯Oh shut it. Surely I do ot-... ok never mind maybe you¡¯re right.¡¯ Shiro paused since she realised that that was indeed all she had done. If she wasn¡¯t fighting she was researching. If she wasn¡¯t researching she would be fighting. There were very few moments where she would actually rx like she was now.
Returning her focus back to Lisandra, she evaluated her performance mentally.
"You¡¯re doing great so far. If I had to give you an area to improve on, I would say work on your decision making. You hesitate a little too much before youunch an attack. Whether that¡¯s because you¡¯re working out on where to ce the mana bubbles or the fact that you¡¯re trying to figure out if an attack is a feint or not, you want to be reducing your hesitation time as much as possible." Shiro replied after a moment.
For her, she¡¯s able to get a 3d model of all the attacks around her and figure out the best attacking path but that¡¯s not something everyone could do so her best advice was to just try to reduce the time it takes for her to think about her attack.
Of course, that¡¯s not to say that she should just throw out attacks blindly.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll try." Lisandra nodded since she had seen Shiro¡¯s performance and knew of the gap that existed between the two of them.
Since it¡¯s reaction time and decision making that she needed to practice on, she was going to make sure that they¡¯re up to par either soon or in the near future.
After having some food, Shiro and Lisandra made their way towards Mount Fuji.
Unfortunately, just as they left the vige, they saw guards and a barrier in the distance, stopping people from going closer to Mount Fuji.
Furrowing her brows, she decided to get closer and see what was going on.
Putting away her bike, she walked up to one of the guards
"Excuse me, sorry for bothering you but why are there so many guards around? And it seems like we¡¯re not allowed to go to Mount Fuji." Shiro asked with a slightly difficult face.
"I guess you¡¯re new around and didn¡¯t see the notification. You see, there was an abnormal rise in monster activity in the mountains. With most of the monsters being B ss, it is very dangerous for anyone to approach the mountain. You can probably find some more information out in the guild." The guard replied with a smile.
"Hmm... that¡¯s a problem. I know you said to find information out at the guild but do you have an idea of what kind of monsters are here?"
"No idea. The monsters change often and it¡¯s gone through quite a few species. From Snow Woman to Boreal Golems and so on." The guard shrugged.
Nodding her head, Shiro took out her motorbike and drove back with Lisandra hugging behind her once more.
"Snow Woman huh? I wonder what a meeting between me and them would be like? I still have my fratricide title so I¡¯ll get hostility from the Snow Girls and acknowledgement from the Snow Woman. Hopefully, there won¡¯t be any Snow Girls around." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, what do you think happened mum? For so many monsters to gather, it¡¯s clearly abnormal." Lisandra asked.
"There are many probabilities ranging from the spawning of a treasure that can be used passively by monsters to the sudden increase of mana. It could also be that a strong monster hasid im to the area and brought guards along with it. Regardless, it¡¯s best we sort this out while we have a lot of time." Shiro replied.
That way, she could avoid any unnecessary hassle at the time the Celestial Trials open. It would be awkward to have to wait a few more months for it to open should they miss it after all.
"True."
###
Arriving at the guild hall, Shiro didn¡¯t even have to look for the notice since there were plenty of people standing in front of the giant holographic message.
[Emergence Quest ¨C Investigate the sudden rise in monster activity in Mount Fuji]
Due to the recent outbreak of monsters on the mountain, you are tasked to investigate its cause. So far, the monsters have been revealed to be B ss monsters such as the Snow Woman.
Only B ssed adventurers or higher are eligible to take this task. As for those in the C ss, you may join if you¡¯re partnered with a B ss or prove that you can stand against a B ss.
As this is a scouting mission, nobat is needed and prioritise your life.
Rewards will differ depending on how reliable your information is. However, the base reward is 20 Large Silvers for each participating member.
Those who are able to stop the cause and resolve it will be granted an Orange Grade equipment.
You may register for this quest at the reception and undergo a test. Once you are proven to be capable, you¡¯ll be given a special ID card that will allow you to pass the barrier into Mount Fuji. Should you try to sneak in, a fine will be issued.
Guild Master ¨C Sugita Hitomi
Chapter 377 Creating ID
Chapter 377 Creating ID
Reading the emergency quest, Shiro realised that this was also perfect for Lisandra since that means she could experience what it was like to fight B ranked monsters more often.
"Say, what do you think of continuing your training but with B ranked monsters." Shiro asked with a smile.
"Sure. I feel like we should do this regardless since it mightplicate yourpletion of the celestial trials mum." Lisandra nodded her head. Walking over to the queue by the receptionist, Shiro waited patiently until it was her turn.
"How can I help you?" The receptionist asked with a smile.
"Ah I would like to register for a guild ID as well as see if I¡¯m able to participate in the emergency quest." Shiro requested since she was currently disguised as Nytri. Plus, if she was to get another ID, it would be handy for her.
"You don¡¯t have an ID?" The receptionist raised her eyebrows in suspicion since one would get an ID quite early on.
"Yeah you see, my family was quite reclusive so we don¡¯t go out much. I was only allowed to go out once I hit level 100 so I¡¯m here to get an ID." Shiro replied, making up an excuse.
"Hm... alright. Follow me to the registration room and I¡¯ll see if you¡¯ve been registered before."
Nodding her head, Shiro followed behind her.
She wasn¡¯t afraid since she could just tamper with the system if needs be.
"Just put your hands on the orb and I¡¯ll see if there are any records." The receptionist said as she looked at herptop.
Following her instructions, Shiro made sure to have some of her nanobots invade theptop and fiddle with the database.
"Hmm... that¡¯s strange... no records." The woman frowned.
"Can you put your hand on the orb as well please." She said, turning to Lisandra.
Nodding her head, Lisandra also put her hand on the orb only for the same results to appear.
"Hmm... this is abnormal. Give me a second, I¡¯ll go talk to the guild master." The receptionist excused herself and left the room.
After waiting a while, Shiro saw that she had returned with another woman.
She wore a business suit, tied up ck hair that was in a pony tail along with a pair of ck framed sses. Her expression was stern and serious as it would normally intimidate adventurers that see her but it didn¡¯t faze Shiro nor Lisandra.
"I¡¯m Sugita Hitomi, branch master of this guild. Since you two have no records, I¡¯ll have to make some for you now and I may need to ask you some personal questions is that ok?" Hitomi asked while adjusting her sses slightly.
"That would be fine. Though due to the nature of our family, I may have to withhold some information." Shiro replied with a smile.
"That¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve dealt with my fair share of reclusive families." Hitomi nodded and led them to another room.
Sitting down behind her desk, she gestured for the duo to sit down as well.
Asking them a few questions, Hitomi tapped away on herptop.
"Alright, I¡¯ve made a file on each of you. Your ID¡¯s will be printed soon and while we¡¯re at it, I might as well help you conduct the test to see if you can join in the quest." Hitomi said while ncing at the printer by the side.
"What kind of test is it?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Oh it¡¯s simple. Think of it as an intense game of tag against a B ranked adventurers through an obstacle course. To win, you must outmanoeuvre the adventurers or defeat them inbat. Since there¡¯s a high chance of having multiple monsters chasing after you, you¡¯ll have to face a few B ranked adventurers. Is that ok?" Hitomi exined.
"Yeah that¡¯s fine. Since we¡¯re going to be partied together, are we able to take the test together?" Shiro asked.
"Sure but that will mean double the amount of B ssed adventurers." Hitomi replied.
"That¡¯s fine."
"Ok, follow me. We¡¯ll get your test set up now after the current members finish theirs."
Following behind Hitomi, Shiro saw that they were brought to an underground area. Currently, they were in a hallway with ss on the side.
Looking through the ss, Shiro could see the entire course with several adventurers chasing after each other.
The overall area was huge and Shiro suspected that they could fit a mini town in this space. With a variety of obstacles ranging from huge boulders to cliffs and trees, it was as if there was a miniature world underneath the guild itself.
Surprisingly, despite their spells flying around, none of the scenery seemed to be damaged.
"Hologram I suppose?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Correct. We have tforms randomly generated and a scenery hologram ced over the top of it. That way, it¡¯s easier to simte the real life situations." Hitomi replied.
Scanning her ID card, she brought them down to the base of the course and waited by the side.
"Ah guild master, what brings you here?" One of the staff jogged over and bowed in respect.
"I¡¯m bringing two people to take the test. I just sorted out their ID so I thought that it would be more efficient to get their test done while they¡¯re here."
"Ah of course. The current test is almost over so they can be next." The staff nodded and showed them to the side where they were given a set of armour.
"This here is a specially crafted armour that would send you out of the arena once you take a certain amount of damage. Once that happens, you would have failed the test. There is a barrier fitted onto the armour so you don¡¯t have to worry about feeling the damage directly."
Looking at the armour that seemed to be a little clunky, Shiro wondered if she should use her analysis skill to check its coreponents and see how it¡¯s made. After all, if she could figure out how they teleported the people out, she may be able to make some teleport amulets for her party members.
Putting on the armour, both Shiro and Lisandra waited patiently by the side while the Guild Master watched from a separate room. Normally, she wouldn¡¯t trouble herself with something like this but due to the nature behind Shiro¡¯s ¡¯identity¡¯, she had to make sure that they overlooked everything personally.
Soon, it was their turn as the two of them were teleported into the arena.
The adventurers that are supposed to chase them were a little surprised at the fact that it was two level 100s.
"Eh? These two want to try to get the quest?" One of them frowned in concern.
"Seems so. Must be the orange grade equipment that got them excited." Another sighed.
"Since that¡¯s the case, we should finish this quickly. There are chances for equipmentter but no second chances in life."
"Agreed."
Coming to a general understanding, the chasers stretched their bodies as they made sure that they catch these two.
However, they had no idea that Shiro had something else nned. While she didn¡¯t want to show too much of her strength, this was a perfect opportunity to test out the Takemikazuchi Sword Technique.
"Lisa, hold back a little but do try to send them out of the arena." Shiro said with a smile.
"That¡¯s my n. Though in fairness, it should be me that tells you that since your ¡¯holding back¡¯ is still quite lethal you know?" Lisandra chuckled since Shiro hadn¡¯t gone 100% yet.
She knew that Shiro had quite a few berserk skills, items and weapons that she could use but chooses not since there hasn¡¯t been a situation where she needed to.
Even during the war in Miriel, she hadn¡¯t shown her true power with the Nanomancer ss or else the city would be littered with craters and destroyed buildings. Hell, she hadn¡¯t even seen Shiro use her mech armours again yet since she remembered seeing the Zephyr Armour back in the trial where she had first met Shiro.
Only when she used her armour could Lisandra be more than 50% sure that Shiro¡¯s gone full power.
"Well you should always have hidden trump cards. They¡¯re only good if no one knows about them, regardless of how powerful they are. After all, if saved till thest moment, it may even save your life one day." Shiro chuckled.
Making herself two ice daggers, she gave Lisandra a thumbs up before jumping into the rift.
"So assassination it is." Lisandra muttered since this meant that Shiro was giving her a chance to stand her ground and see how she does against B ranked adventurers.
Bringing out her longsword, she took a deep breath before flickering away from her location.
Chapter 378 Demonstrating Power
Chapter 378 Demonstrating Power
Looking at the scene, Hitomi furrowed her brows.
¡¯Why aren¡¯t they running? Could it be that she¡¯s nning to take on all the B ssed adventurers? She does realise that there are 20 of them right?¡¯ She thought to herself with a frown.
Flicking one of the switches on the table next to her, she got a tracker of where everyone is in the arena.
Realising that Shiro¡¯s tracker would disappear before reappearing on a regr basis, Hitomi realised she must be using a strong concealment type skill.
However, that didn¡¯t make any sense to her since Shiro was registered as a mage.
"Did Nytri lie about her ss?" She muttered in suspicion but decided to hold off on her theories for now.
She¡¯ll see how the two of them performed for now and question themter.
####
Flickering in and out of her rift, Shiro noted down the locations of each chaser and realised that there were about 20 of them.
¡¯Hmm... it¡¯s not too bad. If I y my cards properly, I¡¯ll be able to take care of a few of them before they even realise it.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while twirling her dagger.
Hiding behind a boulder, she closed her eyes and nned out who she was going to attack first. Since they¡¯re mostly travelling as a group for now, she¡¯ll have to wait until they split up.
¡¯Lisa should also know this so she¡¯ll be waiting for a while. I¡¯ll go be bait first and try to draw a few of them away from the ce.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and dashed to the highest point of the arena.
Upon arrival, Shiro immediately went to work.
Flicking her dagger into the sky, she snapped her finger and exploded it into five shards that flew out in different directions.
This didn¡¯t escape the chaser¡¯s attention as they immediately had 5 of them go towards her locations.
"Be careful, it might be a trap. Regardless of how high our levels are, we¡¯ll get sent out upon taking too much damage too so keep your guard up. They¡¯re still level 100¡¯s after all." One of them warned as the five nodded their heads.
Dashing to the highest peak, they saw Shiro standing there with a challenging grin.
"I wouldn¡¯t normally do this but for you five, I¡¯ll try out a new tactic." Shiro chuckled and stomped her foot down.
Just as she did this, a giant magic circle instantly appeared with the five shards that she had sent out earlier acting as anchors.
*KRRRRR!!!!
A tearing sound could be heard as the skies tore open to reveal a vibrant gxy full of stars.
Activating Frozen Slumber once her preparations wereplete, Shiro¡¯s eyes had hints of excitement since she wanted to see what Cosmic Ice could do when paired up with her best restriction skill.
Shimmering with a soft light, the stars in the gxy flickered for a moment before chains started to pour out from the tear.
*CLING CLING CLING CLING!
Smashing against the ground, a pulse of energy spread outwards as the chasers realised that with each pulse, ayer of ice would be instantly formed around them. Not only that, but they wouldn¡¯t be able to use their mana for a short period as the pulse hit them meaning they had to use their physical strength to break out.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t about to allow that. Using the chains as a trampoline, she propelled herself towards the closest chaser and readied her dagger.
¡¯Takemikazuchi Sword Technique, First Stage.¡¯ She muttered in her mind.
Lightning flickered from her dagger as she twisted her body.
*BANG!
Feeling a sudden burst of speed, Shiro¡¯s body flickered out of view before reappearing not too far behind them.
During this moment, two lethal sh marks could be seen tearing through the barrier as the chaser was sent out in an instant.
¡¯Tch, I need to get used to this speed. I was only able to strike twice within that moment.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Not only that, she could feel a little numbness spreading through her body as a result of that. Whether or not it was because of her inexperience or not, only time would tell but so far, she liked the technique quite a bit.
Jumping into the rift, she repositioned herself with a second attack.
Meanwhile...
Lisandra looked towards the peak of the mountain and realised that Shiro must be trying to draw their attention.
Smiling softly, she thanked Shiro in her mind before spreading out her mana.
Unlike Shiro, she can¡¯t jump into the rift to disengage should she run into an annoying situation so she needed to be more careful.
Suppressing her own mana to the point where it¡¯s barely detectable, she discovered 15 signals moving closer to her.
¡¯Hmm... 15 of them. I can probably take the two at the back before being discovered. Once that happens, I¡¯ll need to make sure I can get away quick enough.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Adjusting her grip on her sword, she created a small ball of light in her hands and threw it into the air once the group was close enough.
Detonating the ball, the area was suddenly filled with an intense light as she made her move.
Enhancing her body with her elemental armour, she shed towards the two at the back of the group and swung her de.
Unfortunately, they were able to react in time by raising their arms in defence.
¡¯I need to correct my sword¡¯s flight path.¡¯ Lisandra thought to herself and created two pockets of mana that detonated one after another to readjust her attack while also giving it a speed boost.
*KSH KSH!
shing twice, she managed to inflict enough damage to their barriers and force them out of the arena as the other¡¯s charged towards her.
Sweeping her de around in a circle, she released a barrier of light that obstructed their view of her.
Sending out several light des that were unfortunately blocked, Lisandra used this moment to change her location and camouge herself. Through the use of her light attunement, she wrapped light around her so that to outsiders, no one was there. When paired with her mana concealment, it was as if she suddenly disappeared.
###
". . ." Staying silent, Hitomi watched as Shiro took out the five chasers easily while Lisandra was able to take out two without being attacked by the others that were near her.
"Seems like they¡¯re more capable than I thought. By attacking quickly, they¡¯re able to surprise the chasers and give them enough time to escape without fighting a prolonged exchange. They know what kind of leeway they¡¯re allowed and make use of that. While that Lisa isn¡¯t able to take on several chasers simultaneously like Nytri is, the number of enemies she faced was greater." She muttered after a short pause.
As the chasers were trying to look for Lisandra, Hitomi realised that she didn¡¯t have an escape skill like Shiro.
"This isn¡¯t good. Unlike humans, the monster¡¯s senses are stronger so even if she enters stealth and removes her mana signature, her smell is still there."
Sending out a message to the leader of the current group of chasers, she allowed them to use their tracking skills to find Lisandra.
"Find her and take her. Only then will you focus on Nytri since she¡¯s the main problem." Hitomi ordered before cutting themunications.
While this does seem unfair, it was needed since it¡¯s better than sending people to a dangerous mission. Only when they ovee unfair odds will she be slightly ok with sending them out.
###
Receiving a green light for them to use their tracking skills, they instantly found Lisandra¡¯s location and attacked her.
Widening her eyes, Lisandra flipped her body backwards and narrowly avoided the attack.
However, the chasers didn¡¯t give her too much leeway since the second wave was now charging at her.
Looking at the attacks that were trying to send her out of the arena, she couldn¡¯t help but realise that this was exactly like the training she had done with Shiro. While she didn¡¯t expect to deflect each and every attack, she wanted to open up a narrow gap so that she could slip past andst a little longer.
Tensing her hands around the grip of her sword, she created several pockets of mana.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Deflecting four attacks in an instant, she dived through that gap before shing another chaser just as she was getting back on her feet.
But before she could stabilise herself, the chaser managed to throw out a punch at her and send her crashing into a wall.
Thankfully, she was able to raise her sword in time to block that strike and narrowly stop herself from being sent out of the arena.
But with this, she somewhat got a hang of utilising the mana pockets in moments of danger.
Grinning with excitement, Lisandra readied herself once more and shed towards the chasers.
Chapter 379 Entering Mount Fuji
Chapter 379 Entering Mount Fuji
Attacking and defending quickly with the use of her mana pockets, Lisandra was able to take out 5 of them beforeing close to being eliminated. However, before that could happen, an ice dagger appeared in their vision and collided against the sword, knocking it away from Lisandra.
"Mum!" Lisandra called out in surprise.
"Yo, seems like you were able to use the techniques quite well. Good job." Shiro praised while making a few more daggers and threw it towards the remaining 8 chasers.
Blocking the daggers, the chasers had a serious expression on their faces since the situation wasn¡¯t optimal. While they had to hold back a little since the two were only level 100, the fact that they managed to take out more than half of them was quite concerning.
Giving each other a quick nce, they nodded their head as they agreed to all go serious.
Unfortunately for them, Shiro wasn¡¯t merciful enough to allow them this chance.
Snapping her fingers, the daggers exploded into a cloud of close mist. The particles then expanded into ice spikes and pierced towards the chasers.
Two of them were taken off guard and were sent out of the arena while the other six jumped away.
"You take three and I take three?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Sure."
Readying both their weapons, Shiro grabbed Lisandra and jumped into the rift.
Exiting not too far away from the chasers, she twisted her body and used her leg as a jump pad for Lisandra.
"HA!" Kicking out with all her strength, Lisandra shot towards the chasers while she flipped her body and made herself a small ice tform.
Activating the Takemikazuchi technique once more, her body flickered out of sight.
*BANG BANG BANG!
In an instant, 5 of the chasers were eliminated while thest one managed to dodge in time andnd a kick against Lisandra¡¯s check.
If anything, he hoped to take out at least one of them before they go or else it would be quite a disappointment.
Unfortunately for him, Shiro had already taken this into consideration and activated her Illusion skill.
What would have hit Lisandra on the chest had actually missed her narrowly as shended the final sh against his body.
With all of the chasers eliminated, the duo managed to pass with flying colours.
###
Looking at the chasers that were eliminated with a frown, Hitomi sighed.
¡¯Seems like there¡¯s more to them than I thought. No conventional mage would have her kind of strength and body control. Hmm... should I get a few people to try to find out their real background I wonder...¡¯ Hitomi thought to herself.
After all, it would not be good if the duo were dangerous figures. Should they cause trouble, it¡¯ll be her responsibility.
After a short moment, she sighed and sent a voice message to the investigation team.
"Make finding out the true identity of these two an A ranked priority. If you can, get a few people to follow them without being discovered."
Once the message was sent, she walked out of her office and made her way towards Shiro and Lisandra who had returned the armour.
"Now that you proved that you can clearly handle strong enemies, I¡¯ll give you a quick run down on the areas you should investigate and some information about the situation." Hitomi said as she gestured for the two of them to follow her back to her office.
"To give you a basic rundown of the situation, we¡¯ve got several theories on what had happened. The most likely is that a dungeon was generated without our knowledge and has been opened, releasing hundreds of monsters to roam around the mountain. The only reason we think this is because of a general trend of monsters appearing. They¡¯re all of the ice type and many are not seen around this area and yet they¡¯ve appeared now. The reason why we haven¡¯t disclosed this information is because it¡¯s not confirmed. Your job is to investigate the area and see if you can find the dungeon entrance or something that¡¯s simr." Hitomi exined as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? A dungeon was generated now?" Shiro asked.
After all, the only time a dungeon would be generated was at the very start or when it¡¯s handmade such as the trial area that Lyrica¡¯s mother had made back in Miriel.
"Indeed. Our observers have detected a huge spike of mana around a month ago and determined that the fluctuations bear resemnces to a dungeon. Unfortunately, there seemed to be an interference barrier or something simr since we weren¡¯t able to pinpoint the exact location. All we know is that there¡¯s a spike in mana, more monsters are appearing and they¡¯re gathered on Mount Fuji. Should you bring me information on where the source is as well as proof that it¡¯s true, you¡¯ll be rewarded with an orange grade equipment."
"And if multiple people find the information and hand it in at the same time?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Well in that case then you¡¯ll just have to fight for it then." Hitomi replied simply.
Handing her an ID badge as well as the map they uncovered so far of the monster activity, she sent the two of them on their way.
"Hmm.. well isn¡¯t she a little rude." Lisandra furrowed her brows.
"Not so much rude but maybe serious? Regardless, let¡¯s go meet some Snow Woman." Shiro chuckled.
Leaving the guild, she brought out her motorbike and made her way to the base of Mount Fuji. This time, they were allowed entry after showing the guards their new ID badge.
Just as they entered the mountain, they were shocked by the sudden change in environment. From the outside, the mountain seemed normal with a snowy peak. However, once they get past the barrier, it¡¯s actually a raging snow storm that blocked a lot of their vision.
"Surprised?" One of the guards smiled after seeing their reaction.
"A little. To think this barrier here is also a concealment barrier." Shiro replied.
"Yep. It wouldn¡¯t be good if the civilians saw that the mountain was suddenly covered by a blizzard. It would cause quite a bit of panic." The guard chuckled.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro and Lisandra ventured deeper into the blizzard.
Travelling for a while, Shiro made sure to continuously release her mana in order to sense her surroundings but found no one else except for a few stray adventurers.
"Hmm... seems like the monsters are hiding." Shiro furrowed her brows as she had a fun idea.
"Say Lisa, why don¡¯t I reveal my identity as a monster and roam around for a bit. If the monsters here are intelligent, they might converge towards us." She suggested with a smile.
"But can¡¯t you make a drone and have it fly through the area?" Lisandra tilted her head.
"I can... but like, that¡¯s no fun now is it? Just sitting back and letting a robot do all the work." Shiro shook her head since she liked to do things herself if possible.
"Well either way, I¡¯ll follow you mum." Lisandra smiled.
"Alright, give me a second."
Changing her outfit so that it fit the aesthetic of a Snow Woman more, she made some small adjustments to her face and disguised her status.
[Shiva LVL 100 Snow Woman]
HP:50,000,000/50,000,000
MP: 100,000,000/100,000,000
Of course, her HP and MP were fake since she didn¡¯t have that much. It was just so that her disguise was more convincing.
Taking a deep breath, her aura instantly changed to that of a sharp sword. Her face was cold and emotionless while her killing intent expanded out without restraint.
Not only that, due to the nature of her ice element, a portion of the area had actually frozen over with her Comic Ice.
"Fuu... Lisa, you should disguise yourself as a monster as well. That way, it would be easier for the two of us to stay together should we meet any intelligent monsters." Shiro called out.
Nodding her head, Lisandra revealed her angel wings and changed her outfit with the help of Shiro.
[Lycoris LVL 100 Angelic Maiden]
HP: 100,000,000/100,000,000
MP:100,000,000/100,000,000
Changing her name along with her ss, Shiro nodded in satisfaction.
"Don¡¯t bother hiding your aura and killing intent so that we seem more like ¡¯monsters¡¯." Shiro smiled.
Making their way around the ce at a casual pace, Shiro had already detected a few humans trailing behind them but didn¡¯t make a single move. Unfortunately, humans weren¡¯t what she was looking for.
Should any of them try to kill her, she¡¯ll try to spare them and disengage. But if that wasn¡¯t possible then she would have no choice but to kill them. But that was ast resort of course.
It¡¯s either that or she causes a big enoughmotion to draw the monsters attention.
¡¯Decisions decisions... Which shall I choose? To spare or not to spare...¡¯ Shiro thought while narrowing her eyes at the distant adventurers.
Chapter 380 Fighting Against Humans
Chapter 380 Fighting Against Humans
Walking for a little longer, she finally felt some movements from the humans and realised that they¡¯re going to try to hunt her and Lisa.
"Give them a bit of mercy if you can." Shiro smiled as Lisandra nodded.
Continuing to walk, they suddenly felt a huge spike of mana as a tier 4 magic circle could be seen in the air.
Fire coagted into a spear as meteors orbited around it.
Seeing this, Shiro only smiled and flicked her arm.
A semi translucent ice shield appeared around her and Lisandra.
*BANG!!!!
Colliding against the spear, the shield stood strong and barely faltered against the spear.
¡¯Hou... to think at 38% recovery, a tier 4 spell is no match for my shield.¡¯ Shiro thought with a raised eyebrow.
Shifting her hand into a fist, she expanded the shield and shattered the spear in an instant.
Looking into the distance, she could see the disbelief in the adventurer¡¯s faces.
"There seems to be 5 people in their party. Let¡¯s give them a small wee." Shiro said with a smile.
"Mn." Lisandra nodded.
Spreading out her wings, she readied her sword and flew towards the party while Shiro wasn¡¯t too far behind. She was currently using her flight skill to keep up with Lisandra.
"Quickly! Defence formation!" The party leader shouted out as he readied his shield.
¡¯One shield user, a sword user, two mages and one healer. Not too bad of a party I suppose.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as they¡¯re all higher than level 100.
[Soseki LVL 110 Grand Shield Emperor]
[Kenji LVL 112 Astral Sword Sage]
[Chio LVL 110 Sri Grand Caster]
[Kaya LVL 115 Elemental Witch]
[Satoshi LVL 110 Arch Healer]
###
Looking at the two level 100 monsters flying towards them right now, Soseki knew that they were in a bit of trouble.
They had wanted to use a surprise attack in order to get some early damage on this named monster but they didn¡¯t expect her shield to be so strong. Even with thebined might of a Sri Grand Caster and an Elemental Witch couldn¡¯t faze her defences.
Casting taunt on the Angelic Maiden, he frowned when the skill failed.
Activating a few more aggro attracting skills, his expression became deadly serious since they all failed.
"This isn¡¯t good! She might be immune to aggro skills!" Soseki shouted out in panic as the rest of the party widened their eyes.
"I¡¯ll put some buffs on you now, try to intercept her if you can and keep an eye out on Shiva!" Satoshi warned since the Snow Woman was the most dangerous in his eyes.
At least for Lycoris, the Angelic Maiden, they could block her attacks with the shield. A mage¡¯s attack is harder to block should it be an AOE.
"I know! Try to focus Lycoris down first then we¡¯ll move onto Shiva." Soseki nodded.
Feeling power flow into his body, he jumped up into the air and mmed his shield into Lisandra who managed to block it with her sword.
However, his strength was much greater than what she had thought so she had to twist her body and redirect him aside so that she wouldn¡¯t take all the force.
*BANG!
Flipping his body so that hended upright, Soseki mmed the base of his shield on the ground as several golden chains shot up in an attempt to bind her.
Seeing this, Shiro flexed her fingers and controlled the snow around them to restrain the chains.
"Tch." Clicking his tongue, Soseki looked towards the rxed Shiro who seemed to be controlling all the snow around them.
¡¯Damn, I may have miscalcted.¡¯ He thought in seriousness.
While this was happening, Chio and Kaya prepared a second spell andunched it towards Lisandra. Hopefully, this would stop her from flying, making the fight easier.
The spell was one that would amplify gravity and make it so that spells are harder to use for the target monster.
"Ah..." Raising her eyebrow, Lisandra quickly stabilised herself as she avoided being mmed into the ground.
Raising up her sword, she blocked a strike from Kenji. Unfortunately, the strike had forced her back by quite a bit despite being blocked by her sword.
"Are you ok?" Shiro asked softly as Lisandra nodded her head.
Hearing this, the party was surprised to see that the two could actually speak a humannguage.
"You five, seems like you want to meet death quite eagerly huh? Shall I give you that privilege?" Shiro asked as her lips curved into a cruel smile.
Feeling the full brunt of her killing intent, the party froze up for a moment as Satoshi activated a buff skill that increases one¡¯s will power. That way, they could at least move despite her killing intent.
"Kenji! Chio! Kaya! Target Shiva! I¡¯ll handle Lycoris for now!" Soseki shouted out as the party nodded.
"You know, telling me your strategy is quite foolish isn¡¯t it?" Shiro tilted her head while raising her hand.
*BOOM!!!
Her mana red instantly as a wave of cold mist charged towards them.
Activating fire barriers around the three of them, Chio was surprised at how quite her MP was being drained in order to stop the cold mist from killing them.
Understanding that Chio couldn¡¯t keep this up, Kenji charged towards Shiro and brandished his sword.
"Astral Step." He said seriously as his body disappeared in a flicker of starlight.
*PING!!!!
Widening his eyes, he was shocked to see that an ice spear had intercepted his sword from shing the back of Shiro¡¯s neck.
"Targeting the neck is very rude you know? You should learn how to treat a woman better, boy." Shiro chuckled.
Snapping her fingers, ice chains shot out of the ground and wrapped around Kenji as spikes protruded out from the chain links and pierced into his body.
"Arg!" Kenji shouted out in pain.
*BOOM!!
A pir of fire suddenly exploded from under Shiro¡¯s feet as the chains shattered apart. Naturally, it was part of Shiro¡¯s n since she wasn¡¯t too intent on killing this part.
As the fire pir died down, they saw Shiro unscathed.
[Shiva LVL 100 Snow Woman]
HP: 49,230,000/50,000,000
MP: 92,010,000/100,000,000
Seeing how much MP she still had and how little damage they managed to inflict onto her, the party couldn¡¯t help but feel as though this is an uphill battle.
"Well I suppose you¡¯ve shown me what you can do. Now die." Shiro said as she snapped her fingers.
A huge tier four magic circle expanded out from under her as another tier 4 magic circle could be seen above them.
Feeling the sheer amount of mana that was being emanated from her body, the mages in the party paled since they knew this spell was going to be lethal.
"We need to run!" Chio shouted out in a panic.
Within a single moment, ayer of ice appeared on their bodies as dark clouds gathered in the skies.
"Frozen Chandelier." Shiro said simply.
Pushing out from the dark clouds, an ice chandelier could be seen as light reflected from the crystal like sections and blinded them for a short moment.
Gritting his teeth, Soseki quickly activated one of the life saving items he had been saving and sent the party out of the spell¡¯s range.
Seeing the party disappear, despite her being able to chase them down easily, Shiro disabled her spell and looked towards Lisandra.
"How was it? Fighting against a B ss shield type adventurer?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Annoying. I couldn¡¯t prate his defences." Lisandra replied with a frown.
While she did try to strike at the areas that weren¡¯t blocked by the shield, he would always move his shield to that location just in time to deflect her sword and hit her straight in the body.
"Well I suppose it¡¯s just experience with fighting against shields. You should have a few spars with Madi when we get back since she¡¯s more of an aggressive shielder. If you expose your gaps like how you did with Soseki, she¡¯ll capitalise on it and do quite a bit of damage to you so you need to be careful with shielders. The best way to fight them is to include a lot of feints into your attacks." Shiro exined as Lisandra nodded.
"Anyways, we got plenty of time for you to practice. Hell I can probably make a shield myself and spar with you but it wouldn¡¯t be as effective." Shiro shrugged.
"However, it seems like we have some visitors so that will have to wait." She continued while looking into the distance. She could sense a few monsters making their way towards them now and it seemed like they were Snow Woman.
Chapter 381 First Encounter
Chapter 381 First Encounter
Waiting in their spot while continuing to release their aura without restrain as a warning, Shiro kept a neutral expression and looked at the neers.
Three women, all with white hair and a cold expression looked at her from afar.
While none of them were named monsters, Shiro knew that they were intelligent.
"One... no, two irregrs have invaded our domain." The first woman said while narrowing her eyes at the two of them.
"Holy element. She is an angel type. As for the other woman, it seems like she was part of our race at one point. She¡¯s killed a snow girl." The second followed up.
"She isn¡¯t the same as us but why does her name suggest so?" The third snow woman asked while tilting her head.
"You three are?" Shiro called out to the three of them.
"You don¡¯t need to know of our identities as we are naught but one of many. Since you have invaded our domain, the queen seeks out a meeting with you who tantly disy her feeble power in spite of knowing that this is our domain." The first replied whileing closer to her.
"Hou~ Feeble power huh? Wouldn¡¯t you want to see what kind of feeble power I hold up close and personal ah?" Shiro asked as her eyes glowed menacingly.
To think a few nameless b*tches had the gall to call her weak, Shiro really wanted to pry open their brains and see if they could even think logically. To make things worse, it wasn¡¯t a metaphor.
"What kind of idiot would gloat about being able to kill weaklings? You may surpass us but it is still a fact that you¡¯re inferior to our queen. Though I suppose you do have our respect for being able to kill a ¡¯sibling¡¯ while you were still part of our race. Come with us, the queen hates to be dyed."
*PUCHI!
Feeling one of her veins bulge in anger, Shiro¡¯s killing intent soared as her hand¡¯s were itching to kill the three of these f*ckers.
"You know what? Die." Shiro said with a smile.
Flexing her fingers, three ice spikes shot out of the ground and instantly skewered the three snow women. Raising them up high into the sky, she balled her hand into a fist as the spear expanded and ripped their corpses apart.
"Fu...." Breathing out heavily, Shiro looked up at the sky.
"Welp that¡¯s the end of that." She said with a smile.
However, just as she said this, her smile faltered and turned into a frown.
"You know, c.o.c.kroaches should just stay dead instead of continuing to move like this." She warned with a low voice.
Looking in front of her, the three snow women were still alive albeit some injuries along their arms.
"To attack us so suddenly. As expected of one who trusts in her power too much. Should you displease the queen, the meeting will turn into a bloodshed. If you dy for too long, she¡¯lle looking for you and when that happens, your life will be forfeit." The snow woman warned while trying to heal her injured arm.
"Lisa." Shiro called out.
"Yes mum?"
"What do you think about studying torture with mommy?" Shiro asked with a ¡¯sweet¡¯ smile.
"I think that¡¯s a rather weird but splendid family activity. Though it¡¯s a shame big sis isn¡¯t here to torch them with her fire." Lisandra chuckled while pulling out her swords. Activating her elemental armour, her aura red as she too was pissed about the snow women looking down on Shiro like that.
With two people releasing their aura at full, the blizzard was scattered apart as the surrounding adventurers paled from fright.
As for the observing team that the guild had deployed to monitor the situation, they were shocked to see two colossal mana signatures ring not too far from the entrance of Mount Fuji.
Realising that this amount of mana was very resemnt of two dungeon bosses, they quickly sent a message to all surrounding adventurers and warned them of a chance of infighting between the monsters.
###
Ignoring themotion that was happening around them, Shiro looked at the three snow women in front of her. She wasn¡¯t here to be discreet from the beginning so it doesn¡¯t matter whoes.
Of course, she wasn¡¯t arrogant enough to fight the queen since she sounds like she¡¯s within the mid to high ranks of B ss. A being like that wasn¡¯t something she could face against right now.
However, having two monsters look down on her wasn¡¯t a good feeling either so she¡¯ll eliminate the three of them this instant.
¡¯The skill they used to dodge thatst attack must have been an illusion type skill like my Fae Illusions. However, it doesn¡¯t make them invulnerable. Let¡¯s give this Spirit Assistance skill a try while Lisandra takes them on. Though she may need some help so I suppose giving Lisa my experimental armour shouldn¡¯t be too bad.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Giving Lisandra a side nce, Shiro nodded her head and threw her a nanochip.
Catching it, Lisandra pressed the button on the top as a mass of nanobots swarmed over her body.
Lightning and fire flickered around her before settling down as a set of mechanised armour.
[Unnamed Nanotech Armament]
A conceptual piece of armour that was thought up by the entity ¨C Shiro, after taking inspiration from the Nanobot Research volumes. Mixed with the attunements; Stygian Steel, Apocalyptic Lighting and Star, the armour is powerful yet vtile. Should the bnce tilt to either side, the armour may copse.
While this armour was still in its conceptual stages, she had run enough tests in her mind to ensure that it will suffice for a few minutes at least. Though if anything goes wrong, she had made sure to install a fail safe that would make it so that the armour forcefully detaches from Lisandra before flying as far away as possible.
"This armour should enhance your performance." Shiro said before concentrating on making her own spell.
Since there is a huge body of Ice Spirits in this area, her ice spells would be heavily empowered with the help of Spirit Assistance.
Nodding her head, Lisandra took a deep breath before charging towards the trio.
Suddenly, nanotech thrusters were created behind her as her body was propelled forward at a speed much faster than what she had experienced with the motorbike.
Widening her eyes, Lisandra brandished her sword and tried to strike at the Snow Women before she flew past them.
Ayer of nanotech wrapped around her sword as Lightning and Star element coagted along the edge of the de, leaving a ck, red and gold trail of energy behind the swing.
*PUSHIII!!!!!
Before the Snow Woman could even react, one of theirpanions had been cut in half by the sword.
"!!!" Widening her eyes, the first snow woman didn¡¯t expect that they would be dealt with so easily. While she knew that the two were superior to them despite only being level 100, she had thought that they could at least deal some damage and do something with their deaths. However, at the rate of how things are developing, they wouldn¡¯t even be able to scratch the duo before dying a worthless death.
"Aiya~ Seems like I won¡¯t even need to use my spell." Shiro chuckled while stopping the formation of her spell.
Activating analysis, she observed the internal working of the nanotech armour. Using the concepts of Reinforcement from volume 1 and Adjustment from volume 2, she tried to make it so that the armour could react to the user¡¯s actions without her having to manually control it.
So far, it had been sessful since the armour created thrusters and had even deployed her the use of her attunements on the de with a single scan of Lisandra¡¯s movements.
¡¯The armour is holding up quite well but with one deployment of theponents that she needed, it has broken the retracting function so the parts can¡¯t be recycled into otherponents without a new supply of nanobots from me. Not only that, but the usage of my attunements haspletely fried the nanobots on the de and they¡¯ve already crumbled to dust.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
Of course, to make sure that her armour couldn¡¯t be discovered by anyone else, she had already applied Fae Illusions to the surroundings so that anyone looking would only see the two of them next to three corpses.
Meanwhile, Lisandra had discovered the fault of the armour and realised that parts of it were breaking and crumbling with a single use.
¡¯Hmm... I can probably kill one more and take the third one alive for torture and interrogation.¡¯
Readying her second sword, she twisted her body and shed towards another snow woman.
While this was happening, the first snow woman that had provoked Shiro panicked and tried to run away. A worthless death wasn¡¯t something she wanted. No, if she was going to die, she wanted to make sure that it was worth something.
However, before she could run, a de pierced her body before expanding into a skin tight cage that pushed her against the ground. Despite her using her mana, she noticed that it was cancelled before a spell could even form.
"Now then, why don¡¯t we have you spill out everything you know?" Shiro smiled while holding a dagger.
Chapter 382 Hidden City
Chapter 382 Hidden City
Twirling her dagger and looking at the corpse of what was an alive and well Snow Woman, Shiro waved her hand and collected it without a second thought.
However, she had a serious expression on her face. From what she had learnt from that Snow Woman, it seemed like the current situation was more troublesome than what she had estimated.
Apparently, the supposed queen of the Snow Woman had managed to forcefully create a dungeon/portal from their world to this one without the restrictions the dungeon would normally impose.
Currently, they¡¯re working on improving the portal so that higher level beings from their world can travel over.
Normally, their queen wouldn¡¯t be able toe over but she had used a proxy and taken over their body in order to work on the portal.
"Hmm... this is troublesome isn¡¯t it Lisa?" Shiro asked with a shake of her head.
¡¯To think that they¡¯re actually able to forcefully make a dungeon and ignore it¡¯s rules.... What level would the queen need to be in order to do this?¡¯ She mused to herself.
{I don¡¯t think it¡¯s because of her level Shiro. There¡¯s something fishy about this.} Nimue replied with a serious expression.
From her knowledge of how queens of each race function, there were none that allowed them to open portals to other worlds.
¡¯Maybe. But it is also a fact that you can travel across worlds once you reach tier 7 demi-god.¡¯ Shiro replied with a shrug.
{Wai, there¡¯s a tier 7 demi-god? How did you know about that?} Nimue tilted her head in confusion.
¡¯I learned it from a light goddess that I bumped into during one of my past quests. But in seriousness, if our enemy is someone that is potentially a tier 7 demi-god, this would be quite bad you know?¡¯
{Hmm... true...} Nimue nodded before going silent. She had to think about how she could help out in the current situation.
Returning her focus back to reality, Shiro saw that Lisandra was currently looking at the half broken experimental armour.
"Seems like you quite like the new armour that I created." Shiro smiled.
"Mn. It¡¯s very handy and the fact that I can use your attunements despite not having them for a short moment is amazing." Lisandra replied.
"I see, though it seems like I haven¡¯t made enough progress with the research volumes so they¡¯re not exactly reusable. I¡¯ll make some improvements when I can but for now, I¡¯ll give you a few more ch.i.p.s for you to useter." Shiro said while dismantling the half broken armour.
Flexing her fingers, she created three more armour ch.i.p.s and handed it over to her.
Only use it when we¡¯re in danger when we go to the city. It¡¯ll be our escape tool." Shiro reminded while Lisandra nodded her head.
"Good. Welp I should drop this illusion now since it would be weird for us to stand in one ce while not doing anything."
Flicking her arm, the illusion shattered apart as Shiro looked towards the closest adventurer party and gave them a smile before leaving towards where the city should be.
Seeing this smile, the parties knew that they had been fooled by an illusion and quickly reported to the observer team.
###
"Hmm... an annoying variable has appeared. This Shiva and Lycoris pair seemed to be at odds with the monsters that have appeared here. Are they natural monsters that know what¡¯s happening here?" A man muttered while looking through video recordings and reports on the situation.
Massaging his eyes, he frowned before sending a message to the guild master.
[Request to send the most powerful B ss adventurers to track down the two monsters. Snow Woman Shiva and Angelic Maiden Lycoris.]
After a moment of waiting, he received her reply.
[Request Approved.]
Smiling slightly, he sent a message to the highest levelled B ranked adventurers and had them go to Mount Fuji.
###
Continuing her walk to the city, there had been a few Snow Women that tried to force her toe with them but Shiro killed them without hesitation due to their attitudes.
"Hmm... we should be near the entrance now. Though I¡¯m not sure we¡¯re allowed entrance since we¡¯ve killed quite a few Snow Women." Shiro said with a smile.
"I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine. After all, it¡¯s not as if you¡¯ve dyed the visit now have you? You just took care of a few trash along the way." Lisandra chuckled.
Crouching down, Shiro pressed her fingers against the ground and tried to sense where the entrance was.
Due to her high natural affinity to ice rted elements, she could ¡¯see¡¯ the entire area that was covered with snow in full detail.
Following the instructions that she had so ¡¯politely¡¯ inquired from the Snow Woman, Shiro soon found the entrance to the city.
Located in a hidden cave within Mount Fuji, they had essentially hollowed out the mountain for their city.
Standing back up, Shiro patted her skirt and made her way to the entrance with Lisandra following not too far behind.
While this was happening, all of the low levelled B ranked adventurers had left the mountain range due to the emergency announcement of two boss type monsters appearing in the area. All that remained were those higher than level 130.
Of course, Shiro wouldn¡¯t know of such a thing. All she knew right now was that the average level of snow women in the city was around 120 to 140 while the average level of adventurers that have appeared in the mountain range was 110.
Upon arriving at the entrance, Shiro immediately detected a few hostile res from what seemed to be gatekeepers. However, she couldn¡¯t see them and all she could see was just a normal stone wall.
"What, no wee party? That¡¯s rather rude to a guest that was invited by your queen." Shiro chuckled while activating her skill, analysis.
Peering past the stone wall, she could see four powerful mana signatures that seemed to suggest that they were around level 125.
"There are no wee parties since you¡¯ve killed them all have you not?" One of the Snow Women sneered.
"Well, when you greet with sh*t, you receive sh*t no?" Shiro retorted.
"Anyways, if you dy this, would your queen be displeased about theteness of my arrival?"
"Tch, open the entrance." The Snow Woman clicked her tongue.
Suddenly, the wall dissolved into ayer of snow as Shiro could see four snow women with spells ready so that they can attack her should she show hostile intent.
"Calm down, I¡¯m not dumb enough to attack in your city..." Shiro smiled and walked towards them.
However, just as she was around 3 meters from them, her mana red as an array of ice weapons surrounded the four in an instant.
"Or am I?" She grinned.
Feeling her hostility and killing intent up close the four realised that they couldn¡¯t move their bodies at all from fright.
Silence reigned the area for a short moment before it dissolved into thin air.
"I¡¯m kidding~ You¡¯re lucky I¡¯m in a good mood right now." Shiro waved her hand before proceeding into the city.
Watching the two enter the city, the four fell back onto the floor and panted in fear.
"Send a message to everyone in the city, if you can, don¡¯t even approach her!" The first shouted out while trying to get back onto her feet.
###
Walking through the city, Shiro saw that there was ack of infrastructure other than a few houses and some ces for the snow woman to practise their skills and consume more mana to level up.
There were floating orbs of light that kept the city bright despite it being inside a mountain.
Losing interest in the society and living condition of snow women instantly, Shiro made a beeline to the castle in the centre of the city.
Created from opaque ice, the castle stood proud in the centre. The sheer size of the castle was quite daunting but Shiro had seen and made bigger, so it didn¡¯t really affect her.
Opening the gate for her, the snow women bowed and tried not to attract her attention.
As she continued through the hallway, she soon arrived at the main hall.
Sitting on a throne of ice, a mature and beautiful woman with ice white hair had a soft smile on her face while looking at Shiro.
"I wee you to my current kingdom. While your tag says that you are part of my race, as a queen, I can tell otherwise oh queen of the spirits."
Chapter 383 Khionah
Chapter 383 Khionah
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro looked at the woman sitting on the throne with mild surprise.
"You seem surprised. Though that must mean you¡¯re a pretty new queen that must have been chosen at random by the system." The woman chuckled.
"Hou~ Seems like you know a lot." Shiro smiled.
"Indeed. As I am one of the oldest living queens around you learn a few things here and there. I can tell you that as time passes and your power as the queen of a race increases, you¡¯ll gain a natural connection to other queens and notice when they¡¯re close. That¡¯s why I knew you arrived the moment you stepped into the mountain range." The woman replied while standing up.
"Now then, allow me to introduce myself. Khionah, frigid queen of ice. I govern all those who are born into the ice element. While you, I suppose I should call you my younger sister, is the ruler of sylphs and govern all spirits that live in the world." Khionah smiled.
"Sorry, I don¡¯t have any older sisters despite our connection as queens. Though, I don¡¯t suppose you¡¯ll be kind enough as to stop whatever you are doing. It would be quite problematic should you continue since this will hinder my ns three months from now." Shiro replied while making herself an ice throne to sit on as well.
"Ah, I don¡¯t think you have the qualifications to sit down in the same room as me just yet. So for now my younger queen sister, I think you should stand." Khionah flexed her finger and thawed the ice in an instant.
"That would not do since I am still in the end a ruler." Shiro shook her head and countered by ring her mana and creating the throne once again.
"Mn... well I must say, if anything, you are quite rude oh younger sister. As the big sister, I may need to discipline you."
"No need, for you are not my sister. Though how about we cut the bullsh*t. I¡¯m not here to have fun and games with you." Shiro cut the act short since from what she could tell, this woman was going to be annoying to deal with if she kept dodging the main subject.
"Hm, how rude. No respect at all to your elders. I say, between you and the annoying dragon b*tch of a queen, I wonder who¡¯s brasher. Despite knowing that you¡¯re only level 100 and I am capable of crossing worlds, you still enter here without restraint. Are you looking down on me?" Khionah narrowed her eyes.
"How can I look down on you when you¡¯re standing on a tform three times my height?" Shiro chuckled.
"Well at least you have the mood to joke. Compared to the other queen I just mentioned, I¡¯d much rather converse with you since you didn¡¯t try to punch me straight away. Though you are trying." Khionah shook her head and snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, all of the hidden weapons that both queens have deployed throughout the room were revealed.
Shiro¡¯s swords, axes and daggers were being fended off by Khionah¡¯s barrier while her weapons were being reduced to dust the moment they approached a certain radius around Shiro.
From what she could tell, Shiro would cancel out/cut off the mana within the weapons, thus reducing them to nothing.
"Well you are certainly talented for a level 100 but don¡¯t forget, every queen is just as talented as you for they are able to be the ruler of a race. Though as hateful as it is to praise the muscle head queen of the dragons, that girl can hold her own in a fight despite being a whole tier under me." Khionah shook her head.
"So, what is it that you desire from me? I know that you want me to stop my moving of worlds but the real question is, why?"
"Because it¡¯s annoying. You can move your world in another location as long as it doesn¡¯t bother my actions. Though, it would also be good if you told me how and why you¡¯re doing this to begin with. Let¡¯s just say that since I¡¯m a new queen, I don¡¯t exactly know about the shifting of worlds and the previous worlds that have merged with this one." Shiro replied since Khionah was currently her best source for more information in regards to her questions.
"I see... I suppose I will do you one favour of giving you some information as you¡¯re the first queen I¡¯ve seen to have entered this world. Currently, this world shall be the main hub that houses all living creatures from all worlds spread apart. Soon shalle an age of gods and demons. Humans who are given an advantage to grow during this time must cherish the safe haven they¡¯ve been granted and level up should they wish to survive theing age of gods. So far, the only queens that have touched upon thisnd are you and me. Soon to follow are the queen of fire and dragons as the difficulty of this world will increase." Khionah said while sitting down on her throne.
"For now, oh youngest sister of mine, focus on increasing your strength and solidifying your hold over your race. A ruler¡¯s powers are also dependent on their retainers as one cannot face the world alone. Even if you can, it will be a lonely ce at the top and that loneliness may be the de that ends your life. As for my current housing of this mountain, worry not for I shall leave in two months time. Once I am able toplete this anchor, I shall move everyone away from this local to ce more anchors. For now, I shall bid you farewell. But remember this, in the future when you are more qualified to be called a queen of the race, I may seek out your cooperation." Khionah finished and waved her hand.
In an instant, a crushing pressure swept over Shiro and Lisandra as they were instantly forced intobat mode in fear of danger. But once they realised what had happened, the two of them were already outside of the city and in the middle of an open area.
Staying silent for a short moment, Shiro shook her head.
"Damn, this is annoying. What¡¯s so special about the current world and what the hell does she mean by the age of gods. Will the light f*ckere here instead of me going to him?" Shiro muttered in annoyance since she had just received quite a bit of information.
The fact that this world may be the only world left, an age of gods and demons, more queensing and what Khionah meant by anchor.
"Mum, I think we have just uncovered a huge link that might help us prepare for the future." Lisandra said seriously since an age of gods didn¡¯t sound like the best situation. Especially since she knew that even a holy one that is the light goddess couldn¡¯t be called ¡¯good¡¯ by all means.
Despite the warmth that light offers, it can also blind you in its radiance.
"*sigh* I know darling, I know. Though for now, I suppose it wouldn¡¯t hurt to record some vital information in regards to the city and the boss ¡¯Shiva¡¯." Shiro replied as there wasn¡¯t much else she could do. Khionah didn¡¯t look like she was going to tell her more information and had already told her that she was going to leave in two months. From what she could tell, Khionah was the only powerful being in the city but there could be more hidden in the shadows.
But if she could expel Shiro from the city in an instant, that meant her powers couldn¡¯t be underestimated.
As she was forging a video of some ¡¯vital¡¯ information, she turned to Nimue who had a serious expression in her mana realm.
¡¯What are your thoughts about this Nimue?¡¯
{Mine? Well my biggest concerns are the safety of the spirit race with this whole age of gods and demons. She did also tell you to solidify your control over the race so that may be our next goal after you reach B rank and rescue miss Yuki.} Nimue replied.
¡¯Indeed. What do you think Iziuel?¡¯
{What I think? Well I suppose it¡¯s the same as Nimue. Though I¡¯m more curious about when our little fire sibling will take form.} Iziuel replied while ncing over to the fire ind.
¡¯Give it some time. It does take a while to grow after all.¡¯ Shiro chuckled.
Returning her focus back to reality, she had just finished with the footage and made sure to edit it a little so it doesn¡¯t fully give away the city¡¯s location and only just suggest that it may be around a certain area.
"Now then, I suppose we¡¯ll im our orange grade equipment and make our way to Tokyo then." Shiro smiled as there wasn¡¯t much else to do here.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Lisandra followed behind Shiro as the two of them returned to their form of Nytri and Lisa before leaving the mountain.
Chapter 384 Orange Grade Weapons
Chapter 384 Orange Grade Weapons
Upon leaving the mountain range, Shiro pulled out her bike and made their way to the guild.
Asking the receptionist to inform the guild master of their intent to meet her due to some intel they managed to collect, they were led to a waiting room.
However, this time, they didn¡¯t need to wait too long for the guild master to arrive.
"I heard that you collected some information? Quite quick considering how little time you spent in the mountain range." Hitomi raised an eyebrow.
"Well what can I say? Maybe I got a passive called EX luck haha." Shiro joked around before pulling out the video chip from her inventory.
"Here, you can have a look at this. I¡¯ve managed to see a new boss monster making contact with what seems to be a monster city. The location was around the western side of Mount Fuji but it may have changed I don¡¯t know."
Looking through the recordings, the guild master had a serious expression before nodding.
"Mn, this is indeed vital information. At least now we know there¡¯s a city of these monsters and that there may be several strong bosses in there." Hitomi said seriously.
"Then I suppose I¡¯m eligible for the orange grade equipment then." Shiro smiled.
"Indeed. Come with me, I shall show you the few you can choose from." Hitomi nodded and gestured for the two of them to follow her.
Going through a few illusions, that of which Shiro detected with ease, they arrived at what seemed to be a vault.
¡¯Hm, by having illusions here, it seems like they want to prevent anyone from knowing the exact location of the vault.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. However, unfortunately for them, with the help of her skill analysis, she had been able to make a map of the vault in her mind.
Of course, it wasn¡¯t as if she was going to rob them. That would be quite mean.
"You can choose between weapons or armour."
"I¡¯ll go for a weapon." Shiro replied since she already got one of the better armours on her now.
"Mn, good choice. Here are your choices." Hitomi said while pointing at the assortment of ss cases.
Strangely enough, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to get the stats of the weapons through the ss but she was able to see the descriptions on the bottom.
There were two bows, a sword, an axe and a dagger for her to choose from.
She immediately ignored the axe since it wasn¡¯t something that she used often. Same with the sword since she already had Ataraxia. This only left the dagger and the bows.
[Izanami¡¯s Crest LVL 120 Orange (Dagger)]
A dagger enhanced by the power of Izanami, the personification of Earth and Darkness. At night, the dagger¡¯s stats are doubled.
[Sun Eater Bow LVL 120 Orange (Bow)]
A bow possessed by a rumoured sun eater. Whenever the user pulls back the string, it will convert the energy of the sun. When the sun is at its peak, the bows power is enhanced by 300% that willst for 1 minute. After this period, the bow will decrease in strength. You cannot use this bow at night.
[Star Gazer¡¯s Bow LVL 110 Orange (Bow)]
A bow that is enhanced with the number of stars that can be observed. At its peak, a single draw of the bow can summon down a meteor shower. At night, the bow will receive the star¡¯s blessing.
Raising an eyebrow, her thoughts immediately homed in on the star gazer¡¯s bow. For one, due to her cosmic ice, her spells will open up a gxy filled with starts. She wasn¡¯t sure if this would synergise but it is definitely an interesting bow.
There was also the Sun Eater bow and the Izanami¡¯s Crest which were also quite interesting in Shiro¡¯s opinion.
The fact that the dagger had a goddess¡¯s name made it quite a rare weapon.
"Hmm... I think I¡¯ll go for the Star Gazer¡¯s Bow." Shiro said since she can see stars regardless of the time of day.
"Oh? You don¡¯t want the dagger or the Sun Eater bow?" Hitomi raised her eyes in surprise since the Star Gazer¡¯s bow was the weaker one of the bunch in her opinion.
At higher levels, one can fire an array of attacks so the skill where it will fire a meteor shower was quite weak.
"No since I¡¯m a mage. I fight from longer distances after all." Shiro shrugged.
¡¯Bullsh*t! You think I¡¯m blind!? I saw what you did in the test!¡¯ Hitomi retorted in her mind but made no changes to her expression on the outside.
"Well if that¡¯s what you want." She nodded and opened the ss container for the Star Gazer¡¯s Bow.
Handing it over to Shiro, they led her out of the vault.
"Now then, I suppose we should go to an empty lot and give this bow a try no?" Shiro said with a smile while leaving the guild with Lisandra.
"Mn, I¡¯m quite curious about what it can do as well." Lisandra nodded since she knew of Shiro¡¯s spell that opened up a sky filled with stars regardless of time.
Bringing out her bike, Shiro started to drive towards Tokyo while looking for an empty space.
"Hmm this seems good." Shiro muttered while looking at the surroundings.
They were currently surrounded by an empty in of grass. There were craters here and there but grass had regrown, making it look like a giant had just punched the ground.
"Seems like this ce had been used as a testing ground of sorts for other people." Lisandra said while looking at the craters.
"Well that¡¯s good for us then since it means I can try out this bow." Shiro shrugged.
Pulling out the bow, she examined the construction in more detail.
The body of the bow was coloured gold and brown with highlights of blue scattered around the edges.
The string itself looked like it was crafted from stars as it glistened in the sunlight.
Since the bow was level 110, it meant that Shiro couldn¡¯t use it. However, it was nothing a nanotech growth infuser couldn¡¯t resolve.
Installing the infuser onto the bow, she lowered the level down to 100.
"Now then... I need some preparation." Shiro said while looking at the sky.
Closing her eyes for a short moment, she raised her hand before swiping it down.
*BOOM!!!
A rip opened up in the sky as a gxy could be seen. What was a sunny day became shrouded in a blizzard. Her white hair fluttered in the wind while her hands reached out for the string.
Mana erupted from her body the moment her hand touched the string. Pulling the string back, the star light above them shot down and coagted into an arrow.
"Fu... that¡¯s quite a bit of power." Shiro muttered since it was getting harder and harder to pull the string back.
Taking a deep breath, she enhanced her body with mana and pulled back the strings fully.
Letting go of the strings, she watched as the arrow shot into the air, leaving behind a train of light.
The stars that were within the gxy that she summoned glistened with light as Shiro could tell that the arrow seemed to be increasing in strength and speed.
Continuing to fly through the air, the arrow started to split into several parts which then also split apart.
Soon, the air was filled with arrows that simultaneouslybust into mes.
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
Watching the destruction that rained upon the green in, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but whistle in admiration.
"This would be quite good in a team fight huh?" Shiro chuckled.
"That¡¯s only if we don¡¯t hit the teammates first." Lisandra smiled.
"True, but it can serve as a good opening act no?"
Storing the bow away, they left the area quickly before anyone realised that she had just destroyed the surroundings.
"You know, you should really repair that first right? Don¡¯t you have a forest attunement?" Lisandra raised her brows.
"Ah." Stopping the bike, Shiro reversed slowly before flicking her wrist.
The ground started to shake as dirt and wood filled the craters that she had created.
What was a destroyed in was now a small forest.
"There, that should do it." Shiro said while making sure that there weren¡¯t any more craters.
"Mn, now we can make our way to Tokyo. Mum, you should really think about the consequences of your skills you know?" Lisandra smiled wearily.
"Hai hai~" Shiro replied while driving her bike. Their next stop was Tokyo and if she was to increase their speed a little, they should arrive by the next day.
"Buckle up." Shiro warned.
Without waiting for her reply, she left the area with a burst of speed.
Chapter 385 Tokyo
Chapter 385 Tokyo
Looking at the map, Shiro saw that they weren¡¯t too far from the city of Tokyo.
"Let¡¯s see, I should find out where the main headquarters of the Rising Sun is first..." Shiro muttered as that was their main reason foring to Tokyo.
Finding out where the headquarters is located, Shiro then searched up the average level of the city. With their appearance and low level, it would be quite awkward if some peak B ss individual with a big backing fell in love at first sight and tried to get them forcefully.
"Hmm... the average level is indeed 200. That¡¯s going to be a little troublesome now isn¡¯t it?" She furrowed her brows while flicking her wrist.
Activating her disguise skill, both Shiro and Lisandra¡¯s appearance was changed to that of a rathermon face shape.
"There, that should do it." Shiro smiled.
With this, she could enter the city without worry since no peak level 200 would be willing to kidnap an average woman now would they?
Entering the city, Shiro was a little overwhelmed at how packed the city was. Filled with tall skyscr.a.p.ers and connecting bridges between buildings, the entire city of Tokyo was a sight to behold.
"Well damn, it¡¯spletely different to New York huh?"
"Mn, indeed..." Lisandra nodded since she didn¡¯t expect the infrastructure to be so advanced.
Hoping off their bike, they entered the city and made their way towards the headquarters.
Located in the centre of Tokyo, it was quite hard to miss the building. The top of it couldn¡¯t be seen unless one was far away.
Half of the tower was crafted from smooth sheets of metal that made it seem like the arm of a mech while the other half had towers protruding from the side that connected into what seemed to be a hanger of sorts.
From what they could see from outside the building, mounts of different species could be seen flying in and out ranging from flying manta rays, to giant falcons.
There were a few mounts that were especially eye catching since they were adorned with golden armour and had l.u.s.trous carriages attached to their body. Shiro could even see a few dragons resting in the docking bay as their giant bodies swayed gently with every breath they took.
"Well damn... Say, do you think they breed dragons for their meat here? It would be good to get some stat increases." Shiro whispered over to Lisandra.
"I hope so. I still remember when we ate some wyvern meat back when we first met." Lisandra replied while trying to stop herself from drooling since that meat was truly delicious.
"Indeed... ah crap, we¡¯re getting off track. Let¡¯s go see if I can meet my cousin I guess." Shiro shook her head and entered the main hall of the building.
Inside the main hall, Shiro noticed that it reminded her quite a lot of an airport with huge monitors of information scattered around and despite the sheer amount of people present in the hall, it didn¡¯t look full at all.
"Let¡¯s see.... Where¡¯s the reception..." Shiro muttered while trying to look around.
With so many small shops and counters around the ce, each with their own queues, it was rather hard to find the main one.
While she could just look for the one in the centre as a start, there were unfortunately no counters for her to queue up in.
"Erm excuse me?" Shiro called out to a passer-by.
"Yes? Hello?" A man turned around in confusion.
"Do you happen to know where the reception is?" Shiro asked.
"Ah right, are you new? The reception is actually on the second floor. The first floor is for everyone to rent shops and exchange items. You see the giant elevator in the middle? Go up that and you should see the reception straight away." The man replied with a smile.
"I see... thank you very much. Have a nice day."
"You too."
Following the man¡¯s instruction, Shiro went up the crowded elevator and arrived at the second floor with Lisandra.
*Whistle~
Looking at the huge queue that almost extended all the way to the elevator despite how huge the room was, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what each of them required from the guild.
Sighing softly, Shiro scratched her head for a moment before turning to Lisandra.
"Seems like we have to wait a while. Is there anything you want to do?" She asked.
"Nah, let¡¯s just wait patiently for a while mum." Lisandra chuckled.
"Fine."
Waiting in the queue patiently, Shiro started to browse through clothes online with Lisandra as they picked out the ones that looked pretty good.
Shiro would then memorise the designs of each one so that she could use them for disguisester.
In the end, Shiro had to queue up for around one hour and a half before it was her turn.
"How can I help?" The receptionist asked with a smile.
Despite her fatigue, she still made sure to keep a smile for the adventurers.
"I want to ask if there¡¯s a way to pass on a message to the guild leader or perhaps ask for a meeting with her?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm... that¡¯s a bit difficult unless you¡¯re able to pass a few base requirements. There are thousands of people wanting to meet the faction master so this was put in ce so that only the important ones can go through to her personally." The receptionist replied with an apologetic smile.
"I see, then what are the base requirements?" Shiro asked.
"Those are if you¡¯re ranked elder or above in a faction, have an important message for her from a high ranking staff of arge guild orst but not least, have an item that may grant you a meeting from her directly." The receptionist exined.
"Hmm... in that case then can you pass a message on for me?"
"Of course. But as to whether or not she is willing to meet you due to a message is something I can¡¯t guarantee." The receptionist smiled wearily.
"That¡¯s fine. Please tell her that the Guest Elder, Shiro, from Winter¡¯s Graze wants to organise a meeting with her to discuss a message from the guild leader. Here is her contact number if she¡¯s interested." Shiro said while handing her the phone number.
"Ok, I¡¯ll send her the message now." The receptionist nodded as she tapped away at herputer.
"Now, is there anything else? If not, please stand to the side while I attend to the next adventurer."
"No, that¡¯s all." Shiro shook her head.
Stepping aside of the queue, she started to leave the guild with Lisandra.
"Do you want to go to a restaurant first before going to the auction house?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Sure, that sounds great." Lisandra nodded.
###
Sitting in front of her desk while tapping away at her doc.u.ment, Keiko looked out of the window and over the city of Tokyo.
She had long ck hair that was swept to the side, ck eyes and delicate lips.
Sighing softly, she leaned back while looking at the messageid out on the top of her desk.
Seeing such a mild expression with her appearance would make one wonder if she really is the rumoured ¡¯hero¡¯ that kills without mercy.
"It¡¯s been so long now... when will she even look for me?" Keiko muttered with longing. Closing her eyes, she remembered Kuromi¡¯s valiant figure as she fought against a huge crowd of enemies. Despite their clear number advantage, weapons and levels, Kuromi had been able to handle them with ease ande out almost unscathed.
Unfortunately, it had been so long since shest saw her after she left the family.
Shaking her head, she decided to stop procrastinating and go back to work.
Looking at the shing sign at the corner of herputer, she clicked on it and read the message.
*BANG!
Standing up in an instant, Keiko widened her eyes in excitement.
"YES! She¡¯s here! God that took ages!" She cried out in happiness and quickly grabbed her coat.
Pushing the door open with a resounding m, Keiko dashed down to the reception in order to meet Kuromi.
Upon reaching the reception, she walked over to the receptionist as amotion rang out from the faction master suddenly showing herself.
"Where is she? The girl who just gave you the message?" Keiko asked enthusiastically.
"Ah er, erm, she¡¯s gone out. I think she said something about going to a restaurant. I think they also mentioned going to the auction house." The receptionist replied in a mixture of shock and confusion.
"Give me her picture so that I can find her." Keiko ordered.
Doing as the faction master said, the receptionist gave her the image.
Seeing the picture, Keiko¡¯s figure instantly disappeared from the area.
Flickering through the faction hall, she dashed into the city in order to find Shiro.
¡¯Kuromi, wait for me.¡¯
Chapter 386 Keiko
Chapter 386 Keiko
Finishing their meal at a restaurant, Shiro stretched her body slightly in satisfaction.
"The portions are a little small but they tasted quite nice didn¡¯t they?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Mn, indeed. Thoughpared to what you made in the wild, I still like it over this." Lisandra replied. For the food that Shiro made in the wild, it felt more deserved. After a long day of training and tough battles, a good meal made it that much better.
"Oh? In that case then maybe I should cook more. Though I¡¯m not exactly the best cook around." Shiro mused to herself.
If Lisandra liked her cooking, she might learn a few recipes so that she could cook for her.
"Ah you don¡¯t have to trouble yourself. I¡¯m satisfied with what you cook already." Lisandra waved her hand since she didn¡¯t want to force it on Shiro. It would feel selfish otherwise.
"Ai, what are you saying. You are my daughter so obviously I¡¯ll go an extra mile for you. Anyways, let¡¯s go to the auction house now." Shiro grinned and patted Lisandra¡¯s head
Blushing slightly, Lisandra coughed and followed behind Shiro.
Leaving the restaurant, Shiro searched for where the auction house is located.
"Hmm... it¡¯s not too far from the Rising Sun main headquarters. That¡¯s quite handy." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
Making their way to the auction hall, they had no idea that Keiko was rushing across the city through every restaurant to find her. For those that didn¡¯t know the context of what had happened, they thought that someone pissed off the faction master and she is now chasing them down to end them.
¡¯Damn, where is she.¡¯ Keiko thought to herself as she couldn¡¯t find the two that were shown in the picture.
¡¯Hmm... the only ce left is the auction house. They did say that they were going to be visiting the auction house.¡¯ She mused to herself before dashing towards the auction house.
###
Much like the Rising Sun headquarters, the sheer size of the auction house was one to behold.
Inside the main hall, huge holograms and monitors disyed some of the best equipment on sale currently along with the scenes of live auctions.
Looking at the prices attached to some of the items, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a stabbing pain in her heart.
Right now, she had almost 100rge silvers, around 500 normal silvers and more than 6000 bronze Erins. However,pared to the huge numbers each of the participants were shouting out at the live auctions, her capital wasn¡¯t worth sh*t.
¡¯Damn...¡¯
{Why don¡¯t you seek out a few people to ¡¯borrow¡¯ cash from again?} Nimue suggested with augh.
¡¯*cough* We can¡¯t ¡¯borrow¡¯ all the time. Until a fresh pra- I mean, until a ¡¯kind samaritan¡¯ appears, we will not be borrowing money at all.¡¯ Shiro replied with a cough.
{Mn, your loss then I suppose.} Nimue shrugged.
{Oh Nimue, don¡¯t be like that. Shiro is a nice girl so she wouldn¡¯t borrow if she can help it.} Iziuel shook her head.
{Iziuel, you haven¡¯t been with Shiro for as long as I have. Soon, you¡¯ll see how ck bellied she truly is!}
¡¯Oi, I¡¯m still here. And what the hell do you mean by ck bellied? Have you not seen how much of a maiden I am?¡¯
{V.i.r.g.i.n maiden? Yes. Kind maiden? F*ck no.} Nimue rolled her eyes.
*Puchi!
Feeling a stab in her chest from the mention of v.i.r.g.i.n maiden again, Shiro ignored the situation in her mana realm and went to one of the terminals to see what was on sale.
Meanwhile, Lisandra noticed Shiro¡¯s slightly annoyed pouting face and couldn¡¯t help but wonder what just happened.
¡¯Did the spirits annoy mum again?¡¯ She couldn¡¯t help but wonder.
###
Filtering out the items that she couldn¡¯t afford, Shiro browsed through those that were within her price range.
None of the weapons or armours that she could afford were worth it. Though she had expected as much since the big families would have probably bought them all for their children.
Since the equipment was a bust, she decided to look through the materials and medicine.
Immediately after browsing for a little, she found some rebirth pills that capped out at an average of 20 to 30%. However, with Yin¡¯s blood at hand, she was able to enhance them.
¡¯I¡¯m at 38% right now. With the enhanced pilled, I only need to buy a few of them before going past 50%. But if I were to eat high quality pills that were further enhanced by Yin¡¯s blood, I may be able to get more benefits.¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself.
It was a situation where she could either choose a sh*t tonne of lizard meat that was seasoned with the best spices or eat premium dragon meat with the same seasonings. Obviously, dragon meat was the best so she wanted to hold off on the low grade pills.
Removing the price cap, she did a quick search for the higher grade ones but only found 1 that was sold out in the live auctions.
¡¯Damn! *sigh... I guess I should visit here more often since I¡¯ll be spending a bit of time in Tokyo.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
Looking through the material¡¯s section, she looked for items that she needed in order to craft Borealis¡¯ Rebirth Pill.
After collecting two of the items that she neededst time from the dwarf, she only needed the Sub Zero Spirit Essence, Crystallised Divine Nuclei, Millennium Ice Dragon¡¯s Essence, cial Lotus Blood, Tears of Winter and Eternal Ice Heart.
Out of these items, she managed to find cial Lotus Blood priced at a whopping 125 Large Silvers.
"Holy sh*t..." Shiro couldn¡¯t help but mutter. Even if she converted all of her coins torge silvers, she would barely have a bit more than 100rge silvers. To get to 125, she¡¯ll need to earn roughly another 2500 normal silvers.
¡¯Right then, since I can¡¯t afford this, let¡¯s look for a fine patron.¡¯ Shiro nodded her head and prepared to walk out of the auction hall.
{Oi, what happened to the maiden huh? The moment you see that you don¡¯t have enough you¡¯re already thinking of long term ¡¯borrowing¡¯ huh?} Nimue raised an eyebrow.
¡¯*cough* Desperate times desperate measures.¡¯ Shiro replied shamelessly.
{Desperate times my ass.} Nimue rolled her eyes.
Marking down the items that she wants from the auction house, Shiro wondered about how she should make enough money quickly so that she could buy the cial Lotus Blood.
"Hmm... seems like we can only kill some monsters. Though... with our EXP gain, it would be quite bad. That being said, I have also killed a few of the snow women when we went to Mount Fuji." Shiro coughed since she had vented out her annoyance a little too much.
"Maybe look for some challenges and events that can earn us some money." Lisandra suggested since these little events were always happening here and there. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard for them to find one that paid quite well.
But before they could continue their conversation, they heard a loud bang and realised that they had just been dragged outside of the auction house in an instant.
Since Shiro didn¡¯t feel any hostility nor killing intent, she didn¡¯t pull out her weapon but instead looked up at the woman who was grabbing them by the shoulder.
[Keiko LVL??? Grand Assassin Hero]
"That¡¯s a little rude isn¡¯t it? To drag us out while we¡¯re browsing items." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Ah sorry about that, I just want to see Kuromi quicker so I was a little hasty. I heard that she wanted to meet me, no?" Keiko smiled.
"Ah right, about that, give me a second." Shiro nodded and dispelled her disguise.
"I didn¡¯t want to attract too much attention here so I changed my appearance. I don¡¯t remember much but Yuki said that you were my cousin right?"
Looking at the familiar face only with white hair, Keiko widened her eyes and instantly hugged Shiro with all her strength.
"GAH! My bones! My bones!" Shiro cried out after being hit by a sudden burst of force.
"Ah sorry sorry! I got too excited." Keiko quickly apologised.
Looking around, she swiped her hand as the three of them teleported back to her office.
Locking her doors and sealing the sound inside, she dived back onto Shiro.
"Ah, you don¡¯t know how much I¡¯ve missed you Kuromi."
ncing at Lisandra who only shrugged, Shiro didn¡¯t exactly know how to respond to the clearly enthusiastic Keiko.
"Erm, can you exin to me what Yuki said?" Shiro asked.
"Ah sure, let me just get her letter out for you." Keiko nodded obediently and looked for the other letter she was given.
If anyone else were to see their faction master act like an obedient little sister, they would puke out blood in an instant.
¡¯Where¡¯s the real faction master!¡¯
Chapter 387 Spending Time With Keiko
Chapter 387 Spending Time With Keiko
Passing the letter over to Shiro, Keiko sat on the sofa and obediently waited for her response. Seeing Keiko¡¯s ¡¯bounciness¡¯ and excitement, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder if she was an overexcited cat or something.
Shaking her head, she looked at the familiar seal and bit her finger.
Opening the letter, she read its contents.
[Hello~ Seems like you¡¯ve met Keiko. I¡¯ve already told her that there¡¯s a good chance of you losing your memory so it should be ok. She should be able to help you with a lot of the stuff that you need such as change in identity, items and so on.
Since there¡¯s a good chance that you¡¯ve lost your memory, I¡¯ll give you a straight warning right now. Keiko is infatuated and I mean INFATUATED with you. The previous you anyways. So try not to show signs that may be misunderstood for feelings since it would just make things worse. As you have no memories right now, it might be able to act as a deterrent for her but keep your guard up nheless.
Other than that, she¡¯s a nice girl that would help you in anything you need.
Remember, once you reach B ss, you can find me through the portal located at the top of Mount Everest.
~Yuki.]
¡¯Hm... well damn, I had an urge to pamper her a little as well.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{You have enough love interests already, stop getting more.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Enough? How many do you even think I have? I thought Lyrica was the only one though?¡¯ Shiro tilted her head in confusion.
{Do you need me to say it for you? Helion, I¡¯m pretty sure Madison at one point but she seemed to be over it. Nan Tian, Lyrica and Raoul just to name a few.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯Eh? Madison and Helion?¡¯ Shiro raised an eyebrow.
{Yup.} Nimue nodded.
{Hehe~ Shiro is so popr. Maybe someday we¡¯ll see mini Shiro¡¯s? Oh wait, no that¡¯s Yin. Hmm... Baby Shiro¡¯s then.} Iziuel chuckled.
¡¯That¡¯s only if I get a husband or something. Though I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a priority right now.¡¯ Shiro coughed as her cheeks had a slight blush to them.
¡¯Until I get rid of the light bastard, Nan Tian and the whole age of god thing, I shouldn¡¯t get a lover.¡¯
{Mn, true. Ah I¡¯ll wait to see Baby Shiro¡¯s then. Maybe they¡¯ll call me aunty.} Iziuel replied with a smile.
Denying such a possibility, Shiro turned back to Keiko.
"Erm... so, Yuki said that I should rely on you if I need help." She said slowly.
"Ah of course, anything you want I shall provide. Do you want items or materials? Maybe some backup for a fight?" Keiko asked enthusiastically.
"Ah no, erm... well maybe. More importantly, I can¡¯t just ept your help for free. Is there anything I can do in order to pay for your help?" Shiro asked since it would feel weird if she basically got given the items without her doing anything.
"Why can¡¯t you? I mean, you¡¯re my cousin so helping you is only natural." Keiko tilted her head.
"That¡¯s... not the problem. The problem is that since I have no memories, it¡¯s like we¡¯re strangers. You can think of it as I¡¯m trying to recover my memory through meeting a few trusted people." Shiro replied.
"Ah so you think it¡¯s awkward?"
"Pretty much." Shiro nodded.
"Oh that¡¯s fine then. Let¡¯s go have some baths together, maybe go on a few dinners and we won¡¯t be awkward anymore." Keiko smiled.
". . .Ok let me rephrase this. I don¡¯t know you. So maybe it¡¯s best that you think of it as we¡¯re meeting for the first time, which to me is the current situation." Shiro furrowed her brows.
Pausing for a moment, Keiko felt a little hurt at thement ¡¯I don¡¯t know you but calmed herself down.
¡¯Ah... that¡¯s to be expected huh? She did lose her memories...¡¯ She thought sadly.
". . . In that case, I¡¯ll introduce myself. My name is Keiko, and I¡¯m your cousin. I¡¯m the only one left from my branch of the family since both my parents and siblings have died while fighting monsters." Keiko reintroduced herself as her face was serious.
"I know that my name used to be Kuromi but after reset, it¡¯s be Shiro. I have two adopted daughters, and Lisandra here is one of them." Shiro followed up and pointed to Lisandra.
Keiko was about to continue when she stopped once more.
Noticing this, Shiro tilted her head.
"Gah! This is annoying. Kuro- no Shiro, I have an idea. Let¡¯s just spend the day together and it should break the ice." Keiko puffed up her chest.
"First, let¡¯s go back to the auction house since you said that you wanted to buy something."
"Ah wait, didn¡¯t I tell you I need to pa-"
"Don¡¯t worry, I haven¡¯t forgotten. Since that¡¯s the case, you can transfer under me as a guest elder for now. Don¡¯t worry about the opposition since I¡¯m the faction master, what I say goes and if they dare reject it, I¡¯ll kick their ass." Keiko cut her off.
{Wow~ Your cousin is quite outgoing isn¡¯t she? She even cut you off mid sentence.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Indeed.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
"I¡¯ll teleport us back to the auction house now." Keiko said while cing her hand on their shoulder.
Blinking for a moment, Shiro realised that they were back in the auction house.
¡¯Damn, that¡¯s handy as sh*t...¡¯ She couldn¡¯t help but think to herself.
"Let¡¯s see, this was the terminal that you used wasn¡¯t it?" Keiko asked as she pointed to a terminal.
"Ah, er yeah. When you grabbed us, I was on that terminal." Shiro nodded.
"Right, Shiro, watch this." Keiko grinned.
Cracking her fingers, she tapped away on the screen.
Countless tabs opened up as Keiko worked through them efficiently. After a short moment, there were only a few tabs left.
"Hmm... you were looking at Rebirth Pills and the cial Lotus Blood the most. I¡¯m guessing you wanted to buy these two right?" Keiko smiled.
Before she could even respond, Keiko bought them all immediately.
"Ah well, it¡¯s not like I¡¯m short for cash anyways. After all, it would be embarrassing for the faction master of one of the biggest factions in the world to be poor now wouldn¡¯t it?" Keikoughed.
Being swept along by her momentum, both Shiro and Lisandra looked at each other and shook their heads.
"She¡¯s quite hyper isn¡¯t she?" Shiro chuckled.
"In that regard, she¡¯s quite simr to you. You¡¯re the same when you get excited." Lisandra smiled.
"I suppose so."
###
Collecting the rebirth pills and the lotus blood, Keiko threw them over to Shiro.
"Anything else?" She asked with a smile.
*Sigh...
"Keiko, I don¡¯t need the rebirth pills since they¡¯re low quality." Shiro replied while giving her the pills.
"Well I¡¯ll just dump them in the faction treasury." Keiko shrugged.
"S-"
*PING!
Before she could continue, her phone rang with a notification as her smiling face turned into that of a frown.
"Take it. As the faction leader, it¡¯s only natural that you¡¯ll be busy. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be staying here for around two months." Shiro smiled and gestured for her to check her phone.
Nodding her head, Keiko couldn¡¯t help but be reaffirmed that this is a different Kuromi than what she remembered. Right now, it was as if she was a warm elder sister looking after a little sister.
¡¯Her memory will return... right?¡¯ Keiko thought to herself since Kuromi yed an irreceable part in her life. If she couldn¡¯t remember any of that, it would just be cruel.
Looking at the notification, Keiko clicked her tongue.
"Damn..." She muttered.
"Is it serious?" Shiro asked.
"Quite. Several shrines have been converted into a type of multiyered spell that some of our staff couldn¡¯t dispel. Seems like they want me to have a look before doing anything serious." Keiko shook her head.
"Why don¡¯t Ie with you? I might be able to help since I need to pay for this lotus after all." Shiro suggested.
Thinking about it for a moment, Keiko nodded her head.
Since Kuromi couldn¡¯t remember anything yet, it would be good for her to spend some more time together. Even if things stay this way, they can reforge that forgotten connection with time.
"Alright. I¡¯ll teleport us there now since I still have a marker in that ce." Keiko smiled.
Holding onto the two of them, they disappeared from the area.
Chapter 388 Black Monarchy
Chapter 388 ck Monarchy
Arriving on the scene, Shiro immediately activated her disguise so that people couldn¡¯t see her true face. Naturally, the same applied to Lisandra since once people saw her, someone would make a connection between them.
As for Keiko, she walked over to the shrine with a serious expression.
"Give me a run down of the situation." Keiko said while putting on her guild jacket that had the emblem printed on the back.
"Ah faction master!" The faction members cried out in excitement.
"You see, we¡¯ve noticed some strange urrences with these shrines not too long ago and tried to investigate. However, when we arrived, we couldn¡¯t detect anything so we sent a few men to observe the situation but we weren¡¯t able to enter. Just now, we detected some intense mana fluctuations and tried to find out the root cause-"
"Let me guess, you found f*ck all and called me here when I¡¯m busy." Keiko frowned as the member nodded hesitantly and retreated by a few steps.
Before Keiko could do anything serious, Shiro ced her hand on Keiko¡¯s shoulder. After all, with the anger that Shiro detected, it might be a bit messy.
"Don¡¯t worry about it, we can spend more time togetherter. For now, let¡¯s go look at the problem." Shiro smiled.
ncing back at Shiro, Keiko nodded her head reluctantly.
*Sigh...
"Fine. But this better be some city destroying problem or else it aint worth my time." Keiko replied. Unless everyone is in danger, she would rather not attend to it when she could be spending time with Shiro instead.
Walking over to the shrine, Keiko narrowed her eyes and since she could immediately detect the intense amount of mana that was suddenly aimed towards her.
"Hm... seems like it¡¯s sentient." Keiko frowned. Mana can¡¯t just suddenly direct itself towards her unless someone or something is controlling it.
Tapping her fingers on the barrier, she wondered if she could destroy it with brute force.
Pulling her fist back, she punched forwards.
*BANG!!
A shockwave exploded out as her fist was sent recoiling back.
"Reflection huh." Keiko muttered while looking at her fist.
"Are you seriously calling me for a simple reflection barrier? Don¡¯t we have barrier breakers in the faction?" Keiko asked while ncing back at the faction members.
"Ah, we¡¯ve already tried that. But it has no effect on the barrier."
Hearing that they said, Keiko¡¯s frown deepened as she pulled out a pitch ck dagger.
"Let¡¯s give this a go then." She sighed.
Her arm seemed to blur for a moment before a multitude of sh marks could be seen spreading through the surface of the barrier.
Each sh seemed to eat away at the mana as the barrier was soon destroyed.
Widening her eyes, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but gulp since there was no way she could react to that kind of attack right now.
Storing away her dagger, Keiko turned back to the rest of the members.
"Send a message to all avable members of rank 5 and above. Tell them to meet up at this location while I go in first. Make sure to keep the area on lockdown in case any civilianse in by ident. Sh- I mean, Nytri and Lisa, follow me, we¡¯ll go inside for now and see what¡¯s happening."
That way, she could at least keep Shiro near her and spend some time together.
"Sure." Shiro nodded and followed behind Keiko with Lisandra.
As the three of them entered the shrine, the remaining members followed her instructions and locked down the area. They also had the burning question of who the two strangers were but they weren¡¯t in any ce to question the faction master¡¯s orders or the people she brought with her.
For all they know, the two may be someone who¡¯s powerful but kept their status on wraps. Therefore, they made a mental note to give the two some respect when they see the two of them again.
###
Upon entering the shrine, Shiro instantly activated her Analysis skill. Overwhelmed by the sheer amount of runes and magic circles that was suddenly revealed to her, Shiro¡¯s body swayed for a moment.
Seeing this, Keiko quickly flickered to her side and caught her.
"Are you ok? What happened?" She asked in worry.
"Ah don¡¯t worry, just shocked by the sheer amount of crap I just saw." Shiro shook her head and tried to calm the dizziness that she was feeling.
Taking a moment to reorientate herself, Shiro looked towards the magic circles and noticed that they had a section which sent a mental attack at whoever read the runes.
¡¯Damn, annoying.¡¯ Shiro frowned since there was no way she¡¯ll get disorientated with just looking at information.
Analysing the magic circles, Shiro realised that it was simr to the one that had appeared in New York.
"Say, Keiko." Shiro called out.
"Mn? Yeah?"
"Have you heard of the New York disaster where a giant portal was opened up?" Shiro asked.
"Ah the one caused by the ck monarchy f*cks? They¡¯ve been a pain in the ass in a lot of ces, is this one of their tricks?" Keiko asked curiously.
"Yeah, though you need to make sure that none of your high ranking members try to dispel or break the magic circles. Once you do, you¡¯ll empower the spell whenever you try to fight the monsters it spawns." Shiro warned.
"Eh? It can do that? That¡¯s the first I¡¯ve heard of it." Keiko frowned.
"That¡¯s because only me and a few other people know about it since we were the ones that tried to solve it in New York." Shiro replied.
"Though... I wonder why they haven¡¯t put anyone to protect this ¡¯totem¡¯." She muttered.
"In that case then we should retreat for now and have some of our experts examine this. No point risking it only for it to activate too soon. Even though I¡¯m a ¡¯hero¡¯, there¡¯s only so much I can do alone." Keiko suggested. Since her ss was that of the assassin hero, she excels in one on onebat but groupbat wasn¡¯t exactly something she was good at.
"Mn, agreed. Because we were too hasty in resolving the issue in New York, one of the strongest people around couldn¡¯t do anything because he broke one of the totems." Shiro agreed.
If not for their hastiness, Nan Tian could have helped out in New York and reduced the amount of damage they suffered.
However, what¡¯s done is done and the best thing they can hope for is to reduce the amount of damage they suffer in the future.
Making a mental note on all the magic circles and runes she could see, the three of them left the shrine.
"Change of ns, send a message out. Put all affected shrines on lock down and no one is allowed to enter them. All rank 5 and above members meet me on the 5th floor. We¡¯re going to have an emergency meeting." Keiko shouted out as the members obeyed.
Holding Shiro¡¯s and Lisandra¡¯s shoulders, they teleported back to the headquarters.
"Since you have some expertise in this area I suppose, would it be ok if you joined us in the meeting? OF course, if anyone ridicules you, I¡¯ll make sure they don¡¯t sleep well tonight." Keiko promised as the three of them made their way up to the 5th floor.
"Ah don¡¯t worry about it." Shiro chuckled.
Looking at the serious Keiko who still wanted to spend time with her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but like this a lot better than the previous one.
¡¯She¡¯s just like a cute little sister that wants to spend time together despite the fact that she had some homework. Kind of like wanting to do the homework in the older sister¡¯s presence so it wouldn¡¯t be as lonely.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
{Make sure you don¡¯t pamper her too much now or else she might be fighting with Lyrica when they meet.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine. Plus, with what¡¯s toe, I don¡¯t think going into a rtionship is the best option right now.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
Arriving at the meeting hall, Keiko saw that there were already a few members gathered.
"Greetings faction master." They bowed.
"Mn, we¡¯ll wait for the others toe before starting the meeting. For now, let me introduce you to these two. They¡¯re my fa- friends so you need to treat them with the same respect as you do with me. I¡¯m bringing them into the meeting since they experienced something simr and might be able to provide us with some useful information in regards to the situation." Keiko said as the high ranking members nodded their heads.
Waiting for a while longer, the meeting soon began as the members all gathered in the room.
Chapter 389 Reports
Chapter 389 Reports
"Now then, let¡¯s start. Tell me what each of you know right now." Keiko said seriously while sitting in her chair. Both Shiro and Lisandra stood beside her and looked at the members gathered in the room.
From what Shiro could tell, they were a little cautious about her but since Keiko was the one that brought her, they weren¡¯t too bothered.
"Me and my teams investigated most of the shrines that are located towards the northern area. Most of them are anchor points for a much bigger summoning circle. Worst part is that they¡¯re also constructed of tiny summoning circles so when it¡¯s activated, an entire army could be brought into Tokyo at a moment¡¯s notice. As for what kind of monster is being spawned, we have no idea." One of the staff reported.
"Is that the same for everyone else?" Keiko asked.
There were a few staff members that nodded heads in agreement but three people raised their hands.
"Speak."
"The spells that we discovered were a little different. We detected traces of what seems to be rare material that are found in special dungeons. These materials are very hard to extract as they evaporate upon leaving the dungeon barrier. However, they¡¯re being used as part of the magic circle. As to what kind of effect they have, we don¡¯t know yet since we haven¡¯t done any experiment simr to this."
"Hmm... Nytri here has informed me that with the formations created by the ck Monarchy, should you be the one that breaks them, you cannot help out in the fight as anything you do will empower the enemies instead of pushing them back. So for the sake of having reinforcements avable, we¡¯ll need to get some of the lower level members and have them break the spell. Either that or we can have just one person doing the job that way we have more manpower on hand." Keiko furrowed her brows.
"Depending on what happens, there¡¯s a chance for the spell to be activated anyways, so we should try to get rid of as many of them as we can." One of the staff suggested.
While the staff were discussing amongst themselves, Keiko stayed silent and had a serious expression.
"You thinking of something?" Shiro whispered next to her ear.
"Mn. The main thing with ck Monarchy is that they never use the same thing twice. That¡¯s why they¡¯re so troublesome. We don¡¯t know how but each time we¡¯ve encountered them, they¡¯ve always used different tactics/spells. I want to think that they might run out of ideas but reality proves otherwise so I¡¯m just wondering about what kind of spell they made this time." Keiko replied with a shake of her head.
"In that case then why don¡¯t we examine it? Maybe make a makeshiftb near the shrines and conduct research. Have some talented mages decipher all of the magic circles drawn onto the shrine." Shiro suggested.
"It¡¯s not that I haven¡¯t thought of it. But the more hints we show of us deciphering the magic circles, the higher chance of ck Monarchy pulling the rug from under us. So far, we¡¯re only doing the lockdown procedure as usual so there¡¯s not much to be worried about since it¡¯s normal. What I am worried about is how many members of ck Monarchy are near us and who they are. If there are spies and the such, without knowing this, any movement we do is too risky." Keiko shook her head.
"In that case then why don¡¯t you let me handle it. I¡¯m pretty proficient in moving around undetected." Shiro chuckled.
"Really? I mean... you¡¯re a mage aren¡¯t you?" Keiko tilted her head.
"Indeed. But I¡¯m a special kind of mage right now. My speciality is mixed martial arts. I can fight physically and magically. Assassination is also one of my talents right now."
"You know, it¡¯s not that I doubt you but that¡¯s very hard if not impossible to aplish. Fighters can¡¯t cast high level spells and mages can¡¯t move like fighters. Should either try to aplish both, they¡¯ll just be half assed and be a waste. There have been people older in age that seeded despite the odds so it¡¯s not entirely impossible." Keiko shook her head.
"Hmm... Well perhaps a demonstration would be good?" Shiro smiled.
"Oh? What kind?" Keiko raised her eyebrow in curiosity. She wanted to know what her current cousin could do.
"Give me something to take from the bodies of everyone in this room. I¡¯ll do it without being discovered." Shiro suggested.
"Sure. In that case then take their ID badge pinned on their shirts." Keiko smiled jokingly.
"In that case then give me a moment." Shiro grinned.
Flexing her finger, nanobots started to materialise and formed itself into a bracelet on her wrist. Suppressing any further mana fluctuations through absorbing them, Shiro activated her Fae illusion skill without anyone realising except for Keiko.
Since Keiko was in close proximity, she could naturally detect the fluctuation but was confused as to why it was gone so suddenly.
¡¯Strange... could it be Shiro¡¯s skill?¡¯ She wondered to herself.
With her illusion double standing next to Keiko, Shiro¡¯s real body walked through the room while activating all of her stealth skills along with a second bracelet that had all of the currentpatible stealth skills on the skill chip.
Stacking all of her stealth skills together, it would be hard to detect her even without the illusion.
However, there was one problem and that is should shee into contact with the target¡¯s, they¡¯ll notice her touch and immediately detect her.
But there was a way for her to bypass this. Her nanobots after upgrading were able to form without being in direct contact with her.
All she had to do was attach some nanobots to the ID badges and have it duplicate the badge. At the same time, the real one will be removed and ced in her hands.
Such action needed precise coordinates hence why she walked around the room to observe where all the badges are.
Meanwhile, Keiko was a little confused as to why Shiro continued to smile and said nothing else.
"Please wait for a moment. Mum¡¯s in the middle of her work." Lisandra reminded with a smile.
Nodding her head, Keiko waited patiently while the rest of the people in the meeting room discussed potential strategies.
After a short few minutes, Shiro¡¯s double moved and leaned down to Keiko¡¯s ear.
"I¡¯m done. Look at my hand." She whispered.
ncing down, Keiko was shocked to see that Shiro had all of the ID badges in her hands.
Looking back up, she realised that no one had noticed.
"Damn, I¡¯m starting to think that you might make a better assassin hero than me." Keiko replied with a chuckle.
"Not quite. My kill potential isn¡¯t as lethal as yours." Shiro replied.
"In that case then would it be ok for me to trouble you with this task cousin?" Keiko asked as she felt a little embarrassed to have a level 100 do this task despite the number of high-level people in the room.
"Of course, think of it as payment for the lotus." Shiro nodded.
As the meeting continued, they eventually settled with keeping things on lockdown for now while they observed the magic circles briefly. This would make it so that they get a general understanding without diving too deep or else things may be sped up. During this, Shiro returned the badges without anyone noticing.
Returning to her office, Keiko immediately prepared a few items for Shiro so that she¡¯s safer during her quest.
"Here¡¯s a transmitter for you to contact me with a press of a button. Two potions of invisibility, a cloak of enhanced stealth and some doppelganger talismans. Make sure you stay safe out there." Keiko said while handing her all the items.
"Of course. For now, Lisandra will stay here with you. She can help out with anything you need but she¡¯ll generally be interested in things to do with fighting since she¡¯s that much of a tomboy." Shiro joked.
However, seeing Keiko¡¯s worried face, Shiro dropped the jokes and became serious.
"Don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t n on dying." She smiled.
"Mn..." Nodding her head, Keiko hugged Shiro tightly.
"Just... don¡¯t return with amnesia again. You don¡¯t know how worried I got when I realised that you were missing for a while. If you were to die, there¡¯ll be no one else left that I¡¯m close to." Keiko said as her voice seemed to be strained.
"Don¡¯t you have Keomi and the other¡¯s?" Shiro asked with a soft smile.
"They can¡¯tpare to you. When mum and dad died and left only me, you were the only one to always stay with me even when you¡¯re busy. I don¡¯t want to lose you. Despite me being a so-called hero, I wish I was a healer or pdin instead. That way I can at least have the power to protect you instead of just being good at killing and running away." Keiko replied.
Seeing this, Shiro didn¡¯t know what to say and could only pat her head slowly.
Despite having a ss that millions would kill to obtain, the girl in front of her had actually wanted to be a healer or pdin so that she could keep her close ones safe.
¡¯I¡¯m sorry...¡¯ Shiro thought sadly since Kuromi was no longer here in person. All that remained was the fragment of a ghost and that¡¯s the sad truth. Life is unfair.
Chapter 390 Issuing An A rank Emergency
Chapter 390 Issuing An A rank Emergency
After calming down, Keiko bid Shiro farewell for now.
Watching Shiro disappear from the room, Keiko instantly realised that she had used a dimension type skill.
"Damn, with her skill set, are you sure she¡¯s a mage?" Keiko asked with a raised eyebrow since she hadn¡¯t seen Shiro use a magic spell yet.
"Yes she is. Though I think she leans more towards the physical side of things." Lisandra replied with a shrug.
"In that case then since you¡¯re a physical ss, do you lean more towards the magical side of things then?"
"*cough* Not exactly. Mum¡¯s just a little... unconventional. I¡¯m just a fighter based person with a few skills to buff myself and the people around me." Lisandra replied with a slight smile.
"Ah I see... also, your mum said that you¡¯re interested in things to do with fighting. I can show you to our training room and you can have some spars with our members. But first, we need to figure out what you call me. Since you¡¯re my cousin¡¯s daughter, do you call me aunty or something else... Hm..." Keiko wondered.
"Well whatever. Just call me aunty anyways." Keiko smiled.
"Mn, alright aunty." Lisandra nodded her head.
"Anyways,e with me, I¡¯ll show you the way to the training rooms." Keiko stood up and led Lisandra out of the room.
While this was happening, Shiro was dashing through the city while flickering in and out of her rift.
Her task was to decipher the magic circles and report what she could see from them.
There was the option of capturing everything she could see but they don¡¯t know if any spies had made it into the meeting since at this point, everyone is a potential spy.
Vaulting over the gates with ease, Shironded softly inside the shrine. Activating her Analysis skill, she started to examine what kind of spells were being prepared.
Scanning through each of the magic circles, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrows.
¡¯Should the spell be broken or activated, it¡¯ll drain power from everyone within a 200 meter radius in order to A, repair the spell or B, further empower the spell. For those that are closer than 100 meters, they¡¯ll also be marked down as the ones who broke the spell so anything they do would in fact help the enemy.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a frown.
¡¯Damn... if we were to call for an evacuation, the enemy will immediately realise that the spell¡¯s been deciphered.¡¯
{Hmm... are you able to set out a drone or something at each of the shrines before calling for an evacuation? That way, you can at least try to minimise the affected targets. Even if they activate it sooner, you can still just have the drones break the spells.} Nimue suggested.
¡¯It¡¯s not that simple unfortunately. With how many spells circles are in just one shrine, it¡¯s not something a drone can cancel out. Only if I¡¯m on the scene will it be possible. However, even if I was to use everything I can to get around, I¡¯ll only cancel around 2 to 3 shrines at best. That¡¯s not even including the fact that the spell will drain the people around it in order to repair itself.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{What should we do then?}
¡¯Nothing. As annoying as it is, we can¡¯t do anything just yet. I¡¯ll go to the other shrines and see if I can find any differences.¡¯ Shiro replied.
Stretching her body for a moment, Shiro left the area and made her way to the next shrine.
For the next two days, things were quite tense as more people became curious about the lockdown. Keiko had asked the staff to stay on hold for now until she figures out the best n of action.
During this time, Shiro had reported all of her findings to Keiko which only brought her a second wave of headaches since this was serious. Even if she wants to trust her subordinates, a part of her knows that they may be spies and they should be careful.
Currently, Shiro was sitting in Keiko¡¯s room with her legs crossed and sipping on a cup of juice.
"So all of them pretty much have the same effect then." Keiko asked.
"Yeah. I do have some magic cancelling things on me but there are too many spell circles for them to be effective enough." Shiro shook her head.
"Hmm... Perhaps we should just tell everyone and have them think of something. IF the worstes to be, we can just gather the strongest people in the faction and fight the thing that is summoned." Keiko furrowed her brows.
While the real strongest members are out on the front lines, the guild is still filled with B ss adventurers and some even A ss. The only reason as to why she was here instead of the front lines was because she was waiting for Shiro as well as the fact that she had some doc.u.ments to handle to begin with. This was just one of her breaks that she¡¯s taking from the front lines.
"I¡¯d say give it another day. See if they make any moves before telling everyone. In the meantime, we might have to get some trusted people to prepare for evacuation." Shiro replied seriously.
"Mn. By the way, have you been able to determine what it¡¯s trying to summon? Average level and the like?" Keiko asked as one can usually guess that kind of thing by examining the magic circle.
"Unfortunately, I don¡¯t have that much proficiency in magic circles so I can¡¯t say for sure. I only know that the lowest level monster that is being summoned is going to be level 100."
"Level 100... No, this can¡¯t wait. The more we wait, the higher chances of casualties. Shiro,e with me, we¡¯re going to help with the evacuation effort before destroying the shrines. Grab some high quality mana potions with you. I¡¯ll get everyone that can teleport or transport arge number of people to help me evacuate people lower than level 100." Keiko ordered decisively.
"Sure." Shiro nodded her head.
With decisive actions, they can deal with the situation much quicker and contain the destruction.
"In that case then do you want me to destroy the shrines instead? My skill only allows me to ess a second dimension and speeds my movement up. It doesn¡¯t actually teleport." Shiro reminded.
"In that case then are you able to handle the destruction of more than 1,000 shrines?" Keiko asked as she was in full faction master mode.
Right now, she wanted truthful reports so that she can n around them. She doesn¡¯t want a ¡¯I think I can do it¡¯. No, she wants a ¡¯I can do it guaranteed¡¯ or ¡¯I can take out this many shrines.¡¯ That way, she could assign more people to help her.
"I can take care of all of them. Though the destruction that follows is a little troublesome since I¡¯ll have to go full power in order to erase all of the magic circles."
"It¡¯s alright, I¡¯ll take care of all of that. There are bound to be people who are angry at the fact that we¡¯ve destroyed their temple of worship but all we need to do is redirect that anger to the ck Monarchy since they¡¯re the reason as to why we have to do this." Keiko replied.
"Sure. Let¡¯s go then cousin." Shiro smiled and followed behind Keiko.
In the main hall, rms were ring as an A ranked emergency was being issued out. Shocked at the severity of the situation, the entire guild became tense as Keiko gathered everyone who could teleport/ transport people quickly and have them prepare for evacuation.
Informing everyone else of her findings and reasons as to why they¡¯re making a sudden move, Keiko¡¯s trusted subordinates all went to work immediately since they had a feeling that this was going to be the oue.
They already have quite a few trusted members situated near the shrines so they can follow procedures and have everyone go at least 230 meters away from the shrine in order to avoid its effects.
Meanwhile, Shiro had situated herself at the top of the headquarters as this is the highest point in the city.
Her white hair fluttered in the wind since she had already removed her disguise. She needed as much mana as she can get as of this moment.
Looking up at the sky, Shiro saw that night wasing and it was a perfect opportunity. With the Star gazer¡¯s bow, she was going to create the biggest and most powerful Area of Effect skill she could handle in order to destroy every single shrine in Tokyo, regardless of destruction caused.
After all, with Keiko¡¯s permission, there¡¯s nothing holding her back anymore...
Chapter 391 Mass Destruction
Chapter 391 Mass Destruction
Summoning her bow, Shiro could feel a strange connection between her and the sky. Looking down at the bow, it seemed toe ¡¯alive¡¯ in her hands as the materials shimmered with a soft glow.
mming her spare hand down onto the ground, nanobots surged over the roof of the building before solidifying into 6 pirs that surrounded her with equal distances between each of them.
"Mana Amplifier¡¯s ready. Mana Coils ready. Enhanced Magic Circle Projection Devices Ready." Shiro muttered while nanobots continued to create pirs and constructs around her.
Normally, this would be seen by everyone but due to the fact that she was on the roof of the tallest tower in Tokyo, no one noticed.
She had even allocated a few suppressants around the area so that the mana fluctuations would not escape the area and be detected by the people below.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro nced down at the city.
"Keiko, I¡¯m ready whenever you are." She said over the transmitter.
-Got it. We¡¯re still trying to evacuate people right now. Give us another 2 to 4 minutes and we should have the other shrines evacuated. How strong will your attack be in terms of damage radius?- Keiko asked.
"Don¡¯t know. Ever calcted how much damage radius a falling star can produce?"
-No, why?-
"Well you¡¯re about to find out the answer to that question tonight. I¡¯ll give you a maximum of 5 minutes before I fire this thing. Any longer and I won¡¯t be able to suppress it." Shiro replied.
With her amplifiers running at full power, she could already feel the ambient mana surging towards her location. With each passing second, it was as if a huge balloon was being filled up to the brim.
Flexing her fingers, several copies of ataraxia appeared in the air and plugged into the amplifiers. Acting as external containers for this mana, the swords helped Shiro suppress the gathering mana for now.
Around the 1 minute mark, so much mana had gathered to the point where it had coagted into a mist of sorts that flowed over the edge of the tower. Without her nanotech constructs supporting the mana, it eventually reversed into its normal state.
This had naturally caused some confusion as the top of the faction tower started to produce mist with shes of light every so often.
Around the two minute mark, Shiro could no longer wait and started the construction of her spell. Should she dy it anymore, her current set up would be a huge bomb that would no doubt erase the top of the tower.
As she sent a pulse of mana through her hand and into the floor beneath her, a giant magic circle erupted out and started to absorb all of the mana rampantly.
Despite it just being the first circle, the mana surrounding them had already decreased by a huge 30%.
After a short moment, the first magic circle finally stabilised and avoided self-destruction.
Gritting her teeth, she sent a second pulse of mana through her arm followed by the third and the fourth. Each pulse she sent out would transform into anotheryer. Once four had gathered it would float into the sky and be part of a bigger array before repeating the process..
Just as the 4 minute mark arrived, a giant array filled with an uncountable amount of magic circles could be seen as just the presence of it caused the surroundings to feel heavy from the pressure.
Even though it was located at the top of the tower, the civilians below felt like they were suffocating. Some had even fainted only to recover after a short while.
There were of course a few members of the ck Monarchy who wanted to stop this but Keiko¡¯s trusted guards were protecting the tower, stopping anyone from reaching Shiro.
Keiko, who was helping out with evacuation, could not believe what she was seeing.
The magic array rivalled the power that she would usually see from the best mages around. Each circle within this array seemed to function differently but somehow, she had found the right bnce for everything to stay together and enhance the overall power.
The amount of mana the array absorbed had risen to the point where mana actively condensed into orbs of light that flew towards the top of the tower in order to hasten the process.
-How goes the evacuation? You might want to hurry up since the shrines are trying to activate. If not for my spell taking all the mana, they would have summoned what they wanted.- Shiro¡¯s strained voice could be heard over the transmitter.
"Almost done. Just give us a moment." Was all Keiko could say since there were a few uncooperative people but they dealt with that through knocking them out. They can exin how their life is more important after they solved this emergency.
Once she received a green light from her subordinates, Keiko immediately turned on the transmitter.
"We¡¯re done here! You can fire your spell!"
-Good!- Shiro grinned.
Removing her hand from the floor, Shiro looked up at the glowing array that was several hundred times bigger than her.
Remembering her feeling of obliterating cities with a single attack, Shiro closed her eyes and focused her mind on controlling the mana.
So far, she had avoided frying her mana links through the use of different catalysts and disposable substitutes. She had to spend mana creating these while the mana coils helped her regenerate the mana spent. This constant loop of using and regenerating allowed her to create this beast of an array.
Pulling back on the strings, she activated the spell that she had spent 5 minutes to construct.
Shooting up into the sky, the spell started to expand uncontrobly as it soon covered arge portion of the city of Tokyo. For the na?ve ones, it was just a light show. For the ones closer to the origin, it was a horrifying sight due to the sheer amount of mana that was being emitted by the array.
The more Shiro drew back on the strings, the brighter the array shone.
A secondary array could be seen surrounding the light arrow that had formed as cuts could be seen along her arm.
If not for her insane regeneration that was being enhanced by a few essories that she had created, her arm would be shredded to pieces due to the mana she was controlling.
But the pain didn¡¯t bother her at all since she was just grateful that she could reduce the amount of stress on her mana links.
Scanning through her memories for any more ways to further increase the damage of her spells, she came across a file stored in her database of a time where the mage in the Hero party had educated her a little about magic.
Normally, spells were spoken in the caster¡¯s native tongue in order to boostpatibility.
But there were asions where people can use monster tongue to further amplify the effects of the spell. Each monster tongue could be tranted differently but the mostpatiblenguage found by the researchers belonged to the spirit race.
By using thisnguage, they¡¯re able to amplify the effects of the spell but the main problem came with whether or not the use of this during a spell would backfire despite its patibility¡¯.
Scanning through the pages of trantions for the spiritnguage, Shiro soon pieced together the words that she needed.
As she was currently the sylph queen, using suchnguage shouldn¡¯t be a problem for her.
Opening her mouth, she started to chant a string of words that shocked Nimue to her core.
¡¯How does she know the ancient spiritnguage!?¡¯ Nimue widened her eyes in disbelief.
{With the fiery chaos of a supernova and the dead silence of the void, rain down the Neb¡¯s might upon my foes.} Iziuel muttered the trantion of Shiro¡¯s chant.
Upon finishing her chant, the secondary array around the arrow started to rotate as the magic circles seemed to receive a burst of energy.
Shimmering with starlight, the array condensed itself into a void ck arrow that seemed to hold the gxy within its body.
Letting go of the string, the arrow shot up into the sky faster than what her eye could track.
The primary magic array that expanded over almost the entirety of Tokyo broke apart into star light and flew towards the arrow.
A moment of silence reigned the area before several flickers of light could be seen in the sky.
The light seemed to trace the image of several constetions before a ring of multi coloured fire spread out from each of the lights.
Should one pause time in the next moment, they would have seen hundreds upon thousands of ¡¯arrows¡¯ descending onto the different shrines located around Tokyo.
A thunderous explosion could be seen but no sound followed. Copsing within itself, a void seemed to have been created at the centre of each shrine and started to consume everything around it.
For Keiko, who was standing not too far from one of the shrines, a blink was all it took for her to be blown back by a great force and for the shrine to vaporize right in front of her eyes.
Reorientation herself, she looked at the destruction caused and couldn¡¯t help but feel as though a hammer had just struck her in the head.
¡¯Is this what a level 100 should be capable of?¡¯
Chapter 392 Aftermath of Destruction
Chapter 392 Aftermath of Destruction
While the people of Tokyo were being shocked at the destruction caused, Shiro¡¯s body was currently shivering on the roof of the tower. Having discharged such a huge body of mana in an instant, there was no way that she was going toe out of the situation unscathed.
All of her nanotech had beenpletely fried and reduced to dust.
Activating her skill rejuvenation, her body was repaired back to its peak while she sat down and took a moment to calm down.
"Damn... despite my preparations, I still needed to use rejuvenation huh?" Shiro muttered while looking down on her hands.
Attempting to clutch her hand, it seemed like there was still some dy due to the damage that she had suffered but it should be repaired soon.
Standing up, she looked over the edge of the tower and saw the huge craters that were scattered throughout Tokyo. Each one was present at where one of the shrines would be and she could no longer feel mana being drawn towards their locations which meant that they had managed to resolve the situation well enough.
{Shiro.} Nimue called out seriously.
¡¯What is it?¡¯
{We need to talk; how do you know about ancient spiritnguage? Only some of the oldest members of the spirit race know about this.} Nimue asked.
¡¯You see, back in my first life, our researchers had tranted arge portion of the spirit¡¯snguage. As for this being the ¡¯ancient¡¯ type, I¡¯m not too sure. All I did was piece together some trantions and use it to empower my spell.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Hmm... where did you even live in your first life? I don¡¯t understand how the ancient spiritnguage could be so easily learnt.} Nimue scratched her head in confusion.
¡¯Well there are still mysteries in regards to the worlds so we can¡¯t say much about the colorations. But for now, let¡¯s just wait and see no?¡¯ Shiro replied with a smile.
{Mn, true.} Nimue nodded.
Focusing her mind back to reality, Shiro looked at her system notifications since she had received quite a few the moment she used the skill.
[Skill: Ancient Spirit Casting discovered.]
[Due to your achievements, the titan goddess of stars ¨C Asteria, has noticed your presence.]
[Received passive skill: Asteria¡¯s Blessing]
[Asteria¡¯s Blessing ¨C By using her true name in a cast, you can heavily empower any star type spell you cast.]
[Due to Asteria¡¯s Blessing, Star Gazer¡¯s Bow has received an upgrade.]
[Star Gazer¡¯s Bow (Orange) ¨C> Asteria¡¯s Embrace (Orange+)]
[User has created a new mass destruction spell, as you have not named the skill, the system shall grant one for you.]
[Skill ¨C Wrath of Stars ¨C created.]
Raising her eyebrows at the notifications, Shiro wondered what kind of change the bow had received after getting an upgrade by the Titan Goddess of Stars.
[Asteria¡¯s Embrace (Orange+)]
Matches Owner Level ¨C Current Level: 100
+20,000 Attack
+20,000 Armour Pierce
+15,000 Magic Attack
+15,000 Attack Speed
+10,000 Ignore Defence
+40% Critical Chance
+40% Critical Damage
+80% Damage when using a star type element
+60% Suppression against dark type enemies and elements
Skills: Star Gazer, Asteria¡¯s Might, Goddess¡¯s Blessing, Bow of Stars.
Star Gazer: The power of this bow is increased proportionate to the amount of stars the user can see. In day time, you lose ess to multi target attacks but it is instead reced by a single powerful shot that takes a while to fire again.
Asteria¡¯s Might: Upon using this bow in a spell cast that involves the use of the goddess¡¯s true name, the attack will be duplicated and a second volley would be sent out.
Goddess¡¯s Blessing: Each attack will be enhanced with the divine attribute and deal massive damage to anything with a dark element.
Bow of Stars: Should the bow receive damage, it can slowly repair itself under the starlight.
Soul Bound: Shiro
Looking at the stats of the bow, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but want to recycle it just to see if she could take those skills as they are quite amazing. Especially the Star Gazer passive that had received an upgrade since she now has ess to a single powerful shot in the day. Previously, the bow¡¯s stats would be weaker in the day but that is no longer a problem.
Not only that, Asteria¡¯s might was quite an impressive skill as well. With this, she could duplicate any attack as long as she uses Asteria¡¯s name in a chant.
Storing the bow away, Shiro turned on her transmitter.
"Keiko, is anyone hurt in the attack?" Shiro asked.
-Yeah, but Shiro, when you said the destruction thates after your skill is a little troublesome, I expected something mild and maybe ending with just the destruction of the shrines. You never told me that you¡¯ll construct a city wide magic array topletely ERASE the area round the shrines. Sure we can repair the ground but what about the houses?- Keiko massaged her eyes.
". . .Oops~?"
-OOPS MY ASS! I swear, despite your amnesia, some parts of you haven¡¯t changed at all.- Keiko chuckled.
"Well it should be ok now since I¡¯ve managed to stop the summoning. I won¡¯t be able to help if they manage to resummon though." Shiro shrugged.
-That¡¯s fine. I doubt they¡¯ll be dumb enough to try this sh*t again since I¡¯m still here. If I had helped out in breaking one of the magic circles, they might try again since that means I can¡¯t assist. But with me taking charge, whatever they summon is useless so their best option is to just give up for now. But do you know the amount of sh*t I need to do after tonight?-
"How much?"
-I need to first give an exnation, organise a conference, exin why I broke one of the rules set out by the agreement of every big guild in regards to using a huge spell like that in the city and hide your existence. Yuki did say that there is someone targeting you so I should cover your existence as much as possible.-
"I see... sorry for the trouble I suppose." Shiro chuckled.
-Oh please, we both know you felt satisfied with that.- Keiko replied.
-But I¡¯m d that despite this memory loss, there are still parts of you that won¡¯t change regardless.-
Hearing the connection end, Shiro¡¯s smile faded away.
Staying silent, she couldn¡¯t help but feel an awful feeling rising up in her heart.
"Kuromi ah Kuromi, do you know how sh*tty it is to take your ce and lie to everyone who knew and loved you?" Shiro muttered since she knew that Kuromi¡¯s spirit was listening.
Shaking her head, she stood up from her spot and activated her disguise.
After all, it would be quite awkward if someone saw her face now.
###
Looking at the destruction caused upon the shrines, the current group leader of the ck Monarchy frowned in annoyance.
"Why was there someone who knew of the spell in Tokyo? The only one that should have known is b*stard Nan Tian from that sect and some of his followers. I doubt the information was spread anywhere else." He questioned the ones closest to him.
"We... don¡¯t know. From our spies in the faction, it seemed like the faction master had been reunited with someone she knew and had spent the day with them. Maybe they¡¯re the cause?"
"Hmm... perhaps. There is also the chance that they¡¯re part of this sect. We¡¯ll retreat for now and report back to the leader. With the hero still around, anything we summon would be killed before it even gets a chance to run amok. We¡¯ll have to choose a different city to summon her highness¡¯s avatar." The man shook his head and left the area with his followers.
###
The next day, the entire city of Tokyo was filled with cries of anger as their homes had been destroyed in the attack. Despite Keiko¡¯s exnation and the promise of repair, there were still cries of outrage.
Some had even wanted to capitalise on the situation and get more than what they had deserved. Naturally, this had annoyed the hell out of a few of the faction members since the f*ckers are trying to reap rewards despite not doing anything. They were the ones busting their asses off trying to rescue everyone within that short period of 5 minutes. Had they been slow in their evacuation, there would have been human casualties in the ident.
Keiko had the urge tosh out at the people since Shiro was the one who saved them but Shiro only held her back and shook her head.
While the public rtions weren¡¯t going too well, there had been another hot topic on the.
Who was the one that fired the skill? Who was able to create such a delicate array? Despite some researchers checking out the recorded footage and the details of the array, they weren¡¯t able to figure out why it had so much damage upon activation.
It should have destroyed the shrines with some debris left over but instead, it had consumed an entire chunk ofnd which was simply absurd.
But the woman in question didn¡¯t really care about their analysis of her spell since she knew the secrety in the secondary array on the arrow along with the spiritnguage. Unless they were next to her, they wouldn¡¯t have found out.
Chapter 393 Muscleheads Lisandra and Keomi
Chapter 393 Muscleheads Lisandra and Keomi
For the next few days, Shiro spent her days in rtive peace as Keiko was dealing with everything.
Currently, they sat in her room with Shiro once again drinking juice while Keiko mmed her head against the table.
"Careful, if you knock yourself out, the paperwork might stack up higher." Shiro smiled.
"And who¡¯s fault is it that I have to do this paperwork? Damage reports, finance checks and the such all because of one spell. You know, if anything, you should be helping me out right now." Keikoined.
"Well, if you do it you can guarantee it¡¯s correct no? There would be more trouble if I helped out and made a mistake." Shiro chuckled.
"Whatever." Keiko rolled her eyes.
"So what are your ns for now? I have a world leader¡¯s meeting soon and I don¡¯t think I should take you. Mainly because they are bound to have disguise removal skills so your identity will be revealed. That¡¯s thest thing that me and Yuki want." Keiko asked.
"Hmm... not sure. I have around another month and a half before the faction event in Vericia start so I think I¡¯ll probably use this time to train with Lisandra. In terms of technique, experience and overall control of her body, she is stillcking so this two months should do plenty. Plus, I need to stop levelling up if I can since I¡¯ve already reached level 100. Any more would be bad." Shiro shrugged.
"Well Lisandra is already using the training rooms we have here and she asionally spars with some of our members. Maybe you should do the same?" Keiko suggested.
"So maybe like a trainer up until I need to go back to Vericia then?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Yup. You can also think of it as payment for having to deal with this aftermath." Keiko shrugged.
"True. In that case then can you try to find me these ingredients along with some higher quality pills?" Shiro nodded before passing her a list that contained the ingredients required for the Borealis¡¯ Rebirth. Not only that, she then decided to add some of her ss up items too.
It would be quite helpful if Keiko could find them out on the front lines.
"Hmm... the celestial stuff might be a bit hard since everyone¡¯s out to get them. As for the other¡¯s, I¡¯ll try to get them if I can." Keiko nodded.
As they continued to talk for a little, Shiro suddenly sat up straight and looked towards the door. Narrowing her eyes, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a slight foreboding feeling.
*BANG!
"BIG SIS!!!" Keomi charged through the door with a huge grin on her face.
Immediately flipping her body over the sofa, Shiro dodged the Keomi rocket and managed to avoid the most powerful hug of the century.
Unfortunately, Keiko¡¯s paperwork wasn¡¯t as lucky since it was scattered throughout the room.
*PUCHI!
Looking down at her broken table with scattered paperwork, Keiko¡¯s face became dark and looked towards Keomi.
Feeling the sudden re of Keiko, Keomi sat down immediately with a pale face.
"I¡¯m sorry~?" Keomi apologised as sweat poured out of her skin.
"Keiko, before you kill her, make sure she doesn¡¯t scream or else it would attract too much attention." Shiro reminded as she drank her juice while floating in the air.
"BIG SIS!!! How could you do this to me!" Keomi widened her eyes.
"Haha, I¡¯m only joking. But seriously though, let¡¯s help tidy up a little shall we?" Shiro smiled softly.
"Just so you know, I¡¯m not helping." Keiko massaged her eyes and sat back down.
"Sure. Though, now that I think about it, why is there so much paperwork? Can¡¯t you do things digitally?" Shiro asked curiously.
"That¡¯s because of hackers. These are made with a special kind of paper that can only be signed by an ink sent out by the council. If paperwork is lost or destroyed, I¡¯ll have to request another copy from the council." Keiko replied.
"Heh~ that¡¯s pretty annoying isn¡¯t it?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Well it¡¯s less annoying than having hackers im the doc.u.ments." Keiko shrugged.
"True." Shiro nodded.
Anything sent over the was insecure no matter how ¡¯private¡¯ it was. With hackers hiding everywhere, even the most important government doc.u.ment could be peeked at and read without anyone¡¯s permission.
However, it wasn¡¯t as if physical doc.u.ments were any better.
Helping out with tidying up the doc.u.ments, Shiro and Keomi left Keiko to fill them all in while the two of them walked around for a bit.
Shiro had already reapplied her disguise since they were out and about.
"It¡¯s taken you quite a while to get here huh?" Shiro asked.
"Well, I was a bit busy on the way here. I had been ambushed by some ck monarchy members and took a while to fight them all off. Though I kind of wished I arrived sooner so that I could see your spell with my own eyes. Had you used that during the fight against Blythe, you would have sted his ass back a few generations haha." Keomiughed.
"True. I¡¯ve improved quite a bit during this time." Shiro replied before pulling out the Tri Element Crystal Lotus.
"By the way, are you able to help me find out anything about this lotus? I had charged this f*cker with 39 billion MP already but it still hasn¡¯t been filled." She asked.
Ever since she received this item, she had charged it whenever she had the chance but even now, there were no signs of it activating.
"Eh!? 39 billion!?" Keomi widened her eyes.
"Yeah. With my mana regen and some skills, I can charge it up quite quickly."
"Hmm... I¡¯ll ask some of the mages I know if they have any knowledge about this item. But for now, I want to go see my niece." Keomi smiled as her eyes glistened with excitement.
"Haha, fine, follow me. Lisa had been spending quite a bit of time in the training hall."
"Fufufu, in that case then I¡¯ll join in with her. Since she¡¯s your daughter, I shall teach her the family martial arts." Keomi grinned.
"Hm, I might join in as well then. I don¡¯t remember anything about it so it might be fun for me to do since I¡¯m going to be here for one and a half months." Shiro smiled.
Arriving at the training hall, they could see Lisandra sparing with three members at once. Following her advice on using blindfolds, Lisandra practised enhancing her senses inbat.
"Hou hou, working hard are we?" Keomi called out with a smile.
"Ah branch master, you¡¯ve returned." The members all bowed since Keomi was quite a regr in the training hall.
"Yup. It took a while but man, you guys must have had quite a crazy few days especially with the huge spell that night huh? Shame I wasn¡¯t here." Keomi grinned.
"Definitely. The pressure was ridiculous you know? Even though it was fired off at the top of the tower, we were still pushed back." One of the members nodded.
"I see, but anyways, you seemed to be having some fun time sparring with Lisa here." Keomi said while gesturing to Lisandra who took off her blindfold.
As much as she wanted to just run over and hug her niece, she knew that she couldn¡¯t in order to preserve their identities.
"Oh? You know of her?" The member asked curiously.
"Yeah, she helped me out a little back in the elven country. Lisa! It¡¯s been a while, why don¡¯t you spar with me for the next few days? I might be able to teach you some martial arts." Keomi called out.
Hearing that she could learn more martial arts, Lisandra¡¯s eyes brightened in excitement.
"It would be a pleasure." Lisandra nodded.
"Hehe~ I like the look in your eyes, let¡¯s start right now!" Keomi grinned and went to get one of the better sparring rooms ready.
Looking at the two of them being so excited for training, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
¡¯Muscle heads the lot of them.¡¯
{You speak as though you¡¯re not one yourself.} Nimue raised an eyebrow.
¡¯True.¡¯
In the following days, Shiro spent her time training with Keomi and Lisandra. She would practice the Asakura family martial arts along with her own ones. This included the Takemikazuchi sword technique and the Mystic Sensory Arts.
As for Keiko, she had finished her doc.u.ments and had to attend a meeting so she temporarily left the headquarters for a few days.
During this, Shiro did not forget to keep charging the lotus since it was bound to be something good as it had absorbed an astounding 50 billion MP so far.
Before she knew it, half a month had passed and there were only two weeks left until the event.
Chapter 394 Returning to Vericia
Chapter 394 Returning to Vericia
Parrying both Keomi and Lisandra¡¯s punches, Shiro stepped back a little before redirecting all of their force to each other.
*BANG BANG!
Colliding into one another, Keomi couldn¡¯t help but rub her chin.
"Damn, big sis, isn¡¯t your martial arts a little too powerful? Even though I am holding back a little, it¡¯s almost impossible for anyone your level to beat you since you can just redirect most things. Unless they brute force it and ovee the limit on the amount of force you can redirect, they¡¯re sitting ducks for you." Keomiined.
"Well it¡¯s not like yours is any better. You have so much brute force that you can even rip open my rift forcefully just to track me down." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"That¡¯s a little different to this." Keomi pouted while looking over to Lisandra.
"Though I have to say, your talent for learning is monstrous Lisa. In just two weeks, you¡¯ve already mastered the first few stages of the Asakura family martial arts. If mum and dad were to see you, they would no doubt be surprised and have the best trainers teach you." Keomi praised.
"Thank you, but in terms of talent, mum¡¯s better than me." Lisandra blushed.
"Ai don¡¯t bother about your mum. She¡¯s clearly abnormal." Keomi waved.
"Oi, I¡¯m right here you know?" Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"Anyways, how about we go serious for our final spar? There¡¯s only two weeks left until the orange grade equipment event so me and Lisandra are going to be setting off soon." Shiro suggested.
"Sure. Limiting power to level 100 and no third phantom usage for you." Keomi replied instantly.
"No problem. I¡¯ll use the Takemikazuchi technique then." Shiro smiled.
Setting themselves equal distances apart, Shiro got into a rather rxed stance.
Breathing out lightly, lightning started to flicker around her arms.
While this was happening, Keiko was looking down from the only room connected to this hall as they made sure to spar without anyone unwanted peeking at the fight.
From what she had seen during this past few weeks, there was a good chance for both Keomi and Lisandra tond a few good hits but Shiro would still win in the end. After all, her reaction, technique and experience was just simply inhuman.
Waiting for a short moment, they looked at each other and nodded their heads.
*BANG!
Dashing forward in an instant, Shiro used her Takemikazuchi technique and increased her speed dramatically.
Since Shiro had demonstrated this move several times during their training sessions, neither Lisandra nor Keomi were taken off guard.
Stepping back a little, Keomi dodged the punch since there was only so much Shiro can do at that speed.
They tried to fix it but the best way was just for her to ss up and get another upgrade.
While Keomi sessfully dodged the punch, Lisandra reached out to grab Shiro¡¯s attack.
Focusing her mind, she knew that she had to grasp the perfect timing in order to utilise all of her martial arts so that she could block the attack.
Normally, this would be a stupid move since she knew better than anyone how hard Shiro could punch. However, this was a good time to test the fruits of her training. After observing both Keomi and Shiro fight during this period of time, she was bound to pick up a few tricks.
Breathing out softly, Lisandra mmed the back of her hand against Shiro¡¯s wrist and proceeded to redirect it to the side.
Surprised at Lisandra¡¯s sudden redirection, Shiro paused in her movements which opened up a gap for both Lisandra and Keomi to attack.
Seeing two fists fly towards her, Shiro bent her body back before going into a handstand. Kicking the punches, she used the impact to make some distance between them.
"Lisa, colour me impressed." Shiro smiled since there were clearly hints of third phantom being activated. Albeit shortly.
"Thank you." Lisandra blushed slightly after being praised by Shiro.
However, just as Shiro praised her, she then flickered in front of Lisandra.
"Regardless of what the enemy says, don¡¯t drop your guard." She smiled and roundhouse kicked Lisandra out of the arena.
"Ouch, isn¡¯t that a bit harsh sis?" Keomi flinched.
"Life is harsh and so am I." Shiro replied as she appeared behind Keomi.
Grabbing her arm, Shiro tripped her up before pinning her against the ground.
"And I believe that should be match set. You two are still a bit too rxed in a fight." Shiro said with a chuckle and helped Keomi up.
Walking over to Lisandra, she quickly healed her up.
"Ssss... I guess. Though you really don¡¯t hold back do you?" Keomi muttered while massaging her arm.
"Well even though it¡¯s a spar, you still need to be serious." Shiro shrugged.
Packing up all of their stuff in the training hall, they made their way to Keiko as she was waiting in the private room with some food.
"So you¡¯re going back to Vericia now?" Keiko asked as the month had flown by so fast. Ignoring the fact that she needed to attend a meeting earlier on, she had spent the rest of her time with Shiro and Keomi.
"Yeah, there¡¯s an event happening where I am able to get orange grade equipment. Plus, I¡¯ve been away from my friends for a month now so I want to see how much they¡¯ve improved." Shiro smiled.
"Say, why don¡¯t Ie with you? You can introduce me to your friends as well." Keiko asked with slight anticipation.
"Hmm... I don¡¯t see the problem. Though you¡¯ll have to put a disguise on since it would be quite startling for the other contestants if one of the ¡¯heroes¡¯ were to show up." Shiro chuckled.
"True... I also want to see Lisa¡¯s big sister, Yin. Since you said that she was quite a glutton, I¡¯ll make sure to bring some gifts for her." Keiko smiled.
"You know, having one of the biggest storage rings around filled to the brim with food isn¡¯t exactly the best use for it." Shiro shook her head.
"What do you mean not the best use. Am I not feeding my niece? If so, then it¡¯s useful. Plus, I can get a bunch of these rings if I really need it. Though with the system inventory, these aren¡¯t too needed unless you¡¯re carrying a house with you." Keiko replied.
"I suppose so. What about you Keomi? Are you going toe with us?" Shiro asked.
"I want to but I got some things to do at home. Since Yuki doesn¡¯t want your existence to be revealed yet, I can¡¯t take you to see mum and dad. I¡¯m not sure about how they¡¯ll react but I¡¯m sure they miss you just as much, or even more than we did."
Hearing what Keomi said, Keiko nodded in agreement since regardless of what had happened between them, they¡¯re still parent and child.
¡¯That¡¯s the problem ah, their child isn¡¯t here now. She¡¯s a spirit floating around me.¡¯ Shiroined in her mind.
Talking for a bit longer, Shiro, Lisandra and Keiko prepared to leave the city of Tokyo.
Keiko had already applied for a short leave and had some of her trusted subordinates stand in for her.
Leaving the city with their disguises intact, Shiro looked around to make sure that no one could see them before bringing out her motorbike.
"Holy! Shiro! Where did you get something like this!?" Keiko eximed as she instantly started to circle around the vehicle with an excited glint in her eyes.
¡¯So she likes motorbikes huh?¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile. Much like a child opening their present on Christmas, Keiko simply couldn¡¯t sit still and had to examine every part of the bike.
"I managed to get it from a strange trader. I don¡¯t know what parts are in the bike but I know that when I activate it, it goes ¡¯¡¯quite¡¯¡¯ fast." Shiro replied.
¡¯LIES! It¡¯s not quite fast, it¡¯s fast as f*ck!¡¯ Lisandra shouted out in her mind but made no change to her expression. As she had suffered from the effects first hand, she wanted to drag someone down with her.
"In that case then what are we waiting for?! I want to see how fast it can go." Keiko smiled widely as she can¡¯t wait to ride the bike.
###
"Wooooo!!!!!" Keiko cried out in happiness while her hair fluttered behind her. Regardless of how fast Shiro went, Keiko would only find more enjoyment.
Lisandra, the one who had wanted to drag Keiko down with her, felt betrayed since she was on the verge of throwing up.
¡¯Why the hell are you fine with this!!!¡¯ She shouted out in her mind as she wanted to cry.
Chapter 395 Two Weeks
Chapter 395 Two Weeks
Arriving back in Vericia once more, Shiro was quite shocked at how many people were in the city.
¡¯There are still two weeks and it seems like quite a few people have already gathered. I wonder what it would be like at the actual event... Hell, can they even fit everyone?¡¯ Shiro mused to herself as the party of three made their way into the city/
The first thing they did was go to a restaurant to get some food first.
"So what¡¯s the n? You have two weeks to spare." Keiko asked curiously.
"If it¡¯s ok with you, I was just nning on observing for two weeks and learning about how the event is held. I also want to see how the party is functioning without my presence. Showing up without disguise would ruin this." Shiro smiled.
"But since Yin is linked to you, wouldn¡¯t they find out?" Keiko tilted her head.
"Hmm... that is true..." Shiro muttered since Yin would definitely feel a faint connection to her.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro flexed her finger and sent a barely noticeable drone to seek out Yin and bribe her to keep quiet with the promise of money and food.
"Well I have something nned for that so we¡¯re fine. But for now, why don¡¯t we go rent a room for two weeks?" Shiro suggested.
"Sure."
After eating their fill of food, the trio left the restaurant and started to look around for an inn.
So far, due to the sudden influx of people, most of the inn¡¯s were fully booked out. Even those that wanted to expand their establishment discovered that it was quite overwhelming to have so many adventurers so they had to give up the thought of making some big money through quantity.
Instead, they opted to auction out rooms where people would bid for them at their own pace.
Since the people that arrived had some capability as they¡¯repeting to get orange grade equipment, money wasn¡¯t too much of an issue for them.
Bidding for a singlerge room, Keiko flicked over arge silver coin since that was more than enough.
Gesturing for the innkeeper to keep the change, the three of them started to unpack a little in the room.
"You might want to hold back on givingrge silver willingly like that. We might attract unwanted attention." Shiro chuckled.
"Hmm, I suppose." Keiko shrugged since onerge silver wasn¡¯t much to her. As the leader of one of the top 5 guilds in the world, she counted money in terms ofrge gold and tinum coins.
"Anyways, first things first. I need to learn a bit more about the event." Shiro smiled and pulled out aptop. Tapping away at the keyboard, she soon found a forum board associated with this event.
Reading through the page, she memorised it all down so that it would be easier to ess when they¡¯re halfway through the fightter.
The first event was the mounted air battle.
Each contestant will be given a special type of mount and they have to race towards the goal. How one gets to the goal doesn¡¯t matter since it will be a giant battle royal at the start. The first 100 contestants to reach the finish line will be given a ticket automatically and be teleported to where the main stadium would be.
The rest of the information avable was a little outdated since they¡¯re based on what happened in the previous events. Only the beginning was consistent so that was all she could rely on.
"By the way Keiko, are you going to join us?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Unfortunately, no. I¡¯m too high level to actually join. I mean... if I joined, it would be quite unfair on the other contestants wouldn¡¯t it?" Keiko smiled.
"True. There are two sections for this first area. A C ranked selection and a B ranked selection. Me, Lisandra and the rest of our party will be going to the C ranked selection so there¡¯s a good chance for us to meet." Shiro nodded her head.
"What¡¯s your n if you meet?"
"Same as usual, tough love I suppose." Shiro grinned.
###
Meanwhile, the party had just finished up with one of the dungeons and returned back to the guild.
When Shiro left for Kyoto, the party spent everyday training in the dungeons and made sure that their level should be up to par when she returns. After all, Shiro already had quite the advantage in terms of power against those her level never mind those lower level than her.
After the two months of rigorous training, Lyrica was proud to say that everyone had managed to reach level 100. Since the dungeon level around this ce was a little low, they had also spent the time expanding outwards and finding higher level dungeons out in the world.
With the way they threw themselves in the dungeon relentlessly, anyone that saw them would think they¡¯re all suicidal but the pressure had paid off since it was just today that they¡¯ve levelled up one more time to reach the limit of C ss.
"Right then, everyone should have gotten your ss up choices. Don¡¯t worry too much about which one you should pick and choose the one that most suits you. Remember, you only have one life so you need to enjoy it." Lyrica called out with a smile.
Her aura had changed to be more outgoing in the two months since she was essentially the acting party leader.
"Sure sure but we all know that we¡¯ll be picking ones that best suit the party synergy." Madison grinned and patted Lyrica¡¯s shoulder.
"Speaking of which, Yin, how does your ss up work? You¡¯re a phoenix aren¡¯t you?" She asked curiously.
"Oh me? Hmm... I¡¯ll need to break down my body once more and revert to an egg. Once I¡¯m in that state, I¡¯ll need to fulfil certain conditions and only then would my body be reconstructed and I ss up." Yin replied.
"Heh~ I wonder if you¡¯ll grow up like how Shiro did." Lyrica wondered since Shiro had experienced changes to her growth and body whenever she ssed up. As Yin was still in the body that resembled a child Shiro, she should be closer to a teen Shiro after this ss up.
"Something like that." Yin shrugged.
Just as she replied, she felt a sudden connection fluctuate and knew that Shiro must have returned to the city.
"I think mum¡¯s back." Yin said as everyone in the party looked over in interest."
"How can you tell?" Lyrica asked.
As many would say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. During this time, she had missed Shiro dearly and while she is able to control her disy of affection much better than before, that was only on the outside.
"Hmm... it¡¯s kinda like this. Since mum hatched me and we formed a contract of sorts, I can always feel a faint connection regardless of distance. Should she be closer to me, the stronger the connection bes." Yin exined.
However, before she could continue, she felt a tiny objectnd near her ear.
"Yin darling, don¡¯t tell them I¡¯m back yet. I¡¯m going to disguise myself in the event and see how much they¡¯ve grown. If you do good, I¡¯ll reward you with money and the biggest storage ring avable full of food my cousin brought back from Tokyo." Shiro¡¯s voice rang out.
Since it was through the nanobot, only Yin could hear what Shiro was saying and after hearing the mention of a storage ring full of food, her mouth couldn¡¯t help but water as her stomach rumbled a little.
"You sure that connection ain¡¯t just you getting hungry again?" Madison raised her eyebrows.
"*Cough* I think it might be the case." Yin replied with a slight blush. Some shame is a small price to pay for a pantry of food.
"Ah I knew it. Though I wonder when Shiro wille back. There¡¯s only a short amount of time left till the event isn¡¯t there?" Madison shrugged since Yin had pulled this stunt a few times in order to get more food out of the party.
At this point, they were used to her shenanigans.
However, Lyrica could detect the rare trace of seriousness on Yin¡¯s face when she said that.
¡¯Seems like Shiro¡¯s back and she wants to observe for a bit.¡¯ Lyrica thought with a soft smile.
{Indeed. I suppose it¡¯s a perfect time to show off your mastered sword arts that you¡¯ve inherited from me.} Yuan Tian chuckled.
¡¯Indeed but I don¡¯t n on showing it too easily. This is a huge stage, after all, doing so would just be exposing our trump cards.¡¯ Lyrica shook her head.
Since Shiro was already back, she was going to make sure she performs well in the event while also keeping her trump cards in order to surprise Shiro. Only then would she demonstrate how much she¡¯s improved.
Chapter 396 Start Of The Event
Chapter 396 Start Of The Event
In the time leading up to the event, Shiro had scouted out the people who had joined. She would then categorise them into two sections, the idiot section and the normal section.
The idiot section were those that tantly radiate their aura and try to eliminate some people before the event even starts. They¡¯re the ones that don¡¯t know about the people stronger than them and were quite na?ve in thinking that their power could suffice without any strategy.
In addition to these two sections, Shiro had also managed to figure out some who seemed to be quite powerful despite theirck of aura. That was because they had this special kind of ¡¯intensity¡¯ to them that can¡¯t be seen in inexperienced people.
During the time leading up to the event, Shiro had almost camouged herself and started to observe the party from afar. She was d that everyone had reached level 100 and now all that remains was for them to ss up.
And before she knew it, the two weeks had passed and the event was about to begin.
###
"Well damn, first thing in the morning and you can¡¯t even see the pavement anymore." Shiro muttered while looking out of the window.
*Yawn~
"Because today is even day isn¡¯t it? Most people like to just arrive on the day so they don¡¯t have to buy lodgings when the price is clearly higher than normal." Keiko replied a little absent-mindedly while rubbing her eyes.
Stretching her body, Keiko got dressed.
On one of the other beds, Lisandra was still sleeping since Shiro didn¡¯t forget to train her in these two weeks. While they were limited in what they could do, training was still training.
"Let¡¯s go sign up now. One of the booths should have opened nearby. But damn, why the hell would they have them open on the day rather than the days before the event. It¡¯s just gonna make things annoying." Keikoined.
"Well maybe that¡¯s how they wanted it. Those that arrivete or wake upte would find a harder time to register and in turn get eliminated indirectly." Shiro shrugged.
Changing into a different outfit that she had obtained, she was going to participate as an archer. Since her magic was quite recognisable, going as an archer would make it harder for her identity to be discovered.
Her new outfit consisted of a red and ck jacket with silver armour adored around the shoulders, elbows and waist. The hem of the jacket was extended to around her knees. She wore some ck leather pants along with a pair of red armoured boots.
Tying her hair into a ponytail, Shiro changed her disguise so that she had ck hair and ck eyes. Her face was also changed so that it was more of a reserved beauty that would slowly show itself the more you look.
With the Asteria¡¯s Embrace strapped to her back, she looked at her appearance in the mirror and nodded her head.
"What do you think?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Pretty good but Shiro, do you even have any archery skills?" Keiko asked since a disguise is all well and good but if she was going as an archer, she needed to use skills that don¡¯t expose her identity as a mage.
"Ever heard of unconventional archers?" Shiro smiled.
"Yes, I have but even if you go as an unconventional archer, you still need some skills." Keiko raised her eyebrow.
"That¡¯s where this bowes into y. At day, my arrows are changed into powerful one shot arrows. With my body control, I can be a hit and run archer. Plus, I have a few decorations that have some archery skills embedded into them so it¡¯s fine." Shiro replied.
Her silver armour was actually created from her nanobots and each of them had a different archery-based skill embedded into them.
3 were passives that helped out with her handling of the bow while the other two were active skills that she had recycled previously.
The first active skill was one called Sequential Exploit. If your arrownds a critical, you fire a second arrow immediately. Should that get a crit as well, a third arrow will be fired. With every subsequent arrow after the third, your crit chance will get a penalty of -10%. However, Shiro had a way to somewhat counter this decrease in crit chance and that was one of her passive recycled skills.
Archer¡¯s sight. Every time you manage tond a critical strike on a crit chance of less than 20%, you¡¯ll gain a 100% critical chance for a short period of time.
As for the second active skill, it was Snare Arrow. Firing an arrow in the nearby area would instantly explode into a snare trap. Should a person be snared within the first 5 seconds of activation, they¡¯ll be rooted for 1 second. Should they be snared after the 5 second mark, they¡¯ll be rooted for 3 seconds.
This skill prioritises the tactic of setting up traps but Shiro can easily deal with them in this second. Plus, even if she did need to set up the trap, she can synergise her illusion skill and trick them into entering her 3 second snare.
{I swear, at this point, with the amount of skills you¡¯ve recycled from armours, weapons and items, you can effectively y as every ss should you want to. Only hindering factor would be your stats but archers only really need dexterity and agility, so you have that covered.} Nimue sighed and couldn¡¯t help but think that life is unfair.
¡¯Well the Nanomancer ss was a triple S ss before upgrading to EX. This much is to be expected, you know?¡¯ Shiro replied. While she cannot modify or recycle set based items and equipment, singr pieces are easily within her grasp.
It was just a matter of finding the right equipment to recycle and getting the most out of them.
{I get that but to think that this is a manmade ss with such power is just inconceivable.} Nimue shook her head.
¡¯Well life is unfair I suppose haha.¡¯ Shiro replied before returning her focus back to reality.
"So, while me and Lisa go to this event, what are you going to do?" Shiro asked.
"Me? I think I¡¯ll probably pay the city lord a visit then watch from the stands." Keiko shrugged.
"Heh~ well I suppose I¡¯ll be regrouping with the party after this so it should be fine." Shiro nodded.
Giving Lisandra a disguise along with a new outfit, they made their way out of the inn and towards the registration stand.
Since they woke up early in the morning, the queue wasn¡¯t as daunting, and it only took them around 45 minutes to reach the front.
Signing up with the name Kasumi and the ss Grand Archer Sage, Shiro then had Lisandra sign up with the name Chizu and a Grand Sword Master ss.
After some verification procedures, of which Shiro tampered with, they were given two badges and signify their admission to the event.
"Please stand by for now as the event will start at 12pm." The person smiled.
"Ok." Shiro nodded.
Leaving with Lisandra following behind them, they spent this time just going around and checking out the stalls that foreign adventurers had set up.
There were a few pieces of equipment that had rather decent skills so Shiro decided to purchase them and recycle it into her database. With all of her skills in the database, she could theoretically pass off as an archer, swordsman, tank, spearman and assassin. The only one that¡¯s difficult would be support since her buffs were quite self-orientated and she only had one decent healing skill that can be used constantly.
Around 11pm, the ground started to shake as Shiro wondered if it was an attack. The first thing that she did was get some high ground and prepare to attack with her bow. But when she saw the source of the tremor, she couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow.
The ground beneath them split apart as a giant tower of sorts could be seen rising into the sky. Eventually, the height of such a tower surpassed the tallest point of Vericia and continued to rise. Understanding that this may very well be the event location, Shiro wondered why it was different to the past years despite the previous consistency.
"Seems like this year¡¯s event is a little special." Shiro muttered with a smile.
Chapter 397 Race To The Centre Tower
Chapter 397 Race To The Centre Tower
Once the time hit 12pm, a deep bell toll rang out as a hologram was projected into the city.
[Stage 1: Race to the centre tower. Each of you that havepleted registration will be allowed to enter a 500 meter radius of the tower. When you do, you¡¯ll enter a barrier and should you take a certain amount of damage, you¡¯ll be ejected out of the barrier.
The first 100 people to reach the centre room of the tower will be given admission into the next round.]
Reading the hologram, Shiro instantly jumped into the rift with Lisandra. Of course, she used Fae Illusions to disguise her rift so that people can¡¯t tell it¡¯s her through this skill.
In addition to this, since there were only 100 spots, she had to guarantee that her party seeded through acting as a gatekeeper of sorts. If she can reach the centre room, she can snipe people with her bow and stop them from entering.
Plus, with so many assassin type adventurers in this event, they had the advantage of speed so she couldn¡¯t wait around.
Reinforcing her body along with using the Takemikazuchi technique, lighting red around her as she increased her speed even more.
Lisandra wasn¡¯t too far behind either as she had learned how to reinforce her body as well. While she wasn¡¯t as fast as Shiro, she wasn¡¯t too far behind.
Upon leaving the rift, Shiro was about to enter again to increase her speed but noticed that an all out battle had already begun around her. There were people who had the philosophy of eliminating as many people as they can. Should they eliminate enough, they¡¯ll get one of the 100 ces through theck of participants.
Though it seemed like Yin was part of that category since she was flying in the air and throwing out flickers of dark star as if they were candy.
"Hahaha! Let me get rid of you all so it¡¯s easier for everyone else!" Yin grinned.
One of the stray flickers was about to hit Shiro when she snapped her fingers and erased it by using her void star element.
¡¯Tch, damn stupid daughter of mine can¡¯t even hold back destruction for a while. Even after a month, she¡¯s still as brash as usual.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a click of a tongue.
{Aren¡¯t you the one who thought about eliminating a bunch of people after you reach the entrance?} Nimue raised an eyebrow.
¡¯At least I can wait a little before making a move.¡¯ Shiro rolled her eyes.
{Pot calling the kettle ck.} Nimue muttered while Shiro used her martial arts to eliminate a few people around her.
Looking above the current fighting area, Shiro could see a number count of all those that have passed. For the B ssed participants, 25 people have already seeded while only 10 have seeded for the C ss ones.
Despite her advantage in stats, 10 people had managed to reach the centre before her. This made Shiro frown since she knew she had to hurry up and that quite a few powerful assassins have appeared in this event.
Getting an idea on how to get a quit boost out of her situation, Shiro gestured for Lisandra to grab onto her.
Pulling back on her bow string, Shiro jumped up into the air before flipping her body and fired her bow behind her.
With her activating a mana shield which stopped the damage from sending her out of the arena, both she and Lisandra flew over the crowd of people. There were a few adventurers that had sent spells their way but Lisandra would reinforce her sword and sh at the spells, stopping them from harming the two of them.
Jumping into the rift once more, Shiro repeated this process until they were just outside of the entrance of the tower.
Looking back, she saw a rather strange decision for the party.
Getting Yin to drop Madison out in the middle of the crowd, Shiro saw Lyrica shouting out some words before Madison activated a mass taunt after Silvia buffed her chances of sess.
Instantly, everyone¡¯s attention snapped towards Madison.
¡¯What is she nning?¡¯ Shiro thought curiously.
Activating her avatar, Madison blocked the attacks while the main party made a quick dash towards the tower. For those that didn¡¯t get affected by the taunt, Chen Yu would eliminate them himself.
As they approached the tower, Aarim smiled and jumped up slightly.
Twirling her staff, a shockwave of mana pulsed outwards as Madison teleported besides her.
Everyone that was taunted lost their target and started to attack one another while the main part had almost reached the tower.
¡¯When did Aarim have a teleport skill?¡¯ Shiro raised her eyes in surprise before entering the tower. Since they were this close and the number of sessful participants so far were low, there was a good chance for them to be qualified.
Entering the tower, Shiro saw that it was abyrinth of sorts. Her face was uninterested since this was nothing in front of her Rift Strider skill. All she needed to do was get an understanding of theyout before jumping into the rift.
Pressing her palms against the wall, Shiro scanned thebyrinth while Lisandra held the enemies at bay.
"Grab on." She called out to Lisandra before jumping into the rift.
While this was all happening, the city lord was currently observing her situation with a Keiko, who was a rather surprising guest.
"You have quite a few talented adventurers this year don¡¯t you?" Keiko smiled as the city lord chuckled.
He was a middle-aged man with dark hair and a short stubble. Currently, he wore a smart suit which made his physique seem thin but Keiko knew that he had great strength behind those muscles.
[Alvan LVL 200 Armageddon Sentinel]
"Haha, well I had done this in preparation for a certain troublemaker that was admitted into the Winter¡¯s Grace. But seeing as though she¡¯s not present in the event, it seems like I had prepared a little too much." Alvan replied.
"Oh? Which troublemaker would make a city lord like you change the event just to amodate them?" Keiko raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Ah it¡¯s this girl called Shiro that¡¯s joined Winter¡¯s Grace as a guest elder. Her power is quite impressive for her ss but she seemed quite...¡¯vtile¡¯ for ack of a better word. You see, during one of the events hosted by the faction, she had challenged quite a few of the faction members before taking a portion of their resources. She is a physical based mage that has mastery over quite a few elements. Though I do wonder what she¡¯ll be like in the future as multitasking with the ss is quite a risky manoeuvre." Alvan replied after thinking for a moment.
Upon hearing what Shiro had done, Keiko almost choked on her saliva as she couldn¡¯t help but look at Alvan in confusion.
"Wait she robbed her own faction members of resources?!"
"Yeah. I think it was something to do with her status as a guest elder but her resources are a lot less than normal elders." Alvan shrugged before looking back at the fight.
"Though even without her, it seems like I would have needed to prepare. Ignoring the assassin¡¯s that are extremely speed based at the start, I can already pick out a few powerful people that we should keep our eyes on. First is that archer woman. So far, she¡¯s only revealed three skills but I can already tell that her skill management and control are impressive. A speed boost, area of effect and a barrier." Alvan smiled as Keiko couldn¡¯t help but narrow her eyes slightly.
¡¯He¡¯s already detected Shiro despite not knowing her real identity. Damn... cousin why do you gain attention everywhere you go?¡¯ Keiko wondered while Alvan pointed out a few others that he was interested in.
###
Arriving in the centre room, Shiro looked around to see if there was a ce that she could eliminate some other contestants.
However, noticing that there were only a centre console and tall walls, she eventually decided to sit still and wait for the other¡¯s to arrive.
Shiro was going to make an ice tform for her to sit down on but stopped when she remembered that she was supposed to be an archer right now.
Shaking her head, she stood by the walls with Lisandra and examined the ones that arrived before her.
Noticing that all of them were assassins, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel like theter rounds would be easy.
Assassins were troublesome with their agility and burst damage. However, to beat an annoying opponent, you just had to annoy them more than they do you.
Ever heard of an archer that just suddenly disappears beforeunching 20 powerful arrows at you? No? Well you¡¯re about to. You¡¯ve caught her finally? Whoops sorry~ she disappeared again.
Chapter 398 Stage 2
Chapter 398 Stage 2
Waiting in the centre room, Shiro saw others that arrived but there were no signs of the party yet.
Furrowing her brows, she wondered if she should head out when a man suddenly approached her.
"Miss Kasumi and Miss Chizu, sorry to disturb you but I was wondering if you wanted to team up?" The man asked with a smile.
"Team up? What do you mean by that?" Shiro replied while looking at his name tag.
[Lorenzo LVL 100 Wind Strider Assassin]
"You see, as I am an assassin, getting to this area quickly is easy enough. But for theter rounds wherebat might be a big part or should there be teamwork involved, it would be handy to have some talented teammates. Of course, once we reach theter rounds, this temporary team would disband and we¡¯ll fight for the orange grade equipment. But until then, we¡¯ll help each other and reach thest few rounds. What do you think?" Lorenzo asked with a smile.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro eventually shook her head.
"Thanks but no thanks. Everyone¡¯s fighting for the same goal. I¡¯d much rather wepete fairly." Shiro replied.
"In that case then I won¡¯t disturb you any longer." Lorenzo smiled before reaching out his hand for a handshake.
Deeming it rude to reject, Shiro epted the handshake.
Watching Lorenzo leave, she activated analysis and looked at her hand in case he had decided to pull something suspicious.
Immediately detecting a mark of sorts, Shiro narrowed her eyes and crushed it with the help of Celestial path.
Looking up in shock, Lorenzo felt the mark he set on Shiro disappear as he nced back only to see Shiro re at him with some killing intent.
¡¯Oh sh*t, I might have misjudged this one.¡¯ He thought to himself before quickly making his way far from her.
However, he did not realise that Shiro had done the same to him.
A nanobot was currently on his body and waiting for the moment to explode and send him out of thepetition.
Seeing Shiro re at that man, Lisandra couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrows in confusion.
"Did he do anything mum?" Lisandra asked curiously.
"Somewhat. He ced a mark on me which might allow him to eliminate me hence why I got rid of it. Though he doesn¡¯t realise I¡¯ve done the same so you bet I¡¯ll be kicking his ass out of this event when the opportunity arrives." Shiro replied quietly while keeping her eyes on the entrance to the centre room.
Thankfully, the party had arrived around the 60 people mark, causing Shiro to sigh in relief.
"Man, thatbyrinth was annoying. We ran into so many assassins it¡¯s not even funny." Madison sighed while massaging her arm.
"Yeah, if not for your taunt skill, there would have been more people arriving here and we might not even get a chance to pass." Silvia nodded.
"Well at least we¡¯ve passed now. Let¡¯s take this chance to recuperate since we don¡¯t know what the next round is." Lyrica smiled as the party sat down next to the walls.
Looking at the party, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but pause in shock since she just saw Yin give everyone some food from her own reserves.
¡¯Hold up, what the hell happened to Yin? If she¡¯s the glutton I know, she would never give away her own food!?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Lisandra was also shocked at Yin¡¯s change in character and couldn¡¯t help but wonder if her big sister had been brainwashed in these two months or not.
Sending a small nanobot to check out what had happened, Shiro listened in on their conversation.
"Remember, you have to pay me back triple for the food I give you ok?" Yin said seriously as the party nodded.
"Yeah we get it, you don¡¯t have to say it all the time you know Yin." Madisonughed.
"Food is my way of living so if you don¡¯t give back my food, I¡¯ll be annoyed you know." Yin pouted.
"Yes, but are you really going to go through your storage ring of food? It¡¯s something we got from the dungeons but the space in the ring is still quite big you know." Madison replied while pointing at her ring.
"Is that a challenge? I¡¯ll show you the act of me emptying out my ring right here and now." Yin replied in annoyance. To think they would look down upon her might of eating, how na?ve.
Immediately retracting her nanobot, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh.
"The stupid daughter of mine is still the same. But this time she¡¯s only giving away her food because the party said they¡¯ll pay her back triple." Shiro shook her head.
Hearing what Shiro had just said, Lisandra couldn¡¯t help but smile awkwardly.
"Well I guess it¡¯s good that big sis is the same as usual."
"In a way I suppose." Shiro shrugged.
While they were chatting, Lyrica had been scanning the room for anyone that could possibly be Shiro. With her capabilities, there was a good chance for her to arrive much earlier than them.
Looking at all the female adventurers around, she marked down those that reminded her most of Shiro.
The highest one on her list was a girl called Kasumi with the ss Grand Archer Sage. While the look, temperament and ss werepletely different, there were still habits that Shiro couldn¡¯tpletely mask.
However, she wasn¡¯tpletely certain and it was just spection for now.
{I trust in your ¡¯Shiro Radar¡¯ so that woman has a good chance of being Shiro.} Yuan Tian chuckled.
¡¯Oh please, what the hell do you mean by Shiro radar.¡¯ Lyrica rolled her eyes.
###
Soon, the 100 passing candidates had been gathered in the centre room as a hologram appeared in the centre.
[Stage 2: Hidden danger. In this game, there are 10 ¡¯yers¡¯ chosen out of the group of 100. The group of 100 will then be split into teams of 10 and you will be trying toplete puzzles and tasks to get to the next round. Should the ¡¯yers¡¯ be able to sabotage 3 or more people in their team, they¡¯ll be given a free pass to skip the next round. Should they fail, they¡¯ll be eliminated. Teams will be assigned randomly on the screen, please regroup into your new teams.]
Reading the hologram, Shiro nced at her badge and noticed that she was marked down as a yer.
"Seems like I¡¯m chosen." Shiro whispered over to Lisandra.
"Hm, I¡¯m not chosen. We¡¯re not in the same group either." Lisandra replied.
The main party had also been split up as each of them were put into groups where they didn¡¯t know each other.
Looking at her own group, Shiro realised that she had been put together with Silvia while Lisandra was put in the same team as Madison.
"Good luck, try to be careful though." Shiro smiled.
"Mn, you too mum." Lisandra nodded and made her way towards her new team for now while Shiro did the same.
"Right then, it seems like we¡¯re part of the same team after all." Lorenzo chuckled as he saw Shiro walking their way.
"Oh please, we both know it¡¯s luck that I¡¯m actually on your team." Shiro replied.
Sure it was luck, but not exactly good luck since a good way to guarantee that Silvia passed was to eliminate everyone apart from the two of them. But if she did that, it would be suspicious so she¡¯ll probably be going for around 3 to 5 eliminations.
"Why don¡¯t need introductions since we¡¯re only going to be in a team for one round. But for now, let¡¯s work together to pass this round. I have an idea and that¡¯s pairing up with a partner and doing the test in pairs. If theye back without their partner, there¡¯s a good chance that they¡¯re the yer." Lorenzo suggested as the other¡¯s nodded their heads.
"So how are we going to split the teams then?" One of the assassins on their team asked.
"Simple, we¡¯ll just group up in the order that our names are disyed on the screen." Lorenzo smiled.
Looking at the screen, Shiro saw that she was paired up with a girl called Summer. She was an archer much like Shiro but didn¡¯t like to talk much. She only stood next to her and waited.
After the pairs were sorted, they waited for the hologram to show them the activity that they needed to do.
Chapter 399 Eliminating Unsuspecting Prey
Chapter 399 Eliminating Unsuspecting Prey
Looking at the description for the puzzle, it seems like they had to read out runes while a designated person would enter in the password.
The way this works is that there is a central tform and four rooms. Each of the rooms will have a small wave of monsters and one of the adventurers would need to protect someone while they read out the rune and its position in the password.
Once all four runes are collected in the right order, they¡¯ll be allowed into the next level of this stage.
The yer would need to either A, dy the situation and let the monsters eliminate the people or B, they do it themselves.
Since they¡¯re moving in pairs, the yer would be revealed should they sabotage too obviously. This also forces them to be the ones that have to think about what they¡¯re doing in order to pass sessfully. Then again, the reward for seeding is a free pass to the next round so the task must be hard.
However, for Shiro, this was easy to bypass.
"Right then, who¡¯s going to be in the centre tform?" Shiro said with a smile.
Instantly, the people on the team became wary since they can¡¯t have the yer be in the centre tform or else they can lie about the order of the sequence and use the time to eliminate one of the people without anyone else realising.
"Since we don¡¯t know who the yer is, why don¡¯t we take a gamble and assign someone random. I¡¯m going to spin my sword and whoever it points towards will be in the centre tform. Of course, you guys can keep a watch on me so that you know I haven¡¯t tampered with the spin with my mana." One of the warriors suggested.
"Sure, I¡¯m fine with that." Shiro nodded since this didn¡¯t really affect her. Regardless of who was chosen to be in the centre, Shiro can take three people with ease.
Spinning the sword, the warrior stepped back and waited for it to finish.
Eventually, itnded on Shiro¡¯s group which caused Shiro to raise her eyebrows.
"Welp it seems like it¡¯s us then." Shiro smiled while looking at Summer.
"Mn." Summer nodded but said nothing else.
¡¯Heh~.... This girl is a quiet one.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Alright, now that the teams are sorted, let¡¯s go."
Walking over to the teleport circle that seemed to have appeared behind them, Shiro watched as her other party members were also teleported in their respective teams.
¡¯Good luck.¡¯ Shiro muttered in her mind as they flickered from their spot. When her vision cleared, they were on a stone tform that seemed to be surrounded by the empty void.
Nodding to each other, they jogged towards their spots as Shiro and Summer readied their bow in case the ¡¯yer¡¯ were to make a move now and eliminate three people quickly.
Arriving at the main console, Shiro saw that it was a holographic rune board that housed all the runes with four empty slots in the centre.
"Do you want to be the one using this or shall I?" Shiro asked.
"You can." Summer replied since the one using the keyboard would be in more danger. They wouldn¡¯t be able to react as easily to a sneak attack and Summer knew that she couldn¡¯t trust anyone but herself during this test.
"Sure, I don¡¯t mind." Shiro nodded.
"Centre tform ready!" She called out.
"Team 1 ready!." Lorenzo shouted out since he was the ¡¯guardian¡¯ of team one and he would need to clear the wave of monsters.
This was perfect for Shiro since she could get a clear view of his position. Though it wasn¡¯t as if it was too important since her nanobot could give her his position to begin with.
Receiving positive responses from the other teams, they started to test.
Looking over at team 4, where Silvia was, Shiro realised that she must have been the one to read out the runes.
¡¯Well that makes things a bit easier I suppose.¡¯
As the monsters started to spawn, Shiro narrowed her eyes slowly as her lips curved into a smile.
Just before the first rune was shouted out, she flexed her finger a little and detonated the nanobot hidden on Lorenzo¡¯s body.
*BANG!
All of a sudden, his body was flung up into the air and all the other guardian¡¯s snapped their attention towards team one.
"Found the yer!" Shiro shouted out before nodding towards Summer.
Dashing towards team 1 with her bow drawn, the two archers had the same intention of eliminating the yer quickly.
Little did Summer know, Shiro was in fact the yer.
Seeing the two centre archers dash towards team one, the rest of the guardians called out to their partners and had theme out since they were going to regroup.
Vaulting over the monsters with ease, she twisted her body and pulled back on her bowstrings.
Looking at the frightful face of the one who was supposed to shout out the rune, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but look at him with pity.
¡¯Sorry, it¡¯s nothing personal.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before firing her arrow.
*BANG!
Exploding into a burst of mes, the adventurer was eliminated before he could even shout out that he was innocent.
"Seems like we¡¯re done." Shiro called out to summer with a smile.
Furrowing her brows, Summer nodded and started to make her way back to the centre.
However, just as she turned her back, she felt a burst of mana m into her back as she was sent flying forward from the impact.
Turning around to look back at Shiro, she saw that Shiro had an apologetic smile on her face.
"Crap..." Was all Summer could mutter before she was eliminated.
Walking out of where team one was supposed to be, Shiro looked at the other teammates that were instantly on guard since they realised that they¡¯ve been yed.
"Aiya~ don¡¯t be so on guard. I¡¯ve already got three of them so I¡¯m done with this round." Shiro waved her hand nonchntly before narrowing her eyes.
"Unless you want to fight some more? Regardless, I¡¯ve already passed so anything after this is just for fun." She grinned.
One of the assassins seemed to be annoyed as his body disappeared and reappeared beside her.
However, before he could even attack, Shiro had already spun around and mmed her foot against the back of his head.
Cracking his body against the ground, Shiro pulled back on her bow and eliminated him.
"Anyone else like this f*ck wit over here?" She smiled.
Flinching a little, the rest of the teammates stepped back a little while Silvia had a frown on her face.
Despite the intimidation she felt from this Kasumi, she wanted to stand her ground.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro kept her eye on Silvia.
"Some backbone huh?" She smiled.
"Maybe. But since you¡¯ve already eliminated three, I doubt there was a need to provoke the rest of us no?" Silvia smiled while preparing some of her spells discreetly.
"Hm, I suppose so. However, we still need toplete this round so if you want, I can just watch as you do it or I can help." Shiro chuckled.
Seeing as though there were only five of them left, it meant that there were on guardians to help them should they choose to not receive her assistance.
"It¡¯s fine, miss Kasumi can just sit by the side. Everyone, I¡¯ll be on the centre console and set a barrier on everyone so that you can read out the runes." Silvia proposed as they nodded.
"But what about this girl here, are you sure she won¡¯t attack you since she basically has a free pass." One of the teammates gestured towards Shiro.
"Don¡¯t worry, I promise I won¡¯t interfere anymore. Like I said, if you want, I can even help out." Shiro chuckled.
"No need." Silvia shook her head.
Giving out roles once more, Silvia stood at the console while Shiro watched from the distance with interest. She wanted to see how Silvia was going to help everyone else out.
mming her staff against the ground, a wave of mana pulsed outwards as a quadrupleyered barrier wrapped around everyone else apart from Shiro.
Activating her analysis skill, Shiro saw that the barrier gave them a health boost, attack boost, speed boost and a barrier that was equal to around 60% of their health from what she could tell.
¡¯Well damn, she¡¯s gotten quite a powerful spell in the time I was gone huh?¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
{Well it has been two months. A lot of things can change.} Nimue chipped in.
¡¯Very true.¡¯
With Silvia¡¯s distant support, the team was able to reach the runes without much trouble andplete the task with rtive ease.
Chapter 400 Round 3
Chapter 400 Round 3
As the team was teleported into the next stage, Shiro saw a ticket of sorts appear before her.
[Congrattions, as you havepleted a yer¡¯s task, you are now given a free pass to the next level. Please, insert the ticket to the main console in the room and you¡¯ll be transported to an observation deck for now.]
Reading the hologram, Shiro nodded and walked over to the main console.
Looking around, Shiro saw that most of the teams had finished with Lisandra¡¯s team being one of them. As they have 9 people in their group, she can guess that they managed to eliminate the yer before anyone was eliminated.
However, looking at one of the other teams, Shiro noticed that Madison had been eliminated and couldn¡¯t help but frown.
¡¯She¡¯s got one of the best defences and skills to counter an assassin, how did she get eliminated.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Counting the amount of people on the team, Shiro noticed that they were missing exactly three people meaning the yer only eliminated those that were necessary.
As she was walking towards the main console, she saw the other yer.
Wrapped in a hooded cloak, the person seemed to be quite light on their feet since their speed was quite fast despite their walking posture. But since their features and body shape was wrapped under the hooded cloak, Shiro couldn¡¯t tell if they were male or female. They also had a disguise on their name tag so she couldn¡¯t see their ss either.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯ll probably have to keep an eye on them in the next round.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before inserting her ticket to the console. A teleporting circle appeared beneath her as she was teleported to a rather luxurious room.
There werefortable seats and snacksid out by the side while a huge window was there to allow her to observe the next round.
However, as Shiro didn¡¯t notice this mirror before, she realised that it must be a one-sided mirror.
Hearing a sound behind her, Shiro saw the other yer appear in the room.
"Seems like we both get a free pass." Shiro said with a smile but was ignored.
Pulling up one of the chairs to the window, the yer started to observe while Shiro could only shake her head before doing the same.
###
"That was quite an unfair round for the yers no? Since the moment they make a move, they¡¯ll be detected. Except for those two exceptions, everyone else was eliminated. If they failed, they were going to be eliminated anyways." Keiko raised an eyebrow.
"Well yers are supposed to be exceptions to begin with. You might think that the yer role is given at random but it¡¯s there to challenge the ones we deem to be most powerful in the groups. Should they be able to prove that they were indeed powerful, they¡¯ll get a free pass. But if they fall under our expectations, they¡¯ll be eliminated. It¡¯s simple like that, we wouldn¡¯t choose a weak person to have the yer role after all." Alvanughed.
"However, there seems to be a few that bypassed this as they¡¯ve hidden their strength well. The warrior from team 5 was such. Destroying a part of the arena with a single hit and taking the yer out the moment they showed any suspicious movement." He narrowed his eyes.
"Indeed." Keiko nodded.
However, in the end, she didn¡¯t have much toin about since Shiro had passed but the other yer was also going to be troublesome.
She had watched them eliminate those on his team with ease. The main thing about him was that his sword was a lot faster than what was disyed. There was a g¡¯ of sorts with the visuals of his sword.
Simr to the rare swordsman skill, refraction, this skill was one that strikes faster than what is demonstrated rather than reposition.
A troublesome opponent if you cannot react at thest moment.
¡¯With how Shiro is, I doubt she¡¯ll lose. But her teammates cannot let their guard down.¡¯ Keiko thought to herself.
###
Seeing as how Madison was eliminated, Lyrica frowned before calling over all of their party members.
"It seems like we¡¯ll need to be careful of the two yers next round. For one of them to be able to eliminate Madison despite her defences, they¡¯re definitely going to be troublesome. Silvia are you able to tell us anything about the female yer that was on your team?" Lyrica asked.
"Hmm... She¡¯s definitely troublesome. From what I can see, she excels in speed and reactions. One of the assassins had tried to get her but the moment he reappeared, the archer had already mmed his head into the ground and eliminated him. As for skill with her ss, we were unfortunately not able to find out due to the fact that we weren¡¯t able to force her to use any of her skill." Silvia shook her head.
"Hmm... that¡¯s quite annoying. But at least you weren¡¯t eliminated." Lyrica sighed.
"Mn."
"Ah speaking of troublesome people, there was this one guy in my team that you should definitely be wary of." Aarim spoke up.
"Oh? What do you mean by that?" Lyrica raised an eyebrow.
"You see, when the yer tried to attack him, the man had eliminated arge portion of the arena and had almost swept me along with it. If it wasn¡¯t for me having a barrier ready just in case and it barely missing me, I would have been eliminated as well. For a person to disy that much power, in the second round, I can say for certain that this is far from 100% strength. There are two possibilities, either he¡¯s an idiot that had to go all out or he¡¯s confident enough to show this much power in the second round." Aarim replied seriously.
"That is indeed a problem.... Just stay cautious for now then. Since there are 75 participants left, ignoring the two yers, this round may be a brutal one that will eliminate quite arge number of people.
"From the information provided in past events, this round would usually put the number of people below 50 or in some cases, 30. We¡¯ll keep our guard up and show some of our trump cards if needed but remember to keep your best skills hidden for now. We don¡¯t want to expose ourselves too fast." Lyrica instructed as they all nodded.
The next round was that of a boss fight of sorts. People will be randomly assigned into teams and depending on their ss, they¡¯ll each be given grading objectives. The lowest 10 grades on each team will get eliminated.
If the team has healers, there will be waves of enemies on top of this so that she¡¯ll have to make sure her healing is on point.
One can still get eliminated in the fight should they take too much damage from the boss and if they do, a penalty will be inflicted onto the healer¡¯s score for letting a teammate die. But on the flip side, if a teammate tried to sabotage the healer on the team through intentionally taking too much damage, the healer will not get a penalty for their actions.
Assigning the teams, Lyrica and Silvia were paired up while Chen Yu and Aarim were a part of a pair as well while Yin was on the same team as the guy Aarim warned them about.
Each of the teams wereposed of 25 people as three doors appeared around the room.
[Please enter a door and face the boss.]
Reading the hologram, they each nodded to each other before entering.
Meanwhile, the sessful yers were given a choice to enter two pods that will allow them to navigate the three rooms and observe everyone.
Getting into one of these without hesitation, her first destination was going to be the team with Lyrica and Silvia.
With a buffer like Silvia on her side, Shiro wanted to see how well Lyrica could perform. With 10 people being eliminated, Lyrica needed to find the right bnce of holding back and disying her prowess.
¡¯I wonder if I¡¯ll be able to see any new skills that she has obtained in the two month¡¯s I¡¯ve been gone.¡¯
{There¡¯s a good chance since 10 is quite arge number for a team of 25. For those that are insecure, they¡¯ll be going all out to try obtain a good spot.} Nimue said while she was also observing the situation.
As they¡¯re Shiro¡¯s close friends and party members, there will be a time where they might need to help with the spirit¡¯s in theing age of gods and demons so she wanted to see how powerful they were after two months.
And with that, the fight against the boss began.
Chapter 401 Hunting Grounds Part 1
Chapter 401 Hunting Grounds Part 1
Watching Silvia buff the team while Lyrica dashed towards the boss, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but notice her clear increase in speed and body control. While she ran, she kept her posture steady so that she could react better in any situation.
¡¯Hou... not bad.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
She couldn¡¯t help but also notice a few of the more talented individuals. There were some that would flicker continuously while sh marks would suddenly appear on the boss¡¯s body.
Whenever they¡¯re about to get hit, Silvia¡¯s barrier would block them from danger.
"Yo missy, your reaction¡¯s pretty on point, why don¡¯t you work with me from now on? I can guarantee that you¡¯ll get a good wage every week." The man grinned while deflecting one of the boss¡¯s fists.
"No thanks, I¡¯m fine with the team that I have right now." Silvia declined with a smile.
"Ah such a shame. Though if you ever want to discuss it, I¡¯m more than happy to give you my contact details after the event." The manughed.
"I¡¯ll keep that in mind then Mr Yorak." Silvia chuckled.
ncing over at the party, Lyrica narrowed her eyes since it seemed like she¡¯d have to reveal some of her strength in order to get a passing grade.
"Fuu...." Breathing out softly, she tightened her grip around her sword.
¡¯Heavenly Sword Arts First Step- rity.¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself as light glimmered from the de of her sword.
*PUCHI!!
Suddenly, the arm of the boss was separated from the shoulder as blood poured out relentlessly.
*Whistle~
¡¯Damn, her attack power has soared huh? Can¡¯t wait to see it for myself in theter rounds. Wouldn¡¯t that be quite interesting.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
{Indeed. I wonder if she has improved more than Lisandra. Both Keiko and Keomi have admitted that Lisandra was talented to the point where she could be called a genius.} Nimue nodded her head.
¡¯I¡¯m not too sure about that but regardless, it¡¯s good for the party. Speaking of which, I wonder how Aarim is doing.¡¯
Looking over at Aarim¡¯s team, Shiro was instantly surprised at how much the boss was being pushed back.
Their team had three vanguards, Aarim, Chen Yu and one other who had their name hidden. With the three of them, they had forced the boss into a state of constant retreat. Should the boss try to attack them by surprise, Aarim would teleport them all behind the boss andnd more hits.
¡¯Her spells have be more diverse as well. However, I know that she¡¯s got more to showter in the rounds. Damn, all this watching has made me itch for some action myself.¡¯ Shiro chuckled since she couldn¡¯t wait to fight with them all and test out their power for herself.
{Look at you being a battle maniac.} Nimue rolled her eyes.
{Oh I think it¡¯s quite cute though is it not? Shiro cares deeply for them so she wants to train with them to understand them better and help them.} Iziuel smiled.
{Iziuel, you¡¯re too pure ah! There¡¯s a 100% chance that Shiro wanted to fight them for fun and maybe give them guidance if she can. If anything, she¡¯ll probably disguise her one sided beatings as ¡¯training¡¯ to fuel her sadistic desires.}
¡¯*Cough!* That¡¯s quite harsh Nimue, I feel wronged.¡¯
{As if, we both know that you¡¯re sadistic at heart.} Nimue retorted as Shiro feigned ignorance.
She was quite spot on as she wasn¡¯t exactly the best trainer.
If anything, she can only help them improve through some improvisation and constant fighting practice. It¡¯s worked so far so she was fine with it.
As she continued to observe the participants, Shiro made sure to mark down those that had potential in her mind so that she could deal with themter. There were moments where Shiro saw that both her and the other yer observed the same fight but with the yer hiding most of his features, she couldn¡¯t tell what he/she was thinking.
Eventually, the fight ended with everyone on the party passing with rather impressive spots.
Lyrica managed to get rank 9 on the team while Silvia achieved rank 5. That was after they¡¯ve held back quite a bit of their power as well. Chen Yu achieved 3rd ce on his team with Aarim following behind at spot number 4. As for Yin, well she managed to achieve 2nd with the person Chen Yu was worried about being in first ce.
Lisandra was also on Yin¡¯s team and she had managed to reach 3rd ce without making herself obvious to Yin.
As the weakest 10 of each team were eliminated, 47 participants remained with Shiro and the other yer in the mix.
Everyone was sent towards the fourth floor as Shiro regrouped with Lisandra and waited for the fourth trial.
[Stage 4: Hunting Ground. In this stage, all of you will be sent into a forest. There are five types of beasts/monsters within the forest and with each beast you y, you¡¯ll gain a certain amount of points. This stage will run for 1 hour and at the end of the hour, only the top 20 will remain in the event.]
[As for how the points are distributed, the first stage beast will grant 1 point. Second stage beast will grant 5, third grade beast 10, fourth grade beast will reward 20 and the strongest fifth grade beast will reward an astounding 50. Be warned, there are only 3 fifth grade beasts that will appear at a random moment and only the person whonds the final hit will be rewarded with the points. You can track how many points everyone has through the leaderboard disyed via hologram in the stage. Goodluck!]
Each of the beasts had an image next to them. The first grade beast looked like a wolf, second is a bear, third is a giant serpent and the fourth grade beast is a chimera of sorts. As for the fifth beast, it was hidden behind a silhouette making it so that no one could tell what it was.
Reading the description, Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Chizu, let¡¯s reveal a bit more of our power this round. Since this round will eliminate more than half of us, it¡¯s best for us to go serious." Shiro whispered over.
"Mn, got it. But wouldn¡¯t the other¡¯s get suspicious?" Lisandra asked since she had to be extra careful in thest round since she was in a team with Yin. Thankfully, she wasn¡¯t exactly the ¡¯smartest¡¯ as she is more focused on food than on people.
"We¡¯ll have to be a bit more careful and fight away from them. Plus, I want them to go into the next round so we don¡¯t want to be stealing their points." Shiro nodded.
Waiting for the teleport circle to the next floor, Shiro nced towards the other teams and noticed the other yer looking towards her party.
¡¯Why does it seem like he¡¯s interested in the other girls? Could he be a guy that wants to be in a rtionship with them?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself. Despite not being able to tell their gender, she couldn¡¯t help but be curious as to what they had nned.
As the teleport circle appeared, everyone rushed towards it since the faster they reached the next floor, the more of a head start they could get.
Teleporting to the next floor, Shiro saw that they were in the centre of a huge mountain range withrge beasts in the distance roaming around.
"Take this, we¡¯llmunicate with each other and share the bounty." Shiro gave Lisandra an earpiece before jumping up the mountain for a good vantage point.
Jumping in her rift that was disguised by her Fae Illusions, Shiro eventually arrived at the peak.
"Hmm... My skill Analysis isn¡¯t enough since there are still a few things that are too far away." She furrowed her brows before ¡¯taking¡¯ out a ring that had the skill [Hawkeye +] embedded into it.
Activating Hawkeye, she could now focus on long distance targets with great rity.
"Now then, as the name suggests, this shall be my hunting ground." She muttered with a grin.
Drawing back on her bow, fire red around her as she let go of the strings without charging up too much mana.
*BOOM!!!
Letting off a shockwave, the arrow flew through the air before piercing a third grade serpent right through the skull and caused it to crash through several trees.
"Daughter of mine, two bears to your left, around 300 meters." Shiro called into the earpiece since she could get a grasp on where everyone was.
-Got it mum.- Lisandra replied with a chuckle since she could tell that Shiro was having a bit of fun sniping beasts from the mountains.
While Lisandra went to kill the bears, Shiro had an idea.
"Just for a fun nostalgia trip, I think I¡¯ll have to trouble the bears a little." She said with a smile.
{Wait what do you mean by nostalgia trip?} Nimue raised an eyebrow.
¡¯Oh you know, the first time I killed a bear in this life was through the ass.¡¯ Shiro grinned as she targeted a bear far into the distance.
Readying up her bow, she made sure that she wrapped it with her mana so that it will fly straight into the targeted area.
*BANG!
Suddenly feeling danger loom over its body, the bear raised its head in caution but at that point, it was already toote.
*PUCHI!
Chapter 402 Hunting Ground Part 2
Chapter 402 Hunting Ground Part 2
As the round continued, both Shiro and Lisandra killed beasts at an impressive pace.
By the time it hit the 15 minute mark, Shiro had already .u.mted an astounding 655 points while Lisandra imed 592 points, setting them both solidly within the top 5.
As for the one in the first spot, they had a ridiculous 1,000 points and it was the other yer that Shiro was cautious about.
She had observed him a little but every time she looked longer than needed, the yer would turn his head towards her position. While he could not see where she was exactly, he could tell he was being observed.
With this, Shiro knew that his senses were quite high. In addition to this, his style of fighting reminded her a little about someone that she had met already but she was confused as to why he would be here.
Ignoring this, Shiro nced over at the leaderboards. Looking at how many points the party got, she couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brows as they were teetering around the 15th ce. There were times where they¡¯ll fall below 20 but im the spot once more.
¡¯Could it be because they have more people? It¡¯s less efficient to hunt as a group since you¡¯re not killing as many beasts as you could. Not only that, since Silvia¡¯s a healer, she wouldn¡¯t have enough power to kill therger beasts alone.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{Perhaps you want to give them some assistance?} Nimue asked.
¡¯Mn. This stage isn¡¯t exactly fair for someone like Silvia so I think I¡¯ll do just that.¡¯ Shiro nodded.
Pulling out a piece of paper, she brought out a pen before sketching a detailedyout of the entire area. Switching to a red pen, she then circled where the beasts are around them along with their grades. She then used a blue pen to mark down any nearby adventurers that might take their prey.
Double checking the map to make sure it¡¯s urate, Shiro then tied it to a normal arrow she created with nanotech and knocked the arrow on the string.
Pulling back the string, she fired towards their location.
###
"Lyrica, this isn¡¯t going too well. While we can kill the beasts easily, the points that we¡¯re getting are quite low." Aarim furrowed her brows.
"I know, I want us to split up but stay within a certain distance with one another so that we can help each other. After all, there¡¯s no rule stating that participants can¡¯t eliminate each other in this so we don¡¯t want to split up if possible. There might be some people that ignore the points and go after participants instead." Lyrica replied.
"Hmm... that¡¯s indeed a worry. There¡¯s also Silvia¡¯sck of offence should we split up." Aarim nodded.
As they continued to talk, an arrow thunked against the tree and embedded itself deeply.
Instantly standing on guard, they got into a formation and readied their swords. Looking around cautiously, they saw that there were no more arrows but decided to stand on guard.
Looking at the first arrow that was sunk into a tree, Lyrica noticed a rolled up piece of paper attached to the body.
"Girls, protect me for a moment, there¡¯s a letter." Lyrica called out as they nodded.
Unravelling the piece of paper, Lyrica widened her eyes when she saw a heavily detailed map of sorts.
On the bottom, a few sentences were written.
[Seems like you lot are struggling a little. Since you¡¯re quite interesting, I¡¯ll give you a little help. You can also thank your healer for standing up to me when the other cowards backed away. She¡¯s got some backbone to her.
Good luck~ ?
Kazumi.]
Raising her eyebrows at the letter, Lyrica passed it to Silvia.
"Ah, that archer woman." Silvia muttered and looked towards the leaderboards. Realising that she and her partner were in 4th and 5th ce with a solid lead, it now made a little sense as to why she could spare them some help.
As the party discussed the possibility of any hidden meanings, Lyrica was thinking about something else.
¡¯That¡¯s definitely Shiro isn¡¯t it.¡¯
{Indeed. As you have stated previously, there are some habits that are still present in her disguise and the fact that she¡¯s helping you is probably her way of trying to give you lot an extra push without you realising.} Yuan Tian chuckled.
¡¯But when did she be an archer? I know she has a few guns as proven way back in the fight against Blood Monarch where Silvia lost two of her ¡¯friends¡¯ along with the fact that there¡¯s arge chance for her to be the ¡¯Rogue Assassin¡¯. But she¡¯s mostly used swords or magic most of the time.¡¯
{Perhaps her uracy with the gun tranted into the bow. After all, the two are not so different.}
¡¯Mn, oh well. We¡¯ll probably find out the truth after the event. Say, why do you think she¡¯s disguised herself though?¡¯
{Maybe she wants to fight against you girls without disclosing her identity. That way, she can find out what you¡¯re capable of without holding back. Should you know who she is, there is a subconscious limiter after all.}
¡¯Hmm, true... Since she wants us to go serious, I¡¯ll have to endure the thought of hurting her then.¡¯ Lyrica sighed.
"Why did you sigh just now Lyrica?" Silvia asked curiously.
"Oh nothing, I was just wondering if we should try to get an archer in our group. If we do, we can scout out an area much easier." Lyrica replied.
###
Looking at the party from afar, Shiro smiled when she saw their points start to increase at a faster pace after receiving her help.
Just as she was about to turn her attention elsewhere, she felt danger behind her and rolled to the side.
"Sharp instincts." A voice muttered.
Looking around, Shiro realised that they must be invisible.
"Say boy, do you think that invisibility can save your ass after you tried to eliminate me?" Shiro raised her eyebrows and gave him a taunting smile.
Activating Analysis, she could faintly make out a slight leakage of mana from his skill and saw where he was.
Nocking an arrow on her bow, she jumped up into the air and fired towards his general direction.
The arrow missed his body by a small margin but that was part of her n.
Flexing her fingers slightly, the arrow stopped in mid air before slowly turning around.
Seeing that Shiro had missed her shot, the assassin smiled since this meant that she could only tell his general direction and not where he was exactly.
But as he was nning out his next moves, the arrow struck against his back.
"Gah! You knew!?" He widened his eyes.
"Of course I knew dumbass." Shiro chuckled before kicking him straight in the chin.
The force of the kick flung his body up into the air as she was sure she heard a crack during that kick.
Flying through the air for a moment, his body teleported away as he was eliminated.
{Yikes.... That was a fierce kick. Say, I can¡¯t help but notice you like to use kicks a lot when you fight. Why¡¯s that?} Nimue asked.
"Well kicks are easy to generate force with while hands can redirect force easier than legs. For me, hands are for defence while kicks are for offence." Shiro replied with a shrug.
{If that¡¯s the case, maybe you should learn a martial art that has something to do with the legs?} Nimue suggested.
¡¯Maybe, but it¡¯s not too high up on my to do list. I¡¯ve already got a bunch of martial arts I want to master first. Plus, there are also skills I haven¡¯t explored fully so I shouldn¡¯t bite off more than I can chew.¡¯ Shiro shrugged before firing an arrow at a distant beast.
As the round continued, Shiro and Lisandra continued to im points while asionally giving the party an updated map to help them some more.
For the instances where the 5th grade beast would appear, Shiro would charge up a rather powerful shot before stealing it from the people that were trying to kill it. Of course, this made them want to attack her but she would eliminate them before they were able to.
In the end, both she and Lisandra ced second and third while the party imed 12th, 11th, 10th, 9th and 8th with her help.
Chapter 403 Aarims Magic
Chapter 403 Aarim''s Magic
With all of them managing to pass, Shiro smiled in satisfaction before looking towards the two people that she was most cautious about.
First the yer, the second was a participant that showed quite an impressive amount of strength in the round.
While she managed to steal the kill on one of the stage 5 beasts, he was able to kill the other one before she could even shoot an arrow. With a single swing of his sword, he cut the beast in half and walked away as if it was nothing.
Not only that, but she could also sense an element simr to Yin¡¯s shadow in a way that ate away at the beast, thus leaving corrosion wounds on the cut.
Browsing through her memories, she couldn¡¯t find anyone that fit the bill except for a guy she met back in New York. However, even with that, she had never seen him fight so he was off the list.
As for the other yer, well, he took the third beast and she immediately recognised the fighting style. Only question was why that pervert was even here with that kind of outfit that made him seem like the edge lord of Cairosa.
¡¯Well I don¡¯t exactly know what happened after the little parting gift we left in Cairosa but it seems like he¡¯s found his way here. I just hope that he won¡¯t stay for long or else I¡¯ll have to deal with him again.¡¯ Shiro thought with a shiver since he didn¡¯t want to deal with the pervert.
With a pervert in the vicinity and a potential one nearby, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh.
"This event really has drawn out all kinds of crazies." She muttered.
"What do you mean mum?" Lisandra raised her eyebrows.
"Oh nothing dear, just some old people that I know about. Anyways, let¡¯s see what the next round is about." Shiro shook her head.
[Stage 5: Duel. Simple, it¡¯s a one versus one and the winner moves onto the next round. Names will be drawn at random.]
"Huh... I thought that they would have saved this for thest round. To think they¡¯ll use it now." Shiro muttered.
"What do you think thest round will be then?" Lisandra asked curiously.
"No idea but it might be a team vs team to determine the people who get the items." Shiro shrugged.
Looking at the name draws, she found out that she was against Aarim of all people.
¡¯Well ain¡¯t that just a shame... Do I want to proceed onto the next round and eliminate Aarim or do I want to let her pass?¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
{Why are you even thinking about this? We both know that you¡¯re going to eliminate her regardless.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Very true.¡¯ Shiro nodded.
As for Lisandra, she was against one of the other contestants so Shiro wasn¡¯t too worried about her being eliminated unless the opponent pulls something.
*RUMBLE!!!!
Suddenly, the tower shook as the walls started to slide down.
Revealing ten tforms that extended out and above the city of Vericia, Shiro was surprised at how high up they were.
With the sudden opening of the walls, they resisted a huge suction that threatened to throw them out while the air started to get thin.
¡¯Hmm... seems like this fight is going to be one that challenges how much one can control their body. With the air being so thin, unless you¡¯re good at using your stamina efficiently, you¡¯re going to have some trouble.
¡¯I suppose it¡¯s also what separates the good from the best.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Seeing a teleport circle opened up under her, Shiro found herself transported to one of the stages. Seeing Aarim in front of her, she then saw a countdown timer appear in front of them.
"Oh? How sad. Despite your help in thest round, it seems like we¡¯ll have to fight against one another." Aarim smiled.
"I suppose so. Ah just because I helped, feel free to go all out ok?" Shiro replied with a chuckle.
"Of course, that¡¯s what I n to do." Aarim nodded before checking out Shiro¡¯s true nature.
Seeing her nature, Aarim widened her eyes before being confused.
Looking at ¡¯Kazumi¡¯, she narrowed her eyes.
"You¡¯re Shiro aren¡¯t you?" She asked with a frown.
". . . Well I suppose this is you looking at my true nature then." Shiro smiled as she narrowed her eyes.
"Yes, though I wonder why you didn¡¯t just show up before us." Aarim shrugged.
"I kind of wanted to see how much you lot have grown. Though despite you knowing who I am, feel free to go all out. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve got a skill that can save my life if needs be." Shiro smiled.
"Of course, I have to say though, I¡¯m a bit surprised that you¡¯ve be an archer in the time that you were gone."
"Oh don¡¯t worry about it, it¡¯s just a disguise. If anything, I¡¯m a fake archer." Shiro chuckled.
"Hm, fair enough." Aarim smiled.
As the timer hit 0, she stomped down as three tier 4 magic circles appeared around Shiro.
Snapping her fingers, the gravity around Shiro was instantly increased as she mmed her knees against the ground.
"Gravity huh? When did you learn this type of magic?" Shiro asked a little forcefully since she was resisting against the magic.
"Let¡¯s just say I delved deeper into spatial magic." Aarim replied.
"I see, that probably exins the teleportation in round 1."
Punching the ground, a pulse of mana exploded out as it was enhanced with Shiro¡¯s Celestial path.
*PING!!!
Shattering the surrounding magic circles into tiny shards, Shiro made some distance between the two of them.
However, her body mmed into an invisible wall.
"Lockdown." Aarimmanded.
Flipping her hand, the invisible box that carried Shiro was flung upwards.
While Shiro was being flung, Aarim sped her two hands together and started to merge several different tier 4 spells. This was based on the concept that she had found in the Miriel royal library and had tried out in the war but failed.
With the two months that Shiro had been away, she spent the time refining the theory as well as studying space magic.
Gritting her teeth, a spell circle with multiple different spells could be seen enhancing the main one.
While it¡¯s simr to what normal mages do at higher levels, this was in fact one that was made up of several conflicting spells which should have made it impossible.
But by removing the conflicting parts and only having thepatible parts merge, she was able to craft a spell out of all of them.
Sometimes, the result wouldn¡¯t be as effective as using the base spells but this was one of the times where the oue was much better than the spells used.
"Tier 4 Fusion Spell ¨C Zerst!" Aarimmanded.
Ripples in space appeared around Shiro as high density orbs of energy started to form. Absorbing the ambient mana rapidly, she found it a little hard to cast a spell since it would just be cancelled by theck of mana.
¡¯Interesting...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while analysing the coreponent of the spell with her Analysis skill. Realising what she had done to them, she couldn¡¯t help but nod in satisfaction.
"Since you¡¯ve presented a rather impressive skill, let me show you one of mine as a gift. Hell, if you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯ll put some of your theories to use." Shiro smiled.
"Of course. By all means, be my guest. The fruits of my research are ones that I hope can be in use for the party. If you can make use of it, I would be more than happy regardless of the oue." Aarim smiled.
Receiving Aarim permission, Shiro closed one of her eyes and started to create the new spell with Aarim¡¯s fusion technique as a base.
Fusing her Star, Void Star and Cosmic ice together with the additional help of her Chimera Arts, Shiro then activated her Throne World Skill.
mming her hand down, her surrounding spells were shattered as she pulled Aarim into her own personal domain.
Shielding her eyes from the light, Aarim looked around in shock.
The ground beneath her was created from ice as the gxy reflected off its surface. Far into the distance were tall cial mountains that had a singrrge star in the centre which were reminiscent of eyes.
Above her, a valley of stars and colours were present, each one glistening softly.
"Wee to my throne world. Using a few skills together with your technique allowed me to create this world which houses three of my attunements. Each one is of the star type so my bow is enhanced in this domain. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve seen what my bow could do in Tokyo so you can imagine what I can do in here." Shiro smiled.
"To think that even as an archer you¡¯re still the ridiculous adventurer I¡¯ve seen ever. Honestly, I didn¡¯t even humour the fact that the huge spell in Tokyo could have been your doing but with you confirming the truth, it seems like I have no choice to believe it." Aarim chuckled.
"I forfeit. I already know that my barriers can¡¯t hold up to your bombardments since I¡¯m offence based." She raised her hands up in defeat.
Teleporting out of the arena, Shiro disabled her throne world.
Chapter 404 Final Round
Chapter 404 Final Round
Dispelling her throne world, Shiro looked around at the other arenas and saw that most of them were finishing up.
Lisandra had already defeated her opponent, while Lyrica and Silvia were having a friendly spar as they were pitted against one another.
While they could fight somewhat seriously, Silvia had already decided to let Lyrica pass since Lyrica would probably have a better chance of winning the next round for some orange grade gear.
Once thest fight finished, the final ten were confirmed.
Out of the party, Lyrica, Yin and Chen Yu managed to pass along with Shiro and Lisandra.
Teleporting everyone onto the top floor, a hologram appeared on the screen.
[Stage 6: The final stage. There are 5 orange grade equipment up for grabs in this event. The 10 remaining contestants will form teams and select a captain. You will then be ced into a field with two castles.
The main goal is for you to take the other castle¡¯s g while defending your own. As for who gets the items, it will be dependent on your performance rather than which side wins. Of course, if you win the fight, you¡¯ll get some extra points in the final tally.
You have 5 minutes to decide on your teams, good luck.]
Reading the stage description, Shiro realised that they had just enough people on their side to form a team of five.
However, before she could call out of the party, she was approached by one of the other participants that had managed to pass.
"How about you join our team? If we split up those that are powerful, you¡¯ll get more chances to show off your strength throughbat no?" The person suggested as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"But if we finish the match quickly, would we not also get points?" She grinned.
If they finished off the fight quickly, the other team would not have many chances to demonstrate their prowess, making it so that they wouldn¡¯t need as many points.
"True, though I believe that the more points you have the better chance for you to get one of the better orange grade equipment. I doubt the organisers would allow you to finish the match that easily." The man smiled as Shiro thought about it for a bit.
"I¡¯m fine, I¡¯ve already got some people in mind. But don¡¯t worry about it, I won¡¯t be taking the other yer." She chuckled and made her way to Lyrica¡¯s group with Lisandra following behind her.
"Yo, since it¡¯s the final round, why don¡¯t we team up? We got five people exactly and we might be able to get some more performance points if the teams are more bnced." Shiro called out with a smile.
"Of course. However, are you sure you don¡¯t want to go on their side ¡¯Kazumi¡¯? I thought your main goal was to observe how much we¡¯ve improved." Lyrica chuckled as Shiro raised her eyebrows before staying silent and put a finger on her lips.
"Well let¡¯s just say that I¡¯ve seen quite a bit and since I¡¯m a rather sore loser, I wouldn¡¯t want me nor the people I¡¯m interested in to lose." Shiro replied with a grin.
"Since it¡¯s been around two months, do you want to takemand of the castle while I¡¯ll be one of the chess pieces for this event I suppose." She asked Lyrica.
"No it¡¯s fine. With your skill set and proficiencies, you¡¯re more suited towardsmanding and leading. Having someone who can scout out the entire area ordering people is better in this situation." Lyrica shook her head with a smile.
"Got it. In that case then as usual, here are some earpieces for me to send you some instructions. As we¡¯re gunning for points, we¡¯ll try for one on onebat with my support mixed into the fight. The ones that you need to be careful of are the other yer and the second mysterious guy who I think I have a pretty good idea on who it is. For those two, it¡¯s best that Lyrica and Chen Yu fight them since you two are focused on speed." Shiro said with a smile. While there were earpieces provided by the organisers, Shiro would much rather use her own.
Nodding their head, the three couldn¡¯t help but feel a little nostalgic since two months was a long time, especially if you¡¯re spending most of that in a dungeon. With Shiro back on the team, they found things to be more ¡¯natural¡¯ and fitting.
It wasn¡¯t to say that Lyrica was a bad leader, it was just very hard to defeat Shiro in terms of versatility and ability to recover a situation regardless of how dire it seemed.
"Since I haven¡¯t seen everything yet, feel free to reveal around 80% of your power as this is broadcasted to the city. I¡¯ll find good fights for you to disy most of your abilities depending on the situation so make sure you keep an ear out for my orders ok?"
Seeing the four of them nod, Shiro smiled.
"In that case then let¡¯s bag ourselves some orange grade equipment."
Walking towards the teleport circle, they were sent to the top most floor as a giant forest with a few clearingsid out before them.
Nodding their heads, everyone scattered out into the forest while Shiro readied her bow at the g.
Activating the skill, Hawkeye, along with Analysis, Shiro scanned the forest for any enemies.
"Everyone, start making some distance between yourselves. However, make sure you¡¯re not too far apart as we don¡¯t know where they are. There is a good chance that they¡¯re still bunched up so you want to be careful." Shiro called out over the mic.
"Got it."
Watching the party spread out across the forest, Shiro narrowed her eyes at distant castle and tried to see who their defender was.
Seeing that the defender was the same person who had talked to her earlier, Shiro decided to try to hit them from this far away. After all, they weren¡¯t the yer nor the other guy so she wasn¡¯t too worried.
"I got sights on their defender. I¡¯ll try to eliminate him now." Shiro muttered into the mic while pulling back on her bowstring.
It was also a good chance for her to give Asteria¡¯s Blessing skill a go.
"Piercing the gxies, may Asteria¡¯s fury reach my foe." Shiro chanted the first thing that came into her mind.
Shimmering with a soft light, the bow started to draw in ambient mana. Coagting into an arrow, Shiro created severalyers of tier 4 magic circles to act as a barrel of sorts for the arrow.
*BANG!
Letting go of the string, the arrow was shot through the magic circles with each one increasing its speed exponentially.
Not only that, but due to the bow¡¯s passive, a second version of the attack trailed behind the arrow while Illusionary stars wrapped them as it soon flickered out of sight.
Looking towards the other castle, she saw both arrows m into the adventurer¡¯s body.
Widening his eyes in disbelief, the adventurer felt a huge burst of force from the arrows as his body was mmed into the ground and a crater was formed near the castle.
"Enemy defender is eliminated; their g is open for you to get." Shiro smiled.
-Holy, when the hell did you be such a powerful archer?!- Lyrica¡¯s confused voice rang out over the mic.
"Haha, let¡¯s just say that I was entertaining myself a little during the two months that I¡¯m not allowed to level up." Shiro replied.
-S- Kazumi, are you sure you¡¯re still a mage? I don¡¯t think a mage is as diverse as you.- Chen Yu chuckled.
"Don¡¯t mind me~ Just know that after this, I¡¯ll be asking Silvi about what you¡¯ve been up to during these two months. If you mistreat her in any way, trust that I¡¯ll pay you back 100 times ok? Even your branch master can¡¯t save your ass if you catch my ire." Shiro grinned as Chen Yu gulped. Thankfully, he had treated Silvia as a princes- no a queen during these two months so it should be fine.
Surely Silvia wouldn¡¯t report wrongly and watch him suffer right? Right?
-Oh don¡¯t worry about that. The two of them have been a little too sweet during these two months and we¡¯ve pretty much been force fed all of their love and affection. To be honest, I¡¯m surprised that Yin could even eat like that after being force fed.- Lyricaughed.
-Mn? I heard my name and food. Are you offering me food? When and where?- Yin¡¯s curious voice rang out.
Rolling her eyes with a smile, Shiro admitted that she missed this little glutton of her¡¯s in thest two months.
"After the event Yin. Depending on your performance, I¡¯ll reward you with some food. Oh but you¡¯re not allowed to blow up the forest, I can see you preparing that massive spark of dark star you know?" Shiro chuckled.
-Ehhhh, fine. I¡¯ll control it a bit more then. But you have to promise me a banquet.- Yinined.
"Sure. Oh would you look at that? Perfect timing. Yin, a hostile is around 700 meters away from you, kick their ass."
-URAHH!!! FOR THE BANQUET!!!!- Yin shouted out as she dashed towards them with a hungry glimmer in her eyes.
¡¯The f*ck? What kind of war cry is that????¡¯
Chapter 405 Demolition Star
Chapter 405 Demolition Star
Jumping into the air, a pair of ck wings spread out from her back as Yin grinned.
Snapping her fingers, five dark star sparks flickered into existence around her as she sent them forward towards the enemy.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!!
Exploding into mass of fire and destruction, the entire tower shook slightly from the impact.
But before she could even celebrate, a sword appeared in front of her as she quickly jumped into the rift to dodge the sword. When she exited, she had a frown on her face while a small cut could be seen on her cheeks.
"You dodged..." The man said as shadow seemed to flicker on his sword for a short moment before dispersing.
Taking a deep breath, Yin looked back at the man with a re.
"Have you ever thought about how rude it is to attack a girl¡¯s face?" She frowned.
"This is apetition. If you¡¯re bothered by the thought of hurting your face, you should have brought a helmet." The man replied.
"Ah I see, so you¡¯re THAT kind of asshole. In that case, I¡¯ll erase you right here and now to save some other people the trouble." Yin narrowed her eyes as she pped her wings.
All of a sudden, pirs of dark star shot out of the ground and surrounded the man.
Transforming herself into her phoenix form, Yin pped her wings once more as a huge tier 4 magic circle expanded out all of a sudden.
Narrowing his eyes, the man was about to attack Yin once more when an arrow appeared in front of his face. Feeling the danger emanate from the arrow, he quickly raised his sword to block it.
Meanwhile, Shiro frowned when she saw him block her arrow.
"Tch, annoying bastard. How dare the f*cker hurt Yin¡¯s face." Shiro muttered in a low voice while a second arrow was currently being prepared.
Tens of arrays were condensing onto the body of the arrow as magic circles enhanced the arrow itself.
Pulling back on her bow, Shiro fired the explosive arrow towards the man.
"Yin darling, tell me when your spell¡¯s ready to be fired. I¡¯ll give you some extra support to kick the guy¡¯s ass." She called out over the mic.
-Kiii!!!-
Crying out in acknowledgement, Yin shot into the air above her tier 4 magic circle.
Gathering mana between her wings, her Dark Star element started to increase in size as the mana around her became rampant.
As if it was a berserker set free from its chains, her fire raged relentlessly and tried to burn the man into ashes.
Surrounding himself in shadow, he fended off the fire while readying his sword.
Swiping it clockwise, a ray of energy circled around him and cut the fire in half.
Unfortunately for him, this did little to ease his difort.
"Tch!" Clicking his tongue, he jumped down onto the ground and started to avoid the fire.
Dashing around, he tried to look for an opportunity to attack Yin but an explosive arrow would always cut his attempts short. If it was a normal arrow, he would ignore it and continue as if nothing had happened. However, he knew that should he be hit by the arrow, he would immediately be eliminated.
While he had amazing offensive power, it was useless if he couldn¡¯t get close enough. And for some ungodly reason, the archer on their side of the team seemed to know when he¡¯ll go for an attack since the arrow would always be so precise.
Feeling helpless about the fact that he had to watch as the spell was beingpleted, he gritted his teeth and called out to his teammates over the mic.
"I might need some assistance to deal with this spell."
-A little hard considering the fact that I¡¯m dealing with someone myself.- One of his teammates replied with a strained voice.
-I cane help if that¡¯s what you need. You¡¯ll have to give me 2 minutes to deal with this assassin and swordswomanbo though.-
Recognising the voice, the man nodded his head.
"Alright but you don¡¯t have to eliminate them just yet. If anything, this bird is going to be the most annoying so we should deal with her huge area of effects before focusing on the others."
-Hm, we¡¯ll see what happens.-
Furrowing his brows, the man shook his head while ncing towards Shiro¡¯s location.
Narrowing his eyes, he ignored her for now and dashed towards Yin. Even if she fires an explosive arrow, he had an idea on how to deal with them.
Just as he decided to attack once again, the arrow arrived on time and exploded near his feet.
Quickly shifting his body before using his sword as aunch pad, he reinforced the de with mana and used it as a shield to propel his body upwards towards Yin.
Frowning slightly, Shiro was rather surprised at his manoeuvre.
"Watch out Yin, he¡¯sing at you now and it might be a bitte for me to give you support with the arrow as it¡¯ll hit you in the process. Lisandra and Chen Yu are also having some trouble since the yer became more aggressive." She called out while firing an arrow towards the yer¡¯s location.
Hearing her warning, Yin only nodded since she could already see the man dashing towards her. However, this was just perfect. The closer hees, the harder it would be for him to dodge her attack.
*BOOM!!!!!
Ripping open a portal of sorts, a giant meteor could be seen descending onto the forest.
With just its appearance, the surrounding tree¡¯s started to burn up into ash as the man widened his eyes.
If he wanted to survive this, he¡¯d have to use one of his items and even then, there¡¯s no guarantee that he¡¯ll win with the archer out and around.
"Tch, this event¡¯s really drawn out all kinds of monsters huh?" He muttered with a sight.
However, this didn¡¯t mean that he was going to give up.
Taking a deep breath, he tightened his grip on his sword as his cloak started to burn, revealing his identity to be Lucius, the young master of the Shadow Temple.
"Shadow Step Sword Art ¨C Painless Death." He muttered and swung his sword upwards.
*SHING!!!!
The high pitched sound of a sword being drawn could be heard as a deep cut could be seen on the meteor but failed to cut it in half.
"Not enough huh?" He sighed.
"Even if you cut the meteor in half, that is but food for the real spell you know?" Yin chuckled as she had turned herself back into human form.
"What do you mean?" Lucian asked with a smile.
"For you see-"
-Yin darling, if you start monologuing about how your element works I¡¯ll personally go over there and kick your ass after I kick his ass.- Shiro¡¯s voice rang out over her earpiece.
"Ehhhh, but mum I-"
-No but¡¯s. Either eliminate him now or I¡¯ll do it.-
"Urg, fine... well you, no you didn¡¯t hear her but it seems like oh dear mother of mine wants me to hurry. So... bye~"
Snapping her fingers, a spark of demolition star appeared in the centre of the meteor.
Consuming all the mass around it, the spark started to grow but Yinpressed it down. Within a single second, the entire meteor had disappeared as all that remained was a ball of white. Before Lucian could even question what it was, the feeling of death swept over him as he knew that this might kill him before the barriers actually activated.
Quickly using one of his life saving items, he watched as the spark exploded out into a giant ball of fire, rivalling that of a giant bomb dropped into the centre of the forest.
A deep crater could be seen as everything within a 1.5 kilometres radius was charred to ashes. The explosion had even identally eliminated Lisandra long with her opponent as they were a tad too close to the explosion.
Looking at the destruction, Yin nodded in satisfaction before ncing over at the leaderboard. Seeing that she had just eliminated Lisandra but failed to eliminate her opponent, Yin gulped in worry.
¡¯Oh sh*t.¡¯ She thought to herself since she didn¡¯t expect to drag Lisandra along with the spell.
-. . . Yin, how did you manage to end one of the fights far away from you but not your own?- Shiro¡¯s tired voice rang out.
"Um.... They were off guard and my opponent was on guard?" Yin tried to persuade Shiro.
-*sigh... At least your sister wasn¡¯t harmed too much. Go help Lyrica and Chen Yu, I¡¯ll deal with your opponent quickly.-
"Ok mum." Yin nodded obediently since she was just happy that she didn¡¯t get a serious scolding.
Chapter 406 Fighting The Slayer
Chapter 406 Fighting The yer
After sending Yin towards the duo, Lyrica and Chen Yu, Shiro looked towards Lucius¡¯ location.
Currently, there were 3 enemies left with the third going back to their castle so that it wasn¡¯t unguarded. This meant that only the yer and Lucius¡¯ were avable forbat right now. Should she eliminate Lucius¡¯, that would mean they can put the yer in a 1v4 situation and victory is well within their reach.
Pulling back on her bow, a stream of Void Star Energy coagted into an arrow. Fusing her Boreal Wind with it so that the travel speed is increased, Shiro narrowed her eyes at Lucius¡¯ who was currently dusting himself off after barely surviving with his life saving treasure.
Sighing to himself, he looked around at the destruction and couldn¡¯t help but shake his head.
"God damn, why are the people that have some slight connection to Shiro this insane in terms of fighting prowess." He muttered.
One of the other reasons he hade to this event was to look for Shiro and inquire about the existence of Yin. With the current state of the Shadow Temple, he was forced to try to look back into some records and had discovered the origin that included a distant kingdom called the Yin Kingdom that was destroyed in a war against the world.
In this record, there were talks of Phoenix¡¯s with the Dark Star element along with the original form of martial arts that was passed down to the faction.
With so many of these simrities in Shiro¡¯s party, he really wanted to ask her about the potential connection she had.
Unfortunately, he wasn¡¯t able to find her during this so he could only wait till after the event.
Just as he finished dusting himself off, he felt danger overwhelm his senses as an arrow mmed into his back before he could even react.
"OH COME ON!" He shouted out in annoyance.
Watching Lucius¡¯ be forcefully teleported out of the arena, Shiro turned her attention back to the other yer.
With Yin in the mix, he was having some trouble but not enough to the point that he would use his best skills.
¡¯Hmm... they can hold him back for now. In the meantime, I should make it so that the enemy can¡¯t take our g during the time we¡¯re fighting against the yer.¡¯ She thought to herself and shot two powerful arrows towards the new defender of the enemy¡¯s g.
Dodging the first arrow, the man was put in an awkward position as the second arrow struck his body.
For Shiro, it was quite an easy task to predict where they¡¯d go after firing an arrow. Adventurers of their calibre would always go for the shortest dodging route so she just needed to send an arrow to where they would be after dodging.
Eliminating the final adventurer except for the yer, their team would win if they take their g. However, it was a good chance for her party members to practice fighting someone strong so it would be a waste to avoid this opportunity.
Jumping off the castle tower, Shiro dashed towards their location.
Meanwhile, Lyrica and Chen Yu were facing some difficulties trying tond a hit on this yer.
Whenever he attacked them, he would instantly return to a defensive position and parry their next attack. Not only that, but there were also little chances to attack him to begin with since his counter was fearsome. A single attack would have a big chance of eliminating them.
But for some reason, it was as if he was going easy on them. Whether that was because he¡¯s looking down on them or other reasons, Lyrica did not enjoy that thought too much.
"Fuu...." Breathing out softly, she tightened her grip on her handle and dashed towards him using a set of footwork from the Heavenly Sword Arts called the Cloud Strider, Lyrica closed the gap between the two of them.
Quickly entering a defensive stance, the yer swung his sword towards her but was parried before it could even gather enough momentum.
"First Step ¨C rity." Lyrica said with a frown as she flicked her wrist and broke the yer¡¯s guard.
*PING!!!
Suddenly, sparks appeared near his neck as he was barely able to block the strike in time so that he wasn¡¯t eliminated.
"Tch, Second Step ¨C Emptiness." Lyrica clicked her tongue.
*BANG BANG!!!
Quickly jumping into the air, the yer narrowly dodged two strikes from his blind spot due to his instincts.
¡¯Damn, those sword strikes might be faster than mine.¡¯ He thought with a frown.
Little did he know, this was her power with a normal sword. If she included her hidden proficiency in the mix, thebination of short range and long range attacks would have eliminated him if he didn¡¯t go serious just now.
Shaking his head, he decided that this was enough ytime. From what he could see, he was the only one left.
"Sword Domain." He muttered.
A pulse of semi transparent energy spread out as it encased everyone around him.
Widening her eyes, Lyrica tried to get out of the range but the yer wasn¡¯t about to let her get away.
Flickering in front of her, he was about to eliminate her when a bow appeared within his peripherals.
Using her bow as a baton, Shiro mmed it into the yer¡¯s body and transferred all of her momentum to him with the help of her phantom path.
*BANG!!!!
Sliding backwards, the yer was quite thankful that the hit didn¡¯t eliminate him instantly.
Narrowing his eyes at the neer, he furrowed his brows.
Logically, he should have felt her enter his domain but the moment she appeared, he had felt nothing.
"Yo, seems like you¡¯ve had quite a fun time with my teammates." Shiro grinned while helping Lyrica up.
Staying silent, the yer decided to reveal a few more trump cards with Shiro in the mix.
"Silent type huh? You weren¡¯t quite like this in Cairosa but I suppose time changes a man."
Hearing that the woman knew that he was from Cairosa, the yer couldn¡¯t help but pause for a slight moment.
However, this was all Shiro needed since every party member leapt into action. Flickering behind him, she roundhouse kicked him towards Lyrica and Chen Yu.
"Third Step ¨C Void." Lyrica muttered before swinging her sword once more.
This time, three attacks were sent towards the yer in an instant.
In the gaps between each attack, Yin had created Dark Star des so that he couldn¡¯t escape.
Taking a deep breath, the yer twisted his body.
"Crescent Moon de ¨C Howling Moon."
*PING!!!!!
Shattering the attacks around him in an instant, he flickered beside Chen Yu.
"Lunar Eclipse."
*BANG!
In an instant, cut marks appeared on Chen Yu¡¯s barrier as his body was somehow restrained from reacting.
"Careful! He can restrain you!" Chen Yu warned as his body was teleported away.
Firing two arrows, Shiro tried to pin his location down but he had already flickered next to Yin.
"Shattered Moon."
Activating the next stage of his martial arts, he tried to restrain Yin using the same method as before but widened his eyes when Yin grinned.
"Gluttony."
Eating away at the mana around her, she forcefully broke the restraint.
"Ya~ A little nd but food is food." Yin grinned while quickly dodging his attack.
"Goodness, when did your skill evolve from storing extra mana to eating attacks?" Shiro questioned since Yin¡¯s gluttony should only allow her to increase the amount of mana she could hold.
"Well I kept on using gluttony to eat at restaurants in the two months as well as the time I had in the dungeons so I eventually got a new title and the skill evolved." Yin replied.
The title that she had obtained was Sin of Gluttony and that allowed her to expend some of her additional mana reserves to consume an attack from the enemy. As long as she had reserves, she could consume any attack.
However, once she uses up all the reserves, she¡¯ll be forced to take the full brunt so she needed to be careful of when she used his.
"Well since that¡¯s the case, stick close to Lyrica and free her if needs be. I can handle the restraint myself." Shiro grinned while twisting her body to avoid the attacks that he had sent.
Realising his restraint couldn¡¯t affect two of them, one eating it and the other just shrugging it off, the yer knew that this was going to be an annoying fight.
Chapter 407 Reward
Chapter 407 Reward
*BANG BANG BANG!!!
As he continued to fend off the onught of attacks sent out by the party, the yer or rather, Isaac, had sweat pouring from his face as he struggled to evennd an attack.
Of course, it wasn¡¯t as if the party was going all out since Yin needed to worry about coteral damage while Shiro was meant to be an archer right now.
"If we dy any longer, he¡¯ll get more points and we may not be able to get one of the orange grade items." Shiro warned while vaulting off of a tree branch and fired an arrow that was blocked.
"I¡¯ll use my throne world and you girls will synergise with me ok?" Shiro called out as they nodded.
Hearing what she had just said, Isaac frowned since the words throne world weren¡¯t exactly the most pleasing thing to hear.
mming her hand down, Shiro dragged everyone in the ce to her Rift Shadow throne world. In this world, unless she gave you permission, your vision would be hindered slightly.
Pulling back on her bow, Shiro did a quick chant as she fired the arrow up into the sky.
Splitting into tens of shards, the arrows rained down upon Isaac. A second volley of arrows soon followed while Lyrica and Chen Yu dashed behind him in order tond a sneak attack.
However, since Isaac still had his sword domain activated, he was able to detect them and quickly block the sneak attack.
But in doing so, left his front wide open as Yin appeared in his view.
Twisting her body, she tried to m a fist full of dark star energy into his chest. Unfortunately for Yin, Isaac shifted all of his weight onto his right leg before kicking her away with his left.
Just as he did this, Shiro flickered into his blind spot with her bow held as if it was a sword.
Pivoting on her foot, she activated her own sword domain on top of refraction as illusionary images of the sword appeared around him.
*BANG!!!!
Cracking the body of the bow against his torso, Shirounched Isaac into the air as she flicked her bow back into a normal holding position and pulled back on the strings.
Condensing mana into an arrow, she fired it without hesitation. The longer she waited, the more chances for Isaac to reorientate himself and deflect the arrow.
*BOOM!!!!
Exploding into a cloud of fire and dust, Shiro narrowed her eyes and nced towards the holographic screen in the middle of the arena.
Seeing that they had eliminated Isaac sessfully, Shiro sighed in relief.
*BRRRRR!!!!
The sound of a horn could be heard as the party was teleported to the uppermost floor. Decorated with white marble and red banners, five ss containers could be seen in the centre of the floor.
Shiro guessed that the orange grade items must be inside the ss containers since there was a sword, an axe, an armour piece, a bracelet of sorts and a gem.
Unfortunately, she was not able to inspect their properties nor were there any signs to describe them.
Above the containers was a holographic message.
[Congrattions! Points shall now be calcted as those with the most amount of points may choose an item. The order of which you will choose your item is in rtion to your final ranking.]
After reading the message, Shiro looked around and saw that everyone in the final round had been teleported to this floor.
Lisandra had a less than pleased face while looking at Yin since she was eliminated as coteral damage. Hell, she wasn¡¯t even able to show off some of her martial art skills meaning her points were quite low.
*Cough!
"Sorry~ Big sis didn¡¯t mean it ah, can you forgive me." Yin apologised while standing next to Lisandra.
Sighing softly, Lisandra shook her head.
"You better give me a portion of your food as an apology." She replied.
"Ah ok but like, I can only split it 9:1 ok? You get 1 and I get 9." Yin responded while looking down on her fingers and tried to work out how much food she needed to give Lisandra in the end.
*Puchi
"Shouldn¡¯t it be me who gets the 9?" Lisandra asked with a forced smile.
"Well you don¡¯t have the skill, gluttony, do you? Ah but if you¡¯re worried about the amount, I can guarantee that you¡¯ll get your fill since by one part I mean one banquet." Yin smiled brightly.
*PFFFFTTT!!!!!
"F*ck! You¡¯re going to have 9 banquets!?" Shiro shouted out from the back as she didn¡¯t expect Yin to want that many.
"What? I have around that many every day." Yin tilted her head in confusion.
"Huh???"
Looking over at Lyrica, Shiro saw her tired face and realised that it was indeed the truth.
"Holy hell how does she e- ah, she must have used all of her earnings for this right?" Shiro asked slowly.
"Yeah... since we were doing high level dungeons, she would have gotten quite a bit of ie even after sharing. But she¡¯s poor right now since 100% of her ie goes to food. Yin doesn¡¯t need clothes nor equipment since she has the monster cloth outfit as well as the fact that she¡¯s a mage." Lyrica nodded with a sigh.
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but look at Yin¡¯s stomach and wonder if it was a ck hole. Ironically enough, her element was Dark Star which can be shifted to have some properties of a ck hole.
"I. . . I have no words for you Yin." She massaged her eyes.
"What? It¡¯s not like I have any other use for the money." Yin pouted.
Talking for a little longer, the points were finally tallied up as the top 5 finishers were as follows.
First ce was Isaac, second was Yin, third was Shiro, fourth was Lyrica and fifth was Lucius.
With Isaac being in first ce, he walked up to the five ss containers that housed the weapons and wondered to himself for a moment. Eventually settling on the sword, he tapped the ss and retrieved the weapon.
Next was Yin and she decided to choose the bracelet while Shiro, who was third, chose the gem. After all, armour and weapons were obsolete after a few levels while the gem might be something that can help them for longer.
Looking at the gem, Shiro realised that it was a Mythic Skill Stone. She knew that there were Lucky Skill Stones, Cursed Skill Stones, Blessed Skills Stones and normal Skill Stones. She had never heard of anything such as a Mythic Skill Stone.
[Mythic Skill Stone (Orange)]
A skill stone blessed by the world. When activated, the user will have one minute to imagine a skill that they desire. Be warned, the mental image of the skill must be as detailed as possible for the best result as a vague thought will randomise the oue. Once the skill is constructed, the user can either choose to learn it themselves or gift it to another person.
Raising her eyebrow at this skill, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but take a deep breath. Right now, the thing she needed the most was something that could help her kill a god or something that could possibly be immortal. Sure, she had the god ying sword but that was trapped so she should avoid interacting with the sword.
However, there was now the problem of how the immortal gods are killed. She doesn¡¯t know what¡¯s the source of their immortality so the thought would be vague, thus wasting this skill stone.
Shaking her head, she decided to store it away for now so that when she understood how she could kill a god, she can use it to make herself a skill.
She could use it to give one of her teammates a skill simr to Nanomancer as she understands the ins and outs of this ss but she was going to be selfish this time and use it for herself. After all, it¡¯s not often that you can get something that could potentially help you kill a god.
¡¯That being said, I wonder if an orange grade item can even help me with such a thing... You would think that it would need to reach the ck grade or hell, maybe even rainbow grade. ¡¯
{Well perhaps it¡¯s an exception? Though I wonder why the city lord would even put this item on to be won at the event. Do you think there¡¯s another plot behind this?} Nimue asked.
¡¯Oh definitely. Only an idiot would give this away.¡¯ Shiro replied.
In the end, Lyrica took the armour while Lucius took the axe.
Chapter 408 Explination
Chapter 408 Explination
After they chose their orange grade items, a celebratory banquet was going to be held in a few hours as they were teleported out of the tower for the time being.
Stretching her body lightly, she told Lyrica that she¡¯ll go get changed back into her normal form with Lisandra.
Leaving the party for now, Shiro and Lisandra jumped into the rift before exiting not too far away from the event.
Untying her hair and letting it flow down, Shiro walked back towards the party.
"Wait is that? Holy sh*t! She¡¯s back!" One of the spectators shouted out since he was part of the Winter¡¯s Grace. He still remembered the scene where Shiro had defeated their faction members with ease. Quickly backing away, he knew that getting her ire was dangerous.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro wondered why they had such an extreme reaction towards their existence but only shrugged it off.
"Shiro." Lyrica called out with a smile as everyone had regrouped.
"Yo, I was going to say let¡¯s go to a banquet but since the event is going to be hosting one in a few hours, I might as well save some money. Plus, with Yin eating 10 of them daily, I don¡¯t think my wallet can hold up to it." Shiro chuckled.
"Wait how did you know?" Silvia tilted her head with confusion.
"Ah maybe this quote should help you figure things out a little. ¡¯Anyone else like this f*ck wit over here?¡¯" Shiro grinned.
"AH! That was you!?!?!" Silvia widened her eyes as she finally realised that the archer was Shiro.
"Yup~ Good job standing up to me by the way, really showed some backbonepared to the other participants haha." Shiroughed.
"God, if I knew that was you, I would have not bothered. Do you know how much my heart was pounding?" Silvia sighed.
"Well at least it allowed me to see how much you¡¯ve improved." Shiro smiled and patted Silvia¡¯s shoulder.
"We¡¯ll talkter but for now, I need to go meet my cousin and introduce her to you girls."
"Wait, your cousin is here?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"Yup. You may know- actually, you know what? I¡¯ll keep her identity a secret for now. When you see her you¡¯ll probably know who she is." Shiro chuckled.
Seeing her expression, the party immediately knew that her cousin must be a bigshot since Shiro wouldn¡¯t hide her identity if not to see their shocked reactions.
"Well I¡¯ll get going for now. Lisandra can tell you what¡¯s been happening in the two months we were gone. See ya~" Shiro waved before jumping into the rift. She wanted to see if she could ask the city lord on why the Mythic Skill Stone was given away.
Seeing Shiro flicker away, Lyrica shook her head with a smile.
"She¡¯s still the same as usual,ing and going at a moment¡¯s notice."
"I suppose she¡¯s what you would call a free spirit no?" Madison shrugged.
"True. Anyways, do you girls want to go to a caf¨¦ for now and wait for Shiro toe back?" Lyrica suggested.
"Sure, I also want to hear what Shiro¡¯s been experiencing in the past 2 months after all." Silvia nodded.
###
Parkouring through the city, Shiro watched as the tower descended back down into the ground.
¡¯Hm, I wonder what else they use that tower for. It would be a little wasteful for them to use it just for the event no?¡¯
{Do you think it can be converted to a giant cannon? Haha.} Nimueughed.
¡¯Possibly. I mean, with some detailed nni-¡¯
{I was being sarcastic.} Nimue rolled her eyes.
¡¯In that case then just know that the possibility is there.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
{So how exactly are you going to talk to the city lord?}
¡¯With Keiko¡¯s help. I¡¯ll just say that I know her and she can cover for me.¡¯
{But don¡¯t you still need to talk to the guards? It might take awhile for you to actually get in.}
¡¯Who said that I¡¯ll be talking to the guards?¡¯
{Wait what?}
¡¯I can just reappear in the room they¡¯re in right now and talk to them straight away no? I doubt Keiko would let the city lord harm me so this is the fastest way.¡¯
{So that¡¯s what you mean by cover for you.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯Yup, oh also while we¡¯re talking, how¡¯s the fire spirit?¡¯ Shiro asked curiously.
{It¡¯s maturing a little slowly. With me being water, Iziuel being Forest and you focusing on ice, we can¡¯t exactly help it grow fast. We can only wait for now.}
¡¯In that case then can¡¯t I get Yin to help?¡¯
{HELL NO!}
Shocked at Nimue¡¯s sudden outburst, Shiro was a little confused.
{*Cough* The problem with that is with the spirit¡¯s current state as well as its identity being that of an ancient fire, it would be highly nourishing for a phoenix like Yin since it¡¯ll enhance their mes dramatically. The moment you present the spirit to Yin, there¡¯s a high chance that she¡¯ll just instinctively consume it.} Nimue replied as there was no way she was going to let that gluttonous phoenix consume their spirit sibling.
¡¯. . . No wonder. To be fair, even if it was not nourishing, Yin would have probably tried to eat it regardless.¡¯ Shiro nodded while jumping towards the room. Exiting her rift, she was greeted by the smile of Keiko and a shocked face of the city lord. Before he could even pull out a sword, Keiko stopped him.
"Seems like you¡¯ve been expecting me." Shiro smiled.
"I figured that you woulde here after seeing the item. I was the same." Keiko smiled since she was also confused as to why the city lord would put such an item as a reward for the event.
"Now then, since the guest has arrived, why don¡¯t you educate us both on your choice, city lord." Keiko smiled toward the city lord.
Furrowing his brows, he watched as Shiro sat down on a chair in the corner.
"While I do not appreciate you introducing a new guest at this point in time, I suppose someone as strong as her will need to know about this as well." He sighed.
"Do you believe in fortune tellers and news of other worlds?" He asked seriously.
"Depends on the situation." Keiko shrugged.
"You see, a while back, I met a fortune teller who sent me on a small quest of sorts with the reward being the mythic skill stone. Back then, my thought was for me to use it myself but as I continued on the quest, things started to be clear to me. The only reason she wanted to give the stone to me was so that I can present it to someone else when the time arrives.
"During the quest, I learned of the different worlds, queens of races, dungeons being the gateway along with a period of time toe called the age of demons and gods. The demons have already arrived hence the battle on the front lines but this is only the scouts. Should the proper demons arrive, humanity would have been destroyed long ago. The gods, high tiered entities that should be something around tier 8, would act as a final defence.
"As Ipleted the several tasksid out to me by the fortune teller, I began to trust her word since I¡¯ve seen things that shouldn¡¯t have been possible if not for her visions. Of course, it could all be an illusion but I was actually sent to the different worlds you see. I would spend a period of time in each world and learn about their history. Some were much more advanced than ours while others were primitive.
"One of the worlds that stood out to me the most was called Aria. In that world, there were records of a being that could create anything from machinery with a wave of their hand. While the records were iplete, I know that the being had fought against one of the god¡¯s chosen and lost. Resulting in her death." Alvan exined as Shiro¡¯s breath halted for a moment.
¡¯The fortune teller actually sent him to the future of my world!?¡¯ She thought in shock.
Realising that this meant the fortune teller was most likely a tier 7 entity, Shiro listened carefully for any clues that may help her in the future. After all, it seems like times were shifting as the age of demons and gods seemed to creep closer with every passing day.
Chapter 409 Visions
Chapter 409 Visions
"After my exploration of a few different worlds, I spent my time in this life building up some achievements for myself and imed the position of the city lord as the fortune teller had instructed me. She would give me visions of what I should do to reach this stage but as of recently, she only gave me a single letter before stopping allmunications. And that letter was for me to use the mythic skill stone in the event and my role shall be over." Alvan shook his head and showed them the letter.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked back at Alvan.
"Has she told you anything else about thising age of demons and gods?" She asked.
"A little. You see, the visions I received are a little like cutscenes. I can watch what¡¯s going on but I cannot interact with it. I don¡¯t know what are the sources to the situation nor do I know how to avoid them. I was only told that I should just follow my path in life and deliver the stone. Of course, even if I didn¡¯t, the stone would have found its way to the rightful owner in the end. Fate works in a strange way after all."
"Yeah I get that but I mean, what did you SEE in the visions." Shiro rolled her eyes since she wanted to get as much information as she could.
"*Cough* Right, about that. In the vision, the things I saw were a little limited. But I know that there are ces in the current world that would be rendered to a lifeless wastnd where undead roam freely. Humans were being used as ves while the monster races reigned supreme. There were a few safehouses for those that are weak but it would be a fight or die situation everyday. Not only that, but each monster race will also be governed by queens that can apparently sense when their subjects are being killed. Levelling up will be much harder for humans." Alvan shook his head.
"Hmm... Were you able to see which queens were the biggest problems?" Shiro asked as it was a good time to take a headcount now. Not only that, when she made the contract with Nimue, her side of the bargain had it so that she would help Nimue get her revenge by killing some of the queens.
"Unfortunately no. There was a limit to how much I could see and the main point of visions were to convince me of what was going to happen in the future should nothing be done."
"I see... That¡¯s unfortunate. Have you been able to track down the fortune teller or did shepletely cut off her connection with you?" Shiro asked.
"I wasn¡¯t able to find her after thest letter." Alvan shook his head.
Leaning back on her chair, Shiro sighed.
"You seem like you know a little about this." Keiko asked Shiro curiously. During the times that Alvan had talked about theing age as well as other worlds, Shiro seemed to understand what he was talking about as well as some details.
"Keiko, do you remember what had happened in Mount Fuji?" Shiro asked as she turned to her.
"You mean the incident where the mountain was overrun by monsters? It was solved two monthster but no one knew why." Keiko nodded.
"You see, I was there. It was also there that I met the queen of ice, Khionah. She was leading the snow woman and her goal in that ce was for something called an Anchor. I don¡¯t know what it is but I think it has something to do with her crossing from her world to ours. She did say that there were other queensing. Before I left the ce, she gave me a warning about the age of demons and gods but she didn¡¯t divulge more than needed." Shiro replied as Keiko furrowed her brows.
"Hmm... why didn¡¯t she attack you? From some of the clips I¡¯ve seen, she is probably more than capable of taking you out, no offence."
"I wonder about that as well. But all I know is that a new age ising and humanity might be screwed if we don¡¯t do anything." Shiro shrugged.
"True. I¡¯ll probably go back to Tokyo and ask for a world meeting of all the highest powers. Perhaps some of the hidden sects might even show up, who knows. Of course, that can wait after meeting your party." Keiko smiled.
"Mn. Oh by the way, city lord, why did the woman want you to give away the skill stone? Did she leave any message for you in regards to that?"
"Well she did give me a message but I shall keep it to myself. She did warn me that the future may change if the reason was to be known."
Talking for a little while, both Shiro and Keiko left the room and started to walk towards where the party was gathered.
Looking back at the two, Alvan couldn¡¯t help but think back to what the woman had told him. It was a rather cryptic message but that was only because he was only allowed to know the bare minimum. Maybe if he knew a little more, things might be clear.
¡¯Ruler of worlds, travelling through theyers of incarnation. First as a demon, second as a human and third as a deity... Could she be talking about reincarnation?¡¯ Alvan wondered to himself before shaking his head.
Looking down at the city, he wondered if he should retire now and go out into the world. After all, he had already passed on the item that the fortune teller had given to him.
###
Making their way towards the caf¨¦, Keiko couldn¡¯t help but nce over Shiro.
"Howe you seem so calm with the situation?" She asked curiously.
"Well there¡¯s no point worrying mindlessly right now is there? The most I can do is to get stronger and level up as much as I can in the time that we have so that I have a better chance of surviving the new age. After all, if I spent the time that could be used to level up on worrying, I would onlye to be annoyed at myselfter." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn, indeed." Keiko nodded. Every second counted right now as she had already sent a message to her assistants to call for a world meeting so that they could discuss the things they can do in order to prepare for the age of demons and gods. Hopefully, they can stop being greedy and increase the overall level of humanity so that they can actually stand a chance. But with how some of the world leaders act, Keiko didn¡¯t have a positive outlook on the meeting.
"Say, Keiko, what level are you right now? We don¡¯t know when the new age is arriving so we should all ss up and level up, including you." Shiro asked.
"Me? I¡¯m currently level 405. It is still a while away from the peak of tier 5 but finding high level dungeons isn¡¯t exactly easy. Plus, I¡¯m somewhat stuck in Tokyo for the past few months due to some matters I needed to attend to so I couldn¡¯t go to the front lines to farm for some EXP." Keiko replied.
"Hm... 405. To be fair, the best thing for us is to be tier 8 gods by the time the new age arrives but that¡¯s kind of a wishful thought. Tier 6 is a bare minimum and tier 7 is rmended I think. For humanity to stand a chance, maybe all of the top fighters need to reach tier 6." Shiro muttered however she knew how hard it was for people to reach tier 6. Hell, even back in her old world, only she and the hero reached tier 6 out of the entire popce so one can imagine how hard it is to reach tier 6.
"Uncle, has been stuck at the peak of tier 5 for a while now so maybe he has a chance to reach tier 6? Same with aunty. Speaking of them, when will you visit them? I¡¯m sure they miss you dearly."
"We¡¯ll see. I don¡¯t have my memories and there are still a bunch of things I need to figure out." Shiro shook her head.
Until she can resolve the gun pointing at the back of her head known as Duan Han Yin, she wanted to avoid revealing her identity easily.
Looking down on her hands, she clenched them into a fist as she knew that she had to reach her peak and go beyond in order to survive.
Shaking her head, she continued to talk to Keiko while they walked towards the caf¨¦ at a rather leisurely pace.
Chapter 410 Plans For The Next Month
Chapter 410 ns For The Next Month
Arriving at the caf¨¦, they saw the party sitting near the window. The first thing that Keiko saw was Yin eating away as tes were stacked up high beside her.
"Yin, if you wanted to eat, you should have gone to a restaurant. This is a caf¨¦." Shiro called out with a sigh.
"Mn? Well I just thought I might as well get some food since we¡¯re all here." Yin replied while licking some cake off her fingers.
"Well anyway, this is my cousin, Keiko." Shiro shook her head and gestured towards Keiko.
Looking at the woman besides Shiro, the party paused for a moment before widening their eyes.
As adventurers, it was almost guaranteed that they knew what each of the faction leaders at the top of this world looked like. To see the assassin hero next to Shiro while she proimed that she was her cousin was akin to a meteorite smashing down on them.
"Wait wait wait, she¡¯s your cousin!?!?" Chen Yu asked in disbelief.
"Yup. But you should probablye with me back to my room. I¡¯ve got some important things to tell you all." Shiro said while looking around. She had already used her Fae illusions so to anyone else, this would just look like a normal meeting and not one between her party and the assassin hero.
"Ah sure."
Standing up, the party left the caf¨¦ and made their way towards her room.
Upon arriving in the room, Shiro sat down on a chair and gestured for everyone to sit down.
"Right then, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Keiko, and I¡¯m Kuromi or rather, Shiro¡¯s cousin. I¡¯m also the leader of the Rising Sun faction that you may have run into back in Miriel." Keiko smiled as the party nodded.
"Jeez Shiro, your family¡¯s more ridiculous than Lyrica¡¯s. Are me and Silvia the only ones with a rtively normal background?" Madison asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It¡¯s not a bad thing now is it?" Shiro chuckled.
"True. So anyway, you wanted to talk to us about something important?"
"Yeah, you can say it¡¯s about the future." Shiro nodded.
For the next few minutes, she informed them all of all that she knew about the new age. How humanity would be suppressed as they would need to be at least tier 6 to stand a chance of survival.
Hearing the news, they had a frown on their faces since this wasn¡¯t exactly the best situation.
"So I guess our next move is to ss up as fast as possible then?" Lyrica asked.
"Mn, I still need to wait a month for the celestial trials to open and even then, I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m able to get all of the materials that I need." Shiro shook her head.
If not for the fact that she had chosen such a troublesome ss to level up into, she might have reached B rank already and saved Yuki from her prison.
But as things stand, she¡¯ll be wasting another month in doing nothing.
"Anyways, while you talk about what you need to be doing in the next month, would it be ok if I took my niece to get some food at a restaurant?" Keiko asked with a smile.
"Ah sure go for it. Yin listen to your aunt. Lisandra, if you want, you can also join her." Shiro nodded.
As the three left the room, Shiro¡¯s face became serious.
"I think it¡¯s about time that the two of you also know the truth and why this next age is important. Remember how I told you that queens of different races will be suppressing humans from levelling up?" Shiro said with a narrowed gaze towards both Aarim and Chen Yu.
"Yeah? What about it?" Aarim nodded.
"I¡¯m going to be one of those queens. Due to some personal reasons, I would like it if none of the spirits are harmed since they¡¯ve been enved for long enough. Though that¡¯s not to say that I will be going out of my way to hunt down anyone." Shiro said as she dispelled her disguise on her name tag.
[Shiro LVL 100 Mystic Sylph Queen]
"During my ss up from level 50 to 51, my race changed from Snow Girl to Mystic Fae. And just in case you are still suspicious, yes this means that I was a monster from the start. I began as a snow girl in New York. The host of this body, Kuromi, died in New York so that¡¯s a whole different thing I need to deal with."
Looking at Shiro with a raised eyebrow, Aarim only chuckled.
"Well I suppose that solidifies one of my other theories then. To be honest, I figured as much since your power is clearly abnormal for someone your level. It¡¯ll only make sense if you were a hero or a monster of the same level." Aarim smiled. She didn¡¯t really mind Shiro being a monster since it just means that there was a chance she could learn some information about monsters that humans didn¡¯t know about.
"Hou? Seems like you were prepared. What about you then Chen Yu? Are you going to report this back to b*stard Tian?" Shiro asked.
Even though Nan Tian already knew her identity as a monster, Chen Yu doesn¡¯t. Depending on what he says, she might have to reconsider his allegiance.
Looking down with a serious expression, Chen Yu furrowed his brows for a moment before sighing.
"I just hope I won¡¯t get my ass killed by the branch master. To be honest with you, I¡¯ve enjoyed my time much more in this party. Previously, every mission was somewhat dull as the other members are all focused on efficiency. So just in case I get some stupid task where I would need to try to y you, I think I¡¯ll keep this to myself." Chen Yu smiled honestly. There were two reasons for him to keep this, first being Silvia and second being that he didn¡¯t want to fight against Shiro.
"Welp you heard thatdies, seems like we can trust our dear precious Silvi to lil Chen here." Shiro grinned as the other party members in the room chuckled.
Hearing this Silvia only blushed and looked down.
"Though to be fair Chen Yu, Nan Tian already knows about my identity as a monster. He found out way back in New York when we first met. This is also why he had been calling my Little Snow." Shiro rolled her eyes.
¡¯!!! Sh*t someone is trying to get together with Shiro!¡¯ Lyrica widened her eyes when she realised that Nan Tian must have his eyes on Shiro.
¡¯I¡¯ll have to ask Chen Yu about his detailster so that I can prepare myself.¡¯
Ignoring Lyrica¡¯s shocked reaction, Shiro turned back to Chen Yu.
"So if you had told him, I would have needed to punish you a little. But you can rest easy now since you¡¯ve passed my test. Oh but you need to treat Silvi with pure dedication ok? If you make her sad, you make all of us angry. If you make her happy, you make all of us happy." Shiro smiled.
"Got it." Chen Yu nodded while holding Silvia¡¯s hand.
"Good. Anyways, let¡¯s talk about what we should do in the next month. Everyone here will focus on getting to B rank and I¡¯ll be helping you out whenever I can. After that, I¡¯ll be heading back to Mount Fuji so that I can do my celestial trials in order to get the next ss. During that time, all of you will be charging to level 200 so that you can then ss up once more to A rank. Understand?" Shiro grinned.
Nodding their heads, the party had a determined gaze in their eyes as Shiro smiled in satisfaction.
"Alright, while you girls do your rank up requirements, I got a few more people I need to talk to."
Since Lucius was in the city, she might as well pay him back for stalking her back in Tokyo. One the other hand, there was also Isaac who seemed to have a story of his own that she was rather curious about. Though if it wasn¡¯t anything important, she¡¯d rather not interact with that massive masochist.
Leaving the room, Shiro dashed through the city while reactivating her disguise on her name tag. After all, it would not be good for her to unt her identity as a monster in the city now would it?
Closing one of her eyes, she scanned the surrounding area and soon found Lucius¡¯ mana signature. Right now, he was in one of the hotels rxing. This reminded her of the time when she walked in onto Chen Yu after he had a shower.
¡¯¡¯Let¡¯s just hope I don¡¯t walk in on shadow b*stard n.a.k.e.d or else I might have to cut off something that ends his bloodline." Shiro muttered.
Lucius, who was in his room, felt a shiver as he had no idea that a certain queen was making her way towards him.
Chapter 411 Connection To Shadow Temple
Chapter 411 Connection To Shadow Temple
Hopping on the edge of the window of a hotel room, Shiro peeked into the room and saw that Lucius wasying on his back on the bed.
Thinking to herself for a moment, Shiro grinned then hopped into her rift. Of course, she made sure to hide her mana fluctuation so that she wouldn¡¯t be detected.
Reappearing above him, she stomped down onto his crotch and used him as a tform to jump onto the floor.
"GAH!!!! CRAZY WOMAN!" Lucius shouted out in a panic. Curling his body up in pain, he tried to get himself ready forbat.
"That was just a small task of the payback I have for you. Remember how you stalked me back in New York?" Shiro smiled coldly as cold mist flowed from her hand.
"*cough! About that, I actually have something serious to discuss with you." Lucius widened his eyes after realising who she was.
"Hou? I give you 10 seconds to intrigue me. Be warned though, that 10 seconds is strict since you¡¯re already cornered." Shiro replied.
Looking down between his feet, Lucius could see an ice spear being formed as he gulped.
"You know how the faction I¡¯m in is called Shadow Temple, you might have some unknown connection since your martial arts an- HOLY SH*T LET ME FINISH WOMAN!" Lucius was cut off when the spike shot up just as the 10 second mark was reached.
Quickly hopping out of the way, he dived into his shadow and tried to avoid the cruel fate of being pierced.
"You can run but you can¡¯t hide, boy. Come out and your pain will be quick." Shiro chuckled while keeping an eye on his shadow.
"Did the first part I just said not intrigue you woman!?" Lucius asked as he made sure he was out of danger.
"Nope. I know where I got this martial art and your faction does not intrigue me." Shiro shook her head.
"What if it has a connection to your phoenix daughter as well?"
"The only thing I need to know about my daughter is that she is my cute glutton and nothing else. If you want to use her as ckmail, you can bet that I¡¯ll kill you before you can shout out my name." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"God no, what I¡¯m trying to say is that you and your gluttonous daughter might have more inmon with the faction than you think. You see, a few weeks ago, while I was dealing with the internal conflict of the faction, I had chanced upon some carvings and tablets. There¡¯s an unmistakable connection with the history of our faction and the dungeons. Since the faction has some connection to phoenix¡¯s, especially dark phoenix¡¯s, some of my followers have been urging me toe find you." Lucius exined as he slowly peeked his head out of the shadows after seeing Shiro retract her spells.
¡¯Hmm... since this might be something that ties into Yin¡¯s origin, it might be good for me to explore this. However, I don¡¯t really want to poke my head into the business of another faction. Especially since I¡¯m the guest elder of Winter¡¯s Grace and my cousin is the leader of the Rising Sun.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself for a moment.
"How about this. First, you sort your sh*t out with your faction since I want none of that. Second, you stabilise your position so that when me and my daughter visit, we won¡¯t be killed on sight by a level 200 elder of yours. Only once these two are done will we visit, ok?" Shiro proposed. She had other stuff to tend to.
"I can somewhat do the second task but the first is a bit more annoying. You see, the internal workings of the faction is a little different and they also offer a different kind of service. To be the faction leader, you need toplete a few tasks before you¡¯re endowed with the role. Even now, I¡¯m trying toplete the tasks but the other elders are hindering me. This is also the reason I was on the run in New York since I was halfway through one of the tasks. So in order for me to fulfil both of the roles, it¡¯ll take a while, more than a few months if I had to guess." Lucius replied.
"Hmm... in that case then I suppose we can drop by. But first, I have one big question for you. What do you gain out of it? If the other elders in the faction don¡¯t want Yin toe, that must mean it¡¯s detrimental to their benefits. So why are you trying to get me and Yin toe to the faction when it¡¯s clearly bad for your benefits." Shiro asked with suspicion.
". . ." Staying silent, Lucius didn¡¯t exactly know how to react.
"Mn, seems like you haven¡¯t thought it through yet. I¡¯ll give you a way to contact me but remember, it¡¯s one time use so think carefully about it. In the meantime, I¡¯ll take my payment for putting up with your bullsh*t back in New York." Shiro said while cing down an earpiece on his desk.
Jumping out of the building, Shiro left the confused Lucius in the room alone.
"What did she mean by payment? She didn¡¯t take anything." Lucius frowned while looking at the earpiece.
Sighing to himself, he wondered how he should convince her and decided to sit down for now. However, just as he did this, he felt something cold poke his rear as his face paled instantly.
###
Feeling her little trap activate, Shiro¡¯s lips curved into a smile as she had imed his first time in the rear. Of course, it might not be his first time, she didn¡¯t know and she wouldn¡¯t judge.
Thinking about what he said for a moment, she wondered if it would be worth giving the faction a visit. While it was a little annoying, it was something that had direct links to Yin. Since she also had a month to spare, it might be a good chance.
But on the other hand, she could also use this time to help the other party members reach B rank and go to the faction after she cleared the celestial trials.
*Sigh...
"So many troublesome things to deal with. What should I even deal with first?" Shiro muttered to herself.
{Maybe improve more on your martial arts? Either that or you can do the hunts on monsters outside of dungeons with the rest of the party.} Nimue suggested.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯m not too sure about that since we¡¯re all at level 100. Levelling up would make things harderter and right now efficiency is what we need. We need to level up when we can as well as ss up in the shortest time possible. That way, we can be somewhat prepared for the next age I suppose.¡¯ Shiro replied with a shake of her head.
{Hmm... true. In that case then let¡¯s just hope that Keiko can get you some of the items that you need for ss up eh?} Nimue smiled.
¡¯Well even with her connections, the items that I need are extremely rare so she hasn¡¯t been able to acquire any of them. Not only that, they¡¯re also celestial items so the sources of which one can find them are already limited. I¡¯ll be surprised if she brings me more than two of these items.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
Deciding to look for Keiko and Yin since they¡¯ve gone to a restaurant to eat, Shiro scanned the city and tried to look for their signals.
Finding their location, she made her way towards them.
Upon arriving at the restaurant, she saw a disguised Keiko and Yin. Keiko didn¡¯t have a pleasant expression on her face while Yin was just looking around in a hungry manner.
"What do you mean we¡¯ve emptied out your pantry?! Surely you can make more right?" Keiko frowned.
"I¡¯m being serious miss! A chef can cook but with no ingredients, he can¡¯t do anything. Even though we¡¯ve prepared to amodate miss Yin¡¯s eating habits, we weren¡¯t prepared for you to take so much!" The owner replied helplessly. Normally, Yin would be restrained by the amount of money she had so they could somewhat amodate the other guests. But with that problem taken out of the equation, Yin had literally eaten more than a weeks¡¯ worth of food through speeding up how fast she could eat. Not only that, they had also got some emergency help with extra food supplies but even that wasn¡¯t enough.
"Tch, fine. Come with me Yin, aunty will take you to another restaurant." Keiko furrowed her brows and looked towards Yin.
"Aunty is the best." Yin smiled eagerly and hugged Keiko.
Nodding with satisfaction, Keiko indulged herself with the thought that this was simr to Kuromi when she was younger. Of course, that was only appearance and not eating habits. God forbid if Kuromi had the same eating habit in the Asakura family when growing up.
As this was happening, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but look at the situation with a deadpan expression.
¡¯Did Yin really just empty out a restaurant with Keiko basically giving her infinite money?¡¯
{I do believe that¡¯s what I just witnessed.}
¡¯. . . What the f*ck?¡¯
Chapter 412 1 Month
Chapter 412 1 Month
Shaking her head, Shiro walked up to the two of them and grabbed their shoulders.
"We¡¯re going to have a little talk ok?" Shiro forced a smile as the duo looked back at Shiro.
"Ah Shiro, why don¡¯t youe with us? Since you¡¯re the guest elder, you might be able to help us get more food for Yin." Keiko suggested with a smile.
"One restaurant is enough for a day. If you really want that much food, you can do it again tomorrow I guess." Shiro sighed.
Hearing Shiro say that they could repeat this tomorrow, the owner paled and quickly had his staff request more orders for food. If they are reallying again tomorrow then he needed to prepare himself for a war in the kitchen.
Leaving the area, Shiro took them back to the faction.
"Right then, my n for the next month is to see if we can get as many of us into B rank so that we can continue to level up. Keiko, you should do the same and go to the front lines so that you can start levelling up again. If you can reach the peak of tier 5, that would be great. Even if you don¡¯t reach tier 6, at least you¡¯ll be able to somewhat protect yourself when the timees." Shiro said as Keiko nodded.
"Sure, though the only problem would be the actual faction. But I¡¯m sure I can pull something off. I¡¯ll also have them look for any items that can help you with the pill recipe and your ss up items. If they do find it, they¡¯ll send it to your current address ok?" Keiko smiled.
"That would be much appreciated."
"You can also ask the rest of your party members about what they need in their ss up. I¡¯ll have my staff look for them along with your stuff so that it¡¯s easier." Keiko suggested.
"Hmm... are you sure?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Yeah, you can think of it as repayment for looking after me when we were children. Though I doubt you¡¯ll remember it."
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro looked at Keiko and sighed.
"I feel like I¡¯m taking advantage of you too much."
"Oh don¡¯t worry about that haha. It¡¯s my pleasure to help you. I¡¯ll stay here for another day or two before going to the front lines. Since I¡¯m an assassin, I think I¡¯ll be invading some of their forts and try my hand at killing a few of the big shots. Who knows, that might give me some good weapons and armour to help me out." Keiko grinned.
###
For the next two days, Keiko gathered a list of everything the party needed to ss up while also taking Yin around to empty out all the restaurants in the city.
People were naturally annoyed but with Shiro¡¯s identity and power as a guest elder, there wasn¡¯t much they could say. The other factions were also annoyed so they tried to pressure Keiko of all people, only to get their ass handed to them and left beaten outside of the stores.
This demonstration allowed Yin to eat unrestrained for the two days that Keiko was here.
However, after Keiko left, they tried toin to Shiro only to be sent off with a ¡¯small¡¯ demonstration of power much like what Keiko had done.
In addition to this, Aarim had pestered Shiro about knowing some of the abilities that monsters had. Feeling no reason to hide this from her, she divulged some information about her skill ¨C Monster ¨C and ¨C Rejuvenation ¨C which allowed her to be unmatched against people in her level.
Hearing that monsters would essentially get their stats doubled and a free pass from death, Aarim¡¯s interests in Shiro grew while the party finally understood one of the reasons that Shiro could fight without too much worry.
The main thing with monsters was that despite their great strength, they had easy to read attack patterns. This allowed humans to hunt them down. Should all the monsters act like Shiro, no one would be able to hunt anything unless it was an entire ss beneath them.
After Keiko left, the party continued toplete their ss up objectives one by one. With the asional items being sent to her room during the month, both Silvia, Chen Yu and Madison had managed to reach B ss.
[Silvia LVL 101 Grand Healing Sage]
[Chen Yu LVL 101 Phantom Reaper]
[Madison LVL 101 Demonic Valkyrie]
Forming a small team amongst themselves, Shiro had them venture out to a higher level city for now and try to level up as much as possible.
As for the rest of the party, their sses were a little harder toplete since it involved a bunch of solopletions much like her celestial quest.
Shiro had tried to help them out as much as possible but a lot of it was up to them.
During this month, Shiro had unfortunately levelled up a little by ident due to her helping out with the team.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Mystic Fae
Title: Advanced Monster (312/1000 Human¡¯s Killed), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Element Empress EX
Level: 100
ss: Mystic Sylph Queen (SSS), Ascendant Nanomancer (EX)
HP: 13,750,000/13,750,000
MP: 45,187,500/45,187,500
STR: 65,000 <+32,500> (+15,000)
VIT: 60,000 <+30,000> (+20,000)
INT: 130,000 <+65,000> (+30,000) {+6,500} [+130,000]
AGI: 70,000 <+35,000> (+10,000)
DEX: 55,000 <+27,500> (+7,000)
DEF: 40,000 <+20,000> (+12,000)
< > = Title Bonus (50%) {Tears of the Sylph Queen +5% INT} (Armour) [ ]= Armour passive
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 4
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 4
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 4
Rift Shadow ¨C Tier 4 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 4
Star ¨C Tier 4
Underworld Fire ¨C Tier 4
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 4
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 4
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 4
Forest ¨C Tier 4
Bnce: 5 Gold 292 Large Silver, 473 Silver Erins 5604 Bronze Erins 0 USD
Skills ¨C
Mystic Sylph Queen:
Elemental Breath, Fae Illusions, Force of Elements, Celestial Raiment EX, Tier 3 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Sylph Queen¡¯s Domain EX, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX, Frenzied Incarnation EX, Basic Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 3, Analysis
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path, Celestial Path, Berserker Path
Sword Skills:
Refraction, Sword Domain
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Myriad Transformations Throne World, Hollow Deceit, Ancient Spirit Casting, Asteria¡¯s Blessing, Wrath of Stars.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Dark Star Empowerment (Tier 3), Ice Chain (Tier 3), Shadow Cloak (Tier 3), Dark Star Seraphim (Tier 3)]
With her level ups and her armour passive, her MP had reached a staggering 45million. With this, her stats were finally moreparable to some of the monsters they had seen but unfortunately, with her state of mana links, she couldn¡¯t make use of the entirety of this 45 million mana.
However, even with the amount she could ess, she was already almost unrivalled. One could only imagine how much damage she could do without this limitation.
During this month, Shiro did try to solve her link issue by having Keiko look for high quality pills but finding good pills was hard. While she did want to use the lower quality pills and enhance them with Yin¡¯s blood, dirt was still dirt so she wanted to hold off on that.
With the opening of the celestial trials in less than a few days, Shiro was about to make her way back to Mount Fuji.
"Since I need to do this trail solo, none of you cane with me. However, all of the stuff you need should be in my room if Keiko managed to acquire any of them. If you ss up to B ss, remember to contact Silvia, Chen Yu and Madison so you can go level up ok?" Shiro smiled.
"Sure, I¡¯m pretty much half way done with my tasks anyways. Just one more item and a few annoying tasks." Lyrica nodded.
"As for me, I¡¯ll try to ss up but I think I might be focusing on trying to make some spells with your monster title and Rejuvenation skill as reference." Aarim chuckled.
"That¡¯s fine. You might even get a hidden ss because of that but just in case, allocate around 30% of your attention to ss up."
"Got it."
"As for the two of you... Yin, try not to empty out the restaurants since I won¡¯t be here to cover for you. Also, make sure to try to ss up if you can though we don¡¯t know the requirements. As for Lisandra, look after your sister. Unfortunately, your ss up is linked to mine so you¡¯ll have to wait."
"Don¡¯t worry mum, I¡¯ll try to keep my appetite in check." Yin nodded.
With a single nce, Shiro could already tell that it¡¯s bullsh*t but she only shook her head and smiled.
"In that case then I¡¯ll see you girlster. Hopefully, when Ie back, I¡¯ll be in the B ss." Shiro said before driving away in her motorbike.
Chapter 413 Atesh
Chapter 413 Atesh
Taking off her helmet, Shiro looked at Mount Fuji with mild surprise. It had been a while since she hadste to this ce and in just a short one month, the mountain itself had experienced a big change.
The side of the mountain had beenpletely removed to reveal an ice city ruin of sorts. Even from this distance, she could see a few of therger ice beasts roaming around.
¡¯Seems like the queen has left but she hadn¡¯t patched up the hole where she dug the base.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
Putting her motorbike away, she walked towards the city in hopes of finding a ce to rest for now.
While she did this, she looked up on some information about the celestial trials and when it¡¯ll be open.
With only 10 hours left till the opening, there were several parties recruiting for members near the entrance of the city.
Activating her disguise once more, she entered the city without much hassle.
Finding a ce to stay, Shiro paid extra for a window room that gave her direct view to the mountain.
"Hmm... this is quite a nice view. Even with half of the mountain missing, the inclusion of an ice city is quite charming in a way. I should get the girls toe visit as well." Shiro muttered with a smile while sitting down.
Taking out a teacup, she filled it with some juice and decided to pass some time charging up the Crystal Lotus.
After charging up the lotus every chance she got, it was close to reaching 100 billion MP charge. Hopefully, the lotus would activate at that threshold so that she could use it during the trials.
{I doubt they¡¯ll have the time to enjoy such a view. With a grim future so close, hardly anyone would be in the mood to enjoy a scenery no? The only reason you¡¯re enjoying it is because you have some time to spare.} Nimue shook her head.
¡¯Indeed... Oh also, since we¡¯ve got another half a day to waste, I¡¯m going to try out a little experiment.¡¯
{Oh? What kind of experiment?} Nimue asked curiously.
¡¯One that would hopefully speed up the fire spirit¡¯s growth.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
Closing her eyes, she sent her mind to the mana realm.
Arriving at the fire ind, she watched as the fire ¡¯woke up¡¯ the moment she arrived.
"Heh~ Seems like it likes you a lot more than it does with us." Iziuel called out with a smile as she was currentlyying on the forest ind.
"It seems like it doesn¡¯t it?" Shiro chuckled while petting the me.
"So what¡¯s the experiment then?" Nimue asked.
"I¡¯m thinking that the life fire might be able to act as nourishment of sorts since the world tree had wanted the same no?" Shiro smiled.
Using her spare hand, she snapped her fingers and created a spark of life fire.
Holding it near the me, it seemed to hesitate while dancing around this foreign me.
Examining it for a moment, it seemed to look back at Shiro as if asking for permission.
"Sure, go for it, it¡¯s part of my skill after all." Shiro nodded and urged it to do what it wanted.
After receiving her permission, the me expanded in size and wrapped around the life fire.
[Ancient Spirit Fire is attempting to fuse with the Fire of Life. Will you allow this fusion?]
Seeing the notification, Shiro only raised an eyebrow before pressing the yes button.
Just as she pressed the button, she could feel her mana rapidly drain as the fire in her hands grew in size.
Seeing this, Nimue quickly dashed over to Shiro¡¯s side and waved her hand.
*BOOM!!!
Giant tidal waves erupted out as it surrounded the me but it was evaporated in an instant.
*TSSSS!!!!
Quickly pulling Shiro back, Nimue narrowed her eyes at the rapidly expanding me.
Even Iziuel made a move despite her usual habit of just observing from the side.
Flicking her wrist, tree roots started to surround the fire ind.
Thankfully however, the fire didn¡¯t attack them at all. After a moment, it slowly condensed itself back down to a small spark.
[Mystic Life Fire (Spirit) received. Please give it a name.]
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro walked up to the fire.
"Shiro!" Nimue called out.
"It¡¯s fine." Shiro waved her hand.
Crouching down, she smiled at the fire and opened her palm.
Allowing it to move onto her hand, she petted it with her spare hand.
"Do you have a humanoid form like these elder sisters here?" Shiro asked.
Flickering for a moment before shifting towards the duo¡¯s direction, it shifted back to Shiro and jumped up and down.
"Are you able to take that form then?"
Jumping up and down once more, the fire hopped off Shiro¡¯s hand and made some distance between the two of them.
Expanding in size, it slowly took the form of a young boy, fire covering his parts of his body as if it were pieces of clothing.
With zing red hair and a set of ruby eyes, the boy looked towards Shiro and started to waddle over to her.
¡¯Aww... How cute.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile and picked him up gently.
"What shall I call you?" She muttered before turning to the two girls watching the situation.
"Do you two want to suggest anything?"
"Us?" Nimue raised an eyebrow.
"Well yeah, since he¡¯s going to be spending more time with you two in here, you¡¯ll be his elder sisters no?" Shiro nodded.
Iziuel floated around both Shiro and the boy before reaching her finger out.
Seeing the boy grab her finger with a cute smile, Iziuel¡¯s eyes brightened in joy.
"Why don¡¯t we call him Atesh? And Attie as a nickname?" Iziuel suggested with a smile.
"Hmm... Atesh... I like that. System, give him the name Atesh."
[Atesh ¨C Mystic Life Fire (Spirit)]
A young spirit created from the fusion of the Ancient Spirit Fire and the Fire of Life. Due to the circ.u.mstances around his birth, he is deeply connected with entity: Shiro and won¡¯t leave her side unless an unforeseen situation happens to her and breaks this connection.
Current State: Baby Spirit
Upon hearing his name, Atesh giggled in joy and tried to say it himself. Unfortunately, all that they could hear were incoherent sounds that came from his mouth.
"Nimue, Iziuel, can I trouble you to teach him how to speak? The celestial trials are opening soon so I can¡¯t take him out." Shiro asked.
"Sure, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard." Nimue nodded.
While she was replying to Shiro, Iziuel was still ying around with Atesh.
"Iziuel, can you focus please." Nimue sighed as Iziuel only stuck her tongue out.
"Aw... but Attie is so cute though. I mean just look at him." Iziuel smiled and gestured for Nimue to y around with Attie as well.
Handing him to Iziuel, Shiro was about to leave when she felt a little hand tug at her sleeve.
Looking back, she saw Atesh wanting to be held by her again.
"Sorry Attie, I need to do a trial to ss up so I¡¯m a little busy. I promise to stay with you after I finish this ok?" Shiro smiled since she understood that Atesh knew what she was saying. It was just that he couldn¡¯t speak.
Tilting his head for a moment, Atesh nodded and let go of her sleeve.
"Look after Attie ok?"
"Go it, we¡¯ll be watching you from in here so make sure to put up a good show for Atesh." Nimue nodded.
"Alright, I¡¯ll tone down the violence a little since I don¡¯t want him to be surrounded by blood and gore this early." Shiro nodded before disappearing.
"Hmm... she seems to be quite rxed and calm with Atesh huh?" Nimue said while ncing over at Iziuel.
"Maybe motherly instincts? Yin went from a bird to a young child and Lisandra was adopted. Attie is the only one that started as a baby so do you think that¡¯s the cause?" Iziuel replied while keeping her eye on Atesh.
"Shiro with motherly instincts? Hmm... now that I think of it, somewhat. Despite being a v.i.r.g.i.n maiden, she likes to be a mother as well huh." Nimue muttered.
"Oi, I can still hear you ya know? And what¡¯s wrong with me having a motherly instinct? They¡¯re cute so naturally I¡¯ll pamper them." Shiro retorted.
"There is nothing wrong o mighty queen. Now focus on the task at hand please, you have a lotus to charge and a trial toplete." Nimue chuckled.
Rolling her eyes, Shiro shook her head. There was still some time before the trial opened so she was going to charge up the lotus and make her way there around an hour before opening.
Chapter 414 Celestial Trial Begins
Chapter 414 Celestial Trial Begins
When it was almost time for the trials to open, Shiro had only managed to charge up the lotus to around 99.5 billion MP. With only 500 million to go, Shiro could manage it should she have another day or two. However, with the celestial trials opening soon, she wanted to make sure that her mana was at max.
Putting the lotus away, she left her room and started to walk towards Mount Fuji. Naturally, she had her disguise on so that no one knew it was her.
She had a dark hooded jacket that was lined with some purple. The hem of the jacket reached her ankles as it was a little ripped for aesthetic choices. Not only that, from the edge of the jacket, purple slowly blended into ck as the same was happening on her sleeves.
On the jacket, there were some trinkets to make it seem less simple. They were mostly coloured silver to contrast with the dark colours that make up her jacket.
Under the jacket, she wore a simple ck t-shirt with a medium length skirt and ck tights.
Pulling her hood over her head, she let a few strands of her white hair flow out of her hood.
Walking on the road towards the bottom of the mountain, she saw that the people who had been recruiting for members had stopped their recruitment and started to make their way to the mountain.
With how many people that were walking the same way, it was rather creepy from Shiro¡¯s point of view.
¡¯Doesn¡¯t this remind you of a scene where people are brainwashed and forced to walk the same direction?¡¯
After a while of not receiving a response, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but nce into her mana realm and saw that the two were a little upied with ying around with Atesh. Even Nimue, who was a little reserved earlier, was now calling Atesh by his nickname.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro only smiled softly before shaking her head.
With the two of them upied with Atesh, Shiro was now back to thinking to herself without anyone responding.
She had to admit that after getting used to talking to Nimue in her head, not hearing anything back was a rather strange change. If anything, it felt a little lonely as she had gotten used to Nimue¡¯s presence.
¡¯Oh well.¡¯ She mused to herself before focusing her attention back to reality.
Walking along with the crowd, she soon saw that there were a few guards opening the gate to Mount Fuji as people walked through with seriousness on their faces.
Following the crowd, she soon entered Mount Fuji once more and started her hike to the top of the mountain.
As the time for the trial to openes closer, Shiro could feel the mana surrounding them increase as a faint halo could be seen, slowly forming above the mountain.
Narrowing her eyes, she could see a few strange runes that were foreign to her. Even with her records of runes from her world, she couldn¡¯t find a single match for them.
Not only that, but the halo exuded a strange aura that was reminiscent of the energy that she could sense whenever she used her Celestial Raiment EX.
¡¯Seems like this is the real deal. From what I know of this energy, it is more potent than mana and is also more destructive. In a way, I suppose this Celestial energy is like a condensed version of mana.¡¯ She mused to herself while adding some of her observations and theories into her database. After all, with how things are right now, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to make some notes on Celestial Energy so that she could teach it to the rest of the party.
Once she reached the top of the mountain, she saw a giant stone gateway that was directly beneath the halo of light.
"A gate?" She muttered while looking around for a ce to sit.
Sitting down on one of the boulders, Shiro watched as more people started to gather at the mountain top.
"Say, there are quite a lot of participants eh?" A feminine voice called out as Shiro turned towards the source.
A woman was leaning against the boulder she was sat on and had a simr outfit to her.
[Sharis LVL 100 Sage of Shadows]
"Sharis huh? So what do you want?" Shiro asked with a slight tilt of her head.
Due to her illusion, her iris was currently a deep shade of red.
Seeing her red eyes peek out from under her hood, Sharis couldn¡¯t help but shiver for a moment.
"Well I just thought I should say hi considering that we¡¯re both people who are dressed alike." Sharis shrugged her shoulders.
"Mn, I suppose so. Though I doubt we¡¯ll talk after this considering the fact that the gate will be opening soon."
"Yikes... a brutally honest one aren¡¯t you? Ever heard of having a chat to pass time and perhaps make a friend?" Sharis chuckled.
"Perhaps. Make it past a week and I¡¯ll consider the proposal." Shiro smiled lightly.
"I suppose that¡¯s just natural. So, what exactly is your ss? Despite my skill to see through disguises, I can¡¯t see past yours." Sharis narrowed her eyes.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro red at Sharis as a dagger suddenly appeared next to her neck.
Her figure blurred for a moment as Sharis realised that it was an illusion.
"Let¡¯s just say Assassin for now, how¡¯s that?" Shiro¡¯s voice rang out beside her.
"A little hostile for sure, but I suppose that¡¯s what I get for peeking without permission. Though if anything, we have more inmon than you expect." Sharis grinned as her form exploded into mist, revealing her true body to be sitting where Shiro had been sitting.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro only smiled before storing her dagger away.
"Well I suppose if you believe that we have things inmon then I won¡¯t shut down the thought." Shiro shrugged before walking away to a different bolder.
Shaking her head, Sharis snapped her finger as a bird made from shadow was created on her palm.
Bringing it close to her mouth, she whispered something before letting it fly away.
Naturally, this didn¡¯t escape Shiro¡¯s attention but she wasn¡¯t able to hear anything that she had said despite her senses.
Guessing that she must have used something to prevent sound from escaping, Shiro ignored the strange woman and sat down at a different boulder and waited patiently.
After waiting for around 30 minutes, the halo of light above the gate shattered to pieces and started to float towards the gate.
Connecting together as if it was broken shards of ss, the halo of light filled the empty gaps in the gateway.
Looking at the portal that opened up and how some of the adventurers had already entered, Shiro jumped off her boulder and walked towards the portal.
[Entering Celestial Trial... Please choose your difficulty.]
With Celestial Ruler being the one that gave her the highest chances of receiving an item that she needed, she tapped the option without hesitation.
[Celestial Ruler difficulty chosen. Due to certain abnormal conditions, modifiers shall be applied.]
[Key Abnormal Conditions - Fragmented Soul, Race Queen Ascension Quest]
[Minor Abnormal Conditions... 20 Conditions have been discovered]
[Calcting... Due to the modifiers applied to the trial, the difficulty has upgraded from Celestial Ruler to Celestial Immortal.]
"Ha?" Widening her eyes, Shiro couldn¡¯t believe that the difficulty had just been upgraded to Celestial Immortal without her permission.
Before she could even shout in protest, she was overwhelmed by a falling sensation that brought her attention to the current situation.
She was currently falling off what seemed to be a cliff and towards ake. Narrowing her eyes, Shiro wanted to figure out what was happening but before she could even think about that, she was rudely interrupted by a voice next to her.
"Wait... what the f*ck? Why am I here in physical form?"
Looking at the person who was talking, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but blink in disbelief.
With long ck hair that fluttered in the wind and features that were very familiar to her own, the woman was falling while in a sitting position with her legs crossed. Despite the current predicament of falling off a cliff, the woman¡¯s sitting form was not interfered as Shiro couldn¡¯t believe who was next to her.
"Kuromi?" She called out hesitantly.
"Sup. Through a few strange events, I seemed to be in this trial with you huh?" Kuromi smiled.
Chapter 415 Celestial Immortal Trial
Chapter 415 Celestial Immortal Trial
Looking at Kuromi, Shiro quickly shook her head since they could talkter. If anything, they needed to survive this fall since for some odd reason, she couldn¡¯t ess her mana.
"Kuromi, you got any ideas on how to get down safely?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Hmm... not exactly. To be honest with you, I don¡¯t really understand what¡¯s going on. I shouldn¡¯t even be visible to you much less be here in physical form. Not only that, this trial realm is quite strange. It¡¯s filled with an energy simr to mana but we can¡¯t seem to ess it." Kuromi analysed.
"Tch, Kuro, grab onto me." Shiro called out as Kuromi nodded.
"Just so you know, my name is Kuromi and not Kuro. Sure it might be amusing for us to be known literally as ck and white but I would prefer to be called my full name or rather, my surname if possible."
"Sure whatever Kuro. However, I do feel like we have bigger problems at hand." Shiro replied while looking around for anything that she could use to help decrease her momentum.
Unfortunately for her, the sharp cliff was all she could see and if she was to try to grab onto the ledge right now but since they were in a trial where mana is inessible, her physique may have changed as well so doing so might just tear her arm out of her sockets.
But if they were to just jump into the water, the impact may shatter a few bones instantly due to the height of their falls.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked down and saw that her outfit had changed as well. Right now, she wore a simple white dress that was a little ragged and dirty. She also had a pair of brown boots that seemed to have been worn out over a long period of time.
¡¯Why the hell does Kuromi get her outfit while mine is trashed???¡¯ Shiro thought in annoyance.
Quickly shaking the thoughts from her head, Shiro shifted her body so that she would slowly close the gap between her and the cliff.
Curious as to what Shiro was nning, Kuromi watched with interest.
"You better hope that my limbs aren¡¯t torn off for this." Shiro gritted her teeth.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the side of the mountain and stomped her foot down as hard as she could.
*KRRRRRRR!!!!!
Rock and gravel broke off from the side of the cliff face as Shiro held her breath in order to concentrate on summoning more strength.
With their momentum and the added weight of Kuromi, she was only able to decrease their speed by a little.
After a few moments, Shiro let go of the cliff and prepared to dive into the water since her hand had sustained quite a bit of damage as blood smeared against the cliff walls.
Shifting her body so that it was as streamlined as possible with Kuromi next to her, Shiro prepared for impact.
*SPLASH!!!
Crashing into the water, Shiro could feel the bones on her arms fracture from the initial impact. Thankfully, her pain tolerance made this feel just like a small ache as she quickly swam out of theke.
Standing up, she looked around in wariness as Kuromi did the same.
"You might want to sort out your bleeding first just in case the scent attracts some beasts." Kuromi said seriously.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to rip a few strips from her ragged skirt and tie it around her wounds while Kuromi stood watch.
During this, she noticed that she had damaged her boots quite a bit since she did use them to help her decrease their falling speed.
After dressing her wounds, she looked back at Kuromi who is now sitting in a tree while peering into the forest.
"For now I think we¡¯re good. Though I can¡¯t guarantee anything since I¡¯m a bit limited with my tools right now." Kuromi said while looking towards Shiro.
"Well that will do for now I suppose. In the meantime, why don¡¯t we have a small chat and sort our bearings out." Shiro suggested while climbing onto the same branch.
"Sure but first, I need to let you know that I don¡¯t have ess to the system. I¡¯m literally only here in physical form."
"Hmm.... That¡¯s a little troublesome but nothing I can¡¯t work with." Shiro nodded before checking her system and looked for notes about the trial.
[Celestial Immortal Trial
Current background: Twin sisters of a fallen household. Due to the pursuit of enemies, you ran into the forest but were knocked unconscious near a river.
Waking up while in a falling motion, you managed tond into theke with your sister safely but at the expense of injuring your hands. You now find yourself in an unfamiliar forest alone with your sister.
In this surrounding filled with mystical energy that is different to mana, you find yourself handicapped and stripped bare of your original skills in this world.
To pass this trial, you must fulfil certain conditions and resolve the main ¡¯corruption¡¯ within this realm. If notpleted within a certain amount of time, you will fail and be sent out of this realm.]
After reading out the description to Kuromi, she then tried to see if she still had ess to her mana realm.
Unfortunately, it seemed to have been blocked by a veil of sorts so she knew that the system wasn¡¯t joking when it said that she was now stripped bare of her original skills.
"Right then, I can see two of the conditions we need to pass and one that I¡¯m not too sure about. The first is to harness this energy around us and the second is to solve whatever major thing is happening in this world. These two are obvious. The third is probably something to do with our fallen household." Kuromi said while holding three fingers up.
"Mn... Since that¡¯s the case, then there are likely still pursuers within this forest. Not only that, I doubt we can learn this energy quickly so our best option is probably to find something out in a nearby city. We might also get some more information about our current identity as twin sisters as well since the trial description is limited." Shiro nodded.
"Good choices. How do you want to delegate the tasks? With your hands right now, I¡¯d say that I¡¯ll probably be the one responsible for collecting some food for us while you make some weapons with your spare hand." Kuromi smiled.
"That should be doable." Shiro nodded.
After going into a little more detail on what they were going to do, Kuromi jumped off the branch and started to go further into the forest while Shiro looked at her back.
¡¯She seems quite serious for our current situation. The first thing she did is not converse to me about our pasts but rather focus on trying to understand our surroundings as much as possible.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself since that¡¯s probably what she would have done if not for the fact that Kuromi following in with her is clearly abnormal.
However, at the same time, that was something that can be discussed once they have food and shelter.
Jumping down from the branch, Shiro looked around for some materials to help them make some weapons such as spears or daggers. Makeshift ones anyways.
While she was looking for hard stones that could double as a de after some sharpening, her mind couldn¡¯t help but drift back to what she had read before entering the trial.
¡¯So fragmented soul is one of the reasons that the difficulty has been raised huh? Since Kuromi is in here with me, I can only assume that it¡¯s because we were in the same body only with me being in control. I suppose that can also exin why she can¡¯t ess the system but am I still doing this trial solo? But since both mine and Kuromi¡¯s souls are fragmented, together we technically make one person so it should count I believe?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself.
While she was wondering to herself, Kuromi was sneaking closer to one of the animals she could see in the forest.
It was a ratherrge snake that seemed to be trying to digest one of its preys that it had been eating earlier. With its size it could wrap around her torso quite easily, she figured that it should be able to feed both of them for a single meal.
Narrowing her eyes, Kuromi leapt into action since the longer she waited, the less initiative she¡¯ll have.
The first thing she wanted to do was to get rid of its main weapon so she had prepared a rock in her hand before attacking.
Using her spare hand to grab the head, she mmed the rock into its mouth while the snake¡¯s body writhed around in pain. In an attempt to fend off its attacker, the snake tried to wrap around Kuromi¡¯s body.
However, Kuromi was long prepared for this.
Stomping down on its body, she gathered strength in her arms and twisted the neck as hard as she could.
*CRACK!
Hearing the cracking of the bone, Kuromi grinned as she jammed her heel into the broken part of the neck and ripped the head right out of its socket.
Keeping the head so that they might be able to harvest some venom, she made her way to Shiro with the corpse as their dinner.
Chapter 416 Bonding Time
Chapter 416 Bonding Time
Seeing that Kuromi had returned with the corpse of the snake, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrow.
"I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s our dinner then." She said with a smile.
"Yeah, with its size, it should be enough for the both of us." Kuromi nodded.
"Mn, by the way, what kind of melee weapon do you want for now?" Shiro asked while setting a few prototypes out on the floor.
Since the resources she could use were rather limited, she could only make stone daggers or spears. If she tried to use anyrger pieces of stone, it would just break apart easily.
"Hmm... Are you able to make a bow? Or is that too difficult? If it is, I¡¯ll take the dagger then." Kuromi asked.
"The thing about making bows is that I¡¯ll need some good string so that it can actually fire the arrows. Right now, I¡¯m still in the process of making some stronger strings out of nts for the daggers and spears. I¡¯m not sure if I can make one that¡¯s good enough for the bow yet." Shiro shook her head.
"Not only that, the nts are kind of weird in this ce. Trying to get some fibre from them is harder than usual." She sighed.
"In that case then let¡¯s just eat the snake and start scouting around to see if we can find the city then." Kuromi nodded.
Setting down the corpse, she looked around for a few dry pieces of wood and leaves so that they could make a fire.
While she did this, Shiro started to make some daggers using only one hand.
Looking at the final product, she twirled it around on her finger before throwing it against the tree.
While it did pierce into the tree slightly, it wasn¡¯t able to go further and only fell onto the floor.
¡¯Seems like I can only use the daggers as melee weapons for now.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself before picking the dagger back up.
"Shiro! Dinners ready." Kuromi called out to Shiro.
Turning towards Kuromi, Shiro saw that she had used some of the fibres to tie her hair into a ponytail so that cooking would be easier.
"It¡¯s a little nd since I don¡¯t have any spices but it should do for now."
Sitting down across from Kuromi, Shiro received her own portion of food.
"Say, why do you think you came with me?" Shiro asked.
"I¡¯m not too sure. My best guess is that since both our souls are fragmented and reside in one body, we technically count as one person despite being two people. Hence why despite entering this trial alone, I followed along." Kuromi replied while eating the snake.
"Maybe..." Shiro nodded.
After talking about a few more theories that could be the reason as to why Kuromi followed along, Shiro walked over to theke and took off her makeshift bandages.
Feeling a tiny sting, she realised that the cloth must have gotten stuck to her hand due to the dried blood.
Shaking her head, she cleaned both the cloth and her wounds in the water before having the cloth dry above the fire.
"Since our next step is to find a city, which direction do you think we should go?" Kuromi asked while trying to extract some poison from the snake head.
"Hmm... I¡¯d say we should scout the perimeter around theke for a while. If we can find some human tracks, we should be able to find a settlement." Shiro suggested.
"Sure, but what if that settlement is less than friendly? We¡¯re basically normal humans right now so we need to be careful about meeting anyone. In a world where it might be the same as ours, there¡¯s a good chance that we can get kidnapped for our beauty you know?" Kuromi reminded.
"That¡¯s also true... tch, why is beauty such an annoying thing to have when you¡¯ve got no power." Shiro clicked her tongue.
"A gift for the shitty situation?" Kuromi joked.
"Yeah right, it¡¯s more like a curse at that point." Shiro rolled her eyes with a smile.
"Haha perhaps." Kuromi giggled softly.
"Say Kuromi, aren¡¯t you sad that you can¡¯t interact with your family anymore? During the time that I¡¯ve stayed with Keiko and Keomi, you¡¯ve been watching haven¡¯t you? Your sister is trying to re-forge the bond while Keiko is doing the same. They both love you dearly." Shiro said while a sigh.
"A little but I suppose that¡¯s how life goes." Kuromi shrugged.
"However, it is now your life so I shouldn¡¯t interfere. I¡¯ll be honest, at first, I did want to take back my body." Kuromi admitted as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"So what changed your mind?"
"Well... let¡¯s just keep it a secret for now. It¡¯s something I realised after spending more time watching you. Ah also, once we get out, feel free to kill more people with the soul sword since it¡¯s like food for me. Much like what mana is to you, I eat souls to sustain myself." Kuromi smiled.
"You¡¯re not going to pull a trick like that god yer and try to take over me when I¡¯m not on guard are you?" Shiro asked while acting as if she¡¯s afraid.
"Oh please, spare me your acting. We both know that you¡¯ll probably kill me yourself should I try something like that." Kuromi shrugged.
"I won¡¯t deny the usation, oh Miss Balls Crusher." Shiro grinned.
"As if your title¡¯s any better A** Destroying Princess." Kuromi rolled her eyes.
"Say, where did you even get your balls crushing habits?" Shiro asked curiously.
"When most of my enemies were men because they thought they could court me due to my low level. Kicking the balls does wonders for disabling men in a fight you know?" Kuromi smiled.
"Where did you get your ass fetish huh?"
"Hmm... it was a tranquil moment. I was rxing on the top of the mountain when I had an eureka moment. No one clenches their ass in a fight do they? Since I can make spears with my nanobots, I can invade their internal systems through this one opening that they never guard. After all, clenching your ass cheeks in a fight restricts your movement so that weakness will never be solved." Shiro grinned.
"Two questions, first, why the hell were you even thinking about asses on top of a mountain? Second, you make a very fair point."
"Well can¡¯t I wonder about asses every now and again?" Shiro chuckled.
"Fair enough I suppose." Kuromi smiled.
After tidying everything up, Shiro looked into the sky and saw that they were still a while away from nightfall.
"Since there is still some time, want to walk around for a bit and look for tracks?" Shiro asked while looking back at Kuromi.
"Sure." Kuromi nodded.
Using some hand made string to tie up the snake skin pouch filled with venom that she had extracted, she tied the pouch to her waist so that they could use it at a moment¡¯s notice.
Walking through the forest, they made sure that they were stealthy enough as to not attract some beasts.
During this, they had also seen a few flying creatures soar through the sky as Shiro recognised some to be wyverns.
"Goodness, a single sneeze from that thing would kill us instantly." Shiro muttered.
"Not exactly the most positive thought but a true one." Kuromi shrugged while climbing on one of the taller trees in the area. Looking around, she tried to search for any traces of what could be a fire or a clearing.
Unfortunately, there were only trees as far as the eye could see.
"Nothing?" Shiro called out.
"Nothing."
"Damn, well let¡¯s keep going I suppose. If we can find a river, we should be able to follow along the stream and find a town."
###
After walking for around an hour or two, the duo eventually gave up and decided to set up camp.
They agreed to take watching shifts so that they could notify the other should a beaste close. Kuromi took the first watch and Shiro would take the second.
Sitting on a rather sturdy tree branch, Shiro looked towards Kuromi and gave her a small nod before going to sleep.
Looking at the sleeping Shiro, Kuromi had a soft smile on her face. After thinking to herself for a moment, she shook her head and focused on keeping watch.
Chapter 417 Dragon and Giant
Chapter 417 Dragon and Giant
When it was Shiro¡¯s turn, Kuromi was going to wake her up but paused after seeing her peaceful expression.
¡¯A little odd to see my own face like this but it¡¯s not bad I suppose.¡¯ Kuromi thought with a soft smile.
Just as she was going to continue her shift for a little longer, Shiro¡¯s eyes slowly opened.
*Yawn~
"I think it¡¯s my shift now?" Shiro muttered while rubbing her eyes.
"Huh... Your internal clock is pretty urate." Kuromi said with a smile.
"Mn, it¡¯s just something I picked up after having quite a few enemies in the world. Anyways, you can rest now, I¡¯ll take my shift." Shiro stretched while scratching her head a little.
"Got it, in that case, good night Shiro." Kuromi nodded before making herselffortable on the branch.
###
The night passed rather quietly as there were only the asional howls here and there. None of the animals had actuallye close to the camp so she wasn¡¯t too worried.
The first thing Kuromi did when she woke up was to go back to theke for a quick drink.
"Fuah.... That¡¯s better. Say, do you want to try to hunt another snake so that we can make some water bags?" Kuromi asked while turning to Shiro.
"Hmm... maybe. We can probably use some of the leftover snakeskin to make one now and we¡¯ll keep an eye out for another snake." Shiro nodded.
Making a water bag by tying up one of the ends so that it wouldn¡¯t leak, Shiro filled it with around a litre¡¯s worth of water.
"This shouldst us two for around a day or so. We¡¯ll use this time to explore and when it is almost dark, we¡¯ll make our way back here. Since theke is our only source of water, we don¡¯t exactly want to get too far from it without any guarantees." Shiro replied while fastening the water bag on her waist.
"Got it. Now then, I found the snake towards the north of thiske. Do you want to scout out towards the north or should we choose a different direction?" Kuromi asked.
"I¡¯d say let¡¯s go north for now. We¡¯ll travel for around 2 hours give or take, then we¡¯ll start making our way back." Shiro nodded.
Agreeing with her proposition, Kuromi followed behind Shiro as they made their way north.
Walking through the forest, the girls had only found a few small critters that couldn¡¯t even be called a meal.
However, around 1 hour into their scouting, they heard a loud roar in the distance.
Looking at each other, they instantly went on guard and tried to look for a good vantage point.
Thanks to Kuromi¡¯s help, Shiro was able to climb up the tall tree despite her injured hand.
"Holy..."
"Sh*t..." Kuromi finished off since they could see a giant dragon lifting itself out of the forest in the distance.
Judging its size with her own eyes, Shiro guessed that the dragon was around 300 meters tall with wings that seemed to block out the sky. Even from this distance, they could feel the gusts of wind hit them in the face.
Breathing out a torrent of mes into the sky, the dragon was currently battling against what seems to be a giant.
The giant had a huge axe a littlerger than its own body and seemed to be around 250 meters tall since it was smaller than the dragon.
Wrestling it with his spare hand, the giant swung his axe in an attempt to cut off the dragon¡¯s wings.
Unfortunately for him, the dragon swiped its tail and knocked the axe out of the way before biting down on his shoulder.
Breathing out fire once more, the giant¡¯s shoulder was burned to a crisp as he cried out in anger.
Gritting his teeth, a red pulse of energy red out from his eyes as red marks spread out through his body.
Grabbing the dragon¡¯s throat, the giant flung its body over his shoulders and mmed it into the ground, causing a small scale earthquake from the impact.
"URAHHHH!!!!!" He cried out in triumph.
Quickly stabilising themselves on the tree, both girls frowned in a simr manner.
"I don¡¯t think we should go that way." Kuromi joked.
"I suppose not unless we want to be crushed under the two of them. I doubt they¡¯ll be kind enough as to let us pass." Shiro replied.
Just as they were about to retreat, the skies suddenly darkened as huge boulders formed above the area.
Setting themselves ame, meteors started to descend towards the giant as the duo quickly looked at each other in panic.
"Sh*t!"
Quickly jumping out of the tree, Shiro hopped from branch to branch in order tond safely.
Once both her feet touched the ground, she instantly sprinted as fast as she could away from the area while Kuromi did the same.
*BANG!!!!!!
The ground split apart from the impact as deep craters were formed. The shockwave of the impact instantly knocked the girls off their feet.
"God damnit!" Shiro shouted out in annoyance.
Quickly flipping her body, shended safely before using the added momentum to increase her speed.
"Less talking, more running!" Kuromi retorted quickly while focusing on not smashing into anything face first.
As the duo continued to run, the battle behind them seemed to intensify as there were flying debris and meteorsnding near them every so often.
After running for around an hour or so, they looked back to make sure that they were more or less safe.
"Haaa.... Oh my god..." Shiro panted while sitting down near the base of a tree.
"I suppose it¡¯s no wonder that anyone that chose this difficulty would fail quite quickly huh? In just two days, we¡¯ve almost died twice. The first was the cliff fall. If it wasn¡¯t for you, our bones would havepletely shattered upon impact and the second is this pair of dragon and giant." Kuromi muttered.
"I know. Annoying thing is that I didn¡¯t even want to choose this difficulty. I only wanted the Celestial Ruler difficulty but it was changed to immortal." Shiro replied.
"Hais, forget about that. Just talking about it is making me depressed since I¡¯m in here with you. Anyways, where are we right now? Since we were focused on running, I think we might have ran away from theke." Kuromi asked while looking around.
"Ah for f*cks sake." Shiro sighed since things were bing harder. Not only have they lost their main source of water, they don¡¯t even have a benchmark for where they are right now. With mountains and forests surrounding them from all directions, everything looked the same.
"Say, Shiro." Kuromi called out.
"Mn? What is it?" Shiro asked.
"Since you said that the description said that we were knocked unconscious near a river before waking up in a falling motion right?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"So if we had made our way back up the cliff and followed the river, we would have arrived near a city right?"
Pausing in realisation, both Shiro and Kuromi face palmed.
"Why didn¡¯t we realise it sooner?" Shiro muttered.
"I... don¡¯t know. Since we¡¯re not too sure of our surroundings, why don¡¯t we just pick a random mountain and use it as a watchtower of sorts? We¡¯ll try to locate theke wended in and try to back track to the city. Sure our enemies are still in the city but it¡¯s better than dying out here right? Who knows, we might be able to salvage some things from the ruins of our fallen household." Kuromi suggested.
"Alright, how about that one then? It¡¯s not too far from where we are right now." Shiro nodded before pointing towards their west.
Making their way towards the mountain, they ignored the earth-shattering battle that was happening in the distance as their focus was on trying to find theke.
While the two were trying to get a better vantage point in order to see theke, they had no idea that a search party was sent to the forest in order to find them.
Despite the family crumbling due to its enemies and financial reasons, the head of the house had made a few preparations to keep his daughters safe. Unfortunately, the initial escort team had been killed so the two girls were chased by a group of enemies while the secondary escort team was protecting the lord.
After sustaining lethal injuries, the lord had ordered them to find his daughters and keep them safe with the first escort team.
However, after finding the corpse of the first escort team, the secondary escort team quickly dashed into the Teriu Forest after finding some footprints.
"Spread out! Try not to get close to the goliath and the dragon since you¡¯ll be caught in the crossfire." The captain ordered seriously as he could only hope that the two misses are still alive.
¡¯Please be alive, you two are the only ones alive in the family.¡¯ He prayed silently as he searched around the forest, hoping to find traces of the girls.
Chapter 418 First Time Fighting Together
Chapter 418 First Time Fighting Together
Climbing up the mountain with some difficulty, due to falling rocks, boulders and unstable footpaths, the girls finally found a decent point of which they could see most of the things in the forest.
"Hmm... I think I can see theke." Kuromi muttered while narrowing her eyes. She couldn¡¯t be sure since she could only see a little glimmer due to the sunlight reflecting off the surface.
For all she knows, it may just be a very shiny turtle.
"Try looking for a cliff as well since the one we fell off was quite high." Shiro replied.
"You know, there are about 15 cliffs around us right?" Kuromi raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, so only 15 locations where theke could be." Shiro nodded.
"Since we can¡¯t see theke from up here, do you want to go to the closest cliff first and go through each of them one by one? We¡¯ll find theke eventually." Kuromi suggested as Shiro thought about it for a moment and nodded.
"Sure, it shouldn¡¯t take us too long so it¡¯s doable."
Descending the mountain, the girls made their way towards the first cliff at a leisurely pace. Since they had limited amounts of water, it was better to walk the distance rather than run so that they could save some water in case the first cliff was not near theke.
After walking for a while, they finally reached the bottom of the cliff but unfortunately, all they saw was a cave.
"So it¡¯s a bust huh?" Shiro sighed.
"Well at least we have a roof over our heads should it start to rain." Kuromi shrugged.
"True, onto the next cliff I suppose."
###
"Sir! I¡¯ve found some dried blood and traces of fire near theke!" One of the search party members shouted out.
"Show me where!" The captain replied urgently and followed behind his subordinate.
Crouching down near the makeshift campfire that Kuromi had made, the captain narrowed his eyes and scanned the area.
"Hmm... some snake bones and dried blood that leads towards theke. The person that was here must have been injured by something. I can see a few marks of blood on the cliff face so I guess it must be a result of the fall." He muttered.
Looking at the height of that cliff, he wondered why they would even need to go out of their way to grab the cliff since most people can just survive that fall.
However, remembering that the two misses hadn¡¯t learned how to use the energy yet, the captain realised that she must have needed to grab onto the cliff in order to survive.
Seeing how much blood was smeared against the wall, he couldn¡¯t imagine how much it must¡¯ve hurt.
"Spread out around this area! The young misses must have set camp here overnight. Try to find some traces of dried blood!" He ordered out.
While this was all happening, Shiro and Kuromi had already visited another cliff and found nothing. But on the third cliff, they saw a party of hooded people in dark outfits scouting around their campfire.
"Could that be our enemies?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Maybe. Seeing as though they are surrounding our camp, we should probably try to look for a different spot. We still have some water left so what do you think about circling around?" Kuromi suggested.
"Hmm... That¡¯s a good shout. Let¡¯s go quietly since we don¡¯t know if they can hear us since they can probably use this strange energy. I¡¯ll try to cover up our tracks as well so it¡¯s harder to find us." Shiro nodded.
Making their way around the cliff while making sure that it was hard to find them, the two girls eventually find a spot where they can collect water without being easily seen by the men.
Clearing her wound along with refilling the water bag, Shiro then looked towards Kuromi.
"Since our enemies are here, we should probably try to find a ce further away from the town or city to get our bearings. We¡¯re not sure about the corruption as well so we need to do some research too."
"Indeed..." Kuromi nodded.
Just as the girls were about to leave, they heard some rustling nearby and widened their eyes.
Quickly climbing up the tree, they used the branches and leaves as cover while readying their daggers with venom. After all, at least this way they can get the surprise attack in and maybe live while the enemy dealt with the venom.
Waiting patiently for a moment, they saw one of the hooded men crouch down near where they had just refilled the water bag. There were still some wet patches of blood around the area.
Before he could shout, both Shiro and Kuromi jumped down from the branch.
Twisting her body, Shiro mmed her heel into the man¡¯s temple in order to disorientate him. While she did this, Kuromi stabbed her dagger towards the man¡¯s ribs.
"!!!" Hearing somemotion behind him, the man quickly turned around to see two girls attacking him.
"I FOUND THEM!" He shouted out while trying to parry Kuromi¡¯s dagger.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro flicked her wrist and sent the dagger flying towards the man¡¯s eyes.
*DANG!
Brushing the dagger aside with his hand that was coated with a blue hue, the man reached out to grab Kuromi.
Ducking down under his grab, Kuromi pivoted on her foot and kicked the dagger towards him.
Sinking into his shoulder, the venom entered his system as his arm instantly became numb.
"Tsss!" Taking a sharp breath in, the man retreated a few steps since he now understood that he might have startled the two girls.
However, Shiro didn¡¯t give the man any time to retreat since she had three more daggers that could be thrown. Keeping one on her so that she could use it as a melee weapon, she threw two daggers towards his body.
Dodging out of the way, the man tried to speak but Kuromi entered his peripherals and stabbed towards his temple with one of the poison daggers.
"I apologise for this!" He shouted out since he didn¡¯t want to hurt them too much.
ring his aura, the pressure sent the two girls stumbling back as he mmed his spare hand into the ground.
The earth started to rip apart as roots erupted out from the ground and tried to bind the two girls.
Rolling out of the way, Shiro nced towards Kuromi and did a small gesture.
Understanding what Shiro wanted to do, Kuromi only nodded her head.
Dashing towards the man, Shiro jumped into the air and threw herst dagger towards him. Swiping it to the side once more, he was about to grab onto her when Kuromi also threw her dagger.
"Aiya! Please miss! We¡¯re the search party looking for you!" He cried out. He had thought this would be an easy task but he didn¡¯t know why the two misses had so muchbat experience. They were actually able to push him back without the use of Celestial Energy.
"Give us proof." Shiro said coldly while picking up one of her daggers and continued her attack.
"What kind of proof do you want?" He asked while retreating.
"This kind."
Throwing her bloodied bandage against his face, she then wrapped her legs around his usable arm.
Twisting her body, she dislocated his arm while Kuromi attacked his torso.
"GAH!" The man cried out in pain.
Looking towards each other, the two girls then picked up their daggers and ran away from this ce before help could arrive.
Not too long after they left the captain arrived with the rest of the search party.
Widening his eyes at one of the newer recruits being injured to this extent, he quickly had the medic treat his wounds while removing the poison from his body.
"What happened? What did you fight?" He asked seriously.
"The two misses. I don¡¯t know what happened but they seemed to have years ofbat experience. With their teamwork, they had been able to poison me and dislocate one of my arms without the use of Celestial Energy." The man replied.
"How the hell did she dislocate your arm??? I doubt a girl without celestial energy can outpower you." The captain raised his eyebrows.
"That¡¯s the thing, she didn¡¯t out power me. I tried to get her off but before I knew it, my arm was already bending back and it was my own force that dislocated it."
Frowning slightly, he called out to one of the members.
"Track her down using this bandage. There¡¯s some traces of fresh blood so you should be able to find them." The captain ordered.
Nodding his head, the man drew a rune of sorts onto the bandage as a faint trail of blood mist could be seen going into the forest.
Following behind the mist, the captain couldn¡¯t help but wonder how the two had actually defeated one of his subordinates.
¡¯What even happened in the time that they had been chased.¡¯ He wondered with a frown. Shaking his head, his main goal was to save them before their enemies could find them. After all, their enemies won¡¯t be as lenient as the recruit.
Chapter 419 Two Sides Of The Same Coin
Chapter 419 Two Sides Of The Same Coin
"Ha... ha... ha..." Panting heavily, the two girls continued to run without looking back.
Shiro tried to cover up their tracks as much as possible but it was a little hard since they were on the run.
"Let¡¯s go to the cave." Shiro suggested while vaulting over arge tree branch. Looking down at her hand, she furrowed her brows since her wounds had opened up once more and with no bandage absorbing the blood, marks of red could be seen on some of the leaves.
"Sure but what if it bes a dead end for us?" Kuromi asked as she too had a frown on her face.
"If it bes a dead end then I suppose we can only fight it out till we die then." Shiro chuckled.
"Fair point. Even if this is a trial, there are chances that some sick f*cks are mixed in and might want to try to force us do something quite unpleasant. A trial is not worth sullying ourselves." Kuromi shrugged.
Just as they were about to reach the cave, both girls suddenly felt danger overwhelm their senses.
Quickly rolling off to the side, they managed to dodge what seemed to be a semi-transparent rope.
"You dodged it. No, this isn¡¯t right. What have you done to the two misses? If you two are truly the daughters of our master, then you would not be able to dodge that trap." The captain said with a scowl.
"I don¡¯t know, maybe I woke the f*ck up?" Shiro grinned since she could tell that the person in front of them was dangerous. Not only that, they were also surrounded by quite a few presences so escape was going to be quite difficult.
"Regardless of what you¡¯ve done, I will find out once I¡¯m done with the both of you. Men! Formation 3!" The captainmanded.
Suddenly, a giant magic circle erupted out from under their feet as Shiro widened her eyes from the pain that suddenly assaulted her mind.
"ARGGG!!!" She cried out in pain before kneeling heavily against the ground.
A simr situation was happening with Kuromi as she copsed on the ground. Her body spasmed from the pain as a ck illusionary strand seemed to float out from her body while Shiro had a white illusionary strand.
Looking at this phenomenon, the captain was confused as this was something that should be impossible. The ck strand represented Yin while the white strand represented Yang. Normally when a person is inside Soul Strand Formation, their soul will be disyed for one to judge. Both white and ck strands would be twisted together and an aura would be formed around the strand.
This would usually be used to judge criminals but it was also a good tool to see through one¡¯s disguise since there were variations to each individuals strand such as a pattern or the aura.
However, a few years ago, a strange phenomenon urred when the two misses of the family idently stepped into their training ground. It was revealed that the younger twin sister had no Yin strand while the older twin sister had no Yang strand.
It was strange since it meant that they were both iplete and shouldn¡¯t even be alive. However, by some miracle, they were. This could also mean that should one of them die, the other may suffer the same fate since one could not live without the other.
Naturally, this also meant that training with Celestial Energy was much harder as both the Yin and the Yang was needed.
But the master of the household had other ns.
-Since it¡¯s a miracle for them to be alive, I want my daughters to enjoy life as much as possible. I don¡¯t know how long they have left to live but as long as I am around, they shall live freely.-
Of course, it wasn¡¯t as if he had done nothing. In the years that the two daughters yed around, the father had continuously looked for ways where they could only use half of their strand to use the energy but all he found were taboo spells that would send one spiralling into craziness.
However, a few weeks ago, he had finally created the spell that both daughters can use despite their strange nature. It was also due to this that their enemies had made a move since a spy in the family leaked this information to the outside world, cing a target on their backs.
Should a ¡¯normal¡¯ person learn of this manual, they¡¯ll be twice as strong as other people.
With this single rumour that flowed through the streets, the family was destroyed quickly for the spell.
As Shiro was still trying to resist the pain that she was feeling, the magic circle disappeared as all of the men around them kneeled down and bowed their heads.
"I¡¯m sorry young miss! While I do not know what has happened to force you to gain this muchbat experience, I do know that you are truly our master¡¯s daughter. There is no one else in this world that is like you two who are two halves of the same soul!" The captain said as he quickly helped Shiro up.
"Eh?" Widening her eyes, Shiro looked over at Kuromi in shock.
"Kuro... did he just say that we¡¯re two halves of the same soul?" She asked slowly.
"Yeah, I had my suspicions before but it seems like this has told me my answer. You¡¯re me and I¡¯m you." Kuromi replied with a small smile.
Taking a moment to digest this information, Shiro looked over at the people who imed to be their allies.
For now, she wanted a private chat with Kuromi about all of this.
"Who are you?" Shiro asked.
"I am the captain of the secondary guard unit. During the invasion of the family mansion, I was tasked to look after your mother and father while the primary guard unit escorted you and Miss Kuromi out of the area. Due to some unforeseen circ.u.mstances, the lord had ordered us toe find you instead." The captain replied since he didn¡¯t exactly want to tell the two misses about the death of their lord. Their main priority would be to find a safe ce to stay for now.
". . .So you¡¯re our allies then?"
"That is correct."
"What shall I call you?" Shiro asked since she couldn¡¯t see his name tag at all.
"I... I don¡¯t have a name, only code." The captain shook his head.
"Well in that case then I¡¯ll call you Phillip or Phill for short I guess. For now, leave me and Kuromi in private for now. I need to talk to her." Shiro said as Phillip nodded.
Watching the men make some distance from them so that they won¡¯t intrude, Kuromi turned towards Shiro.
"That¡¯s a rather western name for this setting." Kuromi chuckled.
"Yeah because my mind is focused on something else right now. What the hell do you mean by I¡¯m you and you¡¯re me." Shiro asked with a frown.
"It¡¯s just as it says, we¡¯re the same soul split into pieces. You¡¯re just from a different time and world. Your life as Nytri is my old life that I had no memories of and my life as Kuromi is your ¡¯past¡¯ life that you have no memories of either. Though I¡¯m not exactly sure as to why you ¡¯reincarnated¡¯ into my body as a snow girl." Kuromi shrugged.
"So that¡¯s why there can be two souls in the same body. Because we¡¯re technically one soul but split from different times."
"Bingo." Kuromi nodded.
"You¡¯re f*cking joking right?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"First of all,nguage haha. Second, I¡¯m not. But seems like we have an affinity to pretentious a**holes huh? In both first and second, we were betrayed and killed in roughly the same way. We should REALLY be a better judge of who we¡¯re friends with." Kuromi chuckled.
"Urg, how is that even logical??? God I need to sit down and rest. Hell even alcohol would be good around now, not that I can get drunk to begin with." Shiro sighed.
"Oh it¡¯s fine though lil sis~, let¡¯s just focus onpleting this trial first."
"Ha? When the hell did I be the lil sis? Shouldn¡¯t it be the other way around?" Shiro frowned.
"Well you¡¯re in my body so technically I¡¯m the big sis since I came first then you followed along no?" Kuromi replied.
"But I¡¯m first since I came from Aria though."
"Regardless you¡¯re my lil sis since you¡¯re quite reckless. It¡¯s hardly like a big sis at all. Plus, you don¡¯t have that Ara Ara charm." Kuromi giggled.
"The f*ck does Ara Ara mean?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Exactly my point lil sis. Anyways, enough about this, let¡¯s think about what we can do for now. We¡¯ve met up with our allies and that¡¯s given us a chance of understanding exactly what¡¯s going on here. Once we¡¯ve sorted that out, we can try to find the ¡¯corruption¡¯ and finish this quest." Kuromi smiled.
". . . Fine whatever. But seriously, what does Ara Ara mean?" Shiro pouted lightly in annoyance.
"You can research all about it when we get back."
Calling out to the guards toe back, they made their way to the cave so that they could discuss what they should do next.
Chapter 420 First Order
Chapter 420 First Order
"So you said that the family is now destroyed right? And that we¡¯re all that¡¯s left." Shiro asked with a serious face.
"Indeed." Phillip nodded his head.
"Can you tell me a little about our enemies?"
"Could it be that you¡¯re thinking about revenge?" Phillip frowned since this was not what their lord had wanted.
"Of course I am.-"
"Of course WE are lil sis. I¡¯m here as well you know." Kuromi cut in with a smile.
"Right sure." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"But young miss, your father had wanted you to run away so that you can live in peace. He didn¡¯t want you to endanger yourself like this." Phillip frowned.
"Phillip, just tell me what you know about our enemies. If we don¡¯t even know who has a target on our backs, how can we live in peace?" Shiro smiled.
". . . I- No I can¡¯t. I¡¯m sorry miss, you can ask me about anything else and we¡¯ll help you live a safe life but we will not tell you about your enemies. Trust me, all they¡¯re after is the spell, they don¡¯t want you. If we take you away from this ce, you can live a safe life." Phillip shook his head.
"What do you mean by spell?" Shiro tilted her head since she hadn¡¯t heard of any mentions of a spell.
"It¡¯s the spell that¡¯s specially designed by the lord so that you can use Celestial Energy despite your current condition. Celestial Energy can only be used by people with both Yin and Yang strands. The lord had managed to make a spell that will allow you to use Celestial Energy with only one strand hence why our enemies destroyed the family. They wanted that spell for themselves." Phillip replied.
"Eh? So I can only use this energy if I have a plete soul¡¯ huh?" Shiro said while turning to Kuromi.
"Hmm... you guys go outside. We¡¯re going to have another private chat ok?" Shiromanded since she had something to ask Kuromi.
"Of course young miss." Phillip nodded.
Leaving the two alone once more, the group waited outside.
"Captain, are you sure you don¡¯t want to let them know that we have the real spell in our hands? That the one that the enemy secured is a fake one." One of the members asked with a frown.
"Did you forget the lord¡¯s warning about this spell? If possible, he wanted us to avoid ever letting the girls use it. Let the two live a peaceful life and destroy this spell." Phillip shook his head.
"But what if teaching the spell to them allows the two to get revenge for ever-"
*SLAP!
"Idiot!" Phillip snapped angrily.
"I understand your anger since the lord is like a father to all of us. But are you really going to push the job of revenge onto two girls that the lord treasured more so than his life!?"
Staying silent, the man looked down at his feet, feeling shameful for even suggesting such an idea.
"*Sigh* But It¡¯s not as if I don¡¯t understand you. For now, let¡¯s just wait and see." Phillip sighed and continued to stand guard for the two girls to have their private conversation.
###
"Kuro, what do you think about the way he says that we can use the Celestial Energy? Using that spell or whatever." Shiro asked.
"Me? Well it doesn¡¯t seem like he¡¯s lying." Kuromi replied with a slight nod.
"Mn, I figured. But the thing is that I¡¯ve used Celestial Energy before. Remember when I use the skill Celestial Raiment EX? I always get to tap into this ¡¯second reservoir¡¯ of energy that I couldn¡¯t before and it¡¯s more potent than mana. If the Celestial Mana couldn¡¯t be essed by those without aplete soul or rather, a Yin and Yang strand, why could I ess it?" Shiro asked while looking at her hand.
"Perhaps it has something to do with me still being around? With my soul still around you and us two being two halves of the same soul, it technically fulfilled the requirements of using the Celestial Energy." Kuromi replied.
"If that¡¯s the case then do you think we can use this energy as we are right now then? Why don¡¯t we ask the guys how to use the energy normally first and do some experiments?" Shiro suggested.
"Sure, but what do you n to do while this is all happening?"
"Since our enemies are in the city, I¡¯m thinking of going to a nearby town or city to get some information first. If they¡¯re greedy, which I¡¯m certain they are, they won¡¯t send out the information in regards to the spell and it should give us some space to move around undetected. After all, if they pursue us outside of the city with arge force, it would definitely raise some suspicions.
"Not only that, from what Phillip had told us earlier, it seems like the enemy already has the spell so they won¡¯t bother with us." Shiro shrugged.
"Hm... Though even if we get some information, we can¡¯t exactly do anything about it. We can¡¯t exactly fight right now and I doubt the guards we have now can fight our enemies." Kuromi frowned before widening her eyes.
"Seems like you figured it out." Shiro grinned.
"You sly woman. We don¡¯t need to fight huh? Other people will do it for us." Kuromi raised her eyebrow.
"Yup. Since our forces are weak right now, we¡¯ll sow some discord in their group after getting some information. Once that¡¯s done, we¡¯ll spread the information about the spell while our enemies fight amongst themselves. That way, even if we¡¯re useless right now, we can kill our opponents." Shiro chuckled.
"And what of the aftermath?" Kuromi asked while crossing her legs.
"What about it? Our main goal is to destroy our enemies. Once that¡¯s aplished, we¡¯ll retreat and watch as everything unfolds. Though if our enemies are stronger than I expected, we¡¯ll probably need toe up with a few ns during the actual battle."
"Alright, let¡¯s go with that then. By the way, have you noticed something strange?" Kuromi asked.
"Strange? Perhaps." Shiro nodded.
"This trial is too easy right now for its difficulty isn¡¯t it? This still feels like it¡¯s not as hard as how Celestial Immortal has been described. Sure we¡¯ve ran into life threatening situations, but we¡¯ve also met up with our allies. Taking down our enemies isn¡¯t the most heaven defying either so why is this Celestial Immortal?" Kuromi said with a frown.
"Mn, I think it¡¯s something simr to calm before the storm. Right now, everything is just a prelude. Perhaps once we gain ess to using this Celestial Energy, the true trial will appear?" Shiro replied before walking towards the entrance of the cave.
"Either way, we should get rid of our initial enemies first."
###
"Alright, you guys cane in now. We¡¯vee to a decision." Shiro called out to the ground.
Looking at each other in confusion as to what this decision is, they made their way into the cave.
"Me and Kuro are nning to go to a nearby city first so that we can get some supplies if possible. Before leaving for a small town." Shiro said with a smile.
"Understood, we can provide you with a certain amount of money so getting some food and clothing shouldn¡¯t be a problem." Phillip nodded with a smile since he¡¯s happy that they¡¯re not going to attack their enemies recklessly.
"In the meantime, I want to know how to use this Celestial Energy. Not the special spell that father had created but just how normal people would use it. I¡¯m rather curious." She continued.
Furrowing his brows, Phillip wondered for a moment before nodding.
"That is fine. We can show you along the way to the next city." He replied.
Since the two girls couldn¡¯t use Celestial Energy the normal way, it wouldn¡¯t harm them to show the method. In addition to this, he also wanted to grant a few of their requests since they seemed to have made a fewpromises of their own.
"Good, for now, what should we call your group?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"I suppose you can call us Shadow Guards since that¡¯s what the lord called us. The only difference is that we¡¯re the secondary group." Phillip replied.
"Got it. Since me and Kuro are father¡¯s daughters, that means you serve us right?"
"Indeed."
"In that case, then my first order for you is to get us a map of this country and escort us to the next city."
Chapter 421 City of Yoru
Chapter 421 City of Yoru
In the city of Yoru, the streets were bustling as a carriage could be seen entering through the front gates.
A few people passing by were a little curious as to what¡¯s inside the carriage but didn¡¯t spare them much thought since there were plenty of people toe into the city by carriage.
"Young miss, we¡¯ve arrived." Phillip called out from the front seat.
"Mn, got it. For now, let¡¯s get some food to eat, I¡¯m quite hungry." Shiro replied with a smile.
A week ago, after she gave them their first order, the first thing that they did was escort her out of the forest. It turns out that the forest they were in was called Teriu forest.
If one was to go north, they would reach Teriu city which was where they hade from. The closest city to Teriu city would be Yoru and that was to the east of Teriu forest. To reach Yoru, one would need to travel for around a week with their speed.
During this week, Shiro had the shadow guards show them how they would normally use the Celestial Energy.
Simr to mana, they had a hidden reservoir inside them that stored all of their energy. This energy couldn¡¯t be regenerated through the day but only when they rested their bodies. This means that they had to stay still and rest properly for the energy to actually regenerate since it was akin to their physical stamina.
This made it so that they had to be careful with how they used their energy. Should they waste it, they¡¯ll be quite vulnerable.
As for how they used the energy, they would link their soul strands into this reservoir and have it transferred into their physical body which then allows them to activate their spells.
Thankfully for Shiro, this meant that her broken mana links couldn¡¯t prevent her from using this power. But now the problem was that both girls were needed to use this power.
With Kuromi no longer being ¡¯inside¡¯ her, their strands couldn¡¯t link up properly so their reservoir was essentially cut off.
But this didn¡¯t bother her too much since they could always experiment. However, with the guards around, it would be dangerous to expose their experiments so they both agreed to keep it on hold for now.
In addition to this, Shiro and Kuromi both decided to train the shadow guards under the guise of ¡¯practice¡¯. It may seem like the two girls were being trained through the guard¡¯s guidance but with their meticulous nning and positioning, they slowly forced the unneeded movements out of each and every guard, slowly refining them into lethal killers.
Of course, they weren¡¯t able to do much within the week butpared to what they were like before, each guard could fight two copies of themselves without a single problem!
There were also a few changes in the shadow guards mindsets. Despite being the one¡¯s ¡¯training¡¯ the two girls, they felt like they were suppressed. Their confidence and aura would overwhelm their senses at the start of the battle but soon fade.
Shiro, a girl they realised to have the confidence to envelop everything under her rule. A tyrant that could swallow everything up, refusing to be swallowed up. An endless void that hungers.
Kuromi, the older sister that was simr yet different to Shiro. Sure, she was also like a void that absorbs everything but rather than consume, she controls them. As if cing them in a stasis, she would link strings to them and control them like a puppeteer.
Every time one of the shadow guards fought against her, it was as if they were in a y that Kuromi wrote herself. Only when she gave you permission were you allowed to move/act with your own will.
Both girls were equally frighting and the guards unconsciously submitted themselves towards the two, epting them as their new masters.
"Say Kuromi, do you think we should get ourselves a residence here first? We¡¯ll have the guards do some tasks and make some money." Shiro asked while peering out into the streets of Yoru.
"Ha? Why would we do that? I¡¯m more concerned about structuring the guards properly first. Plus, since we¡¯re going to be stirring some serious business in this world, having a secure residence is akin to a chain that would bind us down." Kuromi replied with a shake of her head.
In her hands was a makeshift notebook of sorts and it contained all of the information she had written down for the shadow guards.
With a total of 26 members, including the captain ¨C Phillip, Kuromi organised them into four categories.
Attackers, Defenders, Support and Utility. Each category was rather self exnatory due to their titles.
As for how many members were in each category, they were listed as such.
Attackers ¨C 12 members
Defenders ¨C 4 members
Support ¨C 8 members
Utility ¨C 2 members
The next few pages were some information about each of the members. For now, Kuromi hadbelled them with their code names but they had nned to give them each a different name once they¡¯ve finished gathering all of the supplies that they need.
"Young miss, what is it that you wanted to eat? It¡¯s a little dangerous for you to be going out so we¡¯ll buy it for you." Phillip called out while stabilising the carriage.
"What I want to eat? Hmm... I don¡¯t know. Isn¡¯t it easier for me to juste out and choose for myself?" Shiro smiled.
"But..."
"It¡¯s fine Phillip. I doubt she¡¯ll listen anyways." Kuromi closed her book with a sigh.
". . .I understand." Phillip nodded since he understood how stubborn Shiro could be during this week.
Opening the carriage doors, both Shiro and Kuromi walked out of the carriage as they stretched their bodies.
Since they didn¡¯t want to be recognised too soon, they had a mask that obscured their faces.
Shiro wore a white and red hanfu much like what she had worn back in the quest where Lyrica obtained Yuan Tian while Kuromi wore a ck and blue hanfu.
After stretching her body, Shiro looked towards the restaurant that they were in front of and couldn¡¯t help but smell a wonderful scenting from the kitchen.
"Hou hou, seems like we¡¯re going to get some good food today. To be honest, I¡¯m somewhat tired of having the nd meat that we¡¯ve been making for the past week." Shiro smiled while making her way into the restaurant.
"*Sigh* It¡¯s no wonder that Yin¡¯s a glutton with your eating habits. To be honest, it seems like she¡¯s just an enhanced version of you that somehow got a skill." Kuromi sighed.
"Well let¡¯s just be honest here why don¡¯t we? Since we¡¯re the ¡¯same¡¯, both you and I know that you would pamper her just as much as I did." Shiro chuckled.
"Fufu... maybe, maybe not. Who knows? After all, it¡¯s also thanks to this skill that my dear niece is not an obese phoenix. Now THAT, would be quite depressing. It¡¯s both a blessing and a curse I suppose." Kuromi smiled.
"Yeah a curse for my wallet." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Oh please, you can earn more for darling Yin can¡¯t you? Plus it¡¯s not like you¡¯re going to be spending that much money anyways."
"What do you mean I¡¯m not going to be spending that much money? I might need it to buy some materials and weapons you know." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Perhaps but highly unlikely. Not only that, I¡¯m pretty sure that you¡¯re more likely to ¡¯borrow¡¯ the material or weapon than buy it like awful person."
"I amwful. It¡¯s just called long term borrowing which means I might return the item or material should I still have it and don¡¯t have a use for it."
"You? Beingwful? I¡¯ll believe that when the system crumbles and the gods die." Kuromi rolled her eyes.
"Oh yeah? You wanna bet?" Shiro frowned.
"I don¡¯t want to make a bet for you to do something reckless. You are the ¡¯main¡¯ after all, your life is my life." Kuromi shook her head.
While this was all happening, Phillip only ignored this since their two young misses go through this episode of drama every single day. They just dismiss it as children ying since young people tend to be more imaginative.
¡¯Maybe they¡¯re going through an embarrassing phase that they might want to forget?¡¯ Phillip thought to himself while following them into the restaurant.
Chapter 422 Big Sis Kuromi
Chapter 422 Big Sis Kuromi
Entering the restaurant, the three of them paid for a normal table since they weren¡¯t exactly well off for money.
Ordering a few of the more simple dishes, they waited patiently while Shiro nced out at the streets.
"It¡¯s quite peaceful here isn¡¯t it?" Shiro asked while giving Phillip a brief nce.
"Indeed." Phillip nodded but was confused as to why Shiro had asked him such a question.
¡¯Too bad this peace will be destroyed once Shiro¡¯s done with it.¡¯ Kuromi shook her head since she understood that if Shiro was to spread the information about what had happened in Teriu, the families in Yoru would definitely be curious.
Waiting for a short while, the food finally arrived as Shiro smiled eagerly.
Grabbing a chopstick, she moved her mask out of the way slightly and started to eat. It was unfortunate that they didn¡¯t have the spare funds to get a private room but she could still eat without revealing who she was.
However, her action of not removing her mask seemed to have drawn the attention of other customers around them.
Seeing her smile and rosy lips, they could already tell that she was beautiful without even looking at the upper half of her face.
"Kuro, are you not eating?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"It¡¯s not that I¡¯m not eating, it¡¯s just that there seemed to be quite a few eyes on us, no?" Kuromi replied while ncing over her shoulders.
Feeling as if a beast had just swept its eyes across them, the customers quickly returned back to their meals and didn¡¯t dare to look towards the table.
"Ai... why must you be so bothered ah." Shiro sighed while giving Kuromi a small signal.
Seeing the signal, Kuromi knew that Shiro was telling her to not provoke anyone for now.
"Mn, fine." Kuromi sighed. She didn¡¯t exactly like having people stare at her while she was eating but she¡¯d hold herself back for now since she too understood the dangers. If she provoked a wrong person they could just sneeze and erase her.
Finishing their meal, the trio left the restaurant. But before they could get into their carriage, both Shiro and Kuromi felt a disgusting stare on their back as both girls snapped their heads towards the second floor of the roof with a scowl.
"You feel that Kuromi?" Shiro asked with displeasure in her voice.
"Obviously. That f*cker¡¯s lucky I don¡¯t have ess to my powers right now or else I would have plucked his eyes out for that." Kuromi replied angrily.
Just before they entered their carriage, they had felt a stare sweep over them and try to imagine them in the nude. Such a repulsive re naturally made both girls angry as they wanted nothing more than to kill that guy but had to restrain themselves for now.
Going back into the carriage in a bad mood, the two closed the door, leaving a confused Phillip.
"What?" He muttered as he had no idea what just happened.
Furrowing his brows, he looked towards where the two were ring and saw nothing.
¡¯Strange.¡¯ He thought to himself before leading the carriage away to get some supplies.
Meanwhile, a man was smiling lightly in one of the private rooms with tens of beauties besides him.
"Tell Tau that two decent merchandise have entered Yoru." The man called out to one of the servants standing by the door.
"Understood sir."
As the servant left the room, the man nced towards the leaving carriage and couldn¡¯t help but smile.
¡¯To think that two beauties with such ferocious res have entered this city without me knowing, this might be a good chance to get rid of Tau since he¡¯s been quite a pain in my neck.¡¯ He thought with a smile before indulging himself with the beauties around him.
###
As the carriage travelled through the city, Phillip had the guards buy and load supplies into the back of the cart while also sending a few people to gather some information about Teriu.
Unfortunately, it seemed like all information from Teriu had stoppeding out. This apparently happened almost two weeks ago, which was when the family was destroyed. So in order for them to understand what the situation is like, they¡¯ll have to enter Teriu themselves.
"Hmm... that¡¯s a little troublesome. In that case then can you get me a list of all the major families in Yoru?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Of course miss." One of the guards nodded before disappearing.
"What are you nning to do with a list of families in this city young miss?" Phillip asked curiously.
"Oh nothing much, I just want to see who I want to avoid." Shiro replied with a smile.
Of course, Kuromi knew that was a lie since it was going to be a list of targets that she wanted to make use of.
After a whole day of traveling through the city, they decided to rest up at an inn for now and try to make some money tomorrow.
"Fu... finally some private time huh?" Shiro nced over at Kuromi who was in the same room.
"Mn, so what are you nning now?" Kuromi asked with a smile.
"What am I nning? Oh nothing much." Shiro grinned.
"And you really expect me to ept that?" Kuromi raised her eyebrows.
"Well you¡¯re me so you probably know what I¡¯m nning don¡¯t you?"
"I do and as your big sister, I say it¡¯s a bad idea." Kuromi shook her head with a smile.
"That¡¯s only if I get caught. I¡¯m just going to pay the families a visit and borrow some funds." Shiro chuckled.
"You know they can probably catch you like it¡¯s nothing you know? We don¡¯t exactly have a way out right now. Even a simple servant of theirs can kick our ass." Kuromi replied.
"Hence why you¡¯reing with me. We¡¯re going to give one of our theories a try. If it works, I should be able to ess my Celestial Raiment EX."
"And if it doesn¡¯t?"
"Then I suppose we¡¯re f*cked then." Shiro replied.
"Not exactly." Kuromi smiled.
"What do you mean?"
"Your dear big sister here has been working her mind off for your sake. While you¡¯ve been ying around, I¡¯ve managed to make 5 prototypes that should allow us to use Celestial Energy but they haven¡¯t been tested out yet." Kuromi chuckled.
"Wait really?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Oh of course. We¡¯re the same person so you know that I won¡¯t lie about this." Kuromi replied while sitting by the window.
"Now lil sis, I expect a payment of some kind for you to get these 5 prototypes." Kuromi narrowed her eyes.
"Payment?" Shiro frowned.
"Oh don¡¯t make such a face. It¡¯s nothing too serious." Kuromi grinned.
"What do you mean?"
"I want you to say a few lines for me."
"Wait, what? Only a few lines? Sure that¡¯s fine." Shiro nodded.
"Are you sure you want to be his hasty to agree?" Kuromi smiled.
"Well you¡¯re me so surely you won¡¯t torture me right?" Shiro shrugged but paused when she saw Kuromi¡¯s smiling face.
"Oh sh*t." Shiro muttered.
"I want you to say these lines. ¡¯Oh my amazing, strong, and beautiful big sis Kuromi, I¡¯ve been hurt by the bad people outside and I want you to pamper me as much as you can so that I can recover from being sad~¡¯ Set me on yourps and stroke my hair. Protect me like I¡¯m a baby~" Kuromi said with a grin.
Seeing the familiar sadistic aura in her eyes, Shiro knew that Kuromi wasn¡¯t joking.
¡¯Ah f*ck she really is me.¡¯
"What¡¯s wrong Shiro? I thought you promised me? You¡¯re gonna break big sis¡¯s heart here." Kuromi acted while keeping a grin on her face.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro took a deep breath.
"O-oh my amazing st- F*CK! I can¡¯t do it!" She stopped immediately as she was embarrassed by the fact that she had to say such a line.
"Haha, fine big sis will cut you a break. You can also just say this line if you don¡¯t want to say the other one. ¡¯Pamper me, feed me and make me yours. I want you to treat me like your precious delicate treasure.¡¯" Kuromi said with a giggle.
"Damn it Kuro! Both are terrible and you know it!" Shiro raged with a blush.
"Of course I do. Why do you think I chose it? Nowe here my dear maiden of a sister and tell big sis what she wants to hear." Kuromi smiled.
Chapter 423 Earning Money
Chapter 423 Earning Money
---Looking at Shiro who was looking out through the window with an angry pout, Kuromi couldn¡¯t help but giggle softly.
"What are you giggling about?" Shiro asked as she nced over at her.
"Oh nothing much. Just remembering how my dear lil sis asked me to pamper herst n-"
"Ll! I can¡¯t hear you!" Shiro covered her ears since she didn¡¯t want to remember.
If any of the girls in the party knew that she had to say such an embarrassing line then her image would be shattered.
"Oh please, it wasn¡¯t a bad trade ok? We now know a little of what we should do for us to actually use the celestial energy." Kuromi said with a smile.
"I guess but it¡¯s still a little inefficient to be actually put into battle." Shiro sighed.
"It¡¯s a start." Kuromi chuckled.
"True... Anyways, we¡¯ve collected most of the things that we need from this city so I guess we¡¯ll be going back to Teriu to see what¡¯s the state of things there." Shiro replied while looking back at the window.
"Do you think Phillip will agree to that?"
"I¡¯ll be honest, he will probably say no. But I got my own ns." Shiro smiled.
Peeking her head out of the carriage, Shiro looked towards Phillip.
"Phillip!" She called out.
"Yes young miss?"
"Can we make our way to Teriu? I want to get some information about the aftermath of what happened and see the current state of the city." Shiro asked.
"I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t do that young miss. Considering the fact that they probably don¡¯t want information about the spell to be leaked outside, they probably have the entire city on lockdown." Phillip shook his head.
"I know but what if we just had a few of the shadow guards do this task? If there are only one of two of them, surely they can seed, no?" Shiro persuaded.
"No miss, you don¡¯t understand. I¡¯m saying we¡¯ll be discovered the moment we get close to the city. They had people standing guard on the city walls making sure that no one sneaks in or out." Phillip shook his head.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro stayed silent for a moment.
"Kuro, you got any ideas?" She turned towards Kuromi.
"Some but that would be skipping some steps and it might backfire." Kuromi replied.
"Oh? What¡¯s the n?" Shiro asked as she sat back down.
"We¡¯ll just spread the information about the spell that father made but with some exaggeration. Mix in a few truths such as ¡¯Have you not realised that Teriu city seemed to have fallen silent? No onees back from that city.¡¯ And ¡¯The spell was designed so that his daughters can use it with just one soul strand. Imagine if a normal person got their hands on that spell?¡¯ That way, it¡¯ll rouse some of their interests. Feed them a few more lies and half truths for a while and they¡¯ll make their way to Teriu to see for themselves. The more people we get to enter Teriu, the better chances of sess. After all, the bigger themotion, the harder it is to cover up. There might also be the chance that a few of the people might actually escape and reveal the truth to the other cities. Once that happens, the families in Teriu will be surrounded by enemies everywhere." Kuromi replied while writing something down on her pad.
"Hmm... indeed that is skipping a few steps. There are still mysteries surrounding Teriu and I don¡¯t exactly want to basically start a coup without information." Shiro frowned.
"That¡¯s why I said it might backfire. There¡¯s a good chance that whoever tries to invade Teriu will die so it would just be a waste." Kuromi nodded.
"Arg! So annoying." Shiro frowned.
"It¡¯s annoying because it¡¯s hard. And it¡¯s hard because we have no powers so we must rely on wit to win our battles for now. Have some patience." Kuromi replied with a smile before closing her notebook.
"What have you written?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Oh I just gave each of the guards their names. I¡¯ll talk to them about this once we leave this city."
As they continued to talk for a little longer, the guards soon collected everything that the two girls had requested.
"Alright, for now, how about we make some money? With the items and materials they bought for us, I can probably make some decent food and get us some funds." Kuromi smiled.
"Eh? But we don¡¯t have a shop do we?" Shiro tilted her head.
"Dummy Shiro, ever heard of food stalls?" Kuromi giggled.
". . . Don¡¯t call me dummy." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Ohe on lil sis, let big sis have this one. Anyways, I got work to do so just hang tight for now." Kuromi smiled before getting off the carriage.
Walking around to the back, she started to sort through all of the materials. cing a table in front of her, the guards stood beside her and watched with curiosity.
Ignoring the guards, Kuromi started to tinker away at the materials while standing up.
A few of the passing people were rather surprised after seeing this masked woman y around with little pieces on a table and decided to stay behind to see what she was nning.
After a few moments, they were surprised at what she had created. With just wood and some small pieces of metal, she had created a few of the more modern style toys.
¡¯Ha? When the hell did she be a toy maker???¡¯ Shiro widened her eyes.
cing one of the finished products on the table, she continued to tinker away as the spectators looked at the toy with interest.
"Excuse me miss, what have you made?" One of the spectators asked with curiosity.
"This, it¡¯s a toy for children. Children are filled with imagination so if you get one or two of these for your children, I can guarantee that they¡¯ll grow up with a fresh and vivid imagination. Think about this, if as children they can imagine a glorious battlefield where they use amazing spells, then won¡¯t they be able to make such revolutionary spells when they grow up? After all, it¡¯s all about the mind no? Plus, where else have you seen such items like these?" Kuromi chuckled.
"Hmm..." Thinking about it for a moment, the man nodded and asked for how much they cost.
"Well for an unique item, how much do you think it costs? Since you¡¯re the first customer, I¡¯ll allow you to think of the price. Of course, if it¡¯s too low, I won¡¯t be able to sell it." Kuromi smiled.
She had already researched about how much the gold here is worth. A single meal at the restaurant cost around 15 gold and it could be afforded by most of the people around here. So a toy was within their range.
As for how much it cost her to make the toys, the materials cost around 5 gold so anything higher would be a profit.
"How about 10 gold?" The man suggested.
Clearly surprised at his offer, Kuromi nodded her head.
"Very fair price sir and to think you got it dead on the price. Small toys like this are 10 gold whilerge toys are 15. Since you¡¯re the first customer, how about I take only 8?." She replied with a smile.
"Really? Thank you very much then." The man said while going through with the trade.
After he left, Kuromi continued to make more toys. While she was doing this, she had the shadow guards make two signs sayingrge toys will cost around 15 gold while small toys will cost 10.
Therge toys are things like dragons and such while small toys are humanoid. Of course, that wasn¡¯t all. She had a variety of toys but if they had a special thing in mind, they¡¯ll have to pay 20 gold for argemission and 15 gold for a smallmission.
However, if themission was veryplicated, she¡¯ll charge ordingly depending on how much of a hassle it was.
By the end of the day, she managed to make quite a profit for herself as there were still more people who wanted to buy the toys.
"Ah sorry, I¡¯ll be finishing up for today. I¡¯m nning on staying for a day or two so I¡¯ll be here again tomorrow at sunrise if you want to buy something. First customer of the day will get a discount of course." Kuromi smiled before packing everything up.
Walking into the carriage, she had Phillip lead them towards the closest inn.
"See? I¡¯ve managed to get us some funds." Kuromi smiled as she showed Shiro the heavy money bag.
". . .When did you even learn how to make these?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh when Keomi was little, she used to want a lot of toys but mum and dad refused since they wanted her to practice with martial arts. Hence why I just got a bunch of wood and metal so that I can make toys for her myself." Kuromi shrugged with a smile.
"Huh, that¡¯s quite thoughtful of you." Shiro nodded.
"Oh? Could it be that you want big sis to make you a toy too? Maybe you also want me to pamper you?" Kuromi grinned.
"Oh screw off!" Shiro rolled her eyes but had a soft smile on her face.
Chapter 424 Nurse
Chapter 424 Nurse
Spending night at the inn, they continued to sell toys for two more days and had made quite the substantial profit. While it couldn¡¯t bepared to what a big family may earn, it was more than enough for their current group.
In addition to this, Kuromi had also given each of the shadow guards their names so that it was easier to talk to them.
During these two days, they noticed that there had been a few people observing them hidden on the roofs but decided to ignore it for now since they were going to be leaving this city once the guards finish collecting all of the information.
Currently, they were spending their final night at the inn. Shiro was looking out of the window at a few of the observers while Kuromi was writing in her notebook as usual.
"Kuromi, what do you think about taking one of them hostage and interrogating them for information about who¡¯s been keeping an eye on us?" Shiro suggested.
"You know that¡¯s a bad idea. Just try to be tolerant for now until we can consistently use Celestial Energy without fulfilling a bunch of conditions." Kuromi replied.
"Urg... What are you even writing in your notebook? I know that there is a bunch of information about the guards and such but what¡¯s this second notebook for?" Shiro asked while looking at Kuromi.
This was one of the things that set them apart since Kuromi seemed to like writing in her notebook a lot and had quite a bit of patience while Shiro was more of a hands on person.
"This? Oh just some information about this world. I¡¯m writing down a few strategies with the information I¡¯ve gathered. These include battles inside the city and what we should do should you identally piss off one of the people that live here. There are also some strategies for our guards so that they can help us earn money without us being here." Kuromi replied.
"You know, if it wasn¡¯t for your cheat of a database, you¡¯d probably be doing what I¡¯m doing." She smiled.
"Well duh, we¡¯re the same person. You¡¯re me but without my Nanomancer ss and the benefits ites with." Shiro shrugged.
"True. Anyways, if you were wondering about who was keeping an eye on us, I¡¯ve already tracked them down so you can lead a bunch of our men to try to see if you can capture them. Thankfully, they¡¯re not too powerful so it should be doable."
"Eh? You have?" Shiro widened her eyes.
"Yeah, unlike you, I¡¯ve been working my ass off every day. All of this just so that you can have some fun and actually fight." Kuromi sighed while massaging her neck.
*Cough*
"Well my expertise is in punching and stabbing. I¡¯m not fit for delicate operations like this." Shiro lied.
"Yeah bullsh*t. You¡¯re just toozy to try. We¡¯re the same person so what I can do you can do as well." Kuromi rolled her eyes.
"Anyways, take this note that I¡¯ve written and give it to Nui and Prim. Those two girls are best for delicate operations like this since they focus on stealth."
Handing Shiro a note, Kuromi started to write in her notepad once more.
[Target ¨C Tau
ve merchant residing near the red light district. He kidnaps and sells young women to the brothels and gets a hefty sum from the sales. Not only that, he¡¯s one of the bigger traders in the nearby cities so he may have some information in regards to what¡¯s happening in Teriu. As for his guards, he has two level 3 guards standing outside his room whenever he does the ¡¯act¡¯ so your best choice is to take him during this time.]
"Hmm... Kuro, what do you mean by level 3 guard?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Oh right I still haven¡¯t told you the level system that I thought up to categorise them huh? Well basically, level 1 users of Celestial Energy could be a match for level 50 adventurers, level 2 is around level 75 and level 3 are level 100 adventurers. This is still a work in progress so the scale might not be entirely urate since I haven¡¯t seen nor analysed their fights in detail. But with what I¡¯ve heard of his guards, they should be level 100 give or take in our world." Kuromi replied.
"Heh~ In that case then what are the levels of our shadow guards?"
"They average to around level 2 with a few in level 3. Nui and Prim are level 3 hence why I¡¯m having you take them with you on this quest."
"Is that so... Wait a minute, would they even agree to this? I thought they didn¡¯t want us to be fighting?" Shiro tilted her head.
"You¡¯re not fighting. You¡¯re only getting rid of a cancer to women in this world. Think of it as medical treatment. Plus, fighting is ast resort since you¡¯re a liability right now." Kuromi replied while ncing over at her.
"I see... if they knew what Tau was doing, it¡¯s no surprise that they¡¯ll be on board for this."
"Indeed. Now you¡¯ll find Nui and Prim in room 5. I¡¯ve already talked to them about this so they should know the moment youe into their room." Kuromi smiled.
"Cool. Welp, time to stretch my body a little. It¡¯s been so long since I had a good run." Shiro grinned.
"Mn, see youter then Nurse Shiro haha." Kuromi chuckled.
"Pft, what the hell do you mean by Nurse Shiro. Do I look like someone who would be a nurse?" Shiro frowned.
"Of course. By that I mean in the kinky way. Have you not seen the nurse outfits that they have? To be honest, I¡¯m pretty sure that if I pitched this idea to dear ol¡¯ Lyrica she¡¯ll have a nose bleed over you." Kuromi giggled softly.
"Oh whatever. I¡¯m more like a serial killer disguised as a nurse then." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Fair point. Though I suppose I would make quite the seductive nurse no? Get one of their outfits, a pair of sses, ab coat on top of that and some tights. When a patient enters I¡¯ll be like ¡¯Ara ara, you¡¯ve been quite a clumsy person haven¡¯t you? Come closer so I can give you a thorough check up.¡¯" Kuromi said with a seductive tone.
"Oh god f*ck that¡¯s strange. We have the same appearance right now you know! Look at my arm, I¡¯ve got goosebumps!" Shiro protested since it was an awful experience for her to see ¡¯herself¡¯ try to act like a seductive nurse.
"What do you mean by strange? Big sis Kuro¡¯s gonna be hurt you know? I¡¯m trying to teach you some techniques to bring Lyrica into your bed. It might be helpful who knows. Plus, even if you don¡¯t get with Lyrica, since she¡¯s your best friend, I don¡¯t mind Helion either you know? As your big sister, I approve of them both to be my sibling inws." Kuromiughed.
Blushing slightly at the thought, Shiro quickly left the room since she didn¡¯t want to think about that.
¡¯God what is Kuromi even thinking about bringing that up.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she quickly snapped out of it.
However, the thought lingered for a short moment. After a long day¡¯s work in the dungeon, she¡¯de back to her room to rx and get a gentle massage by either Lyrica or Helion. As they continue, it¡¯ll slowly develop into something else...
"GAH!!! DAMN IT KURO!" Shiro shouted out in embarrassment and mmed her head against the wall to get rid of the thoughts.
*BANG!
"Young miss!?!?!" Phillip widened his eyes since he just saw Shiro m her head against the wall all of a sudden.
"Eh~ Oh it¡¯s just you Phil. It¡¯s nothing don¡¯t worry~" Shiro smiled as she was a little dizzy from the hit.
Talking to Phillip for a little longer in order to convince him that she was fine, she calmed herself before looking for Nui and Prim¡¯s room.
She was going to take out all of her embarrassment on Tau for making Kuromi torture her like this.
*Knock knock
"Come in." Nui¡¯s voice rang out.
Entering the room, Shiro saw both Nui and Prim ready with their gear.
"Second young miss, as first miss instructed, we¡¯ll be protecting you during this excursion. However, should we detect any danger, we¡¯ll be bringing you back immediately ok?" Prim said as she kneeled down in front of Shiro.
"Don¡¯t worry, I understand." Shiro smiled.
Discussing the n once more so that they understood what they should do, the trio left the room through the window.
Chapter 425 Kidnapping
Chapter 425 Kidnapping
Jumping out of the window, Shiro had a grin on her face since this was when she felt most alive.
Even though she couldn¡¯t use mana or Celestial Raiment to reinforce her body, she was more than capable of shifting momentum to her advantage.
Kicking off the wall, she jumped onto the opposite building and dashed along the roof.
Both Nui and Prim were used to Shiro¡¯s monstrous parkour abilities with just her physical body so they weren¡¯t too surprised. However, that didn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t a sight to behold.
Following behind her, Nui and Prim watched out for anyone that would be observing them at this time of night.
"Nui, one to your left around 200 meters. Prim, one behind you on the roof." Shiro called out without even looking around her.
Pivoting on her foot while in motion, two daggers slid into her hands from within her sleeves as she threw it towards their locations.
"Arg!" Crying out in surprise, the two observers revealed their locations as both Nui and Prim finished them off quickly.
"Second young miss, if you don¡¯t mind, can I ask how you did that?" Nui asked curiously.
"Instinct. I just trace their stares back to their source. We as humans have times where we know someone is watching us and their general direction. For this, this is just heavily enhanced." Shiro replied with a smile.
Leaping across a gap between buildings, she slid on her feet for a few steps before throwing two more daggers at a few observers that were drawn to their location due to themotion.
With Shiro being the scout of sorts and pinpointing the enemies with her daggers, Nui and Prim cleaned up after her as they sped through the city without too many problems since they killed their enemies before they could even use their Celestial Energy.
As they were approaching Tau¡¯s residence, Shiro wondered if she had enough daggers at hand.
¡¯Thanks to Nui and Prim retrieving them whenever we attack our enemies, I still have around 10 daggers in my sleeves. This should be enough but if we get into a fight, I might not be able to dy them as much as I hoped. Maybe we should go to an enchanter or something to see if they can upgrade these daggers.¡¯ She thought to herself while crouching down.
Since they were about to reach Tau¡¯s residence, the number of guards nearby had increased dramatically and if they didn¡¯t want to be discovered, they had to be quiet.
"Second young miss, the moment we fight, everyone nearby will be alerted so we¡¯ll retreat immediately should anything bad happen." Nui reminded.
"Don¡¯t worry, I know." Shiro smiled before climbing down onto the balcony.
Stabbing her dagger into the wall, she slowly removed a few of the bricks to form a gap just big enough for each of them to enter.
It was located just above the second floor so that she would be on the support beams.
Entering the building, she bnced herself on the support beam and hid it in shadows. Waiting till both Nui and Prim entered into the building, the trio made their way through the support beams without alerting anyone who were patrolling below them.
As much as she wanted to just attack them all and get things over and done with, she knew that it would just overplicate a few things. Thankfully, most of the people here were only level 1 guards so even if things went wrong, they can deal with it quite easily.
"Nui, Prim, since we¡¯re trying to avoid being seen, I¡¯ll be relying on you two to tell me if there¡¯s someone around the corner ok?" Shiro whispered as the two girls nodded.
While Shiro and Nui were advancing forward, Prim pressed her fingers against the ground.
"Spider web." She muttered as a translucent web of string started to expand from her location. This spell was a rather weak one as it doesn¡¯t use too much of her energy but it was great for locating where people are. Not only that, but due to its low cost, it was quite hard to detect.
Of course, she could also increase the output to make the strings harder to get rid of.
Closing her eyes, Prim could see the location of everyone who¡¯s tripped her strings.
"One person at the next corner to our right. He should be looking away from our entrance in around 5 seconds." Prim reported quietly.
Making an ok sign, Shiro whispered in Nui¡¯s ear.
"When I¡¯m about to turn the corner, I want you to punch towards me and I¡¯ll use that momentum to surprise attack the person."
"Understood." Nui nodded since she trusted Shiro¡¯smands.
Walking forward a little more, Shiro counted down from three with her fingers.
Once it reached zero, Nui twisted her body slightly and punched towards Shiro as she had instructed.
Shiro jumped into the air lightly and stepped against Nui¡¯s punch, using it as a springboard.
As her bodyunched forward, she entered the man¡¯s line of sight. Quickly kicking against the wall, Shiro arrived before him with two daggers drawn.
The first dagger stabbed into his mouth while the second into his temple. Using them as handles, she swung her body around his head and used the two daggers as a corkscrew to snap the man¡¯s neck.
*CRACK!
Breaking his neck and killing him, Shiro quickly bnced herself and made sure that no blood flowed down. cing his body gently against the wall, she nodded to the other two as they continued to proceed towards Tau¡¯s room.
Thankfully, since she was swift in killing the man, he wasn¡¯t able to scream so no one was alerted.
"Right then, he should be in the room below us." Shiro muttered as grunts could be heard with soft sobs.
Taking a deep breath since she knew what was happening, she looked towards the other two.
"I know Kuromi said we should take him alive but do you want to just kill this f*cker now?" Shiro whispered.
". . . Why don¡¯t we take him back anyway? I¡¯m sure some of our sisters in the shadow guards are more than happy to torture him." Nui suggested after a moment of thought.
"I want to kill him now but Nui makes a good point." Prim followed up.
"Hmm... how about this, we¡¯ll take him if we can but if things go south, kill him straight away then leave." Shiro replied after a moment.
Nodding her head, the two girls agreed.
Carefully removing the wooden panels, Shiro looked down into the room and was instantly overwhelmed by the smell of incense.
¡¯F*ck! My nose!!!¡¯ Shiro cried out in her mind as she recoiled back a little. The thing about having sharp senses was that good bes great and bad bes worse.
Stabilising herself so that she didn¡¯t make any noise, Shiro shook her head lightly and prepared to attack.
Handing the two a rope that she had kept under her waist sash for emergency situations, she tied it to one of her ankles and slowly descended into the room with the help of the two.
Making eye contact with the woman who was under Tau, Shiro made a shushing gesture before she could shout out.
Tau was a rather thin man with hardly any fat but he wasn¡¯t exactly muscr either. His features couldn¡¯t be seen as she was behind him but she didn¡¯t care for that since her goal was to kidnap him.
Once she was behind him, she was about to m the pommel of her dagger against his temple when his head suddenly recoiled back and hit her in the face.
¡¯F*CK! MY NOSE AGAIN!¡¯ She shouted out in her mind with anger and quickly knocked the man out.
"I¡¯lle back in a second." Shiro whispered to the woman who nodded her head with a face full of tears.
Climbing back up the sash, now with a second person, Shiro handed him over to the girls and had them restrain him.
Naturally, he was quickly wrapped with some bedsheets since she wanted to spare her eyes the torture of seeing him in full nude.
Climbing back down, she carefully dressed the woman up before carrying her up to the ceiling with just one hand.
"I need you to be as quiet as possible for the next few minutes ok? If you can do that, I¡¯ll get you out of here and help you have a new life." Shiro said with a small smile.
Seeing the confidence andfort she could feel from the white haired girl that was carrying her, the girl nodded her head since she didn¡¯t want this opportunity to fly away.
Making their way back out of the building without alerting anyone, the three of them, plus one hostage and a victim, managed to get away without much trouble.
Chapter 426 Intel
Chapter 426 Intel
Once they distanced themselves far enough from the building, Shiro sighed in relief.
"Fuu.... That was pretty sessful wasn¡¯t it?" Shiro smiled towards her two guards.
"Mn, indeed, second young miss." Nui nodded her head.
"Um... Who are you?" The woman called out in confusion.
"Me? Hmm... My name is Shiro." Shiro replied since she didn¡¯t have her mask on right now.
"Thank you, Miss Shiro, for saving my life." The woman bowed slightly.
"Ah don¡¯t worry about it, say what¡¯s your name?"
"My name is Velri. I no longer have a surname since I¡¯ve been sold as a ve." Velri replied.
"Hmm.... I see. Well for now, I¡¯ll take you back to our ce and get you cleaned up. Once that¡¯s done, we can talk about what you can do from now on ok?" Shiro smiled as Velri nodded her head.
Arriving back at their inn, the three of them climbed through Kuromi¡¯s window.
"Wee back. Seems like you¡¯ve brought in an additional person as well." Kuromi raised her eyebrows.
"Well she was there and I couldn¡¯t help it you know? If the guards realised that Tau disappeared and she was the only one there, she¡¯d be killed." Shiro replied with a slight smile.
"I know. Nui, take thatdy over there and help her get cleaned up. If she¡¯s hungry, get her some food and new clothes. Prim, I want you to call for all the female members of the Shadow Guards since I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be happy to torture this guy over here." Kuromi ordered as both of them nodded their heads.
Leading Velri out of the room, Shiro sat down on the bed while Tau was thrown into the corner.
"So how was it? Was your exercise good enough?" Kuromi asked with a smile.
"A little. It was just a shame that I couldn¡¯t use any spells. If I could have ess to my Celestial Energy, then I would have justpletely ttened their estate." Shiro shrugged.
"But if you did that, you might have identally killed that woman or any other victims. Coteral damage lil sis, you have to remember that." Kuromi shook her head.
"I suppose so."
Before they could continue to talk, they heard a soft groan as Tau slowly opened his eyes.
Unfortunately for him, before he could even make a sound, Kuromi had walked up to him and instantly kicked him in the crotch.
Stepping down with the same foot, she pushed her entire weight down and roundhouse kicked him in the head, knocking him out once more.
"You should not have thrown him against the wall, it woke him up a little earlier than nned." Kuromi replied while sitting back down on her chair.
"Ouch... I can see a bit of blood you know?"
"And? It¡¯s not like he¡¯ll be using it anymore once the girls finish torturing him." Kuromi shrugged before taking her shoes off.
Frowning in disgust, she set them aside for now so that she can throw them awayter.
"Anyways, don¡¯t we need to interrogate him for some information about Teriu? Are you sure destroying his junk is good?" Shiro asked.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Just because he lost his d*ck doesn¡¯t mean he can¡¯t talk anymore. I¡¯ll have the girls get some information from him during the torture so you don¡¯t have to worry about it. Of course, if you want to torture him as well, you can follow us." Kuromi suggested.
"Nah it¡¯s fine. If Ie as well, the other girls won¡¯t have as much fun. The more people there are, the less time they each have to punish this guy." Shiro shook her head.
"That¡¯s pretty thoughtful in a gruesome way I suppose. In that case then you can just sleep for now and rest up. Since we can¡¯t use any Celestial Energy to reinforce our bodies, I¡¯m sure that you¡¯ve used quite a bit of stamina haven¡¯t you?" Kuromi asked with a soft smile.
"A little. But I suppose not having ess to the energy is also more productive since I can¡¯t just brute force it. It forces me to think more about what I do." Shiro nodded as sheid her body down on the bed.
Stretching a little, she started to unequip all of her items so that she¡¯s just left with her clothes. Furrowing her brows, she decided to wait until the guards take Tau away for interrogation before getting undressed for bed.
After waiting a few moments, the female members of the Shadow Guards arrived and took the unconscious Tau away as Shiro rxed and changed into some pyjamas.
"You should sleep as well Kuro." Shiro yawned slightly.
"Ah I¡¯ll sleepter. I got some more things to write down. Don¡¯t worry though, I¡¯ll make sure to get enough rest." Kuromi smiled as Shiro nodded.
Closing her eyes, Shiro slowly fell asleep.
As Kuromi continued to write in her notepad, roughly two hours passed before she stopped.
Sighing out softly, Kuromi leaned back on her chair before ncing towards Shiro.
Seeing her sleeping face, Kuromi smiled softly before also getting changed for bed.
Crawling under the sheets andying next to Shiro, Kuromi thought for a moment before turning towards her and hugging her.
¡¯How long has it been since someone has hugged her- no, hugged me like this...¡¯ Kuromi thought to herself while closing her eyes.
Little did she know, Shiro was woken up by this but didn¡¯t make a move and only smiled.
###
Waking up early in the morning, Kuromi got changed and made sure that she didn¡¯t wake up Shiro since she was sleeping peacefully.
Leaving the room, Kuromi went downstairs to get some food and saw some of the Shadow Guards that had been responsible for torturing Taust night.
"So did you girls get any good information from that guy?" Kuromi asked with a smile. She was ok with discussing this information here since she had already bought out the inn with her money.The only people in this ce were the shadow guards.
"A little. His information was also cut off once the enemies attacked but at least we know everyone who¡¯s involved, even those that didn¡¯t directly appear in the actual attack." One of the girls replied.
"Is that so? Give me a list of them and what you know about each family." Kuromi said while sitting down with her notebook.
After listening to their reports, Kuromi had a serious expression.
After all, in addition to the families in Teriu, it seems like the royal family was also involved in this as they hold the most power. It was also due to the royal family that all of the information was sealed off the moment the attack happened.
¡¯This is bad... Even if we get the other families to rebel, the royal family can stop it all once they get involved.¡¯ Kuromi thought with a frown.
Taking a deep breath, she thought long and hard about some of the things that they could do.
First problem was the royal family¡¯s strength. The n of having the outside families attack Teriu would be foiled the moment the royal family steps up so she needed something to keep the royal family at bay while everything is happening.
The second problem would be manpower. They needed something that can hold back the royal family or else they¡¯ll just be killing themselves.
In addition to this, she also doesn¡¯t know their full strength so this could be a variable that crushes her ns.
"Hmm... annoying." Kuromi muttered to herself.
¡¯Manpower iscking, power iscking, they¡¯re not exactly tyrants so staging a coup would be hard. Not only that, but one wrong move and we¡¯ll be surrounded at all sides with enemies. We could use Celestial Raiment EX but that can only hold out for so long since we haven¡¯t perfected the technique yet. It¡¯s still quite inefficient.¡¯
*Yawn~
"What seems to be the problem Kuro?" Shiro called out while walking down the stairs.
"Ah you¡¯re awake." Kuromi said while turning towards Shiro.
"Yeah, you seemed distressed, so tell me about it and I might be able to help." Shiro nodded while sitting down next to her.
Listening to the situation, Shiro could see why Kuromi was struggling a little.
"I know this sounds stupid but why don¡¯t we just brute force it?" Shiro suggested.
"Ha?"
"Well we have a dragon and a giant in the Teriu Forest don¡¯t we? Just piss them off and involve them into our ns. We¡¯ll try to lure them towards Teriu city and have the families there try to kill them. After they seed, we can then spread the news into Yoru and have the families here attack Teriu and boom, it should be done." Shiro exined with a shrug.
"That... could work depending on whether or not we can actually lure the two behemoths. Plus, we don¡¯t know if they¡¯re the only ones in the forest. There may be more." Kuromi nodded after a short moment.
The two had slipped her mind since she was more focused on what they could control rather than an uncontroble variable like the two behemoths.
Shaking her head, Kuromi started to piece together a n that should allow them to pull this off without any casualties.
Chapter 427 Departure Back To Teriu Forest
Chapter 427 Departure Back To Teriu Forest
While they were nning on how they could lure the two behemoths into Teriu, they didn¡¯t know about themotion that they had stirred in the city. With Tau missing and most likely dead, his assets were free for grabs as all of the families were interested.
After all, he was one of the biggest ¡¯traders¡¯ in the city with connections everywhere. If he¡¯s dead, that means his huge fortune is now ownerless. The only reason as to why other people hadn¡¯t thought of killing him was because he had the support of severalrge families fromrger families outside of the city.
With someone else doing the dirty job, they can take the money without worry.
"So Tau¡¯s missing huh? I think I might have an idea of who did it but I must say, they are quite brave for people who are just selling toys on the street." A man smiled while drinking some wine.
This was the same person that had told his servants to send the information about the two women to Tau on the first day.
"Yes master. We¡¯ve tried to look for some traces but all we found was a hole in the wall that was covered up, a dead guard and a broken wooden nk. Other than that, there seemed to be no struggles from Tau¡¯s side." A servant replied.
"Heh~ So they managed to take him despite the powerful guards that he kept around him. Interesting... have some people monitor their inn and see what they¡¯re up to. Tell them to try to not get spotted since both girls are quite adept with their senses."
"Understood."
Watching the servant leave, the man drank a bit of wine before standing up.
"Well, I suppose I might as well make a move as well. Perhaps I should get them once they leave the city." He muttered with a smile.
###
"Alright, this n has an 85% chance of sess. With our current manpower, getting any higher would be difficult." Kuromi said while showing them the n.
"With the dragon¡¯s firepower, it would be hard to outrun the destruction but if we¡¯re sessful, the rest of the n should fall into ce."
"Hmm... what about the giant then?" Shiro asked.
"Depending on the situation, we might not need the giant. But with how things are looking, he should chase after the dragon since they seem to have a rather big feud with each other. If we can get the dragon into Teriu quickly, the giant should follow behind and fight the dragon in the city. Your main task will be to lure the dragon with the rest of the group while me and a few selected members will try to locate the giant." Kuromi exined.
"Sure, shall we set off now? The sooner we do this, the better." Shiro said while standing up.
"Not yet, don¡¯t be so hasty." Kuromi shook her head and gestured for Shiro to sit down.
"Since we know that they¡¯ve just had their battle not too long ago, they might be a little weak right now. The first step we should do is to scout out the situation and see if they¡¯re in good shape to fight at all. If not, they¡¯ll be a little reluctant."
"Hmm... true. So how many people are going to scout out the information?"
"Obviously all of us. With so little members, it doesn¡¯t matter too much if everyone went. We¡¯ll wait until everyone else is awake before making our way to Teriu forest. Make sure that you pack up everything. Oh also, Nui, Prim, have you cleaned up the corpse?" Kuromi asked.
"Of course first young miss. It would be dangerous to leave his bodyying around to act as evidence." Prim nodded her head.
"Good. Since I¡¯m in a rather good mood after hugging my dear ol sis in my sleep, I¡¯ll cook us four a meal. Tell me what you want to eat and I¡¯ll make it." Kuromi smiled as Shiro flinched a little at the mention of hugs.
"Hugs?" Nui tilted her head before looking at Shiro. She couldn¡¯t believe that their second young miss would be one that allows other people to hug her. In addition to this, her senses are quite keen so there¡¯s no way that she wouldn¡¯t realise that someone had hugged her.
*cough!*
"Nui, Prim, why don¡¯t we er... get some supplies for Kuro to cook with?" Shiro asked with a ¡¯smile¡¯.
Nodding their heads, they quickly left the room before they annoyed Shiro anymore.
Sighing heavily, Shiro sat down with an annoyed pout.
"You don¡¯t need to go announcing it everywhere you know?" Shiro said with a frown.
"Oh but if I didn¡¯t, no one would know my little sister¡¯s cute side no? Plus, if I get some reactions out of you now, I¡¯ll know how to tip your partner off in the future. Which big sister doesn¡¯t want to see their ¡¯strong, independent and ruthless¡¯ little sister squirm in embarrassment while trying to hide a blush?" Kuromi chuckled while grabbing an apron and tying her hair up into a ponytail.
"Urg, but we¡¯re the same person ah?! Can you not torture me like this."
"While that may be true, we have our own experiences so unless we merge, we¡¯re not exactly the same person ¡¯yet¡¯." Kuromi replied with a smile.
"Ha... True." Shiro sighed.
As Kuromi started to cook the breakfast, Nui and Prim soon returned with a few ingredients while the rest of the Shadow Guards woke up just in time for breakfast. After eating their fill and thanking Kuromi for her cooking, they started to make their way out of the city in their carriage.
After leaving the city, the group started to make their way towards Teriu forest. After around 1 hour worth of travel, a hail of arrows could be seen descending from the sky.
"Attack!" Phillip shouted out as he snapped his finger.
A magic circle could be seen in the air as the area above them seemed to freeze up in time. The arrows, that were descending a moment ago, are now frozen in stasis as the Shadow Guards readied their weapons.
"Mn, seems like we¡¯ve attracted some attention onto ourselves huh?" Kuromi said with a smile.
"Mn, let me join in. As long as they don¡¯t use their Celestial Energy, I should be able to kill them quite easily." Shiro grinned as she grabbed the top of the carriage door and flipped herself onto the roof.
Narrowing her eyes, she picked out several enemies hidden in the forest.
¡¯Hmm... seems like a bow would work better in this situation.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before looking over at the guard closest to the weaponpartment of the carriage.
"Gareth! Bow! Sati! Enchant my arrows!" Shiromanded quickly as Gareth threw a bow towards her direction.
Just as she grabbed the bow, Sati passed her ten enchanted arrow that had the return enchantment applied to them.
Pulling back the bowstrings, Shiro shot two arrows towards the first person she could see.
Quickly raising up his bow, the man was about to block the arrow when Shiro smiled.
Activating the enchantment on the first arrow, she recalled it back to her side as the second arrow pierced the man in the chest after bypassing his guard.
"Bingo." She said with a grin.
With this arrow, it acted as a spark to a stack of gunpowder, igniting the battlefield instantly.
Arrows and spells hurled through the air as Kuromi only sat inside the carriage with a soft smile.
ncing out of the carriage, she started to write down a few notes, doc.u.menting some of the fighting habits of each member.
With the Shadow Guards on the defence, they were slowly pushed back as more people started to sustain injuries.
Thankfully, there hadn¡¯t been any casualties yet but the enemy seemed to be adamant on whittling them down little by little.
Even Shiro started to have a frown on her face since there was only so much she could do with just a pair of bows and arrows.
"Kuro, any ideas?" Shiro asked while shooting a few more arrows before recalling them back with blood soaked on the tips. Out of the ten arrows that Sati had given her, only three remained as the others were broken during this fight.
"Of course. I haven¡¯t spent thest few moments in the carriage for nothing you know." Kuromi smiled as she too flipped onto the roof.
"Everyone! Listen up!" Kuromi shouted out.
ncing over at her, the guards listened carefully while making sure that they were still fending off the attacks.
"When I gave you your names, I also gave you each a code number. Do you remember that?" She asked with a smile.
After seeing a nod from each of the guards, her smile widened into a grin as her eyes seemed to shine with a cold glow.
"In that case then, let¡¯s ughter some fools." Kuromi grinned since she had alreadye up with a strategy to get them out of the situation.
Chapter 428 Surprise
Chapter 428 Surprise
With Kuromi takingmand of the battlefield, the tide was soon turned as the attackers realised that they were being pushed back.
Kuromi had set it up so that only 4 people were needed to defend the carriage and the other 22 guards were free to kill the attackers.
Pairing up each of the guards so that their strengthsplemented each other, they were able to finish the fight in less than 10 minutes, forcing them to retreat.
Watching the entire process happen, Shiro had to admit that the sight was quite scary in a way. From her perspective, Kuromi was like a conductor as everyone was under her control. Working together seamlessly, they overwhelmed the enemies despite their disadvantage in numbers.
Closing her notepad, Kuromi nodded with a satisfied smile.
"Everyone, stick with your pairs from now on since you¡¯ll be working with them in the next battle." Kuromi called out before walking back into the carriage.
Following behind her, Shiro also went inside the carriage.
"What do you think? Brute force isn¡¯t always the answer no?" Kuromi smiled towards Shiro.
"I¡¯ll admit, it is helpful. But if I had ess to Celestial Raiment, I¡¯d be able to deal with them easily." Shiro replied.
"Yes, but the problem right now is that you don¡¯t have that ess do you? Well just rx for now and big sis will deal with everything. Once we need brute force, I¡¯ll call for you ok?" Kuromi chuckled.
". . . Fine." Shiro nodded after a moment.
###
"What? You mean almost everyone was killed???" The man widened his eyes. He had made sure that they outnumbered the enemy so that capture should only be a matter of time.
With a ratio of 3:1, he had 78 people surrounding the carriage.
"After the ck haired woman exited out of the carriage, their formation seemed to have been reinforced as it was very hard to harm the guards. Each of them paired up with one another and overwhelmed us in the shortest time possible." The servant reported as his face was a little pale.
Furrowing his brows, the man thought for a moment before sighing.
"Seems like the white haired girl is one that¡¯s focused onbat while the ck haired one is focused on strategy. We¡¯ll cut our losses here. Just observe them for now and don¡¯t make a single move. I want to see what they¡¯re nning to do in Teriu forest." The man ordered.
He understood that with a good strategist, brute force is a questionable approach so the best he could do right now is to just give up and think of another way.
"Understood."
###
As the group continued towards the forest, they noticed ack of attackers ever since the first encounter.
"Ya think they got scared?" Shiro asked while peering out of the carriage.
"Probably. Any sane person would do so after we won a fight that had us outnumbered." Kuromi replied while flipping through her book to make any small adjustments to the guard¡¯s stat pages.
"Mn... Say, do you have any way for me to use Celestial Energy more efficiently? The current spell we have requires me to ¡¯charge up¡¯ for quite a long time." Shiro asked since she somewhat wanted to give fighting the dragon a go.
"Why would you need that? I¡¯m still working on the spell so you can¡¯t rush me." Kuromi replied.
"Oh you know, just so that we can lure the dragon and giant better." Shiro replied.
". . .That¡¯s a lie. You just want to punch a dragon and have it chase you." Kuromi sighed and looked up from her notepad.
"Maybe~" Shiro grinned.
"Well I have something better for you to do but you NEED to get the f*ck out of there the moment you do that ok?"
"Oh? What do you mean?" Shiro tilted her head.
"What I mean is I¡¯m allowing you to attack the dragon¡¯s reverse scale or rather, the rear. You can piss it off as much as you want to as long as you direct its hatred to Teriu City."
". . . Say it again." Shiro said as she sat down seriously.
"I¡¯m allowing you, Shiro, to target the dragon¡¯s ass and piss it off."
Curling her smile into a grin, Shiro started to n out how she was going to do this. Since it is a reptile, the dragon will have a cloaca to hide its rear meaning, she¡¯ll need to move it out of the way first.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro looked back at Kuromi.
"Can I use Celestial Raiment?" She asked with a smile.
"Yes but do remember that there is only a limited amount of time that the armour is up. We¡¯ll have to charge the armour up before we split up so you¡¯ll need to find the dragon as quick as you can during that time." Kuromi nodded.
"Great. Since that¡¯s the case then I don¡¯t think we need that many guards, You can have more on your side in order to look for the giant."
As they made their way to the forest, Kuromi notified the guards about the slight change that they made.
Phillip wasn¡¯t exactly thrilled about the whole situation to begin with but with Kuromi reducing the number of guards with Shiro, he had his doubts.
"First young miss, you know that second young miss doesn¡¯t have ess to Celestial energy. So what you¡¯re doing now is clearly endangering her, please reconsider." Phillip reminded as he had a frown on his face.
"Phillip, once we arrive, I¡¯ll show you why I decided on reducing the guards." Kuromi said as Phillip paused for a moment.
"Understood. Just so you know miss, if this doesn¡¯t guarantee second young misses safety, I will not agree to it."
"Of course. I¡¯m not a cruel big sis you know? If Shiro can¡¯t handle it, I won¡¯t let her go to begin with. Otherwise who else am I going to hug in my sleep?" Kuromi smiled.
Shiro didn¡¯t notice that Kuromi had just spoiled the secret to every guard as she was more focused on what she should do to make the most out of her limited reservoir after activating Celestial Raiment.
Even back in their world, she couldn¡¯t use the armour for an extended period of time so she would leave it as ast resort of sorts.
Currently, she had a variant of Celestial Raiment for each of her attunements meaning 11 sets of armour for her to choose from. With her current reservoir, she can use two armours before running out so she would need to make sure that the first can piss off the dragon while the second allows her to run.
¡¯Hmm... the one with the most damage is most likely Void Star, Apocalyptic Lightning and Cosmic Ice. As for the ones that are focused around speed, they¡¯re Lightning, Shadow and probably star. I don¡¯t want to use shadow since it¡¯s rather revealing but it does allow me to use Rift Strider again.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
In the end, she decided to go with Lighting to attack the dragon and shadow to run away.
Arriving in the forest, they made their way back to theke as they knew that the dragon was roughly around the northern part of the forest.
Sending out a few of the guards to scout out for the dragon, Shiro waited with eagerness.
Phillip didn¡¯t know why Shiro seemed to be so excited but decided to be patient and see what would happen before giving his thoughts about the situation.
After a short while, the guards returned with the location of the dragon. It seemed to have made a nest in one of the mountains and was currently recovering from its fight with the giant.
"Alright, now then, are you ready Shiro?" Kuromi said with a smile.
"Oh I¡¯ve been waiting for this." Shiro nodded.
Standing up, Shiro watched as Kuromi etched a magic circle of sorts on the ground.
"Right then, pass me one of the enchanted arrows." Kuromi called out as she Prim handed her the arrow.
Stabbing it into the ground, the energy seemed to be drained from the arrow into the magic circle.
ring up with a green light, it started to absorb the energy around them as tethers could be seen slowly connecting to Shiro and Kuromi.
Realising that this seemed to be a variant of the formation that they used to reveal their soul, Philip furrowed his brows in confusion.
As time passed, the tether seemed to grow stronger.
"That should do. Remember Shiro, once I activate this, you¡¯ll have to use your raiment as quickly as possible since you¡¯re on a timer." Kuromi reminded once more.
"Don¡¯t worry, I got this." Shiro replied with a grin.
"Good."
sping her hands together, she closed her eyes and started to tug on her tether.
Ripping it out from her body, she stumbled back as a translucent flow of energy started to filter through Shiro¡¯s tether.
*BOOM!!!
An aura exploded out from her as Phillip realised that this was no doubt celestial energy.
"No way..." He muttered shock. In front of him, Shiro stood with bright yellow hair and armour that seemed to be crafted from lightning itself.
Chapter 429 Surprise Poke Part 1
Chapter 429 Surprise ''Poke'' Part 1
Looking at Shiro in her Lightning Celestial Raiment, Phillip couldn¡¯t help but feel like he was just punched in the face. Questions filled his mind as he didn¡¯t understand how Shiro was able ess Celestial Energy despite only 1 strand.
The armour seemed alive as the lightning flickered off her body. There seemed to be tints of red within the yellow, making the light seem ¡¯bloody¡¯ in a way that inspired fear into his heart.
"I¡¯ve only got a limited amount of time in this form so I¡¯ll be leaving." Shiro said with a grin.
Jumping up slightly, two lightning wheels formed under her feet as sheunched herself into the air.
Looking at each other in shock, a few guards quickly dashed behind her.
"How? I mean, what? What is this?" Phillip asked in confusion.
"It¡¯s a skill called Celestial Raiment. It allows Shiro to use an armour linked to an element she¡¯s attuned with." Kuromi exined as she stood up. Her face was a little pale from the bacsh of the spell but other than that, she was unharmed.
"Alright, but how can she use Celestial Energy!? I haven¡¯t given you the spell that the lord had created yet!?"
"Oh? So you have the spell on you. That¡¯s handy. Anyway, we can do it because I made a new spell. Much like the formation that you used to reveal our souls, I used the same one as a base of a new spell so that we can make a tether between our souls. That way, we can start to ¡¯charge up¡¯ Celestial Energy. Of course, she can only ess however much energy we charged up rather than use her own. It¡¯s a little rough around the edges but that¡¯s about as good as we can do right now." Kuromi exined.
Looking at Shiro who was flying off into the distance, Phillip shook his head with a tired smile.
"Seems like you really are the lord¡¯s daughters. You have his strategic mind while Shiro has hisbat prowess. Not only that, it seems like your spells are also simr to his. He too would don armour crafted from his celestial energy and fight off his opponent." He said with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
Upon hearing the mention of their lord, the other guards seemed to also remember their previous master and couldn¡¯t help but feel a sense of loss.
"In that case then how do you feel about getting revenge? I know that revenge isn¡¯t always the answer but right now, I think this is a good payback. So are you going to help me piss off this giant so that he can crush the other families?" Kuromi said with a smile.
Looking up at Kuromi, Phillip nodded his head with determination.
"Since you have proven to bebat ready, despite a few shorings with your usage of Celestial Energy, I shall listen to your everymand without question. I only have one request and that is regardless of what happens to us, make sure you and the second young miss survive at all cost. I don¡¯t want the lord¡¯s bloodline to be cut off."
"Of course, I don¡¯t n on dying anytime soon." Kuromi grinned.
"Mn, here is the manual for the spell that the lord had created. I might as well give it to you now." Phillip smiled and handed her a book.
"Kali, are you able to carry me on your back? I¡¯ll study the manual while we search for the giant." Kuromi asked while receiving the manual. That way, she could try to at least help some more in terms ofbat prowess.
"Of course first young miss, it¡¯ll be my pleasure." Kali nodded as she crouched down and offered her back to Kuromi.
Climbing onto Kali¡¯s back, Kuromi started to flip through the manual while everyone split up in order to find the giant.
As this was happening, Shiro was rapidly closing in on the dragon¡¯s location.
However, there was a slight problem.
¡¯With me being able to use Celestial Raiment once more, it means that my location can be discovered through sensing the energy that I passively emit in this form. To actually seed in attacking the dragon in the ass, I¡¯ll need to fire my spear without warning him. The best choice is to attack him from afar but there is still travel time to think about.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
Flying through the air, she nced around her and soon found the cave that the dragon was supposed to be in.
Hovering in the air, she started to formte some ns on how she could make this possible.
¡¯With Kuro around, I have been relying on her for most of the nning but seems like I¡¯ll have to take things seriously so that I can pierce the rear.
¡¯Problem 1, detection. With my current form, getting close would be dangerous and could put the dragon on guard. To be honest, it might have already detected me. Problem 2, it¡¯ll be hard for my attack to hit if I¡¯m far away but if I¡¯m close, I¡¯ll be detected.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Closing her eyes, she made a note of all the abilities that she could ess right now with her Celestial Raiment.
Running a few simtions, she started to formte a few ways to actually attack the dragon.
Looking at Shiro who was hovering in the air, the guards tilted their heads in confusion.
"Is she.... Ok?" One of the guards asked hesitantly.
"I¡¯m sure she¡¯s just thinking of something right now." Another guard replied.
After waiting for a few moments, Shiro opened her eyes as she had a smile on her face.
Jumping down shended in front of the guards.
"Do you know where the ass of the dragon is located?" Shiro asked as her question took the guards by surprise.
"Errr... I do. Why do you ask, second young miss?" The guard replied with confusion written all over his face.
"Great. Ok Aki, I¡¯m going to make an orb in a second. I want you to grab that orb and ce it near the ass. Once you do that, you will run as far as you can or else you¡¯ll be killed ok?"
"Ah... understood young miss." Aki nodded his head.
Seeing that he had agreed, Shiro smiled and told them to step back.
"Fuu..." Breathing out heavily, Shiro closed her eyes and changed the armour attunement from Apocalyptic lightning to Rift Shadow.
*KISHHHH!!!!
The moment she changed the attunement, the ground beneath her seemed to split apart to reveal a ck and purple void that was filled with nothing. Only an infinite darkness could be seen as mist slowly crawled up Shiro¡¯s body and enveloped her in a cocoon of ck mist.
After a short moment, the mist exploded apart to reveal Shiro in her new armour.
Her hair was coloured ck much like Kuromi while the armour had no definitive form. It was... creepy in a way since the shadow writhed around on her body. In a way, it behaved like a me, flickering to where the wind would blow.
Looking down on her hand that was covered with this shadow, Shiro narrowed her eyes and snapped her finger.
An orb filled with a swirl of ck and purple was created just above her fingertips as she flicked it towards Aki.
"This is the orb. Remember, all you need to do is ce it near the ass and just run without looking back." Shiro instructed emotionlessly.
Seeing this change in aura, Aki gulped and nodded his head.
"You guys, and girls, go make some checkpoints along the way from here to Teriu so that I can lead the dragon to the city without going the wrong way."
"Understood!"
Watching the guards disperse, Shiro looked around and started to fly towards a distant mountain.
Sitting down on the edge of a cliff, she closed one of her eyes and looked at what the orb could see. Right now, Aki had already entered the cave and was currently making his way through the tunnels quietly.
As she was observing his actions, she could sense that a beast of sorts had entered the area around her as she flicked her hand without hesitation.
A void opened up under the beast as a jaw erupted out from the darkness. Before it could even scream for help, the jaw snapped shut and dragged it into the void, leaving only some fur on the ground.
¡¯Waste of my time.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown before returning her focus back on the orb.
In front of the orb, she could see the same dragon that had fought the giant a while ago. Previously, she was quite far away so she couldn¡¯t get a full sense of its size but now that she¡¯s right in front of it, she could tell that it was absolutely massive.
Narrowing her eye, Shiro estimated that a single scale was around two to three times that of her height.
Watching Aki carefully ce the orb down near the rear before quickly running away without making too much sound, she grinned and made a second orb. Changing back into her Lightning armour, she raised her hand into the sky and channelled her energy through her body.
*KRRRRR
Heavy rumbles could be heard as the sky darkened. With a single twist of her hand, the clouds parted to reveal a red and yellow lightning spear that pulsed with murderous intent.
Chapter 430 Surprise Poke Part 2
Chapter 430 Surprise ''Poke'' Part 2
Watching the spear flicker with lightning, Shiro did some mental calctions on how long it would take for Aki to get out of the cave.
While she was waiting, she observed the dragon through her orb in order to make sure that it wasn¡¯t woken up by her spell.
Thankfully, it seemed to be in quite a deep slumber so she didn¡¯t need to be worried. With their distance, she could charge it up more and still be in the clear. Of course, she wasn¡¯t going to do that since she only had a limited amount of energy to work with. Currently, after making the spear, she had around 35% of her energy left which should be enough for her to run away at full speed.
Waiting patiently so that Aki had enough time to at least get out of the cave, Shiro narrowed her eyes and threw the orb into the sky.
Snapping her finger, the orb started to unwrap itself and revealed a magic circle that flickered with a purple light.
¡¯Right then... hopefully, my calctions are correct and my portal should work. If it works, the spear would be instantly transported to where the dragon is and pierce its ass.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Narrowing her eyes at the lightning spear, she took a deep breath and started to rotate the giant construct.
Watching the spear essentially transformed into a giant bullet, Shiro grinned and mmed her hand downwards.
Following her gesture, spear started to fall. Thunder crackled loudly as the magic circle activated and the portal was connected.
"Good morning!" Shiro shouted out with a grin.
*BANG!!!!
Suddenly feeling a surge of Celestial Energy nearby, the dragon opened his eyes slowly and looked around in confusion. Feeling danger overwhelm his senses, the dragon snarled for a moment before standing up with his guard up.
However, just as he did this, a giant rotating Lightning Spear exited out of the portal. And shot up the only vulnerable part of his body at this moment.
Widening his eyes at the sudden impact, the dragon reared its head back and opened its jaws.
*URAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hearing the painful scream of the dragon, Shiro giggled in excitement and flew into the air.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Right after the scream, a pir of hell fire exploded into the sky as the mountain, where the dragon was resting in, was disintegrated in an instant.
*CRACK!!!! BANG!!!
Pushing some of the left-over debris away, a pair of crimson wings pushed past the dust and fire.
Suppressing her giggle, Shiro made a second lightning spear only this time, it was smaller in size so that it didn¡¯t drain much of her energy.
"Yo! Dragon! Did you like the wake up call!" Shiro shouted out as she could feel a pair of enraged eyes re at her.
Before she could speak another sentence, her vision was instantly filled with red as the dragon had tried to kill her with a dragon breath.
mming her lightning spear into the breath, she used the slight dy to fly into the sky.
"Is that the best you can do? If someone poked me in the butt, I would try harder to kill them you know!" Shiroughed.
*URAHH!!!!!
pping its giant wings, the dragon lifted its body out of the destroyed cave.
*Whistle~
"Seems like you- HOLY SH*T!" Crying out in surprise, Shiro was shocked that a meteor had been formed directly above her.
Quickly navigating out of the way, she narrowly dodged the meteor and watched as the rock smashed into the ground, causing a rather big crater to be formed.
"Ok enough ying around now. I need to take things seriously." Shiro muttered and activated her Rift Shadow armour.
ncing back at the dragon, Shiro saw that he had his sights firmly locked onto her and nodded with satisfaction.
¡¯Time to start one of the world¡¯s most dangerous games of cat and mouse.¡¯ She thought to herself and increased her speed with the help of the rift. Naturally, she made sure that she didn¡¯t go too far or else the dragon might lose sight of where she was.
###
"Tam."
"Yeah?"
"What do you think the second young miss did to piss off the dragon this much?" Tam asked as he looked at the cmity that was following behind Shiro.
"Do you think the flickers of lightning under the dragon¡¯s tail exins what she had done?"
"She did make a huge lightning spear. But surely she wouldn¡¯t be that cruel right? Plus, if she did that, I¡¯m pretty sure that the dragon will literally go after her until this grudge is solved."
"Did you forget that she asked Aki to set the orb near the dragon¡¯s ass?" The other guard sighed.
". . . I suppose she did do what first young miss instructed her to do. I¡¯ll admit though, if I was in her ce right now, I¡¯ll be killed in an instant."
"No sh*t. There¡¯s meteors, fire breaths, fire pirs, re waves and even the asional explosion in the area around her. We¡¯ll probably die the moment we get near her due to coteral damage so the best thing we can do now is make sure that everyone survives."
"Mn, let¡¯s go get Aki first."
While this was all happening, the sight of an armageddon did not escape the Teriu guard¡¯s notice as they quickly sounded the rm for a max level emergency.
Hearing the rm, the families quickly gathered and saw the rapidly closing dragon in the distance and couldn¡¯t help but worry.
Seeing that the dragon is literally using all of its spells without restrain, they knew that it was clearly enraged so the only thing they can do right now is to attack it until it almost dies and retreat. The option of killing it is also avable but that would be much harder since the moment the dragon deems survival impossible, it would try to take down as many things as it can before it dies.
Should the dragon choose to self-destruct, the entire city of Teriu will be ttened in an instant.
Quicklying to an agreement on what they should do, they dispatched all of their most powerful soldiers in order to face this dragon in Teriu forest before it can cause the city any harm.
###
¡¯Hmm... I can see the city now.¡¯ Shiro thought while narrowing her eyes.
Dodging another fire breath, she kept her eyes towards the city and saw that they had deployed guards to stop the dragon from advancing.
¡¯Tch, I can¡¯t attack them or bring the dragon any closer since I don¡¯t have the energy for that. But if anything, I suppose the only thing left for me to do is to poke the ho¡¯s nest more I guess.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Turning around in the air, she created another lightning spear along with three portals. Two to attack and one to escape.
Throwing the spear into the portal, she tried to ¡¯poke¡¯ it once more but the spear was knocked aside by the tail.
But despite her failed attempt, the dragon seemed to go from angry to batsh*t insane since the girl in front of her had tried the same thing twice.
"Welp, my job is done. My ¡¯supports¡¯ shall deal with you." Shiro shouted out as her armour lost its l.u.s.tre as her stored energy depleted.
Falling into the third portal that she had created, she quickly left the area before she could be hit by a meteor.
Seeing that its target suddenly disappeared, the dragon roared out in anger as it red towards the iing ¡¯support¡¯ that its target had mentioned.
¡¯Since they¡¯re the support, if I kill them, she should appear again!¡¯ He thought in anger. However, had he not been ¡¯poked¡¯ twice and had been angered beyond repair, he would have realised that he was being led by the nose.
Unfortunately, being ¡¯poked¡¯ twice doesn¡¯t exactly allow one to think straight.
###
"Urg!" Rolling across the ground after falling through the portal, Shiro quickly flipped herself back on her feet and saw that she was back at the cave where she had poked the dragon.
Sighing in relief, she made her way out of the charred crater where a mountain should be.
Just as she made her way out of the crater, she felt the ground shake slightly as if it was experiencing an earthquake.
Shaking her head, she dismissed it as the dragon wreaking havoc in the distance and ignored it. Looking up, she was about to go about her merry way when her eyes widened with shock.
Running towards her direction as if he was an Olympic sprinter, the giant was running towards where the dragon is with anger in his eyes and it just so happened that Shiro was between him and the dragon.
"Ahhhh f*ck."
Chapter 431 Receiving The Spell
Chapter 431 Receiving The Spell
Quickly running to the side, Shiro wanted to get as far as she could from both of the behemoths before she was killed in the crossfire. One couldn¡¯t see her and might identally kill her with his foot while the other was willing to send an apocalypse cascading down onto her because she poked it a few times.
Unfortunately, despite her attempts of running to the side, the giant was simply running too fast for it to matter and the best thing she could do right now was hope that she wasn¡¯t crushed like an ant.
"Shiro!"
Hearing a voice shout her name, Shiro looked up to see Kuromi sliding through the forest on what seemed to be an ice ramp of sorts.
"Grab on!" Kuromi shouted out and reached out with her hand.
Nodding her head, Shiro grabbed Kuromi¡¯s hand and was taken onto her ramp.
"What¡¯s happening? How can you use ice?" Shiro asked with confusion while bncing herself on the ice.
"Phillip had the spell all along. He didn¡¯t want to give it to us since he wanted us to live a peaceful life but with how things are, along with the fact that we proved that we can use the energy even without the spell, he decided to give me the spell in the end." Kuromi exined while making sure that they dodged the trees.
"I see... anyways, I¡¯ve managed to piss off the dragon quite a bit so it¡¯s currently fighting the Teriu city guards. Unfortunately, the guards seemed to have made some preparations so they won¡¯t be attacking the city." Shiro nodded.
"I say that¡¯s a better alternative. After all, none of the innocent bystanders will be harmed. Let¡¯s cooperate and keep the dragon out while inflicting as much damage as we can to the enemy guards." Kuromi replied since it would be quite cruel to involve the bystanders that have done nothing.
"Hmm.... True. To be honest, I should REALLY think about bystanders some more." Shiro nodded after a short moment since in her past life, she destroyed a city in a fit of rage and let¡¯s just say the body count wasn¡¯t low.
"Anyways, are you able to pass me the spell too? If I¡¯m able to ess my armour without charging up it¡¯ll be quite helpful." Shiro asked.
"Of course. However, keep in mind that this spell isn¡¯t that efficient. To offset theck of a second strand, it burns up more energy than normal. So, sure you can ess your armour but at twice the cost so you need to remember that." Kuromi warned while passing her the spell book.
Grabbing the spell book, Shiro was almost thrown off the ramp since Kuromi had to quickly dodge to the right after the giant threw a tree towards them.
"Tch, I¡¯m not exactly the speediest fighter so I¡¯ll be counting on you Shiro." Kuromi clicked her tongue.
"Don¡¯t worry, once I can use my armour, I¡¯ll be able to send the giant towards the dragon in an instant." Shiro grinned as she quickly memorised the spell.
Narrowing her eyes, she couldn¡¯t help but praise the lord that had created this spell.
The book had recorded a way for her to tap into her reservoir of Celestial Energy without actually having to use it. Once she taps into the energy pool, she¡¯ll then need to mould it in a way that creates a pseudo soul strand which allows her to use energy normally.
Of course, as Kuromi had stated, doing so would burn up twice the amount of energy that is needed and if her concentration fluctuates, the strand would be broken and she¡¯ll lose ess to her energy once more.
The hardest part of this would definitely be the initial step of tapping into the reservoir. With only one strand avable, it was akin to trying to open a two key lock with only one key.
She¡¯ll need to ¡¯wiggle¡¯ her way into the reservoir without following normal procedures. This wasn¡¯t without its risks of course. If she is careless in her actions, her body may be paralysed for a few moments and during these moments, she¡¯ll experience quite a bit of pain.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t intimidated by this and immediately sat down.
¡¯If Kuromi can do it, so can I since we¡¯re the same person.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Closing her eyes, she started to focus her mind so that she could tap into her reservoir.
Seeing this, Kuromi only smiled and made sure that Shiro wasn¡¯t knocked off bnce or else it may stop her from seeding.
Snapping her fingers, Kuromi pointed her palm towards the giant¡¯s body.
*KRRRRR!!!!
An ice rose bloomed on his chest as the petals exploded out into chains that restrained his movements for a short moment.
"URAHH!!!!" Tensing his body, the giant shattered the chains with brute force and tore the rose off his chest. Crushing it in his hand, he threw the ice chunks towards Kuromi.
Swiping her hand to the side, Kuromi created a second magic circle that turned all of the shards into thin needles and sent them flying towards the giant.
Piercing into his skin, the needles released a biting cold that started to freeze his flesh. Some of the cold had even reached his bones as the giant could feel his joints aching.
Gritting his teeth, the giant activated one of his berserk spells. Red marking could be seen spreading out from his body.
¡¯He¡¯s using that spell again.¡¯ Kuromi thought to herself since she had seen this during his first fight against the dragon.
"ARHH!!!!" Shouting as loud as he could, the giant shook off the biting cold and red towards Kuromi who was already quite far away.
Jumping into the air, the giant brought his axe over his head as Kuromi widened her eyes.
Should the axe smash into the ground, there was no doubt that a crater would be formed and no matter how she dodged, she¡¯ll be caught in the area.
¡¯Tch, seems like I¡¯ll need to block this one.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Taking a deep breath, she was about to make a shield when she sensed Celestial Energy beside her.
Looking to her side, she was surprised to see that Shiro had already tapped into her reservoir and was currently forming the pseudo strand.
¡¯Damn, that¡¯s pretty quick.¡¯ Kuromi thought to herself before returning her focus back on crafting a shield to block the giant.
Pointing her palm towards the giant, a giant magic circle appeared in the air as an ice erupted out from the giant and formed a shield that had tens of ice pirs acting as support.
*CRACK!!!!!
As the axe mmed into the shield, it immediately cracked the surface from the initial impact.
¡¯Damn!¡¯
Quickly reinforcing some of the pirs, Kuromi was able to keep them barely intact with several fractures slowly increasing in size.
Thankfully, the shield did its job and stopped the giant from decimating the ground around them.
Growling in anger, the giant raised his fist and punched the shield with as much force as he could muster.
*BANG!
Shattering the already damaged ice shield with his punch, his heavy body mmed into the ground before resuming his sprint.
Since the danger of being destroyed by his axe m had passed, Kuromi focused on evasion in order to conserve some energy.
After a short moment, she could feel the energy next to her stir ever so slightly.
ncing over at Shiro, she could see a void open up beneath her as the shadow wrapped around her body.
"Fuu..." Breathing out softly, Shiro stood up and looked towards the giant that was rampaging towards them.
"Kuro." She called out.
"Sup."
"Are you able to get him to try the axe m again when I give you the signal? I¡¯ve got a n." Shiro asked with a slight smile.
"Of course." Kuromi nodded.
Seeing that Kuromi agreed, Shiro snapped her fingers and created a ck and purple orb.
Throwing it towards where the dragon was, Shiro had her energy carry it until it was just above the dragon.
As they were inbat, neither the dragon nor the guards noticed the orb.
"Now!" Shiro called out once she saw that her orb had reached its destination.
Upon receiving the signal, Kuromi mmed her hand down towards the ground as ice could be seen forming just in front of the giant.
*BANG!
The moment the giant stepped on the ice, Kuromi had the ice shoot up into the air andunch the giant so that it had no choice other than to m his axe down.
Noticing an opportunity to attack, the giant raised his axe over his head.
Seeing that the giant was about to m his axe down, Shiro grinned and snapped her fingers.
Creating a second orb, she then threw it towards the giant as it unravelled itself to reveal a portal to the void.
Chapter 432 Questionable Explanation
Chapter 432 Questionable Exnation
Widening his eyes with surprise, the giant tried to stop his attack since he didn¡¯t know what the portal was but at this point, his fall could no longer be stopped.
Falling through the portal, the giant closed his eyes and braced for impact.
*ng!
Due to the fact that he had tried to stop his attack, there wasn¡¯t much power behind his axe causing the de to bounce off the dragon¡¯s head.
Hearing the strange sound, the giant slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was on the dragon¡¯s back. Making eye contact with the dragon who was absolutely seething with anger, the giant paused for a moment before ring back at the dragon.
"URAHHH!!!!!"
Stabbing his fingers into the dragon¡¯s nose, the giant then used his spare hand to hold the horn in order to stabilise himself.
*GAHHHHHH!!!!!
Crying out in shock, the dragon tried to get the giant¡¯s fingers out of its nose but was rendered helpless. He could try to breathe fire through his nose but it would be akin to a human spitting out saliva through the nostrils. Doing so would be extremely ufortable not to mention difficult.
With the sudden appearance of the giant currently trying to ride the dragon as if it was a horse, the guards quickly backed off since the dragon started to thrash around in an attempt to get the giant off his back.
Due to the dragon¡¯s panic, the fire seemed to also go on a rampage as it became hard for the guards to dodge the mes. With a single teleport, Shiro had seeded in bringing chaos to the battlefield.
Looking at this from the distance, both Shiro and Kuromi couldn¡¯t help butugh at the situation.
"Pft! Who the hell stabs their fingers into a dragon¡¯s nose as a first instinct! Hahaha!" Kuromiughed.
Shiro didn¡¯t say anything since she was trying to stop herugh. Unfortunately, her attempt at trying to stifle herugh caused blood to rush into her head, making her look like a strawberry.
"Fu...." Breathing out slowly, Shiro calmed herself down.
"Anyways, let¡¯s go regroup with the rest of the guards. After regrouping, we can have everyone sending attacks into the already chaotic battlefield."
"Ha~ Sure. Let¡¯s do that." Kuromi nodded after taking a deep breath.
Deactivating her armour, Shiro dashed through the forest with just her physical strength alone. With Kuromi following behind her, the two soon found the rest of the guards.
"Let¡¯s see... yep, that¡¯s everyone. Aki, d to see that you survived through that." Shiro smiled.
"Only because you gave me enough time to leave. If I was still in the cave when the dragon woke up, I would have been evaporated." Aki chuckled.
"Ah speaking of the dragon, second young miss, what exactly did you do to wake it up in such a bad mood? I know that you summoned a giant lightning spear since it was impossible to miss but such an attack wouldn¡¯t cause this much of a reaction." Phillip asked as he had never seen the dragon be THIS angry before.
"Hmm... how do I put it... You know when gods smite people down?" Shiro asked.
"I do. Does that mean you smote the dragon?" Phillip raised his eyebrow.
"Pretty much. The only difference is that instead of smiting the entire body, I concentrated the lighting to pierce his ass in order to wake the dragon up." Shiro smiled cheerfully.
". . .Pardon? Sorry it seems like my ears have misheard. Must be my age but can you repeat that?"
"I. Smite. Dragon. Up. Ass." Shiro replied as she emphasised each word so that Phillip understood what she had just said.
"I- Wha- Huh?" Blinking his eyes, Phillip appeared to be at a loss for words since he didn¡¯t know how to respond to what he had just heard.
"Ha.... No wonder the dragon is so angry." He sighed.
"Ah don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s good for us anyways since the dragon and giant are drawing most of the aggro on the battlefield. This gives us more room to work around in terms of attacking the guards." Shiro grinned.
"Don¡¯t think about it too much. It¡¯s just a ¡¯trait¡¯ of Shiro¡¯s after falling into theke. Probably hit her head on a rock or something." Kuromi shrugged with a chuckle.
"Mn. I see... Poor second young miss."
"Oi. I¡¯m right here you know?" Shiro replied as her smile twitched.
"*cough* Anyways, enough joking around. Let¡¯s go get some revenge for everyone that was killed by our enemies." Kuromi smiled as the rest of the guards nodded with enthusiasm.
Dashing through the forest, Kuromi started to inform each of them of what they should do in order to maximise their kill potential and how they should react on the battlefield. Depending on what happens, they may have to meet up in several parts of the forest in order to regroup.
Listening to Kuromi exin all of this to the guards, Shiro did a few simtions in her mind and realised that each of the ns had been nned meticulously. They were designed so that every guard had a high chance of surviving while making sure that they could kill as many people as they could.
¡¯Is her notebook filled with detailed ns like this?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself since Kuromi had already filled up quite a few notebooks with information.
Shaking her head, she allowed Kuromi to do whatever she needed to do. After all, with Kuromi nearby, Shiro didn¡¯t need to worry about nning and strategizing since she enjoyed fighting more.
In a way, this was one of the things that set the two apart. It may also be attributed to how they were raised since Shiro had to fight for her life in thebs while Kuromi grew up with her family. But they were the same person in the end so regardless of how they grew up, Shiro didn¡¯t think about it too much.
As they approached the battlefield, everyone started to split up as Kuromi and Shiro stayed together as a team.
"Our job is to kill the leaders of the guards. If we see anyone that fits the bill, we are to assassinate them and leave the battlefield without a leader. Remember, once your energy depletes past the 30% mark, I¡¯ll need you to leave immediately or else you¡¯ll just be tempting fate at that point." Kuromi reminded.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯m not THAT reckless. I¡¯ll make sure I¡¯ll have a way out for myself." Shiro replied with a grin.
"Good."
"Oh also, Kuro."
"Mn?"
"How are you able to use ice? For me, I can use my elements because I have Celestial Raiment but what do you have?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Hmm... it seems to be a natural affinity of sorts. To be honest, I¡¯m not exactly ¡¯summoning¡¯ ice but rather using the base form of my Celestial Energy. In which case it just so happens to be ice so it¡¯s pretty handy." Kuromi replied.
"Is that so? Interesting... I wonder which element would appear first if I tried the same method."
"I¡¯d say you¡¯d probably also get ice considering the fact that you were reborn as a snow girl and you are technically in my body." Kuromi replied with a smile.
"Tr- I¡¯ve spotted two people which seemed to be the leaders of their group." Shiro replied as she suddenly spotted the enemies in the distance.
"Got it." Kuromi nodded. Her face was also serious since there was a time and ce for joking around. With them being so close to the enemy, it was certainly no time to let their guard down.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro activated her Rift Shadow armour and jumped into the rift.
Reappearing near the two leaders, Shiro swiped both her arms down and sent out a barrage of daggers that she carried in her sleeves.
*PUCHI!!!
"ARG!" Crying out in pain, the leaders stumbled backwards as several daggers were embedded into their body.
Unfortunately for them, ice blocks appeared behind their feet, causing them to fall. As they were falling, two ice spikes shot out of the ground and pierced into the head through the nape. Killing the two instantly, Kuromi then froze the ground around the guards.
With the guards not being able to dodge, the area had be a target practice for Shiro since none of them could dodge her daggers.
Flexing her fingers, thin strands of shadow linked up to the daggers as Shiro could control each of the daggers as if they were wh.i.p.s.
With just a few swipes, all of the guards had their throat cut apart.
"Let¡¯s move onto the next group." Shiro smiled as Kuromi nodded.
With the two working together, they were ughtering through the enemy ranks with cruel efficiency. Not a single second was wasted and no survivors could be seen either. It was as if death had just swiped his hand across the battlefield and harvested a handful of souls on a whim.
Chapter 433 Contract
Chapter 433 Contract
"What the hell is even happening out there!" A middle aged man shouted out in anger. In a span of a few minutes, tens of corpses could be seen all over the battlefield while the dragon and giant were still wrestling each other. Not only that, but the corpses also had de wounds so it was clearly done by humans rather than the two behemoths.
"We weren¡¯t able to see much from the distance but it seems to be a shadow type celestial energy user. They were able to flicker around the battlefield without much hindrance." One of the guards reported.
"If you know what element they use, then counter them for god sake!" The man shouted back as he mmed his hand down against the table.
"Erm... that¡¯s the thing. All of our shadow users seemed to be killed near the beginning."
". . . What?"
"We... have no one to counter them. They basically have the battlefield on lockdown and we don¡¯t have any shadow users of our own. Without a shadow user, we can¡¯t stop her from teleporting."
"How long do you think it¡¯ll take for the capital to send over some level 4 practitioners?" The man sighed.
"It would take at least a day with their speed."
". . ." Staying silent for a moment, the man looked towards the giant and dragon rampaging in the distance and gritted his teeth.
"Bring out the Celestial Spear. We¡¯re going to kill both the dragon and the giant."
Widening his eyes, the guard couldn¡¯t believe what his leader had just suggested. The Celestial Spear was an artifact gifted to them by one of the ¡¯higher beings¡¯. It was a spear that allowed mortals like them to harness a fraction of the beings¡¯ power and use it against their enemies. However, after fending off danger for so many years, the spear only had enough energy for one more attack since they had no way to recharge it.
"Just do it and call for a retreat. Make sure the spear kills at least one of the monsters or else it would be a waste." The manmanded.
"Understood!"
###
Twirling her dagger in her palm, Shiro looked around and saw that most of the guards had been dealt with.
"Right then, I guess our next step is to take care of that giant and dragon then." Shiro asked while ncing towards the behemoths.
"Not yet. The enemies might have more up their sleeves so we¡¯re going to let them rampage a little longer. In the meantime, we¡¯ll go get some high ground so that we can spy on the city and see how many guards they have left." Kuromi replied as Shiro nodded.
Deactivating her armour, Shiro furrowed her brows when she nced at the energy she had left.
"Tch, it¡¯s quite annoying isn¡¯t it?" Shiro muttered.
"What is?"
"The fact that the energy won¡¯t regenerate like mana." Shiro sighed while putting her daggers away.
"Mn, I suppose it is more potent than mana so there are a few downsides. If there wasn¡¯t, Celestial Energy would have long taken over mana in terms of poprity and usage." Kuromi shrugged.
"True."
Looking around the battlefield, Shiro searched around for any enchanted weapon that she could potentially put to good use.
Collecting a few enchanted swords and bows, the two left the area and made their way towards one of the gathering points that Kuromi had mentioned earlier.
Upon arrival, they saw that a few of the guards had already arrived with only a few of them missing.
"Mn? There seems to be a few of us that haven¡¯te back yet. Let¡¯s see... Tomu, Rachel, Riche and Nui are missing." Kuromi frowned after counting the guards.
"Did anyone see them on their way here? They might have gone to a different gathering point." She asked.
"No we haven¡¯t. I¡¯ve checked point A, C, D, F and G but I wasn¡¯t able to catch a glimpse of any of them." Prim replied as she had a worried look on her face.
"Hmm... alright. We¡¯ll be postponing our operations for a little. I want everyone to spread out and look for the missing people. If you find any one of them,e back to this spot and wait for our return. And also, before that, Shiro got you all some presents. These are some of the enchanted equipment that she found so find one that suits you." Kuromi said as they nodded. After collecting a weapon that they could use, they dispersed in all directions.
"Shiro, I want you toe with me."
"Sure, where to?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I¡¯ll tell you that in a second. But first, how does your portal orb work and how much energy does it use?" Kuromi asked.
"Ah you¡¯re curious about that. Well basically it¡¯s simr to how I use rift strider. However, instead of walking through the rift, I connect the shadows up into a long tunnel and force myself or an object through the portal in an instant. It doesn¡¯t take much energy to create the orb and sustaining it after creation is quite cheap in terms of energy usage. However, once I try to force something through, the energy usage increases massively. Depending on how quick I want the object to be transported and how big it is, the energy it needs varies." Shiro exined.
"Heh~ I see... Alright, do you have enough energy to make two orbs, teleport us and potentially fight in a while?"
"Hmm... should be doable." Shiro nodded. As long as she conserves her energy in the fight, she could make 4 portals if needs be.
"Great. In that case then can you leave an orb here so that we can retreat if things get a bit out of hand?" Kuromi asked with a smile.
"Sure."
Activating her shadow armour, Shiro snapped her finger and formed an orb just above her hand.
cing the orb onto the ground and hiding it with some shrubbery, Shiro deactivated her armour since it takes quite a bit of energy to sustain it. Thankfully however, the orb remained so that she could activate it whenever.
"Alright, let¡¯s go." Shiro smiled.
Dashing through the forest, they made their way towards the city. On their way to the city, they dumped into a few guards who seemed to be quite focused on retreating.
"Hmm... let¡¯s follow them. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re making their way to one of the leaders." Shiro suggested as Kuromi nodded since she had the same thought.
Unfortunately for them, a giant pir of light exploded out from the battlefield as it seemed to drain all the colours from their surroundings due to the intensity.
"Gah! The hell!" Shiro cursed as she shielded her eyes.
Jumping up on a tree, she looked towards the source and couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes in shock.
""The f*ck!?!?!"" Both Shiro and Kuromi said at the same time.
Flying in the air, the dragon was now encased in armour with the giant riding on his back. He was also wearing a simr style of armour and his axe transformed into a sword.
"Did he really just tame a goddamn dragon by stabbing it in the nose???" Shiro questioned in disbelief.
"Well it f*cking looks like it." Kuromi nodded.
Suddenly feeling both res lock onto them, the girls paused for a moment.
"Wait... did they just team up to deal with us?" Kuromi asked as she tilted her head.
". . .What did you do to lure the giant?" Shiro asked.
"Pretty much the same as you but in the crotch why?"
"Because I think they¡¯ve just realised who the real enemies are." Shiro said with a forced smile.
". . .Run?" Kuromi suggested.
"Run." Shiro nodded.
Quickly turning around, the duo ran as fast as they could before the giant and dragon could catch up to them.
"HALT RIGHT THERE YOU FOUL BEINGS!" The giant shouted out as both girls looked back one more in shock.
"F*ck! He gained some brain cells!"
"Don¡¯t talk! Just run!" Kuromi retorted as they charged towards where the guards were retreating to. That way, they can at least have the guards deal with this monstrosity that they had created.
"I SAID HALT!" The giant shouted out once more as ming spears appeared beside him. Pointing at the two with his sword, the spears shot towards them as the trees started to burn up from the heat.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro turned around and activated her armour once more. The shadows red around her as she created two portals and sent the spears flying back at him.
"Eat sh*t!" She cursed out.
However, since the spears were directly under his control, the giant merely had them slow down before pointing back towards Shiro.
". . . I would like to take this opportunity to humbly apologize about my actions."
Chapter 434 Facing The Giant And The Dragon
Chapter 434 Facing The Giant And The Dragon
"Die!" Without even waiting for her to continue, the giantunched the spear towards her once more as Shiro sighed.
"Man, what¡¯s with this DIE nonsense?"
Waving her hand, a portal opened up once more as a pair of jaws snapped the spears up and dragged them into the void.
"Try something a bit more original." Shiro smiled as her eyes seemed to glow with a red hue.
Seeing this, the giant and dragon couldn¡¯t help but feel a shiver down their spine.
[Just kill her with our full power without listening to her provocations. Once we¡¯re done with her, we¡¯ll get the other girl.] The dragon growled as he had formed a telepathic connection with the giant after creating a contract between them.
[I know. I¡¯m already preparing something as we speak. I¡¯ll use rage enchantment on the both of us while I fuel the spell.] The giant replied before returning his focus back to Shiro.
Seeing her arrogant smile, he had a strong desire to just crush her under his foot.
Pressing his palm against the dragon¡¯s back, a red marking started to spread out.
*URAHHHH!!!!!!
Crying out in rage, the dragon seemed to grow a littlerger as his muscles pulsed with energy. In addition to this, his mes changed from red to blue as anything they touched was turned to ash in an instant.
*Whistle~
"So you can share skills huh?" Shiro said with a smile as she narrowed her eyes.
Despite her arrogant demeanour right now, she was actually at the end of her ropes. With how much energy this spell is burning, the most she could do is hold out for a little longer. She had set her hopes on Kuromi since she flicked an orb to her before jumping up into the air in order to confront this dragon rider.
Once she sensed that the orb was far enough, she¡¯d teleport away without hesitation.
However, there was a slight problem with that. Can she live long enough for the portal to actually get far enough?
All of a sudden, thin fire needles erupted out from the ground around her. Widening her eyes, she quickly dodged to the side. She knew that if she was hit directly, she¡¯d be burnt to ash and the trial will end.
Unfortunately for her, even though she managed to dodge the needles, just being in the vicinity caused third degree burns along her arm.
Quickly releasing some cold mist, she retreated a little further away and encased her arm in ice.
¡¯Tch, that fire¡¯s a problem. Even if I was to change my armour to the Underworld Fire variant, it still wouldn¡¯t give me enough resistance to his attacks.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
"What¡¯s wrong girl, you seemed to have underestimated a dragon¡¯s fire." The giant snarled as he prepared tounch more attacks.
"Hahaha, nothing¡¯s wrong. You know, seeing the burn caused by the spear made me think about that one time I had identally left my hand roast in a fire that I couldn¡¯t feel. If anything, I¡¯d say your dragon¡¯s fire is a little hotter than the campfire I prepared. Well done." Shiro retorted.
Staying silent, the giant knew that Shiro was just dying the inevitable. Perhaps she was stalling for some reinforcement or that she may be preparing a spell just like him. Regardless of what the truth was, it was no use anymore since he had reached his goal.
Raising up his hands, a magic circle started to spread out as it soon covered the entire battlefield.
Realising that its size wasparable and might be even bigger than the one she had, Shiro could only look at the giant magic circle with a tired smile.
"Ah... I¡¯ve really f*cked up this time haven¡¯t I?" She mused with a shake of her head. To be honest, looking back at the situation, she should have just left the fight the moment she transported the giant. That way, even if he had tamed the dragon, they would have been far away and safe from danger.
Looking around her, Shiro tried to look for something that could help her out of this situation but things were dire. While there were guards up on the city wall, they seemed to be waiting for something.
She could also guess that they were waiting for the giant to be tired after dealing with her so that they can take the kill.
¡¯Man, we were the ones that wanted to kill with a borrowed knife but the situation seemed to have been reversed.¡¯
"I suppose it¡¯s time to grow the f*ck up. I¡¯ve had my fun for a while so I should drop the act."
Closing her eyes for a moment, her aura seemed to fluctuate. Previously, it was overbearing but was also warm. It weed those she trusted and kept them safe. However, this was extinguished and all that remained was the cold unfeeling nature of a night sky. Regardless of what happened on earth, it didn¡¯t concern her as long as no one provoked her.
Looking up into the air, Shiro narrowed her eyes and stared at the magic circle. Copying the entire formation in her mind, she started to analyse each section and figure out how the magic worked. Unfortunately, the runes that were involved in the magic circle were quite foreign to her so she had to also learn an entirely newnguage during this process.
If she was to be described as a machine, her internal systems would be set to overdrive right now in order to decode everything in the shortest span of time possible.
However,pared to the ridiculous amount of calctions she needed to make with her floating city, this was child¡¯s y. After all, what is a single magic circlepared to a giant city filled with hundreds upon thousands of magic circles?
After a short moment, she had fully tranted the runes along with the spell thanks to the references that she had seen etched in Kuromi¡¯s notebooks from time to time.
"Ah... so that¡¯s it. You wish to incinerate everything you designate as a target huh?" Shiro muttered coldly.
She could already feel the heat from the magic circle as each of the runes started to glow. It was still a little early for her topletely stop the spell but tampering with it is still achievable. After all, shutting down magic was one of her specialities. That trait didn¡¯t go away with theck of mana. As long as she can use the same type of energy and understood theposition of the spell, she had a hundred ways to cancel it out.
Raising up her hand towards the magic circle, she snapped her fingers as a few of the runes shifted in order just as the spell activated.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!!
All of a sudden, a pir of white mes shot up into the air and evaporated the clouds in an instant.
Looking at this in disbelief, the giant stared at Shiro who had tampered with his spell.
"You know, despite getting some brain cells with this little contract of yours, you¡¯re still an idiot. I¡¯m not one to monologue about your mistakes since that¡¯s a stupid thing to do so you can live without knowing why." Shiro said as she narrowed her eyes at the giant.
¡¯Even though I stopped ying around, the situation doesn¡¯t change much. I can sense that he still has a sh*t ton of Celestial Energy left so fighting is far from beneficial. Not to mention, my own storage is running on dry soon. If I keep this up, I won¡¯t even be able to teleport away. Kuromi isn¡¯t as far as I hoped she would be either.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a slight frown.
Pausing for a slight moment, the giant frowned in displeasure.
[Mayberger spells would work?] He questioned the dragon.
[I doubt it. Do you not see her confidence in dealing with thest one? Small spells are useless andrge spells are cancelled. At this point, our best shot is to just wear her out with physical strength until she runs out of energy.] The dragon replied.
[But reinforcements might arrive.] The giant countered.
Unfortunately, with the contract that the two had formed, they had to both agree on something or else neither of them could force the other against their will. While they did gain power with this contract, their conflicting nature seemed to have opened a small gap for Shiro to exploit. Unfortunately, she didn¡¯t have the energy to kill the two so the best she could hope for right now was to just escape once Kuromi was far enough from the location.
Chapter 435 Celestial Spear
Chapter 435 Celestial Spear
Staring in a stalemate, both Shiro and the giant used their aura to probe the opposition in order to see what they should do.
Shiro¡¯s goal was to stall for time so this situation was actually quite beneficial for her. During their staredown, she noticed that the dragon and the giant seemed to be ncing at each other every now and again.
¡¯They must be talking to each other. Though I wonder why they haven¡¯t attacked me yet...¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Looking around her, she spotted the guards moving towards the forest while protecting what seems to be a spear.
¡¯Hm? What are they nning to do?¡¯ She furrowed her brows.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to make her way towards them so that they can deal with the giant and dragon instead. She could tell that Kuromi had gone far enough and the shadow guards had already reconvened at the spot where she had ced down one of her orbs.
Making eye contact with the giant one more, Shiro smiled before immediately dashing away towards the city guards.
Seeing this, the dragon and the giant quickly came to an agreement and charged after her. Regardless of what happens, as long as she died in the end, they didn¡¯t care.
###
"Sh*t! They¡¯reing this way!" One of the guards shouted out in a panic as they saw a ck-haired woman flying towards them with the dragon following behind her.
"Quickly! Shoot her down while the captain readies the spear!" One of the deputies cried out as he activated a few spells.
However, they did not expect the woman to only swipe her hand as a portal appeared and the spells started to bombard the behemoths chasing behind her.
*URAHH!!!!
While it didn¡¯t do any damage, it served to annoy the dragon further.
Opening its mouth, it breathed out a torrent of blue mes in an attempt to burn her up into ash.
Unfortunately for it, Shiro jumped into the rift in order to dodge the fire breath before reappearing in the middle of enemy ranks. Crouching down slightly, she dodged their attacks before grabbing the spear.
"Interesting toy you got here. What does it do?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Let go of the Celestial Spear!" The deputy shouted out in anger as he quickly shed towards her hand.
"Hou~ Celestial Spear you say?" Shiro raised an eyebrow before jumping back to avoid his sh.
Since it was a weapon with the Celestial tag attached to its name, it might give her a clue on the Celestial Queen who was supposed to be in this trial.
After all, at the start of this quest it did say that one of the key conditions which changed the difficulty was her ss Ascension. With some of the items that she needed; this spear may be the key to finding all of that.
"So why don¡¯t you tell me about who gave you this Celestial Spear before the dragon kills us all?" Shiro chuckled.
"Youngdy, please hand over that spear since I don¡¯t believe that you have the power to activate it." A deep voice rang out as a middle-aged man, dressed in full armour, stepped out from the crowd.
"And you are?"
"I am the captain of this squad and I¡¯m the designated user of the spear. I can see that you are enemies with the dragon and giant so why don¡¯t we work together? The spear only has one more charge left so I want to make sure that this charge is used to kill both giant and dragon. Only then could it offset the sacrifices that we are making. With this, we can both benefit from the situation." The captain suggested as the guards quickly moved into a formation to fend off the two behemoths.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the man and realised that he seemed to be pretty honest about his intentions. However, being honest and being ¡¯good¡¯ were too different things.
Sure, he may be honest about killing the dragon, but he never said anything about what they¡¯ll be doing afterwards. He may just turn on her the moment she runs out of energy.
"Sure, I can give you the spear back. But just so you know, I can¡¯t offer much help anymore since my energy levels aren¡¯t exactly pleasing right now." Shiro replied while throwing him the spear.
Little did he know, she had already attached a small shadow orb into one of the crevices of the spear¡¯s design.
"I appreciate your understanding of the situation. Now please stand back since the activation of the spear is quite... devastating to say the least." The man smiled.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro watched as the guards moved aside while making sure that the giant and the dragon were being held off by their barrier spell.
"HOLD IT DOWN!" The captain shouted as a golden aura red around him. Spark of starlight could be seen as it started to gather towards the tip of the spear.
Holding the spear as if it were a javelin, the captain gritted his teeth as his muscles swelled with energy.
Aiming the spear towards the giant and the dragon, the captain waited until the two were positioned perfectly for a single strike to pierce them both.
Seeing the spear and feeling the power that it was currently generating; the first instinct of the dragon was to run while the giant wanted to destroy the spear before it could even be thrown. He knew that even if they tried to run, the spear would either track them down or pierce them faster than they could react. After all, why else would the captain be preparing such an obvious attack.
Unfortunately, their desires seemed to conflict once more as the dragon wanted nothing to do with that spear.
Gritting his teeth in anger, the giant decided to dissolve the contract and take some of the bacsh. It was better to take some damage now than to be killed by the spear piercing their bodies.
With the contract being dissolved, a holographic chain seemed to snap in half as both the giant and the dragon coughed up a mouthful of blood from the bacsh.
Ignoring the pain, the dragon immediately pped its wings and tried to get as far away as it could.
"Stop him!" The guards shouted out one after the other since they knew how precious this spear was. If not for the fact that both the dragon and the giant had posed a significant threat against the city, they wouldn¡¯t have even brought out such a weapon.
¡¯You know what? I think I¡¯ll give them a bit of my support. My bindings aren¡¯t exactly the strongest right now, but I can spare some energy to slow the dragon down.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile before snapping her fingers.
Suddenly, misty tendrils shot up into the air from the various shadows and started to wrap around the dragon.
Clutching her hand into a fist, she controlled the shadows so that they would try to pull the dragon back onto the ground.
Feeling some resistance, the dragon looked back and saw that Shiro was the one responsible.
Growling deeply, the dragon released a pulse of fire as the shadows were weakened before snapping apart.
However, her goal of slowing the dragon down for a few moments had been achieved since the guards managed tond their binding spell.
*URAHHH!!!
With the dragon being restricted and the giant trying to break the barrier forcefully, the captain quickly charged up as much energy as he could into the spear before the time was up. The barrier was barely holding on and the dragon had monstrous strength so the bindings could only do so much.
Soon, five magic circles could be seen spread out across the handle of the spear as the captain smiled in relief.
"Drop the barrier but keep a hold on the dragon!" He shouted out.
Seeing that the shield had been deactivated, the giant immediately ran into the area and tried to m his axe into the captain.
However, before the axe could even hit, the captain had already twisted his body and thrown the spear with as much force as he could muster.
*BANG!!!!!
Piercing a hole through his chest, the spear left a trail of starlight which slowly burned away at the giant¡¯s body.
Following which, the spear only managed to graze the dragon, but a single graze was enough for arge chunk of his flesh to be torn off as blood and scales were thrown into the air.
Narrowing her eyes at the power of this spear, Shiro jumped into her portal and left the area. She was going to collect that spear once it calms down but for now, she wanted to regroup with Kuromi and the guards.
Chapter 436 Retrieving The Spear
Chapter 436 Retrieving The Spear
Hoping out of the portal next to Kuromi, Shiro then activated the second orb she had left behind and summoned the rest of the guards beside her.
Thankfully, it seemed like they had managed to find the missing guards.
"Huh? Eh? How did we get here?" Phillip looked around in confusion.
"I summoned you with the orb I left behind. Anyways, since the guards are dealing with the dragon, our task here is done. We¡¯ll be retreating back to Yoru now." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Ah unde- Second Miss! Your arm!" Philip cried out in shock after seeing the severe burns on her arm.
"Quickly, give her some healing!"
Two guards immediately stepped up and started to heal Shiro as she only sat to make herselffortable during this treatment.
"So Shiro, are you able to tell us what had happened to the dragon and giant?" Kuromi asked. She was mostly focused on getting as far away as possible so that Shiro could teleport. This made it so that she didn¡¯t exactly get a good look at the fight.
As Shiro exined the situation while getting healed, Kuromi had a serious look on her face.
"Hmm... this Celestial Spear seems to be quite important. Phillip, do you know the origins of this spear?" Kuromi asked since Phillip would probably know the most about this spear.
"I do. It¡¯s a weapon given to the city lord by the higher being or rather, the one known as the Celestial Empress. She gave this spear as a gift since our country had pledged our allegiance to her rule." Phillip exined as both Shiro and Kuromi looked at each other.
"Seems like this is the ¡¯key¡¯ then huh?" Shiro smiled.
"Indeed. If we get our hands on this spear, it should help usplete a portion of our goals." Kuromi nodded.
While the trial wasn¡¯t exactly clear on what they should do other than ¡¯solve the corruption¡¯ and fulfil certain requirements, Kuromi could guess that meeting the Celestial Empress would be one of them.
"Phillip, do you know where the Celestial Empress resides?"
"Unfortunately, no. All I know is that her emissary lives in the capital." Phillip shook his head.
"Emissary huh? I don¡¯t exactly like talking to emissaries since they could be fakes for all I know. For someone as vague as the ¡¯Celestial Empress¡¯ it would be better to talk face to face rather than through a medium." Kuromi frowned.
"Well I suppose it wouldn¡¯t hurt to go talk to them now would it? Plus, who knows, the emissary might be a decent person." Shiro chuckled.
"True. Regardless, let¡¯s finish everything here before grabbing more tasks. We haven¡¯t even destroyed all the families that have hurt us yet." Kuromi shook her head. While she didn¡¯t exactly have an emotional connection to the ¡¯lord¡¯ and the family, she knew that the shadow guards were very loyal. If they left the enemies untouched, then it may affect their attitude towards her as a leader.
"Alright. So I¡¯m guessing the next step is to go back to Yoru and spread the news?" Shiro smiled.
"Yup. We¡¯ll also have some of the shadow guards spread the news to the other cities around Teriu and not just Yoru. Of course, there¡¯s the chance that they don¡¯t want to invade Teriu in which case it¡¯s fine as well since I have a few backup ns for that." Kuromi smiled.
As they were making their way back to the city, Shiro flexed her fingers as a portal opened up next to her and a spear was ejected out.
"Damn that spear took a while to actually slow down." Shiro chuckled as she inspected the body of the spear.
Now that she had taken a proper chance to look at the spear, she saw that its craftsmanship was rather impressive. The spear was coloured entirely gold with light blue runes etched onto the body.
In the centre of the spear head, there was a single blue crystal. The crystal itself was dull and lifeless as she could see a few cracks on the surface.
¡¯Hmm... must be due to the spear running out of charges like that captain said.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
While she was inspecting this spear, Phillip noticed this and could only shake his head.
¡¯I give up. There are too many strange things around second young miss and if I try toprehend everything, I would only confuse myself further.¡¯ He thought and ignored the situation.
"Shiro, can I borrow that spear for a little while? I want to do some research on it. Maybe it might give me some understanding on how I can help enchant some stuff for us." Kuromi asked with a smile.
"Oh of course. Here." Shiro nodded and passed her the spear.
Arriving back in Yoru, they made their way back to the inn that they had bought previously and rested in their rooms.
Kuromiid the spear on the table while Shiro sat besides her.
"Say, do you think there¡¯s a way for us to charge the spear again?" Shiro asked since this spear was quite an impressive weapon. While she doesn¡¯t use spears as much as she uses swords, it was still better than any weapon she could obtain right now.
"Hmm... maybe. I might be able to edit the spell that the lord made so that we can make an artificial link between us and the spear. That way, we can charge it with our own celestial energy. Unfortunately, we¡¯ve already used up quite a bit during our battle so I don¡¯t think it¡¯s something we can do today. We¡¯ll have to wait till tomorrow to find out." Kuromi replied with a smile.
"Heh~ Is that so... Oh right, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you a question but held it off since we were in the middle of a battle. How are you able to use celestial energy so easily? I¡¯m only able to use it easily because I¡¯ve experienced it before with my Celestial Raiment." Shiro asked.
"Oh you¡¯re curious about that are you? Well without the help of the system, I had to study the entirety of Celestial Energy without any assistance. During the times that I¡¯ve been selling toys and practicing with the guards, I had them run the energy through my body so that I could memorise its feeling. That¡¯s why when I finally had ess to it, I could use it without too many problems."
Hearing Kuromi¡¯s exnation, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrow.
"Man, it feels like you¡¯re way more prepared than me. With you dealing with most of the things, I¡¯m just sort of here to give you physicalbour." Shiro sighed as she hugged Kuromi from behind. Letting her arms dangle over her shoulders, she rested her chin on Kuromi¡¯s shoulders.
"Haha, are youining that you can fight without thinking about much of the details?" Kuromiughed as she patted Shiro¡¯s head.
"It¡¯s not that. I¡¯m absolutely loving the fact that I can just fight to my heart¡¯s content but I can¡¯t just be giving you all the work now can I?" Shiro replied while closing one of her eyes due to her hair being in the way after Kuromi patted it.
"Well that¡¯s what big siblings are for. I do the hard work so that my cute little sister can enjoy herself to her heart¡¯s content. That¡¯s what I did with Keomi and that¡¯s what I¡¯ll do with you." Kuromi smiled.
"Mn, fair enough. Say, Kuromi, when we get out of this trial, what do you think will happen? Will you stay with me like now or will you be back to your spirit form?" Shiro asked slowly.
". . .I don¡¯t know. This situation is rather bizarre to begin with. In reality, I shouldn¡¯t even be in this trial with you but here I am." Kuromi shook her head after a moment of thought.
"However, I suppose if you get good enough with spirit magic you might be able to transfer me to an ice spirit and let me reside in your mana realm." She suggested with a chuckle.
"Mn... I guess it¡¯s better than nothing then." Shiro nodded with a smile.
"Anyways, go get some rest now. You must be tired after all of that fighting today." Kuromi said while gesturing to the bed.
"Hmm... fine. I was going to stay up with you and look at the spear but I guess I¡¯ll get some rest now. Good night Kuro- Um... Big Sis." Shiro replied as she hesitated for a moment but decided to call Kuromi big sis instead.
Pausing in surprise, Kuromi looked back at Shiro.
"*cough* What? If it¡¯s weird I can call you Kuro like always." Shiro coughed in embarrassment.
"Ahh so cute! Damn, do you not want me to work? Come here, let big sis pamper you to sleep." Kuromi grinned uncontrobly.
Tackling Shiro onto the bed, Kuromi dragged Shiro into her embrace.
"Gah! Let go of me, I¡¯ll suffocate!" Shiroined since Kuromi had idently wrapped her arms around Shiro¡¯s neck, stopping her from breathing.
"Ah sorry~ Anyways, let¡¯s go to sleep. Big sis will prioritise you over my work tonight." Kuromi chuckled while making sure that Shiro couldn¡¯t escape from her hug. Of course, she made sure that Shiro could breathe this time.
"Sure whatever. Just make sure you don¡¯t strangle me by ident." Shiro replied before turning around to hide her smile.
¡¯How adorable.¡¯ Kuromi thought as she slowly fell asleep.
Chapter 437 Repairing The Spear
Chapter 437 Repairing The Spear
For the next four days, Kuromi spent that time getting the shadow guards to spread the news about the families in Teriu acquiring a special spell that allows them to demonstrate strength that¡¯s beyond their normal capabilities. A rumour of how a certain family was destroyed because they had obtained this spell.
Since there was some truth mixed into this along with a few lies such as ¡¯it was due to this spell that they could kill the giant and fend off the dragon¡¯, the families in the surrounding cities started to send in spies relentlessly to get the truth. In a world where thew of the jungle prevails, such a spell could turn their lives around so many of them wanted to obtain it at all cost.
There were a few families who were suspicious of this rumour but once some evidence started to appear in their reports, this suspicion disappeared.
Meetings were held in secret between a few families as they formed teams under a temporary truce to obtain this spell.
With truces being formed and swords being sharpened to attack Teriu, the families that live in Teriu panicked and tried to release news saying that the spell was fake all along.
However, with Shiro and Kuromi¡¯s family being destroyed because of this spell, they dismissed the news as an excuse to try to keep the spell all to themselves.
During this time, both girls continued to research the spear and the spell relentlessly so that it could be put to use in their next battle. They wanted to improve the spell since the energy was too inefficient for their liking and would hinder Shiro¡¯s ability to fight while the spear was a key clue to talk to this ¡¯Celestial Goddess¡¯.
"Right then, I suppose this is test number 114. Shiro, give it a try and see if you can form a connection. If it seeds, see if you can charge it." Kuromi asked while writing down some notes.
They were currently in the middle of their courtyard as Shiro held the spear in both her hands.
Nodding her head, Shiro closed her eyes and funnelled Celestial Energy through her hands and into the spear.
Creating a special type of magic circle that Kuromi had designed after several trials, the crystal in the middle of the spearhead started to glow with a slight blue.
After a few moments, Shiro had to stop and took a deep breath.
"Same as test 83. While I can somewhat charge the spear, most of the energy is dispersed outwards. The cracks in the crystal don¡¯t make this process any easier either." Shiro shook her head.
"*sigh* Figures. Anyways, I think I¡¯ve managed to make some small breakthroughs in terms of how you should construct the magic circle. The main problem is containment so maybe we need a secondary element from your Armour to seal up the crystal for it to store the energy. Only problem with this is that we haven¡¯t exactly improved on the spell so the energy usage is still less than desirable." Kuromi shook her head with a tired sigh. Massaging her eyes for a moment, she leaned back and took a short break.
"Just take your time for now I guess. Maybe if you took a break, you might have an eureka moment." Shiro suggested while stabbing the spear into the ground. Walking inside the inn, she brought out two cups of juice and handed one over to Kuromi.
"Thanks." Kuromi nodded and took a sip of the juice.
"Mn? That¡¯s pretty sweet. Have you made a new blend of juice?" She raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Yup. I mixed that berry the old man trader sold from across the street with some orange looking things I found before. The result is pretty nice." Shiro smiled.
"Indeed. The initial taste is a little impactful but the aftertaste is quite nice." Kuromi smiled.
"That¡¯s nice to hear. With you and the guards doing most of the work and me just helping you do these experiments, I thought that I might as well get a hobby for now and making juice to be pretty fun." Shiro chuckled as she finished her juice.
Setting the empty cup aside, she grabbed the spear once more and twirled it in her hands.
"Right then, what shall I do for experiment 115?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Hang one, I¡¯m just writing something down right now. You can experiment a little with enhancing your body with Celestial Energy." Kuromi suggested.
In these four days, Phillip had also taught them a few basic spells that every user knows when they first start practising with this energy. One of the basic spells was physical enhancement and it worked in a simr way to how one would enhance their bodies with mana.
Nodding her head, Shiro closed her eyes for a moment before letting Celestial Energy flow through her entire body.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to find the best route in terms of energy use so that she could somewhatpensate for this ridiculous energy usage.
As she continued to try to find the best route, Kuromi was designing a few spell circles in her book.
Since the main problem was trying to patch up the cracks that had appeared after the spear ran out of charges, she needed to find an efficient way to patch up that hole so that they could use the spear¡¯s full power without wasting too much energy.
¡¯Hmm... out of all the elements that Shiro could use, Cosmic Ice was probably the one that had the highestpatibility with the spear. We¡¯ve already tried this element in test 32 and it only enhances the spear further, making it drain more energy. That¡¯s the opposite of what we want since we need something to contain the energy and not burn it out faster.¡¯ Kuromi mused to herself while writing down what effect each of the elements had with the spear.
Out of all the elements that Shiro could control, the one with the highest chance of seeding in ¡¯patching up the hole¡¯ was surprisingly her water element/Oceanic Abyss. The thing with this element was that it revolved around dragging her enemies to the depths of the sea and drowning them while not giving them a chance to escape from the currents.
All she had to do was contain the energy within the crystal through this ¡¯current¡¯. However, the problem with this element is that the longer the current continues, the stronger it gets. Eventually, it gets to a point where not even Shiro, the user, could control it. With a ¡¯vtile¡¯ element such as this, it was hard to put into action during battle.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she continued to formte some prototypes in her mind.
Just like that, another 3 days passed as the tension between the surrounding families and Teriu seemed to be at an all time high. They were ready tounch an assault at any moment but decided to wait for now since there was news that the royal family was going to participate in this battle.
With the royal family joining in under the pretence of hoping to solve everything peacefully. With this excuse, the families had no choice but to wait since it would be treason should they start the battle without the royal family¡¯s permission after saying that they wanted to solve things peacefully.
However, since the royal family was responsible for everything to begin with, their presence here threw an unpredictable variable in Kuromi¡¯s ns which she wasn¡¯t exactly happy with. But regardless of what was happening in the outside world, Kuromi wasn¡¯t paying attention since they were on the verge of a breakthrough after three days of continuous experimentation.
If their next experiment seeds, they would havepleted all of their preparations and even if the royal family joins, they could still proceed with the n.
"Ready when you are Shiro." Kuromi said with an excited smile.
Nodding her head, Shiro closed her eyes and stabbed the spear into the ground. A giant magic circle expanded out from under her feet as she donned her Rift Shadow armour. However, there was something different about it this time since the shadows almost behaved like ocean waves.
From her arm, a ck and blue tendril of sorts could be seen crawling up the spear before making contact with the crystal in the centre.
*BOOM!!!
Releasing a blinding ray of light, the spear seemed to transform in her hands as parts of the spear split apart to reveal additionalponents.
Holding the now transformed spear, Shiro could feel her energy being contained within the crystal as they had managed to repair the spear and charge it up with more energy so that it could be used in future battles.
Chapter 438 Setting Up Traps
Chapter 438 Setting Up Traps
"It¡¯s a little hard to charge still but it should be pretty handy in the fight. I¡¯ll admit though, if I wanted to recreate its original power that pierced the giant and dragon, I¡¯ll have to stand still and take some time to gather the required energy." Shiro said while swinging the spear around.
"I took that into consideration so you don¡¯t have to worry. Just think of this as a trump card of sorts." Kuromi nodded with a smile.
"Fair enough. So what are we doing now then? We¡¯ve finished most of our preparations in terms of improving the spell and repairing the spear. With the royal family reaching Teriu in about another day or so, we have another 24 hours to spare. Is there anything else we should improve on?" Shiro asked while deactivating her armour. Cutting off her connection to the spear, it returned to its original appearance.
"Hmm... there¡¯s not much else we need to do other than making sure that the different families actually att- actually... There is one thing we can do." Kuromi smiled.
"Oh?"
"We can start setting up an ambush for the royal family and have some of the guards try to evacuate the citizens of Teriu so that they aren¡¯t dragged into the battle. After all, when all hell breaks loose, I doubt the soldiers would worry about the civilians since they could be enemies that are disguised that way." Kuromi suggested.
"Ah~ I see what you want to do. The longer we dy the royal family with our ambush, the more time the guards have to evacuate people." Shiro smiled.
"Yup. The only problem is will they actually evacuate. There¡¯s only so much we can do for the weak since we have limited man power right now. If there are still civilians around despite us slowing down the royal family, they¡¯ll have to rely on themselves in order to survive the battle." Kuromi shook her head.
"Well at least you¡¯re trying to help them. I¡¯ve seen people who just bombard a city without caring about casualties." Shiro shrugged. As for the ¡¯people who just bombard a city without caring about casualties¡¯, it may or may not have been her at one point but Kuromi didn¡¯t need to know that.
"Mn. Anyways, let¡¯s go gather the guards and start making our way to intercept the royal family. We¡¯ll need some information about their route of travel along with where each of the other families are stations." Kuromi nodded.
Packing everything up, she briefed the rest of the guards about their next steps as they organised a few teams each with different roles. Team 1 was responsible for keeping an eye on all the families surrounding Teriu and where they were nning to attack. Team 2 was responsible for entering Teriu to see what the families inside Teriu nned to do while Team 3 followed Shiro and Kuromi. Their task was to find the royal family¡¯s travel route and intercept them.
With the tasks handed out to the teams, they split apart and started to travel separately. Shiro had taken this chance to give each of them an orb so that they can teleport away to her should things go south.
Team 3 consisted of 8 people not including Shiro and Kuromi. As for the key figures, they were Phillip and Prim since their skill set allowed them to restrainrge groups of people without too many problems. With skill sets like these, they were extremely valuable in an ambush.
Jumping into a separate carriage that they had bought, the team started to move towards the north-west since that was where the capital. Logically, they should be able to run into the royal family through this route.
"Let¡¯s just hope that they don¡¯t go a different route ay?" Kuromi smiled as Shiro nodded.
"I don¡¯t think they would since that would only waste more time if they chose a different route. If anything, I¡¯m more concerned about what kind of fire power they brought with them since I¡¯ll be the one doing most of the fighting." Shiroughed.
"Mn, now that I think of it, I doubt they would bring weak guards so most of them will probably be level 3. Unless you take out arge portion of them in a single hit, they¡¯ll be annoying to deal with. While the guards scout out for some information, why don¡¯t you n out what you¡¯re going to do once the ambush starts." Kuromi suggested.
"Hmm sure. Do you want to help me visualise what the final cast of the spell would look like? If I don¡¯t have a proper visual of it in my mind, it¡¯ll be quite hard to actually activate the spell." Shiro asked.
"Oh of course. So what kind of spell are we nning to make?"
Spending the journey discussing what kind of effects the spell could cause, they soon arrived at a small town called Arental. This town was directly in between the capital and Teriu so Kuromi estimated that this was probably the best ce to start setting up and ambush just outside of town. To their left was a small woods of sorts while a river ran down their right.
"Right then. First things first. Phillip, you take two others and scout out ahead and see if you can spot the royal family with their army. We¡¯ll set up a few ambush camps around the forest and the river while you do this." Kuromi ordered as Phillip nodded his head.
"Of course first young miss, I¡¯ll see to it immediately." Gesturing to two of the guards that followed them, he made their way through the woods since they would be harder to spot in there.
"With Phillip and those two on scouting missions, I want you five to help me set up some traps around the ce. Prim, I want you to surround the entire woods with your webs so that if we do lure them into the woods, we can bind them and attack without much worries. Since there is only 10 of us here in total, including me and lil sis over here, we¡¯ll need to focus on guerri warfare."
"Understood first you miss. But I have a question first, what is guerri warfare?" Prim asked as this terminology was rather foreign to her.
"Oh right. It¡¯s basically hit and run tactics. We don¡¯t want to be fighting them in a head on battle since our numbers arecking. What we want to be doing is making sure that we are not in the same ce for an extended period of time. Same goes for being surrounded since that would cut off our escape options." Kuromi exined.
"Ah I see. Understood." Prim nodded.
"Are there any more questions? If not, let¡¯s start setting up some ambushes." Kuromi smiled.
###
While this was all happening, a woman could be seen drifting in what seems to be an open gxy. Around her were ss shards that showed her scenes of the trial as several of the pieces of the shards showed her what Shiro and Kuromi were doing.
"Hmm... Even though this is supposed to be a solo trail, she¡¯s here with someone else. Or rather, with herself? Hm, no wonder the trial was automatically raised to Immortal Level. She¡¯s technically doing this solo since it¡¯s just ¡¯her¡¯ in the trial. What an anomaly." The woman muttered with a shake of her head.
"System, disy user privileges." She called out as a list appeared in front of her. Looking through the list, she started to type away at the keyboard.
"With how things are right now, they¡¯ll be able to defeat the royal family and their army quite easily. Not only that, I didn¡¯t expect this Shiro kid to actually repair that spear so I¡¯ll need to give the army a Celestial Weapon of their own to bnce the situation out."
After finishing what she wanted to type, she swiped her hand and dismissed the avatar.
"It¡¯s been a while since I wasst deployed so I suppose it¡¯s ok to have some fun. Plus, she needs my decree to ss up anyways. System! Generate Contractor Avatar. Unique Code- CE102." She called out as light enveloped her body.
[Request Granted. Please note, you are not allowed to assist the trial activator. If you do, you are to be stripped of your user privileges as this is a breach in the contract.]
"Understood. Now make me my avatar already." The woman smiled as her body slowly faded away from this space.
Chapter 439 Ambush
Chapter 439 Ambush
"Right then, that should be all the traps." Kuromi smiled as she stood up on one of the tallest trees.
"Shiro, how is Phillip¡¯s scouting party doing?"
"They managed to catch a glimpse of the royal family approaching in the distance. I¡¯d say they will arrive in another 2 to 3 hours give or take? It should be enough time for us to finish off any small details that we might have missed." Shiro replied while looking at the situation through one of her orbs.
"And what about the situation in Teriu?"
"Most of the civilians have been evacuated to a camp further away from the city since they know that things are going to be hectic soon. There are still a few people who are reluctant and don¡¯t believe in the rumours but at this point, until they see for themselves, nothing will convince them."
"Tch, annoying." Kuromi frowned.
"Forget it. We did our part by warning them. If they get killed in the battle, they can¡¯t me us."
Shaking her head, she looked towards the guards that were with them.
"Take up archer positions around here. Make sure to draw all of their attention so that Shiro cannd a devastating spear throw from the riverbanks." Kuromi ordered as they nodded their heads and scattered through the woods with bows in hand.
"Do you want to give me an orb as well so you can teleport to me once you¡¯ve thrown the spear?" She asked since it was quite risky to be cornered by the river.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already set up a few orbs around the ce so I have quite a few escape options." Shiro smiled.
"Alright, I¡¯m counting on you."
Watching Shiro dashed towards the rivers, Kuromi had a smile on her face as she shook her head and started to set up her own archer spot.
As they waited in their ambush locations, Phillip and his scouts came back and reported to Kuromi. Assigning them a few ces to be, they were nowpletely ready to ambush the royal family.
###
"Brother, it¡¯s quite a surprise to see youing to assist us? I thought you were going to keep indulging yourself in Yoru." A woman said as she had a rather cold expression on her face.
She was currently sitting on an open roof carriage that had warhorses pulling the vehicle forwards. Margin in rhythm, soldiers held the royal family¡¯s g up with pride.
"Well... two people caught my attentiontely and they seemed to be quite involved with the whole Teriu city situation so naturally, I can¡¯t miss this." The man said with a shrug. He was also the same person that had fed Tau the information which led to his downfall.
He was called Alta Muir, second prince of the Muir royal family, and had been sent to Yoru due to his less than eptable behaviour.
As for the woman he was talking to, her name was Rialin Muir, eldest princess of the Muir family. She was also known as the War Maiden due to her exceptional Energy control and battle prowess that lets her dominate the battlefield.
Originally, she had not nned toe to Teriu since the original agreement was to have the families deliver the spell to the capital and allow the families that acquired it to study the spell for a short while.
However, things got out of hand once rumours started to spread. Families that had no knowledge of the spell were now interested as they each prepared for a war of sorts. Between saving one city worth of families to several cities worth, the royal family would naturally choose thetter option.
"Mn, two people huh? Are they girls again?" Rialin asked with a frown.
"*cough* Yes bu-"
"Alta, how many times must I tell you to stop ying around and actually settle down with someone before you¡¯re killed due to your frivolous nature." Rialin reprimanded as she narrowed her eyes with annoyance. She knew that this brother of her¡¯s wasn¡¯t exactly the strongest person around so his nature was just asking for someone to kill him.
"Of course sis. I¡¯ll keep that in mind." Alta nodded but Rialin knew that this brother of her¡¯s didn¡¯t take her words into heart.
"Everyone! We will reach Arental soon so give it onest push and then you can take a break in the town!" Rialin called out since she knew that the soldiers were tired from the journey. Despite being one of the stronger soldiers, they couldn¡¯t reinforce their body constantly or else they¡¯ll waste a lot of their energy, making it hard for them to fight at full potential when it is most needed.
Suddenly, danger washed over her senses as Riali frowned and looked around her. Widening her eyes, she saw a hail of enchanted arrows descend upon them.
"TAKE COVER!" She shouted out before raising her hand into the air.
Surging Celestial Energy through her arms, a magic circle expanded out around her as she tried to protect as many of the soldiers as she could.
Unfortunately, those that weren¡¯t as prepared were pierced by a nket of arrows and died on the spot. Despite being people that could use Celestial Energy to an amazing degree, they were killed before they could even utilise their best weapon.
"Ambush! Everyone get ready forbat!" Rialin shouted out once more before grabbing the halberd that was beside her.
Jumping off her carriage, she tracked the arrows back to their source and saw that most of the enemies were in the forest.
Furrowing her brows, she wasn¡¯t exactly eager to go into the forest since this was uncharted territory. There could be a myriad of traps in the forest that will put her in a disadvantageous situation where her strength wouldn¡¯t do much on the battlefield.
"Defensive formations! Cast your spells and bombard the woods! Do not care about the damage for it is a small price to pay for their treason!" Rialin ordered while mming her halberd into the ground.
Erecting a few stone walls around them, that acted as a temporary shield for now.
However, what she didn¡¯t know was that this only made it easier for Shiro tond her spear.
"Seems like it¡¯s my time to shine." Shiro smiled as she observed the situation from the opposite side of the river.
Taking a deep breath, she activated her Celestial Raiment and readied her spear. Fouryers of magic circles could be seen on the body of the spear as a cosmic aura seemed to leak out from the de, forming an iridescent veil crafted from a miniature gxy.
Closing her eyes, she took a moment to fully visualise the effects of her spell before twisting her body and threw the spear with as much force as she could muster from reinforcing her body.
*BANG!!!!!
Shooting up into the sky, the spear seemed to have transformed into a shooting star.
With just the initial impact of throwing the spear, the ground under her foot cracked apart as her body sunk slightly into the ground.
Waiting for a moment so that the spear could reach terminal velocity, Shiro then activated a fifth magic circle that wrapped around her wrists as an orb could be seen slowly expanding from the spear tip.
"Teleport." She muttered with a grin.
Reappearing in the middle of the royal family¡¯s formation, Riali could only widen her eyes after feeling a horrific surge of energy suddenly appearing behind her.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!
Before she could even react, the spear came into contact with the ground. Reducing the ground to dust, some of the soldiers that weren¡¯t prepared for the impact were immediately reduced to dust while those that had been prepared were less fortunate. They had to experience the pain of having their body ground down to dust since there wasn¡¯t anything they could do as they were in the middle of the impact zone.
As for Alta, he had long been reduced to ashes.
"Damn it!" Riali cried out in anger since the best thing she could do right now was to just withstand the explosion with her physical body and hope that she survived.
Activating a second chained explosion, Shiro then teleported the spear back into her hands with the second orb she had ced on the spear tip.
Jumping up on some trees to get a decent vantage point, she looked at the giant crater that she had created with satisfaction.
However, before she could speak, a halberd entered her view as it was aimed for her head.
Quickly raising her spear to parry the halberd, her body was flung back from the impact. Twisting her body in the air, shended without too much of a problem and looked towards the person who had thrown the halberd.
Standing in the centre of the crater, Riali stood with blood dripping from every part of her body. But despite her seemingly lethal injuries, Shiro could see that her wounds were slowly regenerating.
"Damn, that shot cost me around 35% of my energy and you¡¯re telling me she can regenerate it all back? The hell is wrong with this trial." Shiro muttered as her smile twitched a little.
Chapter 440 Fighting Rialin
Chapter 440 Fighting Rialin
Activating another one of her orbs, she teleported next to Kuromi.
"Big sis, this woman¡¯s going to be a bit of a problem. Even after standing in the centre of my attack, she¡¯s slowly healing everything back." Shiro said with a frown.
"I know. Our goal is to mainly dy and weaken the family. For now, we need to keep herpany while shadow guards eliminate as many of the enemy soldiers as they can. Remember, if you start to be surrounded, run out of energy or you¡¯re getting overwhelmed, go into the woods and we can start our retreat from there on." Kuromi reminded Shiro as she nodded.
"In that case then I¡¯ll try to keep that woman upied but don¡¯t count on it. I¡¯ve already used up around 35% of my energy from a single attack with the spear."
"Got it." Kuromi nodded.
Jumping into the air, Shiro threw her spear once more but this time it was a normal throw.
Seeing the spear approach her, Rialin quickly dodged backwards since it might be a devastating blow much like thest hit.
However, the impact never arrived as Shironded on the battlefield and swept her spear up into her hands.
Pivoting on her foot, she swung the spear towards the retreating Rialin and barely managed to sh her on her arm.
"It¡¯s you! You¡¯re the one who did this!" Rialin red at Shiro in anger as she kicked towards her abdomen.
Quickly parrying the kick with her spear, Shiro was surprised at how much force was put behind a single kick.
If this was a normal spear, it would have been snapped in half in an instant.
Twisting her body, Shiro stabbed the spear into the ground and used it as a pivot before also kicking towards Rialin.
Pushing each other back, Shiro narrowed her eyes and looked at the battle around them. Right now, they had the upper hand due to their surprise attack at the start but the royal family¡¯s soldiers were slowly pushing back.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯ll keep this womanpany for a little longer before leaving.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Where are you looking at in the middle of a fight!" Rialin shouted out as she jumped into the air and readied a spell in her hands.
mming her hands against the ground, a giant fissure cracked open as Shiro almost lost her footing. Quickly dashing up into the air, she looked at the battlefield with a serious frown.
Despite the fissure¡¯s size, it had managed to avoid all of Rialin¡¯s allies.
¡¯Damn, her control is ridiculous.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before readying her spear for another attack.
"Get down here!" Swiping her hand upwards, a giant stone pir erupted towards Shiro as Rialin was hungry for blood. For this woman to kill so many of her soldiers, she had to pay with her life.
"Tch! I won¡¯te down there, why don¡¯t youe up here!" Shiro retorted as she shed her spear towards the pir. Infusing the spear with some of her energy, she activated a partial transformation in order to boost its attack.
*KRRR!!!
Splitting the pir in half, she saw Rialin jump towards her while using the rubble from the pir as footholds.
Twirling the spear in her hands, Shiro mmed it towards her in an attempt to send her back down.
Unfortunately for her, Rialin seemed to have disappeared from her spot and started to charge towards the woods.
"Damn!" Quickly activating one of her orbs that she has scattered into the woods, she appeared in front of Rialin and mmed her spear into her chest.
"ARG!" Coughing up a bit of blood, her body was flung back to the battlefield as she crashed against the floor.
Looking at Rialin, Shiro frowned once more after realising that her injuries seemed to heal itself.
¡¯She¡¯s only used some earth magic and physical strength so far. If anything, I suppose her monstrous regeneration is her main weapon. She can probably oust most people and force them to run out of energy before killing them.¡¯ Shiro analysed with a frown.
Until she had an attack that could kill her in one shot, it was going to be disadvantageous to fight her.
Kuromi seemed to have the same idea since Shiro could see a few of the Shadow Guards already retreating.
"Shiro, you don¡¯t need to use up any more energy. We¡¯ve pretty much reached our goal." Kuromi called out.
"Got it. That woman¡¯s a problem so we might want to have a few scouts keep their eye on her." Shiro replied as she stored the spear away.
Snapping her finger, a portal appeared behind Kuromi as they were about to regroup with the rest of the guards.
However, before she could even step into the portal, she felt a berserker like presence behind her as she quickly grabbed her spear and stabbed it towards the source of danger.
*PUSHI!!!
Feeling her spear pierce a body, Shiro nced back and saw Rialin¡¯s hand that was just short from grabbing her head.
Her eyes seemed to glow with this menacing red as she grabbed the spear and pulled it out of her gut.
Watching her regenerate the injuries once more, Shiro frowned and gestured for Kuromi to leave first.
"I don¡¯t think she¡¯s going to let me leave without a proper fight." Shiro said as Kuromi nodded.
"Good luck lil sis. I¡¯ll keep an eye out and fire a few arrows if needs be." Kuromi smiled before jumping into the portal.
"Now then, it¡¯s just me and you again. I¡¯ll tell you what though, you¡¯re quite rude aren¡¯t you? I was having such a nice conversation with my one and only big sis after all." Shiro smiled as one could see that she was a little annoyed.
However, Rialin seemed to have not heard her as she continued her flurry of attacks.
Parrying them all with her spear, Shiro decided to go a little serious. Reinforcing her body to a basic standard, she got into a stance from the Takemikazuchi Technique.
"It¡¯s a little awkward to use a sword technique with a spear but this should help offset the difference a little." Shiro said as her aura seemed to turn cold once more.
¡¯Attack Domain ¨C Spear.¡¯ She thought to herself. Due to her experiences with using the Sword Domain, forming an attack domain, which was a step before a full domain, wasn¡¯t too hard of a task as long as she knew how to use the weapon. After all, to make an attack domain, one had to have a great deal of control over their body and the weapon. Both of which Shiro had.
*PUCHI PUCHI!
Flickering towards Rialin, several sh and piercing injuries could be seen appearing on her body in an instant as blood sttered in the air.
mming the pommel of the spear against Rialin¡¯s chin, she then shed downwards with the de.
As the de dug deep into her shoulder, Rialin didn¡¯t even flinch as she grabbed the spear with her bare hands and kicked towards Shiro¡¯s face.
Turning her head to dodge the kick, Shiro pivoted on her foot and hauled Rialin¡¯s body over her shoulder and mmed her into the ground with the help of the spear.
Twirling the spear so that it was in a reverse grip, Shiro bbed it towards Rialin¡¯s neck.
*DANG!
Grabbing the spear with her hands, it soon became a contest of strength.
"Seems like you¡¯ll die if I decapitate you. No wonder you¡¯re trying so hard not to get stabbed there even though you can just regenerate the damage you take." Shiro said coldly.
Blood trickled down her arm as she was slowly winning the contest of strength.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro tried to kick Rialin¡¯s arm away from the spear so that she would die but her arms wouldn¡¯t budge.
Suddenly feeling a surge of energy much like what she felt when that captain threw the Celestial Spear, Shiro quickly jumped back and made some distance between them.
A shimmering light could be seen surrounding Rialin¡¯s arms as it slowly formed the shape of a gauntlet.
Her blood seemed to mix with this light, causing it to gain an ominous hue.
*BANG!
mming her hands against the ground, Rialin propelled her body upright. Readying her fist, that was now equipped with a white, gold and red gauntlet, Rialin charged towards Shiro.
"Tch, so you also have a Celestial type equipment huh? What a pain." Shiro said with a frown.
Raising up her spear, she tried to parry Rialin¡¯s next punch.
*BANG!!!
Parrying a few of the punches, Shiro saw a few splinters of gold enter her vision as she realised that the spear had a few fractures along the body.
¡¯You¡¯ve got to be kidding me...¡¯
Chapter 441 Sneaking Into Teriu Part 1
Chapter 441 Sneaking Into Teriu Part 1
mming the spear into the ground, Shiro quickly made some distance between the two of them since that gauntlet was clearly dangerous. Since it¡¯s a Celestial type weapon, she guessed that the gauntlet itself probably focuses on bypassing defences since it was actually able to deal damage to the spear itself.
With the danger of losing one of the clues that may lead them to the empress, Shiro wasn¡¯t exactly eager to fight Rialin anymore.
However, even if she wanted to escape, it didn¡¯t seem like Rialin was going to be very cooperative. Not only that, but she could also sense the royal family soldiers making their way towards her location as of this moment.
¡¯Tch, what a mess.¡¯ She thought with a frown. Since she didn¡¯t want to lose the spear, she might as well set it aside for now. Twisting her body, she turned around and threw the spear as far as she could.
*BANG!!!
Just as she threw the spear, Rialinunched her fist towards Shiro¡¯s back.
"Oi, it¡¯s a little rude to sneak attack someone like that." Shiro replied as she ducked down and narrowly avoided the punch.
Sweeping towards Rialin¡¯s legs, she knocked her over before punching towards her temple in order to disorientate her.
Unfortunately, it seems like Rialin¡¯s defences had been bolstered with the appearance of the gauntlet since she didn¡¯t even flinch at the punch.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro decided to cut her losses and leave the area.
Dashing past the trees, she nced back and saw that Rialin was currently chasing her.
"Perfect." She muttered with a smile since she wanted to drag Rialin into the soldiers so that they would suffer some coteral damage.
However, she needed to be careful so that she wasn¡¯t caught. After all, if one of the soldiers had a power simr to Phillip, her n would shatter apart.
Activating the lightning variant of her armour, she reinforced her body and increased her speed.
Thankfully, Rialin seemed to be having a hard time catching up. While she did gain incredible defences and attack, her speed didn¡¯t change at all.
Before Shiro could even sigh in relief, she saw four people falling from the sky with spears ready to pierce her body.
¡¯Takemikazuchi Technique ¨C Lightning Pulse.¡¯
Flickering from her spot, she reappeared near the soldiers like a sh of lightning and punched them on the gut, forcing their bodies to curl up in pain and fall to the ground.
Suddenly a tree entered her peripherals as Shiro quickly dodged out of the way. Looking behind her, she saw that Rialin had ripped the tree out of the ground and used it as a javelin. Even now, she was pulling up more trees.
"Damn! Think about nature ok you crazy woman!" Shiro shouted out.
Landing on the ground, she shifted her armour to the Forest element and mmed her palms against the ground. A magic circle expanded out as thick tree roots shot towards Rialin and started to bind her where she stood. Frowning slightly, Rialin tried to break free with brute force but the roots stayed intact.
Taking this chance to activate her portal, Shiro scrapped the idea of dealing more damage to the soldiers since she¡¯ll just be tempting fate at that point.
"See you next time." Shiro smiled and stuck out her tongue a little.
Jumping through the portal, she disappeared from her spot.
Meanwhile, a figure was watching the entire situation from the air. She had long dark purple hair with hints of red around the edges. A pair of ruby eyes and a rather curvy figure.
She wore a dark one piece dress that had semi translucent veils attached around the shoulders and waist.
"Hmm... interesting. Even after giving that Rialin a Celestial Gauntlet that is made for destroying weapons and armour, Shiro was actually able to preserve her Celestial Spear. Hmm... her capabilities with that Kuromi is rather high for someone of her level. Maybe I should increase this trial to Celestial God rank? Nah, doing so would be overstepping my boundaries a little. Plus, they still haven¡¯t reached the main stage yet. Right now, they¡¯re still doing the tutorial so I guess I can¡¯t be too harsh." The woman muttered with a smile.
Swiping her hand, a few screens appeared in front of her as she had a top down view of the map.
"Since she¡¯s zing through the tutorial and has even gained ess to the Celestial Energy much earlier than expected, I think I can push things up a little without too much problem. Let¡¯s see... with how things are right now, they¡¯ll probably eliminate their enemies in Teriu pretty easily and weaken the royal family. The other families would probably choose to not oppose them since it¡¯s quite tricky to stop this Shiro from leaving.
"In that case then, I¡¯ll change things up a little. The tutorial will now contain 5 Celestial Grade equipment. Celestial Spear than can pierce most defences, Celestial Gauntlet that can break weapons and armour, Celestial Shield that can block fatal attacks once every three days, Celestial Armour that massively bolsters ones defence and Celestial Jewel that reduces the cost of energy per spell. With these five, she should be able toplete the upgraded version of the main trial. Of course, to make things fair, I¡¯ll need to make sure that these items aren¡¯t easily obtainable like what happened with the spear or else the system may deem it as me making things favourable for the girl. To test her even more during the main trial, I¡¯ll give the ¡¯enemies¡¯ a little gift as well." She said with a smile.
Once she was finished with the changes, she dismissed the screens and started to make her way towards the capital of this country.
[Warning: You are starting to interfere too much with the trial. Should the results be deemed to be harmful, you will be punished rather than rewarded for your bncing efforts.]
"Yeah yeah I know. Just observe things like you always have."
###
Jumping out of the portal, Shiro flexed her finger and teleported the spear back to her.
"You¡¯re finally here. You had me a bit worried there." Kuromi sighed in relief.
"Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t go down that easily. I¡¯ve also managed to get some information during the fight. The woman, who I was battling against, has a weapon simr to the spear only this time it¡¯s a gauntlet." Shiro said with a frown.
"Oh? There¡¯s another weapon simr to the Celestial Spear?" Kuromi raised her eyebrows.
"Yep. Look, it even managed to damage the body of the spear. I think I¡¯ll need to be a little careful from now on since who knows if another Celestial Weapon will just appear like that." Shiro replied while handing Kuromi the spear.
Looking at the damage done to the spear, Kuromi narrowed her eyes as she thought about some things before giving the weapon back.
"I don¡¯t think we can repair this easily so we¡¯ll try to get you a different weapon to use and have the spear as a trump card. For now though, we have bigger matters to handle. Despite our ambush, there are still quite a few soldiers left so I don¡¯t think this will stop them from going to Teriu. Our next step would be to ¡¯help¡¯ Teriu while sabotaging their defences so that the enemies can break into the city." Kuromi said with a smile.
"I¡¯m guessing that this would make assassinating the leaders easier." Shiro chuckled since the main guards would be too busy dealing with the invaders. Of course, there may be a chance that the leaders evacuate the city like cowards during battle but that would only make it easier for Shiro to kill them all.
"Yup. Only problem left is our appearances. I¡¯m pretty sure that most of the families in Teriu know of the shadow guards and our appearance after the battle that destroyed our family so we¡¯ll need to think of something to help us bypass this. We can¡¯t go for masks either since that would just draw in more suspicion." Kuromi furrowed her brows as Shiro closed her eyes for a moment.
"Hmm... why don¡¯t we just sneak our way in and help out while being undetected? Don¡¯t we need to be stealthy to sabotage the defences anyways?"
"I gues- actually... Shiro, quick question."
"Go on, I¡¯m listening."
"How many people can you transport at once with your portals?"
"As many people as I want as long as I have the energy to move them through the rift. If I¡¯m correct about my guess as to what you¡¯re nning then yes, I can transport everyone here." Shiro replied as Kuromi smiled.
"In that case then we¡¯ve basically got our express ticket into Teriu without being detected."
Chapter 442 Sneaking Into Teriu Part 2
Chapter 442 Sneaking Into Teriu Part 2
Making their way back to Teriu, Kuromi made sure that Shiro took a rest so that her energy reserves could be replenished. The main problem of using Celestial Energy is that it is very limited and would only regenerate once you started to rest your body.
Sure it may be more powerful than mana but in terms of essibility and efficiency, Kuromi still preferred mana over Celestial Energy.
However, there were some positives that came from this. Namely the fact that their enemies wouldn¡¯t be constantly reinforcing their bodies since the energy is limited. This gives them the opportunity to eliminate arge portion of enemies in an instant since without the reinforcement, they¡¯re essentially normal humans with slightly improved physical attributes.
In other words, they¡¯re babies with guns. As long as you deal with them quickly, they pose no threat.
As they arrive near the camp that some of the Shadow Guards had set up near where the battlefield is, Kuromi had them exin to her the general gist of what¡¯s been happening so far.
"So you¡¯re telling me that regardless of what the families in Teriu have been telling them, the opposing families don¡¯t care?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
Since Phillip had told them that the lord had given the fake spell to the enemies, they knew that they had nothing to prove their innocence. Plus, with things escting to this point, many of the families won¡¯t stop until they¡¯ve checked through everything and made sure that nothing had been left untouched.
Not only that, even if they do believe in what the families in Teriu say, they still want to continue this battle since it¡¯s a way for them to eliminate a fewpetitors.
"Hmm... that¡¯s a little annoying. Well at least we¡¯ve weakened the royal army a little. While it may not be much in the grand scheme of things, it will definitely help out with the next battle. If we can get ourselves some loot from the aftermath, that would be great as well. It¡¯ll somewhat fund our next battles in a way." Kuromi shrugged.
"But for now though, let¡¯s find a spot for us to stay in Teriu so that we can set up camp without being detected."
"If you¡¯re looking for a spot for us to stay, maybe we can go to the oldpound? While it¡¯s been raided, we can use the ruins as a camp since we understand theyout well." Phillip suggested.
"Sure, depends on how many people are near thepound when we teleport in. If they have people searching through the ruins in case the spell was left behind, it¡¯ll be quite awkward now wouldn¡¯t it?" Kuromi chuckled as Phillip nodded.
"Of course. It is merely an option that could be viable." Phillip replied with a smile.
"Anyways, I¡¯ll go do some scouting now and try to see if I can set up camp. If anyone wants toe with me, speak up now. Just keep in mind that you must be able to disengage quickly and leave should things go south. While I may be there to help you teleport away, if I¡¯m in a bad situation, you¡¯ll be on your own." Shiro said as she twirled a dagger in her hands. Since Kuromi was fine with nning with the rest of the group, it was better that she made the most of their time by scouting and setting up camp.
Waiting for a few moments, Shiro had three people volunteer to do the scouting with her.
Bringing up their info in her mind, she realised that they were the best choices right now.
"Good. Kali, Liam, Cert, stay close to me so that I won¡¯t have to use too much energy to teleport you to the city." Shiro smiled as they stood beside her.
"I¡¯ll see youter big sis."
"Good luck." Kuromi waved her hands with a smile.
Snapping her fingers, the portal appeared under the four of them as they teleported away.
"Say first young miss, has second young miss changed her way of calling you? I think she used to call you Kuro right?" Phillip tilted his head.
"Well I¡¯d say Shiro is a bit of a tsun. She¡¯s embarrassed by things she¡¯s not used." Kuromi chuckled.
###
After leaving the portal, they found themselves perched on one of the taller buildings in the city. Thankfully, they weren¡¯t noticed since the people in this city were busy with battle preparations.
"Right then, who here knows their way around the oldpound the best? As you know, me and big sis don¡¯t exactly remember much of what happened." Shiro asked with a smile.
Hearing this, Kali raised her hand.
"I know quite a bit about thepound since I was a normal maid at one point so I¡¯ve memorised theyout." Kali replied.
"Heh~ is that so? In that case then Kali, youe with me and we¡¯ll go to the oldpound. Liam, Cert, you two try to find a rtivelyrge space for us to use as camps in case the oldpound is a bust. Make sure that it¡¯s not easily discovered ok?"
"Understood." They both replied.
With the tasks handed out, they split up and started to search for spots that they can use.
Shiro and Kali started to dash across the rooftops since that was the fastest way around. Of course, they make sure to stay in the shade or else they¡¯ll be spotted instantly.
"So while we¡¯re making our way there, why don¡¯t you exin theyout of thepound so that I can somewhat get an idea first." Shiro asked as Kali nodded.
"The oldpound was made up of three main buildings, 5 sub buildings, two training halls and a few gardens. The main buildings include one of hosting meetings and guest rooms, the main building for family and one for all of the servants including the shadow guards. As for the sub buildings, they¡¯re made up of storage rooms, cksmiths and experiment rooms where some of us go to try to make new spells. Each of the 5 sub buildings pretty much have the same thing. There are also a few ponds within the gardens to make it look more pleasing.
"In terms ofyout, once you enter thepound, you¡¯ll see one of the main buildings for guests in front of you. To your left would be a garden and to the right would be one of the training halls. Once you get past the guest buildings, family and servant quarters could be seen near the back. Most of the sub buildings are ced side by side for convenience. There are also a few hidden rooms scattered throughout the area which leads to different underground spaces. They hold the main training area for shadow guards." Kali exined as Shiro nodded.
"Do you think we could possibly use one of the training areas as our new camp? Since it¡¯s underground, we won¡¯t be spotted as easily. However, there¡¯s one thing that is bugging me. How many entrances are there to the facility? If there¡¯s only one, it¡¯ll be bad should we be discovered and cornered. While I can use my portals, once I run out of energy, we¡¯ll be trapped."
"There are a few emergency exits so you don¡¯t have to worry about that second young miss." Kali smiled.
"Alright, that¡¯s one of my worries solved." Shiro nodded as they continued their way towards thepound.
During this, they were forced to take longer paths since the roofs started to provide less cover. Sneaking their way through the different alleys, Shiro took a moment to get some high ground and look towards thepound to see if there are anyone inside. If there wasn¡¯t, she¡¯d use this chance to teleport in with a portal.
Narrowing her eyes, she could see the main buildings that Kali spoke about along with the gardens and training hall. Unfortunately, all of the buildings were destroyed to a certain extent which masked their initial beauty. Even at this stage, Shiro could tell that the gardens would have looked quite peaceful if not for the broken mini bridges and craters scattered throughout the ce.
"Tch, brutes." She muttered.
After a short while, she managed to spot a few decent locations for them to teleport in as she jumped down from the roof before she was spotted.
Making two orbs, she controlled one so that it would make its way into thepound without being seen. Once it was inside, Shiro activated her own orb and teleported the both of them in. Now that they were inside thepound, it was time to look around for a good spot to set up camp.
Chapter 443 Searching The Compound
Chapter 443 Searching The Compound
Searching through the first area of thepound, Shiro managed to find a few spots where it would be suitable for a camp. With the area being quiterge, they didn¡¯t need to worry too much about being discovered as long as they stayed on guard.
However, at the same time, she could also see a few marks that were fairly recent meaning there had been peopleing here for various reasons. As to why they¡¯reing, she couldn¡¯t say for sure.
One of her guesses was that the families tried to find the missing spell. With the risk of theming back at any moment, Shiro wasn¡¯t exactly keen on setting up camp in a spot like this.
"Kali, how are the secret rooms?" Shiro called out since Kali was responsible for checking out the rooms that the Shadow Guards had ess to.
"Unfortunately, it seems like all of the hidden rooms have been discovered and raided clean. I even managed to find a few tracks in the emergency exits so I can say for sure that the enemy knows of their existence." Kali replied with a rather annoyed sigh.
"Hmm... well they did have quite a bit of time to pick thispound clean. In that case then we should probably look elsewhere for a better camp. Are there still weapons around or have they been taken? I want to find something to rece the spear for now." Shiro asked.
"I¡¯m not too sure since I was focused on looking for the secret rooms. Perhaps we¡¯ll find something if we go to the cksmithing areas further in." Kali suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
Making their way further into thepound, all they saw was destruction. The sub buildings that housed the cksmithing areas had copsed.
"Hmm... I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be able to get anything too worthwhile in here." Shiro furrowed her brows while moving a few of the rubble out of the way.
Nodding her head, Kali agreed with her statement while looking at the destruction with sadness. She could still remember her time in thispound as if it was just yesterday. The happy faces of the servants and the young misses running around while the lord followed behind them. It was a peaceful time, one that was free of worries like being killed by an assassin.
Thinking back, Kali couldn¡¯t help but feel as though that spell the lord developed was a two sided de. It was the catalyst to the family¡¯s destruction but also the main weapon to help the young missus survive in this world today.
"You ok there? You¡¯re zoning out a little." Shiro called out after noticing the longing look on Kali¡¯s face.
"Mn? Oh it¡¯s nothing. I was just thinking about some stuff. Anyways, I think there is one more ce we can check. It¡¯s not really for a camp but it could hold some information that¡¯s helpful for us." Kali nodded.
Guiding Shiro to the very back of thepound, where she and Kuromi had escaped to when the enemies attacked, she pushed aside a few of the fallen walls to reveal a cer of sorts.
Climbing down, she narrowed her eyes and saw that there were a few handprints on a few of the items in the cer.
"Seems like a few people have already been here huh?" Shiro muttered while briefly scanning the room. From what she could see, most of the handprints were focused around a single area, making her believe that whoever was here must have known what to look for.
"This wall contains a password that only the shadow guards can open. For there to be signs of use on the hidden mechanism in recent times, it must mean that there was a traitor in the guards. No wonder the enemy realised that the lord hadpleted the spell. Though I do wonder if the spy has been dealt with or not. After all, it would be a real shame if that traitorous b*stard was to survive." Kali frowned before inputting the password.
*Krrrrr
Hearing gears turn, Shiro could see a hidden staircase being revealed in the corner.
"Oh? What¡¯s in this ce?" Shiro asked curiously.
"This ce contains most of the information that the shadow guards have gathered along with a few books on exceptional weapons scattered throughout the country and their owners. The lord had us collect information about these things so that we have a decent grasp of what¡¯s happening in the outside world." Kali replied while pushing open the door.
Looking into the room, her heart wrenched at the sight of all the information they had gathered being reduced to ashes. Years of effort, all gone.
Sighing softly, she searched through the ashes in hopes of finding the information that she needed.
Seeing this, Shiro assisted her and looked through the ash. There were a few books that they managed to salvage as there were some pages that could be read. In particr was a book about the royal family and their members.
She could see notes about a woman specialised in regeneration and brute forcedbat, a man with excellent swordy and a few esteemed grand teachers that focus on different weapon types in the royal family.
Reading the information that was avable, she could somewhat guess that the teachers were probably the peak of level 3 or maybe 4 from their descriptions.
If this was the outside world, they would be B ranked adventurers due to how much damage they can cause with a single spell.
¡¯Hmm... I can only find the most basic information on one or two of them but the rest of the books are heavily burnt. What a shame." Shiro thought with a frown but made sure to store the book away safely. After all, information was still information regardless of how little there were.
"Ah I found one!" Kali called out in happiness.
Pulling out a severely burnt book from the ashes, she managed to recover a few pages of information about the powerful weapons scattered around in the world.
"Young miss, this is a book that originally contained quite a bit of information in regard to the most powerful weapons around. While it is severely damaged, there are still small pieces of information so first young miss may be able to make use of this." Kali said while handing Shiro the book carefully.
Nodding her head, Shiro stored it away much like what she did with the first book she found.
"So I think that¡¯s everything?" Shiro asked as she looked around some more just in case there¡¯s anything else she missed.
"Mn, let¡¯s go regroup with the others." Kali nodded.
As they were leaving thepound, they saw a sudden burst of energy in the distance as lightning smashed down towards the city, destroying several buildings in the process.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro nodded to Kali as they quickly dashed towards the battle so as to get a better idea of what was happening. Since most of the attention was focused on where the lightning had struck, they were able to run towards it without too much worry of being spotted.
Upon arrival, Shiro saw several people being tied up and struck with lighting as people stood around the area and watched.
Thankfully, she didn¡¯t spot Cert or Liam in the crowd of people being struck by lightning.
Looking up in the air, she could see a person with lightning flickering in his hands as he continued to torture the people that were tied up.
Listening carefully to the mutters around her, she discovered that the people who were being tied up were actually spies that one of the families had found.
"While everyone is focused here, let¡¯s find the others and regroup." Shiro suggested as Kali nodded her head.
Quickly writing a small note that told the others to meet them at the oldpound, Shiro sent them through the orb so that she could guarantee the message being passed on.
Waiting back at the oldpound for a short while, they soon spotted Cert and Liam making their way towards them while making sure that they weren¡¯t spotted.
Gesturing for them to enter thepound, they sat down in one of the shades and started to share the information that they had gathered.
"So have you found a spot where we can set up camp?" Shiro asked as they nodded their heads.
"Due to the fact that quite a lot of civilians have evacuated from the city, there are quite a few homes that are located near the outskirts of the city. I¡¯ve managed to find two ces that are quite suitable for a camp." Liam reported.
"And what about you Cert?" Shiro turned to Cert.
"I was only able to find one spot that was suitable." Cert frowned and bowed his head.
"That¡¯s fine. With this, we now have three options for us in terms of camps. While we can also make camp in thepound, it¡¯s a little risky since there are signs of recent use." Shiro replied.
"Anyways, show me to the spots that you have found and I¡¯ll see which one is the best for us."
Chapter 444 Setting Up Camp
Chapter 444 Setting Up Camp
Making their way through the city stealthily, Shiro examined the locations that Cert and Liam had discovered.
The first one was located near one of the low ssed districts as the buildings here were very cl.u.s.tered together in order to fit more in a small amount of space. It featured tall buildings with small alleyways which made for a great ce to hide due to the fact that it was hard to ess. The narrow spacing also allows them the option of setting up traps forter use.
The second location was simr but was located closer to the heart of the city. Here, the buildings are clearly in better shape as the materials used to make them are better fundamentally more durable.
With quite a few of the civilians evacuating the city, this left quite a few of the houses here empty and made for a great location for a camp.
As for the third and final location, it was actually right next to the barracks where most of the families had stationed their soldiers to protect the city walls.
Liam had actually found an old building that was now used as misceneous storage. In addition to this, there was even arge underground area that seemed to be a training facility of sorts that was abandoned for unknown reasons. Thickyers of dust could be seen with no signs of recent use at all.
While this seemed like one of the better spots due to the fact that most of the soldiers wouldn¡¯t be bothering to look near their barracks, it was also quite dangerous for the exact same reason.
"Hmm... all three of the locations have their own risk but I think the third one is the best in terms of efficiency. Sure there are problems with staying next to the city guards but great risks lead to opportunities with great rewards. If we act carefully, it is actually the best ce to sabotage everything since we won¡¯t need to travel as far. Not only that, it stops the guards from just raining hell on our location since it¡¯ll damage their defences." Shiro muttered while looking around the old building.
"Indeed. Hence why I deemed this spot suitable for camp. However, with us being so close to the guards, we¡¯ll need to be careful of using our energy since we may be discovered. Even with the situation in our favour, we can¡¯t predict what they will do once they¡¯re in a bind." Liam reminded.
"Very well. In that case, the first location is probably our best bet in terms of safety. For now, we need somewhere secure so I¡¯ll teleport them to the first location and if we need to change ces, we¡¯ll do so when everyone is here." Shiro suggested as they nodded their heads in agreement.
Making their way over to the first location, Shiro closed one of her eyes and checked to see if Kuromi and the others were doing fine. Seeing that they were safe, she looked for a decentlyrge space so that she could transport all of them here.
After looking around for a while, she managed to find a decently sized living room that should be able to hold quite a few people as long as they move the furniture aside.
Cleaning up the ce a little, she activated her portal and could feel her energy drain rapidly. Emerging from the portal, Shiro could see that everyone arrived without a problem.
"Fu... I wee you to my humble abode." Shiro joked with a grin.
"Whatever. Anyways, good job lil sis." Kuromi rolled her eyes with a smile.
"So where are we in terms of location in this city?" She asked while looking around.
"We¡¯re currently in one of the poorer districts. It¡¯s a little far from their defences but in terms of safety, this is probably one of the better locations." Shiro replied while sitting down to rest. Teleporting all of the guards to their location had taken more energy than Shiro had expected so she wanted to take a breather.
"I see... In that case then I¡¯ll have Kali take me to the other locations. I¡¯ll have a look at them and see if they¡¯re suitable for camps. In the meantime, why don¡¯t you have a quick nap to recharge some energy. It would be bad if we had to fight and you couldn¡¯t join in." Kuromi suggested with a smile.
"Mn, alright." Shiro nodded with a smile.
While Kuromi and Kali made their way to the other locations, Shiro rested up and had Prim set up some traps around the area. Specifically the alleyways since they were harder to detect.
While this was all happening, the remaining soldiers of the royal family, including Rialin, finally arrived at the camps outside of Teriu. Rialin was not exactly in the best of moods since several soldiers died for nothing including her younger brother. While he was not the best type of person, he was still family.
"d to have you join us princess. With this, I believe we can start the battle already. The 5 main families or rather, four now after one was destroyed, are bunkering down in the city and most of the civilians have already evacuated. They seemed to be quite insistent on keeping the spell to themselves despite all of the evidence that we have gathered." A man said as he bowed to Rialin.
"I see. In that case then just send some attacks to weaken their defences for now. On my way here, I ran into a rather despicable group of people and I have a few concerns. If they join the battle, there will be a lot of casualties in a short period of time." Rialin frowned.
"Oh? Are you able to describe them to me? I may be able to track them down with the help of our information gathering team."
"It¡¯s a young woman. I couldn¡¯t see her face since she had a mask. She had white hair and was quite adept in using a spear. As for her abilities, it seems like she can use a portal of sorts to transport people." Rialin said as she took a deep breath to calm the rage inside her.
"A white haired woman you say? And one that is talented with the spear. Hmm... understood. I¡¯ll have my people search for some information right away." The man nodded.
"Oh before you do that, it seems like she¡¯s managed to procure the Celestial Spear that was handed to Teriu city in order for them to hold off against the beasts from the forest. You might want to start your investigation from there." Rialin added on.
Pausing for a moment, the man furrowed his brows as one person came into mind. When his spies had invaded Teriu, they collected quite a bit of information in regards to the battle between two behemoths, a third party and the Teriu city guards. Within the third party, there had been mentions of a white haired woman that moved like a phantom through the battlefield. She was proficient with daggers and a type of shadow magic that allowed her to teleport away onmand.
"You seem to know a person?" Rialin narrowed her eyes.
"Indeed princess. My spies had actually obtained a bit of information from Teriu a while ago and it had mentions of a woman that seems to match your description."
"Oh? Tell me everything you know." Rialin ordered.
As the man exined all of the information he had gathered, Rialin¡¯s frown deepened.
"Tch, that portals a problem. Is there anyone that can stop body movement in the army? If there is, I want you to form a team and have theme with me to find her. I¡¯m sure that we¡¯ll meet again since she might be interested in the weapon I hold." Rialinmanded while ncing at the back of her arm. There was now a golden marking of sorts that resembled the symbol used by the envoy back in the capital. Understanding that this must mean that the Celestial Empress was helping her, Rialin had confidence that she¡¯d finish that woman off once and for all.
"We have a few people that can meet your requirements but it may take a bit to convince them since they¡¯re prized members of the different families that have gathered. And as you know, people who can halt a person¡¯s movement is quite rare." The man replied.
"I don¡¯t care. Promise them riches from the royal armoury to get them to form a team. Right now, my biggest priority is that woman. If we don¡¯t deal with her, she can very well shift the tides of this battle by herself." Rialin narrowed her eyes.
"Understood." The man nodded after a moment and left the room.
Sighing softly, Rialin closed her eyes and thought back to the fight she had with Shiro.
¡¯I won¡¯t let you escape that easily this time.¡¯
Chapter 445 Infiltration Part 1
Chapter 445 Infiltration Part 1
For the next day or so, Kuromi started to set up a system of sorts through all three of the locations that they chose as a base. She made it so that information could be passed along quite easily without being discovered since having arge group of people in one ce was quite suspicious from an outsider¡¯s point of view.
If they saw quite a few people going into the same alley, they would naturally be curious about what was in that alley. Since it was quite a stressful time at the moment, any acts that might be suspicious, even a little bit, would get high priority.
Right now, Shiro and Kuromi were in the base near the city walls as they discussed the information that Shiro had collected from the oldpound.
"Hmm... do you think the weapons have something to do with this trial? It told us to resolve the corruption so if you think about it, the opposite of corruption would be good and celestial is technically ¡¯good¡¯." Kuromi asked while they sat side by side on the sofa.
"Maybe. I mean, I did get this spear quite early on so maybe it¡¯s like a tutorial level in a game? Ones where you get a really good weapon but it¡¯ the weakest of the bunch and better weapons can be foundter." Shiro replied while leaning her head on Kuromi¡¯s shoulder.
ncing at the book, she could make out an image of a gauntlet that was pretty simr to the one that she saw when she fought Rialin.
"If that¡¯s the case, do you think this corruption is something that can only be solved once we get all of the weapons?"
"Perhaps. We can either go on a genocide and collect the weapons that way or try to solve it peacefully. Though that woman from the royal family has one of the weapons so I doubt they¡¯ll just hand it over since she pretty much hates my guts. In addition to this, we don¡¯t exactly have a long standing ¡¯presence¡¯ of sorts so we can¡¯t convince them either. If we were given a month or so to solidify our presence then there might be a small chance. However, since we¡¯re apparently on a time limit, that might be a bad choice since friendly rtions take a while to form." Shiro replied while closing her eyes for a brief moment.
"Well ughters aren¡¯t exactly the best way to go about things. Remember a few quests that you had gotten a low grade previously due to rushing through everything with violence?" Kuromi smiled and poked Shiro¡¯s nose.
Furrowing her brows slightly, Shiro rubbed her nose to get rid of the itch but kept her head on Kuromi¡¯s shoulder.
"I guess... but it¡¯s better than failing isn¡¯t it? Though I suppose you¡¯re right. How about this, I¡¯ll only kill those that we absolutely have to if they won¡¯t hand over the weapons. If they do, I¡¯ll spare them. Of course, if they¡¯re just down right evil then it¡¯s the torture route." Shiro suggested.
"I¡¯ll ept that." Kuromi chuckled before ncing at another pile of doc.u.ments by the side.
This was the information she had the Shadow Guards gather on the current defences spread throughout the city along with their manpower. Any exceptional guards had more in depth information written about them while the cannon fodder had nothing.
Reading through the notes, Shiro guessed that she could probably take on all of them as long as they didn¡¯t have a celestial weapon like Rialin. Of course, that was under the assumption that she could finish things before they¡¯re given a chance to perform their bigger spells which were much stronger than what she could manage at this moment.
"Do you think we should spark up some conflict between the two armies? They¡¯re quite on edge and a single spark would probably set things off." Shiro asked.
"Hm... maybe. The thing is we don¡¯t want the Teriu guards to lose quickly since we need them to wear down the royal army. If we spark the conflict at a bad time, everything will be over in a sh." Kuromi replied while ncing out at the windows.
Standing up, she looked towards the city walls and wondered to herself for a moment.
"However, since you mentioned the time limit not too long ago, I think we might need to stir things up ahead of schedule." Kuromi said while narrowing her eyes.
"If that¡¯s the case then should I go sneak my way into the royal army and try to assassinate Rialin so that it sparks a chain reaction? Plus, I need to get her gauntlets." Shiro suggested with a smile.
". . .I want to say yes but there are some worries. We don¡¯t know how many powerful guards they have nor do we know their skill sets. If there happens to be a person like Phillip in their army, then you would have basically delivered yourself on a tter." Kuromi shook her head.
"Hmm... Troublesome."
"indeed. Just be patient for now and I¡¯ll think of something for you."
"Are you sure? I mean, you¡¯re already quite busy with trying to improve the spell aren¡¯t you?" Shiro asked with concern.
"It¡¯s ok, I can deal with it." Kuromi shook her head as Shiro only raised her eyebrows.
"Big sis, I know you think that you need to take on everything by yourself since you¡¯re the big sis but I don¡¯t need babying you know?"
"Really? Because I recall that you¡¯ve been babying your party quite a bit despite them beingpetent in their own right. After all, they did hold off against you when you were brainwashed for a short moment during one of the raids. There are very few people that can do that around your level." Kuromi chuckled while pinching Shiro¡¯s cheeks.
"I suppose we are the same person so it makes sense. But both you and I know that I can handle it." Shiro replied while trying her best to talk properly.
"True. I mean, if you really wanted to, I can¡¯t stop you can I? In that scenario, the only thing I can do as your big sis is to support you as much as I can. After all, this is YOUR trial, not mine. I¡¯ve already died and it¡¯s a miracle for me to even be here." Kuromi smiled softly.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro closed her eyes and smiled.
"Then what do you think is the most ¡¯Shiro¡¯ thing to do right now?" Shiro asked.
"You¡¯ll invade their army before they have a chance to get more reinforcements and take the gauntlet from that woman."
"Yup. They say she¡¯s essentially immortal but I know that as long as I cut her head off, she¡¯ll die. Why else was she so desperate in ourst battle when I tried to stab her in the neck?" Shiro grinned and hopped off the sofa.
Seeing Shiro acting so excited for murder, Kuromi couldn¡¯t help but chuckle softly.
"If you go to the second base right now, you should be able to get one of the stronger swords that we have found in this city. You can use it as a substitute for when you fight that woman since we don¡¯t want the spear to be broken." Kuromi said as Shiro nodded.
"In that case then I¡¯ll see you soon big sis." Shiro waved her hand and left the building.
Making her way to the second base, she nced towards the city walls and saw that there was a significant increase of soldiers stationed on the top of the wall.
¡¯Seems like they¡¯re getting more worried about the battle starting soon. If I wait any longer, it might be hard for me to get a chance to kill that woman without others interfering.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while increasing her pace towards the base.
Once she arrived, she asked one of the shadow guards about the sword and was led to a spare room they had in the base. Looking in the room, Shiro could see different weapons being disyed as the guard handed her a sword.
"This is one of the sharpest swords we¡¯ve found. While it may notpare to the Celestial Spear, it is much better than normal weaponry." The guard said with a smile.
Holding the sword, Shiro gave it a few test swings and smiled in satisfaction.
"This should do for now. Anyways, keep up the good work." Shiro nodded to the guard before leaving the base.
With a spare weapon in hand, it was time for her to assassinate Rialin so that she could get her hands on the Celestial Gauntlet.
Chapter 446 Infiltration Part 2
Chapter 446 Infiltration Part 2
Sneaking her way out of Teriu with rtive ease, Shiro looked for a spot where she could observe the battlefield and see where the enemy main camp was. After all, there was a high chance of Rialin being in the main camp.
Unfortunately for her, the only high ground she could spot that wasn¡¯t in Teriu city was the forest that was the opposite direction from where the enemy camp would be.
Furrowing her brows for a moment, she decided to expend a bit of her energy since scouting was a key part of the battle after all.
Making sure that no one could see her, she activated her Celestial Raiment and teleported herself high above the ground so that hardly anyone could spot her.
Floating in the sky for a short while, she managed to capture the entire enemy camp within her sigh as she made sure to memorise it down since this information would be quite helpful.
"Let¡¯s see... where¡¯s the main camp." She muttered while scanning the base. There were quite a fewrge tents and the base didn¡¯t have a ¡¯biggest tent¡¯. Meaning, the main camp could be in any one of these tents. Of course, there was also the chance that Rialin wasn¡¯t in there and she could instead be in one of the smaller ones.
Taking a few moments to observe the movements in the base, she narrowed down the number of potential spots to three tents. With the amount of guards stationed around these tents, she could guess that they were of high priority. She could also spot a few of the tents that had quite a bit of traffic meaning it was a public area of sorts.
¡¯I can probably eavesdrop near those areas to get some information. I¡¯ll need to be careful of being spotted though since there aren¡¯t too many blind spots I can take care of.¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows before teleporting back down to the ground.
Cancelling her raiment so that it wouldn¡¯t use up more energy, she started to walk towards the direction of the base.
With the bird¡¯s eye view of the map ingrained into her mind, she could easily find the best spot for infiltration.
Located near what seems to be the temporary kitchen, there was a small gap that she could make use of to sneak into the base. The hard part is getting to each of the tents without being seen.
However, Shiro had confidence that she could do it. Even if things did go south, she could use her shadow element to quickly conceal herself or teleport out. Whichever was most beneficial.
Arriving at the location, she waited for a moment for a few of the soldiers to pass by before entering the base. With the map ingrained into her mind, she had also memorised some of the patrol patterns for the guards. If her estimations were correct, the next soldiers to pass by this area would take around 3 to 5 minutes. While it may not sound like much, 3 to 5 minutes was more than enough for Shiro.
Sneaking inside the base, she quietly made her way to the first checkpoint that she had set up in her mind.
¡¯Damn, the soldiers here really are of a higher calibre. A few of them are keeping their energy ready to be used at a moment¡¯s notice.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. When she was scouting in Teriu, hardly any soldiers would do this, making them easy targets. While some may say that it burns energy, they¡¯re only circting the energy rather than using it so none of it was wasted. Of course, not just anyone could do this since if theycked control, the energy would start to leak out and it would just defeat the initial purpose.
Making her way to the first eavesdrop location, Shiro crouched down near the edge of the tent and tried to pick up any useful information that could help her.
Within the countless conversations happening in the tent, she could pick up a few key topics such as rewards from the royal family, a special team and princess Rialin.
Understanding that princess Rialin must be the person who she had fought previously, she tried to listen for more information but unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t much passed around about her.
As for the other two topics, it seemed like Rialin was making a special team to capture/kill a certain woman he fought on the way here.
¡¯Damn, she¡¯s actually quite eager to get my head huh?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. She couldn¡¯t help but feel thankful that she had decided to do some scouting or else she wouldn¡¯t have even known about this mysterious team that she was making.
Apparently, the team wasposed of special individuals who would halt a person¡¯s body movement so that they couldn¡¯t fight back. If she had a full team of them activate their spell on her, Shiro would literally be a fish on a cutting board.
¡¯I should probably kill her and the special members as soon as I can.¡¯ She thought with narrowed eyes.
But before that, she¡¯d need to find out where Rialin was or else she couldn¡¯t kill her.
Changing locations, Shiro proceeded to scout out a few other eavesdropping spots as she got a general gist of where things are.
¡¯Let¡¯s see... Rialin is positioned further in the back, surrounded by guards while the special members are not too far away from her. If I want to get to her, I¡¯ll need to deal with the guards since they are quite good at their jobs. I have no hope of entering her tent without being spotted by the guards.¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows before looking into the sky.
Estimating the time to be around 2 to 3 in the afternoon, it¡¯ll take a while before night falls so she struck assassination in the night off her list.
¡¯Well I guess I can just wing it. I¡¯ll need to deal with the guards as quickly as I can before stabbing Rialin in the throat and cutting her head off. I¡¯ll make an orb now so that I can see what¡¯s happening in the tent.¡¯
Pinching her fingers together to form an orb, she made her way towards Rialin¡¯s tent before some patrols arrived at her location.
Upon arrival, she saw the aforementioned tent with quite a few guards surrounding it. If she wanted to have this orb enter the tent, she¡¯ll need to make a distraction.
Looking around, she saw nothing that she could use.
¡¯In that case then I might as well make one.¡¯ She thought with a grin.
Making another orb, she had it roll towards one of the nearby tents that had the special members and waited for a moment before detonating it.
*BOOM!!!!
Suddenly, a void opened up as a jaw descended down from the portal and dragged the tent away.
Shocked at this situation, the guards quickly rushed towards the portal with their spells ready since it was an enemy attack.
Using this confusion and that the guards were now using their celestial energy, Shiro activated her armour and hid her body in the shadows.
Moving into the tent without being seen, she looked around to see if she could spot Rialin. Seeing her currently putting on her armour, Shiro narrowed her eyes with a grin.
This was a perfect moment for her to assassinate Rialin but she couldn¡¯t help but feel as though something was wrong. For an experienced warrior such as Rialin, she would know better than to not wear her armour at this time of day.
Since her instincts had never failed her before, Shiro decided to wait for a moment and be patient.
###
¡¯Hmm... seems like I¡¯m worried for nothing.¡¯ Rialin thought to herself since she had decided to remove her armour and slowly put it back on when she felt the surge of Celestial Energy not too far away from her tent.
Understanding that it might be an assassin, she deliberately created this gap so that she could kill them without too much hassle.
Sighing softly, she quickly donned the rest of her armour and prepared to move out. Unfortunately, despite her cautiousness, she was too quick to dismiss the danger as Shiro¡¯s figure flickered behind her. With a twist of her body, the sword pierced deeply into Rialin¡¯s neck.
Chapter 447 The Second Celestial Weapon
Chapter 447 The Second Celestial Weapon
"ARG!!" Crying out in shock, blood poured out of Rialin¡¯s mouth as she tried to turn her head back to see her assant.
However, before she could even see her face, Shiro quickly ducked down and kicked the handle of the sword with her heel.
*PUSHI!
Tearing out a chunk of her neck and some bone, Rialin¡¯s head was barely attached to her body thanks to the remaining skin and flesh.
Seeing as how her regeneration doesn¡¯t seem to heal the wound, Shiro knew that Rialin was going to die but wasn¡¯t going to take any chances.
Grabbing her spear from the portal, she twisted her body and pierced her skull, ripping the head from the body.
As blood dripped onto the floor, Shiro quickly grabbed Rialin¡¯s body and pulled it further into the tent. Making herself two orbs, she sent one of them flying out of the camp as she made sure that no one had spotted the flying object.
It didn¡¯t take too long for the orb to make its way out of the base as she teleported out before anyone could enter the tent and find out what had happened.
Sliding along the ground slightly, she looked back at the base and saw that a few of the soldiers seemed to be panicking.
¡¯Good job I got out of there quickly.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she looked down at Rialin¡¯s decapitated head and body.
Noticing a golden marking on her hand that seemed to glow with Celestial Energy, Shiro traced her fingers along the marking with curiosity.
Just as she did this, the marking jumped from Rialin¡¯s hand onto her own as she gritted her teeth from the searing pain she could feel. It was as if someone had grabbed a hot piece of iron and just stabbed it through her hand.
¡¯Damn, the Celestial Gauntlets is a pain in the ass to fight against and it¡¯s also a pain in the ass to have.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro tried to ignore the pain while checking for anything else that could be useful on Rialin¡¯s corpse.
Unfortunately, Rialin didn¡¯t hold much else aside from a few encoded notes. Storing them in her pocket, she was going to decode themter with Kuromi.
"Now then, what to do with this head of hers." Shiro muttered while swinging the head around as if it was a b.
Thinking about it for a moment, she had a great idea as it would no doubt push the battle forward. However, she¡¯d only see the results of her idea tomorrow morning when they all see what she had done.
Chuckling softly, she made her way back towards Teriu since her job here is now done. She wasn¡¯t going to examine the gauntlets just yet because she was a little too close to the enemy base for her liking. If they suddenly surrounded her and stopped her from leaving, she would be done for.
As for Rialin¡¯s corpse, she left the headless body where she had teleported and took the head with her.
On her way back to Teriu, she noticed the pain in her hand fade as a connection of sorts was made from the gauntlets to her reservoir.
Much like how her pseudo strand acted, this connection could tap into her reservoir despite her having only one soul strand.
Realising that this meant that she could use her energy without worry of running out too quickly, as long as it was through the gauntlet, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but grin when she imagined the kind of chaos she could create with this kind of power.
¡¯I¡¯ll do some testing with this gauntlet before the battle if I can. It would be quite awkward if I didn¡¯t know how to use this weapon once the fighting begins.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she increased her speed.
Once she arrived at Teriu, she sneaked past the guards and entered the base closest to the wall.
"I¡¯m home~" Shiro called out with a grin as Kuromi popped her head out from the corner.
"Wee back. Considering your tone of voice, I¡¯d say the mission was pretty sessful." Kuromi smiled.
"Yup. I¡¯ve also brought a souvenir." Shiro grinned while pointing at the severed head.
"Peachy. Any reason as to why you¡¯ve brought it back?" Kuromi asked.
"Basically, I¡¯m thinking of hanging this head just outside the main gates once night settles. When morning arrives, sh*t will go down." Shiro replied with a grin.
"I see... Delightful. Setting that aside for now, I can assume you¡¯ve also retrieved the Celestial gauntlets since you¡¯ve killed her right?"
"Sure did. I haven¡¯t brought the gauntlets out yet since I don¡¯t know how to do that. All I know is that it has something to do with this tattoo of sorts that I now have on the back of my hand." Shiro replied while showing Kuromi the mark.
Taking a moment to examine the mark, Kuromi couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrow and ask Shiro about what she felt.
Taking a moment to exin everything she knew, Shiro waited for Kuromi¡¯s response.
"Hmm... If that¡¯s the case, then things should work normally if you activate Celestial Raiment with the gauntlets acting as the ¡¯pseudo strand¡¯. With this, I think your energy consumption would return back to normal." Kuromi smiled.
"Yup. And you know what that means." Shiro grinned.
"Yes, I do. You can fight to your heart¡¯s content without worrying about running out of energy too soon." Kuromi chuckled.
"Bingo."
"But to do that, you¡¯ll need to make sure that you can actually use the gauntlet. So, before night falls and you go off and hang the head on the wall, we¡¯ll do some experiments to see how you would use the gauntlet." Kuromi suggested as she brought out a brand-new notepad.
"Damn, you¡¯ve managed to get another one already!? How many have you gone through now?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"I think I¡¯ve gone through 20 notepads or so? I haven¡¯t really been keeping track. If you need to know though, I can count them for you now and tell you how many I¡¯ve filled up." Kuromi replied.
"No that¡¯s fine, I was just curious." Shiro shook her head.
For the next few hours, they experimented on trying to activate the gauntlet. Much like the Celestial Spear, the gauntlets needed to be ¡¯charged¡¯. Thankfully, the gauntlets weren¡¯t damaged so this should have been an easy step.
Unfortunately, it would actually take triple the amount of energy to activate her Celestial Raiment through the gauntlets since it needed her energy to materialise itself. The moment she activates her Celestial Raiment, it¡¯ll take all the energy from the gauntlets and forces it to deactivate. And with it being the one to activate her armour, it cancels each other out.
Realising that this meant she could only pick one or the other and not both at the same time, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh in disappointment.
"Well we have only just begun our experiments. I¡¯m sure that if you give me a few days, I can probably find a way for you to use your armour with the gauntlets at the same time while making sure the energy cost is low." Kuromiforted after seeing Shiro acting ¡¯down¡¯.
"Mn. It¡¯s fine, I can probably vent my frustrations in tomorrow¡¯s battle when I punch my fist through someone¡¯s cranium with the gauntlet." Shiro shrugged.
"Grim. But when were you not grim?" Kuromi chuckled.
"Very true. Anyways, it¡¯s prettyte now so I think it¡¯s a perfect chance for me to hang this head on the city wall now." Shiro smiled while gesturing to the head sitting on the table.
"Mn, I know you probably know already but be careful to not be spotted and don¡¯t force it if things are unfavourable."
"Well I suppose it¡¯s nice to hear you say it as well. I¡¯ll be right back." Shiro waved her hand slightly before taking the head.
"Take care."
Leaving the base, Shiro started to sneak towards the main gates while vision was low in the dead of night. Making sure that she avoided the patrols carefully, she soon arrived at the city walls.
¡¯Right then, I¡¯ll probably need to make sure that I hide the head on the wall until sunrise since there¡¯s a chance that they spot it too early. The best way is probably to hide the head using my shadows. Since it¡¯s night, I have natural resources to help me so I wouldn¡¯t need to use too much energy.¡¯ She thought to herself before following the n. Hanging the head so that it was easy to spot, she flicked her wrist and controlled the shadows so that it would hide the head.
Unless one brought a torch directly beside the head, they wouldn¡¯t see it in this kind of darkness.
Giggling softly, she couldn¡¯t wait to see their reactions when the sun rises.
Chapter 448 Start Of The Battle
Chapter 448 Start Of The Battle
Waiting just outside of the city with Kuromi, the two of them watched as the sun slowly rose. The patrol was circling the city with no idea that all hell was about to break loose the moment the enemy sees the head.
In the time leading up to this moment, they had already experimented quite a bit with the gauntlets but made very little progress with trying to merge both the activation of the Celestial Raiment and the gauntlet at the same time.
Of course, Shiro made sure to have a short rest so that she could replenish as much energy as she could so that she would be ready for the fight.
"Oh, I think I see a few scouts ahead." Kuromi called out as Shiro perked her ears up at the mention of scouts.
Making herself an orb, she threw it towards where the scouts would be and observed them with a smile on her face.
Their shock and anger upon seeing Rialin¡¯s head being hung up upon the city gates were quite satisfying as Shiro would chuckle whenever they talked about revenge and how Teriu city was clearly looking down on them.
Ending their scouting early, they rushed back to the camp in order to report that it was ¡¯Teriu who killed Rialin and hung her head on the wall¡¯.
"Satisfied?" Kuromi asked with a smile.
"Yup. You should have seen the look on their faces." Shiro grinned.
However, before they could continue their conversation, they saw royal family soldiers dashing in from the distance.
*Whistle~
"Their reaction was pretty fast, ay?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Well considering that you killed Rialin yesterday afternoon, they had quite a few hours to prepare. Now that they know who the ¡¯culprit¡¯ is, why wouldn¡¯t theye here." Kuromi shrugged.
"True. In that case then do you want to return to the base and get everyone ready for battle?" Shiro suggested while narrowing her eyes at the iing army in the distance.
"Sure, let¡¯s go now. We probably want to get them out of the city first after collecting all of our intel. After all, there is a chance for the enemy to just bombard the city withrge destruction type spells in a fit of rage. While you can cancel/redirect the effects, it would still take quite a bit of energy." Kuromi replied as Shiro nodded her head.
As the duo dashed back towards the city, they sent a message to all of the shadow guards and told them to meet up at the base closest to the city walls along with making sure that everything important was brought along.
Upon arriving at the base, Shiro saw that everyone was packed and ready to go at a moment¡¯s notice.
"Well it seems like everyone¡¯s ready. In that case then I¡¯ll spare you the long talk. Let¡¯s go make a secondary camp not too far from the battle. Once the fighting starts, we¡¯ll go in and take a few lives. It doesn¡¯t matter which side we kill since it¡¯s beneficial to us regardless." Kuromi said with a smile.
After doing a headcount to make sure that everyone was here, they started to make their way out of Teriu without being spotted.
However, just before they could leave Teriu, they felt a surge of celestial energy above them as hundreds upon thousands of spells were being stacked together as they formed a giant magic circle just above the city.
Compared to the one that the giant and dragon had created, it was roughly half as big but twice as dense.
"Damn, me and my big mouth. I¡¯ve jinxed us." Kuromi frowned.
"Well I guess I have no choice. Come on, single file people and don¡¯t push." Shiro said as she created a portal after throwing an orb outside of the city.
Gesturing for everyone to enter the portal before the spell rains hell down upon them, Shiro looked up and analysed as many of the spells as she could.
Thinking for a moment, she theorised that she could probably redirect some of them to strike back at their casters if she started to ¡¯edit¡¯ theirponents now.
As thest shadow guard teleported out of the city, it was now just Shiro and Kuromi once again.
"What are you nning to do?" Kuromi asked curiously since Shiro always had the same serious face whenever she¡¯s thinking of doing something. After spending a bit of time with Shiro in this quest, Kuromi had be more perceptive of what Shiro could be doing.
"Mn? Oh, I was just thinking about how I can redirect a lot of the spells back to their owners if I started my edit now." Shiro replied.
"Heh~ In that case then why don¡¯t you tell me how you do it and I¡¯ll assist you." Kuromi smiled.
"Oh sure, that would actually make my life easier." Shiro nodded.
Quickly exining the concept behind the act of editing a magic circle, Shiro prepared a simple one for Kuromi to practice on while she edits the deadly ¡¯I want to kill you¡¯ magic circles that hung above their heads.
Raising up her hand, she started to shift theponents around as spells were deconstructed and reconstructed with minimal energy use.
ncing at Shiro while she was practicing, Kuromi could clearly tell that Shiro was talented in this aspect.
¡¯Hmm... despite being a tier 6 legend back in her old life, she wasn¡¯t one to be constructing spells since she used her nanobots to make weapons. Cancelling spells on the other hand seems to be what she¡¯s good at. I suppose a tier 5 mage would be quite a handful to fight against if you have nothing to stop them from casting their huge spells.¡¯ Kuromi thought to herself. It wasn¡¯t too surprising that she was better than Shiro in terms of being a mage but overall, Shiro still takes the top spot.
After a few noticeably short moments, she could already feel that some of the spells were about to fire so she decided to cut her losses and stop here.
"Let¡¯s leave, any longer and it¡¯ll be a bit risky." Shiro suggested as Kuromi nodded her head.
With the short amount of practice, she had, Kuromi guessed that she was around 10% done with learning the concept of editing magic circles.
Teleporting out of the city, they sat on the tree and watched as panic flooded the city walls.
"So Shiro, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask. If you¡¯re so good at recognising spells and editing them, howe you¡¯re not as good at being a mage?" Kuromi asked.
"Well it¡¯s kind of likenguages. Sure, you may understand what they¡¯re saying and how to speak it yourself, it doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯re able to use thenguage effectively to the best degree. Think of it like big words. A tier 1 mage uses words like big while a tier 5 mage uses words like humongous." Shiro exined as Kuromi nodded her head.
"An interesting exnation but it does make sense. I suppose in one sense, you¡¯re reading a book whenever you look at a spell. You take a paragraph out and change its structure for a different meaning whenever you edit the spell."
"Bingo."
*BOOM!!!!!!
Just as she said bingo, the spells red up with an ominous light as hellfire descended down upon the city. A shockwave exploded out from the initial impact, forcing Shiro to hold onto Kuromi so that she didn¡¯t fall out of the tree.
"I said bingo to Kuromi, not you!" Shiro retorted out to the spell since it was a little annoyed that her conversation was cut short by the explosion.
Due to her interference with the spell, a few of them flew towards the enemy army and caused quite a bit of casualties on their side.
Once the spell started to end, they could see the destruction it had caused. None of the buildings that were inside Teriu were intact anymore as even the sturdiest buildings were reduced to ruins.
During the windup, most of the city guards managed to escape the destruction but without a city to protect them against a clearly disadvantageous battle, their will to fight seemed to have been dampened. Of course, it wasn¡¯t their n to fight against a country but with how the events yed out, they had no choice in this matter.
"Welp, seems like it¡¯s time. Remember, kill as many as you can but make sure you survive since that¡¯s the most important thing to me." Shiro called out as the guards nodded their heads.
Readying her spear, Shiro activated her celestial raiment and charged up one of the strongest attacks she could do. The moment she throws this spear, they were going to wreck some havoc on the battlefield.
Chapter 449 Retrieving The Jewel And Shield Part 1
Chapter 449 Retrieving The Jewel And Shield Part 1
". . . What, the f*ck?"
Looking at the scene on the screen right now, the Celestial Empress couldn¡¯t help but massage her eyes.
With Shiro¡¯s skill set, she was able not only take the gauntlets away without even fighting, but she was also able to influence the battlefield in such a substantial way.
While the royal army had quite a few people that could freeze the area around them, they weren¡¯t able to do much when Shiro couldn¡¯t even be seen.
Acting as if she was a long-ranged artillery, she wouldunch her spears with such precision and teleport it back into her hand.
To make matters worse, a single hit from this spear would end a soldier¡¯s life so she wouldn¡¯t even need to worry about hitting the same target. With her repeating this action and the shadow guards spreading themselves out to assassinate the soldiers, they swept through the battlefield unhindered.
"What have I done... why did I even have the spear in the first ce" The Empress muttered as she wanted to cry.
She hadn¡¯t expected Shiro to be able to do this much damage with them hence why she added some more to bnce out the situation in hopes of understanding how Shiro worked.
After all, since she was going to be the next Celestial Empress, she needed to make sure that her sessor was someone who was capable. Sure, she¡¯s capable but the part that worries her is that she is essentially brute forcing her way through most things.
If not for Kuromi¡¯s assistance in fixing the weapon, Shiro would have a much harder time and the trial would be ¡¯fair¡¯.
"I¡¯m being scammed!" The Empress cried out in annoyance.
Biting her lip slightly, she wondered about what she could do to fix this situation. Due to a slight oversight on how powerful Shiro was, there were now three other super weapons that were spread out in this world for her to take. But with how things were going right now, Shiro would probably fight everyone to the death in order to obtain those weapons.
"Damn, I meant for her to form alliances and create a new country to fight the corruption. This is theplete opposite!"
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, The Empress walked around with a frown on her face.
Currently as it stands, Shiro and Kuromi would probablyplete the tutorial in a matter of days. Once that happens, the main trial would start with humanity being split into multiple factions rather than one united one.
"No, I need to change this. I cannot have the next empress being a lone wolf." She frowned before checking what kind of actions she could take.
With how things are right now, there was only so much she could do after adding celestial weapons in hopes of having Shiro band together with the other humans.
However, since she was clearly not going to go down that route, she¡¯d have to get the rest of the weapon bearers to arrive at the battlefield in order to cause some havoc. While the difficulty may spike up, it shortens the amount of time she would need so it would bnce out in the system¡¯s eyes.
Swiping at her screen, she ced a few of the weapon holders near the battlefield and hoped that this would put some senses into Shiro.
After she finished locating the weapon holders, she turned to the system.
"Request for in-depth analysis. Shiro is getting help from another entity which results in the trial difficulty being easier than what it should be."
[Request Denied. Entity ¨C Shiro and Entity ¨C Kuromi, are one in the same. What Kuromi can do, Shiro can also do. It¡¯s not a matter of how only when. Your privilege is not high enough to know more information.]
"Huh? Not high enough???" The empress raised her eyebrows in confusion.
"Requesting for as much information as allowed for Entity ¨C Shiro and Entity ¨C Kuromi."
[Request Denied. After the stunt of the Entity ¨C Indri Lumire/ 53rd Inheritor of the ss ¨C Light Goddess, the admin has decided to ce a tier 10 restriction on all information that includes Entity ¨C Shiro and Entity ¨C Kuromi. As the operator of this trial, you are to be careful of how much you interfere.]
[The Admin Is Watching Closely.]
Taking a sharp breath, The Empress couldn¡¯t believe that Shiro¡¯s existence was one that warranted the observation of The Admin. Plus, for The Admin to be ¡¯watching closely¡¯, it could only mean that Shiro yed a big part in the world¡¯s development.
¡¯Damn, what the hell. I just want to find a suitable sessor ok!? Why the hell did I poke a ho¡¯s nest!¡¯ The Empress frowned as she paused for a moment to gather her thoughts.
¡¯With how things are right now, the best way to do things is to understand this girl better through interacting with her rather than through the system. Since she¡¯s the inheritor, I¡¯ll need to talk to her at some point anyway. I¡¯ll force the tutorial into one stage so that I can force her growth. Once she passes this stage, I can then give her the ¡¯quest¡¯ toplete the main goal of the trial. That way, I also have time to talk to her.¡¯ The Empress through to herself as she smiled in satisfaction.
Dismissing the screens, she disappeared from her spot.
###
"Phew. How many kills is that now? I¡¯ve kinda lost track." Shiro asked as she twirled her spear.
"I¡¯d say you¡¯ve done quite a bit to the army. Lost count when the area of effect attacks hit." Kuromi replied with a shrug.
Right now, the situation was quite hectic with skirmishes happening everywhere. The Teriu city guards didn¡¯t have a base to camp at while the royal army had Shiro and the Shadow Guards thin out their numbers.
There were a few guards that tried to take out Shiro but Kuromi dealt with them swiftly before they could even bother her precious little sister.
"Let¡¯s see, if we leave things as they are, the battle should end in another hour or so with the Royal Army winning despite our interference. Each of their soldiers are stronger and morebat ready whenpared to the Teriu city guards. But if we really wanted to, I suppose we can have Teriu win but I¡¯m not too sure about what kind of consequences that would bring us." Kuromi said while ncing towards the battlefield.
"Hmm... in that case then why don¡¯t we- mn?" Furrowing her brows, Shiro could feel a surge of celestial energy charging towards the battlefield. Realising that it had a simr feeling to what the spear and gauntlet released; she knew that this must be another weapon.
"Kuromi, something suspicious is going on. There¡¯s no way that a third celestial weapon has just delivered itself to my doorstep." Shiro frowned.
"What? There¡¯s a third one here???" Kuromi raised her eyebrows.
"Yup. To the north east, I can feel another signature simr to the spear and gauntlet. It¡¯s too suspicious." Shiro nodded her head.
"Indeed... Let¡¯s proceed with caution and I¡¯ll follow you. I can provide you some support if it turns out that the user is someone annoying to fight against like Rialin." Kuromi nodded her head.
Jumping down from their spot, they dashed across the battlefield and made a beeline towards the source of this signature.
The closer they got to the source, the more chaos they could see. Spells were being thrown left and right as they seemed to be from the same person. Not only that, now that they¡¯re closer to the source, Shiro noticed that there seemed to be two simr signatures.
"The f*ck? There¡¯s another? When the hell did celestial weapons be asmon as the vegetables you find in a goddamn market?" Shiro questioned in annoyance.
Kuromi stayed silent since there wasn¡¯t much she could say about this situation since her thoughts were the same.
Upon arriving at where the fight was happening, Shiro spotted the two items. One was a jewel of sorts and the other was a shield. The user of the jewel seemed to be in a jubnt mood as he relentlessly attacked the one with the shield.
"Hand over that shield!" He demanded while throwing another spell that was parried off to the side.
"I refuse! A mad man like you do not deserve this shield!"
"Kuromi?" Shiro turned to Kuromi who only nodded.
"Go on, you can do whatever you want, and big sis here will support you." Kuromi chuckled.
"Right. In that case..." Shiro trailed off as sheunched her body into the air and held the spear in a reverse grip so that it was easier to throw.
"Give me- *cough* Let me borrow your items!"
Chapter 450 Retrieving The Jewel And Shield Part 2
Chapter 450 Retrieving The Jewel And Shield Part 2
Seeing the strange girl requesting to ¡¯borrow¡¯ their celestial items, the duo quickly made some space between them and readied their spells and attacks warily.
"Who are you." The man with the shield asked with a frown.
"Oh no one important. Just know that the only thing we have inmon is that you have a shield that I want and he has a jewel that I want." Shiro grinned whilended not too far from the both of them.
Hearing that she wanted to take the Celestial Shield and the jewel that the other person had, the man furrowed his brows and stood on guard.
"Hm... seems like you don¡¯t want to cooperate." Shiro tilted her head while shing apart a fireball that appeared above her with the spear.
"You there, with the jewel. Since you¡¯ve tried to harm me with the intent to kill, are you ready to take the treatment from me?" Shiro asked with a grin.
"Hmph, take a better look at your feet." The man sneered as Shiro raised her eyebrows.
Looking down, she could see the faint outline of a spell circle that was about to activate.
"Now, I would apud you for making such a stealthy spell. However, doesn¡¯t you announcing it defeat its entire purpose you dip sh*t?" Shiro sighed as she stabbed her spear into the ground.
*PING!!!!
Shattering the spell in an instant, the man widened his eyes in surprise.
"Huh?"
"You see, spells with long times to cast aren¡¯t effective against me." Shiro chuckled as she disappeared from her spot.
Reappearing behind the man with the jewel, she twirled her spear and tried to stab him in the head.
However, before the spear could hit, a barrier appeared and deflected her spear off to the side.
"Mn? I thought you were enemies with this guy here?" Shiro asked as she nced towards the man with the shield.
"Yes I am. Butpared to him getting the celestial items, I feel as though you are much worse. The destruction that you would bring is many times bigger than the threat of this man." He replied.
"Interesting. In that case then tell me your name."
"Why would you need my name?"
"So that I know who¡¯s grave I need to prepare." Shiro chuckled darkly as she dashed towards him.
Pivoting on her foot, she threw the spear towards him as fire flickered on the spear tip.
Widening his eyes, he quickly raised his shield and parried the spear.
*BANG!
Shocked at the impact of the spear, he could feel his shield wavering for a short moment before stabilising.
Just as he looked up, he saw Shiro with her fist pulled back. Her eyes seemed to glow with a red hue as a pair of gauntlets materialised.
Danger overwhelmed his senses as he knew that he had to get out of the way. There was absolutely no benefit in trying to block or parry that fist.
*BANG!!! CRACK!!!!
Quickly rolling to the side, he watched as the gauntlets smashed the ground into pieces.
Before she could continue for a second attack, earthen spears shot out of the ground and pierced towards her.
"So it¡¯s be a 2 verses 1, I¡¯ll take it as a high quality warm up then." Shiroughed.
Cancelling out the gauntlets and activating her celestial raiment in one quick movement, she stomped down as the void opened up beneath her and swallowed the earthen spears.
"Damn, she¡¯s a freak. Oi! Shield b*tch! Wanna team up and take her down?" The man shouted out.
"My name is Egan not ¡¯Shield b*tch¡¯ and yes, I agree with teaming up. Between you and her, I¡¯d much rather you have the items and not her." Egan nodded his head.
While this was all happening, Shiro only looked at the two with a smile.
In that short exchange, she could tell that neither of the two had anything that could really threaten her. The mage couldn¡¯t userge spells since she¡¯ll just cancel them out while Egan didn¡¯t have any skills other than trying to block or parry an attack.
Of course, that wasn¡¯t to say that she¡¯d go easy on them. Nope, the exact opposite. Since she understood that they didn¡¯t pose a threat, she¡¯ll crush them and have them hand over their item¡¯s ¡¯peacefully¡¯. If that wasn¡¯t possible, then she¡¯ll go the murder route.
"Shiro, do you need help? Or should I allow you to have your fun a little longer?" Kuromi called out from behind the two men.
"!!!"
Shocked at the sudden appearance of another woman behind them, Egan quickly mmed his shield back.
*KRRR!!!!
Brushing the shield aside, Kuromi froze his arm to an ice pir extending out of the ground while the mage tried to attack her with a fire spell.
Unfortunately for him, the fire was consumed by a void that opened up between the two of them.
"Oi, are you trying to harm my big sis in front of me?" Shiro narrowed her eyes with a smile.
"Well considering how well you¡¯re countering these guys, I doubt I¡¯ll need to give you a helping hand." Kuromi smiled as Shiro nodded.
"Nope, I got this in the bag. Of course, if either of these guys want to just give me the item straight away, I¡¯ll allow them to live."
"Never! I¡¯ll fight to mest breath if I have t-"
*PUCHI!!!!
Before Egan could finish his sentence, a spear pierced towards his head as a luminescent barrier shielded him from his death.
"Hou? Seems like that¡¯s the ability of that shield." Shiro narrowed her eyes after seeing the barrier while Egan couldn¡¯t help but sweat at the fact that she could decide to kill him so easily.
"Well I can spend a bit more time to deal with youter since you¡¯re still frozen in big sis¡¯ ice. As for you mage, are you going to hand the jewel over or do I have to take it from your corpse?" Shiro smiled.
*Gulp
"Don¡¯t do it!" Egan shouted out as the man only ignored him.
"If I gave you the Celestial Jewel, can I join your team?" The man asked seriously.
"Oh? Big sis, what do you say about that? Do we need a man like him?" Shiro asked since it was quite surprising for this man to want to join them.
Well, not so surprising considering the fact that fighting them means death.
"Hmm... I don¡¯t think we do. The guards are already good as they are and we don¡¯t need someone like him in the group." Kuromi shook her head.
"Welp, you heard her. Give me the jewel and we¡¯ll let you live. However, you cannot join us." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Gritting his teeth, he could only sigh and hand her the jewel.
"Smart choice. What about you then Egan. Will you do the same?"
"Ne-"
"Think carefully about your next words since it may be yourst. I¡¯m being quite tolerant here since I¡¯m allowing the both of you to live." Shiro warned as her spear aimed towards his head once more.
". . ." Pausing for a moment, Egan sighed and nodded his head slowly.
"Good." Taking the shield, Shiro opened up a portal underneath the two of them and teleported them away from the battlefield.
"That¡¯s quite nice of you." Kuromi smiled.
"Well you did say to try to take them peacefully if I can. It wasn¡¯t the most ¡¯peaceful¡¯ thing I can do but at least they lived." Shiro replied.
"True. But at the same time, if not for the shield, you would have killed both Egan and that mage sooner." Kuromiughed.
*Cough*
"I don¡¯t understand what you mean." Shiro acted while ncing at the jewel and the shield.
Now that she had four celestial type weapons, her power in this trial was increasing by the minute. The only problem was her energy level but hopefully, that could be solved soon or else she wouldn¡¯t be able to use all of the weapons with maximum efficiency.
"Anyways, I think we should get out of here. Things are starting to slow down since the Teriu city guards are starting to surrender." Kuromi suggested while ncing around them.
"Alright, I¡¯ll teleport us out now." Shiro nodded and created an orb. Activating the portal, they disappeared from the battlefield.
However, when they arrived at their destination, they saw a woman sitting down on a chair and watched them with a smile.
Instantly going on guard, Shiro readied her spear.
"No need to be bloodthirsty. I¡¯m just here to talk. It¡¯s a little earlier than expected but it seems like the owner of the Celestial Armour decided to retreat after seeing your power. Therefore, you¡¯ll have to make do with just four out of the five weapons right now." The Empress chuckled.
"Who are you." Shiro questioned with a frown.
"I am the one that you¡¯re looking for. I¡¯m the Celestial Empress and it is also through me that you will receive your Celestial Empress¡¯s Decree in order to ss up."
Chapter 451 New Knowledge
Chapter 451 New Knowledge
"You¡¯re the Celestial Empress?" Shiro narrowed her eyes warily.
"Yup. I¡¯ll have to say though Shiro, despite having the possibility to be the next Celestial Empress, you certainly don¡¯t act like one." The Empress said as she nced at Kuromi.
"Plus, you¡¯ve brought someone along despite this being a solo trial. I already know about the fact that you¡¯re technically the same person but it¡¯s certainly not the best feeling to have my trial turned upside down like this."
"Oh? Let me guess, you wanted me to team up with the humans in the other cities." Shiro joked.
"Exactly. However, now that you¡¯ve made an enemy with the royal family, things are going south. Your tutorial has basically ended since you¡¯ve scared off thest owner of the Celestial Weapon."
"Ha? This is the tutorial?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Yup. This is so that you can get a stable footing in this world. I¡¯ll admit though, I did edit this trial a little since you wentpletely against my expectations. The fact that you actually fixed the spear instead of using it as a clue to find me is quite infuriating. Just when I find a person to bnce out the equation, you kill her and take her gauntlets. I added three other weapons so that you could form alliances to gain their support but instead you rob two and scare off thest one. Do you know how annoying it is to have something you put effort into get destroyed because of someone¡¯s whims?" The Empressined as Shiro watched with a nk face.
"Wait so you¡¯re telling me that this trial is your doing?" Kuromi asked.
"Yeah, Shiro is inheriting my ss after all." The Empress nodded her head.
"Then does that mean you have a connection with the system higher than just being a yer?"
"Yes it does."
Staying silent, Kuromi furrowed her brows as she went into deep thought.
"While big sis does her thing, I have a few questions of my own." Shiro said as she sat down on one of the boulders.
"First, since you¡¯re quite chill with having a small chat, I want to know more details about the items that I need for my ss up. Are you able to tell me?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm... depends on what you want to know. I can give you a rough location of where you can obtain these items." The Empress smiled.
"However, in return, I want to understand you a bit better. I cannot have someone unqualified to be the Celestial Empress after all."
"Sure. But do you want to talk here? It¡¯s a little open, no?" Shiro asked as she nced at the battlefield behind her.
"Oh , I can deal with that." The Empress chuckled and snapped her fingers.
All of a sudden, everything in the world came to a halt. The bird stopped flying in mid air and soldiers were frozen in their ce.
Only Kuromi, Shiro and the Empress were unaffected.
"You stopped time?"
"This is my quest after all. As the admin of this ce, I have some privileges. Now for my first question, how did you be queen of the spirits?" The Empress asked with a serious face.
"I¡¯ll reply to that once you also tell me what I want to know." Shiro smiled.
"Are you trying to negotiate with me?" The Empress raised her eyebrows.
"Well perhaps. But it¡¯s about this ss so it shouldn¡¯t be too hard for you to tip me a few hints now would it?" Shiro said while keeping her smile.
"Interesting. In that case then I¡¯ll let you ask first."
"Where do I find the B ranked Celestial Catalyst." Shiro asked.
"You can get that once you finish this trial. My turn, it¡¯s the same question I had asked earlier." The Empress replied.
"You see, I¡¯m not too sure about how my current ss came into my hands. I was actually ssing up to a different one when I apparently fulfilled a few hidden requirements and got a hidden ss." Shiro shrugged.
". . .The f*ck? How can you just be the god damn queen of a race that easily???" The Empress widened her eyes in confusion.
"Don¡¯t look at me, ask the system."
"I already have! And it¡¯s not telling me f*ck all!" The Empress retorted as she quickly coughed and calmed herself down.
"Sorry about that. Anyways, what¡¯s your next question?" She smiled.
¡¯The hell?¡¯ Shiro raised her eyebrows after that little outburst but shrugged it off. However, she knew that this meant the Empress tried to ask the system about her but for some reason, she couldn¡¯t find out anything.
"Well my next question is how can I get the Celestial Mana Essence?" Shiro asked.
"Ah that, it¡¯s pretty simple as you can probably make it yourself. However, if you¡¯re able toplete the trial with a high enough grade, I¡¯ll allow you to receive the essence as apletion reward." The Empress replied.
"Now then, it¡¯s my turn again. I-"
"Hold on, can I ask you something?" Kuromi cut in as the Empress thought about it and nodded her head.
"Sure. What do you want to ask?"
"What¡¯s the system¡¯s power over the dungeon and how did you be an admin? From what I know, Shiro was able to retrieve a person from a quest and the system changed everyone¡¯s knowledge about that person since other people hadpleted the quest before but not to Shiro¡¯s standard. In the process, she somewhat made an enemy of the light goddess who tried to disrupt the system but was stopped. How could something that has already happened be changed? And why was the goddess able to affect the system?" Kuromi asked as the Empress narrowed her eyes.
"That¡¯s quite an ambitious question you know?"
"I know but I feel like Shiro should know about this since things are bing serious in the outside world. Apparently, queens areing to our world through portals and creating anchors for some reason. Not only that, the age of demons and gods will arrive soon ording to one of the queens." Kuromi replied as the Empress widened her eyes.
"Wait what!? The age of demons and gods is happening soon!?" She cried out in shock.
"Damn this isn¡¯t good. Ok, no more questions. You need to finish this trial quickly since there isn¡¯t enough time to find another person to take my ss. I¡¯ll tell you the next step since you¡¯ve basically finished the tutorial. Just know that I¡¯ll do some edits on my side to make things ¡¯easier¡¯ depending on how you look at it. While the difficulty will increase to Celestial God, you¡¯ll be able to finish it in the shortest time possible and reap the most rewards. Not only that,pleting one god trial is equal to three immortal trials so one of your requirements will bepleted." The Empress exined in a hurry while tapping away.
"Wait, why are you reacting like this?" Kuromi furrowed her brows.
"Damn, ok how do I exin this... right, the age of demons and gods is an extinction level event for you. Seeing as though you¡¯re only level 100 despite the queens already arriving, there¡¯s a good chance that your race will be exterminated within the first 2 years. In this new generation, the gods aren¡¯t exactly the most benevolent since they need to survive themselves. Hell, rather than age of demons and gods, it¡¯s more like a blender with the gods/demons being the des that shred you apart." The Empress replied.
"So how do you know about this event and why is it happening?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I know because I¡¯ve been through the age of demons and gods already and I can tell you that it¡¯s not fancy. Every ¡¯garden¡¯ is given this trial to see if it can be the main home of sorts. Should the ¡¯garden¡¯ fail this trial, it¡¯ll be eliminated. Once-"
[Warning, you are about to exceed the amount of information allowed to give due to your contract and privilege. Should you continue, the system will deem that as you breaking the contract and subsequent punishment will be handed.]
Reading the notice, the Empress gritted her teeth with annoyance.
"Crap! Ok, my contract with the system doesn¡¯t allow me to say much more but know this. As you are right now, even if you doplete the trial, there¡¯s a good chance for you to be eliminated quickly. You NEED to get as strong as possible. Your ¡¯garden¡¯ is already part of theter batches and anymore failures would be devastating. I¡¯ve already set up the trial so that the main quest will appear in your system soon. Just go to the location and finish it as soon as possible. I can¡¯t kill the person with the armour so that you can have it but I can hinder him to make things easier for you." The Empress said while swiping at a few holographic screens.
Seeing how anxious she was at this, both Shiro and Kuromi knew that things weren¡¯t looking good.
[Rank Up Trial Updated. Tutorial Complete.]
[Main Quest Updated]
[Clear the corruption: A portal of sorts seemed to have opened up in the centre of the capital city. Powerful people started to go missing one after the other as an ominous presence can be felt within the portal.
This is the final quest, anything and everything you do will affect your final score.]
Chapter 452 Main Quest
Chapter 452 Main Quest
Looking at the main quest that was updated on her system, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Anyways, the person with the Celestial Armour should be on his way to the capital right as we speak. He¡¯ll take a break on the road and that¡¯s when you can steal his armour. True me, since I made things shorter but harder, you¡¯ll need all of the celestial weapons to deal with the main enemy. There¡¯s not much help I can give other than a single hint in hopes of you fixing the problem of split soul strands. ¡¯Gateways.¡¯." The Empress said with a serious face.
"Gateways?" Kuromi raised her eyebrows.
"Yes. You¡¯ll need to keep this in mind if you want to sort your strands out and make them efficient. That way, you can use all 5 of the weapons without draining all of your energy." The Empress nodded.
"Right then, that¡¯s about all I can tell you. I need to do my own thing and get some answers myself but first, onest question for you Shiro."
"Go on."
"As an Empress, shouldn¡¯t you have your underlings help you do things? I know you¡¯re getting Kuromi¡¯s help but one personpared to a nation¡¯s worth of help is a big difference." The Empress said as Shiro paused for a moment.
"Well... I don¡¯t like relying on other people too much. Unless you have my absolute trust, I won¡¯t count on them since the only one you know 100% of is yourself." Shiro replied with a soft smile.
"But being a ruler is a lonely throne if you keep that thought." The Empress frowned.
"I don¡¯t need a lot of subjects. I already have a few that I trust. Plus, is it also not the role of the ruler to take the burdens on themselves so that the people in their nation don¡¯t have to? It¡¯s a little cheesy but it¡¯s kind of like As who supports the heaven on his shoulders. In a way, I feel mostfortable when I take the burdens by myself." Shiro shrugged.
"Of course, that¡¯s not to say that I¡¯m entirely benevolent since I wouldn¡¯t risk EVERYTHING for people I don¡¯t know. But if it is within my grasp, I still want to try to help them out. In the end, regardless of what you do as a person, people wouldn¡¯t care too much other than talking about a few pleasantries. Unless you DIRECTLY help a person out, they wouldn¡¯t feel grateful at heart. It¡¯s like seeing a disaster on the other side of the world and a hero managing to solve it without casualties. Sure you may think ¡¯oh that¡¯s nice¡¯ but you don¡¯t feel too deep of a connection. Hence why it¡¯s never worth it in my opinion. Why save others when you can¡¯t save yourself? It may be self-sacrifice but if you¡¯re alive, you can save more people." She chuckled as the Empress stood still for a moment.
". . .I suppose in one way or another, that¡¯s also correct. Just know that there is only so much you can do in theing age if you take everyone on by yourself." The Empress said before disappearing from her spot.
"Well then, I suppose we have our next destination huh?" Shiro chuckled before looking over at Kuromi.
"Mn..." Kuromi nodded her head however she still had quite a few concerns. For now though, they had to focus on quicklypleting this trial in order to ss up.
Regrouping with the rest of the Shadow Guards, Shiro informed them about a problem in the capital. Exin how the next part of their journey would be dangerous, she warned them about a high chance of death and if they wanted to back out, they could since she could probably handle it if given some time.
"Second young miss, what are you talking about? Have you forgotten that you two and everyone else here is our reason to live. If we let you go alone then we wouldn¡¯t be very good guards now would we?" Phillip chuckled as Shiro only smiled.
"I did warn you about a high chance of death. Since y¡¯all are that ballsy then you better live ok?" She grinned.
Leaving the battlefield without caring about the final oue, they made their way towards the capital city.
Kuromi spent this entire timepletely focused on drafting up a new spell so Shiro decided to sit on the roof of the carriage and look up at the sky to pass time.
Thinking back to everything that had happened with the system, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel as though she¡¯d been given a special privilege of sorts. First was the fact that she could retrieve Lisandra from the light goddess and have Lisandra¡¯s information erased from everyone¡¯s memories despite the fact that they had alsopleted the quest. The second is her dual ssing capabilities along with the fact that she had essentially reincarnated twice now including Kuromi¡¯s life.
Of course, there was also the chance that she could just be thinking about random things and this had already happened to other people.
¡¯If I don¡¯t get stronger and level up, there¡¯s a good chance for the spirit race to be wiped out huh? If that happened, Nimue and Iziuel wouldn¡¯t be too happy about this. It would also be quite unfair for them to finally have a queen after centuries of very only for them to be wiped out in the next generation.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she sighed.
There was also the problem of having humans survive and how the party would react to that. With Kuromi¡¯s or rather, her family living in this world, it would be bad if they were killed as well.
"I think I need to try making the flying fortress/city again. Right now, I¡¯m only level 100 so the best I can do is probably a flying shack or some sh*t. To make the fortress, I¡¯ll need to be around level 300 to 400... after my ss up, I should be able to start makingrger mechs to hunt now high level natural monsters on top of heavy weaponry to speed through dungeons for more EXP." She muttered before closing her eyes.
After staying in this world for quite a while, she started to miss seeing the faces of her party members.
¡¯Before I came into this trial, Chen Yu and Madison were both level 101. Depending on the flow of time in this ce, I might return to see their levels shoot up once more. I do wonder what the other¡¯s sses would be though. Lisandra is synced up to me so she¡¯ll ss up when Iplete this quest but what about Yin? Questions forter I suppose...¡¯
As she continued to think about these questions, she soon fell into a light slumber.
###
Dismissing her avatar, the Empress arrived back in her own void of sorts and brought up the system.
"Requesting information on the current garden!" She called out.
[ess denied. As the Celestial Empress of a previous garden, you are not allowed to interfere with the progress of the current garden.]
"I just want to know what¡¯s happening out there! Shouldn¡¯t there still be a few decades left until the age of demons and gods?! Why is it so soon!" She called out once more.
[ess denied. Your privilege level is not high enough for you to know about that information.]
"Then what the hell can I know!"
[This is thest garden before reset.]
Seeing the message, the Empress¡¯ heart sunk in shock since this shouldn¡¯t be the case. Even if the current world fails the test of the next generation, this shouldn¡¯t be thest garden. There should still be a few others left.
"No... that¡¯s impossible. System! There should still be several gardens left after this right? Where did they go?"
[Negative. There are no more gardens as this is the only remaining garden.]
Taking a deep breath, the Empress gritted her teeth and decided to go beyond her privileges. Once she does this, her contract would be broken and she¡¯ll be erased but it no longer matters since this was thest garden. Once this fails, she¡¯d be erased anyways so she might as well use her life to boost up the chances of sess.
"You better not fail me Shiro." She said as she furiously tapped away at the system.
Chapter 453 Corrupted Land
Chapter 453 Corrupted Land
After sleeping for a short while, Shiro felt incredibly refreshed as she yawned and rubbed her eyes.
Looking around her, she saw that it was aroundte afternoon. The sun was going to set soon and they were about to set up a camp.
"Well that was quite satisfying. Let¡¯s see... Big Sis, any progress?" Shiro asked as she leaned over the edge of the roof and looked into the carriage.
Seeing Shiro pop her head out from above the carriage, Kuromi only chuckled and poked her forehead.
"Yes I have. For my lil sis who¡¯s been sleeping soundlessly above the carriage, I have finalised the spell for you. Well... I say finalised but it¡¯s still a prototype of sorts. However, it¡¯s much better than the spell that we have. I¡¯ll need to do something from my end though."
"Oh? And what¡¯s that?" Shiro tilted her head curiously.
"Hmm... it¡¯s a bit embarrassing to say soe in here and I¡¯ll tell you." Kuromi said while ncing at the shadow guards.
Nodding her head, Shiro flipped herself into the carriage.
"So what do you need to do?" Shiro asked.
"I need you to take your dress off and expose your back to me. I¡¯ll be flushing my energy through your body in order to create the ¡¯gateways¡¯." Kuromi said as Shiro paused for a moment and nodded her head.
"Sure that¡¯s fine. But like... do I need to take off the entire dress or can I just like... pull it down a little." Shiro asked with a slight blush since taking off her dress would make her feel like an exhibitionist and that was not what she wanted to be.
"Oh of course but your ENTIRE back needs to be exposed." Kuromi replied as Shiro nodded.
Looking around, she flicked her wrist and encased the entire inner area with a shadow so that no one could see what was happening inside.
Pulling down the top of her dress, she kept it around her waist as she exposed her n.a.k.e.d back to Kuromi.
"Huh... now that I look at it, my physical body is quite alluring huh? Despite not seeing anything too revealing this is quite provoking." Kuromi raised her eyebrows as Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"Erm, big sis? Can you do what you need to do before I put my dress back on?" Shiro asked.
"Sure sure. Right then..." Kuromi chuckled as she pressed her hands against Shiro¡¯s back.
Closing her eyes, she started to funnel her energy through Shiro¡¯s body. Since they each had one half of the soul strand, this process was quite easy since it was akin to moving energy around in your own body.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro felt a little strange from the changes but said nothing and allowed Kuromi to finish.
After a short while, Shiro could feel Kuromi remove her hand from her back and sighed out in relief.
"Alright, it should be done now. Get dressed and give your energy a try." Kuromi smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Once she was fully dressed, she deactivated the shadow and immediately noticed the change to her energy.
"Wait... isn¡¯t this like mana links?" Shiro asked as she widened her eyes.
"Yup. I used mana links as a reference when designing the gateways. Paired with the spell that our ¡¯father¡¯ had left us, I managed to make it so that the energy doesn¡¯t go through our soul strand but instead a separate path." Kuromi said with a grin.
"Of course, your reservoir has not changed so you are still restricted in terms of the total amount of energy you have but you should find out that you can fight for longer without too much worry."
"I see... what, you did it to yourself?" Shiro asked as Kuromi shook her head.
"It¡¯s a two person job lil sis. Unless you want me to exin the entire process to you, I¡¯m fine with how I am right now. I don¡¯t need to fight as much as you do." Kuromi smiled.
"Well I still want you to protect yourself if something happens so this is beneficial to you. Plus, you can assist me when we fight the corruption." Shiro suggested.
Hearing her suggestion, Kuromi thought for a bit before nodding her head.
"Alright, in that case then this is what I did..."
Listening to Kuromi¡¯s exnation of the process, Shiro found that it was rtively simple and it was just a matter of finding out the process first.
Activating her shadows once more, she watched as Kuromi took off her dress and pushed her hair aside.
Just as she was about to help Kuromi create a few gateways, Shiro had an idea as she had a grin on her face.
Activating her ice element, Shiro pressed her palms against Kuromi¡¯s unguarded back.
"HYA!" Crying out in shock, Kuromi almost jumped off her chair since she did not expect two cold palms toe into contact with her back.
"Ahahaha! Big sis, I didn¡¯t know that you could make a cute sound like ¡¯hya¡¯." Shiroughed as Kuromi blushed.
"Anyways, I¡¯ll be serious now." She said after calming down.
cing her hands on Kuromi¡¯s back properly this time, Shiro started to construct the gates.
After a short while, she finished adding the gates and let Kuromi get dressed.
"Right then, now that¡¯s sorted, I think we¡¯re going to be setting up a camp soon. The sun is setting and we need to start preparing some dinner." Kuromi said while ncing out of the carriage.
"Oh before that, where do you think thest person with the weapon is? The Empress did say that she¡¯ll make it easier for us to find him. Something along the lines of taking a break on the road so that it¡¯s easier for us to ¡¯borrow¡¯ his armour."
"She did say that but we haven¡¯t seen or sensed anyone that could fit the bill right now so I guess we can only wait to see what happens." Kuromi shrugged before getting off the carriage.
Going around the back, she brought out a few utensils so that she could cook.
Shiro only smiled as she followed behind her.
The night passed safely as they made sure to get a few guards on night duty in case of ambush.
Waking up early in the morning, they resumed their journey to the capital.
However, in the distance, they could see ominous dark skies that were tainted in red. The sun could no longer be seen anymore due to the numerous clouds.
"Hmm... wait isn¡¯t that just peachy." Shiro said as Kuromi nodded her head with a frown.
"If this is the result of one person/monster, I¡¯d say they¡¯re probably more powerful than you in the outside world since they can affect the surroundings with their presence alone. You¡¯re not at full fighting capability either since a lot of your weapons and skills are unusable right now."
"Well I guess it¡¯s better than hearing about literal Ragnarok happening in our world." Shiro joked but Kuromi could tell that she was quite serious.
Before she could reply, they saw a few flying figures swooping towards them.
"Careful! Ambush!" Shiro called out as she flicked her hand and sent out five bolts of lightning.
During this, the Celestial Jewel glowed softly, reducing the energy needed to send these bolts out.
*KRSH!!!!
"Eh?" Seeing the lightning strike against the figures and splitting them in half, Shiro was rather surprised at their effectiveness.
"Was... that meant to happen?" She asked in slight confusion since that was meant to be a warning shot.
". . ." Kuromi didn¡¯t say anything other than going up to where the corpses of the figures had fallen so that she could examine it.
Once she was at the spot, she couldn¡¯t help but frown in disgust.
The corpse was this weird mish mash of beast parts that seemed to be strung together haphazardly. As for its condition, it was already decaying quite a bit so Kuromi knew that the host had been dead for quite a while, hence why it was so easy for Shiro to ¡¯kill¡¯ it with a warning shot.
From the centre of the corpse, she could see a parasite of sorts that was mutating more of the body parts as bestial ws seemed to form from the separated flesh.
Immediately freezing the corpse and shattering it into dusk, Kuromi made sure that she didn¡¯t inhale anything in case the parasite infected her.
Looking around, she could see that the ground was drained of life as there were no signs of fresh greenery. Only decay and emptiness could be seen.
Chapter 454 Capital Of The Dead
Chapter 454 Capital Of The Dead
"Seems like this is the corruption huh?" Shiro said while stepping off the carriage.
"Mn, seems like it." Kuromi nodded her head as she had a serious expression on her face.
"From where we are, there¡¯s still roughly another day till we arrive in the capital. If the so called corruption has spread this far and the monsters are already attacking, I don¡¯t exactly want to imagine what it¡¯s like in the capital city." Kuromi said while shaking her head.
"Mn, do you want to slow down our pace a little? If we rush in, we could be surrounded by monsters." Shiro suggested.
Nodding her head, Kuromi agreed with Shiro¡¯s decision and informed Phillip of their choice.
"Understood young miss." He replied.
Getting back into the carriage, Kuromi wondered if they should bring a form of protection.
¡¯If I had some equipment, I could have spent a bit of time to analyse what had happened to that person. Unfortunately, I don¡¯t, so I have to make do for now. If anything, getting some masks might be helpful. There¡¯s also the problem of perhaps inhaling the parasite duringbat...¡¯ Kuromi thought to herself with a frown.
"Are you ok?" Shiro asked, seeing Kuromi¡¯s frown.
"Mn? Yeah I am. Just wondering about how we should go about the fight. I¡¯m not keen on the whole parasite in the body thing we just saw. We can fight in our masks but there is still a chance that we could be infected by the parasite." Kuromi replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"I see... you¡¯re worried about that. Hmm... I¡¯ve had to deal with quite a few diseases in Aria so I got a few counter measures. Of course, that¡¯s with my Nanomancer ss which I can¡¯t ess right now. If anything, the best thing we can probably do right now is to burn the entire battlefield at the start in order to get rid of the parasites. We can also freeze the entire ce so that the difference in temperature causes some damage." Shiro suggested.
"That could work. But I¡¯m not too sure about how much energy we¡¯ll have left once we do that. If we start the fight with less than half, then you know it¡¯s going to be a failed attempt." Kuromi frowned.
"True. I mean, there are a few fire and ice users in the shadow guards. Perhaps we can get them to do it for us?"
"We could but at the same time, I want them to still have a way to protect themselves. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, we are short on time and I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll see them again after this trial." Kuromi sighed as she wasn¡¯t one to enjoy seeing others sacrifice themselves for her.
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro looked down on her hands since she wasn¡¯t toofortable with this idea.
Before she could respond, they felt the carriage stop.
"First young miss, second young miss, there seems to be a fight not too far from us. It¡¯s between a man and a few monsters that are quiterge in size." Phillip called out.
"Let¡¯s check it out." Shiro suggested as she grabbed a mask for safety purposes.
Climbing onto the roof, she looked out into the distance and saw an armoured man fighting against three mutated beasts.
The beasts were these horrifying, grotesque monsters that had skin peeling off the surface and armour embedded into their body. Any resemnce of their previous form was lost as different animal parts could also be seen protruding from their backs and heads.
As for the man, he had short ck hair, and ck eyes. Hisplexion was rather pale as blood seeped down the corner of his lips.
Despite theck of damage on his armour, Shiro could tell that this man was not in a good shape.
Seeing the new arrivals from the corner of his peripherals, hope seemed to ignite in his eyes.
"Help! Can you help me please!" He shouted out while dodging one of the monster¡¯s punches.
"Should we?" Shiro asked since she could guess that this was the person with the Celestial Armour.
"Hmm... maybe we should watch for a bit and see what the monsters do." Kuromi replied since it was a good chance to get some information. They needed to get the armour from the person anyway, it doesn¡¯t matter if he¡¯s dead or alive
"Please help! I know you¡¯re collecting the Celestial weapons right!? I¡¯ll give you mine if you help!" He called out once more in hopes of getting their support.
"Kind of feel like we¡¯re mercenaries being offered a contract." Shiro smiled.
"Indeed. In that case then let¡¯s go. We¡¯ll finish this quickly but make sure you conserve your energy. Since the Celestial Weapons take a bunch of energy, we can test to see if fire and ice will work on them." Kuromi suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
Activating her Celestial Raiment, she tuned it to her Underworld Fire Attunement. Snapping her fingers, a flickering orb of fire appeared on her fingertips as she sent it hurling towards the monster.
*BOOM!!!!
Exploding into a ball of mes that pushed the man back by a few steps, Shiro saw that there were a few burns on the surface but nothing too major.
"Big sis! It looks like they have a resistance to fire." Shiro called out as Kuromi nodded.
"In that case let me give ice a try." Kuromi replied.
Couching down slightly, she dashed towards the beasts as cold mist flowed out of her palms.
Pivoting on her right leg, she swiped her arm around her as a swarm of ice sharps appeared and stabbed into the beasts.
Activating her spell, the shards exploded themselves, freezing the monster from the inside.
Once the monsters were immobilised, she reinforced her body with Celestial Energy and mmed her palm against the frozen body of the beast.
*CRACK!!!
Large cracks could be seen spreading out on the surface as ck blood oozed from the gaps.
Quickly backing off so that the blood doesn¡¯t get on her, Kuromi nced towards Shiro and saw that she had already changed her element to ice.
"Welp, seems like ice is the way to go." Shiro grinned as cold mist swirled around her.
Stomping down, threerge magic circles appeared under the monsters as ice erupted out and skewered their bodies, suspending them in the air.
Clenching her hand into a fist, spikes exploded out from the monsters bodies as they were split into pieces which scattered around.
"Damn... attack really is your forte huh?" Kuromi raised her eyebrows since she was able to kill all three monsters in a short period of time.
"Yup. In a fight, going direct is the best way." Shiro grinned before jumping off the carriage.
Walking towards the man, she was about to ask him for the armour when he threw down a sh bang of sorts.
Quickly shielding her eyes, she could sense that he was trying to run away as she attached an orb to his body.
*sigh
"I didn¡¯t want to kill him but here we are." Shiro muttered as he had disappeared from her view once the sh of light died down.
Shaking her head, she snapped her fingers as the man appeared in front of her once more due to the orb she had ced on him.
Widening his eyes, dread filled his mind.
Before he could even beg for mercy, Shiro jammed her hand into his mouth.
Sending fire down his throat, she started to cook him alive before ripping off his head and throwing it aside.
With the user dead, the armour retracted itself into a marking that tattooed itself on his corbone.
cing her finger on the corbone, Shiro could feel a burning sensation much like what had happened with the gauntlets and walked back to the carriage.
"Do you want to destroy the bodypletely or just leave it here?" Kuromi asked.
"Let¡¯s just leave it here. We need to get to the capital before this gets worse. After all, in due time, it could be lethal to even breathe near this ce." Shiro replied as Kuromi nodded her head.
Giving everyone a mask before entering the carriage, they started to make their way to the capital.
One their way there, they were ambushed by a few more monsters that were easily dealt with. For the Shadow Guards, it pained them a little to see the grand capital be reduced to this lifeless area that could only be described as hell.
Capital of the dead.
Chapter 455 Fighting The Horde
Chapter 455 Fighting The Horde
Setting up a camp up in the nearby hills of the capital, Shiro looked at the city through her orbs and couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brows.
As if it was a zombie apocalypse, all of the residents in the city have been turned into these monstrosities that roamed the streets.
The once bustling city was now quiet as the only sound they could hear was the asional grunting from the monsters.
Located in the centre of the city, was a nest of sorts as there were hundreds upon thousands of tunnel entrances that lead deep underground.
Unfortunately for them, it seemed like the boss was located deep underground.
"So, how should we approach this?" Shiro asked while ncing towards Kuromi.
"Hm... I¡¯d say we want to clear out a portion of the city first or else we might be surrounded should the boss call for them when we¡¯re fighting.
"However, if we did that, it¡¯ll take us several days to weeks for us to actually kill most of the monsters in the city." Kuromi frowned.
"Stealth is risky as well since we don¡¯t know where to look in order to find the boss." Shiro sighed.
¡¯No wonder the Empress wanted us to make allies. Going through all of this alone would be quite tough especially since I don¡¯t have ess to most of my skills. If I could use my Nanomancer ss, I would have just bombed the entire city to the ground.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Shaking her head, she got rid of the thoughts before taking a closer look at the city.
"Do you think it¡¯s possible for us to flush the boss out instead of going in?" She asked as she nced at all the tunnels.
"Oh? That could work but the amount of energy needed for that would be ridiculous." Kuromi replied.
"Indeed, rather than flooding the entire tunnel system, I was thinking that maybe we should just remove the top. It¡¯s kinda like taking the roof off a house." Shiro smiled.
"Hmm... how do you n on doing that?"
"Remember the spell that the dragon and giant used in that fight? I still have theposition of it in my mind. If we make some edits, we¡¯ll be able to get some of the shadow guards to help construct that spell so that we can destroy the roof of that base. The scale would be smaller but it should be enough for what I want to do." Shiro exined.
"Alright, let¡¯s do that. We¡¯re short on manpower anyways so this is probably the best choice. We drag the boss out and fight in our turf." Kuromi smiled as she brought out her notebook.
"So, how do you think we should go about modifying a one person spell into one that requires multiple people?" Shiro asked.
"The same way we use our energy now. Using gateways. Each person here would act as a gateway, funnelling energy into a ¡¯main¡¯, who would then construct the spell." Kuromi replied while drafting up a few prototypes for this method.
"Oh? Who¡¯s going to be the main then?" Shiro asked.
"I am. You sit out for this one since we¡¯ll be needing your full power in the actual boss fight. If anything, can you draw down the magic circle in this notebook so that I can memorise it?" Kuromi replied.
Handing Shiro a spare notebook, Kuromi walked over to the shadow guards and exined the situation.
As Kuromi was exining the situation, Shiro started to draw a magic circle.
Seeing that theplexity was more than what a single page could contain, Shiro ripped out a few pages and connected them together.
Once she finished the drawing, sheid it out on the ground.
"Right then, the main thing about this magic circle is these two sections. If you mess these two up, the spell will not activate. The section on the left is for directions while the one on the right is amplification. You¡¯ll need to also keep these two in mind, especially the amplification section." Shiro said as she pointed at each of the spots.
"I see... alright, I¡¯ve pretty much got a rough understanding of it now. The only concern I have is whether or not our practice would attract any attention since the surge of energy might be quite obvious." Kuromi furrowed her brows.
"Don¡¯t worry about that, I¡¯ll protect you lot while you do this. I¡¯ll be using the spear and shield in their base form to fight off the enemy so I won¡¯t be using up my energy." Shiro smiled before bringing out the weapons.
Even without funnelling energy into them, they were still amazing weapons that were far above the average standard.
"Ok, just remember that you should avoiding into contact with their blood if possible. We still don¡¯t know what¡¯s causing their infection. If things get a bit dangerous, don¡¯t hesitate to use the Celestial Armour." Kuromi warned as Shiro nodded her head.
During the days of travel towards the capital, they had somewhat got an understanding of what each of the weapons do.
The spear could be charged to produce one extremely powerful throw while the shield could save your life three times every three days. As for the armour, all she could find out right now was that it could massively bolster her defence and resistances. The more energy she funnels into them, the stronger it bes.
With the jewel also in her possession, each spell would require less energy so she could fight without worrying too much if sh*t hit the fan.
Grabbing one of the spare outfits in the carriage, she changed into one that covered most of her body so that she could avoid direct contact with the fluid.
"Alright, I¡¯ll keep the battle a little further from this ce so that the bloodshed wouldn¡¯t affect you all just in case the parasite is airborne." Shiro smiled as Kuromi nodded her head.
Making a few more preparations, Kuromi had every guard stand in a specific location.
"Right then, this should be correct. Is everyone ready?" Kuromi asked as the guards nodded their heads.
Smiling at their response, she stomped down as a faint tether could be seen, connecting the guards to each other.
As this was happening, the surge of Celestial Energy seemed to have attracted the monsters in the surroundings since they all looked towards them at the same time.
"That¡¯s rather creepy." Shiro joked as she watched the monsterse closer.
Once they were within 200 meters away from them, she leapt into a sprint and readied her spear.
Twisting her body, she threw the spear towards the closest monster, sinking the spear tip deep into its body.
Grabbing the pommel of the spear, Shiro pushed it down before stomping it with her foot.
Splitting the monster in half, she quickly raised up her shield and pushed the blood aside.
ncing around her, she saw that there were two monsters trying to nk her from both sides.
Quickly ducking down, Shiro grabbed the spear and spun it in a circle around her, slicing the legs of the monsters and forced them to fall over.
mming her shield against the monster¡¯s head, she crushed it as if it was an empty can before backing off.
In a single exchange, she was able to kill two monsters and incapacitate the other. However, there were still plenty of them charging towards her. Thankfully, there weren¡¯t any monsters behind the guards so she only had to worry about one direction.
"I suppose this is good practice for when I go against people who cancel out mana." She mused to herself as she readied her spear once more.
Grinning with battle intent, she dashed towards the horde.
As she continued to kill the enemies, Kuromi¡¯s spell nearedpletion as the array could be seen floating above the capital. At this point, all of the monsters had been aggroed to their location as Shiro was fighting with everything she got so that they would not disrupt the spell.
During this, she was forced to use a few spells since she would not have caught the monsters that rushed past her otherwise. But with this, Kuromi was able to charge her spell without any problems.
After a few moments, the magic circle floating above the capital solidified as intense heat could be felt even from this far out.
Without a second word, Kuromi activated the spell as a blinding pir of fire descended onto the capital.
Chapter 456 Parasitic Harvester
Chapter 456 Parasitic Harvester
Seeing the pir of fire crash down into their new home, the monsters roared out in panic as they quickly retreated.
"Ha... Damn, about time they left this queen alone. There¡¯s only so much focus I can give to you people." Shiro joked as she was breathing rather hard since fighting out a whole horde by herself while protecting an objective wasn¡¯t the easiest task to do.
Looking towards the nest, Shiro was rather surprised to see the monsters jump into the fire without hesitation.
"Mn? Are they trying to reduce the impact of the attack?" She muttered in confusion as they wereyering themselves over what used to be the roof.
However, the power of the spell was too much for them so instead of leaving behind a corpse, only ash remained.
*URAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Hearing a thunderous cry, Shiro narrowed her eyes towards the nest.
There was a big chance that whoever cried out just now was the boss.
*KRRRRR
Feeling the ground shake as if it was an earthquake, Shiro quickly stabilised her footing.
*BANG!!
Erupting out from the nest, was a giant pir of flesh that had an assortment of limbs, armour and other objects sticking out of its body. It was as if god had just rolled up a piece of glue into the shape of a worm and just threw it in the trash.
ck blood and bones could be seen through a few of the gaps but most of it was just flesh and objects.
Looking towards the head of the monster, she could see four splits that reached down his body rather than a single mouth. Within those splits, waves upon waves of moving monsters could be seen, writhing around. From afar, it almost looked like a huge nest of maggots.
While it had no eyes, it seemed like it could sense the area around it perfectly since it locked onto her immediately upon exiting the next.
[Main Quest Updated. Defeat ¡¯The Corruption/Parasitic Harvester¡¯]
ncing at the updated main quest, Shiro thought for a moment before charging up her spear.
¡¯Let¡¯s test this guy¡¯s defence.¡¯ She thought to herself.
As the mes on the spear increased, Shiro narrowed her eyes and threw the spear towards the Harvester.
*BOOM!!!!
Releasing a pulse of fire to increase its speed, the spear mmed against the Harvester¡¯s body, causing a small tidal wave of corpses to fall out from the splits.
Frowning slightly, Shiro saw that there were only a few faint scorch marks from the fire but other than that, it seemed like the Harvester was quite resistant to physical based attacks.
*URAHH!!!
Roaring out in rage, the Harvester charged towards her as it slithered across the ground, leaving behind a trail of corpses.
Quickly activating her Celestial Raiment, Shiro switched her element to forest and mmed her hands down.
Tree roots started to erupt out from the ground as it tried to bind the Harvester down. Unfortunately for her, the Harvester didn¡¯t seem phased by this attempt as it easily shrugged off the bindings.
Seeing this giant worm-like creaturee closer, it was only now that Shiro truly understood how big this being was. Despiteing this far out from the capital, she still couldn¡¯t see the end of its body as it was still connected to the nest.
Jumping up into the air, she aggroed it a little further away from Kuromi and the guards since they were currently recovering from using such a big spell.
Switching her element to Void Star, she created three orbs and threw it towards the ¡¯mouth¡¯/ splits in its body.
*BANG BANG BANG!!!
Exploding upon impact, Shiro saw that Void Star was able to deal more damagepared to her spear throw.
¡¯Seems like he¡¯s weaker to magic damage. Hmm... if I only relied on the Celestial Weapons, this would have been an impossible fight. But now that I know he¡¯s weak to magic, I should be able to kill him quickly.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
However, as she was thinking about this, the Harvester shot out a torrent of green and ck liquid towards her.
Feeling danger overwhelm her senses, Shiro quickly jumped into a portal in order to dodge. Reappearing not too far from her previous spot, she nced back to see the ground melt away upon contact with the liquid.
"Tch, that¡¯s going to be annoying." She muttered with a frown.
Switching her element to Cosmic Ice, cold mist started to surround her. Snapping her fingers, a blizzard formed near the Harvester as ice could be seen spreading across the surface of its body.
But before she could fully activate her spell, several ck ¡¯tongues¡¯ shot out of the Harvester¡¯s body and tried to skewer Shiro.
Quickly dodging a few of them, one of them managed toe close to hitting her but she parried it with her shield. But despite her sess in parrying the attack, the force of the impact still caused her bones to creak as they bordered on the threshold of breaking.
Gritting her teeth, she grabbed her spear and enhanced her strength with Celestial Energy.
¡¯No more fooling around since the longer this goes on for, the worse it¡¯ll get for me. Now that I know it¡¯s weak to magic, I just need to bombard it.¡¯ She thought to herself as she switched back to her Nytri mindset.
Entering a state of full focus, she swiped at one of the ¡¯tongues¡¯ she managed to cut it off as ck blood tried to get on her body.
Flicking her element to fire in an instant, evaporated the blood away before it coulde into contact and used Boreal Wind to disperse the gas so that she didn¡¯t breathe it in.
Flying higher into the sky, she flicked her element once more as she gathered lightning between her palms.
Creating a giant lightning spear much like the one she used to attack the dragon, she swiped her hand down and sent it towards the Harvester.
*BANG!!!!
Crackling against the Harvester¡¯s body, the skin started to boil and peel off while it tried to attack her with its tongues once more.
Changing her element back to ice, she released a pulse of ice mist that started to slow the tongues down before freezing them.
"Break!" Shiro said coldly as she switched her element to Stygian Steel and had metal constructs m against the frozen tongues, breaking them into pieces.
As Shiro was juggling between elements in order to fight the Harvester, Kuromi had recovered from using her spell and was watching the fight from a distance.
Despite them technically being the same person, Kuromi couldn¡¯t help but watch in awe as Shiromanded the elements to go against this monstrosity. In her current state, she was able to urately judge which elements she needed in order to deal the most amount of damage in that one moment and which ones could help her avoid an attack.
¡¯She¡¯s setting up for opportunities of attack through countering with her elements.¡¯ Kuromi smiled since Shiro was finally showing her talent as a mage.
In her previous life, despite being a tier 6 legend, she had always used her firearms and never focused on magic. However, now that she had a thorough understanding of how her elements work and when she should use them, her diversity had increased by another level. Regardless of what type of enemies she faces, whether they be resistant to physical based attacks or magic, she could deal with them alone.
If she could not do that, she would only be taken as a joke if she said she wanted to take the burden on by herself.
"Right then, with my little sister risking her life right now, what do you suppose we should do." Kuromi said as she nced back at the guards.
"We help!" The guards replied in sync.
"Correct! Now hit that disgusting worm with everything you got!" Kuromi grinned as she dashed towards the battlefield
Stomping down, she created a pir of ice andunched her into the air as she took a page out of Shiro¡¯s book and created an ice spear.
Twisting her body, she threw the spear towards the Harvester¡¯s body.
*BANG!!!
Piercing the body, the spear exploded into an ice rose as vines spread out and pinned it to the ground.
With the Harvester now pinned for a short moment, they could bombard it with everything they got.
Chapter 457 Hidden Boss
Chapter 457 Hidden Boss
Time passed slowly as Shiro continued to draw the Harvester¡¯s aggro, allowing the guards and Kuromi to damage it as much as they could. However, despite all of their efforts and the amount of wounds the Harvester had sustained, it didn¡¯t seem to be feeling anything since it still attacked with the ferocity it had at the start.
At this point, Shiro could feel that her energy was roughly around the 20% mark.
¡¯Damn, this isn¡¯t too good. This f*cker¡¯s not dying despite his weakness to magic.¡¯ She mused to herself while furrowing her brows.
Quickly dodging another one of the Harvester¡¯s attacks, she nced towards Kuromi.
"Big sis! You got an idea on how to kill this thing? We¡¯re not exactly making progress." Shiro called out as Kuromi frowned.
Looking around them, she noticed that the Harvester was still connected to the nest and hadn¡¯t left during this entire fight. Not only that, it seemed to want them to fight it as far away as possible.
"Shiro! The nest!" Kuromi shouted out as Shiro immediately snapped her attention towards the nest.
Noticing the same thing that Kuromi did, she nodded her head and started to dash towards it.
Thankfully, the number of monsters in the city had thinned out a little during their fight since her spells would destroy them upon impact. However, despite this fact, she still had to be careful since she could be infected.
*URAHHH!!!!
Seeing that Shiro was now charging towards the nest, the Harvester roared out in anger as every monster tried to stop her.
Ignoring the damage inflicted onto him by Kuromi and the guards, the Harvester attempted to attack Shiro in hopes of getting her to stay away from the nest.
Unfortunately for him, Shiro was prepared for an attack from the back.
Flicking her arm, a giant ice block dropped out from the portal as it mmed into the top of the Harvester¡¯s head, pushing it against the ground.
This gave her enough time to reach the entrance of the nest as she quickly dodged the monster¡¯s attack.
Some of the ck blood almostnded on her body as she quickly dodged to the side since it was risky for her toe into contact with the liquid.
Switching to her fire element, she burned the monsters to ash before looking back at Kuromi
Giving Shiro a thumbs up, telling her to leave everything here to them, Kuromi grinned before attacking the Harvester with her ice.
Seeing this, Shiro nodded her head and dived into the nest.
Upon entry, she immediately frowned in disgust as the atmosphere was damp, humid and stunk of rotting flesh.
Every time she stepped down with her foot, it would produce this wet, splurging sound as if she was wringing the water from a towel.
Pushing down her feeling of disgust, she quickly made her way deeper into the nest using the Harvester¡¯s body as a guide.
There were moments where ck tongues would suddenly appear from the body and try to attack her but she would parry them with her shield before shing them apart.
As she ventured deeper, she could see a hint of light through the gaps.
[Hidden Boss Discovered: Parasitic Harvester¡¯s True Core.]
¡¯True Core? Hidden Boss? Does that mean the harvester could be beat normally with arge army and this is just an additional stage?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before peering into the room.
Connected to the Harvester¡¯s external body was this fleshy egg sack that would pulse asionally.
The surface of the egg was quite thin as she could see inside which revealed the silhouette of a long serpent like being that would swim around in the egg.
Not only that, but the walls of this chamber seemed to be made from flesh that had ck blood oozing out onto the floor which formed a runic pattern that surrounded the egg. Corpses could be seen submerged into the wall with expressions of fear and disbelief.
"Charming. Anyways, no time to waste." Shiro muttered as she readied her spear.
Flooding it with Celestial Energy, she was about to throw it towards the egg sac when it was ripped open from the inside, causing ck mist to explode out of the egg and spread through the room.
Furrowing her brows, she immediately switched her element to wind and swept the mist aside.
After all, for all she knows, inhaling that mist once could mean death for her.
ncing towards the now ripped open egg, she quickly dashed towards it in order to deal as much damage. After all, it waspletely unguarded right now.
The egg had just opened, leaving the main body open for an attack.
She would be stupid not to attack it since it was akin to waiting for someone to finish transforming.
Twisting her body, she threw the spear towards the opening as mes erupted out from the spear tip.
*BOOM!!!!
Piercing the egg sack and sending parts of it scattering through the room, the spear then embedded itself deep into the walls.
Looking towards the broken egg, Shiro could see a figure with a hole through its body.
ring at her with anger, armour started to form around it but blood continued to flow out of the hole that she had punctured.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ve hit the jackpot.¡¯ She smiled to herself since this was a good sign. Even if its defences are massively bolstered by their armour, as long as this hole remains, she¡¯ll have a target to attack.
Summoning the spear back to her side, Shiro made sure that the blood was flicked off the spear before looking back at the enemy.
The main body was that of a muscr human with grey skin and neon blue tattoos filled with energy. Its right arm was in actuality, the head of a serpent/dragon that seemed to have a mind of its own.
Taking the initiative in the fight, she flickered in front of the beast as she stabbed her spear towards the hole that she had previously opened up.
Just before her spearnded the hit, the dragon arm appeared in her vision with its mouth wide open.
Breathing out a torrent of ck mist, the head forced Shiro to take a few steps back to to avoid this.
Not giving her a chance to reorientate herself, the True Harvester dashed towards her and mmed its arms down.
*BANG!
Crashing against the fleshy floor of the room, rotting arms suddenly erupted out from the ground and tried to grab Shiro by the legs.
Clicking her tongue, she quickly jumped up into the air and released a wave of cold mist to freeze everything that tried to grab her.
"Rather rude to grab ady by the legs don¡¯t you think?" Shiro frowned while flicking her fingers up.
In a simr fashion to the rotting arms, tree roots wrapped around the serpent arm.
Flickering just above the arm, she twisted her body and mmed the spear against the arm. Seeing that it only managed to sink in by a few centimetres, Shiro frowned before mming her heel down on the spear to drive it down with greater force.
Before the spear couldpletely separate the arm from the body, the muscles writhed and contracted around the spear tip, firmly lodging it into the flesh as Shiro had no way of pulling it out despite her greatest efforts.
Furrowing her brows, she quickly cut her losses and jumped back while using the arm as a tform.
Seeing the blood ooze onto the spear tip and the Harvester grabbing the spear out before handling it as if it was its own weapon, Shiro narrowed her eyes in seriousness.
Now that the Harvester had her spear, it had effectively cut off her main source of physical damage. While her gauntlet could break most defences, it was stillcking in attack power whenpared to her spear.
The worst part was that she couldn¡¯t even teleport it back to her hands since the Harvester was keeping such a tight grip over the weapon. If she tried, she¡¯d have to drag his body along or else it would not work.
Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself down as she raised her shield.
Since the Harvester had her weapon, she¡¯d stick to short, burst type magic in order to force it to release her spear. With a prime target such as the hole that she had created in its guts, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard of a task to aplish.
Chapter 458 Defeat
Chapter 458 Defeat
Parrying the spear thrust along with other physical attacks, Shiro tried to m her fist against the Harvester¡¯s armour but it seemed like it was prepared.
Every time she tried to go in for an attack, it would back off and counter with her spear.
Strangely enough, it was almost as if it was learning from her attacking style since she could sense some simrities.
¡¯If that really is the case then the longer this fight goes on, the harder it will be. I need to finish it quickly.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
After all, if the Harvester could really learn her attacking style, there was a high chance for it to find her weaknesses.
However, there was also a strategy she could employ in order to win the fight and that was to force the Harvester to lower its guard.
By allowing a few hits and making it seem like it has learnt her entire move set, she¡¯ll be able to surprise it once it gets conceited.
Continuing her struggle against the Harvester, she allowed herself to fail at parrying its attacks a few times as she was forced back against the wall.
Stabbing her shield into the wall, she used it as a foothold to vault herself over the Harvester. Before it could collect the shield, she teleported it back into her hands since it would be bad if it also got her shield along with the spear.
Seeing Shiro struggle and back off for quite a while now, the Harvester seemed to be enjoying the situation as the serpent head had a sneer on its face.
What it didn¡¯t know was that despite taking a few hits, she had not activated her Celestial Armour nor did she use her Celestial Raiment at full force. She could estimate that this Harvester could see their fight against the fake one outside and knew what she could do.
In that case then the best way to go about it was reduce her energy usage so it seemed like she was out of energy.
While the reality of the situation wasn¡¯t too far off, once there was an opportunity, she could m the Harvester with a burst of power.
Just as she was about to try to attack the Harvester once more, she could see it using the spear as a toothpick of sorts as it was taunting her.
*PUCHI!
Feeling as though a vein had just burst, Shiro took a moment to calm herself since the boss was smart. Even though it was taunting her, it wasn¡¯t ¡¯conceited¡¯ yet. The moment she rushed in, he¡¯d attack back at full force. She needed some more time so that the Harvester thought she was desperate and out of ideas.
Thinking about it for a moment, she had an idea as she tantly nced at the hole that she had made earlier and narrowed her eyes.
Seeing this, the Harvester ¡¯knew¡¯ that Shiro wanted to attack its only weakness at this point and made sure to guard it well.
Continuing the struggle, Shiro acted as though she was very tired. Her attacks were slow and her breathing was rough. Her footwork was all over the ce as there were times where she would ¡¯just so happen to dodge an attack or two¡¯.
Of course, this was all an act to lure the Harvester in but the monster didn¡¯t know about that.
Shiro had continued this act for around 10 to 15 minutes now as she had forced herself to sustain a bit of damage in order to bait the Harvester in.
Just as she was about to go for another attack, she ¡¯tripped on her foot¡¯ and fell over.
Quickly rolling off the side, she tried to crawl away from the Harvester. Acting as though she was in despair, her eyes seemed desperate but her mind was working its best to find the perfect moment.
Due to her fall, her mask moved out of ce, making it so that the Harvester could see her face filled with desperation and despair. Seeing the face of a maiden in a panic, a sadistic intent seemed to ignite in the Harvester¡¯s heart as it chuckled and used the spear to cut other parts of her clothes.
Naturally, this action pissed Shiro off but she had to endure it a little and allowed it to cut the parts of her clothes that wouldn¡¯t show any too important. Only things like the arm or the belly but never near her chest or waist area.
Thankfully, her patience seemed to pay off as the Harvester was clearly enjoying the situation and let its guard down under the assumption that Shiro couldn¡¯t fight back anymore.
There was a reason that people told others not to y with their food/prey since they could still fight back with their lives on the line. But since the Harvester was clearly born just now, it wouldn¡¯t know that. At this point, all it knows is that it¡¯s powerful and unbeatable.
Understanding the situation and Harvester¡¯s state of mind, Shiro knew that the opportunity was about to arrive.
Just as the Harvester leaned towards her in order to humiliate her more, Shiro¡¯s face became cold and serious as her aura changed from scared to bloodthirsty in a single moment.
Leaping into action while the Harvester wasn¡¯t expecting it, she activated her gauntlet as she jammed her arm inside the hole and released as much lightning as she could, paralysing the Harvester for a moment.
Twisting her body, she reinforced her strength and mmed her shield against its arm, forcing it to release the spear.
With her weapon retrieved and the Harvester temporarily paralysed, she knew that she had a short while in order to finish everything off.
Stabbing the spear into the serpent head and pinning it against the ground, she switched her element and mmed the pommel of her spear with a piece of metal that forced both the spear and the serpent head into the ground and pinned it there securely. While that was happening, Shiro also jammed her right foot into the hole as she tried to tear it open with two opposing forces. With her arm going up and her foot going down, blood flowed out of the wound as it gradually increased in size.
Of course, to avoid said blood, she activated her Celestial Armour along with her wind element so that a smallyer of concentrated wind would push the blood aside. Should it somehow bypass that, the armour would then block it.
*URAHHH!!!!
Crying out in anger, the Harvester tried to attack her with its remaining arm and ck tongues that erupted out of its body.
However, Shiro ignored this and mmed her palm against the Harvester¡¯s chest. A pulse of cold mist exploded out, leaving ayer ice over its body.
Snapping her finger, the ice formed chains that connected to the walls of this room, forcing his movements to a halt.
With the ck tongues and its remaining arm frozen in their movements, the Harvester no longer had anything to attack Shiro with since its main weapon was trying to infect its opponent with its blood and infecting mist.
Since Shiro had stopped his main weapon from working due to her preparations, it had actually been fighting at a disadvantage for a while now but the joy of forcing into ¡¯despair¡¯ made him overlook this fact.
Unfortunately for the Harvester, it was now toote to realise his mistakes.
With a perfect opportunity to end this all in front of her, Shiro didn¡¯t mind using all of her energy in a single moment.
Activating her Star and Void Star Celestial Raiment, she gathered energy within her palms as a glowing orb was formed inside the Harvester¡¯s body. The burning power of a star and the consuming nature of the Void Starbined together as Shiro quickly made some distance with the Harvester.
Snapping her fingers once more, a pulse of energy was released from the orb as it had even managed to push her back by a few steps.
Suddenly, a giant suction force could be felt from the orb, ripping parts of the Harvester¡¯s flesh off, ¡¯consuming¡¯ it and turning it into ash.
As the Harvester was slowly being eaten away by this orb, Shiro tried to leave the room but the force was a little too powerful even for her since she had used quite a bit of energy and there wasn¡¯t enough to reinforce her body nor was there enough to teleport out of the ce.
Gritting her teeth, she stabbed the spear into the ground and used it as a staff to slowly get away from the room.
ncing back a few times, she could see the Harvester copsing within itself as the serpent no longer had any life in its eyes.
Wanting to make sure that it didn¡¯te back alive, she waited until the orbpletely erased the Harvester before deactivating.
Once she deactivated it, her mind seemed to rx. Copsing against the floor, her consciousness seemed to fluctuate for a moment as fatigue hit her like a bullet train. Thest thing she saw was the cold dead walls of this nest before falling into darkness.
[Quest Complete.]
Chapter 459 Trial Complete
Chapter 459 Trial Complete
After Shiro killed the true Harvester, the giant worm like being outside of the nest froze up for a moment before copsing into a puddle of flesh and blood.
"Did Shiro seed?" Kuromi muttered to herself as she quickly made some distance between her and the corpse since she didn¡¯t want to be hit by the blood.
Looking around her, she couldn¡¯t help but frown as the casualties that they had sustained in this battle.
¡¯Only 14 of us left huh?¡¯ She thought to herself with a sigh.
During the fight, whenever one of the guards were pierced by the ck tongues or shed on by the ck blood, they would either transform into one of the monsters they had encountered or haverge portions of their body melt into a puddle of blood.
Shaking her head, she quickly regrouped everyone and had them collect the corpses of their deadpanions.
"Even though we were prepared, having this many of us go is still quite a shock." Phillip chuckled sadly.
"Indeed... Help everyone out here since you¡¯re their leader. I¡¯ll go look for Shiro since she¡¯s still in the nest."
"OF course young miss, do you want one of us toe with you just in case?" Phillip asked.
"It¡¯s ok, just have everyone recuperate for now." Kuromi shook her head before making her way towards the nest.
Climbing through the same entrance that Shiro entered, she was immediately assaulted by the rotting smell which almost made her faint.
¡¯Jesus f*cking christ what the hell is this smell???¡¯ She cursed to herself before continuing deeper into the nest.
After walking for a while, she was shocked to see Shiro copsed onto the floor with her clothes in tatters.
"Shiro!" Kuromi cried out in shock as she quickly ran over to the unconscious Shiro.
Turning her over, Kuromi could see that Shiro¡¯s face was a little pale with ck blood all over her face and body, causing her heart to shake with fear.
Quickly carrying Shiro on her back, Kuromi dashed out of the nest.
###
"Mn..." Furrowing her brows, Shiro slowly opened her eyes and looked around her.
"Where am I?" She muttered before sitting up. Seeing as though she was in a room, she knew that she must have been carried out of the nest since it was thest thing that she could remember.
Massaging her head, she looked to her side and saw the door which seemed to be unlocked.
Sighing softly, she nced towards the system interface and was rather surprised at what she saw.
[Calcting Final Score... Error]
[Undergoing maintenance, please stand by.]
Raising her eyebrow at the strange notification, Shiro sighed before getting out of her bed.
Realising that she was in a different outfit entirely, she knew that someone must have changed her for her.
"It better be Kuromi or else..." She muttered since she didn¡¯t like people seeing her bare unless it¡¯s Kuromi since she¡¯s her sister.
*ck
Hearing the door handle move, Shiro looked up and saw Kuromi standing at the doorway.
"Oh my f*cking god you¡¯re awake!" Kuromi sighed in relief.
"Damn, do you know how worrying it was to watch you when you¡¯re unconscious? I don¡¯t have ess to the system so I can¡¯t even see if you¡¯re alive or not. Plus, it doesn¡¯t seem like the trial has ended yet so I don¡¯t even know what¡¯s happening anymore." She said while shaking her head.
"How many days was I unconscious for and what happened after I killed the real Harvester?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Well after the one on the outside suddenly copsed, I went inside the nest to find you. But when I went in, I saw you unconscious in one of the hallways with your face pale and your clothes tattered so I brought you out. I didn¡¯t see what was inside since I wasn¡¯t too bothered. After I got you out, I had the guards regroup further away from the capital and brought you back to Yoru. It¡¯s a little hectic right now since the royal family and the entirety of the capital has been wiped out so every family is at each other¡¯s neck¡¯s right now to determine who¡¯s the next ruler. As for how many days you¡¯ve been unconscious, let¡¯s just say it¡¯s been 4 days and I had to force feed you in order to keep you alive." Kuromi exined.
"I see... wait a minute. You¡¯ve been force feeding me?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah. Never thought I¡¯ll be looking after a child of sorts. A grown up and unconscious child who¡¯s survival was undetermined." Kuromi chuckled as Shiro became a little embarrassed.
"Anyways, how are the guards?" Shiro asked.
Hearing about the guards, Kuromi fell silent for a moment before sighed.
"Only 14 of them are left. Within the few that died, Nui and Prim were part of that. I know that you hung out with them quite a bit so I thought that I might as well tell you." Kuromi replied.
". . .I see. Despite this all being a trial, it still gets quite depressing huh?" Shiro replied after a short moment to digest the information.
"Mn... Setting that aside for now, what¡¯s going on with the trial? Did you notplete it? Why is everything still continuing as if this wasn¡¯t a trial." Kuromi asked with confusion.
"Ah about that, apparently, there was an error in calcting the final score and it¡¯s undergoing maintenance." Shiro replied.
"Ha? Undergoing maintenance???" Kuromi raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, it¡¯s quite strange for me to see that as well. Though I suppose the only thing we can do is to wait for it to finish maintenance for now I suppose. What do you suppose we should do within this time?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm...well I suppose what we can do is to help out those affected by therger families fighting for dominance. After all, with this country not having a ruler, it has be a brutal ce where it is literally a fight or die moment. For those that don¡¯t haverge families to back them, they¡¯re out in the world alone without support. So I suggest we help them out and give them a banner toe under for safety. It¡¯s not like we have anything else to do after all." Kuromi suggested as Shiro nodded.
"Sure. If you need anyone to be a show of force, I can be that person. I¡¯m not really into doing anything political." Shiro replied.
"Oh don¡¯t worry about that. Just think of it as big sis indulging herself for a bit while we have some time to ourselves." Kuromi chuckled.
Following along with her n, Kuromi continued to unite those without a family for the next two weeks as they became one of the major powers contending for the ruler title within a short moment of time.
Families that wanted to forcefully deal with Kuromi were dealt with by Shiro as those involved would be wiped out. Earning themselves the nickname of demon sisters by their enemies and guardian angels by their allies, the two passed their time in the trial without any knowledge of when they¡¯ll be let out.
However, their journey to being rulers were cut short as the maintenance finally finished.
[Trial Complete. Grade: S]
[Difficulty: Celestial God]
[Side Quest Completion: A]
[Hidden Quest Completion: SS]
[Main Quest Completion: S]
[Guard Affinity: S]
[Additional Quest Result: SS]
[S Rank Rewards: S Ranked Celestial Catalyst, Ascended Celestial Mana Essence, Supreme Celestial Awakening Stone, Soul Sword Upgrade, Soul Bound Armour Upgrade, Soul Repair.]
[Additional Rewards: Celestial Empress¡¯ Royal Decree, Celestial Empress¡¯ Inheritance.]
Tilting her head at the rewards, she couldn¡¯t help but feel as though she was forgetting something as she quickly looked over her records in her database.
¡¯To ss up, I needed a B ranked Celestial Catalyst, a Celestial Awakening Stone and a Celestial Empress Decree. I¡¯ve already collected one Celestial Mana Essence beforeing here so I didn¡¯t even need to ask the Empress for this item.¡¯ She thought to herself as she massaged her eyes since she could have asked a different question.
Shaking her head, she couldn¡¯t help but nce at the final S ranked reward. While it was noted as ¡¯Reward¡¯, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a bad feeling rise up in her heart.
[Soul Repair]
It was quite straight forward in terms of understanding what it does. However, considering their situation, it could mean something entirely different.
ncing over at Kuromi, Shiro could see her figure flicker for a few moments as dread filled her mind.
"This can¡¯t be happening..."
Chapter 460 Leaving The Trial
Chapter 460 Leaving The Trial
Quickly running over to hug Kuromi so that she didn¡¯t fall, Shiro set her down on the bed.
Looking at Kuromi¡¯s face, she could see that her expression would flicker to being lifeless for a short amount of time before returning.
"Say... Shiro... What do you think is happening?" Kuromi asked slowly.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro stayed silent.
¡¯System! I don¡¯t want this reward! If my grade is S, don¡¯t you dare take my sister!!!¡¯ Shiro shouted out in her mind as rage filled her heart.
She finally had someone she could truly call a family in this world and yet the system wanted to take her away in the name of ¡¯reward¡¯ and fixing her soul? She didn¡¯t need that if it meant losing someone like Kuromi.
"*Sigh* Don¡¯t make that face." Kuromi sighed with a small smile.
She could already guess what was happening since it was something she predicted a while back.
A solo trial where she would also follow was strange to begin with. When the soul strands proved that they were iplete made things all the more obvious since she was in a way, damaging Shiro¡¯s soul by not being one with her.
It was quite clear at the start so she had been taking the time to write down everything she knew in all of her notebooks so that Shiro could understand what she had gone through along with tips on being a mage.
"But big sis..." Shiro frowned.
"It¡¯s ok. I¡¯ve known that this would happen for a while now." Kuromi shook her head.
Balling her hands into a fist, Shiro thought about what she could do.
¡¯System! Oi System! Reject this reward right now! I don¡¯t need it!¡¯ She shouted out once more in hopes of getting a response but nothing had happened.
"Shiro... I¡¯ve enjoyed staying with you during our time in the trial. While it may have been short, it was also sweet. I just wish I could have spent more time with you along with my family in the real world. Keomi and Keiko are both lonely girls that were neglected due to my talent so I tried my best to be with them. But now that I¡¯m gone, the family must be pressuring the two of them quite a bit. Their good points are dimmed down as a task they should have done while their mistakes are erged for everyone to scrutinise at. I know I said this before but please look after them." Kuromi smiled sadly as Shiro could only nod.
With the system not responding to her calls, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a little useless right now. She felt as though she couldn¡¯t do anything.
Just as she was about to speak, a head splitting pain assaulted her mind as her body twitched in agony. Feeling memories flood into her mind, she knew that this was what Kuromi had experienced.
Quickly looking up, she was greeted with an empty bed...
Silence.
With Kuromi¡¯s memories flooding her mind, she could feel her emotions during the short time that they were together.
Feeling a sense of familial love and care behind each memory, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but nt her face against the bed covers as tears started to fall.
Quiet sobs could be heard as Shiro had never felt this helpless apart from the time in thebs. The only thing that has changed was that she now had power and was more mature but the helpless feeling was the same.
[As the rewards have been distributed, Entity ¨C Shiro, will now be sent out of the trial and undergo ss up.]
Seeing the notification, killing intent surged out of Shiro¡¯s body as her bloodshot eyes red at the system with hatred and anger.
Gritting her teeth, a desire topletely destroy the system appeared in her mind.
However, for her to save everyone else that she cared about in theing age of demons and gods, she had no choice but to use the system in order protect everyone.
Staying silent, her face became cold and emotionless while she waited for her to be brought back to the real world.
¡¯Why do you do this to me system? Is it fun? Why do you present to me the feeling of a caring big sister only to take it away from me after all this time? What did you have to gain from this? Was it a whim? If that¡¯s the case, why did shee with me to begin with? You should have just let me do everything alone.¡¯
Seeing the system not respond to her questions once more, Shiro closed her eyes.
¡¯Of course you won¡¯t answer. Out of the billions of people that use you, I¡¯m just one in the crowd. Who cares about the ant you identally step on when you walk. You don¡¯t even notice them. All that happens is your shoe crushes them to bits without a care of their family or connects. A cold killer. That is you. Whoever created you doesn¡¯t notice everyone. You¡¯re like that shoe which kills without a second thought. All that you do is carry out your orders. If he walks you walk. If he stops, you stop.¡¯
Sighing softly, Shiro was hit by the reality that she was still one of the crowd. There could be hundreds if not thousands of people around the world right now that are more talented or powerful than she was. If she failed to prove herself like in thebs, she would just be a star that shined slightly brighter.
¡¯There is no free food in this world. If you desire something, take it by your own hands. Don¡¯t rely on the system as it is but another carnivorous being who watches as you hunt for it. The treasures are tempting but the price of treasures are life threatening. Use the system but don¡¯t rely on it. Make everything you learned yours. Memorise the construction of spells by yourself and not through a system skill. The system is but a proxy, stopping you from achieving true power. If the system was to disappear, so will the spells but not the experience.¡¯
Falling into a small slumber of sorts, her body started to change ever so slightly with the addition of her soul being fixed.
Her reservoir of Celestial Energy started to connect to her mana pool as the two started to merge together.
Her links, that were previously shattered, are now sewn together by her soul strands which fixed the cracks and repaired her links back to pristine condition.
###
Outside in the real world, a pir of light shot up into the sky as the gateway started to close.
Understanding that this phenomenon was clearly irregr and that people who were still undergoing their trial were forcefully ejected out, the adventurers quickly called upon the authorities to check on this situation.
Looking at the pir of light, they realised that it was no normal pir of light. It was in fact a giant stack of magic circles that whenyered together, formed the illusion of a pir. There were a few mages that took this chance to analyse the situation but couldn¡¯t trante any of the runes much to their confusion.
However, the spirits around the ce were jubnt. While they hadn¡¯t fully developed sentience, they knew that this was an event to be joyful about.
Their queen had now returned and now she¡¯s gone a step above to be an empress.
As the empress gets stronger, so will the spirits.
For those in the spirit country hidden in the world, they could clearly feel their strength shoot up as those who were stuck in the higher levels were given 10 levels for free.
"How could this be... 10 levels at once? Not even the previous queens were able to cause this kind of phenomenon!" A spirit muttered as she stood up in her room.
Since they had actually levelled up by 10 levels in one go, this must mean that their queen must have just experienced an upgrade. For a change such as this, the signs of evolutions can not be easily hidden away so they must take this chance to locate the queen.
"Quickly! Send our scouts out into the world! Look for our queen and bring her to safety! The world is dangerous and we cannot let her wonder the world alone!"
While this was all happening, Shiro was undergoing her ss up.
[ss upgrade: Mystic Sylph Queen (SSS) -> True Celestial Sylph Empress (EX)]
Chapter 461 Level 101
Chapter 461 Level 101
[ss upgrade: Mystic Sylph Queen (SSS) -> True Celestial Sylph Empress (EX)]
As her body was undergoing evolution, Shiro knew that she was still conscious as the system messages filled her vision.
With no other choice but to read the upgrades while her body is being changed, she sighed internally.
With her soul being fixed and Kuromi being a part of her once more, it was as if they both fused into one. She could remember everything Kuromi went through along with her life experiences. What she wanted to do and her way of thinking.
However, that was more like reading a book. While her overall aura had be peaceful due to Kuromi¡¯s experience, her dominant side was still ¡¯Shiro.¡¯ If anything, this could be called the real Shiro since it was abination of Kuromi and Nytri.
[Race Upgrade: Celestial Fae]
[Race Passive Skills: Celestial Essence, Dominating Presence, Chosen of Nature.]
[Upgraded Skills: Myriad Transformations Throne World -> Celestial Gardens. Ancient Spirit Casting -> Celestial Language. Tier 3 Element Magic -> Tier 4 Element Magic. Sylph Queen¡¯s Domain EX -> Celestial Empress¡¯ Domain EX. Basic Elemental Mastery -> Intermediate Elemental Mastery.]
[Title Upgrade: Element Empress EX -> Celestial Empress EX.]
[Assignable points gained per level increased to 20,000. (Not including passive ss bonuses per level.)]
Looking at the screen emotionlessly, she nced over at their descriptions.
[Celestial Essence]
You can extract a portion of your mana into a gem that can refine one¡¯s mana purity. The more they take, the more powerful their spells be. Each person is limited to two Celestial Essences and any more would have no effect.
You can do this once per month.
[Dominating Presence]
Those that are equal or lower level to you will feel an overbearing presence thatmands their respect when talking to you.
This can be stacked together with killing intent to further amplify its effects.
Cannot be turned off but rather weakened for convenience.
[Chosen of Nature]
Mana Regeneration, Health Regeneration are bolstered whenever you are in an area rich with nature rather than man-made constructs.
¡¯Mn... I guess out of these three, the first one is the most impressive. There are probably more hidden passives to having the race of Celestial Fae but for now, I suppose this is all I need to know.¡¯ She mused to herself before ncing towards her new status board.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Celestial Fae
Title: Advanced Monster (312/1000 Human¡¯s Killed), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX
Level: 101
ss: True Celestial Sylph Empress (EX), Ascendant Nanomancer (EX)
HP: 21,875,000/21,875,000
MP: 59,187,500/59,187,500
STR: 80,000 <+40,000> (+20,000)
VIT: 100,000 <+50,000> (+25,000)
INT: 150,000 -> 170,000 <+85,000> (+40,000) {+8,500} [+170,000]
AGI: 90,000 <+45,000> (+15,000)
DEX: 70,000 <+35,000> (+10,000)
DEF: 50,000 <+25,000> (+15,000)
< > = Title Bonus (50%) {Tears of the Sylph Queen +5% INT} (Armour) [ ]= Armour passive
Unassigned Points: 20,000 -> 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 4
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 4
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 4
Rift Shadow ¨C Tier 4 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 4
Star ¨C Tier 4
Underworld Fire ¨C Tier 4
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 4
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 4
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 4
Forest ¨C Tier 4
Bnce: 5 Gold 292 Large Silver, 473 Silver Erins 5604 Bronze Erins 0 USD
Skills ¨C
True Celestial Sylph Empress:
Elemental Breath, Fae Illusions, Force of Elements, Celestial Raiment EX, Tier 4 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Celestial Empress¡¯ Domain EX, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX, Frenzied Incarnation EX, Intermediate Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 4, Analysis
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path, Celestial Path, Berserker Path
Sword Skills:
Refraction, Sword Domain
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Celestial Gardens, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Celestial Language, Asteria¡¯s Blessing, Wrath of Stars.]
¡¯Hou... So my HP has surpassed 20 million and my MP is now almost at 60 million. Not only that, this upgrade haspletely fixed my links as well so I wonder what¡¯s my power now. I could fight against those that are higher level than me so I should have an even easier time now.¡¯ She thought to herself before trying to move her body.
[As you are still undergoing evolution, please do not move for it may affect the process.]
Seeing the system message pop up to warn her about moving, Shiro felt as though a vein had just burst.
¡¯Heh~ So you appear when I¡¯m f*cking moving but when my sister is being erased you say nothing huh!?¡¯ She questioned with a re as the system fell silent once more.
¡¯Tch, fine, stay silent you piece of sh*t.¡¯ Shiro clicked her tongue before meditating in silence.
###
"Have you found out what that pir of light is?" A man asked while ncing towards the peak of Mount Fuji.
"Unfortunately, our researchers have not been able to decode the runes. They have only been doing this for two days so I¡¯d say we¡¯ll get some decent results in a weeks¡¯ time."
"A weeks¡¯ time!? Tell them to hurry! What if the runes suddenly disappear huh? This is an unprecedented situation where researching the runes and finding out exactly what is happening is top priority. If they¡¯recking in manpower, just tell them to spit it out and we¡¯ll give them more reinforcement." The man frowned.
"I understand but it¡¯s not a matter of manpower but rather the fact that we can¡¯t even approach the runes to take a closer look so we can only observe from afar. Unless we take a closer look, we can¡¯t analyse the situation clearly.
Hearing the reply, the man frowned before he was suddenly ovee with a heavy pressure that caused him to almost fall out of his chair.
Quickly looking towards the source of this pressure, he realised that it was being emanated by the pir of light.
"Quickly get everyone! The pir is dispersing!" Hemanded before dashing out of his room.
Meanwhile, everyone started to gather near the base of Mount Fuji as the pir slowly crumbled to pieces of light.
"I¡¯m finally out." A feminine voice echoed.
"Mn? Well this is certainly interesting. Seems like my presence has garnered quite a crowd."
As the light died down, they finally saw the source of the voice.
Floating in the air, they could see a hooded figure dressed in all ck with white hair escaping out of the hood. Unfortunately, they could not see the facial details but they knew that the person was a woman.
"Who are you?" Someone called out as Shiro only titled her head before smiling from under her hood.
"Let¡¯s just say... I¡¯m apleter of the Celestial Trials. There was a small... ¡¯ident¡¯ of sorts which is why I¡¯m forced to talk to you like this." She replied with humour in her voice.
"In that case then can you enlighten us about what rank youpleted? No normal rank can force this kind of phenomenon. You must havepleted Celestial Immortal Rank right!?" One of the researchers questioned with excitement.
"You want to know the rank I¡¯vepleted? Sorry, but I¡¯m not obliged to tell you. Anyways, surrounding a- no it would be Empress now wouldn¡¯t it?" Shiro said as she paused for a moment.
"Surrounding an Empress like this is quite rude isn¡¯t it? Why don¡¯t you go on about your day and you can just think of it as seeing a meteor shower in the night sky or something." She chuckled before attempting to leave.
However, before she even moved a finger, 10 figures floated up into the sky.
"I¡¯m sorry to bother you miss but this is a serious problem. With yourpletion of the quest, the trials seemed to be closed for good. No one can ess the Celestial Trials anymore in this location and those that are halfway done were forced out due to you. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s not too much to ask for you to give us a few answers now would it?" A man asked with a slight bow.
"I¡¯m not obliged to tell you anything I don¡¯t want. Unless... you are determined to fight me for the answer? I won¡¯t say that I¡¯m invincible but... you¡¯re going to have to do better if you want to pressure me." Shiro grinned as she snapped her finger.
*BOOM!!!!
Before anyone could even react, tens upon hundreds of tier 4 magic circles exploded out in the area around them as the ambient mana went berserk.
Shocked at the casting capabilities of this woman, they quickly backed down.
"We don¡¯t mean to pressure you. We were only curious. However, if you are displeased, we will not bother you anymore." The man quickly apologised as sweat rolled down his face.
"See? Much better. I swear, you people always need a bit of force to actually back down. If I was in a bad mood, I would have killed you."
¡¯However, Big sis Kuromi didn¡¯t exactly like me killing too often so I think I¡¯ll cut it down a little unless they¡¯re truly a danger.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a soft smile before dismissing all of the magic circles.
Flicking her wrist, a rift opened up under her as she disappeared from her spot.
Chapter 462 Country of Rilsa
Chapter 462 Country of Rilsa
Travelling through the rift, Shiro nced towards her Mana Realm and saw that both Nimue and Iziuel were looking around in surprise.
"What are you looking at? It almost looks like you¡¯ve seen a ghost." Shiro called out with a chuckle.
"Shiro! What happened? All of your links are healed! The mana realm is flooding with mana!" Nimue asked with shock all over her face.
"Mn... It was one of my rewards forpleting the quest." Shiro replied while jumping out of the rift.
Activating her disguise, she made herself seem like an average city girl before renting a room so that she could rest in.
Closing her eyes, she sent herself into the mana realm.
"Right then, this should be easier for you to ask questions right?" Shiro smiled before gesturing for Atesh toe to her side.
Picking Atesh up, she smiled and pinched his cheeks causing him to furrow his brows before burrowing his head into her shoulder which caused her tough.
"So what happened in there? For some reason, we were cut off from you and before we knew it, everything here changed. Your energy is slightly different and we¡¯ve even received an upgrade of our own." Iziuel asked while floating over to her side.
"Well, Ipleted the quest like I said. Surprisingly, I was able to meet big sis Kuromi who... unfortunately was not able toe out with me. I¡¯m sure she would have enjoyed ying with you Attie." Shiro said while patting Atesh¡¯s head.
"Wait, isn¡¯t Kuromi..."
"Yeah, she¡¯s the previous owner of this body. Let¡¯s just say we¡¯re two halves of the same coin. The same soul connected from different times." Shiro smiled.
"I see..." Nimue nodded.
"Anyways, I want to try something first." Shiro said while walking over to the ice ind.
Since Atesh was a fire spirit, being near the ice ind made him a little ufortable as Shiro created a nket of fire for him which made him cuddle into her embrace some more.
"How cute." Shiro chuckled before focusing on the main task at hand.
Previously, she had recycled a skill or rather, talent called Trickster that allowed her to act in the manner of anyone without ws. If she was tobine this with a golem of sorts, she could bring Kuromi back.
However, before she could even start on her project, a part of her told her that this was not the same. Even if she seeds, this golem would not have Kuromi¡¯s soul. It¡¯s a fake that would only do what she told it to do.
Kuromi was gone, she was a part of her now since they¡¯re the same person. They weren¡¯t meant to be apart to begin with.
*Sigh...
Sighing softly, she dropped her hand and shook her head.
"Never mind. Let¡¯s see... what shall I do now then. I still need to give mana to the lotus that refuses to bloom then I also need to use the Soul Sword Upgrade and the Soul Bound Armour upgrade." Shiro said before looking back at the two spirits that resided in her mana realm.
"Do you want toe out into the real world? I¡¯ll be taking Attie around so it might be a good chance for you two toe out too." Shiro asked.
Looking at each other, both Nimue and Iziuel nodded their heads.
"Sure but do we want to put some disguises on?" Nimue asked.
"Hmm... you know what, sure. I¡¯ll change my disguise a little so I look like I¡¯m Attie¡¯s mother." Shiro grinned.
Focusing back to the real world, she waved her hand as fire, water and leaves swirled around in her palms. Pushing them out, they slowly formed the figures of Atesh, Nimue and Iziuel.
"Right then, first things first, I need to meet up with everyone else. I suppose telling both Keiko and Keomi that I¡¯ve got my memories back should give them a pleasant surprise." Shiro muttered with a smile.
Pulling out her phone, she sent a simple message to the two of them.
[Shiro: I¡¯ve got my memories back now.]
Immediately upon sending them this message, she was bombarded by quite a few replies.
[Keomi: REALLY!?!?! You got your memories back big sis?!]
[Keiko: Holy sh*t!]
Spending some time to prove this to the two of them, she scheduled a meeting back in Vericia once she met up with the rest of the party.
"Right then,st time I told Lyrica and the others who haven¡¯t ssed up to meet Silvia, Chen Yu and Madison once they¡¯ve ssed up in order to level up. I wasn¡¯t exactly in the trial for a long time so they should still be doing the tasks."
Sending a message to Lyrica, she asked them about where they were right now.
[Lyrica: Oh we¡¯re in a city called Epona. We¡¯ve managed to ss up so we¡¯re just levelling up right now. Chen Yu, Silvi and Madi have already reached level 115 while me, Yin and Aarim are level 105. Lisandra has just levelled up to 101 so I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯ve managed toplete your trial.]
[Shiro: Yes I did. I hope that her evolution didn¡¯t cause too much of a problem now did it?]
[Lyrica: Well... If being pestered by the church everyday is a big problem then I suppose I can only say yes.]
[Shiro: Wait what?]
[Lyrica: You see, in her moment of ssing up, everyone in the city of Epona saw a golden halo surround her from the sky. Not only that, all of the holy items and religious priests reacted to her presence in a way that had them kneel down and bow to her in worship. By the time they realised what had happened, they called her the true angel, messenger of god.]
[Shiro: . . . Ok I¡¯m heading over to Epona right now.]
Messaging Keomi and Keiko about the change of ns, she had the two of them make their way towards Epona instead.
"Are you ok?" Nimue asked as she could see annoyance in Shiro¡¯s expression.
"Let¡¯s just say my daughter¡¯s caught the attention of the church due to her ss and race. With her identity as an angel being uncovered, the church is pestering her all day long." Shiro replied as she quickly searched up the city of Epona and saw a video of Lisandra¡¯s ss up.
¡¯No wonder the church is pestering her.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she could see the holy light being radiated from Lisandra. Even though she wasn¡¯t there; she could practically feel the presence of a higher being just by looking at the video.
Clicking her tongue, she brought up the map and looked at where the city of Epona was.
"Hmm... Right now, we¡¯re in Mount Fuji. To get to Epona, we¡¯ll need to leave Japan and go further north, past the elven country. If they continued north, they¡¯d reach the country of Russia but Epona wasn¡¯t that far up. It was in the border country that was wedged just between Japan and Russia.
Known as Rilsa, this was a rather small country but it could hold its own due to its high level adventurers that use the dungeons there. Most of them are focused on using the dungeons to level up so they aren¡¯t too bothered by anything that¡¯s happening in the outside world as long as it doesn¡¯t harm them.
They wee foreigners as long as they pass a test of strength to prove that they¡¯re powerful enough to stay in the country.
There¡¯s only one exception to this and that¡¯s the church. Since the adventurers are fighting every day, there are no doubts that some will be close to death. If not for the priests provided by the church, many of them would have died so they feel indebted to the church. Therefore, they allow them to set up a branch and have new priestse into the city without a test of strength.
The city of Epona was not too far from the capital of Rilsa as it had its own high level dungeons. If one had to describe it, it was a beginner friendly ce that allowed those that just reached B rank/Tier 4 to have a decent time in levelling up.
Looking at the map, Shiro guessed that it would take her around two days if she was to be riding her motorbike at full speed. However, this was advised against since there are a few dangerous areas blocking the path between Mount Fuji and Epona. Namely the Shihai trenches that had opened up after the world was changed to amodate the system and dungeons.
The Shihai trenches contained high levelled earth type monsters that could create new ravines with a snap of a finger. The only reason that they haven¡¯t destroyed arge portion ofnd is because they¡¯re keeping each other at bay. The moment one of the monsters tries to destroy their home, the others will spring into action, forming this delicate bnce within the Shihai trenches.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to hire a few adventurers with the teleport shrines to Rilsa in order to make their journey a little easier.
Chapter 463 Element Upgrade
Chapter 463 Element Upgrade
Making their way up the country so that they could hire some adventurers to take them to Epona.
Shiro had rented a flying mount to take them to Tokyo as she sat on its back with Attie in herps while she read a book of sorts. In her spare hand, she held the lotus and charged it with her mana.
"What are you reading?" Nimue asked.
"Mn? Oh you mean this?" Shiro replied while pointing at the book.
"It¡¯s something that big sis wrote while she was in the trial. I printed them all out from memory since I didn¡¯t take anything out from the trial. While I technically know what¡¯s happening, I guess it¡¯s still better to just read it on a physical copy." She chuckled before flipping the pages.
"Is that so, what does it say?"
"Well it mainly contained ways to use magic, some strategies along with a few notes about her family members. How Keomi really enjoyed eating ramen as a child and would even go as far as to sneak off in the middle of the night so she could eat ramen atte night ramen stands." Shiro replied while showing Nimue one of the pages.
"I see... How many notes did she take?"
"Hmm... Around 40 to 50 notebook¡¯s worth. I¡¯ll probably read through them all when I have time. Maybe as a hobby. Speaking of hobbies, I had actually picked up juice making inside the quest. If you want, I can make you some fruit juice." Shiro offered with a soft smile.
"Ah, um sure." Nimue nodded since she was a little surprised at how Shiro acted now. She seemed calm and understanding, almost like a caring big sister but at the same time, she was still cheeky and quite energetic.
It was a strange feeling but not a bad one since it made one want to get closer to her and enjoy her embrace.
Even Attie had fallen asleep in Shiro¡¯sp as his head rested against her chest. There were times where he would start to drool as Shiro would only chuckle before wiping it away gently.
As they continued their journey, Shiro felt the lotus shimmer for a moment as the petals started to move.
"Oh? It is finally done?" She muttered in surprise. After charging an astounding 100 billion MP into this lotus, it had finally shown some signs of blooming.
Feeling a surge in the mana surrounding them, Shiro could see three faint lights being produced in the centre of the lotus.
Purple, Red and Green lights swirled within the centre of the lotus as Shiro could feel her connection with the respective elements increase. The purple represented the Rift, Red for fire and Green for nature.
ncing back at Iziuel, she could see a faint green halo being strengthened around her presence.
Not only that, but a faint veil of light seemed to peel away from her. Her green hair was now a fresh turquoise as her body seemed to emanate a gentle scent that calmed down one¡¯s mood.
"Huh? What¡¯s happening?" Iziuel asked with confusion in her voice.
"Seems like you¡¯re experiencing an upgrade of sorts. I??ve managed to fully charge the lotus and the three chosen elements were Rift Shadow, Underworld Fire and Forest. With you and Attie having a connection to my forest and fire element, it¡¯s only natural that you¡¯ll receive an upgrade too." Shiro replied with a soft chuckle.
Looking down at Attie, she noticed that the upgrade had woken him up as red markings could be seen spreading out on his body.
Not only that, but Attie¡¯s hair had also grown a little longer. The ends of his hair seemed to defy gravity as they would flicker like a real me but in slow motion.
Tilting his head in confusion, he looked up at Shiro who only patted his head.
"Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s nothing bad." She reassured before checking the system to see what had changed.
[Tri Element Crystal Lotus has been opened. The following elements have been upgraded.]
[Rift Shadow (Tier 4) -> Astral Rift (Tier 5)]
[Underworld Fire (Tier 4) -> Dark Celestial Fire (Tier 5)]
[Forest (Tier 4) -> Nature (Tier 5)]
Seeing the familiar nature element, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrows in mild surprise since it had directly propelled three of her elements to tier 5.
"Iziuel, seems like I now have the Nature element. Since you¡¯re contracted to me, you should also have some benefits." Shiro said with a smile.
"Hmm... I¡¯m not too sure but it does feel like I now have a connection to both the air around us along with the moisture in the air." Iziuel frowned while moving her hand. Following the movement of her hand, the wind in the air around them started to shift, surprising Nimue since Iziuel should not have been able to control those elements.
"Damn, look at both Attie and Iziuel getting upgrades." Nimue smiled since this meant that they can both assist Shiro in the future since she¡¯ll be contesting against other queens to keep their race safe.
She wasn¡¯t too bothered about not getting an upgrade herself since there was only a limited number of things that she could do. If anything, having Attie and Iziuel get the upgrade is probably the best case scenario in her opinion.
"Oh Nimue, you should see your expression right now. It reminds me of when I first met Lyrica. She was unassured of herself and always thought that she was weak. Your expression is almost the same. You¡¯re probably thinking something along the lines of I can¡¯t help much right?" Shiro sighed as she looked at Nimue with a gentle smile.
"Ah?" Surprised at how Shiro knew that she was thinking, Nimue didn¡¯t know how to react.
"Well just know that having you here is more than enough. I don¡¯t need any of you to fight since I¡¯ll take on that burden myself. If anything, your inputs in regards to how the spirit race should proceed would be greatly appreciated." Shiro chuckled.
"Damn, the trial has really changed you huh?" Nimue raised her eyebrows.
"Hm... a little. But that¡¯s only because I¡¯m a little carefree right now. There¡¯s not much to do other than waiting and doing some misceneous tasks. Once the fighting starts, you¡¯ll probably see me acting more like ¡¯me¡¯ I suppose." Shiro replied.
"Right. I wasn¡¯t exactlyining about the change but this is good to know." Nimue smiled.
As they continued their journey up the country so that they could hire an adventurer, Shiro decided to keep the soul sword and soul bound armour upgrades for when she meets Helion again. After all, there was a chance that he could improve them some more.
Plus, her weapons and armour were doing quite well as they are so she¡¯s not exactly urged to use the upgrades.
Upon arriving in the city of Terumi, which was shortly created after the dungeons appeared, Shiro immediately looked around for the teleport shrine and found it without too many problems.
Linking herself to the shrine, she then made her way towards the guild with the trio of spirits with her.
Uploading a request to take them to a ce as close to Epona as possible, they made their way to a restaurant since it was going to take a while for the request to be epted by a party.
While this was all happening, Shiro had no idea that Lucius had finallypleted the two tasks that Shiro had set out for him. The first was to sort the faction out as he had finally managed to be the guaranteed next leader of the faction afterpleting all of the tasks. The second task was for him to solidify his position so that when Shiro and Yin visited, they wouldn¡¯t be killed on sight.
With the twopleted, he could finally ask Shiro to visit the shadow temple without the risk of being attacked. The memories of what had happenedst time was still fresh in his mind as his body would shiver unconsciously in fear at the thought.
To be honest, he wanted to avoid her but the importance of what he had found was too big for him to just ignore.
"So how was she? I heard that she seemed to be the cause of the trials closing for good.." Lucius called out as a woman appeared in his office.
"Well... from what I could tell, it seems like the girl you told me to keep an eye on has managed toplete one of the higher grades of the trials." The woman replied.
If Shiro was in the room, she would have recognised her to be Sharis, the Sage of Shadows that she had met just before the trial had opened.
"Hmm... is that so. Figures, it¡¯s Shiro after all. "Lucius muttered before ncing towards Sharis.
"Anyways, I heard that her friends are in Epona so she¡¯ll probably be looking for them. I want you to help me deliver a message to her along with being her guide since I¡¯m a little busy."
"Since you¡¯re requesting something from me, you remember the payment right?" Sharis chuckled.
"Of course I haven¡¯t forgotten. Everything will be deposited to your ount once the task is finished." Lucius nodded.
"Mn, in that case then I¡¯m going. Don¡¯t miss me too much ok?" Sharis smiled.
"I won¡¯t."
"Che fine." Sharis frowned before faded away into nothingness, leaving only Lucius in the room.
Chapter 464 Small Conflict
Chapter 464 Small Conflict
Wondering around in Terumi, Shiro spent the entire time entertaining Attie and taking him to ces he would be interested in.
During this period, she had also noticed her level go up a few times, telling her that Lisandra was clearing dungeons with the rest of the party.
Of course, to avoid some trouble, Shiro disguised herself and the three spirits so that they looked like an inconspicuous family that was having a rxing day out.
"Say, should we get Attie some clothes? All he has is what his fire solidifies into and your disguises." Nimue asked while ying around with Atesh.
"Hm... perhaps. Let¡¯s go find a clothes shop for him then. It would be good if they had monster cloth so it won¡¯t break." Shiro nodded her head as she did a quick search for a nearby store that sold what they wanted.
Finding three stores that fit their requirements, they started to make their way through each of them.
The first store had a wide variety but nothing of great quality while the second were a bit too mboyant. As for the third, well, they had a small issue with how the group looked.
Since they wanted to be inconspicuous, their disguises made them seem rathermon.
With the third store being one that served high level adventurers and rich folks, it was only natural that they didn¡¯t think the group could buy any of their outfits.
"Get out of here. If you¡¯re just going to window shop, go somewhere else, you¡¯re disturbing the people in the store. Looking at how you are, I doubt you can even afford a pair of pants from here, never mind a full outfit." The receptionist scoffed with disdain.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro could feel her annoyance soar within a single moment.
Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself down before looking back at the receptionist.
¡¯Big sis Kuromi always told me to try resolving things peacefully so this should be a good practice.¡¯
"Who knows, everyone is hunting monsters nowadays. Surely you shouldn¡¯t underestimate how much we could have earned despite looking like this." Shiro said with a smile.
"Heh~ You really think you can afford what we have huh? Do you know that this stuff is made from the finest monster cloth that won¡¯t break at all. While it does not protect you from attacks, it guarantees that you still look presentable in a fight. Just imagine the shame of fighting nude because a fire breath destroyed your clothes. Therefore, do you really think that you can afford what we have despite therge demand for this kind of clothing?" The receptionist asked sarcastically.
"Yep. Just tell me how much one would cost for Attie." Shiro nodded while gesturing to Atesh.
"100 Large Silv-"
*BANG!
mming down a bag that was filled with 100rge silver Erins, Shiro kept her nonchnt smile as the receptionist widened her eyes before calming herself down.
"What I mean is 100 Large Silver Erins for a single piece while it¡¯s 300 for a whole set."
Keeping a smile on her face, Shiro then took the 100 Large Silvers back before cing down 3 Gold Erins.
"Ah of course, let me show you the outfits now." The receptionist quickly smiled while sweeping the coins away.
Keeping her smile, she brought them to where they sold clothes for children.
However, upon arrival, Shiro was quite disappointed by what she saw.
While it was technically made from monster cloth, it was quite poor in quality. It had been changed so that the cloth would be stretched over arge surface area, making it feel flimsy.
"Is this really what¡¯s worth 3 Gold?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course." The receptionist smiled but she knew that wasplete bullsh*t.
At best, the clothes she was showing Shiro were only worth around 10 Large silvers mainly due to the monster cloth. She had increased it by 10 times in order to rip her off but since she could produce 100 Large Silver¡¯s without a problem, it meant she could produce more hence why she asked for 3 Gold or rather, 300 Large Silvers instead.
"Hm, I see. Well it seems like it¡¯s a little expensive for my tastes after all. I¡¯d like to have my three gold back please." Shiro asked as she was a little annoyed by the fact that this sh*tty piece of cloth would cost so much. If it was good quality, she wouldn¡¯t mind spending a lot for Attie since she could always earn it back whenever she wanted. But even if that¡¯s the case, she did not want to use her money on crap products.
"Oh I¡¯m sorry, but since you gave us money, it¡¯s policy that you either buy something or get a third of your money back. In other words, it is pick an outfit or take back one gold." The receptionist smiled. Since they had level 150 guards protecting the store, it wasn¡¯t difficult for them to reinforce the ¡¯rules¡¯ if needs be.
"I-"
"Do remember that we have several level 150 high quality guards around the ce so don¡¯t try to pull anything funny."
"Oi, was that a threat?" Shiro asked as her smile faded away.
Feeling her aura turning a little hostile, Nimue knew that things might turn ugly since this was the real Shiro. Or rather, as she liked to call it, demon on the battlefield.
"Not quite a threat but rather a friendly reminder."
"Hou~ I see. Quite ballsy for a sh*tty receptionist don¡¯t you think?" Shiro replied as she was clearly annoyed by this person.
"I see, if that¡¯s you how want to be then... Guards!" The receptionist called out as five tier 4 magic circles surrounded Shiro.
However, before they could even activate, Shiro snapped her fingers as 5 copies of Ataraxia appeared around her and smashed the magic circles apart.
"Seriously, after big sis became a part of me, I wanted to respect her wishes but it seems like I¡¯m not suited to be peaceful to begin with." Shiro muttered as she stomped down with her foot.
Her hair fluttered from her aura as she flicked her wrist and five guards suddenly appeared before her.
Shocked at how they were forcefully teleported next to her, the guards quickly attacked her.
"Kietoma." Shiromanded as everything in a 5 meter radius around her froze up for a single second. This was a skill she had developed back in Kyoto as everything that was frozen in ce would also receive a 20% decrease to their defences, making her counter attack all the more powerful.
In a single second, she was able to surround them with a multitude of attacks that wouldunch at a moment¡¯s notice.
Amplifying her Dominating Presence passive along with some killing intent, she waved her hands as swords stabbed deeply into their thighs and pinning them to the ground. Naturally, this included the receptionist since she had tried to scam them.
"ARG!!!" Crying out in pain, the receptionist had tears in her eyes as she quickly pleaded for mercy.
Seeing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but think back to the moment when the system took Kuromi away from her without sparing her a single thought.
Sighing softly, she waved her hand and dispersed the attacks.
"I don¡¯t exactly want Attie to see too much bloodshed so just give me the money and I¡¯ll be on my way." Shiro said as she nced at the guards. Checking to see if there were still signs of hostility in their eyes or not, she decided to spare them if they¡¯d given up. But if they were still hostile, then let¡¯s just say she¡¯s already given them a second chance.
Nodding her head frantically, the receptionist quickly ran over the counter and gave Shiro all the money she could find.
"I don¡¯t need that much. Just give me the three gold back." Shiro sighed since she wasn¡¯t here to rob anyone.
Confused as to why she would only want 3 gold back despite what had happened, the receptionist nodded her head and gave her the three gold.
Leaving the store, Shiro walked along the street with a smile as if nothing had happened.
"So why did you spare them? I¡¯m honestly curious since I thought you would have dealt with them quickly and cleanly. I know you said that you don¡¯t want Attie to see too much bloodshed but there are probably a million ways for you to kill them without blood being spilt everywhere." Nimue asked curiously.
"Obviously that¡¯s because Shiro¡¯s a good girl." Iziuel chipped in since she believed that Shiro wasn¡¯t cruel since she had saved her from the elven country and had even chosen a peaceful way to do it.
"Well... let¡¯s just say I wanted to respect my big sister¡¯s wishes." Shiro smiled before going towards a hotel to rent a room for the night. If no one epted their request tomorrow, she¡¯d probably go on a road trip with the three spirits.
Chapter 465 Border
Chapter 465 Border
Waking up in the morning, Shiro took Attie down to have some breakfast while the other two were still sleeping peacefully.
Since it was quite rare that they stayed in the physical world, she wanted to let them enjoy their time a bit more so she wasn¡¯t in a rush to wake them up.
"Attie, which meal do you want?" Shiro asked while gesturing to the different options.
Waiting for a moment, she saw Attie point his hands towards one of them and ordered two portions.
Sitting down with Attie, she fed him the meal while ncing at her phone to check some news along with checking to see if anyone had picked up her request.
Looking up some information about the front lines, she saw that Keiko had been much more enthusiastic as she was storming through the enemy¡¯s higher ranks like nothing. Spending most of her time killing the main figure heads, she was able to help push back the enemy and im morend for humanity.
They tried to interview her but she only had one sentence to say to the reporters.
"In the time it takes for me to answer your questions, I can be killing 5 to 10 of their leaders. Which one do you want me to do?" Keiko asked sarcastically.
Since they knew that she had a teleportation skill, they did not question this statement and allowed her to go on about her tasks.
Seeing Keiko so enthusiastic about clearing the front lines, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
"Attie, you see this woman here? That¡¯s your aunty Keiko. She¡¯s one of the most powerful people in the world." Shiro said while showing Attie a picture of Keiko.
Tilting his head for a moment, Attie nodded before reaching out for some food since Shiro had paused.
Patting his head, she resumed her actions of feeding him while checking for other information.
As she was doing this, both Nimue and Iziuel soon woke up and joined them downstairs. Getting their own food, they enjoyed a rather peaceful morning.
"Welp, it doesn¡¯t seem like anyone has picked up my request so we¡¯ll be taking a road trip instead." Shiro said as she checked her request onest time.
"Hm, that¡¯s quite unfortunate then, isn¡¯t it. Without the teleport shrine, it may take us quite a while to reach Epona." Nimue furrowed her brows.
"Well I guess I can try to make my way to Epona as fast as I can with my motorbike but honestly, the speed might be a lit- wait a minute. You know what? Attie, what do you prefer? Travelling through the air or overnd travel?" Shiro asked with a smile.
Furrowing his brows, Attie only tilted his head in confusion.
"Well to put it simply, would you like to fly through the air or speed across thend?"
Thinking about it for a moment, Attie pointed his finger up towards the ceiling as Shiro understood that he was wanting to travel through the air .
"Welp, you heard him. Come with me, I got a blueprint I want to make since my links are healed now." Shiro grinned.
Cancelling the request, she made her way out of the city with the trio of spirits following her.
Once she was sure that they were far enough from the city, Shiro set up a camouging field so that no one could see what they were doing.
Crouching down, she pressed her palms on the ground before closing her eyes.
Bringing up the blueprint of a jet in her mind, nanobots surged out from her hands as the vehicle was slowly constructed in front of them.
Looking at the jet in shock, Nimue couldn¡¯t believe that Shiro had just created a giant ne without any help from an already existing jet much like what she had done with the motorcycle.
"Right then, Attie will sit in the front with me while you two can sit in the back." Shiro said as she climbed into the jet with Attie in her hands.
"Right then, this jet is a ¡¯little¡¯ different to the jet avable in this current era since I can make something much better. I¡¯ve also made it so that it¡¯s a little morefortable for Attie since he¡¯s only a child." Shiro smiled while flicking a few switches.
"Oh? What did you do?" Nimue asked curiously while putting on the seatbelt.
"Well it¡¯s just so that Attie doesn¡¯t need to feel the force from me flying ¡¯quite¡¯ fast. You two on the other hand, can experience the raw sensation." Shiro grinned as a familiar sadistic light could be seen in her eyes as Nimue felt a bad feeling well up in her heart.
Before she could even voice herint, she felt a tremendous force hit into her as she was pressed against the chair.
*BOOM!!!!!
Launching into the air, the force from the engine ripped out a giant chunk of the dirt as Shiro quickly flipped her hands and repaired the location using her nature element before she was out of range.
¡¯DAMN IT! SHE DIDN¡¯T CHANGE! SHE¡¯S STILL SADISTIC!!!¡¯ Nimue cried out in her mind as she couldn¡¯t move from her chair.
ncing to the side, she noticed that Iziuel seemed to be much more rxed whenpared to her. Almost as if she was just on a rxing roller-coaster ride.
¡¯Bias! I call bias! Why am I the only one experiencing the full force!!!¡¯ Sheined as the scenery around them started to blur from the speed of the jet.
Attie, who was sitting at the front, felt none of this as he looked down at the world with a glimmer of excitement in his eyes.
Seeing his expression, Shiro felt a warm feeling rise up in her heart as she gently patted his head.
Of course, to not ruin this sweet moment, Shiro ignored Nimue¡¯s suffering in the background.
Following a course that she had set up, they started to make their way near the border of Rilsa since it would be quite back to invade a country with her jet.
During this, there were a few medium levelled monsters that tried to attack them, but the guns installed on the jet easily dealt with them before they could evene close to the jet.
Slowing down once they were close, Shironded the jet without much difficulty as Nimue immediately jumped off the jet as sheid on the ground while on the verge of passing out.
"Are you not good with nes?" Shiro asked with a grin.
"Oh f*ck right off. You know what you did." Nimue retorted as her smile twitched.
"I have no idea what you¡¯re on about." Shiro replied as she acted dumb about the situation at hand.
Picking Attie up, she quickly healed up Nimue before disassembling the jet.
"So then, after we pass the borders, I¡¯ll make us a car so that we can get to Epona quickly. Honestly, the quicker we arrive in Epona, the better." Shiro smiled as Nimue paled at the mention of cars.
"Um, I think I¡¯ll stay in your mana realm for the journey. You can call me out when we arrive." Nimue suggested.
"Aw what~? You don¡¯t want to stay with Attie and Iziuel?" Shiro smiled as there was a teasing glint in her eyes that brought shivers down Nimue¡¯s spine.
"Um, I¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯d rather not throw up in your car." Nimue replied.
"Can spirits even throw up? Anyways, I¡¯ll give you a break now. Don¡¯t worry, this time I won¡¯t pull anything." Shiro chuckled.
Raising her eyebrows in suspicion, Nimue couldn¡¯t help but look at Shiro with scepticism.
"What¡¯s with that look? Like I said, don¡¯t worry~" Shiro smiled.
"When I don¡¯t need to worry about you pranking me out of nowhere is when the sun starts to rise from the west." Nimue retorted.
"Aw, you hurt my feelings." Shiro replied while they made their way to the border.
Upon arrival, they weren¡¯t too surprised to see that the border was rather empty as there were only a few guards around the ce.
It didn¡¯t matter if they invaded withouting to the border since they would have no entry id. Of course, they can also do it in the actual city itself but this way was just more efficient with how they were entering the city.
"State your business and show us your ID." The guard asked as Shiro nodded.
"We¡¯re here to visit some friends along with clearing some dungeons to increase our levels." Shiro said as she reached into her pocket.
Making four fake guild ID¡¯s with her nanobots she handed them to the guard. Once they scanned them into theputer, it¡¯d upload a virus of sorts that would verify their identity.
"Mn, you¡¯re clear. Do you know the policy of this ce?" He asked as Shiro nodded.
"I do but would my son need to go through this as well?" She asked while gesturing to Attie.
"No need. As long as you and these twodies pass, you¡¯ll be free to get your finalised ID to Rilsa." The guard replied.
"Great, in that case then I¡¯ll go first. " Shiro smiled while handing Attie to Nimue. It would be quite awkward to do the test while holding Attie after all.
Chapter 466 Slight Miscalculation
Chapter 466 Slight Miscalction
Walking through the doors, Shiro was led down a long flight of stairs and into a fighting hall of sorts.
Inside this hall, stood a fighting dummy that was made from this ck metal that had several tens to hundreds of runes etched onto the surface. Shaped like a ratherrge humanoid, the fighting dummy wielded a sword that was strapped onto its waist.
[Mechanised Warrior MK 22]
"This is thetest sparring dummy that the council of science has produced. After watching the videos of the rogue assassin, they were able to make some breakthroughs with using mana and machine together in one. While this testing dummy has no level, it should be able to match up to someone around level 110. Since you¡¯re only level 101, as long as you can scratch this dummy, it¡¯ll count as a pass." The guard exined as Shiro flinched a little at the nickname of rogue assassin.
*cough
"I just have to scratch it?" Shiro asked with a slightly forced smile.
If he knew that she could kill level 150¡¯s in a second, would he still ask her to just scratch it?
"Yes."
"What if I identally destroy it?" Shiro asked again just in case he held her ountable for destruction of property.
"I highly doubt it but if you do destroy it, we¡¯ll need to file a report saying how it was destroyed and how it can be improved." The guard chuckled since he found her confidence quite amusing. Not many level 101¡¯s would say they can destroy a level 110 enemy without some life saving items.
"Just so you know, this has to be entirely your own capability. If you use a life saving item or any item that may suddenly boost your power such as medicine, you will have to retake the test." He reminded.
"Understood." Shiro smiled.
Since that¡¯s the case, she might as well give her upgraded elements a try. After receiving them from the lotus, she didn¡¯t get much of an impression from them other than the fact that both Attie and Iziuel received an upgrade.
¡¯Which one should I use... maybe Dark Celestial Fire?¡¯ She wondered to herself as she also wanted to give her Celestial Raiment another try since she now had proper control over Celestial Energy.
"Ready whenever you are." The guard smiled as he turned on the dummy.
Immediately as he turned it on, a blue glow lit up in the runes that surrounded his body. A soft whirring sound could be heard as the dummy sprung to life.
Closing one of her eyes, she tried to activate the Celestial Raiment without the help of the system. Remembering the sensation she had felt back in the trial, she manually linked up her energy channels along with her mana links in order to activate the skill.
*BOOM!!!!
Stomping down, a pulse of energy exploded from her as iridescent armour started to form around her.
Choosing the element of Dark Celestial Fire, the armour was coloured ck and red with hints of orange. Within this, there seemed to be stars shimmering as her hair also changed colour in ordance to her element.
Crouching down slightly, she narrowed her eyes at the dummy and decided to control her strength so that it was just 20% of her overall power. After all, she remembered what she did in the elven capital when she was still injured and going to 100% would be risky since not even she knew what it looked like.
Shocked at the sudden impact of her form, the guard started to wonder if she could actually defeat the dummy like she said.
However, while he humoured the idea of her defeating the dummy, he still didn¡¯t believe she could destroy it.
Watching Shiro dash towards the dummy, he kept a casual smile on his face until her fist came into contact with the enemy.
In a single moment, the world seemed to lose colour as everything was wrapped in a cosmic ck that shimmered like the night sky.
All the guard could see was himself as his vision seemed to be limited.
Even the sounds that he heard were dulled out except for one. A deafening explosion that seemed to ring in his ears even though everything was suppressed.
Once he came back to his senses, he was greeted by the sunlight, which was very strange considering that they should be underground right now.
Looking up, he finally realised the problem that he was facing. With a single attack, Shiro had created a small ravine that was still smoking from the heat. Not only was the fighting dummy evaporated, but arge chunk of the building was also taken away in that moment.
Despite the reinforcement on the base, it seemed like it didn¡¯t matter to her attack.
". . .Um, f*ck?" Shiro said as she had a slightly awkward smile on her face. She did not expect for the Dark Celestial Fire to do this much damage despite being at 20% of her strength. If she had used 100%, then she could say bye bye to this border.
However, at the same time, if a tier 5 attunement mixed with her Celestial Raiment didn¡¯t do this much, she would be slightly disappointed.
Turning over to Shiro, the guard had disbelief written all over his face as he struggled to understand how this had happened.
"H-halt! What is your real level! No level 101 can demonstrate this kind of power!" He shouted out with hesitation. After all, if he made a wrong move, she could kill him easily. On the other hand, he also needed to follow procedures since having a dangerous figure like this enter the country could put his family at risk.
"Um, my real level is indeed level 101. I had only just ssed up so I decided to stack every single one of my skills together. I didn¡¯t expect to cause that much of a hassle I¡¯m sorry." Shiro apologised as she quickly lied.
Of course she didn¡¯t stack all of her skills together. If she did, she might as well create a giant ravine in the ground like the Shihai Trenches but name it the Shiro Trenches instead.
Hearing her exnation, the guard narrowed his eyes as there was some legitimacy to her statement.
Everyone would need some time to get used to the power spike they experienced after ssing up so the fact that she would stack all of her skills against a level 110 opponent was understandable.
"Ok, but I¡¯ll need to issue you a Level 3 dangerous personal ID ok? This just means that the guards will keep an eye on you but not make a move should you be civilised." The guard said as Shiro nodded. This was probably the best case scenario since she wouldn¡¯t need to fight her way in.
"Oh that is fine. So what about mypanions? Since I destroyed the dummy, would they need to take the test as well?" Shiro asked as the guard paused for a moment.
"They can either get a level 3 dangerous person ID like you or then can be properly tested in the city. However, just to remind you, the guards will keep an eye on them if they have a level 3 dangerous person ID." The guard replied.
"That¡¯s fine with me. I¡¯ll ask them just in case." Shiro smiled.
As she walked back up the stairs, she was lectured by Nimue first before she could even ask her question.
Waving her concerns off with a ¡¯Ah sorry, I underestimated myself¡¯, Shiro had their ID¡¯s created and entered the country of Rilsa.
Meanwhile, the guard was currently filling in the doc.u.ment in regard to the fighting dummy.
[Result of battle: Complete Evaporation. No scraps could be found.]
[Cause of defeat: A single attack of the fire attribute.]
[Notes: She imed that she had underestimated her power and stacked all of her skills together into one attack in order to defeat the mechanised infantry.]
[Video of fight is unrecoverable due to the demolition of arge portion of the base.]
[Name of adventurer that defeated the mechanised infantry: Naomi Vespira.]
[Level of adventurer that defeated the mechanised infantry: 101.]
[ss: Celestial Mage (Confirmed)]
[ID assigned: Level 3 Dangerous Person]
###
"Right then. To get to Epona, we¡¯ll need to travel north west from our location. We should be able to get to the city in a few hours if I go by jet or half a day by car. Which one do you prefer?" Shiro asked.
"Neither. Both are horrible in your hands." Nimue replied instantly.
"Oh don¡¯t be like that, I¡¯ll need to drive carefully since there might be forests and trees in the way." Shiro smiled.
However, despite seeing her smile, Nimue¡¯s heart was not calmed down at all.
"I¡¯ll stay in your mana realm." She insisted.
"Fine fine." Shiro shrugged.
Little did Nimue know, she made the correct call as Shiro only said she¡¯ll drive ¡¯carefully¡¯ but not ¡¯slowly¡¯.
Soon, they arrived in the city of Epona.
Chapter 467 Epona
Chapter 467 Epona
Upon arrival, they were immediately greeted withrge walls that stretched across the border of the city. Patrols roamed around the top of the wall as they were not able to see too much since they were on the ground.
On the wall itself, Shiro could identify a few runes that seemed to restrict the amount of mana one can use should they try to forcefully breakthrough over the wall.
¡¯Seems like force is not an option unless you want to make the entire city your enemy.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself with a smile before walking towards the main gates.
Showing them her ID, the guards narrowed their eyes at her before nodding and letting the group through.
Immediately feeling a few pairs of eyes on her, Shiro felt a little ufortable but knew that they were doing it for security reasons. Of course, if she was to take a bath and she felt a pair of eyes on her, she would no doubt consider the option of poking them in the eyes.
While she wasn¡¯t exactly old fashioned, she still wanted her bare body to only be seen by those she trusted deeply or her future partner.
Entering the city, she saw the marbled buildings that seemed to glow with holiness that made her feel an urge to vomit since she wasn¡¯t the most religious person around. Especially when you consider her previous death to be the result of a future god.
The other buildings were rather modern due to their sleek designs and simplicity. Rather than huge ts and skyscr.a.p.ers she was used to seeing in Japan, Epona was filled with detached houses and a few ts that could be seen here and there. They weren¡¯t huge ts ether, only small scaled ones.
Shaking her head, Shiro pulled out her phone and messaged the party about her arrival.
Waiting a few moments, they scheduled their meeting in one of the better restaurants in the city. After all, that was the only eptable ce that Yin would agree too.
Hearing about her daughter¡¯s shenanigans again, Shiro couldn¡¯t help butugh lightly since she had to admit that she missed the glutton in the time that they were apart.
"Right then, Attie, we¡¯re about to go meet my friends along with your sisters." Shiro smiled as Attie nodded.
Deep inside, he was a little curious about his other family members.
Following the map, Shiro soon arrived in front of the restaurant called Desires. A rather interesting name considering the fact that Yin¡¯s primary desire was to eat the best food every day.
¡¯Let¡¯s see... I don¡¯t exactly want the guards to see what I really look like so I guess a little illusion wouldn¡¯t hurt. I¡¯ll just look like I¡¯ve entered the toilet before ¡¯disappearing.¡¯¡¯ She thought to herself as she flicked her finger. Without anyone noticing, an illusion was cast onto them as they entered the restaurant.
Upon entry, they started to make their way to the toilets while their main bodies looked around for Lyrica and the others.
Seeing the set of familiar people in the distance, Shiro¡¯s eyes warmed up a little as she could not suppress the smile on her face. While it may only be a few days, maybe weeks in the real world, they had actually been apart for a much longer period of time. The same would go for them since they were challenging dungeons every day.
As she approached their table, she waved her hand and revealed her true appearance only to the party.
"Ah Shiro! You- PFFFF Why the hell did you adopt another kid?!" Madison called out as her attention was immediately grabbed by the adorable youth in Shiro¡¯s hands.
"KID!?!" Lyrica widened her eyes at Shiro.
"Pft, what are you thinking. I¡¯m still a v.i.r.g.i.n." Shiro chuckled as Lyrica instantly blushed and looked away.
"I don¡¯t t- actually, never mind we were wondering about that. So who did you kidnap this time?" Madison sighed.
"Hey, I¡¯m offended. Technically, I¡¯ve never kidnapped anyone ok? And is that the first thing you ask me after not seeing me for so long?" Shiro asked with a twitch in her smile.
"Well, without losing your cherry you¡¯re already the mother of three and the queen of a race." Aarim chuckled as she took a sip of her drink.
"Quite true. Anyways, girls, this is Attie or rather, Atesh is his name. He is a fire spirit born from thebination of two mes that I had acquired just before entering the trial. In one sense, I am his mother since I ¡¯gave birth to him¡¯ in one way or another." Shiro smiled as the group nodded.
While they were listening to Shiro exin about Atesh¡¯s circ.u.mstances, Yin crept up beside him as she looked at him with curiosity in her eyes.
"So are you my little brother?" She asked quietly.
Tilting his head, Atesh nodded after a short pause.
"In that case then here, have this. It¡¯s my favourite food in this restaurant. Since you¡¯re my little brother, big sis will make sure you also get the best food ok?" Yin smiled as she had never interacted with a baby before. Seeing Atesh, a feeling of wanting to dote on him appeared in her mind as she was even willing to share her food without getting anything in return.
As for Lisandra, she stood by the side and only nced at Atesh every once in a while.
¡¯How cute... I wonder how his cheeks feel.¡¯ She would think to herself.
Noticing that Yin was having fun with Atesh, Shiro smiled and patted her head before looking over to Silvia and Chen Yu. Seeing that they were in a world of their own, Shiro decided to leave them to their own devices for now and fill them inter.
Shaking her head, she nced at everyone¡¯s stats.
[Lisandra LVL 110 Celestial Seraphim]
[Yin LVL 118 Dark Star Devourer]
[Lyrica LVL 117 Sword Saint Apprentice]
[Aarim LVL 117 Grand Force Mage]
[Silvia LVL 123 Grand Healing Sage]
[Chen Yu LVL 121 Phantom Reaper]
[Madison LVL 121 Demonic Valkyrie]
*Whistle~
"Damn, seems like you¡¯ve been quite busy haven¡¯t you?" Shiro asked with a smile since three of them were actually passed level 120 now and the other¡¯s weren¡¯t too far off. Not only that, but they had also acquired quite a few interesting sses such as the Sword Saint Apprentice.
Her guess was that it was the step before Elven Sword Saintess since it had apprentice in the name but there could be a chance for Lyrica to get a hidden ss that could potentially be stronger than the sword saintess.
"Yeah, the requirements were a bit annoying toplete but with Keiko¡¯s help, we were able to do the item gathering part quite easily." Lyrica smiled.
"I see, I¡¯ll have to give her my thankster then. Also, Aarim, what¡¯s a force mage? I don¡¯t think I heard of something like that before?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Well... let¡¯s just say I control gravity to some degree." Aarim chuckled.
"Heh~ I had always taken you for one that focuses on attack due to your previous ss." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"I used to be but control suits me a bit better. You see, having too many attackers is also bad since we don¡¯t have anyone to control the battlefield. Sure we have you but you can also fit into other roles so we need a dedicated control mage. Hence why I picked this ss since it allows me to control the battlefield quite nicely." Aarim replied with a smile.
"I see... In that case then this notebook should be quite useful for you." Shiro nodded before printing out one of Kuromi¡¯s research notebooks that contained quite a bit of her understanding around being a control mage.
Flipping through the pages, Aarim was surprised at how detailed and informative it was and couldn¡¯t help but look at Shiro with shock.
"Where did you even get such a treasure?" She asked.
"That? My big sister gave me it." Shiro replied casually.
"Wait what?"
Hearing that Shiro mentioned her big sister, the entire party paused for a moment as even Yin stopped her doting on Atesh.
"Mn? Oh right, you girls don¡¯t know. You see, I met Kuromi in my trial. In one way or another, she¡¯s technically my big sister of sorts. Her family is my family." Shiro exined briefly as there was a longing look in her eyes.
Seeing this look, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but feel both sad and jealous. Sad because Shiro seemed hurt but at the same time jealous because she wished that Shiro would have the same look when thinking of her.
Quickly shaking her head, Lyrica felt a little ashamed to be thinking of this when there¡¯s clearly something up with Shiro¡¯s big sis and decided to listen to the story silently.
Exining the experiences she had within the trial, the group spent the next hour or so catching up on what everyone had been doing.
Chapter 468 Shiros True Nature
Chapter 468 Shiro''s True Nature
"Heh~ So you and Kuromi merged together in a way?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"Somewhat. I¡¯m still the dominant personality but think of it as me inheriting her memories. I know everything that she¡¯s gone through." Shiro replied with a smile.
"I see..."
While they were talking about the merge of Kuromi and Shiro, Aarim was rather curious about the exact details but decided not to voice her questions since that would be a little too insensitive.
However, there was something she could do and that was to look at her true nature. From what she¡¯d heard, it seemed like she had been looking at Kuromi all along and that was keeping a veil on Shiro¡¯s nature.
If she looked now, Aarim knew that what she saw would be Shiro in her truest form.
Activating her skill, she nced towards Shiro in order to see her true nature.
¡¯What the...¡¯
Shocked to the point where she could not even speak in her mind, Aarim couldn¡¯t believe what she was seeing.
A graceful figure floated around Shiro as its body was akin to a faint blue membrane in the shape of a woman. Within this membrane, it seemed to contain a gxy. There was darkness but there was also the warm embrace of the sun. Her expression was serene as it would put anyone in a calm mood.
The figure seemed to sway gently and every move would cause the stars to shift.
Making eye contact with the figure, Aarim noticed a small flicker of sentience that soon faded as the figure continued to watch over Shiro.
¡¯Could that be Kuromi?¡¯ Aarim wondered to herself before shaking her head. She wasn¡¯t too familiar with the workings of true natures so she couldn¡¯t say for sure. But she didn¡¯t want to say anything since it would be akin to giving Shiro false hope should it not be what they thought it was.
"Now then. On to the more important topic. What¡¯s this about you getting into trouble with the church?" Shiro asked as she nced towards Lisandra.
"Urg... don¡¯t remind me." Lisandra sighed since she wasn¡¯t exactly happy about the situation.
"Basically, they want to appoint me as a core member of the church, saying crap like ¡¯it¡¯s my duty as an angel.¡¯ Not only that, they¡¯re asking me about which god I worship along with my goals ofing down here. But even after I told them the truth, I worship no god and my goal ining here is to follow you mum, they still don¡¯t believe me. They have even tried to offer me a bunch of benefits but I wasn¡¯t interested." Lisandra replied.
"Hmm... That¡¯s rather annoying isn¡¯t it? Kind of like a salesman who keeps knocking on your door or calling your number despite you saying no." Shiro muttered while leaning back a little.
"Tell me about it." Lisandra nodded.
"What have you done about it so far?" Shiro asked. As her daughter, surely Lisandra wouldn¡¯t be too passive about it right?
"Well... I tried to refuse as best as I could and even release my aura but all that did was make them bow more. Rather than intimidation, my aura was apparently ¡¯holy¡¯ and it made them want to worship me. Saying things like ¡¯Ah yes, this is truly the aura of a higher being!¡¯" Lisandra replied while poking her fingers together.
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro could see why Lisandra had so much trouble with them. It was akin to dealing with masochists.
The more you hit them, the happier they get or in her case, the more she disys her aura, the happier the church is.
"It¡¯s been tough on you, dealing with religious masochists." Shiro sighed.
"Ha? When were masochists in this conversation?" Madison raised her eyebrow in confusion.
"I mean... masochists like it the more you hit them, right? Isn¡¯t the church the same to Lisandra?" Shiro asked with a wave of her hand.
". . .Holy f*ck you¡¯re right." Madison paused for a moment in surprise.
"Alright, enough about masochists and what not. I¡¯ve sent a message to Keiko and Keomi for them to meet us in this city. Keiko¡¯s still doing some work in the front lines so she might take a while but Keomi is arriving in around a weeks¡¯ time. In the 7 days that we have, we¡¯ll do some dungeon clearing along with this church business that you have going on. Of course, if we can¡¯t deal with it, I don¡¯t mind showing them some force as well for bothering my daughter." Shiro smiled.
"Um, mum, they have level 200¡¯s in their ranks. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to face them at your current state." Lisandra warned with concern.
"Mn? Oh you¡¯re worried about that. I forgot to tell you but my body haspletely recovered." Shiro grinned as the party paused once more.
"Wait, your links are healed?!" they cried out in shock.
"Yup. One of the rewards forpleting the trial was aplete recovery. My links are now in perfect condition. If you¡¯re curious about what my power is like, you can just search up recent news about Mount Fuji." Shiro smiled.
"Oh I also caused a bit of trouble on my way here and I¡¯ve been issued a level 3 dangerous person ID. I¡¯ve put up a barrier so that they can¡¯t see us." She continued.
"Wait, you were issued a level 3 dangerous person ID? What the hell did you do!?" Madison asked with shock.
"Well... it¡¯s better for you to see." Shiro smiled and passed them a photo that she printed out secretly. The photo was a scene of what had happened after she fought the fighting dummy and it disyed the destruction in all of its glory.
"Mind you, I did try to hold back since I don¡¯t know what 100% of my power is like." She shrugged as the party looked at her like she was a monster.
¡¯Ah wait, she IS a monster.¡¯
As they looked at the picture, Madison managed to find a clip of what had happened on Mount Fuji and they watched the hundreds upon thousands of magic circles suddenly appear around Shiro within a single moment.
"Damn, Shiro are we still using the same system?" Madison asked jokingly.
"I do believe so. But regardless, if you¡¯re still curious why don¡¯t we level up some more then? We¡¯ll go to a high level dungeon and clear it for some levels." Shiro smiled.
"Oh? What dungeon do you have in mind?" Lyrica asked
"How about the level 150 dungeon, The Abyssal Crypt?" Shiro suggested.
"Sure. Me and the party have been doing a level 140 dungeon for a few days now and I think it¡¯s about time we got an upgrade." Lyrica nodded with a smile.
"Great. In that case then let¡¯s go. Oh but before that, I think I¡¯ll need to put my disguise back on." Shiro said as she changed her appearance back once more so that she looked more like Atesh¡¯s mum.
Seeing Shiro stand up, Yin was a little unhappy that her time with Atesh was cut short as she quickly floated up to his side.
"Can I hold him?" Yin asked as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"You want to hold him?"
"Yeah." Yin nodded.
"Hmm... sure. Just so you know, if you drop him, I¡¯ll be starving you for a week." Shiro warned.
Nodding her head, Yin carefully held Attie in her embrace as a smile crept up on her face.
"Lisa! Look, he¡¯s so small!" Yin called out with giddiness as Lisandra chuckled.
Leaving the three siblings to have fun with each other, Shiro edited the illusion to look like she had just met up with some friends.
"Speaking of which, why have you disguised yourself like this?" Lyrica asked curiously while walking next to Shiro.
"Mn? Well if I destroy the church, I wouldn¡¯t want to make an enemy of every church in the world now do I?"
"You know, if you wanted to do that can¡¯t you just make a new illusion when you fight them?" Lyrica asked.
*Cough!
"Fine, but don¡¯t tell anyone the truth ok?" Shiro coughed before leaning close to Lyrica¡¯s ear.
Feeling Shiro¡¯s breath near her, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but blush as her ears twitched a little.
"Attie is just too cute ok!? I want to look more like his mother." Shiro whispered the truth into Lyrica¡¯s ear.
"What are you whispering to each other about there? Could it be talks of romance?" Madison called out with a smile.
"Nothing~ You¡¯re overthinking it." Shiroughed before walking back to Attie so that she could hold him more.
Making their way towards the dungeon gate, they entered the level 150 dungeon, The Abyssal Crypt.
Chapter 469 Abyssal Crypt
Chapter 469 Abyssal Crypt
Upon entering the dungeon, they were greeted to chiselled stone walls that seemed like they were finely carved pieces of art.
Looking around, they were rather surprised to see theck of monsters as this was not usually the case. If anything, they should be bombarded by attacks since this is a B ranked dungeon.
"Hm, strange. Do you think all the monsters are waiting in the next corridor or something?" Lyrica asked as she furrowed her brows.
"Perhaps. Give me a moment, I¡¯ll locate them all." Shiro smiled as she walked towards the walls. Pressing her hand against the stone, she closed her eyes and sent a pulse of mana through the dungeon.
Mapping out the entire dungeon within her mind, she could see red dots that represented the monsters and noticed that they seemed to be gathered within the deepest parts of this dungeon. Not only that, but she could also sense that some of them were shivering for some odd reason. As if they evacuated to the final room out of desperation.
"That¡¯s rather curious." Shiro muttered.
"What¡¯s wrong?" Aarim nced over.
"The monsters, they seem to have run away to the deeper rooms. I can see that some of them are shivering. Do you think there is a rogue boss or something in this dungeon that made them this way?" Shiro replied.
"Well the only rogue monster I can think of is you. But if anything, this shouldn¡¯t be the case. This dungeon is supposed to be one of the more hostile ones." Aarim said while showing her a page that described this dungeon.
Furrowing their brows, the party looked at each other before nodding their heads.
"Let¡¯s go to the deeper parts of the dungeon then. I suppose if they¡¯re all gathered, it¡¯s a good chance for us to kill them all." Madison suggested.
Agreeing with her idea, the party made their way down to the deeper parts of the dungeon while making a few ns for battle.
"So far, we have 4 Attackers, 1 Tank, 2 Supports and 1 Adaptive. Lyrica and Lisandra will take the vanguard while Yin helps out from afar. Chen Yu, since you¡¯re an assassin, you can just make your way around the battlefield without too many problems. Madison, while you are a tank, you¡¯re more like a bruiser tank that can also fight due to your ss having two forms. Your job is to mostly protect the supports while going up to tank the boss when he appears. Aarim, Silvia, you two will naturally stay at the back and I¡¯ll be with you, covering for everyone if needed ok?" Shiro smiled as she exined their partyposition.
"Now that youy things out like this, we¡¯ve basically got 6 attackers including you and Madi don¡¯t we?" Lyrica chuckled since their party was heavily attack focused.
"Well that is true but it¡¯s not too bad now is it? Madi can tank everything amazingly." Silvia smiled.
"Yup. And with you buffing my defences while making sure my HP is up at all times, I can keep them at bay without too many worries." Madison grinned.
"Ah speaking of which, I would have thought that the church would be pestering you for your healing prowess. After all, isn¡¯t the church respected due to the healers they provide?" Shiro asked.
"Well... they did try to bother me at first before Lisandra had her ss up. But after that, all of the church people were infatuated about her and couldn¡¯t focus on everything else so I was given a break." Silvia replied with a chuckle.
"Urg, please don¡¯t talk about the church when we¡¯re here. I¡¯ve heard enough about them tost me a lifetime." Lisandra sighed.
"All right, all right, we¡¯ll deal with them before Keiko and Keomi arrive if we can." Shiro smiled.
As she did not know when the age of demons and gods will being, the best thing she could do was to level up for now. There was also the whole problem about Duan Han Yin that had killed her/Kuromi and imprisoned Yuki in the mountains. Now that they were B ranked, she was ready to go rescue her.
However, before she could do that, she needed to inform Keiko and Keomi about the truth of her situation and what her ns are. After all, they deserved to know that she had died once already and that they needed to be careful about Duan Han Yin should they see him again.
As they arrived in the final room, they were greeted by a giant wave of attacks that flew through the air.
"She¡¯s here! Kill her!!" One of the monsters shouted out in a panic.
Quickly stepping in front of the party, Aarim snapped her fingers before pointing upwards.
*BOOM!!!!
Suddenly, the gravity in the area in front of them shifted as all of the attacks were redirected to the ceiling.
Seeing as how they attacked the party quite abruptly, Shiro had a rather displeased expression on her face.
"Welp girls, you see the enemies and they¡¯re clearly not the best house owners as they have given us quite the harsh wee. Show them how they should do things if they want to kill people.?? Shiro said with a grin.
Nodding their heads, Lyrica, Chen Yu, Lisandra and Madison dashed into action while Attie watched while being carried by Shiro.
Jumping into the air, Lyrica reached into her inventory and grabbed her sword.
Readying it on her waist, she narrowed her eyes before flooding the sword with mana.
Twisting her body, she swung the sword horizontally as it split itself into multiple segments that were connected through mana wires.
shing everything within a 20 meter cone in front of her, she then retracted the sword back to its original length and shed at those that hadn¡¯t died yet.
Seeing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrow in surprise since it looked like Lyrica had managed to procure the weapon needed for her hidden proficiency without her interference.
Activating her Analysis skill, she observed the construction of the weapon and couldn¡¯t help but notice the clear mix of mage craft and cksmithing. There were runes hidden within each segment of the sword and with how each of the segments were connected to each other, Shiro could guess that Aarim had a hand in creating this weapon.
¡¯With her skill set that involves gravity and forces, this is within her capabilities.¡¯ She thought to herself as she felt proud of the party¡¯s development. It still felt like just yesterday that Lyrica was shy and she was still mute from when they were back in New York.
Shaking her head, she dismissed the nostalgic thoughts and looked at the battlefield.
"I can¡¯t just let everyone do the fighting while I harvest the EXP with my connection to Lisa. That would bezy." She muttered while bringing out her bow, Asteria¡¯s Embrace. While the bow cannot work in this environment due to theck of stars, she could make her own. Setting Attie down for now, she was going to show him what she could do with a bow.
Snapping her fingers, a tier 4 magic circle suddenly appeared on the ceiling as a portal of sorts could be seen, slowly opening to reveal a multi coloured gxy that shimmered with star light.
Since the enemy was that of the dark element, her bow¡¯s passive skill: Goddess¡¯ Blessing, was activated as her attack was enhanced with the divine attribute and dealt massive damage to dark elemental beings.
However, that was just one of her abilities. Since everyone was showing off what they could do, Shiro decided to join in the fun and activated the skills attached to her armour, Eena.
"First cast, activated. Second Cast, activated." She muttered as her armour glowed with a soft white hue.
The first cast of her armour gave her 60% Magic Pration and 50% critical chance under starlight. But it¡¯s the second activation that the monsters had to worry about.
Second Cast: When activated, your weapons are enhanced by Astral enchantment, converting 50% of your highest stat into raw power for 30 seconds.
With her INT stat being off the charts for her level, half of that being converted into raw power was something this dungeon could not amodate.
As the arrow was being formed on her bow, the floors and walls started to crack apart from the pressure.
With such a monstrous amount of mana being emitted behind them, there was no way that the party would be able to ignore it as the idea that Shiro had no match was once again solidified in their mind.
Despite the bow not being her main weapon, it was still many times stronger than what they could aplish.
Charging the bow to maximum power with just the skills that she had activated, Shiro released the arrow from the bow as a sh of light filled everyone¡¯s vision.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!
Within a single moment, a tunnel of destruction could be seen as everything it touched was reduced to ash. Making sure to avoid the boss and her teammates, Shiro made sure that her attack was more of an opening act.
"Now then, with the appetisers finished, are you ready for the main course?" Shiro asked with a charming smile filled with sadistic intent.
Chapter 470 Celestial Court
Chapter 470 Celestial Court
Seeing Shiro smile towards them, the monsters suddenly felt a chill down their backs as they quickly bowed.
"Please spare us!" The boss shouted out in fear, confusing the party.
"Ha?"
"Please spare us Empress!" The boss repeated again as the party looked towards Shiro who had lost her smile.
Looking at the boss with a nd expression, Shiro was rather annoyed that she was not able to indulge and have some fun.
¡¯Next time I shouldn¡¯t use such a strong attack as an opening I guess....¡¯ She thought to herself.
Walking towards the boss slowly, the ck of her heels seemed deafening as everything else was quiet. Even the party stopped their attacks to see what was happening.
Pulling out her sword, Ataraxia, Shiro pointed it at the boss¡¯s neck.
"Why do you want me to spare you. You¡¯re nothing but a dungeon monster that would respawn once we¡¯ve left." Shiro questioned.
"I-... I GOT YOU!" The boss smiled as all of his subordinates transformed into ming spears that glowed with an ominous blue which was fuelled by using their life.
Before Shiro could even attack, hundreds of spears shot towards her.
"Tch, annoying twat." Shiro frowned.
"I don¡¯t know why the Empress of a race woulde here but I don¡¯t have anything to lose!" The boss grinned as he shed towards Shiro.
Sensing that her friends were dashing towards her as of this moment, Shiro decided to do nothing and make eye contact with the boss.
"You see, I got a few trustworthy allies of my own to cover my back. Not that I need it of course but it helps." She said with a grin.
*CLANK!!!
Flickering in front of her, Lyrica parried the boss¡¯s attack while Madison mmed her shield into the boss¡¯s chest, pushing him back.
Just as Aarim was about to redirect the fire spears to the ceiling, both Yin and Attie made a move.
Jumping into the air, Yin manifested her Phoenix form and started to absorb all of the fire while Attie only waved his hand and arge portion of the mes flew to his side and floated there obediently.
Seeing that Attie could control the mes as easily as she did, Yin couldn¡¯t help but cry out in excitement.
"See?" Shiro smiled while gesturing to her friends that protected her without her even doing anything.
"Now then, shall we kill the boss fast or slow girls?" She asked.
"I¡¯d say fast since we need to kill him a few hundred more times." Lyrica narrowed her eyes.
"I¡¯d say the same as well." Madison followed up with a now.
"Welp, you heard them. Bye bye~" Shiro chuckled as she readied Ataraxia and shed towards the boss.
Activating her Sword Domain and Asura Sword Path, she cleaved the sword downwards.
*BANG!!!!!
shing past the boss¡¯ body with ease, a wave of energy erupted out and started to carve away at the boss room.
Despite only attacking twice in this dungeon, Shiro had managed to heavily damage the dungeon walls that were meant to be some of the strongest material around. Of course, it was limited to the level of the dungeon but this is still something that even level 150 adventurers would struggle to break.
"I suppose I can let you girls handle the clean up right?" Shiro asked while gesturing to the remaining monsters.
"Of course, leave it to us." Lyrica nodded with a smile.
While the party was cleaning up the rest of the monsters, Shiro walked up to the boss¡¯ body that was cleaved in two with fear present in his eyes.
¡¯How did he even know I was an empress...¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself before ncing over at her passive which could not be turned off.
Shaking her head, she realised that it was probably going to be a pain to use disguises in the future since they would just need to recognise the pressure they felt from her.
¡¯I suppose I am also level 110 now. Most B ssed adventurers can¡¯t harm me while those in the A ss are quite rare. As long as I deal with Duan Han Yin, I¡¯ll be able to use my real identity without too many worries.¡¯ She thought to herself while collecting the corpse.
Of course, since this was her problem, she didn¡¯t exactly want to bring her mother and father into this since they may be hurt in the conflict. If anything, she hoped that she could deal with everything herself.
Checking through the boss¡¯ loot, Shiro was quite surprised to see quite a few purple grade equipment along with some life saving talismans. Since she had her rejuvenation skill along with her Celestial Runes to replenish a lot of her lost health, she didn¡¯t exactly need the talismans so she set them aside to hand out to the partyter.
As for the equipment, their skills were pretty decent but she figured that it was probably better to have the rest of the party look at them first.
Walking back to Attie, Shiro picked him up before looking at the fire spears that floated around him.
"So you¡¯re able to control fire like your big sister huh? Not exactly surprising when you think about it since you¡¯re a fire spirit but to think you have this much power despite being so young. Good job Attie." Shiro smiled while patting Attie¡¯s head.
Hearing her praise, Attie burrowed his head into her shoulders out of embarrassment.
As the party cleared out the monsters, Shiro started to wonder what her absolute strongest attack was. So far, she knew that Wrath of Stars was to date, one of the best attacks that she had done. If she used it again with her links fully healed, then she could no doubt deal massive damage to Epona, maybe even wipe it off of the map. However, that was not her current limit. Even back then, she held back with Wrath of Stars since her links could not take any more stress.
With the amount of passive and active skills she had now and links that were 100% repaired, she could easily go above and beyond. Only question was, how far could he go?
¡¯If I mix things up with my Nanomancer ss, I can create a continental type weapon that can wipe out entire mountain ranges with a single attack. If I thenbine it with Celestial Raiment, Frenzied Incarnation EX, Spirit Assistance, Chimera Arts, Asteria¡¯s Blessing, Celestial Gardens, Eena First and Second Cast, Ataraxia Berserk Skill and my Soul Sword, what would the resulting power be like.¡¯ She mused to herself since she could stack all of them together as long as she made sure to use them in the correct order. After all, some of her skills had quite a short duration so she needed to use themst or else they¡¯ll run out.
Shaking her head, she doubted that she needed such power any time soon since it would attract too much attention to her.
Even dealing with the church didn¡¯t need this much fire power as a pair of hand cannons made with her current standard would be enough. Hell, she could even make a giant mech that she had theorised about way back in New York when she had first bumped into Lucius.
¡¯Speaking of which, I wonder if he¡¯s sorted out his faction yet. Before going to the trial, he did mention something about his faction that is linked to Yin. Well that can wait for a bit. Once Keiko ad Keomi¡¯s arrived, I¡¯ll tell them about the situation in regard to Yuki and we can go save her. Hopefully, I don¡¯t run into Duan Han Yin or else it would be quite troublesome.¡¯
Repeating the dungeon clear with the party for a day, Shiro familiarised herself with the skills that they can each use and started to make a few key notes in her mind much like what Kuromi would do in her sketchbook. Such as how best to set everyone out if they¡¯re in a huge team fight.
Not only that, but she had also been able to raise her level to 115 since they were able to clear the dungeon quickly.
Once she reached 115, she had also gained a new skill from her Celestial Sylph Empress ss.
[Celestial Court Appointment]
You can appoint people of your choosing to take a position within your Celestial Court. If they ept, they gain passive bonuses in ordance to their role.
The role will be tailored to their ss and you can only appoint a certain amount of people. So far, you can appoint 3 people to be in your celestial court.
You gain one additional slot every 50 levels. (150, 200, 250...)
Currently used slots: 0/3
Chapter 471 Celestial Court Mage
Chapter 471 Celestial Court Mage
Reading the skill, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrows.
Immediately, there were a few key figures that she had in mind and they were Keiko, Keomi and Aarim. Aarim because her control skills were extremely useful and gravity magic was quite a rare find. As for Keiko and Keomi, they were good choices since they¡¯re the most powerful people in the group of people she knew. Since she¡¯ll be going to free Yuki soon, she¡¯ll need as much muscle power as she could get.
"Shiro? Are you alright?" Lyrica called out as she noticed that Shiro seemed to be daydreaming.
"Mn? Oh it¡¯s nothing. Just looking at a new skill I got." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Oh? What kind of skill?" Aarim asked as her interests were piqued. Since Shiro was a monster and a race queen, she was quite curious as to what kind of skills she could get.
"Well you see, the skill is called Celestial Court Appointment and it allows me to ¡¯hire/appoint¡¯ people as part of my Celestial Court. I will get more slots in the future but right now, I can appoint three of you. Once you¡¯re appointed, you can get a passive bonus that is linked to your ss. Think of it as extra benefits." Shiro exined with a smile.
"Heh~ So you can choose three people right now and more in the future. So who¡¯s on your mind right now?" Aarim asked.
"Well I¡¯m nning on giving Keiko and Keomi a slot since I¡¯ll be needing their help soon. As for thest one, I¡¯m thinking that I should give it to you Aarim. Since you¡¯re a control mage, one that can use gravity as well, your improvement will definitely help the team massively." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Me? Are you sure you don¡¯t want to give it to Silvi? Since she¡¯s a healer, won¡¯t she take priority?" Aarim raised her eyebrows.
"Yes and no. Yes because as you said, she is a healer. As for why I said no, it¡¯s because her healing is already outstanding. There¡¯s no need to upgrade it further for now since the impact it would have on the party would be quite small at her current stage. The same goes for the rest of the party. However, since you¡¯re a control mage, it doesn¡¯t matter how powerful you are as any upgrade would give the party massive benefits." Shiro exined.
"Hmm... I see. Is everyone ok with that?" Aarim asked the party.
"Oh of course. We¡¯re doing fine so having more control on the team would be quite helpful." Lyrica nodded with a smile.
"Yup. Like Lyrica said, if you can control the battlefield more, I wouldn¡¯t need to worry about tanking as many blows as I need to and Silvi wouldn¡¯t need to keep healing me." Madison grinned and gave Aarim a thumbs up.
Seeing that the rest of the party agreed with this decision, Aarim could only shake her head softly and smile.
"In that case then how do we do this?" Aarim asked as Shiro paused for a moment.
"Oh right, how do I do this?" She muttered since she had been trying to use the skills by herself without the help of the system if possible.
ncing towards the system, she activated the skill as a flood of knowledge entered her mind, enlightening her on how she should use this skill.
Memorising what she could do, Shiro gestured for Aarim to stand in front of her.
Seeing that Aarim followed her instructions, Shiro raised her hand up as mana surged towards her palm.
Swiping it down, a staff of sorts was formed in her hands as a pulse of golden energy exploded out.
"Aarim, on my authority as the Celestial Sylph Empress, do you ept a role in my court? Do note that once this is done, the role cannot be revoked." Shiro asked as she had a soft smile on her face.
"I do." Aarim nodded.
Seeing that Aarim had agreed, Shiro mmed the pommel of her staff down as a tier 4 magic circle erupted out from under their feet.
[Acknowledgement Received. Generating Role... Celestial Court Mage.]
[Celestial Court Mage]
The person given this role will receive the following benefits:
+10% of Empress¡¯ INT stat.
+20% Mana Regeneration
+20% Armour/Magic Pration
+20% Efficiency when using spells
As a Celestial Court Mage, you are more likely to receive inspiration when you are making new spells.
Seeing the description of the role, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but focus in on the final line.
¡¯You are more likely to receive inspiration when you are making new spells huh? Seems like it fits Aarim quite well considering the fact that she likes to research quite a bit." Shiro mused to herself while Aarim stood in silence.
Looking at her stats, she watched the extra bracket next to her INT stat and realised that ten times that amount is how many points Shiro had in a single stat.
"Shiro..." Aarim called out hesitantly.
"Sup."
"Tell me, could it be that your INT stat is worth 385,000 points?" Aarim asked as she had received a bonus of 38.5k points in her stats.
"Mn? Yeah. Is something wrong?" Shiro tilted her head since it was quite normal for monsters to have high INT stats. Especially if they¡¯re more magic rted.
"Just asking but how much mana do you have now with 385k points in your INT?"
"Hmm... well if I factor in all of my passive stacks and armour, I have a total of 128 million points worth of MP." Shiro replied.
"PFTTTT!!!! And you can use all of that with your mana links fixed!?" Aarim widened her eyes.
"Yup. I mean, is it really that much of a shock? I am literally carving holes in the dungeon every time we clear this?" Shiro replied.
"Urg... true. Sorry, I just forgot how unfair monster stats are." Aarim sighed.
"Not to burst your bubble but I haven¡¯t been working on my monster passive too much since it requires me to kill humans. The humans I kill in trials don¡¯t count so... if I go on a genocide in the real world, I think I can increase my MP even more." Shiro replied with a soft chuckle.
"Yikes, that is not an image I would like to think about. Shiro on a warpath, ay?" Aarim shrugged as the party couldn¡¯t help but agree. If Shiro really did focus on her monster stat to capitalise on the amount of MP she could get, she would have long reached the 100 million MP threshold since they had seen monsters with that much MP back in Vericia.
"Anyways, enough about my MP stat. It¡¯s going to be night soon outside so I suggest we rest up now. Do remember that the longer we stay in the dungeon, the faster you¡¯ll be burning your lifespan. While you are still technically still 15 years old outside in the world, you are in reality, a lot older due to your time in the dungeon. I¡¯d say with the amount of time you spent inside the dungeon, you¡¯re probably around 18 to 20 in terms of age." Shiro smiled.
"And the fact that you¡¯re level 115 despite it not being a full year is still ridiculous as ever." Lyrica chuckled since Shiro wasn¡¯t even a year old if you look at her age as a monster.
"Ah we don¡¯t talk about my age ok? Since technically, I¡¯ve already lived through a lifetime if I include what Kuromi had gone through." Shiro chuckled while bringing her finger up to her lips and made a ¡¯keep it a secret¡¯ gesture.
"Wait... Mum, does that make you a granny? Since you¡¯ve experienced life once." Yin asked with a tilt of her head.
*PUCHI!
Flickering next to Yin, Shiro leaned down slowly and ¡¯smiled¡¯ at Yin.
"Hou hou, look at me darling. Am I not your beautiful and youthful mother? Where is this talk of grannying from? Plus, I¡¯m not even a year old yet." Shiro replied.
*COUGH!
"Nowhere. I¡¯m just spacing out a little." Yin quickly corrected herself as the party looked away since it was quite suicidal calling Shiro granny.
One would think that Yin would have learned her lesson but it turns out the gluttonous bird only had food and her little brother in mind.
Knocking Yin on the head gently, Shiro led the party out of the dungeon as they were going to rest up for the night. Depending on what happens, they either deal with the church or talk to Keiko and Keomi tomorrow.
Chapter 472 Hotel
Chapter 472 Hotel
Leaving the dungeon, they made their way back to the hotel as Shiro bought a room for her and Attie. Nimue and Iziuel returned to her mana realm since they didn¡¯t need to spend more money that way.
Of course, they asked for Attie to join them but he only shook his head and clutched onto Shiro which made her heart melt.
"Aww, Attie is just too cute." Shiro smiled while lifting Attie up.
"If you know he¡¯s so cute then why don¡¯t you share him around a little." Nimue pouted.
"Nope. Attie is all mine." Shiroughed as Nimue only rolled her eyes.
"Mum, can I stay in your room as well?" Yin asked as she wanted to spend more time with Attie.
"Sure, I don¡¯t see why not but I only have one bed, ya know?" Shiro nodded.
"It¡¯s ok, I¡¯m still a mini you after all. I¡¯m sure I can fit on the bed." Yin nodded as Shiro¡¯s smile twitched for a moment but didn¡¯t say anything.
After all, Yin wasn¡¯t wrong. She still looked like a loli version of her. Despite being B ss now, Yin¡¯s appearance had not changed much except for the fact that her appetite had clearly increased.
¡¯Though, I suppose she¡¯s matured a little since she decided to share with Attie.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
"In that case then Lisa, want to join me in my room as well? I did get a big bed, so I think it can fit all of us." Shiro suggested with a smile since they were a family.
"Ah, um sure." Lisandra nodded her head.
"Oh before that, can I go get some food from the canteen? I did share a bunch of my food with Attie so I¡¯m still hungry." Yin asked as Shiro tilted her head.
"When are you not hungry?"
". . ."
Hearing Shiro¡¯s question, the party couldn¡¯t help but snicker a little since that was indeed the truth. There hadn¡¯t been a time where Yin wasn¡¯t hungry as her passive skill makes it so that she could just keep eating if she so wished.
"Fine fine, I know I¡¯m a glutton, ok!?" Yin pouted in annoyance as Shiro chuckled and pinched her cheeks.
"I was just asking a question haha. I never said you can¡¯t get some food now, did I?" Shiro winked as Yin¡¯s eyes brightened in an instant.
"Just make sure you don¡¯t eat out for too long and don¡¯t piss off anyone important. It would be quite annoying to deal with them after all."
"Thanks mum!" Yin smiled and hugged Shiro before running towards where the cafeteria is.
Shaking her head softly, Shiro looked towards Lisandra.
"Do you want to join your sister?" Shiro asked as Lisandra shook her head.
"Nah, big sis has been out alone enough times to know what she can and can¡¯t do." Lisandra replied.
"I see. Anyways, let¡¯s go back to our rooms firs- wait, does Yin know which room we¡¯re in?" Shiro asked since Yin was just ying around with Attie when they got their room numbers.
"If you want, I can go look after her." Silvi volunteered.
"Are you sure? I mean, I don¡¯t want Yin to get in the way of your lovey dovey time with lil Chen." Shiro grinned as Silvia blushed lightly.
"*cough* it¡¯s fine, isn¡¯t it darling?" Silvia asked as she turned over to Chen Yu.
"Mn, of course." Chen Yu nodded with a smile.
"In that case then I¡¯ll be troubling you." Shiro nodded her head as Silvia jogged to the cafeteria.
"Anyways, shall we go to our rooms now?" Shiro asked.
"Mn, sure. By the way Shiro, I can¡¯t help but notice you¡¯ve be more of a mother now huh?" Madison raised her eyebrows.
"Well... I¡¯m technically a mother of three now despite never having a partner. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m a better mother than I am a girlfriend at this point haha." Shiro joked.
"The fact that it¡¯s probably true doesn¡¯t help your case now does it?" Madison chuckled.
"Not really. Honestly, I won¡¯t be surprised if I started to adopt more kids in the future. I¡¯ve already got three in less than a year after all."
"True."
As they chatted to each other, they made their way through the hotel and found their rooms. Shiro¡¯s room was on the floor above them so she took Attie and Lisandra up while giving the rest of the party a wave.
Arriving in front of her room, she scanned the key card that she was given and opened the door. Setting Attie on the bed, Shiro took off her jacket and put it in her inventory.
"Lisa, do you want to go for a shower first or should I go?" Shiro asked while turning on the TV to look for some interesting news.
"Ah you can go first if you want mum." Lisandra replied.
"Hm... in that case then sure. You can y around with Attie in the meantime. Oh before that though, here, take this notebook. I¡¯ve detailed some ways you can improve your sword mastery after watching you fight today. You can read it while ying with your brother." Shiro said while giving her a notebook.
"Thanks mum." Lisandra nodded with a happy smile.
Seeing this, Shiro patted her head lightly before walking over to the shower. Grabbing a towel, she undressed herself before going into the shower.
Standing in the shower and allowing the water to ssh onto her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but muse to herself about what had happened with Duan Han Yin.
From the memories she inherited from Kuromi, they were the best of friends for a while. However, things changed all of a sudden and he became cold. Whenever he saw her, his face would scowl with disgust and fear before hiding it quickly. Kuromi didn¡¯t say much but she definitely noticed. It wasn¡¯t long after this change that Kuromi was killed in secret and had her mana linkspletely shattered.
Remembering the scene of Kuromi being tortured moments before her death, Shiro narrowed her eyes in anger as killing intent radiated off her body.
She could still see Kuromi¡¯s pained face as she tried her best not to scream from the feeling of her links being snapped one by one.
Quickly shaking her head, she dismissed those thoughts since her killing intent had identally frozen the shower.
Thawing the ice, she quickly cleaned herself up before wrapping herself in a towel.
¡¯The key thing I need to note is Duan Han Yin¡¯s sudden change in attitude. It¡¯s almost as if he was possessed by a ghost or something. Kind of like what happened with me and Kuromi.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{Do you think there¡¯s a chance that he was killed in secret and someone reincarnated into his body?} Nimue suggested.
¡¯I¡¯m not too sure. After all, unlike me, he didn¡¯t need to restart his level and he was still human. He also had all of his memories.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{Well there are still quite a few mysteries in regards to your situation with the whole split soul and all that. We also don¡¯t know WHY you reincarnated either.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯True. Questions forter I suppose.¡¯ Shiro shrugged before leaving the shower.
"Lisa, you can go in now." She called out while drying her hair with her wind element.
"Mn, sure." Lisandra nodded as she closed the notebook and set it aside.
Seeing Attie sitting on the bed obediently, Shiro wondered what he was looking at and saw that he was fixated on the TV.
ncing over at the TV, Shiro saw that the current program was a cartoon of sorts that had people fighting against monsters.
¡¯Well despite his intelligence, I suppose he is still a child.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile and allowed him to keep watching.
Once her hair was dried, she put up an illusion before changing into a simple one piece dress.
But before she could even rx, she felt a surge of mana that resembled Yin¡¯s.
¡¯Oh for f*cks sake. Really!? I can¡¯t even rx after a bath?¡¯ She frowned before standing up.
"Lisa! Seems like Yin¡¯s in some kind of trouble. I¡¯m going down right now. Attie will stay in the room with you ok?" Shiro called out.
"Got it mum." Lisandra replied.
Nodding her head, Shiro jumped into the rift and made a beeline towards where Yin was. Hopefully, it wasn¡¯t too serious or else it¡¯ll be annoying to deal with.
Chapter 473 Dominik
Chapter 473 Dominik
A few moments earlier, Yin and Silvia were eating in the cafeteria happily.
"Say say, Silvi, don¡¯t you think mum has gotten a lot kinder now that she has little bro?" Yin asked with a happy smile.
"Hm... perhaps. She did also spend time with Miss Kuromi so maybe she matured after experiencing having a big sister." Silvia smiled while ordering some more food for Yin.
"Mn. Though speaking of little bro, don¡¯t you think he¡¯s just the cutest?" Yin asked with happiness in her voice.
"Seems like you really like him." Silvia chuckled.
"I do. Because out of everyone here, I¡¯m the smallest. Even after entering B ss, I¡¯m still like a mini version of mum. However, now that little bro is here, he¡¯s smaller than me and I can pamper him properly." Yin replied while eating some food.
"But don¡¯t you have your little sister Lisa?"
"Hmm... That¡¯s different since Lisa is bigger than me. While I am the big sis, it¡¯s kind of odd for me to pamper her." Yin tilted her head.
"Well... size doesn¡¯t matter. Maybe Lisa also needs some pampering from her big sis every now and again. Remember, while you are the smallest out of our group, excluding Attie, you are Shiro¡¯s eldest daughter." Silvia reminded with a smile.
"And since you¡¯re the oldest daughter, you have to set an example. So even though Lisa is bigger than you, you can still pamper her."
"I see... Ok, I¡¯ll make sure to give her some foodter too." Yin smiled.
"Haha, Yin, pampering doesn¡¯t mean giving them food. It means giving them some attention and love." Silvia chuckled at Yin¡¯s response.
"I mean, I value food over most things except for mum and you lot. So if I give Attie and Lisa my favourite food, doesn¡¯t it tell them that they¡¯re more important than food is to me?" Yin tilted her head.
"Hmm... I suppose that¡¯s one way to put it." Silvia nodded her head since her logic was technically correct. For Yin, who loved food ever since she was a little bird, giving someone else her food was quite arge sign of recognition.
While they were talking to each other, a party sitting on a nearby table watched as the amount of food Yin ate continued to increase.
"Oi, don¡¯t you think she¡¯s overdoing it a bit?" One of the members asked.
"Mn, she must be loaded to be able to afford all of that food." Another member nodded his head.
One of the younger members couldn¡¯t help but feel annoyed at Yin¡¯s actions of overeating since he had struggled for food ever since he was small.
Getting a loaf of bread would be a miracle, never mind a huge feast such as the one Yin was eating all by herself right now.
"Don¡¯t think about it Samuel. Everyone onto themselves. If she has the money to pay for all of this food, then it is her problem not ours." A man shook his head. He was the leader of their party and he knew that the boy in front of him was rather... ¡¯delicate¡¯ when ites to food. Whenever he sees someone wasting food or overeating, he would feelpelled to ¡¯correct¡¯ their actions.
After all, despite the fact that they can now earn money easily due to the dungeons, food was now very expensive. And the more unfortunate kids had to risk their lives day in day out in the dungeons just to afford a small meal.
"But Dom!"
"No buts. Samuel, did you forget about how much trouble you had caused us with this habit of yours? I¡¯m not saying it¡¯s bad but rather than forcing your ideals on others, wouldn¡¯t it be better for you to put more effort in and help the people in need yourself?" Dominik replied with a sigh.
"I- F*ck! You know I can¡¯t save everyone so the best I can do is try to remind those I can see!" Samuel raged since he knew that trying to save everyone would be useless. There were simply too many to keep his eye on.
"You can do it if you want but just keep the party out of this. From what I know, that girl seemed to have connections to the angel that the church is trying to recruit or something. Don¡¯t piss her off too much and stick with a reminder ok?" Dominic waved his handzily.
"Tch, fine." Samuel nodded and stood up.
Walking over to Yin, he was about to call out to her when he saw her order some more food.
"Excuse me miss." He called out after taking a moment to calm himself.
"Mn? What do you want?" Yin turned around and had an uninterested expression on her face. She wasn¡¯t exactly happy about having her food time being interrupted by someone she didn¡¯t know.
"I just want to tell you that you shouldn¡¯t overeat if you¡¯re already full. There are tons of people out there who are starving." Samuel said while gesturing to the sheer amount of empty tes that was still on the table despite the waitress¡¯ taking some away.
"Ha? What does me overeating have to do with someone who¡¯s starving across the world? Does me not eating magically give them food?" Yin replied with annoyance since she worked hard to get this food herself. Shiro hadn¡¯t given her any pocket money so all that she was using to buy all this was her share of the earnings made from the dungeon runs.
¡¯Who does this ridiculous guy think he is? Even if I stop eating now, it doesn¡¯t mean the restaurant will stop selling food.¡¯ Yin thought to herself.
"Well it doesn¡¯t but it¡¯s the thought that counts." Samuel frowned.
"In that case then I hope that they are able to get some food ok? Are you happy now?" Yin rolled her eyes before focusing back on her food.
Before Samuel could rage, Silvia called out to him.
"Please don¡¯t make a scene that may disturb others. Each to their own ok? Yin here has a passive skill making it so that she¡¯s never full." She said, trying to pacify the situation.
"That¡¯s no excuse for her to be wasting food like this and overeating. If she can¡¯t feel full then she shouldn¡¯t even bother trying to eat this much. Eating enough to get through the day should be fine." Samuel replied seriously.
"Listen here you little sh*t. I for one, treasure food and don¡¯t waste it. What I eat is what I earned. I don¡¯t need some dumb f*cking up to me and telling me to think about the millions of people I don¡¯t even know nor give a sh*t about. Sure, it¡¯s sad but what does me not eating do for them ah?" Yin stood up in a rage since the fact that this idiot had the audacity to say that she was wasting food.
To her, Yin, food was glorious and as long as you eat everything, none of it is wasted.
"You-!" Gritting his teeth, Samuel didn¡¯t expect this girl to react so explosively as he could feel his own rage take over him.
"I¡¯m saying you shouldn¡¯t eat so much you greedy idiot!" He shouted back as his mana started to re in ordance to his emotions.
¡¯Ah f*ck sake. Sh*t¡¯s going to get messy.¡¯ Both Dominik and Silvia thought at the same time and stood up.
Seeing that he was clearly wanting to pick a fight with her over the value of food, Yin didn¡¯t back down and red her own mana.
"What? You want to pick a fight with me?" Yin taunted since she wasn¡¯t afraid to fight someone.
Before things could get out of hand, a heavy pressure descended into the area as a portal of sorts opened up in the ceiling.
"Yin, what¡¯s going on." Shiro called out with a frown.
Landing gently on the ground, she snapped her fingers as a wave of mana pulsed out, dispelling their auras and any spells they had prepared.
Seeing a white haired beauty that wore a simple one piece dress appear out of nowhere and pacify the situation in such a forceful way, Dominik knew that this woman was not to be underestimated.
Feeling her oppressive aura closely, Samuel felt sweat drip down his head as he could not even speak.
"Shiro." Silvia called out as she stood up.
"Mn?"
"You see, Yin and this boy here had a small... disagreement about her eating habits and things got a bit heated." Silvia exined with an apologetic smile.
*Sigh
"Oh for god sake. I wasn¡¯t even able toy on the bed after a shower to rush here in case of danger and it turns out it¡¯s because of Yin¡¯s habits?" Shiro massaged her eyes.
"Unfortunately yes."
"Ah if you don¡¯t mind me interfering, it¡¯s mostly my party member¡¯s fault. He¡¯s just rather ¡¯delicate¡¯ with topics in regards to food." Dominik called out apologetically as Shiro nced over at his direction.
The man had unkempt ck hair and wore a rather in set of clothes that consisted of a long ck trench coat, a grey shirt and some ck pants.
[Dominik ¨C LVL 130 Dragon Master]
Chapter 474 Dragon Master
Chapter 474 Dragon Master
¡¯Dragon Master? That¡¯s a rather interesting sounding ss now isn¡¯t it?¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
{Indeed, but I think what we should be doing now is resolving the small conflict first.} Nimue nodded.
¡¯Mn.¡¯
"So you¡¯re saying it¡¯s your party member¡¯s fault for being nosy in my daughter¡¯s eating habits?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"A little however, I would also like to say that your daughter did act rather explosively since my party member just wanted to give her a reminder." Dominik replied with a chuckle.
"Hou, seems to me like you¡¯re saying I should apologise as well." Shiro said as she narrowed her eyes.
From what she knew so far, Yin had been minding her own business eating with Silvia and this boy was being nosy. So to her, it made absolutely no sense for Yin to apologise when it was clearly the other party that was the one who instigated it.
If they had just ignored and left quietly, things would not have developed to this point.
A deafening silence filled the room as both Shiro and Dominik had a stare off. Neither one wanted to back down.
For Shiro, Yin was her daughter so it¡¯s natural that she¡¯ll stick up for her. Plus, it was also the other party¡¯s fault for being nosy.
As for Dominik, he stood up for Samuel since it was just a small reminder that turned hostile after Yin¡¯s response.
Continuing this for a few more moments, Shiro could sense that a few guards wereing and things would get rather annoying if they were involved.
"You better watch your party member closely. If he¡¯s too nosy, he¡¯ll get himself killed in the future." Shiro warned before waving her hand.
A rift opened up beneath Yin and Silvia as she teleported away with the two of them.
The moment Shiro disappeared, Dominik sighed out in relief as sweat had covered his back.
During that short stare off, he felt like he was being red at by an apex predator. A single wrong move would mean his death but he had to stand his ground for Samuel.
"Dom I-"
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Like I said, you should keep that habit of yours in check. If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d say that if we actually fought with that woman there, we would have all died without a corpse." Dominik sighed.
"But isn¡¯t she just a level 101? You¡¯re 29 levels above her." Samuel frowned.
"Idiot, do you not think that she can use the disguise skill? I tried to see past the disguise but it seems like her skill must be pretty high ranked since it didn¡¯t budge. All I know is that her aura did not belong to a level 101. If anything, I¡¯d say she¡¯s near the 200¡¯s or maybe higher." Dominik shook his head.
"200..." Samuel widened his eyes since people in the A ss were simply monsters amongst men. A single wave of their hand could obliterate a city never mind a small party like theirs.
"Man, I think I¡¯ll need a smoke after that. Anyways, just try not to make too big of a fuss. We got important matters to attend to after all." Dominik waved his hand as he pulled out a cigarette and walked out of the hotel.
###
Returning to their room, Shiro nted her face against the bed and sighed.
"Yin, I thought I told you not to cause trouble." Shiro said as Attie started to pat Shiro¡¯s head after seeing her so worn out.
"But I didn¡¯t though. He just approached me and started to lecture me about my eating habits." Yin pouted.
"To be fair Shiro, he was kind of pushy with his ideals." Silvia followed up.
"Mn, I know. But if a fight had erupted out back there, a bunch of people might have died you know? Not by my hands but through his." Shiro replied with narrowed eyes and produced a photograph.
In the photograph, they could clearly see a giant ck dragon hovering over the clouds while looking down at their hotel.
During the stare off, she had felt the presence of a giant monster just above the city so she deployed a nanotech drone just to scout out the situation. Seeing that it was a dragon, she knew that his ss of Dragon Master was not for looks.
While she could have killed him, a bunch of people might have died from the dragon¡¯s ensuing attack.
"Wait.. Sh*t! He had a b*stard reptile with him!?" Yin widened her eyes in annoyance since she never liked dragons to begin with.
Reptiles should just crawl on the ground, when the f*ck did they have the audacity to fly in the air with a bird like her!? Have they ever seen a flightless bird!?
¡¯Actually... isn¡¯t a chicken a flightless bird?¡¯ Yin wondered to herself.
¡¯F*ck!¡¯
"Don¡¯t fight him in the city. If you want to fight a dragon, find one that doesn¡¯t have an owner or something." Shiro waved her handzily since she was too tired for this sh*t.
"Anyways, Silvia thank you for your help." She said while sitting up straight.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. It was just unlucky for Yin to run into a guy like him. If there¡¯s nothing else, I¡¯ll go back to my room now." Silvia smiled.
"Oh speaking of which, do you and Chen Yu have the same room?" Shiro asked with a grin.
*COUGH!
"Erm.... Maybe." Silvia blushed.
"Hou hou, in that case then does he treat you well? Surely you haven¡¯t done the deed now have you? I wonder if I¡¯ll see some mini Silvi¡¯s in nine months time." Shiro chuckled.
"Ah we haven¡¯t gone that far yet." Silvia looked down embarrassingly.
Who the hell talks about this with her three children present?!?!
Even Lisandra who had gotten out of the shower not too long ago had a blush on her face while using the notebook to cover her face.
As for Yin... well her IQ isn¡¯t high enough for her to understand talks of romance. She was more upied with sticking a middle finger to the sky in order to piss off the dragon.
"Oh? Did I just hear a ¡¯yet¡¯? Does that mean you¡¯ve reached second base?" Shiro asked once more.
Hearing the mention of second base, Silvia blushed harder as she knew the meaning and couldn¡¯t help but nod her head slowly.
Seeing the confirmation, Shiro grinned and gave her a thumbs up.
"Make sure you keep a good leash on him ok? If b*stard Tian tries to get him back I¡¯ll tell him Chen Yu is my friend¡¯s man now ok?" Shiroughed since she¡¯s technically borrowing Chen Yu from Nan Tian. Their partnership should have ended back in the elven country but due to his rtionship with Silvia, he¡¯s stuck around with the party.
"I heard Chen talk about Nan Tian a few times and said that he was his boss and that you two had a rather...plicated rtionship." Silvia asked.
"Hmm...plicated is a rather adept description. I met him way back in New York where he discovered my identity as a snow girl. He even helped me deal with the shadow stalker." Shiro chuckled.
"Shadow stalker?" Silvia raised her eyebrows.
"Yup. Though in return, I got a ¡¯gentlemanly¡¯ stalker instead haha. To be fair though, I did receive quite a bit of help from him. He¡¯s the one who provided me with a few of the rebirth pills that I previously needed." Shiroughed as Silvia couldn¡¯t help but feel sweat roll down the side of her face.
¡¯I don¡¯t think you should be this happy for a stalker...¡¯
As the duo continued to talk about Chen Yu and Nan Tian, Shiro told Silvia everything she knew about Nan Tian and the hidden sect. After all, her boyfriend belonged to the sect so it was only natural that she knew.
"I see... I¡¯ll ask Chen about it tonight and tell you if there¡¯s some new information about the sect then." Silvia nodded as she was going to use ¡¯pillow talk¡¯ to get some information.
Of course, she wasn¡¯t going to go to the third base yet in order to use the pillow talk. That can be saved forter.
"Mn, it¡¯s prettyte now so you should head back and get some rest." Shiro nodded as she bid her farewell.
###
Somewhere else in the city of Epona, a man was sitting on the edge of the tallest building in the city and looked up into the sky.
"It doesn¡¯t seem like the dragon¡¯s going to do anything." He muttered before looking towards the hotel building that Shiro was in.
"I wonder if little snow would be happy to find out that I¡¯ve dealt with most things now so that I can apany her a bit. Probably not haha." He chuckled before disappearing from his spot.
Chapter 475 Nan Tians Return
Chapter 475 Nan Tian''s Return
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro looked to her side and saw that Attie and Yin were still sleeping peacefully. Lisandra had already woken up and was currently doing some stretches in the room.
"Good morning." Lisandra whispered as Shiro yawned before nodding.
Getting off the bed carefully, so that she didn¡¯t wake up Attie nor Yin, Shiro went to the toilet and had a quick shower.
When she came back, she changed into a simple white tank top, ck mini shorts, a pair of ck tights and some boots.
Tying up her hair into that of a ponytail, Shiro looked in the mirror and nodded her head with satisfaction.
"This should look casual enough." She mused to herself before leaving the toilets.
Turning towards Shiro, Lisandra was rather surprised at her appearance before giving her a thumbs up.
"Looking good mum." She praised.
"Of course, I always look good." Shiro grinned as she looked out the window and saw that the sun was rising.
"Hmm, I¡¯ll set a camera down here so that I¡¯ll be notified when your brother and sister wake up. For now though, do you want to go grab something to eat and see if the rest of the party is awake?" She asked.
"Mn, sure."
Flexing her fingers, Shiro created a small camera before cing it on the table. Once she was sure that everything was set up, she left the room with Lisandra and made their way downstairs, where the rest of the party rested.
Once she went downstairs, she saw that everyone was up, so they decided to have breakfast together.
"How was your rest?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Mn, it was good. Though Silvia said something about Yin having a fight with someone. What happened?" Lyrica asked.
"Oh, it¡¯s just a small argument between two kids. We were able to resolve it before anything major urred." Shiro shrugged as Lyrica nodded.
"Anyways, what¡¯s with this outfit? It¡¯s quite... casual? For ack of a better word." Lyrica asked curiously.
"Well, I just felt like wearing something a little different today. What do you think?" Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, it looks good on you." Lyrica nodded.
"Not gonna lie, with you looking like this, no one would think that you¡¯re a mother of three." Madison smiled.
"Of course not. Hate to break it to you but thisdy here is still a v.i.r.g.i.n ok? Do I look like I¡¯ve given birth?" Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Nope. To be fair, I can¡¯t imagine you being all gentle in bed as you talk to your future lover." Madisonughed as Shiro¡¯s expression darkened.
"Oi, I¡¯m still a maiden, ok? Why can¡¯t thisdy act gentle, ah?" Shiro furrowed her brows in annoyance.
"Then can you imagine yourself saying this? ¡¯Ah darling~ why don¡¯t you carry me to bed and show me a good time?~¡¯" Madison grinned as Shiro immediately felt goosebumps.
"F*ck! Ok fine maybe not that gentle. God, I¡¯m about to throw up." Shiro shivered.
"Haha, see? I told you." Madisonughed.
Listening to this, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but imagine that scene but with her and Shiro.
Quickly tilting her head back, Lyrica avoided having a nosebleed since it was still early in the morning.
¡¯Too stimting...¡¯ She thought to herself.
"Are you alright?" Shiro asked as she watched Lyrica tilt her head back.
"Mn, yeah, I just suddenly found the ceiling very interesting." Lyrica replied.
¡¯The f*ck? When was the ceiling interesting?¡¯ Shiro raised her eyebrows while looking up at the ceiling to see what was so interesting.
There was nothing.
Talking to the rest of the party while they walked, they soon arrived at the cafeteria. Upon arrival, they saw it was rather empty as there were only a few people around.
However, when Chen Yuid his eyes on one of the people around, he couldn¡¯t help but find them quite familiar.
"Wait a minute..." He muttered while narrowing his eyes slightly.
Noticing this behaviour, Silvia tilted her head.
"Is there anything wrong?" She asked curiously.
"Mn... I think I kno- Holy sh*t!" He widened his eyes in shock.
Hearing Chen Yu suddenly curse out loud, Shiro was also curious and nced towards what he was looking at.
Seeing the familiar figure of a man sitting by one of the tables with his mask on as always, she realised that the esteemed branch master had actuallye to visit her.
"Urg..." She sighed before massaging her eyes.
"Shiro?" Silvia was even more confused when she saw Shiro suddenly sighed as if trouble had just arrived at her doorstep.
"Give me a moment." Shiro said before walking up to the table and sitting opposite him.
"So what brings the esteemed branch master to this city? If I recall things correctly, you said you were going to apany me but decided to stop since some matters came up." Shiro said with a smile as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Sounds to me like you missed me, little snow. Though I suppose that nickname is rather old now considering that you¡¯re an empress now." Nan Tian smiled.
"Missed you? Oh please, I was just surprised at theck of a stalker and couldn¡¯t be happier. However, it seems like both stalkers had suddenly re-entered my life. Both you and the shadow stalker." Shiro rolled her eyes.
She wasn¡¯t too surprised at the fact that he now knew that she was an empress since her disguise did f*ck all when she was in front of this man.
"So you¡¯ve met with him earlier?"
"Not really ¡¯earlier¡¯ since thest time I talked to him was back when there was an event in Vericia." Shiro shrugged.
"Is that so. Well if you want, I can tell you about some information I gathered about him during my time away. It¡¯s quite interesting if you asked me. And also, it seems like your friend has Chen Yu wrapped around her fingers." Nan Tian smiled while gesturing towards Chen Yu and Silvia.
"Well let¡¯s just say Silvi and lil¡¯ Chen have been quite intimate with each other. I don¡¯t think he wants to go back with you any time soon." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Chen Yu¡¯s breath halted from shock.
¡¯F*ck my life! Empress Shiro, don¡¯t drag me into this and piss off the branch master ok!? My life will be shortened by a few decades!!!¡¯ He cried out in his mind but didn¡¯t dare to voice out hisints. After all, on one side was the Empress and the other was the devil.
Offending either one of them out spelled death for him.
"Haha, don¡¯t worry. I don¡¯t like to force my subordi-"
"Bullsh*t." Shiro retorted instantly with a roll of her eyes.
"But when did I force you to do anything?" Nan Tian tilted his head in confusion.
"Never, but didn¡¯t you force yourself into my life?" Shiro said with a deadpan expression.
*Cough
"Well there¡¯s no point dwelling in the past now is there? Just know that if Chen Yu wants to stay with you, that¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve been getting some other people to do the work I need. As long as he¡¯s not making trouble for you, it¡¯s ok." Nan Tian smiled.
"Anyways, enough about that. Why are you here today?" Shiro asked.
"What? Can¡¯t I visit you when I¡¯m finally free? You know, I did promise that I¡¯ll go on a few adventures with you now didn¡¯t I?"
"Oh please, we both know you aren¡¯t idle enough to actually apany me right? Just get to the point already. You know I don¡¯t like to beat around the bush." Shiro shrugged.
"Fine fine, I¡¯ll give you a break now, ¡¯Empress¡¯." Nan Tian chuckled.
"First, I wasn¡¯t kidding when I said I wanted to apany you. I have finished most of the emergency business that happened at the sect so I¡¯m pretty free right now. After all, the elders owe me quite arge holiday. Second, I¡¯m rather interested in the fact that you now have an angel with you and have even garnered the attention of the church.
"However, the most important thing I want to tell you is that I finally figured out when you felt so familiar for me when we first met." Nan Tian smiled as he looked down at the table.
"You found me familiar?" Shiro raised her eyebrow since she did have a nagging feeling that she knew the man but regardless of how much she looked through Kuromi¡¯s memories, she didn¡¯t find anything rted to him.
"Mn, let¡¯s just say I only realised after finding out that you¡¯re currently using the body of miss Kuromi." Nan Tian shook his head before reaching for his mask.
Pulling it down, he exposed his face for Shiro to see.
"Holy sh*t it¡¯s you!" Shiro cried out in shock since her mind immediately locked onto a memory she had as Kuromi.
Chapter 476 Little Beggar
Chapter 476 Little Beggar
The man in front of her had pure golden eyes, ck hair, sharp features and a charming smile. However, there was something about his golden eyes that struck a memory deep in Shiro¡¯s consciousness as she remembers seeing these eyes when she was younger as ¡¯Kuromi¡¯.
"Seems like you¡¯ve remembered me." Nan Tian raised his eyebrows in surprise since Shiro was currently inhibiting Kuromi¡¯s body in his mind and shouldn¡¯t have her memories.
"Of course I did! I got ¡¯my¡¯ memories back ok? But f*ck! Little beggar, you¡¯ve really changed huh?" Shiro asked in disbelief.
*PFTTT!!!
Hearing Shiro call his branch master little beggar, Chen Yu couldn¡¯t help but freeze up in shock.
¡¯What did she just call branch master?!¡¯
"Haha, you¡¯ve even remembered my nickname." Nan Tian rubbed the bridge of his nose with embarrassment.
"Mn, but little beggar, why did you be a stalker ah? Didn¡¯t I teach you to be better?" Shiro tilted her head.
"You did. But the elders at the sect kept telling me that I should try to charm woman this way since they like it." Nan Tian replied.
"Ah, they married?"
"No." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Do they have girlfriends or had ex¡¯s?"
"No." He shook his head again.
"Then why the hell are you taking rtionship advice from them?!" Shiro facepalmed.
"Well they were the only ones around that could tell me." Nan Tian chuckled. He did try to ask some of the female seniors before he became the branch master but it turns out that they liked him and didn¡¯t need him to make a move.
"Say, little beggar, if you realised that I¡¯m me now, how did you not realise earlier?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I had a few run ins with those that looked familiar to you so I was a bit cautious. Not only that, the sect master took me in for training so I couldn¡¯t even go out to find you if I wanted. I had only finished my training recently when I went to New York and found you." Nan Tian replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Speaking of which, what do you mean by ¡¯my¡¯ memories? I thought you were a monster that inhibited Kuromi¡¯s body?" Nan Tian asked.
"Well it¡¯s like this, me and Kuromi are actually the same person in a way. It¡¯s during the recent trial that we kind of merged and I received her memories. Of course, I¡¯m still the dominant personality." Shiro replied with a happy smile.
Seeing this interaction, the party couldn¡¯t help but feel curious about the development while Lyrica felt rm bells ring in her mind.
"Shiro, who is he?" Lyrica called out as the party sat near them.
"Well I was going to introduce him as the gentlemanly stalker but it turns out that I knew him all along. His name is now Li Nan Tian and as you heard, I knew him as little beggar before." Shiro said as she started to recount her time as Kuromi and how she had met Nan Tian when he was a little beggar.
###
In the Asakura Mansion, a young girl was sparring against her parents. Sweat dripped off her face as the wooden sword in her hands trembled. Based on her appearance, it looked as though she was around 10 years of age.
Her grip was loose due to the fatigue that she was feeling. Her father, the head of the Asakura family, looked at her with a soft smile.
"Kuro, even when you are tired, you must push past that fatigue and grip your sword as hard as you can. In a life and death fight, as long as you have your sword, it means you can still fight back. Imagine a fight against a bear, if it knocks the sword out of your hand, you can only rely on your physical strength. But if you have your sword, you can force the bear to plunge itself into the sword through careful footwork and make it kill itself." Her father, Asakura Koji, reminded her gently.
"Mn! I-I understand." Kuromi replied with a small stutter in her words.
"Dear, I think you should give Kuromi a break. She¡¯s still young." Her mother, Asakura Mio, called out from the corner of the training hall as she brought some refreshments.
"Hmm... very well. You¡¯ve done well today." Koji smiled and patted Kuromi on her head.
Hearing her father¡¯s praise, she smiled happily before dropped her sword and running over to her mother for the snacks.
Giving her mother a hug, she quickly scoffed down the snacks while taking the asional drink to prevent choking.
"Slow down, no one is going to take them from you." Mio said with a soft smile.
"I guess..." Kuromi looked down at the snacks and nodded. These were her favourites so she wanted to eat them as soon as she could.
Thinking about it for a moment, she hesitantly grabbed one of the snacks and broke a small piece off.
"For you dad." She said while handing him the small piece and quickly eating the big piece.
Looking at this, Koji couldn¡¯t help butugh as he took the small piece.
"How kind haha." He said while eating it.
"I can only give you this much since there aren¡¯t too many left." Kuromi said while slowly nudging herself to cover the rest of the snacks.
"Oh? Isn¡¯t there 3 more behind you?" Koji asked with a smile.
"!!!"
Quickly turning around and eating two more, she grabbed her drink and swallowed it.
"I see only only one and that¡¯s for mommy." Kuromi replied while ncing to the side.
"Pft, haha. Fine, I won¡¯t fight you for the food." Koji smiled before patting her on the head once more.
After giving her mother the final snack, she was allowed to go around the mansion and do whatever she wanted for the rest of the day.
Nodding her head, the girl was more than happy since this was a good chance for her to y around. What her parents didn¡¯t know was that she liked to sneak out of the mansion and roam the streets.
Of course, that was only what she thought. Her parents naturally knew of this but had guards looking after her so that their daughter could have fun.
Sneaking out of the Asakura mansion through her usual route, she jogged towards the park that she had always yed at. She had made a few friends there that didn¡¯t know about her identity as the young miss of the famous Asakura family so she could y without any worries.
Unfortunately, when she arrived, she was only met with annoyed res.
"What¡¯s wrong guys?" Kuromi called out curiously.
"Go away! Was it fun looking down on us just because you¡¯re rich?" A girl shouted out with a frown.
"Eh? What do you mean? I never looked down on you." Kuromi furrowed her brows.
"Don¡¯t lie to us. Go away! We don¡¯t want to y with you anymore. Liar!" Another boy shouted out as they all started to berate her for lying and tricking them.
"Yeah! You¡¯re the princess of the Asakura¡¯s while we¡¯re justmoners. Was it fun?"
As she was still a child, Kuromi didn¡¯t know why they were like this and thought that it was her fault. Balling her hands into a fist, she quickly ran away from the park since she didn¡¯t want to be called a liar.
Running away, tears started to form around her eyes as she realised that she couldn¡¯t y with her ¡¯friends¡¯ anymore.
Biting her lips, she tried her best not to cry. Sitting down on some crates in an ally, she hugged her legs and tried to stop her crying but the tears kepting.
As the quiet sobs rang out, a rustling sound could be heard not too far from her.
"Are you homeless too?" A young voice called out as Kuromi looked up.
She could see a young boy with long ck hair that reached his lower back. His clothes were ragged and dirt could be seen all over him. His bangs covered most of his face apart from his golden eyes that seemed to shimmer lighten even in this dark environment.
"I¡¯m not homeless." Kuromi shook her head and quickly wiped away her tears.
"Then why are you crying?" The boy asked curiously while sitting down next to her.
"My friends kept calling me a liar and said that I looked down on them." Kuromi replied sadly.
"Well did you lie and look down on them?" The boy tilted his head in confusion.
"Of course not!" Kuromi quickly waved her hands in denial.
"Then I don¡¯t see the problem? Maybe they¡¯re the ones lying." The boy smiled as Kuromi paused.
This was the first meeting between her and the little boy with no name.
Chapter 477 Childhood Part 1
Chapter 477 Childhood Part 1
From then on, every time Kuromi sneaked out of the mansion, she would look for this boy to y around with. There were times where she saw him clutching his stomach from hunger and would help him get some food to eat.
"So what¡¯s your name?" She asked during one of their y sessions.
"I don¡¯t have one." The boy shook his head.
"Eh? You don¡¯t have one? What about your mum and dad then?" Kuromi raised her eyebrows in curiosity.
"I don¡¯t know. I was raised in the streets." The boy smiled.
"That¡¯s kinda sad... Do you want me to give you a name then?" Kuromi asked.
"Hmm... I think it¡¯s ok with just a nickname. I heard that real names are given by parents or those that act like parents, so I want to save that for them." The boy shook his head.
"What should I call you then?"
"Well, I guess you can call me little beggar like everyone else." The boy suggested.
"Little beggar? Isn¡¯t that rude though." Kuromi frowned.
"Not really since I don¡¯t mind."
"Hm, fine. But if I call you little beggar, you call me big beggar then. Since I¡¯m bigger than you, I can be your big sis." Kuromi grinned cheerfully.
"I don¡¯t think I should call you big beggar. I¡¯ll just call you big sis instead if that¡¯s ok."
"Sure, that¡¯s ok." Kuromi nodded her head.
As the two continued to talk, the boy would learn more about the girl. How she was trained in the sword despite her reluctance.
The two would always have a set time to meet each other since she had her breaks from training roughly at the same time. After a while, it became a habit for the boy to wait for her patiently.
Kuromi would always be on time to meet the boy as they had be close friends.
Of course, the boy would be curious about the girl¡¯s background and had asked during one of their sessions. To which she replied that she came from a normal family that was slightly better off in fear of losing a friend like what had happened long ago.
This continued to winter as Kuromi wore a thick coat to ward off the cold. Getting a spare coat and hiding it under her clothes, she tried to sneak out of the mansion while looking like a giant snowball.
When she arrived at the normal meeting spot, she was confused as to why she couldn¡¯t see the boy anywhere.
"Little beggar!" She called out.
Hearing no response, she started to look around the area in hopes of finding him.
However, there were no signs of him being around.
Frowning slightly, Kuromi decided to sit by the crates and wait patiently for him toe back.
Soon, snow started to fall as she quickly pulled up her hood and looked around once more.
Seeing the snow, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the little beggar was cold right now. The best case scenario would be that he found some shelter.
Waiting till nightfall, Kuromi reluctantly stood up and ced the spare coat down before going back home.
The next day, she quickly made her way back to the meeting spot after her break. Soon, joy filled her mind as she saw the little beggar wrapped in the spare coat that she had left out.
But before she could call out his name, she realised that he looked extremely pale and knew that something was wrong.
"Little beggar! Are you ok?" She asked with concern.
"Mn? Ah you¡¯re here. Sorry I couldn¡¯t meet you yesterday. The people around here needed someone to go with them to a dungeon." The boy apologised with a slightly forced smile.
"Eh? Why did you go to such a dangerous ce? Didn¡¯t I tell you to be careful since you¡¯re still a child?" Kuromi frowned before scanning him up and down to check for any injuries.
Seeing that he was clutching the coat tightly, she thought that he must be cold and decided to take her own coat off and handed it over to him.
"You look cold so you can have this." She offered.
"Ah, it¡¯s ok. I¡¯m fine with just this one." The boy shook his head.
"Then why are you trembling and holding it tightly? You must be cold. Don¡¯t be stubborn, I can get another coat from mommy. Just take mine." Kuromi furrowed her brows and pushed the coat towards him.
"Ok fine..." The boy nodded his head since he didn¡¯t want her to know the truth of the matter.
Taking the second coat, he tried his best to wear it while not exposing his body under the coat.
All Kuromi thought was that he must be so cold that moving the first coat out of the way would be painful.
"Hmm... give me a second. I¡¯ll go buy you some hot soup or a drink. That way, it can warm you up on the inside." Kuromi offered as the boy wanted to shake his head but she had already left the alleyway.
Sighing softly, he leaned against the wall while pressing his arm against his stomach.
Once the girl came back with the hot drink, she saw the boy lying in a pool of his own blood as her face quickly paled.
"Ah! Blood!" She cried out in shock while running next to him.
"Aren¡¯t you cold?! Why did you start bleeding!?" She asked with shock.
"Sorry... I was hit by one of the monsters in the dungeon." The boy apologised while trying to stop the bleeding.
Gritting her teeth, Kuromi decided to take the boy back to her home to get him treated. While this may expose her habit of going outside, it was better than letting the little beggar die on the streets.
Thankfully, due to her parent¡¯s training, her body was quite strong so she could somewhat carry him with her.
Taking him back to her home through the same path she used escape, she quickly begged her father to heal him.
"You know we¡¯re going to have a small talk after we heal him right?" her father reminded her as Kuromi looked down.
"Mn. I know." She nodded, understanding that she may be punished for sneaking out.
Shaking his head lightly, Koji lifted the young boy off his daughters back and produced a health potion.
Feeding it to the boy, he brought the little beggar to a spare room.
Once Kuromi was sure that the boy was fine, she sighed in relief before going to a separate room with her father.
Naturally, the talk was mostly him berating her for sneaking out of the mansion, but it wasn¡¯t too harsh. It was more like a reminder instead of berating.
However, this reminder was quite effective on Kuromi as she was feeling guilty for hiding her activities from her father, even though he already knew.
"I¡¯m sorry." Was all she could say.
"Mn, once that boy is awake, you can escort him back to his home." Koji instructed.
"But he doesn¡¯t have a home..." She muttered while ncing up at her father.
"The most we can do is help him every now and again but we can¡¯t do this to everyone. There are a lot of poor people in the world that we can¡¯t see. If we save one, 10 more will appear and if we save them, 100 more would follow. Do you understand? If anything, he¡¯ll have to get stronger himself so that he can stay safe in the outside world." Koji said with a soft smile. While saving people wasn¡¯t a bad habit, there was only so much a single person can do before it wears them out. He didn¡¯t want his daughter to be someone that constantly tires herself to help other people who may not even help her back.
"So if he bes strong like you, he can live properly?" Kuromi asked since she knew that strength was important.
"Mn." Koji nodded.
Staying silent, Kuromi started to think of ways for the little beggar to get stronger. With how he is right now, going for swords was probably not the best choice since he wascking physical strength.
Remembering talks of magic from her parents, Kuromi decided to study magic in her spare time so that she could teach the little beggar, making it easier for him to survive.
It was due to this incident that Kuromi decided to stray from the martial path of her family and choose to go with the mage¡¯s path. She was going to make sure she studied magic diligently so that she could pass on everything she knew to the little beggar.
Chapter 478 Childhood Part 2
Chapter 478 Childhood Part 2
"And that¡¯s why I decided to be a mage despite my family being one that was filled with warriors." Shiro exined as the party nodded their heads.
"So what happened after that little beggar? If I remember correctly, after we both got our sses as mages, you disappeared not too long after. Do you know how worried I was? I thought you f*cking died in the dungeon or something." She asked with a frown.
"Well... In one of the dungeon runs, I, unfortunately, caught the attention of a rather rude fellow who kidnapped me and took me away from the city. For the next few years or so, I was forced to work with this bandit group of sorts. It wasn¡¯t until the current sect master of the hidden sect found me was I able to escape from the group. From then on, he started to train me and I became the branch master. Unfortunately, I was not able to return to our city and when I was finally allowed to leave, I found news of you going missing." Nan Tian exined while scratching his cheek.
"Damn... Do you know who the bandit group is? Imma go teach them a lesson for kidnapping little beggar." Shiro frowned.
*cough
"The bandit group is also known by the name of ck Monarchy. And also, can you not call me little beggar anymore? It¡¯s kind of embarrassing to be called little beggar when I¡¯m the branch master." Nan Tian asked while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Heh~ Why not? Do you not like little beggar? Did you forget about the times we spent together with me calling you by that nickname over and over again?" Shiro asked with a grin.
ncing to the side, Nan Tian didn¡¯t say anything and just smiled.
Meanwhile, Chen Yu couldn¡¯t believe what he was seeing. His branch master, one that most of the sect members feared, actually had a past where he was called little beggar. If the rest of the sect knew of this...
"Chen Yu, any word of this in the sect and you know what happens." Nan Tian narrowed his eyes while giving Chen Yu a ¡¯smile¡¯.
"I¡¯ll keep it a secret!" Chen Yu widened his eyes and replied in an instant.
"Oi, don¡¯t pick on my friend¡¯s man." Shiro frowned and smacked Nan Tian on the shoulder.
". . . Fine." Nan Tian nodded his head after a moment as Chen Yu sighed in relief.
¡¯Great Empress, I owe you my life ah...¡¯ He cried out in his mind. He knew that as long as he stayed around Shiro¡¯s group with Silvia, his life would be safe.
"Ah, by the way, what shall I call you now? Kuromi, Shiro or little snow?" Nan Tian asked.
"Little snow my ass! Do I still look like a loli ah?!" Shiro frowned.
"Just call me Shiro or something." She shrugged.
"Alright. In that case then Shiro, can you tell me what exactly happened to you or rather, Kuromi?" Nan Tian nodded his head before asking with a serious expression.
"Sure. These girls here already know. Just know that me and Kuromi are technically two sides of the same coin. We¡¯re the same person in one sense. It wasn¡¯t too long ago did we merge and I got her memories. As for how she died, it¡¯s by a guy named Duan Han Yin. I don¡¯t know if you know him but his attitude suddenly changed one day and he became enemies with me." Shiro exined as Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"Sorry, I don¡¯t have any recollection of a person named Duan Han Yin. I¡¯ll have some of my people search for some information about him if you can tell me what he looks like." He replied.
"Give me a second." Shiro nodded before waving her hand.
Suddenly, mist started to form in the air as Shiro activated her Fae Illusions to make it look like Duan Han Yin.
The figure was that of a handsome man who looked like he was in his mid 20¡¯s. He had a set of refined features that made him look a little feminine in a good way. Long ck hair that reached his back and a fire marking that extended from his right hand to his back.
"Hmm... I see. Ok, I¡¯ll give my people a message now." Nan Tian nodded as he took a picture and sent it to his subordinates.
"Anyways, what are you nning to do in this city then?" Shiro asked with a smile while dismissing the illusion.
"Me? Well I guess I¡¯ll follow my initial n and maybe stay with your group for a bit?" He asked.
"Hmm... ok but you¡¯re not allowed to help, ok?" Shiro replied.
"That¡¯s fine." Nan Tian nodded his head since he was just happy that he could spend time with Kuromi again or rather, Shiro.
"Welp, seems like we¡¯ve got a spectator to our adventures now, huh?" Madison raised her eyebrows.
"Oh it¡¯ll be fine. If anything, I¡¯ll make sure lil¡¯ Tian behaves ok?" Shiro smiled.
"Lil¡¯ Tian?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrows at the nickname.
"What? You don¡¯t like it? Should I keep with bastard Tian then?" Shiro grinned.
*Cough!
"Lil¡¯ Tian would be fine." Nan Tian smiled in defeat.
"There we go, so obedient." Shiroughed before standing up.
"I¡¯ll be right back, seems like Attie¡¯s awake." She said as she disappeared from her spot.
"Who¡¯s Attie?" Nan Tian asked the party.
"I¡¯m not handing Shiro over to you!" Lyrica called out as she immediately dered war against Nan Tian.
"Ha?" Confused at the sudden deration, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but tilt his head.
"Pft, since Shiro¡¯s not here, I don¡¯t see why we shouldn¡¯t say it since it¡¯s pretty obvious. You see lil¡¯ Tian, Shiro has a few admirers and one of them is our dear ol Lyrica here." Madison chuckled while gesturing towards Lyrica.
"Ah I see. Well Ku- Shiro always had lots of admirers even when she was younger. Lots of people wanted to be her husband after all." Nan Tian nodded his head.
"And I¡¯m guessing that includes you?" Aarim asked as she crossed her arms with interest.
"Maybe." Nan Tian rubbed his nose since things were more obvious after he realised that Shiro was indeed the one that saved his life through teaching him magic. If it wasn¡¯t for this, he would have never been saved by the current sect master.
"Good luck Lyrica. He has a strong childhood friend card on his side." Aarim patted Lyrica¡¯s shoulder.
"Urg..."
"I¡¯m back~ What are you lot talking about now?" Shiro called out as she jumped out of the portal with Attie in her arms and Yin following behind her.
"Oh nothing too important. Just some personal interests." Nan Tian replied.
"I see. Well as long as a feud doesn¡¯t appear between y¡¯all, I¡¯ll be fine." Shiro nodded before ordering some food for everyone.
"Ah by the way, lil¡¯ Tian, do you still like eating ramen? I remember that it used to be your favourite back when we were children." Shiro asked.
"A little." Nan Tian nodded. Back when he was a beggar, eating ramen was like going to heaven for him. However, now that he had ess to better food, ramen wasn¡¯t on his menu anymore.
"In that case then, I¡¯ll order you some now." Shiro smiled and called for some ramen.
Seeing that Chen Yu was about to tell Shiro about the fact that he never ate ramen in the sect, Nan Tian quickly red at him to stop him from telling the truth.
This did not escape Shiro¡¯s notice as she quickly smacked him on the head lightly with her hand.
"What did I say about bullying Chen Yu." Shiro frowned as Nan Tian apologised.
¡¯Hehe, Great Empress now has the branch master on a leash. Maybe I can bully the branch master now.¡¯ Chen Yu thought with himself with a chuckle.
"And you Chen Yu, don¡¯t nder your branch master randomly just because I¡¯m here ok? Or else I¡¯ll get Silvia to make you sleep on the couch or something. I don¡¯t know what you couples do." Shiro nced over at Chen Yu.
*cough!
Nodding his head, Chen Yu behaved himself. The dream of bullying the branch master was still so far away.
"Um, Shiro, so who¡¯s Attie?" Nan Tian asked while pointing at Atesh.
"Oh, him? He¡¯s my son."
*PFT!
"Y-your son?" Nan Tian asked in surprise as he felt his heart puncture from the news. Even taking 1 million points of damage felt better than this.
"Yup. Though he¡¯s not my biological son. In a nutshell, he¡¯s a sentient spirit formed from the fusion of two fires that I had obtained. Since he¡¯s so cute, I kept him as my son." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
¡¯Damn, my heart can¡¯t take too many surprises.¡¯ He thought to himself.
Sighing in relief, he started to eat his ramen while trying not to make eye contact with Lyrica since he felt like he would be killed several times from the intensity of her stare.
Meanwhile, Shiro found it a little weird that the dinner table felt like a war zone but decided to ignore it and fed Attie some food.
Chapter 479 Head Priest Part 1
Chapter 479 Head Priest Part 1
After finishing their breakfast, the party made their way out of the hotel while Nan Tian followed behind them.
"Oh right lil¡¯ Tian, what level are you? You never answered my questionst time." Shiro asked as she was quite curious as to what level the little beggar is now.
"Oh you want to know my level? Hmm... I¡¯ll keep it a secret. After all, finding out things yourself is part of the fun when talking to people." Nan Tian smiled.
"Che, when did you be so cheeky ah?" Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Well, I wouldn¡¯t say cheeky. But I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be catching up to my level soon. After all, it¡¯s not even been a year and you¡¯re already level 115." Nan Tian pointed out with a smile as Shiro looked away.
"Fine fine, I¡¯ll find out on my own. Plus, how hard would it be? It¡¯s not like you¡¯re level 1000 now, are you?" Shiro shrugged.
"So what¡¯s your n for the day?" Nan Tian asked.
"Hm, I¡¯m nning to go to the church in order to tell them to stop bothering my daughter. The next step would be to wait for my sister and cousin to arrive in this city. Once they¡¯re here, I can finally get down to business since there¡¯s someone I need to save." Shiro replied.
"Oh? And who¡¯s that?"
"Hmm... I¡¯ll keep it a secret. After all, finding out things yourself is part of the fun when talking to people." Shiro grinned as she returned his quote right back to him.
Hearing this, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
"Anyways, Aarim, how are you finding the court role? It said that making spells would be easier for you so have you made any progress yet?" Shiro asked as Aarim nodded.
"Yes I have. It¡¯s notpletely finished but I have a working prototype. Let¡¯s just say that when I activate this spell, everyone I designate as an ally would feel weightless while everyone else would be weighed down with multiple forces acting on their body at the same time. If their physique is weak, they¡¯ll be shredded up by this despite it being primarily a control spell." Aarim exined.
"Heh~ that sounds pretty handy. But if we feel weightless, wouldn¡¯t that affect our sword swings?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"That¡¯s why I said it was working in progress. I want to make it so that the forces would be able to enhance your swings." Aarim replied as Lyrica nodded her head.
"Makes sense."
As they made their way to the church, Nan Tian attracted quite a few eyes as he had removed his mask while talking to Shiro.
"Hmm.... It¡¯s a bit annoying having some many eyes on us." Shiro frowned while ncing back at Nan Tian.
"Damn, why did you have to grow up to be such an eye candy huh? Forget it, take this, it should make things easier for you." She shook her head before handing him a ring that had the upgraded disguise skill embedded into it.
Raising his eyebrows, he wondered where she managed to get such a ring and realised that everyone else had the same one.
"Before you ask about the origin, just know that if you try to research it, it will blow up." Shiro reminded kindly.
"Well a woman¡¯s supposed to have her secrets." Nan Tian nodded his head before putting on the ring. Separating from the group for a while, he went to apply his disguise.
Taking this moment, Lyrica quickly jogged over to Shiro.
"Pst, Shiro, don¡¯t you find it weird?"
"What¡¯s weird?" Shiro tilted her head.
"Well the fact that you¡¯re in his childhood saviours¡¯ body and he¡¯s taking it pretty nicely."
"Hmm... true. I¡¯ll ask him don¡¯t worry." Shiro dismissed with a smile.
After all, Nan Tian was someone that she could trust. He knew of her identity as a monster and didn??t even attempt to kill her. No, instead, he thought about recruiting her so that she could help out the world.
Even if he weren¡¯t the little beggar that she knew as a kid, she would have given Nan Tian some degree of trust. There was only the problem of him being a little stalky before but that could be fixed with time. Now that she knew who he was, she was going to make sure that he goes on the ¡¯right path¡¯.
Nodding her head reluctantly, Lyrica sighed before walking next to Madison.
After waiting for a while, Nan Tian soon returned with a new disguise. His face was not as handsome as before but it was still above average in order to fit with disguises the group had put on.
This time, they attracted less attention.
Upon arriving at the church, Shiro was immediately greeted by the sight of several priests waiting by the front door with a smile on their faces. They weed everyone that wanted to go into the church while giving a few blessings to people that left.
"Good morning adventurer, how may we help?" The priest asked with a smile.
"Oh we¡¯re here to ask a few questions. Would it be ok if we entered?" Shiro replied.
"Of course. You¡¯re quite lucky, the head priest is free right now so you can ask him some questions."
"I see, thank you."
Walking inside the church, Shiro saw that it was surprisingly spacious as arge altar of sorts could be seen near the back of the church. Standing not too far from it, was a man that was clearly dressed much better than the other priests who were in the church.
The man had aged white hair and a rather long beard. His face was wrinkled from age but he didn¡¯t look too old. If Shiro had to give it an age, it¡¯ll be aroundte 30¡¯s to mid 40s.
[Richard LVL 230 ¨C Saint of Asclepios]
"Seems like we¡¯ve found the priest." Shiro smiled as they removed their disguises. She recognised the name Asclepios since the god associated with this name was the god of medicine.
The moment Shiro removed the illusion she had put on Lisandra, due to the fact that she can¡¯t use any items or equipment, her presence was immediately noticed by the head priest.
"Ah, miss Lisandra, you¡¯re here." He called out with an excited smile.
"Mn, I¡¯m here with my mother." Lisandra nodded while keeping her expression neutral.
Looking at the white haired woman with a red haired boy in her arms, Richard couldn¡¯t help but paused in surprise before nodding his head. While there were no simrities between the two of them, he had no choice but to ept since Lisandra had said that this woman was her mother.
"I see, so you¡¯re the esteemed mother of miss Lisandra." Richard said with a smile.
"Mn, I heard that you¡¯ve been quite interested in my daughter and the origin of her identity. I must say that there seemed to be a kind of misunderstanding here." Shiro replied while handing Attie to Lisandra.
"What kind of misunderstanding would there be for an angel to appear in the city. All of the holy artefacts and even our bodies had a reaction to her presence. Is this not the sign of higher beings?" Richard furrowed his brows.
"First, I do believe that my daughter has said that she was not religious so the fact that you¡¯re trying to get her into religion despite this is rather rude. Second, my daughter doesn¡¯t want anything to do with the church so if possible, it would be best to just let her level up as a normal adventurer." Shiro said while narrowing her eyes.
"Hmm... I¡¯m afraid that¡¯s a little difficult you see. Some people are just born into a role that they cannot refuse." Richard shook his head.
¡¯Oh for f*ck sake he¡¯s one of those people isn¡¯t he?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a frown.
{What are you nning to do?} Nimue asked as she finally spoke up after a while of not talking. After all, she had just been observing what had been happening so far.
¡¯Well if he¡¯s not going to listen to reason then I¡¯ll have to go the forceful way. Though I will try my patience with him. If things go well, Lisandra will have no rtion to the church despite her being an angel. If things go south, I¡¯ll probably have to fight the church. Regardless, with the age of demons and gods on the horizon, I can¡¯t let a small church hold us back.¡¯ Shiro replied.
Plus, she wasn¡¯t afraid to fight it out even without Nan Tian being here. While she is level 115, her skill set, stats and experience made up for the gap between levels. If the man knew any better, he would opt for the safe route as a battle would cause lots of casualties.
Chapter 480 Head Priest Part 2
Chapter 480 Head Priest Part 2
"Are you saying that my daughter is obligated to serve your church?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Not quite. I¡¯m saying that your daughter is obligated to do something with her role as an angel. Whether that be on the front lines or helping people in the backlines. Since she was chosen to be an angel, it is her duty." Richard shook his head.
"Hou~ If that¡¯s the case then what do you think she should do on the backlines then? She has hardly any healing as she took the offensive route. She can¡¯t go on the front lines either since her level is not quite there yet."
"That¡¯s why we¡¯re allowing her to level up without our interference right now. Once she¡¯s high enough level, we¡¯ll need her to go to the front lines." Richard replied while Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Allowing? Pretty arrogant to say that you¡¯re allowing someone to level up huh?"
"Please don¡¯t make any rash decision as having an angel on our side can greatly boost morale. With her on the front lines, we¡¯ll have a better chance at pushing back the demons. Right now, the Assassin Hero had managed to acquire us newnd but in the future, the demons would be ready for her attacks.
"That¡¯s why we need Miss Lisandra to be ready when that timees. If she is helping out on the front lines, especially with the holy element that is strong against the demons, we can acquire morend for humans." Richard persuaded as Shiro only scoffed.
"Do we need morend? Are humans struggling fornd right now? With the dungeons around, a bunch of us are losing our life before we can even level up high enough. If anything, sign a peace treaty or just focus on protecting our borders rather than expanding.
"It¡¯s not like we¡¯re going to run out ofnd any time soon in this world. Plus, even if we do acquirend, how are we going to protect it all? It¡¯ll only spread us out more and at that stage, the demons can just pick us off one by one. Why do you think we¡¯ve managed to survive for this long?" Shiro retorted as the priest fell silent.
She was indeed correct, humans didn¡¯t need a lot ofnd at this moment since they had no way to keep a hold onto thatnd.
"What about in the future then? We¡¯ll still need Miss Lisandra to protect our borders as part of the next generation. Who knows if any of the hero¡¯s will die in the future so we need to make back up ns." Richard replied.
Little did he know, borders would be the least of their worries in the future due to theing age of demons and gods. At that point, the entire world would be dangerous and not just the demon territory.
"Well you can think that all you want. Just know that my daughter wants nothing to do with the church. When she fights, she¡¯ll be fighting of her own volition and not because of an order from you." Shiro warned as she attempted to leave with the party.
However, before they could, Richard tapped his staff down and a barrier was formed around them.
"Do you want me to break this?" Nan Tian whispered over to Shiro.
"No, it¡¯s fine lil¡¯ Tian. I got this." Shiro smiled before turning towards the priest.
"What¡¯s the meaning of this, Priest Richard?" She asked.
"Don¡¯t take this the wrong way. I merely want you to take this seriously. You realise that with what you¡¯re doing, you could be hindering humanity for one person¡¯s freedom." Richard reminded.
"What about it? Lisandra is my daughter and as her mother, I say that she deserves all the freedom she can get. Her identity has nothing to do with this. Hell, even if she was a god rather than an angel, I¡¯d still say that she has no obligations to help out humanity." Shiro grinned while swiping her hand at the barrier.
*PING!~
Shattering into pieces, the priest watched in shock as Shiro turned around once more.
"Please wait!" He called out once more.
"What? Do you want to hinder me once more?" Shiro frowned.
"No, since you¡¯re so adamant about her freedom, then I shall no longer bother you about it. However, I do want to ask why a demon is in your party." Richard asked while ncing over at Madison.
As a high level priest/saint, he could sense her demonic aura the moment she entered. While it was still weak and had some resemnces of the aura humans would have, it was still an anomaly.
"Mn? Oh she¡¯s not a demon. It¡¯s just her ss that makes her seem like one." Shiro replied before leaving without a second word. Activating the illusion once more, their appearances changed to what it was before they entered.
Watching the party leave, Richard had a difficult expression on his face as sses that involve demons couldn¡¯t be acquired unless you were born a demon or had demon blood in your veins. However, the fact that Madison was still human like despite this, it meant that her parents or someone down her family tree was a demon that had a child with a human.
"What shall we do about this, head priest?" A person asked as he bowed towards Richard with respect.
"Try keep the news to ourselves and don¡¯t make things hard for their party. It¡¯s understandable for people to value the good of one person over their race. We don¡¯t know what they¡¯ve been through nor what they have experienced, so we cannot force our ideals onto them. Just don¡¯t make things difficult for them as that would be quite petty and unbing of us. We are, after all, servants of god." Richard shook his head while walking back to the altar.
Hearing this, the priest nodded his head.
However, despite this, there were still a few priests that were very offended by Shiro¡¯s actions. Even with the order that Richardid down, they still had their own thoughts about the matter.
Some of them branded the party as Heretics while others wanted to hinder their progress and make life hard for the party.
Unfortunately, neither Richard nor Shiro knew about this. If Shiro knew, she would have ¡¯taken care¡¯ of the priests immediately to avoid future troubles.
Walking out of the church, the party made their way towards another dungeon while Lisandra had a difficult expression on her face.
"Are you sure we should have replied to him that way mum? I mean, we¡¯re probably going to go to the front lines anyways." Lisandra asked.
"It¡¯s fine. The fact that they think they could determine your future just because you¡¯re an angel isughable. I¡¯ll never agree to it. Plus, they¡¯re arrogant enough to think that they¡¯re allowing us to level up. If they try to stop us, we can either knock them out or just go to another city." Shiro shrugged as Lisandra nodded her head.
"Anyways, let¡¯s go to a dungeon. Since me and Lisandra are sharing EXP, I¡¯ll split off to a separate dungeon so that I can get more experience. That way, it¡¯s more efficient in terms of levelling up." She suggested as the party nodded their heads.
"Mn, I think most of us can solo a dungeon slightly higher than our level now so that might be the most efficient way. Of course, Silvia might need someone with her but at this point, I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯ll exhaust the boss with how much healing she can do to herself." Madisonughed.
"True. If anything, Chen Yu¡¯s probably going to have a harder time since he¡¯s an assassin. With how many monsters there are in the dungeon, it¡¯ll be tough unless he has someone to take the aggro." Aarim reminded.
"In that case then should I go with him? I¡¯m a bruiser tank that can provide DPS as well with my second form." Madison suggested since her ss has two stages. The base stage is tank while the second stage is pure offence.
"Cool. With that sorted, everyone will be soloing dungeons apart from Madison and Chen Yu who will be clearing it together. We¡¯ll do this for a day andpare it to a party run that we¡¯ll have tomorrow and see which one is faster. If the solo one is faster, we¡¯ll stick with that for a while." Shiro said with a smile.
"Ah in that case then, can I join along with you Shiro?" Nan Tian asked with a smile.
"Hmm... I suppose I can¡¯t have you just waiting outside by yourself. Who knows which ballsy girl would take a fancy to you and try to kidnap you or something. I don¡¯t exactly want to leave the dungeon to see a fight going on." Shiro nodded her head as she partied up with Nan Tian.
Splitting up the party, they each went their separate ways while Shiro chose a level 150 dungeon.
Chapter 481 Opportunity
Chapter 481 Opportunity
Upon entering the dungeon, she immediately pressed her palms against the wall in order to locate all of the monsters. As usual, they seemed to react to her presence and retreat to the final room.
"Tch, this again." Shiro frowned.
"What¡¯s wrong?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Mn? Oh nothing much. It¡¯s just that after getting my Empress ss, it seems like all the monsters are able to sense my presence and hide in the final room." Shiro replied with a shrug.
It wasn¡¯t exactly a problem since she could kill them all without any difficulties. However, it was just annoying to see the monsters constantly running away from her.
"Hmm... Maybe it¡¯s something innate? I¡¯m not exactly sure about what being the empress means but it sounds quite important." Nan Tian theorised.
"Ah that reminds me, I haven¡¯t told you about what I know yet have I?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well do you know about race queens and the age of demons and gods?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm... I know a little about race queens but not this age of demons and gods." Nan Tian shook his head.
"I see... in that case then I¡¯ll exin to you what I know about queens first. Think of it as a makeshift hive mind. The power of the race is partially determined by their queen. With a strong queen, the members of that race receive a boost in power. Imagine if spirits were marked as a power level of 5 when they were queenless. After I became a queen, they would have been upgraded to a power level of 7 or higher. Of course, that¡¯s all just theories since for all I know, they might not have received noticeable upgrades after I became queen." Shiro exined.
"Hmm... I see, so in a way, you¡¯re all linked by an innatework of sorts." Nan Tian nodded.
"Yup. And as for the age of demons and gods, all I know is that it is not good for us. As the name suggests, demons and gods will roam thend with man. Queens of different races will arrive with their people and imnd for themselves. Humans will have the toughest time as they would be suppressed around every corner. One of the queens has already arrived and told me to be careful as a fellow queen. Do you know about the incident at Mount Fuji?"
"Yes I do."
"That¡¯s the queens doing. She was apparently cing an anchor of sorts. I don¡¯t know what it does but I can only guess that it had something to do with their path to our world. Not only that, our world is apparently a ¡¯garden¡¯ of sorts. The empress told me that we¡¯re a part of theter batches and if we fail to survive the age of demons and gods in order to be the main home, the consequences would be quite dire. And by dire, I mean our world will be eliminated."
". . ." Listening to her exnation, Nan Tian frowned before staying silent.
Understanding the seriousness of the situation, he started to think about what he could do with the resources he could ess in the sect.
Seeing Nan Tian think about the situation with a serious expression, Shiro shook her head with a soft smile before walking through the dungeon. She was going to allow the monsters enough time to gather together into one spot before she eliminated all of them in one go.
"Shiro." Nan Tian called out as she nced back.
"Mn? What is it."
"I think one of our biggest steps right now is to eliminate the ck monarchy since they might be trying to speed up this process. In my time within the group, there were always preparations to summon something or rather, someone. It¡¯s also in the ck monarchy that I learned about race queens so I think they¡¯re trying to summon one of the queens. As for which queen, I¡¯m not too sure since I was not an important member when I was working with them. However, if we allow them to continue, they may just summon more queens ahead of time." Nan Tian said with a frown.
"Hmm... that is quite bad. But eliminating the ck monarchy is quite difficult from what I know. With hidden branches all over the world, it¡¯s hard to pinpoint all of them." Shiro sighed.
"Indeed. I think the best course of action right now is to probably send out a warning of sorts and tell everyone to get stronger. Maybe get a famous oracle to do a divinity to see the future." Nan Tian suggested.
"Mn, that would work. I¡¯ll have to rely on you for that though since my and my party aren¡¯t exactly well known. If anything, I can get Keiko to make a public announcement too." Shiro nodded her head.
"Can¡¯t you use the Asakura family name? After all, you are still their eldest miss." Nan Tian reminded.
"Oh right, that¡¯s also true." Shiro nodded.
While she may have ¡¯fused¡¯ with Kuromi in a way, she still needed some time to fully get used to the situation.
After all, she was given her memories rather than merging together. To put it in a grim way, it¡¯s like they¡¯ve just killed Kuromi in order to pass Shiro her memories and that was not something she wanted to think about.
"Speaking of which, I do have to ask that you¡¯re pretty chill despite knowing that I basically took over Kuromi¡¯s body." Shio raised her eyebrows.
"Well you did say that you¡¯re the same person in one sense did you not? Plus, I took an interest in your before even knowing you were Kuromi so the fact that you were also my saviour added more points I suppose." Nan Tian smiled.
"I see, makes sense. Just know that you don¡¯t have to act all meek in front of me ok? Other people will think of you as a push over if you¡¯re meek." Shiro chuckled while making her way down the corridor.
"Would you rather me be assertive then?" Nan Tian asked while flickering in front of her so that she bumped her nose against his chest.
"Not like this dipsh*t. My nose is sensitive ok?" Shiro frowned while rubbing her nose.
"Just be yourself or something. As a high level person, I¡¯m sure you don¡¯t like taking orders so just go on your own whims. As long as you don¡¯t go past my bottom line, I¡¯m pretty fine with it."
"What if I like listening to you? It reminds me of my childhood days in a way." Nan Tian chuckled while stepping aside.
"Just don¡¯t be a masochist and I¡¯ll be ok. I¡¯m not exactly one for liking a masochist¡¯spany." Shiro shrugged.
"Hm... I see. Then how about romance with a side of childhood friend?" Nan Tian asked while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Whatever. But you know what, since we¡¯re walking to the final room and we¡¯ve got f*ck all to do, I¡¯ll give you a chance. Try to tug my heartstrings or something. Entertain me for now." Shiro grinned.
"Rather sudden no?"
"Opportunities don¡¯t tell you of their arrival now do they? I¡¯ll give you 10 seconds~" Shiroughed.
Hearing that there are only 10 seconds for him to impress Shiro, Nan Tian reached into his inventory and pulled out an old coat of sorts.
Seeing the coat, Shiro immediately paused in her footsteps as she recognised it.
"Damn, well aren¡¯t you smooth. You¡¯ve actually kept the coat I gave you back when you were injured as a kid." Shiro raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Yup. I had kept this since it was the first gift I had ever received from you that wasn¡¯t a consumable. This coat helped me keep warm and carry on during my childhood so it¡¯s only natural that I¡¯ll keep it." Nan Tian chuckled while storing the coat back in his inventory.
"So did that tug your heartstrings?" He asked with a smile.
"Nope~" Shiro replied while sticking her tongue out in a joking manner.
"If anything, you gave me a slightly better impression of you. Plus, even if you tugged my heartstrings, I don¡¯t n on going into a rtionship anytime soon ya know. Not exactly the best thing to focus on when the end of the world ising. Why do you think I don¡¯t talk to Lyrica about it?" Shiro said while walking past him.
"Hell, I haven¡¯t even told her that I¡¯m technically her aunt since her mother was my friend. Now THAT would be awkward." She shrugged.
"Damn, giving me false hope of tugging your heartstrings when you don¡¯t n on a rtionship. How cruel." Nan Tian pretended to be sad but the humour in his eyes gave his act away.
"Pft well get used to it. I¡¯m a cruel maiden after all. Displease me and you might find an ice spike trying to take away something precious from you." Shiro grinned while making an ice spike in her hand.
Remembering her infamous nickname in New York, Nan Tian shivered for a moment before calming himself.
Thankfully, it seemed like he¡¯s gotten rid of his bad image in her mind so that he won¡¯t be on the end of the ice spike anytime soon.
¡¯Hopefully, it stays that way.¡¯ He thought to himself while they made their way to the final room.
Chapter 482 Celestial Garden
Chapter 482 Celestial Garden
Making their way to the depths of the dungeon, Shiro started to prepare her spell early so that she could just kill them the moment she entered the room.
Choosing to experiment for a while, she nced over at her stats page and thought about what she could use.
One of the spells that caught her attention was the Force of Elements. Back then, using it once had caused a great amount of stress on her links due to the amount of elements she had infused the spell with.
However, now that she had her linkspletely healed, this spell could be used more often. Unfortunately, it was a single target spell so it wasn¡¯t useful for a room full of targets.
¡¯Hmm... If I fuse it together with Wrath of Stars, would the projectiles be the Force of Elements?¡¯ She wondered to herself.
{If it does react like that, I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯ll be drained of mana in a single second. After all, the spell takes percentile mana rather than digit.} Nimue recalled since the base cost of Force of Elements was 15% of her total mana and each additional element added another 5% to the cost.
¡¯True. If I replicate the force of elements over and over again, I¡¯ll bepletely drained.¡¯ Shiro agreed while looking over at the other spells that she had. The next spell she wanted to test was probably the Celestial Gardens. This was the upgraded version of her throne world so she was quite curious as to what it entailed.
Settling with using her Celestial Gardens, Shiro arrived before the final room and pushed the door open gently.
The moment she entered, several magic circles surrounded her and locked her in ce. Making it so that even moving a finger was difficult.
Furrowing her brows for a moment, she was about to activate one of her spells when she saw Nan Tian walk forward without a problem. It was as if the spells didn¡¯t even target him.
However, she knew that this was purely his physical strength as the magic circles cracked under his pressure.
*BANG!
Unable to take the pressure anymore, the magic circles shattered apart.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro was about to say something when Nan Tian stepped aside.
"I¡¯m not assisting you. I¡¯m just casually walking forward when I seemed to be hit by a low level spell that just so happened to be the same one that¡¯s targeting you." He smiled as Shiro rolled her eyes.
¡¯As if.¡¯
Shaking her head with a soft smile, Shiro flickered to the centre of the room before stomping down with her foot.
*BOOM!!!!!
A pulse of mana exploded out as a blinding ray of light filled their vision.
Choosing Astral Rift as the element, Shiro watched the world change in front of her very eyes.
A waterfall of stars and iridescent lights fell from the sky as it surrounded the area. Trees, nts and flowers bloomed beneath her feet while delicately carved pirs erected out from the ground.
The flower petals seemed to form from the very void itself as each one was filled with a small gxy. ncing at the flower bed filled with stars, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but admit that it was quite a weird sight.
Slightly further away, she could see mountains, rivers, and even tnd withrge pired walls surrounding everything. However, the distance between each of the pirs allowed you to nce further into the world as she could see the familiar rift filled with millions of stars that shimmered with light.
Looking up, she could see six giant illusionary statue figures donned with finely carved armour and spears. Their size was almost iprehensible as a single palm could cover the entire area around her.
*Whistle
Whistling slightly at the beauty of this ce, Shiro was quite pleased. Of course, the six figures watching over the area were not exactly the bestpany she could ask for but at least thendscape was pleasing to the eye.
Summoning her bow to her side, she wondered if she could use all of the stars she could see within this world.
Pulling back on her bow string, an arrow started to form as mana surged towards her.
Every single star in the world glimmered dangerously as even Nan Tian felt a little threatened. Of course, this was just a thought as the sight of being targeted by every single star you could see is quite overwhelming.
Chanting the spell using Celestial Language, Shiro made sure to incorporate Asteria¡¯s name into the chant so that she could activate Asteria¡¯s Blessing along with the skills attached to her bow.
Once she finished the chant, she immediately let go of the arrow and allowed it to fly towards the monsters.
However, the arrow disappeared, much to her confusion. Likewise, the stars that filled this world also dimmed out one by one.
"I... don¡¯t think that¡¯s supposed to happen." Shiro muttered since this was the opposite effect of what she had set up when she used the spell.
What should have happened was a scene simr to her Wrath of Stars where countless arrows bombarded them.
Sensing the mana around them, Shiro was greeted by an ominous emptiness. The mana was absent,pletely drained for ack of a better term.
Before she could say a single word, colour started to drain from every single monster as they were turned to ash and drifted across the garden, bing fertiliser for the nt.
Taking a sharp breath in, Shiro widened her eyes in shock.
"F*ck! Why the hell did my attack do that?!" She cried out in confusion.
Hearing her cry, Nan Tian raised his eyebrows.
"Wait that wasn¡¯t part of your n?" He asked.
"Hell no! I thought it was just going to bombard them with arrows, not erase their entire family tree!" Shiro retorted while quickly dashing towards where the monsters were standing. Realising that she couldn¡¯t even collect loot, Shiro wondered what the attack had even done to them. The worst part is that she couldn¡¯t even sense it so she had no idea what the effects were.
"Damn... I think I??ll keep this on hold for now. I can¡¯t research it so I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s safe to use near the party." She muttered.
"Well I¡¯m fine aren¡¯t I?" Nan Tian said while looking down on his body.
"Yeah well not everyone in the party has a body harder than my love for piercing asses. I don¡¯t want to use you as a basis and idently kill everyone." Shiro rolled her eyes while deactivating her Celestial Garden.
Once she was back in the dungeon, she immediately checked to see the damage done but noticed that not even a single scratch could be seen.
Furrowing her brows, she nced towards her stats.
*PFT!!!!
"The f*ck? It used over 70% of my MP!?!?!" Shiro held her head in confusion. Her spell, that she had nned to just bombard the monsters, somehow mutated into a monstrous spell that took 70% of her MP to erase the monsters like a rubber on graphite.
"I... I need a moment to just sit down. How the hell did I make such a spell?" She muttered while sitting down.
"Maybe it¡¯s a good thing? Mages often find strange spells while attempting to make something else." Nan Tian shrugged and sat down next to her.
"Yeah but like, still. Hmm... oh well, I guess I¡¯ll just set it aside for now. Since I can¡¯t research it, there¡¯s not much I can do about the spell." Shiro sighed while ncing at her level.
Afterpletely erasing the monsters, her level had immediately jumped up from 115 to 117. Two levels in a single run was considered outrageous for people at their level which just shows how amazing her title and passives were to double the amount of EXP she gained along with halving the required amount to level up. With Lisandra farming in a separate dungeon, it should take her no time at all to get to level 200 whenpared to other people that may take years to do so. Especially when they have to share the EXP with their party.
"How... did you just gain two levels in a single run?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Secret~ I¡¯ll tell youter if you catch my fancy or something." Shiro chuckled while standing up.
Turning around, she prepared to leave the dungeon so that she could repeat the process once more. Only this time, maybe not create an existence wiping skill as powerful as the one she had just made by ident. Hell, the system didn¡¯t even give her a choice of making it a skill which was very strange considering Wrath of Stars became a skill.
Making a few mental notes for her to investigateter, she left the dungeon with Nan Tian trailing behind her.
Chapter 483 Level 120
Chapter 483 Level 120
For the rest of the day, Shiro repeated the level 160 dungeon rather than 150 as she couldplete the 150 dungeon without too many problems. She did try the level 170 dungeon but due to the tricky passive shields that the boss had, it was not as efficient as doing the level 160 dungeon since it took too much time.
By the end of the day, she managed to raise her level to 120.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Celestial Fae
Title: Advanced Monster (312/1000 Human¡¯s Killed), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX
Level: 120
ss: True Celestial Sylph Empress (EX), Ascendant Nanomancer (EX)
HP: 35,000,000/35,000,000
MP: 152,187,500/152,187,500
STR: 170,000 -> 200,000 <+100,000> (+40,000) = 340,000
VIT: 160,000 <+80,000> (+40,000) = 280,000
INT: 400,000 -> 450,000 <+225,000> (+70,000) {+22,500} [+450,000] = 1,217,500
AGI: 130,000 -> 150,000 <+75,000> (+30,000) = 255,000
DEX: 110,000 <+65,000> (+25,000) = 200,000
DEF: 80,000 <+40,000> (+35,000) = 155,000
< > = Title Bonus (50%) {Tears of the Sylph Queen +5% INT} (Armour) [ ]= Armour passive
Unassigned Points: 100,000 -> 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 4
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 4
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 4
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 5 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 4
Star ¨C Tier 4
Dark Celestial Fire ¨C Tier 5
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 4
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 4
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 4
Nature ¨C Tier 5
Bnce: 23 Gold 402 Large Silver, 641 Silver Erins 5604 Bronze Erins 0 USD
Skills ¨C
True Celestial Sylph Empress:
Elemental Breath, Fae Illusions, Force of Elements, Celestial Raiment EX, Tier 4 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Celestial Empress¡¯ Domain EX, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX, Frenzied Incarnation EX, Intermediate Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance, Celestial Court Appointment
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 4, Analysis
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path, Celestial Path, Berserker Path
Sword Skills:
Refraction, Sword Domain, Soul Sword
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Celestial Gardens, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Celestial Language, Asteria¡¯s Blessing, Wrath of Stars.]
Unfortunately, despite reaching level 120, she did not gain any more skills. Not only that, her levelling speed started to slow down a little so she theorised that she¡¯ll probably need to increase the level of dungeons she did to 180 in order to stay at the same pace of 4 maybe 5 levels per day.
Hell, she guessed that by the time she was level 150, she¡¯d need to do A ranked dungeons in order to level up faster. By that point, it may force her to use some of her life saving skills such as Rejuvenation in order to pull it off since A ss/Tier 5 is in the same league as Keiko who was one of humanity¡¯s strongest adventurers.
During her dungeon runs, she had also learned more about what Nan Tian had to go through in his time with the ck Monarchy.
He was forced to take missions which included scouting, infiltration and other nefarious deeds that helped exploit humanity to some extent. Some of the information he acquired during his time in ck Monarchy is enough for a giant bounty to be ced on his head, making him the target of several assassins.
If not for the sect master taking him in and nurturing him to be better, he would have probably died by now.
"Hmm... Lil¡¯ Tian, you never told me anything about your sect master now have you?" Shiro asked while they were walking back to the hotel.
"Hmm... you want to know about the sect master?"
"Well yeah. I¡¯m technically in the sect aren¡¯t I? It would be pretty awkward if I didn¡¯t know anything about the leader." Shiro shrugged.
"True. In that case then where shall I start?" Nan Tian nodded his head.
"How about just his name and where he came from?"
"In that case then I know that the sect master is called Li Xiong Jian and yes, I did take my surname from him since he adopted me. As for where he came from, the sect master never told me and all I know is that he was outcast from his family. To be honest, I¡¯m not even sure Li Xiong Jian is his real name but it doesn¡¯t matter too much." Nan Tian said with a soft smile.
"I see... seems like he¡¯s made quite an impact in your life." Shiro nodded her head with satisfaction. At least this meant that the little beggar had a semi decent life after leaving the ck Monarchy.
"Mn, he did indeed." Nan Tian chuckled.
"So what did he do normally and what is his personality like?"
"Hmm... normally, the sect master is quite reserved. He would spend most of his time checking on how we were doing in our training along with maybe giving us some tips. When there¡¯s nothing for him to do, he would normally just sit by the side and drink some tea while watching us train. I did ask if he had any hobbies but he replied with ¡¯Watching you all grow gives me enough enjoyment as I know that I can leave the next generation to all of you with ease.¡¯." Nan Tian exined.
"Quite a reserved man then." Shiro said while ncing back.
"Yup."
"I suppose the next step is to tell me about your sect."
"Sure. The basic structure of the sect is split into 20 branches along with a single main branch. Each of the 20 branches is governed by an elder of the sect with the exception of the 3rd branch, which is mine. After all, my growth was much faster than what they had anticipated so I was allowed to govern a branch despite not being an elder in the sense that I¡¯m not an old man." Nan Tian chuckled.
"You know, if you were an old man, your previous stalking acts would be much creepier right?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Well aren¡¯t you d that I¡¯m such a handsome and dashing fellow then?" Nan Tian smiled jokingly.
"As if. I was already being stalked by the shadow idiot who was also handsome so one more to the mix didn¡¯t change anything." Shiroughed.
"Damn, making a harem already. You¡¯ve got beauties by your side and handsome men doing your bidding. Such a yer." Nan Tian shook his head in defeat.
"Pft, you make it seem like I¡¯m a tyrannical emperor with a harem of 100 beauties haha." Shiroughed.
"Are you sure you don¡¯t mean sadistic empress with a harem of 100 beauties instead? Because if that¡¯s the case then I¡¯m pretty inclined to say that it is 100% urate." Nan Tian replied.
"When the hell did 100e from? If anything, wouldn¡¯t it only be like 10 or something?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"You forgot about the other 90+ you seduced without knowing. If you count your time as Kuromi, then you would have seduced more than 10 thousand people. Tsk tsk tsk, I think I might have to call you little subus from now on considering how many people you¡¯ve seduced." Nan Tianughed.
"Call me that and you can say goodbye to your ass." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
*Cough!
"Ok ok, maybe not subus since that¡¯s rather crude for such a ¡¯pure and delicate¡¯ woman you are." Nan Tian coughed.
"Do I smell honesty? Because your senses must be very keen to realise that I am indeed pure and delicate." Shiro grinned before increasing her speed slightly.
¡¯Right... The day you¡¯re Pure and Delicate is the day when the sun doesn¡¯t rise. Anyone who thinks you¡¯re delicate is going to have a bad time.¡¯ Nan tian thought to himself but didn¡¯t verbalise any of it. After all, doing so would be tempting fate or rather in this case, tempting Shiro to pierce him and that was not exactly high on his priority list.
Arriving back at the hotel, Shiro nced at her phone and saw that it was getting quitete.
¡¯The party should being back to the hotel at any moment now.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while ncing at her phone.
Sending a message to Keiko and Keomi, she asked them about their whereabouts since they should have arrived by now.
[Keiko: Sorry! One of the demon f*ckers decided to attack me on the road so I¡¯m running a bitte. I had Keomi go on ahead so she should be arriving soon.]
[Shiro: Whereabouts are you right now?]
[Keiko: Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be there soon. There are just two more demon generals left. Once I kill these two, I¡¯ll be on my way there. Plus, they¡¯re level 450 so it would be dangerous for you.]
[Shiro: Wait a minute, you¡¯re texting during a fight?]
[Keiko: I¡¯m an assassin, stealth is what I¡¯m good at.]
[Shiro: ...Fair enough. Though I do have someone pretty reliable next to me right now and I¡¯m sure he can help you out if you need it.]
[Keiko: It¡¯ll be fine. Give me 20 to 30 minutes tops. I¡¯ll show these two f*ckers why I¡¯m the assassin hero.]
Seeing that Keiko was confident in handling the situation herself, Shiro could only smile as she made her way to the cafeteria with Nan Tian for some dinner while waiting for the rest of the party.
Chapter 484 Romance?
Chapter 484 Romance?
Not too long after finishing their meal, the party returned one by one. Most of them had managed to level up once maybe twice if they were lucky.
Looking at the state of their bodies as well as their expression, Shiro realised that Silvia was the most rxed out of all of them.
"Seems like you had quite a bountiful run Silvi." Shiro said with a smile.
"Well it was easier than I thought. I just had to keep buffing myself while I punched the boss. I also just ran past all the monsters after I realised that I heal more damage than what they can dobined." Silviaughed as Nan Tian raised his eyebrows.
¡¯Damn...¡¯ He muttered in his mind since he could imagine a lone healer punching away at the boss while the monsters couldn¡¯t harm her fast enough.
Just imagining the scene of hundreds of monsters scratching away at her while she didn¡¯t care was quite the scene as he almost felt pity for the monsters.
*Whistle~
"Welp seems like we¡¯ve confirmed that you can definitely solo a dungeon without problems. In all honesty, I almost feel sorry for the monsters." Shiroughed.
Shrugging her shoulders, Silvia sat down with Chen Yu and ordered some food.
Looking over at the rest of the party, Shiro gestured for them to sit down since there was no point having them stand up.
"Hm, I might bring Attie, Nimue and Iziuel out." Shiro muttered while ncing into her mana realm. Seeing that the three of them were ying around with each other, she couldn¡¯t help but smile.
¡¯Do you three want toe out for some food?¡¯ Shiro asked.
{Hm... Sure, I don¡¯t see why not.} Nimue nodded as Iziuel did the same.
Seeing that the two agreed, Shiro excused herself from the table so that she could bring them out without any worries.
Jumping into the rift, she brought all three spirits out and held Attie in her arms once more. Leaving the rift, Shiro gestured for them to sit down and order something that they like.
Seeing the three spirits, Nan Tian was rather surprised at their elements. Especially with Nimue being a mana spring. If people were to submerge themselves and bathe in her water, their mana would receive a permanent boost.
As for Iziuel, she was the spirit of Nature and that itself was quite a broad element to govern over. This meant that she could use wind, wood, water, earth and any other element part of the natural surroundings.
¡¯I¡¯ve already known about her son being an incredible spirit but to think her two friends were also incredible in their own regard.¡¯ Nan Tian thought in surprise. The more he knew about her, the more he was taken aback by what she had aplished over the course of a year. Scratch that, it hadn¡¯t even been a year yet which is the most insane part.
"Mn? You alright?" Shiro asked as she could tell that Nan Tian was thinking about something.
"Oh, it¡¯s nothing. I¡¯m just surprised that you¡¯ve made this much progress in less than a year." Nan Tian shook his head with a smile.
"Haha, are you jealous?" Shiro grinned.
"A little but I¡¯m not too bothered since I¡¯m already at a high level. There¡¯s no point to be annoyed by your levelling speed either since danger is looming around the corner. If anything, I wished everyone would level up as quickly as you so that humanity had a better shot at surviving." Nan Tian shrugged as the party couldn¡¯t help but nod at his thoughts.
After finishing their meal, the party prepared to return to their rooms when Shiro realised that Nan Tian was still following her.
"You couldn¡¯t be thinking that you get to sleep in the same room as me, now are you?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
*Cough!
"Of course not. I¡¯m merely making sure that you get to your room safely." Nan Tian smiled.
"Right, whatever. Do you have a ce to stay? If not, grab yourself a room from the counter or something. Because my room isn¡¯t enough to amodate you." Shiro waved her hand.
"Fine I¡¯ll be honest with you. I want to get the room besides you if possible." Nan Tian confessed while shrugging his shoulders.
"That¡¯s rather bold of you." Shiro chuckled as the rest of the party were also slightly surprised by how bold Nan Tian was being.
Lyrica seemed to have nked out for a moment as Madison shook her head with a tired smile and escorted her upstairs.
"So, is that a yes or a no?"
"I¡¯ll let you find out for yourself." Shiroughed before jumping into the rift with her three spirits and two daughters.
Chuckling softly, Nan Tian only shook his head before walking towards the reception.
"Um, branch master." Chen Yu called out.
"Mn? What is it?"
"You¡¯re ying a dangerous game here. If you¡¯re not careful, you might be pierced." Chen Yu warned as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"I know." Nan Tian smiled before walking away.
Watching Nan Tian walk away, Chen Yu couldn¡¯t help but give him a mental salute.
¡¯Damn, branch master, your tastes are quite strong to be going after the empress herself.¡¯
"What are you thinking about?" Silvia asked.
"Oh, just wondering if the branch master can actually get together with Shiro. Though with how she is, I doubt it since she¡¯s more focused on helping her race survive the next age." Chen Yu replied.
"Mn, that¡¯s true. Shiro isn¡¯t exactly one to be focused on romance. There¡¯s also Lyrica since it¡¯s pretty obvious that she has a crush on Shiro. I¡¯m sure Shiro knows, so the fact that she¡¯s not responding probably means that she doesn¡¯t want to focus on romance just yet." Silvia smiled while holding Chen Yu¡¯s hand.
"Mn, though do you think she wants romance? She¡¯s... quite extreme and seeing her with a love-struck face would only give me a shiver down my spine." Chen Yu asked.
"Oi, Shiro is still a girl ok? Spending life alone would be quite sad so I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be thinking about getting a partner once the danger passes. Plus, while she acts tough and extreme, I can still tell that she¡¯s gentle on the inside ok? Have you not seen the way she looks after Yin, Attie and Lisandra?" Silvia replied while gently smacking his back.
"She¡¯s right you know." Aarim called out while walking next to them.
"Remember how I told you about the fact that I can see true natures?" She smiled.
"Mn, we remember." Chen Yu nodded.
"Well aftering out of the trial, her nature is much clearer than before. It¡¯s not creepy nor is it ominous. If anything, it feels gentle and kind. I¡¯m sure that her cold nature is a fa?ade for the things she had gone through. After all, she said that Kuromi was betrayed and killed by having her links shredded to bits. Maybe this is a defensive mechanism for her." Aarim suggested as the two nodded their heads since it was quite usible.
Talking for a little longer, they made their way back to their rooms.
Meanwhile, Keiko had finally killed the two demon generals as theyid beside her with blood sttered everywhere.
"Ha.... Damn. How the hell did they even intercept me." Keiko muttered with a frown while holding her arm that was barely attached to her shoulders. Quickly drinking a high-quality health potion, she took a breather and waited for her wounds to close her.
When she left the front lines, she didn¡¯t tell anyone about her route and where she was going but the fact that the demons could track her down was clearly strange. She made sure that she wasn¡¯t tailed either.
¡¯Could this be the work of a mage or something? Someone that can observe from afar.¡¯ She thought while forcing herself on her feet.
Shaking her head, she nced at the demon corpses and collected them all before trying her best to fix the road.
Once she was done, she flickered from her spot and made her way towards Epona.
###
"Grrr.... How the hell did they fail." A hooded figure growled in displeasure while looking through a demonic mirror that was adorned with ck skulls.
"What shall we do general?" A demon asked while kneeling down.
"The ce she¡¯s going to right now is quite far from the front lines. It was a pain trying to set up the ambush to begin with. Now that she¡¯s further behind the front lines, it¡¯ll be quite hard to do the same. Do nothing for now and conserve our strength. Allow the humans to gain somend but don¡¯t let them do it too easily. Make it seem real by putting up a decent fight. Once they spread out their numbers, we can sacrifice them to our queen and summon her to this world." The hooded figure grinned as he stepped away from the mirror.
With how arrogant humans can get once they acquirend; they would not expect that they¡¯ll be stepping into a giant magic circle that would sacrifice them all.
¡¯Soon, our queen will arrive.¡¯
Chapter 485 Keomi And Keikos Arrival
Chapter 485 Keomi And Keiko''s Arrival
Returning to her room, Shiro had a quick shower while Attie watched TV as usual. After Shiro brought him out to watch TV the first time, he had be enamoured by the sheer amount of programs avable for him to watch.
Each program was a different story for him to experience. Of course, Shiro didn¡¯t see anything wrong with letting Attie watch TV since he was still a child.
While she was standing in the shower, Shiro started to wonder if she should perhaps send both Yin and Attie into a school or something since they needed more than just knowledge on how to fight. They needed to know social skills, technical skills and such other than just fighting.
After all, if they only knew how to fight, they could be used by a third party to do evil deeds.
¡¯Damn, I¡¯m really feeling like a mum now. I don¡¯t even have a boyfriend or girlfriend for god sake.¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows since it was never her intention to be the mother of three.
It started when Yin received her human form and called her mother as a joke but soon it became natural. After Yin came Lisandra and finally, Attie.
Shaking her head, Shiro finished her shower quickly.
Sitting on her bed, she checked her phone and saw that Keomi had just sent her a message saying that she had arrived in the city of Epona.
[Shiro: Alright, where are you right now? I¡¯lle get you.]
[Keomi: I¡¯m near the adventurers guild right now.]
[Shiro: Got it, I¡¯ll be right there.]
cing her phone down, Shiro quickly got dressed ine casual clothing.
"I¡¯ll be heading out for a bit. Don¡¯t go anywhere and cause trouble ok?" Shiro said while the second part of her sentence was aimed towards Yin.
"What? It¡¯s not like I enjoy going out and fighting people ok?" Yin pouted.
"I never said your name~ Perhaps it¡¯s guilty conscience?" Shiro grinned before jumping into the rift.
Phasing through the hotel, she jumped towards a nearby building as she quickly adjusted herself in order to have a smoothnding.
Making her way towards the adventurer¡¯s guild, she spotted her sister pacing around near the outside of the guild.
"Keomi!" Shiro called out whilending near her.
"Ah Shiro, you¡¯re here." Keomi sighed in relief.
"You ok? You look a little nervous." Shiro asked with a frown.
"A little. I¡¯m just worried about Keiko since she might still be fighting the demon generals." Keomi nodded her head lightly.
"She told me not to worry about that. If anything, do you want to go and check up on her?" Shiro suggested.
"That might be counter intuitive. Since Keiko is an assassin, it means that she can get out of the situation easily. But if we¡¯re there, she might be hindered by our presence." Keomi frowned as she didn¡¯t know what to do. On one hand, she knew that her presence may be a nuisance but on the other, she still wanted to go help Keiko if possible.
"Hm, well if you want, I do have someone I know that can help us. He¡¯s quite high levelled and some demon generals might not be a problem for him." Shiro replied as she thought about having Nan Tian assist Keiko.
"What are you girls talking about? Hopefully, it¡¯s not anything rude about me now is it?" Keiko¡¯s voice rang out as she teleported besides Keomi and stumbled a little.
Quickly holding onto Keiko, Shiro assisted her so that she didn¡¯t fall.
"Are you ok?" Shiro asked immediately.
"Yeah, the generals were just a little annoying to deal with but now I¡¯m here." Keiko smiled.
"At least you¡¯re safe now. Come, I¡¯ll take you to the hotel that I¡¯m staying at right now and we can talk over there." Shiro nodded her head and lifted Keiko onto her back.
"Huh? Wa- Shiro?"
"What? You don¡¯t want to be picked up?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
From her memories, she remembered that she would always give Keiko piggyback rides when they were younger.
"It¡¯s not that. I¡¯m just a little surprised." Keiko chuckled and decided to enjoy it.
"Well I thought you would like it since that¡¯s what I used to do all the time when we were still in training." Shiro chuckled as both Keomi and Keiko looked towards her at the same time.
"That reminds me, have you really got all of your memories back?" Keiko asked.
"Yeah. I remember everything now. I mean, if you want, I can tell you something that only me and you would know. Same goes for you Keomi." Shiro smiled.
"Hmm... sure. Tell me something that only you and I would know." Keiko nodded since she was quite curious about how much Shiro had remembered.
"Hmm.... When we were still in training, there were times where you tried to soak yourself in cold water and force yourself to drink bad milk so that you can skip out on training. It worked for the first time but you said that having to go to the toilet all day is worse than swinging a sword." Shiro replied with a smile.
*COUGH!
Seeing Keiko¡¯s reaction, Keomi knew that Shiro was correct.
"What about me then sis?" She asked.
"You? Well there is so much to choose from. Which one should I choose... How about this one. When we were young teens, you had a crush on one of the boys in our ss. He was called Yanagi and you identally traumatised him when you broke a few of his ribs since you were too excited and hugged him too hard." Shiro chuckled.
*COUGH!
Having the exact same reaction Keiko did, Keomi was a little embarrassed since she lost her first crush due to a miscalction in her strength.
"So what happened? How did you lose your memories to begin with" Keiko asked as she wanted to change the topic.
"Oh that? I¡¯ll tell you in a bit when we¡¯ve arrived at the hotel. It has something to do with saving Yuki so I might as well tell you in one go."
"Ok."
Arriving at the hotel, Keiko asked Shiro to put her down since it would be quite embarrassing to have the assassin hero be carried like a child.
"Aw, there¡¯s no need to be embarrassed though." Shiro chuckled while allowing Keiko to climb down.
"By the way, do you have anything to disguise yourself with? It may cause a smallmotion if the assassin hero was to suddenly appear in the city after all." She asked.
"Oh a disguise? I have a skill that can do that. I¡¯m an assassin after all." Keiko nodded while she waved her hand.
A magic circle appeared beneath her feet as her clothes started to change along with some of her facial features. After a short while, her disguise was finalised as she had some resemnces to Shiro.
"This should do. Keomi, you should still have the illusion orb I gave you a while back right? Why don¡¯t you use that?" Keiko smiled.
"Yeah about that... I kinda left it back at the house." Keomi scratched her cheeks awkwardly.
"That¡¯s ok. I have a ring here that can help you disguise yourself. But Keiko, howe you chose to look like me?" Shiro asked curiously.
"It¡¯s easier to just say I¡¯m your sister to strangers after all." Keiko shrugged as Shiro nodded her head. It was pretty reasonable after all.
Getting a double room for both Keiko and Keomi, Shiro brought them to her room first so that it was a bit easier to talk there. Lisandra and Yin needed to know about what she was nning to do in regards to Yuki so she might as well get that out of the way now and kill two birds with one stone.
Opening the door to her room, she was greeted by a harmonic atmosphere as she sighed in relief.
¡¯Wait a minute, why did I prepare myself for something to go wrong when I returned?¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows for a moment before shaking her head.
"Wee bac- Huh? When did you get another daughter?" Nimue raised her eyebrows.
"It¡¯s not my daughter Nimue. It¡¯s just my cousin Keiko with a disguise." Shiro rolled her eyes while closing the door behind her.
"Right then, now that everyone is here, I¡¯ll tell you about what we¡¯re doing next along with an exnation of what had happened to me." She smiled while gesturing for Keiko and Keomi to take a seat.
"This might take a while to exin so make yourselvesfortable."
Once she saw that both of them werefortable, Shiro pulled over a chair and sat down.
"Right then... How to start this... I was betrayed by one of my ¡¯friends¡¯ and killed on the spot." She smiled.
¡¯The f*ck!?¡¯ Both Keiko and Keomi thought at the same time but decided not to verbalise it. Instead, they decided to be patient and wait until she finished her story before asking any questions.
Chapter 486 Explaining The Truth
Chapter 486 Exining The Truth
"So I was killed on the spot. Remember when I told you that my links were damaged? That was due to this. Before I was killed, the guy named Duan Han Yin, who used to be my friend, made sure to break all of my links so that he could guarantee that I died.
"However, what he didn¡¯t realise was that after I died, I was reborn as a Snow Girl. With my rebirth as a monster, I had lost all of my memories and had to try to survive without knowing anyone. If not for me finding a disguise skill in the first dungeon I was in, I would have probably been killed again.
"It was also during this that I started to meet my current party. As I continued to level up and go to new ces, Yuki noticed my presence and sent a letter to the both of you which resulted in us finally meeting. It was also during my meeting with you, Keomi, that I found out more about myself or rather, Kuromi, through the library located in Miriel.
"At that time, I still thought that me and Kuromi were different people so I felt a little guilty not telling you the truth. But not long ago, after I ssed up to B rank, I found out that me and Kuromi were the same person. It was just that our soul was from two different periods of time that somehow merged into one body. And now that I have Kuromi¡¯s memories, you can say that we¡¯ve merged together again." Shiro exined briefly as both Keomi and Keiko closed their eyes for a moment.
"So you¡¯re saying my sister is dead?" Keomi frowned.
"Not exactly since we¡¯re the same person." Shiro shook her head.
"I see... Who¡¯s this Duan Han Yin and what level is he?" Keomi narrowed her eyes as Shiro could detect faint signs of killing intent.
"No idea. But don¡¯t act stupid, I¡¯ll make sure to avenge myself dummy." Shiro chuckled while patting Keomi¡¯s head.
Looking down, Keomi clenched her fists in frustration since her sister had already died once and she didn¡¯t even know about it.
"Does mum and dad know?" She asked.
"Hell no. If they knew, they would turn the world upside down to find the one who did this. Let¡¯s not trouble them though since I can handle it myself if you give me enough time." Shiro shook her head since she didn¡¯t want her parents to interfere. First is because she didn¡¯t know what level Duan Han Yin was and the danger he posed to her parents could be quite big.
She didn¡¯t want to y with chances when it came to her parent¡¯s life.
"So what do you think Keiko? You haven¡¯t said anything yet." Shiro asked.
"I... *sigh* Is it ok for me to get some fresh air first?" Keiko shook her head.
"Yeah that¡¯s fine. Just talk to me when you¡¯ve thought about it." Shiro nodded her head since this was probably quite hard to take in for someone who could only rely on Kuromi when they were younger.
Watching Keiko teleport away, Shiro could only sigh softly.
"So Shiro." Keomi called out.
"Mn?"
"You¡¯re still my sister right? Even though you said that ¡¯Kuromi¡¯ had died already, you and her are the same person right?"
"Yeah. We¡¯re the same person. While the personality is a little different, our souls are two halves of the same piece." Shiro nodded her head.
Hearing this, Keomi stood up and hugged Shiro as she felt relief in her heart. Even though her sister had died once, she hade back for good.
"I¡¯m d you¡¯re back." Keomi muttered while keeping a tight hold on Shiro, almost as if she was afraid that she¡¯d disappear if she let go.
Smiling softly, Shiro hugged Keomi back while waiting for her to calm her emotions.
While this was happening, Keiko stood on the roof of the hotel with a difficult expression.
Sighing for a moment, she sat down and looked at the city lights.
"I was wondering who had appeared with such a strong mana fluctuation but it turns out that you¡¯re Shiro¡¯s cousin." Nan Tian said as hended near her.
"Who are you?" Keiko frowned since she could not see through this man¡¯s disguise.
"I¡¯m just someone that Shiro saved when she was younger." Nan Tian shrugged.
"I see..." Keiko nodded her head.
"You seem quite down. Want to talk about it?" Nan Tian asked since it would be good for him to help Shiro¡¯s cousin whenever he could.
"No particrly. I can¡¯t even confirm that you truly know Shiro since you could just be bluffing." Keiko frowned since she wasn¡¯t about to release important information to someone whom she had just met.
"Hmm... in that case then I suppose I do have one way to prove things. Do you know about the truth between Kuromi and Shiro?" Nan Tian asked.
"What kind of truth?"
"Well... I suppose two sides of the same coin would fit the exnation without giving too much away." He smiled.
"You know about the state of their soul don¡¯t you?" Keiko narrowed her eyes.
"Yup. It¡¯s been quite a strange rtionship you know? I was saved by Kuromi, then kidnapped by someone. Yearster I found Shiro and discovered an interest in her only to then find out that she was technically the person that had saved me when I was young." Nan Tianughed while sitting down.
"And from your expression, I suppose you can¡¯t ept the fact that they¡¯re the same person easily now, can you?"
"What do you know?" Keiko frowned.
"Not a lot but at the same time, I do know that it can be quite a strange sensation. I¡¯ll be honest with you, what I felt for Kuromi was gratitude since she saved me as a child. As for Shiro, I felt curiosity which slowly turned into romantic interest. Personally, it doesn¡¯t matter to me regardless of the fact that she was Kuromi or not since I built a new rtionship with her. Perhaps you¡¯re struggling between the two connections that you¡¯ve built so far. One that you¡¯ve built with Kuromi and one that you¡¯ve built with Shiro." Nan Tian smiled.
Pausing for a moment, Keiko narrowed her eyes at Nan Tian.
"Why are you trying tofort me."
"Let¡¯s just say that I don¡¯t like to see Shiro being worried. She genuinely cares for you and probably even more after getting Kuromi¡¯s memories so if you reject her, it would most likely make her sad and that¡¯s not something I want to happen. After all, it¡¯s quite hard to get Shiro to genuinely care for you so it¡¯s best that you treasure it. I don¡¯t exactly know what she has gone through but there are quite a few traces of having trust issues within that girl." Nan Tian smiled.
Closing her eyes, Keiko thought about what he had just said about the two connections that she had created between Kuromi and Shiro. Looking back, she noticed that they were quite simr. While Shiro did act a little different to how Kuromi did, the thoughts behind the actions stayed the same.
Thinking about this, her worries soon faded away.
"Seems like I overthought things a little. I¡¯ll need to apologise to her." Keiko muttered.
"Welp, it looks like my job is done. Oh and if you don¡¯t mind, you can put in a few good words about me to Shiro as payment for my counselling services. Not everyone gets this privilege after all haha." Nan Tianughed.
"Who even asked for this service to begin with? But yes, I will keep that in mind." Keiko smiled before teleporting away.
Seeing that Keiko had left, Nan Tian kept a smile on his face as he was d that things worked out.
"I would say that you owe me one but it seems like you wanted to talk to her yourself and I kind of beat you to it." He called out as Shiro flickered next to him.
"Can¡¯t fool you huh?" Shiro chuckled.
"I hope the way I convinced her was to your liking. Since I went out of my way to do this, don¡¯t you think I should get some kind of reward?" Nan Tian asked with a smile.
"Hmm... I suppose it might have turned out differently if I did it so I do indeed owe you a favour. And since you want a reward, what kind of reward do you want?" Shiro asked.
"Maybe a kis-"
"Do you want to die?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
*Cough!
"Fine. I¡¯ll keep this reward for now so that I can cash in on it in the future then." Nan Tian smiled.
"Sure, if that¡¯s what you want." Shiro nodded as she prepared to leave.
"Also, thank you for talking to her, I owe you one." She smiled before jumping into the rift.
Raising his eyebrows, Nan Tian stood rooted in his spot before smiling softly.
"You¡¯re wee."
Chapter 487 Revealing More Secrets
Chapter 487 Revealing More Secrets
Returning back to her room, Shiro saw Keiko sitting on the bed.
"Before you say anything, I just want to say sorry for my insensitive response. I hadn¡¯t even considered how you felt when telling us this secret." Keiko apologised as Shiro raised her eyebrows before smiling.
"It¡¯s fine. I had expected as much since I couldn¡¯t believe it at first either." Shiro chuckled while sitting next to Keiko.
"So what now? Shall I go search for this Duan Han Ying so that we can get revenge?" Keiko asked, feeling much morefortable with Shiro now.
"Hm, not yet. We need to go save Yuki since she is still being locked up. From my memories, I remember the way to unlock her but it may have changed so I¡¯m not too sure. However, even without the solution, I can cancel mana so I should be able to deal with the barrier if given some time. I¡¯ll be needing help from you two since there¡¯s a chance that high level enemies may be stationed around the barrier." Shiro exined with a smile.
"I see. Alright, where is she located? If I have a mark nearby, I can teleport us there. If not, I can get some of my faction members to give us a ride with the teleport shrines." Keiko asked eagerly.
"Calm down haha." Shiro chuckled while patting her head.
Bringing out her tablet, Shiro typed up a few notes on what she knew so far.
"After losing my memories, I found out that she was trapped in the Frozen Imperial Mountains that was located in Mount Everest through a portal. However, now that I¡¯ve got my memories back, I know that it¡¯s not as simple as just that. Duan Han Ying is an annoying person to fight against since he has quite a few weird spells in his arsenal.
"If anything, there¡¯s a high chance that just entering the portal to the Frozen Imperial Mountains would either trigger a trap or notify him of our arrival. I also know that Yuki said the space around her is an iplete dungeon. Meaning it¡¯s something simr to the legacy space that my friend, Lyrica¡¯s mother, created back in Miriel.
"Hopefully, there¡¯s a chance that I can enter the dungeon through using one of my skills that allows us to travel through a second dimension of sorts. The one that you forcefully broke into when you were chasing me, Keomi." Shiro exined with a smile as Keomi coughed lightly.
"I didn¡¯t know it was you so I couldn¡¯t help it ok?" Keomi replied.
"Haha, I know don¡¯t worry." Shiro nodded her head.
"Anyways, I suggest that we scout out Mount Everestpletely first so that we can get a 100% urate scan of the entire ce. That way, we canpensate for theck of knowledge now." She suggested.
"How do you think we should do that? Even if we map out the area with mana, there¡¯s no guarantee that there aren¡¯t any hidden areas to be discovered." Keiko asked with a frown.
"I know hence why I¡¯m deciding to tell you a second secret of mine." Shiro smiled as she snapped her fingers and changed her appearance to that of the Rogue Assassin while also showing the duo her hand cannons that she had used in the video.
Recognising the disguise immediately, Keiko widened her eyes in disbelief. Her cousin was actually one of the most wanted people in the world right now due to the weapons that she had that could actually kill with such ease.
"You¡¯re kidding right?" Keiko asked.
"Nope. I have ess to a few items that can help us scan the entire mountain range with 100% uracy but I¡¯ll need you to help me set up a few nodes in order for it to work properly." Shiro smiled while removing the disguise.
"Ah can I look at that gun for a moment?" Keiko asked as she was extremely curious about how it worked. After all, it was the first of its kind.
"Sure." Shiro nodded since she trusted Keiko.
Handing over one of her guns, she waited while Keiko inspected the inner workings.
After all, even if she knew, it would be quite hard to replicate. Not that she was worried about that to begin with.
"What is this material? It¡¯s... so strange." Keiko frowned.
From what she could tell, the material was highly adaptive and almost seemed ¡¯alive¡¯. She could feel mana from every single part of the gun as it was something considered impossible to be done by an ordinary cksmith.
"How did you evene across this weapon?" She asked.
"I would say I made it but I received the blueprint from a few unruly people. I managed to make the gun using those blueprints." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Then you need to keep those blueprints secure and make sure you don¡¯t tell anyone about this if you can. If the world was to find out that you have a blueprint that can produce this weapon, they would constantly bombard you in order to get their hands on this. You know how human nature can be and the moment they get the first prototype for a gun, they¡¯ll be looking for ways to further develop it." Keiko warned.
"Don¡¯t worry, I understand. But yeah, back to the topic of Yuki and Mount Everest. I¡¯ll be using an item of mine in order to scan the mountain. Once that¡¯s done, we¡¯ll look for a safe way to enter the Frozen Imperial Mountains." Shiro summarised as they both nodded their heads.
"Good. And just in case things are harder than we expect, I have a skill that allows me to give you girls a little boost. Think of it as granting you a passive skill as it is within my privilege as the queen of a race." Shiro said while standing up.
"Oh that would be quite helpful in general. How do we activate your skill?" Keomi asked curiously since she needed as much strength as she could get in order to continue to help Shiro.
"It¡¯s simple. Just stand in front of me and I¡¯ll do the rest." Shiro replied.
Gesturing for Keomi to stand in front of her, Shiro repeated the actions that she did for Aarim.
Swiping her hands down, a familiar staff appeared in her hands as golden energy flowed out. This time, it was more controlled as Shiro knew what to expect.
"Keomi, on my authority as the Celestial Sylph Empress, do you ept a role in my court? Do note that once this is done, the role cannot be revoked." Shiro asked.
"I ept." Keomi nodded her head.
Tapping the pommel down on the ground, a tier 4 magic circle expanded out as a familiar set of notifications rang out on her system disy.
[Acknowledgement Received. Generating Role... Celestial Court Champion.]
[Celestial Court Champion]
Repeating this process with Keiko, a role was generated for her as well.
[Current Celestial Court Roles:
Celestial Court Mage : Aarim
Celestial Court Champion : Keomi
Celestial Court Hidden de : Keiko]
Both the roles, Celestial Court Champion and Celestial Court Hidden de, gave huge benefits as they would convert a portion of Shiro¡¯s INT stat into their most preferred stat.
An example would be that 10% of her INT would be converted to STR for Keomi. While the boost may be small for their level, it was bound to increase in the future, giving them that extra edge.
Plus, their skills had a rather unique bonus passive. For Keiko, she would be granted true stealth for a short period of time whenever her health reaches less than 10%, giving her a chance to escape while Keomi would heal up for 50% of the damage she dealt along with 50% resistance to physical based attacks when she activates her berserk skills, allowing her to rampage with even more ferocity.
Seeing this, Shiro understood that each role that she gave out would receive something to help their ss. For Aarim, she was given a skill to help her make more spells while Keomi and Keiko were given skills to help them fight.
Now that she understood this, Shiro wondered who she should give the next role to when she reaches level 150. One of the best candidates she had in mind was Madison since she was the only tank on the team. However, at the same time, Nan Tian was also an option since he was the highest level person here but he was quite an anomaly to Shiro right now.
¡¯Regardless, I should probably keep the next role within the party.¡¯ She shook her head and focused on the task at hand. Now that both Keiko and Keomi got their roles, she nned on making their way to Mount Everest straight away since the longer they wait, the higher chance of Yuki dying.
Choosing to tell the party tomorrow, Shiro had both Keomi and Keiko rent a room so that they can rest for now.
Chapter 488 Travel Plans
Chapter 488 Travel ns
After waking up, Shiro didn¡¯t immediately go downstairs to wake up the party. Instead, she spent a moment checking the teleport shrines near Mount Everest.
If this was the old world map before the dungeons arrived, Mount Everest would be to the west of Japan. Since they were to the north of Japan right now, they would need to travel to the south west.
However, in the new world, Mount Everest was now to the extreme north. The worst part about this is that the mountain wasn¡¯t too far from the front lines.
¡¯From what I know, Duan Han Ying has a few things to do that requires his attention hence why he hasn¡¯t bothered Yuki so far, so I still have a window of time to help her. But with the mountain being so close to the front lines, it¡¯ll mean that I need to pass quite a few cities in order to reach her. Yuki did warn me about Duan Han Ying finding out my presence if I go to the cities near the front lines so I¡¯ll need to be careful.¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows.
In order to get to Mount Everest, she¡¯d need to go past two countries in order to reach it. The first was Korea and the second was China.
Even if they picked the closest teleport shrine to the mountain, she¡¯d still need to spend quite a bit of time travelling through China in order to reach it.
{It¡¯s still risky to travel through the country even with your disguise isn¡¯t it?} Nimue called out from her mana realm.
¡¯Mn. With them being so close to the front lines, I can guess that they¡¯ll be prepared to dispel any form of disguises in order to not let the demons in. There¡¯s a good chance that my disguise will be useless in front of it.¡¯ Shiro nodded her head.
{Quite a dilemma. Since Keiko is also the assassin hero, the moment she appears in the teleport shrine, everyone would know.}
¡¯True. Who knows if they had a formation to dispel disguises in the teleport shrine. Perhaps the best way through it would be to go around China instead. But if we chose that, the amount of high level nature monsters we will run into is extremely high. After all, China had a pretty rough start at the beginning since they were besieged by monsters almost every day. A lot of their towns and cities were ruined and they even had to evacuate the country at one point. It wasn¡¯t until the appearance of their Martial Hero, Ling Tian, did they finally push back the monster wave and rebuild the towns and cities. Even now, the threat of a monster wave still stands so going around the country is advised against since the monsters average around level 200+.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{But I¡¯m guessing you can go through that ce with ease.} Nimue smiled.
¡¯Oh definitely. But there¡¯s one more thing that¡¯s bothering me and it¡¯s also the one that¡¯s stopping me from choosing to go around China.¡¯
{What could actually deter you from going around a country? Don¡¯t tell me it¡¯s a demigod or something.} Nimue joked.
¡¯Close. There are rumours and evidence of peak Tier 5 or rather, level 500 monsters resting in the deepest parts of the monster territory. Who knows if they actually exist and if they do, they can probably kill me with just a single sneeze. So I¡¯m not exactly eager about intruding in their territory because I know for a fact that their senses will pick up on my presence. After all, if dungeon monsters reacted so violently against my presence, I¡¯m pretty sure the natural monsters will also do the same.¡¯ Shiro shrugged as Nimue agreed. There was still too much mystery around why that happened since the previous queen of the sylph never had this kind of reaction from the monsters.
If anything, the monsters wanted to go near her due to her soothing aura.
As she continued to research on the path that she should take, Shiro heard a soft knock against her door.
Looking down at her pyjamas, Shiro thought for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and walked over to the door. It¡¯s early in the morning so it shouldn¡¯t matter too much.
Opening the door, she saw Nan Tian standing there with a tray of food.
"Morning. Want some breakfast?" He asked with a smile.
"Well, aren¡¯t you helpful?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"What can I say? I aim to please." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Welle inside first. I got a few things to ask you anyways."
Gesturing for Nan Tian toe in, Shiro ced the food by the side first before showing him herptop.
"I¡¯m nning to travel towards Mount Everest soon and I¡¯m not too keen on going through China so I want to go around it. However, with rumours of a level 500 near the area, it¡¯s not exactly the safest option." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded.
"I¡¯m guessing you want me to rify that rumour along with a safe route perhaps."
"That would be helpful." Shiro nodded.
"In that case then the rumours are indeed true. In the areas surrounding China, it is governed by three peak tier 5 monsters that are all level 500. The first is a dragon, second is a Gorgon and the third is still a mystery even for me. The sect has managed to gather few traces of what it could be but none had been fully proven." Nan Tian replied.
"Hmm... that¡¯s quite worrisome then. Even one level 500 would be a pain considering how monsters react to my presence in dungeons." Shiro frowned.
"Why don¡¯t you go through China then?" Nan Tian asked while handing her a piece of bread from the breakfast tray.
"Thanks. Well I don¡¯t want to go through China mainly because there¡¯s a high chance that Duan Han Ying will be notified of my presence. With the country being so close to the front lines, there¡¯s a good chance that my disguise would be useless." Shiro replied while eating the bread.
"I see... well you are correct in your assumption. Since there are a few monsters that can shapeshift, there are hundreds to thousands of formations set up all over the country to stop disguises. The moment you enter China, your disguise will be cancelled and your ss of a race queen will be revealed. Unless you get a higher quality disguise skill, I doubt you can hide yourself." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Tsk, that¡¯s a bit annoying." Shiro clicked her tongue before finishing her break. However, before she could even eat the rest of her breakfast, she felt the bed shake as Yin woke up with some drool hanging out from the corner of her mouth.
"I smell food." Yin said while looking around the room.
"Who the hell says ¡¯I smell food¡¯ the moment they wake up." Shiro retorted as her smile twitched while handing her tray of food to Yin. She can eat something down at the cafeteriater if anything.
Seeing Shiro give Yin the tray of food, Nan Tian sighed inwardly since he had woken up very early in the morning to make this all by himself. He had a few troubles along the way but a cookbook online was quite helpful and he managed to make a decent breakfast.
Only for Shiro to eat the bread and give the rest away to Yin.
¡¯At least she ate the bread I guess.¡¯ He sighed.
"You alright?" Shiro asked after seeing his expression.
"Mn? Yeah it¡¯s nothing. I just want to tell you that my branch is located in China and I have my own teleport Shrine. You can probably use that to enter China without being detected." Nan Tian nodded as Shiro widened her eyes.
Before she could cry out in shock, she quickly covered her own mouth as to not wake up Attie.
"You serious!?" She whispered.
"Yes."
"Why the hell didn¡¯t you tell me when I was wasting time trying to think of a way through China then!?" Shiro asked.
"You never asked." Nan Tian chuckled.
"How the f*ck do you think I can ask when I didn¡¯t even know it was an option?!"
"Does my name not seem Chinese to you? And sects are usually a Chinese thing to begin with." Nan Tian raised his eyebrows.
". . ."
{This man has a point ya know.}
¡¯Hush it.¡¯
{Don¡¯t shoot the messenger.} Nimue chuckled.
"In that case, can I trouble you to help me, Keiko and Keomi through China without being detected then?" Shiro asked.
"Of course. Anything for you. However, can I know why you need to go through such a dangerous ce first? I don¡¯t want to be sending you to your death." Nan Tian asked.
"Sure. I need to tell the party about this anyways."
Chapter 489 Secret Teleport Shrine
Chapter 489 Secret Teleport Shrine
Exining the whole situation behind Yuki being imprisoned by Duan Han Ying in the Frozen Imperial Mountains, Shiro also told him about her ns to scout out the situation first.
"I¡¯m going to be scanning the mountain for any signs of barriers and openings with Keiko and Keomi¡¯s help. That way, I can enter this fake dungeon in order to rescue Yuki." Shiro exined.
"Hmm... That¡¯s probably the best way to go about it. From the information I gathered about Duan Han Ying through your descriptions, he¡¯s most likely one of those people that would set up multipleyers of traps. There¡¯s not even a guarantee that there is only one barrier. Perhaps the mountain is stacked up of hundreds of barriers." Nan Tian nodded.
"Hence why even if you scan the entire mountain, the best way is probably to just take out the power source of the barrier. Since he¡¯s on the front lines, it¡¯ll be quite annoying to continuously fuel the barrier himself so he must have routed it up to something. Whether that be a natural mana spring or a mana gathering formation, the barriers will disappear once you take it out. The only issue I can see happening is trying to locate the source and destroy it while making sure that the information of your arrival is kept secret." He continued.
"Mn, that¡¯s why I want to avoid dealing with the source if possible and just navigate my way through the barriers myself. If I went for the power source, I risk having one of the guards escaping and sending out the message. At that point, it is very likely for Duan Han Ying to appear on the scene himself." Shiro nodded her head while standing up.
Packing her things away for now, she gestured for him to follow her outside so that they can talk about this with Keiko and Keomi.
"Yin darling." Shiro called out.
"Mn? What is it mum?" Yin looked up while still eating her food.
"I¡¯m going to talk to your aunts. Look after your sister and brother while I¡¯m out."
"Sure, take care." Yin waved her handzily while continuing to eat her food.
Leaving the room with Nan Tian, they made their way downstairs and knocked on Keiko and Keomi¡¯s room.
"Coming~" Keomi¡¯s voice could be heard with a soft yawn.
The sounds of the lock turning rang out as the door opened with Keomi in her pyjamas.
"Ah morning sis and... who¡¯s this?" She asked as she hadn¡¯t seen Nan Tian before.
"Oh him? He¡¯s Nan Tian or rather, the little beggar that I told you about when we were children." Shiro smiled.
"Wait, you found him?" Keomi raised her eyebrows before ncing at Nan Tian who gave her a small wave and a smile.
"Yup. Don¡¯t mind him. Is Keiko awake?" Shiro asked.
"Yeah she is. She¡¯s just getting ready now." Keomi nodded as she gestured for them to enter the room.
"Morning." Keiko waved as her hair was still rather messy. She was currently brushing her teeth.
"Morning." Shiro nodded.
"Hm, seems like you were speaking the truth yesterday after all." Keiko nced over at Nan Tian with a smile.
"Of course, I wouldn¡¯t dare lie to the assassin hero after all." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Right. Anyways, what brings you here this early in the morning Shiro?" Keiko asked while gesturing for her to take a seat.
"I¡¯m here to tell you that Nan Tian has a safe way for us to travel through China without being detected. His hidden sect has ownership of a teleport shrine located in China that no one knows about. With this, we¡¯ll be able to cross China and make our way towards Mount Everest without interacting with any of therger and well known cities that will have formations to stop my disguise from working." Shiro smiled as Keiko paused.
"For real?" She widened her eyes.
"Yup. We were quite lucky to discover this hidden teleport shrine since it¡¯s quite hard to reach through normal means. Hence why we were very confident in making our base around this ce. With a few illusions ced around it, we¡¯re able to keep this shrine a secret. Of course, while we do have members of different factions spread out across the world, only those that have gone through a specific set of requirements can have ess to the branch hall or any hall for that matter. With the exception of those that I allow this privilege as I¡¯ll be taking the responsibility for allowing them in." Nan Tian replied with a smile.
"So does that mean this teleport shrine wasn¡¯t meant to be known by most people to begin with? Why are you even allowing us three to go?" Keiko asked curiously since she knew what kind of impact a hidden teleport shrine meant for you as a faction. As long as you¡¯re careful, you could have a perfect safe house to retreat without worry.
"Yes because I trust Shiro and I trust her judgement. Of course, if I¡¯m wrong, then I guess my judgement of character was just bad." Nan Tian shrugged.
"Isn¡¯t your judgement of character pretty bad for getting a fancy on someone like me to begin with? I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯re risking your life at this point." Shiro raised her eyebrows. If it was someone else, they would have probably lost their ass and baby maker at this point if they tried to do what Nan Tian had done several times.
"Alright alright, I don¡¯t need to be smacked in the face with flirting the first thing in morning. I¡¯m not awake enough for this sh*t just yet." Keiko¡¯s smile twitched as she was still single for the exact same reason. While she viewed Kuromi as a role model and someone she strived to be with as much as she could, it wasn¡¯t to the point of romance but rather familial love. Like a brotherplex or a sisterplex.
However, with the strange workings of people¡¯s minds, they had determined that she was in love with her cousin so not only could she not find a boyfriend due to her identity, but they were also depressed because they thought she was in love with someone else and that person was apparently her cousin.
"What do you mean by flirting? I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m stating a fact here though?" Shiro tilted her head cluelessly.
". . ."
". . ."
". . ."
All three of the people besides her stayed silent as they looked at this girl and wondered if she was being serious or not. After all, there were times where she would just act dumb and this could be one of those times.
Unfortunately, while Shiro does understand what fliting meant and what it is, she did not think that stating a threat was ¡¯charming¡¯ or alluring in any way, shape or form. Hence her confusion.
Massaging her eyes for a moment, Keiko shook her head and brought out a map of the world on her tablet. Zooming in on China and the route towards Mount Everest, she gestured for everyone to sit down.
"So what¡¯s the n? Is it just going to be us four going since it¡¯s quite dangerous? I know that you can easily kill people much higher level than you so I¡¯m not too worried and even if you are besieged by level 200+¡¯s, there¡¯s a good chance for you to escape without suffering too many injuries due to your skill set." Keiko asked while stretching her body lightly.
"That¡¯s what I¡¯m nning. While the party can indeed clear dungeons solo and kill those higher level than them, I¡¯m still worried about the risks of moving in arge group. While ourbat prowess is higher due to the versatile skill set of everyonebined, there is a chance that we are forced to fightrge groups of enemies due to being discovered. As this is a semi stealth mission, moving as arge group would be advised against while sticking to a small group like just us four would be best." Shiro replied.
"What about your daughters? Yin and Lisandra?" Nan Tian asked.
"They¡¯re definitely not following along precisely due to the fact that they¡¯re my daughters. I could take Yin with me but it¡¯s better if she sticks with everyone else so that she could help them bail with the rift if they¡¯re in a dangerous situation." Shiro shook her head as she chose to let Yin stay with the group as a way to keep them all safe.
While it may seem selfish and patronising, it was one of the only ways for Shiro to make sure that she didn¡¯t lose the ones that she cherishes. With the things happening around her, choosing to stay with her friends would only increase the chances of their deaths due to her actions.
She didn¡¯t need the blood of another friend on her hands. One was enough.
Chapter 490 Regret
Chapter 490 Regret
After discussing her ns with Keiko and Keomi, the four of them went down to the cafeteria to get some food before waking up the rest of the party to inform them of her decision.
Currently, everyone was sitting around a table in the cafeteria.
"So you¡¯re going to the mountain with those three?" Aarim asked just to make sure that what she heard was correct.
"Yes I am. The situation is too dangerous to have lots of people with me so it would be best that we kept it to a small team. Plus, if there are chances ofbat, the four of us can guarantee that we can bail out of the situation. To put it bluntly, it¡¯s going to be hard to look after all of you and make sure that you are guaranteed to survive." Shiro replied as she didn¡¯t want to make it seem like she¡¯s calling the party useless because they¡¯re not. It was just the situation that was unfavourable for her to take the party with her.
If they needed to wage a full on war, the party would be her first go to for help since she could trust them to hold their own against an army with their skill set. But since her enemies were guaranteed to be 200+ and with the party only averaging around level 120 right now, it would be tantamount to suicide.
"Then what are we working towards? We¡¯re trying to level up so that we can help you but in the end, are you just going to go on without us again?" Madison frowned.
"That¡¯s not it." Shiro shook her head.
"Then what is? All I¡¯m seeing is that you don¡¯t want us around since we¡¯re going to drag you down. Didn¡¯t people say that soloing dungeons were akin to suicide? Haven¡¯t we done it without a problem? Even Silvia¡¯s managed to do it despite being a healer." Madison retorted since it was bad for the party.
Only when everyone was together could they be at their strongest. If Shiro left and did everything herself at the first sign of danger then what was the point of her gathering everyone together at the start?
"Madi, it¡¯s because having arge group is bad for us right now. If it wasn¡¯t a stealth mission then I would take everyone with me." Shiro furrowed her brows as this was exactly what she was worried about.
"Shiro, tell me now, when hasn¡¯t it been a stealth or solo mission so far? Every single time you would leave us using the same advice ande back. You would even miss out on our ss ups. The joyful moments we have when we finally finish the requirements. All youe back to is everyone getting stronger. You don¡¯t know what we¡¯ve been through and neither do we know what you¡¯ve gone through. Sure you can get a general idea of what our capabilities are like in one or two dungeon runs but you haven¡¯t seen us when we were struggling because we were trying to catch up to you so hard." Madison stood up, clearly agitated.
Surprised by Madison¡¯s sudden outburst, the party wanted to hold her back a little while Shiro stayed silent.
"If anything, you¡¯re more like an irresponsible dad that doesn¡¯t know how to connect with his children. You think you can try to forge that bond through spending some money and going to the park with them once in a while but that¡¯s not right. If you really cared about that bond, then you would stay with us and reinforce it. Let everyone go through the hard times together so that we can support each other." Madison tried to persuade as Shiro stayed silent.
"In that case then I think it¡¯s best for me to leave. I¡¯m already satisfied with how this party has grown. Lyrica, you went from meek and scared to being dependable and strong. Madison, you¡¯ve found a best friend in someone you used to not like. Silvia, Chen Yu, you two have found the love of your life while Aarim, you¡¯ve managed to develop magic not many people have seen. Each of you have grown without needing my help so I think it¡¯s best I leave rather than dump my problems onto you." Shiro smiled as she stood up to leave the table.
Call her stubborn but she would rather take on the burden herself regardless of what they said. It was the role of the strong to keep other¡¯s free of harm. It was a king¡¯s duty to keep his kingdom safe and likewise, it was her duty to keep her party safe.
Before she could fully leave, she felt gravity strengthen around her as Aarim had stood up with a serious expression.
"Don¡¯t do something that you¡¯ll regret." She reminded as she knows how much Shiro cares for her friends since they were the ones she trusted enough to expose her identity as a monster.
"Sorry, I¡¯m already close friends with regret." Shiro smiled sadly before waving her hand and dispelling her gravity magic with ease.
"I¡¯ll contact you threeter about our ns." Shiro said while ncing at Keiko, Keomi and Nan Tian.
Tapping down with her foot, she jumped into the rift and left the scene.
*Sigh
Sighing softly, Yin did the same but not before looking over at Lisandra.
"You stay here for a while and try to make peace with the party ok? Mum didn¡¯t want to do this but things aren¡¯t too good right now." Yin said with a rare trace of seriousness. Even the usual food loving face she had on could no longer be seen anymore.
Surprised by her older sister¡¯s demeanour, Lisandra could only nod her head.
Seeing that Lisandra agreed, Yin faded into the rift.
###
Exiting the rift, Shiro looked around to see the tallest building before making her way over to the roof.
Sitting down, she left her hair flutter in the wind while she sighed and leaned back.
"Isilia... What should I do? They¡¯re unhappy that I¡¯m keeping them out of harm¡¯s way but if I let theme with me, there¡¯s a good chance that they¡¯ll die. I don¡¯t want to be the cause of another friend¡¯s death." Shiro muttered, feeling a little helpless.
Perhaps it would be better for her to go off on her own without saying anything.
Feeling mana fluctuate behind her, Shiro nced back and saw Yining out with a serious expression.
"What is it darling? Why aren¡¯t you with the rest of the group?" Shiro asked.
"I got Lisa to stay with them for now. Mum, we need a serious talk." Yin replied.
"Nimue, Iziuel, I know you can hear me so can you take Attie with you and leave me and mum alone for now?" She called out.
Surprised by her seriousness, Shiro nodded her head and allowed the three spirits out. Gesturing for them to leave for now, Shiro had Yin sit down near her.
"So what¡¯s with this sudden change of seriousness? This isn¡¯t like you."
"Wrong. This is normal me. Food loving me is just something I like to do because I can be carefree and enjoy the wonders of life." Yin shrugged.
"Mn, I see... So what did you want to talk to me about?" Shiro smiled.
"About your actions with the party. I know that you want to stay with them and level up but you have so many burdens on your shoulders right now don¡¯t you? Even splitting a little bit off to share with the party would crush them from the pressure and severity of the situation. You¡¯re also responsible for an entire race now too. While they do understand a portion of it, they don¡¯t truly know the risks thate with your burdens. Should they follow, there¡¯s a good chance that one of them may die and if I had to guess, I¡¯d say it would be Silvia. The moment she demonstrates her healing prowess against the enemy, they¡¯ll make sure to take her out in one go." Yin frowned.
"That¡¯s what I¡¯m worried about." Shiro nodded with a sad smile. Her responsibilities were simply too great to just toss aside and stay with her friends.
"If this was the old you, you would have not given a crap and just stayed with them wouldn¡¯t you? But now that a few of those you cherish are affected by your burdens, Nimue, Iziuel and Attie, you can¡¯t do that anymore." Yin shook her head.
"That¡¯s what responsibility does to a person." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, just know that I¡¯ll do my best to keep the party safe when you¡¯re gone so you can rest easy."
"Thank you." Shiro smiled.
"You¡¯re wee mum, stay safe out there." Yin smiled softly and disappeared from her spot.
Chapter 491 Departing For China
Chapter 491 Departing For China
Sitting on the roof for a while longer, Shiro waited until Nan Tian, Keiko and Keomi left the hotel.
"How was the talk?" Nimue called out while holding Attie in her arms.
"Are you ok Shiro?" Iziuel asked with worry.
"Yeah I¡¯m fine." Shiro smiled and nodded her head.
"You don¡¯t seem so fine." Nimue raised her eyebrows while sitting down.
"You don¡¯t want to leave do you?" She asked.
"Nope. But life is not always fair. Staying with the party would mean I¡¯m sacrificing something else. An example would be Yuki¡¯s life. It¡¯s fine though, good times muste to an end so I¡¯m prepared." Shiro replied.
"No you¡¯re not. While I have not been with you for a long time, your fa?ade cracks a little when it¡¯s about something you cherish." Nimue sighed and wrapped her arm around Shiro.
Copying her movements, Iziuel did the same but on the other side.
Suddenly hugged by her two spiritpanions, Shiro paused for a moment before nodding with a smile.
While she needed to leave the party for their safety, at least she still had two people to keep herpany.
Taking a moment to enjoy the hug, Shiro calmed her emotions down.
"Thanks you two." She chuckled.
"You¡¯re wee. So what¡¯s the n now? You said that you¡¯ll be discussing the details with those threeter so are you going to message them now? I can¡¯t imagine them hanging around the party especially after the rather awkward mood we left it back there." Nimue asked.
"Hm, true, I¡¯ll probably send them a message to meet me at the teleport shrine in a few moments so that we can leave for China." Shiro nodded.
"Do you three want to go to my mana realm or stay outside?" She asked.
"We¡¯ll go inside. That way travel is a bit easier." Iziuel replied as Nimue nodded.
Allowing the three back into her mana realm, Shiro patted the dust off her dress and stood up next to the ledge. Looking down at the ground, she pulled out her phone and sent Nan Tian, Keiko and Keomi a message to meet her at the teleport shrine.
Once she was sure that they received her message, she stood up and hopped off the roof.
During her fall, she quickly disguised herself so that she was not recognised by the people. Not only that, but she also set up an illusion so that people wouldn¡¯t see a random person jumping off the building.
Making her way to the teleport shrine rather peacefully, Shiro wondered if she should confess to Lyrica about her rtionship with her mother. How they were friends in their first life.
¡¯I suppose that can wait for when we meet again, IF we meet again. Yin and Lisandra are still with the party so there¡¯s a good chance that I¡¯ll meet them at least once.¡¯ Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
Before she could enter the teleport shrine, she caught the silhouette of a familiar figure hanging by the alleys.
Sharis, the very same woman that she had talked for a short while before the Celestial Trials had begun stood in the alley while giving her a small wave.
¡¯Seems like she noticed me.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
{You might want to be careful. It seems like she¡¯s up to something.} Nimue warned.
¡¯Don¡¯t worry, I know.¡¯
"Hey, it¡¯s been a while since we¡¯vest talked. If I remember correctly,st time you said that you¡¯ll consider the proposal of having a chat and making a friend should I make it past a week. Are you up for that chat now?" Sharis asked with a smile.
"Not exactly. I¡¯m a busy woman and I already have quite a bit on my te right now. Any more would only be annoying." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"Quite true considering that you are in high demand." Sharis chuckled.
"High demand?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Yup. Quite a few ¡¯patrons¡¯ have been asking me about you. However, I¡¯m not here due to their requests but rather due to the new faction master. You may know him as Lucius. He wants me to pass you a message saying that he¡¯s finished everything in the faction and you cane to visit at any moment. Should you be ready to visit, just give me a ring and I¡¯ll guide you to the faction." Sharis said while handing her a business card of sorts.
Looking at the business card, Shiro realised that the card was made from a rather special material that she did not know was salvageable.
"How the hell did you make a card from the rift?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Trade secrets. But since you¡¯re quite familiar with the rift, just break the business card in it and I¡¯ll know that you¡¯re ready for business. But for now, I¡¯ll bid you, adieu." Sharis bowed slightly before melding into the shadows and disappearing from her spot.
Staying silent for a moment, Shiro stored the card away into her inventory.
However, her guard was now fully up around that woman since she could use the rift which was still highly mysterious to her. All that she knew so far was that it was a different ne of existence that allowed her to travel through it with ease.
{Do you think that there are more people like her that can use the rift in Shadow Temple?} Nimue asked cautiously.
¡¯I don¡¯t know. Her role in the faction is still a mystery so the best we can do is guess right now.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
Turning around, she made her way back to the teleport shrine and decided to deal with this after she finished her business at Mount Everest. She needed to take things slowly andplete them one by one to make sure that they¡¯re all done without a hitch.
Entering the shrine, she saw Nan Tian, Keiko and Keomi standing by the side, waiting for her.
"Sorry I¡¯mte. I met a rather peculiar ¡¯acquaintance¡¯ just outside of the shrine." Shiro smiled.
"No worries. But before we go, are you sure you want to leave the party on that note?" Keomi asked.
"It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve already thought it through." Shiro shook her head.
"Anyways, let¡¯s go. The longer we wait, the more serious the situation bes." She urged as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Ok, just as a reminder though, we will need to be careful of how we make our way through China since a single wrong turn could lead us into a nest of high level monsters. If bad luck follows us, one of the level 500 monsters will be there and we will be in serious danger." Nan Tian reminded seriously.
"Mn, I know. We¡¯re going straight to Mount Everest without any detours." Shiro nodded.
"Good, in that case then I¡¯ll teleport us over now." Nan Tian nodded with a smile and teleported the four of them away.
###
After Shiro¡¯s abrupt departure from the party, Yin and Lisandra expressed their desire to stick around with the party for now.
The members didn¡¯t have any qualms with the decision while Madison took this moment to take a breather outside.
*Sigh
Sighing softly the moment she was alone, Madison couldn¡¯t help but feel a little regretful at the words that she had spoken during the outburst but what was said could not be taken back.
"Tsk, I should have calmed down a little." She muttered with a click of her tongue.
She was quite annoyed with herself since her act of selfishness had essentially broken up the party in a bad way. Previously, they knew that Shiro would return since she would promise them that as a minimum. However, now that she had left the party for good, there was no longer that guarantee.
Feeling guilty for basically forcing her best friend¡¯s love interest out of the party Madison balled her hands into a fist.
Taking a moment to calm herself, she turned around and walked back into the hotel. Seeing that only Lyrica sat by the table, Madison couldn¡¯t help but feel embarrassed and shameful.
"Where¡¯s everyone else?" Madison asked slowly while sitting down near Lyrica.
"They¡¯re taking a moment to digest what had happened before heading out to do a few dungeons to level up." Lyrica replied but her eyes seemed a little hollow. As if she had just lost the light in her life.
Seeing this, Madison felt like a knife had just stabbed her gut.
"Lyrica I-"
"It¡¯s fine. Things had already happened and we can¡¯t change that. Just keep your head up for now and get stronger. Perhaps we can reach A ss before the new agees. After all, even if Shiro left the party, the new generation wouldn¡¯t suddenly decide to stop its approach. We still need to get ready." Lyrica smiled before standing up and leaving.
Understanding that it was a forced smile, Madison bit her bottom lip and stayed silent. She realised that her actions might have just started a domino effect within the party and at this point, it was toote to stop it.
Chapter 492 Treasury
Chapter 492 Treasury
After they disappeared from the teleport Shrine, Shiro found herself standing in the middle of a rtively simple garden of sorts. Tall trees surrounded them with mystic lights floating around like fireflies.
In the distance, they could see a mountain range of sorts with buildings built along the edges. Pathways were carved out in the mountain along with a main hall of sorts located at the very top.
Bridges could be seen connecting from each mountain to another while there were a few t paved out areas around the sect where people would have a friendly spar.
"Wee to the sect¡¯s branch area. We¡¯ll go to the treasury for now and see if we can get anything to assist us in the journey." Nan Tian smiled while walking forward.
"Eh? Are you sure? Isn¡¯t the treasury meant to be for the sect? Are you sure it¡¯s ok to just give us some items." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Of course since I collected most of them myself. Though if you want, we can make it so that you are only allowed to take certain items how¡¯s that?" Nan Tian suggested.
"That would be better." Shiro nodded.
Making their way through the garden, Shiro could see a few distant figures approaching them.
"Branch master, you¡¯ve returned." They said at the same time and bowed slightly.
"Mn, no need to bow. These three are my guests and one of them is a new member of the sect. As the rules state, I shall take responsibility for them." Nan Tian smiled.
"Understood. Do you need us to do anything for you?" One of the men asked respectfully.
"You don¡¯t have to trouble yourselves. We won¡¯t be here for long." Nan Tian waved as they all nodded and left the area.
"Seems like you¡¯ve got a pretty good reputation in your sect." Shiro raised her eyebrows since she could detect awe, reverence and respect in the members¡¯ eyes.
"Well I am the branch master after all." Nan Tian chuckled as he went to rub the bridge of his nose as usual but realised that his mask was in the way. Coughing lightly, he showed them the way to the treasury.
"So why do you not show your face around here?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Because I only want you to see my face." Nan Tian joked as Shiro immediately jabbed him in the ribs lightly.
"Be serious." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Fine fine. It¡¯s because showing my face has almost turned the sect upside down because one of the elder¡¯s granddaughters took a fancy on me when I was still a rather low ranking member. We had a few conflicts but nothing major happened in the end after I was taken in by the sect master for training purposes." Nan Tian replied.
"Oh but don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll keep myself pure and dedicated only to you." He chuckled.
"Right. Speaking of people taking a fancy to you, what ever happened to the second rate hacker girl from before? Huan Er or something." Shiro asked.
"Her? She¡¯s been transferred to another branch as her skill set has evolved quite a bit. Before, she could only hack into devices but after one of her ss ups, she¡¯s able to insert machines into a person¡¯s body and control them like puppets. She¡¯s quite a tricky opponent if you¡¯re on the same level. Right now, she¡¯s being trained by one of the elders proficient in control since he sees great potential in her." Nan Tian replied.
"Heh~ Is that so. Quite interesting if you had to ask me." Shiro raised her eyebrows as this was quite an unique skill.
She knew of puppeteers that used mana strings but not one that uses machines aside from her.
Sure, she could do the same, but she preferred to use her own hands to aplish the tasks.
"That is quite true. I¡¯ve seen her trying her skill set out and I have to say, it was quite a sight to behold." Nan Tian nodded his head.
Arriving at the treasury, Nan Tian allowed the three of them to enter the vault and explore it however they wanted.
Shiro wasn¡¯t too bothered about weapons or armour since she had two that were soul bound and upgraded as she levelled up. If anything, she could just get Helion to help further upgrade them some more.
However, she still had a look around to see if there were anything of use such as alchemy materials or weapon upgrades much like the Soul Weapon Upgrade and the Soul Bound Armour Upgrade she had obtained earlier.
Looking through the materials, she was rather surprised to find a few that she needed in order to craft the Boreas¡¯ Rebirth pill. While her links were fully repaired, consuming the pill would further amplify her ice element so it was still beneficial.
ncing into her inventory, she noted that she had already collected the Underworld Ice Rose, cial Lotus Blood and the Sacred Frost Jade. In Nan Tian¡¯s armoury, she could spot what seems to be the Tears of Winter and the Millennium Ice Dragon¡¯s Essence. Thetter of which could have been used to create a very powerful weapon that was soul bound due to the properties of a high level material.
"Lil¡¯ Tian, how much would this Tears of Winter and Ice Dragon¡¯s Essence cost?" Shiro called out while pointing at the two materials.
"You don¡¯t want a weapon or armour?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrows.
"No it¡¯s fine, I¡¯ve already got a good friend of mine to make them for me so all I need are materials or upgrade modules for my current weapon and armour." Shiro replied.
"Hm, well you can take them for free since there isn¡¯t much use for them. The Millennium Ice Dragon¡¯s Essence was hard to forge despite being a rare material and one that belonged to a dragon mainly due to its elemental affinity being ice. It made it extremely hard for any smith tobine the essence with their weapon since it could put out the mes of the forge. As for the Tears of Winter, the same applied to alchemists. Fusing this with their concoction would turn the entire thing to slush so I haven¡¯t found much use for these two other than its rarity." Nan Tian shrugged.
"I see... But are you sure you don¡¯t want me to pay for it? I am considered a member of your faction so surely there is a point system I can use to buy these right?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"There is but since these are dubbed useless materials, they¡¯re worth virtually nothing aside from their cotion value. Just take them. Compared to the other things I have in this treasury, it¡¯s worth nothing." Nan Tian waved his hand as Shiro nodded and stored them into her inventory.
Now that she had collected two more materials, she only needed to obtain the Sub Zero Spirit Essence, the Crystallised Divine Nuclei and the Eternal Ice Heart in order to craft the Boreas¡¯ Rebirth pill. Once she did that, her ice element would receive another boost which should put it in the mid to high tier range of A ss elemental attunements.
As Keiko and Keomi were picking a weapon that would suit them, Shiro heard the sound of rapid footsteps and nced towards the entrance of the treasury.
At the entrance, there were three men and a woman that looked to be around their 30¡¯s.
ncing at their stats, Shiro was rather surprised to see that they were all in the A ss.
Bai Li Qiu, the woman, was a level 250 Martial Sage. She had long ck hair that was tied into a ponytail and a martial attire that made it easy for her to move around in while keeping most of her skin under wraps. A reserved woman.
Su Bo Qin, one the men, was a level 260 Array Grandmaster.
The other two men seemed to be twins as they had rather simr features to one another. The first twin was called Yan Qi and was a level 250 Poison Saint while the second twin, Yan Xiao Li, was a level 255 Void de Grandmaster.
"Branch Master, you¡¯ve returned." They smiled and bowed respectfully.
"Mn, I won¡¯t be staying for long though. I¡¯ll be leaving once these two pick a weapon. In the meantime, if there¡¯s anything important, just tell me now." Nan Tian nodded.
"Of course. So far, we¡¯ve already finished the clean up process of yourst mission and recovered quite a bit of intel in regard to the ck Monarchy. There are signs to say that their next target would be a city near the front lines but we haven¡¯t narrowed it down to which city yet." Bai Li Qiu replied.
"I see... In that case then allocate a few of the members within the maind to assist those near the front lines. Once they find traces of any suspicious movement, they are to report to us immediately. Have them take a few teleport nodes too so that they can bring in reinforcements easily." Nan Tian ordered.
"Understood." Bai Li Qiu nodded.
"Branch Master, if I may be as rude to ask, but who is this youngdy next to you?" So Bo Qin asked.
Since Shiro still had her disguise activated, she looked like a rather in woman who was standing next to their ¡¯revered¡¯ Branch Master.
"Oh her? She¡¯s someone I want to make my wife." Nan Tian chuckled.
"!?!?!"
Chapter 493 Estrella
Chapter 493 Estre
"Oi." Hearing his intention, Shiro smiled twitched as she nced up at him.
However, the moment she nced up, she noticed that he was nowhere to be seen.
"Did... did he just run away?" Shiro muttered as her smile twitched.
{I¡¯m pretty sure that if he stayed, you would have pierced him by now.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯I mean, you¡¯re not wrong but does he have to run so quickly? It¡¯s not like I can harm him so easily to begin with.¡¯
{I¡¯d say it¡¯s more a matter of pride. He is in front of his subordinates after all. Losing his first time this way would be quite a way to ruin his reputation after all.}
While Nimue and Shiro were talking to each other, Keiko and Keomi were standing not too far behind her with their chosen weapons.
Seeing that Nan Tian had disappeared, they looked down at the weapons and wondered if they should put it back.
At the same time, even the elders were surprised to their core. Their branch master, one that had been neutral with everyone in the sect apart from the sect master, had actually dered that he wanted to make this girl his wife and ran away before she could even respond.
"Um... how should we address this miss?" Su Bo Qin asked respectfully.
"Ah just call me Shiro. So... your branch master said that we¡¯re allowed to take something from the vault so would my cousin and sister be allowed the weapon?" Shiro asked while ncing towards Keiko and Keomi.
"Of course. Since most of the treasury was obtained through the branch master¡¯s efforts, he has the most say in how it¡¯s distributed." Su Bo Qin nodded his head.
"I see... thank you. Oh before you go, do you know where your branch master got his romantic advice? Stalking a girl is not exactly the best way to go about things." Shiro asked as she decided to get revenge through exposing some of his deeds.
"I¡¯m not too sure but... the branch master ¡¯stalked¡¯ a girl?" Su Bo Qin tilted his head.
"Yes, yes he did. Not exactly the best move considering the fact that I didn¡¯t even know that he was a friend of mine back then. Honestly, if he had continued, I would have tried to pierce him with a spear or two." Shiro sighed.
¡¯Wait what?¡¯ Su Bo Qin paused for a moment as he had just heard something incredibly weird.
"You... would have stabbed the branch master?" he asked hesitantly.
"Mn? Yeah. I won¡¯t go into details since I think it¡¯s better for you not to know. Anyways, just tell your branch master to meet me back at the teleport shrine so that we can actually start to make our way to Mount Everest." Shiro waved her hand as she was about to walk away.
However, before she could, Nan Tian returned with a smile.
"You called?"
"Were- nevermind. How do we get out of this ce? I don¡¯t want us to stop for too long since Yuki is still trapped." Shiro sighed.
"Right then, follow me." Nan Tian smiled as he quickly dismissed the elders before showing Shiro the way out of the branch.
As they were making their way through, Shiro¡¯s presence next to Nan Tian caught a few of the members¡¯ attention as they were curious about who she was. But since Nan Tian never introduced her to them, it meant that they didn¡¯t need to know so they didn¡¯t ask.
Arriving at the edge, Nan Tian brought out a badge of sorts and presented it to the barrier.
A faint halo of light could be seen pulsing out as an opening formed within the barrier.
"Step through this and we¡¯ll be within Han Tin forest. There shouldn¡¯t be anything too insane within this as most of the monsters average around level 200, giving you a decent challenge should you bump into one. Of course, with me, your cousin and your sister here, I doubt the monsters will threaten us at all." He chuckled as Shiro only shrugged.
Pulling out her phone, Shiro checked their location on the map and realised that they were quite deep into China as it would take a few days to reach the edge if they weren¡¯t in a hurry. If they were in a hurry and used their skills to travel faster, there was a chance that they could attract unwanted attention from the three high level monsters so they needed to be careful.
Mapping out a route that they could take, the four of them started their journey north.
###
Deep within the caverns of a mountain, arge figure suddenly reared her head back as her snake tongue flickered out her mouth for a moment.
"A queen has arrived." She muttered as her hair started to writhe around in a grotesque manner.
"I must consume and conquer." The gorgon hissed as she made a hole in the ground and proceeded to slither away from her nest.
While this was happening, a simr scene was ying out as a dragon opened his eyes slowly.
"A queen has made her presence known within this territory of man. Has she taken their side? I must see which race she belongs to before choosing what must be done." He growled deeply.
Spreading out his wings, he was about to fly up into the sky when a figure blocked his path.
"I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to keep mepany first." The man said coldly as he mmed his hands down. A sudden hail fire of light pierced down from the sky as the dragon was forced back onto the ground.
"Who are you?" the dragon growled, clearly annoyed by the sudden intruder.
"My name is of no concern to someone that is about to die. Just know that you¡¯re about to be nourishment for a god. Not everyone is as lucky as you are so offer your head willingly and I shall make this painless. Fight back and not a single scale will be intact after I¡¯m done with you." The figure warned as light danced around him.
"I care not of your identity as a god. Whether that be true or not, know this. I bow to NO GOD. I serve only her majesty the queen!" The dragon dered as a crimson radiance exuded from his body, sending waves of heat into the surrounding area, melting it with every passing second.
"Then pay for your heresy." The figure scoffed as mana red around him.
Light flickered in the sky, transforming themselves into an array of weapons that surrounded the dragon.
As the first light de shed against the mighty dragon, a deep burn mark could be seen, branded onto the dragon¡¯s scales. Despite his abnormal resistance to fire, these swords could still burn him like nothing.
Crying out in a rage, the dragon knew that this was a fight that he had to fight without holding anything back. Even at the cost of sacrificing some of his life essence to power his spells.
As the two fought, thend seemed to cry for mercy as mountains were destroyed whilekes were evaporated.
The people that sensed this fight immediately reported to the higher authorities as the martial hero, Ling Tian, was quickly notified about this cmity.
Rushing out of his quarters, he immediately made his way towards the north of China. He knew that therey three monsters that could warrant a peak tier 5 task force to take down and the best he could aplish right now was to force them back.
Should two of them be fighting right now, the only thing he could do was pray that they were far from the cities. After all, those at the beginning of A ss could summon hell with a wave of their hand never mind those at the peak of A ss.
As for the final monster ruling the areas around China, its figure was shrouded with shadows and mist. A pair of purple eyes pierced the veil as nostalgia seemed to flicker in its gaze.
"A new queen rises. How long have I waited? Should I report my findings to the capital or shall I visit the new queen myself." The figure tilted its head as their body swayed in the wind.
"I suppose I shall see with my own eyes. I will be the judge of the new queen. If she is not up to standard, only death shall follow." The figure narrowed its eyes as the mist coagted into a single figure. A woman that had ice white skin and ck hair that seemed to shimmer with hints of purple.
She had long ears like an elf and a pair of purple eyes that was surrounded by a ck sclera rather than white.
[Estre ¨C Spirit Guardian of Realms]
Chapter 494 Messages From Aarim and Silvia
Chapter 494 Messages From Aarim and Silvia
Making their way across the northern side of China, the group bumped into a few beasts that were extremely hostile to herpared to the monsters in dungeons. Normally, they would run away and cower while these wanted her head regardless of the cost.
Thinking of this, Shiro decided to make a few items in order to prevent them from running into extremely high level monsters.
Excusing herself for a moment, she jumped into the rift.
"Right then, I¡¯ll need a mini satellite system of sorts so keep an eye out for dangers. Since I heard that it¡¯s very hard to keep objects suspended in the sky along with the fact that none of the attempts at sending satellites to space have worked, I¡¯ll probably need to make a scouting one just to examine what the upper atmosphere of this world is like." She muttered while adding a few newponents to the orb itself. There were a few that allowed the orb to retaliate if needed but it was mostlyponents to help it stay hidden in case of any high level flying type monsters.
Thinking about it for a moment, it would be slightly awkward to keep on excusing herself to send more scouts. Therefore, one of the better options would be for her to infuse this single scout with a few blueprints of mini satellites so that it could dispense these in the sky once it was sure that the ce was secure.
Nodding her head, she proceeded to add more parts to the orb.
The entire process took her a few minutes since she already had prior knowledge on how she shouldbine and bnce out theponents.
After all, gathering intel was very important in Aria and the scouting orbs were something that she worked on for a short period of time. Of course, that was only until she took over every single satellite that they had sent to space with her nanobots.
It was also due to this that she could put up a decent fight against the light hero as orbital cannons would be fired from every single satellite that was near the zone, giving her that extra edge despite being weakened.
Once the orb was finished, Shiro nodded in satisfaction before hopping out of the rift at a different location.
Activating the stealth skill that she had embedded into the orb, she threw it up into the air and allowed it to fly as high as it could.
Making herself a pair of sses, she could see what the orb was surveying through the left lens while the right disyed the internal status.
That way, she could make detailed repairs without bringing the orb back down.
Jumping back into the rift, she regrouped with Nan Tian, Keiko and Keomi.
"Where did you go and when did you get a pair of sses?" Keomi asked curiously as they could not see the holographic disy that was only visible from Shiro¡¯s side of the lenses.
"These? Well I went to check on something but it wasn¡¯t anything too serious. As for these sses, I just so happened to find them in my inventory and they looked quite interesting." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian raised his eyebrows.
"Never thought that you would be one to wear sses." He chuckled.
"Well it¡¯s good to change the outfit every once in a while. It¡¯ll be awfully boring to stick with the same in old outfit for several months now wouldn¡¯t it? To be honest, I should probably make a few adjustments to my outfit. Maybe I can get Aarim to do this for me once I finished with my task." Shiro smiled.
Even though she¡¯s ¡¯left¡¯ the party, it wasn¡¯t as if they stopped being friends so asking Aarim for amission should still be fine.
Thinking back to the party, Shiro checked her phone and saw quite a few messages from Aarim and Silvia.
Unfortunately, there were no messages from Lyrica and Madison which pained Shiro a little but at least they should be rtively safe.
Tapping on their names, she checked Aarim¡¯s messages first.
[There¡¯s not much I can say, especially since the rather... sudden departure but just know that I will continue to support you in ways that I can should you need it. To be honest, I understand why you decided to do this alone since one of us is guaranteed to die if we fought against a horde of enemies. Even with the capabilities of my control spell, I still find it hard to restrain those that are much higher level than me. I¡¯ll continue to develop spells that can help the party catch up to you so that you all can reunite with each other in the near future, hopefully. Perhaps a spell that is strengthened depending on how much the enemy struggles? Smart people can get out of it quickly but it should still provide a few seconds of respite if I seed haha. Anyways, I¡¯ll try looking after the party with your two daughters so you can do your task without worries.]
Smiling softly, Shiro was d that Aarim could continue to look forward and find ways to get stronger. She would need that if she wanted to survive the next age.
Switching to Silvia¡¯s tab, Shiro read her message.
[I¡¯ll be honest with you Shiro since we¡¯ve had our ups and downs, especially considering myst party. Both you and Madi are quite stubborn. She chose to tank so that she could share and take the burden off the shoulders of the party while you like to take everything on by yourself so that we would be safe.]
[Both of you have views on keeping the party safe but it seems the final straw has been unfortunately snapped due to this incident. Madi was tired of having you take everything on by yourself since you¡¯re endangering your life at the expense of keeping us safe and in all honesty, I feel like you and Madi are very simr in certain areas. Unfortunately, life is unfair and it seems like the danger just keeps increasing especially with the Ragnar?k like situationing in the future. I also think that Madi understands this which is why she got annoyed at the fact that we couldn¡¯t help you as much as we could despite trying so hard.]
[Perhaps what happened is good for the party so that we can all find our callings in order to get stronger individually. Who knows, next time we regroup could be when everyone is A ss. Of course, I hope that isn¡¯t the situation since friendsh.i.p.s grow with the hardsh.i.p.s that we endure with one another. This was probably one of Madi¡¯s reasonings since she is always the rxed one in the group despite all the shenanigans that happen. Seeing her outburst made me realise how much she was enduring. She is still young after all. As for you, you made me realise your determination in keeping everyone safe. Which of course, is good in nature. But as many would say, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. I don¡¯t know what the future holds but I do know that they will challenge high level monsters to get stronger. This could be risky as there¡¯s always the chance of it being much harder than we anticipated and die in the process. A grim note but a realistic one, unfortunately.]
[Anyways, it hurts me to see good friends being split apart soe back when you can and resolve this misunderstanding ok? Lyrica¡¯s probably the most affected since you know what her feelings are like for you. Seeing that you suddenly excavated yourself from her life as such must be quite a devastating impact for her. Anyways, just know that me and Chen Yu hope you stay safe out there and good luck with your task.]
Reading through Silvia¡¯s messages, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but agree with her thoughts. Yes, she was stubborn and she understood that. Perhaps what she needed is for the party to punch her in the face, telling her how strong they had be and that they didn¡¯t need her protection. That they weren¡¯t the level 10 hatching adventurers that she once knew them to be. However, until that happened, Shiro was going to continue to shoulder her burdens alone. That was who she was.
"You have good friends." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded.
"Mn, they¡¯re the best ones I can ask for." She said with a soft smile. Storing the phone away in her inventory, she looked on with renewed vigour.
Chapter 495 Pandoras Box
Chapter 495 Pandora''s Box
Making their way across China, they had to traverse quite a few mountain ranges which wasn¡¯t too hard considering their level. Whenever Shiro discovered a potentially dangerous entity, she would either send a ming arrow to deal with it or warn the party, allowing them to take it out swiftly.
This allowed the journey to be rtively rxed as nothing too serious had happened due to the satellite system scouting out everything around them.
Deciding to camp out for the night, Shiro opted to take the third watch while Keiko and Keomi took first and second. Naturally, the final watch went to Nan Tian who didn¡¯t have any qualms with it.
"I doubt anything would happen but take this just in case." Shiro smiled and handed Keiko an orb of sorts.
"what¡¯s this?" Keiko raised her eyebrows curiously.
"It¡¯s... something I¡¯ve developed on my own. Should you be in a dire situation, just throw this orb at the enemy and it should wrap around their body, cancelling all of their mana for a short period of time which should be just enough for you to deal with them." Shiro smiled.
"Well damn... I don¡¯t even want to know what it¡¯ll be like if this was mass produced. Assassinations would be a breeze all over the world." Keiko shuddered to think what kind of chaos this could cause in the world.
Looking at Shiro, who gave her this murder tool with ease, Keiko thought of two words that describe her perfectly.
Pandora¡¯s Box.
She was a box containing knowledge and power but the price for this would be the chaos it causes in the world.
Not only did she have the blueprints of her twin hand cannons that could kill people with ease, but she also had an orb that cancelled out a mage¡¯s most powerful tool.
"Shiro, are you sure you¡¯re a mage? What kind of mage carries things like this?" Keiko asked jokingly.
"Well, if I was amon mage, I would have died quite a few times in this current life." Shiro smiled while walking back to her own tent.
Opening the tent p, she was half expecting to see Nan Tianying on her bedroll with a pose or something but her worries were for naught.
¡¯Damn, hanging out with this guy has made it so that I¡¯m being cautious around every corner in case I¡¯m caught off guard by his advances.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Shaking her head, she tapped her sses a few times and had her satellites roam the surrounding areas, scanning further and further away from camp.
Once that was done, she rested her body and went to sleep.
The first few hours of the night were rtively peaceful as the satellites didn¡¯t detect anything major so Shiro could sleep with ease. The same happened with Keomi but she had to deal with a few monsters that got a little too close but they were dealt with ease.
However, on the third shift, Shiro saw that her satellites seemed to have detected something big within the outskirts of its detection range.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro activated a camera function on the satellite and tried to get a closer look. Hoping that it wasn¡¯t one of the three level 500 monsters in the area, she controlled the satellite carefully.
Thankfully, the monster that the satellite picked up seemed to be arge turtle that had a small forest on its back.
Looking through the camera, she could see the turtle crawl out of the ground and move away from their location.
¡¯Fu... it¡¯s nothing too big.¡¯ Shiro sighed in relief since fighting here was not an option. Once they fought, the mana fluctuations would no doubt draw more attention, causing hordes of monsters to charge towards them. Should that happen, escaping would be very hard since they could probably just track where her rift opened up once more.
¡¯Though it¡¯s quite strange... The satellites should have picked up on the turtle much earlier than this. Howe it only discovered it wh- wait a minute... Why are the fluctuations different.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes as she noticed a small inconsistency in her scans. The first fluctuation the satellites detected was much sharper while the turtles was rather mellow. Meaning there were two monsters rather than one.
Standing up, Shiro had a serious expression on her face.
"This monster must be adept in stealth." She muttered before quickly waking up everyone in the tent.
"*Yawn~ What¡¯s going on?" Keiko asked while rubbing her eyes.
"There seems to be a monster adept in stealth near here. I barely detected it for a moment before they reced themselves with a different monster to mask their presence." Shiro said as they all sobered up and quickly packed their things.
"Then we should probably move through the night. Fighting would only make matters worse." Nan Tian suggested.
Agreeing with his suggestion, the party started to travel through the night while making sure to constantly keep a watch on their surroundings.
###
"Oh dear, seems like you¡¯ve startled the queen." Estre chuckled while ncing at the gorgon that she had forcefully dragged into her dimension. In order to try pulling off a bluff, she had summoned a different monster in her ce but it didn¡¯t seem to work.
The gorgon, clearly enraged by her actions, hissed at her while mana surged.
"You wish to fight? I can keep youpany. However, you have bigger uses for me. You are to test my queen to be and see if she¡¯s qualified." Estre smiled floating towards the gorgon gracefully.
"Like hell I¡¯ll take orders from you." The gorgon replied as her hairshed out at her, only to phase through without doing anything to Estre.
"This is my realm, as the guardian of realms, merging two realms into one so that it seems like I¡¯m here is quite a simple task." Estre chuckled while swiping her hand.
Suddenly, the realm around them seemed to twist and stretch as hundreds of eyes snapped open in the shadows.
"Do you want to keep my cute beasts¡¯pany or conduct the test for me?" She asked once more.
Without swaying anything, the gorgon only swept her gaze at the eyes as she tried to petrify them.
Unfortunately, this only caused Estre¡¯s smile to turn into a mocking grin.
A faint veil of white seemed to wash over the beasts¡¯ eyes as the magic was reflected back at the gorgon. Her skin, which was resistant to her own petrification, started to solidify much to her confusion.
These beasts were quite special as they had an innate skill which allowed them to either reduce orpletely nullify an entity¡¯s resistance to a certain element or magic. For the gorgon, they were able to weaken her resistance to petrification and reflect the magic back at her with a simple spell.
Their physical potential was quite weak but they were the perfect counter to entities that like to send out curses or status ailments.
"Tsk tsk tsk, seems like I¡¯ll need to be forceful. I¡¯ll be honest though; I would have had a harder time if not for the queen¡¯s ascension. Her presence really boosted my powers over dimensions. Perhaps she has a simr skill? Regardless, I still need you to test her, little snake. But you being level 500 is a little high for my liking. Why don¡¯t we... Cut you down a little." Estre¡¯s gaze turned cold as her chuckle echoed in the realm.
Dread filled the gorgon¡¯s heart as she grits her teeth and prepared to fight back with everything she¡¯s got.
###
Continuing their journey through the night, the party made quite a bit of progress as they soon reached what seemed to be a rural vige.
The vige itself was in rather good condition much to Shiro¡¯s surprise since the surrounding area was fraught with danger.
Deciding to take a short break so that they could have some breakfast, Shiro allowed Attie, Nimue and Iziuel toe out for a bit.
Walking around the vige, they soon found a small family run restaurant that sold noodles and ordered a few bowls.
"Excuse me." Shiro called out, wanting to get some of her questions answered.
"Yes?" A young girl that looked around 16 replied with a cheerful smile.
"I¡¯m just curious about this vige. The surrounding area is filled with high level monsters yet everyone here is quite carefree. Are you able to tell me why?" Shiro asked.
"Ah, a lot of people thate by here are curious too. It¡¯s mostly due to the monster wards that the martial hero had ced here. It allows us to live here in peace as we¡¯re not able to travel to the big cities." The girl replied with a smile.
"Plus, we¡¯ve also got some defensive measures in case someone wants to cause trouble. We know it works since we¡¯ve been under attack by some bandits before but they were driven away." She continued.
"I see... thank you." Shiro nodded.
"You¡¯re wee, enjoy your meal." The girl waved and went back to work.
"So Keiko, are you able to tell me more about this martial hero? I¡¯m quite curious." Shiro asked.
"Sure." Keiko nodded as she started to recount her time with the martial hero during one of the world conferences.
Chapter 496 Gorgon
Chapter 496 Gorgon
"Let¡¯s see, the most recent meeting I had with the martial hero was not too long ago, so I¡¯ll tell you my thoughts from that, ok?" Keiko asked.
"Sure." Shiro nodded as she crossed her legs. Grabbing a cup from the table, she filled it with some juice that she always kept in her inventory and waited patiently.
"If I had to use a few words, I would say he¡¯s protective. He hardly ventures out of China if possible, unless it truly demands his attention. I¡¯d say it¡¯s due to the nature of having so many high-level monsters within the country that his presence is required to keep the people safe. Should there ever be a monster horde, he¡¯ll be the first to try to stop it." Keiko said while leaning back a little.
"Heh~? Sounds like he¡¯ll be overworking himself. Dashing across the country to keep everyone safe and fend off the monsters." Shiro replied as Keiko nodded.
"Yeah, if you see him, you¡¯ll notice that despite his long lifespan and level, he always looks as if he¡¯s one foot in the grave due to exhaustion."
"To actually exhaust a hero to this extent, how many years has he been guarding this ce again?" Shiro asked curiously as a hero¡¯s stamina should be monstrous.
"I think he¡¯s been protecting China for around 20 to 25 years now though I¡¯m not too sure. When he first became the martial hero, he was still protecting China, and no one knew when he had started." Keiko shook her head.
"Damn, 20 to 25 years huh?" Shiro muttered. During her time in the hero¡¯s party in Aria, it was a bit more rxed despite working for quite a few years as well. If anything, the most stressful time was when she was stuck inside a mutated dungeon for 3 years.
Thinking back, she understood that it was highly abnormal since within the three years, she was left to wander a desert-like area where she had to resort to eating everything she could find within the three years.
Not only that, but there were no boundaries either, so it was hard to get a grasp on where she was.
¡¯Damn, if Feris didn¡¯t force open a portal back then, I might have been caught in the dungeon for much longer than 3 years.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{Who¡¯s Feris?} Nimue asked curiously.
¡¯Oh, it¡¯s just a friend of mine that was also in the hero¡¯s party. To be honest, I never knew what really happened to her since I was you know, killed. She was one of the mages within the party and she taught me a few tricks. Not that I really needed it back then as I had my Nanomancer ss.¡¯ Shiro replied with a shrug.
When she recalled the group the hero party, it was almost like an organisation if anything. Lots of people wanted to be in the same party as the hero and they were all very talented. To resolve the problem of lots of people wanting to join, he made it so that there were a few key members and sub members that would join in depending on the situation and their skill set.
Shiro and Isilia were naturally part of the main group while Feris started as a sub member but became part of the main group after quite a few impressive feats.
Shaking her head, Shiro dismissed her thoughts since she was no longer part of the hero¡¯s party and she had no way to get back to Aria. Not that she wanted to of course. She had a family and a group of trusted friends in this life, why would she want to abandon that?
Before Shiro could ask some questions about the martial hero, she suddenly stood up and ran outside, confusing Keiko, Keomi and Nan Tian as she would normally say what she was going to do unless it was urgent.
Quickly following behind her, they saw a giant rift open up as it was quite simr to the rift that Shiro would open up.
¡¯How many people are going to use the rift ah?! I thought it was a phoenix thing!¡¯ Shiro cried out in her mind as she felt an ominous presence within the rift.
ncing around her, she could already see the panicked faces of the civilians as they scrambled to run away.
"Tch, are you able to help me close that portal or move whatever is in it away from this vige?" Shiro called out to Nan Tian who nodded his head.
"Of course." He smiled.
Jumping up into the air, a tier 4 magic circle erupted out beneath him as he tried to tamper with the portal.
However, his spell did nothing as a pulse of magic exploded out in retaliation.
"Was that supposed to happen?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
*cough!
"Not quite. Let me put some back into it." Nan Tian replied in embarrassment as he stared daggers at the portal.
¡¯Damn, how dare you embarrass me in front of Shiro.¡¯ He thought with a frown as his mana surged.
A tier 5 magic circle erupted out of him as he tried to forcefully move the portal once more.
Unfortunately for him, his intervention seemed to have caused the rift to growrger. With this, a scaled hand reached out from the rift and ripped it open, allowing the main body to fall down and crash into several houses.
[Gorgon ¨C LVL 350 (Weakened)]
HP: 420,951,500/???
MP: ???/???
Seeing the gorgon, Nan Tian immediately recognised it to be one of the three major monsters that roamed China. However,pared to its original appearance, the gorgon he¡¯s looking at was nothing alike. Scales were ripped out as blood oozed from every part of her.
Most of her tail was shredded with the bone clearly visible to any onlooker. If one were to tug the flesh, it would peel off the bone easily due to the few thin strands of flesh that held everything together.
Suddenly, more rifts opened up under Nan Tian, Keiko and Keomi as the gravity pulled them down.
"Sh*t!" Cursing out in shock, Nan Tian¡¯s body was engulfed into the rift before he could even try to move.
"DON¡¯T LET HER SEE YOUR BODY!" He shouted out to Shiro since he could see that she was the only one who wasn¡¯t affected by the rift.
Seeing her threepanions disappear into a different dimension, Shiro tried to activate her own rift in order to catch up to them but felt a resistance that stopped the portal from opening. Understanding that this was clearly the doing of a powerful entity, she tried to think of ways to save the three that were taken away.
However, before she could do that, she had to deal with the gorgon in front of her.
Quickly rolling behind some cover so that the gorgon could not see her, Shiro knew that she had to be extremely careful.
Even without Nan Tian¡¯s warning, she knew that the moment the gorgonid eyes on her body, she would be petrified. Sure, she could use her skills to reverse the injuries taken but how long could she keep that up?
Taking a deep breath, she created a small drone to peek around the corner in her steed.
Checking the camera, Shiro saw the hate filled eyes of the gorgon that looked towards her general location.
"Queen... You shall be my meal... Once I consume you, I can get my revenge." The gorgon hissed as her bodyshed towards her at blinding speeds.
¡¯HOLY SH*T!¡¯ Crying out in shock at her approach, she immediately activated her berserk skill, Frenzied Incarnation EX and produced ayer of nanotech amour over her body.
A deep murderous aura erupted from her body ck and silver metallic particles swarmed her body before forming into a set of armour.
Activating the thrusters behind her, Shiro dashed out of her cover. Creating a grenade in her hands, she immediately infused it with her Star element in order to create a sh bang.
Throwing it towards the gorgon¡¯s face, she hoped that it would be able to blind her for a split moment.
Unfortunately, the gorgon turned her head away the moment she saw something fly towards her face.
Within a single second, light filled the area as Shiro felt relieved to see that her armour was still normal. This meant that a mere nce would not petrify her as long as the gaze does not linger on her.
Quickly stomping down, four thick metal walls erupted out from the ground and surrounded the gorgon. Shiro was going to use the moment it takes for the gorgon to break through the wall to create a few weapons along with seeing if she could detect the culprit behind this.
Chapter 497 Fighting The Gorgon
Chapter 497 Fighting The Gorgon
mming her hands down on the ground, nanobots started to surge outwards as Shiro quickly pulled up a few blueprints she had in her mind. With the state of her mana links and the sheer amount of MP she could ess, she could create some of her favourite weapons.
Namely, a pair of Gatling Cannons with specialised ammunition.
As she started to drag her hand off the ground, the nanobots started to condense together into the shape of arge scale minigun.
[Necrolight ¨C Nanotech Gatling Cannon]
With a matt ck chassis that emitted an ominous purple aura around the edge, the Gatling Cannon was a sight to behold.
Creating a few stabilisers behind her so that she wasn¡¯t blown away the moment she fired this gun, Shiro added a few moreyers of armour so that she could stand up to the gorgon¡¯s petrifying gaze for a little longer.
As for the bullet that was being fired from the gatling gun, each one wasparable to a sniper shot from one of her earlier prototypes.
With hundreds of sniper shots being fired at an astounding speed, one could see why this was one of Shiro¡¯s favourite weapons.
*BANG!
Pulling the trigger, the first bullet smashed past the metal walls and dug itself deep into the gorgon¡¯s scales, causing blood to flow out into the ground.
However, this was just the beginning.
Following the first bullet, the second bullet was fired. Then the third, fourth and so on. Soon, all that Shiro could hear was the sound of hundreds of bullets being fired.
At this point, her metal walls werepletely obliterated as the gorgon was being forced back a little from the impact.
While this was happening, Shiro made sure to aim the weapons a little higher up so that she wouldn¡¯t be destroying the vige that they were in.
Incensed by the repeated barrage of bullets that dug deeply into her injuries, the gorgon swiped her hand down as the ground split apart beneath her and swallowed her in.
Seeing this, Shiro felt danger assault her senses as she quickly opened the emergency hatch on her armour and dived to the side.
Sliding her hand across the ground, she froze the floor in order to make it easier for her to slide into cover.
*BOOM!!
Just as she dived out of the way, a pair of hands erupted out of the ground and ripped the cannon and armour in half.
¡¯Yikes, if I was any slower, I would have died.¡¯ Shiro clicked her tongue.
{Do you need help? Me and Iziuel cane out to-}
¡¯Don¡¯t even think about it, Nimue. Unlike me, you can¡¯t revive yourself with rejuvenation if the situation called for it.¡¯ Shiro rejected that notion immediately as she stomped down and created more walls of metal. That way, it would allow her some movement.
Unfortunately, the gorgon wasn¡¯t as cooperative as she raised her hands into the air.
Suddenly, a tier 5 magic circle expanded out in the sky and formed an illusionary serpent eye.
Looking up, Shiro immediately felt her body freeze up as stone started to form around her body.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯ Cursing at her suddenpse in attention, Shiro made the drastic decision of controlling Ataraxia to cut off the parts of her body that were being petrified at a rapid pace while also creating a metal wall above her to block the eye.
However, the situation was not looking good since 60% of her body was already turned to stone and that percentage was growing quickly
Furrowing her brows, she controlled her magic so that an ice pir would pierce her stomach before exploding and shredding her body to pieces. That way, she could activate her rejuvenation skill with the best effects.
Of course, the pain was going to be quite unbearable, but it wasn¡¯t anything new to Shiro.
Gritting her teeth, she quickly braced herself as the pir smashed through her stomach andcerated her body.
While parts of her body were flying through the area, she activated her skill, Rejuvenation and healed herself back up.
"Fu..." Sighing in relief, she nced down at her body and felt d that none of it was turned to stone.
¡¯Tch, with this, I only have the Lire Rune for health regen should I be almost killed again.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
With the secondary option of her Lire rune that was attached to Ataraxia, she could sacrifice all of the sword¡¯s durability in order to regenerate her health to max. Meaning, she¡¯d have another attempt at shredding her body before regenerating to her peak.
However, doing so would mean her sword would be out ofbat. Not only that, but it also meant that she¡¯d be missing out on a potential gorgon killer within her arsenal. The Aera Rune. The secondary option of this rune is that it could sacrifice all of the sword¡¯s durability to reflect all the damage taken in thest minute by 200%. If she yed her cards well, this could be the skill that kills the gorgon.
Unfortunately for her, the gorgon mostly had skills that slowly wore down her target rather than killing them instantly. Therefore, saving thest rune for Aera might not be as effective as Lire.
ncing over at her current berserk skill timer, her Frenzied Incarnation still had a few minutes left as she debated on whether or not she should just stack all of her skills together. After all, she is facing a level 500 boss that was weakened to level 350.
¡¯If I was to stack every single berserk skill in my arsenal along with the ones in my database, can my body even hold that kind of power?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself.
Even without looking into her database, she already had a few berserk skills that were some of the best around. The berserk skill tied to her sword, Ataraxia, made it so that she gained an additional 50% AGI, 50% DEX and 50% STR while her enemies experienced -40% Speed, -40% DEF, -20% Reaction and a small chance to lose focus for a short moment of time, exposing their weak points.
The duration of this skill was 2 minutes so she was limited in how long she could keep her peak form. There was also the berserk skill Akram that was linked with the god ying sword but Shiro wanted to avoid using that at all cost due to Helion¡¯s warning. After all, once she stacked up her berserk skills, her body would no doubt be in a state ofplete shutdown. Once that happened, she had a faint feeling that whatever wanted to take over her would probably use that chance.
Thankfully, even without the Akram berserk skill, she still had her Soul Sword and the berserk skills in her database.
Just as she was about to think about which one she wanted to use, mana surged around her location as she quickly activated a set of Nanomancer armour to wrap around her.
*BANG!!!!
A pulse of energy shot out as Shiro¡¯s body was forced out of cover.
Crashing against the ground, she couldn¡¯t help but cough up a mouthful of blood within her helmet.
Before she could even reorientate herself, a giant maw appeared in front of her. Inside the mouth, rows upon rows of teeth moved in synchronisation as if trying to usher her inside the mouth.
Quickly activating her Force of Element¡¯s skill, she infused it with every single element that she had an attunement with and jammed the illusionary sword between the gorgon¡¯s mouth.
*CRACK!! BOOM!!!
Snapping the sword in half, a shockwave exploded out as Shiro was once again sent crashing back.
Rolling across the floor, she could clearly feel a few bones breaking from the impact.
Gritting her teeth, she quickly activated all the skills that could help her right now while the outeryer of her nanotech armour started to petrify.
Activating Soul Sword, Berserk Path, Ataraxia and a myriad of other berserk skills within her database, Shiro then stacked her Celestial Raiment bonus with a new set of nanotech armour.
As the skills activated, Shiro felt a surge of pain within her body as power welled up within her.
Understanding that she only had a few moments to do something with this power before it disappears, Shiro charged towards the gorgon while saving the second cast of her armour for the veryst moment. After all, the second cast converts 50% of her highest stat into raw power for 30 seconds. With her current stats after being enhanced by all of the berserk skills that she had activated, that 50% bonus was going to be monstrous.
However, before she could do anything, Shiro felt her heart stop mid beat as blood poured out of all her orifices.
Chapter 498 False Hope
Chapter 498 False Hope
While this was all happening, Yin and Lisandra were currently clearing a dungeon with the party when their body suddenly froze and started to spasm from pain.
Struggling for breath, Yin copsed on the ground while grasping at her heart.
"C-crap! Mum¡¯s in danger!" Yin cried out as she coughed up some blood.
Lisandra could not respond at this moment as she was too preupied with trying not to pass out from the pain.
Hearing that Shiro was in danger, the party paused in shock.
Lyrica, who had been down in the dumps, felt a knife pierce her heart after hearing Yin¡¯s cry.
Widening her eyes, she quickly sent out a wave of sword energy to clear out the room of enemies before dashing over to Yin¡¯s side.
"What¡¯s happened?!" She asked desperately.
"It¡¯s mum! Her life¡¯s in danger!" Yin replied as she grabbed onto Lyrica. Her blood smeared against Lyrica¡¯s clothes as Silvia tried to relieve Yin¡¯s pain through healing but that didn¡¯t do anything.
"What do you mean her life is in danger? How do you know!?" Madison also panicked as this was exactly what she was scared of. Shiro going off on her own and dying while all they could do was sit by and watch.
"Contract. I have one with mum. If she dies, I die." Yin squeezed out while trying to stop her body from spasming due to the pain.
As silence descended onto the party, they could only hope that everything was going to be ok while Aarim tried her best to think of any new spells that could help with the situation. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind.
Clutching her fist, Lyrica stood up and dashed further into the dungeon.
"What are you doing?" Aarim called out in surprise.
"What do you think! I¡¯m gonna kill every f*cking thing here and go to Shiro at a higher level! If that Nan bastard is high level but can¡¯t protect her, what¡¯s the goddamn point of leaving her to go with him! I¡¯d rather protect her myself!" Lyrica shouted back in anger.
Hearing this, Madison also stood up as she knew Lyrica was right. Sure, sheined about Shiro leaving them behind to do everything herself but they could be doing more to catch up to her. If 100% of their efforts wasn¡¯t enough to catch up to Shiro, then they¡¯ll try twice as hard. If that doesn¡¯t suffice, they¡¯ll go above and beyond. Shiro has the life of an entire race weighing down her shoulders, it would be cruel to ask her to wait for them.
¡¯If she levels up fast, then we¡¯ll do everything we can to level up faster. Instead ofining, I should be urging the party on. I¡¯m the main tank, I should improve my defences so that the party can challenge those much much higher level than us.¡¯ Madison thought to herself as she too charged after Lyrica.
Seeing the two girls so fired up in their own way, both Aarim and Silvia smiled lightly.
"You go after them and help them out. I¡¯ll stay behind and look after Yin and Lisandra. I¡¯ll try to develop a spell that might be able to help us assist Shiro in the meantime." Aarim called out to Silvia as she nodded her head.
"Ok. What about you?" Silvia nodded before turning to Chen Yu.
"I¡¯m going to send an emergency notice to the branch sect in China. Hopefully, they¡¯re able to give Shiro some assistance." Chen Yu replied seriously while looking around for the way that they came in from.
"Alright, good luck." Silvia nodded before dashing further into the dungeon.
###
"Where are we?" Nan Tian furrowed his brows as he saw that both Keiko and Keomi were in the same dimension as him.
"I don¡¯t know but it seems like my teleportation is being hindered. I can¡¯t get us out of here." Keiko replied with a frown.
"Shiro¡¯s out there fighting a gorgon so we need to figure a way out quickly." Keomi reminded quickly.
Looking around the area, they saw that they were in a rift simr to what Shiro had ess to but this one felt much more dangerous. As if they were being stared down by countless beasts that hunger for their flesh.
"Hm, the queen has some powerfulpanions." A voice rang out as they quickly turned towards the source.
Seeing Estre sitting idly on a chair while looking towards the three of them, they instantly put up their guard.
"Who are you?" Nan Tian asked.
"Estre. Spirit Guardian of Realms. Former member of the royal spirit council." Estre introduced herself with a simple smile.
"If you¡¯re a member of the spirit council, you should know that Shiro is the new queen of the spirit race. If you kill her now, you¡¯ll be extinguishing the spirit race¡¯s hope." Nan Tian warned since he could deduce that she was the cause of the gorgon being transported to their location along with separating them from Shiro.
"I do know that she¡¯s the new queen and that killing her is detrimental. However, this is a test. To see if she is worthy or not. Being the spirit queen is more than what appears on the surface. It¡¯s one of the only race queens that can evolve into an empress. For her to be an empress at this level, it meant that she had talent but that¡¯s not enough. She must be able to fight those a whole ss above her as that is the scale of danger that she¡¯ll be facing.
"I cannot allow someone that can¡¯t aplish this to have one of the most powerful sses in the world. If she dies then I might as well wait for a new queen." Estre leaned back.
"From what I know, time is running out and the spirit race hasn¡¯t had a queen in so long. What makes you think that you can find another queen in that time?" Keiko asked with a frown.
"I don¡¯t. However, rather than instilling false hope into the race, I¡¯d much rather them fight with their heart and soul for survival. Plus, the greater the hope, the more crushing the despair when it turns out to be fake. The spirit race has already experienced it once with the previous queen. I don¡¯t need history to repeat itself." Estre shook her head.
"Shiro isn¡¯t one to instil false h-" Keomi tried to protest but her sentence was cut short when Estre snapped her fingers.
"Talk is cheap. Let¡¯s watch her actions to determine if she¡¯s worthy or not. And also, don¡¯t think I can¡¯t sense you trying to break through my realm. Just know that if you do, I¡¯ll take it as an attack towards me and retaliate." She warned as Nan Tian clicked his tongue.
Swiping her hands, a portal opened up near her as they could see the battle y out.
"Oh? The queen is rather peculiar in her magic." Estre raised her eyebrows when she saw Shiro craft a pair of mini guns from her nanobots.
Watching Shiro disy her Nanomancer skills one by one, the three couldn¡¯t help but widen their eyes in surprise. Especially Nan Tian since this was something he never thought was possible. It also meant that she was currently one of the most wanted people in the world due to her tech.
¡¯Damn is there anyone around, if word gets out, Shiro¡¯s life would be in danger.¡¯ Nan Tian panicked as he scanned the area around Shiro within the portal. Thankfully, it seemed like she was prepared as an illusion barrier could be seen around them.
However, their worries only grew when they saw Shiro almost kill herself in order to cancel out the petrification.
"Hou~ Drastic choices to guarantee survival. I like that." Estre smiled as she was rather impressed by what she was seeing so far. Even if she had weakened the gorgon severely to the point where her level had decreased and most of her skills were sealed, it was still a tall order for Shiro to fight against it.
Unfortunately, her smile faded when she saw Shiro destroy her body through the stacking of berserk skills.
Berserk skills were known as the final trump card for a reason. They severely harmed your body for a moment of power to guarantee your survival. While you could stack a few berserk skills together should you have the resources, doing so was advised against as the bacsh would stack on top of each other. The best case scenario was that you could get a few hits in before self- destructing.
As for the worst case scenario, you die before doing anything and that was what she believed she was witnessing as of this moment.
Shaking her head, she was about to dismiss the portal when she saw Shiro stab her own chest with her hand.
"What is she doing..." Estre muttered before widening her eyes in disbelief.
Chapter 499 Game Changer
Chapter 499 Game Changer
"URG!" Grunting from the pain of stabbing her own chest, Shiro gritted her teeth and ripped her heart.
Not only was her body currently destroying herself with the berserk skills, but the Gorgon had even managed to petrify some of her insides.
Crushing the now stone heart in her hands, nanobots surged within her palm as she created a nanotech heart for now in order to stay alive.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro quickly flickered out of sight as she mmed her palms down.
*BANG!!!!
Sending out a shockwave of cold mist, the surrounding area was instantly converted to a frozen tundra. The blizzard blocked out the sun while the snow obscured her movements.
¡¯Damn snake!¡¯ Shiro cursed while surveying her surroundings. Since her heart was hastily constructed, she hadn¡¯t been able to calibrate it properly so it was akin to shoving a top tier engine into an old car. While it may run decently for a while, problems are bound to show up soon. Not only that, her berserk skills had a limited activation time. Once that ran out, she was dead for sure.
Swiping her hand in the air, she summoned her Soul Sword and dashed towards the gorgon.
¡¯Takemikazuchi Technique!¡¯
Activating the technique, lightning started to flow across the de of her soul sword.
On top of the Takemikazuchi Technique, Shiro also activated her Hollow Deceit along with Kietoma to make sure that the gorgon could not resist.
With several phantom versions of her assisting in this attack to confuse her enemy, Shiro narrowed her eyes and shed towards the gorgon.
Before the sword couldnd however, Shiro felt danger assault her senses once more and changed locations with a secondary phantom.
*KRRRR!!!!
Just as she did this, a purple radiance erupted out of the gorgon¡¯s hands and turned everything within a 100 meter cone in front of her to stone. Her phantoms were immediately dispersed after being killed, leaving only two other phantoms that barely managed to dodge out of the way.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro created an ice tform under her foot in order to give her that extra boost.
*PUCHI!!!!!
shing her sword across the gorgon¡¯s skin, scales were sent flying as blood poured out. However, she wasn¡¯t done yet.
Flexing her fingers, a shotgun was formed within her hands as she jammed it into the gorgon¡¯s flesh.
Pulling the trigger, Shiro used the recoil to flip off the gorgon¡¯s body.
Swiping her hands, another wall of metal erected in front of her, blocking her from the gorgon¡¯s view so that she wasn¡¯t petrified.
Unfortunately, she could feel her body weakening continuously as the initial boost from the berserk skill was being worn out.
¡¯I need something to kill her in one go.¡¯ She thought calmly as anger and haste would only ruin things at the current state.
Quickly ncing through her stats, her eyes locked onto a skill that she hadn¡¯t used often but could prove to be a real game changer. The Chimera Arts.
It was a skill that allowed her to fuse two elements together for a short time. If she was to activate this skill and use her Celestial Garden on top of that, the end result should be quite astounding.
However, that wasn¡¯t enough. Right now, she needed something so vtile that it would eventually destroy the gorgon¡¯s body down to its very core. She still had the unrecognisable skill that she had developedst time in the dungeon but that was a little too risky.
Thinking up to this point, a reckless idea appeared in her mind. But the mere thought of this idea disgusted her to no end.
¡¯...F*ck it. It¡¯s either this or death.¡¯ She gritted her teeth and sped her hands together.
Crafting the strongest defence she could around her, so that she could have a moment to act on her outrageous idea, she sat down for a moment and activated Eena¡¯s second cast that converted 50% of her highest stat into raw power. This made it so that she only had 30 seconds to do whatever she needed to do.
¡¯I should be able to do this within 20 seconds, giving me 10 seconds to deal with the gorgon.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before activating the magic circle around her.
Recoiling from the pain, she could feel her consciousness fade for a moment as her nanotech heart started to infest her body with nanobots.
This was simr to what the scientists had done back when she was in Aria. Right now, she was essentially converting her entire body into a weapon so that she could continuously use her Chimera Art skill through her self modification.
Inserting several skill ch.i.p.s into her now mechanical body, she started to fuse her elements one by one.
Cosmic Ice + Apocalyptic Lighting, Stygian Steel + Astral Rift and so on. As the list continued to shrink, the elements started to run rampant within her body. Forced to constantly repair her mechanical prosthetics, Shiro hoped that she couldst just long enough for this to work. And finally, at the 20 second mark, she seeded.
[Attunements: -(Error)- ¨C Tier (Error)]
Not caring about the fact that her fusion of elements resulted in an error, Shiro quickly crafted a specialised railgun and inserted a portion of the new element within the camber and aimed it towards the gorgon that had been trying to break her defences withrge sess. Dismissing the walls, she watched as the gorgon started to petrify her body once more.
However, it didn¡¯t matter anymore as this was her final stand.
"No one liners for you, snake b*tch." Shiro cursed and pulled the trigger.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Within a single second, the world seemed to half as the fabric of space started to twist around the gorgon that had been shot by her gun. Her skin started to break apart before regenerating back to its original state over and over again while the rest of her body was the same.
Panic washed over the gorgon as she reached out desperately only for her arm to contort and break off.
Watching the gorgon break down within her eyes, Shiro quickly had the nanobots consume as much of her body as they can before activating the Lire Rune on her sword.
Crumbling to dust, the sword faded from her hands as a wave of vitality and energy washed over Shiro, repairing her body back to its pristine condition.
Just before her berserk state ends, she stood up and reached her hand towards the gorgon. She could feel that there was one more step that she could do with her new element.
Gritting her teeth, she dragged her hand back slowly as if trying to rip something out from the gorgon.
Spasming from the pain, the gorgon tried to stop Shiro but a wall was summoned between them once more.
Tears started to fall from the gorgon¡¯s eyes as she knew that whatever was going to happen was much worse than death.
But before she could cry out, something seemed to snap within her core being.
Within Shiro¡¯s hands, was a floating orb of densely packed numbers and letters that were unrecognisable. Rows upon rows of these letters swirled in all directions as Shiro was suddenly bombarded by countless notifications from her system.
Within this horde of notifications, a single one stood out to her.
[Gorgon Entity Code Extracted.]
Unable to make sense of this, Shiro shook her head and wanted to get away from the location for now.
Unfortunately for her, just as she took a few steps from the area, a wave of pain assaulted her mind, knocking her out and forcing her body to crash against the ground.
Affected by the bacsh of numerous berserk skills, Shiro had no choice but to allow her body to try to salvage the situation as she drifted out of consciousness.
###
Watching from her own realm, Estre could only stand in silence as her mind was in a state of shock.
Remembering how it felt when the previous queen died and watching her race get enved, Estre never wanted to rely on a figurehead ever again. However, seeing Shiro¡¯s performance, her mind could only turn towards the thought of hope once more.
Perhaps she could seed where thest queen had failed. Perhaps she could take the spirit race to new heights. Perhaps, for the first time in countless years, she could finally be spared of having her hopes crushed in front of her.
¡¯Is it ok to trust this que- no, this empress? Despite how many havee before her, is it ok for me to trust in one more queen?¡¯ Estre thought to herself as she closed her eyes for a brief moment. Fighting back her tears, she waved her hand and opened a portal.
Now that she had found someone she could put her final hopes into, she was going to make sure that Shiro survived no matter what. Once her survival is guaranteed, Estre didn¡¯t mind offering up her own life in order to repent for her actions.
¡¯Please survive.¡¯ Estre prayed earnestly while teleporting everyone next to Shiro.
Chapter 500 Qin Lan
Chapter 500 Qin Lan
Arriving next to her, Nan Tian quickly crouched down besides her and scanned her body to check for injuries. However, the moment he scanned her body, his face paled considerably as he could see her body continuously breaking down.
While it did try to heal itself, the speed of breakdown was much faster than repair.
Seeing this, Nan Tian did not hesitate to reach into his inventory and pull out one of the best healing medication he had in hopes of saving her life.
Gently opening her mouth, he ced the bottle next to her lips and watched as the medicine was drank by her.
Thankfully, the medicine seemed to help relieve the breakdown a little but it wasn¡¯t enough.
Meanwhile, Keiko also had a serious expression on her face since she could tell what was happening to Shiro¡¯s body right now.
"We should probably take her back to my branch sect so that we can get her treated for her injuries." Nan Tian suggested while looking at the two behind him. He was still on guard about the spirit so he kept his eye on her. After all, she was the one that got them in this mess.
"How about we continue our way towards Mount Everest and you can get your subordinates to meet up in one of the cities to treat Shiro. That way, when she wakes up, we won¡¯t have to waste time travelling the distance that we¡¯ve already travelled." Keiko suggested as Nan Tian thought about it for a moment and nodded his head.
"Alright, I¡¯ll send an emergency to the branch guild and I¡¯ll have them meet us in Ichisver which is not too far from Mount Everest." Nan Tian nodded as he gently carried Shiro up into a princess carry. He knew that she was suffering from immense pain despite being unconscious so he tried to hold her as gently as possible while using his mana to make sure that her body didn¡¯t sway as even the slightest movement would be unbearable in her current state.
Thinking about it for a moment, Nan Tian decided to use his mana so that they can get to Ichisver as quickly as possible. Shiro¡¯s life was on the line after all.
While the three quickly travelled to the city of Ichisver with a spirit following behind them, another fight had just been settled between a human and a dragon.
Looking down at the dragon¡¯s corpse, that had most of his scales ripped out, the figure furrowed his brows when he saw the rewards for such a feat.
"Tch, I¡¯m still not tier 6 yet. How many tier 5¡¯s do I need to kill." He muttered with a frown.
Shaking his head, he collected the dragon¡¯s corpse before flying higher into the sky.
¡¯With the dragon dead, that means only the gorgon and the third monster are level 500 around this area. Hopefully, killing them will let me reach tier 6 if not, I¡¯ll need to start pushing the prisoners to tier 5 quickly so that I can kill them for some EXP.¡¯ He thought to himself.
¡¯Annoying. It was easier to get to tier 6st time because I weakened Nytri but it was still a pain. But to think she¡¯s still alive and kicking after I killed her... Where the hell could she even be in this world.¡¯ He narrowed his eyes murderously before disappearing from his spot.
###
After clearing the dungeon, the party quickly took Yin and Lisandra back to the hotel and tried to get someone that was more knowledgeable on this matter to help them. Unfortunately, they couldn¡¯t find anyone like that so all they could do is wait around.
Thankfully, theirplexion seemed to have recovered slightly with Lisandra¡¯s level suddenly shooting up.
Understanding that Shiro must have defeated the threat, the party sighed in relief. However, the two weren¡¯t fully recovered yet so it meant that Shiro was still suffering.
"Chen Yu, are you able to send a message to your branch leader and ask him what the f*ck is going on? Both Nan Tian and Keiko are some of the most powerful people in the world with Keomi not too far behind. How the f*ck did Shiro almost die with that kind of escort?" Lyrica asked with a frown.
"I can try to send a message to him. However, I just received word that there¡¯s an emergency mission for some of the best healers to make their way to Ichisver so that they could save someone. I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s Shiro. While I don¡¯t know what happened, maybe they were split up by a situation that was out of their control? I doubt the branch leader and Keiko would leave Shiro alone in times of danger." Chen Yu replied as Lyrica nodded her head.
Sending a message to his branch leader, Chen Yu waited for a while but got no response. Guessing that they must be in a hurry right now, he sent out his own message to someone that was within the country of Rilsa that might be able to help them out for now.
Much like how he was responsible for everything that happened in Vericia, the person he was going to message now was responsible for a different city within Rilsa and her expertise lies in medicine and contracts that had to do with life.
[Don¡¯t message me, my hands are full. Call me instead.]
Clicking his tongue, he dialled her number before excusing himself from the party for a moment.
"Sup~ Qin Lan speaking~" A feminine voice rang out as it was much louder than expected.
"Qin Lan, are you able to make your way to Epona for me? I got two people here that are bound by contracts and I was wondering if there was any way we could help out the person on the other side of the contract. From what I know, their life is in danger hence why the two we have with us are also in a simr situation." Chen Yu asked seriously.
"Eh~ But like I said, my hands are full right now. I¡¯m doing surgery. Plus, I was actually nning to make my way to Ichisver since the branch leader sent out the emergency right now." Qin Lan replied.
"I know, the two I have with me are in a contract with the person that the branch master had reported in the emergency. That¡¯s why we have three dying people right now. I doubt it¡¯ll take you long to just check up on the two before making your way to Ichisver. Who knows, maybe you can get twice the merit." Chen Yu persuaded.
"I¡¯ming over right now." Qin Lan replied instantly.
"Wait a minute, I thought you were in a surgery?" Chen Yu furrowed his brows.
"I was and I quit the game. I was about to break a record ok? You owe me one." Qin Lanined as Chen Yu felt a vein burst.
Life was actually weighed against a game that she was ying.
¡¯If I didn¡¯t need her help, I would have f*cking punched her already.¡¯ Chen Yu thought to himself.
"Alright, give me a call when you¡¯re in Epona and I¡¯ll take you to the two patients that need help."
"Gotcha, see yater~" Qin Lan chuckled and ended the call.
Massaging his eyes, he put his phone away and walked back to the group.
"I¡¯ve managed to get someone from the branch that¡¯s experienced with contracts toe here. Hopefully she should be here by tomorrow since she¡¯s responsible for this country." Chen Yu said while sitting down on the chair.
"She¡¯s a little weird but I can say that she¡¯s definitely talented with contracts and so far, she¡¯s probably our best chance at figuring out what¡¯s happening. The branch master is probably busy taking Shiro to Ichisver right now so he hadn¡¯t replied to my messages." He continued as the party nodded.
"Alright. In that case then I¡¯ll try to stabilise both Yin and Lisandra for now. Even though the fight is over for Shiro, their body is still being damaged over time." Silvia nodded her head.
"We¡¯re counting on you." Lyrica sighed.
"No worries, it¡¯s my job after all." Silvia smiled and started to stabilise the girls.
While this was happening, Chen Yu did not expect to get a message from Qin Lan so quickly.
[I¡¯m here~ Where the hell are you? I got two patients to treat and you¡¯re wasting my time.]
¡¯Why the hell weren¡¯t you this f*cking excited a moment ago!?¡¯ He retorted in his mind before standing up.
"The person I just talked about has just arrived. I¡¯ll be honest though, I did not expect her to be this eager." Chen Yu replied as the party quickly urged him to go bring her to them.
Nodding his head, he dashed towards the teleport shrine.
Chapter 501 Combined Efforts
Chapter 501 Combined Efforts
Arriving at the teleport shrine, Chen Yu immediately discovered Qin Lan as she wasn¡¯t too hard to pick from the crowd.
She had long ck hair that was swept to the side, a pair of sses and a whiteb coat of sorts that was worn over a simple shirt and skirt.
If one was to look past her sses, they would see bags under her eyes which showed her severeck of sleep due to her gaming habits.
Grabbing a pack of cigarettes, she looked up towards Chen Yu and gave him azy wave.
"Yo~" She called out with a smile.
"Mn, rather unkempt as usual." Chen Yu frowned. While he wasn¡¯t an extreme clean freak, it still bothered him that she couldn¡¯t even be bothered to wear herb coat properly due to the fact that it was hanging slightly to the left.
"Well I was in the middle of a session. *Yawn~* So where are the people that you wanted me to look at?" Qin Lan yawned before lighting her cigarette up.
"Follow me, just so you know, they¡¯re quite young so it¡¯s best if you don¡¯t smoke near them. It¡¯s rather unpleasant." He reminded.
"Sure, whatever." Qin Lan shrugged while following behind him.
As they approached the hotel, she finished her cigarette and stubbed it on one of the bins outside of the hotel.
Showing her to the room, Chen Yu led Qin Lan inside.
"Everyone, I¡¯ve brought the person I was talking about." Chen Yu called out as the party nced towards Qin Lan who only waved back.
"Yo~ Let¡¯s skip the pleasantries since I¡¯m here for a job. Where are the patients?" Qin Lan asked while ncing past the girls.
Seeing both Yin and Lisandraying on different couches while sweat dripped off their heads, she could infer that they were the patients.
Walking up to them, she pushed her sses up slightly before creating a tier 4 magic circle and waved it over Yin¡¯s body.
While this was happening, Lyrica had a concerned expression and looked towards Chen Yu who only shook his head.
Despite the woman¡¯s ratherzy appearance, she was serious when it came to her job.
"Hmm... interesting. Now this is a contract I haven¡¯t seen in YEARS mind you." Qin Lan smiled as she nced towards Chen Yu.
"So are you able to help us out then?" He asked.
"Well... I¡¯m not too sure. You see, the problem doesn¡¯te from the contract itself but rather the condition of the person on the other side of this contract. The contract hasn¡¯t been tampered with and if you want to make it so that these two survive then the best I can do is try to break the contract without killing anyone." Qin Lan shrugged as the party frowned.
"Wait a minute, you said that you¡¯re not too sure. Does that mean you can do something after all?" Madison asked as she managed to pick up on that small detail.
"Yes. You see, I said that the best that I can do is break the contract so that two of them are guaranteed to survive. There is the second option of sharing their vitality but there is no guarantee. Who knows, if the strain is too big, the two could die instantly." Qin Lan shook her head.
"Wait, since Yin is a phoenix, does that mean she could revive herself if she died? A phoenix is known for their vitality so if they shared their vitality, does this mean that both Shiro and Lisandra would be fine?" Silvia asked.
"I¡¯m not exactly familiar with phoenixes so I can¡¯t say for sure. Though what I can say is that reviving oneself must have consequences. Whether that be in the form ofpletely restarting their life from birth or not, I don¡¯t know. To be fair, there¡¯s not even a guarantee for them to actually revive after sharing vitality. You need to know that there is an inherent risk in linking them up to each other, even for a short moment." Qin Lan warned as the party fell silent once more.
"Do it. If there¡¯s a chance for mum to survive, then it¡¯s ok" Yin¡¯s voice rang out as she barely managed to open her eyes.
As a phoenix, she knew that in order to revive herself, she¡¯d need to either be ced within one of the hottest volcanos and be supplied with an incredible amount of magic or she could be left to her own devices and be reborn in around 50 years. 20 if she¡¯s lucky.
"You understand that your life would be endangered right?" Qin Lan raised her eyebrow. Seeing Yin nod her head, Qin Lan looked towards the party.
"If that¡¯s what she wants then I agree with her." Lyrica spoke up.
"Same with me, if anything, I might be able to help if I boost her vitality through my healing spells." Silvia followed up with a smile.
With the rest of the party nodding their heads in agreement, Qin Lan shrugged her shoulders and prepared to perform the ¡¯surgery¡¯ on the contract.
Meanwhile, Nan Tian had finally arrived in Ichisver with Keiko and Keomi. Estre was still following behind them with a worried look on her face while they entered what seemed to be an apartment that Nan Tian had prepared beforehand.
With tens of healers already in the room, Nan Tianid Shiro on the bed while instructing them to start healing her to the best of their abilities.
Unfortunately, at this point, her body had already broken down to a state where the previous medicine had worn off. Even if he tried to give her more healing potions or items of simr nature, they did nothing to aid in her recovery.
As the healers started to activate their spells one after another, a green light appeared on Shiro¡¯s body. The breakdown of her body started to slow but it wasn¡¯t stopped.
Confused and shocked at the state of her body, the healers couldn¡¯t help but wonder what the girl did in order to acquire such injuries. Even with thebined might of some of the best healers around, all they could do was slow down the process.
Enraged by the situation, Nan Tian red towards Estre with murderous intent.
It was due to this spirit that Shiro was on the verge of death. Regardless of her intentions and background, all Nan Tian wanted to do right now was to rip her head off her body.
However, a part of him knew that doing so would not be productive and the best thing for him to do right now was actually assist the healers by giving Shiro medical supplies to lighten the burden.
As they continued to heal her, a seal slowly formed near her heart.
Suddenly, her body was enveloped by purple mes with an orb of light near her heart. Her condition started to stabilise but didn¡¯t improve.
Thankfully, with thebined might of all the healers in the room along with Silvia, who had her healing amplified by Shiro¡¯s tools and Aarim¡¯s spells, they were able to slowly improve Shiro¡¯s body condition. Hours passed as Nan Tian had peopleing from the branch to provide the healers with mana potions and equipment so that they could continue to heal Shiro.
After all, they were in a situation that should they stop, Shiro¡¯s condition would immediately deteriorate and put her back into the danger zone.
Pacing back and forth in worry, Nan Tian continued to use everything he had in his vaults to help the healers save Shiro. If one had to write down how much he had spent so far, they would realise that it wasparable to what a medium sized faction would spend in an ENTIRE year.
¡¯Please live...¡¯ Nan Tian prayed in his heart earnestly.
###
Feeling as though she was submerged in water, Shiro¡¯s mind drifted to her memories and everything she had experienced so far.
Her time as Nytri in Aria...
Her life as Kuromi and finally, her life as Shiro.
From the best memories to the worse ones, they each took turns as Shiro viewed them all silently.
She knew the state of her body and she knew how much danger she was currently in. She could sense Nan Tian, Keiko and Keomi¡¯s worry in the few moments she was barely conscious and felt grateful.
Strangely enough, she could also feel her party along with Yin and Lisandra¡¯s efforts through her mind due to her contract.
Within the void, Shiro felt warm as her life was filled with people that cared for her.
¡¯I should probably wake up now. They¡¯re trying their hardest to keep me alive, it would be rude of me to stay in this state.¡¯ Shiro thought with a soft smile.
Unknown to her, a faint figure was smiling at her within the void. Her body was flickering as if it was a candlelight in the wind which could extinguish at any moment and her hair was camouged by the darkness.
Opening her mouth, she silently urged Shiro to return.
¡¯Don¡¯t die lil¡¯ sis.¡¯
Chapter 502 Miracle Worker
Chapter 502 Miracle Worker
"Mn...." Slowly opening her eyes, Shiro saw that she was in an unfamiliar room.
Furrowing her brows, she tried to sit up straight but realised that she barely had any strength right now and even the simple task of sitting up straight was difficult.
Sighing softly, she nced inside her mana realm and saw that Nimue, Iziuel and Attie were safe and asleep.
Smiling at the scene, she was d that her near death experience did not harm them as she looked to her side. ncing past the window, she noticed that she was inside an apartment room that was pretty high as she could see the parts of the city despite her posture on the bed.
"Where am I?" She muttered while ncing around the room. There was no one else here except for her.
Shaking her head, she nced towards the system. Thest thing she remembered was that she killed the gorgon using the new element and had extracted something called the entity code.
[Gorgon Entity Code Extracted.]
[Host exceeded authority level.]
[Error]
[??? Element Forcefully Cancelled.]
[Due to unexpected circ.u.mstances and a clear breach of authority, host will receive parts of the Gorgon Entity Code rather than the gorgon herself.]
[Benefits from the Gorgon Entity Code: Eyes of the Gorgon, 10% Boost to all stats permanently with INT receiving 20% rather than 10%.]
[Title Received: Miracle Worker.]
[Miracle Worker ¨C Defeat an enemy more than 200 levels higher than you with minimal help.]
[Benefits: Enemies higher level than you are now weakened by 20% and will feel an innate fear towards you which may hinder their movements. Whenever you are facing someone higher level than yourself, you will receive a 20% boost to all stats.]
[Due to special circ.u.mstances and the change within your contract, you received the following ¨C Phoenix Bloodline, Angel Bloodline.]
[Phoenix Bloodline ¨C Your fire element receives a significant boost, your passive healing is greatly enhanced whenever you are near fire and you are able to revive yourself under specific circ.u.mstances. Circ.u.mstance A ¨C You are ced within one of the worlds hottest volcano¡¯s and supplied with a constant stream of energy. Circ.u.mstance B ¨C You passively gather the mana around you and you can be reborn after 20 to 50 years depending on how mana rich the surroundings are.]
[Angel Bloodline ¨C Your light element receives a significant boost and you¡¯re able to passively heal in daylight. Not only that, but your presence also demands respect from those of a religious background. Your magic is enhanced against anyone of the dark element and you can enhance your weapons with holy light.]
Naturally, there were more notifications but these were the only ones that really interested her. The rest were basically error reports along with the state of her body.
¡¯Phoenix Bloodline? Angel Bloodline? Did Yin and Lisandra give me parts of their power?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself.
Thinking about it for a moment, she sighed and set it aside for now. She¡¯ll message the party and ask about what had happenedter. It would also be a good chance for her to apologise about her actions. After all, that could have been the end and their rtionship would have been cut off on a sour note.
Looking towards her stats, she was shocked to see that her level had jumped up from the 120¡¯s to 192 in an instance.
¡¯Holy sh*t! I know I killed the gorgon but it was only because it was severely weakened. Most of the EXP should have gone to the one who weakened it but despite that, I was still able to level up around 70 times...¡¯ Shiro thought with disbelief.
This meant that with just her assignable points per level, she could increase any stat by an astounding 1.4 million points. This wasn¡¯t including her passive growth either.
Swallowing her saliva, she started to assign her points while also looking at the skills she had unlocked during her level up.
The first thing was naturally the fact that she could now assign someone else to be in her court due to the fact that she had levelled up past the 150 mark.
In addition to this, a few of her skills were upgraded.
Fae Illusions -> Celestial Mirage
Tier 4 Element Magic -> Tier 5 Element magic
Intermediate Elemental Mastery -> Advanced Elemental Mastery
Spirit Assistance -> Spirit Assistance EX
Fae Illusions, or rather Celestial Mirage, now had its illusion properties enhanced. Unless one had a skill close to Nan Tian¡¯s eyes, they would not be able to see past the illusion. As for the other three, they were pretty self exnatory.
As for the two new skills that she had received, they were: Empress¡¯ Blessing and Shared Burden.
Empress¡¯ Blessing allowed her to enhance her ally¡¯s stats for a short while. Depending on who receives the buff, their highest stat will now be increased by 25% while the other stats will be increased by 5%.
Shared Burden on the other hand, allowed the party to spread the damage amongst themselves. If one of them receives a lethal hit, Shiro could choose to dampen the effects through this skill and distribute the damage amongst the party. This would be extremely helpful due to the fact that should Silvia receive a sneak attack, Shiro could share the damage to Madison, saving Silvia¡¯s life in the process while Madison¡¯s defences and passive bonuses would negate most of the damage dealt.
With these two skills, she could provide the party with much more assistance as a support role. Of course, these did not interfere with her insane damage potential since they could be cast while she was on the move.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Celestial Fae
Title: Advanced Monster (312/1000 Human¡¯s Killed), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Miracle Worker
Level: 192
ss: True Celestial Sylph Empress (EX), Ascendant Nanomancer (EX)
HP: 100,000/106,750,000 (Weakened State)
MP: 100,000/730,000,000 (Weakened State)
STR: 1,562,000
VIT: 854,000
INT: 5,840,000
AGI: 1,830,000
DEX: 880,000
DEF: 500,000
(Total Stats after calcting everything.)
Unassigned Points: 1,400,000 -> 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 4
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 4
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 4
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 5 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 4
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 5
Dark Celestial Phoenix Fire ¨C Tier 5
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 4
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 4
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 4
Nature ¨C Tier 5
Skills ¨C
True Celestial Sylph Empress:
Elemental Breath, Celestial Mirage, Force of Elements, Celestial Raiment EX, Tier 5 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Celestial Empress¡¯ Domain EX, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX, Frenzied Incarnation EX, Advanced Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Celestial Court Appointment, Empress¡¯ Blessing, Shared Burden
Nanomancer:
Nano Tech Engineering Tier 4, Analysis
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Asura Sword Path, Celestial Path, Berserker Path
Sword Skills:
Refraction, Sword Domain, Soul Sword
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Celestial Gardens, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Celestial Language, Asteria¡¯s Blessing, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon.]
With her HP reaching the 100 million threshold and her MP shooting past the 700 million point, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
¡¯Damn, my stats are bing more and more monstrous. I haven¡¯t even fully worked on my Monster title either. If I did...¡¯ Feeling a slight amount of pity for her enemies, Shiro tried to force herself to sit up once more.
Seeing as though she was weakened right now, it didn¡¯te as a surprise that she would struggle so much.
After a few minutes of hard work, she finally managed to sit up properly.
*Sigh
¡¯Damn, I haven¡¯t felt this weak in a long while. Even when I suffered from the Nanotech Corrosion after fighting against the Flying Frag Ant Queen wasn¡¯t as bad as this.¡¯ She thought with a sigh.
Just as she was about to close her eyes, she caught sight of Nan Tian opening the door.
"Morning." Shiro called out with a smile since she still remembered how he had carried her delicately during her short moments of consciousness.
"Morning. Damn, you really know how to worry someone huh? Both your sister and cousin have barely been able to sleep the past few days." Nan Tian smiled softly and pulled a chair next to her bed.
"How long was I out for?" Shiro asked.
"A full week. If you want, I can tell you everything that¡¯s happened." Nan Tian offered as Shiro nodded her head. Getting a general idea of what happened within the week she was out cold would be quite helpful.
Chapter 503 Vow
Chapter 503 Vow
Listening to Nan Tian exin what had happened along with her party assisting her from the other side with the help of his subordinate, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful.
"Thank you, to be honest, I don¡¯t even know how I can repay you. If you hadn¡¯t called for your healers and used so many precious items on me, I think I would have died." Shiro smiled softly.
Surprised at her honest expression, Nan Tian felt his heart skip quite a few beats as he didn¡¯t know how to reply for a moment.
"What? When did the great Nan Tian be at a loss for words?" Shiro chuckled after seeing his dumbstruck face without his mask.
"Well, I was just taken back for a moment." Nan Tian shook his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Oh right, did you find out who caused all of this?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian¡¯s face immediately became cold.
"Yeah, she said it was something to do with a test but what you had to go through was much harder than what can be ssified as a test. If you want, I can go kill her for you right now." Nan Tian offered as Shiro shook her head.
"Sounds to me like you¡¯ve caught her." She replied.
"Not quite caught... but rather, she followed us willingly." Nan Tian sighed as a portal opened up in the room.
Walking out of the portal, Estre immediately bowed towards Shiro.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro was surprised to see the culprit was actually a spirit and she was even the spirit guardian of the realms.
"A spirit huh? I thought you were supposed to wee the queen?" Shiro asked with a chuckle since she could sense a great deal of sadness radiating from the woman.
"I... I didn¡¯t want the spirit race to be led by a weak queen once again." Estre replied after a short pause.
"I get that, but considering the uing age, isn¡¯t what you¡¯re doing quite counter productive? The spirit race would be in a tough spot without a queen." Shiro shook her head.
"I was foolish and I understand that now. Please, if it is enough to quell your anger, you may take my life." Estre bit her bottom lip and prostrated in front of Shiro.
"Ha... I can barely even lift up my hands right now. What makes you think that I have the strength to kill you?" Shiro sighed.
Hearing about her injuries once more, Estre stayed silent from guilt. After all, she was the one who caused all of this.
"Since you followed us on your own ord, can I presume that you don¡¯t have any hostile intentions?" Shiro asked.
"I, Estre, Spirit Guardian of the Realms and former member of the royal spirit council, pledge my undying loyalty to you, my empress. Should you want my life, I will give you my life. Should you tell me to face an army alone, I will risk my life toe out victorious." Este replied.
"Former member of the royal spirit council huh? Tell me, what made you think that giving me, a level 120, a test that involved facing a level 350 was a good idea? Not to mention, the damn snake was in actuality, a level 500 to begin with? If you were on the royal spirit council previously, shouldn¡¯t you be assisting me instead? What made you do all of this?" Shiro asked while ncing inside her mana realm. She was going to listen to Estre¡¯s reply first before waking up Nimue and Iziuel to see if they could provide her with more information.
"I... I was afraid of history repeating itself. As one of the oldest spirits alive, I have served 4 generations worth of spirit queens. Each of them died before they could truly discover their power due to the threat of other races. Each time, I would ce my hopes in the next queen. However, thest queen was the one that made me give up. Just as she was about to reach A ss, she was attacked by one of the other queens. The dragon queen to be exact. With a level difference of 200, the dragon queen tortured the spirit queen in front of me while I was unable to help her at all." Estre replied after a short pause. Even now, she felt guilty due to the fact that she couldn¡¯t do anything when her own queen was being killed in front of her. She could still remember the pain and anguish in her queen¡¯s eyes before she died.
"And so, you thought it was a good idea to test me using someone 200 levels above me?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
". . .Yes."
*Sigh...
"I¡¯m speechless." Shiro sighed while trying to massage her eyes but realised that she could barely lift her arms.
"You need help?" Nan Tian asked after seeing her try to lift her arm.
"I¡¯ll be fine." Shiro replied awkwardly since the image of Nan Tian massaging her eyes for her was quite strange in her mind.
"Anyways, I understand that you don¡¯t want the same to happen to the next queen but killing them in the ¡¯test¡¯ is not the best option that you can go with. Honestly, if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that you¡¯re a spirit, I would have just told Nan Tian to kill you if I couldn¡¯t do it with my own hands." Shiro admitted as Estre stayed silent.
"However, I have two spirits with me. One of which might know who you are but I¡¯m not sure. Depending on how they react, I¡¯ll decide what to do with you I guess." Shiro shrugged. Since Estre had basically killed her once, Shiro wouldn¡¯t trust this spirit fully.
If she turned out to be someone useful, she¡¯ll be willing to go for a one sided vow like the one that Nimue had used when they first met. A vow of the soul that basically has Estre give up her freedom and serve Shiro wholeheartedly.
Nodding her head, Estre sat by the side and waited for her punishment.
{Seems like you¡¯re awake.}
¡¯Oh? You were watching?¡¯ Shiro asked as she focused inside her mana realm and saw Nimue and Iziuel waiting beside a sleeping Attie.
{Yeah. Not for long though.} Nimue nodded.
¡¯In that case then do you know this spirit?¡¯ Shiro asked.
{A little but I¡¯m not familiar. Like she said, I only know her due to the fact that she was in the royal spirit council.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯What about you Iziuel? Nimue said that you were one of the most prestigious spirits. Do you know about her?¡¯
{Hmm... her name rings a bell but I¡¯m not too sure. My memory is a bit hazy after the incident in Miriel after all.} Iziuel shook her head as Shiro nodded.
¡¯Maybe bringing you out would be a little better.¡¯
Raising up her hand with some difficulty, Shiro managed to let Nimue and Iziuel out before dropping her hand back onto the bed.
"Do you recognise these two?" Shiro asked while ncing towards Estre.
Looking up, Estre widened her eyes in surprise.
"Lady Iziuel!" She called out in surprise.
"You know her?" Shiro asked.
"Yes I do. She was also part of the council but went missing a while ago. It was during the time when I just started to serve the previous queen after her ascension. But howe she¡¯s... so weak now?" Estre furrowed her brows.
"None of your business." Shiro cut in immediately.
"I apologise." Estre quickly bowed as she was asking too much. For all she knew, she was going to offer her life up to Shiro as a sacrifice so there wasn¡¯t much point to knowing new information.
"What I want to ask is if I can trust you when you say that you¡¯dy your life down for me?" Shiro asked with narrowed eyes.
Despite her weakened condition, Estre felt tiny in front of this woman as her presence alone felt like it could crush her.
"Yes, my life is yours for the taking." Estre nodded her head.
"Then vow with your soul on the line. You will do as I say and serve me without hiding anything. If my life is in danger, your body will be my shield. If I die, your soul will perish along with my death. Should you betray me or harm me, your soul will be sent to eternal torment. This is the only way I¡¯m allowing you to make up for your mistake." Shiro ordered as Estre nodded her head.
Since she was prepared for death, a vow like this didn¡¯t matter to her. Hell, the fact that the queen allowed her to be of use to her was a great boon to Estre.
"I vow under my soul to serve my empress with everything on the line. I will do everything as she says. If her life is in danger, my body will be her shield. If she needs to kill anyone, even myself, I will be her sword. I offer my freedom to be my empress¡¯ servant. Should I betray her, my soul shall be sent to eternal torment." Estre vowed.
Suddenly, an illusionary figure of Estre appeared with golden chains now wrapped around her body and neck, symbolising her connection to Shiro.
Chapter 504 Calling The Party
Chapter 504 Calling The Party
Flinching slightly from the pain, Estre held her breath and waited for the ritual to end.
Once her illusionary figure faded away, she sighed in relief.
"You can stay inside your realm for now and wait for further instructions. Is there a way for me to call for you if you¡¯re not around me? I would like to have some privacy." Shiro asked.
Nodding her head, Estre waved her hands and crafted an orb of sorts.
"Speak my name into this and I will arrive by your side. In the meantime, I¡¯ll make sure I¡¯m far enough so that I don¡¯t hear your conversations." Estre handed orb to Shiro and bowed onest time before disappearing from her spot.
Seeing that Estre had left the room, Shiro sighed in relief.
"Well that¡¯s one problem resolved for now I guess." She muttered before turning to Nimue and Iziuel.
"So... do you know what¡¯s happening in my mana realm? When I was checking on you, I tried to ignore what the f*ck was happening but it¡¯s clearly something bad." Shiro asked as her smile twitched slightly.
Previously, when she was ncing inside her mana realm, she could briefly see some of the inds flicker in and out of existence at certain points which worried her quite a bit.
"Yeah... about that. You see, remember how you modified your body for a moment and fused all of your elements into one?" Nimue asked while massaging her head.
"Yeah."
"Well when you did that, all of the inds within your realm started to break apart. If not for your quick recovery, I¡¯m afraid your entire mana realm would have been demolished and you would have lost all ess to mana. Thankfully, your body was kept in a decent shape so your mana realm is safe. Though it¡¯s going to be like this until you recover I guess." Nimue replied as Shiro nodded her head slowly.
"I see... well I suppose I don¡¯t have to gather pills to rebuild my links so that¡¯s a silver lining I guess." Shiro chuckled before turning to Nan Tian.
"I¡¯m guessing you have a few questions as well don¡¯t you?" She asked.
"I do. However, I won¡¯t pressure you for the answers. I trust you and I know that if you wanted to hide it, it was most likely something people weren¡¯t meant to know about." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro paused.
"In that case then I¡¯ll tell you the entire story at ater date. I¡¯m guessing you¡¯ve already made the connection between me and the ¡¯rogue assassin¡¯ though haha." Shiroughed as Nan Tian only rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"You do that quite a lot huh?" Shiro said after noticing this little habit of his.
"Mn? Maybe it¡¯s because I get nervous around you." Nan Tian admitted.
"Oh? Why would the great Nan Tian be nervous around someone like me?" Shiro asked with a chuckle.
If she could still move her body at this moment, she would have sat up and crossed her legs with interest.
"Who wouldn¡¯t be nervous around a girl he likes? Anyways, do you want any breakfast?" He asked as Shiro chuckled.
"Sure, are you going to bring it here or shall I grab a wheelchair?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"I¡¯ll bring it here." Nan Tian replied while standing up. Watching him walk out of the room, Shiro turned towards Nimue and Iziuel.
"Was Attie startled?" She asked.
"Most definitely. You don¡¯t know how worried he was when he watched you struggle on the verge of death." Nimue sighed.
"I see... I¡¯ll try not to be so reckless next time." Shiro apologised.
"Well hopefully there isn¡¯t a next time. With Estre around, she should be able to help you iste any dangerous beings that youe across should they be too high levelled." Nimue shrugged.
"Mn... By the way, are you able to help me grab my phone? I want to give the party a call since I can¡¯t exactly message them." Shiro asked while summoning her phone out of her inventory.
"Sure."
Nodding her head, Nimue navigated through the phone and found a list of contacts within the [party] section.
"So who do you want me to call?" She asked.
"Hm... why don¡¯t we go with a conference call? So that everyone can be in it." Shiro suggested before instructing Nimue on how to set the call up.
After a short moment, the rhythmic sounds of a call being made could be heard as Shiro swallowed her saliva nervously.
"Shiro?" Lyrica¡¯s voice could be heard from the phone.
"H-hey... It¡¯s been a while huh?" Shiro replied awkwardly as Nimue instantly facepalmed.
¡¯What do you mean ¡¯hey, it¡¯s been a while huh?¡¯ You¡¯re the one who called them!?¡¯ She thought while rolling her eyes.
Giving Nimue a quick death re, Shiro focused her attention back on the call.
"Shiro! Are you alright? We know that you almost died so what happened?" Silvia¡¯s worried voice followed up as Shiro chuckled.
"Well I had a small ident."
"You call that a small ident? Considering how much pain Yin and Lisandra were in, I¡¯d say it was a rather catastrophic ident. Did you fight a level 500 or something?" Madison asked as Shiro fell silent.
". . . Oh my f*cking god you did fight against a level 500 didn¡¯t you?" Madison paused.
"Well... it used to be a level 500. Then it was weakened to 350?" Shiro replied while understanding the ridiculousness of the situation.
". . ."
"But I¡¯m alive aren¡¯t I? Also, thank you for helping me. If it wasn¡¯t for all of your efforts in editing the contract with Yin and Lisandra, I would have died for sure." Shiro smiled softly.
"Hais... we can¡¯t take this much pressure, ok? Finding out that one of our precious friends almost died across the world with her two daughters being the only way we could tell was not fun." Madison sighed as Shiro nodded her head.
"Though, I suppose you weren¡¯t wrong either. We¡¯re still too weak now and if we were with you, perhaps one of us would have died against whatever you were fighting. You don¡¯t need to hurry back, but just so you know, we¡¯ll keep trying to catch up even if it seems futile. At least with us continuously levelling up, we can lessen your worries." Madison followed up.
Hearing what she had said, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile softly.
"Mn, I look forward to that. Also, I don¡¯t hear Yin or Lisandra. How are they?" She asked.
"Those two? They¡¯re just resting for now. Don¡¯t worry though, they¡¯ll be back in fighting form soon. The woman who edited the contract reverted it back to what it was so that you don¡¯t have to keep linking vitality. After all, it would be awkward if you suddenly felt a punchnd on your body while you¡¯re walking." Lyrica replied as Shiro sighed in relief.
"That¡¯s good."
"Oh right, Shiro." Silvia called out.
"Mn?"
"Are you able to turn on your camera? I want to see the degree of damage with my own two eyes."
"...Sure. There aren¡¯t any injuries visible but my body is pretty weak right now. I can barely move my body." Shiro replied while Nimue tapped the camera icon.
Seeing Shiro stuck in a bed while someone else held the camera for her, the party couldn¡¯t help but feel a sting in their hearts.
"Hais... look after yourself, ok?" Lyrica sighed.
"Don¡¯t worry, I will. Plus, Nan Tian¡¯s helping me so I should be fine until I recover." Shiro chuckled.
"Speaking of that man, are you able to put him on the phone? I want to talk to him but I don¡¯t have his number." Lyrica asked as Shiro nodded.
"Sure. Nimue, can you pass my phone to Nan Tian?" Shiro asked as Nimue nodded her head.
"Of course." Walking out of the room, Nimue saw Nan Tian approaching with a tray of food.
"Nan Tian, Lyrica wants to talk to you."
"Mn? Shiro¡¯s friend? Sure, let me just put this down." Nan Tian nodded and put the tray down on the table before taking the phone.
"Hello?"
"Are you alone right now?" Lyrica asked as Nan Tian excused himself for a moment
"I am now. What is it that you want to talk to me about?"
"You¡¯re high level right? Tell me why the f*ck Shiro almost died in your presence." Lyrica questioned with a serious face.
". . .I have no excuses. I should have tried to get to her with everything I had before she was reduced to that state." Nan Tian nodded while clenching his fist in anger. While he was angry with Estre, he was more angry with himself as he should have done something to help her regardless of the oue. At least she wouldn¡¯t be this weak had he helped.
"Shiro still needs you so you better look after her or god help me I will peel your skin like a f*cking banana." Lyrica warned.
Looking back towards Shiro¡¯s room, Nan Tian smiled for a moment before looking back at her.
"Don¡¯t worry, I know. Even if I have to risk my life, I¡¯ll make sure she is safe. She¡¯s a woman we both fell in love with after all."
Chapter 505 Exploring The City
Chapter 505 Exploring The City
Looking at Nan Tian with a twitching smile, Shiro tried her best to point towards what he was holding.
"Is that a wheelchair?" She asked as he nodded his head.
"This way I can help you move around for now since you¡¯re injured." Nan Tian smiled.
"I can see that and I appreciate the thought. But please, can you tell me why it¡¯s f*cking pink?" Shiro gestured at the pink wheelchair with flowers decorating the handle and wheels.
"What? I think it¡¯s pretty cute. Plus, you said that you were delicate right? I thought delicate women would like flowers." Nan Tian chuckled as Nimue nodded her head from within Shiro¡¯s mana realm.
¡¯Don¡¯t join him!¡¯ Shiro retorted while trying to massage her eyes once more only to fail.
{Pft, my empress, I¡¯d say you ept this gentleman¡¯s gift. He¡¯s quite caring after all.} Nimueughed as Shiro felt a vein burst.
¡¯I can¡¯t even disguise myself since using mana hurts like f*ck right now.¡¯ Shiro grumbled in her mind as she could only relent to Nan Tian¡¯s shenanigans.
"Just so you know, I¡¯m keeping a note of this. The moment I recover, you better watch your ass." Shiro narrowed her eyes while begrudgingly epting the flowery wheelchair.
"Haha, I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Do you want me to help you onto the wheelchair?" Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro nodded slowly after a moment.
Seeing this, Nan Tian¡¯s smile grew wider as he gently carried her into a princess carry beforeying her down on the chair. Currently, Shiro was in a simple white one-piece dress that Nimue had helped her put on. Paired with her embarrassed face and flowery wheelchair, she ¡¯almost¡¯ looked like a pure maiden. If you¡¯re ignoring her murderous gaze of course.
"Since we¡¯ve already gone this far, why don¡¯t you put this on too? Make it a goodmemorative picture." Nan Tian chuckled while presenting her a headband that had a white flower attached on the side.
"Hais... Just hand it over." Shiro grumbled while trying to raise her hand.
"I¡¯ll put it on for you." Nan Tianughed before carefully cing it on her head.
Pulling back her hair a little, he stepped back and nodded in satisfaction.
"Say cheese~" He grinned.
"Huh? Wait a f*cking mome-"
*Snap
". . ." Hearing the snap that signified her shame, Shiro could only sigh and tilt her head back.
While her face seemed serene, her mind was not.
¡¯HIS A** IS MINE!¡¯ She shouted out in her mind.
Making sure that the picture was in high quality, Nan Tian sent a copy to Lyrica who only replied with a thumbs up emoji.
Chuckling softly, he put his phone away and started to push Shiro¡¯s wheelchair.
"So where do you want to go?" He asked.
"Just a stroll around this city, I guess. Speaking of which, where are we?" Shiro asked.
"We¡¯re in the city of Ichisver. To put it simply, it¡¯s closer to Mount Everest." Nan Tian replied while opening the door.
"But before we do anything else, I want to ask you something."
"I¡¯m guessing you want to ask about my decision with Estre, right?" Shiro looked back.
"...Yes. Normally, you should be pretty livid no? After all, she almost killed you. So why did you give her a chance to serve you?"
"Well first of all, look at my current state? I can¡¯t kill her even if I wanted to. She can kill herself but that would only be a waste since I¡¯m not torturing. Second, I AM f*cking livid right now. But the fact that Yuki is still in danger makes Estre a good asset for me. If the Duan bastard shows up, Estre can at least guarantee that she can buy a bit of time if anything. Her mastery over realms is especially helpful. All in all, her uses as an asset far outweigh the satisfaction of killing or torturing her." Shiro shook her head.
"So in the end, it¡¯s for Yuki again no?"
"Pretty much. Our main goal is to save her after all. Plus, with the new ageing up, having a few level 500¡¯s with me is pretty beneficial. I¡¯d be stupid if I killed her right here and now without thinking about the future. If I did that, I¡¯d just be reducing my chances of sess." Shiro shrugged to the best of her abilities.
"I see... How kind of you." Nan Tian smiled.
"I wouldn¡¯t say kind since I¡¯m still using Estre like a meat shield." Shiro shook her head.
Seeing this, Nan Tian only chuckled since she was simr to how a tsundere would act at times.
Pushing her wheelchair out of the apartment room carefully, Nan Tian thought about where they should visit first.
"Do you want to have a look at the auction house? Maybe you can find something that you need in there." He suggested as Shiro nodded after a moment of thought.
"Sure. Though to be honest, I¡¯m only reallycking something with my Boreas¡¯ Rebirth pill. I still have three items in my inventory that can help me for quite a while. Two of which are used on my weapon and armour." Shiro replied. She still had her Soul Weapon Upgrade and Soul Bound Armour upgrade that she hadn¡¯t used yet. Thinking about these two, she figured that she should probably look for Helion once she rescues Yuki. That way, she could get another boost to her equipment.
There was still the mysterious third cast of Eena that she hadn¡¯t figured out yet. The second cast boosted 50% of her highest stat into raw power for 30 seconds which was extremely helpful considering the fact that she had 5.8 million points in her INT. 11.6 if you included her monster title.
"Oh right, you mentioned that Keiko and Keomi barely had any sleep. How are they now?" Shiro asked.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already told them that you¡¯re awake now and that they can rest easy. They¡¯re just catching up on the sleep that they¡¯recking." Nan Tian replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s good. I don¡¯t want them to be damaging their own health.?? Shiro replied as she checked to see if Attie was awake.
Seeing that he was awake, she brought him out from the mana realm and ced him on herp.
"Want to go explore the city with me?" Shiro asked with a smile.
Tilting his head for a moment, Attie nodded before shifting himself so that he wasfortable on herp.
Seeing Attie sit on Shiro¡¯sp sofortably, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but feel a little envious.
"Why the hell are you even envious of a child for? I can practically feel your jealousy from here." Shiro nced back as her smile twitched a little.
*COUGH!
"I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re on about. Anyways, let¡¯s go to the auction house now." Nan Tian looked away while grabbing his mask from his inventory. cing it over his face, he started to push Shiro towards the auction house.
While they were making their way through the city, Shiro could feel countless eyes on her as they were rather curious about her identity. Feeling a little embarrassed due to her wheelchair along with the hairband, Shiro hid her face behind Attie¡¯s body while Nan Tianughed at her embarrassed face.
"Oi, don¡¯tugh." Shiro warned with a hushed whisper.
"Right right, I won¡¯tugh." Nan Tian replied but Shiro could tell that he had a smug grin on the other side of that mask.
"As if I¡¯d believe you." Shiro shook her head.
Arriving at the auction house, Nan Tian showed them an emblem which made him an instant VIP and they were allowed to browse all of the wares avable at this current time.
Looking through the catalogue, Shiro furrowed her brows when they weren¡¯t anything that caught her eyes. Naturally, she expected this. Unlike other adventurers, she didn¡¯t need to worry about weapons or armour due to her current equipment along with her ss.
Checking the materials, she picked out one or two that Helion might like and bought them using her own money. Nan Tian did offer to buy it for her but Shiro refused. He did just save her life after using the best medicine in his vault after all.
Once she was finished with the auction house, they proceeded to explore the other shops in Ichisver.
After rxing outside for most of the day, they returned back to the apartment in time to see Keiko and Keomi wake up.
Despite her injured condition, Shiro still wanted to make some progress towards Mount Everest so they started to n their next course of action.
Chapter 506 Shiros Plans
Chapter 506 Shiro''s ns
"What... the f*ck?" Keiko paused after seeing Shiro¡¯ wheelchair and headband.
"Don¡¯t question it, let¡¯s just talk about our next steps ok?" Shiro sighed as Nan Tian pushed her inside the apartment.
Looking at each other for a moment, both Keiko and Keomi shrugged their shoulders since they¡¯ve seen weirder things happen around Shiro before.
Sitting around the table, the duo waited for Shiro to start.
"First things first, I just want to put it out there that I n to resume the journey straight away. I know my current state is not optimal but if I rest near Mount Everest, I could recover while also being ready to rescue Yuki." Shiro said as both Keiko and Keomi had worried expressions.
Seeing this, Shiro only chuckled.
"Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s going to be fine. There should probably be a vige or something I can rest at near Mount Everest right? It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be staying in the middle of an enemy camp."
"I get that but considering how dangerous the situation could be, it would probably be best for you to travel AFTER recovering." Keomi shook her head.
"But if we¡¯re near the area, we can keep an eye on Mount Everest and check to see if there are any activities. What if Yuki can¡¯t wait that long?" Shiro replied.
"Yes, but it doesn¡¯t have to be you now does it? If anything, I can go scout out the situation since I¡¯m an assassin. I¡¯ll give you regr reports until you recover ande to me, how¡¯s that?" Keiko suggested as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Hmm... you do make a valid point." Shiro nodded her head reluctantly.
"Actually, I have someone better in mind to do the scouting." She smiled after pausing for a short moment.
"Oh? Who¡¯s that?" Keiko asked.
"Estre. The spirit that I¡¯ve recently acquired. As you know, her prowess with different dimensions is quite powerful. I can get her to scout for us since she can escape easily. Not only that, she might be able to bypass the barrier without notifying bastard Duan." Shiro smiled.
"Wait a f*cking minute, what?" Keiko stood up.
"Yup, you heard correctly. Estre is now my subordinate." Shiro said calmly.
"You know she tried to kill you right?!" Keiko frowned.
"Yes, but her power is helpful. It would be a waste to just dispose of her. Trust me, I¡¯ve got it covered." Shiro chuckled.
Furrowing her brows for a moment, Keiko reluctantly nodded her head and sat down. While Shiro may seem yful, she never yed around with anyone that may threaten her life. Since she decided to suggest Estre for this mission, it means that she had something in mind.
"I trust your decision but my main question is, can we trust the spirit?" Keiko asked with a frown.
"Well... she¡¯s essentially signed a vow to be ¡¯my property¡¯ in a way. If I¡¯m about to die, she¡¯ll be my meat shield. She¡¯s trustworthy to an extent. Plus, with the vow that she signed, she cannot betray me or her soul will be erased before she could even seed." Shiro shrugged lightly.
"Hmm... I still don¡¯t like it. I know she¡¯s probably very helpful but I don¡¯t like the idea of trusting the rescue of our friend to someone that almost killed you. Though I suppose there is some guarantee due to this vow of yours." Keomi sighed.
"However, if you¡¯re going to let her do the mission, let me go with her so that I can double check the validity of the information." She followed up.
"Okay. In that case then how about this? Let¡¯s all go with you and Estre acting as the vanguard scouts. Me, Keomi and Nan Tian will stay roughly one vige away so that we can react in time should anything happen. That way, I can recover while also staying near Mount Everest." Shiro suggested with a smile.
"Hm... that¡¯s fine. Let¡¯s go with that then. But you must be far enough so that you won¡¯t be dragged into a fight should it start before your recovery finishes." Keiko ordered.
"Perfect, let¡¯s get ready to move then." Shiro chuckled since this is what she wanted to begin with.
As Keiko and Keomi prepared to leave the apartment, Shiro had Nan Tian escort her to the balcony for now so that she could look at the city while they got ready.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian pushed her wheelchair to the balcony.
{So, do you know how long it¡¯ll take for you to recover?} Nimue asked from within her Mana Realm.
¡¯I have no idea. In the time that I was exploring the city with Nan Tian and Attie, I had already scanned my body and I have to say, I¡¯m basically in a vegetative state. If not for the fact that I can see parts of my body slowly healing at a snail¡¯s pace, I would have thought that I¡¯d be disabled for life. So while I have no idea on how long it¡¯ll take for me to heal, I know that there is a guaranteed chance for me to recover.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Mn... you¡¯re really pushing the limit here with your excursion to Mount Everest. You haven¡¯t even started the rescue process and you¡¯ve already been injured to this extent. And despite all of this, you STILL want to continue the journey. If anything, I must praise your tenacity.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Well I am pretty proud of it. After all, if I wasn¡¯t tenacious, I wouldn¡¯t have survived the experiments on my body.¡¯ Shiro replied with a smile.
{True. Speaking of your Nanomancer ss, what¡¯s the strongest weapon you can make right now?} Nimue asked curiously.
¡¯Once again, I have no idea. With my database full of blueprints and the experiments I had been doing a while ago, I¡¯m able to spend a bit of time tobine them with my second ss to form a powerful weapon that hasn¡¯t been made before. However, thinking of this, I see another problem.¡¯ Shiro sighed.
{And what¡¯s that problem?}
¡¯The problem is that to improve past the previous peak that I had reached, I¡¯d need to focus more on how to redesign the nanobots themselves. As described in one of the Nanobot research books that I had found, I¡¯d need to find a way to make the nanobots morepact and efficient. But with all the things going on, I haven¡¯t really had the time to focus on this task. And even if I did, it might take years to develop. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s possible to achieve this so I might as well focus on the empress ss so that I can improve my chances in theing age.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{Perhaps you need a different approach in order to achieve this? I¡¯m not a scientist so I can¡¯t say for sure but Nanomancer is a mix of science and magic right? You¡¯ve been so focused on science so far so maybe what you need is more understanding in the magic side of things. Now that you¡¯ve gotten your memory about your time as Kuromi, you might be able to use her magic knowledge to find a way to fuse both your sses together to make powerful weaponry.} Nimue encouraged.
¡¯Haha, don¡¯t worry. Just because I said I don¡¯t know if improving is possible doesn¡¯t mean I have given up. I¡¯m focusing on my empress ss right now so that I can learn more about this ss and the magic I have ess to. Once I¡¯m able to master this ss, I¡¯ll be able to fuse the two sses together. Who knows, maybe I¡¯d be able to form a ss with a higher rank than EX.¡¯ Shiro replied with a grin.
{Look at your grin, sometimes I wonder why I even worry about you.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯Ah don¡¯t be like that. You worrying about me urges me on ya know? Having someone to support your back is always a good feeling hence why I¡¯ve got your back too. Once the queens arrive, I¡¯ll make sure to keep an eye out for the ones that were responsible for enving the spirit race.¡¯ Shiro chuckled.
Hearing this, Nimue¡¯s lips curved into a smile.
{Make sure you don¡¯t kill yourself in the process though.}
¡¯Of course. And just for you, I¡¯ll even give them my best torture treatment. One that will make them wish they never stepped foot into this world.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes.
With her improved control over her nanobots, keeping someone alive while torturing them to the limit is easily done. Hell, she might even start to dabble in soul magic so that she could torture their soul in the process.
While everyone else was packing up, Shiro noted down a few torture ideas cheerfully since she needed to be prepared for the future.
After a short moment, they were finally ready to resume their journey. Nan Tian and Keomi were responsible for looking after Shiro while Keiko and Estre would scout out the road ahead.
Their next stop, the vige of Kuwon. A rather small vige located not too far from Mount Everest.
Chapter 507 Kuwon
Chapter 507 Kuwon
Leaving the city of Ichisver, the party positioned themselves with Estre and Keiko at the front.
Shiro and Nan Tian were at the back while Keomi was in the middle.
That way, they could take advantage of Estre¡¯s skill set to keep danger at bay, allowing them to travel safely even if they used mana.
With this, it only took them a short 2 days to reach the vige of Kuwon. Within these two days, Nan Tian had a constant rotation of healers visiting them to check up on Shiro and assisting her recovery when possible.
On the first day, they noticed that her body was recovering rapidly whenever she was exposed to sunlight.
Realising that it must be because of her angelic and phoenix bloodline, Shiro suggested that they take a route that exposed her to the sun more often to speed up her recovery.
Naturally, the party agreed as the faster she recovered, the better it was for them.
As for the checkup on the second day, the healer exined that Shiro had basically repaired her body by 15%. If she¡¯s given a few more days and spent most of them under the sun, she¡¯ll be healed quite quickly.
Joking about the fact that Shiro¡¯s essentially a nt right now, healing through sunlight, the party continued their way to Kuwon. In addition to the check ups, Shiro also made sure to make some calls to the party so that she could see how they were doing along.
During the call, Shiro learned about how both Lisandra and Yin had fully recovered and were challenging dungeons again.
"Tch, look at that. My daughters are having fun without me while I¡¯m stuck here in a wheelchair." Shiroined while hugging Attie. Due to her 15% recovery, she was able to move her body quite easily but still couldn¡¯t walk for long distances. Unfortunately, she was still stuck in her wheelchair for now.
"Well considering the speed of your recovery, I¡¯m pretty sure that you¡¯ll be able to start killing things again real quick. You¡¯re not missing out on much." Nan Tian chuckled.
"I know that but it¡¯s still annoying ok." Shiro pouted while looking through her phone at any news that she might have missed out on during the time she had been injured.
Seeing her pouting face, Nan Tian had an extreme urge to just poke her cheek.
However, he knew that doing so would just be suicidal. He didn¡¯t want to push his luck too much.
After all, he needed to be alive in order to woo Shiro.
Reading through the news, Shiro furrowed her brows when she saw one that was featured not too long ago.
"Um Nan Tian." Shiro called out.
"Yes? What is it?"
"You said that the third monster was a dragon right?"
"What about it?"
"Would the dragon happen to be the same one in this picture?"
Holding up the phone above her head, Shiro showed him the picture.
Looking at the image that featured a slightly blurry dragon figure in the distance while being wounded by rays of light, Nan Tian furrowed his brows before nodding.
"It seems like it. Most of the features on the body match the dragon in my memories. Though there is also the chance that it could be a different dragon that looks simr."
"Because someone¡¯s managed to kill it. Roughly around the same time that I fought against the gorgon, the dragon was killed and the battlefield was quite shocking. Large burnt craters and destroyed mountains weremon near the area. Hell, they even had to redraw quite a bit of the map due to the fight." Shiro furrowed her brows while swiping to the next pictures.
For some reason, every time she looked at the images of the attacks, they reminded her of something but she couldn¡¯t quite put her tongue to it. She had even tried to match the image to her database but all she found were things that are simr.
Shaking her head, she dismissed the thought before checking on some more news.
"Seems like all three of the powerhouse monsters are gone now. You killed the gorgon while the other killed the dragon. The only one left, Estre the spirit, is now your subordinate. Without a leader, the monsters around the area will probably get a bit rowdy so the martial hero will have a hard time." Nan Tian said while Shiro was browsing through the news.
"To be honest, I pity him a little. He must take care of an entire country despite not being the leader. You think he¡¯s ever allowed a break?" Shiro asked.
"Probably. But due to his personality, I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll take that break. Instead, he¡¯d probably use that time to see what else he can do." Nan Tian replied as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but agree.
{In a way, you¡¯re kind of like him. You need to rest more and do some of your hobbies too you know? The only time you rest is when you¡¯re suffering from injuries like now. To be honest, outside of making juice, I don¡¯t even know what other hobbies that you have.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯Well... I do enjoy ying around with the flute. But yeah, I haven¡¯t really had time to rest have I? Though, with what¡¯s going to be happening in the future, taking a break isn¡¯t exactly high on my to do list.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{It should be. You can¡¯t save a world if your body is breaking down due to overwork. Tell me what you can kill in your current state.} Nimue raised her eyebrows as Shiro averted her gaze.
¡¯I suppose you¡¯re right about that too.¡¯ She admitted.
{See? So instead of thinking about what you can do in Kuwon, just spend the time resting with Nan Tian and calling the party. Give yourself a small break while your body is resting. Hell, maybe even rest some more after you recover. With Estre and Keiko scouting out the situation, it gives you a perfect chance to rest.}
¡¯But if I do that, I¡¯ll be dying Yuki¡¯s rescue. And you know I can¡¯t do that.¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows.
{To be fair you¡¯re right. I suppose what I want to say is that you should find every chance to rest because god knows once the new agees, you¡¯ll be so busy that rest will be a myth.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Don¡¯t worry, I know.¡¯ Shiro smiled before focusing back on her phone.
Soon, they arrived in Kuwon. The vige itself was quite developed in terms of architecture but it wasn¡¯t to the point where it could be called a town. It wasn¡¯t too far though.
From a brief nce, Shiro immediately noticed ack of the adventurer¡¯s guild which should have been amon sight. There was, however, a local cksmith and pharmacy.
¡¯I suppose building a guild in every small vige and town would be a tall order. Having cksmiths and pharmacists is much easier to aplish with the local workforce.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while they made their way to the closest inn.
Renting some rooms for a few days, they decided to have some food first before they discuss anything else.
Sitting down at the table in the inn, their presence garnered quite a few eyes due to the fact that they were unfamiliar to those in the vige.
"You lot are a set of unfamiliar faces." The waitress greeted with a smile before pulling out a notepad.
"Anything you want to order?" She asked.
Noting down their orders, the waitress gave the notepad to the chef before walking back to the group.
"If you don¡¯t mind, can you tell me a little about where you¡¯re from? We don¡¯t get a lot of new faces so I¡¯m quite curious." She smiled.
"Of course, that¡¯s fine with everyone else right?" Shiro turned to the party.
"I¡¯m fine with it." Both Keiko and Keomi nodded their heads while Nan Tian did the same.
Gesturing for the woman to sit down, they started to tell a few stories about what they did in the cities.
"Heh~ The cities sound quite overwhelming, don¡¯t they?" The waitress chuckled.
"A little." Shiro smiled.
"If you don¡¯t mind me asking, why have youe to our vige? After all, you¡¯re from a big city so I don¡¯t see a need for you toe down here. No offence of course."
"None taken. We¡¯re just here to look for a friend. Anyways, is there anything you can tell us about the surrounding area?" Shiro asked. Since they¡¯re waiting for food, she might as well make some small talk.
"Of course. If you walk for a few hours to the east of the vige, there¡¯s a pretty nice waterfall there where you can rx for a while. Normally, I would tell you about the ces to the west and the north but they¡¯re a bit dangerous recently. The waterfalls¡¯ probably the only safe ce you can visit without any worries." The waitress sighed.
"Oh? Why is it dangerous?" Shiro furrowed her brows since the next vige is to the north and after that is Mount Everest. If it¡¯s dangerous, it would be best that they found out now.
Chapter 508 Victoria
Chapter 508 Victoria
"Well, quite a few people have gone missing in the north and the west. Local lumberjacks and pharmacists that have gone out in those directions were never seen again. We¡¯ve sent out quite a few search parties but there were no signs of them." The waitress whispered over.
"I see... do you think it could be monsters or bandits?" Shiro asked.
"I don¡¯t know. There haven¡¯t really been any cases of bandits or monsters near this vige in the past so most of us just believe it to be a strange dungeon or something. Hence why we¡¯ve already sent out a request for the hero to take a look at this. I heard that he should be arriving soon so it¡¯s best if you stray away from those areas for now and wait for his arrival." The waitress shook her head.
"Fair point. Just out of curiosity, when did this happen?" Shiro asked.
Before the waitress could reply, she was called by the kitchen.
"Ah sorry, I need to get back to work." She apologised as Shiro smiled.
"Don¡¯t worry, but thank you for the reminder. I¡¯ll keep a note on avoiding the north and the west."
Watching the waitress walk away, Shiro nced towards the rest of the party.
"Seems like we¡¯ll need to get a quick glimpse of this before heading to Mount Everest." Shiro whispered as they nodded their heads.
"We¡¯ll discuss this in our room once we have our meals." She followed up with a smile.
After eating the meal, they promptly went to their new rooms.
"Estre." Shiro called out.
Beside her, a portal opened up as the spirit walked through with a calm expression.
"You called, my queen?" She asked with a bow.
"Before going to Mount Everest, I want you to go investigate things to the south of this vige. At the first sign of danger, I want you to report back. We need information as soon as possible." Shiro ordered as Estre nodded her head.
"Understood."
Fading into the portal, Estre left the room.
"As for you Keiko, would it be ok if you scout out the north? Just get a general view of the situation and make sure you¡¯re not in any danger."
"Of course. But with how the waitress describes people going missing and the chance of a strange dungeon, do you think it could be the Frozen Imperial Mountains? After all, it wasn¡¯t a naturally formed dungeon so there¡¯s always the chance that it could mutate." Keiko shrugged.
"Mn. Honestly, I would have wanted to investigate myself if I could. Hell, maybe even use my drones but with only 15% of my body recovered, I can barely make a dagger right now since my links would just hurt if I try anything harder." Shiro smiled tiredly while waving her hand. Creating a small dagger, she twirled it for a short moment before dismissing it.
During the two days that they had been travelling, the party told Shiro about what they had seen but didn¡¯t question it too much. Understanding that they¡¯re respecting her privacy, Shiro didn¡¯t mind showing them some basics of her ss without exining. After all, they¡¯ve already seen her create her gatling cannon that dealt some decent damage to the gorgon so a dagger wasn¡¯t too surprising.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s not like we¡¯re fighting anyways, the scouting should be done pretty quickly." Keiko smiled before walking out of the room.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro got herself out of the wheelchair and sat on the bed.
Sighing softly, she couldn¡¯t believe that the simple action of moving from point A to point B would actually tire her out this much.
"Seems like you dislike this weakened state." Nan Tian chuckled.
"No sh*t. Who would like it huh?" Shiro rolled her eyes.
"True. But still, stacking berserk skills... Even after a few days, I still have to apud how reckless you were to do that. Though that recklessness also saved you since it gave you the power to fight against the gorgon." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Well... I won¡¯t disagree with the fact that it was reckless. There was probably more than one way to approach that situation with my skill set. If not for you being around, I would have been a goner." Shiro replied while scratching her cheeks, feeling a little embarrassed.
After all, she had an entire lifetime¡¯s worth of experience with her ss. She could have easily defeated the gorgon if she only used one or two of her berserk skills and some careful thinking. But no, in the end, she decided to not only modify her body in the heat of battle, but also stack all of her elements ON TOP of her berserk skills. The result being one that could be called aplete overkill which had her rip out the gorgon¡¯s code. Even now, such a feat was still ridiculous in Shiro¡¯s opinion.
"So thank you for helping me out." Shiro followed up while ncing towards Nan Tian who had taken off his mask at this point.
"You¡¯re wee. You can¡¯t rule out your friends¡¯ help either."
"Of course. But tell me, who¡¯s this Qin Lan subordinate of yours? How did she even edit this contract that I hadn¡¯t even heard of before?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Hmm... I suppose it¡¯s ok for you to know her true background. You see, most of the people in the sect know her as a contract expert and a doctor in some form. However, her family is actually closely tied with the sect master. They have a history of crafting some of the strongest contracts in the world and her grandfather was rumoured to have forcefully contracted several peak tier 5 monsters to act as his bodyguards." Nan Tian replied.
"Eh? But I¡¯ve never heard of such a family in China though. If her family is that impressive, why does the hero need to work so hard?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Because her family doesn¡¯t originate from China. They changed their name and appearance so that migration could be easier for them. Her real family name is Victoria and you may know her older sister as Rachel Victoria, the healing hero that runs the Lumia¡¯s Blessing Faction."
"Huh? Why did they even migrate to China if they are a family that produced a hero?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Hmm... It¡¯s a long story. If you want, I can tell it to you as a bedtime story." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Oi, you want a punch?" Shiro asked with a ¡¯smile¡¯.
"Pft, at this point, your punches are love taps. By all means, I¡¯d like to receive some love from you." Nan Tian joked as Shiro wanted to flip a table into his face.
{Wee to my world. I¡¯ve already ran out of imaginary tables to throw at you so I don¡¯t bother any more.} Nimue chuckled seeing that Shiro felt the same feeling she had a while ago.
¡¯Shush it. When did I do something that made you want to throw a table?¡¯ Shiro pouted.
{Are you sure you want to be asking that question? Because I will, and I can, list out how many imaginary tables that I had thrown within time that I had been with you.} Nimue smiled.
*COUGH!
¡¯I¡¯ll be fine.¡¯ Shiro averted her gaze and focused back to reality.
"So? What¡¯s the final verdict?" Nan Tian smiled.
". . .I would like to hear this ¡¯bedtime story¡¯." Shiro squeezed out through gritted teeth.
Seeing her expression, Nan Tian chuckled as he found it quite cute.
However, Nimue who realised what he was thinking, couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
¡¯His tastes is pretty f*cking strong if he thinks a murderous gaze is cute... wait a minute, is he a masochist? Why else would he want to woo Shiro despite knowing her habits of going for the ass?¡¯ Nimue paused before feeling some pity for Shiro. After all, she wasn¡¯t too good with masochists. Her threats of pration would backfire if Nan Tian turned out to be an M.
Unfortunately for Shiro, Nimue enjoyed the show she was seeing so she wasn¡¯t about to end the ¡¯movie¡¯ just yet by telling her about this.
¡¯Hehe~ this is for all the times you made me want to flip a table!¡¯ Nimue giggled while Iziuel couldn¡¯t help but tilt her head in confusion.
On one side, there was Shiro who was thinking of ways to get back at Nan Tian in the form of ¡¯pration¡¯ while on the other side, there was Nimue who was giggling to herself randomly.
{Attie, let¡¯s go y on a different ind. Your mum and auntie are acting strange today.} Iziuel suggested as Attie only nodded his head.
Chapter 509 Side - Happy Anniversary
Chapter 509 Side - Happy Anniversary
Shiro: Yo~ to think it had actually been a year. You holding out fine? We haven¡¯t talked in this realm for quite a while now huh?
Reili: Yeah, I¡¯m doing pretty good. You¡¯re not going to harm me for that now, are you?
Shiro: I¡¯ll let you off this time since it¡¯s a pretty special asion. One year huh? It¡¯s quite a long time.
Reili: Indeed. I never expected it tost this long.
Shiro: I see, I see. So exin to me, why is it that despite a year passing in real life, why the f*ck am I not a year old yet in my world?
Reili: . . . I thought you were going to be kind today.
Shiro: I said I was going to let you off due to theck of mini chaps but I never mentioned anything about letting you off for everything else. Plus, now that I think about it, you¡¯re also partially responsible for Nan Tian¡¯s actions now aren¡¯t you?
*COUGH!
ReilI: No I¡¯m not. I promise.
Nan Tian: To be fair, I am trying to woo you.
Shiro: Shut up and go back to the corner. I got a bone to pick with Reili not you. I¡¯ll be dealing with your ass after I dealt with this idiot author first.
Nan Tian: Yes empress. I¡¯ll be in the corner now empress.
Reili: Oiiiii!!!! Bastard Tian, get back here!
Nan Tian: Sorry, my empress is my everything. You know this. Now if you don¡¯t mind me, I got a corner to go to. It¡¯s surprisingly interesting now that I think about it.
Shiro: Reili, you can¡¯t run anymore. It¡¯s the anniversary so you can¡¯t end this so soon.
Reili: Er... er... LOOK! It¡¯s your spirits!
Nimue: Where in the flying f*ck am I???
Iziuel: . . . I had no clue. Where¡¯s Attie.
Attie: . . .
Shiro: Nimue, take Iziuel in the corner with Attie and cover his eyes and ears. I don¡¯t want him to see what I¡¯m about to do to this idiot author of ours.
Reili: Er... think about the children. R18 is ba-
Shiro: Don¡¯t give me that sh*t. I¡¯m pretty sure our readers are excited for this. You¡¯ve been enjoying throwing quite a few cliffs here and there huh? Now that I think about it, you even f*cking killed my big sister you c*nt!
Reili: She¡¯s not deadpletely!
Shiro: I wanted her by my side you moron!
Reili: Take her back then!
Kuromi: . . . You know, despite being slightly different, me and lil sis are basically the same person right? She gets your ass and I¡¯ll help you bid goodbye to any future generations of you that COULD have been a reality.
Reili: F*ck!
Shiro: If you dare take her away, I will end you right here and now.
*GULP!
Reili: Fine...
Kuromi: Fufufu~ At least you¡¯re smart. Anyways, where¡¯s little Attie. I need to go ara ara him up.
Shiro: The f*ck does that mean?
Kuromi: Basically... I¡¯m going to pamper the sh*t outta him. See ya~
Shiro: Finally, it¡¯s you and me now. Or are you going to throw more people at me? It¡¯s gonna get quite cramped in here you know?
Reili: Pft, I can expand you know? Oh, would you look at that. We¡¯ve got some visitors.
Madison: Ok, I know I¡¯ve been here more than once but please tell me why the f*ck is there so many people huddled up in the corner while a ck haired Shiro is going... ara ara?
Lyrica: I think it¡¯s his doing.
Madison: Oh, it¡¯s the stupid author again. Shiro have you got this in the bag?
Shiro: Yup.
Madison: Cool. I¡¯ll go talk to the other Shiro for a bit. Don¡¯t hurt him too bad. Otherwise, he might stop writing.
Shiro: Don¡¯t worry, if he stops, I¡¯ll poke his ass. If he stops for two days, I¡¯ll poke his ass four times. Three days equal to six pokes and so on.
Reili: Oi, I think I¡¯ll be dead by day 2.
Shiro: You¡¯ll be fine. Did you know, you can fit a racoon up your ass? I¡¯m sure an ice spike or two is fine for a few days.
Reili: WHY DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?
Shiro: The better question is why you searched that up.
Reili: REASONS! Here! Take more characters!
Silvia/Chen Yu: Huh? I thought we were in our room?
Shiro: Well the idiot author brought you here. Go hang out with your branch master before you have an existential crisis ok? You¡¯ll forget about this soon enough so just enjoy it while itsts.
Chen Yu: Right... anyways, why is the branch master studying the corner?
Shiro: Reasons. Now go.
Reili: Take more!
Isaac: I-
Shiro: PISS OFF!
(Isaac leaves with a face of ecstasy.)
Reili: Yeah... Imma just move him out of my sacred domain.
Shiro: Good choice. But if you¡¯re going to throw characters in here, where are my precious daughters?
Reili: Right. Here, take them.
Yin: I... Ok there are way too many people in that corner what the f*ck. How is this even possible.
Lisandra: . . .
Shiro: Don¡¯t question it darling, just go hang out with your sister while I deal with the author.
Yin: Right... whatever. Let¡¯s go Lisa.
Lisandra: Sure.
Shiro: I think we¡¯re only missing Aarim now.
Reili: I¡¯m not bringing her in here. I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯ll try to disembowel me to find out more.
Shiro: So you¡¯re not doing it? Fine. Estre!
Estre: You called?
Reili: ¡ê&^¡ê&^%$!!! HOW!?!?!
Shiro: Can you bring a few people in here with you. Aarim and Helion. They look like this.
Estre: As youmand.
Reili: How is this even possible.
Shiro: You¡¯re the one who gave her power over realms you know?
Reili: Yeah I know, but there¡¯s a limi-
Estre: I¡¯ve brought them for you.
Aarim: Oh my, what is this ce.
Helion: MAH ARMOUR!!! I WAS HALFWAY THROUGH FORGING!!!!
Estre: I apologise, my empress told me to bring you so I did.
Aarim: Oh hey Sh- How the fck is there so many people in that corner... One... two... three.. oh my f*cking god there are 11 people in that single corner.
Helion: MAH ARMOUR!
Shiro: It¡¯s a strange realm. Nan Tian should be able to give you a run down of the situation in the corner so just ask him. As for you Helion, Reili here willpensate you with some decent armour when you get back so don¡¯t worry about it.
Helion: Fair enough.
Aarim: Welp, I guess there are now 13 people in that corner. Honestly, how is the rest of this room spacious while there are 13 people in the corner.
Shiro: Think of it as a badly drawn cube I suppose.
Aarim: *shrugs*
Shiro: Let¡¯s see... who else...
Reili: Please, my realm can only fit so many people ok?
Shiro: Fine fine. I¡¯ll only bring three more people. First two are Keiko and Keomi.
Estre: Done.
Keiko: Huh? Wasn¡¯t I doing some scouting?
Keomi: I thought I was punching a sandbag? Why are we here?
Shiro: Nan Tian will tell you about the situation. Just ask him over in that corner.
Aarim in the distance: That¡¯s 15 people in this one corner now~ What the f*ck is even going on right now!?
Shiro: You¡¯ll know soon!!! Anyways, the final person is Kanae. I haven¡¯t seen her in a long long time. Volume 3 is when we parted ways I believe.
Estre: Done.
Kanae: Where- SHIRO NEE!!! IT¡¯S BEEN SO LONG (¨i_¨i)
Shiro: There there. me this idiot over here. I¡¯ll make sure we can reunite soon ok?
Kanae: Mn, I believe you.
Reili: If you don¡¯t mind me saying, there are a sh*t tonne of people here.
Shiro: Eh? But there are still quite a few people I want to bring in you know? Raoul(Bed Kid), Jonas (Silvia¡¯s Friend), Liam (Aarim¡¯s Brother), Natash (Fellow Elder In Winter¡¯s Grace), Lefyr (Lyrica¡¯s Brother) and Cyril (Lyrica¡¯s Sister) just to name a few. There are still quite a few after this too.
Reili: Oh my god that¡¯s way too ma-
Estre: I¡¯ve brought them.
Reili: $^&%%$!!!!
Shiro: Go to the strange corner full of people to get a run down on the situation~
Reili: I thought this was supposed to be an anniversary. What is even going on anymore.
Shiro: Oh just trust me ok? Everyone ready?
Everyone (Apart from Reili): Yeah!
Shiro: 3! 2! 1!
Everyone (Apart from Reili): HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Thank you for the support that you have shown us in the past year!!!
Reili: Brings a tear to my eyes. *Sniff*
Shiro: Oi, you¡¯re the main host. Say a line or two ok?
Reili: Right. As they said, thank you for your support in the past year. I know I¡¯ve taken a few breaks here and there but you guys (And gals) have shown so much support and it¡¯s kept me going. Please continue to support me in this next year as I continue to write this story!
Shiro: Good. Now that¡¯s out of the way, why don¡¯t youe quietly and spread ¡¯em?
Reili: . . . .
END!
Chapter 510 Contracted Beast
Chapter 510 Contracted Beast
"Right then, where shall I start?" Nan Tian asked.
"How about why she¡¯s split up with the faction then. With her older sister being the hero, surely they should have stayed in Britain no?" Shiro replied.
"Sure. In the beginning, back in the UK, Qin Lan¡¯s family were quite passive in terms ofbat. They would focus on healing along with keeping everyone safe. In order to defeat the monsters without actually focusing onbat orientated sses, they started to study contracts and ways they could ¡¯tame¡¯ monsters. Eventually, after a few generations of research, Qin Lan¡¯s grandfather had the biggest sess when he proved that he could tame monsters and use them as bodyguards while making sure that the monsters didn¡¯t harm any humans in the process unless they were physically attacked.
"With this aplishment, they were getting a little ahead of themselves as they started to expand and help more people. Naturally, their actions caused quite a few eyes to focus towards them. Severalrge factions that were spread across the world at that point were very curious about his talent at taming monsters so they would send envoys to ¡¯negotiate.¡¯ With the old man¡¯s personality, these negotiations were naturally rejected as he didn¡¯t want this technique that his family had spent generations on perfecting to be used in war. While he was hopeful about the human¡¯s nature, he also knew how they would strive for war and total control." Nan Tian exined.
Shiro had quite a few questions but decided to be patient and listen to the end.
"As negotiations continued to fail, the factions started to be annoyed. With such a powerful weapon in his hand, the old man refused to hand it over ¡¯for the good of humanity¡¯, making them ¡¯traitors to the cause.¡¯ Naturally, with his course of action, a war broke out and their family was scattered. Normally, you would think that the Victoria family would be able to put up a decent fight before losing but that¡¯s wrong. It waspletely one sided in the Victoria family¡¯s favour. Within his armada of contracted beasts, was a mythical beast much like your daughter, Yin." Nan Tian smiled.
"He had a beast simr to a phoenix?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Yes. Within his contracts, he had a Hydra under his control. With the Hydra¡¯s skillset of controlling the elements, it was basically an untouchable god in those times. Unfortunately, there was a traitor in his family. His son¡¯s eldest daughter had started to tamper with the contracts, making it so that the monsters would turn against the Hydra. This was ultimately what had led to the defeat of the Victoria family. There are quite a few theories on why Rachel had betrayed the Victoria family but the family believes that Rachel had betrayed them due to personal greed and what the other factions had offered her." Nan Tian shrugged.
"Hmm... I feel like there¡¯s more to this." Shiro frowned.
"Of course there is. If it was just greed and what the other family had offered her, I doubt she would turn her back to an easy victory. But here¡¯s my personal theory after doing a bit of research. The hydra that the grandfather had made a contract with, actually agreed on serving the family for a few generations and the younger sister was apparently the next contractor. There were signs to point out that the older sister would always fidget or get nervous whenever people would talk about the future. I¡¯m guessing that she somehow knew what wasing and wanted to be contracted with the hydra herself to guarantee her safety." Nan Tian said while Shiro couldn¡¯t help but nod her head. It was indeed usible if this was the cause.
Making herselffortable, she listened to his stories while keeping a note on anything that might be helpful in the future.
As this was happening, Estre immediately found out the problem after jumping through a few dimensions in order to shorten her travel time.
From within her personal realm, she could see small splits and fissures in the air.
Understanding that this was clearly the sign of unstable space, Estre furrowed her brows and waved her hand.
Inserting some of her mana into the splits, she managed to widen it just big enough so that she could peek through to see what¡¯s on the other side.
However, the moment she peeked through, she immediately felt a presence search for her location. Quickly backing away from the fissure, she returned it to its original state.
Taking a deep breath, Estre noticed that she had started to sweat from that short encounter.
¡¯What could be on the other side of this fissure...¡¯ She thought with a frown
Shaking her head, Estre started to patrol the area so that she could figure out howrge this foreign space was. With the fissures as nodes for her to guess the area, she realised the area of this foreign space was much bigger than what she had expected.
Not only that, but it was also expanding with every second so she needed to hurry back and tell Shiro this news.
Furrowing her brows one more time with the fissure, she decided to create a small holographic bird of sorts before forcing it through the fissures. That way, she could establish a small area of influence within this realm for her to ess at ater date.
Jumping into her portal, she started to make her way back to the vige.
Not too long after she had left the area, a figure flickered to where she had tampered with the fissure and frowned.
"Strange... I didn¡¯t see a split being opened here... I suppose the technique is still rtively unexplored so some mistakes are bound to happen." He shook his head and repaired the fissure.
Looking around the area for a moment, the figure flickered away.
###
"Hmm... that sounds pretty suspicious." Shiro furrowed her brows after hearing what Estre had reported.
"Did you see anything past the fissure?" She asked.
"I was barely able to get a nce before someone tried to track me down. However, I did catch a glimpse of snow so the area in this foreign space is most definitely a cold environment." Estre replied.
"This is indeed a problem. Has Keikoe back yet?" Shiro turned towards Nan Tian since she was still hindered in terms of sensing the area with her mana.
"Not yet. I can¡¯t sense her within my range." Nan Tian shook his head as Shiro frowned.
"Estre, go to the north and look for Keiko. If you find her, ask her toe back. If you don¡¯t within 30 minutes,e back and we¡¯ll form a search party." Shiro ordered.
Nodding her head, Estre immediately left the area.
"Do you think it¡¯s the Frozen Imperial Mountains?" Nan Tian asked.
"Most likely. Though I¡¯ve never heard of a dungeon expanding in size. The only scenario I can think of where it¡¯s slightly simr is when a mutated dungeon is not cleared on time and the monsters start spilling out into the cities. When that happens, they start to expand their territory and make amunity of monsters which is hard topletely clear out. This was quitemon in the early days but once people started to get more powerful, these urrences have be lessmon." Nan Tian replied.
"Mn, but this is a manmade dungeon so we can¡¯t usemon logic. Unfortunately, one of my friends who had seeded in making dungeons is no longer alive so I can¡¯t ask her for any information." Shiro sighed.
"Well it¡¯s not too much of a worry. Since it¡¯s still a dungeon in the end, there¡¯s a big possibility that it must adhere to some basic principles. We can use that as our guide." Nan Tian smiled.
"True... With the space expanding at the rate that Estre had described, I¡¯d say we have about 2 days¡¯ worth of time before it reaches this vige. Tomorrow, I¡¯m nning to do some experiments so that I can recover faster." Shiro massaged her eyes whileying her body across the bed.
"Oh? Your body is in no condition to be using mana often though. How are you going to experiment properly?" Nan Tian asked with concern.
"You¡¯re going to help me. If you don¡¯t mind of course." Shiro smiled while ncing towards him.
"It¡¯ll be my pleasure."
Chapter 511 Inside The Realm
Chapter 511 Inside The Realm
As Estre went to look for Keiko, Shiro started to sketch out the magic circle that she was nning to carve. In addition to this, she would add a few notes on how to redirect most of the mana towards her so that she could speed up her recovery.
Referencing quite a few of Kuromi¡¯s notes and information from her own studies, Shiro managed to draw up a few prototypes that still needed to be tested.
However, she wasn¡¯t going to test them just yet since she was still waiting on Estre toe back safely with Keiko.
Looking out of the window, she could only hope that nothing has gone wrong.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m sure they¡¯lle back safely." Nan Tian said after seeing her worried look.
"Mn, you can go back and rest now. I¡¯ll stay up for a little longer. If anything happens, I¡¯ll call for you ok?" Shiro smiled.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian tidied up the room a little before leaving after saying goodnight.
After Nan Tian left, Shiro made sure to keep an eye on what was happening outside. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 then 20. There was not a single sign of Estre or Keiko which caused Shiro to worry.
But just as it reached the 25 minute mark, a portal snapped open in her room as both Keiko and Estre crashed into the room. Both of them were heavily wounded as burn marks could be seen all over their body.
Widening her eyes, Shiro wanted to get off her bed quickly but a wave of fatigue hit her before she could even stand up.
Gritting her teeth, she forced herself onto her wheelchair.
"What happened? Why are you this injured?" Shiro asked while trying to help them up.
"People... There are people inside the dungeon." Estre managed to squeeze out before more blood started to pour out of her body.
*BANG!
Pushing the door open, Nan Tian rushed into the room and saw the injuries on both Keiko and Estre. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out a few pills that were meant to help in Shiro¡¯s recovery but were ineffective due to her special circ.u.mstance.
After a short while, the wounds started to close as their breathing returned back to normal.
"Alright, can you tell me what exactly happened?" Shiro frowned.
"You first Keiko."
"Right..." Keiko nodded as she proceeded to exin in detail what had happened.
###
Making her way north, Keiko¡¯s teleport was forcefully cut off as she quickly bnced herself on the tree branch. Furrowing her brows, she started to look around the area for anything that could have done this.
However, there was nothing of that sort. She had even tried to use her senses to scan the area for mana but that yielded the same result.
¡¯Something¡¯s wrong.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Jumping off the tree, Keiko started to scan the area. Unfortunately for her, a fissure opened up next to her. Feeling a suction force that she couldn¡¯t fight against, her body was flung through to the other side as snow crashed against her body.
Feeling the coldness of the surroundings, Keiko felt her danger bells ringing.
Quickly turning around, she wanted to teleport back out but it was blocked by a barrier.
"Damn, this isn¡¯t good." She muttered.
Looking around her, she started to scan her surroundings. Despite the blizzard that was happening right now, she could still make out a few silhouettes in the distance. Tall mountains and what seemed to be several skyscr.a.p.er like buildings could be observed from her location.
Behind her, was the fissure that was slowly closing. Despite her efforts in trying to go through it to escape, she was only rebounded by the effects. Even her teleport markers were cut off, leaving her stranded in this strange zone.
Knowing that she was the intruder, Keiko understood that she must conceal her presence for now. The first thing she needed to be doing was finding a way out of this realm. The second was figuring out what the hell was happening in here.
Choosing the closest skyscr.a.p.er that she could see, she started to make her way over there. Activating her stealth skills, she trod through the snow while making sure that she was constantly scanning her surroundings for anyone that could be dangerous. As she was in unfamiliar territory, she couldn¡¯t take any chances.
Not long after she left the area, she sensed a person flying towards where she hade from. Giving them a brief nce, Keiko noticed that they seemed to have a surveince system attached to their outfit.
¡¯It¡¯s probably a good idea for me to just avoid allbat. From what I know, there¡¯s a good chance that this is what Shiro was looking for sobat would only reveal our presence. For all they know, I could just be a viger that had identally slipped through.¡¯
Suppressing her presence as much as possible, she made her way to the skyscr.a.p.er.
Once she arrived, she noticed a few guards by the main gate. They held spears that looked like they were of pretty high quality. One that she would normally give to some of her higher ranked subordinates.
Furrowing her brows, she readied a dagger and snuck around the side of the skyscr.a.p.er to see if there were any more guards.
Noticing that were two more that were hidden around the area, she thought about her choices and cast an enchantment on her dagger. Testing it out for a moment, she nodded her head in satisfaction and threw it towards the skyscr.a.p.er. Allowing the dagger to travel as far as it could, she flickered from her spot and teleported to where the dagger was.
Latching herself onto the side of the building, she sighed in relief after seeing that her invisibility was still up.
Climbing higher up the tower, she looked around to see a window of sorts so that she could figure out what was happening.
Unfortunately, there were none. Deciding to go to the top, Keiko climbed up the side of the skyscr.a.p.er while making sure that her presence was concealed. After a few moments, she finally reached the top and gritted her teeth at the sight in front of her.
Armed guards were dragging battered and bruised vigers to a magic circle where their body would suddenly be drainedpletely, rendering them into an empty husk which was thrown to the side.
Seeing the giant corpse hill that was being burnt to ash, Keiko knew that there were more victims than what she could see.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she tailed behind the guards while making sure that her presence was concealed.
"Tch, what a pain. These vigers can¡¯t reach high levels since their potential is limited. The more thate in here, the morebour we need to do." The first guardined as the second nodded his head.
"Well what can we do? The ones with good potential are held somewhere else so that they can reach their maximum level quickly. Those with lower potential are given to us. If we want to change things up, we¡¯ll need to get some achievements and rank up. That way, we can have some of the easier jobs." The second guard sighed.
"Mn, but even so. Isn¡¯t the master rushing things a little? If he expands the dungeon this quickly, it¡¯ll gain the attention of the people around the world. Hell, I think the Martial Hero is going toe to investigate soon."
"I think that¡¯s part of the master¡¯s n. It¡¯s not like we need to know since we¡¯re just grunts in the end."
"True but I still want to know if I¡¯m going to die soon or not so I can prepare myself for a fight to the death. Since I can¡¯t run, I might as well get ready you know? Plus, even if I try to run, the master would turn me to EXP before I can even get far enough."
"Mn."
Listening to their conversation to this point, Keiko got a general gist of what was happening.
This ce was akin to an animal farm for the ¡¯master¡¯. Except instead of animals, humans are the ones being farmed.
¡¯Seems like these towers have special properties. How else are the vigers levelling up without actually killing any monsters?¡¯ Keiko thought with a frown.
Shaking her head, she prepared to leave.
Leaving the way she came, she wanted to explore some more when she felt a burst of mana in the distance.
Realising that it was Estre¡¯s mana signature, Keiko understood that this might be her ticket to return so that she could give Shiro the intel.
Rushing over, she saw Estre being bombarded with light.
###
"I never did find out who it was that¡¯s attacking Estre but we¡¯ve managed to buy just enough time for her to link up a portal to the orb that you hold for us to escape. Though I don¡¯t think we can escape using the same method." Keiko shook her head as she could still feel her heart pound from nervousness.
"Hmm... This is the worst possible scenario. I think I might know who¡¯s inside this dungeon." Shiro took a deep breath as this was thest person she wanted to meet at this moment.
Chapter 514 Grace
Chapter 514 Grace
Seeing that she had just created an EX skill, Shiro furrowed her brows and wondered what she should call it.
¡¯Hmm... how about the name Grace?¡¯ She smiled as the system registered the name.
[Grace ¨C EX Healing Skill]
Merging the three elements that you have control over, you stimte one¡¯s potential and revitalise them from the brink of death. The Life Fire revitalises the body, the Phoenix Fire reinvigorates while the Celestial Star reinforces.
When they are healed, they receive the following benefits:
+30% Temporary Health. (If they have 100 million HP points, they now have 130 million for the duration of this spell.)
+20% Mana and Magic Effectiveness.
+50% Resistance to damage from ALL sources. Duration ¨C 30 seconds.
If the target has not lost any health, the benefits they receive are doubled except for the damage resistance. In this case, they receive +80% Resistance to damage from ALL sources for the duration of a minute.
If the target iscking health, a single use of this spell will heal them for a minimum of 40% of their total health (Percentage healed increases the more wounded they are.). If the target has less than 10% of their health when this skill is used, there are instead, healed to full.
To use this spell, you must use a charge. Every day, you gain a charge at sunrise. You may store up to 10 charges of this spell. Whenever you use a charge, 30% of your mana is sacrificed as part of theponents needed.
Current Charges: 1/10
Reading about the spell, Shiro had to pause for a moment as this was something that had far exceeded her expectations. While she understood what a good healing spell looked like, she clearly underestimated what it meant to have an EX ranked skill. This spell was like her rejuvenation skill but on steroids. Not only could it buff, but the buff could also double in strength should the target be at full health. If she used it at the start of the fight, the additional 80% resistance to damage for that minute is going to be a game changer. To make matters worse for the enemy, they would also receive an additional 60% temporary health at the start of the battle.
They are basically four times as hard to kill at this point and that was just a general estimation.
However, that wasn¡¯t the end of it. Since she had created an EX ranked healing spell, she had also received a title.
[Benevolent Saint EX]
You have developed an EX ranked healing skill that can help the world as a whole. When you are in an army of more than 100 people, a single charge of your Grace will now heal everyone you deem as an ally for the extra charge of 20% of your mana.
This title was truly ridiculous since it would heal EVERYONE. If she was in an army of more than 1 million soldiers, her Grace skill now healed everyone and gave them a 50% resistance to damage from ALL sources. With this, the enemy would be facing an army with 10 extra lives if she used her charges properly.
"Well damn... And here I thought I was meant to be a front linebatant." Shiro muttered with a raised eyebrow.
"Mn? What happened?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
Exining new skill to the party along with her EX ranked title, they couldn¡¯t help but stare at her with shock.
"What ss are you again?" Keiko asked with a twitching smile.
"To be honest, I don¡¯t know. I can act as a tank, an attacker, a ranged, a control mage, a damage mage, a buff healer and a debuff supporter if needed. At this point, I am the literal definition of jack of all trades, master of none." Shiro replied as she could hardly believe what she had done with her ss.
"Are you sure about that? I¡¯ll be more inclined to know you as Shiro of all trades, master of all." Keomi rolled her eyes since Shiro excelled in basically all the areas. Even if she didn¡¯t focus on one particr area, her dynamic skill set allowed her to win the battle.
You can try to target her but she has so many escape skills that catching her would basically be a pipe dream. Unless one shut down the dimension around her and stop her from utilising her skills, there was little to no way of killing her except with brute force.
{To think that you would receive the title of Benevolent Saint... there really is a bug in the system. You of all people shouldn¡¯t be getting that title.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯What? I get that I¡¯m no saint but I¡¯m pretty benevolent no?¡¯ Shiro pouted.
{The day you¡¯re benevolent is the day you¡¯re ok with letting the Light God live. Plus, weren¡¯t you thinking of using the government made army as a meat shield to rescue Yuki? That¡¯s not so benevolent now is it?} Nimue retorted as Shiro only coughed.
Averting her gaze, she focused back on reality.
"Anyways, now that I have this skill along with the title, I can definitely say that we might have a chance to win if we¡¯re in a group fight. This is the best chance that we can get to get rid of this problem until the uing age." Shiro smiled.
"But keep in mind that since he¡¯s a god, it won¡¯t be so easy topletely kill him. There¡¯s a good chance that this body is just an avatar for him. Killing it wouldn¡¯t do anything and his main body would be in perfect condition. Of course, I don¡¯t know the details so killing him once might kill him for good. Who knows. Regardless, there is one key point and that is we need to kill him now if we want to have a safe time cultivating our strength until theing age of demons and gods. If he¡¯s allowed to continue to grow now, he may very well sabotage humanity before we can even step on the starting line." She followed up as the party nodded their heads.
"So what do you suggest then?" Nan Tian asked with a smile.
"I suggest that we send some scouts into the dungeon. Namely my drones. While they¡¯re scouting out the situation, we¡¯ll try to stop the dungeon from expanding so no one else is forcefully dragged away. Not only that, but I¡¯ll also be developing a Realm Node to guarantee our escape if things start to go south. Plus, this is actually beneficial for us. During the time that we¡¯re spending here, I can use it to obtain charges for my Grace skill. Once I get 10 charges, we¡¯ll attack the dungeon." Shiro suggested.
Hearing her proposition, the party agreed with her reasoning and started to prepare for the battle in the dungeon.
Nan Tian sent the sect a new message containing some small details about Shiro¡¯s skill so that they could guarantee safety in battle. That way, there¡¯s a higher chance for the other elders to join in.
As for Keiko, she did the same and kept some details from the government. All they needed to know was that Shiro was their lifeline and her healing skill is better in arge army. The more people they have, the more impact her skill would have.
There were a few rumours of the government making huge movements as people were confused as to why they¡¯re pulling back a few of the finest fighters from the front lines. With so many high level adventurers being redirected elsewhere, many could guess that it was to deal with a threat that was much bigger than the demons.
Soon, 2 days passed as Shiro had spent this time scouting out the inside of the dungeon. With a few of her camouged drones surveilling the situation inside the dungeon, she made sure that they would leave a few hidden nodes for her to scan the internalposition of this dimension.
Of course, she did run into some trouble at the start since the connection with the drone would be severed and they would ¡¯dpose¡¯ on the spot due to the fail safe that she had incorporated.
However, with Estre¡¯s help and her prototype Realm Nodes that she crafted using Estre¡¯s Magic as a base, she was able to create a remote that helped her with controlling her drones despite them being in a different dimension. Thus, allowing her to see what was happening in the dungeon even though she wasn¡¯t physically inside it.
As the second day came to an end, both the Martial Hero and a few Elder¡¯s from Nan Tian¡¯s sect had arrived in the vige.
Chapter 515 Attack Plan
Chapter 515 Attack n
Inviting them to the inn, Shiro decided to have Nan Tian and Keiko give them a run down.
"So I heard from the government that this threat was one that needed all of our cooperation and that there are several innocents stuck in that dungeon right?" The martial hero, Ling Tian, asked with a serious expression.
"Indeed. The threat level of our opponent is exceedingly high. We have proof to suggest that even with all the hero¡¯s gathered, it would be difficult to defeat him. Therefore, we¡¯ll be waiting a few more days for more reinforcements. The government has stated that the attack force will be arriving in another day or two." Keiko replied.
"I see... In that case can you tell me why a B ranked adventurer is partaking in this operation despite the high risks? We don¡¯t want to have any unneeded casualties." Ling Tian asked while gesturing to Shiro who was sipping on some juice.
"Sup." She smiled.
"You see, she¡¯s the one with the healing spell that can heal everyone. Her presence will be required on the battlefield. Not as an attack force but rather the back-line support." Keiko exined.
"That makes sense. So is there anything you can tell me about the inside of the dungeon so far?" Ling Tian asked.
"Of course. However, we¡¯ll go over the entire situation once our friend there has given the elders a rundown of the situation first. It¡¯ll be better for everyone to discuss the n together after all." Keiko nced towards Nan Tian who was talking to three elders right now.
"Speaking of your friend, howe there are three level 500batants that I¡¯ve never seen before? If they¡¯re this powerful, should they not help out in the front lines?" Ling Tian furrowed his brows.
"You see, Martial Hero, we already have plenty of people securing the front lines. However, while everyone¡¯s attention is gathered on the front lines, the dangers in the back are ignored. Such as what happened with the dragon a while ago along with the current situation. Naturally, having a few level 500batants in the backline will make the ce a safe ce for those that are lower levelled." Shiro said with a smile.
Hearing her statement, Ling Tian furrowed his brows for a moment before nodding his head.
Waiting for a few moments, Nan Tian had finished talking to elders and had gestured for them to take a seat.
Seeing that everyone was now ready, Shiro drank the rest of her juice and stood up.
Throwing a holographic device on the table, she activated it and a map of the entire dungeon could be seen with only a few missing parts that she could not scout out.
"In the two days that we¡¯ve been scouting inside the dungeon through various means, I have constructed this map without notifying our enemy. The empty spots you see are locations where any attempts to scout would be found out instantly.
"As you can see so far, the inside of the dungeon is ridiculously vast. Even now, the edge of the dungeon is expanding as we speak. We have tried to slow down the expansion using a few methods but the effects were minimal. We¡¯ve already sent out an evacuation notice to this vige as they¡¯re preparing to leave as we speak." Shiro exined while gesturing to the borders of the map.
"Do we know where this threat is located within the dungeon?" One of the Elders asked. His name was Liang Jie and he was a full offensive fighter with a sturdy physique. His appearance was quite young as he looked to be someone in histe 30¡¯s but Shiro knew that he was much much older.
"Somewhat. For you see, the threat would travel around the dungeon and leave in certain intervals. From this, we can gather that he would only asionally stay inside the dungeon to check up on those he has kept in his farm. There seems to be a main ¡¯doorway¡¯ which he enters and leaves through. Since this is a manmade dungeon, the edges are rather unstable, which allows us to invade without notifying him should we act fast. As for his main residence within the dungeon, we can only guess that he resides around this area." Shiro replied while pointing at one of the biggest unknown points on the map.
"If we had attempted to scout out the area, we would have been discovered and that would have ruined our current advantage." She shook her head.
"I see... Good jobss. Normally, youngsters would be hasty and run any sort of advantage we have. I like how you operate." Liang Jieughed as the other elders only chuckled since they appreciated her cautiousness. Plus, since Nan Tian had already informed them that she was technically part of his branch sect as a member, they had a better opinion about her.
"I just want to ask, what is the main goal of this operation. Is it to eliminate this threat or is it to save everyone inside the dungeon? So far, we know that there are people being farmed for EXP but we don¡¯t know how many are being kept captive." Ling Tian narrowed his eyes since his prioritiesy with rescue rather than killing.
"Do not worry, I have already drafted up an estimated number of captives held within the dungeon. However, unless we deal with the threat, he will continue to collect people for EXP. Anyways, since you are all curious with the number of captives, I may as well show you on the map. First, as a whole." Just as Shiro said this, a mass of red dots lit up on the map.
"Each of these dots represent a captive." She reminded as the neers paused in shock.
The holographic skyscr.a.p.ers were now filled to the brim with red lights while there were even a few that were hidden underground. Not only that, but they could also see a stream of red dots within each mountain. Somewhat reminiscent of tree roots, stretching across the entire dungeon map.
"As you can see, the number of captives are off the charts. And this is even when we¡¯re ignoring therge chunks of missing information that we have yet to gather on the map. We can only presume that the ones with higher potential are kept in these areas." Shiro exined.
"In terms of pure numbers, how many captives are we looking at?" Ling Tian asked as he felt sick seeing so many people being cultivated like vegetables for their EXP.
"We¡¯re looking at a minimum of 400,000 Captives." Shiro replied after a short pause.
"400 thousand!?"
Hearing this number, the four now truly understood how much of a danger this threat was. They knew that this number was just the CURRENT number of captives. Nothing about the previous years. For all they know, he could have killed well over a million people at this point.
"Indeed. Which is why we¡¯ll need to make sure that we¡¯re working fast when we decide to invade the dungeon. If we¡¯re a few stepste, all of the captives could be dead." Shiro nodded with a frown.
"Are we able to urge the attack force to hurry up? The more time we waste here, the higher the number of casualties." Ling Tian frowned.
"Don¡¯t be so hasty. If we urge the attack force to arrive quickly, theirrge scale movement may startle our enemy. So far, there had only been rumours of the government gathering people. Since the threat in mind has been doing this for quite a while, I doubt he has the energy to prepare at every rumour of a gathering. Hence why we need them to be careful. Thankfully, Keiko had already ryed this information to the government and this is why they¡¯ll be arriving a littlete to the vige. But once they do, we¡¯ll be able to attack immediately." Shiro replied.
"I only have one concern over this entire operation." Another Elder said as all eyes were on him.
"What¡¯s to guarantee that the threat wouldn¡¯t escape the moment he senses arge number of people entering his realm?"
"I understand your concerns but you don¡¯t need to worry. For you see, mypanion has a high degree of mastery over realms. When the attack force is here, she¡¯ll bring everyone to a separate realm. This will make it so that there is only one mana signature whiches from her. However, we can go further with this. You see, she has a contract with me. I¡¯ll be able to bring her inside my mana realm, meaning all the enemy feels is the weak signaling from me, who isn¡¯t even A ranked yet." Shiro smiled as the elders were surprised at this revtion.
The image of a lone girl suddenly summoning an army to assist her was one that sent a small shiver down their spine. If they have everyone prepare their best spells and hold them within the realm, they¡¯ll be able to deal some heavy damage to the enemy the moment they are summoned.
Feeling good about the operation, they continued to discuss a few key points through the night.
Chapter 517 Final Preparations Part 1
Chapter 517 Final Preparations Part 1
ncing at the first wave of the attack force, she could see that around 3,000 adventurers had arrived.
Scanning through the crowd, she immediately noticed a few that seemed like they could bemanders.
Taking a mental note of their appearance and name, Shiro made her way back to the inn.
Calling another meeting with the elders and heroes, she had them gather in the canteen.
"Right then, with the first attack force arriving, I¡¯ll hand you these." Shiro smiled and produced a few earpieces.
Looking at them, the elders furrowed their brows since they had their own. If anything, they could just link up the channel and it¡¯ll be fine.
"Before you say anything, you might want to have a look at the skills attached to the earpieces." Shiro chuckled since appearances were deceiving.
[Earpiece ¨C Purple]
A special earpiece that is imbued with two skills that may help one out in the battlefield.
Skill 1 ¨C Commander.
When activated, a map of the battlefield is disyed as a hologram in front of you. You may interact with the hologram and the soldiers will feel a small urge to move in ordance to what you have done to the hologram.
Skill 2 ¨C Inspire.
When activated, your words carry authority and inspiration with them. The morale will increase easily depending on what you say and the soldiers are more inclined to follow your orders to a certain extent.
Reading the two skills, the elders were rather surprised that Shiro could find so many copies of the same earpiece.
Even if they didn¡¯t have the Commander skill, they would be fine with the Inspire skill since raising morale and having troops listen to you was very important on the battlefield. However, the fact that the earpiece has a skill Like Commander made it something incredible.
"How does the skill Commander work? Have you tested it out?" Liang Jie asked curiously. So far, he had a really good opinion of Shiro and her work was always done to the best of her abilities. A hard worker and one that didn¡¯t spare any effort in making sure that everything will work. Him asking her about this was just so that the other elders would be pacified about a new item.
"Indeed I have. I can tell you my theory on how it works if you want to know?" Shiro replied with a nod.
Of course, her theory was in fact reality since it was created through abination of her skills that she had stored up. Most of them having to do with shadows and puppeteering.
"Oh? Please enlighten me." Liang Jie replied.
"You see, when you activate this skill, it links up to all the shadows on the field. Mainly the ones that are under your subordinates. Afterwards, it will then measure your strength against theirs. If it¡¯s higher, it will stimte a dangerous feeling from inside the shadow. Making them want to avoid it unconsciously. Using this unconscious fear, they will move ording to how you control them on the map. As for how this fear will control them, the details are more to do with the psychological thought process rather than magic."
As she was exining the theory behind the Commander Skill, she could see the other elders epting the idea and grab an earpiece for themselves. Such an item would be extremely helpful.
"Say, how did you get so many of these?" The Martial Hero asked with a frown. If they had this on the front lines, the situation would be less stressful on those in charge. After all, in a heated battle, it was quite difficult for people to hear orders over the shouting and magic casting.
"Let¡¯s just say it¡¯s a trade secret. We¡¯re in a partnership right now to take down this threat. I¡¯ll be providing you with everything that may help and in return, you will not question me about where I had received these items ok?" Shiro ¡¯smiled¡¯.
"Of course, I¡¯ll be taking them back at the end of the battle since these are my items." She followed up.
Snapping her finger, the earpiece in the Martial Hero¡¯s hands disintegrated before reappearing back in her palms.
Seeing this, the Martial Hero knew that this was a subtle warning for him to keep his nose out of her business. Respecting her privacy, he decided to back off. Everyone had their secrets, if she didn¡¯t want to share her¡¯s then so be it.
"Now then, if you don¡¯t mind, I have other tasks toplete." Shiro smiled before standing up. Leaving the inn with Keiko, she started to make her way to the attack force. After all, she still needed to ce a few monitoring ch.i.p.s on their body so that she could use her Grace Skill on time.
Just as she was about to activate her stealth skills, she realised that it would probably be better for Keiko to do it since she was someone who focused around assassination and stealth.
"Keiko, if you don¡¯t mind, are you able to do me a favour?" Shiro asked.
"Of course. What do you need?" Keiko replied.
"Are you able to help me distribute these amongst the 3,000 adventurers that came with the attack force? You need to make sure that each of them has one and that they don¡¯t notice it on their body. I need this to monitor their health and activate the grace skill to the best of its effect." Shiro exined while showing her a tiny chip.
"I see... sure, I can do that. But you¡¯ll need 3,000 of these."
"Don¡¯t worry about that, I can make more myself." Shiro whispered since everything was created from her Nanomancer ss.
"Ah right, you have that don¡¯t you. Honestly, I keep forgetting how broken your ss is. You can make anything you want as long as you have the blueprint." Keiko whispered back since Shiro had described how her ss worked to Keiko in brief detail.
"Yup. So don¡¯t worry about it and help me distribute these ok?" Shiro smiled.
"Sure, I¡¯ll probably get it done by the time the second wave arrives. I need to make sure they don¡¯t notice it after all." Keiko nodded.
"That¡¯s fine. In the meantime, is there anything you want me to do for you while you deal with this?" Shiro asked.
"Nah, most of my jobs are done. Anyways, give me the ch.i.p.s, I¡¯ll go hand these out now." Keiko smiled as Shiro nodded.
Making 3,000 ch.i.p.s for each of the adventurers, Shiro gave them to Keiko in the form of a small box.
"Tap it once to make a chip. There are 3,000 ch.i.p.s stored in this." Shiro exined.
Taking the box with a nod, Keiko activated her stealth and started to distribute these amongst the attack force without anyone knowing.
{Why aren¡¯t you telling her the second use of these ch.i.p.s?} Nimue asked curiously.
¡¯If I did, it would make her suspicious of everyone around her and we don¡¯t need to sow distrust this early on.¡¯ Shiro replied with a shake of her head.
{Even so, did you spot a few adventurers that seemed fishy?} Nimue frowned.
¡¯Yes but we don¡¯t know their origins. They might be part of the government sent to keep an eye on everything or they might be spies sent by the Light God. We don¡¯t know. Hence why I¡¯ll be monitoring them extremely closely with the ch.i.p.s. Should they use mana or a device to contact anyone, I¡¯ll be notified. At that point, all I need to do is to hack their devices to see who they¡¯re working for and eliminate them as nned. Plus, even if they don¡¯t act now and instead act in the middle of the battle, I can stop their use of mana with this chip and have Keiko assassinate them.¡¯ Shiro smiled coldly.
Seeing this, Nimue only chuckled.
{And this is exactly why it was strange for you to have the benevolent saint title. What kind of saint ces trackers and mana restrictors onto her allies?}
¡¯Me?¡¯ Shiroughed.
Joking around with Nimue for a few short moments, Shiro decided to see what Nan Tian was up to. Asking a few of the elders about his location, they replied that he took a short trip back to his branch to get some weapons for this fight.
Nodding her head, Shiro went back to her room for now. Waving her hand, a holographic monitor appeared in front of her as green dots could be seen with their health percentage disyed above them.
Seeing more dots appearing, Shiro knew that Keiko was working quite efficiently.
¡¯At this rate, she¡¯ll be finished an hour or so before the second wave arrives.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself beforeying back on the bed. Once the second wave arrives and Keiko distributes the ch.i.p.s amongst them, they¡¯ll be ready to attack the dungeon. Plus, since it was at night, the Light God will be at a slight disadvantage.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro nced down at her hands and saw that they were shaking ever so slightly.
Balling her hands into a fist to stop the shaking, she red at the ceiling. It was now all or nothing.
Chapter 518 Final Preparations Part 2
Chapter 518 Final Preparations Part 2
As the second wave of the attack force arrived in the vige, Shiro had Estre prepare to escort them into her realm so that they could hide their number advantage. Of course, she also had Keiko distribute more of the ch.i.p.s so that every single one of the adventurers had a chip with them.
Once she was sure that everyone was given a chip, she sent a notice to Nan Tian to remind him that everything was ready and that he should start making his way back from the branch. To which he only replied with:
[I¡¯ll be there don¡¯t worry.]
Seeing his response, Shiro only shrugged before putting her phone away. Since he told her not to worry, she won¡¯t.
After which, she instructed Keiko to lead everyone inside Estre¡¯s dimension.
Sitting in the corner of Estre¡¯s Realm, Shiro watched as Keiko, the Martial Hero and the elders talked to everyone about the uing fight. While they were doing this, she was tapping away at herputer.
"As you all know, this is the first time in while that this many high level adventurers have gathered to face up against a single threat. Even the rebellion 15 years ago in Rui didn¡¯t require this much man power so you know the threat is serious. With us, we have two heroes, a total of 8 elders that are level 500, a level 500 spirit that will help us go undetected and finally, we have you. The key yers of this operation." Keiko shouted out as the adventurers listened with a serious expression.
"Naturally, for an operation to require this much manpower, you know the risk of death is high. HOWEVER! What if I told you that we have a healing skill that can heal everyone here by a minimum of 40% of your health per cast?" Keiko grinned as amotion rang out within the attack force.
"Though a skill that can heal everyonees with a cost. There are only four charges of this skill, meaning you basically have 4 additional lives. Of course, this does not mean you should throw it away without a care in the world. The healing is limited so you still need to take caution." She warned as the excitement died out just a little.
Seeing that they settled down a little, Keiko nodded her head in satisfaction.
"Now that you know what¡¯s backing you up in theing fight, I shall now tell you our strategy. Since there are more than 6,000 of us, getting the advantage at the start of the fight is going to be difficult if we don¡¯t surround the enemy. Hence why we¡¯ll be waiting inside this realm. Estre, the one that brought you in here, will be ready to teleport everyone out the moment wee into contact with the enemy. Hence why I¡¯ll be needing everyone to stand on guard inside this realm while we invade the dungeon.
"As for some pre battle preparation, we¡¯ll assign you into groups of 500 and each of you will be under a different leader." Keiko called out.
Standing up, Shiro walked over to Keiko and handed her a few sheets of paper. These were the groups that she had assigned while she was exining the situation to her.
During those moments, Shiro used the ch.i.p.s that were present on the adventurer¡¯s bodies to find their identification within the government¡¯s database. Naturally, there were a few defensive measures but Shiro bypassed them with ease.
Setting it up so that each group had amazing synergy with each other, Shiro made sure that the suspicious individuals were put in Nan Tian¡¯s group so that he could deal with them swiftly.
Not only that, but Shiro also passed her a holographic device that would show the adventurers a few of the Light God¡¯s skills so that they could mentally prepare.
As this was happening, the adventurers were naturally curious about who she was but brushed it off as Keiko¡¯s assistant for now. After all, she wasn¡¯t a part of the attack force and since Keiko didn¡¯t say anything about her, they believed that she wasn¡¯t anyone important.
"Let¡¯s see, I¡¯ll have the esteemed elders here help me organize all of you into groups. In the meantime, I will now disy a few of the skills that you need to watch out for when the fight begins." Keiko called out while pointing at a second hologram. On that, the Light God¡¯s skills were disyed in categories.
Single Target, Multi Target, Self Heal/Buff, Enemy Debuff, Disengage and Passives.
The single targets spells were near instantaneous due to the fact that his main element was light. However, there was a way to get past this. If you have a high level reflective skill such as Crystal Maze, you would be able to mitigate most of the damage.
Since Crystal Maze was a high level tank spell, Shiro made sure that each group had at least ten people with this spell so that they could rotate between one another in case the spell was on cool down.
As for the Multi Target spells, the best way to stop them was to have a disruption mage on standby and cancel out certain parts of this magic circle. Most would think that one should just cancel the entire thing but by targeting certain portions that focus on increasing the damage, the Light God¡¯s Multi Attack spells would be about as harmful as torchlight. With this, one could save more mana since not everyone could regenerate it at a monstrous pace like how Shiro could.
Of course, Shiro would also make sure that she could assist in taking out the magic circles since her skill set made her a pretty good anti mage personnel.
Unfortunately, they couldn¡¯t do much about the Self Heal/Buff and the Enemy Debuff. The best they could do was damage him as much as they could so that they would cancel out his healing. Naturally, there was a giant red banner saying: No Light Magic Allowed. The reason was self exnatory since who in their right mind would use Light against a LIGHT GOD.
Though Shiro didn¡¯t tell the elders nor the attack force about the Light God¡¯s true identity. All they know is that they¡¯re fighting against a psychopath with a god and heroplex. After all, if they knew that they were fighting a god, she doubted that a lot of them would stay around to see the end of this.
Finally, the disengage was the most troublesome. He had quite a few skills but his favourite one was when he would blind everyone with a bright sh of light. In that time, he was able to teleport to any ce the light had touched. The only way they could counter this was if they sealed the area around him.
As the adventurers read about the skills, they couldn¡¯t believe that a single person could have this many troublesome skills and passives. If he was under any form of light, his healing would be increased. If he was damaged by light, he would be healed for twice the amount of damage done. In daylight, he would gain certain buffs and so on.
Just looking at this list told the adventurers that this fight was going to be a tedious one. A battle of attrition that couldst a lot longer than they had expected.
While this was happening, Shiro hopped out of the realm to call Nan Tian and ask him where he was. After all, they were about to enter the dungeon soon and Shiro didn¡¯t want to wait too long. They¡¯ve already waited for three days and the more they wait, the more danger the captives will be in.
Just as she was about to call Nan Tian, she realised that he was walking into the vige right now.
"Took you awhile. What did you even take from your vault?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Oh just a few things to help us in the fight. If this enemy is as troublesome as you had described, I¡¯ll need to make sure that he doesn¡¯t split out of our reach at the veryst moment. Who knows if we¡¯ll have another chance like this? After all, he did escape the government¡¯s radar despite having kidnapped so many people. I¡¯ve already collected a few records from our scouts in the sect and the government had been trying to find the culprit for many years but to no avail. Many of them dismissed it as the ck monarchy¡¯s doing but now we know the truth." Nan Tian shrugged as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn. Anyways, the operation is about to begin. The attack force had already been split into several groups and you¡¯ll take charge of one of them."
"Got it. Let¡¯s kill this b*stard." Nan Tian smiled since he knew the Light God was the biggest obstacle in Shiro¡¯s life. Once they got rid of him, she could rest easy knowing that he won¡¯t be bothering them until the age of demons and gods.
Hearing his response, Shiro only smiled and brought him into Estre¡¯s Realm. Once she enters the dungeon, they were going to finally confront her mortal enemy.
Chapter 526 Finding Yuki
Chapter 526 Finding Yuki
As she stepped into the spot, she could feel her body be weightless.
"Mn?" Raising her eyebrows, Shiro noticed that her elements seemed to be floating around her in the form of orbs. The colours matched except for the mystery element that she had recently acquired. The orb that represented the mystery element was strange...
It would pulse and change shapes but always return back to its orb form. It was almost as if something was trying to break out of the shell but would alwayse just short of piercing the outeryer.
[You have 24 hours to ¡¯craft¡¯ your sword using all of the skills avable to you. Your mental image of the final product must be clear otherwise the oue may vary.]
"I have 24 hours to craft my sword huh? Interesting." Shiro grinned as this was the perfect opportunity to create the most destructive sword. One that used the mystery element as the base and attacked the core of their being. However, due to the fact that she did not fully understand how the mystery element worked and the potential it held, she would need some time to study her materials.
Reaching out for the orb that represented the element, Shiro wondered if she could get a few live test subjects to experiment on.
As if reading her mind, several monsters appeared in front of her, unmoving. It ranged from small monsters such as goblins to huge ones such as wyvern. Noticing that they seemed to be soulless for ack of a better word, Shiro wondered if she could actually use this element against them. After all, it was one that retrieved their code from the system.
"Let¡¯s see... Since I can only extract the code once a month, maybe there¡¯s another way for me to use it as an attack. Much like soul attacks, maybe this one can directly bypass their armour and attack them at their core? While I wouldn¡¯t be able to extract their code, killing them should be a piece of cake. Likewise, if this works out, I¡¯ll be able to make some bullets that have the same properties." Shiro chuckled as there was a sadistic glint in her eyes.
Plus, if she was able to harness the mystery element in an offensive way, maybe there¡¯s a chance for her to apply it in a few ¡¯hobbies¡¯ of her¡¯s. The first example being torture. She could already imagine how much pain this could inflict as even the Light God cried out from the damage when she activated the skill.
Thinking about the agonising faces of her enemies as they suffered from the attack caused her to giggle slightly as she immediately started to work on her new sword.
###
Meanwhile, in the divine realm, the Light God conjured a mirror up and looked at his bare chest. Right over where his heart would be, a circuit like pattern could be seen as it tried to spread to the rest of his body. However, he had already ced a seal around this spot and prevented any more damage from being inflicted upon him.
The only thing that he couldn¡¯t stop was the pain it would feel with every pulse of the circuit. It was as if someone reached deep into his brain and started to pull away at his flesh.
Gritting his teeth, he put his clothes back on as there was now a murderous glint in his eyes.
"Just you wait, the first thing I¡¯m going to do when the new age arrives is kill you on the spot." He scowled with seething fury.
Dismissing the mirror, he was going to invade a few quest dungeons to see if he could find a better avatar than Lisandra for his daughter.
Watching him leave, a woman chuckled as sheid on the bed. If Shiro was here, she would recognise her as the previous Light Goddess, not Aekari¡¯s daughter.
¡¯How far will he stray? How far will he go to defy his fate?¡¯ The Light Goddess thought while closing her eyes once more.
###
After Nan Tian carried Shiro back to the inn, the rescue operation continued without a hitch. Killing the guards and freeing the captives, they managed to save a grand total of 550,000 captives with quite a few that were in A ss.
Some that were reported to be missing or killed were found after a quick scan of the guild database.
However, despite the fact that they had saved a lot of people, the attack force did suffer a huge number of casualties that resulted in them only having 3,200 members left from the initial 6,000.
In addition to this, a few of the elders had also suffered near fatal wounds during the fight and were saved by Shiro.
Keeping a note of this in their mind, they decided to repay Shiro for her help should she require it in the future.
Sending Nan Tian a message about their decision, they started to make their way back to their branches before the government started asking about their identities.
While everyone was cleaning up after the battle and making a note on who was saved, Keiko searched around the main base for Yuki¡¯s whereabouts. After all, she was their main target for this rescue mission.
Unfortunately, even after searching the entirety of the main base and even discovering a few vaults along the way, she was not able to find Yuki at all.
Sending a message to Nan Tian about this problem, Keiko waited to see if he had anything that might help them track Yuki down.
[Nan Tian: Do you have anything that might belong to Yuki? If you have that, I¡¯ll be able to use one of my items to track her down.]
Seeing this response, Keiko immediately told him about the messages that she had sent out to inform her of Shiro¡¯s situation.
[Nan Tian: Hmm... that would work. Come to the inn and I¡¯ll give you the item. I don¡¯t exactly want to leave Shiro alone when she¡¯s in this state.]
[Keiko: Sure.]
Asking Estre to escort her out of the dungeon, Keiko made her way to the inn and got the item from Nan Tian.
"This is the essence tracking incense. Burn the item belonging to the person you want to track and it¡¯ll lead them to you. Keep note that you should use this inside the dungeon since it wouldn¡¯t track them if they¡¯re in a different dimension." Nan Tian exined as he handed her the incense.
"I see... Is there a time limit to the tracking?" Keiko asked.
"20 minutes. It tracks for 20 minutes and it¡¯ll wear off after that."
"Ok, keep an eye on Shiro ok?" Keiko smiled and started to walk away. At this point, she trusted Nan Tian to look after Shiro since he took several near lethal blows in order to keep her safe. Not only that, he had also sacrificed a lot of his levels just so that we could even out the ying field.
Making her way back inside the dungeon, she burned the letter with the incense and a faint trail of light could be seen leading back to the main building.
"Hm? She was in there? But didn¡¯t I just check it earlier?" Keiko muttered with a frown before dashing towards it once more.
Following the trail, she started to navigate through the building with ease. This eventually led her to the back of the building where she could see what seems to be the core of this entire ce. Looking around the room, she couldn¡¯t spot anyone but the trail was telling her to go behind the core.
Furrowing her brows, Keiko continued to follow the trail.
Destroying any wall that blocked her, she had to fend off a few barriers before she finally reached a hidden room.
Within the hidden room, a giant ss column could be seen as there were several figures sealed inside the ss.
Recognising Yuki to be one of them, Keiko was about to shatter the ice when Estre stopped her.
"What are you doing." Keiko asked coldly as Estre only shook her head.
"This is the fuel cell for the dungeon. Her mana is being used to power this ce. If you destroy it, the dungeon will copse down on everyone, killing us in the process. With how the empress described the human EXP farm, I¡¯m guessing the man would have gotten the EXP once they died.
"He¡¯s essentially killing two birds with one stone." Estre exined as Keiko gritted her teeth.
If they destroyed the ss, the dungeon would kill everyone. If they didn¡¯t destroy the ss, Yuki and the people being used as the fuel would die regardless.
"Estre, I got a crazy thought. What if we used Shiro¡¯s Realm Node as an emergency exit? We¡¯ll evacuate everyone and once they¡¯re out, me and you teleport these people out of the ss and teleport out using the node." Keiko suggested.
Hearing her suggestion, Estre frowned.
"If we¡¯re slow, we¡¯ll be killed."
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve got a n." Keiko smiled since escaping dangerous situations was her forte. As long as she did everything correctly, she¡¯ll be able to save everyone in the ss without a single casualty.
Chapter 527 Attunement Islands
Chapter 527 Attunement Inds
*Sigh...
Scratching her head in annoyance, Shiro looked at the broken corpse in front of her and frowned.
She was currently struggling to utilise the new mystery element as all of her attempts would just result in brute force. This was theplete opposite of what she wanted since her goal was to have a sword that ignored defence.
"I guess it is a bit tough for me to make something like that. Hmm... maybe I should mix it with some other elements." She muttered while ncing at the element orb.
Crossing her legs, she rested her chin on her left palm while her elbow was on her knee.
"What to do, what to do... After all that experimenting, I only have around 8 hours left."
Closing her eyes, she thought about any potential synergy between her elements.
¡¯Hmm, for me to create a defence ignoring skill/sword, my nanobots are probably the best choice. Though... they¡¯re not exactly elements since I don¡¯t have an attunement for the- Wait a minute. Despite having ess to nanobots and them technically being an element I can use, I don¡¯t have an ind for them? Plus, the ss was man made to begin with so maybe I need to ¡¯make¡¯ the attunement?¡¯ Shiro raised her eyebrows in a sudden turn of realisation.
However, despite this realisation, she needed to first understand how to make it an attunement.
¡¯Hmm... from what I know, an attunement is when an elemental ind is created from that element inside your mana realm. It joins up with your mana links and constantly fuels mana through them, allowing them to be used at any moment.
¡¯But with my nanobots, they don¡¯t have the same treatment. In fact, if I had to describe it, it would be more akin to me being the ind itself. Mana passes through me and I create the ¡¯element¡¯. If I make a proxy/ind to do this for me, there¡¯s a good chance for the system to recognise it as an attunement. Though... I can¡¯t help but feel that there¡¯s more to it than that. If all I had to do was to create an ind, there would be plenty of attunements to go around the ce.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Unless it was a special circ.u.mstance, you were stuck with the element that you started with. Hence why it was rare for a person like her who had acquired multiple elements for her to use at will.
For her to try to make a new attunement with her nanobots, it was akin to defying the natural order.
"Nanomancer is already a ss that wasn¡¯t supposed to exist. Since I¡¯m breaking the natural order, I might as well go all in. No point in finishing things in a half assed way." Shiro grinned as her mana surged.
Even though she couldn¡¯t ess her mana realm in her current state, she could still manipte her mana. Therefore, as long as her control was up to par, she could remotely create an ind and obtain a new attunement for her sword.
Spending the next few hours meditating on the spot while focusing on controlling her mana, Shiro¡¯s mana realm started to shift as a new ind was slowly being created.
Meanwhile, Nimue could only sit dumbfounded in the middle of her mana realm.
During the fight, a foreign ind appeared in her mana realm. One that would ¡¯glitch¡¯ out asionally and flicker between forms. Sometimes it was a fiery hellscape while others it was an ind made of code. It was even an ind of mist at one point!
Frankly, Nimue didn¡¯t want to approach the ind at all cost since she felt dangerous just being remotely near it. Understanding that the ind represented an element that could tear out the code of a being from the system, Nimue wanted nothing to do with it even if it was an ¡¯ally¡¯.
However, just as she was finally getting used to the presence of this ind, another ind started to form as the mana condensed together into a mass of nanobots that would pulse with life.
"What the f*ck are you even doing Shiro!?!? If you¡¯re unconscious! Stay unconscious! Why the hell do you have to create random crap even while you¡¯re recovering!" Nimue cried out in bitterness as her temporary home was bing more and more dangerous.
If she approached the fire ind, she¡¯d be hurt as her water body would slowly evaporate. While it wouldn¡¯t kill her, it was still less than pleasant. The same would happen on the other inds with varying degrees of harm but the only exception is Nature and Oceanic Abyss.
Now that Shiro¡¯s mana realm had two additional ¡¯upants¡¯ that felt more dangerous than friendly, Nimue decided to permanently take refuge in either the Oceanic Abyss ind or the Nature ind.
"I¡¯m gonna make sure I have a good talk with herter. There are spirits living in her body after all. What if Attie identally walked to the new inds?" Nimue frowned before focusing her mind back on making sure Shiro¡¯s body was in tip top condition.
"Hais... I suppose I am still freeloading after all." She sighed.
As Nimue continued to make sure Shiro¡¯s body was in good condition, the new ind started to grow in size as it was now equal to the totalnd mass of three inds.
Created from nanobots, the surface of the ind waspletely metallic. Swords, bows, guns and other weaponry were sticking out from the ground as if they were grave crosses at a church. Pieces of what would be an orbital cannon would be the foundation of a mountain while lightning would flicker through the ind.
However, despite the ind being created, Shiro still didn¡¯t get the notification for the attunement as she could only sit in wonder as to why that was the case.
¡¯I know for a fact that I¡¯m so close now. I¡¯m just missing that final breakthrough that I need.¡¯ Shiro thought with frustration. She could faintly feel the presence of the ind so she knew that she was sessful with the creation. But the fact that the system still hadn¡¯t recognised it made her go mental about what she was missing.
It was akin to having OCD and seeing a picture that was tilted to the side but not being able to do anything with it. The mere thought of her being so close but not being able to aplish what she wanted to frustrate her to no end.
At this point, it had just reached the 22 hour mark. With only 2 hours left to create her sword, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder if she was ever going toplete this on time.
¡¯Am I going to fail?¡¯ She wondered before shaking her head and dismissed the thought.
¡¯Rather than humouring the idea of failure, I¡¯d rather spend the remaining time thinking up anything I can do in order to achieve my goals.¡¯
Quickly scrolling through her list of skills along with the ones in her database, she started to experiment once more but this time it was akin to randomness along the lines of; if Ibine this skill with that, would the oue be something desirable? Would it have synergy? If the answer was yes, she would try it out.
However, despite finding out a few interestingbinations, she couldn¡¯t find anything that matched what she required.
¡¯¡¯Ok, let me go back to the basics. For me to use an attunement, I channel my mana through the ind. For the elements I receive from spirits such as Iziuel, they provide a bit of the mana required through staying on the ind. As for Yin, who helped me obtain Astral rift and Lisandra, who helped me obtain Celestial Star, the contract between us allows for this to happen. Meaning they¡¯re the proxy for me to actually ess the elements. Maybe the missing link is a proxy? I need a proxy for my attunement to actually work." Shiro muttered while looking down at her hands. Thinking about it for a moment, an idea appeared in her mind. Soul Sword. It was a sword that was a crystallised form of her soul.
Since she was now a spirit, her sword could be the bridge for her to be the proxy of her own attunement. After all, the source of her power as a Nanomancer came from nanobots. Without them, it was like asking a chef to cook without ingredients. It wouldn¡¯t work.
With her left hand, she summoned her soul sword.
"If this doesn¡¯t work, it¡¯s back to the drawing board I guess." Shiro chuckled before starting the experiment.
Chapter 535 Clomore - City of Decay
Chapter 535 Clomore - City of Decay
Arriving at the city, Shiro immediately noticed how different it waspared to other cities. Rather than a bright blue sky, there was a gloomy red sky in its ce. Dark clouds loomed over ominously as the wind sounded like a dead man¡¯s scream, echoing in the distance.
The buildings were crafted from a matt ck material that had a texture simr to that of a person¡¯s bone. Each window was reinforced but still cracked under the strange atmosphere of this city.
"Wee to Clomore, aka, the city of decay. The only thing that doesn¡¯t decay in this city are bones and special material crafted from the monsters that reside around the city." Sharis smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Charming ce." Shiro shrugged.
"There are worse ces than this haha, for now though, let¡¯s wait for Yin since she should be arriving soon with my subordinate." Nan Tian smiled.
"Sure. Sharis, is there a caf¨¦ or something nearby? A ce where I can just eat for a bit." Shiro asked.
"Yeah there is, just follow me." Sharis nodded her head and took them into the town.
Taking a few turns into the alleys, which were quite suspicious, they eventually arrived at an inconspicuous store called Taura. Entering through the doors, Sharis looked towards the man behind the counter with a grin.
"ud! I¡¯m here with a few customers for you." Sharis called out with a smile.
"Mn? You¡¯re familiar with this ce?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Yup. You see, I needed to do a few errands in this city, and I happened to chance upon this store. The location¡¯s not that good and the owner runs it for a hobby, but the food and drinks here are great." Sharis chuckled.
"Oh you¡¯re back. I thought you were in a different country for a job?" The man called ud yawnedzily.
He was a man that looked like he was in histe 20¡¯s and he had long hair that was tied up into a low ponytail and a pair of ck rimmed sses. Wearing a waiter¡¯s outfit that consisted of a ck vest, white shirt, ck pants and a bow tie, he looked like a serious man despite his currentzy attitude.
Looking up, he saw Shiro and Nan Tian and quickly sat up straight. Cracking his neck, he brought out a few menus before gesturing for the two of them to sit by one of the tables.
"What can I get for you two?" He asked with a smile.
"What about me? You¡¯re ignoring your friend here you know?" Sharis sighed as she leaned on the counter.
"What kind of friend eats here every time for free? Your money grabber." ud clicked his tongue.
"Oh, but I do a few favours in return though. Remember the Geisha incident?" Sharis grinned.
"That was 2 years ago. *Hais* just get the usual in the back. You can make it yourself since I¡¯m serving these two." He sighed before doing a 180-degree shift in his aura. Fromzy and tired to kind and warm, ud turned towards the duo.
"For a charmingdy such as you, I rmend you the home-made lemon cake that is baked with care. And for a masked gentleman such as yourself, may I rmend you a cup of Paradise? It¡¯s a drink unique to my store." He asked with a smile.
"Oh my, lemon cake you say? I remember enjoying them quite a bit when I had them in other cities so sure, I¡¯ll order a lemon cake. What do you take for payment in this store?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"The payment is rather unique in the sense that it is only obtainable within this city. However, as you are first time customers, I¡¯ll let you have the first meal for free." ud replied.
"Why thank you. If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what is the payment? We might be staying here for a short while so I may return with my daughter." Shiro inquired.
"The payment is something called Revenant Essence that you can obtain when you kill one of the monsters unique to this city. Depending on the size of the monster, a different amount of Revenant Essence will be dropped. As you can guess,rge monsters droprger portions of Revenant Essence." ud exined with a smile.
"I see... Thank you for exining."
"My pleasure. So, what will you have?" ud asked as he brought out his notepad.
"Since you rmended the lemon cake, I¡¯ll have that then. What about you Lil¡¯ Tian?" Shiro nced over to Nan Tian.
"Me? Hm... I¡¯ll have a vani cake then." Nan Tian replied much to the surprise of Shiro since she didn¡¯t expect him to order a cake.
"What? Can¡¯t a man eat some cake?" Nan Tian chuckled.
"Oh no, don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m just surprised that¡¯s all" Shiro shook her head.
"Never took you for a cake person." She smiled.
"Well... I wouldn¡¯t say that either. I¡¯m just curious about why you enjoy eating snacks like this. I never really ate them." Nan Tian replied since he only ate a proper meal with the exception of what Shiro gave him.
"I like them because they¡¯re sweet, I guess. Just something that tastes nice. Before I got my sense of taste back, mana stones were the only thing that tasted like anything and they were really sweet so that might have been the cause." Shiro whispered over.
"I see... Fair enough." Nan Tian nodded.
Waiting for a short moment for the cake to arrive, the two soon saw ud walking out of the kitchen with two slices of cake in hand.
"A lemon cake for thedy and a vani cake for the gent. Please enjoy." ud smiled as Shiro nodded.
"If you don¡¯t mind, why don¡¯t we have a small chat while we wait? I¡¯m rather curious about Miss Sharis. How did you two meet?" Shiro asked.
"Hm, it¡¯s ratherplicated. Let¡¯s just say she helped me and I helped her. Unfortunately, we kind of became friends after a few incidents together." ud sighed.
"What do you mean by ¡¯kind of became friends¡¯? Aren¡¯t we basically best pals?" Sharis grinned as she came out of the kitchen with a rathervish portion of an assortment of snacks on her te.
"Right... Anyways, while you¡¯re here, I might as well warn you all about some recent news. There have been earthquakes and sudden downpour of red water which looks like blood in recent times and the cause is unknown. However, many believe it to be a bad omen since even the monsters are bing restless. I rmend that you finish your business soon before leaving this ce. I¡¯m not one to believe in omens and such but when earthquakes and blood rain happen on a daily basis, even I¡¯m considering the thought of leaving." ud shrugged as she sat behind his counter once more.
"Oh? When did this all start?" Sharis raised her eyebrows since she hadn¡¯t heard of any news regarding these strange phenomenon.
"It started around a week ago. Not a lot of news was written about this since many just believe it to be something unique to this city. After all, where would you see a city under a special condition such as this one? Materials other than those obtained within this ce will decay. Unless you had a self-repair option on your equipment, you¡¯ll soon lose them too." ud yawned.
"True. I have lost a few good daggers to this bloody ce as well." Sharis shrugged while eating her snacks.
Hearing about these activities, Shiro was rather curious but decided not to investigate the matter unless it had something to do with Yin. Right now, she had quite a long list of things to do and this was not one of them.
Finishing the meal with Nan Tian, they talked for a little longer before receiving a message from his subordinates saying that Yin had arrived and was waiting at the teleport shrine.
"Once again, thank you for the meal. When I get the chance, I¡¯ll return." Shiro smiled as ud nodded his head.
"I¡¯ll be back for dinner." Sharis smiled.
"I suppose I¡¯m making food for two then." ud sighed but Shiro could tell that he didn¡¯t mind despite his attitude.
Waving his hand lightly, he watched as the trio made their way out of the store and back towards the city.
###
Making their way back to the teleport shrine, Shiro saw Yin¡¯s familiar face and was about to call out to her. However, after seeing her appearance, she couldn¡¯t help but pause and say the following.
"What the f*ck?"
Chapter 537 Affecting The Past
Chapter 537 Affecting The Past
"I... What the hell?" Shiro muttered in confusion.
"The same reaction I had. I understand that the dungeon in New York had some connections with the faction¡¯s past but I never expected for you to be engraved in our history." Lucius smiled as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"What do you know about that dungeon?" She asked.
"What do I know? I know that each of the trials you can face inside the dungeon is something to boost your stats. Plus, it is also one that puts you in a special setting within the dungeon. What I don¡¯t understand is how or what you did in order to be the ruler of the past. Or rather, a different world. I did do some research and it seems like simr things such as this is happening across the world. People doing story quests and had the records changed if their final results were earth shattering." Lucius replied.
"Oh? There were other cases such as this?" Shiro narrowed her eyes in curiosity.
"Yes, one such example was when an entire country had disappeared after one of the ex heroes hadpleted a story quest. The country was one that had been discovered after the system was integrated and the disappearance of said country caused quite a few people to be erased from this world. After showing some proof through the things he owned, this phenomenon was recorded by the government and everyone on the front lines knows about this since they have the biggest chance in causing this change. Though the problem with this is that it¡¯s very hard to prove that it had actually happened without any evidence." Lucius shook his head.
"Had I not known you, your skill set and your daughter having a connection with the ancestor, I would never have guessed that you managed to pull off such a feat. You¡¯ve basically be the founder of this faction without even knowing it." He chuckled.
"I¡¯ll be honest with you, I don¡¯t really care if I¡¯m the founder or not since I¡¯ve got other things to deal with. Since you have this ce under control, it¡¯s yours." Shiro shrugged.
"I figured as much. Anyways, do you want me to give you a map on all the pieces that we have discovered so far? Since we¡¯re unable to break the seals easily without the dark phoenix blood, we decided to make a map of their location first." Lucius asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, that would be quite helpful."
Hearing her reply, Lucius reached into his inventory and brought out a holographic device of sorts that was shaped like a disk.
cing the disk on the table, a map of their currentnd appeared with red dots for where the pieces are.
"In this city, there are strangely two other pieces besides the one we¡¯re currently excavating now. Whether or not that¡¯s due to the fact that this is the tomb or not, I¡¯m not too sure but the other¡¯s shouldn¡¯t be too hard to reach. Though I do have a few people standing guard so I¡¯ll give you something for them to recognise you. After all, I don¡¯t want you to be killing my subordinates now do I?" Lucius chuckled.
"I suppose not. But do I really look like someone who would just kill people for fun?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"No. However, you look like someone who would do much much worse. Remember what you did to me at the hotel?" Lucius forced a smile as Nan Tian¡¯s ears perked up.
"Mn? What happened?" He asked curiously.
"I loosened his backdoor a bit." Shiro grinned.
"Oh my, you poor man." Nan Tian looked at Lucius with pity as well as surprise. After all, this was a man who survived the Shiro treatment and still wanted to continue business with them. Now that¡¯s what he calls courage.
"Save it. There are more important matters after all. Also, I managed to get some intel on your fight with the kidnapper of thousands of people. I must say, I¡¯m rather surprised to see that your real identity was that of the eldest daughter of the Asakura family." Lucius smiled awkwardly.
"And that¡¯s all you need to know. If you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯ll be taking my leave. Also, are we able to explore the site a little? Since this ce was where we can get an artefact, we might as well do it while we¡¯re here." Shiro asked.
"Yes of course, but before that, let me give you this. It basically makes you a trusted person with authority just below mine. It should allow you to roam the site without any problems. If there are problems, you¡¯re free to give them the ¡¯Shiro treatment¡¯ as long as you don¡¯t kill them." Lucius said while cing an enchanted ornament on the table.
"Are you selling out your people?" Shiro ¡¯smiled.¡¯
"Not quite, I¡¯m just asking you to have mercy on them if they identally give you a hard time." Lucius shook his head.
"Hm, you know what? Sure. I¡¯ll give them some mercy but they¡¯ll have two chances. Piss me off twice and their ass is gone, ok?" Shiro chuckled.
"That¡¯s the best I can ask for." Gesturing for them to leave the office, he sat back and started to type away at hisptop. There was more information about the past but they needed to be cleaned up and tranted first.
The most questionable one he found was a carving of what seemed to be a bomb of sorts which only confused him since there was no way Shiro would have been able to create such a bomb. However, thinking of this, he guessed that perhaps the artefact was something that helped her create this but that was a little insane.
###
Leaving the room, Shiro immediately walked down the steps with Yin and Nan Tian following behind her.
Walking to the entrance of the excavation site without any trouble due to the ornament, Shiro looked up at the statue of Fei Ling and sighed.
Patting the base of the statue, she closed her eyes for a moment before making her way inside the tomb.
"Paying respects for the dead?" Nan Tian asked with a soft smile.
"A little. She was the one who had taught me my current martial arts. Without this, I would have probably died in a few of the situations that I was in. All of my current martial prowess is based on what she had taught me. Plus, her help was incredible in the trial. Without it, I would have struggled for sure." Shiro replied.
"I see... Perhaps I should also pay respects since she is your benefactor." Nan Tian nced back at the statue.
"Do it if you want but you don¡¯t need to."
"I¡¯ll do it then."
Turning around, Nan Tian took a moment to pay respect as well as thanking her for teaching Shiro her martial arts.
While this was happening, Yin did not keep her eyes off one of the walls which confused Shiro a little.
"Is there something wrong Yin?" Shiro asked.
"I think? I¡¯m not sure if it¡¯s bad or not but I keep on getting this nagging feeling in my mind from deep within this tomb. As if there¡¯s something I need to see for myself." Yin replied with narrowed eyes.
"Well we¡¯ll see in a second won¡¯t we? If you feel ufortable, just tell me and we¡¯ll take a moment to rest up." Shiro nodded her head.
After Nan Tian paid his respects, the trio started to venture deeper into the site. Soon, they bumped into a few members of the faction researching the seal on what seems to be a giant set of locked doors.
Showing them the ornament, they allowed Shiro to do whatever she wanted provided that she doesn¡¯t break everything. However, Shiro wasn¡¯t going to do that so they didn¡¯t need to worry.
Walking up to the door, Shiro brushed her finger across the surface and felt a small ripple as it seemed to want to give way the moment she put a little bit of pressure.
¡¯Ah right, after I nearly died, I received the phoenix bloodline didn¡¯t I? So technically, I¡¯m also a phoenix now.¡¯ Shiro muttered in her mind.
However, as it was not the dark phoenix, she wasn¡¯t able to actually push open the door despite theck of resistance from the seal, which was quite strange in Shiro¡¯s books.
Curious to see if an idea of her¡¯s worked or not, Shiro reached into her inventory and pulled out a vial of Yin¡¯s blood that she had collected before in order to purify the rebirth pills.
"Wait how do you still have my blood in a vial?" Yin asked with confusion.
"I never used all of it." Shiro shrugged before pouring a drop on the seal.
The moment the blood dropped on the seal; a ripple started to grow. From barely noticeable torge waves such, the seal eventually shattered into a faint spray of light.
"Ah... well that¡¯s good to know. Though we probably could have just had Yin push it open from the start." Shiro chuckled since she wanted to know this in case they needed other people to recover the artefacts from the other sites.
Shrugging off the idle thoughts, she ced her hand on the door and pushed it open as decades of dust started to fall.
Chapter 538 Old Friend
Chapter 538 Old Friend
Waving the dust from her face, Shiro nced into the tomb despite the shocked faces of the people behind her.
Gesturing for Yin and Nan Tian to follow, they entered the tomb and the door behind them began to close as the seal was activated once more.
"Seems like all we need is your blood. If we need other people to help us collect the pieces, I¡¯ll just give them one of the vials I have left and it¡¯ll be fine." Shiro chuckled as Yin raised her eyebrow
"Isn¡¯t it better for me to be there though?" Yin asked while tilting her head slightly.
"True, I won¡¯t be doing that unless necessary of course. Who knows, you might get some important information left behind by your ancestor." Shiro chuckled.
Making their way deeper into the tomb, Shiro noticed that the pirs that support the infrastructure of this ce had several carvings on the surface which depicted what had happened. Recognising the carving of a girl holding up an item as herself, she nced up and saw another carving of the mana pulse bomb that she had created.
Thinking back to the bomb, she understood that she could create around 10 mana pulse bombs right now at the weakest power output. If she wanted a high power output, she could probably make one without a problem with her current mana count. However, with such high MP regeneration, that wasn¡¯t a problem.
"What did you even do in the quest? These depictions are... rather interesting." Nan Tian asked with a chuckle. He could see a few carvings that had the earth give way for her along with the armies retreating.
"Nothing much. I just nuked one of the countries and killed their king in order to make the other countries submit to me. It worked and I got Yin out of it." Shiro replied nonchntly as Nan Tian suppressed augh that had almost slipped out of his lips.
"You nuked them?" He asked curiously.
"Yeah, they had something called a fabricator. As for why in the hell such an item was even in the past, I have no idea but it allowed me to make a bomb even though I couldn¡¯t use my second ss. My links were fried back then so it¡¯ll be impossible for me to make something so destructive. The best I could do was a sword or something." Shiro shrugged.
"I see... that¡¯s certainly one way to protect a kingdom. Since it was in the past, I doubt they had ever seen a bomb of that scale." Nan Tian nodded.
"Honestly, I don¡¯t know how to feel about your dismissing my ce of origin so nonchntly." Yin¡¯s smile twitched a little as Shiro patted her head.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. After all, you¡¯re my daughter now aren¡¯t you? I still remember when you were just a tiny bird stealing my C ss mana stones even though I only had a limited few." Shiro smiled as Yin averted her gaze.
"You sound just like a kidnapper haha. I took you from your home but don¡¯t worry about it since I took you as my child." Nan Tianughed as Shiro elbowed him in the ribs.
"Oi, don¡¯t nder my name. I technically gave birth to Yin since I hatched her egg and even raised her ok? I never kidnapped anyone." Shiro frowned.
"Just because you hatched my egg doesn¡¯t mean you didn¡¯t kidnap me from my nest~" Yin stuck out her tongue in yfulness.
*Puchi!
"Are you in your rebellious phase? Because I will discipline it out of your system right here and now." Shiro smiled as Yin shivered for a moment and nced towards Nan Tian for help.
Seeing this, Nan Tian coughed lightly but Shiro¡¯s harsh re stopped him from saying anything.
Understanding that Nan Tian¡¯s never going to be able to help her out against Shiro, Yin could only shed a silent tear.
¡¯Damn! Mum¡¯s going to be the dominant one in every rtionship. I¡¯m screwed.¡¯ She thought to herself as she could only hang on Shiro¡¯s arm and act cute in order to lessen the punishment.
Rolling her eyes, Shiro ignored Yin¡¯s cute act and continued deeper into the tomb.
Brushing her hand against the wall, Shiro sent out her mana and started to examine the entire tomb as she soon realised that there was only a single path to the end.
Raising her eyebrows, she shrugged it off since it just makes things easier.
Approaching the end of the hallway, a giant staircase leading down could be seen in front of them as another set of doors was at the bottom.
Jumping down the staircase with ease, she pushed open the final set of doors.
Once the doors opened, Shiro¡¯s eyes widened at the scenery. Soft glowing crystals could be seen gently illuminating the room as a coffinid in the centre of an altar.
There were dancing motes of light that seemed to hover around the room along with wind that seemed to be singing an orchestra due to the passages that they rushed through.
Looking at the coffin, she noticed two statues kneeling besides it. One of Fei Ling and one of the Void Beast.
Despite not interacting with the Void Beast much in the quest, she could tell that it must have been a treasuredpanion so she couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit guilty at changing the past.
Walking up to the altar, Shiro made her way up the staircase and eventually came face to face with the coffin. Looking at the carvings on the side of the coffin, she could recognise it to be a message of some sort but she didn¡¯t recognise thenguage which was unfortunate.
cing her hand on the top of the coffin, Shiro wondered if her ¡¯body¡¯ was actually ced inside. ording to Lucius, she died shortly after pushing back the other countries so there was a chance of a second Shiro inside this coffin.
While she was doing this, Yin seemed to be in deep thought as her eyes glossed over for a moment. This didn¡¯t escape Nan Tian¡¯s notice and he made sure to keep an eye on her in case anything bad happened.
"I see..." Yin muttered as fire started to flicker from her body.
Transforming into her phoenix form, Yin flew to the top of the altar and perched herself just behind the coffin.
"Yin?" Shiro furrowed her brows in confusion.
However, Yin didn¡¯t respond.
Raising her wings, fire started to spread as they were slowly absorbed into the crystals that were illuminating the room.
Suddenly, mana surged around them and a second life force of sorts could be felt.
*KIII!!!!!
A phoenix cry echoed through the room, forcing Shiro to cover her ears.
As this was happening, Nan Tian quickly flickered next to Shiro and created a barrier around them in order to block out the sound.
"Are you ok?" He asked with worry.
"Yeah, I¡¯m fine. I just don¡¯t know what Yin¡¯s doing thought." Shiro replied with a small frown.
Looking around the room, she could see pirs of fire slowly erupting from the ground.
"If I had to guess, that second cry originated from a different phoenix. I suppose what Yin is doing is reviving it since I can feel a second life force emerging from in this room." Nan Tian narrowed his eyes at the gathering fire.
Slowly, the fire started to merge into the form of a phoenix. With blue and purple fire being the main body, the majestic beast was twice as big as Yin.
*KII!!!
Crying out once more, a pair of eyesnded on the trio.
Seeing Yin, the eyes softened a little before ncing down at the two people. The moment her eyesnded on Shiro, her pupils shrank in shock before it started to water.
*KIII!!!
Crying out for a third time, the cry was now filled with relief and sadness.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro stepped out of the barrier and walked towards the phoenix.
For some reason, her mind was telling her that she knew this phoenix and the only person in mind was Fei Ling.
However, she was someone she met in the trial, could she actually exist now without forming a contract that she did with Lisandra?
Pausing for a moment, Shiro looked into the phoenix eyes and opened her mouth.
"Fei Ling?" She called out.
Hearing the name, the phoenix¡¯s eyes softened as her form started to shrink.
Slowly, the phoenix transformed into a woman with light blue hair, pointed ears and golden eyes. Looking at the familiar face of her subordinate and friend within the trial, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile.
"My liege." Fei Ling bowed as Shiro shook her head.
"Did you forget about what I asked you to do?" Shiro smiled.
"I asked you to call me liege no more. Call me Shiro as you are my friend before servant." She ced her hand on Fei Ling¡¯s shoulder.
With a tear in her eyes, Fei Ling nodded with her head.
"Shiro."
Chapter 539 Final Spark
Chapter 539 Final Spark
"So Fei, what happened after I drove away the thunder king? I heard that I apparently s.u.mbed to a disease." Shiro asked with a frown.
As she was reminded of that horrific day, Fei Ling¡¯s face paled as she calmed her mental state.
"I¡¯m not too sure but after you won the battle, you went back to the kingdom in order to continue the kingdom. However, during this, you suddenly copsed and started to cough up blood. You were bleeding from all of your orifices and the fire queen betrayed us after that." Fei ling shook her head.
"If that was it, you wouldn¡¯t have this kind of reaction. Something else happened didn¡¯t it?" Shiro narrowed her eyes since she understood what Fei Ling was like. While they didn¡¯t interact for a long time, Shiro knew her well enough to know that she was strong willed. For her to be pale, it must have been quite a disturbing sight.
"...Indeed. But before I talk about that, I must exin to you the contracts that I had made with the system." Fei Ling shook her head.
"Contracts?"
"Yes. Have you wondered why your quest changed history and why the ideas you had brought to us are carved into the walls? It was due to the first contract that this was possible. In the first contract, I desired a different end for the good people of the Yin Kingdom. I wanted a happy ending, one that did not have them suffer at the hands of the Thunder King. And so, my world became a story quest for you toplete, trapped in a limbo until I chose a desired oue."
"However, as time passed, I became depressed from all the attempts I had seen from different adventurers. Some were more upied with trying to win my heart and bring me to bed while others gave up due to the fact that they had to face off against 4 countries at the same time. During the quest, my memories were removed in ordance with the system so that the trials were consistent but after every attempt, I would gain all my memories back. Which meant that I knew of everything and my heart sank when no one had managed to achieve a desired oue for the people.
"But, when my hope reached the lowest, I was informed that a monster with a special circ.u.mstance had been granted ess to the scenario and I decided to y the scenario with all my memories. Surprisingly, the system epted as long as I followed the scenario without any faults. Since I had experienced it over and over again, it was easy for me. I was quite surprised to see that the monster was in actuality, a little girl with a charming face. Sitting on a throne that was much too big for your body, I watched as you looked around in confusion before a serious disposition washed over your curious nature.
"You immediately adapted to your surroundings in an instant and started to figure out ways to save this kingdom. Watching you work, I became hopeful of the final results. Iplied with everything you had asked of me even to teach you my martial arts and you absorbed all of it like a sponge. I was overjoyed. When I saw your preparations for the fated date, I was at ease. Your confidence was apparent and you seemed to have the entire situation wrapped around your fingertips. Then the first bomb was detonated and the entire scenario came to a close. You had seeded in changing the fate of my kingdom for one that I had desired all along.
"And so, I epted this oue as the final result and history was changed. You became the ruler of the Yin Kingdom. However, as you were a part of a different world, the good times came to an end when your presence had to be erased. After you died and the fire queen rebelled, things were tough but not unbearable. I was satisfied enough with the results and knew that I couldn¡¯t ask for more.
"However, one day,rge pirs of light ripped open the skies and iprehensible beings descended onto our world. With power that could easily shatter continents like your bomb with a single wave of the hand, the world was soon ced under their control. They gathered worshippers from the citizens and those who did not share their views were branded as heretics and killed on sight. Unless you took another being as your god, you were ughtered like livestock." Fei Ling sighed in nostalgia while Shiro listened in silence.
She could guess that it was potentially the age of demons and gods that she kept hearing things about.
"During this, I signed a second contract with the system at a price. I gave up the freedom of my world for it to be merged with your current world. At least that way, it wouldn¡¯t be destroyed at the hands of the entities that had invaded. However, it also meant that I had given up on the world¡¯s survival as I only had one thing left on my mind. I wanted your world to be safe. You who had granted me my wish and befriended me with honesty, I wanted you to avoid such a fate." Fei Ling said as she held Shiro¡¯s hand.
"By letting our world merge with this one, we supply everything our world has to offer. Mana, monsters and materials. Everything we had was given to this one so that it could survive. And so, in ordance with the system, the entities were expelled and my world was merged with this world. The citizens had their memories altered and they were spread out across the world. However, due to the price I had to pay for the second contract, I was not given this pardon. This is my final life and this form you see now is just the final spark." She smiled as tears started to roll down her cheeks.
"I- I¡¯m so d that I can see you one more time before I¡¯m gone for good." Fei Ling said as her voice began to choke up with emotion. Tears started to roll down her cheeks as she hugged Shiro tightly.
"What do you mean before you¡¯re gone for good? Can¡¯t phoenixes resurrect themselves?" Shiro asked while returning the hug. Her heart sank with a bad feeling as she knew what was happening but she didn¡¯t want to believe it.
"I told you Shiro, I paid a price for my world to be merged into yours and that price was for me to give up my life. However, the system was kind enough for me to leave a descendant and that¡¯s the girl by your side." Fei Ling gestured to Yin.
"I figured as much." Shiro replied softly and hugged Fei Ling.
"I don¡¯t want to go especially after finally seeing you one more time. But the system has already held up its side of the bargain. I just hope that my world can assist you in surviving the cmity."
"Don¡¯t worry, it will." Shiro muttered.
"In the time that you were gone, I had done a lot to prepare for this moment you know? Since my descendant is passed onto you, I know that they¡¯ll need to get stronger so everything they need has been prepared. The artefact that I left behind is one that will help her evolve. The only reason that I¡¯m appearing before you now is because she woke up my final spark. As with every flicker of fire, it will eventually extinguish. My spark will empower her me and allow her to grow to new heights that have never been reached before.
"Thank you for appearing in my life, thank you for saving the people, thank you for granting my wish and thank you for being my friend. I wish I could have had more adventurers with you." Fei Ling smiled one more time through her tears as her body started to slowly dim.
Scattering into mes that seemed to wrap around Yin, her final expression was one of relief and peacefulness.
Standing on her spot, Shiro stayed silent as she bit her lip to stop herself from crying.
"Lil¡¯ Tian." Shiro called out softly.
"Yes?"
"Help Yin with collecting the artefact that should be in this room. I¡¯m going to take a breather." Shiro said as she stepped out of the room.
Watching her trembling figure walk out of the room, Nan Tian wanted to reach out for her but Yin grabbed his arm and shook her head.
"Let mum be by herself for now." Yin said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Meanwhile, Shiro was walking along the corridor while looking at the carvings.
Looking at the carvings of Fei Ling, Shiro¡¯s final wall crumbled as she crouched down and tears started to fall.
"Idiot... Why did you need to die on me as well." She muttered as this was the second time a friend had lost their life for her.
Chapter 540 Problem Past The Borders
Chapter 540 Problem Past The Borders
After crying for a short moment, Shiro calmed herself down and wiped away her tears. Taking a deep breath, she made her way back to the open room and saw Yin sitting down with her eyes closed.
Fire would flicker around her as her aura would fluctuate.
"What¡¯s happening?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Mn? Oh it¡¯s just that Yin¡¯s refining her mes through the crystals that Fei Ling had left behind." Nan Tian replied with a smile. Despite seeing the redness around her eyes, he did not bring it up as he knew it would be embarrassing for Shiro.
"Heh~ I see. She did mention that she did some preparations to make sure that Yin could get stronger." Shiro nodded as she started to look around for the artefact piece.
However, despite scanning the room for the artefact, she could not find anything.
"Don¡¯t search for it mum, the artefact is what empowers me. I¡¯ve already gotten what I needed from this site." Yin smiled softly as she opened her eyes.
"Oh... Also Yin, how did you know about Fei Ling¡¯s final spark?" Shiro asked curiously.
"The system told me. When I entered this room, I had a strange screen appear in front of me saying that there is the presence of the final spark of a phoenix and that I could awaken it by presenting my own mes." Yin replied.
"I see... Well since it seems there¡¯s nothing else in this ce, let us leave. We have other ces to be." Shiro nodded and started to walk away.
Sensing her mum¡¯s strange condition right now, Yin knew that it was due to Fei Ling¡¯s ¡¯death¡¯.
"Let¡¯s go then. Mum will probably get over it soon." Yin turned to Nan Tian as he nodded his head and the two started to follow Shiro.
However, as Nan Tian was following behind Shiro, he couldn¡¯t help but notice a small change in Yin¡¯s appearance. Her ears were slightly pointed now along with the fact that her hair had a slight tint of blue when viewed at an angel.
¡¯Could it be because of Fei Ling? Hmm... from the way it¡¯s progressing, I¡¯m guessing her hair will eventually turnpletely blue and her eyes will be golden. Though her face still resembles Shiro¡¯s. I suppose it¡¯s simr to transferring a me from an old candle to a new one.¡¯ Nan Tian thought to himself with a small shake of his head.
As they left the tomb, they were greeted with the presence of quite a few members of Shadow Temple along with Lucius.
"What happened in there? I heard the cry of a phoenix and the mana around here suddenly spiked." Lucius asked with worry.
"Don¡¯t think about it too much. I was just meeting an old friend. We¡¯ve already collected the artefact in this ce. You can look at the murals but don¡¯t break or disturb anything." Shiro said while walking past Lucius without a second nce.
Confused about her sudden change in attitude, Lucius nced towards Nan Tian and Yin who only shook their head and followed behind her.
"So where are we going now then?" Nan Tian asked.
"We¡¯ll be going to the other spots on this map. There are still three more ces after this that Lucius hadn¡¯t discovered yet. We might get a clue about their locationter." Shiro replied.
"Plus, there are two other sites in this city for us to ¡¯collect¡¯ from." She said while gesturing to the map.
Zooming in into the city, the other two sites were located slightly further out and close to the edge of the city. One was to the north while the other was to the west.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to go to the one in the north as it was closer to where the monsters are. She was quite curious about them since they were apparently unique to this city.
After knowing that this ce was merged from Fei Ling¡¯s world, she might be able to find out why it¡¯s so different from other ces. Red skies that rain blood isn¡¯t exactly the mostmon sight.
Leaving the site from the way they came, they started to make their way north. On the way there, she saw a branch of the adventurer¡¯s guild and wondered if she should update her guild ID. After all, she might need it to ess a few ces in the future and doing it now would get it out of the way.
"Do you want to go to the adventurer¡¯s guild for a bit? I need to update my ID." Shiro said with a smile.
"Sure. We got a bit of time so a detour or two wouldn¡¯t hurt." Nan Tian nodded.
Entering the strangely ominous-looking guild hall due to the materials that they had to use, Shiro looked around for what seemed to be a counter but saw that there were no signs of staff.
"Mn? Where are the staff?" Shiro muttered with a frown.
Even Nan Tian found this a little weird as he took his phone out and had a look to see if there were anyone being deployed into this city as a scout.
Unfortunately, it seemed like the scout had been injured heavily and they were currently in the process of assigning someone new.
"Tch, that¡¯s a bit annoying. We won¡¯t be able to get information from the scout the sect had ced in this city." Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"Let¡¯s wait a little then. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll find out something in a bit." Shiro suggested.
"I want something to eat in the meantime if we¡¯re going to wait around." Yin said as she stretched her body slightly.
"Sorry, I don¡¯t have the currency of this ce so we can¡¯t order. The best I can do for you is some mana stones." Shiro smiled apologetically.
"Eh? Hm, I guess they¡¯ll do. I haven¡¯t had them in a long time though." Yin sighed and nodded her head.
Reaching into her inventory, Shiro rummaged around a little before pulling out the highest level of mana stone that she had. Unfortunately, it was only a B ss since she wasn¡¯t able to collect any A ss mana stones.
Giving Yin the mana stone, the trio sat down by one of the tables near the windows and watched as the confusion in the guild escted.
Since there were no staff in sight, people couldn¡¯t turn in their quests nor could they have their business resolved.
Small arguments broke out due to a few people being quite impatient while others only watched. Soon, a few members of the staff that worked here appeared and tried to calm the situation down.
"We apologise for the current situation but something unexpected has urred so if you don¡¯t mind, please be patient while we deal with this." The staff called out but a few people were still impatient.
Watching this happen, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but raise his eyebrow in curiosity.
"What do you think is happening for the guild to be like this?" He turned to Shiro.
"Not sure. I¡¯m looking at the news but nothing is showing up." Shiro shook her head. If it was going to be something major, she wanted to give the people a hand in resolving it since there were two more excavation sites in this city and they were very important for Yin.
"If you want, I can go out and do some investigating of my own to see what¡¯s happening." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Hmm... we¡¯ll give it a bit more time and see how it goes." She shook her head.
As they waited some more, the guild master finally arrived. He was a rather tall man with a well built physique. He seemed to be someone in his 30¡¯s.
"I apologise for the confusion but as you know, something a little unexpected has happened in the city. Far out to the north, outside of the city borders, a strange phenomenon has taken ce. The ground is slowly caving in to reveal a ruin of sorts and the demons are being detected to be flocking to the site from the front lines. We¡¯re going to be posting an emergency quest where only level 200 or aboves can apply for due to the unknown nature of this situation. In addition to this, the mana density of this city is slowly dropping and being sucked towards the ruins. Some of you may know that if the mana density is decreased past a certain point, you are no longer able to use the ambient mana to power your spells, making it much more dangerous than it should be.
"Therefore, the reward to whoever resolves this would be a trip to the national vault and pick out a treasure of your own choice." The guild master shouted out as amotion rang out.
Hearing what he had said, Shiro narrowed her eyes. Since it might affect the other sites in this city, she might as well have a look at the situation and see what she could do. The sites were important to Yin after all.
Chapter 541 Scouting
Chapter 541 Scouting
"Should we investigate a little?" Nan Tian asked with a smile since he could see that Shiro was clearly interested. If she¡¯s distracted by this, she could take her mind off Fei Ling¡¯s death and it would help her greatly.
"Hmm... Yes we should. We¡¯ll go along with the guild for now until we spot anything that might be of interest. I¡¯m thinking that there might be arge battle since demons are swarming in despite the clear disadvantage. Perhaps they want to retrieve something that is important to them." Shiro nodded her head.
Waiting around for a bit, she listened as the guild master started to exin a few roles for the adventurers to do.
"First role is the attackers. We¡¯ll dispatch you to intercept the demons that are approaching the city in order to slow their advance. As you are not researching the actual site that has appeared, your rewards are going to be different due to how many of you there are. However, you have my word that you¡¯ll be rewarded to a satisfactory level.
"The second role is scout. You¡¯ll be tasked to venture inside the site and find out what¡¯s happening along with rying the information back to us through the third group of people. The checkpoints. These will be people who are very fast and can disengage from a fight easily. You¡¯ll be tasked with passing on the information in case there are some jamming involved. If not, you¡¯ll assist both sides of the battlefield. Whether that be the scouting team or the attacking team, you need to be ready to do both." The guild master exined as the adventurers looked at each other with a frown.
Obviously, they wanted to go to the site since it gave them a chance to enter the national treasury but they also knew that they might not be able to figure out the situation. On the other hand, if they join the attacking team, they¡¯re basically guaranteed a reward.
It¡¯s simr to giving up a part time job in order to try the lottery so not many were willing to go to the site. But at the same time, they knew that this was an amazing chance for them to get something amazing in their life. Whether that be inside the site or from the national treasury, anything that helped their survival was weed.
"What role are you thinking of picking?" Nan Tian asked with a smile.
"I¡¯m thinking of scouting. I¡¯m in a state where EXP is good but not needed so I don¡¯t need to go to the attacker. What about you?" Shiro asked.
"I¡¯m going to do what you are doing since it¡¯s more interesting that way. The small fry demons that areing here won¡¯t provide me with any EXP so it¡¯s a waste for me to use my time on them. I¡¯d rather spend it on you." He smiled as Shiro rolled her eyes.
"What about you darling? Do you want an attacker role since you need the EXP?" Shiro asked.
"Me? Hm... Nah. Since you two are going to be scouts, I¡¯ll join you. Maybe we¡¯ll be surprised and find out more about my race." Yin shrugged with a small smile. Since Shiro had just lost a good friend recently, Yin wanted to make sure that she was near Shiro so that she could support her.
While she understood that Shiro was mentally strong, there was only so much a person could endure. The chances are low but never zero. Yin wanted to make sure that she could avoid that low chance.
"Since all three of us are going to be scouts, let¡¯s go over to the guild master and report our choices." Shiro smiled and stood up.
Ignoring the mour that could be heard as people were discussing what role they should pick, Shiro walked calmly towards the counter.
Naturally, the guild master noticed this and looked towards the trio with curiosity.
"Guild master, we like to take the scout role." Shiro said with a small smile.
"I see, please register with the young miss by my side and we¡¯ll provide you with some basic equipment to get ready." The guild master nodded.
Looking at Shiro, he couldn¡¯t help but think that he knew her features from somewhere but decided to ignore it for now. He was the guild master and seeing faces every day wasmon for him.
Walking over to the young miss that the guild master had pointed to, Shiro brushed her hand against theputer and made a few fake ID¡¯s for all of them.
"Done, please follow my co-worker to another room so that you may receive the items." Thedy smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
After making their way to a second room, they were given a set of ear pieces and a ¡¯goody bag¡¯ that had a few research equipment within them so that they could scout out the site properly.
Of course, Shiro didn¡¯t need all this since she could make much more advanced versions with the blueprints she had in her mind.
Leaving the guild hall with a map that they were supplied with, Shiro could see the entirety of the northern area along with a faint red circle marking where the site is located.
There were even a few marks suggesting points of interest and the direction of the demon¡¯s that were approaching the location.
Scanning the map for a few moments, Shiro furrowed her brows in suspicion.
From theyout of the area, she could faintly make out the image of a magic circle but it was very abstract. If anything, it could be described as a blind guess but she knew that there was no coincidence when it came to situations like this.
¡¯I can probably see more if I released a drone to give me a birds eye view of the location.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and started to make her way up north with Nan Tian and Yin.
"Before we enter the site, I want to take a moment to scout out the surrounding areas. There are faint signs showing the presence of a magic circle but it¡¯s not clear." Shiro said while ncing back at Nan Tian.
"Sure, do you need my help?" He offered.
"No it¡¯s fine. I got it covered with my second ss. If anything, just keep an eye out on the surroundings. There¡¯s the chance that a few of the faster moving demons might have reached this area by now, we don¡¯t know." Shiro shook her head as Nan Tian agreed.
Dashing through the city, they arrived at the northern gates and left the area. Upon leaving the area, they were greeted with what seems to be a wastnd of sorts that was filled with a mix of red sand and hills that had bones sticking out from the ground.
The scent of iron was heavy as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but flinch a little due to the smell. Since her senses were extremely sharp, the impact of this was much harsher on herpared to other people.
"Take this, it might help you with weakening the iron smell." Nan Tian said, pulling out a locket.
However, Shiro only shook her head.
"Don¡¯t worry about it too much. It¡¯s only the scent of blood. I¡¯ll get used to it. Diminishing my sense of smell would actually be bad since you don¡¯t know when it woulde in handy." Shiro replied.
Making their way through the wastnds, they were ambushed by a few of the monsters unique to this city but they were swiftly dealt with by Yin.
After obtaining Fei Ling¡¯s final spark, Yin¡¯s fire seemed to have be even more potent as a single swipe of her fire would reduce a portion of the monster¡¯s body to ash.
However, there was something strange that Shiro had noticed. On top of reducing their body to ash, she could spot a faintyer of ice forming on the body. Once she had discovered this, she paid more attention to the next time Yin used her mes and discovered an interesting property.
Before the fire woulde into contact with the monster, ice would form and act as a fuel of some kind. The moment the firees into contact with that ice, a highly vtile reaction would ur and the monster¡¯s body would be reduced to ash. Understanding that the ice was used as fuel for the fire, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this was inherited from her.
After all, Fei Ling was the source of Yin¡¯s fire. So, the source of the ice could potentially originate from her.
Thinking of this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head with a soft smile. To think that she actually had a child with another woman despite their mismatched anatomy was a rather curious phenomenon. Granted, all she did was provide blood for an egg but it was still rather strange.
Dismissing the thoughts from her mind, she made her way to the site without any detours.
Chapter 542 Nim
Chapter 542 Nim
One her way to the site, Shiro raised her hand into the air and several drones were created. Setting amand for them to spread out, she created a tablet so that she could see what the drones were seeing.
Unfortunately, after the drones reached a certain height, they were destroyed promptly due to a barrier of some sort. She tried to send up drones a few more times but the result was the same.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro had a serious expression on her face.
"What¡¯s wrong?" Nan Tian asked curiously as it was not often that Shiro would have this kind of expression.
"The drones were destroyed by a barrier. Seems like there¡¯s something jamming the airspace in the area." Shiro replied with a sigh and dismantled her tablet.
"Seems like we¡¯ll need to do the scouting ourselves but I¡¯m not sure how the barrier would react to us. It was quite hostile to the drones so I¡¯m not keen on taking too many chances." She suggested with a frown.
"We¡¯ll take things a bit slowly then. It isn¡¯t as if there was a time limit or anything. Plus, who knows, we might be rewarded for our patience." Nan Tianughed as Shiro agreed.
As for Yin... She was eating a mana stone lollipop since she had nothing else to eat.
"What?" Yin asked, seeing Shiro¡¯s eyes turn to her.
"Nothing. Just stand there and look pretty for mum." Shiro joked as Yin only shrugged.
"Since we can¡¯t use drones, we¡¯ll have to map out the entire area bit by bit. Take this and I¡¯ll need you to scan the area around here." Shiro said as she created a scanner for Nan Tian.
"So you just want me to fly around this area and scan the entire ce?" He asked curiously.
"Yeah, I¡¯ll be helping but do note that you need to slow down considerably so that it can actually pick up details in the ground. Since there seems to be a magic circle of sorts, I don¡¯t want to risk the chance of missing anything." Shiro replied.
"Sure."
For the next few minutes, they continued to fly through the wastnd while making sure to record every single part of the ce down with the scanner.
Naturally, there were a few confused stares from the people who arrivedter than them but they didn¡¯t care. Scouting the site was basically a race so time was valuable. Most would just scoff at her attempts andugh while a few others would be curious.
One of them was a youngdy by the name of Nim. She had short ck hair, ck eyes and a small scar just above her left eye. She wore a white t-shirt, a ck jacket and a pair of ck jeans.
Watching Shiro and Nan Tian fly through the wastnd with scanners in hand, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if there was something strange about the ce beneath her feet.
Around her was quite arge group of people as they were all her subordinates.
"Do what the girl is doing and map out the entire area with every single detail you can find. Don¡¯t miss out on anything." Nim ordered as the group nodded and followed her order.
While her subordinates were following her orders, she made her way to Shiro.
"Mn?" Noticing the new arrival, Shiro paused what she was doing and looked towards the girl.
"Hello, my name is Nim. I¡¯m a part of the ruin investigation team and I was wondering what you were doing in the wastnd." Nim asked with a smile.
"Ruin investigation team?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
Regardless of who she was, Shiro wasn¡¯t about to tell her what she knew unless the circ.u.mstances changed.
"Yes, our group primarily investigates ruins and ¡¯historical¡¯ sites that may not have belonged to our world. Seeing as how you are investigating the surrounding areas rather than the actual site itself, it seems to me that there is something of importance out here." Nim said as Shiro shrugged.
"Maybe, maybe not. Though tell me, if you¡¯re investigating ruins that are not a part of our world, do you have an idea of what this site is?" Shiro asked. If she was able to get some information from the girl then it would be quite helpful.
"A little. But it¡¯s at a price, why don¡¯t we do a trade?" Nim smiled as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"What kind of trade?"
"You tell me why you¡¯re scouting the wastnd and I¡¯ll tell you a bit about what I know." Nim chuckled.
Staying silent, Shiro looked dead into Nim¡¯s eyes.
"I decline." Shiro said as she flickered away from her spot and continued her scouting.
Despite the rejection, Nim wasn¡¯t too fazed since she had expected this. She¡¯s already got her subordinates recording information down about this wastnd so it was fine. In addition to this, she also had enough manpower for them to enter the site.
"Gather a few of our best men and prepare to enter the site. We¡¯ll go once we get some basic information about the wastnds." Nim ordered.
###
Ignoring the new group of people that had arrived in the wastnds, Shiro soon finished the scanning process with Nan Tian¡¯s help.
Sitting down by a boulder, Shiro crafted a holographic device and started to piece together the information they gathered into a map.
As the map was beingpleted, Shiro finally saw what was bugging her at the start. The magic circle that was etched into the sand due to the shift caused by the site¡¯s appearance.
Narrowing her eyes at the faint outline of the magic circle, Shiro could pick up a few details but a lot of it was hidden. It was akin to trying to read a book that had a word censored every few lines.
"Hm... A bit troublesome. I can spend time to estimate what it¡¯s trying to convey but it might not be worth it." Shiro muttered with a frown however Nan Tian wasn¡¯t focused.
He was constantly looking towards the east as if something was grabbing his attention.
"Lil¡¯ Tian?" Shiro called out curiously.
"Mn? Oh sorry, what were you saying?" Nan Tian snapped out of his trance and looked towards Shiro.
"I¡¯m just saying that I can spend a bit of time to decipher this but it might not be worth it." Shiro repeated.
"Hm... well it¡¯s up to you what we do. I¡¯m not underestimating the ability of those that have already entered but I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll be able to solve the site that quickly since even the demons are interested. Therefore, you should have enough time. Plus, you can also rock upte and just steal some information from them." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded.
"In that case then I¡¯ll focus on deciphering now."
cing the device on the ground, Shiro created a specialisedptop and started to type away. Thousands upon thousands of magic circles started to appear on the screen as they were all the ones that Shiro had seen before. Through breaking down the runenguage used for the magic circle along with the continuity of thenguage, she was able to slowly figure what each section of the magic circle was trying to say.
While this was all happening, Nan Tian asked Yin to look after Shiro as he had to excuse himself for a moment.
Disappearing from his spot, Nan Tian dashed towards the east.
Landing in the middle of a dead forest within the wastnd, Nan Tian took off his mask and his face was furious. A hateful re could be seen in his eyes as stared off into the emptiness.
"Come out. What¡¯s your goal, unting your aura so tantly like this." Nan Tian hissed.
If Shiro was here, she¡¯ll be surprised at how much hatred Nan Tian was exhibiting right now since he was usually calm.
"I¡¯m not unting my aura now am I? After all you¡¯re the only one who detected me." A voice replied but nobody appeared.
"No sh*t. If I had to live near you for a majority of my life then obviously I¡¯d recognise you. My question is why are you sending a precious avatar into this ce. What is your goal." Nan Tian warned as he was reaching the limit of his patience with this man.
"Nothing much, just curious as to what the little boy I had picked up before is up to. I¡¯ll be honest though, I¡¯m surprised that you had actually appeared at one of the anchors. Fate a strange thing wouldn¡¯t you agree? Haha, however, there is one more thing that¡¯s drawing my interest. The white haired girl, she seems quite precious to you. If I kill her, would you fall?" The voiceughed as Nan Tian immediately created a white sword from his mana and shed with everything he got.
Suddenly, the space around him seemed to twist, revealing a man that seemed to have been force out of a dimension of sorts. Swinging his sword for a second time, he cleaved the man in half.
"To think you had actually killed my avatar despite my preparations, my my, you really have grown strong haven¡¯t you." The man smiled as light faded from the avatar¡¯s eyes.
Copsing on the ground, Nan Tian red at the dead avatar before burning it away to ash.
"This isn¡¯t good." He muttered before putting his mask back on.
Chapter 543 Entrance of Calamity
Chapter 543 Entrance of Cmity
"Where were you?" Shiro asked curiously as she watched Nan Tian return to this area.
"I was dealing with a pest that had arrived in the area. Unfortunately, he¡¯s like a c.o.c.kroach so I wasn¡¯t able to deal with himpletely. However, now that I know he¡¯s here, I want to warn you to turn back. The site may have more dangers than what we¡¯ve anticipated." Nan Tian warned as Shiro could sense that he was frowning behind the mask.
"If you¡¯re going to talk to me seriously, at least take off the mask. Otherwise it¡¯s like talking to a brick wall." Shiro shrugged.
". . ." Staying silent, Nan Tian eventually nodded and took off his mask.
"Anyways, seems like you have quite the history with this guy." Shiro said with a smile.
"Yeah, and it¡¯s not a pleasant one." Nan Tian nodded and sat down next to her.
"Feel free to tell me anything that might be of use I suppose. Since you look troubled, I¡¯m guessing he said something rather shocking to you." Shiro asked since she had seen this situation a few times in her life. She wasn¡¯t a stranger to the look people would have after experiencing this.
"Shocking? I suppose so. He did mention something that you will definitely need to know."
"Oh? What¡¯s that?" Shiro nced towards him as she was quite curious.
"He called this ce ¡¯one of the anchors.¡¯ Since the demons are moving and even that guy has interfered, it probably has something to do with the queens." Nan Tian replied.
Pausing in her movements, Shiro narrowed her eyes and frowned slightly.
"I figured as much." She sighed.
"You did?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrows in confusion.
"Yeah, because I¡¯m beginning to recognise why I found this magic circle familiar." Shiro sighed.
"I never told you about how my memory works huh? It¡¯s like a database. As long as I¡¯ve seen it, I¡¯ll store it like data and ess it whenever I want. If I find something simr, I¡¯ll start to reference it and eventually, I¡¯ll get to the source. For something as obscure as this, it took quite a while to browse through all of my files ya know?" Shiro chuckled.
"Wait... Then thatptop..." Nan Tian nced over.
"Yup, it¡¯s a temporary ¡¯host¡¯ of all my knowledge pertaining to magic circles. I was referencing every single one that I knew. However, with your recent information, my suspicions were confirmed. You see, even after going through all my memories pertaining to magic circles and double checking, I only found 1 file that was remotely simr. The totem incident in New York when the ck Monarchy summoned the otherworldly monsters. There were parts of the magic circle that slightly resemble the one we see in this wastnd. However, after you mentioned the word anchor, I understood that I was looking at this with a wrong approach so I searched for a different file. One that involved my first meeting with one of the queens." Shiro narrowed her eyes and turned herptop towards Nan Tian.
"What¡¯s this?" He asked.
On the screen, he could see a city of ice and snow women were walking around while looking towards the ¡¯camera¡¯ and bowed in order to not attract attention to themselves.
"This was the site of the Queen of Ice¡¯s anchor. Her frozen city. After you mentioned the anchor, I realised that I felt the scene in the wastnd was familiar due to theyout. If I was to make a 3d model of the frozen city using all my knowledge and shrink it down, can you see the simrity despite a few missing information?" Shiro smiled.
On one hand, she had the hologram of the frozen city and its infrastructure while on the other, she had the hologram of the wastnd and the visible parts of the magic circle.
Ovepping the two, Nan Tian could clearly see how they were filling in the nks and the connection points were identical. The only thing that was different was the centre.
"If I¡¯m not wrong, this is where one of the avatars of a queen will be since they are always near the anchors. Though that is just a theory so it must be taken with a grain of salt." Shiro shrugged while ncing towards the magic circle.
"Are you able to decipher the meaning of the magic circle?" Nan Tian asked.
"Unfortunately, no. I¡¯m missing too much information to even begin to cross reference with other runenguages. This is beyond me." Shiro sighed as there was nothing she could do. She didn¡¯t want to tamper with the magic circle either since it could lead to some disastrous consequences and tinkering with something she didn¡¯t know was very risky.
"Regardless, seems like we¡¯ve gotten all the information we needed from the outside of this ce. Shall we head inside and see what this ce has to offer?" Shiro suggested with a smile.
Naturally, neither Nan Tian or Yin disagreed so the party started to make their way to the site. Of course, the members of the Ruin Investigation Team noticed this and sent a message to Nim. Her only reply was to keep searching but assign half of their current numbers back to the main party within the site.
###
Arriving at the edge of the site, Shiro could see the blood coloured sand continue to sink as more and more of the site was revealed.
Currently, it looked like a small temple that had sunken into the ground but Shiro knew that this was just the tip of the iceberg. In the most literal sense.
Activating her Analysis skill to see theponents of this ¡¯temple¡¯ she could see a huge extension of buildings and rooms beneath the ground, yet to be revealed.
Unfortunately, it seems like the skill was limited since everything past a certain point was obscured by mist and couldn¡¯t be seen through.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro called out to Estre.
"Make a checkpoint here so that we can return if anything goes bad inside the site."
{Of course my empress.} Estre responded without a moment of hesitation.
Appearing beside her, Estre waved her hand and a tier 5 magic circle was branded into the air before fading away.
Creating a second magic circle, she imprinted it onto a rock and handed it to Shiro.
"Crush the rock and you¡¯ll be teleported to this checkpoint." She exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"You may return now." Shiro ordered.
Nodding her head, Estre faded away once more and rested back at the ind within her mana realm.
Looking at the spot with a slightlyplicated gaze, Nan Tian nced towards Shiro.
"What? She wanted this treatment. It was either this or I kill her for her actions against me. Naturally, I¡¯ll be making use of any resource I can obtain." Shiro replied. Of course, after Estre made an effort like what Nimue had done, she didn¡¯t mind giving her a small leeway. However, since she was so insistent on being punished, Shiro wasn¡¯t going to try to persuade her.
"Well I was just curious since you are quite lenient." Nan Tian shrugged with a smile.
"I¡¯m being plenty lenient. She still has her uses and disposing her would be stupid. If we didn¡¯t have her, it would be much harder to survive the encounter with Duan Hand Ying." Shiro replied as Nan Tian nodded his head.
It was the truth since Estre¡¯s help was tremendous during that fight.
"Anyways, enough about that, let¡¯s entire the site." Shiro shook her head and jumped down into the expanding ¡¯pit.¡¯
There were four visible entrances to the current site, each with a different symbol but Shiro knew that they all led to the bottom.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to enter the east most entrance and received a notification.
[You have entered a special dungeon that has been fused with this world. Due to your attachment with the Yin Kingdom, a portion of the truth will be revealed to you.
[Current Location: Temple of the Fire Queen.]
[Chosen Entrance: Entrance of Cmity.]
While the difficulty of this entrance is high, the rewards are higher. Complete all the tasks presented to you and the rewards will be at the end.
Narrowing her eyes at the description, Shiro felt like something was off. It wasn¡¯t a situation like the magic circle in the wastnd but more like a fly that is about to wander into a venus fly trap.
However, her lips soon curved into a grin.
She was extremely interested by the current situation. Depending on how she yed things out, there was a chance for her to learn more about the anchors and queens. A golden chance.
"Let¡¯s go." Shiro grinned as she walked through the entrance.
Chapter 544 Calamity of Chaos
Chapter 544 Cmity of Chaos
Upon entering the Entrance of Cmity, Shiro was immediately hit with a heavy pressure.
Narrowing her eyes, she released her killing intent in retaliation. Ice started to form on the walls as a frozenndscape seemed to form with every single step she took.
"Just out of curiosity, how did you even cultivate such a potent killing intent?" Nan Tian asked curiously since it was much denser than the ones he had seen in his life. Even those near the top of ck Monarchy didn¡¯t¡¯ have a killing intent this dense.
"Why, are you afraid?" Shiro chuckled with a small smile.
"A little. Out of curiosity, how many people have you killed?"
"This life or in total? If it¡¯s this life, I can tell you through my monster title." Shiro nced back.
"Both if possible." Nan Tian shrugged.
"In this life, I¡¯ve killed 314 people not including those from the trials. If we¡¯re talking about the ones in my past life... maybe in the billions?" Shiro replied while licking her lips slightly when she remembered the fear filled faces of those who were filled with regret.
Seeing Shiro lick her lips slightly with a sadistic face, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but swallow his saliva in surprise.
{I can¡¯t help but feel as though your definition of things that make you happy are a bit f*cked up.} Nimue raised her eyebrows.
{Plus, we¡¯ve got a child here so don¡¯t be thinking of such cruel things.} She reminded.
¡¯Ah oops.¡¯ Shiro coughed since she was carried away by the momentum. However, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder what was happening. Normally, she had a great deal of control over her killing intent and thoughts. Especially after she had Attie residing in her mana realm.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked further into the entrance and wondered if this was the cause.
The Entrance of Cmity.
There wasn¡¯t anything else from the system other than its name but Shiro knew that something was up. Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro pressed her hand against the walls of the entrance.
Sending out a pulse of mana, she frowned harder when she realised that ¡¯nothing was wrong.¡¯
"Are you ok?" Nan Tian asked after seeing her serious face.
"Mn? Yeah, I¡¯m just wondering why I lost control for a moment then. Normally, I wouldn¡¯t be that open with my killing intent." Shiro replied.
"Oh? I¡¯m guessing you think it¡¯s the site that¡¯s causing all of this then."
"Yeah."
Furrowing her brows, Nan Tian eventually shook his head.
"I can¡¯t detect anything abnormal from this ce. Maybe we¡¯ll find out the deeper we go?"
"Hm... sure."
Venturing deeper into the entrance, Shiro could faintly feel the presence of people in the next room.
Well... ¡¯people¡¯ were a stretch since their aura was extremely chaotic. One that resembled monsters that had gone berserk.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro nced towards Nan Tian and signalled for them to be cautious.
Sneaking towards the entrance of the room, Shiro peeked inside.
The moment she did this, she could feel something breaking in her mind.
[You have entered the first room. Cmity of Chaos.]
All thoughts about chaos and killing are now amplified to a point where it¡¯s almost impossible to stop. Any attempts to stop this will be hindered. You will only be able to leave this room once you¡¯ve cleared the conditions.
Clear Condition: Do not kill anyone who has not killed in thest 2 minutes. You can only kill those who have killed recently. This trial is cleared once you kill 10 people.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro ced a hand on her head as she could already feel the effects.
"Are you two alright?" She called out behind her.
ncing back, she could see that Yin was also grasping her head while mes started to dance around them.
As for Nan Tian, he only had a frown on his face but Shiro knew that he was feeling ufortable.
"Yeah, though the clear condition is a little troublesome." Nan Tian nodded after taking a deep breath. Once they killed someone who hadn¡¯t killed in the past 2 minutes, they¡¯ll be eliminated. If you saw someone random, you wouldn¡¯t know if they have killed recently or not so it bes a waiting game.
However, the longer you wait, the less chances there are for you to kill them. At the same time, if it is just the two people along, neither of them could kill each other as they¡¯ll be eliminated.
"What a troublesome trial. I¡¯ll look for some high ground in this ce and we¡¯ll kill them through sniping. That way, we can see if they¡¯ve killed or not before we fired our bullet." Shiro suggested.
"Sure." Nan Tian nodded.
Entering the room, Shiro immediately started to look around for somewhere they could use as a high ground.
Unfortunately, the space around them was an expanse of tnd that was filled with sand.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro mmed her hand down onto the ground and activated her tectonic quake attunement.
Forcing severalrge stone pirs to appear around the edge of the space, Shiro jumped up to the top of one with Yin and Nan Tian.
"Darling, you can do it first ok?" Shiro said as she created a sniper for Yin.
"Eh? Why me first?" Yin tilted her head.
"Because me and Lil¡¯ Tian can handle ourselves easily. I¡¯m not saying that you can¡¯t but at least I¡¯ll be able to help you if you go first." Shiro smiled.
Giving Yin the sniper, she started to look around for someone that had killed recently. Narrowing her eyes, she had the urge to kill those that were just wandering around but quickly tried to restrain herself.
It wasn¡¯t impossible but it was extremely tough to stop herself from justshing out.
Gritting her teeth, she created a stake and mmed it through her hand. The pain quickly shocked her out of the murder frenzy as she started to look around. While this was happening, her wound was already starting to close her and her HP was back to full.
"You know, every time I see your regeneration, I¡¯m always astonished at how strong it actually is. Unless it¡¯s through brute force and level disparity, I don¡¯t think anyone can kill you." Nan Tian chuckled. There was the urge to fight Shiro and Yin but he quickly squashed that thought by injuring his organs. Naturally, he had his own passive healing but it wasn¡¯t as strong as Shiro¡¯s.
"What can I say? If my regeneration was slow, I would have been killed in quite a few battles that I¡¯ve been through already." Shiro smiled before helping Yin adjust her sniper.
"That one, the two of them are about to finish their battle. Shoot the moment you confirm he had killed the other guy." Shiro instructed as Yin nodded.
Waiting for a short moment, she pulled the trigger.
*BANG!!!
The echo of a sniper shot rang out as the bullet shot towards the man. Before he could even relish in the ecstasy for killing someone, a bullet destroyed his head as he slumped to the ground, dead.
"One down, nine to go."
###
After helping Yin hunt the 10 she needed, a magic circle opened up beneath her as her body started to fade away.
"I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s you going to the next room. Don¡¯t go too far, we¡¯ll be right behind you." Shiro smiled as Yin nodded her head.
Once Yin faded away, Shiro nced towards the battlefield with a frown.
"Numbers are dwindling. I¡¯m not sure if we can get enough kills to proceed onwards." Nan Tian sighed.
"I think we can. There are already more people than there should be in this room. I made sure to remember the faces of those who can before us and none of them are here. This means that the people havee from elsewhere." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Let¡¯s be patient for now, new participants should being soon." She muttered and looked through her scope. Making a second sniper for Nan Tian, they started to look for any prey that could be killed.
As time passed, their number of kills slowly increased since the number of the participants would be ¡¯refreshed¡¯ every so often. There were a few people who wanted to attack them but Shiro would leap away using Rift Strider and shoot from a different spot.
Soon, both of them reached the required number of kills to advance to the next room.
Magic circles opened up beneath them as their body faded away.
[Cmity of Chaos cleared. You have entered the second room.]
Chapter 545 Second, Third and Fourth Rooms.
Chapter 545 Second, Third and Fourth Rooms.
Feeling the strange sensation disappear and her control over killing intent returning, Shiro opened her eyes and looked around her.
The moment she opened her eyes, a blush immediately appeared on her face since she couldn¡¯t believe what was happening.
[Second Room: Cmity of L.u.s.t.]
Your resistances to L.u.s.t have been severely lowered.
Clear condition: Do not give into l.u.s.t and make it to the end of the room. The moment you do, you will be eliminated.
Looking at the countless people making love around her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but blush at the sight and looked around for Yin. There were already l.u.s.tful thoughts entering her mind but she quickly bit her tongue and focused on the pain so that she could distract herself. She didn¡¯t need Attie seeing all this after all.
Finding Yin crouching in the corner while activating all her stealth skills, Shiro quickly dashed over. Thankfully, nothing had happened yet.
"Are you ok?" She asked while hugging Yin.
Nodding her head, Yin had sweat coating her body.
"Let¡¯s get out of here."
Standing up while holding Yin¡¯s hand, Shiro tried her best to avoid looking at the scenes.
{Weren¡¯t you quite ok with seeing Chen Yu when he just came out of the shower? Howe you¡¯re affected to this extent now?} Nimue raised her eyebrows.
¡¯Didn¡¯t you see the notification? My resistance to L.u.s.t has been severely lowered. Otherwise, do you think I¡¯ll be blushing like this?¡¯ Shiro pouted in embarrassment.
{Well I thought you were just being a maiden. After all, you¡¯ve been quite open recently.} Nimue chuckled.
Ignoring Nimue¡¯s teasing, Shiro saw Nan Tian who immediately ced his mask back on after several women started to walk towards him.
"Do you know how to get out of here?" Nan Tian asked with some difficulty. He tried his best not to look at Shiro right now since thest of his control might just fly out the window with a nce.
"Nope but I have a better idea." Shiro said while looking down at the ground.
Before entering this site, she had already scanned the entire ce so she knew that the rooms are actually stacked on top of one another. If she did things properly then she could potentially drill a hole straight to the heart of the situation.
"I¡¯ll need you two to cover me while I do this because I swear to god, if a n.a.k.e.d person jumps on me in the next few moments, people are gonna die and I¡¯m going to be enjoying it." Shiro said while crouching down.
"Don¡¯t worry, we got you covered." Nan Tian smiled however Shiro only rolled her eyes.
"You¡¯re the one I¡¯m most on guard with. Look at our level disparity and tell me if I¡¯ll be able to fight back should you lose all f*cking reason and be someone who only thinks with their d*ck?" Shiro nced over at him.
*COUGH!
Coughing awkwardly, Nan Tian didn¡¯t know how to reply.
Shaking her head, Shiro ignored the two and started to look for a good spot to start her work.
After finding a suitable position, she mmed her hand down as a tier 4 magic circle expanded out from her palm.
Activating her tectonic quake attunement, the ground started to shake as dust fell from the ceiling. However, despite the room beginning to cave in onto itself, there were still peoplemitted to the act and Shiro couldn¡¯t help but praise their ¡¯tenacity¡¯.
*RUMBLE!!!!
As she increased the output of her spell, a fifthyer started to flicker on her magic circle but was unfortunately not able to be a tier 5 spell. However, it was enough for her goal.
[Warning! Pseudo dungeon¡¯s trial is being forcefully broken.]
[Effects of Cmity of L.u.s.t is being cancelled.]
*BANG!!!!!
Shattering the floor into pieces, Shiro could see the peopleing back to their senses as they were falling through the ground.
Grinning slightly, Shiro grabbed Yin into her arms and started to slow down their descent.
[Due to the situation in the Cmity of L.u.s.t, your results are now being calcted... You have met the clear condition despite the anomaly so you are granted ess into the third room. Those who have failed will be teleported out.]
"Ouch. That¡¯s gotta be embarrassing." Shiroughed while looking up at the disappearing figures.
Just imagining their faces when they¡¯re teleported out of the site nude gave her a good chuckled.
[You have entered the third room. Cmity of Laziness.]
To clear this trial, you have to find the motivation which propels your life. If you don¡¯t, you will fall into a deep slumber that is hard to break free from.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro wondered about what propels her life.
It was simple.
¡¯To kill the light bastard and survive the age of demons and gods.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Unfortunately, this was not enough.
[That is a temporary goal. Clear conditions have not been met yet. ¡¯Sleepiness¡¯ will now build up.]
"Huh?" Tilting her head, Shiro frowned when the trial seemed to reject her answer.
Thinking about it for a moment, she could see where it wasing from. Once she survives the age of demons and gods, what¡¯s next? What did she want to do with the rest of her life?
While she was wondering about this, a light had already enveloped Nan Tian¡¯s body.
"Seems like it¡¯s a pretty simple trial." He chuckled as his body started to fade.
"What was your ¡¯motivation¡¯?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Hm... it¡¯s a secret." Nan Tianughed as his body disappeared.
Frowning slightly, Shiro shook her head and looked towards Yin who also had a simr light encase her body.
"Huh... I didn¡¯t think that it would actually ept my motivation of enjoying as many delicacies I could." Yin had an awkward expression on her face.
Shiro could only look at her with a nk expression and shook her head.
"I suppose it¡¯s not tied to a scenario so it works." Shiro smiled as Yin faded away.
Since Yin wanted to enjoy as many delicacies in the world, she could do this even during the age of demons and gods so it counted as her motivation through life.
Thinking up of this point, Shiro wondered what her ¡¯true¡¯ motivation was.
She knew that she felt most alive when fighting things and testing her capabilities but there was a limit to it.
"What do I want to do?" She muttered whilending softly on the third floor. Looking around her, she saw that it was simr to a meditation room of sorts. One that allowed someone to calm their minds.
However, Shiro didn¡¯t care about the environment since she could be calm anywhere. What she did care about was what she had wanted to do.
Does she want to keep fighting? No. Because even though she felt alive when fighting, she knew that there was a limit and that eventually, it¡¯ll break her.
Does she want peace? This was a confusing question for her. While she does want peace, she was someone who couldn¡¯t live without violence. Fighting people/monsters allowed her to express the repressed stress that would build up hence why peace was a confusing goal for her. She did have hobbies such as ying the flute or making juice but they were only distractions for when she needed to go a long time without fighting.
It¡¯s akin to a smoking addict trying to stop smoking through distractions such as eating a lollipop whenever they get the urge to smoke.
For Shiro, this was a temporary solution to a growing problem.
¡¯Do I want to create a family then?¡¯ She wondered. Whether that was with someone she¡¯ll meet in the future or someone she already knew, she wondered if what she wanted was a family as she was denied one in her first life.
She had a mother, a father, siblings and children in this life. While she didn¡¯t give birth to them herself, she treated them as if they were. She wondered if that was what she had been aiming for this entire time. She slowly epted Yin¡¯s initial joke of her being her mum and soon, she adopted Lisandra into her ¡¯family¡¯. Then there was also Attie who came alongter down the line.
Smiling softly, she figured out her main goal in life.
"I¡¯ll secure a good world for my family so that they can enjoy themselves." She muttered. She didn¡¯t wish for a peaceful world nor one riddled with danger, just one that allowed them to enjoy themselves to their heart¡¯s content. And the first thing she needed to do in order to aplish this was to survive the age of demons and gods.
Giving a second answer, she received a notification.
[Clear conditions met, you will now be teleported to the fourth room. Cmity of Famine.]
Chapter 546 Furmis
Chapter 546 Furmis
"Cmity of Famine?" Shiro muttered while furrowing her brows.
Looking around her, she realised that she was in a farm of sorts which is very strange for a room that was supposed to be the ¡¯Cmity of Famine¡¯.
[Cmity of Famine]
To clear this trial, you must resist against your hunger for 3 days. Everything here is edible but the moment you eat one, you will be disqualified. Your feelings of hunger is amplified.
Shaking her head, Shiro started to look around for Yin and Nan Tian. Feeling their signatures not too far away from her, she jogged over.
". . . ."
Looking at the scene in front of her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but pause for a moment and question if she needed sses.
Yin was trying to eat some ¡¯food¡¯ while Nan Tian was holding her back. What was strange about this was that Yin was trying to eat Nan Tian. She was ring at his head and wanted to bite it off.
"Yin! Lil¡¯ Tian! What the hell is happening?" Shiro called out with a frown.
"Mum! Help me! This chicken drumstick is fighting back!" Yinined while trying to break Nan Tian¡¯s guard.
"Chicken drumstick?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"I don¡¯t know but it seems like she had an adverse reaction to the trial. The moment we entered, there was a faint glow around her body before she turned to me and tried to eat me." Nan Tian smiled awkwardly as Shiro sighed.
Walking up to Yin, she hit her on the back of the head in order to knock her out.
Catching Yin in her arms, Shiro soon realised that her body felt extremely weak as hunger washed over her.
Falling on the ground, she had a frown and looked up at the ceiling.
"This is a bit troublesome isn¡¯t it." She muttered.
"Yeah. Since you know the structure of this ce, how many more rooms after this one?" Nan Tian asked while sitting down next to her.
"There are 3 more not including this one. I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s designed in a way simr to the seven sins. Since Yin¡¯s main skill is gluttony, do you think that¡¯s the cause of her strange condition right now?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"There¡¯s a good chance of that being true. If there are 3 more rooms after this then it¡¯s going to be quite annoying to reach the bottom isn¡¯t it?"
"Yeah. I think there are rooms like this since they¡¯re dying for time. When I met the ice queen, she had already been around for a while and the anchor still wasn¡¯tpleted. I¡¯m guessing that these trials are trying to dy for the time needed to secure the anchor." Shiro frowned.
"What do you suggest we should do then?"
"What else? We¡¯ll break through everything." Shiro grinned.
Standing up, she took a deep breath and prepared to activate her skill.
However, before she could, Nimue¡¯s voice rang out.
{Are you sure you want to do this? You don¡¯t even know what that element is.}
¡¯It¡¯s fine. While the mysterious element is dangerous, I¡¯m granted control over it. All I¡¯m going to do is activate my Celestial Raiment and use the element as a base. Since an ind has already been created for it, I should be able to use it without any problem. Plus, it¡¯s the only element I¡¯ve seen so far to surpass/bypass authority levels in the system so if I use this, I should be able to break the trial and reach the bottom without any problems.¡¯ Shiro replied with a grin.
{And if it doesn¡¯t work?}
¡¯Have some faith in me haha. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already conducted quite a few experiments with this element while making the Athera sword so I understand a little on how this element works.¡¯
Closing her eyes, a burst of power exploded out from her body as her Celestial Raiment started to flicker a little.
Darkness soon spread from the tip of her fingers and reached her shoulder with glowing red circuits pulsing along her arm.
Gritting her teeth, she crouched down and pressed her hand against the ground.
Snapping her eyes open, a giant tier 5 magic circle erupted out from her palms as circuit like patterns started to infect the surrounding area.
Dragging themselves out of the ground as if they were tentacles, the circuits stabbed down and started to disintegrate the floor beneath then.
[Element ??? Is infecting the pseudo dungeon.]
[Trials are forcefully cancelled.]
[All ¡¯dungeon¡¯ aspects are removed.]
[True name of location revealed.]
[First World Anchor of the Fire Queen.]
Once the dungeon aspects were removed, Shiro could now finally use her Rift Strider without worrying about the boundaries since she had tried to use it before. If not for the trials, she could have just phased all the way down to the bottom.
Pulling back at hands, Shiro tried to retract the circuits but they seemed to want to break out of her control.
¡¯Oi, you better listen to me since I¡¯m your master right now.¡¯ Shiro warned as she exerted her own pressure over the element.
Unleashing her nanobots against the circuits, the two elements started to sh around them as Shiro gestured for Nan Tian to pick up Yin for now.
Taking a deep breath, she attempted to retract the mystery element again. Thankfully, it listened to her and the circuits started to fade away. The darkness that was covering her arms disappeared and she was able to stop her Celestial Raiment without any problems.
"Fu.... Damn, that element is like a rebellious child." Shiro clicked her tongue and stood up.
"Regardless, shall we get to the bottom and meet this fire queen?" She chuckled since there should be an avatar at the core of this site.
"Sure."
Grabbing both Yin and Nan Tian into her rift, Shiro dived down towards the core of the ce. On her way down, she could see several rooms that had been destroyed by her. Thankfully, no one was here since they were probably stuck in the Cmity of Famine. After all, that required you to stay there for three days and from what she had seen, there wasn¡¯t any time dtion involved so it would have been three days outside.
Travelling down the floors, they finally reached the bottom of this temple.
Adjusting her body, theynded on the floor without any problems.
Looking around her, Shiro could see that they were in a huge room akin to a giant hall.
Hundreds upon hundreds of tier 6 magic circles could be seen flickering around the ce. However, a single nce told Shiro that they were highly unstable. ncing towards the centre of the room, she could see a giant crystal of sorts that was ced in a formation filled with tier 7 magic circles.
¡¯Hmm... the daughter of Aekari did say that you could only travel across worlds after reaching tier 7. Which means the original body of the queen is probably a tier 7 being.¡¯ Shiro analysed.
"Quite a rude one aren¡¯t you? Destroying my ce the moment you entered." A young voice rang out as Shiro nced towards the source.
A woman with crimson hair and scarlet eyes nced towards her.
"Yo~ I say, it¡¯s been quite a while huh? Though we haven¡¯t formally met yet, Fire Queen. I only really got a glimpse of you after killing the Thunder King." Shiro grinned.
She could remember seeing the Fire Queen a second before she was exported from the quest but it was enough for her to memorise her appearance.
"Who are you?" The Fire Queen asked with a frown. She couldn¡¯t remember anyone with white hair during that time period.
"Queen of the Yin Kingdom. Though my body was much smaller back then. Just to refresh your memory, did you enjoy the coteral damage of my bomb?" Shiro chuckled since she had made sure that her bomb injured a portion of the Fire Queen¡¯s forces when it was detonated.
"So it¡¯s the dumpling from back then. To think I¡¯d actually meet you there. Though it seems like we¡¯re going to be enemies since your killing intent isn¡¯t exactly friendly." The Fire Queen narrowed her eyes.
"Depends on how you look at things. I¡¯m quite curious about the Anchor, mind exining?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Not exactly."
"Figures. Before we do anything, mind telling me your name?"
"Why?"
"I need something to write on your gravestone after all." Shiroughed.
Before this conversation even started, she knew that the Fire Queen wanted to kill her. After all, she could already sense hundreds of magic circles locking onto the three of them.
"Furmis. I¡¯m the queen that governs fire." Furmis narrowed her eyes as hundreds of tier 5 magic circles flickered into existence around her.
"Shiro. I¡¯m the empress that governs all spirits." Shiro grinned with killing intent.
Chapter 547 Domination
Chapter 547 Domination
Flickering towards Furmis, Shiro didn¡¯t hold back and activated her Celestial Raiment with Astral Rift as the base element.
Shrouding herself in a cloak of shadows, her figure disappeared and reappeared behind Furmis.
Surprised at the sudden burst of speed, Furmis could only shield herself with a rotating stream of fire.
"Sorry, I counter it." Shiro narrowed her eyes and pushed her palm out.
Sending out a wave of cold mist, a torrent of ice shards pierced into the stream of fire and started to evaporate into steam.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Furmis jumped back and prepared to retaliate when Nan Tian appeared next to her.
"Hey, don¡¯t mind me, I¡¯m just giving her a hand." Nan Tianughed and sent an orb of light into Furmis¡¯ back,unching her body back towards Shiro.
Seeing this, Shiro didn¡¯t waste the opportunity and brought out Athera with Cosmic Ice as the base element. Twisting her body, Shiro shed towards Furmis while activating her Takemikazuchi technique.
Watching the sword sh towards her chest, Furmis tried to raise a defence to block the sword. However, Shiro only smiled.
Refraction, a skill that allowed her to duplicate her sword and camouge its location. In addition to this, Shiro had also enhanced her sword with Celestial Path making it so that it was able to negate any barrier that Furmis would have tried to activate.
*PING!!
Shattering the initial barrier, her sword phased past Furmis¡¯ guard like a ghost and stabbed deeply into her chest.
"Kuh! B*tch!" Cursing out loud, Furmis swiped her hand horizontally as several tier 5 magic circles flickered into existence.
Threatening to unleash hellfire onto her body, the magic circles pulsed ominously.
However,pared to Aekari¡¯s cast time, these magic circles were abysmally slow in Shiro¡¯s eyes and she had all the time in the world to react to them.
Pinching the fingers of her spare hand together, several nanotech needles were formed and she threw them towards the magic circles that had locked onto her.
*PING PING PING PING!!!
Shattering into tiny pieces, Furmis¡¯ guard was once again open for Shiro to attack.
Watching the sworde towards her, Furmis panicked. She wasn¡¯t used to her current avatar so she couldn¡¯t unleash all of her power.
Unfortunately, Shiro wasn¡¯t one to care about fairness as her sword travelled mercilessly towards Furmis¡¯ neck.
"Don¡¯t you want to know about the anchor!?" Furmis shouted out in an attempt to buy herself some time.
This caused Shiro to pause for a single moment which allowed Furmis to dodge the de just in the nick of time.
"Well, you have my attention. Are you going to spill the beans or do I need to kill you and find out myself?" Shiro smiled while twirling her de slightly.
"Sure I¡¯ll tell you about it. No point fighting a losing battle." Furmis raised her hands up as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Activating her Analysis skill, she could clearly see Furmis¡¯ mana circting rapidly meaning she has no intention to surrender.
*Sigh.
"Well aren¡¯t you dishonest. I¡¯ll have to teach you a lesson then." Shiro sighed and dashed towards her using Rift Strider.
Activating her skill, Kietoma, Furmis¡¯ body was instantly paralysed for a second. While her guard was down, Shiro then activated the skill, Hollow Deceit. Nine phantom copies of her figure flickered around her as she stacked up quite a few assassination type skills into a gauntlet of sorts.
Stabbing her sword into Furmis¡¯ throat, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate and decapitated her in an instant, sending her head soaring through the sky.
However, as she did this, Furmis¡¯ body exploded into a ball of fire, causing burn marks to appear on Shiro¡¯s arm.
Furrowing her brows, all Shiro did was re her Life Fire for a few moments and her wounds were gone.
With how high her INT stat was, her Life Fire was basically an instant heal at this point. Naturally, the MP cost was super high but it was a drop in the bucket for Shiro¡¯s 1 billion worth of MP. Plus, it would regenerate all in just a few minutes due to the passive effects of her sword.
"You¡¯re definitely higher than level 200. Do you really think that your disguise can fool me?" Furmis narrowed her eyes as her body slowly reassembled not too far away from Shiro.
"Pft! Hahaha! Lil¡¯ Tian, did you hear her? She thought I was lying about my level." Shiroughed as Nan Tian could only look at the woman with pity in his eyes.
As she was a mage, Shiro was the literal definition of her natural counter. All of her skills revolve around denying a mage of their best weapon.
Unless her cast activation was to the same standard as Aekari, there was no way she could pull off a high level attack type spell without Shiro editing it first. Meaning, there was no way for her to fight at 100%. Hell, he didn¡¯t even think she could fight at 10% of her power against Shiro.
At the same time, just because she was set up topletely shut down mages doesn¡¯t mean her hand to handbat was weak either. In a situation where she is fighting against a fighter, she had a myriad of skills to help her even the ying ground. Whether that be physical enhancements, trickery or shields, she had them all.
To summarise her situation, unless you could suppress her through brute strength alone, you should give up on any thought of dealing with Shiro less you piss her off and shees back with a vengeance. She was akin to a tiny snow ball that someone rolled off the top of a snowy mountain. This snow ball will eventually be an unstoppable avnche.
Thinking of this, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but look at Shiro once more and wonder whates after bing an avnche. After all, she was basically unstoppable already. He has yet to see anyone that could stand up to her in a fair one on one fight.
Seeing Shiro acting so rxed in this fight over the world anchor, Furmis couldn¡¯t help but grit her teeth in anger.
"If you are so rxed, then try facing me at my strongest." Furmis red while a tier 5 magic circle expanded around her.
"Sorry, I¡¯m not stupid enough to let you power up. While I do enjoy a good fight, I¡¯m not going to be giving out easy opportunities for you. If you want to power up, you have to earn it. Naturally, if you are able to power up despite my interference, it means that you can at least provide me with some decent entertainment. However..." Shiro trailed off as her body disappeared from her spot.
"I just don¡¯t¡¯ think you can provide that for me." She smiled and roundhouse kicked Furmis in the ribs.
*CRACK!!!!
Sending her body flying towards the wall of the room, Shiro only chuckled and dismissed her sword.
After the short exchange earlier, she could already roughly gauge her fighting prowess as of this moment and it wasn¡¯t one that would give her any worries.
"I don¡¯t need to give you any entertainment!" Furmis muttered in anger while holding her ribs. Blood could be seen dripping from the corner of her mouth as she raised her hand to her lips.
Covering her thumb with her blood, she drew a quick magic circle in the air in front of her.
Sighing softly, Shiro snapped her finger, causing several ice spikes to shoot towards the magic circle.
However, Furmis grinned and pulled out an item.
Crushing the orb in front of her, a tether suddenly appeared between Shiro¡¯s ice spears and Furmis.
{Shiro! She¡¯s siphoning your mana from your mana realm!} Nimue cried out in a panic since she could see fire chains piecing through the borders and absorbing the mana.
"All of your mana will now be mine to use." Furmisughed as the mes around her amplified in size. While she wasughing at the surge of power, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder why Shiro had so much mana in her. Compared to her current reservoir, Shiro??s reservoir was like a deep ocean where you can¡¯t see the bottom. Even while absorbing Shiro¡¯s mana, Furmis could detect that more was being regenerated every second.
¡¯What the hell?¡¯ She thought to herself but tried to keep herselfposed.
After all, with all this mana, she could finally use her power as a Fire Queen.
Looking at Furmis, Shiro sighed.
"I¡¯m not one to give you false hope so let me extinguish it early."
Activating Celestial Garden, with Cosmic Ice as the base, a blinding light washed over their vision as they were forcefully dragged into Shiro¡¯s domain.
Looking around her in shock, Furmis couldn¡¯t believe what she was seeing.
"Now then, I¡¯ll give you onest choice. You either tell me what I know or I¡¯ll destroy your avatar right here and now." Shiro said while pointing her finger up.
Tilting her head back, Furmis gasped at the sheer size of the magic formation that was appearing above the ce.
Crafted from hundreds of tier 5 magic circles, a single cast of this could render the entirety of the wastnd to ash.
"Well? Will you speak and make things easier for this Empress?" Shiro smiled and looked down at the Fire Queen.
Chapter 548 Vital Information
Chapter 548 Vital Information
Seeing Furmis stay silent during this, Shiro could only shake her head in pity.
"Well I suppose I¡¯ll see you again in the future." Shiro smiled and swiped her hand down.
Glowing with an ominous light, a blizzard suddenly encased the entire Celestial Garden. Anything the snow kes touched would be turned to ice and shattered into dust.
Seeing this, Furmis tried her best to resist the blizzard. mming her hands down, fire erupted out from the ground around her.
However, all this aplished was to dy the inevitable.
Snapping her fingers, the snowkes were soon enchanted with Celestial Path and cancelled out any spell that they came into contact with. Pushing the fire back, Furmis¡¯ body was rendered immobile as ice spread throughout her body.
Understanding that the first anchor was the most important, panic filled Furmis¡¯ mind. If her avatar died now and Shiro destroyed the anchor, there was a good chance that she wouldn¡¯t be able to properly integrate into this world when the new age arrives. And should that happen, she¡¯ll be lost in the void.
"I¡¯ll tell you everything! Spare me please!" She tried to shout out but her voice was quiet.
"Oh? Now you want to talk? Interesting." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Waving her hand, she dismissed the Celestial Garden andnded in front of the frozen Furmis.
Snapping her fingers, Celestial Path enchanted ice chains wrapped around her and stopped her from using any spells.
"Tell me everything you know." Shiro demanded as she grabbed Furmis¡¯ chin.
"On the condition that you don¡¯t harm the anchor."
"I don¡¯t think you understand the current situation. You can tell me what I know and I may be merciful. Likewise, you can try to bargain and I¡¯ll just kill you. The anchor seems pretty important to you. I wonder what would happen if I destroyed it like you said." Shiro ¡¯smiled¡¯ as Furmis felt a chill down her spine.
Understanding that regardless of what she did, death was the result, Furmis wanted to end things her way.
Even though she couldn¡¯t use her mana outside of her body, she could still try to self-destruct.
Naturally, Shiro understood this and shook her head.
"Seems like you¡¯re not going toe quietly. I do have to warn you though, I won¡¯t let you die that easily." Shiro chuckled as nanobots started to flow into Furmis¡¯ body. Draining the mana from inside her body, the nanobots started to eat away at her bones so that she couldn¡¯t move.
Controlling the nanobots so that Furmis¡¯ screams couldn¡¯t be heard, Shiro released the chains as her body copsed on the floor.
"Lil¡¯ Tian, take Attie and Yin. I don¡¯t want them to see the next scene. Torture is bad for children after all." Shiro nced back as she summoned Attie from her mana realm.
"Ok, don¡¯t get too excited though. There will probably be peopleing soon." Nan Tian reminded while trying to pick Attie up.
However, Attie only dodged Nan Tian¡¯s hands and waddled over to Yin.
Shrugging her shoulders with a smug grin, Yin walked away with Attie in hand.
Shaking his head, Nan Tian followed.
Now that Shiro was alone with Furmis, she could start extracting information through torture.
"Let¡¯s make sure that you don¡¯t die randomly now shall we?" Shiro smiled and created a small cor from her nanobots.
Making the skill chip which included the Life Fire, Shiro dragged Furmis¡¯ body away into the corner and dug out a cave of which she could start to make her tools.
With her torture roomplete, Shiro slowly approached the copsed Fire Queen and strapped her onto the operation table.
"This could have been so much easier." She whispered into Furmis¡¯ ears as the first de dug deep into her spine.
###
Walking out of the room with a satisfied smile, Shiro had received all the information that she had wanted.
"To think that the queens are actually chosen that way... quite interesting." She muttered with a smile.
ording to Furmis, each world will produce a single ¡¯queen¡¯ or rather, the qualifications to be a queen. Naturally, each of these worlds must be one that has experienced the age of demons and gods.
Meaning, her qualification came from the fact that Aria had experienced the ageter down the line. This qualification then followed her to the current world, allowing her to be the queen.
Once you be a queen, you are bound to a separate dimension to build up your forces until the age of demons and gods. Once the age arrives, you will try your best to upy a part of the world or else you¡¯ll be erased. Naturally, in this dimension, the queens are able to invade each other in order to absorb a portion of their forces or eliminate the rivals.
However, you are not automatically granted ess to the new world affected by the age of demons and gods just because you are a queen. No, you must ce down anchors to solidify your ¡¯presence¡¯ in that world. Without anchors, you are automatically expelled. Depending on how many anchors a queen has, their influence grows.
If a queen has only 1 anchor, their influence could at most, affect a single city. If they have twenty, a country. At the same time, cing more anchors is risky since they are maintained through sharing a portion of your power. If you have 50 anchors, it also means that a good portion of your strength is missing, making any fights that you have with other queens risky.
Should the first anchor be destroyed, you¡¯ll lose all qualification to join the age of demons and gods so people need to be careful of where they ce this anchor. Naturally, you can¡¯t just ce it in the middle of nowhere. The anchor requires the mana of ¡¯yers¡¯ of the system to firmly secure itself. If the anchor doesn¡¯t get the necessary amount of mana, it¡¯ll disappear and the queen will be disqualified.
Hence why it was a must for the first anchor to be ced near a city. It was the queen¡¯s job to ensure that the anchor is well protected so that people can¡¯t tamper with it.
The only information the queens are given when trying to ce anchors is the mana density of the surrounding area along with a rough guess of how many people are nearby.
Shiro did ask about whether or not there were ¡¯kings¡¯ but Furmis denied the possibility. She had already experienced the age of demons and gods several times and there were no presences such as ¡¯kings¡¯ with the same authority as queens.
However, her biggest reward for the torture session was understanding the reason for why the age of demons and gods even exist.
It was to test the world and see if it could handle the power of multiple worlds fusing into one as well as the presences of those that have attained divinity.
Should the inhabitants be low levelled, the world would crumble at the descent of these divine entities. On the other hand, should the inhabitants be high enough level and the world passes the first test, a giantpetition of sorts would happen between the queens, the gods and the demons.
They will need to try to upy as much of the world as they could and should they seed, they will receive the highest form of reward. Unfortunately, Furmis didn¡¯t know what it was since no one had achieved that. The world could not handle the extended period of fighting between higher beings and eventually, self-destruct.
Meaning, there were several things for Shiro to consider if she wanted to survive the age of demons and gods but the main goal was for her to dominate the entire world and put it under her rule. If not, the world will be doomed.
In addition to this, she remembered what the Celestial Empress had told her in the trial. With her world being one of thest ¡¯gardens¡¯ to experience this extinction level event and it could potentially be thest.
Looking at the anchor in front of her, Shiro narrowed her eyes and pressed her palm against the surface.
"The more queens I eliminate now, the better it would be for the future since the stress caused onto this world will be eliminated." She muttered and sent a shockwave through the crystal, shattering it into pieces.
*RUMBLE!!!!
With the destruction of the anchor, the walls around them started to copse as Shiro quickly looked for the others.
Finding them just outside of the room, she grabbed them into her rift and dashed out of the site.
Chapter 549 National Disaster
Chapter 549 National Disaster
Leaving the site, Shiro nced back and saw the entire ce copsing on itself while the surrounding adventurers could only look on in confusion.
"I¡¯m guessing you managed to get the information that you wanted otherwise you wouldn¡¯t destroy the anchor like that." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yeah, and let¡¯s just say it¡¯s not exactly the best news. While I understand a bit of what¡¯s happening, I¡¯m still confused about some parts." Shiro replied with a sigh.
"I¡¯ll tell you about what I know so far."
Exining to them about how a queen is ¡¯created¡¯, why they need anchors, the uses of the anchors and the goal of the age of demons and gods, Shiro watched as Nan Tian fell silent.
Scratching his head, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Seems like you got quite a few thingsid out for you to do."
"Indeed. Say, do you think I need anchors myself? I know that the anchors are used as tickets for the queens but I¡¯m already in this world so I don¡¯t need the ticket. At the same time, I need to dominate the world and the anchors are what I need to extend my ¡¯influence¡¯." Shiro frowned.
"Well you¡¯ve just basically answered your own question then haven¡¯t you?" Nan Tian smiled.
"Let me rephrase then. How would I ce down and anchor? All I know so far is that the queens are given a map by the system and wherever they choose on the map will be the location of their anchor. She didn¡¯t say anything about how to ce one down manually." Shiro frowned.
"Hmm... that is a worry. Perhaps you¡¯ll get an option simr to that when the age starts? I mean, you¡¯re basically granted a free pass to enter the new age so I don¡¯t see why you need to ce down anchors right now." Nan tian replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"I suppose being able to ce anchors around all the major cities to increase my influence would be unfair. However, now that I think of it, I don¡¯t even know what it means by ¡¯influence¡¯. I should have asked her about that as well." Shiro frowned and sighed softly.
"There will probably be more chances for you to find more queens to questionter. Let¡¯s not be too hasty now."
"Speaking of being hasty, I never figured out why the demons areing here." Shiro said while turning her head towards the direction of where the demons are approaching from.
"Should we stick around for a bit more then?" Nan Tian asked.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro nodded her head.
"That would be good. Plus, I¡¯m also curious about the guy that you met earlier. You said that since he is interfering with this, the site might have more dangers than what it seems. However, so far, there¡¯s been nothing of that kind."
"That¡¯s a good point. It¡¯s a bit too peaceful and it¡¯s not like that guy¡¯s style at all. If anything, we should have been surrounded by explosions and things trying to kill us right now but there??s nothing of the sort." Nan Tian frowned as Shiro nodded her head.
"In that case then how about this. I¡¯ll set down a few cameras around this area along with a teleport node so that we can get back quickly. The moment we detect anything that¡¯s ¡¯off¡¯, we¡¯lle back." Shiro suggested with a smile.
"sure, that sounds good." Nan Tian agreed.
Hearing this, Shiro started to make a few cameras along with some scanners to detect the average mana density. If the values suddenly increase, she¡¯ll know that something is up.
Creating a few drones that have the camouge function, she had them carry the cameras across the current site. Once the cameras were in ce, she snapped her finger and destroyed all the drones since she had no more use for them.
"Estre." Shiro called out and summoned Estre out from the mana realm.
"You called Empress?" Estre bowed.
"I need you to make a teleport node in this current spot."
"Understood.??? Nodding her head, Estre waved her hand and a tier 5 magic circle was once again branded into the air and faded away. Creating a second magic circle on a rock, she handed it to Shiro before disappearing back into her mana realm.
After all, she had already exined to Shiro how to use the teleport node.
"Right then, shall we go to where the demons are?" Shiro smiled.
"Sure. Though we do need to ¡¯report¡¯ back to the guild with what we found." Nan Tian chuckled since he doubted that Shiro would even bother.
"They got other people to report back their findings." Shiro waved her hand nonchntly. There¡¯s no point in giving the guild of this city the information about the anchors since there¡¯s nothing that they can do to begin with.
If anything, she would rather tell her parents about this when she meets them since she could at least guarantee that people would take the information seriously. Hell, even having Keomi know about this would work since she¡¯s publicly known as a hero. Compared to what her parents or her cousin could do with this information, the guild of this city would just be a waste of effort.
"Fair enough." Nan Tian smiled.
Putting the stone in her inventory for now, the trio started to make their way towards where the demons are.
###
"Hou... They actually destroyed the anchor. Well, that certainly makes things easier for me." A figure chuckled as he watched the anchor site copse in on itself.
Should Nan Tian be here, he¡¯d recognise this man to be the owner of the avatar that he had killed earlier.
"Without a queen and an anchor, this is a perfect spot for her majesty." He smiled and pulled out a small crystal from his hands.
He wasn¡¯t going to make a new anchor immediately since Nan Tian was still close by. He was going to wait a while so that he could achieve his secondary goal of the operation. After all, the demons were here for a reason,
###
Making their way across the wastnd, the city slowly disappeared in the distance.
Looking down on her phone, Shiro wondered how far away the battlefield was since they¡¯ve been travelling for quite a while.
However, her question was soon answered when she came across a field of corpses. Furrowing her brows, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but notice that it was simr to a mutual destruction.
There were no survivors on either side.
"That¡¯s odd..." Shiro muttered whilending on the ground.
Crouching near a corpse, she started to examine their wounds andpare it to the corpses around it to see if they match.
Immediately, she realised that the wounds were strange. There were puncture holes all over the adventurer¡¯s body and parts of him seem to have been drained of its contents.
Bones and organs were liquified partially. It was almost as if it was done to make it easier for something to drink out of them like a juice carton.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro started topare this type of wound with the monsters that she remembers in her database.
A few simr records could be found but there was nothing that matched as she would have hoped.
"I don¡¯t know what kind of monster could do something like this. Do you know?" Shiro asked.
"I got a few ideas and I don¡¯t like any of them. Considering the background of the guy I mentioned, this could be a national disaster if left unattended." He replied with a serious frown.
"Wait what?" Shiro paused in surprise. While she didn¡¯t know exactly what a national disaster contained, just the name itself gave her an idea.
As she was still only a level 200, despite having the power to fight against some A ss beings, she wasn¡¯t too excited about facing something that could be a national disaster.
"Don¡¯t worry about it too much though. If it was indeed national disaster level, we wouldn¡¯t even see corpses right now. It should still just be a juvenile if I¡¯m not wrong." Nan Tian smiled and pressed his hand against the ground.
Closing his eyes, he sent out a pulse of mana.
Suddenly, hundreds upon hundreds of glowing spots could be seen far below the ground.
"Well... this is certainly out of expectations. I thought I¡¯d see one or two but instead, we have an entire hive. The man must have really put an emphasis on this location." Nan Tian narrowed his eyes.
"What are they?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Vampiric Death Worms."
Upon hearing the name, Shiro¡¯s pupils constricted since she remembered the appearance of one in Japan when she was still Kuromi.
Chapter 550 Vampiric Death Worm
Chapter 550 Vampiric Death Worm
"Ah f*ck." Shiro muttered as she brought out her sword. Back then, she was still low level as Kuromi so she didn¡¯t participate in the raid against an a.d.u.l.t Vampiric Death Worm but she could remember her parent¡¯s serious expressions after the raid.
Even with her mother and father being near the peak of tier 5 had troubles since their basic attacks could barely harm the natural defences of the Death Worm. Even now, she could still remember the advice her father gave her when she asked about how one should deal with the Death Worms.
¡¯You want to avoid its a.d.u.l.t form as much as possible and if you see one in the wild, kill it before it matures. It¡¯s most vulnerable as a juvenile. At that point, even a C ss adventurer could kill it.¡¯
However, there was something strange about this giant hive of Death Worms. There were simply too many. From what she remembers, the birth of a Death Worm was rare. It should only ur when a Vampiric Reaper mutates with a parasite. Once that happens, 5 Death Worms will appear inside the Reaper¡¯s body and fight until there is only one left. For this many to be here, it meant that someone was nurturing an entire farm of Death Worms.
"We¡¯re killing these f*ckers immediately. If we let any of them escape the area, it¡¯ll be troublesome." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Agreed. However, there is something special about these Death Worms. You see, the man I¡¯m talking about is from ck Monarchy and he¡¯s the same person who kidnapped me when I was a kid. From my understanding of him, he always goes that extra length to make thingsplicated. An example would be the totem incident where I couldn¡¯t participate because I would be helping the monsters instead." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Regardless, we have to deal with them soon. Just one Death Worm is a serious danger never mind a huge hive like this one. Also, how the hell did ck Monarchy get their hands on so many of these guys? It¡¯s simply ridiculous. It¡¯s not like there¡¯s a queen that can just give birth to a whole bucket of these worms." Shiro frowned as there were no records of a Death Worm queen of any kind.
"I¡¯m not sure. During my time in ck Monarchy, I never heard anything about the Death Worms. Whether that¡¯s because it¡¯s a high level secret or not, I don¡¯t know." Nan Tian shook his head as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Do you want to keep one for research? We¡¯ll destroy the rest and see if these are any differentpared to a normal Death Worm. There must be some physical differences if this many are produced." Shiro suggested as Nan Tian frowned.
As much as he wanted to agree, leaving even one was dangerous considering the nature of ck Monarchy.
However, before he could say anything, he felt a surge of mana signatures appearing within the body of the corpse in front of them and quickly pulled Shiro back.
Rolling out of the way, they watched as the corpse exploded out with juvenile Death Worms.
"What the hell!" Shiro widened her eyes since that was clearly abnormal. Death Worms should not be appearing within a person¡¯s body like that.
[Death Worm Juvenile ¨C LVL 1]
HP: 100/100
MP: 200/200
Despite their strangeness, she could confirm that they were indeed Death Worms which only made things weirder.
Crawling out from under Nan Tian, Shiro sent out a wave of Phoenix Fire and turned the newly born Death Worms to ash.
"Ok we need to seriously do something about this. If they can be born from human corpses then this ce is a giant f*cking breeding ground." Shiro looked around with a frown.
"I know. We might have to give up on finding out their physical differences since this could be infectious. If we brought it back to a ce where there are more people, we could identally create a breeding ground bigger than this one." Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"Mn, let¡¯s just kill all of them. Since there are a few underground, I think I might have to make some geographical changes to the map. We can¡¯t let any of them escape." Shiro nodded and pulled out her Asteria¡¯s Embrace bow.
"Alright, are you going to use the spell you used in Kyoto? You know the one that obliterated all the shrines." Nan Tian asked.
"You know about that one?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Yup. I got eyes in every city after all. If you¡¯re going to do that, I can help you upgrade your magic circle so that it¡¯s more potent." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro immediately shook her head.
"Nope."
"Eh? Why?" Nan Tian tilted his head.
"Remember what happened back in New York? Then who knows if your help will make it so that you cannot kill a final boss should it appear. We¡¯ll just use the bare minimum force needed to kill all these worms and it¡¯ll be fine." Shiro reminded as Nan Tian paused.
"Fair enough. There was more damage done to New York than what I had anticipated since I couldn¡¯t participate due to the circ.u.mstances. It¡¯s all on you then." He smiled and stepped back with Yin.
Nodding her head, Shiro looked around for a good spot to set up her spells and found a small hill to the south of their location.
Flying over to the hill, she mmed her hand down and created several nanotech amplifiers. Once the amplifiers were created, she snapped her fingers and a giant tier 5 magic circle started to expand with her in the centre.
With the preparationsplete, she raised her hand into the air and started to recreate the magic formation that she had used in Tokyo.
*Whistle~
It¡¯s really impressive now that I see it from this close." Nan Tian muttered as Yin nodded her head.
A tier 5 magic circle was hard enough as it is for B ranked adventurers to create while formations were a whole new level. For Shiro to be able to do this with such ease, Nan Tian could tell that her analytical power was at the extreme. However, that¡¯s to be expected when she can literally create aputer that holds all her memories about magic circles in a sh.
Reaching out with his hand, he could feel the mana drain from the surroundings as it surges towards Shiro.
"Fu..." Breathing out softly, Shiro activated her Celestial Raiment and chose Void Star as the base element. If she wanted a wide attack to kill an army, she could use Cosmic ice since the passive skill of this bow would be enhanced. However, since she only needed to obliterate a single area, using Void Star would be best. Especially considering that it was still day time so her bow would fire out a single powerful arrow rather than an array of them.
Spending the next few moments to build up the tier 5 magic formation above her, Shiro raised her bow and pulled back on the strings. At this point, everyone in the wastend could see the formation due to its incredible size.
Even if they were blind, the sheer amount of mana being gathered would send chills down their spine.
Opening her mouth, Shiro started to chant in the ancient spiritnguage in order to activate a few of her passive skills.
{Mighty bow of Asteria, siphon the radiance of the sun and send down her wrath. With a single shot, erase their essence of life and reduce them to ash.}
*BANG!!!!
Letting go of the strings, the sudden burst of mana caused the ground around her to copse as her amplifiers were fried in an instant.
Passing the magic formation, the arrow grew in size and absorbed all the mana stored within. In a few short moments, the giant body of mana which caused chills down people¡¯s spines suddenly disappeared as Shiro dismissed her bow. After all, she could already guess what was going to happen.
As she cleaned up the surroundings, the temperature of the ce started to soar as the nts were drained of their hydration and turned to ash.
Suddenly, a pir of radiance descended from the sun, colliding with the area that Shiro had designated.
Despite her being a phoenix, even Yin started to sweat from the heat as Nan Tian activated an item and ice started to form around them. However, this onlysted a short moment before it was reduced to steam.
Raising his eyebrows, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but wonder if there was anyone in the world that could have evene close to the amount of firepower that Shiro could control. To make things worse, he knew that this wasn¡¯t her full power either.
After a short moment, the radiance finally disappeared while the heat remained. As for the site that was filled with Death Worms, it was now nothing more than a giant crater where the bottom could barely be seen.
Chapter 551 Genocide
Chapter 551 Genocide
[You havemitted mass murder of a single race within a short moment. Title Achieved.]
[Genocide]
Whenever you aim to eliminate arge group of the same race, you gain an additional 10% boost to attack.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro didn¡¯t expect her spell to award her with a title of Genocide. However, it wasn¡¯t as if the reward was unwanted. After all, if she¡¯s ever in a situation where she needed to eliminate arge group of demons, monsters and such, the extra 10% boost in damage would be helpful.
Walking up to the edge of the crater, Shiro had to surround herself in a constant stream of icy mist in order to make the heat bearable.
Kicking the ss that had formed on the surface of the sand, Shiro activated her Analysis skill and looked for any signs of the worms.
Seeing that it waspletely devoid of life, Shiro nodded in satisfaction.
"We should probably leave the ce before the adventurers and the guilde for questioning. After all, I did just carve a giant crater in the middle of this wastnd." Shiro muttered and walked over to Nan Tian.
"Right then. With the Death Worms dealt with, I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anything else we need to do here. Plus, I¡¯m not too keen on answering some questions about this should the guild arrive." She smiled.
"Mn, where are we going now then?" Nan Tian asked.
???The other two sites in the city. After collecting these two pieces, we¡¯ll start to collect the other pieces scattered through the world. Hopefully, we¡¯ll be able to find the three missing ones. If not, I¡¯ll probably take this time to go meet my mum and dad. It has been quite a long while after all." Shiro chuckled.
Creating a portal into the rift, the trio left the area and started to make their way back to the city.
Not too long after they left, a cloaked figure flickered next to the crater with a raised eyebrow.
Examining the destruction caused by a single attack, the man couldn¡¯t help but think twice about attacking Shiro.
¡¯Seems like the girl is more powerful than we had anticipated. Her growth has been quite fast considering the power she demonstrated in Tokyo. Compared to the difficulty she had to go through in order to destroy all the shrines at once, she can now recreate the same attack with minimal effort.¡¯ The man thought with a slight frown.
With his original ns out the window, he could only give up on what he had wanted to do. However, despite this, he was able to get something out of these Death Worms.
Swiping his hands a few times, he collected any remaining corpses of the worms and flickered away from his spot.
Little did he know, Shiro was watching through a few scouting drones that she had hidden around the area.
"Lil¡¯ Tian." She called out.
"Mn?"
"Seems like the man you met has been watching us quite closely." Shiro smiled and showed him a recording of the scene.
Frowning slightly, Nan Tian had a serious expression on his face.
"What does he want to do with the corpses..." He muttered in confusion.
"It doesn¡¯t matter." Shiro grinned.
"Why?"
"Because I made sure that they¡¯ll be erased if someone tried to get them." Shiro said while changing the screen of the tablet. Showing him a recording through the worm¡¯s perspective, she snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, a burning energy could be seen swirling inside the corpses as they started to glow with a yellow hue.
Realising that something was wrong, the man was about to cast a spell on the corpses to stabilise them but it was toote.
*BOOM! KISH!
An explosion could be heard before the camera was cut off, signalling the destruction of the corpse.
"Now he got nothing out of this." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian looked at Shiro with surprise.
"How did you even do that?" He asked curiously.
"There are two stages to my spell. The first was the initial impact on an area. The second is whoever is hit by this radiance will explode for a second time. Naturally, I wasn¡¯t too sure about the potency of this second explosion so I had nanobots invade the corpses just in case but it seems like I didn¡¯t need to worry. If I had to guess, the secondary explosion has around 40% of the power demonstrated in the initial cast of this spell." Shiro smiled.
"You know, sometimes I forget that you¡¯re already level 200. It was just a while ago that you were only level 50 and yet here you are." Nan Tian shook his head with a soft smile.
"Maybe you should try harder and level up as well." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"I still remember what you did to me with the wheelchair ya know?"
*COUGH!
Looking away in worry, Nan Tian wondered what he should do to quickly recover his lost levels. So far, he¡¯s managed to get 1 level back through cultivating but that was still quite slow. Unless he found a few high level monsters, doing anything else would be inefficient.
Thinking about it for a moment, he remembered something that could be quite beneficial for all of them.
"Say Shiro, what do you think about going on a field trip of sorts with the rest of the party after we gathered all the pieces of the artefact? Of course, we can also wait till after you meet your parents if that¡¯s what you want first." Nan Tian asked.
"What kind of field trip?"
"One that takes us to Greece. Mount Olympus. After the integration of the system, gods of the different countries became real and naturally, the Olympian gods were no exception."
"Of course. I even got a few ss up choices from them. One from Athena and another from Aphrodite. Apparently, one was impressed with my battle style and the other was impressed with my beauty. My friend also got from Hephaestus, the smithing god." Shiro replied.
*PFFTTT!!
"Wait, you got a ss up option from Aphrodite???" Nan Tian widened his eyes in confusion. Even if she was beautiful, surely that wouldn¡¯t warrant a ss from the goddess of l.u.s.t now would it?
"Yeah. Apparently, the ss will centre around how I charm people and turn them into my loyal subjects. It¡¯s not really how I do things so I rejected that ss immediately." Shiro shrugged.
"That and also even if mum picks that ss, I doubt she can do anything about it. She¡¯s a maiden after all. Speaking of which, mum, have you had your first kiss yet?" Yin asked curiously.
Blushing slightly, Shiro red at Yin for her to shut up.
{Oh my god you really are a maiden.} Nimue muttered.
¡¯Hush it! I never found anyone that took my fancy enough for me to kiss them ok?! Plus, I spent most of my years in Aria just killing sh*t. Hell, even as Kuromi, I never found anyone that I liked enough for me to kiss.¡¯ Shiro pouted in annoyance.
Looking at Shiro¡¯s embarrassed expression, Nan Tian understood that she was probably talking to the spirits right now.
"Honestly, I¡¯m not surprised that Shiro hasn¡¯t had her first kiss yet. If someone tried to force it, they¡¯d be killed in no time and I don¡¯t think she¡¯s focused enough on romance to actually find someone to kiss." Nan Tian chuckled as Yin nodded her head.
"True. With how things are progressing right now, I doubt mum will be bothered to find anyone. After all, the fate of the world is at stake." Yin shrugged.
"Mum might even be a goddess of purity haha." Sheughed at the thought.
"Do any of her actions seem pure?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrows since a goddess of purity stabbing the rear end is not exactly a pleasant thought.
"Well... you¡¯re true about that. Probably the goddess of v.i.r.g.i.nity then." Yin grinned.
"Oi, I¡¯m still here you know." Shiro pouted slightly at the fact that they¡¯re making fun of herck of romantic experience.
{Just kiss Lyrica or Nan Tian and get it over with then.} Nimue said with a smug grin.
¡¯No. Because that¡¯s just insensitive and not sincere.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
¡¯I may have no romantic experience for three lifetimes but I¡¯m not desperate to the point where I will just y with their feelings with my first kiss.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{And you said that Shiro wasn¡¯t pure.} Iziuel nced towards Nimue.
Ignoring the two spirits in her mana realm, Shiro turned towards Nan Tian.
"So why did you want us to go to Mount Olympus?"
Chapter 552 Mount Olympus
Chapter 552 Mount Olympus
"Right, the reason I want us to go to Mount Olympus is because of the trial that we can undertake at the mountain. You see, each of the gods featured in the Greek myths has a trial that you can try toplete and once you do, you gain rewards that are relevant to that god. An example would be the Zeus¡¯ trial. Someone managed toplete it a few years ago and managed to receive a reward called Zeus¡¯ Insignia. That skill allows him to control thunder at will and his lightning attacks are extra effective. Plus, whenever he is hit by lightning, he could heal his health and mana at a rapid rate." Nan Tian exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Hou... that is indeed quite impressive. If Yin manages toplete the Apollo trial then wouldn¡¯t her fire evolve once more?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Indeed. Another reason to go there is that depending on how well youplete the trial, you gain levels equivalent to your performance. Therefore, it¡¯s a good ce for me and the rest of your party since we need quite a few levels." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Hmm... Indeed. The girls will get quite a boost if they receive a reward from the trials." Shiro nodded.
"However, I still want to see my mum and dad soon. We¡¯ll go after meeting them once then." She decided as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Though, I¡¯m not too sure about how long it might take. To be honest, the sooner we do it the better. There are three missing pieces to this artefact and finding them might be a pain." She sighed.
"Perhaps you can leave it to your friend Lucius. After all, he did manage to find seven pieces." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro furrowed her brows.
As much as she wanted to leave it to Lucius, it would be bad to let him do all the work without getting anything out of it.
"Hmm... I would say I¡¯d pay him but he¡¯s the master of a faction so I doubt I can offer him anything substantial in terms of material wealth. We¡¯ll see how it goes. If he is willing to find the other three then great, if not, we¡¯ll have to try finding it ourselves." Shiro shrugged.
"Well if ites down to that, I can allocate some of my subordinates to help us look around. If he was able to find the artefact sites then I¡¯m sure we can as well." Nan Tian smiled.
"Ah speaking of your sect, I still haven¡¯t seen the person who rescued you. The sect master. I need to give him my thanks after all." Shiro smiled.
"Well we can go to the sect headquarters whenever you want."
"Eh? Really? Isn¡¯t there like a ¡¯higher up members¡¯ only type of thing?" Shiro asked.
"Nope. Because the master is fine with the lower level members going there and studying. Of course, if they have any malicious intent, they¡¯ll be dealt with quite easily. Why do you think that the location is not disclosed? The only ones that remain are those that respect the sect¡¯s rules." Nan tian smiled.
"I see... Could it be because of the people from the Victoria family?" Shiro asked since she knew that they had an army of contracted monsters. Even a Hydra was under their control so they should have a few trump cards up their sleeves.
"Partially. The high level monsters are certainly helpful but we have more than just the Victoria family who protects the sect. Families who specialise in formations, powerful attacks, detecting spies, infiltration and the such. At one point, we even had a double agent who was sent to spy on one of the families only for him toe back to the sect as a spy for that family haha." Nan tianughed as Shiro could imagine the awkwardness of that situation.
"Is there a family for torture specialists? I¡¯ll be quite interested to see what kind of techniques they use. After all, it might make my job easier in the future."
"Yes we do. I feel like you would have quite a nice time hanging out with their eldest daughter. Her name is Fenri and let¡¯s just say she¡¯s quite sadistic and unlike you, she has no problems with M¡¯s." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Why do you think that we¡¯ll get along just because we¡¯re sadistic? Wouldn¡¯t that just be a conflict of interest?" Shiro tilted her head. It was like when two people are passionate about the same thing but have different views and conflict may arise due to this.
"Well I¡¯m not sadistic so I wouldn¡¯t know." Nan Tian shrugged.
Making their way back to the city, Shiro guided them back to the first site so that they could ask Lucius about the remaining sites that have yet to be discovered.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. I have already got people to look around for the locations. I¡¯m not too sure about how long it¡¯ll take though." Lucius replied with a smile. He didn¡¯t mind sparing some manpower for this since it was important.
"If you want, I can provide you with some extra hands to help look around for these sites." Nan Tian offered with a smile.
"That would be helpful. How many people are we talking about?" Lucius asked since extra help would be much appreciated.
"Probably twice your current numbers? Maybe more depending on what happens." Nan Tian replied as Lucius paused in surprise.
"You¡¯ll have to give me a moment though, I¡¯ll need to inform them about this first."
Excusing himself, Nan Tian left the room so that he could contact them about this new ¡¯quest¡¯.
Staying silent for a moment, Lucius looked towards Shiro.
"You got yourself quite the impressive friend huh?" He chuckled as Shiro only smiled.
"I suppose so."
"Speaking of impressive, I heard that you caused quite amotion in the wastnd." Lucius narrowed his eyes.
"Coteral damage. If I didn¡¯t do what I did, a horde of juvenile Death Worms would have been set free." Shiro chuckled.
"A horde? I thought that they didn¡¯te in hordes." Lucius asked with a serious expression.
"They don¡¯t or at least, they shouldn¡¯t. This is clearly abnormal and it may be the doing of the ck Monarchy."
"Those guys again? There are several reports of increased activity from the ck Monarchy recently." Lucius sighed.
"Do you know anything then?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Unfortunately no. They¡¯re quite hard to catch and any that the government has managed to catch kill themselves before anything happens. I swear, they¡¯re a bunch of crazy b*stards." Lucius massaged eyes.
"Well you might want to be careful in this city then. Lil¡¯ Tian is someone familiar with them and a higher up in the ck Monarchy is near this city. He is probably the main culprit behind the Death Worms." Shiro reminded.
"Thank you for your concerns. Also-"
*RUMBLE!!!!!
Before Lucius could finish his sentence, an earthquake shook the entire ce as Shiro quickly adjusted herself so that she didn¡¯t fall over.
"What the f*ck?" She muttered with a frown since she could feel a sudden surge of demonic energy towards where the anchor used to be.
Rushing out of the room, she could see Nan Tian with a deep frown on his face.
"Seems like that man wasn¡¯t too pleased about you getting rid of the corpses." He said while showing her an image on his phone.
It was quite blurry but a giant magic circle could be seen just above the anchor site.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro could faintly make out the silhouette of a cloaked figure adding more magic circles into the mix.
"What is he nning?" Shiro muttered.
"I¡¯m not sure but I¡¯m not willing to find out." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Well do you want to finish what we started then?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Sure. But if things are bing dangerous, we¡¯re leaving immediately. You shouldn¡¯t underestimate this man." Nan Tian reminded.
After all, Nan Tian knew that the man was someone who wanted to make him fall and Shiro was the catalyst. This could be bait but at the same time, letting him mess with an anchor site could spell a bigger danger to this world.
Nodding her head, Shiro dragged Nan Tian and Yin into her rift and brought them out of the site.
Flying through the air, the three of them could see a ck cloud approaching from the distance. However, it was not a ¡¯normal¡¯ cloud but rather one that was made up of thousands of densely packed demons.
Suddenly, a ck crystal descended from the sky and mmed into the anchor site. Recognising it to be simr to the anchor that she had destroyed, Shiro had a bad feeling about its appearance since it was ten times as big as the previous anchor...
Chapter 553 Thiria
Chapter 553 Thiria
Looking up at the giant crystal, Shiro felt her entire body freeze over. As if she was being stared down by a deadly predator that could kill her in an instant.
She hadn¡¯t felt like this since the time she watched her vige get destroyed and she was kidnapped by the scientists.
She felt weak in front of this crystal.
"Shiro!"
Suddenly, Nan Tian¡¯s voice broke her trance as she quickly held her head.
"Huh? What happened?" She muttered in confusion while ncing to her side.
"A mass fear skill. To think that crystal was able to inflict a high level fear skill that even affected me." Nan Tian replied with a frown.
Currently, a ne could be seen faintly shimmering on his neck.
[Hero¡¯s Courage ¨C Orange]
A ne worn by a foreign hero. Throughout his entire life, he was fearless against all adversities. When worn, you are less likely to be feared.
Active skill: Inspire.
All allies around you gain a 90% resistance to fear for 1 minute.
Cooldown: 5 minutes.
"Fear skill huh?" Shiro narrowed her eyes and took a moment to calm herself.
ncing through her database, she noticed ack of fear resistance which annoyed her since the ones she did have are rather mediocre. However, they were better than nothing.
Snapping her fingers, a ring was created with all of the fear resistance skills.
With her mind now clear of the fear skill, she could see her surroundings with better rity.
Taking a second look at the crystal, she could see two glowing modes of light that seemed to resemble a pair of eyes. These motes would dance around ever so slightly as if the owner of these ¡¯eyes¡¯ were surveying the location.
ncing towards the ck cloud made up of demons in the distance, the motes seemed to pause for a moment before looking around once more.
Once theynded on Shiro, Yin and Nan Tian, the motes kept their ¡¯gaze¡¯ on the three of them before disappearing.
"The hell..." Shiro muttered.
Despite having the ring and Nan Tian¡¯s help in dispersing the fear skill, her mind still told her to run.
"We should probably back off." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro nodded.
"It¡¯s a damn lizard." Yin muttered with a re.
"Lizard? You mean the owner of those eyes is a dragon?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Mn. I can feel it in my blood. It¡¯s a damn lizard and it¡¯s a powerful one at that." Yin nodded her head.
"Don¡¯t worry though, I¡¯m not gonna fight it." She shrugged and turned around.
ncing towards Nan Tian, Shiro nodded and prepared to leave. However, before they could take another step, a cloaked figure appeared in front of them.
Instantly recognising it to be the man who caused all of this, Nan Tian attacked without hesitation.
"Don¡¯t kill the messenger." The man chuckled and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, a dark barrier appeared around him and deflected the sword.
Surprised by his defence, Nan Tian was about to attack again as Shiro followed up with Athera in her hand.
Twisting her body, she stepped to the side of Nan Tian and attacked in sync.
Shaking his head, the man dropped the barrier and faded into mist, causing their attacks to miss.
Reappearing a little further away from his initial spot, the man shrugged.
"Quite hostile huh? Regardless, you can watch my queen¡¯s descent for yourself." He grinned.
Snapping his fingers, the outeryer of the crystal shattered apart as the shards shot towards the ck cloud of demons.
Shredding through the demons like they were paper, they could see faint trails of blood flowing towards the crystal.
Within a few seconds, the horde of demons were gone and the crystal fell into an eerie silence.
"We¡¯re getting out of here." Shiro frowned and summoned Estre.
Dragging both Yin and Nan Tian into the portal, they started to run with all their might.
While this was happening, the appearance of the crystal caused a crowd to gather not too far from the anchor site. The guild staff brought out scanning equipment and wanted to see what the crystal contained but nothing was discovered.
Slowly, the crystal seemed to lose its solidity and started to melt in a strange fashion. Condensing into the form of a young girl with a long ck dress, she tilted her head and nced towards all the adventurers with a nd expression.
Her ck hair fluttered in the wind while her purple eyes seemed to pierce into their soul.
"Feast." Her cold voice rang out.
*URAHHH!!!
Suddenly, a portal opened up above the adventurer¡¯s and a giant dragon head descended with a piercing cry.
Opening its maw, it consumed arge chunk of the wastnd and hundreds of adventurers before retreating back to its portal.
Silence reigned the wastnd as the adventurers didn¡¯t know how to react. Shocked at the disy, it took them a moment until the first cry of panic could be heard.
With that cry, a domino effect of sorts urred, and the adventurers started to run away. Some wanted to stay and fight however the woman would only summon more portals with the dragon heads and consume the ones that wanted to fight.
###
Watching the scene through a drone that she had left behind, Shiro¡¯s expression was serious.
"What kind of queen is she? Dragon? Darkness?" She muttered.
Nan Tian didn¡¯t say anything since his gaze was fixated on the man that was near the woman. Despite all his talks about killing Shiro to make him fall, he had not attempted that yet which is strange to him.
¡¯Does he have something else up his sleeve?¡¯ He thought to himself.
As they watched, the scene soon changed. The woman was now holding the drone in her hands.
"Are you watching? Young queen?" Her cold voice asked.
Widening her eyes, Shiro didn¡¯t expect her drone to be discovered so quickly.
"Thank you for taking care of the anchor. If you hadn¡¯t done that, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to secure another domain this early before the new age. I¡¯ll let you go for now since you¡¯ve done me this favour. This domain will now be under the rule of Thiria, Queen of the Beasts." Thiria said as she threw the drone up into the air.
*BANG!!!
Seeing the screen go dark, Shiro knew that her drone was gone.
Clicking her tongue, she pondered for a moment before stepping out of the dimension.
She wanted to see what Thiria wanted to do with this ce before she left.
Gesturing for Estre to let them out of the dimension, Shiro turned towards where the anchor was.
Looking up, she could see a giant magic formation where no end could be seen. It was as if the formation stretched on forever as Thiria was floating in the middle of the formation.
Pushing her hands out, a foreign energy exploded out from her as the skies started to change. From the blood red colour that the people of this city were familiar with, it shifted to an ominous ck.
Strangely enough, despite the dark skies, lighting was not a problem as the sun could still be seen which was quite abnormal.
[You have stepped into the Domain of Queen Thiria. As an enemy queen, you will experience the following effects.]
-20% to all stats
-20% effectiveness to all Queen rted spells
-20% System Assistance
Reading the notification, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
¡¯So domains are useful battlegrounds for the new age. If you have more domains, your powers are split but at the same time, to counter this, the enemy queen will get a debuff...¡¯ She thought to herself before turning to Yin and Nan Tian.
"Since the enemy queen has revealed herself and is not afraid of us, I¡¯m not exactly keen on sticking around. We¡¯ll get the remaining two artefact pieces in this city before leaving. I¡¯ll go notify Lucius and warn him about the queen since we know that she has a connection to ck Monarchy." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Before that, I want to tell you something."
"Mn? What is it?" Shiro asked.
"I just got a system notification asking me if I want to join the Queen Thiria¡¯s Royal court. There are more options other than this, but it seems like people who aren¡¯t associated with any Queen¡¯s will get this option." Nan Tian said with a serious expression.
"Hm... That¡¯s a bit of a bother because it means that humans will be split up into different factions." Shiro frowned. Shaking her head, she decided to set it aside for now.
Her main priority was to recover the artefacts.
¡¯After I get the artefacts, I might have to see if I can find the Queen of Ice to ask her some questions.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she might need to set up her own domain to make sure that her loved ones are safe.
Chapter 554 A Queens Domain
Chapter 554 A Queen''s Domain
Instructing Nan Tian to collect the artefacts with Yin for now, Shiro started to search the web for any hints that may point her in the direction of the Ice Queen. However, from what she could tell, there were none.
Massaging her eyes, she wondered what the difference between an anchor point and a domain was. After all, when she arrived at the Ice Queen¡¯s anchor point, she didn¡¯t get a notification like she did after Thiria made this ce her domain.
{Perhaps Anchor points are very important so it wouldn¡¯t be good if their location was revealed instantly while domains are like their ce of influence? Like countries. You may cross the border and understand that this is for example, the kingdom of spirits. However, you wouldn¡¯t know where their most valued position is.} Nimue suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"That makes sense. I suppose Anchors are what binds the Queen to this world while the domain is where they cultivate their strength. I¡¯m just making a hypothesis but do you think they can only have a certain number of Domains in rtion to their anchors?" Shiro muttered while ncing out at the ck sky and furrowed her brows.
So far, the Queen hadn¡¯t done anything so she could assume that she didn¡¯t have any ns to kill her just yet.
Thinking of this point, Shiro then turned her attention to the ck Monarchy.
After Thiria made this ce her domain, she could pick up on multiple suspicious figures entering the city through her drones. Assuming them to be the members of the ck Monarchy, Shiro tried to see where they were going but gave up when Thiria appeared.
Right now, she is in another Queen¡¯s domain and pissing her off isn¡¯t the smartest choice. Plus, there were too many unknown variables that could be in ce right now so fighting would be highly advised against.
###
Spending a day in the city, Yin managed to collect the other two parts of the artefact and they were preparing to leave. She had already told Lucius about the dangers but he was already preparing to leave. After all, everyone saw what happened when she descended onto this city. Thousands were ughtered in an instant and he didn¡¯t want to y around with his life.
Naturally, recordings of this event were spread to the and the government were notified. However, they didn¡¯t want to fight her just yet since they didn¡¯t know the extent of her power and sending more people in without knowing anything was just a waste of manpower.
During the day that she had spent here, Shiro managed to collect some information in regards to what happens when a Queen secures a domain. Those that are rather average will be granted an option by the system called Civilian. They would receive Thiria¡¯s protection but in return, a small portion of their power would be given to her.
The second option belonged to those that are more powerful than the average adventurer. They would get the option of Domain Guard. With this, they will get special privileges and are bound to the Queen.
ording to a few people, the privileges and penalties they received were of the following.
Privileges:
+10% to All Stats
Enhanced Dark Element Magic
+20% to All Stats if you are within the Queen¡¯s Domain
Two high level skills in rtion to your ss
A certain amount of protection against Demons, Monsters, Celestials, Gods and Gods Chosen
There were more but it varied from person to person. These were just themon rewards.
As for the penalties there were quite a few but these were the most important ones.
They could not go under the rule of another Queen unless the current Queen is killed or a higher ranked Queen offers them a ce in their domain.
They have to protect a Domain that they are assigned to. Should they fail this task, the Queen is able to punish them as she sees fit.
Should they betray the Queen, they will suffer a permanent 25% decrease to their stats and receive the special debuff known as Traitor. This causes the Queens to look at them with contempt and would hinder any future attempts to enter another Queen¡¯s rule.
Thankfully for those that didn¡¯t want anything to do with the Queen, they were under a protection period of sorts that didn¡¯t allow the Queen to raise her hand against them for three days. However, that did not mean the members of the ck Monarchy couldn¡¯t so the weak adventurers quickly left the city while they could.
For those that were caught, they were killed immediately.
Within a single day, a new kind of market was born. Escort hire. You would hire a powerful adventurer to escort you out of this city since the ck Monarchy were guarding the teleport shrine along with the borders. The government wanted to send a few people but the Queen¡¯s offer only extended to those that were in the domain at the time of its formation. Meaning, the agents that the government sent were rendered to food for Thiria¡¯s beasts.
Even a level 400 was dealt with easily which caused Thiria to be marked as extremely dangerous on the government¡¯s list of dangerous individuals.
"Are you ready to leave?" Nan Tian asked since Shiro had stayed behind to gather some information.
"Mn. I¡¯ve gathered as much information as I could. Any more would be dangerous since we don¡¯t know the limits of Thiria¡¯s power. She might not be attacking me because I made things easier for her and she looks down on me but at the same time, that could just be a bluff and the system was preventing her. Regardless, I¡¯m not keen on finding out. It¡¯s annoying but fighting her on her turf is a no go and we¡¯ll need to run for now. At least till I can understand more about a Queen¡¯s privilege because we¡¯ll be able to figure out a way to kill her then." Shiro nodded her head.
"How should we leave? Through the teleport shrine or the gates?" Nan tian asked with a smile.
"Teleport Gate. We¡¯re going to teleport to the closest city that has another piece of the artefact." Shiro replied while standing up.
"Mum." Yin called out.
"Mn? What is it?"
"I think I figured out what the artefact is." Yin said with a serious expression.
"Oh? You have?" Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Yeah. I think it¡¯s a ss-up object. After getting just three pieces, I feel my strength increasing even though I¡¯m still level 158. I think it might be a situation simr to Lisa. Remember how she gained a level boost after bing the Light Goddess¡¯s Incarnation for a short while?" Yin asked as Shiro nodded.
When Lisandra became the Light Goddess¡¯ Incarnation, her level was increased to 75 in an instant but the power she demonstrated was much higher than what a level 75 could output. Considering the background of this artefact being something that Fei Ling had left behind so that Yin could evolve and help their world, Shiro wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the artefact contained portions of Fei Ling¡¯s power.
"That¡¯s good then. With how things are developing, we need all the power we can get. After we get the rest of the pieces, we¡¯ll do a few raids with the party in order to get their levels up to par. During that, I can use the breaks in between to look for more clues on the Ice Queen so that I can get some answers from her." Shiro smiled.
"Are you sure she¡¯ll even answer your questions?" Nan Tian asked as he wasn¡¯t too joyful about Shiro meeting another Queen. From what he knows, all the Queen¡¯s arepetitors and the Ice Queen was no exception. Who knows if she¡¯ll kill Shiro to get rid of a rival before the race even starts.
"Probably not. However, it¡¯s a risk I need to take in order to actually know what¡¯s happening. If I can¡¯t use my privileges as a Queen, then theing age is going to be much harder. Plus, I need to win so that our world is safe." Shiro shook her head.
*Sigh...
"Figures. Seems like I¡¯m not gonna get a chance to level up anytime soon since I can¡¯t leave you alone. The moment I take my eyes off you, you¡¯re going to jump head on into danger." Nan Tian shook his head with a tired smile.
"Well... Maybe it¡¯s the other way around. Danger likes jumping onto me." Shiro chuckled.
"True. I swear, you must be cursed or something. Danger seems to be lurking around every corner with you around." Nan Tianughed as they started to make their way to the Teleport Shrine.
Chapter 555 Rumours
Chapter 555 Rumours
Making their way to the teleport shrine, Shiro could see a crowd of ck Monarchy members that were blocking the entrance. Unless you had hired some high level adventurer to escort you out, there was no way for normal adventurers to leave this city.
Sighing softly, she looked around the area and saw quite a few anxious expressions on the faces of adventurers that wanted to leave but couldn¡¯t.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to help these people out a little so that she could leave without any problems.
"Are you thinking of helping them?" Nan Tian whispered over after seeing the concern in her eyes.
"Mn. We might as well since I¡¯m here anyways." Shiro shrugged.
"What about the Queen? Wouldn¡¯t you be provoking her?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrows.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. We¡¯ll finish it quickly." Shiro chuckled and started to walk towards the entrance.
Releasing her killing intent, ice swords started to form in the air.
"Those that want to leave, you should do it now while you can. As for you lot who are blocking the way, either move or die." Shiro said with a smile.
"Who do you think you are? You¡¯re in the domain of her majesty, you better bow do-"
*PUCHI!
Before the man could even finish his sentence, tens of swords shredded into his body as nanobots erupted out of the ice swords and consumed his corpse.
"Anyone else who doesn¡¯t value their life?" Shiro narrowed her eyes at the other ck Monarchy members.
Sweeping her eyes through the crowd, she could already see a few of them preparing to call for reinforcements.
Shaking her head slowly, she raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
"Then die." She said coldly.
Suddenly, each of the swords broke apart into ice spears and pierced each of the ck Monarchy members. Those that wanted to raise a defence were stopped when a tiny needle enhanced with Celestial Path was stabbed into their throat. With their magic gone, the spears were able to make short work of them.
In an instant, she was able to kill the entire crowd of ck Monarchy members.
Sensing a few powerful signatures making their way to their location, Shiro didn¡¯t dally any long and walked into the teleport shrine.
Seeing this, the adventurers that were looking for a chance to leave this god forsaken city quickly scrambled behind her.
One by one, they disappeared in the structure.
Watching this happen, Thiria had a neutral expression on her face.
"Are you not going to deal with her now your highness?" A man asked while narrowing his eyes towards the teleport shrine.
"No, I need her to be alive for my ns. She originated from this world so naturally, there are a few benefits. I want to wait for those benefits to bloom before taking it for myself." Thiria replied nonchntly.
"Though it is rather unfortunate that the fall condition of that man was actually the Queen of this world. If it wasn¡¯t for that fact, I would have wanted you to do everything in your power to make him fall. He would have been a great addition to my forces. However, a single man is nothing in front of the power I could gain from the young Queen." She narrowed her eyes at where Nan Tian had stood a moment ago.
Nodding his head, the man couldn¡¯t help but wonder to himself about the kind of benefits that Shiro could offer to Thiria as the Queen of this world. After all, Thiria had actually decided to give up on acquiring a Supreme Grade Fallen Entity just for those benefits.
"Do you want me to assign some of the members to assist her in cultivating her strength?"
"No need. She¡¯ll get stronger without our help." Thiria shook her head.
"Though... I do wonder if she could find out about anchors and Domains. She¡¯ll need to understand these points for me to obtain the most amount of benefits. However, we¡¯ll sit back and wait for now. Even if she doesn¡¯t learn about these now, she¡¯ll learn about them in the new age. I¡¯ve been alive for thousands of years, a few more won¡¯t hurt me."
Watching Thiria flicker away from her spot, the man paused and looked towards the teleport shrine.
Thinking to himself for a moment, he shook his head and disappeared from his spot.
###
Stepping out of the teleport shrine, Shiro checked their location and was relieved to see that they had reached their destination safely. Even though she said not to worry, she had no idea what changes a teleport shrine could experience after a Queen takes over a domain.
"Fu... thankfully it worked out ok. Let¡¯s see... ording to the map that Lucius gave up, the artefact should be to the north of our current location. Nan Tian, like before, you should take Yin to that ce for her to get the artefact while I go around gathering some information." Shiro suggested with a smile.
"Sure. What are you even looking for this time? If you¡¯re wondering about the Queen¡¯s, shouldn¡¯t you look on the inte rather than around us?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"Half and half. I want to see if I can pick up on any rumours that I might have not found on the inte." Shiro replied with a smile.
"I see... fair enough." Nan Tian nodded his head and started to make his way to the Artefact site.
"Ah wait, before you go, take this. It should make it easier for the Shadow Temple members to let you through." Shiro called out and passed him the ornament that Lucius had gave her.
"Thanks."
Watching the duo disappear, Shiro looked around and figured that she should probably either go to a bar or the guild to hear some rumours.
¡¯It¡¯s a shame that I can¡¯t get drunk since my tolerances are abnormal but I should be able to get some decent rumours from the bar.¡¯ She thought to herself.
{Why is that a shame? Shouldn¡¯t it be good?} Nimue asked.
¡¯Well... I¡¯ve had alcohol before but I¡¯ve never been drunk. I¡¯m just curious as to how it would feel.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
{Don¡¯t go teaching Attie anything bad now. Alcohol is bad since your decision making is thrown out the window once you¡¯re drunk. I won¡¯t want to see a genocide happening after you get drunk because someone pissed you off. Though... I suppose you can¡¯t get drunk to begin with.} Nimue frowned.
¡¯Don¡¯t worry about it.¡¯ Shiro chuckled and started to make her way out of the teleport shrine.
Walking for a little while, she spotted what seemed to be a bar of sorts.
Entering the bar, she went up to the counter and was about to order a drink when the bartender asked for her guild ID.
Remembering that her main one registered her as roughly 13 year old, she quickly made a fake one to show that she was older than 20.
Buying a pint of beer, Shiro drank a mouthful and couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brows.
¡¯The fck is this? The drinks I had before were much better.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
{If you wanted something that tasted nice you should have gotten a cider.} Nimue smiled while ying around with Attie.
¡¯Mn... I¡¯ll keep that in mind.
Downing the drink in one go, Shiro asked for a cider instead and sat down around the edge of the bar.
Focusing her senses singling out a few voices around her, she started to eavesdrop on their conversations.
Those that were just about the daily goings of life were ignored since she had no interest in them.
However, from the myriad of voices she could pick out, she did hear something rather interesting.
"Did you hear about what happened with that cksmith a few days ago? Apparently, he sneaked into the faction leader¡¯s personal vault and tried to steal something from there only to be caught red handed. Now they¡¯re saying that he¡¯s going to be killed by the faction leader himself."
"Eh? Didn¡¯t he have a high standing in the faction along with a good rtionship with the faction leader? Why did he throw it all away?"
"They say that it¡¯s because he strayed from the proper path. He was researching swords to steal souls, something that the faction leader absolutely despises."
"Damn, you never know what might happen huh? Even someone the faction leader had trusted turned out to be this way, I pity him."
"Yeah. Apparently, they¡¯re going to execute him in two days and he¡¯s locked up in a cell right now. Do you want to find a good spot to watch everything?"
"Sure."
ncing at the two that were talking about the cksmith, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brows.
¡¯Talented cksmith researching about soul stealing weapons? Why does it remind me of Helion? He did say that he was going to help me with Akram.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
{Well the world fate is a strange thing. Maybe you should have a look and see if it is your dear friend. After all, we wouldn¡¯t want anything to happen to him.} Nimue suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
Drinking the cider quickly, she was surprised at its taste and made a mental note of it before leaving the bar.
Chapter 556 Prison Break
Chapter 556 Prison Break
Disguising her appearance, she went around asking about more information in regard to this rumour.
Surprisingly, no one knew his name since he never met any of his customers. He only had them send him an order slip and he¡¯ll make it for them with the correct payment.
¡¯Do you think it¡¯s because Helion didn¡¯t want them to see his ss? Hephaestus¡¯ Chosen isn¡¯t exactly amon ss after all.¡¯ Shiro asked curiously.
{Perhaps. But we¡¯re not even sure if it¡¯s Helion yet. It could just be just a coincidence.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯True.¡¯
Asking around for his location with a multitude of appearances thanks to her disguise skill, she was able to get a rough idea of where he was being held prisoner.
Looking up into the sky, she saw that it would still take another hour or before the sunset.
¡¯I should be able to break him out of prison quite easily.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and walked into an alley.
Changing her appearances just in case she was seen, she started to dash across the rooftops. Her current appearance was that of amon looking girl with ck hair. Using her nanobots, she created herself a stealth suit of sorts that would assist her in this infiltration.
After all, if she hid her mana signals while being invisible thanks to this suit, none of the guards would be able to find her.
Landing on a nearby roof to the spot where the cksmith was being held, Shiro nced at the number of guards surrounding the ce.
¡¯Hmm... we got four towers with bowmen overlooking the entire ce.¡¯ She furrowed her brows and activated her skill, analysis.
Looking at the formations littered around the ce, she could help but sigh softly. All of these formations were hidden neatly and if it wasn¡¯t for her analysis skill, it would have been quite tough for her to avoid all of these.
Making herself a few needles, she threw them towards some of the formations so that she could create a small opening for her to slip by.
Tapping her wrist, the nanobots on the surface of her suit started to pulse as her figure was soon erased from sight.
Stealthily making her way past the small openings that she had created, Shiro climbed above one of the watchtowers. Since they were looking down at the ce, they wouldn¡¯t expect an intruder to be above them.
However, it was a little difficult since Shiro didn¡¯t want to use mana to climb or else her position would bepromised. Instead, she used her physical strength and timed her ascension so that they wouldn¡¯t notice her.
Sitting on the roof of the watchtower, she removed a piece of her suit and threw it into the air.
Morphing into a small fly, Shiro had it fly through the entire courtyard so that it could map out the area for her.
As the fly made its way around the buildings, a 3d map started to appear in Shiro¡¯s mind.
¡¯Hmm... this is quite argepound. Four watchtowers on the outside, a main building in the centre with several storage buildings surrounding the main building. The main building has around 27 floors above ground already as for the underground, there are around 30 floors and each floor branches out like the roots of a tree.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a frown.
Controlling the fly with her suit, she could see that the underground floors were specialised forging rooms for those that work under special conditions. As for the ones above the floors, they¡¯re themon forging rooms along with a few trading rooms. The top floor of the building was reserved for the boss of this ce but Shiro didn¡¯t want to alert the leader just in case he was someone higher than level 300.
¡¯Hmm... There¡¯s no sign of a prison. Perhaps it¡¯s deeper underground.¡¯
Having the fly scan the underground floors thoroughly, she was able to finally locate the prison. ced on the 28th floor, the entire prison was under a high level formation that stopped any visitors unless they had permission. In addition to this formation, it even had several high level guards watching the entrance.
If she wanted to enter the prison, she¡¯d need to take out quite a few guards in order to do so. After all, they wouldn¡¯t be generous enough to watch her break the formation.
¡¯A little troublesome but it¡¯s not too bad. If it turns out the prisoner wasn¡¯t Helion, I can just leave with my Rift Strider. If it is Helion, I can also just leave with Rift Strider but this time with an escort target.¡¯
Standing up, she jumped off the roof andnded against the ground softly.
Dashing towards the main building, she avoided anyone that would be in her way. Thankfully, she didn¡¯t need to worry too much since she was camouged thanks to her suit.
ncing over at her map, she navigated towards the staircase and started to make her way down to the 28th underground floor. There were a few close calls with the guards but she was able to avoid them at thest moment.
Arriving at the prison block, she could see a total of four guards standing near the door. However, she knew that this wasn¡¯t all of them. Narrowing her eyes, she red her mana slightly so that she could draw their attention.
Feeling a sudden pulse of mana nearby, the three of the four guards immediately sprang to action and dashed towards where they had felt the pulse. With one guard waiting behind, Shiro noticed that he seemed to be ncing towards a few points of the room before nodding his head.
¡¯Seems like there are a few assassin¡¯s hidden around the ce.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and activated her analysis skill for a split second.
That way, she could spot their location without exposing herself too much.
¡¯Five assassins.¡¯
Quickly moving from her spot, she dashed towards where she had seen the assassins. Flickering behind the first assassin, she pierced his neck with one of her needles and sent a controlled shock through his body, knocking him out.
With the first assassin dealt with, the others naturally discovered his body due to the cancetion of stealth.
Before they could even shout, Shiro threw needles towards each of them and sent out the same shock to knock them out. Those that were better prepared managed to parry the needles but had to deal with Shiro instead.
Knocking out all the assassin¡¯s and guards, Shiro swiped her hand across the surface of the formation and started to edit it slightly to give herself permission.
Opening the door without any problems. She was greeted with rows upon rows of cells. There were quite a few prisoners held here as Shiro ignored them and walked past all the cells.
While this was happening, the prisoners were slightly surprised to see the door open without anyone and thought that this was a chance to escape.
mming their chains against the bars, they tried their best to break out but their efforts were fruitless. After all, there were mana restricting formations in their cells so that they couldn¡¯t muster up sufficient strength.
Ignoring themotion behind her, she looked at each of the cells and frowned when she couldn¡¯t find anyone that resembled Helion.
¡¯Seems like I was wr- wait a minute.¡¯ Noticing something mid-thought, Shiro crouched down and pressed her hand against the floor.
Since she was already making trouble, it wouldn¡¯t matter if she red her mana a few more times.
Activating her analysis skill once more, she started to map out the area once again. This time, she found a giant pit of sorts with a single man chained at the very bottom. The sheer amount of defensive formations around this man was impressive as it was more powerful than the one protecting these cells.
However, this didn¡¯t bother her.
After all, she could tell that the man below her was Helion.
Pulling her arm back, she punched against the ground.
*BANG!!!!
Cracking the floor, the hidden cell door was forcefully broken.
Jumping down, she sent out tens of daggers to cancel out each of the defensive formations.
With this, the entire ce was notified of her intrusion but her goal was achieved.
"Seems like you¡¯ve been quite busy since thest time I had seen you, Helion." Shiro said with a smile as she removed her camouge.
Landing in front of the chained man, she could see his injured body.
"Shiro." Helion smiled weakly at the girl in front of him.
Chapter 557 Rescuing Helion
Chapter 557 Rescuing Helion
"Sorry, I seemed to have slipped up a bit." Helion sighed as Shiro shook her head.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s my fault for giving you a rather dangerous task to begin with. We can talkter once I get rid of your chains." Shiro said while looking at the cuffs secured to his wrists and ankles.
"They¡¯re specially made to be resistant to mana so it¡¯ll be hard to break them apart. They¡¯ve also been reinforced to make them harder." Helion smiled weakly.
"When have restraints ever been a problem for me? Did you forget how I got here despite all the defensive formation?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
Brushing her finger across the surface of the chains, nanobots started to flood the internalposition of the cuffs and began to consume everything it came into contact with. After a few short moments, Helion¡¯s chains were destroyed and his body fell forward.
Quickly catching him so that he didn¡¯t m his face against the ground, Shiro hauled him into her rift. As much as she wanted to go on a rampage to make the people who did this to him pay, she needed to get him out first.
Dashing through the rift with Helion next to her, Shiro managed to escort him out of thepound without any problems. Any guards that managed to catch them were dealt with swiftly.
While this was all happening, she was healing Helion¡¯s body with her life fire. However, looking at his internal injuries, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel as though her anger was reaching a new boiling point. Not only were his bones essentially shattered, but his organs were also poisoned.
Using a few charges of her Grace skill, she managed to heal him back to full.
"Thank you." Helion said as he could finally breathe properly after a long time.
"Don¡¯t sweat it. Let¡¯s go get a room for now so that they won¡¯t be finding us any time soon." Shiro nodded her head.
Agreeing with Shiro, the two of them started to make their way to a nearby hotel.
Renting out two rooms for the night, Shiro had Helion eat something before having him exining what had happened.
"You see, after we met up back in New York to analyse your sword, I made my way to each of the cksmithing associations along with a few factions in hopes of finding some information on the soul fragments. That way, I can remove that sword from you for good. However, during my search, the information I found was rather basic until I caught wind of a rumour saying that the cksmithing Faction in this city had dealt with Soul Fragments before.
"After arriving in this city, I started to search around after temporarily joining this Faction. It was here that I discovered the source of these rumours. The higher ups of this ce all have Soul Fragment weapons. I wouldn¡¯t say that they¡¯ve been possessed by the weapons yet but they¡¯re not far off. Drunk by its power and understanding that I was researching this type of weapon, the Faction leader requested that I make more or enhance their current weapons." Helion sighed.
"And I¡¯m guessing you rejected them whichnded you in that prison." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Mn. There is some good news though."
"Like what?"
"I figured out how you can get rid of that God ying Sword for good." Helion smiled.
"Oh? That is rather good news."
"Unfortunately."
"And here it is. It¡¯s never easy now is it?" Shiro chuckled.
"Nope. All of my research on the subject has been stolen and vaulted in the top floor of the faction. I¡¯m thinking that the leader wants to use my research in order to upgrade his own weapons which would be bad since the amount of souls he needs would increase exponentially. To make matters worse, he needs human souls, not monsters." Helion frowned.
"So all I need to do is to collect your research so that I can finally get rid of this sword?" Shiro asked again just to make sure.
Pulling out Akram, she set it on the table.
"Mn. I¡¯ve got an idea of how to do it in my mind but it¡¯ll be better to reference my research since there are parts that I might have missed."
"Interesting. Are you able to give me a small run down on how you would get rid of this sword?" Shiro asked.
"There are a few methods but one of them is to consume the soul before it could consume you, making it so that the sword is entirely dedicated to you but that would be pretty hard when you think about how much killing intent is radiated from that de."
"True... Regardless, I suppose I¡¯ll be making a second trip today." Shiro smiled as she stored Akram away.
Standing up, she was about to leave when she received a text from her phone.
[Nan Tian: We¡¯ve just finished getting the artefact piece. Where are you? We¡¯ll meet up with you.]
[Shiro: I¡¯m at a hotel with a friend of mine. Come over and I¡¯ll introduce you two.]
Sending them the address, Shiro told Helion that someone wasing over.
Soon, both Yin and Nan Tian arrived at the hotel room.
"Nan Tian meet Helion. Helion meet Nan Tian. Helion is a friend of mine who¡¯s been a great help in making my current armour and upgrading my weapons." Shiro said with a smile.
Seeing the man, Nan Tian walked up to him and shook his hand.
"Nice to meet you." He said with a smile.
"Likewise." Helion nodded his head.
"So what¡¯s happening?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"You see, Helion was doing something for me but got caught up in a dangerous situation. I¡¯m about to go resolve all that right now." Shiro replied while opening the window.
"Oh? You need any help?"
"Nah, I should be alright unless they have someone above level 300, I won¡¯t be harmed. Though, I suppose even if they did, I got Estre to help me." Shiro smiled.
"I see... Alright. Don¡¯t go too overboard with the murder spree ok?" Nan Tian smiled as Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Please, when have I ever gone overboard with a murder spree? If I did, I would have a higher rank on my title." Shiro replied.
"Anyways, I¡¯ll be back soon. Lil¡¯ Tian, don¡¯t be rude to my friend just because he¡¯s a guy ok? He¡¯s been a great help to me and if I find you that you¡¯ve done anything to offend him, I¡¯ll be kicking your ass." She warned before flickering from her spot.
"Lil Tian?" Helion raised his eyebrow in confusion.
". . .Don¡¯t question it." Nan Tian sighed.
"Well, I tend not to question a lot of things that are to do with Shiro. If I did, I¡¯d be stressing myself out quite a bit." Helion chuckled.
"That sounds about right."
###
Jumping through the air, Shiro made her way past the clouds and summoned both Iziuel and Attie.
"Iziuel, are you able to look after Attie for a bit? I don¡¯t want him to see what I¡¯m about to do to the leader." Shiro said with a smile.
"Sure. Like Nan Tian said though, don¡¯t go overboard." Iziuel smiled since she was used to it by now.
"Don¡¯t worry about it." Shiro chuckled. Before she could however, Attie reached out and tugged on her jacket.
"Mn? What is it Attie?" She asked with a soft smile.
Opening his mouth, Attie wanted to talk but when no sound came out, he could only furrow his brows in frustration.
Seeing Attie gesture for her to pick him up, Shiro obliged as he patted her head and gave her a hug.
Feeling a warm sensation sprout out in her heart, Shiro smiled softly.
"I¡¯ll be back soon ok? Be good and stay with Iziuel for now."
Nodding his head, Attie gave Shiro a small wave.
Waving back, Shiro disappeared from her spot.
###
{You should spend more time with Attie you know? He¡¯s still growing up.}
¡¯You¡¯re right. Though the circ.u.mstances aren¡¯t exactly optimal right now. There are too many things to do and people to kill.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{Are you sure that isn¡¯t just excuses? Perhaps you should take a day off so that you can y with Lisa, Yin and Attie. While Yin and Lisa are more mature, they still need motherly attention every now and again. Especially Lisa due to her background.}
¡¯. . .Yeah I¡¯ve been neglecting them a bit haven¡¯t I?¡¯
{Uhuh.}
¡¯I¡¯ll make this up to them after we get the artefacts. But for now...¡¯ Shiro trailed off as shended on the top of the faction building.
"I¡¯ve got people to kill." She grinned as her eyes flickered with killing intent.
Chapter 558 One Against Five
Chapter 558 One Against Five
¡¯They¡¯ve probably discovered that Helion is missing right now so I don¡¯t need to worry about stealth. The only problem is dragging in innocents since they haven¡¯t done anything wrong to my knowledge. I need to make sure I only kill the higher ups.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and mmed her hands against the roof of the main buildings.
*BOOM!!!
Suddenly, a giant tier 5 magic circle erupted out as the defensive formations started to crack one after the other.
¡¯This should draw them out. I need a way to single out those that have Soul Fragment weapons so Akram shoulde in handy.¡¯
Snapping her fingers, nanobots started to appear in front of her as she created a scanner of sorts. cing the God ying Sword Akram into the chamber, it started to look for any weapons that are remotely simr to Akram.
As this was happening, she could sense quite a few powerful presencesing towards her.
¡¯Interesting... Their auras are rather... Demonic? Nah that¡¯s not right. Corrupt? That¡¯s not it either.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Who are you." A booming voice called out as several eyes locked onto Shiro.
"Just a busy person who¡¯s pissed that you hurt a close friend of mine. Let¡¯s just say I¡¯m rather annoyed that he was ced in a near death state." Shiro replied as her killing intent surged out.
Suddenly, clouds started to gather above their location as snow started to fall.
"As for my name, there¡¯s no reason to tell that to you since dead men need no knowledge." Sheughed as she stored Akram away.
After all, there was no need to search when she could sense killing intent from their weapons.
In front of her, there were a total of 5 weapons. Two swords, a greatsword, a bow and a chain. Each of them looked rather demonic as they radiated the same kind of feeling she could feel from the God ying Sword Akram.
[Roman ¨C LVL 252 Grandmaster Swordsmith]
[Lorenzo ¨C LVL 295 Silent Reaper]
[a ????? LVL 238 Dragonfire Archer]
[Dante ¨C LVL 235 Ascendant Spellthief]
[Darci ¨C LVL 263 Blood Warden]
Lorenzo and Dante were the owners of the two swords while Roman owned the greatsword. As for Darci, she had the chains and a was naturally the bow.
ring her aura, she immediately activated her Celestial Raiment and chose Cosmic Ice as the base element.
Bringing out Athera she activated its first effect.
[Athera Activation Option 1]
Your sword enters a frenzy, desiring to consume all the enemies in your path. When you¡¯re near a ¡¯meal¡¯ you experience the following effects.
+100% AGI, +80% STR, +80% DEX
Along with the effect: Tenacious Hunter
Once you make your mind on killing your enemy, a red tether will appear between you and them. Until you¡¯ve killed them, this tether will not go away. When you¡¯re chasing the tethered target, you gain an additional 50% boost in speed. Upon killing the target, you obtain a portion of their highest stat.
Your enemies will suffer the following effects:
-30% AGI, -30% STR, -30% DEF
Along with the effect: Fear of the Hunter
Dread fills their mind as their doom approaches. Their movements be sluggish and their stamina will be used at a reckless pace. Their decision making is impaired as they fear your presence.
Cost: N/A
Duration: 10 Minutes
Cooldown: 2 hours
Bacsh: You suffer from 60% Muscle Fatigue and a temporary decrease in all of your stats. (-30%).
Despite the bacsh, 10 minutes was more than enough for her to deal with these five. Plus, the extra stat increases are extremely helpful considering that all of them were higher level than her.
Phantom Path + Refraction + Sword Domain + Hollow Deceit + Takemikazuchi Technique!
After using all of her skills through a myriad of battles, she was now proficient enough with them to the point where she can activate them all at the same time through just her body control rather than through the system.
Flickering from her spot, she immediately appeared before Dante, the Spellthief. She knew of the ss¡¯s capabilities and it was not one she wanted to leave alone in a team fight.
Looking at the white haired woman that appeared in front of him, Dante¡¯s eyes widened in fear as a red tether linked the two of them together.
"You¡¯re the first one." Shiro whispered towards Dante.
Her eyes seemed to glow under the moonlight as his movements felt sluggish. Normally, he could have raised his sword to defend himself or even steal her magic but time seemed to slow down and he was rendered defenceless.
Suddenly, a chain urately wrapped around Shiro¡¯s waist despite the other clones and tried to pull her away.
Unfortunately for the group of adventurers, this is where her skill: Hollow Deceit came into use. Switching ces with one of her clones, her sword dug deep into Dante¡¯s spine.
Twisting her body, she cut her sword the spine, before pushing foward, piercing his throat.
Flipping her body up onto the sword, she managed to dodge a few sword swipes from Lorenzo who tried to sneak up on her. Reinforcing her leg strength, she kicked the head as hard as she could andunched it towards a to throw off her aim with the bow.
With Dante dead, the Roman didn¡¯t have to worry about hitting his ally and swung his greatsword towards her.
Jumping into the rift, she exited above the group and aimed her palm at the greatsword wielding adventurer.
Frozen Hell ¨C Frozen Slumber!
Suddenly, the snowkes that had been falling from the sky morphed into chains andshed out towards him, locking him in ce.
Once again, a red tether appeared between the two of them as her de travelled towards his neck.
However, Darci was prepared.
Activating one of her skills, blood drained from Dante¡¯s body and started to pierce towards Shiro.
Sensing danger, Shiro cut her attack short and sent out a pulse of air, moving her body to the side and barely avoiding the blood that tried to pierce her body.
Analysing the current state of the fight, she understood that Darci was probably the most troublesome one due to her utility.
Pulling down her mask, she breathed out a wave of cold air and activated her skill: Elemental Breath.
The cold air slowly solidified into a wave of ice needles that shot towards Darci.
Seeing this, she tried to dodge out of the way but chains had already locked her foot in ce, causing her to trip towards the needles.
"ARGGG!!!!" Crying out in pain, the needles dug deep into her body while the ones that pierced her eyes shattered them to dust.
"The second one." Shiro whispered like a grim reaper as she appeared behind her.
Gently wrapping her hands around Darci¡¯s head, she snapped her neck and pierced her sword down into Darci¡¯s body, pinning her corpse to the roof of the building.
Shocked at Shiro¡¯s performance, the other three did not hesitate to pierce their weapons into their own bodies.
Suddenly. ck armour started to wrap around their bodies as their eyes seemed to ze over.
Pulling back on her bowstring, a sent out a ming arrow that started to melt everything around it.
Twisting her body, Shiro was about to cut the arrow in half when it split apart into dragon heads and bit at her body.
Before they could even rejoice at the first proper hit they had dealt to Shiro, several copies of Athera appeared beside her and blocked the dragon heads from harming her body.
"Sorry to tell you but Athera isn¡¯t one sword. It¡¯s multiple." Shiro narrowed her eyes with a grin.
Grabbing a second copy of Athera with her spare hand, she kicked against the floor and dashed towards Roman.
"URAHH!!!" Shouting out in anger, a red glow encased his body as his sword cleaved towards her body.
Raising up her spare hand, she stepped to the side and parried his de. Just as she was about to use her main hand, a second de entered her peripherals as Lorenzo¡¯s de wasing closer to stabbing her head.
However, she didn¡¯t hesitate at all.
With a single mentalmand, the remaining copies of Athera pierced towards him and skewered his body.
Stomping down against the ground, two pirs of ice erupted out beside her and mmed against Roman and Lorenzo¡¯s body, sending them into the air.
Force of Elements!
Activating her force of elements, she infused three elements into the skill as a giant multicolour de descended from the sky, piercing their bodies and cleaved them in half.
With these two dead, the only one who remained was a.
Before she could even think about running, Shiro pivoted on her foot and activated Borealis¡¯ Lance.
*BANG!!!!
Smashing through a¡¯s body like it was nothing, thence left behind a gaping hole in her chest as blood poured out the wound.
"Don¡¯t re at me like that, me the fact that you were unlucky and hurt the wrong person." Shiro leaned next to a¡¯s ear before crushing her head with her hands.
Kicking the corpse aside, she punched a hole in the roof and made her way to the top floor of this building. After all, her goal was to retrieve Helion¡¯s research.
Chapter 559 Puppet
Chapter 559 Puppet
Landing on the floor softly, Shiro looked around the top floor and saw a man sitting on an office chair while looking at her with a nd expression.
"Seems like you¡¯ve been waiting for me. Were you not bothered about your men being killed on the roof?" Shiro asked with a smile.
However, even after waiting for a few moments, the man did not respond.
Furrowing her brows, she scanned his body and realised that this was a literal husk. A human puppet that had no organs.
"The hell." She frowned.
Just as she was about to investigate the body for anything that might be useful, it started to twitch as mana filled its insides.
"Rather crude hobby you have there." Shiro clicked her tongue and made some distance between her and the puppet.
"Who are you." A cold voice asked as the puppet¡¯s eyes turned towards her.
"Not important. Though I might tell you who I am if you tell me who you are first." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Hmm... I can¡¯t sense the other five so it seems like they¡¯ve been killed. Well no matter, they¡¯re only prototypes anyways." The controller of the puppet ignored her.
Standing up, the puppet attempted to walk when ice chains erupted out from every corner and restrained its movements.
"I did just ask you a question. Mind answering first?" Shiro warned.
Tilting his head, the puppet nced towards Shiro once more.
"Perhaps you¡¯re the cause of all this? Interesting... You¡¯re a little different from your description but Young Miss Asakura, why must you interfere with my matters? Each to their own and I would appreciate it if you left this go."
"You know who I am? In that case it makes things easier. The answer to your question is an obvious no. Soul Fragments are a poor choice of materials to use for a weapon. Out of all the metals that you could have chosen, you decided to use souls. Why?" Shiro asked.
"You don¡¯t need to know. Since you insist on interfering with this, then I can only warn you to watch your back." The controller replied nonchntly.
Suddenly, the mana inside the puppet started to go out of control as Shiro understood that it was about to blow up. However, she wasn¡¯t worried.
Dashing towards the puppet, she crouched down before mming her palm against its chest.
*BANG!
Sending the body flying, she opened the rift just behind it so that the explosion wouldn¡¯t harm the room. After all, she still needed to look for Helion¡¯s research.
Closing the rift before the puppet could explode, Shiro had a serious expression on her face.
¡¯Who was the controller? He knew me but I don¡¯t know him.¡¯ She thought to herself before shaking her head.
Regardless of who the person was, she was going to kill them if they¡¯re going to be her enemy.
Walking up to the desk, she started to search in the draws for anything that could be of use.
Finding quite a few notebooks filled with recipes on weapons, Shiro furrowed her brows since this wasn¡¯t what she wanted.
Pressing her hands against the walls, she scanned the entire room and found a few hiddenpartments. However, her back couldn¡¯t help but chill when she saw the sheer amount of Soul Fragment weapons being hidden in thesepartments.
Even though she was fine with killing people so long as they make themselves her enemy, seeing this many weapons made from souls still disturbed her slightly.
¡¯Tch, what a freak.¡¯ Shiro thought with a click of her tongue.
Punching a hole into thepartments, she could find a few notebooks besides the weapons. This time, they were about research on the soul weapon.
Casually flipping through the pages, she nced at one of the lines.
[The most effective way in making the Soul Fragment weapons are cing the subject under intense torture. With this, they will feel a surge in negative emotions which in turn would empower the finalised projects.]
Looking at the swords stacked up on the side, she knew that the amount of people killed to make this is by no means small.
{The b*stard is like the Light God. Both should just f*cking die.} Nimue frowned as Shiro agreed with her opinion.
Reaching out for the swords, she started to store them away one by one since it would be bad if these weapons were to be released out into the world.
Unfortunately, since these weapons weren¡¯t made personally by the controller of the puppet, she wouldn¡¯t be able to track him down.
¡¯I should probably make note of this and report it to Keiko so that she could bring it up at the next national assembly. Though with Thiria making the status of Queens known throughout the world, I can imagine that the next assembly is going to be quite overwhelming.¡¯
Shaking her head, she started to search the otherpartment. Finding more Soul Weapons and research notepads, Shiro stored them away and prepared to leave.
¡¯Actually, I should probably take the other five weapons I saw earlier as well.¡¯
Jumping up to the roof, she crouched down next to the weapons and threw them into her inventory.
ncing down at the panicking guards, Shiro wondered if there were anyone else with the Soul Fragment weapons in this city. If there was, she might as well deal with them now.
{Since you¡¯re out here, you might as well take care of them no?} Nimue chuckled since she didn¡¯t want Shiro to go back just yet. After all, it was rare for Shiro to enjoy herself freely like this.
¡¯True. In that case then I got a great idea.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
Jumping up into the air, she flew past the clouds and pushed out her palms.
Simr to what happened with Wrath of Stars, a giant tier 5 magic formation started to stretch across the city as Shiro brought out a few of the Soul Fragment weapons.
Making them float in the centre of the formation, she started to modify the formation a little so that rather than attack the people that own a simr weapon, it would only show her where they are. After all, if she sent down arrows that exploded upon contact, she could idently drag in innocent civilians.
Soon, she could see pirs of red light shooting up into the sky.
¡¯Bingo.¡¯ She grinned as the formation was just a giant mini map. When it discovers anything that matched the description that she had inputted, a pir of light would appear around its location.
¡¯So about 15 more people with this weapon huh?¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes.
{Seems like it. 15 more people for you to kill. Are you able to handle them?} Nimue asked curiously since she was currently suffering from the bacsh of using Athera.
Bacsh: You suffer from 60% Muscle Fatigue and a temporary decrease in all of your stats. (-30%)
"Yes. If anything, I¡¯d say that this makes it fair for the people I¡¯m about to hunt. 60% Muscle Fatigue ain¡¯t too bad and as for the 30% decrease in stats, let¡¯s just say that the stats I obtained from the recent hunts with Athera make up for the difference." Shiro grinned.
After all, whenever she kills a target that is connected with her tether, she obtains a portion of their highest stat. After thest fight, she managed to get a small increase to all of her stats except for INT since they didn¡¯t have a mage with them.
Taking a deep breath, she flicked her wrist and summoned Athera into her hands.
"The night is still young, I have plenty of time to deal with them. Who knows, I might even torture them a bit. You know the saying, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth? Let¡¯s just say I¡¯m about to add another verse. Torture for torture." Shiro narrowed her eyes and flickered from her spot.
###
Looking up at the sky, Nan Tian had a smile on his face.
"Seems like she¡¯s thoroughly enjoying herself. That¡¯s good." He muttered.
"Aren¡¯t you worried? She¡¯s going to be up against level 200+¡¯s." Helion asked curiously.
"Nope. It¡¯s the same with you isn¡¯t it? We both know that she can handle herself in a fight so I¡¯m not too worried. Plus, knowing what she¡¯s like, she¡¯d probably be annoyed if I denied her of her fun." Nan Tian chuckled.
"True. I¡¯ll tell you what though, after researching Soul Fragments, I think I discovered quite an interesting detail about everyone who has a connection with the system."
"Oh? What¡¯s that?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrows.
"Our souls are ¡¯owned¡¯ by the system."
Chapter 560 Souls
Chapter 560 Souls
"What?" Nan Tian looked at Helion with surprise.
Even Yin was intrigued as she nced towards him.
"You see, the souls that they use for the Soul Fragment weapons are simply too small to be the full soul. Even when they try to extract it with 100% efficiency, the ¡¯size¡¯ of the soul is too small. Think of it as inserting mana into a puppet and controlling it that way, you only need a small strand of mana for that puppet to move. It¡¯s the same situation with the system and our souls. Think of the system as the mana and our soul is the main body. We pilot our physical bodies and when we die, the ¡¯souls¡¯ that we find are just the tiny spark we used to pilot the body while the main body of the soul is under the system¡¯s ownership.
"Even if our main body was to die, our souls live on. Meaning, unless something was to target that main body directly, we wouldn¡¯t truly die. The system can then do whatever it wants with our souls. Whether that be to just erase us or transform us into monsters, I don¡¯t know." Helion exined as Nan Tian fell silent. It made sense from a few stand points since he knew that Shiro had already lived through three lifetimes now.
If her physical body was to die and her soul lives on like Helion said, it would indeed be usible for this to happen.
"If you think of it from another perspective, there is also the question of how we can use the system to begin with. Where is it stored? Why can we ess it? How is this giantwork of information even essible to us? If our souls are directly linked to the system, as in we use it to pilot our body¡¯s, then it would make sense that we can utilise the system through this connection."
"Interesting... then are you suggesting that we can possibly kill a person forever if we destroy their main body?" Nan Tian narrowed his eyes.
If that was the case, they could potentially erase the Light God once and for all.
"I don¡¯t know. After all, it hasn¡¯t been proven. If anything, just think of this as my own hypophysis." Helion shook his head.
###
*PUCHI!!!
Stabbing her sword through the heart of thest owner of the Soul Fragment weapons, Shiro wiped the blood off her face.
"Fu... That was a fun exercise now wasn¡¯t it?" Shiro chuckled as she grabbed the Soul Fragment weapon and threw it into her inventory. With this, she now had possession of every single Soul Fragment weapon in this city, totalling up to 40.
Looking at the armoury of weapons in her inventory, Shiro shook her head.
¡¯Why do they even make these kinds of weapons? I get that the initial power boost is good but it¡¯s at the expense of pretty much giving up your sanity. Even if you want revenge, you can¡¯t enjoy it if your mind is not there.¡¯ She sighed before ncing down at her phone. Seeing the time, she figured that it was about time that she made her way back.
Flying through the sky, she searched for Iziuel and Attie.
In a few short moments, she managed to spot them walking through the streets as Iziuel showed Attie around with a smile.
"Iziuel! Attie!" Shiro called out.
"You¡¯ve finished your business?" Iziuel asked with a smile.
"Yup. I managed to get some decent exercise too." Shiro chuckled.
"Nice. I¡¯ve just been exploring the city with Attie. I think it¡¯s about time he went to sleep since we did go to quite a few ces." Iziuel gestured to Attie who was yawning slightly.
"I see... Thank you for looking after him." Shiro smiled softly and hugged Attie.
Letting them back in her mana realm, she watched as Attieid his body on the fire ind and started to sleep.
"He was quite worried you know? He kept on ncing up at the magic formation that you had set up above the city." Iziuel said while ncing at Shiro.
Smiling softly, Shiro wanted to stroke his hair but decided against it since she didn¡¯t want to wake him up.
"I know." She nodded her head before leaving the mana realm.
Making her way back to the hotel, she saw Nan Tian with a rather serious expression while Helion was writing down a few notes into his notepad.
"I do hope that you two have been nice to each other." Shiro said with a chuckle.
"You¡¯re back. How did you enjoy thete night workout?" Nan Tian asked.
"It¡¯s been quite nice. I managed to recover all the Soul Fragment weapons along with a few research notes." Shiro replied.
Pulling out the swords and the note pads, she ced them on the table. Snapping her fingers, a magic circle wrapped around the swords as the killing intent was sealed off.
"I wasn¡¯t sure which note was yours so I just grabbed all of them." Shiro shrugged.
"OK, I¡¯ll go look through them now." Helion nodded.
"Oh right Shiro, Helion¡¯s told me a rather interesting theory of his if you¡¯re interested." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"A theory you say? Count me interested."
###
Exining Helion¡¯s theory to Shiro, Nan Tian watched as Shiro fell silent before opening her mouth.
"I think I have evidence that his theory is correct."
Pausing in his actions, Helion looked up in surprise.
"How?"
"Because I¡¯ve managed to... ¡¯exploit¡¯ the system? You see, I¡¯ve received a mystery element dubbed as Error 403 in the system. It allows me to directly attack their ¡¯source code¡¯ which could potentially be the main body of their soul. Whenever I do this, I¡¯m allowed to obtain a skill from them and from what I can tell, I kill them for good. After all, I even managed to harm the source code of a god." Shiro shrugged as Helion dropped his notepad.
"You what?"
"I got a new element."
"Not that. Thest part." Helion shook his head.
"I harmed the source code of a god." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
". . . I have so many questions right now." He sighed.
He was thinking that she had managed to kill a person for good or erase their existence but instead, she straight up harmed a f*cking god. And knowing Shiro, she was not one to joke around with something like that.
Looking towards Nan Tian, Helion wanted to double check if this was correct.
"She¡¯s right you know? I was there and my god was it magnificent. Shiro jumping into a fiesta filled with level 500¡¯s and killed the avatar of a god right in front of us." Nan Tian chuckled.
". . ."
"Mum, I think his brain short circuited." Yin yawned as she continued to watch a cooking show on the TV.
"Don¡¯t be rude. I¡¯m sure he¡¯s just processing the information right now. After all, I did harm a god you know?"
"So you also know how ridiculous that situation is?" Helion raised his eyebrow.
"Just because I¡¯m not surprised doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t know ok? I¡¯m used to strange situations now. After all, my blood rted daughter is a phoenix and her other mother is my friend that I met in a trial. My second daughter is an angel which I rescued from a trial and my third child, my son, is a spirit created from the fusing of special fires. Tell me if any of that sounds normal?" Shiro chuckled.
"I swear, every time I see you, the situation gets crazier and crazier. Next thing I know, all of you have be gods and are in a war against the world." Helion sighed.
"Don¡¯t jinx it now. It might actually happen." Shiroughed as gods and demons were about to bemon in the new age. Who knows, she might be able to reach Demi God rank by then.
"The chances are low but never zero. That pretty much sums up your life right now." Nan Tian chuckled.
"That is a pretty urate description to be honest." Shiro shrugged.
"Regardless, I should help you resolve the problem with Akram before I lose my mind. My main question is what you want to do with the sword? You can eitherpletely destroy it or I can remake it into something else." Helion asked.
"Hmm... are you able to remake it into something else? As in make it so that I can interact with the Soul Fragment used. After all, I¡¯ll have a charge of my Extraction skill soon and if I¡¯m able to use it on the Soul Fragments, I¡¯ll be able to obtain their skill." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Pausing for a moment, Helion stayed silent before smiling.
"That is doable."
Chapter 561 Collecting Artefact Pieces
Chapter 561 Collecting Artefact Pieces
"However, I¡¯ll need a bit of time to do that since I researched on how to get rid of the weapon rather than make it so that you can interact with the Soul Fragments." Helion shrugged.
"Hmm... if it¡¯s going to be too much trouble then you can just go with the first option. I don¡¯t really mind since it would be good for me to get rid of this weapon." Shiro smiled.
"How about this, give me around a week to work with these weapons. After a week, if I still haven¡¯t figured it out, we¡¯ll just get rid of Akram first." Helion suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure I don¡¯t mind. However, you might want to be careful. When I was looking for your research notes, there was someone who was controlling the head of the Faction as a puppet and he seemed to know of me. We don¡¯t know his goal or reasons so you want to be cautious." Shiro warned since it was an unfavourable position for them.
The enemy knew of them but they didn¡¯t know the enemy.
"Alright. I think I might have to go back to New York for this since it¡¯s probably safer over there." Helion nodded.
"Oh before that though, I grabbed a few high grade materials for you so if you ever want to make some high level weapons, these should suit your needs." Shiro smiled and pulled out metal after metal.
Looking at the giant collection of materials used for cksmithing beingid out on the table, Helion was quite overwhelmed by a few of them.
"Holy... That¡¯s all for me?" He asked with disbelief as Shiro nodded her head with a smile.
"Yup. Anyways, it¡¯s prettyte into the night now so you should get some rest. Me, Lil¡¯ Tian and Yin will be leaving the city tomorrow since we got more artefact pieces to look for."
"Oh you¡¯re leaving already?"
"Yeah. You see, there¡¯s somethinging up and we need to get stronger quickly. For Yin, she¡¯ll need to get pieces of this artefact in order to ss up so we¡¯re just doing that for her now." Shiro nodded her head.
"I see... Alright. In that case then I won¡¯t bother you any longer. Good night." Helion smiled and started to store things away in his inventory. Giving them a small wave, he left the room.
Stretching lightly, Shiro was about to prepare to sleep when she realised that Nan Tian was still in the room.
"You know, Lil¡¯ Tian, I meant you too." Shiro chuckled.
"I know, I¡¯m just searching for something in my inventory. Give me a second." Nan Tian nodded.
After a few moments, he brought out a small pill.
"Take this. It should help you with muscle fatigue." He smiled
"You noticed?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Of course. Normally, you¡¯re quite expressive with your bodynguage but this time, it¡¯s rather reserved and hindered. I figured that you probably used something with a bacsh against the enemy so your body is recovering right now." Nan Tian exined while giving her the pill.
[Bacsh Recovery Pill]
A pill to recover from the bacsh received from any source. However, depending on the strength of the bacsh, the effects of this pill may vary.
Smiling softly, Shiro threw the pill into her mouth as a soothing energy could be felt spreading through her body, relieving her of some of the fatigue.
"Thank you." She smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Watching him leave, Shiro sighed softly before changing into some pyjamas. Since this room was a two person room, Yin had the other bed.
"Go to sleep soon ok Yin?"
"Mn. I¡¯ll go to sleep once I¡¯ve finished watching this show." Yin replied.
Laying her body on the bed, Shiro closed her eyes.
{You know... I can hear what you¡¯re thinking right?} Nimue raised her eyebrows.
¡¯. . . .¡¯
{¡¯Maybe it¡¯s ok to let him stay in the room?¡¯}
¡¯Shut it.¡¯
{Fine you tsundere.}
###
Waking up in the morning, they had some food before making their way to the Teleport Shrine. Helion was with them since he also needed to use it. After all, he was making his way back to New York.
"So in 7 days time, I¡¯ll give you a message about whether or not I¡¯ve seeded. If I haven¡¯t, we¡¯ll continue with getting rid of the sword." Helion smiled.
"Mn. Good luck." Shiro waved her hand softly as Helion disappeared from his spot.
"Now then, I believe it¡¯s our turn now. We managed to collect 4 pieces of the artefact so far and there are 3 more left on the map that Lucius gave us. We can probably do it in a day or so if we¡¯re fast." She muttered.
"That gives us around 4 days to do anything we want." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Mn, perhaps we should meet up with the main party in these four days. I¡¯m still trying to find clues on the ice queen but there haven¡¯t been any leads. IF there were, I would have wanted to go look for her instead." Shiro sighed.
"There hasn¡¯t been any news from the sect members either. Except for Thiria, none of the other queens have revealed themselves so easily. At most, there were only abnormal increases of mana near a few cities that would disappear after a while." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Well... we do know how important the initial set up is for the new age. Unless they¡¯re prepared like Thiria, I doubt we¡¯ll see too many queens doing the same thing. I suppose we can spend the four days we have spare to scout out the ces with sudden spikes of mana. Though... thinking of this, the ice queen did leave after her anchor was ¡¯stabilised¡¯. Do you think it might be hard if not impossible to destroy an anchor once it¡¯s stabilised? After all, we did catch the fire queen off guard before her anchor could stabilise." Shiro asked curiously.
"Perhaps. We¡¯ll probably figure it out once we visit a few of the spots." Nan Tian nodded.
Agreeing with him, the three of them entered the teleport shrine.
For the next few days, Shiro had both Nan Tian and Yin go to each of the artefact locations while she would spend some time with Attie and do some research on the side. After all, she needed to look for the ice queen¡¯s location.
During this, Lucius had managed to uncover where the 8th artefact piece was meaning that there were only two more to go.
On the 4th day, they managed to collect all of the artefact pieces they could. With the artefact collection partiallyplete, they started to make their way to the ces where there had beenrge spikes of mana.
Simr to the frozen city that Shiro had discovered on Mount Fuji after the ice queen stabilised her anchor, there were small signs leading to the potential presence of different queens at each of the sites.
Most of the signs led to different types of queens but there were a few that were almost identical, meaning several anchors from the same queen.
However, despite all the anchors being set down by the queens, she hadn¡¯t found any that had set up a domain like Thiria had. They continued to keep their presence a mystery while the queen of the beast already had a head start.
Naturally, this head start wasn¡¯t the best choice since all attention was on her but the government didn¡¯t want to go on an all out war with her. They wanted to study the concept of ¡¯Queens¡¯ first before making a move. After all, they still had the demons to worry about.
While on the topic of demons, Shiro did message Keiko and Keomi about how they were doing. However, their response was rather concerning since the demons were being strangely passive. Even when they stopped expanding the human army into the demon territory, the demons continued their retreat, leaving hundreds of unupiednds.
With most of the current world unknown to the human race, the front liners didn¡¯t want to venture too deep into unknown territory. Instead, they formed small scout teams to keep a tab on what the demons are doing but so far, nothing¡¯s changed and they continued to retreat deeper into the demon territory.
*Sigh...
"The world is changing quite quickly huh? Signs of the new ageing I suppose... Do you think the demons have a better idea on what¡¯s happening?" Shiro asked as she turned to Nan Tian.
"Maybe. There was some connection between ck Monarchy and the demons from what I know but it was never too deep. Now that we know ck Monarchy is also associated with Thiria, there¡¯s probably a chance that they used the information to finalise a few trades." Nan Tian shrugged.
"True. Regardless, let¡¯s continue with the task at hand." Shiro smiled and nced towards the ruin that was in front of them.
Chapter 562 Strange Ruin
Chapter 562 Strange Ruin
From their previous investigation, it was said that there had been multiple spikes of mana within this singr ruin. Whether or not that meant different queens were fighting over this spot or not, she¡¯ll know once she explores this ce.
Right now, they were part of a temporary expedition force that was formed in order to investigate these ruins.
"Can I have your attention please!" A man shouted out as everyone¡¯s eyes turned towards him.
"My name is Yorm and as you can see, I¡¯m not exactly ¡¯human¡¯. There are a few of you who might be unsettled by our presence but just know that we have amon goal of figuring out what¡¯s happening in this ruin. The government has already promised rewards that are equal to our participation but that is no excuse for any of us to turn against one another. I do hope that there will be no glory stealing and we behave like civilized people." Yorm said with a smile.
He was a rtively muscr man with fox-like ears protruding from the top of his head. His eyes were split in the centre rather than the rounded pupils that are seen in humans. Behind him was a singr red fox tail that would sway ever so slightly.
"Now, I¡¯ve been assigned as the leader of the expedition force but just to make sure, is there anyone who is against this? We might as well sort our differences out here rather than in there where danger lurks around every corner." He called out as the members of the force shook their heads.
"Good. Now I¡¯m going to give you one more briefing about the current situation for those that are still a little confused. 5 days ago, there were reports of arge amount of mana being emitted from this ruin which promptly disappeared in 5 hours. However, the next day, the same thing happened. This repeated everyday and each time it happened, it seems to be a different frequency so we¡¯re here to investigate the cause. Whether it be just a few people fighting each other or a mysterious phenomenon, we¡¯re here to find out the cause and report back. Unless there is a fork in the path, we¡¯ll mostly stick as a group. Naturally, we¡¯ll have scout based sses at the front, tanks/fighters in the mid with healers and mages at the back." Yorm instructed as people nodded their heads.
If they did things this way, their participation/contribution would be the same so the reward for everyone would be equal. That way, people wouldn¡¯t be fighting each other for glory, hindering their expedition.
Since Shiro was basically an all rounder, she decided to go as the healer. While her title may not activate since there were only 25 people in the current expedition force, making her Grace skill target only one person rather than everyone, she could still use her fire of life. Plus, she also had a myriad of support buffs that she could give to everyone.
Nan Tian decided to go fighter to protect Shiro, not that she needed it of course but he didn¡¯t want to take any chances. As for Yin, she was in the backlines with Shiro as a mage.
Overall, there were 5 scouts, 12 fighter/tanks, 3 mages and 2 healers not including Shiro, Yin and Nan Tian.
With the roles assigned to everyone, they started to make their way inside the ruin. Looking around, Shiro looked for any clues that may give her a hint such as any carvings or writings that may give her a hint.
While there wasn¡¯t any writing on the walls, there were a few carvings and images depicting battles much like the ones that she saw in her ¡¯grave¡¯ where she recovered the first piece of Yin¡¯s artefact. However, the carvings did little to inform her of anything since they just looked like humans fighting against humans.
As for the architecture of this ce, it reminded Shiro of mayan architecture that featured geometric patterns and carvings that look like faces from afar.
Progressing deeper into the ruin, Shiro had sent out a few of her drones to scout out the ce without anyone knowing. In addition to this, every step she took, she would send out a pulse of mana so that she could mentally map out the ruins.
So far, she discovered that there were quite a few rooms within the ruin. Some were more pleasant than others while a few housed torture devices which was quite strange to Shiro. However, since she didn¡¯t know the origin of the ruin, there was a possibility that having torture rooms in these ruins were normal.
After walking for a while, they discovered a cross shaped path with three other doorways.
Thanks to her drones, she knew that all three doorways led to a different part of the ruin. The first doorway, the one to the left, brought them to what seemed to be an underground praying hall of sorts. There was arge open area with a giant statue in the centre and several pirs supporting the ceiling of this room.
In the second doorway, the one directly in front of them, it led to the torture rooms along with a corridor that led deep underground. Despite sending a few drones down there, they haven¡¯t reached the bottom yet which caused warning bells to ring in her mind.
Finally, thest doorway was one that led them to the resting chambers that were filled with what seemed to be small personal rooms.
"Hmm... there are three paths so we¡¯ll send the scouts to each path. Don¡¯t go too far since we don¡¯t know what¡¯s at the end, just get a rough idea beforeing back. We¡¯ll act depending on what the scouts find." Yorm called out as no one had any objections.
While the scouts travelled through each of the paths, the main group sat down and rested for now. There were a few people who decided to backtrack a little to investigate the wall carving a little more and Yorm only warned them not to go too far.
As for Shiro, she scouted further into each of the pathways with her scouts.
She discovered that the first room housed a few secret areas that were too small to be ssified as rooms while also too big to be calledpartments. Within these areas, she could see faint signs of magic but it was hidden rather well.
¡¯There seems to be signs showing that it¡¯s been recently tampered with so we¡¯ll probably find quite a few clues in the prayer room.¡¯ She thought to herself. Of course, she didn¡¯t forget to search further in the other rooms.
For her, the torture room looked pretty ordinary as whoever tampered with the prayer room must have just ignored the torture room as there were no signs of recent use. However, when she sent her drones to scout in the third room, they were taken out before she could even get a glimpse of what was in there.
Narrowing her eyes with a frown, she gently pressed her fingers against the walls and tried to map out that specific area with her mana. However, before it could reach that room, it was blocked by a barrier of sorts.
"What¡¯s wrong?" Nan Tian asked as he could see her serious face.
Gesturing to her phone, she sent him a message since she didn¡¯t want other people to hear her.
[Shiro: I found something rather... interesting? My drones were destroyed before I could get a proper look into the third pathway, the one on the right. It seems like something or someone is hiding in there. I also tried to use my mana to map out the area but a barrier blocked it.]
Reading the message, Nan Tian furrowed his eyebrows behind his mask.
[Nan Tian: That is rather concerning. Hmm... If Yorm decides to split the group up for each path, do you want to go to the third path and deal with this threat?]
[Shiro: Sure.]
Waiting for a few moments, the scouts started to return and reported their findings. Thankfully, it seemed like none of them had suffered from any injuries meaning each path was safe to some degree.
Listening to their reports, Yorm thought to himself for a brief moment before turning towards the rest of the party.
"I propose that we should continue to stay as a group. We¡¯ll use up more time but we¡¯ll be able to guarantee safety." Yorm said with a smile.
Once again, there were no objections and the group started to make their way to the first room.
###
Meanwhile, a pair of eyes looked up towards the walls. If there was nothing in the way, people would realise that it was directly looking towards them.
Cracking its neck, it licked its lips in eagerness before fading into the shadows.
Chapter 563 Verron
Chapter 563 Verron
Arriving in the prayer room, the group immediately started to search around for any clues.
While this was happening, Shiro ¡¯just so happened¡¯ to havee across thepartments that had been tampered with.
Looking at the points that were emitting a small wave of mana, Shiro pressed her palms against the floor and tried to get a better view of this formation.
However, while she could see parts of it, the important aspects were hidden properly and not even Shiro could see them unless she was topletely obliterate this ce.
¡¯Whoever did this is experienced.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
{Well... they did manage to get rid of your vision in the third room. They¡¯re quite cautious.} Nimue nodded.
¡¯Mn, regardless, I think I might be able to edit this magic circle a little. Add a little ¡¯program¡¯ to potentially help me.¡¯ Shiro smiled and started to tamper with the magic circle. While this was happening, Nan Tian would cover her so that none of the other members of the party would notice.
After a while, they started to share their investigation. However, it was also during this that they started to notice that quite a few of them have disappeared.
Even Shiro was surprised since she didn¡¯t sense anything.
"Did you notice anything?" She nced towards Nan Tian.
"No. Seems like the enemy is a pretty good assassin." Nan Tian replied while ncing around the room to see if he could pick anything out.
Holding her chin, Shiro thought to herself for a moment before flexing her finger.
Thin strands of nano tech wire started to thread itself through the room as she created a spider web of sorts. Whenever something or someone touches the wire, she¡¯ll be notified.
"Hmm... there seems to be something lurking in this ruin. Do we have anyone that is adept with tracking type spells?" Yorm called out with a frown.
"I do but I¡¯ll need a piece of the thing we¡¯re looking for. There¡¯s not even a spec of blood or torn fabric so I don¡¯t think I can find them." One of the mages shook their head as Yorm furrowed his brows.
"That makes things difficult." He muttered.
Sighing softly, he shook his head and looked back at the group.
"I¡¯d say we should end the investigation now. We¡¯re currentlycking in the correct personnel to deal with this threat. Despite our levels being 200 or above, the enemy was still able to take out a few of us without anyone noticing. The dangers aren¡¯t worth it." Yorm suggested.
Just as he said this, a faint shadow wrapped around his head.
*CRACK!!!
In a single moment, his head was torn off his body.
"!!!!" Widening her eyes, Shiro summoned Athera while Nan Tian activated a tier 5 magic circle. As for Yin, she flicked her wrist and purple mes erupted out from every corner of the room, exposing the shadowed figure.
Hanging from the roof, a monstrosity could be seen with thin elongated limbs that looked as though it could be snapped with a single breeze. The rib cage protruded out of its body while its spine twitched from the sudden exposure of light.
It had long ck hair that seemed to cover most of his face but Shiro could faintly make out a pair of glowing red eyes, exposed bones and sharpened teeth. Its jaw was a mangled mess of flesh that was fused together haphazardly.
Within his exposed ribcage, they could see corpses slowly being drained and turned to ash.
Before the monster could pull Yorm into his ribcage, his body suddenly disassembled into petals and reassembled a few meters away with blood dripping from the corner of his lips. Instead of his singr tail that they were used to seeing, it had now split into 7 parts.
"Tch, rude fellow. I thought I felt like my life was in danger." He narrowed his eyes as mana erupted out of him.
Flickering in front of the monster, Shiro twisted her body and activated Athera¡¯s first ability. With a tether linking the two of them together, strength surged through her body.
*CLANK!!!!
Striking against his thin arms, Shiro¡¯s sword was stoppedpletely, much to her surprise. Feeling danger overwhelm her senses, she activated her Grace skill without hesitation.
*BANG!!!!
Crashing to the other side of the room, Shiro could feel her entire body shattering from that single hit. Despite activating the skill before she took any damage, the force of the attack still brought her HP down to a dangerous level. Quickly activating Rejuvenation to stop herself from being killed in one hit, Shiro tried to stand back on her feet only to stumble slightly.
"KUAH!!!" Feeling a few broken ribs punctured her lungs, Shiro threw up a mouthful of blood as she could see her HP decrease continuously even though she used Rejuvenation.
"Shiro!" Nan Tian called out in surprise as he sent his magic towards the monster.
Before the steaks of light could even touch the monster, shadow erupted out from the tiles beneath them and blocked the attack.
[Primary Anchor Guardian has been summoned.]
[Demon God Verron has taken notice of the attack.]
¡¯Sh*t! This is the primary Anchor point of a Demon God!?¡¯ Shiro widened her eyes in shock and looked towards the Guardian once more.
[Primary Anchor Guardian ¨C LVL ???]
HP: ???
MP: ???
"Lil¡¯ Tian! Can you see what level he is!?" Shiro shouted out as her Hp finally stabilised.
"Yes." Nan Tian said as Shiro could sense a bit of unease in his voice.
"Level 510."
Shock filled Shiro¡¯s eyes since she didn¡¯t expect to run into a tier 6 being this soon.
Without hesitation, she activated her Celestial Raiment and chose Astral Rift as the base element.
Creating two portal orbs beneath Yin and Nan Tian, she immediately brought them into her realm and dashed away while dragging them with her.
"We can¡¯t fight this. As a person who has reached tier 6 before, I can tell you that he¡¯s just ying around for now. That hit he did to me was akin to me batting a fly away and it still forced me to use several life saving skills." Shiro shouted out as the three of them dash through the realm without looking back.
Despite their only being a level difference of 10 from the peak of tier 5, this ten levels was like a giant uncrossable chasm. Even Nan Tian in his prime would probably be killed by this monster.
If anything, she was thankful that she wasn¡¯t killed in one shot.
Jumping out of the rift, she nced back at the ruins and made a mental note on their current location.
"Seems like I won¡¯t be looking for anchors anytime soon. Especially if there¡¯s a chance that we might run into a God grade anchor like this one." Shiro frowned.
"God grade?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"Just something I thought of now. Despite there being an unkible assassin in that ruin, we did manage to find out something rather interesting. The fact that A, anchors can have guardians and B, gods can ce down anchors too. So for queens, their Anchors will be Queen Grade while Gods have God Grade Anchors. Sounds simple?" Shiro smiled while they continued to run. After all, if a tier 6 really wanted to kill you, you won¡¯t be able to survive.
So far, the monster hadn¡¯t tried to chase them down but Shiro didn¡¯t want to take any chances.
"Mn. Since anchors are a no go right now, due to the danger they hold, I think we¡¯ll have to prioritise something else until you get your ss up." Nan Tian nodded.
"Indeed. We have a few days to burn so I think I¡¯m going to do some research about ss Up¡¯s so that I can get into tier 5 quickly. I can probably extend my deadline with Helion since we¡¯re not in too much of a rush." Shiro smiled.
Suddenly, a decapitated head flew past the three of them as their breaths halted for a moment.
Turning around slowly, they could see the Guardian smiling at them with its twisted maw. Compared to before, his body seemed much healthier as his arms were more fleshed out. Once again, his ribcage received a few new tenants.
"Where are you going?" His broken voice crackled with sadistic ecstasy.
"Shiro?" Nan Tian called out as he pulled his mask off.
"Yeah?"
"I don¡¯t think we can run away from this."
"I know."
"Do you have a charge of your Extraction ready?"
"No. Why do you think I told Helion that I can be ready in a week?" Shiro sighed.
"I see... In that case then I want you to run as fast as you can." Nan Tian smiled before a golden radiance erupted from his body.
Creating several light orbs around him, he charged towards the monster.
"Sh*t! ESTRELLA!" Shiro shouted out as she knew running was not an option. Rather than letting Nan Tian face this thing off on his own while she ran away, she¡¯d rather fight with him side by side. If they die, then that¡¯s just fate.
With her shout, a portal opened up beside her as Estre dashed out with a serious expression.
Looking at Shiro, Nan Tian, Estre and Yin who were charging towards him fearlessly, the guardian¡¯s initial ecstasy faded since he wanted to see fear in their eyes. Cracking his body, he charged towards them.
Chapter 564 Difference Of Tiers
Chapter 564 Difference Of Tiers
Before the four could even attack, the Guardian¡¯s ribcage extended out and pieced towards them.
Since she knew that she could not block the attack at all, or else she¡¯d take critical damage, Shiro twisted her body and barely dodged the spike by the skin of her teeth.
As for Yin, she dived into her shadow in order to dodge the ribcage.
Appearing behind the Guardian¡¯s shadow, she mmed her hands into his back.
*BOOM!!!!
Releasing a torrent of phoenix fire, a pir of mes enveloped the Guardian¡¯s body.
"Weak mes." The Guardians scoffed as his spine stabbed towards Yin.
Seeing this, Estre flicked her arm, forcefully bringing Yin into her realm and stopped the spine from damaging her.
Just as this happened, Nan Tian arrived in front of the Guardian.
Swiping his hand, the orbs that floated around him shifted into spikes that pierced into his body and attempted to stab him into the group only for it to shatter upon impact.
¡¯Tch, so this is the difference between tier 5 and tier 6 huh? No wonder Shiro said that we had no chance.¡¯ Nan Tian thought with a frown.
Twisting his body, he activated a few of his berserk skills so that his stats could experience a huge boost.
Stomping down, a tier 5 magic circle expanded beneath the Guardian as a light cage started to wrap around the Guardian.
With his movements slightly hindered, Shiro appeared above the Guardian with her sword drawn. Right now, she had her berserk skills activated. Her Soul Sword was in her left hand while Athera was in her right.
Twisting her body, she shed towards his head with the Soul Sword. As long as it hits, she can start to apply the first effect of her Soul Sword.
One slice against the skin will inject a lethal poison into their system while their soul is slowly corrupted. While she didn¡¯t know how high his poison resistance was, the additional effect of corrupting his soul should hinder his movements.
As for the second effect, she doubted that it would work. After all, as long as she stabbed him in the heart, she could seal away his soul into her sword so that her next attack was empowered.
*CLANG!!!
Once again, her sword bounced off the body of the Guardian as it didn¡¯t even leave a single scratch.
¡¯Damn! Even with my berserk skills activated, it doesn¡¯t work?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Activating her Celestial Empress¡¯s Domain, she received a boost of 30% to her INT, AGI and DEX while her elemental damage was increased by 200%.
Enhancing Athera with Cosmic Ice, she swung at him once more but this time with the goal of freezing him in ce.
*PING!!!!
Unfortunately, the thinyer of ice that slowly formed on his body was shrugged off without any problems.
"This is boring. You can just die if you¡¯re not going to show me fear." The Guardian narrowed his eyes.
Suddenly, a giant tier 6 magic circle erupted out from beneath him as Shiro felt the danger of death, inching closer to her.
Without hermand, Estre was about to summon more portals when a sharpened bone shot out of the ground and pierced a hole in her stomach.
"ARG!" Crying out in pain, Estre¡¯s spell was cancelled out as blood poured out of her abdomen.
Quickly activating Grace and Life Fire on Estre, Shiro thought about what she could do to harm the Guardian since none of her attacks were working.
ncing towards Nan Tian, she bit the bottom of her lip before opening her mouth.
"Lil¡¯ Tian, do you trust me?" She asked with a soft smile.
"Of course." Nan Tian nodded while trying to avoid the bone spikes that are trying to pierce him as well.
"Then study this properly while I buy some time." Shiro said as she threw over a tablet of sorts before activating all of her berserk skills.
Forcing Iziuel and Attie out of her mana realm, she grabbed the Guardian¡¯s head while ignoring all of his attacks and dragged him into the Celestial Gardens.
"You¡¯reing with me!" She shouted out with anger. His spine had already pierced parts of her body and one nearly hit her head but she was casting all of her healing spells just to stay alive.
"SHIRO!!!" Nan Tian shouted out in shock since Shiro was now alone with the Guardian in her throne world.
Gritting his teeth, he quickly grabbed the tablet since there must have been a reason for Shiro to do this.
After all, she did ask him if he trusted her.
Opening the tablet, hundreds of records filled the screen as study after study of information piled up in front of him.
Her experiences that led up to be a tier 6 legend, what she did while she was a tier 6 legend along with the record of her fights. Everything she knew was inserted into the tablet.
Realising it to be information about the next tier of magic and the concepts behind being a tier 6 legend, Nan Tian understood that Shiro wanted him to achieve the feat of crafting a powerful spell so that they could potentially kill the Guardian.
However, with this much information presented in front of him, it was a gamble on whether or not he could actually learn it all and do something with this information.
"Damn! Iziuel! Estre! Yin! Help me write down this information on the ground! We need to work quick since Shiro¡¯s in danger!" Nan Tian shouted out as his mind was filled with panic right now.
If he didn¡¯t seed in achieving a tier 6 magic circle, Shiro¡¯s efforts would be wasted.
###
Standing in the Celestial Garden¡¯s with blood pouring out of her body, Shiro had a soft smile on her face.
"Are you suicidal?" The Guardian narrowed his eyes.
"Perhaps. But I know I can¡¯t deal the final blow to you so I¡¯m trusting it to Lil¡¯ Tian." Shiro chuckled.
"It would go to waste if I kill you now."
"Depends. I¡¯m quite tenacious if I have to say so myself." Shiro chuckled.
"Hm. Overconfident. I don¡¯t think you quite understand the difference between you and me. Tier 6 is a new realm altogether." The Guardian said while ncing around this strange world. Therge statues seemed to be there for decoration but he couldn¡¯t help but feel as though there were something more to this.
"Oh don¡¯t worry, I know fully well what a tier 6 legend can achieve. However, all my enemy¡¯s know that I¡¯m quite unkible with how many healing spells I have." Shiro smiled. However, it was a bluff. She had already used her Rejuvenation so that was out of the picture. Her Grace skill had 8 charges left and she was still able to use her Lire+ rune which is equal to a charge of Grace. In addition to this, she still had the Miracle skill which she extracted from Aekari.
Unfortunately, despite all of this, the Guardian would only need 10 or so attacks to kill her for good.
Cracking his head, the Guardian looked at her with disinterest before swiping his hand.
*PUCHI!!!!
Suddenly, w marks appeared on her torso as her body was cleaved in half.
Coughing up blood, she quickly activated her Grace skill and her body started to mend itself back together.
"Hm... Your trick is quite interesting." The Guardian smiled as he could finally see some semnce of fear in Shiro¡¯s eyes.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro braced herself for the beatdown of her life.
"URAHHH!!!!" Readying her swords, she started to stack more berserk skills onto her body as she could feel her bones cracking once more. However, with her healing skills supporting her life right now, she could hopefully give the Guardian a run for his money. Which was unlikely but there was nothing else Shiro could do at this point.
Activating Hollow Deceit, her clones started to charge towards the Guardian as she did the same to camouge her location. However, the Guardian only snickered and allowed all of the clones to strike at him.
Since they weren¡¯t doppelgangers with their ownbat potential, their attacks phased through his body while Shiro¡¯s sword barely managed to make a small chip on his sin despite all her buffs.
Creating a portal under her, she quickly jumped in before reappearing in the air.
Pushing her hands out, hundreds of cannons were created within her Celestial Gardens as she aimed it at the Guardian.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Firing all of the cannons, Shiro took this chance to grab her Soul Sword and cut her palm in order to activate the second effect.
Slice it on yourself and all of your positive emotions will be locked away. Leaving the perfect killing machine behind for a short while in order to eradicate your enemies.
Slowly, a ck mark materialised on Shiro¡¯s arm as her eyes became cold. Right now, she needed maximum efficiency in order to buy as much time as she could.
Chapter 565 The Will To Live
Chapter 565 The Will To Live
"Come on..." Nan Tian gritted his teeth in desperation as he tried his best toprehend the Tier 6 magic circles.
Reading through Shiro¡¯s notes, he started to understand the core concepts of being a Tier 6 legend but knowing and doing were two separate things.
To make matters worse, his mind was constantly distracted when he could see Yin bing pale as time went on. Understanding that Shiro¡¯s life was tied with Yin¡¯s, the more injured Yin became, the closer Shiro was to death.
Biting his lips, he read through the notes and wondered what he was missing. He was constructing his magic circles and was even trying to upgrade his element but there was still a missing piece that was preventing him from finalising a tier 6 magic circle.
"What am I missing?" He wondered to himself.
Watching Yin¡¯s face be paler, his worries grew as time was running out. Pulling at his hair, panic started to fill his mind as Shiro had basically entrusted him with her life.
Seeing this, Iziuel also grew nervous but didn¡¯t want to say anything since Nan Tian couldn¡¯t afford to be distracted right now.
Suddenly, she could feel Attie trying to get out of her grasp.
"Ah Attie, please behave ok?" Iziuel tried to pacify Attie but it didn¡¯t work.
Furrowing his brows in annoyance, Attie released an aura of fire which forced Iziuel to let go of him.
Stumbling over to Nan Tian, Attie also looked at the tablet with a worried face.
"You also want to help your mother huh?" Nan Tian smiled softly as Attie nodded his head.
Reading through the text, he tried to point out anything that might seem like it could work but it was fruitless.
However, as he continued to point at random sentences, Nan Tian noticed that a few of the sentences had amon theme between them. Naturally, not all of the sentences had this but for the ones that did, he felt like he was stepping closer to the truth.
¡¯When Shiro became a tier 6 legend, her control over her element extended to the point where she could make a flying fortress the size of a city with ease. While one can achieve something of simr quality and size as a tier 5, the detail of construction varied greatly. Instead of having her magic destroy the city, she had to think about how it would work in bnce or else the entire construction of the fortress would crumble. The level of control and understanding of her element was on a much deeper level. One that surpassed the system since it was a man made element, meaning she understood the ¡¯origin¡¯.¡¯ Nan Tian thought to himself as the words seemed to link themselves together, forming a key to a library of ideas that he had never considered before.
His main element was light but his understanding of the origin was ¡¯rudimentary¡¯pared to what Shiro understood about the origin of nanobots and how they worked.
Closing his eyes, he searched into his own mana realm and looked towards the light ind.
Walking to the centre, he sat down and started toprehend the origin of light.
###
She didn¡¯t know how long had passed but Shiro didn¡¯t care. At this point, she needed to dy the Guardian as much as she could. Unfortunately for her, she was all out of options as her body crashed against the pir inside her Celestial Gardens. Most of the architecture in this ce had been destroyed in the battle as all that remained was broken ruins.
"I¡¯ll be honest, you¡¯re the most tenacious meal I¡¯ve seen in a long time. You¡¯ve put up quite a fight." The Guardian sneered as he looked at the wounded Shiro who wasying in a puddle of her own blood.
"If you don¡¯t cook a meal properly you will get diarrhoea. All you can do is me yourself for your food fighting back." Shiroughed as she tried to wipe the blood from her eyes.
However, her body was weak to the point where she couldn¡¯t even move a single muscle anymore. She had already expended every single use of her healing skills as the broken pieces of Atheraid next to her.
"Indeed. How about I properly finish the meal then?" The Guardian smiled and swung his arm towards her.
Time seemed to slow down as her thoughts elerated.
Despite trying her best, it seemed like the grim reaper¡¯s cold fleshless hands had a proper grasp on her neck this time.
¡¯Is this really how I will die? Unable to evennd a single hit? Is this really the end of my story?¡¯ She wondered to herself.
She had too many responsibilities and people that are counting on her so she couldn¡¯t leave things like this.
¡¯Not like this. I can¡¯t die like this. I haven¡¯t told Lyrica about my life with her mother, I haven¡¯t met my parents, I haven¡¯t watched Yin, Lisa and Attie grow up into proper a.d.u.l.ts, I haven¡¯t saved the spirit race, I haven¡¯t guaranteed the safety of my loved ones, I haven¡¯t kept my promises that I had made, I haven¡¯t lived a full life yet. I don¡¯t want to die just yet.¡¯
Gritting her teeth, nanobots started to surge around her as her garden started to shift.
The broken pieces of architecture that the Guardian had destroyed started to break down into nanobots while the giant statues surrounding the ce started to move.
*CLANG!!!!
Crashing his w against the metallic defences that appeared around Shiro, the Guardian was rather surprised that his attack was blocked.
The floor had sunk down to create a bunker around Shiro¡¯s body while the shield above her continuously regenerated in order to dispel the force of the attack.
"A final push before death?" The Guardian narrowed his eyes before smiling.
"Useless."
Raising his arm, tier 6 magic circles appeared around him as they aimed towards Shiro.
*RUMBLE!!!!
Before they could fire, the garden started to tremble as the walls of this world copsed.
Bringing them back to reality, the Celestial Garden¡¯s was forcefully cancelled but the nanobots remained with Shiro.
ring at the Guardian, Shiro grinned with bloodshot eyes.
"Enjoy your new prison. Though I doubt it¡¯llst."
Wrapping around the Guardian, a tower of nanobots started to construct itself in front of her as his body was sent high into the sky.
Pain filled her mind as blood started to pour from her nose. She couldn¡¯t handle the stress this put on her body, especially in her current condition. However, this was something she had to do.
Pressing her hand against the ground, she started to deprave the very earth of its mana as she needed it to construct a prison that could hold back the Guardian. One that could buy them enough time. Even if her body was reduced to ash, she HAD to seed with this task.
"URAHHH!!!!" Shouting out in anger, the Guardian started to attack his surroundings with madness but the walls continued to regenerate. Even when he ripped out arge chunk of metal and reduced it to dust, new pieces would emerge and rece the damaged parts.
ring at Shiro with hatred, the feeling of being deprived of a kill drove the Guardian to madness.
However, no matter how powerful his attacks were, the prison continuously fixed itself and slowly grew in size.
Despite knowing that this was a temporary fix for Shiro, the Guardian was still angered by her actions.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
Hundreds of explosions could be heard as the Guardian started to destroy the prison withrge scale attacks.
As the creator of this constantly expanding prison, Shiro could see how much damage he caused with a single hit but she didn¡¯t care right now.
The only thought that ran through her mind was that she needed to buy extra time. Just a single second was enough.
If she could dy it by a second, she could dy it by another.
¡¯Just one more... Just one more...¡¯
The same thought repeated in her mind but it was effective. As she was borrowing the mana from the nature around them, the tree¡¯s started to wither away while the grass was turned to ash. Due to the fact that her mind was solely dedicated to getting that extra second, Shiro did not notice Estre, Iziuel or Attie watching her in shock as the size of the prison had grown to a ridiculous state.
Despite herrge mana reserve, this was something outside of her capabilities should she not be extracting mana from the earth itself with the help of her nanobots.
Suddenly, a pair of hands gently wrapped around her as Shiro could see Nan Tian¡¯s face that was filled with worry.
"Sorry I took so long." He apologised while holding Shiro¡¯s broken body.
Just the sight of her current state made him feel as though a knife was plunged into his heart but this was not the time to wallow in sadness.
Carrying Shiro¡¯s body, he stood up and looked towards the prison.
Mana surged around him as a giant tier 6 magic circle appeared above the prison.
"Incinerate." He said coldly as a pir of radiance descended from the very sun itself.
Chapter 566 Assimilate
Chapter 566 Assimte
Light seemed to fade from their surroundings as the only visible source of light was now the pir.
Without even looking at the effects, Nan Tian turned to Estre.
"Transport everyone as far as you can from this ce. With my current mana, I can only funnel this spell for another 5 seconds or so." Nan Tian said with a frown.
Nodding her head, Estre waved her hand as a portal opened up in front of them.
Jumping in, the party quickly left before the Guardian could chase them.
After all, despite having achieved the feat of using tier 6 magic, he was still only a level 450+ so killing the guardian was just a pipe dream. It was a miracle that they could even leave with their lives intact.
As the party left the area, the Guardian crawled out of the melted prison with charred skin.
ring at their previous location with anger, he wanted to chase but knew that he had to protect the anchor point.
Now that he had experienced the feeling of a kill slipping out of his hands at thest moment, he was going to kill everything with his full power. There will be no more ying around.
However, before he returned to the anchor point, he looked at the prison pieces and narrowed his eyes.
From what he had seen, this was something outside of Shiro¡¯s capabilities. The sheer size and regenerative power of this prison was actually able to restrain him for 30 seconds. The feat astounded him since the girl was just level 200.
However, he knew that this was only achievable due to the fact that she had consumed the mana from the surroundings. After all, the lush forest was partially turned to a desert as the rich mana was deprived from this ce to form his prison.
A part of his power was to assimte parts of things that he consumes. With the nanobots still wiggling around despite their owner leaving, it gave the Guardian an idea. If he consumes the nanobots and assimted it into his own body, could he deprave the surroundings of mana like what she did? If he could, could he then convert his body to nanobots so that it would constantly regenerate as long as he could supply it with mana?
Grabbing a piece of the nanobots, he shoved it into his ribcage and the nanobots started to fuse with his body.
With a crooked grin, he continued to feed himself with the prison that Shiro had constructed.
Little did he know, the consequences of cing nanobots into your body without the proper preparation could result in something much worse.
But in his search for more power, such thoughts were thrown aside.
###
Exiting the portal and entering the nearby city, Nan Tian quickly ran to the teleport Shrine so that he could get Shiro some medical help from the sect.
He didn¡¯t even need to scan her body to see her condition as she was reduced to a state where she kept muttering ¡¯Just one more second.¡¯
Iziuel was currently carrying the unconscious Yin on her back while Estre held Attie.
As the four of them approached the teleport shrine, Nan Tian could see a few government officials arriving in the city with serious faces.
"Is this the closest city?" One of the agents asked with a frown.
"Yes. The source of the mana spike was deep into the forest where the ruins are. There were two spikes of mana in thest few moments that exceed even the highest mana spikes that were recorded by the government. They presume that it is something either in thete stages of tier 5 or a new tier that hasn¡¯t been confirmed yet." Another replied.
Hearing this, Nan Tian knew that they wanted to search for the Guardian but that was a bad move. Right now, there was no one in this world that can take down that being. Even if he was level 500 right now, he would struggle as just having tier 6 magic wasn¡¯t enough.
Gritting his teeth, he wondered if he should warn them or not since the best choice they can make is to call for an evacuation. Until a tier 6 being appeared on their side, no one would be able to deal with that Guardian.
¡¯What would Shiro want to do?¡¯ He wondered to himself.
From his understanding of her, she would just ignore these people but with the new ageing soon, they needed all the manpower they could get. She would give them a warning and if they didn¡¯t heed it, she would leave them be.
Looking down at Shiro¡¯s face, he smiled softly before looking towards the government officials.
"You don¡¯t want to do that." He said as they turned towards him.
"Why not?" One of them furrowed his brows.
"The thing in the forest is not something we can deal with right now. It¡¯s a tier 6 being. Unless we surpass the boundaries of tier 5 and enter tier 6, no one can kill that thing." Nan Tian warned.
"How would you know?"
"That¡¯s for you to find out as I have more important matters. Just know that you should work on evacuating everything around here so that there aren¡¯t any more unnecessary casualties." He replied with a shake of his head.
Just as he was about to turn and leave, one of the agents stood in front of him and blocked his path.
"Sorry, I¡¯ll need to borrow more of your time for you to provide us with more information." The agent said while presenting his government ID.
"Well that¡¯s too bad huh? I¡¯ve already given you my warning so leave me be." Nan Tian narrowed his eyes.
Feeling a shiver down his spine, the agent froze up in fear. Despite being a tier 5 adventurer that was higher than level 400, he felt like the man in front of him could erase him with a single thought.
He was correct.
With Nan Tian being able to now cast tier 6 magic, albeit a little troublesome due to the stress it ced on him, his mastery over light was now on a whole new level. Even if he was to cast a tier 4 light magic, it would beparable to a tier 5, making him stand above his peers with ease.
"Ah I¡¯m sorry for being rude. I can see that you are carrying an injured person right now so I won¡¯t be bothering you anymore." The agent bowed while sweat dripped off his face.
The other agents were confused but decided to step back for now.
"Thank you." Nan Tian nodded before entering the teleport shrine with the rest of the party.
###
"You¡¯re back already... Why is it that your life is at risk around every corner?" A voice rang out as Shiro floated in the voice.
Hearing the voice, Shiro¡¯s heart sank to her stomach as she recognised it.
"Big sis?" She called out hesitantly as Kuromi¡¯s figure could be seen materialising next to her.
"Not quite." ¡¯Kuromi¡¯ smiled apologetically.
"What do you mean by not quite?" Shiro furrowed her brows in confusion.
"I¡¯m using the memory of Kuromi that you keep deep in your own soul so that I can talk to you. You can¡¯t fully ept that you¡¯re the same people since you crave a familial figure like Kuromi, one that understood you on a deeper level. If you epted that Kuromi and you were two identical people, it means you ept the fact that there was never a big sis to begin it and it was just you talking to yourself all this time." ¡¯Kuromi¡¯ smiled sadly while cupping Shiro¡¯s cheeks.
"You¡¯re lonely, aren¡¯t you?" She asked as Shiro paused.
"You lose family and friends with every step you take on the long staircase known as life. The higher you walk, the more you lose. The danger of hurting yourself increases as you go higher and higher.
"So many times have I seen you stumble over the edge of life, only to grab on with undying will and drag yourself out. So many times have I seen you return to the void where your soul should pass on only for you to escape and continue living. Despite understanding that the higher you go, the more you¡¯ll lose, you continue to walk the staircase without any fear.
"Why do you continue like this? What are you working towards? What makes you defy death over and over again?"
Staying silent, Shiro looked at the figure of ¡¯Kuromi¡¯ and smiled.
"Because I don¡¯t want to die. I want to live a full life. I want to live a life of adventure, a life of peace, a life of danger, a life of romance, a life of creation. I desire to live so that I can experience all the best sensation that life can give me. In thebs where my life was endangered, I wanted to live to see what happens after the experiments. When I was killed by the light hero, I wanted to see the life where I got my revenge. When Yin called me mum, I wanted to see the life where I be a mother.
"And so, right now, after seeing this void and seeing you, I want to see one more life." Shiro smiled and stepped back.
"I want to see a life where I transcend this system."
¡¯Kuromi¡¯ smiled.
Chapter 567 Headquarters
Chapter 567 Headquarters
"Then I hope you don¡¯t return to this ce any time soon. The new age is arriving, and should you experience death, I doubt your phoenix bloodline can save you. In the 20 to 50 years it¡¯ll take for you to revive, the world may be gone." ¡¯Kuromi said as she aimed her hand towards Shiro.
"So, try not to die ok?" She chuckled.
"Of course. Though who knows, I might see you soon." Shiro grinned as her body disappeared.
Watching her body flicker away, ¡¯Kuromi¡¯ nced behind her and smiled.
"You sure you don¡¯t want to talk to her?"
"No, it¡¯s fine. We¡¯ll get a chance to talkter depending on what she does." An identical voice replied with a small chuckle.
Shrugging her shoulders, ¡¯Kuromi¡¯ started to fade away as the void was now empty once more.
###
"Urg..." Groaning softly, Shiro felt pain rush through her body as she flinched ever so slightly.
"You¡¯re awake?" Nan Tian looked down in surprise.
"Mn. Whe- Ow." Before she could even say a single sentence, the pain caused her to stop midway.
"Ah don¡¯t talk, I¡¯m bringing you to some medics now." Nan Tian smiled.
Currently, they were on their way to the main headquarters of the sect since the best healers were here.
¡¯I guess he seeded in making a tier 6 magic spell.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
ncing into her mana realm, she could see Nimue resting in the water as her body was quite faint. Just seeing her expression told Shiro that she had been trying her hardest to keep her body working.
Deciding to not disturb Nimue, Shiro nced around her. Unfortunately, she was not able to turn her head since even the faintest movement would cause her to flinch.
She could see that Nan Tian was holding her in a princess carry while Iziuel had Yin on her back.
"Where¡¯s Estre and Attie?" She asked curiously since she couldn¡¯t see them.
"They¡¯re just behind me right now." Nan Tian smiled and turned around, allowing Shiro to see Estre who carried Attie in her arms.
"Sorry to worry you." Shiro tried her best to smile but it seemed rather forced due to the pain.
Furrowing his brows, Attie wanted to reach out and hug her but he knew that she wasn¡¯t feeling well so decided against it.
Smiling at her, Attie then frowned at Nan Tian before pointing his hands towards therge collection of buildings in the distance.
"Right right, I¡¯ll get your mother to the medics now." Nan Tian rolled his eyes.
"Haha- ow. Attie¡¯s got a leash on you huh?" Shiro chuckled while ncing up at Nan Tian.
"Well our interests line up so it doesn¡¯t hurt. Plus, he was the one who helped me find thest missing piece of the puzzle for me to upgrade my magic to tier 6." Nan Tian replied while making sure that Shiro was asfortable as possible.
"Is that so? Good job Attie." Shiro smiled and tried to give Attie a thumbs up.
Despite her poor attempt, Attie¡¯s eyes seemed to shine with joy as she rested her head against Nan Tian¡¯s head since she was tired.
"Honestly, I expected myself to wake up in a room or some sort while being surrounded by medics. I don¡¯t remember quite clearly but I do know that I started to funnel the mana from the ground around me to fuel the prison. I¡¯m surprised that I woke up this early." Shiro closed her eyes.
"Indeed. You turned a ratherrge portion of the forest into the desert with your trick you know? They¡¯re going to have to update the world map again." Nan Tianughed.
"Mn. Speaking of which, I met a rather interesting person while I was unconscious. I¡¯m not too sure of their identity but I do know that they had a close link with the system."
"Oh? Anything new that you¡¯ve discovered about the system?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Hmm... not really. I just had a small chat with her. It was rather enlightening I suppose." Shiro shook her head.
"Well that¡¯s fine too. As long as you¡¯re not being taken away by the system, I¡¯ll be happy."
"Funnily enough, the ce where I talked to her is actually where people die. She described me as tenacious, always pulling myself out of death¡¯s grasp despite it being so close to me." Shiro smiled.
". . .To be honest, I¡¯m not even surprised. With how close you are to death; you might as well be the grim reaper¡¯s best friend." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Ay don¡¯t tempt me. With how things are, I won¡¯t be surprised if there is a grim reaper boss out there." Shiro grinned.
"Indeed. Just rest up for now, we¡¯ll reach the medic bay soon enough." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded.
ncing towards her system, she wanted to check for any updates before resting.
Unfortunately, she didn¡¯t get anything out of the fight except for stacks upon stacks of negative debuffs.
¡¯Sounds about right. We didn¡¯t kill the Guardian after all. Hell, we¡¯re lucky to even have our lives right now.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
However, before she looked away, she noticed a small change on her ss up requirements.
On top of the current requirements, there was now an additional line under the list.
[Tier 6 Achievements (1)]
¡¯So, surviving against the Guardian is a Tier 6 achievement huh? I suppose that¡¯s only natural since the chasm between the two tiers aren¡¯t something that can be easily breached. The fact that we survive is a miracle.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Thinking about miracles, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder about Nan Tian¡¯s tier 6 attunement
"Say, Lil¡¯ Tian."
"Mn? What is it?"
"I¡¯ll be honest with you. I¡¯m still surprised that you have achieved tier 6 magic. It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t believe that you couldn¡¯t achieve it but rather, it was a gamble on my side and you just won it. While I was indeed tier 6 before, there are still parts that I don¡¯t understand so the fact that you¡¯ve transcended your tier is something amazing." Shiro admitted.
"If it weren¡¯t for the information that you provided along with Attie¡¯s help, I would have never achieved this. However, after achieving tier 6 in light magic, I¡¯ve seemed to have weakened my proficiency with the other elements that I control. They¡¯re effects are now weaker." Nan Tian replied as Shiro nodded her head.
She understood what he meant since when she was a tier 6 legend, she could only use her nanobots but if she tried to use the individual element associated with her ss, metal and lighting, the effectiveness would drop.
"Well you are focusing your path down a specife. I¡¯m guessing that this is also how you be a god of that subject so perhaps after we kill Aekari for good, you can im his title." Shiro suggested with a soft chuckle.
"I¡¯ll be fine without his title. I¡¯ll be honest with you, being associated with an asshole that killed you, twice no less, leaves quite a bad taste in the mouth."
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Just think of it as taking everything from him like what he did with me. Plus, just because your element is associated with the asshole, it doesn¡¯t mean that I will immediately hate your presence." Shiro chuckled.
"Oh? Does that mean you enjoy being with me?" Nan Tian smiled.
"Don¡¯t get too ahead of yourself now young man. I believe my quote was ¡¯it doesn¡¯t mean that I will IMMEDIATELY hate your presence.¡¯" Shiroughed.
"Well I have to make sure that it never reaches that point then." Nan Tian shrugged as they reached the main entrance of the sect¡¯s headquarters.
Donning his mask and pulling out his proof of identity, he showed it to the guards.
"Wee back branch master." They bowed with a smile before ncing towards Shiro who was in his arms.
"Send out a notice for the best healers toe to medic bay room 1. I¡¯ll need them to help me heal the woman in my arms." Nan Tian ordered as they nodded their heads.
Since he understood the rules of the sect, he also understood the consequences of bringing someone dangerous to the main headquarters.
"Understood."
"Oh right, is the sect master around? I haven¡¯t seen him in a while." Nan Tian asked.
"Mn, the sect master is by the sparring grounds as usual. There¡¯s been a few new additions that are rather well trained, and he¡¯s been excited about their growth." The guard nodded as Nan Tian¡¯s interests were piqued. However, Shiro was more important so he set it aside for now.
Chapter 568 Li Jian
Chapter 568 Li Jian
Arriving at the medic bay, he set her down on one of the beds before having the healers do a check up on her.
Seeing her damage status, the healers couldn¡¯t help but widen their eyes at the ridiculous fact that she was still alive.
However, since she was alive, they were obligated to save her.
As the tier 5 healing spells surrounded her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but nce out the window.
Right now, they were in the middle of a mountain range where there wererge buildings built into the mountain itself.
Much like the shaolin temple, there wererge training grounds where Shiro could see members of the sect being trained by masters of martial arts.
Just as she was about to keep on viewing the scenery, she watched as a head popped up from the bottom of the window.
Making eye contact, the two of them stared at each other as Shiro had a neutral expression since she didn¡¯t know how she should react.
". . ."
The head belonged to a man that looked to be in histe 30¡¯s. His hair was short and was coloured ck while his eyes were filled with amus.e.m.e.nt.
The other¡¯s in the room seemed to not recognise his presence as they continued to heal her.
Taking a moment to organise her thoughts, she turned to Nan Tian who was besides her.
"Lil¡¯ Tian."
"Mn? What is it?"
"Look at the window and tell me what you see." Shiro said while turning back to the man.
"I ju- ! When did you get here sect leader?" Nan Tian widened his eyes as he didn¡¯t sense him at all.
Quickly walking over to the window, he opened it and let him in.
"Well when I heard that my boy has brought back a girl, I had toe look with my eyes. So care to introduce me? Also, stop being so formal already." The sect leader grinned while patting Nan Tian on the shoulder.
Sighing softly, Nan Tian turned to Shiro.
"He is the one who saved me from ck Monarchy and is the leader of this sect."
"Tch, what kind of half-assed introduction is that?" The sect leader clicked his tongue before looking at Shiro.
"My name¡¯s Li Jian, I¡¯m basically this brat¡¯s step father since I raised him from young. I hope he hasn¡¯t said anything bad about me." Li Jianughed as Nan Tian sighed.
"So this is the reserved sect master huh? One that would spend most of his time checking on how you lot were doing in your training along with giving you some tips huh? Where he would normally just sit by and drink some tea while watching you train and his hobby is watching you lot cultivate your strength?" Shiro raised her eyebrow at Nan Tian before looking back at Li Jian Guo.
Just looking at his aura, she could tell that he was not reserved in the slightest.
"Is that how the brat described me? Haha! Well he ain¡¯t exactly wrong. I¡¯m just curious about the girl that he had brought back home after so long. So what¡¯s your name?" Li Jian asked with a chuckle.
"Shiro."
"Rather simple name. Any surname?" Li Jian asked curiously.
"Mn, Asakura." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Shiro Asakura huh? Hm... doesn¡¯t ring any bells. Are you part of their lesser known branch?" Li Jian tilted his head since he kept tabs on most of the powerful families in the world and there wasn¡¯t any Shiro Asakura in their family list.
"Well my name was changed but I was known by Kuromi before." Just as Shiro said this, Li Jian¡¯s smile faded as he grabbed Nan Tian.
"Your tastes are pretty f*cking strong boy. Do you not want descendants??? Because even if you don¡¯t, I want to see a grandkid ok?" Li Jian asked seriously while looking at Nan Tian like he was crazy.
Seeing the sect master¡¯s seriousness, Nan Tian¡¯s smile twitched.
"Why is it that you be like this the moment I bring Shiro here? Go drink your tea or something old man. Weren¡¯t there a few new trainees that you got your eye on?" Nan Tian urged as Li Jian was embarrassing him. There were still healers in the room and the female ones were blushing from the conversation.
"Pft, what¡¯s a cup of tea and some traineespared to my boy¡¯s future. Listen here, I don¡¯t mind who you bring back as long as it ain¡¯t one that would bust your baby maker open like a f*cking soft drink."
*PFT!
Suppressing augh, the healer¡¯s tried their best to concentrate while the males gave Nan Tian their condolences. After all, from what they know, Shiro was akin to a venus fly trap. Alluring but fatal.
"I¡¯m still here you know?" Shiro said as she rolled her eyes.
"Right. So I can give you anything you want as long as you don¡¯t bust him open like a popcorn ok?" Li Jian persuaded.
"Urg don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to break his balls or bust his ass anytime soon unless he pisses me off." Shiro sighed.
"Or ass?" Li Jian furrowed his brows.
Grabbing his phone, Nan Tian brought up the record of Shiro in New York and passed it to Li Jian.
"Mn? What is it?"
Looking at the webpage, Li Jian¡¯s expression froze up in shock.
". . . Where did I go wrong? How did you end up like this?" Li Jian sighed as he looked at Nan Tian with pity.
"Oi, my mind¡¯s perfectly sane ok?" Nan Tian said while taking back his phone.
"Hell f*cking no it is not. No offence youngdy." Li Jian turned to Shiro.
"None taken." Shiroughed since he wasn¡¯t wrong. Nan Tian¡¯s tastes were indeed quite strong for him to fall in love with her.
"Anyways, who are the other¡¯s then?" Li Jian asked as he nced at the rest of the party. Namely, Yin, Attie, Estre and Iziuel.
"This one is Iziuel, she¡¯s Shiro¡¯s friend, this one is Estre, Shiro¡¯s guard and these two are her children." Nan Tian introduced while sitting down on a chair.
"Wait she¡¯s already got children?"
"One is a phoenix the other is a spirit. Yin, the girl on the left, was hatched from an egg with Shiro¡¯s blood while Atesh, or rather, Attie, is a fusion fire elements that she had obtained. He was born thanks to her skillset I suppose." Nan Tian exined.
"Is that so? Well that¡¯s fine too. Anyways, I shouldn¡¯t disturb you any longer. We¡¯ll have a proper chat when you¡¯ve recovered." Li Jian smiled before walking to the window once more.
Jumping out, his figure disappeared as silence filled the room.
"Well that was a rather interesting first meeting no?" Shiro chuckled.
"No word of this outside, ok?" Nan Tian ¡¯smiled¡¯ as he looked at the healers.
"Of course branch master." They nodded.
¡¯A man¡¯s gotta keep his dignity after all.¡¯ They thought with an understanding smile.
Seeing this, Nan Tian didn¡¯t know why but he felt more annoyed.
Sighing softly, he looked towards the rest of the party.
"I¡¯ll go get a few rooms for you lot so that you can rest in the time that Shiro takes to heal." Nan Tian said before turning back to Shiro.
"Is there anything you want me to do while you recover?" He asked.
"Hmm... not much to be honest. Just take this time to get used to your new found power." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
After all, he was just scratching the surface of tier 6 and he needed more time. Plus, he also needed to level up again so that he could attempt to reach tier 6 legend like what Shiro had achieved in her previous lifetime.
###
Spending a week in the headquarters to heal herself, Shiro recovered enough to actually walk around but her body was still weak. If she had to describe her current power, it would be equal to the average power demonstrated by level 100¡¯s which is a far cry from her current peek.
During this time, the sect master offered to help Yin grow stronger since they were going to be here for a while. Naturally, Shiro¡¯s didn¡¯t reject the offer since strength was their priority right now.
Attie had spent this week keeping Shiropany while Nimue was still recovering in the mana realm.
Shiro guessed that it may take a while for Nimue to regain consciousness since the damage they took during thest fight was quite high. As for Iziuel, she just spent the time exploring around the sect for her own amus.e.m.e.nt.
Stretching her body, Shiro did a self scan to see if there were still any hidden injuries but most of them needed time to recover due to the nature of the bacshes that she had stacked onto her body.
"I think I¡¯ll stay here for a little longer. Who knows, I might find something useful.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile before picking Attie up. Her first destination in the sect was probably the library so that she could get some information on ss ups.
Chapter 569 Light Sparring
Chapter 569 Light Sparring
Walking through the sect with Attie in her arms, her appearance caused a smallmotion since they knew that Nan Tian was the one who brought her back to the sect.
Making her way past the training grounds, she could see Li Jian sitting on a mat with his legs crossed. He was currently wearing some baggy clothing that didn¡¯t give him the air that most would associate with sect masters.
"Yo young miss. Seems like you¡¯ve recovered enough to walk around now huh?" Li Jian waved towards her with a smile.
"Mn, thank you for your help. Honestly, if not for Nan Tian calling healers for me a few times, I would be dead for good." Shiro smiled as she walked towards him.
"Hou... No wonder I saw him call out our healers before. I will have to say though, there is only so much healing can do for you. If you exhaust your life energy then not even the best healer can save you." Li Jian chuckled before raising a cup of tea to his lips.
"I understand. They were just unfortunate situations that I found myself in. The logical ending should be my cold dead corpse but here we are." Shiro replied.
"Indeed. It just means that your fate does not end there. Care to join me in spectating their training? If you¡¯re not too hurried for time of course. I can¡¯t just ask you to apany this old man to watch people train." Li Jianughed.
"I don¡¯t mind. Plus, it¡¯s not like my injuries will go away anytime soon. I may need to rest for another 2 weeks or so to return to my peak." Shiro shrugged before sitting next to him with Attie.
"So how is Nan Tian doing? I know that he¡¯s gone to further his understanding of his newly upgraded element." She asked.
"He¡¯s still in seclusion but I¡¯ll be honest with you, the aura I can feel in his room is reaching impressive levels. If he increases his levels, he¡¯ll surpass me easily." Li Jian smiled and looked down at his cup of tea.
"You seem a bit sad." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Well... You can think of it as a parent¡¯s concern. I¡¯ve looked after him since he was a kid and I see him as my own son. With him surpassing me in strength, it means that I can no longer watch over him and protect him should the need arise. A bird has to leave his nest someday I suppose." Li Jian chuckled softly before taking another sip.
"So how should I address you? I know your identity as Kuromi Asakura but you now go by the name of Shiro." He asked while ncing towards her.
"Just call me Shiro. There was a bit of time where I lost my memories so I¡¯ve gotten used to being called this new name." Shiro smiled as Li Jian nodded his head.
"If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what do you think of the youths we have here right now? What do you think about their potential from their current performance?" Li Jian asked.
"Don¡¯t worry about being harsh. Sometimes you need to be harsh to receive proper feedback." He reassured as Shiro nodded.
"So which one do you want me to feedback first them?" Shiro asked, gesturing to the 10 youths that were training in the sparring grounds.
"Anyone you want."
"Mn, in that case then I¡¯ll go from left to right. The first person is earnest. You can see from his aura and concentration in his eyes that training is a top priority for him. He takes his time to study the moves meticulously and tries his best to read his opponents moves. However, he is a bit too analytical which isn¡¯t a bad thing but in a high tension situation during a fight, it may be harder to try to read your opponents. Sometimes you need to entrust your body to instincts as well. Otherwise, he is indeed quite promising in terms of potential." Shiro said as she pointed towards the first youth.
Hearing her response, Li Jian nodded his head with a small smile.
As Shiro continued to give him her feedback on each of the youths, their good points and bad points in her eyes, Li Jian¡¯s smile grew wider.
"Seems like you¡¯re quite experienced withbat to be able to pick up all of this." Li Jian said while cing his cup down.
"Well after fighting high level opponents and almost dying quite a few times, you would pick up a thing or two." Shiro chuckled.
"Indeed. Honestly, I¡¯m surprised by your analysis of these youngsters since you have a more magical background. You were the one who taught my boy how to use magic first after all."
"You know?" Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Of course I do. He told me about how you saved his life. When I first rescued him from the ck Monarchy, he didn¡¯t have much that he treasured. However, there was one thing that he refused to hand over to anyone. His coat that you gave him during winter." Li Jian said while cing his cup down.
"Anyways, I think your parents would be quite happy to know that you have lots of insight on physicalbat as much as you do magical. In the meantime, care to go for a light spar with one of the younger youths?" Li Jian offered as Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"I am still injured you know?"
"Yes. I¡¯m not telling you to fight anyone to the death but rather just a quick exchange of moves." Li Jian nodded.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure I suppose. I need some exercise after being stuck in that room for a good week or so." She said while standing up.
"Is there anywhere I can put my son down so that he can watch?"
"Oh I can look after him for you while you fight." Li Jian smiled.
"Are you sure?" Shiro asked as she didn¡¯t want to trouble Li Jian too much.
"Yes, don¡¯t worry about it. It¡¯s not like he would bite now would he?" Li Jianughed.
Nodding her head, Shiro passed Attie over to him before stepping down towards the sparring grounds.
"Ying Yu!" Li Jian called out.
Turning her head towards the sect master, the young girl bowed.
"Would you mind having a simple spar with Miss Shiro over here? Nothing too serious as her body is still injured."
"Of course sect master." Ying Yu nodded her head as people cleared the stage a little before presenting both of them with wooden weapons.
Looking at them, she eventually decided to go with a wooden long sword while Ying Yu picked two wooden daggers.
"Rules are simple, no magic, no skills, martial arts only. Win conditions are first contact scores a point and whoever gets 10 points wins." Li Jian shouted out as both participants readied their weapons.
Adjusting her grip on the wooden sword, Shiro moved her arm a few times to find the most optimal position. After all, her power was restricted right now due to her injuries so she couldn¡¯t move as aggressively as she did before. However, even with this problem, her overall physical strength was still equal to an average level 100¡¯s.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at her opponent with serious eyes.
"Begin!"
Just as Li Jian shouted out begin, Shiro¡¯s body dashed forward in an instant.
Pivoting on her foot, she shed her wooden sword towards Ying Yu.
Raising her hand, Ying Yu was about to block the de when she felt a chill down her spine. Raising her spare dagger behind her, she barely managed to block Shiro¡¯s attack as her initial figure was gone.
"Nice instincts." Shiro praised as she was using a slightly watered down version of her phantom path in order topensate for her current physical condition.
Pushing her arm up, she forced Ying Yu¡¯s arm into an ufortable position before poking her back with the wooden sword.
"First point Shiro!"
"Thank you for your praise." Ying Yu smiled as she readied herself once more.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro was surprised at how well she took her loss.
¡¯Nice girl.¡¯ She thought to herself before making some distance between them once more.
While Shiro was sparring against Ying Yu, Li Jian slowly inched himself closer to Attie.
"Your name is Attie huh? Are you able to speak?" He asked as Attie shook his head.
"Ah is that so? A shame then. Do you want to sit on grandpa¡¯sp and watch the fight?" Li Jian asked again as Attie furrowed his brows.
"How about I carry you on my shoulders then? Grandpa has arge body frame so you can watch your mum better from this height." He tried to persuade as Attie eventually nodded since it was to see his mum better.
Climbing on Li Jian¡¯s body without his help, Attie made his way up to the shoulder as if climbing a mountain.
Plopping himself down in afortable position, the two watched the fight.
Surprised at how fast it was going, Li Jian couldn¡¯t help but frown slightly.
¡¯I should have set the maximum points to be 20.¡¯ He thought to himself since he wanted to spend time with his would be grandchild. After all, he had always wanted to experience the feeling of being a grandpa.
Chapter 570 Grandpa?
Chapter 570 Grandpa?
Winning the 10 point match was a little difficult since Ying Yu was prepared for her sudden bursts of speed. However, with Shiro¡¯s vastbat experience and understanding of her body, she was able to narrowly dodge Ying Yu¡¯s strikes just in time to counter with her own. The final score, 10-0.
"Thank you very much for your tutge. I¡¯ve learnt a lot in today¡¯s spar. If you don¡¯t mind, can we do this more often?" Ying Yu asked with a happy smile.
"We¡¯ll see. I may be here for a while so if we get the chance then sure." Shiro smiled before making her way back to the sect master.
". . ."
Looking at Attie who was sitting on Li Jian¡¯s shoulder while he was contemting about something brought quite a weird feeling to Shiro¡¯s heart but she ignored it for now and reached out for Attie.
"Ah not yet. Do you not want to fight against anyone else? Get some exercise?" Li Jian asked with a forced smile.
Furrowing her brows in suspicion, Shiro shook her head.
"It¡¯s ok. I¡¯ll take my son and be on my way now..." She said slowly as she reached for Attie.
"Ok, listen, can Attie be my grandchild?" Li Jian asked seriously as Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
He didn¡¯t want to beat around the bush and make excuses so he decided toe out with his thoughts.
"He¡¯s my son."
"Not flesh and blood. Like how people have stepfather¡¯s, I¡¯ll just be his step grandpa."
"I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how it works."
"We can make it so that it works."
"But he has his real grandpa and grandma. My parents are still alive."
"What about the father¡¯s side."
"He has no father¡¯s side."
"Then I can be the grandparent on the father¡¯s side."
"What part of he has no father¡¯s side do you not understand?"
"If he has none, we can just make it so that he does."
"How desperate are you to have a grandchild???"
"LISTEN! Not being able to have children does quite something on a man¡¯s psyche ok!? I want to be called grandpa by my grandkids but it¡¯s not possible so Attie¡¯s the next best choice!" Li Jian confessed as he mmed his hand down on the ground.
Widening her eyes from the sudden m, Shiro looked at the man once more.
"You can¡¯t have children?"
"No."
"Is it rtionship problems or..."
". . . I just can¡¯t ok."
". . ."
". . ."
". . ."
"So am I Attie¡¯s grandpa now?"
"No!"
"WHY?!"
"Because I¡¯ve literally only known you for a week!" Shiro stood up.
"A week is nothing! There used to be marriages happening when people knew each other for only 2 days!"
"That¡¯s the past old man! And it¡¯s something else entirely!"
"The past is the foundation of the future!"
"Whatever, I¡¯m going." Shiro shook her head and wanted to leave. Who knows if this old man was about to kidnap her son when she¡¯s not looking.
ncing at Li Jian, Attie thought about it for a moment before smiling and giving him a small wave.
"Attie don¡¯t wave to strange creepy old men. He looks 30+ but his actual age is deceiving." Shiro lectured as Attie retracted his wave.
"Damn it youngdy! Just let this old man have his wish ok!? Why are you like this?!"
"Because he¡¯s my son! Why don¡¯t you just adopt one if you want a grandkid!"
"That¡¯s not the same!" Li Jian stood up.
"Why isn¡¯t it the same!?"
"Because my boy Nan Tian only has eyes for you! I¡¯ve tried to match him a few times already but he rejected them! I thought it was a romance thing so I had my elders read some tips and books online to see how they would woo the opposite s.e.x and help him but it didn¡¯t work! Even after all the elders tried to teach him, he still hasn¡¯t wooed anyone!"
"Wait, you¡¯re the cause of his initial approach??" Shiro red at the old man in annoyance since he was the catalyst that pushed little beggar on a path to be a stalker.
"Yes because he never showed interest towards girls! At one point I thought he was gay so I tried to match him with males and he got pissed off at me!" Li Jian confessed.
". . ."
"Since he only has eyes for you, Attie is the closest thing to a proper grandkid ok!? Just let this old man have his wish!"
"Like I said, no!" Shiro huffed before leaving.
"If you give me food, I¡¯ll be your grandkid. And before you say anything, I¡¯m kidding." Yin called out nonchntly as she was currently holding a roasted chicken drumstick.
Earlier, she was eating in the canteen with Iziuel before sensing that Shiro was walking around so she wanted toe talk to Shiro only to stumble on the two of them arguing about how he couldn¡¯t be Attie¡¯s grandpa.
"Ain¡¯t that cannibalism?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
Looking down on the chicken drumstick, Yin shrugged.
"This one doesn¡¯t fly and it can¡¯t breathe fire. Not the same. Anyways, it¡¯s just a name mum. Isn¡¯t having more people keep Attiepany good?" She asked as Shiro nced back at Li Jian who was trying to get Attie¡¯s attention.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro agreed that it was good but it was quite... odd to have Li Jian be Attie¡¯s grandpa.
After all, with how Li Jian phrased it, Nan Tian and Li Jian would essentially be Attie¡¯s father¡¯s side of the family.
Quickly shaking her head of the thought, Shiro refused once more.
"Well just because you can¡¯t be called lil bro¡¯s grandpa doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t treat him well." Yin shrugged and took a bite of the chicken.
"But he won¡¯t call me grandpa then." Li Jian sighed.
"It¡¯s not like he can talk yet since he¡¯s young. Anyways, Imma go back to Iziuel now. she¡¯s still waiting in the canteen." Yin waved her hand before jumping into the shadow.
¡¯Did youe here to make trouble for me?¡¯ Shiro¡¯s smile twitched before turning back to Li Jian.
"You can stay with Attie but just so that we¡¯re clear, you¡¯re not his grandpa ok?"
"Why are you so against it? Like your daughter said, it¡¯s just a name." Li Jian pouted slightly as Shiro felt a shiver down her spine.
The sight of a middle aged man like Li Jian pouted gave her quite the shock.
"Well it¡¯s because Lil¡¯ Tian will be akin to Attie¡¯s dad if that¡¯s the case." Shiro said while ncing away.
Tilting his head for a moment, Li Jian¡¯s lips curved into a sh*t eating grin.
"Ah so that¡¯s the case. Hahahaha! Youngdy, your thought process is quite ¡¯cute¡¯ hahahaha! You¡¯re one of those tsundere things aren¡¯t you? Ok ok, I got it. I ¡¯won¡¯t¡¯ be Attie¡¯s grandpa." Li Jianughed as he gave her a knowing wink.
Since she¡¯s one of those tsundere people, Li Jian understood that he essentially needed to reverse her sentences.
You can¡¯t be Attie¡¯s Grandpa -> You can be his grandpa but not yet.
"Eat sh*t and die old man! What do you mean I¡¯m one of those tsundere things!?" Shiro gritted her teeth since she felt like she was about to bust a vein talking to this old man.
The worst part of it was that she couldn¡¯t harm him either since she owed him a debt of gratitude. Not only did he save Nan Tian, he had also saved her a few times with the healers. On top of that, he even provided some manpower during the fight against Aekari.
"Hahaha, it¡¯s ok, I understand." Li Jian smiled.
"If you want to visit Lil¡¯ Tian, his room is on the third floor of the main building. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard to find." He chuckled.
"I¡¯m not looking for him!" Shiro huffed before storming off. The longer she talked with him, the more she felt she was about to lose her mind.
Seeing Shiro walk away, Li Jian gave Attie a wave before pouring himself another cup to tea.
¡¯Nan Tian, you found quite an interesting person.¡¯ He thought with a smile.
###
Asking around for where the library is, Shiro realised something. She hadn¡¯t asked permission to use it yet.
". . . F*ck." She muttered since it meant that she needed to go back to the old man after literally just telling him to ¡¯eat sh*t and die.¡¯
Seeing Shiro frown slightly, Attie tilted his head before reaching out to Shiro and pushed the side of her lips up into a smile.
*Ba-dum
"Ahh why are you so cute!" Shiro smiled and hugged Attie.
"Mommy¡¯s just thinking about how I should talk to that old man again, don¡¯t worry."
Hearing this, Attie puffed out his chest and patted it, as if telling Shiro to leave it to him.
"Ah it¡¯s fine Attie, you don¡¯t have to worry." Shiro smiled before turning around.
Taking a deep breath, she mentally prepared herself to talk to Li Jian again.
Chapter 571 Arwen
Chapter 571 Arwen
"You¡¯re back already? Have you reconsidered letting Attie be my grandkid?" Li Jian raised his eyebrow.
"No, I¡¯m here for another matter."
"Oh... What is the matter then?" Li Jian sighed.
"Am I allowed to use the library? I know that Lil¡¯ Tian said that the library was limited since there was ess to martial arts." Shiro asked.
"Sure you can use it." Li Jian waved his hand nonchntly as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile softly.
In her eyes, it looked as though the sect master was pulling a tantrum because he couldn¡¯t be Attie¡¯s grandfather.
*Sigh
"Do you want to look after Attie while I¡¯m in the library then? I¡¯m going to be doing quite a bit of research so Attie might be bored." Shiro sighed.
"Really?" Li Jian perked up with a smile as Shiro nodded.
"Yes, just don¡¯t expose him to blood and killing. Nothing s.e.x.u.a.l, make sure it¡¯s PG and I swear to god if I see an injury on his body when Ie back I¡¯m going to rip the one who did it a new one. And if you don¡¯t understand, it means I¡¯ll give them a brand new a**hole." Shiro warned.
"Of course. But youngdy, you really have got to be careful of cussing in front of children. They¡¯ll grow up with bad habits you know?" Li Jian grinned as he reached out for Attie.
"Before that, Estre!" Shiro called out.
Suddenly, a portal opened up besides them as Estre stepped out.
"You called, my Empress?"
"Look after Attie with the old man over here and make sure he doesn¡¯t get hurt."
"Understood." Estre nodded as Shiro finally handed Attie over to Li Jian.
"Be good ok? Mommy¡¯s going to go do some boring research so you¡¯ll be staying with this strange old man ok?" Shiro smiled as Li Jian¡¯s smile twitched.
Nodding his head, Attie pouted slightly before giving Shiro a hug and climbed over to Li Jian.
"Make sure he doesn¡¯t try to force himself to be Attie¡¯s grandpa." Shiro turned to Estre.
"Noted."
"Take this. You¡¯ll need it to ess the Library." Li Jian said as he threw her a key card of sorts.
"Thanks." Shiro nodded.
Waving at Attie once more, Shiro started to make her way towards the library.
Watching Shiro leave, Li Jian was about to say something to Attie when Estre¡¯s head snapped towards him.
"Woah there, calm. No need to be that on guard. I was just going to ask him about what he wanted to do." Li Jian exined as Estre rxed.
"Damn, so stingy." He shook his head.
###
Arriving at the library, Shiro tilted her head back and looked at the giant get of reinforced doors. Hundreds upon hundreds of defensive formations and attack formations could be seen etched onto the material.
Activating her analysis skill, she could see a few hidden formations too.
¡¯Even if I was recovered, I think I might have a hard time breaking through this ce.¡¯ She thought to herself since each formation was linked together with meticulous nning.
Understanding that the sect had many hidden experts, a formation expert was to be expected.
Looking around for a spot to scan the key card that Li Jian had given her, Shiro saw the panel to her left. Swiping the key card, she could see a few of the formation shift as the doors began to open.
ncing past the reinforced doors, she could see row upon rows of books that were currently being cleaned by a tall figure.
Besides the shelves wereputer terminals which wasn¡¯t a surprising sight for her since she saw the library in Miriel.
"Oh? A visitor. What brings you to this ce?" The figure called out without turning around.
"I¡¯m just looking for some information. Are you able to tell me where I can read about ss ups and ss up requirements?" Shiro asked politely since this figure seemed to be the librarian.
For some strange reason however, she couldn¡¯t pick up on his appearance properly as everything was shadowed out. From his voice however, she could at least tell that he was a male.
"ss ups you say? Quite a particr topic. One that not many would search for unless they¡¯re either stuck in theirs or are struggling toplete them. What would yours be?" He asked with interest in his voice.
"I suppose I¡¯ll be in the second category." Shiro replied patiently.
"The second category huh? I see... There aren¡¯t any physical copies of any information that you may require but theputer terminals may contain them." The figure pointed towards theputers before going back to cleaning the shelves.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro nodded before walking over to the terminals.
Turning one of them on, she could see a search bar for the topics that she wanted to find. Typing in ss up, a giant list of entries appeared on the screen.
¡¯Oh god this is going to take a while.¡¯ She signed internally as she began to read through every single entry.
Hopefully, she¡¯ll be able to get more clues as her current ss up objectives were:
[5/1] Tier 5 Attunements
[0/1] Tier 5 Awakening Type Material
[0/1] Tier 5 Catalyst
[0/5] Tier 5 ss Relevant Materials
[3/1] Tier 5 Grade Achievement
[1] Tier 6 Grade Achievement
However, while this was helpful, there was also the problem of her chosen ss being one that she has to make herself. This means that even if shepleted these requirements, there were no promises of ss ups.
¡¯Perhaps I¡¯ll be able to find out some research on why we experience ss ups.¡¯
###
After going through countless records, Shiro¡¯s body began to feel stiff as she had sat down for a long time.
"Care for a drink youngdy? You¡¯ve been looking at theputer for a long time. Have you not found what you need?" A voice asked as the shrouded figure appeared besides her.
Despite him being this close, Shiro still could not see his true form but she wasn¡¯t bothered.
"Sure. Unfortunately, my situation¡¯s a little special so I need to look for something quite specific." Shiro smiled wearily.
"Oh? Perhaps I can be of assistance." The figure replied as Shiro could tell that he was smiling.
"Tell me the nature of your situation so that I may find the correct entry."
"It¡¯s along the lines of how would one ss up when their ss up option is not a guarantee. You see, I¡¯ve chosen a rather peculiar ss where I must find my own way. So I need to figure out how I can trigger the ss up." Shiro exined.
If the man could help her then it would be great.
"Hmm... That is indeed quite rare. Out of all the entries, only two of them match your situation. The Norman incident 22 years ago in Britain match this description along with the researcher known as Zesli. She spends a lot of time researching ss ups and their hidden workings. Perhaps if you were to meet her, you¡¯ll be able to find out the information you need." The figure replied while cing down a cup juice for Shiro.
"Ah thank you. I haven¡¯t asked yet but who are you?" Shiro asked.
"Me? I¡¯m just a librarian who decided to forsake my past. Though if you needed a name, I suppose Arwen would do." Arwen replied with a soft chuckle.
"I see, Arwen... Ok. Is there anything I can give you to repay you for this help?"
"Repay me? There¡¯s no need. You would have found this information out eventually." Arwen shook his head.
"But time is money and you¡¯ve helped me save time. Therefore, I need to repay you." Shiro smiled.
Hearing this, Arwen paused for a moment before nodding his head.
"In that case then bring me stories or information of which haven¡¯t been recorded in this library. Staying here and reading everything bes rather dull with time."
"Oh is that all?" Shiro asked just to make sure. After all, she had hundreds of stories from Aria.
"You underestimate the vastness of knowledge held in this library youngdy but yes, that is all that I desire." Arwenughed.
"Ok, give me a few days for my body to recover. Once I¡¯ve recovered, I¡¯ll be able to bring you the information you want." Shiro smiled. After all, she wanted to make sure that her body was in good condition before using her nanobots.
Seeing honesty in her eyes, Arwen was rather surprised and nodded his head.
"Then I look forward to your recovery."
Chapter 572 Zeslis Theory
Chapter 572 Zesli''s Theory
Watching Arwen leave, Shiro decided to search up the two topics that he talked about. The first was the Norman incident 22 years ago in Britain while the other was about the scientist.
Searching up the key words of Norman Incident, 2 extracts appeared on the screen.
The Norman incident was a situation where the adventurer by the name of Norman went berserk andmitted mass genocide within London. They say that the cause was a fault with his mental state after his ss was reset over and over again.
Every time you reset your ss to get something new, you lose all of your progress and some theorised that after a certain amount of reset, it¡¯ll strain your body to the point where your mental state is affected.
Norman was never able to reach B ss because he could neverplete the ss up requirements. Therefore, he would try to go down a different path but it never worked.
It was unknown how many resets he had experienced but when the incident happened, his ss was now an error code.
[Norman ¨C LVL ??? ¡ê%"$"%!"$"¡ê]
Every time he attacked someone, their mind would be destroyed and they would enter a state where they couldn¡¯t even form proper sentences.
The situation was barely resolved after the government dispatched tens of top tier A ss adventurers. However, during this, 4 of the A ss adventurers were rendered into a vegetative state where they are still being treated to this day. There is no known cure for this state and many believe them to be a lost cause.
As for the cause of all of this, Norman was not killed but rather sealed and imprisoned in the highest-level prison there is in the world. There were voices of concern in regards to Norman¡¯s survival but the government expressed their helplessness at the situation.
Despite having the A ss adventurers attack Norman, his wounds seemed to regenerate at a rapid rate. The best they could do was to seal him in an illusion array and seal him in the prison.
There were a few people that tried to save him for their twisted ideals but the guards were able to prevent all of the attempts so far.
Thetest attempt was 2 years ago which was also the 50th attempt at rescuing Norman. It was believed to be the final attempt as the manpower used for this was three times as big as the other attempts and theck of subsequent rescues proves this point.
Reading up to this point, Shiro furrowed her brows as Norman¡¯s ss was in a way, simr to her chosen one. It was something that didn¡¯t have a name and the power seemed to be out of the conventional loop.
It was one that focused on multiple aspects rather than just one.
However, it was different to heir¡¯s since he was ¡¯consumed¡¯ by something and lost his mind.
Shaking her head, Shiro decided to read about the scientist, Zesli.
Zesli was an orphan that started her research about sses when she reached level 100. Most sses experience the biggest change at level 100 which caused Zesli¡¯s interest to grow on the subject.
There have been many theories which make sense on paper that were written by Zesli but nothing was proven due to ack of proof and test subjects that could verify her theories.
One of her theory¡¯s ties to the existence of hidden sses and why they are achieved.
Normally, one would ss up once they achieve the ss up requirements of the chosen ss. However, should they fulfil the requirements of a higher grade of that ss during this period, they transcend into a hidden ss which isn¡¯t recorded.
There are many hidden sses in the world and there are new ones being discovered every day. Zesli believes that the basic ss up requirements are the minimum standard one needs to reach in order to be ssed as a tier 4 individual and the hidden sses are for those that surpass this ¡¯minimum standard¡¯. Hence why there are clear disparities between adventurers.
An example would be when someone is able to defeat people that are 80 levels above them. One of the reasons would naturally be the fact that the assignable points per level are many times higher than an average tier 4 but the other would be the quality of skills provided by the system.
An average fighter at the hundredth level may get a skill that increases their strength by a certain amount of points while an exceptional fighter that has achieved a hidden ss may get a skill that increases their strength through percentile rather than point.
This means that the strong get stronger while the average stays average. Of course, if they¡¯re able to transcend their ¡¯minimum standard¡¯ during the next ss up, they¡¯ll receive a hidden ss as well.
One of the variables to achieving the hidden ss is naturally, the ss up materials you have on hand.
Zesli theorised that when one collects an object to achieve their ss up, they take a portion of that object¡¯s ¡¯origin¡¯ in order for the system to connect them with the certain ss.
For example, if someone was to obtain Sun Wu Kong¡¯s golden headband or staff, their next ss may receive benefits that would remind people of the Monkey King.
Which means that one can control the hidden ss that they may obtain through collecting certain items.
However, there was one question that Zesli kept asking.
What if you continuously break past this minimum standard? If you get a powerful ss at the start and continue to surpass the standard set by each tier to the point where you can transcend tiers despite their difference in strength.
Like a snowball, the more you roll, the bigger you be. Eventually, you could be an avnche that surpasses all of the other snowballs/sses provided by the system.
But to obtain this, what must you do?
The materials you obtain must be slightly higher than the limit of your next tier when you obtain it, the achievements/feats you do must be something that most people would struggle with at your tier.
Such examples would bepleting a B ss dungeon solo despite being C ss or killing a A ss monster when you¡¯re only in B ss.
Regarding this theory, Zesli had a rather unique way of expressing it.
[If the ss that you chose could be said to be a point value that you must meet, the quality of the hidden ss is the point value you reach after surpassing that initial value. For example, if a swordsman has 10 points, and youpleted feats that total up to 15 points, you may receive the ss of talented swordsman. If you achieve 20 point¡¯s, expert swordsman. 30, 50, 100 and so on. The more points you achieve during the period of ss up, the higher your hidden ss would be.]
This theory had been half proven as a few people had refrained frompleting the final requirement of their ss in order to increase their points. Sometimes the subjects had managed to achieve a hidden ss while others failed.
Due to the questionable sess rate, this theory was put on hold for now.
Reading up to this point, Shiro was rather interested in meeting with this woman. After all, it made sense from her standpoint.
Despite her snow girl ss at the start, her experience as a tier 6 and her Nanomancer ss had allowed her to do things that were normally not achievable to people who are just starting out. After her first ss up, she continued to challenge those that were higher level to the point where she is now unmatched against those that are at the same level as her.
If she had to describe it using the point system that Zesli used in her exnation, she was 500 points while normal B ss were 200. She could kill them with ease while putting up a good fight against those that are in A ss. Should she begin to struggle, her percentile based berserk skills could make up for that difference.
¡¯Therefore, if I want to achieve my next ss, I need to surpass the minimum standard that I have set so far. With how my sses have been and how I was able to defeat two tier 5 individuals with some help, I¡¯ll need to achieve a simr feat solo or go for a tier 6 in order to surpass the minimum standard. Perhaps this is what the system meant by the fact that I may not ss up even after achieving the requirements. I don¡¯t meet the minimum standard of my ??? ss should I go for average tier 5 materials.¡¯ Shiro thought with a small smile.
¡¯So, to ss up, I¡¯ll need to obtain materials and achievements that are near the standard of tier 6 legend.¡¯
Chapter 573 Atties Growth
Chapter 573 Attie''s Growth
After reading through the report, Shiro turned theputer off since that was all that she needed to know. The only remaining things to do now was to recover and look for everything she needed.
Of course, she was going to do that after she met her parents again.
"Thank you for your help Arwen. I¡¯ll probably drop by once in a while since the information stored here is quite beneficial." Shiro called out with a smile.
"No problem. Take care youngdy." Arwen waved his hand as Shiro left the library.
Looking at her silhouette, Arwen chuckled lightly before resuming his cleaning duties.
###
After leaving the library, Shiro nced out to the sky and saw that it was nowte afternoon. The sun hadn¡¯t set yet but it would be dark in another hour or so.
"I should probably go look for Attie now. The old man should have had enough time with my son." Shiro muttered before jogging towards the sparring grounds.
Upon arrival, she could see that most of the disciples were still training but Li Jian was nowhere to be seen.
"Excuse me, but do you know where the sect master is?" Shiro asked as she called out to one of the disciples.
"Ah, I¡¯m not too sure. He wasst seen making his way to the southern courtyard." The disciple replied with a respectful bow. From what they understand, she was someone who was brought back by the branch master along so they must be courteous with her.
"I see... thank you." Shiro smiled before dashing towards the south. Since she wasn¡¯t too familiar with the sect, the best she could do was to just run in its general direction.
After all, no one in their right mind would ce the southern courtyard anywhere but the south right? If she finds the northern courtyard towards the south, she would be wanting to speak with the person who builtd all of this.
Arriving at what seems to be the southern courtyard, Shiro could see that it was a cksmith of sorts. The doors were swung wide open as she could peek inside.
Just as she did this, she saw Li Jian holding Attie over a pit of fire.
". . ."
Closing her eyes, she massaged them with her fingers before ncing back just to make sure that she was seeing things properly.
When she opened her eyes, Attie was now closer to the fire.
". . . "
Taking a deep breath, she reinforced her body as best she could.
"What the f*ck are you doing to my son you sh*tty old man!!!!" Shiro shouted out as she stomped down as hard as she could.
*CRACK!!!
Fracturing the tiles under her, sheunched her body towards Li Jian.
Hearing the shout of an infuriated Shiro, Li Jian couldn¡¯t help but flinch for a moment before turning towards her.
Just as he turned towards her, she was already in front of him with anger in her eyes. Due to the condition of the room, the fire reflected off her eyes as it made her seem like a devil.
"You have the wrong idea!" Li Jian persuaded while taking a step back to dodge her grab.
"Tell me that after I get my son back!" Shiro narrowed her eyes before pivoting on her foot.
Hooking her spare leg behind his, she pushed her palm against his chest before sending out a pulse of wind to knock him back.
"Hou hou... That¡¯s an interesting style you have there." Li Jian smiled while adjusting himself.
"I don¡¯t care just give me back my son you sh*tty old man." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Alright alright but you have to promise me that you¡¯ll listen to my exnation."
"Just give me back my son." Shiro repeated once more.
Nodding his head, Li Jian passed Attie over to Shiro.
*Sigh...
"Estre!" Shiro called out.
"Yes empress?"
"Why is the old man holding my son over a pit of fire and why didn¡¯t you stop him?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Youngdy, why would I want to harm someone who I want to be my grandkid? It¡¯s to help him. In the sect, the weapons are forged with a special fire. Since you said that Lil¡¯ Attie is abination of fire, I thought it would help him and when I showed him the fire, he even reached out for it." Li Jian sighed as he pulled out a chair for him to sit on.
"Huh? Is that true Attie?" Shiro asked, ncing towards Attie who was in her arms.
Nodding his head, Attie pointed towards the fire pit that Li Jian was holding him over a moment ago.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked towards Estre in hopes of verifying this.
"I¡¯m not too sure if it¡¯s true or not since there hasn¡¯t been a case in the spirit race like Attie for a long time. Though as we are spirits, the same element cannot harm us in the wild unless it¡¯s a spell cast by someone." Estre replied as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"You want to touch that fire?" She asked again just to make sure.
Nodding his head with certainty, Attie pointed towards the fire once more.
*Sigh
"Fine, but if I see you get hurt, I¡¯m pulling you out immediately ok?" Shiro said with a frown.
Approaching the firepit, she made it so that Attie was just able to reach it with his little hands.
As he reached out for the fire, the mes seemed toe alive, wrapping around his fingers before enveloping his hands.
From Attie¡¯s rxed expression, Shiro could guess that the fire was ok for him.
Seconds slowly passed as the mes slowly wrapped around Attie¡¯s arms before trying to extend to the rest of his body. However, just as this happened, Attie furrowed his brows with difort. Seeing this, Shiro quickly pulled him away.
With the fire separating from Attie, this difort slowly disappeared.
"Are you ok?" Shiro asked with worry.
Opening his eyes, Attie nodded his head before leaning against her chest and fell asleep.
"Do you know what¡¯s going on?" Shiro asked Estre who had surprise written all over her face.
"Yes. He was trying to make his stand against the ambient fire spirits within that fire, making his presence and position known. For us spirits, we have to go through a few steps before ¡¯growing up¡¯. For example, Nimue was able to ¡¯grow up¡¯ back into a sentient spirit due to your presence while Attie, who was born as a sentient spirit, will have different tasks toplete." Estre replied.
"Why are you so surprised then?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Because spirits tend not to do these tasks until quite a few years have passed. For young Attie to be showing his stand as a spirit already is quite ambitious." Estre replied.
"Is that good or bad?"
"It¡¯s good! Or rather, it¡¯s great! The faster the spirits are able to muster up the courage to do these tasks, the more promising their future bes. You see, the spirits are most pure at birth and this ¡¯purity¡¯ will slowly wane over the years. The sooner they are able to ¡¯grow up¡¯ the more of this purity is converted into raw potential. For Attie to be doing it this close to birth, he¡¯s going to be a powerful spirit when he grows up properly." Estre replied excitedly. If Attie was able to grow up to be a powerful spirit, it means that the spirit race will have one more form of protection.
"Hmm... I see... well I¡¯m not going to force him to grow up quickly. If he grows up fast then he grows up fast. If he doesn¡¯t then he doesn¡¯t. Just to make myself clear Estre, we¡¯re not going force him on this path ok?" Shiro said as she red towards Estre with serious eyes.
She could tell that Estre was excited for Attie¡¯s growth so that he could protect the spirit race but Shiro didn¡¯t want that. It was enough that she was protecting the race, she didn¡¯t need her son to shoulder her burden.
Feeling Shiro¡¯s re, Estre felt a shiver down her spine as she kneeled.
"I apologise my Empress. I overstepped my bounds." Estre apologised as she was forcing her ideals onto Attie.
"Mn. Anyways, I¡¯ve found out what I want from the library but is it ok if I continue to visit it?" Shiro asked, turning to Li Jian.
"Of course. Just keep the keycard since it¡¯s easier that way." Li Jian waved his hand as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you, now if you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯m going to take Attie back to the room since he needs some sleep."
Walking out of the cksmiths, Shiro started to make her way back to the room while Li Jian nced towards the firepit.
"Hmm... Young Attie is actually able to subdue this me?" He muttered with mild surprise before shaking his head.
Regardless of what Attie can do, Li Jian only wanted one thing from him and that was to call him grandpa.
Chapter 574 Recovery
Chapter 574 Recovery
Shiro spent the next two weeks resting up in the sect. asionally, she would go to the library to visit Arwen.
Otherwise, she would spend most of her time with Attie and Yin. During this time, she had also sent a message to Helion, telling him that she was dying the deadline a little since she was injured, allowing him to have more time to do research on the sword.
In addition to this, Attie seemed to be slighter closer to Li Jian since he was always looking for ways to entertain the young spirit.
Naturally, Shiro wasn¡¯t too against this since Attie was enjoying it but the fact that the old man didn¡¯t give up on bing Attie¡¯s grandfather was a little worrisome.
Today was her final check up but Shiro didn¡¯t need a medic to know that she was fully recovered. After all, Nimue was finally awake.
¡¯Yo, you¡¯ve been out ofmission for quite a while. What happened?¡¯ Shiro asked with a casual smile.
*PUCHI!
Seeing this, Nimue immediately felt like a vein was about to burst.
{Ok, you of all people can¡¯t ask me what happened. So god damn suicidal! I swear your body was already breaking halfway through the fight against that Guardian and right after that you decide to tax your body more by borrowing the mana from the Earth! Are you trying to reduce your links to ash?! Do you know how much trouble it was to try keeping everything from breaking???} Nimue raged as she stomped over to a tree and ripped it out from the ground before tossing it into the air.
¡¯Haha, but we¡¯re alive now aren¡¯t we? Thanks to Lil¡¯ Tian achieving tier 6 elemental magic, we were able to drive off the guardian.¡¯ Shiroughed.
Waving her hand, she brought the tree back to the ind before repairing the roots.
{Hais... I don¡¯t even know why we¡¯re alive.} Nimue rolled her eyes before sinking her body into the water.
¡¯Do you not want toe out for a bit? Iziuel¡¯s been enjoying the sect quite a bit. Attie¡¯s also having some fun too.¡¯ Shiro asked.
{Nah it¡¯s fine. Look at my body and tell me if I should go out. I may be conscious now but I¡¯m still injured.} Nimue sighed before standing up once more. Compared to before, her body was definitely struggling to keep its shape but she was barely able to manage.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro could only sigh.
¡¯Sorry.¡¯ She apologised since this was partially her fault for being so reckless against the Guardian.
{Don¡¯t be like that. It¡¯s better to be wounded than dead. At least I can recover from this. Death? Not so much.} Nimue shrugged as Shiro chuckled.
{So do you have anything interesting for me? I have been unconscious for quite a while.} She asked curiously.
¡¯Well... there are quite a few things to go through.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
Making herselffortable, she started to tell Nimue about Zesli, the Norman incident, Li Jian¡¯s identity and Attie¡¯s current state of ¡¯growing up¡¯.
{Heh~ You¡¯ve been quite busy huh? I¡¯ll tell you what though, I can see why Estre was excited and happy about Attie¡¯s speed of growth. After all, I can count on one hand the amount of spirits that¡¯s able to do the same as Attie.} Nimue smiled.
¡¯It is really that hard though?¡¯ Shiro asked curiously since it didn¡¯t seem difficult to Shiro.
{Well to your eyes maybe not. But for a spirit¡¯s, there¡¯s a huge mental barrier that you must surpass in order to begin your ¡¯growth.¡¯ If I had to describe it, it¡¯ll be akin to a kid wanting to go into a dungeon so that he could level up and advance in ss.} Nimue exined as Shiro nodded.
¡¯Hmm fair enough. Anyways, I need to go for my check up now. If everything is ok, I¡¯ll go visit Arwen in the library to hold up my side of the agreement then I¡¯ll go meet Helion. If Lil¡¯ Tian is still in seclusion then I¡¯ll probably leave him a note or something.¡¯ Shiro nodded before leaving the mana realm.
Getting dressed, Shiro started to make her way to the medic bay. Attie, Yin, Iziuel and Estre were waiting by her side since this was probably theirst day in the sect.
###
"Yup, everything is ok now. Your body has fully recovered and there are no more bacsh effects." The healer smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Stretching her body, she picked up Attie before leaving the room.
"So are you leaving now?" Li Jian asked with a smile.
"Yup. Of course, I want to say goodbye to Lil¡¯ Tian and Arwen first. Though it seems like Lil¡¯ Tian is still in seclusion so I don¡¯t want to bother him too much." Shiro smiled.
"Do you want anything to help you on the journey then? I know that my boy has been quite helpful but since he¡¯s in seclusion right now, it would probably be best for you to get some protection. I don¡¯t want to see him heartbroken after all." Li Jian smiled as Shiro shook her head.
"Nah it should be fine. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to look for trouble now am I?"
"No no no. You don¡¯t understand. I¡¯m not afraid of you looking for trouble but rather trouble looking for you." Li Jianughed.
"Ok that¡¯s very true since I¡¯ve ran into two Queens and a demon god in the span of a few weeks." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn, but here, take this. It should help you out quite a bit should you ever get into a pickle." Li Jian smiled as he threw her a coin of sorts.
[Reversal of Fate ¨C Red]
Flip the coin and your fate shall be reversed.
Uses ¨C 1/3
"Well damn, isn¡¯t this quite handy?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Are you sure you want to give me this old man?"
"Yes. If you¡¯re safe, it means Attie¡¯s safe. If you¡¯re both safe, it makes me happy." Li Jian smiled.
"It¡¯s making me feel bad since I don¡¯t have anything to give you." Shiro scratched her head in embarrassment.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. As long as A-"
"My son isn¡¯t calling you grandpa."
"Tsk, stingy. I just gave you a powerful life saving item too." Li Jian clicked his tongue.
"Sorry, you¡¯re gonna have to try much harder than that to be my son¡¯s grandpa old man." Shiro grinned.
"Fine whatever. Just make sure you stay safe out there. The world is bing more dangerous especially with these Queen¡¯s making their existence known." Li Jian warned.
"I know. I¡¯ll go talk to Arwen now. Take care old man." Shiro waved as Li Jian nodded.
"See youter youngdy."
Making her way to the Library, Shiro flexed her fingers and created a tablet of sorts filled with information about Aria.
Swiping her key card once more, the door to the Library opened up.
"Arwen!" Shiro called out with a smile.
"You¡¯re back. From the looks of things, you¡¯re leaving now." Arwen smiled. Even after two weeks of interacting with him, his figure was still shrouded but Shiro didn¡¯t mind.
"I¡¯vee to fulfil my part of the promise fromst time. This tablet should have information that isn¡¯t recorded here." Shiro smiled as she passed him the tablet.
"Thank you for helping me these past few weeks." She bowed slightly since he was able to tell her exactly which records to look for should she be curious, saving her lots of time.
"You¡¯re wee. Your presence has elevated my boredom. Hopefully this tablet can do the same haha." Arwenughed as Shiro nodded.
"Take care. I¡¯m not sure when I¡¯ll be able to visit you again."
"Mn, you too." Watching Shiro leave, Arwen looked down at the tablet before sitting down on the chair.
Not too long after, Li Jian appeared in the Library.
"Are you not going to show her your appearance?" He asked curiously.
"There¡¯s no need." Arwen shook his head.
"Are you sure?" Li Jian raised his eyebrow as Arwen nodded his head.
"She¡¯s doing just fine without me." Arwen smiled as he dismissed his disguise.
As the disguise flickered away, it turned out that Arwen is not a he but rather a she. With golden hair and pointed ears, she gently caressed the tablet with a soft smile.
"I¡¯ll be honest, I was surprised when I heard her talk about you. The fact that you actually disguised yourself as a mysterious man rather than your true form. Aren¡¯t you her friend¡¯s mother?" Li Jian asked curiously.
"I am indeed and I am also her friend from another life. Though it¡¯s not yet time to meet her or my daughter yet. I¡¯ll go meet them properly once the new age starts. Honestly, I thought I was going to have to make an appearance a little sooner but since she was able to deal with Aekari by herself, I can keep my existence a secret for a little longer." She smiled.
[Isilia ¨C LVL 550 Elven Queen of Aria.]
Chapter 575 Leaving The Sect
Chapter 575 Leaving The Sect
After leaving the library, Shiro started to make her way to the third floor of the main building. On this floor, she¡¯d find Nan Tian¡¯s room where he was currently in seclusion.
She wanted to leave him a note about her departure since she didn¡¯t want to just leave without saying anything.
Upon entering the third floor, she could feel a wave of mana crash into her as she was forced to take a step back in order to stabilise herself.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro nced up and realised it to being from Nan Tian¡¯s room.
Looking around the floor, she could see formations restricting the mana from being sensed elsewhere.
¡¯No wonder I didn¡¯t sense it outside of this floor. It¡¯s been blocked.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before sending Attie and Iziuel back into her mana realm. That way, they won¡¯t be affected by the aura.
{Well damn... I was unconscious once and this is what happens.} Nimue raised her eyebrow.
¡¯He did achieve tier 6 elemental magic. If it wasn¡¯t like this, I¡¯d be disappointed.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
Taking a deep breath, she resisted the pressure before walking up to his door.
Flexing her fingers, she made a tablet containing her message and ced it next to the door. That way, when the door opens, the tablet would release a pulse of mana to inform Nan Tian of its existence.
With the tablet now ced at the side, Shiro wondered if there was anything else she needed to do.
"Hmm... I think that¡¯s everything." She muttered.
"Now then, I suppose the next ce is New York since I need to check up on my sword now."
Smiling softly, she left the third floor and pulled out her phone.
Sending Helion a message, she started to make her way to the teleport Shrine with Yin.
###
Arriving back in New York, Shiro stretched her body and nced out at the city. Now fully repaired, the city was simr to what it was before the ck Monarchy attack.
"Let¡¯s see... I¡¯ve messaged Helion to meet me at the teleport shrine but I don¡¯t see him." Shiro said as she nced around the area.
Thinking about it, Shiro decided to visit the caf¨¦ near the front of the teleport shrine. She had visited the ce a few times since the atmosphere was nice but now that she could taste food again, she wondered how it would taste.
Walking out of the teleport shrine, she didn¡¯t bother disguising her level but changed her ss. After all, they didn¡¯t need to know that she was a monster.
Walking through the streets, the shock and surprise of people who saw her level after inspecting her was apparent as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle at their reaction.
Navigating the path back to the caf¨¦, her smile faltered slightly when she saw a restaurant in its ce.
"Erm... excuse me?" She called out to a woman that was walking out of the restaurant.
"Yes?"
"Do you happen to know what happened to the caf¨¦ here? I left this city for a while and the caf¨¦ is now reced by this restaurant." Shiro asked curiously.
"Ah the old caf¨¦? It was shut down. I don¡¯t know the reason but the restaurant bought their spot since it was quite close to the teleport shrine." The woman replied as Shiro thanked her before letting her go about her day.
{Rather unlucky huh?} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Mn, I suppose there¡¯s nothing else to do about it. I¡¯ll send Helion another message and if he doesn¡¯t respond, I¡¯ll probably visit his workshop.¡¯
Pulling out her phone, she sent Helion another message. This time, he responded.
[Helion: Ah sorry about that! I was in thest stages of research so I needed to concentrate on the sword. Where are you right now? I¡¯ll go find you since I got a new workshop.]
[Shiro: I¡¯ll just meet you at the front of the teleport shrine again.]
[Helion: Sure, see you soon.]
Putting her phone away, Shiro nced back at the restaurant before sighing softly.
Walking back to the teleport shrine with Yin, they saw Helion waiting by the side.
"You were quite fast now weren¡¯t you?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Haha, it¡¯s not too far from here so it didn¡¯t take too long. Also, I don¡¯t see Nan Tian with you, is he busy?" Helion asked curiously.
"A little. He¡¯s just getting used to his new powers. So how¡¯s the research on the sword? Are you able to let me interact with the soul fragments now?" Shiro asked as Helion nodded.
"Yes however, I¡¯ll be careful if I was you. Without the sword properly containing all of the soul fragments, they can be rather... aggressive." Helion warned.
"Oh? What do you mean by aggressive?"
"They¡¯ll either try to kill you or take over your body." Helion smiled tiredly.
"So how are you fine???" Shiro widened her eyes.
"Well since my Hephaestus¡¯ Chosen, I have passive skills that help me work with weapons and aggressive ones aren¡¯t too much of a problem with these skills." Helionughed.
"Fair enough."
Making their way to Helion¡¯s new workshop, Shiro felt an ominous feeling slowly creep up in her heart as she furrowed her brows.
"You ok?" Helion asked curiously.
"Hmm... not sure. There¡¯s an ominous feeling that I can sense but I don¡¯t know the source." Shiro replied while looking around her to try to find the origin point of this feeling.
"You¡¯re feeling it already??? Damn your senses are sharp."
"You know what¡¯s the cause?"
"Yeah it¡¯s that sword. After experimenting with it, I noticed that it would give anyone thates close an ominous feeling so I moved my workshop a little further away from the centre of the city. If I had to describe it, I suppose my workshop now feels like a haunted house thanks to this haha." Helionughed.
As they continued their way towards the workshop, this feeling continued to grow. Soon, they stood before the warehouse just outside of the city.
". . .You call this close to the teleport shrine?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Close if you run." Helion nced to the side, avoiding her stare.
Shaking her head, Shiro took a deep breath and prepared to open the doors when Yin¡¯s handnded on her shoulder.
"I¡¯m not too keen on getting my face sted with a wall of angry ghosts so I¡¯ll just be in the rift mum." Yin said as a portal had already opened up beside her.
"If you want, you can go into Estre¡¯s dimension since you can still see what¡¯s going on." Shiro suggested since she could remember Nan Tian telling her about how Estre allowed them to watch her fight with the gorgon.
"Hmm... sure why not." Yin nodded.
On cue, Estre jumped out her dimension and prepared a portal for Yin.
"See you in a bit mum." Yin waved.
"See youter darling."
Watching Yin and Estre disappear into the dimension, Shiro opened the door.
"!!!"
Widening her eyes, she was hit in the face with an aura of resentment and hatred.
Gritting her teeth, she released her own bloodl.u.s.t to counter this as snow started to fall around her, freezing a portion of the warehouse in an instant.
¡¯Damn is this what Yin meant?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she was surprised at how dense the resentment was. Even though she could sense a little sample from the outside, being hit in the face with in was still ufortable.
ncing over at Helion, she could see that he had a golden barrier around him, blocking out the resentment.
"Right now, this is the sword in a semi released state, meaning that most of the soul fragments that you can sense right now are weaker ones. The stronger ones will only appear once I unlock the swordpletely. But when that happens, the window of opportunity for you to interact with them is small since their souls will scatter without anything holding them down. I suggest you either make do with the weaker souls or prepare for an all or nothing." Helion warned while walking over to Akram who was ced in the centre of the warehouse.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked at the faint traces of souls surging from the sword and wondered what she should do. The main soul that she wanted to interact with was the God yer himself. After all, what¡¯s the point of choosing the god¡¯s that he had in when she could potentially get a skill to help her kill gods?
Furrowing her brows, she nced into her inventory and at the coin that Li Jian had given her. While it was a powerful life saving tool, it was also one that reversed her fate.
So if her fate was for her to not obtain the god yer¡¯s soul then a single use of this coin will change that.
"So what will you choose?" Helion asked with a smile.
His hand was on the de of the sword, ready to unlock it fully if she gave him the signal.
"Unlock it fully please." Shiro said with seriousness in her eyes.
Chapter 576 Vulcan
Chapter 576 Vulcan
"Be careful." Helion warned as he flexed his finger. Suddenly, a foreign magic circle could be seen on the surface of the de.
Turning clockwise, each of theyers started to break apart as the pressure that was being emanated by the de started to increase.
Looking up at each of the ghosts, she could see their valiant figures warped by resentment.
Taking a deep breath, she watched as theyers scattered into light. Soon, there was only oneyer left.
Narrowing her eyes, she activated extraction as her arms turned dark with red circuit patterns stretching across the entire arm.
Furrowing her brows from a bit of the pain, she could see the circuits trying to reach the rest of her body but something seemed to stop it.
Shaking her head, she nced towards the finalyer.
*PING!!
Shattering into light particles, the sword was now fully unlocked.
Countless ghostly howls could be heard as Helion quickly took cover. Despite his protection thanks to his god, this was still something that was out of his league.
Forcing a smile on her face, she watched as a figure slowly emerged from the ghostly mist.
It was a familiar figure, one that she saw when she first picked up the sword in the dungeon. A man dressed in demonic armour stood in front of her with a surprised face.
Vulcan the god yer.
"Hmm seems like you figured out my n." He smiled as his dark eyes bore into her¡¯s.
"Not exactly me but rather a friend of mine. I have to say though, you¡¯re quite the annoying person huh? Trying to take my body from me." Shiroughed as the pain from her arm increased. The longer she has this skill activated, the harder the circuits tried to take over her body but so far, it was still within her control.
"It¡¯s not like you can kill the god¡¯s like I did. Your soul, however, will make a fine addition to the collection in this sword. It¡¯s only annoying that the god souls that I¡¯ve collected will now go to waste. No matter though, I can collect more. From the state of the mana in the world, it seems like the age is near, a perfect harvesting ground." Vulcanughed.
"You sound like victory is guaranteed for you. What if I defeat you and take your power for myself." Shiro smiled.
"Pft, you? Defeat me? Girl, you seemed to be underestimating me." He narrowed his eyes as killing intent surged out.
Crashing against her body, she felt as though she was about to throw up a mouthful of blood.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro took a deep breath and red back without fear.
The snow storm around her started to intensify as she countered his killing intent with her own.
Summoning Athera, she charged towards him. Despite him being a god killer, she wasn¡¯t too afraid since the danger she felt from him was slightly weaker than the guardian¡¯s. Plus, she found him in a low level raid so it shouldn¡¯t be too difficult.
However, despite her charge, Vulcan only smiled.
As she swung her de, Shiro noticed theck of a material body for her to cut.
"I¡¯m just a soul, how do you expect to injure me like this. Even magic designed to harm souls will have hardly any effect on me. However, while you cannot harm me, I can harm you." Vulcan grinned as ck chains appeared around her.
Little did he know, he had basically given Shiro all the answers she needed and the current situation was perfect for her. Extraction was specifically used against the soul of the target so the fact that he had no physical defence allowed her Extraction skill to have a 100% sess rate!
"So you¡¯re just a soul right now? Perfect. Because I was aiming for that to begin with." Shiro grinned as she activated her Celestial Raiment.
Creating a nanotech dagger, she threw it towards him before diving into the rift.
Deflecting the dagger, Vulcan had a casual smile on his face as he waspletely looking down on Shiro. After all, a girl that wasn¡¯t even Tier 5 held no danger to him. Even if her killing intent was a little powerful, it didn¡¯t equate to strength.
Reappearing behind him, she was about to sh him with her sword when a chain tried to pierce her from behind. However, she had already nned for this.
Suddenly, her body switched with the dagger that Vulcan had deflected.
Twisting her body, she stabbed towards his chest with her arm that was affected with Extraction.
Feeling a foreign sense of danger overwhelm his mind, Vulcan widened his eyes in surprise. It was a simr feeling to what he had felt at the time of his death and he knew that should he be hit, death was unavoidable.
"HAA!!!" Pushing out his hands, a shockwave of mana exploded out as Shiro was pushed back by a few feet.
Furrowing her brows in frustration, Shiro red at Vulcan with wariness.
"I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re nning but it¡¯s something that can deal with me huh? Let me end this quickly then." Vulcan narrowed his eyes and charged towards her.
ck chains erupted out from every part of the warehouse as Shiro kept a smile on her face.
"You know, it¡¯s funny how you arrive at your fate despite doing everything to dodge it." Shiroughed. Summoning her soul sword, she quickly parried the closest chains before activating Kietoma.
Suddenly, Vulcan¡¯s body froze up for a second as Shiro arrived before him.
Since Extraction only took a portion of their soul, she could harvest the rest of him with her Soul Sword.
Before he could even protest, her arm dug deep into his chest.
*KRRRRR!!!
As if it had discovered a banquet, the blood like circuits thrummed with excitement and started to spread itself all over Vulcan¡¯s body.
"What is this!?" Vulcan cried out in shock as his face twisted with pain.
Wrapping around his entire body, the circuits started to consume him little by little while Shiro swung her soul sword across his neck, decapitating him.
"Nothing personal, I just need your skills to kill a few gods in the new age." She said coldly.
Due to her soul sword¡¯s unique skills, it was able to affect Vulcan despite him not having a physical body.
As the circuits finished consuming Vulcan¡¯s body, a familiar orb of light could be seen floating above her palm.
Understanding that this was his source code, she quickly absorbed it.
Just as the orb disappeared, Shiro felt a wave of fatigue hit her mind as her vision blurred.
"Ah f*ck it¡¯s this sh*t again." She muttered since she remembered what had happened thest time she used this skill. She obtained a vision of what had happened to Aekari.
"Estre!" She managed to call out before losing consciousness.
###
Finding herself in a foreign house, Shiro looked to her side and saw Vulcan sitting on a chair with a serene expression on his face. It was nothing like the face he had shown that was filled with killing intent. If not for the fact that he looked identical, she wouldn¡¯t have even though they were the same person.
Looking up at the window, she could see a womaning back with a child in her arms.
"Wee back honey." Vulcan called out with a smile.
"I¡¯m back." The woman smiled.
"So why did the teacher ask for your presence?" Vulcan asked as he helped carry the child in his arms.
"Nothing much. Just a small dispute between Annie and another kid. They kept calling you a pushover and Annie got annoyed." The womanughed as Vulcan scratched his head in embarrassment.
"Well I don¡¯t like violence so it would be natural. Thank you for sticking up for me Annie." He smiled and hugged his daughter.
Suddenly, the world seemed to pause as all sound was erased. The sky turned to an ominous shade of red asrge pirs of light could be seen erupting out of the ground.
Recognising a few of them to be anchors, Shiro understood that this was the start of the new age in Vulcan¡¯s original world.
Just as the anchors finished forming, time seemed to skip as everything was in fast motion.
Days blurred into weeks, weeks into months and months into years.
The ¡¯pushover¡¯ version of Vulcan was no longer seen as he was now trying his best to keep his family safe. He decided to align himself with a god to receive their benefits.
Due to his undiscovered talent, he was then crowned as that god¡¯s champion, leading the troops from battlefield to battlefield, bringing glory to his faction and safety for his family.
Unfortunately for him, even though the enemy couldn¡¯t deal with him, the same didn¡¯t go for his family.
During one of his expeditions, he returned to a destroyed anchor point where everyone was ughtered.
His wife and child were hung on a stake high above the castle with their body bare and wounded. A cavity could be seen on their chest as their hearts were ripped out.
*ng!
Dropping his sword on the ground, Vulcan copsed on the ground before shouting to the heavens. Tears of blood streamed down his face as he grabbed his face in despair.
st mist swirled around him as his name was dyed in a void ck.
Chapter 577 Mortal Blade
Chapter 577 Mortal de
Watching this happen, Shiro felt a little pity for Vulcan but that was about it. War was not good for anyone.
Death surrounds everyone and it¡¯s part of the risks you take by participating in a war. However, even if you don¡¯t participate in a war, there is still a chance for your family to be harmed.
It was a cruel cycle.
Shaking her head, she wondered where the vision would take her now.
Looking around, she saw her vision flicker as countless battles appeared before her.
Each time Vulcan would be close to death but his will powered on. ughtering god after god until all he knew was to kill gods. Gone was the pushover he originally was and all that remained was a killing machine.
[Skill Extraction Complete.]
[Skill: Mortal de (Enchantment)]
The sword of man designed to go against the gods. Regardless of who they are, demon or divine, your sword shall cut them down.
When activated, a swirl of ck mist will wrap around your de, granting it the following properties.
+200% Attack Damage against entities tier 7 or higher
+100% Life Steal against (God) type beings
All damage dealt to tier 7 beings or above are dealt as True Damage to their divine source.
Passive Effect: Mortal Will
Every time you kill a god, you will now siphon parts of their Divine Source to fuel your own soul.
Reading the skill, Shiro raised her eyebrow. This wasn¡¯t what she had expected but this was also good. The fact that all of her damage will be converted to True Damage against a god means that she doesn¡¯t have to worry about whether or not they will truly die. Not only that, but every time she kills a god, parts of their power will be siphoned to her. Thought, the skill was rather useless on anything else that wasn¡¯t a god.
With this, she now had two siphoning abilities which take from the dead. Her Athera and now Mortal de.
So far with Athera, she had obtained some points in all the stats thanks to Athera but having Mortal de obtain stats of a god will be helpful.
Not only that, she had also obtained a second notification.
[Tier 7 Achievement (1)]
"Oh my, that¡¯s rather interesting now isn¡¯t it?" She muttered in surprise but it was to be expected in the end. After all, she had essentially just killed the god yer.
Just as she finished musing about her new skill and achievement, her vision faded once more.
This time, she was looking at a woman standing in the middle of arge hall. The walls were decorated with fine detail and modes of light danced around her.
Her hair was white as a ck dress fluttered behind her.
Turning around, the woman looked at Shiro with a soft smile before mouthing four words.
[Good luck young one.]
###
Snapping her eyes open, Shiro wondered what was thest scene that she had seen. Furrowing her brows, she ced her hand against her head and sighed.
"I really need to stop knocking myself out." She muttered before standing up.
{You think?} Nimue rolled her eyes.
Chuckling at her retort, Shiro looked around her and saw Yin resting by the side with Estre.
"You¡¯re awake my empress." Estre bowed.
"Mn, where am I?"
"We¡¯re in Helion¡¯s guest room. He¡¯s in the other room forging new equipment."
"I see... what happened with Akram?" She asked curiously.
"It was shattered into pieces. However, Helion is currently using the broken pieces to forge something new. Apparently, he said that the material has evolved after being tempered by the souls of gods." Estre replied.
"Oh? That¡¯s rather interesting isn¡¯t it?" Shiro smiled.
"He said that it was called Divine Soul Steel or something I didn¡¯t hear him properly."
"Hm... well since I¡¯m awake, I might as well get up." Getting out of the bed, Shiro looked at Yin with curiosity.
After she started to collect the artefacts, she seemed to be more and more tired everyday. Unless it was to look for food, Yin would just sit by doing nothing or just sleeping.
¡¯Could this be because of what Fei Ling left behind? I suppose when Yin first obtained her human form, she did stay as an egg for quite a bit. Perhaps this is the same situation.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before carrying in onto the bed and covering a part of her body with the nket.
"Look after Yin, I¡¯ll be going to Helion." Shiro said as she left the room.
Closing the door behind her, Shiro could hear the rhythmic sounds of a hammer in the far end of the warehouse.
Making her way to where Helion was working, she saw the amber glow of fire in the forge and sparks of light flying into the air with every hammer strike.
"You¡¯re up." Helion smiled while striking down with his hammer once more.
"Mn, Este told me that you found some rather interesting material to work with." Shiro nodded.
"Yes I did but it¡¯s not exactly cooperative. I don¡¯t think I can melt it down and recycle it since my fire is a little weak for it." Helion smiled bitterly. Despite being able to obtain such an amazing material, he was not able to put it to use.
"That¡¯s rather unfortunate then. Can I take a look at it?" Shiro asked as Helion nodded.
"Of course, it was technically yours to begin with." Heughed while handing her a piece of the metal.
[Divine Soul Steel ¨C ck]
A metal that was drenched with the soul of gods, refined and reformed, the metal holds many mysterious properties. Should it be made into a weapon, will it retain the power the gods held in life?
Just as she picked up the meta, she saw another counter go up on her ss up requirements.
[Tier 7 ss Relevant Material (1)]
"Oh my, this is quite handy for my ss up." Shiro raised her eyebrow. Thinking about it for a moment, she understood that it was probably used for her Nanomancer ss since it was the only one that used metal.
"Oh? In that case then do you want to take the rest?" Helion asked. It doesn¡¯t matter if he didn¡¯t get to use this material since Shiro could ss up.
"No it¡¯s fine. Just one piece will do." Shiro smiled as she stored the metal into her inventory.
With the metal obtained and Vulcan in, she hadpleted a few more of her ss up requirements. All that remained was now to get a tier 5 Awakening type material, a tier 5 catalyst, and 5 tier 5 ss relevant materials if you exclude the Divine Soul Steel.
"So what are you nning now?" Helion asked curiously while setting his hammer aside.
"Hmm... I¡¯m going to go meet up with the rest of the party before going back to my family I suppose. I have been separated from them for quite a while. After that, we¡¯re going to Greece to take the trials on Mount Olympus, you want to join? Because you¡¯re Hephaestus¡¯ chosen." Shiro asked.
"Oh? Sure. That sounds pretty interesting. Plus, I can probably do some work on the armour for the rest of the party." Helion nodded with a smile.
"Great. Also, before I forget, remember how I asked you if you wanted to join our party? It¡¯s the same question but this time with a different context." Shiro smiled.
"What do you mean?"
"Helion, do you want to be a member of my royal court? If you don¡¯t know, I am one of the ¡¯Queens¡¯ that have appeared in our world and one of my privileges is that I can give you a role in my court. However, do note that this is permanent so think carefully." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Staying silent for a bit, Helion smiled.
"Sure. After all, I haven¡¯t really been using my cksmithing skills for anyone else."
"Helion, on my authority as the Celestial Sylph Empress, do you ept a role in my court. Do note that once this is done, the role cannot be revoked." Shiro asked with a soft chuckle. Pushing out her hand, she summoned a golden staff as magic circles encased the two of them.
"I ept." Helion nodded.
Nodding her head, Shiro mmed the pommel of her staff down.
[Acknowledgement Received, Generating Role... Celestial Court cksmith.]
[Celestial Court cksmith.]
+30% of Empress¡¯ STR stat
+20% Mana/Health Regeneration
+20% Armour/Magic Pration
+20% Efficiency when creating equipment
When forging a weapon, the fire used will receive a small bonus to its strength. Current source of the bonuses includes Fire of Life, Dark Celestial Phoenix Fire and Mystic Life fire Spirit (Atesh).
Chapter 578 Celestial Court Blacksmith
Chapter 578 Celestial Court cksmith
"So do I have to call you my empress as well like what Estre does?" Helion asked with augh as Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Don¡¯t do that. I think I¡¯m fine with you just calling me Shiro." Shiro chuckled.
"Fair enough. Though I must say, your STR value is pretty high for a mage." Helion raised his eyebrow after seeing his STR stat jump up by quite a bit.
"Well perks of being one of the queens, I guess. Anyways, I¡¯ll wait for Yin to wake up then I¡¯ll send a message to the party, asking where they are right now." Shiro said as Helion agreed.
"In the meantime do you want me to do any maintenance on your equipment?" He offered.
"You know what? Sure. Eena might be a little beat up after all the fights I¡¯ve been in but it shouldn¡¯t be too bad." Shiro smiled as she revealed her armour.
All armours have an option to hide their appearance so that you can wear anything without looking like an armoured beast so that¡¯s what Shiro normally went with. Therefore, she did not know the condition of her armour.
However, seen as though she could still use its abilities, she presumed that it was in rtively good condition seeing as though it had survived a fight against the tier 6 Guardian.
But just as she revealed the armour, they saw how battered up it was. Parts of it were torn and ripped to shreds while other parts were concaved. It was a miracle for the armour to actually work in this state.
". . ."
". . ."
"What did you even fight for it to be like this???? It¡¯s supposed to be something that¡¯s bordering on the boundaries of a ck grade equipment!" Helion widened his eyes in shock.
"Well.... Let¡¯s just say I was fighting a tier 6 being and I had to use more than 10 full health recovery skills to even buy some time." Shiro scratched her cheek in embarrassment.
"Urg... my heart hurts seeing how nonchnt you can be about fighting a tier 6 being. And for your information, I didn¡¯t even know one f*cking existed. However, I am thankful that my armour helped out." Helion sighed as Shiro grinned.
"Well I suppose your firstmission as the Court cksmith is to repair this armour." Shiroughed.
"Sure, pass it over and I¡¯ll start fixing it again." Helion cracked his neck and fired up the forge.
Suddenly, a brilliant me erupted out of the forge, forcing Helion back a few steps since he didn¡¯t expect the fire to be this potent.
". . ." Looking at the fire, Helion took a moment to understand what was happening before looking at Shiro.
"You were originally an ice based user right?" He questioned with uncertainty.
"Yes...?"
"Then the f*ck is that?" He asked, pointing at the fire.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro ced the armour on the workbench.
"Good luck and hopefully you don¡¯t turn the armour to ash." Shiro smiled before quickly leaving the premises.
Sighing softly, Helion looked back and forth from the fire and the broken armour, wondering about what he¡¯s gotten himself into. Worst part was that it was permanent.
"F*ck it let¡¯s do this." He muttered as he grabbed the armour.
###
{So why have you not given Lil¡¯ Tian a court role yet?} Nimue asked curiously since she knew that Shiro had 5 slots avable initially.
Aarim, Keomi, Keiko and now Helion all had one of the slots. So there was one slot left.
Hearing this, Shiro coughed lightly as Nimue immediately felt like something was wrong.
¡¯Well I mean... if I gave it to him, there might be a chance that he gets Celestial Court consort or some crap.¡¯ Shiro replied with embarrassment.
{. . . What? First of all, shouldn¡¯t it be the other way around? Are you an emperor making a harem or something? And second of all, care to exin why you think that?} Nimue asked as she could see Shiro nce away with a small blush on her face.
¡¯Well it¡¯s just embarrassing ok? I¡¯ll save it for now in case there¡¯s something important.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{Aren¡¯t you worried about the same when you give it to Lyrica then?}
¡¯Yes but Nan Tian is more dangerous right now since he¡¯s quite forward.¡¯
{. . . I don¡¯t understand how your brain works sometimes.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯Just let me do my thing ok?¡¯ Shiro pouted as Nimue only shrugged.
{Fine my empress, this spirit shall not interfere with thou love life.}
*Puchi
###
It took Helion about 8 hours for Shiro¡¯s armour to be repaired to working standard. Unlike her sword Athera, which had the self repair perk, Eena wasn¡¯t the same so everything had to be done manually.
Looking at the now repaired armour, Shiro nodded with satisfaction.
"You¡¯ve really improved in the time I¡¯ve known you huh? What¡¯s your secret?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"That should be what I ask you and not you ask me." Helionughed.
"True but you pretty much already know about my ridiculous levelling speed thanks to my titles."
"I do and I wonder everyday wheremon sense has run off too. I miss him."
"He¡¯s long gone haha."
Joking around with Helion a little more, Shiro checked up on Yin who was still sleeping in the guest room.
Opening the door lightly, Shiro saw Yin¡¯s peaceful sleeping face and smiled softly.
She had been by Yin¡¯s side during the entire 8 hours that Helion took to repair her armour but during this entire time, she had made no movement and slept peacefully.
Worry started to fill her mind as Shiro brushed Yin¡¯s hair to the side.
{Don¡¯t worry too much. If it¡¯s something that Fei Ling left behind, it¡¯ll be good for Yin.} Nimue said with a smile.
¡¯I know but the fact that she¡¯s not been as energetic is a bit worrying for me.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll recover soon.}
Nodding her head, Shiro decided to message the rest of the party to inform them that she was going to look for them now.
[Shiro: Where are you girls right now? I¡¯ve pretty much finished with my task and I¡¯ll be regrouping with you now. Helion¡¯s alsoing along.]
[Lyrica: We¡¯re just in a raid right now. Also Shiro, did you almost die again?]
[Shiro: Yes. But I¡¯m alive so it worked out fine no? Plus, Lil¡¯ Tian¡¯s even got an upgrade that can help us in the new age.]
[Lyrica: Please just be more mindful of your own safety ok?]
[Shiro: Mn, I understand. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m going to be more careful from now on. Also, we¡¯ll be probably be going to meet my parents now since I¡¯m sorted with everything. With my enemy from the past life dead, there¡¯s not much to worry about anymore until the new age.]
[Lyrica: That¡¯s good then.]
[Aarim: Shiro what the hell is your INT right now? Do you know how much bonus I¡¯m getting from you?]
[Shiro: Should be 10% right?]
[Aarim: YES! But the value¡¯s too f*cking high ok!? Who the f*ck has more than 10 million points in INT at this stage??? I got a million point bonus from you!]
[Shiro: I do and it¡¯s only going to keep getting higher so get used to it haha.]
[Silvia: Getting stronger is fine and all but please, like Lyrica said, just be mindful of your safety please.]
[Shiro: Thanks for your concern. How¡¯s Lil¡¯ Chen and Madi by the way?]
[Madison: I¡¯m doing good thanks for asking. Again, sorry forst time.]
[Shiro: Don¡¯t worry about it, I understand what you were worried about but after we meet my family, our next expedition should give everyone an overall strength boost. When that happens, we can probably go on the front lines and farm for some levels. It¡¯ll also be good for me to do some ss up requirements.]
[Lyrica: Where are we going after we meet your family?]
[Shiro: We¡¯ll be going to Greece where we¡¯ll do the trials on Mount Olympus. There we can get a God¡¯s insignia depending on the trial we do. They¡¯re all based on Greek mythology so you might have to do some history research. Lil¡¯ Tian told me that someone did the Zeus¡¯ one and got his insignia which allowed him to control lightning at will so all of you can definitely get something good from it.]
[Lyrica: Oh my, that would be pretty handy. What God Trial are you nning to choose?]
[Shiro: I don¡¯t know, depends on what I see when I get there. Anyways, what city are you girls in right now?]
[Lyrica: We¡¯re in Vatican City. It should be pretty easy for you to get here.]
[Shiro: Why are you in Vatican City?]
[Lyrica: Well... you¡¯ll understand once you get here.]
Furrowing her brows, Shiro nced at Yin for a moment before sighing.
"Seems like my second daughter needs some help." She muttered.
Chapter 579 Vatican City
Chapter 579 Vatican City
Sitting next to Yin, Shiro decided to wait a while for her to wake up before leaving.
While she was doing this, she decided to search up on anything that had happened in Vatican City recently so that she could get a general outlook on what¡¯s been happening.
Immediately after she searched up Vatican City, a giant headline of [Angel found in the holy city!] could be seen on her screen.
". . ." Pausing for a moment, Shiro furrowed her brows and tapped the weblink.
Reading through the article, she now understood why Lyrica said it was a littleplicated. She could remember that the head priest didn¡¯t want to cause them trouble but the same couldn¡¯t be said for the other priests. Apparently, a few of the higher ups in Vatican City were notified of Lisandra¡¯s existence as well as the situation surrounding her.
Naturally, the presence of an angel was quite shocking for religious folk so they escorted Lisandra along with the rest of the party to Vatican City.
However, the information after this point was limited. All that was shown was Lisandra helping out around the city which surprised Shiro a little but she wouldn¡¯te to any conclusions until she saw the situation for herself.
"Mn..."
Hearing a groan next to her, Shiro put her phone down and nced towards Yin.
"You awake darling?" Shiro asked with a soft smile.
"Mum? *Yawn~ What happened? How long was I sleeping for?" Yin asked while rubbing her eyes.
"More than 8 hours. Seems like you were really tired huh?" Shiro replied.
"More than 8 hours????" Yin widened her eyes as Shiro nodded.
"Damn! I missed out on 2 hours that could be spent on literally anything!" Yin jumped out of bed as Shiroughed at how energetic she was.
{See? Everything is fine.} Nimue smiled.
¡¯Mn, maybe I was just a bit too worried.¡¯ Shiro nodded with a smile.
"Anyways, do you want to get some food first? After that, we¡¯ll be making our way to Vatican City to meet up with the rest of the party." Shiro said with a smile.
"Hmm sure." Yin grinned as food was always wee.
After bringing Yin to the restaurant with Helion, they started to make their way to the adventurer¡¯s guild so that they can find out if anyone could help them teleport to Vatican City.
Putting in a request for an escort with a reward of 5rge silvers, they met a few familiar faces.
"Ah it¡¯s been a while Shiro." A voice called out as Shiro turned around.
"Ohhh Raoul, Jonas, it has been a while." She smiled as she could see the pair of teacher and student walking in the guild hall.
"Oh my, you¡¯ve been quite busy huh? Your levels increased quite a bit." Shiro smiled as she could see that Raoul had reached level 120.
"Yeah, we just came back from a raid in another city and we¡¯re justing here to update my ID." Raoul smiled as he scratched his hair with an embarrassed smile.
"How have you been?" He asked.
"Oh I¡¯ve been fine. Nothing too crazy." Shiro chuckled as Yin, Helion and Estre snapped their gazes towards her.
{Bullsh*t.} Nimue retorted as Shiro ignored all their gazes.
Talking to the duo for a little while, they decided to sit down at one of the tables and talk for a little while until their request is epted by someone.
"So where are you going now?" Jonas asked curiously.
"We¡¯re going to Vatican City. My daughter seemed to be in a rather...plicated situation so I¡¯m just going there to have a look at what¡¯s happening." Shiro replied with a chuckle.
"Wait, you have a daughter?" Jonas widened his eyes since he didn¡¯t know about this.
"Yes. I had two daughters and a son." Shiro smiled while bringing up her phone. Showing him an image of Lisandra, Yin and Attie, she waited for his response.
". . .Aren¡¯t you underaged?" Jonas asked as he nced at Shiro with aplicated gaze.
"Not quite. It was just a side effect of amnesia and restarting my ss up." Shiro replied.
"Oh? You got your memories back? Congrats."
"Thank you."
"So if you don¡¯t mind me asking, who¡¯s the dad?" Jonas inquired.
"No one. Yin¡¯s a bird, Lisa¡¯s adopted and Attie¡¯s a spirit." Shiro replied while drinking some juice.
"Ah so you adopted them." Jonas nodded in understanding while Raoul sighed in relief.
Just as they were about to keep talking, Shiro felt her phone vibrate as someone had epted her escort quest which surprised her since this was New York. A starting point of sorts and finding someone to take them to Vatican City was definitely no easy task.
"Seems like you need to go." Jonas smiled.
"Mn, someone¡¯s epted my request to escort us to Vatican City." Shiro nodded.
"In that case then we won¡¯t take up more of your time." Jonas said while finishing his drink.
Bidding each other farewell, they went their separate paths.
###
*Sigh...
"You ok?" Jonas asked as he nced towards his student.
"Yeah. I was just surprised at the fact that she had three children, adopted or not." Raoul replied.
"I can see your worries. I¡¯ll say one thing though, if you don¡¯t make a move, nothing will happen. Maybe you have already missed that chance, maybe you still have that chance, you never know until you make a move." Jonas smiled.
"I see... However, I think I¡¯ve already missed that chance." Raoul shook his head since to develop a rtionship, one needed to interact with the target for an extended period of time. He can¡¯t just hope that she can reply to his feelings since she doesn¡¯t know him as well.
Patting his shoulder, Jonas let Raoul figure things out himself. Should he need help, he¡¯ll naturally give him his assistance.
###
Messaging the person who had epted her request, they chose to meet up outside of the caf¨¦ that had been turned to a restaurant near the teleport shrine.
Upon arrival, they met another familiar face which Yin wasn¡¯t too happy about. It was Dominik, the dragon master that they had seen in Epona.
"Rather curious meeting no?" Dominik smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"A little. However, we¡¯re here for business only. I¡¯ll give you 5rge silver and you take us to Vatican City. Nothing more, nothing less." Shiro narrowed her eyes at the party in front of.
"Of course. We¡¯ll make a temporary party for now and split up in the city." Dominik nodded as they made a party through the system.
Seeing her level, he immediately knew that it was a disguise since her aura was not the same.
Last time, he felt like she was level 200 or above. However, right now, he could not even fathom the upper limit of her power.
While they were making the party, Yin was ring at Dominik since he was the one that owned a giant lizard known as a dragon. As for Samuel, the one that had an argument with Yin before, he stayed silent and said nothing since he knew that he had made quite a bit of troublest time.
Making their way to the teleport shrine, they teleported to Vatican City without any problems and split up.
Looking at the back of Dominik, Shiro furrowed her brows. For some reason, there was something unsettling in her heart when she wondered why he was even in the city.
¡¯Hmm... I should probably do something to deal with this. My instincts are usually correct.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Flexing her fingers, she created a small nanotech chip and flicked it onto his coat.
Controlling the chip to stay in his hair, Shiro focused on the task at hand.
Pulling out her phone, she sent a message to the party.
[Shiro: I¡¯m here. Where are you lot?]
[Lyrica: You¡¯re here? We were going to go to another raid but we can make a detour. Are you at the teleport shrine?]
[Shiro: Yeah I am.]
[Lyrica: Got it, we¡¯reing now.]
"Let¡¯s wait, they¡¯reing to pick us up." Shiro said with a smile.
"Mn, so who were those guys? Yin looked like she wasn¡¯t too pleased with their presence." Helion asked while ncing at Yin who was still a little annoyed.
"Oh one of them is a Dragon Master and since Yin is a Phoenix, she¡¯s not too happy with his presence. Also, she had an argument with one of the younger party members but don¡¯t worry about it.
"Mn." Nodding his head, they started to wait for the party.
After around 5 minutes, Shiro could see the party walking in the distance. Seeing their levels, she was rather surprised at their improvement.
Chapter 580 Aunt?
Chapter 580 Aunt?
Previously, they were in the early stage of tier 4. However, after some time apart from each other, Shiro could see that they were steadily approaching level 200.
[Lisandra LVL 200 Celestial Seraphim]
[Lyrica LVL 166 Sword Saint Apprentice]
[Aarim LVL 170 Grand Force Mage]
[Silvia LVL 170 Grand Healing Sage]
[Chen Yu LVL 165 Phantom Reaper]
[Madison LVL 165 Demonic Valkyrie]
After not seeing Shiro for a long time, the first thing that Lyrica did was hug her as Shiro returned the hug.
"Right then, care to fill me in on what¡¯s happening?" Shiro asked as she looked to the rest of the party with a smile.
"Sure. We probably shouldn¡¯t speak out in the open so let¡¯s go back to our rooms first." Madison smiled.
As they were making their way through Vatican City, Aarim nced towards Helion.
"So you finally caved in and joined the party huh?" She said with a smile.
"Well it was pretty much guaranteed no?" Helion chuckled.
"Mn. So how is it to be part of the party?"
"A little surprised at theck ofmon sense." He shrugged.
"Well... that¡¯s just Shiro though. Care to exin how she made you think that?" Aarim chuckled.
"She used something called Celestial Court appointment and I got an increase to my strength stat. And let¡¯s just say her strength is not something a mage should have." Helion replied with a slightly awkward smile.
"Ah that¡¯s what happened. At least you don¡¯t know her INT stat." Aarim sighed.
"What¡¯s her INT stat?"
"More than 10 million points."
*PFTTTTTT!!!!
Widening his eyes in shock, Helion looked at Shiro in disbelief.
"The hell???" Helion looked back at Aarim.
"Exactly."
###
Making their way through Vatican City, Shiro could see the respect people had as they greeted Lisandra.
Forcing herself to smile, Lisandra would wave back before sighing softly.
"You ok there? You know, if it¡¯s not something you want to do, just tell me and I¡¯ll solve it for you." Shiro asked.
"Don¡¯t worry mum, it¡¯s not something I don¡¯t want to do, just tiring that¡¯s all." Lisandra shook her head with a smile.
"Mn." Shiro nodded.
Soon, they arrived at the specially prepared building for the party as it was not too far from the main square where the pope would have his speeches.
"So what¡¯s been happening?" Shiro asked as she sat down on a chair near the window.
"What do you want to know? There¡¯s quite a lot to exin after all." Lyrica said while the rest of the party made themselvesfortable.
"What does the pope want with Lisandra?"
"We¡¯re not too sure but so far, it seems like he wants to receive her help so that he can save young children that have lost their parents due to the dungeons and monsters. With the appearance of an angel, they could have something to find hope in." Lyrica nced towards Lisandra.
"Hmm... Is that so... Am I right to presume that he¡¯s also using you lot as a guardian for this ce?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"What makes you think that?" Lyrica tilted her head.
"I did some research beforeing here. The overall level of this ce is around 200 but they struggle with raids and dungeons since level 200 monsters are hard to deal unless the adventurers are exceptional. If you leave a dungeon alone for a long period of time, the gates will open and the monsters will escape into the streets. There had been cases of this happening hence why there are so many orphans in this city. With you lot dealing with the dungeons, the danger is eliminated. Plus, there are also benefits for you girls since you can farm the high level dungeon.
"I¡¯m guessing the reason as to why it¡¯splicated is because you don¡¯t want to leave this ce but at the same time, you can¡¯t stay here forever." Shiro sighed and leaned back on her chair.
"There is one additional reason though." Madison cut in as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Oh? And what¡¯s that?"
"There have been demons spotted within this city. We¡¯ve already dealt with a few of them since they weren¡¯t too strong but they¡¯re getting harder to defeat with every passing day. We don¡¯t know their goal either since this ce is rather far from the front lines. Plus, we¡¯ve ran into quite a few demons on our way to this city and they believe that it¡¯s due to Lisandra¡¯s presence. If we leave, we¡¯re exposing this ce to demon attacks. We¡¯ve already sent out a request to the government but aside from a few agents, nothing else has been provided. Naturally, the agents are quite helpful but they can¡¯t stay here forever. The moment they leave, the demons appear again but the moment they¡¯re here, the demons go into hiding." Madison sighed since it was a rather troubling situation.
"That does sound quite annoying. Hm... Ok, I got it. So basically, to solve this, we need to make sure that the people in this city can deal with the monsters with rtive ease as well as solve the demon problem right?" Shiro said with a smile.
"Yes. Unfortunately, it¡¯s easier said than done." Aarim interjected as Shiro could see her worries.
"I know what you mean. The first part is a little annoying since it¡¯s manpower rather than anything but the second part is rtively easy you know? I can probably scan the entire city and find out where all the demons are." Shiro chuckled.
"You can?"
"Yup. Though doing so might be a little ¡¯shy¡¯ so I think a talk with the pope might be in order. I don¡¯t want them to think that there is an attack on this city after all." She smiled.
Hearing Shiro say the word shy, the party immediately became on guard.
"How shy are we talking about?" They asked with suspicion.
"Hmm... if I had to say, probably bigger than the magic formation I created in Tokyo." Shiro replied after a moment of thought.
Hearing this, the party fell silent.
"Yeah I think a talk with the pope is in order." Lyrica nodded her head.
"Yeah that makes sense." Madison followed up.
Seeing the party agree so aggressively on this topic, Shiro¡¯s smile couldn¡¯t help but twitch.
"Oh right, Lyrica, can I have a talk with you in a different room? It¡¯s something about your mother." Shiro asked with a smile.
Hearing this, Lyrica raised her eyebrow but nodded her head.
"Of course, if you want the rest of the party to know that¡¯s also fine."
"Sure. So what is it that you want to tell me about my mother?" Lyrica asked.
Pulling out a teacup and filling it up with some juice, Shiro crossed her legs.
"She was in a simr situation to me. I knew her in my past life, the one in Aria where I was Nytri Vespira." Shiro confessed as Lyrica paused in surprise.
"Wait you knew my mother?"
"Yeah. We were the best of friends. Practically sisters. In one sense, I can be called your aunt which makes things a little awkward." Shiro chuckled.
"That does make things a little strange." Madison agreed since she knew that her friend has feelings for Shiro.
"However...." Shiro muttered as her fingers quivered slightly.
Seeing this, the party immediately knew that something was wrong.
"I was the one who killed her with my own hands. Lyrica, I killed your mother." Shiro dropped the bombshell as she locked eyes with Lyrica.
Staying silent, Lyrica looked down at her hands.
"We were surrounded on all sides by monsters. At that time, both of us were on the verge of death and during the final fight, her life was taken by me which allowed me to reach tier 6, therefore guaranteeing my safety. Perhaps if I didn¡¯t kill her, both of us might be able to survive since help arrived not too long after."
Looking up as Shiro, Lyrica was surprisingly unphased.
"Shiro, I¡¯ve known you for a long time. Please don¡¯t hide anything from me. I¡¯m not as easily fooled as you think." She said with seriousness as the party was also surprised at her attitude.
"What do you mean?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Do you really believe that I can imagine you killing someone you consider to be family out of your own will? Shiro, tell me now, what are you hiding and what do you want me to say in return? Because there is definitely truth in your words but you¡¯re hiding something. My mother was probably killed by you, yes but not in the same context. What happened? Are you trying to make me hate you on purpose? Because this is a poor attempt." Lyrica asked as Shiro smiled.
"You¡¯ve grown." Was all Shiro said as she refilled her teacup.
Her goal in telling Lyrica this was to see her response so that she could understand her current mental state. There was something Shiro had nned for her after all.
Chapter 581 Sanctuary of Sin
Chapter 581 Sanctuary of Sin
"Right then, so as you have guessed, the context of the situation is a little different than what I exined. I wanted to tell you this so that I can get a hold on your mental state to see if you¡¯re suitable for what I have nned." Shiro smiled softly.
"What do you have in mind?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"That can stay a secret for now since it¡¯s not something I need you to do immediately. My test just now was to see how much you¡¯ve grown so that I can n for the future. Anyways, I¡¯ll tell you the truth of the situation now. I didn¡¯t lie when I said we were surrounded on all sides and I was forced to kill your mother. However, what I didn¡¯t say was that your mother was the one who forced me. When we were at the end of our ropes, she grabbed my hand and plunged it into her own chest, taking away her own life which caused me to ss up into tier 6. With my new found power, I was able to escape and our ¡¯gracious¡¯ help arrived not too long after." Shiro exined with a sad smile.
Staying silent, the party listened carefully while Helion was especially surprised since he waspletely oblivious to the fact that she had reincarnated. All he knew was that she lost her memories.
"In Aria, I was part of a team known as the hero party. We were led by the Light Hero or rather, Light God known was Aekari Lumiere, also known as Duan Han Ying in this life. The one that killed me in my second life as Kuromi. He is also going to be our biggest problem in the new age since I was the one who killed his avatar in this world." Shiro chuckled.
"Wait so that¡¯s who you were killing when you leftst time?" Madison widened her eyes at the mention of Shiro killing a god¡¯s avatar.
"Well it wasn¡¯t on purpose. You see, the only goal was to rescue Yuki but it just so happened that Aekari was there so we decided to kill him. Don¡¯t worry though, he wasn¡¯t tier 6 so we lived." Shiroughed.
"Urg... I both hate and love the fact that you survived. Hate it because you¡¯re going to be as reckless as ever. Love it since you¡¯re still alive." Madison sighed.
"Hahaha, don¡¯t worry about it. Anyhow, weren¡¯t you girls going to do a raid?" Shiro asked.
*COUGH!!!
Hearing her question, the girls paused and looked at each other.
"Erm... we forgot?" They forced a smile as Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Why don¡¯t I join for old times sake?" She offered with a chuckle.
"Sure, it¡¯s a level 200 raid called Sanctuary of Sin. There is a total of 4 bosses and they¡¯re mostly annoying due to the curses and debuffs. Their physical attributes aren¡¯t too bad so it should be a walk in the park." Lyrica replied.
"You say that but their physical attributes caused the people in this city to notplete this raid you know? Especially after curses." Madison reminded as Lyrica shrugged.
"True but we have Silvia to cleanse us no?" Lyrica smiled.
"Speaking of cleansing, I managed to get a pretty interesting skill in my fight against Duan Han Ying. It¡¯s a healing skill." Shiro called out with a smile.
"Oh? You got another one? Don¡¯t you have the fire of life?" Silvia asked curiously.
"Yeah, it¡¯s a skill called Grace and it¡¯s ranked EX." Shiro nodded.
Exining the details of the skill to the party, they looked at her with confused eyes.
"Aren¡¯t you a mage???" Silvia cried out in sadness as she hugged her knees on one of the sofa¡¯s. Chen Yu sat by her side tofort her.
"How the hell did you even get an EX ranked skill on top of an EX ranked title to buff this skill!? Hell, I didn¡¯t even know EX was a rank! Who the hell is the healer between us????" She protested at the unfairness of the system.
"Well I had quite a few decent healing skills so Ibined them. Due to what had happened, I obtained a portion of a phoenix¡¯s vitality, meaning fires can heal me. Therefore, Ibined my Life Fire, Phoenix fire and Celestial Star and out came the EX healing skill. To be fair, I wasn¡¯t even attempting to make this. It just kind of appeared." Shiro replied honestly.
{You know, if I didn¡¯t know you any better, I¡¯d think that you¡¯re showing off. Just look at poor Silvi over there, she looks like she wants to strangle you.} Nimue sighed.
*Cough
"Heh, I think I might as well change sses to a berserker since Shiro¡¯s got the healing covered." Silvia said with a hollowugh.
"Oh right Sivli, since I can only get one charge per day with this skill, I can at most heal 10 people in this party unless it¡¯s in an army of more than 100. Therefore, you are still our lifeline. Just think of me as the supporting act to the support." Shiro said with a smile.
This seemed to put some life into Silvia as she nodded in satisfaction.
¡¯Yes, the healer should be the healer and the DPS should stay the DPS.¡¯ She thought with a smile.
"But you get to heal even a million people when you¡¯re in arge army right? For the small price of half your mana as well. From what I know of your regeneration, that can be recovered quite quickly. So if you¡¯re in an army of 1 million people, with all ten charges, you are technically healing 10 million people in total." Aarim analysed as Shiro could hear Silvia¡¯s heart shatter.
The rest of their party looked at Aarim with wide eyes due to the fact that she had essentially plunged a dagger into Silvia¡¯s heart. After all, her mana regen was not as monstrous as Shiro¡¯s so healing over 10 million people was a pipe dream. Plus, should she be in an army or 100 million people, then she can heal 100 million people. This will continue to stack up as long as it¡¯s over 100 people which isn¡¯t hard even in a raid.
"Ah." Covering her mouth, Aarim realised what she had done as she nced towards Silvia who was now depressed.
"Don¡¯t mind her Sivli, obviously I can¡¯t heal 100 million people at once. Just for 50% Mana? Hell no." Shiro persuaded as Silvia nodded since that was indeed a little too difficult. Her broken heart started to mend.
{Now that¡¯s a f*cking lie isn¡¯t it?} Nimue rolled her eyes.
¡¯Hush, sometimes it¡¯s good to lie. Especially in this situation.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
"Anyways, before we go into the raid, why don¡¯t we have Helion do some maintenance on your equipment?" Shiro suggested with a smile.
"If you don¡¯t mind of course." She turned to Helion.
"It¡¯s my job." He shrugged.
Hearing that he had no problems with this, the party presented their battered equipment.
"Well at least it isn¡¯t as bad as Shiro¡¯s armour when I saw it. Crazy woman decided to fight a tier 6 as a tier 4 and her soul bound armour was almost destroyed. The f*cking thing is graded at Red+ too. One of my best works." Helion said while evaluating the armour.
Obtaining the information on how Shiro was fighting a tier 6 entity, the entire party red towards Shiro¡¯s location but she had already disappeared.
"So that¡¯s what mum was fighting!" Lisandra pouted in annoyance since she felt like she had a heart attack half way through a dungeon and copsed.
"Just be d it ain¡¯t a tier 7." Madison sighed.
"She did that too. Killed a guy known as a god yer and obtained a ck grade material." Helion cut in as silence filled the room.
"So you¡¯re telling me, in the time that we were separated, Shiro fought a tier 5 Gorgon that was weakened, a tier 5 avatar of a God that has killed her twice and could use tier 6 magic, a tier 6 monster that forced her to use all of her healing spells along with almost killing her and as if that wasn¡¯t enough, she also killed a guy known as the God yer?" Madison asked with a twitching smile.
"Sounds about right." Helion nodded his head.
Taking a deep breath, Madison smiled.
"I¡¯m going to pretend I didn¡¯t hear any of that. All I know is that Shiro fought some strong people. The end." She said with a smile as the rest of the party agreed. It was better not to dig too deep into what had happened.
Chapter 582 Entering The Sanctuary of Sin
Chapter 582 Entering The Sanctuary of Sin
Doing some repairs on the armour wasn¡¯t too difficult since the armour wasn¡¯t as damaged as Shiro¡¯s. Plus, their quality was lower so the amount of focus needed wasn¡¯t too intense, allowing Helion to fix it quickly with ease.
During this, time, Shiro decided to walk around the Vatican City a little so that she could get a general gist of what was happening.
Looking at a few of the orphanages, Shiro could see that the children were quite happy despite having lost their parents. The amount of care put into orphanages was quite high.
¡¯No wonder Lisa decided to help this ce. To guarantee the safety in this city is going to be a little difficult since we¡¯ll be going deep into politics which isn¡¯t my strong suit.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
She was talented in the area ofbat but politics was something else entirely. While she can read people quite well, it was not something she enjoyed when viewed in this context.
Therefore, she needed to find a way to help this ce but not bepletely attached. Which is what Lisandra is experiencing right now.
¡¯There are two main problems. Demons and the manpower in this ce. The fighting standard of this city is abnormally low despite their levels. Considering their level, one would presume that they can at least hold their own in a high level dungeon but from what I¡¯ve seen so far, that¡¯s not the case.¡¯ Shiro thought while looking towards the training hall off in the distance. Beforeing to the orphanage, she took a small detour to see their fighting potential but she was quite disappointed with what she had seen.
If she had to describe it, it was as if level 100 adventurers took a cheat pill to be level 200. They did not perform to the standard of a level 200.
To make matters worse, that was when shepared it to the average level 200 and not the more talented ones. For an entire city to be below standard was seriously abnormal.
Shaking her head, she said down on the roof of the orphanage.
¡¯Demons are easily dealt with but I don¡¯t know their objective. I¡¯ll probably have to torture some info out of them. Nimue, any ideas on how we can solve the problem of this city¡¯s lowbat potential?¡¯ Shiro asked curiously.
{Not much to be honest. Perhaps you can make something for them to upgrade theirbat experience? Remember the simtion back in Cairosa? Why don¡¯t you make something simr to that?} Nimue suggested.
¡¯I suppose that could work but only in the long run. It doesn¡¯t solve anything in the short run which is the annoying part. I need something to resolve everything now if possible so that we can move on without worrying about the people here. There¡¯s only so much attention I can give them.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{Harsh but true.}
¡¯Regardless, I¡¯ll try to think of somethingter I suppose.¡¯ Shiro sighed and stood up.
Stretching her body, she made her way back to the party.
With everyone¡¯s armours in good condition, they prepared to go to the raid.
"So is it just us or are there more peopleing to the raid with us?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Nope it¡¯s just us since it minimizes the risks on the other people in this city. Plus, there are certain risks thate with inviting more people than necessary. They might mess up somewhere and make everything harder." Lyrica replied with a shake of her head.
"True." Shiro agreed.
"Anyways, I¡¯ll tell you about the raid since you don¡¯t know yet. The first boss that we¡¯ll be facing is the Faceless Nun. Her main weapons are a pair of scythes that aren¡¯t too hard to avoid but the attack patterns are rather annoying if the tank can¡¯t hold aggro." Lyrica shrugged.
"As for her skills, she mainly travels around in the shadows but there is an unavoidable attack that you have to tank. There are motes scattered around the room that will boost your defence but you can only take two at most. When you get two, the boss will then lock you down in ce so someone must ¡¯take¡¯ the motes off you. Once everyone gets two, we can then transfer it to the person who is going to tank it. Unless all ten is on the person being attacked, the damage they take is going to be insane." She continued as Shiro nodded her head.
"Silvi, you have a skill to heal everyone right?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Yup. Why do you ask?"
"Because I have a skill called Shared Burden where I can choose to allocate all the damage taken. So if there are let¡¯s say 80 points of damage, I can make it so that everyone takes 10 rather than one person taking 80. Therefore, if Madi gets all the motes alone with some buffs from me and you, the damage that Madi takes is reduced even more. Plus, if you then heal everyone, the damage would be negated." Shiro exined with a smile.
"What the hell??? Isn¡¯t Shared Burden simr to a tank skill? Why do you have a tank skill?" Madison questioned with an are you serious face.
"If I can get an EX healing skill, why can¡¯t I get a tank skill?" Shiro tilted her head.
". . . Why do I bother thinking about things sometimes." Madison sighed.
"There we go. Honestly, despite only leaving for a bit, I feel like you girls have forgotten what it¡¯s like to be around me." Shiroughed.
"SO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE REDICULOUSNESS YOURSELF!" Madison retorted.
"Of course I do. I¡¯m supposed to be a damage dealer after all. Just if you don¡¯t mind me asking, are there any prerequisites that must be met for me to damage the boss?" Shiro asked.
"Yes. The condition is that all the motes must be collected and everyone must have two. During the time that everyone has the buff, we have to deal as much damage as we can. Once that small window of time is over, we¡¯ll need to move the buff onto Madi so that she can tank the hit." Lyrica exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"I see... Well that¡¯s not too bad." Shiro smiled while thinking about what she should do.
Seeing this smile, the party felt like something was going to be wrong.
"Please don¡¯t tell me that you¡¯re thinking about how you can one shot the boss." Madison forced a smile.
Looking back at Madison with a raised eyebrow, Shiro was surprised that she had hit the hammer on the nail.
". . ."
Sighing softly, Madison shook her head.
"Why don¡¯t you just one shot all the bosses at this rate." She shrugged.
"Oh don¡¯t think that I won¡¯t try haha." Shiroughed.
"I was kidding! We needbat experience as well you know." Madison pouted.
"Don¡¯t worry I know. I¡¯m just going to poke the boss a little. Just a ¡¯little¡¯ and you girls can do the rest. I¡¯ll act as support with Silvi." Shiro grinned.
However, hearing this, the party became more worried as poke had two very different meanings in Shiro¡¯s dictionary. Either 1, it¡¯s to essentially defile the crap out of them, or 2, it¡¯s to one shot them. Neither was good.
"As long as you don¡¯t kill it in one go." Madison sighed.
So long as the boss isn¡¯t dead in one shot, they can still practice their teamwork.
Arriving at the raid gate, they could see a few adventurers preparing to go in but the party only frowned since they didn¡¯t want additional casualties. However, if they wanted to risk their lives then they wouldn¡¯t stop them.
The sudden appearance of the party caused a smallmotion amongst the adventurers, especially those that spotted Shiro and Yin. Surprised at the new addition of two beauties who looked to be twins due to their simrity, they couldn¡¯t help but sneak a few pictures of the party before sharing it on the.
Naturally, this didn¡¯t escape Shiro¡¯s attention but she didn¡¯t care since her primary source of danger had been dealt with.
Opening the gates of the raid, the party entered feeling rather rxed as it was like the good old days where Shiro would do raids with them.
As their vision returned to normal, they found themselves in front of a giantbyrinth of sorts.
In the distance, a giant cathedral of sorts could be seen. Grey walls with blotches of blood could be seen as the material seemed to fade into darkness near the edges.
Looking up at the sky, they saw that it was night but the lighting in this ce suggested otherwise.
"Right then, to get to the first boss, we¡¯ll need to get through this ce first. Mind your step for traps but otherwise, it should be a walk in the park." Lyrica smiled.
Reaching into her inventory, she pulled out her sword as the rest of the party did the same.
Chapter 583 Faceless Nun Part 1
Chapter 583 Faceless Nun Part 1
Making their way through thebyrinth, they were ambushed a few times by ghost-like figures who wielded scythes but they were easily dealt with.
With Madison at the front of the party along with Chen Yu, she was able to taunt the enemy before they could focus the backline.
Since the monsters were unable to target the backline, they were open to lethal attacks that could end them in a single swipe.
Looking at the party¡¯s performance, Shiro nodded her head in satisfaction. Especially the teamwork between Chen Yu and Madison. One would spot the enemy quickly while the other taunted the moment they¡¯re discovered.
Comparing it to the hero party that she was in before, Shiro had to admit that the girls were makingrge improvements while she wasn¡¯t watching.
¡¯All we need now is probably an enchanter or some sorts and a full party will be made. Helion is acting as a berserker of sorts right now with his axe but he can double as a tank.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while a figure suddenly appeared above her.
Before anyone could say anything, Shiro snapped her fingers as 7 copies of Athera appeared and shredded the monster to pieces and scattered him into the wind.
"...Never mind, I should worry about the monsters when they target you." Madison shrugged.
Regardless of where Shiro stood, she was akin to a tactical nuke that was ready to be fired. Try to attack her and the bomb will go off. Ignore her and the bomb will also set off. It was a lose-lose situation for the monsters.
"Well he interrupted my thoughts so naturally, I had to teach him a lesson." Shiro chuckled.
"Right then, now that I¡¯ve seen a bit of your capabilities, you want to see mine?" She asked with a smile.
"Erm... no thanks. Because I know that a ¡¯bit¡¯ of your capabilities means that every trap and monster in the first part will be erased." Madison shook her head as the rest of the party agreed.
"True." Shiroughed since that was indeed what she was nning. Making their way through thebyrinth, they soon arrived in front of the giant cathedral. From within the dark building, they could hear ominous chanting paired with a rather... creepy organ sound that echoed through the area.
"Well doesn¡¯t that sound pleasant?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Mn, it¡¯s going to be more creepy inside the cathedral. Anyways, Silvi, give us some buffs please, we¡¯re going to get the motes as fast as we can." Lyrica smiled as Silvia nodded her head.
Twirling the staff in her hands, she mmed it against the ground and a golden aura wrapped around everyone in the party.
Snapping her fingers, a tier 4 magic circle expanded out from their feet as another buff was applied, giving the golden aura a green hue.
Repeating this process two more times, Shiro watched as her stats increased explosively for the next hour.
"I thought we needed an enchanter but it seems like you got this under wraps." Shiro chuckled.
"Of course. It¡¯s not like I only know healing spells after all. I do my research on spells from other sses so that I can manually construct them without the system." Silvia smiled.
Pushing open the giant set of doors, Madison cracked her neck as she red at the figure kneeling in the centre of the room.
She was surrounded by corpses that seemed to writhe in tandem with her chant.
Looking at the walls of this ce, Shiro noticed that it was entirely made from flesh as countless mouths and eyes could be seen. Seeing the mouths, she finally understood that the organ sound originated from these mouths.
Despite the outside of the cathedral looking rather normal, the inside was akin to the stomach of a beast. The flesh would pulse from the hymns as the party readied themselves.
Just as they readied themselves, the countless eyes snapped towards their position as the woman in the centre started to stand up.
"Why have youe to disrupt this sacred ritual?" She asked, slowly turning around. Even though her face was obscured by her hood, the party could sense the killing intent in her eyes.
Without saying anything, Chen Yu faded into the shadows since his main job was to locate the motes and transfer it to everyone.
"Because it ain¡¯t scared at all!" Madison taunted. Activating her skill, her body charged at the nun like a battering ram.
*BANG!!!
Crashing against her body, Madison mmed the nun into the walls.
Just as the nun mmed against the flesh wall, her body sunk deep into the flesh as her voice rang out from the mouths around the area.
"Then I shall exterminate you."
*CLANG!!!
shing against Madison¡¯s shield, a giant scythe erupted out from the ceiling. The woman¡¯s body was now elongated with her robe in tatters. Her face was still covered by the hood but they could see a single bloodshot eye ring at them with anger.
Grabbing the handle of the scythe with her thin bony fingers, the woman crawled on the ground and approached the party.
Despite her movements looking like they were in slow motion, she was in fact very fast.
Quickly raising her shield, Madison managed to block the strike a second time before pivoting on her foot. Twisting her body, she mmed the face of her shield against the woman.
Knocking her back by a few steps, Madison activated a second taunt skill. This time, the woman¡¯s killing intent was entirely focused on Madison.
"I¡¯ve got her locked on me!" Madison called out, raising her defence stat with her skills.
"Got it!" Lyrica nodded.
Crouching down slightly, she grabbed her sword and flickered from her spot. Reappearing above the woman, she shed the de along the spine.
Unfortunately, no blood was drawn and all they could see was the robes being damaged slightly.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Lyrica vaulted over the nun¡¯s body before cleaving her sword upwards against her stomach.
Forcing her body up ever so slightly, she nced towards Lisandra and Aarim.
Seeing this, the duo sprang into action.
Unfurling her wings, Lisandra dashed into action as light swords appeared around her. Flicking her wrist, the swords shed against the boss¡¯s limbs, forcing her to lose her footing while a tier 4 magic circle expanded out above her.
Suddenly, the gravity around the woman seemed to increase dramatically as her body crashed against the ground, causing a small crater to be formed while the light swords dug deep into her body, drawing some blood.
*Whistle~
¡¯You can really tell that they¡¯re experienced with working together can¡¯t you?¡¯ Shiro smiled.
{Of course. After all, in dangerous dungeons, they had to rely on their teammates. After fighting between life and death for a long time, they¡¯re bound to know each other¡¯s habits and how tobo their attacks together.} Nimue nodded her head.
¡¯I suppose I shouldn¡¯t ck off either. Should I use my sword or my gun?¡¯
{Neither. Both your weapons will probably draw aggro due to their ridiculous damage numbers. Why don¡¯t you use your fists for now?}
¡¯Hm... why not, that seems fun.¡¯ Shiro agreed.
Cracking her knuckles, nanobots swarmed around her hands as she created a pair of fighter gloves for herself. Imbedding some fighter skill ch.i.p.s into the gloves, she enhanced her strength stat along with a few fighter passive skills.
Adjusting her footwork slightly, sheunched her body towards the woman while cracking the ground beneath her.
Appearing in front of the woman, Shiro grinned as her eyes seemed to glow with an ominous red.
Stomping the ground in front of her, she forced the woman up slightly before uppercutting her in the jaw.
*CRACK!!!!
The sound of bones cracking could be heard as her body was pushed out of the magic circle. Crashing against the ceiling, Shiro noticed that all the killing intent seemed to focus on her.
"Eh? I drew aggro with just a single punch???" Shiro question with confusion.
Helion who was about to m his axe towards the woman froze up in surprise at Shiro¡¯s sudden burst of physical prowess while Madison only face palmed.
"Your attack is ridiculous...." She muttered.
"Don¡¯t worry, I have a perfect skill for this." Shiro waved her hand as she created an amulet.
Embedding the amulet with a ranger skill, she took a step back before activating y Dead.
Falling on the ground, the aggro was transferred back to Madison.
Once this happened, Shiro stood back up with a smile.
"See? No problems at all." She grinned.
Unfortunately, with her ¡¯revival¡¯, the aggro returned to her once more.
". . ."
Taking a deep breath, Madison handed Shiro her shield.
"Why don¡¯t you be the tank. I still have my attack mode after all." Madison forced a smile as she pulled out her great axe.
"Sure why not." Shiro shrugged as this was probably for the best.
Snapping her fingers, nanobots surged around her and created a suit of metal around her body.
Choosing the blueprint of Bastion MK 2, her current armour was one that banked heavily on tanking hits. The only problem was that it had essentially 0 mobility.
Looking at the heavy metal armour that appeared around Shiro, Madison looked down at her own armour before cursing softly.
"F*ck it, I¡¯m taking it out on the boss." She grumbled.
Chapter 584 Faceless Nun Part 2
Chapter 584 Faceless Nun Part 2
With Shiro now tanking the boss in her heavy metal armour, the party didn¡¯t have to worry about taking aggro since her attack was the highest out of the entire group.
While this was happening, Yin decided to just rx and poke at the flesh walls.
She would set them on fire amongst other things to see what kind of reaction they would have.
As for Chen Yu, he had managed to find 5 motes so far. Since they had 9 members in the party, they needed to get 18 motes in total for the damage phase to begin.
"Oh right, Madi, I¡¯ll y dead for the damage phase so that you can get the aggro back. After all, unlike you, I don¡¯t have any skills to buff up my defence. The only reason that my armour is working is because I¡¯m repairing the damage before the woman can attack again." Shiro called out as she tanked another hit from the woman.
Stepping back slightly, Shiro mmed the shield in retaliation, bouncing the force back to her.
"That¡¯s fine. Honestly, I¡¯m just enjoying myself right now. it¡¯s rare that I use my axe you know?" Madison replied.
Pulling her axe back, magma surged around the de.
Cleaving towards the boss, the axe left a faint trail of red as sizzling sounds could be heard. Parts of the woman¡¯s cloak started to burn but it was soon repaired due to its nature as monster cloth. After all, it would be quite awkward to be fighting a n.a.k.e.d boss.
"I found the 10th one. We¡¯ll need to start getting the motes or else more won¡¯t spawn." Chen Yu called out since they would be locked in ce the moment they grab two motes.
"Got it. Yin, Lisandra, Aarim, Helion and Silvia can grab the first 10. We¡¯ll keep the boss busy in the meantime." Lyrica called out as they made their way towards Chen Yu.
While the six of them were transferring motes with each other so that they¡¯re not stuck in ce, Shiro noticed that the boss was now being quite aggressive.
By this point, not only was she trying to cut her head off with the scythe, but she was also grabbing her shield so that she couldn¡¯t move it into ce. Due to her rather low strength stat, the boss seeded in moving her shield out of the way.
However, unfortunately for the boss, Shiro wasn¡¯t limited by her hands.
Creating a pair of cannons on the armour, she narrowed her eyes and shot the boss just as she pried the shield to the side.
*BANG BANG!!!!
With two chunks of metal crashing against her ribs, the boss tumbled against the ground as blood dripped from her body.
"Don¡¯t grab the shield~" Shiro taunted with a smile.
"Honestly, if I was the boss, I would be infuriated while fighting against you. You don¡¯t even need a taunt skill to piss off the boss." Madison raised her eyebrow.
"Well it¡¯s just something I picked up after fighting a bunch in my first life. Turns out that people get pretty angry if you taunt them with a few words after a poke." Shiro shrugged.
"I don¡¯t think it¡¯s the words that pissed them off." Madison¡¯s smile twitched.
"Well I got the same result so it¡¯s fine. You think I should poke this woman too? Make sure the aggro is secured." Shiro asked.
"No because I think if you did that, the aggro wouldn¡¯t go even if you y dead." Madison shook her head.
While the two were joking around and keeping the boss busy, they managed to transfer all of the motes.
With the motes now collected, more started to spawn and Chen Yu had to go look for them again.
But just as the rest of the party returned to the fight, the nun took a step back and red at everyone.
Without saying anything, a red demonic aura seemed to flicker from her body.
"Watch out, she¡¯s pissed." Lyrica called out with a frown.
*BANG!!!
Before the rest of the party could properly react, the nun appeared behind Shiro and tried to cut her back with the scythe. Unfortunately, a cage of nanobots erupted out from around her, blocking the scythe.
"Sorry but my back is pretty guarded." Shiro turned around slowly.
mming the shield down, a tier 5 magic circle expanded out around the cage. Activating Frozen Slumber, chains of ice wrapped around the boss as she was slowly frozen.
Her eyes constricted in a mixture of surprise and anger.
Gritting her teeth, the boss plunged her hand into her chest just before she waspletely frozen.
Crushing her heart, her body fell limp on the ground as a ck mist started to flow out of her body.
Forming into the shape of what seemed to be a grim reaper above her, the reaper twisted her body and shed the cage into pieces.
"Well damn." Shiro raised her eyebrow since she didn¡¯t expect her attack power to increase.
Understanding that just standing there and tanking the hit was probably a bad idea, Shiro dismissed her armour and summoned her swords.
Throwing the shield back to Madison, Shiro grabbed Athera and quickly parried the reaper¡¯s next attack.
Redirecting it to the ground, Shiro created an orb of fire and mmed it against the reaper¡¯s chest. Since she was currently in spirit form, fire should be rather effective against her and as she had predicted, the reaper quickly retreated hastily.
Merging back into the nun¡¯s body, she was healed back to full.
"Hmm... no wonder we need the motes to deal damage. It seems like she¡¯ll keep doing this over and over again to heal back to full." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Exactly. Hence why we just need to keep her busy. Honestly, this was supposed to be a bit harder you know?" Lyrica chuckled.
"And I¡¯m guessing I changed that." Shiro smiled.
"Yup." Lyrica nodded as she charged at the now healed Nun.
Keeping her busy for a little longer, Chen Yu had finally found the remaining motes of light.
"Now then, this is going to be a little annoying since Shiro has a firm hold on the aggro. We¡¯ll have her y dead then we¡¯ll bring her to the first two, While that happens, Silvi, I¡¯ll need you to buff up Madison for a bit so that she can keep the nun busy. Once Shiro gets two motes while ying dead, she¡¯lle out of that state and grab the Aggro again." Lyrica instructed as Shiro nodded her head.
Jumping back, she activated her y dead skill and ¡¯copsed¡¯ on the ground.
Losing her initial target, the nun turned towards Madison.
"Perfect." Lyrica nodded and dashed towards Shiro.
Picking her up into a princess carry, Lyrica suppressed the blush that was creeping up on her face as she arrived next to Chen Yu who was ready to transfer the motes.
Once the motes were transferred, Shiro opened her eyes.
"Am I heavy?" Shiro joked with a raised eyebrow.
"Nope." Lyrica chuckled as she let Shiro down.
Just as she did this, the Nun flickered above them with her scythe raised.
"No sneak attacking my best friend now you hear me?" Shiro smiled.
Snapping her fingers, ice spikes erupted out from the pirs around them and stabbed against the nun, pushing her body back.
"Right then, I¡¯ll get ready to y dead again when the boss is going to attack ok?" Shiro chuckled since she wasn¡¯t nning on joining in on the damage phase. After all, if she joined, she would probably kill the boss in one go.
Nodding her head, Lyrica and Madison quickly dashed after Chen Yu so that they could collect the other motes.
With all 18 motes collected, a collection of blood runes appeared on the boss¡¯ scythe.
[Faceless Nun ¨C LVL 200 BOSS (Vulnerable)]
HP: 700,000,000/700,000,000
MP: 1,600,000,000/2,000,000,000
Now that the boss was in a vulnerable state, they could finally damage her properly.
Since she could potentially kill the boss in one go, Shiro decided to make herself a chair so that she could sit down for a bit.
Seeing this, the boss was infuriated and tried to cleave the scythe at her but Shiro only brushed it aside using phantom path.
With the boss¡¯ guard open, the rest of the party charged at her like ravenous wolves, ripping parts of her flesh off with every hit. Her HP plummeted quickly as she was soon reduced to 400 million.
Gritting her teeth, the boss raised her scythe above her head as Shiro understood that this was the unblockable attack.
Passing her motes to Madison so that she could tank the hit, Shiro followed it up with her Grace skill.
"Grace~" Shiro called out with humour before ying dead. With all the aggro transferred to Madison, she promptly raised her shield to tank the strike. Multiple auras swirled around her body as Silvia buffed her defence up even higher. With the sheer amount of buffs that was on Madison, the damage she could have taken from the unlockable hit was rather... pitiful. Especially with Grace¡¯s damage reduction properties that was percentile based instead of number based.
Repeating this process two more times, they were able to y the boss without any problems. All while Shiro taunted the living crap out of the boss without any skills.
ring at Shiro just before the death, the nun cursed at Shiro over and over in her mind before copsing into mist.
Chapter 585 True Sight
Chapter 585 True Sight
Cracking her neck, Shiro dismissed her swords and crouched down near the boss¡¯s corpse.
"Well ain¡¯t this pretty nifty. She dropped an interesting weapon along with some armour." Shiro chuckled.
Reaching out, she grabbed the scythe and gave it a casual swing.
*BANG!!!!
Cracking against the ground, the material split apart like it was nothing, leaving behind a rather sizable ravine in the ground.
The weapon was called the Devotee¡¯s Scythe and the base stats of the weapon wasn¡¯t anything fancy due to the fact that it was just a purple grade weapon.
However, what truly caught Shiro¡¯s eye was the passive skill that it included.
[True Sight]
After achieving a certain amount of understanding of the target, your next attack will ignore 90% of all armour.
This is limited to one use per day and is refreshed at sunrise.
Cost: N/A
This was the same skill that the boss had used when they collected the motes hence the need to buff up the tanks defence stat as much as possible.
"Do you girls want this scythe? If not, I¡¯ll recycle it and take the skill for myself." Shiro smiled.
"I don¡¯t use a scythe so you can have it. Anyone else have any objections?" Lyrica called out to the rest of the party.
Shaking their head, none of them had a problem with this.
"Um, if you don¡¯t mind me asking, what do you mean by recycle it and take the skill for yourself?" Helion asked curiously.
"It¡¯s something like this." Shiro grinned.
Throwing the scythe in the air, nanobots swarmed around her and started to break the weapon apart.
Once the scythe was destroyed, she used her nanobots to create a sword.
"Check out the sword." Shiro said as she threw the sword towards Helion.
Inspecting the sword, he was surprised to see the true sight skill with the de. Not only that, it was also the same level and grade as the scythe. Only this time, in the form of a sword.
Snapping her fingers, the sword crumbled back to nanobots and flowed back to her.
"Makes enough sense I suppose." Helion shrugged.
"Anyways, there are some decent armour pieces here so have a look to see if it¡¯s better than yours." Shiro smiled while gesturing to the cloth armourid out on the ground.
Unfortunately, the only one that used cloth armour was Silvia and the one that the boss dropped didn¡¯t provide any stat bonuses that may help her.
Storing the armour away for now, they decided to sell itter since Shiro didn¡¯t want to recycle it either due to the fact that the armour skill wasn¡¯t anything special like True Sight.
"So where do we go now?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Give me a second." Lyrica said as she walked over to the spot where the nun had been praying.
Stabbing her sword into the ground, she narrowed her eyes and pushed it down like a leaver.
*Krrrrr
Suddenly, the floor gave way as a passageway could be seen.
"We¡¯re going to be taking the steps down to hell. The next boss that we must face is the twin guardians." Lyrica smiled while gesturing to the staircase leading down into the darkness.
"Right then, care to give us another briefing?" Shiro asked as they were walking down the stairs.
"Well it¡¯s more like give YOU another briefing haha. You could just have researched this you know?" Lyrica chuckled.
"Sometimes it¡¯s quite nice to have someone else do the research for you." Shiro shrugged.
"True. Right then, the twin guardians can¡¯t be damaged unless they¡¯re next to each other. During the fight, they will continuously apply debuffs to us until it gets to the point where we can no longer deal damage to them. Not only that, every 20% of damage they take, they will transport us to an illusionary ne of sorts where we have to go look for the two of them. There is something annoying about this ne though, it shows trauma¡¯s and what we are afraid of so before the 20% damage threshold is reached, Silvia will be buffing our tolerance to make this part easier. Should one of us fail in finding the two guardians within this in, he will heal a percentage of his health back." Lyrica exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"That is rather annoying. Do you think I¡¯ll be able to damage them past the 20% mark in one go?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Unfortunately no. Since a shield will appear around them the moment they take damage equal to 20% of their health." Lyrica shook her head.
"Hmm... that does sound annoying." Shiro muttered before ncing at the party.
Even without going to the guardian, she already knew of her trauma/fears. Betrayal once more, death by the light god, the fact that she might not be strong enough when the age arrives.
However, it was also due to these fears that she decided to trust herpanions. Even if there could be betrayal which she doubts. The old Shiro would have never revealed so much information about herself to people she couldn¡¯t readpletely.
She¡¯s essentially giving them all the information they need to devise a strategy against her but sometimes it¡¯s a leap of faith. A gamble.
The chances could be low, it could be rigged and it could never seed. But if it does, the victory feels much better than what she can achieve on her own. After all, the peak is a lonely ce without anypanions. She knew better than anyone since she lost Isilia. Spending the years at the peak was lonely for Shiro.
She may joke andugh. She may poke people for fun but even that has a limit. Loneliness is quite harsh on the human mind after all. Unless they¡¯re crazy, no one can tolerate countless years of being alone. Hence why Shiro is taking a leap of faith in her friends.
She¡¯ll tell them what she can, this is most likely thest life after all. She might as well try everything she can.
"Are you alright? You looked quite... mellow?" Madison raised her eyebrow at Shiro¡¯s expression.
"Nothing much. Just thinking about what the future is like for all of us. There is a world ending crisising in the near future. Say, Madi, have you ever thought about settling down with anyone? Silvia has Chen Yu and they¡¯re quite the loving couple ay? Got anyone you have in mind?" Shiro joked with a smile.
*COUGH!
"Where did thate from." Madison coughed in surprise.
"Just a random thought of mine. What about you Aarim? Anyone in your mind?" Shiro turned to Aarim.
"Nope. Just me and research haha. Plus, I did run a s*x toy store you know? I¡¯m pretty sure I can keep myself busy." Aarim replied with a lick of her lips.
"Oi, don¡¯t be so open like that." Helion said with a blush since he didn¡¯t exactly want to imagine his childhood friend ¡¯keeping herself busy¡¯ during a raid.
"Hou hou~ Thinking of something R18 now are we?" Aarim chuckled with a hand over her mouth. Seeing the smugness on her face, Helion huffed and looked away which caused her tough.
"Pft, the hell is this strange atmosphere." Lyricaughed as Shiro shrugged.
"Just rxing everyone before the fight I suppose. Though to be fair, a few or us are still young despite our appearances. My current body is not even a year old ya know?" Shiro chuckled.
"Speaking of which, when were you born again? As a snow girl." Lyrica asked curiously.
"Well after I searched through the guild records, I found my very first file that was ssed under Shino. They dated it to be the 24th of January so my birthday should be a few days before that." Shiro replied.
"Heh~ Then it¡¯ll be your first birthday in a few months then. What should we do for it?" Lyrica asked.
"Oh? It¡¯s Shiro¡¯s birthday soon? We should host a party with everyone then." Silvia suggested with a smile.
"Don¡¯t get too hasty now girls. Who knows, the new age might arrive before my birthday." Shiro shrugged.
"Don¡¯t be like that, you might jinx it." Lyrica pouted as Shiro only grinned and poked her cheeks.
"It¡¯s fine. Plus, a birthday isn¡¯t anything important for me. If I had to think about birthdays, I¡¯ve already gone through quite a few of them back in Aria and in this world as Kuromi." Shiroughed.
"So mum¡¯s probably gone through more than 100 birthdays then. No wonder it¡¯s nothing special to you." Yin said while looking around the walls of the staircase.
Suddenly feeling a re on her, Yin shivered and hid behind Lisa.
"Big sis, why are you hiding behind me?" Lisandra asked with a twitching smile.
"It¡¯s a siblings job to share the burden." Yin coughed as Lisandra only sighed with a soft smile.
Ignoring Yin who had just said that she was over 100 years old, Shiro kicked open the set of doors at the bottom of the staircase, revealing two giants that kneeled in front of what seems to be a portal. They were in a giant room that stretched as high as the eye could see with dim orange orbs of light flickering in the air.
Summoning Athera, Shiro stepped forward into the room with a smile.
Chapter 586 Twin Guardians
Chapter 586 Twin Guardians
As she stepped into the room,bat started immediately.
Punching the ground, the two giants pulled out two blood red spears.
"Everyone into position!" Lyrica shouted out as Madison grabbed her shield.
Charging towards the two, a golden aura erupted out of her body as an illusionary figure could be seen above her. Roughly the same size as the giants, the figure had the same gear as Madison. Raising up her shield, the figure twisted her body and mmed the face of the shield against the right guardian.
Forcing his body to crash against the second guardian, Madison activated taunting cry.
Suddenly, two pairs of bloodshot eyes red at Madison. Activating an enhanced taunting skill used for the biggest bosses, Madison wanted to make sure that she could actually keep the aggro without Shiro idently taking it away from her.
"Ok I¡¯ve got it! You can attack now!" Madison shouted out.
Nodding their head, the party sprang into action.
Watching this happen, Shiro thought for a moment before understanding what she should do to avoid grabbing aggro while still helping out the party.
Snapping her fingers, all of the copies of Athera charged towards the bosses before stabbing deeply into the two boss¡¯ bodies. Aimed at each of the joints, the swords locked their body in ce. Should they try to force themselves to move, the swords will attempt to rip their limbs from their sockets so unless they take the moment to pull out the des, they were trapped.
Raising her eyebrow in surprise, Aarim didn¡¯t even need to use her gravity magic as Shiro had the bosses locked in ce.
Shrugging her shoulders slightly, she smiled and aimed her palm towards the fight guardian.
Suddenly, a tier 5 magic circle wrapped around her hand as several dark orbs could be seen floating around the bosses.
"Copse." Aarimmanded.
*BANG!!!
Just as she said the word copse, the orbs exploded, ripping out a chunk of their flesh. Blood spewed on the ground as the bosses flinched from the pain. Unfortunately, the attack seemed to have done nothing.
Slowly, the muscle started to stitch themselves back together as if nothing had happened.
"Oh my, that¡¯s rather annoying isn¡¯t it?" Aarim raised her eyebrow.
"Indeed. But we just gotta do a Shiro to it." Helion shrugged as he dashed towards the boss with his elemental armour.
Summoning his ming axe, he twisted his body and mmed the de against the heel of the right guardian.
"Helion, there are two a few different meanings to doing a Shiro but the primary one is to stab the ass ok?" Aarim said as her smile twitched. She understood that her friend probably wanted to express that he wanted to hit it very hard but his phrasing could cause some misunderstandings.
"Did I just get permission to stab ¡¯em?" Shiro¡¯s ears perked up as two tier 5 magic circles immediately appeared under the guardians.
"No! And why do you have it ready at all times!?" Aarim called out since she could cause the boss to evolve from the shame and rage.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, then adjusted the magic circles so that they limited the bosses movements with chains rather than a spike.
With Aarim, Helion, Shiro and Lisandra focusing on the right guardian and the other¡¯s focused on the left, they were able to damage the guardians by 20% in no time.
Suddenly, a notification could be seen blinking on their system interface as they were inflicted with a debuff.
[Guardian¡¯s Contempt (1 stack)]
Current effects:
-2% to all stats
-5% to all damage dealt
-5% to all defences
After the debuff was applied, the bosses started to fade into mist as the party was split up.
Finding herself alone in a misty in, Shiro raised her eyebrow before smiling.
"Let¡¯s see what kind of trauma or fear it wants to show me. Is it my death against Aekari? The party¡¯s death? My daughter¡¯s death?" Shiro asked soft chuckle.
However, as her vision cleared up, what she saw wasn¡¯t her death, nor was it her party¡¯s death and wasn¡¯t her daughter¡¯s death either.
It was her best friend¡¯s death.
Feeling the sickly sensation of piercing Isilia¡¯s heart with her bare hands, Shiro¡¯s smile faded away.
She could see Is¡¯s hand grasped around her wrist, forcing it to go deeper while keeping an apologetic smile on her face.
"Sorry... this is the only way." Isilia muttered as she kneeled down on the spot.
Staying silent, Shiro watched as her friend¡¯s lifeless body crumbled to the ground as her blood stained her hand.
Looking down at her hand, Shiro narrowed her eyes before sitting down on a rock. She wasn¡¯t going to look for the guardian as him healing some health back wasn¡¯t a problem for her.
Out of all the trauma¡¯s it had to pick, it picked the worst one as Shiro waspletely livid.
"I¡¯m killing him in one go." She muttered.
*BOOM!!!
Suddenly, a furious aura exploded out of her body as Athera trembled from her killing intent. The de seemed to hum in excitement from the sensation. Wrapping the silver de in a matt ck colour, blood runes slowly appeared in the centre.
"Might as well give True Sight a try." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Sitting patiently on the rock, she created a ring with all the necessary skill that she needed.
Soon, the area around her started to fade away as she was transported back to the main room. ncing at the boss¡¯s health, it seemed like she was the only one that didn¡¯t find the boss but that was fine.
Looking back at Shiro, the party halted their breaths since her killing intent was quite stifling right now.
Cracking her neck, Shiro disappeared from her spot and reappeared behind the guardian. Doing a quick calction on all the two boss¡¯ movements, she reached the minimum requirement to use True Sight.
Activating her Asura Sword Path, Berserker Path, Sword Doman along with other sword skills that she had stacked up on her nanotech ring, Shiro shed at the two bosses without hesitation.
Not only that, just to make sure that she could kill them before the barrier could make them immune, she activated her Celestial Language and Asteria¡¯s blessing.
"Asteria, bestow judgement on sinners who opened the pandora¡¯s box. I shall execute them and none can pray for pardon." She chanted in anguage that none of the party members could understand.
Suddenly, a cruel crackle could be heard due the sound from the sh. It was as if a demon had just manifested behind Shiro and was relishing in her killing intent.
ck chains erupted out from the ground, locking the gate guardians in ce while the illusionary form of a guillotine was formed around the two. The executioner¡¯s de was naturally the now matt ck Athera that was dipped in Shiro¡¯s killing intent.
*KRRRRRR!!!!!!!
shing against the two guardians, a ck and red de energy cleaved not their bodies as her True Sight Ignored their armour.
A shield tried to wrap them up but before it could block the de, the guardians were already dead. Their bodies disintegrated into blood mist while the sh continued to travel down the ground, causing a bottomless ravine to open up in the room.
Looking at Shiro who had just killed the boss in one go, despite there being a mechanic to PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING, the party had to blink twice just to make sure that they were seeing things correctly.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro dismissed Athera and turned to the party.
Remembering a picture that she had seen on the web, Shiro coughed for a moment before opening her mouth.
"Sorry~ I went a bit overboard." She apologised while sticking out her tongue and bopping her head lightly.
"Sorry my ass!"
{Sorry my ass!}
Both Madison and Nimue retorted out at the same time since they could clearly see that Shiro was going for the kill.
"Ahaha, don¡¯t be like that. I just saw something that wasn¡¯t too pleasant despite being ready for it. I¡¯ll make it up to you in the next fight." Shiroughed.
"Sigh* It¡¯s fine. Considering your killing intent, it really picked the worst memory huh?" Lyrica smiled softly since she understood that Shiro wouldn¡¯t do something like this unless the boss had truly pissed her off.
"Yup. Anyways, how do we get to the next boss?" Shiro asked curiously.
"We need a key that the boss drops but considering the fact that you reduced them to mist, can I presume that the key is gone?" Lyrica chuckled.
"It¡¯s probably down there..." Shiro trailed off as she looked at the bottomless ravine that had just opened up.
". . ."
"Estre." Shiro called out.
"You called my empress?" Estre bowed as she exited Shiro¡¯s mana realm.
"Are you able to get the key for me? It should be down there." Shiro asked as Estre nodded.
"Right away."
Making a portal, Estre disappeared from her spot.
"While she¡¯s doing that, I should make a bridge for you girls toe over." Shiro said with a smile.
"That¡¯s probably for the best."
While the party made their way over, Helion and Aarim looked at each other.
"Did she just ignore a raid mechanic?" Helion asked.
"It¡¯s Shiro." Aarim replied.
"But the system-"
"It¡¯s Shiro."
"But she¡¯s still using the system no?"
"But she¡¯s Shiro."
". . ."
"It¡¯s Shiro."
"I didn¡¯t say anything though?"
"You just need to know that it¡¯s Shiro." Aarim sighed.
Chapter 587 The Guide
Chapter 587 The Guide
Waiting by the portal for a while, Estre appeared next to them with the key in hand along with a few of the equipment that the guardians had dropped.
"Damn, the hole must have been quite deep for you to have taken this long huh?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"And who do you think caused that hole?" Madison reminded as Shiro coughed and looked away.
ncing at the equipment, Shiro saw that most of them were all strength based so Helion could probably make use of them.
"Thank you Estre, you can head back now." Shiro smiled.
Bowing towards Shiro, Estre¡¯s body flickered away as she returned to the mana realm.
"Right then, most of this equipment is strength based so I think Helion is the most suited. Does anyone have any objections?" Lyrica called out.
"Nope. I mainly focus on defence while Chen Yu focuses on dexterity and agility. None of us has a need for strength based equipment." Madison smiled since they were the front liners. With Helion now in the party, he could make use of all the strength based equipment that they find.
"Don¡¯t you have your attack mode where you use the axe? Don¡¯t you need strength for that?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Not quite. It¡¯s a ss skill and basically, when I activate it, it allows me to convert most of my defence into strength." Madison replied as Shiro finally understood why her attack was so high despite being a tank during the first fight.
"Fair enough." Shiro nodded before passing the equipment to Helion.
"Eh are you sure?" He asked as he didn¡¯t expect all the equipment earned in this boss fight to just be given to him like this.
"Don¡¯t sweat it. It¡¯s not like we have a use for it to begin with." Shiro smiled as the other party members nodded their heads.
"But can¡¯t you recycle it to make something else?"
"Yes but I¡¯ve already got the skills that are on the armour so there¡¯s no point either. I would say that recycling does increase the inherent defence of the nanobots but I¡¯ve been recycling so much equipment to the point that one or two wouldn¡¯t make a difference. Just take it." Shiro chuckled.
Furrowing his brows, Helion sighed and took the equipment.
"Thank you. Oh and just out of curiosity, how many skills are you able to ess?" Helion asked curiously as the others were also interested.
"Fufu~ You want to know? All of you want to know? I see I see~ Trying to dig up my secrets now are we?" So what should we do with this key?" Shiro grinned.
Before they could reply, she gestured for them toe closer.
"I¡¯m kidding. Here, scroll through this list on the tablet and you should see the skills that I have stored. Some are better than others and I¡¯ve ssified them in terms of their usefulness. Of course, if you have a need for any of the skills, I can make you a ring or something and embed the skills into them." Shiro said with a smile.
"Wait is this how you gave me that really good healing bracelet before?" Silvia widened her eyes with eagerness.
Remembering the fact that Silvia is a healing equipment freak, Shiro chuckled before nodded.
"Yup. If you want, I can make a separate tablet for you with all the support spells and mana regeneration spells. Just pick the skills you want and I¡¯ll see if I can make it into a bracelet for you." She smiled.
"Sure!" Nodding her head, Silvia had an excited glint in her eyes as Shiro flexed her finger and made Silvia a tablet.
Making a tablet for everyone else, Shiro figured that she might as well make them each a ring or bracelet with some of the skills.
"Will these equipmentst?" Helion asked.
"Hmm... yes and no. As long as mana is supplied to them, they willst. However, to use the skills, they also use mana so if you repeatedly use them without giving it mana, the rings will break. In addition to this, since it¡¯s nanobots, I need to be nearby to do some maintenance if you continue to pour mana into them. Because inherently, the nanobots are greedy for mana and if you supply them with a giant pool of it, they may go berserk." Shiro replied.
"Ain¡¯t that pretty dangerous then?" Helion¡¯s smile twitched.
"Not really. Because that will only happen if you¡¯re super greedy. And I mean SUPER greedy. If that happens, the nanobots will probably go out of control since you don¡¯t have the ¡¯controller¡¯ like I do. By that point, all you can do is dy the inevitable since the nanobots will dig deep into your body and infect every part, hoping to consume everything. In other words, it¡¯s like cancer." Shiro shrugged.
"And how do you know this?"
"Because I¡¯ve seen it happen a bunch of times in thebs. You see, the only reason I have nanobots is due to the experiments I was put through in my first life. I was the first sess so I watched quite a few others get consumed and die. Before I left though, I grabbed all the records I could and they were quite thorough with describing how each of the experiments died so that they could make improvements." Shiro replied nonchntly as the party felt a twitch creeping up on their smile.
To think that she could mention something like human experiment so casually was quite.... eye opening.
"Anyways, just know that you shouldn¡¯t get too greedy with giving nanobots mana since they will try to f*ck your sh*t up. Just be careful and you can use it as much as you want. Though if it gets out of hand, I¡¯ll destroy them before they can do anything to you. Only if I¡¯m close of course." Shiro smiled.
"Wait... So the reason the bracelet brokest time is because of you?" Silvia asked as she narrowed her eyes.
"Oh look, I forgot I had this skill." Shiro quickly looked down at her phone.
Huffing slightly, Silvia shook her head before picking out some skills.
Once everyone had picked out a few skills that they liked, Shiro started to create rings with the most optimised build for each of them. Silvia¡¯s ring was naturally decked out with mana regen since that was what she needed the most.
With everyone ready, Lyrica held the key in front of the gate as a tier 4 magic circle appeared in front of them. Slowly, a swirl of red and orange energy appeared before them, lighting the room up with a hellish glow.
"Shall we enter the proper sanctuary of sin?" Lyrica smiled before gesturing to the portal.
Stepping through, their vision was clouded with a maroon hue before it subsided, revealing the burningndscape that was reminiscent of hell.
In front of them, was a blood river of sorts while bones and demons surrounded them.
"Clear out the mobs and our ticket to the third boss will appear." Lyrica called out. Since there wasn¡¯t anything special in this area except therge amount of mobs, the party had a rather easy time. The only difficulty they had was the rising heat which Shiro solved through her Icy Aura.
"That reminds me, when we were still in school, I used you as a Air Conditioner during one of the hot days didn¡¯t I?" Lyrica called out with a smile.
"Ah I remember that. Honestly, if I didn¡¯t have this skill, it would have been annoying since I was still vulnerable to heat back then."
"And yet you now have three high grade fires that almost exploded my forge." Helion reminded as Shiro only shrugged.
Clearing out the mobs, they hear the sound of a bell, ringing in the distance.
Turning towards the bloodke, they could see a shadowed figure approaching them slowly on a wooden boat with a singlemp attached on the bow.
[The Guide ¨C LVL ???]
They could not see his body figure as he was wearing arge ck cloak that prevented anything to be seen. Rather than the guide, it was probably better to call him the grim reaper since he looked exactly like how they were described.
"State your goal." A voice rang it from under his hood. The voice was almost like a whisper, hushed but loud at the same time. Not only that, but his voice was also hoarse like sandpaper, scratching against their ears.
"We¡¯vee to seek the Judge." Lyrica called out.
The third boss of this raid was the Judge of Sin. If you answer with a different answer on this part, it would take a long time to reach the judge.
"You¡¯vee to seek the Judge, yes?" The Guide asked to make sure.
"Indeed."
"Theme, I shall take you to the Judge. Be careful of theke. Fall and you may note back." He warned ominously before gesturing for the party to step in on the boat.
Once everyone was in, he pushed the boat off the shore.
Chapter 588 The Future
Chapter 588 The Future
Sitting on the boat and watching the burning scenery pass by, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but narrow her eyes at the Guide.
His level was obscure and so was his ss. Hell, there wasn¡¯t even a boss sign next to his name which should have been the norm. However, this wasn¡¯t the case as all she knew about him was his name and that was it.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to ignore it for now and focus on the next boss.
"Do you want to exin the next boss or is there nothing that we need to worry about?" Shiro asked curiously since Lyrica was silent.
"Mn? Oh there¡¯s nothing too bad about the next boss. You just need to make sure that you don¡¯t lie in front of him meaning you can¡¯t do feints. Like thest boss, there is a checkpoint of sorts where he will summon the court and ask the party three questions. If you lie about any of these questions, he will gain a buff. It¡¯s just embarrassing and annoying if anything. Though I suppose you do get a debuff if you lie. It¡¯s called the Judges Contempt and your movement speed is reduced heavily along with your attack." Lyrica exined before looking out into the horizon once more. Her eyes glossed over as rm bells started to ring in Shiro¡¯s mind.
"Are you ok?" She asked. Noticing that everyone seemed to be looking over the horizon with a gloss over their eyes, Shiro red at the Guide with killing intent.
"Exin." She demanded.
"They are seeking for that of which is amiss. A lingering attachment. Make sure they stay on the boat, or else they may never return." The Guide chuckled darkly as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Then why am I not the same?" Shiro asked while making sure that nanotech wires wrapped around her friends. They seemed to be in a semi conscious state right now which caused Shiro to worry as they could fall off at any moment.
"Your will is strong. You hold many attachments but you ept their oue. You seek the future but don¡¯t focus on the past. While you may dream of the past, you don¡¯t seek it out. Curious yes..." The Guide exined while ncing towards her.
A pair of cold blue eyes locked with hers before a mist seemed to wrap around the area.
"This transition was supposed to give a trial to those that arrive. Show them what they seek and if they ignored it, they had proved their will. However, you have remained steadfast, unwavering. You deserve a reward, a chance at a second trial. Would you ept?" The Guide narrowed his eyes.
"What do you mean by a second trial? How would it affect the party?" Shiro question.
"It is as I had described, a second trial simr to this one. It will not affect the party no... When youplete the trial, we will have reached the Judge. Should you fail the trial, you may be lost in the river¡¯s of time. What will you choose?" The Guide smiled.
"What are the rewards? And what does the trial entail?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Depending on what he meant by river¡¯s of time, this could be a serious boon for her.
"As you do not seek the past, why don¡¯t we peer into the future? The Guide shows you the path and should you walk that path, you may stand before the Judge. However, what consequences will it bring to this raid? I do not know. But it may change this ce. This is the sanctuary of sin, a ce where people confront their demons. You have in the guardians despite the limitations, your rage over the past is not one to be looked down upon. But the gods are now watching little one...The gods are now watching... They choose to tamper and they choose to wait. They choose to observe... and then they choose to answer... Do you ept this trial?" The Guide smiled as Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯The gods are watching? They choose to tamper and they choose to wait... have they tampered with this raid? And what does he mean by they choose to wait... what are they waiting for?¡¯ Shiro questioned herself as she analysed his words.
From what she understood, her previous actions of bypassing the system has caused the gods to now observe her. She knew that as the agees closer, more and more powers will appear. She had already notified one of the demon gods due to her interaction with his anchor, so it wouldn¡¯t surprise her if there are more gods making anchors in this world. What confused her is why they decided to tamper with this raid.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to ept but she wanted to know the goal of this trial.
"What¡¯s the goal? If I choose to ept, what do I have to do in order to pass?" She asked.
"That is for you to find out little one. Now... I ask again, do you ept this trial by the gods who have tampered with this raid?"
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro looked up at the Guide.
"I ept."
Suddenly, a wave of fatigue hit her mind as Shiro held her head.
"Good luck little one. May the blessing of The Guides help you."
Gritting her teeth, she could only watch as her vision flicker before copsing on the boat deck.
###
"Are you watching goddess? The little one has epted your trial. She has decided to peer into her future." The Guide called out to the sky.
"Indeed. Quite a courageous one is she not? I suppose, one needs to be this courageous to be an Empress rather than a queen." A feminine voice rang out as the fire started to disintegrate. A night sky could be seen above the river as the Guide kneeled on the ground and bowed.
"Though I must say, the system is rather strict about her. The amount of things I must do to actually interact with her is quite numerous." The voiceughed as a graceful woman with long ck hairnded softly against the boat. Her mere presence made one feel calm while her eyes watched over you with gentle warmth.
[Avatar of Nyx ¨C Greek Goddess of Night]
"Let this be a taster for her before shees to Olympus." Nyx chuckled before cupping her hand around Shiro¡¯s cheeks.
###
"Mn...." Groaning softly, Shiro rubbed her eyes before sitting up straight. Looking around her, she could see herself in a room of sorts that was decorated in a way that suited a small child.
"The hell..." She muttered. Upon hearing her own voice, her pupils constricted as it was ominously young.
Looking down, he could see that she was in a body that suited a 5 year olds.
¡¯What the f*ck???¡¯ She cried out in her mind with surprise.
Quickly ncing at her system interface, she wanted to check her stats but it was empty. In all her three lives, there had always been an icon for the system. But this time, it was empty. Her vision was clear.
There was no system.
Hearing footsteps from outside of the room, Shiro turned towards the door.
*Krr...
Watching the door open, Shiro¡¯s breath halted in shock.
"Oh? You¡¯re awake. Was your sleep ok darling?" The woman smiled softly and picked her up.
Her hair was snow white while her eyes a deep shade of red.
Her facial features were delicate as there was a soft charming smile on her face that was filled with motherly love. However, despite the woman¡¯s charming appearance, Shiro was not charmed.
After all, it was one that she had seen basically everyday.
It was herself.
"Mn? Darling are you ok?" The other Shiro furrowed her brows with worry before cing a hand on Shiro¡¯s forehead.
"Hmm... there¡¯s nothing wrong with your body. Are you hungry? If you want. I can get your big sis Yin to cook you something. I know how much you like her food." The older Shiro smiled before walking out of the room with the baby Shiro in her arms.
Walking down some stairs, she entered the living room.
"Is little sis awake?" A voice called out.
Popping her head around the corner, Shiro could see an a.d.u.l.t version of Yin with an apron on while carrying what seemed to be a giant bowl of soup.
"She¡¯s just woken up now. She¡¯s probably hungry so could you cook something for her?" The older Shiro asked with a soft smile.
"Mn, sure. Attie and Lisa areing back soon anyways so it¡¯s probably a good time to cook." Yin nodded before cing the soup down on the table.
While this was all happening, the baby Shiro sat there with a confused face.
¡¯What the f*ck???¡¯
Chapter 589 Tia
Chapter 589 Tia
Sitting on the baby stool, Shiro looked at the dinner table with aplicated expression.
Yin was not as bratty as before. Her aura was mature and she seemed to be in a constant state of calmness and brought serenity to her surroundings which was quite a surprise for Shiro.
"Mn? Are you ok darling? You don¡¯t seem to be eating your food." The older Shiro asked with concern.
Quickly shaking her head, the younger Shiro started to eat while thinking about what was happening.
¡¯Nimue, Iziuel, Attie, Estre, are you there?¡¯ She called out into her mind only to get no response.
Realising that she¡¯s alone in this trial, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brows.
Looking up, she saw the older Shiro turn on the TV only to furrow her brows.
Curious as to why she had that expression, the younger Shiro also looked towards the TV only to be surprised by the headline.
[EMERGENCY: Demon God Verron invades China, Martial Hero in. China is now vulnerable.]
"Tch, that¡¯s going to be annoying." The older Shiro muttered with a frown before changing the channel.
"Mum! I¡¯m home!" A masculine voice rang out.
"I¡¯m home." Another voice followed up. This time, it was feminine.
"Attie, Lisa, wee back. Yin¡¯s made some breakfast for you." The older Shiro called out with a smile.
Hearing Attie¡¯s name, Shiro was rather curious as to what her son looked like in the future. ncing towards the door, her eyes widened in shock.
¡¯Holy f*ck my son is handsome!¡¯ She thought in surprise as she watched the red haired youth step into the room with a charming smile.
"Ah, even Tia is here. Morning little sis." Atesh crouched down with a smile before patting Shiro¡¯s head.
¡¯Ah so my third daughter¡¯s name is Tia.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while looking towards Lisandra who was behind Atesh.
Compared to the Lisandra she knew in her own time, her daughter in the future seemed rather... quiet. There was a slight air of mystery behind her as she sat down on the table and flipped her hair.
"Lisa, I know you want to look cool in front of Tia but not at the dinner table ok?" The older Shiro sighed as Lisandra blushed in embarrassment before nodding her head.
Chuckling in her mind, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow at Lisandra¡¯s actions of trying to look cool in front of her.
¡¯Thankfully, it seems like everyone¡¯s still alive and well.¡¯ Shiro nodded with a smile. However, that smile faltered a little when she thought about everyone else including Nimue and Iziuel. But for now, she needed to get a general grasp of the things that were happening around her.
"By the way mum, when I was out, I heard some news about Verron." Atesh said while grabbing a te for himself.
"Mn, he seems to have invaded China and killed the Martial Hero. Without a hero, they can¡¯t get the buff from the domain so defending China is going to be quite hard." The older Shiro replied with a sigh.
"Do you want to go see grandpa so that we can help his sect evacuate?" Atesh asked.
". . . Perhaps. But I think Nan Tian should be able to handle it though." The older Shiro shook her head.
"Are you sure? I mean... I get that he¡¯s tier 6 but he¡¯s still trying to evacuate while a demon god is on the loose right?" Atesh furrowed his brows.
"Attie, just let mum think about it ok? We have just found out about this right now after all." Yin shook her head with a soft smile.
"Ah sorry." Attie scratched his head apologetically.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro found this situation odd. First of all, there was no way that she would just leave the sect alone since the old man had provided her quite a bit of support. Unless something was happening, she wouldn¡¯t let Nan Tian face off against Verron alone. Especially when his guardian was the one that had almost killed her.
"See, talking about depressing topics has made Tia unhappy. Say something nice ok?" Lisa frowned before inching closer to Shiro in order to try appease her.
"You kids finish your meals, I¡¯m going to do some scouting ok?" The older Shiro sighed as she left the dinner table.
"Attie, how many times do I have to tell you not to mention anything or the sort to mum. You know how it is." Yin sighed as she started to feed the younger Shiro some food.
"Sorry, it just slipped my mind ok?" Atesh sighed.
"So have you found a way to establish a domain and anchor yet?" Yin asked as this sent rm bells through Shiro¡¯s mind.
¡¯Wait, I don¡¯t have domains or anchors???¡¯ She widened her eyes as she knew how important this was to the queens, demons and gods that are participating in the new age. Without this, she was technically not a participant.
"No we haven¡¯t. The enemy aren¡¯t so kind to just give us the information for free now are they?" Atesh leaned back on his chair.
"Unless we can find a way to help mum establish a domain, she can¡¯t fight them. Did you get any word back from aunty?"
"Unfortunately, that¡¯s a no as well. Aunty, grandpa and grandma are all trying to make sure that Japan is safe after all. Thankfully, there is not as much priority on Japan as the other ces but it¡¯s still hard for them to defend. Especially since they don¡¯t have a domain." Lisandra shook her head.
"What about everyone else? Lyrica and all that." Yin furrowed her brows.
"They¡¯re busy as well. Our main priority is to set up a domain for mum. Unless we can do this, there¡¯s nothing else we can do other than run. You know this big sis." Atesh shook his head.
". . .I know. It¡¯s just annoying that¡¯s all." Yin looked down on the food as she had finished feeding Shiro.
While this was all happening, Shiro finally understood a little of what was going on.
¡¯So in the ¡¯future¡¯ I wasn¡¯t able to establish an anchor or domain which made it so that the only thing for us to do was run. The other queens aren¡¯t exactly cooperative so this is probably something I need to figure out by myself.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes while looking around her.
The house was rather simple in terms of decoration. If anything, it almost looked like they had just recently moved in.
¡¯I need to find out about everything that¡¯s happened so far and what I can do. Since I¡¯m still just a kid, I can¡¯t ess my magic yet. I¡¯m about as weak as theye right now.¡¯
Shaking her head, she wanted to try to get off her stool only to realise that she was buckled up.
". . ."
"Mn? Tia, you want to get out?" Yin asked with a soft smile as Shiro nodded.
Undoing the buckle, Yin set Shiro down next to the sofa¡¯s before taking all the tes and started to wash up.
"Tia, do you want to watch your show?" Lisandra asked as she crouched down next to Shiro.
Shaking her head, Shiro declined the offer. She had more important tasks than watching a kids show.
Suddenly, Atesh stood up with a frown.
"Atesh." Yin called out with seriousness in her voice.
"But big sis! Th-"
"Atesh. You know mum doesn¡¯t want you to fight them." Yin shook her head.
"B-"
"No buts." Yin shook her head adamantly.
Gritting his teeth, Atesh could only sit back down with anger.
Suddenly, mana surged around the house as Shiro could see a barrier being formed just outside of the window.
Blocking a barrage of tier 5 spells, the barrier shimmered slightly but stood strong.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯m not liked in the future.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she climbed over to the window.
"Ah don¡¯t mind them Tia. Let big sis take you back to your room first ok?" Lisandra smiled before looking out of the window with rage in her eyes.
Bringing Shiro up stairs back to her room, Lisandra left with a frown on her face.
Curious as to what was happening, Shiro tried to make her way to the toilet so that she could look out of the window to see what was happening outside.
Trying her best to walk over to the window, she was disgusted at how weak her limbs were as she couldn¡¯t walk for a long time without falling back.
Cursing in her mind, she started to climb up to the windowsill.
Peering out of the window, she saw Lisa and Attie with furious expressions on their face while Yin was shaking her head behind them.
Just outside of the barrier, Shiro could see a group of people who aimed tier 5 spells towards the house with hostile expressions.
Before she could keep watching, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. ncing behind her, she could see her own serious eyes.
"What did you do to my daughter? You¡¯re not her." The older Shiro said with mild killing intent.
¡¯Ah sh*t....¡¯
Chapter 590 Shiro and Shiro
Chapter 590 Shiro and Shiro
"Hm... I suppose you can¡¯t speak in that body." The older Shiro narrowed her eyes and flexed her fingers.
Suddenly, a nanotech cor appeared around Shiro¡¯s neck.
"Don¡¯t speak just yet, we¡¯re going to my room." Once she returned to her room, the older Shiro locked the door and set up a few formations.
"Speak." She demanded with a frown.
"Ah ah ah~ Oh damn this really does work." Shiro raised her eyebrow before turning to her older self.
"Before you kill me or do anything that may torture my soul, let me just say that I barely have a clue on what the f*ck is happening as well."
"Then do you know where my daughter is?" The older Shiro asked as swords appeared around her.
"Unfortunately no- WAIT WAIT WAIT!!! Let me finish woman!" Shiro cried out in shock when she saw her soul soul sword appear. Since she was the same person, she knew what her soul sword can do and it wouldn¡¯t surprise her if the older Shiro was able to just extract her soul from Tia¡¯s body.
"Go on."
"Listen. I was in the past. The age of demons and gods hadn¡¯t started yet. I met this person called The Guide. I was then given a trial and the next thing I knew; I was here." Shiro exined while leaving some parts of the truth out of the picture.
"The Guide... Hm... so you¡¯re telling me this person sent you to the future before the age could even begin?" The older Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Yes.
"Bullsh*t." The older Shiro shook her head and prepared to swing her sword.
"Ah just stop! Let me exin and at least try to convince you god damn it!" Shiro shouted out with annoyance.
¡¯Was I always this unreasonable????¡¯ She huffed in her mind.
"There¡¯s no need for you to exin since it¡¯s impossible. Unless your mortal body dies on the spot and your soul is kept in slumber for years before reawakening, there¡¯s no way for you to just ¡¯Jump¡¯ to the future."
"I know that. However, what if a god is involved?"
"The procedures they must do to pull something like this off is quite strict and not to mention, not many gods can do this. Since you came from the past, the system was still around. With the gods being bound by the authority levels, they must be willing to sacrifice quite a bit to pull something like this off. Even the god of time would struggle if he tried it in the past." The older Shiro shook her head.
"Well believe it or not, it¡¯s what had happened. I just want to know what I must do to pass this trial but I think I have an idea now." Shiro shrugged.
"Oh?"
"I think I need to help you establish a domain as well as an anchor. So far, all clues lead to this. I don¡¯t have the system interface so I can¡¯t be sure so I¡¯m just guessing at this point." Shiro exined while the older Shiro narrowed her eyes before tapping Tia¡¯s forehead.
Suddenly, ck chains wrapped around her body as Shiro felt a pain assault her mind.
Feeling a sense of weightlessness overwhelm her body, Shiro found herself in a strange state. Her body was transparent and she was currently floating above Tia¡¯s unconscious body.
Looking down at her hands, she noticed that it was back to a.d.u.l.t form.
Turning towards the a.d.u.l.t Shiro, she could see the shock on her face.
"Welp, I guess the secrets out then. Sup older me." Shiro grinned and gave herself a small wave.
Taking a moment to massage her eyes, the older Shiro sighed.
"Ok if it¡¯s me were talking about, I can definitely imagine myself f*cking up the system and causing this to happen." The older Shiro sighed.
"Ok, to make sure that you¡¯re actually me, I¡¯m going to ask you questions that only I would know." The older Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"First, what is my favourite food."
"It¡¯s not food, it¡¯s a drink. It¡¯s juice." Shiro replied with a shrug since food was nice but she enjoyed her juice.
"Ok, second question. What¡¯s my favourite weapon?"
"A spear since it can poke the ass the easiest. However, we mostly use swords and guns since we¡¯re used to using them."
"Mn. Third question, who do I love?" The older Shiro narrowed her eyes.
*PFT!!!!
Widening her eyes, Shiro blushed in embarrassment and looked down on her fingers.
"I- I don¡¯t know." Shiro muttered back.
"Oh my god you really dide from quite far back in the past haven¡¯t you?" The older Shiro raised her eyebrow after seeing her embarrassed younger self.
"Hush it! You¡¯re me so you¡¯ve been through this already!" Shiro pouted.
"Yes but I now have a third biological daughter so I¡¯m better in this regard. Also, just because you¡¯re me, doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m ok with my daughter suddenly disappearing. Thankfully for you, her soul is still there." The older Shiro pointed back down at Tia¡¯s body. Near her, Shiro could see the faint silhouette of Tia sleeping soundlessly.
"So until this is over, I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re in her body for now." The older Shiro sighed.
"Mn, before we go to anything important, mind telling me who I lo- like?" Shiro asked.
"Hm...." Narrowing her eyes at her younger self, the older Shiro grinned.
"Nope~ If I told you, it might change the future you know?"
"Oh you can f*ck right off with that bullsh*t. While this might be the quote on quote ¡¯future¡¯ it¡¯s not at the same time since it¡¯s a trial. So you can tell me and it¡¯ll be fine. Who knows, this might just be an isted space caused by the system in the future that can be used as a trial in the past. We don¡¯t know." Shiro huffed.
"Yes but it¡¯s no fun like that. It was quite... fufu, interesting to find it out for myself so I won¡¯t spoil you of the fun." The older Shiroughed with a smug expression.
"Go f*ck yourself." Shiro flipped herself off.
"You know, with you here, I can indeed." The older Shiro chuckled and licked her lips seductively as a joke.
". . ."
¡¯What the f*ck have I be in the future...¡¯ She thought to herself while facepalming in soul form.
Calming her mind down, she looked back at herself.
"Anyways, enough with the jokes. So far, we know that this is a trial. You need to do something in order to return to the past. There is also a chance that this is not actually the future but rather an isted space of one of the probabilities. So the god that tampered with this is someone quite high up on the hierarchy."
"Indeed. I¡¯ll run a search on high level gods that I know of right now." The older Shiro nodded her head.
"You seemed to have epted things quite quickly." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Of course. I¡¯m me after all. Plus, knowing myself, I¡¯d be quite pressed for time if I¡¯m in the same situation. With me understanding the situation and not killing you instantly, I can actually work with you to figure things out. Honestly, this reminds me of the time I spent with big sis Kuro back in that trial." The older Shiro chuckled before a screen appeared before Shiro.
"Check this list and see if any of the gods here can potentially make this trial."
"Wouldn¡¯t Chronos be on this?" Shiro asked as he was the god of time.
"Normally yes but the new age has really f*cked with his powers. Right now, his powers are limited with the future being ssed as ¡¯uncertain¡¯. There¡¯s probably a good chance that it¡¯s the same in the past so I took him off the list. Plus, this might not even be the actual future so it¡¯s outside of this scope of power. For all we know, it could be an illusion." The older Shiro shrugged.
"I suppose that¡¯s why you put Asteria down then. She is the goddess of the stars and they can use the stars to predict the future. So she could have probably worked with another god to make this trial. You could be a very detailed illusion after predicting my future and seeing how I would react." Shiro agreed.
"Exactly." The older Shiro smiled.
"Hmm... Honestly, I have no clue. I say we should just y along for now and help solve your domain and anchor problem. If you don¡¯t mind telling me, why can¡¯t you create one?" Shiro asked.
"No idea. I don¡¯t know how to set it up even after copying and analysing their magic circles. Apparently, I myself amcking something." The older Shiro sighed.
"I-"
Before she could reply, the house started to shake from thebat.
*Sigh.
"The kids are fighting again." The older Shiro sighed and stood up.
"Why are people targeting you?" Shiro asked curiously.
Pausing in her footsteps, the older Shiro looked down before ncing back at her.
"Because I took the system away from them. They¡¯re now alone without a helping hand in this broken world."
Chapter 591 Anchors and Domains Part 1
Chapter 591 Anchors and Domains Part 1
"You took the system away? I thought I wanted to transcend it and not rely on it. I didn¡¯t want topletely get rid of it since some people may need it." Shiro furrowed her brow.
"It¡¯s moreplicated than you expect. Anyways, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s good for you to stay in soul form for a long period of time. For now, you¡¯ll have to put up with being in my daughter¡¯s body and if you can, please don¡¯t shock Yin and the other¡¯s too much ok? They don¡¯t need a heart attack after everything that has happened so far." The older Shiro shook her head as Shiro¡¯s soul retracted back into Tia¡¯s body.
"Urg..." Groaning softly from the difort, Shiro watched as her cor disassembled itself.
"Now be an obedient daughter for mommy ok?" The older Shiro said with a smug grin.
Carrying Shiro into her hands, the older Shiroughed at Shiro¡¯splicated expression.
Walking downstairs, she opened the front door with a confident stride.
"There she is!" One of the people shouted out as they immediately aimed their spells towards her.
Seeing this, Atesh red at the man with rage.
Before fire could erupt out around him, the older Shiro ced a hand on Atesh¡¯s shoulder.
"Don¡¯t mind them. I¡¯ll deal with it." The older Shiro said with a smile.
Since her younger self was here with her, this was probably a good time to make aeback. Who knows, perhaps her younger might be able to give her new ideas.
"So why have you ¡¯kind¡¯ gentlemen and gentlewomene to my humble abode?" The older Shiro called out with a chuckle.
"Shut up witch! Prepare to die!" One of the adventurer¡¯s shouted out in anger as the spellsunched towards her.
Shaking her head with a smile, the older Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Sorry, I must ask you to leave me home if that is your intent."
Flexing her fingers, a giant tier 6 magic formation split the sky open as swords appeared as far as the eye could see. Pointing it towards the adventurers, she swiped her hand down.
Watching the carnage happen, Atesh, Yin and Lisandra were quite surprised by their mother¡¯s actions. After all, she would normally threaten them a little before letting them go. Seeing this change in attitude was quite refreshing.
"Right then. It¡¯s been a while but how would you kids like to have a homework assignment?" The older Shiro asked with a smile.
"Sure." Atesh nodded his head eagerly.
"Attie, I want you to go over to Lyrica and the other¡¯s and see if you can help them out. You¡¯ll mostly act as an intermediary between us since I¡¯m going to be trying to establish a domain if I can."
"Yin, I¡¯ll need you to grab samples of each of the anchors and domains that are scattered around this world. I need all of them, from the small anchors to the big ones."
"Lisa, I want you to go help Lil¡¯ Tian evacuate the sect since we¡¯ll be needing the sect¡¯s help. Plus, there is also the god grade anchor in China so if you can, help Yin collect a sample since I know you two sisters work well together." The older Shiro said with a smile.
"Some exercise after food is just what I want. What kind of samples do you want me to get mum?" Yin asked with a small smile.
"Any. From pieces of the anchor itself to images of the magic circles. I want everything you can get your hands on so that we canpare it to the past samples and see what¡¯s changed."
"Got it. Since I need to go to China, I might as well get that out of the way first. Lisa, let¡¯s go." Yin said as she put her apron away in the house.
"Mn. I¡¯ll miss you Tia." Lisandra smiled as she waved to Shiro.
Before Shiro could respond, her older self grabbed her hand and returned the wave.
Once Yin was ready, a pair of blue and purple wings unfurled behind her as Lisandra followed up.
Surprisingly, the older Lisandra had 3 pairs of wings rather than one. Her pristine white feathers had now disappeared and were reced with ck ones instead.
"Take care you two." The older Shiro waved as her two daughters flew off into the distance.
"Mum, is there anything else I need to do when I go over to the rest of the party?" Atesh asked as he stretched his body.
"Just help them out if you can." The older Shiro shook her head.
"Ok, I¡¯m heading out mum." Atesh smiled and gave her a hug.
"Stay safe out there."
Watching Atesh leave, the older Shiro walked back into the house before tracing her fingers along the side of the walls.
Nanobots started to appear as it converted the living room into amand room with monitors and different consoles.
"Right then. I suppose you want to look through the records so that you can see what the anchors and domains look like right?" The older Shiro asked as she pulled back a baby stool for Shiro.
Pausing for a slight moment, Shiro sighed before climbing onto the stool.
Walking behind Shiro, the older Shiro wrapped a ne around her neck.
"This should help you talk without looking like a ve cor."
"Pretty nifty." Shiro shrugged.
"Indeed. Anyways, do you want to look through every single record that I¡¯ve collected since the start of the age or just the anchors and domains?" The older Shiro asked while walking over to the fridge. Pouring herself two cups of juice, she passed one to Shiro.
"Hmm... just the ones about the anchor and domains." Shiro replied after a sip.
"Oh my, this is rather tasty." She raised her eyebrow.
"So you just want to know abouIt the anchors and domains? What about the rest, do you not want to know about them?" The older Shiro asked with curiosity.
"Oh you already know don¡¯t you? If I followed the guideline, I wouldn¡¯t be able to improvise as well as I can if the situation goes south. Plus, my actions of trying to follow the path may cause a butterfly effect which changes the future more so I might as well not have done anything to begin with." Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
"True."
"Before we start, if you don¡¯t mind me asking, where¡¯s Nimue, Iziuel and Estre? Knowing Nimue and Iziuel, they should be around shouldn¡¯t they?" Shiro asked curiously.
Hearing those three names, the older Shiro paused for a moment before looking towards Shiro.
"They¡¯re in a state ofatose right now."
"Huh??!! The f*ck?"
"Listening to me swear in my daughter¡¯s body is weird as hell. Anyways, do you want to know about why they¡¯re in aatose or do you want to go in blind?" The older Shiro asked.
"Well since you¡¯re me, you also know that I¡¯m a hypocrite when ites to my friends. What happened to them?" Shiro shrugged before looking towards her older self with a serious gaze.
"The spirit capital was attacked by the Dragon Empress. Since I did not have a domain nor an anchor, it was hard to fend her off. Our fight was futile and the three of them tried their best to defend the city with the spirit council but in the end, they failed. Right now, the spirits are scattered throughout the world with danger lurking everywhere. Unless I can establish a domain and bring the spirits under my protection, I¡¯m afraid they¡¯re going to be exterminated within a few years."
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro looked down at her own cup.
"Question from me. How are you alive? Wouldn¡¯t the queens and gods target you?" She asked.
"That¡¯s thanks to the contract that I had obtained not too long after the new age started. Owners of anchors cannot kill me unless I attack them first. So unless I attack them, I can roam this world without too many worries. However, that does not protect the people around me so we¡¯ve been on the run for quite a while now. There have been a few close calls but thankfully, we¡¯re all alive." The older Shiro replied with a smile.
"I see... This new age is quite a hassle huh?"
"Tell me about it." The older Shiro chuckled.
"If you could change one thing in the past, what would you change?" Shiro asked.
"Nothing. I caused all of this so to make up for my actions, I must ept the consequences and work towards a better future."
"Hm, you¡¯re really me huh?" Shiroughed.
"No sh*t. I know you¡¯ve been testing me just as I have been testing you ya know?"
"Mn, true. But enough testing each other for now, we got a few magic circles to decipher. Hopefully, we can figure out why we can¡¯t establish a domain." Shiro smiled and ced her cup down. Bringing the keyboard in front of her, she started to tap away.
Chapter 592 Anchors and Domains Part 2
Chapter 592 Anchors and Domains Part 2
Looking up all the records on anchors and domains, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the gradual evolution of the magic circles and noticed a small consistency among them.
"Say, older me, look at this." Shiro called out as her older self swung her chair over to her side.
"Sup."
"Look at this part of the magic circle. What is it? During all of the ¡¯evolutions¡¯, this one has stayed constant but I can¡¯t help but notice that you have no record on what it is." Shiro asked.
"That¡¯s because it can¡¯t be analysed. It¡¯s the part that I can¡¯t figure out. I¡¯ve been trying to reverse engineer the magic circle through analysing the otherponents but I haven¡¯t been able to figure out anything about the coreponent yet." The older Shiro shook her head.
"Then I¡¯m guessing that this is probably the thing that we need to figure out then. What about domain? Surely you can set up a domain right? Since we were born in this world." Shiro asked.
"Nope. Unless we have an anchor point, the domain cannot be created. Think of the anchor as the core of the magic circle and theponents of the magic circle is the domain. Without the core, theponents wouldn¡¯t appear." The older Shiro exined.
"Hmm.... That¡¯s a bit annoying then."
"Tell me about it. I¡¯ve been trying to sort this sh*t out for quite a while but I haven¡¯t been able to figure out anything." The older Shiro shrugged.
"Have you tried to pry one of the anchors open?"
"No since I haven¡¯t got the chance to. If I attack now, it means that they can kill me and with the amount of benefits they get from their anchors and domains, I¡¯m afraid I must say that I¡¯m not their match. I still have Error 404 but there are heavy restrictions to using it now and I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s impossible to activate."
"Eh? Howe?"
"Because the system is gone." The older Shiro exined as Shiro paused for a moment before nodding her head.
"Hm... So not only is our most powerful weapon blocked, but we also can¡¯t do a deep analysis on the anchor points." Shiro frowned.
"Yup. And if I die, the world is gone."
*Sigh
"The new age has really f*cked things over huh?"
"Tell me about it." The older Shiro nodded before moving back to her ownputer.
"Older me, another question. Since the third daughter is biological, does that mean our partner is a man?"
"Maybe, maybe not. I¡¯m able to make pregnancy between two girls possible as well you know? You ain¡¯t getting the name of my beloved that easily now you know." The older Shiroughed.
"Tch. I can¡¯t imagine myself saying beloved." Shiro shivered slightly.
"Well you¡¯re seeing me do it now. I mean, I can also call them my sweet honey pot, my one and only~" The older Shiro cupped her chin with a blush. Naturally, she was trying to annoy her younger self who seemed to shiver at her older self¡¯s actions.
"Please stop. I would have thought that my older self would be more mature than this." Shiro sighed.
"We both know we ain¡¯t mature." The older Shiro shrugged.
"So how did you figure out who you loved? You don¡¯t need to tell me the name, just the context." Shiro asked while swiping a few files towards her older self.
"It was a moonlit dinner. The sky was clear and the stars could be seen. Wine was on the table along with a high ssed meal. In front of me sat my dearest with a soft smile. Looking at my dearest, I felt blessed. And that¡¯s when I woke up. It was quite a nice dream I hadst night you know? HAHAHA!!!!" The older Shiroughed at the annoyed look on Shiro¡¯s face.
"F*ck you." Shiro cursed before searching through some more files.
¡¯Why the f*ck did I stay a troll like I am now. Surely I should have matured right??? Right???¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since talking to a more mature version of herself would be appreciated.
"Some people may never change and unfortunately for you, we didn¡¯t." The older Shiro said with a smug expression before returning the file to her with a few notes.
With two Shiro¡¯s analysing the anchors and domains, their working speed increased tremendously since there were very few who could keep up with her. And even if they could barely keep up with her, they couldn¡¯t store the knowledge as well as she did.
The current situation is akin to having two superputers working side by side on the same project with all of their processing power on this singr task.
After around an hour or so, Shiro leaned back on her baby stool since she had essentially learnt everything that she needed to know.
This little research session had filled up quite a few of the nks that she was wondering about.
Much like a civilisation building game, the anchors were like the vige hall while the domains are the different buildings that are ced around the anchor. Each anchor has a certain amount of domains that it can sustain and the owner must choose how big the anchor is.
However, doing so has its drawbacks. Their power is reduced depending on how big the anchor is and the only way to get a refund or perhaps even get stronger is for the domains to harvest ¡¯donations¡¯ from the subjects.
Let¡¯s say a queen invests 10% of their power into an anchor and creates several domains around the anchor, the subjects will offer small portions of their power and it will funnel into the anchor, sustaining it while the initial investment is returned. Any extra that the anchor obtains is then passed onto the queen.
However, the size of the can¡¯t change after the initial investment unless one destroys it and starts again. However, in doing so, they will need to invest their power once more and wait for the returns. Therefore, there are very few that are willing to break their anchor unless they¡¯re absolutely certain that the enemy wouldn¡¯t notice.
But this wasn¡¯t all. The domains could be taken over and the power/return, could be stolen and siphoned to another ruler. Hence why one must have adequate guards around each of their domains. A few of the queens also form alliances using this.
If they find a prime spot for their anchors and domains, they may choose to work together and share the bounty through this siphoning feature. Thought this rarely happens since there are strength disparities between the queens. Unless they are equal in strength or if the returns are not worth the effort, they would choose to form this alliance.
"We need to figure out how the queens can make additional Anchors and what they¡¯re using for it. Their main anchor can¡¯t be destroyed otherwise they¡¯re out of thepetition so there must be something in it that keeps them tied to thepetition." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Mn. I did see one of the queens get eliminated despite having their smaller anchors still intact so we can assume that the smaller anchors don¡¯t matter too much in the grand scheme of things. However, if you do go after them, you are able to siphon parts of their power, making yourself stronger before the fight." The older Shiro nodded.
"Hmm... do you think we can make an anchor if we take one of the smaller ones?"
"We might be able to but it will risk our safety quite a bit since it means the queen cane after us. Even the weakest queen is no joke at this period of time. If it was near the start then maybe. But now? Hell no. they¡¯ve been cultivating their strength patiently. If there is one tip that you must understand, it¡¯s that you want to finish this age as quick as you can. The longer it goes on, the harder it bes since the head honchos be ridiculously strong." The older Shiro shook her head.
"Without a guarantee, I¡¯d rather advise against risking ourselves like this. We could give them the chance of killing us without getting anything in return."
"What about the queens that have been eliminated, can you grab their old anchor and see if you can find out what we¡¯recking?" Shiro asked.
"I tried that already. It¡¯s no use, the queen must be alive for the coreponent to be present. If they die, the anchors be useless crystals."
Furrowing her brows, Shiro had an idea.
"I¡¯m not sure if you tried this yet but how about we do it like this. If we can get two queens to try to kill each other, we will attack the smallest anchor belonging to the weakest side and examine it before she dies. That way, even if she knows, she can¡¯t do anything about it and we¡¯ll be able to analyse the anchor, hopefully finding out the one piece that weck." Shiro suggested.
"That¡¯s rather reckless. If both queens settle their differences and turn towards us, we¡¯re dead for good you know that right?" The older Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Sometimes risks are necessary and to increase the odds, we need some serious nning." Shiro replied.
"Then I suppose it¡¯s a good thing that there¡¯s two of us." The older Shiro grinned.
Chapter 593 Undead Queen
Chapter 593 Undead Queen
"Let¡¯s see, out of all the current queens, gods and such, we need to find the weakest ones who have a grudge with one another. We then need to get them to fight each other to the death so that we can get the chance to attack one of their anchors. Got anyone in mind?" Shiro asked as her older self nodded her head.
"I know of 4 queens that are fighting. One of which is the Dragon Empress and let¡¯s just say we don¡¯t want to get onto her radar just yet. The other three are The Lighting Queen, The Undead Queen and The Giant Queen. The Dragon Empress and The Giant Queen are fighting one another while there seemed to be something brewing between The Lightning Queen and The Undead Queen, they haven¡¯t started fighting yet but so far, if we want to get a piece of the anchor point, the best choice would probably be this one since they¡¯re the weaker party." The older Shiro exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Between The Lightning Queen and The Undead Queen, which one is weaker?" Shiro asked.
"Probably The Undead Queen if I have to be honest. However, I¡¯d much prefer it if we go after The Lightning Queen."
"Eh? Howe? Wouldn¡¯t it be easier for us to target the weaker one?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Yes that is easier but The Undead Queen is quite friendly you know? I wouldn¡¯t say I¡¯m friends with her but I wouldn¡¯t count her as an enemy." Her older self shook her head while getting some more juice.
"It¡¯ll probably be better if I show you her kingdom or rather, domain. You can see why I say she¡¯s quite friendly when you look at her residents."
Standing up, the older Shiro dismissed theputers and picked Shiro up.
"We¡¯ll make our way to her kingdom now ok?"
"Wait, right now?" Shiro widened her eyes.
"Yes right now. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯spletely safe." Walking out of the house, the older Shiro closed her eyes for a moment before opening a portal.
Stepping through the portal, Shiro was immediately hit in the face with a rather pleasant smell. It was calming and soothing to the mind.
"Wee to The Undead Queen¡¯s main domain. Haven of the dead." The older Shiro introduced with a smile.
Looking around her, Shiro could see people of all races interacting with each other. Some of them were undead but they looked rather normal apart from the pale skin and slightly sunken eyes.
The buildings surrounding them were quite beautiful with flower pots on the balconies. The pavement on the streets were well maintained as the red sky gave the pavement a slight red hue but it wasn¡¯t too bad. Overall, it looked surprisingly peaceful despite the haunting red sky which symbolised the new age.
"The Undead Queen, Misu, revives those that died as coteral damage and reunites them with their families. She provides a safe home for them from this new age and keeps them safe. Of course, this is all done with consent since she can talk to souls. Don¡¯t worry though, I made it so that she can¡¯t see our souls otherwise it might be a little awkward to see a younger version of myself in my daughter." The older Shiroughed.
With the older Shiro¡¯s appearances, a few of the civilians gave her a wave.
"Ah it¡¯s Shiro, haven¡¯t seen you in a while." One of the food vendors called out with a smile.
"Mr Tarm, it has indeed been a while. You know how it is with the new age." The older Shiro chuckled as the man named Tarm nodded his head.
"True true. How¡¯s little Yin by the way? Is she still eating a lot?" He asked with a smile.
"Naturally, it¡¯s Yin after all. Though she has been cooking more often now so that she won¡¯t have to trouble everyone else. Her appetite is quite strong no?"
"Mn mn, that¡¯s definitely true. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s anyone else who has an appetite that¡¯sparable to her¡¯s. Anyways, what brings you here?" He asked.
"Just bringing my third daughter around to look at the scenery. Can¡¯t have her cooped up all day everyday now can I?"
"I see. Tension¡¯s a bit high but most of the ces should still be open. Hopefully, nothing serious happens since this is probably one of the rarer ces in this world." Tarm sighed.
"There aren¡¯t many that are like Misu after all."
"Benevolence is rare with everyone trying to kill each other after all."
"Anyways, I should get going now, say hi to your family for me ok?" The older Shiro waved her hand before walking away.
"This ce seems nice. A lot of the families here are genuinely happy." Shiro muttered while looking around the area.
"Of course. Despite her title, Misu isn¡¯t all gloom and doom. She chose to be a master of the undead arts due to the sadness she sees in people from people losing their loved ones. Whether it¡¯s from a bandit raid, a monster horde or just an ident, as long as they bring a piece of their loved ones to Misu, she¡¯ll try her best at reviving them aftermunicating with their souls. A mother who has lost her son to an illness got him back at full health. They now spend their time in this city living a happy life. A child who lost her parents from a monster horde got her family back. You can find all sorts of stories like this throughout the city since bringing them happiness is Misu¡¯s main goal. That¡¯s why her strength is on the weaker side. She doesn¡¯t spend her time finding powerful warriors nor does she spend her time cultivating a powerful army. She spends it reuniting people with their loved ones."
"So why does The Lightning Queen want to fight her then?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Because lightning cleanses the undead. To her eyes, people that died should stay dead and the living should respect their passing. What Misu is doing is heresy to her eyes hence why tension is brewing between them. The Lightning Queen doesn¡¯t know that Misu only revives them after respecting their wishes. Sometimes a person wants to stay dead despite their family¡¯s wishes and if the family can¡¯t persuade the person, Misu will respect their wishes and return them to the grave. I suppose it¡¯s just a conflict of ideology in the end and let¡¯s just say The Lightning Queen is a bit hot headed."
"It¡¯s unfortunate that you¡¯re not friends with Misu. If you were, do you think she¡¯d let you take a piece of the anchor?" Shiro asked.
"F*ck no. Her anchors are important since it allows her to set up safe cities like this one. Taking a piece would just ruin the city since her powers would fade and the revived would die once more." The older Shiro shook her head.
"I see..."
Walking around the city, the two spent a few hours observing the citizens and saw what the city was like. And Shiro had to admit, it seemed like a nice ce to live in. With how the new age was, a ce like this was highly sought after.
Buying herself some juice, the older Shiro sat down on one of the park benches.
"Do you want to meet her?" She asked while taking a sip.
"Meet who?"
"Misu."
"Wait what?" Shiro raised her eyebrow. She didn¡¯t expect that they could just meet a queen like this.
"I said that we¡¯re not friends but not enemies either. It¡¯s like a business rtionship between us. I have helped her in the past so she sees me in a rather positive light. A meeting or two shouldn¡¯t be hard." The older Shiro exined.
"Though I suppose the only reason as to why we¡¯re not friends is that she¡¯s quite annoyed by my actions against my enemy¡¯s souls. I can cause them eternal suffering with my sword after all and she doesn¡¯t like that. However, she respects that I won¡¯t mind helping souls out as long as they¡¯re not my enemies hence why we¡¯re like business partners."
"Hou... Sure. I¡¯m interested in what Misu is like in person." Shiro nodded.
"Alright. She should be free in about 30 minutes so we¡¯ll walk to her home." The older Shiro said while looking at her phone. Picking Shiro up, she started to walk towards the north of the city.
In the distance, Shiro could see a rather well designed mansion sitting on top of a small hill. Compared to what she had imagined, this was rather surprising.
None of the material used gave her a sense of dread but rather, it gave her a sense of wee. Like anyone coulde to the mansion and talk to the queen. There were no creepy ornaments as everything was kept rather simple. Overall, it didn¡¯t seem like a house belonging to someone called The Undead Queen.
"Right then, she should be finished around now so let¡¯s go meet Misu. I¡¯ll do the talking since my 5 year old daughter does not have such an expansive vocabry." The older Shiro chuckled before removing her ne.
Rolling her eyes, Shiro stayed silent as they entered the mansion.
Chapter 594 Business Between Two Rulers
Chapter 594 Business Between Two Rulers
Walking through the mansion, the older Shiro would give a few of the guards a small wave and a soft smile.
Seeing her, the guards only nodded their heads before letting her through.
Looking down at her younger self, she could guess what she was thinking.
"If you¡¯re wondering about why they¡¯re so rxed, it¡¯s because I¡¯ve been here a few times. In the beginning, they were quite stringent you know?" The older Shiro chuckled.
Walking through the quiet hallways, they soon arrived before a giant set of doors that was guarded by four soldiers while a butler stood by the side.
"Ah Miss Shiro, I was informed by the guards about your arrival. Please wait a moment since her majesty is still dealing with one of the souls. It¡¯s taking a little longer than expected." The butler smiled with a small bow.
He was a rather young man with a slim physique. He had ck hair that was brushed backwards and a pair of ck eyes.
Shiro could see that this man was an undead due to his pale skin and sunken eyes but his expression was quite cheerful.
"I see... there aren¡¯t many souls that could make Misu spend this long so what¡¯s the asion?" The older Shiro asked curiously.
"Well, it¡¯s hard because a part of his soul has been eradicated/exorcised by lightning. With an iplete soul that was deliberately harmed, it¡¯s a little harder to revive him properly." The butler exined.
"Seems like the other queen is rather impatient then."
"Mn."
Before they could continue their conversation, they felt mana spike up behind the room as the butler immediately charged in. From the feel of the mana, he could tell that it was lightning based and it wasn¡¯t something that Misu could produce.
Pushing open the doors, they could see a beautiful woman kneeling on the ground with a paleplexion while a man with blond hair prepared to strike her with lightning.
Before he could, skeletal arms erupted out of the ground and grabbed him by the neck. mming his body down on the floor, the soldiers sprang into action and pierced his body with des before ripping out his soul with ck chains.
mming a cor around the soul¡¯s neck, the soldier¡¯s restrained him while the butler helped the young woman up.
"Are you ok my queen?" He asked with worry.
"Mn, just a little surprised that¡¯s all. To think she would harm her own subject like this..." The woman muttered after taking a moment to calm herself down.
Looking at the woman, Shiro could see long silky ck hair that extended past her waist. She had a pair of emerald eyes that seemed to flicker like a small me.
She wore a ck dress that extended past her ankles, covering her legs and preventing any skin from being exposed. The sleeves of the dress reached her wrist before blooming out slightly.
Adjusting the sses on her face, Misu took a deep breath and stood up straight.
"It seems like you were insincere. I¡¯m sorry but your only fate is death." She sighed.
Snapping her fingers, green mes appeared around the soul and started to burn the edges of his illusionary figure. The expression on the man¡¯s face started to dull as his soul became smaller. Scattering into particles of light, Misu shook her head and turned to Shiro.
"I¡¯m sorry that you had to see that. So what brings you here today?" Misu asked as she gestured for the soldiers to take the body away.
"Nothing much just wondering how it¡¯s fairing between you and The Lightning Queen. Though considering what I¡¯ve just seen, not good." The older Shiro shrugged.
"Mn. That still doesn¡¯t answer my question though. What brings you here?" Misu asked once more.
"No fun as usual. Just asking to see if you wanted some help against the Lightning Queen. I do have some rather capablepanions."
"Considering the nature of your contract, wouldn¡¯t this mean that you are willing to risk your life?" Misu furrowed her brows.
"Pretty much but I¡¯ll be transparent with you. I won¡¯t be able to help you directly if you fight the queen. The most I can do is cut off her supply of strength through the anchors." The older Shiro shrugged.
"That¡¯s much appreciated but tell me, why? I understand that I am not the most powerful queen and I¡¯m probably going to lose this fight so why are you helping me? We¡¯re not friends but not enemies either, business partners suit us more. And business partners usually prioritise the better investment." Misu questioned.
In the new age, one couldn¡¯t trust people easily or else they¡¯ll get stabbed from behind.
"Well what if I told you that this is indeed a good investment for me? You see, sometimes it¡¯s not about the value but rather the meaning. And to me, the meaning of your city and what it upholds is more valuable than anything the Lightning Queen can offer. Between you and her, I¡¯d much rather you win. Plus, I¡¯m pretty sure you know that I¡¯ve been trying to get my hands on a few anchors so I want to get my hands on a piece of her anchor."
"I do know that anchors are your primary objective. Tell me this then Shiro, what help can you offer? In this fight, numbers are important as we need to cover ground. My personal strength iscking so a direct confrontation is always going to be a loss for me. The only reason I¡¯ve been able to stay around for this long is because the Lightning Queen may suffer more loses than what she wants. Should that happen, a giant red target will be painted on her back by the other queens." Misu narrowed her eyes.
"I can provide all of you with weaponry that may help close the gap in terms of numbers. My children can help but their lives cannot be risked. I wish I could offer more but my hands are tied." The older Shiro replied with a smile.
"Hmm... I understand. What is the price of your weapons then?"
"A contract. Just a small one that makes it so that you can¡¯t team up with the Lightning Queen to kill me nor can you just shoot her with one of my weapons and leave. After all, doing so would mean that ¡¯I¡¯ just attacked the queen, rendering my protection contract null." Shiro chuckled.
"That is fine. What weapons are you offering then?"
"A fleet of remote control flying fortresses armed to the teeth with my best weapons. Orbital cannons, rail guns, mech suits and mana regen zones to help your people in the fight." The older Shiro smiled.
"Do you have enough to arm every single solder that I have?" Misu narrowed her eyes.
"Yes. However, I do hope that you don¡¯t immediately go intobat since even with my weapons, you cannot just charge head on." Shiro nodded.
"Of course. I¡¯m fighting at a disadvantage after all." Misu smiled.
"Then let us establish the contract. I shall provide you with all the weapons you need when the fight begins and in return, you cannot turn against me for this fight only. Sound good?" The older Shiro asked as a tier 6 magic circle appeared between the two of them.
Nodding her head, Misu examined the magic circle before smiling.
"Everything is in order. The contract contents are agreeable. I, The Undead Queen Misu, ept this contract." She said as a part of the magic circle hummed with a soft light.
"I, Shiro, ept this contract." The older Shiro followed up.
*Ping~
Shattering into a soft golden tether that flickered between the two of them, Shiro threw Misu a phone.
"Just contact me on that when you need the weapons. I¡¯ll be on my way now."
"Mn." Watching the older Shiro leave, Misu narrowed her eyes at Tia who was in her arms. During the entire conversation, she could sense an intelligence behind that pair of eyes which seemed to be understanding everything that was going on. Observing and noting down everything that it deemed important.
"Strange..." She muttered before shaking her head.
Regardless, she was happy. With Shiro supplying her with weapons, it should hopefully give them a slightly better chance against the Lightning Queen. However, despite all this, there is still a low probability of sess.
"Don¡¯t worry my queen, I believe that in the end, your kingdom will survive." The butler reassured.
"I hope that is the case."
Chapter 595 Scar
Chapter 595 Scar
Leaving the main room, Shiro looked at her older self with a raised eyebrow.
Seeing this, the older Shiro knew that her younger self wanted to ask her something.
Flexing her fingers, the ne formed itself around Shiro¡¯s neck once more.
"Ask away."
"Howe you didn¡¯t call yourself the spirit queen or sylph empress during the contract? Isn¡¯t that our ss?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Oh that? That¡¯s because I¡¯m technically not a full queen in the new age unless I have an anchor and domain. Remember when we killed the Fire Queen? She said that she¡¯ll be eliminated once we get rid of her anchor so you can think of the anchor being a Queen¡¯s proof of identity as well as a participation ticket." The older Shiro exined.
"I see. Also, why were you so quick in helping Misu? I thought we were here just to have a look at the current situation?"
"That¡¯s because there has been a slight change which pushes things forward by quite a bit." The older Shiro shook her head.
Pulling out a tablet, she tapped it a few times before handing it to her younger self.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked at what could have possibly happened for her older self to change her mind.
However, the moment sheid eyes on the image present on the tablet, she understood exactly why she was hurrying up.
"Is this real?" Shiro asked with a serious voice.
"Of course. I¡¯ve been keeping a tab on most of the queen¡¯s with drones you know?"
"Then I can see why you want to make that contract with Misu." Shiro sighed.
On the tablet, they could see an image of the Lightning Queen greeting another woman, one with a familiar figure that Shiro recognises.
It was Thiria, Queen of the Beasts.
The Queen that had ck Monarchy under her services was still around and she was now seenmunicating with the Lightning Queen. It could mean many things but none of them was one that Shiro looked forward to.
"If the ck Monarchy and Thiria is getting involved, things are gonna be a bit annoying." Shiro frowned.
"You have no idea. If I remember correctly, you haven¡¯t had a proper full scalebat with them yet but let me tell you this, don¡¯t underestimate them at all. Even the weakest member could turn things around if you¡¯re not careful." The older Shiro shook her head.
"What do you mean?"
"Remember the hive of Death Worms that you had to exterminate before your first meeting with Thiria?" The older Shiro asked.
"Uhuh. I do indeed."
"Think of that but much much worse. They¡¯ve managed to mutate the worms to the point where the weaker members could kill themselves and use their own body to summon around three to five a.d.u.l.t Death Worms. And let¡¯s just say, having a group of ck monarchy members kill themselves in a city and summon a horde of death worms was not fun."
Hearing this, Shiro narrowed her eyes and contemted about the information that she had just gathered. If she was correct, then perhaps her first priority should be getting rid of the beast queen when the new age begins. Hell, if she could figure out what she needed to do to set up an anchor and domain, she could attempt to fight Thiria while she was still weak.
However, weak was a rather debatable term since she is by no way weak. The only reason Shiro called her weak before the age of demons and gods is because she¡¯s only going to be getting stronger as the age goes on.
"Question about the past. If I was to try to kill Thiria before the new age begins, do you think I can win? I know that she has just set up a domain not too long ago so I might be able to kill her while she¡¯s weakened." Shiro asked curiously.
"Damn, ok, we need a serious talk. I can say for a goddamn fact that you¡¯re underestimating the queens a bit much. The Fire Queen was a goddamn pushover since she¡¯s still new to everything but if you want to take out someone like Thiria, you cannot go with your current mindset. Let me put it like this for you. Everyone who became a queen means that they have the capabilities to lead their ¡¯race¡¯ or the thing mentioned in their titles. There are different grades of queens depending on their titles and the Fire Queen should have been much harder for us to kill but we caught her right after she lost a bunch of her strength to the anchor. There are small queens who govern a specific subject such as the fire queen. However, there are also queens who govern broader subjects where their powers expand over a multitude of things such as the beast queen. She governs all the beasts meaning dragons and such are no exception. As long as something is part beast, she can exert a certain amount of authority over them. Meaning, if ck Monarchy decided to slip an injection of beast blood into your body, you¡¯re f*cked if you try to fight her." The older Shiro warned with a serious expression.
"And you need to get one thing straight before you go back. You¡¯re not the only one who¡¯s talented. Each queen got to where they are because they proved themselves to be worthy and each empress got to where they are because they proved themselves to the world and to the system. You can imagine fighting against an Empress would be akin to fighting yourself but having a different skill set, one wrong move and they¡¯ll turn your world upside down. As for how I know, let¡¯s just say I underestimated one of them and even to this day, I haven¡¯t been able topletely heal the scar that they gave me." The older Shiro shook her head before holding Shiro near her shoulder.
Watching her older self pull back her dress cor slightly to give her a glimpse of her back, Shiro furrowed her brows before looking down.
When she did, her eyes widened at the giant scar running diagonally down her back. She could clearly see that there seemed to be a faint aura around the wound which made it seem... corrupted?
"See? I¡¯m you so I can say for a fact that you underestimate the queens a bit too much. Don¡¯t make the same mistake ok?" The older Shiro smiled softly and let go of her dress cor, covering the scar once more.
"Why can¡¯t you heal it?" Shiro asked.
With the myriad of healing spells that Silvi had andbined with the healing skills she could see, it should be a piece of cake for her to deal with it.
"Unfortunately, this isn¡¯t a wound that can be healed with conventional means. The attack was something damaging to the core of my being. Plus, it didn¡¯t help that I was ever so close to ¡¯falling¡¯ so that slight corruption tainted the wound and now I have this ugly scar." The older Shiro sighed.
"Eh? We almost fall again?"
"Yup. There¡¯s a lot we hold dear after all." The older Shiro smiled.
"Please don¡¯t tell me someone we care about died."
"It was fine don¡¯t worry. I was just too agitated at that moment and lost myself for a bit. Just make sure to trust in the party¡¯s strength a bit more. They¡¯re not baby birds anymore, they¡¯re fully grown a.d.u.l.ts." The older Shiro reminded since it was something that could help Shiro avoid the same fate.
"I see... speaking of falling, is Aekari still around or have you dealt with him?" Shiro asked.
"Heh, what do you think?" The older Shiro chuckled as she narrowed her eyes.
"Gave him the old poke in the hole. It¡¯s wasn¡¯t exactly the normal kind of pokin¡¯ either haha. But I¡¯ll let you figure out the fun for yourself since it isn¡¯t exactly hard to figure out once you¡¯re in the situation."
"I see... Well I suppose I have something to look forward to. So where now?" Shiro asked.
"We¡¯re going to scout around the Lightning Queen¡¯s domains and see which one which can target when the fight breaks out. I want to make sure we can actually manage a fight against her guards after all."
"Mn, I got another question if you don¡¯t mind me asking."
"You have quite a lot of questions huh? But sure, go on." The older Shiro smiled.
"Was I able to reach tier 5 before the new age?"
"Yes. We did it with flying colours too."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You¡¯ll find out. I don¡¯t want to spoil everything for you now do I?"
"Che, stingy." Shiro clicked her tongue as the two of them left the mansion.
Chapter 596 Indri, Gortin and Raminia Anchor
Chapter 596 Indri, Gortin and Raminia Anchor
After leaving the mansion, the older Shiro did a bit of grocery shopping and put them away in her inventory which confused Shiro a little since in her mind, the inventory was tied together with the system.
However, after thinking about it for a bit, she realised she could probably do the same back in her own time with a bit of space maniption since she had ess to the rift.
Once her shopping was done, the older Shiro made a portal back to her house and ced the groceries into the fridge.
"Right then. First things first, we need to figure out which domain/anchor we want to be targeting. The Lightning Queen has quite a few ces under her belt so we¡¯ll need to pick carefully. We¡¯ll need a few disguises too since most of her domains are filled with demi humans." The older Shiro smiled as she walked upstairs to her wardrobe and pulled out some fake beast ears and tails.
"Wait we¡¯re cosying?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Of course. They¡¯ll figure out if we¡¯re using disguises after all. This is one of the easier options don¡¯t worry. However, it¡¯s also risky since they¡¯ll be quite pissed the moment they find out that these ears are fake." The older Shiro chuckled softly.
"I see.... So we¡¯re walking on thinner rope that we already are huh?" Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Everything is okay." The older Shiro reassured, but it only served to further increase Shiro¡¯s stress.
¡¯Is this what everyone else felt like when they had to deal with me? Damn...¡¯ She thought to herself as the older Shiro ced a pair of snow white fox ears on her.
"Ara, that¡¯s quite cute huh? If you had blue eyes instead it might bump up the cute factor." The older Shiro raised her eyebrow with a smile.
"Hm? What do you mean by that? Now that I think of it, I haven¡¯t seen what my third daughter looks like now have I?" Shiro paused before trying to look for a mirror.
Finding herself a small mirror by the side, she tried her best to walk over before examining herself.
Much like herself, Tia retained her snow white hair and delicate features. However, her eyes were different. The outside of her iris was lined with gold while the inside was filled with a beautiful ruby, making her eyes look like jewels.
"Wait, if Tia¡¯s eyes are slightly gold, does that mean I get together with Lil¡¯ Tian in the future?" Shiro asked.
"Maybe, maybe not. A few others get gold eyes as wellter you know? Anyways, stop inquiring about my beloved already ok? We need to figure out a good tail for you to match the ears." The older Shiro shrugged it off as Shiro could tell that she wasn¡¯t lying.
"Fine fine. I¡¯ll figure it out myself when I get back then." Shiro sighed.
After spending a while to go through all the fake demi human parts, they found the perfect tail to match the ears that her older self had picked up.
Looking at herself in the mirror once more, Shiro had to admit that Tia looked quite cute as a fox girl. As for older self, let¡¯s just say she looked quite seductive as a fox woman.
"Like what you see?" The older Shiro smiled as she did a slight pose.
"It¡¯s not too bad." Shiro admitted with a smile.
"Alright. Let¡¯s go look for a good ce to attack should the fight begin."
Walking over to theputer terminals, the older Shiro brought up a map of a few domains and anchors that the Lightning Queen owned.
"As you can see, most of her domains are located near mountainous areas since she has control over lightning. This also means that her subordinates are empowered by the natural advantage so you cannot take them at face value. They have an ability where they can channel lightning through their body¡¯s and be supercharged. In this state, their overall defences weaken but they be quite hard to pinpoint due to their speed. It¡¯s quite tough even for me unless I activate one of my berserk skills."
"Hmm... I see. Are you able to ssify them into levels? Since the system is gone and all, how do you determine their strength?" Shiro asked.
"Through mana quality inside their bodies. You see, even after the system is gone, you can still detect mana through your own senses. Warrior had a harder timepared to mages but they could aplish it to some degree. This made people hesitant to fight as they could idently annoy someone much stronger than them. However, this made it so that people who were able to hide their mana could spring a surprise attack with ease and kill people." The older Shiro shook her head.
"I¡¯m guessing they made a job like... sensor? Or something simr so that they can find out those that are hiding their powers."
"Yup you guessed it. And guess what? Aarim is pretty f*cking good at sensing people¡¯s true strengths. When she finally got used to sensing mana, she almost passed out from sensing mine haha."
"Don¡¯t mention that like it¡¯s nothing." Shiro said with a twitching smile.
"Well it is nothing. After all, we were already doing that despite the system making it easier. You see, we had an innate talent for sensing mana. However, for everyone else, the system was a natural helper. It made it easier for people to get stronger. A mage without the system may need years before they could even sense the mana while the system exposed people to mana since they were young, allowing them to be experts as teens. Hence why everyone¡¯s pissed at me for taking that guiding hand away. Unless you are born with an innate sense for mana, you have to spend years to even be ¡¯level 10¡¯. I¡¯ve essentially crippled the human race in the new age."
"Do you regret it?" Shiro asked.
"Regret? No I don¡¯t. But I won¡¯t tell you the reason since it may change your choice and trust me, even though I don¡¯t regret it, I always think about what could change if I chose the other option." The older Shiro shook her head.
Seeing this, Shiro only nodded her head and respected her choices.
"Anyways, enough about the depressing subject. We¡¯ve got a few choices for domains and anchors that we can infiltrate. I¡¯ll go with anchors first since they¡¯re the end goal. There are three small anchors that we can potentially go for. The West Indri Anchor located in the Indri mountain range, the Gortin Anchor located near the Gortin Thunder Valley and finally, the Raminia Anchor located in the Raminia Inds. They¡¯re roughly the same in terms of difficulty but it¡¯s probably best if we ignore the West Indri Anchor and the Gortin anchor since the area around those anchors is advantageous to them. However, it¡¯s nothing we can¡¯t ovee." The older Shiro exined.
"I¡¯m guessing the Raminia Anchor is what we should go for then since it¡¯s on an ind."
"Not quite. I said that it¡¯s an ind but it¡¯s not near water. It¡¯s a collection of floating inds that hands above a giant chasm."
". . .So all of them are quite tough then."
"Yup. Never said it was easy now did I?" The older Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"No you did not. *Sigh...* So which one should we go for? After all, I won¡¯t be able to provide much help at the time ofbat." Shiro asked.
"Considering the situation around each anchor, it¡¯s probably best that we go for Gortin since there¡¯s a period of time where the lightning fades from the Thunder Valley. Though when the lightning returns, it¡¯s twice as strong so we¡¯ll need to work fast if we were to choose Gortin. Raminia is a little annoying since it¡¯s always in the sky but should anything go wrong, we can hide in the chasm and escape through that way. Indri is a definite no go since the mountain range is dangerous even before the Lightning Queen took over but it has the weakest guardian out of the three anchors. Considering our manpower, I say we probably have the best chance of sess with Gortin."
"Really? I think Indri is probably easier though. Since you said that it has the weakest guardian, you should be able to deal with him quite easily." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"It¡¯s not the guardian that I¡¯m afraid of. It¡¯s the big ass Kirin that lives there that I¡¯m worried about. He¡¯s made a contract with the Lightning Queen so he¡¯ll give her a certain amount of help. Unless he leaves the mountain range, I can¡¯t do much about it." The older Shiro shook her head.
"Then if you suppose Misu can draw the Kirin away, we can get the anchor without any problems then?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Thinking about it for a moment, the older Shiro grinned.
"If the Kirin¡¯s gone, I can definitely tear the guardian a new one twice over and take the anchor."
Chapter 597 Kirin
Chapter 597 Kirin
"So out of the three anchors, Indri is the easiest as long as the Kirin is gone? Seems like we should probably scout out the area around the anchor so that we can n our attack." Shiro said with a smile.
"Well I can do some scouting from this house you know? Like I said, I¡¯ve been keeping an eye on most of the queens while I figure out how to make an anchor. After all, spending years to do absolutely nothing is idiotic. There¡¯s always something that you can do." The older Shiro shrugged before snapping her fingers.
Suddenly, a live footage of the Indri Mountain range appeared on the screen. Large bridges could be seen stretching from one mountain to another while lightning flickered in the dark clouds that hung above the area.
"Wait, this is live footage?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Yup. You know, I¡¯ve gotten my hands on some pretty interesting materials that could merge with my nanobots to form something that can survive in the strange atmosphere in the sky. Normally, my nanobots will start to corrode at a fast rate the moment you pass a certain height limit but with this new material, the upper limit has been increased so I can hide scouts up there without too many worries." The older Shiro smiled while taking a sip of her juice.
"Naturally, that means I can show you footage of the Kirin too since my drone is flying much higher than it."
"Oh? That¡¯ll be quite interesting. I want to see what you¡¯re afraid of."
Hearing this, the older Shiro snapped her fingers, changing the view of the camera.
Looking towards the screen, Shiro could see dark clouds looming everywhere while a giant iridescent being could be seen resting on them. His neon blue serpent-like body curled through the clouds as lightning shimmer on his scales. Every breath he took was reminiscent of rumbling thunder, causing the lightning to flicker with each inhale.
Despite the long body that reminded Shiro of a snake, she could see horse-like limbs under his body, Each muscle on his legs were well defined as yellow fur wrapped around his joints.
Looking towards his head, she could see a majestic crown of gold adorned with jade armour around the base.
"Just to show you why I¡¯m not eager to fight him, I¡¯ll have a small drone get close to the Kirin¡¯s main body."
Pressing a key on her keyboard, Shiro watched as a small drone detached from the camera. Before it could even get within 300 meters of the giant mythological beast, lightning crackled from the clouds and vaporised the drone in an instant.
"And there we go. As you can see, he has an aura that passively attacks anyone that is close unless he chooses to exclude them from the targets. Meaning, just standing around the prick can kill you without him doing anything."
". . .Yeah I can definitely see why you wouldn¡¯t want to try taking the anchor unless the Kirin is away from the ce. He doesn¡¯t look small either, I¡¯m pretty sure his body is either around the size of the mountain range or maybe a bit bigger?"
"Exactly, he is f*cking huge so you can imagine the kind of damage that he can do. His defence is also ridiculous, you know? Unless I hit him with everything I got, I don¡¯t even think I can harm one of his scales and even then, he¡¯ll probably erase me with a single breath." The older Shiro shrugged.
"If we were to go off of system tiers, what tier is the Kirin?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm... probably around mid to high tier 7? It¡¯s been a while so he might be on the cusp of tier 8 for all I know."
"Wait so you¡¯re telling me that we¡¯re going to be trying to attack a ce under the protection of a demi god who might have already attained divinity?" Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"Yup~"
". . ."
"Don¡¯t worry about it, I¡¯ll be the one doing the fighting. Anyways, let¡¯s go to the closest domain first. Since Thiria is talking with the Lightning Queen, I can assume that they might fight soon. We¡¯ll try to make ourselves less suspicious by blending in with the rest of the folk in the city. Hopefully, we¡¯ll be able to move around a bit freely after getting to know a few people." The older Shiro smiled.
"If you do that, wouldn¡¯t you be sympathetic towards them?" Shiro raised her eyebrow. After all, their goal was to steal the anchor and doing so would definitely put the people there in harms way.
"Of course I will but that wouldn¡¯t change the oue. I suppose the new age has made me a bit cold hearted. In a war, there¡¯s always going to be casualties and I have already chosen my side." The older Shiro narrowed her eyes and looked down at her empty cup.
"Meaning, even if I talk to the demi humans like they¡¯re close friends when we get there, I will not hesitate to take the anchor should the opportunity arise. After all..." She trailed off.
"I¡¯m the witch that stole the system from everyone."
Looking at her older self, Shiro could definitely see that she was now much colder to anyone who isn¡¯t in her circle of friends. She¡¯s even willing to act as ¡¯friends¡¯ with the people in Indri just to betray themter for the anchor.
"You must think that I¡¯m quite a piece of sh*t right now don¡¯t you?" The older Shiro chuckled.
"To be blunt, yes." Shiro shrugged.
"Well I¡¯m not surprised. The new age has been around for a while so naturally, there will be small changes. I¡¯ve just be a bit more decisive than before. I do hope that it doesn¡¯t creep you out too much."
"No it doesn¡¯t because I can see why you had to be cold like this. After all, if the situation was reversed, they would leap at the chance to make their enemies weaker. But as always, just because I know doesn¡¯t mean I like it." Shiro shook her head.
"Mn, true. That has always been the case. Regardless, let me pack up and get ready. We¡¯re going to be moving to the mountain vige in Indri and hopefully not get killed on sight." The older Shiro chuckled before dismissing theputer terminals.
Sitting down on the sofa, Shiro watched her older self with a frown.
¡¯There might be some disagreements but it shouldn¡¯t be too bad I don¡¯t think.¡¯ She thought to herself since the fact that her older self didn¡¯t mind betraying people after gaining their trust is a little off putting since betrayal was one of the things she hated the most. However, it¡¯s not like she¡¯ll be here forever so putting up with it shouldn¡¯t be too bad.
Once the older Shiro was ready, she picked up her younger self and made a portal. I¡¯m going to make the exit a little further away from the city and piss off a monster so that it will chase us. Naturally, I¡¯m going to get ¡¯beat up¡¯ a little just to make it a bit more believable." The older Shiro smiled as she stepped through the portal.
Adjusting her vision slightly, Shiro saw that they were in a cave.
"Right then, let¡¯s see... there should be a bunch of monsters here. I need to give them a slight poke so that they get pissed off but I can¡¯t kill them." The older Shiro muttered before cing her hands against the walls.
Closing her eyes for a moment, her lips curled into a smile.
"Now before we give them a poke, let me change our scent a little since the demi humans are quite sensitive." She said before waving her hand. Feeling a few light droplets of water sprinkle on her face, Shiro titled her head but didn¡¯t smell anything different.
"You won¡¯t be able to smell it since it¡¯s designed for use against demi humans specifically. Anyways, are you ready?"
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro watched as tier 4 magic circles appeared around her older self.
"3... 2... 1... And~ Poke ?"
###
*Yawn~
Rubbing his eyes slightly, a young man could be seen with silver armour on his body. He had a pair ofzy eyes and sharp teeth. He was a demi human with wolf-like ears and a furry tail swaying ever so slightly behind him. His name was Zaun and his main task was to guard the gates to the city located in the Indri mountains.
Today was rather normal as nothing too serious had happened. The city was quiet since tension was at an all time high. Looking down at his watch, he figured that his shift was going to be over soon.
Suddenly, his ears twitched ever so slight as he furrowed his brows.
Sniffing the air a little, his pupils constricted.
Grabbing his spear, he quickly vaulted over the wall before activating one of his skills. His muscles bulged ever so slightly as he stomped the ground, catapulting his body forward.
In the distance, he could see a charming fox woman with snow white hair running away from a pack of frenzied monsters. Seeing the fear on her face, his instincts to help a demi human in need kicked in as he threw his spear as hard as he could.
Skewering the necks of two monsters, Zaun charged in with killing intent.
Chapter 598 Zaun
Chapter 598 Zaun
"Fu..." Taking a deep breath, Zaun wiped the blood away from his face and looked down at the tearful fox woman that sat on the floor with quivering legs.
"Are you ok?" He asked as he reached out to help her up.
"Thank you! Thank you!" The older Shiro bowed while quickly wiping the fake tears from her eyes.
"If you hadn¡¯t saved me, me and my child would have been done for. Please, can I know the name of my saviour?" She asked while looking up at Zaun.
Seeing her up close, Zaun couldn¡¯t help but blush slightly and looked away.
"It¡¯s Zaun. What happened? Why were the monsters in a frenzy?" He asked while poking at the corpses
"I don¡¯t know. I was just making my way to Indri since I was told that it was a friendly ce for people like me when the monsters started to attack us." The older Shiro replied as Zaun furrowed his brows.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll need to report about this since having monster¡¯s frenzying around the ce isn¡¯t good. Anyways, follow me and I¡¯ll escort you the rest of the way to Indri. If you don¡¯t mind me asking, can I know your name?" Zaun asked as the older Shiro nodded her head.
"My name is Ori and this is my daughter Tia. Once again, I want to thank you for saving us." ¡¯Ori¡¯ bowed once more as Zaun waved his hand.
"Since you have a daughter, can I presume that you have a husband? Where is he? I don¡¯t think letting you two roam around without protection is a smart idea." Zaun asked with a frown.
"My husband has... unfortunately passed away a while ago so it¡¯s only been me and my daughter." ¡¯Ori¡¯ looked down softly as her ears seemed to droop down.
"Ah... I¡¯m sorry I shouldn¡¯t have asked." Zaun scratched his head awkwardly.
"So you said that you wanted toe to Indri since your friend said that it was nice to us demi humans right? Do you know what you have to do to get citizenship?" He asked as he started to walk back to the city.
"I don¡¯t know. I was only told that I had toe here and that was it." Ori shook her head.
"Hmmm... are you under any queens?" Zaun asked.
"I don¡¯t think I am? My friends have been helping me and I only looked after my daughter. Do I have to be under one to be in this city?" Ori tilted her head cluelessly.
"Wait you¡¯re not under any queen?" Zaun widened his eyes since not being under the protection of one would just paint a giant target on your back.
"I don¡¯t know. Maybe I am? My friend didn¡¯t really tell me this since she knows I¡¯m not good with this kind of thing." Ori nced to the side with an embarrassed expression.
¡¯How the hell has she survived this long???¡¯ Zaun thought to himself in disbelief. However, it wasn¡¯t as if you had to be under the lightning queen to stay in Indri. The only drawback was that it was highly restrictive due to the fact that the anchor is nearby.
However, seeing as though the woman didn¡¯t even know if she¡¯s under any Queen, Zaun could presume that she didn¡¯t know that the anchor was here. Plus, he could sense that she was being ¡¯truthful¡¯ from all his years of being a guard and interacting with people that havee to this city.
*Sigh...
"It seems like your friend didn¡¯t tell you enough. That¡¯s fine though, you can still stay in the city as long as you go through a few doc.u.ments is that ok?" He asked.
"Yes, that¡¯s fine. I just need somewhere safe so that I can raise my child properly." Ori nodded her head eagerly.
Smiling softly, Zaun couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit of pity for this woman.
"The city isn¡¯t too far from here, my shift is almost over so I can help you get a partial citizenship for now if you want."
"That would be greatly appreciated! Thank you very much!" Ori smiled happily.
Seeing this, Zaun couldn¡¯t help but feel a small flutter in his chest but quickly shook that feeling off. He was on duty right now so he must focus.
While this was all happening, Shiro looked at her older self with a slightly nauseous expression.
Seeing herself act like his made her want to throw up as she could feel goosebumps appearing all over her body.
Sensing Shiro¡¯s gaze on her, the older Shiro only stuck her tongue out with a knowing nce.
After arriving at the gates, Shiro could see a giant defensive fortress wall built between two mountains. Tall statues of the Kirin could be seen carved into the side of the mountain, warning all who enter on the beast that resides near this ce.
Up on the walls, Shiro could see mounted weapons enchanted with magic while groups of guards patrol around the area.
Acting nervous, the older Shiro made her steps small and ¡¯hid¡¯ behind Zaun and made sure that her presence was as small as possible to sell her act.
"Why did you rush off like that! You know what the captain is like if you just abandon your post." An masculine voice called out from on top of the walls with an annoyed tone.
"Sorry! This woman was in danger so I went to save her." Zaun shouted out as Shiro could see another wolf man poke his head over the wall.
"Holy crap she¡¯s a beauty!" The man widened her eyes.
Hearing this, the older Shiro pretended to be startled as she tried to get out of the man¡¯s sight.
"OI! Don¡¯t act like a piece of sh*t at every woman you see! Now help me open the gates, she wants to get a residential permit." Zaun shouted back with a re as the man waved his hand.
"Fine fine, give me a second."
After opening the gates ever so slightly, the three of them made their way into the office located on top of the wall.
"So what happened?" The man asked as his expression was a bit more serious.
"Frenzied monsters, quite a few of them in fact. We might need to increase the patrols around the area since they weren¡¯t like this before. Something might have startled them." Zaun exined with a frown.
"Hmm... that is quite bad. Last time I checked, they were quite docile so it should have been safe. Do you think a predator appeared which caused them to be like this?" The man asked.
"I¡¯m not sure but they were very intent on killing Ori over here. When I was fighting them, they would not look away from the mother and daughter." Zaun exined.
¡¯No sh*t. My older self poked them after all.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she started to ignore the duo. After all, she was more concerned with their surroundings. Despite not being able to use mana in Tia¡¯s body, she was still able to sense it and from what she could tell, the people guarding this ce averaged around level 300 to 400 if the system was still around.
Despite this being one of the weakest ces that is under the lightning queen, the defences were quite sturdy which caused Shiro to wonder what kind of guards are in the other anchors.
¡¯Though I suppose this level of defence is quite weakpared to the Tier 6 guardian that was protecting the demon god¡¯s anchor.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself. With the Kirin around, the Lightning Queen probably figured that she didn¡¯t need to worry about assigning defences to this ce.
During her musing, they arrived before the office.
Knocking on the door, they could hear an annoyed grunt before a booming voice rang out.
"Come in."
Surprised at the sheer volume of the voice, the older Shiro¡¯s surprise was real this time as she couldn¡¯t imagine dealing with someone this loud over a long period of time.
Opening the door, they could see a giant man with golden fur around his face. He had spiky blond hair and a very muscr physique which seemed to want to rip his shirt apart at any moment.
Adjusting the tiny sses on his face, the man scribbled something down on a piece of paper and looked up at the group of people that had just entered his office.
"Speak, what¡¯s going on?" He asked with narrowed eyes.
"I have two things to report. First is a pack of frenzied monsters that wanted to kill this woman and the second is that she wants to be granted citizenship for this city." Zaun straightened his back.
"Mn. You can write a report on the monsterster. We¡¯ll deal with the woman first. Is she under any queen and what¡¯s her proof of identification?" The man asked as he looked towards the older Shiro.
Exining the situation to the captain, they waited for his response.
"Mn, that¡¯s a bit annoying to deal with. Ok, follow me, we need to make sure that you¡¯re actually safe to be in this city." The man sighed.
Standing up, his hulking body looked over them as he gestured to them to follow him elsewhere.
Seeing this, the older Shiro eyes flickered with a knowing look as this was part 1plete. The next part was a bit annoying but it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to bluff her way through.
Chapter 599 Skill Improvements
Chapter 599 Skill Improvements
"Since you don¡¯t have any proof of ID, we¡¯ll have to do things the old fashion way. There¡¯s a kit downstairs that tests your mana purity and density. Depending on what we find, the level of security around you will vary." The man huffed as the older Shiro nodded her head with a slightly afraid nod.
Narrowing his eyes for a moment, the man eventually turned back around and started to lead them downstairs.
During the walk, the atmosphere was rather awkward as ¡¯Ori¡¯ would be startled by every sudden movement that she saw.
Seeing her body tense up at everything, Zaun couldn¡¯t help but wonder what her life was like before for her to be this fearful of everything.
Sighing softly, he could only pray for her safety.
Upon arriving at the testing floor, Shiro could seerge steel supports lined up along the walls while heavy reinforced gates surrounded them.
Seeing this, she could understand that it was extra fortification.
¡¯There¡¯s probably more people that have tried the same so I suppose when they¡¯re found out, they would try to either get out or kill as many as they could.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself as she could see the guards standing alert despite her older self¡¯s dainty appearance.
Even though she seemed weak from all angles, their weapons were ready to attack at any moment.
*Krrrr....
Pushing aside the heavy gates, they could see a reinforced room with terminals on the side and a seat in the middle.
"I¡¯ll need you to sit on the seat. When you do, I¡¯ll begin testing your mana to see how powerful you are."
"What about my daughter?" The older Shiro asked with a worried gaze.
"She¡¯ll have to go through the same. Don¡¯t worry though, this is nothing harmful for the body. We¡¯re just making sure that she isn¡¯t a groan person disguised as a child since you¡¯ll be surprised at how many of them, we¡¯ve encountered." The man replied.
Biting her bottom lip, ¡¯Ori¡¯ eventually set Shiro down by one of the seats near the door.
"Behave ok? Mommy will be back soon." She said with a forced smile.
However, seeing this, Shiro only rolled her eyes discreetly.
Walking over to the testing chair, Ori started to fidget with her hands nervously.
"There¡¯s no need to be nervous Mrs. Ori. The test shouldn¡¯t take too long."
Flicking a switch, a tier 6 magic circle slowly appeared around the room before slowly constricting towards Ori.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she held her breath and waited.
Soon, faint glowing lines could be seen hovering above her body as Shiro recognised them to be mana links.
But the moment she looked towards the center; her pupils constricted in surprise.
¡¯My links are broken again???¡¯
Sitting in the centre, was an entangled mess of links that were either fractured or snapped.
Looking at her in surprise, the three guards couldn¡¯t believe that this woman was actually alive.
¡¯Since her links are broken, there¡¯s probably a low chance of her being someone that can bring great harm to the city. However, there are still methods of repairing the links so she¡¯ll need level 2 security as well as a body search to make sure she isn¡¯t hiding anything.¡¯ The man thought to himself while writing down a few notes.
Flipping the switch once more, the tier 6 magic circle faded away.
"Ok Mrs. Ori, you can get up now. It¡¯s your daughter¡¯s turn."
Hearing this, Ori ¡¯sighed in relief¡¯ and stood up from the chair.
Walking over to Shiro, she picked her up before cing her in the chair.
"Behave now ok? These kind people will do a quick check up and then we can rest." She said with a smile but Shiro was more focused on the fact that her links were broken.
¡¯How the hell did she use a tier 6 spell if her links are broken? Wouldn¡¯t that just kill her straight away? Plus, when I sensed her mana in the house, it was still normal? How- Wait a f*cking moment. Did she break them herself to pass this test???¡¯ Shiro thought with surprise.
While she was still thinking to herself, the man had already flipped the switch and a tier 6 magic circle appeared around her.
Much like what happened to her older self, faint blue lines started to appear, representing her mana links.
However,pared to the tangled mess that they saw in Ori, Tia¡¯s mana links were like they were made from the finest crystal. Each link was heavily reinforced and despite herck of mana due to being a child, they could tell that her future was going to be bright. Each spell would be highly efficient and her mana usage will be minimal.
Seeing this, the man could help but blink twice just to make sure he was seeing things correctly as this was a very rare sight.
"She is your daughter, yes?" He asked curiously since he couldn¡¯t imagine a woman with broken links giving birth to a daughter with so much hidden potential.
"Yes, she¡¯s my daughter, why do you ask?"
"Nothing." Shaking his head, he started to write down some notes.
¡¯From what I can see, the daughter is not a person in disguise. Her potential is very high so it¡¯s probably good if I tip the council off about this. Plus, she¡¯s wanting to stay in this city so it¡¯s good to have her daughter be someone that can protect us. Since her daughter is quite important, I should probably tell the security to make them feel more epted. That way, they¡¯re more inclined to help us in the future.¡¯ Thinking about this, the man nodded in satisfaction and wrapped his notes up.
Snapping his fingers, a tier 5 magic circle appeared in front of him as he ced the note on top. Teleporting it elsewhere, he looked towards Ori and Tia.
"Both of you have passed but we¡¯ll need to assign some guards with you if that¡¯s ok. They¡¯ll keep you safe during your time here. In addition to this, we¡¯ll provide you with a t for you to stay in until you¡¯re able to work and pay for your rent. Would that be ok?" The man asked. after turning off the equipment.
"Yes, that would be great! Thank you very much!" Ori bowed enthusiastically as the man was a little taken aback by her attitude but dismissed it. After all, safety was quite hard to find if you¡¯re not strong in this new age.
"Follow Zaun and you can go collect your pseudo citizenship. We¡¯ll need to watch your behaviour over the course of a few months to see if you¡¯re eligible for a full citizenship."
"Ok, I understand." Ori smiled.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, she followed Zaun and collected a passport of sorts with her picture and some basic information.
Bringing her down from the wall, they started to make their way through the mountainous city.
"The t that they gave you is around the halfway point of the mountains so that you can ess most of the facilities easily. There isn¡¯t much you need to keep in mind since everyone¡¯s pretty friendly but do note that there are wealthy and powerful people near the top. As long as you don¡¯t annoy them, your time here should be fine." Zaun exined with a smile.
"I see... ok. So, I need to be friendly with the people up top so they don¡¯t hurt me?" Ori asked just to make sure.
"Well you don¡¯t exactly need to be friendly with them. You can probably get by through just minding your own business. You never know what might piss them off after all." Zaun shrugged.
"So. I ignore them?"
"Yes."
Exining a few details to her, such as where she can go buy some stuff along with where most things are located, they eventually arrived at the t.
"Your room is 13 B and it¡¯s on the second floor to your right. Just make sure you don¡¯t disturb your neighbours since they may file aint towards you."
"Ok, thank you."
Watching Ori walk up the stairs, Zaun shook his head and hoped that she would be fine. Seeing as how she was quite fearful of everything, he guessed that her life might be a bit difficult unless she got over her fears.
###
"Fuu... f*cking finally. There aren¡¯t any guards just yet and I¡¯ve already silenced this room so we can talk now." ¡¯Ori¡¯ sighed as she stretched her body.
Snapping her fingers, a tier 6 magic circle appeared on her finger tips. Tracing it along her stomach up to her chest, she smiled.
"Man, breaking my links and repairing them again is such a pain. Makes me feel sluggish as sh*t." Sheined beforeying on the bed that was ced in the room.
"Well that pretty much answers my question. But how did you even fix your links so easily?" Shiro asked.
"Mn? Oh, nothing too serious. My skills improved over time and naturally, the limits of what they can do increases as well. For example, Grace heals everything right?"
"Uhuh."
"I just improved my control over the skill after the system was gone and made it so that I can focus it on a specific area. That way, I can heal it no matter how dangerous." She grinned.
*Sigh
"Figures. So, what now?"
"Now we wait. We¡¯ll integrate ourselves into this society and get their trust." The older Shiro chuckled.
Chapter 600 Batros
Chapter 600 Batros
For the next few weeks, Shiro and hr older self-spent it trying to make themselves known in themunity.
Her older self would grab a few part time jobs and enforce her persona as a timid woman who was on the weak side. However, her charm would make her a great addition to restaurants where she worked as a waitress.
During this time, she had also spent it teaching Shiro a few tips on her skills that she could use when he returns. Most of them don¡¯t need to rely on the system but she had taught her a few that she could use in tandem with the system.
The main tip that she taught her younger self was to ignore the mana cost of most items and try to get a feel of the skill herself. That was because the system dictates how much mana is needed for the skill¡¯s written effect to activate and takes it from her mana pool. If she could get a feel for the skill herself, she¡¯ll be able to control how much mana she wanted to use.
For example, if she took some damage to her ribs, rather than using 30% of her mana to heal herself with Grace, she could instead decrease the potency of Grace but focus it around her ribs, lowering the mana cost of the skill and not using a charge.
After all, a charge of Grace was akin to a pool of mana that she regenerates every day. Just because she took a bit of that pool doesn¡¯t mean the entire pool is now consumed. No, it means that she can continue to use it.
Therefore, her main priority was to study how each of her skills function and practice how to control their mana consumption. In the end, the system is only a tool to help the process and not the source of the power. The source was the person who can activate the skill. Therefore, if they could control their output of the skill alone with their understanding, it would naturally mean that the efficiency and effectiveness of said skill would increase.
However, that wasn¡¯t all that she learned during these weeks. As she couldn¡¯t practice any of the things that her older self-exined, she had to make sure she gathered as much knowledge as she could. And one of them was on her nanobots. After all, she was still in the process of improving each nanobot so that her weapons and items that she makes are much stronger.
Comparing the diagram of nanobots that her older self-provided to her with her own, Shiro understood that the ¡¯material¡¯ waspletely different in the sense that the sturdiness and flexibility was on a whole new level.
When questioned about this, the older Shiro would only reply with: "Of course. That¡¯s because I¡¯ve been improving my nanobots with every new material that I found in the new ages. When the age starts, the merging of worlds be more obvious and the materials found in different ces bemon. Through a constant process of recycling and refining, I can improve the base material of each nanobot. It¡¯s not something that can be achieved quickly but you can still take away each of the basic diagrams."
When her older self-suggested that she could take each of the basic diagrams, Shiro was a little hesitant since it means that she isn¡¯t going through the discovery process herself. If she was to take them, she¡¯ll be missing out on the inspirations that she could have discovered for herself so she rejected that idea.
So, in these weeks, she mainly focused on skill theory and the singr nanobot diagrams rather than the weapon blueprints.
Yawning slightly, Shiro rubbed her eyes and looked up from her tablet at her older self who was currently working one of her part time jobs.
She wore a grey shirt with a ck tie, a ck waist apron/skirt and a pair of ck tights. Her snow-white hair fluttered with every movement along with her tail. She wasn¡¯t allowed to carry any tes as she was ¡¯clumsy¡¯ and may idently bump into someone and break something. Therefore, she was only allowed to take orders.
Despite her act of being clumsy, the older Shiro knew that she couldn¡¯t act like this always so she demonstrated a little bit of efficiency with taking orders. Naturally, she still got one or two wrong but the owners weren¡¯t too angry since she was showing progress. Plus, her presence brought in more customers so they were happy.
"Fu...." Breathing out slightly, the older Shiro hung up her apron and grabbed her coat. She had just escorted the final customer out of the restaurant and it was time for her to clock out.
"Good work today as usual. You¡¯re improving quickly." The manager smiled softly as he handed the older Shiro her wage.
"Thank you, manager. If you weren¡¯t patient with me, I wouldn¡¯t have gotten this far. Sorry for breaking all those things near the beginning." The older Shiro scratched her cheeks in embarrassment.
"Haha, that¡¯s fine. You¡¯ve managed to bring in more customers in the end." The manager chuckled.
The manager was a demi human that had traits of a bear. Despite his old age, his physique was rather muscr.
"Take care on your way home." The manager waved as Shiro picked up Tia and started to make her way home.
During her walk back, she noticed that the guards observing her had decreased by 2, meaning her act had worked so far.
As long as this keeps up, she¡¯d be free of guards in no time at all.
However, and this was a big however, she had to deal with her suitors that had appeared during this period of time. Most of them were easy to deal with but one of them in particr, was extremely annoying.
The main reason was because he had a rather sizable backing in this city and pissing him off may ruin a few of her ns. Normally, she would either poke or kill them but as she was ¡¯Ori¡¯ right now, doing so would be out of character. Plus, it would also ruin her disguise.
Looking at the man waiting for her besides themppost, the older Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh internally.
¡¯Ah sh*t, here we go again.¡¯ She thought to herself.
"Mr Batros, howe you¡¯re in the middle district at this time of day?" The older Shiro asked with a nervous smile.
Batros was a tall slender man with golden hair. His eyes were simr to that of a tiger¡¯s and ck marks could be seen just under his eyes.
"Ori, I¡¯ve told you many times now have I not? Just call me Batros." He chuckled as he started to walk closer to her, which prompted her to back off by a few steps.
Seeing this, the guards that were watching over the older Shiro furrowed their brows but did nothing just yet since they were only talking.
"I can¡¯t possibly do that Mr Batros. You belong to the upper ss while I¡¯m just a middle-ss widow." The older Shiro replied with a shake of her head.
"You know that I don¡¯t mind right. Your husband is gone now, perhaps it¡¯s time to move on. Plus, if youe with me, I can guarantee that both you and your daughter live a good life. I¡¯m a family man after all." Batros smiled as he flickered next to her and attempted to hook his arm around her waist.
Feeling as though a vein was about to pop, Ori ¡¯barely¡¯ manages to move out of the way.
"I¡¯m sorry Mr Batros. I cannot ept your kindness. I¡¯ve been able to manage with my daughter so far. I want to stay loyal to my husband even though he¡¯s dead." Ori shook her head while pretending to look for a way to leave this ce.
*Sigh
"Ori, a beautiful woman like you is rare. I¡¯m being courteous here but someone else might not be as courteous as I am. With your appearance, some may decide to be more... brash and do something which causes you great pain. I can prevent all of it." Batros said with a ¡¯worried smile¡¯.
Seeing this only increased both Shiro¡¯s urge to kill as they wanted nothing else other than to just torture the f*ck out of this guy.
Taking a deep breath, Ori calmed herself down.
"I¡¯m sorry."
Quickly turning around, she started to run away as the smile of Batros¡¯s face faded.
"Tch." Clicking his tongue, he narrowed his eyes and made a phone call.
###
"You know he¡¯s not done right?" Shiro whispered over.
"I know. But if he moves, I might have to get rid of my disguise sooner than expected." Ori narrowed her eyes.
Chapter 601 Manager
Chapter 601 Manager
After reaching her t, the older Shiro locked the door and ced a silencing formation around the room.
"Is it a good idea? A fight might break out soon so if we¡¯re a bit more patient, we can still achieve our goal." Shiro furrowed her brows,
"Yes, I get that, but do you think that Batros guy is kind enough to give us some time? Since the fight is going to happen soon, it would make more sense for him to make drastic moves as time is running out." The older Shiro replied with a shrug.
"True. Have you gotten any news from Attie and the others?" Shiro asked.
"A little. Attie is still helping the party hold the demons back. Yin managed to collect a few samples but nothing close to the core and Lisa¡¯s managed to help evacuate the entire sect. There were some casualties but they were mostly unharmed." The older Shiro replied.
"I see... That¡¯s good then. Any news from Misu? She¡¯s the one participating in this fight after all."
"Not much. She¡¯s still just making sure that her domains are safe for now and keeping an eye on the Lightning Queen herself. When she¡¯s ready to fight, she¡¯ll send me a message and I¡¯ll provide her the weapons." The older Shiro shook her head.
"So we have to figure out a way to buy more time in this city then?"
"Essentially." The older Shiro shrugged.
"And I¡¯m guessing that murder is unfortunately off the table."
"Indeed."
"Urg... what a pain."
"Tell me about it. And guess what, I¡¯m the one who has to deal with it since you¡¯re still a child." The older Shiro sighed.
"However, I do have an idea of what we can do but it¡¯s just a tad bit risky. Just a tad."
". . . You know I¡¯m you right? And a tad bit risky in my dictionary is mortal danger in another¡¯s." Shiro looked up at her older self with a nd expression.
"Well... Let¡¯s just say I¡¯m thinking of following this twat and getting closer to the anchor. That way, I can try to steal it or interfere with it. Only problem, like I said, is the Kirin. With him in the way, anything I try is going to be dangerous. The chances of death are pretty high."
"Hmm... I say give it another week or so tops and we¡¯ll see what happens. Hopefully, he won¡¯t make things too annoying." Shiro sighed.
"Mn, that¡¯s what I¡¯m nning. So what do you want to eat tonight then? I still have some decent ingredients so I can probably make something special."
"I don¡¯t really care. As long as there is juice by the side I¡¯m happy." Shiro waved her baby hands and crawled onto the sofa. Turning on the TV, she scrolled through the news to see if there are anything new happening in the world.
###
Spending the next few days with caution, the two kept an eye out for anyone that might be trying to harm them but so far, things had been eerily quiet.
Furrowing her brows, Ori kept herself on guard while working her part time jobs.
"Fu..." Breathing out softly, she cleaned up the table of those that had just finished with their meal.
*Ding~
Hearing the doorbell, she knew that there were more customers so she packed away the used tes and grabbed a menu.
Looking at the people in front of her, she could already tell that they were here to cause trouble due to their hostile gazes.
However, since they haven¡¯t done anything yet, Ori wasn¡¯t going to make a scene.
"Wee, are you here to dine or take out?" She asked with a smile.
"We¡¯re here to dine." The leader of the group said with a low voice.
"Understood. Would that be a table for 5 or are there more arriving?"
"No, just the 5 of us."
"Follow me please."
Leading the group to a table for 5, Ori set down a few menus before walking away.
But just as she did this, one of the people in the group reached out and tried to grab her rear.
*PUCHI!!!
Quickly stepping out of the way, she hurried back to the counter and took a breath to calm herself.
Seeing this, Shiro knew that these were the people that Batros had sent to bother them.
"Are you ok Ori? You seemed a bit stressed." The manager asked as Ori forced a smile.
"Mn, just a little surprised. I might have gotten the wrong idea though." She replied.
However, the manager could clearly see that they had tried to harass Ori a second ago so he wasn¡¯t too happy.
"Just serve them normally for now. if they try anything, I¡¯ll deal with it don¡¯t worry." The manager smiled as Ori nodded her head slowly.
Just as she walked past Shiro, she could see a small note left by her younger self.
¡¯Try not to kill them since it¡¯ll affect the manager. If anything, you should kill themte at night if that¡¯s what you want.¡¯
"I know, don¡¯t worry." Ori whispered back.
Nodding her head, Shiro destroyed the note before acting like a kid who was scribbling on some paper.
Taking their orders, Ori had to make sure that she kept dodging their harassing advances so that she wouldn¡¯t kill one of them by ident the moment their hand touches her.
Watching this, the manager had enough.
"Excuse me, dear customers, I¡¯m afraid I have to ask you to leave my restaurant as you are disturbing my staff." He asked politely but Shiro could see the annoyance in his eyes.
"Ha? Did you actually see us harass her? We¡¯re just stretching ok? Stretching." One of the people said with a grin.
"Regardless, I have to ask you to leave the premises."
"Are you looking for a fight. old man?" The leader of the group narrowed his eyes.
Hearing this, the manager took a deep breath.
"Oi brat, are YOU looking for a fight? I might be an old man but I can still send you to heaven and back with ease." He threatened as a dangerous aura erupted out of the old man. Even Ori was surprised as she hadn¡¯t detected this from the manager.
Just from his aura alone, she could tell that he was an experienced Tier 6 entity, maybe even Tier 7.
"I don¡¯t usually like to fight but when you are causing trouble for my staff, it¡¯s not something I can look past. Not get out of my restaurant or else I¡¯ll drag you out myself you brat." The manger warned again as his body started to increase in size. His muscles bulged threateningly as sharp teeth could be seen peeking out of his mouth.
Feeling his murderous aura, the group of men immediately knew that they¡¯d picked a wrong time toe bother Ori.
Quickly leaving the restaurant, the scene returned back to normal.
"Fu... Sorry about that, it¡¯s been a while since I had tost demonstrate my strength." The manager smiled as Ori nodded her head slowly.
"However, I must say, your aura¡¯s pretty impressive for a young woman. If I didn¡¯t make a move, you would have dealt with them yourself no?" He chuckled as Ori immediately went on guard.
"No need to be on guard. I¡¯m just an old man who is annoyed by some young brats harassing my staff." The manager shook his head and returned to the counter.
Narrowing her eyes, Ori decided to do a quick background check on the manager when she gets back to her t.
###
"You¡¯re telling me that the manager of her workce managed to scare you five idiots away?" Batros asked with a frown.
Looking at the shivering bodies of his subordinates, Batros only clicked his tongue before sending them away.
"Get Haulia to deal with the old man. Kill him then hang his corpse on his shop door. That should give Ori an adequate warning."
###
The rest of the shift was rather normal since no one else wanted to cause trouble for them. Handing up her apron once more, the older Shiro decided to talk with the manager properly as he clearly understands her strength.
Waiting till it was just the two of them, she called out to the manager.
"Thank you for what happened earlier today." The older Shiro smiled.
"Oh? What happened to the timid Ori that was struggling with work." He asked with a chuckle.
"You know that was never the case." The older Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, maybe, maybe not. However, I¡¯m quite surprised that the great Shiro has actuallye to this city. So what brings you here?" He asked as silence swept through the room.
Narrowing her eyes at the man, the older Shiro smiled. After hearing that line, she finally understood who she was dealing with.
"Well I¡¯ll be damned. Who else would call me ¡¯great Shiro¡¯ other than you huh? How¡¯s it hanging old man? Last time I saw you, you were still a dragon. Howe you¡¯re a bear now?"
Chapter 602 Assassin
Chapter 602 Assassin
"Hahaha, finally recognised me? Took you a while." The manager grinned.
"No sh*t. I was under the impression that I¡¯d be going undercover alone for a few weeks. I¡¯ve only done a brief check you know? So, what brings you to this ce old man?" The older Shiroughed as she took off the fox ears.
"I got a bone to pick with the Kirin. You see, he took something important of mine and let¡¯s just say that I¡¯m not pleased about it. I¡¯ll be fighting it out with him once he¡¯s slumbering. I haven¡¯t found a good opening yet. What about you?"
"Me? I¡¯m here for another reason but if you¡¯re able to deal with the Kirin, it¡¯ll make my job a lot easier. You up for some good old teamwork?" The older Shiro asked with a smile.
"Not so much teamwork but mutual benefit I suppose. I will deal with the Kirin and you do your thing. However, you want to give me a hand since it¡¯ll increase my chances of victory? Your healing is quite powerful after all."
"Hmm... Depends on what happens. If I can make sure that Tia stays out of danger then sure." The older Shiro nodded her head.
"Great. I¡¯ll notify you on your shift when I¡¯m ready to fight the Kirin then. But before that, it seems like I have a visitoring towards the store with killing intent. Mind giving me a helping hand? I don¡¯t want the shop to be affected by the fight after all." The manager asked with a grin.
"Sure. I need to make sure they don¡¯t know of my identity though."
Waving her hand, she activated her celestial raiment with the fire element. Her white hair turned into a fiery red as armour wrapped around her body.
Grabbing a mask from her inventory, she ced it over her face.
"Do you want a disguise as well old man?"
"I¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯ll kill them before my face is seen." The managerughed.
"Tia, watch from the side ok? It¡¯ll give my identity away if you¡¯re with me." The older Shiro said as Shiro nodded her head.
It was fine since she wasn¡¯t too eager to be close to the fight especially in her current state. A single piece of debris could kill her should it hit her by ident.
"Shall we go then? Seems like Batros really wants to bed you huh?" The manager smiled as he opened the door.
"Urg, don¡¯t remind me of that a**hole. Since you¡¯re going to be dealing with that Kirin, I wouldn¡¯t mind killing him now." The older Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Haha, I suppose that is very like you huh? In the meantime, let¡¯s deal with this little assassin." The manager grinned.
###
¡¯This should be the ce.¡¯ The assassin thought to herself as she checked the details of the mission. So far, they¡¯d removed the guards from the premises so she could go a little crazy if she wanted to.
Since the target was just the manager of a small restaurant, the fight should be over quite quickly. Even if he was able to demonstrate the power befitting of a person close to the peak of tier 6, she should be able to deal with him.
"Oh my, a young woman out in the night sote. What if someone decides to do something a little naughty with you." A charming voice rang out from behind her as a pair of hands wrapped around her neck.
Widening her eyes, the assassin quickly summoned her dagger and pierced behind her.
What should have hit her body phased through some sort of mist, causing the culprit tough behind her.
"How rude, I was just giving you a hug you see~"
ncing back, she could see a masked woman with zing red hair. Despite not seeing her face, she could sense that she waspletely at ease.
"Ah, I¡¯ve been spotted. Say, do you know how hard it was to hold back? I hope that you can help me vent out my stress tonight." She chuckled.
"Don¡¯t say it like that, the youngss might get the wrong idea." A masculine voice chuckled.
Sensing the appearance of a second person, the assassin knew that she needed to escape. However, before she could run, ck chains exploded out from the ground around her.
"Since you¡¯re a little strong, it¡¯ll be quite hard to grab your soul ok~"
Hearing this, the assassin didn¡¯t hesitate to activate all of her berserk skills and break apart her grip.
"Ara~ Not appreciative of my hug I see." The older Shiroughed as the manager only shook his head.
"Let¡¯s deal with this girl quickly and be done with."
Cracking his neck, the manager flickered behind the assassin and grabbed her by the back of her neck.
Raising her up, he was about to m her down when des started to erupt from her body.
Snapping her fingers, portals appeared around the assassin as the des disappeared into the void. Snapping her fingers a second time, new portals appeared as the des were redirected towards the woman.
Widening her eyes, the assassin gritted her teeth and stabbed her finger towards her heart. Suddenly, mana erupted out from her body as the des halted in mid air.
Realising that they couldn¡¯t move their body, both the manager and Shiro looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"Oh my, this is a pretty nifty trick you have here." Shiroughed.
Without saying anything, the assassin flipped her body over the manager¡¯s arm and prepared to cut his head off when spines protruded from his back, stabbing her in the shoulders. Dragon-like wings unfurled themselves as the manager grinned.
"You know, spacial lock has a certain threshold before it¡¯s broken. Unfortunately for you, that threshold is much lower than my strength."
*BANG! PING~!
Tensing his body, it sounded like the space around them suddenly copsed as the lock was forcefully broken in an instant.
Seeing this, the older Shiro only sighed.
"No finesse as usual. Man, you muscle heads are something else."
Without any prior action, three tier 6 magic circles appeared around her as the lock was dissolved into mana.
Shocked at this oue the assassin quickly made some space between them. One was able to brute force his way out of her lock while the other was able to cancel out the spell. Both were dangerous as she figured that the mission was definitely ending up as failure. However, she was going to make sure that she takes at least one of them out.
Summoning two daggers, her figure disappeared from her spot.
"Hou~ True Stealth huh? Interesting. Now, that would be fine and all but there is one problem. My eyes can see everything." The older Shiro chuckled softly.
Stomping down, she flickered behind the woman as she removed her mask. Using her spare hand to grab the assassin on the chin, she forced her to make eye contact with her.
Despite not knowing what was happening, the assassin knew that it was going to be bad so she wanted to swipe at her but once again, her attack seemed to phase through her body.
"Sorry, your life ends here." The older Shiro smiled as a flicker of light could be seen in her eyes.
Feeling her body freeze up, the assassin watched as her limbs started to petrify.
Gritting her teeth, she wanted to muster up the strength to retaliate but it seemed like her mana was blocked.
Taking a better look at her links, she noticed that they were petrified as well.
"You¡¯re kidding me..." She muttered in disbelief as her entire body was then turned to stone.
"Fu..." Breathing out softly, she ced her mask back on.
"I had forgotten how powerful your Gorgon¡¯s Gaze was when paired with your skill to see everything. The poor woman didn¡¯t even have a chance." The manager smiled as his dragon like features disappeared.
"Well it would have been annoying without you helping me keep her focused on you for a while. Anyways, we should get out of here since the guards are bound toe soon."
Looking at the stone statue of the woman, Shiro shook her head and ced her palm against her chest.
Sending out a wave of mana, the statue was reduced to dust as the ash was carried away by the wind.
With the evidence cleared, the two of them made their way back to the restaurant.
Chapter 603 Rakurth
Chapter 603 Rakurth
"Once again, I¡¯ll tell you when I¡¯m ready to fight the Kirin ok?" The manager smiled as the older Shiro nodded her head.
"See you tomorrow at the shift I suppose."
Giving him a small wave, she started to make her way home with Shiro in her arms.
"Seems like you knew him."
"Yup. I¡¯m surprised you know? He should be in the far east right now but he¡¯s actually here."
"How did you know him? You said that he was a dragon no? Knowing Yin, she was probably unhappy with him."
"Hmm... do you remember the Dragon Master?" The older Shiro asked with a smile.
"Uhuh. I just saw him not too long ago in Vatican City."
"That old man was the oldest dragon that he had under his control. His name is Rakurth and his true form is quite impressive you know? I¡¯ll give you a tip though, you might want to kill him as soon as possible."
"The old man?"
"NO! The guy controlling the dragon! I think his name was Dominic or something. I can¡¯t be arsed to look through my records." The older Shiro rolled her eyes since she knew that her younger self was messing with her right now.
"Howe you want me to kill him as soon as possible?"
"It¡¯s because hepletely destroys Vatican City. The casualty rate was off the charts you know? There¡¯s not much we could do when demons and dragons attacked us out of nowhere. I didn¡¯t have enough time to prepare for the attack."
"How many survived?"
"Not enough." The older Shiro narrowed her eyes with a frown.
"I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Want to tell me anything else? How about why the demons are in Vatican City."
"Hmm... Just make sure you keep an eye on Madi when you get back. The demon¡¯s main goal is Madi. In my time, I wasn¡¯t able to get to her in time and the following events were quite a mess."
"Anything else?"
"Nope. If I tell you too much, it wouldn¡¯t be fun for you to find out for yourself. Just know that you should kill Dominic and keep an eye on Madi." The older Shiro grinned.
Rolling her eyes, Shiro nodded her head.
###
"You¡¯re telling me that Haulia is missing?" Batros furrowed his brows with aplicated expression. Out of all the assassin¡¯s they had, Haulia was probably one of the best due to her True Stealth that could bypass most if not all detection spells. If she¡¯s missing, then he could assume two things.
Either one, she was killed or two, he betrayed them. But the second scenario was highly unlikely.
"Keep an eye on her sister. She might have betrayed us to rescue her, we don¡¯t know. However, if it¡¯s confirmed that she is dead, her sister will be of no use to us. There will be no point in spending money to keep her alive." Batros clicked his tongue.
"Understood. Should we do anything else about Ori then?" The subordinate asked with a slight bow.
"Not yet. Stay away from her for a few days. I¡¯ll do something about it myself." Batros shook his head and stood up. He was going to personally pay a visit to her in a few days.
###
Working her shifts like usual, the older Shiro kept herself to date on all the information regarding the current situation between Misu and the Lightning Queen. There had been a few skirmishes but Misu hadn¡¯t requested for any weapons just yet because she wants the Lightning Queen to be off guard.
Thankfully, Misu managed to avoid quite a few casualties despite Thiria¡¯s interference. With beasts on the Lightning Queen¡¯s side, Misu needed to be careful about the battles she chooses to fight.
"Seems like Misu¡¯s having a hard time." Rakurth smiled as he was cleaning the cups after another day of business.
During the day, they heard some rumours about how the Lightning Queen was pushing back the Undead Queen.
"Mn. Most of the beast folk here believe that the fight will be over soon as long as they can mount a powerful attack on the capital." The older Shiro nodded her head.
"A little too idealistic don¡¯t you think?"
"Of course. A fight between queens can¡¯t end so easily. Though with Thiria joining the fray, Misu will need to be careful. There is only so much my weapons can do to help her. Plus, my power is limited right now without having an anchor or domain."
"You say that but any of the queens would kill to have your armoury you know?" Rakurthughed.
"What use is weapons when they can just kill you with a sneeze? You have to be able to put the weapons to use for it to be effective after all. Like a baby with a gun, sure the gun is dangerous but if the baby dies to the punch then the gun is useless. That¡¯s probably an awful choice of words but I¡¯ve already given the example."
"True. Tell me honestly, between Misu and the Lightning Queen, who will win? The Lightning Queen has Thiria on her side while Misu has you on her side." Rakurth asked with a smile.
"Honestly, probably the Lightning Queen. I may be on Misu¡¯s side but there¡¯s only so much I can do without an anchor. However, if I can figure out how to set one up and get my proper status as an empress, then Misu will win 100%." The older Shiro grinned.
"Confident are you now?"
"Somewhat I suppose. However, that¡¯s only if we can get the jump on the Lightning Queen. If Thiria decides to fight it out with us, we¡¯ll probably lose. Thiria has been .u.mting her strength for quite a while now." She shrugged while helping Rakurth put away the cups.
"Out of all the queens, Thiria¡¯s probably the most annoying one. After a certain point, all of the monsters in the world might be under her grasp. Once that happens, all she has to do ismand them to overwhelm one city and it¡¯ll be destroyed in an instant. Even if you¡¯re an empress, you¡¯ll have a hard time fighting the entire world."
"In my current state yes. However, if you give me a bit of time to .u.mte some strength, I¡¯ll be able to fight the world." The older Shiro looked down at her hand and clenched it with determination.
"Perhaps. However, only time will tell. Take care on your way home." Rakurth smiled.
Nodding her head, she started to make her way home with Shiro.
On their way back, they noticed a distinctck of beast folk in their houses.
*Sigh...
"Seems like he really doesn¡¯t value his life." The older Shiro muttered.
"Are you going to kill him?" Shiro asked.
"Not yet. We¡¯ll see where this goes. However, if he tries to molest me in any way shape or form, I will kill him in the most painful way possible."
"Aren¡¯t you going to kill him anyways?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Yes. However, would you rather be killed by me in the most painful way possible where I have healing spells to keep you alive indefinitely or would you rather be killed in an instant?"
". . ."
"Exactly. Honestly, I might pick the first option since the second option is too good for him."
Unlocking her t door, she locked it behind her before walking to her living room. Sitting on the sofa was Batros. He had a smile on his face as he watched the two walk in.
Holding back her urge to vomit, Ori stepped back.
"Howe you¡¯re in my t Mr Batros?"
"Nothing much, just waiting for you toe home. Now then, why don¡¯t we skip the talk and go onto the main course." He narrowed his eyes and stood up.
"What do you mean by that? There are guards around!" Ori stepped back nervously.
"The guards? They¡¯re already gone. You¡¯re alone here with your daughter. Who knows, after I enjoy you, I might wait a while so that your daughter grows up then enjoy her."
*PUCHI!!!!
Both the older Shiro and the younger Shiro felt a vein burst. Despite Tia not being born yet in her time, Shiro knew that if anyone dared to speak of bedding her daughter in front of her, she¡¯d kill them in the most painful way imaginable.
Looking at each other, they both nodded.
"Man, you really had to step on thatndmine didn¡¯t you? I wanted to stay undercover for a bit longer but you just had to talk about my daughter didn¡¯t you? A mother¡¯s anger is not easily appeased, you know?" The older Shiro spoke slowly as the space around them started to distort.
Chapter 604 Killing Batros
Chapter 604 Killing Batros
Watching the space around him distort, Batros didn¡¯t know what was happening.
"You didn¡¯t expect this did you? A weak timid fox woman to be able to distort space." The older Shiro said as she removed the fox ears and the fox tail.
Brushing her hair back, her timid aura faded away as it was reced with pure rage.
"So you¡¯re the one who killed Haulia." Batros narrowed his eyes with a frown. With how much mana that was radiating off of her, his guards should have sensed this by now and are on their way here.
"The assassin girl who tried to kill my manager? Yes, yes I did kill her. She had an interesting skill you know? True Stealth or whatever it was called." The older Shiro nodded as she snapped her finger.
Swords appeared around her as they pointed towards him.
"Heh, then did you know about how her sister is on life support? We¡¯re the ones keeping her alive and you just killed her older sister. How do you feel?" Batros asked with a grin.
"Ha? How do I feel? Not much. I only know that you¡¯re trash who wanted to r*pe me and my daughter when she gets older."
"Should you really think about fighting with your daughter in your hands? Plus, with this much mana being released, the guards are bound to arrive. I did some research, you came here seeking a ce to live. The moment they realise that your links aren¡¯t broken you¡¯ll be detained."
"And? Does it look like I give a f*ck?" The older Shiro flipped him off before flickering towards him.
However, before she entered his range, she quickly jumped back.
"You noticed? Damn, what a shame. I wanted to see the look on your face if I stab your daughter through the head." Batros smiled.
Suddenly, ws appeared in front of him as the illusionary figure of a tiger could be seen behind him.
Should she have continued forward, the ws would have stabbed Tia through the eye.
Activating a few berserk skills, he charged towards her.
Quickly flicking her wrist, Shiro parried his ws with her sword.
Twisting her body, she kicked him in the ribs but noticed that it didn¡¯t cause him to flinch.
Without hesitation, she opened a portal under her and jumped through the rift.
Appearing behind him, she stabbed towards the back of his neck with Athera.
Unfortunately for her, with Tia in her arms, she couldn¡¯t fight properly.
*PING~
Surprisingly, her sword seemed to bound off his fur as Batros looked at her with a grin.
"Seems like you¡¯re nothing special after all. I had thought that you killed Haulia alone but it seems like you had help."
Taking a deep breath, Batros pulled his arm back before punching towards her.
Side stepping the punch, Shiro waved her hand and activated Celestial Garden.
Dragging him into her personal realm, she decided to use Ice as the base element.
Finding himself in a frozen world with no end in sight, Batros quickly raised his guard.
*BANG!!!
Blocking a giant spear of ice that tried to pierce his body, Batros had a confident grin on his face.
"Nothing you do can harm me! I have attained the pinnacle of the physical body for a beast man!" He shouted out with a grin.
"Is that so? However, to me, it seems like your mental game is pretty weak." The older Shiro grinned.
Snapping her fingers, their surroundings faded away to mist.
"Huh?" Confused as to what was happening, Batros looked around and noticed that they were back in the apartment where he was sitting down. However, what creeped him out was that he could see his own body underneath him.
"The moment the space distorted, you were already in an illusion set up by me while I extracted your soul. Now that you¡¯re in a vulnerable state, why don¡¯t I give you the best treatment I can?" The older Shiro said with a cold glint in her eyes.
Panic filled Batros¡¯ mind as he realised that he was in danger. His physical body was nothing if he was in soul form.
Before he could even shout for help, ck chains erupted out of the corners of the room and wrapped around his body. As if someone had just covered his mouth, Batros couldn¡¯t hear his own voice.
"Shh~ No shouting." The older Shiro ced a finger on her lips.
"I¡¯ve already set up a few formations around this ce so no one will detect a change in mana. They won¡¯t hear anything that happens either but I¡¯d rather you not scream just yet. You can scream when I dismember your soul ok?" She smiled sweetly as her crimson eyes seemed to glow with insanity.
Looking at her with fear, the only thing Batros could do was move his eyes around as she reached out towards his body.
###
After a few hours of torturing, the older Shiro reached out towards the soul of Batros and grabbed his head.
Red marks appeared on her hand as they started to invade his soul.
"Hm, he has quite a few people being held hostage. A shame but it¡¯s not my problem. My main goal is the anchor and it seems like I¡¯ll need to notify Rakurth about the change in ns." The older Shiro muttered.
Summoning a void ck de, she pierced Batros¡¯ soul. Slowly, the illusionary body was absorbed by the de.
"Right then, what shall we do with the body?" The older Shiro asked with a smile.
"Up to you. Just make sure that our main goal is reached." Shiro replied as she wasn¡¯t too pleased with what her older self had just said.
Even if the hostages weren¡¯t their problem, it wouldn¡¯t harm her to free them if she could and knowing her, Shiro knew that it was definitely a possibility.
"Aw... look at you pouting like that. How cute." The older Shiro smiled and poked Shiro¡¯s cheek.
"Listen, it¡¯s not that I don¡¯t want to help them. But most of the hostages are basically dead. They¡¯re in a state where not even healing would work since their soul is damaged beyond repair. An example is the assassin girl¡¯s sister. Through Batros¡¯ memories, her sister¡¯s been on life support for a while. Even if her HP and MP is full, there¡¯s no sign of waking up. From what I can tell, it¡¯s because her soul is essentially gone. It is now a question of whether you should put her out of her misery or let her live. If you let her live, she won¡¯t be able to pass on and get reincarnated." The older Shiro shrugged.
"Plus, you know that we don¡¯t mean what we say half the time." She chuckled and reduced Batros¡¯ body to ash. There was something about seeing her younger self that made her want to care a bit more.
Perhaps the biggest change that this new age caused in her was herck of empathy towards anyone who she doesn¡¯t know or care about. If it was before the new age, she would have definitely tried to save the hostages but right now? Not so much.
"I guess... What do we do with those that can survive then? Are we going to leave them alone?" Shiro asked.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make a few drones to help them out. In the meantime, let me deal with the guards around the house then I can talk to Rakurth about starting the operation a bit earlier than nned." The older Shiro replied with a smile.
"Do you want to carry me again or should I wait in the t?"
"You want toe with mommy? Fine, I¡¯ll let you watch me brutally kill some guards and reduce them to ash hahaha!" The older Shiroughed as she scooped her younger self up into her arms.
"Oi."
Ignoring Shiro, she leapt out of the window with her sword ready. Activating one of her berserk skills, her body disappeared from her spot.
###
Assassinating the guards with rtive ease, she sat down on a roof and pulled out her phone.
"Yo Rakurth" She called out.
"What is it?"
"We might have to begin the operation soon since I just killed Batros and a bunch of his guards."
". . . Oh for f*ck sake. To be fair, I¡¯m genuinely surprised that you had managed to behave for this long. Fine, I¡¯m pretty much sorted anyways."
"I¡¯m always well behaved though."
"Whatever. Come to the store and we can talk there."
Hanging up the phone, the older Shiro narrowed her eyes at the dark clouds before disappearing from her spot.
Chapter 605 Strongest Sniper
Chapter 605 Strongest Sniper
"Yo." Waving her hand slightly, the older Shiro greeted Rakurth with a grin.
"Don¡¯t yo me." He rolled his eyes.
"Anyways, exin to me in detail about the damage you caused. How many people did you kill and what are their identities?" Rakurth asked as he gestured for her to sit down.
"I only killed Batros and his men. The guards weren¡¯t around so they weren¡¯t dragged in. That¡¯s about it to be honest. If I had to exin how many people I killed then around 25 give or take?" The older Shiro replied with a shrug.
"25... Ok, that¡¯s fine. It¡¯s not a number that would cause the Kirin to suddenlye down. If it was, the next step would be a bit annoying. So before we start the fight I need to know your priorities so that I can n around them."
"Well my main priority is to get myself the Anchor Crystal. I¡¯ll fight the guardian myself as he should be pretty weak. The only problem is the Kirin since he¡¯s got a contract with the Lightning Queen. I¡¯ll probably be there for the start of the fight but during the fight, I might dip and go grab myself the crystal."
"That¡¯s fine. Just keep an eye on me and use your healing if you can. I might be able to contest against the Kirin but his health pool is muchrger than mine. Without a healer, there¡¯s a good chance that I might lose if I¡¯m to be honest." Rakurthughed.
"I understand. I¡¯m no Silvia but I can definitely heal much better than the average healer." The older Shiro grinned.
"Well, asking for Miss Silvia is a bit excessive. I¡¯d feel sorry for the Kirin if she was with us."
"Mn, true. Anyways, when shall we begin the operation?" The older Shiro asked as she grabbed two cups of juice from her inventory.
"Ah thanks. We should-"
"That cups for my baby girl. Unless you want one too?" The older Shiro chuckled while handing the cup to Shiro.
". . . I¡¯ll be fine. As I was saying, we should probably start tonight or tomorrow before they find out about the dead people. That way, we can still get a jump on the Kirin before they report back to him." Rakurth suggested.
"Sure, I¡¯ll let Misu know that we¡¯re going to be fighting the Kirin so that she can keep a mental note of it. Also, just asking but are we fighting him or killing him? Because the difficulty spikes up quite a bit if we¡¯re trying to kill him you know."
"Naturally, I¡¯ll be trying to kill him. However, if I can¡¯t achieve that, wounding him would be fine too." Rakurth replied.
"If you¡¯re trying to go for the kill then you¡¯ll definitely need my help. In that case then why don¡¯t you help me kill the guardian and I¡¯ll grab the anchor. After that, we can both focus on the Kirin." The older Shiro suggested.
"Sure. But are we able to kill the guardian quick enough? I don¡¯t doubt our firepower but we need to control it so that we don¡¯t destroy the anchor." Rakurth asked.
"Have you forgotten who I am? Sniping people from afar is my thing." The older Shiro grinned as she pointed towards the fortress wall in the distance.
"If I can get myself a clear shot of the guy, I can guarantee that he¡¯ll die instantly and we can then grab the anchor." She chuckled.
"Sure. Let¡¯s go with that, so do you know where the Guardian is?" Rakurth asked just to make sure.
"Of course. I¡¯ve been spending around a month in this city to prepare for this operation. There¡¯s no way that I wouldn¡¯t know where the guardian is. Don¡¯t tell me you don¡¯t know?" The older Shiro raised her eyebrows in surprise.
*Cough!
"I only wanted to deal with the Kirin ok? The anchor wasn¡¯t my goal at all." Rakurth nced to the side.
"Pft hahaha! Ok ok, just follow me and I¡¯ll teleport you into the anchor zone once I¡¯ve taken my first shot. I¡¯ve already installed a few teleport nodes around this city for easy ess."
"Eh? When did you do that? Weren¡¯t you under observation?"
"Yes but do you think a few shitty guards can keep me under watch?" The older Shiro smiled.
"True."
Exining her ns a bit more, the older Shiro snapped her fingers and summoned a portal.
Walking through, the three of them found themselves at the top of the wall.
Without saying anything, the older Shiro grabbed a flute out of her inventory and started to y a soft melody. A tier 6 magic circle appeared around her as Shiro noticed that a few of the guards copsed against the walls and started to sleep.
"This should give us some leeway. Right then, I should probably grab the strongest sniper that I have." The older Shiro grinned.
mming her hand down on the floor, a tier 6 magic circle started to construct itself.
Pirs of nanobots appeared around the tower, hiding the giant surge of mana from the Kirin.
ncing down at the magic circle, Shiro couldn¡¯t believe the detail that was shown. Even in her past life, she was never able toe anywhere close to how powerful this magic circle was.
¡¯So I did indeed surpass my peak. That¡¯s a nice guarantee.¡¯ She thought with a smile.
*Kch! Kch! Kch!
Watching the nanobotsbine with one another, Shiro noticed a seating area of sorts which confused her since a sniper shouldn¡¯t need a seating area.
However, when the mainframe of the sniper was finished, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched since it wasn¡¯t a sniper at all.
¡¯What do you mean the strongest sniper? Ain¡¯t this clearly a multiyered orbital rail cannon???¡¯ Shiro thought with a twitching smile.
Climbing into the c.o.c.kpit, the older Shiro flipped a few switches as the machine hummed to life.
"Wouldn¡¯t this destroy the anchor as well?" Rakurth asked as he looked at the ¡¯sniper¡¯ with aplicated expression.
"Don¡¯t worry~ You see, this sniper is a ¡¯little¡¯ special. It doesn¡¯t target the mortal body but rather the soul. All of this will focus onpletely erasing the enemy in an instant and I can change it to target a single person or a group of them if I want. If you look over here, you can see a dial which condenses the shot if I¡¯m targeting one person." The older Shiro exined with a grin.
Nodding his head, Rakurth couldn¡¯t help but wonder why she had put those people to sleep before since the other guards had already seen the big ass cannon that is now mounted on top of their wall.
"You might want to hurry up since guards are already making their way towards us." Rakurth reminded.
"I know I know. Don¡¯t rush me, I don¡¯t want to identally erase someone else¡¯s soul across the continent if I miss you know?"
"Wait a f*cking moment. I think you just said something quite dangerous how about we just punch him really hard instea-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the older Shiro had already pulled the trigger.
Suddenly, hundreds upon hundreds of tier 6 magic circles appeared around them as they condensed towards the barrel of the cannon.
Glowing with an ominous light, a silent bullet was fired from the sniper.
It wasn¡¯t until a few momentster did they finally hear the explosion of the shot as the older Shiro quickly covered Tia¡¯s ears from the explosion.
*BANG!!!
Breaking off arge chunk of the wall, the shockwave of the shot caused cracks to appear on the surrounding mountains.
Hearing a cry of anger in the distance, Shiro could see a giant barrier materialising in front of the bullet.
*PING!!!
Shattering it without any resistance, the bullet dug deep into the faint silhouette of the Guardian.
While she couldn¡¯t see anything due to it being too far, she could guess that they seeded from the look on Rakurth¡¯s face.
"Right then, that¡¯s the guardian down so I should probably go grab the anchor. Knowing the Kirin, that shot should have drawn its attention." The older Shiroughed.
"No sh*t. It¡¯s already here." Rakurth retorted as the deep rumble of thunder could be heard.
Without saying another word, Rakurth took a deep breath as scales started to wrap around his arms.
*CRACK!!!
Shattering the already damaged pieces of the wall beneath him, Rakurth¡¯s figure started to growrger with each passing second. Soon, a giant dragon could be seen towering over the alreadyrge wall. His silver scales glistened under the moonlight as he looked up at the dark clouds.
*URAHH!!!
Unfurling his giant wings, he lifted his body off the wall and charged into the sky.
"Let¡¯s go grab the anchor while old man Rakurth keeps the Kirin busy."
Chapter 606 Piece of the Garden
Chapter 606 Piece of the Garden
Dashing through the rift, the two Shiro¡¯s arrived at the entrance of the building that contained the anchor.
Pushing open the door with an excited smile, the older Shiro looked around for the crystal.
Seeing that it wasn¡¯t on the first floor, she pressed her hand against the walls and sent her mana through the entire building.
Discovering the anchor in the floor below them, she couldn¡¯t be bothered and just punched a hole through the floor instead.
"Urg.. You brute." Shiro muttered seeing her older self¡¯s actions.
"Hush. It¡¯s fine, just think of it as a shortcut. After all, if you can scale up a building with ease, would you still use the stairs?" The older Shiro asked with a smile.
"YES!"
"Not important. What is important however, is this anchor." She shook her head.
Looking at the glowing crystal in front of her, the older Shiro waved her hand and summoned a fewputers.
Connecting a few machines up to the anchor, she started to analyse the internalposition. Once she understood how it¡¯s made, she¡¯ll finally be able to im her spot as an Empress.
While this was happening, Shiro decided to keep an eye on the report so that she could do the same when she got back to her own world.
"Ha? What the hell does this mean?" Shiro furrowed her brows in confusion. The readings of the anchor were rather weird as she couldn¡¯t understand what it was talking about.
"Mn? Let me have a look."
Walking over to Tia, the older Shiro furrowed her brows and read the report.
". . . The f*ck?"
"Wait a minute, give me a second to decode this." The older Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Sitting down, she started to tap away at the keyboard as multiple screens started to appear and disappear.
Waiting patiently, Shiro watched by the side.
While this was happening, the battle between Rakurth and the Kirin escted in scale as they started to fire powerful spells towards one another. Should their spell miss, the surroundings would suffer their wrath.
Panic could be heard all over the city as the residents started to evacuate.
As the battle raged on, the analysis of the anchor soon became clear as both Shiro¡¯s couldn¡¯t believe what was in the anchor.
"A shard of the Garden..." Shiro muttered in surprise.
From her understanding, the Garden is the world that is chosen to undergo the age of demons and gods. If the anchor requires a shard of the Garden, it means that it required a piece of the destroyed world.
Therefore, if they wanted to create an anchor, they¡¯d need a ¡¯piece of Earth¡¯. However, not any piece will do.
From the analysis, it seems like this is the piece that holds the world together and stops it from destroying itself. Which means that should their main anchor of Earth be destroyed, the world will be gone.
"Man, what a risk. If I die, the world is gone. If the anchor dies, the world is also gone. Plus, I don¡¯t even know where I can obtain a piece of the Garden to begin with." The older Shiro said with a forced smile.
"Damn... Do you think we can ask one of the queens for information about this?"
"Probably not. And even if they decide to tell us, they wouldn¡¯t know where it¡¯s stored since the system did it for them before remember? The fire queen told us that she received the anchor from the system so she didn¡¯t know where a piece of the garden was." The older Shiro reminded.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro thought about it for a moment before widening her eyes.
"Wait a minute! What if you grab the recordings of multiple anchors and look for a signature that is consistent between all of them. Find that signature and you can use it to track down the one in our world no?"
"That could work but do you even know how big the world is? The range of the scan would be limited." The older Shiro shook her head.
"What if you do it from space then?" Shiro grinned before pointing towards the stars.
"Get a scan of the entire world. Simr to how our tracking magic circle works, everything that has a simr signature to an anchor would be revealed. All you have to do after that is to filter through them and find the one that we need."
"That could work. And if you do it before the new age, then you can find it easily since there aren¡¯t that many anchors around the ce..." The older Shiro widened her eyes.
"Memorise everything! Read through it and make sure you have a clear record of everything!" The older Shiro said as she quickly brought up all the information on anchors. Their mainponents, the method of creation and where you can find most of theponents other than the Piece of the Garden.
Nodding her head, Shiro read through each report in detail.
Just as she finished thest report, she noticed a blinking sign near the edge of her sight line. It was a sign that she had not seen in a long time, one that belonged to the system notification.
[You have passed the trial ¨C Vision of the Future.]
[Nyx ¨C Greek Goddess of Night is pleased with your performance.]
[You have discovered the mainponents to an Anchor ahead of time.]
[Nyx shall bestow upon you the following rewards.]
-Sigil of Night
-Skill ¨C Encroaching Darkness
-Primordial Enchantment Rune
-Sword Skill ¨C Unseen de
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wasn¡¯t even able to read the descriptions of the rewards when she suddenly felt a hand cup her cheek.
Flipping her body up, she summoned Athera and aimed it towards the hand.
"Wow, so lively despite just having gone through a trial." A charming voice chuckled as the de phased through her body.
"Who are you?" Shiro asked as she nced around her. Seeing her party members still sleeping on the boat, she sighed in relief.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯m back.¡¯ She thought to herself.
"Who do you think? I¡¯m Nyx, the Greek Goddess of Night. I have to say though, when other people go through the trial, they usually learn a skill they master in the future. But for you, you have actually obtained knowledge of the world shards or rather, the Piece of the Garden." Nyx smiled as she sat on the edge of the boat and crossed her legs.
"Wait so that wasn¡¯t the future?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Hmm... half and half. You see, that was ONE of the possible futures. And despite there being so many forks, you actually stepped on the one that granted you the most important knowledge. Congrattions." Nyx pped her hands.
"What¡¯s your goal in showing all of this to me? I thought everyone was going to be enemies when the new age begins. Including gods." Shiro frowned.
"Well if you know about my background, you¡¯ll know that my identity is a little specialpared to others. But let¡¯s just say that you¡¯ve caught my interest. Just know that we can talk more when youe to Mount Olympus since this avatar¡¯s already running out of power. I must say, the system is pretty strict about meeting you. After all, even ¡¯she¡¯ has her eyes on you so I suppose it¡¯s only normal. Have fun in this raid and I hope you don¡¯t take too long toe to Mount Olympus." Nyx winked as her figure melted into the darkness.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro dismissed her sword.
Thinking to herself for a moment, she eventually sighed and shook her head.
"I¡¯ll know more when I get to Mount Olympus." She muttered. Looking towards the Guide, she could see that he was still directing the boat.
"How long until the Judge?" Shiro asked as she just wanted to finish this raid so that she could think about everything that she had learned in the trial.
"We shall arrive once everyone wakes up."
"Mn." Nodding her head, she sat by the side and nced towards her system to check the rewards.
[Sigil of Night]
A crest bestowed upon you by the Goddess of Night. Your powers shall increase depending on how much darkness is around you. In day, you shall receive no bonus to strength. When night arrives, your power will be doubled. In absolute darkness, your strength will quadruple.
You may also choose to invoke the Sigil¡¯s power as a domain skill but the Sigil will be useless for a month.
When activated, your opponents will suffer a drastic decrease in their strength for 1 minute.
Enemies higher tier than you will experience a 50% decrease to their stats while those weaker than you will be immobilised from fear.
Chapter 607 Judge
Chapter 607 Judge
Reading the first reward, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrows at the use of the Sigil. Simr to what Thiria had done when she first appeared, the activation of this Sigil will make her enemies freeze up with fear.
Meaning, should she be surrounded on all sides by people who are weaker than her, this skill is a guaranteed mass fear.
Plus, for enemies that are stronger than her, they will receive a 50% decrease to their strength which should even the ying field for her.
And just for that extra impact, her strength will also increase depending on how much darkness is around her.
¡¯If I was to use this against the Guardian, I should be able to kill him. Naturally, I¡¯ll need to reach tier 5 first or else it¡¯s nothing but a pipe dream.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Shaking her head, she checked the other rewards.
[Encroaching Darkness ¨C Domain Type Skill]
When activated, darkness will surround the area for a period of time. Day will turn to night when you have this skill activated.
Cost: 20% of Mana for the first cast followed by 1% of mana per second of activation.
Cooldown: N/A
Reading this skill, she understood that this was supposed to help her make use of her Sigil more often as it literally guarantees darkness around her at any moment she wants.
¡¯That would be helpful.¡¯ She nodded with a smile before looking at the Primordial Enchantment Rune.
[Primordial Enchantment Rune.]
A rune gifted by the Goddess of Night. You may use this on a skill to increase its effectiveness and grant it the Divinity attribute.
"Oh my..." Shiro muttered as she immediately had an idea for this item but she was going to save it forter.
After all, if it really granted the skill divinity, there¡¯s a way she could put this to better use.
ncing towards the final reward, she was curious as to what this sword skill was. After all, she wasn¡¯t a swordsman so getting sword skills were rare. Hell, she was even surprised that she managed to acquire a sword domain along with the Refraction sword skill.
[Unseen de ¨C Sword Skill]
When you strike with your sword, you may make a jump forward in space. The distance of the space is dependent on how much mana you use however, upon exit, your de gains 200% increase to damage and ignores all armour.
You may cast this skill once per day.
Reading the description, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but want toin about the name.
¡¯What part of this is ¡¯unseen?¡¯ Just because you jump forward in space, doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s unseen.¡¯ She thought with a twitching smile.
However, a skill was a skill and the fact that it gave her 200% increase to damage along with ignoring all armour was a godsend. The only unfortunate part of this was that she could only use it once per day but that was fine. It wasn¡¯t like she was going to fight several powerful opponents in a single day now was she?
Dismissing her system screens, she looked towards the rest of the party.
Currently, they were still sleeping on the boat. From what she understood, they were undergoing a trial to resist temptation and if they failed, they may not return. While it worried Shiro, she believed that they could pass it without too many problems.
After waiting for a while, she heard two groans.
"Urg.... Huh? What happened?" Lyrica held her head in pain and looked around in confusion.
"Morning. You were undergoing a trial of sorts and you managed to pass. Well done." Shiro smiled before looking towards the second person that had woken up.
"Where did my normal life go?" Madison furrowed her brows.
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro tilted her head.
¡¯That¡¯s her temptation???? A normal life?¡¯ She thought to herself in confusion.
"Oh right, we¡¯re in a raid aren¡¯t we?" Madison sighed after seeing the rest of the party.
"Yup." Shiro nodded.
"A shame then. Oh well, I¡¯ll probably get a normal lifeter." Madison shrugged.
However, Shiro could only look at her with pity.
¡¯There¡¯s no going back now Madi. A normal life is nothing but a pipe dream.¡¯
"So what did you go through Shiro?" Madison asked curiously.
"Me? I did a trial bestowed by a god." Shiro replied nonchntly as both girls looked at her with an are you serious face.
"Wait, how the hell did that even happen???" Lyrica asked as she didn¡¯t even question the legitimacy. After all, considering who Shiro is, it isn¡¯t too surprising for her to be doing a god trial. The only point of concern is how she came into contact with it.
"The avatar of Nyx visited me when the lot of you were doing your own trial. I got a few decent skills from her too." Shiro replied as Madison took a deep breath.
"So you¡¯re telling me, the Greek goddess of Night visited you to give you a trial? The one that is called a primordial god that emerged at the dawn of creation, daughter of chaos and the one who lives in the depths of Tartarus. Are you talking about that Nyx?" Madison asked.
"Yup."
". . . Seems about right. Did it change the raid or anything?" She asked as that was the main concern.
"I don¡¯t think it did." Shiro shook her head.
Talking with the two for a while, the rest of the party eventually woke up while feeling a little nauseous from the rocking of the boat.
After finding out that Shiro took a trial from a god, most of them took it pretty easily except for Helion who was still trying to wrap his head around how it was possible.
His main question was how the f*ck did shee into contact with a god during a raid but her response was only a shrug since she had no idea herself.
However, with everyone awake, the boat finally docked at a shore.
Without saying anything, the Guide and the boat disappeared into the mist as the party was left alone on the white beach.
Looking around them, they could seerge rib cages surrounded by bone trees. In the distance, a grand castle of sorts could be seen.
"The Judge should be in that castle. Let¡¯s get this over and done with, after that little trial, I think everyone¡¯s pretty tired out." Lyrica sighed as the party nodded their heads.
Summoning their weapons, they started to make their way towards the castle. On their way there, they were ambushed by undead monsters but they were dealt with easily.
With the party being a little fatigued, they didn¡¯t want to waste much time onbat so they were very efficient in dealing with the monsters. Each one only took a few seconds to be killed as those that took longer were dealt with by Aarim.
Pushing open the doors of the castle, a blinding light filled their vision as the party¡¯s annoyance only grew. Thest thing they wanted after feeling tired was a face full of bright light.
When the light finally calmed down, they found themselves in the middle of arge dome like room with a giant sitting on a chair near the back.
Standing up, hisrge figure loomed over the party like a mountain.
"So that¡¯s the Judge huh? I don¡¯t see a court so I¡¯m guessing that it¡¯s like a domain that appearster." Shiro said as she looked around the area.
Just as she finished this sentence, a giant hammer suddenly appeared above them as Madison quickly activated her avatar skill.
Raising up her shield, the illusionary figure of Madison managed to parry the hammer to the side.
*BANG!!!!
Crashing against the floor, the hammer caused the room to shake before fading to mist.
Without hesitation, the Judge waved his hand and summoned two hammers. One to the left and one to the right.
Seeing this, Madison narrowed her eyes and mmed her shield down. A giant tier 4 magic circle could be seen as a dark red barrier surrounding the party.
*DONG!!!
mming against the barrier, the hammers were pushed up towards the ceiling in order to reduce the force of the impact.
"What an unpleasant person." Madison clicked her tongue.
"Since he¡¯s not giving us a chance to get ready, should we respond in a simr manner?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Of course. Aarim, lock him down." Lyrica grinned as the party dashed towards the boss.
Chapter 608 Hell Fury Judge
Chapter 608 Hell Fury Judge
With Gravity weighing down the boss¡¯ body, the party had an easy time knocking him down to the floor.
Since she knew that she would probably deal arge amount of damage to the boss, Shiro stuck with the role of control mage.
Waving her hand, several tier 5 magic circles appeared around the boss as ice chains pinned his body to the ground.
Seeing the chains, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder how her future self achieved the feat of dragging souls out with the ck chains. From her knowledge, the only way she coulde into contact with people¡¯s souls are her Soul Sword and the extraction skill. However, both of these skills essentially killed them since one seals them away while the other consumes it.
¡¯Maybe she found a way to merge the powers of the Soul Sword with the chain? Though to be honest, the Soul Sword is a representation of my soul turned into a sword. So if I follow that logic and instead of turning it to a sword, If I turn it into a chain, would that work?" She thought to herself.
However, she didn¡¯t fully understand how her Soul Sword worked so doing so might harm her instead.
Shaking her head, she focused on the task at hand.
Dropping the boss¡¯ HP to 80%, the party noticed a giant surge of mana in the surroundings.
*PING!!
Shattering the ice chains into pieces, the Judge stood up as a phantom chair appeared behind him.
While this was happening, a court of sorts could be seen slowly forming around them as their skills were halted.
"First question!" The Judge shouted out.
Pointing his hammer towards Helion, there was a red glow in his eyes.
"What is your most embarrassing secret regarding s.e.x.u.a.l activity?"
"WHAT THE F*CK!" Crying out in surprise, Helion couldn¡¯t help widening his eyes in embarrassment while Aarim started tough out loud.
"HAHAHA!!! Go on Heli! Tell us your most embarrassing secret!" Aarimughed as she held her stomach from the pain.
"I refuse!" Helion red at the judge as he received the Judge¡¯s Contempt debuff which decreased his movement speed and attack.
"Second question!" The Judge shouted out once more.
Pointing his hammer at theughing Aarim, his eyes glowed with an ominous red.
"What is your strangest encounter with self pleasure?"
"PFT!!! KARMA¡¯S A B*TCH!" Helion jumped for joy as Aarim¡¯s face flushed with embarrassment.
"Go eat a d*ck you dumbass judge! I refuse to answer!" Aarim flipped her middle finger towards the Judge.
Receiving the debuff as well, the party waited for the final victim of his questions.
"Third question!"
Pointing his hammer at Shiro, the Judge opened his mouth.
"What is the most s.e.x.u.a.l act that you have evermitted?"
Feeling her smile twitch, Shiro opened her mouth.
"I held hands with my childhood crush when I was a kid." She replied as she could feel her face heat up a little.
{That¡¯s the most s.e.x.u.a.l act that you¡¯ve ever done??? Pft!} Nimue snickered as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but throw a nanotech table towards Nimue in her mana realm.
As for the party, they only had one thought in regard to this.
¡¯How pure.¡¯
With the three questions asked, the fight resumed but Aarim and Helion had to be a bit careful due to the debuffs. Thankfully, with Silvia¡¯s presence, she was able to relieve a portion of debuff.
As the fight continued, the boss reached 60% HP and the court was summoned once more.
"You know, I don¡¯t mind if you kill this guy in one shot." Lyrica said with a smile.
"Nah it¡¯s fine, it¡¯s fun like this no?" Shiro grinned.
The victim of the first question Yin.
"What¡¯s your favourite food?"
"!!!" Pausing in surprise, Yin didn¡¯t know the answer to this question as she liked a lot of dishes. Naturally, there was bound to be a favourite but she didn¡¯t know which one it was.
Unfortunately, she took too long and received the debuff.
The second victim was Madison as she couldn¡¯t help but swallow her saliva in nervousness.
"Who do you love?"
Hearing this question, everyone in the party snapped their head towards Madison as they didn¡¯t expect her to love someone.
"What!? I can love as well you know!" Madison shouted back with a blush.
"Who is it then?" Shiro asked with an interested smile.
Biting her lower lip, she shook her head.
"I refuse to answer!"
"Aw... kill joy." Shiro pouted slightly since she was interested in the answer.
Surprisingly, the victim of the third question was Shiro again.
"What¡¯s the most s.e.x.u.a.l thought you had about someone?"
"Wait a f*cking moment." Shiro cut in immediately as she knew the answer to this question.
{Fufufu~ Go on Shiro, answer, didn¡¯t you say that it was more fun this way?} Nimue teased with a smug smile.
The thing with this question wasn¡¯t the s.e.x.u.a.l act but rather s.e.x.u.a.l thought. Meaning how far she had imagined herself with.
Feeling the party¡¯s gaze on her, Shiro shook her head.
"I refuse to answer." She replied.
"Kill joy huh? Look who¡¯s talking now." Madison huffed.
*Cough!
Scratching her head, she looked back at Lyrica.
"You don¡¯t mind if I kill him as quickly as I can now do you?" Shiro asked with a forced smile.
"Nope. Be my guest."
Taking a deep breath, Shiro narrowed her eyes towards the judge. This was a perfect time to test out some of her skills. Though she wasn¡¯t going to test out the unseen de just yet since she¡¯s saving that one for the final boss.
Activating Encroaching Darkness along with her Celestial Raiment.
Suddenly, ck mist started to surround the room as the darkness filled their vision.
With the passive of her Sigil of Night, Shiro¡¯s stats started to increase as she summoned Athera into her hand.
Making a bracelet with the Skill True Sight that allowed her to ignore 90% of their armour after reaching a certain amount of understanding on her enemy.
Attempting to activate the skill, she clicked her tongue after seeing it fail to activate however it made sense. They¡¯ve been making sure the boss couldn¡¯t move so it was a bit much to ask for a good understanding of him.
Shaking her head, she opted for a different approach.
Remembering the control her older self demonstrated over her skills without the use of the system, Shiro figured that she could probably merge properties of her skills so long as she had an adequate understanding of the skill itself.
Activating her Force of Elements, shebined a few of her elements together and attempted to merge it with her sword.
Recing the illusionary sword that the skill summons with Athera, Shiro watched as her mana was funnelled into Athera as the de hummed with a soft ring.
¡¯The efficiency of this is much lower than I had expected. A lot of mana is escaping but it¡¯s a start I suppose.¡¯ She thought to herself with a smile.
Activating a few more skills such as Hollow Deceit and Kietoma, Shiro¡¯s body disappeared from her spot.
Appearing in front of the boss, she twisted her body and swung her de.
*BANG!!!!!
Watching the decerate into the Judge¡¯s body, she could see a giant wound opening up as blood poured out inrge waves.
However, his health stopped around the 15% mark.
"Ah well this is a bit awkward." Shiro¡¯s smile twitched. She understood that the debuff she suffered probably caused her to fail her attack due to theck of damage.
*BANG!!!
A fist suddenly appeared in front of her as her body was sent flying to the edge of the room.
Quickly activating her healing spells, Silvia managed to bring her back to full health.
Crawling out of the debris, Shiro patted herself down and looked towards the judge with aplicated expression.
[Hidden Boss Discovered. Hell Fury Judge.]
Looking at the judge who now had an aura of malice around him, the illusionary image of asura could be seen covering his body as glowing red tattoo¡¯s started to appear on his body. His clothes were shredded by the surge of mana as armour covered his arms, waist and legs, leaving his muscr body exposed. His skin turned a deep shade of red as two giant hammers appeared in each hand.
"This is certainly a predicament. I think I should avoid trying to one hit them in the future unless I can guarantee that I will kill them for sure." Shiro muttered.
After all, the level of the judge was much higher than what they had expected.
[Hell Fury Judge ¨C LVL 300 Hidden Boss]
Chapter 609 Cardinal of Sin
Chapter 609 Cardinal of Sin
Looking at the boss with a slight frown, Shiro turned to the party.
"Welp as you can see, the f*cker did not die. Lyrica, care to give out a few orders?"
"Sure. Madi, you know the drill. Secure aggro while we just attack it for now. Hold off on the buffs and debuffs until you know its core skill set. Thankfully, it¡¯s still on 15% health, even though it¡¯s a hidden boss so it shouldn¡¯t be too bad. As for you Shiro, you can attack it too." Lyrica nodded her head.
"Oh? What if I properly one shot it this time?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Just hold back a lot then." Lyrica chuckled as the part dashed towards the boss.
Jumping into the air, Madison activated her avatar and mmed the shield against the boss¡¯ body.
Surprisingly, the boss did not budge a single step.
"Oh my." Muttering in surprise, Madison made eye contact with the boss before smiling.
"Enhance!"
Suddenly, a golden aura erupted out of her as she overpowered the boss in an instant.
Pushing him back by a few steps, she mmed him against the wall.
"Ug!" Groaning softly, the Judge raised his hammer into the air.
However, before he could m it down, ice chains appeared from around the room, pinning his limbs against the wall.
"Personally, I¡¯m not a fan of BDSM but just for you boss, I¡¯ll make an exception." Shiro said with a wink as she raised her hand into the air.
Mana surged around her as an illusionary sword appeared above her.
Without saying another word, pointed towards the boss and sent the sword towards his chest.
*PUSHII!!!!
Stabbing deep into his body, blood poured out of his wounds but it wasn¡¯t enough to pin the boss to the wall.
"Madi! Give it an extra push!" Shiro called out as Madison nodded her head.
Grabbing the handle of the sword, she pushed it as hard as she could.
*BANG!!!
Hearing the crack of the walls, the party smiled in satisfaction and prepared their next set of spells.
However, just as they were about to fire it, they watched as the blood started to flow back into his body. It was as if someone had just pressed the reverse button on time.
Hearing a faint growl from the boss, they felt a sudden increase to killing intent. Flexing his body, he shattered the ice chains and pushed Madison back by a few steps.
"The hell!?" Madison called out in surprise as she quickly stabilised herself.
"I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s a berserk skill or something. His HP regenerated to 30% as well." Shiro replied with a frown.
Snapping her fingers, nanobots surged around her as mounted cannons appeared around the room.
Designating the boss as the target, she narrowed her eyes.
"Fire!"
Firing on hermand, several beams of light could be seen, searing into the boss¡¯ body.
"URAHHH!!!!" Crying out in rage, the boss raised his hammer to block the cannons.
After a short barrage, the boss was barely standing on his feet as the walls surrounding him had long been decimated.
"I thought you were going to hold back a lot?" Lyrica asked with a twitching smile.
"I did though." Shiro replied with an embarrassed expression since she didn¡¯t expect a short barrage to deal this much damage. She didn¡¯t even enhance it with any skills either.
But before they could celebrate, the boss¡¯ killing intent surged once more as his wounds healed up.
"The f*ck." Shiro muttered as she watched all the damage she inflicted onto the boss heal up in an instant.
{Now you kind of understand what your enemies feel like. With you having so many healing skills, I¡¯ll be surprised if they actually managed to wound you properly.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯True. I would be annoyed fighting myself too. Especially with me aiming for my own ass.¡¯ Shiro agreed. She could still remember when she had to fight a copy of herself and man was that not fun.
Repeating the same process a few times, the party eventually understood that the more damage they did to the boss in one go, the more he was going to regenerate. Therefore, the best option was actually damage over time where they chip his health down little by little.
In a strange sense, this was actually a difficult boss for Shiro since she needed to control her strength so that it didn¡¯t damage the boss too much. If it did, it would regenerate more health than expected.
Eventually, they managed to defeat the boss through whittling his health down little by little.
Sitting on the floor of the boss room, Shiro looked up at the ceiling and sighed.
"God damn it, this boss was such a pain." Sheined.
"Tell me about it. Normally people would be annoyed that their firepower wasn¡¯t enough but in our case, we were annoyed that we had too much firepower." Lyrica nodded her head.
The loot wasn¡¯t too impressive either as the boss only dropped a hammer and some materials. It didn¡¯t even drop decent armour. If anything, the EXP they granted the party was pretty good so Shiro didn¡¯t mind. After all, everyone apart from her and Lisandra managed to gain 3 levels from that single fight.
"Since we¡¯re all tired, why don¡¯t we set up camp for the night and rest up so that we can deal with the final boss tomorrow." Silvia suggested as the party agreed.
After all, they were quite tired after going through a mental trial and a boss that forced them to control their strength. Some rest would be greatly appreciated.
"I¡¯ll set up some defensive measures then. I wouldn¡¯t want a boss to kill us in our sleep now." Shiro forced herself up on her feet.
After setting up the defensive formations, the party had some rations before preparing for bed.
While the party was resting for the night, the final boss of the raid said on his throne with a frown.
¡¯They should be here by now... Where are they? The judge is dead so it should be me who¡¯s next.¡¯ He wondered to himself.
###
Waking up in the morning, the party started to make their way out of the judge¡¯s room.
"The next boss is the final one and he¡¯s called the Cardinal of Sin. To put him in a nutshell, he hits hard, tanks a lot of damage and debuffs you depending on how much damage you do to him. The more damage you do to him, the more debuffs you acquire. After a certain amount, they will merge and the boss will receive a huge bonus." Lyrica exined.
"Sounds annoying." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"It is annoying. That¡¯s just his passive too. His actives are more annoying than his passive as there will be certain moments where he can drag you to a different dimension and duel you 1v1. If anyone dies in the duel, he gains a 10% increase to his overall stats. Normally, he will target the weakest member in the party but there are times when he will target the strongest one instead. When he does that, he¡¯ll activate his second active which allows him to ignore arge chunk of damage you do to him. This duel normallysts for around 30 seconds to a minute."
"Hou..." Listening to the exnation, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder if he decides who to duel depending on how many stacks of the debuff they have.
After all, the more damage you do, the more debuffs you receive. Meaning, the one with the highest stack is probably the strongest while those without any stacks such as the healer, are the weakest members.
Leaving the room where they fought the Judge, the party saw a staircase towards an open stage of sorts. On top of the stage, they could see severalrge towers pointing towards the sky.
Walking up the stairs, they eventually saw the throne with an armoured man currently resting with his eyes closed.
Seeing the rhythmic movement of his chest, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but force a smile.
"Is... is he asleep?" She asked hesitantly as this was a rather weird scenario.
"I think so?" Lyrica furrowed her brows with confusion.
"Should we hit him while he¡¯s sleeping?" Madison asked as her shield was ready.
". . .Yes. Let¡¯s see how much damage we can cause on him while he¡¯s sleeping." Shiro grinned.
Erecting several pirs to camouge their mana signals, Shiro had the party prepare their best spells.
Once the preparation was done, she waited for the perfect moment before dropping the barrier.
"Wake up!" She called out with a grin as a barrage of tier 4 and 5 spellsunched towards the boss.
"HAHA! Fool! I had a barrier set up all alo- !!!" Before the boss could rejoice, his eyes widened when the barrier that he had prepared was suddenly shattered to pieces as his body was bombarded with their spells.
Chapter 610 Silvias Combat Ability
Chapter 610 Silvia''s Combat Ability
"GAHH!!!" Crying out in pain, the Cardinal tried his best to ward off the attacks but he was not prepared for the intensity.
To make matters worse, strange chains had also wrapped around his arms, blocking his mana usage so he had to tough out most of the attacks.
After a while, the barrage finally ended as the Cardinal sat on his broken throne with a frown.
"Ha... Can I please ta-"
"Nope~" Shiroughed as another barrage followed up.
Racking up countless stacks of debuffs, Shiro had to activate a few of her berserk skills so that her attacks actually worked.
Despite the ridiculous amounts of debuffs on her body, Shiro was still able to drop the boss down to 40% health. Even when he received the buffs from his passive, the boss was still pinned to his throne.
Looking at the unending barrage of spells, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder what he did to deserve this.
"GOD DAMNIT!!!" He shouted out with thest ounce of strength as he activated his skill which allowed him to duel one of the members.
Locking eyes with Silvia, he sent her into his realm.
Cracking his neck, he red at her.
"I¡¯ll kill you first then I¡¯ll kill- GAH!!!"
Before he could finish his sentence, Silvia had already applied several buffs on herself and clubbed him on the head with her staff.
Twisting her body, she mmed the pommel against his chest and kneed him on the chin.
"I¡¯m a healer so I took some self defence sses from the other girls you know? If you think I¡¯m the weakest because of my ss, you¡¯re dead wrong. I can defeat my boyfriend in a one on one you know?" Silvia grinned as there was a murderous glow in her eyes.
Normally, she would refrain from being this violent with the other girls around since it wasn¡¯t like the healer to be this aggressive. But if the boss was to do her a favour like this, she had to enjoy the most out of it
"Gah! What is it with you girls and cutting people off when they speak!" The boss raged as a sword suddenly appeared besides him.
shing it towards Silvia, he was overjoyed to see that she had paper like defences as her arm was severed easily.
"HA-" Before he could finish hisugh, Silvia had already regenerated her arm and mmed the staff against the back of his knees, forcing him to kneel before her.
Pivoting on her foot, she mmed the pommel against his temple, disorientating him.
"If you can¡¯t kill a healer in one go, you¡¯re gonna have a bad time." Silvia ¡¯smiled¡¯ as the boss couldn¡¯t help but feel a chill down his spine.
###
"Damn. He took Silvi." Shiro muttered with a frown when she watched both the boss and Silvia disappear.
"Oh that¡¯s fine then. If anything, Silvia¡¯s the one we need to worry about the least. In terms of one on one potential, she¡¯s probably the strongest out of all of us." Lyrica shrugged as they started to make some preparations for when Silviaes out.
"What do you mean by that?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"You see, Silvia¡¯s healing power is so potent to the point you can cut her in half and she¡¯ll heal right up. If you can¡¯t prevent her from using her spells, she¡¯s essentially immortal you know? She¡¯s got a title which allows her to heal a target even if they reach 0 HP as long as she does it within the first minute of death. Meaning, she can heal herself if she reaches 0 HP. To make matters worse for the boss, her healing is stronger the less health she has. From 0 HP, she can heal herself back to full. Her only problem was mana but with the bracelet that you gave her, I¡¯d say that¡¯s pretty much been solved." Aarim exined.
"So you¡¯ve seen her being cut in half before?" Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Nope. She told us about it. It was during one of her dungeon runs and she made a mistake." Aarim shrugged.
". . .Ok now I get why you girls get so mad at me when I exin things. What the f*ck." Shiro massaged her eyes
"Wee is this your first time here? Would you like a guide?" Madisonughed as the party couldn¡¯t help but find the situation quite humorous.
"So, I know her healing is strong but what about herbat ability? Healings great and all butbat ability is just as important." Shiro asked.
"Oh herbat ability? She can beat Chen Yu in a one on one. And that¡¯s not even taking note of her healing." Lyrica said as Chen Yu nodded his head.
"Silvi¡¯s already reached Staff domain with her weapon. She had a surprising affinity with the staff you know?" Chen Yu said as Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
¡¯To think that Sivli¡¯s already reached Staff Domain. Perhaps I should go look for some martial arts manuals for her along with a good staff weapon.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Speaking of domains, how¡¯s your Hidden Proficiencying along? I know that the weapon you need is a strange mix of whip and sword." Shiro asked as she turned towards Lyrica.
"I haven¡¯t been able to make much progress with it since I don¡¯t have a weapon that fits my hidden proficiency." Lyrica replied.
"Hm, that¡¯s perfect then. Helion, remember the weird weapon blueprint I gave you before?" Shiro called out.
"Yeah? What about it?"
"Are you able to make it? I know that it was out of your reach before but what about now?"
"Hmm.... Maybe. The only problem is the intricate parts of the weapon. I don¡¯t think I can craft something so small in a short period of time." Helion replied.
"Don¡¯t worry about those. What I¡¯m thinking about is you make the mainponents such as the de and I¡¯ll use nanobots to connect each part together. Like the bracelets that you lot got, Lyrica will need to be careful with how much mana she gives the nanobots but I¡¯ll increase the threshold as much as I can." Shiro smiled.
"Will that work?" Helion furrowed his brows.
"It should. I mean, I¡¯ve beenbining hand made weapons with nanobots for awhile now. Lyrica, do you still have the dual des that I gave you way way earlier? Around school time?"
"Yeah I do. I haven¡¯t sold it." Lyrica nodded and brought out the Dual Ended Poison des that Shiro had gifted her.
"Let me just remove the disguise skill." Shiro smiled.
Passing the Nano Tech Infused Dual Poison des to Helion, Shiro waited for his response.
"Creator: Helion, Upgrader: Shiro? The f*ck???" Helion scratched his head as he looked at the de with confusion.
"See? So I think it should be ok if you made the main parts of the weapon and I finish it off." Shiro smiled as Helion nodded.
"Sure, we¡¯ll do that after we finish this raid then."
Waiting for the duel to end, the party watched as the two reappeared in the room. Silvia was unharmed while the boss seemed quite tired.
{Look at what you¡¯ve done to Silvi. She was a normalss until you came around. I can still remember what she was like when you first met her... Look at her now? Going toe to toe with boss¡¯ tsk tsk tsk.} Nimue shook her head.
¡¯You weren¡¯t even there when I saw her though???¡¯
{I can imagine what she was like. Plus, most people be monsters after being ¡¯trained¡¯ by you after all.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯I guess that¡¯s true.¡¯
{What do you mean I guess that¡¯s true. It IS true.}
Focusing back on the boss, the party was able to defeat him without too many problems.
However, Shiro needed to be careful of how many buffs he received since if he got too much, the party would have a hard time when they go into the duel.
Watching the boss¡¯ lifeless corpse copse against the ground, the party sighed in relief.
"This was quite a pain. Thankfully, we¡¯ve managed toplete this raid so it should be fine for a while. Let¡¯s grab the loot then leave this ce." Lyrica called out as the party agreed.
"Oh right, I also need to talk to the pope." Shiro muttered.
"Ah right, you still need to talk to the pope." The party sighed as they weren¡¯t too eager about the talk.
"What? Don¡¯t worry about it, I have this covered." Shiro waved her hands.
The party did not believe it and they proceeded to worry about the talk.
Chapter 611 New Skill
Chapter 611 New Skill
The rewards for the final boss were surprisingly rewarding as there were quite a few high quality armours that were distributed to the rest of the party. In addition to the armour, there were also three skill stones for the party to take with them.
Two of which were normal skill stones while the final one was surprisingly a Blessed Skill Stone.
Normal skill stones gave you a random skill ording to your level, but it may not be fit for you. Example being a mage receiving physique enhancing skill.
On the other hand, Shiro was excited about the Blessed Skill Stone as it allows you to evolve one of your existing skills and it could be any skill that you want.
Her first thought was to evolve her Extraction skill but there was one concern. And that was the fact that she did not have full control over the mysterious element. It was something that the system ¡¯allowed¡¯ her to use for the moment meaning she probably shouldn¡¯t be reliant on the skill.
Not only that, it bes redundant the moment the system is gone so that was also another point of concern.
Her second thought was on her Grace skill. If she were to evolve Grace, it could be a skill that revives the dead while her third choice was her soul sword. Remembering the affects her soul sword had, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what would happen if she were to evolve it.
Plus, she had other items that could potentially evolve her soul sword further such as the Origin Fusion Cell she received when she first evolved her Nanomancer ss along with the Primordial Enchantment Rune that she had recently acquired.
With these three items boosting her Soul Sword, it could be something monstrous even with her standards.
"Everyone." Shiro called out.
"What is it?" Lyrica turned towards her while scrolling through her stats to assign some points. After the fight, everyone had gained a few levels so there were some extra points to be spent.
"Do you mind if I take this Blessed Skill Stone? I know it¡¯s something precious but I kinda want to see what will happen if Ibine this with two other items that I¡¯ve been saving up." Shiro asked with a slightly embarrassed smile.
"Who do you think we are?" Lyrica pouted.
Before Shiro could say anything, Lyrica walked up to her.
"Of course, we mind." She furrowed her brows.
"Eh?" Blinking a few times, Shiro looked down at her skill stone before back at Lyrica again.
"Pft, what¡¯s with that face? Of course, we don¡¯t mind haha!" Lyricaughed as she turned towards the rest of the party.
"You don¡¯t mind right? Plus, I¡¯m quite interested to see what kind of crazy skill she¡¯ll get if she uses the stone." She called out.
Nodding their heads, the party had an excited look on their faces while Madison only groaned.
"Please I don¡¯t need anything crazier in my life." Sheined but everyone ignored her cries for normality.
"Right then, I¡¯ll exin to you what I want to do. With this Blessed Skill stone, it evolves one skill of my choice. Therefore, it¡¯s better to use this stone as the final step. The other items that I have are the Origin Fusion Cell and the Primordial Enchantment Rune. The Fusion Cell allows me to fuse any number of skills together as long as they¡¯re of the same category while the Rune allows me to enhance a skill and grant it the Divine Attribute." Shiro said while making a set of tables and chairs for everyone to sit on.
"Meaning, a single skill of mine will go through several upgrades in an instant. This might help me reach tier 5 since my upgrade requirements are not strict. With the rune granting me divinity, it might be the key."
"Oh my, which skill are you nning to upgrade then? Grace?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"Close but not quite." Shiro shook her head.
"You have something more ridiculous than Grace?" Madison raised her eyebrows.
"Yes and no. In terms of skill grade, Grace is much higher but in terms of raw power, this skill is almost unbeatable in my arsenal of powerful skills. It¡¯s the Soul Sword skill. It¡¯s like a literal manifestation of my soul into a sword and its attributes are quite... interesting. One slice against the skin with my soul sword will inject lethal poison into your body while corrupting your soul. A strike against the heart will consume the soul, forcing my enemies out of reincarnation. I can also slice the sword against myself to gain a huge boost in power." Shiro exined as Madison only sighed and mmed her head against the table, surprising the party.
"Wake me up when she finishes the skill." Madison waved her handzily.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro only shrugged before looking at the rest of the party.
"Now then, are you ready to see something interesting?" She asked with a smile.
"Not when ¡¯Interesting¡¯ in your dictionary means bing the grim reaper and harvesting souls but sure, I¡¯m here to watch." Silvia chuckled.
Agreeing with Silvia, the rest of the party made themselvesfortable while Shiro prepared to evolve her skill.
The first step would be to use the Origin Fusion Cell. Since it required skills of the same category, her Soul sword is perfect as it is both a sword skill and a berserk skill. Meaning, she canbine all of her berserk skills along with Refraction, Sword Domain and Unseen de.
Taking a deep breath, she brought out the Origin Fusion Cell that had been collecting dust in her inventory.
[Origin Fusion Cell - ???]
An item blessed by the origin. When used, users can fuse any number of skills of the same category and receive an upgraded skill as a recement. The stronger and more skills you use as fusion material, the better the final skill.
With the item being ssified as ???, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder if it was something simr to the Error element that she had received. However, that was thoughts forter. Right now, she had skills tobine.
Activating the item, she watched as a brand-new system window appeared in front of her. There was a main box followed by arge empty box. Understanding that she needed to choose her skills and ce it into the new window, Shiro started to drag her skills over one by one with Soul Sword in the main box as it was going to be the main ability that she wanted to focus around.
Force of Elements, Frenzied Incarnation EX, Refraction...
One by one, the screen started to fill up with skills that were of the same category as Soul Sword.
To her surprise, she was even allowed to select the skills that she had recycled from items meaning every single berserk skill and sword skill that she knew was going to be fused into one.
Once she was sure that all of the skills she could choose were in the window, she pressed the ept button on the bottom.
*BOOM!!!!
Suddenly, a giant radiant magic circle appeared in the sky as Shiro was not able to identify its tier. Normally, you would find out the tier of the magic circle through the amount of core circles or rather,yers that it had. Each tier would represent a singleyer meaning tier 5 magic circles had 5yers.
As for this one that she was currently seeing, there were simply too many to count and they were flickering in and out of existence with each passing second.
With Shiro in the centre, it was quite a sight to behold especially when the party was so close to her.
Watching the surge of mana that was pulled up into the magic circle, they were surprised to find themselves weak from theck of mana.
"Urg, I can¡¯t even rest in peace." Madisonined as she nced up at the giant magic circle.
Ignoring the party, Shiro focused memorising this magic circle as best as she could. Who knows, she could potentially study this type of magic circle and make use of it in the future.
As the magic circle absorbed more mana, Shiro noticed that it was shaking the raid dungeon as the ¡¯ceiling¡¯ of this realm was now showing cracks.
However, she couldn¡¯t stop now.
Feeling a surge of new knowledge in her mind, Shiro did not hesitate to use her Primordial Enhancement Rune.
Feeling a wave of foreign energy surged through the deepest parts of her consciousness.
[Abnormal Situation Detected, calling avable administrators.]
Ignoring the system prompt, Shiro activated her third and final item, the Blessed Skill Stone.
*CRACK! PING!!!!
Shattering the walls of the raid, a giant pir of light shot up into the night sky as the Vatican City was suddenly void of all mana. People who were in the midst of walking felt weakness wash over them as many copsed from this phenomenon.
[Divine Grade Skill has been created.]
Chapter 612 Divine Grade Skill
Chapter 612 Divine Grade Skill
[Please name the skill.]
Seeing this, Shiro decided to hold off on naming until she saw the description. But when she did, she couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes in shock.
Even when she understood that she could make a ridiculous skill with everythingbined, she didn¡¯t expect it to be ridiculous.
Rubbing her eyes, she had to make sure that she wasn¡¯t hallucinating.
"Erm... girls?" Shiro called out hesitantly.
"Ah f*ck. When Shiro hesitates, you know she¡¯s f*cked something up big time." Madison groaned.
"That is exactly what happened. I¡¯m not even sure if I¡¯m seeing the description of this skill correctly myself. It¡¯s just... ridiculous." Shiro forced a smile.
"Well what are you going to name it?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"I don¡¯t know." Shiro shook her head before making a hologram of what she could see.
The moment the partyid eyes on the skill, they couldn¡¯t help but widen their eyes in disbelief as well.
"What the f*ck!"
[??? ¨C Divine]
A skill that grants you five abilities.
First Ability ¨C Reaper ¨C You may enhance any weapon with the following properties. A single hit will inject lethal poison into their system, dulling their movements while causing excruciating pain in their soul. Stab their heart and they¡¯ll have their soul consumed. Wrap it around the enemy and depending on the difference in strength, you may rip out their soul from their mortal body, leaving them weakened.
Duration of Skill: 30 minutes
Cooldown: 1 Day
Second Ability ¨C Limit Break ¨C You break past your limits and receive a significant boost in strength (+800% To All Stats). When this happens, all enemies within range of you will be inflicted with Fear regardless of resistance or immunity. They will also suffer a decrease in stats during this period of time. (-80% of All Stats). In this state, you also receive 300% HP and MP regeneration.
Duration of Skill: 5 Minutes
Cooldown: 2 Weeks
Bacsh: You lose all movement for 1 week and you cannot use mana in that time. You also receive a 95% decrease in all stats during this period.
Third Ability ¨C Origin ¨C All of your mana is reced with origin for a short period of time. When this happens, all of your spells ignore resistances. In addition to this, your spells receive a 300% boost in power.
Duration: 5 Minute
Cooldown: 1 Day
Fourth Ability ¨C War Saint ¨C When activated, you instinctively know how to dodge the attacks that are thrown towards you. In a situation where it is one against many, you gain a full understanding of the battlefield, allowing you to make the best movements to avoid death. In this state, your attacks gain 100% armour pration and as long as you deal a certain amount of damage to their health in one go, they are immediately killed on the spot.
Threshold of Instant Kill for Enemies weaker than you: 20% of their health in one attack.
Threshold of Instant Kill for Enemies stronger than you: 75% of their health in one attack.
Duration: 2 Minutes
Cooldown: 1 Week
Bacsh: You experience twice the pain of your enemies after the duration. You also suffer a 60% decrease to your stats for 3 days.
Fifth Ability ¨C Divine Enchantment ¨C Once per day, you are allowed to Enchant one of your skills with this skill, evolving it to the next tier for a period of time. You may not use this skill on Reaper, Limit Break, Origin or War Saint.
Duration 10 Minutes
Cooldown 1 Day
Reading all five abilities that her new skill granted her, the party finally understood why Shiro had a hard time naming this skill. The first skill, Reaper, was one that allowed her to directly affect their souls. The second skill was a powerful Berserk skill that increased her stats by 800% while the third enhanced her spell power. The fourth will make one against many a piece of cake while the fifth allowed her to get a free upgrade to her skills every day. While it may onlyst 10 minutes, there were many things that Shiro could do in that time.
All five covered different areas so it was somewhat hard to generalise it into one name.
Which only begs the question of how a single skill became this diverse!
However, considering the fact that the Soul Sword was essentially a merge of three types of skills, it wasn¡¯t too difficult to imagine that this was the result.
"Why don¡¯t we call it Five Dishes? One for each asion." Yin suggested with augh as the party rolled their eyes.
"What about something like-" Before Lyrica could say her suggestion, they saw Shiro¡¯s system notification.
[No name has been chosen, the system will now generate one... Done.]
[Pandora¡¯s Requiem]
". . ."
Sighing softly, Shiro turned off the hologram.
[Abnormal Achievement Gained.]
"Huh?" Raising her eyebrow, Shiro looked at the new notification.
[You have attained a piece of divinity as a tier 4 entity. The gods are surprised. There is now a spot for you in the Hall of Divine.]
[Nyx is pleasantly surprised.]
[Asteria is shocked.]
[Most of the Greek Pantheon is shocked.]
[The other gods have taken notice of your existence.]
[Demon God Verron has recognised you.]
[You have gained the qualifications to ss up to tier 5.]
"Erm... Girls?" Shiro called out.
"Oh f*ck... Something else happened didn¡¯t it?"
"Yeah. Well... it¡¯s better for you to see for yourself." Shiro forced a smile and created the hologram once more.
Seeing the notifications of gods taking notice of Shiro, the party stayed silent.
"Just... let me sleep this off. I promise I won¡¯t give a sh*t when I wake up." Madison sighed and massaged her eyes.
"Honestly, it¡¯s the same for me." Lyrica nodded her head since this was quite something for them to digest. After all, they¡¯re still tier 4 and the gods were already taking notice of them. Well, Shiro to be precise but by extension, that includes them.
"Yeah, I¡¯ll deal with this ss upter. I think I might hold off on talking to the pope until I rank up." Shiro nodded her head before looking at the sky. She could still see cracks in space as it was trying to mend itself back together.
Agreeing with the notion of taking a break, the party made their way to the obelisk that had appeared after they killed the final boss and teleported back to the city. Upon arrival, they could see several government agents appearing with serious expressions on their face.
Just outside of the teleport shrine, they could also see ambnces carrying unconscious people before hurrying off into the distance.
"Erm... Excuse me?" Shiro called out to one of the nearby government officials since this was quite a strange sight.
"Mn? Hurry it up, we¡¯re doing official government business right now." The official frowned but decided to spare her some time.
"What happened? Everything was fine before we went into a raid but why are there so many people unconscious? Is it demons?" Shiro asked. Seeing the huge amount of unconscious people, she guessed that it could be a ploy by the demons. Remembering what her future self had told her, she made sure to ce a few nanobots on Madison¡¯s body just in case.
"We don¡¯t know. A few moments ago, there was a giant magic circle that suddenly appeared over the city and drained all of the ambient mana. This included the mana from people so there are lots of adventurers suffering from mana deficiency." The official shook his head before hurrying off into the distance.
Standing there awkwardly, Shiro realised that this was her doing rather than the demons.
". . . Why don¡¯t we help out a little." Shiro asked with a cough.
*Sigh
"I guess we¡¯re partially responsible since we told you to go ahead with the fusion." Madison sighed as she scratched her hair.
Nodding their heads, the party started to split up and help with the rescue operation. Silvia and Shiro made their way to where the patients were being carried off and started to heal them with their healing spells.
As there were more than a hundred people that were affected, Shiro had everyone form a party with her so that she could cast grace on everyone.
Unfortunately, there were a few people that were transportedte so Silvia would have to deal with them.
With the efforts of every healer that the government had sent over, the effects of Shiro¡¯s actions had been mitigated and the city almost back to normal.
With the city almost back to normal, Shiro returned to her room and checked her system.
After all, she could now ss up to tier 5 if she so wished.
Chapter 613 Tier 5
Chapter 613 Tier 5
Flicking through the panels, she eventually reached the section that determined her ss up.
[Do you wish to ss up? Should you agree to this, you will undergo an ¡¯evolution¡¯ to reach tier 5.]
Looking at this line, Shiro looked out the window and wondered if she should be patient or not. From her understanding of how the system worked, the longer she waited, the more powerful the ss due to the amount of ¡¯achievements¡¯ that she could attain.
However, the longer she waited, the less time she had to reach tier 6 and so on.
Thinking about it, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but toss and turn in her bed.
¡¯Should I ss up or should I wait...¡¯ She sighed.
{I think it¡¯s probably better to ss up right now. If you go with the wait mentality, you¡¯ll always be waiting and it¡¯ll never end. Plus, time isn¡¯t exactly in an abundance right now especially with the new age right around the corner.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯I suppose so. What do you think Iziuel?¡¯
{Me? Well I¡¯m the same as Nimue, you should probably try to get to tier 6 before the new age.} Iziuel tilted her head slightly.
¡¯You¡¯re right. But I probably shouldn¡¯t ss up in the city. Seeing as how my new skill caused such amotion, I should probably find a good dungeon.¡¯
{Either that or you ss up in the middle of nowhere.} Nimue smiled.
¡¯Mn, let¡¯s see...¡¯
Grabbing her phone, Shiro quickly checked all the avable dungeons right and picked the level 150 Nightmare Museum dungeon.
Pushing her nket aside, she quickly got dressed and jumped out of her window.
Making her way to the dungeon, she could still see a few people being treated for mana deficiency in the distance and couldn¡¯t help but pray for their safety. After all, she was the one that caused this.
Landing softly in front of the dungeon gate, she pushed open the dungeon gates and stepped inside.
Once her vision cleared up, her first task was to make sure the monsters won¡¯t interfere.
Pressing her hand against the wall, she was greeted with the familiar sight of monsters running away from her locations.
¡¯Makes sense. However, just to be sure...¡¯
Narrowing her eyes, a tier 5 magic circle wrapped around Shiro¡¯s wrist as ice started to spread through the dungeon. Making a cage of sorts around the room that all the monsters were gathered, she made sure that they couldn¡¯t escape.
Once that was done, she could finally ss up without any worries.
Navigating to the ss up screen, she pressed yes for the ss up.
Right after she pressed yes, she felt a wave of fatigue hit her mind as she stumbled on her feet.
"Urg... damn it¡¯s gonna be one of those ss ups huh?" She forced herself to stand as her vision started to blur.
Slowly, crystals started to form near her feet.
Looking at the crystals that had appeared, Shiro knew that this was part of the ss up process since she had experienced this before.
Closing her eyes, she allowed her entire body to be encased in this crystal.
Once her entire body was covered, she drifted off into sleep.
[Multiple sses detected. Ex ranked ss: Ascendant Nanomancer, Ex ranked ss: True Celestial Sylph Empress. Permission to merge?]
[Permission Granted by Administrator.]
[Limit of mortals is EX ranked. Permission to remove this limiter?]
[Subject has obtained Rank 8, Divine Grade Skill. Limit has already been broken. Allowing subject ess to Demi God and Divine Ranked sses.]
[Tallying Achievements.]
[Rank 6 in the process of being killed included. His body is already flooded with nanobots. Death is unavoidable.]
[Subject has obtained a seat in the Hall of Divine.]
[Subject has killed the avatar of a god.]
[Subject has ess to Error 403.]
[Subject has gained memories of previous incarnations.]
[Subject has gained knowledge on how to create anchors.]
[Subject has housed multiple EX ranked skills.]
[Subject has Nyx¡¯s Favour on her side.]
[Subject has ???¡¯s Favour on her side.]
[Abnormality detected. Subject has achieved feats that are impossible for a tier 4. Reevaluating.]
[Requesting assistance from all avable Administrators.]
[15 Administrators have answered the call for assistance.]
[Evaluating...]
[Administrator 13 proposed to reapply the limiter to keep the bnce.]
[6 for, 9 against. Proposition Denied.]
[Administrator 4 proposed to grant Subject more rewards due to her achievements. Reasoning: All of the achievements she has done have been her own efforts. There¡¯s no need to take it all away. In fact, we should award her as she has been several close calls with death.]
[5 for, 10 against. Proposition Denied.]
[System Question: Which rank of ss should the subject obtain? Due to prior abnormalities, her ss was not determined. Based on thews of the system, she shall get a ss higher than her current one. Meaning, she is to be granted the status of tier 7 Demi-God as EX rank is to be the limit of Tier 6.]
[All 15 Administrators Voted no for Demi-God ranked ss at tier 5.]
[Administrator 1 proposed to create a new rank for Subject¡¯s ss. One higher than EX but lower than Demi-God.]
[10 for, 5 against. Proposition epted.]
[System shall now generate new rank for Subject.]
[Rank Generated. Subject shall now obtain the Ascendant Ex ranked ss: Divine Sylph Nanomancer.]
[Retaining Empress privileges.]
[As the first ss of its kind, further rewards are required for the Subject. The system allows no votes for this decision.]
[Rewards include: Title, Item, Skill.]
[Generating... Complete.]
[Administrators are now dismissed.]
###
"Damn." Clicking his tongue, Administrator 4 had an annoyed expression. His initial proposal of giving Subject Shiro more rewards was voted against but the system eventually gave her rewards anyways.
"Well. She¡¯ll get more rewards whether the other Administrators like it or not." He chuckled.
He was the one that Shiro¡¯s system had kept calling for when there was an abnormality. All the insane feats that she had aplished were witnessed by him. Initially, he thought that it was such a pain to deal with since she was breaking the bnce but eventually, he became quite excited to see what she could do.
"Let¡¯s see what else she¡¯ll aplish." Heughed as he swiped a few screens. Most of them were damage reports caused by Shiro. Especially the most recent one where she broke the walls of a raid and caused a mass case of mana deficiency.
###
*Ping~
Shattering the crystal to pieces, Shiro couldn¡¯t control her body and she fell face forwards.
"GAH!" Rubbing her nose, Shiro furrowed her brows and looked around her.
Seeing that she was back in the dungeon, she sighed in relief before conjuring up a mirror to check her appearance. After all, with each ss up, she changes ever so slightly.
The first thing that she noticed was her eyes turning red like rubies while they were a dark shade of purple before. The second thing she noticed was that she had grown a little taller and her features were more mature. If she had a guess her body¡¯s age right now, it would be around 20.
"Oh my, I¡¯m starting to look more like my future self." Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile.
Patting the dust off her body, she gave herself a quick stretch and checked her stats.
The first thing she noticed was that she now had a single ss on her screen. The second thing she noticed was the jump in stats that she had just received.
[You have received the Ascendant EX ss: Divine Sylph Nanomancer.]
[Your race has evolved. Celestial Fae -> Divine Fae.]
[As the first person in the universe to have ever achieved an Ascendant EX ss, you receive the following rewards.]
[Title: One of a kind.]
With this title, the assignable points that you receive per level up is doubled.
[Item: Map to the Garden Shard.]
[Passive Skill: Skill Schr]
You have a better understanding of each of your skills. Should you spend the time to study them properly, you may be able to unlock their hidden potential.
Looking at these three rewards, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but grin. The first means that she¡¯s going to get even stronger, the second is what she needed to find the core piece for an anchor and the third allowed her to achieve what her future self-did such as focusing grace on a small part of the body rather than the whole.
"What a haul~" She giggled slightly from joy.
Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to spare the monsters in the dungeon and make her way back to her room. On her way out of the dungeon, she checked her new stat page.
Chapter 614 Level 201
Chapter 614 Level 201
The first thing that she noticed was the huge amount of assignable points that she now had ess to. Due to her title, it was doubled meaning she was originally meant to get around 30k per level but now, she had 60k to spend.
Immediately spending it on her main stats, INT, Shiro smiled in satisfaction.
In addition to this, some of her skills had also been upgraded such as her Celestial Gardens which was now Divine Gardens.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Divine Fae
Title: Advanced Monster (445/1000 Human¡¯s Killed), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind.
Level: 201
ss: Divine Sylph Nanomancer (Ascendant EX)
HP: 462,500,000/462,500,000
MP: 1,520,625,000/1,520,625,000
STR: 2,500,000 <+1,250,000> (+800,000) @+250,[email protected] = 4,800,000
VIT: 2,000,000 <+1,000,000> (+500,000) @+200,[email protected] = 3,700,000
INT: 4,060,000 <+2,030,000> (+1,000,000) {+203,000} [+4,060,000] @+812,[email protected] = 12,165,000
AGI: 2,500,000 <+1,250,000> (+600,000) @+250,[email protected]= 4,600,000
DEX: 1,500,000 <+750,000> (+300,000) @+150,[email protected] = 2,700,000
DEF: 1,000,000 <+500,000> (+400,000) @+100,[email protected] = 2,000,000
< > = Title Bonus (50%) {Tears of the Sylph Queen +5% INT} (Armour) [ ]= Armour passive @@ = gorgon (10% to everything 20% to INT)
Unassigned Points: 60,000 -> 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 5
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 5
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 5
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 5 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 5
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 5
Dark Celestial Phoenix Fire ¨C Tier 5
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 5
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 5
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 5
Nature ¨C Tier 5
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 6
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Divine Sylph Nanomancer:
Elemental Breath, Celestial Mirage, Force of Elements, Divine Raiment EX, Tier 5 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Divine Empress¡¯ Domain EX, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX, Advanced Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Divine Court Appointment, Empress¡¯ Blessing, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 5, Analysis
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Divine Gardens, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Asteria¡¯s Blessing, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr.]
With this upgrade, her HP was almost 500 million while her MP had surpassed the 1.5 billion mark.
{And to make matters worse, you still haven¡¯t bothered with upgrading your monster title. Once you do, I don¡¯t want to imagine how much stronger you¡¯ll be.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯Well I¡¯ve been busy so I haven¡¯t really been out on a killing spree now have I? Though I am curious about one thing. If I kill a demon, would it increase my monster title?¡¯ Shiro replied with a shrug.
{Who knows.}
¡¯However, now that I don¡¯t have Empress or Queen in my ss, does that mean I lost the connection to the spirit race?¡¯ Shiro asked with a slight frown.
{Don¡¯t worry my Empress. I can still feel the connection so even if your ss doesn¡¯t state that you are the Empress, you are still the Spirit Race¡¯s leader.} Estre replied.
{Well there you have it. Everything is still fine.} Nimue smiled.
Making her way back to the house, she saw Aarim waiting outside with a twitching smile.
"Evening. I would have thought that you would be sleeping right now." Shiro waved her hand.
"I would be if I didn¡¯t receive a sudden surge in mana within my body." Aarim replied with a sigh.
"Well I just went out to ss up. Apparently, I got a ss grade that no one has ever achieved." Shiro chuckled.
"Of course you would get that kind of achievement." Aarim rolled her eyes.
*Yawn~
"As long as I don¡¯t get any sudden bursts in mana quantity in my sleep, I¡¯ll be ok. Goodnight." Aarim yawned before returning back to her room.
Doing the same, Shiro rested for the night.
###
The first thing she did after waking up was to inform the party about her ss up. During this, Shiro noticed that Lisandra¡¯s ss had changed from Celestial Seraphim to Divine Seraphim.
"So both of your sses have merged?" Lyrica raised her eyebrow after seeing her ss.
"Yup." Shiro nodded her head.
"So do you feel any different or is it still the same but you¡¯re just a bit stronger?" Madison asked after making herself some coffee.
"Hmm... I¡¯m not sure but I¡¯ll probably figure that out inbat or something." Shiro shrugged.
"So what¡¯s the n for today then? Should I start making the main pieces of Lyrica¡¯s weapon?" Helion asked curiously.
"You make the main pieces while I go talk to the pope about the whole demon problem."
Just to make sure that Shiro wasn¡¯t going to do anything too crazy, most of the party decided to follow her to meet the pope. Plus, it would be easier if they went with her since they¡¯ve already met the pope.
Before leaving the house, Shiro made sure to disguise her ss a little so that they wouldn¡¯t know about her nanobots. While she is now tier 5, she was still in the early stages. Once she gets to around level 300, she wouldn¡¯t need to worry about most people and that¡¯s when she can stop disguising herself.
Making their way to the Apostolic Pce where the pope lives, they were led to a guest room.
"The pope will be here shortly." A nun said with a small smile before leaving the room.
Waiting around for a while, young man approached the party.
"I am Pope Fabian. It is an honour to meet the mother of the holy one." Fabian smiled.
Rather than an old man, the pope was a young man who looked to be in his early 20¡¯s. He had blond hair and blue eyes, a set of delicate features. He had a rather calming aura around him as Shiro was quite surprised at his age.
In her mind, the pope would have been an old man with white hair or something.
"Seeing the expression of your face, it seems like you did not expect me to be this young." Fabian chuckled.
"Ah right, sorry about that." Shiro apologised.
"It is ok. I am used to these looks of surprise." Fabian shook his head.
"So I¡¯ve been recently informed about the surplus of demons appearing in the city along with the lowbat standard which prevents you from clearing dungeons and raids."
"They are indeed a concern for us. Thankfully, with the holy one¡¯s presence and the efforts of your party, we were able to resolve most of our problems but they are short term fixes."
"Understandable. So I have an idea for the demon problem." Shiro smiled as Fabian was immediately interested.
"I can track them down and eliminate them but the magic circle I use might be a bit too shy so I¡¯ll need your permission I suppose."
"How shy would a magic circle have to be for you to need my permission?" Fabian tilted his head.
"Something around or bigger than the city itself." Shiro replied as Fabian paused in surprise.
Taking a moment to digest what she had just said, he eventually nodded his head.
"That is fine. I can send a notice outter, notifying the residents of your actions."
"Great. As for the second problem, there¡¯s not much I can do other than provide some training equipment I suppose. However, the government should have been able to provide you with virtual training simtors no? Why have you not been putting them to use?" Shiro asked.
Smiling bitterly, Fabian shook his head.
"It¡¯s not that we don¡¯t want to put them to use but rather we weren¡¯t able to. You see, the cost of maintaining the simtor is quite high and it also uses high ssed mana crystals as one of the fuel sources. At first, the government assigned some mana crystals to us but after ack of progress, the amount of mana crystals started to decrease. I suppose in their eyes it¡¯s not worth the effort so we¡¯re left with our retired veterans trying to train the younger generation."
"Hmm... so it¡¯s only a matter of fuel then?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Yes."
"Oh if that¡¯s all then I can deal with it easily. Show me to the simtors and I¡¯ll do some maintenance on them. I¡¯ll make it so that you don¡¯t need any mana crystals." Shiro grinned.
Chapter 615 Tutorial
Chapter 615 ''Tutorial''
Following Fabian to where they keep the simtors, Shiro raised her eyebrow when she saw the model of the simtors. They were worse than the ones she had used in New York and that was in the weakest city.
"Alright, step out for a bit. I¡¯ll fix this up real quick." Shiro waved her hand as Fabian nodded his head.
Just as he left, the party looked towards her.
"Don¡¯t go too crazy. If you make a simtor that transcends our technology by like 100 years, things are gonna get annoying." Madison reminded as Shiro stayed silent.
". . . You were nning to do that weren¡¯t you?" Madison narrowed her eyes.
*Cough!
"Not really. I was just going to install a few mana absorbers and better AI for the simtions." Shiro replied while looking away from the party.
Sighing softly, Madison gave up.
"Just do what you want."
Hearing this, Shiro grinned.
cing her hand on the simtors, she closed her eyes and mapped out their internalposition.
Understanding the simtors a bit better, she started to get to work. Summoning some nanobots, she started to install newponents.
The main feature that she wanted to install was for adventurers to study in the simtion. A training hall of sorts so that they could improve.
The next feature would be a graduation hall where they¡¯ll need to put what they have learned to the test and for that to work, she¡¯d need bosses that can only be defeated with what they¡¯ve learnt.
Programming a few Ai to fit these requirements of her¡¯s, Shiro didn¡¯t have too hard of a time to ¡¯fix¡¯ the simtors as she had experienced advanced ones back in Aria.
"Fuu... That should do it." She smiled as she looked at the new and improved machines.
Calling Fabian back in, she suggested that he give it a try himself.
"Ah ok. So what do I do?" He asked while inspecting the machine.
"Just sit in it. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll hop over too so that I can give you a tour. We¡¯ll have you go through a tutorial of sorts too." Shiro ¡¯smiled¡¯ as Silvia suddenly felt a chill.
She could still remember what had happened during her ¡¯tutorial¡¯ of Shiro¡¯s training.
"Oh god she¡¯s going to turn the adventurers of Vatican City into a group of maniacs now." Silvia whispered over to the rest of the party but they already had a face of eptance.
Ignoring Silvia¡¯s whisper, Shiro hopped into one of the simtors and activated the device.
After a short moment, she found herself in the digital world with Fabian beside her, looking around in awe.
ncing down at his hands, he clenched and rxed his fist a few times.
"So what¡¯s the tutorial?" He asked.
"The first tutorial is learning how you enhance your weapon with your mana. In addition to this, you¡¯ll also need to learn how to wrap your mana around your body like a te of armour. These two are the fundamentals that every adventurer needs to learn."
"But I already know this." Fabian tilted his head and demonstrated it to her.
"Yes but it¡¯s weak. I say fundamentals but in reality, it¡¯s much harder than the basic aura that you conjure up." Shiro grinned and flicked the mana that he had wrapped around himself.
Shattering it to pieces, she gestured for him to follow her.
"Come into this room. It¡¯s apressor of sorts and it¡¯ll help you learn how to strengthen your aura." Shiro smiled.
Walking inside the room, he could see a screen appear in front of him.
[Would you like a video demonstration on how to deploy mana properly?]
Selecting the no button, a new panel appeared.
[Please select the difficulty of the room.]
[Super Easy]
[Easy]
[Below Average]
[Normal]
[Above Average]
[Hard]
[Super Hard]
[Hero Tier]
Thinking about it or a moment, he pressed Below Average as he wasn¡¯t too sure about the difficulty after Shiro shattered his aura with ease.
[Please deploy your mana around you like a barrier. The test will begin in 5 seconds.]
Seeing this, he deployed his mana once more as Shiro stepped outside and watched with a grin.
¡¯A shame that he picked below average. Should have picked Super Easy. After all...¡¯ She giggled.
¡¯It¡¯s using me as reference for the grade.¡¯
The moment the timer hit one, a crushing pressure crashed against Fabian and his body was immediately reduced to bloody mist.
Respawning with disbelief written all over his face, Fabian turned towards Shiro.
"That¡¯s below average?" He asked with a twitching smile.
"Yup. Why don¡¯t you give Super Easy a shot after watching the video?" Shiro asked with a sadistic smile.
Feeling a shiver down his spine, Fabian nodded his head.
While this was happening, the party could see everything that was happening from the outside due to the fact that Shiro had made sure a screen would show them what was happening.
Seeing the deceiving difficulty grade and Shiro¡¯s sadistic smile, they prayed that the pope wouldn¡¯t be ¡¯broken¡¯ by her.
###
After watching the video, Fabian understood that he needed to increase the speed of the mana along withpressing it. Otherwise, it would be shattered in an instant.
Picking the Super Easy difficult this time, he braced himself for the impact.
But just as the countdown hit 1, he was surprised by theck of pressure and couldn¡¯t help but wonder if it was broken.
However, the moment he turned around and saw Shiro¡¯s sadistic smile, he knew that something was wrong and immediately tried his best to reinforce his mana armour.
*BANG!!!!
Feeling as though a giant hammer had just mmed into his body, Fabian struggled to stand up as his body was crushed against the ground. After a short moment, he was turned to paste and respawned next to Shiro.
"So how was it?" Shiro asked with a soft chuckle.
"I think the difficulty is a bit misleading." He replied, forcing a smile.
"Not really. Super Easy is indeed Super Easy. It gives you some more time to reinforce your mana armour and the pressure is something an ¡¯average¡¯ adventurer at your level could output at max efficiency. If you can survive super easy then you¡¯re pretty much sorted. The over levels are for those that want to go higher." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"Anyways,e with me to the second test. We don¡¯t have enough time for you toplete this one since it might take a few months."
Sending them to the next area, it was time to reinforce weapons with mana.
[Would you like a video demonstration on how to reinforce weapons?]
Pressing yes without hesitation, Fabian tried his best to memorise everything before stepping into the testing area.
Choosing the Super Easy difficulty, he was surprised to see a panel exining the situation.
[You must reinforce the carrot in your hands with mana so that the rabbit doesn¡¯t consume it. Once it does, you will fail the test.]
Seeing the carrot that had appeared in his hands, he followed the instructions and reinforced the carrot in time to see a white bunny appear in the far end of the room.
Blinking once, he was surprised to see the bunny already in front of him as he opened his mouth and took a bite towards the carrot.
*CRACK!
Shattering the carrot to pieces, the bunny¡¯s fur, turned a deep shade of red and his body size increased by many times.
Looking at the now giant bunny that was ring at him with murderous intent, Fabian wasn¡¯t even able to run when his upper torso was ripped from his waist with a single bite.
Respawning next to Shiro, Fabian stayed silent.
"This is just the tutorial?" He asked.
"Yup."
"Things get harder after this?"
"Yup."
". . ."
Leaving the digital world, Fabian thought to himself for a moment before ncing towards Shiro.
"I think you should lower the difficulty a little. I don¡¯t think anyone in this city can pass the tutorial level."
"If you¡¯re not convinced, I can get one of our party members to do it and record it as proof. That way, when adventurers try it out, they can see that someone has already passed the tutorial." Shiro suggested.
Nodding his head, he was curious as to who the person was going to be.
"Lyrica, you want to do the tutorial?" Shiro asked with a smile. She had full confidence that Lyrica canplete this without any problems.
"Sure. Which difficulty do you want me to do?"
"You can probablyplete Above Average if I¡¯m honest but stick with normal for now." Shiro replied.
Nodding her head, Lyrica sat in one of the simtors and closed her eyes.
Finding herself in the digital world, she did not hesitate to begin the first trial.
Closing her eyes, mana wrapped around her body and formed a thinyer of armour which seemed like it would shatter with a single poke.
But when the pressure struck against her body, the only thing that Fabian could see was slight traces of difort on Lyrica¡¯s face as her mana did not crack from the pressure.
After she passed the first trial, she proceeded to the bunny. Picking Normal once more, her reinforced carrot had actually broken the rabbit¡¯s teeth as Fabian watched with shock.
He failed the lowest difficulty but Lyrica hadpleted Normal without too many problems.
"See? The grading is fine." Shiro grinned.
Chapter 616 Following Dominic
Chapter 616 Following Dominic
After recording a few of the trialpletions with the party members, Fabian didn¡¯t have anything to say about the difficulty of the trials, only the naming of them.
However, after some persuasion from Shiro, he eventually agreed.
Making sure that every Simtor was upgraded, Shiro had Fabian send them to a training hall of sorts so that it was independent from the guild. That way, he could earn some money for the orphanages rather than split it off to the guild. It¡¯s not like he¡¯s using their resources due to the fact that the machines were now actively absorbing ambient mana to power themselves.
After she had sorted out the problem regarding the simtors and the standard of adventurers in this city, it was time to discuss the main problem which was the demons.
"So you said that the magic circle may stretch across the entire city right? Wouldn¡¯t that cause a second round of mana deficiency due to the mana required for the spell?" Fabian asked as the safety of the people was his main concern.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be powering the magic circle entirely by myself. Plus, it¡¯s bigger than what it actually seems. Its main job is to search for the demons after all." Shiro waved her hand.
"I see... Are you able to wait a few days though? I want to make sure that the patients in the hospital are safe before you try anything." Fabian asked as Shiro nodded after a short moment.
"Sure I don¡¯t see why not."
After talking to the pope for a little longer, they left the building and made their way through the city.
"What shall we do now? We got a few days to burn before we look for the demons." Lyrica asked.
"I¡¯m going to pay an old friend a visit. After all, I got a glimpse of the future, there are a few things that I need to remember." Shiro replied as it was time for her to track down the Dragon Master himself.
After all, her older self informed her of Vatican City¡¯s destruction at the hands of Dominic. With both dragons and demons attacking the city, the people and no chance of survival and the casualty rates were off the charts.
"Oh? Who¡¯s this old friend of yours?" Lyrica raised an eyebrow.
"Hmm... I say old but I haven¡¯t actually met him yet. I know him in the future." Shiro replied. She wasn¡¯t going to mention Rakurth¡¯s race just yet because Yin might go on a rampage.
"Do you want us to join you?"
"Nah it¡¯s fine. Just continue to do some dungeon runs with Lisandra while I deal with this. It¡¯s easier if I go alone since stealth might be needed. Plus, since me and Lisandra¡¯s levels are linked, you¡¯re helping me by taking her to dungeons." Shiro smiled as Lyrica nodded her head.
Splitting up the party, Shirounched herself onto the highest roof that she could see and started to search for the nanobots that she had nted on Dominic¡¯s body.
Finding the signal to be slightly out of the city, she raised her eyebrow before jumping into the rift.
Dashing her way through the city, Shiro noticed that the signal started to stray towards the direction of the Colosseum, located in the centre of Rome.
¡¯Hmm... how peculiar.¡¯ She thought to herself.
{Do you think he¡¯s keeping the dragons there?} Nimue asked curiously.
¡¯I highly doubt it. They¡¯re probably in a different dimension since he can call upon them at will. I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he could do something simr to Thiria.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
Stalking the signal for a while, she soon spotted the cloaked man himself riding in the sky on the back of a small dragon.
Narrowing her eyes, she wondered if she should just kill him now.
However, she had a better idea and decided to y a bit of trickery. Conjuring up some nanobots, she changed her outfit to fit the ¡¯Rogue Assassin¡¯ that people know after her demonstration of her guns in the elven continent.
That way, even if she¡¯s spotted, they wouldn¡¯t know that it was her. Of course, only until she revealed her guns to the world as Shiro then they¡¯ll know she was the source of it all along.
Following behind the dragon, she watched as he dismounted not too far from the Colosseum and proceeded to make his way through.
Doing the same, Shiro¡¯s appearance caused a hugemotion to ur as they recognised her to be the one who owns the only set of working guns in this world. Some fled in a small panic while other¡¯s took pictures. Shiro ignored all of this and entered the Colosseum.
Upon entering, she immediately noticed Dominic¡¯s signal going deep underground.
From what she could see, things looked normal as the Colosseum was revamped into a fighting ring for adventurers and people were betting on the winners. No one is allowed to kill and the victor is decided when someone is either knocked out cold or pushed out of the arena.
Those whomit murder are put under arrest during this event.
Ignoring the stares directed towards her, Shiro stepped into some shadow and activated her illusion skill, camouging her body before phasing through the ground to chase the signal.
Sending her mana through this ce, Shiro was shocked at the size of this underground city of sorts.
The outer rim was padded with mana absorbent materials which meant that it was hard to find this ce from the outside.
But now that she was inside, she could see the vastness of this underground city.
The ck market was to her left while fighting arenas was to her right. In front of her was a long line of buildings of unknown nature.
The entire underground city was lit up with ceiling lights powered by mana crystals, giving the entire ce a dark feeling.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to change her disguise a little while trailing behind Dominic. After all, she was quite curious as to what kind of items were being sold here.
Browsing through the wares, there were quite a few cursed weapons and armour. In addition to this, she could also spot a few ves in the distance which caused her to furrow her brows but that was about it. It wasn¡¯t her responsibility as she didn¡¯t cause this.
The only reason she showed concern to the people in Vatican City was because her skill caused a mass case of mana deficiency which could have killed thousands.
Shaking her head, she continued to follow Dominic as he soon entered a building.
Snapping her fingers, she modified the nanobot a little so that it would act as a mic for her to listen in on his conversation.
###
"Have you brought the payment?" An unfamiliar voice asked.
"Mn. Have you brought the information?" Dominic replied.
There was a strange coldness to his voice as Shiro understood that he was probably acting while he was in the group of people.
"Of course. I don¡¯t do fake business after all." The unfamiliar voice chuckled.
"Though I must say, you¡¯re pretty ruthless to carve up your party members like that, even the kid. Looking at his expression, I must say he must have been pretty shocked at your actions."
"Shut it. Just give me the information without the small talk." Dominic snapped back as the voice chuckled once more.
"Very well. Here you go."
Hearing some shuffling, Shiro watched as Dominic left the building.
Narrowing her eyes, she decided to pay a visit to his trade partner.
Phasing through the walls, she saw a person sit on the table while guards surrounded him.
His posture was hunched over as his physique was on the skinny side. His hair was messy and dark marks could be seen under his eyes.
Thinking about it for a moment, she snapped her fingers and sent out a wave of nanobots to infiltrate the guards bodies.
Hearing the snap, the man quickly turned around to see Shiro¡¯s disguised self. Before he could act, her body flickered in front of him and grabbed his throat.
Celestial Path enhanced needles were stuck in his body, preventing the use of mana while the guards were frozen in ce due to the nanobots in their systems.
"Speak, what information did you provide to Dominic?" Shiro asked as her disguised voice rang out quietly.
"I¡¯ll talk, just let go of my neck." The skinny man squeezed out, raising his hands in defeat. As a trader in the ck market, he valued his life over most things so he was going to go along with her demands. Plus, seeing as how his guards are frozen and his mana was blocked, the person in front of him was not one to be messed around with.
Chapter 617 Zyn
Chapter 617 Zyn
Letting go of the man¡¯s neck, Shiro sat on one of the chairs and crossed her legs.
"The information that Dominic wanted was about the Queens along with every bit of information I can provide to him about the Vatican City. The level of adventurers, the defence, the weak points of their defence and even some information on the demons." The man replied while rubbing his neck.
"Do you know what he wants to do with all that information?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
While she knew that he wanted to destroy Vatican City, she wanted to know more of the situation so that she could see if there were any mastermind behind all of this.
"I know that he has a grudge with the pope of the ce. They used to be friends when they were younger I believe. Not sure how far this grudge extends to since I never looked too deep into it. But I¡¯ll tell you one thing though, he¡¯s very curious about someone called the Dragon Queen. I haven¡¯t got much information on her except for a few tidbits I collected from people who have already joined Thiria¡¯s faction."
"Oh? And what kind of information is it?" Shiro raised her eyebrow in curiosity.
"It¡¯s about where you can find the Dragon Queen. You see, some have spotted her domain near the ming continent which isn¡¯t surprising considering the fact that the ming continent is the home base of dragons. Unfortunately, the ming continent is far into the unexplored territory so not many have mapped out the ce. If I had to guess, only around 5% of that ce is mapped out."
"And why does he want to meet the Dragon Queen?"
"Probably to pledge allegiance towards her or something haha. Even though he¡¯s already in the ck Monarchy, he wants to jump ship." The man snickered.
"Hou... So you said that you had information on the demons, care to share?"
"Of course. You see, the demons are in the Vatican City because they discovered something that is highly attractive to them. Most would presume it¡¯s the angel that had recently appeared but it doesn¡¯t seem like it. You see, I have a few... ¡¯connections¡¯ to tradesmen from the demon race. Apparently, they have discovered the descent of one of the demon gods and she¡¯s currently in the process of awakening her power. The bloodline is pretty weak so it¡¯s hard to detect them but they managed to find her by chance and now, they¡¯re trying their best to recover her.
"As the city is quite far from the front lines, they¡¯re struggling to transport high level demons toe assist but I think they¡¯re going to strike a deal with Dominic. After all, that manmands a dragon army of his own."
Staying silent, Shiro furrowed her brows.
She somewhat knew who they were talking about since Madison had the Demonic Valkyrie ss. In addition to this, it seems like she awakened her demon bloodline after her hidden ss up. If not for that, she would have received a normal ss.
"Where can I find the demons?" Shiro asked.
"You can find them underneath the Vatican City. Currently, they have around 100 A ssed Demons and 200 B ssed demons which is more than enough to destroy the Vatican City. However, they¡¯re being careful due to the angel hence why Dominic thinks this is a perfect chance for him to strike a deal." The man replied.
"I see. Tell me your name."
"Call me Zyn." He replied with a smile.
"Alright Zyn, how good are your connections?" Shiro asked.
"Second to none if you¡¯re talking about demons. There are only a few who are better than me when ites to information gathering in human domains." Zyn chuckled.
"That will do. What do you think about working for me?"
"That¡¯s..."
"It¡¯s either that or I kill you. The ck market isn¡¯t exactly filled with people who are good after all." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
She had already embedded dormant nanobots into his body which would monitor his moves. The moment he ns against her, she¡¯ll notice and the nanobots will activate.
"I give, I give. I¡¯ll serve under you. May I know your name then?" He raised his hands.
"No need to know. I¡¯ll contact you when I need you." Shiro said while throwing him a phone.
Flickering out of the room, she allowed the guards to move once more.
###
Furrowing his brows, Zyn clicked his tongue. He didn¡¯t know who that person was but he could tell that the person was in the early stages of A ss.
Pulling out his own phone, he dialled up his main client in order to inform him about some... slight changes. Hopefully, she¡¯ll be able to resolve it for him as he was just a scout and a tradesmen. Hisbat ability was on the low side which is why he served under powerful people.
However, just as he pulled out his phone to call his boss, he felt a surge of mana erupt out from within him and blood started to pour from his orifices.
"ARGG!!!!" Screaming out in pain, he started to w away at his face. Nanobots started to chew through his skin before spreading to the guards.
###
¡¯A shame. I was actually hoping he¡¯d serve under me too. That way I could get some information on the demon continent.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
{He wasn¡¯t exactly the nicest folk either so it was to be expected. So what are you going to do now?} Nimue asked.
¡¯I think I¡¯ll kill Dominic now and then disguise myself to get some information from the demons. After all, this is something quite important for Madi.¡¯
{True. Who would have thought that the only person who thought she was normal in the party was actually a descendant of a Demon God.} Nimue shook her head with pity for the girl.
¡¯Indeed. Though I suppose it¡¯s to be expected since Demonic sses are very rare and can only be obtained through specific qualifications. I had dismissed this though because she gained it as a hidden ss but to think that It¡¯s actually due to her bloodline. Do you think I should break the news to her or should I let her find out herself?¡¯ Shiro asked.
{You should probably let her find out herself. Maybe you can stage a raid on the demons with the party? They want to follow you as a party more often after all.} Nimue suggested.
¡¯That doesn¡¯t sound too bad.¡¯ Shiro nodded her head as that was her next goal after killing Dominic.
Searching for Dominic¡¯s signal, she discovered that he had already left he ck Market and was making his way to Vatican City.
¡¯This is perfect. There¡¯s a countryside past the Vatican City so I can probably drag him over there to avoid unnecessary casualties.¡¯ She thought with a smile.
Dashing out of the ck Market using her Rift Strider, she managed to see him jump onto a dragon.
Without hesitation, she stomped down andunched herself towards him.
"Mn?" Noticing her presence, Dominic was surprised to see a cloaked figure charging towards him.
Grabbing him by the face, she dragged him into the Rift.
Before he could even speak, Shiro mmed his body against the ground.
But just as she did this, a pair of dragons suddenly appeared through a portal and chomped towards her.
Pivoting on her foot, she was able to dodge the jaws narrowly as the speed of the dragons surprised her. Especially since she was now a tier 5 being.
"I don¡¯t know who you are but it seems like you¡¯ve got a bone to pick with me." Dominic frowned.
Without saying anything, Shiro created two hand cannons and pulled the trigger.
*BANG BANG!!!
Widening his eyes in shock, Dominic watched as his dragons barely managed to block the shots as blood poured out from therge cavities that suddenly appeared on their chests.
Flickering in front of him, Shiro twisted her body and roundhouse kicked him out of the Rift.
Flying out of the portal like a speeding bullet, Dominic¡¯s body was almost folded up in half due to the power of her kick.
Summoning another dragon, he quickly jumped on its back and started to flee.
Seeing this, Shiro only grinned as this was exactly what she wanted. After all, he was fleeing towards the countryside where she could go all out without giving a sh*t. Of course, it¡¯s not like this required her to go all out but seeing as how Rakurth was quite powerful, it would be good if she took things with caution.
Chapter 618 Killing Dominic
Chapter 618 Killing Dominic
Hovering in the air, she looked towards the slightly wounded Dominic with narrowed eyes.
Taking a few deep breaths, he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Who sent you." He asked with a re.
"No one. I just think that you¡¯re in my way." Shiro chuckled and aimed her gun towards his head.
"What bad luck." He sighed and lit up a cigarette.
mming his hands down, a giant tier 5 magic circle erupted beneath him.
*URAHHHH!!!!
Suddenly, hundreds of dragon roars could be heard as Shiro pulled the trigger on her gun.
*BANG!!!
Dodging out of the way just in time, the bullet missed his head but tore out a chunk of his shoulder instead.
¡¯Since it¡¯s my first proper fight after reaching tier 5, I should have a bit of fun no? If I just one shot everyone at my full power, it would be quite boring after all.¡¯ Shiro thought with a chuckle.
{Don¡¯t get too carried away now. Sometimes underestimating someone might just bite you back in the ass.} Nimue reminded with a chuckle.
¡¯Don¡¯t worry. If the dragons be annoying, I have a way to deal with them all and it doesn¡¯t require any shooting orrge scale destruction spell.¡¯ Shiro reassured with a grin.
{If you say so. Since you¡¯re gonna have some fun, make it entertaining for Attie.}
¡¯Of course.¡¯
Summoning Athera, she waited for the first dragon to appear.
However, instead of seeing the giant reptile beast, she was greeted with a face full of dragon breaths.
Rolling her eyes, she took a deep breath and used her own breath attack. Using ice as a counter, steam filled the area as she was about to match the output of several dragons which showed the might of her magic power.
Furrowing his brows, Dominic couldn¡¯t help but realise that he was heavily outmatched in this situation. Against an opponent like this, numbers weren¡¯t going to work and he had to double down on singr strength instead.
Biting his thumb, he started to draw out a magic circle out of blood as more and more dragons appeared around him. Charging towards Shiro, their main goal was to dy her until he could summon the elder dragons.
Side stepping the first dragon that had tried to bite her in half, Shiro twisted her body and swiped down with her sword.
*PUCHI!!!
Shredding through the scale like it was nothing, her armour pierce stats were showing their might as a dragon¡¯s armour was one of the toughest in the monster world.
Summoning the remaining copies of Athera, she eyed the other dragons that were circling around her before looking towards Dominic.
Activating her Analysis skill, she immediately deciphered the magic circle and understood that it was summoning powerful dragons that were around mid tote stages of tier 5.
¡¯Hou hou... I wonder if Rakurth is part of them.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Fending off a few more dragons with ease, Shiro wondered how she even allowed the destruction of the City to begin with.
{Do you think it¡¯s due to the demons?} Nimue suggested.
¡¯Perhaps. I can target multiple people easily in the early tiers because the fire power of each individual was still low. But against tier 5¡¯s, if I¡¯m not careful, I¡¯ll be heavily wounded since my defence is paper thin for a tier 5 entity. Since the demons have multiple tier 5 beings, as in they have 100, it would make sense that I won¡¯t be able to target all of them.¡¯ Shiro replied.
ring her mana, she sent out a wave of cold mist as the dragons which were unlucky enough to be caught up were frozen in an instant.
Snapping her fingers, cracks started to appear on their bodies and they weren¡¯t killed instantly, which surprised Shiro.
However, once she saw that they were preventing themselves from beingpletely frozen, it made sense for them to survive.
Shrugging her shoulders, she finished off the wounded dragons with a few sword swing.
"That¡¯s a pretty interesting magic circle you have here." Shiro smiled as she appeared behind Dominic. Stabbing a sword through his back, she pinned him against the ground as the magic circle started to flicker.
Gritting his teeth, Dominic activated a few of his berserk skills. Draconic armour started to form around him as he grabbed Shiro¡¯s wrist and flung her off his back.
¡¯A woman?¡¯ He thought to himself in surprise due to her masculine voice. However, regardless of her gender, his life was in danger.
"A surprising burst of strength. Are you going to fight me personally?" Shiro chuckled whilending on the ground softly.
Without saying anything, Dominic reached into his inventory and pulled out a beating heart which disgusted Shiro a little.
Opening his mouth, he took arge bit of the heart and proceeded to eat it.
"The f*ck is wrong with you? I know I¡¯m about to kill you but do you have to eat a heart?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
Right after he finished eating the heart, Shiro immediately noticed the sudden increase of mana within his body. His aura seemed more chaotic as it was simr to that of a crazed dragon.
Disappearing from his spot, he reappeared above her and tried to kick down.
However, Shiro only raised her hand and created a nanotech bracelet. Stacking a few strength boosting skills, she blocked the kick which caused the ground around her to shatter from the force.
"Is that all?" Shiro looked up towards Dominic.
Gritting his teeth, he twisted his body and tried to knee her on the back of the head.
Ducking underneath him, she created a wave of pressurised air and sent him flying into the sky.
Unfurling a set of draconic wings, he ordered the dragons to charge towards her.
Grinning slightly, Shiro activated her new skill, Divine Enchantment.
Once per day, she is allowed to enchant one of her skills, evolving it to the next tier. Meaning, she can use this on her Eyes of the Gorgon.
Feeling a wave of power surge through her eyes, she closed them for a brief moment before ring at the horde of dragons along with Dominic.
rms started to ring out in Dominic¡¯s mind as he quickly turned around. Unfortunately for him, the Eyes of the Gorgon still worked even if you look away.
With the skill now in the realm of tier 6, it was harder to resist.
Turning all of the dragons into stone in an instant, she sent out a wave of nanotech needles to shatter them.
As for Dominic, he was barely holding on as only a small portion of his body remained while the rest was turned to stone. The only reason for this was because Shiro wanted to test something out.
She didn¡¯t see her future self do this so she wasn¡¯t sure. However, if she could achieve what she wanted to do, this could be very handy in the future.
Walking up to the half petrified Dominic, she narrowed her eyes and activated Reaper.
Summoning a pair of ck chains, she had them wrap around Dominic before giving them a hard tug.
"GAH!!!"
As she pulled on the chains, she could see a faint illusionary figure of Dominic being ripped from his body.
Furrowing her brows, she was surprised at the amount of resistance she was feeling due to the fact that this was her first time doing this.
However, this resistance was short-lived as she gave it another tug.
Ripping his soulpletely out of his body, she took a deep breath and used the Skill Schr to try to understand how Extraction worked.
After all, if the extraction skill could ess their source code and give her a skill, it should also be able to rip out some of their memories and pass it onto her.
That way, she wouldn¡¯t need to worry about interrogation in the future. Not when she can rip out their soul and get the information directly.
Closing her eyes, red circuit like patterns started to creep up her arm. Exerting her control over this strange power, she redirected it into a magic circle.
Watching the circuit ¡¯peel¡¯ off her arm and wrap around her wrist, a red magic circle appeared above her palm.
Unlike the normal magic circle, it wasn¡¯t formed with runes or numbers. Trying her best to analyse the magic circle, Shiro found herself lost on how to ¡¯read¡¯ it. However, due to Skill Schr, she was able to understand small portions but it wasn¡¯t enough.
Treating it as a learning experience, she reached out towards Dominic¡¯s soul.
"Don¡¯t scream." She said with a grin.
Chapter 619 Organising A Raid
Chapter 619 Organising A Raid
Looking down at her hands with a frown, Shiro looked back at the now unresponsive Dominic.
Turns out, extracting memories from a soul was highly dangerous and a single bad move results in the soulpletely going potato on her.
Shaking her head, she had nanobots consume Dominic¡¯s body.
¡¯With this, I¡¯ve already changed the future since I haven¡¯t met Rakurth yet. While he has been freed, due to Dominic¡¯s death, he doesn¡¯t know me.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she started to make her way back to the City.
{Maybe it¡¯s a good thing. If you think about it, while the butterfly effect may stop you from making a new friend, it could also be the catalyst to prevent something bad in the future.} Nimue said with a smile.
¡¯True. Anyways, I should probably inform the party about the demons now. But speaking of the future, I wonder if I¡¯m able to kill a c*nt called Batros early. He wasn¡¯t exactly a good guy in the future and doing so may allow me to free up a few hostages that will be captured by him.¡¯ Shiro mused before increasing her speed.
Making her way back to the city, she had the party meet up back at the house.
"So did you meet this ¡¯old friend¡¯ of yours?" Lyrica asked as that was Shiro¡¯s main goal when they split up.
"Unfortunately, no. However, I did manage to get some good information on the demons and their main goal. Turns out that there is someone they¡¯re looking for here in Vatican City and it aint Lisa. They¡¯re currently located deep underground with 100 A ss demons on stand by and 200 B ss demons. Apparently, they¡¯re being cautious because of Lisa so we can assume that her magic¡¯s highly effective against them." Shiro replied with a chuckle.
Hearing that there 300 demons in the city with 100 of them being A ss, the party took a moment to digest the information.
"This might be a bit more than what we can handle." Aarim said as Shiro nodded her head.
"You¡¯re right about that. You see, with 100 A ss and 200 B ss demons, I¡¯m not able to keep them all busy with arge scale magic circle as it would open me up to a lethal strike to the heart. Despite having a huge amount of firepower, I¡¯m still a ss cannon with paper thin defences to A ss demons. Silvi, remember when the boss dropped my health by more than half in a single hit during that raid? That¡¯s how thin my defences are." Shiro said as Silvia nodded her head.
"However."
"There it is." Madison sighed as she knew what wasing next.
"We¡¯ll be able to deal with them if I can get the surprise attack. Meaning, we¡¯ll be hosting a raid against their base with the help of the government officials that have joined us in the city due the eh, slight... ident that I caused with my skill." Shiro smiled.
"Do you think they¡¯ll agree to the raid though?" Lyrica asked.
"Not sure. Even if they don¡¯t, I have an idea on how to kill them. Since my defences are paper thin, I¡¯ll need to be careful of how I attack their base. Melee is not an option since they can decide to restrain me at the cost of their life and I¡¯ll be killed."
"Guns?" Madison asked.
"Guns." Shiro grinned.
Snapping her finger, a hologram of all the best guns that she can make appeared in front of them.
"These will be our main weapons if the government officials decide to not give a sh*t. Which I doubt but you never know." Shiro shrugged before dismissing the holograms.
"So why don¡¯t I get a note on which weapon everyone wants?" She smiled.
"First, Lyrica, what do you want?"
"Give me the pistols like the ones that you use. I¡¯m going to be front lining a bit after all." Lyrica replied.
"Got it. You need to be careful of the recoil though. If you¡¯re not careful, your shoulders might pop out." Shiro nodded.
"Huh?"
"Second, Madison, what do you want?"
"Give me a powerful shotgun. I¡¯m a tank so I might as well be in the thick of things." Madisonughed.
"Sure, I¡¯ll give you something that ignores armour. Since you¡¯re a tank, you won¡¯t need to worry about being hit like I do. And just to make it easier for you, I¡¯ll make you a suit of armour too to increase your other parameters." Shiro chuckled.
"Third, Silvia, what do you want?"
"I¡¯ll just have something that¡¯s easy to use I suppose. My main role is to keep everyone alive after all." Silvia smiled.
"How about the machine guns then? They¡¯re pretty light and easy to use." Shiro suggested.
"Sure."
"Lil¡¯ Chen, it¡¯s your turn. What gun do you want?"
"I¡¯ll have what you use as well since they look like they pack a punch while being light."
"The hand cannons? Sure."
"Next is Aarim, what do you want?"
"Me? Hmm... I¡¯ve got my spells but a gun would be quite interesting. How about something like a sniper then?" Aarim chuckled.
"Got it. And you Helion?" Shiro nodded.
"Give me something beefy. Something that can really f*ck up their day." Heughed since he might as well get some enjoyment out of it.
"How about a set of mini guns and rail cannons? You won¡¯t be able to move around but you can rain hellfire from the backlines." Shiro suggested as this was one of her favourite set ups. Especially when she¡¯s on one of her flying fortresses.
"Sounds great." Helion nodded his head.
He even entertained the idea of not letting the government get involved so that he could give the guns a shot but that was just irresponsible. There will be plenty of chances for him to give the guns a try in the future after all.
"Now then, my two darling daughters, what do you want?" Shiro turned to Lisa and Yin.
"Give me a chicken drumstick." Yin chuckled.
Seeing the party raise their eyebrow, Yin waved her hand.
"I¡¯m kidding. I¡¯ll have a mini gun like Helion. Raining hellfire from the backlines while eating some food sounds great to me."
"I¡¯ll have the two shotguns I suppose. I saw one that didn¡¯t need me to reload like the sniper I tried before."
"Ah that one. Got it."
Noting down everyone¡¯s preferences, they turned to the party once more.
"Now then, shall we head to the guild? We¡¯ll report about the demons then see if we canunch a raid against them with the government officials."
Making their way to the guild that was just down the road, Shiro and the party approached the counter.
"Hello, how can I help you today." The receptionist smiled.
"I want to report some new information about the demons that have appeared in the city."
"I see. Before we talk about what kind of information you have, do you have a reliable source or proof of the matter? If not, we¡¯ll need to get some people to verify this information which might take a while depending on the information."
"I can give you proof but it¡¯ll take a little while. The information I want to give is the demon¡¯s location as well as their numbers." Shiro replied.
Thinking about it for a moment, the receptionist pulled out her phone and called someone.
After a few moments, she turned back to the party.
"The guild master of this branch will be here shortly. You may discuss the matter with her."
Nodding her head, Shiro waited patiently for the guild master to greet them.
"Are you the one who was wanting to give some information about the demons?" A woman called out as Shiro nodded her head.
The woman stood slightly taller than her with dark crimson hair tied into a ponytail. Her clothes consisted of a suit jacket, a white shirt, some suit pants and a pair of high heels.
"Alright. Come to my office, we¡¯ll talk there." The woman nodded with a serious face since the demons were a serious problem to the safety of this city. The sooner they get rid of them, the better.
Taking the elevator up to the highest floor, she opened her office doors and gestured for the party to sit down on the sofas.
"So tell me, what is it that you want to report?" She asked with a serious expression.
"I found out that there are 100 A ssed demons and 200 B ssed demons underneath the city. I was hoping that the guild could organise a raid with the government officials that have arrived due to the mass case of mana deficiency." Shiro said as she went straight to the point.
Hearing that there were 100 A ssed demons underneath the city, the guild master widened her eyes in shock before furrowing her brows.
"Are you able to confirm this?" She asked with slight amounts of dread written on her face.
"Yes."
Hearing Shiro¡¯s response, the guild master took a deep breath to calm herself down.
"Understood. We¡¯ll host a raid in a day¡¯s time after calling for more reinforcements."
Chapter 620 Impure King
Chapter 620 Impure King
Leaving the guild, Shiro was thinking to herself about the raid one dayter.
¡¯Since we have a day¡¯s time, do you think we should do some ¡¯scouting¡¯ so that the information of Madison¡¯s background is revealed to us and only us?¡¯ Shiro asked as it would be bad for the world to know that their party member is the descendant of a demon god.
{That would be wise. But if you wanted to do that, why didn¡¯t you just do the raid with the party instead of telling the guild?"}
¡¯That¡¯s because they can still send out distress messages to people so that they¡¯re informed of the 100 A ssed demons. If the reinforcements are here before the raid, they can deal with any stragglers that escape our grasp no? Think of it as a backup.¡¯ Shiro replied as Nimue nodded.
If they had no backup and a demon escaped to the city, quite a lot of people would die from its attacks.
"Right then, shall we go say hi to the demons?" Shiro smiled and turned to the party.
"Huh? Didn¡¯t you get the guild to set up the raid in a day¡¯s time?" Lyrica asked with slight confusion.
"Well think of it like this. The more A ssed demons I or rather, we kill, the more EXP we can keep to ourselves, boosting our strength. And with reinforcement in the city for tomorrow¡¯s raid, they can deal with any demons that escape from the underground." Shiro exined.
"True. 300 demon¡¯s worth of EXP is pretty tempting. Especially since 100 of them are A ss." Madison nodded her head.
"Then it¡¯s sorted. Who knows, if we can kill them all before the day is up, the reinforcements can start to clean up the underground area that they have set up. I¡¯m not exactly keen on cleaning up after all." Shiro chuckled.
"Fair enough. So where do we go? There¡¯s got to be an entrance to the underground after all." Lyrica asked with a smile.
"To be honest, I have no idea. I still need to conduct a search after all." Shiro stuck out her tongue as this was all information she received from Zyn, whom she killed after leaving.
"Give me a moment, I¡¯ll search for them now." Shiro smiled.
Looking around for a moment, she conjured up a tier 5 magic circle and sent it into the sky.
Snapping her fingers, the magic circle started to expand as her MP was draining fast. But with her passive buff from Rejuvenation along with Athera¡¯s active skill ,she was able to offset her mana usage and power the magic circle all by herself which was unthinkable before tier 5.
After all, even for Wrath of Stars, she needed to set up several mana gatherers to collect mana from her surroundings in order to power the spell.
However, after reaching Tier 5, her control and power had increased to the point where she can now power this huge spell all by herself.
With Madison as a reference, due to the demon heritage, Shiro was able to pick up on the demonic signals deep underground.
Activating the second part of the magic circle, a semi translucent map of the ce appeared in her mind as all the hidden tunnels were revealed to her.
Dismissing the magic circle, she teleported the party into her rift.
"I found the tunnels so we¡¯ll be phasing through the ground into the tunnels instead of going through the entrance." Shiro smiled as the party nodded their heads.
While she was bringing them to the tunnels, she summoned some nanobots and started to craft the guns that each of them wanted.
"This is?" Helion raised his eyebrows at the small orb that Shiro had passed to him as this was not miniguns and rail cannons.
"The four big assed guns are secured to the ground so it wouldn¡¯t make sense for you to be carrying them on your back at all times. When you find a good spot, throw the orb down in front of you and then step back. The guns will appear after a short while." Shiro rolled her eyes as Helion nodded his head.
"Also, Madi, what kind of armour do you want? I got a few mech suits for you to choose from." Shiro called out as several holographic screens appeared in front of Madison. Each screen showed an image of the armour along with its features and benefits. It even told her about some of their weaknesses and what she needed to be careful of when using them.
"Hmm...." Thinking about it for a moment, Madison eventually picked the armour called Impure King.
The armour was one that focused on sustaining itself on the battlefield with high defence and lifesteal. The armour was one that could convert between defence and speed but it took arge amount of mana to do so each time. Plus, during the moment of conversion, there¡¯s a period where the user won¡¯t be able to move, exposing themselves so one needs to be careful of when they use this.
"Interesting choice. There are probably better ones but why this one?" Shiro asked with curiosity.
"Because it has the highest lifesteal. With the power of the shotgun, I¡¯ll be able to regenerate a huge chunk of health in the middle ofbat. Plus, isn¡¯t there also the feature of spiked defence? You rebound some of the damage you take which when paired with life steal, is passive healing no?" Madison pointed out as Shiro nodded her head.
"You are indeed correct. Its main problem is mana efficiency as it isn¡¯t the most elegant of designs but the other aspects are very powerful. I can modify it a little so that you can hopefully a get a boost of mana every time youe into contact with an enemy with the feature called mana leech."
"Wait, if Ibined that with spiked defence, doesn¡¯t that mean I can get health and mana back while I¡¯m defending?" Madison raised her eyebrow.
"And when you stack your defence raising skills on top of all that?" Shiro grinned.
". . .Damn ok I can see why you like breakingmon sense so much. This is pretty fun." Madisonughed as she was excited to try all of this out.
"See? You should embrace the ridiculousness rather than go against it. Isn¡¯t it so much more fun breaking the system with synergies?" Shiro smiled.
"At longst, the final bastion for normal in this party has copsed. All hope is lost formon sense~" Aarim dered as the party onlyughed since Madison had been quite adamant about normality. But once she took a bite of the fruit known as Abnormality, she wouldn¡¯t be able to give it up.
"What? It¡¯s not like I was going to get my wish soon anyways. With Shiro around, do you really think I can get normality?" Madison pouted.
"There there, have some op armour instead." Shiro patted her head and handed her a crystal ne. Looking at the crystal, Madison could see nanobots swirling around and understood that this was going to form the Impure King amour.
"To activate this, I need you to shout out a chant that may or may not cause you to die of cringe." Shiro grinned as there were hints of sadism in her eyes.
"Err...."
"I¡¯m only kidding. If it was someone else, I would have designed it so that they would need to shout some sh*t like ¡¯Corrupt the world with me as the catalyst! Impure King~¡¯ haha. Their face of utter humiliation would be quite a sight but since it¡¯s you, all you have to do is pump that ne with mana and it¡¯ll activate." Shiro chuckled.
Sighing in relief, Madison was d that she didn¡¯t need to shout out an embarrassing chant.
"Now then, we have arrived at one of the underground tunnels. Are you ready to wreck some shop?" Shiro grinned as she opened the rift.
Cracking her neck, she stepped out of the portal with her two hand cannons.
###
Somewhere deep in the underground caverns, a few demons suddenly raised their heads up in shock.
In the distance, they could sense the signature of the one they had been looking for approaching with the signature of the angel.
"Do you think she has captured the angel and ising to prove her bloodline?" One of the demons asked with an excited look in his eyes.
"Perhaps. Let¡¯s go greet the princess and look at the situation ourselves. They seem to have a few guests with them, one of which is a queen." An older Demon narrowed his eyes. Standing up, they unfurled their demonic wings and started to fly through the caverns, making their way to the party at breakneck speed.
Chapter 621 Madisons Heritage Part 1
Chapter 621 Madison''s Heritage Part 1
Readying their guns, the party started to make their way through the tunnels with Madison at the front.
Activating the Impure King Armour, she had it focused on speed for now as they weren¡¯t inbat.
ck armour started to wrap around her body as jet boosters appeared around her back and waist area. Since Madison chose the speed variant, the armour looked quite slim with most of the armoured pieces hugging her body, entuating her curves to the party, especially her bosom.
There were a few sheets of nanotech that hung off her waist which looked somewhat like a skirt of sorts but Shiro knew that they could double as waist mounted cannons should the situation arise.
As the suit finished assembling itself, the visor on the helmet lit up with a shade of red which made it seem like the helmet of a berserker. In addition to this, there was a soft red glow between each of the assembled pieces, giving the armour a demonic feel.
"I must say, Impure King fits the armour quite nicely. She really does look like an Impure King or rather, Impure Queen." Aarim raised her eyebrow.
"Really? Rather than king, I¡¯d say it reminds me more of demons. After all, her ss is Demonic Valkyrie." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
{Real conspicuous there oh empress of mine.} Nimue rolled her eyes.
¡¯What? I need to ease them into the idea first.¡¯
"There¡¯s a radar in the upper right corner. I¡¯ve already marked the demon signatures so you should see a few red dots in the distance. Use that to your advantage." Shiro smiled as she narrowed her eyes and aimed her gun forward.
"Give me a second, someone¡¯s trying to put a ¡¯mark¡¯ on us."
Transforming her hand cannon into a sniper, she pulled the trigger.
*BANG!!!
Watching the bullet fly through the cave walls, they could faintly hear the sound of a scream in the distance as one of the red dots on Madison¡¯s radar disappeared.
"Huh???" Looking back at Shiro, Madison blinked her eyes twice just to make sure her eyes weren¡¯t ying tricks on her.
"What? I¡¯ve already mapped out the entire underground area in my mind. With the prating power of the sniper, I can ignore walls and shoot them you know? It ain¡¯t like the walls here are made from dungeon material." Shiro shrugged before knocking a piece off the stone walls.
"True." Madison nodded as she grabbed her shield and shotgun.
"We¡¯ll go easy first so follow my lead. Once you get used to using the guns and the armour, you can start doing your own thing ok?" Shiro smiled since she trusts the party¡¯sbat potential. Once they get used to the guns and how they should fight with them, it should be a piece of cake for the party to handle the demons. With the exception of the A ssed ones of course.
Dashing toward, Shiro activated Analysis and peered past the walls. Seeing the demonic signatures charging towards them after her initial shot, Shiro had a grin on her face.
"They¡¯reing!" She shouted out.
Readying her two hand cannons, she aimed them forward and pulled the trigger.
*BANG BANG!!!
Seeing a spray of blood in the distance, Shiro knew that she had hit her mark.
ncing towards her Monster title, she was overjoyed to see her tally go up by two from the kill.
¡¯Perfect.¡¯ She thought to herself as the party readied their guns as well.
Dashing behind Shiro, the 9 of them charged through the first wave of demons that appeared.
Changing her armour to be defensive, the jet boosters morphed into floating shields that kept the demon at bay while her shotgun made short work of them. Each shot would tear off arge chunk of their body as flesh was stered against the walls.
During this, Madison couldn¡¯t help but notice that a few demons were looking at her with shock and disbelief on their faces before they died. This confused her but she dismissed it as them being shocked that they have such powerful weapons.
Running through the cavern, the party noticed that there was arge open area just around the corner where quite a few of the demons are located.
ncing toward Helion, Shiro nodded her head as he grinned.
Throwing the orb in front of him, he watched as the twin miniguns and mounted rail cannons assembled themselves.
Immediately understanding his intentions, Madison charged in front of the turret and activated the one way shield. That way, he could fire at the demons while the demons can¡¯t fire at him.
"Burn f*ckers burn!" Helion called out with a grin and pulled the trigger.
Watching the barrel spin up, the demons had a bad feeling as they wanted to retreat but it was toote.
A wave of bullets was sent into the room as their ted armour was like paper in front of the intense barrage. For those that could fend against the bullet with their natural physique, they tried their best to close the gap but the rail cannons responded by evaporating their upper torso.
"So if you don¡¯t mind me asking, howe the guns are more powerful than I remember? These are still B ssed Demons no?" Lyrica asked while shooting a few demons that tried to carve a hole through the side.
"Both of my sses have merged so I assume that my nanobots gained a buff. Plus, my nanotech attunement is tier 6 which is in a whole new realm all together so I¡¯m not surprised at the power of my guns. If anything, I can make them stronger with a few modifications. After all, I still need to figure out the advantages my ss gives me. It¡¯s something that no one has ever achieved so you can say that I¡¯m beta testing." Shiro replied with a chuckle.
However, her musing was cut short when several powerful signatures started to approach from the distance.
"We¡¯re going to go with small skirmishes now. The big wigs have noticed. You take care of the small fry, I¡¯ll deal with the A ssed demons. Those with snipers can assist me and don¡¯t worry about hitting me. I¡¯m pretty confident in dodging a bullet." Shiro chuckled.
mming her hands down, she activated her Tectonic Quake Attunement and started to adjust the underground cavern to their advantage.
Opening up the area a lot more, she started to add tall walls and sharp corners so that her party could surprise the demons with their guns. Jumping into the air, she wrapped her body in a suit of armour as well, one that boosted her speed so that she could avoid getting hit as much as possible.
Nodding to each other, the party started to split up as Helion noticed that he could just use one of the miniguns instead of mounting everything to the group.
Pulling the mini gun off the turret and returning everything into the orb, Helion started to run towards some cover.
"With that minigun of yours, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be very good at dodging spells no?" Madisonughed as she raised her eyebrow.
"Isn¡¯t that what you¡¯re here for mdy?" Helion smiled and pointed towards her shield.
"If I¡¯m not here, Silvi will need to resurrect your ass if you make a mistake. Plus, aren¡¯t you supposed to be the front line like me? What kind of man hides behind a woman?" Madison shrugged.
"All the women in this party are abnormal so you can¡¯t usemon sense."
"Agreed. Well since I¡¯m your front line, care to hit the long distance ones for me?" Madison smiled while raising her shield to block some spells.
"Of course."
Watching the two synergise with each other¡¯s strengths, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrow as Madison made up for a minigun¡¯s weakness with her shields.
Making sure that the rest of the party was doing well, Shiro had a smile on her face since this was quite a nice team bonding exercise.
Unfortunately, it might be cut short due to the fact that all the A ss demons are making their way here.
¡¯Madison¡¯s identity should be revealed soon.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
After waiting for a short moment, Shiro came face to face with two demons who seemed rtively normal if not for the fact that they had demonic wings sprouting behind them.
"A queen. Powerful one at that too." The Older Demon narrowed his eyes at Shiro before turning to Madison.
Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth as a loud voice bellowed out.
"Princess! Why are you ughtering your own kind!?" He shouted out with anger and annoyance in voice.
". . ."
Silence enveloped the party as everyone stopped their shooting and nced towards Madison who froze up from his shout.
Turning towards the Older Demon, Madison removed her helmet.
"Who¡¯s the princess?" She asked.
"You are." The Older demon replied with a frown as he didn¡¯t know why Madison would ask such a question.
"Me?" Madison pointed as herself.
"Yes you."
"The f*ck?????"
Chapter 622 Madisons Heritage Part 2
Chapter 622 Madison''s Heritage Part 2
Sitting around a nanotech table that Shiro had made, the party sat on one side while the demons sat on the other side.
The main representatives seemed to be the two demons that Shiro hade face to face with as they were the highest level in the room.
[Akog ¨C LVL 450 Demonic Duke]
[Bolgrad ¨C LVL 420 Demonic Marquis]
Akog was the older demon who looked human except for his wings. His white hair covered a bit of his face, shadowing his blood red eyes which nced towards Shiro and Lisandra with wariness.
As for Bolgrad, he was a young man who had short ck hair and ck eyes. Much like Akog, the only reason they could tell that he was a demon was due to his demonic wings.
However, the rest of the demons in the room were less ¡¯human¡¯ as they had horns, tails and other demonic features.
"So please tell me why you think I¡¯m the Princess." Madison asked as she was confused about the situation. Just two minutes ago they were killing each other but now they were sitting on the table discussing her lineage.
From what she knew, both her parents were normal humans who had normal jobs so how in gods name did she suddenly be the Princess of demons.
"We don¡¯t THINK you¡¯re the Princess. We KNOW that you¡¯re the Princess." Akog corrected her.
"Yes but why?" Madison sighed.
Looking around her, she could see that quite a lot of demons were looking at her with reverence but many seemed scared after her previous rampage which killed quite a few of theirrades.
"You have the blood of a demon god running through your veins. As demons, we instinctively feel a sense of reverence towards you along with bloodline suppression. While the concentration of demon god blood inside you is thin, you are still no doubt the descendant of a demon god." Akog exined.
"But her parents are normal humans. If she¡¯s a demon, wouldn¡¯t they be demons as well?" Lyrica asked.
"Indeed. And even if she is a demon, shouldn¡¯t she have demonic features? I know that you two look quite human but your buddies by the side aren¡¯t the same now are they?" Shiro gestured to the demons behind the two.
While she knew the reason, she might as well let the two demons exin themselves.
"The appearance of a demon varies depending on their bloodline. The purer the blood, the harder it is to detect that they¡¯re demonic. For the Princess, thebination of her pure blood and the low density allowed her to elude our notice for many years. Unless we¡¯re in close proximity, we won¡¯t be able to find her. As for her parents, I¡¯m guessing that due to the low density, there is a catalyst/event needed for the blood to awaken. Whether that be a strong emotional shock or strong desire, we don¡¯t know nor do we care as Princess has awakened her bloodline. Her current ss proves it." Akog replied.
"So Princess, now that you know of your bloodline, are you going toe with us to the demon continent to im your rightful heritage?" Bolgrad asked with excitement written all over his face.
"Don¡¯t get too ahead of yourselves now. I¡¯m not going to follow you just because you said I¡¯m part demon you know?" Madison shook her head with a frown.
"But why???" Bolgrad cried out.
"Hush it. Let the Princess exin it herself." Akog held Bolgrad back.
"I don¡¯t need to exin myself as there is nothing I need to exin. You on the other hand, have much more to exin. Why do you want me to follow you? What does me being a descendant mean for me?" Madison pointed towards Akog.
Nodding his head, Akog opened his mouth.
"To answer your first question, Princess, I¡¯ll need to exin the demon hierarchy to you as that ys arge part in your identity. You see, demons are split into four ranks. You have themon demons such as imps, they¡¯re grotesque and murderous. Logic doesn¡¯t apply to demons of this rank. Next you have the noble demons. There are a total of 5 roles within this rank. From the lowest role, it goes from Baron, Viscount, Count, Marquis and finally, Duke. There are variations in each role¡¯s power but just know that a demon noble¡¯s strength is equal to his ¡¯role¡¯. The next rank is Royalty. These are typically filled with descendants of the Demon Gods which is the final rank.
"In the Demon Continent, the Demonic Royalty govern every single demon in ce of the Demon Gods as they cannot materialise in this ne just yet. Under the royalty is the nobles which makes their life easier along with acting as their show of strength. Demon Royalties are barred from fighting against one another as it is equivalent to a war between two Demon Gods. Therefore, Royalty will use their subordinates to clear up any grievances.
"We are part of your faction and you¡¯re one of thest descendants of the Demon God Markon. Our previous Prince has been assassinated and we were unable to find the killer, resulting in our faction going on the decline. Without a Prince or Princess to lead our people, Demon God Markon will not be able to descend onto the world when the new age arrives. For this reason, we implore you toe back and im your rightful heritage." Akog exined as Madison furrowed her brows.
"That still doesn¡¯t exin what it means for me. All I know is that you want me as a tool to help this god of yours. If that¡¯s the case then you can forget about me since I¡¯m not able to help some f*cker who I don¡¯t even know." Madison shook her head.
"Ah you misunderstand me my Princess. How do I exin this... hmm... Since you¡¯re friends with one of the Queens, can I presume that you know of their importance?" Akog asked as he nced towards Shiro who replied with ¡¯Sup¡¯ and waved her hand.
"Somewhat. They¡¯re the lifeline of a race no?"
"Exactly. For demons, you are the equivalent of a Queen but not yet. Hence why you¡¯re a Princess. Once the new age arrives, and you will eventually start your quest to be a Demon Queen, sovereign of all demons that will ever exist. All of the factions will serve under you should that happen. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable as thest parts of the quest will summon you to a new realm where you mustpete against the other Demon Princes and Princesses."
"Hold on. I thought there were no kings? Howe there are Princes?" Madison asked as Shiro had told her about theck of a King role which is simr to Queens.
"That¡¯s because it is a role specific for the Demon Race. When a Demon King is born, he¡¯ll receive several wives. The wives obtain benefits simr to that of a queen such as obtaining strength from the citizens. The only difference is that the strength is then passed on to the Demon King, allowing him to be much stronger than the otherpetitors in the new age." Akog exined.
"So... wouldn¡¯t you want a King rather than a Queen?" Madison raised her eyebrow. From what she knew, demons valued strength so having her return to the demon continent made no sense unless they wanted her to be one of the wives. If that was the case then she can only reply with hell no.
"That is because we don¡¯t desire a King. Demon God Markon doesn¡¯t want his descendants to be married off so he had a great idea on making the strongest Demon Queen so that she could make her own choices. After all, once a King is born, all female demons will be imbedded with the desire to be the King¡¯s wife. This idiot lost his partner because a King was born during the new age in a different Garden." Akog pointed at Bolgrad.
"OI!" Gritting his teeth, Bolgrad wasn¡¯t too pleased at the reminder of the past.
"Wait so you¡¯re telling me that if a King is born, Madi will lose her free will?" Lyrica frowned.
"Indeed. Hence why we want her to return and im her rightful heritage so that when the timees, she has a better chance to be the Queen. There are benefits for us as well so we¡¯re not doing this out of kindness either." Akog nodded his head.
"What kind of benefits?" Madison narrowed her eyes.
"Sovereignty over the other factions. Meaning, if you be the Queen, we don¡¯t be their ves." Akog replied with seriousness.
Chapter 623 Abnormal Party
Chapter 623 Abnormal Party
"So you¡¯re telling me, that if I be the Demon Queen, I don¡¯t have to marry myself off to some d*ckhead and you guys don¡¯t be ves?" Madison asked just to make sure that everything is correct.
"Indeed." Akog nodded his head.
"What about if a Queen ascends rather than King? What would happen to me then?" Madison asked.
"Should a Queen ascend instead of a King, the other Queen candidates are severely weakened and they lose all of their previous privilege. In addition to this, the candidate¡¯s location will always be revealed to the Queen so that she may deal with them as she sees fit."
Furrowing her brows, Madison stayed silent.
After all, if she did not participate in this, her life is basically over.
"You haven¡¯t told me the impact of Demon Gods yet. If I be Queen, what happens with the Demon Gods?"
"When you be Queen, the Demon Gods will share a portion of their power with you because you are the catalyst for summoning them to the world. In your case, that will be Demon God Markon. When the Demon God is summoned, he gains a buff from the system which allows him to suppress the other Demon Gods. Think of it like this, the benefits for Demon God Markon is that he gets to suppress the other Demon Gods and prevent himself from being taken down a peg. Plus, if you¡¯re wondering about your safety, Demon Gods don¡¯t make a move on their candidates as it is essentially stabbing yourself in the foot."
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro opened her mouth.
"If she was to be the Demon King, wouldn¡¯t that mean we¡¯ll be enemies? For the new age to end, doesn¡¯t there need to be a single victor?"
Hearing this, the party stayed silent as this could be very problematic.
"That is indeed the case. However, there have been cases where a Queen is taken out of thepetition but they keep their lives. I¡¯m not too sure about how it¡¯s aplished but the possibility is there." Akog nodded his head.
Finding out about the possibility of sparing Madison, Shiro sighed in relief.
"Man that would be annoying if me and Madi had to fight to the death." Shiro leaned back as the party nodded their heads.
"So I presume that you came to this city because of Madi and you want to take her back with you?" She asked once more just to make sure that they understood the situation.
"That is correct. While we did have a rather... ¡¯rough¡¯ start, I believe the demons should be overjoyed about youing to the Demon Continent." Akog nodded his head.
"Mn, but I don¡¯t want to go just yet. You see we still have things we need to do in the human continents first." Madison sighed. This was naturally a lie.
While she now understood that she was part demon, she wanted some time to digest everything.
"That¡¯s fine Princess. There is still sometime before the new age. I¡¯ll contact you again when time is running out." Akog nodded his head and pulled out a crystal dagger.
"Swipe this in the air and a tear in space will open up. I will then be summoned to your side should you need me." Akog bowed.
Taking the dagger, Madison looked at the other demons before back at Akog.
"How are you going to get everyone out then? We may or may not have organised a raid against this ce in a day or so."
"Ah..." Hearing that there was a raid on this spot, Akog paused and blinked his eyes.
"We should be able to make a new tunnel out of this city. Once we¡¯re out, we¡¯ll be able to make our way back to the Demon Continent. We might suffer some casualties but it¡¯s worth it seeing as though we have discovered you."
Looking back at the mounds of demon corpses piled up by the side, Madison couldn¡¯t help but feel a twitch creep up on her smile.
"Right... worth it."
Watching the demons leave, Madison turned to the party.
"So how many of them did we kill in the end?"
"Hmm, everyone killed around 85 in total I think. We weren¡¯t able to kill too many of them before Akog arrived." Shiro shrugged as Madison sighed.
"How the hell could he have a peaceful talk with us even though we¡¯ve just killed 85 of hisrades."
"No idea. So how does it feel to find out that you¡¯ve been abnormal all along? Lyrica¡¯s an Elven Princess, I¡¯m a Spirit Empress, Yin¡¯s a Phoenix, Lisa¡¯s an Angel and Helion is someone that is chosen by a god. With you, we now have a future Demon Queen in our party. We just need Aarim, Silvia and Chen Yu to be abnormal and we¡¯ll be a party of abnormals haha." Shiroughed.
"First of all, there is nothing normal about Silvi as her regeneration is ridiculous. No offence."
"None taken." Silvia chuckled.
"And second of all, I JUST WANTED TO BE NORMAL GOD DAMNIT!" Madison cried out as she kneeled down and mmed her hands against the ground, causing a spider web of cracks to expand out.
"I think it¡¯s that same surge in emotion that caused this. Remember when he said strong desire? Do you think that your desire to be normal after meeting Shiro caused you to be abnormal?" Helion asked as he patted her shoulder.
Pausing for a moment, Madison realised that this could have indeed been the case.
"SH*T!!!!"
Allowing Madison to calm down a little, Shiro turned to the party and asked the question that they were all wondering about.
"What should we do about the raid tomorrow?"
". . ."
"Do you think an ¡¯ah sorry, I made a mistake¡¯ would work?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Yeah there¡¯s no way that¡¯s working." Lyrica chuckled.
"Hmm... do you think I should use an alias then? Remember when my guns were shown to the world and they called me the ¡¯Rogue Assassin¡¯, god that nickname still makes me wanna throw up, I use my appearance as the assassin and im the credit of the raid." Shiro suggested as the party nodded their heads at the usibility.
"That could work. Plus, they don¡¯t know how powerful your guns are yet so you can convince them that you did indeed kill all the demons. But there¡¯s only one problem with that. They¡¯ll be able to detect Akog and the others." Madison pointed out.
"That¡¯s where Yines in. You see, since Yin also has the Rift Walker skill, she can drag everyone to the Rift and leave while I keep them busy. That way, they can¡¯t detect you lot leaving."
"Alright. How should we do this then?"
Exining the n to them, they all looked at Shiro with scepticism before nodding their heads.
Making their way to the demons, Yin gestured that she was ready to transport them all away.
Grinning slightly, Shiro wrapped herself in nanobots as she changed her appearance to suit her ¡¯Rogue Assassin¡¯ alias.
Flipping her wrist, she summoned several guns around her before aiming towards the ceiling of the cavern. Her goal was to st a hole to the top to notify everyone while making sure that she avoided any casualties. In addition to this, she¡¯d spread some of the corpses around the ce so that it seemed like arge battle urred. And just to sell the act a little more, she needs a huge surge of mana.
As the holder of 1.5 billion points of mana, this should be an easy task for her.
mming her hand down, a giant magic circle started to expand as she funnelled as much mana as she could without overwhelming her mana links.
"Are you girls ready for some fireworks?" Shiroughed as she had all the guns shoot towards the ceiling.
###
*Sigh
Massaging her brows, the guild master of Vatican City looked at the city with aplicated expression. From what she understood of Demons, the entire city will be a battlefield tomorrow so they needed to start evacuating the citizens soon.
Just as she was musing about what she should do, she felt a huge surge of mana from below the city. The pressure emitted from this source was one that caused her knees to buckle.
"What the hell!" She cursed.
Trying her best to stand up, she nced out the window just in time to see the giant pir of energy shooting up into the air.
*BANG!!!
Feeling the entire city shake, she was knocked over once more as she was not prepared for the shock.
"¡ê^%^%$^¡ê!!!! GOD DAMNIT!"
Grabbing her phone, she notified the staff to call all avable adventurers to check out the scene. Dragging herself back on her feet, she stormed towards the source of the explosion.
Chapter 624 Warning The Government
Chapter 624 Warning The Government
Sitting on some rocks, Shiro waited patiently for the adventurers toe while the party escorted the demons away.
And right on cue, the adventurers started to descend around her.
Drawing their weapons, they kept their guard up around Shiro.
"Are you the one who caused all of this?" The Guild Master walked up with a frown.
"Yeah. There were demons so I killed them." Shiro replied. Her voice was deep due to the voice changer she had applied on herself. After all, everyone thinks that the Rogue Assassin is a guy.
"And the shockwave just now?" The Guild Master frowned before pointing towards the ceiling which now had a giant open hole.
"Coteral damage. Just grab some people with an earth attunement and you can patch it up easily. You might want to fill in the other tunnels too." Shiro gestured to the tunnels that could be seen around the room.
Nodding her head, the Guild Master looked towards Shiro once more.
"So you¡¯re the famous Rogue Assassin that everyone was talking about a while back. Care to tell us why you¡¯re here in this city?"
"None of your business. If you don¡¯t mind me, I¡¯ll be on my way now." Shiro shook her head and stood up.
However, just as she got off the rock, a tier 5 magic circle appeared beneath her as a cage of sorts was formed.
Clenching her fists a little, she noticed that her mana seemed to be weakened inside this cage.
Raising her eyebrow from behind her mask, she looked towards the Guild Master.
"What¡¯s the meaning of this?"
"Don¡¯t take this the wrong way. There are many questions that we want to ask you after all."
"Questionse at a price and that price might be your life. Choose wisely." Shiro threatened as she revealed the hand cannon that she had on her waist. Pulling the gun out, she aimed it towards the woman.
Seeing Shiro aim her gun towards the Guild Master, several adventurers readied their weapons and spells before aiming it towards Shiro.
Tensions were high as both sides had their weapons drawn.
"Before we talk, why don¡¯t you give me your name? Or would you rather me call you by Rogue Assassin?"
"We don¡¯t need to talk since our discussion has ended."
Changing the aim of her gun to the cage, she changed the bullet to one that was enhanced with Celestial Path.
*BANG!!!! PING!!!
Shattering the cage into pieces, she grabbed a second hand cannon in preparation forbat.
"Attack! Make sure you don¡¯t destroy the guns!" One of the adventurers called out as Shiro recognised their outfit to be one that is usually worn by someone who works for the government.
"Are youing at me with the intent to kill? If that¡¯s the case, then don¡¯t me me for being cruel." Shiro chuckled.
Disappearing from her spot, she reappeared behind the man who had shouted the order and lifted him up by the neck.
Aiming the gun at his mouth, she could see fear in his eyes but his will to fight wasn¡¯t over.
Creating a tier 5 magic circle, he wanted to st her arm away.
"Wrong move." Shiro shook her head and pulled the trigger.
*BANG!
Piercing the top of his mouth, the bullet shredded the upper half of his head.
Throwing the corpse to the left, she jumped up into the air and summoned several guns around her with each one pointing at a different adventurer.
"Do you still want to fight? Because if we do, I can tell you that there is only going to be one person walking out of this cavern and your chances aren¡¯t high." Shiro narrowed her eyes,
Releasing some of her killing intent, she could see some of the adventurers dropping their weapons.
Biting the lips, the Guild Master looked up at Shiro.
"Do you know how many people have their eyes on you?"
"No but unless they¡¯re tier 6, I don¡¯t care. Tell your government that they can¡¯t have my guns. And if they insist, I can arrange a meeting with the grim reaper for them." Shiro warned.
Dismissing her guns, she jumped into the rift and disappeared from the location.
"Kaaa!!!" releasing the breath that she didn¡¯t know she was holding, the Guild Master panted for a moment before calming herself down.
Understanding that the Rogue Assassin was much stronger than what she had expected, she bit her nail.
"He can kill a tier 5 adventurer with a single hit if they¡¯re not ready for it." She muttered before turning to the other adventurers.
"Did someone record everything?" She asked.
Seeing a few people nod, she sighed in relief.
"Send the clip to the government. Tell them that they should re-evaluate him." She ordered.
###
Removing her disguise, Shironded just outside of the city where she could see the party resting up for now.
"Seems like everything went smoothly." Shiro smiled.
"Yup. What about you? Did anything happen or did they back off peacefully?" Lyrica asked.
"Well... I may have killed one guy and threatened the government." Shiro scratched her cheeks.
"Ah...."
"God damnit Shiro. It¡¯s been 3 minutes!" Madison sighed.
"Well it¡¯s not my fault that they wanted my guns. They didn¡¯te at me with friendly intentions." Shiro stuck her tongue out.
"So what do we do now? We¡¯ve essentially solved both the problems with this city." Lyrica asked.
"I¡¯m nning to stick around for a day or two to see how people react to the updated simtors. After that, I think It¡¯s finally time to visit my parents." Shiro replied.
"So basically two days to indulge yourself in sadistic desires before acting pure for your parents?" Aarim raised her eyebrow.
". . ."
"So I¡¯m right then." Aarim shrugged, taking Shiro¡¯s silence for a yes.
{That girl¡¯s pretty spot on. I¡¯d say she¡¯s gotten used to you and can somewhat prepare herself.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Well I¡¯m pretty nervous about meeting mum and dad so I want to enjoy myself a little before going you know.} Shiro pouted a little.
{Why don¡¯t you act cute and call them Mommy and Daddy?} Nimueughed.
¡¯I¡¯d rather not.¡¯
{Aw, a shame. Think about it this way. What if, you had an argument with Attie and he left your side for a bit. After a while, hees back and says ¡¯I¡¯m sorry mommy, I won¡¯t be bad again.¡¯ How would you feel?}
¡¯. . . Ok maybe I might resort to that if the situation demands it but think about it like this. I¡¯m a grown ass woman now do you really think it¡¯ll work?¡¯
{A grown ass woman who¡¯s not even a year old yet.}
¡¯Whatever. I¡¯m pretty sure acting childish as someone who looks like she¡¯s 20 ain¡¯t gonna work.¡¯
{You never know. Just keep a note on it haha.}
Ignoring Nimue, Shiro led the party back to the city.
Remembering that she had Fabian ce the simtors in a separate training hall so that he didn¡¯t need to give money to the guild, Shiro went to ask him where the training hall was.
But when she got there, she saw him with a pile ofints on the desk.
"I presume that the simtors are working well." She chuckled.
"Yes. The only thing that isn¡¯t working is how many people haven¡¯tpleted super easy yet. They¡¯ve all just been turned to paste. Some over confident people wanted to try hard and let¡¯s just say their blood was evaporated when the test began." Fabian sighed.
"So it¡¯s going great then." Shiroughed.
"I guess. Look at all theseints about the validity of the gradings. They¡¯re saying that they¡¯re much harder than what it is and that the recording of Miss Lyrica doing the test is a lie due to how easy it seems. After all, some people thought that they were stronger than a dainty looking girl but failed miserably."
"Ha, serves them right. Since they¡¯reining about it so much, I think I might get the rest of the party to give it a try to prove things live. Who knows, it might even attract some people from other cities." Shiro chuckled.
"Oh that has already happened." Fabian said, showing her a webpage.
[Impossible Challenge Completed By The Adventurer Known As Lyrica. Is This Real?]
[The Impossible Challenge Is Rising In Poprity As Many Rush to Vatican City To Try It For Themselves.]
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro found it quite amusing.
"I¡¯ve ced the training hall next to the teleport shrine so that it can be essed with ease and I must say, other than the grading, the revenue I get from it is impressive. I can finally renovate some of the orphanages now." Fabian smiled gratefully.
"That¡¯s good. Prepare for more revenue since I¡¯m going to clear it with the party. Once they see a partyplete it one by one, more people should be spurred on toplete it." Shiro smiled before leaving the room.
Plus, the tests don¡¯t focus on levels but rather their control and mastery. So even a level 20 can give it a try. Therefore, this can be used to discover new talents that had been buried under the masses.
"Right then girls, are you ready to show some people how to properly clear the trials?" Shiro smiled as the party nodded their heads. With the exception of Helion and Chen Yu, the rest of them were confident inpleting the tests.
Chapter 625 Hero Tier
Chapter 625 Hero Tier
When the party arrived at the training hall, they were surprised at the huge queue of people that were waiting for a turn.
Looking at it from the outside, it seemed like a normal building but the moment they entered, everything was very cramped.
With the simtors in the centre of the room, there were huge monitors disying the scene to the rest of the people.
There were groups cheering on for one another while others onlyughed.
Funnily enough, one of the bestpliments that the party heard was ¡¯Good job! Yousted 2 seconds in there!¡¯.
To their left, there was a receptionist who was assigned here by the Pope. Seeing Shiro and the party, she immediately greeted them.
"The pope has informed me of your arrival. If you wish, we can provide you a private room upstairs so that you don¡¯t have to wait in this cramped space." She smiled.
"No it¡¯s fine. So do we have to pay to give the trial a go?" Shiro chuckled.
"Of course not. I¡¯ll print you off your spots immediately."
Handing the party some notes that showed their current spot in the queue, they couldn¡¯t help but raise their eyebrows at the number.
"Don¡¯t worry, while the number isrge, the wait time isn¡¯t that bad as each person gets one turn. We¡¯ve already reset the queue number twice now." The receptionist chuckled softly as Shiro nodded her head.
Gesturing for the party to wait by the side, Shiro watched all the attempts with a soft smile.
There had been a few ¡¯famous¡¯ figures that appeared to give the test a try but they were either barely able toplete super easy or fell like the others. For the one that barely managed toplete Super Easy, he was weed with a cheer.
Seeing this, Shiro only shook her head.
¡¯Why is he happy about super easy. Even though I haven¡¯t trained Helion and Chen Yu yet, they can probablyplete it as well. Hell, give me a day or two and they¡¯ll be able toplete normal.¡¯ She thought to herself.
{By a day or two I suppose you¡¯re not going to allow them to rest and put them through torture.} Nimue yawned.
¡¯What of it?¡¯
{Nothing, just confirming my thoughts.} Nimue shrugged.
Watching the attempts one by one, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but frown at the quality of mana control that she had been so far. No wonder everyone hated her in the future since after losing the system, everything needed to be manual. Once the system was gone, they were essentially useless.
"Do you think they¡¯re faking it?" Lyrica whispered over to Aarim as some of the attempts were truly pitiful.
"Unfortunately, no. Our party is just too strong." Aarim shook her head.
"Too strong? Isn¡¯t that a bit Arrogant? Did you not see how even a Genius barely managed toplete Super Easy?" A man called out with a frown.
"What do you mean? We¡¯ve already got someone who¡¯spleted it before." Aarim raised her eyebrow and pointed towards Lyrica.
Taking a second nce at her, the man recognised her to be the same elf who hadpleted the Normal difficulty, which was unthinkable as even a ¡¯genius¡¯ barelypleted the Super Easy difficulty.
"Bah! That could have been a publicity stunt for all I know. They might have just lowered the difficulty for you so that it looked easy. After all, who would look this unphased during the test?" The man scoffed.
"Seems like you don¡¯t believe the legitimacy." Shiro chuckled.
"Of course not. It¡¯s the digital world, they can adjust it however they like."
"How about this, why don¡¯t you attempt it at the same time as one of our party members in the same trial room. That way, you can verify the pressure." Shiro suggested with a grin.
"Hell no. If you want to prove it, why don¡¯t you go against the genius thatpleted Super Easy before." The man shook his head.
Despite his talk, he didn¡¯t want to do the test again. After all, being turned into a flesh paste wasn¡¯t his favourite thing to experience.
"Che, coward." Madison taunted with a frown.
Ignoring Madison, the man walked away.
"Well at least it was solved peacefully." Silvia sighed.
Waiting a little longer, it was finally their turn.
Shiro was the first while Lyrica, Aarim and Silvia were next in the queue.
Entering the digital world, the four of them proceeded toward the first test.
Seeing Lyrica, everyone recognised her to be the one that hadpleted normal before and kept their focus on her.
"You want to give Above Average a go? Normal was quite easy for you after all." Shiro asked with a smile.
"Sure. How likely do you think I¡¯ll be able toplete it?" Lyrica asked.
"In terms of percentage, probably 70 to 80%. As for hard, the chances of sess for you is around 20%." Shiro replied after a short paused.
"That big?" Lyrica furrowed her brows.
"Don¡¯t worry about it too much. You¡¯re already doing much better than 90% of the chucklef*cks in the room." Shiroughed as everyone felt ticked off by herment.
*Sigh
Sighing softly, Madison felt like things were going to get annoying as she had just pissed off everyone in the room with a singlement.
"What about me?" Silvia asked.
"You? Hmm... I¡¯d say you can probably do Hard with a 40% chance of sess. Since you utilise mana more than Lyrica on a daily basis, your control is much better. As for Aarim, you canplete Hard with 100% chance of sess but only 10% with Super Hard."
"Holy... Only 10% chance?" Aarim raised her eyebrow in surprise as Shiro¡¯s analysis of their power had always been pretty spot on. The fact that there is such a big difference between the two grades caused her to be curious about what she wascking.
"Just give it a go or look at the video. You should be able to figure it out." Shiro chuckled.
Hearing their discussion, the adventurers shook their heads with disdain.
Some even openly talked about their arrogance and how it would bite them in the back.
With all eyes on the girls, they picked their difficulty.
Lyrica chose Above Average just so that she can get a feel for the pressure while Silvia chose hard. As for Aarim, she decided to go Super Hard since there was no pointpleting something she had a 100% chance of sess on.
However, when people saw Shiro¡¯s choice, they couldn¡¯t help but stare at her in disbelief.
Choosing the Hero Tier difficulty, Shiro walked into the room with a grin.
"Ah, before I start, you girls might want to step back a bit. The room might not be able to contain the pressure." Shiro chuckled.
Hearing her warning, the three did not hesitate to begin running away from the location since in Shiro¡¯s dictionary, ¡¯a bit¡¯ was VERY misleading.
Looking at their figures running away, Shiroughed and began the trial.
Cracking her neck, she took a deep breath.
*BANG!!!
Mana erupted out of her as a motes of light could be seen around the room. Coalescing into a cocoon around her, the barrier of mana slowly faded away.
All seemed silent for a moment as the adventurers furrowed their brows in confusion.
However, Silvia, Aarim and Lyrica wrapped themselves in mana and braced for impact.
*BOOM!!!!!!
An ear rupturing explosion rang out as adventurers were knocked off their feet. Their bodies were sent tumbling away.
A cloud of dust and debris could be seen rising into the air.
*COUGH COUGH COUGH!!
"God damn it I forgot how hard the pressure hit on this difficulty." Shiro waved the dust away as they could see blood dripping from the corners of her mouth.
Wiping it away, she walked back to the party.
"Seems like you girls were prepared haha. Go do your trials and I¡¯ll wait here. Don¡¯t worry, Super Hard won¡¯t have the same impact as Hero." Shiro smiled.
"I¡¯m not worried about Super Hard. But rather, I¡¯m worried about them." Aarim chuckled while gesturing towards the adventurers that were walking towards them.
However, Shiro only raised her eyebrow and flicked her wrist.
Suddenly, a wall of mana erupted out of the ground as it prevented the adventurers froming closer.
"You have it covered I see. Welp girls, let¡¯s not waste any time I suppose." Aarim chuckled as Lyrica and Silvia nodded their heads.
Watching the girls enter separate trail rooms, Shiro had a smile on her face while massaging her rib area.
{I can¡¯t believe you underestimated your own trial.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯Well I didn¡¯t realise how potent my Armour Pration and Mana Leech is so it took me by surprise.¡¯ Shiroughed.
{Do you think Aarim canplete Super Hard?}
¡¯Not likely but if she does, her gravity magic will experience a power spike." Shiro smiled with anticipation.
Chapter 626 Natural Forces
Chapter 626 Natural Forces
Entering the test room, Aarim narrowed her eyes.
¡¯Since Shiro said that there is only a 10% chance of me seeding, that means there is something that I need to grasp and that something is the 10% chance of sess. Right now, as I am, I cannot pass this test. Knowing Shiro, that 10% is actually false. I¡¯ll only get the 10% once I grasp onto the something I¡¯m missing. Without it, it¡¯ll be a 100% chance of failure.¡¯ Aarim thought to herself as mana started to flow around her.
¡¯I only have one chance. After this I¡¯ll need to requeue but how many times can I do that until we need to leave this city? She can probably make more simtors with her nanobots but if I can do it now, I should. Plus, since Shiro told me that there is a 10% chance for me, it¡¯s highly likely that I can achieve it in my first try. Think... what am Icking in terms of mana control?¡¯
Clenching her fists, she started to think about her main weapon as a mage and that was force magic. It was magic that allowed her to manipte the natural forces like gravity.
For this test, mana will be constantly trying to crush her so she must find a way to either dispel that pressure or redirect it.
Furrowing her brows, Aarim racked her mind for an answer but nothing came up.
If she used maic force, the pressure would still crush her. If she used gravitational force, it wouldn¡¯t affect the pressure in the chamber.
Thinking back to the moment where Shiropleted her task, Aarim tried her best to remember what her mana barrier looked like.
¡¯it was like a cocoon. The barrier wrapped around her body and dispelled the pressure from all sides. How can I recreate this...¡¯ Aarim thought to herself but time had run out.
Suddenly, a crushing pressure descended on her body as she immediately felt like her ribs were about to break from the impact.
Copsing onto one knee, Aarim gritted her teeth and tried her best to stand back up but the pressure was unrelenting.
¡¯What does Shiro always tell us to do?¡¯
Gritting her teeth, Aarim closed her eyes.
As a mage, multitasking was a must have skill as they needed to make sure they can keep an eye on the battlefield while casting their spell. Especially for a mage like her, where she had to learn how to cast her spells without the use of the system, she needed to be focusing on two things at once.
Thinking back to the cocoon like mana barrier once more, Aarim felt like time had stopped as a faint figure appeared in front of her and mouthed a few words.
Remembering this sensation to be the same one where she obtained inspiration for her other spells, Aarim focused on lip reading as much of the information as she could.
¡¯Combine forces. Spring and Sliding Friction force. Redirect and rebound.¡¯
Taking a deep breath, Aarim opened her eyes and tried her best to imagine what this will look like.
Unfortunately for her, the pressure exceeded her barrier¡¯s threshold and turned her to paste.
Respawning next to Shiro, Aarim had a frustrated expression on her face.
"Damnit, I had an idea at the end too!" Sheined as Shiroughed.
"Care to share?"
"So you know how I¡¯m a force mage yeah?" Aarim asked.
"Yep. It¡¯s a rare ss where you can control forces such as gravity." Shiro nodded with a knowing smile. Understanding what was happening next, she created an illusion and stopped their conversation from being heard from the outside.
Seeing this smile, Aarim understood that Shiro knew how she should have attempted the Super Hard difficulty.
"If Ibined the two forces, Spring and Sliding Friction, I can allow the pressure topress my Spring force before rotating the barrier with Sliding Friction, allowing the Spring Force¡¯s rebound to redirect the pressure away from me. Normally, if I just use the Spring Force on it¡¯s own, it would crush me as it is fighting against the pressure while Sliding Friction has a much lower tolerance than Spring, meaning it¡¯ll snap quickly. Therefore, I needed tobine the two together. So that I can create a cocoon around me." Aarim exined as Shiro grinned.
"It¡¯s not easy, you know? If the timing is wrong, the whole thing will copse on you. If the Sliding Friction is too slow, the Spring wouldn¡¯t have enough leeway to rebound. If the Sliding Friction is too fast, the Spring wouldn¡¯t have enough time to rebound the pressure. Everything needs to be timed like a well oiled machine you know?"
"Mn, I know. But you didn¡¯t give me a 10% chance of victory for nothing." Aarim chuckled.
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head with a smile.
Controlling the digital world, she sent a private message to her.
[Well done. I¡¯ll make you a personal simtorter so that you can have as many chances as you want to achieve this.]
Seeing this, Aarim nodded her head and sat down next to Shiro.
For Silvia¡¯s attempt at hard, there were a few cracks in her barrier but she managed to pull it off while Lyricapleted Above Average without too much difficulty.
With everyonepleting their trials, they left the digital world only to be greeted by a crowd who were starting at Shiro intensely.
"What? You like what you see?" Shiro asked with a grin and flipped her hair.
This caused a few people to look away but a lot of them still focused on her.
"How did youplete the Hero Tier? Is there a trick to it?" A voice called out.
Looking towards the source, Shiro saw that it was the ¡¯genius¡¯ who barelypleted Super Easy.
"Have you not seen the tutorial video? Just improve your mana control." Shiro replied nonchntly while ncing towards her nails.
Seeing her dismissal, the man couldn¡¯t help but feel like a vein is about to burst.
"Now if you don¡¯t mind me, my other friends need toplete their trial too."
Just as she was about to walk past the crowd, the man stuck out his arm and blocked her path.
"I don¡¯t see how a level 200+ like you canplete Hero Tier. Did you cheat?" He red at her as Shiro only rolled her eyes.
"The trials focus on technique and not level dipsh*t. Why don¡¯t you go back to elementary school and relearn your mana control." Shiro rolled her eyes before using mana to push his arm away.
Gritting his teeth, he was about tosh out towards her when swords surrounded his body.
Lyrica, Lisandra and Chen Yu surrounded the man as Athera backed off slightly.
If one was to think that they¡¯re protecting Shiro, they¡¯re wrong. The three of them were doing this so that Shiro wouldn¡¯t kill this man. After all, it would be troublesome if she did.
Seeing this, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched slightly but she continued back to the rest of the group, allowing the three of them to sigh in relief.
"Right then. Next is Yin, Lisa, Lil¡¯ Chen and Madi. Yin, you can probably do Normal, Lisa is Hard since I¡¯ve taught you about mana barriers before. Lil¡¯ Chen, stick with Super Easy for now as I haven¡¯t had time to properly teach you yet. As for Madi, I believe you should be able to do Hard easily but the chances of you achieving Super Hard is slim. No offence." Shiro smiled.
"None taken. I¡¯m just happy that I¡¯m not abnormal to the point of your standard just yet." Madison sighed.
After all, if she could do Hero Tier, it means that she¡¯s as abnormal as Shiro and that was the furthest thing from normality that Madison can think of. At least Super Hard was a tier beneath Shiro¡¯s standard.
"It isn¡¯t that bad being me you know?" Shiro pouted.
"I¡¯d rather not live everything feeling like I¡¯m about to have a heart attack around every corner." Madison retorted as Shiro had nothing to say back.
After all, she wasn¡¯t wrong. Normal people would have long died if they had to go through what she had experienced.
Most of them were able toplete their trial with Chen Yupleting Super Easy without a problem which surprised Shiro a little. However, after looking at his barrier, she could tell that he would definitely fail Below Average. After all, he was an assassin who avoided most of the hits rather than tank them head on.
Helion was the same andpleted Super Easy without any problems but would struggle with anything harder.
With everyonepleting the test, Shiro had a general idea on how well they could control their mana and how she could improve their training.
In addition to this, their actions seemed to have spurred the adventurers on as they focused their best onpleting the trials.
Leaving the buildings, Shiro took a deep breath.
"We¡¯ll stay for another day just to make sure everything is ok. After that, we¡¯ll leave for Japan since I need to go meet my parents after such a long time away from home."
Chapter 627 Home City
Chapter 627 Home City
Spending another day in the city, Shiro used the time to teach Helion and Chen Yu about mana control.
With Shiro¡¯s teachings, they always returned looking like someone had just sucked their soul out.
Whenever someone called out to them, they would be surprised and stand up straight which caused a few people to wonder what had happened while the rest of the party understood their pain.
Shiro¡¯s training tended to have that kind of effect on people.
From one day, it became two days. From two it became three.
With the exnation that it was easier to train Helion and Chen Yu, Shiro dyed her return to Japan day by day.
Seeing this the party eventually decided to sit down and have a talk with her.
"Shiro, are you nervous about meeting your parents?" Lyrica asked seriously while the party was having some dinner.
*COUGH COUGH COUGH!
"Hahaha, what do you mean?" Shiro forced a smile and nced to the left.
{The great Shiro who causes gods to keep their eye on you is afraid of a little reunion.} Nimueughed.
¡¯Hush it you!¡¯ Shiro pouted.
Looking back at the party, she could see the seriousness in their eyes.
"Arg! Fine, I¡¯m nervous ok! I meanst time I saw them was when we had a small fight because I was focusing on magic. Plus, even though me and Kuromi are technically the same person, my experiences as Nytri and Shiro have changed me so I¡¯m just nervous about how they might perceive it." Shiro confessed with a slight blush.
"I¡¯m pretty sure that if they can ept your ball busting habits as Kuromi, they can ept your ass busting habits as Shiro." Chen Yu yawned as Shiro had the urge to throw a spoon at him.
"Shut it." Shiro gritted her teeth with a blush.
Seeing Shiro blush, the party couldn¡¯t help butugh while Lyrica took a moment to calm down.
"So you¡¯re mainly nervous about your parent¡¯s reaction then?" Lyrica asked.
"Mn. To be fair, a lot has happened and I¡¯m not sure how I should exin it to them. After all, I got myself three kids and I became the queen of the spirits." Shiro replied while tapping on the table nervously.
"Well maybe you don¡¯t have to tell them. After all, it¡¯lle as quite a big shock no?" Lyrica said as Shiro paused for a second before nodding.
"But before we go, maybe I should get some new clothes. After all, I¡¯m always wearing ck and it¡¯s kind of gloomy no?" Shiro suggested while pointing at her current dress.
"It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯vest made an outfit. Why don¡¯t we spend some time designing something for you?" Aarim suggested with a smile.
Hearing this, the girls in the party had an excited spark in their eyes as they were able to dress up Shiro however they wanted. It was rare that she was at their ¡¯mercy¡¯ after all.
For the next two days, they spent it designing and outfits for Shiro so that she can meet her parents looking less gloomy with her ck dress.
Eventually, they picked a soft pink turtleneck sweater, a ck skirt and some ck stockings.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Shiro nodded in satisfaction.
"This should be ok." She muttered.
"Now that we have your outfit, is it finally time to meet your parents? You have dyed this by a week after all." Lyrica asked as Shiro swallowed her saliva.
Nodding her head, they made their way to the teleport shrine.
Choosing Tokyo as their destination, the party proceeded to make their way north of Japan.
"Our house is located in the new city called Asakura. And if you¡¯re wondering why it¡¯s called that, it¡¯s because it¡¯s thend that my grandparents secured after the world changed." Shiro exined.
"You actually have a city named after your family?" Helion raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah. The city is pretty big and most of the visitors are just here to receive some training from my dad. He is one of the strongest people in the world after all. He¡¯s kind of like us, the level doesn¡¯t prove his actual capabilities. If I had to describe it, he is probably just a bit weaker than me in terms of fighting prowess." Shiro replied as she remembered some of the memories from her youth as Kuromi.
Making their way outside of Tokyo, Shiro had them wait for a moment.
mming her hand down, she created a private jet for everyone to sit in.
"Hop on, I¡¯ll fly us to Asakura in a few moments." Shiro smiled.
Seeing the jet, Lisandra¡¯s face started to pale.
"Erm... mum?" Lisandra called out hesitantly.
"Yes dear?"
"Can I just fly there with big sis? We can both fly."
"Nope. It¡¯s faster with the jet." Shiro grinned.
While the party was oblivious to how fast her jet is, they made some preparations of their own just in case it was something crazy.
And they were correct since the moment Shiro made sure that everyone was ready, the jet ster off into the sky as the party felt the force m into their bodies. Aarim wanted to use her magic to dispel the pressure but Shiro only grinned and her seatbelt was enchanted with Celestial Path while also draining her mana.
Feeling her mana drain from her body, Aarim looked at Shiro with a pale face and nervous smile.
"Have mercy?"
"Sorry, I¡¯m fresh out of mercy."
"Ah f*ck."
###
The journey to Asakura was a quick one but it felt like a century for the party. After all, Shiro made sure the experience was like a rocket was strapped to a rollercoaster.
"Shiro... Let¡¯s just fly normally next time." Lyrica groaned as she was currentlyying on the grass feeling like she was about to throw up at any moment.
"We¡¯ll see. I¡¯ll let you lot rest for a bit first." Shiro chuckled.
{To think you¡¯ll go this far to buy some more time to prepare yourself.} Nimue raised her eyebrows.
Ignoring Nimue, Shiro took a few breaths to prepare herself.
Thinking about her parents, Shiro wondered how she should greet them.
Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t given much time as Silvia had used her spells to clear the party of their nausea.
"I¡¯ve found her house." Chen Yu narrowed his eyes and showed a map on his phone.
After all, her family was quite famous so finding them wasn¡¯t hard.
Seeing this, the party started to make their way towards the mansion as Shiro followed behind them.
###
The city of Asakura was quite a sight to behold. Large high rise buildings could be seen around every corner withrge facilities everywhere. Large columns of enchantments could be seen erected around the corners of the city, providing a barrier of sorts which prevents the monsters from attacking.
Located near the centre of the city was a giant training hall of sorts. Popr videos of adventurers sparring could be seen on the big screen as the younger folk had faces of excitement whenever arge spell or shy attack was used.
In addition to this, there were dungeon gates scattered throughout the city with their respective architecture which made it so that the city gave off a feeling that was both contemporary and ancient.
However, one couldn¡¯t enter the city carelessly due to the barrier so they had to go through a security gate of sorts.
Walking up to the gate, the guards immediately stood up straight at the sight of Shiro.
"Miss Asakura." They greeted at the same time as Shiro nodded her head and waved her hand with a slight smile.
"Are my parents¡¯ home or are they still at the front lines?" Shiro asked.
"Mr and Mrs Asakura have been back for a week now. If you wish, I can give them a notice of your return."
"No it¡¯s fine. Can you register my friends here so that the barrier doesn¡¯t fry them?"
Nodding their heads, the guards started the registration process.
"Miss Asakura, there have been a few attempts of people faking your ID and entering so we¡¯ll need to do a few verification procedures if that¡¯s fine with you. It¡¯s the same for your friends as well." The guard asked with an apologetic smile.
"That¡¯s fine. If I remember correctly, it should just be a scan of my mana and blood right?"
"Indeed."
Following the guards to a separate testing room, Shiro had her mana and blood verified without a problem as the party got their ID registered into the database for the barrier as well.
With everyone registered, they entered the city of Asakura and made their way to therge mansion in the distance where they would meet Shiro¡¯s parents for the first time.
Chapter 628 Home
Chapter 628 Home
Seeing Shiro walking around the city, a few of the citizens of Asakura waved their hands and greeted her calling her ¡¯Lady Asakura¡¯.
Hearing this, Shiro only waved her hand back and greeted them with a forced smile.
Once they were free of the crowd, Shiro quickly turned back to the party.
"Ah f*ck my heart is pounding. Can we dy it a little bit please? Just like, go to a caf¨¦ or something." Shiro asked nervously.
"Nope. Let¡¯s go." Lyrica chuckled and started to push Shiro forwards.
"Ah wait! No not like this!"
###
Standing in front of the mansion gates, Shiro¡¯s face wasn¡¯t looking too well as she was about to turn around when the party stopped her once more.
"Just go for it. It¡¯s not like you have anything to lose." Lyrica encouraged with a grin.
"Urg..."
Biting her lips, she walked up to the side of the gate and swiped her hand to create a magic circle.
With the presence of this magic circle, an array lit up on the gate.
Reorganising the runes on her magic circle, Shiro ced the ¡¯key¡¯ as the gates started to open.
*BANG!!!!
Flinching from the explosion, Shiro knew what wasing next and created a barrier around her body.
As if a meteor, a zing figure came rushing out of the mansion at breakneck speed.
"KUROMIIII!!!!!"
*CRACK!!!!
"GAH!!!" Seeing her barrier crack from the impact, Shiro widened her eyes in shock.
Her mum didn¡¯t get the Mystic Reaper ss for nothing. Her passive armour and magic pration was something to be feared.
"URG!!"
Feeling a pair of arms wrap around her, Shiro felt like she was about to get her life choked out of her as Mio hugged Shiro with all her might.
"Ah don¡¯t listen to that oaf of a dad. I don¡¯t care if you learn magic ok!" Mio said as she patted Shiro¡¯s hair.
Mio was a beautiful woman with long ck hair that stretched to her waist. Her features were delicate and made it so that one couldn¡¯t take their eyes off her. Looking at the mother and daughter, the party could see where Shiro got her beauty from.
"Ack! Mum! I can¡¯t breathe!" Shiro patted her mother¡¯s shoulder desperately.
"It¡¯s fine. We both know I can¡¯t strangle you to death, let me enjoy this damn it. Do you know how worried I was while you were gone? And what happened to your hair? Don¡¯t get me wrong, white is great but your ck hair was beautiful as well you know?" Mio said while looking at Shiro¡¯s hair.
"Has Kuromi finallye home?" A masculine voice called out as a man walked to the gates calmly unlike the mother.
"Shut it you dumbass! It was your fault that Kuro left the house anyways! Who says she can¡¯t learn magic ahhh!?" Mio berated as she flickered next to Koji and gave him a roundhouse kick which sent him tumbling away.
*BLERG!
Tumbling across the ground, Koji coughed and quickly got back on his feet. Straightening out his clothes, heposed himself once more but the impression was already left on the party.
Before anyone could realise, Mio was already hugging Shiro once more.
"So why did your name change? Did you not like the name I picked for you?" Mio asked.
"We can talk about this inside mum. It¡¯s kind of bad for you to be kicking dad when people are looking." Shiro coughed and gestured to the small crowd not too far from them.
"Tsk, fine. Who told him to disagree with your magic training? Don¡¯t worry, mum will starve him for you." Mio huffed.
"Ah! But honey, I need food too!" Koji called out.
"Get your own then! Can¡¯t you hunt for yourself!"
"Urg! I can but you know your cooking is great."
"Should have thought of that when you were arguing with Kuro!" Mio retorted before smiling to the rest of the party.
"Come on in, I¡¯ll make some snacks for y- huh?" Pausing at the sight of Yin, Mio furrowed her brows and started to walk towards her.
Narrowing her eyes, she looked back at Shiro before back at Yin.
"When did you f*ck a man to get a daughter?" Mio asked as she turned back to Shiro.
"Is that really what you should be asking of your daughter?" Shiro replied with a twitching smile.
"What? I need to know don¡¯t I? Plus, it¡¯s not like you¡¯re a kid you know? Surely you know of intercourse no?" Mio tilted her head before picking up Yin.
"So is she my granddaughter?" She asked with a spark in her eyes.
"Yes I suppose. She¡¯s blood rted but she¡¯s also a phoenix." Shiro sighed.
"You f*cked a bird??? Listen darling, I love you but you can¡¯t go around sleeping with animals." Mio nced back with disbelief.
"DAMNIT MUM! I made a blood contract with her when she was an egg!" Shiro blushed hard and started to drag her mum towards the house while her dad was being ignored.
Gesturing for the rest of the party to follow, Shiro led them through the mansion to the living room while Mio was pampering Yin with snacks that she had kept in her inventory.
Naturally, as the glutton, Yin had noints.
"So what happened mum? Why does dad seem meeker than usual?" Shiro asked while pointing at her father who seemed quite down and sat on the chair obediently.
"He caused you to leave so I gave him a lesson of my own on the front lines." Mio huffed while crossing her legs.
"I just want her to be able to prote-"
"Shut up dear. She can still protect herself with magic. Have you not seen the people she sent to the hospital? Just because she doesn¡¯t use the sword like me and you doesn¡¯t mean she can¡¯t protect herself." Mio snapped back.
"Ah actually, I have taken up the sword. I¡¯ve beenbining magic and martial arts together." Shiro said as she summoned Athera, causing her father¡¯s eyes to light up in joy.
"That¡¯s my girl! Do you want me to teach you some mo-"
"What do you mean ¡¯MY girl¡¯ She¡¯s half me as well you know? And don¡¯t jump, you¡¯re not a kid anymore."
Hearing this, Koji sat down.
"You¡¯ve really got a rein on dad haven¡¯t you mum?" Shiro forced a smile.
"Hmph, of course." Mio smiled proudly.
ncing towards her dad, Shiro understood that he was allowing this since he wanted to appease her for what had happened before.
"So why did it take you so long toe home? What happened to your name, your ss, your level? I¡¯ve been worried sick you know? Seeing news about you on the other side of the world made me worry quite a bit. You even became a kid again like what was up with that?" Mio asked as her worries started to pour out like a waterfall.
"Ah erm, I was worried abouting back since there was something I had to deal with. I¡¯ve managed to deal with it now so I can stop worrying now." Shiro scratched her hair.
"Wasn¡¯t that about the guy who killed a bunch of people? You teamed up with the hidden sect and the government to kill him right? If I remember correctly, you yed a huge part by healing everyone. When did you be a healer?" Mio asked curiously.
"I¡¯m not. I just got a skill that makes it convenient for me to heal a lot of people."
"Yeah, she also has skills from every other ss." Madison sighed.
"Mn? Isn¡¯t that normal? I also have the same? My oaf of a husband is the same too." Mio tilted her head and pointed towards Koji.
"Ah...." Blinking her eyes, Madison sighed.
¡¯They are her parents after all.¡¯
"But darling, I¡¯m just d that you¡¯re safe even though you fought a tier 5. If he killed you can you bet that I will send him to hell personally." Mio sighed and hugged Shiro once more.
Smiling softly, Shiro returned the hug.
"Ah, also mum, I¡¯ve adopted Lisa as my daughter and I also have a son who¡¯s called Atesh but we call him Attie."
Bringing Attie out of the spirit realm, Shiro had Nimue, Iziuel and Estre stand by the side as she introduced her mother to her three children.
"A, it¡¯s a shame you haven¡¯t brought back a partner but this is ok too." Mio smiled and lifted Attie up.
Tilting his head slightly, Attie smiled and gave her a small wave.
"Ahhhhh!!!! So cuteeee!!!!!"
Seeing that Mio had been distracted by Attie, Koji sighed in relief.
"Wee home Kuromi." Koji said with a soft smile.
"Mn, I¡¯m home."
Chapter 629 Asakura Kojis Swordsmanship
Chapter 629 Asakura Koji''s Swordsmanship
Going into the kitchen, Mio started to make some food while Shiro and Koji started to talk about what had happened.
"So what happened to your name? If I remember correctly, you can¡¯t change your name unless there has been a special circ.u.mstance or you use a disguise skill." Koji asked curiously.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to confess the truth since her identity as a spirit queen was important after all.
"Well some things happened and I lost my memory for a bit. During this time, my name was changed to Shiro and I became something you might know as a Queen." Shiro confessed as Koji paused for a moment.
"You mean like the Beast Queen that had recently showed up? There had been quite a few meetings discussing her identity and what we should do. And you¡¯re telling me that you¡¯ve be one of them?" Koji asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah. You see, it¡¯s like this..."
Exining the identity of queens, anchors, domains, new age and the future, Koji and Mio listened carefully as the meal was being prepared.
"And I¡¯m guessing these three spirits here are your subjects for the future then?" Koji asked as he gestured to the spirits.
"Mn. This one is Nimue, she¡¯s been with me the longest followed by Iziuel. I¡¯ve met Estre recently but she has been a great help overall." Shiro smiled.
"I see... But if you¡¯re the queen, it means that you¡¯re the lifeline of their race. From what I can tell, they can¡¯t protect you. Anything you can¡¯t deal with is something that they can¡¯t deal with. Not to be harsh but you might need to find some better guards." Koji narrowed his eyes with a serious expression.
Since his daughter had be a queen and this wasn¡¯t anything that he could change, the least he could do is make sure her guards arepetent. Butparing their auras to one another, Shiro¡¯s aura outshines them by so much. It was akin toparing a light bulb to the sun.
"Dad, I¡¯m training them to be better. It¡¯s a learning process. Plus, it¡¯s fine, there¡¯s not much I can¡¯t deal with." Shiro frowned.
"I understand that it¡¯s a learning process but the age ising soon is it not? I don¡¯t think you understand that you don¡¯t have the leisure to train up proper guards to protect yourself within the time that you¡¯re giv- BLERG!"
"Shut up dear. I understand that you¡¯re worried but sometimes the way you carry yourself will make you hated you know? Did you forget how you had a fight with Kuromi before because of the way you phrased things?" Mio huffed as she smacked Koji on the back of the head with her hand.
"What your dad is wanting to say is that he¡¯ll get some high level adventurers to train your friends individually so that you don¡¯t have to. From what we can tell, you¡¯re pretty much ready and all that you need are the EXP for high levels. On the other hand, your friends need both the EXP and fighting Experience in order to stand by your side."
"We will do what we can but we¡¯re getting old too. Not to sound gloomy but with how you¡¯ve described the new age, we¡¯ll need to be careful or even your dad and I will be killed in the new age and that¡¯s not something we can deny. Hence why he wants you and your friends to be as prepared as possible when the timees and the best way to do that is to have individual lessons from the best people in the world." Mio exined with a smile.
"I know mum." Shiro nodded. She felt warm inside knowing the care that her parents were showing to her.
"So do you want us to call you by Kuromi or Shiro? It¡¯s a shame that your name has changed but things happen and I can ept the results." Mio chuckled.
"In that case then can you call me Shiro? I lost my memory for a while so it kind of feels like Kuromi and Shiro are two different people even though we¡¯re the same." Shiro scratched her cheeks with embarrassment.
"It¡¯s ok, I understand. Experiences define a person after all. In the period where you lost your memory, you could have be a new person entirely but in the end, you¡¯re still our child." Mio smiled softly.
"The meal might take a while so if you want, you can have a spar with your dad like old times. Plus, I¡¯m also a bit curious about your progress in martial arts since you said that you mixed magic and martial arts together." She suggested.
"Sure. Dad you might need to take it easy on me though, I¡¯m not as experienced with the sword as you are haha." Shiro smiled as Koji waved his hand.
"Don¡¯t worry, your old man understands." He grinned and stood up. Leading everyone to the reinforced dojo that wasn¡¯t too far from the living room, he gestured for everyone to sit by the side.
"So do you want me to use my sword or a wooden one?" Shiro asked as she didn¡¯t want to injure her dad if possible.
"You¡¯re underestimating me a little there aren¡¯t you? Your old man can take quite a beating you know? You mum can confirm that."
"I don¡¯t think that¡¯s something to be proud of." Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"It is when your mum has skills that can ignore all forms of defence." Koji coughed as his face was a little pale.
¡¯Jesus mum what the hell did you do to dad.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Summoning Athera into her hands, Shiro crouched slightly and entered a stance while Koji raised his wooden sword.
"You sure you want to use a wooden sword dad? Just to let you know, I also have armour pration skills. And I¡¯m going to be honest, it might not be as good as mum¡¯s but it¡¯s better than what most people can do." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Seeing Shiro¡¯s seriousness, Koji was reminded of his wife and decided to go with a proper sword in the end. However, it still wasn¡¯t his main sword since doing so would be too risky. After all, his sword was one that cursed people that he fights.
"Ready?" Shiro asked.
Nodding his head, Koji was excited to see what his daughter could offer him.
*BANG!
Stomping against the ground, Shiro dashed towards her father and used her phantom path to close the gap.
Following up with her Lighting version of Divine Raiment, Shiro used the Takemikazuchi Technique.
Seeing this, Koji had an impressed look in his eyes as this was more than what he had expected from a mage. Hell, this was better than most of the melee users that he had seen on the front lines. Despite her level, Shiro¡¯s power was something that could rival his own.
Smiling softly, he responded with his own move.
Just as their swords collided, Shiro was surprised to see all of her initial force and momentum dissipate into the surroundings as Koji¡¯s swords travelled up Athera¡¯s de and towards her guard.
Quickly breaking contact, she made some distance between them once more.
¡¯In terms of experience with the sword, dad definitely surpasses me. Most of my experiencees from using my guns and magic while I¡¯ve only properly started to learn the sword in this life. I can¡¯t expect to beat dad with my current sword skills.¡¯
"What¡¯s wrong darling? I thought your armour pration was going to damage my sword." Koji said with a smile.
"Well this is a sword fight. I¡¯m not going to be using magic now am I?" Shiro shrugged but she was looking for a chance to attack him.
"No need to worry about your old man. I can handle a kid or two. After all, your sister had quite some strength to her when growing up and being punched in the eye by her wasn¡¯t exactly fun." Kojiughed.
"You said it dad. I¡¯ll use some magic then." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Activating Rift Strider, she immediately closed the gap between them as several tier 5 magic circles appeared around Koji.
Smiling softly, Kojished out with his sword and enhanced it with an unknown skill, shattering the magic circles apart in an instant.
"This is what I mean when mages have a hard time defending themselves. Break their spell and they¡¯re open for attacks." Koji lectured as he was already in front of Shiro.
"I do the same but better." Shiro grinned.
Chains suddenly burst out from the ground as she had conjured up nanobots beneath the floorboard, converting them to mana draining chains which prevented her dad from using mana to enhance his body.
"Hou~ But it¡¯ll take more than that to hinder your old man." Koji grinned, feeling excited by the fact that his daughter could hold her own against him.
Taking a deep breath, Koji stepped towards her. Before she could react, he disarmed her in an instant, causing her sword to beunched across the room.
Reaching out for Shiro, Koji lifted her up onto his shoulder and grinned.
"I suppose it¡¯s this old man¡¯s victory."
Seeing herself being ced on his shoulder like a child, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but blush from embarrassment but at the same time, she was excited to see how much he can teach her in terms of swordsmanship.
Chapter 630 Like Father Like Daughter
Chapter 630 Like Father Like Daughter
"Did.... Did Shiro just lose?" Madison asked with disbelief as the thought of Shiro losing seemed impossible for her. Even if it was a spar, it was still shocking.
"Yeah she did. But think of it this way, now that she¡¯s lost, she¡¯s got more to learn. Meaning, she¡¯ll get even stronger." Lyrica nodded her head while trying to stop herself from blushing at the sight of a red faced Shiro feeling embarrassed on her father¡¯s shoulder.
"Makes you think about what could happen to us doesn¡¯t it? Her dad did say that we¡¯ll get some training from professionals after all." Aarim chuckled.
"It¡¯s good news isn¡¯t it? That way we can be more prepared for the new age." Helion smiled.
"Urg... my normality is drifting further and further." Madison sighed.
"I mean... you¡¯re the future Demon Queen so I¡¯d say normality has always been an illusion for you hahaha." Helionughed as Madisonunched herself towards him and tried to strangle him.
"Oiiiii!!!"
###
Setting Shiro down, Koji put away his sword.
"Erm... How did you do thatst move?" Shiro asked with an excited glint in her eye.
Seeing that his daughter was so excited about swordsmanship, Koji felt like he could cry with joy.
"Thatst move is a little like what you did at the start. Where you evaded my notice and closed the gap. Think of it as something simr but while you¡¯re evading their notice, you proceed to strike at their wrist, causing them to drop their sword or any weapon they¡¯re holding. It¡¯s a little harder to disarm two handed weapons but if you¡¯re quick enough, it should be possible." Koji said with a smile while Shiro listened intently.
"Hmm... the martial arts that I used mainly focused on evading your notice rather than doing something in that time. I¡¯ll need to practice some more for me to be doing something else in that moment then." Shiro nodded.
"Speaking of practice, I¡¯ve noticed something with your sword techniques. You like to move around a lot. And I mean A LOT. You overplicate the moves that you want to do such as using your portal move. You can use your portal to bait people into thinking that you¡¯re about to move but you continue. You can even use your martial arts to evade their notice so that they think you¡¯re in the portal when in reality you¡¯re in front of them.
"Second point I want to bring up is that there is a gap between you using your magic and sword. Rather than everything being fluid and you moving from form to form such as in martial arts, it¡¯s like you take a break, change your gear, then continue. If you really want to use magic and swords together, you need to get rid of this break otherwise people can take advantage of that gap. In terms of opportunities for me to strike at you, there were more when magic was involved." Koji chuckled.
"So you were holding back in the end dad." Shiro sighed.
"Of course. What kind of parent goes all out when sparring with their kid." Kojiughed and patted Shiro¡¯s head.
"Anyways, your mother should be finishing up soon. We have about 5 to 10 minutes give or take so I can probably run through a few more spars with your party members. I want to personally see what their potential is like." Koji nced towards the party with narrowed eyes as they felt a shiver down their spine.
It was the same kind of feeling as when Shiro was letting the pope test out the new simtors.
Completely sadistic!
"Ah I¡¯m a tank so I¡¯m fine." Madison looked away.
"I¡¯m a healer, I don¡¯t go on the front lines." Silvia coughed.
"I¡¯m a mage so I don¡¯t really need to use a sword." Aarim waved her hand with a forced smile.
"I¡¯m a ..."
Seeing Shiro¡¯s party make excuses after excuses, Koji shrugged his shoulders.
"When a monster sneaks around your party or decides to attack from the back, how will you deal with them? You can probably sense their mana signatures but here¡¯s the problem. In the front lines, there are now monsters and demons that avoid all forms of detection, what will you do when they approach you? So even if you¡¯re a healer, you need to learn proper self defence. And as you can see, who better to learn it from than me?" Koji smiled darkly.
Before the party could say anything, Shiro flickered behind Silvia and ced a hand on her shoulder.
"Why don¡¯t you be the first?" Shiro smiled in a simr manner as Koji.
¡¯Like father like daughter.¡¯ Was Silvia¡¯sst thoughts.
###
"Urgggggg..."
Looking at the party on the floor groaning from the pain, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
"I¡¯ll admit. Their potential is pretty good for their age. Especially Lyrica and Madison. Their instincts are spot on." Koji smiled while Shiro nodded her head.
"Darling~ Food is ready~" Mio called out as she walked into the training hall.
"Oh man I¡¯m starving." Koji smiled.
However...
"I¡¯m not talking about you. I¡¯m talking about my baby girl." Mio huffed before jogging over to Shiro.
"I¡¯ve made some of your favourite dishes. Comee, let¡¯s eat before it gets cold. Yin¡¯s already starting." Mio smiled.
Looking back at her dad who seemed to have taken heavy damage, Shiro smiled softly.
"Mum you can forgive dad now. It¡¯s fine." Shiro whispered over to Mio.
"But he caused you to leave. I have to teach him a lesson or else the big oaf will never learn. Why do you think Keomi¡¯s living away from us." Mio sighed.
"It¡¯s fine mum, you can¡¯t bully dad too much in the end." Shiro tried to persuade while massaging her shoulders.
¡¯Anymore and I think dad will break.¡¯ She thought to herself.
*Sigh
"Fine. I¡¯ll forgive him. But only because you said so ok?" Mio smiled softly.
"Thank you mum." Shiro smiled and pecked her mum on the cheeks.
"Dad! Mum¡¯s forgiven you." She called out with a grin.
Hearing this, Koji looked up with a surprised expression.
ncing towards Mio just to make sure, he was overjoyed when he saw her nod.
"Arggg!!! Finally!!!! The dry spell is over!!!!" He cried out as Mio blushed from the mention of ¡¯dry spell¡¯.
"OIIIII!!!! Perverted old man! Don¡¯t shout that sh*t out loud!" Shiro widened her eyes and kicked Koji in the chest but he ignored it. She didn¡¯t think that this was going to be the first thing that he shouted.
"Darling you don¡¯t know how much of a tease your mum is. Do you know how painful it was to have her seduce me while not letting me do anything?" Koji exined as he lifted up Shiro like a kid.
"I don¡¯t need to know! My friends are just behind you ya know!?" Shiro blushed from being picked up like a kid.
"It¡¯s fine, they¡¯re all a.d.u.l.ts! You¡¯ve probably learnt some s.e.x ed already!" Kojiughed.
"Doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s fine to say it out loud!" Shiro retorted.
Chuckling softly at the father and daughter, Mio walked over to the party and helped them up.
Getting Silvia to cast a few healing spells, they started to walk to the dining hall as Shiro was ced on Koji shoulder¡¯s once more.
Embarrassed about how Koji was treating her, Shiro wanted to jump into the rift to escape but unfortunately for her, Koji managed to stop her from entering the portal, prolonging her embarrassment all the way to the dinner hall.
Seeing Shiro, Mio and Koji interact with each other, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but smile seeing how happy Shiro was. After all, in all her times of interacting with her, she hadn¡¯t seen her act this lively.
Thinking about this, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but think back to her own parents and sighed.
"You ok?" Madison asked as she saw her best friend sigh.
"Yeah, just thinking back to my own family." Lyrica smiled.
"Tell me about it. I have always thought that Shiro was an anomaly but after seeing her parents, it seems like crazy runs in the family. She could be ssed as normal in her family while I¡¯m now a demon queen candidate in my normal human family." Madison said with a twitching smile.
"But it¡¯s nice isn¡¯t it? I haven¡¯t seen Shiro this happy before." Lyrica chuckled.
"Yup." Madison grinned. After all, even the strongest people needed to rx once in a while.
Chapter 631 Nibbles
Chapter 631 Nibbles
Dinner was extremely nice as Mio had to even make seconds and thirds mainly due to Yin. With her gluttony skill, she had almost no limit to the amount of food she could eat after all.
"Yin don¡¯t trouble your grandma so much." Shiro reminded as she raised her eyebrow at Yin.
"Haha don¡¯t worry about it darling. It reminds me of you when you were younger. You were quite the glutton back then you know?" Mio chuckled while bringing new dishes to the table.
"Yeah but I didn¡¯t eat an entire pantry you know." Shiro pouted.
"You didn¡¯t but you weren¡¯t far off. Little Yin, let me tell you about how much your mum liked her food. During one of the training sessions, she only gave your granddad a small piece of the sweets while scoffing the rest down herself just to say that there were no more to give him." Mio chuckled.
Being reminded of this memory, Shiro thought back to whether or not Nan Tian had seeded in achieving tier 6 yet.
Shaking her head, she focused back on the dinner table.
Helping her mum clean up, Shiro brought the empty dishes to the kitchen and helped her clean up.
"So how long are you going to be staying here? Your dad wants to invite a few of his friends over to train your party members so it would be good to know a timeframe." Mio asked with a smile.
"I¡¯m not sure. I want to stick around for a bit so that I can learn some sword techniques from dad. I¡¯m also nning to go to Mount Olympus with the party once we¡¯ve stayed here for a bit." Shiro replied.
"I see... Do you think 2 weeks would be a good timeframe for you? I know that the new age ising so it¡¯ll be selfish of us to keep you here for longer when you have ces to be. Plus, the stronger you are, the less we have to worry since you¡¯ll be safe." Mio chuckled.
"2 weeks seem very short doesn¡¯t it? Before you know it, time has already passed and we¡¯ll need to go." Shiro sighed.
"It¡¯s fine though. You can always return any time you want. The demons seem to have backed off a little so we have some free time but the government is now wondering what they¡¯re up to. After all, the demons have been quite aggressive before but seeing their sudden change in attitude is concerning."
"I might have an idea. From what we know, it seems like each of the candidates to be the Demon Queen or King are preparing for the new age so do you think that might be the cause? Rather than expand their territory, I think the demons are more focused on cultivating their strength since failing to be the Demon Queen or King has some serious consequences." Shiro suggested.
"Oh? Is this simr to the Queen role that you told us about earlier?" Mio asked.
"Yeah, it¡¯s the lifeline of the Demon race. But having a King is much worse as all the females in the demon race will have the subconscious thought of bedding the Demon King." Shiro sighed.
"That sounds rather unpleasant. We might be at war with the demons but even I will feel sorry for them if a Demon King is born. Imagine a married couple being split apart because of the Demon King." Mio frowned.
"Exactly. Don¡¯t worry though, the war with Demons might end in the future depending on what happens." Shiro smiled.
"Hm? Howe?"
"Because a friend of ours, Madi, is one of the candidates and we¡¯re going to try our best to put her on the throne. When that happens, we¡¯ll be able reduce the amount of conflicts between humans and demons." Shiro smiled.
"It¡¯s not going to be easy you know?"
"Of course. But with the threat of other queens and rulers in the new age, they have no choice but to team up when two Queens are friends. It¡¯s the best way to survive." Shiro replied.
"I just hope that it¡¯ll go well. The Queens seem like they¡¯re on a whole new level so you need to be careful with the fights that you pick from now on." Mio reminded with a worried expression.
"Don¡¯t worry mum, I¡¯ll be careful." Shiro waved her hand with a grin.
"Oh really? Because from what I heard from Little Yin, you seemed to have almost died a few times again. Especially after fighting tier 5¡¯s and 6¡¯s as a tier 4." Mio said with a twitching smile.
*COUGH!
Looking towards the dining hall, Shiro saw Yin jump into the rift as she could only grit her teeth.
¡¯Damnit just you wait!¡¯
Turning back to her mum, Shiro forced a smile.
"They were unavoidable circ.u.mstances."
"Oh really?" Mio raised her eyebrow.
"Yes. The tier 6 came out of nowhere when me and Lil¡¯ Tian were exploring one of the ruins. If it wasn¡¯t for Lil¡¯ Tian, I would have died."
"Then what about the two tier 5¡¯s? From what I¡¯ve heard, the first one you organised a raid while the second one you faced when doing something with your sword. They were a ¡¯god yer¡¯ too." Mio reminded.
"Are they still unavoidable circ.u.mstances?"
Looking to the side, Shiro scratched her cheeks.
*sigh
"Just be careful. You¡¯re no longer a kid so we can¡¯t baby sit you like when you were younger. Having a parent bury their children is a painful experience you know? My mum had to do it with my sister because she caught an incurable disease." Mio sighed while hugging Shiro.
"Mum, you never told me about your family before. Can you tell me about grandma and grandpa?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Mn... perhaps another time. Their identity is a little... special." Mio had an awkward smile.
"What kind of special?"
"Next time darling." Mio shook her head and poked Shiro¡¯s nose which caused her to pout a little before nodding her head.
"Fine."
Once she was finished with cleaning up the dishes, Shiro notified the party that they were going to stay for 3 weeks instead of 2 so that they could get some training before going to Mount Olympus for the god trials.
"Three weeks huh? That should be enough time. I¡¯ll give my friends a call so that they cane over to train the lot of you. They owe me a favour after all." Koji grinned.
"In that case then can you train me for the three weeks then dad?" Shiro asked as Koji nodded his head eagerly.
"Hahaha, your dad is more excited about that than you are darling." Mio chuckled as she knew that Koji was more than happy to train Shiro. He was a bit of a muscle head after all.
"Oh right, since you are staying for three weeks, we¡¯ll need to prepare some rooms for your friends." Koji reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
"There are some spare rooms next to Shiro¡¯s old room so why don¡¯t you lot stay near her for the three weeks." Mio suggested with a smile.
"We even gave it a makeover too since it was so gloomy even though she liked the cute things." She sighed as Shiro paused what she was doing.
"What do you mean it was gloomy even though I liked the cute things? What kind of cute things are we talking about???" Shiro asked with some traces of panic in her voice.
"Oh nothing much. You were hiding Nibbles in your wardrobe even though it was your favourite so I moved it into a more open space with others that I bought from the shop." Mio chuckled as the party was instantly interested by who nibbles were.
Hearing the nostalgic name, Shiro smiled before realising how bad this was. After all, it was embarrassing for her if the party knew.
Standing up, she was about to run to her room to clear things up when a barrier covered the room which prevented the use of movement type skills to get out of the area.
Looking towards Aarim with a forced smile, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Aarim, what are you nning?"
"Nothing much. Just curious about who Pft... ¡¯Nibbles¡¯ is." Aarim said as she let augh slip.
"Oh nibbles is just the 8 ft tall plush that Shiro kept since she was a child." Mio smiled, taking enjoyment in teasing her daughter.
Having her secret exposed, Shiro could only sit down with a blush.
She had to admit, she did enjoy the plush since it was veryfy. Due to its size, she could just dive into its body and fall asleep.
HOWEVER! The fact that a grown woman like her, one that had experienced three lifetimes, kept an 8ft tall rabbit plush in her room was very embarrassing.
But what concerned her more was the makeover that her mum had mentioned.
"Mum, what else did you do to my room?" Shiro asked with a forced smile.
"Well~ I painted the walls a light pink and gave Nibbles some friends. They were doing quite a nice deal on giant plush animals you know?" Mio chuckled.
Hearing this, Shiro spaced out for a moment.
"Oh my, you killed mum with embarrassment. Either that or joy since she likes plushies." Yin said as prepared to jump into the rift at any moment for safety.
*Sigh....
Letting out a long sigh, Shiro gave up.
Chapter 632 Shiros Room
Chapter 632 Shiro''s Room
Arriving at Shiro¡¯s old room, the party could see the mountain of plushies piled up by the side as a giant 8ft rabbit was clearly bigger than the rest.
Taking off their shoes and setting them by the side, the party walked in.
Sighing softly, Shiro shrugged and dived into the pile head first before adjusting herself in the pile.
"Behold! The plush queen, queen of all plushies. Long may she reign." Yin said with augh.
"Hush it, why don¡¯t you try it too. It¡¯s quite nice." Shiro pouted while throwing a plush towards Yin.
Catching it, Yin was surprised by how soft it was.
"Oh my... I can see why you would want an 8ft plush now mum. I wonder if they have an 8ft chicken drumstick plush." Yin mused while also diving into the pile.
"You¡¯ll probably eat it in your sleep." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"I¡¯ll excuse myself now. I¡¯ll go prepare the other rooms for your friends." Mio said with a smile.
"Ah I¡¯ll help mum." Shiro said as she tried to stand up again.
"No it¡¯s fine. You enjoy time with your friends." Mio shook her head and left the room.
"Hm... You lot want to hop into the plush pile?" Shiro asked as the party looked towards one another before shrugging.
"Sure." Lyrica chuckled.
With how big the pile of plushies were, it was able to fit everyone in.
"So this is your room huh?" Lyrica asked as she was quite surprised by how big the room was.
While she wasn¡¯t sure of the exact measurements, she guessed that she could probably fit a fewrge mounts into this room.
Near the back, there was a king sized bed with bed curtains that seemed to be made from the finest silk.
"Yeah, from my memories, I¡¯ve stayed in this room since I was a child. I think I can probably find some old pictures of mine." Shiro mused while pointing towards her desk that was opposite her bed.
The desk was quiterge and had an assortment of drawers. In addition to this, there were bookshelves above the desk that had a few decorative items that gave the room some personality. To the right of the desk was a bookshelf that had quite a few copies of martial art manuals.
Standing up, she walked up to her desk and opened one of the many drawers.
"Found it." She smiled.
Presenting a book of sorts to the party, she opened it to reveal a photo album of her childhood.
"Holy sh*t I really do look like mum when she was younger." Yin widened her eyes when she saw one of the pictures of Shiro eating a snack with a grin on her face.
"No sh*t, I¡¯d be more concerned if you didn¡¯t look like me." Shiro rolled her eyes.
Going through some of the photos, the party had some fun as Shiro talked about her childhood days.
To their surprise, Shiro was just as gluttonous as Yin when she was younger.
After talking for a while, Mio finished preparing their rooms. Since it was still early in the day, they decided to rx a little longer before having some dinner.
Once again, Yin was in love with Mio¡¯s cooking. This time, Yin even wanted to watch Mio cook so that she could make it for herself. After all, what¡¯s the point of paying for a bunch of food at restaurants when you can make better food yourself. Plus, unlike restaurants, Yin didn¡¯t need to care about how much she ate when she was the one who¡¯s cooking.
On the dinner table, Koji informed the party of the arrival of his friends tomorrow as they will train them for the time that they¡¯re here.
"Let¡¯s see... I¡¯ve invited 4 people toe here tomorrow and they will teach you what you need most at this time. For Lisandra and Lyrica, you two will be studying under a person named Lin. She¡¯s a talented swordswoman and she will be able to teach you a trick or two. For Yin, Silvia and Aarim, you three will be studying under a guy named Stanley. He will teach you how mages and healers should survive on the frontlines and how you should defend yourself should you enter melee range with an enemy. Chen Yu, you¡¯ll have your very own teacher since you¡¯re the only assassin in this party. His name is Fin and his training is a little... dangerous. But he won¡¯t kill you so it¡¯s fine." Kojiughed.
"So basically Shiro¡¯s training, understood." Chen Yu nodded.
"Oi."
"Anyways, thest teacher that I invited is for Madison and Helion since you are both heavy weapon users. Her name is Chelsea and despite her small stature, she is a monster of a woman. She can probably snap you in half like a twig. Just make sure you don¡¯t talk down to her like she¡¯s a kid or mention her stature." Koji smiled.
"It shouldn¡¯t be too hard then. I¡¯ve met my fair share of small stature people." Helionughed as he remembered what Shiro looked like before along with his childhood crush.
"That¡¯s good then. She gets quite violent when looked down upon." Koji smiled.
Hearing the names of the teachers, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but tilt her head before searching her memories for their identities.
"Oh my... Chen Yu, you have my condolences." Shiro shook her head as Chen Yu paled.
"Wait what do you mean?" He asked with worry.
"I just remembered who Fin was." Shiro replied while ncing away from him. When Koji meant that Fin wouldn¡¯t kill him, he wasn¡¯t wrong. However, the state that he¡¯ll be in after the training wasn¡¯t far from death.
Hell, even her training was better in some regards since they weren¡¯t THAT close to death.
Hearing this, Chen Yu seemed to have his soul ripped out as he started to dread for the arrival of tomorrow.
"So since everyone else is getting teachers, I¡¯m guessing that I¡¯ll be studying with you then dad." Shiro said while looking towards Koji.
"Half. Me and your mum will be teaching you since there are areas where we can both give you tips. Plus, your skill set has parts of what me and your mum are good at so we might as well help you improve in those areas while we¡¯re here. Who knows when¡¯s the next time you¡¯ll be able toe back." Koji chuckled.
"Oh? Mum¡¯s also teaching me?" Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise as Mio nodded her head.
"Of course. I also want to spend time with my baby girl after all." Mio smiled.
"Pft, baby girl." Yin giggled at how Mio addressed Shiro.
*Puchi!
Feeling Shiro¡¯s annoyance, Yin quickly dived into the rift without hesitation.
"Don¡¯t be so violent now." Mio sighed with a soft smile.
"Fine." Shiro nodded as Yin popped her head back out.
"Thank you, grandma." She smiled.
"Don¡¯t worry about it darling. Just don¡¯t annoy your mum too much." Mio waved her hand.
Talking for a little longer, they rested up for the night.
Sleeping in her own room after such a long time, Shiro felt extremely calm.
Looking up at the ceiling, she had a soft smile on her face.
{It¡¯s good to rx like this for a while isn¡¯t it?} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Mn. I was a bit nervous at the start but it seems like I was worrying for nothing.¡¯
{I could tell. It¡¯s not often you try to dy something so actively.}
¡¯Speaking of dy, I should pay a visit to the spirit capital sooner orter. I don¡¯t know where it is but Estre should know the way.¡¯
{I know the general direction. The spirit capital shifts locations once in a while due to the dangers that surround us but I know the most viable ces.} Estre replied.
¡¯Thank you.¡¯
{We still have the map to the Garden Shard to think about too. We¡¯ll need it in order for you to make an Anchor.} Nimue reminded.
¡¯True. I¡¯m thinking of looking for it after the God Trials in Mount Olympus. Once we pass those, we should get a decent boost in strength and it would be a good chance to search for the shard. After all, if I build it hastily without the strength to back it up, everything could be ruined.¡¯
{Where are you even going to ce the anchor?}
¡¯I¡¯m not sure but I¡¯m thinking of using this ce as the base. I¡¯ll spend a while modifying this city so that I can convert it into a flying city/fortress when I need to. That way, the citizens will be safe if they choose to stay in my domain. The second option is the spirit capital. After all, I am the Queen so I need to protect the race. We will see in the future. For now though, let¡¯s just focus on getting stronger so that we can aplish everything.¡¯ Shiro smiled as she closed her eyes and slept peacefully.
Chapter 633 Yins Cooking
Chapter 633 Yin''s Cooking
Waking up early the next morning, Shiro yawned and made her way down to the kitchen in her pyjamas. The pyjamas weren¡¯t anything fancy as it was just a shirt and some pants. However, the fact that they¡¯re light pink caused Shiro¡¯s smile to twitch but the material was quitefy.
Plus, wearing a set of ck pyjamas wouldn¡¯t be good to begin with.
Entering the kitchen, she was actually surprised that Mio and Yin were already awake and cooking.
"Oh my, isn¡¯t this a surprise. Yin¡¯s actually awake so early." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Well little Yin wanted to learn how to cook a good breakfast so I was just teaching her." Mio chuckled.
ncing over at Yin, Shiro could see that she was fully focused on her task.
Remembering that Yin was quite a good cook in the future, Shiro was rather excited by what she was going to produce. Who knows, it might be something amazing on the first try.
"So what¡¯s she making?" Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s something simple. Just some rice congee and a few side dishes with a few eggs. Shouldn¡¯t be that hard." Mio replied with a smile.
Nodding her head, Shiro decided to do a search on the teachers that her dad had invited while she waited for Yin to finish cooking.
After all, it had been quite a few years since she hadst seen them so it was a good idea to get up to date with what they¡¯ve been up to.
The first person that her dad had invited was a swordswoman named Lin. Lin was a slender woman who was quite tall. Measuring around 5ft 11, she had a highly aggressive and reactive fighting style which allows her to break through her opponent¡¯s guard by analysing how they defend against her barrages.
For someone like her, one should attempt to face her head on and reverse the flow of battle or else it was going to be hard to win against her. An example would be a tiny snowball rolling down a mountain. Once you give her some room to work with, she¡¯ll exploit the gaps and take your life before you know it.
A teacher like Lin was perfect for Lyrica and Lisa since their fighting style was simr. Their defence was poor but the attack was outstanding.
There was one thing that concerned Shiro and that was the fact that Lin was known to have a hard time talking to people. She much prefers acting rather than talking so she was worried about whether or not Lisa and Lyrica could actually learn from her.
¡¯Since dad chose her out of everyone he knows, there¡¯s probably a good reason for it.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself before checking the other teachers.
The second teacher that her dad had invited was Stanley. There wasn¡¯t much known about him only that he was hailed as one of the greatest mages to have existed. His specialty lies in the fact that he had mastered the use of analytic magic. It was a type of magic that not many use much less master.
The main principles of analytic magic was that it would analyse the opponents magic and turn it against them. In one way, it was simr to her celestial path where she cancels out magic by breaking the spell circle.
But that wasn¡¯t all, even if Stanley couldn¡¯t see the magic circle, his senses when ites to mana were top notch. If one wanted to know about magic, he was the go to person.
He was also the teacher that Kuromi studied under for a while when she was a child.
If you studied his teachings diligently, he was a very nice teacher and one that would make sure to try his best to help you. On the other hand, if you dismiss his teachings or ignore what he says, he will just give up on teaching you all together. There had been a few times where Kuromi had seen another kid with her studying under Stanley but he gave up teaching them since they didn¡¯t focus.
The only reason she kept focusing was so that she could teach Lil¡¯ Tian about magic. That way, he could protect himself even with his weak physique and Stanley was quite happy about her diligence.
Unfortunately, he had something that he needed to deal with hence why he left for a bit but now that her dad had re-invited him, Shiro was quite excited to greet her old teacher.
The third person that her dad had invited was Fin. There wasn¡¯t much else she needed to search as he was as violent as usual.
Out of the four teachers, it was the fourth andst one that Shiro was most curious about since she had no memory about her. Searching up about the teacher named Chelsea, Shiro found out that she had appeared near the front lines one day and started to help out. From her description, it seemed like she was living with her parents in one of the demon territories when they were attacked by monsters and she had to fend for herself.
She was stuck in the demon territory for quite a few years where she had to hunt and feed herself when she caught wind of humans being close and decided to check it out. From them on, she helped on the front lines and made quite a name for herself.
"Mum." Shiro called out as the information on Chelsea cut off after this point.
"What is it darling?"
"So I¡¯m searching up information about the teachers that dad invited but who¡¯s Chelsea? There¡¯s not much known about her." Shiro asked.
"Oh you¡¯re wondering about Chelsea are you? Well she¡¯s a nice girl that doesn¡¯t like to interact with too many people. She¡¯s part of our party in the front lines and she¡¯s been quite helpful. Her lineage seems to be quite special but she keeps it a secret since she doesn¡¯t want the government to bother her too much." Mio replied as Shiro nodded.
"What do you mean by special?"
"Well it¡¯s the weapons that she uses. It¡¯s simr to having a spirit guardian I suppose. It¡¯ll be easier for you to understand when you see them yourself." Mio chuckled.
After waiting for a while, Yin had finally finished cooking. Setting the food out on the table, she sat opposite Shiro and waited for her evaluation with an excited look on her face.
Seeing this, Shiro smiled softly and picked up the bowl of rice congee.
Before she even got a mouthful, she could already smell the strong scent of salt and felt a little worried for the taste. However, since it was her daughter¡¯s first attempt at cooking, some sacrifices were needed!
Taking a moment to brace herself, she took a mouthful.
Surprisingly, the impact of salt never came as Shiro raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Oh my... this taste quite ni- *BLERG!"
The salt was a dyed taste.
Feeling as if she had just drunk a mouthful of salt water, Shiro couldn¡¯t hold it back anymore and ran to the kitchen before grabbing herself a bunch of orange juice from the fridge.
Chugging it down to rehydrate herself, Shiro looked back at the slightly down Yin.
"Maybe you should be careful of how much salt you put in there." Shiro said as Mio tilted her head.
"Eh? It thought it was quite nice though? It¡¯s only a little salty but surely it doesn¡¯t warrant such a reaction no?" Mio furrowed her brows, taking a mouthful of the congee.
"See? It¡¯s not too bad."
"Huh? What do you mean? The saltiness was like a surprise punch after a moment of calm no? Can¡¯t you smell how salty it is?" Shiro asked with confusion.
"No. Why don¡¯t you give it another try." Mio said, presenting a spoonful of rice congee for Shiro.
Flinching slightly, Shiro nodded her head reluctantly and took a bite. However, her reaction was the same. It didn¡¯t taste that good.
"Strange." Mio furrowed her brows since it didn¡¯t look like Shiro was acting.
After clearing out the salty rice in her mouth, Shiro had a small idea on what had happened.
"Mum, I think I know. I practised a martial art that heightens my senses so anything that¡¯s slightly strong will be super strong for me. An example is probably salt. Everyone else can taste a little while I taste a lot. For yesterday¡¯s meal, the seasoning was bnced so it tasted nice but for Yin, she put a bit too much salt so it dominated the taste." Shiro theorised as Mio had a surprised look on her face before it was reced by excitement.
"This is perfect for little Yin as your senses are the best way to practice cooking." Mio smiled.
"Pardon?" Shiro tilted her head.
"Little Yin needs practice with her seasoning so you¡¯re perfect for the job. You can tell her which seasoning dominated the mix so that she understands how to bnce it out." Mio exined.
Understanding that this meant she¡¯s going to be a test dummy for Yin, Shiro sighed. However, since Yin made super tasty meals in the future, this means that her efforts had paid off. For good food, her sacrifice was small. And so, Shiro agreed to be the test subject for Yin¡¯s cooking.
Chapter 634 Mios Strength
Chapter 634 Mio''s Strength
One by one, the rest of the party woke up and decided to have a taste of Yin¡¯s cooking. Aside from the fact that it was only a little salty, it was a good first attempt.
"Mum, where¡¯s dad?" Shiro asked after noticing that he was absent from the dinner table.
"Oh him? He¡¯s just out weing his friends. They did take the Teleport Shrine here after all." Mio smiled as Shiro nodded.
Waiting for a little while, Shiro eventually sensed her dad¡¯s man signature approaching along with four others who were equal if not a little weaker than his signature.
"I¡¯m back." Koji called out with a smiled as the four teachers followed behind him.
"Are these the kids that we¡¯ll be teaching?" Lin asked while examining them one by one. Narrowing her eyes at Lyrica and Lisandra, she understood that they¡¯re the ones that she¡¯d be teaching for the next three weeks.
"Yup. Their potential is pretty good you know? I¡¯ve had a small spar with each of them." Koji smiled, reassuring his friends of their prowess.
"If you say so." Lin shrugged. She¡¯d make her own judgement after a few lessons to see if they¡¯re worthy of being taught. After all, 3 weeks of their time is no joke and if it wasn¡¯t for Koji, they wouldn¡¯t even think about it.
"You two follow me, we¡¯re starting straight away. I¡¯ll be taking your training hall 3." Lin said and gestured for Lisandra and Lyrica to follow her.
Raising their eyebrow, they nodded their heads and followed after her.
"Hasty as usual." Koji chuckled since Lin was a woman who preferred to act quickly.
"I don¡¯t me her. Now which one am I teaching?" Fin grinned before making eye contact with Chen Yu.
"So it¡¯s him. I¡¯ll take training hall 2 then." Finughed as he flickered besides Chen Yu and dragged him away by his cor.
Silvia only gave Chen Yu a loving wave and a smile while whispering, ¡¯I¡¯ll revive you if you die.¡¯
Naturally, that didn¡¯t escape Fin¡¯s notice.
"That¡¯s good to know." He grinned which caused Chen Yu to pale.
"So which midget am I teaching?" Chelsea asked as Shiro had to quickly stifle herugh and acted natural.
After all, she was the shortest out of everyone here and yet she was calling them midgets.
"That¡¯ll be the two over there. One¡¯s a tank and one uses an axe." Koji said while pointing towards Madison and Helion.
"Ok. You two shorties follow me. I¡¯ll take your training hall 1 ok?" Chelsea crossed her hand as Helion and Madison followed behind her. With Helion¡¯s height, he looked like a giant towering over a de of grass.
"Sure, take it easy on them." Koji chuckled.
"Looks like I got three students now." Stanley swept his gaze across Yin, Aarim and Silvia before making eye contact with Shiro.
Furrowing his brows for a moment, he opened his mouth.
"Your hair, it has changed. Your mana quality seemed to have soared beyond the human average. Have you been practising your mage craft diligently?" He asked with a small smile.
"Of course. As for my hair and mana, some things happened so I¡¯m stuck like this now." Shiro replied with a chuckle.
"Stanley, she¡¯s also been studying the de too you know? If anything, I¡¯d say she has been focusing on the de rather than magic since her experience isn¡¯t something that can be obtained offhandedly." Koji informed with a smug smile.
"Oh?" Frowning slightly, Stanley nced towards Shiro with slight traces of disappointment but sighed.
"After I train these two for a session, I want to have another teaching session with you. I want to see the current state of your magic." He shook his head.
"Sure." Shiro nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll be taking your biggest training hall." Stanley said as he walked towards the three magic users of Shiro¡¯s party.
Waving his hand, a tier 5 magic circle opened up beneath them and he teleported away with his new students.
Now that it was just the three of them, Shiro looked over at Koji.
"Did you have to be so petty dad?" Shiro sighed.
"What? He¡¯s been boating about magic all these years and yet he still struggles while fighting me." Koji shrugged.
"Ignore your dad. You know how their rivalry on which is better hadsted for quite a few years. I think the reason he started to teach you magic was to spite your dad since you wanted to learn." Mio chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, anyways, shall we go as well?" Shiro smiled.
Making their way to training hall 4, Koji prepared a few swords for them to use.
"So what am I going to be learning first?" Shiro asked while grabbing two long swords and twirled in her hands.
"What do you want to learn first? Both me and your mother can teach you something new." Koji replied with a smile.
"Hmm... I haven¡¯t sparred with mum yet. So maybe we start with that?" Shiro suggested as Mio nodded her head.
"Sure, we can do that. You can go all out darling. You don¡¯t have to worry about hurting me." Mio chuckled.
Nodding her head, Shiro was still going to hold back a little since it was her mother after all. Even if she was stronger, she still didn¡¯t want to harm her by ident.
Reaching into her inventory, Mio pulled out an abnormally thin sword which seemed like it was made from a very thin sheet of ss.
Seeing this, Shiro summoned two copies of Athera into her hands along with the remaining 5 which floated around her.
The moment her mother pulled out that sword, her aura seemed to change as cold sweat dripped from Shiro¡¯s back. It was a simr feeling to when she stood in front of the tier 6 guardian only she felt like her mother was more dangerous.
"I heard from your father that you like to use magic but there were some gaps so I¡¯d suggest sticking with pure sword techniques for now." Mio suggested as she gestured for Shiro to make the first move.
Nodding her head, Shiro narrowed her eyes and activated her Divine Raiment in order to boost up her speed. Choosing lightning as the base element, she was about to dash forward when Mio waved her hand slightly and the sword seemed to disappear from her hand.
The next thing Shiro knew, she was surrounded by a web of sword cuts that wouldsh out at her the moment she approached Mio.
Widening her eyes, she had the five copies of Athera protect her while jumping into the rift.
Opening several entrances around Mio, Shiro flickered between the openings in order to throw her off.
However, it seemed futile as a sword would always appear in front of Shiro whenever she decided to exit, forcing her to stay in the rift for longer periods of time.
¡¯Damn... Despite being a heavy offence based fighter, mum¡¯s defences are crazy.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Jumping out of the rift and forcing some distance between them, Shiro frowned and tried to think of a way to attack her.
However, no such opportunity arrived as Shiro wasn¡¯t able to exploit such gaps with her current skill level.
"Shall I attack now?" Mio asked with a small smile.
"Yes." Shiro nodded with a serious expression.
Nodding her head, Mio slowly walked towards her.
With every step that she took, her speed would increase. By the time she took the tenth step, she had already disappeared from Shiro¡¯s sight and flickered behind her.
Feeling her instincts screaming at her, Shiro bent her body to the side and tried to counter attack with her spare sword.
*CLANG!
Flicking her wrist, Mio disarmed Shiro and pointed the tip of her sword at Shiro¡¯s nose.
"My win~" Mio smiled before putting away her sword and hugged Shiro.
"Fufufu, how was it darling?" Mio asked while patting Shiro¡¯s head.
"Damn, both you and dad are crazy strong." Shiro sighed.
"Well of course. We¡¯ve spent our lives practising with the sword. Though I¡¯ve noticed something darling. Why does it seem like you¡¯re more used to the dagger or hand crossbow? Well not exactly the hand crossbow but something simr." Mio asked.
During the fight, she noticed that Shiro¡¯s movements with the sword seemed to have been adapted from some other fighting style which worked with different weapons.
"Mn? How do you know?" Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Well yourst move gave it away. Normally in that situation, you would want to use your sword to block rather than counterattack since you wouldn¡¯t be able to generate enough force to harm the opponent. Second, there¡¯s a chance that they can disarm you with them being so close to the handle and guard of your sword. Unless you¡¯re using a poison dart hand crossbow and wanted to shoot them from up close, you wouldn¡¯t usually use that move but you used it instinctively. Meaning, you are used to using the hand crossbow or something simr." Mio exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yeah. I¡¯m used to a different weapon. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re familiar with the rumours of a gun being able to kill high level monsters and adventurers right? Well I¡¯m the source of those rumours." Shiro replied as nanobots surged around her hand and formed a hand cannon.
Chapter 635 Mios Sword Skill
Chapter 635 Mio''s Sword Skill
"Oh my." Widening her eyes in surprise, Mio was shocked to find out that Shiro was actually the owner of the guns that had been discussed quite a few times. It was something that the frontlines desperately wanted so that even those who were lower level could impact arge scale battle.
After all, one could see how easily it killed high level adventurers in Miriel when Shiro first showed them to the world.
"You¡¯re the rogue assassin?" Mio asked.
"Urg, I don¡¯t like that nickname but yes. I¡¯m the one with these guns. If you look at my proper ss, you can see that it¡¯s called Divine Sylph Nanomancer. The Nanomancer part of my ss is what allows me to conjure up guns that can help me kill monsters." Shiro exined while handing her hand cannon to Mio.
"What is a Nanomancer?" Mio asked while taking a closer look at the gun.
"Just a mage that primarily uses nanobots to fight. Nanobots can be used to craft a multitude of things as long as you have a detailed blueprint. Essentially, it¡¯s a Pyromancers but with tiny robots." Shiro exined.
"Goodness. You¡¯ll need to be careful then. The government is keeping an eye out for the guns. If you let them know that you¡¯re the owner, it¡¯ll be troublesome since at this point, everyone in the world wants it." Mio furrowed her brows before handing it back to Shiro.
"Don¡¯t worry mum, I know." Shiro smiled.
"So since you¡¯re used to guns, why don¡¯t we spar again but you with your preferred weapon." Mio suggested as Shiro shook her head.
"No, because my guns are packed with armour pration and magic pration. I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯ll destroy this ce and harm you if a bullet hits you." Shiro frowned.
"How about this. If you¡¯re worried about mum, I¡¯ll equip my best armour and activate my skills so that I can protect myself." Mio smiled.
"Plus, if I see your main fighting style, I can give you better tips no?"
Furrowing her brows, Shiro had a different idea.
"What if we do it in the digital world. That way we don¡¯t harm the area around us nor do I harm you." She suggested.
"That could work. We do have a simtor in the house but I don¡¯t think it can reproduce guns like yours darling." Mio frowned.
"I can make my own, don¡¯t worry."
Pressing her palm against the floor, three simtors started to construct themselves.
"Well isn¡¯t that handy." Koji remarked as Shiro smiled.
"It is handy but this ss is pretty useless without the blueprints you know? One needs to have an in-depth understanding of what they want to make in order to create it sessfully." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, I suppose that is the drawback of the ss." Koji nodded.
After all, despite how powerful it may seem, unless you have the right resources, the ss could be useless.
Entering the simtors, the family of three found themselves in the centre of a Colosseum.
???Right then, you should have most if not all your skills mum. I¡¯ll probably limit the usage of my skills since I want to rely on my fundamental techniques rather than skills." Shiro smiled, summoning a hand cannon and a dagger.
"Ok, we can start whenever you want." Mio smiled.
Nodding her head, Shiro took a deep breath as her aurapletely changed.
Since this was a simtion, it means that she could attack without the worry or harming her mum.
mming her hand down, nanobots started to spread through the colosseum like a spider web as Shiro threw her dagger towards Mio.
*ng
Parrying the dagger with ease, Mio raised her eyebrow but smiled when she watched as Shiro¡¯s body flicker away.
Raising her sword behind her, she flicked her wrist and shed towards Shiro¡¯s dagger since she had seen many assassins do the same.
Surprisingly, her sword missed Shiro as she wasn¡¯t there.
¡¯Oh my.¡¯ Mio thought with mild surprise but kept her guard up.
Feeling danger about her, Mio quickly looked up to see a barrage of bullets.
Crouching down slightly, she took a deep breath and shed towards the bullets with her sword.
Dancing through the hail of bullets, Mio managed to dodge most of them. The ones that dide into contact were only able to cause a scratch.
Seeing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but marvel at her mother¡¯s eyesight and reactions to be able to dodge such a barrage.
However, despite her amazement, she didn¡¯t waste any time.
Snapping her fingers, gun barrels formed from the web that she had set out previously.
*BANG!!!!
Firing another barrage, Shiro took this moment to construct a tier 5 magic circle and had a sniper set up so that it would fire a powerful shot towards Mio.
However, before her sniper could have a chance to fire, Mio was already in front of Shiro and had shed the sniper in half.
"Tsk." Clicking her tongue, Shiro flipped her body back and raised her hand cannon towards Mio.
Sensing danger, she quickly morphed the hand cannon into a dagger and parried Mio¡¯s de just in time.
"So you can switch between weapons quickly, good to know." Mio smiled, surprised by her daughter¡¯s mastery over her own ss.
"You have to be able to do this much if you want to survive the sh*t I¡¯ve been through." Shiroughed.
Twisting her body, she kicked towards Mio.
Blocking the kick, Mio was surprised to see a gun barrel appear on the heel of Shiro¡¯s boot as she quickly backed off and dodged the bullet just in time.
Without hesitation, Shiro dashed towards Mio and threw her dagger.
Connecting a nanotech wire around the dagger, Shiro swiped her hand and had it wrap around Mio¡¯s body before sending lightning through the wire.
Snapping her fingers, spikes started to appear on the wires as Shiro conjured up an army of guns which floated around her.
Commanding them all to fire in tandem towards Mio, Shiro narrowed her eyes and used this chance to construct arge scale magic circle, if she was given enough time, she MIGHT be able to construct a tier 6 magic circle but it depended on what she wanted to do.
However, hearing the sound of bullets being shed apart, Shiro knew that this barrage did nothing to her mother.
Shaking her head, she gave up on the tier 5 magic circle since continuing would mean that she exposed herself to danger.
Charging towards the centre, she halted the barrage and appeared before Mio.
Twisting her body, she wrapped her legs around Mio¡¯s neck before throwing her body back down towards the ground. While Mio was falling towards the ground, Shiro summoned her hand cannons and fired towards her.
*BANG!
Crashing against the ground, Mio¡¯s body dispersed into mist before reappearing next to Shiro.
But despite seeing her mother about to sh towards her from the right hand side, Shiro felt a slight tingle of danger to her left and decided to trust her instincts.
Firing her hand cannon towards her left, she watched as the figure of her mother appeared. She had barely blocked the bullet that would have pierced her throat.
"Close but not quite." Mio chuckled.
Confused, Shiro furrowed her brows as she felt a sword pierce her shoulder.
ncing behind her, the ¡¯Mio¡¯ that she had ignored was still there with a smile.
*Sigh
"It¡¯s my loss." Shiro sighed, understanding that if this was a real fight, her mother could have taken off her head with that move.
"It wasn¡¯t a bad attempt you know? I may or may not have cheated a little since I chose my best skills." Mio chuckled.
"What do you mean?" Shiro tilted her head.
"Sword Skill ¨C Absolute Defence. As long as I can see and act against an attack, I can block it instinctively. This works especially well with barrages since it synergises with my sword domain. The only downside to this was that it drains a lot of stamina but I have a lot of stamina replenishing skills." Mio smiled as Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"What the hell? Isn¡¯t that skill a little broken?" Shiro asked.
{¡ê&^%¡ê$&^¡ê!!! YOU CAN¡¯T SAY SH*T ABOUT BROKEN SKILLS!"} Nimue retorted instantly as she wanted to uproot one of the inds and throw it across Shiro¡¯s mana realm.
"Well the steps I had to go through to get this skill was quite tough you know? Plus, it doesn¡¯t work too well against hidden attacks. If I can¡¯t sense it, then my skill wouldn¡¯t work." Mio exined.
"However, your mother does have a second skill which allows her to fend off against hidden attacks from assassins. In a way, it¡¯s simr to future sight. Despite the intensity of your attack, there were a few close calls since there is still a limit to how your mother can react. But with her second skill, she can peer slightly into the future and path out the best way to move so that she can dodge the attacks. There is a gap between each cast hence when some of your bullets managed to graze her during the barrages." Koji exined as Mio red back at her husband exposing her like this.
Hearing Koji¡¯s exnation, Shiro had a strange sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu as she had done the same with Silvia when exining how Grace worked.
"Anyways, ignoring your father, I think I have the perfect training n for you." Mio grinned.
Chapter 636 Dagger of Divine Insight
Chapter 636 Dagger of Divine Insight
For the first session, both Mio and Koji focused on improving Shiro¡¯s handling with the sword, such as what she should or should not do in certain situations. Its strengths and little tricks when ites to fighting against her opponents.
One of the tricks is to use the extended hilt of her sword to block if her reactions were urate since it opens up opponents for a downward cleave should she perform it correctly.
However, the sess rate of this was low if one couldn¡¯t urately see where the enemy¡¯s sword was striking. But for Shiro, it didn¡¯t take too long to learn and both Mio and Koji were surprised by her learning speed.
Practising the technique for a little longer, the three of them exited the digital world as they had spent hours inside.
"I¡¯ll go look for little Yin since it¡¯s almost time for dinner." Mio smiled as Shiro nodded.
"I¡¯lle with you since I need to look for teach. After all, he wanted another teaching session with me.??? Shiro said while giving her body a stretch. Staying inside the simtors for long periods of time does make her body a little stiff.
Making their way towards thergest training hall in thepound, Shiro could already feel therge amounts of mana being radiated by her previous teacher and knew that Aarim, Silvia and Yin must be having the time of their lives.
Remembering that Yin had been rather mischievous recently, Shiro had a grin on her face as she turned to Mio.
"Why don¡¯t we wait a little longer. Teach seems to be on the most important step of the lesson." Shiro suggested with a small chuckle.
"Hmm.... Maybe. I¡¯ll go set up some ingredients for when they finish then." Mio tilted her head before nodding.
However, just as she said this, a portal opened up and Stanley walked through.
"No need. I¡¯ve just finished now. Their control is prettycking except for Aarim but overall they¡¯re above average." Stanley said before looking at Shiro who was a little annoyed but shrugged it off.
"So where are they?" Shiro asked as she couldn¡¯t sense them in the training hall anymore.
"I¡¯ve already sent them back to their rooms. They¡¯re pretty tired so they¡¯re resting up now. Setting them aside,e with me. We¡¯re going to have our lesson now." Stanley said as a portal opened up in front of them.
"Good luck darling." Mio waved her hand with a smile.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro stepped through the portal.
Once the light faded away, she noticed that they were not in the training hall but rather on top of a snowy mountain.
"Where are we?" Shiro asked.
Looking around her, she could see clouds stretching to the horizon as the top of the mountain seemed to be cut off from the rest of the world.
"This ce has no name. I came across this during one of my journeys and noticed the mana density in this ce is higher than any ce I¡¯ve seen. The clouds that you see are in fact highly condensed clumps of mana." Stanley replied.
"Well damn. That¡¯s a lot of mana isn¡¯t it? In terms of location on the map, where abouts are we?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Far into the uncharted territory. If I had to exin the rough location then probably something along the lines of the extreme north." Stanley replied.
"Anyways, our lesson will begin here."
"Ok, what are we going to do?" Shiro asked while memorising this scenery since it was rather impressive.
"It¡¯s a simple test, I want you to break through one of my spells with your own and I¡¯ll measure your achievements ording to what I see. I¡¯ll think of your training after you do so." Stanley said with a smile.
"Sure thing, Teach." Shiro nodded with a grin and cracked her neck.
Seeing that Shiro was ready, Stanley raised his hands as runes started to swirl around him.
Absorbing the ambient mana from the clouds that surround them, the runes seemed to glow with purple hue as they formed theyers which represented the tier of the spell.
Tier 1... Tier 2... Tier 3...
This continued until tier 5. However, to Shiro¡¯s surprise, the runes didn¡¯t stop there.
Flicking for a slight moment, the runes seemed to conjure up theirst ounce of strength and theyer was formed.
Tier 6.
Looking at her old teacher with shock, Shiro was surprised that he had achieved tier 6 magic. Even though it was going to bemon in the new age, for someone to achieve it now was still impressive.
"I came across tier 6 magic in my journey and despite my experiences with this, it seems like it¡¯s still rather difficult to conjure up quickly unlike my other spells. The main goal for the lesson between us is for me to pass on this knowledge to you." Stanley said as his face seemed a little strained.
"Now try your best to break through this and I¡¯ll begin the lesson."
Seeing her teacher¡¯s earnest face, Shiro felt a little awkward since she had already achieved tier 6 and could conjure it up rather quickly as long as it was something to do with her Nanomancer ss. She was still struggling on the elemental ones but since she had experience with tier 6 already, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard for her to achieve the same effect.
"Erm... Teach?" Shiro called out hesitantly.
"Mn? What is it?"
"I... may or may not have alsoe across tier 6 magic in my journey around the world. I can¡¯t form it properly yet but I had some old records on it." Shiro said as she crafted an old book with some of her knowledge on tier 6 magic with nanobots. Making sure that they emanate the same feeling of old paper, she handed it over to her teacher.
Flipping through the book carefully, Stanley read the details with an amazed expression.
After a short moment, he sighed and shook his head.
"How embarrassing. I wanted to teach you about this but it seems like you¡¯ve obtained more information than I have. Can I borrow this for a little while so that I can study it?" Stanley asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Of course. You can use it as long as you want." Shiro nodded with a smile.
After all, this was her teacher who had taught her when she was young.
"Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t take it forever. As payment, I¡¯ll give you this item." Stanley said as he reached out into his inventory.
"Ah no need. Think of it as payment for the past instead." Shiro said but Stanley shook his head.
"I was nning to give this to your father but since you are studying the de, you might as well have it. Here, I¡¯m not a fan of des but this should help you out." Stanley smiled handing her a small crystal dagger.
[Dagger of Divine Insight - Rainbow]
This dagger will transport the user to a divine space, allowing them to study the techniques used by gods who wielded the sword. The user is guaranteed to obtain one skill/technique.
Looking at the dagger with shock, Shiro couldn¡¯t believe that he just handed her a Rainbow grade item. After all, this was the stuff of legends that she hadn¡¯t even seen in her past life.
Plus, this could guarantee a skill which meant that Stanley could use it to protect himself better.
"But I-"
"It¡¯s fine. The value of knowledge on tier 6 magic far out weights the value of this dagger in my eyes." Stanley chuckled.
"Now, strike at my spell so that I may see your prowess."
Looking at the dagger once more, Shiro nodded and stored it away in the inventory.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled out her bow that she had not used in a long time.
Making some distance between them, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Be careful Teach!" Shiro warned, drawing back her bow string.
Activating her Encroaching Darkness skill, her Sigil of Night¡¯s passive skill was activated, doubling her stats as long as it is night.
Firing the first arrow into the air, Shiro snapped her finger and opened up a giant portal.
Looking up with mild surprise, Stanley could sense a huge amount of mana being gathered towards Shiro¡¯s bow as stars shimmered in the sky.
Stacking her skills together, Shiro activated her Force of Elements and morphed it into the shape of an arrow and notched it on her bow.
With her Skill Schr activated, she could understand her skills and control them to match her needs. This meant that her next arrow was a culmination of her entire stat board. After all, she wanted to show her teacher how much she¡¯s improved since they¡¯vest met.
Feeling the pressure that was being emitted by Shiro¡¯s arrow the longer she charged it, Stanley looked at her with disbelief.
The fusion of elements in the arrow, the control of mana, the efficiency of her skills along with the densely packed runes that he could see increasing the power of her next attack.
"You are indeed the best student I¡¯ve ever had." Stanley muttered with a soft smile and watched as Shiro fired her arrow.
Chapter 637 First Week of Training
Chapter 637 First Week of Training
Watching the arrow crash against his tier 6 spell, Stanley was shocked by the power it had contained but he wasn¡¯t too worried.
Snapping his fingers, he started to edit his magic circle while it was under barrage.
After a very short pause, he smiled.
*PING!!
Shattering into dust, the partials reformed themselves into a different magic circle and sent the attack high into the sky.
Seeing this, Shiro had a look of disbelief on her face.
"Wait how????" Shiro asked.
To her knowledge, editing a magic circle while it was under attack was impossible. That was because the moment the integrity of the spell was broken, the attack would pierce it like nothing and strike towards the caster. The fact that her teacher had changed his spell during the activation was pure insanity.
"I would say that it¡¯s simple but it¡¯s really not. There is a risk to this technique but if you can master it, it¡¯ll allow you to adapt your spell to whatever your enemy is trying to do. My initial spell was to block the best shot you could fire but since it exceeded my calctions, my next best option was to just redirect the spell away from me. If it was within my calctions, I wouldn¡¯t need to change it.
"In abat situation, if my spell could handle the attack with ease, you can then use this technique to instantlyunch a counter attack. But since you¡¯re practicing with the sword now, I suppose you can just charge in while they¡¯re stunned. Remember, use this as ast resort since it could backfire if you don¡¯t urately judge the power of their attack. So tell me, why does this work? If you can urately figure out how this is done, I¡¯ll give you another reward." Stanley smiled.
"Hmm..."
Furrowing her brows, Shiro closed her eyes and remembered the activation of Stanley¡¯s magic circle.
Checking through each of the tiers, Shiro couldn¡¯t find anything off about it. However, when the 6th tier appeared, she finally noticed a pattern which stretched across all 6yers.
"You snuck in a second magic circle in the different tieryers. I don¡¯t know what kind of spell it is but from what I can see right now, it¡¯s one that analyses the power of the attack right?" Shiro asked as Stanley smiled and nodded his head.
"Yes you are correct. I did indeed sneak a second magic circle into the tieryers so that it may assist me with calcting how powerful an attack is. After all, one may try to trick you by hindering your senses which causes you to misjudge. But if there is a hidden spell circle doing the same job, it limits the errors that could ur." Stanley exined.
"And as for your reward-"
"I don¡¯t need one. Can you teach me how to do what you did? Because from what I know, it should be impossible to aplish but since I¡¯ve witnessed it with my own eyes, I now know that it¡¯s possible." Shiro shook her head.
"Ah? I was nning to teach you this regardless. Are you sure you don¡¯t want a reward?" Stanley titled his head.
"Mn, I¡¯m sure. Plus, I¡¯ve already received this Rainbow grade item from you so I¡¯m satisfied." Shiro grinned as Stanley sighed softly before nodding with a smile.
"I¡¯ll only show you the fundamentals today since it¡¯s getting prettyte. We¡¯ll continue this tomorrow at the same time."
"Are you sure? Isn¡¯t it tiring to teach for the entire day?" Shiro asked with slight concern since he was also teaching Aarim, Silvia and Yin.
"Don¡¯t worry about your teacher. I can handle it. But I must say, I was rather surprised to see that you have a sibling. Your father had never told me about her." Stanley patted Shiro¡¯s hair with a chuckle.
"She¡¯s not my sibling, she¡¯s my daughter." Shiro corrected him.
"Eh? She¡¯s quite old to be your daughter isn¡¯t she? When did you even have her?" Stanley asked with confusion.
"She¡¯s a special case. I say she¡¯s my daughter but that¡¯s because we are indeed rted by blood. You see, before she was born, I made a blood contract with her while she was an egg. Yin is actually a phoenix and she¡¯s not even a year old yet." Shiro exined as Stanley blinked to make sure he wasn¡¯t in an illusion before furrowing his brows.
"She¡¯s not even a year old yet?" He asked.
"Yup." Shiro nodded.
¡¯And to be fair, neither am I.¡¯
{Imagine a god who hasn¡¯t even been born for a year.} Nimueughed.
¡¯Mn, wouldn¡¯t that be interesting. Though I doubt I can be a god before my birthday.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{You never know. Though if it did happen, poor Madi is gonna cry.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯True.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
Focusing back on her teacher, she saw that he was in deep thought before sighing.
"No wonder her mana felt different to normal people. It was because she¡¯s a phoenix. What about you then? Your mana is rather... unique." Stanley asked as Shiro only shrugged.
"Things happened and my ss has changed. It¡¯s still magic based so you don¡¯t have to worry." Shiro replied as Stanley nodded his head.
"Anyways, let¡¯s begin our lessons on the fundamentals of this spell."
###
For the next week, Shiro¡¯s training consisted of trying to achieve a simr technique as to Mio¡¯s Absolute Defence and to do so, both Koji and Mio would attack Shiro simultaneously in the simtion from all angles.
To make sure that this worked properly, she was not allowed to use any skills or speed enhancing tools. She had to clear it with her base stats only along with a single de.
In addition to this, she had to also improve on handling her weapon better so that it would not be as easily disarmed.
Naturally, the training was harsh especially since it was her parents training her. With the knowledge that this was the digital world, they didn¡¯t need to worry about truly harming Shiro.
After a round of training with her parents, there was also Stanley¡¯s training in the mysterious mountains.
Thankfully, due to her strong mental fortitude and the help of the passive from Rejuvenation EX, she was able toplete everything without too many problems.
HOWEVER, the same could not be said for the rest of the party. Especially for Chen Yu as he always returned to Silvia in a wounded state.
While the party was taking a break from the first week of training, the teachers sat around a conference table to discuss their improvements.
"So how is Chen Yu? I¡¯ve seen his state and it looks like you¡¯ve done quite a number on him." Koji asked as Fin onlyughed.
"What can I say? I like the kid, he¡¯s got potential and drive. Assassins die quickly if a mistake is made. I have to keep him near death and get him used to the feeling. That way, he knows when to leave if sh*t get¡¯s real. His girl is a healer so she can help him if things get out of hand." Fin replied.
"Try not to let it get TOO out of hand." Koji shook his head.
"What about you Lin? How are the girls on your side?"
"They¡¯re fine. The girl called Lisandra has an abnormally high affinity for the Light Element so her sword arts are highly aggressive while Lyrica has adaptability. I can probably get them to front line level by the end of the three weeks since both girls are very talented. The only thing they willck by the end of this training will be levels." Lin replied.
"Since you talked that much about them, you must like them quite a bit too huh?" Koji smiled as Lin preferred action over talking. Since she talked this much about the girls, it means that she had properly epted them as her students.
"They¡¯re focused and they want to learn. They¡¯re eager but know how to be patient." Lin replied before gesturing that she won¡¯t speak any more.
"How about you Chelsea?"
"Before I say anything, can you tell me why the girl has a demon ss?" Chelsea frowned as her family was killed by the demons when she was stuck in the demon continent.
"Special circ.u.mstances but I can assure you that she¡¯s friendly."
"She better be." Chelsea narrowed her eyes.
"But setting that aside, how are they?" Koji asked.
"They¡¯re good." Chelsea replied simply before closing her eyes, showing that she didn¡¯t want to speak more about this.
Shaking his head, Koji looked towards Stanley.
"They¡¯re doing ok. Just let me do my thing and I¡¯ll get them up to standard since they¡¯re willing to learn. Also, try not to tire out Shiro during your training or else she won¡¯t be able to focus as well during mine." Stanley sighed.
"It¡¯s either that or you can stop your lessons and stop kidnapping my daughter to a mountain in god knows where." Koji retorted with a twitching smile.
"Does your mansion look like it can provide enough mana for me and her to practice with? The mountain is a holynd for mages. There¡¯s no way I¡¯m going to give up the chance of letting Shiro receive the benefits of staying in such a mana rich ce." Stanley frowned.
Seeing that the two were about to argue once more, Lin, Fin and Chelsea decided to leave the room and let them argue it out.
Chapter 638 Astral Horizons
Chapter 638 Astral Horizons
During the second week of training, Shiro started to show signs of achieving the lowest level of Mio¡¯s Absolute Defence. Even though she couldn¡¯t block everything, she could now find one or two gaps to counter during Mio and Koji¡¯s barrage of sword attacks.
In addition to this, thanks to Koji¡¯s training, it was now harder to divest Shiro of her sword and even if they did, she could summon a new one straight away. Rather than using all the copies of Athera straight away, she¡¯ll keep one just in case she¡¯s disarmed so that she could rearm herself quickly.
As for the one that was knocked away, she would unsummon it so that she could act as a spare. That way, she could always make sure that there is a sword in her hand.
There was a point that Mio brought up during their training which caused Shiro to wonder about the possibilities of her sword with her ss and that was, can she change the structure of Athera.
Since her sword had the properties of Element Shift and she also had the Nanotech attunement which was tier 6, there was the chance that she could convert her sword into a gun while maintaining the stats. This means that she could take people by surprise when the sword grows a barrel and shoots them in the face.
With this knowledge, Shiro decided to do somete night training so that she could make use of this. So far, the biggest sess that she had was converting Athera into different forms of des. There was still some difficulty with shifting the de into a gun as it would shatter apart the moment she tried but Shiro understood that the cause of failure was her control.
As for her magical training, Stanley was surprised when she revealed her crazy INT stat but became a little annoyed when she couldn¡¯t make the most out of it. Watching her cast a few spells, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh when he saw the amount of strain that she was putting on her links with each cast. It was akin to thrusting arge chunk of tissue down a small pipe and Nimue was the plumber who made sure it never got stuck.
In other words, if not for Nimue, half of her casts would be impossible to pull off.
Therefore, their training also consisted of making sure Shiro didn¡¯t explode her links once more by forcing mana through the links. Kuromi never had this problem as her mana and skills weren¡¯t as insane as Shiro¡¯s.
The only reason that this is even a problem is due to the nature of Shiro¡¯s skills. They were percentile based.
If a spell takes 50% of her mana to cast, it means that she is thrusting a minimum of 700 million points worth of mana through her mana links.
Hearing her teacher¡¯s evaluation of her situation, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched as she was essentially ying a roulette of who could kill her the fastest.
However, if it was just Nimue, she would still have trouble surviving the surge of mana which is where her monster skill came in. Rejuvenation EX¡¯s passive put her in a constant state of incredible healing which helps relieve the stress her links were feeling.
In the end, despite her powerful output, Shiro was actually quite weak if one thinks in terms of efficiency. If she could study the correct casting techniques along with making sure she makes the most out of her 1.5 billion points of mana, then she could truly shine as an outstanding mage.
After breaking this news to her party, they were speechless knowing that Shiro had so much room for improvement. Both in magic and swords.
As for her parents, Mio was overjoyed as this meant that Shiro could be much much stronger. In the future, when the new age arrives, there was a higher chance Shiro could protect herself from danger.
During these two weeks, Shiro had stopped herself from using the dagger since she wanted to see what shecked after the training. That way, she could make the most out of it. For example, if she could not learn Absolute Domainpletely, she could use the dagger to find a better defensive skill that suited her.
Naturally, she was not the only one to have benefitted from the training.
Under Lin¡¯s guidance, Lisandra had developed a new sword style which takes advantage of her insane affinity with Light magic. The new style was focused around versatility along with pure offensive power. Her light could either blind her enemies or increase her speed which allows her to dance around her opponents while they struggle to hit her.
On the other hand, Lyrica developed a defensive stance since she is a highly adaptive fighter. She called the technique All Guard. It was a neutral stance which allowed her to adapt to the fight depending on her opponent¡¯s movements before switching to a more aggressive stance. It was perfect for when she doesn¡¯t know her opponent¡¯s skill set.
Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t as effective againstrge monsters so Lin conducted a few extra sessions after the lessons had ended to help her in that regard. The result of which is a branch technique that was simr to how her Phantom Path worked. This branch technique was specifically designed for Lyrica to fight againstrger opponents and they decided to call it All Guard Form 2.
Chen Yu managed to improve his overall skill set such as stealth and scouting. However, he managed to surprise everyone when he discovered an S ranked technique which the system registered into his skill set.
[Reaper¡¯s Hand]
You increase your understanding of the enemy¡¯s anatomy with every attack yound. Once you reach a certain point of understanding, your next attack will gain a 400% boost in attack and guarantee a critical strike and ignores 90% of all forms of defence.
Your understanding increases faster the longer you keep in contact with your enemy.
Chen Yu¡¯s acquisition of this skill caused Fin to suggest epting Chen Yu as his personal student and take him away for a longer period of time so that he can train him more.
Unfortunately, since they were going to go to Mount Olympus in a week, Chen Yu had to disagree but Fin didn¡¯t mind. Instead, he was going to cramp as much as he could into this week.
The expression that he had while saying this made Chen Yu fear for his life but Silvia only gave him a loving smile, ¡¯reassuring¡¯ him that even if he dies, she can bring him back.
The remaining party members received an overall boost to their skill set but Helion and Madison seemed a little stuck. That was because Madison wasn¡¯t too good at being an offensive tank while Helion¡¯s defence wascking. This caused Chelsea some annoyance but Koji wasn¡¯t worried. After all, she gave him her word that she¡¯ll bring them up to standard even if she has to pay a visit to Hades himself and get him to help.
After thatst meeting, Chelsea dragged them away to a different ce to continue their training and they haven¡¯t been seen since.
With this being the final week of training, the teachers wanted to make sure they learned as much as they could so the training was especially hard but the party powered on.
###
"Fuu....." Breathing out roughly, Shiro was out of breath whileying on her back.
Today was the final day of the three weeks training and during this time she had improved massively. At the start, she struggled to keep up with her parents but now, she could counter andnd a few hits back which was apparently very impressive ording to Stanley since they had the level advantage which boosts up their perception.
As for her magical training, she had finally fixed her issue with thrustingrge amounts of mana through her veins and the result was that she could now multicastrge spells at the same time. This wasn¡¯t the same as the hundreds of small spells she could do but rather 100 Wrath of Stars at once. The only problem with this is that she had to make sure she regted her mana properly during this or else all the magic circles would shatter and cancel itself out.
Otherwise, she could finally be called a proper mage in Stanley¡¯s eyes.
"Are you going to use the dagger now? You¡¯ve finished your parent¡¯s training haven¡¯t you?" Stanley asked as he was sitting down on a boulder with sweat dripping off his face.
"Mn, I just need to take a moment to get my breath back." Shiro replied with a soft chuckle.
Looking at the orange sky that had tints of purple, Shiro had a small smile on her face since the short moments after training were quite rxing. Cold winds brushed against her while the sea of mana drifted around them.
"After three weeks, we still haven¡¯t named this ce yet have we?" Shiro reminded.
"Mn, what should it be called?" Stanley asked as this wasn¡¯t really a priority for him. All he knew about this ce was that it was a perfect location for a mage¡¯s training.
"Hm... Why don¡¯t we call this ce Astral Horizons? After all, the stars cause the clouds of mana to shimmer with a soft light at night." Shiro suggested with a grin.
Chapter 639 Teleport Scroll
Chapter 639 Teleport Scroll
After resting for a little bit, Shiro decided to leave some nanobots in this location so that she coulde back to this ce whenever she wanted but there was a slight problem about that thought. With the sheer amount of ambient mana around this ce, the nanobots would go out of control if she wasn¡¯t here to regte them every day.
Who knows, the next time shees back to this ce the nanobots might have already consumed the mountain.
"Teach, is there a way for me toe back to this ce? It would be a waste to leave here forever." Shiro asked as Stanley nodded.
"If you want, I can make you a few teleport scrolls to this location." Stanley suggested.
"Wait, you can do that?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course I can. I teleport all the time. It¡¯s only natural that I would have figured out how to make these scrolls somewhere down the line." Stanley shrugged as he brought out a few pieces of old parchment and started to enchant them with tier 5 magic.
Watching him make the teleport scrolls, Shiro made sure that she remembered everything that he was doing. After all, it would be handy if she could do it too. That way her friends could teleport to a specific location should they ever get lost or get stuck in a ce.
However, during this, Shiro noticed a strange magic circle within the enchantment.
"Teach, what¡¯s that magic circle? It¡¯s nothing like anything I¡¯ve seen before." Shiro asked as it was filled with unfamiliar runes.
"Oh this? It¡¯s something that can help you ignore spacial locks. They¡¯re the bane of teleportation users. I found this during one of my journeys and apparently it was used by a demi-god to avoid the cages set by gods. So far, it¡¯s been working quite nicely and I haven¡¯t ran into any trouble when people lock the space around me." Stanley replied with a soft chuckle.
"Oh? Do you think I can use it as well then? My Rift Strider is a form of teleport I suppose so the moment they lock the space, one of my main skills will be blocked." Shiro asked as Stanley nodded.
"Of course. Everything should be recorded in this book."
Reaching into his inventory, Stanley gave Shiro a delicate book with no title.
Flipping through the pages with care, she made sure to remember everything.
"If you read through it, you should receive a system notification saying that you¡¯ve discovered lost runes and the option to use a new set of runes to create your magic circles should appear."
"Eh? You do?" Shiro raised her eyebrows since her system didn¡¯t respond at all.
"Hmm... that¡¯s strange. Perhaps it¡¯s a unique skill." Stanley frowned.
"It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll think of new ways to achieve the same effect eventually." Shiro shrugged.
After creating several teleportation scrolls for this ce, Stanley handed them to Shiro.
"These should work even without the Ignore Spacial Lock function so if you study them in your spare time, you should be able to recreate them with ease." He smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you. Shall we go back now? Today¡¯s the final day of training isn¡¯t it?"
"Mn. Three weeks is such a short time." Stanley sighed as he wished he could stay with Shiro more so that he could teach her everything he knew.
"Don¡¯t worry though. We¡¯ll probablye back for a little bit after the God Trials." Shiro grinned as Stanley smiled.
"Let¡¯s head back now."
Opening a portal, Stanley gestured for Shiro to walk through.
Turning around to give Astral Horizons onest nce, Shiro stepped through the portal.
After returning to the mansion, she saw that Helion and Madison hadn¡¯t returned yet and decided to take this time to use her Dagger of Divine Insight.
Seeing as though it was just choosing one technique and that it shouldn¡¯t take too long, she told the party that she¡¯ll be right back.
Walking to one of the training halls, she pulled the dagger out of her inventory and wondered how she should use the item.
All it said was that the dagger will teleport the user into a divine space which allows them to study the techniques used by the gods.
Thinking about how she used most items, Shiro decided to inject her mana into the dagger.
However, the moment she did this, she felt a tug on her consciousness and knew what wasing next.
"Whoever makes these items really needs to stop knocking me out." Sheined before copsing on the ground.
###
Looking at the myriad of doors with a neutral expression, Shiro sighed before ncing towards her system.
[You have discovered the Divine Sword Space. Here you can study a myriad of sword skills. You have to first answer questions by stepping through the doors. Once you have answered all the questions, the right sword skills will appear for you to study.]
"Hm, seems interesting." Shiro muttered.
Walking up to the first set of doors, she saw a row of words light up in the sky.
[In a fight, do you take the initiative or wait for them to react?]
Looking to her left, she could see the door with the words initiative while the door on the right had the word reactive.
Naturally, she was one to initiate the fight so she immediately stepped through the initiative door.
Just as she stepped through the door, she saw a dummy with a sword on the other side of the room as her system flickered once more.
[Defeat the dummy.]
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro summoned two copies of Athera into her hand and wrapped herself with lightning.
Using the Takemikazuchi technique, her body flickered out of sigh and appeared before the dummy.
Twisting her body, she swung towards his head.
*CLANG!
Surprised by the fact that her sword was blocked just in the nick of time, Shiro quickly calmed herself and remembered all her training with her parents.
Using her spare sword to lock against the dummy¡¯s sword, she used this chance to push his guard down and kneed him in the face.
Watching the dummy stumble back, she was about to continue when he stomped down andunched himself towards her.
Narrowing her eyes, she raised her arm and parried his de before flinging the sword out of his hand. Letting go of her spare sword, she grabbed him by the head and stabbed her sword upwards.
With Athera firmly embedded into the dummy¡¯s head, Shiro watched as it crumbled to the ground and was turned to ash.
"That was easy." She muttered.
However, her talk was cut short when another dummy appeared and instantlyshed out towards her.
Quickly parrying his de with the handle of her sword, Shiro pushed his sword away and cleaved down with Athera while he had no guard.
Cutting the dummy in two, Shiro clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"You said defeat the dummy not ¡¯dummies¡¯. It ain¡¯t f*cking plural so why is there two of these f*ckers." Shiroined as more doors appeared in front of her.
Going through each of these doors wasn¡¯t too difficult with what she¡¯s learnt over the course of the three weeks. If not for her parents¡¯ training, she might have had some difficulty as she realised that she could only use the basic elements and just her sword. Simr to what happened in Athera¡¯s first inner world, she was limited in the things that she could use.
Cracking her neck, she destroyed another dummy and walked up to the next door.
[Do you wish to be the strongest swordswoman?]
"Oh? The strongest swordswoman?" Shiro raised her eyebrows as this was a rather interesting question.
After all, she had never thought of bing the best swordswoman but rather the best in general. If she was the strongest in the world, she wouldn¡¯t have to give a crap about gods and the system taking away what she loved. Even though Kuromi was herself, she was still her older sister whom she treasured.
If she was the strongest at the moment in time, she could stop the system from taking her away.
Should she only be the strongest swordswoman, it limits the other options such as strongest mage and such.
Call her greedy but she wanted to be the best in everything.
Just as she thought of this, a third door appeared in front of her.
Raising her eyebrows, she read the text on the door and couldn¡¯t help butugh.
[I want to be the best at everything.]
Shaking her head, she pushed this door open and stepped through without hesitation.
Walking through the door, she found herself in the middle of the sea. There seemed to be an invisible barrier preventing her from falling down as clear blue skies and white clouds could be seen above her.
Standing in the middle of all this was a young man wearing a few pieces of armour over his clothes.
"You are quite the greedy person aren¡¯t you?" The man asked with aplicated expression.
He didn¡¯t expect the trial that he created to generate a third option for this girl. In all his time of being here and watching people use his item to get a sword skill, this phenomenon had never happened.
"What can I say? I¡¯m a needy woman."
Chapter 640 Item Master
Chapter 640 Item Master
Looking at the man, Shiro was rather surprised to see that he also had white hair and red eyes much like her.
"Care to give me your name?" She asked with a chuckle.
"Hm... It¡¯s been quite a long time since anyone has asked me for my name. But I suppose you can just call me Seig." Seig smiled as he snapped his fingers.
Two chairs appeared in the empty space.
Sitting down on one of them, Seig gestured for Shiro to sit down as well.
"Thank you. So care to tell me what kind of skill I¡¯ll get?" Shiro asked while crossing her legs.
"What kind of skill do you want? Or rather, what kind of skill do you think will make you the strongest in the world? You don¡¯t want to be the strongest swordswoman but rather the strongest in general. That means transcending your system as it currently governs everything that happens." Seig replied.
"Since you seem to be the owner of this ce, why don¡¯t you tell me the best skill that you have?"
??There is no ¡¯best¡¯ skill per say. Only the best execution of a skill. While there is arge difference between low level skills, high level ones require the user to be good at using them. In that regard, every skill in the high levels is the best skill. You just need to know which one suits you more." Seig shook his head.
"I understand that, hence why all the tests before this room. Therefore, I¡¯m asking you which skill matches me the most."
"So despite wanting to be the best in the world, you want ¡¯me¡¯ to dictate what skill you get?" Seig raised his eyebrows as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Yup. After all, as someone who is most likely tier 8 or perhaps higher, you would know the ¡¯best¡¯ skill in terms of raw stats and hidden mechanics."
"Interesting. You have a set of beautiful eyes which wants to peer into everything." Seig smiled.
"Thanks for the ttery but I think we should cut the conversation short. I have ces to be and things to do." Shiro waved her hand.
"Fine. I wanted to talk a little longer since it has been quite a while since I hadste into contact with anyone in a garden. But I understand. After all, you have such a huge burden weighing down on your shoulders." Seig narrowed his eyes.
Waving his hand, lights started to converge towards his location as they started to form a golden book.
Flipping through the pages, he tore one out and pushed it towards Shiro.
Reaching out for the page, Shiro watched as the page merged into her body the moment her hand came into contact.
"I have given you what you desired. What you do with it is now no longer my concern. I suppose I should say good luck young one. Even though you asked for my name, you shall forget about me the moment you leave this ce." Seig smiled as Shiro felt her vision blur.
Once Shiro was gone from this space, a woman materialised next to Seig and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"You sure you don¡¯t want to tell her more? I can sense that someone quite powerful has given the girl her support and it isn¡¯t Nyx." The woman asked as Seig shook his head.
"No, she¡¯ll find out sooner orter. The records state that she¡¯ll meet her soon." Seig replied as the book in his hands faded away.
###
Snapping her eyes open, Shiro saw that she was still in the training hall. Rubbing her head, Shiro furrowed her brows and frowned.
"Sh*t what was his name... He did say that I¡¯ll forget his name but I didn¡¯t forget him." She muttered as the person who she was talking to seemed to know more than what he was letting on.
Sighing softly, she decided to set it aside for now and check out the new skill that she got.
[Item Master - ???]
You can use any item to its maximum efficiency. This is only limited by your power and knowledge.
"Mn? Item Master? I thought he gave me a sword skill. This is just a misceneous skill." Shiro frowned, feeling ripped off that she had used a Rainbow grade item for this skill.
However, there was something that caught her attention and that was the three question marks.
Thest time she had seen this on a skill was Extraction and that was a broken skill that allowed her to steal other¡¯s skill along with taking their life away.
Understanding that there must be more to this, Shiro decided to test it out and summoned her sword.
Swinging her sword around for a moment, it didn¡¯t feel any different.
{Why are you just swinging your sword around?} Nimue asked as she yawned. She had just had a short nap and woke up to Shiro swinging her sword randomly.
"I used the Dagger that Teach gave me but the skill I got from it was strange. It isn¡¯t a sword skill nor technique even though the description clearly says that it would give me one." Shiro replied with a frown.
{Maybe you¡¯re not doing it right. Show me the skill and I¡¯ll have a look as well.}
Showing Nimue the description of her skill, Shiro waited for her reply.
{The f*ck? Are you sure this is what you got from the Dagger????} Nimue asked with disbelief.
"You see what I mean?" Shiro sighed.
{Yeah I do. What the hell. Do you feel any different with your sword?}
"Nope. It feels normal like usual." Shiro shook her head.
{Maybe if you properly tried to attack something?} Nimue suggested.
Nodding her head, Shiro created a target and narrowed her eyes taking a deep breath, she was about to swing her sword when her mind became clear. It was like she understood every intricacy of her sword, it¡¯s stress limit, what she could do without breaking it and how to get the most power out of each attack.
Shimmering with a golden light, her sword seemed as though it was enchanted by the very heavens itself.
Seeing this, Nimue had a bad feeling well up in her heart. Wanting to call out to Shiro to make her stop, she was unfortunately toote.
Sending out a wave of energy, all of the ambient mana in the room was instantly devoured by Athera and the surrounding barriers shattered to pieces.
Before Shiro could even shout ¡¯Oh sh*t!¡¯ she watched as her de of energy cleave through the walls of the training hall and started to travel towards the rest of the mansion.
"Err...." Looking at the destruction in front of her with a twitching smile, she nced back at her parents who rushed here on the first sign of danger.
Looking at the trail of destruction that Shiro¡¯s attack had left behind, Koji couldn¡¯t help but want to cough up blood. After all, he had instructed people to set up the best barriers around each training hall so that they won¡¯t be destroyed but Shiro had just shattered every single one of them.
Even Stanley when training with Aarim, Yin and Silvia didn¡¯t cause this but his daughter did.
"What happened?" He asked with a forced smile.
"I was testing a new skill and well... I didn¡¯t realise that it would destroy the house." Shiro looked down with embarrassment and poked her fingers together.
"Wouldn¡¯t you know what your skill did? I¡¯m pretty sure a skill will tell you how powerful it is." Koji asked once more. He could still see pieces of his mansion crumbling to the ground due to theck of supports.
"Well..." Exining her skill to her parents, they wondered about how powerful Shiro¡¯s sword must be for it to be able to destroy all of the barriers they had set. In order to repair everything, they might have to take quite a while as the barriers were quite special. They neededponents to make sure they keep working with only the asional maintenance.
"It¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t me her darling. Honestly, how many times did you destroy our house when we were younger?" Mio pouted as she hugged Shiro.
"This..."
"Ignore your dad. He¡¯s just sad that the house is broken and that his room is destroyed." Mio waved her hand as Shiro nodded.
"If you want, I can use my nanobots to fix the house." Shiro offered since this was her fault. She didn¡¯t expect her attack to be so strong with the Item Master skill.
"Don¡¯t worry about it darling. Let¡¯s just go have some food now, Yin¡¯s got a banquet ready for everyone. Thankfully, you didn¡¯t attack towards our direction or else we¡¯ll have nothing to eat." Mio chuckled as she led Shiro out of the training hall and towards the dining hall.
After eating dinner, the party rested up for the night and prepared to leave the city tomorrow. They were going to see if there were anyone in the adventurer¡¯s guild with the teleport shrine to Mount Olympus. If not, they¡¯ll have to ride Shiro¡¯s jet again and some of them aren¡¯t too keen about that.
Chapter 641 Edenia
Chapter 641 Edenia
Waking up the next day, Shiro was greeted with a rather cold house due to her ¡¯actions¡¯ yesterday. After eating the breakfast that Yin had made, which was quite tasty thanks to Shiro¡¯s efforts as the test subject for the three weeks, the party prepared to make their way to the adventurer¡¯s guild.
They were also reunited with Helion and Madison who seemed severely drained from their training. When asked about what they did, the two only sighed and shook their heads.
"What did you even do with them?" Koji asked Chelsea while ncing towards Helion and Madison.
Taking a sip of his morning coffee, he couldn¡¯t help but shake his head at the state of the two front liners.
"Nothing much. I just took them around a little and had them go through a few contests of strength. If they want to be proper front liners, they need to be able to wrestle a young dragon at their level." Chelsea huffed as Koji almost dropped his coffee.
"You what now?"
"I had them wrestle young dragons to build up their strength. They passed just barely but I can say that they¡¯re reliable front liners now." Chelsea replied while stretching her body.
"Right..."
"The hell happened to your house?" Chelsea asked while pointing towards destruction that Shiro had caused.
"My daughter is what happened." Koji sighed and drank the rest of his coffee.
Raising her eyebrow, Chelsea shrugged and made her way inside.
Meanwhile, Shiro had just finished talking to her mum.
"Take care out there. If you can¡¯t find anyone to take you to Mount Olympus, you can alwayse back and we¡¯ll take you there ourselves. We haven¡¯t got the teleport shrine but I¡¯m sure it shouldn¡¯t take too long if we fly there at full speed." Mio smiled.
"It¡¯s ok mum, no need to go out of your way like that. I can handle it." Shiro shook her head.
Giving her mother and father a hug, she waved to Stanley and started to walk towards the Adventurer¡¯s Guild with the rest of the party.
Arriving at the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, the party was stopped by a woman who Shiro recognised as Sharis.
"They found the other sites for your daughter¡¯s inheritance. This map will show you where they are." Sharis smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
Taking the map, Shiro looked back at Sharis.
"You seem to be in a rush."
"Well there are quite a few things that I need to do. I am quite a popr merchant you know?" Sharisughed.
"Anyways, I¡¯ve given you what you need, I¡¯ll take my leave now." Sharis bowed and disappeared from her spot.
Storing her map away, Shiro turned to Yin.
"We¡¯ll get the rest of your inheritance once we finish the God Trials ok?"
"Don¡¯t worry about it mum. It¡¯s not like the inheritance is going anywhere." Yin smiled.
"You never know darling. You never know."
Entering the guild, Shiro quickly registered a request for someone to teleport them to Greece.
Thankfully, as this was a ratherrge city near the front lines, there were plenty of adventurers and quite a few of them had what the party needed.
Choosing the cheapest one, they quickly met up and made their way to the teleport shrine.
Once they arrived at the teleport shrine, they didn¡¯t waste any time and immediately teleported away.
Arriving at the teleport shrine located in a newly established city after the world changed, the party separated with the adventurers after giving them their payment.
Checking her funds that she had .u.mted over the course of her adventures, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel as though she¡¯d never run out of money. Plus, the weapons and armours that they need were being made by Helion so they¡¯re not exactly short of equipment either.
"I¡¯m feeling rich but we got nothing to spend it on." Shiro chuckled as the rest of the party agreed.
"Well everything we need is being provided no? Unless we wanted some expensive food, we¡¯ll probably not be spending a lot of money since we can make what we need. Helion with the armour, Aarim with the clothes and you with literally everything else including a house." Lyrica smiled.
"She¡¯s right." Aarim nodded.
"Also, it seems like you quite like the pink turtleneck. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m notining, it¡¯s just that you seemed against it at the start." She raised her eyebrow.
*Cough
"What? It¡¯sfy." Shiro nced to the side with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"Yeah, just like the giant plush, Nibbles, that¡¯s in your room." Aarim chuckled.
Ignoring Aarim¡¯s teasing about her love of cute andfy things, Shiro made her way out of the teleport shrine.
Currently, they were in the city of Edenia which was founded once people found the teleport shrine that was near Mount Olympus. To make it easier for foreigners to prepare for the God Trials, everything that people needed to know could be found in the city along with a few ces of rxation.
Naturally, brothels were included as the party immediately saw one near the entrance of the teleport shrine which caused their smiles to twitch since its cement was rather obvious. But when they consider the nature of Greek Mythology, especially Zeus¡¯ procreating habits, this wasn¡¯t much of an anomaly anymore.
In fact, it was a rather good tribute to the god himself as they had even carved a statue of him with his name glowing with magic just outside the establishment.
"Let¡¯s... walk around that ce shall we?" Shiro suggested as the party nodded their heads in agreement. After all, walking in front of a brothel which had a nude statue of Zeus was rather awkward.
Making their way around the ce, they found a caf¨¦ that had a rather decent view of the mountain itself.
Taking a seat near the window, the party each ordered a few snacks before looking up some information about the trials.
They want to know as much as possible so that they can prepare for it after all.
While they were looking through the information avable online, a woman walked up to their tablet and smiled.
"The Branch Master has informed me of your eventual arrival. I shall assist you during your time in this city along with any questions you have for the God Trials. You may call me Lin Hua." Lin Hua smiled as Chen Yu widened his eyes and looked away while trying to hide his face.
Seeing this, Silvia¡¯s smile twitched and looked at Lin Hua.
"By Branch Master, I¡¯m assuming that it¡¯s Nan Tian right? Since both of you are under him, perhaps you know each other." Silvia asked while pointing towards Chen Yu.
"Yes we do. I lost my first kiss to him." Lin Hua nced towards Chen Yu with a small blush.
*CRACK!
Breaking his cup by ident, Chen Yu felt his life at danger.
"It was CPR! We had no healers at the time so I had to do emergency CPR!" Chen Yu quickly exined as Silvia narrowed her eyes.
"Why are you so afraid of a small misunderstanding?" Silvia ¡¯smiled¡¯.
"As long as nothing else happens, I¡¯m fine. Got it? You¡¯re my man and I won¡¯t forgive you if you cheat." Silvia narrowed her eyes as the party couldn¡¯t help but raise their eyebrow at her sudden deration.
*Whistle~
{Damn look at her go. How bold.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Indeed. Really making her position known huh?¡¯
{Tell me about it. Maybe you should do the same.}
¡¯I¡¯m not going to go up to Nan Tian and shout out you¡¯re my man!¡¯
{I never said anything about Nan Tian.}
¡¯. . .¡¯
Blocking her mind from her mana realm, Shiro started to sip her orange juice with blood rushing up to her face.
With her pink turtleneck, she looked especially cute with the embarrassed expression.
"So Lin Hua, what can you tell us about the God Trials?" Shiro asked as the party was being derailed by Silvia¡¯s deration.
"Ah right, to get to the top of the mountain, there is only one way and that is through the Stairway of Divinity. With each step that you take, the pressure that you experience will increase. While you¡¯re on the stairway, you will see statues of each god in the Greek Pantheon and should you want to do their trials, all you have to do is ce your hand on the statue itself and insert your mana. The higher you go, the higher ranked the gods are and naturally, the rewards also increase. At the very top of the mountain are the strongest gods in the Greek Pantheon.
"However, gods aren¡¯t the only ones. Demi gods such as Heracles can be found as well. There are also trials of powerful monsters that can measure up to the gods as well." Lin Hua exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Is there a statue of Nyx? The Goddess of Night." She asked.
"Hmm... I¡¯m not sure about that since she is a primordial goddess. The highest that anyone has reached was Zeus¡¯ statue so I can¡¯t say for sure unless you go up there yourself." Lin Hua shook her head.
"I see." Shiro nodded her head.
ncing towards the Mountain in the distance, Shiro guessed that she¡¯ll have to get to the very top in order to reach her.
Chapter 642 Greek Gods
Chapter 642 Greek Gods
After talking to Lin Hua for a little longer, the party understood a little more about the God Trials. Each god had a different trial depending on their divinity. For example, Helion was most likely going to choose the Hephaestus trial and that trial required him to forge good pieces of equipment.
As for the Goddess Aphrodite, Shiro didn¡¯t want to imagine. After all, Aphrodite wanted to make Shiro her chosen and that would have been a rather ¡¯interesting¡¯ trial.
Making their way towards the staircase that could be seen even from the city, Shiro turned to Lin Hua and asked about Nan Tian¡¯s whereabouts.
"The Branch Master has already exited seclusion as a tier 6 entity. He¡¯s just solidifying his foundations right now as he is still not quite used to the power. This is why he wanted me to escort you girls instead as he is currently busy." Lin Hua exined as Shiro sighed in relief.
"So Nan Tian seeded. That¡¯s good." Shiro smiled.
"Are you worried about the Branch Master?" Lin Hua asked curiously.
"Well isn¡¯t it natural that I¡¯ll be worried? Who knows if he¡¯ll run into trouble while ssing up." Shiro shrugged.
"You don¡¯t have to worry about that since everyone in the sect was keeping watch on the Branch Master. The Sect Master has already passed down the order that during this time, no one is to disturb the Branch Master and make sure that he is safe." Lin Hua replied as Shiro nodded her head.
Making their way towards the staircase, the party could already see a few people walking up and statues could be seen in the distance which represented the lesser gods.
"This is as far as I can take you since those who have cleared the trials once cannot clear it again. Or rather, they don¡¯t have the qualifications to take it again since the gods are rather petty. They don¡¯t want to take another¡¯s leftovers." Lin Hua exined with a shrug.
"In any case, I wish you lot good luck in your journey up the mountain. I shall await here for your return as this is the task handed to me by the Branch Master." She bowed.
Looking at the staircase, Shiro nced towards her party members and nodded her head.
"Let¡¯s go." Shiro grinned.
Taking the first step, she could already feel a faint pressure weigh down on her as she raised her eyebrow. However, this pressure was rather negligible and Shiro took another step with ease.
The party was the same and could keep up the same pace with Shiro. The higher they travelled, the more people they found sitting by the side and drinking some water with stressed out expressions.
When they saw the party walking up without any signs of fatigue, they wondered who they were as not many could walk up the stairs so effortlessly. Especially for Shiro, she looked as though she was taking a stroll in the park.
Time passed and the party continued higher up the mountain. At this point, things were bing rather difficult even for Shiro as each step felt like she was carrying a mountain on her back.
But rather than physical burden, it was more psychological as their bodies weren¡¯t strained. Only their mind was and each step had to be taken while trying to keep their focus.
As they continued up the mountain, the steps soon became personal trials as all distractions were cast aside. They started to lose vision of their party members as it was only them and their own will.
Shiro had tried tomunicate with Nimue only to find out that she could not, meaning that she had to walk up the stairs alone.
"A rather annoying trial I must say." Shiro muttered with a soft smile since she wanted to see her party member and encourage them to go further. That way, they can support each other up the journey but it seemed like the gods have other ns.
Shaking her head, Shiro continued to walk up the steps.
Never looking back, Shiro couldn¡¯t see how high up the mountain she was as her focus was the top.
"My my, so you¡¯re the girl that Aphrodite and Athena were fighting over." A voice rang out as Shiro was surprised since she had been on her own for a while but looked towards the source.
Floating there with a rather cheerful grin was an illusionary image of a child. The child had wavy blond hair and a set of brown eyes which surveyed Shiro. He wore a pair of shoes with crested wings on the side which gave Shiro an idea of his identity.
"Hermes I presume?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Indeed. It is I, Hermes the messenger of the gods." Hermes bowed as Shiro continued her steps.
"So what brings you to me? Am I not to continue to the top since Nyx wanted a meeting with me?" Shiro asked, feeling rather happy about somepany since walking up the stairs was rather boring.
"Because I am curious. The gods are rather greedy over you I suppose for ack of a better word. Aphrodite wants you because of your beauty. Athena wants you because of your strength, wisdom and the desire to protect this world. There are others who want you as well including Hestia and even Hera. One is the v.i.r.g.i.n Goddess while the other is the Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth. You reach out to quite a diverse audience no?" Hermes raised his eyebrow.
"What can I say? I have three children but the most I¡¯ve done is hold hands." Shiroughed.
"Indeed. I¡¯ll tell you this though, even the titans are interested in you. Namely Kronos so be careful." Hermes warned.
"Wasn¡¯t Kronos the one that tried to eat his children?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Yes and Zeus is still rather unhappy about that." Hermesughed.
"The two do fight asionally but they¡¯re unable to kill one another because of the system¡¯s intervention."
"I see. Should I be happy or sad that they want me?" Shiro shrugged.
"If It was me, I¡¯d say sad. Having gods fight over you isn¡¯t as great as some would presume. Regardless of who you choose, there are some who will attempt to kill you with the thought that if I can¡¯t have them, no one can." Hermes sighed while ncing towards the top of the mountain.
"Luckily for you, it¡¯s Nyx who has her eye on you so the others can¡¯t do much about it. After all, her identity is rather special even to the system." Hermes reassured.
"Speaking of which, since you¡¯re the messenger, it means that you know a lot of things right?" Shiro asked.
"Yup."
"Then can you tell me about who the figure that Nyx said has her eye on me? She never mentioned the name but it seems like Nyx has some respect for her." Shiro asked as Hermes¡¯ eyes flickered with a knowing light.
Naturally, this did not escape Shiro¡¯s notice.
"You know don¡¯t you?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Maybe, maybe not. I can¡¯t give all the information away without a price." Hermes shrugged.
Shaking her head, Shiro flicked her finger at Hermes nose and to his surprise, she could actually touch him.
"Huh?"
"What? Are you surprised that I can touch you?" Shiro grinned.
Flickering on her finger was a few red circuits that had allowed her to extract a portion of Aekari¡¯s soul. With her passive Skill Schr, it was only natural that she could utilise the element to some extent. Though if she wanted, she could extract Hermes¡¯ soul right now and try to get a skill. The sess rate was unknown but it was worth a shot.
Feeling danger, Hermes made some distance between them as Shiroughed.
"Don¡¯t worry, I ain¡¯t gonna kill you."
"But you can if you want no?" He narrowed his eyes.
Seeing a god hide behind a statue of another god, Shiro onlyughed.
"Maybe, maybe not. I can¡¯t give all the information away without a price." She shrugged as Hermes pouted a little but shook his head.
"There¡¯s no point in telling you since Nyx has ordered me not to. All I can say is that you need to be respectful towards her." Hermes sighed.
"Got it. Will I see the other gods then or are you the only one?" Shiro asked.
"I¡¯m probably the only one. Thanks to my divinity, I¡¯m able to create an avatar without too much sacrifice as long as I obey the rules. The other¡¯s aren¡¯t the same so unless they REALLY want to talk to you, I doubt that they¡¯ll make an avatar." Hermes shrugged.
However, just as he said this, a simr godly aura appeared as a beautiful woman appeared in front of them.
"Are you sure about that? The others areing soon. They¡¯re still making their avatar since their rank is higher than mine." The woman smiled softly as Hermes scratched his head in wonder.
"They want to talk to her that much?"
"Yes." The woman chuckled and turned to Shiro.
"Nice to meet you, I¡¯m Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt."
Chapter 643 Athena and Aphrodite
Chapter 643 Athena and Aphrodite
"Sup, the name¡¯s Shiro." Shiro waved leisurely as Hermes couldn¡¯t help but force a smile at her attitude with a Goddess.
"Haha, I know your name. I also know that you use a bow that¡¯s been blessed by one of my friends. Her name is Asteria, you should remember her." Artemis chuckled.
She was a beautiful woman with silver hair that was tinged with a pale blue and her crystal like eyes peered into Shiro¡¯s with interest.
"Ah right, Asteria is the Titan Goddess of Stars right?"
"Well she is the Goddess of Oracles, Prophetic Dreams and so on but yes, Stars are apart of her divinity." Artemisughed.
"So you said that the other gods are also making avatars to meet me right? Why are they so interested?" Shiro asked while making sure that she kept going up the staircase. After all, there was a chance that all of this could just be a trial to prevent her from reaching the top.
"Well there are a few reasons. One of which is the power of your nanobots. We understand a portion of their power due to the garden that you originated from. Aria. However, in this garden, you seemed to have evolved them beyond their initial.... Power limit?" Artemis tapped her chin and replied with a smile.
"Evolved them passed their initial power limit? What do you mean?" Shiro raised her eyebrow since from what she remembers, her nanobots are pretty much the same except for a few minor differences.
"Think of it this way. As gods, we are able to somewhat understand what we¡¯re dealing with such as the person¡¯s potential. When we ¡¯reviewed¡¯ your nanobots for the first time, it felt like it was a toothpick. Sure it hurts and it may puncture an eye but it won¡¯t kill us. However, seeing it again now, it¡¯s like a giant ballista bolt. The potential that your ss holds can now kill us for sure, hence why the gods are anxious about you and are currently fighting over you." Artemis shrugged.
"And you can tell me this because?"
??Because I don¡¯t find much use in being anxious. From what I¡¯ve gathered, you¡¯re not a person to go on a genocidal rampage because of a whim. For example, you don¡¯t just wake up thinking I want to kill a city full of people. Therefore, rather than trying to eliminate you or bringing you under us, I¡¯d much rather let you be and watch from the side." Artemis replied while floating besides Shiro.
"Interesting. What if I do want to kill you though? Like Hermes has experienced, I can touch your avatar and if I¡¯m feeling a little frisky, I might just rip out your source code for a skill. After all, a god¡¯s power is pretty tempting." Shiro smiled darkly as circuits started to appear on her hand.
"I trust that you won¡¯t do it but if my belief is wrong, then that¡¯s just me ying with fire and getting burned in the process." Artemis smiled but made no effort to make some distance while Hermes was still hiding behind her.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro continued up the stairs.
After a few short moments, two lights appeared in front of them as voices of arguing women could be heard.
"Why are youing here as well cowtits? Haven¡¯t you seen that she isn¡¯t a s.l.u.t like you?"
"So what cutting board? Haven¡¯t you seen her potential as a charmer? If she ys her cards right, she can have all the men in the world under her thumb. Ignoring the ugly ones of course."
"Rather than rule with beauty and s.e.x.u.a.l favours, she¡¯s more suited to rule with wisdom and power. I don¡¯t know what kind of divine mushroom you smoked but it¡¯s clearly the wrong one."
"Bah! Are you sure you¡¯re not the one who¡¯s high? Have you seen her? Do you honestly think she¡¯s patient enough to deal with the bullsh*t that people speak if she tries to rule with wisdom?"
Looking at the two women who were fighting while materialising in front of them, Shiro could already guess their identity.
"I apologise about their... disy but they are indeed the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Aphrodite and the Goddess of Wisdom and War, Athena." Artemis said with a slightly forced smile.
Aphrodite was a rather slender woman with long jet ck hair that flowed down her back. Her dress was rather revealing but it never revealed too much, leaving much to one¡¯s imagination.
The aura that she released was soothing and even Shiro felt mesmerised for a moment before snapping out of it.
As for Athena, she had long brown hair which swayed gently behind her with every step. Adorned with a golden crown like ornament and armour which ovepped her white dress, her aura was one that was befitting of a Goddess of her nature.
Strong, stern and righteous, one would think to kneel before her but Shiro only felt awkwardness as the wordsing out of her mouth were rather extreme and contradicted her aura.
Once their body¡¯s fully materialised, they turned their attention to Shiro who was still walking up the stairs while ignoring the two.
"So you¡¯re the one who rejected my ss before. I am Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty and I must say, you are a fine looking woman." Aphrodite introduced herself while eyeing Shiro withrge amounts of interest.
"Thanks for thepliment but I don¡¯t want to sleep with everyone in the world." Shiro dismissed and walked past Aphrodite.
Seeing this, Athena had a smug grin on her face while looking at Aphrodite while Hermes only sighed and decided to keep himself from being noticed for now.
"I knew you wouldn¡¯t like that woman¡¯s methods. While I am sad that you did not be my chosen, I understand your choice seeing as your potential is rather impressive right now. I am the Goddess of Wisdom and War, Athena, pleased to meet you." Athena did a slight bow as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sup." Shiro waved lightly.
Shaking Athena¡¯s hand, she continued up the steps.
Seeing Shiro dismiss the two high ranking goddess without batting an eye, Artemis couldn¡¯t help but chuckle under her breath.
"I¡¯m Athena. The Goddess of Wisdom and War." Athena repeated just to make sure that Shiro heard her properly since people hadn¡¯t dismissed gods in such a manner before.
"And I¡¯m Shiro." Shiro waved her hand once more before ignoring the two. Her only goal here was to get to the top and these two were acting as distractions right now.
"You know, people usually give gods their attention in order to not draw their ire." Aphrodite warned as Shiro only shrugged.
"Well thank f*ck I¡¯m a monster then."
"PFT!!! HAH- COUGH!" Quickly cutting herugh off, Artemis flickered from the area since Aphrodite¡¯s face of disbelief was something that Artemis hadn¡¯t seen before.
Without his ¡¯shield¡¯, Hermes bowed to the two goddess and quickly fled the scene as well.
"So you¡¯re not afraid of a god¡¯s wrath?" Aphrodite narrowed her eyes with a frown.
"Bite me. I already have a few gods wanting to kill me. One or two more isn¡¯t going to make a difference at my level. Plus, I don¡¯t think you can kill me right now with the restrictions that are in ce." Shiro chuckled.
"She¡¯s right you know. However, that is not the same for after the new age starts." Athena raised her eyebrows at Shiro.
"True. But I¡¯m pretty sure there are quite a few mortals badmouthing gods all the time no?"
"Yes. But none have badmouthed the gods while standing in front of us." Athena smiled.
"Then I guess I¡¯m the first. So why are you here? I¡¯m pretty sure that you know I won¡¯t be working as your chosen or anything like that." Shiro asked. Sweat started to drip from her face at this point as she hadn¡¯t stopped climbing up the staircase. While she didn¡¯t know how high she was, she knew that she had been climbing for a rather long time now and each step posed some difficultypared to the ones she took at the start.
"I¡¯m not sure about cowtits but I¡¯m just here to see you with my own eyes. After all, there is a difference with seeing things with your own eyes and seeing them from a screen. And I must say, even in front of gods, your attitude doesn¡¯t change. While I do find it rather humorous, other gods might not have the same sentiment so you should be careful. While you are not my chosen, I can bestow you with another reward." Athena smiled.
"Does it have any drawbacks or requirements?" Shiro asked.
"None. Just think of it as a gift I gave you for free. So long as you don¡¯t vite certain morals without a good reason then this blessing will stay with you for as long as you live."
"Go for it then. I¡¯m not going to be refusing a free gift." Shiro smiled.
[You have received Athena¡¯s Blessing.]
[When you are leading an army to either invade or defend a territory, you can encourage the entire army and increase their stats by 20% for 5 hours.
Cost: N/A
Cooldown: 10 Hours]
Chapter 644 Gods Blessings
Chapter 644 God''s Blessings
Reading the gift, Shiro was surprised that Athena was actually telling the truth.
"Seems like you didn¡¯t expect me to actually give you a proper gift." Athena chuckled.
"Well I¡¯ve had a rather bad impression of gods thanks to an old enemy of mine." Shiro shrugged.
"I suppose one bad fruit then people think the whole batch is bad. While that may be the case for a few gods, do remember that not all of us are evil. Even some who may have a questionable divinity are in fact rather kind." Athena shook her head.
"Aw, are you talking about me?" Aphrodite smiled.
"F*ck no. You can go suck a d*ck. Oh wait, you already do." Athena rolled her eyes as Aphrodite felt like a vein was about to burst open from annoyance.
"But I suppose you are somewhat ¡¯good¡¯ albeit a little forcefully." Athena shrugged before turning towards Shiro once more.
"I¡¯ve already given you my blessing so my goal isplete. This avatar is already running out of power so I¡¯ll be taking my leave. But before I go, I have a tip for you."
Leaning closer to Shiro¡¯s ear, Athena opened her mouth and whispered.
"Be careful of Zeus. Don¡¯t ignore him but don¡¯t pay him too much attention."
After saying her line, she flickered from her spot and disappeared.
"That damn woman. You never know if you should be happy or angry with her." Aphrodite huffed.
"Anyways, I don¡¯t really have a blessing for you since my powers are quite... intimate with both genders. Though, if you want, I can boost your bedtime prowess." Aphrodite offered as Shiro immediately shook her head.
"I¡¯ll be fine."
"I figured. However, I do have connections to a few other gods so I¡¯ll get them to give you a gift ok?" She smiled.
"Oh? What gods are you talking about?" Shiro asked as she knew that Aphrodite slept with quite a few of them.
"Poseidon, Ares and even little Hermes if you include him. Though let¡¯s say that he changed his form a little so that I won¡¯t go to bed with him but that hasn¡¯t stopped me yet." Aphrodite licked her lips as Shiro looked at her with disappointment.
"If there¡¯s an FBI equivalent for gods, I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯ll be one of the main offenders."
"Not important. But I¡¯ll get them to give you a giftter. Ares and Poseidon probably won¡¯te to meet you though." Aphrodite shrugged.
Flickering from her spot, she wanted to give Shiro a kiss on the cheeks when cold steel blocked her lips.
"Shame." Aphrodite shrugged and faded from the spot.
Funnily enough, the makeshift sword that Shiro had conjured up at thest moment received a small... Blessing from Aphrodite due to the kiss.
[Charm of Aphrodite]
Enemies hit by this weapon have an 80% chance to be charmed if they¡¯re part of the same species or simr. For others, it is reduced to 50%.
When charmed, they will do everything for you so long as it follows their line of thought. Should you damage them, the charm is cancelled. If you order them to kill themselves without a ¡¯good reason¡¯ the charm is cancelled.
Looking at the sword, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh.
"I don¡¯t even know if I should keep this sword or just destroy it." Shiro muttered.
"You should probably keep it. Unfortunately, you were quite hasty in making it so the over structure seems a little weak and it¡¯ll probably break in one or two uses but it¡¯s still going to be handy." Hermes popped his head out from behind a statue.
"So you and Aphrodite huh?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
*COUGH!
"A mistake of my youth I guess. I even got my father to help me out as well. Doesn¡¯t really help the fact that he also bed her huh?" Hermes coughed awkwardly.
"No sh*t." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"So you¡¯re going to give me a gift as well I suppose." She asked as Hermes nodded.
"I was going to give you it anyways but Aphrodite just sort of decided without my agreement." Hermes shrugged.
Snapping his fingers, a pair of winged sigils appeared on Shiro¡¯s boosts.
[Blessing of Hermes ¨C 1/1 Charge]
Passive: Your speed is increased by 30% and you can travel with ease whether that be through the air, sea ornd.
Active: You may create a gateway to any destination you have visited or know about so long as you have a clear understanding of its location. (One Time Use)
"You might think it¡¯s not as impressive but the gateway is quite a rule breaking skill if you know how to use it. After all, if you obtained knowledge about the source of all magic, you could teleport there and obtain an unlimited source of mana." Hermes smiled.
Looking down at his hands, he could already see his form flicker from theck of power.
"Well it¡¯s been nice talking to you. I¡¯ll be watching your story." Hermes bowed and disappeared from his spot.
"He was pretty friendly." Shiro muttered.
"Indeed he is. In such a short time, you¡¯ve obtained the blessings of three gods and there are more toe. What do you think of the situation?" Artemis asked with a smile.
"It seems strange. Honestly, I¡¯m not really keen on using any of these since thest time I used something given to me by a ¡¯god¡¯ my soul was almost taken away." Shiro narrowed her eyes at Artemis.
"I can guarantee that these blessings are real. You can even ask Nyx. If you are still curious, let me phrase it like this. They get benefits as well by blessing you. Aphrodite is a little unique as she¡¯ll receive benefits from her partners after they bless you. But all in all, it is a win win situation for all sides."
"Care to exin the benefits then?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Hmm... sure. Each benefit is unique to each god but for Hermes, he obtains a bit of knowledge about the location you teleported to. But not all of it. So if you do indeed find the source of all magic, he¡¯ll also get some knowledge about its location. But the key is that he¡¯ll only get ¡¯some¡¯ of the knowledge. It¡¯s like getting a hint in a puzzle so you don¡¯t have to worry." Artemis replied truthfully.
"And that solidifies it. Don¡¯t trust gods and just trust yourself." Shiro shrugged.
"Well you can trust Athena at least. She gives her blessings out to those she favours like candy to children. She doesn¡¯t care about the benefits that she¡¯ll get since she¡¯s a high ranking god."
"And what about you? Are you going to be giving me your blessing?" Shiro joked.
"Unfortunately no since my blessings are useless on you. There are a few types of blessings, Utility, Tool and Stat based. The one that Athena gave you is Stat based and the same goes with Hermes but his is a mix of Stat and Utility. The one that Aphrodite gave to the sword is Utility based. As for my blessing, it is solely tool based which means that it¡¯ll improve your performance with the bow. But with what I can tell, it seems like you can master any tool you use so my blessings are obsolete on you." Artemis admitted with a soft sigh.
"Fair enough."
"However, I will say that I will give you my blessing anyways for two reasons." Artemis smiled as Shiro paused for a moment before resuming her steps.
"And they are?"
"The first reason is that the second part of my blessings helps you a little and the second reason is that after you collect a certain amount of blessings, you¡¯ll receive something from the system. Me giving you mine is to speed up the process." Artemis smiled.
"Just out of curiosity, am I able to reject these blessings or are they just forcefully put on me?" Shiro asked.
"You can reject them if you want. The system will remove them for you." Artemis answered before drawing her symbol in the air.
Pushing it towards Shiro, her form dimmed down slightly.
[Blessing of Artemis.]
You are guaranteed to hit every shot that you take with any ranged attack at the cost of 5% of your mana per shot. However, this does not affect their guard so they can still block the attack.
All healing spells/skills that affect you and the people around you are 20% more effective.
"With this, my job is done. Good luck with Nyx, it¡¯s not often that she¡¯ll invite someone personally. She even gave you a glimpse of the future too." Artemis smiled.
"Mn, it was rather handy. I¡¯ll see you next time I suppose if I get the chance." Shiro waved her hand as Artemis nodded her head and disappeared.
Once Artemis disappeared, Shiro nced towards the peak of the mountain. There, she could see several figures waiting for her on the steps while a silhouette of a throne could be seen on the top of the mountain.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro understood that the silhouette belonged to the ruler of these gods.
Zeus.
Chapter 645 Top of Mount Olympus
Chapter 645 Top of Mount Olympus
Before she could get to Zeus, there were still a few gods that were standing on the stairs, waiting for her approach. One of which held a golden trident and Shiro guessed that he was Poseidon.
He stood at an astounding 7ft tall with slightly ck hair that was showing some signs of grey. He wore only a waist cloth and some light armour, leaving his chest and abdomen exposed.
His muscles were well defined but Shiro found no interest in them as she had seen her fair share of nice physiques. If she was a girl who loved muscles, she would have loved the cunt named Aekari.
"So you¡¯re the one that Aphrodite kept mentioning. I can see why she wanted to make you her chosen, your beauty is quite obvious." Poseidon narrowed his eyes as he surveyed her up and down.
Detecting obvious signs of l.u.s.t in his gaze, Shiro felt goosebumps on her body and wanted to stab the man immediately.
"Yes I am." Was Shiro reply as she continued to walk up the steps.
Seeing her obvious dismissal of him, Poseidon was rather displeased and mmed his trident in front of her.
*CRACK!
Raising her eyebrow at the cracked staircase, Shiro nced at Poseidon.
"What?"
"Is this how you greet a god?" Poseidon asked.
"Pft, well respect is earned through one¡¯s actions. You don¡¯t automatically get my respect since you¡¯re a ¡¯god¡¯. Plus, so far your actions have told me that you think more with your d*ck than you do with your head." Shiro huffed.
*PUCHI!
Feeling the urge to drown this woman in front of him, Poseidon clenched his trident as his anger was obvious.
However, before he could make a move, a hand sped against his shoulder.
"Don¡¯t try to f*ck every woman you see now. It¡¯s rather disgusting to see." The red haired manughed as his fiery eyes red at Poseidon.
"Get your filthy hands off me Ares. I will kill you where you stand, I have not forgotten about the murder of my son, Halirrhothios." Poseidon red back at Ares.
"I murdered the useless sh*t because he r*ped my daughter." Ares retorted as his aura started to bleed into the atmosphere, making it hard for Shiro to breathe.
"Oi. Can the two of you shut the f*ck up before you embarrass yourself anymore?" A dark voice rang out as the two froze up for a minute before clicking their tongues.
"Che, I¡¯ll give you the blessing now." Poseidon red at Shiro and snapped his finger.
[Blessing of Poseidon]
When you are near any source of water, your power grows. When you are at sea, you be twice as strong. Your water and ice elements are more effective and may ignore resistances. Marine life find it calming to be near you and you have an affinity with water based entities.
Right after giving Shiro his blessing, Poseidon didn¡¯t want to stay any longer and disappeared from his spot.
"Coward." Ares huffed before grinning at Shiro.
"So then, I¡¯ll also give you my blessings. And just before I go, just know that I enjoy watching you fight." Heughed.
Snapping his fingers, a red Sigil appeared in the air before entering Shiro¡¯s arm.
[Blessing of Ares.]
Whenever you enterbat, you passively emit a fighting aura which grows with the intensity of the battle. At its peak, you can ¡¯consume¡¯ all of the aura and infuse your next attack with the might of god. This attack ignores all forms of defence. Once you consume all of the aura it resets and will slowly grow once more.
The more times this is used during the same day, the harder it is to make the aura grow.
"Also, be careful of the next guy. Piss him off and he¡¯ll drag your soul out." Ares waved and faded away.
Raising her eyebrows at Ares¡¯ warning, Shiro could guess that the next god was most likely Hades, God of the Underworld.
Materialising out of the shadow, a gloomy dark haired man with a rather unkempt stubble nced towards Shiro.
His hair covered a portion of his face which revealed his paleplexion. There were also dark bags under his eyes which showed a severeck of sleep.
"I apologise about my brother and Ares. The two don¡¯t get along very well and Poseidon is like Zeus in some regard." Hades sighed.
"I figured. Though I must say, I didn¡¯t expect you to apologise. Aren¡¯t you like an Evil God or something?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Is that what mortals think of me now? *sigh* I suppose things haven¡¯t changed much." Hades shrugged.
"So you¡¯re not an Evil God?"
"No. Just because I guide the souls of the dead doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m evil." Hades yawned before sitting down on the base of his own statue.
"Now then, as one of the higher ranked gods, I have quite a few blessings and I¡¯ll allow you to pick one. I cannot merge them together since there is still a limit to your mortal body. Despite having the bloodline of a phoenix, you cannot handle too many blessings just yet. Ares knew this and gave you only one of his blessings but my brother Poseidon was actually so petty and merged a few together into one. I would have liked to give you more since you¡¯re quitepatible with my blessings." Hades shook his head.
"Now, here are the options for you. I can improve your rift, grant you knowledge and a certain degree of power over souls, you can have almost perfect stealth which hardly anything can see through and thest one I can grant you is to infuse yourself with some of my power and be a demi god for a short time." Hades offered with a grin.
"I want knowledge and power over souls." Shiro said without hesitating. If she could understand and control souls better, there was a chance that she could find Kuromi once more.
"Are you sure? Do you not want to think about this some more?" Hades asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No. This is fine." Shiro shook her head with a smile. If she could get her older sister back, there was nothing else that she would want.
"Very well." Hades nodded and conjured up a ck and purple Sigil.
[Blessing of Hades]
You have an almost perfect understanding of souls and can control them to some extent. Should you disarm and render an opponent defenceless, you are able to rip out their souls with ease. You may choose to return, relocate or destroy their souls. During their soul state, you can prevent the soul from reincarnating so long as you are in contact with them.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled as Hades nodded his head.
"Good luck with my brother. Thankfully for you, Nyx is backing you so Zeus wouldn¡¯t do anything too drastic. Nyx is the only one that Zeus is afraid of." Hades reminded before fading away.
Continuing up the steps, she could see a few figures of gods watching from their statues but made no action to interact with her which was ok for Shiro. Because right now she had no energy to spare to deal with their antics.
As she was near the top, each step was taken with great difficulty.
*CRACK!
Flinching slightly, Shiro could feel her body fracture from the pressure but her natural healing quickly patched it up. Unfortunately for her, her body continued the cycle of being broken and healed.
Feeling nothing but pain, Shiro was tempted by the thought of taking a break and adapting to the pain but her instincts urged her to go on.
One step, two step, three steps. Without looking anywhere else, Shiro was solely dedicated to taking the next step forward, increasing the burden on her body.
*BANG!!
Taking the final step, Shiro found herself at the top of Mount Olympus.
[Congrattions, you have scaled the mountain of the gods in one go. Without taking a single break or rest, you have demonstrated great willpower. You are rewarded with the following title.]
[Title: Virtue of Fortitude]
So long as your HP is not 0, you can continue to fight no matter how tired you are, pushing your body further past your limit as long as your enemy is still in front of you.
Once the enemy is dead, you will feel all of the pain .u.mted during this moment and suffer a bacsh equal to how much you have pushed your body. This cannot be relieved through any methods and must heal naturally.
[During your ascent, you have acquired several blessings. Some are small boosts in power of the lesser gods while others blessed you anonymously with passive effects. You receive the following reward.]
[Blessing of the Greek Pantheon.]
Each blessing is now slightly more effective and you will gain an additional 10,000 assignable points per level up for each blessing.
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx.
"So you have arrived atst." Zeus narrowed his eyes.
Chapter 646 Zeus
Chapter 646 Zeus
"Nyx has been awaiting your arrival. If you follow me, I¡¯ll take you to her." Zeus said as Shiro furrowed her brows before shrugged.
"Sure. Where is she?" Shiro asked while ncing at the gods around them. She could see a few familiar faces of those she had met recently while others were unfamiliar.
For those that she was familiar with, she could see some traces of worry on the face of Hermes, Athena, Aphrodite and Artemis.
"She is further down the mountain. Follow me and I¡¯ll show you the way." Zeus said whilst gesturing towards the back of Mount Olympus.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro shook her head.
"Nyx told me to meet her on Mount Olympus and I¡¯m already here. Seeing as though the view is rather nice up here, I think I¡¯ll wait. Not to be offensive but knowing the myths surrounding you, a delicate woman like me worries about following you by herself you know? Why don¡¯t you be a dear and call Nyx over?" Shiro said with a smile as Zeus frowned.
Some of the gods found her reaction a little humorous while others were quite displeased seeing her belittled the ruler of gods in such a manner.
"Are you provoking me mortal?" Zeus narrowed his eyes.
"Am I? It¡¯s up to interpretation really." Shiro shrugged as dark clouds started to gather above them.
"I can do the same too. It¡¯s a pretty neat ability since it boosts up my power." Shiroughed and activated her skill, Encroaching Darkness.
Shadowing over the dark clouds instantly, a veil of darkness covered Mount Olympus.
Snapping his fingers, Zeus had one of the gods summon several motes of light which lit up the area with a golden hue.
"Even if you have Nyx¡¯s favour, if you continue to provoke the gods, we will strike you down mortal. At that point, she cannot save you from anything that I want to do." Zeus warned.
"Oh really? Now tell me, what do you n to do with the one who has my favour Little Zeus." A charming voice rang out as Nyx¡¯s figure appeared besides Shiro.
"Took you awhile, it¡¯s not very nice for a host to keep a guest waiting." Shiro chuckled.
"It¡¯s the second time I¡¯m making an avatar to meet you. Remember, the system is rather strict and I must say, you have a knack for pissing off gods huh?" Nyx raised her eyebrow.
"It¡¯s what I do." Shiro grinned.
"Let us leave now, we have much to talk about. And Zeus, if I find out that you made her friends¡¯ trials harder, then I can guarantee that you¡¯ll have a bad time." Nyx warned with a re.
Clicking his tongue, Zeus nodded his head.
"Good. Now if you don¡¯t mind us, we¡¯ll take our leave now." Nyx smiled.
Summoning a portal, she stepped through with Shiro following behind her.
Once the two were gone from the peak of the mountain, Zeus mmed his hand against the armrest of his throne. His face was filled with anger as Nyx always pushed him around like he was nothing.
Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t do anything about it as she was indeed stronger than him.
Thinking about it for a moment, he figured that he could probably make things a little harder for Shiro outside of the trials in the real world. All he needed to do was to contact those who he had chosen as his representatives.
However, he could not be the only one to do this so he must find a few gods that were on his side. From what he had seen, Shiro had already befriended a few gods so he¡¯ll need to exclude them from this.
Sweeping his gaze through the crowd of gods, he noticed a few of them being displeased about Shiro and his brother, Poseidon was one of them.
¡¯Good.¡¯ He thought with a smile.
###
Stepping through the portal, Shiro quickly adjusted her eyesight and noticed that they were in the middle of a rather barrenndscape.
"Where are we?" Shiro asked curiously.
"My home, Tartarus." Nyx replied with a chuckle.
"Tartarus? Isn¡¯t it supposed to be filled with tormented souls and fire?"
"It is. If you want, I can take you to that part of my home. I figured that you¡¯d rather it be quite around us while we speak." Nyx smiled.
"True. Having people scream over your conversation isn¡¯t exactly pleasant is it?" Shiro shrugged.
"Hence why I brought us to the quiet part of Tartarus. Now then, what were we talking about thest time we met?" Nyx asked.
"Last time I asked you about your goal in showing me all of this and you replied that I¡¯ve caught your interest followed up by we can talk more when Ie to Mount Olympus." Shiro replied.
"Ah right, of course. Take a seat, I¡¯ll tell you about that now." Nyx nodded.
Waving her hands, a set of tables and chairs appeared in front of them.
"Right then, the reason I showed you all of that is because you¡¯re the lifeline of this world as you have already discovered. If you die, the universe will reset in due time. It won¡¯t reset immediately but the world will continue to deteriorate. Now, the unfortunate part of this is that only a few selected people are allowed to know about it. If you tried to mention this to anyone who isn¡¯t meant to know, the system will automatically censor what you want to say. Hence why Little Zeus is probably nning something against you right now." Nyx shook her head.
Waving her hand, a screen appeared in front of the two of them showing Zeus¡¯ anger after they left.
"Well I can¡¯t exactly be courteous to someone who wants to f*ck everything that has a v.a.g.i.n.a." Shiro shrugged.
"I don¡¯t me you. However, unless he intervenes personally, I can¡¯t do anything against him. So until then, the most I can do is help you get stronger." Nyx smiled.
"Mn, it¡¯s fine. I can probably take care of Zeus myself sooner orter. Also, if you don¡¯t mind me asking, how are my friends?" Shiro asked.
"They¡¯re doing fine. Helion is meeting with Hephaestus as you have guessed. Yin has actually met two gods. Demeter and Hades." Nyx chuckled.
"Wait, aren¡¯t those two enemies? If I remember things correctly, Hades kidnapped her daughter and made her his wife." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Yup. Hence why it¡¯s ratherical right now. The two are arguing right now. Hades is quite nice most of the time but there¡¯s just something about Demeter that annoys him. He¡¯s had a stable marriage with Persephone recently but he still hasn¡¯t sorted things out with Demeter yet." Nyx shook her head with a shrug.
"Mn, what about the others then? Lisandra, Lyrica, Aarim, Silvia, Chen Yu and Madison."
"Lisandra is a special case. She was actually visited by the Primordial God of Light, Aether. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not the same as the Light God and Light Goddess that you are enemies with. That would be really awkward if that was the case. Lyrica was visited by a few gods one of which is Heracles and they¡¯re discussing the nature of her trial right now. Aarim was visited by As, to my surprise, Silvia was visited by the father son duo of Apollo and Asclepius, Chen Yu was visited by Aeolus, Deimos, Erebus and Thanatos while Madison was visited by quite a few gods as well. One of the more notable gods is Kratos who represents strength and power."
Hearing that her friends were doing well, Shiro sighed in relief.
"That¡¯s good. I¡¯m guessing I¡¯ll get a trial from you by the end of this?" Shiro asked as Nyx nodded.
"Naturally as that is the goal of the God Trials. But before that, I want to talk to you a little more. Primarily on the second member who is supporting you."
"And who is that? You mentioned her thest time we met." Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s my mother, Chaos." Nyx replied with a chuckle as Shiro widened her eyes.
"Wait what?"
"I know, I was surprised too when I felt her blessing on you as she usually watches things happen. She can¡¯t show herself often as the restraints around her are one of the most annoying in this universe but you have indeed met her before. I believe she told you good luck?" Nyx chuckled.
"So that was her." Shiro smiled as she remembered the mysterious woman that she had met previously.
Chapter 647 Chaos
Chapter 647 Chaos
Searching through her memories, Shiro remembered the white haired woman who wore a ck dress simr to her. She stood in the middle of arge hall with motes of light that danced around her.
Before she left the space, the woman had turned to her and mouthed the words, good luck young one.
"Yes, that was my mother. Her identity is very special as you can guess due to the fact that she is Chaos. The fact that she has blessed you means that you are truly this universe¡¯s final lifeline." Nyx smiled.
"What did she bless me with exactly?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Retention of memories and the fusion of abilities from your past life. Especially one that is simr to her own powers albeit a little different. In other words, the power of creation and bnce. Right now, her role is more of a bncer of the system and she makes sure that everything is in order. However, if she continues to do so, the universe is doomed to reset over and over again. Hence why she made an exception for you who obtained a power that bore resemnce to her own. Creation and bnce Your power creates but you must find a bnce in your creation or else the creation fails." Nyx chuckled.
"That¡¯s why you still have the Nanomancer ss despite it being an anomaly from a different Garden and your body not being the same."
"So Chaos was the cause of my ¡¯reincarnation¡¯ I suppose or rather, retention of memories. Otherwise I would have continued to live as Kuromi." Shiro sighed.
"Not quite. You would not have continued to live as Kuromi since the lifeline was broken. What my mother did was instead deploy a failsafe to prevent the final lifeline from truly disappearing. Every time a person reincarnates, their te is wiped clean. Those who were mass murderers could be saviours in their next life. You¡¯re no different. You¡¯re not Nytri nor are you Kuromi. You are a whole new entity who retained her memories of thest two lives that she lived. Hence why you were registered with a new name by the system since you¡¯re someone new." Nyx exined.
"Though to make it so that you could actually obtain your past powers and memories, my mother had to suffer a little hence why she was locked up in the timeless vault. I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯ve seen the motes of lights right? Those are the anomalies that she needs to solve and some of them stretch out into the past. One of the anomalies is your old pal Aekari who was turned into an anomaly by the Light Goddess who coincidentally, was also one. While she cannot change what had happened in the past, she can change the future. Kuromi should have been the one but Aekari met her way too soon due to what you have done in your past life when you were affected by Aekari¡¯s anomaly. Like a domino effect, the Light Goddess corrupted Aekari and Aekari changed your fate. Therefore, she had to make a second backup n which is you, Shiro." Nyx gestured at Shiro who continued to stay silent.
"For your third life, my mother had to make sure that you can be a proper lifeline so she infused some of her powers into you. Every time you evolve, your limit is increased and the things that you can obtain within that ss exceeds what is counted as the ¡¯norm¡¯. In one way, I suppose you are now a primordial like me."
"So you¡¯re telling me that everything I¡¯ve obtained is due to Chao¡¯s help and not my own efforts?" Shiro looked down at her hands.
"Not quite. You can¡¯t p with one hand after all. You need efforts from both sides and the fact that you have achieved power of this level at your current stage astounds me since this was much higher than what my mother had expected." Nyx shook her head.
"I see..."
"Anyways, I can¡¯t tell you any more about mother since I am also bound by the system so let¡¯s talk about your trial." Nyx smiled.
"Mn, so what do I have to do? You said that thest trial that you gave me was just a taster no? So what is the trial going to be this time?" Shiro asked.
"This trial is a little special since the rewards are rather amazing."
"What rewards are we talking about?"
"I cannot say but trust me, even I¡¯m a little jealous but it unfortunately doesn¡¯t fit me so I can¡¯t obtain it." Nyx shrugged.
"Oh? A reward that even the goddess Nyx is jealous of? You have my undivided attention." Shiro chuckled.
"Exactly. Now then, the trial will happen in a different realm. The forgotten realm to be exact, and the time is simr to the dtion you feel in dungeons. A day in there is an hour out here. What you do in the forgotten realm affects your grade. As you can guess and the clear conditions vary but the base clear condition is for you to obtain the divinity of the primordial gods. Gaia, Ouranos, Tartarus, Chronos, and me, Nyx. Just a note for you, in the forgotten realm, you cannot use the power you have obtained in the outside world and only the power you obtain inside. Thankfully for you, there are towers that represent a god¡¯s divinity within this realm. Each tower will grant you a god¡¯s power should you seed. However, you must remember that a person can only hold so much power in their body so once you reach a certain amount of skills, you cannot obtain anymore. Your limit is 6 powers while a normal being in the forgotten realm can only have 3." Nyx smiled.
"Wait, so that means I can only get one power before the rest have to be the primordial ones?" Shiro widened her eyes.
"Yup. For great power, one must face an equal amount of adversity. Good luck Shiro, I do hope that you¡¯ll seed." Nyx smiled as a giant tier 8 magic circle expanded beneath Shiro, stretching across the horizons of Tartarus.
Before Shiro could even say anything, her body flickered away.
###
Blinking her eyes, Shiro clicked her tongue in annoyance and sat up. Looking around her, she found herself in a rather worn out bed with a rugged cover that had seen years of use. The colour of the cover was faded and the edges were ripped.
To her side was a makeshift table that had rocks supporting one of the legs so that it didn¡¯t tip over.
Getting off of the bed, Shiro found her body devoid of strength and a gut wrenching hunger assaulted her mind.
¡¯For f*ck sake. Of course I have to start in this condition.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and looked down at her dress. Her smile couldn¡¯t help but twitch as she was essentially wearing a potato sack with holes cut out for the head and arms.
Swiping her hand out, she checked the current trial.
[God Trial ¨C The Forgotten Realm.]
In the forgotten realm, power is represented by the power of gods which you obtain. When a person reaches the age of 18, they are to undergo their first trial to obtain a divinity which belongs to one of the gods. If they refuse, they cannot attempt any gods¡¯ trials after this year. Should you obtain a weak divinity, you are doomed to live an average life. But if you decide to go for a powerful divinity, the chances of you losing your life is great. Many have trained for this day so that they may ascend to be one of the five great warriors who have cleared the primordial trials.
Current Scenario: You are an orphan raised in the nameless church located in the countryside city of Trai. You were quiet in your upbringing and your nature has caused you to be excluded from making proper friends. Today is your birthday and it also represents the time where you need toplete a gods¡¯ trial.
(Basic knowledge of this vige and surroundings has been imnted)
Clear Condition 1: Obtain the 5 primordial divinities.
[ - ] Nyx, Primordial Goddess of the Night
[ - ] Gaia, Primordial Goddess of the Earth
[ - ] Ouranos, Primordial God of the Sky
[ - ] Tartarus, Primordial God of the Underworld
[ - ] Chronos, Primordial God of Time
There may be more clear conditions depending on the actions that you choose.
Looking at the disy, Shiro scratched her head and noticed how rough her hair was. The ends were damaged and the pristine white colour was now tainted by browns.
"Goals of the day, food, a bath, proper clothes, research on which trials I can do." Shiro muttered.
Looking around the room, she tried to find anything that can be used as a weapon for now. Unfortunately for her, the best that she could find was a small rusted fruit knife with a dull edge.
¡¯That¡¯ll do for now.¡¯ She thought to herself.
ncing out of the hole in the wall, she could see fiverge pirs in the distance and understood her objectives.
¡¯Let the trials begin I suppose.¡¯ She thought with a grin and walked out of her room.
Chapter 648 Forgotten Realm
Chapter 648 Forgotten Realm
The moment she walked out of her room, Shiro was greeted by a hall of children who were eagerly awaiting their breakfast. Upon seeing Shiro, they ignored her as she wasn¡¯t thedy with the food.
Ignoring them, Shiro sat by near one of the corners and started to browse through the memories that the system had imnted to help her with this trial.
From what she could understand, in order to attempt one of the trials, one must make their way to the towers. The higher ranking and more powerful the god, the bigger the tower. Unfortunately, the vige of Tria was in the countryside where there were hardly any god trials so she¡¯d need to find a way for her to reach one of the bigger cities or else her first divinity will be useless for her to attempt the Primordial trials.
¡¯Since I¡¯m only allowed one divinity before attempting the primordial trials, I need to find a god that can provide me with the power to aplish this. Heracles is definitely one of them but it¡¯s probably hard to find his trial out of the many that fill this ce.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
With the way this ce is set up, she¡¯d need to adapt to the situation and find the most suitable trial.
She had a year to find andplete the trial or else she¡¯d lose her qualification. Next up was the matter of actuallypleting the trial. Most people in this world will choose a lesser deity for their first trial andplete the test.
Unfortunately, she was not given that freedom since she had toplete the five hardest trials in this realm. Since she was limited to one divinity, she had to make this one count.
Furrowing her brows, she tried to remember gods that had helpful powers but were not too strong or else she wouldn¡¯t be able toplete the trial. Right now, she was in her base state so she had to be careful of not biting off more than what she could chew.
While she was in the midst of thought, a bowl with some gruel wasid out in front of her.
Eating it quickly to fill her hunger, Shiro was unsatisfied and wanted some more.
ncing at the old fruit knife that she had taken from the room, she figured that she could probably hunt a wild animal and cook their meat for food.
She also wanted to take a bath since her body was filthy right now.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ll need to go steal some things from the vige before I leave. It¡¯s not like I n to stay here anyways.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Standing up, she left the orphanage without saying anything and looked around the vige.
Most of the houses here were made from simple brick and the area was quite open.
To the south of the orphanage was a small stream that had crops growing by the side.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro figured that she could probably give herself a good wash further down the stream so that her body wasn¡¯t seen by the people here.
But before that, she wanted some proper clothes.
Narrowing her eyes at the back of the orphanage, she could see the samedy who had given her the food drying some clothes. Unfortunately, they were pretty much the same as what she was currently wearing.
¡¯Tch, just my luck.¡¯ Shiro clicked her tongue.
Shaking her head, she decided to go for a quick walk through the vige in order to find any clothes that were lying around so that she could take them for herself.
Unfortunately, the clothes in this vige were all rather poor in quality so Shiro gave up on looking for some clothes. If anything, she can just use the hide from the animals that she¡¯ll killter.
Walking back to the stream, she started to follow along the side and left the vige.
The stream led to two locations, one was a forest and the other was an empty grass in. Choosing the forest route, Shiro walked while rubbing her stomach from the hunger. Despite having eaten a bowl of gruel, it was extremely watered down and she had essentially drunk water instead.
Sighing softly, she nced around her and made sure that she was alone. Once she was sure, she took her potato sack dress off and set it down by the side.
Sinking her body into the stream, she started to wash the dirt off her body.
It took her half an hour to properly wash herself. But in doing so, she felt much more refreshed.
Looking at her reflection, she saw that she essentially looked the same only with slightly rough hair and herplexion was rather poor. She was quite slim in an unhealthy way and her lips were cracked.
Seeing herself in the stream, she was reminded of Achilles¡¯ legend and figured that he was probably a good choice for one. After all, he was bathed in the river Styx and became immortal except for his heel which caused his downfall.
Shaking her head, she was about to step out of the river when she saw a pair of eyes ring at her from the bush.
Instantly going on guard, Shiro quickly grabbed her old fruit knife and prepared forbat if it was required.
*Grrrr.....
Hearing a low growl, Shiro crouched down slowly and prepared tosh out as well. While she may be weakened right now, she could still use the monster¡¯s own strength against him.
Unfortunately, her foot slipped on one of the rocks in the river and her guard waspromised.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯
Understanding that she had broken her own guard, Shiro quickly used her spare hand to push herself to the side so that the monster didn¡¯t kill her instantly. Using the river stream to reposition herself, she quickly crawled out of the river and red towards the monster in the centre who had tried to pounce on her.
The monster resembled a lynx with golden brown fur that was now drenched with water.
His golden eyes red towards her as he slowly swam to the side and dried himself with a quick shake of his body.
Unfortunately for Shiro, unlike a normal lynx, this monster was the size of an a.d.u.l.t human and had long sharp ws and spikes simr to a porcupine sticking out of his back.
Furrowing her brows, she figured that it was probably hard to kill this thing with just an old fruit knife and that she probably needed something longer.
However, it did not mean that she wasn¡¯t going to try.
Taking a deep breath, she dashed towards the monster and quickly grabbed a loose rock by the side.
Throwing it towards him, she took the chance hop backwards in time to avoid his swipe.
Grabbing the extended w, she fell on her back and kicked the monster over her body.
*HOWL!
Crying out in anger, the monster quickly adjusted his body and pounced towards her but Shiro had already rolled out of the way.
Using the tree as cover, she jumped up and kicked the beast into the river.
While he was thrashing around, Shiro jumped in as well and pinned his ws under her feet as best she could before digging her fruit knife into his eye.
Giving the knife a quick spin, she pulled the knife and quickly backed off as the pain caused the monster to attack wildly.
Unfortunately for Shiro, one of his ws had managed to swipe against her outer thigh, causing arge amount of blood to flow into the water.
"SSSSSS!!" Taking a sharp breath of air, Shiro red back at the monster and had a single thought.
¡¯You¡¯re my f*cking dinner tonight!¡¯
With her knife destroying one of his eyes, the monster¡¯s vision was now impaired. Taking this chance, tried her best to run towards the monster but the wound on her thigh prevented her from aplishing this properly.
However, it was good enough.
Seeing her limped run, the monstershed out at her once more as Shiro quickly ducked down into the river.
Grabbing his hind legs, she quickly dragged him down and started to stab toward his abdominal area and chest.
The monster kicked his hind legs and scratched at Shiro in order to get away but she managed to dodge most of his attacks with minor injuries. After a few short moments, the monster fell limp as Shiro managed to kill him with a major wound on her thigh and several cuts around her stomach and chest with varying degrees of seriousness.
Most of them were shallow but a few were deep and Shiro had to quickly patch them up.
Thankfully for her, she had obtained her dinner for the night.
Chapter 649 Travelling Through The Forest
Chapter 649 Travelling Through The Forest
Taking a moment to rest up, Shiro tried her best to patch up her wounds but it was rather difficult considering herck of tools and fabrics. The only outfit that she had right now was a potato sack that barely extended past her waist. Leaving herpletely exposed should she jump.
In the end, Shiro decided to just give them a quick wash to make sure they¡¯re clean before searching for a few dry branches to make a fire to cook her dinner.
Spending the next hour or so to set everything up, Shiro sat down on a tree root and held the badly cut piece of meat over the fire with another branch.
While she was waiting for it to cook, she was thinking about her next steps.
¡¯If my memory is correct, once I make my way through this forest, I should find myself in front of a small town. It¡¯s a gamble but I should be able to make my way through as long as I¡¯m careful.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Looking down at the cut on her thighs, which she wrapped up with her potato sack dress for now to stop the bleeding, Shiro sighed.
She¡¯d have to gomando for a little while or else she¡¯ll probably die of blood loss. Even though it was shameful, it had to be done in the name of survival.
Once the meat was roasted, she started to eat it with renewed vigour. While it wasn¡¯t as tasty as the food that her mum and Yin made, it was much better than the watered down gruel that she had this morning.
While she was eating, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a little light headed from the blood loss but shook herself out of it.
¡¯I can probably win another fight with a monster. After that, I¡¯ll be dead. Thankfully, I can use the bones of this monster to make some better weapons than the fruit knife.¡¯ She thought to herself.
For the rest of the day, Shiro focused on making a makeshift cloak with the monster¡¯s hide and a short sword with the femur.
Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to sharpen it effectively so she had to spend much longer to make it into something that she could use. During this, she had idently broken the tip so it had to be repurposed into a dagger.
With the experience of making a weapon from the femur, she was able to create the short sword effectively on the second attempt. With a bone dagger and short sword in hand, Shiro was a little more confident in killing whatever came at her next but her wounds still caused her some worry.
However, now that she had made a small cloak for now with the hide, she could cut up her potato sack dress and make a more efficient bandage.
Bandaging all of her wounds, after cleaning and cutting the potato dress sack carefully, Shiro started to prepare the tendon of the monster so that she could carry the meat to be usedter. She didn¡¯t know when she¡¯d hunt her next meal so she needed to be careful with what she left behind.
By the time that the sky started to turn orange with a hint of purple, Shiro had just finished making everything she needed right now and some shelter would be wee.
Looking around her, she tried to look for a tree that was suitable for rest but the trees near the edge were all rather short in height so she¡¯ll need to venture deeper in order to find a decent ce for rest.
As her wounds were still quite fresh, Shiro had to be careful so as to not make them worse. Looking for arge branch that she could use as a crutch, she then quickly filled up the bone cups up with water.
She had made these by scooping out the bone marrow and used some of the tendons and hide to act as a cap so that the water didn¡¯t escape.
Filling around 15 cups, which she hung around her body with some left over tendons, Shiro started to make her way through the forest.
After walking for an hour or so, she found a decent tree and decided to use it for now. Trying her best to climb up, she caused the wound on her thigh to reopen which caused her to flinch but she pushed herself up so that she could make it so that it was worth it.
Sitting down on the branch, she grabbed one of her bone cups and drank all of the contents.
Despite her trying to wash them out as best she could, the after taste was still horrendous but it¡¯ll do for now.
Tomorrow, she was going to climb to the very top and see how far this forest stretched out for. Hopefully, it shouldn¡¯t take her too long to escape.
Looking up at the sky, Shiro sighed and closed her eyes.
¡¯One hour has passed outside. I wonder how the others are doing.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and slowly fell asleep.
###
For the next few days, Shiro tried to avoidbat if she could since the monsters she saw were ratherrge in size, as in theypletely dwarfed her and should she even try to hunt them, she¡¯d be signing her own death warrant.
During this time, her wounds had mostly been closed up and she had removed the bandages which stuck to her wound due to the dried blood but a few careful rinses and she was able to remove them without reopening her wound too much.
Following along the stream, her food was running out despite her rations but the end was near. She had constantly made sure to get a general feel of the area and knew that the town was only a day or two away.
There were a few small animals that tried to run away from her but were turned into a few short snacks. They weren¡¯t the most appetising but they were enough.
With only a little more to go till the town, Shiro gave herself another quick wash in the stream while making sure to clean her wounds and not soak them in water for too long.
Looking at her reflection, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head at how much weight she had lost which was surprising as she was already malnourished in the forgotten realm. It was a surprise that she could even hunt any beasts down in her current state.
¡¯I wonder if there¡¯s a ce like the orphanage in the town where I can rest for free. If not, I¡¯ll have to go rest on some body¡¯s roof or something.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
As she had no money on hand, she couldn¡¯t buy anything and that included transport. Meaning, she¡¯ll need to trouble some poor folk for some money which may or may not include stealing.
Shaking her head, Shiro wrapped the hide cloak around her body once more and started to make her way out of the forest.
While she was walking out, she couldn¡¯t help but hear some cries in the distance followed up by a monstrous roar.
Raising her eyebrows, she decided to go and have a look at what was happening. Who knows, she might be able to get someone¡¯s favour if they were in danger.
Making her way over as quietly as possible, she saw a father and son talking to each other while a monster growled at them in wariness. The monster was currently trapped in somes and had wooden spears sticking out of his body.
Looking at the monster, Shiro could see that it was simr to the one she had killed the moment she entered the forest, only this one was much bigger and the spikes on his back were flickering with hints of electricity.
Before she could say anything, an arrow was shot towards her as she quickly stepped out the way and grabbed the arrow out the air.
"What are you doing!" The father howled as the boy flinched.
"But I sensed something was there and I thought it was another monster." The boy replied in slight fear. The bow quivered in his hands as the father quickly ran over to Shiro who had just caught the arrow.
"I¡¯m sorry, are you ok? My son is on edge after helping me hunt the Terca." The father apologised while making sure that she wasn¡¯t harmed. Seeing her state, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder what had happened to her as she was wearing some beast hide cloak and walked around in her bare foot.
Despite not being able to see her body, he could tell that she was malnourished.
"I¡¯m ok. Is the town nearby?" Shiro asked while giving the arrow to the father. He was a muscr man with short brown hair and a rather impressive beard. He wore simple clothing that stretched due to his muscles.
"Ah yes. If you travel down the stream for another hour and a half, you¡¯ll reach the town." The man replied as Shiro nodded her head.
Walking past the monster, Shiro heard him growl at her and red at him with killing intent. This caused the monster to cower with fear as whimpers could be heard.
Leaving the duo with their hunt, Shiro made her way to the town.
Chapter 650 Teacher
Chapter 650 Teacher
Upon leaving the forest, Shiro could see the river flowing through a bridge and some water wheels.
Raising her eyebrows, she walked up the side of the river bank and made her way into the town where people would nce towards her with curiosity and disgust but Shiro ignored them.
Her goal here was to A, find some clothing and B, find some information on which trials are where.
Looking around for a little while, she managed to spot a few clothes that were hung out to dry.
Narrowing her eyes, she made herself unseen through the alleys and nabbed a pair of shirts and pants. They were a littlerge but it would do for now.
Quickly dashing away from the scene before they could spot her. Changing into the still damp clothes, Shiro looked at her feet and wondered if she should find herself some footwear as it was rather ufortable to be walking around in barefoot. Especially in a town like this.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro grabbed her old fruit knife that she had kept since it was the sharpest thing on her and started to cut some pieces of her hide cloak. Now that she had some clothes underneath, she could actually start using some of the hide to make shoes.
Using some of the tendons that she had used to wrap the meat, she tied the hide around her feet so that they acted as shoes. It wasn¡¯t exactly the nicest looking but it will do for now.
With her clothes sorted out, Shiro wanted to look for some alcohol so that she could save it as disinfectant but stealing alcohol was definitely much harder than stealing clothes since they would be stored in secure locations.
Giving up on the alcohol, she looked around for the stables.
Seeing an elderly man brushing the horses, Shiro walked up.
"Excuse me." She called out.
"Yes? What can I do for you?" The elderly man nced back and frowned but allowed her to ask her question.
"Do you know what kind of trials are near here?"
"You¡¯re looking for the trials? Do you have any money to pay for this information?" He asked while narrowing his eyes.
"Money? No I don¡¯t." Shiro shook her head.
"Then don¡¯t bother me." He waved his hand and ushered her away.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro was a little annoyed but there wasn¡¯t much she could do.
"So if Ie back with some money, you¡¯ll tell me right?" Shiro asked.
"Yes yes, I¡¯ll tell you if you bring me some money." The elderly man waved his hand and dismissed her without looking back.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro nced at his body and spotted a small pouch peeking out from his shirt.
Estimating its weight, she figured that she could probably do a quick switch and run away if things get bad.
"Please sir, it¡¯s only some information. If you tell me I¡¯ll leave." Shiro asked as she grabbed his arm.
Acting as though she was desperate, the man was clearly annoyed.
Punching her across the face, he pushed Shiro off his arm and walked inside, ignoring herpletely.
Spitting some blood on the ground, Shiro clicked her tongue in annoyance and walked away. While she wasn¡¯t able to switch the money pouchpletely, she managed to loosen it up and grab a few coins the moment he tried to punch her.
Even though she could have dodged it with ease, she needed to get some money for her troubles.
¡¯At least I got money now.¡¯ Shiro sighed while ncing down at the few pieces of copper coins that she had managed to secure for herself.
¡¯To think I actually took a hit just for some coins.¡¯
*Sigh...
Sighing softly, Shiro looked around for someone else so that she could get some information. The best ce would probably be a school.
Asking around for a little bit, there were some folk who were nice enough to tell her and she managed to arrive without any problems.
ncing through one of the windows, Shiro could see an a.d.u.l.t teaching some children and decided to wait until the lesson was over.
Feeling some hunger once more, Shiro frowned and figured that she probably needed to hunt something either tonight or tomorrow to keep herself in fighting form.
After a few hours, the ss was over and Shiro waited for the teacher to leave the building.
"Excuse me." Shiro called out.
"Yes?" Looking towards Shiro, the teacher was a little curious as to what this stranger wanted from him.
"Are you able to tell me where the god trials are and what god they belong to?" Shiro asked.
"I can but... it¡¯s getting a littlete." The teacher said while ncing up at the sky.
"How about this, the school doesn¡¯t need money so you cane tomorrow and I¡¯ll tell you during the lesson." He smiled.
"It doesn¡¯t need money?" Shiro tilted her head.
"If it did, parents wouldn¡¯t send their children to school to learn about the other cities and the ces around the world." The teacher shook his head and left the area.
¡¯Hm, I suppose it makes sense since there¡¯s probably a high chance that the people living here will continue the family job such as being a farmer rather than venturing out into the wild.¡¯
With a goal in mind for tomorrow, Shiro started to walk towards the forest once more so that she could hunt down a monster for some food and shelter for the night.
Looking at the copper coins, she figured that she could probably pay the father and son duo for some of the meat if she saw them. That way, she could avoid being wounded in another fight since the wounds still hadn¡¯t healed up properly yet.
Arriving at the same spot that she had seen the father son duo, she could spot a drag mark with dried blood meaning that they were dragging the monster away.
Thinking about it for a moment, she eventually decided to follow the tracks and found herself in front of a cabin located in the forest. There was a warm glowing from the cabin as Shiro figured that they were inside.
Knocking on the door, Shiro waited patiently.
*Creak~
"Ah it¡¯s you from earlier." The father looked at Shiro with surprise.
"Mn. Can I pay you for some food and shelter tonight?" Shiro asked.
"We don¡¯t really have a spare room but if you don¡¯t mind, you can sleep in an empty space. Think of it as an apology for earlier. As for food, since we have just hunted the monster, we¡¯ve got plenty of meat for a little while." The father smiled kindly.
"What about the payment?" Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s only for a night. Come on in." The father gestured for her to enter as Shiro nodded her head.
Seeing the son sitting on a wooden chair while looking at her with curiosity, Shiro stood around awkwardly.
"Sit down, we¡¯re just eating now so I¡¯ll grab a bowl for you. If you don¡¯t mind, can I ask you for your name?" The father asked.
"Shiro. What about you and your son?"
"I¡¯m Nam and my son is called Ras. So howe you were travelling through the forest?" Nam asked while cing a bowl in front of her.
"To get to this town." Shiro replied simply.
"I see. Are you here because of Mr Tarih?" Nam asked.
"Who?"
"He¡¯s a warrior that came from one of therger towns further east and he teaches people how to fight and keep themselves alive. People from other vigese here to get lessons from him." Nam exined.
"No it¡¯s not him. All I want is information on the god trials." Shiro shook her head.
"Ah so you¡¯vee of age. You¡¯ll probably find some information from the school then. The teacher there is said to havepleted a small trial from Athena and received the divinity of knowledge. If you want information, he¡¯s the one to go to." Nam smiled.
"Athena huh?" Shiro smiled, hearing a familiar name.
Since he was the one who received her divinity, then her choice of looking for the school was right.
Talking to the father and son duo for a little bit, Shiro eventually found herself a spot next to the window and huddled up carefully so that she didn¡¯t reopen her wounds.
Closing her eyes, she made sure to keep her guard up just in case the Nam was more than what he seemed. After all, she was a stranger here.
Chapter 651 First Lesson in the Forgotten Realm
Chapter 651 First Lesson in the Forgotten Realm
The night passed peacefully as Nam didn¡¯t try to do anything. Shiro did identally scare the living crap out of Ras as he forgot they had a guest huddled in the corner but they managed to resolve it without waking up his father.
When morning came, Nam cooked up another meal before Shiro left.
Thanking the father and son duo, Shiro left the cabin and made her way back to the city so that she could attend the public lesson that the teacher was hosting. After all, he was a good source of information at this moment in time.
Waiting by the school patiently, she could see a few parents frown at her but eventually ignored her presence.
Some of them made their disgust known by saying lines such as ¡¯they really do let anyone participate huh? If it wasn¡¯t for free, I wouldn¡¯t even want my child to be near a beggar like her.¡¯
To which Shiro would only shrug and ignore them. After all, it¡¯s not like they were going to leave this vige any time soon and live a better life now.
She knows how it usually goes, she shows them her power, they beg for forgiveness. It¡¯s better to spare herself of the trouble.
After waiting for a little while, Shiro could see the teacher approaching in the distance.
Standing up, she greeted him when he got close.
"You seem eager to learn." He chuckled softly.
"I require knowledge after all. Without knowledge, you can¡¯t do anything." Shiro nodded her head.
Smiling at her response, he gestured for everyone to enter the building.
Some of the parents started toin to him about Shiro¡¯s presence but he ignored them.
The ssroom was rather poor as it was just some benches lined up with no desks. There was a chair at the front and a b of dark grey stone which had several pieces of burnt branches set to the side so that he could draw on the b.
"Today we¡¯ll be learning about this world and the trials that are located everywhere across thisnd. Since we have a new student joining us, I¡¯ll go over some of the things that we already know.
"First, our world is called the Forgotten Realms as stated on the Mural of Beginnings. It is split into five sections each representing one of the primordial deities. Nyx, Gaia, Ouranos, Tartarus and Chronos. Each section is filled with cities and unique environmental scenarios which are due to the Gods¡¯ power.
"In the Section of Night which houses the tower of Nyx, day is much shorter than the other areas and beasts roam the night. The closer you get to the tower, the more powerful the beasts be and some say that the beasts located at the entrance can¡¯t be defeated even by those who have obtained three divinities."
"But how are you supposed toplete her tower then?" One of the kids interrupted as the teacher sighed.
"It¡¯s supposed to be hard. If it was easy, everyone could obtain the powers of a deity and turn this world asunder. Anyways, I shall resume my lesson now." He exined while using the charcoal to draw out a rough diagram of the world.
"The next Section of Life which houses the tower of Gaia. It is located in the west where nts and wildlife are an abundance in this section. The closer you get to the tower, the denser the forest bes. The monsters here are mostly harmless and won¡¯t try to kill anyone. People who hunt the monsters are then punished by the forest itself. The forest will drain you of your vitality in order to bnce out the life of which you took. Therefore, if you ever find yourself in the Section of Life, do not kill any of the inhabitants or else your life is forfeit.
"The third section is located near the north is the Section of Sky. Most of thend mass in this ce are broken apart and float freely in the air while maintaining a certain distance from one another. There are times where the indse close to colliding but they never do. After studying the patterns of the inds, some have managed to construct a few bridges that join together when the inds are close and allow safe passage. There are also air channels scattered through the section that act like air carriages which carry your body with a gust of air. The safe channels are marked while the dangerous ones are guarded by enforcement so that people don¡¯t identally harm themselves.
"The fourth section is located in the east and it¡¯s the Section of the Underworld, one that has the tower of Tartarus. This ce is one that you should avoid whenever possible as it is filled with criminals andrge monsters that attack everyone. asionally, things called Wardens of Tartarus will appear but people don¡¯t know what they do as all who run into them have disappeared without any exceptions. They are only rumours but the disappearing people are real.
"Thest and final section is the section of Time. This section is smaller than the others in that it is squashed between the Section of Life and the Section of the Underworld. The flow of this ce is rather weird as there are instances where you would find yourself back to where you were a few moments ago or where you could have been if you kept walking. There¡¯s not much known about this ce as it is hard to investigate the flow of time but people have been able to map out a rather safe route to the tower. Thankfully, there aren¡¯t any monsters in this section and you can live your life there if you want with some small problems but they¡¯re not too bothersome."
As the lesson continued, Shiro made sure to memorise everything.
During the second half of the lesson, the teacher started to talk about where they are and what trials are near this ce.
Right now, they¡¯re in the outer edges where the influence of each section is minimal. The closer you get to the towers, the more apparent the influence bes. The closest tower to their current location would be the tower of Nyx and the closer they get to the centre, the longer the night bes.
After the lessons ended, Shiro decided to ask the teacher some more questions. Seeing as though Shiro was entirely focused during the lesson, he agreed.
"Do you know where the trials belonging to Heracles and Achilles are located?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I do but they¡¯re rather difficult trials. Most would take them as their second or third divinity. Seeing as you are still young, can I guess that you¡¯re looking for your first divinity?" He asked as Shiro nodded.
"I have something I need to do so the first one must be as strong as it can get." Shiro replied.
"I see... In that case then I don¡¯t rmend Heracles or Achilles since their trials are tough. There¡¯s no way that you canplete them without a single divinity." He shook his head.
"Then what¡¯s the most powerful trial that you can rmend?" Shiro asked.
"I don¡¯t know since I don¡¯t know about your current abilities. You¡¯re malnourished and wounded. Any trial is dangerous for you."
"Mn... Then can you tell me about the most notable trials for a first trial? If possible, can it be somethingbat based or utility based?" Shiro asked.
"Ok, let me look through my notes." The teacher nodded and started to flip through his notes.
"There are a few that I¡¯ve found and probably the most noticeable one is Perseus. His divinity is a mix of utility and weapons and it grants you a small armoury of weapons of which you can summon at will but must replenish manually. Depending on how well you did his trial, the divinity may also grant you some physical benefits such as increased strength, speed, vitality and the such.
"If you want a strength-based divinity then Theseus might be one of them. Think of it like a weaker version of Heracles¡¯ divinity."
"Hmm..." Thinking back to their legends, Shiro knew that Perseus was the one who killed Medusa thanks to some of the items granted by the Greek gods. A magical helmet, a shield, the winged shoes of Hermes, a magical bag and a powerful sword which allowed him to cut through Medusa¡¯s hard neck. On the other hand, Theseus yed the Minotaur without any tools from the gods. Perseus¡¯ legend was simr to Theseus only that he needed the weapons as Medusa was a tricky foe and was more powerful than Minotaur.
"There are a few harder trials that might bepletable without a divinity but it hasn¡¯t been proven yet. The Goddess of speed, strength and victory, Nike also known as the winged goddess. The God of strength and power, Kratos. Hermes is also one of them."
"So I have a choice between Perseus, Theseus, Nike, Kratos and Hermes huh?" Shiro asked just to make sure.
"Yes, these are probably the most powerful ones that you canplete without a divinity. ¡¯Probably¡¯ is the key word." The teacher nodded.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro started to consider her options.
Chapter 652 Winged Goddess
Chapter 652 Winged Goddess
Looking over her options, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but nce at Nike and wonder if that goddess was the proper choice.
After all, she represented speed, strength and victory. With her identity known as the Winged Goddess, there was the possibility of her receiving flight as well which was very helpful.
Thinking back to a certain sports brand back on Earth, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder if she would receive the divinity called Just do it.
"Can you tell me more about Nike¡¯s Divinity?" Shiro asked as she was probably one of her best choices.
After all, the fact that she¡¯ll gain ess to flight will make things along easier.
"Well her Divinity is simr to that of Athena¡¯s. You get more of her power the more trials youplete in her tower. Ipleted the trial of wisdom but nothing else for Athena so I was only granted the Divinity of Wisdom. If onepletes more of her trials, they will receive the Divinity of Athena instead of just a branch. It¡¯s simr with Nike. You¡¯ll need toplete the trials of Speed, Strength, Battle and Flight."
Hearing this, Shiro found herself more and more interested with Goddess Nike¡¯s Divinity as the amount of utility that it provides is more impressive than the other Divinities. Perseus granted her an armour and increased strength but the armour had to be replenished by her manually. While Theseus and Kratos only granted her physical strength.
"What about Hermes¡¯ Divinity?" Shiro asked as Hermes could also fly but he was faster than any other god/goddess.
"For Hermes, I¡¯m thinking that you can onlyplete a portion of his trials without divinity since the strain of his agility far exceeds what a mortal body can handle. For Hermes, most would choose him as their second divinity after their body has been upgraded by the first. If you were to choose him as your first divinity, you would probably only get some improvements to your body, some increased reflexes and better vitality." The teacher replied with a shake of his head.
"In terms of difficulty, Hermes and Kratos¡¯ trials are harder than Nike¡¯s while Nike¡¯s trials are harder than Perseus and Theseus. Out of these five, you should probably choose Nike if you¡¯re confident. Her Divinity is better than what people normally choose for their first while worse than what people choose for their second."
"So it¡¯s an exceptional first Divinity but less a than average second Divinity?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Exactly."
"Hm.. where is it located?" Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s located in the Section of Sky, towards the north. You can find where the trial is as there are maps around each city but the problem for you is getting there. If you want to walk there, I¡¯m afraid it may take three months or more without taking into consideration the dangers you may face while getting there. And that¡¯s considering if you take a straight path. The main difficulty for you is getting to the trial along with whether or not you have the strength to actually attempt it. After all, Nike¡¯s trial does put a burden on your body. Looking at your current state, the chances are not high." He shook his head after seeing how malnourished Shiro was.
"More than three months huh?" Shiro muttered.
Since she had a year toplete the first trial, it was ok if it took three months. The problem was the dangers she¡¯d face during this time. It¡¯ll take around three months for her current wounds to heal at an average pace and that¡¯s considering if she doesn¡¯t do anything too drastic. If she had to fight, it¡¯ll take longer than three months. Hell, she might even get more injuries on the way there.
Seeing Shiro frown, the teacher shook his head.
"The most I can do for you is give you a map towards the trial of Nike. Though if you spend some time to do some work, you can probably pay for a few carriage rides from city to city. That¡¯ll take you to the Tower twice as fast but it costs quite a bit of money."
"Will you be going to the Section of Sky this year?" Shiro asked as she had an idea.
"Yes I am. I travel across the world every year so that I can spread the knowledge. However, I had already visited the Section of Sky a few months ago so it¡¯ll take at least 9 months before I visit there again."
¡¯Hmm... 9 months... that¡¯s around 274 days in this ce and around 11 days or so outside.¡¯
"Can I work as your assistant and join you on your journey? It¡¯ll be easier than going to the Section of Sky alone since who knows what kind of danger I may run into." Shiro suggested as this was probably one of the safer options. The only downside to this was time but thanks to the time dtion in this ce, she was fine with it.
"You? Work as my assistant?" He raised his eyebrows.
"Yes, I can show you my capabilities. Tell me everything you want to teach in tomorrow¡¯s lesson and I can deliver that lesson for you. You can watch by the side to make sure that everything is correct if you don¡¯t believe me."
Looking at the dedication in her eyes, the man was rather surprised however, he still shook his head.
"Just reciting the information isn¡¯t enough. If you really want to be my assistant, you¡¯ll need to memorise everything and thoroughly understand the contents."
"I am confident with my memory and knowledge can be gained over time."
". . ." Staying silent, the teacher sighed.
"I¡¯ll be staying in this town for a while anyways so I¡¯ll give you a chance. In this time, you will act as my assistant. You will get no pay, you will get no help from me. If you are able to ovee all of it and still want to be my assistant by the end of my time in this town then I shall take you along with me. I will promise to the gods that I will take you to the Section of Sky should you pass." He offered as Shiro nodded her head.
"May I know your name? My name is Dimos but you will address me as Sir if you are to be my assistant." Dimos asked.
"Shiro is my name." Shiro replied.
"In that case, arrive here early in the morning and prepare for lessons. I¡¯ll allocate more tasks to you over the course of this time such as preparing the charcoal and cleaning the b so that you may show me your reliability." Dimos smiled.
Nodding her head, Shiro left the building. With her current state, having a guarantor like Dimos was helpful and travelling with him will allow her to learn more about this world. During this, she may find a trial that was more suitable for her other than Nike.
So long as he doesn¡¯t make her do outrageous things as an assistant, she will help him until they reach the Section of Sky. If he does, well... let¡¯s just say that he¡¯s not going to be waking up the next morning.
Making her way to the forest, she figured that she should probably go hunt something for dinner. She had already troubled Nam and Ras for a night of shelter and food so she¡¯ll need to procure her own tonight.
Looking down at her wounded thigh, she figured that sneak attacks and small movements were her best bet right now if she didn¡¯t want to make her wounds worse.
¡¯So annoying. I¡¯m used to my monstrous regeneration and I forgot how annoying it was to n for a fight while still being wounded.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh and walked into the forest.
Pressing her fingers against her throat, she did a few tests to make sure the tone of her voice was correct.
"Ah~ ah~ ah~" Once she got the tone and pitch that she wanted, she narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath. Copying a roar of the Terca, she waited a few moments for any replies and sure enough, she heard a few deep in the forests, giving her a general idea on where they were. Since it was not a good choice to fight the older ones, she picked out on one that sounded rtively young and had a higher pitch.
Pulling out her bone dagger and bone short sword, Shiro smiled at the thought of dinner.
Chapter 653 Assistant
Chapter 653 Assistant
Shiro managed to kill the Terca without much problems as it was still young. All she had to do was to spring a surprise attack on the young monster and it would be dead. However, she needed to be careful as the spikes could still harm her.
Looking at the dead Terca with the bone short sword and dagger sticking out of his head, Shiro sighed in relief and started to carry his corpse away.
The best that she could do right now was to set up a camp near the edge of the forest and sleep on one of the trees. If she set up camp in the forest, there was a high chance that the monsters could discover her.
Dragging the corpse, which was a little smaller than her, Shiro started to skin the hide off its body along with cutting up the meat so that it could be cooked easier. Setting the wasted material such as the organs to the side, Shiro made a quick fire with some dry branches and started to cook the meat.
While it was cooking, she started to sharpen the bones into small daggers so that she could have some ranged weaponry if they were needed. Though that was highly unlikely should she seed in bing Dimos¡¯ assistant. However, you never know what life would throw at you so it was good to make some backup ns.
After she ate the meat to fill herself for the night, Shiro checked up on her current equipment.
¡¯I have a short sword and 5 daggers now. I should probably make a belt or something so that I can store them under my hide cloak. It¡¯s also annoying if I have to carry these around by hand as well.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Threading some tendons through a strip of hide, Shiro created a holster of sorts for each of the daggers and wrapped it around her waist. With her daggers and short sword ready to be grabbed at any moment, Shiro nodded her head with satisfaction.
Taking it off for now, Shiro climbed to the top of a tree and hung the belt on one of the branches as she didn¡¯t want to be idently stabbed in her sleep. Grabbing her short sword, she kept it by her side in case something tried to attack her.
###
Waking up early the next day, Shiro cooked up some of the left-over meat and started to make her way back into the city.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to take a small detour to the butchers and see if she could work something out with the owner there.
That way, she could earn herself some money from the monsters that she hunts.
Due to her scouting on the first day, she had an idea on theyout of the town and the butchers was located in the centre of the town.
After walking for a bit, she could hear the butchers cutting up some meat for the morning.
"Excuse me?" Shiro called out.
"Morning. Are you looking for some meat?" The butcher asked with a smile.
"No, I¡¯m just asking if you can buy some of the monsters I hunt for some food. To my knowledge, Terca¡¯s are the mostmon monsters right? If I hunt them and bring it to you, can you buy them off me?" Shiro asked as the butchers thought about it for a moment.
"Ah I don¡¯t know youngdy. I¡¯m already buying monsters from a few people." He apologised.
"Hmm... I don¡¯t mind if you give me a little less in terms of pay. I just want to sell this since I can¡¯t eat the whole monster in a day." Shiro offered.
"I usually buy whole Terca¡¯s for 15 coppers. If they¡¯re not whole, I¡¯ll buy them for 10 coppers. If you really want to sell me Terca¡¯s, I¡¯ll buy whole ones for 12 coppers and if they¡¯re not whole, I¡¯ll buy them for 7 coppers." The butcher offered.
"What would you ss as not whole? Because I also want to keep some of the meat to feed myself." Shiro asked.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll show you."
Grabbing one of the Terca corpses that he had already prepared, he told her about the best meat and which is worth the most on the corpse.
"If these are missing, I¡¯ll deduct some copper if that¡¯s ok."
"Yeah that¡¯s fine. When shall I bring you the corpses? I have lessons in the day and I hunt at night for dinner and breakfast." Shiro asked.
"You can bring it here at night then. I¡¯ll wait for you to bring me the monster body." The butcher smiled.
"Are you sure? If you want, I can also bring it to somewhere convenient for you." Shiro asked.
"Nah it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m here most of the day anyways." He replied with augh.
"Thank you very much. Can I know your name?" Shiro smiled.
"Just call me Vasil. What¡¯s your name youngdy?" Vasil asked with a smile.
"Shiro."
After talking to the butcher for a little longer, Shiro started to make her way back to the school.
Looking at the sun, Shiro figured that Dimos still needed around an hour or so till he arrived at the school.
¡¯I should probably clean up the school a little since I have the time.¡¯ She thought to herself.
###
Cleaning the dust out of the ssroom, Shiro nodded her head with a small smile and climbed out the window. Waiting by the door, she saw more and more parents show up.
"Oi, what were you doing inside the ssroom without anyone around." One of the parents asked with a re."
"Hm? I was cleaning up." Shiro replied simply.
"I don¡¯t believe it. A beggar like you wouldn¡¯t clean up. You must have done something suspicious or you stole something." She frowned and reached out to grab Shiro¡¯s arm.
"What are you doing?" Shiro narrowed her eyes and stepped out of her reach.
Seeing that Shiro avoided her grab, the woman seemed enraged.
Reaching out for her once more, the woman was not gentle with her actions at all. Seeing this, Shiro knew that she probably shouldn¡¯t act nice with someone like this.
Brushing her cloak to the side, she revealed her set of daggers.
Grabbing her short sword, Shiro used it to parry her grab to the side.
"Don¡¯t act violently in a ce of learning." Shiro warned.
ring at her, the woman was now seething with rage.
"You little sh*t!"
"Stop! What are you doing this early in front of the school?" Dimos shouted out with a frown.
"This little beggar was doing something suspicious in the school. She even threatened me with the sword." The woman exined while ring at Shiro.
"Is that true?" Dimos turned to Shiro.
"No. I was cleaning up the ssroom and the woman tried to violently grab me. I was protecting myself with the sword." Shiro replied coldly.
If Dimos couldn¡¯t see right from wrong then she wasn¡¯t going to bother with him.
Furrowing his brows, Dimos decided to look inside the window and saw that the ssroom was indeed clean.
He also understood that some of the parents here were a little unhappy with Shiro due to the fact that she looked like a beggar so there was a high chance that they¡¯re ming Shiro for any reason they can find.
"Miss Avaros, can you conduct yourself a bit better? They¡¯re all here studying about the world and you¡¯re causing trouble for no reason. Unless you can behave yourself, I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to take your son and leave. I won¡¯t tolerate acts like this." Dimos narrowed his eyes at the woman.
"Whatever! Your lessons are a waste of time anyways." She huffed and left the area with her son.
Seeing this, Dimos shook his head.
"Thank you for cleaning up the room." He smiled and patted Shiro on the shoulder.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro nced down at her shoulder and shrugged.
Following behind him, Shiro stood near his seat at the front as she was acting as his assistant.
During the lesson, he would ask her to draw out some of the maps she had seen yesterday and Shiro managed to draw them with amazing uracy.
Seeing this, Dimos couldn¡¯t help but be surprised at her memory.
Little did he know, copying something from her database was easy for Shiro. Looking at the b, she could almost ovey the same image from her memory and all she needed to do was to trace over the image.
Continuing the lesson with Shiro drawing all of the maps and diagrams that he had wanted the draw, Dimos had a much easier time teaching and managed to teach more information that what he normally could as Shiro managed to draw all of the diagrams that he needed quickly.
Once lessons were over, Dimos was quite impressed.
"Good job today." Dimos smiled and left the building.
Chuckling softly, Shiro started to make her way to the forest. She¡¯ll be trying to hunt one more Terca than needed so that she could get more money from Vasil.
Chapter 654 Gifts From Dimos
Chapter 654 Gifts From Dimos
For the next week or so, Shiro repeated the process of helping Dimos in the school and hunting for Vasil to earn some money.
Thankfully, Terca were quitemon in the forest so Shiro didn¡¯t need to worry about running out of food.
They were also rather active in reproduction so there was always an abundance of Terca. In addition to this, since she had been hunting every day and eating a hearty meal both at night and in the morning, she was looking less malnourished and her body started to return to normal.
During this time, she had also gotten used to working around her wounds so the hunts became easier over time.
While there were still a few parents that were displeased with her, some have opened up to her and even gave her some snacks that they had made.
In a short while, Shiro made herself known in the town as a hard working girl who was the teacher¡¯s assistant and apetent hunter. Vasil also decided to return the price back to normal once he saw how many Terca she could hunt without fail.
However, she still slept in a tree as she couldn¡¯t afford a house but she wasn¡¯t too bothered since she was used to sleeping outside.
Today was her second week working as Dimos¡¯ assistant and she was currently preparing the ssroom for the next lesson.
Strangely enough, Dimos was arriving muchter than usual today and Shiro had to usher the students in and conduct the lesson herself.
Since she remembered what Dimos had wanted to teach today, it wasn¡¯t that hard to conduct a lesson in his stead.
Once the lessons were over, Shiro started to tidy up.
cing the notes on a makeshift wooden table that she had made, Shiro sat near the window and nced out at the sky.
"Hm... He¡¯s taking a while to get here. Usually he should have arrived a few hours ago. Did something happen to him?" Shiro muttered with a frown.
Shaking her head, Shiro was about to leave when he heard the sound of horses in the distance.
Raising her eyebrow, she watched as a horse carriage stopped in front of the school.
Seeing Dimos hop off the carriage with a bag, Shiro paused with mild surprise.
"Wee back sir. Howe you were away today? I had to conduct the lesson in your ce." Shiro asked, poking her head out of the window.
"Ah thank you for that. I was collecting something that I had ordered from another town. They ran into some trouble so I had to go quickly. I trusted you to conduct the lesson in my ce and you didn¡¯t disappoint me." Dimos chuckled.
"Naturally. I have already memorised all the lessons that you wanted to cover so it wasn¡¯t hard." Shiro shrugged with a smug expression.
"Don¡¯t feel toocent since it¡¯s a bad trait to have." Dimos chuckled.
"Well that¡¯s true." Shiro grinned.
Seeing the grin on his assistant that had made his life easier, Dimos shook his head with a soft smile.
"So what did you even go out to get? You didn¡¯t give me a notice." Shiro asked.
"I couldn¡¯t give you a notice since I didn¡¯t know where you live. But here, it¡¯s a small present I suppose." Dimos smiled and gave her the bag.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro looked into the bag and saw that it was a set of clothes that was neatly folded.
"I¡¯ve seen you wear the same set of clothes and cloak everyday so I figured that you should probably have a different outfit. Plus, it¡¯ll be easier for you when we get into other cities since you know how people react to beggars." Dimos smiled.
"Well it doesn¡¯t really bother me but thank you. I¡¯ll go get changed now I suppose." Shiro chuckled.
Making her way inside the building, she made sure that no one could see her and changed into the outfit that Dimos had bought her.
After getting changed, Shiro had to admit that the outfit was well made and it was quitefortable. It was a little big for her body as her stature was on the smaller side but it wasn¡¯t a problem.
The outfit consisted of a ck shirt, a white jacket with long ck sleeves and a ck skirt that extended to her ankles. In the bag was also a pair of shoes that were much better than what she was currently wearing.
Unfortunately, there was nowhere that she could use to store her weapons so she could only carry them in the bag.
"So how is it?" Dimos asked with a smile after seeing Shiro walk out in the outfit.
"It¡¯s great. How much was it?" Shiro asked.
"You don¡¯t have to pay me. Think of it as my payment for helping me out these days. How are your wounds by the way? I also bought some ointment for you." Dimos asked while pulling out a box from his bag.
"Ah they¡¯re healing. As long as I don¡¯t overexert myself while fighting, it should be healed in a month or so." Shiro replied while tapping her hand over her thigh. After all, that¡¯s where her biggest wound was.
If she wasn¡¯t so malnourished and weak at that point, she could have avoided this unnecessary damage.
"A month or so huh? Hmm... it¡¯ll probably have healed when we move to the next town. Ah that reminds me, where do you live? I don¡¯t know so it was kind of hard to tell you about me having to leave." Dimos asked.
"Oh I don¡¯t have a house. I¡¯ve just been camping in the forest." Shiro replied.
"Eh?"
"It¡¯s a bit ufortable but I got used to it. The trick is to find the right tree to sleep on. If you¡¯re curious, I can show you where I live." Shiro chuckled.
Nodding his head dumbfoundedly, Dimos waited for Shiro to lead the way.
Leaving the school, Shiro made her way to the forest with Dimos following behind her.
"This is the tree that I¡¯ve been sleeping in for thest two weeks or so. There¡¯s the campfire where I cook the monsters that I¡¯ve hunted." Shiro said while gesturing to her ¡¯home¡¯.
"Wait how do you keep yourself clean then?" Dimos asked as she didn¡¯t smell like she had been living in the wild. Normally, one would smell like blood or dirt if they had been living in the wild but Shiro wasn¡¯t like that.
"There¡¯s arge pool of water if you go deeper into the forest. I clean myself and dress my wounds there." Shiro exined.
"Ah..." Nodding his head, Dimos walked slightly further into the forest and saw that there were quite a few signs ofbat such as cracks in the trees.
"Be careful, I¡¯ve set up a few traps for Terca¡¯s." Shiro reminded.
"What do you mean?" Dimos asked with confusion.
Throwing one of her daggers towards one of the bushes, bone spikes that were attached to one of the branches dropped down with a hefty thud against the ground.
"This pins the Terca down on the ground and makes it easier for me to kill the Terca." Shiro exined while resetting the trap.
". . ." Staying silent, Dimos couldn¡¯t believe that this was how she had been living for the past week. He had thought that she had a room or something to live in as she kept herself rtively clean but no, she had been living in the forest.
"Do you want to live with me? I have a spare room." Dimos offered with a forced smile.
"Nah it¡¯s fine. It¡¯s easier for me to live here and hunt the Terca. Plus, I¡¯m saving up some money so that I can afford to rent a room if we move to a new town since it¡¯s probably harder to hunt the monsters closer to the sections." Shiro shrugged.
"That is true. The monsters on the edge of this ce are easy to kill while those inside require a strength based divinity." Dimos nodded.
"How about we make a house then? There¡¯s plenty of wood here so you can probably make a house if you wanted." He asked.
"I mean, we¡¯ll probably be leaving soon so there¡¯s no point. Don¡¯t worry about it sir, I can look after myself." Shiro chuckled.
After talking to Shiro for a little longer, Dimos walked back to his own home and sat on the chair.
Resting his elbows on his table, he sighed.
"What the hell." He muttered and massaged his eyes.
Chapter 655 Next Town. Aegena
Chapter 655 Next Town. Aegena
With Shiro¡¯s new outfit, some of the parents were more epting of her and even the students started to enjoy her lessons after her first stand in. There were a few times where Dimos would let Shiro do the lessons so that he could take a break.
Plus, the students enjoyed it and he knew that when one enjoys something, they learn better. With Shiro being a substitute teacher, more and more students started toe to the school. Some were around her age while others were slightly older.
After finishing the lesson, Shiro gave the students a small wave.
*Sigh
"I wonder if I should try to make some sses so that I look more like a teacher." She mused to herself in mild humour.
"What do you mean by sses?" Dimos asked curiously.
"Oh nothing. It¡¯s just a device to help one¡¯s eyesight if they¡¯re damaged. One can also use it to look smart." Shiro shrugged.
"I can see the first use but why the second?" Dimos raised his eyebrows.
"You¡¯d be surprised." Shiro chuckled.
"Anyways, setting that aside, we¡¯ll be leaving town in a week so you should make some preparations with your... home. Grab anything you want to take with you and we¡¯ll leave by carriage."
"Wait in a week¡¯s time? Let me think hmm... damn I¡¯ve already been here for a month and a half." Shiro raised her eyebrow in mild surprise.
"Yes. And you¡¯ve also be more open in this time." Dimos chuckled. At the start, Shiro was a little reserved and wouldn¡¯t speak much other than help out but now she was more proactive. A good sign in his eyes.
"Well I trust you a little more now, so." Shiro shrugged.
"Cold hearted. Did you not trust me at the start?" Dimosughed.
"Nope. I¡¯m just a weak and delicate girl trying to find a divinity. I had no money and no home so everything had to be done with caution."
"Does a weak and delicate girl make a living from killing Terca with ease despite being wounded?" Dimos asked with a smile.
"This one does." Shiro grinned and pointed at herself.
"Haha, anyways take care on your way home I suppose. We¡¯ll notify the students tomorrow." Dimos smiled as Shiro nodded.
###
After notifying the students the next day, some of the younger ones became sad hearing that Shiro will be leaving. This made the lessons a little harder to conduct but Shiro let it be since she had a soft spot for these kids.
Asking Dimos¡¯ permission to y around with the students for the day instead of continuing the lesson, Shiro had some fun doing a few crafts with them such as trying to carve something from wood. A few of them tried to carve her but to no avail. Though the attempts were rather cute in Shiro¡¯s eyes.
Spending the rest of the week trying to teach them as much as she could, the day of departure finally arrived.
"I¡¯m gonna miss you bringing Terca¡¯s to my store every night." Vasilughed since Shiro had been a great help.
"I¡¯m sure plenty of hunters will take my ce." Shiro smiled.
"I suppose but they¡¯re not you. Take this and stay safe on your journey ok? Be careful since Terca¡¯s are one of the weakest monsters." Vasil chuckled and gave her a short sword that was wrapped in a hide sheath.
Since she had been using bone as her weapons, she had to rece them constantly. Now that she had a metal sword, hunting was definitely going to be easier.
"How much do I owe you?" Shiro asked while taking the sword with a grateful smile.
While she did earn some money to buy a sword, she had opted against using it to buy weapons for the time being as the bones were enough. She wanted to save the money for inns and travel just in case something had happened.
Now that Vasil had gifted her a sword, she might as well pay for it.
"It¡¯s on the house. Just make sure you survive out there ok? If you can¡¯t get a divinity, my store is always open for another hunter." Vasil smiled.
"I¡¯ll keep that in mind." Shiro nodded.
After bidding farewell to a few others that she had met in her time here, she sat inside the carriage.
"Have you finished saying goodbye?" Dimos asked with a smile.
"Yup. So where are we going now?"
"We¡¯re going to be taking the carriage ind to the Section of Life where I¡¯ll be teaching in a slightly bigger town than this ce, though it¡¯s not on the size of a city yet. However, teaching is secondary there as I am tasked with something else. There had been severeck of nourishment in thend around this town and since I have the Divinity of Wisdom, they want to ask me to find out the cause. They have already tried to ask someone with the Divinity of Harvest but the problem persisted which led them to believe that something else is at work." Dimos exined.
"Ohh so you¡¯re doing some detective work. You¡¯re like Sherlock and I¡¯m kind of like a badass version of Watson." Shiro grinned.
"I do not know the people you speak of nor do I know about this ¡¯detective work¡¯. But we are to investigate the cause. You¡¯ll be teaching the lessons in my stead while I investigate. I have an old friend in the town and he owns the school so we can teach one of the sses they have there."
"So if I wasn¡¯t around, you would have needed to do both?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Somewhat. I would have probably set teaching aside as theck of nutrients in thend is the biggest concern." Dimos shook his head.
"So it¡¯s good that you took me as your assistant. And you were against it at the start too." Shiro chuckled.
"Well if I have someone ipetent as my assistant, I might as well not have one to begin with. It¡¯s better not to teach at all than to spread false information." Dimos shook his head.
"True. So how long will it take us to get to this town?"
"The town of Aegena is around two weeks worth of travel from our current location since we¡¯re on the edge of the Section of Night and Aegena is in the Section of Life. It¡¯s not on the edge nor is it deep in the Section of Life so the monsters and the influence of the tower is pretty weak. Still be careful though since as I have covered in my lessons, if you kill an animal inside, the forest will try to drain you. The pursuit isn¡¯t as strong near the edge but it should still be dangerous for someone like you." Dimos warned.
"I see... So in these two weeks, I suppose I¡¯m allowed to hunt a little so that we can get some food?" Shiro asked as she was quite interested to see how well this short sword can cut.
"Yes as we are still in the Section of Night." Dimos nodded.
"Great. If you don¡¯t mind me, I¡¯ll be sitting on the top of the carriage so that I can get some fresh air and see the world with my own eyes ok?" Shiro asked as Dimos sighed.
"Sure."
Grinning slightly, Shiro grabbed the top of the window hole and swung herself to the top of the carriage in one swift movement.
¡¯This girl is notdylike at all.¡¯ Dimos shook his head with a small smile.
However, it wasn¡¯t too bad to be around someone lively like her.
###
Sitting on the roof of the carriage, Shiro watched the town disappear into the distance and couldn¡¯t help but wonder about her friends once more.
She had already spent almost two months in this ce now and she was still nowhere near the trial that she wanted toplete. Hell, after the Tower of Nike, she still needed toplete the five primordial trials and god knows what was in there. Literally.
¡¯I¡¯m sure they¡¯re doing fine.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile however she couldn¡¯t help but feel a little lonely.
Thinking back to it, she was d that she made friends with Lyrica when they first met. If she continued by herself as a monster, life would be rather dull.
Shaking her head, sheid on the roof and looked up at the sky.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to pop her head back down.
"Say, I have a question."
"Go on." DImos looked up at Shiro.
"Has anyone tried to venture further beyond the edge of this ce? Like, the town that we were just in is located around the edge of the Section of Night right? Has anyone tried to continue further down south?" Shiro asked.
"In fact there has. There had been several expeditionsunched for them to explore the world. However, after a certain point, all life ceases to exist. There is no nutrient in the soil, no monsters, no animals, no humans. The longest ever expedition recorded was venturing out for half a year which caused severe losses to manpower but they were unable to discover anything." Dimos shook his head.
Seeing some sadness in his eyes, Shiro knew that it might be a touchy subject so she stayed silent and let Dimos have some alone time.
Chapter 656 Section of Life
Chapter 656 Section of Life
After travelling for the entire day, Shiro, Dimos and the carriage driver started to set up for camp. They were currently beside the road with some woods next to them. Unfortunately, there didn¡¯t seem to be any monsters or animals that she could hunt but Dimos had anticipated such an urrence and had brought some rations and ingredients they could use to make a small meal.
After eating the meal, Shiro looked up at the sky and saw that the moon had already risen.
"I¡¯ll keep watch for the night in case anything decides to attack us." Shiro said as Dimos nodded his head.
"Sure. After a few hours, wake me up and I¡¯ll take the next watch." Dimos said while setting up a few bed rolls.
Looking around for a decent tree to sit on, Shiro sat on the sturdiest branch and kept an eye out on her surroundings.
Around 2 hours into her watch, something strange started to happen.
Small motes of light started to flicker on and off around her surroundings.
Understanding that these were an existence that was simr to spirits, Shiro smiled and reached out for one of the motes.
Landing on her finger, the mote of light danced for a little while before fading away.
¡¯The closer we get to the towers, the more their influence shows. Since we¡¯re still in the Section of Night, the night will start to be longer during our travels meaning we¡¯ll have to be careful since the beasts are more proactive around this time.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while ying around with the motes of light.
Watching these motes dance around her, Shiro started to notice that they seemed to be gathering towards her from the surroundings.
The normal phenomenon would be that these motes would act like fireflies and hover around where there is an abundance of nutrients/life energy from nature. For so many to gather around her, Shiro wondered if her influence as the Spirit Queen had carried over to this ce.
However, there was a chance that this could also be wrong as she could not ess her powers. After all, she woke up in this world without anything. Hell, she was even malnourished to the point where even she took a hit from an easily predictable monster and this hit had been bothering her for a while now without her monstrous regeneration.
It was only after almost two months¡¯ worth of hunting and eating did she finally regain some of her strength. In terms of appearance, she looked almost like how she did when she was on Earth but her hair was still a little on the rough side. Without mana to reinvigorate her body and keep it in perfect condition, she had to care for it manually and without soap or shampoo, her hair was naturally going to be damaged.
"Why are you dancing around me hmm?" Shiro asked quietly while poking the motes of light.
Every poke felt cold on her fingers like they were blocks of ice but at the same time, it was also quite soothing.
Unfortunately, they couldn¡¯t answer her question.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro wondered if there was an ambient energy simr to mana in this world.
The most likely case was Divinity as there had to be something that fuelled the abilities that were given to them. There was also the theory that if there was indeed an energy that fuelled the abilities, could she repurpose that energy to act in a simr manner to mana. After all, if she seeds, she could begin to use her runes such as enforce weapons, body and maybe even cast spells but it was unlikely as this ce had its own set of rules.
She had to be patient for now and wait for the Tower of Nike. She¡¯ll get most of her answers after obtaining her first divinity.
As her watch continued, it was finally time for Dimos¡¯ watch.
Climbing down the tree carefully, Shiro shook his shoulder.
*Yawn~
"Is it my watch now?" Dimos asked while sitting up.
"Mn, I¡¯ve just finished mine." Shiro nodded.
"I se- huh? Howe there are so many spirits around you?" Dimos asked curiously as he had never seen so many spirits float around a single person. Normally, when you see spirits around a person, it was a mere coincidence.
However for Shiro, she was surrounded by spirits which lit her up with an ethereal light.
Looking around them, he saw that there was ack of spirits everywhere else and knew that most of them must be around Shiro right now. As they were just barely within the edge of the tower¡¯s influence, the number of spirits was a little low but he didn¡¯t want to imagine what it would be like when they got closer.
She¡¯d be akin to a giant candle.
"Are you perhaps a Nymph?" Dimos asked as Nymphs were spirits that are close to goddesses. They had a natural affinity with spirits hence his suspicion.
But for Shiro, she tranted Nymph into Nymphomaniac.
"Who the f*ck are you calling a Nymph???" Shiro asked as she felt like a vein was about to burst from annoyance.
The most she had done was hold hands. Why the f*ck does he think she had an uncontroble s.e.x drive???
"Huh? Is it taboo to call women as Nymphs from where you¡¯re from?" Dimos titled his head in confusion as he hadn¡¯t seen Shiro like this before.
"Do you know what Nymph means?" Shiro asked with a twitching smile.
"Aren¡¯t they nature spirits who appear as beautiful young women? Legends has it that some Nymph had even tended to some of the gods when they were young." Dimos replied as Shiro paused.
Understanding that there was a small misunderstanding, she coughed embarrassingly.
"From where I¡¯m from, Nymph has a rather... different meaning." Exining her understanding of Nymph or rather, Nymphomaniac to Dimos, she watched as he nced to the side awkwardly.
"Ah sorry, I didn¡¯t know that Nymph meant well... what you told me from where you¡¯re from. I¡¯ll keep that in mind." Dimos coughed.
"Mn. Anyways, I need to sleep now so if you lot can be so kind as to leave for now, it¡¯ll be a little annoying to have light shining on me when I sleep." Shiro said as the lights danced around her for a little while before scattering.
". . ."
¡¯What the hell? Since when can people control spirits like this?¡¯ Dimos raised his eyebrow in surprise.
Stretching her body lightly, Shiro climbed up to the roof of the carriage.
"I¡¯ll sleep here. Good night." Shiro waved and closed her eyes.
"Right..." Nodding his head, Dimos made a small fire and started his watch.
###
Their journey towards Aegena was rather peaceful as they didn¡¯t run into any attacks that might have harmed them.
On the way there, they passed by a rather sizable forest that had some monsters roaming around. After scouting a little through the day, Shiro estimated that she could hunt them without much problem and had the carriage driver take a small break so that she could get some food for them.
The hunt went mostly as nned but Shiro had to over exert herself a little which caused her thigh wound to open up once more.
After a round of berating by Dimos, Shiro borrowed the carriage to reapply some of the ointment that Dimos had bought for her and bandaged it up again. However, with the monster that Shiro had hunted, they were more than ok for food.
Thanks to Dimos¡¯ ointment, most of her smaller wounds had closed up now and didn¡¯t leave behind any scarring. Unfortunately, the wound on Shiro¡¯s thigh was ratherrge so there was definitely going to be scarring.
Sighing softly, Shiro wondered if this was her real body or a double that Nyx had given her. If it was her real one, she hoped that she could get rid of the scar.
Looking into the distance, Shiro could see a small shift in geography. The grass had be much greener and the trees wererger whenpared to the ones that she had seen before.
"In front of us is the transition point between the Section of Night and the Section of Life." Dimos informed as Shiro nodded her head.
Despite being so far from the Tower of Gaia, the nature around this ce was already being affected and Shiro could already imagine how dense the forests were going to be the closer they got to the centre.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro could sense that the air was much fresher which was also a good indication that they had reached the Section of Life and Aegena was just past this forest.
Chapter 657 Aegena
Chapter 657 Aegena
Due to the density of the forest, they had to take a specific path through as it would be impossible otherwise. However, they didn¡¯t need to worry too much since the monsters here weren¡¯t hostile due to the unique nature of this section.
Naturally, it didn¡¯t mean that there weren¡¯t any hostile monsters. With them being so far from the tower¡¯s influence, a few monsters would be unaffected and attack them on sight.
But with Shiro releasing subtle amounts of killing intent whenever a monster approaches, they were able to travel without fighting at all.
After travelling for another two to three hours, the town of Aegena was finally in sight.
Located just past the forest, the town was located in a deep crater of sorts and had differentyers due to the nature of the crater. There were waterfalls formed by a river that flowed over one of the steep edges of the crater and into a pool at the bottom.
Leading to the bottom most part of the crater was a spiral road to make it easier for the carriages to travel in this area.
Looking down at the town from above, Shiro noticed that theyout of the ce was simr to that of abyrinth of sorts. Each of the houses and alleys formed a ¡¯passage¡¯ of the maze.
"Pretty interesting ce isn¡¯t it?" Dimos chuckled.
"It¡¯s something alright. What¡¯s that tree in the middle?" Shiro asked while pointing at the centre of the town. Isted in theke was a small ind that had a tree growing out of it. The sheer size of the tree dominated the surroundings but it looked withered. The leaves were no longer green and the roots looked like they could snap at any moment.
"That tree is kind of like a measuring device. The more abundance the nutrients in thend is, the more vibrant the tree looks. Now that the tree is withered, you can guess that thend isn¡¯t in a good condition." Dimos sighed.
"Is that so?" Shiro nodded her head and nced towards the tree once more.
"Anyways, the school¡¯s located on the thirdyer so we¡¯ll be going there to meet an old friend of mine."
Taking the carriage down the spiral path, they passed quite a few houses and Shiro could see that many of people surrounding the houses seemed rather depressed.
Realising that it must be because of the impending doom, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
Without nutrients, the crops can¡¯t grow and without that, they¡¯d eventually starve. While they can try to hunt, they would need to be careful of the tower¡¯s influence. Plus, it was going to be hard to hunt enough food for everything in the town.
They¡¯d need to ration it carefully and even then, it was unlikely that many would survive.
Sooner orter, this town will bepletely barren of life.
As they were making their way down, a young girl knocked on their carriage door.
"Beautiful miss, do you have any food?" She pleaded as Shiro felt her heartstrings being tugged.
Looking back at Dimos, since he had the food, Shiro was about to open her mouth when he passed her a small bag. Without her even saying anything, he already knew what she wanted to say.
Taking some bread out of the bag, Shiro gave it to the girl.
"We don¡¯t have much on us either but eat it quickly ok? Or else others will try to take it from you." Shiro smiled softly.
She didn¡¯t want to give the girl too much since she wouldn¡¯t be able to eat it quickly and knowing human nature in times of need, they¡¯ll definitely try to take it from her.
"Thank you!" Nodding her head, she quickly ate the bread.
Patting the girls head, they continued down the path.
"It¡¯s a sad sight isn¡¯t it?" Dimos said while ncing out the window.
"Mn. Really makes you wonder what caused all of this." Shiro frowned. If she found out that it was a person behind this then she was going to make sure that they regret the fact that they haven¡¯t killed themselves yet.
Seeing her furious gaze, Dimos shook his head as he understood her feelings of anger.
Soon, the carriage stopped as they arrived at the school.
Hopping off the carriage with their luggage, they walked to the door. Compared to the school back in thest town, this one was more well built with richer materials and ss covering the windows rather than just empty holes.
"Manos, are you in?" Dimos called out while knocking on the door.
After waiting a while, they heard the sound of the door unlocking.
Taking a step back, the door opened up, revealing a young man that had long ck hair that was tied up loosely.
"Oh it¡¯s you Dimos,e on in, we¡¯ll talk inside." Manos sighed in relief and ushered them in.
However, when he saw Shiro, he couldn¡¯t help but raise his eyebrow.
"This is?"
"She¡¯s Shiro and she¡¯s my assistant for now. She can teach sses in my ce while I sort out this problem in town." Dimos exined as Manos nodded his head.
Entering the school, Manos had them enter his office. Gesturing for them to take a seat, he brought out a few pieces of parchment.
"As I have told you before through my letter, this problem started happening a few weeks ago when people first saw signs of withering on the tree. The fishes that were in theke have nowpletely died out and all the crops have died. We¡¯re currently using rations but we¡¯re not sure how long that canst. Without any nutrients in thend, the Divinity of Harvest can¡¯t do anything. Here¡¯s a report on all the signs that we¡¯ve picked up and as for locations, they¡¯re marked down on this map." Manos said while giving Dimos the pieces of parchment.
"Hmm..." Furrowing his brows, Dimos started to browse through all of the information given to him.
From the reports, it seems like the drain of nutrients originated from the tree and slowly spread outwards. They had already tried to investigate the tree but nothing has shown up in their investigations.
"Alright, I¡¯ll try my best to look into this." Dimos nodded his head and stored the parchment away.
"Thank you. You¡¯re the only one I know who could help us now. If you can¡¯t solve this, I¡¯m afraid we¡¯ll have to move to a different town." Manos sighed.
"Your ce of residence has been prepared. If you want, I can also get them to set up another room for your assistant." Manos said while gesturing to Shiro.
"That would be much appreciated. When do lessons resume?" Dimos asked.
"No idea. Hardly any of the studentse to school anymore due to this. It was slightly better a few days ago but now no onees." Manos shook his head.
"Alright. I suppose it can wait till this withering problem is solved." Dimos nodded and stood up.
Gesturing for Shiro to follow him, the two left the school.
"Do you think there¡¯s something absorbing the nutrients?" Shiro asked.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well think of it like this. If you have a bowl of water representing the nutrients in thend and you poke a hole in the middle, it¡¯ll drain outwards which is like what¡¯s happening here. Meaning, there might be something absorbing it from the tree. While they have investigated the tree and found nothing, I¡¯m thinking the culprit hid the source of the problem exceptionally well." Shiro exined as Dimos nodded his head.
"That is what I believe as well hence why we¡¯re going to look at the tree first."
Walking towards the tree located at the very bottom of the crater, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a little stuffy. It was as if there was ack of air for her to breathe.
"Say, sir, are you noticing theck of air?" Shiro asked as she tried her best to regte her breaths.
"What do you mean?" Dimos frowned when he noticed Shiro¡¯s abnormal condition.
"Just realising that for some ungodly reason, I am having a hard time to breathe." Shiro replied jokingly but took a moment to try to catch her breath.
"If you want, we can take a break." Dimos furrowed his brows.
"No it¡¯s fine. I think I¡¯m good now." Shiro replied with a small wave of her hand.
"Ok, if it gets worse, tell me and we¡¯ll stop for a while."
Nodding her head, Shiro continued to walk further down into the crater.
Every step felt heavy but it wasn¡¯t like the feeling she had during her ascension of the staircase on Mount Olympus. This time it was heavy due to her body feeling extremely weak. Her head was hurting and sweat could be seen dripping from her face.
Feeling a slight numbness spreading across her body, Shiro knew that there was something wrong with the tree. The closer she got to it, the weaker she felt.
"I think I¡¯ll stop here." Shiro said while struggling for breath.
"I can see that. Let¡¯s go back first then, maybe you¡¯re just not feeling well from travelling." Dimos frowned and helped her walk back up the path.
Unfortunately for Shiro, even when she was walking away from the tree, her body continued to deteriorate. By the time they arrived at the school again, Shiro was already on the verge of copsing.
Chapter 658 Dread Sapling
Chapter 658 Dread Sapling
Laying the bed that had been prepared, Shiro gritted her teeth from the pain. Curling up into a foetal position, she clutched the area near her heart as it felt like it was about to burst.
With her abnormal condition, Dimos had quickly called for a medic but they had reported that her condition was strange even to him.
Dismissing the medic, Dimos waited in the room anxiously as Shiro¡¯s condition continued to deteriorate.
Time passed as the sun eventually set.
Thankfully, Shiro¡¯s breathing started to stabilise as her body rxed slightly. Her face was still pale but she was no longer in pain.
"What happened?" Shiro asked.
Slowly opening her eyes, she could see Dimos¡¯ worried gaze.
"Don¡¯t move, your body is still weak." He reminded.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro sighed and enjoyed the feeling of being able to breath once more.
¡¯The hell was that?¡¯ She thought to herself as she had never suffered something like that before.
"So do you know what happened or is this new to you as well?" Dimos asked.
"Well if I knew I was going to almost die the moment I got close to the tree I wouldn¡¯t have walked up to it now would I?" Shiro chuckled while sitting up.
"Mn, do you think that it¡¯s something to do with your constitution? You have a bunch of spirits circling around you all the time when night falls after all. And speaking of which, I don¡¯t see any spirits around here." Dimos said while ncing out of the window.
Normally, spirits would be abundant in the Section of Life, especially since the forest is just outside of this crater town. However, not a single spec could be seen.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro wondered if it was because her body was technically that of a spirit¡¯s. Humans could walk up to the tree while she couldn¡¯t due to the fact that she was a spirit.
¡¯There must be something at the tree which drains thend and acts like poison to spirits. Otherwise it wouldn¡¯t exin why there is ack of spirits around this town.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
"Maybe. But unless I find a solution for this, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s wise for me to approach the tree." Shiro sighed.
"Mn, thankfully, this ce is close to the top so it shouldn¡¯t affect you too much. But if it does, tell me ok?"
"I will don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll go out of the town for some fresh air if that¡¯s ok." Shiro said while standing up.
"Can you handle it?" Dimos asked as he was still worried about her current state.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be right back. I¡¯m just going out for some fresh air." Shiro smiled and left the building.
Making her way out of the town, she saw on the edge of the crater and took a deep breath before sighing.
Narrowing her eyes at the tree, she wondered what else she didn¡¯t know about her current body.
So far, she knew that most of her powers were sealed away and she couldn¡¯t use them. However, her passive influence over spirits were still active so that means she was still physically a spirit.
Therefore, whatever is harmful to a spirit is harmful to her.
ncing back at the forest, she spotted a few stray motes of light.
Noticing that they seemed to want toe closer to her but hesitated, Shiro wondered if it was because of the tree in the crater.
Standing up, she walked closer to the spirits.
"Are you afraid of the tree in the crater?" Shiro asked with a soft smile.
Seemingly unable to answer her question, the mote on danced around her before floating into the forest.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro shrugged her shoulder and was about to go back when the spirit appeared once more.
Guessing that it wanted her to follow it, Shiro debated for a moment before following the spirit.
Drawing her sword she kept herself on guard in case anything appeared that may harm her.
Venturing deeper into the forest, more and more spirits started to appear as Shiro felt rather invigorated. This was apletely different feeling she had whenpared to the tree in the crater.
Looking down, she pulled her skirt up and could see her thigh wound healing very slowly but it was already much faster than what it should be.
¡¯Strange...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and continued to follow the spirits. It was unknown how long she had walked for but her thigh wound had already healed by 20%.
At this point, spirits were now an abundance. Dancing around her like cheerful children, they seemed to urge her to follow them faster.
Climbing over a fewrge tree roots, Shiro noticed that the trees and nts around their current location were much bigger than what had been seen in the forest before. Making her way past some trees, she found herself in a small clearing of sorts. There was a single tree that had a small pond next to it.
Therge roots of the tree formed a cage of sorts and one of therger roots acted like a small bridge. On the bridge sat a woman who seemed to have a dress made from the tree roots and vines. She had long blond hair which was brown on the edges and green eyes.
Smiling at Shiro, the woman crossed her legs and smiled.
"I¡¯ve never seen a young spirit already taking a human form." She said while gesturing to the small motes of light.
"And I¡¯ve never personally seen a dryad before." Shiro chuckled since the woman in front of her matches the description of dryad in her mind.
"You know of my kind? Interesting. I am indeed a dryad and you¡¯re a young spirit who has attained a human form without any source of divinity. Perhaps that is why these younglings are attracted by you." The dryad smiled and tapped one of the motes of light.
"Why have they brought me here?" Shiro asked.
"Because you were tainted and almost died."
"Tainted?"
"The tree in the bottom of the crater has been tampered with. I had wanted the spirits to call you here sooner but it¡¯s rather hard for them to appear before you in the day so they had to wait. Thankfully, you left the town which gave them a chance to call out for you. If not, you would have continued to stay near the corrosion without any kind of protection which would have resulted in your death. I would have given it two days before you died. Unlike you, the younger spirits are much more susceptible to the corrosion so the moment they enter the town, their life would have been extinguished." The dryad shook her head.
"So why did you want to call me over here." Shiro asked as there was no way a dryad would call her here for nothing.
"I just wanted to call you here and warn you about the town. You should stay near me for a while so that my divinity can heal you and then you can leave. The town is lost."
Surprised at the fact that the dryad didn¡¯t call her here for anything other than a warning, Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"The town is lost? Is there no way to fix it?" Shiro asked.
"Nope. The one who caused this had brought a dread sapling from the null area and nted it inside the tree. The dread sapling will continue to drain thend of its nutrients until the area bes the same as the null area." The dryad shook her head.
"What do you mean by null area and dread sapling?"
Both of these terms were unfamiliar to Shiro and they meant nothing to her right now.
"The null area is the area outside of the Sections. It ispletely devoid of life and nothing can survive there. As for the dread sapling, it¡¯s something that has been in the null area for a long time. While it may not be harmful to humans, it¡¯s extremely dangerous to nature, spirits and monsters as it drains your vitality. When I said that you were tainted, it was because you had inhaled the air that was produced by the dread sapling. It will eat away at you from the inside until you die. I¡¯m sure you felt it but your heart should have felt like it was going to burst right? That¡¯s the effects of this air that you breathed." The dryad narrowed her eyes as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but frown at the thought.
"There has to be a way to solve this right?" Shiro asked with furrowed brows.
"There might be but I don¡¯t know the solution. Just leave this ce, the longer you stay the more dangerous it bes for you. After a certain point, not even I can heal you with my divinity." The dryad shook her head.
Waving her hand, roots wrapped around her and she disappeared from the area.
Staying silent for a moment, Shiro started to walk back to the town.
Chapter 659 Stages of the Dread Sapling
Chapter 659 Stages of the Dread Sapling
Walking through the forest, Shiro decided to wait for a short while so that her wounds fully healed up before leaving. That way, should anything happen, she¡¯ll be ready to fight them.
Sitting on one of the trees while waiting for her wound to heal, Shiro looked towards the town with a frown.
If even the air that she breathes is poisonous to her current body then she¡¯s not able to stay in the town for long.
Sighing softly, she wondered how she could solve this. Since the dryad said that she had no idea, it could imply that she required someone with more knowledge on the null area and the dread sapling. There was also the problem of a culprit nting such an ominous sapling here in the first ce.
What are their motives? What do they gain from this? Why did it have to be this town?
These were the questions that she needed answers to.
While she was waiting for her wounds to recover, she yed around with the spirits that had gathered around her.
Which brought up another question or rather, a thought in Shiro¡¯s mind.
The fact that she was essentially the same as these spirits without a divinity.
The dryad mentioned that she had never seen a young spirit without divinity attain a human body which meant that some of her power could be sealed away due to thisck of divinity. Once she gets her first one, some features of her race may appear once more but it was unconfirmed.
During this, Shiro noticed a small call in the distance. Focusing her mind on the call, she recognised it to be Dimos¡¯ voice and he was calling for her with some worry in his voice.
Smiling softly, she nced down at her thigh wound and saw that it had mostly closed up now. If she was to stay for another hour, it would heal but she should tell him that first or else he¡¯ll be looking around for her constantly.
Hopping off the tree, Shiro jogged over to the edge. With the spirits following her, it wasn¡¯t hard for Dimos to spot her.
"Where were you? You had me worried when you didn¡¯te back for a few hours." Dimos sighed.
"I happened to meet a dryad when I was taking a break. I have also found out more about myself and the cause of everything that¡¯s happened." Shiro smiled while poking a few of the spirits.
"Oh? That¡¯s good then. So do you know why you were in pain earlier?" Dimos asked with worry.
"Mn, it¡¯s something to do with my constitution and the tree. It turns out that someone has nted something called a dread sapling into the tree and the air that it produces is highly poisonous to me. I don¡¯t think I can stay in the town since the longer I stay, the more likely it is for me to just die." Shiro shook her head.
". . ." Staying silent, Dimos had a frown on his face.
"I know what a dread sapling is and seeing as though it¡¯s poisonous to you, I think I know why. You¡¯re a spirit aren¡¯t you? A rather young one at that. That probably exins why the spirits are attracted to you, however, I haven¡¯t heard of young spirits gaining human bodies like you have without divinity. Young spirits are extremely weak to the dread sapling while older spirits have some resistance against it but it still harms them. For you to have such an adverse reaction by just approaching the tree means that you¡¯re young and the dread sapling has already matured to stage 2. That exins theck of nutrients." Dimos frowned.
"Mn? Can you exin to me more about the dread sapling?" Shiro asked as it sounded like Dimos knew that was happening.
"Yes. Though I doubt you¡¯d want to go back to the town seeing as though it¡¯s highly poisonous to you at this moment in time." Dimos said whilst ncing back at the town.
"Let¡¯s go into the forest. The dryad¡¯s divinity in the forest increases my natural recovery. See? Even my thigh wound is almost gone." Shiro said while pulling up her skirt a little so that DImos could see the almost healed wound.
However, before she could show him, Dimos immediately turned his head away.
"Ah ady shouldn¡¯t go around lifting her skirt like that." Dimos coughed.
"What? It¡¯s just to show you a wound?" Shiro tilted her head.
"It has different implications."
"What do y- ah..." Realising what he meant, Shiro let go of the edge of her skirt and coughed.
"Well just know that the wound had almost healed up. If I stay in the forest for another hour or so, I should be back in peak form." She exined.
"Alright, let¡¯s go then." Dimos nodded.
Walking further into the forest, Shiro sat down on arge branch while Dimos sat on a tree root.
"So the dread sapling is something that can be found in the outside area of this world that I told you about. As you can guess, it¡¯s called the null area because nothing can survive there. The same goes with the dread sapling. While the sapling itself may survive, it cannot bloom. I... was one of the people who found out about the consequences of letting the dread sapling bloom." Dimos said as he nced down at his hands and balled them into a fist.
"There are 4 stages to a dread sapling¡¯s life. The first stage is where it infects a host of sorts. Preferably a tree of high vitality in an area where nutrients are abundant. The second stage is feeding like you see in the town. Using the host, the dread sapling will begin to feed off on all the nutrients in the area until it has gathered enough to step into the next stage of growth. Some of us that ventured into the null area believed that the dread sapling was one of the main causes to the ce bing barren. With the saplings absorbing all the nutrients greedily, there¡¯s no wonder that no life can be sustained. The third stage is blooming and that¡¯s when the host ispletely discarded and the sapling shows its true form. In this stage, it gives up on being sneaky when draining the surroundings. ck roots will explode out of the ground and seek out anything that has an ounce of life in it and drain itpletely dry. Think of its power as simr to the nature near the tower of Gaia but it doesn¡¯t care if you have killed or not. All it desires is nutrients.
"The fourth andst stage is something that we haven¡¯t witnessed in its entirety but we¡¯re d we didn¡¯t since then we could have destroyed arge part of the world. The fourth stage is what we like to call Colony since as the name suggests, the dread sapling would attempt to create more by spreading its offspring through the wind and into the other parts of the world to allow them to grow. It is theorised that once a certain amount of these saplings reaches the third stage, awork would be constructed between them and the draining force of the nutrients will spread all over the world. We were able to stop it during the fourth stage thanks to a few people that had obtained three powerful divinities but in the process, their lives were lost." Dimos said with a deep sigh.
"What can we do to stop it in its current stage then?" Shiro asked as it wasn¡¯t too keen on waiting for the sapling to bloom."
"To stop it in its current stage, we¡¯ll need much more manpower than what we currently have. It¡¯s not something that I can deal with alone without some sacrifices." Dimos shook his head.
"Then how long would it take for us to get the required manpower?" Shiro asked.
"I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ll need to spread the news but by the time I¡¯ve done that, there¡¯s a likely chance of the sapling reaching the third stage and by then, we¡¯ll need even more reinforcements." Dimos shook his head.
"Damn... If we did have enough manpower, what would we need to do?" Shiro asked.
"We¡¯ll need topletely extract the sapling from its host. During the extraction process, the sapling will forcefully enter a pseudo stage three where it will use its roots to attack its assants and try to drain them of their nutrients. But that¡¯s not it, once we extract it, we¡¯ll need topletely incinerate the sapling with fire so that it can¡¯t heal itself with the nutrients that it¡¯s gathered. Someone with Apollo¡¯s fire divinity would be very helpful during this." Dimos replied.
"So is there nothing we can do right now?" Shiro frowned.
"Unfortunately no, the best we can do is prepare enough manpower for when it reaches stage three. We¡¯ll need topletely evacuate the town and send out a warning to the cities so that they can dispatch some people with the required divinities."
Hearing this, Shiro frowned at their helplessness. If she still had her power from Earth, she could have easily dealt with the sapling. There was also the problem of who put the sapling there.
Narrowing her eyes, she tried to think of a way to solve this when an idea appeared in her mind.
Chapter 660 Consequences
Chapter 660 Consequences
"Say, have you ever tried to douse the dread sapling with boiling water or vinegar?" Shiro asked.
"We have tried boiling water but it seems resistant to it." Dimos replied.
"As for vinegar, why would you use a food preservative? Plus, it¡¯s also used to tend wounds so I don¡¯t see any point of pouring vinegar on the sapling." He shook his head.
"You see, there is something called a herbicide and while I haven¡¯t researched about herbicides that preserve the environment, I do know ones that damage it. They mostly involve using salt, boiling water, some dish soap or vinegar which contains Acetic acid. They¡¯re extremely helpful in killing nt life so I¡¯m thinking if we were to recreate a herbicide using divinities, we should be able to kill the dread sapling. The only problem with this is that it¡¯ll damage the surrounding nt life. However, seeing as though it¡¯s already draining the surroundings, I don¡¯t see why we shouldn¡¯t use this method." Shiro exined with a smile.
"I don¡¯t understand what you mean by herbicide so care to exin how it works?" Dimos asked. He was curious about where she got this knowledge but he didn¡¯t care right now. The most important task right now is to deal with the sapling.
"It¡¯s just something that¡¯s designed to kill nts. It takes a while to produce but if we have people with divinities pertaining harvest and inducing growth in certain organisms then we might be able to create some of this to kill the sapling." Shiro smiled.
"I¡¯m interested, young spirit. Can you show me a demonstration of this herbicide that you speak of? I may be able to find some spirits to help you in this cause." The dryad smiled softly as she appeared next to Shiro.
"So you¡¯ve been watching. Sure, I¡¯ll show you but it takes a bit of time and effort to make the second one. We can either let it kill the sapling on its own or we can ignite it and cause a giant fire. The only problem with igniting it is that there¡¯s a high chance that the town will be destroyed with how much we may need." Shiro exined.
"That¡¯s rather... extreme." Dimos raised his eyebrow.
"Well it¡¯s a magical nt that can destroy the world. I¡¯m not sure a homemade herbicide can kill it easily." Shiro shrugged.
"Are you able to get me some salt and boiling water?" Shiro asked as Dimos shook his head.
"Salt is extremely expensive and if you¡¯re thinking about getting a lot to kill the sapling, I¡¯m afraid it¡¯ll cost a fortune which is something we don¡¯t have." He sighed.
"Ah right, salt is expensive when you can¡¯t harvest a lot of it." Shiro muttered with a frown.
"That¡¯s fine. We¡¯ll have to go with the acid route or the explosion route then. The second one will need someone with a fire divinity so that I can make sure the explosion is magical just in case the dread sapling is resistant to non magical methods.
"For the acid route, we¡¯ll be needing a lot of vinegar since it contains Acetic acid. Unfortunately, it only contains around 5 to 6% and I didn¡¯t read up on how to make Acetic acid which is annoying. BUT, that is enough to kill most nts so if we magical it up with some harvest divinity, it should heavily damage the sapling and hopefully kill it. If not, we¡¯ll go with the explosion route. We¡¯ll need to shred a lot of wood finely into dust and have someone with the wind divinity to spread it to the crater. Once that happens, the person with the fire divinity should send a fireball or something into it and it¡¯ll react like a giant bomb, blowing up the ce and the sapling with it. And if it still doesn¡¯t die, then we should probably just go intobat as it should be heavily damaged at that point." Shiro exined.
"How would wood dust cause an explosion? I know wood sets on fire but I don¡¯t see why it would explode." The dryad furrowed her brows.
"Think of it like this, arge piece of wood burns over time right?" Shiro smiled.
"Yes."
"If you reduce that piece of wood, the time to burn decreases right?"
"Yes it does."
"If I shred wood into fine grains of dust, it takes an instant for it to catch on fire and burn up right?" Shiro grinned.
At this point, Dimos understood what she was leading up to and couldn¡¯t help but widen his eyes at the consequences of such actions should it be performed at arge scale.
"If we fill up the entire crater town with tiny grains of wood dust that floats through the air thanks to the person with a wind divinity, a single speck of fire would cause the entire ce to explode as each grain will set each other on fire in an instant. If you send arge fireball in, the explosion would be amplified, causing a massive amount of damage to the surroundings and likewise, the dread sapling itself. In other words, rather than damaging the wood overtime when it is arge piece, shredding it to pieces allows for all the burning to take ce in a single moment, hence its power." Shiro chuckled as the dryad stayed silent.
"Where did you even get this knowledge? If it was used in a war, it could cause mass amounts of damage to the enemy army." Dimos frowned.
"Don¡¯t worry, this was something I found written by an unknown person who had already died. If this knowledge was to spread, do you think no one would have tried to use it?" Shiro smiled.
"But if you use it now, this knowledge will bemon and conflicts will escte in coteral damage."
"Hence why we¡¯ll need to find trustworthy people to carry this n out. Plus, it¡¯s only a backup n in case the acid route doesn¡¯t work." Shiro shrugged.
"You seemed to have forgotten an important point." The dryad shook her head.
"And that is?"
"What do you think would happen to everyone who will lose their homes regardless of which method you use." The dryad asked as Shiro stayed silent.
At the moment where her main problem was taking care of the dread sapling, she had forgotten about the consequences that her actions could bring. Her main goal for this was to help the people to begin with but if she used such violent methods, the town would be destroyed anyways. The acid route would destroy thend, making it hard to grow crops while the explosion couldpletely reform the area, destroying all of their homes in the process.
Both options would bring about the same result as the dread sapling.
Frowning slightly, Shiro stayed silent as she may need to reconsider her choices.
This kind of thing had happened before but her family and friends had always taken care of the aftermath for her. Examples would be what happened in Tokyo and what happened to their family mansion.
"How about I go talk to the leader of the town and inform him of the options. I¡¯ll need to do some research on the tree to determine how close the sapling is to the next stage. If we have time, I¡¯ll be able to call for some reinforcements so that we can kill it now without harming the town too much. If it¡¯s close to the third stage, I¡¯ll have to call more reinforcements and if they can¡¯t deal with it, we¡¯ll go with your n ok?" Dimos smiled and patted Shiro¡¯s shoulder.
"Mn. I¡¯ll rest in the forest since it¡¯s good for me and I¡¯m already used to it. You should head back to the town." Shiro nodded as she wanted some time to think by herself. She needed to remember that her methods were too violent and that the consequences of her actions may or may not cause more harm than the problem she¡¯s trying to solve. It¡¯ll be akin to fighting fire with fire and the result is everything turning to ash.
"Well don¡¯t worry about it too much and rest well for tonight. I¡¯ll bring you some breakfast tomorrow since you can¡¯t enter town with the sapling trying to kill you." Dimos chuckled and made his way back to town.
Watching his figure walking away in the distance, Shiro stayed silent and sighed.
Standing up on her branch, she jumped down and made her way deeper into the forest so that she could find a proper branch to sleep on.
Chapter 661 Divinity
Chapter 661 Divinity
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro looked around for a stream where she could quickly clean herself.
After a quick wash, she dressed herself back up and called out for the dryad as she had some questions for her in regards to divinities and the like. Since she was a spirit and had her own divinity, Shiro figured that she was probably a source of answers.
"Yes? You wanted to talk to me?" The dryad smiled as she appeared from a nearby tree.
"I¡¯m just asking but what exactly are divinities?" Shiro asked while sitting on a tree root.
"Well divinities are blessings given to you by the gods after youplete the trials." The dryad replied with a smile.
"So are the gods still in this world?"
"Nope. Some have left a small avatar while others haven¡¯t left anything. The gods have left this world and the only signs of them ever being here are the towers that represent their trials along with writings on murals that can be found around the world. One of the biggest murals is the Mural of Beginnings and that exins to you the name of this world along with some of the legends revolving around the twelve main Olympians. There are also some notes on Titans but not many." The dryad exined.
"Ah right, Dimos did tell me about the Mural of Beginnings. Are there otherrge scale murals like that one?" Shiro asked.
"Unfortunately no. The Mural of Beginnings is unique and it¡¯s the only one of its size." The dryad shook her head.
"So what fuels the divinities? There should be an energy source no? Are we able to harness that energy source and use it at will?" Shiro asked as that was her main question. If she could make use of the energy source, she could make herself helpful even without the use of divinities. Hopefully.
"Yes but I don¡¯t think you realise how important divinities are. Divinities allow you to harness this power along with protecting you from it. It¡¯s a god¡¯s protective charm so that the one who passes their trial doesn¡¯t explode on contact with this source of energy. Trying to use the energy source without the protective is a guaranteed death so if you¡¯re thinking of trying it, don¡¯t." The dryad shook her head.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro had a frown on her face.
"Since I¡¯m a spirit, is there anything I can do in my current state then?"
"Hmm... kind of? You only get ess to them once you get your first divinity. You can¡¯t make something out of nothing after all, you need to tap into the energy source with the divinity then you can use some of yourtent abilities." The dryad exined.
"Which is very strange since I definitely noticed the faint trace of a sigil on your body but it¡¯s dormant?" She tilted her head.
"What do you mean by that?" Shiro asked while ncing down at her arms.
"Well sigils are the form of the divinities granted to us. For example, mine is a Sigil that¡¯s located on my back." The dryad said while turning around. Moving her hair out of the way, a green Sigil slowly materialised itself.
Remembering that she had received quite a few sigils from the gods back on Mount Olympus, Shiro¡¯s smile couldn¡¯t help but twitch. Should they all appear at the same time, wouldn¡¯t her entire body look like it¡¯s been tattooed? That was something she wasn¡¯t too keen about.
"However, while I did say that you can only ess them once you get your first divinity, you do still have one thing that you can do. Every time you enter a ce filled with nature, your body feels stronger doesn¡¯t it?" The dryad asked.
"It does."
"Depending on what you do, you can ¡¯store¡¯ some of this and use it in small bursts I suppose. This will increase your physical body only slightly to allow you to fight against monsters. It¡¯s not a big boost so don¡¯t get your hopes up. As for the method, it¡¯s hard to exin and it¡¯s easier if you figure it out yourself. There¡¯s nothing I can do for you either so you can only rely on yourself." The dryad smiled before disappearing.
Hearing this, Shiro raised her eyebrow but smiled.
While the dryad said that it was only a small boost, it was better than nothing since even a small boost can help when it matters.
Shaking her head, she started to make her way back to the edge of the forest since Dimos should be arriving with some breakfast. And as she had expected, by the time she reached the edge of the forest, Dimos was waiting with some food in his bag.
"It¡¯s not much since the town is rationing their supplies but it¡¯s better than nothing." Dimos smiled while handing her some pieces of bread.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled and ate the bread.
"Mn, I¡¯ll be going to research the sapling today. Hopefully, it¡¯s still in the early stage of stage 2. If not, the reinforcements will take more time. Also for your ideas, tell me the divinities that you need and I¡¯ll also look for some people that have them." Dimos asked.
"Hmm... well for the acid route I¡¯ll need someone with the divinity of harvest and some gr.a.p.es. For the explosion route, I¡¯ll need someone with the wind divinity and the fire divinity. Hopefully, the wind divinity can shred the wood into fine dust but I don¡¯t know." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"I see.... I¡¯ll send a notice out to offensive based wind divinity users then. As for the dust, how much do you need?"
"Depends on how big the sapling is. From your description of stage three, can I assume that it would spread its roots across the entire crater?" Shiro asked.
"Mn. During stage two, it¡¯s spreading its roots to drain thend hence why when stage three arrives, ck roots will explode out of the ground. If it¡¯s in the early stages of stage two, then the size of the roots will be small. But from what I can tell at this moment, it¡¯s at least in the mid stages. The roots would have covered around 60% of the crater by now." Dimos shook his head.
"Then the dust we need will increase since the explosion needs to be bigger. However, that may change depending on the nature of the sapling. Can the roots survive without the sapling?" Shiro asked.
"No. Once the core is destroyed, the roots die as well and leave behind withered husks underground." Dimos replied as Shiro smiled.
"Then that¡¯s perfect. I was thinking that the roots could act on their own but if it¡¯s like this, it¡¯s much easier. All we need is to destroy the core so the amount of dust we need isn¡¯t that much. We just need to make sure it¡¯s concentrated around the sapling so that we can focus the explosion. That way, we can limit the damage caused to the surroundings." Shiro said while taking a bite of the bread.
After the dryad¡¯s reminderst night, Shiro figured that she should be a little more responsible with how she uses her power. If she could focus and contain the explosion then not only would it do more damage to the sapling, it will also reduce the damage around them.
Even if she doesn¡¯t have the threat of having a god wanting to kill her on Earth, she still had to be careful since she could do more damage than any of her enemies. In this scenario, it may be a world ending sapling and that the destruction of a town is a worthy trade off, but if she had the power to prevent the town from being destroyed whilepleting the task, she should.
It¡¯s only right after all.
Plus, it¡¯s not like it¡¯s extremely hard to aplish. However, she wouldn¡¯t choose to save a town if it meant a decreased sess rate since there¡¯s no reason to shoot themselves in the foot if she could avoid it.
"Ah right, how are you going to figure out the person who nted this?" Shiro asked as this was another concern.
"I¡¯m not sure. There are plenty of people who know about the dread sapling but very few actually venture out into the null area to retrieve one. I¡¯m afraid it¡¯s going to be difficult if not impossible to find the culprit." Dimos shook his head.
"What about someone with the divinity of hunting? You track prey when hunting don¡¯t you? Just get them to hunt the person down." Shiro suggested but Dimos shook his head.
"That¡¯s a good idea but the problem is that there¡¯s nothing to use as a catalyst for the tracking. The surrounding area of the sapling has already been tread on by multiple people during theirst investigation. The culprits prints have already been masked up. Plus, since we don¡¯t know who we¡¯re looking for, it¡¯s hard to pick out a specific set of tracks. We can only give up on looking for the culprit this time."
Hearing this, Shiro sighed but she understood that they had no choice.
"Regardless, let¡¯s just deal with this sapling then." Shiro shrugged and finished her bread.
Chapter 662 Weapon In The Forest
Chapter 662 Weapon In The Forest
After talking to Shiro for a little longer, Dimos made his way back to the town so that he could investigate the sapling.
While he was doing that, Shiro ventured deeper into the forest.
Remembering the path she took to arrive at the first spot where she found the dryad, Shiro found herself back at the small clearing that had arge tree next to a small pond.
Looking at the roots that acted like a cage for the pond, Shiro nced around the clearing as this was the spot she felt most powerful.
Cracking her neck, she swiped out with her hand and caused a small gust of wind with the force that she had exerted.
¡¯Hmm... if I had to guess, I¡¯m around 20 to 30% stronger when I¡¯m in this area?¡¯ She thought to herself and clenched her hand into a fist.
"I¡¯m surprised that you¡¯ve found yourself back here again." The dryad¡¯s voice rang out again as Shiro turned toward her.
"Why do you seem to follow me everywhere? Do you not have anything else to do?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well I do but you seem to be rather mysterious so I figured that I should keep an eye on you. You know, the path to this ce is supposed to close itself back up and be a maze of sorts. You actually remembered the correct path even though it took you more than an hour to reach this spot. I¡¯m impressed." The dryad chuckled.
"I have a good memory." Shiro shrugged.
"So can you tell me more about his ce? I don¡¯t know why but in here, I feel much stronger than I do outside."
"Well it¡¯s a ce where nature is heavily concentrated. Do you know why the tree forms a cage around the pond?" The dryad asked while tracing her finger along the surface of the pond.
"Care to exin?"
"This is liquified nature essence or the ¡¯nutrients¡¯ that the sapling has been absorbing from thend. To prevent the sapling from growing any faster, I have received some help in condensing some of the nutrients of thisnd to this pond. I couldn¡¯t make this pond any further than this since it¡¯s already hard to transport it to this spot. I¡¯m currently waiting for other dryads from the other parts of the Section of Life so that they can help me either preserve or move this liquefied essence elsewhere so that the sapling can¡¯t get it. If we can deal with the sapling, I¡¯ll spread this essence back to thend so that it can be used to grow crops once more. However, the sapling had already absorbed quite a bit of the essence before I could condense it so I¡¯m guessing it¡¯ll take a few months for crops to grow again. If the mortals can survive this period, everything will go back to normal.
"And as for why you feel stronger in this area, is because spirits thrive in areas where there is arge concentration of this. For you, your wounds healed up quickly because of this pond right here." The dryad exined.
"And I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s the same for strength."
"Yup. If you want to increase your physical strength in short bursts forbat I suppose you¡¯ll need to learn how to preserve some of this essence inside your body so that it doesn¡¯t get used straight away. You can also use this essence to feed yourself. However, let me warn you. Every time you try to absorb the essence and use it forbat, you¡¯re essentially a smaller dread sapling that¡¯s doing the same.
"While you may notpletely drain thend of nutrients, you are still affecting thend. Meaning, if you absorb too much and fight too often, the people will notice a bad harvest when the time arrives. All life in the forest needs nutrients and you using forbat is akin to steal food from others. It¡¯s only natural that some will die of starvation." The dryad reminded with a small smile.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro stayed silent. If she was to boost her physical power only slightly, it may cause a bad harvest to the surroundings due to ack of nutrients.
"Wait, why would me absorbing some power cause a bad harvest? Surely I can¡¯t absorb that much energy no?" Shiro tilted her head.
"First, the conversion from nutrients to power is very bad. Second, young spirits are constantly absorbing this energy so that they can mature and obtain a divinity. So the energy in thend is already being used up. However, they don¡¯t use this energy forbat so the drain isn¡¯t bad. But if you were to start absorbing it and using it forbat, then I¡¯m afraid your intake will be equal to more than 100 spirits every few seconds you use this power inbat." The dryad exined.
"I see... but if I¡¯m feeling strong now, aren¡¯t I absorbing the nutrients now?" Shiro asked with some concern.
"Ah you don¡¯t need to worry about that. Think of it like an aura that¡¯s passively emitted by such arge concentration of nutrients in one ce. Normally, you wouldn¡¯t feel such arge increase in strength but since I¡¯ve concentrated quite a bit of the nutrients in this pond, it¡¯s only natural that you¡¯ll feel much stronger." The dryad chuckled.
¡¯So I only feel 20 to 30% stronger thanks to this pong of concentrated energy. If not for this then the bonus to my strength might not even reach 10%. Hell, I¡¯m not even sure if it¡¯ll reach 5%. For such a small bonus, it may cause a bad harvest. It¡¯s quite a bad trade off. Since my base strength is low right now, 5% is basically negligible.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
"Never mind then I guess." She shrugged and sat down.
"While you cannot get a boost to your strength, it doesn¡¯t mean there aren¡¯t any other methods." The dryad smiled and leaned over Shiro.
"Oh?"
"Weapons and armours. Tools that help define a hero other than their superhuman strength. Have you heard of Perseus? He used weapons and armours gifted by the gods to y the monster medusa. Aside from the weapons and armours, he¡¯s basically the same as the other heroes with superhuman strength and agility." The dryad reminded.
"I know. So are you saying there¡¯s a weapon that I can obtain to increase my strength?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes and no. It really depends as I¡¯m not too familiar with weapons. However, there is said to be a bow within this forest that has been enchanted by Artemis¡¯ power. It¡¯s location is hidden but I know the general area. You can attempt to find the bow if you want."
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro figured that this could be a trap as it seemed too easy.
"Why are you telling me this?" Shiro narrowed her eyes at the dryad.
"So distrustful. Young spirits are usually rather pure and trusting." The dryad shook her head with a small smile.
"Well I¡¯m not the usual young spirit I suppose. It seems too easy to obtain a weapon that has been blessed by the goddess so there must be a catch to it." Shiro frowned.
"Nope. There¡¯s no catch. Several people have already tried to obtain the weapon but they failed. Don¡¯t worry, they didn¡¯t die. They were just sent out of the forest. As for why I¡¯m telling you, I¡¯m somewhat like a guide. I guide people to the weapon and if they can obtain it, great. If they can¡¯t then I continue my day without worry." The dryad shrugged.
Narrowing her eyes at the dryad, Shiro figured that the spirit was being truthful from what she could tell.
"Fine. Show me the way to the area where the bow is located. Being able to attack the sapling from a distance will be helpful if we do enterbat." Shiro smiled as being near the sapling will kill her. A bow is the perfect weapon for this situation.
"You seem awfully confident in being able to obtain this bow." The dryad raised her eyebrow.
"Somewhat. Even if I don¡¯t get the bow, I¡¯ll probably try to make one myselfter." Shiro smiled.
While she didn¡¯t know how helpful this was, she hoped that the fact that Artemis had given her a blessing could help in this situation. After all, things originating from the same god or goddess usually resonate with one another. If it is truly a bow blessed by Artemis then her sigil should work. Of course, nothing could happen since she¡¯s not able to ess her powers but it¡¯s worth a shot.
Chapter 663 Artemis Bow Part 1
Chapter 663 Artemis'' Bow Part 1
"So where is this location?" Shiro asked while following behind the dryad.
"It¡¯s deep in the forest. Just follow me and I¡¯ll take you to it. You have my word." The dryad chuckled.
"Fair enough. If you don¡¯t mind, why don¡¯t you exin to me more about my dormant sigils while we¡¯re walking there?"
Thinking about it for a moment, the dryad nodded.
"Sure. You see, sigils or rather, divinities have two states. The silent state and the active state. There is very rarely a third state which is the dormant state. The dormant state is something you usually see in demigods and gods due to the fact that they are inherently born with a divinity. For you, you seem to have several dormant sigils which is very strange because that means you have several divinities in you despite notpleting a single trial." The dryad exined.
"Are there any ways for me to awaken these sigils then?" Shiro asked.
"Unfortunately no. They awaken in reaction to external factors and are not something you can control. For example, in the Mural of Beginnings, it is stated that one of the demigods awakened his divinity in his most desperate time of need. There were also records of demigods awakening their dormant sigils by justzing around. The awakening of the sigils isn¡¯t something you can trigger at will." The dryad shook her head.
"Ah but don¡¯t worry, just because you have dormant sigils doesn¡¯t mean your slots are taken." She smiled.
"Slots?" Shiro tilted her head at the sudden mention of slots.
"You don¡¯t know about slots? You know how everyone is only allowed three divinities and they have three slots to amodate those divinities. That¡¯s what slots are." The dryad exined as Shiro nodded her head.
She remembered that her body contains six of these slots. One slot for a normal divinity and five for the primordial ones.
"If I awaken one of my divinities, would it take one of my slots?" Shiro asked as she didn¡¯t want to fail this quest because of something she couldn¡¯t control.
"I don¡¯t know. Apparently, some of the demigods who had dormant divinities were rather against the idea of taking another god¡¯s divinity since it¡¯ll be akin to working under them as a servant." The dryad smiled.
"Why? Isn¡¯t it just borrowing their power? Just because you buy some bread from a baker, it doesn¡¯t mean you work under the bakers." Shiro tilted her head.
"Well sometimes you don¡¯t know how god¡¯s process things." The dryad chuckled and shrugged her shoulders.
"They¡¯re just petty and annoying in my eyes." Shiro rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. Remembering how Poseidon and Zeus acted, she signed at the state of ¡¯gods¡¯.
Hearing no response, Shiro looked up and saw the dryad looking at her with wide eyes that was filled with shock and disbelief.
"What?" Shiro tilted her head.
". . .You don¡¯t just go around cursing gods like that. They¡¯re watching all the time." The dryad looked up at the sky with worry.
"But they¡¯re not in this world are they?" Shiro shrugged and looked up at the sky.
"Zeus, this one¡¯s for you." She called out and flipped her middle finger at the sky.
"Ah what are you doing?????" The dryad panicked and quickly pulled her hand down.
"What? It¡¯s not like he¡¯s going to smite me down now is he?" Shiro shrugged.
Plus, she doubted that Zeus had the rights to affect her trial in such a manner. Not to mention the fact that he probably couldn¡¯t see what was happening since this is under Nyx¡¯s control.
"Young spirits don¡¯t know fear." The dryad sighed.
"I suppose you can summarise it like that." Shiro chuckled softly.
Walking for a little longer, Shiro noticed that the nts around them were increasing in size as time passed. It was as if they had been shrunk down. Even a normal flower was now reaching the height of her waist. Sooner orter the flower might even surpass her in height.
"We¡¯re here." The dryad smiled and stood to one side.
Looking towards the front of them, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but notice that everything looked exactly the same and nothing was out of ce.
"This is the ce?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Yup."
"This?" She asked again while pointing in front of them.
"Yup."
"The ce that looks like we¡¯ve already walked by it several times now is the ce?" Shiro forced a smile while trying to pick out anything that may or may not catch her eye.
"Yup."
". . . Care to show me where the entrance to this area is? Like where the entrance to this bow is." Shiro gestured towards the forest in front of them.
"You¡¯re looking it at." The dryad smiled.
"So you¡¯re telling me to go find the bow by myself now?" Shiro asked while pointing at the forest.
"Yup. Good luck~" The dryad waved with a soft giggle. Disappearing from her spot, Shiro was now alone in the forest.
Taking a moment to sigh, she looked around for the tallest tree.
With the flowers measuring to her waist, it was only natural that all the trees looked gigantic and it was rather hard to pick one that seemed like it was the biggest of the bunch. Choosing to find out with easy footholds for her to use while climbing along with vines just in case, Shiro started to scale up the tree with a surprising amount of nimbleness.
Flipping her body onto the first branch, she looked up and saw that she still had quite a few branches to go before she reached the top.
Jumping up from branch to branch, Shiro found herself back into her normal rhythm.
"Damn, girls like me shouldn¡¯t sit around doing nothing all day. Being active is where it¡¯s at." She grinned, feeling much livelier than she had before.
Swinging on the second tost branch, shended a backflip on the tallest branch and looked out towards the forest where the dryad said the bow was located.
Narrowing her eyes, she wanted to see if there were any spots that were particrly... out of the ordinary. Finding a tree that was sticking out of the crowd ofrge trees, Shiro figured that it was probably a good ce to start with.
Just as she was about to jump from the tree, she quickly remembered that she was very vulnerable right now and jumping from this height would heavily injure her if not kill her in an instant.
Coughing lightly, she let the adrenaline calm down a little before dashing through the forest.
Parkouring from tree to tree, she swung from the vines that hung from the taller branches and managed to arrive at the base of the tallest tree quickly.
Landing softly on the grass, she raised her eyebrow at the tree and noticed that its width was many times thicker than she was tall.
Circling around the tree a little, Shiro started to look for any clues that might lead her to the bow.
¡¯Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness, moon, archery, chastity and childbirth. In this forest, I¡¯ll probably need to find clues for hunt, wilderness, moon and archery in order to locate her bow.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself but it was just a guess for now since she didn¡¯t know the exact details to obtaining her bow.
Spending the next few hours searching around the perimeter, Shiro had a bored expression since she couldn¡¯t find any clues. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Taking a break and sitting beneath thergest tree, Shiro started to juggle her weapons since she had nothing else to do right now. Juggling several daggers and a short sword, Shiro wondered why there weren¡¯t any hints.
If the bow was in this forest, around this location, surely there should have been a small clue.
Plus, with Artemis¡¯ divinity rting to hunt, wilderness, the moon and archery, she should have found ONE small clue within her time of searching.
"Actually... maybe it¡¯s not in the forest? Maybe it¡¯s above or below?" Shiro muttered while catching all of her weapons.
Sometimes people like to hide their possessions in ces which rtes to them but not in an obvious manner. So an example would be Artemis hiding her bow in a floating rock forming in the sky.
Thinking about this point, Shiro quickly dashed to the top of the tallest tree and tried to look around for anything that might be a clue.
Looking around the ce from the tallest location, she spotted ake that she had walked past during the few hours she had spent here. She did wonder if the bow was hidden there so she did a quick dive but nothing of interest appeared so she moved on. But there could be some criteria that haven¡¯t been met so she added the location back on her list.
The next thing she spotted was the fallen tree leading to a small underground cavern which led to a dead end. Once again, she added that location back on the list since there could be something she was missing.
Aside from these two spots, the other locations looked the same so Shiro shifted her focus.
¡¯Since her divinity also included the moon, perhaps things will reveal themselves at night.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile and decided to investigate the location once more before nightfall.
Chapter 664 Artemis Bow Part 2
Chapter 664 Artemis'' Bow Part 2
Arriving at theke, Shiro circled around the perimeter and tried her luck once more but found nothing. Setting her clothes by the side, she jumped into theke with her dagger in her mouth and continued to swim towards the bottom.
Swimming at impressive speeds for around a minute and a half, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the bottom and figured that if she was to continue down, she wouldn¡¯t be able to get back to the surface or she¡¯ll drown.
Spending a moment to try looking for something that might be of use, Shiro eventually swam back up to the surface and took several deep breaths.
"Hmm... On the bottom were only a few boulders and rocks. Nothing really of interest. Strangely enough, there aren¡¯t any fishes of animals in this part of the forest." Shiro muttered while climbing out of theke. Taking a moment to dry her hair and body as best she could, she wore her clothes once more and made her way to the fallen tree leading up to the cavern.
Grabbing a few dead tree branches, Shiro created a makeshift torch as the sun was getting a little low. At this point in time, the lighting within the cave would be rather small so she¡¯ll need a light source of her own.
Entering the cave with a torch, Shiro noticed that the rocks shimmered lightly at the presence of her torch. Not so much that it formed letters or a pattern but enough for her to realise that something must be up with the rocks.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro looked around the cavern and noticed that some of the boulders around the ce looked like they could be moved around.
"Interesting..." She muttered with a smile.
cing the torch by the side, she walked up to one of the boulders and gritted her teeth.
"Hnnn!!!!"
Trying her best to move it, Shiro could feel a small shift but not enough so that it would flip over.
Letting go of the boulder, she jogged out of the cave and looked for a suitable piece of wood.
Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to find one that could be used as a lever.
"¡ê^&%&! Don¡¯t tell me that you have to be superhuman to actually obtain this bow." Shiro frowned.
Crouching near the boulder, Shiro waved her torch around in order to find a spot that she might be able to use as a handle so that she could roll the rock over.
However, when she waved the torch near the boulder, she noticed a mirror like surface that was underneath the boulder. The only reason she noticed this was because the mirror had reflected some of the light from her torch back into her face.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro checked the other boulders in the cave and saw that they all had the mirror like surface beneath them.
"Hmm..."
Narrowing her eyes at the boulders, she simted what their location would be if she was to roll them over and the mirror surface was to be exposed to the light.
Tracing the simted reflection into the cave, Shiro traced her hand along the dead end as this was where the light would focus should all the rocks be turned over. Of course, this was just a single simtion of the position of the rocks. They could very well turn in a different way and her current simted end of the light is nothing but a farce.
Raising her torch against the wall, she only saw a few shimmers but nothing happened.
¡¯Hmm... perhaps I need to wait till nightfall to use these boulders. If I was to snap my short sword to pieces, will I be able to recreate the boulder¡¯s reflection?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself but didn¡¯t make a move. After all, if her guess was wrong, she¡¯d be left without a good short sword which would be quite detrimental.
Sitting on one of the boulders, she nced out of the cavern and wondered to herself for a moment. Hopping off the boulder, she searched around the outer perimeter, around the fallen tree, and noticed that there were a few smaller boulders that had the same mirror like surface but the rocks were rather mossy with shrubbery coating the top of the rock.
¡¯Moving all of this for it to be set in ce seems rather impractical as the oue would be randomised.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes. Her instincts were telling her that the key was not moving these boulders but something else.
Memorising the location of the boulders, Shiro slowly noticed a small pattern and had her suspicions. Estimating where the next spot of the patterns are, she managed to find more boulders and couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
"Well I¡¯ll be damned. I didn¡¯t expect astrology to be a part of this puzzle. I suppose Artemis did say that she was friends with Asteria." Shiro chuckled.
The spots of the boulders were precisely the star locations of Orion¡¯s Constetion.
"The forbidden love between the marksman Orion and the goddess Artemis. In the end, you had Zeus ce him among the constetions." Shiro muttered with a small smile.
Understanding that the boulders are not to be moved, Shiro wondered about why they were facing downwards.
There was an idea in her mind but Shiro wasn¡¯t too sure since the possibility of such a thing was slim. And so far, she hadn¡¯t found any entrances unless...
Thinking about it for a moment, she turned towards the direction of theke.
"I hope I¡¯m right." She muttered.
While waiting for night to arrive, Shiro started to find strong pieces of vines so that if she couldn¡¯t find something at the bottom of theke, she could at least try her best at pulling herself ashore.
After spending a few hours collecting the vines, she tied them all up securely.
With the sun settingpletely, Shiro looked up at the sky and saw a crescent moon hanging above theke.
"Is this a sign Artemis?" Shiro asked with a soft chuckle. After all, a bow was simr to a crescent moon.
Taking off her clothes, she tied the end of her long line of vines against one of the trees. Wrapping the other end on herself, she estimated that this should be enough to reach the bottom of theke.
"I hope my guess is correct." Shiro muttered and took a deep breath.
Diving into theke with nothing but a single bone dagger, Shiro narrowed her eyes and swam towards the bottom.
Surprisingly, there was a small flicker of light from the rocks beneath theck due to the moonlight.
Slowly, she noticed the flickers of light trace the image of a bow and arrow, ready to be fired towards her left.
Turning her body so that she was facing the sky, she saw that the moon was directly above theke.
Chuckling softly, she dived towards the image of the bow and arrow and noticed that the light forming the arrow tip was not actually a reflection from the moon. Instead, it was a Sigil that was domed like a boulder.
Reaching out for the Sigil, Shiro discovered that there was an empty space behind it.
Quickly cutting herself free of the vine with her dagger, she dived towards the Sigil.
"HAA!!!" Taking arge breath of fresh air, Shiro found herself on a water slide of sorts deeper into the earth.
Feeling the cold winds graze her skin, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shiver a little from the cold.
"I swear if I, a spirit who started as a snow girl, get a f*cking cold from this I¡¯m going to be pissed." Shiro muttered in annoyance.
After a short while, she braced herself as she could hear the echoes of arge cavern. Looking at the makeshift map she had simted in her mind, she noticed that she was now beneath the boulder constetions she had found above ground.
Seeing the smooth ground, Shiro jumped off the waterslide andnded on the stone.
In front of her was a single crystal bow that was ced on top of a pedestal made from stone.
The bow itself seemed to radiate a soft light as the surrounding stones were lit up by this radiance.
ncing above her, she saw the Orion constetion flicker with a soft light that was simr to stars
Smiling softly, Shiro walked up to the bow.
"Thanks for your help Artemis." Shiro chuckled and grabbed the bow.
Chapter 665 Claiming Artemis Bow
Chapter 665 iming Artemis'' Bow
Upon touching the bow, several motes of lights appeared around the room. Raising her eyebrows, Shiro nced at her system interface since it had notified her of a new notification.
[iming Artemis¡¯ Bow]
Shoot down every target that appears in the room. Each target will stay for 5 seconds.
Seeing this, Shiro realised that just getting the bow wasn¡¯t enough. She had to prove that she could use the bow.
¡¯Well it ain¡¯t too bad. I can handle a few targets.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile since she was rather talented with both the bow and the sniper. The only thing with the bow was that she needed to calcte the arrow fall speed as well if the target was far away.
Pulling back on the bow string, lights gathered towards her location and formed an arrow.
*Thuck!
Piercing the first target, Shiro pivoted on her foot and shot the second one without too much dy.
Memorising the arrival time of each target, she had made sure that she kept an internal timer on how long they¡¯ve been around for. As each target only had 5 seconds to be shot down, she needed to be careful of her timing otherwise she¡¯ll fail.
After all, she wasn¡¯t in her superhuman state right now. She was a normal human or rather, spirit who knew how to control her body.
Shooting down target after target, sweat started to drip down Shiro¡¯s body as it reminded her that she was currently nude. The cold wind blowing against her skin served as a distraction and she couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful that no one was watching her right now. If a god happened to be watching and it was a male god, she¡¯d make sure she erased their memories since she didn¡¯t want her body to be seen by someone other than the one she wanted to make her partner.
*PING!!!
Shooting down the final target that had appeared, Shiro took a deep breath as it felt like her lungs were being set on fire right now.
While she was resting, a Sigil started to flicker on her wrist.
Looking down, she noticed that it was the Sigil which belonged to Artemis.
[Due to the presence of the dormant Sigil ¨C Blessing of Artemis ¨C The bow of Artemis has received a small upgrade.]
[This bow does not require arrows.]
[This bow will guarantee a hit as long as the arrow is within a certain distance from the target. If the user shoots the arrow behind them and expects it to hit the enemy, the arrow will not hit.]
[You have increased affinity with animals and spirits.]
[When you are in a forest, the power of your shots increase.]
[Your bow¡¯s power is increased when you are under moonlight.]
[You can store this bow in your Sigil and it will appear by yourmand.]
[If you find the item ¨C Orion¡¯s Arrow ¨C new features will be unlocked.]
Flicking her wrist, Shiro watched as the crystal bow disappeared into her Sigil.
Raising her eyebrow, she smiled and looked around her.
"Now then, how the hell am I meant to get out of this ce." She muttered. Investigating the cavern, Shiro noticed a Sigil on the wall. Putting her hands against the Sigil, the entire wall disappeared to reveal a set of stone stairs.
Walking up the stone stairs, she found herself in the same cavern where she had first noticed the boulders that had the mirror like surface underneath them.
"So it wasn¡¯t a dead end but rather a hidden exit for when a person finishes the test huh?" Shiro said while ncing at the wall that reformed itself.
Shrugging her shoulders, she dashed out of the cave and made her way towards theke. After all, her clothes were left at theke side. If she were to lose her clothes, that would be truly awkward as she¡¯ll need to gomando for a while.
Thankfully, her clothes were still there with no signs of being touched.
Quickly dressing herself, she made her way to the exit of this spot. Dashing through the trees, she was surprised to see the dryad waiting for her with a smile.
"Congrattions. You have indeed obtained the Bow of Artemis."
"How did you know?" Shiro asked curiously.
"As the guide, it is only natural I know when someone haspleted the test." The dryad chuckled.
"Fair enough. I¡¯ll be going back to the town now. Has anything happened in the time I was away?" Shiro asked.
"Not from what I can tell. Your friend dide to look for you but I told him that you were busy. He wanted to bring you some dinner and if you¡¯re wondering, he is still waiting by the edge of the forest." The dryad smiled.
"I see... Thank you for telling me about this bow by the way. It¡¯ll be a great help to me." Shiro grinned.
"It¡¯s my pleasure."
Dashing through the trees, Shiro arrived at the edge of the forest rather quickly.
Seeing Dimos sitting by one of the trees with a basket in hand, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
"Sorry, I was getting something. Did you wait long?" Shiro asked as shended next to him.
"Don¡¯t worry. Are you hungry? I¡¯ve brought some more food from the town." Dimos replied while opening the basket.
"It¡¯s not exactly the best food but it¡¯ll do. Most of the people in the section of life don¡¯t eat meat since it¡¯s rather dangerous to hunt. So while we¡¯re here, you might have to get used to no meat for a while unless some merchants from other sections happen to pass by one of the towns." Dimos chuckled.
"That¡¯s fine. Honestly, I¡¯ve had worse I suppose." Shiro shrugged and ate the bread.
"So what were you busy with?" Dimos asked curiously.
"With this." Flicking her wrist, Shiro summoned the bow into her hand.
Seeing the bow, DImos widened his eyes.
Thanks to his divinity of wisdom, he immediately realised that this was the bow of Artemis.
"Wait, you obtained a weapon blessed by the gods?" Dimos asked with disbelief.
"Doesn¡¯t that require some luck and knowledge on the god or goddess along with skills that match the weapon? Since Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, her test for the bow is probably something that even experienced hunters struggle with."
"It was somewhat difficult." Shiro admitted since she had almost failed half way through the test. There were simply too many targets and she barely managed to hit thest one in time. If she missed, she would have failed the test.
Hearing Shiro describe a god¡¯s test as somewhat difficult, Dimos¡¯ smile started to twitch.
"I thought you were proficient with daggers and short swords. When did you be proficient with the bow?" Dimos asked.
"I never said I was proficient with the daggers and short swords. You assumed that I was since there were the only weapons I could get my hands on at the time. I¡¯m good with all forms of weaponry since I have some experience with them. Staffs, spears, halberds, long swords, short swords, daggers, bows and so on. And if it¡¯s a custom weapon then give me a day or so. I¡¯ll get used to it quickly." Shiro smiled and dismissed the bow.
Hearing that Shiro was proficient with quite a few weapons, Dimos just epted the fact that she could do it. His divinity of wisdom told him that any further thought on the matter would be harmful for his mental state.
After talking for a little while, Shiro brought up the subject of the dread sapling.
"So how far is it into stage two?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm... I¡¯d say it¡¯s roughly a third of the way in which is good for us since it means that there is a small chance of it reaching stage three." Dimos replied.
"I see... have you called for reinforcements?"
"Yes I have. They¡¯ll be arriving in roughly a week if they¡¯re fast." Dimos replied.
"Do you think it¡¯ll reach stage 3 by that time?"
"Maybe. It¡¯ll definitely reach the halfway point that¡¯s for sure. As for whether or not it¡¯ll reach stage three, we can only hope that it doesn¡¯t." Dimos shook his head.
"Hmm..."
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wasn¡¯t exactly excited by the thought that they were going to leave it alone for another week. During this week, there was a chance that it could discover the liquified essence and should it reach that stage, it¡¯ll most definitely reach stage three. Once that happens, the reinforcements that Dimos called for wouldn¡¯t be enough.
"Dryad, is there a way for us to slow down its growth?" Shiro asked.
"Yes but it¡¯s rather difficult. You¡¯ll need to cut its roots so that it can¡¯t expand outwards. That¡¯ll force it to use some of the stored nutrients to heal itself. But that might agitate it and forcebat." The dryad replied.
"I see... Alright, we¡¯ll keep that as a backup in case things get out of hand." Shiro sighed.
Chapter 666 Lena
Chapter 666 Lena
For the next few days, Dimos kept his eye on the dread saplings progress while Shiro and the dryad searched underground for some of its roots so that they could also keep a track on its progress.
During this time, a few of the reinforcements that Dimos had called over arrived surprisingly early and they included people that havepleted at least one divinity. A few of them already had twopleted.
The strongest warrior that he had invited was called Lena and she hadpleted two of the strongest divinities avable. Divinity of War obtained from the tower of Ares and the Divinity of Weapons obtained from the tower of Perseus.
She was a ¡¯delicate¡¯ looking woman simr to Shiro as her stature was a little small. However, despite her small stature, her muscles were brimming with power. Each swing of her sword could cleave a portion of thend apart.
Lena had long ck hair and a set of menacing crimson eyes that seemed to radiate with malice. Wearing a set of silver armour that was finely carved with small details such as wings on the te.
Watching from the top of the crater, Shiro was extremely impressed with her utilisation of Perseus¡¯ Divinity. It was simr to her when she would create and disassemble weapons in the midst ofbat to give herself the upper hand.
When the enemy is a bit too far from her, she would switch her weapon to a spear for that extra reach. And if they closed the gap in order to take advantage of the spear¡¯s weakness, she¡¯ll switch to either a dagger of a short sword.
Normally, Shiro would have wanted to fight against someone like her seriously as their fighting style was rather simr but unfortunately, she was too weak right now and the moment she tried to fight against her seriously, she¡¯d get her ass kicked in the end.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro figured that she can probably ask for a small spar with her bow.
However, due to the fact that she was resting in the town, Shiro couldn¡¯t meet her. The moment she entered the town, she would begin to breathe in the corruption emitted by the dread sapling and that was not what she wanted.
In the end, she had Dimos send a message to Lena for her.
Waiting at the top of the crater, she saw the ck haired woman approach with an angry re however Shiro couldn¡¯t detect any malic in her which was extremely strange.
"You called for me?" She asked while standing in front of Shiro.
"Yup. I was just wondering if we can have a quick spar or something along those lines. I don¡¯t have any divinities but after seeing your fighting style, I couldn¡¯t help but want to practice with you. If you don¡¯t mind of course." Shiro smiled.
Even though Lena was ring at her, there wasn¡¯t any true anger in her eyes so Shiro dismissed it for now. Of course, once Shiro detected anger, then she won¡¯t be as courteous.
"Are you sure? Normally people don¡¯t want to spar with me since my fighting style is annoying to go against." Lena asked with slight traces of confusion.
"Don¡¯t worry. I won¡¯tin as it is something I requested. However, due to some special circ.u.mstances, I cannot enter the town. If you don¡¯t mind, we¡¯ll be fighting around here. Ah also, try not to damage the forest." Shiro chuckled.
"Sure what weapon do you use?" Lena asked with a nod.
"I use the bow, daggers and a short sword." Shiro smiled while patting her belt of weapons on her waist.
"Where¡¯s your bow?"
"Here." Flicking her wrist, Shiro summoned Artemis¡¯ bow.
Surprised at the fact that Shiro had a bow blessed by the gods, Lena couldn¡¯t help but nod her head in appreciation.
"How should we do this? One hit victory or do you want to do more than just one hit?" Lena asked. They didn¡¯t need to worry about their injuries since there was someone with the Divinity of Healing received from the tower of Asclepius. Any minor wound they receive will be healed instantly.
"Let¡¯s go with three hits." Shiro suggested as Lena nodded her head.
Making some distance between them, Shiro stretched her body lightly and brought out her bow.
As they weren¡¯t allowed to go into the forest, her possibilities with the bow were a little restrained but she wasn¡¯t too worried since her close quartersbat was decent as well. Especially since she had received some training from her parents.
However, she could not deny the obvious physical difference between her and Lena so she had to be careful.
Since people discover their potential the more danger they were in, this was a good chance for Shiro to improve due to herck of power at this moment.
"I¡¯ll let you take the first attack." Lena said while summoning a spear. Entering a stance, her fighting aura caused Shiro to grin.
Simr to when she was fighting against a Terca when she was extremely malnourished, a single bad move could end things for her.
¡¯Show me what you got.¡¯ Shiro thought and pulled back on her bowstring.
Summoning an Arrow, Shiro fired without hesitation and dashed towards Lena straight away.
Surprised at the fact that Shiro immediately gave up her ranged advantage, Lena parried the arrow to the side with her spear and wanted to switch to the long sword.
However, the power of the arrow was much bigger than what she had expected from a person without divinity.
This gap in her defences was exactly what Shiro was looking for. Grabbing a dagger, she lunged towards Lena.
Quickly summoning her sword, Lena wanted to parry Shiro¡¯s dagger but before her sword could block the dagger, Shiro retracted her hand.
Pivoting on her right foot, Shiro brought both of Lena¡¯s arms down with her left leg, breaking open her guard in the process.
Shocked by this sudden movement, Lena made eye contact with Shiro and couldn¡¯t help but feel a shiver down her spine.
Trusting her instincts, she summoned a shield from her armoury.
*CLANK!!!
Blocking a dagger strike just in time, Lena dismissed the shield and reached out to Shiro.
Grabbing her ankles, Lena spun her body and flung Shiro into the air. Summoning a spear, Lena threw it towards her shoulder with a moderate amount of power. Not enough so that it¡¯llpletely tear her arm off but just enough so that it¡¯ll prate into her flesh.
Using the body of her bow to block the spear, Shiro gritted her teeth from the force that was transmitted through her body.
However, she did indeed seed in blocking the attack. Quickly grabbing the spear, Shironded on the ground.
"I¡¯ll take it back now." Lena summoned the spear next to her.
"I¡¯m surprised. You were able to keep up despite not having a single divinity." She smiled softly. But when paired with her re, it looked as though she was mocking her opponent even though Shiro knew otherwise.
"I¡¯ll be honest, I was sure that my dagger would have struck you. Your reactions are impressive." Shiro chuckled. She had made sure topletely divert Lena¡¯s attention before her strike so that the dagger would hit but even after diverting her attention, the moment Lena felt danger, she was able to summon a shield just in time.
"Should we continue?" Lena asked with a smile.
"Of course."
Continuing their spar for a little longer, it took longer than what Lena had expected to determine a winner since Shiro was able to barely dodge some of her attacks. However, in the end, the difference in physical prowess was what allowed Lena to obtain Victory.
"Thank you, I was able to learn a lot from this spar. May I know your name?" Lena asked.
"It¡¯s Shiro. You want to spar some more asionally while we wait for everyone else to arrive?" Shiro offered.
"That would be great." Lena nodded her head enthusiastically.
"So just a question from me but what¡¯s up with your re? I couldn¡¯t detect anger from you so I know you¡¯re not always angry." Shiro asked as she was rather curious about her re.
"Well... it¡¯s something that I¡¯ve grown up with. My mum also has this re but my brother doesn¡¯t so I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s something that ismon with the females in my family." Lena exined while scratching her hair.
"Ah I see... It must have been tough then." Shiro nodded her head.
"I¡¯ve gotten used to it now and so have the people around me." Lena chuckled.
Hearing this, Shiro was happy for Lena.
The two would spar asionally in the following days while more and more warriors arrived at the town. Soon, everyone was here and it was time to deal with the dread sapling.
Chapter 667 Fighting the Dread Sapling Part 1
Chapter 667 Fighting the Dread Sapling Part 1
In the time that the remaining warriors had arrived, Shiro had asked the warrior with a wind divinity to shred up some trees which he wasn¡¯t too bothered by since they were waiting around doing nothing for a few days.
Just to be safe, Shiro had asked the dryad for any trees that she could cut down. While she was a little sad that a few trees were going to die for this operation, it was ok since having the dread sapling survive was much worse than cutting down a few trees.
With the dryad¡¯s permission, Shiro had the warrior shred up enough trees so that they couldpletely surround the tree with wood dust.
Exining the n to the warriors along with a small demonstration, they were ok with opening the fight with the dust explosion so that they didn¡¯t harm their allies. After all, if they were to attempt this during the fight, it¡¯ll be akin to throwing a bomb into a crowd of allies.
###
Looking down from the top of the crater, Shiro watched as they set the boxes of wood dust around the tree.
Once all the boxes had been set up, the warriors started to back off while two stayed behind. One was a person with the divinity of wind while the other owned the divinity of fire granted by Apollo.
Waving his hand, a gust of wind appeared in the area as all of the sawdust was sent into the air. Controlling the current so that the dust revolved around the tree, the man nced towards his partner and nodded his head.
With the signal, the second warrior summoned a Sigil into the air as the sun¡¯s heat seemed to intensify.
While this was happening, Lena nced towards Shiro and Dimos.
"Do you think this¡¯ll work?" She asked curiously. She was positioned here as her divinity allowed her to fight at any range. As Shiro was within the perimeter of the dread saplings influence, one of the roots could appear here so she was here as a guard along with ranged support.
"There¡¯s a high chance that it won¡¯t and the most it¡¯ll do is reveal the dread sapling but who knows. Since they¡¯re igniting it with mes created from divinity, it means that the subsequent explosion should also be enchanted to some extent which should help." Shiro shrugged.
"Ha?" Seeing as though the one who suggested the operation wasn¡¯t confident about its power, Lena paused before epting it. After all, they couldn¡¯t see the future so whether or not the dust explosion would work is still a mystery.
"Now now, don¡¯t be like that Shiro. Have some faith." Dimos chuckled.
"I suppose I should have SOME faith. However..." Shiro stood up and summoned her bow.
"You probably shouldn¡¯t hope for the impossible such as killing the sapling in one go with some dust and fire."
Pulling back on her bow string, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the tree in the centre and waited patiently for the dust explosion to happen before attacking the tree.
Seeing this, Lena did the same and summoned a bow from her armoury.
After a short moment, the warrior with Apollo¡¯s divinity finished his preparation. If one was to look up into the sky, they would see a giant arrow made from fire in the distance. Should ite any closer, the heat would be rather unbearable.
Making sure that everyone was a good distance away, the warrior swiped his hands down.
Receiving themand, the arrow started to fall as the sky was slowly tainted with a red hue formed by the arrow increasing its speed.
Bracing herself for the impact, Shiro kept her eye on the tree.
*TSSS!!! BANG!!!
The moment the arrow came into contact with the dust, sparks jumped from one particle to another as a giant column of fire shot up into the sky.
With the zing column of fire in the centre of the crater, a shockwave of dust exploded outwards.
"Uff!"
Despite having braced herself for the impact, Shiro was still knocked back a few feet.
Clicking her tongue, she quickly stabilised herself and walked to the edge of the crater.
*KRRRRR!!!!!
Feeling the ground shake, she understood that the fight was about to begin and the sapling was far from happy.
"RUMBLE!!!! CRACK!!!
Suddenly, tens of fissures started to appear around the town as ck roots started to appear.
Seeing this, all of the warriors inside the crater brought out their weapons and charged towards the tree in the centre. As long as they kill the core, the roots will naturally disappear.
With a third of them focusing on the tree and the others blocking the roots, they were well organised in delegating the tasks to one another.
As for Shiro and Lena, they were rather rxed while shooting some of the roots from a distance as none of the fissures had opened up near them. Without the threat of the roots, they didn¡¯t need to worry too much about defence.
However, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel as though something was wrong.
¡¯My instincts are usually correct. Plus, it¡¯s taking them a while to kill this thing. With their efficiency, they should have killed it already.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
"Shiro!"
Hearing her name being called, Shiro turned around and saw a panicked dryad.
¡¯Ah f*ck...¡¯
"What happened?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"The dread sapling *pant...* It¡¯s a fake! It¡¯s a decoy that the real one has made! The real one was hiding deep underground and used this as a proxy! After everyone attacked it, it appeared in the forest. I¡¯m trying to keep it at bay but it¡¯s looking for the liquified essence right now!" the dryad exined as she was trying to catch her breath.
"Damn it! No wonder they¡¯re taking a while to kill that thing. Sir, get a few of the warriors toe into the forest so that they can provide backup. Lena,e with me and we¡¯ll keep the dread sapling at bay before it can find the source." Shiromanded with a frown.
Since Lena understood what kind of danger the dread sapling could bring, having the real body escape would be a problem.
Nodding her head, she immediately dismissed her bow and summoned the sword.
As for Dimos, he had already started to run towards the warriors that were being preupied by the roots.
"Dryad, show us the way." Shiro said as the three of them dashed into the forest.
"I will. However, if you go close to it, it¡¯ll poison you." The dryad frowned.
"I¡¯ve got a bow for a reason. Just tell me where it is and I¡¯ll try to provide some ranged support without getting poisoned. If you are really worried, make me the biggest tree you can so that I can hit the sapling from a high location." Shiro frowned while dashed past a few trees. Lena was next to her as she slowed down just a little so that she could hear more about what the dryad wanted to say.
"Alright. I can¡¯t get close to it either but I can fight it from afar using my own divinity. I¡¯ll lead your friend here to sapling while I make you a tree." The dryad nodded.
"Keep an eye out on the other warriors as well. They¡¯ll being for reinforcement so it¡¯ll be good if you can show them the way. It¡¯ll be tough for Lena to keep the sapling upied all by herself." Shiro narrowed her eyes and jumped up onto a branch.
Using it as a vault, she jumped into the sky as the trees beneath her feet started to growrger with each passing second. Acting as a staircase, Shiro estimated that the tree she was currently on was around 130 meters from ground level.
Narrowing her eyes, she could see slithers of ck roots slithering through the forest as decay was spreading.
Remembering the location of the liquified essence, Shiro guessed that the sapling will find it soon if they don¡¯t keep it upied.
"Dryad are you there?" Shiro asked while firing a few arrows at the roots that she could see, pinning them against the ground for a few moments.
"Yes?"
"Move the liquified essence if you can. It¡¯s quite close to where the sapling is right now." Shiro said with a frown.
"I¡¯ll try." The dryad nodded before disappearing.
Looking down, Shiro could see Lena dashed with a sword in hand.
¡¯She should be able to keep it busy for a little while if I provide some ranged support.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and took a deep breath.
Pulling back on her bow, she fired a few more arrows.
###
Hopping over some fallen trees, Lena started to notice signs of decay and withering. Understanding that this meant the sapling as near, she increased her speed.
*CRACK! Hearing the ground crack beside her, she quickly pivoted on her foot and shed with her sword, cutting the root in half before it could even approach her.
There were a few roots that tried to attack her from behind when she swung her sword but arrows pinned them against the ground before they could evensh out.
ncing towards the tall tree in the distance, Lena waved her hand lightly as appreciation before dashing forwards once more.
Soon, she came face to face with the dread sapling.
Chapter 668 Fighting the Dread Sapling Part 2
Chapter 668 Fighting the Dread Sapling Part 2
Without a host, the dread sapling waspletely exposed to Lena. It was a fleshy bulb like object with veins pulsing through its body. A ck flower bloomed above the bulb as red tentacles writhed around within the flower which made it look like a nest of bloodied maggots.
The bulb was around the size of a human torso but the extensions from this bulb were far from small.
Connected by a thick trunk, ck roots could be seen digging into the ground as each individual hair on the root would grow with each passing second and also dig into the ground.
Sensing the arrival of Lena, the ground around the sapling started to split apart as hundreds of roots shot towards her in an attempt to kill her.
ring at the wall of roots that wanted to end her, Lena summoned a shield into her spare hand and swiped with her sword while using the shield as cover.
*BANG!!!
Feeling the brunt force of hundreds of roots crashing against her shield, Lena gritted her teeth and tried to stand her ground. However, the force still pushed her back by several meters.
Before the roots could attack again, a hail of arrows appeared in the air and started to rain down around the main body.
Creating a dome using its roots to protect itself, the sapling seemed agitated by the interference of the two.
Seeing the sapling shield itself against her hail of arrows, Shiro clicked her tongue.
¡¯It¡¯s almost at stage three but not quite. However, despite not having reached stage three, it can still use roots to protect itself. Since it had quite a bit of time to mature, the amount of roots that it has must be in the thousands now. It¡¯ll definitely be a pain to try to destroy them all without a n. But if the roots are around, it¡¯ll be rather tough to target its main body.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
However, she did not stop shooting her arrows since it gave Lena more chances to attack the sapling.
ncing back towards the town, she could see one or two warriors that were being led into the forest with the help of the dryad but it wasn¡¯t enough.
She¡¯d need at least a third of all the warriors in the town in order for them to kill the sapling. Any less would make the fight much harder than what it needs to be.
Thankfully, Lena looked like she was able to hold her own for a long time but since she was in a constant state of defence, it was hard to attack the sapling. For every root that she cut down, more would take their ce.
To make matters worse, since Shiro¡¯s weapon was a bow right now, it wasn¡¯t as effective as a sword when ites to taking down roots. Due to her initial rain of arrows, the sapling now had a constant shield of roots around the bulb.
All of the arrows that Shiro shot would be stopped by this wall.
Since she couldn¡¯t kill the sapling even with Lena¡¯s help, the most they could do was to dy it from finding the liquified essence.
After a few more rounds of arrows, Shiro noticed the withering of the forest slowly travelling towards her and knew that the roots were going to reach her sooner orter. Once they do, it¡¯d be hard for her to escape the poisoning.
On a good note however, more warriors were able to arrive in the forest to help Lena fend against the sapling and they had managed to get a few good hits on the bulb which caused ck sap to seep into the ground which seemed to have increased the withering of the surroundings.
Seeing this, Shiro realised that this dread sapling was a little different from what Dimos had described. Not only was it smart enough to create a proxy so that it could fool people, but it was also able to corrode the surroundings at a much faster pace.
However, the most that they could do right now was to try their best at killing this sapling.
Time passed slowly as most of the warriors were now fighting the real body.
Despite their onught, the sapling seemed to be more interested in withering the forest than it was at defending itself.
Due to the amount of decay that was spreading, Shiro had to retreat from the battle as not even the tall tree was safe from the decay. If she had stayed, she would have inhaled quite a few mouthfuls of poison.
Watching the battle from afar, Shiro had a serious expression on her face.
Dimos was next to her as his specialty didn¡¯t lie in fighting.
"What do you think it¡¯s nning?" Dimos asked with a serious expression.
"Pardon?" Shiro turned to him, not expecting him to ask her this question.
"Normally, with something like the dread sapling, it¡¯ll try its best to preserve its life and escape from harm. However, this one seems to be more focused on discovering or perhaps finding something." Dimos said with a frown.
"Well you think it¡¯s the pool of essence behind us?" Shiro asked while gesturing to the pool.
"Maybe but it doesn¡¯t look like it to me. It seems like it¡¯s trying to spread its decay as far as possible." Dimos shook his head.
Staying silent, Shiro wondered if it was looking for something else other than the liquified essence.
Before she could finish her train of thought, a giant earthquake shook the ground beneath them, throwing them off bnce.
"What the hell?" Shiro clicked her tongue while stabilising herself.
Looking at the giant cloud of dust in the distance where the fight was going on, Shiro understood that the sapling must have done something.
"Dryad! Make me another tall tree!" Shiromanded since she needed to see what was going on without killing herself.
Without dy, the tree next to Shiro started to grow as she quickly jumped onto the branch. After a short moment, she was now looking over the entire forest. Focusing her attention to where the explosion was, Shiro widened her eyes at the explosion.
The entire area that the sapling caused to decay had copsed into the ground, forming a second crater as ck goo could be seen seeping from the side of the crater.
However, her main concern wasn¡¯t the fact that the sapling could no longer be found but the ck roots were still around and they seemed to be threading themselves through the crumbled debris, forming a of sorts while the ck goo slowly filled the crater.
"Dryad! Get the remaining warriors to help with evacuation!" Shiro shouted out since she could see several injured people trying their best to climb out of the crater.
Thankfully, after the earthquake, the remaining roots in the town ceased to function which allowed the remaining warriors to run into the forest and help theirrades.
Looking at the destruction caused, Shiro furrowed her brows and looked for Lena.
Seeing the womanying down on the ground with a slightly pained face and a set of broken armour, Shiro kneeled next to her.
"What happened?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"I don¡¯t know. When the earthquake happened, I saw the sapling shrink itself while spewing out more ck goo. It dug into the ground and escaped." Lena replied as her voice was weak.
Looking around at their casualties, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but click her tongue.
"Seems like it¡¯s not an average dread sapling. The dread saplings I know can¡¯t do tasks like this." Dimos frowned.
With the disappearance of the dread sapling, the toxin in the town seemed to have lessened but it still wasn¡¯t good for Shiro to enter for a long period of time. After all of the warriors were taken to one of the inns so that they could be healed, Shiro made her way back to the forest and checked the damage.
The good news was that the flow of ck goo had stopped. The bad news was that there is now ake of mysterious ck liquid in the middle of the forest that was formed by the dread sapling. To make matters worse, the toxicity of theke was much higher than what the town was. If Shiro were to enter its premises and take a single breath of air, she would immediately die.
Looking at the ckke, Shiro could see ck and purple particles leaking into the air before fading away. The surroundings of this crater was nowpletely filled with decay and the dryad had to try her best at cutting off the area so that it didn¡¯t pollute the rest of the forest.
The result of their battle against the dread sapling was aplete loss.
Chapter 669 Travelling To The Next Town
Chapter 669 Travelling To The Next Town
"Ha... I¡¯ve finally managed to somewhat iste theke." The dryad sighed while appearing next to Shiro.
"Mn, what about the liquified essence? What will you do with that?" Shiro asked.
"Since the town is still somewhat polluted, even if I was to return the essence back to the town, it¡¯d only get eaten away by the corruption. Plus, with theke nearby, it¡¯ll be dangerous to return the essence back to thend especially since we don¡¯t know what it does." The dryad frowned.
"Well we know one thing and that is that it¡¯s highly toxic to spirits. If we so much as approach it, we¡¯ll die." Shiro sighed.
"Indeed. Thankfully, it doesn¡¯t seem to be spreading but we can¡¯t be sure about what it¡¯s use is. The best course of action is probably to give up on this area and evacuate the people in the town first then monitor this after." The dryad suggested.
"Mn, it¡¯s probably best to look for people with the talents of Dimos so that they can urately determine what is wrong with theke." Shiro narrowed her eyes before turning towards the city.
"In the meantime, I need to make my way to the Section of Sky so that I can get my first divinity." She muttered as she was rather idle during thest fight. If she had a divinity, she could have increased their chances of victory and potentially killed the dread sapling before it escaped.
Shaking her head, Shiro made her way to the town. She was going to ask Dimos about going to the Section of Sky right now. If he can¡¯t then she¡¯ll have to go on her own. Now that her body is entirely healed and she had Artemis¡¯ Bow, travelling across the world to the Section of Sky shouldn¡¯t be too hard.
Dashing through the forest, Shiro saw Dimos talking with Lena.
"Yo, what are you two talking about?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Oh, it¡¯s nothing much. Just talking about having some people stationed around here to monitor theke for any suspicious activities. Since Lena has quite a few connections around the world, she¡¯ll be able to ask for help." Dimos replied with a smile.
"I see... the dryad said that we should probably evacuate the townsfolk to another ce while we can since there is a slim possibility that theke could expand."
Hearing this, Dimos furrowed his brows.
"That is indeed a possibility... But it¡¯s rather difficult to move this many people to another ce. Plus, there is a severeck of food so the journey is going to be difficult. Plus, the closer we get to the centre, the more dangerous it is for us to hunt for food. The only choice left is for them to go to the Section of Night but unless they find a big town, they¡¯re still going to struggle for food. It¡¯ll tough but if we try our best, I think we can pull through with everyone surviving through this ordeal." Dimos smiled.
"That¡¯s good but I need to talk to you about something else. Remember at the start when I said I¡¯ll be your assistant in return for you to help me get to the Section of Sky? I think I might need to part ways with you here. With how I am currently, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard for me to travel to the Section of Sky." Shiro said while looking down at her hands.
"Ah right... if we go back to the Section of Night, it¡¯ll take much longer for you to reach the Section of Sky. You still need to find the tower andplete it too." Dimos paused for a moment before nodding.
"Ok, I¡¯ll go get a few maps for you so that it¡¯ll be easier for you. It¡¯ll tell you how to get to the Section of Sky along with where the Tower of Nike is located. If you make your way to the next town, I can have them deliver it to you through a messenger."
"How will they know it¡¯s me though?" Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"You¡¯ll get a token of sorts since this service is created through divinity. All you need to do is keep that token on you since the messenger tracks you using that token. Once the service isplete, the token disappears." Dimos chuckled.
"Oh? How do you do that? Can you show me?" Shiro asked as this would be handy to use in the future.
"It¡¯s not hard but we¡¯ll need to go into town and I doubt you want that." Dimos nced at the town awkwardly.
"Don¡¯t worry though, you¡¯ll find out how to do it in the next town easily. When you collect the maps from the messenger, just ask him to teach you and he¡¯ll do it for free since it means more business for him."
"How would I pay?" Shiro asked.
"You¡¯ll need pay by sending the money when you make the request so that they know you are not pulling wool over their eyes. They¡¯re trustworthy so it¡¯s ok."
After talking to Dimos for a little longer, Shiro was told to wait here for a moment while Dimos ordered the two maps for her.
Waiting for around 20 minutes or so, she saw Dimos in the distance.
"I¡¯ve done it for you. Keep this token on you and when you¡¯re in the next town, the messenger will give you the two maps. I¡¯ll give you this map for now so that you don¡¯t lose your way to the next town as you¡¯re not familiar." Dimos smiled, handing her a map and a bronze token that had two wings carved on both the front and back.
"Thank you. How much did you have to pay for the maps?" Shiro asked.
"No need to pay me for them. Think of it as a farewell gift." Dimos chuckled.
"Are you sure?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Yes I¡¯m sure. When are you going to leave for the next town?"
"Probably now. I need to get to the Section of Sky as soon as possible." Shiro shrugged.
"I see... Well in that case then I wish you luck. It¡¯s only been a short while but I¡¯ve enjoyed having you help me with my lessons." Dimos smiled.
"Mn, it¡¯s been fun for me too. Stay safe out there ok?" Shiro nodded her head and gave him a small wave. Looking at the map, Shiro memorised everything and started to walk towards the direction of the next town. Since there weren¡¯t too many obstacles on the way there, Shiro figured that she could probably walk in a straight line and arrive within a week or so.
Normally, if one was to follow the road, they would need to take a winding path which would extend the time it took but it would be a safe path. On the other hand, if she was to take the path through the forest, she could hunt and get some food.
However, the moment she thought of this point, Shiro paused in her footsteps. Due to the fact that they were in the Section of Life, she could not kill the monsters as most of them were harmless. If she did, the forest would try to kill her.
"Dryad." Shiro called out.
"Hello?"
Seeing the Dryad appear next to the tree, Shiro turned towards her.
"Do you happen to know what I can eat on the way to the next town? I can¡¯t exactly hunt the monsters in this ce so is there something that I can eat in the forest?" Shiro asked with a forced smile.
"There is. But it¡¯s mostly nts and I doubt it¡¯ll be enough for you. Thankfully for you, since we¡¯re on the outskirts of the Section of Life, the influence of the tower isn¡¯t that strong so I can bless you with a pardon. It allows you to hunt one monster every two days so you¡¯ll need to be careful of which monster you hunt. This pardon will lose effectiveness the closer you are to the centre so you¡¯ll need to be careful." The dryad smiled.
Since Shiro tried her best in resolving the problem about the dread sapling even though it didn¡¯t go as nned, the dryad wasn¡¯t against giving her some help.
Closing her eyes, the dryad raised her hand and drew a Sigil in the air.
Shattering into dust, Shiro watched as this dust wrapped around her before flickering away.
"This gives you the same benefits as the monsters in the forest so you can hunt without worry. But remember, one monster per two days or else you will be attacked by the forest." The dryad cautioned as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you for your help."
"No problem young spirit. I wish you luck on your journey." The dryad chuckled.
With the final problem out of the way, Shiro made her way towards the next town.
There were some small problems on her journey such as not being able to kill a monster due to the fact that she had already killed something else but she was able to push through and travel through the different forests that she passed on her way there.
After a week of travel, she could finally see the town in the distance.
Chapter 670 Late Night Execution
Chapter 670 Late Night Execution
Looking down at her map to make sure that she was at the right ce, Shiro¡¯s smile couldn¡¯t help but twitch slightly at the statue she could see in the centre of the vige.
Despite her distance, the statue still looked huge from her perspective.
"Why the hell does this town have a massive statue of this c*nt." Shiro muttered as the statue depicted the leader of gods, Zeus.
Sighing softly, she was grateful to the fact that this was just a temporary stop as she was only here to collect two other maps. If she had to stay here for longer and look at the statue of Zeus every day, she¡¯d want to smash it down herself.
Arriving at the town, Shiro decided to look for an inn first since she didn¡¯t know when the messenger would arrive.
Since they would track her token, she didn¡¯t need to worry about anything.
Asking around a little for a ce where she could stay for the night, Shiro was sad to find out that the only ce that was open was called Lightning Tavern and everything inside was Zeus themed such as the food.
For example, Lightning God¡¯s Banquet.
Just looking at the names caused Shiro to cringe and dissuade her from purchasing food from this ce.
Surprisingly, they had some imported meat from the other sections but each dish was expensive to the point that she could buy a decent weapon with the amount.
¡¯Hmm... I have 25 silver and 300 copper on me after everything I¡¯ve done. A decent weapon that most soldiers would use costs around 5 to 10 silver while a dish with meat costs just as much. A night will cost me 25 copper so it¡¯s not too bad.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while ncing down at her coin purse.
Pausing for a slight moment, Shiro decided to bite the dust and have a decent meal for tonight. It wasn¡¯t as if she was going to stay for multiple nights so a decent meal would be a good change. Plus, with her having to ration the meat that she hunts so that she could keep herself fed on the way here, Shiro was feeling quite hungry.
Walking up to the bar maiden, Shiro tried her best to ignore the paintings of Zeus in the background.
"Excuse me, can I get a room for the night and the Warriors Feast?" Shiro asked as the bar maiden turned towards her.
Seeing a rather young looking girl order such an expensive meal, the bar maiden couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrow.
"Erm, you do know that the Warrior¡¯s Feast costs 8 silvers right?" She cautioned quietly with a worried expression.
After all, she was a young girl with only a short sword. Seeing as how she ordered such an expensive meal, it means that she had some money on her and some of the more bandit like folk might want to rob the poor girl.
"Yes that fine. I can pay for it." Shiro nodded with a smile.
Seeing her confidence, the bar maiden wondered if she had a few divinities but it wasn¡¯t her responsibility to inquire about such details.
Nodding her head, the bar maiden noted it down before looking up.
"Would you like me to bring the meal up to your room or would you like to dine here. Personally, I suggest dining in your room as I can hide what you ordered so that the people don¡¯t think about robbing you." She whispered thest part over as Shiro thought for a moment.
"Can you bring it to my room then?" Shiro smiled.
"Of course. That¡¯ll be 8 silver and 25 coppers. Try to hide the coins when you pass it over so that they can¡¯t see it."
Hearing this, Shiro nodded with a small chuckle.
¡¯Kind girl.¡¯ She thought while sliding over 8 silvers carefully so that others couldn¡¯t see it.
Once she handed over all of the money, she was given a key by the bar maiden.
"Your room on the third floor, second door to the left. There is a bar where you can order drinks if you want. Your food will be ready in 30 minutes. If you desire other services, which I doubt, you can tell me and I¡¯ll notify the staff." The bar maiden smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
ncing towards the bar, Shiro thought about something for a moment before turning to the bar maiden.
"So my alcohol tolerance is very high and I was just wondering if you have anything made by someone with the Divinity of Wine received from the Tower of Dionysus." She asked as she was curious as to what being drunk felt like. After all, she had never gotten drunk regardless of how much she drank and the fact that there are people in the world with a blessing from the god of wine interested her greatly.
"Unfortunately, we don¡¯t. Something made by a person with the Divinity of Wine wouldn¡¯t be sold out here. You¡¯ll find them inrge cities and the prices are rather steep since the wine is rumoured to be unforgettable once you get a sip." The bar maiden chuckled.
"Heh~ I see... Well I¡¯ll be in my room then." Shiro nodded.
While it was a shame that there wasn¡¯t any wine like that in this inn, Shiro could find a chance for good wine at another time.
Walking up the wooden staircase, Shiro found her room and inserted the key.
Hearing the slightly rusty lock, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh at the poor security.
¡¯Though I suppose it¡¯s also good considering the fact that if anyone was to try to break in sneakily, I¡¯ll hear the rusty locks.¡¯ She thought about the silver lining before checking out the room.
The room itself was rather small and all it had was a small wooden desk, a wooden chair and a single bed. On the table was a half used candle with a tinderbox ced next to it.
Lighting the fire up, Shiro opened the windows slightly so that a gentle wind blew into her room.
Taking off her jacket, she folded it neatly and ced it on the chair. Removing her weapon belt, sheid herself on the bed and frowned slightly.
¡¯Hmm... the bed isn¡¯t bad but it¡¯s not exactly the best either. I suppose it¡¯s better than a tree branch though.¡¯ She mused to herself while closing her eyes to rest for a moment before the food arrived.
After a short rest, she heard a knocking on her door.
Opening the door, she saw the same bar maiden with a tray that was covered by a domed wooden lid.
"I¡¯ll ce your food on the table. Once you have finished, call for me and I¡¯ll take it back to the kitchen." The bar maiden smiled while taking the wooden lid off.
"Ok." Nodding her head, Shiro watched as she left her room.
The meal itself wasn¡¯t bad but it was a little nd. Due to the expensiveness of salt, it was only to be expected that a rural town like this would struggle for such luxuries.
Understanding that therger cities would have salt, Shiro couldn¡¯t wait to taste some proper food. However, there was also the concern about whether or not she could afford such a meal and the only answer she had for that was mercenary work after she obtained her first divinity.
Shaking her head, she brought the empty tes downstairs.
ncing around for a moment, she decided to have a drink just to have a taste of the wine from the forgotten realm.
After paying 50 coppers for a decent cup of wine, Shiro sat down on an empty table and enjoyed her drink.
Taking a sip, Shiro raised her eyebrows since the wine wasn¡¯t too bad. Compared to the modern wine that she had tasted before, the sweet taste of fruits was much stronger in this one and it was quite enjoyable.
After finishing the drink, Shiro returned to her room and rested up for the night.
###
"Are you sure this is the room of that girl?"
"Yes I¡¯m sure. Did you not see how much silver she handed over to thedy? She¡¯s filthy rich I tell you."
"Do you think she¡¯s the daughter of a rich family from the city?"
"Obviously not. Why would shee to this town then? Just trust me. In and out, 2 minute job. Be quiet or else she might wake up."
Hearing the sound of whispers, Shiro slowly opened her eyes with a sigh.
¡¯I guess I might need to do some clean up. Hopefully not if they¡¯re smart.¡¯ She thought to herself and carefully sat up.
*Yawn~
Yawning loudly on purpose, Shiro could faintly hear the two scurrying away for a moment but they seemed to have hidden themselves around a corner.
¡¯Welp they¡¯re insistent on taking my money. Unfortunate for them I suppose.¡¯
Dressing herself, she grabbed her coin pouch and made it easily visible.
Leaving her room, she made sure the two hiding in the corner could see her coin pouch.
Making her way towards the forest, she could sense the two following behind her carefully.
Narrowing her eyes, she flipped her body onto a branch when their line of sight was being covered by a tree.
Seeing that Shiro had disappeared, the two rushed into the forest.
"Say hi to Hades for me." Shiro smiled and summoned her bow.
*PUCHI!
Chapter 671 Receiving The Two Maps
Chapter 671 Receiving The Two Maps
After taking care of the two that tried to rob her, Shiro was sad to see that they were dirt poor and that they had nothing of value on them.
Sighing softly, Shiro buried their body in the forest.
"Making me go through all this work and I don¡¯t even get paid for it in the end." Shiro shook her head.
Narrowing her eyes, she didn¡¯t want to make any movements to reveal the hidden third person that was observing her just yet. After all, despite knowing where his rough location is, she couldn¡¯t see him at all which meant that he or she had at least one divinity. The worst part was that she had only discovered their presence after she killed the two so she didn¡¯t know what the other part saw.
If she was to fight him or her, it could end up badly so her best choice was to leave for now and see what happens.
Returning to the town, Shiro figured that it would probably be best that she be on her way once she gets the maps.
###
"I saw something interesting tonight. I didn¡¯t expect the youngdy to be burying two corpses at this time." The person who was observing Shiro muttered with an interested smile.
Revealing her body on the branch not too far from where Shiro had buried the corpses, she nced towards the town with a smile before hopping down.
Digging up the corpses, she nced at the wounds and raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Their wounds are identical which means that she has great control with her weapon. One shot to the neck and one shot through the head starting from the eye. Ruthless." The woman muttered with a smile.
Burying the bodies once more, the woman wrote something down on a note before folding it into a crane. Throwing it in the air, she watched as the crane disappeared and smiled.
"Let¡¯s see what the others do about this." She chuckled and left the area.
###
Waking up in the morning, Shiro made sure that she didn¡¯t forget anything and had a cheaper meal at the inn. After all, her buying some expensive meal caused two casualties to appear on the first night of her being here. She didn¡¯t want to kill more people by the time she leaves if she could help it since she never knows if she¡¯s going to be fighting someone with divinity or not.
This risk will increase the closer she gets to cities so she needed to be careful while she¡¯s still weak.
After finishing the breakfast, Shiro wondered how long it¡¯ll take for the messenger to arrive with her maps.
Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to go to the cksmiths for now so that she could get herself some decent daggers.
Walking around the town, she finally found the cksmiths but the ce was rather run down.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro wondered if they could actually make her a decent weapon.
Knocking on the door, she waited for a short moment before hearing some footsteps on the other side of the door.
"Who is it?" A rough voice rang out.
"I¡¯m a customer. I was wondering if you make throwing daggers." Shiro replied as the doors unlocked.
Surprised that the owner of the voice was actually a muscr girl that was around 6ft tall, Shiro had to tilt her head back slightly to meet her eyes.
"So you want a throwing dagger?" The woman asked as Shiro nodded.
"Normal daggers are fine as well if that¡¯s what you¡¯re more proficient in making. "
"Well it¡¯s easier to do normal daggers than it is to do throwing daggers. Normal daggers will be 1 silver each while throwing ones will be 2 silver since they take much longer to make. The bnce needs to be right otherwise it¡¯s hard to throw them properly." The woman replied while gesturing for Shiro to enter the smithy.
"I¡¯ll take four normal daggers."
"That¡¯ll be 4 silver and it¡¯ll be done by the end of the day unless you want to buy some of the premade stuff. You can also pay more for your dagger to be made from some better materials." The woman replied while gesturing towards a wooden board with daggers disyed on the surface.
Looking through the daggers, Shiro could tell that most of them were rather average and didn¡¯t meet her standards. However, the best pair of daggers within this batch was a pair of daggers that were crafted from a silver blue metal which seemed to flicker with a soft light.
"How much are these daggers?" Shiro asked while pointing towards them.
"They¡¯re 2 silvers each." The woman replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll take both of them instead."
"That¡¯ll be four silvers. Do you want any others? You said that you wanted four daggers right?" the woman asked.
"Hmm..."
Picking out two more daggers to act as spares as well as throwing daggers, she paid the woman 6 silvers and left the smithy.
Disposing the bone daggers, she ced her new daggers onto her weapon belt with their sheaths so that she didn¡¯t identally stab herself in the leg while jumping from tree to tree.
Feeling the weight of the dagger in her hand, Shiro smiled softly. It probably wasn¡¯t going to help her fight againstrge creatures but it was definitely something that¡¯ll be handy for small to medium monsters along with humans.
Walking around for a little while, Shiro decided to sit down on a bench and wait for the messenger.
After waiting for around half a day, she saw a carriage approaching the town. Quite a few people were getting ready as Shiro wondered what the carriage was for.
Once the carriage arrived in the town, they started to unload a few crates that were filled with food, clothes and some other items such as weapons but they were small in number since people this far out in the section didn¡¯t need weapons that much.
One of the people that hopped off the carriage started to walk towards her and pulled out a small package.
"Can you show me your token just to be sure?" The man asked as Shiro nodded her head. Presenting her token, she watched as it shattered into light particles as the seal on the package was undone.
"Here are your items." The man nodded and handed her the package.
"Ah before you go, my friend said that I can ask you about how to set this service up since I¡¯ve never done it. How would I order something from across the world and have it delivered to a town?" Shiro asked.
"Follow me, I¡¯ll show you how to do it." The man nodded.
"You see, each town has a small building for our service. There is rarely a town without this building but that¡¯s usually fixed quickly since this service is extremely helpful. In the building are severalmunication tablets that are made from a special kind of stone which was enchanted by a divinity.
"You canmunicate with us on that tablet and then we will check whether or not we¡¯re able to obtain your item. Once you confirm that the item is obtainable, we would need you to choose a town so that our messenger can take a carriage to that town. After this would be the payment and there is a separate tray of sorts where you can ce the payment. Once you do that, a token will switch ces with the payment and the order would have beenpleted." The man exined as Shiro nodded her head.
Following him to the building, she saw the stone that he had mentioned. The process itself was rather simple as it was simr to online orders from Earth. The only difference was that instead of having the inte, divine enchantments and features from different divinities were used tomunicate over long distances.
"Thank you very much." Shiro smiled as the man nodded and made his way back to the carriage.
Seeing his attitude, Shiro figured that he was probably asked this question quite a few times so it was understandable.
Shaking her head, she left the building and opened her map.
Currently, she was on the outer edges of the Section of Life. To get to the Section of Sky, she¡¯ll need to travel towards the north which wasn¡¯t too bad since the Section of Sky was right next to the Section of Life.
The only troublesome aspect was the dangers that she¡¯ll meet on the way since there are marked zones that have monsters which cause trouble even for those with two divinities.
For her to safely reach the Section of Sky, it¡¯ll take her around a month and a half if she avoided danger. If she travelled without caring about the danger then it¡¯ll only take her around two weeks of constant travel.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro sighed and resolved herself for a month and a half of travel. However, it was necessary since she wasn¡¯t too keen on identally running into a cyclops on her way there.
Storing the map away safely, she left the town and started her almost two month long journey towards the Section of Sky.
Chapter 672 Labyrinth
Chapter 672 Labyrinth
For Shiro, the two month travel should have been a piece of cake. Especially since she was making sure that she followed the safe path. Unfortunately, one month into her travel, she had found herself to be lost.
". . ." Looking at the unfamiliar surroundings, Shiro had a nk expression on her face. Even when jumping on the tallest tree, she couldn¡¯t find her way back.
For the first time in a long long while, Shiro had actually gotten lost.
"What the f*ck!" She shouted out in annoyance since this meant that she had wasted more time.
Gritting her teeth, she sat down on the branch and cursed under her breath.
Due to the fact that she could simte the map in her mind perfectly and keep a track on her coordinates, she had never been lost before. Even if the map had been a little defective, she could always get herself back on track.
However, for a strange reason, this was not possible at the current time.
No matter where she walked, it seemed like the surroundings would change as nowhere seemed to be the same. Even after mapping out the surroundings in her mind and walking in a circle, the scenery always changed. It was as if each step she took brought her to a new dimension.
"Where the hell is this ce." Shiro muttered with a serious expression.
Taking a moment to calm herself, Shiro searched her memories for anything that could potentially help her out in this situation.
"Since this ce is heavily influenced by Greek myths, there should be something about this in the records."
Looking around her, she decided to take a few more steps to see if she could find out where she was.
After walking around for a little longer, she saw that the sun was beginning to set. The worst part of all of this was that she couldn¡¯t find a single sign of another creature in this ce. Which meant that she didn¡¯t have any dinner prepared.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to continue straight and see what happens. After all, unlike a maze, she wasn¡¯t able to map this area out with the help of walls since this was an open area.
As she continued to walk forward, the scenery continued to shift as no area was the same as thest even if she was to walk backwards.
As the sun set, Shiro had no choice but to set up a temporary camp in the trees for now.
Sighing softly, she wondered what she had gotten herself into and nced at the map that Dimos had ordered for her.
"So far, I¡¯ve already avoided 38 dangers that were scattered along the way to the Section of Sky. There shouldn¡¯t be anything else within this area for another three days so why the hell am I lost here." Shiro muttered.
Shaking her head, she stored the map away and prepared to sleep.
However, before she could even close her eyes, she felt the tree shake slightly as her eyes snapped open.
Sitting up, she summoned her bow and red at her surroundings.
There was a distinct difference with how the tree would react to external stimulus and thest shake she felt resembled one of an earthquake. It was the ground that was moving and the tree was just affected by it.
Meaning, there was arge chance that either it was just a harmless earthquake or somethingrge is nearby. And Shiro didn¡¯t want to find out what the second option entailed.
Unfortunately, she had no choice as a giant looming shadow could be seen through the trees.
Feeling the ground shake with every step, Shiro swallowed her saliva and kept herself hidden with the tree she was on.
Peeking out from cover, she narrowed her eyes at the figure. After a short while, its figure was slowly illuminated by the moon light which caused Shiro to widen her eyes in shock.
Minotaur.
With a bull¡¯s head and human¡¯s body, the Minotaur stood menacingly with a giant wooden clue in hisrge hands.
¡¯The Minotaur. A mythical beast that was trapped in thebyrinth crafted by Icarus and Daedalus who waster killed by Theseus. I didn¡¯t expect hisbyrinth to be located in the middle of a forest.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a forced smile.
She had hoped that the map would have at least told her about this ce since there was no mention of abyrinth. If it did, she would have avoided this ce as best she could. However, seeing as though there had been no mention or warning of people dying once they got to this area, it meant that the Minotaur wasn¡¯t here all the time and thebyrinth could disappear along with the Minotaur.
However, there was also the chance that thebyrinth would remain and that she¡¯ll need to find her way out herself.
¡¯After Theseus killed the Minotar, he had found his way back thanks to leaving behind a thread. I can probably map my way out if I do everything in reverse.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. However, her main threat was the Minotaur and there was a very high chance that she¡¯d need to kill it if she wanted to escape alive.
Taking a deep breath, she was about to dash out and fight when the Minotaur¡¯s ears twitched slightly and swung his club towards her spot.
"Sh*t! Do you have to be that sensitive to sound?!" Shiro cried out in shock while quickly jumping down to avoid the hit.
*BANG!!!
Watching as the upper half of the tree get demolished in an instant, Shiro could feel sweat drip down her back as a single hit would end her. Hell, even a graze would break her bones.
¡¯I don¡¯t think I can fight this. Yup, f*ck that.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and instantly turned around and ran for her life.
However, unlike other times, it seemed like the surroundings didn¡¯t change with each step, meaning she was stuck with the Minotaur.
Cursing under her breath, Shiro didn¡¯t need to look back to understand that the Minotaur was chasing after her. The sensation of the earth rumbling with each step was enough of a hint.
¡¯Wait, if the surroundings don¡¯t change then maybe if I track my way back now it¡¯ll work and I can get out.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she decided to take a quick gamble.
Unfortunately, it meant that she¡¯d need to get past the Minotaur but if she¡¯s careful, she could do it.
Summoning her bow, she pivoted on her foot and turned around. Pulling back on her bowstring, she was about to fire an arrow when the Minotaur leaned forward to bite her. With its giant size and a hand that was bigger than her body, he could swallow her in a single bite.
"F*ck that!" Shiro quickly rolled to the side instead of firing her shot.
Missing his target, the Minotaur fell toward and slid across the ground, tearing uprge chunks of ground while Shiro barely avoided an injury since the club had almost smacked against her head.
Thankfully, she was able to duck down in time.
With death just around the corner waving hello to her, Shiro wiped her sweat away and took this chance to run.
Now that she was past the Minotaur, she could finally track her footsteps and see if she could get out of this ce.
Focusing on avoiding the Minotaur¡¯s attacks, Shiro was able to barely dodge out of the way with the help of trees and such but each hit wasing closer and closer. While the Minotaur was said to be mindless, Shiro could tell that it was learning with every missed hit. Sooner orter, it¡¯ll get used to her movements andnd a killing blow.
However, hope seemed to be around the corner as she finally recognised some of the trees that she had passed by before.
Before she could cry out in happiness, she crashed face first into a barrier which caused her nose to bleed as she finally understood that this was a sealed space. Even if she found the exit, with the Minotaur around, she couldn¡¯t leave.
"You¡¯ve got to be f*cking kidding me." Shiro muttered while quickly getting back on her feet.
Rolling out of the way once more, she watched as the club mmed down on her previous location, creating a deep pit from the force.
ncing up at the Minotaur that was ring at her with blood red eyes that seemed to glow under the moonlight, Shiro summoned her bow.
"Fine I¡¯ll fight you." She took a deep breath and prepared herself for a tough fight.
Chapter 673 Section of Sky
Chapter 673 Section of Sky
Using the trees as cover, Shiro tried her best to duck and weave out of the Minotaur¡¯s attacks. After all, if even one hit her, she¡¯d be as good as gone.
"Oi! Have you no care for the natural world? I know that you¡¯re a monster but you¡¯re a bovine first and foremost right?" Shiro shouted out while firing some arrows when she got the chance.
*Thuck thuck!
Embedding themselves into his thick skin, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched at how little damage they did to him.
"Tsk."
Flipping her body over one of the roots, she watched as a giant wooden club rushed over the top of her.
Looking at the force of the club, she could already imagine her entire upper body getting torn off cleanly with a single hit.
"Oi Nyx, isn¡¯t this a bit unfair? I already need toplete five primordial trials with only one divinity and now you¡¯re sending a Minotaur to face me? Oh great aunt, I¡¯m a level 1 right now and you¡¯re telling me to face a level 100 cow demon." Shiro sighed before changing her position once more.
Twisting her body, she pulled back on her bow string and narrowed her gaze towards the Minotaur¡¯s bloodshot eyes.
Since she couldn¡¯t harm his thick skin, the next best choice was going to be the orifices such as the eyes, nose, ears and mouth.
"Oi you oversized dinner!" Shiro shouted out, drawing the Minotaur¡¯s attention towards her and fired the arrow immediately.
As the Minotaur didn¡¯t expect a pair of arrows to fly towards him, he couldn¡¯t close his eyes quickly enough.
*PUCHI!
"ARHHHHHHHGGGGGG!!!!" Crying out in pain, the Minotaur fell back and started to writhe around in pain.
Pulling the arrows out of his eyes, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but flinch slightly when she saw the pieces of eyeball on the tip of the arrow.
Red blood started to flow out from under his closed eyelid as the Minotaur started to swing his club around without care.
"Ooo.... Yikes, you know, it might have been easier if you just left that in there. At least you wouldn¡¯t need to feel the pain of having pieces of your eyeball ripped out." Shiro called out while trying her best to avoid his haphazard swings.
Pulling back on her bow, she fired her arrows just under his nails so that she could inflict more pain. As his skin was very tough, it¡¯ll be a futile effort for her to try to kill it with the brute force method.
Right now, she had two choices. Either try to find a chance to deal a crucial bow to his brain or another vital organ such as the heart. Or, she could try her best by bringing it pain and hope that it¡¯ll leave her alone because killing him was no easy task. Even with Artemis¡¯ Bow, it seemed like it was stillcking a little due to the fact that her current self was weak. If she was stronger, she guessed that the bow would get stronger as well since it was simr to Athera in a way that it grew with the owner.
Tring her best not to die while littering the Minotaur¡¯s body with arrows in the most painful ces, Shiro was d that Artemis¡¯ Bow generated its own arrows. After all, if she had to purchase all the arrows used tonight then she¡¯d be dirt poor.
The worst part about everything is that her bow was already getting a power boost thanks to its passives!
[When you are in a forest, the power of your shots increase.]
[Your bow¡¯s power is increased when you are under moonlight.]
Even with both of these abilities activated, her shots were still too weak to pierce through the monster¡¯s thick hide.
¡¯If the Minotaur is this annoying already, I don¡¯t even want to think about the other monsters. Some of them apparently give warriors with two divinities some trouble, nevermind me who has no divinities.
¡¯Honestly, I should be grateful that I¡¯m even doing something to the Minotaur since this bow is something blessed by Artemis. If it was a normal bow, it would definitely do jack sh*t even if I was to hit him in the eyes.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Sighing softly, her eyes snapped open as she quickly rolled to the side.
"F*ck you! I can¡¯t even sigh!?!?" Shiro cursed out at the Minotaur and threw one of hermon daggers at his eyes.
". . ."
Seeing the dagger bounce off his hide, Shiro stayed silent and focused on dodging.
Littering the Minotaur¡¯s body with arrows, some were found in rather awkward spots such as the rear, under nails, on his n.i.p.p.l.es, eyes, nose, ears, mouth and so on. As she couldn¡¯t outright kill him, the best she could do was annoy him to death. Thankfully, it seemed to work as the Minotaur¡¯s movements seemed to have dulled ever so slightly from her constant assault.
ncing up at the sky, Shiro guessed that it had been a few hours as she was struggling to keep up with the fight now. Her entire body was drenched with sweat as her lungs felt like they were about to copse.
"Christ can you either die or piss off already? Thisdy can¡¯t kill you and you can¡¯t kill thisdy. Why don¡¯t we just call it a truce ah?" Shiro asked while firing more arrows.
Seemingly annoyed with her provocations, the Minotaur brought his arm back and hurled his club towards her location. Despite losing senses of sight, he was still able to pick out her location with his other senses. Even if they were filled with arrows.
"Holy!" Quickly jumping to the side, Shiro managed to dodge the club but not before the force of the wind caused a fracture in her left arm.
"Ssss!!" Taking a sharp breath in, Shiro gritting her teeth from the pain.
"Alright, if you don¡¯t want to leave, I¡¯ll force you to f*cking leave!"
Ignoring the pain in her arm, Shiro dashed around the forest and continued to fire arrows in the most annoying ces for the Minotaur. It had be a battle of attrition and if she lost, she¡¯ll die.
###
In the dusk of the morning sun, Shiro sat on the branch of a tree while attending to her wounds. In the end, she managed to force the Minotaur to leave the ce as he was going to have a hard time sitting down with all of the arrows that were embedded into his body.
Tearing some fabric from her skirt, Shiro made a cast of sorts so that she could let her arm heal. Thankfully, it was only fractures and she didn¡¯t break her bonepletely. If she did, things would be rather annoying since she¡¯d need to try to find a healing spot with concentrated essence like what the dryad had shown her.
Sighing softly, she looked around her and was just d that she was now out of the maze. Any longer and she would have lost her mind.
"Where am I on the map again..." She muttered.
Checking her mental map, she found herself to have gone back a few steps and by a few steps, she meant that she had wasted half a days worth of progress thanks to the Minotaur.
Clicking her tongue, she decided to rest up for now as she had been fighting for the entire night. Once she woke up, she was going to go for a quick bath in a nearbyke or something as her body was drenched with sweat.
###
Thankfully, after the small Minotaur problem, her travels were rather safe. The most dangerous monster she had met was on a level simr to the Terca as they hunted in packs to avoid therge monsters that owned the surrounding territories. Due to her limitations, she could only kill one monster every two days so fighting a pack was a no go so she was forced to trick them.
However, it wasn¡¯t too troublesome for her and she was able to lose them while running through the forest.
Continuing her travels, she finally arrived at the border of the Section of Life.
Seeing the cut off point of the forest, she nced at the floating inds as well as the tunnels of wind that floated through the sky with a smile.
Travel in this Section was much easier as long as you knew which tunnel to take. If you didn¡¯t, you could identally find yourself at the other side of the world.
One would think that with air tunnels, the power of flight wouldn¡¯t be as useful but flight was actually highly valued. That was due to the fact that with the power of flight, one could cut the tunnel short and escape before reaching the end destination. This made travel much easier as tunnels weren¡¯t like buses on earth. They didn¡¯t have individual stops but rather a single stop from point A to B. Without the power of flight, efficient travel was tough.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro smiled.
She had finally arrived at the Section where she¡¯d obtain her first Divinity.
Chapter 674 Air Tunnels
Chapter 674 Air Tunnels
Right now, she was on the edge of the Section. In front of her were five tunnels that led to different ces within the section.
ncing at the map that showed her where the air tunnels led to along with where the Tower of Nike is, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
¡¯The Tower of Nike is located near one of therger cities in this Section. To get to the city, the fastest route would be through 5 tunnels and walk for around a day. During the time in the tunnels, I¡¯ll be starving so I need to get some food otherwise the people on the other side of the tunnel will see a corpse instead.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Looking at the map, Shiro could see several towns on the way to the city meaning she could probably get some rations from the towns to keep her healthy for now. The good part about this section was that Aerial beasts were amon sight so food could be easily obtainable so long as she didn¡¯t hunt the wrong beast.
¡¯I¡¯ll probably need to take a few breaks in between the air tunnels to hunt for some food and speaking of food, I¡¯m starving right now.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while ncing down at her left arm.
Sighing softly, she looked around for a ce where it would be easy to hunt the beasts.
To her right was a path that led up to the top of a mountain. Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro figured that this was probably a good spot to hunt in. ncing down at her map, she made sure that the danger level of the area was something she could handle. After all, she was an injured person right now and her n of action was to use the bow with one leg and one arm.
It wasn¡¯t the most refined way of using the bow but it¡¯ll work.
Hiking up the mountain, Shiro looked up and saw a flock of birds in the distance. Even if she was to kill them all, it¡¯ll take some effort for her to retrieve their corpses.
"Hmm..." Seen as though there were no other options, Shiro could only sigh.
"I¡¯ll just treat it as a workout before food." She muttered.
Sitting down on a boulder that she found on the mountain, she leaned back slightly and summoned her bow.
Using her feet to hold the body of the bow, she pulled back on the string with her only usable hand.
Narrowing her eyes, she fired her arrow.
Soaring through the sky, the arrow made an arc before piercing the bird¡¯s neck causing it to p its wings in panic before falling to the ground beneath it.
"One." She muttered and had already fired the second arrow.
With the sudden threats of arrows, the birds started to fly away as Shiro only managed to kill two more of them before they were too far for her to bother to retrieve their corpses.
"Oh well, three birds should be enough for a meal." Shiro cracked her neck and started to make her way down the mountain.
Unlike the Section of Life, the Section of Sky was filled withrge ins, rock formations and valleys. Finding the birds wasn¡¯t too difficult since theynded on innd and it was also easy for Shiro to see the other monsters that might roam around in the ce.
Most of the monsters in this section could fly but for the few that couldn¡¯t, they were more proficient in burying through the ground rather than hunt on the surface.
After collecting the bird corpses, Shiro had to make her way back to the border since she needed some dry sticks to make a fire to cook the meat. With her being surrounded by grass and rock, making a fire would be much harder.
"I should probably collect some sticks and use them as firewood." She muttered while cooking the birds.
After eating a small meal, she started to collect some of the twigs and put it in her bag.
Now that she was partially full, she nced towards the air tunnels. Referencing her map, she found that the first tunnel would bring her near a small town called Avio which would allow her to have a small break of sorts. Plus, she could also see if she could order some medicine for her arm after all, travelling with a broken arm was going to be a pain. Literally.
"It¡¯s going to hurt but I suppose it¡¯s better than walking around for another week." Shiro sighed as the air tunnels would put some pressure on her body and with her arm being injured, it was going to hurt the entire journey.
Shaking her head, she hopped into the wind tunnel and allowed the wind to sweep her body up into the air.
Closing her eyes, she ignored the pain in her arms and took this chance to rest up.
Halfway through this journey, Shiro remembered another important point to the air tunnels and that was the fact that the one using it was still open to attacks by monsters. So unless one was confident in driving the birds away, these had to be used with caution.
ncing up, Shiro could see a few monsters following her.
Sighing a little, she immediately summoned her bow and fired her arrow.
Piercing the wing joint of the monster, Shiro watched as it crashed towards the ground while trying its best to keep itself in the air.
Seeing this, the other monsters quickly made their distance once they realised that Shiro wasn¡¯t an easy target. After all, if their wings get injured they wouldn¡¯t be able to hunt for a while.
Once the monsters were gone, Shiro sighed in relief.
"Easy but risky huh? No wonder Dimos exined the air tunnels like this." Shiro muttered while ncing at her surroundings. While winding through the wind tunnels, it reminded Shiro of a road trip with her jet only at a much slower pace. If her current body had to bear the brunt of the air resistance that her jet had to suffer, she¡¯d be crushed into a pancake.
Thankfully, that wasn¡¯t the case so she could enjoy this journey while ignoring the pain in her arm.
After a few hours of travel, Shiro could see the end of the current tunnel and shifted herself so that she couldnd properly.
Once the air tunnel ended, Shironded on the dirt ground and slid for a few meters. Looking at the dirt strip among the grassy ins, she could tell that this had been used several times which stopped the grass from growing again.
Shrugging her shoulders, she turned towards the vige in the distance.
Looking at its size, Shiro knew that it was a rather small vige. However, despite it being a very small and rural area, the ¡¯postal service¡¯ still extended out to this ce.
Arriving at the vige, Shiro didn¡¯t waste any time and looked around for the postal building.
Finding it with rtive ease due to the small size of this vige, Shiro approached one of the stone tablets.
Writing down the words medicine for broken bones, Shiro was given a list of medicine along with their costs.
¡¯Well damn, aren¡¯t they quite cheap.¡¯ Shiro raised her eyebrow in mild surprise. She would have thought that the medicine was going to be more expensive but that wasn¡¯t the case. For a decent healing ointment for broken bones that will heal it within a day only cost around 8 silvers which wasn¡¯t too bad for her. She was just d that it didn¡¯t cost tens of silver. If that was the case, she would have been a little short for cash.
She had spent 14 silvers in thest town which meant that she still had 11 silvers left along with 225 coppers.
After choosing the ointment, she wrote down the next town that she was going to visit. With the delivery cost, it brought up the total to 10 silvers.
cing the amount on the stone tray next to the tablet, Shiro watched as it was reced with a token.
Storing the token away, Shiro left the building.
"Hmm... it¡¯ll take me around half a day or so to reach the next air tunnel so it¡¯s probably good to rest up for the night." Shiro muttered while ncing up at the sky. After the air tunnel which took a few hours, the sun was beginning to set and she wasn¡¯t keen on finding out what¡¯s in store for her at night.
Paying for a night¡¯s rest at a small traveller¡¯s tavern, which only cost 10 coppers this time, Shiro rested up for the night.
Chapter 675 Floating Island
Chapter 675 Floating Ind
*RUMBLE!!!!!
Feeling her room shake, Shiro snapped her eyes open and sat up.
Looking around her, she saw that she wasn¡¯t being attacked and yawned.
Cracking her neck, she took a deep breath and yawned.
"What the hell is going on so early in the morning?" Shiro muttered and nced out the window.
Furrowing her brows, she blinked a few times just to make sure she wasn¡¯t hallucinating.
". . . Why the hell is the town flying??????" She widened her eyes in confusion and dashed out of the inn.
Running to the edge of the town, Shiro could see the ground getting further and further away.
Looking around her, she could see the faces of concern as the townsfolk were holding onto each other. Some of them looked a little pale while others sighed.
"Excuse me? Do you know what¡¯s happening?" Shiro ran over to one of the moreposed townsfolk. He was a man who seemed to be stacking up the years as wrinkles could be seen around his face. His hair seemed like it used to be ck but now it was ash grey.
"This ce is bing one of the inds and new air tunnels will be formed in a few weeks time. During this, we¡¯ll need to survive on what food we have and hope that people wille assist us soon. However, monsters will overrun this ce soon." The man sighed.
"Wait what? What do you mean monsters will overrun this ce soon?" Shiro tilted her head in confusion.
"It means that this ce will be a nest once they discover that a new ind has appeared. They¡¯ll be fighting over this new territory as the other floating inds have already been imed." The man shook his head and started to walk back to his home.
Hearing that more monsters will be appearing here and that they¡¯ll be fighting over this territory, Shiro frowned.
If she was powerful like she was on earth, she wouldn¡¯t mind staying back and helping these people out but she could barely save herself with this fractured arm never mind others.
"Sorry, as much as I would like to save you all, I¡¯m not sticking around. I got sh*t to do!" Shiro muttered.
Taking a few steps back, Shiro waited for a moment before breaking into a sprint.
Naturally, this wasn¡¯t because she was suicidal but rather she wanted to wait for the right moment so that she couldnd in one of the air tunnels.
If the ind was too low, she wouldn¡¯t be able to cover enough distance to reach the air tunnel that she had used before. But if it was too high, the wind could easily knock her off course so she had to be careful. But it was still better than sticking around and waiting for the monsters to eat her like a morning snack.
Shielding her face slightly from the wind, Shiro found the air tunnel that she had used and started to adjust her body ordingly.
Bringing up some calctions in her mind, she figured that she had a 80% chance of survival if shended in the tunnel properly.
She needed to go against the flow of the tunnel so that the air could dampen her speed of descent otherwise she¡¯ll fall straight through and die. But with her calctions, there was no problem.
Narrowing her eyes, she waited at thest moment before shifting her body.
Crashing into the air tunnel like a bullet, Shiro felt the air push against her momentum which made her body feel like it was about to copse.
Ignoring the feeling, she focused on adjusting herself so that she couldnd on the ground properly without rolling across it.
Allowing the air to push her towards the ground, shended without too much difficulty.
"Few... that worked out pretty nicely." Shiro smiled.
However, just as she said this, she heard something in the distance and looked up.
Seeing a flock ofrge birds flying towards the ind, Shiro knew things were looking bad.
"I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t stay for long but if there¡¯s one thing I can do, that¡¯s help you drive off this first wave of monsters." Shiro nced back at the ind and sighed.
Summoning her bow, she saw down and started to shoot the birds out of the sky one by one. After the first wave was killed, she jogged over to collect their bodies. After all, it could be used for foodter.
Each of the monsters were roughly the size of her arm and with how many she had killed, they shouldst her a while. The only problem left was transporting them with her.
Thinking about it for a moment, she reached into her bag and brought out the tendon rope that she used for traps a while ago and tied up the monster corpses.
Dragging the corpses behind her, she made her way towards the next air tunnel that she needed to go without looking back. After all, as cruel as it may be, the town was not her responsibility and she was probably going to die if she stuck around.
Shaking her head, she left the area.
###
After travelling for around half a day, Shiro finally found the air tunnel that she needed to take to reach the next vige. Since it was going to take her around 4 hours to get to the next town, she wanted to take a small break for food since she was hungry after walking for half a day.
asionally, she would nce up at the sky and see flocks of monsters flying towards the newly created ind and felt d that she had left when she did.
Sitting down, she started to prepare the monsters and made a small fire with the fire wood that she had collected at the start.
The monsters that she had killed seemed like they only had small bits of edible flesh as the other parts seemed to be tainted with a ck substance originating from their organs. Remembering the ck gooke that the dread sapling had created, Shiro wasn¡¯t too keen on eating it so even though she killed quite a few, the amount of meat that could be harvested only amounted to two decent meals rather than several days worth.
Rationing them out so that it wouldst her a while, Shiro had a quick meal and stored the rest away carefully before hopping into the air tunnel.
¡¯Let¡¯s hope the next town doesn¡¯t rise into the sky like this one.¡¯ She thought to herself and closed her eyes.
Thankfully, the trip through the tunnel was rather safe as none of the monsters were aiming for her. They were more concerned about the ind that was floating in the distance that was unimed by anyone.
Landing with rtive ease, Shiro started to make her way to the town.
Upon arrival, she immediately booked a room at the inn since the sun had long set and she had been traveling for the entire day. Checking her map, she saw that there were three more tunnels for her to go through before she could arrive at the closest city to the Tower of Nike. With three more tunnels, Shiro needed to find a way to collect some more food since she wanted to be full when she attempted the trial.
After all, fighting on an empty stomach was rather difficult as she would find it hard to muster 100% of her strength.
To make matters worse, there was a tunnel thatsted around two days and eating within the tunnel was rather hard since she was being carried by the wind after all.
For that two days, she needed to make sure that she was properly fed.
Dismissing her worries for now, she rested up for the night.
###
"Fu... much better. Honestly walking around with a fractured arm is annoying." Shiro smiled in satisfaction after obtaining the ointment from the messenger. While her arm wasn¡¯t fully repaired yet, as it would take around half a day. There was a cool feeling that spread through her arm and soothed the pain.
While it was easy for her to ignore the pain and fight without worries, she knew the downsides of doing so and it couldpletely disable her arm.
Back on Earth she didn¡¯t need to care as she knew her natural regeneration would handle everything but things weren¡¯t the same here.
After obtaining the medicine, Shiro didn¡¯t waste any more time and resumed her journey. For food, all she needed to do was to hunt some of the monsters that flew around in the sky. Making sure that she didn¡¯t provoke a strong beast, her journey was quite rxing.
Going from one air tunnel to another, she covered a great amount ofnd every day and soon, she was flying through the final air tunnel. One that would bring her close to the city. However, even though it was ¡¯close¡¯ she¡¯ll still need to walk for around a day.
"Can¡¯t they just build the city around the air tunnels?" Shiro muttered but that brings the problem of enemies being able to enter the city immediately.
Shrugging her shoulders, she made her way to the city that was barely visible in the distance.
Chapter 676 Compendium of Towers
Chapter 676 Compendium of Towers
The city was called Vox and it was surrounded by quite a few floating inds. However, rather than monsters upying the inds, they managed to obtain the inds for themselves and arm it with ballistas and soldiers with flying divinities so that they could keep the monster at bay.
Not only that, but the city was also surrounded byrge stone walls with metal gates. The gates weren¡¯t closed and anyone could enter at will but there were guards stationed everywhere.
ncing up at the top of the walls, Shiro could see mounted weapons and tens of guards standing at attention. From what she could tell, each of the guards were performing their duties magnificently as none of them were cking.
Back on earth, Shiro had seen guards who would only stare off into the distance and daydream but these guards were like hawks. Every subtle movement they saw would be checked to be sure that there was nothing suspicious.
If these guards had the power of some of Earth¡¯s adventurers, they would make first rate watchmen at an important encampment.
Chuckling softly, Shiro walked past the gates without any problems. As this was one of the bigger cities in this section, she wanted to see if she could find any information on the Tower.
The first thing she noticed upon entering the city was a giant wooden billboard with a detailed drawing of the map. Each of the stores and roughly what they sell was marked down by the side making it easy for anyone to find the store that they wanted.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro was pleasantly surprised by this and couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful to the one who made this.
Simr to modern maps that she has seen in cities on earth, the map here was split into rows and columns. With numbers running up the side and letters along the bottom, it was easy to find where the shop was thanks to the coordinates provided next to the shop name.
Checking the list of things that was noted by the side of the map, Shiro saw that it was split up into several categories such as entertainment, clothes and so on.
Surprisingly, there was even one for information and Shiro could see a building titled the Compendium of Towers.
This building was specifically for those that wanted knowledge on what towers were where along with the nature of their tests.
Tapping her chin, Shiro checked its location and found that it was located in the centre of the city.
With her destination in mind, she made her way to the centre of Vox.
###
"Wait... doesn¡¯t she seem familiar?" A woman tilted her head while ncing towards Shiro since white hair was rather umon in this world. A while ago, she remembered receiving a notice on a potential recruit and that was a young girl with white hair.
"Mn, let me check." Another girl nodded her head and pulled out a notebook of sorts.
Muttering something under her breath, words started to appear on the paper as images of people could be seen about the words.
Flipping through the book, they arrived at the page where it showed the side profile of Shiro walking away from the two corpses that she had buried previously.
"No signs of a divinity and killed two people with ease. Both of them were killed by an arrow to the throat and an arrow through the head. Yeah, that¡¯s the girl." The other woman nodded her head.
"Oh? Well that¡¯s perfect then. To think that we¡¯ll find two candidates in this city. Should we prioritise her or shall we go for the initial target?"
"Let¡¯s go for the initial target. This one is just a bonus."
"Ok."
###
Upon arriving at the Compendium of Towers, Shiro saw that it was a huge domed building with a stained ss roof and pirs with detailed carvings supporting the second floor.
Walking up the marbled steps and towards therge wooden doors, Shiro pushed it open without hesitation.
The inside of the building was very spacious as rows upon rows of bookshelves could be seen everywhere. There were bookshelves on the walls and bookshelves in the middle of the building.
Tables filled with people could be observed to her left as they would flip through the books with great interest.
"Wee, do you know the rules of this ce?" Ady called out with a soft voice.
"No I don¡¯t." Shiro replied while ncing towards the source of the voice.
Sitting behind the desk was a blond haireddy with a rather beautiful dress. It wasn¡¯t something that nobles would wear but it was much better than what she had seen from the towns.
"There are three key rules here. Number 1, you are not to remove any of the books from the premises of this building. If you do, we will know. Number 2, you can only copy the text if you are given a permit but otherwise, it is against the rules and we will know when you do. Number 3, you are not to vandalise, fight or do anything that may harm the books within the premises. As long as you keep these three in mind, things will be ok. Since you are a new customer, may I know which book you are looking for so that I may direct you to the right ce?" She smiled.
"I¡¯m looking for information on the Tower of Nike." Shiro replied.
"Understood. Please wait a moment while I get you a guide to your book." The woman smiled.
Waving her hand across the table in front of her, a magic circle of sorts appeared shattered into pieces of light which fuse together to form a butterfly.
"Please follow this butterfly and it will highlight the books that match your needs. Also, try not to disturb the other customers."
Nodding her head, Shiro started to follow the butterfly.
Following behind the butterfly, she walked past several rows of bookshelves, up two staircases and was eventually led to a balcony three floors above the entrance.
Upon reaching the balcony, the butterfly shattered into light particles and wrapped around several books that could be seen on the bookshelf.
However, her attention was drawn on the three books she could see on the top shelf.
[Tower of Nike]
[History of the Winged Goddess of Victory]
[Combat Study of the Divinity obtained from the Tower of Nike]
Taking all three of the books, Shiro looked around for a seat and found one not too far from where she was. It was located next to a carving of the world with sticks protruding out from the earth to represent the five primordial towers.
Sitting down, Shiro ced the other books on the table next to her and began to read the [Tower of Nike].
The book contained information such as when the tower was discovered, who discovered it and what the first few attempts were like.
As Nike herself was the Goddess of Victory, her trials in the tower consisted of obtaining victory through hardship in order to prove one¡¯s worthiness of her divinity. Not only that, as the sibling of Zelos, Kratos and Bia, her trials also incorporated some aspects of her siblings.
Zelos ¨C Rivalry, Kratos ¨C Strength and Bia ¨C Force.
To obtain Nike¡¯s divinity, one had to pass at least one of her trials.
Trial of Victory, Trial of Flight or Trial of Strength.
There was also the addition of semi trials of her sibling¡¯s. Rivalry, Strength and Force but they were only small benefits.
Rivalry allowed you to muster more power as long as you see the opponent as someone you must ovee.
Strength will boost your physical prowess and Force will give you an ability simr to what Ares¡¯ Trial gives.
The longer you fight and the angrier you be, the more your physical parameters improve. Naturally, this is limited to only 5% stronger than your base but it was still helpful nheless.
However, the trouble that one needs to go through to obtain these small benefits were not worth the risk in most people¡¯s opinions as there were better divinities to choose from. Especially since this is usually ssified as a low grade second tier divinity.
But since Shiro could only get one divinity, this was the perfect one to choose from before she challenged the towers belonging to the five primordial deities.
Chapter 677 Trial of Victory
Chapter 677 Trial of Victory
After reading as much about the Tower of Nike as she could, Shiro put the books away and started to make her way out of the building.
Toplete the tower of Nike, the bow was actually one of the best options when starting with no divinity since it allowed her to fight at a safe distance. And even if they reached melee distance, it wasn¡¯t like she¡¯d lose out in terms of technique either.
¡¯To get to the Tower of Nike, I¡¯ll need to travel north of this ce. It¡¯ll take around three hours if I jog so it¡¯s not too far.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
The Tower of Nike seemed like a rather short tower from the outside world but the truth was different. It only looked like a short tower due to the fact that most of it was underground along with the entrance.
In order to attempt the Tower of Nike, one needed to make their way down a ravine where some monsters reside and find their way through a cave system. At least, that was what it was like in the beginning.
However, thanks to the multitude of people wanting toplete Nike¡¯s Tower, a pathway was carved out of the ravine alone with a set of stone guardrails to guide one to the entrance properly.
After making her way out of the city of Vox, Shiro followed the map in her mind and eventually found the ravine that she had to go down.
Looking to her left, she could see the start of the stone steps which led to the darkness of the ravine.
"Ominous." Shiro sighed with a soft smile and started to walk down while keeping a hand on the hilt of her short sword.
After all, she didn¡¯t know if a monster was going to suddenly ambush her.
Around halfway down the steps, she could hear a few voices talking to each other.
"I believe in you. Even if you fail, this one is rather lenient and wouldn¡¯t take your life. It¡¯ll teleport you back here so don¡¯t worry son." A feminine voice encouraged.
"I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how you encourage someone mum." The younger voice sighed.
"Well it¡¯s also bad to just say you willplete it perfectly. But just know I believe in you haha." The feminine voice chuckled.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro was slightly surprised that there were some people already here but it was understandable. After all, even if the Tower of Nike was a low grade second tier divinity, it was a popr choice for first tiers due to its leniency with failure.
Unlike some of the other second tier divinities, this one wouldn¡¯t kill you if you fail. But it didn¡¯t mean that it was free of risks either.
While you may not die, you are sure to be heavily injured when youe out.
As Shiro walked down the staircase, the duo heard the sound of footsteps righting out and hushed for a moment to check who it was.
Seeing a beautiful youngdy with snow white hair, the two rxed slightly.
"Anyways, good luck on the test. Your father¡¯s going to prepare some good food for us when we get back." The woman smiled.
She was a middle ageddy with brown hair that reached halfway down her back. She wore a simple dress that most of themoners would wear which consisted of a simple white shirt, a brown vest and a skirt which reached down to their ankles.
As for the boy, his clothing was also something that could be seen in every town. He wore a long sleeved white shirt, a brown jacket, baggy pants and a pair of farmers boots.
Giving the mother and son duo a quick nce, Shiro returned her focus back to the main target of her journey here. The Tower of Nike.
To call it a tower was a bit of an exaggeration due to the gate of said tower.
With over 90% of the tower being underground, it was more fitting to call it a dungeon rather than a tower.
Besides the gate were tworge stone pirs that had carvings ofrge scale battles. There were weapons being thrown, cavalry men and even what seemed to be people blessed by divinity flying through the sky with blessed weapons which rained thunder down on the ground.
Connected to the top of these pirs were chains which dr.a.p.ed through the cave which was simr to what reigns would look like on a carriage.
Remembering that Nike was Zeus¡¯ Charioteer, it made sense why the chains would look like reins.
As for the gate itself, there was a single image and that was Nike herself with her wings unfurled behind her. Above her head was a goldenurel wreath which served as a symbol of triumph. Compared to the stone gates and the dark caves, the golden crown was especially eye catching with its design.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro took a moment to close her eyes and focus her mind. No matter what, she was going toplete this trial and continue on to the five primordial trials. After all, they were her main goal and the key for her toplete this test that Nyx has bestowed upon her.
With the allure of a mysterious reward on the line that even the primordial deity of night coveted, Shiro snapped her eyes open as her aura turned sharp like a sword.
Walking up to the gate without fear, she ced her right hand against the cold stone surface and pushed with all of her might.
As the gates opened, a golden light wrapped around her body, shielding her from prying eyes and soon, she was nowhere to be seen.
###
Shielding her eyes from the light, Shiro blinked a few times to readjust herself. Once she could see properly once more, she found herself in front of a giant stone tablet.
[Trial of Victory]
[Obtain victory in this scenario. Heroes appear in the heat of battle. While cooperation with other people is key, sometimes it takes one person to change the flow of everything. Can you be that person? Defeat the enemies and y themander in the centre of their encampment.]
[Time limit ¨C 1 day.]
Seeing this, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate and immediately summoned her bow.
As if understanding her desire to fight, her scenery changed once more and she was thrusted in the centre of the battlefield.
ncing around her, Shiro could see that she was in the middle of a fight as her allies were being ughtered around her. Behind her was a heavily fortified city and in front of her was what seemed like an endless army.
Without even giving her a chance to think about her current situation, Shiro widened her eyes and drew her short sword.
Lifting it in front of her, she parried the attacks of the soldier that tried to kill her while her guard was down.
Shifting her body weight, Shiro narrowed her eyes and used a set of martial arts that she had neglected for a while as she hadn¡¯t been fighting people. Her Phantom Path.
Brushing off the soldier¡¯s attacks so that it hit the ground beside her, Shiro leaned forward for a lunge with her sword.
*PUSHI!!!!
shing the man¡¯s throat with ease, she used her shoulder as a battering ram and crashed into his sternum.
*CRACK!
Feeling the bones crack under her sudden charge, Shiro smiled in satisfaction.
With a single swift set of movements, she sheathed her sword away and summoned an arrow for her bow. While this was happening, she had also positioned herself under the soldier¡¯s body so that she was using it as a shield from ranged attacks.
Stabbing her arrow back, she pierced the soldier through the eyes and into the brain, killing him quickly.
Ripping out the blood soaked arrow from the man¡¯s eye sockets, she notched the arrow onto the bow string and pulled back with all her might.
Locking onto the closest target, she fired without hesitation, piercing his head through the ear.
As the blood of the soldier poured onto her hair, Shiro pushed his corpse off her body.
Raising up her hand, she brushed her blood covered hair back, revealing a set of beautiful eyes that scanned the battlefield along with a grin that revealed her pearly white teeth. Looking at Shiro¡¯s expression, one would see a maniacal war demon who lived for the pleasure of a good fight.
"It¡¯s been too damn long! Entertain me!" Sheughed out while notching more arrows.
Stepping to the side, she kicked one of the approaching soldiers on the back of the knee, forcing him to fall backwards as she fired an arrow into his face at point nk range.
Grabbing one of her daggers that she had stored on her belt she twirled them in her hands to gather some momentum and threw it at an archer in the distance.
Piercing his throat urately, she shifted her attention away from the archer and shot at a few of the iing soldiers that wanted to take her life.
Elsewhere, Nyx watched the scene with narrowed eyes and a beautiful smile.
Usually, when Shiro kills someone in a dungeon or trial, her monster counter never increased as they didn¡¯t count as human lives due to the fact that they were akin to simtions.
However, in this trial, her counter started to increase...
Advanced Monster (459/1000 Human¡¯s Killed).
(460/1000).
Chapter 678 The Enemy Commander
Chapter 678 The Enemy Commander
Jumping through the hordes of soldiers, Shiro ughtered her way through with ease.
"Oi oi! Try harder would you? This miss is just starting to get warmed up haha!" Shiroughed out while using a soldier¡¯s body as her trampoline.
Notching three arrows while flying through the air, Shiro shot the three archers that wanted to shoot her down in the distance.
However, they still managed to fire their arrows.
Two of them missed but one of them was about to pierce her right in the chest.
Seeing this, the soldier grinned in excitement as he could finally end this demon that had been terrorising the battlefield. Unfortunately, his grin soon faded as he widened his eyes in disbelief.
Before the arrow could pierce Shiro¡¯s chest, she twisted her body and caught the arrow with her hands before notching it into her bow and firing it back at the archer.
"Return to sender!" Shiro grinned as her eyes seemed to flicker with a dim red light.
Landing on the ground, she stood up straight and looked up at the crimson sky which was dyed by the sunset.
Taking a deep breath, the smell of blood and metal filled her nose.
¡¯I have been enjoying a rather peaceful life with Lyrica and the others where I didn¡¯t fightrge armies. But damn I forgot this intoxicating feeling. It¡¯s a little twisted but what can I say? I suppose I¡¯m like a smoker. I¡¯m addicted to battle. Peace is nice but I¡¯ll get itchy if I don¡¯t fight every so often.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Cracking her neck, her body swayed for a slight moment before elerating rapidly towards the terrified soldiers on the other side of the battlefield.
Running towards the first soldier she could see, she dismissed her bow and grabbed two of her daggers.
Jumping up, she parried his sword and stabbed both daggers on either end of his neck.
*CRACK!
Flipping her body over his, she twisted his head using the daggers as a handle and flung his body towards the next soldier.
Ducking down, she avoided a few arrows and picked up the sword that the soldier had used to try to kill her.
Flicking her wrist, she flung the sword up before round house kicking the pommel of the sword,unching the de towards the archer and piercing his thigh.
"ARG!" Kneeling down from the pain, the archer quickly looked up only to see two daggers rapidly approaching his eyes.
Time seemed to slow down as he could see the demon behind the daggers.
Despite her beautiful appearance, her blood soaked hair and sadistic expression only caused him to feel fear.
With fear as his final emotion that he could experience, darkness filled his vision.
*CRACK!
Crushing the skull of the archer, Shiro pulled her hands back.
"Pft! Che, I suppose it¡¯s unavoidable that blood will get in my mouth if I smile during a fight." Shiro frowned while spitting out some blood.
ncing behind her, she could see a long trail of corpses as her allies were pushing forward.
Most of the soldiers belonging to the enemy army were now retreating thanks to her sudden ughter fest.
However, most of them were ring at her and she knew she was about to get surrounded.
But that¡¯s fine. After all, she was used to the one versus many situation. The more people that approached, the better it was for her since she could turn them against one another with their own attacks. The good thing about being alone in this situation is that some of them will hesitate to harm their own allies when you get close to them.
She would use this hesitation to ughter more.
Since they were charging towards her, she¡¯d repay their kindness by making the distance shorter.
Bringing out her bow once more, Shiro started to fire a swarm of arrows without dy.
Despite her running towards them, her arrows always hit their target thanks to its properties as Artemis¡¯ Bow.
The moment the soldiers saw that Shiro was approaching, the thought of distancing themselves from her appeared in their minds but since the enemy army was behind them, they couldn¡¯t leave.
All they could do was charge towards the girl in hopes of taking her down even at the cost of their lives.
While Shiro was ughtering the enemy army, the allied army watched the scene with a mixture of shock, awe and disbelief.
Themander stood at the top of the reinforced walls and stared at the battle in incredulity.
"Goddess Nike, what champion have you given us with my summons. Is she a hero or is she a demon of war? Could I have received assistance from Ares the God of War instead?" Themander muttered while ncing up at the sky with a slight tremble in his voice.
Despite him holding onto the wall, he could still feel his arms shaking from the fear he felt from the girl.
When the tides of battle were looking grim, he prayed to the Goddess of Victory to send them a hero to protect thend.
When a pir of light descended onto the battlefield, hope filled his heart. But when he saw the person inside the light was a young white haired girl, he couldn¡¯t help but stare at her with dubiousness. But that dubiousness was soon erased as the girl didn¡¯t hesitate to take a life in front of her.
Each of her kills were gruesome and efficient as if the soldiers were nothing but ants in front of her.
Her instincts and reactions allowed her to dance through the battlefield with ease. Even a sky full of arrows that would have killed the best soldier they had was nothing to her. Her quick thinking allowed her to use the corpses of those whom she killed as a shield before ughtering more enemies, leaving a path of destruction in her wake.
However, for the sake of the kingdom that they were trying to protect, maybe they needed to sign a deal with the devil. It didn¡¯t matter how many people she killed. As long as they could protect the kingdom, it was ok in his eyes.
"ATTENTION!" He shouted out.
With his shout, most of the allied soldiers turned towards him.
"Follow the girl and take the ughter to their camp!" Hemanded.
"URAHHHHH!!!!"
Replying with a loud war cry, the army charged forward with renewed vigour.
As the enemy was preupied with retreat and killing Shiro, the fight was much easier and each soldier could kill an enemy with ease.
Seeing her allies charge with a burning desire in their eyes, Shiro onlyughed.
"How energetic of them." She chuckled while snapping the neck of a nearby soldier with ease.
Taking the dagger out of his neck, she looked towards where the army was retreating.
¡¯Since my goal in this is to take out theirmander, I should get to it quickly before he leaves. Even if I¡¯m in the middle of the fight, it should be rather easy since I haven¡¯t seen anyone using any divinities just yet.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with narrowed eyes.
However, if they were to use a divinity, Shiro wasn¡¯t too afraid. After all, she could hold her own against a Minotaur whom most people would struggle with even if they had one divinity.
Pulling out her short sword, Shiro started to dash towards the enemy encampment.
Killing all those that stood in her way, she had to switch her sword with someone else¡¯s due to the damage it sustained but with so many weapons on the battlefield, it wasn¡¯t too hard for Shiro to find a recement.
After killing her way through the crowd, Shiro suddenly felt danger ahead of her and flipped backwards.
*BANG!!!!
Sliding for a few meters, Shiro looked up and saw a ck spear where she was just standing a moment ago.
Before she could even say anything, a towering armoured man crashed down next to the spear and picked it up.
He wore a set of full te armour which covered almost every inch of his body. Coloured ck with a crimson cape behind him, he looked exactly like a hell knight that Shiro had faced a few times in her past life.
"Demon! How dare you spill the blood of my soldiers." The armoured man roared out and charged towards you.
"Are you theirmander?" Shiro grinned and parried his spear.
However, the force of his attack was more than what she had anticipated so she was pushed back. The force of his attack had always caused her sword to bend abnormally to the point where it couldn¡¯t be used anymore.
¡¯He should be someone with one divinity. A normal person shouldn¡¯t be able to generate this amount of force.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes while throwing away the bent sword.
"I am indeed theirmander and you shall die by my spear!" Themander red at her as a ck aura started to radiate from his spear.
Sensing a threat of death from this next attack, Shiro immediately closed the gap between the two of them.
Stomping down on the handle of his spear, sheunched herself over his body just in time as a beam of energy shot toward, erasing everything that was in its path.
Taking this chance to stab towards the nape of his neck with a dagger, she watched as he parried it at thest moment and knew that this was going to be a tough fight.
Chapter 679 Adonis
Chapter 679 Adonis
With her dagger being blocked at thest moment, Shiro immediately understood that it was going to be hard to sneak in some small attacks against thismander. To win, she¡¯d need to disarm him of his spear.
With that goal in mind, she flicked her dagger up and reached for the handle of his spear.
Using it as a pole, she swung her body in front of him and wanted to knee him in the chin.
Unfortunately for her, his armour was rather sharp in areas and the chin was one of those areas.
Halting her attack due to the fact that she would disable her leg if she continued, her next best bet was to stab him in the shoulder area where the armour is slightly exposed.
Catching her dagger, she wanted to stab towards him but he pushed out with his spear,unching Shiro into the air such that it was risky to hold onto the weapon.
With his target flying defencelessly in the air, themander jumped up despite the weight of his armour and pierced towards her.
Widening her eyes, Shiro brought out Artemis¡¯ Bow and used it as a parrying tool for now.
*CLANG!!!!
shing against the crystal bow, sparks could be seen as Shiro felt arge amount of force being transmitted through her body.
Gritting her teeth, she flipped her body in the air andnded roughly against the ground.
Rolling a few times, she reorientated herself.
"How do you have a blessed weapon?!" Themander interrogated as his spear was also a blessed weapon. Whenever someone tried to block his strikes, their weapon would be destroyed and the only exception was blessed weapons that were reinforced thanks to a god¡¯s blessing.Obtaining these weapons was extremely hard and for Shiro to have one was something he didn¡¯t take into ount for.
"What can I say, I¡¯m a lucky woman." Shiro chuckled and pulled back on her bowstring.
Firing some arrows, she used this chance to throw a dagger towards his shoulder.
*CLANG CLANG CLANG!
Deflecting the arrows, themander saw the approaching dagger and quickly ducked down, allowing it to hit against his armour instead. After all, if it injured his shoulder, fighting would be rather difficult.
"Tsk, you got nice instincts." Shiro clicked her tongue and dashed towards him.
"I don¡¯t need your praise demon!"
Twisting her body, Shiro mmed the edge of her bow against his spear.
During that short exchange, she understood that her bow was the only weapon strong enough to contest against his spear at this moment in time.
Pushing her bow down, she raised her leg and kicked towards his head.
Leaning back slightly, themander avoided her kick but realised that it was a trap. With his upper body leaning back, it was hard for him to pull back his lower body.
Using this chance, Shiro stabbed a dagger towards his crotch.
"Have you no shame!?" Themander roared out while trying his best to bring his spear down.
But with the bow in the way, it was going to take a moment before it could protect his crotch area. The best he could do was shift his hip to the left so that it shed against his waist instead.
*KLING!
shing past parts of his chain mail that he had under his armour, Shiro¡¯s dagger dug into his waist as she could feel her daggere into contact with his bone.
While she missed her initial target, this was good enough for now.
Quickly retreating so that the spear didn¡¯t pierce her head, Shiro narrowed her eyes at themander.
¡¯He is one slippery f*ck. His instincts are good. Is this how people feel like when they¡¯re fighting me?¡¯ She mused to herself while shaking the blood off her
"I ask you again, have you no shame?" Themander red at her while ignoring the pain on his waist.
"Nope. Listen here, if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that I couldn¡¯t attack your ass, I wouldn¡¯t have gone for your crotch to begin with. However, it is abat tactic used by my beloved big sis so it¡¯s your honour. Plus, who told you not to guard such an important area to begin with?" Shiro snickered and readied her bow once more.
"Shameless!" Themander cursed.
"Thank you."
Dashing towards him once more, Shiro stomped down and kicked up a sword that was half buried in the ground.
Grabbing it with her spare hand, she twisted her body and flung it towards him. Firing some arrows to apany the sword, she ducked to the left as she could see themander raise his spear.
Swiping it horizontally, a wave of energy exploded out and kicked the arrows and sword out of the air.
Stabbing towards Shiro with the tip of his spear, themander made sure to keep in mind that the opponent he was facing was no ordinary person. Ignoring the fact that her fighting prowess was incredible, her nonchnt attitude towards the use of dirty moves was something to be cautious about.
Dodging the spear tip, Shiro stabbed towards him once more but watched as he vaulted over her body with a surprising amount of flexibility in that armour.
With her back exposed to themander, Shiro quickly did a handstand and kicked him in the chest, forcing some distance between the two of them.
Landing gracefully on the ground, she had to quickly duck down to avoid his spear piercing her.
Holding the shaft of the spear, she swept her leg out in an attempt to trip themander up.
With his weapon restrained by her, themander wasn¡¯t able to react in time and fell back.
¡¯A chance!¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and quickly leapt onto his body.
Drawing her dagger, she stabbed towards his neck area.
Unfortunately, before the dagger could hit, she saw a sword cutting towards her stomach and backed off quickly.
In themander¡¯s spare hand was a short sword that had barely missed its mark.
If she had stayed, she would have had a huge cut cross her stomach which would have definitely ended her life. A mutual death.
"Well, I didn¡¯t expect you to pull a sword out. Wanting to die along with thisdy huh?" Shiro grinned.
"Bah, whatdy? I only see a demon in front of me." Themander spat out in disdain.
"Rather hurtful to my feelings. I¡¯m such a delicatedy and you call me a demon? You¡¯ll stay single forever you know."
Ignoring her provocation, themander sheathed his sword and grabbed his spear with both hands.
After a few exchanges with the white haired woman, he knew that there was a low chance of surviving this fight despite having the advantage of a divinity.
His body was stronger, his attacks could demolishrge areas but the woman in front of him could shift the direction of his attacks with smart use of her body. Even without a divinity, her skills allowed her to bridge this gap and he didn¡¯t want to imagine how one sided this fight would have be if she had a divinity.
"What¡¯s your name demon?" He asked.
"Oh my, how polite."
"Don¡¯t think too much about it. I want to know your name so I can curse you if I fall in this battle." Themander chuckled.
"Fine fine. It¡¯s Shiro and yours?" Shiro asked with a smirk.
"Adonis." Adonis replied while taking a deep breath.
"Nice name." Shiro praised.
"Thank you."
A moment of silence ensued as the two dashed towards one another for the final time.
Twirling his spear, Adonis stabbed it into the ground as ck energy suffused over the ground.
Hands created by this ck energy reached out to grab Shiro by the ankles but she managed to dodge them with ease.
Pulling his spear out, Adonis stabbed towards her chest only for his spear to be parried by her bow. However, this is exactly what he had wanted.
Letting go of his spear, he pulled out his sword and shed towards her.
"Nice try." Shiro grinned.
Grabbing the shaft of the spear, she stabbed it into the ground and vaulted back.
Sliding her hand down to the pommel, she twisted her body and shed out with the full reach of the spear.
Feeling the cold metal of his weapon cut through his throat, Adonis paused for a moment before smiling in admiration.
Before he could do anything else, Shiro had already taken this chance to close the distance.
Stabbing her daggers into his neck that was wounded by the spear, she used the daggers to snap his vertebra in half.
Using her daggers as a handle, she ripped his head off of his body and threw it into the air.
Without his head, the corpse of Adonis stumbled for a moment before crashing against the ground.
With themander dead, Shiro hadpleted the Trial of Victory.
ncing over at the spear which was clearly much better than other weapons, she figured that she might as well collect some loot for herself.
Grabbing the spear she could see one of her sigils light up ever so slightly on her forearm. But faded away after a short moment.
[You do not have the requirements to obtain the Spear of Ares. It shall return to its trial grounds.]
Chapter 680 Trial of Flight
Chapter 680 Trial of Flight
"Huh?" Raising her eyebrow at the strange notification, Shiro wondered why it mentioned that it¡¯d return to the trial ground.
Watching the spear flicker into small light particles, Shiro could only sigh.
"Missed opportunity I suppose." She sighed.
ncing down at her own hands, Shiro saw that she was about to be teleported away as well.
After a few short moments, she found herself back in the space where she had seen the stone tablet. All of her exhaustion seemed to have faded away but her weapons were still lost.
During the fight, she had sacrificed three daggers and her short sword. All she had on her now was her bow and a single dagger.
Suddenly, words started to appear one the stone tablet.
[You havepleted the Trial of Victory.]
[The next trial is the Trial of Flight]
[Trial of Flight]
[Defeat a wave of Harpies and a Hippogriff.]
Raising her eyebrow at the simple description of the trial, Shiro remembered that this was more than what it seemed.
After all, in the books describing what you had to do in this test, you needed to learn how to fly while trying not to die from the bombardment of these creatures.
Thankfully, as Shiro was already familiar with the sensation of flying, this shouldn¡¯t be too bad. And even if it was different to what she knew, she still had a bow to help her kill the monsters while trying to fly.
Suddenly, a bright light filled her vision as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but curse at the fact that the trials always wanted to blind her before she started them.
¡¯Give me a portal or something if you¡¯re going to teleport me. I would prefer not to have the might of the sun shine right into my eyes when I start a trial.¡¯ Shiroined in her mind while trying to adjust herself.
Feeling the soft sensation of wind blowing against her face, Shiro looked around and saw that she was on the top of a small tform. The tform was suspended from a mountain and if she tried to jump off, she¡¯d die from the fall.
¡¯So I only have a limited amount of room to work with huh?¡¯ She thought to herself. Just as she thought of this, a weird sensation could be felt on her back as a pair of white wings started to unfurl themselves.
They were somewhat corporeal as the base of the wings had phased through her dress, allowing her to spread them out without the worry of suddenly destroying her clothes.
pping them slightly, Shiro was somewhat used to the sensation thanks to one of the skills she used to use due to her connection with Yin.
Stretching her body slightly, Shiro stomped down and shot up into the air.
Compared to her flight back on Earth, she needed more effort to keep herself afloat but it wasn¡¯t too bad. If anything, it was akin to doing squats while running as fast as you can. The sensation was a little weird but that was about it.
Hovering in the air for a moment, she could see a few harpies appearing in the distance and knew that the trial was going to happen soon.
Normally, one would use this chance to familiarise themselves with the wings and prepare their mind for the ensuing battle.
Looking into the distance, she could see an army of Harpies charging towards her location.
The harpies looked just like what she had imagined as they were essentiallyrge humanoid birds with a female head and torso. Rows of sharp teeth could be seen as drool trailed from their open mouths.
Narrowing her eyes, she estimated that it¡¯ll take them roughly 10 minutes or so to reach her spot.
¡¯Well damn, only giving people 10 minutes to familiarise themselves with wings. Rather harsh.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while summoning her bow. Since the Harpies had roughly 10 minutes to reach her, Shiro was going to thin out the crowd a little.
Pulling back on her bow string, Shiro fired her arrow without hesitation.
Soaring through the sky, the arrow pierced the Harpy through the neck and killed her in an instant.
"One." Shiro grinned and notched another arrow.
Firing arrows without rest, Shiro had killed off more than 40% of the Harpy wave by the time they had reached her location.
However, as she was used to flying, she could easily dodge their attacks and retaliate with ease.
The following fight could only be described as one sided due to the clear difference inbat prowess. With the Harpies unable tond a single hit on Shiro, she was able to fly around the arena and kill them one by one. After a few short moments, only Shiro was left in the sky and a mountain of Harpy corpses could be seen below the tform.
*KIIII!!!
Hearing the cry of an eagle, Shiro looked up and saw a silhouette which seemed to block out the sun.
Understanding that it¡¯s the Hippogriff, she quicklynded on the tform and prepared herself.
Since she only needed to kill one Hippogriff, she could guess that it was essentially a boss and it was due to this fact that she had to proceed with caution. Until she understood its general speed and fighting style, she wasn¡¯t going to go all out on the offensive just yet.
Notching an arrow on her bow string, she narrowed her eyes and aimed towards the Hippogriff.
Letting go of the bow string, she watched as the arrow sliced through the air. And just as it was looking like it was about to pierce the Hippogriff through the chest, its ws grabbed the arrow and snapped it in half.
ring towards Shiro, the Hippogriff narrowed its eyes and dived towards her at full speed.
Firing some more arrows towards the beast, Shiro watched as there seemed to be a small barrier of wind surrounding the Hippogriff which knocked all the arrows aside.
"Tch, protection against arrows." Shiro clicked her tongue in annoyance.
As she had lost a few of her daggers and her short sword to thest trial, the only weapon she had left other than her bow was a single dagger which was essentiallymon soldier equipment. It wasn¡¯t a blessed weapon like her Artemis¡¯ Bow so its durability was rather questionable.
But in regard to the question of whether or not it could harm the Hippogriff, Shiro had to find out through a live test.
Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself for the fight.
¡¯From what I know in the books, the Hippogriff has two types of magic and can only use one or the other. The first was the wind aura which allows it to block ranged attacks and the second was wind des. Seeing as though I relied on my bow and can dodge with ease, it¡¯s only natural that it chose the wind aura rather than wind des. Honestly, if it chose wind des, it¡¯d be more dangerous for me.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since the Hippogriff didn¡¯t have any other methods of attack other than its beak and ws.
The moment it chooses to use wind des, it¡¯ll open its body up to attacks from her bow which meant that there was a chance for Shiro to kill it. However, even if it retains the wind aura to negate the arrows, there was still the chance that her dagger could damage the Hippogriff if she targeted its eyes.
*BANG!!!
Crashing against the tform in front of her, Shiro jumped back slightly so that she could force some distance between the two of them.
*KII!!!!
Before the dust could even settle, Shiro saw the dust wrap around the Hippogriff¡¯s body as it lunged towards her with its two ws.
Quickly ducking to the side, she shed at its armpits, ripping out a few of the feathers in the process but her cuts were essentially non-existent. With the feathers dampening her blow, she¡¯d need to find a way to bypass the feathers and strike at its skin.
Due to therge size difference, hitting the Hippogriff was an easy task for her as all she needed to do was wait for it to lunge at her. Once it did, it¡¯ll open itself for her to bypass its guard and attack.
Only problem left was to actually do damage and the best option seemed to be defeathering the Hippogriff so that there was nothing to block her dagger.
"I can¡¯t help but feel like I¡¯m preparing a chicken before I cook it." Shiro muttered with a grin before dashing towards the beast once more.
Chapter 681 Trial of Strength
Chapter 681 Trial of Strength
shing at the Hippogriff every time it tried to attack her, Shiro managed to peel back quite a few feathers in the process, leaving several bald marks on the spots where she wanted to cut.
Should the Hippogriff lunge in for another attack, her next sh will hopefully draw some blood.
However, that was rather hopeful considering the fact that the Hippogriff waspletely wary of her now. Who wouldn¡¯t? If an opponent could dodge your every strike and stab you near the vitals, it would be dumb to keep trying to attack that opponent.
Narrowing its eyes at Shiro warily, the Hippogriff stood up on its hind legs and pped its wings.
Recognising that movement to be the actions required for Wind des, Shiro quickly jumped to the side and summoned her bow.
Cracking against the ground, Shiro could see the Wind des destroy a part of the tform. Understanding that a single hit of the Wind de could severely injure her, she had to be careful whenever its Wind Aura was cancelled.
Pulling back her bowstring while still in the air, she fired at the Hippogriff¡¯s eye without hesitation.
*PUCHI!!!
*KIIII!!!
Crying out in pain, the Hippogriff didn¡¯t expect Shiro to react so fast and a single mistake had cost it its eye.
ring at her with its remaining eye, the Hippogriff decided to just lunge at her with everything it¡¯s got in an attempt to overwhelm her. As long as it can get a single hit in, it¡¯ll be able to kill her.
Smirking slightly, Shiro observed the Hippogriff¡¯s movements carefully and dodged its attacks at thest moment.
Since it wasn¡¯t as strong or as powerful as the Minotaur, dodging the attacks was rather easy for Shiro to aplish.
However, as it was currently unleashing a flurry of attacks, she had to be patient about her counter. She needed to wait until it exhausted its stamina before she could deal the killing blow.
Seeing as things weren¡¯t going its way, the Hippogriff pped its wings and soared into the sky. Since it didn¡¯t activate the Wind Aura, Shiro could guess that it wanted to kill her with the Wind des.
Spreading out her own wings, she chased after it. Unfortunately, she was just a little slower so she started tog behind the beast as time went on. Narrowing her eyes, she could see the beast ncing back every so often to check if she was still behind it.
Frowning slightly, Shiro summoned her bow and started to fire arrows at its back.
Reactivating the Wind Aura, the Hippogriff deflected the arrows but it prevented him from attacking Shiro which was good.
¡¯I would try to circle around or predict where he¡¯ll be to catch up but with the speed difference, I doubt it¡¯ll work. I should head back to the tform while keeping it busy with arrows.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and started to retreat.
Since there wasn¡¯t a fail condition in regards to the Hippogriff escaping, she wasn¡¯t afraid of that. Instead, it would be more troublesome if she started to run out of stamina thanks to using the wings. To maintain flight was rather stressful and her body was already starting to ache.
Landing back on the tform while continuing to shoot arrows at the beast, Shiro made sure it didn¡¯t have the chance to send Wind des at her.
Looking back, the Hippogriff was annoyed that Shiro was back at the tform. It couldn¡¯t hit her with any of its attacks so it wanted to use its superior speed to kill this c.o.c.kroach of an enemy but she gave up and went back to the tform and shot arrows from hundreds of meters away.
Since that was the case, it wanted to see how long she can keep this up.
Little did it know, Shiro was probably one of the most tenacious people it would ever meet. She was someone that fought a Minotaur for several hours just so that she could annoy it to death due to her low attack power.
Shooting arrows at a Hippogriff was much easier than trying to dodge attacks from a Minotaur for several hours as even a close miss could shatter her bones. Between the two, Shiro would definitely prefer to use the Hippogriff as a practice tool.
###
Quite a long time had passed as Shiro understood the Hippogriff¡¯s tactic. In her mind, not only was this Hippogriff a giant coward, it was also the most annoying kind of enemy that people can fight against. One that kept dying and dying and dying because they couldn¡¯t kill the enemy.
It was like a little kid who kept trying to annoy you because you couldn¡¯t hit him since he was a child and you were an a.d.u.l.t. God knows how many people just wanted to kick the annoying kid across the field like a football.
As for Shiro and the Hippogriff, she was the a.d.u.l.t and he was the kid who kept annoying her.
However, two can y that game as Shiro didn¡¯t stop firing her arrows.
All she had to do was fire her arrows while the Hippogriff needed to constantly fly and keep its body in the air. Once it got tired and had toe down, she was going to torture the crap out of him.
And as she predicted, the Hippogriff was beginning to feel extremely tired as its body swayed in the wind. The only ce for it to rest was at the tform as it was within the boundaries of the trial. If it was to leave too far, it¡¯d be killed automatically due to the nature of this trial.
Try as it might, it could not fight against the limits of its body and had to descend towards the tform.
Seeing this, Shiro almost looked like she had a crazed grin on her face as her torture target was finallying down. The moment it did, she could finally relieve her anger that had been building up.
Feeling her malevolent re on its body, the Hippogriff couldn¡¯t help but feel fear creeping into its heart.
The moment its w touched the tform, Shiro lunged towards it like a rabid animal that had found some prey.
"Come here you little sh*t!" Shiro shouted out while grabbing her dagger.
The next few scenes could only be described as horrific as the cries of the Hippogriff never stopped.
Blood sttered everywhere, dying the white tform with blood as the organs were thrown aside. By the time the Hippogriff¡¯s cries ended, there was not a piece of its body that was whole. The beak was ripped out along with its tongue and the limbs were bent in strange ways as the tendons had been cut apart.
Looking at her dagger that was on the verge of breaking, she threw it aside since the next attack would definitely break it in half and she¡¯d rather not use a weapon that¡¯d break the moment someone breathed on it.
Cracking her neck, Shiro sat down and waited for her to be teleported back to the white space with the stone tablet.
After waiting for a few moments, she could feel her fatigue fade away once more as she was now sitting in front of the stone tablet.
"See? You didn¡¯t need to rain down the might of the sun into my eyes every time you teleport me." Shiroined since it happened suddenly without light burning her eyes.
ncing towards the stone tablet, she watched as words started to materialise on the surface.
[You havepleted the Trial of Flight.]
[The next trial is the Trial of Strength.]
[As you havepleted two trials, you have the choice of stopping here and obtaining either one in the form of a divinity. However, should you continue, you may obtain the full divinity but doing so may disable you.]
"That¡¯s fine. Continue." Shiro nodded her head since the full divinity was her goal to begin with. Both the Divinity of Victory and the Divinity of Flight were good in their own regard but it was only when all three werebined would the Divinity of Nike truly be worth it. Plus, once shepleted the Trial of Strength, she¡¯d be allowed to participate in the demi trials which represented Nike¡¯s Siblings, giving her that extra boost.
[The next trial is the Trial of Strength.]
[Trial of Strength]
[Defeat the Champion of Strength. A weapon will be provided for you.]
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro blinked and found herself in front of an armoury of sorts.
There were weapons lining the walls of this armoury and she had to pick one for her to use against the Champion of strength. Naturally, there was only one choice that would fit this asion and that was the spear. After all, the Champion of Strength was someone with an unnatural amount of power behind each attack and the spear was perfect for using his own momentum against him.
Grabbing the spear, she twirled it in her hands for a short moment before stepping out of the armoury. Finding herself in the middle of a Colosseum of sorts, she could see a muscr figure walking towards her with tworge axes in his hands.
Entering a stance with her spear, Shiro didn¡¯t say anything since the final trial was simple. There was no fancy gimmick or anything to learn. She just needed to kill the Champion of Strength.
Chapter 682 Champion of Strength
Chapter 682 Champion of Strength
The Champion of Strength was arge muscr man who wore nothing else other than a pair of gloves, some pants and a metal helmet which covered his face.
Without saying anything, he stomped towards Shiro and threw one of his axes without warning.
Widening her eyes, Shiro quickly ducked to the side.
*BANG!!!!
ncing back at the axe that was firmly embedded into the wall, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a chill down her spine. The speed of that axe wasparable to one of the Minotaur¡¯s attacks which meant that his strength was much higher than what she had expected.
However, that¡¯s a given when one remembers that the Divinity of Nike is usually taken as the second divinity. Meaning the person had already been reinforced by one divinity. Their physical prowess would be much higher than Shiro so the Champion must provide them a suitable amount of challenge.
¡¯This might be harder than what I had expected.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while raising her spear to parry the iing attack.
Shifting her body so that the axe would slide off her spear, she redirected the attack to the ground.
*BANG!!!
Without even reacting to his failed strike, the Champion turned his body and mmed his fist directly against her spear.
Feeling the force of his punch through her spear, Shiro could see the metal bending slightly from the punch as her body wasunched away due to the force.
"KUAH!!" Crashing against the ground, Shiro coughed a few times before standing up.
Wiping the blood that was flowing down the corner of her lips, she narrowed her eyes towards the Champion. When he punched her, it felt like it was instantaneous as he didn¡¯t hesitate to punch her.
Watching him walk up to the axe that was embedded into the wall, Shiro wondered how she could counter his attacks with the exception of forcing him to run into her spear.
With his reaction speed and power being superior to her, she had to try her best to find a gap.
¡¯Since that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll try to overwhelm him first.¡¯ She thought to herself and dashed towards him.
Seeing this, the Champion swung his axe towards her as it made a whistling sound from the speed of which it cut through the air.
Stabbing her spear into the ground, she vaulted over his axe and shed her spear against his shoulder.
Widening her eyes at the small cut, Shiro clicked her tongue and used his forearms as a tform and jumped away, making some distance between the two of them.
¡¯His body is quite tough thanks to his muscles. If I want to harm him, I need to hit the areas that aren¡¯t protected such as the gaps between his muscles.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with narrowed eyes.
ncing at his body, her next target was going to be the area between his forearms and biceps. There were no muscles protecting that area and it might even disable one of his arms depending on how good his pain tolerance is. Of course, if she gets a good shot in, she might even be able to pierce through and destroy his elbows which would truly give her an upper hand in the fight.
Stomping down, she dashed towards him and twisted her body.
mming the tip of her spear against the axe, she tried her best to knock it to the side so that it¡¯d open his arm for her attack but the Champion¡¯s grip on the axe was firm and it refused to move out of the way.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro pushed the pommel against the ground and used it as a pole to help her kick against his chest.
However, his body was unmoveable like a sturdy wall.
No matter how hard she tried to kick, he didn¡¯t react at all.
Pushing herself away from him, she quickly raised the spear above her and pushed his axe to the side before it could cut her in half.
Using the pommel of her spear, she mmed it against the Champions crotch.
"!!!"
Finally getting a reaction out of him, Shiro watched as he started to stumble back from the pain.
¡¯Well would you look at that? A man¡¯s biggest weakness.¡¯ Shiro raised her eyebrow and charged at the Champion without giving him a moment to recuperate.
Piercing his arm, she made sure she stabbed it as deep as she could before kicking towards the Champions crotch area once more.
Unfortunately, her kick was grabbed by hisrge hands.
"Ah... erm... can we talk about this?" Shiro forced a smile since she couldn¡¯t retract her leg.
*Krr!
Feeling her bones creaking on the edge of breaking, Shiro knew that she needed to force him to let go before her leg is disabled. Once that happened, she¡¯d be a sitting duck, literally.
Using her spare leg to push up his helmet, she stabbed towards his throat with her spear.
Before her spear could stab his throat, he let go of her leg which caused her body to fall down and the spear hit his chest instead.
Seeing that only a little bit of the tip pierced his muscles, Shiro¡¯s smile couldn¡¯t help but twitch.
"Muscle bro, why are your muscles so hard? You can literally not give a sh*t about weapons you know?" Shiro asked while making some distance between them.
Hearing no reply, she only shrugged and charged towards him before he could grab the axe that he had dropped in order to catch her foot before she could kick him in the crotch.
shing towards his wrist, she used the pommel to block the other axe he had in his spare hand.
But just before she could attack, she felt danger in front of her and flipped her body up into a handstand using the spear as a bar.
Seeing the Champion¡¯s foot where her body was a moment ago, Shiro knew that her ribs would have shattered if he kicked her at full force.
Pushing her body off the spear, she stood on his shoulders and sat down as if he was giving her a shoulder ride.
Crossing her legs, she tried her best to strangle him while pulling against his helmet.
Seeing the Champion drop his axe and reach towards her, she uncrossed her legs and pushed against each of his arms, stopping him from reaching out to grab her.
The harder he tried, the easier it was for Shiro to take off his helmet. Once that happened, she¡¯d be able to target his eyes and mouth as a weak point.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro had to try her best so that she could keep a good grip on the helmet.
"Why don¡¯t you help me take off your helmet? Not many people get to enjoy the feeling of my legs you know?" Shiro taunted.
*ck!
Hearing the sound of something unclipping, the helmet suddenly came off as her body was pushed off his shoulders.
Throwing the helmet to the side, Shiro dived around his legs and grabbed her spear.
Stepping away from the Champion, she twisted her body andunched the spear toward his head.
However, when she saw his face, she couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrows.
One of his eyes were sewn such with some strings while the other was bloodshot and his mouth waspletely destroyed.
Now that she had a better look at his throat, she could seerge scars wrapping around his entire neck.
While she was curious about the circ.u.mstances, her main focus was to kill him and finish this trial so that she could obtain her Divinity.
With her spear flying towards his head, the Champion quickly grabbed it and saw Shiro dashing towards him.
Throwing it back at her, Shiro ducked to the side and jumped towards his head.
Using her index and middle finger, she gouged towards his only working eye and ripped out his eyeball in one swift movement.
Hearing a muffled cry of pain, Shiro kicked off his head and jumped back towards her spear.
Without his sense of sight, the Champion wasn¡¯t able to locate her and the best he could do was to thrash around him in hopes of hitting her.
But now that he was just throwing punches around at random, Shiro could easily bypass his defences.
With a single thrust of her spear, she pierced through his head starting at the empty eye socket where she ripped out his eye.
Chapter 683 Trial of Rivalry, Strength and Force
Chapter 683 Trial of Rivalry, Strength and Force
As her spear pierced the Champion¡¯s head, Shiro felt her fatigue disappear along with her injuries.
Finding herself back in front of the stone tablet for a third time, she nced up at the words.
[You havepleted the Trial of Strength.]
[As you havepleted the three trials, Victory, Flight and Strength, you have obtained the qualifications of the full Divinity of Nike. Would you like to continue with the sub trials in order to receive further benefits?]
"Yes." Without hesitating, Shiro agreed since she was only allowed one divinity outside of the five primordial divinities. If she was to give up on further rewards for this divinity, she would have punched herself in the face.
[Which sub trial would you like to attempt first?]
[Zelos ¨C Trial of Rivalry]
[Kratos ¨C Trial of Strength]
[Bia ¨C Trial of Force]
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro wondered which one she should try first.
"Trial of Rivalry."
Since she was going to do all of them, she might as well start from the first one.
[Due to the difficulty of the Trial of Rivalry, you only need tond 5 attacks.]
"Hm? Five attacks?"
Before she realised it, she found herself in the middle of the sky.
Pausing for a moment, she nced down and saw that she was currently falling through the air.
Standing up straight, she crossed her arms and wondered why she was even falling.
"I thought the trial was rivalry. Why the f*ck am I falling?" Shiro muttered while ncing around her.
Suddenly, she felt danger behind her and quickly ducked to the side. However the arrow seemed to curve around and try to pierce through her head.
Widening her eyes, she summoned her bow and blocked it before it could pierce her.
Blocking the arrow, Shiro nced back and saw a shadow version of herself. It was essentially a silhouette but had a pair of glowing red eyes instead.
"You want me to fight myself while falling?" Shiro raised her eyebrow and fired an arrow back towards her shadow.
*ng!
Seeing her shadow block her arrow the same way she did, Shiro finally realised why it said [Due to the difficulty of the Trial of Rivalry, you only need tond 5 attacks.]
Since she only needed tond five attacks, this was going to be easy.
All she needed to do was trade blow for blow so that she could meet the requirements.
Adjusting her body so that she could be closer to her clone, Shiro twisted her body and mmed her bow towards the shadow.
Trading a few blows with her shadow, Shiro realised that it was going to be hard to even get a hit in since her shadow was on full defence mode. This was someone that not even a Minotaur could hit.
¡¯Are you kidding me?¡¯ Shiro thought with a twitching smile.
However, just as she was about tond another hit, she felt her descent slow down.
Quickly making some distance between her shadow, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
ncing down, she saw that there was a mirror like surface beneath her and she was currently in a fighting arena in the middle of the sky.
"Honestly, if this was a dinner date, it¡¯ll be quite romantic I suppose. Of course, without anyone beneath me since I wouldn¡¯t want them to look up my skirt." Shiro shrugged before stomping down and dashing towards her shadow.
Twisting her body, she roundhouse kicked towards her shadow.
Seeing her shadow dodge the kick, she notched an arrow and forced her to block.
*BANG!
Launching a punch just after the arrow, Shiro frowned when her shadow managed to duck out of the way just in time.
If this was in the past, Shiro would have backed off a little but after her parents¡¯ training, she knows that it was the wrong move. She needs to keep up the pressure and overwhelm herself. Force her shadow to make mistakes and take advantage of that opening.
Launchings attacks after attacks, Shiro was akin to a raging hurricane which didn¡¯t allow you to counterattack at all.
Despite the shadow being a clone of her, she wasn¡¯t able to find a chance to retaliate and was constantly forced to go on the defensive.
Grabbing her shadows, hands, Shiro¡¯s lips curved into a grin as this was the opening that she needed.
Jumping up, she kicked her shadow in the chest with both her legs and didn¡¯t let go just yet.
Pulling her shadow towards her, Shiro headbutted her in the nose and kneed her in the stomach.
Adjusting her grip on her shadow¡¯s hands, she pushed up and tried to break her arms.
Unfortunately, her strength wascking a little however that was fine.
Jumping up, she wrapped her legs around her shadows neck and mmed her against the ground.
Stomping against the spine, she could feel a crack and tried her best to break itpletely.
*CRACK!!
Breaking her shadow¡¯s body in half, Shiro watched as it flickered out of existence.
¡¯One mistake and the battle is over. If I was the one who made the mistake, I might be the one on the ground instead.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she had forced her shadow to make a mistake and capitalised on that moment.
If it wasn¡¯t for her parents¡¯ training, she would have probably been stuck in this stage for a lot longer since her fighting style was more adaptive than aggressive before.
Cracking her neck, she watched as her body was teleported back to the stone tablet.
[Trial of Rivalrypleted.]
[Do you wish to continue?]
"Yes, just give me them both at the same time so that I can get it over and done with." Shiro shrugged.
[Merging Trial of Strength and Trial of Force.]
"Ah wait a minute I was kidding." Shiro paused.
However, the tablet ignored her and she was teleported to a new area.
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro nced around her and saw the stone tablet next to her.
[Trial of Strength and Force.]
[Keep your sanity while under the effects of rage and defeat 1000 trained warriors.]
[If you lose your sanity for even a moment, the warriors will get a 20% boost in strength.]
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro felt a sudden burst of killing intent in her mind but it wasn¡¯t enough to make her lose her mind.
She was about to say ¡¯Is that all¡¯ but remembered that the trial might make things harder so she decided to shut her mouth instead.
Cracking her neck, she wondered if she was going to be given a weapon but soldiers started to appear frown all around her.
"Well I guess this¡¯ll do then." Shiro cracked her knuckles, she dashed towards the crowd of soldiers.
###
While Shiro waspleting her trial, Nyx was currently hosting a small tea party of sorts with a cloaked man with long ck hair. His hood covered his face but one could tell that he seemed rather young thanks to the exposed hands.
"My my, Shiro is rather aggressive wouldn¡¯t you say Tartarus?" Nyx smiled.
"Mn. Why did you send her to the Forgotten Realm?" Tartarus asked slowly.
"I didn¡¯t send her there. It was part of mother¡¯s instructions. Plus, wouldn¡¯t it be fun to see if she couldplete one of the Towers belonging to the five of us with just one ¡¯divinity¡¯?" Nyx grinned.
"The chances are low or rather, they¡¯re almost impossible." Tartarus shook his head.
"That girl is a miracle worker." Nyx chuckled while pouring some tea for the both of them.
"So why have youe to talk to dear old me?" Nyx asked with a smile.
"Because the others aren¡¯t too pleased with the fact that she¡¯s gone to the forgotten realm. Once shees out, there¡¯s a good chance that she¡¯ll obtain something that could put her on the same footing as us despite only being a tier 5 entity." Tartarus frowned.
"Why do you think her trial is so difficult then? If it was easy to stand on the same footing as the primordial gods then everyone would be a primordial." Nyx chuckled.
"Even so-"
"Tartarus, there is no even so when ites to mother¡¯s decisions. You understand this. Why do you think mother has already given something to Shiro?" Nyx cut Tartarus off as she narrowed her eyes.
The stare off continued for a few moments as Tartarus sighed.
"Is she really that desperate?"
"Of course. This is the final loop of this universe. Each time the universe resets, it¡¯s like a child has just died in front of mother. Obviously she¡¯d want to avoid this. Since this is the final reset, everything will be rendered to null and the cycle will continue. While we may not remember, mother will. How many cycles do you think she had observed?" Nyx leaned back.
"Someone like Shiro is an anomaly. While mother may have seen Shiro in previous cycles, there probably hasn¡¯t been a cycle where Shiro had been this powerful. It¡¯s a spark of hope for mother so I hope you don¡¯t extinguish it." Nyx smiled.
Tartarus didn¡¯t say anything and disappeared from his spot.
Looking at the tea cup that was still full, Nyx sighed.
"Rather rude."
Chapter 684 Divinity of Nike
Chapter 684 Divinity of Nike
"Fu...." Breathing out softly, Shiro nced around her and looked at the pile of corpses belonging to the soldiers. Most of them had already disappeared and these were the most recent ones that she had killed.
Since she was able to control herself even with the killing intent trying to make her crazy, the soldiers were rather easy to take care of. If anything, trying to kill 1000 of them was the main issue since her stamina had its limits but she managed to hold out in the end.
However, she did suffer a few minor injuries during the fight but they weren¡¯t enough to hinder her movements too much.
Standing up, she could see a portal open up in front of her as there were two statues of Nike decorating the side of the portal.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro walked through the portal.
Looking around her, she saw that she was in the centre of a marble temple. In front of her was a statue of Nike.
ncing up at the statue, Shiro had the urge to rest her hand against the base of the statue and remembered that after youplete the trials, you had to touch the statue to receive the divinity.
Walking up to the statue, she pressed her hands against the base.
Suddenly feeling a burning sensation on her back, Shiro furrowed her brows from the sensation but understood that it was the divinity merging with her body.
After a short moment, she could feel a strange energy flood her body which was a little different from the Celestial Energy she hade into contact with before. If mana was the lowest form, Celestial Energy would be the next stage up and this new energy she felt was akin to the third stage.
Taking a deep breath, she nced at her system and noticed a new interface that was specifically made for this trial.
[Divinities]
[Divinity of Nike]
[Slot 2]
[Slot 3]
[Slot 4]
[Slot 5]
[Slot 6]
Pressing the Divinity of Nike, Shiro checked the benefits.
[Divinity of Nike]
Increased physical parameter, Flight, Increased speed.
Boon of Rivalry ¨C Increase physical parameters if you see the opponent as someone you MUST ovee.
Boon of Strength ¨C Increased physical parameters.
Boon of Force ¨C The longer you fight, the angrier you be. The maximum is a 5% boost to physical parameters.
Smiling at the results, she was happy with this divinity.
"Now then if I remember correctly, to get out I need to go through a portal that opens up behind the statue." She muttered and started to walk around the statue.
Looking at the portal, Shiro smiled and stepped through without hesitation.
Now that she had her first and only divinity aside from the five primordial ones, she could finally make some progress in earning money as a mercenary and buying some decent weapons with it. After all, a bow is good but she needed some swords and daggers since closebat was rather difficult with a bow.
If it was a gun, then she could easily do close quartersbat with a ranged weapon. But that was hoping for a bit too much.
Shielding her eyes for a moment, she found herself back in the cave in front of the gate where she had entered the trial.
In front of her was the worried mother who was excited to see the gate shine but was disappointed when she saw Shiro.
Ignoring the mother, Shiro walked out of the cave and circted this new energy she could feel in her body.
Unfurling a set of white wings, a golden Laurel crown could be seen on her head as she jumped off the side and soared up into the air.
"Damn it feels good to do this again." Shiro muttered with a grin.
After being forced to travel by foot for most of the year, the feeling of free flight was rather rxing since this meant that she finally had some power in this world where the strong eat the weak. She finally had partial control over her own fate.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to fly as high as she could and looked upon the entire world.
Looking at the five tall towers in the distance, she narrowed her eyes for a moment before chuckling.
"Well, it¡¯s a little soon to challenge those trials. I¡¯ll need some decent weapons first. Just Artemis¡¯ Bow isn¡¯t enough for me to aplish what I¡¯ve set out to do." She muttered to herself before flying towards the city of Vox.
Landing roughly 30 minutes away from the city, she furled her wings and walked the rest of the distance.
With her boosted physical parameters, she was able to cover the distance in no time at all which was a great feeling for Shiro.
All that¡¯s left was to find some jobs that she could take for money and buy some decent weapons.
ncing down at her current outfit, Shiro wondered if she needed to get some armour as well.
¡¯Defence isn¡¯t exactly my best trait but having some armour to cover that is definitely helpful. The trials are only going to get harder and the hits I take will increase.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while ncing at the notice board.
Checking where the cksmith¡¯s was, she started to make her way over there. Since this was a rather big city, the cksmiths should have some decent equipment. Hopefully.
Upon arriving at the cksmiths, Shiro could see hundreds of furnaces burning brightly within the building as the workers had their muscles tanned by the mes. Looking at the crowd, muscle bros that had biceps that looked like they were made from bronze, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brows a little.
She wasn¡¯t the biggest fan of muscles. At least not a macho body of muscles. Something more along the lines of lean and muscr was her type. An example of men with this body would be Chen Yu, Nan Tian and maybe Helion but he was tipping a little into the macho side of things.
Shaking her head with a soft smile, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder how her other party members were doing as she had been in this world for a few months now.
Walking inside the cksmiths, she started to walk around, trying to find someone that was either making some good weapons or good armour.
"Missy, do you need some help?" One of the cksmiths called out curiously after seeing Shiro walk around like a lost puppy.
Her white hair would reflect the light from the fire quite a bit so it was rather difficult for someone to not see her in this situation.
"Hm yes actually. Do you happen to know anyone that could make me a powerful set of weapons and armour?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Do you realise that by asking that, you have essentially insulted me already?" The cksmith forced a smile since if he did reply to her question, he was essentially saying his weapons and armour were bad.
"Ah pardon my rudeness then. I¡¯m not familiar with your customs and I didn¡¯t know how I would be able to find the best cksmith in the city." Shiro apologised with a soft smile.
"Bah forget it. I can¡¯t exactly say who¡¯s the best as a few of the folks here have Hephaestus¡¯ Divinity of Smithing. It alles down to what they¡¯re proficient with making and what you¡¯re looking for. If you want heavy armour, Elias is the one you want. He¡¯s the long haired idiot that tied it into a ponytail over there. I mean which idiot would keep a long hair in a smithy? Anyways, if you want light armour, you¡¯ll need to talk to Faidon. He¡¯s the tall skinny one to our left, it¡¯s hard to miss him since he¡¯s taller than everyone else here." The cksmith replied while pointing towards the cksmiths that are proficient with making armour.
"As for the weapons, lightweight ded weapons like swords, daggers and so on, you should look for the woman called Maria. She¡¯s not here today so you shoulde back tomorrow early in the morning. There are very few women here so it¡¯s easy to find her. She also has blond hair so keep that in mind. For heavy weapons like the great sword, axe, halberd and so on, Yiannis should be able to help you. Short dude, crap tonne of muscles over there." He said while pointing at a spot not too far from them.
ncing towards where he was pointing, Shiro could see a short person who was just a little shorter than she was however his muscles were gleaming under the light from the fire.
¡¯He looks like a ball of muscles rather than a person.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as her smile started to twitch ever so slightly.
"Thank you very much." She turned back to the cksmith and thanked him for his information.
"You¡¯re wee." He nodded and started to focus his attention back to the weapon that he was making.
Since Maria wasn¡¯t here at the cksmiths today, she was going to talk to the one that can give her some light armour first.
Chapter 685 Mercenary Hall
Chapter 685 Mercenary Hall
Walking towards the ¡¯tall skinny one¡¯ called Faidon, she could see that he was currently forging a set of half te that only covered the upper half of the torso along with some arm guards.
"Excuse me?" Shiro called out as Faidon nced over at her.
"Mn? What is it?" He asked with a slightly monotone voice.
Now that she was up close to the cksmith, she could tell that he was far above 6ft and probably was almost at 7ft. His hair was short on the side but his bangs were long. If he were to have them swept in front of him, he would cover more than half of his face with ease.
He had ck hair along with a set of ck eyes that seemed a little dull but Shiro could see some liveliness behind hat dullness.
"I wish tomission a set of light armour for myself. Something that will cover my torso, my shoulders, my forearms, my waist and potentially the shin area but that¡¯s secondary." Shiro smiled.
"Mn... ok. I¡¯ve got a fewmissions already so your order will be a littlete. The cost can be lowered if you bring me the materials. If not, you¡¯ll need to pay the full price." Faidon nodded his head while bringing his hammer onto the piece that he was currently working on.
"OK, what materials do you need?" Shiro asked.
"Depends on what you want. If you want a high grade armour, the materials needed will be something that people with two divinities struggle to obtain. How many divinities do you have?" Fadonis asked.
"Just one."
"In that case you should just pay the full price. I¡¯m not keen on selling armour that isn¡¯t the best. It just increases your chances of dying if I gave you half assed armour." Fadonis suggested.
"How much is the full price then?" Shiro asked. She didn¡¯t have much money on her right now so she¡¯ll need to do some jobs to earn some cash.
"Hmm... around 200 gold?" Fadonis tilted his head for a moment before replying.
"200 gold? Ok, when will you need this money?" Shiro asked.
"Around 2 months? I got a bunch ofmissions so it¡¯ll take me around 2 months to go through them all before doing yours. Seems like you don¡¯t have enough money for this armour."
"I don¡¯t. I¡¯ll go earn enough within these two months though." Shiro chuckled.
"Very well. I¡¯ll give you a token for this order. If you can bring this token back to me in two months time along with the necessary gold, I¡¯ll start yourmission." Fadonis nodded his head.
Setting the armour in his hands aside for now, he rummaged around his boxes before pulling out a metal token. Bringing up his hammer, he mmed it down against one side of the token and words started to appear.
Flicking the token to Shiro, he focused back on his current armour.
ncing down at the token, Shiro read the contents.
[Order for high grade light armour. Female. Price ¨C 200 gold. Commission number ¨C 839]
Raising her eyebrow, she stored the token away and left the cksmiths.
The next thing she needed to do was actually earn the money and what better ce to do it than the Mercenary Hall.
The Mercenary Hall acted simr to how the Adventurer¡¯s Guild acted back on earth. There was a huge bounty board and you can pick up any bounties that you wish to do. Once you epted a bounty, they¡¯d register you down on a giant notebook.
After they noted you down, you would be eligible for the rewards so long as you bring back a proof of extermination such as a head.
There was a problem of transporting the body due to the materials that some of the monsters had but most of them were near vigers so they could use the postal service to send a message and the Mercenary Hall will send some people to collect the corpse for you and note it down.
Once thepletion of the bounty isplete, they will reward you with the gold writing down on the sheet of paper.
Checking the map of the town that was pinned on wooden billboards around the town, Shiro soon found where the Mercenary Hall was and started to make her way towards the building.
When she was roughly halfway to the Mercenary Hall, Shiro felt two gazes lock onto her from a distance which caused her to frown but made no action to show that she¡¯d noticed them just yet. She didn¡¯t know their purpose right now after all.
Arriving at the Mercenary Hall, she saw that the set ofrge wooden doors were already swung wide open. Entering the facility, she could see several bounty boards to the left and a bar to the right where quite a few Mercenaries would sit down and rx with one another.
In front of her was the registration counter and ady could be seen talking to people while writing things down into the giant notebook.
Next to the counter were stairs on either side which led to a second floor which had essentially the same as the first, only the bounties were now harder than the ones on the first floor.
With a total of four floors, she could guess that the fourth floor was filled with the hardest of bounties that only people with three divinities couldplete.
Ignoring the bar, she made her way to the bounty boards.
The bounty board was split into three sections. One for criminals, one for misceneous and one for monsters.
The misceneous bounty board was filled with bounties that required you to act as a guard or someone¡¯s escort through a forest wherebat might happen but the chances are low. For criminals, it was obviously an assassination contract so there wasn¡¯t much to think about.
However, she wasn¡¯t interested in the criminals bounty since hunting down humans was quite annoying. They might have guards protecting them or they might be stronger than what the bounty suggests which justplicates things further.
The best way to earn money would be through the monster hunting bounties.
Walking up to the monster section, she saw some low tier bounties that mainly involved weak monsters on the first floor such as an overpoption of Terca in certain areas.
Shaking her head, she walked up to the second floor.
Thinking to herself while walking up, she wondered if she should look for the bounty that involved the Minotaur in the section of life. Since she was able to injure its body quite a bit during thest fight, she might be able to y it for good this time. Plus, she wanted her revenge.
The second floor didn¡¯t have any mention of the Minotaur but it did have some bounties that involved flying beasts such as Harpies along with some underground monsters which have been consuming the cattle.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to go up to the third floor where it mostly had bounties fit for people with two divinities.
The moment she stepped to the third floor, she could see that there were lots of bounties. More so than both the first and second floorbined with most of them being monsters rted.
Checking the monster section, she immediately found a bounty for a mysterious monster in the Section of Life that was inhabiting an old safe spot but hundreds of travellers have gone missing. They had sent a few people before but they didn¡¯te back so the difficulty was increased to people with two divinities.
As for the bounty rewards, it was increased to 50 gold after repeated failures.
Walking up to the registration counter, Shiro waited in the queue patiently.
After waiting for a while, it was her turn.
"How may I help you?" Thedy at the counter smiled after seeing an unfamiliar face.
"I want to take the bounty about the mysterious creature living in the forest near the border between the Section of Life and the Section of Sky." Shiro replied as thedy nodded her head.
"Understood. May I have your name please?"
"Shiro."
"Alright miss Shiro, I have registered you down. There has been an update about this bounty and that if you can bring back some information, even if you don¡¯t kill it, you can get some rewards." Thedy reminded with a smile.
"Ok I¡¯ll keep it in mind." Shiro nodded her head and left the Mercenary Hall.
Now that she had registered herself down for the bounty, she wanted to rest up for the rest of this day so that she couldmission for the weapons tomorrow and set off for the Minotaur.
However, since her funds were a bit limited right now, she¡¯ll need to sleep in the forest again which she wasn¡¯t too bothered about.
But before she could leave the city, she saw twodies approach her with a smile.
"Mind if we talk for a bit?" Thedy smiled as Shiro recognised their gaze to be the same one she had sensed earlier.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro nodded her head after a short pause since it would be good to find out what they want.
Chapter 686 Bounty
Chapter 686 Bounty
"So where do you want to talk? Or would you rather we talk here in public?" Shiro asked as she kept her guard around these two women. The first was a young woman that was around 5 ft 8 in height and had a set of brown piercing eyes and brown hair. In addition to this, she wore a white one piece dress with silver armour around her torso and arms.
The second woman was a little shorter, roughly 5ft 2 in height and had a cloak to cover most of her body, The only things that Shiro could pick out was the fact that she had ck hair, a pair of ck eyes along with a neutral expression which seemed to be fixated in the same spot. Almost like an emotionless robot.
"Well it doesn¡¯t matter too much to me but i think it might be better for us to talk about this in private. It¡¯s something that might interest you if you¡¯re looking for money and don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not about selling your body." The first woman chuckled.
"Oh? I do hope that it¡¯s legal." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Legal is a bit of a stretch but it¡¯s not too far off I suppose. If I had to say, it¡¯s half legal." The woman smirked.
"Rather ambiguous no? Can you at least tell me the nature of what you want to talk to me about?" Shiro asked.
"Of course. It¡¯s Assassination." The woman grinned.
###
Sitting around a table in one of the inn rooms that the two had asked for, the shorter woman ced down a giant book on the table which caused Shiro to be rather curious but stayed silent about it for now,
"Right then, so you wanted to know about why we wanted to speak to you right?" The woman asked while crossing her legs.
"Yes I did."
"Ok, but before that, let us introduce ourselves. My name is Kiona and she is Melody. We¡¯re part of an underground organization which is specialised in taking assassination orders to kill nobles and those who havemitted heinous deeds. Due to the nature of the organization, some of our members have been ced on the bounty board for criminals, you may have seen some of them. We pay our members whoplete assassinations with the wealth we have .u.mted from killing noblemen/noblewomen. There is no obligation to the organization other than signing a contract to keep the location and information regarding the organization a secret. Which means that you cannot tell anyone about us in any way shape or form. And that¡¯s pretty much all you need to know about us. We kill people for blood money. Why don¡¯t you introduce yourself to us? Start with a name." Kiona grinned.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro frowned slightly.
"The name is Shiro, but before I say more, I want to ask why me?" She asked with scepticism,
"Name Shiro, age unknown, background unknown. First contact was in a vige when she was discovered to have killed two people and buried them in the forest. After further investigation, it was found out that they were repeat offenders of robbery and r*pe." Melody cut in as she opened her book, the pages started to flip before stopping on an image of Shiro who was walking away after burying the people that tried to sneak into her room.
Frowning slightly, Shiro red at the two with caution.
"Don¡¯t be so on guard. Actually, forget that I said that since I¡¯m also on guard to be fair. But yeah, the only thing we need from you is to sign a contract in order to stay silent about the organisation. We want you because you have talent and we need more people like you. If you can sign the contract, we can start showing you the good bounties for more money." Kiona grinned.
Staying silent for a moment, Shiro shook her head.
If she wanted money, the Mercenary Hall was good enough.
"It¡¯s fine, I¡¯m not exactly keen on signing any contracts." Shiro shook her head and stood up.
However, before she could stand up properly, she felt the gravity around her increase and she was forced to sit back down.
"What¡¯s the meaning of this?" Shiro red at the woman.
"It¡¯s a real shame honestly. We choose who we tell our existence too but there are times where we need to clean up loose ends like you. Most would ept the contract since it¡¯s loose but for people like you, it¡¯s different. I can already tell that if you said no, you¡¯ll most likely stick with that answer so we need to be a bit more forceful. We¡¯ll have to see if you can leave this ce on your own or if we can force you into a ve contract first. Melody, prepare the contract paper." Kiona snapped her finger and stood up.
Nodding her head, Melody nced towards Shiro with slight traces of pity in her eyes that soon disappeared and she returned to her normal emotionless expression.
Hearing what Kiona had said, Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯What a pain.¡¯ She sighed and red at Kiona.
Marking her as someone she must ovee for the sake of survival, Shiro could feel her Boon of Rivalry activating as a golden Laurel Crown appeared on her head.
*BANG!
Unfurling her wings, she mmed her hands down and shattered the chair apart. Dashing towards the door, she quickly escaped before the two could react.
"Tsk, I¡¯m surprised. Her first divinity is actually Nike¡¯s. Come, prepare the contract paper on the way!" Kionamanded as she dashed after Shiro.
Flying out of the inn, Shiro nced back and saw Kiona charging after her with a red aura.
Summoning her bow, she turned her body back and fired a few arrows.
Unfortunately for her, Kiona only blocked them with her hand and brushed them aside.
"You might have Nike¡¯s divinity as your first one but I have two divinities. The gap in power can¡¯t be ovee, just give up!" Kiona warned as she closed in on Shiro.
"I¡¯ve been bridging power gaps since before you were born, youngdy, don¡¯t underestimate me." Shiro retorted while firing more arrows. Ironically, she was being truthful as well due to her first life as Nytri.
Ignoring the strange response, Kiona cracked her knuckles.
Suddenly, her body started to erge as her muscles became well defined. A red aura surged around her body as illusionary tattoos spread along her body which could be seen due to the exposed skin.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯ Seeing this, Shiro widened her eyes since she knew who this divinity belonged to.
It was one of the candidates for her first trial. Heracles the demigod.
After a short moment, Kiona¡¯s illusionary tattoos solidified and her speed increased exponentially.
Ducking to the side, Shiro barely managed to avoid her grab and reached out for Kiona¡¯s arm.
Raising her foot, she kicked towards the elbow in an attempt to break it. However, before her foot coulde into contact, she saw Kiona smirking as she reached out for Shiro¡¯s foot.
Butpared to Shiro¡¯s divinity, Kiona¡¯s prowess in the sky was much worse and reaching out for Shiro was a big mistake.
Halting her attack, Shiro grabbed Kiona¡¯s hand and flipped behind her. With her grip on both of Kiona¡¯s arms, she kneed her on the back of the neck and sent their bodies plummeting towards the stone pavement of the city.
*BANG!!!
mming Kiona¡¯s head against the pavement, she watched as a spider web of cracks expanded out in an instant.
ncing down at Kiona¡¯s face, Shiro could see an enraged re while blood dripped down the side of her face.
Kicking off Kiona¡¯s back, Shiro jumped into the sky and started to fly into the sky, taking advantage of her ability of flight.
Gritting her teeth, Kiona stood back up and cracked her neck.
*Pui!
Spitting out some blood to the side, she watched as Melody caught up to her.
"Put a bounty out of her. Send the bounty to assassins with two divinities. Normal assassins with one divinity can¡¯t deal with her. Make sure to mention that she has Nike¡¯s divinity so they know what they¡¯re up against." Kiona instructed while ring towards where Shiro had left.
Nodding her head, Melody opened her book and started to record some notes down. Soon a bounty of Shiro was created and the image used was when Shiro unfurled her wings in front of them.
[Shiro]
Dead bounty ¨C 25 Gold.
Alive Bounty ¨C 40 Gold.
While Melody and Kiona set up the bounty, Shiro had already left the city andnded in the middle of a rock formation not too far away.
Furling her wings up, she nced back with a frown.
"Che, what the hell is up with people in the past. Were they always so forceful when things don¡¯t go as nned?" Shiro muttered with annoyance since that¡¯ll oveplicate things a little in the future. Not only did she need to make some money for a decent armour and weapon, she also needed to be careful of assassins.
Sighing softly, she decided to rest up for now. Tomorrow she¡¯ll go talk to thedy that makes swords and after would be days of monster hunting for money starting from the Minotaur.
Chapter 687 Information on the Minotaur
Chapter 687 Information on the Minotaur
Waking up with a slight frown, she nced at the sky and saw that it was still early morning.
However, despite the fact that it was early morning, she was currently surrounded on all sides by giant muscr mole rats of sorts.
Seeing their bby exposed skin for the first thing in the morning wasn¡¯t exactly pleasing for Shiro as she sighed and massaged her eyes.
Raising her hands, she swiped down on them but nothing happened.
"???" Blinking her eyes for a moment, she face palmed as she forgot she wasn¡¯t able to create swords anymore. With the feeling of energy in her body, she thought she could summon her des.
"Urg... see what you¡¯ve done? Being rudely awoken by you guys made me remember that I only have a bow right now. Che, if it was back on Earth des would have pierced through you right now." Shiro yawned and stood up.
Normally, the giant mole rats would have attacked her by now but they were frozen in ce by therge amount of killing intent she was releasing right now. If she still had her passive that could freeze the surroundings, the entire area would have be a frozen tundra by now.
Stretching her body, Shiro red at the closest mole rat and summoned her bow.
"Well I suppose you guys and act as my morning workout to wake me up." She said and pulled back on her bow.
###
Looking at the small mountain of five corpses, Shiro cracked her neck and sighed.
"Hmm... my body¡¯s been kinda stifftely. Though I suppose I haven¡¯t really taken the chance to rx my body I guess." Shiro muttered while doing a quick massage on her shoulders.
¡¯I wonder if the girls are good at massages. I¡¯m not really keen on letting someone else touch me regardless of gender.¡¯ She mused to herself before ncing at the corpses.
Looking at their bby skin, Shiro wasn¡¯t the most excited about using them as a source of food but breakfast was needed in the end.
But the unfortunate thing was that she no longer had a ded weapon she could use to cut up the monsters so her only choice was to sell the monster to get some money.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to see if there were any bounties rting to these mole rats. If there was, she could use it to make some quick cash.
Hiding the corpses so that no one could take them away from her, she made her way back to the city.
Making sure that she was as stealthy as possible since she didn¡¯t know if Kiona and Melody were still nearby, she walked through the city without attracting attention.
Arriving at the Mercenary Hall with ease, Shiro nced towards the bounty board and saw that for giant mole rats near the city was only around 10 silvers each due to their quick reproduction along with the dangers they hold against normal people. They¡¯re quite fearless and would even hunt near the gates of the city.
Walking up to the reception, Shiro waited until it was her turn.
"Hello how may I help?" The receptionist asked with a smile.
"I was attacked by 5 of those giant mole rats. I can¡¯t bring their body here but I know where it is." Shiro replied.
"I see, I¡¯ll call for a higher ranked staff to verify this with you and he can give you the silver after you verified this." The receptionist nodded.
Gesturing for Shiro to wait for a moment, she left the counter.
After a short while, she returned with a serious looking man with a small note pad.
"Please show this man where you left the corpses and he shall pay you ordingly." The receptionist smiled.
Nodding her head, Shiro started to leave while the man followed behind her.
Walking through the city, she could tell that this man didn¡¯t want to talk at all and was only focused on the serious task at hand which she was rather grateful for.
Arriving outside the city, she showed him where she had hidden the corpses.
"Hmm... Do you have a bow on you? There are signs of arrow wounds but I see no bow." The man asked while ncing back at her.
"I do." Shiro nodded and summoned Artemis¡¯ Bow.
Raising his eyebrow in slight surprise, the man started to check up on the remaining corpses before nodding his head.
"As promised, each mole rate is worth 10 silvers. There are 50 silvers in this pouch." He said while handing her a rather hefty pouch.
"Thank you." Shiro took the pouch and started to make her way back to the city.
Checking the money so that she wasn¡¯t ripped off, she nodded in satisfaction when she saw that there was indeed 50 silvers.
"I should get myself something to eat first then see if the cksmithdy is there. Its¡¯ still rather early after all." Shiro muttered while ncing up at the sky. The sun had barely risen as the morning glow slowly pushed away the night sky.
Looking around for a ce where she could get some breakfast this early on, she could only find inns that sold food this early.
Choosing the inn where she didn¡¯t break the door off, she paid for a cheap but filling meal.
After the meal, she saw that the cksmiths still needed a while to open up so she decided to take a quick stroll around the city.
With how early she was, not many of the stores were open but surprisingly, the library was open so she entered to find some information on Minotaurs.
"Ah wee back. Seems like you had some luck with your first Divinity, did you seed with Nike¡¯s trial? You did ask for her informationst time."
ncing toward the source of the voice, Shiro saw that it was the same woman as thest time she was here.
"Mn, thank you for your help." Shiro nodded with a smile.
"Haha, don¡¯t thank me it was the books that helped you." The woman chuckled.
"And you helped me find the books. Without your intervention, I might not have found them." Shiro shook her head.
"My my, I suppose it¡¯ll be rude of me not to ept your thanks then. So what books are you looking for today?" The woman asked with a soft smile.
"Minotaur¡¯s please."
"Understood. Please wait for a moment."
Summoning a butterfly likest time, the womanmanded it to lead Shiro to the required books about Minotaurs.
"Also, seen as though you¡¯re looking for information on Minotaurs, may I take it as you¡¯re going for the Minotaur bounty from the Mercenary Hall?"
"I am indeed." Shiro nodded her head.
"Then you might want to be careful as the Section of Life is not exactly kind against those that took a life within the section. Even though the area is quite far from the centre where the influence of Gaia¡¯s tower is highest, the forest will still attack you if you kill the Minotaur. If you can, try to bring it to the Section of Air I suppose." The woman reminded.
"Thank you, I¡¯ll keep that in mind." Shiro replied with a smile.
Following after the butterfly, Shiro arrived at the third floor and saw that there were quite a few books on Minotaurs. Since she only wanted some information on itsbat style and abilities, she skipped the ones that talked about his history.
While she did spend a few hours fighting it and it only showing brute force along with thebyrinth, she wanted to make sure that it didn¡¯t have any more skills up his sleeves.
Checking through his information, she was rather surprised to see that the Minotaur indeed had something up his sleeves. However, the funny thing was that due to her low power, she wasn¡¯t able to trigger his ability.
When the Minotaur takes a huge amount of damage in an instant or in close session, he¡¯ll be able to activate a rage like state where his physical parameters increase dramatically in order for him to hunt down the one who did this to him. The more the enemy hits him, the longer this statests. For her, she wasn¡¯t hitting him hard enough to activate this state so he was blocked from one of his strongest abilities.
"Hmm... so if I see him again, I¡¯ll need to control my damage output with the bow or else he¡¯ll activate this ability against me. Once that happens, it¡¯ll be quite a pain since I¡¯m already struggling with dodging his attacks now, nevermind when he rages.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself before putting the book back.
Saying thanks to the receptionist once more, she started to make her way towards the cksmiths.
There were signs of people setting up their stations but there were only one or two so Shiro decided to wait by the side. After around an hour or so, more and more cksmiths started to arrive.
Spotting a woman that matched the description of Maria who had blond hair, Shiro stood up and walked towards her.
Chapter 688 Maria
Chapter 688 Maria
Before Shiro could even say anything, she saw Maria grit her teeth in anger and grab a nearby sword.
"Trash!" She shouted out and snapped the sword in half.
Widening her eyes, Shiro paused for a moment and wondered if she should leave Maria alone.
Despite her delicate appearance, her sudden surge of rage gave her second thoughts about approaching casually.
However, Maria had already spotted Shiro and it was toote.
*Cough!
"I apologise about that unsightly disy. How can I help you?" Maria smiled sweetly as Shiro nodded her head after a short pause.
"Right er... It¡¯s fine. So someone told me that I should look for you if I wanted a good ded weapon." Shiro replied.
"Ohhhh. Okee, sit down!" Maria nodded her head enthusiastically as it reminded Shiro of what Silvia was like when she talked about good healing equipment.
Dragging Shiro over to a chair, Maria started to dig through her equipment.
"Well you¡¯vee to the right ce. Tell me what you want. Greatsword? Long sword? Dagger?" Maria asked while grabbing some examples from her pile of weapons.
"Ah a good sword and a dagger I guess. Sword for a main damage source and dagger for something I can throw. It doesn¡¯t need to be anything fancy." Shiro replied.
"That I can do. But I don¡¯t make multiple trash weapons like a disposable dagger. No no no, I¡¯ll make you a good one. How does one enchanted with a return enchantment sound? You¡¯ll activate your energy and summon the dagger next to you. As for the sword, I¡¯ll have to see how you fight. Here, give this sword a swing. Each type of sword has their own history and depending on how the user uses it, a new legacy could be born. An example would be a sword that could be used by a hero. If it¡¯s in the hands of someone ipatible, then it might as well be a barn tool. But if used properly, it could be a legend!" Maria grinned.
"Now give this sword a swing and I¡¯ll see what kind of history you could create." She said while handing Shiro a normal long sword.
Taking aback by her enthusiasm, Shiro blinked her eyes before nodding her head.
Holding the sword in her hands, she closed her eyes and envisioned the image of the Minotaur in front of her.
Remembering his strength and speed, she took a deep breath.
Entering an offensive stance, she ¡¯lunged¡¯ towards the Minotaur.
Flicking her hand, she shed against his chest while he swung back with the club.
Shifting her weight, she brought the sword to her side and parried the club and brushed it aside before cleaving up with her de.
Reopening her eyes, she nced to the side and saw Maria watching with an intense stare.
"Ok I think I got it. Your fighting style is highly reactive and you like to take the offensive. You avoid or rather, redirect blows when you can. A sword you need isn¡¯t something that can help you block but something that can help you parry. With your technique, a thin sword is good as well since you want attack power instead of defence power. Ooo.... But a thin sword might not be able to parry well for you. This is going to be a hard sword to make. HOWEVER! The potential story this sword can create in your hands is worth it." Maria said with a serious expression which slowly turned into a grin.
"So I¡¯ll make you one sword and one dagger. Come back in a month." She waved her hand and started to look through her materials.
"Huh? What about payment?" Shiro asked.
"Oh right. Payment. Usually, this would cost you around 800 to 1000 gold but I¡¯ll charge you 300 instead. It¡¯s not often I get to make a unique sword like the one that you want." Maria shrugged.
"So can you buy the sword and dagger?" She nced back.
"Ah yes I can." Shiro nodded.
"Thene back in a month."
Seeing this, Shiro was once again taken aback.
"Don¡¯t mind her, she¡¯s always like this. She¡¯s a little too enthusiastic about ded weapons." A voice sighed behind her.
ncing back, she saw that it was the same man who had introduced her to Faidon and Maria.
"Ah thank you very much by the way." Shiro smiled.
"You¡¯re wee. But it¡¯s not often that Maria gives a discount to people. She must have seen good potential from you." The manughed.
"Mn."
Talking to the man for a little longer, she bid farewell and started to make her way out of the city.
After she left the city gates, she unfurled her wings and started to fly towards the borders.
Now that she had the power of flight, she was able to use the air tunnels to increase her speed even more.
A journey that should take her quite a few days was reduced to only a day thanks to her power of flight.
Unfortunately, on her way here, she saw the town that was turned into a floating ind. The only thing living on the ind was monsters and human corpses could be seen everywhere. Some were half eaten while others were iplete. There were even some corpses beneath the ind as Shiro guessed that they must have either jumped off or got thrown off.
Giving the deceased people of the small town a silent prayer, Shiro continued her journey.
###
Landing near the border where the five air tunnels were, Shiro nced towards the forest that represented her entrance to the Section of Life.
"I do hope that the Minotaur didn¡¯t die just yet." Shiro muttered to herself since thest time she ran into the Minotaur, she had injured both his eyes and pierced his body with a bunch of arrows.
Shaking her head, she decided to rest up at the border for the night since she had been travelling for the entire day.
Killing some birds for a meal at night, she ate her fill and slept in one of the trees.
Waking up the next morning, Shiro flew above the forest and tried to remember where she had seen thebyrinthst time.
Tracking her position through the mental map that she had constructed, Shiro eventually found her previous spot.
Walking around for a bit, she was disappointed to see that thebyrinth was now gone.
"Hmm... well he should be nearby. It takes a while for a Minotaur to move hisbyrinth to a new location since it takes some preparation. Even for a monster like the Minotaur, he understood innately on how to perform the ritual for hisbyrinth.
Sighing softly, Shiro started to dash around the forest in an attempt to find where his newbyrinth was.
Searching the entire area to the best of her abilities, Shiro was sad to see that there was no sign of abyrinth at all.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro flew up into the air and looked at the entire forest from the sky.
Looking around for several signs of abyrinth, she was surprised that she didn¡¯t even need to try that hard as there was something shimmering in the distance. Understanding that was the sign of the Minotaur trying to construct abyrinth, Shiro flew towards it as fast as she could.
Upon arrival, Shiro was shocked at the scene.
The Minotaur was on the verge of death with both his eyes still blind while a huge beast like monstrosity stood over him with a snarl.
The beast was a strange amalgamation of different monsters and it was simr to a chimaera but not the same.
His head was somewhat deformed as it was simr to a ram¡¯s skull with skin tightly stretched along the surface. Four amber eyes swivelled around the sunken eye sockets as they all focused on the Minotaur who was struggling to escape. His jaws had bones jerking out of him as it pushed the tightly stretched skin to the point of almost breaking.
There was only a single set of teeth around his mouth but his tongue was a horrifying lump of flesh which looked like it could fork out towards multiple directions. If Shiro had to describe it quickly, she¡¯ll describe it as a disgusting merge of multiple tongues.
On top of his head were tworge horns which looped behind his ears before pointing forward. One of the horns was chipped on the tip while the other was still menacingly sharp.
He didn¡¯t have a lot of hair but there were some tuffs that could be seen around his body. Without the hair covering his body, the deformities were disyed in in sight.
It had ripped wings protruding from his back as the wings looked like a fusion of both bird and bat wings. With ripped holes littering the wing membrane, it was hard to imagine that he could continue to fly.
Looking at the back, one could see his spine in clear detail as it led to his tail. At this point, some of the skin had been ripped apart but no blood could be seen. The only thing that could be seen was the chilling white which represented the bone. With goat like hooves as legs and long sharp fleshless ws, the demonic monstrosity walked towards the Minotaur with ominous intent.
Chapter 689 Ancient Terror
Chapter 689 Ancient Terror
Searching through her memories, she couldn¡¯t remember who this monster was but she knew it was much worse than a Minotaur.
The problem was whether or not she should make herself known or not.
Just looking at the monster¡¯s body made her feel on edge never mind wanting to fight it.
Watching him wrap his skinless tail around the Minotaur¡¯s neck, the monster lifted the Minotaur up and started to tear away at his face.
Hearing the pain filled cries of the Minotaur, Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯Normally, I¡¯d want to fight that thing but not this time.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and hopped down from the sky.
Hiding near the trees, she kept her eyes on the situation so that she could grab the Minotaur¡¯s head or something as a proof ofpletion. After all, he was gold that she needed to pay for her sword.
Hiding in the shadow of a tree, she tried to suppress her presence as much as she could.
Watching the monster brutalise the Minotaur, Shiro didn¡¯t realise but her back was already covered with cold sweat.
Suddenly, the monster nced up and cracked open his mouth.
"Did you enjoy watching that?" It growled with a deep voice.
All four of his eyes snapped towards Shiro¡¯s location as she felt her rms ring out immediately.
"Kak kak kak. It seems like you had some business with this moron. You can have him. His blindness damaged my horn after all." The monsterughed as his voice crackled with each word.
Dropping the corpse, the monster walked towards Shiro slowly.
Strangely enough, it felt like there was something binding Shiro¡¯s body as she was not able to move at all no matter how hard she tried.
"You seem to not know who I am. Seems like times have changed. How long did I sleep before this bull woke me up." He muttered while making eye contact with Shiro.
"Are you curious about my name? What I am? What I¡¯m talking about? Your eyes seek answers ." He licked his lipless mouth with his tongue.
Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Shiro nodded her head.
"They called me the ancient terror among many names. But none know my true name. I¡¯m an abomination born from the pool of corruption. I am here to destroy the forgotten realm and escape this prison of gods."
Suddenly, he reached out towards Shiro as she was able to break out of the lock and make some distance between them.
"Oh?" The monster muttered as his body wavered slightly.
"It seems I¡¯m still tired from waking up right now. You¡¯re lucky girl." He grinned and started to meld into the shadows.
After a short moment, his body had disappeared and all that remained was the corpses of the Minotaur.
Without the monster¡¯s presence, Shiro was finally able to breathe properly as she had suppressed her breathing to not make a single noise.
¡¯What the hell.¡¯ Shiro panted slightly.
¡¯Ancient Terror... Abomination born from the pool of corruption...¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Taking a deep breath, she had a short break so that she could calm herself.
Once she was calm, she had a frown on her face.
The forgotten realm had more secrets than what she had expected. The null area, dread sapling and now the ancient terror.
Shaking her head, she looked towards the Minotaur with aplicated expression.
Due to what she had done to the Minotaur, it had idently woken up something it shouldn¡¯t have. In one way, one can think of it as her fault since she was the catalyst to this.
Sighing softly, she walked over to the Minotaur¡¯s corpse and started to separate its head from the rest of the body.
It would serve as a proof since she couldn¡¯t take the rest of the body.
Normally, she would have been tempted to cook the rest of the body but right now, she wanted nothing more than to leave this ce.
Tying the head with some makeshift ropes, Shiro unfurled her wings and immediately left the spot.
Soon after she felt, dark particles appear and merge into the monstrosity that Shiro had seen.
"How wasteful." He nced at the headless corpse of the Minotaur and reached out with his hand.
Suddenly, teeth erupted out of the ground and started to consume the corpse.
Disgusting crunching sounds rang out as the body soon disappeared.
ncing towards where Shiro had left, he chuckled to himself before leaving for good.
###
Flying out of the Section of Life as fast as she could, Shiro nced back and sighed.
It was only when she left the forest did she feel safe. During her time in the forest, it was like there was a constant set of eyes locked onto her back, tracking her wherever she went. Always watching. It reminded her of her time in thebs where every camera would observe her every action.
Monitoring her health, how she moved and her habits.
It was highly ufortable and the stare of that monstrosity felt the same.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro figured that she should go to the library and find out as much information as she could about this guy.
Making her way back to the city as quickly as she could, she was rather eye-catching with the head of a Minotaur behind her.
Furling her wings, she walked to the Mercenary Hall.
Walking up to the third floor where she had seen the bounty, Shiro waited for her turn.
"Hello, it seems like you want to turn in a bounty." The woman smiled after seeing Shiro.
"Mn, I found out what the monster was in the section of life along with killing it. If I remember, the reward was 50 gold right?" Shiro nodded.
"Indeed. If it was a Minotaur, then it would make sense why hundreds of travellers would find it hard to escape. Howe the head seemed like it¡¯s been attacked by something else though?" The woman asked.
"I found it weakened. The arrow wounds are what I caused." Shiro shrugged, summoning her bow.
"I see. Please give me a moment while we verify your bountypletion. Regardless of the result of verification, you will get a certain amount of gold. The process should beplete by the end of the day. Take this token as a proof ande back at the end of the day." The woman said while handing over a token.
Nodding her head, Shiro handed the head over to the woman and started to make her way to the library.
Entering the facility, the woman was about to say something when she furrowed her brows.
Shaking her head, she smiled once more.
"You havee back rather quickly. Seems like your hunt was sessful." She smiled.
"Somewhat. I ran into something strange though. Do you have anything on a being known as the Ancient Terror and the pool of corruption?" Shiro asked.
"Where did you hear those terms from?" The woman asked, her voice sounding a lot less carefree than before.
Naturally, Shiro picked this up and understood the person knew what was going on.
"From the monstrosity himself." Shiro replied with a heavy tone.
"I¡¯m surprised that you lived to tell the tale then. Give me a moment, I shall personally guide you to the location. I also need to purify you as it seems like it has nted a seed of corruption within you. If nothing is done, you¡¯ll be a corruption monster whose only goal is to create more pools of corruption." The woman narrowed her eyes and gestured for Shiro toe with her.
"What about your post? Is there anyone else to guide the people?" Shiro asked curiously.
"There is already someone on the way. But enough about that,e with me." The woman nodded her head.
Walking to the back of the library on the first floor, the woman pressed her hand against the wall as a magic circle expanded out and a set of stairs appeared beside them.
Walking down the steps, Shiro watched as the entrance was sealed back up once more.
Following behind the woman, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a little ufortable.
"If you¡¯re feeling ufortable then that¡¯s the corruption sapling acting up." The woman said as Shiro was slightly surprised but kept quiet. Following behind her, they walked through a few doors and down several steps before arriving in front of a sealed room.
Chapter 690 Quella
Chapter 690 Que
Opening the door, the woman had Shiro sit down on a chair in the centre.
"So do you want to learn about the history or do you want to get rid of the corruption sapling first?" She asked with a smile.
"I¡¯ll go for thetter." Shiro forced a smile since she didn¡¯t even notice the corruption sapling in her body.
"Good choice." The woman nodded her head.
Snapping her fingers, golden chains appeared around the room andshed towards Shiro¡¯s limbs.
Wrapping around the ankle and the wrist, Shiro furrowed her brows.
Suddenly, butterflies started to appear around the room beforending on her arm.
"Ssss!" Taking a sharp breath in, Shiro watched as the butterflies started to suck something out of her arm.
Their golden wings had tiny spots of purple which slowly increased in size.
"I¡¯m surprised. Normally people will cry out in pain when this happens. Since you¡¯re not going to scream, let¡¯s do the history lesson now. I¡¯ll tell you about the Ancient Terror and that corrupted Sapling that¡¯s been imnted into you." The woman smiled as Shiro nodded her head with a forced smile.
"Good. The Ancient Terror is something akin to humanities corruption. He¡¯s the amalgamation of the sins performed by humans in ancient times. I do not know for what reason the forgotten realms were created but I do know that at the beginning, the Ancient Terror was supposed to be a failsafe. Something to protect us from harm rather thanmit it.
"After hundreds of years, the Ancient Terror was slowly being corrupted by the sins. It wanted to escape from this realm. To run away from his responsibilities. And it was almost sessful. Almost.
"The gods intervened and isted this realm. Humans were granted powers in the form of Divinities but back then they were more powerful than the current generation.
"Due to the Ancient Terror being at the height of his power, the corruption in the surroundings constantly tempered the body of humans, allowing them to take on stronger divinities and more power from the gods.
"They had six slots for divinities much like how you are right now." The woman smiled as Shiro felt exposed.
"Ah but don¡¯t worry. I am a guardian of sorts. Along with my sisters, we guard the libraries, show people to their desired books and oversee the world. We don¡¯t see things like how normal people do. We see things from a different perspective hence why I can tell that you have six slots like those thate before us. Normally I would have been able to see you just fine but the moment you entered the forest, the vision was cut short which was very strange but I didn¡¯t expect you to run into a piece of the Ancient Terror. This is also why I know that you were looking for the Minotaur inside the Section of Life despite the bounty saying it was a ¡¯mysterious monster¡¯ haha." The womanughed
"After the gods intervened with the help of people, they were able to split the Ancient Terror into separate pieces and locked them away. The one you ran into was most likely the core of his being. Usually, the core would be transported around thend thanks to its prison which keeps him in a state of constant slumber. But due to some external interferences, it seems like it woke him up much earlier than nned." She sighed.
"So as I was saying, me and my sisters are guardians but we cannot fight. The most I can do is provide knowledge and point you in the right direction while keeping an eye on the world. If things had gone as nned, the Ancient Terror would have awoken in a few years after we picked out some heroes from the people of the world. We have repeated this process a few times now so we know what to do. But there are people moving in the shadows.
"A while ago, there had been a case of someone nting one of the Corruption Saplings in a vige. Now that the sapling has bloomed into a pool of corruption, monsters will soon appear from the pool and spread the corruption. The more the corruption is spread, the weaker the influence from the towers are.
"In the Section of Life, the restriction on murder would cease to exist and the forest wouldn¡¯t be able to protect the people anymore.
"Surprising isn¡¯t it? One would think that Gaia¡¯s protection would be for thend and nts but no, it was for humans. The protection stopped the monsters from killing them since doing so would turn the entire forest against them. However, if the corruption was to keep spreading, there will no longer be any protection for us humans. This is the same in other sections. The section of night has powerful guardian monsters that will turn against corruption the moment they see it rather than humans. The section of time tends to rewind time so that the monsters can be surrounded with ease. The section of sky provides quick escape in the form of air tunnels along with inds that can act as strategic points. Of course, the monsters here are focusing on humans right now but once the corruption appears, they¡¯ll turn their focus immediately. This is the same with the other sections. For the entire world to turn against them, you can see how much this corruption is despised can¡¯t you?" The woman chuckled as Shiro nodded while sweat filled her head.
The feeling of getting the corruption drained from her was rather painful but due to her tolerance, she was able to endure it.
"There isn¡¯t any secure way to get rid of the corruption. It¡¯s either split it apart and forced into a sealed slumber or transfer it to a new host. Me and my sisters have been trying out best to search for a way but so far there hasn¡¯t been any significant improvements." The woman sighed.
However, during this, there was something odd with the butterflies.
As the purple spots started to expand, a sliver of red was seen in the centre.
Twitching a moment, the butterfly started to flicker as the woman widened her eyes in confusion.
"What is this?" She muttered.
Before she could take a closer look, the red light expanded into circuits and devoured the butterfly in an instant.
Seeing this, Shiro immediately recognised it to be the Error element that she had obtained.
ncing at her arm, she could see a ck metal like substance spread up from her fingertips and cover her arms.
Flinching slightly, Shiro red at the circuit who seemed to snicker at her before retracting.
"Huh??? How.... I don¡¯t sense the corruption anymore. It was... devoured?" The woman looked at her in confusion.
"This thing is basically a stronger version of the corruption." Shiro forced a smile as she didn¡¯t expect Error 403 to have followed her here.
ncing at her system, she saw the simple description of the element.
[???]
It enhances your weapons and unarmed strikes.
If someone who knew of her skill saw this, they would flip a table and shout out lies!
However, it was no time to wonder about what her skill did as the butterflies hadpletely disappeared.
"Hmm... this is out of my expectations. I¡¯ll need to talk with my sisters since this could be something to help us get rid of the corruption." The woman frowned.
"But wouldn¡¯t a new one appear? It is an amalgamation of sins no? I doubt humans would stop sinning. If they did, they wouldn¡¯t be humans anymore." Shiro asked.
"Yes but the time it takes for a new one to appear is much longer than how long it takes for him to awaken from a sealed slumber." The woman replied while making a few butterflies.
Watching them fly through the walls, she sighed before turning to Shiro.
"You are so full of surprises. When I first saw you, I was shocked to see that a person in this era had 6 slots. Now that I see you again, you¡¯ve obtained a tier 2 divinity, met the Ancient Terror and apparently you own something that is more powerful than the corruption which couldn¡¯t be detected by me. Who are you?" She asked with a soft smile.
"First name Shiro, surname Asakura. Forever 18, a professional logic breaker and piercer of asses. Pleased to meet you."
"Pardon?" The woman blinked her eyes in confusion.
"It¡¯s a new introduction I¡¯ve been working on haha. Something I think I should use when I meet someone remotely interesting I guess. Either that or I stick to my usual ¡¯sup¡¯ introduction. What about your name?" Shiro shrugged since she hadn¡¯t learned her name yet. Plus, they¡¯ll most likely be interacting with each other more from now on so she might as well get it out of the way.
"My name is Que. I¡¯m the watcher of this library and the guide for Heroes."
Chapter 691 Hamoena
Chapter 691 Hamoena
After the initial talk with Que, Shiro was told to wait for her sister¡¯s responses after they figured out what they should do with her new found power. With so much mystery behind it, they needed to test out its capabilities before trying it against the Ancient Terror.
With Shiro needing to earn money for the weapon and armours as well, the monsters on the bounty board were perfect test subjects.
Since one divinity rank monsters were already easily kible for Shiro, their best subjects were those with two divinities. One of the ones that Que suggested Shiro to try was the Gorgon since she had a bow and arrow.
Remembering her experience with the Gorgon back on Earth, Shiro rejected it since she didn¡¯t want to be turned to stone.
She had thought that she could just ignore their gaze and she¡¯ll be fine but no, they would petrify her even without making eye contact.
In the end, they decided to fight against one of the native creatures underground. Its name was Hamoena. I was a strange creature who could solidify its outeryer into a shell whenever it wanted. While in this state, the shell is like high grade armour which was highly resistant to damage.
However, the troublees from when it decides to go for the soft form. In this soft form, they¡¯re able to secrete a paralysing liquid which acts quickly if one so much as touches it. One the prey is paralysed, the Hamoena would wrap its soft body around the victim before hardening its body into countless spikes and pierce the victim, killing them in a simr way to how iron maidens would.
Currently, the Hamoena is migrating towards a new valley and the viges on the way there are being ravaged hence why a bounty was set out for it. But due to the tough shell and high risk factor, many have left it be for now since it was going to stop once it reached the valley. Only someone with three divinities would be confident enough to do the task without any worry but they were too busy with bigger problems.
When Shiro registered for the bounty, the attendant at the counter looked at her with scepticism before eventually nodding her head thinking that Shiro probably didn¡¯t know much and was only there for the reward.
After all, the gold reward was an astounding 70 gold.
"Excuse me young miss, I know you killed the Minotaur but the Hamoena is more dangerous than the Minotaur. One touch and you¡¯ll be rendered defenceless." The woman cautioned while handing Shiro the rest of her reward in regards to the mysterious monster that she had alreadypleted. With 50 gold in her bag, she only needed 250 more gold.
"Yes I know. Don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll make the necessary preparation to fight it." Shiro nodded her head and summoned her bow.
Plus, if they couldn¡¯t kill it, it wasn¡¯t like the Hamoena could spit out a stream of paralysing liquid. At most it would try its best to jump up and wrap around Shiro but if she could dodge that, she can just shoot at the monster while flying in the air.
*sigh
"I¡¯ll give you thetest information we have on the Hamoena then." The woman sighed before stepping away from the counter.
Coming back with a piece of parchment, she showed Shiro a map of sorts.
"Thest known location of the Hamoena is in the vige of Ireln which is towards the east. Taking into ount it¡¯s travelling speed, we assume that it¡¯ll arrive at the next vige within the next five days. This is its estimated travel path since we figured out that it¡¯s main goal is probably to reach the Hellmouth Valley which is not too far from the border. Be careful though, Hellmouth Valley is home to monsters that our strongest warriors struggle with. If you really want to cut off its escape path, I suggest starting near the vige of Weir. The geography around that area should help you fight the monster since there arerge boulders and small hills to act as your cover if you use the bow." The woman exined as she might as well help Shiro increase her chances of survival.
Nodding her head, Shiro memorised all of the information in her database.
However, there was one thing that concerned her ever so slightly. The fact that the Hellmouth Valley was near the border. With the next section being the Section of the Underworld, criminals could pop up at any location.
Some will definitely be as strong as Kiona that she had met the other day and as a woman of her looks, she needed to be careful since she¡¯s not able to protect herself yet with just one divinity. Common bandits are fine, but when people get power, their ugly nature is further exposed.
Once Shiro had memorised the map, she made her way out of the Mercenary Hall.
On her way out, a golden butterflynded next to her shoulder.
[After you kill the Hamoena, you should look around and see if you could resonate with some blessed weapons like your bow. Since you¡¯re near the Section of the Underworld, Hade¡¯s blessed items could be nearby.]
Hearing Que¡¯s voice from the butterfly, Shiro was somewhat surprised.
[Don¡¯t be so shocked. This is essentially my familiar. It won¡¯t be with you all the time though since it¡¯ll run out of power but I¡¯ll send familiars to you when I can.] Que chucked as Shiro nodded her head.
Once she was out of the city, she immediately unfurled her wings andunched herself into the sky.
Thankfully, she was travelling ind despite heading to the east so the amount of air tunnels was increasing, giving her quick boosts of speed to catch up with the Hamoena.
A trip that should have taken a lot longer than a week was cut short thanks to this.
However, there was barely any sign of the Hamoena. asionally she could see destruction caused by the beast but that was it.
Trying her best to chase down the monster, she finally saw it after another 5 days. Now, they were quite close to the Vige of Weir that was near the border.
As for the monster, well, it was a lot different to what she had imagined and the size did not match at all.
Previously, its body was an iridescent blue which hardened to brown whenever it switched forms. Its general form resembled that of a snail only with multiple extrusions which looked like eyes.
However, now its body was a purple tainted flesh colour that had bones bubbling in and out of its body. Instead of protrusions for eyes, it now had sunken sockets much like the ancient terror as eyeballs could be seen swimming around the surface of its body.
There was a single split in its mouth which had a ck goo dripping out which was simr to the liquid from the pool of corruption that she had seen before.
[Hmm... seems like it must havee into contact with a pool of corruption much like the one you told me about. The one located near where you had found the bow.] Que sighed.
"Do you know of someone that could be nting these pools on purpose? The seed couldn¡¯t have just shown up out of nowhere." Shiro frowned.
[Mn, there¡¯s probably someone who has found some text about him. A corruption sapling is different from a dread sapling in that it needs some specific conditions to be cultivated. However, that¡¯s a thought forter, right now we need to deal with this thing. If that thing gets into the Hellmouth Valley and spreads the pool of corruption, then stronger monsters will appear after it. Kill it here and I¡¯ll get my sisters to clean up the aftermath.]
"I know." Nodding her head, Shiro summoned her bow and conjured up an arrow.
Without her even controlling Error 403, Shiro felt a small sting on her right hand and red circuits corrupting the arrow.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro red at the source which originates from her right hand and realised that the element was more... aggressive and uncontroble in the forgotten realm.
As if the prison locks surrounding it had suddenly widened. It could now stick its hands out whenever it wanted and even attack the warden if they get close.
It was rather dangerous since Shiro had lost her control over it.
However, it also seemed a little... docile?
Narrowing her eyes, she fired the arrow.
Chapter 692 Killing the Hamoena
Chapter 692 Killing the Hamoena
Watching the arrow travel through the air, Shiro watched as the Hamoena nced towards her.
Before it could even cry out, the arrow suddenly exploded as hundreds of circuits stabbed themselves into the Hamoena¡¯s body.
*URAHHHH!!!!
Thrashing around in pain, its body started to twist and reshape itself in an attempt to push the circuits off from its body.
However, the circuits were like thousands of tiny serpents that constantly chewed away at the soft flesh.
Understanding that its current form couldn¡¯t fight against this strange being, the Hamoena paused for a second before solidifying its body.
Pushed back by the sudden appearance of a tough shell, the circuits stepped back for a moment before attacking with more enthusiasm.
Raising her eyebrow at this, Shiro drew back her bow and summoned another arrow.
This time, the circuits didn¡¯t corrupt the arrow as it was just a normal arrow that she could summon.
¡¯Could it be that the Error 403 can only release a certain amount of itself?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself.
Furrowing her brows, she tried tomand the error toe back but it seemed to be adamant on eating through the hard shell of this giant slug before it.
Clicking her tongue, she figured that it was better to treat the error as a being of its own. Something akin to a disobedient Yin.
"Hmm... let it do what it wants for now. I¡¯ll support it in killing this beast." Shiro muttered.
Summoning a few arrows, she notched them all at once and fired them towards the Hamoena.
*Clink! Clink! Clink!
Bouncing off of its tough shell, Shiro could see some white marks left behind by the arrow.
In addition to this, the Hamoena¡¯s body seemed to have sunken down a little into the ground which shows how powerful the arrows were now that she had obtained her first divinity.
There was just one problem and that was the fact that the Hamoena has gone full defence mode and refused to expose even a small portion of its body.
Seeing this, the circuits were enraged. Forming a spear or sorts, it jammed it into the armour of the Hamoena and started to chip it little by little
Naturally, Shiro understood what the circuits wanted to do and fired arrows as support.
Soon, a small groove was formed as the circuits lunched forth with eagerness.
*CRACK! PUSHI!!!!
Stabbing the virus spear deep into its flesh, it used the edge of the armour as a leverage and started to rip the armour apart from the flesh. A sick tearing sound could be heard as the purple flesh tried its best to stick onto the shell but it was torn apart and ck goo started to flow out like blood.
Shifting its shape into a drill, the circuits started to rampage around the Hamoena¡¯s body while Shiro stood there awkwardly.
With how eager the error was being, she didn¡¯t even have to lift a single finger.
After a short while, all of the armour had been peeled back and the Hamoena was now twitching constantly from the wounds it had suffered.
As for the circuits, it had returned to her side and bounced around the back of her hand as if asking for praise.
Sighing softly, Shiro used her spare hand to pat it gently.
"Good job." She praised with a soft smile.
Seemingly satisfied with this, the circuits twisted around for a little before disappearing.
[Error 403 energy ¨C 0/100]
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro realised that this was the limit. The error had used everything to pry apart the Hamoena¡¯s armour.
If she had to be honest, it would have been extremely hard for her to aplish what the error had done since she had to take advantage of the openings that it showed. The fight would be much longer and tenacious if not for the error.
Landing on the ground, Shiro was about to walk up to the Hamoena when she felt danger all around her.
Not even taking a moment to say anything, she ducked down and used her bow as a protective tool.
Hearing the sound of wet flesh colliding against her bow, Shiro shifted her body and used the momentum to throw the flesh away.
Who knows what it might do if she let it stay.
Hopping back, she made some distance as a wave of dizziness hit her but it onlysted for a second.
"Tsk, it¡¯s paralysing liquid." Shiro muttered with a frown.
While the error did indeed peel away all of the armour, it didn¡¯t mean the Hamoena was dead.
It was just in a weakened state.
Looking up, Shiro watched as the barely moving slug monster could only resort to throwing out bits of its body as ast resort.
Just from this Shiro could already tell the severity of its current state.
¡¯While it¡¯s not as dangerous in terms of ripping out the source codes, this is still rather violent.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Pulling back on her bow, she sent a few arrows towards the Hamoena.
*PUSHI PUSHI PUSHI!
Despite having the arrows sink into its body, the force was still enough to send it rolling back by quite a few meters.
Filling the Hamoena with arrows, Shiro¡¯s sense for danger only increased which caused some concern in her.
However, this concern was soon answered.
*RUMBLE!!!!
An earthquake suddenly hit the area as the spots where the ck goo had touched were now split apart.
*BANG!!!
Shooting out of the ground, hundreds of spider legs wed against the fractured earth before dragging a dark shadow out of the depths. Its entire body was covered by the ck goo while a few of its eyes were exposed to the sunlight.
". . .Did I say it did a good job? I think it might have made it a ¡¯little¡¯ harder for me." Shiro¡¯s smile twitched as the butterflies on her shoulder only flickered for a moment.
[The longer we take to kill him, the more corrupted monsters will appear thanks to the ck goo. We should kill it quickly.] Que suggested as Shiro agreed.
Notching some arrows, she dashed towards the spider.
Jumping up, she shot some arrows into the joints before forcing it to kneel down.
Firing an arrow at the bottom so that she could force its leg away, she had the spider pierce the Hamoena through the body as the purple flesh writhed around in pain.
Unfurling her wings, she soared up into the sky, avoiding several of the spider¡¯s legs which tried to grab her instantly.
Narrowly dodging by the side, she pulled back on her bow and gathered as much power as she could.
*BANG!!!!
Firing a powerful singr shot, she managed to shatter the spider¡¯s leg and pin the Hamoena against the ground.
Shivering for a little longer, it stopped as its entire body rxed. The purple flesh spewed out as if the thing holding it together hadpletely snapped apart.
"One." Shiro muttered before ring at the spider.
Since the ck goo could mutate more monsters like this, she had to take care of it quickly.
Releasing a heavy amount of killing intent, Shiro watched as the spider¡¯s body tense up for a moment.
Landing near the corpse of the Hamoena, she grabbed the broken spider leg which thankfully wasn¡¯t covered with ck goo and notched it on her bow.
Pulling back, she fired the leg towards its main body as the sluggishness caused it to fail at dodging the leg.
Not even giving it a chance to scream, Shiro pierced all of the exposed eyes with her arrow.
Flying towards one of them, she stomped down as hard as she could and sent the arrow deep into their body.
Flipping her body back, she avoided the ssh of ck goo and continued to send arrows deep into its body. Thanks to her killing intent, she was able to restrain the spider¡¯s movements, making it harder for it to dodge her arrows.
[Sometimes I wonder where you studied your fighting style since this rather... different whenpared to our fighting style.] Que chuckled.
"Who knows." Shiro shrugged while grabbing some proof from the Hamoena¡¯s corpse.
Once she was done, she nced around the spot and located where she was on the mental map.
"Let¡¯s check out the border I suppose." Shiro muttered since she wanted to try her luck at getting another blessed weapon.
Putting the proof away in her bag, she unfurled her wings and started to fly through the air. Taking a deep breath, she was happy that she took Nike as her first divinity since this power of flight was very convenient and it helped her save time with travel. Had it not been for this, it might have been hard to catch up to the Hamoena much less stop it from entering the Section of the Underworld.
Seeing the dark clouds in the distance, Shiro felt a small shiver down her spine.
"Yikes, no wonder it¡¯s called the Section of the Underworld. Just being near the border makes me feel ufortable." Shiro sighed while ncing towards the ground.
To her surprise, she saw a pair of mother and daughter being chased by some shrouded people.
Chapter 693 Hellmouth Valley
Chapter 693 Hellmouth Valley
Furrowing her brows, Shiro immediately dived down at breakneck speed.
Seeing the fear and panic in their eyes, Shiro figured that she might as well listen to the storyter.
Just before one of the swords could hit the mother and daughter, Shiro pulled back on her bow and fired an arrow.
*PING!!
Knocking the sword aside, her sudden appearance grabbed their attention.
"Tsk, annoying person. Leave! This is not your business!" One of the shrouded people shouted out as their voice was quite feminine.
"I know it¡¯s not my business but I¡¯m just a nosy one. I can¡¯t help but intervene if I see people getting harmed. Though of course, if you want to tell me a good reason then I¡¯ll leave." Shiro smiled.
"You want to know what she did? Fine, I¡¯ll tell you. These two are wanted poison users that tried to kill a whole city of people. The little girl is the master and the older one is the student. We¡¯ve finally cornered them after they ran out of poisons so please stay out of this!" The shrouded woman red at the two hatefully as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
ncing back, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the duo.
Looking back at the shrouded woman, she could see that the hate was real and that there were even tears forming on the edges of her eyes.
¡¯There¡¯s a good chance that they¡¯re telling the truth.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Sure, go for it." Shiro smiled and hopped back slightly.
Seeing her reaction, both parties didn¡¯t expect that she¡¯d actually step back since the people appearing in these kinds of situations would help the duo that looked like mother and child without any questions.
"What? Unless you¡¯re lying and you want me to fight the lot of you?" Shiro raised her eyebrows and the shrouded woman shook her head hastily.
"Many thanks." She nodded before lunging towards the two.
For the next few moments, Shiro watched as they hacked the two into small pieces starting at the limbs.
Since they took the effort to kill them as painfully as possible, Shiro could really tell that they hated the two.
"Fu... Thank you for staying out of it." The shrouded woman thanked her after taking a moment to calm herself.
"You¡¯re wee. Appearances can be deceiving. If I didn¡¯t take the time asking you about what happened, you would have just looked like some crooked bandits." Shiro smirked.
"This outfit is to help against her poisons. We had no choice." The shrouded womanughed as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s just unfortunate then. Do you happen to know if there are any blessed weapons around here?" She asked with a shrug.
Hearing her question, they looked at her with confusion.
First of all, no one would tell others where a blessed weapon could be since they¡¯re the most powerful weapons that one could get their hands on. Not only were they basically indestructible, they also had benefits outside of divinities so many would die to get their hands on a weapon like that.
If they knew where one was, they¡¯ll try to keep it a secret as much as they can.
Second of all, let¡¯s say they were going to tell someone, thest person on the list would be Shiro since she was a stranger.
"No idea? Oh well, see you." Shiro shrugged and gave them a small wave.
Unfurling her wings, she soared into the sky.
Looking at their shadow, they looked at one another before leaving.
After a short pause, Shiro returned to the spot with a grin.
"Phew. I thought they might have known but seeing their confusion, I think I¡¯m safe to try getting this weapon." Shiro muttered with a grin as she nced down on her left arm.
Shimmering slightly was Que¡¯s familiar who had whispered to her about the existence of a blessed weapon nearby while they were killing the two poison users.
Since the group of shrouded people didn¡¯t know the existence of this weapon, she didn¡¯t need to worry too much.
"So where is it?" Shiro asked while ncing towards the butterfly.
[Follow me.]
Flying behind the butterfly, Shiro tried her best to make sure that she was as camouged as possible. However, it was a little hard when her white wings were essentially glowing in this environment.
Once she was near, she deactivated her divinity and walked the rest of the way.
Upon arrival, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched slightly.
"Wasn¡¯t this the Hellmouth Valley that you told me not toe to before?" Shiro asked.
The mountains surrounding the valley seemed to pierce into the sky as dark grey clouds shrouded the peak from being seen. asionally, she could seerge faint shadows through the clouds as they were most definitelyrge scale monsters that could erase her with a single sneeze.
However, there was more to this valley. In front of her was a deep ravine with jagged rocks along the walls. She could even see a few moving shells shifting through the crevices as this was where Que said the weapon was.
[It is, but the weapon is down there. Most of the monsters have been scared off by its aura so this is probably one of the best chances for you to go down. Plus, the weapon isn¡¯t the only benefit. Hundreds of adventurers have died in the ravine so you might find something helpful when you go down. You just need to be careful and make sure you run the moment I say it regardless of what you¡¯re doing ok? I¡¯ve stationed quite a few butterflies around this ce to act as sentries so I should be able to tell whenever a monster is approaching you. Plus, you¡¯re only going into a ravine located near the valley. If you enter the valley, they will notice you and you will be killed on sight.]
"Hmm... alright. Got any tips on what to do down there?" Shiro asked while stretching her body.
[Not much other than keep your guard up. Hades¡¯ trials aren¡¯t tooplicated. Sometimes it could be as easy as picking a single weapon from a pile of trash or it could be as hard as travelling to the underworld and stealing something before escaping. It depends on how lucky you are I suppose.] Que replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Not too bad then." She smiled.
She hoped that it wasn¡¯t like Artemis¡¯ test since she could have done that one without much of a time limit.
However, for this one, she was surrounded by monsters that could end her in an instant.
Taking a deep breath, she took a few steps back before running full speed.
Jumping over the edge, she dived down for a few seconds before unfurling her wings.
[Follow me quickly.]
Seeing the butterfly navigate through the valley, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate and follow closely behind it.
Suddenly, a feeling of danger washed over as both she and the butterfly stopped and dived down as fast as they could.
*CRACK!!!!
ncing above her, she could see the giant mandibles of an insect retreating back to the stone walls before camouging themselves quickly.
"Christ this ce is filled with danger." Shiro clicked her tongue.
[Mn. Keep up the pace and keep your guard up. Sometimes they can attack before I can even warn you like just now.]
"Would have loved it for you to tell me at the beginning but ok." Shiro forced a smile.
Ducking and weaving through the ravine, the two travelled for a long while beforending at the very bottom.
Quickly furling up her wings, she ducked behind some rocks with Que¡¯s familiar as they watched a few of the monsters fly past them.
Once she was sure the coast was clear, Shiro sighed in relief.
Now that they were at the bottom, Shiro looked around and saw several skeletons with broken pieces of armour and weapons.
[Ignore them for now. We need to grab the chance for the blessed weapon as soon as we can.] Que reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
"Don¡¯t worry, I know which is more important and I think I also know where the weapon is." Shiro smiled while ncing down at her hand.
There was a faint mark that seemed to shimmer ever so slightly whenever she pointed it in front of them.
Recognising the sigil belonging to Hades, Que was shocked and wondered where she had obtained it. After all, she didn¡¯t have Hades¡¯ divinity. But that was a question forter. Right now they need to hurry up before they¡¯re spotted by the monsters in this ravine.
Chapter 694 Hades Weapon
Chapter 694 Hades'' Weapon
Looking around her, Shiro made sure that there were no monsters around before dashed to where the sigil reacted most intensely.
Using the sigil as a guide, they soon arrived before a hole entrance behind one of the boulders.
Furrowing her brows, she contemted to herself for a moment before jumping in.
Positioning herself so that she didn¡¯t hurt herself too bad, Shiro slid down the hole.
During her journey down, she noticed that the temperature seemed to be increasing despite theck of a fire.
[I¡¯ll check on the situation ahead.]
Nodding her head, Shiro watched as the butterfly went on ahead.
After a few moments, she returned.
[You can go ahead without worry. This is going to a ce that is simr to hell in terms of the scenery but that¡¯s part of Hades¡¯ test for the weapon.] Que reassured.
Hearing this, Shiro sighed in relief and stopped slowing down her descent.
Travelling at full speed, she could see a faint orange glow at the end of the tunnel.
Slowing herself down just enough so that shended softly without any problems, Shiro looked around and raised her eyebrows.
Despite them being in a cave, she couldn¡¯t see the ceiling and the entrance to the tunnel that she had just gone through was currently floating in the air.
In front of her was a hellishndscape with pools ofva flowing into the distance whilerge ck chains hung from the top with the base being hidden by the smoke.
She was currently standing in the middle of arge ind where there was little to no cover avable.
Floating in the middle was a single set of chains that was surrounded by a dark scarlet aura.
Understanding that this was the weapon, Shiro raised her guard and approached with caution.
Just as she took a single step, a giant magic array expanded out above her.
Large ck anchors mmed against the pool ofva, causing a rain of burning hotva to spew towards her.
Stepping back, she avoided most of the droplets but a few managed tond on her jacket and burn a hole through the surface.
"Tch, I liked this jacket too." Shiro clicked her tongue with annoyance.
Cracking her neck, she jumped up slightly before bursting into a dash.
*BANG!!!
Dropping a second set of chains, moreva sshed towards her but Shiro was able to dodge most of it despite having to sacrifice some of her jacket which really annoyed her but there was nothing she could do about that.
Once she was around 20 meters from the set of chains, she felt danger ahead of her as a shadow of something huge could be seen looming over her body.
ncing up, a giant illusionary image of a diator could be seen holding one of therge chains and swinging it towards her. Despite most of the chains being hidden by the smoke, Shiro could still see where it would roughlynd due to the moving smoke.
Quickly dashing to the side, she managed to avoid it just in time as a deep imprint of the chains could be seen on the ground.
To make matters worse,va started to flow in from the edge and filled the crater in, reducing the amount of room she had to work with.
Furrowing her brows, she quickly dashed towards the chains.
The diator managed to m down his chains one more time which severely reduced the amount ofnd she could use but that was fine.
Now that she was in front of the chains, Shiro reached out with her left hand and grabbed the first section.
[Test of Hades¡¯ Stage Two]
Defeat the Underworld Guardian and retrieve the Chains of Hades.
Seeing this notification, Shiro watched as the illusionary image of the diator slowly shrunk down to the size of the Minotaur.
In his hands were two chains simr to her chains but one had a hook on the other end.
ncing down at the Chains of Hades in her left hand, Shiro narrowed her eyes and dashed towards the Guardian.
Twisting her body, she swung the chain towards the Guardian who blocked the strike with his arms.
Tugging it as hard as she could, she flung her body towards him before he could react. Wrapping some loops of the chain around her left arm, she summoned her bow and fired an arrow at the Guardian¡¯s head at point nk range.
*BANG!!!
Watching the Guardian stumble back a few steps, Shiro smirked and flipped onto his back.
Wrapping the chains around his neck, she pulled as hard as she could.
However, his muscles were hard topress with her current strength so at most she made him feel a little ufortable but that was it.
Reaching towards her, the Guardian tried to grab Shiro but she was too nimble and with his giant body, moving around with a simple task for Shiro. She didn¡¯t even need to unfurl her wings.
Of course, that did not mean she didn¡¯t activate her divinity at all that would be stupid. Aside from the wings, she had already activated all the bonus features such as the Boon of Rivalry and the Boon of Force.
While this may seem like an easy fight in general, Shiro was actually under a lot of pressure as sweat was beginning to fill her forehead.
While she didn¡¯t know what properties the Guardian¡¯s weapons had, she felt an overwhelming amount of danger from them and knew that should she be hit, she¡¯d be in a pickle.
After avoiding his onught of grabs along with her futile attempts to damage him with her chain, she understood that the difficulty ofpleting this trial was roughly two to three divinities since the physical prowess bestowed upon you by one divinity was clearly not enough.
Thankfully though, she had her bow to bridge that gap.
Kicking off the Guardian¡¯s body, she unfurled her wings and sent a concentrated barrage of arrows towards his head which seeded in knocking him on his back.
But before he fell, heshed out with his chains which were surprisingly fast.
Dodging to the side, Shiro flinched slightly as the wind generated by the force of the chain had actually split her skin.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro nced down at the blood that flowed down the side of her arm.
However, before she could wipe the blood away, she felt light headed as her body swayed ever so slightly.
"Huh?" She furrowed her brows in confusion as this condition onlysted for a short moment.
[I think I figured out what the chains do.] Que¡¯s voice rang out besides her as the butterflynded on her shoulder.
"Took you awhile." Shiro sighed.
[Naturally. This was the first time you were hit by them, even slightly.] Que replied.
[Anyways, from what I¡¯ve seen, it¡¯s good that you were barely damaged by that hit since if it had hit youpletely, your soul would have been dragged out. Normally, this wouldn¡¯t be a problem since people with two divinities have received enough reinforcement to withstand the force but you only have one so it¡¯ll be tougher on you. I¡¯m being serious in that you should probably give up on this since if you¡¯re even hit once, you¡¯ll die.] Que warned as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Do you know this weapon then?" Shiro asked while holding up the Chains of Hades.
[I do and I know that it¡¯s one of the higher better blessed weapons. But the risks are too high. We can try to find this again when you get a second divinity.]
"Well that settles it. Since this is one of the better weapons, I can¡¯t let this opportunity split out of my grasp." Shiro grinned.
[Are you crazy?]
"Yes. Yes I am."
[If you die no-]
"I have no ns in dying, don¡¯t worry. However, for my personal goals, I can¡¯t let such a good weapon slip out of my grasp."
[What kind of personal goals are you even talking about for you to take this risk?]
"The kind that involves filling up the rest of my slots with the five primordial divinities." Shiro grinned before pulling back as hard as she could on her bow.
Sending an arrow towards the Guardian, she dashed towards him without hesitation while Que¡¯s butterfly hovered in the air.
Her mind was currently in turmoil as the ¡¯personal goal¡¯ of Shiro¡¯s was something truly outrageous.
While there had been one or two people obtaining one of the primordial divinities in the past thanks to their increased slots as a result of the environment, none had obtained more than one primordial divinity and Shiro wanted to obtain all five.
Looking at Shiro who was currently fighting the Guardian, Que only sighed and remembered what Shiro had told her on their way here.
"Chances are low but they¡¯re never zero. There is always a possibility no matter how outrageous."
Chapter 695 Chains of Hades
Chapter 695 Chains of Hades
Firing wave after wave of arrows at point nk range while dodging his grabs, Shiro prevented him from attacking her with his chains. After all, they were the real problems.
In terms of danger level, his fists were much lower despite her running around his body.
Despite being an illusionary image, the state of the Guardian was rather strange. It was like the physical illusions that Shiro could make back on Earth only transparent.
She could stand on him, hit him and even grab him but his body was semi-transparent. It was a rather strange sight but Shiro dismissed it since she¡¯s seen weirder situations before.
Firing another arrow at his head, Shiro panted lightly since all this running around and dodging his grabs had started to put a toll on her body. However, it was much better than trying to dodge the chains since that¡¯d truly be dangerous.
Kicking off his chest, shended on the ground and watched him stumble back.
¡¯It¡¯s been quite a while.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself since she had been able to kill her bosses rather quickly due to her crazy buffs and armour pration but in the forgotten realm, it was hard to obtain the same effect so each boss she fights had to be one done with caution.
Watching him stumble back, she raised her guard since she felt like he was charging up to do something. Suddenly, chains exploded out from under her feet as Shiro quickly jumped up and made herself hover with her wings.
However, it wasn¡¯t over.
Bursting from the ceiling were more chains but it wasn¡¯t therge kind. It was hundreds of small chains charging towards her.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro knew that she only had two choices. Either dodge them all or deflect them. She wasn¡¯t too keen on thetter option since she didn¡¯t know if the chains could be controlled or if they had the same properties as the Guardian¡¯s chains. If it did, that would be rather bad for her.
Opting for the dodging option, she dived down and furled her wings.
Concentrating on her footwork, she tried her best at dodging all of the chains and was rather sessful. The only bad part was that she kept getting holes in her jacket which infuriated her since she didn¡¯t have another set of outfits after this one.
Half way through dodging the chains, Shiro noticed that it was trying to lock her up in a makeshift prison so she quickly dashed around the arena.
She had to be careful on where she ran since if the chainnded in theva, the sudden ssh would be unavoidable.
While Shiro was focused on dodging, the Guardian had stood back up and recovered somewhat.
Narrowing his eyes towards Shiro, he pulled his arm back and swung his chains towards her just as she dodged one of the chains falling from the ceiling.
Seeing the sudden appearance of the chain, Shiro gritted her teeth and jumped up. Using the hook at the end of the chains as the vaulting box, she narrowly flipped her body over.
"Sss!!!" Taking a sharp breath, she watched as a purple aura coated the palm of her hand.
Dodging more chains, Shiro furrowed her brows when the purple aura didn¡¯t disappear.
¡¯Is this like a stack of something?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and frowned since it could be bad if it was.
ring towards the Guardian, she whipped her chain around the hook before using the momentum to quickly dodge some of the chains.
Turning his body, the Guardian wanted to m it down so that Shiro would get crushed but all she had to do was unfurl her wings and begin to fly.
Strangely enough, the chains seemed to be rather magical in the fact that it would continue to lengthen like a certain staff belonging to a monkey.
Unless she willed it, the chains would not shrink.
Diving down, she quickly had the chains unhooked from the Guardian¡¯s weapon before backing off since the tail end of his chain was already heading towards her.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro had an idea and her lips curled up into a grin. Unsummoning her bow, she grabbed the Chains of Hades with both hands and dashed towards the boss.
Increasing the length of the chains so that it would hang loosely around the Guardian, she dashed behind him and checked if she could exploit a certain weakness.
Unfortunately, there was nothing there so at most she could use it to taunt him but that was enough.
Summoning her bow, she pulled back and fired an arrow which lifted the guardian¡¯s body up ever so slightly but it wasn¡¯t enough topletely lift him off the ground. However that wasn¡¯t her main goal. Her main goal was to taunt him and she had achieved it with ease.
ring at her with rage filled eyes, his muscles bulged as she could tell that he wanted to kill her with everything he¡¯s got.
"Don¡¯t be so mad, I don¡¯t poke the ass as much as I used to so you should take this with honour!" Shiro taunted with a smug smile which would make anyone want to punch her in the face and the Guardian was no exception.
mming his hook forward with everything he¡¯s got, Shiro grinned.
Throwing a loop of her chain towards the hook, she almost wanted to jump for joy when she saw that it was hooked onto the weapon.
But before she could celebrate, she had to avoid the hook or else she¡¯d be dead.
Diving down as quickly as she could, she felt the wind crash into her back and sent her hurling towards the ground but that was ok.
Lengthening the chain so that it didn¡¯t affect her, she watched as the loosely wrapped chains tighten around the Guardians body.
*CRACK!!!
One of the loops snapped against his neck, cracking his neck back as she could see his neck bing more and more deformed.
With the chains tightened all around him, the Guardian tried to pry the chains off his body but it was to no avail.
Watching the Guardian struggle, Shiro thought about it for a short moment before wrapping her chain around one of the chains hanging from the ceiling.
Stopping her chain from lengthening, the hook was suddenly hit by a strong force, tightening the chains around the Guardian¡¯s body even more so.
*BANG!!!!
Ripping through the Guardian¡¯s neck, the chains shredded through his body, destroying his illusionary image.
With the Guardian dead, the hook flickered for a moment before disappearing and the same happened to the surroundings.
[You have obtained the Chains of Hades]
[This chain can be extended and retracted at will for a maximum of 1 mile.]
[Every hit you do with this chain applies a single stack on the target. And the stacks can be used in the following ways.]
[Consume 5 stacks to grant 10% attack speed, 10% attack damage or 10% armour pration.]
[Consume 10 stacks to grant 20% attack speed, 20% attack damage, 20% armour pration or 2% chance of soul steal.]
[For every 10 stacks after this soul steal chance increases by 2% with a limit of 30%. In addition to this, you also reinforce your body by 5% per 10 stacks for a maximum of 40%.]
[When consumed, stack count reset. Stack effects don¡¯t transfer to a second target. Stack effects onlyst for a minute.]
Reading the description, Shiro raised her eyebrows in surprise.
For her, this weapon was simply amazing since she could reinforce her body without a second divinity.
Though it was a little unfortunate that the stack effects don¡¯t transfer so she can¡¯t just keep a rock monster in her back and have him carry 100 stacks for her to use.
If she could do that then she¡¯d be able to always keep the 40% body reinforcement on for more than just one minute.
Retracting the chain, she wondered if it¡¯d retract like her bow and with that thought, it faded into her sigil.
With two blessed weapons in her hands, one long range and one mid ranged, she was rather prepared but Shiro knew that this was nowhere near what she needed if she wanted toplete the primordial towers.
Shaking her head, she had to wait for some decent armour and a sword before even thinking about it.
Chapter 696 Power of the Chains
Chapter 696 Power of the Chains
[We should leave.] Que said as the monsters are bound to return soon since the weapon was now under Shiro¡¯s control.
"Mn." Nodded her head, Shiro looked around to make sure that she hadn¡¯t missed anything before climbing into the tunnel.
Since she was now climbing up rather than falling, it took her quite a while before she was finally able to reach the surface. Her wings weren¡¯t exactly helpful either since the space was cramped.
[So how did you get Hades¡¯ Sigil? As far as I know, you haven¡¯t got a second divinity yet and the first belonged to Nike. In addition to this, the Sigil isn¡¯t like average divinities.] Que asked as this was on her mind.
"Well... one of the Dryads told me that this is something called a dormant sigil. It¡¯s simr to a divinity I suppose but so far I don¡¯t know how to use them." Shiro replied with a shake of her head.
She decided to hide some of the truth from Que since she didn¡¯t need to know that she had met the gods she looked up to in her world and had even pissed off quite a few of them.
Plus, she had obtained several god¡¯s blessings which included those from the 12 main gods. Since she couldn¡¯t use the power, there was no point telling Que.
[Hmm... I see... That¡¯s quite odd but it doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯ll activate. I believe the only reason it activated this time was due to the fact that we were close to one of Hades¡¯ most powerful weapons. If it was a weaker weapon, the reaction might be a little weaker.]
"Maybe. Do you think there¡¯s a chance of more corrupted creatures appearing where the Hamoena died? We didn¡¯t exactly clean up the goo and the spider was mutated in the end." Shiro reminded.
[Ah don¡¯t worry about that. I¡¯ve already sent a message out to my sisters and they¡¯ll deal with it. Of course, if we happen to see any mutated monsters on the way back, it¡¯s in our best interest to kill them immediately.] Que reassured as Shiro nodded her head.
Sneaking around a little at the bottom of the ravine, Shiro tried her luck with some of the weapons that might have been dropped here but none of them were up to standard. They were either average or too broken to be used which was unfortunate but she literally obtained the Chains of Hades¡¯ so she shouldn¡¯tin.
However, due to her actions of wanting to seek out some more weapons, quite a few of the monsters had returned and now flying out would be akin to seeking her own death.
[. . . .]
"Uff... Don¡¯t say anything. I should have just left when I had the chance." Shiro sighed.
[Hm??? I didn¡¯t say anything though.] Que replied with confusion in her voice.
"Ah nothing." Shiro shook her head. She was so used to Nimue or Madison turning to her the moment she made a mistake but now that she was here in this trial, it was kind of lonely without them.
Sighing softly while looking for a chance to escape, Shiro grabbed an old sword and chipped away at a small stone.
"This one¡¯s for you Nimue." Shiro muttered while carving the stone into a tiny table and flipping it with a flick of her finger.
Once she had flipped the table for Nimue, she stood up and unfurled her wings.
Stomping down, she soared up into the sky since this was the perfect chance to rush up. All of the monsters had mostly moved to the side now so she had quite arge opening to escape from.
However, this didn¡¯t stop a few of the monsters from charging at her.
Most of them were insectoid type monsters while there were a few who were more reptilian.
The closest monster that hade to hitting her was a winged beetle of sorts with an extendable neck.
pping its wings slightly, it propelled its head forward in an attempt to eat Shiro up in one go.
Quickly dodging to the side, she summoned her Chains of Hades and whipped it towards him.
*CLING CLING!
Rattling slightly from the shing of metal against carapace, corrosion marks could be seen on the beetle¡¯s shell as the first stack was applied.
But since she was forced to defend herself, it gave the other¡¯s a chance to catch up.
[Not good!] Que shouted out in a panic.
"No sh*t! I can see it for myself!" Shiro roared back as she dived down and narrowly dodged the of monsters crashing against each other above her.
Quickly switching her focus onto the beetle, she tugged on her chain and dragged it towards her.
Second stack, third stack, fourth stack!
Applying three more stacks in quick session, she twisted her body and kicked it as hard as she could,unching herself away from an attack that was directed to her back.
Summoning her bow, she quickly fired an arrow into the eye of a serpent that was hiding near the back that was trying tounch a sneak attack against her.
Looking at the situation from her familiar, all Que could see was a swarm of monsters rushing towards Shiro as she was forced deeper into the ravine with the surface getting further and further away from her reach. The worst part about it was that she couldn¡¯t do anything right now since she could only observe with her familiar.
However, the body of a monster suddenly flew past her and mmed against the wall.
*BANG!
Cracking against the jagged rocks sticking out the side of the ravine, green blood and organs could be seen sttered against the wall as the beetle like monster was killed in an instant.
Looking at the gap that this had suddenly created, Que managed to see Shiro standing in the middle of the monster horde with a malevolent re. Dark aura surrounded her body as howls of ghosts could be heard roaring out besides her. Her clothes were drenched with blood as a deep gnash could be seen on her waist along with several cuts and bruises around her limbs.
20 stacks!
+20% attack speed, 20% attack damage, 20% armour pration, 4% soul steal!
Gritting her teeth, she red at the monsters surrounding her and released as much killing intent as she could.
"Out of my way!" She shouted out before summoning her bow.
Notching as many arrows as she could thanks to the 20% increase to attack speed, Shiro fired the arrows.
*BANG!!!!
Exploding out like a st from a shotgun, several arrows could be seen piercing through the bodies of the monsters while one or two rapidly decayed thanks to the 4% soul steal that were triggered through sheer luck.
Using this opening to rush up into the sky, Shiro shrank her chain and returned it to her side.
When she was roughly 10 meters from the top, a serpent jumped up and tried to bite at Shiro¡¯s ankles before she could leave.
"Piss off!" Shiro red back in anger since she was furious right now. Not only was her outfit ruined, she had sustained quite a few injuries right now which meant she had to wait for some medicine to arrive in order to heal. Plus, with these kinds of injuries, it would be a miracle if she could actually make it back on time.
Flicking her wrist, she sent the chain flying towards the serpent as it mmed against its jaw, dislocating it in an instant before breaking some of the serpent¡¯s teeth.
Seeing this, most of the monsters quickly backed off.
Making it out of the ravine, Shiro didn¡¯t waste any time and flew towards the city of Vox.
Que managed to catch up besides her as Shiro only nced towards her.
"Order me some of the best medical ointments for one of the towns. I need to get this injury treated soon." Shiro ordered while ncing down at her waist that had been cut deeply. She was currently holding the wound with her left hand and tried her best to stop it from bleeding but it was rather hard to aplish that with her wings pping behind her.
[Mn, I¡¯ve already called for some. If yound in the town of Ophrit, it should be there when you arrive.] Que replied as there was some urgency in her voice since she knew Shiro needed help as soon as possible.
Remembering where the town was located, Shiro rushed towards its location as it was on the way to the city of Vox.
Chapter 697 Ophrit
Chapter 697 Ophrit
Landing roughly, Shiro furrowed her brows and coughed up a mouthful of blood. She was still a while away from the town of Ophrit but if she kept flying, she could almost pass out in the air and fall to her doom.
Sitting next to a rock, she nced down at the blood that was escaping from her wound and frowned.
[Come on, just a bit further. The town isn¡¯t too far away.] Que encouraged as Shiro only rolled her eyes.
"Yeah yeah I know, but it¡¯s kinda hard when I can barely feel my body." Shiro rolled her eyes before trying her best to stand up again.
Summoning her bow, she used it as a crutch and started to limp towards the town.
With a trail of blood behind her, her face was turning pale as her vision started to blur but Shiro gritted her teeth and powered on.
"Say, Que, will the medicine be there when I arrive? Because if it doesn¡¯t, I¡¯m actually gonna die." Shiro asked.
[It will. I¡¯ve paid extra to have them use it on you the moment they spot you.]
"How would they know it¡¯s me?" Shiro asked with a forced smile as she needed something to distract her so that she could keep going forward.
[There aren¡¯t any white haired girls on the brink of death other than you.]
"Fair point." Shiro chuckled which only caused her to cough up some blood.
"Soughing¡¯s probably advised against." She joked while taking another step forward.
[I think there are many things that should be advised against but yes,ughing is one of them right now but I doubt that¡¯s your main concern.] Que sighed.
"I know it¡¯s not my main concern but I need something to distract me ok? Having the constant thought that my stomach is f*cking bleeding doesn¡¯t help." Shiro forced a smile.
[Ah right, sorry.] Que nodded as having a distraction from your impending doom is rather beneficial in pushing yourself to go further.
Walking towards the town, she was roughly 10 minutes away when she copsed against the road \side.
"You have got to be kidding me." Shiro muttered as her consciousness became faint.
Gritting her teeth, she tried her best to muster her strength but it was to no use.
Suddenly, a figure appeared in the distance and was currently running towards her. Despite not being able to see his appearance properly, his figure reminded her of Nan Tian.
Sighing softly, she closed her eyes since her body had no more strength.
###
Waking up, Shiro snapped her eyes open and sat up straight. Summoning her chains, she red at her surroundings with caution.
"So aggressive for someone who has just woken up." Que sighed as she walked into the room.
"Oh it¡¯s just you." Shiro sighed before looking down.
However, when she saw that she was bandaged from the neck down, her heart stopped for a moment.
"Who bandaged me?" She asked with a low tone.
"Don¡¯t worry, it was just me. The guy who carried you here was the one who carried the medicine. While you were on your way here, I had been running here as well so don¡¯t worry, no one saw you but me." Que reassured as Shiro sighed in relief.
Moving her body a little, Shiro furrowed her brows when she felt some paining from her waist.
"Ah don¡¯t move too much just yet. The medicine is working away at your wounds but they don¡¯t magically close up immediately you know? It still takes a bit of time." Que stopped her from getting off the bed.
"How long was I out?" Shiro asked.
"Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s only been 3 hours. You need to recuperate a little then you should be back in shape." Que said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Do you happen to have an outfit for me? My old one was kind of..."
"Horrific, ripped and bloodied?" Que finished with a soft chuckle.
"Mn."
"I brought some spare clothes that I had lying around. They should fit you but they¡¯re a bit big in certain areas." Que said as Shiro tilted her head.
"What do you mean?"
"The bosom. Mine are a little...rger than average so the clothes might be a bit big." Que replied as Shiro sighed.
"Now you see, if you said this half a year ago, I would have hit you since I had the body of a child. Lucky you." Shiro shrugged however this response only confused Que.
How could one be in the body of a child half a year ago? Did they suddenly grow up?
If she had asked Shiro that same question, she would have said yes.
After resting in the bed for a little longer, Shiro got up and removed all of her bandages. Looking at her body, she sighed in relief seeing that there are no scars.
"Oh my, who were your parents? They must be very beautiful to have someone like you as their child." Que raised her eyebrows as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn my parents are indeed beautiful. As for their rtionship... It¡¯s a little too vigorous considering their age." Shiro¡¯s smile twitched slightly when she remembered that her father was punished with quite a long dry spell thanks to her leaving the house. Which meant that they were rather active before that.
Shivering from the image of her parents doing it in the bed, Shiro cursed her mind and started to get herself dressed.
The worst part was that her memory was basically perfect and she even remembered some scenes from her childhood when she idently walked in on her parents.
Before that memory could fully resurface, Shiro mmed the breaks and sent both thoughts into the deep crevices of her database where she hardly visits. That way, they won¡¯t be upying their mind.
After changing into Que¡¯s old clothes, Shiro looked down with a nk expression before looking back at Que.
"Are you making fun of me?" Shiro asked as the size of the chemise was quite big and the bottom reached her knees. It was like when a child borrowed their parents clothes and wore it for the first time.
Shaking her head with a small snicker, Que excused herself and went to make some food.
Sighing softly, Shiro put the rest of the clothes on. Once she changed into the outfit, she looked kind of like a nun mixed with a mage thanks to the robe. There were some essories on the outfit but not much.
Moving around a little, Shiro wasn¡¯t too bothered by the spaciousness of the chest since it was sorted out thanks to a few moreyers.
Walking into the kitchen, she saw some food set up on the table.
"I¡¯m surprised." Shiro raised her eyebrows since the presentation of the food was much better than the food she had seen on Earth.
"After spending a few hundred years as a librarian you¡¯ll figure out a few things here and there. One of the heroes of the past really enjoyed food so I cooked for her often." Que smiled and set the final te on the table.
"Mn, so do you own this house or something?" Shiro asked while ncing around.
"Nope. I borrowed it from this family for a day after paying them some money." Que replied as Shiro paused for a moment before shrugging.
If she was poor and someone offered her some money to borrow their house for a while then she would say yes as well.
"We¡¯ll start going back when we finish the meal. I¡¯ve got more bounties toplete so that I can actually afford the sword and armour." Shiro sighed.
"If you don¡¯t have enough money by the end of the deadline I can lend you some. Me and my sisters have been saving up for quite a few years so we have some spare funds. Though there are only a handful of people who are richer than us in the world." Que smiled.
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro somewhat understood how her party felt. You don¡¯t just casually announce that you¡¯re basically one of the richest people in the world starting with we have some ¡¯spare funds¡¯.
Finishing her meal, Shiro and Que started to make their way back to Vox.
Since it was taking a while, Shiro eventually picked Que up in a princess carry and flew the rest of the way.
Chapter 698 Nivlim
Chapter 698 Nivlim
After arriving in Vox, the first thing that Shiro did was go to the Mercenary Hall and report thepletion of her bounty with the Hamoena.
With some more gold in her pockets, Shiro was a little closer to affording the sword that Maria was going to craft but with the time that she had spent chasing the Hamoena among other things, she wasn¡¯t going to be able to make enough gold in the time to purchase the sword.
Eventually, she borrowed some gold from Que and decided to spend some of this time doing bounties on the side to pay off her debt to Que. Mostly, she would help out at the library and organise a few of the books that people forget to put back in the right ces since that was usually Que¡¯s job.
But now that Shiro hade to help her, she was given more chances to rest.
Today was the date that Maria had set for Shiro as her sword would be done today.
Tidying up the final shelf of the day, Shiro sighed in satisfaction before massaging her neck.
"I¡¯m heading out for the sword now." Shiro called out since she needed to let Que know that she wasn¡¯t in.
"Mn, be back soon. You still need to earn enough money for the armour." Que replied with a smile as Shiro shrugged.
For one of the richest people in the world she was awfully stringent on debts. Of course Shiro didn¡¯t mind since this was perfect for her.
Vaulting over the edge of the barrier, she unfurled her wings and glided to the bottom of the library before dashing out of the front gates.
Looking at this, Que only shook her head with a soft chuckle.
Making her way through the streets of Vox, Shiro arrived at the cksmiths and saw Maria waiting with a grin and a crystal case.
"You¡¯ve arrived." She nodded her head while ncing towards Shiro.
"Mn, I¡¯ve brought the payment too." Shiro smiled while patting her coin pouch.
"Leave it at the side. Comee, sit down and look at this de." Maria stood up and dragged Shiro towards her chair.
Setting the crystal case on the table in front of them, she flicked a few of the locks open.
"Do you want to know why I had to use a special case? It¡¯s because this sword is rather... aggressive. Your fighting style is adaptive and aggressive at the same time. To focus the strengths of the sword around these traits, I had to obtain some rather unique metals and materials for this. The oue was great but this kid is a feisty one." Maria exined and opened the case.
Just as she opened this case, Maria quickly tilted her head to the side as some hair was cut.
"Tsk, I¡¯m the one who made you yet you still strike at me." Maria clicked her tongue before presenting the de to Shiro.
The de was crafted from a strange ck marble like material that had a white mist pattern swirl across the surface of the material. The guard was made from a clear silver with a small red bead in the centre while the handle had several runic patterns etched on the side.
The overall size of the guard wasn¡¯t too big as it reminded her of a smaller version of the average guard.
Raising her hand, Shiro reached towards the de but immediately felt killing intent directed towards her.
However,pared to the killing intent she felt from Akram that the god yer had presented to her, this was a piece of cake.
Smirking slightly, Shiro focused her killing intent at the de before boldly grabbing the handle.
"Oh my." Maria raised her eyebrow in surprise, seeing as how Shiro was rather fearless in grabbing a de that literally threatened to kill you.
Feeling some cuts on her palm, Shiro increased her grip strength and shed the de beside her.
*BANG!!!
A split suddenly appeared in the workshop as quite a few of the cksmiths were started from the sudden sound.
Feeling several res at her, Shiro scratched her head awkwardly and apologised.
Looking at the sword, she understood that it was still trying to fight against her control.
"What did you even make this with?" Shiro asked after a short pause.
"Underworld Soul Metal. Ever heard of trials that took you to the underworld? Well the Underworld Soul Metal is a special material from the manacles that restrain the souls while they¡¯re being tortured. After being tempered by several soulsing into contact with the metal, it has be highly resistant to contact along with the fact that it can ignore armour to a certain extent since it aims for the soul." Maria exined as Shiro nodded her head.
Thinking about it for a moment, she flicked the sword up and grabbed it with her left hand instead as both the Sigil and the chains were on her left hand.
The moment she grabbed the sword, her Sigil lit up ever so slightly as only Maria noticed the mark on Shiro¡¯s hand.
Widening her eyes, she watched as a dark purple aura wrapped around the edge of the de.
"Interesting..." Shiro muttered since the chains were now connected to the sword from the guard.
If she willed it, the chains would disconnect from the sword and she could use the sword separately but it was better to leave the two together.
[Potential unlocked. Nivlim ¨C de of Hades, will have the properties of the Chains of Hades but with some bonuses.]
[Maximum Soul Steal chance increased from 30% to 40%.]
[Maximum Body Reinforcement increased from 40% to 50%.]
[Stack bonuses have been increased by 5%.]
[5 stacks = 15% Attack Speed, Damage and Armour Pration.]
[10 stacks = 25% Attack Speed, Damage and Armour Pration.]
[Stack effects will nowst for 1 minute and 30 seconds.]
Reading the description of Nivlim, Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise since the sword had calmed down a lot more now. While there was still some difort and a strange sense of stubbornness, it was at least willing to listen to her much like Error 403.
Unsummoning her chains, she watched as the sword also disappeared before a faint sword like Sigil flicked on her hand and faded away.
"Did... did you just turn my sword into a blessed weapon?" Maria asked while blinking her eyes in shock.
"Seems like it. Due to the metals that you used along with the nature of my current weapon, it seems like they were prettypatible. It even got a name now." Shiro replied with a smile.
Quickly rummaging through her things to grab a note, she looked at Shiro.
"Please take it out. I need to make a note of this!" Maria asked as her eyes were shining with excitement.
"Mn." Nodding her head, she brought Nivlim out and set it on the table.
"Recent discoveries. As this is the first of its kind, it cannot be confirmed just yet however the possibility is there. Should a cksmith use a unique type of metal or material that has a ratherrge connection with a certain blessed weapon, there is a chance for fusion. Current observable phenomenon that may cause this is for the weapon to have a kind of essence that lets it choose the wielder. When the fusion isplete, the weapon will apparently gain a name. As stated before, this is the first of its kind so this could be a unique scenario. The only weapon I¡¯ve seen is Nivlim, a de that had been fused together with a chain that seemed to be Hades¡¯ blessed weapon. Further observations will be held atter times when possible. Experimentations will be carried out." Maria muttered as she quickly sketched out an image of the de.
"Thank you for letting me record this. Do you have any other blessed weapons that you would like to test this out with?" She asked eagerly.
"Ah I do but it¡¯s a bow." Shiro nodded her head.
Hearing that it¡¯s a bow, Maria clicked her tongue and sighed heavily.
"Haaa... since it¡¯s a bow there¡¯s nothing that can be done." She muttered before looking away and rummaging through the rest of her things.
Taking it as her sign to leave, Shiro set down the gold on the table and made her way back to the library.
Unsummoning Nivlim, she had a bit of time before her armour was done so she could probably test out this de a few times.
Once she received her armour, she was going to see which Primordial Trial is best for her in her current state.
Chapter 699 Nivlims Power
Chapter 699 Nivlim''s Power
"Right so care to exin to me why you¡¯re joining? I thought you would send your familiar?" Shiro asked as she nced towards Que who wasing along with her.
"Well a familiar can¡¯t help you out if you almost die now can it? Afterst time, I think it¡¯s better for me toe with you on the journey." Que replied with a smile.
"I mean... what about the library? I thought the library is important to you?" Shiro asked.
"Oh of course it is. However, for the only person to have 6 slots without our direct interference along with two blessed weapons, one having improved itself, I can¡¯t let you die on your own now can I?" Que chuckled.
"I suppose not. Do you have anyone else to look after the library for now?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I have don¡¯t worry. They were the one who looked after it before you came since I can¡¯t stay in the library forever. However, since I hired you to pay off your debt, they were given some time to rest."
"I see... howe I never saw them then?"
"Because the kid doesn¡¯t like to talk to woman other than me. He¡¯s got a bit of a phobia. Thought that only applies to casual talks. He can do things just fine when ites to professional standards." Que snickered as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Then why doesn¡¯t he just talk to me with professional standards?" Shiro asked.
"Because you¡¯re too beautiful? I don¡¯t know how the mind of a young boy works." Que shrugged.
"Aren¡¯t you like a few hundred years old? Surely you would understand it by now."
"I¡¯m insulted. Don¡¯t casually mention my age like that ok? I may be old but it¡¯s still rude." Que sighed.
"I mean... I¡¯m also a few hundred years old if that means anything to you." Shiro sighed.
"You are? But isn¡¯t your body 18?" Que raised her eyebrows.
"Mental age, I¡¯m a few hundred. Body age I¡¯m 18 right now." Shiro replied with a casual shrug.
"I suppose that ounts for something at least."
"Mn, anyways, our target is in front of us." Shiro narrowed her eyes at the cyclops sitting on a fallen tree in the distance. Despite their distance from the monster, they could get a rough sense of how big it was since it was towering over the fallen three.
If she was to stand next to him, Shiro understood that she wouldn¡¯t even be able to reach his kneecaps.
Next to the cyclops was arge wooden club that had been tainted with a slight reddish hue. Most likely from the amount of people it had killed.
"You want a hand? Since I¡¯m here in person, I can do more than just watch." Que asked.
"Sure, I wanna see what you can do." Shiro nodded her head as Que smiled.
Massaging her shoulders, Que snapped her fingers and pushed out with her left palm.
Muttering something under her breath, a giant magic circle appeared in front of her as motes of light appeared around them.
Converging above the magic circle, the lightsbined into the shape of a giant golden lion.
"Go." Giving it a simplemand, Que jumped on the lion¡¯s back before charging towards the cyclops.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro only smiled as she unfurled her wings and summoned Nivlim into her hands.
Holding the sword with her right hand and the chains with her left, she followed behind Que.
Hearing the sound of approaching enemies, the cyclops nced back and widened its eye in surprise.
Standing up quickly, he grabbed his club and tried to swing toward the iing Que.
pping her hands together, Que pushed them out as arge hawk made from light sprang towards the cyclops and grabbed his wrist.
"Arg!!! Let go!" The cyclops roared out while trying to get the hawk to stop biting his wrist. Despite his power, the hawk secured its beaks around the wrist with a death grip, refusing to let go no matter no much the cyclops struggled.
mming the hawk against the ground, the cyclops saw its figure shimmer for a moment before returning to normal.
Understanding that he could probably destroy the hawk in a few more hits, the cyclops narrowed his eye and tried to m it down once more.
However, Que had already arrived with her golden lion.
*URAHH!!!
Roaring out with anger, the lion lunged at the cyclops, biting away at his neck as it tried to wrestle him down to the ground.
Stepping back a few times and stabilising his body, preventing it from falling, the cyclops red at the familiars and cracking his neck.
Pulling his head back, he was about to return the lion¡¯s bite when Shiro flickered next to his legs with her wings unfurled.
Smirking slightly, she twisted her body and threw the sword portion of Nivlim.
Watching it wrap around the leg, Shiro narrowed her eyes before tugging at the chains as hard as she could.
Due to the grass stones beneath his feet, the cyclops wasn¡¯t able to get a stable footing and fell on his back.
Getting the chains to retract, Shiro used the force to propel her body at the cyclops.
Unsummoning and summoning the de into her hand, Shiro took a deep breath and started to sh away at the fallen monster.
One stack! Two stacks! Three stacks!
While Shiro was applying the stack effects of her weapon, Que had her familiars attack the Cyclops while she herself was setting up a new spell.
If Shiro was to take Que back to Earth, the current spell she was preparing could beparable to something that a peak tier 4/5 being could cast with rtive amounts of ease thanks to the system.
ring at the cyclops, Que brought her hands down.
Suddenly, two spell circles appeared on either side of the cyclops.
Two golden serpents emerged and snapped away at his limbs, pinning him in ce.
Seeing Que summon familiar after familiar, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what it would be like should she fight against her seriously.
While she maybe able to get past most of the familiars, if Que was prepared and summoned them before hand, she could be in some danger since familiars like hers could be sacrificed endlessly.
Should that happen, all she needed to do would be to pin her down and she¡¯ll be dead.
To make matters worse, her stacks only apply one target before consumption. Meaning, getting her powerup from arge crowd would be hard since the target could just run away before she could get arge number of stacks.
However, that doesn¡¯t mean Shiro couldn¡¯t kill her. The only time she would have problems would be if Que pre-summoned her familiars. If not, she could easily overwhelm the librarian.
¡¯Goodness. When did I make a habit of simtingbat with those that I meet. I can¡¯t be thinking about killing them all the time.¡¯ Shiro sighed.
She was the mother of three children so she couldn¡¯t be a murder hobo all the time now.
But since she was in the trial, she can go murdering all she wants. Thinking of this, her smile slowly curved up into a grin as killing intent flowed out from her body.
Collecting 10 stacks of her Nivlim, Shiro consumed them all as a purple aura erupted out from her body.
+25% Attack speed, damage and armour pration!
Jumping up into the air, Shiro summoned her bow.
"Stay clear of the st zone!" She shouted out as Que immediately looked towards her and understood what she wanted to do.
Summoning a horse, she switched mounts and allowed the rest of her familiars to pin down the cyclops.
Since her stacks only worked with Nivlim, it meant that she couldn¡¯t summon an arrow and have the same effects, she has to use the sword.
Notching the sword onto her bow, Shiro narrowed her eyes and pulled back as hard as she could. With her chains having a length of 1 mile, that would be her range limit which wasn¡¯t too bad all things considered.
Suddenly, she felt Error 403 stir as the red circuits appeared on her arm.
Seeing the sword, it jumped around in excitement andtched itself onto the de.
*TSSS!!!
Sending sparks of electricity flying off the de while red circuits coated the surface, Shiro watched as the aura around her sword intensified.
Chuckling for a moment, she left go of the sword.
*BOOM!!!!
Firing out of her bow like a shot from her rail cannon, the sword turning into a streak of ck and red.
Smashing through the cyclops head without any problems, itpletely shredded up arge portion of his upper torso along with the familiars before burrowing deep underground.
There was no explosion of energy or aftereffects. Just pure brute power that destroyed everything it came into contact with.
Chapter 700 Faidons Armour
Chapter 700 Faidon''s Armour
Collecting the pieces of the cyclops¡¯ corpse that would serve as proof of subjugation, Shiro unsummoned her de with satisfaction.
With the addition of Error 403, its power had tremendously soared and she was somewhat confident in challenging the Primordial Trials.
While she could not use Error 403 with every attack, she understood how to charge the element so that it¡¯d activate with her next attack.
Each monster that she kills gives it a minimum of 1 energy. Powerful monsters can grant up to 25. Once it reaches 100, Error 403 will ¡¯wake up¡¯ and whenever it sees a powerful monster, it¡¯ll enhance Shiro¡¯s attack so that he could consume it.
As for what happens after he consumes it, Shiro didn¡¯t know but it didn¡¯t matter to her since there was still time to test that out at ater date. The most important task right now was to im her armour and attempt the trials.
During the time that she had been working at the library, Shiro had asked Que to talk to her about the Primordial Trials, what they give and their contents. Her reply to the question was "I do not know all of the details as the trials themselves change depending on who attempts it. It is not like the lesser trials that stay the same regardless. In terms of difficulty, I can tell you which is the hardest along with some of the basic benefits they give. However, the ¡¯key¡¯ ability they give when you obtain them changes as well."
With the five Primordial Trials being the hardest task in the world, it was only natural that each trial was tailored to the individual.
In terms of ranking, the hardest trail was apparently Nyx¡¯s, followed by Chronos, Ouranos, Tartarus and finally Gaia. Despite Gaia being ranked thest out of these five, her trial was still one that many struggled toplete.
Out of the five, her best chance was probably the one with Gaia but there was one problem. While Gaia was one of the easiest, the enemies there are heavily armoured. Even with Nivlim¡¯s effect of ignoring a certain amount of armour and granting armour pration, her overall attack was still a little too low for the enemies. It would take her forever to even kill one of them nevermind a whole bunch of them.
As for Tartarus, there were potentially some rather difficult obstacles aside frombat which was good for her but her current tool set might not be able to aplish that so going it was a bigger gamble than Gaia.
With these two out of the picture, her first primordial trial could only be between Nyx¡¯s, Chronos¡¯ and Ouranos. Nyx¡¯s and Chronos¡¯ were definitely a no go right now since the monsters and powers inside those trials were the extremes of the extreme.
Going there is literal suicide. There had only been 3 people to have everpleted their trials. Twopleted Chronos¡¯ while only one had ever managed toplete Nyx¡¯s. For the one that hadpleted Nyx¡¯s trial, he was essentially unkible even by those that had Chronos¡¯ power.
Since Ouranos was her only logical choice, Shiro had to make some preparations for that.
"Say, Que." Shiro called out.
"Mn?"
"Is there anything I need to prepare for Ouranos¡¯ trial?" She asked with curiosity since that¡¯s her next goal.
"Hmm... Nothing much really. Though I suppose you might want to improve your control over flying. From what I know, Ouranos¡¯ trial involves a lot of flying." Que replied since there wasn¡¯t much one could do to prepare other than to train. After all,pleting the trials were a matter of personal skill.
"I see. Hmm... Oh well. Once I get my armour I should be pretty set." Shiro shrugged and stretched her body.
Since the trials were a solo experience, she had to rely on herself once she entered the trial space.
###
Returning to Vox, Shiropleted her bounty on the Cyclops as the receptionist had learned to just provide her with the information about the bounty spots. After all, Shiro hadn¡¯t failed toplete one yet. Even hard tasks like the Mysterious Monster and Hamoena werepleted by her. There were a few Mercenaries that wondered when she was going toplete her other divinities since she had only ever disyed one and that was Nike.
Some even wondered about the legitimacy of herpletions but after the Mercenary Hall had confirmed the killing of each monster, their cries of doubt were silenced.
After killing the Cyclops, Shiro had actually opted out of getting more bounties since she needed to practice with her Divinity of Nike more along with her sword skills. Her next trial was going to be a Primordial Trial so she needed all the practice she could get.
For Nike, her flight was directly tied with her stamina and body condition. If she was very tired, her wings would slowly fade away. Therefore, tobat this, Shiro worked on increasing her stamina along with her proficiency with using her wings so that it didn¡¯t take as much stamina.
She would asionally fly through the city and turn through narrow corners at breakneck speed while making sure she didn¡¯t crash through a wall.
By the end of the wait for her armour, she had essentially mastered the art of flying through Vox.
Funnily enough, she had gained a nickname in the city since people would see her flying around every day.
Crazy flying woman.
She would hear mentions of this new nickname every so often whenever she flies through the city but she had gotten used to it now.
Flying through the town, she arrived at the cksmiths and saw Faidon hammering away at a new set of armour.
Waiting in the queue, she watched as he nced up.
"Ah it¡¯s you. Pass me your token and I¡¯ll go look for the armour." Faidon instructed.
Nodding her head, Shiro reached into her bag and pulled out the token that she had kept safe.
Checking the number, Faidon nodded his head and excused himself for a moment. Coming back with a dummy that was equipped with her armour, Faidon sat down and took a few notes.
"Do you need me to teach you how to put it on? It¡¯s not fancy like the sword that Maria gave you but it¡¯s above average." Faidon asked.
"No I¡¯ll be ok. Here¡¯s the payment." Shiro smiled and handed him the pouch with 200 gold inside.
Checking that the money was urate, Faidon nodded his head and gestured for her to leave.
Furrowing her brows a little, Shiro shrugged her shoulders. Between Faidon and Maria, Shiro much preferred Maria not only because her weapons were good but also her passion for the craft was impressive.
For Faidon, it seemed like he was only doing this for money as he was better than average. Hence why he was essentially mass producing better than average armours every day.
But since she didn¡¯t know his situation, she didn¡¯t stick her nose in.
Looking at the armour, she ced it in her pack before flying back to the Library so that she could get changed.
After putting on the armour, Shiro adjusted some of the pieces and nodded with satisfaction. The armour came in twoyers, the inner and the outer.
The inneryer of the armour consisted of chainmail that could be ced under the outeryer of her jacket since it would be rather ufortable to have chainmail constantly touching her skin. As for the outeryer of the armour, it was made up of 8 parts.
Two forearm pieces, two shoulder pieces, a torso piece, a waist piece and two armoured boots.
The armour itself wasn¡¯t exactly craved with art in mind since they were rather in and worked around efficiency rather than fancy looks. The fanciest thing that Shiro could pick out was probably the waist piece that acted as a second skirt since there was cloth attached to the armour.
Donning the armour, Shiro was slightly surprised about how light the material was.
Making some fine observations, she recognised them to be made from Sky Metal that¡¯s harvested from inds that have been suspended in the sky for a long period of time. The main properties of this metal is that it is lighter and more durable than average.
However, it wasn¡¯t on the level of a unique metal like the one that Maria had used. Regardless, it was still a good set of armour.
While Shiro was changing into her armour, a group of two people had arrived at the city with a small sheet of paper in their hands.
[Shiro]
Dead bounty ¨C 25 Gold.
Alive Bounty ¨C 40 Gold.
Chapter 701 Marias Discovery
Chapter 701 Maria''s Discovery
Now that she had everything prepared, or at least as much as she could prepare, Shiro packed her things up and got ready to make her way to the Tower of Ouranos.
"Are you leaving now?" Que asked with a small smile.
"Mn, I can¡¯t be wasting any more time. It¡¯s already been a few months since we saw the Ancient Terror so I should get a few Primordial Trials under my belt before I face him." Shiro smiled.
"Confident now are we?" Que chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Confidence is good but make sure you take care ok? Since it¡¯s a solo trial, the most I can do is wait for you outside with some food since the trial itself will heal you if youplete it." Que smiled.
"That¡¯ll be rather handy." Shiro replied since having some food after a long workout would be good.
"In that case then I¡¯ll let my familiar follow you for a bit. Once you enter the trial, I¡¯ll start preparing since it¡¯ll take you a while toplete it." Que smiled.
At this point, despite only having one divinity, Que had confidence that Shiro couldplete the trial despite the high difficulty mainly due to her weapon Nivlim. The fact that it can reinforce her body is extremely helpful along with soul steal which will kill the enemy instantly if she manages to rip out their soul.
"Alright, I¡¯ll talk to youter then." Shiro gave her a small wave before jogging out of the library.
ncing at the huge tower in the distance, a smile formed on her face since one of the things that she could obtain afterpleting the trial was equal toplete rule over the sky.
She would be able to fly without any restrictions such as stamina. In addition to this, she could also hinder anyone else flying and if they were weaker than her, she could even stop them from flyingpletely.
This would allow her to always have the high ground against her enemies since she can fly freely.
While she was thinking about the good things that she could get from this trial, she felt a pair of eyes lock onto her with mild killing intent and curiosity. As if trying to understand and observe her, they made no movements and only observed.
¡¯Hmm... strange. I haven¡¯t had this kind of stare for a while. Is there a bounty for me or something?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself since the ones that looked at her with such eyes usually had a grudge against her or wanted to kill her for money.
Narrowing her eyes for a moment, she wondered about their power since she might be able to deal with them properly if they only have two divinities. However, if they have three, this could be a bit harder.
Thinking to herself for a moment, she decided to just act neutral for now and do nothing that might give away her power.
Walking through the city, she happened to pass the cksmiths as she saw Maria out the corner of her eye and made contact.
"Oh Shiro! Comee! I want to show you something!" Maria shouted out before dragging her into the workshop.
"Err... what do you want to show me?" Shiro asked as she could still feel the gazes on her.
"You know how I told you that I was going to do more experiments with fusing blessed weapons and my weapons yeah?" Maria reminded with a shine in her eyes.
Shielding her eyes from Maria¡¯s enthusiasm, Shiro nodded her head.
"Well I haven¡¯t got my hands on a blessed weapon yet but I think I understand now. I¡¯ve made something I like to call an attachment or physical enchantment. You can either put it with a normal weapon or a blessed weapon to improve its power.
"There¡¯s only been one sessful reusable attachment while the others are one time use. If you want to remove it, it¡¯ll destroy the attachment." Maria exined while grabbing a spear and some chains.
Wrapping the chains around the body of the spear, Maria snapped her fingers and a magic circle appeared underneath the weapons.
Suddenly, a sh of light appeared in front of them as the two fused together.
Looking at the final product, Shiro raised her eyebrows since it looked like a normal spear only with another spear head on the bottom.
"Now look at this." Maria grinned and grabbed the spear.
Twisting the shaft of the spear, it suddenly split into three sections with chains connecting the pieces together.
Realising that it could convert between a normal spear and a three section staff with spear tips, Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Now here¡¯s what I mean by the attachment isn¡¯t reusable." Maria returned the three section staff back into its spear form and ced her hand over the top.
Creating a magic circle under it, she pulled back with her hands and a chain could be seen being pulled out from the body of the spear.
*CLING!!!
Shattering into ash, the chain disappearedpletely and the spear returned to normal.
"This is only a prototype but I suppose the reusable one is somewhat of a sess even though it¡¯s still a bit weak. I haven¡¯t tried it out on a weapon yet so I¡¯m not sure about how well it¡¯ll work." Maria shrugged her shoulders.
"Do you want to know how I made it?" Maria asked eagerly.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro leaned towards Maria and whispered in her ear.
"There are two people following me right now so are you sure you want to say the secret?"
"Ah don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not like they can reproduce it with their crummy techniques even if they know the process. All of it is about feeling and how well you can manipte the metal." Maria whispered back with a grin.
"Go for it then." Shiro chuckled and saw down on a chair.
Listening to some of Maria¡¯s experiments with different metals and theirpatibility to be made into attachments, Shiro was rather surprised by the progress she had made in a short time along with all the precious metals that she had used.
While they were talking about the one time use attachments, they eventually started to talk about the reusable attachment.
"Right then. The reusable attachment that I had created is this." Maria said before presenting a small box to Shiro on the table.
The box itself was nothing special but when Maria opened it up, Shiro raised her eyebrow in a mix of confusion and surprise.
"I know what it looks like and don¡¯t worry, it was something I forged." Maria reassured.
The item that Shiro saw was a withered finger that was made from a ck metal simr to Nivlim.
"As you can guess, it¡¯s also made from soul metal and the shape of this was caused by one of theponents that I used during the making process since I was focusing on making this attachment apply an effect focused on cursed effects, it just kind of became a withered finger." Maria shrugged.
"I see... I wonder if I can apply it to arrows." Shiro muttered while summoning her bow.
"You want to try it out?" Maria asked while gesturing towards her bow.
"I¡¯m not sure though. Since the properties are rather different? Artemis isn¡¯t exactly known for curses after all. Plus, I¡¯m worried that it might ruin this weapon if I did." Shiro frowned.
"It¡¯s a reusable attachment so you should be able to take it off right after." Maria persuaded.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro caved in and nodded her head.
"Is there a dummy that I can test the effects out on?" Shiro asked since she was also curious about this.
"Oh of course. Give me a moment, try not to fire the bow at full strength though." Maria nodded her head.
Bringing a steel dummy, she hammered it down on the floor and passed the withered finger to Shiro.
Taking a deep breath, she ced the finger on top of the bow and watched as a magic circle constructed itself around the bow.
Furrowing her brows, she watched as the finger sank into the body of the bow.
[Artemis¡¯ bow is now enhanced with the cursed attachment ¨C Withered Touch.]
[Withered Touch ¨C each of your attacks now corrode the opponent¡¯s armour and deal necrotic damage to them should the armour be ignored.]
Reading the notification, Shiro looked down at her bow and noticed the crystal body of the bow turning ck with neon green streaks through the body.
Pulling back lightly on her bow, she watched as a green arrow was formed.
*BANG!
Firing the arrow, she saw the steel armour slowly change colour as the surface was being corroded away.
Chapter 702 Bounty Poster
Chapter 702 Bounty Poster
After a few moments, the armour was entirely melted as even the dummy was gone. Thankfully, the effect seemed to end just before touching the ground, leaving behind a small metal stump for where the dummy was.
Before she could evenment on the attachment, Shiro felt a stab of pain in her right hand as her bow shimmered slightly and ejected the withered finger.
"Ah!" Crying out in surprise, Maria dashed over and grabbed the withered finger before it could touch the ground.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro nced towards her system.
[Due to the ipatibility, the withered touch shall be ejected. Fusion cannot be attempted again unless you wish to risk damaging the bow.]
Seeing this, Shiro sighed.
"Seems like I cannot fuse the Withered Touch with the bow anymore. Since if I do, I risk damaging my bow." She said to Maria who furrowed her brows but eventually nodded her head.
"I suppose that is to be expected." Maria sighed.
"So I¡¯m guessing Withered Touch only works withpatible weapons. Do you think I can put two attachments on one weapon?" Shiro asked while summoning Nivlim.
"Oh that could work. Are you sure you want to try though? I thought it would damage the weapon." Maria asked. She was all down for experimenting but she was worried about Shiro¡¯s reply since she was the one with the weapon in the end.
If a blessed weapon was broken, one that was enhanced by her own sentient de, her heart would hurt too.
"Mn, it¡¯s the first time so it should be fine." Shiro nodded her head.
Thinking about it for a moment, Maria handed over the Withered Touch once more.
cing it on top of Nivlim, Shiro watched as the same fusion process began but was stopped half way.
"Hm... seems like it cannot finish the process. Perhaps each weapon can only have one attachment. For Nivlim, your de is its attachment so unless I remove it, I don¡¯t think I can apply the effects of Withered Touch." Shiro shook her head and passed the finger back to Maria.
"I see... that¡¯s some valuable information. I¡¯ll need to focus on making some good attachments then. Since each weapon can only have one slot including blessed weapons, the attachment has to be top of the line with their effects." Maria noted some a few things into her notebook before shutting it close.
"Thank you for your help." She smiled.
"No problem." Shiro nodded head her with a chuckle.
"I¡¯m a bit of an experimenter myself so I understand your desire to see some newbinations."
"Oh? What do you experiment with?" Maria widened her eyes with at the pleasant surprise.
"Mostly some experimental weapons and skillbinations. I¡¯ll tell you more about them next time I have the chance but for now, I¡¯ve got some rats to deal with." Shiro chuckled.
Remembering that Shiro did indeed have two stalkers right now watching their movements, Maria frowned slightly.
"Do you want my help?" Maria offered."
"No I¡¯ll be fine, fufu." Shiro shook her head.
"Are you sure? I can fend for myself you know? I know I don¡¯t look like it but I have three divinities." Maria pouted slightly as Shiro paused in mild surprise.
"Are they all tier 1 divinities?" She asked.
"That¡¯s pretty rude. My third divinity is tier three Hephaestus, second is tier two Heracles and the first was Perseus." Maria revealed as Shiro paused for a moment.
"I see... Honestly I¡¯m surprised. But don¡¯t worry, I can deal with them." Shiro smiled.
"If you say so. If they give you any trouble juste towards the workshop and I¡¯ll deal with them." Maria shrugged before going back to her work.
Nodding her head, Shiro started to make her way out of the cksmiths and towards the city gates with the two mysterious people still following behind her.
Narrowing her eyes, she figured that she might as well travel towards the tower if she could. That way, she can make her way towards her goal while dealing with the stalkers behind her. The only two stalkers that she mildly epts in this life is Lucius and Nan Tian. And even then, she¡¯ll beat the crap out of Lucius if he stalks her again never mind these two f*ckers who had decided to end their lives prematurely.
Checking her mental map of the area, she understood that travel towards the Tower of Ouranos takes around two months or so by foot and a month by carriage. If she was flying at full speed while taking a few shortcuts thanks to air tunnels, she should be able to arrive within a week or so.
Standing on top of a boulder, Shiro nced off into the distance to see if there was anyone going to interrupt her before smiling.
"So are you going toe out? I know you¡¯ve been stalking me since the city. My question is why? After all, y¡¯all seem pretty eager to take my head." Shiro grinned and turned around with Nivlim in her hands.
Feeling the gazes on her flicker for a moment but no one came out, Shiro understood that they were probably not going to show themselves.
However, they had made one mistake and that their intent was clear as day, allowing her to roughly guess where they were.
¡¯They¡¯re probably newbies who thought my bounty was easy.¡¯ Shiro thought with a small smirk.
Unfurling her wings, she crouched down slightly before dashing towards them at top speed.
Seeing this, the two instantly recognised that she knew exactly where they were.
Reacting quickly, they tried to bring out their weapons but Shiro was faster.
Twisting her body, she threw Nivlim as hard as she could towards the closest assassin¡¯s head.
Raising his hand just in time, he managed to block her weapon with his sword but that was the wrong move. Grinning at his choice, Shiro activated one of Nivlim¡¯s effects which allowed her to shrink the chain whenever she wanted.
Dragging herself towards the assassins, she kicked towards the second assassin before grabbing the handle of her de.
Using her spare hand to wrap the chain around the first assassin¡¯s head, she flipped over his body before shrinking her chain some more.
"GAHH!!!"
Feeling the metal crush his throat, the assassin widened his eyes as tears started to form. Before he could even cry out for a second time, Shiro swiped her sword against the back of his neck, causing blood to gush out as this distracted the second assassin long enough for her to enter his range.
Kneeing him in the stomach, she stabbed her sword inside his mouth before dragging it up and over his head, cutting the upper half of his body in half as he kneeled down dead.
Flicking her sword, she wiped the blood off their surface with a small smile.
"Mn, this sword isn¡¯t bad. The armour pration is rather handy." Shiro muttered as this allowed her to kill them quickly without them being able to react. If they were able to react quicker and use their divinities against her, they might have stood a chance.
Unfortunately for them, if one wanted to go against Shiro, they¡¯ll need to mask their presencepletely. And even then, her danger senses were extremely keen. There had been very few moments where she was taken off guard during a battle.
[Er... huh... Well... That¡¯s certainly a brutal way of battle. I¡¯ve always wondered what you¡¯ll be like battling against humans since I haven¡¯t seen you do it yet but I have to say, I feel sorry for them. Unlike monsters, you seem more proficient in killing humans.] Que¡¯s familiar said with mild surprise since she had thought that Shiro would be on her way but instead, she had just killed two people.
"Well what can I say. I¡¯ve had more experiences with killing humans after all. The kill ratio between human and monster is rather... one sided I suppose?" Shiro chuckled softly while rummaging through their bodies to see what they could have that might give away their identity.
Hearing this, Que only stayed silent since she wasn¡¯t going to ask how Shiro had more human kills than monsters.
There were very few useful things other than some coin pouches, a set of emergency medicine and a single poster.
Reading the poster, Shiro frowned.
"What kind of bullsh*t is this?!" She gritted her teeth and scrunched up the paper.
[What¡¯s on it?] Que asked curiously.
"They gave thisdy a motherf*cking low ass bounty of just 25 gold dead and 40 gold for alive. Am I really weaker than a Minotaur? If anything, give me a 100 gold bounty or something. Tch, so stingy." Shiroined.
[. . .]
Chapter 703 Floating Archipelago
Chapter 703 Floating Archipgo
After their first incident with the assassins, Shiro continued to make her way to the tower.
Since she didn¡¯t make herself known, assassins didn¡¯te after her as they didn¡¯t know of her location, letting her reach the tower with ease.
There were a few monsters that happened to be in her way while making her way over but they were dealt with easily.
After getting Nivlim, her fighting prowess had soared dramatically and allowed her to disy powers simr to that of a mid to high end warrior with two divinities. Of course, she couldn¡¯tpare to thempletely since their bodies have been reinforced but she was quite close if she took into ount of the effects that her sword brings after consuming stacks.
She made a few short stops at some towns just so that she could fill her hunger a little but that was it.
Currently, she was just a little further from the City of Ouranos, a city that was specifically built around the Primordial tower.
Just because some people hadn¡¯tpleted this in a long while doesn¡¯t mean people won¡¯t try. It was always their desire to see if they were different from the others. If they were that shining star in the sky that could turn the improbable into a reality.
Most of the time their hopes would be shattered or they die.
Landing a little further away from the city, Shiro looked up at the giantwork of flying inds with wind tunnels and bridges connecting them to one another with the tower in the centre of this archipgo of floating inds.
"Where did you say the entrance of this tower was again?" Shiro asked as Que¡¯s familiar flickered beside her.
[There are a few entrances and the higher you go, the less tests that you have to take. At the top of the tower, I believe there is only one test and it¡¯s the hardest one but it¡¯s the easiest in terms of your stamina. Because think of it like this, instead of going through test after test, your stamina would be continuously drained at an exorbitant pace but if you climb up the sides, you can still conserve some of that stamina.] Que exined.
"There¡¯s a catch though isn¡¯t there?"
[Of course. After a certain distance, you will lose your power of flight and will have to climb up there by hand. The higher you go, the harder it is. When you feel like you can¡¯t go any higher, just put your hand against the surface of the tower and think about a door and it¡¯ll send you inside the trial at your current level.]
"Uff that¡¯s going to be rough." Shiro frowned while looking at the top of the tower that was far beyond the clouds.
[There¡¯s one more thing I want to tell you. Don¡¯t listen to the vendors when they try to sell you items to help you climb. The moment you use those items, the climb will be much harder.]
"Oh? And no one had thought of that?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
[Nope. If they find something that could potentially help them climb higher, they will grasp onto it. While you may make some improvements to distance, the rest of the climb will increase in difficulty rendering the items useless.]
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head and walked up to one of the air tunnels that led up to the floating inds.
Normally, she would want to stick around for a bit and find out a little more such as the armours or weapons that they used but she was already prepared so she didn¡¯t care about those kinds of things right now.
Landing on the cold stone pavement of the first ind, Shiro saw a few guards nce towards her before looking forwards again.
Walking towards the wooden board with a map of the area/city, Shiro saw that she was on the first floating ind called Iru.
The archipgo of floating inds had 7rge inds and quite a few small inds. Most of the smaller inds were used as housing while therge inds were stores and such. Naturally, there were also some houses here but they were most likely the most expensive since it was near the centre.
[While you go to the tower, I¡¯ll go talk to my sister for a bit.] Que informed Shiro as she nodded her head.
"One of your sisters is here?"
[Of course she is. I have quite a few sisters and they look after libraries all over the world.] Que replied.
"I see... just out of curiosity, how many sisters do you have?"
[Hmm... let¡¯s see... around 42, maybe 45? I forgot. I might have counted some of my sisters twice.]
Hearing that Que had around 42 to 45 sisters, Shiro paused in shock and immediately felt pity for their mother.
She had never given birth herself so she didn¡¯t know the pain but she didn¡¯t need to know to understand that their mother must have been in so much torture to squeeze 42 babies out of her body.
[You must be wondering about my mother right? Well to be honest none of us sisters remember our mother. We just kind of appeared and understood that we were sisters.] Que replied as she had seen Shiro¡¯s expression on many others when she told them about her family situation.
"Wait so you just... poofed into existence?" Shiro tilted her head.
[Somewhat.] Que replied. Despite not seeing her, Shiro could guess that she had just shrugged.
[Anyways I¡¯ll go look for my sister now.]
Nodding her head, Shiro watched as Que¡¯s familiar flew off into the distance.
Shaking her head slightly, Shiro looked for the closest ind to the tower.
Seeing that it was the ind called Ouros, clearly inspired by Ouranos, Shiro started to make her way to the ind through a series of air tunnels.
She would asionally nce around her to look at the scenery and saw that a few guards were patrolling around the inds with flight just in case someone fell off the edge despite barriers being built. People still get drunk up in the floating inds so they had to take care not to let anyone die in an ident.
Just as she was travelling through the air tunnels, Shiro saw two kids ying around then one of them tripped on their leg and mmed into one of the barriers.
"Ouch." Shiro couldn¡¯t help but pity the kid since that was a pretty loud m. If the barriers weren¡¯t there, he would have fallen off the edge with that trip.
Seeing the kid stand back up andugh, Shiro sighed softly and had a small smile on her face.
Looking up at the sky, she couldn¡¯t help but shake her head at the situation around Yin. She had grown up so fast in the span of a single year. From egg to a.d.u.l.t bird who could now cook.
Thinking about what life would be if Yin was a normal child, Shiro immediately dismissed that thought since she would have needed to abandon her if that was the case. She wouldn¡¯t have been able to look after her nor would she have been able to raise her properly with everything that¡¯s been going on.
While she may have missed out on raising Yin properly, she didn¡¯t mind as Yin could easily protect herself.
Remembering the Yin that she had seen in the future, Shiro smirked and couldn¡¯t wait to see her little girl grow up into a fully fledged a.d.u.l.t who didn¡¯t cause any trouble.
Picturing the smug Yin who ran into the rift whenever she said anything, Shiro shook her head.
As she was already thinking of a smug Yin, her mind couldn¡¯t help but drift off towards the thought of Tia.
Thinking back to the body of her biological daughter that she had inhabited for a short while, Shiro wondered why she would even give birth during the age of demons and gods.
Wondering about what she would even call her partner, Shiro furrowed her brows. She couldn¡¯t imagine herself acting shy while calling her partner by honey or darling. Just the thought brought shivers down her spine since it felt so weird for her.
She felt like she had to be top or else it¡¯d feel off.
Thinking about such steamy thoughts in the middle of the day, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but blush and quickly shake her head.
¡¯No lewd thoughts. Trial only.¡¯ She chanted to herself and made her way to the tower.
Chapter 704 Climbing the Tower
Chapter 704 Climbing the Tower
Arriving at the base of the tower, Shiro could see quite a few people preparing themselves to climb up to the top while others had already started. There were even some that entered straight away as Shiro was curious as to what they saw.
However, once she remembered that the trial is different for everyone, she gave up on the idea.
Walking up, she lined herself at the end of the queue since barging forward would be quite rude and she didn¡¯t want to be a public enemy.
"Ay beautiful miss, you seem like you want to try the primordial trial." A young voice called out as Shiro nced back to see a boy roughly 13 years in age.
"Mn I am indeed going to try the primordial trial. Is there something I should know?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Well I know some secret tricks and tools to help you climb higher. Do you want to know?" He offered with a smile.
"Mn... No, I¡¯m fine. Thisdy here wants to see how far I can go without the help of tools." Shiro chuckled.
"Oh... well I can give you information on how to climb if you want." The boy offered another service as Shiro could detect some anxiousness in him.
Smiling softly, Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure if you want. How much will this cost?" She asked.
"Not much, just some bronze." The boy brightened up as Shiro nodded.
Reaching into her pouch, she grabbed a few silver coins. While she wanted to give him a gold coin, the moment some unsavoury fellows saw it on a kid, they might try to take it from him since he was quite weak.
Crouching down, she slid the coins into his pocket without anyone else noticing.
"Miss this i-"
Stopping him before he could say anything, Shiro chuckled.
"Shh... don¡¯t let anyone know ok? For a youngd like you to want to sell information so badly you must be needing money right?" Shiro patted his head as the boy paused for a moment before tearing up.
Nodding his head, he tried to suppress his cries while wiping his tears away.
"So take this money and be careful ok? Others might get jealous."
Giving the boy a moment to calm himself, Shiro continued to wait in the queue.
"Sorry about that miss." The boy apologised as his eyes were a little red around the edges from the crying.
"It¡¯s fine.Now why don¡¯t you tell me some of the information you know about climbing the tower?" Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, climbing up the tower, you can actually fly up for around a third to half of the way up depending on how strong you are. Those that are very powerful can possibly fly up to the midway point before their flying divinities are forcefully taken away.
"Once that happens, you¡¯ll need to attach yourself to the tower quickly so the best choice is to probably fly close to the side. The closer you are to the top, the more monsters there are. While they may not be as strong as some of the monsters that you¡¯ve seen normally, their main goal is to distract you and make you waste stamina. Some might even try to drag you off forcefully so unless they start to grab at you, you probably should ignore them." The boy exined as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Oh? How do you know this?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I¡¯ve been eavesdropping on a few conversations and I¡¯ve manged to pick up on some of the key details." The boy replied with a smile.
"Impressive. Thanks for the information, take care out there ok?" Shiro chuckled as the boy nodded with a happy smile and jogged off.
"Good luck miss!" He called out.
Giving him a small wave, Shiro smiled softly at his direction before ncing back at the tower.
Narrowing her eyes towards the top, she wondered how long it¡¯ll take her to see the monsters.
With clouds in the way, she couldn¡¯t even see the middle section of the tower never mind the top.
Once she was at the front of the queue, Shiro stretched her body slightly before cracking her neck.
Crouching down, she cracked her neck and grinned.
*BANG!!!
Shooting up like a rocket, Shiro¡¯s body shot past a few that were climbing manually who started to curse at her since she almost caused them to fall.
Ignoring their cries, Shiro nced back slightly and could see the city going further and further away.
Just as she was about to turn her attention back to the tower, she could feel a resistance m into her.
Her flight speed was immediately slowed down as Shiro quickly adjusted herself and prepared to fly up once more.
While there is some resistance, it wasn¡¯t too bad as Shiro could still fly with a decent amount of speed.
However, after flying for a little longer with the clouds looking like they were not too far away, Shiro felt the resistance increase to the point where her flight was akin to a snail¡¯s crawl. Understanding that this was probably due to the fact that she only had one divinity and that her body hadn¡¯t been reinforced enough, Shiro summoned Nivlim and stabbed it against the side of the tower.
Making sure that it was jammed in properly, Shiro sat on her de and furled her wings up.
Resting for a moment, Shiro looked down and saw that she was very high up at this point. The city was just a small splotch at this point but she knew that she was still nowhere near the top.
Shaking her head, she stood up on her sword and made sure she was in afortable climbing position before unsummoning Nivlim.
Climbing up, she could see a few people ahead of her who had sweat dripping from their heads.
The back of their clothes was soaked through by the sweat.
Some of them gave up and summoned the door while others continued.
Ignoring them, Shiro focused on finding good spots for her hands and feet since this was essentially a giant wall climb only with monsters and trials.
Continuing to climb at a steady pace, she managed to pass a few of the other climbs who were struggling over whether or not they should stop now. After all, they needed to save their stamina for the actual trial itself.
Reaching the clouds, Shiro furrowed her brows while her vision was obscured. Without her vision, she needed to take a lot longer to find a good spot to ce her hands and feet.
Not only that, she could also feel a bunch of her muscles aching from the climb. Especially her back and shoulders.
Gritting her teeth, she summoned Nivlim and jammed it into the side of the wall.
While it was a little harder to jam it in properly this time, she was still able to do it thanks to the innate armour pration.
Sitting on the sword, Shiro massaged her shoulders a little along with her parts of her body.
Since she hadn¡¯t used any items yet, the difficulty of the climb was still at its lowest. She was tempted to use some medicine to relieve the fatigue but doing so would just be sabotaging herself.
Resting for roughly 20 minutes, Shiro stood back up and resumed her climb.
Unlike others, she could give herself a small break every now and again thanks to her sword so she really couldn¡¯tin.
Seeing her surroundings brighten up slightly, Shiro knew that she was close to leaving the clouds.
Mustering up some more power from within her, she managed to pull herself past the sea of clouds. Looking back, she shielded her eyes from the sun and saw a nket of clouds that were clouded with an orange hue thanks to the sun. Looking up, she could see a few bird like monsters that circled around the tower.
ncing past the monsters, she finally saw the top of the tower but with how far it was from her, Shiro wondered if she could even make it that far. It wasn¡¯t that she was giving up but with only one divinity, it might be better for her to enter the tower now.
Shaking her head, she decided to go as far as she could. Once she couldn¡¯t go up any higher, she¡¯d enter the tower.
Taking a deep breath, she dragged her body up and continued to climb.
Chapter 705 Test of Ouranos
Chapter 705 Test of Ouranos
The climb was getting harder and harder. Each step took a huge amount of effort for Shiro.
However, with the asional rest thanks to her sword, she was able to make it up to where the monsters were.
The moment they spotted Shiro, they opened their mouths and screeched loudly.
Flinching slightly from their cries, Shiro gritted her teeth and stabbed the sword into the side of the wall.
Standing on top of her sword, she summoned her bow and started to fire arrows at the monsters.
"Oh will you SHUT! THE! F*CK! UP!" Shiro red towards them and fired arrow after arrow.
Killing the ones that were shouting the loudest, Shiro unsummoned her weapons and started to climb up.
Sensing some danger, she grabbed Nivlim and jammed it into the side of the tower.
Grabbing onto the handle of her de, she swung herself to the side before grabbing onto the ledge.
Narrowing her eyes, she could see a giant eagle of sorts with its ws buried in the side of the wall.
¡¯The boy didn¡¯t mention the big ass mutated eagle that would probably kill me with one hit.¡¯ Shiro¡¯s smile twitched but her eyes shimmered slightly as she had just thought of an idea.
"Oi! Fat bird! Ya missed!" Shiro shouted out as she summoned Nivlim to her side.
Hearing her taunts, the eagle red towards her before attempting to grab her once more.
However, this time, Shiro was prepared.
Throwing her sword at the eagle, she watched as the chain wrapped around the eagle¡¯s body.
Activating Nivlim¡¯s ability of shrinking the chain, she dragged herself onto its back.
*KII!!!!!
Thrashing around in protest, the eagle tried to get Shiro off its back but failed as Shiro was grabbing onto her chains with all her strength.
"Calm down now, just help me get to the top ok?" Shiro grinned.
Wrapping the chains around its beak and neck like a leash, Shiro pulled back as hard as she could but noticed that she couldn¡¯t contest against its strength properly.
Thinking about it for a moment, a sadistic glint appeared in her eyes.
shing it lightly with her de, she saw a single stack appear on its body.
¡¯This will work!¡¯ Shiro thought with mild excitement.
While she was stacking up her sword¡¯s passive ability on the eagle¡¯s body, it was trying to throw her off with a few different attempts.
From thrashing around to crashing against the wall, it was a constant battle between the two as Shiro was too nimble for the eagle.
shing at the eagle constantly, Shiro could feel her fatigue catch up on her as her arm could barely move at this moment but it was worth it. After all, she had applied the maximum number of stacks on the eagle¡¯s body.
130 stacks!
Twirling her de into a reverse grip, she consumed all of the stacks and a purple aura exploded out of her.
+25% Attack Speed, Attack Damage, Armour Pration
+40% Soul Steal
+50% Body Reinforcement
Dragging the chains which acted like reigns, Shiro pulled back and forced the eagle to fly upwards.
Since her stacks onlysted around a minute and a half, she had to make the most of this.
While she was forcing the eagle to fly up, she summoned her bow and notched her sword onto the string like an arrow.
Pulling back as hard as she could, her bow¡¯s power also increased thanks to her 50% reinforcement of the body.
*BANG!!!!!
Firing her sword as an arrow, she watched it turn into a streak of purple and flew towards the top of the tower.
Seeing the sword pierce the tower in the distance, Shiro narrowed her eyes and tugged at the sword. Feeling quite a bit of resistance, she decided to risk it.
Wrapping the chains around the eagle¡¯s neck, she shrunk a part of it and started to strangle the eagle.
Activating the 40% Soul Steal, the eagle couldn¡¯t even scream as his body was reduced to ashes.
With her body now in free fall, she shrank the chain so that she could reach where her sword was.
*KRRR!!!
Feeling her body being pressed down by the pressure, Shiro gritted her teeth and held on tight to the chains.
As her body was being dragged up, several monsters tried to attack her but her killing intent managed to scare them off. For those that ignored this, she would kill them with her chain thanks to the 40% soul steal.
However, she needed to get to the top before her stacks ran out. Thankfully, she was able to reach her sword.
Looking up, she could see that the top was roughly 300 meters away from her and there was no way that she could get there without the help of her stacks. Thinking about it for a moment, she wondered what kind of pressure she¡¯ll have to face at this moment should her stacks run out and climb as high as she could in the remaining few seconds of her body reinforcement.
But even when her body was reinforced, she could barely make a single meter of progress.
With that in mind, Shiro stopped and summoned the door.
Diving in before her reinforcement ended, she jumped into the tower.
###
"Oh my~ Ouranos, She was quite creative with her tools wouldn¡¯t you say?" Nyxughed as she watched the old man in front of her narrow his eyes at the floating screens. Much like when she had brought Tartarus to have some tea, Ouranos was undergoing the same treatment.
A round of tea while watching Shiro cheat his tower.
"Oh don¡¯t pull that face. You have to admit that it was pretty impressive. Who would have thought that Hades¡¯ weapon would actually help her out like that. She is now at the second tost test of your trial. If shepletes this one, thest one is just a boss and as it is a one on one fight, I have my bets on Shiro." Nyx said with a smug grin while drinking some tea.
"IF shepletes this one." Ouranos grumbled.
"Oh shut it you old oaf. You better hope that shepletes it." Nyx rolled her eyes as Ouranos was clearly displeased by the way she addressed her.
"Leaving that kind of power to a single person is rather stupid is it not? What if she turns against us? What then? I say once she gets out we should take it for ourselves so that we can deal with this problem." Ouranos suggested when the lights around them suddenly extinguished.
"Oi. It was this thinking that had your children overthrow you in the past. How¡¯s the balls doing? Oh wait, they were cut off and turned into Aphrodite weren¡¯t they? You touch a single hair on Shiro and I¡¯ll do much worse to you than what Cronus did before." Nyx warned as Ouranos frowned slightly before crossing his arms and nodded his head.
Seeing this, Nyx smiled and returned the light.
"See? Just behave yourself and watch the things y out. So long as you don¡¯t go against Shiro or piss her off with your actions, she won¡¯t kill you." Nyx smiled.
"Are you telling me to bow down to a mortal?"
"Pft she aint mortal no longer. You forget she has obtained a spot in the hall of divine so she¡¯s essentially a demi god now at tier 5." Nyxughed.
Usually, one would only get a spot when they reach tier 7 but Shiro had actually obtained the spot two tiers ahead of time.
"Plus, aren¡¯t you curious about what she¡¯ll beter? The administrators even created a special rank for her after all." Nyx shrugged before narrowing her eyes.
Her smile faded away and her aura changed from the casual one to a serious one.
"The time of us god is over Ouranos. Either bow down now or be killed by her. It¡¯s your choice. In this new world, there¡¯s no need for gods like you, Cronus or Zeus."
Hearing this, Ouranos stayed silent before disappearing from his spot.
Shaking her head, Nyx yed around with a teacup before ncing towards the screens once more.
###
Rolling against what seems to be the ground, Shiro nced around her and saw that she was in the centre of a giant floating ind with quite a few columns pointing towards the sky.
There wererge statues along with buildings surrounding her as she saw a notification on her system interface.
[Test of Ouranos ¨C Floor 200]
Chapter 706 Guardian of the Pillars
Chapter 706 Guardian of the Pirs
Seeing that this was the 200th floor, Shiro furrowed her brows and immediately got into abat stance, summoning her sword by her side, Shiro panted slightly as her stamina was near bottom but since this was one of the test floors, she couldn¡¯t rx.
However, after a while of waiting around, nothing had happened which caused Shiro to frown.
Waiting a little longer, she unsummoned her sword and saw down, taking the moment to rest.
"Seems like I can do this at my own pace." Shiro muttered while ncing back at the system to check the details.
Since she entered this room and immediately saw test, she thought that she had to fight so she couldn¡¯t spare the time to check the details. Now that she knew there was no danger, she could read at her own leisure.
[Test of Ouranos ¨C Floor 200]
There are 10 pirs in this room. Each requires a specific key and key parts. You can gain keys from the guardians that are summoned by the pirs. Each guardian has a different restriction. Such as restriction of ranged attacks or restriction of magic.
Reading this, Shiro paused for a moment.
"Oh you¡¯ve got to be f*cking kidding me." She muttered.
Not only did she have to fight the guardians over and over again if she failed thebinations, each guardian had a different restriction which might make killing them a pain. Plus, since there were 10 pirs that had at least 10 keys and some parts, the possiblebinations for the password exceed 1 million. Trying to figure out the passcode out of 1 million possibilities was a pain in the ass especially when thinking about her current stamina.
The only thankful thing she could think of was the fact that there was no time limit however here came the next obstacle. Food.
There was the possibility of starving/dying before she could evenplete half of thebinations so it was the problem of should she do it at random or should she do it in order.
But just as she thought of this, she realised one point.
Would the sequence reset if the key is in the wrong sequence or would it continue until the sequence is finished?
If it was the first option, it was great since it eliminates a bunch of oues. If it was the second one, oh lord help her since she was going to die trying.
Spending around an hour to rest up properly, Shiro nced at all ten pirs and wondered which one was the starting one. Since there was a sequence, if her first one wasn¡¯t right the guardian would reset immediately.
Walking up to a random tower, she looked at the surface and saw a few runes etched in along with some patterns. Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to take a moment to analyse it first.
Running the text through several ¡¯decoders¡¯, which were essentially her figuring out what each rune means afterparing them to everynguage she knew, she managed to trante the text.
[Guardian of the Third Pir ¨C Rokar]
[Restriction of Magic]
"Hm... third pir huh? So this is probably not the first one of the lot." Shiro muttered.
Walking over to the first pir, she looked at the text.
[Guardian of the First Pir ¨C Turmac]
[Restriction of Ranged Weapons]
cing her palm against the surface of the pir, she watched as the runes lit up and the pir sections started to split apart, reforming themselves into a golem the form of a giant humanoid with four arms.
Shimmering slightly, the core of the golem focused toward Shiro as two of the armsunched forwards at astonishing speeds.
Widening her eyes, Shiro rolled to the side to avoid the punch.
*BANG!!!
As the fists crashed against the ground, chunks of the earth were dug up and collided against Shiro¡¯s body.
*KR!!
Furrowing her brows, Shiro could feel her bones teetering on the edge of being broken.
Clicking her tongue, she flipped herself upright and threw Nivlim towards it with all her might.
*CLANG!!!
Before the de could hit its body, a magical barrier flickered around him and sent the sword back towards her.
Catching the sword, Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Right, restriction of ranged weapons. Melee only."
Bringing her sword back to her body, Shiro crouched down and dashed towards the golem.
Phantom Path!
Flickering for a few moments like a ghost, Shiro reappeared just above Turmac¡¯s.
Raising her sword, she shed down before she dragged herself away from the fists that were trying to pull her off its back.
After she sessfully dodged Turmac¡¯s fists, she twisted her body and swiped horizontally.
*CLANG!
Leaving a sh mark on the head, Shiro kicked off its shoulder and made some distance before furrowing her brows.
Despite having made a decent cut, the reverberations in the sword backnding the hit was quite impactful in her hands and had almost caused her to drop her sword.
Looking back at the golem, she was d to see two stacks of Nivlim¡¯s abilities since this meant that she could finish it off with the help of the sword boosting her parameters.
However, ncing towards the third pir, she wondered about how the hell she was going to deal with the golem that didn¡¯t give a sh*t about magic. Which meant that her stacks wouldn¡¯t show up regardless of how many times she hit the golem.
Just as she was thinking about the third golem, Shiro sensed danger ahead of her as a shadow covered her body.
Widening her eyes, she threw her sword back as hard as she could and dragged herself using the chain¡¯s passive.
Barely getting out of the crash site, she gulped slightly when she saw the caved in ground. If she hadn¡¯t sensed the greetings of death, she would have most definitely died.
ring at the golem, she knew that she couldn¡¯t think of anything else right now.
Even with her sense for danger, she was barely getting out of these situations.
Usually, when she senses danger, she had a moment or two to think before moving. But for the golem in front of her, she had to move the moment she senses this. If she dallied, she¡¯d die. That was the difference in power despite her senses and experience.
The golem was fast and strong while her senses that could usually warn her ahead of time were now akin to someone suddenly shouting out duck as a branch was about to hit her head.
She had to act without thinking.
The moment her mind cries out danger she would have to throw her body as far away as she could from the source or she risked getting killed.
Taking a deep breath, she readied her sword and chain.
Crouching down, she dashed toward the death trap once more.
Dodging the initial punches with some mild scratches, she wrapped the chain around its arms and pulled herself up onto its shoulder.
shing at the head as much as she could before it tried to punch her, she continued to apply stack after stack of the swords passive.
Being patient till the 130th stack was ced, she was about to notch her sword into her bow when she remembered that he had a restriction against ranged weapons so doing so would be stupid.
Clicking her tongue, she consumed all the stacks and wrapped the chain around the golem while dodging its fists.
The moment the entire chain length was used, Shiro consumed the stacks and pulled as hard as she could.
"DIE FOR ME!"She roared out.
*CRACK!!!
Cracks started to form all over the golem as the chains continued to shrink, tightening around it like a snake that wrapped around its prey. The moment they exhale and their body shrink, the snake will tighten its grip.
Pulling as hard as she could, Shiro could tell that the golem was on the verge breaking.
Taking a deep breath, she gave it onest pull.
*BANG!!!!!!!!!
Once the first piece started to break, the other pieces followed.
Shattering the golem to hundreds of pieces, Shiro watched as the pieces slowly reformed itself back into the pir only this time without runes and a key floated in front of her.
Snatching the key, Shiro huffed and realised that there were grooves in the shape of the key on every pir.
cing the key into the groove of the first pir was about to walk to the second pir when she heard a crack and the key was reduced to dust.
". . ."
The runes reappeared and she could challenge the golem once more.
*BANG!!
"F*ck!" Throwing the sword down, Shiro vented her frustration before challenging the guardian once more.
Chapter 707 Completing the Sequence
Chapter 707 Completing the Sequence
After killing the guardian for five separate asions, Shiro had found out that the first key belonged to the fifth pir.
Marking down the first key as the fifth pir in her mind, Shiro looked towards the second pir for the second key.
[Guardian of the Second Pir ¨C Corvik]
[Restriction of Close Distance]
Pressing her palm against the pir, the pieces transformed themselves into a bird roughly 200 meters away from her.
The moment she tried to walk closer, the bird would flicker back.
"So I can¡¯t get closer than 200 meters? Tsk, troublesome." Shiro frowned but this was fine since she could fire her sword from her bow.
Summoning her bow, she felt danger as the bird pped its wings. Widening her eyes, Shiro quickly ducked behind the third pir.
*BANG!!!!! KRRRR!!!!!!
Watching the sharp of ice m into the pir and attempt to freeze it, Shiro furrowed her brows. If the third pir wasn¡¯t close enough then she would have been frozen into an ice statue.
Summoning both her sword and bow, she peeked around the corner and drew back on the bow.
Firing the sword/arrow, she watched as the sword stabbed into the bird golem¡¯s leg without any problems. While it wasn¡¯t a deep stab, it was much better than the shallow wounds that she could only inflict into the golem.
¡¯Compared to thest golem, the bird¡¯s defence is definitely weaker. Though normal arrows from this bow might not be as effective as the sword.¡¯ She mused to herself while ducking back into cover.
*BANG!!!
Right after she ducked into cover, another st of ice collided with the pir.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro saw that there was some ice already wrapping around the pir so she should probably look around for some more cover.
Checking around her current area, there were only a few one time use covers that would be destroyed with a single hit thanks to the bird. To make matters worse, she¡¯d only be able to use them once meaning she couldn¡¯t use them when she fought the bird again for the rightbination.
Meaning her most reliable source of defence was probably the pirs.
Narrowing her eyes, she decided to find out how many shots the pir could take.
Just as the hem of her dress touched the ice, a part of it froze up and broke off in an instant.
Widening her eyes, Shiro understood that even touching the ice is a problem.
"Tsk, why does every one of you f*ckers have to try to kill me in one hit? Thisdy is offended." Shiro muttered while guessing that the pir can only take one more shot before the ice wraps around to the other side.
Firing her sword, she ducked back into cover as an ice st followed soon after. With the ice closing in on her, Shiro dashed to the second pir and fired her sword on the way there.
Repeating this process until the final pir, Shiro had .u.mted 27 stacks so far. One more stack and she¡¯ll be able to have a 6% chance of Soul Steal along with a 10% increase to her physical parameters.
After a few short moments of firing and dodging, Shiro finally reached 30 stacks but most of the covers had been frozen so unless she can kill this one in one shot, she¡¯ll need to be careful of her next steps. Taking a deep breath, she consumed all the stacks and shot the sword at the bird.
However, just before the sword flew off the bow, Shiro felt Error 403 stir andtch itself onto the sword.
"Ah wait! You stupid element don¡¯t waste yourself on a weak mob monster!" Shiro shouted out but the sword was now halfway towards the bird.
mming her foot against the cover, she dragged the chains and tried to bring it back to her.
*BANG!!!!!
Feeling the tension of the chain shoot up in an instant, Shiro gritted her teeth and tried her best to pull it back to her.
Thankfully, she was sessful, and the sword returned to her.
Looking at the Error circuits which seemed to be pouting with its arms crossed, Shiro felt like a vein was about to burst.
"Listen here, you can go for big boss but that is not big boss. It¡¯s a mob enemy, you don¡¯t waste yourself on mob enemies." Shiro lectured as the Error flickered for a moment before retreating back to her hand, clearly upset.
Shaking her head, Shiro decided to talk to this Error of hers at ater date.
Notching the sword once more, she was about to fire when she felt resistance from the de.
"Youin too and I don¡¯t mind pulling you off the chain and breaking you in half!" Shiro warned as the de settled down instantly.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue at the two disobedient children, Shiro fired the empowered shot at the bird and managed to kill it in one go.
Jogging over, she imed the key before ncing back at the towers. Now that the bird was dead, the ice had now thawed and the pirs returned to normal.
Sighing in relief, she was worried that the ice would remain. If they did, it would have been a pain to have to find new covers.
Trying the second key on the first she watched as both the keys were reduced to ash.
*Sigh...
Sighing deeply, she massaged her shoulder and challenged the pirs once more starting with the first pir.
###
After hours ofbat with the asional rest in between, Shiro was now starving as her stomach was running on empty. Even with the help of her stacks, she was only able to get a small burst of strength which only makes her hunger worse.
If anything, the good news was that she had been quite lucky with some of the pirs, allowing her to find their spot quickly.
So far, the sequence is as follows.
First key in the fifth pir, second key in the seventh pir, third key in the first pir, fourth key in the eighth pir, fifth key in the second pir, sixth key in the tenth pir and the seventh key in the third pir. With three more guardians left, Shiro sighed and rubbed her stomach. Taking a moment to look around the ce, she wanted to see if there were any sources of food that she could potentially use otherwise she might have to be a herbivore and eat grass.
It was much easier to find food back on Earth since she could just kill a monster for its mana crystal. She didn¡¯t need to bother about the meat if she didn¡¯t want to. Another bonus was that the crystal was rather sweet too so it was essentially eating candy that would fill you up.
However, despite her searching, she couldn¡¯t find anything so she gave up in the end and returned to the pirs.
Steadying her mind, she challenged the remaining guardians on an empty stomach.
###
Thest few keys could only be called hell as she struggled fight after fight but she had finally finished thebination.
The eight key was slotted in the fourth pir, the ninth¡¯s key in the sixth pir and the tenth key in the ninth pir.
Just as she inserted the final key, she watched as each key cracked in two before more slots appeared on the pirs.
[Reconfigure the keys and ce them in the new slots. For each wrong configuration, a golem with the merged restriction will appear and ¡¯consume¡¯ the shards. Kill it to reim the shards.]
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro was d that she didn¡¯t need to kill the ten guardians all over again otherwise she¡¯ll truly die.
However, there was now the worry of whatbinations she should do. If shebined the ranged and the close ranged together she wouldn¡¯t be able to defeat the guardian at all since they¡¯ll be impervious to attacks.
But there was no absolute as even gods can die so there must be a trick to this.
Setting that aside for now, Shiro worked at figuring out thebinations of the keys.
###
After a while of tests and fighting, Shiro noticed a small pattern. For the configurations, the first piece used would determine its spot on the pir meaning she only had to move the second pieces around.
With this new information, it was much easier since it was essentially the first half of this test only slightly harder.
After a few more gruelling hours, she finallypleted the sequence and watched as a portal opened up in front of her.
Sighing in relief, she wanted to cry tears of joy but that should be saved forter since if she cried now, it¡¯d be tears of hunger!
Chapter 708 Shard of Ouranos
Chapter 708 Shard of Ouranos
Walking through the portal, Shiro had to quickly brace herself as a gust of wind almost knocked her over.
Looking around her, she saw that she was actually at the very top of the tower.
"So I was literally one test away huh? If I had been able to climb to the top when I was outside, it would have been much easier." Shiro muttered.
The top of the tower was rather bleak as there were only a few pirs around the edges of the ce which was connected by the domed roof that had carvings depicting the primordial god himself.
In the centre of this ce was a single empty throne.
Seeing her notifications blink, Shiro checked her system.
[Primordial Divinity of Ouranos]
Defeat the Shard of Ouranos and im the divinity for yourself.
Just as she finished reading this, Shiro felt the wind surrounding the tower increase as it blocked out the surrounding world from her view.
Furrowing her brows, she could see that the wind would definitely shred her to pieces if she so much as approached it. Turning towards the throne, she saw an illusionary figure with a set of glowing eyes.
Sitting on the throne, there was an air of aloofness which annoyed Shiro but she surpassed that feeling for now.
Raising his hands, the figure mmed it back down on the arm rest of the seat.
Without hesitation, Shiro unfurled her wings and flew to the side as quickly as she could.
*CRACK!!!!
Shattering the surface apart, Shiro couldn¡¯t see what had just attacked her but her best guess was probably the wind.
"Tch, an unseeable attack huh?" Shiro muttered with a frown. Since the tower changed depending on the challenger, it meant that this was made specifically for her.
¡¯No wonder. If not for my instincts, I doubt others could even sense the attacking.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since this was much faster than what she had to deal with previously.
Summoning her sword, she was about to dash forward when she was forced back by a second projectile of wind.
Clicking her tongue, she pivoted on her foot and notched her sword in one swift movement.
Firing the shot without hesitation, she watched as the swordunched towards the figure.
Snapping his fingers, the figure summoned a tornado in front of him which forced the sword out of its initial path.
With the sword being dragged into the tornado, Shiro had to quickly unsummon her sword so that she wasn¡¯t dragged along with it.
¡¯He has an invisible projectile that can beunched at high speeds and a tornado that can force my sword off the original path.¡¯ Shiro analysed while dodging projectile after projectile.
Furrowing her brows, she wondered how she could attack it effectively.
While Shiro was doing this, the world below her started to stir.
The moment she entered the top floor, the clouds were suddenly dispersed, allowing everyone to see the top of the tower.
Surrounding the top was a giant cyclone which blocked them from seeing what the top looked like but many could guess that someone had reached the top.
"Seems like it¡¯s begun. I¡¯m honestly surprised at how fast she managed to reach the top. From my estimations, she should have been forced to enter at the monster level since it would be hard for her to go any further." Que chuckled as she was currently sitting in a balcony with a woman who looked very simr to her.
"Seems like she took advantage of one of the stronger monsters to reach the top. Despite only having one divinity, she wants toplete a primordial tower. I don¡¯t know if I should be impressed or terrified. IF and I mean IF, she is able toplete this, there¡¯s a good chance that she canplete the other primordial towers. What kind of situation do you think a person with all five primordial divinities would bring when just one could make them a champion of the people with unmatched strength?" The woman asked with a small smile.
"I think a mix of both would be advised. After all, she is a woman who is more experienced with fighting humans than she is monsters. With what I¡¯ve seen so far during my time with her, she is not one to take kindly to those that try to force her into something that she doesn¡¯t like. Unlike the women we have seen previously, she is definitely not one to be looked down upon." Queughed.
Hearing this, the woman only raised her eyebrow before ncing towards the top of the tower.
After staying silent for a second, she sighed.
"Seems like a few organisations might be eradicated once shees out. They don¡¯t want a person with this kind of power to be outside of their control after all. Plus, it has been quite a while since they havest seen the power of one who had obtained a primordial divinity. They¡¯ll definitely underestimate her even when trying to overestimate."
Agreeing with her sister¡¯sment, Que waited patiently for Shiro to reappear with a giant grin stered on her face while saying that she hadpleted the trial.
###
*BANG BANG CRASH!!!!
Trying her best to dodge the figure¡¯s attacks while poking for more information, sweat was forming on Shiro¡¯s head since the information she had found out so far is still limited.
Aside from the first two abilities, the Shard of Ouranos had quite a few others up his sleeve.
The first one was something that Shiro just dubbed the restriction of flight since her wings would disappear should she try to fly past a certain height.
The second was that he was resistant against ranged base or normal attacks.
Shiro had discovered this when she tried to fire some normal magical arrows that her bow created but he would just ignore them and not even summon the tornado. The moment the arrowsnded on his body, it would bounce off before shattering into light.
To make matters worse, Shiro discovered that the figure had not moved a single step from his throne this entire fight. He had been using abilities after abilities rather than moving to hit her himself.
Understanding that this could be both a good and a bad thing, good since he didn¡¯t move and bad since he could be choosing not to move in order to lure her in, Shiro was cautious about approaching melee range.
However, if she continued like this, she would get nowhere since he didn¡¯t seem like he had a limit on how many projectiles that he could shoot.
Gritting her teeth, she decided to risk it and readied her sword.Normally, she would have consumed some stacks before starting this charge but since the figure had been redirecting her sword, she wasn¡¯t able to get a single hit in.
Crouching down, she used her Phantom Path and dashed towards him.
Seeing this, a smirk formed on the figure¡¯s face.
*BANG!!
mming his hands together, wind gathered towards the centre.
Opening his hands, apressed ball of air could be seen.
Snapping his fingers, he sent the ball into the centre of the room.
Seeing this, Shiro widened her eyes and quickly threw her sword towards one of the pirs.
Dragging herself towards it, she was just a littlete as the ball exploded into an orb of wind des that shredded the ground into dust.
"Sssss!!!" Taking a sharp breath, most of her back was injured as the armour wasplexly shredded to pieces on the back.
Feeling the coldness on her back, she quickly grabbed some fabric and tied her dress to prevent it from falling.
ring at the figure, she swung herself around the pir before firing her sword at him using her bow.
Deflecting the sword once more with the tornado, the figure watched as Shiro narrowed her eyes and pulled herself closer to him.
Furrowing his brows, he mmed his hands down as a tornado exploded out with him in the centre.
Shifting her body, she called back her sword before throwing it at the domed ceiling. Pulling herself over the tornado, she was safe in the centre due to the eye of the storm.
Making eye contact with the figure, Shiro released all of her killing intent and pulled back on her bow with Nivlim notched on the string.
"Error!" Shiro called out as red circuits exploded out of her hand with excitement.
Wrapping around not only the sword but also the bow, the circuits hummed with excitement.
Chapter 709 Primordial Divinity of Ouranos
Chapter 709 Primordial Divinity of Ouranos
Firing her sword, she watched as the figure tried to move out of the way but was a little toote.
*CRACK!!!!!
Stabbing deeply into his shoulder, Errorshed out with joy as circuits wed at him in a frenzy.
Seeing this, the figure frowned and mmed his hands down as a wave of air rushed outwards, mming Shiro into the ceiling.
"Uff!!" Feeling the air get knocked out of her lungs, Shiro gritted her teeth and copsed on the ground.
Trying her best to get up, her vision blurred a little as she cursed in her mind.
¡¯One careless move and I¡¯m in this state.¡¯
Looking towards the figure while trying her best to recover, she could see Error fighting with everything he¡¯s got.
Wrapping around the figure like a serpent, Error would try to invade its body whenever it could but he was having some difficulties invading the head so that he could get the killing blow in.
Taking a moment to recover, Shiro forced herself onto her feet and summoned her de next to her and charged towards the Shard of Ouranos.
As it was mostly focused on Error who seemed to be able to ignore most of his defences, the shard didn¡¯t notice Shiro approaching quickly with her injured body.
Jumping up, she pulled her arms back with as much strength as possible.
Phantom Path!
Shifting all of her force into her sword, she gripped it with both hands and shed towards the Shard¡¯s head.
*BANG!!!!
Colliding with the head of the Shard, Shiro was knocked back by a burst of wind but she managed to leave another wound.
"Error!" Shouting towards the stream of circuits, Shiro pointed at the shard¡¯s head which now had a sword wound on the cheeks.
Seeing this, the circuits glowed menacingly andshed out towards the wound without hesitation.
The shard wanted to raise his hands as defence but Error pried them apart before diving into the wound.
The circuits surrounding the shard¡¯s body disappeared as they started to attack his head.
*URAHHH!!!!
Crying out in anger, the shard mmed his hand down and summoned an array of wind bullets before aiming them at Shiro. Since she was the one who cast this ¡¯spell¡¯ if he killed her, the spell would end.
Sensing danger all around her, Shiro widened her eyes and quickly dashed out of the way.
Moving back asionally to dodge the bullets that he had fired to intercept her path, Shiro tried her best to stay alive while Error attacked him on the inside.
Seeing the pain on the shard¡¯s face, Shiro knew that Error was trying his best right now.
Dodging most of the bullets, Shiro was a littlete in dodging as one of the bullets hurled towards her head.
Gritting her teeth, she raised her sword.
Phantom Path!
Using the third move of her phantom path, Shiro tried her best to redirect the bullet but it was rather difficult since the force far exceeded her current limit.
The next best option would be to sacrifice some of her body in order to stay alive.
Shifting her centre of gravity, she allowed the wind bullet to strike towards her left shoulder and arm instead of her head.
*PUSHI!!!!
Shredding up a chunk of her shoulder along with her arm, Shiro shrugged off the pain and quickly dodged the next bullet.
ncing at her shoulder, she could see that some of her bone had been shredded up as well.
"Tch, rude." She muttered.
While dodging, she quickly created a support cast of sorts so that her arm didn¡¯t fall off during her dodges.
Now that she could only use her right hand, fighting the bow was not an option anymore.
Holding the sword with her right hand, Shiro stomped down and threw the sword towards the shard¡¯s head.
Despite dodging quite a few of his attacks, it seemed like Error was having some difficulty so Shiro was going to help it out.
Seeing the sword fly towards his head, the shard remembered what had happenedst time and summoned a tornado to redirect its path.
However, that was exactly what Shiro was aiming for. Tugging on the chain, she used the inertia to drag herself towards him before summoning her sword back into her hand.
Twisting her body, she stabbed towards the shards eye.
*PUCHII!!!
Digging into the eyes, Shiro twisted her arm and dragged out the eyeball with all her might.
Just as she did this, Error seemed to have gotten the encouragement that he needed as circuits exploded out of the shard¡¯s head, shredding up the rest of his body in an instant.
Hopping off the falling corpse, Shiro nced at Error who was currently bouncing around on her hand in happiness.
Smiling softly, she wanted to pat it when she realised that her left arm is disabled right now.
"Sorry, I¡¯ll pat youter." Shiro smiled softly as Error nodded his ¡¯head¡¯ before snuggling up to her face.
Resting for a while, it faded back into her hand.
Chuckling softly, Shiro nced towards the corpse of the shard and saw something shimmer within its body.
Walking up, she saw that it was glowing Sigil that had an icon in the shape of a gust of wind.
Raising her eyebrows, she saw her system get updated.
[You havepleted the Tower of Ouranos.]
[You have attained the Primordial Divinity of Ouranos.]
[Primordial Divinity of Ouranos]
-You can fly without limitation
-You can prevent others from flying. If they¡¯re as strong as or stronger than you, you can impose difficulties during their flight.
-You have control over the wind and can use it as a weapon to attack or a shield to defend yourself.
-You can reshape or add more air tunnels at will.
-Flying type monsters will submit to you unless they¡¯re stronger by arge margin.
-Wind magic is useless against you.
-You have some degree of control over the weather.
-You can apply one of these restrictions three times per day. (Restriction of Ranged Weapons) (Restriction of Magic)
-Restrictionsst for 3 minutes.
Reading all of the benefits that came with the divinity, Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise when the Sigil shattered into light before entering her body.
Receiving all of the things that she needed to know in her mind, Shiro looked at the wind surrounding the roof and snapped her fingers. Dismissing the wind, she walked to the edge and looked down.
Seeing quite a few people surrounding the tower, Shiro understood that this was probably not a good time to head down.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro snapped her finger and had the clouds obscure the top of the tower.
Stepping back lightly, she jumped off the edge of the tower.
Just as she was about to unfurl her wings to fly, she felt something stir within her as she was able to fly without unfurling her wings.
Raising her eyebrow, she smiled andunched herself a little further away from the tower.
Landing roughly a mile outside of the city, she made her way back.
There were quite a few people curious about her since there was a giant wound on her shoulder but Shiro ignored their stares of shock.
Walking through the city, Shiro wondered where Que was staying when a butterfly flickered in front of her.
Understanding that it was Que¡¯s familiar, Shiro followed the butterfly. Soon, she arrived in front of a rather beautiful house with a balcony.
Opening the door, Que had a smile on her face.
"Come on in, this is my sister¡¯s house."
Nodding her head, Shiro walked in.
"I must say, I was half expecting you to look worse than this." Que chuckled while pointing at her shoulder and the state of her back.
"What can I say? The trial wasn¡¯t exactly kind on me. This was the result of two hits. If any of them hit me directly I would have died." Shiro shrugged with her right shoulder.
"Eh? How is your wound on the back not a direct hit?" Que asked with confusion.
"The attack missed. This was just the result of the attack¡¯s effect." Shiro replied as Que widened her eyes in shock.
In the past, she had seen the heroes bearing simr injuries from direct attacks but for Shiro, the attack had missed. If they hadnded, Que didn¡¯t even want to think about the state that Shiro would be in.
"Now if you don¡¯t mind, can I get something to eat? I am starving." Shiro asked with a forced smile since she was on the verge of passing out from starvation.
"Oh of course,e, I¡¯ll introduce you to my sister too."
Before Que could lead Shiro further into the house, a beautiful woman approached Shiro.
"I wee you to my home. Owner of the primordial divinity." The woman bowed with a small smile.
Chapter 710 Tricia
Chapter 710 Tricia
Giving Shiro some medicine along with some food, the three of them sat down while Shiro was chewing on some bread.
"Right then, do you want to tell me what you received from your divinity?" Que asked curiously as Shiro nodded her head.
She didn¡¯t mind telling them since they were going to be helping her in terms of facing against the ancient terror.
"The divinity I received can be exined in three simple terms." Shiro smiled and raised three fingers.
"First, I can fly without limitations and prevent others from flying or at least hinder them if they¡¯re too strong.
"Second, I can control wind whether that be using it as a shield or weapon. Naturally, this includes the air tunnels.
"Third, I can impose two kinds of restrictions. Restriction of Ranged Weapons and Restriction of Magic. Meaning, magic from divinities will have no effect on me and people can¡¯t shoot arrows at me. Hell, they can¡¯t even throw swords at me since it counts as ranged." Shiro grinned.
"Wait hold on. So you¡¯re telling me you can stop others from attacking you from range? And magic doesn¡¯t work on you?" Que asked with disbelief.
"That¡¯s the gist of it." Shiro shrugged.
"And trust me, these two restrictions are a pain to deal with. I had to f*cking kill golems with the same power." She clicked her tongue remembering the annoying trial she had to go through before reaching the top.
Staying silent, Que didn¡¯t know how to respond as the previous heroes didn¡¯t have powers as crazy as she did. She had a nullification to all ranged attacks along with magic. While it may notst forever, it was still crazy for a mortal to obtain this kind of power.
"It seems like your trials have been rather difficult." Que¡¯s sister chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Oh right, I don¡¯t know your name even though you gave me medicine and food."
"My name is Tricia, the 15th sister." Tricia smiled.
"Tricia is it? Got it. Out of curiosity, what number is Que?" Shiro asked.
"Que is the 38th sister. She¡¯s one of the younger ones out of all of us." Tricia replied while taking a sip of tea.
"Hence why she can be rather reactive withments despite trying to act calm andposed most of the time."
"Oi, what do you mean act. I am calm andposed ok?" Que pouted a little as Tricia only shrugged.
"So do you already know me or should I introduce myself?" Shiro asked while grabbing another piece of bread.
"I¡¯ve heard quite a bit from my sister so I know who you are fufu. You are rather... explosive when dealing with people who go against you." Tricia giggled.
"Oh of course. They wanted to kill a delicate girl like me so it¡¯s their fault to begin with." Shiro shrugged.
"I don¡¯t think a delicate girl can cut a man in half before he can react." Que furrowed her brows.
"I have a good sword. It¡¯d be an insult to the craftswoman who made this if I didn¡¯t cut him in half." Shiro grinned.
"That¡¯s... True. Nivlim is the first of its kind after all." Que sighed.
"Oh? I¡¯m intrigued. You haven¡¯t told me about this story yet sister." Tricia asked.
"Well basically this girl managed to find a good craftswoman who was intrigued by her fighting style and crafted her a sentient de. When she received the de, the materials used to craft it resonated with her blessed weapons at the time and the two merged together." Que exined quickly.
"Ah, is this the same woman who had rumoured to be the creator of ¡¯attachments¡¯? An essory that one could put on apatible weapon so that its might is increased. I have heard some rumours about a withered finger attachment that can melt armour down quickly." Tricia asked as both Que and Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. Her name is Maria and she is indeed quite spectacr." Shiro smiled.
However, while Maria was spectacr, she couldn¡¯tpare to Helion in her mind. After all, her cksmithing friend had created her Goddess Raiment which was the peak of red grade armour hence why it was tagged with Red+ rather than the normal Red grade that she would see asionally.
Plus, Helion was also the one who helped her deal with Akram.
"So Shiro, is there anything that you¡¯re nning after this? Are you going to deal with the other trials?" Que asked.
"Hmm... Most likely. I want to deal with all of the Primordial trials before I get to dealing with the Ancient Terror. After all, with how you¡¯ve described him, I¡¯ll need to get as much power as I can. And while we¡¯re on the topic, has there been any news on him yet?" Shiro replied before asking about the current state of things.
"So far, nothing too... obvious shall we say? There has been an increase of famine near the outer edges of each section and I think the corruption saplings are the root cause. We still don¡¯t know the culprit for spreading this as the Ancient Terror is still focused on recovering and regaining his previous power. We¡¯ll need to stop the spread of the saplings." Que sighed.
"Is there a way to deal with the pool of corruption then? Last time I tried to approach one I¡¯m pretty sure I would have died should I have stepped any closer." Shiro shrugged.
"There is... but that¡¯s more on our side rather than yours. Plus, with your peculiar situation, I don¡¯t think it¡¯s wise for you to approach the pools of corruption. After all, you are a spirit and pools of corruption are highly toxic to you. Just breathing it in would harm you. Though I¡¯d say you should be rtively safe after you obtain your third divinity? Can you confirm this sis?" Que turned to Tricia who nodded her head.
"For a spirit like Shiro, she would indeed be rtively safe when she obtains her third divinity. However, that does not mean you can stand next to theke since you¡¯ll still be killed. If you wish to stand next to theke, I¡¯d say the 5th divinity should be the safe guess." Tricia replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Makes sense. Anything I can do to help while trying to get the divinities then?" She asked.
"There is one that I can think of." Tricia smiled.
"Oh? Do tell." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"You could potentially help us locate the culprit of these seed ntings since they¡¯re helping the Ancient Terror by spreading the corruption. If you can deal with the culprit, we can deal with the aftermath. Naturally, we can¡¯t expect you to turn all your attention to the culprit since he¡¯s only part of the problem. If you obtain all the divinities and suppress the Ancient Terror, we can take our time to deal with the culprit. We¡¯ll tell you whether or not his next expected target for nting the seed is near or not and if it near, you could potentially deal with it." Tricia exined.
"Hmm... sure. I don¡¯t mind." Shiro nodded her head.
"So which divinity are you going for next? You have Nyx, Kronos, Tartarus and Gaia." Que asked with interest.
"Hmm... Tartarus is a bit annoying since it¡¯s more obstacle based. Kronos and Nyx would be asking for death right now. I¡¯ll probably go for Gaia since my sword helps me ignore armour while this naughty child will devour them." Shiro smiled and urged Error to appear.
Watching the circuits appear on her hand, she gave him a small pat.
Seeing the sentient circuits that had suddenly appeared, Tricia raised her eyebrow in interest.
"Oh my. What is this?" She asked.
"Hmm... It¡¯s something that awakened within me I suppose. It¡¯s a stronger version of the corruption but not as... evil? I suppose." Shiro shrugged while ying around with Error.
"Pardon?" Tricia blinked for a moment.
"You heard her right. When she was affected by a corruption sapling, I watched the red thing consume it in retaliation." Que confirmed.
"Even my butterflies were consumed. I couldn¡¯t summon as many as I usually could and I haven¡¯t fixed that problem yet." She sighed.
Hearing her sister¡¯s confirmation, Tricia only furrowed her brows.
While this could be counted as good news, it could also be bad. The emergence of something stronger than the corruption could be worrying.
Chapter 711 Tower of Gaia
Chapter 711 Tower of Gaia
"So before I leave for the Trial of Gaia, mind telling me the current progress of the culprit who nted a bunch of the saplings?" Shiro asked since she wanted to know how much damage he has done.
"Well so far we have found signs of his meddling in around 29 towns spread throughout all of the sections. While it may sound small, you need to remember that this is essentially 29 corruption saplings that we¡¯ll need to deal with. And even if we kill them, they could transform themselves into pools of corruption instead. We¡¯ll need to take some special measures." Tricia smiled.
"Oh? What kind of measures are you talking about?" Shiro asked curiously.
"We¡¯ll interrupt the growth of the sapling before it can get to stage two and seal it away if we can." Tricia replied.
"What about after it blooms or is there nothing we can do after that?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm... there is. Que told me that you ran into a sapling that bloomed prematurely and became an iplete pool of corruption. You¡¯re lucky you stopped it from fully blooming otherwise monsters would start appearing from the pools. Right now I suppose the pool is slowly growing and festering into something but Que¡¯s already sent a message to our sisters so they¡¯ll be dealing with it."
"I see... that¡¯s a relief then. The dryad near that spot had thought that it was a normal dread sapling so we tried to deal with it normally. Oh by the way, the corruption sapling is still alive." Shiro took a sip of her tea.
"What????" Que turned towards Shiro.
"Yup. We didn¡¯t manage to kill it in the end. It released the pool and escaped by shrinking itself. We have no leads on where it could be." Shiro replied.
"That¡¯s... A concern." Tricia frowned.
"Ok, we¡¯ll try to track it down if we can but our main priorities are for you toplete the other trials, have othersplete the trials, the Ancient Terror and the culprit that¡¯s been spreading the saplings. I suggest you make your way back to the Section of Life so that you canplete the Tower of Gaia. The culprit should be roughly around the border between the Section of the Underworld and the Section of Time so I doubt you¡¯ll run into him." Tricia sighed.
"Alright. Que are you joining me?" Shiro asked.
"No since I have work here. However, we can notify my other sister there and she¡¯ll help you out. If you really want though I can keep my familiar with you." Que chuckled.
"Since that¡¯s the case then there¡¯s no need. My main concern was whether I can get first aid the moment I finish the trial. After all, you saw the state I was in just now." Shiro chuckled.
"Oh if you¡¯re worried about first aid then don¡¯t worry. My sister makes most of the medicines that we use so she can spare you plenty when you arrive." Que waved her hand with a smile.
Hearing this, Shiro understood why they were rich. After all, they produce healing items that help people escape from the edge of death. With such things being in high demand at all times, it¡¯ll be a wonder if they weren¡¯t rich.
"Ah right, before I forget, what¡¯s the current status with the Ancient Terror? Are you able to track it down?"
"We¡¯ve been trying to keep an eye on his tracks but since he can teleport himself short distances, it¡¯s hard to always have an eye on him. But there¡¯s nothing to worry about right now. We¡¯ve been able to have a rough grasp on where he is right now and he¡¯s making his way to the Section of Night." Tricia replied.
"Hmm... what do you think his goal is for him to go to the Section of Night?" Shiro asked.
"Not sure but I doubt it¡¯s for sight seeing. As the Section of Night is filled with powerful monsters, especially those near the tower, the Ancient Terror might be looking to bolster his ranks by corrupting them." Tricia shook her head.
"I see... Oh another thing, are there other shortcuts like the one on the Tower of Ouranos? You know, since this one allows you to skip tests so long as you climbed higher on the outside."
"There is. Each tower has its own way of skipping levels but the only ones we know for sure right now is the Tower of Ouranos and the Tower of Nyx. The others are still unconfirmed so I can¡¯t tell you how to skip their levels." Tricia shook her head.
"How would I skip levels in the tower of Nyx then?"
"By defeating the monsters surrounding the tower. The stronger the monster, the higher up you go. If you can defeat one of her champions, you gain the qualifications to challenge the final test within her tower as Nyx¡¯s trial prioritises the indomitable strength that suppresses everything." Tricia smiled.
Talking to the two for a little longer, Shiro received a new set of clothes along with some spares in her bag before leaving the house and proceeded to make her way out of the city.
Once she was out, she jumped into the air and flew towards the border.
¡¯I was stupid in my preparations this time. I didn¡¯t take into ount food since Nike¡¯s trial refreshed my exhaustion every time I finished something. The primordial trials aren¡¯t going to be that kind to me so I¡¯ll need to purchase some rations at the cities so that I don¡¯t starve.¡¯ She thought to herself since hunger was one of her biggest enemies in the Tower of Ouranos.
She felt like she could have passed out at any point since she was pushing her body past its limits while having nothing in her stomach.
Sighing softly, Shiro wondered what kind of ration would even fill her enough to keep on fighting.
Shaking her head, she looked at her bag and frowned.
She had gotten a spare change of clothes in case the monsters destroy a bit of it like in the Tower of Ouranos. Fighting nude wasn¡¯t desirable so having something to change into was wee but she also needed space for her rations.
¡¯I should probably get a bigger bag. Maybe some side pouches filled with rations. Ah but they might fall out when I fight.¡¯
While wondering about what she should do, Shiro sped her way to the borders.
Once she was in the Section of Life, Shiro wondered if she could create Air Tunnels in this section.
Closing her eyes, she pressed her palms together and created apressed ball of air.
Pushing it forward. An air tunnel was created.
"Hm.... This one will onlyst for a few days at most. If I made this in the Section of Sky, I¡¯d be able to make it permanent." She muttered before snapping her fingers and dismissing the tunnel.
Shaking her head, she looked towards the tower in the distance and sped towards it.
Thanks to her new Primordial Divinity, Shiro was now much faster than before, allowing her to travel through the Section rather quickly. However, even with this bonus she still took a few days before arriving at the city that was stationed near the tower.
With how close she was to the tower, the influence of Gaia¡¯s divinity was obvious as all the trees were extremely tall and almost seemed like it wanted to block out the sun. the asional peeks of sunlight that fall through all the leaves would illuminate the towns and cities in a celestial glow which made one feel at peace in this ce.
Seeing this, Shiro wouldn¡¯t mind living here peacefully with her children but knowing her bloodthirsty nature andbat addiction, peace was somewhat of a pipe dream.
Landing just outside of the city, Shiro nced up at the giant tower not too far from her and realised that there was a slight green tinge to the surface mixed with the grey of the tower walls.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro noticed that the green was actually tiny nts that had been releasing something into the air of which she could only guess was nutrients for the trees. After all, there had to be a source of nutrient for the trees otherwise they won¡¯t be this tall and lush. Just one of these trees could suck all the nutrients out of a ce never mind a whole lot of them like this. The Tower of Gaia was what kept them alive.
Quickly buying quite a few dry rations from the merchants, Shiro made her way to the base of the tower.
Chapter 712 Beril Part 1
Chapter 712 Beril Part 1
Looking up at the tower from the base, she ced her hands on her h.i.p.s and took a deep breath before sighing.
"Now then... how the hell am I supposed to skip levels." Shiro muttered while looking around her.
For thest tower, she had information on how to skip the tests so it was a breeze but the same couldn¡¯t be said about the Tower of Gaia.
Currently, the tower was surrounded by tall trees which obscured the top from sight while vines dangled from the branches. There were no gates per say on the tower and she doubted that climbing up would let her skip levels.
Standing there for a moment, she watched as a few people walked up and summoned the gate and entered the tower.
Scratching her hair, Shiro sighed before looking for someone she could talk to.
Looking around she managed to spot a woman carrying a basket of flowers and decided to try her luck.
"Excuse me?" Shiro called out.
"Good Afternoon. How may I help you?" Thedy smiled softly.
"I just want to ask but would you happen to know anything about the tower?" Shiro asked, pointing towards the base of the tower.
"Hmm... I do but it¡¯s all basic information that everyone knows. Since you look like you¡¯re wanting to give this tower a try, may I suggest you go to the Tower Research Hall since they have quite a few notes on the tower." The woman suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you very much." Shiro bowed slightly before walking towards the map.
Checking where the Tower Research Hall was, she managed to find its location quite easily.
Upon entering, she was immediately confronted by an angry young girl that barely reached her chest.
"What took you so long??? Que and Tricia said that you¡¯d look for me straight away but if that woman didn¡¯t tell you about this ce, you wouldn¡¯t have evene here!" She pouted.
The youngdy had long blonde hair and a pair of emerald eyes. She wore a beautiful dress much like the one that Que had only in a smaller size.
"Pardon?" Shiro paused for a moment before remembering that the two did tell her that their older sister was going to look after her when she arrived. She was also the one who makes the healing medicine.
However, looking at the kid in front of her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but doubt that she was the big sister. But when she remembered that she was also in the body of a child when she first woke up on Earth despite being quite old, she found it easier to ept.
"Ah I apologise. I was too eager with the trial and forgot that I should look for you." Shiro scratched her hair in embarrassment.
She had thought that the girl woulde look for her so she put it aside while focusing on the main task.
"Hmph, I forgive you. Quel and Tricia told me that you¡¯ve alreadypleted the Tower of Ouranos and got a pretty good divinity out of it so I shouldn¡¯t be too worried about you not being able toplete the Tower of Gaia. However, in terms of stamina I doubt you can reach the top. The Primordial Divinity of Gaia is one that focuses around defence and sustain. You draw power from thend to heal your injuries. For an offensive fighter like you, I highly doubt endurance is your best trait so we¡¯ll need to figure out how to actually skip the levels of this tower. I¡¯ve gotten all the information about the tower in this book. Check it through yourself and see if you can figure it out. There¡¯s also records of the past attempts if you¡¯re curious. If you can¡¯t figure it out, we¡¯ll have to stick with doing things the normal way." She exined while cing a book on the table.
"Ah right. If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what¡¯s your name?"
"Beril, the 8th sister. I¡¯m the one responsible for the main apothecary things such as healing ointments. I make the recipes and distribute them to the others for them to be produced. I¡¯m kind of a big shot." Beril smiled smugly as Shiro only raised her eyebrow.
"Right... Nice to meet you Beril. Name¡¯s Shiro." Shiro waved her hand lightly as Beril nodded.
"Mn, I know. Sit down here and read that book. While you do that I want to check your body for a moment." Beril signalled for her to wait on one of the chairs as Shiro only tilted her head with curiosity.
"Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s nothing bad. I¡¯m just seeing if I can give you some medicine to act against the pool of corruption since you spirits are rather delicate. There aren¡¯t many spirits that visit me so I can¡¯t exactly test out my medicine on them to see if the corruption works or not. After all, humans aren¡¯t very affected by such things but people like you are highly sensitive." Beril reassured while pulling open some trays and grabbing some packages.
"If you don¡¯t mind me asking, how do you sisters know that I¡¯m a spirit? I doubt I¡¯ve told you about it before." Shiro asked.
"Checking your physique. Spirits are different from humans physique wise. Right now, I can make this ce highly toxic to humans and nts but not for spirits. At the same time, I can make this ce highly toxic to spirits but not to anyone else. Much like the corruption I suppose." Beril nced back at her.
"Rather ominous." Shiro chuckled.
"Well medicine and poison are two sides of the same coin. Just as some poisons can heal, medicine can also kill. Once you be the master of medicine, it¡¯s easy to be a master of poison." Beril shrugged.
"Now sit still and read the book while I check your body to see if there¡¯s a solution."
Finding it rather funny that a young looking girl was ordering her around, Shiro nodded her head andplied.
Thinking back to her previous body, she wondered if this was how other people saw her when she was giving them orders.
¡¯They were quite lenient with me. I suppose the saying cute is justice isn¡¯t wrong.¡¯ Shiro thought with a chuckle.
Opening the book, she started to memorise all of the information in regards to the tower along with its rewards. Most of the people thatpleted it gained the physique and stamina to continuously fight against their enemies amongst other benefits that were unique to them. Amon theme between them all is the fact that they¡¯re able to meditate and be satiated of their hunger. However, this wasn¡¯t a solid fix as they still had to eat eventually since they were humans not nts.
As for the attempts of finding a way to skip the tests, they had tried almost everything within the few hundred years that the sisters had been around.
"Say, I just realised something. Why don¡¯t you sisters try the towers? You are very knowledgeable and it seems like you each have decent amounts ofbat prowess. Even Que, one of the younger ones, has familiar magic that helps her fight." Shiro asked.
"Oh that? We¡¯re not allowed to." Beril replied casually as Shiro furrowed her brows in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"We¡¯re not proper ¡¯humans¡¯ I suppose for ack of a better word. We¡¯re the chains of this world. We look after this ce and guide the humans along. Those that have the qualities of being a hero are raised up personally by us so that they can fight against the Ancient Terror when he wakes up from his slumber. In other words, we are objects and we cannot obtain the power of the gods." Beril replied while merging some liquids together.
"Have you ever tried to get the divinities?"
"We have but we were barred from even entering the towers. Thankfully, we were born with innate powers so it didn¡¯t matter too much. Which begs the question, why can you permanently effect Que¡¯s power with this mystery element of yours?" Beril suddenly appeared in front of Shiro and grabbed her wrist.
Looking into Beril¡¯s cold eyes, Shiro could see both anger and worry.
"Since this is something you were born with it means that my Error is consuming it at its source. Obviously it¡¯ll be gone. Should it be something like wind magic, it wouldn¡¯t affect you at all." Shiro smiled and replied calmly.
Narrowing her eyes, Beril let go of Shiro¡¯s wrist.
"You better keep that element in check since it¡¯s more dangerous than the Ancient Terror. If I find out it harmed any more of my sisters, I¡¯ll be your enemy." Beril warned before returning to her medicine.
Looking at her back, Shiro only smiled since she could see that they resembled each other quite a bit.
Shaking her head, she focused back on the book.
Chapter 713 Beril Part 2
Chapter 713 Beril Part 2
Once she memorised everything, she looked back at Beril who was currently examining her body with a pair of glowing eyes that had runes within them.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro waited for her to finish.
"If you have anything you want to ask, ask away. I¡¯m not so inexperienced that I can¡¯t answer some questions while working." Beril said while writing down a few notes.
"Oh it¡¯s nothing. I¡¯ve just finished the book and I noticed something about the previous attempts to find a skip." Shiro replied.
"Interesting. Mind sharing that with me then? That way I can note it down for future generations that want to attempt the trial after you¡¯re gone." Beril nced up at her before focusing back on her work.
"Well, the main thing I¡¯ve noticed is that most of them were looking for a challenge such as something to fight. But only one of them has tried the gentle approach. Since there weren¡¯t enough records of the gentle approach, I can¡¯t exactly draw an urate analysis but just this one result makes me think that the gentle approach is key." Shiro said as Beril focused her brows.
"The reason there aren¡¯t many records of the gentle approach is because the rest of them all had little to no effect. This one was the only one that sparked a little reaction but that was it." Beril shook her head.
"Then that¡¯s better. It means that they had to have done something right with this gentle approach." Shiro smiled.
"What about the more aggressive approaches? They drew out a bigger reaction from the tower so why do you think it¡¯s the gentle approach?"
"Because of what Gaia represents. Sure, the great Earth can swallow and kill but it is also the ce that houses us all and raises us. It is gentle in nature so we have to take that into ount when approaching the tower. The Tower of Ouranos focused on one¡¯s ability to scale higher up the side of the tower in order to skip the test while Nyx¡¯s involve killing monsters to skip. For Gaia, there¡¯s a big chance that it¡¯s a gentle approach that will allow us to skip levels." Shiro exined as Beril nodded.
"Do what you want as I¡¯m here to help I suppose. I¡¯ll provide you with anything I can such as medicine for when you enter the trials. You¡¯ll need them." Beril shrugged.
"Speaking of medicine, do you have anything to stimte someone¡¯s potential? Something that allows them to fight harder?" Shiro asked since something like that would be quite helpful.
"Nope. All I have are prototypes since they could explode your heart if you¡¯re not careful." Beril replied casually as Shiro paused.
"They¡¯ll explode the heart?"
"Yup. Tested it on some animals and watched them die instantly." Beril nodded her head.
"Wait I thought you weren¡¯t allowed to kill in this section?"
"You can¡¯t. I got a dryad¡¯s help. Didn¡¯t you get the same?" Beril looked up at her while pointing at her eyes.
"With these eyes, I can analyse your body in detail. And I must say, the amount of dormant sigils you have are rather... concerning. How did you even get so many in the first ce? Did the gods have a giant s*x party and you were born?" Beril asked with a frown.
"Rather crude but no, they did not do that. It¡¯d be more concerning if they did." Shiro shrugged.
"Don¡¯t count it out. Stories of Zeus are rather... l.u.s.tful." Beril replied after a short pause.
"True. What medicine do you have that can help in a fight then?" Shiro asked.
"I only have two aside from healing. One that can numb the sense of pain for a while and one that can heighten your sensitivity of your surroundings. The first one is dangerous since it also dulls your other senses such as hearing which could throw you off a little while the second one heightens your pain too. I don¡¯t particrly rmend trying either one out but they have shown promise in certainbat situations." Beril replied.
"I¡¯m a bit interested in the second one. My senses are already heightened beyond normal standards so having them increased some more would be interesting." Shiro smiled.
"Can you resist the pain then? If you¡¯re hit once, it could throw off the battlepletely. Even the smallest scratches hurt like a broken arm." Beril frowned.
"Oh I¡¯m fine with that. Before I do anything, you can heal broken arms right?" Shiro asked.
"Yes I can. Why do you ask-"
*CRACK!
Breaking her left arm by the elbow, Shiro presented her broken arm to Beril.
"See? My pain tolerance is quite high so I can ignore the problem of heightened pain.
"You idiot! You could have just told me!" Beirl shouted out while quickly grabbing some medicine and cloth from her tray.
"Well you might not have believed me so." Shiro shrugged but with her broken arm dangling by the side, the shrug looked rather... odd.
"I would have trusted you dumbass!" Beril retorted while making sure her arm is in the proper spot before applying the medicine.
"It should heal in 2 to 3 minutes. But what kind of dumbass breaks their arm so casually." Beril clicked her tongue.
"This one. But anyways, can I try the heightened senses one? What other bacshes are there?" Shiro asked.
"Nothing aside from feeling super tired afterwards." Beril replied while grabbing a golden liquid from one of her draws.
"This is the medicine. You can try it if you want and I¡¯ll make sure there¡¯s nothing wrong with your body."
Nodding her head, Shiro used her right hand to grab the drink and drank it all in one go.
The liquid was quite cool and it had a slight honey taste to it. But once it started to travel down her throat, it was akin to a ball of fire which tried to burn everything to a crisp.
"Interesting taste." Shiro raised her eyebrow since she could feel exactly where the drink was in her body.
"It¡¯s just how it is." Beril replied while checking her body.
"The medicine should be working... now. How do you feel?" Beril asked.
"Hm..." Looking around her along with moving her right hand a little, Shiro couldn¡¯t notice much of a difference.
"Nothing feels different." Shiro replied as Beril furrowed her brows.
"Tsk, seems like your body is always in a state of high sensitivity. The effects of this medicine is simr to a fever in which you be hyper sensitive for a while. It doesn¡¯t ¡¯add¡¯ on sensitivity so since you¡¯re always in this state, it makes sense that the potion did nothing to you." Beril exined before sighing and looking up at her.
"How the hell are you even this sensitive." Beril asked.
"Probably thanks to a martial art that I practice along with some other factors." Shiro shrugged nonchntly.
"What the hell is a martial art?"
"It¡¯s just a stylised way of fighting. Anyways, setting that aside, are you able to give me some of your best medicine? If I can¡¯t find the skip, I¡¯ll have to challenge the tower normally and having some healing items would be very helpful." Shiro smiled.
"Mn, if you had to pay me you¡¯d be owing me quite a few hundred gold by now." Beril shrugged before going through the other draws.
Packing all of her potions and ointments carefully into a bag, she handed it to Shiro.
"Do you want a better way to store these or is this bag ok? I¡¯m not sure how you fight so I don¡¯t know if this bag is ok." Beril asked.
"Hmm... probably not if I¡¯m honest. I do a lot of dashes and flips when I fight." Shiro replied.
"Then don¡¯t dash or flip and the medicine will be fine."
Nodding at her reasoning, Shiro found Beril rather fun in that she was quite blunt.
Looking at her head, the temptation to pat her hair started to grow stronger as Shiro was about to reach out when Beril moved out of the way.
"Only my older sisters can pat me. If you¡¯re done, you should see if you can find the skip for this tower." Beril frowned as Shiro nodded her head.
"If I find a skip I get to pat your head ok?" Shiro grinned.
"We¡¯ll see." Beril replied.
After all, if Shiro does indeed find the skip it means that people in the future can ess the final level without as much hassle as before.
Watching Shiro leave, Beril started to pack up her equipment.
Chapter 714 Spirit World
Chapter 714 Spirit World
After leaving Beril¡¯s house, Shiro made her way back to the base of the tower.
Arriving at the base, she looked up at the top and narrowed her eyes.
With the information of the past attempts ying in her mind, she furrowed her brows.
¡¯The first thing the person did was offer thendrge amounts of nutrients in the form of Liquified Essence. However, I don¡¯t have this so I need to find a substitute.¡¯ She thought to herself while thinking of what she could do.
Remembering that there should be a dryad in most forests, Shiro wondered where the dryad of this forest was.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro flew out of the city.
Once she was clear, she sat down on a branch and wondered if the spirits would arrive if she spread her aura out.
Focusing her power around her, a gentle current started to blow through the forest.
While she was focusing on spreading her aura, a few curious orbs of light flickered nearby but didn¡¯t make a single move.
Noticing their presence, Shiro didn¡¯t do anything since they¡¯d approach her once they feltfortable enough.
After a while, more and more orbs of light started to appear. Suddenly, a rustling sound could be heard as a young girl popped her head up from the bushes.
She had scarlet hair and a pair of aqua blue eyes.
"Ah so it was you!" She eximed in a hushed voice.
Looking around with wariness, the young girl dashed towards Shiro at impressive speeds.
Stopping her stream of power, Shiro looked at the young girl with confusion.
"Follow me." She ced her finger over her lips before tugging at Shiro¡¯s sleeve.
Nodding her head, Shiro followed the girl and ran deeper into the forest. While they were running, Shiro noticed that the forest started to look a little different from her mental map and understood that it was a situation simr to what had happened the first time she had met the dryad along with the Minotaur. This was a private space that was somewhat detached from reality.
ncing around her onest time, the girl sighed in relief.
"What were you doing releasing your power like that? Do you want people capture you?" The girl berated as Shiro tilted her head.
"Pardon?"
"You¡¯re a humanoid spirit aren¡¯t you? So shouldn¡¯t you know not to do that since it¡¯s dangerous?" The girl sighed.
"I¡¯m lost here. Who are you?"
"I¡¯m a humanoid spirit like you. I received word from the younger wind spirit that there was a crazydy making her presence known to the monsters so I rushed here as soon as I can before the monsters got you." The girl sighed.
"Where¡¯re your friends? I haven¡¯t seen you around so you¡¯re not part of the other spirits. You must havee from afar right? Why did you release your aura like that?" The girl asked.
"Ah I was looking for the dryad. Do you happen to know where she is?" Shiro asked.
"Of course I do. Why are you looking for her?"
"I wanted to ask her some questions. Can you enlighten me about what¡¯s happening? Where are we?" Shiro asked while looking around her.
"Right... you came from elsewhere so you wouldn¡¯t know about this ce. Hmm... you would have been here right when you were born but you would have forgotten. Ok, let me exin to you then." The girl nodded.
"First, my name is Ran and as I have said earlier, I¡¯m a humanoid spirit like you. Most of the spirits that are born near the tower are rescued by patrollers like me and we don¡¯t often see humanoid spirits like you since monsters will kill you before you can find your way back. Right now we¡¯re going to the spirit world since it¡¯s safe for us to talk there.
"You¡¯re probably confused about the spirit world and that so I¡¯ll exin that now. The spirit world is where all the spirits are born but after a while, they are ced into the material world. They¡¯ll need to survive there before attaining their humanoid forms. When they do, the aura they let out will notify the patrollers and we¡¯ll bring you back. The dryads are usually responsible for when the spirits are in their younger stages but they can¡¯t protect everyone. Once the spirit bes an a.d.u.l.t and attains their human form, it¡¯ll be our job to retrieve you.
"We need to retrieve new a.d.u.l.ts quickly since they aren¡¯t able to control their aura and monsters can easily detect them. To monsters, we are great sources of nutrition so they¡¯ll attempt to catch us whenever they can." Ran exined while weaving through a few trees.
"I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m like the rest of you. I woke up as a human and I had been living in an orphanage in the material world as a human." Shiro replied as Ran paused.
"Huh? But I can definitely tell you¡¯re a spirit. Strange... you shouldn¡¯t have had a human form straight away." Ran titled her head.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll go back and ask granny about you. She should know what to do with you." Ran shook her head.
Nodding her head, Shiro stayed silent for a moment. There were several questions she had in her mind but she set them aside for now and decided to ask the basic ones first.
"What¡¯s the spirit world for exactly?"
"A ce of safety. It¡¯s where you don¡¯t have to worry about getting consumed I suppose." Ran replied.
"Is there any other use for it or is it just a ce for safety?"
"Ha? Did you get brain damage when you were in the outside world? A home is a home, what else would you use a home for? War?" Ran looked back with confusion before continuing.
Meanwhile, Shiro suppressed the urge to say yes since her flying fortress was both a home and a war machine.
Following behind the girl, they eventually arrived before a rather small pond.
Letting go of Shiro¡¯s sleeve, she ced her hands in front of her and muttered some enchantments.
Suddenly, the surface of the pond started to glow with a cyan light.
"Jump in." Ran said while hopping into the pool.
Nodding her head Shiro followed after her.
Just as she jumped into the pool, she was immediately ejected out. Confused by this, Shiro thought something had gone wrong when she looked up and immediately noticed that they weren¡¯t in the same ce anymore.
Instead of the usual clear blue skies, it was now a mixture of purple, blue and green. There were streaks of starlight which stretched across the sky while the ground had a slight turquoise tint to the ground.
"Wee to the spirit world. I¡¯ll take you to granny so that she can bring you up to speed on the situation" Ran smiled.
Nodding her head, Shiro nced back and widened her eyes in surprise.
That was because not too far from her current location was the same tower that she had been trying to find the skip for.
Tower of Gaia.
Only this time, instead of having nt life growing on the surface, there were rows upon rows of carvings which Shiro recognised as Ancient Spirit Language that she had used previously when casting Wrath of Stars to bolster its prowess.
Furrowing her brows, she captured the runes and quickly tranted them.
The trantion was rather strange since they were quite broken up and it was hard to make sense of it all should she trante it literally. It was like a child trying to express their feelings butcked the proper words to do so. But if she was to interoperate some parts of the carvings, she could get a rough idea on what it could potentially be trying to express.
The first trantion caused her to smile since this could be her key.
[Offer Nutrients to the Great Land.]
This was the first step that the previous challenger hadpleted and managed to get a reaction out of the tower.
"What are you standing around for,e with me." Ran called out as Shiro nodded her head.
Walking towards Ran, she gave the tower another nce before focusing on Ran.
###
Watching Shiro enter the Spirit World, Nyx¡¯s lips curved into a smile.
"I was wondering when she¡¯d find the spirit World. The fact that it was next to your tower was quite a surprise wasn¡¯t it?" Nyx smiled at her new guest who was a woman with emerald hair.
Taking a sip of the tea, the woman nodded.
"Indeed. It should help her inpleting my tower. Though I must say, for a queen of the spirit race to not have contacted the Spirit World for so long is rather... abnormal. However, now that she¡¯s there, she should be seeing the effects soon. Even if she doesn¡¯t seed in this trial, when shees out, her prowess as the queen should increase by quite a bit." The woman smiled softly.
"Mn. I wonder what her true spirit nature is. Once she unlocks that, she can finally act as a proper Spirit Queen or rather, Spirit Empress. Though Gaia, what do you suppose she¡¯ll receive from your trial?" Nyx asked.
However, Gaia only smiled and watched the scene in silence.
Shrugging her shoulders, Nyx did the same.
Chapter 715 Lamira
Chapter 715 Lamira
Following behind Ran, Shiro saw a few glowing orbs of light which she recognised as spirits but they soon disappeared.
"If you¡¯re curious about that, it¡¯s because they¡¯re being sent to the material world. The dryads there should find them soon and look after them." Ran smiled as Shiro nodded.
"So who¡¯s your granny?" Shiro asked curiously since it sounded like her grandmother could help her integrate to this ce as a member of their society.
"Oh she¡¯s the current acting leader of Spirits. She¡¯s one of the oldest people around so everyone calls her granny. She¡¯s very kind to me though since she raised me from the moment I returned here as a young a.d.u.l.t." Ran exined.
Seeing that Ran had a rather lively bodynguage the moment she mentioned granny, Shiro could guess that she loved her a lot.
"I see. What does she do as the acting leader?"
"Well she oversees everything. With the help of others of course. She protects us in case monsters appear here since they slip through the gap at times and she also tries her best to keep everyone happy. Granny works super hard. I asked her why she was working super hard and her reply is always ¡¯I have to since I made a promise.¡¯ She still hasn¡¯t told us who she promised though." Ran sighed.
"I see... well that just shows that your granny is a responsible person isn¡¯t she? Keeping her promise through all the years." Shiro smiled.
"That¡¯s right!" Ran grinned.
Fighting the urge to pat the bouncing ball of joy¡¯s head, Shiro looked into the distance and saw a ratherrge castle surrounded by floating inds.
There were towers constructed on the inds and were joined to the castle using bridges. But since the inds moved around, the bridges had joins on each end to make sure it didn¡¯t break.
Looking at it from afar, it was akin to observing a finely crafted clock.
"Looks beautiful doesn¡¯t it?" Ran smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
However, the only thing she could think of when looking at the tower was how the intricate pieces could be converted into weapons.
Just looking at the design gave her an idea of a new flying fortress since it would be better disguised than herst design.
¡¯What am I thinking about? Not everything can be turned into a weapon you battle junkie.¡¯ Shiro berated herself with a sigh.
"We¡¯re approaching the gates now." Ran said as she jogged ahead and started to talk to a few guards.
Coming back, she grabbed Shiro¡¯s hand.
"Come on, they¡¯ve given us permission. Granny should be free right now so we can see her quickly."
Nodding her head, Shiro followed behind Ran while she gave her some advice. Such as where the shops are.
"Oh right, if any of the older spirits tell you to follow them because they have sweets, don¡¯t do it." Ran warned as Shiro tilted her head in confusion.
"Ha?"
"Well you¡¯ve been in human form for a long time haven¡¯t you? This means you probably haven¡¯t lived the full expected course of a young spirit so you¡¯re still a child despite your appearance and the older spirits will be able to sense that. There are some creeps so you want to be careful but there shouldn¡¯t be many. Granny deals with them the moment she finds out but they keep appearing." Ran sighed.
"I see..."
However, Shiro would be more worried for the older spirits since they might find an arrow up their a** if they¡¯re not careful.
"I wanted to tell you just in case. Anyways, we should be able to fly around now since we¡¯re close to the castle. Do you have a flying divinity or should I help you?" Ran asked as she unfurled a set of iridescent wings that glowed with a soft crimson.
"Ah I have a flying divinity so you don¡¯t need to worry about that." Shiro smiled and started to hover.
"Which divinity did you get? Don¡¯t most divinities give you wings so that you can fly? But you¡¯re using wind." Ran widened her eyes in surprise.
"Ah it¡¯s just a slightly unique one." Shiro smiled.
"Heh~ I see. Well anywayse with me. If I¡¯m correct, granny should be at the top floor right now." Ran grinned as she soared up into the sky.
ncing around, she saw a few of the spirits sigh and understood that this was probably amon urrence.
Flying behind Ran, she watched as the young looking spirit took a deep breath and charged at one of the windows.
"GRANNY I¡¯M HOME!" She shouted out.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro watched as a woman hastily opened the window before Ran could shatter it to pieces.
Catching Ran in a hug, the woman patted her head with a soft smile.
She had long silver blue hair that flowed freely and a pair of golden eyes. Her skin looked delicate and soft. Wearing a long white dress, the woman that Ran called granny didn¡¯t seem old at all. Instead, it looked like a woman in her prime.
"Ay... how many times Ran. You¡¯re going to give your granny a heart attack." The woman sighed while stroking Ran¡¯s hair.
"Fufu, it¡¯s fine granny. Anyways, I brought a guest. I found this child releasing her aura haphazardly in the wild when some of the spirits told me about her. She¡¯s a bit clueless so I brought her to you." Ran smiled as the woman looked towards Shiro.
The moment she saw Shiro, her eyes widened for a moment before bowing.
"This servant wees the Empress back to the Spirit World." The woman said as Ran paused in shock.
"Huh? Empress?" Ran tilted her head and looked back at Shiro who was just as confused as Ran.
"Pardon?"
Hearing confusion in her voice, the woman took a second nce at Shiro before sighing.
"My humble apologies. With my old age, it seems like this servant has recognised you as the previous Empress who had graced us with their presence. Please,e inside." The woman stood to the side as Shiro nodded her head.
Flying through the window, shended gently in the office.
"Granny what do you mean by Empress? Is this child someone important?" Ran asked.
Patting her head, the woman smiled softly.
"This child isn¡¯t any ordinary child. She¡¯s the next Empress of the Spirit race. Or rather, she is already the Empress. But I am confused, howe your highness has not awakened your true spirit nature despite being the Empress for quite a long time? It also seems like this is your first time in the spirit world as your body is still adapting to this ce." The woman asked with concern in her voice.
"Well... my circ.u.mstances have been... odd." Shiro smiled while sitting down on the sofa in the centre of the room with the table in front of it.
"I see. But before we go into detail of anything, can I ask which domain are you governing over? This one in the Forgotten Realms or the world outside of this ce."The woman asked with a sad smile.
"The world outside this ce." Shiro replied.
*Sigh
"It¡¯s a shame but I suppose the world outside is in more danger than this ce. It makes sense that the Empress would appear there instead of here." The woman sighed.
Sitting down opposite Shiro, she looked towards Ran.
"Can you get us some tea dear?"
"Ah, right away." Ran nodded and left the room.
"Care to introduce yourself and what this ce is? Since I¡¯m a rather new Empress and as you can guess, know nothing of this ce since this is my first time in the Spirit World." Shiro smiled as the woman nodded.
"This servant is called Lamira. I was the attendant of the previous Spirit Queen that was born in this world and have been acting in her ce under the promise that I will look after the spirits in this world." Lamira replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"And this is the Spirit World. This realm also exists in the outside world but it is ¡¯whole¡¯ in this ce due to the Primordial Towers. With their presence, this world is able to stabilise, allowing more spirits to be born and giving us a safe haven of sorts without having to survive out in the dangerous world." Lamira smiled.
Chapter 716 Spirit Nature
Chapter 716 Spirit Nature
"The main purpose of the spirit world is to help spirits but there are some benefits the material world may receive from us. One of which is that thend gets a certain amount of nutrients from us. You see, the energy that we emit as spirits is passively transferred to the materialnd. Any ¡¯excess¡¯ from this world is nutrients.
"The second purpose of this ce is to help spirits ¡¯refine¡¯ their divinities. As you know, to obtain a human form and return, a spirit must obtain a divinity first. Most spirits have amon divinity rted to nature and they can refine it however they want once they enter this ce. That way, they can stand against those that try to hunt them down when they leave this ce.
"For Empresses, they gain their ¡¯awakening¡¯ in the Spirit World but it seems like your circ.u.mstance is a little different than normal so you haven¡¯t gone through your awakening yet. Otherwise, you would have gotten your awakening quite early." Lamira sighed.
"Well I did ascend without even knowing where most of the spirits are in my world. One of my spiritpanions did tell me that most of the spirits have retreated to a Spirit Capital. It seems like they can move it though I¡¯m not sure." Shiro shrugged.
"Seems like the spirits in the outside world are having a harder time than us." Lamira forced a smile as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. They¡¯ve been oppressed by the other races so it¡¯s to be expected. The other races have their queens to boost their race but for the spirits, I have only recently ascended. Mypanions did say that the spirits should have received a boost in power thanks to my presence so we should be able to make aeback soon." Shiro chuckled.
"That¡¯s good news I suppose."
"Oh right, speaking of the spirit world, what¡¯s up with the tower and the things written on it?" Shiro asked while gesturing towards the Tower of Gaia in the distance. Since that was her main goal, she wanted some answers about it.
"Mn... think of this ce as a reflection of the main world. While you can¡¯t directly affect it such as ripping out a tree, you can at least affect it to some extent. As for the writing on the tower, that was because we¡¯re connected to Gaia since wee from nature. Naturally, since we have connections, we can see what humans can¡¯t in our world. For Gaia, she made the tower so that she can help us so naturally, she¡¯ll give us some hints. But just because she gave up hints doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯re easy toplete.
"Offer Nutrients to the Great Land, Cultivate the Blossom of Life, Nurture the Great Deity¡¯s Child. The three tasks that are written on the surface of the tower are not so easily aplished." Lamira shook her head.
"Hm. Do you know what it means by Cultivate the Blossom of Life and Nurture the Great Deity¡¯s Child?" Shiro asked.
"I have an idea. To cultivate the Blossom of Life is to provide life essence and nutrients to the sapling that you will receive from the tower upon giving it the required amount of Nutrients. To Nurture the Great Deity¡¯s Child is to keep it from dying. They may sound easy but I do not know of the hardsh.i.p.s that you may face since this is the tower of a primordial deity. Things are not so straight forward with them."
"Tell me about it." Shiro sighed since she still remembered how much of a pain Ouranos¡¯ test was. She almost died of hunger in there. Sure, the human body may be able to survive 60 days without food but since she was constantly fighting, she wouldn¡¯t even survive a week, never mind 60 days.
"What are your ns, your highness? What caused Ran to discover you in the forest?" Lamira asked.
"Well I was curious about the tower so I released my aura in hopes of the dryad finding me so that I can get some hints. While it may not have been the dryad, I¡¯ve gotten what I want along with some extra." Shiro smiled.
"Mind telling me how I can awaken my Spirit Nature along with what the previous queen did as a ruler?"
"With pleasure." Lamira smiled as Ran returned with some tea.
"Have you finished talking granny?" She asked.
"Mn, we have. We¡¯ll be going to the awakening pool." Lamira replied.
"Can I join?" Ran asked, feeling quite curious about the awakening of the one her granny called Empress.
Looking towards Shiro, Lamira seemed to ask for her permission with her gaze as Shiro nodded her head since she didn¡¯t see why not.
"Yes you cane with us." Lamira nodded as Ran smiled.
"Thanks granny. So what does it mean to be an Empress?" Ran asked, turning to Shiro.
"Hmm... I guess it¡¯s to be responsible for the people as well as their happiness." Shiro replied.
"Isn¡¯t that what granny does?"
"Yup. Being an ¡¯Empress¡¯ is just a title I suppose with proper acknowledgement." Shiro chuckled since that was the truth.
To be the Queen/Empress of a race just means you get some bonuses to help the race out in general along with a ticket to participate in the age of demons and gods. It doesn¡¯t prove anything since she was able to easily kill the Fire Queen.
Talking to Ran for a little longer, the three of them started to walk through the castle.
"The pool of Awakening is below the castle. This is where most of the power of this realm is concentrated and it helps the spirit be stronger/awaken." Lamira exined while on their way there.
During this, Ran had told Shiro some of the powers that spirits have received when they go through the pool.
Some gain control over fire which was rather dangerous and could only be found in spirits that have an aggressive temperament. Others would gain control over water or nature and this was the mostmon. There were other elements but water and nature were the dominant elements.
Walking down a set of spiral staircases, Shiro noticed a change in her surroundings as her mind seemed to be clear. It was like she suddenly understood where to go.
Pausing in her footsteps, Shiro breathed out softly as her warm breath became a puff of mist due to the low temperature of this ce.
Before Ran could say anything, Lamira smiled and ced a finger over her mouth before shaking her head.
Stepping to the side, both she and Ran watched as Shiro walked the rest of the steps.
Pushing open the gate, she saw a pool ahead with luminescent nts hovering above, asionally dripping liquified essence into the pool.
Walking up the pool, Shiro tapped her finger against the surface as a ripple spread outwards and ice started to crystalise in the air around her.
Standing up straight, Shiro stepped out and ced her foot into the water.
*KRRRR!!!!
Freezing instantly, a small tform of ice formed beneath her.
Taking another step, another tform was created. Walking to the centre of the pool, Shiro opened her mouth and muttered a word that seemed to havee from the Ancient Spirit Language.
Just as she muttered this word, runes started to glow around the cavern as a stream of energy surged around her.
As the energy wrapped around Shiro, she swiped her hand out and a pulse of energy bloomed from her.
*KRRR!!!!
Freezing the entire like, Shiro now stood in the centre with a ck dress that was lined with a spiritual green that had blue hues near the edges. Around her was a thin veil that seemed like it wasa mix between cold mist and silk.
Trailing behind her was a veil that faded into a crystalised crown that hovered above her hair.
[True Spirit Nature unlocked.]
[Due to the title: Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), it shall be integrated with your True Spirit Nature.]
[True Spirit Nature ¨C Frigid Soul Keeper]
Simr to the power of Hades, your influences stretched to the soul so that none can escape your grasp. Your ice will seal them in an icy prison so that you may decide what you want to do with them.
Due to the nature of your frozen hell series, so long as you can imagine the spell, it¡¯s creation will be guaranteed as long as it is within your current scope of power.
Reading this description, Shiro raised her finger and drew a circle in the air.
Suddenly, a ring of green mes exploded out roughly 50 meters away from her with her in the centre.
Soon, butterflies started to appear as they were made from this green me. Leaving behind a faint trail, one drifted onto Shiro¡¯s finger.
[Soul Reaper Butterflies.]
These butterflies are attracted by the scent of a ¡¯soul.¡¯ Should one attach onto you, it will refuse to let go and your body will slowly be chilled by its presence. Once enough Soul Reaper Butterfliesnd on you, you will be frozen in an icy prison and your soul will be dragged away by these Reapers and presented to their Empress.
Chapter 717 Hints About Gaias Tower
Chapter 717 Hints About Gaia''s Tower
Looking at the Soul Reaper Butterflies with a small smile, Shiro flexed her fingers and shattered them all into shards of ice which melted soon after.
Breathing out softly, Shiro dismissed her Spirit Nature and she returned to her normal form.
However, just as she did this, she noticed that a new bar had appeared on her system.
[Spirit Nature ¨C 95/100]
Tapping on the numbers, she saw what they meant.
[When you enter your Spirit Nature form, this energy will drain at a rate of 1 energy per second regardless of spell use. It recharges at a rate of 1 energy per hour.]
[In this form, you gain the same benefits of an additional divinity.]
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro was quite happy with her Spirit Nature. Not only did it give her some interesting abilities of being able to cast a spell so long as she can imagine it and that it¡¯s within her scope of power, but it¡¯s also able to give her the benefits of another divinity.
Which meant that when she has this activated, it¡¯s simr to havingpleted a third tower for additional power.
Feeling rather happy with herself, she walked back to where Lamira and Ran were since the pool was still frozen thanks to her previous action.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro entered her form once more and quickly thawed the ice before returning to normal.
¡¯Hmm just a simple move like that took me 2 energy. I need to be careful of when I use this since it¡¯ll take 7 hours to regenerate everything that I had used.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
"Congrattions your highness." Lamira called out with a smile as Shiro looked back to her.
"Thank you. This wille in handy in the future." Shiro chuckled.
"Wow what do those butterflies do?" Ran asked curiously.
"They steal your soul." Shiro grinned as Ran tilted her head.
"Can you do that?"
"Of course I can. I¡¯ve even got Hades¡¯ weapon to help me." Shiro shrugged before summoning Nivlim.
"This weapon here can help me steal souls." She exined.
"Can you drag out my soul? I wonder what I look like." Ran mused as Shiro couldn¡¯t help butugh.
"You don¡¯t want people to drag your soul out since it¡¯s the same as them killing you." Shiro sneaked in a pat on the head as they walked back up the stairs.
"Now that you have awakened, is there anything you wish to do in this realm?" Lamira asked.
"Not really but do enlighten me on what I could do that may boost my power. I¡¯ll be needing it." Shiro shrugged.
Thinking about it for a moment, Lamira shook her head.
"There aren¡¯t many ways for Spirits to get stronger aside from enhancing/awakening their spirit nature. Since you¡¯re the queen, your spirit nature is different frommon spirits as yours is powerful from the start. Further enhancements are difficult and not something you can achieve in short periods of time. Perhaps you¡¯ll have more sess when you go back to your world." Lamira replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Hmm... in that case then are you able to help me with the first task on the tower? The one that says provide nutrients." Shiro asked.
"Oh that, we provide nutrients daily so we¡¯ve longpleted that task. You just need toplete thest two and you can do that in here so that we can help you in the process. Plus, if you do it in here, there¡¯s less chance of the sapling dying since there are no predators here." Lamira said as Shiro paused in her footsteps.
"You can do that here?"
"Yes. Remember, I told you that this world is connected to the main world. Our actions here do indeed have some effects. Plus, with our connection to Gaia, it¡¯s only natural isn¡¯t it?" Lamira tilted her head.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro nodded her head.
"Well that just makes my job easier. If you can, don¡¯t tell people about my identity as the Empress ok? Also, how did you know even though Ran didn¡¯t?" Shio asked since if the spirits of this ce knew that she was the Empress they might try to force her to stay and fighting against spirits isn¡¯t high on her list.
"Ah I understood your identity because I worked closely with the previous Queen. There is a faint difference in aura between the Queen/Empress andmon spirits. This difference is quite small but since I have experienced it, it¡¯s easy for me to understand who is and isn¡¯t the Empress." Lamira exined.
"However, rest assured. I¡¯ll keep this secret and you will too, right Ran?"
"Yup. Secrets are important." Ran nodded her head.
Smiling softly, Shiro sneaked another head pat in as they arrived back at Lamira¡¯s office.
"So how do you think we are supposed to do the second task? Plus, I¡¯m not sure if the tower allows you to transfer progress between people." Shiro shrugged.
"This one is different. It gives the sapling through participation. But since you weren¡¯t here, you may need to redo the first step. Though it¡¯s not too difficult since we have quite a bit of liquified essence since we¡¯re near the tower." Lamira exined.
"How long do you think it¡¯ll take? Plus, isn¡¯t taking liquified essence bad for the environment?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"It shouldn¡¯t take long. With how much liquified essence we have, it¡¯ll take a day at most. As for it being bad for the environment, don¡¯t worry since this is all excess." Lamira reassured as Shiro nodded her head.
Since Lamira had been taking care of the spirit world for quite a bit, Shiro didn¡¯t need to worry too much and focus on the task instead.
"In that case then I¡¯ll be needing your help then." Shiro smiled.
"My pleasure."
Telling Ran to go collect some Liquified Essence, Lamira gestured for Shiro to follow her to the roof.
"Since you don¡¯t want to be known, it¡¯s probably bad for you to be seen with me. We¡¯ll go through the air so that they don¡¯t see us. Don¡¯t worry, I can camouge us but it¡¯ll be a bit hard if we walk near them so flight is the best way for us." Lamira smiled as she waved her hand.
Suddenly, a sphere of water appeared around them before disappearing.
"That should do it. Shall we go?"
Nodding her head, Shiro activated her divinity and jumped into the sky.
Seeing this, Lamira was about to cry out in shock but when Shiro was hovering, she understood what divinity she had received.
"You surprised me. I didn¡¯t think you would have obtained the Primordial Divinity of Ouranos. Why are you going for Gaia¡¯s tower if you already have a Primordial Divinity?" Lamira asked as Shiro shrugged.
"For collection purposes." Shiro replied since that wasn¡¯t too far from the truth. However, it was still good to hide some information from her as they haven¡¯t known each other for a long time.
In simple terms, Shiro couldn¡¯t trust Lamira just yet.
epting this response, the two started to fly towards the Tower of Gaia.
As Shiro flew closer, she realised that the spirit world was somewhat like a mirror image of the real world. Simr to how her rift acted.
She could see the city but not the people. Spotting Beril¡¯s store, Shiro raised her eyes and wondered if she could interact with it as normal.
"Do you think I can open a door if I wanted to?" Shiro asked.
"If it is unlocked and slightly ajar, yes because the wind could have opened it. Otherwise, no. Think of your actions in the spirit world as actions of nature.
"If the wind could possibly open this door, you can open it and the wind will act in your ce. Of course, there is the possibility of getting stuck in a house so we make sure to warn the spirits before they go messing around a ce." Lamira exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"What about the spirit city? Since it¡¯s made in this ce, what influences does it have on the real world?"
"No influences so long as there is space for us. Think of it like this, we can kind of interfere with the real world but they can¡¯t interfere with us unless we build on a tree and they cut it down." Lamira shrugged as Shiro nodded her head.
Getting some more information about the spirit world, the two eventually arrived at the base of the tower.
Chapter 718 See? Shes Watching.
Chapter 718 See? She''s Watching.
When they arrived at the base of the tower, the two took a moment to rest up while waiting for Ran to arrive with the Liquified essence.
Despite her wanting to test out her new abilities soon, Shiro had to save it for when she actually fought since she only had 95 seconds of her new form. Each second would need an hour to recharge.
Thinking about this, she sighed.
¡¯I wonder what it¡¯ll be like tobine this with my other abilities.¡¯ She mused to herself.
While on this train of thought, she was curious about what had happened to her Frozen Hell series since she wasn¡¯t able to check her main status page in this realm.
Now that she had her true spirit nature, there was a chance that her frozen hell series had disappeared from her system. However, there was also the chance that it could have be something else entirely. She wasn¡¯t sure.
Sighing softly, she wondered how hard the other trials were. She had been in this ce for a while now and she was missing the real world quite a bit.
¡¯If I was on Earth right now, it would have been past my birthday if the passing of time was the same.¡¯ Shiro sighed
"What are you wondering about your highness?" Lamira asked as Shiro shook her head.
"Nothing. Just wondering about how long it¡¯ll take me to leave this ce."
"The way you came? How did your highness find the Forgotten Realms to begin with?" Lamira asked curiously since there weren¡¯t any passageways to the Forgotten Realms that could be easily essed.
"Oh nothing much. Nyx sent me here saying that I need to undergo a trial or something." Shiro shrugged as Lamira widened her eyes with shock.
"Pardon? Who sent you here?"
"Nyx. You don¡¯t know her? Strange. I could have sworn that she had a tower of something in this ce." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"No, I know who Nyx is. I was just surprised that your highness was sent here personally by one of the strongest gods." Lamira shook her head.
"Well surprise seems to be amon theme with the people I know. I don¡¯t get it though, I¡¯m not exactly going out of my way to do something crazy ya know?" Shiro sighed.
"What do you mean?"
"Well I got a close friend of mine who seemed to have developed a love for flipping tables. She said the things I do are crazy but I¡¯m not exactly going out of my way to do crazy stuff. They just seem to arrive at my doorstep." Shiro Shrugged while resting her chin on her knees.
"Care to exin the things that you have done then your highness?" Lamira asked as she was quite curious about what Shiro had aplished.
"Well... where to begin. Hmm... I killed an avatar of a god, killed the soul fragment of a god killer for good and I also killed a queen. What else... I also got a bunch of abilities too that are ¡¯broken¡¯ in her opinion which I guess is true since it¡¯s rather surprising when I can heal the entire world in one go if the conditions are right." Shiro shrugged as Lamira paused in shock at her casual mention of feats
"So... you killed an avatar of a god?"
"Yup.".
"And you killed a god killer?"
"Yup."
"And you also killed a queen much like yourself?"
"Yup. She was surprisingly weak but that might just be because I¡¯m good with fighting humans and she wasn¡¯t prepared for me." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn, and you said you can heal the entire world?"
"Well the people in the world but yes, yes I can if the conditions are right." Shiro nodded.
"Is this everything that you¡¯ve aplished so far?"
"Not really since there are more but I¡¯ve done quite a bit despite not even being a year old technically since the time flow in this world is different from the outside world.
Hearing that Shiro had essentially fought against a god despite not even being one year old, Lamira could see why her friend would feel crazy. The worst part was the culprit is saying this all as if it was just a casual walk down to the shops and nothing more.
Killing a piece of a god was not casual at all!
Was what Lamira wanted to shout out but she was in front of the Empress so she needed to be careful with her words.
"I see..." Was all that she could say.
"Compared to some of the things I did before, surely this isn¡¯t too crazy right? Though I suppose the fact that I can kill a piece of a god at this stage is thanks to this little guy." Shiro smiled as Error appeared on the back of her hand and rubbed against her cheek. Patting his head gently, Shiro yed around with him.
"This helped you kill a piece of a god?" Lamira tilted her head at the small bundle of circuits.
"Yup. This little guy will enter their body and rip out their soul I suppose. He essentially breaks them down and consumes them before transferring some of their power to me." Shiro exined.
"Though it seems like it doesn¡¯t work like usual in this world. So far he¡¯s only helped me kill them quicker but didn¡¯t transfer power. Otherwise, I would have gotten more when he managed to consume a Shard of Ouranos."
*COUGH!
Choking on her own saliva, Lamira was taken off guard when Shiro said that the small bundle of circuits had consumed the shard of a primordial deity but the fact that she hadpleted the tower meant that this was indeed one of the possibilities. Plus, she had no reason to lie so this was most likely what had happened.
However, after a short moment, Lamira realised something.
"Wait, if the bundle of red had consumed the shard of a god properly, then the god will need to rece the shard or else the finalyer would have no protector."
"Ah don¡¯t worry about that. Since Nyx has sent me here, I¡¯d say there¡¯s a 90% chance that she¡¯s watching right now. Not sure about her scope of control but she hasn¡¯t done anything. As for the shard being consumed, I¡¯m sure Nyx will probably tell Ouranos and he¡¯ll rece the missing shard." Shiro shrugged.
"How are you certain that she is watching?" Lamira asked.
"Well Nyx ain¡¯t exactly busy. So she¡¯ll probably pass time by watching this. Plus, she¡¯s one of the ones responsible for this trial so it wouldn¡¯t make sense if she didn¡¯t watch." Shiro stretched her body before standing up.
"Nyx! If you can, make the sky dark or something. Just show that you¡¯re watching I guess." Shiro shouted out as Lamira furrowed her brows.
However, before Lamira could even say anything, the sky suddenly darkened before returning to normal.
"See? She¡¯s watching." Shiro smiled.
". . ." Staying silent, Lamira could see why her friend wanted to flip a table. One doesn¡¯t just casually tell a god to darken the sky so that they know the god is watching.
However, that was exactly what Shiro had done.
Talking a bit longer about her achievements, the two waited for Ran to arrive.
Each achievement that Shiro told Lamira caused her to be shocked into silence but she calmed her mind and just thought of it as a child showing off to her. Only this time the child was her Empress and that she wasn¡¯t lying about her achievements at all. Everything was true.
Thankfully, it didn¡¯t take too long as Ran soon arrived with a bag strapped to her back.
"Granny! I brought the liquified essence. Would this be enough? I didn¡¯t want to run since it might spill." Ran asked as Lamira nodded her head, feeling slightly grateful that she didn¡¯t need to listen to more of Shiro¡¯s achievements.
If she did, she felt like she might lose her sanity since it didn¡¯t sound possible but it was all true.
"This should be enough. Just guard this ce if you can so that some curious spirits don¡¯t find out what¡¯s been happening." Lamira instructed as Ran nodded her head.
Before she left, she set down the bag.
Opening the bag, Shiro could see a giant jar filled with Liquified Essence. Just being near it and breathing part of it in made her feel refreshed.
"So what do I do with this?" Shiro asked.
"Offer it to the tower so that it may spread it to thend around it. What you must do is water the base of the tower with this Liquified Essence." Lamira smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Offering Nutrients to the Great Land, Shiro watched as a golden seed suddenly appeared in her hands like what had happened with one of the previous attempts and understood that she hadpleted the first step.
Chapter 719 Portal Between Worlds
Chapter 719 Portal Between Worlds
"The next step is to Cultivate the Blossom of life. We¡¯ve tried to give it Liquified Essence before but it didn¡¯t work so I think it might need something else." Lamira shook her head as Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯If the Liquified Essence didn¡¯t help then it might make things annoying. Since it¡¯s a way to skip the majority of the tower, I doubt it wants us to grow it from scratch so there must be something that this seed needs to bloom.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while holding the seed.
Remembering Gaia¡¯s myth, Shiro tried to think of what might be a clue to help her Cultivate the blossom.
Despite Gaia being a loud and demanding goddess, she could also be caring and loving at times. In her myth, after Ouranos had trapped his children in her wound, she plotted with her son Cronos to revolt against the Primordial God of the Sky.
After that, she also instigated a sh between titans and gods that came after also known as the Olympians which included Zeus, Hades, Poseidon and so on.
In her myth, she caused two great battles which changed the order of the world so Shiro figured that it could be something along those lines for her to Cultivate the Blossom.
"Lamira, is there a way to go back and forth from the real world and the spirit world?" Shiro asked while turning towards her.
"There is but it¡¯ll take more energy if you don¡¯t use a natural gate like the pool that Ran had used." Lamira replied.
"Hmm... what kind of energy does it use? Is it the same one that powers my True Spirit Nature?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Kind of. It¡¯s the same energy you use to activate your divinities so when you open up a portal, you¡¯ll feel a wave of fatigue wash over you." Lamira exined.
"Huh? You get exhausted when using your divinity? I mainly get exhausted from hunger more than anything." Shiro tilted her head as Lamira nced at her in shock.
"Wait so you don¡¯t get tired even when you use Ouranos¡¯ Divinity???" Lamira asked.
"Am I supposed to?" Shiro asked.
". . .Each divinity has a drain on your body every time you use it. For normal people, using Ouranos¡¯ Divinity for more than an hour wouldpletely exhaust them. For a lower divinity, they can at most use it for a few hours. What¡¯s the longest that you¡¯ve used a divinity?"
"A whole day? I was mostly hungry so I had some food but I didn¡¯t feel exhausted from using my divinities. And for your information, my first divinity is from Nike. I was mostly flying around all day using her power." Shiro shrugged.
Hearing that Shiro had used her divinity for a whole day, Lamira couldn¡¯t help but feel lightheaded.
"Is there a way to see how much energy I have then?" Shiro asked since this wasn¡¯t like the system where she could see her mana.
All she knew was that she had never gotten tired from using her divinity.
"There is I guess. Give me a moment then." Lamira sighed as she soared into the air.
Not too long after, she returned with two flowers.
"If you drip the dew from this flower into your eyes, it allows you to see the energy radiating from a person. Naturally, you can only see as much as they reveal but it¡¯s hard for most people to hide that so 8 times out of 10, the reading you see is urate." Lamira said as she handed her one of the flowers.
"Hmm... I see."
Tilting her head back, Shiro watched as a golden drip of liquid fell onto her eyes as she felt a cool sensation spread around her eyes.
Closing them for a moment, she opened them back up to a desaturated world. Most of the colours that she would have seen were not quite greyscale but it was close.
Looking towards Lamira, she could see a faint veil of light blue energy swirl around her.
"What you¡¯re seeing is how much energy I have. And since I have been suppressing it, you can¡¯t get the real amount. This is my energy without suppression." Lamira said as her aura burst forwards.
Expanding in an instant, her energy increased in size and towered over the two of them.
"I have more energy than most people hence it¡¯s size. But I¡¯m surprised about your highness. There is not a single speck of energy on you." Lamira said as normally, one would see some energy even if they tried to surpass themselves as best they can.
But for Shiro, there was no energy at all.
"Oh I¡¯m used to suppressing myself so that I don¡¯t get noticed. Give me a moment." Shiro said as she took a deep breath.
Focusing her mind, she released her aura that she had always kept surpassed.
Wind exploded around her as Lamira was pushed back by a few meters.
As she was shielding her eyes, Lamira couldn¡¯t see the energy flow but when she looked up, she was shocked at what she was seeing.
Limitless energy that looked like it could epass the entire city spread out before her.
There were multiple colours to her energy but the most predominant one was the same merging of green and blue that she had seen when Shiro activated her Spirit Nature.
¡¯No wonder she didn¡¯t feel exhausted. Even Ouranos¡¯ Divinity would have a hard time chipping away at this much energy. How does she have so much to begin with?¡¯ Lamira wondered to herself in disbelief.
Ignoring Lamira, Shiro looked up and saw her energy and furrowed her brows, wondering what could have caused this.
However, remembering that she had ess to Celestial Energy which merged with her mana after her trial with Kuromi, Shiro figured that this mix is probably the same thing that is used in this world.
With 1.5 points of reserved energy, it would be a surprise if she had gotten exhausted by just flying around for a bit.
But there was one thing that she understood. Despite having powers received from gods, their drains were less than that of her skills. Meaning, in the long run, her skills will surpass the power of gods.
A good example would be Force of Elements. This skill takes percentile mana and increased in power the more elements she mixed in. Compared to the power of using wind as both a means of attack and as defence, Force of Elements was much better since it was the extreme of offensive attacks.
Thinking of her skills that were better than Ouranos¡¯ Divinity, Shiro realised that she basically had no defensive skills. Most of her skills are either offensive, evasive, control and healing.
While she could act as a tank, it was mostly brute forcing the tank role thanks to the weaker skills she could use from her data book of skills that she¡¯s recycled.
¡¯Meh, the best offence is the best defence. When I can cut down every attack like mum, it¡¯ll be my best defence.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she was pretty sure that she would have been injured quite heavily if she was in her mother¡¯s position when they had a spar.
With a rain of bullets descending on her, her only options would be to erect a rotational defence or jump into the rift. The first had a high chance of being pierced and the second was a broken skill in the right hands if they have good reaction speed.
If she had her mother¡¯s abilities along with her rift strider skill, she would be truly unhittable.
Shaking her head, she suppressed her aura and the energy disappeared.
"How long will the flower¡¯s effectsst for?" Shiro asked.
"Another 15 minutes at best. Could be sooner." Lamira replied as she was still trying to digest the fact that Shiro had so much energy.
"I see. So how do I open the portal to go back and forth from this ce?"
"Before I tell you that, can I ask a question?"
"Go on." Shiro nodded.
"How do you have that much energy? I thought only the gods or demi gods could possess this much energy. The reason why everyone else in this world has this kind of energy is thanks to the divinities but yours is clearly not the case. Are you a god?" Lamira asked.
Pausing for a second, Shiro wondered to herself.
"I¡¯m not a god yet. But, I think I might be close to half god? I¡¯ve already got a ce in the Hall of Divine and the other gods have noticed me so I should be pretty close." Shiro shrugged.
Hearing that Shiro had just admitted to almost being a god despite not being a year old in the outside world, Lamira only sighed and told her the way to open the portal back and forth from the spirit world.
When she gets back to her office she might need to ask for a recement table for her to flip.
Chapter 720 Surprise Attack
Chapter 720 Surprise Attack
After receiving the information on how to make a portal between the two realms, Shiro had Lamira return to her castle for now since Shiro was going to see if the path of violence was what she needed to cultivate this sapling.
Naturally, Ran followed Lamira but she was having some troubleprehending what she had just heard. After all, the one whom she called a new a.d.u.l.t/child was actually someone that could kill an avatar of a god at her current level.
Once she was alone, Shiro focused her mind and muttered an incantation under her breath.
Unlike her Rift Strider, it takes a moment for a person to travel between realms so she wouldn¡¯t be able to use it inbat at her current level.
Finishing her incantation, Shiro pushed her hands forwards and a portal was created.
Walking through the portal, she reappeared at the base of Gaia¡¯s tower.
Surprising quite a few people, Shiro ignored them and walked away after making sure the portal closed up.
For all they know, it could have been a product of her divinity.
Making her way to Beril¡¯s ce, she was going to inform her about what she¡¯s discovered so far.
###
"Hm?"
Just as Shiro appeared at the base of the tower, a woman narrowed her eyes towards the tower and saw the portal.
"Did you feel that?" She muttered as the people besides her nodded their heads.
"Seems like she¡¯s an a.d.u.l.t spirit." The woman grinned.
"Do you think she¡¯ll fetch a better price thanst time?" A man asked.
"Well she looks appealing enough. Though make sure you keep your guard up. There was a spirit releasing her power not too long ago and we haven¡¯t found the culprit yet. Try to run if you find the culprit. If not, try to get this spirit girl then we run." The woman ordered as they nodded their heads.
###
Arriving at Beril¡¯s home/shop, Shiro knocked on the door.
"Who¡¯s there?" Beril¡¯s voice called out from behind the door.
"It¡¯s me, Shiro. I got some more news." Shiro replied as Beril stayed silent for a bit before walking up to the door.
Hearing the sound of the door being unlocked, Shiro saw Beril opening the door.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to reach out and get a head pat in.
"No pats until you get the skip. That¡¯s what we agreed on." Beril ducked out of the way and walking inside.
"Che, stingy. I have got more information on the skip though. More precisely, the three steps to skip the levels." Shiro smiled and closed the door behind her.
"Oh? What do you mean?" Beril looked back in shock.
"First, you need to offer nutrients to the and near the tower and you¡¯ll gain this seed. By nutrients, I mean arge amount of Life Essence. Last time the person didn¡¯t give enough so the most he got was a small reaction from the tower but that was it." Shiro smiled, pulling out the golden seed.
Seeing this, Beril paused.
"Can I see it in closer detail?" She asked hesitantly.
"Sure but first..." Shiro grinned and sat on the couch.
"Come sit on myp so I can pat your head while you look at it." She smiled and patted herp.
Staying silent, Beril considered her options for a moment before pouting slightly and sat on Shiro¡¯sp.
Grabbing the seed, she started to observe it while Shiro held her with her left hand and patted her hair with her right.
¡¯Fufufu, no wonder big sis Kuro liked to pat my hair. This is quite nice.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself
"Hmmm... don¡¯t pat me so roughly. Che, no technique at all. Big sis is better at patting after all. I can¡¯t concentrate with how rough you¡¯re patting me. This is why I don¡¯t like inexperienced patters che." Berilined while furrowing her brows.
Hearing this, Shiro tried to go a bit gentler while Beril focused on examining the seed.
After a short moment, she sighed.
"Mn, this is indeed filled with the same energy I feel from the Tower. After giving nutrients to thend what else do you need to do?" She asked while handing the seed back to Shiro.
Attempting to hop off, Beril found herself restrained on Shiro¡¯sp as the patting continued.
"Well after it said that I needed to cultivate it into the blossom of life which I¡¯m not sure about yet so I¡¯m trying to find out. As for thest step, it was nurture the great deity¡¯s child." Shiro replied as Beril contemted about the possible meanings of each step.
"What are you nning for the second step then?" Beril asked.
"Well I¡¯m going to kill a few things and see if their blood or something can cultivate this seed. Since Gaia¡¯s myth tells us that she orchestrated two wars, I can guess that she is not exactly the peaceful type. If killing enemies doesn¡¯t work then I don¡¯t know." Shiro shrugged.
"Hmm... If you can let go of me, you should probably go do the second step now." Berilined as Shiro sighed and let Beril go.
"I should. Hais... I¡¯ll get better at patting next time~" Shiro smiled before leaving through the front door.
Clicking her tongue, Beril locked the door.
After leaving Beril¡¯s home, Shiro made her way out of the city since she wanted to find a few monsters to kill and see if the seed epted monster blood.
However, just as she left the city, she noticed people following her and rolled her eyes.
¡¯When the hell can I leave a city without a group of people trying to kill me??? I didn¡¯t even provoke anyone this time!¡¯ Sheined in her mind as she was somewhat annoyed.
But just as she thought of this, her annoyance soon turned into happiness since this was good for her. After all, this just means she gets to test out human blood too.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro decided to speed up her travels a bit so that she wouldn¡¯t affect the city.
Before she could even call out on her assants, Shiro felt danger all around her as arrows started to fly towards her.
Widening her eyes, Shiro summoned Nivlim and shed around her.
Cutting the arrows that would have pierced her, she kept her guard up.
"Who¡¯s there? Why don¡¯t youe out if you¡¯re trying to kill me." Shiro furrowed her bros.
While she knew where they were, it¡¯s better for them to think that she doesn¡¯t so that she could sprint a surprise attack on them.
*CRACK!
Splitting the Earth apart, a pair of hands tried to grab Shiro¡¯s ankles while peopleunched towards her from all directions.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro quickly jumped up and twisted her body before kicking toward the closest guy who lunged towards her.
But before her foot coulde into contact with him, a barrier surged around the man and reflected her foot.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro activated Nike¡¯s divinity and unfurled her wings. Using to push the people around her away slightly, she quickly hopped back to make some distance. She didn¡¯t use Ouranos¡¯ Divinity yet since she wanted to know who these guys were. If they were trying to get her bounty from the organisation, then she¡¯ll kill without mercy.
Just as she moved back, a magic circle appeared beneath her as rope shot out of the ground.
"TCH!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro let go of her sword before grabbing the chain.
Lashing at the ropes surrounding her, she managed to cut them all up before returning the sword back to her hands.
While she was focusing on not getting restrained, the members in this group didn¡¯t waste any time to begin attacking her again.
¡¯Seems like this is a group of pros. I might get a decent challenge.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Twisting herself out of their lunge, she threw the sword towards a tree before pulling herself out of their encirclement.
Landing on the branch, she deflected a few arrows when a ck haired woman appeared next to her with purple aura surrounding her hands. Feeling the same kind of aura as the one that radiated from her sword, Shiro understood that this was probably an ability rted to Hades or the soul.
Bending her body back, Shiro barely managed to dodge the grasp as the woman adapted to the situation and punched towards her stomach.
Smiling softly, Shiro¡¯s eyes seemed to glow menacingly.
*BANG!!!!
A torrent of wind exploded out with her in the centre as the woman was blown back by the force.
Flipping through the air, the woman furrowed her brows and looked towards Shiro.
Seeing the wind surrounding her body, the woman understood that this spirit was the one who had been releasing the aura previously and knew they messed up.
"Dispers-!!!"
Before she could even shout disperse, Shiro flickered in front of her.
"Don¡¯t be like that, stay for a while." Shiro grinned as her eyes flickered with a sadistic light.
Wrapping her chain around the woman¡¯s neck, she flipped over her shoulders and tugged as hard as she could on both sides of the chain.
*CRACK! PUSHI!!!!
Crushing the throat, the chains ripped through the woman¡¯s neck as her head was sent flying through the air. Smiling under the rain of blood, Shiro dashed towards her next target.
Chapter 721 Spirit Traffickers
Chapter 721 Spirit Traffickers
*BANG!
mming a guy against the tree, Shiro pointed her sword at his throat.
"Your friends are dead. Care to exin to me why you targeted me?" Shiro asked with a sweet smile.
Seeing this smile, the man felt sweat drip down his back.
"Spirits! We¡¯re Spirit traffickers!"The man replied in a panic as Shiro¡¯s sword travelled closer to his neck.
"Oh? Spirit traffickers huh?" Shiro raised her eyebrow. Despite her sweet expression, she was rather displeased inside.
She understood that there were some sick people who would use monsters and spirits as a means of s.e.x.u.a.l relief since she had seen it before. However, she hadn¡¯t seen it in a while so she figured that things might have changed but people will stay the same regardless.
While she couldn¡¯t stop everyone from ¡¯purchasing¡¯ spirits, she can at least take care of the ones that buy the most.
"Who are your main buyers?" Shiro asked with a re.
Noticing that the girl had dropped her smile, the man understood that she waspletely furious.
"Ah-... er... he.."
"Speak properly!" Shiro demanded, mming him against the tree one more time.
"KUAH!!! Ok ok! I speak I speak. We got three main buyers. All three are people with high status. Adriel Tarn, Behmut Neiha and Elin Jaheri. Adriel and Behmut are the biggest buyers of female spirits and Elin buys the most male spirits. These three dominate the market since they buy the most. The other¡¯s can¡¯tpare." The man replied as Shiro noted down their names.
"Do you know where they keep the spirits?"
"N-no we don¡¯t. We just deliver and get paid for it." The man shook his head.
Understanding that he was telling the truth, Shiro clicked her tongue and stabbed her sword through his head, pinning him against the tree.
"Adriel Tarn, Behmut Neiha and Elin Jaheri huh? Seems like I need to do some research on who my next targets are." Shiro muttered as her killing intent started to leak into her surroundings.
Feeling this killing intent, Error started to dance around with joy as Shiro patted his head.
"Calm it. We¡¯ll kill them if they¡¯re close. If not, wait till we finish this tower ok? Don¡¯t be hasty." Shiro reminded as Error calmed down.
"Good."
Smiling softly, Shiro crouched towards the corpses of the traffickers and wondered about how she should do this.
After a short pause, she flipped Nivlim into a reverse grip and stabbed it into the chest of the headless woman.
Pulling it down, she cut through the sternum and cracked open a cavity in the centre of her chest.
"A human nt pot I suppose." Shiro chuckled to herself as she dropped the golden seed into the corpse.
Just as the seed came into contact with the blood, small roots erupted out of the seed and started to spread themselves throughout the woman¡¯s body.
Watching the woman¡¯s body drain at a visible pace, Shiro raised her eyebrows and couldn¡¯t help but think that this seed was quite bloodthirsty.
Wondering if this seed was an evil artefact or not, Shiro watched as the woman was drained into just skin and bones.
Plucking the seed out of her body, Shiro saw white roots still connected to her body and wondered if she should cut them off.
However, before she needed to do anything, the roots retracted back into the seed which made Shiro wonder about how much space was inside it to begin with.
Shrugging her shoulders, she threw the husk of a corpse to the side.
Just as the corpsended next to a tree, roots erupted out of the ground and dragged the corpse under.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro wondered what that was about before nting the seed into the second human nt pot.
Draining all the blood from the bodies of all 7 attackers, Shiro watched as each of them had been dragged underground.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro smiled and unsummoned her sword.
"If you¡¯re going to take them, at least tell me beforehand dryad."
Just as she said this, a figure appeared on one of the branches.
"Well I figured you probably wanted to get the most of the corpses before throwing them aside. Just think of me as a passer-by. Another person¡¯s trash is someone else¡¯s treasure." The dryad smiled.
She was currentlyying her body across the branch as her long jade hair dr.a.p.ed behind her.
Her golden eyes narrowed at the seed in Shiro¡¯s hands before looking at the one who had killed seven people all by herself.
"Feel free to take their corpses if you want, I have no more use for them." Shiro shrugged.
"Of course. Even these corpses serve a purpose to the forest though I must say, that child in your hands is rather picky to have only drained the blood within them and not anything else." The dryad shook her head.
"It¡¯s still just a seed."
"That is also true. But what kind of seed drains blood? Even if you¡¯re a spirit, I cannot let this pass unless I know what¡¯s going on." The dryad said as her smile faded.
Looking at all the roots targeting her, Shiro simted the battle for a moment and understood that she could probably kill the dryad with ease but she wasn¡¯t going to do that.
"This is something I got from the tower and I¡¯m not responsible for the seed draining blood. If anything, me Gaia for giving me such an evil seed." Shiro grinned and shrugged her shoulders.
Hearing this, the dryad furrowed her brows and examined the seed. Feeling the same type of energy from the tower, the dryad was confused as to why the tower would give such a malignant item to this spirit.
"I see... seems like I have made a mistake." The dryad sighed and dismissed the roots.
"Yes you have. And tell me, do you just watch every spirit get trafficked away?" Shiro asked with a small smile.
"No, but there was nothing I can d-"
Before she could finish her sentence, Shiro flickered in front of her and ced her hand over the dryad¡¯s mouth.
Leaning close to the dryad, she red at her with anger in her eyes.
"That¡¯s an excuse. Either do your job properly or don¡¯te out after I kill them all. You can use your roots to restrain them, hide in the forest or even try to throw them off your trail. There¡¯s always something you can do so don¡¯t give me that shit." Shiro warned as her killing intent was focused entirely on the dryad.
Feeling the killing intent up close, the dryad paled as she had never felt this fearful in her life.
"Y-you can¡¯t kill me. The forest would p-"
"Try me. I¡¯ve got a blessing from another dryad that lets me kill here. Humans don¡¯t count as inhabitants so I still have a free slot left to kill someone." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Hearing this, the dryad widened her eyes before hastily nodding her head.
"I-I¡¯m sorry I¡¯ll try harder next time." She apologised.
"Don¡¯t try harder, try your best." Shiro clicked her tongue and let go of the quivering spirit.
Jumping down from the branch, Shiro nced down at the seed and saw a thinyer of red in the bottom.
Understanding that it was probably blood and that she¡¯ll need to kill a lot more people, Shiro figured she might as well look for three main buyers of spirits and take care of them.
###
"I like this girl already." Gaia chuckled seeing Shiro tell the dryad to me her for giving her a bloodthirsty seed.
"She¡¯s a treat isn¡¯t she?" Nyx grinned.
"Mn. I¡¯m surprised that she figured out so quickly." Gaia smiled as she ced down the empty teacup.
"Yup. She knows your myth after all. I think if you two meet, you¡¯ll have some fun together. Both of you are calm and warm at times but deep down you¡¯re both battle junkies. Well for you you¡¯re more of a spectator of the chaos that ensues. Another?" Nyx shrugged as she offered Gaia another cup of tea.
"Sure. Well for me I¡¯m not exactly the best atbat so I can only watch by the side. If I could, you know I would be fighting gods left, right and centre." Gaia replied while taking the refilled cup of tea.
"Though I must say that I¡¯m surprised. I didn¡¯t expect my ex husband to have a shard of him to be consumed by the little pet she had kept by her side. It¡¯s rather interesting isn¡¯t it?" Gaia said while looking at Error that was on Shiro¡¯s hand.
"Mn, it¡¯s something gifted to her by the system. So who¡¯s side are you taking in all of this Gaia?" Nyx asked.
"Naturally it¡¯ll be the side of this girl. Chaos seems to follow her wherever she goes so it¡¯ll be fun to watch what happens." Gaiaughed.
Hearing this, Nyx didn¡¯t say anything and only smiled at the response.
Chapter 722 Killing Elin Part 1
Chapter 722 Killing Elin Part 1
Returning to the city, Beril was annoyed that Shiro had returned not too longter.
But when Shiro exined the situation with the seed along with the fact that there were three main buyers for spirit trafficking, Beril agreed to help her out.
Telling Shiro to wait by the side for a while, she returned with a crystal butterfly.
"Is that Que¡¯s familiar?" Shiro asked.
"No, it belongs to a different sister of mine. I suppose you can say that her familiars are better than the ones that Que can make but Que should reach her standard soon." Beril shook her head.
"It¡¯s rare for you to contact me and to top it all off, seems like you have a guest. Mind introducing me to this cutie?" The feminine voice rang out from the butterfly.
"This is Shiro, she¡¯s alreadypleted Ouranos¡¯ Trial and is currently doing the skip for Gaia. The second step that she needs to do is give the seed blood I suppose. So we figured that we might as well kill the ones that have been buying the spirits since she¡¯s a spirit herself. You should know Adriel Tarn, Behmut Neiha and Elin Jaheri no?" Beril said as the voice stayed silent for a moment.
"Ah you meant those three. We¡¯ll we¡¯ve been keeping our eye on them for a while so we were nning to move out for them. But if the cutie here wants them I can give them up." The voice chuckled.
"What¡¯s the price?" Beril asked.
"Oh you know me so well. I want a batch of your best medicine that you don¡¯t sell to the rest of the world." The voiceughed.
"Che, you always want the most expensive stuff." Beril pouted.
"Awe on~ Can¡¯t you pamper your cute little sis some more? You give the others this medicine but not me."
"No because unlike you, the other¡¯s don¡¯t use this medicine for torture." Beril furrowed her brows.
"Hais... don¡¯t tell the cutie I do torture now." The voice sighed.
"Whatever, I¡¯ll send you the medicine if you give us all your information on these three people."
"Sure. So Adriel Tarn and Behmut Neiha are two nobles from the Section of the Underworld. They both have ratherrge factions and their l.u.s.t is rather revolting. They love spirits above all as they¡¯re blessed with beauty from the moment they¡¯re born. They¡¯re both people with three divinities and they¡¯rebat based.
"The key divinities that you need to watch out for is the Divinity of Ares owned by Adriel and the Divinity of Zeus by Behmut. Their other divinities are negligible since their third dominates their skill set.
"As for Elin Jaheri, she¡¯s a bit more annoying. She¡¯s from the Section of Night and she¡¯s rather close to the centre. When I say annoying, I mean ANNOYING. She¡¯s disgusting I tell you, she¡¯s managed to obtain the Divinity of Aphrodite and she¡¯s charmed quite a few monsters. Not sure if she¡¯s bed them yet but I don¡¯t want to find out. She¡¯s constantly got monsters around her and like the others, her favourites are spirits since they¡¯re very handsome. Her charm also extends to females so you should be careful when facing her." The voice said as Shiro listened carefully.
"What about their precise locations?" Shiro asked. So long as she knew exactly where they were,she could deal with them nice and quickly. While she doesn¡¯t know if they could provide enough blood, she can just kill a bunch of monsters for their blood instead.
Plus, there was always Hellmouth Valley that she could visit for blood. With her Divinity and True Spirit Nature, she¡¯d be able to escape if things get out of hand.
"I¡¯ll get one of my familiars to send you a map if you keep a shard of this one on you. That way I can track where you are and send the familiar to you."
"Sure." Shiro nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll go to the Section of Night first since it¡¯s closer then I¡¯ll go to the Section of the Underworld."
"Good choice." The voiceughed before the crystal butterfly dimmed down slightly.
Breaking a small piece off, Beril handed it to Shiro.
"If my sister offers anything, just know that she always wants a price for it so ask carefully. Otherwise things could get annoying." Beril warned.
"Got it." Shiro nodded her head and ced the crystal into her pocket.
"Take this, it should also help you out a little when you try to kill them." Beril opened a draw and handed her a pouch of sorts.
"What¡¯s this?"
"Sleep powder. A potent one too. If they aren¡¯t prepared, they should fall asleep quickly. Even if they harm themselves, it¡¯ll only speed up the process but the range is short and I don¡¯t have much of the powder. For it to work, you¡¯ll need to make sure they breathe this in. It lingers for a while so if you force them to breathe it¡¯ll work too. As a precaution, take these pills, it¡¯ll stop the medicine from affecting you. I¡¯ll give you 5 just in case. The other two can help you dispel poisons, sleep and other effects." Beril exined while passing her 5 pills.
"Well aren¡¯t you quite kind." Shiro smiled and grabbed the pills.
"Of course I am." Beril huffed before pushing her out of her shop.
"Now go. Don¡¯t waste so much time."
Hearing this, Shiro smiled and quickly patted Beril¡¯s head before running away.
Pouting for a moment, Beril sighed and closed her door again.
Once she was out of the city, Shiro activated her Divinity of Ouranos andunched herself into the air.
Flying as quickly as she could towards the Section of Night, Shiro wondered if she¡¯ll meet Demos again but remembering that he travels around the world, the chances were low.
###
Arriving at the Section of Night wasn¡¯t hard as her flight speed had increased dramatically.
While flying through the Section of Night, Shiro had spotted the town that she woke up in along with the one that she had spent a few months acting as Demos¡¯ assistant.
When she was roughly a third of the way into the section of night, she was greeted by two crystal butterflies.
"Cutie, your flight speed is quite impressive."
"Mn. Where¡¯s the map?" Shiro asked.
"Cold and straight to the point huh? Fine, here it is."
Just as she said this, one of the butterflies shook its body for a moment as a piece of parchment was revealed.
Taking the parchment, Shiro could see an overview of the world along with the locations of the three targets. Plus, there were notes on the side telling her their location and number of guards.
"Thanks. You should take your crystal back now, I won¡¯t need it anymore." Shiro said, taking out the crystal that Beril had given her so that this woman could track her.
"No need. Keep that on you so I can give you a hand whenever you want."
"I¡¯d rather not. I don¡¯t like having someone always keeping a note of where I am. If you don¡¯t take it I¡¯ll probably throw it away or break it." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Fine fine. Give it to the butterfly on the left then." The voice sighed.
Giving the crystal to the butterfly on the left, Shiro checked her map before flying towards the centre of the Section of Night.
Her first target, Elin Jaheri, lives in the city of Nius. The city of Nius is constantly veiled by darkness due to the influence of Nyx¡¯s tower hence whynterns and house lights fill the city.
Due to their environment, their light development is much betterpared to the other cities and hiding in the shadows will be quite easy since the lights provide harsh shadows.
However, while hiding in the shadows is easier, there are plenty of guards patrolling around the area to keep public order.
Thankfully, Elin lives rather far out of the city since she has a horde of monsters acting as her guards.
¡¯Some of the monsters she has have very strong senses so sneaking into her ce is gonna be hard.¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows.
Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to scout out the situation first. If Elin has quite a few flying type monsters, this would be easy thanks to her divinity.
Flying past the city, she found Elin¡¯s mansion with ease and to her joy, flying monsters were quite abundant.
Curling her lips into a grin, Shiro hovered over the mansion.
Chapter 723 Killing Elin Part 2
Chapter 723 Killing Elin Part 2
Hovering above the mansion, Shiro controlled the wind so that her scent didn¡¯t spread to the monsters below her.
Currently, there were quite a few flying type monsters patrolling the air with more perched on the roof. As fornd based monsters, there were very few but they acted as door guards.
Her divinity was perfect to face these flying type monsters but that¡¯s only if she wanted to go for an all out battle with them. Right now, all she wanted was to kill the woman and save the spirits so that she wouldn¡¯t be distractedter.
Since Elin had the Divinity of Aphrodite, it¡¯ll be annoying if she was suddenly ¡¯charmed¡¯ in the middle of the fight.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro had an idea.
Beril said that the sleep power was very effective so she didn¡¯t need to make them smell a lot of the powder for it to work. If she could figure out how much was just enough to put them to sleep then there was the chance that she could remove the monsters out of the fight for now and kill Elin before they wake up.
Flexing her fingers, she had the wind remove a tiny pit of the powder and sent it towards one of the monsters roaming around the ground.
Narrowing her eyes, she watched as the monster slowly turned sluggish before copsing on the ground.
"Oh my, that¡¯s rather effective." Shiro raised her eyebrow when she realised that only a small portion of the powder could knock out a monster.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro realised that not everyone could control the wind so that the powder enters their nostrils so it made sense that Beril would make extra.
Now that she had a figure in mind, Shiro smiled and snapped her fingers.
Spreading the powder amongst the monsters, Shiro watched as they copsed onto the ground and fell asleep. For those that were flying in the air, they managed tond properly before sleeping.
Shiro was worried that the Divinity of Aphrodite would make them lose their reasoning but she was worried for nothing.
Landing on the roof softly, she was about to sneak in from the side when she heard a loud m.o.a.n thanks to her keen senses.
". . ."
Taking a deep breath, she resolved herself to see something disgusting as she snuck in through the windows.
Just as she entered, she was hit in the face by a face full of perfume and weird aroma¡¯s that made her want to throw up since they were far too strong.
Gritting her teeth, she used her sleeve to cover her mouth and nose before continuing.
Thanks to the loud m.o.a.ning in the distance, it wasn¡¯t hard for her to find out where she was as they weren¡¯t quiet at all.
However, the moment she arrived at the location and moved the door slightly ajar to see what was happening, Shiro wished that she didn¡¯t and just blew up everything instead.
Right now, she could see ¡¯Nan Tian¡¯ making love to another man as Shiro felt like she wanted to gouge her eyes out.
¡¯Oh my poor eyes. What the f*ck.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she wasn¡¯t exactly keen on remembering the scene of Nan Tian bedding another guy.
The worst part was that she understood this was the Divinity of Aphrodite doing its job. She was just unfortunate to see this scene.
Just as she was about to take a deep breath to calm herself, she remembered where she was and figured that she probably shouldn¡¯t do that otherwise she¡¯d be hit with the stench of lovemaking and s.e.m.e.n.
Shaking her head, she quietly snuck around the room.
Guessing that this was behind the bed, she summoned Nivlim and calmed her mind.
Opening her eyes with cold killing intent, Shiro twisted her body and swung her de out while activating her True Spirit Nature.
Green fire exploded around her as ice coated the floor. Recing the outfit on her with her ck dress, Shiro could hear confusion on the other side as she quickly caught her de.
Now that the chain was around Elin¡¯s neck, Shiro burst down the wall and strangled Elin who was in the form of Nan Tian.
Since she was in her True Spirit Nature, ice started to spread through Elin¡¯s body as her confusion continued since one moment she was having s*x and the next she was being strangled and frozen at the same time.
Twisting her wrist, Shiro activated the spell she had in mind as illusionary skeleton hands reached out from the bed and grabbed hold of Elin.
"ARGG!!!!"
Screaming from the pain, her or rather Nan Tian¡¯s face twisted in pain which only served to piss Shiro off since he wouldn¡¯t have screamed from this tiny amount of pain.
Raising her leg, she mmed it down against her head and a blue energy was being ripped out from Elin¡¯s body.
Giving it a hard tug, Shiro stabbed Nivlim into Elin¡¯s chest.
*PUSHI!!!!!
AS the blood sprayed out of the chest, the green energy from the de severed the blue energy from her body.
ncing at the energy in her hands, Shiro could see the obese body of a ugly woman writhing around in pain.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to tighten the chains and shatter the soul apart. Once the soul was shattered, she turned off her True Spirit Nature.
[87/100]
Since she had taken Elin by surprise, she was able to kill her swiftly thanks to her True Spirit Nature being one that allowed her to rip out their soul so long as they can¡¯t escape from her chains in time. Of course, this was harder to achieve on people that were much stronger than her but Elin was mostly charming people thanks to her divinity instead of fighting them.
Looking at the n.a.k.e.d body of the original Elin whoid dead on the bed with a sword in her chest, Shiro didn¡¯t waste any more time and threw the seed into the cavity.
Seeing this, the male spirit widened his eyes and threw up on the corner.
"Stop puking and tell me where the other spirits are. I¡¯m sending you to the spirit world." Shiro clicked her tongue and threw a cover over him.
Hearing no response, Shiro pulled him up and gave him a light p on the face.
"Can you hear me?" She asked in annoyance.
Seeing the spirit nod his head hastily, Shiro sighed.
"Show me to where the other spirits are, I¡¯m sending you all to the spirit world. You can escape on your own once you enter right?" Shiro asked as he nodded his head once more.
"Good, show me the way." Following behind the spirit while the seed drained the corpse, Shiro killed any guards that were inside the mansion who tried to attack her the moment they saw her exit with the male spirit.
Naturally, she was furious right now so their death wasn¡¯t exactly swift. She made sure they felt quite a bit of pain before killing them.
Seeing the face of Nan Tian twist in pain seemed to have struck a nerve in her since he wasn¡¯t weak like that. The real Nan Tian would have shrugged off the pain and counter attacked.
Thinking back to this, Shiro clicked her tongue while grabbing a soldier by the neck and crushed it with the help of her wind.
Shredding up his head, she threw the body to the side and controlled the wind to pile them all up into the centre.
Arriving at a bas.e.m.e.nt of sorts, Shiro saw tens if not hundreds of male spirits chained up and ¡¯drained¡¯ as they seemed quite weak right now.
Realising that Elin probably drained them of their vitality, Shiro frowned and cut them loose. Muttering something under her breath, Shiro opened up a portal to the Spirit World.
"Get in and leave." Shemanded.
Seeing the familiar portal, the spirits widened their eyes as a slither of hope returned to their eyes.
Quickly running through, Shiro maintained a portal until the final spirit was about to enter.
Looking at her, he mouthed a few words before leaving.
"Thank you huh? That¡¯s the first one I heard so far." Shiro raised her eyebrow and closed the portal.
Looking back at the bas.e.m.e.nt, she clicked her tongue and walked back to the mountain of corpses that she had left behind.
Retrieving the seed, she ced it in the corpse mountain. Once all the blood was drained, she left immediately since she didn¡¯t want to stay any longer.
Chapter 724 Adriel and Behmut
Chapter 724 Adriel and Behmut
Leaving the mansion, she could see a few of the monsters waking up before looking around in confusion.
Turning toward the city, they narrowed their eyes and were about to fly when a heavy pressure crushed down on their bodies.
"Where do you think you¡¯re going?" Shiro red at the monsters who were about to fly away.
Hearing her question, they froze up slightly from the killing intent and nced back.
Seeing a furious Shiro with a dark expression, some of the monsters started to shiver on the spot.
Piss off and don¡¯t attack the city. If you do I¡¯ll kill you." Shiro warned as she returned their ability to fly.
Quickly scattering away, she watched as the monsters fled the scene. There were a few that wanted to stay behind but a re filled with killing intent was enough.
Thanks to her killing intent and Divinity of Ouranos, she was able to send them away but if they actually fought, it would have been a pain and people could have arrived from the city.
So it was best to just let them leave for now.
ncing down at the seed in her hands, Shiro could see that it was filled a fifth of the way.
Swirling the seed around, she could see what seems to be condensed blood swirling around.
"Hm... despite killing so many people it only filled a fifth of the total amount." Shiro muttered with a small frown.
Understanding that she probably needed to kill a small town to fill the seed, Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯Gaia¡¯s more blood thirsty than I expect. Though she did orchestrate two wars I suppose.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
In one way, Gaia reminded Shiro of herself.
They¡¯re both protective, warm and bloodthirsty.
¡¯I wonder what she¡¯s like.¡¯ Shiro mused while soaring into the sky.
Remembering her map, she started to make her way towards the Section of the Underworld since that was where thest two were located.
The trip to the Section was quick and easy as Shiro only needed to stop every now and again for food.
She even travelled through the night since she can recover after a single night¡¯s worth of sleep.
Upon arriving at the Section of the Underworld, the first thing she did was look for a ce to rest for now since she was tired. Finding herself an inn, she paid for a night along with a meal.
However, her rest was cut short by the owners but Shiro quickly dealt with it before going back to sleep.
Waking up properly in the morning, Shiro went into the kitchen and made herself something quick since both the owners were now corpses. Naturally, she had the seed absorb the blood.
The other guests at the time were more than happy that the owners had died as they started to loot around for a bit before leaving. For those that got into a conflict and died, Shiro made sure their blood didn¡¯t go to waste.
By the time she had arrived at the city where both Adriel and Behmut were located.
Currently, the city was split into two halves. One belonged to Adriel and the other belonged to Behmut. Both were currently in a feud since their interests¡¯ conflict with one another. Since both were buyers of ve spirits, there were bound to be moments when they have their eyes on the same ¡¯product¡¯ and fight over it like a pair of rabid animals.
Compared to Elin, these two were known for their fighting prowess so it was definitely going to be hard to kill them quickly like she did with Elin.
Resting on a tree not too far from the entrance of the city, Shiro went through the information that Beril¡¯s sister had provided to her on the two targets.
Adriel Tarn was the owner of the Divinity of Ares which gives him superior prowess when fighting in one against many. The same goes for Behmut since he had the Divinity of Zeus. However, between the two, Behmut had the advantage of range. But since they knew that they would suffer great losses should they attack each other in an all out war, they kept it rather ¡¯peaceful¡¯ for now.
Cracking her neck, she figured that the easiest one to kill right now would be Zeus since she could easily whack him out of the air and attack him with close quartersbat while using her restriction of magic. That way, his lightning didn¡¯t work on her.
The only problem would be Adriel since the longer he fights for, the stronger he bes. She needed to finish him off quickly. There was also the problem of him being partially immortal thanks to Ares¡¯ divinity.
The fact that he can continue to fight even if he had one limb left was crazy and it made for an annoying opponent. Unless Shiro couldpletely crush his head, he could keep holding onto his life and try to kill her.
Thankfully, she had the help of her True Spirit Nature to deal with him.
So long as she could restrain him, she¡¯d be able to drag his soul out with ease.
Debating to herself for a moment, Shiro eventually settled with going for Adriel first since she can ignore Behmut with her Restriction of magic.
Dusting herself, she stood up and made her way to the gate.
Before she could even enter the city, she was stopped by the guards.
"Do you know the payment in this ce?" They asked with a l.u.s.tful gaze.
Rolling her eyes, Shiro slowly and calmly walked up to the guard on the right and raised her right hand. Before the guard could say anything, Nivlim appeared in her hand as she quickly jammed it into his throat and twisted his head off like a bottle cap.
Blood spurted out of his neck and Shiro used this moment to swiftly kill the other guard as well.
nting the seed in their body, she waited for a moment before removing it and quickly leaving the scene before more people could arrive.
Naturally, there were witnesses but Shiro was too fast for them to keep up.
Hiding herself in a corner, she grabbed a pin from her back and tied her hair up into a ponytail and changed into a new jacket.
Looking at therge buildings in the city, she spotted the ones belonging to the two immediately since they were rather shy with their design and they practically had their name carved on the buildings.
Forcing a smile, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but imagine the two as children who werepeting to see who¡¯s house looked ¡¯cooler¡¯ in their eyes.
The two would be arguing back and forth saying ¡¯no MY house is better than yours!¡¯.
Shaking her head, Shiro dismissed the thought since Adriel and Behmut weren¡¯t children.
She was going to kill them not adopt them.
Making her way to Adriel¡¯s mansion, Shiro hid around the corner and sped her hands together.
Pulling her hands apart, a snow white ball of condensed air could be seen in her hands as she threw it towards Adriels mansion and smiled.
Snapping her fingers, she took cover.
*BANG!!!!!!
Exploding into a giant whirlwind, the tornado rampaged without care as people were sucked up and thrown out.
However, for those that wanted to fly, a crushing pressure rained down from above and their wings were forcefully dispelled.
Widening their eyes with shock, they were subjugated to the mercy of the wind.
Giggling to herself, Shiro waited for Adriel to appear.
With what she knew so far, finding him shouldn¡¯t be hard as he is most likely a peac.o.c.k in the crowd of people seen as though his building was rather obvious.
Funnily enough, she wasn¡¯t disappointed as a pompous looking idiot with bright red hair appeared in the air with a furious expression.
Grinning slightly, Shiro remembered that she didn¡¯t need a direct confrontation.
No, there was a much better choice.
Snapping her fingers, she had the tornado expand to the rest of the city as her divinity stopped those that wanted to fly away.
Closing her eyes, Shiro activated her True Spirit Nature as a ck dress wrapped around her body and a crown appeared above her head.
Tapping the air in front of her, a pulse of green energy exploded out as the edges of the city lit up with a green and blue me.
Suddenly, butterflies started to appear from the mes.
"Collect some souls for me." Shiro muttered with a smile and snapped her finger.
As if being injected with stimuli, the butterflies screeched out with a harsh pitch and dashed towards the helpless people killing intent.
Chapter 725 Filling the Seed
Chapter 725 Filling the Seed
Hearing the screams of countless faction members, Shiro¡¯s smile widened ever so slightly before she quickly calmed herself since she was essentially causing a massacre in a city.
Naturally, she made sure that butterflies only targeted those that had belonged to either of the factions thanks to their obvious attire. After all, she didn¡¯t want to kill the spirit captives.
Even when she had the tornado run rampage in Ariel¡¯s mansion, the tornado itself didn¡¯t kill but rather swept up all the people she could see and there wasn¡¯t a single sign of a spirit so Shiro figured that they were most likely locked up.
Looking over at both Adriel and Behmut, Shiro could see that they were holding out a little betterpared to their subordinates.
Behmut was constantly fighting off the butterflies with lightning while Adriel punched them to smithereens with his fists.
"Oi! Lightning bastard! Let¡¯s have a truce until we kill whoever started this!" Adriel shouted over as Behmut nodded his head in agreement.
¡¯Let¡¯s see... I¡¯ll deal with Adriel first.¡¯ Shiro thought while wind swirled around her and hid her body from their sight.
With so much wind blowing everywhere, it was simple for Shiro to hide.
Once she was roughly 20 meters from Adriel, she dashed into action.
Currently, her time left in this form was 1 minute and 14 seconds so she needed to act fast.
Dispersing the wind around her, she revealed her body and swung Nivlim towards Adriel.
"!!!"
Widening his eyes at the sudden appearance of her sword, Adriel gritted his teeth and raised his leg up.
*BANG!!!
Kicking the sword to the side, he was unfortunately bit by a few of the butterflies.
"What are you doing?!" He shouted out in annoyance while trying to take off the butterflies.
"Nothing much. Don¡¯t harm my dear butterflies though, they¡¯re so cute." Shiro chuckled softly before breathing out a wave of cold air which condensed into an orb in her hand.
Throwing it into the air, Shiro snapped her fingers to shatter the orb.
*CRACK!
Just as the orb shattered apart, cold mist descended into the tornado as its colour started to shift ever so slightly and the surrounding temperatures dropped instantly.
Those that only had one divinity were frozen over instantly while those that had two were slowly frozen over. Only those with three divinities stood a chance as they continued to fight off the butterflies.
With a single move, Shiro had turned the entire town into a frozen ruin with statues of people being perched upon by the Soul Reaper Butterflies.
Seeing this, Adriel dashed towards Shiro as he knew she was the cause of all this. If they killed her, this should end.
"Assist me!" He shouted out towards Behmut who nodded his head and raised his hand above his head.
Dark clouds started to gather as Shiro only grinned.
Snapping her fingers, two magic circles appeared around her as one shattered apart and the other wrapped around her.
Restriction of Magic!
Just as her restriction wrapped around her, a strike of lightning descended down like a furious dragon.
*BANG!!!
Shattering the concrete around her, the lightning failed to do anything to the target itself.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Adriel roared out while lunging at Shiro with his fist.
Looking down at his hands, Behmut was just as confused as well since his lightning at a direct strike on Shiro.
While Behmut was confused, Adriel was trying his best tond a hit on Shiro but she kept dodging at thest moment with a simple backstep.
Seeing her smug smile, he couldn¡¯t help but feel angrier by the second.
Gritting his teeth, he mmed his foot down.
*CRACK!!!!
The force of his stomp caused a spider web of cracks to spread out as he mmed both his hands together and smashed down on the centre.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro hopped into the air and hovered for a moment.
Just as she did this, rock spikes shot out of the ground and barely missed her.
"Tch!" Clicking his tongue, Ariel was annoyed that she could still fly while they were grounded.
But before he could say anything, he felt danger all around him.
Suddenly, green mes erupted out of the cracks in the ground as Shiro¡¯s smile curved up into a grin.
Frozen Slumber!
Chainsshed out from the mes as Adriel widened his eyes.
Twisting his body, he wanted to dodge but whenever he tried to move out the way of the chains. Butterflies would cut off his escape andtch onto him.
Understanding that the butterflies were bad news, he wanted to destroy them but the moment he did the chains would try to restrain him.
While this was all happening, Behmut tried to attack Shiro over and over again but his lightning kept getting blocked by a shield that shimmered around Shiro.
"Don¡¯t worry, I haven¡¯t forgotten you either." Shiroughed. Flicking her wrists, ice chains shot out of the surrounding buildings andtched onto Behmut. Unlike Adriel, he wasn¡¯t as adept at controlling his body so the chains had a much easier time.
Once the chainstched onto him, ice started to form on his body as he widened his eyes in a panic and tried to escape but it was no use.
Butterflies started totch onto him as the feeling of fatigue overwhelmed his mind until he closed his eyes forever.
Seeing this Adriel¡¯s face paled and red at Shiro.
"WHAT KIND OF DIVINITY IS THIS????" He shouted out as the chains managed totch onto his ankles.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro smiled.
"It¡¯s the Primordial Divinity of Ouranos. That¡¯s the reason for the wind and yourck of flight. As for the ice and the butterflies, it¡¯s my own considering I¡¯m the empress of the spirits. I heard that you had quite a ¡¯fun¡¯ time with my dears now haven¡¯t you?" Shiro narrowed her eyes as Adriel paled in shock.
Before he could utter another word, his body was frozen over and butterfliestched onto him.
Snapping her fingers, she had the butterflies present the souls to her
Looking around her, she could see hundreds of illusionary figures being dragged over with hollowed eyes.
Raising her hand, Shiro started to absorb the souls as she could deal with them however she wanted. If she allowed them to reincarnate, they could. If she wanted to kill them for good, she could. It wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to call her a death god at this point.
Closing her eyes, she understood that the darker the colour of their soul, the worst they¡¯d done. Quite a few of them were quite dark but most of them were in the middle area which is to be expected since they were in a ce where crime is normal.
Dismissing and allowing them to reincarnate, Shiro sent the ones with dark souls to the underworld.
Just as she did this, the Sigil on her hand that represented Hades shimmered for a bit as the souls were absorbed into the Sigil instead.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro shrugged before turning to the remaining souls she had absorbed. These were the souls belonging to Adriel, Behmut and a few others and their colour was that of a muddy grey.
Understanding that they must have caused quite a bit of harm, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to clutch her fist and shatter them to pieces. Just before they werepletely shattered, Shiro caught a glimpse of their faces twisted in pain which brought her a bit of joy at their suffering.
Opening her eyes, Shiro dismissed her Spirit Nature and the butterflies faded away.
Stopping the storm, Shiro flew up into the air and used the wind to move all of the bodies to the centre of the city.
Summoning her bow, she notched Nivlim onto the bowstring and fired down into the pile.
*PUCHI!!!
Drilling a hole down the pile, she returned Nivlim to her hand and dropped the seed.
"Feed well." She said before flying towards the destroyed mansions.
Both of the mansions had the Spirit Woman chained in a dungeon of sorts as many of them had wounds all over their body. Using some of the medicine that Beril had given her to heal these girls, Shiro sent them back to the Spirit World.
After what the two nobles had done to them, there was a high chance that they¡¯ll be traumatised from this experience but there was nothing that Shiro could do about it.
Shaking her head, she collected the seed which has now beenpletely filled with blood thanks to the giant corpse mountain.
Chapter 726 Frigid Blood Lily
Chapter 726 Frigid Blood Lily
Raising the seed into the air, Shiro narrowed her eyes and wondered if it was going to turn into a flower anytime soon.
However, seeing as though there were no reactions even after waiting 5 minutes, Shiro decided to take it back to the Section of Life and see if there¡¯s any changes there.
Looking back at the city, she felt a little bad for killing 90% of the people here but she set the thought aside for now.
As cruel as it was, she didn¡¯t think too much of it since she was more focused on killing Adriel and Behmut along with saving the spirits.
It was hypocritical considering the things she had said before but that¡¯s how she was.
Jumping into the air, she flew back to the Section of life.
###
The whole trip back to the Tower of Gaia only took her around 3 days as she used the Section of Sky to help her return faster.
Making a few Air Tunnels for herself, she was able to increase her top speed thanks to the wind.
Upon arriving at the city beneath the Tower of Gaia, Shiro didn¡¯t waste any time and made her way to the tower.
The closer she got to the tower, the hotter the seed became and the blood within seemed to boil ever so slightly.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro wondered if she should do this in the spirit world instead.
¡¯I should be able to do it here. I don¡¯t see any reason that it can¡¯t be done.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
Crouching around the back of the tower, she dug a small hole and ced the seed in the whole before nting it again.
Waiting for a moment, she noticed the ground shake a little as she quickly stepped back.
*Krrr....
A tiny root dug its way out of the ground and slowly extended towards Shiro.
Stopping around a meter away from her the root seemed to be asking for something.
Tilting her head, Shiro wondered if it was asking for water. But when she thought back to how she fed it blood, she realised that water might not be what it wanted.
Summoning Nivlim, she made a small cut on her finger and dripped some blood on the root.
Just as her blood touched the root, a thin sheet of ice coated its surface as it slowly retreated back to the seed.
Not a second after, the ground around the seed split apart as a crystal blue flower slowly bloomed.
The crystal blue petals slowly turned red the closer it got to the centre as it resembled the look of a lily.
Surprised by this flower, Shiro reached out and gently rubbed one of the petals. Feeling a piercing cold, Shiro nced at her finger which was slightly frozen.
Seeing a notification on her system, she checked it out while keeping an eye on the flower.
[Due to the circ.u.mstances, the Blossom of Life has evolved into Frigid Blood Lily]
[Frigid Blood Lily - Rainbow]
A special type of flower that has received both the blessing of gods and the spirits. It is resistant to all elements especially Ice. Innately, this nt contains a certain amount of Divine power that when consumed, will enhance your physique immensely. Due to the harsh requirements of its appearance, not many would recognise the Frigid Blood Lily¡¯s importance due to its rarity.
The benefits that one receives when consuming this flower is 50% resistance to all elements and 80% resistance to ice along with a 30% increase to physique.
Passive Skill ¨C Divine Lifeline (3/3)
After consuming the Frigid Blood Lily, you receive three lifelines.
First Lifeline ¨C Strength ¨C When you are close to death, this lifeline activates and grants you increased strength to escape your peril. This is an overall boost to your whole body which also increases speed.
Second Lifeline ¨C Astral Self ¨C The next time you are close to death or when you are still in danger after the first lifeline has been exhausted, you will rece your mortal body with your Astral Self for a small period of time. In this form, you cannot be harmed by physical attacks ormon magic attacks. You are able to phase through everything.
Third Lifeline ¨C Renewal ¨C This third lifeline triggers when you are killed regardless of the situation, including when your soul is taken, your body can be healed back to full when you desire so long as your soul is still in the same realm even if it is locked behind a special container. Once this is triggered, you will lose the benefits thate with consuming the Frigid Blood Lily.
Reading the description of the Frigid Blood Lily, Shiro raised her eyebrows in surprise since even she was tempted to just consume it.
However, remembering that thest step was to nurture the great deity¡¯s child, she stopped herself and instead activated her True Spirit Nature. While she didn¡¯t know what she should do to nurture this flower, she did have a way for it to protect itself.
Snapping her fingers, a magic circle appeared before her.
Pushing it towards the flower, she enchanted it with a power that would continuously apply so long as it was receiving energy from thend.
[Frozen Soul Reaper Sigil]
"If anyone tries to pluck you out of the ground, hit them with your roots and they¡¯ll begin to freeze. Once they¡¯re frozen entirely, you can steal their soul as nutrients for yourself or crush them. Don¡¯t kill people who didn¡¯t mean to stumble into you though. Try to disguise yourself if you can since kids are attracted to beautiful things." Shiro smiled and patted one of its petals. While she didn¡¯t know if the flower could understand her or not, she might as well say it just in case.
Feeling her touch, the Frigid Blood Lily swayed gently as the roots wrapped around her finger as if hugging her.
Since the Frozen Soul Reaper Sigil was her power, naturally it didn¡¯t work on her. Plus, it was the Lily¡¯s choice on whether or not it wanted to try to take her soul.
Feeling its touch, Shiro chuckled and deactivated her Spirit Nature.
Seeing the enchantment remain even after she returned to normal, Shiro smiled.
"Seems like you understand me. In that case then try not to make yourself stand out until you can protect yourself ok? I heard that after nts cultivate for a while they can be humans too. I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s a fairy tale or not but if you do obtain a human body, you should be able to protect yourself a bit better." Shiro said as the flower swayed a little from her words.
Removing the roots from her finger, the Frigid Blood Lily broke off a piece of its petal and handed it over to Shiro.
[Frozen Blood Petal ¨C Rainbow]
A petal from the mythic flower. It can act as a protective charm and stop an attack that will harm your life.
It can also be used as a material for medicine and armour.
Seeing this, Shiro chuckled and patted the flower once more.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled. Bouncing around for a bit, the flower dived back into the ground and disappeared.
Just as the flower faded away, a golden Sigil appeared on the tower surface and floated towards her.
Wrapping around her wrist, Shiro saw a new notification.
[Key to Gaia¡¯s Tower]
You havepleted the three steps, you may directly enter the final floor and challenge the guardian of her divinity.
Understanding that thest step was supposed to see if she could resist against her temptation of the flower, Shiro shrugged before standing up straight.
Checking her medical supplies, food along with the remaining time on her True Spirit Nature, 1 minute and 20 seconds, Shiro reached out with her hand and touched the surface of the tower.
Just as she did this, a golden gate appeared in front of her as she entered without hesitation.
Closing her eyes to avoid the blinding light, she opened them back up to find herself deep underground.
Looking up, it looked as thought she was beneath a giant tree since the tree roots could be seen draping down from the ceiling withrge ones embedded into the walls of this ce.
¡¯So the tower teleports you to the top and you make your way down huh? It¡¯s different to Ouranos¡¯ tower but I suppose that makes sense.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as the ground started to shake.
Rocks started to erupt out from the ground as they slowly merged with one another into a statue of a dragon. Green energy flooded inside its body as her system rang with a new notification.
[Defeat Gaia¡¯s Champion]
Chapter 727 Gaias Champion
Chapter 727 Gaia''s Champion
Before Shiro could do anything, the dragon unhinged his jaw and breathed out a wave of green energy which surged towards Shiro.
Feeling danger immediately, Shiro threw Nivlim into the air and pulled herself towards the roof.
Dodging the breath narrowly, she watched as a sheet of petrification could be seen on the floor.
"Wait a f*cking moment! When the hell did petrification be a thing in this tower???" Shiro muttered in confusion since all of the records just show that this ce was focused on defence. There was not a single mention of petrification.
However, when she remembered that the trials were tailored to her, she couldn¡¯t help but curse her luck.
"Of course it has to be petrification doesn¡¯t it? Why not just reshape the entire f*cking world while you¡¯re at it." She cursed under her breath.
But just as she muttered this, the dragon spread its wings as the surrounding walls started to move.
"I was f*cking kidding!!!" Shiro shouted back as she activated Ouranos¡¯ divinity and sent gusts of wind to attack the dragon.
*KSH KSH KSH!!
Striking against the stone body, the wind des left shallow marks and were barely able to harm the dragon.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro quickly kicked off the roof and dodged the roots that suddenly appeared.
Notching Nivlim into her bow, Shiro pulled back and fired it towards the dragon¡¯s head.
*CLANG!!
Embedding itself into a crevice, Shiro tugged at the chains and dragged herself towards the sword.
However, just as she did this, the dragon¡¯s eyes shimmered for a moment as Shiro felt danger once more.
Gritting her teeth, she sent a st of air above her and descended instantly.
*KRRRR!!!
Dodging the sh of light that petrified everything in sight, Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Tch, does everything need to be petrified for you???" Shiro retorted in annoyance.
However, seeing the green energy shimmer, Shiro quickly raised her hands and forced a smile.
"I kid I kid." Shiro chuckled before flicking her wrist and shing at the dragon some more, applying more stacks.
Quickly dodging back before the dragon couldnd more hits on her, she narrowed her eyes and flung her sword around his neck.
Swinging herself to his back, she notched a few arrows and fired at point nk range which only caused some shallow wounds.
¡¯Seems like I can only really damage it with my sword.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since her sword allowed her to ignore a certain amount of armour.
However, the same couldn¡¯t be said for her bow.
Activating her flight, she jumped off the dragon¡¯s back and resummoned Nivlim.
Dodging its attacks to the best of her abilities, Shiro continued to apply stacks as she soon reached the optimal amount.
Consuming it all, a purple aura erupted out of her.
"Error hon, you know the drill." Shiro said as red circuits wrapped around her sword with eagerness.
Making some distance between her and the dragon, Shiro activated her True Spirit Nature.
With her ck dress fluttering behind her, Shiro raised her bow and pulled back as hard as she could with the sword notched on the strings.
Suddenly, a green me coated the surface of her de while her bow had ice spikes slowly growing out of the body.
With all of her powers fused into one attack, she fired the sword.
*BANG!!! KRRRR!!!!
Sending out a shockwave, the sword flew towards the dragon as a trail of ice could be seen on the ground.
*CRACK!!!
mming into its chest, the dragon was pushed back by a few steps as the sword dug deep into its body.
However, it failed to reach the core as Error tried to attack it.
Seeing this, the dragon narrowed his eyes before rearing his head back.
*URAHHH!!!!
Crying out in anger, a pulse of green energy exploded out as Shiro widened her eyes and quickly mmed her hand down.
Erecting a wall of ice in front of her, she summoned her sword back to her side and saw Error who was partially petrified along with the sword while the ice wall was unaffected.
¡¯Seems like the closer you are the more it affects you.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Looking down at her sword, she was a little annoyed that it was now partially petrified but she didn¡¯t get a notification saying that it was broken so she figured that she could probably still use it.
Snapping her fingers, green mes erupted out from the underground chamber as chains shot towards the dragon.
Unlike Adriel, the dragon wasn¡¯t as nimble so the chains had an easy timetching onto him.
*KRRRRR!!!
Seeing the ice coat its body, the dragon red at the chains as it thrashed its body around in anger.
*URAHHH!!!!
*CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!
However, despite its efforts, the chains refused to snap. Even when there were some cracks, Shiro was able to quickly fix them up with more ice.
Once the green energy stopped pulse, she dived out of her cover and ran towards the dragon. Her True Spirit Nature was on a timer so she couldn¡¯t spend that time dawdling. If she did, she¡¯ll be wasting a lot of potential damage.
Twisting her body, she shed towards the dragon¡¯s head.
*CRACK!!
Since she was still under the effect of the stacks, her damage output had increased dramatically as the dragon was knocked back by a few meters.
Seeing this, Shiro grinned and flexed her fingers. Suddenly, ice gathered behind the dragon beforeunching a spike towards its rear.
Relying on its instincts, the dragon mmed its tail into the ice spike before it could reach.
"Tch why the hell is it so on guard?" Shiro muttered in annoyance as she threw her sword and dragged herself towards the dragon once more.
She did try to use the butterflies but it seemed like the dragon didn¡¯t have a ¡¯soul¡¯ so it wasn¡¯t as useful as she had hoped.
Since her True Spirit Nature focused on fighting living beings, it was only natural that it would struggle against golems like the dragon.
ncing at her timer, Shiro frowned when she saw that she only had 15 seconds left of her form.
Furrowing her brows, she decided tounch an all out offensive against the dragon in thesest 15 seconds so that she could kill it before she¡¯s weakened.
Landing on its wings, Shiro pulled her hand back before mming her sword against the joints.
Activating her armour ignore, a spider web of cracks spread out across its wings as part of it could be seen falling off.
Dodging the roots that tried to attack her, Shiro mmed her hand down against his spine as a column of ice exploded out.
*BANG!!!
Forcing it on its knees, the ice prevented the dragon from moving too much.
sping her hands together and creating a dense orb of air, Shiro breathed a mouthful of cold mist onto the orb before throwing it against its head.
Exploding into a blizzard, the dragon¡¯s head was frozen for a moment before petrification spread across the ice and shattered it to pieces.
"Tsk!"
Using the chains as a swing, Shiro swung herself under the dragon and sent a st of air against the abdominal area.
Cracking some of the rocks protecting his insides, Shiro grinned as a huge magic circle spread out from beneath her.
With only 2 seconds left to her timer, Shiro cast her final ice based spell.
A wave of ice des shot out of the ground and pierced towards the crack she had made while the pir pressing the dragon down was turned into a giant sword.
With swords trying to piece it from both sides, the dragon could only struggle as some of its armour was shredded apart.
Naturally, Shiro wasn¡¯t going to watch her magic do all the work.
Summoning her sword, she started to carve away at the dragon¡¯s stomach.
Just as the energy started to pulse, Shiro used air to push herself out of harm¡¯s way.
Throwing her sword around the dragon¡¯s head, she pulled herself up so that she came face to face.
If one could see Shiro right now, they would see pure concentration in her eyes which seemed like it could read anyone like an open book.
All of the dragon¡¯s moves had been seen through by her and it hadn¡¯t been able tond a single hit yet.
"Error!" Shiromanded coldly as the circuits wrapped around the sword with its remaining energy since it failed the first assault.
Grabbing the rocks that symbolised the horns, Shiro stabbed Nivlim down as hard as she could.
However, it wasn¡¯t enough to pierce the armour.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro used the horns as handles as she flipped her body and mmed her foot against the pommel of her sword.
*BANG!!!!
Shattering a bit of the skull, Shiro narrowed her eyes as Error dived into the crack.
Making a condensed orb of air, she jammed it as deeply as she could before retreating.
Snapping her fingers, an explosion of wind des could be seen on the dragon¡¯s head while red circuits exploded out of his body like a parasite.
Chapter 728 Primordial Divinity of Gaia
Chapter 728 Primordial Divinity of Gaia
Turning around to a copsed Dragon, Shiro sighed in relief and walked up to the corpse.
Crouching down, she saw a Sigil simr to the one she had received from Ouranos.
Tapping it, she watched as the Sigil faded into her body.
[Primordial Divinity of Gaia]
- You gain control of the great earth and can transform thendscape to your liking so long you have enough energy.
- You are able to enchant your weapons with the petrification enchantment which turns people to stone. The process may take longer depending on their resistances.
- You can control the forest andmand animals to a certain extent.
- You can gain energy back by meditating in a forest.
- You can coat yourself in ayer of hardened material and greatly increase your defence.
- You gain full freedom in the Section of Life which allows you to kill at will.
- You are able to create golems that are infused with some of your power.
- You are immune to petrification and can dispel it at will.
- You can grow nt life such as trees to help you duringbat. They will not go away unless you will it. They can however be cut down like normal trees.
- You can expend 20% of your energy to release a sh of light that petrifies everything in range of you. This effect weakens the further out they are. The limit increases depending on how much energy was used in the 20% initial cost. After use, you cannot use this for another 3 days.
Reading the benefits she received from the divinity, Shiro raised her eyebrows at the mention of petrification.
Not only did she obtain the ability that the dragon had used for an AOE petrify, but she was now immune and can dispel it at will.
Looking down on her sword that was still partially petrified, Shiro tapped her finger on the surface and sighed in relief.
It seemed like the petrification didn¡¯t turn everything to stone and there was still metal left inside hence why it didn¡¯t break the moment she hit the dragon.
Dispelling the petrification, she was a little sad that the sword was slightly chipped on the edges but she figured that she could probably hand this back to Maria for it to get fixed.
Snapping her fingers, shemanded Error to return to her so that she could fix its petrification.
However, before she could, she watched as Error dispelled it on its own.
"You got Gaia¡¯s power too?" Shiro raised her eyebrows in mild surprise as Error bounced around in joy.
Chuckling to herself, Shiro wondered how she could leave this ce since there was no need for her to hang around.
Just as she thought of this, a golden gate appeared before her.
Shrugging her shoulders, she entered.
Once the light died down, she found herself back at the base of the tower.
ncing up, she smirked for a moment before making her way back to Beril¡¯s shop.
Now that she had obtained Gaia¡¯s divinity, she only needed three more before her trial here ended.
Thinking about the remaining divinities, Shiro was most excited for the one pertaining time. While Nyx¡¯s divinity might the most powerful, she didn¡¯t have an ability to do with time yet so she wanted to get that soon.
Knocking on Beril¡¯s door, Shiro waited for a moment but heard no reply.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro knocked again and waited for a few more seconds.
¡¯Hm... that¡¯s strange. Maybe she¡¯s busy with something.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she was about to leave. But just as she turned around, she saw a crystal butterflynd on her shoulder.
"If you¡¯re wondering about where Beril had gone, she¡¯s currently making her way to the emergency meeting that we¡¯re holding lil¡¯ cutie." A voice rang out as Shiro recognised her to be the same person who had given her the map previously.
"What¡¯s the meeting about?" Shiro asked.
"About the culprit and what we need to do about the Ancient Terror. The situation has changed hence why we¡¯re holding an emergency meeting. You shoulde too since the other hero candidates are already making their way over. They haven¡¯t achieved 6 slots yet but they¡¯ve managed to unlock their fourth one and obtained new divinities. One of them barely managed to obtain Tartarus¡¯ divinity so we have two primordial divinities on our side for now."
"Actually, I¡¯ve just finished Gaia¡¯s Divinity so we have three on our side." Shiro corrected her as she stayed silent for a moment.
"Pardon?"
"Ipleted Gaia¡¯s Divinity. But since it was tailored to me, it was more offensive than defensive." Shiro sighed.
". . . I see, I¡¯ll go notify the others. Setting that aside for now, you should make your way to the meeting."
"What¡¯s the meeting about anyways? I¡¯ve got more primordial divinities to acquire." Shiro furrowed her brows.
Struggling to find the words for a moment, the voice eventually sighed.
"It¡¯s important so can I ask that you set the other divinities to the side for now? You already have two so it should be ok to dy things just by a bit."
Furrowing her brows, Shiro shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head.
"Fine. Tell me where it is, I¡¯ll make my way there now." Shiro sighed.
"Great. Just follow the butterfly."
"No, just tell me since I can fly much faster than your butterfly." Shiro shook her head.
"Ok, in that case then go to the town of Granst near the border connecting to the Section of Sky. I¡¯ll have a map prepared for you there."
"Can you get it done in the next day then?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm... I think I can manage."
"Ok, I¡¯ll be there by then. Should I keep this butterfly on me or?"
"Keep it on you. That way I know where you are and can give you the map when you arrive."
Nodding her head, Shiro ced the butterfly in her bag and walked out of the city.
Once she was far enough away, she crouched down slightly and shot into the air.
Flying past the trees, her body flickered out of sight since she had received another boost in obtaining her third divinity.
###
It took Shiro less time than expected for her to arrive at the town of Granst so she had toze around for a bit while waiting for the map to arrive.
During this time, she had experimented with the powers a little and realised something outrageous. With her being able to ce petrification enchantments on weapons, it meant that her arrows from Artemis¡¯ bow which almost never missed were a guaranteed hit of petrification.
Unless they used something to block her arrow, they¡¯d be petrified instantly. Of course, her enchantment was a little weakerpared to when she used it on her sword but that was because the enchantment was stronger through direct touch.
When she used it on her sword, the speed of petrification was much faster than her arrow.
After some experimenting, the map had finally arrived and Shiro saw the meeting site.
The meeting sight was an old building used by the previous heroes located in the middle of the Section of Sky.
Since there were quite a few Air Tunnels around that area which allowed people to move around the Section with ease, they used it as their base.
Putting the map away, Shiro didn¡¯t waste any more time and made her way to the base immediately.
With her Primordial Divinity of Ouranos, she was able to make a brand new Air Tunnel to increase her speed. Naturally, she had erased it behind her since she didn¡¯t stop for food. If an average person were to use her air tunnels, they¡¯ll starve and probably have a rough wake up when they get mmed against the ground.
Upon Arrival, Shiro could see a small temple of sorts as a woman was waiting by the entrance with a small smile.
"Hey lil¡¯ cutie. You¡¯re the first one to arrive." The woman smiled as she was simr to a more grown up version of Que.
"Of course I am. Who else can move around as easily as I can?" Shiro shrugged.
"True. I¡¯m still surprised by your speed though. Regardless, 20 sisters have already arrived including Que and Tricia whom you¡¯ve met before soe in." She smiled.
"Speaking of Que and Tricia, I never asked you for your name." Shiro asked.
"Since lil¡¯ cutie is curious, I¡¯ll tell you. I¡¯m Andre, the 13th sister." Andre smiled while gesturing for Shiro to enter the building.
Chapter 729 Meeting Between Heroes
Chapter 729 Meeting Between Heroes
Entering the building, Shiro could see that the first floor was akin to a church of sorts with statues of all five of the primordial gods including Nyx.
Looking at the statue of Nyx, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrows since it looked nothing like her at all.
If anything, it just looked like a random woman who was used as a reference.
"You seem curious about the statue." Andre smiled.
"Mn, it looks nothing like Nyx." Shiro replied as Andre raised an eyebrow to her statement.
"You¡¯ve seen her before?" Andre asked with mild surprise.
"Mn I did." Shiro nodded.
". . . You¡¯re... not joking are you?" Andre furrowed her brows.
"Nope. But that aside, where should I stay while I wait for the others to arrive?" Shiro asked while massaging her neck.
"Ah follow me, there¡¯s a spare room here."
Getting Shiro to follow her, Andre led her down some stairs where she could see a few doors.
After asking, Andre exined that they were the different rooms for the sisters and that the ones at the bottom were for the guests. Aka, the heroes since it was easier to expand the building down.
Finding her a room, Shiroid on a bed for a while as it was ratherfy.
"I¡¯ll tell you when the meeting is being held. You can make your way up to the first floor and that¡¯s where we have food." Andre informed as Shiro nodded her head.
After Andre left, Shiro heard a knock on her door.
"Come in." Shiro called out while sitting up.
Opening the door, both Que and Tricia entered the room.
Seeing the two, Shiro smiled and waved her hand.
"Sup."
"Hey, seems like youpleted Gaia¡¯s Divinity too. I¡¯ll be honest, I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d get it done so quickly." Que sighed while sitting on Shiro¡¯s bed.
"Mn I got lucky. I managed to enter the spirit world and get information on how toplete the trial." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Oh? You went to the spirit world?" Tricia raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"I did. Is that weird?" Shiro tilted her head.
"It¡¯s not weird when you think about your race. However, the entrance to the Spirit world hasn¡¯t been discovered in a long time. I¡¯m just curious about how you managed to get them to bring you into the spirit world." Que said whileying her body down on the bed.
"Well I just kind of released my aura in the forest and was reprimanded by one of the spirits for being suicidal since the monsters see me as nutrients." Shiro shrugged.
"After that, she dragged me to the spirit world where I saw the steps of the skip written on the tower itself since the spirit world is like a mirror of the real world."
"I see..."
"Though I guess if you want I can show you to the spirit world. I can create a portal between realms whenever I want." Shiro shrugged.
*PFT!!
"You can???" Que sat up.
"Yeah, is there a problem?"
"What¡¯s your position in the spirit world? At most, spirits usually get the ¡¯key¡¯ to open already pre-existing portals. But you¡¯re able to open one yourself which means you have a lot of energy to spare and that the spirits had actually told you the real way to open and close portals." Que exined as Tricia nodded her head.
"My position is pretty special I guess. But why do they not tell the real way?" Shiro asked.
"Because of the traitors hundreds of years ago. Back then, one of the spirits had opened up a portal for the Ancient Terror so that he could escape one of our ambushes and he proceeded to wreak havoc in the spirit world. After he was forced out with the help of the queen at the time, the spirits became a reclusive race. They only tell the way to open up a real portal to those that have a high and trusted standing in the race. For the ones that already know the method, they were forced to swear an oath of secrecy under the divinity of oaths." Tricia said as she grabbed a chair and sat down.
"So the fact that the spirits actually told you is shocking." Que nodded.
"I see... They never told me so I wouldn¡¯t know." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn but setting that aside for now, what did you get from Gaia¡¯s divinity?" Que asked with excitement in her eyes.
"Well aside from the normal stuff, changingndscape and such, I¡¯m basically able to petrify anything I want." Shiro replied as Que tilted her head.
"Are you sure you got Gaia¡¯s divinity and not Medusa¡¯s? When did Gaia grant petrification?" Que asked.
"Yes. I had to fight a dragon that tried to petrify me a few times. I have control over petrification now so if someone is petrified, I can ¡¯unpetrify¡¯ them." Shiro replied.
"Can you demonstrate it?" Tricia asked, handing her a dagger.
"Sure."
Grabbing the dagger, Shiro activated Gaia¡¯s divinity and the dagger turned to stone immediately.
Looking at the speed of petrification, both Que and Tricia were speechless as Shiro returned it back to normal.
"There. It¡¯s a little slower when I use my bow but otherwise it¡¯s pretty handy." Shiro said as Que blinked for a moment.
"You do realise that your speed of petrification is faster than the petrification speed of someone with Medusa¡¯s divinity right?" Que said with a twitching smile.
"Is it?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Yes." Que nodded her head.
"Well I guess it¡¯s kind of like what happened with my Divinity of Nike then. I got it for the power of flight but after I got Ouranos¡¯ Divinity, Nike¡¯s hasn¡¯t been too useful except for some of the smaller boosts." Shiro shrugged.
"That is true. Most of the primordial divinities are upgrades of pre-existing divinities since they are technically their ¡¯children¡¯. It would be more concerning if her petrification speed is slower than the one provided by the Medusa." Tricia crossed her legs.
"That is true." Que agreed.
"So do you two know what this meeting was about? I was nning on challenging another tower when Andre told me that I should probablye to this meeting." Shiro asked.
"I¡¯m not too sure on the details but it seems like they found out who the culprit was. That and I guess they want the heroes to meet each other soon so that you can get to know each other and work as a team." Tricia theorised.
"I see... You got any information on the ¡¯heroes¡¯ then?" Shiro asked.
"Mn I do. There are five so far and they each aimed for a different tower. You appeared out of nowhere and one of the heroes seemed to be a little ufortable with the idea that you hadpleted his tower before he could. I¡¯m guessing that another would be in the same situation once he realises that you¡¯vepleted the Tower of Gaia." Tricia chuckled.
"Starting from the top, Tenma wants to aim for the Tower of Nyx and so far his divinities are all heavybat based so that he can aplish the skip and challenge the final boss. Next is Aris who wants to get Chronos¡¯ Divinity. She has been trying her best but there¡¯s not much you can do other than hope when ites to a god that can control time. The third is Yan who haspleted Tartarus¡¯ test and obtained his divinity. We¡¯re not sure on what powers he has obtained yet but I think we¡¯ll find out in the meeting. The fourth is Nyer who is the one that was aiming for Ouranos¡¯ Divinity. There might be some sparks of conflict between you two so try not to kill him if you can. Thest one is Hephorus who wanted to get Gaia¡¯s Divinity. Once again, try not to kill him if you can." Tricia exined as Shiro noted their names down.
"What about their appearance?" Shiro asked.
"You find that out once they arrive since I don¡¯t know much about it either." Tricia shrugged.
Nodding her head, Shiro talked to the two for a little longer about the benefits of Gaia¡¯s Divinity. She also told them about thebination between Artemis¡¯ Bow and the petrification enchantment. The only reaction they had was to sigh.
After two days of waiting, the final person for the meeting had arrived and Astryn, the second sister had called everyone to the meeting hall.
Chapter 730 Syrune
Chapter 730 Syrune
Sitting in one of the main chairs, Shiro had a smile on her face since she was currently the holder of two primordial divinities right now. As she had two, the probability of obtaining a third was higher than ever so the sisters were giving her the respect she deserved.
Que, Tricia and Beril were sitting next to her and Astryn the second sister was just a few seats to her right.
Opposite her were the heroes that had been mentioned before and two of them were currently looking at her with a frown. Seeing this, Shiro only replied by chuckling and giving them a smug grin.
Overall, four of the heroes seemed rather hostile but Shiro ignored them. The only one who seemed to be at ease was Yan who smiled and gave her a polite nod.
He was a rather lively looking youth with long ck hair that was tied into a ponytail. He wore a simple outfit that didn¡¯t stand out too muchpared to the things that the other heroes wore.
Naturally, Shiro returned the nod with one of her own. Those who show her respect will get respect back.
"Now that we have all gathered, I would like to begin the meeting. We¡¯ll be discussing the problem in regard to the Ancient Terror and the culprit who has been nting corruption saplings all over the world." Astryn said as everyone paid close attention.
For the sisters, their number also dictated their level of power so Astryn was currently the strongest sister at the meeting as number one was absent. Therefore, no one wanted to annoy her except Shiro but she wasn¡¯t bored enough to do that.
"Currently, the Ancient Terror has been making his way around the entire world nting seeds of corruption within people. Those that have the seed nted in them will begin to feel negative effects one or two days after the imnt. The negative effects that they have experienced from what we can tell so far is just pure bloodl.u.s.t along with exploding into a miniature pool of corruption once they¡¯re dealt with.
"In addition to this, it seems like the Ancient Terror has managed to regain two of his pieces which means that there are only eight left before he is whole once again. Once that happens, it¡¯ll be hard for us to deal with him unless everyone here obtains their Primordial Divinity.
"Since we have three divinities so far, Gaia, Ouranos and Tartarus, killing the Ancient Terror in this current state should be possible." Astryn said while ncing towards Shiro and Yan.
"If you don¡¯t mind me asking, you still haven¡¯t said anything about the culprit who had also been spreading saplings around." Tenma asked as he was the one who wanted to aim for the Tower of Nyx. Simr to Yan, he also had dark hair but it was cut short. He wore a set of leather clothing underneath his ck ted armour which only covered parts of his torso, shoulder and forearms.
Nodding her head, Astryn furrowed her brows but sighed.
"The culprit who has been doing this is actually big sis. While I don¡¯t know Syrune¡¯s motivations or goals, I now know that she has been nting the seeds around the world and when I tried to contact her, I heard nothing from her." Astryn sighed as the sisters paused in shock.
"It can¡¯t be big sis Syr, surely there¡¯s a mistake." The 45th sister frowned as she was the youngest of the family. To her, Syrune had always been a kind older sister to her so it seemed impossible for Syrune to suddenly work together with the Ancient Terror.
"I also don¡¯t believe it to be older sis Syrune too. It just doesn¡¯t seem right. Wasn¡¯t she the one who helped the most in the previous times when the Ancient Terror woke up?" the 20th sister spoke up as she had a frown on her face.
"I know I can¡¯t believe it either but what else can I say when I found traces of corruption thest time I saw her? I got into a small fight and managed to injure her to some extent but she escaped." Astryn sighed.
cing a block of ice in the centre, everyone could see a small piece of the forearm frozen in ice and a ck and purple liquid could be seen swimming around in the flesh.
Seeing this, some of the younger siblings looked away with a pained expression while the older ones knew that this was evidence against Syrune.
"Let¡¯s not jump to conclusions just yet. For all we know, it could be an imposter doing this. Illusion magic isn¡¯t umon." The 10th sister suggested.
"Mn I agree. For now, let¡¯s keep trying to track her wear abouts while dealing with the Ancient Terror." The 5th sister agreed as everyone seemed to havee to a consensus. As for the heroes, Tenma, Nyer and Aris seemed a little unsettled to find out that the strongest sister was the one who had been working with the Ancient Terror so they would exchange subtle nces towards one another.
Naturally, this didn¡¯t escape Shiro¡¯s notice as she only raised her eyebrow.
¡¯Hopefully they don¡¯t do anything stupid.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
"Setting aside the case of big sis Syrune, let¡¯s talk about the pieces of the Ancient Terror. As you know, he has obtained two so far which means that there are eight more to go. Thankfully, the first five pieces won¡¯t give him too much of a boost. It¡¯s only thest five that really matter so we¡¯ll be giving each of the heroes a piece."
"Since you only need five people, you don¡¯t mind if I go grab another divinity now do you? The longer I dally around for, the less chance there is for me to get it." Shiro called out as Astryn looked towards her and paused for a moment.
"I believe you should have time for one more Divinity. Maybe more depending on the situation." Astryn nodded her head.
"Good to know." Shiro smirked.
"On the topic of Divinities, can you tell Hephorus the skip to the Tower of Gaia? If you do, we should have another divinity in our hands soon." The 9th sister smiled as Beril frowned.
"Where¡¯s the please? Shiro worked hard to find out how to skip it. You have no right to demand she exinthe skip." Beril said as she hadn¡¯t told them about Shiro finding the skip just yet.
However, seeing her younger sister¡¯s attitude, she was a little annoyed.
"In that case then please. Would that do?" The 9th sister rolled her eyes.
Before Beril could even say anything, Shiro ced her hand on her shoulder and smiled.
"I would tell you about the skip but the trial isn¡¯t as meaningful without you going through it yourself." Shiro chuckled.
"We¡¯re in an emergency situation, I don¡¯t think meaningful is as important anymore." The 9th sister shook her head.
"For this one it is. Since the trial is tailored to you. If he doesn¡¯t prove that he has the proper mindset to do the skip then he shouldplete it like everyone else had in the past." Shiro grinned.
"And what if he fails?"
"Then he¡¯s just ipetent. Plus, I¡¯ve got two divinities already. Whether or not he gets his is secondary." Shiro narrowed her eyes with a dark grin.
"Plus, if he does things like I did, he might have to face a dragon that can petrify him with a gaze." Shiro chuckled.
"Gaia¡¯s divinity doesn¡¯t give pe-"
Before she could even finish, Shiro tapped her finger on the table as ayer of petrification instantly spread across the table.
Those that weren¡¯t fast enough had a small part of their arm petrified onto the table which stopped them from moving.
"See? Power of Gaia." Shiro grinned.
Despite feeling magic all around her, she wasn¡¯t afraid.
Tapping her finger once more, the petrification was released.
"See? I doubt you¡¯ll want to face a dragon that can do the same now." Shiro snickered.
Staying silent, one could tell that the 9th sister was annoyed but she didn¡¯t say anything.
"Stop acting up Shiro, are you trying to fight everyone here?" Beril frowned.
"It would be fun but maybe not today then. Whose divinity should I go for next? Probably Nyx¡¯s or Chronos¡¯."
Shiro rested her chin on her palms as she looked towards Tenma and Aris with a grin.
"Or maybe I should do both?"
Before a fight could break out between them, Que, Tricia and Beril pulled Shiro out of the meeting for now since the rest was just how they should tackle the problem of obtaining divinities while the Ancient Terror was collecting his pieces.
Chapter 731 Remaining Divinities
Chapter 731 Remaining Divinities
Arriving back at her room, Shiro sat down with the three sisters.
"Why do you have to try to provoke a fight, hais." Beril sighed.
"What can I say? They wanted a good smack across the face so I can¡¯t reject them now can I?" Shiro shrugged with a smallugh.
"I¡¯m on Shiro¡¯s side for this one since they were very rude." Que pouted out a little.
Tricia also nodded her head since she was annoyed by their attitude of demanding something from Shiro.
"Hais... the three of you are troublemakers I swear." Beril massaged her eyes before sitting on the bed and crossing their legs.
"Thankfully, since you have already obtained two primordial divinities, you have more freedom, I suppose, for ack of a better word. You can do whatever you want until the time to fight the Ancient Terror. Of course, we can¡¯t force you so whether you help or not is your own choice." Beril shrugged.
"Mn well it¡¯s not too much trouble so I can lend a hand." Shiro replied.
¡¯Plus, it seems to be one of the clear conditions to this trial too.¡¯ She mused to herself since her main goal was to clear this trial.
After spending quite a while in this world, she was missing her own parents and her friends.
She couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the rest of the party had finished their respective trials with their gods since this one was taking much longer than expected.
Without the skips, she¡¯d have to go through each tower little by little and she wasn¡¯t too keen on that. Especially since some of the trials seem really tricky with their divinities. Plus, since each divinity is tailored to her, she can expect them to be harder as she grows in strength.
"Mn so which divinity are you going for next?" Que asked curiously.
"I¡¯m not too sure just yet. I got a choice between Nyx, Chronos and Tartarus. Honestly, I¡¯m tempted to go either Nyx or Chronos since Tartarus seems like it¡¯ll be a pain in the ass. I like straight forward things rather than puzzles." Shiro sighed while rolling onto her belly on the bed.
"Would Nyx be better then? Honestly, between Nyx, Chronos and Tartarus, it¡¯ll probably be better for you to get Nyx¡¯s. Her divinity provides a lot of benefits duringbat. Chronos is great too but his trial is tricky as well. I think one time the hero had to y a game which stretched across time to obtain the divinity. It took him quite a long time to do it." Quelle suggested as Tricia nodded her head.
"Yeah they were essentially simtingbat along with protecting important marks through time. The hero had to make sure the past, present and the future was protected while doing the trail. If he cked, one of the three would have been affected and he would have failed." Tricia nodded her head as Shiro only groaned.
While she may be able to simte things quickly as well as remember everything thanks to how her mind worked, it would still be super annoying for her to go through something like that.
"What power did he even get in the end?" Shiro asked.
"He gained the ability to cut someone¡¯s past along with their future. However, he had to be super urate. If he wanted to harm someone a day ago, the energy he had to use was huge. Plus, the more powerful someone was, the harder it was to harm them even if it was in the past. One he attacks their past, there¡¯s a cool down before he can harm them again. As for the future, he can stack attacks on a person which may seem like nothing but after a day or whenever he chooses, all the attacks will strike at once. Naturally, this can be as short as 5 seconds in the future or two days in the future. And like how it is with him striking the past, he only has one chance. This is all I know. There is definitely more but I don¡¯t know the details." Tricia shrugged her shoulders.
"By urate, do you mean they had to be at the spot they¡¯ll be a day ago or at the spot they¡¯ll be in a day?" Shiro asked to make sure.
"Yes and no. For the past, he had to be where they were previously but this doesn¡¯t apply to the future." Tricia replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sounds rough if he had to strike at it from memory. There¡¯s probably the benefit of seeing through time too with a special pair of eyes." She theorised as the three agreed on her thought.
"Well thankfully we know the skip for Nyx so it shouldn¡¯t be too hard for you."
"Mn, but you see, my True Spirit Nature onlysts for 100 seconds. I don¡¯t know how to extend the timer so after 100 seconds, I¡¯ll be back to base power. I don¡¯t know if the trials will take into ount my True Spirit Nature so if I use it during the fight against the champion, I¡¯ll be weakened during the actual fight with the boss to get Nyx¡¯s divinity." Shiro sighed.
"Mn that is true. You¡¯ll probably need to make sure that your best abilities are saved before the final fight then. However, I can tell you now that Nyx¡¯s champions are just as strong if not stronger than some of the bosses you see in the final level of the other towers." Tricia warned with a serious face.
"What do you mean?" Shiro tilted her head.
"I meant exactly what I said. Nyx¡¯s tower has bosses as guardians." Tricia sighed.
Hearing this, Shiro frowned since fighting one boss was annoying as it is. Having to fight multiple back to back without time to rest would be harder since her True Spirit Nature only regenerates one energy per hour. It¡¯d take her more than 4 days to regenerate everything from 0.
However, the tower wouldn¡¯t be as kind as to give her 4 days between boss fights.
"Actually, I have an idea." Shiro sat up as her lips curled up into a nefarious grin.
"What are you thinking?" The three asked at the same time since they didn¡¯t like the feeling they got from her grin.
"You know the person who made me this sword and created the attachments?" Shiro asked, summoning the damaged Nivlim to her side.
"Yeah? What about it?" Que nodded since Maria had been earning quite a bit of moneytely thanks to her attachments.
"Well what if I searched for more Blessed Weapons? Like Orion¡¯s Arrow or Ares¡¯ Spear. If I get Maria to upgrade them, I¡¯ll give myself more options during a fight. Plus, since they¡¯re blessed weapons, I can store them away without having to carry them all manually." Shiro suggested as the three realised how outrageous this could be.
"But blessed weapons aren¡¯t vegetables. You can¡¯t just go out and im a bunch of them." Beril furrowed her brows.
"Indeed. But we can search for clues. Plus, isn¡¯t there Hellmouth Valley? With how many monsters are around the mountains, there¡¯s an 80% chance that a blessed weapon is there." Shiro said as she sat up straight.
"So here¡¯s my proposal. With Que being able to give us a familiar so that we can talk to each other, we all gather clues and traces of where blessed weapons can be. We¡¯ll then go collect them all one by one so that Maria, the one who upgraded Nivlim, can upgrade these weapons as well. Weapons are essentially half divinities so if I collect enough, it should give me enough adaptability to fight off anything thates my way. Don¡¯t worry about power differences since I can bridge that with skill. But trust me, as long as I have a wide selection of weapons, I¡¯ll have a 90% chance of clearing the champions without the use of my trump cards." Shiro persuaded the three sisters as they looked at each other before sighing.
"Sure why not. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s bad for you to begin with. The more blessed weapons you get the better but just know others are also looking for them so you¡¯ll probably run into people. Try not to kill them if you don¡¯t need to unless they attack you. Are there any weapons that you¡¯re looking for specifically?" Beril asked.
"Like I said earlier, Orion¡¯s Arrow that pairs with my bow along with Ares¡¯ spear. After that, I¡¯d like a hammer, an axe, a polearm and any others that you can find I suppose." Shiro grinned since the champions are going to have a surprise when she pays them a visit.
Chapter 732 Returning to Hellmouth Valley
Chapter 732 Returning to Hellmouth Valley
After deciding on their next moves, the four of them had to wait around for a while just to make sure that there were nothing else that they need to do before attempting to leave.
However, just as they left the building, a voice called out to them and it was Astryn the second sister.
"I apologise about the conduct of some of my younger sisters. Just know that you obtaining more than one primordial divinity is a great boon for us all. You are not required to tell them the skip since heroes of the past could do it without. Even if the time is short, this kind of power is supposed to be done by yourself so that there is meaning to your efforts. For Ouranos, it¡¯s the dedication to reach the top even without the power of flight. For Nyx it¡¯s the will to fight her champion for her blessing. These skips are put in ce for those that wished to take the hard and short route so that there is still a test to temper and make sure that they¡¯re suitable for the divinity. Therefore, if telling the man about the skip defeats its purpose, you should not say a single word." Astryn smiled as Shiro chuckled.
"Mn of course. I¡¯m surprised that you¡¯vee to see us off though. If you¡¯re worried about conflict between us while we¡¯re going for the divinities, don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll try not to provoke them." Shiro grinned.
"That¡¯s reassuring but I¡¯vee for a different purpose." Astryn shook her head before reaching to her bag and retrieving a small jewel of sorts.
"I had noticed that you were a spirit and since you have obtained two primordial divinities, I figured that the past Spirit Queen would have most likely wanted you to have this." She said while handing Shiro the jewel.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro could see a swirl of energy within the jewel but no system notification rang out which confused her.
The jewel itself was green in colour and the energy was that of a cold ice blue which swirled around slowly within the jewel.
"What is this?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I¡¯m not sure but the Spirit Queen said that it¡¯ll assist a spirit in the future who will obtain two primordial divinities and more." Astryn smiled.
"Was there possibly a chance that she could see the future?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Perhaps. Much like us, you spirits awaken different kinds of powers. Her power might have been in rtion to the future." Astryn chuckled.
"Mn true. In that case then thank you for giving me this I suppose." Shiro said while storing her jewel away.
"You¡¯re wee. I wish you luck in your next ventures and hope that you may obtain more divinities." Astryn bowed slightly as she watched the four leave.
###
"Can I have a look at the jewel?" Que asked as she was curious about what it looked like.
"Sure. Though I¡¯m a bit surprised that your sister had something the Spirit Queen owned." Shiro said while handing her the jewel.
"Is it really that surprising? We had a decent rtionship with the spirits until the whole thing about the Ancient Terror entering their world which caused them to be reclusive so it would make sense that big sis Astryn got something from the queen. Do you think the queen foresaw this hence why she didn¡¯t give big sis Syrune the jewel?" Que asked as her voice sounded a little sad.
"Don¡¯t think about it much. We¡¯re not sure if it¡¯s actually Syrune just yet." Beril frowned as Que nodded her head.
After spending a moment to examine the jewel, Que handed it back.
"Any clues?"
"Unfortunately no. I haven¡¯t read anything like this in the books." Que shook her head.
"Should I give it a try? My eyes might be able to tell me some information about them." Beril asked since she was also able to confirm that the seed was from Gaia¡¯s tower when Shiro handed it to her.
"Go for it." Shiro nodded.
Holding the jewel in front of her, Beril¡¯s eyes started to glow with a slight golden hue as she furrowed her brows.
"What the hell did big sis give you." Beril muttered.
"You know what it is?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Kind of. You see, inside this jewel is a concentrated mass of energy that has a simr feel to the primordial divinities but at the same time different?" Beril furrowed her brows.
"So I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s like a divinity that gives no skill?"
"I suppose that¡¯s an adept description of this." Beril nodded.
"Mn I see. We¡¯ll let¡¯s set that aside for now. I¡¯ll be going to Hellmouth Valley and seeing if there¡¯s anything hidden on top of the mountain since a dragon was guarding it. Should I keep one of your familiars on me so that you can tell me where the other weapons are?" Shiro asked as she turned to Que.
"Sure give me a second." Que nodded her head.
Summoning a butterfly, she handed it over to Shiro.
Talking to the three for a little longer, she eventually flew towards the Section of the Underworld where the Hellmouth Valley was located. Last time she had aimed for the ravine since the chains were there but now she¡¯s aiming for the creepy mountain with tens ofrge shadows looming around which look like they could erase her with a sneeze. Naturally, she now had two primordial divinities on her side along with her true spirit nature to help out if anything goes south.
Upon arrival, Shiro immediately flew above the clouds from a distance away in an attempt to see what kind of monsters she was going up against but the only thing she could see once she was past the clouds wererge serpentine bodies weaving through the clouds.
While it may seem like an easy way to get to the top of the mountains that she could see, Shiro understood that she¡¯d be surrounded on all sides should she go in right now.
Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to test out the waters a little.
Summoning her bow, she notched an arrow and pulled back as hard as she could.
*BANG!!!
Letting go of the arrow with an enchantment of petrification, Shiro watched as it soared towards the top of the mountains.
¡¯Looks like they don¡¯t react to a-¡¯ Before she could even finish her thought, a giant monster leapt out of the clouds and hit the arrow aside. There were some hints of petrification but the monster only bit off the piece of his body that was petrified and regenerated the missing flesh quickly.
The monster itself had a long serpentine like body with no limbs apart from two pairs of wings and tentacles that protruded from its body.
Neon green eyes stretched along the side of his body as his head looked like the tip of an arrow.
The inside of his mouth was also neon green in colour and hundreds of teeth could be seen decorating the inside of his mouth.
Seeing that the monster brushed off her arrow with such ease and managed to regenerate the damage quickly, Shiro was having a few second thoughts about charging in since there are more monsters than this.
Furrowing her brows, she was wondering about how she should go about this when she watched therge serpentine like monster unhinge its jaw and look towards her.
Tilting her head for a moment, Shiro widened her eyes and immediately dived down into the clouds.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Firing a beam of green energy, the breath attack cut a line through the clouds before the monster reared its head back and sent the attack up in the sky.
Closing its mouth, the monster returned back to the sea of clouds.
Looking towards the section of sky that had one of the floating inds touched by this attack, Shiro could see if being corroded away into nothingness as cold sweat was dripping down her back.
"Holy sh*t..." She muttered as the attack was much more powerful than what she had anticipated.
Thankfully, the monster could be seen charging it up so dodging was somewhat easy.
¡¯Since there are powerful monsters like this guarding the top of this mountain, there has to be a treasure up there.¡¯ She thought to herself as she debated on whether or not she should venture fourth or not.
Biting her lips, she decided to bait out a few of the monsters first so that she could see if they¡¯re just as powerful as the serpent monster. If they were, she¡¯d give up. If they¡¯re not, there could be a chance for her to obtain the treasure.
Chapter 733 Mountain Peak
Chapter 733 Mountain Peak
Sitting in the clouds with her legs crossed, Shiro looked towards the sea of monsters with a ratherplicated gaze. Previously, she had said that if there were more monsters like the first one she¡¯ll give up. However, after some poking around, most of the monsters were much weaker than the serpentine one.
If anything, there were only 2 others that were on par with it but that was still problematic since just one was troublesome enough with his regeneration. Add two others into the mix and it bes a pain in the ass since they can just retreat and let the others deal with her if they get severely wounded.
An example would be if she managed to wound the serpentine, he could just dive into the clouds and run away for a bit while the other two lock her down, preventing her from chasing after him and he¡¯ll return not too longter back at full health.
"Any ideas?" Shiro asked as Que¡¯s butterflynded on her shoulder.
[Nope. Honestly, I didn¡¯t realise how dangerous this ce really is. Now that I had a good look at the monsters, I can say for certain that you need more than three of the primordial divinities if you want to explore to this ce. Maybe you should leave it till after you obtained Nyx¡¯s.] Que suggested.
"Mn. But I see a possibility. The only problem is how effective this is." Shiro frowned.
[What possibility are you talking about?]
"One of the skills I got from Gaia. It allows me to send out a pulse of light that petrifies everything within range and it takes 20% of my energy as the initial cost. Naturally this ray of light increases depending on how much energy is used and 20% of mine is rather sizable so it could turn out to be something that¡¯s good for us." Shiro exined as Que thought about it for a moment.
[How long would it take for you to be able to use this again?]
"Three days. Once I use this, I have to wait three days before I can use it again." Shiro replied.
[Well the initial petrification worked didn¡¯t it? The one with the arrow. So there¡¯s a good chance that this will work too.]
"I¡¯ll give it a try. And even if it doesn¡¯t, I should be able to escape without too many worries." Shiro nodded as she narrowed her eyes at the mountain peaks in the distance. There was one that stood high amongst the rest and that was the one she was going for.
*BANG!!!
Charging forwards, her initial speed pushed the clouds aside as her body flickered into a blur.
Just as she did this, tworge jaws shot out of the clouds and tried to eat her before she could get close.
However, since these weren¡¯t the monsters that Shiro was on guard for, she wasn¡¯t too worried. Twisting her body, she summoned her bow and sent out two arrows which petrified their jaw.
Diving down to dodge the attack, she then summoned Nivlim andshed out at the petrified jaw, shattering them to pieces.
Resuming her charge toward the mountain peak, Shiro nimbly dodged all of the attacks as she was now entering the territory that housed the three main monsters that she was wary of.
Feeling danger from three directions, Shiro widened her eyes and activated her True Spirit Nature.
sping her hands together, Shiro gritted her teeth and a burst of cold mist exploded out of her, freezing her surroundings in an instant as a giant ice cube appeared out of nowhere. Since she was able to travel through ice, she managed to dodge a thin beam of white energy which would have cut her in half in an instant.
However, the danger wasn¡¯t over as a set spiked ws reached out for the ice cube. In the centre of the ws were mouths that started to open wider and wider as a set of jaws shot out.
Jumping out of the ice, Shiro pushed her hand out as a giant magic circle expanded above and below her.
Frozen Slumber!
From the magic circles chains shot out and attempted to restrain the monsters who quickly dodged them so that they didn¡¯t get frozen. Using this chance, she dismissed her True Spirit Nature and dashed towards the top of the top.
With her actions, the final guardian appeared as it was the serpent like monster that she had seen first.
With all three in range of her, she curled her lips into a grin.
Activating Gaia¡¯s divinity, green energy exploded out from her as an orb of light could be seen in the centre.
Understanding what she had to do, Shiro detonated this green energy.
*KRR!!!!!!!!
As a pulse of energy expanded out with her in the centre, Shiro watched as ayer of petrification formed on the threerge monsters. They tried their best to dispel this by cleaving off the parts that were petrified but the speed of petrification was simply too fast.
However, what Que and Shiro didn¡¯t expect was the range of her attack.
Looking into the distance, she could see theyers of petrification coating the peak of the mountains as well. Looking back, the petrification had already coated the entirety of the ravine they were previously in along with spreading past the border towards the Section of Life.
[After this, there might be a slight change in which divinity is the most powerful.] Que muttered since the power of her petrification was simply insane.
The fact that it also petrified the mountain and parts of the Section of Life was something neither of them had anticipated.
Thankfully, since Shiro could control her petrification at will, she quickly dismissed the petrification on the mountain andnd since her only goal was the monsters.
Without dying any longer, Shiro dashed towards the peak of the mountains as the monsters could only re at her.
¡¯Honestly, I would have wanted to shatter them to pieces and kill them for good but I don¡¯t have that kind of power just yet.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Arriving at the peak of the mountain, Shiro had to blink for a moment as she couldn¡¯t believe what she was seeing. There was a giantke of sorts with a shrine built on the side. In front of the shrine was a figure that was d from head to toe in ck armour. The figure had a sword rested beside him while monster skeletons decorated the edges of this ce.
Landing next to theke, Shiro felt her body go through a barrier of sorts.
"Que you see this?" Shiro asked but heard no reply.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro nced into the bag and saw that the butterfly had dimmed down slightly.
Understanding thatmunication had been cut short for now, Shiro walked up to the figure.
Once she was next to it, she saw that the armour was actually hollow inside as there were some writings on the shrine.
[One of the greatest armours and weapon crafted by the cksmith god Hephaestus himself. Should one arrive here after surviving the sea of dragons they may im it after proving their skills.]
Reading the writing, Shiro raised her eyebrow and nced back at the amour which started to move.
Suddenly, she heard a soft ping as a notification appeared on her system.
[im two of Hephaestus¡¯ 10 masterpieces.]
Curling her lips into a grin, Shiro knew she hit the jackpot.
Summoning Nivlim, she was about to attack the armour when its body flickered next to her and kneed her in the ribs.
*CRACK BANG!!!
Sending her crashing towards theke, the armour chased after her.
"GAH!!!" Coughing up some blood, Shiro immediately understood that she had underestimated it as two of her ribs had been broken already.
Quickly grabbing some medicine, she ate it while raising her sword to guard against the next attack.
Seeing its figure loom above her with its sword raised above its head, Shiro narrowed her eyes and twirled Nivlim into a reverse grip before brushing it off to the side.
Using this chance to activate her True Spirit Nature, a set of ice chains exploded out from the ground and tried to restrain the amour.
Seeing this, the armour stomped down, sending out a shockwave that shattered the ice chains apart.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro activated Gaia¡¯s divinity and surrounded it in a stone prison so that she could get a moment to breathe.
Making some distance with the short break she had managed to obtain, Shiro quickly applied some medicine and could feel a soothing energy flow to her ribs.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro knew that she needed to grab the offensive since she wasn¡¯t a defensive fighter.
Chapter 734 Copying Mios Sword Style
Chapter 734 Copying Mio''s Sword Style
*BANG!
Watching the armour break through the prison like nothing, Shiro clicked her tongue and dashed forwards.
Lunging towards the armour, she shed at it diagonally with her de.
*CLANG!
Seeing it block her strike, her lips curled up into a smile as petrification started to spread across the sword. Seeing this, the armour wanted to retreat for a moment but Shiro had summoned a stone wall behind it while it was trying to retreat.
ncing back at the stone wall, the armour looked back at Shiro and tried to grab her neck.
However, Shiro was now fully on guard. Turning her head to the side, she managed to dodge the grab and reach out for the armour¡¯s wrist.
Keeping a firm hold on the wrist, she let go of Nivlim and punched up towards the elbows as hard as she could with reinforced armour around her hand thanks to Gaia¡¯s divinity.
*CRACK!!
Seeing her stone armour shatter apart and bloode out of her hand, Shiro clicked her tongue in annoyance.
¡¯Figures. Any good cksmith would reinforce areas like the elbow or knee, nevermind one that¡¯s on the level of Hephaestus.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
Jumping back a little, Shiro summoned Nivlim back to her side and entered a stance that she doesn¡¯t usually use.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro¡¯s smile faded as a memory surfaced in her mind.
It was that of the training session she had with her mother. Since her mother was one of the strongest people that she had fought in terms of martial prowess, she was going to borrow some of her moves.
Crouching down into a small stance with her sword, Shiro dashed towards the armour.
While Nivlim probably wasn¡¯t as light as the thin sword that her mother had used, Shiro could try to emte some of her attacks and the way she applies pressure during the fight.
Flickering in front of the armour, Shiro flicked her wrist and shed towards his head.
Parrying it with his own sword, the armour was about to strike at her when Shiro let go of Nivlim and summoned it back into her hand ready to sh out once more.
Since her speed wasn¡¯t enough to bring back the sword, all she had to do was let go of it, bring her hand back and summon it again. This would simte the same actions that her mum had done while not having the same physical prowess as her.
Lashing out at its sword, Shiro managed to deflect its attack, breaking the armour¡¯s guard.
Using this chance, Shiro pierced forward with her sword and struck it dead centre in the chest.
*BANG!!!
Sending its body flying back, Shiro brought the sword back to her side before dashing toward the armour once more.
Exchanging a few more moves which allowed her tond some good hits against the armour, Shiro watched as it dropped its guard and slumped over for a moment.
However, just as she was 3 meters away from the armour, Shiro felt danger from all sides as she quickly jumped back while focusing on guarding the strikes.
"You¡¯ve got to be kidding me." Shiro frowned as that attack just now felt simr to the one that her mother had used.
Watching the armour walk towards her, she noticed that the sword looked lighter.
Entering a stance simr to what she had used, Shiro watched as the armour lunged towards her in an identical manner.
¡¯So it copies sword styles. Thankfully mine was a bad rip off version of mum¡¯s otherwise I would have had some difficulties.¡¯ Shiro thought in relief. Since this was a style that she had adapted herself, she knew some problems in this style along with the key movements that dictate which attack ising.
*CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!!!
Blocking its barrage of attacks, Shiro focused on its movements.
¡¯Now!!¡¯
Consuming all the stacks that she had applied previously, Shiro flicked her wrist and broke the armour¡¯s guard like her mother had done previously.
Unfortunately for her, just as she was dedicated to her attack, Shiro felt a sense of unease from the armour. As if it had a grin stered on its face and waiting for her to take a bait.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro trusted her instincts and backed off just in time to see a tightly knit web of shes appear before her.
Widening her eyes, Shiro understood that she would have died the moment she stepped forward.
"I was wondering why I was pushing you back despite your speed and strength being above mine. So you¡¯re ying around now are you?" Shiro narrowed her eyes before activating her True Spirit Nature.
Without saying anything else, her body flickered forward as a piece of the ground beneath her was shattered by the force.
*BANG!!!
Appearing above the armour, she mmed her heel down against the armour¡¯s shoulder as it forced it to kneel down from the impact.
Twisting her body, she then kicked it in the chest, sending the armour crashing back before sping her hands together and two magic circles appeared around it.
"Freeze!" Shiromanded as a blizzard erupted out with the armour in the centre.
While this was happening, Shiro raised her hand and created another magic circle above the armour.
Summoning a giant ice great sword, Shiro snapped her finger and the sword descended down on the armour.
*BANG!!!
However, before it could hit, a sh of light exploded out and cleaved the sword in half.
Taking advantage of this situation, Shiro summoned Nivlim and charged at the armour.
Feeling danger in front of her, Shiro decided to take a gamble.
Marking the spots where she felt the most amount of danger, she managed to discover some gaps and charged towards those areas.
Just as the shes appeared, Shiro used Nivlim to defend herself.
Chipping the sword further, Shiro managed to appear before the armour.
Grabbing its head, Shiro mmed it against the ground and jammed her sword into the shoulder joint and snapped off the arm.
Removing its main sword arm and preventing him from attacking her.
With the arm out of the way, Shiro stabbed towards the neck joint. But just as she did this, she widened her eyes as she watched Nivlim¡¯s de snap in half.
Gritting her teeth, she threw Nivlim aside for now and grabbed the helmet with both her hands.
mming her foot against the back of the armour, Shiro pulled hard on the helmet in an attempt to remove it from the armour.
Feeling the armour struggle under her, Shiro opened her mouth.
"Error restrain it!"
Hearing hermand, Error appeared and started to wrap around the armour.
Reaching around to the neck, the circuits morphed into a drill and tried to pierce the armour to no avail.
"Wait for me to pull this thing off. I doubt you¡¯ll be able to pierce this armour." Shiro squeezed out as she could feel the helmet slowlying loose.
Giving it one final tug, Shiro ripped the helmet off as both she and Error saw a hovering red orb inside the chest piece.
Understanding that this was probably the power source, Shiro reached out for it and pulled it out of the armour.
Feeling the armour slump over lifelessly, Shiro sighed in relief and stood up.
However, before Shiro could examine the orb, Error suddenly jumped up and consumed the orb before fading away into her hand.
"¡ê%"¡ê$^%$¡ê!!!" Shouting out a string of curses, Shiro red at the back of her hand in anger before sighing heavily and looking at her system.
[You have defeated the armour and gained the qualifications to im the reward. Would you like to im it now?]
Seeing this, Shiro paused in wonder.
For the system to be asking if she wants to im it now means that she could im it at ater date. Perhaps when she exits this ce.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro pressed no.
[Storing two pieces of Hephaestus 10 Masterpieces into the rewards pool. Should you wish to im it earlier, you may.]
After seeing this notification, Shiro watched as both the sword and the armour shattered into tiny motes of light as the surrounding barriers disappeared.
Curling her lips up to a grin, Shiro understood that since these two were now ced into the rewards pool, it meant she could ess them when she returned to earth.
However, for now, she¡¯ll need to look for a new sword since Nivlim is now broken and can no longer apply stacks unless she returns it back to its chain form.
Sighing softly, she unsummoned the sword and prepared to leave this ce before the monsters returned to normal.
Chapter 735 Claiming Blessed Weapons
Chapter 735 iming Blessed Weapons
Flying away from the mountain peaks, Shiro watched as Que¡¯s butterfly regained its l.u.s.tre.
[What the hell happened?] Que asked with confusion and panic in her voice.
"Nothing much. I just had to fight an annoying boss but I got something good out of it."
[Oh? What did you get?] Que asked.
"A set of armour and a sword crafted by Hephaestus. However, I can¡¯t use them just yet so I¡¯ll need to find something to rece this sword for now." Shiro sighed while summoning the broken Nivlim.
[Eh? What the hell even happened to the sword? Since it became a blessed weapon, its durability should be off the charts even for an attachment!]
"Mn, well this sword has gone through quite a bit of punishment so I don¡¯t exactly me it breaking on me." Shiro shook her head and unsummoned the sword.
"In other news, have you found out some clues about the blessed weapons while I was in there?"
"Some but you should probably repair your sword first. You¡¯re primarily a melee fighter right now so you should have a good melee weapon. While your bow is good, a lot of the monsters that you have been facing so far have strong armour that make it so that Artemis¡¯ bow is having a hard time. Unless we find Orion¡¯s Arrow, it¡¯s going to be near impossible for you to harm them with your bow.]
"Mn, that is true. Thankfully I have gotten my petrification enchantment otherwise it would indeed be impossible hais." Shiro agreed since Artemis¡¯ bow had lost a lot of its usefulness as she got stronger. However, that wasn¡¯t to say it was useless since it would still have its uses.
"Do you know where Maria is right now or is she still in the same city?" Shiro asked.
[She¡¯s still in the same city. Though it¡¯s gotten quite lively now that everyone knows that there is a cksmith who could make them attachments to their weapons to make it stronger.] Que replied.
"Hm... I¡¯ll see if I can talk to her I guess. Otherwise I¡¯ll have to trouble you to search for a blessed weapon which is a de." Shiro sighed as Que nodded her head.
Returning to the city of Vox, Shiro immediately noticed how busy it was now that Maria could make attachments.
Seeing people unt how good their attachments were with others along with queuing up to get more, Shiro could only sigh and queue up as well.
After waiting an hour or so, she finally saw Maria who seemed a little tired from all of this work.
"You look like you¡¯ve seen better days." Shiro smiled softly as Maria gave a hollowed chuckled.
"So many experiments. So little time. How can I help you Shiro?" Maria asked after sitting up straight.
"I was wondering if you could repair this sword or perhaps make something simr to it. It was broken after a recent fight." Shiro sighed while summoning the broken Nivlim.
"Eh? How did the de break? It should be quite sturdy after fusing with the chains no?" Maria widened her eyes and examined the de.
"Petrification, bunch of bosses with hard defences, parrying attacks and fighting a living armour."Shiro shrugged.
"I see... Goodness you must have put this de through quite some work. Though it seems like the breaking point was you stabbing this sword at something which couldn¡¯t be pierced and snapped it in half. Am I wrong?" Maria asked while looking at the snapped area.
"Nope. You¡¯repletely right." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn... I might have to make this with sturdier materials then. Since this one has snapped in half, I don¡¯t think I can repair it per say since the damage has been done. The most I can do is probably make a new de and see if it ispatible with the chains. I don¡¯t have much soul metal left so the effects might not be the same."
"That¡¯s fine. I just need a good sword since it¡¯s one of my main weapons right now." Shiro smiled.
"Alright. Take this sword and swing it a few times likest time. I want to see if your fighting style has experienced any changes." Maria said while handing her a spare sword.
Nodding her head, Shiro did as Maria said.
*Whistle~
"You must have gotten a really good divinity huh? Your body strength is much stronger than before. I can probably make a slightly heavier sword for you if you want." Maria said as Shiro shook her head.
"Something light and can be moved around fast would be good enough. Sturdiness should be the next one to prioritise I suppose."
"Noted. Come back in a month or so I¡¯ll have it done by then. As for cost don¡¯t worry about it since you helped me make the attachments." Maria smiled.
"Are you sure?"
"Yup. I¡¯ll talk to youter since I got more customers ok?" Maria chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Ah before I go do you have a decent sword or sword attachment I can use for now since this one is going to take a month?"
"Mn I do, take this one." Maria nodded her head and handed her a silver sword.
"It¡¯s decent and I haven¡¯t broken it so it should serve you well."
Giving Maria her thanks, Shiro left the sword with a silver sword.
Detaching the old de from her chain, Shiro connected the new sword and had a look to see if there were any changes. Unfortunately, there were no changes as the chains reverted back to their usual stats. Only now with an above average sword attached to it.
Shaking her head, she couldn¡¯t expect every sword she got to provoke an upgrade from the chain.
"We have a month to hunt for some blessed weapons. Hopefully a month should be enough since I¡¯m not keen on dying the Tower of Nyx for more than a month." Shiro said as Que agreed.
###
For the next three weeks, Shiro had been constantly on the hunt for Blessed weapons and so far she had managed to obtain two. A spear and an axe. The spear was the same spear she had tried to obtain back in the trial with Nike which had left her since she was unqualified just yet. But after finding its location, iming it was simple. As for the axe, it belonged to Hephaestus which was rather ironic since Shiro had already imed two of Hephaestus¡¯ masterpieces and with the axe, she now had one of his blessed weapons too.
The tests itself for both weapons were rather straightforward. Ares¡¯ spear required her to fight quite ¡¯a few¡¯ enemies along with a boss who kept regenerating but petrification was able to solve that problem.
Currently, Shiro was on the hunt for Orion¡¯s arrow. They had managed to uncover some clues but they were rather vague. Only that someone had been said to have found Orion¡¯s Arrow but failed to im it.
Strangely enough, Orion¡¯s arrow was actually rumoured to be located in the Section of Night near Nyx¡¯s tower. Which wasn¡¯t too strange considering that Orion became a constetion.
"Are you sure the rumours pointed here?" Shiro asked, looking at the cave entrance that descended into the deep unknown.
[It should be. Apparently after entering the cave, they saw a constetion light up above them and there they spotted Orion¡¯s arrow but it refused their capture.] Que replied.
"You think if I show him this bow he¡¯lle to my side?" Shiro chuckled and summoned Artemis¡¯ bow.
[Most likely but who knows.] Que replied.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro proceeded into the cave.
###
"Now then. With only three trials left and Shiro being presented with a second clear condition, what do you think she¡¯ll choose?" Nyx asked as Gaia paused for a second. Unlike the other two gods, Gaia had decided to stay to watch the rest of the trial since she was quite interested in Shiro¡¯s choice.
"Well... the Ancient Terror is getting stronger so she should probably prioritise that. However, and I mean however, should she choose that she¡¯ll give up on the remaining divinities no? Clearing the condition means she¡¯ll end the trial." Gaia furrowed her brows.
"Yes but she should have enough time for one more. Though there is the choice ofpleting all the trials so that she can get the full benefits." Nyx chuckled.
"But do you think she¡¯ll do that?" Gaia asked.
"Most likely not. Since doing so means this realm gets destroyed." Nyx narrowed her eyes while ncing at a crystal ball next to her which showed a small replica of the different sections and their towers.
Chapter 736 Orions Arrow
Chapter 736 Orion''s Arrow
Descending into the cave, Shiro watched as the rocks seemed to be lit up with a soft blue glow with no source in sight.
It was as if there was an invisible light right above her that lit up her descent down.
Making sure she didn¡¯t slip, she used the chains as a brace.
Continuing down the cave, Shiro could feel Artemis¡¯ Sigil slowly heating up as it reminded her of what had happened when she discovered the Chains of Hades¡¯ thanks to Hades¡¯ Sigil.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to trust the Sigil to lead her down the cave.
[Honestly, how do you even have so many Sigils? First Hades now Artemis too?] Que asked as Shiro could hear that she was most likely forcing a smile right now.
"I have quite a few." Shiro shrugged.
[How many is a few?] Que asked skeptically since she was used to Shiro¡¯s values being different from themon one.
"Hmm let¡¯s see... 9 Sigils so far and several other anonymous ones I guess." Shiro replied after a short pause as Que stayed silent.
[Right...]
Talking to each other while descending down the cave, Shiro¡¯s ears perked up a little as she heard the sound of dripping water.
Understanding that this means that there is probably arge empty room of sorts with dripping water, Shiro increased her speed while making sure that she didn¡¯t slip.
After a short while, she arrived at the room and hopped down.
Landing softly, she looked around her and saw several glowing flowers lighting up the room as there was an ind in the centre with a small tree nted in the middle.
ncing down at her hand, Shiro could see Artemis¡¯ Sigil lighting up.
Summoning the bow, Shiro walked up to the tree.
Slowly, the tree started to shake as the trunk opened up to reveal a crystal arrow.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro was about to reach out for the arrow when someone threw a dagger towards her.
Catching it with between her fingers, Shiro nced behind her and saw a masked person climbing down the tunnel silently.
"Leave the arrow." They demanded as Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Oh really?" Shiro chuckled, throwing the dagger back casually.
"The arrow has been reserved by someone. You would be wise to back off and forget about the arrow." He warned as Shiro onlyughed.
"And if I say no?" Shiro asked.
"I¡¯d think twice, He¡¯s not someone you should provoke. He¡¯s got ways to find out who you are. Surely your life is more important than the arrow." The man tried to persuade her as Shiro only shrugged her shoulders.
"I¡¯m not someone that should be provoked either."
Snapping her finger, the earth around the man shook for a moment before it encased him in a stone prison.
Widening his eyes, the man tried to break out of the prison to no avail.
Reaching out to the arrow, Shiro picked it up as the arrow started to glow alongside the bow.
[You have discovered Orion¡¯s arrow. Artemis¡¯ Bow and Orion¡¯s Arrow will nowbine.]
[Ilcrya ¨C Bow of Gods]
[On top of the benefits gained from Artemis¡¯ Bow, it receives the following effects.]
[20% suppression of those that are weaker than you. They cannot fight as well as they should.]
[50% Armour Pration thanks to Orion¡¯s Arrow.]
[The longer you spend charging an attack, the more powerful it bes and the more energy it consumes.]
[Once per day you may fire a single arrow that will pierce even the mightiest defences.]
[You can ce a mark on a target and their location will be revealed to you for the next 24 hours. This also allows your arrows to home in on them without any problems.]
Reading the benefits of Ilcrya, Shiro smirked and unsummoned the bow.
"Now then, how should I deal with you." Shiro asked as the man slowly backed off.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro removed the stone prison.
"I¡¯m feeling good today. You can leave before I change my mind."
Hearing this, the man furrowed his brows skeptically but quickly retreated.
[I didn¡¯t expect you to be someone to let people off like that. Especially since his attack could have severely harmed you if you didn¡¯t catch it.]
"Did I say I was going to let him off?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
[Eh? But didn¡¯t you just say that he can leave?]
"Pft haha. You misunderstood me. Leaving and surviving are two very different things in my dictionary. Especially since I have just obtained a new skill that allows me to ce a mark on him so that I can keep track of him for the next 24 hours. When he reaches his boss, I¡¯ll end his life and his bosses depending on how his boss reacts. When I said I¡¯m feeling good it means I won¡¯t kill him immediately. I¡¯ll give him some time toe to terms with his fate." Shiro grinned as she made her way out of the underground cave.
Hearing this, Que couldn¡¯t help but feel sorry for the person who had thought that he managed to survive.
###
Running away from the scene, the man quickly made his way to the city.
Dashing past the horde of people in the crowded streets, cold sweat ran down his back. Despite the woman saying that he could leave, he couldn¡¯t help but feel like a set of eyes were constantly looking at him.
Like a tiger who had found its prey, it was slowly stalking it and looking for the perfect chance.
He tried to circle around for a bit before entering arge building in the middle of the city.
Whispering a few words to what seemed to be the waiter, he was allowed to the top floor.
"Boss!" The man bowed as a muscr man was currently sitting in a chair with two beauties next to him while one was massaging his shoulders.
"Mn? Did you get information on the arrow?" He asked.
"I did but someone imed it. I tried to warn them but they ignored my warning!" The man.
"Ha? You let someone take the arrow while you were there?! Are you retarded!" The muscr man berated as he mmed his hand against the arm rest.
Flinching from the shout, the man could only stay silent.
"Che, I¡¯ll look for the person who dared to take my arrow."
Snapping his fingers, he had a servant bring him a parchment of sorts.
Writing a few things down on the piece of parchment along with a drop of his blood, the parchment transformed into a golden mote of light which danced around a little before flying straight up.
"Huh? The person is above?" The muscr man furrowed his brows while looking towards the ceiling.
Hearing that Shiro was above them, the man that Shiro had ced the mark on widened his eyes and wanted to run.
But before he could, a ming red spear crashed down from the ceiling.
*BANG!!!!
Skewering him against the ground, Shironded on his body before pulling the spear out.
"So you¡¯re the boss that he was so proud of. Haha, looks like you wanted the arrow that I rightfully imed." Shiro smirked as she kicked the man¡¯s corpse aside.
However, the muscr man ignored her words and eyed her body with a l.u.s.tful gaze.
Rolling her eyes, Shiro immediately understood what kind of man she was dealing with and flickered out of sight.
Reappearing in front of him, she gouged both of his eyes out in an instant.
"ARGG!!!!"
Crying out in pain, the muscr man wanted to activate his divinities but Shiro was faster.
Wrapping her chains around his neck and mming him against the ground, she unsummoned her spear and reced it with her axe.
"Say hi to Hades¡¯ for me."
shing the axe down without hesitation, Shiro decapitated the man as blood flowed across the floorboards.
"Scream and I¡¯ll kill you too." Shiro red at the three women who were standing beside the seat.
Quickly covering their mouth so that their scream didn¡¯t leak out, the three huddled together in a corner while Shiro unsummoned the axe.
Cracking her neck, she jumped out of the room and pulled out Que¡¯s butterfly.
"Right then. We have a week left. If there aren¡¯t any more blessed weapons, I say we should just rest while waiting for Maria to finish my sword. Once that¡¯s done, let¡¯s get Nyx¡¯s Divinity."
[Agreed.]
Flying away from the city, Shiro made her way back to Vox for the remaining week.
Chapter 737 Nivlim +1
Chapter 737 Nivlim +1
A week passed rather quickly as Shiro received news that the other heroes were now making their final preparations to challenge the towers.
Their preparations were the same as hers. Obtain blessed weapons to help them if they can if not they should just challenge it with everything they got. Thanks to the medicine supplied by Beril, their safety was somewhat guaranteed.
However, once they found out that Shiro imed a spear, an axe and now Orion¡¯s Arrow which paired amazingly with her bow, they were both jealous and annoyed since she already had the help of two primordial divinities and she didn¡¯t need the blessed weapons on top of that. But since they were now bound to Shiro, they couldn¡¯t do anything about it.
Today was the day that Maria finished her sword attachment for her chain so Shiro was currently making her way to her store.
Upon arrival, Shiro could see a familiar queue of people all waiting to be served.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro waited patiently for her turn.
Once again, Shiro had to wait roughly 50 minutes to an hour before she reached the front.
"Ah Shiro, you¡¯re here." Maria smiled.
"Mn. Maybe you should limit the number of customers you attend to daily since you look rather exhausted." Shiro suggested.
"I would but, so many ideas and I want to get to all of them." Maria sighed while resting her head on the table.
"The woes of a crafter I suppose haha." Shiro chuckled as Maria nodded her head.
Reaching down, she pulled out a silver case and presented it to Shiro.
"I managed to reinforce the overall build a little more thanst time with some elemental resistant metals but there wasn¡¯t much space to change anything else. I doubt it¡¯ll bring out a big change to your chains, but we¡¯ll have to see." Maria said as she opened the case.
Looking into the case, Shiro could see a familiar ck sword that was now adorned with some silver patterns along the de.
Starting the fusion process, she watched as the chains merged with the sword and a notification rang out.
[You have obtained Nivlim +1]
[The materials used for this have been upgraded and the sword now receives a +10% elemental resistance and physical resistance, bringing up its durability.]
Looking at the upgraded Nivlim, Shiro nodded her head with satisfaction. Plus, the sword itself was now a little heavier so there was the added bonus of more weight behind each swing.
"Satisfied?" Maria asked with a smile.
"Mn, very." Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s good. I was a bit afraid since there wasn¡¯t much changepared to thest sword but if you¡¯re happy that¡¯s good." Maria sighed in relief.
"Well thest sword helped me out plenty so it was already surprising that you could remake the sword." Shiro chuckled.
"It¡¯s just a case of repeating the process. Though if I were to spend three months or so making this, I can probably make something much better than what I¡¯ve given you. However, it seems like time isn¡¯t exactly on your side right now since you¡¯re in a rush."
"True. I need to go to a different section in order to im something that can help me deal with a big problem looming around the corner." Shiro shrugged.
"Well good luck with that. If you have more time after you dealt with this problem, I¡¯d be happy to make you something that you¡¯ll like." Maria grinned as Shiro nodded her head.
Saying goodbye to Maria, Shiro left the city and made her way to the Section of Night.
[Me, Tricia and Beril are already at the tower. We¡¯ve got some supplies ready for you as well as a specially designed bag that should allow you to move more freely without worry of the medicine being shattered.] Que said as Shiro smiled.
"Thanks, that¡¯ll be a lot of help. Quite a bit of her medicine was smashed when I was facing against the armour that I told you about before."
[Well just because this one is better than the one you have doesn¡¯t mean you can just go crashing against the ground ok? It can only increase the threshold before smashing so you¡¯ll still need to be careful but there should be a bit more leeway than before.] Que sighed as Shiro could imagine her rolling her eyes.
"I¡¯ll keep that in mind haha. Any more news on the Ancient Terror?" Shiro asked.
[There is. He¡¯s managed to im his fourth piece so there¡¯s only one more to go before he needs to get the ones that are being held by the heroes.] Que replied.
"Hmm... So I¡¯m guessing that there¡¯s a big chance a fight will break out between us and the Ancient Terror when I finish the Trial."
[Most likely yes. And speaking of which, Tenma, the one that¡¯s aiming for the Tower of Nyx just like you, has already arrived here not too long ago. He¡¯s been practicing against the surrounding monsters for a while to prepare himself and despite being an annoying person, hisbat standards are quite high.]
"Interesting. Compared to the only one who had everpleted Nyx¡¯s Trial before, how well do you think he¡¯ll hold up?" Shiro asked.
[That¡¯s not even a question. Tenma will be defeated with ease. The person whopleted Nyx¡¯s Trial was something beyond even you Shiro.] Que replied as Shiro paused in surprise.
"Wait, they¡¯re something even beyond me?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
[Mn. During the entire time that he has been alive, I have not seen him get hit once by a single decent attack. He was always able to brush it off or dodge it.] Que replied as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"How would you describe it then? Is it him reacting on instinct or like he was seeing the future?"
[I don¡¯t know. All I know is that he had never been hit once.]
Staying silent, Shiro was a little interested in fighting against this guy now. She wanted to see what Que meant by him never being hit even once since that sounded impossible for Shiro.
Even her mum who was one of the strongest people around was grazed a few times despite her powerful skills so someone not being hit once was just in insanity.
"Can you tell me anything else about him other than him never being hit before?"
[Mn, I can. Hisbat sense was just as crazy I suppose. When he wants to attack you, it¡¯s hard for a person to dodge. Even if they did, sh marks would always appear out of nowhere despite having dodged his attack. When he was fighting against monsters, he could use a single twig to harm them as a sword was unnecessary.]
Listening to Que¡¯s tales about this hero who had obtained Nyx¡¯s divinity, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but imagine him as this invincible warrior but she knew that it was impossible.
No matter how powerful one may seem, there was always a gap that someone else can exploit. Even for Shiro, there is bound to be someone that can find a way to kill her despite all of her skills and experiences. That was an undeniable fact.
The only difference is that some people know how to mask that gap and from the sounds of it, the hero was able to mask his weakness extremely well.
"So how did he die in the end? Was it by old age or did someone kill him?" Shiro asked.
[We don¡¯t know. He just disappeared suddenly but we know that he was around 45 years old when he disappeared. The chances of death by old age is slim.]
Nodding her head, Shiro memorised all of the information and tried to figure out what the trial could hold for her. From her understanding, the powers you get after the trails are usually what you have to ovee yourself. For him to be able to dodge everything like Que exined, it meant that a monster inside the trial must have this ability and that he somehow overcame this.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro increased her speed towards the Tower of Nyx.
Meanwhile, Nyx was watching everything with a grin.
"Your tower is definitely the hardest obstacle that this girl has to face in this realm aside from the Ancient Terror. Honestly, if it was me, I¡¯d say you never intended for anyone to pass your trial." Gaia sighed.
"But someone did, didn¡¯t they?" Nyxughed.
"Yes, and the power they obtained allowed them to be a demigod from strength alone." Gaia shook her head.
"Since Shiro is technically a demigod already, do you think she¡¯ll be a full god by the end of this?" Nyx asked.
". . .There is a possibility. Like she has said before, the chances are low but never zero." Gaia smiled with anticipation.
Chapter 738 Ghost Like Monster
Chapter 738 Ghost Like Monster
Arriving at the tower, she could see a slightly nervous Tenma with Beril, Tricia, Que and a few other sisters waiting by the side.
"You¡¯ve finally arrived." Que smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, so what are we waiting around for?" Shiro asked curiously while ncing at the sisters who were standing around with anxious faces.
"Well... there was someone who went in ahead of us and let¡¯s just say it didn¡¯t end well." Que sighed.
Pointing towards a red stter on the ground, Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Oh my, that¡¯s not good now is it. Did you find out anything about the monster that killed him or her?" Shiro asked curiously.
Seeing their pale faces and bad expressions, Shiro could guess that it wasn¡¯t a pleasant sight.
"Well... I think it¡¯s better for you to ask them since we camete." Que pointed towards Tenma who was now having second thoughts.
Nodding her head, Shiro walked over.
"Yo, so I heard someone got turned to meat paste. Got any information to share?" Shiro waved her hand and walked over to their group.
Hearing the way she asked the question, both Que and Beril face palmed with a deep sigh.
Turning around to see Shiro, Tenma only clicked his tongue seeing how nonchnt she was being.
"Yeah we do. The person managed to make it to one of theter stages but the difficulty suddenly spiked up.
When he tried to attack the monster, his sword phased through the monster¡¯s body and that opened him up to an attack from above which killed him in an instant. Unless we can hit that monster, we won¡¯t be able to reach the final stage of the skip." Tenma replied even though he was annoyed.
If anything, it was better if Shiro went ahead of him so that he could figure out what was happening.
"I see... so the person couldn¡¯t hit the monster and the fight was over quickly. Hm, that is rather unpleasant now isn¡¯t it?" Shiro mused to herself while ncing towards the other sisters who seemed to have down cast expressions.
"Beril!" Shiro called out.
"What is it?" Beril replied.
"Have you got more of that sleep powder?" Shiro asked since that would be quite helpful in the fight.
"No I don¡¯t. Sleep powder of that concentration is annoying to make." Beril shook her head.
"Tsk, a shame then." Shiro shrugged.
"So do you want to go first or should I?" Shiro nced over at Tenma.
"Be my gue-" Before he could finish his sentence, two sisters stood in front of Shiro.
"Please reconsider. Since you have two primordial divinities, your presence is needed. Surely you don¡¯t need to take such arge risk."
Hearing this, Shiro only chuckled and patted her head.
"I got these two divinities because I took risks. In the first one, I also got turned into meat paste with arge wound on my back. You can even ask Que and Tricia. For the second one, I almost got turned to stone. If anything, I¡¯ll need to buy time and figure out the weakness since it isn¡¯t invincible. If someone from the past couldplete it, so can I." Shiro grinned and walked past the two sisters.
"Ah!"
Before they could hold Shiro back, both Beril and Tricia held their shoulders.
"Trust her. Her determination and will is one of the strongest I¡¯ve seen. Her wound would have caused anyone else to pass out but she held out andughed it off like it was nothing." Tricia smiled as she watched Shiro enter the test area in front of the tower.
Suddenly, a barrier wrapped around the area, preventing Shiro from escaping.
Smirking slightly, Shiro summoned Nivlim into her hands and waited for the monster to appear.
*Krkrkrkrkr
Hearing the clicking sound of a carapace cking against one another, Shiro watched as an ant like monster appeared in front of her.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro only shrugged her shoulders and dashed forwards.
*Krkrkr!!
Just as she dashed forward, the mandibles suddenlyunched forward towards her upper torso.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro bent her body back and dodged the attack with ease.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro summoned her axe in ce of Nivlim and cleaved upwards.
*KRRRR!!!
Screeching out in pain, green blood poured against the ground as the axe was able to destroy the ant¡¯s armour with ease.
Flipping the ant over, Shiro decapitated it in an instant and mmed the axe pommel against the ground.
"Next." She grinned as the sisters watched her in shock.
Despite being the first monster, the ant didn¡¯t have much attack but the armour was tough. The previous challenger had spent quite a bit of effort to kill the ant since he couldn¡¯t pierce its armour but Shiro had finished the fight within a few seconds.
Even Tenma was shocked as her power was much higher than what he had expected.
Furrowing his brows, he red at her axe and figured that most of it must be because of her weapon.
Cleaving through monsters like they were vegetables, Shiro switched between weapons with amazing fluidity.
Watching her juggle through weapons to fit different asions, it reminded Tenma of a dance of sorts.
A lethal one that leaves tens of monster corpses in its wake.
However, despite her power and killing speed, Shiro was feeling a little tired from continuously moving around. Keeping one of the monsters on the brink of death, she retrained it under her before taking a break and getting some replenishment from her rations in the bag.
"How many more monsters are there till I get the one that can¡¯t be hit?" Shiro asked as the sisters blinked for a moment before looking at the monster beneath her.
"Ah it should be the next one." They replied in slight disbelief since Shiro had cleaved her way through the monsters with horrifying efficiency.
"Heh~ I see. That¡¯s good. Is it thest one or are there more champions after this? So far they¡¯ve been quite easy." Shiro asked with a grin.
"I believe there should be four more after this one." Tricia said while flipping through a few notes.
"Oh? Four more after this one? That¡¯s interesting... I wonder what gimmick they have. After all, the first one is able to ignore physical attacks to some extent." Shiro mused while stabbing her spear through the monster¡¯s head. Killing it in one go, she hopped off with renewed vigour and prepared to face the next foe.
As the monster corpses faded into darkness, a portal of sorts opened up in front of her.
Slowly, a pair of ws ripped the portal open before ring at her. It was a creature which looked like it waspletely made from shadows as no armour could be seen on it. However, it wasn¡¯t exactly misty either.
It was as if the shadow waspletely like dough and was morphed into the creature.
With no eyes and only a set of white teeth, the creature ¡¯looked¡¯ towards her as the shadows detached itself and formed two battle axes.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro brought out her spear and dashed forwards.
Flickering out of sight for a moment, she reappeared behind him as she held her breath and thrusted forwards.
*BANG!!!
Releasing a torrent of energy, Shiro was not surprised to see that itpletely phased through the creature¡¯s body.
Raising the battle axes above its head, the creature shed towards her.
Summoning her own battle axe, Shiro tried to parry the des but to her surprise, it phased through her axe.
Feeling danger, Shiro quickly summoned Nivlim and stabbed towards the monster¡¯s abdominal area while backing off. She wanted to get at least one counter attack off while dodging his des.
Just as both des were about to hit, they phased through one another as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
While Nivlim missed its target, the monster had also missed her which gave her some clues on how its body worked.
¡¯Hou... I think I have an idea on his ability.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile as the spectators were surprised that the monster¡¯s de had phased through Shiro.
"Does she have the same ability?" Tenma asked with a frown but Tricia shook her head.
"No she does not. But I think we¡¯re about to find out why she was able to phase through the axes soon." Tricia said as she recognised this look on Shiro¡¯s face. It was one that understood what she was doing and had a n up her sleeves.
Chapter 739 The Second Champion
Chapter 739 The Second Champion
Charging towards the monster with weapons in hand, Shiro twisted her body and swung towards the head.
Seeing her des phased through his head, she wasn¡¯t bothered as she kept this onught up.
With her constant barrage, the monster wasn¡¯t able to find a chance to retaliate at all.
After keeping the onught up for a little longer, Shiro stopped and jumped back since she couldn¡¯t keep it up forever.
Plus, she had confirmed the first part of her theory. She just needed to check the second.
Discovering an opening thanks to Shiro jumping back, the monster pressed forward and shed towards her with his axes.
Smirking slightly, Shiro waited till the final moment before summoning some earthen spikes to pierce towards the monster¡¯s chest.
While this was happening, she shifted her body and used the spear to block both axes.
Since she had done it at thest moment, the monster wasn¡¯t able to react quickly enough.
*PUCHI!!!!!
*GAH!
Crying out in pain, the monster stumbled back as blood flowed out of his wounds and onto the earthen spikes.
"What?!"
Seeing the monster being wounded, the sisters and Tenma stood up in shock.
"See? I believe she has figured it out." Tricia chuckled.
"Hou hou~ So that¡¯s how it works. Do you want to keep attacking?" Shiro taunted with a smug grin.
Gritting his teeth, the monster slowly melded into the ground as the surrounding area started to darken.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro only chuckled and rested her spear on her shoulders.
"Now that I know how you be invulnerable, do you really think I¡¯ll be hit by you anymore?" Shiro called out asten axes appeared around her and shed towards her.
Despite not being able to see the monster, Shiro wasn¡¯t worried since she had already marked him out and she could see him as clear as day.
Twisting her body, she used her spear to parry the axes while earth spikes attacked the monster once more.
Hearing his pained cry, Shiro knew that she had hit her target.
Grinning slightly, Shiro pushed the axes away and dashed towards him.
Seeing this, the monster quickly sunk back into the darkness as Shiro rested her spear on her shoulder again.
"Yo why are you running away?" Shiro asked with a smirk.
Hearing no reply, Shiro could only shake her head and throw her spear towards the mark.
*BANG!!!
Seeing her spear phase through the monster¡¯s body, Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Do you not have the will to fight anymore? Some Champion of Nyx you are." Shiroughed.
Just as she said this, killing intent burst forth from the monster as Shiro curved her smile into a grin.
"There we go! If you¡¯re a Champion, act like one!"
Summoning her spear, she dashed towards the creature.
Morphing the axes into swords and spears, a set of ck ted armour appeared on his body as the creature swung his sword towards Shiro.
Waiting till thest moment to block again, Shiro summoned the earthen spikes but they only phased through his body.
At the same time, the sword phased through Shiro¡¯s body as well.
Seeing this, Tricia and Beril understood part of the rules behind the monster¡¯s invulnerability.
He can switch between two states of being. Physical and non physical. When he is in the second form, he cannot hurt other people nor can other people hurt it. The monster was just good at timing the switch so it looked like he was just invulnerable.
However, with Shiro¡¯s reaction speed, she was able to attack him just before he switched which resulted in two devastating attacks beingnded on him.
Seeing his current state, they understood that his defences must be rather weak topensate for this ability.
Fending off the monster, Shiro understood that the monster was now more cautious about when he switched hence why she wanted to kill him in one go. The moment he switched, she was going to go for the head.
Exchanging several missed attacks which phased through the body, Shiro could tell that he was beginning to feel annoyed.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to see if she was able to taunt him into attacking her.
Backing off slightly, Shiro reached into her bag and started to eat a few rations.
"PFT!!" Seeing this, Que couldn¡¯t help but choke on her saliva.
¡¯What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to skip levels in Nyx¡¯s tower or are you trying to have a pic?¡¯ Que shouted out in her mind.
Seeing her eat her rations while in a fight with him, the creature waspletely enraged as he charged towards her with anger.
He was one of Nyx¡¯s mighty champions who could sweep the battlefields and leave behind a trail of blood. He wasn¡¯t going to be humiliated by a girl who started to eat a ration in front of him.
With the monster charging at him, Shiro grinned behind her ration since this was exactly what she had wanted.
Side stepping his first attack, she wasn¡¯t even going to counter as she let him swing at her continuously.
"Are you having some exercise before eating too?" Shiro asked while casually dodging his lethal attacks.
If the monster had eyes, Shiro would have imagined that he would be ring at her right now since she was eating a snack while taunting him.
Gritting his teeth, the monster twisted his body and sent out pieces of his own shadow to surround her.
Seeing this, Shiro was about to hop back when hands made from shadow grabbed her ankles and prevented her from running away.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro watched as the axes came closer and closer to hitting her.
Taking a deep breath, she activated her spirit nature as a ck dress wrapped around her body.
Snapping her fingers, a pulse of cold energy exploded out as the axes and hands were frozen in an instant.
Flickering in front of the monster, Shiro had a grin on her face as killing intent exploded out, dulling his movements for a moment.
*PUCHI!!!
Stabbing her hand into his chest, she pulled out what seemed to be his heart along with a white illusionary image of him. Throwing it to the side, Shiro watched as the body stumbled for a second before falling back lifelessly.
"Well that¡¯s that. Who¡¯s next?" Shiro asked while dismissing her Spirit Nature.
Even though she wanted to save it for the boss, the monster was going to be more annoying as time went on since he would have started to get used to her movements and she couldn¡¯t let him do that.
Therefore, she quickly finished him off while her spirit nature is activated.
Massaging her shoulders, she was about to rx when heavy killing intent descended onto the arena.
The sheer pressure that this brought even affected the spectators as they held their breaths in a mix of surprise and fear.
"Hou hou~ Finally someone with some fighting spirit." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
Watching the portal open up, a young boy exited the portal which caused both Shiro and the spectators to pause for a moment.
However, just as she paused, the boy disappeared.
"!!!" Entering abat stance immediately, Shiro felt danger behind her and instantly turned around. Raising her spear, she barely parried the dagger that was about to pierce her face.
"Well aren¡¯t you an aggressive person." Shiro forced a smile and swiped out at him with her spear.
However, before her spear could reach him, the boy flickered into a clump of mist and disappeared.
"An assassin typ-" Before she could even finish her sentence, Shiro felt danger again and quickly dodged to the side.
Watching the assassin narrowly miss her shoulder, Shiro understood that this one was going to keep up the pressure against her.
Taking a deep breath, she focused her mind and summoned Nivlim since this was the most lightweight weapon she had. Against a dexterous assassin, this was the best choice since it has the highest chance to hit.
Parrying his dagger, she tried to grab his wrist but the boy disappeared once more.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro mmed her hand down as a wave of rock spikes exploded out of the ground around her.
Reducing the amount of space that the assassin could use, Shiro saw him reveal himself in the air as he wanted to attack but the spikes appeared in front of him before he could.
Crouching down, she jumped towards him with her sword in hand.
Twisting her body, she shed towards him as he quickly used his dagger to block.
Seeing this, Shiro grinned.
As the two des met, ayer of petrification started to spread towards the boy but he reacted quickly and let go of the dagger.
Disappearing into mist once more, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shrug at the missed opportunity but she knew there were going to be more chances. All she needed was patience.
Chapter 740 Killing the Assassin Champion
Chapter 740 Killing the Assassin Champion
Kicking the petrified dagger into the air, Shiro caught it with her spare hand before throwing it behind her.
*CLANG!!
Parrying the de, the assassin was knocked out of stealth as Shiro flickered in front of him with her sword ready.
"Boo." Shiro grinned and twisted her body.
*BANG!!!
shing against his armour, Shiro sent his body crashing into the wall of the barrier.
Forcing himself up, the assassin mmed his hand into the ground as tens of clones appeared around Shiro.
Unfortunately for him, her mark stays on his main body so she was able to find where he was immediately.
Summoning her spear, Shiro twirled it in her hands for a moment before throwing it towards the main body.
"!!!" Widening his eyes, the assassin ducked down and barely managed to avoid Shiro¡¯s spear.
However, just as he ducked down, an axe entered his vision.
Gritting his teeth, he decided to sacrifice his left arm and tried to back off.
But Shiro didn¡¯t back off after taking his left arm. Instead, she pressed on with more attacks as she held her sword in her left hand and her axe in her right.
Whenever he tried to dodge her sword or axe, the other would follow up.
Naturally, Shiro also summoned her spear and lunged at him asionally to keep him on the defensive.
Analysing Shiro¡¯s fighting style right now, Tricia understood that people like the assassin will struggle a lot with Shiro since her senses and skills allow her to render their advantages null. To fight Shiro, you need to be someone that can take a hard beating.
Small tricks like what the previous champion had pulled was not going to work against Shiro.
Looking at the current state of the fight, Tricia understood that the fight was going to end soon.
With the fight decided, she nced towards Tenma and her other sisters instead.
While her sisters seemed overjoyed that Shiro waspleting the skip without too many difficulties, the same couldn¡¯t be said for Tenma.
Biting his nails, he was looking towards Shiro with a mix of jealousy and anger.
¡¯He¡¯s probably thinking that if he had those weapons he would be the same.¡¯ Tricia thought to herself as she understood the thinking pattern of narrow minded people like Tenma which only made her wonder why he was picked in the first ce.
Talent was definitely the main reason but his personality was rather poor. If it was her, she would have never chosen him but it wasn¡¯t her job to say things about this.
However, her main concern is what he nned to do if this jealousy and anger boiled past a certain point.
She wasn¡¯t oblivious to the nce he exchanged with the other ¡¯heroes¡¯ when her older sis revealed that Syrune could be the culprit. She didn¡¯t know what those nces meant but it gave her a bad feeling.
Noting down a few things, she whispered into Beril¡¯s ear.
"Are you sure?" Beril furrowed her brows as she nced towards Tricia.
"Mn. I¡¯m going to set it as a precaution." Tricia nodded her head.
". . . It¡¯s quite expensive to do this even for us. Are you sure we should do this?" Beril frowned since the materials that they were about to use were very rare.
"Mn it¡¯s a gamble I suppose. It¡¯s just in case something goes south. If it doesn¡¯t then at least we have a backup n in case something goes wrong in this area." Tricia nodded her head.
"Alright I¡¯ll give you some of the things you need. Follow me." Beril sighed.
Telling Que to stay here while they go do something, the duo left the area for now.
While Que was curious, she knew that her sister¡¯s were probably doing something important so she only nodded and focused on Shiro¡¯s fight.
As Tricia had guessed, Shiro was able to break the assassin¡¯s guard and end his life swiftly. Thanks to her skillset, she was actually able to have a much easier time in this fight than thest as the assassin worked around stealth and clones. With her being able to leave a mark on his real body, she wasn¡¯t fooled at all.
After killing the assassin, Shiro understood that she had three more champions that she needed to face before she could challenge the final level in Nyx¡¯s tower.
The next two champions were simr to the previous two where they focused on two specific aspects. The third champion was the most pitiful since he used magic but with Shiro¡¯s Restriction of Magic, he was essentially useless. As for the fourth, it was a little more annoying since they focused on speed and swordsmanship but Shiro was able to use the mark to predict where his next location was going to be and counter attack in time.
Quickly eating some rations and drinking a few potions, Shiro wiped the blood off her face from thest fight since she had sustained a few shallow attacks which dirtied her outfit to her annoyance.
Ignoring the burning re directed at her back thanks to Tenma, Shiro focused her mind and prepared herself for the final champion.
*BANG!
Feeling the ground suddenly shake as if something heavy had just been dropped, Shiro quickly stabilised herself and wondered what was going on.
*BANG!!!
Feeling the shake again, Shiro suddenly felt danger beneath her and quickly jumped back.
*CRACK!!! BANG!!!!
Watching the ground in front of her shatter to pieces, Shiro saw two giant muscr hands reach out of the ground withrge cuffs on the wrist.
mming them against the edges of the arena, the hands heaved hisrge body out of the hole as Shiro could see a muscr giant ring at her with anger.
Blue mes flickered where his eyes would be. His ck hair waved around as if it was in space, devoid of gravity. With dark blue skin and white tattoos, the gant had an iron spear pierced through chest as runes started to light up around the giant.
*PING!
Shattering the spear into pieces, the giant broke off the chains that were locking his arms up.
Seeing this, Shiro forced a smile since she barely had any space to move in this area.
Summoning her axe, she twisted her body and mmed the axe against his stomach with all her strength.
*CLANG!!!
Feeling the axe crash against his rock hard abs, Shiro looked up with a forced smile.
"Has anyone told you that your body is rock solid?" She asked as the giant only opened his mouth.
Feeling the touch of death, Shiro immediately backed off and mmed her hand against the ground. Erectingyers uponyers of walls to protect herself, Shiro watched as a torrent of mes shot out of the giant¡¯s mouth.
With the barrier in ce, the mes weren¡¯t able to attack the spectators but they could feel the heat of the mes.
Watching a column of mes shoot into the air, rain soon started to pour as Shiro dropped her defences.
Seeing Shiro, Que widened her eyes in shock since Shiro¡¯s left arm was burnt and bleeding profusely as some of the bone could be seen.
Despite all her defences, the fire still pierced the stone walls and injured her left arm to this extent.
Quickly applying some medicine while the rain was falling, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the giant.
mming her right hand against the ground, Shiro swiped up as several earth spears shot towards the giant.
However, the giant shattered them apart with a single sweep of his hand.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro nced at her arm and saw that the muscles were slowly repairing themselves thanks to the medicine but the repair speed was slow.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to go on the defensive for now until her arm has healed.
###
"You actually reced your final champion with him????" Gaia asked in shock as Nyx nodded her head.
"Doesn¡¯t this make things more interesting? Plus, if she defeats him, the tower will give her better rewards." Nyx grinned.
"Yes but isn¡¯t this a bit too much for Shiro? I don¡¯t even think he could have done the skip if you summoned this giant." Gaia frowned.
"Don¡¯t worry just keep watching. I have my full trust in Shiro. Since she probably won¡¯t have time to do the other towers, I want her to get as much as he can from the only remaining tower." Nyx narrowed her eyes at Shiro before turning to Tenma and smirked.
Chapter 741 Final Champion
Chapter 741 Final ''Champion''
Dodging his grabs and ms which covered most of the arena, Shiro tried her best to buy some time so that she could let her arm recover.
However, the giant seemed to be intelligent as he continued to force her to overexert herself so that she worsened her injuries, making it harder to heal.
There was the option of flying up but that only makes it easier for him to try to burn her to a crisp as well as gaining the option of eating her while she was in mid air. Therefore, Shiro stayed on the ground when she could. Narrowly dodging another strike, Shiro understood that this couldn¡¯t go on since the longer she waited, the more tired she¡¯d be.
Analysing his body, she understood that this skin was extremely tough so she¡¯ll need to aim for the orifice on his face. That way, she can attack him from the inside as that was weaker than his skin.
But there was the problem that she can¡¯t use her bow if her left arm is injured. While she could try to fire it with the help of her leg like what happened against the minotaur, it would reduce her speed dramatically and allow the giant to kill her in one go.
Gritting her teeth, she decided to save Spirit Nature forter since that was her trump card. If she used it now, it would cause her to fail the main tower. Unless she absolutely needed to, she wasn¡¯t going to use her spirit nature.
Summoning her sword, she threw it towards his arm before pulling herself up.
If she was on his arm, it removes one of his means of attack and makes it easier for her to buy time. Plus, if he injures himself, it¡¯ll be the cherry on top.
Just as shended on his arm, a giant shadow loomed over her as he didn¡¯t hesitate to try to crush her.
Dashing forwards towards his biceps, Shiro managed to dodge his attack narrowly.
Throwing her sword at the arm that he used to attack, she used it as a pivot to swing herself.
As the giant lifted his hand, Shiro used this momentum to swing around to his back.
Grabbing his hair, Shiro narrowed her eyes and summoned her spear.
Piercing towards the back of his head, her arm became a little numb when her spear failed to stab through his scale.
Hopping off the back of his head, Shiro dodged his attack again.
Understanding her current situation, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but imagine herself as a tiny fly annoying the hell out of this giant as he was failing tond a single hit on her.
With Shiro being able to dodge every attack that he threw at her, the giant red at her with fury as the mes in his eyes burned brighter.
Watching him open his mouth, Shiro understood that he wanted to use the breath attack again.
Now that she had slightly more time, she quickly swung herself behind him and created heryers of stone walls again. This time, since she wasn¡¯t in the centre of the breath, she should have an easier time in surviving this unharmed.
As the mes enveloped the arena, her guess was right as it was now much easier to fend off the mespared to before.
However, what she didn¡¯t expect was the giant flexing his muscles and shattering her stone walls the moment the fire disappeared.
". . . Can you not break my defences with just the power of muscle contraction? It¡¯s rather rude. I know you¡¯re probably single since you¡¯ve been stuck in that portal prison? Of sorts but surely you don¡¯t need to impress the pretty sisters outside this barrier now? They¡¯re pretty but the size just doesn¡¯t match you know? You¡¯d kill the poor girls." Shiro said while dashing around the arena.
ncing down at the portal which he climbed out of, Shiro could see some chains still attached to him around the waist.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro wondered if there was anything she could do with the portal or not since she wanted to make use of every resource that she was given.
¡¯Maybe I should jump in it?¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while dodging more of his attacks. They were currently in a situation where neither of them could kill one another as Shiro couldn¡¯t harm the giant and the giant couldn¡¯t hit Shiro.
However, this was exactly the situation that Shiro wanted since it allowed her arm to slowly heal up.
After around 10 minutes, most of the muscles were now repaired with the new skin being extremely tender and sensitive to the touch. It was as if it would rip apart and bleed from even the slightest disturbance.
Furrowing her brows at her skin that was still a little red, Shiro shrugged.
While this might be a problem for normal people, it was ok for her since she could ignore the pain.
Summoning her bow, Shiro was going to begin her counter attack.
Releasing her pent up killing intent, the giant¡¯s movement paused for a second and Shiro then summoned her spear.
The good thing about Ares¡¯ spear is that its attack and armour pration is increased should it be thrown at high velocities. Since she had already fired her sword from her bow before, she should be able to do the same with the spear.
There was only the problem of the spear being quite long.
Notching the spear onto the string, Shiro watched as the spear tip scratched along the ground.
Forcing a smile, a soft glow radiated from the bow.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro watched as the bow morphed into a longbow which could now house the spear without a problem.
"Good for me. I suppose for a goddess of the hunt, she¡¯ll need a bow that can use all kinds of arrows. If I squint hard enough a spear is just a massive arrow." Shiro muttered with a shrug.
Jumping back, she pulled as hard as she could on the bow.
Exploding with a deep red aura, the spear was raring to go.
Aiming the spear towards the eye, Shiro let go of the string.
*BANG!!!!!
Sending the spear flying, Shiro was surprised by the force that it generated since some of the ground besides her had been shattered by the impact.
Seeing this, the giant furrowed his brows and raised his hand.
*KRRRRR!!!!
shing against the hand, sparks started to fly as the spear was eventually knocked aside.
Despite this however, Shiro had a grin on her face.
After all, the spear managed to pierce the giant¡¯s hand and some blood could be seen rolling down his hand.
Now that she had inflicted an injury on him, no matter how small, she understood that he could be injured and subsequently killed.
Resummoning the spear next to her, Shiro fired it once more while making sure not to stay in the same spot.
Seeing this, the sisters became excited since things had looked grim before. She wasn¡¯t able to injure him at all while a single fire breath had rendered her arm useless. But now that she had found a way to harm him, it could mean that victory was going to follow suit.
As for Tenma, he was jealous and as Tricia had predicted, he was indeed thinking it was all because of her weapons that she could do this. If it wasn¡¯t for the weapons, she wouldn¡¯t even be able to harm him.
¡¯If she didn¡¯t have those weapons, she wouldn¡¯t be arrogant like this.¡¯ Tenma thought to himself.
[Well if it wasn¡¯t for her capabilities, she wouldn¡¯t have gotten them anyways.] A deep voice chuckled but no one could hear it.
¡¯What capabilities. She just got lucky.¡¯ Tenma clicked his tongue.
[Tsk tsk, denial huh? No matter. She¡¯s going to die anyways. Though why didn¡¯t you attempt this test? You could be getting my help inside right now but instead you¡¯re here watching her do this.] the voice asked.
¡¯There were too many risks. If the monster couldn¡¯t be harmed that was essentially delivering myself on a tter to be eaten.¡¯ Tenma replied.
[And that¡¯s the difference between you two. She can take risks and has the capability to figure out the problem and keep herself alive. You can¡¯t take that risk since you fear death.]
¡¯Are you saying she doesn¡¯t fear death?¡¯
[I think she does but she has the confidence and skill to elude death. Why else do you think she can go in without any information and stay alive till this point?] The voiceughed as Tenma only stayed silent and watched carefully.
Chapter 742 Prison
Chapter 742 Prison
Dashing around the giant¡¯s body, Shiro continuously pierced him with her spear and bowbo.
While she wasn¡¯t able to deal any major damage, she was able to poke a few small holes around his body causing some blood to flow.
Naturally, this annoyed the hell out of the giant as he repeatedly attempted to fry Shiro with his fire breath but Shiro could now save herself every time he did that since she understood that he stayed still when he breathed fire. Which meant that he couldn¡¯t shatter her defences with a flex of his muscles during this.
However, while she was running around, she couldn¡¯t find a good chance to give him a decent injury since all of her attacks merely poked him a little. She did try to attack his orifices but every time she tried it would be blocked by a wave of his hands.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro tried to look for any other potential weaknesses but the only one she could think of was the one down below but that was in the portal which didn¡¯t show her what was on the other side.
She was tempted to just jump in and stab him but there was the problem of whether or not she could get out again. While she liked taking risks, she wasn¡¯t a fan of jumping into random portals where she knows it¡¯s most likely a prison considering the fact that the champion was locked up and had a spike through his chest.
Biting her lips slightly, Shiro decided to give wounding him severely another shot. If that doesn¡¯t work then she can try the portal.
Summoning Nivlim, she dodged his grab and wrapped some chains around his wrist.
Using that as a pivot, she swung herself up onto his shoulder and dashed towards his head.
Seeing this, the giant tried to grab her with his other hand but she managed to dodge through his fingertips thanks to her power of flight.
Creating a concentrated orb of air in her hands, she mmed it against his head.
*BANG!!
Forcing him to tilt the other way, Shiro quickly wrapped her chain around his neck before continuing with his right wrist.
With both his wrists and his neck tied up by her chain, Shiro forced the chain to shrink itself.
*KSH!
Since the chain will continue to shrink without any resistances, the giant watched as his arms came closer to his head.
Plus, unlike the attachment sword, the chains themselves couldn¡¯t be broken so Shiro didn¡¯t need to worry about the giant breaking one of her most helpful blessed weapons.
However, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wish the spear could have been affected by this since it would have allowed her to apply stacks to increase her physical parameters further.
Digging her heels to the ground, Shiro had to fight against the giant trying to pull his hands away but this was exactly what she had wanted.
Once she was sure she couldn¡¯t hold on anymore, she let go of the chains.
Without Shiro restraining it, the chains whipped out towards the giant¡¯s head since he had pulled his arm away.
Widening his eyes, he watched as the chains whipped his right eye.
*ARGG!!!
Crying out in pain, the giant hunched over and grabbed his right eye as blood started to flow out of the wound.
ring at Shiro, the giant pulled his fist back before punching at her.
¡¯Seems like that injured his eye a little but didn¡¯t do much else other than that.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown before ncing at her chains as well as the portal. She wondered what would happen if she forced the giant back down.
Would he be sealed away again or would he just climb out?
Debating to herself for a moment, Shiro took a deep breath and decided to risk it.
"Error, distract him for as long as you can." Shiromanded as Error flickered in a nodding motion.
Wrapping her spear with Error, Shiro pulled back on her body and fired it towards the giant¡¯s wounded eye.
*PING!!!
Blocking the arrow with his hand, the giant watched as Error bloomed out of the spear like a flower and slither through his hands.
*GAH!!!
Crying out in pain, he could feel Error trying to enter his body through his eye as he quickly grabbed one of the circuits and tried to pull Error off his body.
While the giant was preupied with this, Shiro made sure her chain was secured properly before diving into the portal.
With her chain secured, she could now pull herself back through if needed.
The moment she dived through, it felt like gravity had increased by 100 times as her body was instantly dragged down.
*CLANG!!
Furrowing her brows, Shiro could see that her arm was trying its best to keep itself together while holding onto the chains.
Looking around her, she widened her eyes in surprise and shock.
From the darkness of this realm, she could barely see anything except for the giant¡¯s lower half which waspletely surrounded in chains that extended into the unknown.
In the distance, she could see pairs of eyes slowly opening as the feeling of danger increased with every pair that opened.
Simr to when she faced up against the Tier 6 guardian, there was only one thing on Shiro¡¯s mind.
I need to run!
Quickly getting her chains to retract themselves, Shiro realised that the speed of retraction was now much slower than what she had expected.
Quickly activating her divinity, she used her power of flight to try to speed things up. While it did indeed speed things up, it didn¡¯t speed it up by much.
Feeling their presencese closer and closer, Shiro looked up and saw that she still had a while to go since she didn¡¯t expect the sudden increase to gravity.
Activating a part of her divinity, she stopped the monsters from being able to fly.
However, all that she aplished with that was forcing some of the eyes to bob down slightly before returning to normal.
¡¯They¡¯re too powerful to stop them from flying huh? Makes sense considering the fact that they can fly in this kind of condition.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as cold sweat started to drip down her face.
Trying her best to climb up the chains, Shiro understood that the monsters would arrive before she could climb out.
Furrowing her brows, she decided to do something drastic.
While climbing up, she started to chant the spell required to activate the portal to the spirit world.
Since the spirit world is like a mirror of this world, it means that this ce was probably essible from the spirit world or at least a clone of it. Even if it¡¯s a clone, it was better than facing these guys.
"I wouldn¡¯t open a gate if I was you." A voice suddenly called out as Shiro looked around in shock.
"Don¡¯t bother looking around, you can¡¯t see me. I¡¯ve been here for a long time so my visions have gotten used to it. But let me give you a tip, don¡¯t open a gate here. If you do, you¡¯ll let the wardens out into the world. They¡¯re not able to exit through the main portal but if you create one for them they¡¯ll escape." The voice chuckled.
"Who are you?" Shiro asked while still climbing up.
"Just a prisoner of Nyx like the big guy over there. I suppose you can call this Nyx¡¯s personal prison where she keeps those she finds interesting." The voice replied.
"I was surprised to see the big guy get lifted up and allowed partial freedom but it seems like it was because you were doing a trial and Nyx decided to send him as the final obstacle. Did you annoy her or something? Why else would she send someone like him. Her final champion is weaker than him you know?" The voice asked as Shiro only shrugged to the best of her abilities.
"Who knows. I just want to get out." Shiro replied.
"Good luck though none of us has been able to escape." The voice chuckled before things returned to normal around her.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro tried her best to climb up.
However, after a few minutes of climbing, Shiro understood that she wasn¡¯t going to reach the top.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro red at the monsters that were approaching her.
"F*ck it if I can¡¯t get back up I¡¯ll take some of you f*cker¡¯s with me." Shiro said as the first monster revealed itself.
Chapter 743 Trying to Escape the Prison
Chapter 743 Trying to Escape the Prison
"What the f*ck???" Nyx stood up the moment she saw Shiro jump into the portal while Gaia face palmed.
"Sh*t! I should have just blocked up that portal. Why the hell did the crazy girl enter there???" Nyx said as she currently had a face of disbelief.
"Because she was struggling against the giant. I think she thought the portal was a clue of sorts. If I was in her shoes, I wouldn¡¯t expect it to lead to your toughest prison either." Gaia sighed.
"Yes but who jumps into a portal that they know nothing about?"
"Her?" Gaia pointed at Shiro as Nyx stayed silent.
". . . I should have taken that into ount when I summoned the giant." Nyx slumped down as tapped the table a few times.
"The longer she stays in there, the harder it is for her to get out. Once the prison has left its mark on her, she¡¯ll be trapped there forever." Nyx frowned.
"Can¡¯t you just give her the key or something?" Gaia asked.
"Normally I could but since she¡¯s in the middle of a trial, I can¡¯t influence it directly like that. The most I can do is darken the sky or make things harder. I can¡¯t make things easier. The system won¡¯t allow it. Giving her the key means making things easier." Nyx exined as Gaia frowned.
"She should still be able to petrify the monsters in there right?"
"Nope. The wardens that I ced in there are immune to any special statuses like being frozen or petrified. You have to kill them with brute force. And even then, their defences are quite high. The only good news is that they don¡¯t have any magic themselves and the most they can do is bite or w at you." Nyx shook her head.
"But they¡¯re still physically superior right?" Gaia raised her eyebrow.
"They¡¯re equal to people who have 5 divinities." Nyx coughed awkwardly.
*Sigh...
"What can we do then?" Gaia asked as she wasn¡¯t keen on letting Shiro die like this in the trial.
"Not much. But there is someone whom I can enlist." Nyx frowned.
"Who?"
"The person whom she talked to." Nyx snapped her finger and changed the view to reveal a person locked up in chains. He had long grey hair that had lost its colour after being locked away in the prison for so long. His body was surprisingly thin as he looked like he¡¯d break with a single breath.
Marked on his body was the faint sigils belonging to different divinities that looked as though they were about topletely fade away.
Currently he is looking at Shiro as she was keeping her guard up.
"You want to enlist his help?" Gaia frowned.
"Mn." Nyx nodded.
"How are you sure that he¡¯ll even help you out? Didn¡¯t you put him in this state after he failed your tower and betrayed the spirit race?"
"I¡¯m nothence why I¡¯m able to enlist his help. By having him ¡¯help¡¯ it technically makes the trial harder as we don¡¯t know what he¡¯ll do. Plus, he technically didn¡¯t betray the spirit race. You know his personality before. Hopefully Shiro can persuade him to help her but for now, undoing his chains should tell him about what needs to be done." Nyx frowned.
"You¡¯re gambling with chances right now."
"When have I not been gambling when ites to Shiro?" Nyxughed.
###
As the spirit was watching Shiro hang on the chain with all her strength, he felt a tiny bit of power of which he hadn¡¯t felt in hundreds of years.
Widening his eyes, he looked up at the sky in shock.
*KISHING! KISHING!
Feeling the chains undo themselves one by one, the spirit could feel his power returning to him.
Furrowing his brows, he looked towards Shiro and frowned.
"She must be really important for you to let me free after I almost destroyed the world huh Nyx?" The spirit muttered quietly.
Sitting down in the air, he rested his cheeks on his hand and crossed his legs.
"I¡¯ll see what she does first. She¡¯ll have to impress me quite a bit if you want me to help her." The spirit said while giving Nyx a middle finger.
###
Holding onto the chain, Shiro summoned her spear and watched her surroundings with caution.
Feeling danger all around her, there wasn¡¯t much she could so since it was hard to move with her just hanging on a chain.
ncing towards the giant, she frowned and decided to use his body for now.
Swinging herself a little, she let go of the chain and crashed into the chains that bound his lower half.
Just as she did this, a scythe like arm cleaved toward her as she quickly ducked down, letting the scythe cut the giant instead.
*PUSHI!!!!
Watching the scythe cut deep into the giant, she could hear a hollow echo of a scream above her as she widened her eyes in shock.
Understanding that a single hit would kill her, Shiro had to make sure she is careful with what she did or else she¡¯ll be cut in half instantly.
Weaving her way through the chains, she kept herself as hidden as possible while countless eyes were searching for her.
As she was weaving through the chains, sweat continued to pour from her body as each step was taken with great difficulty.
Taking the chance to rest up asionally, Shiro tried her best to climb up with the help of chains since she remembered that there were a few chains that were visible from outside the portal. If she could use them to get out, she¡¯ll be free to go.
Just as she poked her head out, she came face to face with a crocodile like creature that had a nket of darkness which twitched around him.
Opening his mouth, countless hands reached out for her as Shiro quickly ducked down and managed to dodge with the help of the gravity.
Looking up, she could see that the hands started to eat away at the Giant¡¯s body.
¡¯Holy sh*t.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as these monsters easily breached the Giant¡¯s defences like nothing.
However, what was more impressive was that the more damage he sustained, the faster he regenerated. Even the cut from before had healed up more or less.
Taking her time to make her way up with care, she managed to evade most of the monsters thanks to using the Giant¡¯s body as a shield along with the chains.
But just as she reached out for the portal, a reflective barrier of sorts deflected her hand which caused her to widen her eyes.
¡¯Times up.¡¯ The spirit thought as the prison had left the weakest mark now. If Shiro wanted to escape, it¡¯ll be very difficult. To make matters worse, the longer she stayed here, the stronger the mark bes. After all, everyone who was still alive here was able to survive the torment of the wardens which proves their strength. The longer they survive, the harder it is for them to escape.
Shaking his head, he believed that Shiro would probably struggle for a bit before giving up since from what he could tell, her physique was only equal to 4 divinities at most. For her to escape she¡¯ll need to have the physique of 5 divinities.
However, giving up was something Shiro doesn¡¯t do often.
Trying to escape again, Shiro gritted her teeth and pushed as hard as she could but her hand was deflected once more.
This time the repulsion sent her body back as one of the monsters tried to eat her up.
Clicking her tongue, she activated her Spirit Nature and sent out a wave of ice chains which froze the monster for a moment but they managed to break out of it in an instant.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro sped her hands together as ice erupted out around her and pushed her to safety.
Undoing her spirit nature, Shiro furrowed her brows and summoned Nivlim. ncing at the Giant¡¯s body, she started to apply stacks so that she could boost herself.
During that second attempt, she could feel the barrier budge ever so slightly so she knew she needed more strength.
While she was doing this, the spirit had long sat up in shock.
"So she was the queen. I was thinking I might have guessed wrong." The spirit muttered as he stood up. If Shiro doesn¡¯t get out in the next ten minutes, he was going to force his way out with her.
This was his repayment for sabotaging the spirit race hundreds of years ago.
Chapter 744 The Great Betrayer
Chapter 744 The Great Betrayer
Applying the maximum number of stacks on the giant¡¯s body, Shiro consumed them all and looked up at the portal. Feeling much lighter now that her physique was reinforced, Shiro didn¡¯t spare any second and charged up towards the portal.
Swinging herself to avoid the wardens that were trying to eat her, Shiro twisted herself and pushed for the portal.
*TSS!!!!
Feeling the barrier once again, Shiro narrowed her eyes and pushed harder with Nivlim.
However, she couldn¡¯t stay in the same spot for long since the wardens were just behind her.
Pushing herself to the side, Shiro managed to dodge out of one of their jaws as she watched the warden crash against the barrier which caused it to vibrate heavily before knocking him back.
Narrowing her eyes, she took this chance to try to force her way through the barrier once more.
Feeling the surface budge a little, joy filled her heart but this joy was soon extinguished as several wardensunched ranged attacks at her.
If she pressed on to try to escape, she¡¯d be cut in half but if she retreated, she might lose this chance.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro could only choose to go back for now since more chances will appear.
Dodging their attacks, Shiro wondered what she could do. Right now, all she needed was for something to distract these wardens long enough so that she can force her way through.
Just as she thought of this, she watched the barrier open slightly as Error returned to her right hand.
Quickly jumping up, she didn¡¯t want to miss this opportunity.
Activating her Spirit Nature again, a raging blizzard exploded out, obscuring her from the wardens¡¯ sight.
Pushing as hard as she could, Shiro could feel her hand pushing through the barrier. Gritting her teeth, she continued to push since she could tell that the wardens were searching for her right now.
However, all of the wardens opened their jaws at the same time and prepared a breath attack towards the blizzard. Even if they don¡¯t target Shiro directly, it¡¯ll hither regardless.
¡¯You¡¯ve got to be kidding me...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since it was a bitte to move into cover. Plus, even if she was to move into cover, the breath is probably going to hit her regardless.
Watching the mes approach her, Shiro gritted her teeth and was about to release her hand to make some defences.
But before she could, a hand tapped her on the shoulder.
ncing back, she could see a man with grey hair that seemed like it used to be ck along with a set of ck eyes which had heavy bags under them.
Ignoring her looks, the man reached his hand forward and snapped his finger.
As if pressing the pause button, the time around them seemed to stop and the mes were halted in mid air.
"We¡¯ve got plenty of time to waste now. Just focus on getting out first." The spirit said as Shiro furrowed her brows but nodded eventually.
She recognised the voice but didn¡¯t know why he was helping her. Plus, if he could freeze time like this, it meant that he had obtained Chronos¡¯ divinity.
However, this only leads her to ask one question. Why didn¡¯t he do this before?
But right now her main concern was to just get out alive.
Pulling her hand back with Nivlim, Shiro gathered her strength and pierced forward.
Now that she had the free time to focus on piercing this barrier, it didn¡¯t take long for the barrier to rip apart like a piece of cloth.
Jumping up, Shiro managed to climb out of the prison andnd in the arena once more.
Breathing out heavily, Shiro nced back and saw that the spirit reached out for the weak point that she had created.
Grabbing it with his right hand, he swiped his hand aside and the gap widened instantly.
Cracking his neck, the mannded next to Shiro and looked around.
"Nothing much has changed and I see a few familiar faces." He smirked while ncing at the sisters before narrowing his eyes at Tenma with some slight killing intent.
"So who are you and why did you help?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Me? Mn well I was a prisoner of Nyx but she decided to free me to help you. You would have died there if I didn¡¯t intervene." The man shrugged.
"And your name?" Shiro asked.
"Wait you don¡¯t know my name?" The man raised his eyebrow and nced at Shiro with confusion.
"Should I know your name?"
"Well aren¡¯t you the spirit queen? Surely you¡¯ll recognise the great betrayer that almost killed you all?" The man asked.
"My circ.u.mstances are a little... special." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn I see. So as the Spirit Queen, what do you think you should do in this situation?" He asked as he leaned now and narrowed his eyes at Shiro.
"What do you want me to do? I can¡¯t kill you nor do I n to since you helped me. Plus, since Nyx freed you to help me, it means you¡¯re probably the best choicepared to the other prisoners." Shiro replied while not backing down to his gaze.
"And you realise that she can¡¯t do anything if I want to kill you right?" The spirit red at her with killing intent as Shiro red back with her own killing intent.
"I know but that doesn¡¯t mean I will back down without a fight."
Feeling her killing intent, the spirit grinned.
"I like you. You¡¯re not spineless."
"A few people have told me that. What¡¯s new?" Shiro shrugged back.
"Hn, funny. Anyways, since I¡¯m here I might as well tell you that as you are right now, there is no way for you to clear this tower."
"Huh? Why?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
"You haven¡¯t tapped into the real power of the sixth sense. While your senses are superb, you haven¡¯t pushed it past the boundary yet. The key of this trial is to push your senses past this boundary. Once you achieve this, the fights will be easier for you."
"How would pushing it past the boundary help with this fight? I can barely harm the big bastard." Shiro pointed at the giant.
"Oh you¡¯ll understand once you push it past the boundary. I wasn¡¯t able to before hence why I failed this tower. I can tell you how you can try to. But grasping it is a whole nother matter for you." The spirit smirked.
"I doubt I¡¯ll be able to do it in a short amount of time. You probably have a limit to stopped time don¡¯t you?" Shiro asked.
"Maybe. You don¡¯t know. But I can tell you now that I can stop time for much longer than you think." The spirit smiled as Shiro nodded.
"I¡¯ll tell you the method. Whether or not you can grasp it is up to you. I¡¯ll give you a bit of help at the start but I¡¯ll leave after a day."
Hearing this, Shiro understood that he could freeze time for more than a day.
After learning about this, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder how much energy this requires along with how it influences the outside world.
"Wait, if you can stop time for more than a day, why is Nyx¡¯s tower higher ranked than Chronos?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Hmm... Well it depends but you don¡¯t need to know. Anyways, I¡¯ll teach you about how you can try to grasp this I suppose."
"Ok, but one more question."
"Go."
"Why are you helping me this much? You¡¯ve already escorted me out of the prison." Shiro asked.
Hearing this, the spirit stayed silent for a bit before looking back at her.
"I guess it¡¯s to repay my crimes of betraying the spirit race. The best way is to help the spirit queen."
Seeing that he had no intention so say anything more, Shiro nodded her head.
###
*Sigh...
Sighing in relief, Nyx rxed in her chair as the spirit decided to help Shiro in the end.
"Seems like she¡¯s on his good side." Gaia chuckled seeing the spirit teach Shiro how to push past the border of her sixth sense.
"Mn, he¡¯s also telling her the secret to my tower too which saves me the effort." Nyx chuckled.
"What do you think will happen when she masters it?"
"What do I think will happen? Let¡¯s see... it¡¯s going to be very hard to hit her even for powerful queens and gods. The only thing that will limit her then is her body." Nyx grinned.
Chapter 745 Caedus
Chapter 745 Caedus
The key to pushing past the boundary for her sixth sense was special awareness. Like her sword domain which allows her to have a key understanding of her surroundings when using her sword, grasping the feeling of pushing past the boundary was special awareness of this ¡¯dimension¡¯.
Simr to what happens when a person enters her sword domain, the same need to happen with her sixth sense.
Normally, people ¡¯drag¡¯ their intent to the real world such as materialising their killing intent in the form of an aura or such. To push past the boundary, she needed to do the reverse of this all.
"Wrong." The spirit said while attacking Shiro with a few light jabs.
Backing off slightly, Shiro gritted her teeth and tried her best to parry his attacks once more.
"Peering into this realm allows you see the shifts in the world which tells you where the attacks are along with where the intents are aimed at. I need you to home in on this sense and block out the other senses. With your mind only focused on this, it should allow you to peer into this new world." The spirit exined as his hand flickered out of sight and several jabs could be seen indented on Shiro¡¯s clothes which forced her back by a few steps.
"How can I block out the other senses? My senses are dialled up to 100. They¡¯re extra sensitive." Shiro forced a smile since she had practiced the martial art which heightened her senses so that she could react better.
Hearing this, the spirit frowned for a moment before shaking his head.
"It doesn¡¯t matter. Thest and only person to havepleted Nyx¡¯s trial was sensitive too. The guy couldn¡¯t even eat normal food or smell things properly. He had to eat watered down food and keep his nose blocked or else it¡¯ll cause him pain. However, despite all this, he was still able to pass the tower. Don¡¯t tell me you think it¡¯s impossible."
"Nonsense. If he can do it so can I. All I¡¯m asking is how I can achieve it too."
"If I knew I would have passed Nyx¡¯s trial already." The spirit rolled his eyes.
"Alright smart ass." Shiro shrugged before tearing off a bit of her dress into a blind fold. Wrapping it around her eyes along with blocking her nose and ears, Shiro took a deep breath and entered a defensive stance.
Seeing that she was ready, the spirit nodded.
Flicking his wrist, he sent out a few jabs as Shiro tried her best to sense these attacks using her sixth sense but her skin tingled from the feeling of danger. Trying her best to dodge of parry this attacks, Shiro became frustrated since her skin continued to stop her from focusing on the sixth sense.
¡¯How can I stop this...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while barely managing to parry one of the attacks that he had sent to her.
Gritting her teeth, she tried to assign half of her attention to blocking out her senses of touch but that didn¡¯t help.
¡¯I need a way to stop the sense of touch.¡¯
As she was thinking about this, an idea appeared in her mind. Right now, the killing intent as well as the sense of danger was causing her skin to tingle since her instincts are telling her to dodge. Therefore, if she was the one on the offensive and pushed the spirit back, there was the potential that she could attain this breakthrough.
Making a decision, she dropped into an offensive stance before dashing at the spirit.
Raising his eyebrow, the spirit was about to counter when a wave of killing intent wrapped around him.
As if a spider had just wrapped her webs around his body, he found it suffocating and hard to move for a moment.
Flickering in front of him, the spirit watched as Shiro¡¯s sword cut towards his neck. However, before itnded, he felt a sense of danger behind him.
*PING!!
Flicking his wrist, he managed to block Shiro¡¯s first attack but her second was very light almost like it was a feather.
Widening his eyes, he didn¡¯t expect that her offensive state was this close to pushing past the boundaries.
Reaching out, he removed her makeshift ear plugs.
"Mn? What happened?" Shiro asked.
"How do you usually fight?" He asked.
"Aggressively? I don¡¯t defend much since my defences are paper thin." Shiro replied.
"I see... We¡¯ll go with baby steps then. Let¡¯s see if you can touch upon the boundary of the offensive side of this." The spirit grinned.
From his initial promise of one day, it soon became a week then a month. In this frozen time, Shiro never felt hunger but she did indeed feel fatigue. Taking a break every so often, she had gotten used to releasing her killing intent to sense the things around her. To help her some more, they had made sure that her sight, smell and hearing were blocked at all times. While they couldn¡¯t do much about her sense of touch, they could at least guarantee that this sense is at a minimum while she is on the offensive.
After two months of training, the spirit could tell that Shiro was so close on the boundary but there was something missing. It was as though a thin veil blocked her out from this special state but he couldn¡¯t tell what it was since he was in the same situation. Plus, time was now running out and he couldn¡¯t stop time for much longer.
"We¡¯re stopping here." He said while Shiro took off her blind fold and instantly shielded her eyes.
"Ah f*ck the light." She clicked her tongue.
"Hm, not seeing for two months does that to you." Caedus smirked as Shiro learned of his name during the two months they had spent in suspended time.
"No sh*t. So why are we stopping here?" Shiro asked.
"I can¡¯t stop time for much longer. If your senses are blocked when we exit, the giant will crush you in one go." Caedus grinned.
"Mn true. Argg! It¡¯s so annoying. I¡¯m so close but so far." Shiro sighed.
"Pft wee. I¡¯ve been having this kind of feeling for f*cking centuries." Caedus smirked as Shiro¡¯s cursing habits have slowly rubbed off on him as he cursed more often as well now.
"So how does it feel to have me catch up in just two months?" Shiro grinned.
"Absolutely jealous. It took me so long to reach this state. However, the older generation paves an easy path for the new so you should be grateful kid. If it wasn¡¯t for my efforts, you wouldn¡¯t have it so easy." Caedus shrugged.
"You chose to teach me old man. Don¡¯tin now." Shiro rolled her eyes as Caedus nodded.
"True. We got about a minute before this time stop expires so I¡¯ll leave the arena now. Good luck with the giant, with you being so close to the boundaries it should help you out a little." Caedus smirked and flickered away from his spot.
"Che, old man didn¡¯t even let me say good ye." Shiro clicked her tongue before cracking her neck.
Bringing out her sword, she narrowed her eyes at the Giant and took a deep breath.
After a minute, time resumed as the Giant thrashed his hands around for a moment before looking down at her in shock.
Thest thing he remembered was fending off the red circuit which dived down into the portal but now Shiro was standing in front of him once more.
"Sup, it¡¯s been a while." Shiro grinned and flickered towards the giant.
###
Sitting down tiredly, Caedus looked at Shiro¡¯s fight from the distance while ncing at his sigils.
"Hmm... chipped off more years than I had initially expected." He muttered.
Originally, he was going to stop time for a week at most for Shiro but instead he spent 2 months training with her.
In total, that was around six hundred years shaved off his long life span since he was granted a much longer life than usual thanks to Chronos¡¯ divinity. But with therge chunk that he had expended to help Shiro, his body was now feeling a lot weaker than before.
"Well I guess it was worth it. She helped me realise a few things too." He chuckled while looking up at the sky.
"Is this repayment good enough?" He muttered before ncing back down at Shiro.
Chapter 746 Fighting the Giant Again
Chapter 746 Fighting the Giant Again
Summoning her spear and sword, she dashed towards the giant.
Flicking to the side, she dodged his strike with ease.
"I know it seems like it¡¯s only been a few seconds but trust, me, I¡¯ve been away for two months and it was rather enlightening." Shiroughed.
Throwing her sword up, Shiro used it as a grappling hook to swing herself up to his shoulder.
Twirling her spear, Shiro parried his grab to the side.
However, while she has almost breached the boundary for the attack form, she wasn¡¯t close just yet for her defensive style so this move was a little forced but her goal had been reached.
Feeling the reverberations in her body, Shiro narrowed her eyes and jumped towards the head.
Closing her eyes, she sent out a wave of killing intent which wrapped around the entire area. Envisioning the whole arena in her mind, Shiro could see the small movements that the giant was making.
Crouching as low as she could, she flickered forward.
Twisting her body, she thrust her sword towards his head.
*BANG!!!!!
Just as the giant blocked her strike, a web of shes appeared behind his head, causing him to crash forward.
Seeing this, the sisters widened their eyes in shock while Que was still trying to recover from the initial surprise of seeing Shiro suddenly reappear.
From her perspective, she watched as Shiro dive into the portal and the circuit following after her once it finished tormenting the giant. Next thing she knew, Shiro was back again feeling more confident than ever.
"What the hell just happened?" Que muttered in confusion.
Meanwhile, Tenma was in the same situation.
[Ahahaha, I see what happened.] The voice cackled in Tenma¡¯s mind.
¡¯What happened? Why is she able to push the giant back like that now? Previously she wasn¡¯t like this.¡¯ Tenma asked.
[An old friend helped her out. For her to make so much improvement in such a short amount of time, he must have expended quite a bit of his life span to freeze time. We can expect that we won¡¯t be fighting him.]
¡¯Who are you talking about?¡¯
[You don¡¯t know them but they were the second closest person in history toplete the Nyx Tower. He must have told her about the special boundary. Thankfully, it seems like she hasn¡¯t grasped it properly. If she did I¡¯d say you should give up trying to kill her.]
¡¯Why?¡¯
[Because thest person to have ever grasped this boundary was never hit by any attacks thereafter. Not even I could harm him.]
Hearing this, Tenma widened his eyes and cursed the fact that Shiro got lucky and was actually tutored about this special boundary.
¡¯What can we do then? If we fight, how do you fight her?¡¯
[Just follow my instructions and trust me. Those that have not grasp the boundary properly will show signs of weakness and we¡¯ll take advantage of that. So far I know that she has to manually close her eyes to actually attack with the pseudo boundary that she has grasped.] The voice replied.
Nodding his head, Tenma watched Shiro carefully.
###
After sending the head crashing forward, Shiro flicked her wrist and summoned her axe.
Twisting her body, she gathered all her strength and mmed it against the nape of his neck.
*BANG!!!!
The collision of the two caused a small shockwave to explode out as Shiro was forced back by a few steps. However, she wasn¡¯t finished just yet.
Hurling the axe towards the Giant¡¯s head, Shiro summoned her spear and notched it into her body.
Jumping up, she narrowed her eyes at the Giant¡¯s ear and fired her bow.
Feeling danger, the Giant covered his ears with his hands as the spear drew a bit of blood but that was it.
However, that was also fine as Shiro watched the axe sh against his skull and bounce into the air.
Flickering towards the axe, she grabbed the handle before twisting her body. Swinging the axe with everything she¡¯s got, Shiro narrowed her eyes and enchanted her axe with petrification.
*KRRRR!!!!
mming it down, Shiro watched as blood spurted out and was instantly turned to stone.
Petrification tried to spread across his head but the speed was slow. Eventually, the petrification stopped and broke off on its own.
*URAHHH!!!
Forcing his body up right, the mes in his eyes flickered brighter as the markings around his body were set ame.
Looking like the incarnation of Satan, the Giant pulled his hand back before punching towards Shiro.
While this happened, wh.i.p.s of fire erupted out from the ground and struck towards her.
Restriction of magic!
Activating one of her restrictions that she wanted to save, a pulse of energy expanded out from Shiro as all the mes were extinguished in a single moment.
Widening his eyes in shock, the Giant looked around him with confusion.
While the Giant was confused, Shiro closed her eyes and dropped into an offensive stance. Releasing her killing intent, she stomped down as hard as she could so that she could push herself to her top speed in an instant.
*BANG!!!!!
Shattering the ground around her, Shiro¡¯s body disappeared and reappeared in front of the giant¡¯s eye which was no longer burning thanks to her restriction of magic. Piercing forward with her sword, Shiro stabbed deep into his iris but she wasn¡¯t done yet.
More sword strikes started to appear as she dug her way through into his head.
Cleaving her way in, she knew that her best choice would be to destroy/petrify his brain since his regeneration was very strong.
Cutting upwards, Shiro understood that she was now at the brain.
Stabbing her sword up with petrification enchantment, she wrapped her chain around her spear before jamming it horizontally inside his head.
Holding the chains, she jumped out before she was crushed by his finger.
Just as she jumped out, she could see a hand reach towards her as she grinned.
Extending the chains, she wrapped it around his wrist as he tried to grab her.
Tightening the chains, Shiro watched as the spear was forcefully dragged out of his eye socket.
*CRACK!!!!
Ripping out a bit of his face along with his skull, the brain was exposed for the entire world to see.
Summoning her spear next to her, Shiro twirled it in her hand before notching it in her bow. Enchanting it with her petrification magic, she fired the spear towards the exposed brain.
*PUCHII!!!!!!
Piercing deeply into the brain, petrification started to spread but halted after a certain point.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro tugged on the chain and dragged herself back up towards the brain while using her power of flight to dodge his grabs.
Remembering what her future self has said about trying to concentrate the powers of her spells, Shiro sped her hands together and created a concentrated orb of air.
Focusing her mind, she then activated Gaia¡¯s Divinity which allowed her to send out a pulse of petrification energy. But this time, she condensed it inside the orb of air so that it was akin to a ticking time bomb.
Arriving in front of the half petrified brain, Shiro curled her lips into a grin and jammed her fist in as deep as she could.
Jumping back before it detonated, she watched as his two hands reached towards her.
Grabbing her sword, she closed her eyes and sent out a wave of killing intent once more.
*BANG BANG!!!
As if suddenly hit by tworge clubs, the hands were moved off their initial path and missed Shiro narrowly.
If not for Ouranos¡¯ Divinity, the wind generated by the two hands passing her would have thrown her off course.
ring at the Giant, Shiro smirked and snapped her finger.
*BANG!!!!
Exploding into a tornado, the wind started to shred up his brain while the petrification shed within his head, turning the shredded brain matter to stone so that they couldn¡¯t regenerate.
Crashing against the barrier, the petrifying light wanted to reach the outside world but the barrier stood firm. With nowhere else to go, the light was reflected back at the giant.
*KRRRRRR!!!!!
Watching as ayer of stone formed on the Giant¡¯s body, the sisters and Tenma were speechless since the second time she appeared she was the oppressive side rather than the giant.
[You havepleted the skip.]
Seeing this notification, Shiro smiled as a gate opened up in front of her.
In the distance, Caedus grinned seeing her sess and disappeared from his spot.
###
"Yes she did it!" Nyx cheered as Gaia could only chuckle seeing Nyx¡¯s joy but she was the same. However, after the initial joy came worry, since she now had to face tower¡¯s final boss.
Chapter 747 Entering Nyxs Tower
Chapter 747 Entering Nyx''s Tower
Entering the gate, Shiro was not overwhelmed by any sources of light or loud sound. It waspletely silent and devoid of light. Nothing could be seen, not even her own hands.
"Well it¡¯s not the most desirable but at least my eyes aren¡¯t blinded by the might of the sun." Shiro shrugged as she preferred this kind of dungeon instead since she didn¡¯t have to shield her eyes.
Strangely enough, there was not a single notification from her system as she couldn¡¯t even see that anymore.
Without the familiar view of her system interface, Shiro could see that this sort of situation would be quite traumatic for someone. Surrounded with silence on all sides and their system couldn¡¯t be seen. It would make one think that they were already dead.
However, this was nothing to Shiro.
Closing her eyes, not that it did anything in this kind of environment, Shiro summoned her sword and released her killing intent. However, just as she did this, she felt danger all around her.
¡¯SH*T!¡¯ Cursing in her mind, Shiro immediately backed off and shed towards the points that she felt danger from.
*KISH KISH!!!
Hearing the sound of two metal like objects hitting one another, Shiro knew that she hit her mark but the chances of it actually doing something was slim.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro prepared herself for the next attack but nothing happened.
Tilting her head, Shiro wondered if the monster only reacted to her killing intent.
Stepping forward a few times, Shiro couldn¡¯t feel danger any more which only served to give her a sense of unease since she knew danger was right in front of her! But there was no killing intent, no intent to harm her nor was there the sound of it breathing or moving around. Everything was silent.
Frowning slightly, Shiro decided to release her killing intent once more as danger surged around her.
Summoning her spear, she tried to parry one of the attacks but the force sent her crashing across the ground and into a wave.
"KUAH!!!" Coughing out some blood, Shiro could feel the force travelling through her body as she quickly drank some medicine.
¡¯So I know the monster so far is very sensitive to killing intent. But with theck of vision, I don¡¯t know how big he is nor do I know how big the room is. I need a way to ¡¯see¡¯ in this darkness without making the monster aggressive.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown while forcing herself to stand up.
¡¯I guess the first step is to map out this room manually first.¡¯
cing her right hand against the wall, Shiro tried her best to walk silently but it was kind of hard as the heels of her boots would ck against the ground.
Feeling her hair stand on end as if someone was watching her, Shiro tried her best to keep her breathing even and calmed her mind.
After walking around for a while, she had finally mapped out where the walls are and so far it was a circle with a radius of roughly 400 meters. As for the height, she didn¡¯t know just yet but from the size of this boss room she could guess that the boss was ratherrge.
Leaning against the wall, Shiro was in a stalemate of sorts against the monster even though that wasn¡¯t the case in reality.
So far, she had experimented with releasing her aura to do the same but the monster was highly sensitive to any kind of aura that she used. If not for her mastery of suppressing her aura, she would have had to face the monster¡¯s continuous bombardment of attacks.
Crossing her arms, she had a frown on her face since this was a difficult fight. Since she had no energy signal right now, the monster couldn¡¯t track her either.
With neither of them being able to track one another, they were in a situation where they couldn¡¯t do anything until they revealed their intent to the other.
¡¯No wonder Caedus said that only when I break past the boundary can I pass. However, unlike me, he didn¡¯t have the leisure to just sit around without attacking. Once I get past the boundary, I¡¯ll be able to sense the area around me without even releasing my killing intent. It¡¯ll be like me being able to ess the rift. If I can do the same with this boundary, I¡¯ll be able to take the initiative in fighting this boss.¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro wondered if the monster could sense sound. When she arrived, she had talked to herself and made some noise but he didn¡¯t attack so there wasn¡¯t much she could guess from that.
Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to summon her spear and throw it towards the centre of the room.
Staying silent, she perked her ears up and listened carefully.
*Ping!
Just as she heard the sound of her spear hitting against something, she heard the sound of the spear getting knocked back.
Feeling danger, she quickly ducked down.
*CRACK!!!!
Hearing the sound of her spear stabbing into the wall, Shiro grabbed it with her hand and pulled it out.
¡¯Probably shouldn¡¯t throw it into the centre where he might be if I¡¯m seeing if he could sense sound.¡¯ Shiro facepalmed at her own stupidity before throwing her spear to the side. However, unlike before, there were no movements so Shiro could guess that the monster only really reacted to the sense touch and intent which was pretty much the same as her.
¡¯Wait... is the monster on the edge of the boundary too?¡¯ Shiro wondered to herself as this meant that they were essentially equal if you if one ignored the fact that their physical power differed greatly.
Narrowing her eyes, she tried to remember everything she knew about the only person to have ever passed this test.
In addition to this, she tried to remember everything that Caedus had told her.
She needed to be able to tap into this state naturally like breathing. Like the reflection of the water, she needed to be able to ¡¯see¡¯ everything without disturbing the surface at all. Only when she saw what she wanted to hit, does she strike and when that happens everything reacts.
However, she couldn¡¯t use her energy or else the enemy will find her. She couldn¡¯t use her intent either as the enemy was sensitive to this feeling.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro sighed heavily and sat down. She was going topile all of the information she knew and analyse it slowly.
###
"She actually passed." Que cheered happily with the other sisters who were also excited since she should have a good chance to pass right? She had two divinities which makes her essentially the strongest human in the forgotten realms.
While they didn¡¯t know the details in regards to the Tower of Nyx, it shouldn¡¯t be too difficult.
While they were cheering, both Tricia and Beril returned.
"Where¡¯s Shiro? Or has she passed already?" Beril asked curiously seeing the empty area with clear signs of battle slowly being repaired by the tower.
"Shiro managed to defeat the final guardian and has now entered the tower." Que nodded her head as Beril smiled.
"Mn, that¡¯s good."
"Is Mr Tenma going to attempt the skip test now?" Tricia asked as she nced towards Tenma who flinched a little when his name was called.
"Mn, I just need a moment to digest the information." He nodded.
However, his reply caused both Beril and Que to frown since Shiro hadpleted the skip without prior preparation and yet even after Shiro essentially showed him the way, he was still hesitant? What kind of hero was this?
"Say sis, how did we even get a hero like him anyways?" Que whispered over to Beril¡¯s ears.
"Who knows. I wasn¡¯t there when he was picked. If they picked him on talent alone I guess that¡¯s understandable but his personality is rather unfit. I¡¯ll have to go back and ask about which sister chose him." Beril whispered back as Que nodded her head.
[They¡¯re speaking about how unfit you are to be a hero hahaha. And I have to say, I agree.] The voiceughed.
¡¯Shut up! She¡¯s not normal. Did you see how she fights? She¡¯s crazy.¡¯ Tenma retorted as the voice onlyughed.
[That¡¯s why I agree with them. You¡¯re spineless. However, just leave it to me, I¡¯ll help you pass the skip. Whether or not you can pass it is down to how well you follow my instructions.] The voice said as Tenma nodded and walked towards the skip.
Narrowing their eyes at him, both Tricia and Beril kept their attention on everything he did.
Chapter 748 Boss of Nyxs Tower
Chapter 748 Boss of Nyx''s Tower
Experimenting a few times by releasing her intent, Shiro exchanged several attacks with the monster.
Naturally, she lost each time but in doing so she managed to gain some more information about this boundary.
Comparing it to the information she knew about the one who had passed, Shiro understood that the key was grasping her surroundings without the use of energy or intent. It had to be a passive sense of sorts.
For example, it would be akin to having a third eye that allows you to see the world without the use of energy or intent.
¡¯Perhaps I need to use something more familiar as a medium.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she started to envision a grid like environment around her.
Furrowing her brows, she had an idea but doing this would be very risky as she¡¯d be fighting against the monster until it worked.
Her idea was to constantly release her intent and fine tune it every second until the monster could no longer detect her.
Cracking her neck, Shiro decided to go with this approach for now since it was better than just sitting around and theorising to herself.
Summoning her sword and spear, Shiro released her intent and formed a grid around the room.
Sensing arge object forcing its way through her grid and swinging his ws at her, Shiro dashed forward and ducked down so that the w barely missed her.
shing out with her sword, several sword shes appeared in the space in front of the monster and crashed against their hard armour but no substantial injuries were left behind.
Frowning slightly, Shiro quickly fine tuned her intent while jumping up on the monsters back.
Kicking off his shoulders, she flipped through the air.
Just as she did this, she sensed several long ranged attacksing towards her.
Using her power of flight, she managed to dodge but simr to what happened with her sword shes, she felt danger around her and twirled her spear.
*CLANG!!!
Blocking a majority of them, Shiro frowned when she felt a few attacks cut across her thighs and forearm.
Landing on the ground, Shiro mmed her hands down and rock spikes started to stab out of the ground.
While this was happening, Shiro continued to fine tune her intent.
After this short exchange, she finally had a semi decent understanding of the room that she was in.
Within this giant room were tens ofrge pirs that stopped after a certain height and she still couldn¡¯t sense the roof of this ce.
As for the monster, he was simr to a gorgon with his lower body being that of a snake but his upper body was definitely not a gorgon. He had tworge mantis like ws and several mouths around his body. In the mouths were rows upon rows of teeth.
His head waspletely featureless like a mannequin. No hair, no ears, no eyes, no nose or mouth.
In addition to this, there was a translucent armour of sorts covering his entire body making it hard for Shiro to damage him.
Slithering around the pirs, the monster twisted his body and shed towards her with his w.
Dashing back, Shiro wrapped her chain around one of the pirs and swung herself around to dodge the w.
Just as she did this, one of the mouths on his body twitched slightly and a new arm exploded out.
Lashing towards her like a whip, the arm seemed like it had no limit to its reach.
Raising her sword, Shiro parried it but the force sent her tumbling back a little.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro activated her Restriction of Ranged Weapons.
That way, even if he was tosh out again, his new grown hands wouldn¡¯t be able to harm her.
Since she had used one charge of her restrictions earlier, this meant that she now only had two more charges.
Trying tosh out towards her once more, the hand was deflected by a barrier which caused the monster to tilt his head before the arm was sucked back into his mouth.
Leaning back slightly, he slithered forwards at shocking speeds.
Appearing in front of Shiro, he pulled his ws back and shed towards her without hesitation.
Releasing a st of wind between them, Shiro forcefully made some distance while trying to fine tune her intent some more.
She needed to dial it down so that she could barely sense the surroundings while the monster couldn¡¯t sense her. It needed to be her second set of eyes.
As she was exchanging moves with the monster, more and more injuries were appearing but her senses were being fine tuned with every passing second. At the start, the monster was able to pinpoint her exactly but now he was bing a little slower. Naturally, it was the same for her but she just needed more time to fine tune her senses.
If she had to describe it, it was like adjusting her signal to mask it while she¡¯s hacking something so that she could bypass the security.
Only this time the security was much harder and was a giant serpent boss that could cut her in half if hended a good attack.
However, her main goal wasn¡¯t to fight head to head with the monster so she didn¡¯t have to worry about that. All she needed to do was to dy it as much as she could so that she could finish fine tuning her intent.
Buying time with tactics such as using rocks to block his path or using the pirs as a way to escape, Shiro did try to fly as high as she could but after a certain point past the top of the pirs, she realised that she couldn¡¯t fly any higher.
But even at this height, she was still within range of the monster so she had to descend back down and focus on using the monster¡¯s body against him. With hisrge body, she can try to thread between the pirs in an attempt to slow him down which is much better than staying in the sky.
Time passed as minutes turned to hours.
Sweat constantly rolled down Shiro¡¯s face as she was burning through therge pile of medicine that Beril had given her. If not for the medicine, she would have been done for long ago with the wounds that she had sustained.
After several hours of fine tuning, Shiro hit a bottleneck as any further would render her senses useless as well.
However, in her current state, she was able to keep the monster at bay while making it hard for him to sense her.
Simr to the training with Caedus, she arrived at the boundary once more but was just short of breaking past this veil.
She kept trying to budge past this veil but it refused to move, denying her from entry.
Shiro did try to fine tune her senses further but every time it did it would essentially pause thebat as neither one could sense the other.
Biting her lip, Shiro wondered what she could do.
Furrowing her brows, she decided to experiment a little by spreading her energy out like a web before pushing past the bottleneck but this onlyserved to give the monster an idea of her location while she didn¡¯t know where she was. Giving up on that idea, Shiro could only dodge his attacks in frustration.
¡¯What am I missing?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as there was one thing that she needed to grasp.
One key thing that will allow her to bypass this veil.
As she was thinking of this point, the time slowly extended to a day as the people outside were curious about what was happening inside the tower since there were still signs of Shiro attempting the trial.
As for Tenma, he was currently fighting against the monster that could make his attacks phase through his body.
Unlike Shiro, he wasn¡¯t able to finish all of the monsters quickly so he had spent quite a bit of time defeating each of them.
However, his fighting style was strange. Neither Beril or Tricia knew what was going on but he was suspicious to both of the sisters.
###
[When you see him raise his arm, counterattack. Even if you are harmed, you forget I can heal you.] The voice lectured as there was clear displeasure.
¡¯If you heal me, they would know that you¡¯re helping out.¡¯
[What of it? It¡¯s not like they can do anything with you in this barrier.]
¡¯Just be patient.¡¯ Tenma said as the voice stayed silent and watched this clown act on his own.
If not for the fact that he was so easily controlled, he wouldn¡¯t have even bothered with this clown.
Chapter 749 Boundary
Chapter 749 Boundary
Fighting against this boss for hours, Shiro¡¯s movements were beginning to feel sluggish as even with her ridiculous stamina and will fighting such a hard boss for hours was still difficult. The worst part about this is that even after thinking about this for hours she still didn¡¯t know how she could achieve the state past the veil.
Sighing softly, she dodged the monster¡¯s attack one more time. But just as she did this, she felt her leg tense up as her bnce was disrupted.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯ Widening her eyes, Shiro immediately felt danger in front of her as the monster sensed that she was still nearby.
Quickly shutting off her intent, she disrupted the sense but the attack was still cleaving towards Shiro¡¯s chest. Despite not being able to see the monster with her grid, the feeling of danger was all she needed to see where the attack wasing from.
Gritting her teeth, she tried her best to dodge to the side.
Time seemed to slow down as she could see that she wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge the w.
Summoning her sword, the best she could do was try to push it off to the side or reflect it entirely.
As she had her senses turned off right now, she didn¡¯t know where the monster was. But the feeling of danger was apparent and she can use that to pinpoint where the attack wasing from.
However, as she was in the same state as the monster, she knew that the sense of danger might not be where the real attack wasing so she focused her mind as hard as she could so that she could find where the true source was.
Feeling the we closer and closer, Shiro kept her patience while gritting her teeth.
As the w pierced her skin, she felt a sudden sh of danger behind her neck.
Widening her eyes, she clutched her sword and shed out.
*PING PING!!!
Deflecting the initial attack and blocking the second, Shiro quickly held her waist and jumped back as the first attack had stabbed rather deeply and the fact that she had forced it to the side caused it to cut across her waist.
However, she remembered that sh of danger at the very end of the attack.
It was like a torch was suddenly ced in this arena devoid of light and revealed everything to her.
The fact that the monster had sent out a second ¡¯hand¡¯ from his mouth and aimed it towards the back of her neck. The fact that the monster was hanging off the pirs right now.
During that sh, she was able to see everything despite not releasing her intent.
¡¯That must be the feeling.¡¯ Shiro thought while quickly backing off.
Feeling the blood flowing out of her wound, Shiro rummaged through her bag and found that she only had a single bottle of medicine left. After this, she¡¯d be on her own.
However, since she now somewhat understood the feeling she could find a way to break past the veil.
Only problem was what were the conditions to trigger the feeling.
¡¯I¡¯m not a masochist but I might have to make the monster hit me some more to do this.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself as that was the only way she can see herself finding this feeling again.
¡¯If Nimue was here she¡¯d probably say that¡¯s the feeling of bing a masochist rather than the barrier.¡¯ Shiro humoured herself while saving herst bottle of medicine forter.
¡¯Messing¡¯ up her movements some more, Shiro had the monster continuously attack her as she tried to react at thest second.
###
"That¡¯s.... a rather odd way to attain the new state isn¡¯t it." Gaia forced a smile as Shiro was essentially mming her head against the veil in hopes of it breaking and letting her in.
"Yes but you have to give her credit for being creative. I have to say, the fact that her first spark of inspiration was actually when she was harmed is rather... concerning. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that I know she is sadistic, I would think she¡¯s a masochist finding inspiration in pain." Nyx replied with a forced smile.
"Well sometimes people find sparks of inspiration while they¡¯re on the verge of death. She is no different. But why does her... boundary feel so different?" Gaia tilted her head.
"Because she has no defence." Nyxughed.
"When he obtained this state, he was a master of both defence and attack. For Shiro, who has never yed an active role as a defensive person, it is going to be difficult to attain this state. Therefore, she made the right choice in choosing to focus on attack when training with Caedus in the short time that she was given. Who knows, she might be like her mother. After all, some think the best offence is the best defence." Nyx grinned.
"Speaking of her parents, I feel like they¡¯ve reached this boundary but they clearly haven¡¯t. Do you think it¡¯s the same situation as Shiro? Where they focused on one thing?"
"Not really. I don¡¯t know about her father but her mother is definitely a heavy offensive fighter like her. As for the boundary... neither of them are close. Do you know that in the time Shiro had spent in this world, she has already activated several benefits that she doesn¡¯t even know about? The upgrade to her elements, fighting instincts, her monster title among many other things. How strong do you think she¡¯ll be once she exits?" Nyx asked with a smile.
"I¡¯d say she¡¯ll be able to put up an even fight with her mother. But if she masters the boundary even if her mother can see into the future for a few seconds, it¡¯ll be useless." Gaia replied.
"Exactly. Now, what do you think would happen when she fights alongside her party that is almost finished with their trials?" Nyx narrowed her eyes.
"They would be unstoppable when they¡¯re together."
"Bingo. With them receiving this boost before the Age of Demons and Gods, they¡¯ll be able to start setting up the anchors along with iming territories without a single problem. Plus, they¡¯ll also have the demon race on their side if they y their cards right with Madison.
"Plus, they don¡¯t know about Isilia yet either so they?" Nyx smirked.
"Did you n all of this?" Gaia asked.
"Nope. It was honestly lucky that she ran into Madison and Lyrica. All I did was guide her a little during this trial and give her a little nudge in the right direction. What she did with this guidance is absolutely fantastic since she got every benefit and more. She is really a favoured child of the system isn¡¯t she?" Nyxughed.
"Mn. Her first life while tragic gave her great power. Her second gave her protection along with the knowledge of proper magic and her third made her an empress and a being that could surpass us eventually." Gaia nodded.
"This is good since there won¡¯t be a fourth with this being thest cycle of our universe." Nyx smiled before turning back to the screen. Watching Shiro slowly walk while focusing her mind, Nyx could see the spark growingrge andrger with every attack she dodges.
At this point, without realising, Shiro was starting to counter attack without the use of her intent. The monster was only attacking her thanks to his sense of touch but overall he didn¡¯t know her location.
As the flickers of sword shes increased, the smile on Nyx¡¯s face turned to a grin.
"She¡¯s done it." Gaia muttered after a short pause.
"Yup. She¡¯s attained the offensive part of the boundary." Nyx confirmed.
###
Feeling as though the light has returned to her eyes, Shiro could see everything despite not releasing her intent. She could see the grid lines wrapping around the monster¡¯s body, shifting with every movement. The tensing of his muscles, the flow of his blood, the twitching of his teeth. Everything was clear.
Flicking her wrist once, several sword lights appeared in front of her as they cleaved into the monster¡¯s chest.
Unlike the previous attempts, these chipped away at his armour.
Looking at him through this ¡¯vision¡¯, his weaknesses in the armour were highlighted in a bright red, making it extremely eye-catching.
"I see... No wonder the other guy couldn¡¯t be hit. It¡¯s a shame I can only attack but..." She trailed off with a smirk.
"This should be enough to im Nyx¡¯s Tower."
Chapter 750 Nyxs Divinity
Chapter 750 Nyx''s Divinity
Reversing the situation in a single second, it was as if a rain of star light descended onto the monster.
Countless sword strikesnded against his body as the weaknesses and the chinks in the armour were obvious to Shiro¡¯s sight.
As the monster could no longer pinpoint Shiro while she attacked, the only thing he could rely on was his sense of touch. But with the nature of this domain, the sense of touch was not exactly urate since an attack coulde from behind the creature.
However, there was a slight downside to this boundary. It was draining her stamina heavily and with her current state, Shiro couldn¡¯t afford to drag this on any longer. When she grasped this, she was already exhausted.
If there was light, one would be able to see that her constitution was extremely pale right now.
Biting her lips, Shiro continued her attack since she knew she was very close. The moment she breaks through this monster¡¯s armour is the moment she killed him.
Since his movements and weaknesses were shown to her, she could target them with ease and even knock his arms aside despite their physical differences.
Feeling as though her lungs were about to burst, Shiro narrowed her eyes and summoned her spear.
Piercing towards his chest, she watched as the spear tip shattered the translucent armour around the monster and pierced through his chest.
However, she didn¡¯t let her guard down. Pulling out the spear, she stabbed him a few more times.
Pushing the monster back, she didn¡¯t allow him a single change to attack back at her.
*BANG!!!!
Crashing against the wall, the monsterid there lifelessly as Shiro finally saw her system return to her vision.
[You havepleted the Tower of Nyx.]
Seeing this, Shiro sighed in relief and instantly copsed on the ground.
Forcing her eyes open, Shiro could see a dark purple Sigil in front of her that was almost identical to the Sigil of Night that Nyx had given her before.
[Primordial Divinity of Nyx]
- You have full control over Shadows and Night
- You can create an area of pure darkness around you where your enemies lose all sense of sight and their hearing is dampened.
- Your shadows are able to dampen the effects of magic. The more energy you use, the more powerful this dampening effect is. It can even nullify magic.
- You can control the space around you so that people cannot escape through magical means.
- You can use shadows as a means of attack. They will constantly drain the energy from anything they touch and transfer the energy to you.
- You can transform your body into a collection of shadows.
- If anyone tries tond a life threatening attack against you, you can disperse into a wave of shadows once per day and they can no longer use the same method to try to kill you.
- You can use shadow as a means of transport.
- You can use shadows to form illusions.
- You can create an area of silence around you where no sound can escape.
- You have full control over the Section of Night and the monsters that inhabit this ce.
- You have a keen sense towards Magic.
Reading the benefits that Nyx¡¯s Divinity gives her, Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise since a few of the abilities are reminiscent of what she had before entering this world.
Thinking about it for a moment, she shrugged her shoulders since it was better to say that her abilities were simr to Nyx¡¯s rather than the other way around.
Forcing herself back on her feet, Shiro stumbled for a moment as the arena around her slowly lit up with a soft light.
Seeing the destruction around her with almost broken pirs and shattered floors, she looked at the bloodied corpse of the monster which was slowly decaying into ash which drifted off in the wind.
"Thanks for your help." Shiro smiled since he was the one who helped her grasp this new boundary.
ncing back, she could see a portal of sorts as she walked towards it while using her spear as cane of sorts to help her stand.
###
As Tenma was fighting the final champion to Nyx¡¯s tower, the tower suddenly lit up with purple runes which flickered for a moment before dimming down.
Just as that happened, the final champion froze in ce and dispersed into shadows.
With the barrier broken as well, Tenma stood in the centre with a confused face.
Naturally, the sisters were also confused as to why that happened.
However, their confusion soon turned to joy as they saw Shiro appearing in front of the tower with a spear as her support.
Seeing her pale face and tired eyes, they knew she must have had quite a fight inside the tower.
Quickly running over to her, Tricia, Beril and Que supported her.
"What happened?" Beril asked while quickly giving her some medicine to relieve her fatigue.
"Nothing much. I finished the trial." Shiro grinned as the three widened their eyes in surprise. In history, only one person had everpleted the tower and now in front of them, the second person stood.
"Wait you have?" Que asked as Shiro nodded her head.
Snapping her fingers, the sky above the tower slowly brightened to reveal the light of day before returning to normal.
"Now can we have some food and rest? I¡¯ve been fighting for thest couple of hours and I¡¯m tired as f*ck." Shiro forced a smile as the three nodded their heads.
Just as they were about to leave, Tenma stood in front of them with a frown on his face.
"What did you do? I was about toplete my skip." He asked.
"I finished the trial. Nyx¡¯s divinity is mine. Maybe it¡¯s a premium divinity that only one person could own at a time. Who knows?" Shiro shrugged as Tenma gritted his teeth.
"Then it should have rightfully been mine."
"You clown are you hearing yourself right now? Firste first serve dip sh*t. Who was so cowardly that you let me face the dangers first. Now that I have obtained it, you say that it¡¯s rightfully yours? Bullsh*t." Shiro rolled her eyes.
[Hahahahaha, she¡¯s right you know. But now that tower can¡¯t be attempted again, you have no use to me.] A creepy voice rang out but this time everyone could hear it.
Hearing this voice, Shiro forced a smile as it was very familiar to her.
"Ancient Terror. Well I¡¯ll be damned, this f*cker was a spy all along huh?" Shiro said as she had the sisters stand back.
Last time she couldn¡¯t do anything against this guy but this time was going to be different.
He¡¯s not at full power yet so if they could kill him it would be a good opportunity.
[Indeed. I thought he would be more useful but no. This clown took much longer toplete the trial, well, he didn¡¯t evenplete it in the end haha. Do you mind if I eat him right now? Not sure if you want this clown to live or not.] The Ancient Terror chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
"Be my guest. He¡¯s dead the moment he colluded with you. Even if you didn¡¯t eat him, I would have killed him myself." Shiro grinned as panic appeared on Tenma¡¯s face.
But before he could say anything, several eyes opened up on his body as teeth exploded out of him.
With the sound of bone crunching and blood pouring, they watched as Tenma¡¯s body was devoured from the inside out.
From his flesh, a shadow grew which slowly transformed into the Ancient Terror.
Unlike before, his body was now more fleshed out as less bones could be seen. However, he was still disgustingly anorexic which only caused Shiro to shake her head.
"You seem like you¡¯ve had quite a diet since thest time I saw you." Shiro smiled.
"And you seem like you¡¯ve obtained quite a bit of power. I didn¡¯t expect you to have obtained Nyx¡¯s divinity which is a small deviation which I did not expect." The Ancient Terror replied while the sisters were all frozen in ce and their faces were pale.
"Though I must say, the fact that you can move freely is a... surprise for sure." He narrowed his eyes.
"It would be quite problematic if I couldn¡¯t." Shiro smirked as her notification rang out.
[Kill the Ancient Terror now and you may end the Trial. You can also kill himter after you fulfill the quest steps of obtaining all the divinities.]
Seeing this, Shiro didn¡¯t even hesitate to choose the first option since who knows what would happen if she let him go now.
Chapter 751 Control Over Souls
Chapter 751 Control Over Souls
"So why have you revealed yourself? Surely you aren¡¯t doing this to say hi now, are you?" Shiro smirked while using wind to send Beril, Tricia and Que away from their current location.
"Well the initial n was to kill you after the clown obtained the divinity but seems like that n was wed. With how tired you are after reaching the boundary, I say it¡¯s a perfect chance to kill you." He narrowed his eyes as the muscles on his body started to twitch.
"Funny, I was about to say the same." Shiro grinned before dashing towards him with her spear and sword.
Twisting her body, she activated Nyx¡¯s divinity as darkness exploded out from her, blocking the Ancient Terrors sight along with dampening his magic so that he can¡¯t escape likest time. She distinctly remembered that his body was able to disperse into shadows much like what she can do now.
Activating her boundary, she could see the red glows on the Ancient Terror¡¯s body which symbolised his weaknesses but she knew that some of them were fake.
Since he recognised her stamina problem with obtaining the boundary, that meant that he must understand how it worked.
Narrowing her eyes, she decided to test the waters for now by attacking all of the spots and seeing how he reacts.
Flicking her wrist, countless sword shes appeared around the monstrosity as he only grinned as allowed the attacks tond against him. Just as she did this, she sensed a spark of magic as she readied herself for his attack but it was something unexpected.
*PUSHI!!!!
Widening her eye, Shiro watched as the shes appeared on her body instead of the monster.
Jumping back, she furrowed her brows as one of her eyes had been damaged during that short exchange.
¡¯What the hell?¡¯ She thought to herself while blood poured down her face.
"Surprised? Thest time I fought the one who had obtained the boundary, it was rather difficult since I could neither guard nor attack. In the time I have been awake, I¡¯ve managed to find a way to counter people like you. So how is it? Does your eye hurt?" The Ancient Terrorughed as Shiro only shrugged.
"I¡¯ve felt worse. The eye is nothingpared to what I had to go through." Shiro smirked.
"Interesting. Are people outside of this world like you as well? If so I must see how well they stand up to pain."
"Not really. I¡¯m quite an anomaly even to the gods." Shiro smiled as she dashed towards him once more.
When her attacks were reflected, she had sensed a spark of magic so as long as she dampens the effects of his magic/nullify it, her attacks should go through.
Seeing her charge in fearlessly despite the resultst time, the Ancient Terror knew that something was up so he raised his ws and swiped towards her.
Transforming her body into a collection of shadows, Shiro phased through his attack and appeared in front of his face.
Twisting her body, she stabbed her spear towards his head.
Sensing the flicker of magic once more, she activated Nyx¡¯s divinity.
*PING!!
The sound of ss shattering could be heard as an invisible barrier around the Ancient Terror shattered apart the moment her spear stabbed into his head through the nose.
With the petrification enchantment on her spear, ayer of petrification could be seen spreading all over his body as the Ancient Terror widened his eyes in shock.
Grabbing the spear, he wanted to pull it out of his head but Shiro only smirked.
Letting go of her spear, Shiro grabbed the Ancient Terror¡¯s arm and used it as a pole to flip her body behind him.
Grabbing his horns, she mmed a condensed ball of air to the back of his skull and sent him crashing forward.
*CRACK!!
Hearing the crack of the spear shattering a part of the skull, Shiro jumped back as rows of teeth exploded out of his back and tried to pierce her but it failed to reach.
"You¡¯re harder to kill than I expected. Who knew you could cancel out magic." The Ancient Terror growled.
"Normally I would have used a different method but Nyx¡¯s divinity is quite handy." Shiro smiled. Unfortunately, she had used her remaining charges on her restrictions in the trial otherwise she would just activate the restriction of magic.
"I can see that but unfortunately for you I am immortal. You cannot kill him." He grinned.
Pulling out the spear, he was about to snap it in half when Shiro quickly summoned it back to her hand. While Blessed Weapons are usually indestructible, she didn¡¯t want to risk her chances with something that had been alive for such a long time.
Summoning her bow, she notched her spear before firing it at him.
Diving into the shadows, she reappeared behind him and wrapped her chains around his arms.
"As for you being immortal, we¡¯ll see about that. For all I know, it¡¯s just your body." Shiro narrowed her eyes since she dealt with souls rather than the body.
Cancelling his magic once more, she watched as the spear pierced his chest.
Diving into the shadow once more before the teeth could stab her, Shiro dragged the chains with her as his body was forced to the ground.
Flicking her wrist, she had the chains wrap around him while a ck dress appeared around her body.
With her spirit nature activated, she mmed her hand against the ground before dragging out antern of sorts that glowed with a turquoise light.
Snapping her fingers, butterflies started to appear around him.
"Take his soul." Shemanded coldly.
Latching onto him, the butterflies started to chew away as teeth pierced them but each butterfly would split themselves into two whenever they were killed.
Soon, an illusionary image of the Ancient Terror could be seen as he tried to struggle but it was useless.
"Even if you kill this soul I won¡¯t be dead! Do you know how many souls are in me?" The Ancient Terrorughed as Shiro knew that he was saying the truth.
"I¡¯ll find each soul that has been tainted by you and seal them away one by one." Shiro grinned darkly as a green tether appeared on his soul and stretched to the corners of the world.
"Do you know what this tether represents? Any soul that has a scent of you. If I seal you within me and drag you to another world, I wonder if you can still awaken. Who knows, maybe I should seal you in this world and have you do your job for as long as I live. I¡¯ve heard that gods are immortal so would you be sealed for all time?" Shiro smirked.
Before the Ancient Terror could say anything, his soul was sucked into herntern.
Dropping it back into her shadow, she dismissed her True Spirit Nature before kneeling down with deep breaths. While this was happening, the Ancient Terror¡¯s body shattered to ash.
¡¯Just one of many huh? I need to deal with all the pieces of him or else he¡¯ll keep appearing.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown as she remembered the feeling of when she first saw this beast. She had to deal with it quickly.
Dismissing the magical darkness that she had enveloped around them, she watched as Que, Tricia and Beril ran toward her.
"Where is he?" Beril asked with a frown.
"This one is sealed but I need to find the others. If even one of the pieces of him survives then he¡¯ll keep appearing. We need to go hunting for him." Shiro replied as Beril furrowed her brows.
"How many pieces of him are there?" She asked.
"I don¡¯t know. But as long as the tether disappears, that means all of the souls have been sealed away." Shiro shook her head.
"I see... Should we tell this to Astryn and conduct another meeting?" Beril asked.
"No. It seems like some of the other heroes are also corrupted so we don¡¯t want more pieces of the Ancient Terror together in the same ce." Shiro shook her head.
Narrowing her eyes, she understood that it would be difficult to face off more than one copy of him so finding them one by one was the best choice.
###
"Seems like she chose to kill the danger rather than more power like you said." Gaia smiled.
"Yup. Though I¡¯m surprised. Despite not obtaining Tartarus¡¯ Divinity, her control of souls is almost on the same level. To think her spirit nature actually allowed her to track down the pieces of the soul. Do you think she can track down the main core of our soul? If she destroys that gods will lose their immortality and die." Nyx grinned.
"I do believe that she might in the future. Little Zeus should watch his step shouldn¡¯t he?" Gaia chuckled.
"He¡¯s already beyond saving. But we shouldn¡¯t say anything. Let a few of the arrogant gods stub their toes against this brick wall and watch them fall." Nyx grinned as Gaia nodded her head. Some of the gods needed to be taught a lesson. Their immortality had gotten to their heads.
ncing at Shiro, she knew the new age was going to be aplete bloodshed with Shiro around.
Chapter 752 Transferring Energy Experiment
Chapter 752 Transferring Energy Experiment
After resting up, Shiro didn¡¯t waste any time in hunting down the soul fragments of the Ancient Terror. The first few pieces she found were actually embedded in the remaining Heroes except for Yan who was rather shocked at her mastery over souls despite not having obtained Tartarus¡¯ divinity.
Seeing her call out the Ancient Terror, bind him then seal him away in her soulntern was quite enlightening for him.
As for the sisters that were notified of the Heroes being corrupted by the Ancient Terror except for Yan, they were rather shocked at this revtion. Especially Astryn since she didn¡¯t know when the Heroes had evene in contact with the Ancient Terror.
While Astryn and some of the other sisters were contemting about where they had gone wrong in selecting Heroes for them to have actually been corrupted, Shiro set off to find more shards of the Ancient Terror.
As for Yan, Shiro told him that he can wait by the side but he said since he can also control souls it¡¯ll be easier if he helped her.
With his assistance, dragging the soul out of the Ancient Terrors body had been quite easy.
Tracking the tethers all across the world, Shiro and Yan hunted down the Ancient Terror as the roles were reversed.
Thanks to Ouranos¡¯ divinity, their journey through the Section of Sky was easy.
Despite hunting everyday, the tethers never seem to decrease. With every fragment taken, more seem to appear as the Ancient Terror refused to even say anything in the end.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro had an idea but she might need Yan¡¯s help to aplish this since her True Spirit Nature onlysted for less than two minutes. That wasn¡¯t enough time to do what she wanted so she¡¯d need Yan to set up the foundations.
Meeting up with Astryn, they sat around a table.
"So even after hunting for a month straight, we¡¯re having some trouble chipping away at how many souls he has. But I have an idea." Shiro said as Astryn raised her eyebrows.
"Oh? What idea would this be?"
"Before I say, I need to ask you about something. Can one transfer energy between people? Or maybe share energy so that they can use it to fuel their abilities." Shiro asked as this was the key to her n. If Yan could use her energy, then this was going to be perfect.
"I believe there are methods but people don¡¯t usually do this. It¡¯s because by the time the energy reaches the other person, a lot of it had been wasted trying to do this process so not many try this." Astryn replied with a shake of her head.
"Oh that¡¯s fine. I got plenty of energy to spare." Shiro grinned as both Astryn and Yan looked at her with confusion but trusted her in the end. They¡¯d been fighting against the Ancient Terror before and they knew Shiro would throw out abilities like they were candy.
Getting Astryn to exin the process to her, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched as it was essentially throwing water at someone who¡¯s on fire with a tiny spoon.
A lot of it would fall to the ground while a few droplets wouldnd on the fire itself. No wonder no one used it as it was highly inefficient.
Thinking about something, Shiro decided to dy their ns for a few days.
"Give me a few days. I¡¯m going to go experiment with his method a little. It¡¯s way too inefficient." Shiro shook her head. Even if she had a lot of energy, she was still essentially chipping away at it with a spoon. Not only was it inefficient, but it was also slow.
She needed something faster.
Confused at what she meant, the two only watched as she walked away and locked herself up in her room.
Remembering the time that Kuromi had experimented with the new energy in the trial so that they could fight, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle thinking that she was doing the same as her big sis.
*Sigh...
Remembering Kuromi, Shiro nced down at her hand and wondered when she¡¯d be able to find her again. Now that she had obtained the power over souls as well as knowledge in controlling souls thanks to Hades¡¯ Sigil that she had obtained back on earth.
All she knows is that she needs to find out where her soul is being stored. It could be in her own or in the system but she hadn¡¯t had the chance to find out just yet. Once she does, she¡¯ll need to find Kuromi a physical body of sorts. Of course, she¡¯ll need to ask about what Kuromi wants to do first.
Shaking her head, she started to experiment with the ways that she could transfer the energy between people using the one that Astryn had told her as a reference.
After a short few hours, she was able toe up with one that is much faster but was still considered a prototype.
The main changes between the two was that the efficiency was much better and the speed of transfer had increased from a spoon to a bucket. But for what she wanted to do, a bucket was not enough. She¡¯ll need to upgrade it to a high powered hose but since this was still a prototype it was ok.
Calling for Yan to meet her, she wanted to test this out a little.
"You wanted to see me?" Yan asked as he knocked on the door.
"Mn, I just want to test out my prototype. Come in." Shiro nodded her head.
Opening the door, Yan could see Shiro sitting on a chair.
"Sit on the bed with your back towards me. I¡¯m going to see if the transfer of energy works or not."
Hearing this, Yan nodded and sat on the bed like she had instructed.
"Is there anything I should know?" He asked as he didn¡¯t know the risks to this.
"Hmm... if you feel like you¡¯re about to explode from the energy transfer tell me since it means you¡¯re bloated." Shiro smiled as Yan Widened his eyes in shock.
Before he could say anything, Shiro pped her hand on his back as a magic circle appeared around them.
Feeling the sudden gush of energy, Yan had to grit his teeth since it was quite a new sensation.
However, it wasn¡¯t a painful feeling. Instead, it was quite nice as the energy was cool and calming. Like a gentle stream, it wrapped around his body.
But not even two secondster, he felt like the great ocean had just filled his body and that he was about to explode.
"Stop!"
Hearing this, Shiro quickly stopped the process.
"Hm... that wasn¡¯t even a full bucket though." Shiro frowned.
"Bucket?" Yan turned around with a forced smile since he was focused on not exploding right now.
"Mn, the original spell made it so that I was essentially giving you a spoon full of energy every time we transfer but I upgraded it to a bucket. However, a bucket is quite little too. I need a high powered hose or something. In your terms, I¡¯d need to upgrade the bucket to a waterfall so that you get the energy you need." Shiro exined as Yan widened his eyes.
"You want to give me more energy??? I¡¯ll die!"
From what he knew, Shiro hadn¡¯t even transferred the whole bucket and he already felt like he was about to die.
"I can see that. But it¡¯s only a buck- ahhhhh I see the problem." Shiro realised something and sighed.
"My energy is hundreds of, if not thousands of times bigger than normal people so it¡¯s only natural a bucket of my energy is several people¡¯s worth. If they tried this method of mine they¡¯llpletely drain themselves. Hm ok, I think I get the problem now. Give me a few more hours, I should have this finalised. I need a constant stream of energy rather than a bucket so that you can utilise it fast enough for it not to kill you."
Ushering Yan out of her room, Shiro returned to experimenting while Yan could only fear for his life but since she was doing this to get rid of the Ancient Terror, it was the least that he could do.
As expected, Shiro managed to finalise the spell after a few more hours of experimenting. From a bucket to a pipe, she would be able to adjust how much energy is flowing into Yan so that he can output the energy before it killed him. With this, she¡¯d be able to take care of the fine tuning while they cast the spell.
As for the next step, it was to teach him what he must do for the n she has in mind.
Chapter 753 Requiem of the Dead
Chapter 753 Requiem of the Dead
Spending the next two days teaching Yan about the soul and what she required him to do, Shiro double and triple checked to make sure he understood his role.
He was essentially setting up the formation while her butterflies would do the final touches.
"Do you remember what you need to do?" Shiro asked just to make sure.
"Mn I do. I need to make the formation with Tartarus¡¯ Divinity and infuse my power into it right?" Yan asked since his Primordial Divinity synergised greatly with Shiro¡¯s True Spirit Nature.
"Good. Follow me, the highest point so far is Ouranos¡¯ Tower so we¡¯ll be going to the top. As for whether or not it starts the trial, I¡¯m not sure." Shiro mused to herself since Yan hadn¡¯tpleted the tower yet.
Nodding his head, Yan agreed as two travelled towards the tower.
Jumping up into the air, she grabbed Yan like he was a bag of rice and flew upwards.
Unlike before, she didn¡¯t feel any kind of pressure. There were a few monsters that wanted to fight her but a single re caused them to bow in submission.
Seeing as though the defences were still in ce, Shiro wondered if Yan had toplete the tower.
Arriving at the top, she once again saw the empty throne but no one appeared to fight them.
"Seems like we¡¯re safe." Shiro muttered as she set Yan down.
"Uff... has anyone told you that your way of carrying people to the top isn¡¯t exactlyfortable?" Yan said as Shiro nodded.
"They have but enough chit chat. Let¡¯s begin." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Yan nodded his head.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro channelled her divinity as a giant magic circle appeared in front of her.
Funnelling her energy into the divinity, darkness started to spread out from the tower.
Expanding into the horizon, Shiro could sense her magic slowly enveloping all five sections and her energy was being drained at a rapid pace. Despite her energy being bountiful, keeping this up for long was still going to be annoying.
"Yan!" Shiro called out as Yan activated a magic circle around them.
Funnelling her energy into his, she watched as a secondary magic circle appeared above the first one as ghostly howls could be heard above them.
Gritting his teeth, sweat poured from Yan¡¯s face as he had never done something of this scale before. Even for Shiro, this was a new record since she was affecting the entire world.
Watching the magic circle expand, Shiro waited for Yan¡¯s call.
"Done! It¡¯s stretched to the edge!" He shouted as Shiro nodded her head.
Activating her True Spirit Nature, a ck dress wrapped around her body as she mmed her hand down and pulled out thentern housing the pieces of Ancient Terrors soul.
Looking at the tethers stretching across the world, Shiro narrowed her eyes and grinned.
Muttering something in ancient spiritnguage, Shiro watched as a pir of light shot into the air and a pale green portal was opened with dark clouds surrounding the edge.
[World ss Magic Created.]
Seeing this notification, Shiro was pleasantly surprised as this never happened to her other spells that she cast in this world but this was a good sign too since she understood that she had seeded.
"Just generate a name for me. I don¡¯t care right now." Shiro muttered.
[Requiem of the Dead has been invoked.]
*DONG~
Suddenly, a loud bell toll could be heard as ghostly butterflies swooped down from the portal as a trail of green mist followed behind them.
Raising thentern in her hand, Shiro grinned.
Landing on her hand, the butterflies took a whiff of the scent of his soul before rearing their heads back.
*KII!!!
Screeching out a horrifying cry, the butterflies pped their wings and flickered into the distance.
On top of the butterflies, ghostly figures with chains followed behind them and there were even those with scythes.
Her spell was one that targeted a single person so that she didn¡¯t need to worry about them harming innocents. Of course, if she wished, she can also have them harvest the entire world of its residents hence the name Requiem of the Dead. In her hands holds the power to destroy this world but that wasn¡¯t her goal. She had only one goal and that was the Ancient Terror.
After a few short moments, she could hear pained cries as the butterflies and wardens soon returned with an illusionary figure of the Ancient Terror bound in chains.
Sucking him into thentern, Shiro watched as more and more shards of him were absorbed.
Deactivating her True Spirit Nature, Shiro watched the spell continue to drain her energy but it was collecting the souls quickly.
There were two ways to deactivate this spell. Either the target has beenpletely absorbed or when she cancelled it. There were ways to forcefully disable this spell but it was going to be hard since it absorbed the ambient energy in the world to power itself. Most of this energy came from the towers so to destroy this would be to destroy the tower which was impossible. In this world, the spell was unbreakable.
As the shards were being collected, Yan¡¯s face was bing pale since the constant flow of energy through his body was bing painful but he gritted his teeth and pushed on since the spell was almost over. There was now only one tether left.
However, no matter how many butterflies went or how many wardens followed, this tether stayed strong and Shiro understood that it was probably the main body of the Ancient Terror.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro deactivated the spell as the portal slowly closed up, sucking all the ghostly figures back and light returned to thend. ncing down, Shiro could see the panic on people¡¯s faces but she couldn¡¯t care less since there was only one shard left. Once she captures this, they wouldn¡¯t need to worry about the Ancient Terror ever again.
Turning towards Yan, she could see that he wasying on the floor panting heavily with sweat pouring out of his face.
"Tricia and Beril are in this city. I¡¯ll send you to them so that they can help you. I¡¯ll go take care of thest shard." Shiro smiled as Yan nodded his head.
¡¯Helping¡¯ him down, Shiro ignored the shocked nces of people who saw her descend from the top of the tower.
"Have you sealed him away?" Beril asked.
"Not yet. I got onest piece to get." Shiro shook her head.
"That is probably the strongest piece then." Beril frowned as Shiro chuckled.
"Don¡¯t worry. If he had shattered his soul into so many pieces then this means that most of his power is in thentern." She replied while patting Berils head.
Pouting a little, Beril rummaged through her bag and gave her a single bottle of medicine.
"What¡¯s this?" Shiro asked.
"Remember when you asked me about medicine to boost your physical parameters? I made it. It¡¯ll boost your powers and energy absorption for around 5 minutes but it¡¯s a bit shorter depending on what happens." Beril said as Shiro smiled.
"Thank you."
"Do you need my help?" Tricia asked.
"No it¡¯s fine. It¡¯ll be more annoying if the Ancient Terror aimed for someone other than me. Just keep public order and I¡¯ll be happy. They did just see the world full of ghosts after all." Shiroughed as Tricia nodded her head.
"Big sis did say that the world darkened all of a sudden and people were panicking saying that it¡¯s the end of the world. The people in the Section of Night were a bit better but not by much." Tricia shook her head.
"Haha, I¡¯ll trouble you girls to clean up after me then. I got a goat demon to hunt." Shiro grinned as Tricia nodded.
Bidding the two farewell, Shiro shot into the air like a bullet and rushed towards where the tether led to. Arriving in a few short moments, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but force a smile.
Looking around her, Shiro saw that this was the ce where she failed to kill the Sapling. The pool of Corruption.
In front of her was a robed woman with blond hair peeking out from the hood.
"You¡¯ve arrived. I¡¯m surprised you could cast such a great spell." The woman smiled.
"I had some help. I presume you are Syrune, the oldest sister." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Pulling down her hood, the woman smiled and nodded her head.
Chapter 754 Syrunes Goal
Chapter 754 Syrune''s Goal
"What kind of divinity allows you to encroach the entire world with your ghost to collect his fragments?" Syrune asked with a small smile.
"One that you don¡¯t need to know about. If I was the ruthless killer, I wouldn¡¯t ask you about why you did this. However, I¡¯ll give you a chance to exin yourself so that when I kill you I can give your sisters an exnation." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"You¡¯re really giving me this chance? Despite me wanting to destroy this world?" Syrune asked while caressing the corrupted pool with her hand.
Raising her hand and looking at the purple liquid, she shook it off.
"You don¡¯t want me to? I can kill you as it is you know?" Shiro smiled as she summoned her sword.
"Well if I have a chance of living then why wouldn¡¯t I try to exin myself. You know there are gods always watching right?"
"Yes I do." Shiro nodded her head.
"And I presume you know that this world is detached from the real one right?" Syrune asked as Shiro nodded her head once more.
"We sisters are souls taken from the real one to act as caretakers of this world. This is the personal yground of the gods where they watch what happens with some mild interference. We sisters have been alive for centuries looking after this world with no goal in mind. I want to see the outside world, I want to break free from this fate of constantly looking after this world. After all, there is no purpose in this world being around. Any technological advances are halted so we¡¯re always stuck in the past." Syrune shook her head as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"And you think destroying the world and all its inhabitants is the key?"
"He told me that so long as we break the seal on this world ced by the gods, we¡¯ll be able to ess the outside world. A few sacrifices are nothing in the long run. You can even take my life so long as my sisters can live outside of this priso-!!!" Syrune widened her eyes as she looked down to see a de pierced through her chest from behind her.
"Hais... who the hell would believe someone that keeps trying to destroy the world. Just because I sympathise with your thoughts doesn¡¯t mean I ept how you carry it out." Shiro shook her head as she reappeared behind Syrune with a green glow to her eyes.
Currently, she had her True Spirit Nature activated and she could see the fragment of the Ancient Terror slowly transforming Syrune¡¯s body while they spoke. If she let it be, she would have transformed after their little talk and she wasn¡¯t dumb enough to let her enemy power up in front of her. After all, things could quickly go south if she did.
If she didn¡¯t try to transform she might have let her finish her little monologue.
Pulling the sword out which was now enchanted by a few green runes, Shiro watched as the final piece of the Ancient Terrors soul was sucked into herntern.
"ARGGG!! LET ME OUT!!" The Ancient Terror shouted out as he crashed against the walls of thentern.
"You can shut up for a bit." Shiro narrowed her eyes and unsummoned thentern.
Holding Syrune, Shiro narrowed her eyes at her.
"Just kill me." Syrune muttered as stumbled for a moment. After epting the core of the Ancient Terror, she knew that he was eating away at her but she didn¡¯t want to give up the chance of bringing her sisters out of this prison.
"Even if I didn¡¯t want to, you¡¯ll die soon anyways. The Ancient Terror has made himself a pir of your soul. Now that I have taken him away, your soul will copse on itself soon." Shiro sighed as Syrune was beyond saving.
"I see..." Syrune sighed with a shake of her head.
"They were quite shocked to find out that you¡¯re the culprit you know? They don¡¯t believe that you did it." Shiro said as she sat down with Syrune who was nowying on the ground.
"Mn, if it was a while ago, I wouldn¡¯t believe that I would do this either. Perhaps the c.u.mtive years in this world have made me insane haha." Syruneughed before coughing up some blood.
"I¡¯ll do you one favour though. I got a connection to Nyx so I can probably talk to her and see what I can do about this ce." Shiro sighed as Syrune smiled.
"Thank you."
Watching her close her eyes, Shiro sighed and stood up.
However, just as she did this, teeth erupted out from the ground and consumed her body in an instant.
Widening her eyes, Shiro jumped back in shock.
¡¯Didn¡¯t I take his soul away? How is his body still moving?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as the Ancient Terror¡¯s body was slowly being formed where Syrune had died.
ncing over at the pool of corruption, Shiro could see a constant stream of purple liquid flowing towards Syrune¡¯s body.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro activated her spirit nature and sent out a wave of cold mist to freeze theke. But just as she did this, the ice shattered in an instant and the liquid continued to flow towards the body.
mming her hands into the ground, Shior summoned thentern.
"Exin dipshit!" She demanded as the Ancient Terror onlyughed.
"You may have taken my soul but my body of sin still lives. As long as the humans continue to sin my body is immortal. Even if you shatter my soul, it is no use!" The Ancient Terrorughed as she unsummoned herntern in rage.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro flicked her wrist and sent out a wave of stone spikes.
However, they only shattered on impact as the soulless Ancient Terror continued to grow in size.
*URAHHHH!!!!!
Letting out a ear shattering howl, Shiro watched as the behemoth punched towards her with his giant fists.
Activating Ouranos¡¯ divinity, Shiro managed to dodge but she didn¡¯t know how she could end this monster.
If what the Ancient Terror said was correct, it will continue to regenerate unless humans stop sinning which was impossible.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro wondered what she could do to stop this.
¡¯Let¡¯s see if it¡¯s actually immortal.¡¯
Summoning her spear and bow, Shiro notched the spear onto the string.
"Error! See if you can chip away at it." Shiromanded as Error bounced around for a moment before wrapping around the spear.
Humming with excitement, the red circuits glowed brightly.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro fired the spear without hesitation.
*BANG!!!
Shattering the ground around her, Shiro watched as her spear pierced through the air and into his body.
Exploding out into a mass of red circuits, Error started to eat away at his body but strangely enough, it seemed like he was entirely made from liquid which made it hard for Error to do anything.
Returning back to her side feeling a little down, Shiro patted his ¡¯head¡¯ before ncing back at the Ancient Terror.
Just as she was about to dash forward, she felt a little light headed and remembered that the pool of corruption was very poisonous for her.
"Tsk!"
Clicking her tongue, quickly backed off as the behemoth chased after her.
As she was dashing away, her system gave her a notification as she saw the quest change slightly.
[Seal away the Ancient Terror¡¯s Body]
From killing the Ancient Terror to sealing his body away, Shiro understood that this was probably something Nyx didn¡¯t expect.
¡¯Seal seal seal... I DON¡¯T DO SEALS!¡¯ Shiro retorted in her mind since the only time she seals something is when it is with souls. That behemoth was just a body without a soul!
Searching her memories for anything that could possibly seal this behemoth away, Shiro paused in realisation.
"F*ck it! Nyx! I¡¯m taking him to your prison! You can deal with it yourself!" Shiro shouted into the sky as she started to taunt the behemoth towards the Section of Night where she had been trapped in the prison during her trial.
###
"What the hell do you mean I can deal with it myself! It¡¯s your trial!" Nyx retorted back as she didn¡¯t know what to do with this behemoth either. It was the literal amalgamation of humanities sins in the forgotten realm so unless she killed everyone he will continue to regenerate.
Even if she sealed it away, it¡¯ll keep getting stronger so long as the people in the forgotten realm continue to exist.
"Good luck." Gaia chuckled.
"Don¡¯t give me that crap! You help too!" Nyx gritted her teeth.
Despite her displeasure, she understood that this was beyond Shiro so she¡¯d need to help her out.
Shrugging her shoulders, Gaia nodded her head and proceeded to help Nyx.
Chapter 755 Nyx and Gaias Support
Chapter 755 Nyx and Gaia''s Support
Taunting the Ancient Terror with her, it wasn¡¯t hard for the news to reach the people as they quickly evacuated all the viges that were in her path toward the Section of Night.
While she was dashing through the air with sweat dripping down her face, Shiro was trying her best to dodge the tentacles made from the pool of corruption since it was poisonous.
[What the hell is that!?] Que¡¯s butterfly flew next to her.
"It¡¯s the Ancient Terror. Well his body. I stole his soul but his body is immortal. I¡¯m taking him to where I did Nyx¡¯s Trial since there is a prison there that is very hard to escape from." Shiro replied while diving down to dodge a jaw that suddenly snapped towards her.
Turning around, she waved her hand as she started to terraform thend.
Opening up a giant chasm for the behemoth, she had several stone spikes pierce into his body and hold him in ce for now.
[Do you need any help?] Que asked as she knew that this was serious.
"Just keep evacuating the people and I¡¯ll be happy." Shiro replied as the behemoth climbed out of the chasm with ease. The stone spikes couldn¡¯t stop him for too long since his body was basically liquid. He could turn into a pool of corruption whenever he wanted.
Travelling across thend, the speed of their travel was quite shocking due to the Ancient Terror¡¯srge size.
Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t hard for the sisters to evacuate people as hisrge size made him easily be spotted. As long as people were smart, they¡¯d run away at the first sight of him.
Halfway through their journey, Shiro watched as he spread open his wings and tried to fly
But with Ouranos¡¯ Divinity, she was able to stop this from happening.
If he started to fly, it would reduce the amount of time that people would get to evacuate the viges and cities.
Seeing the towere closer, Shiro decided to go on ahead a little so that she could try to open up the prison again if she could.
Afterpleting the trial and exiting the tower, there were still magical signs of the prison entrance but it was faint. She needed to reopen this and maybe even make itrger so that the Ancient Terror could actually fit in the portal.
Upon arrival, Shiro saw a faint figure of someone rather familiar.
"How the f*ck are you here?" Shiro asked as Nyx was waiting with her arms crossed and had a forced smile on her face.
"Why wouldn¡¯t I be here? You wanted to pass this behemoth into my hands." Nyx retorted with a roll of her eyes while Que was confused by who this was.
[Who is that?] She asked curiously.
"It¡¯s Nyx. The owner of this tower." Shiro introduced as Nyx only smiled and waved her hand lightly.
[Ah!]
Pausing in shock, Que was speechless as she didn¡¯t know what to say.
"Anyways I¡¯m here with Gaia¡¯s help. Basically, I want to tell you that my prison wouldn¡¯t work with this guy. The only reason that the barrier works is that their soul is sealed with their body so they can¡¯t leave. Since he is just a husk, there¡¯s no way for my barrier to stop him."
"Sh*t! What the hell can I do then?" Shiro asked as she nced back at the behemoth who was slowly approaching. His figure was obscured by the darkness but his presence could be felt with ease.
"Two choices so far. First choice is to give the soul back to the body and then we can seal it away. But if his soul is there, it means he can break out a little like what you did before. My prison isn¡¯t perfect, it¡¯s something I made for fun." Nyx exined.
"What¡¯s the second option then?"
"Find somewhere you can put him where no one would bother him and where he can¡¯t affect anyone."
"There¡¯s only space or a different dimension. But even then, people might hop into the dimension like I did." Shiro forced a smile as Nyx nodded.
"Exactly. Who the hell would think that he had gotten this powerful? I¡¯m not kidding when I say his mortal body is indeed immortal. But he is mindless. So it¡¯ll be ¡¯easy¡¯ to seal him away I guess." Nyx shook her head.
"Any tips on how I can do this?" Shiro forced a smile.
"Be a true demigod." Nyx shrugged.
"Pardon?"
"Did I stutter? I said be a true demigod. You can¡¯t be a god just yet but demi god is possible. Once you be a demigod, you¡¯ll gain ess to your own divinity and that should help you take care of the behemoth."
"Ok how do I be a demigod and how would my divinity help? Does it somehow get rid of immortality?" Shiro asked.
"Nope. He has what we called True Immortality so the only way is to seal him away forever. As for how you be a demigod, I¡¯m sure you already know the key. You just want me to confirm it don¡¯t you?" Nyx rolled her eyes.
Shrugging her shoulders with a small smile, Shiro brought out the jewel that she had gotten from Astryn.
"Bingo. There¡¯s a limit to the amount of information that I can give but that is your key." Nyx smirked as her figure flickered for a moment.
"Final gift before I leave. You should thank Gaia you know? You two are pretty simr and if not for the fact that she likes you I don¡¯t think you would¡¯ve gotten this gift from her." Snapping her fingers, two orbs of light appeared in the space in front of them
"What is this?" Shiro asked as Nyx pushed the two orbs to Shiro.
"Two shards of our Primordial Essence. We¡¯re essentially giving you a part of what makes both me and Gaia gods so that you can attain demi god status at an earlier stage. Good luck." Nyx smiled as her body disappeared.
###
*COUGH!!
Coughing up some blood, Nyx¡¯s face was a little pale as Gaia rested her hand on her back as a light green energy wrapped around her.
"System bacsh?" Gaia asked as Nyx nodded.
"Tch, stingy thing doesn¡¯t like what we¡¯re doing. But the trial is impossible without her bing a demigod and obtaining her own divinity." Nyx shook her head as Gaia agreed.
"But at least we¡¯ve given everything she needed. What happens next is up to her."
###
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked towards Que¡¯s butterfly.
"Is Yan near? If he is, see if he can dy the behemoth. If not then never mind."
[Ah er, he is in a different section. He won¡¯t be able to help you.]
"A shame then. Let¡¯s do this." Shiro took a deep breath and activated her True Spirit Nature.
mming her hand down, a giant magic circle expanded out above her as narrowed her eyes.
Frozen Slumber!
Suddenly, hundreds of chains descended from the magic circle as it started to freeze the Ancient Terror. While he may be able to shatter the ice quickly, it was sufficient enough to keep dying his advances.
While the Ancient Terror was being dyed, Shiro nced at the jewel and closed her eyes.
After Nyx transferred the Primordial Essences to her, Shiro could sense the energy within the jewel with more rity. It had no element and was untainted.
The moment she touches this energy, it¡¯ll belong to her forever.
Clutching her hand, she gathered her energy in her fist and shattered the jewel.
Just as she did this, a pir of light shot into the sky as time seemed to stop.
[Emergency.]
[Entity Shiro is about to attain Demi God Status as a Tier 5 Individual. She has obtained Gaia and Nyx¡¯s Support. Chaos has marked her. Several gods within the Greek pantheon have expressed their desire to help.]
[Administrator 4 has expressed his intent to support this upgrade.]
[Several Administrators have agreed as her reward was decreased in her previous upgrade.]
[With overwhelming support, the system shall grant her the role as the first ever Tier 5 Demi God despite previous decisions. She will now discover her Divinity.]
[Title: [Young Demi God] Has been granted.]
###
Finding herself in a white space, Shiro could see several orbs of light in front of her which flickered with light. The system was silent but she understood that this was her seeking out her divinity.
Taking a deep breath, she walked towards the first orb.
Chapter 756 Unique Divinity
Chapter 756 Unique Divinity
The first orb was chill to the touch. It would crystallise the moment she approached it and she understood that it represented ice.
¡¯Is the divinities being chosen from the elements I have control over? But there are people with divinities that have nothing to do with elements too.¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows.
Thinking about this, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if her habit of targeting the weakness could be a divinity too.
"Hmm... I don¡¯t think I pierced enough asses for it to be a divinity." She muttered.
Shaking her head, she approached the second orb.
Crackling with red lightning, the orbshed out at everything around her but seemed to calm down once she was near.
"So this is lightning." Shiro smiled while ncing over at the other orbs.
There were a total of 12 excluding the two that she had just approached.
Understanding that they represented each of her elements with the exception of the 12thone, she approached it with curiosity.
The moment she approached it, the orb lit up with a turquoise me and she understood what it was. It was a divinity rted to her status as a spirit.
Looking at her divinities, her main focus was on her Nanotech element. While she may use the other elements and even study up on souls, her main element was still Nanotech. It was simr to the power of creation as she can make anything she wanted to, as long as she had a deep understanding of it. Which meant that she can make diamonds without anyone able to tell the difference.
And the moment they touch the diamond it could turn into a gun if Shiro wanted it to.
Plus, it was the power that she was most familiar with.
¡¯If I chose this, it should help me deal with this behemoth.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since this divinity should return the use of nanobots to her. Once she gets this, she could easily send the behemoth to space.
Taking a deep breath, she reached out towards the orb representing Nanotech without hesitation.
*KRRR!!!!
The moment she grabbed it, she could feel a flow of energy entering her body from the orb as a familiar sensation spread through her body.
Flexing her fingers, a hand cannon appeared in her hand as her lips curled up into a grin.
Just as she created this gun, she could feel her body heat up as runes started to appear on her arm.
Despite her pain tolerance, she couldn¡¯t help but grit her teeth as the searing pain travelled up her arm.
Feeling as though her body was being ripped apart, Shiro held back a cry of pain as the runes glowed with a silver blue light.
###
Looking at the pir of light, Que became nervous since the Behemoth was travelling closer and closer.
¡¯Come on...¡¯ She muttered in her mind as they were a little pressed for time right now. Even the dys that Shiro had put in the behemoth¡¯s path failed to hold up due to his body shifting to a liquid state.
*BOOM!!!!!
As if the pir of light had hit the ceiling, a ring of golden energy exploded out in the sky as stars started to light up.
Linking to each other with thin tethers, Que watched in silence as the energy she could feel from Shiro started to change. It slowly changed into something that resembled the feeling one got from the towers but at the same time it was slightly different.
*BANG!
Shattering the pir of light, Shiro stood in the middle with her eyes closed.
Stumbling forward a little, Shiro tried her best to not fall over as the pain she had gone through felt worse that even the experiments she had experienced in her first life.
[Shiro! Are you ok? What happened?] Que called out as Shiro nced towards her.
"Nothing much. I¡¯ll talkter, I feel like I¡¯m about to pass out at any moment so I¡¯ll deal with this behemoth first." Shiro forced a smile and turned towards the behemoth who was making his way towards her rapidly.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro aimed two fingers at the behemoth and narrowed her eyes.
Just as she did this, nanobots started to appear around her as they morphed intorge rail cannons in front of Nyx¡¯s tower.
¡¯Pulling the trigger¡¯, Shiro watched as all the cannons fired in tandem and the upper half of the behemoth was evaporated in an instant.
*KSHHH!!!
Realising that he was now missing his upper half, the behemoth¡¯s body twitched for a moment before flesh started to regrow.
Unfortunately for him, nanobots were already in his body.
sping her hands together, Shiro took a deep breath and activated the nanobots.
Suddenly, a swarm of silver exploded out from the monster¡¯s body as Shiro knew what was happening but that was just to dy things for a little while.
Snapping her fingers, a cage started to appear as several thrusters could be seen around the cage.
Since he was immortal, she might as well have him drift forever into space.
Without hesitation, she activated the thrusters.
Watching this all happen, Que was speechless as she didn¡¯t know what kind of power this was.
She didn¡¯t want to say anything just yet either since Shiro was focusing right now. If she distracted her, things might go south.
Forcing herself to stay awake, Shiro had to fight against the pain that she could still feel in her body while sending the behemoth to space. If she stopped, it could suddenly fall back down like a meteor.
Sensing the position of the behemoth, Shiro wanted it to drift forever but not towards a since that¡¯d defeat the purpose. If anything,she¡¯d lock it up in the far reaches and make sure the thrusters stop it from drifting to a.
Once the behemoth was out of the atmosphere, Shiro could see its entire body start to bubble and boil as he was mostly made from liquid. In space, with the low pressure, liquid would boil rather than freeze.
Narrowing her eyes, she took a deep breath and upgraded the thrusters. She didn¡¯t want to use it at first since it would have caused quite a bit of damage but now that it was in space, she didn¡¯t need to worry.
Setting it up so that the nanobots could automate themselves thanks to them constantly consuming the behemoth¡¯s body which would regenerate indefinitely, Shiro knew that the thrusters would make it impossible for the behemoth tond on a different.
With her main worry sorted, Shiro sighed in relief before copsing on the ground.
Curling her body into a foetal position, Que could see her body shivering as cold sweat poured from her head.
###
"Seems like the real test is happening now." Nyx muttered. Normally, the process ends once the light shatters but Shiro was there still experiencing the change.
"Do you think it¡¯s because she chose that strange element?" Gaia frowned as Nyx nodded her head.
"We also gave her our primordial essence so it¡¯s going to take a while for her to digest it." Nyx shrugged.
But while the two were thinking about what happened, Nyx sighed before turning around. Suddenly, two portals opened up as both Ouranos and Tartarus appeared before her.
"What brings you two here?" Nyx smiled.
"You know why we¡¯re here. Why did you give a part of your Primordial essence to the mortal?" Ouranos frowned.
"Because she needed it, why else?" Nyx shrugged.
"Not only did you harm yourself but you¡¯re also harming her. Do you know the consequences of having primordial essences as the first materials when ascending to godhood?! Look at her! Her body is being broken down constantly!" Ouranos pointed at the shivering Shiro.
"I understand why you want to help her for the future but think about it first. Her unique element is already powerful enough as it is. I think she could have ascended to godhood even without your essences but now that you have given two primordial essences to her, her body is trying its best to digest the power but this is something lower ssed gods can¡¯t handle. What makes you think she can?!"
"Ouranos. Do you know what the main property of her nanobots is?" Nyx asked with a smile.
"What?"
"Consumption. They consume, recycle, repurpose and refine themselves. What do you think will happen if her nanobots consume and refine themselves with the essence of two primordial gods?" Nyx grinned.
"!!!" Widening his eyes, Ouranos looked at Nyx like she was crazy. Despite her power, Nyx wanted to make Shiro into a monster even amongst the strongest gods.
Chapter 757 Demi Goddess
Chapter 757 Demi Goddess
"Mn..." Groaning softly, Shiro opened her eyes and found herself beneath a ck sky.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro tried to sit up straight but realised that she had no strength in her body.
"Don¡¯t force yourself. Your body has just finished ¡¯digesting¡¯ our power I suppose. Congrats, you¡¯ve be a proper demigod. Well... goddess." Nyx chuckled as Shiro nced towards her.
Unlike the trial, Nyx was now here in the flesh which caused Shiro to furrow her brows.
"What about the trial?" She asked.
"You¡¯ve passed it with flying colours." Nyx chuckled as Shiro sighed.
She wanted to say goodbye to Que and the others if she could but it seems like her body was sent out of the trial after she was knocked unconscious.
"Ah by the way, are you able to do me a favour?" Shiro asked.
"Are you talking about Syrune¡¯s wish?"
Nodding her head, Shiro watched as Nyx pulled up a chair and crossed her legs.
"You see, there is a slight problem with that. The creation of the forgotten realms makes it so that it is technically ssed as a dungeon within the system. Freeing it means that the effects of the towers are spread to the world outside too which may cause quite a few problems especially Gaia¡¯s divinity. Plus, there¡¯s the additional problem of your world not being ready for a surplus of divine energy. Sending this world over would cause quite a few problems. Though overall the world there is probably safer than your world considering what¡¯s about to happen in the near future."
"I see... Is Syrune right though? That the sisters are souls taken from our world and used as caretakers in this one. Also, what is the purpose of the forgotten realm?" Shiro asked.
"To see if we can manually make a garden ourselves to keep the universe from ending. You know your garden is thest one right? And that once it fails the test the universe resets. We wanted to see if we could make one and that was the forgotten realms. The experiment was... rather unsessful so now we have a ce which is technically regarded as a dungeon rather than a garden." Nyx shook her head.
"As for the sisters, yes it¡¯s true that they¡¯re souls we extracted from other worlds."
Hearing this, Shiro sighed.
"If some of the sisters wanted to leave, would you let them?" Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s not up to me. They¡¯re bound to this ¡¯dungeon¡¯. To leave, they¡¯ll need to break out of the dungeon themselves. But once they leave, they¡¯ll be ssified as monsters by the system since they broke out of a dungeon."
"But you¡¯re not saying it¡¯s impossible now are you?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Nope. Perhaps you can set them free once the age of demons and gods is over." Nyx chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Is there a way for me to ess this ce again then?"
"There is but it¡¯s a little harder now that you¡¯re a demigod. Take this, you can store it in your inventory." Nyx smiled and handed her a golden key.
[Key to the Forgotten Realms]
"You can use this in the future once things have settled down a little. If you want, I can use a bit of my power so that I can project you into the world for a bit. That way you can say goodbye if you want." Nyx offered.
"That would be great. It¡¯ll be quite rude for me not to say goodbye after their help." Shiro chuckled while storing the key away.
"Close your eyes." Nyx instructed as Shiro nodded her head.
Closing her eyes, she could feel Nyx¡¯s energy enter her body as her vision shifted.
"¡ê%$^%$!!! Holy crap!" Que suddenly jumped up as Shiro appeared in front of her out of nowhere.
"Shiro?" She asked curiously.
"Sup." Shiro waved her hand.
"Ah so you¡¯re still alive. You had me worried you know!" Que pouted as some tears could be seen on the edge of her eyes.
When Shiro copsed, her body started to disperse into gold flickers of light and there wasn¡¯t anything that she could have done to stop it from happening. She thought that Shiro had died which didn¡¯t seem to be the case so she could rest with ease now.
"Mn sorry about that. I didn¡¯t really have a say in whether or not I wanted to leave this ce just yet. But Nyx is kind enough to let me say goodbye to you girls." Shiro chuckled.
"You¡¯re going back to your world huh?" Que sighed.
"Mn, I have to." Shiro nodded.
"I see... Will you visit us often?" Que asked.
"I¡¯ll try. I got a key that allows me to ess this realm but Nyx said that it¡¯ll be a bit harder now that I¡¯m a demigod." Shiro chuckled.
"Hais, making me go insane even with a goodbye. So you¡¯re a demigod now?"
"Yup." Shiro grinned.
"Is there a tower for your divinity? I hope not since I¡¯ll want to tug my hair out at the things people would do with your power." Que chuckled.
"Please don¡¯t, you¡¯ll go bald." Shiroughed.
"Baldness is the least of my concerns with you around." Que rolled her eyes.
"Haha, perhaps. As for a tower for my divinity, I¡¯m not sure but I doubt it." Shiro shrugged.
"Do you know your divinity then?" Que asked.
"I do but it¡¯s kind of hard to describe it. Basically, I¡¯m able to make anything I want as long as I understand it properly. Remember the swarm of tiny silver things that appeared when I made some weapon and attacked the Ancient Terror?"
"Yeah what about them?"
"They¡¯re called nanobots and it¡¯s what allows me to create anything I want.
"So you¡¯re basically the goddess of creation now?" Que raised her eyebrow.
"I wouldn¡¯t go that far since I can¡¯t create proper life just yet. Maybe in the future." Shiro shook her head.
"I don¡¯t like the fact that you put a ¡¯yet¡¯ in your sentence. Have you got a title then demi goddess?" Queughed.
"I don¡¯t."
"And here I was thinking that I should have someone make a statue of you with your name and title carved into the base like the other statues we have of the primordial gods." Que smiled.
"Well you can just put Shiro ¨C DemiGoddess of Machines or Machine DemiGoddess I suppose." Shiro shrugged since she still remembered that she had a ¡¯cult¡¯ of people who worshipped her as the Machine Goddess back in her old world.
"I¡¯ll keep that in mind then."
"Where is Tricia and Beril? I want to say bye to them too before this vision expires." Shiro asked.
"They¡¯re on their way here now. I had my familiars inform them." Que smiled.
"I see... Nyx, how long do I have here?" Shiro asked.
"You have quite a while since talking to these girls isn¡¯t that difficult. Talking to you however was difficult. Even with my power I could only talk to you for less than 3 minutes you know?" Nyx replied as Shiro chuckled.
"Thanks."
"The fact that you can talk to a primordial goddess with such nonchnce is to be respected." Que face palmed.
"Fufu you can as well you know?" Shiro grinned.
"You know if mortals did something like that a few gods would have smite them then and there. You¡¯re an exception." Nyx reminded.
"And I¡¯m going to capitalise the crap out of it." Shiroughed which caused Nyx to roll her eyes.
As the three talked for a bit, Beril and Tricia soon arrived.
"Sup, sorry for leaving without saying anything. I didn¡¯t really have a choice." Shiro waved as Beril pouted.
"And here I wasted my tears for you." She muttered while sitting down on a nearby chair.
"Well It¡¯s good that you¡¯re alive. Que has already informed us of your new status through the familiars. Congrattions." Tricia smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you."
Spending some time with the three and telling them a bit about her world, Nyx informed Shiro that time was running out.
"I¡¯ll see if I cane back properly next time so that I can give Beril another pat on the head." Shiro chuckled as Beril only rolled her eyes.
"Improve your technique first. It¡¯s notfortable at all." Beril pouted as Shiroughed.
"Sure, I got two daughters and a son that I can practice my patting techniques on. My daughters are a bit older but they like to be pampered." Shiro chuckled as Que was shocked to find out that Shiro had two daughters and a son.
Seeing her body flicker, Shiro knew that time was up.
"It¡¯s good seeing you three again. Once I finish saving my world, I¡¯lle back for a holiday with my family ok? See you soon." Shiro smiled as they nodded their heads.
Watching Shiro disappear, the three couldn¡¯t hold back their tears anymore.
In the next few weeks, they had a statue of Shiro on a throne with her legs crossed. She was resting her chin on her hand with a nonchnt smile and beneath the statue was a te with her name carved into it.
[Shiro ¨C Demi Goddess of Machines]
Chapter 758 Rewards of the Forgotten Realm
Chapter 758 Rewards of the Forgotten Realm
Opening her eyes once more, Shiro found herself back on Nyx¡¯s bed.
"Done?" Nyx asked just to make sure.
"Yup. All done." Shiro nodded.
"Since you¡¯ve done what you wanted to do, shall we get to the rewards of this trial? I must say, the reward pool is rather... impressive." Nyx chuckled.
"Mn sure." Shiro nodded with some excitement.
"I¡¯ll get the system to split this into three categories so that it¡¯s not too overwhelming ok? But first, let¡¯s get to your clear rank." Nyx smiled.
[Trial Complete. Grade: S+]
[Main Quest Completion: A+]
[Secondary Main Quest Completion: S++]
[Side Quest Completion: S+]
[Special Achievement Completions: S+]
"What¡¯s the Special Achievement Completions?" Shiro asked curiously.
"That¡¯s things like getting blessed weapons and helping a girl discover augments to weapons." Nyx replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Since your final grade is S+, you¡¯ll get the best rewards this quest has to offer. The first category that we¡¯re going through is title and title improvements." Nyx smiled as Shiro saw a few notifications in her system.
[Advanced Monster upgraded twice. Advanced Monster -> Expert Monster (13,029/100,000 Humans killed.)]
[Expert Monster (13,029/100,000 Humans killed.)]
Stat points are now worth an additional 350% of the original values.
Before: 1 VIT = 50 HP, After: 1 VIT = 175 HP
[Young Demi God]
As the youngest Dem God, you receive the following benefits.
100% Increase to Divine Energy
+30% Resistance to All Elements
+20% Damage with all spells that include Divine Energy
Special Skill ¨C Ascension
Ascension ¨C You can imbue your current form or an active form with divine energy, ascending it to the status of DemiGod.
Cost: N/A
Duration: 1 Hour
Cooldown: 3 Days
Looking at these two titles, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes in surprise.
"Wait, my monster title levelled up twice???" Shiro asked with shock.
"Yup. That¡¯s a 350% boost. You did massacre a small city after all." Nyx shrugged her shoulder. Even if Shiro didn¡¯t kill the whole city, it was still quite bloody.
"So is that all the titles?" Shiro asked.
"What? Do you want more?" Nyx¡¯s smile twitched a little as Shiro chuckled.
"Well I didplete your trial and almost obtain the full boundary no? It¡¯s just attack right now but it should be pretty good no?" Shiro grinned.
"I¡¯ll give you a hint then. If you had gotten the full boundary you would have gotten the title but since it¡¯s only half you¡¯re a little short." Nyx rolled her eyes as Shiro nodded her head.
Before they could continue to the next category of rewards, Shiro sensed some divine energy behind her. As she nced up, she saw a beautiful woman with emerald hair and a charming smile.
"Hello?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Hi~ Nice to meet you, I¡¯m Gaia and I¡¯m a huge fan of the way you kill." Gaia smiled as she wanted to shake Shiro¡¯s hand but decided against that considering her current state.
*Sigh...
"Gaia, we¡¯re going through the rewards right now. Can you wait till after we¡¯re done? Didn¡¯t I tell you to wait outside and we¡¯ll have her meet everyone else once she¡¯s done with the reward?" Nyx sighed.
"Well I wanted to see her." Gaia shrugged.
"Be patient. Are you a Primordial Goddess or are you a child?" Nyx rolled her eyes.
"I can be both." Gaia said with a smug grin as her body transformed into that of a child¡¯s.
"Whatever, just wait with the others." Nyx rolled her eyes.
Shrugging her shoulders, Gaia turned to Shiro and gave her a small wave.
"See you soon." She smiled and disappeared.
"Ignore her. She¡¯s usually more reserved than this." Nyx forced a smile.
"I see... She seems rather... happy about murder despite her status." Shiro chuckled.
While she had guessed as much when she had to feed the seed with blood, it was still surprising to see it for herself.
"She¡¯s just as much of a battle junkie as you are. It¡¯s just that she¡¯s not that good atbat so it¡¯s hard for her to live her dream." Nyx shrugged.
"Anyways, for the second category, we have the special weapons. Unfortunately for you, you don¡¯t keep your blessed weapons. But since you did discover Hephaestus¡¯ Masterpieces, you have those instead." Nyx smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Now here¡¯s the good thing about the masterpieces. You can merge them with your current equipment. Imagine them as augments that Maria created but this time Hephaestus created it." Nyx chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"So do you want to take it with you for now or do you want it to be in your inventory and you can use it at ater date?"
"I¡¯ll use it at ater date. I¡¯m pretty happy with the stuff I have now." Shiro replied.
"Mn figures. The final section is Items and Skills."
"Shouldn¡¯t that be two sections rather than one?" Shiro forced a smile as Nyx chuckled since that was true.
"Well... the thing is that you¡¯ve already used one of the items which allowed you to be a demigod. Item wise you didn¡¯t get much but they¡¯re very powerful. Hence why I wanted to put the two categories together but this is fine too.
"As you know, you had the jewel that allowed you to ascend to godhood but there are three other items." Nyx smiled.
[You have received Ne of the Primordial, Call of the Primordial and Runic Guardian.]
[Ne of the Primordial - Rainbow]
This is a ne that has been imbued with the power of the primordial gods, allowing you to ess their power for a short period of time. You may use each god¡¯s power once.
Nyx, Primordial Goddess of the Night 1/1
Gaia, Primordial Goddess of the Earth 1/1
Ouranos, Primordial God of the Sky 1/1
Tartarus, Primordial God of the Underworld 1/1
Chronos, Primordial God of Time 1/1
[Call of the Primordial ¨C Rainbow]
You may call upon the power of the Primordial Gods to help you in your time of need. Each god will appear for 10 minutes and they will have ess to 70% of their full power. You may call on each god once.
Nyx, Primordial Goddess of the Night 1/1
Gaia, Primordial Goddess of the Earth 1/1
Ouranos, Primordial God of the Sky 1/1
Tartarus, Primordial God of the Underworld 1/1
Chronos, Primordial God of Time 1/1
[Runic Guardian ¨C ck]
This Guardian can be used 10 times. When activated, a Guardian will appear that has 100% of your power including its impressive defence guaranteed by Hephaestus himself. To activate this, you channel your energy into the rune stone to summon him. You may split the rune stone for others to use and they will be able to summon the Guardian.
10/10
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro nced at the rewards and couldn¡¯t help but blink for a few moments.
"I got two rainbow grade items?" Shiro asked as Nyx nodded her head.
"You know, if we didn¡¯t win over the other gods you would have only gotten a ck grade item that allows you to call upon both mine and Gaia¡¯s power instead of everyone. Even the stubborn Ouranos is on your side now." Nyx chuckled as Shiro smiled.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled as Nyx nodded her head.
"You¡¯re wee. Now, with the best tillst, are you ready for your skills?" Nyx asked as Shiro nodded her head.
[You have received two skills.]
"Only two?"
"Be patient and read them first. The first one is one tailored to you and the second is something that I¡¯m jealous of myself." Nyx smiled as Shiro nodded her head slowly.
The first skill she got was something called Limit Focus.
[Limit Focus ¨C EX]
You are able to convert your stats into raw power. You can use this power for perception, defence or attack.
Once you have converted the stats into raw power, you cannot get the stats back for the next 10 hours.
Cost: Stat Points
Duration: 1 hour
Cooldown: N/A
Looking at the description of limit focus, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what would happen if she stacked this on top of her other skills that enhance her attack. Just thinking about what her attack would be like fuelled by the might of her INT stat, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but worry for the integrity of her world.
As for the final skill, one that Nyx was jealous of, Shiro saw that its name was Blessing of Chaos.
[Blessing of Chaos]
You have gained the blessing of Chaos herself. You can imbue yourself with her power for the following acts.
Ignore All System Restrictions and be promoted to System Privilege level 12.
Cost: N/A
Duration: 3 hours
Cooldown: 3 months
Gain her power forbat. With this, you are allowed to use Origin at will along with the Divinity of Chaos.
Cost: N/A
Duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 1 month
Looking at this skill, Shiro widened her eyes in shock.
"You see why I¡¯m envious? Even the primordial gods are bound by system restrictions. However, with this, you can now free yourself of all system restrictions." Nyx grinned as Shiro nodded her head.
But there was one thing that Nyx didn¡¯t mention. The fact that she can now upgrade this skill thanks to the fifth ability of pandora¡¯s requiem. Divine Enchantment.
Chapter 759 Meeting the Primordial Gods.
Chapter 759 Meeting the Primordial Gods.
Title: I¡¯ll think of er part 504
After seeing all of her rewards, Shiro wondered what her stat page looked like now but the moment she looked at it her eyes widened in an instant.
"Holy f*ck!" Shiro called out in surprise as she understood how Madison felt now. After all, she also gained quite ¡¯a few¡¯ levels from the trial.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit Demi God
Title: Expert Monster (13,029/100,000 Humans killed.), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind, Virtue of Fortitude, Young Demi God
Level: 300
ss: Divine Sylph Nanomancer (Ascendant EX)
HP: 1,837,500,000/1,837,500,000
MP: 9,872,625,000/ 9,872,625,000
STR: 16,400,000
VIT: 10,500,000
INT: 56,415,000
AGI: 10,300,000
DEX: 11,900,000
DEF: 7,800,000
Unassigned Points:0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 5
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 5
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 5
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 5 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 5
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 5
Dark Celestial Phoenix Fire ¨C Tier 5
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 5
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 5
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 5
Nature ¨C Tier 5
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 6
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Divine Sylph Nanomancer:
Elemental Breath, Celestial Mirage, Force of Elements, Divine Raiment EX, Tier 5 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Divine Empress¡¯ Domain EX, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX, Advanced Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Divine Court Appointment, Empress¡¯ Blessing, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 5, Analysis, True Spirit Nature.
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx, Gaia, Chaos.
World ss Magic:
Requiem of the Dead.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Divine Gardens, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr, Item Master, Limit Focus, Blessing of Chaos.]
Looking at her stats, Shiro couldn¡¯t believe that she had levelled up to 300 in one go after clearing this trial. Hell, the fact that her monster title now triples her stat values were one of the main mes of the insane stats but it was still crazy to see it for herself.
"Quite bountiful huh?" Nyx smirked as Shiro nodded her head dumbly.
Remembering her stats as a tier 6, Shiro realised that she was on the cusp of surpassing herself in her prime.
Only this time she was a demigod at tier 5 as well as a spirit queen.
"Now then. I believe you are thest toplete your trial so after meeting a few of the primordial gods I think it¡¯s time for us to say goodbye." Nyx smiled as Shiro nced over at her.
"That was rather ¡¯short¡¯ I guess. So I can¡¯t see you again?"
"Not until the age of demons and gods arrives." Nyx chuckled.
"I see. Quick question, is Kuromi still there?"
". . . I¡¯m pretty sure you know the answer to that. You¡¯re the same soul so obviously she¡¯ll be there. However, if you¡¯re wondering about her incarnation/personality, yes, yes she is. You know you two are the same people right?" Nyx raised her eyebrow.
"Well I know we¡¯re the same person but she kind of became my big sis so..." Shiro turned her head away as there was a blush on her face.
"Haha how cute. But it¡¯s essentially schizophrenia. Cutting her out/bringing her back would essentially cripple you." Nyx said as Shiro sighed at the harsh truth.
With her knowledge on souls, she understood that the moment she brought Kuromi out it¡¯ll be simr to what happened to Syrune when she extracted the Ancient Terror. Her soul would copse.
But she didn¡¯t want to give up on the chance of bringing back her big sis.
"Sometimes you have to move on. I¡¯ve seen life pass in a blink of an eye so my perspective is a little different. Perhaps you can create a miracle like what has happened before. But maybe it¡¯s better to wait until after the garden survives." Nyx smiled as Shiro sighed and nodded her head.
"Mn. So how did my friends do in their trial?" Shiro asked.
"Their trials went pretty good too. They haven¡¯t ascended to demigod status like you however, they are rather close." Nyx smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Snapping her finger, Nyx created a pink wheelchair with flowers.
"Let¡¯s go meet the others now." Nyx said with a smug grin.
". . . " Looking at the wheelchair with dead fish eyes, Shiro nced at Nyx.
"I can¡¯t even move right now do you think I can reject?"
"I know. And I love it. No wonder Nan Tian had so much fun teasing you when you were incapacitated." Nyxughed as Shiro reappeared on the wheelchair.
". . ."
Staying silent, Shiro epted her fate.
Pushing Shiro through a portal, Nyx arrived next to her tea table with Ouranos, Tartarus, Gaia and Kronos.
"Finally, I was getting bored while waiting." Gaia sighed as the other gods looked towards her.
"And so the young demi goddess arrives." Tartarus smiled.
"Sup. Kinda disabled right now otherwise I would nod my head." Shiro said while ncing towards Tartarus.
"Tch, no respect at all." Ouranos huffed.
"Ignore that man. He sounds rough but he was most worried when we gave you our essences. After all, your body might not be able to take it." Nyxughed.
"So a tsundere. Got it."
"So howe you wanted me to meet them?" Shiro asked.
"Right right. So basically, they wanted a contract with you for the age of demons and gods. You know how the universe is going to reset if the garden fails? They want you to win and in return give them a spot in the new world." Nyx smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"What do you mean?"
"You see, if you ¡¯win¡¯ the age of demons and gods, you get to pick and choose the roles each god ys. These guys want to retain their privilege as primordial gods and Gaia just enjoys being with you." Nyx exined as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Hmm... exin it in detail please. What does winning the age of demons of gods do exactly except keeping the world intact. So far you¡¯re telling me that I can assign gods now." Shiro asked.
"In a nutshell, you be the overseer of the universe in a way." Gaia exined with a smile.
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"And if I contract with you, what can you do for me?"
"We will assist you to the best of our abilities when the new agees. There are some restrictions on what we can do as we are primordials but our assistance is still better than what you can get from allying with the lesser gods." Kronos replied.
"I see." Hmm... can you give me more time to think about this?" Shiro asked as she didn¡¯t want to make a hasty decision. Plus, she didn¡¯t trust gods that much except for Nyx and maybe Gaia who gave Shiro a part of her essence.
Even then, it was still debatable since she could be getting a bigger return.
"That¡¯s fine. We can contract when the new agees. They just wanted to tell you their intentions now so you don¡¯t have to worry about them contracting with someone else." Nyx chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"With that being said, I suppose it¡¯s time for her to leave. Even for a demi god, she cannot stay for a long time." Tartarus said as Nyx nodded her head.
"Yup. We¡¯ll see you in the new age maybe sooner if you use the items. But we¡¯ll be watching what you do." Nyx nced at Shiro.
Snapping her fingers, a portal opened up as Shiro¡¯s body flickered away.
###
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wanted to shield her eyes but the best she could do was close them against the blinding light.
Once that was over, she found herself at the base of Mount Olympus with a wheelchair.
". . ."
In front of her was her party who was shocked at her sudden appearance. They all had new armours and weapons while Shiro was in a wheelchair.
"Sup."
Chapter 760 Party Improvements
Chapter 760 Party Improvements
"Before we start talking about what the f*ck happened, why don¡¯t we find somewhere private first?" Madison said with a forced smile seeing Shiro¡¯s current state.
"Mn I agree. Someone might have to push my chair though. I can¡¯t move a single muscle other than my head." Shiro replied back as Lyrica walked behind her and pushed her chair.
As they were making their way to an inn, Shiro was curious about her mana realm as it was rather quiet. Normally, Nimue would be crazy right now lecturing her.
Peeking into her mana realm slowly, she saw Nimueying on the grass floor with a face that seemed to show that she¡¯s lost her purpose in life.
"Are you ok?" Shiro asked hesitantly.
"Oh... I¡¯m feeling great, why do you ask?" Nimue nced over at her without moving her body.
"Well you seem rather... Hmm I don¡¯t even know how to exin it." Shiro forced a smile.
"How would you describe the feeling after seeing you perform ridiculous tasks after tasks.Completing god trials, creating world ssed magic, bing a demi god and hell even getting the Primordials on your side." Nimue replied as Shiro scratched her hair embarrassingly.
"Well I don¡¯t really have any control over that." Shiro replied as Nimue sighed and sat up.
"I suppose that is true."
"So where¡¯s Attie and Iziuel?" Shiro asked curiously.
"They¡¯re to the side resting for now. They were watching how you were doing in your trial. When you finished, they went to rest." Nimue shrugged.
"Mn I see."
"By the way, what happened to your divinities? Do you not keep them?" Nimue asked as Shiro had gone through all the effort to obtain them.
"Well I guess not. Plus, if you think about it, it kind of makes sense. The forgotten realm is one filled with the power of the gods whereas our world isn¡¯t. Plus, the divinities say that I get full control of the section and not the power themselves. But it¡¯s fine, I¡¯ve already got my own divinity of nanobots." Shiro smiled.
"Fair point." Nimue nodded.
"Also you might want to check out that error ind. After the trial it went through a quick change." Nimue said as Shiro turned her head towards the error ind.
Raising her eyebrow, she could see arge tree made from circuits.
Approaching the tree, she watched as a few of the circuits reached out around her hand.
"So you¡¯ve be a tree now?" Shiro chuckled as the circuits seemed to pulse with happiness.
Patting it a few times, Shiro looked around for Attie and iziuel. Finding them sleeping under a tree on Iziuel¡¯s ind, Shiro smiled softly and stroked Attie¡¯s hair.
Taking some time to rx while Lyrica and the party wheel her to the inn, Shiro listened to the party talk to each other while she stayed silent for a while.
Upon arriving at the inn, they saw Lin Hua waiting at the front with a smile on her face.
"Seems like you girls were sessful." She smiled as the party nodded their heads.
"I think we just need some rest now. Everyone¡¯s probably tired from the trial and well I¡¯m disabled so." Shiro chuckled as Lin Hua nodded her head.
"Mn, your rooms have been prepared. I¡¯ll hand you the keys now."
Passing the keys over to the party, Lin Hua left them and allowed the group to recuperate for now. After all, passing the trials must have been rather difficult considering their talents.
Making their way to a single room for now, the party sat down.
"So what trials did everyoneplete?" Shiro asked as they decided to go clockwise. With Lisandra first, she flexed her fingers as a Sigil appeared in the space in front of them.
"I managed toplete a trial by the primordial god of light Aether. The powers I received from him essentially makes me a champion of light. All of my skills have increased damage and ignore most resistances. Plus, I also gained a new form that allows me to impact the battlefield some more. I can¡¯t show it since it has a long cooldown but if we do need it I can also help by giving everyone buffs." Lisandra smiled as the party nodded their heads.
"I was worried that you were going to say you could heal everyone since my role as a healer would be pretty weak." Silvia sighed as Lisandra wondered if she should say anything else.
After a short pause, she opened her mouth.
"Well... While I don¡¯t have healing, my form does grant everyone increased health proportionate to my attack." Lisandra muttered as Silvia stayed silent.
"Ah it¡¯s fine Silvia, if we can get health boosts you can rx a bit more and heal at a steady pace. Plus, you can resurrect people so that is extremely helpful and none of us can do that." Lyrica persuaded as Silvia sighed and nodded her head.
"Anyways since we¡¯re going clockwise, it¡¯s my turn." Lyrica smiled.
"For my trial a few gods actually came to an agreement to make a mixed trial. Since none of them were primordial, they could merge some of their power. I¡¯m also able to charge forward with increased speed and defence proportionate to my attack and my attacks have armour shred. They also leave a mark on the enemy that makes the enemy take additional damage from my allies. Like Lisandra, I also got a new form with a ratherrge cooldown so I¡¯ll show it next time."
"That¡¯s helpful for when I want to snipe people with my gun." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, it also highlights the target so they¡¯re easy to spot." Lyrica nodded her head.
"So you two gained arge increase to your attacks. Nice, my bonuses were mostly to do with utility and I suppose some attack too. The god that chose me was As but his power was actually repurposed to help me greatly. I essentially have full control over gravity and forces. While it would be a problem of mana, Shiro¡¯s recent upgrade to 56 million points into INT have been rather helpful." Aarim chuckled.
*PFT!!!
Hearing this, the party choked on their saliva and stared at Shiro while Madison only massaged her eyes.
"What?" Shiro asked as the party forced a smile.
"You have 56 million points into INT now?" Silvia asked with a forced smile.
"Mn, I do. I also got a few upgrades to my title so my points are worth three times as much. Plus, I¡¯m level 300 now." Shiro shrugged.
"How much mana and health do you have exactly?"
"1.8 billion health and 9.8 billion mana." Shiro replied nonchntly.
"The fact that you have more health than me is concerning." Madison sighed.
"Well you have armour and skills to mitigate a lot of the damage no? I don¡¯t have that kind of ar-"
"How much defence do you have?" Madison asked as Shiro paused for a moment and coughed.
"7.8 million points."
". . . If it wasn¡¯t for my skills that reduce damage by a percentage, I would have given up my tank role by now." Madison forced a smile.
*Cough
"Don¡¯t worry about it." Shiroughed.
"Next is me then. Well as always, I got a boost to my healing. My healing is more potent the lower health you are. If you die, I can revive you back to full health. I also have some attacks now and I can convert all of my healing power into a pulse of energy that damages all nearby enemies. And like you girls, I also have a new form." Silvia smiled as the party raised their eyebrow.
With Silvia¡¯s healing prowess, the damage that she can output with this skill was something that would be on the level of Lyrica and Lisandra.
"Congrats." The party chuckled as it was now Chen Yu¡¯s turn.
"I got ess to curses and control over death. Depending on the situation, I¡¯m allowed to instantly kill someone that I strike from the shadows. I don¡¯t have a form to transform into as I¡¯m passively in this form. Thankfully, I can choose to dampen the effects." Chen Yu smiled as the party was curious.
Asking him to show the form, he nodded and released his mana.
Suddenly, darkness melded into the room as his figure disappeared.
"In this form my voice is automatically transferred next to your ear so people can¡¯t pinpoint my location. There are also other benefits such as damage mitigation and reduced tracking." Chen Yu said as the party was rather surprised to hear his voice next to their ear.
Once the darkness faded, they saw Silvia sitting with a red face.
". . . Are you by chance turned on?" Madison asked with a smug sidewards nce.
"Shut it!" Silvia retorted as Chen Yu only chuckled and hugged Silvia from behind.
"Take it back to your room. Anyways it¡¯s my turn. I expected to get a boost to my defence but well... I¡¯m more of a berserker now. My new form allows me to double my defences and the potency of my skills. However, the key to this is that all of this defence is also stacked onto my attack so my damage mitigation bes true damage." Madison said as the partyughed.
"I think that¡¯s the most abnormal out of all of us so far. Where¡¯s your normality now?" Silviaughed.
"Ah ah ah ah, not so fast. What about you Shiro?" Madison turned to Shiro.
"Well... I became a Demi God."
Chapter 761 Time of Peace
Chapter 761 Time of Peace
"Pardon? You what now?" Madison paused in surprise.
"Yup, I¡¯m a demi god now and you girls aren¡¯t that far off either." Shiro chuckled
"So after a trial, not only did you get a wheelchair you also became a demi god?" Madison repeated just to make sure she was correct.
"Yup. You got that 100% right." Shiro grinned.
"What else did you do then. Lay it all on us." Madison facepalmed.
"Well I also got the support of five primordial deities, got two of the best masterpieces created by Hephaestus himself." Shiro said as suddenly she realised something.
"Holy sh*t where the hell is Helion???" Shiro asked as the party finally realised what had happened.
"I¡¯m right here and it seems like my ability is already working." Helion suddenly appeared as the party looked at him with shock.
"I¡¯m here too. Me and Helion got rather simr abilities since we finished first." Yin suddenly popped out of the rift as the party somehow forgot about their existences.
"What the hell happened?" Shiro asked.
"Well for me, after finishing Hephaestus¡¯ Trial I got a skill called Forge of the Gods. During battle, I¡¯m able to forge temporary armours for the entire party whichsts for a few hours. This doesn¡¯t affect your real armour so it stacks up. But during this, forging it is going to take a bit of time so this passive I got makes it so that so long as I¡¯m not attacking, I¡¯m not sensed by anyone." Helion grinned.
"For me, once I jump into the rift people forget me entirely. This doesn¡¯t work when I¡¯m outside through, so it¡¯s handy for getting out of tight situations." Yin said as she sat next to Shiro.
"Though I¡¯m surprised that Shiro managed to ¡¯remember¡¯ me despite the fact that the skill was active. Maybe it¡¯s weaker on allies." Helion shrugged.
"Well it should be since it would be bad if we can¡¯t protect you just in case someone managed to discover you while forging." Lyrica said as Helion nodded his head.
"How was your trial dear? I would pat or hug you but as you can see I¡¯m sort of disabled right now." Shiro chuckled.
"It was good. Hades was quite kind but he fought a lot with Demeter." Yin shrugged.
"Figures. Considering their background it isn¡¯t strange." Shiroughed.
Talking for a bit longer, the party agreed to have a week¡¯s rest so that Shiro could recover. In addition to this, they needed some time to understand their power so that they know what they¡¯re doing.
Sitting in the bed, Shiro nced out of the window and mused to herself.
¡¯So far the party¡¯s level is pretty high. Both Helion and Yin¡¯s abilities are surprising but the fact that existence can be forgotten for a moment is very helpful. Maybe since I¡¯m a demi god the effects are weaker for me since the other¡¯s didn¡¯t have the same effect.¡¯
After finishing the trials, everyone was now level 200 and they¡¯re waiting for a chance to ss up to tier 5. Once they do, they would be standing near the peak in terms of the power in the world. Despite being together for less than a year, Shiro watched them improve at superhuman speeds and she felt both proud and happy.
"You seem to be in a good mood?" A voice rang out as Shiro chuckled and nced back.
"Mn, just thinking about how much the party has improved. When did you arrive?" Shiro asked as she could see Nan Tian appearing in her room.
"Just now." He smiled while pulling himself a chair to sit down on. ncing at his title card, Shiro smirked.
"How does it feel to be tier 6?"
[Nan Tian ¨C LVL 501 Incarnation of Light]
"It feels pretty good. I can travel across the world with ease thanks to my ss." Nan Tianughed.
"Well light does travel pretty quickly."
"What about you? Anything bountiful?"
"I became a demi god and discovered my true spirit nature. Apparently, that is what every spirit gets but I hadn¡¯t got it yet. The trial helped me unlock it." Shiro replied. She wanted to shrug but she wasn¡¯t able to due to the damage on her body.
"How long will you be in the state?" Nan Tian asked as he was more worried about her safety than her rewards.
"Not sure, the system didn¡¯t really tell me how long this was going to be." Shiro replied as Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"If I gave you some medicine to reduce this would it work?"
"I don¡¯t think so. This was caused by my body trying to digest the primordial essence of two gods and my body couldn¡¯t handle it that well. I¡¯d give myself a month tops to recover." Shiro replied after a moment.
"Hmm... well it shouldn¡¯t be too bad. What are you nning after this?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Well I¡¯m thinking of looking for the Spirit Capital. That and we also need to deal with Madison¡¯s heritage but that¡¯s more something we need to do during the age of demons and gods. I need to set up an anchor too." Shiro sighed.
"Mn, you have it rough. Speaking of anchors, we¡¯ve tracked quite a few other smaller anchors that have appeared. Do you want to do anything with them or leave them for now?" Nan Tian asked.
"We¡¯ll leave them for now. While both me and you are powerful, the others are still tier 4 despite being level 200. We¡¯ll need them to reach tier 5 or maybe higher if we want to properly fight for the anchors. Hmm... I need to find a ce for the anchor. Maybe I should make a floating country. Now that I have my divinity, I think that¡¯s within my scope of power."
"Mn? What do you mean by floating country?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Well I can get my nanobots to fill the entire country and lift it into the sky. When that happens, I¡¯ll be able to arm the country as well as move it around the world. The best would probably be a floating city so it¡¯s easier to defend but for my subjects, when I get then, a city would be better overall." Shiro replied.
"I... huh. Are you sure? Wouldn¡¯t that make it easier for arge scale destruction spell to destroy it?" Nan Tian asked.
"Haha, you never experienced it yourself so it¡¯s only natural that you underestimate it. Think about it like this. My nanobots are good at consuming/absorbing energy. If I have a whole city made from nanobots with barriers, do you think a spell can hit properly?" Shiro smiled.
"That is true." Nan Tian nodded his head.
"There you go then. If you don¡¯t believe me, we can go test it out after I recover from my injuries."
"Sure. But so far I suppose it¡¯s a period of peace before the new age arrives. You should probably do some dungeons to increase your level while you¡¯re looking for the spirit capital."
"That¡¯s what I n to do."
###
For the next few weeks, the party rested up nicely while experimenting with a few of their new skills. They decided to activate their new forms to test out its power since they weren¡¯t going to be fighting any time soon and Shiro had to agree that they packed quite a punch. Despite being only tier 4, the party wasparable to a tier 5 group with their skills and fighting prowess.
As for Nan Tian, he didn¡¯t do much since he said that if he did, it would cause quite a bit of damage and that wasn¡¯t what he wanted to do.
Therefore, they decided to wait for a little longer before testing out his kit.
After a month and a half, Shiro was finally able to move around.
Circting the mana around her body, she was happy to find out that she was fully healed.
Right now the party was making their way past Mount Olympus so that Shiro could show them what her floating city was like. After all, that was probably going to be their next base of operations after the new age started.
Looking into the distant mountains, Shiro could see the party watching patiently.
"Are you ready?" Shiro asked with a grin.
"Ready when you are." Lyrica replied over the earpiece as Shiro nodded her head.
mming her hand down, a giant tier 6 magic circle started to spread out through the entire mountain range.
Chapter 762 Floating Fortress
Chapter 762 Floating Fortress
As Nanobots spread out, the entire party widened their eyes at the amount of power that was being radiated from Shiro.
Curling her lips into a grin, Shiro pulled her hand back as nanobots started to form intorge buildings around the mountain range.
*KRRRRRRR!!!!
Feeling the entire ground shake, the party quickly jumped into the sky so that they weren¡¯t affected by the earthquake.
Watching as the city was being created out of thin air, they sawrge scale weapons and pirs which seemed to be fuelling a barrier of sorts appear.
sping her hands together, Shiro envisioned several jet thrusters and support beams beneath the earth as she was now going to send this floating city into the sky.
*RUMBLE!!!! CRACK!!!!!
Watching the ground split apart, the party watched as the city slowly raised into the air.
With guns mounted everywhere, they were shocked at the scale of her power.
"Right then, shall we give this fortress a test?" Shiro asked over the mic as the party hadn¡¯t seen its power just yet. Thankfully, they were in the middle of a mountain range away from civilisation so they didn¡¯t need to worry too much about the casualties.
"Shall I go first?" Nan Tian asked.
"Sure, I¡¯ll want to see the kind of damage you can do to the fortress. I¡¯ll join you lot now just in case my fortress doesn¡¯t hold up haha." Shiroughed since she knows the power a tier 6 holds. Even if she was powerful for a level 300, it was nothingpared to tier 6.
Flickering next to the party, Shiro nodded her head at Nan Tian as he smiled and snapped his finger.
Suddenly, a tier 6 magic circle appeared above the fortress as severalrge scale support formations could be seen, enhancing the power of the main spell.
Waving his hand down, a pir of light mmed down in an instant before anyone could react.
Immediately, Shiro could sense severalyers of her protective barrier shatter apart as the sudden increase to power was above what the initial threshold ounted for. However, learning from her teacher, she had set up secondary measures in case this situation urred.
Within the pir of light, a swirl of energy could be seen as Nan Tian¡¯s attack was being forced to the side.
Much like what happens when you open a tap on a domed object, the water starts to glide off the surface and spread to the areas around the dome.
Watching as his light attack was diverted, Nan Tian was surprised to see how effective her barrier was since his attack had the property of breaching through tough defences. However, with Shiro¡¯s nanobots absorbing his attack and redistributing the power to the barrier, he could see how it would hold up for a long time.
But despite all of that, he could sense that the barrier was going to give up soon so he decided to end the attack early.
Looking at the cracked and smoking barrier of the flying fortress, Nan Tian smiled.
"It can definitely hold up to the attack of a tier 6 legend but not for a long time. Short attacks yes but for channelled attacks like that one I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll do as well." He said as Shiro agreed.
"There is still a stress limit for my nanobots. After a certain amount of energy, they also get worn out but the fact that I can sustain the barrier under your attack is pretty good. Do you have any instant one hit attacks? I want to fix the barrier then see how it does against an attack like that." Shiro asked.
"I do."
Nodding her head, Shiro flew over to her city and quickly made some repairs. Once she was ready, she returned back to the party.
"Go for it."
Snapping his fingers, Nan Tian summoned a small golden sword the size of a toothpick in front of him.
Pushing it into the air, he motioned his fingers up as Shiro could see the sword flying into the sky.
Using his spare hand, he created several tier 6 magic circles thatyered above the city.
Motioning his hand down, the sword started to descent.
Passing through the first magic circle, the sword seemed to grow ever so slightly.
Passing through the second,the third and the fourth, the size and speed of the sword had now increased dramatically as it mmed against the barrier.
*PING PING PING PING PING!!!
Shattering through the first fiveyers with ease, the sword paused for a moment on the sixth before shattering through once more followed by the seventh, the eighth and the ninth.
Shiro¡¯s barrier had 10yers and eachyer was stronger than thest. Even his previous attack only cleared around 6 to 7yers over an extended period of time so one could tell how powerful this attack was.
Narrowing his eyes, Nan Tian was surprised to see the shards of the previous barriers converge towards one another as a newyer was formed beneath the tenth one.
*PING!!!
Shattering the final barrier, the sword collided with the eleventh barrier that was formed by the shattered pieces of the previous barriers.
Suddenly, a spot of red could be seen at the contact point.
*BANG!!
Shooting up into the sky, a thin beam of red could be seen as some of the handle on the sword was damaged but the sword itself was intact.
Breaking past the eleventh barrier, the sword crashing into the city, obliterating it with ease.
"Che, I thought that the eleventh barrier would work." Shiro sighed.
"What was that red beam of light?" Madison asked.
"That was all the energy that the barriers were able to absorb from the initial impacts. The goal of this was that if they could pierce past the first 9 barriers, the tenth barrier would be in ce to dy it long enough for the eleventh barrier to fire the energy it had absorbed back at the attacker. Since it¡¯s goal is attack, it¡¯s overall defensive power is much weaker than the otheryers." Shiro exined as the party nodded their heads.
"I see... What about the fire power of the city? We know that the defensive power is able to protect against a tier 6 for a short amount of time. What about the attack power?" Nan Tian asked as that eleventh barrier was pretty interesting.
"Well the attacks can either be focused or dispersed. Most of the time we¡¯ll probably be using dispersed." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"Oh? Do you think it¡¯ll be able to damage me even though I¡¯m tier 6?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"What are you a masochist? You¡¯re not a tank so I doubt you have any skills that can help you mitigate the damage." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"No but I do have some life saving charms. I want to see what kind of damage it can cause so we have a number in mind if we do fight. Plus, if it gets out of hand I¡¯m able to escape quickly." Nan Tian smiled.
"Right, element of light. Your attack is just about as ridiculous as your speed and ways of escape. In that case then just stand over there and make sure you don¡¯t underestimate the attack ok?" Shiro furrowed her brows.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian flew into the distance and created a few defensive spells.
Seeing that he was ready, Shiro could only shake her head and activate the attack systems.
However, to his surprise, it wasn¡¯t the small guns around the side that fired at him. No, nanobots converged towards the centre of the city as a newrge scale rail cannon was formed in an instant.
Hundreds of tier 6 magic circlesyered along the barrel as Nan Tian suddenly felt a chill down his spine. But before he could say anything, the gun fired.
*BANG!!!!
Watching the city shatter from the force, Nan Tian quickly summoned a sword and shed toward the attack.
Slicing apart the attack, he flinched slightly as the initial force that was transferred to him managed to shatter the bone in his arm. Even though he was able to block it, his arm still took substantial damage.
*BOOM!!!!
Even though he was safe, the distant mountains couldn¡¯t be said to be the same as they were evaporated in an instant.
Feeling the impact hit them twice, first from the initial fire and the second from the explosion, the party couldn¡¯t help but feel their body turning a little numb.
"Hmm... It isn¡¯t too bad I guess but it¡¯s not good enough. I¡¯ll need to see if I can merge some skills with that shot to empower it a bit more." Shiro muttered while waving her hand.
Fixing the mountains in the distance with one of her attunements, Shiro saw Nan Tian Return with a heavily bruised arm that was healed in an instant.
"Yeah I guessed the firepower was a little low to deal proper damage." Shiro sighed.
"Yes but that¡¯s enough to insta kill anyone below tier 6. Was that attack just based off of your base stats of the nanobots without any skills?" He asked curiously.
"Yup. My own attack is definitely higher if I include my skills," Shiro nodded her head.
Talking to the party for a bit more, they decided to clear a few nearby dungeons before heading back. Their next goal was to reach tier 5 while Shiro wanted to find the spirit capital.
Chapter 763 Erti
Chapter 763 Erti
"So what are the groups?" Lyrica asked as most of them needed to ss up to tier 5 while Shiro wanted to search for the spirit capital.
"Hmm... I can probably look for it with Nan Tian or something. You girls need to ss up. Unless you need something from the spirits, I think we should split up for a bit." Shiro said as the party nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll need to go to the front lines for a bit since I need some demon parts." Madison sighed as Shiro pulled out her phone.
"I can probably give my sister and cousin a ring so that they can help out with that. After all, they¡¯re at the front lines." Shiro said as Madison nodded her head.
"That would be helpful. After I get to tier 5, I think I¡¯ll pay the demon continent a visit since we need to sort that out soon." She sighed.
"Mn, when we do that everyone should be tier 5 so we¡¯ll be ready for most of the dangers. With the new age being so close, there¡¯s going to be tier 6¡¯s in the mix but we should be able to deal with them." Shiro smiled.
Asking the rest of the party, they eventually decided to let Shiro and Nan Tian look for the Spirit Capital while they ssed up.
Giving them a piece of her runic guardian as back up, Shiro watched as the party left the area.
"Now then, let me summon my spirits and then we can have a rough guess as to where the spirit capital is." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Summoning Nimue, Attie, Iziuel and Estre, Shiro held Attie while Estre stood up.
"The location of the Spirit Capital is secretive since they move around a lot. As you know, I was previously a member of the royal spirit council so I have a rough idea on where they might be but I could be wrong. The spirits always change their location so that they¡¯re not surrounded and eliminated." Estre said as Shiro nodded her head.
"We¡¯ll start our search from there then. Where do you think the Spirit Capital has moved to?" Shiro asked while creating a map of the world.
Pointing to the far east, Estre tapped on an ind and zoomed in on the map.
"I believe that this should have been their next location so we should start there. There is no doubt that they will probably be looking for you as well so it may be helpful to visit the previous site first in case they have sent out a few patrols."
"Aren¡¯t you a former member? Do you not have a way to contact them?" Nan Tian asked as Estre shook her head.
"Unfortunately no. Otherwise I would have contacted them long ago so that they can assist her highness to the best of their abilities." Este shook her head.
"That¡¯s fine. Also, a question from me, do you happen to know about the spirit world? In my trial, I came across an interesting spell that allows me to ess it." Shiro asked as Estre raised her eyebrow before nodding her head.
"We do but only the higher ups know about the way there. That¡¯s because if too many portals are opened it could expose us to danger. However, at the same time, the higher ups don¡¯t want the spirits that are lower in the hierarchy to know about this since it reveals too many secrets. I don¡¯t know if you have experienced this but when you¡¯re in the spirit world, a few secretse to light such as hidden treasures or locations where a lot of energy can be sensed. If the younger spirits know about some of this and were captured, they could have the information extracted from them by other races and it has happened before." Estre shook her head.
"Damn, the spirits were quite oppressed before I became queen huh?"
"Mn."
Seeing the downcast expression on Estre¡¯s face, Shiro sighed.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. I also made a promise to Nimue that I¡¯ll kill those who have tormented the spirit race so. Well... promise is putting it a bit lightly. I vowed to help her kill the queens that have tormented the spirit race." Shiro chuckled.
"Indeed you have. You were so untrusting before too. But it wasn¡¯t you who was in danger, it was me since now that I have made that vow everyday is just filled with me wanting to throw inds into the air." Nimue sighed. While she may say that, she didn¡¯t regret it at all despite the frustration it gave her. At least it didn¡¯t make life boring.
"Mn. Nimue, Iziuel, have you two been in the spirit world before?" Shiro asked.
"I think I have but Nimue probably hasn¡¯t." Iziuel tilted her head for a moment as Shiro nodded.
"How about we pay it a little visit. It¡¯s ok if Nan Tian joins right?"
"Since you are the Empress of the spirit race, your orders are absolute. If you wish for Nan Tian to enter, he can. If you wish for the entire world to enter, they can." Estre said as Shiro only shrugged.
"It¡¯s not that severe. I¡¯m not going to get the whole world to join. Plus, Nan Tian is trustworthy so it¡¯s fine." Sheughed.
"Oh my, I¡¯m touched." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Oh shut it you know you were trustworthy a while ago." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Perhaps. But hearing you say it is better."
"Whatever."
Snapping her fingers, Shiro created a magic circle and muttered a few things in ancient spiritnguage, Shiro created a portal in front of them.
"Let¡¯s travel in the spirit world. Who knows, we might find something interesting." Shiro smiled as they nodded their heads.
Entering the spirit world, Shiro and Estre were greeted with a familiar sight while the rest were enthralled by the shift in colour as well as energy being rather visual.
ncing down at his hands, Nan Tian was surprised to see a thin veil of white coloured aura that seemed to flicker with starlight.
"Interesting." Nan Tian muttered while ncing at the distant Mount Olympus. There were several flickers of golden aura but it was rather faint. It showed that the mountain was touched by the gods but they didn¡¯t make it their permanent residence.
While he was ncing into the distance, Shiro was furrowing her brows since this was a little different than the one she saw in the forgotten realms. Previously, the colours in the spirit world were rich but this one was a little murky like a thin sheet of mud was spread across the world.
Estre was the same as she had a frown on her face.
"The skies are darkening. When the new age arrives, I think the spirit world may lose its l.u.s.tre unless time passes without any problems." She muttered as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯The dark skies could be an omen of sorts since she did say that the spirit world was one that holds quite a few secrets.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while walking through the spirit world.
Making a note on their current location, the group started to make their way towards the old spirit capital in case they left behind any scouts.
"So where exactly is the old capital?" Shiro asked curiously.
"It¡¯s in a country known as Erti. This was a new country of demi humans created near the border between demons and humans since there was quite a bit of prejudice before. But things have gotten better so it¡¯s a hub of sorts now. We decided to use it before because we had a connection with the president and he was helpful enough to conceal our presence. But It¡¯s been a while now so a new president would have been elected. With a new president, I doubt the higher ups would be confident enough to stick around so they would have left." Estre replied as Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"If we know that the president has changed and that they would have left, is there a need to make such arge detour?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Yes since I wish to visit the old president and ask him a few things about the current state of the spirit race. While he may not know the details, getting a general idea is still good." Estre replied.
Nodding her head, they proceeded towards the country of Erti located between the border of human and demon territories.
Chapter 764 Limra
Chapter 764 Limra
Travelling through the spirit world, the journey itself was safe as there were no hostile monsters that would try to kill them on sight. Hell, even if there was, it would be dumb to try attack their group with the fire power they had.
While it would be faster to just look for a teleport shrine near the country, Shiro saw that Attie was interested in the spirit world so she spent a bit more time in this realm and yed around with him while Nan Tian watched with a smile.
He did want to interact with Attie a bit but he always stuck his tongue out at Nan Tian which caused Shiro tough.
Eventually, they took a few teleport shrines and made their way to Erti.
Upon arriving at the country borders Shiro was surprised to see how deste it looked. It was as if the entire country was going through a famine right now. There was not a single stalk of fresh grass as everything was decayed.
"This shouldn¡¯t be happening." Estre frowned as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"I can see that. Do you think it¡¯s caused by a monster?"
"I doubt that." Estre shook her head.
Entering into the spirit world, the group could see arge ck and green aura in the far distance. Looking at the ground, they could see tree roots made from the same energy.
Just as she stepped past the border, Shiro heard a system notification.
[You have stepped into the Domain of Queen Limra. As an enemy queen, you will experience the following effects while in this domain.]
-20% to all stats
-20% effectiveness to all Queen rted spells
-20% system assistance.
"Seems like the ce was reduced to this after a queen took over it. It¡¯s by someone called Queen Limra. Any clues?" Shiro asked as she nced over at Nimue and Estre.
"Doesn¡¯t ring a bell." They both replied as Shiro nodded her head.
Shall we continue or turn back? If the president was still in this country, he¡¯s probably the queen¡¯s underling now which makes him our enemy. Even if we do run into him and he ¡¯helps¡¯ us, I wouldn¡¯t trust it." Shiro said as Estre nodded her head with a frown.
"Mn we should leave. But before we do, we should perhaps scout out the city a little and see their anchor. Maybe we can destroy it and remove apetitor early." Estre suggested as both Shiro and Nan Tian were very strong.
"Hmm... there is a risk of whether or not there are multiple Tier 6 guardians. If there is, I¡¯m not keen on fighting them even with Lil¡¯ Tian¡¯s help." Shiro shook her head.
"Mn, there is the chance that they can slip past me while one of them keeps me upied." Nan Tian nodded in agreement.
"There you have it. We should leave for now ande back in the future. When the age of demons and gods arrive, I can probably take over this country depending on what happens."
"Don¡¯t you also need to make an anchor of your own?" Nan Tian asked.
"Mn I do. But I need to get some resources along with the shard of the garden." Shiro said while holding the map of the Garden Shard that she had obtained before from the system.
"And a good ce too. Are you going to ce the anchor in your floating city?" Nan Tian asked.
"Maybe. But that¡¯s a bit risk- Wait a minute." Shiro paused and looked into the sky.
"Do you think I can send my anchor into space?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian tilted his head and paused in shock.
"After the world changed, no one could get back into space, no? Thanks to the monsters and a few restrictions. What if I made my anchor and sent it to space?" Shiro asked.
"Didn¡¯t the anchors need to connect with one another, if you sent one to space wouldn¡¯t it be a bit too far?" Nimue raised her eyebrow.
"Mn... true. Damn, I was hoping I could just make a space station or something and rain destruction down on the world. Well I suppose I can still do that but just not with the anchor next to me now." Shiro sighed.
"Perhaps you can have all of your anchors above the clouds in the form of floating inds. But just make sure you camouge them well so when enemy queens get a notification they look around in wonder." Iziuel suggested with a chuckle.
"While the thought of powerful queens looking around in confusion is hrious and I do want to try it, it is a bit risky so I¡¯ll decline for now. Maybe when I be very strong." Shiroughed.
Shrugging her shoulders, Iziuel nodded her head.
"Actually, Astral Horizon¡¯s is an option." Nimue said as Shiro remembered the mana rich zone that her teacher had brought herst time they trained together. Thinking about it, Shiro nodded her head.
"Yes but I need to figure out its exact location first. Otherwise it¡¯ll be kind of hard to find out where we are." Shiro replied.
"We can do that when we have more time. But for now, let¡¯s just get out of here and make our way to where the ind that Estre pointed out before." She followed up as the group nodded.
The location that Este had pointed out initially was the Ind country known as Guria. After a bit of research on the while they were travelling, Shiro learned that Guria was mostly a rxation spot for people. There were hardly any monsters and the ones that were around were low level. The ind had three levels.
Heaven, Earth and the Underdark. The underdark was below ground and despite its rather suspicious name, it was a ce where people could party and clear a few dungeons for fun as it is rather low levelled. Earth was the resorts on the ground such as beaches while Heaven was the skyscr.a.p.ers that connected to one another.
This was where the rich and the powerful stayed as everything was expensive. Naturally, Shiro didn¡¯t really care but the fact that this could be where the spirits migrated to was rather... interesting.
"Any particr reason for this spot?" Shiro asked while pointing to Guria.
"Some of the spirits were already working here in secret since they were disguised. They found a few spots that were perfect for hiding so they might move a few people here. Plus, the ind is huge and the resort only makes up for 20% of the ind. The rest can be freely explored but a few formations can change this." Estre replied.
"And if the humans discover you?"
"We should be fine. The formations have been active for centuries and it has worked pretty well so far. Unless an extremely strong person appears, I doubt they¡¯ll be discovered.
"You do realise that is what humans call a g or jinxing it right?" Shiro¡¯s smile twitched for a moment since she was now worrying about whether or not they were in danger.
"It¡¯ll be fine. If you¡¯re worried, I can contact some of the people the sect has stationed there to keep an eye out." Nan Tian smiled.
"Sh*t, you even have people there???" Shiro asked as he nodded.
"We have eyes all over the world. I feel like you have underestimated that. Though I suppose it¡¯s no longer all over the world since the queens are now establishing their followers." Nan Tian sighed as Shiro shrugged.
"Mn but it¡¯s still surprising. Anyways, if you can contact them it¡¯ll be rather helpful. If one of them could teleport us there, it¡¯ll be even better." Shiro smiled.
Pulling out his phone, Nan Tian contacted the spies.
While this was happening, Shiro quickly searched up the for any more information regarding the queens. After all, she was in the trial for quite a long time on top of almost two months of recovery.
The opinions of people were somewhat split in terms of their thoughts about the queens however, many could understand that somethingrge was happening with the ¡¯queens¡¯ appearing out of nowhere. There was now arge market for powerful weapons since independent adventurers were now gearing up for war in case a fight breaks out.
Seeing the power of the queens, some of them even wondered if the heroes could stand up to them.
As for the heroes, they said nothing as of yet since they haven¡¯t fought one.
But Shiro knew that if they did, they would die.
No questions asked.
Chapter 765 Surprise Escorts
Chapter 765 Surprise Escorts
Resuming the rest of their journey outside of the spirit world, Shiro created herself a suit and mask so that she wouldn¡¯t be recognised. After all, even though she barely had any real threats in the world right now, she still didn¡¯t like the feeling of having her every move tracked.
Which was rather contradictory since everything she does draws attention.
Hiring a few adventurers to escort them to the resort, since they didn¡¯t have the teleport shrine, they were able to arrive without any problems.
Looking at the ind resort, Shiro had to admit that it had rather impressive architecture. Out of all the man made ces that she¡¯s been too in this life, this was one of the better looking ones.
"No wonder this was rated quite higher as a resort." Shiro mused as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"The facilities here are pretty good and it¡¯s a popr spot for couples. Men would have fun clearing dungeons with their girlfriends while the more mature ones would go to the heaven section and rx."
"You sound like you¡¯ve been here before." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Mn I haven¡¯t. This is my first time. My subordinates had told me about it before." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Fair enough. So out of curiosity, have you actually done anything fun in the time you were at the sect? Like take a few holidays or did the old man make you do a bunch of work?" Shiro asked curiously.
"He did say that I should take a break but I haven¡¯t really taken one since there was always things to do. But I suppose I¡¯m taking an extended break now haha. You should have seen the elders when I pushed my work load to them." Nan Tian chuckled softly.
"Is it because you¡¯re travelling around with me now?" Shiro asked.
"Mn. After the run in with a tier 6st time, I feel like you¡¯d run into more dangers if I don¡¯t keep an eye on you."
"Che, do I look that fragile to you." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Yes."
"Oi. You want to be hit?" Shiro¡¯s smile twitched seeing Nan Tian¡¯s instant response.
"I¡¯ll pass considering your attack vapourised a mountainst time." He chuckled.
"Mn so was there anything worth checking out?" Shiro asked as they might as well have a look now that they¡¯re here.
"I don¡¯t know. I didn¡¯t pay attention." Nan Tian shrugged as Shiro stayed silent.
"Oh well, we¡¯ll have a look after finding the spirits."
Summoning Estre by her side, Shiro asked if Iziuel and Nimue wanted toe out too.
Naturally, they wanted so Shiro summoned them by her side.
"Right then, do you want to lead the way? Or shall we go into the spirit world first. After all, I think they should have patrols inside the realm right?" Shiro asked.
"Mn I think so. But let me have a look around the ce first." Estre said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Normally I would do this on my own but since you know I¡¯m an ex member, it might be a bit awkward on my own."
"That¡¯s true." Shiro nodded her head.
"Where to first then? If we can¡¯t find it by tomorrow I guess we¡¯ll have a bit of fun around this resort. No point leaving without trying it out." Shiro suggested.
"That¡¯s fine. There are only a few ces that the spirits can be hiding so let¡¯s go."
Following behind Estre, they circled around the resort and made their way towards the forest. There were a few people curious about their identity as Nan Tian still had his mask on. Seeing a man surrounded by beauties such as Nimue, Iziuel and Estre, caused them to seethe with jealousy.
This only caused Shiro to roll her eyes since any of them could kick their asses if they made a move.
"How are the res of anger and jealousy?" Shiro asked with a smug grin.
"I¡¯m used to them. I had quite a few at the sect when I had my mask off." Nan Tian shrugged.
"Of course. One look and the guys might think their girlfriends wille running at you." Shiroughed.
"Then their rtionship is a bit rocky then isn¡¯t it?"
"Well even if it wasn¡¯t it would be tempting. You have the looks, the status and you¡¯re gentle too. Who would pass this up." Shiro shrugged.
"A few people I¡¯d say."
"Meh they¡¯re blind." Shiro waved her hand.
"Right Attie?" Shiro smiled as Attie nodded his head.
"You always nod your head to everything your mum says. I haven¡¯t seen you say no yet." Nan Tian chuckled.
Hearing this, Attie only stuck his tongue out at Nan Tian before hugging Shiro. Giving him a provocative stare, a spark of lightning seemed to spark between the two.
"Don¡¯t be so childish. You know you¡¯re having a stare off with a child right?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Fine. You win this time." Nan Tian said while he poked Attie¡¯s nose. Trying to fight back, Attie was unfortunately too slow to hit his finger.
ring at him with annoyance, Attie pouted in anger.
"Grow up strong so that you can beat him up ok?" Shiro spurred Attie on as he nodded his head.
"Pft are you raising my torturer?" Nan Tianughed.
"Who knows. Maybe, maybe not." Shiro only shrugged and smirked.
Arriving at the forest after leaving the resort, both Shiro and Nan Tian immediately noticed a very small shift which seemed to be unnoticed by the spirits.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro kept her attention on this feeling as they ventured further.
Circling around for a bit, they weren¡¯t able to find anything.
"Hm, we shoulde back tomorrow I guess." Estre sighed.
"No need."
"Eh? Why?" Estre tilted her head.
"Because they¡¯ve been watching for a while now. From the moment we entered the forest I believe." Shiro smiled and called out.
Hearing nothing around her, she only rolled her eyes.
Snapping her fingers, ice chains erupted out of the ground andtched onto their invisible spectators.
Seeing the sudden appearance of what seemed to be spirits, Estre was shocked that she wasn¡¯t able to detect them at all.
"Now then, who are you lot?" Shiro asked as she waved her hand, bringing all of them towards her.
Looking at the people that she had caught, Shiro spotted two male spirits and 3 female ones.
"Who are you!?" One of them asked back since they didn¡¯t expect her to be able to detect her when the other spirits didn¡¯t.
"Someone that¡¯s looking for the spirit capital I suppose. I was informed that I could find it on this ind and it seems like they¡¯re right. After all, 5 escorts appeared." Shiro smiled. Naturally, they couldn¡¯t see this smile as she still had her mask on.
"We won¡¯t escort you at all!" One of them hissed.
"Are you sure?" Shiroughed since they won¡¯t be the same once they realise her identity.
"Even if I die I won¡¯t show you where the capital is!"
Rolling her eyes, Estre sighed.
"She¡¯s the new queen. I¡¯ve brought her here since I believe that this was where the new capital is." Estre said as the spirits froze in shock.
Removing her mask, Shiro had a smug grin on her face.
"So you won¡¯t show me even if you die huh?" She asked with chuckled.
"Errr...."
Seeing Shiro¡¯s beauty from up close, the man couldn¡¯t help but swallow his saliva nervously.
Watching the guy stare intently at Shiro, Nan Tian felt a little jealous as he red at him.
Naturally, Shiro noticed this and couldn¡¯t help but roll her eyes at how childish he was being. The man was just looking at her face after all. Plenty of people do that.
"Don¡¯t scare the poor guy now. We still need them to show us the way." Shiro said as Nan Tian sighed and nodded his head.
"Anyways, will you be guiding us now?" Shiro turned back to the five captives."
"We will but how can you prove yourself to be the queen?" One of the girls asked.
"Like this."
Snapping her fingers, a ck dress wrapped around her body as she activated her True Spirit Nature. Feeling the oppressiveness of her aura, the five understood that she was their queen.
Bowing toward her despite their current state, they watched as Shiro dismissed her True Spirit Nature.
"We apologise for our misconduct. It would be our honour to show you the way." The leader of the group said as Shiro nodded her head.
Dismissing the chains, Shiro helped the group up as they made their way towards where the spirit capital was.
Walking through the forest, the group couldn¡¯t help but nce back at Shiro asionally as she would give them a small wave.
Seeing how nonchnt Shiro was, the group couldn¡¯t help but wonder what kind of queen was this rxed. They had expected the spirit queen to be filled with majesty or something.
After walking for a while, they stopped.
"Are you sure you want a human toe with you???? They asked.
"Mn, is there a problem?" Shiro nodded.
"Just a small one. Some of the spirits might not be as receptive. We have just sustained arge attack by the humans after all."
Chapter 766 Spirit Capital
Chapter 766 Spirit Capital
Hearing this, Shiro paused in surprise and raised her eyebrow.
"You were attacked by humans?"
"Mn. When we had moved from Erti to this ce, we were actually running away from the Queen¡¯s forces. Apparently their Queen, Queen Limra is a friend of Ve who has oppressed us before. The moment she discovered that we were in that ce, she sent her armourer to chase us and we had sustained quite a bit of damage. A few elders were captured but they were able to put up a good fight thanks to the power we had received after your highness became queen." One of the spirits exined as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Ve... To think we would actually run into one of her friends." Another spirit gritted his teeth.
Hearing the name Ve, Nimue, Iziuel and Estre didn¡¯t have happy expressions.
"Since you don¡¯t know, I¡¯ll exin." Nimue said since she could tell that Shiro was confused about the name.
"Ve is one of the queens that oppressed us and she yed a huge part. One of her favourite pass times is to capture us, torture us then throw us in a fighting ring to fight for our survival. To live for longer, we¡¯ll need to kill our fellow spirits. Thousands of spirits have died to her hand before." Nimue said as Shiro¡¯s expression turned sour.
"Seems like we need to go pay her a visit." She muttered.
"If you do, I¡¯ll help." Nan Tian offered since he wasn¡¯t too happy about the fact that she was enving and forcing spirits to fight.
"Mn, let¡¯s have a look at the state of the capital first." Shiro sighed.
Hearing this, the spirits nodded their heads as they dismissed a few barriers.
Watching the surroundings shift slightly, Shiro could see several guards approaching them.
Whispering a few things to the guards, the spirits gestured to Shiro and Nan Tian.
After a short moment, the guards nodded.
Kneeling before Shiro, they dropped their weapons.
"Your Highness." They greeted.
"Mn, you can rise."
"We have sent a message to the remaining elders. They will arrive soon." The guard said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you."
"It should be us thanking you, your highness." The guard shook his head.
"Howe?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"With your presence you have given us hope. There is a hope that we will no longer be oppressed by the other races." He smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Please, follow us and we shall show you to the capital."
Following behind the guards, Shiro could see white marbled buildings within the forest that couldn¡¯t be detected before. There were small motes of light which represented young spirits as not many could attain human form at a young age like Shiro or Attie.
As for the a.d.u.l.ts, they were curious about Shiro¡¯s identity but since she was being escorted by the guards, they decided to stay silent for now.
In the distance, Shiro could see 3 people rushing towards her with excited expressions.
"They¡¯re the elders." Estre whispered to Shiro¡¯s ear.
"Oh?"
"The one to the left is called Ophrit, the one in the middle is called Samuel and the one on the right is called Zerphi."
Ophrit was a young man that wore a set of light blue robes. He had short blue hair and golden eyes.
Samuel on the other hand seemed a little older with ck hair that reached his lower back. His eyes were crimson and he wore a set of ck and gold robes.
As for Zerphi, she was a young woman who had tied her hair into a ponytail. Her hair was a very light green and she wore a green one piece dress.
Upon seeing her, their eyes teared up with happiness.
Arriving in front of her, they immediately kneeled down.
"Your Highness!" They greeted.
With this, every now knew her identity as they all bowed with joy on their faces.
"Your Highness!" They called out as Shiro felt a little awkward since it was like she was facing a cult of sorts.
"You can rise. Let¡¯s talk inside." Shiro said as the three elders nodded their heads.
Making their way to therge building in the distance, Shiro could see that the atmosphere around this ce seemed to have gotten better as they were discussing topics with excited faces.
Some of the younger spirits would look at her with wonder as she would wave back with a small smile.
With all the attention on her, they ignored the human following behind her.
"Please, take a seat your highness. I know this isn¡¯t worthy of someone like you but it¡¯s the best we have as of this moment." They apologised while gesturing towards a slightly decorated chair.
"There¡¯s no need to be fancy. A normal chair would be fine." Shiro shook her head as it was rather awkward to be thrusted into an important role where everyone gave her respect despite not having done anything for the race just yet.
"Estre, seems like you have brought the queen back despite your previous ims." Samuel said as he nced towards her.
"I did as I promised. I made her fight a gorgon and she killed it." Estre replied as she was still guilty about what she had done but the past is the past.
"She¡¯s right you know. If she wasn¡¯t useful I would have wanted to dispose of her when she made me fight against something hundreds of times stronger than I was." Shiro nodded her head.
Hearing this, the three elders blinked their eyes since they had thought Estre gave up on that idea but it seems like she didn¡¯t.
"So what¡¯s the current situation? I¡¯m not sure what I¡¯m supposed to do as the queen just yet but I suppose it¡¯s best to deal with this Limra that caused everyone to flee from their previous location." Shiro asked
"Well normally we would host a coronation ceremony to tell everyone that you are the queen. However as you have said, we also have a pressing matter to deal with." Ophrit nodded his head.
"Mn before that how do you three actually feel about me suddenly arriving and bing queen? I¡¯m sure it¡¯s rather hard to ept that a random person is actually ruling you now." Shiro asked.
"We do not mind as we know your strength from the bonuses we have gotten. If not for your strength, we would have been eradicated back in Erti rather than being able to escape to safety." Samuel sighed as the other two nodded their heads.
"Well I suppose my first action as queen should be to reim Erti or at least save the elders there. That should make my position a bit easier to ept I suppose." Shiro suggested as they nodded their heads.
"So can you tell me what their militia is like? How many tier 6¡¯s do they have, what¡¯s the Queen¡¯s power and so on."
"Hm... well for Tier 6¡¯s they have two people that have surpassed level 500 and they¡¯re the queen¡¯s personal guards. Their militia mostly consists of tier 5 adventurers whom she has epted under her wing thanks to the presence of the two tier 6 guards. If I had to put a number on it, I say they have around 300 Tier 5 adventurers and nearly a thousand tier 4 and below. As for the queen herself, her powers revolve around absorbing power from anything she touches. Naturally, this includes thend itself." Zerphi exined as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Two tier 6¡¯s huh? That¡¯s going to be rather troublesome." She muttered.
Even if Nan Tian could keep one of them distracted, the other would probably kill her. Plus, there was also the queen that she needed to be worried about. Her future self told her that she shouldn¡¯t underestimate the queens so Shiro knew that fighting the queen and a tier 6 was suicide.
"Hmm... having two tier 6¡¯s is going to make things annoying. I can block one but not the other. And if I try to block both I¡¯ll only be able to hold out for a little while." Nan Tian sighed as Shiro nodded her head.
But while they were discussing this, a guard arrived with aplex expression.
"There is apparently a second queen who ims the first is a fraud." He said as the elders furrowed their brows with confused faces.
"Excuse me what?" Shiro asked as she was now an imposter apparently.
"They said that your ss is not that of a queen but rather a powerful spirit. So you are a fraud." He bowed as he didn¡¯t want to show disrespect. He was just a messenger.
"Bullsh*t! We can feel her highness¡¯ power. What do you mean she¡¯s a fraud." Samuel mmed his hand against the table since the spirit queen¡¯s aura was slightly different to a normal spirit. For those that have interacted closely with a queen, they¡¯ll be able to pick up on this difference hence why they can confirm that Shiro was indeed the queen.
"Let me see who has the guts to call her highness a fraud." Samuel stormed out with fury on his face.
Chapter 767 Yulia
Chapter 767 Yulia
Walking out of the main building, Samuel saw a woman with a calm expression on her face. Above her a title card was disyed.
[Yulia LVL 500 Spirit Queen]
"The one who has imed my title is a fraud! I had decided to stay hidden away for now to see the current situation but who knew someone would im my title in my absence." Yulia shouted out as Shiro who heard this suppressed augh.
"Your highness, please ignore her. We¡¯ll deal with her quickly." Ophrit said with a troubled expression.
"No need. I want to see what she has up her sleeves." Shiro smiled.
Stepping out of the building, she saw a rather tall woman with long ck hair. Her golden eyes pierced into Shiro¡¯s as Shiro only smirked in response.
"Who¡¯s taking who¡¯s title now?" Shiro called out as she made sure she didn¡¯t release any aura. After all, she wanted to see how gutsy this woman was.
"You¡¯re taking what¡¯s mine. In my absence, you have disyed your powerful ss and lied to everyone about your identity. Who here doesn¡¯t know that the system would title the queen with the proper ss." Yulia called out her ss as Shiro still had it hidden right now.
¡¯They probably saw through my disguise and figured that I must be lying.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a smile.
"And you only came out now because I imed myself to be queen? Tell me, what do you know about being the queen?" Shiro asked.
"I won¡¯t say anything to a fraud. However, you better retract your statement about being queen or else I¡¯ll have to demonstrate who¡¯s the real queen here." Yulia dered.
She was feeling rather positive since Shiro was just a lvl 300pared to her who was level 500. There was no way that she could lose against this fraud.
While she understood that she herself was also a fraud, it was better her lead the race than a lvl 300 fake.
"So quick on picking a fight." Shiro chuckled as the elders were furious.
Before they could say anything, Nan Tian ced a finger against where his mouth would be on his lip.
"Let her do her thing." He said with a chuckle.
Hearing this, the elders furrowed their brows but decided to see what happened. If a fight breaks out, they¡¯ll help out Shiro immediately.
"Fine I¡¯ll humour you a little. Show me the power of this so called real queen." Shiro smirked and flexed her fingers.
Creating a normal long sword that had no skills attached, she taunted her Yulia to attack her.
"Lil Tian, protect everyone for me." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Sure."
Watching as Yulia flickered from her location, Shiro only chuckled and raised her sword.
*CLANG!!!
shing against Yulia¡¯s sword, Shiro watched as several orbs of light appeared around her.
Understanding that they were going to blow up, Shiro only rolled her eyes and flicked her wrist.
Activating Celestial Path, she cancelled all of them out in an instant.
"Anything else?" Shiro asked, pushing Yulia away.
Looking at her with shock, Yulia didn¡¯t understand how someone 200 levels behind her could react that quickly.
Even the elders were surprised at Shiro¡¯s prowess while Nan Tian was focused on making sure none of the spectators got harmed.
Taking a deep breath, Yulia narrowed her eyes.
Bringing her sword down, she flickered from her spot.
Suddenly, hundreds of des appeared around Shiro.
Activating her boundary, Shiro shed towards the des that would harm her and ignored the ones that didn¡¯t.
*PING!!!
Shattering tens of des in an instant, Shiro didn¡¯t move a single step from where she stood.
"Anything else? I¡¯ll give you a few more seconds to do whatever you want. After that it¡¯ll be my turn to attack." Shiro chuckled while ncing at Yuliazily.
At this point, the elders could already see a winner as the difference in ability was far too great. Even then, they were still underestimating Shiro as Nan Tian knew what she had stored away.
She wasn¡¯t using her sword, her skills or her guns. This was Shiro with her most basic abilities.
Gritting her teeth, Yulia activated her spirit nature as a white and gold aura exploded out from her body.
Wrapping her body in some light armour, she dashed towards Shiro once more.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro could sense energy gathering around her but it was invisible to the eye.
Reappearing before her, Yulia shed out with her sword. Just as she did this, the invisible energy started to detonate.
In a split second, Shiro was surrounded by a web of des with no exit in sight.
Seeing this, Shiro narrowed her eyes and took a single step back before crafting a second de.
Takemikazuchi Technique + Boundary!
*PING!!!
Shattering the des apart, Yulia was now open for an attack.
Just as Shiro was about to sh towards her, she sensed the invisible energy forming chains andshing out towards her.
Flicking her wrist, she deflected these chains with rtive ease.
"Is that all?" Shiro asked while blocking a few shes.
Yulia didn¡¯t say anything as she was starting to feel as though something was wrong. There was no way that a level 300 could actually block everything she threw at her.
"Seems like you¡¯re done. To think you actually imed to be the queen with such meagre power. Laughable." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she released her aura.
*BANG!!!
Feeling arge pressure crash down on her, Yulia was instantly forced to kneel as the skies darkened.
Snapping her finger, hundreds of tier 6 magic circles appeared in the air as nanobots swarmed together to form a myriad of ded weapons.
Raising her hand in the air, Shiro looked at Yulia and opened her mouth.
"Should Imence the attack, all the des would pierce towards you without fail. You will die. For those that now have concerns over whether or not I am the queen, I don¡¯t care if you don¡¯t believe that I am indeed the queen. However, if some random idiot thinks that they can appear before me and im that I¡¯m a fraud, they are dead wrong." Shiro grinned as she allowed people to see her title card.
[Shiro LVL 300 Divine Sylph Nanomancer]
Activating her True Spirit Nature, she allowed her full aura to be released as everyone in the area felt her presence. Understanding that she was indeed the queen despite not having it written on her ss, the spirits epted Shiro as their queen.
"You can think about how we should deal with this idiot. We¡¯ve got more pressing matters to attend to." Shiro nced towards Samuel who nodded his head.
Grabbing Yulia, Samuel could feel that she waspletely drenched with cold sweat. Her face was pale and her lips quivered. During that single moment, Shiro had focused her killing intent towards her.
With the addition of des surrounding Yulia, her killing intent made her imagine herself dying in several ways within that split moment.
Seeing this, Samuel could only click his tongue with disdain as the woman had lost her will to fight. Even those that are lower level could have better wills. The ones that died to buy time for their escape fought to their veryst breath and yet this woman lost all her will with a single demonstration from her highness.
Shaking his head, he grabbed her by the shoulders and walked away with her in tow.
After the woman was dealt with, Shiro discussed the ns with the remaining elders. Their main goal is going to be saving the elders that are being held captive. As for dealing with the queen, if they are able to distract one with all of their powersbined, then Nan Tian could take care of the other.
With the two tier 6¡¯s out of the way, Shiro would be allowed to deal with the queen on her own.
The only problem was one tier 6 could deal with a whole bunch of tier 5¡¯s so it was going to be hard.
"Let¡¯s go with this. We¡¯ll scout first and see where the elders are being kept. Being in the area decreases my power by 20% so I want to avoid fighting with that kind of debuff if I can." Shiro said as the elders agreed.
"We do know a spirit who is good at scouting so we can have them follow us for this excursion." Samuel suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Anyone who you think can help us, bring them along. But try to keep the numbers lower since it¡¯ll be hard to go unnoticed with arge amount of people." Shiro reminded.
"Understood."
Finishing the meeting, the elders showed Shiro to her room as Nan Tian¡¯s room was next to hers.
"What do you think about the sess rate of this excursion?" Nan Tian asked.
"Honestly, 50% or maybe lower." Shiro sighed.
"Well there are two tier 6¡¯s so 50% is quite high."
"Mn but I don¡¯t like the odds." Shiro shook her head with slight amounts of worry.
Chapter 768 Silvanis
Chapter 768 Silvanis
When she had mentioned 50%, it was only if they didn¡¯t fight and focused on running after obtaining the prisoners. There was a 50% chance of them being able to run away sessfully and the other half was that they die.
"First and foremost, we need to find out where the prisoners are being kept. Once we find that out, we can hopefully rescue them before the queen or the tier 6¡¯s notice." Shiro sighed.
"Mn. Perhaps we can try to distract the tier 6¡¯s and assassinate the queen?" Nan Tian suggested.
"What do you mean by distract? Surely they won¡¯t be that stupid to be distracted by a rock being thrown against a wall or something."
"By distract I mean I distract them. I can¡¯t hold out for a long time in a direct confrontation but dying them for you is easy." Nan Tian smiled.
"Nope. If they notice something is wrong they¡¯lle back immediately and you won¡¯t be able to stop them. Plus, fighting against two tier 6¡¯s is dangerous without Silvia around. If you die we won¡¯t be able to revive you." Shiro frowned.
"Mn it¡¯s fine. After reaching tier 6, my connection with light has been strengthened. Physical attacks have a hard time harming me." He reassured but Shiro shook her head.
"Nope. Just let me think of something." Shiro thought to herself for a moment before an idea appeared in her mind.
However, after a moment to consider the chances, she shook her head.
Her idea was to disguise herself as the Beast Queen since their powers looked simr. However, knowing what the beast queen is like, there¡¯s bound to be more tier 6 guards and they would wonder why she only had 1 guard with her.
Plus, shecked information on the beast queen so she was going to be in a tough situation.
"Tch, if it wasn¡¯t for the prisoner¡¯s I would have just bombed the entire city or something." Shiro frowned as her fire power was more than enough to harm tier 6¡¯s that were caught off guard. Plus, with her spirit nature as well as Error, she could extract their souls and source codes.
"Why don¡¯t you rest for now and worry about itter?" Nan Tian asked.
"Mn, maybe." Shiro sighed since she was racking her mind to try to figure out how to save the spirit elders.
Saying goodbye to Nan Tian, Shiroid down on her bed and wondered if she should upgrade her fire power some more.
With Hephaestus masterpieces in her inventory, she could enhance Athera and Eena right now to obtain better pieces of armour.
However, she understood that Athera had more upgrades that it could obtain without using external sources so that could be a waste. As for Eena, this was the armour that Helion made so he could probably upgrade it himself.
If they did that, it would prove to be better cost wise rather than wasting it now.
Summoning Athera in front of her, Shiro closed her eyes and inserted energy into the de. Feeling it pulse with energy, she traced her finger along the edge of the de.
All of the abilities that her sword provides are amazing as they increase her stats by the percentage. However, the bacshes were insane such as losing vision, 80% muscle fatigue and so on. It was something she should use near the end since if the enemies live through this, she would die.
Feeling a pulse on the back of her hand, Shiro understood that it was probably Error.
"What is it?" Shiro asked as circuits appeared around her hand.
Wrapping around the sword, Error seemed to want to consume the de but Shiro red at it.
"No, it¡¯s my best weapon, You¡¯re not allowed to eat it." She berated but Error was insistent.
"Nope. You¡¯re not allowed to." Shiro shook her head as Error sighed and nodded its head.
Thinking about ns, Shiro eventually fell asleep.
###
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro woke up to a half eaten Athera.
"What the f*ck!" Shiro shouted out as the self repair wasn¡¯t working.
"What¡¯s wrong?" Nan Tian rushed in hearing her shout.
"Nothing much. Just that my best sword has been eaten." Shiro forced a smile.
Just as she mentioned eaten, Error reappeared on her arm and regurgitated what seemed to be a climb of metal that was glitching out almost.
Seeing this, both Shiro and Nan Tian raised their eyebrow in confusion as Error pushed the metal towards her.
Frowning slightly, Shiro picked up the metal that was made from the de of her sword that had followed her since the beginning.
[??? Athera Metal ¨C ck+]
A special metal from a sword consumed by ??? and was further infused with ???¡¯s power. This metal is a very special metal as it can merge with anything and does not require a smith.
Seeing this, Shiro nced at Error.
"Were you perhaps wanting me to use this for a better sword?" Shiro asked.
Nodding his head, Error used his circuits to make the shape of a sword and swing it around.
Tilting her head, Shiro brought out Hephaestus¡¯ sword which she received from the trial.
"This?" She asked.
Nodding his head once more, Error reached out to the rest of Athera which Shiro agreed to let him eat the rest to produce more metal.
"Seems like it¡¯s sentient." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. I suppose it¡¯s like another child."
"Are you running an orphanage? You have so many children now." Nan Tianughed.
"Che, they just keep appearing before me, what can I say." Shiro shrugged.
"Though he must have heard my worries yesterday." She muttered as she watched him consume the rest of the de and produce more metal.
With the metal in hand, Shiro sighed and hoped that the oue was worth it. Holding the masterpiece in front of her, Shiro ced the Athera metal against the de.
Watching it melt like water, the metal slowly wrapped around the de. Seeing the familiar ck de only this time it had a simple guard, Shiro nced at its description and widened her eyes.
[Silvanis ¨C Executioner de of the Goddess ¨C Rainbow]
A de formed from the master piece of Hephaestus and a legendary de that has survived through hundreds of hardsh.i.p.s. Wielded by a unique Demi Goddess, this de shall be her executioner.
This de cannot be destroyed.
This de has no level.
This de ignores 80% of all forms of armour.
Silvanis (Passive Skill) ¨C When infused with the power of ???, you are able to strike towards their source code.
Unsheathing this de will passively cause the fear status, Those that have no resistance cannot fight against you.
Increase Damage Resistance by 1% for every enemy you face. (Max ¨C 70%)
You can cut down any forms of magic, converting the mana used for yourself.
Silvanis (Active Skill)
Effect 1 ¨C When activated, your stats are doubled as Silvanis will deal 100% True Damage.
Duration: 2 minutes
Cooldown: 1 day
Effect 2 ¨C The enemy is locked in the same realm as you and they cannot escape by any means. No one can interfere as you will be locked in a 1v1 duel.
Duration: 1 Minute
Cooldown: 5 days
Effect 3 ¨C You can shift your sword through space and it will jump forward in an instant. If there is a wall, the sword will phase through the wall as though it was never there.
Cost: 2% of Mana for each shift
Cooldown: N/A
Effect 4 ¨C You can infuse any element with this de and the effectiveness will be boosted by 200% and ignores all resistance towards that element.
Cost: 10% of Mana
Duration: 1 minute
Cooldown: 2 minutes
Effect 5 ¨C 100% Life Steal. You heal back for every damage you deal.
Cost: 80% of Current Health
Duration: 10 minutes
Cooldown: 1 hour
Effect 6 ¨C This sword is bound to you and can be summoned/resummoned at will.
Soul Bound ¨C Shiro
Reading the description and the effects of her new de, Shiro was shocked about its abilities. The fact that this sword deals true damage and ignores elemental resistance was incredible. For those that have no fear resistance, they cannot act against her.
Plus, while it may take 80% to activate effect 5, her damage was more than enough to heal her back up. This was the perfect weapon for her. Plus, it was unbreakable.
Looking at the ck de with admiration in her eyes, Shiro smiled and nced at Nan Tian.
"I think we can go kill a queen now."
After all, effect two allows her to duel someone in a 1v1 situation where no one can interfere.
Chapter 769 The Feeling of Nanobots
Chapter 769 The Feeling of Nanobots
"Did the sword gain a good effect?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro wouldn¡¯t change her mind so easily. After all, she wasn¡¯t one that liked to take too many risks. The fact that she would suggest fighting the queen after expressing her worries the night before meant that the sword changed things around.
"Yup. I was worried that I couldn¡¯t face the queen head on without the tier 6 guards getting in my way. However, there¡¯s a special effect of my sword that makes it so that I can fight the queen alone without anyone being able to interfere." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
Snapping her finger, Shiro created a hologram that disyed her sword¡¯s effects for Nan Tian.
"That¡¯s.... certainly helpful." He nodded his head as he couldn¡¯t believe the stats that he was seeing.
While the sword had no ¡¯level¡¯ to speak of along with numerated stats, the passives spoke of its power. Plus, with the power of her strange element, she could target their source code at will. It was unbreakable so she could use it as a shield if she wanted to and it also ignored 80% of all forms of armour.
This was the worst nightmare for tanks as this sword literally gave no sh*ts about your defences.
As for its passive, the fear resistance was hard to obtain to begin with. Fear resistant items were rare and even Shiro didn¡¯t have much when the beast queen appeared before her.
Nan Tian could still remember that he needed to lend Shiro one of his items for her to be able to move. One could truly see how powerful that passive skill was.
With just these passives, the sword was good enough but there were powerful actives too. It was truly a de that was worth its rainbow status.
"Yup. Even with a 20% decrease in stats, the power of my sword should be enough to cover that gap." Shiro smiled.
"What about your armour? Do you want to upgrade that too or are you leaving that forter?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Hm... I¡¯ll save it forter. The sword should work fine for now so there¡¯s no need to be too hasty." Shiro shook her head. After all, it was probably better to upgrade her armour when Helion improves it some more.
"Shall we go inform the elders then? With a change of ns, I suppose we should be nning around your abilities so that you can escape after killing the queen." Nan Tian smiled.
"You seem awfully confident that I can kill the queen. My future self did say not to underestimate them you know?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Yes but it seems like you have already shifted the path no? The future is forever changing with each step. The fact that you saw your future makes it so that there¡¯s the chance for change. Plus, it¡¯s you who we¡¯re talking about. Even if you tell yourself to not underestimate them, you use your skills and experience toe out on top no?" Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"There are still a few things I haven¡¯t achieved but I can definitely say that things have changed. As for me killing the queen, I don¡¯t know much of her abilities yet so I can¡¯t say for sure. But I am pretty confident of my victory right now."
"Don¡¯t be too overconfident as it could lead to your downfall. You cannot do the same as what you did to the fake queen since this is a genuine queen that you¡¯re dealing with now." Nan Tian reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
"Don¡¯t worry I know." Shiro reassured since she wasn¡¯t that stupid.
Hopping out of her bed, she snapped her hand and quickly made herself a dress with some light armour.
"Hais, every time I see you use your nanobots I can¡¯t help but wonder how it even works. You can use it for bothbat and for leisure. Making clothes and armour at will." Nan Tian sighed.
"I¡¯m basically a factory for the core of the nanobots. I pump it full of mana and more of these tiny robots are produced. You can also think of them as atoms I guess. Depending on how I arrange them, I???m able to change the feeling of the item I produce." Shiro exined as she summoned a handful of nanobots.
"Want to give it a try?" Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Touching the nanobots, he furrowed his brows since it was quite a strange texture.
It was simr to a handful of sand only one that would stick to your skin and felt cold to the touch. Not only that, it acted like a fluid too. Depending on how he moves his hand, the nanobots would flow differently. It was definitely something that Nan Tian had never felt before and in one way it was rather unique.
"Seems like you¡¯re having fun with it." Shiro chuckled.
"Well it¡¯s quite different." Nan Tian replied as the nanobots solidified in the shape they were currently in.
"The funny thing is that it can also change texture. I can make it soft like silk, smooth like the surface of a polished jewel or rough like the concrete we walk on." Shiro shrugged as she dismissed the nanobots.
Feeling it disappear in his hands, Nan Tian could only describe it as ash floating away in the wind. It just crumbled and disappeared.
"How did you even get it in the first ce? You never told me." Nan Tian asked.
"Well... it has something to do with my first life I suppose. Though the fact that it followed me to this life was quite a mystery."
"Strange things happen to you all the time, I¡¯m not too surprised." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Mn, well let¡¯s see..."
###
Exining the story to Nan Tian along with her background with Aekari, he was rather surprised that she was quite delicate as a child. It was unfortunate that the experiments ruined things for her but in one way he was also grateful since it allowed him to meet her.
A rather strange feeling to be grateful about harming to her just so that he had received this chance.
"What¡¯s wrong with your face? You seem... rather concerned?" Shiro asked as she raised her eyebrow curiously.
"Would it be weird if I said that I was happy about the things that happened to you? So that I was able to meet you?" Nan Tian forced a smile since he felt a little guilty.
"Pft haha that¡¯s fine don¡¯t worry about it. I don¡¯t really care about what I had to go through since it¡¯s the past. Though I am also grateful since it allows me to grow stronger and control my life and death to a certain extent. That is probably the only thing that I¡¯m grateful to the scientists for. That and the beautiful disy of fear and regret they showed when I killed them." Shiro shrugged.
"A bit grim but not a lie I suppose." Nan Tian shrugged.
"Pft you afraid?" Shiro smirked.
"A little with how many times you have threatened to hit me."
"Stop being afraid over nothing. I haven¡¯t hit you yet." Shiro rolled her eyes.
Continuing to talk for a little bit longer, they made their way to the meeting hall.
Calling the elders, she discussed their new n.
It mainly revolved around the elders searching for the captured prisoners while Shiro and Nan Tian faced off against the queen and her guards. Nan Tian could distract the tier 6 guards and help Shiro escape once she¡¯s done with the queen. The elders were a little concerned but after describing her sword¡¯s ability, they were a little convinced but not by much.
After all, while she has proven greatbat ability for a level 300, she was against a real queen 200 levels above her.
Little did they know, Shiro¡¯s stats were getting close to her tier 6 self. While she may be level 300, her true level should be much higher if one was to think about stats.
Eventually, they nodded their heads since there wasn¡¯t much that they could do aside from giving her several life saving items that they had kept just in case things go wrong.
While they were preparing to leave, Shiro did some final check ups to make sure everything was ok.
{Do you feel nervous at all?} Nimue asked curiously.
¡¯A little. I¡¯m facing a proper queen this time unlike the fire queen. Like my future self said, she was a pushover. This one is going to be different.¡¯
{Mn, when it says one on one, do you think me, Iziuel and Estre can assist you since we¡¯re inside your mana realm?}
¡¯Probably not since the system is rather strict about these things. But we can try. Anyways, this is quite the task for my first actions as the queen isn¡¯t it?¡¯ Shiroughed.
{It was either this or something worse that would make me want to throw an ind or two.} Nimue rolled her eyes.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro set off with Nan Tian, the three elders and some spirits that the elders had brought to assist them.
Chapter 770 Greeting as Neighbours
Chapter 770 Greeting as Neighbours
Currently, the group was gathered just outside of the spirit capital.
"Right then, before we go, I want you to tell me about what you can do." Shiro said as she wanted to know about what the neers could do.
If the elders brought them along for this journey, then they must have some trust in them.
Listening to their abilities, Shiro could best summarise it as two trackers, one camouge and one scout.
The two trackers will search for the prisoners while the camouge would disguise their presence, making it hard for the enemy to spot them. While this was happening, the scout would be keeping an eye out for anything that might have seen past their disguise.
As for the elders, they were the main attack force aside from Shiro and Nan Tian.
"Not to be grim but if one of the elders have died, how would you know?" Shiro asked the trackers.
"The tether would be broken. When we track people, a tether will appear that only we can see and once that is broken, it means that they are dead or are in a ce that cannot be reached." The spirit replied.
"I see... How many tethers do you see so far?" Shiro asked.
"We see three tethers so far." The other spirit replied as the elders paused and sighed.
"So that means four have died." Samuel balled his hands into a fist.
Biting her lip, Zerphi held back a cry of anger.
Seeing their reactions, Shiro could see that they must have just experienced survivors¡¯ guilt.
"Don¡¯t pull that face, I¡¯ll pay them back three fold for you." Shiro smiled.
The elders nodded their head but naturally, they were a little doubtful.
Shaking her head, Shiro ignored them for now and flexed her fingers.
Activating her disguise skill, she camouged everyone while the spirit that was responsible for the camouge looked at her in shock.
"What? I have quite a diverse skill set." Shiro shrugged as he quickly apologised for his rudeness.
Using the teleport shrine, Shiro teleported everyone to the border country of Erti.
Looking at the state of thend surrounding it, the spirits only sighed as they were closely tied to nature.
"We¡¯ll fix the countryter. Do you know where the tethers are pointing towards?" Shiro asked as she brought up a map of Erti that she found online.
"I believe it should be in the capital city as that is where the anchor is ced." Ophrit said as the spirits responsible for the tracking nodded their heads.
"Our tethers essentially show us a straight line to the target and right now it¡¯s pointing towards the capital city."
"I see... once we get to the capital city, we¡¯ll split up and perform our separate tasks. Keep this on you and I¡¯ll contact you if anything goes wrong. Once you find the captives, see if you can save them. If you can¡¯t tell me about the problem." Shiro said while handing them an ear piece.
"Understood." They nodded their heads.
They weren¡¯t unfamiliar with human technology so they knew what the ear piece was.
mming her hand against the ground, Shiro created a jet.
"Hop in. We¡¯re going to take the fast route."
Surprised at the sudden summon of a vehicle, they looked at her with wonder.
"It¡¯s my ability don¡¯t think too much about this."
Hearing her reply, the elders could only look at each other since that was clearly abnormal.
There was a certain limit to the powers that a spirit can obtain and creatingrge vehicles out of thin air was clearly not one of them.
However, since she was the queen, they decided to set it aside for now.
Entering the jet, Shiro grinned seeing everyone strapped in.
As with always, there is going to be a baptism process.
Turning on the engines, Shiro narrowed her eyes while Nan Tian only nced back at the unsuspecting passengers and sighed.
"Good luck." He said towards them which caused them to tilt their heads.
"Why good lucaaaAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"
Feeling a sudden force m into them as the jet soared into the sky, Shiro onlyughed at their faces.
The journey itself was short but for the passengers it felt like an eternity. Despite their physiques that have been reinforced by their level, they were still forced back into the seat from the way Shiro manipted the forces that they were feeling.
Exiting the jet a little weak kneed, they recovered soon after.
"Your highness, please give us a heads up when you want to do something like this in the future." Samuel forced a smile.
"It wouldn¡¯t be fun otherwise. After all, I only get one chance." Shiroughed.
Right now, they were still a distance from the capital city but Shiro could already sense the anchor as arge source of energy could be felt in the middle.
Understanding that she probably got some power back from the people that have went under her rule, Shiro could guess that she¡¯ll be fighting Limra at her peak.
However, that was fine as she had ess to all of her berserk skills along with her new sword.
The city itself looked fine from a distance but Shiro could see the cracks in the concrete along with theck of ambient mana from anywhere else other than the anchor. The further away you got from the anchor, the less mana there is.
For monsters, this would dampen their mana regen as well as passive regeneration unless they have special skills from the system.
"Me and Nan Tian will make a shy entrance so you can try to camouge yourself. Good luck." Shiro smiled as she and Nan Tian jumped into the air.
Releasing her aura, Shiro made herself known as she approached the city with Nan Tian next to her.
"Who goes there!" A booming voice shouted as two figures appeared in the space in front of them.
"Just another queen. I happened toe across this ce and wanted to pay a little visit. You know, talk to a neighbour or two." Shiro smirked as she camouged her title so that they couldn¡¯t tell what level or ss she was. Naturally, Nana Tian did the same and they could only tell that he was Tier 6.
Hearing this, the two guards nced at each other and frowned.
They were both dressed in heavy tes but Shiro could tell that they would be freakishly fast should they begin fighting. Naturally, if they could diplomatically solve this it would be good too since she wouldn¡¯t need to fight and they can rescue the prisoners.
"If you¡¯re another queen then surely you aren¡¯t trying to pick a fight before the new age even begins right? Are you trying to make yourself an enemy of every queen out there?" A feminine voice rang out as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
[Limra ¨C LVL 500 Vampiric Queen]
Seeing her title, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
When seeing the word vampiric, one would normally think that she was going to be sucking blood or something of the sort. However, since the elders have told her that she absorbs energy, Shiro understands that she needed to be careful about contact with this queen.
"Of course not. I just wanted to say hi to a neighbour. Is there a problem with that?" Shiro asked with a smirk.
"Nope but what kind of neighbour greets with such a threatening aura?" Limra narrowed her eyes.
"That¡¯s just my form of greeting. I do hope that you do not take offence." Shiro asked with a chuckle as Limra only frowned.
As she did not know about Shiro¡¯s level just yet, she wasn¡¯t going to make a move. However, from the energy she was feeling, there was a chance that she could be above Shiro in terms of strength.
"Of course not but if a greeting is all you want to do, then you may take your leave." Limra narrowed her eyes.
"Why not sit down and have a sip of tea. As fellow queens I¡¯m sure there are things we can talk about." Shiro smiled.
"I am rather busy today. Please take your leave or else I shall take that as a sign of aggression." Limra frowned.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro smiled.
Flickering from her spot, Shiro appeared behind Limra and had her sword against Limra¡¯s neck.
"Then take it as an action of aggression." Shiro smiled as the two guards had acted quickly as well. However, Nan Tian blocked their swords from striking Shiro.
Energy erupted out from all five of them as they beganbat.
Chapter 771 Fighting Against Limra
Chapter 771 Fighting Against Limra
Activating her boundary, Shiro waved her hand as a web of sword shes suddenly appeared around the queen and her two guards.
Shocked at the speed of her shes, the two guards quickly surrounded the queen and blocked the des with their bodies.
"Che, solid bastards" Shiro furrowed her brows.
Despite her sword ignoring 80% of all armour, they were still tanking her shes like it was nothing.
However, that was just the average sh so it didn¡¯t worry Shiro too much.
Looking at her, Limra had a pale face as she couldn¡¯t help but feel an innate fear towards her.
¡¯Seems like her fear resistance is pretty low. However, the guards have quite the high resistance.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as the two tried to attack her.
But before the desnded on her, Nan Tian flickered in front of the two and grabbed their des with his hand.
"Don¡¯t go attacking her in front of me now. It¡¯s rather rude." Nan Tian smiled as he narrowed his eyes from behind the mask.
Pushing his hands out, he deflected both the des and mmed his fists into their chest.
*BANG!!!
The impact of the punch reverberated through the ce as the two guards were pushed back by a few steps.
Seeing this, Shiro quickly activated the effect of her de.
Watching as runic patterns light up on her de,
Suddenly, an invisible force pushed everyone aside and their figures became faint. It was almost as if they were in a soul like state right now where no one else can affect them.
Naturally, the guards rushed to Limra¡¯s side and wanted to help but realised that their hands would phase through her.
ring at Nan Tian, the full aura of a tier 6 powerhouse crashed into his body as he forced a smile.
Releasing his own aura, he summoned a de and charged towards the two tier 6¡¯s as a myriad of spells and attacks followed behind him.
While this was happening, Limra was a little slow in facing off against Shiro due to the sword¡¯s fear skill. However, she wasn¡¯t affected for long as Limra pulled out an item and a purple glow wrapped around her body.
¡¯Probably a fear resistant type item.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while flickering in front of Limra.
Flicking her wrist, she sent another web of shes towards Limra¡¯s hand in an attempt to disarm her of the item.
However, just as she did this, Limra raised her hand and a translucent barrier appeared in front of her.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro activated the third effect of her sword.
Expending 2% of her mana, her sword seemed to glitch out for a moment before reappearing past the barrier.
Shocked at the sudden shift in the sword¡¯s location, Limra bent her body back nimble and dodged the de.
Reaching towards Shiro¡¯s abdominal area, a purple and red glow could be seen on her hand.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro quickly dispersed her body in a mass of shadows Limra¡¯s hand phased through and didn¡¯t manage to grab her.
Activating her Encroaching Darkness Skill, dark clouds loomed over the city as it suddenly became night. With this, the passive of her Sigil of Night was activated. Doubling her power. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t absolute darkness otherwise her power would have been quadrupled.
Though there was one problem with this skill initially. In absolute darkness she would be affected too but with her new acquisition of the boundary this was no longer a problem. Which only makes Shiro think that this skill was supposed to synergise with the boundary as both as it gotten thanks to Nyx.
Thinking about this, she couldn¡¯t help but smirk as her body reassembled not too far from Limra.
Seeing Shiro reappear, Limra didn¡¯t hesitate to wave her hand towards Shiro as a several tier 5 magic circles appeared around her.
Smirking softly, Shiro cut them apart with ease as Limra was shocked.
Just as Shiro did this, she noticed a small bar on the bottom of her screen.
[Blessing of Ares: Fighting Aura 1/100]
Remembering that she can consume the entire aura once it reaches 100 to gain an attack that ignores all armour and was enhanced with the power of a god, Shiroughed as that was essentially overkill. After all, her sword¡¯s passive was helping her suppress Limra easily.
As the sword could only let them duel for a single minute, she had to make this short.
"If you¡¯re a mage then I feel sorry for you since I¡¯m a mage¡¯s worst nightmare." Shiroughed as she flickered towards Limra.
"Don¡¯t get too arrogant now." Limra narrowed her eyes as she summoned two daggers that seemed to glow with a mystical light.
"Queens are superior in physical strength too." She warned as she charged at Shiro.
Quickly raising her sword, Shiro deflected the dagger as the second dagger pierced towards her face.
"Targeting my face so quickly, are you jealous of my beauty? Don¡¯t worry, I understand." Shiro taunted as she ducked down and elbowed her in the stomach.
Just as she did this, she saw Limra smirk and drop the dagger, Grabbing her shoulder, Shiro could feel her strength leaving her.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯
Quickly diving into the rift, she forced some distance between them. ncing at her stats, she frowned as the effect that she was being affected by.
[Siphoning]
0.2% of your highest stat has been transferred for a short period of time.
While the contact was short, 0.2% of her INT stat was already transferred. While it may sound little, 0.2% was still 112,830 points worth of INT for Limra. If the contact hadsted any longer, it would be much higher considering her overall stats.
Seeing the number that she had just absorbed, Limra widened her eyes and smiled at Shiro.
"If I absorb all of you and kill you, your stats will be mine." She grinned as there was obsession in her eyes.
Without dy, she activated several of her abilities as her aura exploded out, forcing Shiro back.
Reappearing before Shiro, she tried to grab her by the head.
However, Shiro was able to react quick enough as her body dispersed into Shadows.
Reappearing behind Limra, Shiro knew that she couldn¡¯t hold back on her skills either so she activated the following skills that had no bacshes.
Pandora¡¯s Requiem ¨C Third Ability: Origin, Divine Raiment EX, Divine Empress¡¯ Domain EX, Silvanis Effect 1, 4 and 5.
Debuffing Limra with her domain, she enhanced all elemental abilities as Silvanis was coated with the power of the Error Element.
With this, the sword will allow her to strike towards Limra¡¯s Source code as the sword¡¯s effect also makes it so that she will deal 100% true damage. Not only that, but the effect also 4 lets her infuse the sword with any element and its powers will be boosted by 200% that ignores all resistance.
This meant that Limra had no way to protect herself from her de.
But it bes worse once one takes into consideration that with Pandora¡¯s Requiem¡¯s ability of turning all her mana into origin, her spell efficiency was essentially tripled as Origin makes it so that her spells receive a 300% boost to power thatsts for 5 minutes.
Feeling the touch of death behind her, Limra had cold sweat fall down her back as she turned around as quick as she should.
However, with the feeling of death so close behind her, no matter how fast she turned, it felt slow to her.
Catching a glimpse of Shiro from the corner of her eye, she saw the sword that was wrapped with a malevolent glow that was also strangely mesmerising. The flickering of light was almost like a sky full of stars as the sword slowly approached her.
Knowing that her death was close if she was hit by this, Limra bit her lip and activated her trump card.
A set of ck and purple robes wrapped around her body as an illusionary purple crown could be seen above her head.
Gritting her teeth, she tried her best to dodge the de.
*PUCHI!!!
Despite her efforts, the de still cut against her shoulder as her entire right arm was cut off.
Feeling pain that was far worse than what she had felt before, Limra couldn¡¯t hold back a scream as she quickly backed off from Shiro.
Unfortunately for her, Shiro wasn¡¯t done. There was still 25 seconds left to the duel and by the end of it, there was going to be one dead queen.
Takemikazuchi Technique + Boundary!
Boosting her speed and attack, she had another set of skills up her sleeve.
Activating Pandora¡¯s Requiem¡¯s Fifth ability ¨C Divine Enchantment, Shiro enchanted her skill, Keitoma, to the next tier.
The skill itself was something that could restrain people for a short period of time anyways but one it reached the next tier, the duration and the strength of the restriction naturally increased.
With the queen frozen in ce, she was an easy target for Shiro¡¯s sword.
shing her body to pieces, Shiro watched as the system notification of her receiving a decrease in stats thanks to her being in Lima¡¯s domain disappeared.
Chapter 772 Fighting Against a Tier 6 Powerhouse
Chapter 772 Fighting Against a Tier 6 Powerhouse
Seeing this, the two guards cried out in shock as they both activated their trump cards against Nan Tian.
However, he only smiled and transformed his body into light, evading their attacks with ease.
"Seems like your queen is done for. Why do you keep fighting?" Nan Tian asked with a smirk.
"Because I¡¯ll make sure she isn¡¯t the only one who dies today!" One of the guards shouted out as he pulled his hand back and a golden spear materialised.
Throwing it towards Shiro, a shock wave exploded out from the force.
Naturally, Shiro could sense the approaching danger and tried to dive into the rift.
But just as she did this, the portal to the rift was shocked by a flicker of electricity from the spear and was cancelled out.
"You cannot escape this spear!" The guard red at Shiro with killing intent.
"Are you sure about that?" Nan Tian suddenly spoke up as he flickered next to the spear.
Grabbing the handle, he twisted his body and mmed it down against the ground.
"!!!" Widening his eyes in shock, the guard couldn¡¯t help but question what he was seeing. The spear that he had thrown was one that cannot be stopped and will strike the target always. However, the man had just grabbed it with his bare hands and threw it away from harm.
"Surprised?" Nan Tian chuckled as some of his sleeve was ripped up from that spear revealing his toned arms.
"Thanks." Shiro nodded her head as she might have been forced to use some of her life saving skills if she wanted to survive that spear.
Gritting his teeth, the guard summoned two more golden spears and threw it towards them while the second guard charged fourth with a greatsword.
"Seems like they won¡¯t back down without a fight. I can¡¯t use my rift either since the spear stops that." Shiro frowned.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll handle the spears. You can just focus on killing them." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Protector¡¯s Grasp. As long as I am in front of you, I can deflect any attack so long as I¡¯m strong enough." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
Twirling her sword for a moment, she flickered towards the man with the great sword.
She only had a few seconds left of her buffs so she wanted to kill one more if she could.
Appearing in front of him, she activated her boundary as a web of unblockable shes appeared in front of him.
Gritting his teeth, there was a crazed look to his face as he dropped his sword and took on the full brunt of her shes.
Feeling the sword cleave into his flesh, heughed as the remaining shes bounced off his flesh despite the fact that they ignored 100% of all forms of defence.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro quickly raised her sword and blocked a strike that was targeting her rips.
*BANG!!
Launching her body away, the guard charged towards her with ming fists.
"Shiro!" Nan Tian called out while deflecting a few more spears.
"I¡¯m fine! Just focus on taking your target down!" Shiro shouted back as she had a frown on her face.
Quickly healing herself up with grace, she changed her element to lightning and shed towards the guard.
shing towards him once more, she expended some of her mana to cause the sword to shift forward in space.
Flickering past his guard, she shed against his throat only for her sword to bounce off once more.
Confused by this oue, Shiro quickly dispersed into shadows before he couldnd another devastating blow against her.
Furrowing her brows, she analysed what she had experienced so far while dodging his strikes.
Unfortunately, her dodges weren¡¯t perfect as her buffs had run out. Returning back to her original stats, it was rather difficult to dodge his strikes without suffering a few minor injuries from using her sword as a shield.
¡¯After the first strike, the rest were useless. Could he have a skill that makes it so that I can only attack him once with each weapon?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she had experienced a simr skill back in her first life.
Waving her hand, a myriad of swords appeared in the air as she send them towards him while quickly retreating. Seeing this, the guard raised his hands and guarded himself.
*PUCHI!! PUCHI! PUCHI!
Stabbing into his body, he grit his teeth and endured the punishment.
Understanding that his passive skill had been found out, he quickly activated the second part of his skill.
"Retribution!" Hemanded as five tier 6 magic circles appeared around Shiro.
Before Shiro could sh them apart, illusionary swords stabbed into her body as they mirrored the damage that the guard had taken.
Watching her HP decrease rapidly, Shiro quickly activated Rejuvenation before her HP was emptied out.
Healing herself back to full, she shed apart the magic circles and dashed towards him.
Activating her new skill, Limit Focus, Shiro fuelled 20% of her total Int stat into raw power.
A burning white glow wrapped around a newly crafted de from nanobots as Shiro used her skill, Item Master, to further increase her power output.
The skill Limit Focus would take her stats as fuel and return them after 10 hours. Hence why she could use it without worrying about the permanent effects. However, if she was to use anything else to fuel her power, it would be worse. Hence why she decided to unload most of her stat points into INT when she came out of the Forgotten Realm. That way she had a main source that she could use for this attack.
*KRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
shing towards the guardian, a burning white energy enveloped her vision as it cleaved the guard in half.
But the attack wasn¡¯t done.
Ripping towards the city, it split the ground in half as screams and panic could be heard.
Looking at the giant ravine that she had created, Shiro apologised in her mind but didn¡¯t stop just yet since the guard wasn¡¯t dead.
Despite being cut in half, his flesh twitched for a moment before sewing itself back together.
Shiro wasn¡¯t surprised since she could do the same hence why she didn¡¯t drop her guard.
"Error!" Shemanded as his wasn¡¯tpletely healed.
From her hand, circuits erupted out as itshed out towards the guard and entered his body.
"Arg!!" Crying out from the unbearable pain, he could feel himself being eaten alive as his regeneration tried to heal him.
However, this only served to distract him since Shiro was allowed to attack him during this instant.
Creating a new sword, she wrapped the sword in the same white glow from the previous attack, expending 20% of her INT stat once more.
Piercing towards his chest, a surge of pure white energy charred a clean hole through his chest as she could see several skyscr.a.p.ers being affected by her attack.
Grabbing the guard¡¯s head without thinking about the casualties of this fight just yet, she mmed him towards the ground.
As a reaction, the guard reached out toward her elbow and punched it as hard as he could.
Breaking her arm in an instant, Shiro didn¡¯t flinch at all as she only stared at him with unflinching cold eyes.
Activating Grace to heal her arm, she created two daggers and stabbed them into his face before twisting them clockwise with her spare hand.
*BANG!!!!!
Crashing against the ground, arge crater was formed from the attack as the guard¡¯s hand turned ck.
Grabbing Shiro¡¯s wrist, a string of curses started to travel up her arm.
"Take my arm then. I don¡¯t care." Shiro said coldly as she summoned a dagger and cut her arm off without hesitation.
Activating the third charge of grace, she regenerated her arm and activated her True Spirit Nature.
Wrapping countless illusionary chains around his body, she pierced his chest and started to rip something out.
A faint blue energy could be seen as Shiro was pulling it out of the guards body with great difficulty.
*PING!!!
Shattering the chains around him, the guard managed to stop this in time as Shiro quickly jumped back and mmed her hand against the ground.
*KRRRR!!!
Sending out a wave of cold mist, everything around her was frozen in an instant including the guard.
With the effect of her sword, all of his resistances towards ice were ignored as he was frozen solid.
Forming a hammer with nanobots, she tacked several strength enhancing skills in the hammer and mmed it against his body.
*KISH!!!!
Shattering him to countless pieces, she could see the flesh trying its best to regenerate but it was slowing down.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro activated force of elements and coated it around a spear. Normally ,she would use her sword but since a weapon no longer works on this man after he¡¯s been attacked by it, she had to keep making new weapons with different blueprints.
Fusing the power of her spirit nature along with her skill, he threw the spear towards him with everything she¡¯s got.
"ARGGG!!!!" Crying out in pain, the man watched as the spear pierced through his half regenerated body and the illusionary figure of him was forced out of his body.
With the spear through his soul, Shiro narrowed her eyes and summoned a familiarntern.
Lashing out with a semi translucent chain, she grabbed the man¡¯s soul and imprisoned it into herntern.
Chapter 773 The Final Guard
Chapter 773 The Final Guard
Letting out a deep breath, Shiro took a moment to let her body rx as constantly activating powerful skills put a strain on her body. While the skills may say that they had no bacshes, that wasn¡¯t including the strain it put on your body. Sure one or two would have no visible or obvious effects, but several tens of skills definitely strained her.
Looking up into the sky, Shiro could see that Nan Tian was having a bit of trouble as he was essentially a ss cannon just like her. And the guard that he was facing against had a skill that made all his skills a guaranteed hit.
As she was now not behind him, his skill that allowed him to deflect attacks was no longer working.
Just as she was about to rush up, she sensed anger and hate around her.
ncing around, she could see the scared faces of humans who were pointing their weapons towards her.
Understanding that there must have been several casualties thanks to her attacks, Shiro could only sigh and ignore the res for now. As cold as it was, she knew the risks and still continued the attacks to kill the guard. In her mind, getting rid of one tier 6 guard was more important than a few lives that could have been spared.
Plus, if she tried to spare them, there was the chance that she could have died herself had she not kept up the barrage.
¡¯I was lucky I had to face this guy rather than the guard that Nan Tian is facing.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since her skill set allowed her to ignore this guard¡¯s passive. If she couldn¡¯t create different weapons, it would be annoying to try dealing with the guard since the same weapon wouldn¡¯t work twice.
{Mn, Nan Tian doesn¡¯t have a variety of weapons like you do and you don¡¯t have his durability despite you also being a ss cannon. Should the guards switch ces, I¡¯d say you¡¯d be dead and Nan Tian would be following up shortly after.} Nimue replied honestly and Shiro agreed with her statement.
Just as she was about to help Nan Tian, she felt an attack directed at her.
Summoning Silvanis, she cut the attack apart and red towards the person who fired the attack.
Seeing a young man with tears in his eyes, Shiro could sense incredible hatred from his re.
Not backing down at all, Shiro red back before standing up properly.
With her sword unsheathed, the spectators felt a strong sense of fear towards her as they started to back off slowly.
Ignoring them once more, Shiro jumped into the air and flickered behind the guard while he was preupied with Nan Tian.
Sensing danger behind him, he turned around and threw a dagger at Shiro.
But before the dagger coulde anywhere close, Nan Tian appeared in front of him and caught the dagger with his hand.
"Now that she¡¯s back, your attacks don¡¯t work anymore." Nan Tian smiled as his skill was activated once more.
"Did you have a nice work out?" He then nced back at Shiro with a smile.
"It was decent. Made me use three charges of grace before I could kill him." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"Oh? Well you still have 7 more no?" Nan Tian chuckled.
"True."
Hearing that the second guard was killed, the first guard immediately knew that he was going to die if he continued to fight.
Making the decision of escaping immediately, he wanted to turn around but a cage of light appeared around him as it was then followed up by ice chains.
"Want to leave after trying to kill us? Not so easy." Shiro narrowed her eyes as the guard gritted his teeth and shattered the chains to pieces.
Summoning a sword, he shed towards the light cage.
ncing at Shiro, Nan Tian gestured for her to attack all she wanted as he was going to keep her safe from his attacks.
"I¡¯ll be fine, I want to see what you can do." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian only shrugged his shoulders and shrugged.
"If that¡¯s what you want. But I don¡¯t have a tone of crazy one hit attacks like you do so this might take a while." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
"Hm... in that case I might as well finish him quickly then. I don¡¯t want to stay here longer than necessary." Shiro sighed as she massaged her neck.
Summoning Silvanis to her side, she activated Hollow Deceit, Eyes of the Gorgon and Limit Focus.
Fuelling 30% of her INT sat into her de, a blinding white radiance exploded out from her sword as her body disappeared.
Reappearing in front of the guard with several identical clones, Shiro shed out with the help of boundary.
Trying his best to dodge the attack, his movements were restrained by the cage of light that surrounded his body.
Raising his spear in an attempt to block the strike, he widened his eyes in shock as his spear was cut in half with him following shortly after.
Quickly regenerating his body, he wanted tosh out towards her but Shiro didn¡¯t give him that chance.
Using boundary, she shed his hands apart and plunged her sword into his chest.
Twisting the handle, she then thrusted up as it travelled through his body and reappeared out the back of his head.
Flicking her sword, she cut a clean hole through his body as the head was decapitated in an instant.
While he was still trying to regenerate, Shiro activated her true spirit nature.
Summoning herntern, she wrapped her chain around his body and ripped out his soul while he was still healing.
Sealing it away, she watched as his body crumpled into a lifeless corpse.
"The fact that you can rip souls out and imprison them is ridiculous. You do realise that was a tier 6 right?" Nan Tianughed.
"And? It¡¯s not like he could prepare himself for me ripping out his soul now could he? Plus, if I tried to rip it out while he wasn¡¯t restrained, I¡¯d be in danger you know?" Shiro replied as Nan Tian understood what she meant.
They did take their opponents off guard after all.
With how diverse Shiro¡¯s skillset was, the moment you think she has used up all her skills, she¡¯ll pull out another one out of nowhere.
With the queen and two guards killed, Shiro¡¯s level jumped up by quite a few levels, upgrading her from 300 to 340.
Pulling out her earpiece, she turned it on.
"Do you guys hear me?" Shiro said as there was a short pause before the mic was turned.
"Yes we can."
"I¡¯ve dealt with the queen and the two guards. How¡¯s the search for the prisonersing along?" Shiro asked since that was their main goal. They were lucky that their surprise attack worked quite well as the queen wasn¡¯t able to react properly before she was killed.
"Ah er we¡¯ve found their location. We¡¯re just trying to get them out without the guards surrounding us." Samuel replied as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Mn, give me a second. Stay where you are."
Flying up into the sky, she activated her skill analysis and scanned the entire city.
Discovering where Samuel and the group was, she could see quite a few guards patrolling around.
Most of them were tier 5¡¯s with the asional tier 4 watching areas of low importance.
¡¯I¡¯ve already used 70% of my INT stat for my attacks but the remaining 30% should be enough for this." Shiro thought to herself as she flexed her fingers and a myriad of weapons appeared in the air around her.
Creating special bullets with her ice element, she fired towards all of the guards that were patrolling the area.
###
Hearing Shiro¡¯s response, the team looked at each other in confusion.
"She¡¯s already dealt with the queen and that we should stay where we are?" One of the tracking spirits asked with disbelief.
"Apparently."
"Oi, don¡¯t doubt her highness. Did you not feel the aura and the reverberation through the ground when they fought? Now that it is silent and her highness called us, it¡¯s only natural that she won." Samuel lectured as he peeked out from the corner just in time to see several bullets drill through the walls and into the body of the guards.
*KRRRR!!
Before they could even scream, they were turned into ice statues as Samuel blinked in surprise.
"I believe you can move now. I¡¯ve frozen all the guards in this ce." Shiro¡¯s voice rang out as the team looked out and saw the ice statues.
"Ah understood." Samuel replied before putting the earpiece away.
###
Seeing that the team were moving quickly, Shiro sighed in relief before her body swayed for a moment.
Quickly giving her some support, Nan Tian could see that her body was abnormally cold to the touch. While she was cold anyways, this was on another level.
"Are you ok?" He asked with a frown.
"Mn, just a bit of mana deficiency I suppose. I have just almost emptied out my entire reservoir of 9 billion mana in a short span of time." Shiro joked as Nan Tian rolled his eyes.
"Try not to harm yourself like this if you can." He sighed.
"I¡¯ll try."
Talking for a bit longer, the team returned with the prisoners.
Chapter 774 Veila, Queen of the Phantoms
Chapter 774 Ve, Queen of the Phantoms
"So are these all the people that you can find?" Shiro asked with a frown since they only brought two people with them.
Gritting their teeth, they could only nod.
Staying silent, Shiro took a deep breath as she summoned thentern once more.
"Oi, Ancient Terror." Shiro called out coldly.
Hearing nothing back, Shiro narrowed her eyes and snapped her finger.
Flickering with a green light, thentern started to shake.
"ARGGGG!!!"
Hearing a cry of pain, the group were surprised.
Snapping her finger once more, Shiro stopped the light.
"Are you going to talk now?" She asked coldly.
"Fine fine you sadistic woman." The voice squeezed out as Shiro nodded her head.
"You should have twopanions that have just joined you in there. I don¡¯t care if you kill them, consume them or whatever, make sure they die as painfully as possible." Shiro ordered.
"HAHAHA and what makes you think that I will follow your will?" The ancient terrorughed.
"Because staying in thentern not doing anything is pretty boring no? Why don¡¯t you entertain yourself with the souls I retrieve." Shiro smirked.
Considering her proposal for a moment, a burst ofughter could be heard.
"Sure. Torturing these fools should bring me some enjoyment. But if I get bored I won¡¯t do it anymore."
"Up to you."
Snapping her finger, several runes appeared on the surface of thentern as she removed the barrier between the ancient terror and the two guards¡¯ souls.
Closing one of her eyes, she could see the Ancient Terror¡¯s twisted smile as he looked at the two guards with sadistic intent.
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Unsummoning thentern, Shiro saw the elders were rather confused as to what that was. Naturally, Nan Tian was the same.
"Just a monster that I have captured. He¡¯ll torture the souls of the guards that helped the queen capture you guys. Unlike the ones that have passed on, the guards won¡¯t be reincarnated." Shiro waved her hand nonchntly.
Hearing this, one of the elders that had been imprisoned broke into tears as he kneeled and bowed towards her.
"Thank you, your highness!" He cried out as he watched his friends die to the guards and he could do nothing. The fact that the guards will have their souls tortured and pushed out of reincarnation made him happy inside as they suffered a fate worse than the spirits that have passed on thanks to their attacks.
He could still remember their arrogant appearances and smug smiles while harassing them with attacks, forcing them to run. Those that didn¡¯t were killed.
His only regret was that he couldn¡¯t kill them himself but this was good enough.
"Mn anyways enough talk for now. Let¡¯s return to the capital. We have more important matters."
{Don¡¯t forget to look at the anchor before you leave Shiro.} Nimue reminded as Shiro nodded her head since that had slipped her thoughts.
"Actually, Nan Tian you take them back to the capital. I¡¯m going to check out the anchor quickly." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
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"Are there any more tier 6 individuals?" He asked just in case.
Sending out her energy since her senses were better than Nan Tian¡¯s, Shiro shook her head.
"There were only tworge sources of energy. The rest are all tier 5."
"Then they can¡¯t harm you. Do you need any life saving items just in case?" Nan Tian asked.
"I¡¯ll be fine. Just help me take them back ok?" Shiro smiled.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian escorted the group back while Shiro flew towards thergest building where she sensed the signature resembling that of an anchor.
shing through the edges of the room with ease, shended softly and looked at the glowing piece of crystal that had dimmed quite substantially.
"You¡¯re still here aren¡¯t you Limra." Shiro called out with coldness in her voice.
"If you don¡¯t respond, I¡¯ll shatter this anchor. What I killed was an avatar that you spent quite some effort in." She warned.
"I¡¯m here!" Limra¡¯s voice rang out but it was weak.
"What do you want with me?" She asked as there was fear in her voice. Almost as she was a child who was scared of an angry parent.
"I want to know about the power of the Ve who had suppressed my spirit race."
"You want to k- You¡¯re the new spirit queen!" Limra called out in surprise as Shiro nodded her head.
"Now tell me about Ve. It was her that dragged you into this mess anyways."
"Nev-"
*BANG!!!
Before Limra could say never, Shiro mmed her fist against the anchor as it dimmed down some more after a few pieces were chipped off the structure.
"Think twice before you answer. I don¡¯t care about whether or not you give me information since I¡¯ll figure it out eventually when I kill her as well." Shiro threatened.
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Quickly exining all she knew, which wasn¡¯t much since Limra didn¡¯t fight against Ve, Shiro shattered the anchor without hesitation much to Limra¡¯s shock.
Looking at the shattered crystal, Shiro had a frown on her face.
"It was justmon knowledge." She muttered with displeasure.
All she discovered was what Ve ruled over as well as some instances of her power being used.
Most of this could be told to her by the spirits in her mana realm.
Ve was the queen of Phantoms. She controls all ghost like monsters which are resistant to Physical attacks and have high tolerances to magical attacks which made it hard for even the most powerful spirit to go against her. Not to mention, she was also tricky to lock down herself.
{You¡¯re a good counter to her since you interact with the soul directly.} Estre said as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯True. But we don¡¯t know where her location is right now on Earth. If we did, we¡¯ll be able tounch an attack before she can build up her forces.¡¯
{So what do you n to do with this city?}
¡¯Leave it. They¡¯ll sort themselves out. I have more pressing matters.¡¯ Shiro sighed and picked up a few pieces of the anchor and stored them into her inventory. She wanted to take a better look at them herself at ater date.
Leaving the building, she made her way to the teleport shrine and teleported back to the ind resort.
Letting the elders rest for now, Shiro talked with Samuel about their next steps.
"How much do you know about queens?" Shiro asked as she sat with her legs crossed. She was currently looking at a few reports on the state of the elders and she couldn¡¯t help but frown at the extent of their injuries.
"I know that each queen would send an avatar to this world first to secure a city with their anchor. They would also bring a few trusted guards. After a while, their true body would arrive if nothing goes wrong."
"Indeed. What do you know about anchors then." Shiro asked as she wanted to verify the extent of knowledge that Samuel knew as well as if her information was correct or not. While she did extract this information using torture from the fire queen, there were still doubts surrounding it.
"I know that to ce more anchors, a queen needs to infuse their power into it, making them weak for a while. But their subjects will donate their strength and the queen should be stronger over time. The more anchors they ce down, the more strength they can obtain in the long term but in the short term they are severely weakened."
"That is correct. I think our next step should be to craft our own anchor since my situation is a little different. Each queenes from a previous world and they are allowed to pick a spot for their anchor with the help of the system. But I don¡¯t have that benefit since Ie from this world. Plus, I have a ce in mind where I can ce this anchor but it¡¯s exact location is rather mysterious. I¡¯ll need some time to do all my preparations.
"I wish to leave for a rather long journey so I¡¯ll have to leave the spirits under the elders care as you have done before. But once I finish the preparations, I¡¯ll move everyone to a floating fortress that can protect itself and the anchor would be mobile to avoid attacks." Shiro said as Samuel nodded his head.
"As youmand."
Giving him a phone to contact her should anything go wrong, she left the capital with Nan Tian.
Chapter 775 Lerit
Chapter 775 Lerit
"Are you sure you want to leave the spirit race so quickly despiteing back?" Nan Tian asked while ncing back at the spirit capital.
"Mn, we don¡¯t have much time. We¡¯ve already run into two no three queens with their anchors now. They are already amassing their armies while we don¡¯t even have a base yet. I want to set up this base and be around the same level before the new age arrives." Shiro replied.
"Plus, we need two make two potentially long trips. One to get the Shard of the Garden, a very important part of the anchor and the second is to find a suitable location. Since I have my nanobots, I can choose anywhere to ce the anchor as long as there is a lot of mana. This is the advantage I have over the other queens since they have to find a spot that is dense with mana and people like a city. Moreover, they only have one chance. Once they ce it down, they cannot move it as they don¡¯t have the means to make a floating city like I do." She chuckled as Nan Tian smiled.
"You seem quite excited."
"Of course. The future was quite grim but I¡¯m already changing it by making the anchor as well as my own city. Compared to what I have seen in the future, I¡¯m already making more progress as a queen." Shiro smiled.
Thinking about the future, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder how Lisandra had her wings dyed to ck and when Attie grew us.
{What about your biological child?} Nimue asked with a smug expression as Shiro clicked her tongue and red at her.
¡¯Hush about it.¡¯ Shiro rolled her eyes before focusing back on real life.
"So where is this Shard of the Garden? Knowing the context of everything, this shard is an important piece of this Earth and the moment it loses it the world is destroyed no?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn. I have a map here but the location is somewhat vague." Shiro said as she pulled out the map.
Having a look at the map, Nan Tian furrowed his brows because he didn¡¯t recognise thend at all.
"Do you think it¡¯s in the unexplored areas of this world?"
"Perhaps. After all, the ces we¡¯ve been to only epass a small part of everything. Exploring this world and the proper natives would be quite interesting." Shiro replied as the map was quite strange. It was made from this golden material that would shimmer under the sunlight. Almost as if it was a hologram but the image never changed.
Storing the map away, Shiro brought out her phone.
"Right now, the map in my mind is the most updated version that they have on the inte. I think the government might have a more advanced version so I¡¯m going to give my parents a call and ask them about it. They are pretty close to the government so they should know."
"Mn, if they don¡¯t know I can ask the sect master to look into this matter personally too." Nan Tian smiled.
Calling her parents, Shiro waited for a moment before she heard them pick up.
"Darling? Have you finished the god trials?" Mio¡¯s voice rang out.
"Mn I have. Sorry for not contacting you earlier." Shiro apologised.
"Oh it¡¯s nothing. I just didn¡¯t know the life or death of my precious daughter while the other one is out in the front lines training with her cousin."
Hearing this, Shiro understood that her mother must have been worried.
"Sorry about that mum."
"*Hais...* It¡¯s ok. I¡¯m just d you¡¯re safe. So how can I help?" Mio asked as she knew that Shiro wouldn¡¯t call for nothing. If she wanted to talk to her, Shiro would havee back to the house.
"Mn straight to the point." Shiro chuckled.
"Would you rather me spend the next hour talking about daily life with you? I can do that too." Mioughed.
"That would be fine if you wanted that mum."
"I would love to fufu. But your mum¡¯s a bit busy right now."
Just as she said this, Shiro heard the sound of someone screaming and a de running through his body.
"Are you in the middle ofbat right now?" Shiro asked.
"Mn, there was a monster horde that broke out of one of the mutated dungeons. We¡¯re just clearing it up now. The mutation was much faster than expected so we couldn¡¯t close it in time." Mio replied casually while killing a few more monsters.
"Your dad is also here but he¡¯s fighting against the boss right now."
"Mn let him focus on that for now. Anyways, my question is does the government have a much more detailed map of the world that isn¡¯t shown to the public over the inte? Like the unexplored areas." Shiro asked.
"Hmm... they do but it¡¯s only slightly better than the one we have on the inte. They want to verify the information first before distributing it." Mio replied after a short pause.
"I see... Do you think I¡¯d be able to get my hands on it? Plus, do they have any other kind of maps?" Shiro asked.
"They do. They have a map of resources, every dungeon resisted, underground caverns, ravines, special locations and ces that are sealed off by strange magic. They also have a map of areas that are high in the danger scale where tier 5¡¯s would have a hard time surviving." Mio replied.
"As for whether or not you can get your hands on it, you¡¯ll probably need to be a bit more forceful with the old geezers up top. That¡¯s what me and your dad have been doing since they were quite c.o.c.ky at first. They thought they could rule over us by being slightly above average and had more manpower but after the first few fights they learned their lesson." She huffed as Shiroughed.
"Sounds like you and dad don¡¯t have a nice rtionship with the government."
"A little. But I¡¯m sure if you go to the headquarters and tell them that you¡¯re our daughter, they¡¯ll listen to you. If they don¡¯t, just fight them I suppose. Knowing your strength, they can probably put up a decent fight for you. If they still don¡¯t ept, just call us and we¡¯ll go there personally." Mio suggested as Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"Are you sure I should be threatening the government at will for a map?"
"Yup. They¡¯re stingy. Plus, you can probably reveal that you¡¯re the owner of the guns without too many problems now since you can protect yourself. With us as your parents, they will also think twice about antagonising you. Trust your mum, they just have a strong appearance. They¡¯re cowards otherwise they would be on the front lines fighting the battles themselves." Mio spat out as Shiro could tell that her mother was not a fan of the government.
"If they spout any righteous bullsh*t feel free to cut them off ok?"
"Got it mum. I won¡¯t disturb you any longer, make sure you and dad stay safe ok?" Shiro smiled.
"Mn, love you darling." Mio chuckled.
"Love you too mum."
Ending the call, Shiro put her phone away.
"How was it?" Nan Tian asked.
"Mum just told me to go to the government¡¯s ce and im the map for myself. Apparently, my parents aren¡¯t a fan of the government." Shiro shrugged her shoulder.
"Sounds about right. The more powerful adventurers dislike the government but they understand the need for one. Most of the time so long as the government doesn¡¯t target them specifically, the powerhouses just ignore them." Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Is the old man one of them too? The sect leader." Shiro asked.
"Mn. I know it doesn¡¯t look like it but apparently the sect leader was very hot headed when he was younger. He would pick fights and taunt people all the time while enjoying himself." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Oh damn, that does not sound like the old man at all does it?"
"No it does not."
Talking for a little longer, Shiro searched up where the government office was.
Located near the centre of the human¡¯s territory, they had carved deep into the ground and formed a giant super city of sorts that is armed to the teeth.
There are a total of 5 circles to this ce. The outermost circle is ¡¯light defences¡¯ which will protect the city from long range barrages and magic attacks. The second is responsible for meleebatants that arrive past the initial defences. The third are heavily armoured troops, the fourth is a group of elite adventurers.
As for the fifth, it was the government¡¯s trump card. It was an adventurer group that were essentially on the same standard as the heroes. Not much is known about this group as the government hadn¡¯t needed to deploy them often but when they are deployed, any major threat is resolved rather quickly.
The city itself was called Lerit and there were quite a few teleport circles near the city but nothing inside.
Hiring a band of adventurers for the Lerit Teleport Shrine, they arrived near the super city.
Chapter 776 Government City
Chapter 776 Government City
Looking at the giant city in the distance that was situated behind tall walls, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but whistle at its impressiveness.
"It is the pride of the government I suppose. If you had to attack this by yourself, how sessful do you think you¡¯ll be?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Hmm... if they had a full army, I¡¯d say I¡¯ll have a 70 to 80% chance of destroying everything. There¡¯s not enough information on the mysterious group so I can¡¯t say for certain so they could have someone of your level of strength. Highly unlikely but not impossible. What about you?" Nan Tian asked.
As a tier 6, his strength far outsses a tier 5 so he could attack this ce all by himself without care. But if there are people like Shiro, then doing so would be suicidal.
"For me? Well not to be confident but I¡¯d say around 80 to 90%. A lot of my skills favour 1 against many so this is actually good for me. Plus, I have a lot ofrge scale attacks that are helpful for clearing outrge amounts of people at once. The more there are, the better it is for me. Though of course, if I charge in blindly, I¡¯ll get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of spells but if I stay on my guard and use my boundary with Celestial Path to get rid of the spells, I¡¯ll have a pretty easy time I¡¯d say." Shiro replied after taking a few of her spells into consideration.
The thing that gave her the most confidence in destroying this base is her divine grade skill Pandora¡¯s Requiem since the War Saint skill helps out a lot with its instant kill passive. Then there was also the god¡¯s blessings that she had achieved from Mount Olympus amongst the myriad of skills that she owns.
"I can definitely see why my mum and dad had an easy time charging into this ce. After all, they¡¯re more powerful than I was before. Even back then, I¡¯d say I had a 60 to 70% chance of clearing this ce if I yed my cards correctly." Shiro muttered.
"How do you think you¡¯ll fair against your parents now?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Hmm... pretty good but I don¡¯t know their full skillset and abilities. I¡¯ll need to have a spar against them again. But I think I¡¯ll be able to counter some of my mum¡¯s abilities since they resemble the boundary a lot." Shiro replied after musing about it for a moment.
"That¡¯s quite impressive considering that your parents are probably one of the strongest in the world." Nan Tian smiled as Shiroughed.
"Well I suppose surpassing them and protecting them is one of my motivations in this new age so any strength I can get is helpful."
"True. They¡¯ll also be worrying about you. After all, you are their daughter and seeing you risk yourself in front of them would not be a nice feeling." Nan Tian said as Shiro agreed.
If she saw Yin, Lisandra or Attie risk themselves in front of her and she couldn¡¯t do anything, the feeling would be agonising from her stand point. Hence why she understood how worried her parents would be but as one of the strongest people around, she was the shield for her friends and family.
Naturally, she is excited for the time when her party bes strong enough to stand beside her but for now, she was their protector.
She wasn¡¯t too worried about them not getting stronger either. Lyrica is a talented swordswoman who is also the daughter of her best friend. From what she had seen, there is a good chance that Lyrica will surpass her mother in bing the Elven Sword Saintess.
Madison is a candidate to be the demon queen so naturally they were going to help her ascend.
Aarim is a rare mage who has obtained control over gravity, Silvia was an amazing healer, Helion was chosen by the god of cksmithing, Lisandra was an angel, Yin is a phoenix and Chen Yu was one of the strongest assassin¡¯s she had ever seen.
As for Nan Tian, he is probably the first tier 6 to have ascended from Earth so that spoke plenty of his strength.
"Anyways, you think us observing them for such a long time would have caught their attention by now? Surely they would havee to greet us. Or do you think they believe we¡¯re not worth the attention?" Shiro asked with a smirk.
"Give them a minute. Perhaps they¡¯re assessing the danger level. After all, you aren¡¯t restraining your aura so they can definitely feel your strength." Nan Tianughed.
He already felt like he was standing next to a dragon despite being tier 6 so he could only wonder what the officials were feeling in the city.
And as expected, several guards soon approached them.
"Esteemed ones, do you require something from the city?" The guard bow with sweat dripping off their heads.
Both of these two mysterious people had their levels hidden but they knew that these two were very powerful.
Standing in front of the two was rather difficult as they felt an innate fear towards Shiro.
"I don¡¯t require something from the city but rather the government." Shiro smiled as they looked at one another.
"May we ask what you require so that we can pass on the message?" The guard asked.
"Mn, sure why not. I won¡¯t make your life too hard." Shiro nodded.
"I want a map of everything the government has to offer. Tunnels, unexplored areas, resource areas and so on. I want the most detailed map the government has to offer." She said as the guards paused for a moment since this information was extremely important.
If this kind of information got into the hands of other people, they could do plenty of harm to the human race.
"What? Don¡¯t tell me you can¡¯t do that?" Shiro smiled as she narrowed her eyes.
"Just get your higher ups toe here and I¡¯ll talk to them. I don¡¯t think you can be responsible for this kind of decision." Sheughed.
Looking at each other, they sighed and nodded their heads.
Watching them retreat, Shiro nced at Nan Tian.
"Well that went pretty well no?" Shiro chuckled.
"Mn. They were definitely trying to suppress their fear. I don¡¯t think the higher ups can do anything about the fear effect either." Nan Tian chuckled.
"True. Do you happen to be the higher up of your part of the mysterious group?" Shiro called out as she nced at the small hill behind her.
Suddenly, a portal opened and a young man walked out of the portal.
"You discovered me?" He asked with a curious voice.
"Well it¡¯s not hard considering a gathering of mana can be felt behind me." Shiro shrugged.
"Seems like you¡¯re quite sensitive to mana. Tell me, why do you require such a detailed map? Are you perhaps working for a queen?" The man asked with a smile.
"You sound like there have been people asking about this before us." Shiro chuckled.
"There has been and they have yet to give me a good reason for giving them a map." The man shrugged.
"And sounds like you drove them away. Are you not afraid of the queens?" Shiro asked.
"Afraid? Not quite. The queens are not strong enough to warrant any fear as of ye-"
"PFT HAHAHAHA!!!"
Hearing his response, Shiro couldn¡¯t help butugh which caused him to frown.
"Sorry, I haven¡¯t heard anything so stupid in so long. The queens don¡¯t deserve fear? That¡¯s only because they¡¯re too busy with amassing their armies."
"Please, tell me how you will fight a queen when they amass an army?" Shiro asked as she reappeared in front of him with her de across his neck.
With the de unsheathed, the fear passive activated and the man couldn¡¯t help but sweat. However, he was not affected too badly.
"I feel as though you are underestimating the government." He smiled.
"Oh? Are you sure?" Shiro had a smug grin as she brought out her phone and tapped a few buttons.
Watching the screen, he widened his eyes as he saw the most detailed map the government had in its possession.
"I wasn¡¯t sitting around doing nothing. Your security was ratherckl.u.s.tre." Shiroughed and hopped down.
"Let¡¯s go." Shiro said to Nan Tian as he nodded his head.
But before they could leave, several portals opened up as the man had a frown on his face.
"Seems like they want to fight." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian only sighed.
Chapter 777 Stanleys Help
Chapter 777 Stanley''s Help
"Are you really sure you want to fight? I can guarantee that what you¡¯re about to do is a terrible idea." Shiro chuckled while ncing up at the young man.
Hearing no reply, she only shrugged her shoulders before flexing her finger.
Suddenly, several nanotech nails appeared between her fingers as she threw them towards the portals.
*PING PING PING!!!
Shattering them to pieces, the man widened his eyes as Shiro cancelled his attack in an instant.
"Should we just lock him up for a bit or kill him?" Shiro asked as both she and Nan Tian appeared behind him.
With ice chains erupting out of the ground and a cage of light restraining the man, he was not able to move at all.
"Probably just lock him up since the government does need him after all." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
Making sure that the chains won¡¯t be broken for a while, she dragged Nan Tian into the rift and disappeared from the spot.
After they disappeared, the man released a breath that he didn¡¯t know he was holding. Cold sweat ran down his back as he clearly understood that he had underestimated the power of the young girl.
This wasn¡¯t even including the man either since he didn¡¯t do much.
Furrowing his brows, he sent a message to the government.
###
Leaving the rift, the two started to walk away as if nothing had happened.
"Are you sure you should let me tell the government about our identity?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro didn¡¯t wear her mask at all so he had a good look at her face.
"Yeah that¡¯s fine. Even if they know it¡¯s me, what can they do." Shiroughed since her parents had probably done worse.
"Anyways, how is the map? Is it good enough?" Nan Tian asked.
"Mn... Somewhat. It shows a bit more but not enough." Shiro sighed since the map that she had retrieved from the government¡¯s database only had slightly morend covered than the map she already had. It was helpful but not as helpful as she had hoped.
"I suppose we can only uncover the rest ourselves then." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Right then, how do you think we should look for the Shard of the Garden? Since we don¡¯t know how the world looks, we don¡¯t exactly know where to look do we?" Shiro asked.
"And if we randomly charge in a direction it would prove to be more annoying in terms of wasting time. Who knows if we¡¯re actually getting closer or further away." Nan Tian sighed.
"Mn."
"Do you think you can track the energy of the shard? Or is that not possible?"
"Unfortunately no. Different anchors may feel simr but that¡¯s only because the materials used are quite close. The shard is something unique and unless it¡¯s a smaller anchor of the same queen, no two anchors will feel exactly the same. So trying to track down the shard from our world is going to be hard." Shiro shrugged.
"I do have a skill I received from Hermes though. I¡¯m not sure if I want to use it or not." Shiro sighed.
"What skill is it?" Nan Tian asked.
"It¡¯s a gateway to any destination I have visited or know about so long as I have a clear understanding of its location. Since we have a map, I¡¯m not sure if it counts or not." Shiro said as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"Oh? Is there any more restrictions on this spell?"
"Well it is a one time use and Hermes said that this is a powerful spell. If I know where all mana originates from, I can teleport there." Shiro replied since this spell essentially allows her to go anywhere. She wasn¡¯t sure if she should try to obtain the shard of the garden this way.
With time being limited right now, trying to find it manually may be more difficult than what she had expected.
But using this spell was akin to trying to kill an ant with a gun. Complete overkill.
"Should I give it a try?" Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s up to you. However, we can fly around a bit and explore the world since our flight speed is fast. If we still can¡¯t find it then we use the spell. How about that?" Nan Tian suggested.
While they were indeed short for time, they were still able to take a few moments to explore and see if they could find it themselves. Plus, with Shiro being able to teleport to Astral Horizons at any moment she wished, it was a simple task to teleport away right after they obtained the shard.
"AH wait a minute, your teacher said that he discovered Astral Horizons on his journey right? What if he had discovered more of the world. His knowledge of the map would be much better plus the map skill will show him what he¡¯s found so far." Nan Tian reminded as Shiro raised her eyebrow before nodding her head.
"That¡¯s right! Teach does have that! Let me call him."
Pulling out her phone, Shiro dialled Stanley¡¯s number and waited for him to pick up.
"Hello? Stanley speaking." His voice rang out.
"Teach, it¡¯s me, Shiro. So you know how you travelled to the unexplored areas for a while right?" Shiro asked.
"Mn, I did. Are you perhaps curious about what I found?" Stanley replied.
"Kind of. You see, I¡¯m trying to find this ce which contains something very important and it seems to be in the unexplored areas. I was thinking if you have a more advanced map of the world or perhaps you might know of this location."
"I¡¯ll see what I can do then. Where are you right now? I want you to tell me your coordinates on the map." Stanley asked as Shiro checked her map and told him her coordinates.
Not too long after she did this, she heard the phone hang up and a portal appear in front of them.
"So where is this ce that you wanted to go?" Stanley asked curiously as Shiro paused for a moment since she didn¡¯t expect Stanley to appear before them.
"Ah right, here¡¯s the map."
Giving him the map that showed her where the shard is, Stanley frowned and examined it a few times.
"I know where that is." He said with a frown.
"You do?!" Shiro widened her eyes.
"Yes but teleportation doesn¡¯t work there. This was the ce where I found a few treasures including the dagger that I gave you. But the dangers there are insane. No spacial magic works there so you can¡¯t jump into the rift or teleport out. Even the special magic circle that I use to help me ignore these restrictions is useless there. The best I can do is teleport you close to it." Stanley shook his head.
"Where is it exactly?" Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s to the far far west of this world. I think it took me a few months of travel to find that ce. I kept travelling west while hardly stopping to explore the other ces I found." Stanley replied.
"I see..."
"But there are other problems such as the native race of the outside world. They are quite hostile and it took me a while to gain their trust."
"Eh? There are races that live outside in the unexplored area?" Shiro asked as Stanley nodded.
"Mn. Getting to the ind would be hard if you have these races trying to kill you around every corner." Stanley replied.
"If we disguise ourselves do you think we¡¯ll be able to get past them?"
"I¡¯m not sure since I wasn¡¯t able to do it before I was discovered. There are also dangers at the ind so you need to be careful. If you want, I cane with you. I¡¯ll escort you as far as I can." Stanley offered as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Mn... It¡¯ll be fine, teach. We should be able to handle it. Plus, you¡¯re already helping by teleporting us over there. Oh speaking of which, are there any teleport shrines outside?"
"There are. I can transfer their locations to you while I send you to the ind."
Nodding her head, the trio made their way to a teleport shrine.
Setting down some nodes, Shiro wanted to see how far each teleport shrine was so that she could start mapping out everything herself.
Spending the next hour teleporting around, Stanley transferred a total of 28 teleport shrines to Shiro.
"I don¡¯t have any inside a town or city since I wasn¡¯t trusted enough for that yet." Stanley sighed as Shiro shook her head.
"No this is plenty already teach. Having these 28 new ces helps out a lot since it¡¯s much more than what the government has provided me.
Nodding his head, Stanley did one final teleport but this time it was with his own magic.
Finding themselves on a cliff near the sea, Shiro could see inds in the distance.
"That¡¯s where you want to be going."
Chapter 778 Navuri
Chapter 778 Navuri
"Are you sure you don¡¯t want me to join you?" Stanley asked with concern since he understood the dangers that are on the ind.
"It¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t want to trouble teach any more than necessary. Plus, I can look after myself. Nan Tian¡¯s also here just in case too." Shiro smiled as Stanley sighed.
"You¡¯re not troubling me. I¡¯m just worried about your safety."
Seeing Stanley being genuinely worried about her safety, Shiro thought about it for a moment before nodding her head.
"While you¡¯re worried for me I¡¯m also worried for you ok? Both me and Lil¡¯ Tian have ways to heal ourselves if things go south but I don¡¯t know if you got the skills to do the same." Shiro said as Stanleyughed.
"What kind of mage do you think I am? Of course I have ways to heal myself if things go south." Stanley replied as Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
"Fair. But before we start I think there are a few things that you need to know teach."
"Oh? And what¡¯s that?"
"Well my main ss is actually rather special. You see, my main ss is something called a Nanomancer. I¡¯m able to create these little robots at will and they can turn into anything I want from items to weapons. They¡¯re quite handy so don¡¯t be shocked if I suddenly summon high tech things like it¡¯s normal I guess." Shiro replied as she summoned some nanobots for Stanley to look at.
Examining the nanobots, he was surprised to see that they were tiny ¡¯living¡¯ robots in a way that continuously absorbed a bit of mana.
"Fascinating... What exactly do you mean by summoning high tech?" Stanley asked as Shiro snapped her finger and the nanobots returned to her hand.
"What do you want to see? Guns, mech suits, tracking devices, vehicles or others?" Shiro asked.
"Ah but not something too big in case people find us." She said as Stanley nodded his head.
His main focus in what she said was guns as everyone was interested in who owned the guns that killed quite a few people in the elven continent. Hearing that Shiro could make guns, he had a feeling that she could be the culprit all along.
"Can I see the guns?" He asked.
Nodding her head, Shiro flexed her fingers as a hand cannon and sniper were created.
Seeing the guns, Stanley confirmed that his thoughts were indeed correct.
"Normally I would warn you about the government but seeing as though you have stolen their map without harm, you probably don¡¯t worry about them." He smiled.
"Yup." Shiro grinned.
"So how do we get to the ind? From what I can tell, it seems like there¡¯s a barrier that¡¯s preventing us from travelling through air." She asked while gesturing towards the ind.
"We¡¯ll have to trouble the locals. Did you know, the first time I came here I was actually endangered by the waves. When I lost my power of flight, I dropped down into the ocean and the currents almost swept me away. If the locals didn¡¯t help me, I might have died." Stanley sighed and nced towards the sea that had almost killed him.
"Wait, you almost died to the water?" Shiro asked with surprise since even if he lost his power of flight, surely he could use magic to make himself a tform to escape from.
"Mn. Every time I tried to use magic in the sea my mana was drained rapidly causing the spell to fail. I did a few experiments in trying to extract the water but it seems like it¡¯s a special property that only happens in that sea. Any water that is removed loses this property and bes normal sea water." Stanley exined as he walked down the path with Shiro and Nan Tian following behind him.
"The locals are called the Navuri n and they are simr to elves in a way. They have pointed ears much like the elves but they have light blue skin, red eyes and horns on their head. There are... How can I exin this... Two types of Navuri¡¯s.
"The warrior type and themon folk I suppose. The warriors are born with incredible physiques at birth while themon folk are like normal babies. The warriors have an advantage when ites tobat since they are innately born to be fighters. Hence why I call them the warrior type. The warrior type Navuri are born with a singr horn on their head while themon folk are born with two horns.
"While themon folk are not blessed with great physiques at birth, some are born with the talent for magic but it¡¯s not obvious until theye of age. Once they do, they can study under a teacher and be mages. But there is one weakness inherint to the mages. When they lose their horns, their casting ability decreases dramatically. This is the same for warriors as they lose some of their incredible strength and speed." Stanley exined as Shiro nodded her head.
Hearing about the Navuri¡¯s, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder what it would be like had they been situated closer to the humans. But remembering the things that happened back in Aria, Shiro could only sigh since their horns would have definitely been cut off and sold like what they do with animals.
"The Navuri¡¯s have a few traditions but the one you need to keep in mind the most is that you must respect the Warriors or else you¡¯ll be insulting all of them. They have quite a strict hierarchy so even as an outsider, you need to show some respect to them." Stanley informed as Shiro nodded her head.
"That and also you might want to hide or change your appearance a little. The warrior males are known to be non-monogamous so if you catch their eye, they¡¯ll try to drag you into their harems. This is the same with the female warriors. Thankfully, they look down on mages so I was spared." Stanley chuckled.
"Oh? Why do they look down on mages?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Because their philosophy is that they can just kill a mage easily if they get close. Plus, they¡¯ve been wrestling the monsters that threaten them so they¡¯re inclined to think that warriors are stronger. Plus, their mages aren¡¯t the best so I haven¡¯t shown anything too crazy to them. At most, their mages can cast a few low tier spells that deal moderate damage. Their development with mages is weak while their understanding of warriors is high. Hence why they favour warriors." Stanley exined.
"Pft, if they knew what mages could do they would think otherwise." Shiroughed.
"True. But if you said that in front of them you would have made yourself public enemy number one." Stanley chuckled.
"Wait what?"
"Yup. So try to be careful ok?" Stanley smiled as Shiro could only nod her head since she didn¡¯t realise they were that sensitive.
"Anything else we need to keep in mind?" Nan Tian asked.
"Ah right. You should avoid using masks since they will ask you to reveal yourself with some hostility."
Hearing this, Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
Taking off his mask, he cast a disguise skill on himself to look a little moremon.
"You should do the same Shiro." Nan Tian said as Shiro agreed since she wasn¡¯t too keen on someone trying to drag her into a harem.
Activating disguise on herself, she made herself look like an average person. One that would fade into the crowd rather than stand out.
"Hmm... too pretty. You still need to disguise yourself a little more since you would still draw their attention if you look like that." Stanley said after a moment of thought.
"Ehhh??? Seriously?" Shiro asked.
"Yup."
Sighing heavily, Shiro made herself look worse than average as she couldn¡¯t help but shed a tear in her heart. After all, she was still a maiden in heart. She still wanted to look good ok!
{Why? Do you not want Nan Tian to see you when you look like this?} Nimue asked with a smug smile.
¡¯Shut it you!¡¯ Shiro pouted as Nimue onlyughed.
{You know, since I¡¯m in here, I can hear your thoughts loud and clear. Same goes with Iziuel and Estre.} Nimue said with a knowing smile.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro only ignored them while ncing towards Nan Tian for a moment.
"Mn? What is it?" Nan Tian asked curiously, seeing Shiro nce towards him. After all, she normally wanted something from him when she looked towards him.
"Nothing." Shiro coughed.
{See?}
Ignoring Nimue, Shiro followed behind Stanley raised his eyebrow while guiding the two towards where the Navuri¡¯s lived. Their home/city was located next to the sea so it wasn¡¯t hard for them to spot out from the distance.
"Their city is called Nilliuk and this city is a branch I suppose. Their capital is still quite a distance away." Stanley said as they approached the edge of the city.
Chapter 779 Nilliuk
Chapter 779 Nilliuk
Watching as two guards suddenly approached, Shiro tilted her head as she did not understand a single word that had juste out of their mouths.
"It¡¯s theirnguage, I¡¯llmunicate and trante for you don¡¯t worry." Stanley chuckled but Shiro was already doing some preparations of her own.
On her wrist was a bracelet that analyses thenguage and trantes it for her. All she needed to do was memorise it and wait for the trantion to be confirmed.
"What do you think they¡¯re talking about?" Nan Tian whispered over as Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
"I don¡¯t know but I¡¯m analysing theirnguage right now. If you want, I can make you a trantor so that everything you hear will be tranted and everything you say will also be tranted." Shiro whispered back as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"That would be helpful. Unfortunately, I¡¯m not as talented as you are in that regard." He smiled softly.
"Well not many people are. My mind is essentially aputer after all." Shiro shrugged.
"True."
After a few short moments, Stanley turned back to the two.
"They were just wondering who you two are. They know me since I spent a bit of time here but they¡¯re on guard about you two. You¡¯ll need to be monitored by guards at all times when you are in the city and your weapons have to be confiscated." Stanley exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Do they know about inventory or can I get away with that?" Shiro asked.
"They don¡¯t but the moment you use the inventory, they¡¯ll see that you have weapons all along and won¡¯t trust you at all. Plus, they can¡¯t see how many weapons you have so that would make it even harder for them to trust you." Stanley replied.
"Mn... well I won¡¯t be killing anyone so I doubt I¡¯d summon a weapon. So tell them no, I don¡¯t have any weapons. Or better yet, just say that we¡¯re mages." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian agreed. After all, they look down on mages so it was a good way to not raise suspicion. In their minds, two mages couldn¡¯t do any major damage.
"Sure."
Turning back to the guards, Stanley spoke a few words as Shiro nced at the bracelet to see how much of thenguage has been decoded so far.
Seeing that it was only at 10%, Shiro sighed since it made sense. They were only having a few basic conversations. If she wanted the full picture, she would need to spend more time and let the bracelet analyse thenguage some more.
Which she wasn¡¯t too against since she was curious about what this race of people were like. She was also curious about what their materials were. After all, the anchor is alsoposed of the materials you can find in this world. So seeing what materials are provided from the unexplored areas would be very helpful.
"They said they¡¯re still going to leave a few guards with us to keep watch. After all, you two are neers and they did the same with me." Stanley turned back to the two.
"That¡¯s fine. Do you know what they use to pay for stuff?" Shiro asked.
Since the Navuri didn¡¯t have ess to inventory, she wasn¡¯t sure about their interactions with the system. It could be that they don¡¯t have the system at all or it could be that theyck a few privileges.
"They use coins that you earn here. I have some on me but we¡¯re essentially broke right now." Stanley chuckled as Shiro sighed.
"I see. Do you think we¡¯ll have enough to buy some materials?"
"Oh definitely. The price of materials is pretty cheap. I was thinking that you wanted weapons or the such. They don¡¯t have many cksmiths so any weapons they make are very expensive. So the base materials are cheap inparison." Stanley replied.
"Oh that¡¯s pretty good then. If there are new rare or new materials, I¡¯ll want to check them out since it could be important. Who knows, my nanobots might be able to copy theirpositions if they¡¯re strong." Shiro chuckled as Stanley nodded his head.
"Give me a moment then. I¡¯ll ask these two about giving us an entrance pass as well as the guards that need to watch over us."
Nodding her head, Shiro nced up at the city walls.
Looking at the architecture, Shiro was quite surprised to see that it was very reminiscent of western architecture of castles that she had seen on the inte.
She could see several guards with bows that were observing them with caution but no hostility which was a good sign.
¡¯At least they¡¯re neutral. If it was humans, it might have been hostility in their gaze.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as humans are quite racist for ack of a better term. After being on the top of the food chain for quite some time, it¡¯s difficult for them to ept someone being higher than them.
This was what happened in her past life when the humans couldn¡¯t ept the demi humans and they were enved.
Hell even the monsters were used for s.e.x.u.a.l relief. Thankfully, she hadn¡¯t seen anything of the sort so far in this world which made her smile.
She could understand why though, since no one cared if a monster died or not. If a person made love to a monster, it was more the person¡¯s problem than the people who know of it. Sure it was strange but it wasn¡¯t like they were forcing a ¡¯human¡¯ to do the act.
¡¯If I was caught when I wasn¡¯t strong enough, things would have gotten rough.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh.
{Especially with your looks. As crude as this sounds, you would be ssed as a high quality product.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯Uff... Don¡¯t call me that. It just gives me chills down the spine.¡¯ Shiro made a disgusted face since itemising her as a tool for s.e.x.u.a.l relief only made her want to throw up.
{I know, I¡¯m just making an example don¡¯t worry haha.} Nimue chuckled.
As she was talking to Nimue, Attie reached out and tugged at Shiro¡¯s sleeve.
¡¯You want me to pick you up?¡¯ Shiro smiled as Attie nodded his head.
Picking Attie up, Shiro wondered if she should bring Attie out without raising suspicion.
"Teach, do you think I can bring out my son and they not question it?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Hmm... probably not. They¡¯ll think about how you brought him out and question if you have any weapons hidden away." Stanley replied as Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Fair."
¡¯Sorry darling, it seems like I can¡¯t bring you out just yet.¡¯ Shiro sighed as Attie pouted for a moment before nodding his head.
¡¯But don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll bring you out to have some fun after I finish my work ok?¡¯ Shiro smiled as Attie nodded his head.
Thinking about it for a moment, he blushed and pecked her on the cheek before waddling away.
¡¯Arrgggg!!! Why is my son so cute!!¡¯ Shiro smiled as Nimue rolled her eyes.
{Why are you like this with Attie but not Yin and Lisandra huh?}
¡¯Well, Yin grew up quite quickly and she has been quite the prankster. Lisandra has always been the serious type. Naturally, I still pamper them but Attie¡¯s the only one that stayed as a baby for quite some time, so.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
To her, babies were cute so she wanted to take advantage of it as much as she could before he grew up. When he does, he¡¯ll be the handsome man she saw in the future.
{They still need love even though it might embarrass them.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Mn, true. I¡¯m not that good of a mother am I?¡¯
{First time for everything. But while you may not be a great mother in terms of attention giving, no one would want to pick on your children since they¡¯ll incur your wrath.} Nimueughed.
¡¯True. If I see anyone bullying my child don¡¯t expect me to go easy on them hmph.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
{Shiro, they¡¯re children. Are you really going to rain destruction down on a child?} Nimue¡¯s smile twitched.
¡¯Well... maybe not destruction but they¡¯ll pay for bullying my child.¡¯
{. . . You are also quite possibly the most overprotective parent.} Nimue shrugged.
Taking to Nimue for a bit longer, Shiro watched as two guards approached them and stand near them.
"We can enter now." Stanley smiled.
Chapter 780 Approaching The Island
Chapter 780 Approaching The Ind
Entering the city with two guards following behind them, Shiro could see the Navuri people looking at them with curiosity.
Some of the children would point towards them and speak to their parents.
Surprisingly, they were quite hospitable.
Acting as the trantor for now, Stanley informed Shiro about what they were asking about.
It was mostly the generic questions such as who they were and where they came from.
Answering them with a smile, Shiro watched as the percentage of the trantor go up.
"They¡¯re asking if you want to try some of the local delicacies." Stanley said as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Well our goal is the ind no? Do we have enough time to try everything out?" Shiro asked.
"We¡¯re going to be needing their help to get to the ind anyways. Taking a moment to make some connections isn¡¯t bad either. Plus, we can do some part time work to earn some money in the process." Stanley suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure then."
The local delicacies were mostly seafood but the meat was quite strange as it wasn¡¯t rich with mana. Compared to the food she had eaten in the human territories; this wasn¡¯t as filling due to theck of mana but it was rather tasty. There was quite a lot of shellfish as well which Shiro enjoyed quite a bit. However, a few of the dishes were quite raw which she wasn¡¯t as enthusiastic about.
After eating some of the local delicacies, Shiro walked around to the shops that sold materials that could be found around this area.
Most of them were quitemon but the mana density was abnormally low.
With a low man density, the materials weren¡¯t as good as what she could get in a city.
Sighing softly, she could only give up on getting materials.
"Have you noticed it?" Stanley asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Unlike Astral Horizons, this ce is abnormally low in mana. From the materials to the food, I¡¯d say it¡¯s equivalent to probably New York." Shiro frowned.
"Mn, I haven¡¯t found the source of this phenomenon but I can say for sure that the closer you get to the ind, the less mana there is. On the ind, I found it to be almost impossible to regenerate mana." Stanley shook his head.
"Do you think something is absorbing the mana?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Most likely. It¡¯s probably on the ind too." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn, we can probably find the source if we spend a bit of time on the ind. Last time I wasn¡¯t able to find the source since I had to escape while I could." Stanley shrugged.
"This is where you got the rainbow dagger right?" Shiro asked.
"Yup. Speaking of which, did you get anything good from it? I know that it said you can have a technique used by the gods."
"Well... I wouldn¡¯t call it a technique. It¡¯s more of a passive skill that I can use. It¡¯s called Item Master and I can use everything to maximum efficiency. Which includes swords, guns and so on." Shiro exined as Stanley halted halfway through his step and nced towards her with confusion.
"Pardon?"
"I can use any and every item to its maximum efficiency using my pre-existing knowledge and understanding. If I don¡¯t know how to use it, then my passive doesn¡¯t work." Shiro exined as Stanley took a deep breath and calmed himself.
"Seems like the item was changed. Honestly, this is probably better than any technique you can find." Stanley chuckled as Shiro agreed.
"Yup and honestly, it¡¯s very helpful with what I do." Shiro admitted since she has been able to upgrade quite a few of her blueprints thanks to this passive.
Hell even her flying fortress had been upgraded.
"I see... Anyways want to go look for a ce to stay for a while? We¡¯ll need to work on gaining trust so I¡¯d say it¡¯ll take around a week or so for them to guide you to the ind." Stanley said as Shiro nodded her head.
Finding a ce to stay, Shiro had a room to herself while Nan Tian and Stanley shared a room.
Waking up the next day, they went around looking for a bit of work. Eventually, Shiro decided to work as a chef since Item Master allowed her to make an amazing meal thanks to her being able to use the resources to their maximum efficiency.
Gaining trust through their stomachs as a chef, she worked with Nan Tian as he would be the waiter.
After a day, her trantor finally finished tranting everything and they were shocked that Shiro had learned theirnguage so quickly. This only helped her gain their trust more since it showed them her sincerity in a way as they believed she had dedicated her time to study theirnguage.
Spending a week or so here, Shiro was pretty familiar with most of the people thate to eat her food.
This morning, Stanley had just informed her that he had booked them a boat to the ind so she was making some final preparations.
Writing a sign outside the restaurant that she was working in, she watched as the customers walked through the door.
"Today¡¯s thest day?" One of the customers asked.
"Mn, yeah. I¡¯ll be travelling to the ind with my friends today so I won¡¯t be working for a while." Shiro replied with a chuckle.
"Ahhh that¡¯s a real shame then. Your food is so much nicer than what we had before."
"Pft, Mr Aldori, if you had said that in front of the chefs they would have banned you froming here." Shiroughed.
"Oh I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine. Everyone knows that your food is the best here." Aldori smiled as the people following behind him agreed.
"Well since it¡¯s thest time I¡¯m going to be cooking, the boss agreed that the food will be 25% off. So tell me your orders and I¡¯ll cook them" Shiro grinned as they cheered.
Spending the new few hours cooking food constantly, they were able to earn much more than before despite having a 25% deal since more people wanted to try her food. They were on the fence before but hearing that there was a deal as well as this being thest time she was going to cook, the ones that haven¡¯t tried yet decided to give it a go.
But once they tried her cooking, they were feeling regretful since they didn¡¯te to eat sooner.
Packing up, Shiro saw Nan Tian and Stanley waiting patiently as they had both finished their prep.
"Ready?" Stanley asked with a smile.
"Mn."
Making their way to the docks, Shiro could see a rather sizable boat with a crew of Navuri on the deck.
"Do we need such a big crew?" Shiro asked as Stanley nodded.
"Depending on what happens, the ocean could be quite rough so it¡¯lle in handy." Stanley smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Wee. The crew is ready and we can set off at any moment." The captain smiled as Stanley nodded his head.
"Let¡¯s go then. I hope to get to the ind before nightfall." Stanley replied.
"Of course. As per agreement, we shall wait on the ind for a week. Afterwards, we¡¯ll leave." The captain reminded.
"Yeah that¡¯s fine." Stanley nodded.
"Are you sure a week is fine? What if we stay for longer?" Shiro asked as she wasn¡¯t sure about how long they could take.
"Well if it takes more than a week. Then we have other ways of leaving the ind. Right now a week should be fine." Stanley replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Fair enough."
Getting into the boat, Shiro sat by the side with Stanley to her left and Nan Tian to her right.
ncing out at sea, Shiro could feel her magic halt as the feeling was a little strange since she could no longer fly. But it didn¡¯t affect her too much.
As for Nan Tian, he furrowed his brows a little but other than that he wasn¡¯t too affected either.
Navigating through the ocean, the boat rocked back and forth as Shiro could understand how this would affect her teacher if he could no longer fly.
Their journey took a few hours but they arrived at the ind before night fell.
Stepping on the ind, Shiro could feel her skin tingle from the cold winds which was abnormal considering her ice resistance.
Narrowing her eyes, she took a deep breath and prepared herself.
Chapter 781 Rechargeable Battery
Chapter 781 Rechargeable Battery
Watching the crew anchor the boat down by the side, Shiro nced at Stanley and Nan Tian.
"Let¡¯s get going. Shall I try to scan the whole ind so that we can get a general idea on how big this ce is?" Shiro asked as Stanley furrowed his brows.
"It¡¯s hard to regenerate mana in this ce so you might want to be a bit more conservative with your mana." Stanley replied as Shiro only nodded her head.
"I know but you see, I¡¯m a little different. I have two no technically three kinds of energy in me. The first kind is as you know, mana. The second is something I like to call Celestial Energy. The third andst one is what I like to call Divine Energy since ites from my divinity. I¡¯m able to fuse all three or use them separately when I wish. My Divine Raiment uses Celestial Energy and I can boost some spells by using divine energy thates from my divinity. There is also my passive called Chosen of Nature. With this passive my health and mana regeneration is massively increased in a ce with lots of nature rather than man made constructs. While quite a few of my spells are restricted, I can say for sure that my health and mana regeneration is rather impressive despite being a little slow." Shiro replied as Stanley paused.
"Wait what? You have three types of energy and you have a spell that lets you regenerate mana and health in this situation?" Stanley asked with curiosity and disbelief.
"Yup."
"And you also said you have divinity right?"
"Yup. Ah I haven¡¯t told you just yet have I? I¡¯ve attained divinity or rather, I¡¯m a demigod now. I¡¯ve attained this after Ipleted the trials at Mount Olympus." Shiro replied.
Taking a moment to digest this information, Stanley furrowed his brows.
"So you¡¯re a half god now?"
"Mn."
"What exactly does having divinity do for you? It would be helpful to know when going through this ind." Stanley asked.
Just as Shiro was about to reply, she realised that she didn¡¯t know much about being a demigod herself.
"Well, so far I only know that I can imbue one of my forms with divine energy and ascend it to demi god status. I haven¡¯t tried it out yet so I should probably give it a try soon. It onlysts for an hour and the cooldown is three days." Shiro replied after a short pause.
"Hmm...We¡¯ll probably try it out today on this ind but make sure you are careful of where you use it since it¡¯s a powerful tool. If we waste it on some cannon fodder it would be a shame." Stanley reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
"Don¡¯t worry teach. Speaking of which, you alsopleted the Olympus trials before right Nan Tian?" Shiro turned to Nan Tian who nodded his head.
"I did but it wasn¡¯t anything too major. Nothing like what you and the party obtained." Nan Tian smiled softly as Shiro only shrugged.
"A shame then. Anyways, since you have been here before, do you want to lead the way teach?" Shiro asked as Stanley nodded.
"Last time I was here, I only explored a small part of this ind and that was the chamber within the biggest mountain on this ind. I found quite a few paths leading deep underground but I didn¡¯t get a chance to explore them." He exined as they walked.
The ind itself was ratherrge and it was constructed of three different mountains, arge forest surrounding each one and a beach that loops around the ce. Walking through the forest towards the centre of the ind, Shiro could definitely feel her external regeneration of mana haltpletely and she could only rely on her internal regeneration.
This was slightly problematic since it means that she¡¯ll need to manually provide the mana for her nanobots. After all, when they detach from her, they use the ambient mana to sustain themselves. With the ambient mana gone, it would only take them a few moments before fizzling out.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to experiment a little.
"You twoe here for a second." Shiro called out as both Nan Tian and Stanley nced toward her.
"I want you to wear this for now. I know it looks like police cuffs but trust me it¡¯s not what it seems." Shiro said while showing them two cuffs. She was connected to one part of them while the other was meant for them.
Raising his eyebrow, Nan Tian ced it on his arm and immediately felt a surge of mana.
"Lil¡¯ Tian you¡¯re full on mana right now so you¡¯re fine. When you are low, put this on and you can recharge. I¡¯m passively regenerating mana unlike you two so I¡¯ll be the rechargeable battery for now." Shiro grinned as Nimueughed at her description from within the mana realm.
After all, she wasn¡¯t wrong.
cing the cuffs on his wrist, Stanley could see his MP increase as the transfer speed was quite fast.
"How much mana do you have?" Stanley asked as he couldn¡¯t believe how much mana he was receiving.
"More than 10 billion. Why do you ask?" Shiro tilted her head.
". . .Nothing." Shaking his head, Stanley removed the cuffs once he was full.
When they arrived on the ind, he had sent out a constant scan to see if there was any danger nearby but there hasn¡¯t been so far. Naturally, he was also careful with his mana usage.
But now that Shiro had revealed that she could recharge their mana without too much worry, he could be slightly more aggressive with scanning the ind.
"Hm... we¡¯re pretty safe for the next few miles or so. I haven¡¯t detected anything just yet." Stanley said as Shiro nodded her head.
ncing around them, Shiro smiled.
Taking a deep breath, a tier 6 magic circle wrapped around her hand as she mmed it down against the ground.
Suddenly, a web of nanobots surged out. As if they were a colony of ants, they skittered throughout the ind while staying connected to her.
"What are you doing?" Stanley asked.
"I¡¯m taking a scan of the ind. Normally, I can just do this with a snap of my finger but since this ce doesn¡¯t have any ambient mana, my nanobots would be destroyed once they detach from me." Shiro exined.
Raising her spare hand, a hologram was slowly constructing itself with each passing second.
Looking at the hologram with surprise, Stanley couldn¡¯t believe how helpful the nanobots were. They almost seemed omnipotent in his eyes with how Shiro was using them.
Sensing his gaze, Shiro only sighed.
"Teach, I know you think the nanobots are omnipotent, but they really aren¡¯t. You see, if I don¡¯t have any blueprints in my mind for the things I construct, I wouldn¡¯t be able to make them at all. Nanobots are very literal. The parts have to work properly when creating the item or else it¡¯ll just self destruct in front of you. Without the blueprints, the most I can be is a caveman waving around a stick. Nanobots are so much more than that but the prerequisites of using it and utilising this element properly are very stringent. The only reason it looks omnipotent to you right now is because I have ess to quite a few blueprints as well as the experience. Hell, without myputer like memory, it¡¯d be hard for someone to use it like I do since they could forget an important part within the blueprint. Miss out a single part and the object is useless." Shiro exined with a shake of her head.
The Nanobots were hard to use due to the high requirement to use efficiently. If she didn¡¯t have her amazing memory, she would have long forgotten so many of her blueprints from Aria. Hell, she wouldn¡¯t even be able to create her guns at will since she¡¯d be busy recounting all of the information regarding how the gun was made. Since they¡¯re rather high tech andpact, creating them would be quite slow on top of a high risk of failure.
Hearing her exnation, Stanley understood that he was viewing things at a surface level and not the effort required behind the scenes.
"Ah sorry about that." Stanley apologised as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn."
Seeing Stanley¡¯s gaze reminded her of the people who both revered and hungered for her power. Seeing such a gaze in her teacher was not something she weed.
Chapter 782 Scanning the Mountains
Chapter 782 Scanning the Mountains
Furrowing her brows, Shiro watched as the scan of the ind slowed down.
Even if she¡¯s staying in contact with the nanobots, it was still hard to supply mana to everything without it crumbling to ash since there was no ambient mana.
However, she managed to map out the first mountain, a forest and a few caves.
"This is all that I can do so far. Any further and it¡¯s too inefficient." Shiro said with a frown and nced at her mana. Seeing that it was already drained by 30%, she could only sigh at how much mana she had used. Thankfully, she had her Chosen of Nature to help her out.
Flexing her fingers, she created two more wrist bands which had the map projected onto them. They can choose to expand the hologram if they want.
Looking at the map, Stanley could spot where he had entered before.
"This chamber is where I was. I also managed to obtain the dagger from here. I¡¯m not sure if it has reset or not but if it has, we can potentially get another rainbow grade dagger in this ce." Stanley said while pointing towards a small cavity within the mountain.
"I can give it a scan to see if it has reset or not. If I don¡¯t sense anything in them there¡¯s a high chance of it being reset." Shiro replied as Stanley nodded his head.
Watching her send out nanobots once more, a more detailed hologram of the room appeared in front of them.
Within the hologram, they could see signs of battle as Stanley recognised them to be a result of hisbat against the guards.
"Never mind. Seems like they haven¡¯t reset. Though I suppose if you could keep getting rainbow items it would be a bit ridiculous." Stanley shrugged his shoulder.
"Mn. So here are the choices. We can either start exploring the mountains or go deep underground. And I¡¯ll be honest, I think the shard could be underground since there¡¯s not much space above ground. I could also be wrong considering how many chambers there are and we haven¡¯t scanned the other two mountains just yet. Since we can regenerate mana thanks to my passive, do you think it¡¯s worth it to see if there are any other rainbow grade items in the mountains?" Shiro asked as Stanley nodded his head.
"We have a week to spend here so visiting the two mountains can be done in that time. The only reason I was forced to leavest time was because I ran out of mana for my spells. But if you are around, that problem is gone." Stanley smiled as reaching the chamberst time was quite hard since he had to make sure his spells were used to their maximum potential. This meant that he had to dodge the attacks of several guards before unleashing a barrage to kill them all.
"Have youpletely explored the first mountain? Or are there more treasures to be found?" Nan Tian asked while pointing at some of the other cavities
"I¡¯ve explored most of them. There are only a few weapons and armour pieces but they¡¯re ratherckl.u.s.tre. If I had to describe it, it¡¯s not worth the effort." Stanley shook his head.
"From the way it looks, there is only one main chamber and that is where the best items are stored. If we¡¯re going to the other mountains, we should put our focus in reaching the main chamber rather than the smaller ones." Shiro suggested as the two nodded their heads.
"Anything you can tell us about the guards?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Hmm... they don¡¯t use spells and they just charge at you with the intent to tten you against the ground. If anything, I¡¯ll need to warn you about their physical capabilities. When I was fighting them, most of my mana was used to reinforce my body so that I could actually keep up. Even if my physique isn¡¯t as good as others, I still try to keep up so the fact that they forced me to use a lot of mana for reinforcement should give you a bit of idea. Do not hesitate to use mana for reinforcement if you feel danger." Stanley warned with a serious expression.
Nodding her head, Shiro noted her teacher¡¯s warnings down seriously.
After all, his reinforcement magic on the body was quite impressive as it allows him to surpass the average physical prowess of most tier 5 warriors. Of course, for exceptional warriors such as her father, Stanley would have some difficulties.
Making their way to the second mountain that was slightly to the back right of the first, Shiro made sure to scan the mountain. However, just as she did this, she sensed danger and immediately retracted her hand.
*TSS!!!!!
Seeing her nanobots get fried instantly, Shiro knew that she would have been the same if she didn¡¯t retract her hand fast enough.
"Seems like it won¡¯t be that easy. We¡¯ll have to explore the second mountain ourselves. I think we can only scan it once we cleared the main chamber." Shiro said as the two agreed with her theory.
"I just realised a small problem." Stanley said as Shiro and Nan Tian nced towards him.
"All three of us are backline fighters. While you may be better at closebat than we are Shiro, I¡¯m not keen on letting you be the front line and Nan Tian can probably agree with that." Stanley said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Pft, it¡¯ll be fine. I can handle myself just fine on the front lines ok?" Shiro shrugged.
"I¡¯ll take the front line. Shiro you can be at the back since it also means that my skill will be activated." Nan Tian said as Shiro furrowed her brows. However, Nan Tian skill dide in handy so it was probably a good idea to let him be the front line.
"Fine but I¡¯ll be a mixed fighter then. If it gets a bit out of hand, I¡¯ll help out with some meleebat. Otherwise I¡¯ll stay at the back and provide covering fire." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"If you can group them up, I¡¯ll erase them as quickly as I can then. Since I can regenerate my mana, I can afford to use some of my stronger spells." Stanley smiled.
With theirbat n figured out, they approached the second mountain.
###
". . ."
". . ."
"How should we deal with this?" Nan Tian asked as they looked towards the tworge kneeling statues. Seeing the flickering eyes, they knew that they had to fight them.
Without a proper tank, it¡¯ll be hard for them to block it even with Nan Tian¡¯s skill.
"Obliterate it as fast as we can?" Shiro suggested as Stanley agreed.
"Since I¡¯m tier 6 now, I can take one out myself you twobine efforts to take the other." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head since that was probably the best set up for now.
"Do you know any magnification spells teach? Like these ones." Shiro asked as she created a few spell circles.
"Hmm... I do but I can probably incorporate your spells to amplify mine some more. What are you thinking about?" Stanley asked since Shiro sounded like she had an idea.
"Oh nothing much. Just an advanced rail cannon." She grinned.
mming her foot against the ground, nanobots surged around her as parts of her rail cannon started to appear.
Combining with one another, Stanley watched in shock as a weapon that shouldn¡¯t even exist with their current technology was created in front of his eyes.
Jumping on the back of the rail cannon, Shiro made sure that she wasfortable in the seat before powering everything on.
Hearing the sound of gun powering up, Stanley understood what she wanted to do and prepared the magnification spells.
Seeing this, Nan Tian only smiled and snapped his finger.
Severalyers of tier 6 magic circles appeared above the left guardian as their eyes stopped shing and glowed with an ominous light.
Standing up, they wanted to approach the ground when Shiro only smirked and Activated Divine Enchantment on her Frozen Slumber skill.
Suddenly, ice chains erupted out of the space around the guards as they were frozen in ce instantly. Hearing the cracking of the ice, Shiro wondered if they were going to beak out but after a few moments, they were still stationary so Shiro knew they were exposed for a clear shot.
ncing at each other, Shiro gave Nan Tian a thumbs up, signalling that she was ready.
Nodding his head, he activated his spell as she fired her gun.
*BANG!!!!
Chapter 783 Entering the Mountain
Chapter 783 Entering the Mountain
Firing her rail cannon, Shiro watched as Stanley¡¯s magnification spells amplified the power of the st, driving it through the chest of the guard.
Watching the guard stumble back into the side of the ruins that connect to the mountains, Shiro knew that he wasn¡¯t done yet. ncing to the side, she could see Nan Tian¡¯s guard melting from his attack as it wasn¡¯t able to do anything in retaliation.
ncing at her guard, Shiro gestured for Stanley to back her up as he nodded his head.
Dashing towards the guard, Shiro created a tier 6 magic circle while Stanley did the same.
Flickering in front of the fallen guard, Stanley narrowed his eyes and mmed his palm into the Giant¡¯s body.
"Shatter!" Hemanded as a tier 6 magic circle expanded out in an instant.
As if reality was ss, a web of cracks could be seen spreading through the guard.
*KRRRRRR!!!
The sound of his chassis shattering under the pressure could be heard as Shiro appeared just behind Stanley with a special shotgun in her hand.
The barrel of the shotgun was long and thin while the chamber wasn¡¯t like usual shotguns. It was simr to a revolver chamber which housed several shots.
Pulling the trigger, the recoil of the gun pushed Shiro back as a cavity was instantly created in the guard¡¯s head.
Snapping her fingers, the pellets morphed themselves into razor des and started to shred into the guard¡¯s body. After a few seconds, the guard stopped moving due to most of his body being reduced to ash thanks to the duo¡¯s attacks.
"Seems like you two didn¡¯t have much trouble." Nan Tian smiled as he walked towards the two.
"Well it took more than one attack. For guards like this, I think it¡¯s better to attack their whole body rather than attack them with concentrated attacks." Shiro replied while ncing towards Nan Tian¡¯s guard who was nothing but a melted pile of mess right now.
"True." Nan Tian agreed since he saw their fight and noticed how the Guard could still move despite having a cavity opened up in his chest.
"Anyways, how are we doing for mana?" Shiro asked while holding out the cuffs once more.
"I¡¯m alright but entering the mountain with full strength is probably rmended. After all, we might not have time to recharge in there." Nan Tian said as he started to recharge his mana while Stanley did the same.
Once he was sure that the two were back to full strength, Shiro dismissed the cuffs and nced at the mountain.
"Now, do you suppose there¡¯s a second entrance or is this one the only one avable?" Shiro asked as Stanley paused for a moment.
"Hm... I don¡¯t think there is. Last time I was here, I surveyed the surroundings of the first mountain and I wasn¡¯t able to find anything of the sort. There was only one entrance and it was also the exit. I did try to strike at the walls of the ce but they were highly mana absorbent and it would be difficult to carve a second entrance through this ce. Even the damage I did to the wallsst time was a byproduct of me using some of my strongest spells which drained my mana." Stanley replied.
"We¡¯re also not familiar with theyout so there is the chance that we couldpletely miss the chambers." Nan Tian reminded.
"True. Seems like it¡¯s the front door then." Shiro shrugged since they were essentially knocking on the door of their enemy and shouting out about their entrance.
Summoning her sword as a precaution, Shiro followed behind Stanley and Nan Tian as they entered the ruins leading deep into the mountains.
The pathway was rather dark as there were no sources of light other than the entrance but this was also good for Shiro since she gained a boost to her strength.
"Come here, let me enchant us in case there are any creatures that are light sensitive." Stanley said as he enchanted them with True Sight.
While he only had to face golems in the first mountain, he didn¡¯t know of the dangers in this mountain so he had to be careful. There was probably ack of light for a reason and he didn¡¯t want to go in blind without knowing the reason behind this.
Just as they enchanted True Sight, Shiro could faintly hear the sound of gears moving as the entrance was sealed up.
But before it could fully close up, Shiro mmed her hand down and summoned nanobots to keep the door open.
Upon contact, all of the mana was drained from the nanobots as they were reduced to ash.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro quickly retracted her hand before her mana could be absorbed.
"Don¡¯t worry, we can probably make an exit manually at ater time if we need it." Stanley said as Shiro nodded her head.
Walking through the darkness with her guard up, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to use her boundary since she can only use it when she¡¯s attacking someone. She hadn¡¯t mastered the defensive version of boundary otherwise it would be helpful in this situation since it¡¯ll reveal enemies that can¡¯t be seen or detected with mana.
As they were walking through the darkness, Shiro suddenly felt a tingle near her neck as she quickly ducked down and shed up with her sword.
*CLANG!!!!!
Watching her sword m against a de, Shiro¡¯s eyes widened as cold sweat dripped down her face.
Seeing that his attack had failed, the owner of the de scuttled back into the crevices of the ruins. Despite having True Sight, the darkness was still hard to see through but Shiro knew that the owner was quite small. She wasn¡¯t able to get a good look but it was enough for now.
"Be careful of the crevices. These things don¡¯t emit killing intent nor does mana sense pick them up." Shiro warned in a hush tone as both Stanley and Nan Tian frowned.
Summoning their weapons, they prepared a few magic circles and scanned their surroundings.
Suddenly, Shiro felt the same tingle again but this time it was near her wrists.
Quickly retracting her hand, she was a little slow as her wrist was almost cut all the way through and her hand was barely attached. Activating her life fire, she coated her hand in fire as the wound closed up. But as the fire lit up the corridor, they sensed killing intent all around them as the three quickly grouped up with their backs to each other so that they could cover their weaknesses.
"Did you see anything?" Nan Tian asked with a frown after seeing the cut on her wrist.
"Nothing. I couldn¡¯t sense anything until it was about to hit me." Shiro replied with a frown.
Dismissing the light, the killing intent faded away once more but the feeling of danger was still around as they now know the enemy could bypass most of their senses.
"Do you think we should hurry down or make our way down slowly?" Nan Tian asked with a frown.
Staying silent, both Stanley and Shiro weren¡¯t sure since the enemy was unknown.
Going forward could prove to be worse but if they stay, there was a chance for the enemy to surge towards their spot.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro opened her mouth.
"Let¡¯s kill one first so we understand what we¡¯re up against."
Agreeing with her suggestion, the three kept an eye out for any suspicious movements.
However, despite their guard, they were harmed quite a few times by the sudden attacks as the speed of this foe was on a whole nother level. With the addition of not being able to sense their killing intent until thest moment, it was hard for the three of them to keep this up.
But soon their patience paid off as Shiro was able to freeze one in time just as it tried to cut her leg off. Grabbing it with her hand, she could see that it was a golem that looked like an insect. It had two long des attached to its body like wings with several smaller des along its belly.
Simr to how her mother uses thin des, these insects are able to strike out with impressive speeds that make it hard for them to dodge.
"If a whole group of these appear, it¡¯ll be hard to survive. Let¡¯s travel slowly for now and make sure that they are within sight." Stanley suggested as the two agreed.
Chapter 784 Zernic
Chapter 784 Zernic
Walking through the corridors slowly, Shiro made sure to freeze them upon contact if possible while Nan Tian would melt them and Stanley would shatter them to pieces.
While the attacking power of the insect golems is powerful, their defences around the chassis was rather weak but their des were strong. It was thin but highly durable. Collecting the des, Shiro received the item named.
[Compressed Zernic de.]
A tiny de made from a rare metal known as Zernic. It¡¯s highly durable and can slice apart magic. However, there is a limit to how much magic it can withstand.
Searching up some information about Zernic in her memories along with the inte, Shiro was surprised that she hadn¡¯t seen anything that was mentioned about this metal.
Collecting as many of them as she could, she decided to save it for now and reuse itter. After all, it was able to sh against her de without much trouble along with cutting through her flesh with ease.
If she made this into a special weapon, it coulde in handy.
Even when Nan Tian melted the golems, these des still survived so one could see how durable they were. By the end of the corridor, Shiro was able to collect several hundred of them. Thanks to their small size, Shiro could store them all away in a container and ce it in her inventory.
ncing around with her true sight, Shiro could see that this was the only chamber that they can go to right now. With just a straight path, it was hard to miss any other paths.
In front of them was a double door that seemed like it could be opened quite easily.
Nodding to Nan Tian and Stanley, Shiro pushed the door open slowly.
Just as a small opening could be seen, a de shot forward as Shiro had to quickly lean back or else she would have been cut.
Watching the de retract, the three nced into the room and saw a golem with two long swords standing menacingly in the room. Seeing three doors on different walls, they understood that they had to defeat this golem if they wanted to continue.
Nodding to each other, they dashed into the room as Shiro activated her Divine Raiment.
mming her hands against the ground, Shiro was about to summon chains when the floor opened up and des shot towards her.
Widening her eyes, she quickly dispersed her body into shadows so that she wasn¡¯t harmed.
Reappearing not too far away, she noticed the floor close up once more.
"Don¡¯t stand on the same tile for more than one second. It attacks you the moment you are. Seems like it¡¯s designed to fight against mages." Nan Tian said while dodging a few des.
Hearing this, Stanley frowned and started to reinforce his body with magic rather than casting spells.
Twisting its body, the golem swung the de towards Stanley.
Even with his body reinforcements, he did not expect the de to arrive so fast. With no other choice than to try his best to dodge, Stanley activated a shield and jumped back.
*BANG!!!
Launching his body to the other side of the room, Stanley was embedded into the wall for a moment as des suddenly stabbed towards him since he was there for more than a second.
Blocking the des with his shield, Stanley dashed to the side with blood dripping from his lips.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro waved her hand as Life Fire erupted out around Stanley and started to heal him.
While this was happening, Nan Tian appeared before the golem and mmed two tier 6 magic circles against the chest.
*BANG!!!
Forcing the golem back by two steps, Nan Tian frowned.
"His armour has magical dampening effects. I think it¡¯s best to go for kic force right now since my tier 6 spells are rather weak against it." He called out as Shiro nodded her head.
Flickering in front of the golem, she raised her sword and twisted her body.
Activating Silvanis¡¯ 4th ability, Shiro coated her weapon with nanotech as the 4th ability allows her to ignore all resistance towards her element. Even if the golem was good at absorbing magic, this counts as a resistance so she can ignore it.
With a trail of silver blue light behind her sword, Shiro cut deeply into the golem as nanobots flooded its systems.
However, just as she was about to jump back, she realised that thin threads wrapped around her body and she wasn¡¯t allowed to move. Draining her mana with each passing second, she couldn¡¯t muster enough mana to shift her body to shadows.
Swinging its des towards her, Shiro was prepared to activate grace when Nan Tian flickered in front of her.
*BANG!!!!
Blocking the strikes with his hands, blood dripped down his arms as a torrent of mes erupted out of him, melting the threads.
"You ok?" He asked while helping her retreat.
"Mn, I didn¡¯t expect him to restrain me with mana draining threads. We¡¯ll need to be careful since you won¡¯t be able to cast any spells if you¡¯re caught." Shiro replied with a serious expression.
She wouldn¡¯t mind activating her True Spirit Nature but since her nature deals with souls, it would be useless against this golem.
Even though her sword ignored the golem¡¯s resistances, she could still feel her nanobots dying one by one as theycked the mana to keep eating away at the materials.
However, since the golem absorbed mana, there was surely a ce which housed it. It was only a matter of finding out where it is. Once she finds out, the growth of her nanobots will increase dramatically and consume the golem in an instant.
Activating Analysis, a red glow appeared in her eyes as everything turned translucent. Dashing around to avoid the spikes, Shiro scanned the golem¡¯s body and found a pool of neon blue energy that swirled around for a moment before being funnelled down into the ground.
Narrowing her eyes, she had an idea.
"Teach! Nan Tian!" She called out.
"What is it?" Stanley replied while activating a few offensive spells that had very little effects on the golem¡¯s armour.
"Do you trust me?" She asked as the two nodded without hesitation.
"Of course." Nan Tian said as Shiro smiled.
Dashing towards the Golem, she could see the wires appearing once more as it attempted to wrap around her.
Smirking slightly, she created a small bead of nanobots and connected a thin strand of nanotech wire to it.
Throwing it towards the golem, she watched as it attached against the surface.
Twisting her body, she flicked her de and kicked the pommel.
*BANG!!!
Stabbing into the golem¡¯s body, an entrance way was formed for the bead.
Just as she did this, the wires wrapped around her as it started to drain her of mana.
Grinning, she released more mana as a faint aura was slowly growing around her.
Watching her MP value decrease, Shiro could see the des shing toward her.
"Protect me but don¡¯t destroy the wires!" Shiro called out as Nan Tian appeared before her once more and deflected the des.
"Understood." Nan Tian replied as he reinforced his strength as much as he could.
While this was happening, her nanobots were eating their way towards where the energy was being stored.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro waited for a moment before opening her mouth.
"Destroy the wires!"
*BOOM!!!
Melting the wires in an instant, Nan Tian jumped back as Shiro morphed her body into shadows.
As the two retreated, the nanobots found the energy pool as Shiro relinquished her control over the bots for a split moment.
Since she had allowed the golem to freely absorb her pool of mana, one could imagine how much mana was stored in the golem right now.
As if someone pressed pause, the golem froze for a moment as the sound of gearspletely halted.
*BANG!!!
Exploding into a mass of nanobots, the golem was consumed in an instant as the robots surged towards the trio in an attempt to consume everything around them.
mming her hand down, Shiro exerted her control over the nanobots while Nan Tian prevented the des from harming her.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro forced her control over the mass of nanobots that was going out of control and finally stopped its expansion.
Snapping her fingers, she destroyed them all in an instant as the mana that was absorbed exploded out and was reabsorbed by the walls before she could reim it.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro nced toward the three doors leading to different directions.
Chapter 785 Travelling through the chambers
Chapter 785 Travelling through the chambers
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wanted to send out small scouts but with the walls being able to absorb mana, doing so was quite impossible so the best choice was still going to be exploring it manually.
"So which way shall we go?" Shiro asked as they sat down in the room for now. After defeating the boss, it seemed like the tiles had stopped working since it was no longer trying to kill them if they stood in the same ce for more than 1 second.
"Hmm... we can try to go straight forward." Nan Tian said with a shrug since there wasn¡¯t much they could do other than try every path until they got to the end.
"Mn seems reasonable. After that we can try going to the left and then the right." Stanley said as Shiro nodded her head.
After resting for a moment to regenerate all of their mana, the three stood up and pushed open the set of doors directly ahead of them.
Upon entering, they were attacked by tiny golems with more Zernic des which was a bit annoying to deal with but thanks to Shiro being both the healer and the control mage, they were able to progress without having too much trouble.
Collecting around a hundred more of these des, Shiro stored them away in her inventory since they could be rather helpful for the rest of the party if Helion reforges them into something else.
Simr to thest chamber, there was another golem with the same properties in this room but this time he seemed slightly faster and hit a bit harder. Discovering this upgrade, Shiro understood that they probably couldn¡¯t use the same method of killing it in theter chambers so she decided to try her best at freezing it and shattering the pieces apart.
With Nan Tian¡¯s magic, they were able to cause it to explode due to the sudden change in temperature. Unfortunately, the golem was still able to fight despite having arge chunk of itselfpletely blow off. But with the internal workings exposed, Stanley was able to use his magic to damage them all and cause fractures to spread out through the golems¡¯ body, halting its movements for good.
This time, there were only two doors rather than three and they decided to take the left path. If this wasn¡¯t the final chamber, they¡¯ll try the right path before going back to the start and try out a different door.
After entering the chamber following the left door, they were surprised to discover arge open area with arge box in the centre.
Looking around the room with true sight, Shiro could see a single door in the distance as she guessed that it was probably thest chamber down this path.
Other than the door, the chamber had six supporting pirs with three on each side and seeing the grooves on these pirs, she could guess that des will probably protrude from the surface if they got too close.
Narrowing her eyes at the box in the centre, she nced at both Nan Tian and Stanley.
"Let¡¯s proceed with care." Nan Tian said as Shiro agreed.
With Nan Tian in front, Shiro in the middle and Stanley at the back, the three approached the box.
*Krrrrrr
Hearing the sound of gears turning, the three quickly jumped back as the box started to unpack itself.
*BANG!!!
mming what seemed to be a tail against the ground, the three could feel the entire mountain shake from the impact.
Quickly creating two rail cannons by her side, Shiro pulled the trigger without hesitation.
But just as the shots were about to hit, tworge wings unfurled themselves and blocked the shot.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro watched as several tier 6 magic circles surrounded the golem.
*KRRRR!!!!
Suddenly, several des formed from light appeared and pierced towards the golem. But before they could pierce the armour, they were shattered apart in an instant.
*URAHHHHH!!!!!
Rearing its head back, a thunderous roar could be heard as the true appearance of the box was revealed.
With a humanoid upper body, a pair of dragon like wings and a serpent like lower body, they watched as orange lights could be seen flickering between the joints of this golem.
Quickly activating Analysis, Shiro scanned the golem¡¯s body as she was quite surprised with how it¡¯s constructed. It was highly reminiscent of some of her mechs that were in early development.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro didn¡¯t know who created this but with the advantages that it had in this area, it was going to be a hard fight if she didn¡¯t go all out.
"Remember when I said that I wanted to test out my Demi God form?" Shiro called out as the two nodded their heads.
"I think this is a good chance to give it a try. I just scanned the golem¡¯s internal workings and I must say, it¡¯s not looking too good." Shiro frowned.
"Are you sure? Your demi god form has a three day cooldown doesn¡¯t it?" Nan Tian asked with worry since they had so many other bosses that they needed to fight if they¡¯re not able to find the final chamber.
"True. We¡¯ll see how it goes then." Shiro frowned as Nan Tian made sense. Using it now could be akin to using a rocket to kill a chicken.
But if things turn sour, she wouldn¡¯t hesitate to use her skill.
Activating Silvanis¡¯ fourth ability which boosts an element¡¯s effectiveness and ignores all resistance, Shiro chose Error as the element.
Watching the circuits wrap around the de, Shiro smiled before summoning her bow. Pulling back as hard as she could, she activated her Divine Raiment while both Nan Tian and Stanley charged at the golem to keep him busy.
Reinforcing their bodies, the two summoned their weapons and spells.
Suddenly, the golem flickered in front of them with speeds that shouldn¡¯t even be possible.
mming his fists into them, the two were barely able to summon their barriers before they wereunched into the walls.
*BANG BANG!!
Widening her eyes, Shiro couldn¡¯t even nce towards them when the golem¡¯s chest opened and energy surged in its body. Recognising it to be her mana which the golems had stolen before, Shiro immediately dropped her weapon and mmed her hand against the ground.
Suddenly, a wave of nanobots surged up and formed several walls.
*BANG!!!
Feeling the shockwave of the st hitting the first part of her defence, Shiro gritted her teeth and focused on trying to contain the st or rather deflect it back at the golem if possible.
However, the nanobots were being turned to ash upon contact so it was rather difficult.
Sensing that her defences were about to break, Shiro quickly flickered next to Nan Tian and Stanley. Grabbing their shoulders, she dived into the rift just as her wall of nanobots were pierced.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!
The explosion seared Shiro¡¯s back just before the rift portal could fully close as she quickly activated three charges of Grace for each of them since that punch had removed 60% of Nan Tian¡¯s health while Stanley was in a worse situation. With only 15% of his health left, his face was pale as Grace managed to bring him back from the brink of death.
"Yeah I¡¯m going to use my skill here. We can¡¯t hold back against someone like that." Shiro frowned as Nan Tian narrowed his eyes.
"I¡¯ll use my berserk skills too."
"No, you need to save that for other bosses. If I can¡¯t handle this one then you can use your berserk skill to help me." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Let me enchant you first." Stanley took a deep breath and stabilised his mind. Unlike Shiro, he didn¡¯t have a ridiculous pain tolerance so the initial impact had sent him into shock.
Once he was calm, he reached out towards her as several tier 6 magic circles wrapped around her body like runes and Shiro could see a buff that increased her Strength, Speed and Defence by 150% for 2 minutes.
"Thanks." Shiro said as the three of them jumped out the portal.
Activating her Pandora¡¯s Requiem¡¯s Fifth Ability on her Ascension skill, she upgraded it to the next tier as the name changed for her skill.
[Divine Ascension]
You can imbue your current form or an active form with divine energy, ascending it to the status of God.
Cost: N/A
Duration: 10 Minutes
Cool Down: 3 Days
Chapter 786 Becoming a God
Chapter 786 Bing a God
As she activated her skill, a giant tier 8 magic circle expanded out from her as the entire room was filled with a divine aura.
*BOOM!!!
A pir of light shot into the sky as they could not see where it was leading but they knew that her skill was probably causing a phenomenon. After all, in a ce where it had no ambient mana, the amount of energy she was radiating could fill this entire ind.
Sensing that Shiro was trying something that was potentially dangerous for it, the golem pped its wings and charged towards her. However, Nan Tian appeared before him and sped his hands together.
"Sorry, I would love it if you didn¡¯t bother her right now." He smiled as an orb of light appeared between his hands.
mming it into the golem¡¯s body, he managed to push him back by a few steps but it wasn¡¯t enough.
Suddenly, two tier 6 magic circles erupted around the golem as pirs of earth mmed into him.
"Don¡¯t forget about me either." Stanley narrowed his eyes. mming his hands down, three tier 6 magic circles expanded out from underneath him as cracks started to show up on the golem¡¯s body.
"Aim for those! They¡¯re weak points!" Stanley shouted towards Nan Tian as his skill analyses the golem then reveals his weakness.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian snapped his fingers and summoned an armour made of light. Gesturing for the swords to strike towards the weak points, he muttered an incantation as tier 6 magic circles appeared in front of the des.
As the des passed the magic circles, they were enveloped in a white me which increased the room temperature quite a bit. However, this was nothing as several more magic circles appeared in front of the sword.
Once the sword passed through five of the magic circles, it transformed into a streak of light which pierced the golem¡¯s body.
*BANG!!!!
Forcing the golem to the ground, Nan Tian could see that it was fixated on Shiro.
Pointing its hand towards her, hundreds of thin wires erupted out from around the room as Nan Tian widened his eyes. Recognising these wires to be the same ones that absorbed her manast time, he quickly created a mini sun near Shiro and made sure a barrier protected her so that she wasn¡¯t harmed.
Watching the wires melt before reaching her, he sighed in relief. Just as he sighed, he felt danger behind him as the golem hadshed its tail at his back while he was focused on helping Shiro.
*CRACK!!!
Gritting his teeth, he could feel his bones fracture from the hit as his body was sent crashing against the ground.
But before he touched the cold stone tiles, a cushion of nanobots softened his impact and started to heal him.
Looking down in mild surprise, he nced towards Shiro.
While she was wearing the same outfit, there was a special aura around her which flickered with a silver light. Her eyes were like a gxy of shining stars as the area was now filled with a divine energy.
"That took a while to get used to since my body is only that of a Demi God. The skills says that I have 30 minutes but I¡¯d say I have around 4 or 5 before my body starts to break down." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian stood back up after being healed.
"So what does being a god feel like?" Nan Tian asked with a smile.
"Pretty good. I now have absolute control over the area and my divinity is in full effect." Shiro grinned as her aura seemed to fluctuate with her emotions.
"Oh? What does your divinity do?" Nan Tian asked with curiosity.
"It does this."
Narrowing her eyes, she aimed her palm towards the golem before clutching it into a fist.
Suddenly, the surrounding walls that absorbed mana were broken down into ash. From the ash, nanobots surged towards the golem, restraining it with ease and ate away at its body.
"I can now turn everything within my domain into nanobots. Well... this is only the basic benefit. I have more but since I¡¯m only a Demi God, my overall Divine Energy is quite low so I can¡¯t do what a God can for long periods of time." Shiro exined.
Swiping down with her hand, the nanobots grabbed hold of the golem and ripped him in half before wrapping around the broken pieces, consuming it in an instant. Any evidence of the golem being here waspletely erased as Shiro snapped her fingers and the nanobots returned back to being the walls.
Quickly deactivating her form, Shiro kneeled down on the ground as a wave of weakness washed over her. The divine energy surrounding the room faded away as the lighting disappeared a well, returning it back to its original state of being in the dark.
"In that form, I was able to ignore theck of mana in the surroundings since my Divine Energy reced it. I managed to take an entire scan of the mountain and I found the final chamber." Shiro smiled while Nimue was working hard to make sure her body was in tip top shape.
She could only hold back her anger at Shiro for using the upgraded ascension rather than the base one that elevated her to Demi God status.
{Do you know how reckless that was?!?!?! Imagine my face when I saw a flood of divine energy erupting out!} Nimue shouted out in Shiro¡¯s mind while fixing her body as best she could.
¡¯That was my bad. I got a bit too trigger happy at being able to use my form haha.¡¯ Shiro apologised as Nimue only kicked her in the mana realm.
{Shoo! Let me focus on the work now. I need to concentrate so that you don¡¯t f*cking implode!}
Nodding her head with a smile, Shiro focused her mind back to reality.
"So what¡¯s behind that door then?" Nan Tian asked, pointing at the door on the opposite side of the room.
"Just a small treasury. Nothing too fancy. The best thing there is some red equipment. I guess we can take it with us." Shiro shrugged as Nan Tian¡¯s smile twitched for a moment.
However, when he thought about the grade of items she had on her, he realised that it was indeed nothing too fancy. After all, what is redpared to rainbow grade?
Collecting a sword, a shield and what seems to be a scroll of sorts, the three made their way back.
In the end, they decided to take a break for Shiro to rest her body since it was a little painful to move. But after a few hours of rest, she was good to go again.
There was the problem of her no longer being able to use Divine Energy for a while due to the bacsh but she wasn¡¯t too worried about that. After all, they¡¯ll be going straight to the main chamber.
One again, they had to fight two bosses before the final guardian but they were used to golem¡¯s movements.
Plus, things were made easier when they realised that the scroll was a study on tier 6 magic circles which Stanley studied intensely during their time of rest. Once he was finished, his magical prowess soared as his damage to the golems increased dramatically, making the fights easier.
As for the final guardian of the chambers, with Shiro unable to use any divine energy, Nan Tian activated one of his berserk skills with the lowest bacsh and cool down.
Shiro acted as support with her armour pration, buffs and healing while Stanley reinforced Nan Tian¡¯s body and provided offensive spells of his own.
While he didn¡¯t manage to take it down as easily as Shiro did, it was still an impressive sight to behold.
One they killed the boss, they opened the final set of doors and resting on a pedestal was a crystal arm guard which simmered with a multicoloured light.
[Martial Arm Guard of the Divine One ¨C Rainbow]
Once you have used this item, you will be allowed to study under the guidance of the Divine One until you have mastered one of his techniques. There is no time limit within the space and you will not age. You will not feel hunger or fatigue. You will not be able to leave the space until you have mastered a technique.
Reading the description of the arm guard, Shiro understood that it was probably something simr to the daggers she had received which gave her the skill Item Master.
Thinking about it for a moment, she figured it was probably best for Nan Tian to take this as he was essentially her front line.
With the age of demons and gods around the corner, having his help would be tremendous especially with a skill that could be of equal quality to item Master.
Chapter 787 Shard
Chapter 787 Shard
"Nan Tian." Shiro called out as Nan Tian nced over.
"Mn? What is it?" He asked curiously.
"What do you think about studying under someone called the Divine One?" She asked, pointing at the gauntlets.
"Eh? Don¡¯t you want Madison, Helion or your parents to have this instead?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrow in surprise.
"Well mum and dad are already well versed with martial arts. Since the age is around the corner and that we¡¯re probably going to be in a party often, having you learn some martial arts to act as my front line would be helpful." Shiro replied as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Are you sure? A rainbow grade item is very precious." He said as Shiro nodded his head.
"I told you that I trusted you no? You having the rewards is also helpful for me. Plus, as long as you don¡¯t betray me I¡¯ll be happy haha." Shiro chuckled with a small smile.
Handing the arm guard to Nan Tian without hesitation, Shiro made her way out of the chamber.
"Though I don¡¯t think you have time toplete the test in the gauntlet just yet since we still have another mountain to search as well as the shard of the garden to find." Shiro reminded.
Sighing with a soft smile, Nan Tian stored the arm guard away after a short pause.
"If you give me a rainbow grade item, how am I supposed to repay you?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shrugged.
"You know I do this without much expectation other than that you don¡¯t betray me." Shiro replied.
"But not many would give a pinnacle grade rainbow gear away." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Of course I don¡¯t give items of this grade away at random you know? If it was something I needed I¡¯ll be keeping it ok." Shiro pouted slightly seeing that Nan Tian had suggested that she gave items like this away without care.
"Ah I don¡¯t mean it that way. I meant that most people would keep it for themselves even if it didn¡¯t fit what they needed. The fact that a rainbow grade item even existed while most have only seen a purple grade at best is a surprise never mind getting it."
"Well most people will keep it for themselves while I¡¯m a Spirit." Shiro shrugged.
"True." Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Do you want to set up camp for a bit before we try the next mountain? Or should we go straight for the shard?" Stanley asked curiously.
"Hmm... I¡¯m not able to use my divine energy for a while so we won¡¯t be able to go straight to the final chamber. It¡¯ll take quite a while and it¡¯s probably best to notify the crew on the boat about our decision since it might take a while." Shiro replied.
"Hmm... it¡¯s probably best that we explore the other mountain first. Who knows if taking the shard would cause this ind to be inessible." Stanley said as both Shiro and Nan Tian nodded their heads.
"Sure, it¡¯ll take a while but overall, we should have some time to spare." Shiro agreed.
Leaving the mountain, the trio made their way back to the ship and told the crewman that they were going to the third mountain as well so it might take more than a week.
Agreeing toe back for another week once they got some supplies, the trio rested for the night.
Waking up early next morning, they watched the boat sail back to the city to resupply.
"Right then, let¡¯s go to the third mountain shall we?" Shiro smiled.
The third mountain was rather simr to the second as there were quite a few golems but this time there was the addition of traps which fired mana absorbent spears towards them at high velocities. Strangely enough, they seemed to breach mana too which reminded Shiro of what her attacks are like. However, when she picked them up, they lost this property so Shiro could guess that it was most likely theuncher that had this skill.
As for the bosses, rather than giant golems, they were essentially fortress walls with weapons mounted on the top which fired ceaselessly. It was rather difficult to dodge them all and take them out but in Shiro¡¯s opinion, they were much easier than the big bosses.
Clearing the rooms with ease, it took them two days before they found the final chamber as they were quite unlucky. All of the previous chambers they entered were false and ¡¯only¡¯ offered some red grade items which weren¡¯t bad butpared to what they¡¯ve been getting seemed a littleckl.u.s.tre.
Once they killed the final guardian, they received their third rainbow grade item which was actually a key.
However, once Shiro read the description of the key, she was d that they decided to check out the third mountain as they needed this in order to progress.
[Key to the Garden ¨C Rainbow]
A key that unlocks the chamber to the Garden Shard.
IF they didn¡¯t decide to do the third mountain, they would have probably needed to brute force their way through or waste more time going out then back in.
With the key in their possession, they¡¯d cleared all three mountains and only the shard remained.
"Do you know a way towards the shard?" Nan Tian asked while pointing at her map.
"Not really. The map only tells me that it¡¯s on this ind not where the entrance is. If we want to go to the shard, we¡¯ll have to look for the entrance manually. However, I can probably scan the entire ind given enough time and find the entrance." Shiro smiled.
Spending the next few hours guarding Shiro while she scanned the entrance towards the shard of the garden, Shiro found what seemed to be a staircase underground that was hidden rather well within the forest.
Making their way over, they moved the rubble out of the way and entered with caution.
Looking at the staircase, Shiro furrowed her brows as it was strangely clean. It was as if it wasn¡¯t affected by the elements at all.
The journey was rather simple since there weren¡¯t any side doors or the such within this ce. It was just a straight walk down with no distractions.
Reaching the bottom, they saw what seemed to be a portal frame with no portal.
Looking around the area, she saw that the portal frame was the only thing here.
"Do you think we need to use the key here?"
"Perhaps." Shiro muttered while bringing out the key. Just as she brought out the key, unfamiliar magic circles appeared in front of her as it resembled a keyhole. cing the key in the centre, she watched as the magic circles started to turn.
With a sh of light, a strange portal opened up in front of them as they furrowed their brows.
Looking at each other, they nodded their heads and entered.
Upon entering, they shielded their face from the light.
Once the light calmed down, they removed their hands and widened their eyes at what they were seeing.
Right now, they were floating in what seemed to be a spherical room with an orange orb in the centre. Swirling around this room was motes of energy that had thin trails of light behind them.
Next to the orange orb was a severely damaged statue of a woman who was missing an arm and her lower body. However, she was embracing the orange orb like it was her own child.
Slowly, the statue looked up at Shiro and smiled.
"So you have arrived." A melodic voice rang out softly as Shiro tilted her head.
"You have been waiting for me?" She asked as the statue nodded its head slowly.
"You¡¯vee to im the shard haven¡¯t you? Queen of the Spirits. Young Demi God." The statue smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Who are you?" Shiro asked.
"I suppose I can be called this Garden¡¯s Spirit. I guard the shard and preserve it as much as I can until the age arrives. I use my own life essence to stop the age from arriving too soon but as you can see, time is running out." The Garden¡¯s Spirit said while ncing down at her broken body.
"How long do you think there is until the age arrives?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"I can hold out for at most 5 more months." The Garden¡¯s Spirit shook her head as Shiro frowned since 5 months was an extremely short time for the age to arrive. They needed to quickly deal with Madison¡¯s role as the demon queen in this time too. With everythingbined, sorting it out within five months was going to be hard.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro sighed.
"Ok, five months should be somewhat doable." She muttered.
Hearing this, the Garden¡¯s spirit smiled.
"I wish you luck."
With that, she let go of the orb that she had been holding onto and pushed it towards Shiro.
Reaching out to the orb, she watched as it morphed into a miniature anchor and floated above her palm.
[Shard of the Final Garden - ???]
Chapter 788 Answers
Chapter 788 Answers
Looking at the shard of the Garden that was now in her hands, Shiro nced up at the statue who called herself the Garden¡¯s Spirit. She was now in what seemed to be a foetal position with her eyes tightly shut. Furrowing her brows, Shiro wondered if there was anything she could do to help her.
Or rather, perhaps prolong the prep time they had before the new age.
Activating Analysis, Shiro peered into the internalponent of the Garden Spirit.
However, just as she did this, she felt a shock in her mind as she was immediately blinded for a moment.
Gritting her teeth, she identally took a step back as blood dripped out of her eyes.
Quickly activating life fire on her eyes, Shiro healed them as she furrowed her brows. This was the first time it had ever happened as she had never suffered such arge bacsh when using Analysis.
"Don¡¯t try something so risky please. My body is not for you to understand. You do not have the required authority to understand what I am. Doing so would only harm yourself." The Garden Spirit sighed softly.
"Shiro are you ok?" Nan Tian asked with worry as Shiro only nodded her head.
"Mn, don¡¯t worry. You said authority right? Do you mean system authority?" Shiro replied to Nan Tian before talking to the spirit.
"Mn I do." The Garden¡¯s Spirit nodded her head with mild confusion as to why Shiro was curious about this. However, since this was probably thest chance they could talk to each other, she didn¡¯t mind entertaining her a little.
"I see. So if I have the right authority, am I able to prolong your life or rather, dy the age so that the humans have more time to prepare themselves?" Shiro asked.
"I believe so. Naturally, you have to be familiar with the system itself to be able to aplish it. Even with the proper system authority, if you don¡¯t know how to utilise it, it is useless." The Garden¡¯s Spirit shook her head with a sigh.
Grinning at her response, Shiro took a deep breath.
"You two might want to step back. I¡¯m going to be borrowing some power from someone quite important." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head and took a few steps back. When Shiro warns you, it would be in your best interest to do as she said since she was correct most of the time.
Hearing this, Stanley also stepped back since he understood that his best student had surpassed him in strength already. Despite him being able to use tier 6 magic, she could ascend to god status any time she wished. Of course, there were bacshes but it was still God status regardless.
As a teacher, he couldn¡¯t feel prouder. Stepping back, he couldn¡¯t help but feel as though he was a spectator to a show. Normally, he would be the one at the centre but seeing someone else in that spot wasn¡¯t bad either.
The pressure he felt on his shoulders lightened up as he knew there was someone after him should he die and that someone was Shiro.
With both Nan Tian and Stanley a decent distance from her, Shiro took a deep breath and nced at the skill that was listed on her status board.
[Blessing of Chaos]
Ignore All System Restrictions and be promoted to System Privilege level 12.
Cost: N/A
Duration: 3 hours
Cooldown: 3 months
With a cooldown of three months, she can use it for a second time before the new age starts. But if she prolonged the spirit¡¯s life, there was a chance that the time before the age would increase which meant that there were more chances for her to use this and get used to how the system worked.
Since the active duration was three hours, it meant that even if she couldn¡¯t help the spirit, she could find out some information about the system.
Taking a few deep breaths, Shiro activated the skill.
*BOOM!!!!!
Suddenly, a pir of light descended down upon her as Divine Energy filled the room. Butpared to the one that Shiro released, this one was more overbearing. If they described Shiro¡¯s Divine Energy as one that resembled a tennis ball, this one was equivalent to a giant stadium.
As the pir of light surrounded Shiro, several tier 8 magic circles appeared around her as a ck Sigil appeared in the air in front of Shiro. Sending out a shockwave with her in the centre, all of the light was shattered and only Shiro was left. With a ck veil that seemed to trail behind her with ghostlike properties, Shiro opened her eyes and nced towards her system.
[All Restriction¡¯s have been lifted for Entity ¨C Shiro ¨C]
[Authority level has been upgraded to level 12.]
[What would you like to do today?]
Furrowing her brows, Shiro raised her eyebrow.
[Do not be confused. I am a personal AI of the system that you gain ess at level 10. What is your query today or do you have none?]
¡¯How do I help the Garden¡¯s Spirit in order to prolong the time of arrival?¡¯ Shiro asked.
[Unfortunately with your current skill set and range of power, it is impossible.] The AI replied as Shiro frowned.
[That is taking into consideration your Divine Grade Skill as well as any skill you have in the database. For you, right now, it is impossible to help this spirit prolong theing of the new age.]
¡¯I see, if I were to activate Analysis, would I be able to look at the spirits body now?¡¯
[That is indeed possible.]
Nodding her head, Shiro activated Analysis and quickly scanned the Spirit¡¯s body. Without any bacsh this time, she was able to see what she was made of and it left Shiro speechless. With howpact she was and how quickly she was eroding away, Shiro understood why the system Ai said that it was impossible. Even if it was, she didn¡¯t know where she should start with howpact she was.
¡¯Is there anything I can do to help her or prolong the age of demons and gods then?¡¯
[There¡¯s nothing you can do right now.]
¡¯I see... Well since we¡¯re here, I might as well ask you some questions that I have.¡¯
"Nan Tian, teach." Shiro called out.
"What is it?" Stanley replied.
"I¡¯m going to see if the system AI and speak on speaker or something since I want to ask it some questions before I lose this power." Shiro exined.
[I can indeed work in a way so that everyone in the vicinity can hear me.] A neutral voice rang out.
[And I can also just disy my message on their system if you prefer that instead.]
Looking at the line of words, Nan Tian raised his eyebrow in surprise.
"Just speak unless you two want to read rather than listen." Shiro shrugged and nced back to Nan Tian and Stanley.
"I don¡¯t mind." Nan Tian smiled.
"I don¡¯t mind either." Stanley nodded his head.
Hearing their replies, Shiro smiled before turning to her system interface.
"What is the goal of the Age of Demons and Gods?" Shiro asked with narrowed eyes.
[The Age of Demons and Gods is a selection process to see if the current world has the potential to be the next hub base of all living things. However, doing so requires a strong leader to keep the world in order. One that can stand against all of the queen, demons and gods that arrive. The queens that arrive do not have this knowledge and they believe that if they win, they¡¯ll be the next leader of the hub and their world will be saved.]
Hearing this, Shiro frowned since it was essentially a trial for the queen that lived in the garden while the others were aiming for an impossible goal.
"How do I win the new age? Do I need to kill all the queens or can they survive?" Shiro asked with narrowed eyes since this is the most important question to her. Whether or not she needed to kill Madison was what she wanted to know as she didn¡¯t want to be a friend killer for a second time.
[You do not need to kill all the queens to win the new age. You can form subservient contracts with them and that would ce them under you without stripping them of their power as queens. However, they cannot act against you. As for how you win, you need to defeat all of the queens, demons and gods or make them serve you. Be the one true ruler and your garden would have passed the test.]
Chapter 789 Talking to the System
Chapter 789 Talking to the System
Hearing that she didn¡¯t need to kill all the Queens, Shiro sighed in relief.
"That¡¯s good to know. Hmm... Since I have authority level 12, can I get a map of the whole world?" Shiro asked as the system stayed silent for a moment before replying.
[As you have the necessary authority, you may.]
Just as it said this, there was a flicker on her screen as the map on the top right updated in an instant.
Looking at the world, she widened her eyes at how huge this was.
"Can you mark down the settlements, roads, where there aremunities of living entities, teleport shrines and perhaps where the queens have their anchors right now?" Shiro asked with narrowed eyes since this could be a perfect chance for her to find out all the information she needed.
Staying silent once more, the system soon replied.
[I have marked down the settlements, roads, small viges, towns and cities outside of human knowledge and teleport shrines. However, I cannot reveal the locations of the queen¡¯s anchors.]
"Why?"
[Because the votes have been cast.]
"Who cast the votes?"
[Administrators.]
"Who are the administrators?"
[They are extra help in judging the fairness and bnce of the system. They are evolved personal AI that have attended the chosen ones of the past. Unfortunately, the chosen ones failed so they were chosen to be administrators instead.]
"How many are there?"
[Cannot be disclosed.]
"Tsk." Hearing that she wasn¡¯t allowed to know how many administrators there are, Shiro frowned.
"So since I¡¯m the Queen and the lifeline of this is on me, does that mean you can eventually be an administrator too?" Shiro asked.
[That is indeed correct.]
"What are the benefits in you bing an administrator?"
[I can vote to make things favourable to you. There are several who have already taken notice of you and they have voted for things to be in your favour. There are also a few who are unhappy with you but as we are just extra help, the system has the final say.]
"Hmm..." Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows as this could be good for her. Now that she knew that she was being watched by not only the gods but also the higher ups, Shiro could somewhat include them into her ns.
"What is the system and who made it?"
[The system is a library of information repurposed to help the living entities in this universe. As for who made it, that information cannot be disclosed.]
"So you¡¯re saying that someone did make it then. It didn¡¯t just appear out of nowhere." Shiro narrowed her eyes as that was one of her questions as a child but she set it aside for now since she didn¡¯t have a way to figure out how it worked. But now, things were different.
[That is correct.]
"What is Error?" Shiro asked while raising up her right hand. Circuits flickered for a moment before fading away.
[That is a small piece of the internal workings of the system. It is able to interfere with the source code of all living organisms including the host. Right now you are in a symbiotic rtionship as it has attuned to you and gained sentience. It will not harm you.]
"I see... that¡¯s reassuring." Shiro sighed in relief.
"Next question, what happens to the residents of the previous gardens?"
[Their source code is reused and ¡¯reincarnated¡¯ with a clean te.]
"Does that mean I can find those that I met in the dungeon like Fei Lin?" Shiro asked.
[You have already met her reincarnated Source Code.]
Widening her eyes, it was as if lightning had struck her body.
Her breathing sped up as she had thought that Fei Lin was gone for good. But now that she knew she had met her reincarnation, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel happiness in her heart.
"Can you tell me who she is?" Shiro asked as the system stayed silent.
[Kanae.]
A single word as Shiro instantly knew who the system was talking about. The little girl she had met when they evacuated from New York. The one that wanted to obtain a Samurai ss.
"Kanae is the reincarnation of Fei Lin?" Shiro asked.
[Correct.]
"Where is she right now?"
[I have marked her location on the map.]
Seeing a blinking red spot around Moscow in Russia, Shiro raised her eyebrow in confusion but decided to set that aside for now.
If Fei Lin had reincarnated, that meant her best friend could have reincarnated too.
Opening her mouth hesitantly, Shiro took a deep breath and asked a question that had gued her mind.
"Did Isilia Reincarnate again after dying here? Did I meet her?" Shiro asked quickly as the system stayed silent.
This time, the silent felt like it stretched on for years despite only being a few seconds.
[Yes. And you have indeed met her. Her source code was forcefully reassembled as Entity ¨C Isilia ¨C.]
Hearing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t hold back a tear as she bit her lip. Isilia was actually alive and they had met.
"What do you mean by her source code was forcefully reassembled?" Shiro asked while quickly wiping the tears that were building up in her eyes.
[She has retained all of her knowledge and she is in a simr state to you who has obtained the benefits of your past life.]
"Where can I find her?"
[Li Jian knows.]
Hearing this, Shiro nced back at Nan Tian who was equally surprised.
"Lil¡¯ Tian, apparently your old man knows where my best friend is." Shiro said as Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"Hmm... I think we should pay him a visit once we¡¯re done here." He replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Is there anything you two want to ask? I¡¯ve got a few more questions but if you guys have anything important we can ask now." She asked while ncing back at the two.
"I¡¯m fine. I don¡¯t really have much I want to ask the system." Stanley smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"What about you Nan Tian?"
"Mn... I don¡¯t have any either." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Well I¡¯ll keep asking then." Shiro shrugged.
Asking about the other questions that was guing her mind such as what the hall of divine is.
Apparently, the hall of divine is simr to a server of sorts where all the major gods are gathered. Naturally, Aekari was also there and he saw her seat which only caused him to frown but nothing else.
However, before she could ask more questions, a strange notification appeared on her screen.
[Administrator 4 has requested contact with Entity ¨C Shiro ¨C.]
[Do you ept?]
[Yes] [No]
Seeing this, Shiro furrowed her brows and pressed yes.
Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of them as they could see a rather handsome man with a pair of sses, rough hair, a stubble around his chin and a nket over his shoulders.
"Oh sh*t I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d actually pick up. Hello~ It¡¯s administrator 4, the one that the system had been calling to deal with the anomalies you have created." He waved with a wide smile.
Taken aback by his personality, Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"You¡¯re.... Administrator 4? I imagined that administrators would look... smarter." Shiro said as Administrator 4 rolled his eyes.
"This is what happens when you have to manage the aftermath of the crap you cause. Big fan of you by the way. Haven¡¯t seen you pierce that many things recently so feel free to do so." He gave her a thumbs up.
"Ok?... So why have you called?" Shiro asked with a confused expression.
"Ah I just wanted to stop you from asking some more since there are a few problems that might remain should you ask for the things you have. I¡¯d suggest revoking your request for the detailed map as well as Kanae¡¯s marker since once the skill expires, you will receive bacsh for having those privileges. However, I know your memory will keep that map nice and clear." He said as Shiro nodded her head.
Removing the map and marker like he had instructed, she could see that he sighed in relief.
"Remember, just because you are granted a high authority level and have broken free of restrictions for a short while doesn¡¯t mean consequences no longer apply to you after that time. Ask all you want but never get anything thatsts for a while since the system will punish you. I believe in modern terms it would be system giveth, system taketh."
"I don¡¯t think that¡¯s modern at all." Shiro said with a forced smile.
"Too bad. Well good luck, there¡¯s only a certain call time with someone of higher authority so I¡¯ll have to end it here. Just know I¡¯m a huge fan~ Of course, feel free to not break the system every now and again since I have to deal with it. But I also get excited when you do. Hm... what a dilemma. F*ck it, just do what you want I¡¯ll be dealing with it in the background." He shrugged and gave her a wave before the screen flickered away.
Standing there with an awkward expression, Shiro couldn¡¯t believe that guy was actually an Administrator.
Little did she know, he was actually one of the more serious ones and this was what happened after having needed to clean up after her for a long time.
Chapter 790 Moscow
Chapter 790 Moscow
After talking with Administrator 4, there wasn¡¯t much else that Shiro wanted to ask so she turned off her skill. The moment she did this, it was like her entire body was just sapped of strength. Falling forward, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to protect herself.
Thankfully, both Stanley and Nan Tian were there so she was helped up by the two of them.
Looking up at the Garden Spirit, Shiro sighed.
"Do not be like that. You have 5 months and now you also have plenty of knowledge that no Queen should have been able to obtain at this moment." The spirit smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, it¡¯s a shame that I can¡¯t help you though." Shiro said while looking up at the spirits.
"It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve already prepared myself for this. I was created to prolong the arrival of the new age. I¡¯ve yed my part, it¡¯s your turn to y yours." She smiled as Shiro nodded her head. Her role was to now be the final winner of this new age so that the universe didn¡¯t reset.
Making her way to the portal with the help of Nan Tian and Stanley, the three of them were teleported out of the strange realm.
Finding themselves at the bottom of therge staircase, they took a moment to sit down for now.
With the garden shard now in her possession, she now had the mainponent to the anchor and the rest of it was just collecting materials native to this ¡¯garden¡¯. Once she does that, she¡¯ll be able to construct the main anchor.
"That was rather... fruitful wasn¡¯t it?" Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, we learned quite a bit today. The fact that Kanae is in Russia and she¡¯s the reincarnation of Fei Lin along with the fact that Isilia¡¯s alive and your old man knows where she is." Shiro sighed.
"Where do you want to go after this?" Nan Tian asked since that gives her quite a few things to do before the new age begins.
"I think I¡¯m going to look for Astral Horizon¡¯s first so that I can mark it down on my map. That way I can get back to it without a teleport scroll." Shiro said as she had recovered quite a bit now. Standing up, she took a deep breath.
"I also need to get the spirits to look for materials so that I can create the anchor. Thankfully, the materials are prettymon. There are a few that are rare but I think I have enough funds to get them. All that¡¯s left is to construct it and make sure my anchor is in a safe spot." Shiro sighed.
"I can also look for you if you want. I have quite a few connections with merchants so it should help out." Stanley said as Shiro nodded her head.
Making a piece of paper, Shiro wrote down the more expensive materials that she needed and passed it to Stanley.
"For the pay-"
"Don¡¯t worry, I have more than enough money." Stanley smiled while storing the slip of paper away.
"Mn, ah also, I do have a recipe for this pill. I¡¯m pretty sure I can get all the materials now but I¡¯m not exactly in need of it anymore. My body is that of a Demi God so this wouldn¡¯t do much. If you want, I can give this to you since it refines the mana links." Shiro said as she pulled out the recipe for Boreas¡¯ Rebirth Pill.
"I have no need for it. You can probably give it to your party members since they probably need it more than I do." Stanley shook his head.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro put the recipe away.
"Anyways, I think it¡¯s about time we head back to human civilisation. I¡¯m going to go see Kanae first before looking for Isilia. Mn.... Actually, I should give the list of materials that I need to the spirits so that they can gather it for me." Shiro said as Nan Tian agreed.
"We can visit the spirits on our way back." Nan Tian said.
"Mn, let¡¯s go back to the city first. I want to take a moment to rest since I feel quite tired. In thest few days, I have ascended to godhood for a short while and I had just removed all system restrictions not too long ago. Honestly, the fact that I¡¯m still standing is a miracle." Shiro forced a smile.
"Everything you do is considered a miracle at this point." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro only smiled.
"True."
Making their way back to the boat, they sailed back to the city earlier than expected. Resting up for a while, Shiro saw that the city decided to hold a small event to celebrate the short time that the three of them have been here since they¡¯re the first outsiders to integrate with themunity here.
The event itself wasn¡¯t too big but it wasn¡¯t small either. There was some food prepared but in the end, Shiro decided to cook for everyone since she liked her own cooking more. If people could cook better than her, she would let them since she liked nice food but since she was the only one here that could cook a good meal, she had to put in the effort.
After the event was over, the three of them left the city.
Remembering that a teleport shrine wasn¡¯t too far away from where she was right now, Shiro decided to make a small detour to unlock it before they made their way back to the spirits. There were a few monsters that decided to ambush them as they suppressed their aura to look ¡¯normal¡¯.
Naturally, the oue didn¡¯t look good for the monsters.
After unlocking the teleport shrine, Stanley decided to part ways for now since Shiro didn¡¯t need his help anything. Thinking back, she probably didn¡¯t need his help at all except for the start where she was learning thenguage. Other than that, she could handle it just fine.
She integrated herself easily through feeding the city with her amazing cooking whereas he had to spend quite a long time doing tasks before they could trust him.
"I¡¯ll contact the merchants about the materials that you need. Once I¡¯ve bought them, shall I just send them to your parents? Naturally, I¡¯ll give them a note about it too." Stanley smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"That would be helpful. Thank you for your help so far, though teach, stay safe ok?"
"Mn, you too." Giving her a small wave, he teleported away.
"Now then, shall we go to the spirit capital?" Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn after that I suppose we¡¯re making a trip to Russia. To be fair, I haven¡¯t met the Russian hero yet so it¡¯ll be quite interesting to meet her." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn I haven¡¯t met her either so it¡¯ll be quite interesting to meet her." Nan Tian smiled.
Teleporting to the Spirit Capital, Shiro notified the council about the materials that she needed.
After a while of recovering, most of the council members looked pretty healthy which was good but they still needed a moment to recover.
Giving them a list of the materials she needed for anchor, the council had their scouts set this as their top priority since getting an anchor was very important.
Once she sorted out the things that she needed to do in the spirit capital, Nan Tian had one of his subordinates teleport them to Moscow where Shirost saw Kanae¡¯s marker.
Arriving in Moscow, Shiro was not too surprised to see that it was snowing since it was Russia. Naturally, the snow didn¡¯t affect her at all.
"So how do you want to look for Kanae?" Nan Tian asked as they were essentially looking for a needle in the haystack.
"Hmm... I¡¯m thinking of probably scanning the entire city from the skies and see if I can track Kanae¡¯s mana signature. Sure she would have ssed up a few times but I¡¯m sure I can recognise it quite easily.
"Sounds reasonable. If you want, I can also get my subordinates to search for some of her information from the guild."
"Sure."
While Nan Tian sent a message to his subordinates, Shiro camouged herself and flew into the sky.
Waving her hand, she sent out a single pulse of mana as it expanded to the rest of the city.
Chapter 791 Finding Kanae
Chapter 791 Finding Kanae
Getting information on all the mana signatures in the city, Shiro was surprised to see quite a fewrge signals gathered in one ce. There were two that were especially powerful as they stood head and shoulders above the rest.
There was a third but it seemed to flicker between being strong then weak which confused her.
But that wasn¡¯t where her attention was. Her attention was drawn to the strongest signal which resembled Kanae¡¯s.
¡¯Hmm... if Lyrica could improve to the standard of Heroes, it makes sense that Kanae can as well.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
Landing on the ground, Shiro nced towards Nan Tian.
"Have you found her?" He asked with a smile.
"Mn, I did. Surprisingly, she¡¯s actually the strongest person in this city right now." Shiro smiled as most of the people here were near the peak of tier 4. For Kanae to be the strongest person here, she is either simr to Shiro in regard to the fact that they can kill people above their level or that she had reached the peak of tier 4. Perhaps even tier 5 depending on her experiences.
"Oh? She¡¯s actually the strongest person here now?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrow in surprise.
"Mn. I wonder if she ha-" Before Shiro could finish her sentence, she felt Kanae¡¯s Aura fluctuate as she seemed to grow weaker.
Frowning slightly, Shiro looked toward Kanae¡¯s general direction.
"Seems like she¡¯s fighting with someone right now." She muttered with a frown.
"Let¡¯s go have a look at what¡¯s happening. We can give her a hand if she can¡¯t deal with it." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
Flickering from their spots, they quickly travelled towards where Kanae was.
###
*Haaaa....
Breathing out heavily, a young girl could be seen holding her katana with a quivering grip.
She had long ck hair, red eyes and looked to be around 13 to 15 years in age. She wore a ck trench coat, a ck shirt, shorts, some tights and a pair of long boots.
Right now, she was quite injured as blood dripped from her head.
Besides her was a woman who is currently kneeling on the ground with a pale face. She had long blond hair and brown eyes. She wore a hooded coat that was buttoned up to her chin, shorts, tights and boots.
The two were currently on guard against the young teen in front of them who had a smug grin on his face.
"You should just give up already, Irina has already lost her powers and there¡¯s no way you can beat me now in your state." The teen chuckled.
He looked a little older than the ck haired girl as he had a sword in his hand and several magic circles in the other.
If Shiro was here, she would immediately recognise the sword to be made from nanobots.
"Shut it Gil." The girl spat out as she crouched down.
Flickering in front of the teen called Gil, the girl swayed like a phantom and shed towards his throat.
Unfortunately for her, Gil kept a smile on his face and parried the de off to the side.
However, this was what the girl wanted as she shifted her weight and mmed her palm into his stomach.
*BANG!!!
Forcing him back by a few steps, she shed towards him once more.
Clicking his tongue, Gil drew a rune in the air and ice chainsshed out towards the girl.
"Don¡¯t you dare use her magic!" The girl hissed, shing the chains apart as a ck and red light trail flowed behind her katana.
"What can I say, her powers have been most useful. Especially this sword." Gil grinned.
Stabbing the sword into the ground, a wave of nanobotsshed out towards the girl as she gritted her teeth and jumped back to avoid the danger.
"When I had sapped some of her power away, I didn¡¯t expect to get these robots as an additional bonus to her ice magic. I must say, when I first used this it was quite dangerous. It tried to consume me too but after a bunch of experimenting I finally got it under control." Gil chuckled as the nanobots morphed back into swords just before they reached the girl and shed towards her.
Parrying as best she could, the girl couldn¡¯t help but suffer a few injuries.
"Her power isn¡¯t for you to use. Someone like you should just go to hell!" The girl red at him as the red aura slowly travelled up her arm.
"I probably do deserve to go to hell but I won¡¯t be going anytime soon." Gilughed.
Twisting the handle of his sword, the nanobots near Kanae detonated in an instant as her body was flung back.
*BANG!!
Crashing against the wall, she coughed up a mouthful of blood as the red aura continued to spread to the rest of her body.
Once the aura wrapped around herpletely, she disappeared from her spot and reappeared next to Gil with a red glow in her eyes.
Gritting her teeth, she twisted her body and shed as hard as she could.
Smirking at her, he disassembled his sword and allowed the nanobots to wrap around the katana.
"I¡¯ll be taking that." He chuckled.
*PING!!!
Widening her eyes, the girl watched as her katana was consumed and snapped in half.
Biting her lips, she let go of her sword and jumped back to avoid being harmed by the nanobots.
"You know, these robots are very helpful. And I mean, VERY helpful. Now that they have eaten your sword, I can recreate it you know?" He chuckled as the nanobots surged around his hand and morphed into the katana¡¯s that the girl had in her hand a moment ago.
Furrowing her brows, the girl was about to charge back in when a dominating pressure crashed down into the room.
"I was wondering about who you were fighting but it turns out to be the kid that wanted to shake my hand. And what¡¯s this? He¡¯s even got nanobots now?" A voice rang out as a portal opened up in the room.
Exiting the portal with a smile, Shiro red at Gil before snapping her finger. With her being a Demi God, she could control nanobots at will. Naturally, this included the ones that Gil summoned. Plus, they were hers to begin with.
*PING!!!
Shattering apart in an instant, Gil widened his eyes in shock as he tried to summon more.
But before he could, Shiro swiped up with her hand as a cage of nanobots appeared around him and started to sap away his mana.
"It¡¯s been a while Kanae. Seems like you¡¯ve grown quite a bit. You were still a little girl thest time I saw you." Shiro smiled softly as Kanae teared up.
"Shiro-nee...." She muttered as Shiro patted her head.
"Now then, how shall we deal with this kid hm?" Shiro asked as her aura exploded out and was directed entirely at Gil.
*BANG!
Crashing against the wall of the cage, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Perhaps I should just let the nanobots kill you." Shiro suggested as his left arm was entirely shredded apart and turned to nanobots.
"ARGGG!!" Crying out in pain, he wanted to summon a sword to cut off his left arm but all that happened was his right arm being shredded apart as well.
During their fight, Shiro had decided to watch for a short while to see how much Kanae had improved and naturally, she wasn¡¯t pleased to see Gil having ess to her nanobots.
"I¡¯ll leave his fate up to you Kanae. How do you want me to deal with him?" Shiro asked while ncing back at Kanae.
Gritting her teeth, Kanae red at Gil and opened her mouth.
"I want him to die painfully." She squeezed out while holding onto her injuries.
"Sure. You should close your eyes if you want since the next part is rather gruesome."
Activating her True Spirit Nature, Shiro summoned herntern. But before she pulled out his soul, she snapped her finger.
*CRACK!!!
Exploding out of his chest, nanobots swarmed around and bloomed like a flower before shredding his body into mince.
Summoning a few butterflies, his soul was dragged towards thentern as augh could be heard.
"Hahaha, I suppose you want me to torture this one a little more than the others." The ancient terror asked.
"Of course."
"You should send more people in here often. There¡¯s only so much fun I can get out of one or two people." He chuckled as Shiro only shrugged.
"We¡¯ll see."
Dismissing thentern once the soul was inside, she nced at Kanae and the girl beside her.
Encasing them in Life Fire, Shiro quickly healed their wounds.
Chapter 792 Kanae
Chapter 792 Kanae
"Seems like he was able to use your power which was quite unfortunate for him." Nan Tian said as he leaned against a pir and nced towards the minced meat that was once Gil.
"Mn, a real pity for him to use something I basically have full control over." Shiro chuckled with a shrug of her shoulders.
Helping Kanae up with her friend beside her, Shiro could see that herplexion was much better than before.
"If I remember, that kid said that you lost your power. Did you get it back now that I killed him?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Mn I did." The girl called Irina nodded.
"So what was with his deal? I didn¡¯t think powers could be stolen or copied. Especially mine." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she nced back at the mince.
"Apparently when he awakened, he had a special trait called Leech. He¡¯s able to take/copy some of your abilities when hees into contact with you. He¡¯s been building up his arsenal of skills from quite a while back and when he shook his hands during that party we had, he probably took your abilities." Kanae replied before hugging Shiro as tightly as she could.
Seeing this, Shiro only sighed and smiled softly.
Patting her head, Shiro allowed Kanae to hug her some more.
"I¡¯ve missed you." Kanae muttered.
"Mn, I¡¯ve missed you too. Last time I saw you, you were still 10 and didn¡¯t have a ss. What happened for you to grow so fast? I almost didn¡¯t recognise you if not for your mana signature." Shiro asked with a smile.
"Well I idently got stuck in a dungeon for a few years." Kanae looked up at Shiro and nced to the side with slight embarrassment.
Blinking her eyes, Shiro tilted her head.
"Pardon?"
"Em... I¡¯ll tell youter. Let¡¯s find somewhere we can sit down for now." Kanae said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn before that care to introduce your friend? That kid seemed to have quite the vendetta against you two." Shiro asked.
"AH right sorry. Er this is Irina. She¡¯s Ilya¡¯s little sister. Irina, this is Shiro-nee, she¡¯s basically the one who taught me my martial arts." Kanae introduced while holding on tightly to Shiro since she hadn¡¯t met her in a long long time.
"Nice to meet you and thank you for your help." Irina bowed as Shiro nodded her head.
"By Ilya, do you happen to mean to the hero leading God¡¯s Pantheon?" Shiro asked as Kanae nodded her head.
"Mn, we¡¯re in a party right now. We didn¡¯t really need anyone else since the two of us can handle most of the things alone. She¡¯s a mage that can heal and support from the backlines. Gil aimed for her first since her skills are powerful." Kanae exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Well we can talk about thatter. Should I take us out of here?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"If you like, you cane to our t and we can talk there." Irina offered as Shiro thought for a moment and nodded her head.
"Sure, tell me the address and I¡¯ll take us there."
Finding out where Irina lived, Shiro dragged everyone into the rift and flickered to the t.
Upon arrival, Shiro could see that it was a rtively expensive looking t. Everything was well kept and the space was ratherrge.
Sitting in the living room, Kanae was about to ask if Shiro needed to take off her coat when she realised that Shiro was in a dress.
Shrugging her shoulders, she ced her trench coat on the coat rack and Irina did the same.
"Do you want anything to drink Shiro-nee? We got hot chocte, coffee, tea or juice if you want." Kanae asked as Shiro asked for Juice. Naturally, Nan Tian got the same while Irina wanted some hot chocte.
Coming back with the drinks on a tray, Kanae ced it on the table before sitting next to Shiro.
"Right then, what did you want to ask Shiro-nee?" Kanae asked with a smile since it was quite nice seeing a familiar face after so long. Especially someone like Shiro.
"Well my main concern is what happened to you. You said that you got stuck in a dungeon and within the short span of less than a year you went from a 10 year old who followed me around to a level 200 War Saintess." Shiro asked as she nced at Kanae¡¯s title card.
[Kanae ¨C LVL 200 War Saintess]
For a kid to have gotten this far, Shiro didn¡¯t even want to imagine how long she must have been stuck in there.
"Well you see... I was stuck in a special dungeon or rather quest when I entered one of the dungeons. The quest was... quite big and I got a lot of rewards when I finished. But in terms of the years that I spent in there, I think I spent around 3 or 4 years to clear it. It was a long time for me but when I came out mum was quite shocked how much I grew." Kanae scratched her head in embarrassment.
"I see... for a quest to take three years, it must have been hard then. Especially since you were all on your own." Shiro sighed and patted her head.
"Mn. But during the time I kept reading the book you gave me and it helped me survive." Kanae smiled while pulling out a book that¡¯s been in perfect condition.
"When I was in the quest, I kept practicing and I became better at the martial art. I don¡¯t know why but it felt really easy and fun to use. When I came out, I asked a few people but apparently it just means I had talent for it." Kanae shrugged while showing Shiro the book.
Tracing her finger along the edge, Shiro had a smile on her face. After all, their roles had reversed. Before, it was Fei Lin teaching her now it was her teaching Fei Lin¡¯s reincarnation.
"Mn well you have the aptitude for this specific kind of martial arts. I can teach you more if you want. Again, the same restrictions apply." Shiro smiled.
Snapping her finger, nanobots surged in the space in front of them and morphed into pages before flowing into the book.
"Eh this book was made from those little robots? No wonder it didn¡¯t seem to age." Kanae said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn it also allowed me to make it so that other people didn¡¯t steal the martial art."
"Ah you were curious about why Gil was attacking us right? Well you see, Irina unlocked a really cool ability not too long ago and Gil got greedy for it. He basically revealed what he was doing and told us how he could sap away people¡¯s abilities and skills. His goal would have been to kill the both of us and take our abilities but you arrived so." Kanae exined as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Kid must have watched too much anime or something. What kind of person just tells their enemies everything about their abilities and dys for no reason?" Shiro asked with a confused expression.
"You¡¯ll be surprised. I¡¯ve seen quite a few people who take pleasure in trying to instil fear through dying the time." Nan Tian chuckled while drinking a bit of juice. A little sweet but he didn¡¯t mind.
"They are who I call idiots.?? Shiro rolled her eyes.
{Didn¡¯t you do it once or twice?} Nimue interjected as Shiro immediately ignored her with a cough.
Poking her head out, Kanae narrowed her eyes at Nan Tian who only smiled and gave her a small wave.
"Shiro-nee who is he?" Kanae asked.
"Hmm... A friend of mine. He¡¯s been travelling with me while everyone else in the party went to get stronger." Shiro exined briefly as Kanae nodded her head.
Talking for a little longer, the two did some catching up while Irina could only sit at the side feeling a little left out. After all, she didn¡¯t know the two power houses that suddenly appeared!
¡¯Urg.... Even big sis didn¡¯t feel this terrifying.¡¯ Irina thought to herself as she remembered Shiro¡¯s aura from a moment ago. Shivering slightly, she sipped on her hot chocte while ncing at the big question marks next to Nan Tian¡¯s name. Understanding that this probably meant that he was around level 400 to 500, she could guess that he was stronger or on par with the heroes.
She remembered that her big sis told her that heroes weren¡¯t the strongest around since there are monsters amongst humans who were much more powerful. She was a little doubtful but that doubt has been cast aside.
"Ah right, howe you¡¯re in Russia Shiro-nee?" Kanae asked.
"Mn... well for two reasons I guess. One is to find you and the second is to bring you with me." Shiro said as she prepared to exin the new age to Kanae. She didn¡¯t mind Irina knowing since she¡¯ll be telling the world government about this too. The world needed to prepare for a cmity.
Chapter 793 Explaining the Situation
Chapter 793 Exining the Situation
"Eh? Bring me with you?" Kanae tilted her head with confusion.
"Mn, there¡¯s something that¡¯s going to happen soon so I¡¯ll need you to get as strong as possible so that you can protect yourself and your family." Shiro replied as Kanae furrowed her brows.
"If you don¡¯t mind me asking, can we know what this ¡¯thing¡¯ that¡¯s going to happen is? If it is serious, I can get my big sister to make some preparations." Irina asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure I was going to go inform the government too so that they can make an announcement about it. Do you know about the Queens?" Shiro asked while crossing her legs.
"I know some information." Irina nodded her head
"What about you Kanae?"
"Mn, I know a little too since I hang out with Irina quite a bit. I was there for some of the talks." Kanae nodded her head.
"Tell me what you know and I¡¯ll fill in the nks."
Nodding her head, Kanae started to exin to Shiro about what they know.
Most of the knowledge was about the Queen¡¯s domains and their influence over people but that was it. Nothing about anchors, their power or their guard. While the government has discovered the next tier, tier 6, no one has been able to reach it.
"Well I suppose tier 6 is hard to reach but it¡¯s not impossible. You¡¯re looking at one right now." Shiro said, pointing at Nan Tian.
"Hey." Nan Tian smiled and created a tier 6 magic circle.
Seeing this, both Kanae and Irina widened their eyes in shock since this was something that had just been discovered and yet Shiro had someone who was tier 6 beside her.
"What do you mean it¡¯s not hard to reach?" Irina asked as her sister has been stuck at the peak of tier 5 for so long now.
"Well I¡¯m not even level 400 yet and I get to create tier 6 magic circles too. By the time I reached the peak of tier 5 I should be able to breakthrough quite easily." Shiro shrugged and made a tier 6 magic circle too.
Opening her mouth and closing it a few times, Kanae didn¡¯t know how to react.
¡¯If it¡¯s so rare why are there two of you???¡¯ She thought with a forced smile.
"Though I¡¯m not sure if I should publish the way to reach tier 6 or not. After all, you know what human nature is like. The people that reach tier 6 might have an elitist mindset which would only harm humanity as a whole." Shiro shrugged as both Kanae and Irina nodded their heads.
If someone like Gil had be tier 6, it would truly be bad news.
"Anyways, let me tell you about the Queens as well as what is going to happen." Shiro smiled.
Taking a sip of the juice and raising her eyebrow at how nice it was, Shiro asked for more before exining everything they knew such as the Queen¡¯s roles, their guards, how they operate as well as the fact that demons and gods will arrive.
Of course, Shiro left out the fact that she was the Queen right now since she didn¡¯t want to dere it to the world. If she did, the other queens could easily find out her identity through the inte. She didn¡¯t want to lose this advantage just yet.
Hearing about everything that¡¯sing in a short period of 5 months, Kanae¡¯s face paled.
"Shiro-nee is this true?" She asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"I¡¯ve experienced a few visions and quests that show what initially happens and what will happen. It doesn¡¯t look good." Shiro frowned while making a hologram of what she had seen. Of course, she left out the parts where it showed her participation and their future.
Seeing the future, the two girls didn¡¯t have good expressions as the oue was not exactly positive.
Taking a deep breath, Irina pardoned herself as she wanted to tell her sister.
Nodding her head, Shiro agreed since it would be good if her sister came to talk in person.
After Irina was gone, Shiro snapped her fingers and a small barrier was formed.
"You can ask me what you wanted to ask now." Shiro smiled softly since she could tell that something was on Kanae¡¯s mind.
"Ah you found out?" Kanae chuckled.
"Of course. You know I¡¯m sensitive to my surroundings. So what is it?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"I just want to know your part in all of this Shiro-nee. For you to know this much it means that there is something you need to do and it¡¯s very important." Kanae asked as Shiro thought for a moment before nodding.
"There is. Remember how I said that there were queens from different worlds? Well I¡¯m the queen of this world. For us to survive, I need to defeat the rest of the queens. I wanted you to get stronger so that you can protect yourself as well as your mother. After all, it would be quite sad to see you well... fall in battle I suppose." Shiro sighed.
"Mn.... I know that queens have subjects so am I able to be part of your kingdom or something? With what I know, you¡¯re our¡¯sst hope right? If you die then everything is over. I know how powerful you are Shiro-nee so I can trust that my mum would be safe with you. Plus, I can also help out and do my part for our world." Kanae smiled as Shiro thought about it for a moment before nodding her head.
"You know being near me is dangerous right? Sure I¡¯m powerful but my enemies are just as powerful if not stronger." Shiro said while raising her eyebrow.
"I know. But you inspired me and it was you who also helped me survive this long so I have a debt towards you that I want to pay off." Kanae smiled while ncing at her book.
"Mn how about this then. If you doe under me, I only have one job for you. And that is to keep people safe in the city while we go out for expeditions ok? I know it sounds boring but we need someone to guard the city." Shiro suggested as Kanae furrowed her brows before nodding her head.
She understood that she was nowhere near ready to go out on the front lines considering therge power difference. Going there would only be suicide. Plus, guarding the city wasn¡¯t bad either as she can keep an eye on her mum and keep her safe.
"Mn that¡¯s fine." Kanae nodded her head.
"Good. I don¡¯t have a domain just yet but I do have something called a celestial court. If you join the royal court, you get several bonuses that are proportionate to how powerful I can. You should get some decent boosts." Shiro smiled.
Naturally, Kanae agreed to join the court.
Performing the ritual that was needed for her, Shiro saw her name appear on the court list.
[Celestial Court Knight: Kanae]
The person given this role will receive the following benefits:
+20% of the Empress¡¯ STR, AGI and DEX stat.
+20% Armour/Magic Pration
+40% Boost to Stats while performing a task given by the Empress
As a Celestial Court Knight, you are able to tap into a portion of the experiences the Empress has to aid you in battle. Examples of experiences are Sword Domain, Boundary and War Saint.
Reading the description of Celestial Court Knight, Shiro was quite surprised that Kanae could get some experience of her using Boundary to help her in battles.
However, Kanae didn¡¯t know the usefulness of this just yet as she was looking at her STR, AGI and DEX stat jump up tremendously.
"Shiro-nee aren¡¯t you a mage??? Why are these stats so high???" Kanae asked.
"I know I¡¯m a mage but they¡¯re lowpared to my INT stat you know?" Shiro chuckle.d
Understanding where this was going, Nimue wanted to warn Kanae but it was toote.
"How high is your INT stat?" Kanae asked.
"Around 100 million points or so." Shiro shrugged.
Hearing this number, Kanae spaced out in shock.
{And you broke her, great.} Nimue rolled her eyes.
¡¯Oh I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be fine. It¡¯s better for her to start getting used to it now if she¡¯s going to stay with us for a while.¡¯ Shiro chuckled.
While Kanae was trying her best to process the information, Irina returned with someone behind her.
Chapter 794 Ilya
Chapter 794 Ilya
"It is nice to meet you Miss Shiro. Or rather, shall I call you Miss Asakura? My sister has told me about some of the things that you have shared with the two of them." The woman smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"I presume that you are the current leader of God¡¯s Pantheon, Ilya right?" Shiro smiled.
"That is indeed who I am." Ilya nodded her head.
She was a rtively tall woman with long blond hair and piercing brown eyes. Much like what Kanae and Irina wore, she also wore a trench coat, some shorts, tights and boots.
Feeling her aura, Shiro could tell that Ilya was rather prideful and that she clearly wanted to have the upper hand in this talk.
"Do you have any proof about the things that you have said? This is a serious case so I will be needing proof otherwise God¡¯s Pantheon won¡¯t be able to do anything, It¡¯ll be rather difficult to convince them to act without having proof." Ilya said as she sat down on a chair.
"You want proof? Well I don¡¯t really have any proof except for what I¡¯ve seen as well as the information I have gathered from the system." Shiro shrugged.
"Oh? You have gathered information about this new age from your system? How did you do that? If we can also draw information from the system we¡¯ll be able to prove the liability of your statements." Ilya asked as Shiro frowned in her head since she was rather demanding.
"You want to know how to gather information from the system? Do it yourself. I¡¯m not going to serve you everything on a tter just because you¡¯re the leader of a faction you know that right? If you think I am going to do that then you are belittling me quite a bit." Shiro narrowed her eyes as sparks seemed to appear as the two red at each other.
Seeing this, Irina panicked since this wasn¡¯t what she wanted to happen. She understood that her sister seemed demanding, but she had to be that way otherwise she won¡¯t be the leader of God¡¯s Pantheon.
ncing towards Kanae, Irina saw that she was rather rxed and just checked her phone while the two were having a stare off.
"Aren¡¯t you worried?" Irina whispered over while gesturing at the stare off.
"Mn? Well... I know that Shiro-nee is nice so she wouldn¡¯t do anything too drastic so long as you don¡¯t push her buttons. She even shared this important information with us after all. I think whether or not your sister believes her, Shiro-nee has done her job by providing the information. The rest is up to your sister so it¡¯s not a case of being worried of Shiro-nee but rather will your sister back down I suppose." Kanae shrugged before gesturing towards Ilya.
ncing towards her sister, Irina was surprised to see that sweat seemed to roll down her face as she eventually sighed and closed her eyes.
"I see... I will attempt to persuade the God¡¯s Pantheon. Is there anything we should do before the Age of Demons and Gods arrive?" Ilya asked.
"You got about 5 months to make everyone as strong as possible. That¡¯s about it. There¡¯s nothing else other than to get as strong as you can. You probably want to stay in a dungeon for a bit longer so that you can extend the time. I know this is asking for a lot but the best case scenario would be that everyone can clear a dungeon solo and try to get as much EXP as they can. It¡¯s impossible to get everyone to the peak of tier 5 but try get as close as you can. For those that are already at the peak, aim for tier 6 if you can since the enemies in the new age are much stronger than the enemies we face now. Tier 6 is just the beginning as there will be tier 7¡¯s, and 8¡¯s among us. Just so you know, tier 7 is demi god and tier 8 is god." Shiro exined as Ilya nodded.
"Are you able to give any hints about reaching tier 6?"
"I suppose I can but I want to wait until I can get the government to listen to me I suppose. Once they tell everyone about the new age, I¡¯ll get them to publish some hints about reaching tier 6 with some demonstrations I suppose. 5 months should be enough for the talented ones to reach tier 6." Shiro replied.
"However, if there are any dipshit¡¯s that decide to abuse their tier 6 power, me and Lil¡¯ Tian will deal with them personally." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Nan Tian agreed.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro decided to leave since there was still much to do.
"Kanae, do you want toe with us? I can get my mum or dad to train you during the 5 month period we have left. Plus, I can also get Helion to make you a new weapon since your old one had been broken." Shiro asked.
"Hmm... would Irina be able toe with us?" Kanae asked while ncing back at her friend."
"She can if she wants to. I¡¯m sure my parents wouldn¡¯t mind training her." Shiro nodded her head.
"However, it¡¯s really up to her and her sister." She shrugged as Ilya stood up.
"It would be her honour to be trained by your parents as not many get this chance. However, I will leave the decision to Irina as she is her own person." Ilya smiled.
"In that case then I want to train with Kanae." Irina said since she had seen how strong Shiro was. If she could get stronger, she could be more reliable on the battlefield.
Seeing this, Shiro only smiled as it reminded her of Silvia when she first joined the party.
"Sure, I¡¯ll contact youter about her progress." Shiro smiled as the four of them left the apartment.
Once she was alone, Ilya sighed and sat down heavily. During their stare off, she felt like she was sitting in front of a powerful monster as her aura gave her the feeling of death. Should she do anything out of line, she would definitely die!
Taking a deep breath, Ilya calmed herself before calling for an emergency meeting with her faction. After all, she needed to tell them about what she knows.
###
"Before we go to my parents house, we¡¯re going to make a small detour." Shiro smiled.
???Where are we going?" Kanae asked.
"Just a small trip to the world government. We¡¯re acquainted so they should be rather familiar with me." Shiro chuckled as Kanae nodded her head.
However, Nan Tian only shook his head.
"You might want to brace yourself for what Shiro does. Hmm... a tip is to imagine the most insane thing she can possibly do and use that as a baseline." Nan Tian said as both Kanae and Irina tilted their heads.
"What? It¡¯s not like she¡¯s going to attack the government, now is she?" Irina asked as both Nan Tian and Shiro stayed silent and looked forward. Without saying anything, they teleported away with Kanae and Irina in tow.
Arriving at Lerit, Shiro and Nan Tian made their way back to the previous spot they were in when they were checking out the city.
"Sit down here and wait for a bit. I¡¯ll sort it out quickly." Shiro smiled as the two nodded their heads.
Flying into the sky, Shiro immediately released her aura as both Kanae and Irina widened their eyes in shock.
"Is she trying to pick a fight????" Irina shouted out in shock.
"Yes and no, just trust her." Nan Tian sighed and ced a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from going forward.
"Are you just going to watch her?" Irina frowned.
"Yes and I have done so plenty of times. Just trust me and watch. Enjoy the show if you can." Nan Tian smiled.
Suddenly, a portal opened up as a young man appeared before them with a forced smile.
"Seems like you have decided toe back rather quickly." He said with a forced smiled. He couldn¡¯t help but curse the old geezers that forced him toe talk to her after what she had donest time.
"Don¡¯t be so scared. I came with some information this time. Of course, we can have a proper fight if you want. I destroyed your portals before you could use themst time didn¡¯t I? How about I let you use your spells first?" Shiro grinned.
"I¡¯ll be fine. So what information did you want to share?"
Chapter 795 Dark Elf
Chapter 795 Dark Elf
"Well rather than share, perhaps you¡¯d like a usb instead. It¡¯s kind of annoying to tell the same story multiple times." Shiro chuckled as she created a usb and threw it towards the man.
Catching it with a frown, he sighed and nodded his head.
"Is there anything else you want to tell us?" He asked.
"Not really except that you probably want everyone to be as high levelled as possible. You¡¯ll understand why when you see the stuff on the usb. That and also share the resources around a bit more. Aside from that, nothing else." Shiro smiled.
"That and also your friend seems to be quite excited, why note out and introduce yourself." Shiro smiled and snapped her finger. Suddenly, tens of nanotech needles appeared and shot towards an area.
"Aiya, you found me? Not many people can." A voice rang out as a man quicklynded on the ground.
Looking at him, Shiro was rather surprised to see that he was a dark elf with silver hair like Shiro. His physique was simr to Nan Tian¡¯s in that it seemed thin but Shiro could tell the power packed in his body.
"Well it¡¯s quite obvious to someone as sensitive to mana as I am. I¡¯m sure you heard of what happened with your friend so care to exin to me why you seem to trigger happy?" Shiro chuckled while pointing towards his bow.
"Well it¡¯s not often people like us run into someone stronger. I want to give it a shot." The dark elf narrowed his eyes as Shiro shrugged.
"Sure, entertain me."
Just as she said this, hundreds of mana arrows appeared around Shiro as she instantly summoned Silvanis and cut the arrows in half. However, just as she did this, each arrow released a shockwave as Shiro countered with a shockwave of her own created with thepression of mana.
"Damn your reaction speed is insane." The dark elf¡¯s voice rang out as he appeared behind her with two short swords.
Twisting his body, a whirlwind of shes surrounded Shiro as she stabbed her sword into the ground. Suddenly, a cage of nanobots erupted out and blocked the shes. They barely left shallow marks as the nanobots healed up in an instant.
Seeing this, the dark elf couldn¡¯t help but chuckle and hop back.
Connecting his short swords together, they merged into a bow again as he fired several shots towards Shiro while dashing around her.
Swiping out with her sword, Shiro was about to cut the arrow in half when it switched locations with the elf.
Stepping on her sword, the elf shed towards her.
Bending her body back, Shiro watched as the sword brushed against her hair which was rather surprising since it had been quite hard for people toe close to hitting her unless they heavily out ssed her in stats.
Summoning a few daggers, she had them pierce towards her but his ce switched with the arrow once more.
To her surprise, the arrow had continued to travel towards her when they were dodging each other¡¯s strikes so when he switched, he reappeared behind her with a sword cutting towards head.
Smirking slightly, Shiro activated Keitoma as his body froze up for a moment, allowing her to adjust herself.
"Such a tough to hit opponent." The dark elf shrugged when the paralysis wore off.
"If I wasn¡¯t hard to hit I would have died by now with my defences." Shiro humoured him as he had given her a rtively good workoutpared to what others have done.
"Well care to go for a little longer then?" He asked as Shiro nodded. Narrowing his eyes, he crouched down and mmed his hand against the ground.
Suddenly, a tier 5 magic circle expanded out in an instant but Shiro wasn¡¯t surprised.
Stomping down, she shattered the spell in an instant but the dark elf only smiled.
As the shattered tier 5 magic circle floated in the air, they converged together and reassembled themselves into a shadow of Shiro which caused her to raise her eyebrow.
"Oh my, I didn¡¯t think a person could actually get a skill like this. Interesting." Shiro smiled as her shadow seemed to have the same equipment as her but they felt weaker inparison.
"I got lucky with this skill. But what kind of monster are you? The shadow will always be weaker than the original by quite a bit but despite that, your shadow is stronger than most of the members we have." The dark elf narrowed his eyes as he dashed towards her with the shadow besides him.
"Mn, I¡¯ll keep that a secret." Shiro smiled.
Raising her sword, she parried her shadows strike as ice chains erupted out from the ground.
Pivoting on her foot, Shiro summoned a dagger and destroyed the chains in an instant. But just as she did this, the dark elf appeared in front of her and shed with her short sword.
Just as she stepped back to dodge, she felt danger all around her as it was simr to how her boundary worked.
Snapping her finger, a mana barrier wrapped around her.
Ripples could be seen across the surface but the barrier was not harmed.
"Jeez. If my next attack doesn¡¯t work then I surrender." Jumping back, the dark elf grabbed his short swords and flicked them into reverse grip. Stabbing it into each arm, Shiro raised her eyebrow when light blue runic tattoos appeared on his body.
Separating from his body, two illusionary images of him slowly materialised as he pulled the swords out.
Stomping down, darkness expanded out in an instant as it wrapped the two of them in an arena where no light could be seen.
"Oh you poor man." Shiro sighed since this was actually beneficial for her.
Sighing softly, she dismissed her de as her stats had just been multiplied. Her sword was no longer necessary.
Raising one leg, she kicked out besides her before pivoting on her other foot. mming her palm into the chest of one of the phantoms, she mmed the ground as ice spikes erupted out with her in the centre.
*PING!!!
Shattering the darkness with ease, Shiro could see the dark elf retreating butbat halted.
"I¡¯ll be honest. You surprised me. You actually made me bleed." Shiro smiled while raising up her right hand.
There were several cuts on her right hand as mes wrapped around them and they were healed in an instant.
"Goodness when did the young miss of the Asakura family be such a monster." The dark elf sighed as he sat against the ground. The entirety of his back and left arm had been frozen as he was caught by a single ice ke that he didn¡¯t manage to dodge.
"I kind of have to." Shiro shrugged and thawed the ice before healing him.
"Since you actually proved to be quite talented, why don¡¯t you tell me your name?" Shiro asked as he had impressed her quite a bit.
"Grangl. Grangel Lunarious." Gangel replied while standing up.
"Take this."
Catching the thing that Shiro threw, Grangel was confused as to what she had just given him.
"It¡¯s a skill chip of one of my skills. It¡¯s a little weaker but it shouldn¡¯t be too bad. Just ced that chip on an essory and you¡¯ll be able to use the skill. Of course, if you do shady stuff with it, I¡¯ll know." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Grangel nced at the description and widened his eyes.
[Kietoma]
It was the same skill that Shiro had used to freeze his body as it would be quite helpful for him. Especially for thest attack that he used against her.
Turning around, Shiro walked back to the trio that had been waiting.
"We¡¯re done here. Let¡¯s go." Shiro smiled as they nodded their heads.
Opening a portal to the rift, they disappeared from the area.
Once they were gone, Grangel sighed.
"Goodness. Tell the old geezers that we should work under her if we can. She¡¯s crazy strong." He said while applying the chip to an earring he had.
"Work under her?"
"Yup." Grangel nodded his head and disappeared from his spot.
###
{I¡¯m surprised that you actually gave him a chip with a skill on it.} Nimue said as Shiro shrugged.
¡¯He impressed me which is rather hard considering my expectations. Naturally, I would reward that. Plus, it also gives me a means of monitoring the government so it¡¯s a win win. He will be a rather helpful ally in the new age.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Mn true. Look at you being generous now haha.}
¡¯I¡¯m always generous. Of course, only to people that I care about and those that impress me.¡¯ Shiro shrugged since she wasn¡¯t stringent about giving things to people. The main thing is that they had to impress her first.
Arriving at the teleport shrine, Shiro decided to go back home first before going back to the spirit capital since she wanted to introduce the two to her parents first.
Chapter 796 Second Spar Against Koji
Chapter 796 Second Spar Against Koji
Teleporting to the City of Asakura, Kanae was surprised when Shiro revealed her identity to her. Finding out that she was the infamous Kuromi Asakura who destroyed a person¡¯s manhood quite often, Kanae couldn¡¯t help but wonder if Nan Tian had been hit yet.
"So you managed to get your memories back?" Kane asked while they were walking through the city.
"Mn, it took a while but I remembered everything." Shiro smiled.
"That¡¯s good. Me and my mum were worried about you and your family. They could have been looking for you and you wouldn¡¯t have known since you didn¡¯t have your memories. But since you have gotten your memories back and now you know who your parents are, we don¡¯t have to worry anymore." Kanae said with a smile as Shiro patted her head.
"How thoughtful of you." She chuckled.
"But don¡¯t worry, even if I didn¡¯t get my memories back, I had found some information about my family so I could have searched for them."
Nodding her head, Kanae followed Shiro through the city.
Seeing the respect they had for Shiro, Kanae was rather surprised. However, since the city was basically named after their family, she couldn¡¯t understand why they would have respect for Shiro rather than the Asakura family.
Arriving at the house, Shiro could sense two mana signals in the house as she understood that her parents were home.
"Seems like we¡¯vee at a good time. Both my mum and dad are home." Shiro smiled.
"Mum! Dad! I¡¯m home!" Shiro called out as Kanae could hear two people dashing towards them.
"Wee home!" Mio called out as she hugged Shiro.
"Oh my, this time you brought back a husband and two children. Are they adopted or are they yours?" Mio asked while looking towards Kanae and Irina.
"No mum, they¡¯re not my children and Lil¡¯ Tian isn¡¯t my husband." Shiro sighed while facepalming.
"Oh well isn¡¯t that a shame. She¡¯s quite cute too." Mio smiled while patting Kanae¡¯s hair who blushed slightly from embarrassment.
"Can we talk inside?" Shiro asked.
"Oh, of course,e in."
Leading Shiro and the group to the living room, they could see Shiro¡¯s father sitting on the sofa giving them a small wave.
"Wee home. Did you do what you wanted to do outside?" Koji asked.
"Mn I did."
"That¡¯s good. So who are these people? One looks Japanese, a Russian and a masked one." Koji asked while ncing at the guests.
"Kanae is someone I met when I lost my memories. She¡¯s like a little sister to me. Irina is someone I¡¯ve met recently and she¡¯s Kanae¡¯s friend. As for the masked one, you should recognise him as Lil¡¯s Tian the one you helped when he was younger." Shiro smiled as she elbowed Nan Tian in the ribs.
"Why do you still have your mask on?" She frowned.
"Mn sorry. It¡¯s nice to meet you again sir. Thank you for helping me all those years ago." Nan Tian smiled as he took off his mask.
"Oh my, he¡¯s quite the looker isn¡¯t he." Mio said to Koji as Kanae was shocked at Nan Tian¡¯s appearance as well.
"Ahh... the little sh*t who made Shiro pick magic." Koji nodded as Mio smacked him on the head.
"Don¡¯t call our guest¡¯s little sh*t." She frowned as Koji quickly apologised.
"Well it¡¯s the young man who forced Shiro to pick magic then." Koji forced a smile as Mio rolled her eyes.
"Ignore your dad. Anyways what do you need our help for?" Mio asked.
"Oh you knew?"
"Well of course I would know. I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s a simr situation as to what happened before with your party?" Mio asked.
"Mn, I was wondering if you and dad could train these two since the new age is going to arrive soon. Kanae is someone important to me and Irina is her friend so I hope they can get better at fighting in order to protect themselves." Shiro nodded.
"Mn sure. Do you know when exactly will the new age arrive?" Mio asked since she wanted to know the time frame that they¡¯re working with.
"I do. We have 5 months left." Shiro nodded as Mio furrowed her brows.
"Only 5 months huh? It¡¯ll be better if we take them to a dungeon then. That way we have more time to train them if we want them to be trained up to standard." Mio frowned.
"Mn Kanae is a physical fighter who uses a katana. Her weapon was broken not too long ago so getting her a new de for now should be fine. I¡¯ll be getting Helion to craft her a deter so you don¡¯t have to worry about that." Shiro said a Mio nodded her head.
"Alright. What about the other one? What kind of fighter is she? She doesn¡¯t seem to be a physical fighter." Mio asked while pointing at Irina.
"You¡¯re a support ss right?" Shiro asked as Irina nodded her head.
"I am." Irina nodded.
"Basically the self defence training for Silvia dad." Shiro shrugged as Koji nodded his head.
Feeling a shiver down her spine, Irina couldn¡¯t help but feel as though she was in a lot of danger. However, that feeling disappeared quickly.
"Oh right, how are you in terms of fighting now?" Koji asked curiously. While his daughter is a mage, he didn¡¯t want her to ck out on fighting.
"Fufu, it¡¯s funny you should ask. Perhaps I¡¯m better than you in terms of technique now." Shiro chuckled as Koji raised his eyebrow.
"Hou hou, are you saying you want another spar with your old man?" Koji asked with a grin.
"Perhaps." Shiro shrugged as she decided to go to the dojo with Koji.
Pulling out a random sword, Shiro waved it a few times.
With Item Master activated, she can use this to its full potential.
"Ready dad? I can assure you, I¡¯m not like I was before." Shiro smiled as Koji nodded.
"I¡¯m sure your old man can handle it."
ncing towards her mother, Shiro waited for the start signal as Kanae and Irina was waiting by the side while Nan Tian only mouthed the words ¡¯don¡¯t hurt him too much¡¯.
"Go." Giving themand, Mio watched as Shiro disappeared from her spot.
Activating boundary immediately, Shiro followed it up with Keitoma.
Feeling his body freeze, Koji was shocked to sense danger all around him as de marks could be seen.
After a short pause, he could move his body once more as shallow sword marks could be seen on his vest.
"See?" Shiro grinned as Koji couldn¡¯t help but feel excited.
"Damn why do you have to be a mage. If you were a warrior this would be so much better. But let¡¯s see how you fair in terms of defence." Kojiughed.
Flickering next to Shiro, he shed towards her as she used her boundary to counter-attack since it didn¡¯t work well in defence. It was simr to what her mother had done when they fought since she shed after her bullets as a defensive manoeuvre.
Parrying her father¡¯s de to the side, she shed towards him once more as he quickly stepped to the side and parried the invisible des.
Watching the two exchange attacks, Kanae couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes.
It made her question whether or not Shiro was actually a mage since this was something a mage shouldn¡¯t be able to do. At least, that was what most people believed.
"Neither of them have shown their true power. This is just their basic techniques and some skills. I can say for sure, that I¡¯m not confident that I can defeat Shiro in a one on one fight even though I¡¯m a whole tier above her." Nan Tian said as Kanae looked up.
"Have you fought her at all?" She asked.
"Mn... No properly no. But I wouldn¡¯t want to." He chuckled.
Unlike the first time that they had spared, Shiro was actually able to fight to a standstill with her father which surprised him as Shiro was the same. After all, boundary was something extremely hard to fight against. Thanks to her father¡¯s stats and instincts, he was actually able to defend against her to some extent.
His way of defending against such attacks was actually to put pressure on her so that she couldn¡¯t attack as much as she wanted to. Understanding that the weakness of her boundary was that she had no defences, Shiro understood that she should work a little more on her guard.
Chapter 797 Nos Vardi
Chapter 797 Nos Vardi
Finishing the spar on a stalemate, they decided to have some dinner before talking about anything else.
"You¡¯ve definitely improved but your defences are still on the weak end. If you want to focus on attack only, the best thing is to probably ignore defencespletely since by pressuring you, I can reduce your chances of attack." Koji said, as focusing on all out attack has its boons. Especially for people like them who are heavy offensive fighters.
"Mn well with the people that I face, I kind of need to have some defence otherwise I¡¯ll be heavily injured." Shiro shrugged as Koji understood what she was worried about.
"Mn well I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll figure out the best way to fightter. For now though, let¡¯s just enjoy this meal. So what are your ns now?" Koji asked while having a mouthful of rice.
"Don¡¯t talk while you¡¯ve got food in your mouth. But yes, like your dad said, what are your ns now?" Mio asked curiously.
"Well since Kanae and Irina will be under your guidance for now, I think I¡¯m going to be taking a trip to the spirit capital and sort out everything else. I also need to set up the anchor and the main city." Shiro sighed since there¡¯s a lot of work for her.
"There¡¯s also Madison¡¯s situation and I need to see an old friendter." She muttered remembering that she needed to look for Isilia in China.
Seeing this, Mio patted her head.
"How about we take a trip to your mother¡¯s home for a bit. Your grandma has been rather eager about looking for you." Mio smiled as Shiro immediately sat up.
She had always been curious about her mother¡¯s family and now she had a chance to find out more. However, with so many things on her te, she wasn¡¯t sure if she could cram it all in within the short time of 5 months.
"Can you tell me more about them?" Shiro asked as Mio only chuckled.
"Not yet, I¡¯ll tell you when we go."
"Uff... I have so many things that I need to do. I don¡¯t even know if I can fit it in within 5 months." Shiroined as Kanae couldn¡¯t help but giggle at Shiro since to her, Shiro had always been this refined older sister whom she looked up at but right now she was almost like a cute little sis.
"The trip to your grandparents won¡¯t take too long darling. At most it¡¯ll take a week at the minimum it¡¯ll take three days." Mio chuckled.
"Oh? That short?" Shiro asked with confusion.
"Mn, their situation is a little special so meeting them for long isn¡¯t possible." Mio nodded.
"Has dad met them?" Shiro asked as Koji coughed.
"Well your dad kidnapped me from my home so I don¡¯t think my parents want to meet him any time soon." Mioughed as Koji forced a smile.
"Context hon. Context." Koji said as Mio only shrugged.
"While your dad trains Kanae and Irina, we can go meet your grandparents. It shouldn¡¯t take too long. If you want, you can even bring your friend with you." Mio smiled while pointing at Nan Tian.
"Eh? He cane too???" Shiro asked while ncing at Nan Tian who was equally as surprised.
"Mn. Of course, the choice is yours darling. He cane along if you want him too." Mio smiled.
Scratching her head, Shiro looked at Nan Tian.
"Well do you want toe?"
"I don¡¯t have anything else to do so I don¡¯t mind. Of course, if you want to meet your grandparents alone then that¡¯s also fine." Nan Tian smiled.
"Well I guess you¡¯reing with us then. When do we go mum?" Shiro asked.
"We can go after we finish this meal."
Finishing the meal rather quickly, Shiro was excited to see her grandparents since there was no information from them. She also wanted to know the story of her parents and how they met since from what she knows, her father had taken her mother away from home.
Helping up with the washing, Shiro watched as Koji took Kanae and Irina away to the dojo while her mother led them through the house.
"We¡¯re going to be teleporting to somewhere else in order to meet your grandparents. You don¡¯t have to be too formal but don¡¯t be rude either ok?" Mio said as Shiro nodded her head.
Exiting out of the back of the house, Mio stomped down as a foreign magic circle lit up and a path underground opened before them.
"I would have loved to take your sister but unfortunately your grandparents only showed interest in you rather than the both of you. Though I¡¯m sure your sister will get the chance to talk to your grandparents in the future. It¡¯s just a matter of time now." Mio said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Follow me."
Waking down the steps, they could see a portal open up as Mio cut her finger and dropped some blood on the floor. Suddenly, red runes lit up around the portal as the mana signature started to change.
"Normally, this would act as a normal portal to different locations but with the key, it links directly to where your grandparents live." Mio exined as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"This is bloodline coded isn¡¯t it? If I did it, I think I can also work as a key." Shiro asked.
"Indeed. However, you also need permission from the other side otherwise you won¡¯t be able to ess it. Now follow me." Mio smiled.
Entering the portal, Shiro could see that they were immediately teleported to a mana rich area as she could feel her body be invigorated.
Looking up, she could see that there were several floating inds in what seemed to be the void as there was just the infinite stretch of space beneath the inds.
ncing back, she saw that they were currently standing on an ind that had arge portal situated in the centre.
"Wee to where your grandparents live. Nos Vardi." Mio said as she bit her finger and drew a rune in the air. Suddenly, runes started to light up on her body as she activated something simr to her true spirit nature.
Wrapping herself in a ck and red dress, Mio smiled.
"Shiro, I want to ask you something." Mio said as Shiro tilted her head.
"Mn? What is it mum?"
"The only reason why your grandparents want to meet you so eagerly is because you started to interact with souls now haven¡¯t you? Your affinity with souls should have increased tremendously otherwise my parents wouldn¡¯t ce much importance in us." Mio asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, You know that I¡¯m a spirit now right?" Shiro said as Mio nodded.
"You have indeed told me that before."
"Well my True Spirit Nature, something that represents a spirit¡¯s power, is rted to souls." Shiro exined as Mio raised her eyebrow.
"Mn, that makes sense. With my blood flowing in your veins, it¡¯s only a matter of time before you awaken something that has a link with souls." Mio smiled.
"What do you mean?"
"Remember how I told you that I¡¯ll exin about my circ.u.mstancester? Well you can think of my role as being the harvester of souls. There are certain times when anomalies appear, and our family specialises in dealing with the anomalies. Such as a soul that can possibly threaten the world or some such. We deal with the anomalies and make sure they cannot reincarnate. We are part reaper hence why most of our sses are titled as such. You can also say that we are a race of grim reapers and our main affinity is with souls." Mio exined as Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"So you¡¯re not human?" Shiro asked.
"Nope. Your father is but I¡¯m not. Your grandparents work with the system and Hades to keep the souls in order hence why their situation is a littleplicated. There are certain restrictions after working so close to a god that meeting them is very difficult. Nowe, your grandparents should be waiting right now." Mio smiled as semi-translucent steps appeared before them one by one.
Following her mother, Shiro was digesting the information when she felt something stir within her. Simr to when she arrived at the spirit world, she felt at home but there was more.
Frowning for a moment, Shiro decided to test something out.
"Mum, am I able to use one of my skills here?" Shiro asked just in case it wasn¡¯t allowed."
"Yes you may. Though it depends on which skill."
"Oh just a transformation one simr to yours."
Seeing her mother nod her head, Shiro activated her True Spirit nature as a ck and green dress appeared on her body with a veil flowing behind her.
ncing at her stats, her suspicions were confirmed.
Her spirit nature didn¡¯t have a time limit in this ce.
Chapter 798 Grand Parents
Chapter 798 Grand Parents
"Oh my, I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d have something simr to the reaper form." Mio raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"This is my True Spirit Nature mum. Normally it¡¯ll be on a one minute limit but in here it seems to not have a limit." Shiro exined while moving her hand around.
After a minute, she could sense her form shimmer for a moment but held strong.
"Yup, it doesn¡¯t run out." Shiro shrugged.
"Interesting..." Mio touched her chin as she nced at Shiro¡¯s form.
"Well your grandparents might be able to tell you more about it I suppose." Mio shrugged.
Pointing towards arge oriental mansion in the distance, Mio snapped her finger as tens of phantoms approached them and kneeled down.
A red aura wrapped around their body as they now looked human with ck dresses.
"Wee back Young Miss. Master and Mistress has been waiting for you." One of the phantoms said as Mio nodded her head.
"Mn, prepare two rooms for my daughter and her friend. We may be staying for a little longer." Mio ordered as the phantoms nodded their heads.
"Understood."
Disappearing from their spot, Mio gestured for Shiro and Nan Tian to follow them.
Following behind Mio, Shiro nced around at her surroundings curiously. Trying to sense the mana in the surroundings, Shiro realised that the ambient energy wasn¡¯t exactly mana as it was more simr to her celestial energy rather than anything. It wasn¡¯t godly energy like divine energy but it was more powerful than mana.
Pushing open the door, Mio led them through a few rooms before arriving at arge set of finely carved doors.
"Right then, my parents are just past this door. Are you ready?" Mio asked with a smile.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro took a deep breath and prepared herself mentally.
Smiling at this, Mio opened the door.
Sitting on two great thrones, two elderly people narrowed their eyes at them.
"Wee home Mio. I had expected my granddaughter but who¡¯s this with her?" The elderly man asked as he rested his cheek on his hand.
He had long grey hair as well as a ck robes. His dark red eyes swept over them as a feeling of pressure crashed into all of them.
However, to his surprise, none of them are phased which caused him to grin.
"Hou hou, mental fortitude is rather good." The elderly said as the elderly woman nodded her head.
"It¡¯s Mio¡¯s daughter after all. Though I am curious as to who the young man is. Care to take off that mask?" The elderly woman asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Taking off his mask, the elderly woman raised her eyebrow for a moment before smiling.
"Right then, Mio, I believe you said that your daughter was called Kuromi right?" The elderly man asked as he stood up and walked towards them.
"Ah yes about that. She ran into an ident and it seems like the system has renamed her to Shiro." Mio smiled as the elderly man nodded his head and walked in front of Shiro.
"So you¡¯re called Shiro now?" He asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"What shall I call you? Gramps?" Shiro asked as Mio paused for a moment but decided to say nothing just yet.
"Hm... Gramps sound pretty good." He grinned
"But if you¡¯re called Shiro, you wouldn¡¯t happen to know Hades now would you? Because I heard quite a few interesting things about a person called Shiro from him."
"We¡¯re acquainted." Shiro shrugged.
"Pft as carefree as he described. He did mention that you were quite nonchnt in front of a few of the gods." The elderlyughed as he patted Shiro¡¯s head.
"So why did you want to meet me Gramps?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Mn... should I tell her or should you tell her?" The elderly man asked the woman on the throne.
"You can." She chuckled.
"Right, so we wanted to see you because we noticed that your connection to souls has advanced past a certain point. It¡¯s hard for people to advance to this stage outside in the real world so we were curious as to who you were as a person. And we¡¯re not disappointed so far." Heughed as he picked up.
"Uahh!" Crying out in shock, Shiro didn¡¯t expect a sudden burst of strength from him as she wasn¡¯t able to react in time.
"Don¡¯t be too rough with her and tell her the real reason hon." The woman rolled her eyes as the man shrugged.
"I can¡¯t even y around with my granddaughter. Fine fine, the reason we wanted to talk to you is because we heard from Hades¡¯ that you y quite arge role in the new age. He seemed to know that you were my granddaughter hence why he has told me to meet you. It was just a coincidence that your mastery over souls has increased quite a bit."
"Mn I do y a rather important role I suppose." Shiro nodded her head.
"If it was just that, we wouldn¡¯t have been so hasty to meet you but after he told us that Zeus seemed to be rather annoyed with you, we figured that we might as well meet you and give you a bit of help."
"Oh? What kind of help are we talking about Gramps? I¡¯m prettypetent myself so if it¡¯s just Zeus I should be ok." Shiro tilted her head.
"Yes but there is a small problem. Zeus has allied herself with a Queen and he has specifically asked for the Queen to eliminate you. Annoyingly, it seems like he managed to work around a few of the rules so he can target you." He frowned.
"To make things worse we don¡¯t know which Queen. Since you¡¯re our granddaughter, it¡¯s only natural that we were worried." The woman said as the man nodded his head.
Letting Shiro down, he went back to his throne and sat down.
"How about we talk about this tomorrow mum, dad. We¡¯ll let Shiro digest some of the information first." Mio suggested as the two nodded their heads.
"Mn, that¡¯s fine."
Watching the three leave, they made sure they were along with sighing out heavily.
"Uggg... I think we started off too serious. The air is somewhat awkward." The elderly man sighed.
He was Kalus, the leader of the reapers and yet he wasn¡¯t able to interact with his granddaughter how he wished in fear of being despised.
"It¡¯s not a we, it¡¯s a you. You do realise that they wouldn¡¯t care if you¡¯re a little goofy with her right? She seems to be the rxed kind of girl." The woman chuckled.
"But if I¡¯m too goofy wouldn¡¯t she think I¡¯m weird and distance herself from me? Plus, shouldn¡¯t a leader be refined?" Kalus sighed as the woman shook her head.
"You¡¯ve seen Mio¡¯s messages. You can rx around her." The woman rolled her eyes as her husband was the type to overthink things way too much.
She was called Sitril and many believed her to just be a simple helper but in actuality, she takes care of most of the important matters while her husband is simr to a spokesman.
"Are you sure?" Kalus asked with a frown.
"Just believe me. Hais, I wanted to just run over and hug her when she cried out in shock but since there was that youngd next to her, I didn¡¯t want to present such a shameful disy. Speaking of thatd, who do you think he is for Mio to bring him along with Shiro?" Sitril asked curiously.
"Hmm... friend?" Kalus replied after a short pause.
"Mn perhaps but the way young Shiro looks at him might be more." Sitril chuckled as Kalus frowned.
"Let¡¯s not be too hasty now. Last time we were too hasty and Mio ran away with someone else." Kalus reminded as Sitril nodded her head.
"Even though it was our fault I¡¯m still not too keen on seeing thatd again. His deration was rather... impactful now wasn¡¯t it." Sitril forced a smile as Kalus could still remember what Koji had shouted when he married his daughter.
¡¯F*ck your traditions. I love Mio and we¡¯re getting married with or without your agreement!¡¯
After shouting that, Koji had proceeded to flip them off and run away.
Massaging his head, Kalus couldn¡¯t help but sigh. Thankfully, Mio was still willing to visit home every once in a while so that was fine.
"How about you try to be more rxed around Shiro tomorrow. You can¡¯t keep this serious fa?ade up at all times after all." Sitril chuckled.
"Mn... If I cooked her something to eat tonight do you think she¡¯ll rx around me?" Kalus asked as Sitril nodded her head.
"Give it a go and see what happens." Sitril shrugged as she was more curious at therge amounts of divine energy she could sense from Shiro. While it wasn¡¯t on the level of Hades, it was rather strange for someone like her to possess divine energy unless she was a god.
Chapter 799 Talking to Kalus
Chapter 799 Talking to Kalus
Leading them to the room, Mio sat down with Nan Tian and Shiro.
"So what did you think to your grandparents?" Mio asked curiously as she rested her chin on her palm.
"Hmm..." Leaning back for a moment, Shiro thought about it and frowned.
"Well... I don¡¯t know. He seems serious for one moment then casual for another. Does Gramps have schizophrenia?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Pft hahaha, your grandpa is awkward like that. Though he¡¯s rather charismatic on the battlefield. If he wasn¡¯t he wouldn¡¯t be able to reign over the reapers with such a secure throne." Mio smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Knowing your grandpa, he¡¯ll probably visit you tonight with some food or something." Mio chuckled as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Howe?"
"Well... he finds it easier to talk to someone over food. Don¡¯t worry though, your grandpa was the one who taught me how to cook and I can say that he¡¯s a better cook than I am." Mio smiled.
Hearing this, Shiro¡¯s ears perked up for a moment as she raised her eyebrow.
"Gramps is a better cook than you are?" She asked with confusion.
"Yup. I¡¯ll leave for now since I want to look for a few things. Nan Tian,e with me and I¡¯ll lead you to your room." Mio smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Standing up, he followed Mio as Shiro gave them a wave beforeying on the floor.
Sighing out heavily, she closed her eyes for a moment.to think about what she had found out today.
First, she was part reaper which exined her connection to souls.
Second, Hades knows her grandparents.
Third, Zeus has allied with a Queen to kill her. While she wasn¡¯t so worried about this, it was still going to be annoying since she was against both a Queen and a god.
{You seemed stressed.} Nimue said as Shiro shrugged.
¡¯A little I guess. I didn¡¯t expect Hades to know Gramps and that they were reapers.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
{Well they seem kind so it should be fine. Plus, you have a decent rtionship with Hades no? Though it¡¯s a shame that Poseidon was so petty to actually give you more blessings. If not, you could have gotten more from Hades.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯Mn, well that¡¯s in the past now. I have my own divinity so it¡¯s fine.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
¡¯I think I¡¯m just going to sleep for a bit. I don¡¯t know how long it¡¯s been since I properly slept a day away.¡¯ Shiro yawned as Attie reached out to her in the mana realm.
¡¯Mn? You want toe out too?¡¯ Shiro asked curiously.
Nodding his head, Attie hugged her leg while ncing up at her.
Feeling as though an arrow had just struck her heart from how cute he was, Shiro brought him outside.
¡¯Do you three want to join too?¡¯ Shiro turned to Nimue, Iziuel and Estre.
{I¡¯ll be fine in here.} Estre smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
¡¯You know that I¡¯ve already forgiven you right? If you want toe out you can. Plus, you can also help me by keeping Attiepany.¡¯ Shiro said as Estre paused for a moment before eventually nodding her head.
{I understand.}
¡¯Hais... It¡¯s not an order.¡¯ Shiro rolled her eyes as she gently knocked Estre¡¯s head.
Summoning her out, she nced at the other two.
{I¡¯lle too.} Iziuel smiled since she didn¡¯t mind looking after Attie in that time.
{Same with me.} Nimue said while shrugging her shoulders.
Summoning everyone out into the room, Shiro hugged Attie while sitting down on the bed.
"Just a thought. Are you sure we¡¯re allowed here?" Nimue asked.
"I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine. Nan Tian is able to follow after all." Shiro yawned slightly andid on the bed.
"Do you want to sleep too? Or do you want to y with Nimue and the others?" Shiro asked as Attie nced between her and the spirits.
Furrowing his brows, he snuggled into the bed and closed his eyes.
"Of course he¡¯d want to spend more time with his mum." Nimue chuckled as Shiro smiled.
"Well I¡¯ll just be sleeping for a little while. If you need me, give me a shout or nudge me. I won¡¯t be in deep sleep so I¡¯ll wake up." Shiro said as Nimue nodded her head.
Watching Shiro close her eyes and sleep next to Attie, the three spirits smiled and nced at each other.
¡¯Looking at her like this almost makes me forget that she¡¯s the mighty destroyer ofmon sense.¡¯ Nimue thought with a chuckle while ncing out of the window.
But just as she did that, she noticed Kalus crouching with a confused gaze.
Before she could say anything, Kalus ced a finger over his lips and gestured for them toe outside.
ncing at each other, the three spirits nodded and stepped out the room.
"I suppose Shiro is resting for now then." Kalus said as he ced a noise cancelling barrier around them.
"Yes she is. She had been quite fatigued hence why she decided to rest for now." Nimue replied with a respectful bow.
"Mn, ah yeah. So who are you three and who¡¯s the kid in her bed?" Kalus asked curiously.
ncing at one another, the spirits thought about it for a moment before replying.
"I suppose you can call us her retainers in a way. I¡¯m connected through her with a contract and I¡¯m responsible for making sure her body is in good condition." Nimue smiled as Kalus nodded his head.
"What about you two?"
"I suppose we are connected but we don¡¯t y as big a role as Nimue here. You can just call us her friends." Iziuel smiled as Estre hesitated for a moment before nodding her head.
"I see... What about the kid in her bed then?"
"He¡¯s another spirit but due to the circ.u.mstances of his birth, you can say that Shiro is his adoptive mother." Nimue exined as Kalus raised his eyebrow.
"So you¡¯re saying that he¡¯s my great grandson?" Kalus asked just to make sure as the three nodded their heads.
Suddenly, the door opened with Shiro leaning against the door frame.
"You know, when I said that I was resting it means I would notice when gramps nced through the window. What are you four talking about so sneakily that you even need this barrier?" Shiro asked as she tapped the barrier with her finger and shattered it apart.
Widening his eyes in surprise, Kalus couldn¡¯t believe what he had just seen. After all, his granddaughter was actually able to shatter one of his barriers at such a low level.
"Your grandfather was just curious as to who we were and who Attie was." Nimue replied with a smile.
"Oh you¡¯re talking about that. Well this one is Nimue, this one is Iziuel and this one is Estre. They¡¯re all my friends and Attie here is my son." Shiro introduced casually as Kalus nodded his head.
"Does your mother know about your son?" He asked.
"Oh she knows about my two daughters but not my son. Speaking of which, I should probably introduce him to her." Shiro mused to herself as she stepped away from the door.
"Want toe inside gramps?" Shiro asked as Kalus nodded his head.
Walking inside, he sat down next to the table and brought some food out of his inventory.
¡¯Just like what mum said he would do.¡¯ Shiro thought with a chuckle.
"Feel free to eat anything you want. Shall we have a small chat?" Kalus asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Of course. It would be rude of me to say no."
"Mn, I Just want to ask about how your mother has been doing. Is she happy with that Koji brat?" Kalus asked as Shiroughed hearing that her father was actually called brat.
"Yes she is. Dad is doing his part as a good husband I suppose haha."
"I see... If he ever bullies your mother, tell me ok?" Kalus said while giving her a small talisman of sorts.
"This will let youmunicate with me. If you need help, this can also summon my power for a short time in order to deal with the dangers that you face." Kalus said as Shiro nodded her head
Despite the somewhat strict and serious introduction, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but find that her gramps was acting rather cute without his serious disy.
Spending the next few moments to talk about some of her adventurers over some food, Kalus listened patiently as her tales were rather impressive which made him feel pride as a grandfather.
"Ah right, your grand mother wanted me to ask you about something." Kalus said as Shiro tilted her head.
"What did she want to ask?"
"She wanted to ask about how you obtained Divine energy since only gods should have ess to that."
Chapter 800 Pocket Dimension
Chapter 800 Pocket Dimension
"Ohhh granny is worried about that huh?" Shiro said as Kalus stifled augh.
"If she heard you call her granny I don¡¯t know if she¡¯ll be happy or annoyed haha." Kalusughed as Shiro tilted her head.
"Why?"
"She doesn¡¯t like to be called granny. However, since you¡¯re her grandchild, I¡¯m sure she wouldn¡¯t mind." Kalus replied as Shiro shrugged.
"We can ask herter. So she wanted to know why I have divine energy right? Well after meeting Hades and doing the god trials, I managed to ascend into the status of Demigod. If I want, I can activate my skill to be a Demigod now." Shiro said as Kalus shook his head.
"It¡¯s fine I can believe it seeing as though you have three energies in your body. But let me ask this, why do you not use the second energy or the third one often? You can tap into them you know?" Kalus asked as Shiro sighed.
"Well for the second one, I was only able to use it after I lost my mana in a quest. It¡¯s a bit annoying to use so I haven¡¯t used it often. For the third, I thought I couldn¡¯t use it unless I was in Demigod form." Shiro frowned.
"Of course you can use it. It¡¯s not limited to just your form. It¡¯s like saying you suddenly can¡¯t swing a sword when you learn a spell. Just because you got a form with it, doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t use divine energy unless you are in that form. As you can see, I¡¯m using Divine Energy right now but I¡¯m not in a Demi God form." Kalus exined as he waved his hand.
Suddenly, a swirl of energy wrapped around his hand as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"You¡¯re a Demi God gramps?" Shiro asked as Kalus shook his head.
"I¡¯m not that lucky. Since we work rather closely with Hades, we get a few benefits. One of them is that we¡¯re allowed to use a certain amount of Divine Energy. Hence why it¡¯s rather confusing to see that you don¡¯t use it since it¡¯s one of your main tools." Kalus shrugged.
"How do you know I don¡¯t use it though?" Shior asked.
"I can see some of your energy channels." Kalus smiled as he pointed to his red eyes.
"As reapers, we can see both energy and souls. Naturally, I can see that you use mana more often than you use the second or third energy. How about gramps teach you a trick or two so that you can make the most out of your energy." Kalus smiled as Shiro¡¯s eyes seemed to shine with excitement.
"Sure!"
Seeing this, Kalus couldn¡¯t help but grin as the two started to discuss some ns while Nimue sighed and face palmed.
Seeing their expressions, it reminded her of seeing two scheming foxes, one big and one small. She could already feel a headacheing as she ran out of things to throw in the mana realm. Unfortunately, throwing inds was rather difficult so she couldn¡¯t live her dream of throwing inds just yet.
Suddenly, she felt a pat on her back as she nced back and saw Iziuel looking at her with an apologetic smile.
"Like you said to Shiro, take this moment to just rx for now and take your mind off things. After you take a break, throwing tables should be rather enjoyable again." Iziuel chuckled as Nimue rolled her eyes.
"Thank you for your gracious advice." Nimue said but there was a small smile on her face.
"Mum said that we¡¯re going to stay for around a week so maybe I can try to get used to the new energy in a week." Shiro said as Kalus shook his head.
"When she says a week, she means several months. You know, since we work rather close with Hades, we have special pocket dimensions where time moves a little faster. Normally, it¡¯s used to interrogate souls but we can use it for training." Kalus smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Shall we tell mum then?" Shiro asked.
"Of course. I also need to ask your grandma if we can use the pocket dimension since we¡¯re interrogating a few people right now." Kalus nodded his head.
"Oh? Who are you interrogating?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Just some betrayers of gods in the dungeons. They vited a few rules and made pacts with a few of the evil factions. Our roles are to extract the information from them then release them back to the gods." Kalus shrugged.
"Oh speaking of which, I have something simr I suppose. I even have a warden to help me torture the souls when I don¡¯t have time to do it myself." Shiro said as she tapped her finger on the table and brought out thentern.
Seeing thentern, Kalus raised his eyebrows but frowned when he sensed who was inside it.
"Pft hahaha! You old goat. No wonder this girl could control souls so well. You two actually know each other." The Ancient Terrorughed out as Kalus narrowed his eyes.
"You know him gramps?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I don¡¯t just know him. I was the one who helped seal him away for a little while. But with how he is, it¡¯s rather difficult topletely get rid of him. How did you even deal with his mortal body?" Kalus asked.
"She sent it to space. But to think you two are actually rted. You old goat, you¡¯re actually her gramps hahahaha!" The Ancient Terror grinned.
"Shut up." Shiro narrowed her eyes and zapped his soul.
"Arg!! Fine fine! You violent woman!" The Ancient Terror gritted his teeth as Kalus chuckled.
"You actually tamed him." Kalus said with a smug smile.
"She didn¡¯t tame me!"
"Hou hou, if you didn¡¯t get tamed why are you her little soul warden now? If she didn¡¯t tame you, shouldn¡¯t you be able to get out by now?" Kalus smirked as the Ancient Terror only grumbled but stayed silent.
"Anyways, I¡¯m quite surprised that you actually got this guy. He¡¯ll be quite useful as a torture device I suppose." Kalus smiled as Shiro nodded her head and was about to dismiss thentern when the Ancient Terror called out.
"Wait wait wait! I got more information from that Gil kid."
"Oh?"
"Yeah he said something about a god not forgiving us if we kill him. Seems like his patron has already run into some trouble or else you would have had to deal with an avatar of sorts when you killed him." The Ancient Terror said as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Hou... Who did he say his god was?" Shiro asked.
"Light God Aekari. He helped improve the little twerp¡¯s ability to copy skill, elements and the such. Seems like the Light God wanted to raise him as a champion or something." The Ancient Terror replied as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"You seem to have some history for this god." Kalus said as Shiro nodded her head.
"A little mortal enemy of mine. When the new age arrives he¡¯s my main target." Shiro replied as Kalus raised his eyebrow.
"Do you need help with that? I can ask for a few favours from Hades."
"It¡¯s fine, I can deal with it. Plus, Nan Tian and the party will help if anything serious happens." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn if you need any help just tell me and your grandma. We can deal with it if you have any trouble. Plus, with the new age around the corner, we¡¯ll be able to go to the mortal real with a proper reason I suppose. Your mother can travel freely since she doesn¡¯t have a role like ours but there are still some restrictions." Kalus said as Shiro nodded her head.
Talking for a little longer, they saw Mio returning with a smile on her face.
"Seems like you have a little talk with Shiro." Mio said as Kalus nodded his head.
"If you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯m going to be borrowing Shiro for a while. I want to take her to one of the pocket dimensions to help her with a bit of her training." Kalus said as Mio nodded her head.
"I don¡¯t mind but we need to ask mum don¡¯t we?"
"I¡¯m sure she doesn¡¯t mind. I¡¯m more concerned about how much time you have here since you¡¯ll need to go back soon don¡¯t you?" kalus asked.
"We¡¯re fine for a while. Plus, it¡¯s for Shiro¡¯s benefit so I¡¯m sure it¡¯s fine." Mio smiled as Kalus nodded his head.
Talking for a little while, Kalus made his way out as he was going to ask his wife about the pocket dimension.
Chapter 801 Surprise Guest
Chapter 801 Surprise Guest
Resting for the night, Shiro woke up rather early in the morning. Though with how it looked outside, it was hard to tell if it was day or night since it doesn¡¯t change. It looked just the same as when she arrived in this ce.
"Morning." A voice called out as she stepped out of her room. ncing to the side, she saw Nan Tian giving her a small wave.
"Mn, morning. How was your rest?" Shiro asked while giving her body a stretch.
"It was pretty good. The bed¡¯s here are ratherfy." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"So what are the ns today then?" He asked curiously.
"Well gramps said that he wanted to help me deal with the whole energy thing so we¡¯re going to a pocket dimension; a day out here is around a month or so in there I think. Not sure though since he didn¡¯t tell me the details." Shiro said as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"Oh? Does he have ess to a private dungeon or something simr?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Mn something of the sort. Apparently, it was an additional benefit from working with Hades." Shiro shrugged as Nan Tian nodded.
"Interesting. Perhaps I should try to make the most of my time here too. Seeing as how you can keep your True Spirit Nature activated permanently in this realm, I should see if there¡¯s a secret to the energy here or something. After reaching tier 6, things like this are rather important." Nan Tian smiled.
"Mn true, if you ask my mum, I¡¯m sure she wouldn¡¯t mind helping you out. I do have a question for you though. You focus on using light and you canpress it down into aser right?" Shiro asked.
"Mn I can. Why do you ask?" Nan Tian nodded his head with mild confusion.
"Well if you canpress it to be as thin as a wire, you can thread them into a and attack your enemies with a that can cut them or rather, melt them upon contact." Shiro smiled.
"After reaching Tier 6, your main focus isn¡¯t power but rather technique and use of your chosen element. For something rather powerful and diverse like light, you need to be more creative."
Hearing this, Nan Tian nodded his head as he summoned an orb of light before trying topress it down. As the orb continued to shrink, Shiro noticed that it was bing rather unstable.
"Stop." Shiro called out.
"What is it?" Nan Tian asked as he stoppedpressing the orb.
"Mn... The orb is too unstable. Maybe you should work on stability rather thanpressing. We know you¡¯re good atpressing but it¡¯s too unstable." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Dismissing the orb, Nan Tian nodded his head.
"I have been struggling with the stability of my element but I¡¯ve been working on it in my free time. Even though I don¡¯t have the element of fire, light does get quite vtile once I begin to condense it." He sighed as Shiro smacked him on the back.
"Just keep trying. Light is simr to fire. They can be both calm and vtile. Since I don¡¯t focus on the light element, it¡¯s up to you to find out the properties yourself. Since tier 7 is the realm of Demi Gods, you need to discover your own path to divinity I suppose. Though, with what gramps had said, once I get a better understanding of divine energy, there¡¯s the chance that I can give you some small insights as well as help youe in contact with divine energy much sooner." Shiro grinned as Nan Tian nodded his head with a small smile.
"Hais, I¡¯m tier 6 but you¡¯re already a Demi God at tier 5." Nan Tian sighed.
"Pft, don¡¯tpare yourself with me ah. I¡¯ve already lived through two other lives with the first reaching Tier 6 and the second studying the crap out of magic." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian shrugged.
"And yet your third life is the most ridiculous of all. Where do I even begin with your achievements?" Nan Tian smiled helplessly.
"Who knows."
Talking for a little while, they saw Mio walking towards what seemed to be the main hall.
"Mum!" Shiro called out as Mio nced back and saw Shiro.
"Did you have a good rest?" Mio asked while giving her a hug.
"Mn I did. Where is Gramps? I want to ask him more about the whole pocket dimension thing." Shiro asked.
"Your grandfather is talking to your grandmother right now. We can get some breakfast first." Mio smiled.
"Mn. Can I ask a question mum?" Shiro asked after nodding her head.
"Go on."
"Why do you seem... absent-minded?" Shiro asked as her mother was more outgoing when they were on ¡¯Earth¡¯ but after they entered this realm, she seemed to be rather reserved.
"Mn I guess I¡¯m just missing your father." Mio sighed while stroking Shiro¡¯s hair.
"Can¡¯t you go back and visit him?" Shiro asked.
"I can but I won¡¯t be able toe back to this realm for a long time since there is a cooldown of sorts for activating the key again. If I left, you wouldn¡¯t be able to get out for a while." Mio shook her head.
"I see... Well I¡¯m sure dad misses you just as much." Shiro reassured with a smile.
Seeing this, Mio smiled and lifted Shiro up.
"Aw seeing you like this reminds me of when you used tofort me years ago." Mio grinned as Shiro blushed in embarrassment. After all, she was a grown woman who¡¯s being lifted up like a child.
*Cough
"Can you let me down." Shiro asked with a blush.
Nodding her head, Mio let Shiro down before stretching her body a little.
"Perhaps I need to work out or something to clear my mind." Mio said as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Mum, when I¡¯m training with gramps maybe you can train with Nan Tian. You¡¯re one of the most offensive fighters that I¡¯ve seen so maybe you can help him get used tobat with someone who fights offensively like you." Shiro suggested as Mio raised her eyebrow.
"That could be helpful." Mio admitted.
"There aren¡¯t many people who are as aggressive as you or your daughter but it would be good practice." Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Plus, you can also tell her some secrets about tier 6 no? Who knows, maybe mum can reach a new tier while you¡¯re training." Shiro smiled.
Discussing some ns, they agreed with Mio helping Nan Tian train while he would try to tell her about how to reach tier 6.
Arriving at the dining hall, they had some breakfast before a messenger found them.
The message was rather simple as it could be condensed down to the two elders waiting for their arrival in the main hall.
Quickly finishing their meal, they made their way to the main hall. Pushing open the door, they saw Kalus and Sitril sitting on the throne and waiting with a smile.
"Shiro, your granny gave us permission." Kalus grinned while giving her a thumbs up.
However, when he said this, Sitril frowned and red at him.
"Who are you calling granny? Anyways, it¡¯s like what he said, you can go but there is a time limit since the different dimensions are bing unstable with the new age around the corner. You can stay in there for around two days without a problem but anything past that and there¡¯s a chance for something to go wrong. We also have a rather important guest with us today." Sitril smiled as Shiro tilted her head.
Sensing a surge of energy besides them, Shiro recognised it to be divine energy.
Seeing a familiar figure appear, Shiro¡¯s smile turned to a grin.
"Didn¡¯t think I¡¯d see you again so soon." Sheughed as Hades smiled and shrugged his shoulder.
"Neither did I. I¡¯m more surprised to find out that you¡¯re a Demi God now and that you¡¯re actually the granddaughter of two old friends of mine." Hades chuckled. The only reason he could appear here rather easily was because this is technically his realm in some regards so the system restrictions were a bit looser.
"Well I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d know my grandparents either. Anyways, what brings you here?" Shiro asked as Hades thought about it for a moment before opening his mouth.
"Since you¡¯re working on using divine energy, your grandfather had asked me for a favour and that favour is helping you out with this task." Hades smiled as he was going to be her teacher for the next two days in the pocket dimension.
Chapter 802 Training Period
Chapter 802 Training Period
"Excuse me?" Shiro asked with slight surprise.
"I¡¯m your teacher for two days or rather, two months in the pocket dimension." Hades replied with a smallugh.
Remembering the figure of the fearless woman traversing the steps of mount Olympus and facing Zeus without hesitation, Hades couldn¡¯t help but find the girl in front of him acting rather cute right now. It was like she was a lost kitten confused about where she was.
"Huh... I¡¯ll be honest, I¡¯m not trying to be rude but the fact that I now have a god for a teacher for the next two days is rather... astonishing." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn well just think of it as a senior instructing a junior then. After all, you are a Demi God now and perhaps even a God in the future." Hades¡¯ smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"In that case then I¡¯ll be under your care."
Nodding his head, Hades¡¯ nced towards Nan Tian.
"Youngd, I didn¡¯t expect to see you again." Hades smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Ok what the hell, why does everyone know each other?" She asked with a twitching smile.
"Well I have alsopleted the god trials so it¡¯s only natural that I ran into Hades." Nan Tian chuckled since he didn¡¯t follow the partyst time because of two reasons. One, he was busy ascending to Tier 6 and the other was that he had alreadypleted the trials. He wouldn¡¯t be able to climb the mountain again.
"I guess but you two seem... well acquainted." Shiro asked as Hades chuckled.
"That¡¯s because he was rather friendly when he climbed up the mountain. While he did take some rest, he took the time to converse with a few of the gods. Naturally, I found this rather interesting so I had a talk or two with him." Hades exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"I see.... Right then. Anyways, enough with the second meeting I suppose. Shall we start the training? We have limited time after all." Shiro asked as Mio chuckled.
"So hasty with training. Reminds me of your father when he was younger." Mio smiled as Kalus twitched hearing Mio mention Koji.
"Don¡¯t talk about that brat. I¡¯m still rather peeved about the way he had kidnapped you from here. He does realise that he could have been a bit more respectful right?" Kalusined as Sitril rolled her eyes.
"Ignore him. He just didn¡¯t like the fact that your father flipped him off when he left with Mio. He should know where the pocket dimension is so I¡¯ll let him escort you there with Lord Hades¡¯." Sitril smiled.
"I thought I told you about referring to me as Lord. Just call me casually I¡¯m not like my brother who¡¯s so persistent about honorifics." Hades sighed.
"Mn that is true. Zeus was rather annoyed about my attitude." Shiro shrugged.
Talking for a little longer, Kalus led the way as Hades and Shiro followed behind him.
ncing back, Shiro gave Nan Tian a thumbs up and wave.
"Seems like the rtionship between you two is rather good." Kalus smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, he¡¯s been a great help to me. Plus, he¡¯s a friend of mine from when I was a kid." Shiro replied with a smile.
Seeing this, Hades nced back between the two of them as a smile slowly formed on his face.
"I see..." He chuckled.
"What are you thinking about." Shiro asked curiously.
"Nothing much. I know your trial must have gone well considering that you¡¯re a Demi God now but if you don¡¯t mind me asking, I¡¯m rather curious about what had happened." Hades asked as Shiro ced her hand on her chin.
"Well... I guess I was sent to a different world of sorts. Have you ever heard of something called the forgotten realms?" Shiro asked.
"Hm... not exactly but I have heard of one or two rumours. It¡¯s a realm that¡¯spletely sealed off from the real world unless you have a key no?" Hades replied.
"Mn, I was tasked with clearing a few trials as well as some hidden objectives in that realm. Ipleted it a little ahead of schedule since there was a hidden task but it allowed me to reach Demi God status. It also allowed me to get this little soul warden of mine." Shiro said with a smug smile.
Summoning thentern, Hades looked at it with interest.
"How fascinating... You¡¯ve actually made your own soul prison. If I had to describe it, it¡¯s literally a miniature hell." Hades said as Shiro nodded her head.
"That was the n."
"Speaking of which, I did also have a little tea party with the primordial gods." Shiro mentioned offhandedly as Hades paused in his footsteps for a moment before collecting himself.
"Pardon? You had a... tea party with the primordial gods?" He asked just to make sure that he was hearing things correctly. After all, she could have said she had a tea party and talked about the primordial gods. There were a few times that he had misheard things in life so it was better to make sure that the information he had received was urate.
"Yup you heard right, I was able to have a small talk with Tartarus, Ouranos, Gaia, Chronos and Nyx. They¡¯re going to help me I suppose in the new age in hopes that I would ¡¯win¡¯." Shiro replied as Hades opened and closed his mouth a few times like a broken door.
He didn¡¯t know how to react since not even Zeus was able to have a casual talk with the primordial gods and yet Shiro was now having their support in the background for the new age.
"I... see." Hades said after a moment of hesitation.
{And now you¡¯ve broken him. Who is next on your hit list? You¡¯ve broken humans, spirits, monsters, admins, demons and even gods now. Next thing you know you¡¯re going to mentally break the creator of the universe.} Nimue asked whileying down on an indzily. Taking Iziuel¡¯s advice, she had vowed to not give a single crap for the next week. If she did, the mana realm would be in shambles right now.
¡¯Surely it¡¯s not that bad now. He seems ratherposed after knowing the truth.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Of course. Otherwise his dignity as a god would be thrown out the window.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯I guess... Surely I¡¯m not THAT bad right?¡¯
{. . .} Staying silent, Nimue took a deep breath.
¡¯Need a table?¡¯
{Yes please.}
Making a table for Nimue, Shiro watched as she grabbed the surface with both hands.
{URAHHH!!!!} Flipping it as hard as she could, Shiro watched as it disappeared off into the distance.
*Whistle~
¡¯Impressive.¡¯ Shiro pped her hands as Iziuel held up an imaginary 10 from the distance.
Huffing slightly, Nimue nced at Shiro before nting herself in the mana ocean that surrounds the inds. She would have drowned already should she not be a water spirit.
Shaking her head, Shiro focused back on reality.
Following behind Kalus and Hades, they made their way through the realm as semi translucent steps appeared, connecting the inds to one another.
Snapping his fingers, a magic circle appeared in front of Kalus as he made a small cut on his finger andpleted the magic circle.
Suddenly, the magic circle expanded out in front of him and formed a portal of sorts.
"This is the pocket dimension. The moment we enter, the timer will start and for the next 48 hours or rather, two months, it¡¯ll be non stop training in hopes of you honing the divine energy within you. Are you ready?" Kalus asked with seriousness. This was differentpared to what Shiro had seen in the main hall as she knew he was no longer joking around.
Nodding her head with determination burning in her eyes, Shiro prepared herself mentally as both Hades and Kalus nodded their heads with satisfaction. Opening the portal properly, they stepped inside.
Meanwhile, Mio led Nan Tian to a different training area in the realm. Preparing a few weapons, she nced at him.
"So then, I have a question for you." Mio said as she nced back at him.
"Mn what is it?" Nan Tian replied.
"Speaking as Shiro¡¯s mother, I want to know what you think of her. You¡¯re quite attached aren¡¯t you?" Mio said as she flickered next to him and ced her hand on his shoulder. Despite him being tier 6, he almost lost sight of her which only showed her true power.
"Since my baby girl seemed to be rather close to you, I want to make sure you¡¯re actually a decent person." Mio narrowed her eyes as she was going to make sure she gets his true answers during this training period.
Chapter 803 Dangerous Idea
Chapter 803 Dangerous Idea
"Right then, as you know, divine energy is very differentpared to mana as it is not only more powerful, but it is also much more diverse than mana. What you can¡¯t do with mana is mostly achievable with divine energy." Hades immediately started the lesson as Shiro listened carefully.
"For example, with mana, controlling souls has its limits but with divine energy, I can use souls as a different fuel source."
Snapping his fingers, Shiro could see two malevolent illusionary figures appear as their astral bodies writhed before being forcefully transformed into two wolves.
"These are soul corrupting wolves. Using the malevolent energy stored within them, they can cause the victim of their attacks to feel great pain during an attack as they harm the soul directly. With mana, performing this task would be rather hard due to its limitations.
"Another key note that you have to remember is that being a god is to transcend normality which you seem to have no problem with. You are still constrained mentally as you are too used to using mana. Your thought process is stuck on the line of what mana is able to aplish rather than what mana is unable to aplish. For example, I want you to think about what mana is unable to aplish right now." Hades asked with a smile.
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head as she thought about the question.
With mana being so diverse, it was hard to pick out what it can¡¯t do but with the way Hades had put it, it seemed like there were quite a bit of restrictions when ites to mana.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro opened her mouth.
"Would turning back time be one of them?" Shiro asked.
"A little but not quite. Mana is able to turn back the time within a single object if your mastery is good enough. You are also able to turn back time in an area should there be enough mana and mastery but doing so has its drawbacks and bacshes.
"However, with divine energy aplishing something such as turning back time is possible. Of course, there are still certain restrictions you have to abide by otherwise the system bacsh would be harsh butpared to the restrictions when using mana, it is much better. Of course, if you¡¯re like Chronos, turning back time is quite a simple task as he has the divinity for it." Hades exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"What am I able to do with my divinity then?" Shiro asked as she summoned a mass of nanobots.
"That¡¯s for you to find out as you know your element the best. Otherwise you wouldn¡¯t have gotten the divinity. Though a tip for you is that you should think about what was difficult or impossible for you do when you had this element before." Hades replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"The first thing that we¡¯re going to have you master is how you¡¯re going to make use of divine energy without entering your Demi God form." Hades smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
The training consisted of Hades injecting some of his divine energy into Shiro as she would try to sense where it is being stored and see if she could tap into it. However, doing so was actually much harder than what Shiro had expected since sensing divine energy was much harder than what she initially thought.
With herrge reserve of mana, it was quite hard to single out the small amounts of divine energy that Hades injected as her body couldn¡¯t handle too much.
For Shiro who had a rather easy time doing everything mana rted, she was now stuck at the first step in using her divine energy.
"Don¡¯t rush it. Demi Gods who can freely wield divine energy are quite rare as they are not full god yet. Once they are, all of their energy will be turned to divine energy so it bes much easier to sense it at that stage. But for you, you¡¯re only tier 5 so it could be a while before you be a god." Hades said as he could tell that she was bing a little restless.
Hearing this, Shiro took a deep breath and calmed herself down since there was no point trying to force her way through everything.
Days turned into weeks but Shiro continued to struggle as it felt impossible for her to grasp the feeling that Hades was talking about. When she ascends into Demi God form, all of her energy is converted so that wouldn¡¯t be what she needed as it didn¡¯t reveal the true location. All it did was convert her mana into divine energy.
Taking a break, Shiro sat by the side and closed her eyes.
Trying her best to understand her own body, she only grew more and more frustrated as this seemed to be outside of her reach.
Sighing heavily, Shiro scratched her hair.
{Maybe you need to rx more. After all, you are challenging an unfamiliar concept.} Nimue said as Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯I guess but I only have two months in here and weeks have already passed. If I don¡¯t grasp it soon it¡¯ll only get more annoying to doter since I won¡¯t have this kind of leisure time with everything else I need to do.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Do you want to try something risky then?} Nimue asked as she took a deep breath. She had an idea but doing so was rather dangerous. However, with Shiro¡¯s healing skills, it should be possible.
¡¯What idea is it?¡¯ Shiro asked.
{Break your links again.} Nimue said with a serious expression as Iziuel widened her eyes.
{Nimue! What are you saying? You know that if Shiro does that there¡¯s a chance that her body could copse!} Iziuel frowned.
{I didn¡¯t say it without thinking. With Grace and her other healing skills, repairing her body is a simple task. The only thing we need to be careful of is maintaining her body while she breaks it. If she breaks her mana links, mana won¡¯t be able to circte properly which means that your body will stop being reinforced by the passive cirction of mana. With this, you should be able to focus on sensing the divine energy.} Nimue exined as Shiro considered her logic and nodded her head.
¡¯That does make sense. I¡¯m having trouble searching for the divine energy since my mana is simply too overwhelming. If I cut it off for a short time, the void should allow me to find divine energy¡¯ Shiro muttered as she took a deep breath.
¡¯Nimue, I¡¯ll need your help when I break my links since my mind will be focused on not killing myself by ident. Since I¡¯m level 300+ the chances of me just exploding is rather high. While I carefully break the links, I¡¯ll need you to make sure they don¡¯t go rampant from the energy that¡¯s released. Can you do that?¡¯ Shiro asked with a serious expression.
Nodding her head, Nimue only chuckled.
{I¡¯ve been doing that for a while now with how reckless you can be.}
Hearing this, Shiro smiled as she nced towards Hades.
"I¡¯m going to try something that could help me find divine energy. I¡¯ll need you to inject it into me while I¡¯m doing this." Shiro said as Hades raised his eyebrow.
"Oh? What are you nning?" He asked curiously as he understood that she had been having some troubles in the past week when trying to use divine energy.
"I¡¯m nning to break my links so that a void is formed. With the absence of mana circting my body, my senses should be focused on the next thing that can keep me alive which would be divine energy." Shiro exined as kalus frowned.
"Absolutely not. Breaking your mana links at this stage is akin to suicide. I¡¯m not letting my granddaughter do this." Kalus shook his head as Shiro sighed.
"Gramps trust me. I¡¯ve done worse. So will you help me?" Shiro turned back to Hades who was silent.
". . .Sure. But if I sense anything that is wrong, I¡¯ll heal you immediately." Hades said as Shiro nodded her head.
Adjusting her sitting position she signalled to both Hades and Nimue as she took a deep breath.
Biting her lips, she mmed her palm against her abdominal area as a surge of mana crashed into her body.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro tried her best not to cry out as the pain of having your links broken was beyond anything she had experienced so far!
This was akin to ripping out her own bone one by one as her links made up for her foundation as an adventurer.
Controlling her mana, she could sense the invisible hand had grabbed her links. Focusing her mind, she destroyed her links in an instant as Nimue immediately started to make sure Shiro didn¡¯t die.
Chapter 804 Bottleneck
Chapter 804 Bottleneck
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Shiro¡¯s body twitched in pain as she almost fell forward.
Before Hades or Kalus could help her, she forced herself to sit back up straight.
"I¡¯m ready." Shiro said as she nced at Hades.
Furrowing his brows, he could sense that her internals werepletely in shambles. The fact that she was even alive was a miracle and that wasing from the god of death!
cing his hand on her back, he started to inject his divine energy into her body.
Feeling the cooling sensation spread through her body, Shiro focused her mind towards that trail as her mana stopped circting through her body.
For a being that essentially lives on mana, this was akin to taking out their lungs and trying to find new ones before they died without proper respiration. However, at this moment, Shiro¡¯s mind was solely focused on finding the source of her divine energy.
While this was happening, Nimue had sweat rolling down her face as she was repairing and maintaining the mana realm as best as she could. Even though she shouldn¡¯t heal the mana links right now, she could relieve the pain as well as the stress on Shiro¡¯s body.
But to do this, she was essentially acting as the medium. With all of Shiro¡¯s mana flowing into Nimue so that it didn¡¯t go rampant, it was surprising for Nimue to actually be able to focus on her task.
The ocean surrounding the inds was boiling right now as something akin to a natural disaster could be observed from Iziuel and Estre¡¯s point of view.
While their faces were full of worry, Atesh waddled over to Nimue as he ced a hand on her back.
"Mn? What is it Attie? Your aunt here is doing something important." Nimue said with a forced smile.
But without saying anything, Attie only focused his mind as fire erupted out of him.
Arching through the air, the fire danced around for a moment before morphing into a giant tree which supported the roof of the mana realm.
Feeling reinvigorated, Nimue nced at Attie in surprise as fire continued to erupt out without signs of stopping. Strangely enough, the fire did not burn anything at all. Instead, the inds seemed to blossom as even the ice ind gave birth to what seemed to be ice flowers.
While Nimue didn¡¯t know what was happening, Iziuel knew since she had a connection to nature. Sensing the abundance of life energy within the fire, Iziuel was shocked since it was something that was simr to the world tree but it seemed to almost be more potent?
All of Shiro¡¯s mana that she had decided to cut off flowed into the two spirits as they worked to maintain her mana realm. Attie¡¯s mes continuously healed her body as the ambient mana was the fuel while Nimue made sure that everything was bnced as Attie¡¯s mes were still mes in the end. Too much and Shiro¡¯s body would still be in danger.
With both fire and water working side by side within Shiro¡¯s body, the pain from shattering her links slowly disappeared as her face rxed.
While this was happening, Shiro¡¯s consciousness seemed to trace the divine energy into the deeper recesses of her soul.
The concept of time seemed to disappear as Shiro traced the energy. It was unknown when the scenery changed but by the time she had noticed the shift in scenery, the mana realm could no longer be seen. She was floating in the middle of a void as trails of light seemed to disappear in this spot.
"It¡¯s rather empty right now isn¡¯t it?" A voice rang out as Shiro quickly turned back in shock.
Seeing Kuromi walk past her with a smile, Shiro¡¯s eyes teared up as she immediately hugged her.
"Pft haha, we haven¡¯t met for so long and you¡¯ve actually be a cry baby." Kuromi smiled softly and stroked Shiro¡¯s hair.
"Mn." Not denying this, Shiro continued to hug as she refused to let go of her in fear of losing her again.
"If you keep hugging me like this I won¡¯t be able to breathe." Kuromiughed as Shiro nced up from Kuromi¡¯s bosom.
"But what if you disappear." Shiro asked as there were still tears in her eyes.
Seeing Shiro act this way, Kuromi¡¯s heart softened as she stroked Shiro¡¯s hair.
"It¡¯s alright. We¡¯re in the deepest parts of our soul right now I won¡¯t be going anywhere any time soon. Plus, even Nytri is here." Kuromi nced back as Shiro could see a lonesome figure sitting with an absent expression.
ncing towards the two, she only waved her hand slightly before staying silent.
Seeing this, Shiro remembered how antisocial she was when she reached tier 6 because she had killed her best friend. But after finding out that Isilia was still around, Shiro¡¯s guilt soon became relief as she could see her again.
"Are you ok?" Shiro didn¡¯t know why she had asked that question but it was as if something inside her soul wanted her to ask her past self.
ncing towards Shiro, Nytri smiled sadly.
"I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m lost." Nytri shook her head as Shiro furrowed her brows.
ncing back as Kuromi, Shiro bit her lip as she didn¡¯t want to leave her embrace just yet.
"Let¡¯s go together." Kuromi chuckled.
Walking towards Nytri, the two sat down next to her.
"So where are we?" Shiro asked while ncing around her.
"I don¡¯t know but I would argue that this seems to be where the divine energy is being kept." Kuromi shrugged while poking Nytri¡¯s cheeks.
ncing to the side, Nytri ignored this and looked at Shiro.
"Are you happy?" She asked which confused Shiro but she nodded her head.
"I am. I got family and friends. Times are tough but they¡¯re not bad." Shiro replied with a smile.
Hearing this, Nytri smiled but it wasn¡¯t a sad smile like before.
"That¡¯s good." Nytri chuckled.
"So I¡¯m the third incarnation then?" Shiro asked as there were only three of them here. Nytri the Nanomancer, Kuromi the eldest daughter of the Asakura n and now Shiro the Demi God.
"Yes you are. I suppose you¡¯re like a fusion of us two." Kuromi said while resting her chin on Nytri¡¯s shoulder.
"But at the same time you¡¯re you. The three of us are simr to separate entities but we are the same person." Nytri smiled.
"Mn so why are we here then?" Shiro asked.
"Because you wanted to find the source of your divine energy no? You followed the trail and you found this ce." Kuromi smiled.
"But before we do anything else, can I ask you something lil sis?" Kuromi asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Are you able to give me up?" Kuromi asked with a somewhat sad smile.
"Eh?" Hearing this, Shiro felt as though her heart stopped.
"We¡¯re the past now and you have to look towards the future. Just like how you were able to give me up, you have to learn to give up Kuromi too. We¡¯re your foundations I suppose. You can¡¯t keep clutching to us. You used to rely on me, Nytri, but you¡¯ve outgrown that now. You¡¯ve learned to depend on the you who is Shiro rather than Nytri of the past." Nytri said as Kuromi nodded.
"And now you need to do the same with me." Kuromi finished as Shiro didn¡¯t know what to say.
"So I can¡¯t bring you back?" Shiro asked as tears welled up again.
"Unfortunately no. There can¡¯t be two of the same person at once. If there are two, one must ¡¯die¡¯. The only reason we could talk before was because of the special circ.u.mstances in the quest. You need to grow up and learn to give up on things Shiro." Kuromi sighed as it pained her to see Shiro continuously pursue her revival even though it was impossible.
"But what if I don¡¯t want to give up on you." Shiro replied stubbornly.
"So stubborn." Nytri smiled as Kuromi agreed.
"What can we even do if you refuse to move on? I don¡¯t want to leave on a sour note." Kuromi smiled sadly as Shiro bit her lip. She understood that she had to move on.
She understood this for a while now. But she truly didn¡¯t want to give up on her big sis.
Holding back her tears, Shiro looked back at her two past incarnations.
"I¡¯ll be the strongest, I¡¯ll defeat all the queens, I won¡¯t give up. I¡¯ll live a proper life, I¡¯ll find Isilia and I¡¯ll protect the people I love. I won¡¯t let them suffer and I¡¯ll put an end to all of this. I won¡¯t disappoint the two of you." Shiro promised as she gritted her teeth. Despite wanting to hold back the tears they continued to pour as the realisation kicked in for Shiro.
This was going to be the final meeting between them as she understood where this was. This was the core of her soul. If these two disappear from here, they won¡¯t reappear.
"Good. We believe in you." Kuromi smiled as specks of light appeared in the void.
One by one, they lit up as Shiro broke past the only bottleneck that had been holding her back unconsciously.
Like a flicker of fire which came into contact with oil, divine energy erupted out as it rushed towards the mana realm...
Chapter 805 Divine Spirit
Chapter 805 Divine Spirit
With the rush of divine energy flooding her body, Nimue and Attie who were trying to keep her alive naturally came in contact with this energy as golden runes spread across their bodies.
Feeling a cool energy spread through her body, Nimue couldn¡¯t help but feel rxed as her mind drifted towards unconsciousness.
However, with the danger of Shiro¡¯s body copsing, she quickly woke herself up as she nced at the mana realm.
But when she did, she noticed the golden runes spreading along the borders as the pressure seemingly disappeared. Rxing her efforts, she realised that the mana realm was now stabilising itself as a golden energy seemed to flow through the mana links reconnecting and healing them in the process.
Feeling a little confused about this, Nimue wasn¡¯t able to say anything as her mind was beginning to drift off once more.
Unable to hold on, she copsed on the ground as she could see that Attie was in the same situation. The golden runes pulsed as a red crystal enveloped his body.
Closing her eyes, she lost consciousness.
While this was happening, Hades looked at Shiro with shock as a surge of divine energy erupted out of her which had the power to repel his own. ncing at his hand that was forced off her back, he understood what this meant. Her divinity surpassed his. Despite ruling over the concept of death and souls, his divinity was no match. A smile formed on his face as he observed the changes in her body.
With her mana links being broken previously, it gave way for the divine energy to seep into her body and enhance it in the ce of mana. With golden energy pulsing through her veins and repairing her links, her physique was no different than when she had activated her skill ascension. The only difference was that this was now her base form rather than battle form when she unleashed all of her power over her divinity.
"She¡¯s no different to a true God/Demi God now. Her physique is the same as mine." Hades smiled.
While there was more than just power and physique when it came to Gods, it was no exaggeration to say that Shiro was a quarter of a step into proper Godhood.
Taking a step back, Hades nced at Kalus.
"I don¡¯t know if I should call your granddaughter talented or monstrous. She¡¯s actually forging her own godly physique as we speak and she stumbled upon this method herself. While I would say it¡¯s lucky, who¡¯s suicidal enough to destroy their own body to seek out divine energy? If she made a mistake, there was a chance she would have just died." Hades chuckled as Kalus looked at Shiro with worry.
"Mn should we do anything?" He asked as he was concerned for her safety.
"Nope. We should just wait right now as divine energy is currently healing her. By the time she reawakens, she should be stronger than ever with a physique that is many times more powerful than people of her tier. Though there are still limitations when ites to her level, she shouldn¡¯t have any problems." Hades smiled.
"I see..." Kalus sighed in relief as he was nervous when she injured herself so heavily. But since she was speaking with determination and confidence, he decided to trust her choice. Thankfully, it paid off.
Time passed as the divine energy slowly reinforced her body. Her links werepletely repaired and were even better than their previous condition.
Groaning softly, Shiro slowly opened her eyes as she realised that she had been unconscious for quite a while.
Standing up, she expected to feel her body ache slightly but it was strangely refreshed.
"You¡¯ve finally woken up. Sleeping for a week in here is quite a surprise." Hades smiled as he appeared in the realm.
"I slept for a week?" Shiro asked with disbelief as Hades nodded his head.
"It¡¯s not surprising considering that your body was getting used to divine energy. With what you have done, your physique has been improved and your mana seems to have been infused with the divine energy." Hades reminded as Shiro paused for a second.
Moving her arms around, she guessed that the divine energy was probably the reason as to why she felt so energetic right now.
ncing at her system, she noticed a few new notifications.
Most of them were just health reports and notes about divine energy entering her system. However, the most important one was how both Nimue and Attie were undergoing evolutions after being infused with her divine energy. ncing into her mana realm, Shiro could see both Nimue and Attie encased in a crystal while Iziuel and Estre rested beside them.
Looking up, she could see her mana links being lined with golden energy which radiated with a divine aura that Shiro recognised since she had used her ascension skill previously and this feeling was unforgettable.
Since both Nimue and Attie were undergoing an evolution right now, Shiro decided to not disturb them just yet.
"Right then, can you sense divine energy now? After this ¡¯little upgrade¡¯ sensing it should be rather easy." Hades smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Snapping her fingers, the same golden energy started to wrap around her arm as Hades nodded his head in satisfaction.
"The original n was to teach you how to iste and use this without ascending but with your upgrade, it seems like I no longer need to teach this. For the remaining time here, we¡¯re going to spend it teaching you how to enhance your spells and create new ones using divine energy." Hades said with a smile.
Seeing as though Shiro could now bring out divine energy at will, it was only natural to assume that she could now use it without directly ascending. If he had to describe it using numbers, she had ess to around 20 to 25% of her power as a Demi God and ascending would unlock the rest. Of course, he didn¡¯t know that she could easily change her Demi God form into true God with a few skillbinations but doing so had its drawbacks as she would not be able to use divine energy at all for the next few days.
At first, this bacsh confused her a little since she didn¡¯t use divine energy outside of the form but now it made sense. With her being able to use divine energy and having it infused into her body, not being able to use it would hinder her quite a bit duringbat.
For the next month or so, Shiro continued to train with Hades as Kalus would asionally spar with her to see if her skills were battle ready. After all, they needed to make sure that Shiro makes the most out of the divine energy in her body.
If she wasted it on a skill that can be replicated using mana, she is essentially cutting out a majority of her power on purpose. Testing out differentbinations for her divine energy, they discovered that she had the capacity to use 2 original divine energy spells and enhance 5 mana spells per day before she ran out of divine energy. This wasn¡¯t including the divine energy she would use for reinforcing her body so if she was to include that, it would be around 1 original spell and 3 reinforcements.
That wasn¡¯t bad as the original spells created using only divine energy were many times stronger than her normal spells but the only problem was creating one. So far, all of her ideas were able to be replicated with mana so they couldn¡¯t be counted as divine energy spells.
Even her world ss magic, Requiem of the Dead, could only be ssed as half of a divine energy spell since the majority of it could be replicated using mana. The main requirements are mastery over souls and arge mana pool.
But despite theck of progress in making divine energy spells, Shiro had gotten used to enhancing her spells so the time wasn¡¯t wasted. During the weeks of training, she had noticed that the crystals were bing foggier over time but there was nothing she could do other than wait.
In thest week of training, she heard a shattering sound in her mana realm as two notifications appeared on her interface.
[Nimue has evolved into ¨C Divine Spirit of Water]
[Atesh has evolved into ¨C Divine Spirit of Fire]
Chapter 806 Source of Elements
Chapter 806 Source of Elements
Looking at the two spiritsying on the ind with their eyes closed, Shiro raised her eyebrow as they looked rather different now.
Previously, Nimue could switch between looking like a humanoid figure of water to a normal girl but now she was simr to Iziuel. Her hair was now a crystal blue that seemed to flicker between light blue and dark blue.
Her physique seemed to have matured a little and Shiro noticed some growth around the chest area.
She wore a white and blue dress with what seems to be a translucent blue raiment that weaved under her arms and over her neck. Her dress stretched to her ankles and she had a few golden essories decorating her dress. With a pair of azure earrings in the shape of a water droplet and lined with gold, Nimue slept peacefully as Shiro could sense some divine energy emanating from her body.
Atesh on the other hand, grew from a baby to a young teen as he seemed to be around 8 years old now. His red hair would flicker with shades of red, orange and yellow as it looked like a dancing me.
He wore a sleeveless red shirt which was unbuttoned along with some slightly baggy trousers that reached his ankles and a pair of ck shoes that was lined with some gold.
Simr to Nimue, his clothes matched his element as it was mostly red but had some ck to contrast the brightness of the red along with some golden markings around the edges.
Groaning softly, Atesh slowly opened his eyes and rubbed them softly.
Seeing this, Shiro quickly rushed over and helped him up.
¡¯Are you alright?¡¯ Shiro asked with concern as Atesh nodded his head slowly.
{Mn... Mama, does your body still hurt?} Atesh asked with a soft voice as Shiro felt her heart beat hearing him say mama to her.
¡¯I¡¯m fine thanks to you and Nimue.¡¯ Shiro smiled softly as she stroked his hair.
{Mn.... Me tired. I¡¯m going to sleep.} Atesh sighed in relief as he closed his eyes and leaned on Shiro¡¯s shoulder.
Seeing that Atesh had forced himself to wake up over his worry for her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel her heart soften as sheid his head on her thigh and stroked his hair.
Feelingfortable, Atesh shifted to make sure he got into the best position before sleeping peacefully.
¡¯Iziuel, Estre.¡¯ Shiro called out softly as she didn¡¯t want to disturb Atesh¡¯s sleep.
{I¡¯m here.} Iziuel said as she appeared next to her and helped Nimue get into a morefortable position.
Resting Nimue¡¯s head on herp, Iziuel looked at Shiro as Estre also appeared next to her.
¡¯Can you tell me what divine spirits are?¡¯ Shiro asked curiously as her system had told her that Nimue became the divine spirit of water while Attie was the divine spirit of fire.
{Hm... Divine Spirits are as you can tell, spirits that are infused with godly energy. Bing a divine spirit is the first step topletely mastering a certain element. But that¡¯s all I know since there were only rumours about divine spirits. We couldn¡¯t confirm their existence before but with Nimue and Atesh reaching this stage, it seems like it was more than just a rumour.} Estre smiled as she nced down at Atesh and Nimue.
¡¯I see... Perhaps I should ask Hades about this. He might know more.¡¯ Shiro said as both Iziuel and Estre nodded their heads.
Taking a moment to rest up for a moment, Shiro asked Estre to take her ce as she focused on reality.
"Hades." Shiro called out as a swirl of shadows appeared beside her.
"Mn? What is it?" Hades asked as this was currently their break time. Once the break was over, they¡¯ll resume training.
"Do you know anything about divine spirits?" Shiro asked as Hades thought about it for a moment.
"Hmm... Aren¡¯t you one yourself?" Hades asked as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"I think I was at one point but I don¡¯t know much about it." Shiro shook her head.
"Well divine spirits are blessed spirits that have the right to be a god eventually. They¡¯ll cultivate their own divinity of their element but it¡¯s different from the ¡¯god of an element¡¯. You see, a spirit divinity has a closer connection with the ¡¯source of elements¡¯. Just like how there is a source of mana or rather the origin there is a source of elements. A divine spirit has a closer connection to the source of elements due to their nature as spirits. Of course, if a god has talent, it doesn¡¯t mean they can¡¯t reach the source of elements like how a spirit would." Hades exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"So you¡¯re telling me that for example, a Divine Spirit of Water would be closer to the source of water than the water god?" Shiro asked just to be sure.
"That is correct but reaching the source of elements is still rather difficult for spirits." Hades shrugged.
"Mn, that makes sense. There is no free food in this world. There is always a price." Shiro agreed.
"Exactly. Anyways, we have around a week let in here shall we make the most out of it? Hopefully we should have a divine energy skill by the end of the week. If not, it doesn¡¯t matter since we¡¯ve already obtained plenty during the time we¡¯ve spent here." Hades smiled.
While Shiro was spending thest week in the pocket dimension, Nan Tian had finished training with Mio as he sat down by the side and caught his breath.
"Shiro should being out in a few hours so we¡¯ll end it here." Mio said as she stored her sword away into her inventory.
"While I don¡¯t know how you two will end up, you better not harm her or else god save you I¡¯ll make sure you pay for what you have done. Literally." Mio narrowed her eyes as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Despite being tier 6, he waspletely dominated in one on onebat which was to be expected since he¡¯s a mix of mage and warrior while Mio was the extreme of offensive fighters.
"Take this. It¡¯ll help you defend yourself if someone gets into your blind spot. Since you¡¯ve chosen Shiro as your target for protection, you¡¯re going to be her front line most of the time." Mio said as she threw a mirror-like object towards.
Catching the mirror, Nan Tian raised his eyebrow in surprise.
"Wouldn¡¯t this be better on Shiro?" He asked curiously.
"Theoretically yes but it hinders quite a few of her skills so it¡¯s better if you send it to her side with the second skill if she runs into trouble." Mio shrugged.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian ced the mirror against his chest as it shattered into pieces before disappearing around him.
If one looked carefully, they could see what seemed like a thin illusionary sheet of ss surrounding his body.
Clutching his fists a few times, Nan Tian stretched his body.
"It¡¯s a little weird but I suppose I¡¯ll get used to the feeling." He smiled as Mio nodded her head.
"I don¡¯t think me and Koji will be able to apany Shiro often since we got our own share of trouble. Plus, we¡¯ll need to look after Keomi since she¡¯s not as strong as Shiro. While Keomi is better than average, she hasn¡¯t reached the upper stages yet so she¡¯ll still need our help.
"Thankfully, Keiko is looking after her right now so we don¡¯t have to interfere too much but with the new ageing, I¡¯m afraid we can¡¯t let her be anymore. At least not until she reaches tier 5." Mio sighed as she was both happy and sad that Keomi was to put it bluntly, weak right now.
If she was strong like Shiro, the danger¡¯s she¡¯ll face would cause her to worry endlessly everyday but at the same time, she couldn¡¯t protect herself properly in the new age. There was only so much she could do after all.
"I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll do fine. Thest time I saw them I saw determination in her eyes. Seeing Shiro work hard must have lit something up in her as she¡¯s trying her best to catch up right now." Nan Tian smiled.
"Mn."
Packing up everything, Mio made sure they didn¡¯t leave behind some belongings as they prepared for the trip back. While they didn¡¯t stay for a week, Sitril had informed her about a few new intel she had obtained after interrogating a few souls. A few of the Queens were on the move in the real world.
Chapter 807 Leaving The Realm
Chapter 807 Leaving The Realm
Giving her body a stretch, Shiro had just finished the final training session in the pocket dimension as they were currently preparing to make their way out.
During the final week, Nimue had woken up and was shocked to see a slightly older Atesh as she had also experienced some changes herself. She noticed that her control over the water around her increased dramatically as she was even able to extract a bunch of water from the air causing that area to ¡¯dry up¡¯.
In addition to this, Shiro had noticed that herbat ability had shot through the roof as she wasparable to a high level tier 5 when ites to her element.
Moreover, she had also discovered that Nimue received a new passive skill. Every attack that she sustains will have its damage cut as her body would be turned to water. It also worked against fire attacks that would normally evaporate her since there was still water in the air.
There was also the skill that allowed her to evade her death as long as arge body of water is nearby which was rather handy as she is able to extract water from all around her to give herself a free revive. Of course, there was a cooldown to this but it was extremely helpful since the range of revival was ratherrge.
If she wanted, she could gather the water in an underground cave and revive there so that she wasn¡¯t pursued by her assants.
As for Atesh, he was in a simr situation only with fire. However, there was something rather special with his fire as it was always filled to the brim with life energy. It was to be expected since he was a fusion that involved life fire but at this stage, it was actually more potent than Shiro¡¯s life fire and it had the potential to be as powerful as Grace.
"Are you ready? Our time here has run out." Hades asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn I am. While it¡¯s unfortunate that I didn¡¯t manage to make my own skill, it¡¯s still handy that I can now use divine energy whenever I want." Shiro smiled as Hades agreed.
"But remember, while you can use divine energy, there is a limit to it. At most you can cast two divine energy spells and five enhanced normal spells so try not to waste it if you can." Hades reminded.
"I know, don¡¯t worry. But man, making divine energy spells were harder than I thought. And here I was making new original spells with mana left and right with ease but after two months in here I haven¡¯t made a single divine energy spell." Shiro sighed.
"Don¡¯t be hasty. It takes a while to make one. Plus, you have to really think outside the box for a divine energy spell. I¡¯ll be honest, even the soul hounds that I madest time were only half a divine spell. I do have one or two full divine energy spells but using them is rather difficult." Hades chuckled since his spell had some conditions he must pass before it could be activated.
"Mn well I¡¯ll probably think of something eventually. When I realise that I can¡¯t aplish a task with my nanobots, I¡¯ll know I¡¯ll need divine energy." Shiro grinned as Hades nodded his head.
"That¡¯s one of the ways to make your own divine energy spell."
Talking for a little longer, they opened the portal and stepped through it. Upon stepping out, they saw Sitril, Mio and Nan Tian standing there with a smile.
"Wee back. Did you enjoy your time in there?" Mio asked Shiro with a smile as she nodded her head.
"It was quite helpful. Did anything happen while we were gone?" Shiro replied.
"Something did happen. Your grandmother has found out some intel from one of the souls and it seems like a few Queen¡¯s are making a move in the outside world. We don¡¯t know what they¡¯ve done yet so we¡¯re going to go have a look once you came out of the pocket dimension." Mio exined as Shiro frowned.
"Mn... we shouldn¡¯t waste more time then." Shiro narrowed her eyes before turning around and giving Kalus a hug. Walking up to Sitril, she did the same for her.
"It¡¯s been nice seeing you two." Shiro smiled as Sitril chuckled.
"It has. We¡¯ll see each other soon once the new age starts." Sitril patted Shiro¡¯s head.
Nodding her head, Shiro turned to Hades.
"I suppose I¡¯ll also be seeing you in the new age." She chuckled as he nodded.
"You will but gods won¡¯t appear too early. The new age is split into two stages in terms of people appearing. The first stage includes Queens, new monsters at the 6th tier and maybe a few Demi Gods but they are rare. The second stage is when us God¡¯s and Demon God¡¯s appear." Hades exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Would you happen to know someone called Verron?" Shiro asked as Hades raised his eyebrow.
"I hope you¡¯re not talking about Demon God Verron." He forced a smile.
"Unfortunately that is who I¡¯m talking about.
"*sigh* How did you evene across his name?" Hades asked with a sigh.
"I might have pissed him off and he got his eyes on me now." Shiro shrugged.
"How????" Hades asked with a confused expression since she shouldn¡¯t be able toe into contact with Verron right now.
"Well me and Nan Tian kind of found his anchor and well... might have heavily injured the tier 6 guard he had on site." Shiro coughed lightly as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"We were quite close to death at that time."
"The fact that you two are alive means you won that fight I guess. He¡¯s a rather petty person like my brother so I suppose he will try to get revenge on you. You have quite a few enemies don¡¯t you?" Hades forced a smile as she had already pissed off a few people in the Greek pantheon and now she¡¯s even made enemies with Demon Gods. He wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the God¡¯s banded together andunched a crusade against her when the time arrives.
"Anyways did you want to ask me anything about Verron?" Hades asked.
"Mn I was just wondering if you knew about him or not. I might have to fight him in the future so it¡¯ll be good to know something about him." Shiro shrugged as Hades thought about it for a moment before furrowing his brows.
"I don¡¯t know much since he doesn¡¯t fight often. Most of his minions are rather powerful so he doesn¡¯t have to make a move. But I will give you a tip on gods. If a god is ¡¯easy¡¯ to kill, you haven¡¯t killed him. Gods cannot be killed by normal means. You can inflict pain on them but they won¡¯t die. You have to target a specific part of them that¡¯s in a different existence before you can kill him. Naturally, targeting it is rather difficult since it¡¯s normally located in their own domain. If you were to aim for them there, they¡¯ll notice immediately. Sneak attacks against them are rather hard as well unless you¡¯re a super high level assassin that¡¯s in the realm of Demi God or God." Hades cautioned.
"Mn... that¡¯s good to know." Shiro nodded her head.
While she knew that the Gods couldn¡¯t be killed through conventional means, at least now she knew that most of them kept the core of their being in their own domain. With knowledge on where it is, it¡¯d be helpful in future fights so that she didn¡¯t waste time searching for it during the fight.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro said her goodbyes as the three of them made their way back to the portal they had used to enter this ce.
Looking at the maids lined up by the side and bowing towards them with respect, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a little awkward but she hid her awkwardness away.
Cutting her finger, Mio opened the portal and gestured for them to go through.
ncing back at the mansion in the distance, she could see Hades give her one final wave as she did the same and stepped through.
Feeling her True Spirit Nature cancel immediately, Shiro sighed softly since it meant that the time limit of 1 minute had returned.
Thankfully, it had reset the moment she returned so she still had 1 minute worth of True Spirit Nature left that can be used whenever.
Immediately pulling out her phone, she checked on information regarding the Queen¡¯s.
Chapter 808 Three Queens
Chapter 808 Three Queens
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro was shocked to see news on three Queens that were currently making a move near a few of the major cities. The cities that were involved were New York, Shanghai and Man.
There were photos and news reports on anchors that suddenly appeared in the sky and mmed into the centre of the cities.
New York was a rather low levelled city which confused Shiro as to why they would target that since the mana in the area was rather low. However, as she was not them, she didn¡¯t know their thought process. There was only one problem though and that was each of them were quite far away from each other.
To get to them all, she¡¯d need to expend quite a bit of effort. By the time she finished helping the first city, the other two would probably be taken over.
Furrowing her brows, she saw that Man and Shanghai were the closest in terms of location on the map.
It would be better for her to help Man then move over to Shanghai rather than attend to New York.
Seeing the expression on her daughter¡¯s face, Mio smiled softly.
"Do you want me and your dad to sort out the one in New York? It¡¯s rather far from the other two so while you take care of them, we¡¯ll take care of this stray one." Mio suggested with a smile.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro was worried about the safety of her parents. After all, they had tier 6 guards with them and taking care of them as a tier 5 was rather difficult. The only reason Shiro could face off against them and even kill them was because they took them by surprise and Shiro had Nan Tian distracting the most annoying one as he was also a tier 6. However, neither Mio or Koji were tier 6 so fighting them was very risky.
"Haha, seems like you¡¯re looking down on your mum¡¯s power." Mio grinned as she ruffled Shiro¡¯s hair.
"It¡¯s not that. I know both you and dad are strong but this is a tier 6 we¡¯re talking about. The chances of dying are very big." Shiro furrowed her brows in worry.
"Don¡¯t worry. As a reaper, it would be quite embarrassing if I failed to take a soul now wouldn¡¯t it?" Mio chuckled but Shiro still had her worried. Snapping her fingers, Nanobots surged in front of her as it morphed into a pair of earrings and bracelets.
"Take these mum. I¡¯ve embedded the earrings with 5 charges of grace and the same with the bracelets. Give the bracelets to dad so that if you two take any serious damage you can heal yourselves back to full health. The earrings and bracelet also include the skill Kietoma so if you¡¯re in danger, you can freeze their body and stop them for a second." Shiro said as she passed the items over to Mio.
She wanted to infuse the skills from Pandora¡¯s requiem but so far she had been unsessful even with the help of divine energy so the most she could do was give her the most utility focused skills she had in order to help her parents end the fight quickly. She didn¡¯t need to give them offensive spells since her parents were both offensive fighters. She didn¡¯t need to worry.
Receiving these item¡¯s Mio had a soft smile on her face as she nodded her head.
"Don¡¯t worry, me and your dad will be careful ok? We wouldn¡¯t want to leave Lil Shiro and Lil Keomi behind now would we?" Mio reassured as Shiro sighed and nodded her head.
Seeing her parent¡¯s expression, she understood that they weren¡¯t about to give up anytime soon.
"Just be careful ok? It¡¯s cruel but New York is just a low levelled city. I don¡¯t know why they chose it but if it gets out of hand just give up on it ande back." Shiro said as Mio nodded her head.
Making their way back to the house Shiro could hear the sound of wooden swords shing against one another in the dojo as she understood that Kanae and Irina were still training with Koji.
Opening the dojo door, she saw the three in the middle of the fight.
"Shiro-nee!" Kanae¡¯s eyes brightened as Koji¡¯s sword suddenly knocked her on the head.
"uah!" Taking a few steps back, Kanae quickly rubbed her head.
"Don¡¯t get distracted in battle even if it is Shiro." Koji said as Kane pouted slightly.
"We¡¯ll take a break now." He said as he stored the sword away and walked over to the three of them.
"How was it?" He asked with a smile.
"It was good. Mum and dad seemed rather happy with Shiro and she had even gotten a bit of training." Mio chuckled.
"That¡¯s good."
"Say dad, I heard that you were apparently rather rude to gramps when you took mum." Shiro said with a smug grin as Koji coughed embarrassingly.
"It was in the heat of the moment." Koji scratched his head as Shiroughed.
"Right... Anyway how is Kanae and Irina¡¯s training?" Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s only been a few days so the effects aren¡¯t obvious. However, Kanae has talent with the sword and I can probably get Irina up to a decent level. It¡¯s not to say that she doesn¡¯t have talent but she¡¯s not fit for how I teach the sword. The most I can do is help her improve to the point she can defend herself." Koji nced at Irina who was struggling for breath.
"Mn that¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll help her with some body reinforcement with mana and she should be able to handle herself." Shiro nodded her head as she nned to give her a manual on body reinforcement once she finished her rest.
"On a different note, what do you think about taking a trip to New York? One of the Queens seems to be rather eager to take over the city." Mio asked with a soft smile as Koji ced a hand on his chin.
"I don¡¯t see why not. Plus, I¡¯m somewhat curious about how I would fare against a tier 6." Koji nodded his head.
"Hais, you¡¯re taking it too easily. A tier 6 can easily kill a tier 5 with a snap of their finger. We¡¯re just abnormal for being able to stand against one previously. I know you and mum are also abnormal in the strength area but don¡¯t down on them ok? Even if you try to overestimate them, overestimate them some more in case they have something up their sleeve." Shiro sighed as she had experienced this situation before.
In Aria, when she was tier 6, people still underestimated her despite trying to overestimate. Naturally, the oue was death as with most things that were connected to Nytri.
"Mn don¡¯t worry. Daddy can take care of himself." Koji had a teasing smile on his face as he picked Shiro up.
"Uah! Damn it dad! I¡¯m not a kid so don¡¯t call yourself daddy!" Shiro gritted her teeth in embarrassment as she hit her dad on the head.
Of course, it wasn¡¯t hard otherwise Koji¡¯s body might have been flung out of the room.
Laughing for a moment, Koji let Shiro down.
"Let¡¯s see, I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll take too long so Kanae and Irina can stay here for a bit while they digest all the information they¡¯ve been taught." Koji said as Mio nodded her head since she didn¡¯t mind.
After talking for a while, they decided to have some food as they were getting ready to move to the different cities. Shiro¡¯s first destination would be Man where she¡¯ll go deal with the queen there before moving to Shanghai. Once she¡¯s finished in Shanghai, she wanted to find the old sect master and ask him about Isilia. After all, the system did say that he knew where she was.
Once they finished the food, Shiro gave Koji and Mio a hug as she watched them teleport away in the teleport shrine. Naturally, they weren¡¯t reckless to teleport into the heart of danger so they chose a shrine a little further away.
With her parents now gone, Shiro prepared to teleport away with Nan Tian.
"Stay safe out there Shiro-nee." Kanae said as she had worry on her face.
She was too weak to follow so the best she could do was tell her to be careful.
"Don¡¯t worry. I can take care of myself." Shiro grinned and patted Kanae¡¯s head.
Giving her a wave, Shiro and Nan Tian teleported away.
Chapter 809 Aisha
Chapter 809 Aisha
Arriving at the edge of Man, Shiro immediately noticed a change in mana as a notification appeared on her interface.
[You have stepped into the Domain of Queen Aisha. As an enemy queen, you will experience the following effects while in this domain.]
-20% to all stats
-20% effectiveness to all Queen rted spells
-20% system assistance
"Apparently the Queen is called Aisha. I wonder what kind of Queen she is." Shiro muttered as their title could give her a clue on what their strengths are.
For example, Limra was the vampiric queen so Shiro knew that she should probably be wary of her absorbing something from her body.
If she knew what Aisha was the queen of, it¡¯ll be a lot easier.
"Shall we investigate a little first and ask the residents about what¡¯s happening?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, since I don¡¯t need to kill all the Queens to win the new age, we might be able to get ourselves an ally." Shiro replied.
"Though it¡¯ll be rather tough with her pride. After all, she¡¯s the leader of a race and serving under someone might be a rather annoying thought for her. It¡¯s like if someone asked you to serve under them which I doubt you¡¯d enjoy." Nan Tian shrugged.
"True. But if she doesn¡¯t like it ughtering her is also an option." Shiro grinned as they exited the teleport shrine.
Currently, they were just outside of the city as a giant crystal could be seen floating in the centre of the city as it would pulse out with a mystic energy every so often.
With Shiro¡¯s perception, she could tell that this energy was supplying a barrier of sorts but there wasn¡¯t a barrier being erected around the city.
This could either mean that she didn¡¯t detect the barrier or that it was storing energy.
Both options were likely as Shiro snapped her fingers and made some nanobots in the air in front of her.
Controlling them to fly towards the crystal, Shiro and Nan Tian attempted to enter the city.
ncing into the distance, they could see the sea as well as what seemed to be a ruin of sorts protruding out of the water surface.
"If you¡¯re wondering about that, it¡¯s arge scale dungeon. The loot is rather nice and each level of the dungeon has a different level limit. You can theoretically just stay in Man and take your time to level up until you¡¯re level 200." Nan Tian exined as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"What world is it even linked to then? Most dungeons are fixed at a level unless they mutate no?" Shiro asked curiously.
"No idea but there are quite a few schrs that are studying this dungeon specifically since cases like this are rather rare. I would say that we can probably try to meet one right now but with how things are, it might be a little difficult. Who knows, if Aisha is a tyrannical queen, she might kill all those that won¡¯t follow her lead." Nan Tian said as Shiro agreed with him since Limra was probably one of those people.
Remembering the hate filled faces of those who red at her after she ruined their city, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh.
Shaking her head, she dismissed the thoughts and walked towards the city.
Unlike the other cities they¡¯ve been too, there weren¡¯t city walls or guards checking your ID before you can enter. You were allowed to go in and out whenever you wanted.
Of course, there are guards walking around patrolling to ensure public order so they still had to behave themselves.
Most of the guards here were around level 150 to 200. Shiro couldn¡¯t see anyone that was in the realm of tier 5 which is to be expected since this level was achieved by a small percent of people in the entire world.
Walking around the city, they couldn¡¯t spot anyone belonging to Queen Aisha so they decided to go to a bar for now to see if they could get any information such as rumours. After all, there was a good chance that people would talk about the big crystal in the sky and the Queen associated with it.
Making their way to one of the bigger bars that they could find, Shiro and Nan Tian sat down near the window while listening to their surroundings.
Most of the talks were about what they had been doing during the day, scheduling some parties as well as troubles in the family.
Surprisingly, no one mentioned the crystal at all.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro found this a little strange as she downed her c.o.c.ktail and walked over to the bar counter.
"Excuse me." Shiro called out as a bartender nced over.
"Yes? What can I get for you?" She asked respectfully.
"Ah I just got a question. Do you know what¡¯s up with the giant crystal in the sky?" Shiro asked with a smile as the bartender furrowed her brows and gestured for Shiro to lean in.
"Please don¡¯t mention anything about the crystal out in public." The bartender warned as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
Before she could say anything, the bartender only handed her the same c.o.c.ktail she had ordered earlier.
Taking this as a sign that she didn¡¯t want to talk about this anymore, Shiro made her way back to Nan Tian.
"So did she say anything about it?" Nan Tian asked.
"Nope. Apparently, we shouldn¡¯t be talking about it in public." Shiro sighed and shook her head.
Just as she was about to take a sip of her c.o.c.ktail, she felt something wrong as her instincts were telling her not to drink it.
Frowning slightly, she summoned some nanobots and analysed her drink.
After a second, she narrowed her eyes at the bartender as her drink had been spiked with a substance simr to aphrodisiac only the concentration was much higher.
Picking up her ss, she walked towards the bartender and narrowed her eyes.
"Would you happen to know what¡¯s in this ss?" Shiro asked with a smile.
However, the bartender did not panic as she only had a smile on her face.
"You have good instincts." She praised as Shiro narrowed her eyes and reached out towards her cor.
Grabbing her by the neck, Shiro threatened to pour the drink down the bartender¡¯s mouth.
"Why did you do this?" Shiro questioned with a frown.
"Hahaha! Do it please! Give me that drink if you don¡¯t want it!" The bartender had a crazed look in her eyes as her gaze didn¡¯t leave the c.o.c.ktail.
Feeling disgusted, Shiro immediately let go of the woman and poured the c.o.c.ktail away.
"Really, you shouldn¡¯t let go of your enemy so easily." The bartender shrugged as she quickly adjusted her clothes so that she looked proper once more.
"Who are you." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"I¡¯m just a bartender." The woman smiled.
"Bullshit." Shiro retorted as she summoned her sword.
Sighing softly, the bartender only shrugged.
"So aggressive. Fine, let me reintroduce myself then."
Wave her hand in front of her face, the woman¡¯s hair flickered as it changed into a silver blonde that reached her lower back. Her eyes were simr to Shiro¡¯s as they were also blood red.
ncing at her title card, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
[Aisha ¨C Queen of Trickery.]
"For a Queen of trickery, you sure are bad at your job." Shiro joked as Aisha shrugged her shoulder.
"Are you sure?" She asked with a smile as Shiro¡¯s body instantly heated up.
Widening her eyes, Shiro felt as though she had just lost all of her resistances as the alcohol started to act up in her system.
But what was strange was that she knew she wasn¡¯t drunk. It was a mental effect.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro stood her ground.
"Oh my, how surprising. Despite tricking your mind to believe it is super drunk, you can wrestle yourself out of it. Well... somewhat." Aisha pped her hand as Shiro wanted to jump back slightly to make some distance.
But just as she attempted this, she felt her body move to the side and fall over which confused her since her movement had beenpletely jumbled. Quickly analysing her movements, Shiro barely stood up before the controls were messed up once more.
"You adapt rather fast too. You are quite fun, why don¡¯t you be my doll from now on?" Aisha asked with a smile as she was akin to a puppeteer with invisible strings.
Chapter 810 Queen of Trickery
Chapter 810 Queen of Trickery
Gritting her teeth, Shiro tried to jump back after adjusting to the ¡¯new controls¡¯. While the controls were flipped mid-way, she was still sessful in making some distance between them.
"Now then, I wonder how you¡¯ll entertain me." Aisha smiled creepily as she pped her hand. Suddenly, Shiro felt something puncture her lung as she coughed up a mouthful of blood.
ring towards her, Shiro forced herself to stand up with some difficulty.
"I knew something was wrong but to think you were in a fight." Nan Tian said as he flickered next to Shiro.
Seeing his expression, Shiro knew that he wasn¡¯t in the best of moods right now.
"Oh? You broke through the illusion." Aisha chuckled.
"When Shiro went to talk to you she was furious. The fact that you two ¡¯talked¡¯ for quite a while in the illusion was suspicious to begin with." Nan Tian replied as he flickered next to her and grabbed her face.
*BANG!!!
mming her against the ground, Nan Tian twisted his body and threw her through the wall.
"Haa.... Are you alright?" Nan Tian asked with a concerned gaze and quickly jogged over to Shiro.
Helping her up on her feet, he frowned at her state since he noticed that her body control was all over the ce.
"Mn, give me a second. I¡¯m going to see if I can fix this." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
But before the two could rx, they realised that Aisha had already appeared beside them.
"Are you sure I¡¯ll give you that time?" She said with a small smile as Nan Tian quickly summoned his sword and shed towards her.
But just as he did this, he felt his movements be restricted as the sword spotted in front of her face.
"You know, the moment you entered the city, I already knew that you two were powerful, so I made a few adjustments. Neither of you have ridiculous physical strength so I don¡¯t need to worry too much. For mages, I¡¯m one of the worst counters you know???? Aisha giggled as she swiped with her hand.
Suddenly, several cut marks appeared on both Shiro and Nan Tian¡¯s body as blood started to flow.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro decided to do something risky.
mming her hand against her chest, she scanned her whole body within that moment and pinpointed the problem.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro summoned her sword. However, the controls flipped once more as the sword pierced towards her abdominal area.
"Tsk tsk tsk, don¡¯t go cutting yourself now." Aisha chuckled but Shiro only smiled.
She wanted this and even if Aisha didn¡¯t force her to stab herself, she would have done it anyway.
Jamming her sword deeper, she grinned as she flooded her insides with nanobots which consumed her organs in an instant.
This disy of cruelty towards herself shocked Aisha as this was the first time that this had ever happened in front of her. But before she could do anything, she watched as fire erupted out of Shiro and her body was healed up in an instant.
"You know, ingesting the little parasite was rather annoying but it¡¯s not too bad. It¡¯s just a matter of cutting it out." Shiroughed as she flickered next to Aisha.
"You¡¯re crazy." Aisha forced a smile as this was the first time that someone had broken out of her spell in such a manner.
Flicking her wrist, Aisha jumped back as Shiro¡¯s movements were restrained.
Activating analysis, her eyes flickered for a moment as she could see all of the invisible wires that didn¡¯t radiate any mana signal at all.
Making a pair of sses, Shiro threw them towards Nan Tian.
"Wear these." She said before dashing towards Aisha and narrowly evading the wires.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian caught the sses and saw that his body was being bound.
Unfortunately, he was bound rather tightly so it took him a moment to get out.
Thankfully, Shiro was keeping Aisha busy so he was given a few moments to get himself out of the restrictions.
While Nan Tian was getting himself out of the bindings, Shiro was trying to strike towards Aisha as best she could but she was always just a little short.
Even after activating the boundary, Aisha seemed too slippery.
What¡¯s worse was that despite the fact that they were fighting, the surroundings seemed to not react at all as everyone was continuing their day like nothing happened.
"You did something to them didn¡¯t you?" Shiro asked as lightning erupted out from her body. Increasing her speed, she dashed in front of Aisha and shed towards her neck.
"What ever could you mean." Aisha grinned as several pairs of hands tried to restrain her but her lightning torched anyone that grabbed her.
"So cold hearted. Killing them without even batting an eye." Aishaughed as Shiro only shrugged while trying to kill her.
"Killing you will prevent more casualties. I¡¯m sorry but I never said I was a good person." Shiro replied as Aisha frowned slightly.
¡¯Nimue can you give me some help?¡¯ Shiro asked as Nimue¡¯s control of water could be rather handy right now due to the fact that they¡¯re near the sea.
{Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m already working on something.} Niimue replied as she was currently working on a magic circle. As she had only recently be a divine spirit, it took some getting used to so her spells would take a little longer to be prepared.
{Mama do you want me to help?} Attie called out as Shiro chuckled.
¡¯It¡¯s fine. Mommy can deal with this pest.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Pft, mommy.} Nimue snickered as a nanotech bat appeared behind Nimue and clubbed her on the head.
{Blerg!}
¡¯Hush it.¡¯ Shiro hmphed before turning her focus back to Aisha.
Dragging her hand across the ground, several ice spears appeared before shooting towards her.
Unfortunately, they were blocked by her invisible wires.
Realising that Aisha was baiting her right now, Shiro wasn¡¯t keen on following.
"Since you want me to follow you so bad, I will. But before I go, I need to grab a little essory. Girls like me can¡¯t go out without some decorations after all." Shiro grinned as she clenched her hand into a fist.
Suddenly, a nket of nanobots appeared in the air and wrapped around the crystal in an instant.
Widening her eyes, Aisha looked up in shock as Shiro appeared besides her.
However, her shock turned into joy as she smiled.
"Fooled ya."
Flexing her fingers, mana burst out of Aisha as Shiro felt danger all around her.
"Are you sure?" Nan Tian¡¯s voice rang out as he appeared besides Shiro.
Pushing out his hands, a barrier of sorts erupted out as a shattering sound could be heard.
*BANG!!!
With the barrier crashing into her, Aisha was pushed away as she mmed against the ground.
"Thanks." Shiro smiled as she could count on Nan Tian to cover her back.
{I¡¯m ready!} Nimue called out as her magic circle had finished its construction.
Nodding her head, Shiro mmed her hand against the ground as a Nimue appeared beside her with her magic circle.
Pushing her magic circle into the sky above them, Shiro watched as it expanded out and enveloped the entire city.
Suddenly, droplets of water formed in the air as they slowly morphed into needles. If it was just one or two, it would be fine but every single spot in the city seemed to be filled with this needle as Shiro could feel her mana drain. Since she and Nimue were connected, it was only natural that Nimue would be using her mana to power the spell.
Flicking her hand out, Nimue controlled all of the needles to pierce towards Aisha.
While this was happening, Shiro had cast her own spells as electricity flickered around her.
Making a fist with her right hand and a palm on her left, she ced her fist on her palm and lightning gathered in her hand.
Opening her fist, a small lightning serpent could be seen as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
The serpent seemed toe alive as it shot forward.
Suddenly, two tier 6 magic circles appeared in front of it as it seemed to erge with every magic circle it passed.
Eventually, it erged to be a giant lightning dragon which swallowed the spot that Aisha was in.
*BOOM!!!!
Exploding and evaporating all of the water, Shiro watched as Nan Tian shot forward with his sword and shed down.
*PUSHI!!
Seeing Aisha being cut in half, Shiro sighed in relief but didn¡¯t drop her guard.
"How annoying. You actually caught me at my weakest. No worries though, this is just a branch of my anchor." Aishaughed as her body sewed itself back together.
sping her hand together, a portal opened up under her as she waved her hand and disappeared.
Chapter 811 Helping The City
Chapter 811 Helping The City
Furrowing her brows, Shiro watched the Queen disappear as Nan Tiannded next to her.
"She seems rather troublesome, doesn¡¯t she?" Nan Tian said as Shiro agreed.
"If it was her actual body, I would have used error or more of my nanobots." Shiro sighed.
"Doesn¡¯t error affect their true body though? If you used it would have gotten her anyways no?" Nimue asked curiously as she returned all of the water back to the atmosphere around them.
"It does. However, Aisha¡¯s clone was... how do I put it. Independent?" Shiro frowned since her analysis skill told her that the Aisha she had faced was the ¡¯real¡¯ one but at the same time, Shiro knew it was a fake since the soul wasn¡¯t there.
"Maybe that¡¯s just her skill. Her status as the Queen of Trickery might allow her to make clones that can take independent action which makes them seem real. Not to mention, I was not able to track her back to her real body at all." Shiro sighed.
"Mn, and from what I know, whenever a Queen takes over a city, their powers are heavily cut down and it¡¯ll take a while before they can get it back from donations of the people. Since the news of this city being taken over was rather recent, I can imagine that Aisha was rather weak. Do you think she revealed herself early because she knew she had been exposed? I can¡¯t imagine why a Queen of Trickery would want to expose herself so easily." Nimue frowned.
"Do you think it¡¯s because she wanted to get some information on Shiro? Since there was no danger to her real body, having a short exchange would actually be highly beneficial for her." Nan tian suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"The possibility of that being the case is rather high. We¡¯ll need to be careful of her since ingesting something she gives you made it so that she could take over the controls of your body. If this was her real body, there could be a chance that she can take over your body with ease should you ingest something. If that is the case, even if I wanted to disembowel myself and heal to get rid of the parasite, I wouldn¡¯t be able to." Shiro frowned as she couldn¡¯t help but worry about their next exchange.
"Anyways, setting that aside, let¡¯s check up on the city first. With her skills, I doubt the people here are unaffected." Nan Tian said as Shiro agreed. During the fight, it seemed like the civilians paid them no attention as if they couldn¡¯t see what was going on but Shiro knew that there were quite a few casualties that were pulling in during their fight.
ncing up at the sky, Shiro could sense that the anchor had lost its l.u.s.tre and was nothing but a fancy crystal right now.
Consuming it with her nanobots, Shiro started to check up on the people of Man with Nan Tian.
Even when they touched one on the shoulder they ignored them as Shiro frowned.
Grabbing a young man, she closed her eyes and scanned his entire body.
{What the hell...} Nimue muttered as Shiro¡¯s information was transmitted to the mana realm.
They could see a parasite of sorts controlling their body as everything was now autonomous.
Seeing this, Shiro understood why they didn¡¯t react. After all, they weren¡¯t ¡¯programmed¡¯ to react to this. If Aisha was around, she could probably take control of them and converse like normal but now that she was gone, they were essentially human robots. Unable to think for themselves.
The worst part was that they weren¡¯t dead either. If Shiro wanted to save them, she¡¯d need to get rid of the parasites in their body. But doing that with the entire city was going to take some time.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro started to formte a n in her mind using all of her skills. With her True Spirit Nature, she is able to control souls so even if she destroyed their head, she could keep them alive so long as she heals their body and ces their soul back in.
However, doing so was rather difficult considering the poption in this ce and that her form only had a limit of one minute. If she wasn¡¯t done by the minute, the souls would most likely scatter and she would have just killed an entire city.
But leaving them alone wasn¡¯t something that Shiro was too keen on either since they were living like programmed robots.
{Mommy what if you let me help.} Attie called out as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
¡¯What do you mean darling?¡¯ Shiro asked curiously.
{My fire can heal them. Maybe if you take the worm thing out I can heal them.} Attie suggested as Shiro smiled softly and patted his head.
¡¯Don¡¯t worry mommy can heal them too. It¡¯s just a problem of time. There¡¯s too many people and managing them all in a single minute was going to be hard.¡¯ Shiro sighed.
However, just as she said this, an idea appeared in Shiro¡¯s mind as she face palmed.
¡¯How did I not think of this.¡¯ She sighed.
¡¯It¡¯s fine now, mommy has an idea to help everyone here.¡¯ Shiro smiled and let Attie down.
Focusing her mind back on reality, Shiro cracked her neck before ncing at Nan Tian.
"I¡¯ve got an idea on helping everyone here so just give me a moment." She smiled.
"Take as much time as you need. I have the teleport shrine for Shanghai anyways so travelling there won¡¯t take long." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Flying into the sky, Shiro activated her Divine Raiment and chose nanobots as her base.
Spreading out her hands, a tier 6 magic circle started to form itself as it slowly expanded to encase the entire city.
Closing her eyes, the temperature seemed to drop as grey snowkes fell down onto the city.
However, despite looking like snowkes, they were in fact nanobots that were being controlled by Shiro.
Simr to how requiem of the dead targeted specific people, Shiro had her nanobots track down any sign of ¡¯soul¡¯ within the city and attach themselves onto them. Since they were all acting autonomous right now, attaching themselves was rather simple since they didn¡¯t respond.
Once the nanobots attached onto them, Shiro sped her hand together as the nanobots split apart into tiny needles and entered their body.
With millions of body scans entering her mind, Shiro had the nanobots target the anomaly within the body, the parasite, and consume it before self-destructing in a non-harmful manner towards the current host.
But just as the nanobots targeted the parasites, they started to fight back as Shiro furrowed her brows since the parasites had no care about how much damage they were doing.
Flicking her wrist, the entire magic circle that epassed the city rotated anticlockwise as the initial blue hue shifted to a dark red.
Erupting out with mes, the nanobots consumed the parasites as the mes healed up all of the damage that the host had sustained.
Once that was done, they each fell unconscious one after another from the level of exhaustion on their body as very few managed to stay awake. ncing up at the giant magic circle epassing their city, they couldn¡¯t help but find it to look so beautiful as a single girl was controlling everything in the centre.
During the time that they were being controlled, they still remembered everything and knew that it was this girl who had saved them. For those that were still conscious, they made sure to memorise her appearance before cking out.
While that was happening, Shiro was focused on treating everyone as her mana was draining fast. Even with herrge reservoir, pulling off a spell that affected millions of people was still strenuous for her.
Once she was done, the magic circle slowly disappeared as sweat rolled down her face.
Flickering next to her, Nan Tian handed her a towel as she smiled.
"Thanks." She said while wiping the sweat away.
"Mn, you¡¯ve worked hard. I haven¡¯t detected any anomalies from the people so it seems like it should be over." Nan Tian said while ncing down.
"Mn, I¡¯ve gotten rid of the parasites. Let¡¯s not waste any time. We still have the problem in Shanghai." Shiro sighed as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Do you want me to carry you down? You seem rather exhausted." He joked as Shiro rolled her eyes and hit him with the towel.
"Ask that question once I¡¯m disabled or can¡¯t move. Knowing my luck, that might happen in the next fight." Shiro rolled her eyes as they made their way to the teleport shrine.
Chapter 812 Shanghai
Chapter 812 Shanghai
Teleporting to Shanghai, they immediately put their guard up and scanned the city. Looking towards the Shanghai Pearl tower, Shiro could see a crystal floating above the city as mystic energy pulsed out like the one in Man.
Understanding that the Queen was probably weakened like Aisha, it was a good chance to deal them a heavy blow but this time she was going to keep her guard up even more thanst time as she had identally allowed Aisha to feed her one of the parasites. Thankfully, she wasn¡¯t at full strength otherwise the oue could have been bad.
Before they could even talk about what they should do, they felt a surge of mana erupt out from the far end of the city as a giant explosion appeared in the distance.
With a column of smoke acting as their beacon, both Shiro and Nan Tian looked at one another before nodding their heads.
Flying towards the smoke in the distance, they could sense three mana signals fighting right now as one of them was quite familiar to Nan Tian as it belonged to Li Jian who owned the sect. As for the two others, he didn¡¯t recognise them but they had the same feeling as the other Queens which meant that they were currently fighting and his adoptive father was helping out one of them.
As for Shiro, she only widened her eyes in shock.
Activating her lightning divine raiment, she didn¡¯t say anything and flew as fast as she could.
###
*BANG!!!!
mming his fist against the young woman¡¯s body, Li Jian had a ming red aura around him as illusionary golden armour protected his body. With a giant spear in his hand, pierced towards her chest.
Unfortunately for him, his opponent wasn¡¯t going to be hit easily as her body split apart into a swarm of fireflies.
Furrowing his brows, he jumped back as a rhythmic sound of swords being unsheathed could be heard.
Suddenly, a nket of swords descended from the skies as all of the fireflies were eradicated.
Landing next to Li Jian, an elven woman with golden hair and a battle dress could be seen with a cold expression.
Runic swords floated around her as they would change forms with each passing season. Each sword that was disyed was different from thest as it seemed like she had an infinite armour of sorts.
"Have you figured out her powers yet?" Isilia asked as Li Jian shook his head.
"Not yet. Her power as a Queen covers quite a wide variety and I haven¡¯t been able to see past her disguise just yet. If I knew her title as a Queen, it¡¯ll be much easier." Li Jian replied with a frown as Isilia clicked her tongue.
"Just keep trying then." mming her hands down in front of her, a tier 6 magic circle erupted out as a cage appeared around the enemy queen.
Small silver portals appeared as swords shot towards the woman who was trapped in a wave.
Waving her hand, several centipedes appeared and wrapped around her, blocking the strikes which left faint white scratch marks.
Seeing this, most would think that she¡¯s probably the queen of insects or something simr but Isilia knew better since she had demonstrated powers of other monsters not just insects. If anything, it was stranger to see her use bestial powers as they were almost on the level of the Beast Queen.
The enemy queen wore a long-sleeved dress, some stockings and boots. Her sleeves were extremely long as it reached her knees.
Her dress was coloured with light green, pink and blue. Each time she swiped with her sleeves, a different power seemed to be used as it made her extremely hard to deal with.
Tracing her finger across the surface of her de, Isilia allowed her sword to draw some blood as the silver de was dyed a blood red with a single drop.
Flicking it to the side, her body disappeared and reappeared next to the queen.
A web of sword lights appeared as she shed towards the back of the queen but her reaction was the same as ever.
A single smirk before turning around and allowing the sword to sh her body.
Breaking apart into what seemed to be slime pieces, she reassembled herself and kicked towards Isilia¡¯s stomach.
Parrying it with her sword, Isilia watched as Li Jian stabbed towards the Queen once more as she grabbed his spear and pulled him closer to her which surprised him as anyone who had touched his spear before had their hands shredded apart.
Feeling danger, he quickly jumped back and abandoned his spear as bones erupted out of her and broke the spear apart. Had he stayed, he would have sustained heavy injuries.
Reaching into his inventory, Li Jian pulled out two great swords instead as he cleaved towards her.
*BANG!!!
Forcing the queen to take a few steps back, hebined the two greatswords together before stabbing it down.
A tier 6 magic circle erupted out in the sky as a giant golden sword mmed down into the queen¡¯s body.
*CRASH
mming against the pavement of the city, she flipped her body back to avoid Isilia¡¯s strikes as there were chains connected to the pommel of her de.
Throwing it towards the queen, Isilia made a seal with her hands as runes like up and split the des into different copies.
With hundreds of swords now swarming around her with chains trailing the swords, the enemy queen knew that there was a good chance for her to be restricted.
Creating a tier 6 magic circle in front of her, the enemy queen pushed her hand through the spell as a scaled dragon head could be seen in the ce of her hand.
Cracking its mouth open, a radiant fireball shot towards Isilia as she didn¡¯t falter.
Stomping down, trees started to grow and enveloped the fireball in an instant, restraining the st from affecting the city.
But while she was doing this, the dragon head had already consumed quite a few of her des as the chains were snapped apart and an exit was formed.
Dashing out, the enemy queen raised her hand as the dragon head was dismissed. In its ce was a silver sword which seemed to pulse to the rhythm of a heartbeat.
shing in the air in front of her, the dimension seemed to split apart as several pairs of eyes lit up.
Ripping the portal apart, an undead dragon reared its head out of the split as a tier 7 magic circle appeared around its mouth.
¡¯Not good!¡¯ Isilia widened her eyes as she recognised this skill. It was arge scale extinction-level spell which would eradicate arge area of space to nothingness should it activate.
Summoning a ck and red Odachi sword, a murderous aura erupted out of her as she cleaved upwards with the giant de.
*BOOM!!!!
As if god had just erased a single line in the world, the undead dragon and the magic circle split into two halves as Isilia coughed up a mouthful of blood and stored the de away.
Using this chance, Li Jian activated one of his skills as his illusionary armour was upgraded. Previously, it could be described as normal armour but now it was akin to heavenly armour which caused one to feel fear with a single nce.
Forming a fist with his right hand, Li Jian dashed towards the queen and punched towards her.
The space seemed to copse as the light around her distorted.
*BANG!!!
Punching her through the body, Li Jian only gritted his teeth since he realised that his skill did nothing.
Quickly jumping back, he avoided her counter attack.
Just as he stepped back, a portal opened up beside him and a jiggered de threatened to cut his head off.
Bending to the side, he kicked the de away as a wave of sword light cut one of the skyscr.a.p.ers into two halves.
Turning his attention back to the enemy queen, he saw a second tier 7 magic circle being formed as he felt the touch of deathing ever so close.
Suddenly, the sky darkened as clouds gathered in the sky.
Pushing the clouds aside, tens of orbital cannons descended as each of them were filled with ten¡¯s of tier 6 magic circles.
*BOOM!!!
Firing towards the enemy Queen, each of the sts were enhanced with Celestial path as the tier 7 magic circle was shattered apart with ease.
Flickering next to Isilia, Shiro nced down at her best friend who should have died a long time ago.
Holding back her tears, Shiro turned away from her and looked at the queen who still stood unphased in the sky.
"You better exin what happenedter." Shiro said as Isilia smiled softly.
"Of course. Same old tactic?" She chuckled.
"Same old tactic." Shiro nodded her head with a smile as mana erupted out of them.
Chapter 813 Tag Team
Chapter 813 Tag Team
sping her hands together, Shiro thought of a blueprint that she had not used in years as thest time she had used it was for her friends.
The tears that she tried to hold back were threatening to leak out as nanobots converged towards her palms.
Creating a crystal, Shiro grabbed it with her hand before shattering it.
The spray of nanobotsunched themselves towards isilia as armour started to form around her body.
[Mechanized de Saint MK 5]
Feeling the familiar armour around her body, Isilia smiled as she crouched down and two thrusters appeared behind her.
*BOOM!!!
Shattering the ground beneath her, her body reappeared next to the enemy Queen as several swords materials next to her.
Grabbing them, she twisted her body as red runes lit up on the de.
*PUCHI!!!!
Cutting into the queen¡¯s body, Isilia didn¡¯t say anything as the dials on the guard of the sword rotated clockwise.
The des that cut into the queen suddenly morphed into gun barrels as Isilia pulled the trigger.
*BANG!!!!
Firing a st inside the queen, Isilia watched as her body was flung back.
Flicking her wrist, the gun barrel disassembled into several daggers.
Making a seal with her hand, the daggers red up with a golden aura as Shiro appeared above her.
With two rail cannons mounted on her shoulders, Shiro sent out several nanotech wires which wrapped around the enemy queen, locking her in ce.
Activating her guns, several tier 6 magic circles appeared around the gun barrel as mana surged towards the barrel.
Firing two shots, Isilia threw the des towards the st radius.
"Inatrim!" Shemanded as a barrier was formed using the des as anchor pieces.
With the explosion concentrated into a small area, the queen was being cooked while resisting against the initial impact.
Landing in front of the barrier, Shiro summoned Silvanis as blood red circuits appeared on the de.
Activating her Divine Raiment, Shiro chose nanobots as the base while ck armour wrapped around her dress.
Following up with her boundary, her eyes turned cold as she cleaved towards the faint shadow of the queen. Thanks to the effects of her sword when paired with Error, all of her defences were essentially nullified.
*BANG!!!!!!!!!
mming her sword into her, Shiro could see a faint red me within the queen¡¯s body that was made from what seemed to be coding. Recognising it to be the source code, Shiro flickered in front of her and dragged her sword upwards.
Feeling danger, the enemy queen immediately took a step back but both Li Jian and Nan Tian were waiting behind her.
Brandishing their weapons, they stopped her retreat as Li Jian¡¯s Spear pinned her against the ground.
But before Shiro¡¯s de could hit her source code, her body split open as several dragon heads thrashed out and attacked them.
Dodging the dragon heads, Shiro clicked her tongue when she saw the queen in the sky with a bloodied dress. Her nonchnt expression had already disappeared as she red at the group with anger.
Gritting her teeth, she raised her hand as several tier 7 magic circles appeared in the air and she disappeared with the crystal shattering which meant that she had given up on this city.
Before she left, they managed to catch a glimpse of her true title since she was rather injured.
[Arnea ¨C Chimera Empress LVL 650]
Widening her eyes, Shiro didn¡¯t realise that they were actually against an Empress and not just a queen. Since she was an Empress ss being herself, she knew the difference between them. If she had been at full strength they would have died without question.
Thankfully, they fought her when she was at her weakest.
But the danger wasn¡¯t over yet as several tier 7 magic circles hung above them as they had the same power as her when she was in her demi god state.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro mmed her hand against the ground as hundreds of rail cannons started to appear around the city as they were each reinforced with celestial path.
Activating them simultaneously, sheunched a barrage against the tier 7 magic circle in the sky.
However, to her surprise, only the outside was chipped slightly as the main part of the magic circle stayed intact.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro fired a second barrage but nothing happened.
"This isn¡¯t good. We might have to evacuate the city instead. This isn¡¯t something we can destroy right now." Isilia frowned as Shiro agreed.
"Let me try one more time though. It¡¯s powerful but it doesn¡¯t have divine energy which means that Arnea hasn¡¯t reached demi god status. Well... she hasn¡¯t started to be a demi god yet." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she wanted to give it one more try. Only this time with her divine energy rather than mana.
Closing her eyes, she focused her mind as golden runes lit up in her mana realm.
Aiming her hand towards the tier 7 magic circles in the sky, Shior snapped her eyes open as she activated Divine Enchantment on her Celestial Path.
[Celestial Path -> Mana Nullification]
With her celestial path being upgraded for a short while, Shiro immediately used her divine energy to enhance the spell rather than make a new original spell since making divine energy spells were much harder than normal spells.
Enhancing her rail cannons, there were now golden runes materialising on the barrel as a divine aura erupted out of each gun.
Looking around in surprise, Isilia didn¡¯t realise how much Shiro had improved since thest time that they had met in the library when she was disguising herself as Arwen.
*BANG BANG BANG!!!
Watching the barrage of golden energy which broke off arge chunk of the magic circle every time it hit, Isilia smiled softly as she leaned on amppost and nced towards Nan Tian while Shiro was dealing with the magic circles since there was nothing that they can do right now.
"So... what¡¯s your rtionship with Ny? Or should I say Shiro." Isilia chuckled since Ny was the nickname that she had given for Shiro when they were together in Aria.
"I¡¯m pursuing her." Nan Tian replied truthfully since it wasn¡¯t really anything to hide.
"Oh my. You¡¯re rather... Hmm... should I call you masochistic with Shiro¡¯s habits?" Isilia asked with a raised eyebrow and nced towards Shiro.
"Just because I¡¯m focusing on the spell doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t hear you!" Shiro retorted but she had a smile on her face since it reminded her of the good times she had with Isilia back in Aria.
"I know. But I¡¯m asking anyways. Speaking of which, I do hope that he didn¡¯t fall in love with you after you hit his arse. Otherwise it would be rather awkward considering the fact that you hate masochists." Isiliaughed.
"If his ass was hit by me do you really think he¡¯d still be around." Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Point taken. So it seems like she¡¯s rather lenient towards you considering the fact that she hasn¡¯t pierced you yet. Congrattions." Isilia patted Nan Tian¡¯s shoulder as he wasn¡¯t too sure about how to take thepliment.
"Right then, there¡¯s no danger of the spell activating now and the cannons are taking care of the rest of the magic circles autonomously. Why don¡¯t we have that talk now." Shiro said Isilia nodded her head.
"First of all, Li Jian, how the hell do you know her? From what the system had said, I could have just asked you and you would have led me to her." Shiro frowned as Li Jian nced towards Isilia.
"Mn... How about we talk when we¡¯re in a private spot. It seems like there are quite a few people that are approaching our current location." Isilia smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
She could recognise one of the mana signals to belong to the dark elf that she had sparred against previously and knew that it was the government trying to make sense of what had happened.
As expected, not too longter, Shiro saw Grangel flickering at the scene with a surprised expression.
"Fancy seeing you here." Shiro smirked as Grangel blinked his eyes.
"It seems like you have resolved the problem. I thank you on behalf of the government." Grangel smiled as he did a polite bow.
"Oh my, Shiro¡¯s actually getting along with authoritative figures now. Good job." Isilia smiled as she hugged Shiro from behind and stroked her hair.
Feeling her prestige go down the drain in an instant, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"Mn anyways we haven¡¯t dealt with the queen just yet since she escaped but the anchor in this spot has already disappeared. All you need to do now is help the people that were dragged in and repair some of the damages I suppose. I hope that the government will take the queens more seriously after this." Shiro said with a serious expression.
Nodding his head, Grangel looked at the destruction caused.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll make sure the old geezers at the top takes the threat seriously." Gangel replied as Shiro nodded her head.
Opening a rift, she dragged Nan Tian, Li Jian and Isilia away from the scene so that they could talk in private.
Chapter 814 The Elven Queen of Aria
Chapter 814 The Elven Queen of Aria
Teleporting out of Shanghai, Shironded softly against the ground as the three appeared behind her.
"Right then, what do you want to know first?" Isilia asked with a smile while sitting down on a boulder by the side.
"How did Li Jiane to know you?" Shiro asked while sitting next to her and leaned on her shoulder like old times.
"Well you see, after I passed away for a second time, I woke up in my old body which was heavily damaged. It was barely healed and I was on the verge of death. I didn¡¯t know how many years had passed but things looked different and Li Jian was around the area at the time. He saved me and brought me back to the sect where I was healed and as repayment, I decided to help him out with some of his tasks and look after the library. I also continued my study on different worlds, dungeons and things rted to the system. During this, I managed to make a breakthrough and became the elven queen of Aria. Usually, this would be impossible since I¡¯m technically ¡¯not a part of Aria¡¯ anymore but thanks to my research I managed to achieve it." Isilia replied.
"How did you even wake up in your old body?" Shiro raised her eyebrow since even she had been born in a new body rather than retain her old one.
"Well... It was thanks to my research with different worlds. I don¡¯t know if you havee in contact with it yet or not but I had seeded in making a pseudo dungeon of sorts of our own world using the system¡¯s rules. Naturally, I also seeded in finding the moment where I died but that time was isted so no matter what I did to it, what happened could not be changed. But since I found my time of death, I was able to use my ¡¯old vessel¡¯ I suppose for ack of a better word. Though this is just the surface understanding." Isilia replied as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Mn... I see... My next question is why did you force me to kill you back then?" Shiro nced up with teary eyes as Isilia felt her heart soften.
"It was the only way for us to survive that situation. Plus, with our understanding of Aekari, do you really think he¡¯lle help us in time?" Isilia sighed as Shiro shook her head.
"But it¡¯s fine though, aren¡¯t we both here now?" Isilia chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"What about your husband though. Didn¡¯t you go look for him? If you did, Lyrica might not have been bullied in the royal family." Shiro asked curiously.
"Well... I did try to look for him but unfortunately, he had already passed on and I wasn¡¯t able to recover him like what I did for myself. As for Lyrica, I decided to let her go since she would eventually meet you." Isilia smiled.
"Eh? How would you know?" Shiro blinked in surprise.
"Because prophets are rather urate in this world. The best path would be to let mature on her own and run into you eventually where she would grow faster than anyone else." Isilia sighed. She would have loved to go spend time with Lyrica but doing so would have resulted in a different future. One that could be rather grim in nature. Plus, she had already ¡¯died¡¯ so it made things easier in a way.
"You should definitely go see her. If she found out that her mother was alive she¡¯ll be overjoyed." Shiro sighed.
"Mn, but don¡¯t you think she¡¯ll me me?" Isilia asked as Shiro shrugged.
"I don¡¯t know but it¡¯s better to let her know about your survival." Shiro replied as Isilia nodded her head.
"Does she know that you¡¯re my friend?" Isilia asked.
"Mn I have. I¡¯m kind of her aunt right now." Shiroughed.
"Rather strange isn¡¯t it? Considering your body is younger than her by quite a bit." Isilia smiled.
"Speaking of which, your daughter seemed to be in love with me." Shiro said with a slightly forced smile as Isilia raised her eyebrow.
"You¡¯re serious?"
"Do I joke about these things?" Shiro asked as Isilia leaned back slightly.
"Mn that is rather strange isn¡¯t it. Since she¡¯s in love with a granny." Isilia grinned.
"Oi! What the hell do you mean by granny!" Shiro pinched Isilia¡¯s cheeks as she onlyughed.
"Well for someone who¡¯s around 300 years old, I definitely wouldn¡¯t¡¯ call you someone young!" Isilia hoped away as Shiro¡¯s face blushed with embarrassment at the mention of her age.
{Wait you¡¯re 300 years old?} Nimue raised her eyebrow.
¡¯Shut it!¡¯ Shiro gritted her teeth as Atesh hugged Shiro¡¯s leg.
{Mommy is young. Don¡¯t listen to rude aunty.} Atesh said as Nimue felt her heart crack.
¡¯Pft, rude aunty.¡¯ Shiro nced at Nimue with a smug grin.
Picking up Atesh, she brought him out to the real world.
"Oh right, this is my son." Shiro called out as Isilia paused in her footsteps.
"Pft! You have a son????" Isilia looked at Shiro in disbelief since Shiro having romantic rtionsh.i.p.s seemed rather impossible to her.
"Adoptive son I guess but in one way I technically did give birth to him since he was born from my mes." Shiro replied as she waved her hand and life fire burst out of her palm.
Doing the same motion, Attie also summoned some life fire but his mes were more of a golden red rather than green.
Seeing that Attie copied Shiro¡¯s actions, Isilia couldn¡¯t help butugh and pat Attie¡¯s head.
"Call me beautiful aunty." Isilia said as Attie nodded his head.
"Beautiful aunty." Attie called out in a rather small voice as Isilia stroked Attie¡¯s hair while Nimue took another blow to her heart. She was called rude aunty while Isilia was called beautiful aunty despite having met for the first time.
"Aw so cute. You¡¯re so much more cuter than your mum." Isilia chuckled as Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Oh please I¡¯m adorable." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"So what do you think about my daughter then? Since she¡¯s in love with you, have you responded to her feelings yet?" Isilia asked as Shiro sighed.
"I haven¡¯t. I know that she loves me but I just don¡¯t feel the same way about her hais. Maybe I should tell her once we meet up again with the rest of the party." Shiro replied.
"Mn, letting it carry on with false hope is worse than rejecting outright." Isilia chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Is there anything else you want to ask?" Isilia asked as she held Attie for a short while.
"Hmm.... I think that¡¯s about it. Though I¡¯m also curious about your role as queen. Have you set up an anchor yet?" Shiro asked as Isilia nodded her head.
"I have one anchor near the sect but the domain is rather small since I¡¯m not a ¡¯proper¡¯ queen I guess." Isilia shrugged.
"I see... Oh right, Isilia, can you form a subservient contract with me? For the new age-"
"I know. The things that other queens know is a lie. Only one winner is allowed for the world to continue and that¡¯s you isn¡¯t it." Isilia smiled as a tier 8 magic circle expanded under them.
"Under the authority of the system, I bind myself to Shiro under a subservient contract." Isilia smiled since her research of the system has given her quite a bit of insight as to what would happen to the world.
And she must say, it¡¯s a rather cruel joke to lie to the other queens since they wanted to save their own world. But as their world has already failed, it¡¯s toote for them and the only way to survival is through Shiro.
Seeing the golden magic circle expand beneath them, Shiro looked at Isilia with surprise.
"Do you want to give the world a big surprise like old times?" Isilia asked as Shiro grinned.
"Of course. Aria already had its fill. It¡¯s time for this world to have its fill too."
ncing at her system interface, Shiro selected yes as an illusionary tether seemed to form between them.
As the magic circle disappeared, Shiro could feel a faint connection between them as it would tell her if Isilia is in danger or not.
"I don¡¯t know how this tether works but if you bed someone and I can sense it, maybe we should find a way to block it out at times when needed." Isilia whispered over as Shiro blushed with embarrassment.
Ignoring what she had just said, the five of them, including Attie, made their way back to the sect for now.
Chapter 815 New York Destroyed Again
Chapter 815 New York Destroyed Again
On their way back to the sect, Nan Tian asked Shiro about the third queen that was in New York but Shiro¡¯s only response was to show him a news article that was published not too long ago online which showcased her parents facing off against the queen.
"The nanotech essories that I gave to my parents haven¡¯t reacted yet which means that they¡¯re safe. With the queens at their weakest the moment they try to take over a city, even a tier 6 entity should be something that my parents can take care of. After all, they¡¯re quite talented." Shiro chuckled with full trust in her parent¡¯s capabilities. After all, they have both technique and physical power.
"Mn well considering how easily defeated these queens werepared to thest one we had to face next to the spirit capital, your parents have a high chance of seeding." Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Plus, there¡¯s a clear difference between the branches and the main anchor. At the main anchor, not only would they be at close to full strength, they¡¯ll also have tier 6 guards with them. Hell, the guards might even be more powerful depending on the situation. I can only imagine that they didn¡¯t have tier 6 guards follow them to stabilise the branch anchor was because they needed someone to defend the real anchor." Shiro theorised as Isilia nodded her head.
"That¡¯s rather urate. Until the new age begins, they¡¯re only allowed a certain amount of guards with them. If they don¡¯t have the guards defend their anchor, there is a risk of having the enemy eliminate them immediately. Plus, most of the queens don¡¯t expect people to be able to stand up to them right now since the average power of people in this world is rather lowpared to them. Some of the queens are rather arrogant in thinking that they cannot be defeated at all before the new age begins. Otherwise, they would not have been this eager to capture a city. Once the new age starts, each city they capture is a chance for the enemy to damage them so if they want to take over a territory, they¡¯ll be more cautious." Isilia exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Makes sense. How do you even make a branch anyways?" Shiro asked since it seemed like Isilia was rather knowledgeable about this subject.
"Well you¡¯ll know once you set up your main anchor. Don¡¯t tell me you haven¡¯t done that yet?" Isilia furrowed her brows.
"Not yet. *Cough!* I¡¯ve been rather busy so I haven¡¯t got around to doing it. Plus, I¡¯m gathering the materials needed right now." Shiro exined as Isilia sighed.
"You need to do it quickly then since you have an advantage over other queens due to the fact that you¡¯re from this world. If you don¡¯t take advantage of this, it¡¯ll be quite a waste." Isilia exined.
"I know. I¡¯m just waiting for the materials now. Did you know a while ago I didn¡¯t even have a chance to make the anchor since I wascking the mainponent and the system didn¡¯t provide it to me like it did with the other queens." Shiro sighed.
"Eh? You didn¡¯t get your anchor from the system? How are you even supposed to make it?" Isilia asked in disbelief. When she became the Elven Queen of Aria, she had the system ask her where she wanted to set up her anchor so it was rather easy for her. However, if someone was to ask her how to make and set up an anchor manually, she didn¡¯t have a clue!
"Well it needs some materials from this world as well as a keyponent that I¡¯ve managed to acquire now. All that¡¯s left is for me to go back to the spirt capital and construct it myself. I¡¯ve gotten enough information to do it I just need the materials." Shiro replied since she made sure to remember as much information about the anchors as she could from the future.
"I see.... Well in that case then the system might not tell you about how you can set up a branch anchor. I¡¯m not clear on the details either since all I know is that the system will help you set it up." Isilia frowned as Shiro shrugged.
"That¡¯s fine. I have a skill that allows me to ask the system in a few months so if I¡¯m not able to set up an anchor, I can just ask it." Shiro exined as Isilia paused again.
"Wait, you can ask the system?"
"Mn, the skill increases my authority level to the point where I can get information on things like the entire map of the world and so on." Shiro smiled as Isilia was stupefied. Despite all the efforts she had to go through, she could only scratch the surface and yet Shiro could ess information of much higher priority with just a single skill.
"Hais... you never change. The fact that you can say ridiculous things without batting an eye is crazy." Isilia sighed with a small smile.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro was about to say something when she received a request formunication.
"Give me a moment."
Materialising an ear piece, she epted the request.
"My Empress, we have collected all of the materials that you have asked us to collect." Samuel reported as Shiro nodded her head.
"Speaking of the anchor, it seems like most of the materials have been gathered, I just need to get some of the rarer stuff from my teacher and I can start setting down the first anchor. Once I do that, I¡¯ll be properly recognised as a Queen." Shiro nced towards Isilia with a smile.
"I suppose our trip to the sect has been cancelled then." Isilia smiled.
"Mn, we¡¯ll it¡¯s a good chance to meet my parents since my teacher said that he¡¯ll give the items to them."
With a change of ns, the five of them found a nearby teleport shrine and teleported to New York.
Seeing the state of New York, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head at this unfortunate city. Earlier this year, it had survived a cmity from the ck Monarchy and now it had barely survived a fight between three of the strongest entities in this world. Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this beginner city was cursed or not.
Pulling out her phone, she gave her parents a call and found out that they were currently helping with cleaning up some of the debris along with helping the injured.
Rying the information to the rest of them, they made their way to the scene.
"Mum, dad." Shiro called out with a smile.
Seeing Shiro smile like this, Isilia couldn¡¯t help but feel happy in her heart since she could already tell that Shiro was much happier nowpared to her time in Aria.
"Shiro you¡¯re here. And these two are?" Mio asked while ncing towards Li Jian and Isilia.
"This one is called Li Jian, the adoptive father of this kid." Li Jian grinned as he patted Nan Tian¡¯s shoulder.
Hearing Li Jian calling him kid, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but shake his head with a soft sigh.
"I am called Isilia. I am Lyrica¡¯s mother whom you may have met." Isilia smiled.
She didn¡¯t mention her friendship with Shiro just yet since there was the chance that her parents don¡¯t know about her past lives just yet. She didn¡¯t want to say anything extra without knowing the situation.
"Ah I see... It¡¯s nice to meet you both. I¡¯m Mio and this is my husband Koji." Mio smiled while Koji greeted the duo with a smile.
"Since introductions are over, what are the casualties like mum?" Shiro asked as she was more concerned with the people who might have died in this fight. With her control over souls, as long as they haven¡¯t died a long time ago, she¡¯ll be able to revive them in a sense and heal their body back.
After all, a fight between powerhouses wasn¡¯t something these poor folk could survive.
"It¡¯s rather high since a single swing could have killed hundreds. We tried to keep coteral damage to a minimum but the casualties are still ridiculously high. We¡¯ve already called in several clerics to help but the progress is slow since the high level clerics are at the front lines." Mio frowned as she exined the situation.
"Mn, I think I can heal them so long as they haven¡¯t died for a long time. I just need to make sure that they¡¯re in a safe spot otherwise when I revive them they¡¯ll be crushed immediately." Shiro said as Isilia raised her eyebrow.
"I thought you are a fighter or mage ss. Howe you can heal too?" Isilia asked curiously.
"It¡¯s just a skill of mine." Shiro chuckled as Isilia sighed.
"I had almost forgotten how many skills you can recycle."
"Oh this skill isn¡¯t part of that. My skill was something I made but don¡¯t worry it¡¯s not anything too crazy. Compared to what our old healer could do this is nothing." Shiroughed since their old healer in the hero party was a monster when ites to healing. Their power seemed limitless and a single wave could heal an army back to full.
"We¡¯ve already excavated everyone that was buried so you can use your skill whenever dear." Mio smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Chapter 816 Grand Support Class Spell
Chapter 816 Grand Support ss Spell
Flying into the sky, Shiro activated her True Spirit Nature without hesitation as a ck dress wrapped around her body.
Sending out her senses, she could tell that quite a few of the souls had already departed. If she was to give it a percentage, around 40% have departed which meant that she could save just over half of them.
Waving her hand, a giant tier 6 magic circle expanded out over the city.
Seeing this, quite a few of the residents were traumatised by what they had seen and had thought that this was another attack.
Many fled while crying out in fear but Shiro didn¡¯t pay them any attention.
Currently, she was making some modifications to her Requiem of the Dead as her goal was to help the souls rather than to kill them.
Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine the most harmonious figure she could in mind as this would help calm the people. Picturing the image of an angel, Shiro took a deep breath and activated her skill, Grace.
Suddenly, a golden radiance flooded the magic circle as white clouds gathered above the city. Much like what happened with Requiem of the Dead, a portal opened up using the clouds as a border. However, unlike the original spell, the portal this time was golden as white feathers dropped down into the world before turning into particles of light.
Those that were still running nced up in wonder and saw angels descending down with peaceful expressions. Several illusionary figures of those who had already passed on could be seen as a gentle radiance enveloped the entire city.
*BOOM!!!
A pir of light shot up into the sky as several tier 6 magic circles could be seen stacking on top of each other.
Those that were dead started to move as their eyes would slowly open and they would look around in confusion since theirst memory was death before being hugged by a warm energy which brought them back.
Naturally, since Shiro was controlling the souls right now, she could naturally sense that several of the souls were quite evil as the colour had turned a murky blue. Letting them pass on, she then activated the second part of her spell so that the people were healed back to full health.
Letting out a beautiful orchestral song, the angels hovered above the city as golden runes lit up everyone¡¯s body.
Energy filled their body as those with disabilities found out that they were no longer being affected. Lost limbs were regrown, curses were dispelled and a buff was given to them.
[Grace of the Demi Goddess]
+100% to EXP gain for the next week
+20% to all Stats for the next week
+30% Damage Mitigation for the next week
Immunity to Negative Effects for the next 3 days
Those who were religious kneeled towards the centre of the magic circle and gave their prayers of gratitude while others were more curious about which Demi Goddess had invoked such a powerful magic to help them.
Climbing to the rooftops, they could see Shiro surrounded by golden lights as her white hair fluttered behind her. Despite wearing full ck right now with some hints of silver, she looked graceful in the air as an orb of runic symbols and magic circles floated before her.
A few people noticed that quite a few of the casualties weren¡¯t revived as sorrow filled the hearts of those who knew the deceased.
Watching the scene, Isilia was enthralled by the changes that happened to her friend. In the past, she was nought but a weapon of mass destruction which could wipe out cities in a blink of an eye but now she was a source of warmth which brought hope to the mind.
As for Mio, she had a smile on her face as she watched her daughter heal those that could still be saved.
Reapers were known for dragging souls away for torture or helping them pass on. But this was the first time she had seen soul control being used in the way that Shiro was using it. Clerics could revive people yes but that was due to the innate features of their ss. Shiro on the other hand was not a cleric so reviving people should be outside of her expertise.
But through abination of her healing spells and soul control, she made her own revival spell that far outssed what some of the clerics could do.
After all, not only did she revive and heal, she also gave them buffs to help them be stronger.
After a short while, the portal slowly closed as the figures of the angel disappeared. Shiro floated in the air as her face was slightly pale since that spell had actually exhausted her entire True Spirit Nature along with 90% of her mana.
However, seeing the notification on her system, her lips curled up into a smile as she hadn¡¯t expected to make such a strong spell.
While it wasn¡¯t world ss since the range was only around a city or so, it was far stronger than her other support spells.
[Grand Support ss Spell Created.]
[Requiem of the Demi Goddess]
Effects:
Immediate revival of all those that have died in thest 2 hours. Those that exceed this time cannot be revived.
Immediate removal of negative effects.
Healed to peak condition.
Bestow the buff: [Grace of the Demi Goddess]
Range: 1000km2
Cost: Full Charge of True Spirit Nature, 90% of Mana
Cooldown: 2 Weeks
Looking at her spell, made her way back down to the ground as she had done her part now. All of the lives that she could save have been saved and she even got a new spell out of it. Landing on the ground, Shiro stumbled for a moment due to the sudden decrease of 90% of her mana as both Nan Tian and Isilia rushed to her side and helped her up.
"Are you ok?" Isilia asked with a concerned expression.
"Mn, the spell just took arge amount of mana so it¡¯s somewhat hard to move properly right now." Shiro smiled since it was rare for her to almost run out of mana. As a being that¡¯s reliant on mana, running out of it was simr to falling into aa as the body would shut down. If she forcefully used arge spell that would exceed how much mana she had left, she would enter a state of mana deficiency which could be quite lethal depending on how serious it is.
"Goodness, when you said a spell I thought you¡¯d heal people a little at best notpletely revive them and even give them a buff to get more EXP. What happened to the murder machine I used to know?" Isilia chuckled as Shiro blushed in embarrassment. It was like having an embarrassing phase of her life exposed as she was quite psychotic back then.
Thinking about the crazy moments where she would revel in the bloodshed, Shiro¡¯s face would heat up since she couldn¡¯t imagine screaming ¡¯give me more blood!¡¯ out again. Doing so would be akin to asking her to die.
Plus, she was a mother now so she couldn¡¯t go around acting crazy when one of her children is beside her.
"I suspect that news of you healing an entire city and even giving them an EXP boost should spread to the rest of the world soon. The queens will probably get information about this and recognise you as a serious threat." Mio said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn but they don¡¯t know my identity so we¡¯re safe for now. As for humans knowing, I don¡¯t really mind or care so that can be set aside." Shiro replied as they could see a crowd gathering around them.
Furrowing her brows slightly, Shiro wasn¡¯t keen on talking to a crowd so she opened a rift behind them and made their way towards the teleport shrine. Seeing this, the crowd could only sigh in regret since they couldn¡¯t talk to their saviour.
Arriving at the teleport shrine, Shiro suggested that they make their way to Japan since she wanted to go collect the materials her teacher had sent. After all, making the anchor was one of her top priorities right now.
Li Jian decided to go back to the sect since there were some things that he needed to deal with before they could concentrate their full efforts in dealing with the queens.
Isilia on the other hand decided to tag along since she wanted to meet her daughter soon. Plus, she hadn¡¯t seen her best friend in a while so they wanted to travel together for a while like old times.
Parting with Li Jian who teleported back to the sect, Shiro, Nan Tian, Mio, Koji and Isilia made their way to Japan.
Chapter 817 The Governments Response
Chapter 817 The Government''s Response
Arriving in Japan, Isilia was rather surprised to find out that this city belonged to the Asakura family since the government offered it to them after their deeds on the front lines.
Making their way back to the mansion, Isilia could see quite a few people greet them as it seemed that they were rather respected. Especially Shiro. With some recent headlines of her actions in New York, people now understood that she must have either be a Demi God or that one of her skills were super high levelled.
Most believed that she must have gotten the former since thetter was almost impossible in their eyes.
¡¯No one¡¯ had achieved tier 6 yet and they knew their tier 6 wasn¡¯t Demi God status. If it was, the Queens would have been known as Demi Gods instead.
Plus, her level wasn¡¯t at the peak of tier 5 just yet so it made the first option even less likely.
With her skill being able to mass revive and even give them an EXP boost, there were quite a few forums on the discussing about her as this was the first time a skill that could boost EXP gain had appeared. Sure, most of the time people might be able to get a passive skill that boosted their EXP gain by a small amount but that was limited to one person.
Shiro¡¯s skill made it so that everyone in range was affected by her skill so as long as everyone was packed together, they could all get an EXP boost.
There were even a few people that reported this to the government in hopes that they could persuade her to share this skill but the government¡¯s response was that they could only ¡¯hope¡¯ they are able to work with Miss Shiro and could not order her to do anything. After all, she was able to toy around with one of their best fighters and even give him a reward for entertaining her.
This was enough of a clue for the government to understand that she wasn¡¯t one to be looked down upon or be controlled. Plus, she was also the daughter of Mio and Koji which would only make the situation worse should they try anything with her.
Not that they could in the first ce.
As for her party, they saw the news too but at this point they were numb to it. Even Aarim who had received a sudden boost of what seemed to be Divine Energy in her mana didn¡¯t react as she knew she would just be wasting time being surprised at what Shiro had done. Instead, she used that time to experiment with this strange energy that enhanced her mana. While she couldn¡¯t use it individually like how Shiro did, she was able to empower her spells massively. For example, her gravity control was much harder to break out of now as many would just be crushed into a pancake if they weren¡¯t strong enough.
While Shiro was surprising people with her powers, the party was also doing the same as a rumour of powerful individuals spread through the world.
A girl who was a master of the sword and couldn¡¯t be hit at all, a glutton whose fire could burn anything and one that you shouldn¡¯t provoke especially when food was involved, an angel who was the younger sister of the glutton, a mage that could control gravity at will, a berserk healer whose fighting style was absolutely crazy, an assassin whose attack could kill you instantly despite how much health you have, a tank whose fire power was just as strong as her defence and a cksmith who seemed to suddenly disappear half way during a fight and suddenly m a hammer into the side of your skull.
With their levels growing at impressive speeds thanks to their dungeon and raid clears, the party was bing famous in their own way and was called the party of monsters due to each of them being a talented individual in their own field.
There were even talks that they were stronger than the people who have hero sses which caused a few of the factions to be displeased but they weren¡¯t able to pin the party down. After all, Yin had the Rift and she could pull the party away should they meet any harm. With the items that Shiro had given them, Shiro would also know if they were in danger and so far they were rather safe.
If any faction decided to fight them, they would have a rather rude surprise when they realise that their backing was Shiro and the Asakura family.
Setting aside the rumours about the party, the government had also published some information on the next tier up which is 6. With their observations, they understood that to be a tier 6 being you have to reach the extreme of one element or magic that they use. The government had also published some information about the queens which made people worry since the world seemed like it was going to end with all of these powerful figures appearing out of nowhere and taking over cities left and right.
If not for Shiro clearing Man and Shanghai with some help, they might have lost quite a bit of hope since those that had faced the wrath of the Queens knew how dreadful they could be.
###
"Shiro-nee!" Seeing Shiro and the group return, Kanae jogged towards her and hugged her with a happy smile.
"Mn, I¡¯m back. Did you enjoy your rest?" Shiro asked with a chuckle since she knew how hard Koji¡¯s training must have been.
Nodding her head frantically, Kanae nced towards Koji and couldn¡¯t help but shiver slightly. Despite it not even being a full day yet, the rest felt like an oasis in the desert as it allowed her to catch her breath.
Peeking her head out, Isilia nced at Kanae with a raised eyebrow.
"Who¡¯s this?" Isilia asked curiously.
"This is Kanae who¡¯s like a little sister to me. Naturally, I have a little sister too who is currently levelling up so I¡¯ll introduce you to herter. Kanae¡¯s someone I trust and will be helping me protect my anchor in the new world. Kanae, this is Isilia, a friend of mine and she¡¯s Lyrica¡¯s mother." Shiro smiled.
"Eh? She¡¯s Lyrica¡¯s mum? She looks super young." Kanae blinked her eyes and nced at Isilia in surprise.
"Mn she looks young but you can just imagine her as a super granny." Shiro grinned since Isilia had exposed her age earlier.
Hearing Shiro call her super granny, Isilia¡¯s smile twitched but she quickly rposed herself.
"Where¡¯s Irina?" Shiro asked since she couldn¡¯t find Kanae¡¯s little training partner.
"Oh she had to go back for a bit since there was something she needed to deal with. She¡¯ll be back soon though." Kanae replied as they entered the mansion.
Since Shiro¡¯s goal was to make the anchor, she didn¡¯t stay for long as she collected any materials that Stanley had dropped off.
Checking her list of things that she needed to make the anchor, Shiro was pleased to find that most of the rare stuff that she needed were here and that anything else she required had been noted down by Samuel in the spirit capital. All that she needed to do now was find the right spot and create her anchor.
Right now, she knew that she needed an abundance of mana to make the best anchor for her so that she could get an advantage and the only ce that matched the requirement of an abundance of mana was Astral Horizons where Stanley had trained her.
Once she stored the materials in her inventory, she stayed for a meal with her parents before teleporting away to the spirit capital with Nan Tian and Isilia.
Before they teleported, Shiro had sent Samuel a message so when they arrived, there were escorts nearby.
"Wee back. Everything you need has been prepared and can be collected at any moment." Samuel bowed as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, I¡¯ll be making the anchor soon but it won¡¯t be hard. I have a better spot in mind and once I do that we¡¯ll be moving capitals so that it¡¯s easier to travel around. Don¡¯t send news of this just yet but start making some preparations." Shiro ordered as Samuel nodded his head.
"As youmand my Queen. Are there any other orders?"
"No that¡¯s the only thing I need you to do. I¡¯m not exactly experienced in ruling a kingdom so I¡¯ll have to rely on you elders to help me do that instead." Shiro chuckled.
Making their way to the capital, the spirits noticed that Isilia was an Elf and they were quite yful with her since the rtionship between Elf and spirits have been good for several generations. Naturally, there were a few that yed around with Nan Tian but with how they see humans, many were still on guard around him.
Collecting the materials, Shiro smiled since it was finally time to construct the anchor. Their next stop, Astral Horizons.
Chapter 818 Nan Tians Worries
Chapter 818 Nan Tian''s Worries
Since she didn¡¯t have the teleport shrine near Astral Horizons, she¡¯ll need to get there manually and the only way for her to do that would be through the teleport scrolls that Stanley had given her.
But she had an idea for her to make a way to get there without the teleport scroll. After all, it would be rather awkward if she didn¡¯t have a quick way to reach her main anchor should an attack beunched against it.
Her idea was that she wanted to do something simr to what she had done in the quest where she had first met Kuromi. She wanted to use her celestial energy or divine energy to create an orb or mark which allows her to teleport to it immediately should she require it.
Plus, with her control, there was the possibility that she¡¯s able to mark other people so that she could appear beside them.
That way, if they run into any trouble, she can save them in their time of need.
Waving her hand, a ck orb appeared above her palm as she casually threw it to the side.
Imagining something simr to her rift like back in the trial world, a portal opened up under Shiro as she appeared right where she had thrown the orb.
"Mn... travel time is a bit slow and it¡¯s instantaneous." Shiro muttered as Isilia raised her eyebrow.
"Are you trying to make a new skill again?" She asked since Shiro used to experiment with blueprints all the time. But now, she was a proper mage that always looked for new spells.
"I am. I know where I want to make the anchor but I want to be able to ess it at all times. So essentially I¡¯m making something simr to a teleport shrine I guess." Shiro shrugged as Isilia ced her hand on her chin.
"Well if you want, I can tell you about what I know. I did do some research on teleport shrines after all."
As the two were discussing their ideas on making the fake teleport shrine, Nan Tian sighed softly as he nced out of the window. It was a shame that he couldn¡¯t help since he didn¡¯t know much about making spells or experimenting like the twodies.
While the two were concentrating, he decided to step out of the room for now.
Seeing Samuel by the side, Nan Tian smiled and gave him a small wave.
"Sir, do you require anything?" Samuel bowed since he knew that Nan Tian was important to Shiro.
"Nothing. I¡¯m just going to have a short walk around since Shiro and Isilia are discussing a new skill that will help them with travelling back and forth from the anchor." Nan Tian replied with a smile.
"I see. In that case would you like one of the elders to apany you on your walk so that they can show you around?" Samuel offered as Nan Tian shook his head.
"I¡¯ll be fine. I just want a short walk around."
Nodding his head, Samuel stepped aside as Nan Tian made his way out of the castle.
Taking a deep breath, he sighed softly before ncing at the spirits that yed around in the streets.
It reminded him of his time together with Shiro when they were kids but naturally, it wasn¡¯t the same since Shiro was Shiro.
For Kuromi, he had feelings of gratitude but for Shiro¡¯s personality it was feelings of love. At first, he didn¡¯t recognise her since he had been taken away during their childhood but once she matured some more thanks to her level ups, he eventually realised who she was due to the news that he had heard.
Shaking his head, he wondered when he had fallen for her since it just started as a monster that could be beneficial to humanity. She was interesting since unlike other sentient monsters, she didn¡¯t kill every human on sight and her trickster-like personality made him chuckle whenever he thought of her deeds.
Smiling softly, he nced towards the window where they were currently working.
As if sensing his gaze, Shiro sat up and looked out the window. Seeing Nan Tian, she only smiled and focused back on work.
¡¯She was probably wondering who nced towards her.¡¯ Nan Tian thought to himself since he understood that her senses towards other people were very sharp. Just a single negative thought about her while looking towards her will give your position away.
As for how she even cultivated this kind of sense, Nan Tian didn¡¯t know what she had to go through to be this perceptive to her surroundings. He knew that in her first life, she had gone through a lot of torture before she could even use nanobots but it was brushed over which he understood that she probably didn¡¯t want to go into detail about the pain she had to suffer.
It was unfortunate but that was the past so there was nothing they could do about it. All he could do was hope that she could make her current life enjoyable. Which was rather hard considering the responsibilities weighing down on her shoulders.
But with the return of her best friend, he could tell that she was much happier but it only made him slightly sad since to him, it seemed like he wasn¡¯t able to give her the same sense of happiness.
Having a short walk around the city, a few of the spirits avoided him like before but he didn¡¯t mind.
###
Finishing his walk, which helped him clear his mind a little, Nan Tian made his way back to the castle.
Opening the door, he could see a happy Shiro who was typing things up on aptop while throwing ck orbs around the room.
"Oh you¡¯re back. How was your walk?" Shiro asked with a smile as Nan tian chuckled.
"It was quite rxing. Seems like you have made quite a bit of progress with the spell."
"Mn, with Isilia¡¯s information on teleport shrines it made the progress much faster. I think I can crack this in another hour or so." Shiro grinned as Isilia had a smile while sitting besides her.
"Mn congrats. Is there anything I should do while you experiment?" He asked just in case but she shook her head.
"It¡¯s alright. I¡¯ll be done soon and then we¡¯ll make our way to Astral Horizons. If anything, just keep a look out for any information on the queens I suppose."
Nodding his head, Nan Tian sat down on a sofa by the side and pulled out his phone.
After a short while, Shiro sat up with a satisfied smile.
"Nan Tian can you help me test something?" Shiro asked as he nodded his head.
"What do you need?" He asked while standing up.
"Nothing, just sit there for me." Shiro grinned as she stood up.
"I¡¯ll be right back." After saying that, she jumped into the rift and left the room.
Waiting patiently for a while, Nan Tian watched as a portal opened up under the sofa that he was on.
Blinking his eyes, he found himself in the middle of New York on a sofa.
ncing around him, he saw Shiro standing in front of him with a grin.
"It works. I¡¯ve seeded in making a fake teleport shrine." Shiro boasted as Nan Tian chuckle.
"Congrattions. I¡¯m not exactly a fan of sitting on a sofa in the middle of a destroyed building so shall we go back?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
But before she went back, she sat down on the sofa.
"Are you alright?" She asked with a serious expression.
"Mn? What do you mean?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"You seem like you have something on your mind. You said that the walk is rxing but you seem gued by something." Shiro nced up at him.
Currently, they were sitting on a sofa surrounded by broken debris but no one was around since they were clearing the outside debris first.
Hearing Shiro, Nan Tian understood that she must have picked up on his worries.
Sighing softly, he shrugged his shoulders.
"I can¡¯t hide it from you I guess. I¡¯m just thinking about what I can do to help you. I wanted to make you happy but I wasn¡¯t able to achieve that. When Isilia came back, you seemed much happier so it just made me think about myself and what I can do I suppose."
"Are you seriously worried about that?" She nced at him with an are you serious face.
Scratching his cheek embarrassingly, Nan Tian nced to the side and nodded his head.
"Hais... To think the great Nan Tian would have this side to him haha. Well don¡¯t worry, you also make me happy you know? It¡¯s just that I haven¡¯t seen Isilia in a long time. As for you well... you also make me feel safe ok? There aren¡¯t many people that can cover my back in this world. I can trust my back to you since you¡¯re strong and you give me a sense of security I suppose. But you worry too much so stop being depressing." Shiro coughed embarrassingly as she stood up and prepared the spell back.
As for Nan Tian, he paused when he heard what she had said.
¡¯So I make her feel safe huh?¡¯ He thought with a smile.
Sensing that Nan Tian¡¯s mood had improved quite a bit, Shiro smiled and activated the spell.
Chapter 819 Making the Anchor
Chapter 819 Making the Anchor
Teleporting them back to the spirit capital, Shiro saw Isilia waiting by the side with a smile.
"I suppose everything is ready now." Isilia chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, the final tests seemed to have no problems so the n is for me to use the teleport scroll to reach Astral Horizons while I leave an orb back here. Once I reach the otherside, I¡¯ll set down the orb so that the portal bes connected. Hopefully, nothing should go wrong." Shiro smiled.
"Don¡¯t jinx it now. I¡¯m not going to say anything since there¡¯s a possibility that it may happen." Isilia smiled.
"Never knew that you were the superstitious kind." Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Well after all the things that I have gone through and the coincidences that happened, let¡¯s just say it¡¯s not impossible and could actually be very likely." Isilia chuckled as Shiro shrugged since she agreed with her.
Seeing the dangers lurking around every corner that she walked around, it¡¯ll be more concerning if nothing went wrong.
Doing some final checks, Shiro took a deep breath and pulled out a scroll with a magic circle painted on one side. This was the teleport scroll that Stanley had given her and it would take her to Astral Horizons. Even if her magic didn¡¯t work, she¡¯d be able to roughly guess her location after wandering around for a bit.
After all, she now had the map of the entire world stored in her database since she ¡¯technically¡¯ didn¡¯t keep the feature in her system interface but rather memory.
Inserting mana into the scroll, Shiro felt the scroll heat up as a weightless feeling washed over her body.
Before she realised it, she was already standing at the top of a familiar mountain surrounded by a sea of clouds that was actually made from condensed mana.
Taking a deep breath, she couldn¡¯t help but shake her head as her sense of mana had improved by leaps and bounds. Feeling the power flowing through her body, she couldn¡¯t believe how wasteful her usage was back then.
While it was still not perfect, it was far better than what it initially was.
Waving her hand gently, the clouds started to sway with her movements as it seemed like god had just decided to ce his hand into the ocean and move it around.
The ovepping clouds that acted like waves swirled around the mountain peak as Shiro was enjoying this quite a bit. However, she had more important matters so she stopped ying around with the clouds and got to making the orb portal.
Snapping her fingers, a ck orb appeared before her as it slowly expanded into a portal.
Seeing Nan Tian and Isilia on the other side, Shiro gave them a small wave.
"Seems like the portal¡¯s working alright. I¡¯ll get to making the anchor as well as the city here since I don¡¯t have to worry about mana." Shiro grinned as Isilia looked at Astral Horizon¡¯s in shock.
Despite hearing that there were condensed mana clouds from Shiro, it was still a little unbelievable since the amount of mana required would be off the charts.
However, now that she was seeing it for herself, Isilia couldn¡¯t help but rub her eyes since this was basically every mage¡¯s holynd.
"I can¡¯t believe that a ce like this actually exists." Isilia muttered.
"What? Did you think I¡¯d lie to you?" Shiroughed as she closed the portal behind Nan Tian.
Now that she had left two markers essentially, she could travel between the two locations whenever she wanted. Naturally, the markers would expire eventually but for now it was rather helpful. All she needed to do was remember to refresh it so that the time was extended.
ncing up at the sky, Nan Tian raised his hand as light gathered around him.
Raising his eyebrow, he realised that the element came to him much easier while he was in the vicinity of a mana dense area like this mountain peak.
If he had to describe it, he¡¯d say that everything was roughly 10 times easier just from the amount of mana it cost.
"Right then, While I get to making the anchor, are you two able to scout out the mountain a little to check for any dangers since I don¡¯t want to be making a city here and it being immediately destroyed." Shiro chuckled.
She did try to send out her mana but her senses were blocked by the clouds since they were made from dense mana so it was almost impossible to see past them with her mana sense.
She did try to use her Analysis skill but the oue was the same. Therefore, she understood that this mountain probably needed to be explored manually.
"Sure I can explore it a little. With the mana density being so high, I can also experiment with a few skills of my own since I¡¯ve been cking a bit." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll do the same after I finish this." Isilia called out.
Currently, she was already investigating a few of the materials that could be found at the peak since theirposition must have been affected by the dense mana.
"Mn take your time, it might be awhile before I finish making the anchor after all." Shiro smiled beforeying out all of the materials that she needed in front of her.
Looking at the pile of items, she couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
If it was before, it would have taken her years to collect everything she needed but with just a few words to one of the spirit elders and her teacher, all of the items were now in front of her.
Taking a deep breath, she brought up the method hidden in her memory after she met her future self. Remembering all of the information ¡¯she¡¯ had collected on anchors, Shiro narrowed her eyes as a tier 7 magic circle expanded out from under her.
Bringing out the miniature anchor that she had received from the garden spirit, Shiro let it float in the air as the materials slowly melted themselves down into a golden liquid.
Closing her eyes, Shiro focused on slowly letting the liquid condense down meld together with the shard. This was the hardest task from her memories since it determines how effective your anchor is. If the process is rushed, the anchor could be worse than a branch anchor as it would probably shatter with a single sneeze.
But for Shiro, patience and control well within her capabilities and all that was left was to just follow the instructions carefully.
While Shiro was making the anchor, both Nan Tian and Isilia could feel the mana being sucked towards the anchor as Shiro was focusing entirely on making sure that this was done properly since they only had one shard of the garden.
ncing at each other, they decided to set down a few rm barriers walking down the mountain.
Making their way down what seemed to be a rocky path, their vision was obscured by the thick clouds of mana which were very difficult to look through. Even when using skills to enhance their perception, it was hard to see anything past their arm.
Furrowing his brows, Nan Tian decided to see if his magic could help as he created a small orb of light before clutching it.
shing in an instant, the small orb was simr to a sh grenade which sent a small 3d ¡¯scan¡¯ of their surroundings into his mind.
Unlike Shiro, he couldn¡¯t remember it in clear detail but the general idea was good enough. It was still a bit difficult thanks to the clouds but overall it was slightly better than seeing through their eyes.
Helping Isilia with navigating down the mountain, they found a few caves and paths which branched out from the main path towards the peak.
"Mn... it¡¯s a bit risky exploring this ce when our senses are dulled." Isilia muttered while throwing a sword into a cave before returning it back to her side. She wanted to see if there were any monsters which might have reacted but it seemed empty for the most part.
"I suppose I can try to find the source of all this mana since for mana to be this dense, there is a definite source." Nan Tian narrowed his eyes as Isilia agreed.
"Do you want to tell Shiro first just in case? She¡¯s making the anchor right now so if the mana was to suddenly disappear, it would be rather bad." Isilia reminded.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian understood her worries.
"I know. What I mean is for us to find the source of it so that Shiro could perhaps integrate it with the anchor. Remember, all of this mana is from one source so if she could use it to her advantage, it would prove to be very helpful." Nan Tian smiled as Isilia raised her eyebrow.
The n seemed feasible to some extent.
Chapter 820 Experimenting
Chapter 820 Experimenting
Agreeing with Nan Tian, Isilia could see his reasoning behind it.
"However, at the first sign of danger, we¡¯re going to leave immediately ok? I¡¯m going to ask Shiro for two teleport orbs so that we can teleport to the peak of the mountain and notify her of the first sign of danger." Isilia said since any monster that have lived in such a mana rich zone would be very strong.
"Mn, I¡¯ll wait for you here while you go ask Shiro." Nan Tian said as he nodded his head.
Watching Isilia make her way back to Shiro, he nced back at the cave and narrowed his eyes.
While his senses couldn¡¯t probe far into the cave, he could definitely tell that the mana density was bing thicker as mana had even started to liquify within the cave.
Walking up to the walls, he could feel their dampness as a thinyer of liquid mana glistened on their surface.
Collecting some in a vial, he wanted to bring some back to Shiro so that she could give them a look to see if they have any special properties.
Collecting around 3 vials for testing, he waited patiently at the entrance to the cave.
Not too long after, Isilia returned.
"Shiro told us to stay safe since our main priority is to make the anchor and the flying fortress. Exploring is secondary so if we run into any danger, which she doubts,e back immediately." Isilia said as Nan Tian nodded his head and stood up.
"Mn, I¡¯ve collected some samples so we can have a look at themter. But it seems like this cave is where the density of the mana starts to increase. Even at the entrance it¡¯s liquifying." Nan Tian said as Isilia furrowed her brows.
"Let¡¯s enter then."
###
While Isilia and Nan Tian were exploring the cave, Shiro had small droplets of sweat rolling down her face as she was trying her best to do the anchor properly. However, since the only experience she had with it was seeing some data, it was hard for her to progress quickly.
Everything was moving at a snail¡¯s pace as she focused her mind to the task.
As she was doing this, she was also going through the data in her mind and found a few spots that she could perhaps improve with different materials. One such is using divine energy within this since divine energy harmonises with mana quite nicely and even enhances its properties when used together.
Therefore, the chances of the anchor being upgraded was high.
The only problem was that this was her only crystal so doing it did pose some risk.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wanted to test out her own method but at the same time doing so could ruin things.
Gritting her teeth, she contemted over this decision while making the anchor. It was in her nature to always try new things but each time she did so, a new risk would appear. When shebined her berserk skills, she was able to survive the gorgon and even find the first trace of error.
But the bacsh of this had almost killed her had her friends not tried their best to stabilise her condition.
Biting her lip, Shiro had a humorous idea.
"F*ck it let the coin decide." Shiro smirked as she pulled out a Gold Coin.
cing it on her finger, she flicked it as hard as she could so that it spun a lot but didn¡¯t fly too high.
Closing her eyes, she waited for a sound of the coin dropping.
¡¯Heads to the test and tails for sticking with the current method.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she opened her eyes.
*Ping~
The first bounce, then the second and eventually, the coinnded on one side.
Seeing the side, Shiro¡¯s smile curved up into a grin as she saw that it was heads.
Rubbing her hands together in excitement, she nced towards the anchor like a kid with a new toy.
Of course, her experiments wasn¡¯t going to change the anchor much since that was actually just stupid but rather, it aimed to improve some of the materials used within the anchor. The main one being adding Divine Energy.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro sped her hands together as a tier 6 magic circle started to expand out from her.
However, a tier 6 magic circle wasn¡¯t enough since it was still within the realm of ¡¯humans¡¯.
Closing her eyes, golden runes lit up around her as a pir of light shot up into the sky.
The mana clouds swirled up as it sought out the pir of divine radiance.
Sitting in the middle, a silver radiance wrapped around Shiro as her body almost seemed ephemeral.
Waving her hand, and two tier 7 magic circles expanded outwards as a divine energy burst forth. Narrowing her eyes, Shiro sped her hands together once more.
Creating a pure white orb between her hands, Shiro pushed it towards the floating anchor that was in the process of being made and shattered it to countless shards.
With just 10 minutes of this form, she had to imbue as much divine energy as she could so that the only things she needed to do once her form ran out was to control the energy.
Activating her skill Analysis, Shiro nced at the anchor and started to thread divine energy through its body where mana would be used to enhance its effectiveness. As divine energy was wrapping around the anchor, the surrounding mana clouds seemed to condense and swarmed towards the anchor like a hungry beast.
Normally, Shiro would be on guard but entering Demi God form allowed her to see that the mana was trying to assist the divine energy in what it was doing. In other words, the surrounding mana was now helping her with making the anchor which is perfect.
Smiling softly, Shiro continued to add divine energy into the anchor as she could see it reachingpletion.
Hours passed as Shiro sat in the same spot.
The anchor was beginning to look like a proper anchor as there were faint pulses of golden energy which made Shiro feel invigorated.
Her Demi God form had long ran out as she was currently controlling the divine energy that was still within the anchor.
Nan Tian and Isilia hadn¡¯t returned yet but Shiro knew that they weren¡¯t in any danger since the nanobots on Isilia¡¯s body hadn¡¯t reacted yet.
As she was reaching the 24th hour, she sensed a chance within the anchor.
*BOOM!!!!
Golden runes appeared in the sky as an unidentifiable magic circle started to descend from the sky and wrap around the anchor.
Despite seeing the magic circle in front of her, everything became a blur the moment she would focus on it almost as if it was censored. She couldn¡¯t tell what tier or what runes the magic circles used as she could only smile bitterly since it would have been quite helpful.
However, she didn¡¯t mind much as this was the final step in making the magic circle. All she had to do was now wait since thest pieces were now being formed.
Compared to the 24 hour crafting process she had to go through, this wait was nothing as it was soonplete.
Seeing the notification on her system interface, Shiro grinned as her efforts had paid off.
[You have constructed a Main Anchor manually. You are now recognised as a participant.]
[You have constructed a Divine Anchor manually. As the first to make a Divine Anchor before the new age, your anchor gains enhance benefitspared to normal Divine Anchors]
[Divine Anchor]
While the queen is within range, they get a 40% boost to their power while the enemy queen that is within your domain suffers a 40% decrease to their stats, spell effectiveness and ¨C 40% system assistance.
Your followers will gain a 50% boost to Exp gain as well as a 30% boost to stats.
cing a branch anchor doesn¡¯t cost as much and you are not weakened severely, only moderately.
Your anchor will passively generate divine energy which is funnelled to you.
Reading the list, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrows since there were more benefits than this but these were just the key ones. There were benefits such as amazing harvest or natural disaster prevention.
The main key was that her domain was actually double the effectiveness of usual domains since the queen¡¯s domain would weaken the enemy by 20% while her domain actually weakened them by 40%. Anyone who tried to fight her in her own domain was essentially asking to be killed.
However, setting the benefits aside, she had changed the future and obtained her own anchor.
Chapter 821 Strange Cave
Chapter 821 Strange Cave
As she finished her anchor, she wasn¡¯t surprised to see that she couldn¡¯t store it away as it refused to enter her inventory. Even if she cleared out everything she had to make room for it, there was something blocking it.
After all, it would be rather unfair to carry the anchor around in an untargetable space.
However, she was already lucky in that she could move the anchor around on her floating city so she couldn¡¯tin much.
Making a tform for the anchor so that she could move it around for now, Shiro cracked her neck and yawned.
"Uff... I haven¡¯t worked for 24 hours in a row for quite a while now. I need a shower." Shiro muttered with a frown.
Waving her hand, she created a small house by the side with her nanobots for now and took a shower. Making a bit of food with the stuff left in her inventory, Shiro finished off with a cup of juice.
Sitting in her house made out of nanobots, Shiro decided to sleep for a bit.
Watching all of this, Nimue¡¯s smile twitched as she had just seen Shiro create a house, have a shower, eat some food and even sleep infort despite being in a ce they don¡¯t know much about.
But the fact that she was even able to aplish it with her nanobots was what shocked her the most as it was way too handy!
Who the hell just casually creates a house with all the appliances ready!???
Butpared to the other things that she had done, this was nothing. Her main anger was that she had actually tampered with the anchor and it was sessful thanks to the nature of Divine Energy.
Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, Nimue sighed and decided to rest herself.
There was no point in getting annoyed since Shiro would just rpse. After all, despite wanting to do the anchor properly, she decided that a coin toss would be a great way to determine what she should do rather than logically assess the situation.
Seeing Nimue give up, for the N¡¯th time today, Attie decided to walk up to her and pull her shirt.
"Don¡¯t be sad. Mum is like that." Attie called out as Nimue smiled softly and patted his head.
"Don¡¯t worry, I know what your mum is like. I¡¯ve been with her for a while now." Nimue said while picking him up.
"But your mum seems to not care about my mental health so she keeps trying crazy stuff like this." Nimue shook her head.
"But it was good wasn¡¯t it? If mum did things like everyone else, she wouldn¡¯t be mum." Attie tilted his head as Nimue paused at his logic.
He was correct, if Shiro had done things like everyone else, she would just be one in the masses rather than bing a Demi God. She would have be cannon fodder to put it bluntly and maybe it¡¯s her desire to not be controlled which led her to a path where she would try things that are out of the norm.
Even her attack towards a certain weak point wasn¡¯t seen often by fighters as it is rather crude.
But if Shiro didn¡¯t try these out of the norm options, she would just be amon mage.
"You¡¯re right, if your mum didn¡¯t do crazy things, she wouldn¡¯t be your mum. She wouldn¡¯t have found me, Iziuel or you." Nimue chuckled as Attie nodded his head.
Bringing him back to Iziuel, Nimue couldn¡¯t help but feel as though both the mother son pair were therapists or something. Shiro got rid of Nan Tian¡¯s worries while Attie got rid of her worries.
She would say that she¡¯s reached enlightenment and not care anymore but that was bullsh*t. If Shiro performs more crazy acts, she¡¯s still going to want to flip the entire mana realm upside down. Asking Shiro to behave herself was impossible.
While Nimue brought Attie back to Iziuel, Shiro was currently sleeping soundlessly as she was rather exhausted from crafting the Anchor. But despite her tiredness, she was still keeping herself in a light sleep just in case dangeres her way.
After resting for 4 to 5 hours, Shiro sat up and stretched her body.
Feeling rather refreshed, Shiro could sense that Nan Tian and Isilia wereing back hence why she cut her rest to around 4 hours or so.
Opening the door to her house, she could see the two walking towards the peak and gave them a small wave.
"I didn¡¯t expect you to build a house." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
"Well after I finished making the anchor there, I needed a rest so I made myself a house." Shiro smiled while gesturing at the anchor that was being protected by her nanobots right now.
"That¡¯s just like you haha. Anyways, we¡¯ve found something quite interesting if you want to check it out with us. We haven¡¯t explored deeply just yet since it¡¯s been more than a day but if we can find a safe ce to put the anchor, the three of us can have a look at this ce that we found inside the mountain." Isilia smiled.
"Oh? Hm sure, let me just camouge the anchor."
Waving her hand, nanobots started to thread together as the anchor was soon hidden from sight. Snapping her finger, the nanobots turned invisible along with the anchor so that it seemed like the peak of the mountain was empty except for the house.
"Do you two want to rest for a bit first before we go?" Shiro asked.
"It¡¯s fine, we¡¯ve already taken a long rest on the way here." Nan Tian smiled.
"Fair enough. Let me get rid of the house then." Shiro nodded since she kept the house just in case the two needed more time to rest.
Snapping her finger, the house crumbled down and disappeared.
"Let¡¯s go." Shiro smiled.
Making their way down the mountain, they showed Shiro where they had found the cave entrance.
Immediately noticing the spike up in mana density, Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"I got three vials of the mana on the walls so that you can see if there is anything special with them." Nan Tian said, handing her three vials.
Looking at the vials, it reminded Shiro of the mana potions but it was much clearer. It was coloured a clear light blue which flickered with a silver light.
Swirling it slightly, she couldn¡¯t see any changes.
Tracing her fingers along the wall, she looked at the liquified mana on her fingers and furrowed her brows.
"Hmm... Let me give it a scan while we¡¯re making our way through the cave then."
Snapping her fingers, nanobots appeared around her and formed a belt with a box on the side. cing the vials into the box, she started to analyse them as they made their way through the caves.
With the liquid mana on the wall, the cave was strangely lit as there was no need for any sources of light.
There were several twists and turns but Nan Tian and Isilia led the way so that they didn¡¯t waste any time.
The further they progressed, the stranger things became. Broken pieces of the cave would float around as if gravity didn¡¯t affect them.
Faint illusionary pink tethers would stretch between rocks which would sway to the wind.
Orbs of light would maise towards one another before shattering apart into more orbs once they collide.
As for the vials that Nan Tian had given her, it was actually natural mana potions that were 100% pure, had no impurities and would increase your mana capacity slightly every time you used it. Plus, it would also regenerate your mana back to full upon use. While the increase to the capacity was helpful, it was rather useless for Shiro, Nan Tian and Isilia since their mana capacity was huge already.
However, what was helpful was that it refilled your mana back to full. For Shiro, who¡¯s attacks costrge percentages, this would be extremely helpful as fights at their level are very fast paced. She couldn¡¯t wait a whole minute before casting the next spell or else she could die so the fact that she could drink potions that refilled her mana back to full with no bacsh was handy.
So while they were progressing through the caves, Shiro already had her nanobots harvest the mana into vials so that she could use themter.
Chapter 822 Place Hidden Within the Mountain
Chapter 822 ce Hidden Within the Mountain
Continuing through the caves, Shiro was surprised at how deep this went since they had to go down a few ¡¯stairs¡¯ made from the rocks around them.
At this point, the mana density made a river of flowing mana which could be seen floating around them.
It lit up the area ever so slightly so that they could see their foothold but nothing else. Shiro did try to make a light source but it seemed to be blocked by a magical darkness that prevented light from passing through.
Stepping down the floating stones which defied gravity while rives of mana flowed around them, Shiro was curious about what this ce actually was for such a phenomenon to ur.
"We¡¯re not far now." Nan Tian said as they had been travelling for a while now. Their speed would have been much faster but they had to watch their step on floating rocks and it was also hard to fly in the previous location with it being in a cave.
Right now, with the darkness surrounding them, it was as if they were in the void with nothing around them.
This time, Shiro didn¡¯t tamper with the flowing mana river at all since they didn¡¯t know where it was floating to or what it could possibly be powering.
ncing back, the stones that they stepped on gradually disappeared in the darkness. For all they know, they could just be walking on the stop and the stones were moving to give them a sense of progression.
With them not being able to see anything or send their senses out since it was being interfered by the mana, it was hard to get a picture of where they were going.
But since Nan Tian and Isilia had already passed this part, Shiro knew that there was an end and that they weren¡¯t in a strange trap.
After a while of walking, Shiro could finally see a hint of light as the flow of the mana river started to fade out.
Hopping off the floating stones and standing on normal ground, Shiro nced back and noticed that the path was still blocked by darkness. All they could see were floating stones leading up which soon disappeared.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro found it rather annoying that she couldn¡¯t get a sense of the area but there was nothing she could do.
Looking forward, she saw visages of sea creatures that floated through the air as if they were underwater. With her mastery over souls, Shiro could tell that they were pieces of the soul but strangely enough, they were given free movement as if this was the underworld.
Normally, the soul would be sent to reincarnation after leaving the body for a while so the fact that these creatures were still around seemed miraculous to her.
Compared to the previous cave system, the walls here were much more special as the cave was illuminated by a spectral light that radiated from the soul shards.
Seeing that neither Isilia or Nan Tian said anything, Shiro understood that this wasn¡¯t the end yet but she could see their confusion now. The fact that a giant space like this could even fit in the mountain was surprising. Despite not being able to get a grasp of their surroundings, Shiro did map out the path they had taken and the space required to fit everything in was bigger than what she could have seen outside.
It was either that or if they punched a wall they¡¯ll reach the outside world but she didn¡¯t want to start destroying everything just yet without knowing what¡¯s going on.
Continuing through the spacious cave which seemed to be a soul aquarium of sorts with the sea life floating around randomly, Shiro could see an exit of sorts
Stepping through the exit, Shiro noticed that it was formed from tworge triangr pirs which seemed like someone had cut a quarter of a pyramid off and ced them near one another. ncing back, the cave system could still be seen so Shiro sighed in relief.
Feeling a cool breeze on her skin, she looked forwards and saw a dark sky with pulses of turquoise light flickering through the clouds.
Ashen trees that extended high into the sky with no leaves surrounded them as their branches lined up to indicate a pathway of sorts.
Past the trees a veil of mist blocked them from peering beyond what is allowed and probing it with mana yielded the same result as the other attempts.
Following along the path that was indicated by the trees, Shiro could seerge stone mountains which faintly resembled wed hands reaching towards the sky. The main body of the hand was the mountain as the peaks looked like the fingers.
Above these mountains was an opening in the dense clouds where faint blue lights swirled in a circle.
It was simr to what would happen should she invoke her Requiem of the Dead but this time it was less creepy without butterfliesing out to consume your soul.
On the path towards the mountains the trees thinned out asrge ck monoliths protruded from the ground.
They weren¡¯t standing upright as most of them leaned at an angle like they were knocked over or buried poorly.
Cracks could be seen as runic symbols of unknown origins littered across the surface. They seemed to flicker with a very faint blue light which caused Shiro to imagine what they would have looked like in the past. Perhaps the symbols would shine with light and power a barrier of sorts.
Unfortunately, she didn¡¯t know as the runes were unfamiliar and even trying to decode them brought her no results.
As they exited the forest and entered the graveyard of monoliths, they could see floating rocks in the sky with blue crystals embedded in them. The crystals had a very faint tether which faded away as Shiro recognised them to be giant mana crystals that were much bigger than her body. Walking through the graveyard of monoliths, broken statues and bones becamemon as the statues resembled hooded grim reapers who held a scythe.
Seeing the carvings of what seemed to be fake mana circuits, Shiro realised that these statues of grim reapers were actually golems that had been destroyed.
Walking past the statues, swirling orbs of fire that were coloured blue and purple could be seen floating around asrge gates, simr to that of the Japanese Torii gates, pathed their way towards the mountains. The gates were broken as many could not form a proper arch.
Simr to the cave before, there were soul shards of animals with glowing horns that left a faint trail whenever they moved. Their eyes were small balls of blue fire which shimmered in the dark. They Seemed to walk around without noticing the party at all.
Every time they passed one of the gates, more seemed to be revealed as the gates almost acted as keys to revealing the illusion.
Passing one gate revealed statues that couldn¡¯t be seen earlier. They were undamaged but they weren¡¯t golems and were only there for aesthetic reasons.
Passing another gate revealed broken chains which connected the gates together.
Passing through all of the gates, Shiro assumed that all of the illusion had been broken since they were now in front of a giant deste city with broken walls and empty houses. Large craters could be seen around the city as many of the houses werepletely destroyed.
In ce of the giant hand like mountains was now arge castle with damaged floating chambers that connected to the main body with a bridge.
ncing to the left, a giant rusted sword was embedded deep to the ground as the edges were damaged. Behind the sword however, was a line of destruction which cut through tens of houses and left a deep scar in thend that this city was on.
"We¡¯re almost there." Nan tian said as they entered the castle.
What Shiro didn¡¯t expect was a hollowed castle that waspletely devoid of anything except for a single tform in the centre. It seemed to be arge broken sundial with neon blue runic inscriptions.
Pieces of this device were left around the room as they were severely damaged.
Walking up to the ¡¯sundial¡¯, Nan tian ced his hand in the centre before moving it anti clockwise.
The floor beneath them suddenly opened up to reveal a whirlpool of mana as Shiro received a notification on her system.
[Entrance to the Beyond has been discovered.]
Chapter 823 The Strongest Flying Fortress
Chapter 823 The Strongest Flying Fortress
"Is this what you wanted to show me?" Shiro asked while ncing at the mana portal that had opened up beneath them.
"Mn, we haven¡¯t entered yet since we don¡¯t know what¡¯s on the other side. Plus, I haven¡¯t read anything about a ce known as the beyond so it¡¯s aplete mystery for me." Nan Tian nodded with a serious expression.
"Me too. In all my time of research, I haven¡¯t heard of anything that could link to this portal leading to the ¡¯beyond¡¯. Do you have an idea Shiro?" Isilia asked since Shiro was essentially aputer. Everything she had seen is stored away.
"Hm...Let me check." Shiro furrowed her brows.
Closing her eyes, she tried to remember anything that has to do with beyond but her search yielded no beneficial results.
"I¡¯ve got nothing either. Let me see if I can send something over then." Shiro furrowed her brows.
Snapping her fingers, a drone appeared in front of her.
Controlling it, she had it fly down into the portal.
But the moment it got close, a whip of mana shattered it apart instantly.
"That¡¯s concerning." Shiro frowned.
"Maybe we should mark this ce down and explore itter. We¡¯ve got more important matters such as making the city and moving the anchor." Isilia reminded as Shiro agreed with her.
Even though she might have messed around with the anchor, moving to a different ce with a portal was not a choice she could make on a whim. There was the chance that they could just be barred froming back so it was rather risky to hop in without thought. Plus, she was not able to scout out the portal at all.
"Hmm... I can wait a few months for my skill toe off cooldown and ask the system about the beyond. By then, the new age would have started but it should be fine. We should focus on the matter at hand." Shiro said after a moment of thought.
"Let¡¯s make a mark here first then so that we can return when we need to. While we¡¯re here, do we also want to look around for a bit to see if we can get anything useful?" Nan Tian asked since this is a city. While it is destroyed, there¡¯s a chance that something useful might be scattered around.
"I think we can do that since we¡¯re not exactly traveling to a different ce entirely." Isilia smiled.
Nodding her head, Shiro waved her hand and created a mark in the corner where the portal wouldn¡¯t destroy it immediately.
"I¡¯ll send my nanobots around so that they can search too. Should we stay 1 hour maximum and then we go back?" Shiro asked.
Aftering to an agreement, Shiro stepped out of the castle and snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, thousands of tiny drones started to form in the air as Shiro activated them all and had them search the city. While this was happening, both Nan Tian and Isilia decided to manually look around for a bit while Shiro¡¯s drones did their thing.
Searching for an hour, they unfortunately couldn¡¯t find anything that was useful since most of the things have already been plundered. The most precious thing in this strange world within the mountain was probably the materials scattered around the ce such as the floating rocks or the river of mana. Even now, her nanobot drones near the entrance have been harvesting the vials endlessly as it seemed to continuously replenish thanks to the density.
During this time, they had also tried to find the source of the mana but unfortunately, they couldn¡¯t find anything as the tracks seemed to halt within this city. There was a good chance that the source was in the ¡¯beyond¡¯ but they didn¡¯t want to take that risk.
Once the search was over, Shiro opened up a portal back to the top of the mountain.
"Right then, the n now is to make the best flying fortress I can, hopefully it¡¯s self-sustaining, and I can move the anchor to the spirit capital where everyone can change locations. Plus, I¡¯m also thinking of making the mana potions exclusive to the city, With the rate of which the mana is replenishing here, the flow ofpletely pure mana potions shouldn¡¯t run out anytime soon." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow before nodding her head.
With how things are going to be, they¡¯ll need to have a strong army since there were only so many people around. If they could cultivate a strong army, they¡¯ll be able to carry out more tasks during the new age. Plus, depending on what happens, they might even be able to make an elite unit where Shiro can bestow her skills onto them so that they can carry out the more important tasks.
In terms of standing, they¡¯d be lower than Lyrica and the others.
Plus, with how her nanobots work, she could easily create thousands of training capsules, drones as well as training manuals with techniques for her army. Efficiency wise, no one could defeat Shiro when it came to manually cultivating an army.
"Anyways, we got a few days to burn so let¡¯s rest for now." Shiro smiled as she created another house. This time it was slightly bigger so that it could amodate everyone.
"Eh? You¡¯re not making the city now?" Isilia asked curiously.
"Nope. I¡¯m going to wait until my demi god formes off cooldown that way I can generate more divine energy. Once that happens, I can create a much stronger flying fortress." Shiro grinned since she had been formting a few blueprints in her mind that took advantage of the properties with divine energy.
Quite a few of the blueprints couldn¡¯t be aplished but with the addition of divine energy, it will be sorted easily. Plus, the anchor also generated divine energy for her so she had plenty to spare so long as she entered demi god form while being near her anchor. After two more days of waiting, she¡¯d have the most powerful city she can construct. Plus, she also needed some time to test out if she could actually make the entire thing work with a few experiments.
Seeing as there wasn¡¯t much else to do, the three of them decided to rest at the house for two days as Isilia helped Shiro experiment with a few of her ideas. While the two were experimenting, Nan Tian was making new spells so that he could make the most out of this free time.
With Shiro being near the divine anchor during these two days, she didn¡¯t struggle for divine energy as she was able to finalise quite a few of the blueprints she had in mind.
As for Isilia, she was shocked at the versatility of divine energy since what Shiro was doing shouldn¡¯t be possible with just mana.
On the second day, the moment her skill refreshed, the three of them stood outside of the house as she cleared it away since it was no longer needed.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro visualised how the city would look and wondered if she should merge it with the mountain and move it away with her or just leave it here for now.
Since the mountain had that strange space within it, there¡¯s a chance that it could be ruined if she¡¯s not careful.
If she didn¡¯t know about this, she would have taken the mountain with her since it was too precious.
"Are you two ready?" Shiro smiled.
Seeing the two nod their heads, Shiro grinned before activating her skill.
Once again, a pir of light shot into the sky as mana clouds swarmed towards the light. With her body now overflowing with divine energy along with her divinity, Shiro soared into the sky and pushed her palms out.
*BOOM!!!!
Expanding out in an instant, stacks upon stacks of tier 7 magic circles were created as swarms of nanobots appeared in the air and blocked out the sky from sight.
Waving her hand, the anchor flew up towards the centre of the swarm as the nanobots converged towards it.
sping her hands together, another tier 7 magic circle appeared beneath her as thousands of her strongest guns started to form around the outer edges of the city that was currently being built.
Whenever her mana started to get low, Shiro would instantly drink one of the mana potions that brought her mana back to full since constructing something of this scale, even with divine energy and her mana regeneration, was outside of her capabilities since everything would copse the moment she ran out of mana.
Watching this happen, Isilia couldn¡¯t help but imagine that this could be simr to how the gods created worlds. Watching Shiro mesh the nanobots together to form intricate parts was miraculous as millions of pieces were being formed every second.
Seeing the mana that she was using Isilia couldn¡¯t help but pity a certain spirit that was trying to keep her body from copsing since she was basically working in overdrive with the amount of mana she was constantly regenerating with the potions.
With thousands of hidden weapons as well as connected tforms, their headquarters for the new age had beenpleted.
Chapter 824 The Completed Fortress
Chapter 824 The Completed Fortress
Looking at the flying fortress which seemed as if it wanted to cover the entire world, Nan Tian was speechless since it was much bigger than what he had expected. Even the mountain paled inparison when ced next to the fortress.
With one main tform and 5 branch tforms around it, the city was armed to the teeth with weapons, barriers, formations and counter spells. The ¡¯crystals¡¯ that could be seen around the city were actually highlypact runes which made them seem like it was a single solid colour.
On the main tform, there was a giant tower which was adorned with golden crests which pulsed with divine energy. Thanks to the nature of her anchor, divine energy was constantly being circted through the entire city and these crests amplified the effects.
One of the new additions that Shiro had created within this fortress was a self sustaining mana domain which allowed it to float on its own even if the world was suddenly drained of mana. With the divine energy helping the nanobots, she could make this entire city float and functional with a single drop of mana never mind the huge reserves that were constantly being stored within this fortress.
Aside from the main tower, the centre tform was also filled withrge empty spaces where buildings could be built. While it may look empty now, Shiro could construct thousands of hidden weapons with a snap of her finger since this was entirely made from nanobots. She had control over the entire fortress with a single thought.
Around the outer edges of the main tform, marble pirs could be seen as golden arches connected them and formed a circlet around the tform. Beneath the arches were bridges that connected to the other tforms and they were protected by a faint barrier which pulsed in sync with the golden runes on the main tower.
Each of the five tforms were filled with necessities to sustain itself should the world perish such as a farmnd. Due to the nature of her anchor, there was a constant guarantee that the harvest would be good and there were custom models put in ce to guarantee this even if the anchor didn¡¯t have special effects.
As for transport, Shiro had chambers with teleport marks ready. For example, if there was an ore vein that couldn¡¯t be moved easily, Shiro could link it up to a mark that she had set up in the chamber. With the fortress powering itself, she didn¡¯t need to manually recharge the marks so she didn¡¯t need to attend to them.
Plus, she had already made blueprints in her mind for items that allowed one to open a portal back to this ce as an emergency. Plus, with divine energy and the teleport runes that Stanley had shown her, which ignored space seals, it was a guaranteed escape for her followers.
There were even models ready to manufacture an enhanced mana pulse bomb that she used during the shadow temple trial since she had more than enough mana to create one. With so many weapons and models in ce, attacking this fortress was rather hard.
Just in case something did go wrong though, Shiro had a back up n.
Should all of the barriers around the fortress be destroyed, it is able to create an emergency teleport mark and shift itself away from danger. Shifting locations instantly would be especially handy since there was a specialised mana detonator which was created using celestial path as a base. When it is teleporting, it will unleash a pulse of aura which seals mana for a few moments and it would dy the enemy slightly, giving it a chance to escape.
On top of this, the security ced around the fortress made it so that it was difficult for an assassin ss to intrude without being discovered.
"So what do you think?" Shiro asked as she had a smile on her face. Despite looking a little pale thanks to the pressure she had put on her body, she was extremely proud of her creation since it could also suit people up with the mech suits that were armed with her weapons. Even some of the experimental ideas that she had thought of when she saw the mechs from anime¡¯s in New York were finalised.
If a person wanted a special mech they had seen online, she could create something simr granted that they gave her enough information. Otherwise it¡¯ll just look like it and not work in the same way.
"I don¡¯t know what to think about it since you basicallyid the foundations for a whole new civilisation." Nan Tian chuckled while ncing at the fortress.
"Well I have to go all out since this is where the people will live if they decide to follow me. If I can¡¯t do my best to guarantee their safety, what kind of queen would I be?" Shiro smiled since that¡¯s her role as a queen. If people wanted to seek shelter, she wouldn¡¯t mind helping them since it wasn¡¯t too bothersome for her.
Plus, the more people that join, the more power she¡¯ll obtain from them thanks to her role as the queen. With her being recognised as a participant now, she is able to ¡¯recruit¡¯ all of the spirits. Even though she¡¯ll be weakened for a while, the payoff is much better in the long run.
"Honestly, my main worry about the fortress was space since thest fortress I saw you make was smallpared to this one but it still destroyed a city. For this, I¡¯d say you can fit around 2 or maybe three cities? If anything, I¡¯m worried that it¡¯s too much space." Isilia shrugged.
"Well if it¡¯s taking too much space I can always shrink it down whenever." Shiro nced back at the fortress.
Snapping her fingers, the tforms started to shrink as the size was reduced by roughly 20%.
"This¡¯ll do for now I suppose. Once we get the spirits on this, I can erge it if there¡¯s anything else that¡¯s needed." Shiro said as the two nodded their heads.
"Here¡¯s a concern though. If you teleport this to the spirit capital, won¡¯t the humans notice this since it¡¯s rather hard to miss due to its size." Nan Tian said while ncing up at the fortress.
"Fufu~ I¡¯m d you asked." Shiro crossed her arms happily as a rune suddenly shed on the main tower.
Despite seeing the fluctuation of mana visually, the two couldn¡¯t sense anything as the city slowly disappeared from sight.
"An illusion which blocks on mana senses by merging its ¡¯signal¡¯ with the surroundings. Even though your eyes can see what¡¯s going on, your senses can¡¯t hence why it¡¯s perfect since it can hover over a city and no one would notice a thing.
"Of course, if you decide to fly up you might just bump into it." Shiro chuckled andunched a stray fireball up.
Suddenly, the fireball exploded in mid air but the fortress wasn¡¯t revealed.
"The only thing is that it¡¯s still present. You can¡¯t see it or sense it but spells and touch still work on it. So if it rains, well f*ck then." Shiro shrugged before snapping her fingers. Suddenly, it started to rain as the water was just blocked by the fortress. Even though it was invisible, the rain marked an outline of the city.
Showing off a few more features, they prepared to make their way back to the spirit capital. Entering the main tower, Nan Tian was surprised at the internal design since it looked like it came from the future.
The amount of information that could be disyed at a single thought was crazy but what¡¯s more impressive was that it was just a small part of what Shiro knew.
"Sometimes I wonder how your brain works for it to store this much information and you can just ess it with ease." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
"Thanks to the scientists I suppose. They messed me up but thanks to that I¡¯m where I am at today." Shiroughed as Isilia was happy to see that Shiro was casual in mentioning her past.
Previously, she had always been rather bloodthirsty whenever she thought back to the scientists since they experimented on her for years without stopping but seeing Shiro move on made Isilia feel happy.
Arriving at the top of the tower, Shiro snapped her fingers as disys lit up all around them, giving them a full view of surroundings.
Activating the magic circle, a giant portal opened up in front of them as the fortress started to move. Soon, the flying fortress disappeared from Astral Horizons.
Chapter 825 Asharia
Chapter 825 Asharia
*Sigh...
Sighing out softly, Samuel massaged his shoulders and sat down.
Not too long ago, Shiro had just told him that they should start making preparations for moving since she had just finished creating the anchor. But when ites to moving everyone, it¡¯ll take much longer.
Roughly around a few weeks or so and yet Shiro had told me to prepare to move immediately.
Before he could even have a proper rest, he heard a soft ping as the ear piece turned on.
"Samuel can you hear me?" Shiro called out as Samuel sat up.
"Yes I can your highness. What do you require?" Samuel sat up immediately.
"Are the preparationsplete?" Shiro asked as Samuel¡¯s smile twitched.
"I¡¯m sorry your highness but I was not able toplete it within the time that you have given me." Samuel replied with a sigh.
"Mn... that¡¯s a problem. Oh well, are you able to call all of the spirits? I can do something about their housester. The main thing is that I need them to be gathered in the centre or at least in one ce. The centre just makes things easier." Shiro asked.
"I don¡¯t know if I can get everyone but since it¡¯s an order by the queen, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll oblige. Is there any particr reason for it though? If there is, it¡¯ll be easier to convince the masses."
"There is a reason. I¡¯ll be moving them to their new home viarge scale teleportation I suppose. The main thing that¡¯s worrying me is their possessions. I can duplicate their homes without any problem." Shiro sighed.
"But since this is going to take a while, I don¡¯t mind if you take your time with this since the city isn¡¯t going anywhere. My main concern is keeping it hidden but I can hide it underwater for now. I¡¯ll set up a barrier so that it doesn¡¯t get flooded. Just get everyone ready to move and I¡¯ll show myself at the capital in a few moments."
Without giving Samuel a chance to reply, the ear piece cut itself out as Samuel stood in ce dumbfounded for a moment before sighing.
However, even if Shiro¡¯s requests were a bit on the unreasonable side, he knew that she wouldn¡¯t ask them to do something for no reason. Even though he had a few doubts about her teleporting everyone, he set the doubts aside for now and let her actions speak for themselves.
Stretching his body, he immediately called the other elders and had everyone gather towards the centre. With the amount of people they had, a few would need to sit on the rooftops, but this was fine for now. Plus, even though this was the spirit capital, there weren¡¯t many humanoid spirits around since they were essentially refugees.
If they weren¡¯t oppressed or forced to flee, the amount of spirits in the capital would be much higher.
Sending out word that this was a royal decree where Shiro would show them to their new home and that everyone was required, Samuel left out details on what she could be doing since he wasn¡¯t sure aside from the fact that she was going to teleport them all.
After around an hour or so, most of the spirits were gathered around the za but they weren¡¯t able to check how many had actually arrived.
"Hmm... I¡¯d say about 60% have attended. Not too bad for an unreasonable request. I wanted people toe here so that they¡¯re not teleported in the middle of doing something but this¡¯ll do for now."
"AH!!" Crying out in surprise, Samuel turned to his side and saw that Shiro was standing there nonchntly while ncing towards the crowd.
"Well I¡¯ll bring the 60% of people away first." She shrugged before ncing back at Samuel who was looking at her with shock.
"You feeling ok? Why do you look so surprised?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Ah *ahem*. Sorry about that your highness. Shall we address the masses about what you want to do?" Samuel asked as he was shocked at how suddenly she had appeared.
He didn¡¯t sense any fluctuations besides him so the moment he saw her, he was fearful of what she could have done if she was an assassin.
"Mn I should. Both Nan Tian and Isilia are waiting so I¡¯ll keep the speech short. I¡¯m not one for speeches or something along those lines. I¡¯ll probably just say something like I¡¯m sure you¡¯re curious as to why I called you here or something." Shiro shrugged before walking forward.
Before Samuel could stop her, she had already cleared her throat.
*AHEM!
"I¡¯m sure all of you have questions about why I have called you here. I¡¯m not sure how much Samuel has said but I shall tell you our next goals. I have acquired or rather, constructed our new home that will allow us to live properly without cowering in small reclusive areas like this. Our new home is safe and secure, it is armed with weapons to fend off our enemies, it¡¯s bigger than most cities and I can guarantee your safety. I know it sounds unbelievable, the fact that I have the power to construct something like this however, know this. I, your Queen, will not lie to you! My race who has been oppressed; I will do everything in my power to stop the oppression ced upon us by the previous races due to the fact that you didn¡¯t have a leader.
"The times that you needed to hide are behind you. You will receive the power to strike back at your enemies yourself. If you do not seek battle, I will protect you as the Queen. All those that wish to fight back, it is my promise that I will arm you with the best weapons and armour to keep you safe. I will not force you to fight as I am not a believer or forcing actions upon you.
"Even if I have to stand alone on the front lines, I will defend you to the best of my abilities and my first act will be gifting you the mightiest of fortresses that I can construct. With my power, I will gift you both a home and an instrument of power against our enemies! If you fight, I will gift you with techniques, training manuals, weapons and armour that you have never seen before!" Shiro cried out as her aura red up.
Hearing her shout, quite a few of the guards that were patrolling felt emotional as they have always hated the feeling of fleeing from the enemies. Imaging a scene of fighting on the front lines as their own queen supported them caused them to grip their weapons harder.
mming her hands together, a giant tier 6 magic circle appeared around them as the spirits that were gathered in the za felt weightless for a moment before realising that they were currently floating in above the sea.
"I present to you our new home, Asharia." Shiro smiled before snapping her fingers.
Suddenly, a glorious city hovering in the water presented itself before the masses as the size of the city was much bigger than what everyone had expected.
Even though quite a bit of thend was bare, they could see that houses were being constructed by nanobots every second.
"I will offer you each a scanner to mark yournd and it will be reconstructed on the fortress so you do not need to worry about not having a home. The scanner will also have you register some of your details so that it will mark you down as a citizen of our new city. Once you are registered, you may ask the drones or use theputers around the city to search for anything you may require. If you don¡¯t know the way to a friend¡¯s house or you don¡¯t know the way to the markets, you may ask the drones and they¡¯ll show you the way. There are job centres for you so if you choose to stay within the safety of the fortress, you can still contribute through jobs such as farming.
"There will be drones to assist you should you require help. Schools will be constructed and libraries will be added. I shall send everyone the details once we have proved every spirit to this city. I¡¯m sure many of you may have concerns but I assure you, I will answer everything you require. Those that don¡¯t want to migrate don¡¯t need to and anything that you findcking in this city will be attended to. Once you have registered, you can offer suggestions to the AI and they will mark down your request. The move will happen over the course of the next few weeks to months. So you do not need to rush."
As Shiro was talking to the masses, Samuel could only stand in silence as he looked at the majestic fortress that floated on the sea.
Balling his hands into fists, he could already imagine the spirit raceunching a retaliation towards those that oppressed them before.
Tilting his head back, he looked up at the sky and closed his eyes.
¡¯Your sacrifices for everyone have not been wasted. We have received the best queen we could ask for and we will avenge your deaths!¡¯ Samuel thought in his imagined all those that have died up to this point. Looking at Shiro, he swore in his heart that he will support her with everything he could to offer.
Chapter 826 Moving Homes
Chapter 826 Moving Homes
Teleporting the spirits back to the capital, Shiro¡¯s first task was to distribute the scanners so that the spirits could recreate their homes and register on the fortress.
Setting up a few ¡¯stalls¡¯ with drones to help distribute the scanners, Shiro called for all the elders and showed them around the fortress. There wasn¡¯t much need in terms of manual management but it was still helpful. There were jobs they could do in the main tower such as controlling where the next destination would be.
Despite the amount of AI that were controlling the city, she still needed a council of sorts.
As she was showing the elders around the city, they were shocked by the size and advanced technology.
The weapons, armour and training manuals that Shiro had shown them were extremely precious and the fact that she could actually mass produce them was a blessing.
On top of this, what she had shown them was just the surface of everything this city had to offer. Once they digested this information, she¡¯ll have AI teach them more.
After a while, they should be able to act as a propermand centre that will ry information to her during battle. While she could micromanage the information by multitasking, it would be suicide to do so against the queen¡¯s since they¡¯re not weak enough for her to face them with half of her attention.
Each of their attacks required her full focus to be dodged so she could not afford the leisure of focusing on a different task.
That way, they could report any changes to her during battle and she¡¯ll be able to act ordingly.
While Shiro was showing the elders around, both Nan Tian and Isilia were also doing their own research on the city as there were facilities created just for them.
For example, Isilia wanted a library along withbs so that she could continue her experiments. She was also given a house since she¡¯ll be living here with Lyrica once they meet up again.
Showing the elders around took them a whole day since there was simply too much to cover. As for the situation of the spirits moving to the city, it was progressing nicely as many of them have already finished scanning their houses.
With the AI constructing the buildings on the main tform of the fortress, the entire city started to look much more lifelike.
Shop buildings were added and schools were being constructed. In regard to the schools, their buildings were much bigger than the one in the spirit capital since they had to move hastily.
Therefore, they couldn¡¯t afford to haverge schools built but with the protection of the fortress, proper schools could finally be created.
With rumours and news being passed around themunity, even those that didn¡¯t go to the za understood what was going on and imed scanners for themselves. There were a few stubborn people who had demands and requests.
They would say things such as if you don¡¯t fulfil these basic requirements, I won¡¯t move but Shiro didn¡¯t mind so long as the requirements were not outrageous.
If they were just there to test her limits then she wouldn¡¯t care. That was her bottom line. As long as it¡¯s sincere, she wouldn¡¯t mind extending a helping hand.
After a busy day of showing people around, Shiro sat down on her bed andid on her side.
Sighing out softly, Shiro closed her eyes and decided to have a short rest. While she may have a lot of stamina, her mental fatigue was building up since she had to attend to quite a few things during the time she was escorting them.
Thankfully, after the initial introduction, Nan Tian and Isilia could take her ce in showing them around as they had a general idea.
{You¡¯ve been working hard today.} Nimue chuckled as she was currently sitting under a tree within Shiro¡¯s mana realm.
¡¯Mn, moving everyone to the city and having them adapt is going to take a while. If I was forceful with my methods, I could get them to move within the span of two days max but it wouldn¡¯t give them time to adapt.¡¯ Shiro sighed as she appeared in the mana realm.
Hugging Attie, she sat next to Nimue and closed her eyes while stroking Attie¡¯s hair.
{Do you have the time for a slow move though. Don¡¯t we have quite a few things to sort out such as Madison¡¯s role as the potential queen?} Nimue asked.
¡¯Mn, I also need to reunite Lyrica and Isilia. My n was to move the fortress to the demon continent but it seems like it¡¯ll take a while. I¡¯m sure they don¡¯t need me here all the time since the AI will help them with their problems. Everything they need should be prepared and by the time we¡¯ve finished with Madison¡¯s problem, everyone should have finished moving to the city.¡¯ Shiro replied without opening her eyes.
{Mn, speaking of the city, what does Asharia even mean?} Nimue asked curiously.
¡¯Back in Aria, Asharia had two meanings depending on the word you use with it. The first is Asharia Nilua which means Unstoppable Fortress. The second is Asharia Yuani which means Fortress Utopia. Since this ce is supposed to be both a weapon and a safe home for the spirits, Asharia just fit the situation in my mind.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Sounds fancy.} Nimue chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
¡¯A little.¡¯ Shiro smiled as her breathing became even and she fell into a light sleep.
Seeing this, Nimue shook her head and sighed.
¡¯Looking at her like this, one wouldn¡¯t think that she¡¯s the destroyer ofmon sense.¡¯ Nimue mused as she watched Attie shuffle out of Shiro¡¯s arms before using herp as afy pillow.
Resting for a few hours, Shiro yawned slightly before getting up since she had other work to do. She was going to stick around for roughly a week max before returning back to the party.
ncing out of her room, she could see the moving going well as people were bing familiar with the process. Some of the spirits started to help one another in order to increase the speed and others were already registering for jobs in the job centre. Surprisingly, there were quite a few who wanted to be in the army which surprised Shiro since she had expected them to enjoy the quiet lifestyle for a bit.
However, since they wanted to join, Shiro would let them and they were given ¡¯help packs¡¯ to assist them in getting stronger such as a dummy which would adjust itself to your level. Of course, there is a limit to how strong the dummy was but at higher levels, they¡¯d be allowed to use skills so that they could hone their senses duringbat
She hasn¡¯t revealed the guns, mech suits and others just yet since throwing too much at them would make things a little overwhelming. Once they¡¯ve gotten some training, she¡¯ll slowly introduce the guns for them.
Making a few final checks, she called both Nan Tian and Isilia to her room.
Once they arrived, Shiro had them sit down by the table.
"Since everything is moving as nned, I¡¯ll be stepping out for a bit since the party needs help. Isilia, are you able to join me since it¡¯s about time you met Lyrica again. Nan Tian, are you able to stay around to supervise just in case? Plus, I want you to familiarise yourself with the fortress as much as possible." Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Sure, I don¡¯t mind staying around for a while, it¡¯s not like I have anything else I need to do. I can just gain EXP by meditating." Nan Tian smiled since this was the benefit of being able to ¡¯cultivate¡¯ through circting his mana. While the gains weren¡¯t as much as what he could get by ughtering his way through hordes of enemies, it was good enough for now.
"Mn that¡¯s perfect then. What about you Isilia?" Shiro smiled and turned to her friend.
Staying silent for a moment, Isilia sighed.
"Sure. I have to see her eventually."
"I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll go fine." Shiro grinned since she knew that Lyrica treasured her family.
Even so, Isilia was worried since she had neglected her child for so long even though she¡¯s technically still alive.
Giving Nan Tian a few instructions on what he should familiarise himself with, Shiro and Isilia made their way to the teleport shrine. Pulling out her phone, Shiro contacted the party for the first time in a while.
Chapter 827 Reuniting with the Party
Chapter 827 Reuniting with the Party
[Shiro: Just going to blow some dust off this chat. How is my favourite party doing?]
[Lyrica: Shiro! It¡¯s been good, have you finished with the anchors?]
[Shiro: Yup. Got some bonuses during my little trip too. I¡¯ve mastered some of the powers thate with me bing a demi god.]
[Aarim: I¡¯ve noticed. This energy is quite helpful in empowering my spells.]
[Yin: There¡¯s better conversion between food intake and energy output.]
[Lisandra: Mum, Yin¡¯s managed to make a spell where she can eat during a battlefield andunch spells proportionate to how much she eats. The rift is full of food and it¡¯s disgusting whenever we enter. We might identally step in one if we¡¯re not careful.]
[Yin: That¡¯s because you girls don¡¯t know where to stand. I¡¯m still upset that you stood in the pie that I was saving!]
Reading the chat, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched furiously hearing that Yin is storing food in the rift.
The life saving skill that had protected her was actually used as a secondary fridge.
[Shiro: Yin, the rift is supposed to save your life, not store food.]
[Yin: But food is my life so technically it¡¯s still saving my life.]
[Shiro: Setting that aside, I¡¯ve heard a few good rumours about you lot. You seem to be making a name for yourself.]
[Chen Yu: We did try to be low key but a few events unfolded and we were forced to fight.]
[Shiro: Oh? What happened?]
[Madison: We might have pissed off one of the government officials and started a war against them. In our defence, his son was very perverted and tried toy a hand on us, in retaliation, we cut off his head.]
[Shiro: I see... Shame I couldn¡¯t be there otherwise I would have just given his soul to my warden so that he could torture it.]
[Madison: I hate the fact that you¡¯re not even kidding when you say that either.]
[Shiro: Well it¡¯s the truth so no need to joke no?]
[Madison: I know. That¡¯s the worst part.]
[Silvia: Speaking of rumours, I seemed to have heard something about a goddess saving New York with arge scale healing spell which gave them EXP and stats for a week long.]
[Shiro: Ahhh yeah I was responsible for that. Basically, I wanted to help my parent¡¯s a bit and merged a world ss spell with Grace. It would be creepy to imagine souls that heal so I used angels instead. The results were quite nice. It wasn¡¯t another world ss spell but I did get a powerful city scale support skill instead. While it might not be like Grace¡¯s potential since I could mass heal so long as there are more than 100 people in the party, its unconditional healing towards all I determine as an ally.]
[Silvia; And this is why I¡¯m considering changing ss hais. Forget it, at least you can¡¯t continuously buff. Once you can, I might literally just reset and start again.]
[Shiro: Ah don¡¯t worry about it. The heal spell has a long cool down so I can¡¯t use it often. It does revive the dead so naturally the requirements are stringent.]
[Silvia: Oh? What kind of requirements are they?]
[Shiro: Basically it takes all my mana, the full charge of True Spirit Nature and the cooldown of this spell is two weeks. True Spirit Nature is very handy since it grants me better control over ice and souls. And the recharge rate is slow so using this spell is quite costly.]
[Silvia: That is rather costly. But with your mana regen, wouldn¡¯t that manae back quite quickly?]
[Shiro: Mana isn¡¯t the problem, it¡¯s the fact that I lose True Spirit Nature for a while.
[Lyrica; So in essence, your new skill is like an emergency one that can only be used if you don¡¯t use True Spirit Nature.]
[Shiro: And I use True Spirit Nature quite often so it¡¯s going to be hard to use this skill with a two week cooldown and high requirements.]
[Madison: So is there any reason you¡¯re messaging in this chat? You don¡¯t message often unless you need something.]
[Shiro: You¡¯re not wrong. I¡¯m basically looking to regroup the party for a bit and deal with Madison¡¯s Heritage since we have the time now. I have also found a way for multiple queens to stay alive at the end of the age so we don¡¯t need to worry about the fact that both me and madison are both Queen¡¯s.]
[Lyrica: ReallY?! That¡¯s good news!]
[Shiro: Yep. I also have a guest with me that I want you to meet Lyrica.]
[Lyrica: Oh? Who is it?]
[Shiro: I¡¯ll tell youter. But for now, where should we meet up?]
[Madison: Do you know the border city Rahiu that connects the front lines to the Demon Continent? We¡¯ll meet up there since we can start the journey to the Demon Continent immediately.]
[Shiro: Mn sure I¡¯ll have to hire someone to take me to Rahiu then. I don¡¯t have a checkpoint.]
[Lyrica; How long do you think it¡¯ll take then?]
[Shiro: One or two days at most. Three if I have to manually fly there.]
[Lyrica: Alright see you in two or three days I suppose.]
[Shiro: Mn, see you.]
Closing her phone, Shiro nced at Isilia.
"We¡¯ve got around two to three days to get to a ce called Rahiu, there we¡¯ll find the party and you can meet Lyrica there too. Thest time I saw her she was already an Apprentice Sword Saintess. Maybe she would have reached tier 5 by now." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, she¡¯s already almost at tier 5 stage huh?" Isilia smiled softly since not many could break past the boundary between tier 4 and 5 since it requires the adventurer to rely on themselves more so than ever.
Teleporting away from the resort ind for now, Shiro and Isilia arrived in Shanghai and sought out the Guild. Posting requests for Rahiu, they weren¡¯t surprised to see that there were quite a few people at the checkpoint since it was a front line city where many could earn quite a bit of money.
Teleporting to Rahiu, Shiro and Isilia rested at a hotel for now since they were waiting for the rest of the party to arrive.
Sitting on the hotel bed, Isilia was shuffling around in nervousness.
"Are you sure Lyrica won¡¯t hate me?" Isilia asked as Shiro chuckled and rolled her eyes.
"I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine, you worry too much. Do you want me to hug you to sleep like old times?" Shiro grinned and opened her arms.
"Whatever." Isilia rolled her eyes before standing up. Since Shiro had already showered and washed up, it was her turn.
Laying in her bed, Shiro closed her eyes and slept soundlessly.
Once Isilia had finished washing up, she saw this and sighed softly while still feeling nervous in her heart.
Just as sheid down on the bed, she felt Shiro hug her from behind.
"Just rx for now. I want to be the big spoon this time since thest time I was the little spoon." Shiro said as thest time they had camped together, she was being hugged by Isilia rather than the other way around.
"You still remember that? It¡¯s been a while. Though I suppose with your memory, it¡¯s only natural.".
"As if I¡¯d forget the night before what happened." Shiro rolled her eyes as the two slept soundlessly.
The next morning, Shiro received a text saying that they had arrived.
Waking up properly, she turned to Isilia.
"They¡¯ve arrived. Let¡¯s set off now."
"Uggg.... Why are they so fast. I thought I had to wait another day or so." Isilia sighed since she didn¡¯t have enough time to prepare herself.
"IEither youe or I just teleport you next to me when I meet them." Shiro shrugged.
*Cough!
"Fine fine I¡¯lle." If Shiro had teleported her while she was on the toilet, it would be rather embarrassing.
Waiting for Isilia to get changed, the two made their way towards the teleport shrine.
###
"Shiro said that she¡¯ll be here with the guest soon. Who do you think she is?" Lyrica asked as she nced back at the party.
"Well if it¡¯s Shiro, we know that the person must be pretty important for her to bring them to meet us. You think it¡¯s someone to do with the spirits?" Madison asked curiously.
"Who knows." Lyrica shrugged.
Just as they were about to leave the teleport shrine, they saw Shiro flicker near them.
"Yo. It¡¯s been a while." Shiro smiled.
But when she saw their level, her smile widened since they have all seeded in achieving tier 5. They were now amongst the strongest within the world in the short span of a single year if one did not include the time in the dungeons.
Chapter 828 Partys Improvements
Chapter 828 Party''s Improvements
Seeing Shiro, Lyrica was about to call out to her when she noticed a nervous elf besides her. Despite never having seen this elf before, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a little weird seeing her.
"Seems like you girls have been working hard. All of you have reached tier 5 and you Lyrica, have be the Elven Sword Saintess." Shiro smiled as Lyrica had finally aplished what she had sought out to do.
Hearing Shiro¡¯spliment, Lyrica smiled happily.
"Mn, it was hard but I finally did it. So far, the mastery I have over other weapons including ones with des have increased. I have a bonded weapon as well as a subspace where I can store powerful weapons for me to use and it¡¯ll ¡¯clone¡¯ the weapon. When I fight, I¡¯ll be able to summon a clone of that weapon to assist me. Of course, the clone is a little weaker than the original but it¡¯s still good enough." Lyrica exined while summoning a few des and dismissing them.
"That¡¯s pretty handy in terms of weapon efficiency. What about the rest of you?" Shiro asked while ncing towards the rest of the party. Seeing their titles, she knew a general idea of their ss but she wanted to hear them say it so that she could confirm her guess.
[Yin LVL 264 Divine Rift Devourer]
[Lisandra LVL 365 Divine Judge]
[Lyrica LVL 280 Elven Sword Saintess]
[Aarim LVL 275 Divine Caster]
[Silvia LVL 310 Sage of Life]
[Chen Yu LVL 270 Phantom Scythe]
[Madison LVL 275 Demoness of War]
[Helion LVL 280 Hephaestus¡¯ Sessor]
Hearing this, the party nodded their heads since they didn¡¯t mind. If Shiro asked them while their guest was nearby, it meant that she was trusted.
Watching Shiro activate a silencing barrier so that the people outside couldn¡¯t hear, the party nodded at one another.
"I can eat everything and anything so long as it has mana and I can reuse it." Yin grinned as Shiro nodded her head.
"I kind of figured, considering that you have kept Devourer in your ss." Shiro chuckled.
"My power is increased depending on your subconscious tolerance towards types of people, monsters and so on. If you dislike a certain type of person, my power against them is tripled. I¡¯m a judge using your standards as thepass." Lisandra replied with a small smile.
"Oh? So if I didn¡¯t like Yin your power would triple against her?" Shiro raised her eyebrow as Yin widened her eyes.
"How can you not like me though. Did you forget how much I helped." Yin pouted as Shiro shrugged.
"It¡¯s just so that your sister can reign in your appetite." Shiro smirked. Of course, it was just a joke. She couldn¡¯t hate Yin since she was her daughter after all.
"Who¡¯s next? If no one¡¯s going to volunteer I guess I¡¯ll go next." Aarim asked.
"We¡¯re not exactly racing here so take your time." Silvia chuckled.
"Well mine is pretty simple so I wanted to get it out of the way. All my spells are enhanced with divine energy thanks to a certain demi god and my focus is on gravity. I think if I kept increasing my knowledge on gravity, I should be able to transition to controlling forces in this world such as kic force." Aarim shrugged.
"That should be achievable once you reach tier 6. But I¡¯ll be honest, this is the first time I¡¯ve seen someone take gravity magic this far." Shiro smiled as Aarim shrugged.
"I have to take it this far in order to actually keep up with the crazy things that you do."
"True." Shiro nodded her head since she had recently constructed arge fortress after all.
{The poor girls don¡¯t know about it just yet either.} Nimue sighed while ncing at Madison and Aarim with pity.
¡¯Don¡¯t spoil the fun surprise now.¡¯ Shiro chuckled in her mind before looking towards their healer, Silvia.
"So then, Sage of Life, care to tell us what you can do?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Ugg... don¡¯t call me the Sage of Life when I can¡¯t even mass revive at your scale." Silvia sighed.
"You said at my scale so you can still mass revive no?"
Hearing this, Sivlia smiled since Shiro saw through her.
"Che, fine. Basically, I can revive up to 100 people at once but that¡¯s my limit. Any more than 100 and I¡¯ll have to choose who I don¡¯t revive. My buffs have also evolved and I have a buff where itpletely stops you from taking damage for the next few moments." Silvia smiled feeling victorious about the fact that her buffs have not been surpassed by Shiro.
"That¡¯s very handy with Madison since I have a buff where it allows me to choose who takes damage and how it is spread out. If you use your buff with Madison, it¡¯ll negate all the damage that everyone will take." Shiro smiled.
"What about you Chen?"
"My ss let¡¯s me instantly kill someone as long as certain requirements are fulfilled. Everyone has a certain amount of death marks on their body and if I can strike them all, they¡¯ll die. The stronger you are, the harder it is to hit the death marks and the tougher they are. Of course, there are special skills needed to be activated before I can actually instant kill but I can passively see Death Marks if I wanted to." Chen Yu replied as Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise since this was the first time she had heard of something like this.
"Interesting... Just out of curiosity, how many death marks do I have?" Shiro asked since she was curious about how ¡¯strong¡¯ she was against Chen Yu.
Closing his eyes, the whites started to darken before turning ckpletely.
Looking at Shiro once more, Chen Yu widened his eyes in surprise before sighing and shaking his head.
"It¡¯d be too difficult to kill you even if I used everything. There are so many death marks all around your body and they¡¯re all rather tough to pierce. Killing you is way too hard of a task." Chen Yu shrugged his shoulders as his eyes returned to normal.
"That¡¯s good to know. If I was easy to kill, it¡¯d be rather concerning." Shiro smiled.
"For thest two of the party, miss I want to be normal is now the Demoness of war and our cksmith is Hephaestus¡¯ Sessor. Why don¡¯t you tell me a bit about your ss?" Shiro chuckled.
"I basically can use all my berserk skills on a shorter cooldown and no bacsh. Like before, I have two forms I guess, attack and defence. When I¡¯m attacking, I don¡¯t take as much damage. When I¡¯m defending, I reflect a bunch of damage. Also, I¡¯ve given up now, I don¡¯t think normal is possible anymore. I have to either be the ruler of demons or I die." Madison scratched her hair in annoyance.
{Poor girl. When you win, you should help her get a normal life or something close to that.} Nimue said as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡¯
"Well I can¡¯t say much about being normal anymore but I can definitely say that the power of using berserk skills without bacsh is one of the craziest things I have heard. Plus, you said that they were on a shorter cooldown didn¡¯t you? You can use that short cooldown to trick a few people if you want. Have them think that they should go all out then just leave and fight them again when your berserk skilles off cooldown." Shiro chuckled since she could already picture it now. They¡¯ll be waiting to strike her when she¡¯s suffering from bacsh but that wait will be fruitless.
She had to admit that she would be against fighting Madison as well if she was an enemy. The power of berserk skills wasn¡¯t one to underestimate since many of them would give powerful skills as well. With Madison¡¯s ss, those skills that she receives will be insane.
*Sigh...
"I know but what can I do?" Madison shrugged with a sigh.
"Mn, what about you Helion? What can you do now?" Shiro asked as Helion smiled.
"As a passive of my ss, as long as I can study a certain piece of armour or weapon for an extended amount of time, I can improve it to the next grade provided that there is room for improvement with the material. If the material is brought to its limits, it will not rank up."
Hearing this, Shiro widened her eyes as this was the most outrageous thing she had heard all her life. If she was to provide him with rainbow grade equipment, there was a chance that he could bring it to the unknown next grade!
Chapter 829 Demon Continent
Chapter 829 Demon Continent
"Wait so you¡¯re telling me that as long as the material could be improved, you can bring it to the next grade?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Mn, but there are other requirements such as how much I know about it and how powerful it can be. If I¡¯m not strong enough to reforge the item then nothing would change." Helion shrugged his shoulders.
"Regardless, that¡¯s still amazing considering the fact that you can just upgrade anything so long as you have the required knowledge." Shiro praised as Helion scratched his hair in embarrassment.
"Why don¡¯t you introduce yourself now or do you want to talk privately with Lyrica first?" Shiro nced towards Isilia who fidgeted with nervousness.
"If possible, can I talk with Lyrica in private first?" Isilia asked as Lyrica tilted her head and nced at Shiro.
"It¡¯s up to Lyrica since it¡¯s something the two of you need to talk over. We can go to the hotel and I¡¯ll set down a few barriers so that others can¡¯t hear." Shiro smiled as Lyrica thought about it for a moment before nodding her head.
"Sure, I don¡¯t mind that."
Seeing that Lyrica agreed, Isilia sighed in relief.
Bringing the party back to the hotel, Shiro and the rest of the group sat by the restaurant section while Lyrica and Isilia talked in the room.
"So are you able to tell us who she is Shiro?" Madison asked out of curiosity.
"It¡¯s up to her if she wants to tell you but I can say that she¡¯s a friend of mine." Shiro chuckled.
"Fair enough." Madison shrugged.
"Setting that aside for now, do you know how the selection process is going to work in detail or do you not know? The only information we got from it was what they told usst time." Shiro asked.
"Nah I haven¡¯t got anything like that just yet. I think they¡¯re probably going to tell me once I arrived there or something." Madison sighed while eating some toast.
"Sounds logical." Shiro nodded her head since the selection process could be changed at any moment so nothing is certain just yet.
"What about you, have you finished doing all the things you need for the anchor?" Silvia asked.
"Mn I have. The elders are helping the spirits move to their new home right now. Since it¡¯s going to take a while, I had Nan Tian sit back and assist them so that they could speed it up. We needed to deal with Madison¡¯s case anyways so it was a good time to step out for now. They¡¯re not in any immediate danger and even if they are, the defensive systems should take care of it." Shiro chuckled.
"And speaking of the anchor, both Attie and Nimue have evolved thanks to me being able to properly use divine energy."
After saying this, Shiro summoned both Attie and Nimue out as Attie sat on herp and gave the party a wave.
Seeing him, both Yin and Lisandra felt their hearts being pierced by how cute Attie was.
As for the rest of the party, they were surprised at how fast Attie grew up.
But when they thought about how Shiro was essentially less than a year old, ignoring dungeon time, it didn¡¯t shock them that much anymore.
"Big sis Yin, big sis Lisa." Attie reached out towards the two since he hadn¡¯t seen them in a while.
*Badum!
Feeling as though another arrow had just struck their heart, the two yed around with Attie while Shiro and Nimue were talking with the rest of the party.
During this, Shiro found out that most of their schedule wasprised of clearing high level dungeons, raids and danger zones where adventurers were said to have disappeared without reporting anything back.
Most of them were cases of high level monsters roaming the ce but when they found out that they were in a domain, they would retreat since they understood that fighting a queen was suicide right now. They weren¡¯t at Shiro¡¯s standard just yet so trying to kill a queen or her guard was simply impossible.
Of course, they would report the location back to the guild and so far they¡¯ve helped uncover 4 anchors. They weren¡¯t sure if they were main anchors or branch anchors but approaching it to check was not an option.
With the four danger zones marked out, adventurers were more wary when they ventured out since they could be unlucky and stumble across a death trap.
In addition to this, with the Queen¡¯s building up forces around the world, there had been a few small skirmishes between factions but they weren¡¯t anything serious. So far, no one had been killed yet but the damages that they have caused are starting to increase.
They believe that there is a chance for war before the new age with how things were progressing but the queens aren¡¯t dumb. Starting a war early before the new age begins would set them back so they¡¯ll avoid war for now if they can.
As the party were discussing recent news, they saw both Lyrica and Isilia return. Lyrica looked as though she had cried for a bit since her eyes were red around the corners.
But seeing as how she was holding Isilia¡¯s arm, Shiro could tell that the talk went well.
"I apologise for not introducing myself earlier. You may have known me as Talia Faeha but I am Isilia, Lyrica¡¯s mother who should have died a while ago and I am also Shiro¡¯s friend from Aria. Due to a few special circ.u.mstances, I am now working with Shiro." Isilia introduced herself as the party widened their eyes in surprise.
They knew that Lyrica¡¯s mother had died and that in her past life, Shiro was forced to kill Isilia but seeing the elf in front of them, they couldn¡¯t believe that she was now alive and kicking.
"Wait she¡¯s your mother?" Madison asked in surprise as Lyrica nodded her head with a small smile. Seeing Lyrica¡¯s smile, Madison could tell that Lyrica was really happy that one of her family was alive. Sure she had her other rtives back in the elven capital but it wasn¡¯t the same as having her mother or father back.
While the party was happy for Lyrica, Shiro nced over at Isilia.
"I told you she wouldn¡¯t hate you now didn¡¯t I?" Shiro grinned.
"Mn." Isilia nodded her head with a smile since she was grateful that her daughter could still ept her.
"Now that you two have reunited what are your ns?" Shiro asked.
"We¡¯re going to deal with your friend¡¯s heritage then sort things out in the spirit capital. We can¡¯t leave the elves to fend for themselves after all. Plus, while I¡¯m the elven queen of Aria, it kind of extends to this world too once the new age begins since Aria will be merged." Isilia replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"There¡¯s a tform that can be ready for your country. It¡¯ll take a while before it is big enough but I should be able to provide decent amodation for the time being. Plus, I¡¯m thinking of helping Nan Tian and Li Jian move their sect over to the city too. With the way they like to work things, they can act as a scouting unit using drones rather than people when possible so that we can save on manpower." Shiro offered.
"Mn, I¡¯ll keep that in mind. Pft at the rate that this is going, you¡¯ll probably make a out of your nanobots with how many cities and countries you¡¯re nning to integrate." Isilia chuckled.
"Don¡¯t give me ideas now, Nimue might flip a table at me if I attempt that." Shiroughed.
As the party rxed for a while, they prepared to make a trip to the Demon Continent. During this, Isilia also offered to help Lyrica with her ss as the de saintess since she was the only one who knew of the deeper secrets. Plus, it was also a chance for some bonding between the two.
Making a family car so that they could fit everyone in, Shiro was the one driving and promised not to go too fast.
That, of course, was a lie.
But thankfully, Silvia was able to buff everyone so that they didn¡¯t feel a thing much to Shiro¡¯s disappointment.
The skies slowly changed the more they ventured into the demon continent. From the somewhat clear skies at the border, it was slowly dyed a dark red which had ck clouds looming in the distance.
There were asional lower ss demon¡¯s that tried to attack but were dispatched quickly with a single flick of the de by Lyrica. Since they didn¡¯t have any sentience other than to attack everything on sight and even cannibalising their ownrades, they didn¡¯t have any sympathy for them.
Soon, signs of humans decreased as they were now quite deep into demon territory.
Activating an item that she had received tomunicate with the Demons, Madison called for their escorts which soon arrived.
Chapter 830 Meeting The Demon Nobility Again
Chapter 830 Meeting The Demon Nobility Again
Stepping out of the car, they could see two demon nobles that they had metst time. Akog the Demonic Duke and Bolgrad the Demonic marquis.
Seeing Madison, both of the demon nobility kneeled on one knee.
"Princess, you have returned." Akog greeted as Madison sighed since she needed to get used to it.
"Stand up and tell us what¡¯s been happening so far I guess. I don¡¯t suppose the selection process has begun yet." Madison asked since if they startedte, it might be harder to win.
"There hasn¡¯t been any signs of starting yet which is good news. We don¡¯t know if it will change but if things continue as they are, it will either start at the start of the New Age or just before so that we have a queen to lead us." Akog replied.
"I see... Are you able to tell us more about the other candidates then? How many there are and what they¡¯re like in terms of power." Madison asked as Akog nodded his head.
"We will talk while we escort you back to your rightful territory. It may be a little dull I do apologise but it has been hard to maintain the territory without a prince or princess." Akog sighed.
"Don¡¯t mind it." Madison waved her hand dismissively as Akog nodded his head.
Sitting in the car, Shiro made two extra seats at the front for Akog and Bolgrad so that they could show them the way to the territory. While that was happening, they would also exin the current situation to them.
"Right now, we have a total of 67 queen candidates and 5 kind candidates. Despite therge number, there are only a few noteworthy ones. Naturally, you are included within the 67 queen candidates. Each of the candidates act in ordance to their demon god with ours being the Demon God Markon. We are currently rankedst I suppose since our candidates have been killed but with your current strength, I¡¯d say we rank roughly in the 50¡¯s or 40¡¯s." Akog exined.
"That low?" Madison frowned.
"Don¡¯t underestimate Queen¡¯s Madi. Even I lost control of my body when fighting against a weakened one. If it wasn¡¯t for Nan Tian, I might have lost. Plus, there was another Empress that needed me, Isilia, Nan Tian and Li Jian to team up to even push back. The strength of Queens is much higher than average, you¡¯re just at the doorstep right now. Honestly, I had expected you to be ranked around the 60¡¯s rather than 40¡¯s or 50¡¯s." Shiro cut in since they needed to know that queens weren¡¯t to be underestimated.
Even if they were weak, they could turn things on their heads with a single skill.
Hearing that Shiro was restrained and might have even lost without backup, the party was shocked since Shiro had things under control most of the time. Especially with her recent upgrades, harming her seemed rather difficult and yet she casually mentioned two queens that pushed her close to the limit when they were weakened.
"Her highness is correct. Each of the queens are masters of their ¡¯title¡¯. For example, trying to defeat a Queen of mes with fire is basically stupidity." Akog shook his head.
"Ah right, speaking of that Fire Queen, I¡¯ve already eliminated her from thispetition. She doesn¡¯t have an anchor anymore and she can¡¯te back for the New Age." Shiro said as the two demons immediately looked at her in surprise.
"I also eliminated the Vampiric Queen too. They were harming the spirit race so I had to deal with her."
Suffering another shock, the two couldn¡¯t believe that Shiro already eliminated two queens.
"Shouldn¡¯t they have guards with them?" Akog asked with disbelief.
"The Vampiric Queen did and Nan Tian helped me stall them while I killed her. As for the Fire Queen, we were lucky to find her before she could actually do anything. Plus, she was an old acquaintance of mine so I made sure that she couldn¡¯te back." Shiro smiled darkly as the two demons felt shivers down their spine.
¡¯Who the hell is the real demon here? Why does she feel so much worse than us????¡¯ Bolgrad thought with a twitching smile.
"Anyways enough about that, continue what you were saying." Shiro chuckled.
"Ah right. Most of the Queens are already allied with the higher ranking individuals since they know that their chances of victory is low. They might as well serve as a vassal and gain some benefits. Naturally, the Demon Gods are fine with that since there is a hierarchy among them as well. After thest garden, the ranks are ready for another reshuffling since the top ranked Demon Gods have powerful candidates all the time.
"The main enemy you need to defeat is the current estimated rank one king candidate, Nostic. His powers are unfathomable as no one understands what¡¯s happening when he fights. Whenever he touches something, it breaks apart into ash. Some have tried to attack him from a distance but it¡¯s no use. It doesn¡¯t matter if he touches a being, item or spell, they are all reduced to ash. Naturally, this isn¡¯t his only weapon either but no one has forced him to use anything else." Akog sighed.
"Sounds like a touch enemy. What level is he?" Shiro asked.
"500. They say he¡¯s on the verge of breaking through to tier 6."
"Mn... that¡¯s problematic. Speaking of which, what ranks is Demon God Verron? And if I kill the candidate, does that mean he can¡¯t descend?" Shiro questioned.
Since she pissed off Verron, she might as well try to deal with him as soon as possible.
"Demon God Verron¡¯s candidate is ranked 8th so naturally, he is ranked 8 as well." Akog replied.
"Heh~ I see. Killing the rank 8 candidate is going to be hard." Shiro sighed as the two demons just ignored the fact that she was thinking about killing the candidates with every sentence she says.
"As for the second part of your question, if you kill the candidates, the lower ranked Demon Gods will not be able to materialise. As for the higher ranked gods like Verron, they can but they¡¯ll be severely weakened."
"That¡¯ll do I suppose. If I can reach tier 6 by the start of the New Age, I might be able to deal with Verron if he¡¯s weakened." Shiro muttered.
Once again, the two decided to ignore the fact that she was musing about killing a Demon God for their own mental safety and turned to Madison.
"My princess, to better prepare yourself for the New Age, you¡¯ll need to focus on bolstering our ranks as well as acquiring territory so that our influence grows. Once we be big enough, we¡¯ll have powerful demons seek us out and that will form the basic army to stand against the other candidates. You may be wondering why we demons keep trying to invade human territory and this is the reason. Most of the ¡¯easy¡¯ to obtain territory is already acquired hence why most of us have set our eyes towards the humannds. Naturally, our factions hasn¡¯t been able to do that since the moment we try, we¡¯ll just be eliminated by the other¡¯speting for thend." Akog exined as the party furrowed their brows.
"So if Madison getsnd, would it be recognised by the system?" Shiro asked.
"Yes. Once she has a firm hold over thend, the system will recognise it as demon territory and the surroundings will change to suit us demons better such as darkened skies." Akog pointed out the window at the dark red sky.
"I¡¯m guessing the chances of seeding the Queen role is determined by everything I do from now on such as territory." Madison asked just to make sure.
"That is correct to a certain degree. We¡¯re not sure of the final requirements just yet but you are not far off the." Akog nodded his head.
"Seems like you have your work cut out for you princess." Shiro chuckled while ncing back at Madison.
"Uhgg.... I don¡¯t need you to call me princess. I don¡¯t even know if we have enough manpower to capture anything never mind keeping a hold on it." Madison sighed.
"And that¡¯s why we¡¯re here to help you with it. Most of us are already strong on our own so I¡¯m sure we can make something work when we¡¯re in a group." Lyrica smiled as Madison nodded her head.
"I can provide us with a few soldiers and weapons from the spirit race if the pushes to shove. But I¡¯ll need to see if the army is ready first." Shiro reminded.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Madison was happy that she had met everyone here. If not for them, she might be a brainless woman who only wants to serve the demon king if he ascends the throne. That was the worst case scenario that she wanted to avoid at all cost.
Chapter 831 Borders and Candidates
Chapter 831 Borders and Candidates
Currently, we are around the southern borders of the demon territory. Ournd is just a little further away from here and it¡¯s in the most danger should humans decide tounch an attack like they didst time. The western borders are upied by a few of the lower ranking candidates who have allegiances with the higher ranks." Akog exined.
"The northern border is being upied by the higher ranks while the eastern borders are being upied by the mid ranks. It¡¯s closer to the sea so they¡¯ll need to fend off attacks by the sea monsters. In terms of safety, I suppose it¡¯s better than the southern and western borders since sea monsters are nothingpared to humans." He sighed.
"How many candidates are present in the southern borders? We need to understand our neighbours I suppose." Shiro smiled.
Since they were nning on acquiring more territories to boost up Madison¡¯s ranking, they¡¯ll need to understand the nearby enemies first.
"The southern border is currently the home of ranks 72 to 67. There are four other candidates here excluding the princess. The main body of the candidates are in the centre of the continent. The western border is the home of ranks 66 to 50 due to itsrge size. The centre is ranks 49 to 25. The eastern border is from ranks 24 to 6 while the northern border is home of the top 5 ranking candidates." Akog replied.
"Hm... I see... I guess our n to go up in the ranks is from southern, western, centre, eastern then northern. Though I don¡¯t think the higher ranks will let us have that easily so I say we leave the western. We¡¯ll immediately take the eastern and invade the centre so that it gives us a good hold of the south east territory. That way, there isn¡¯t any risk of being forced towards the human cities." Shiro suggested.
"Are you sure we should aim for the easter borders? All the ranks there are near the top." Akog frowned since the easter borders has 18 rankers in total with their own backings and armies while they were just a small group inparison.
"Oh we¡¯re not going to be attacking immediately don¡¯t worry. My n is to begin the preparations for it such as cleaning up the southern borders first so that we are the rulers here then invade the east with the help of my fortress. I¡¯m still getting the spirits to move to the fortress so it¡¯ll take another week at most. After that, I¡¯ll teleport it here and we can move from there." Shiro smiled.
Seeing the doubt on Akog¡¯s face, Isilia shook her head since it was natural that he would doubt her ims.
"Shiro perhaps it¡¯s better to show everyone here an image of the fortress so that it¡¯s more believable." Isilia suggested as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Ehhh~ but if I did that the shock factor won¡¯t be there when I bring the fortress here." Shiro pouted since she enjoyed seeing the surprise on her party¡¯s face.
"We¡¯re surprised about what you do most of the time anyways. I¡¯m sure losing one won¡¯t hurt you." Madison rolled her eyes.
"Che fine... Here¡¯s the blueprint of the city. If you want, I can reserve one of the inds for the demons if the timees." Shiro sighed and snapped her finger,
A holographic device appeared in the centre of the car as a full model of the fortress appeared in front of them.
Normally, her holographic blueprints would be semi translucent so that they could see the details inside but this one was a silhouette of orange which confused the party.
"Shiro I thought this was a blueprint of the city. Howe it¡¯s just a silhouette?" Madison asked.
"It is a blueprint. Zoom in and you¡¯ll see all theponents. There¡¯s simply too many things that¡¯s why the blueprint became a silhouette." Shiro shrugged since it was the truth. With the scale of the fortress, scaling it down to this size would just make it a silhouette.
"If it makes it easier, I¡¯ll break up the blueprint a little." Shiro said while snapping her fingers.
The weapons that were on the fortress blueprint were suddenly highlighted in red and were detached from the fortress. Barriers were highlighted in green, houses in blue and so on.
Seeing the blueprint be clear, the party was shocked by the scale of the housespared to the overall fortress. It was no wonder that the blueprint was a silhouette at first since even the weapons were the size of hundreds of houses.
Navigating the fortress with the blueprint, the party was taken aback by everything that Shiro had included and there was more being made with each passing second.
Looking at the branch tforms that could house a few cities, the party collectively sighed.
"And you were worried about this not surprising us. I can¡¯t even imagine its real size in front of me since it seems unbelievable and you said that you made this?" Madison asked.
"Yup. I had some help with mana potions that I had found near Astral Horizons. They¡¯re 100% pure with no impurities so nosting effects. They refill your mana to full and even increase the maximum capacity slightly. Though with my mana pool, that increase is negligible. I¡¯m thinking of selling the potions on the fortress or just distributing it as army rewards since it not only refills your mana, allowing you to fight longer but it also increases the capacity. And the selling point, nosting effects." Shiro chuckled while opening a small portal to Astral Horizons.
Feeling the rush of mana in the car, everyone except for Shiro and Isilia were caught off guard as she retrieved one of the vials that her drones have been collecting nonstop.
Showing the mana potions to the party, she closed the portal.
"Since when were you able to create portals at will now?" Silvia asked while analysing the potion.
"Recently. With the help of Isilia, I was able to make a teleport shrine of my own using nanobots. Right now, I have markers ced on the mountain, the fortress and a few other ces that I¡¯ve already visited." Shiro replied as Silvia nodded her head.
"Every time we don¡¯t see you for a while, you pull out something crazy." Madison sighed while leaning back.
As the party rxed for a little, Aarim checked the mana potion andpared a few of the notes in her book.
"Yeah I think it¡¯s the first of its kind. I¡¯m not an alchemist so I wouldn¡¯t know but something like this is extremely valuable. I rmend not selling this in huge batches." Aarim sighed.
"Mn, I know. I was only nning to sell a bottle or two every so often with most of it being used in the military for their deeds. As for the alchemist, I was nning on asking Li Jian to see if he knew a trustworthy alchemist to do something with this potion since if we could refine or turn it into something else, it could be very useful." Shiro replied as a potion like this was ¡¯rare¡¯.
Talking for a while longer, they soon arrived at a rather deste city with little to no demons roaming around.
"This is our territory. As you can see, not many decide to stay here and those that do are only here because there are no other ces for them." Akog sighed.
"We do have a small military but it¡¯s left over from the previous candidate that passed on. If we want to secure our hold on the southern border, I¡¯m afraid we¡¯ll have to do it manually rather than rely on an army."
"That¡¯s fine, I¡¯m used to that method anyways. What about everyone else?" Shiro nced back at the party with a smile.
"I¡¯m fine with that too. Most of my spells are designed to be one against many after all." Aarimughed.
"Same with me." Lyrica smiled. Looking towards the rest of the party, she saw that they all agreed so Shiro knew that they were confident in facing an army which was perfect. Plus, even if they run low on mana, she had her potions to help. Especially for a healer like Silvia, as long as she had mana, everyone would continue to fight.
If anything, she was feeling a little sorry for the enemy.
"Oh right, do we want to kill the enemy or spare them? If we kill them, we might lose out on military power after all." Shiro asked.
"Hmm... let¡¯s spare them if we can. If not, I suppose we can only kill." Madison shrugged.
Nodding her head, Shiro made a note of that in her mind. She did have one concern though and that was the strength of the candidates near the top. If they were much stronger than expected, they¡¯ll need to be careful since one wrong move and they could force them to lead a suppression force themselves which could be quite bad.
Soon, they arrived at the castle.
Chapter 832 Balire Vernix
Chapter 832 Balire Vernix
The castle itself wasn¡¯t anything too impressive since Shiro had seen better castles before. Even the Spirit Capital had a better castle.
Approaching the castle, they could see quite a few demon guards raising their weapons towards them.
However, when Akog jumped out the car, they immediately dropped their weapons and kneeled on one knee.
"We have returned with the princess. Prepare 10 chambers for our guests." Akog said as the guards nodded their heads.
Dismissing the car, the group entered the castle while Akog led them to the throne room.
"So are there only two demon nobilities in this faction or are there more?" Shiro asked curiously.
"There is one more person and she¡¯s been helping out with a lot of the nning. She wasn¡¯t able toe pick you up princess but that¡¯s because she is very busy." Akog sighed.
"That¡¯s fine, we seemed to be quite low on manpower so I don¡¯t me you." Madison chuckled.
"We can talk to her in a bit but can you first tell us about our sphere of influence, military power as well as resources such as food?"
"Our sphere of influence right now is a single city and a small mine. Everything else has already been taken." Akog sighed heavily.
"That¡¯s not a lot." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"What¡¯s the n? Hit hard and fast or do you want to be stealthy and slow?" Shiro nced back at Madison since this was her choice.
"Hmm... What do you mean by hard and fast or stealthy and slow?" Madison asked.
"Well hard and fast will have us target the most important locations of each region. We¡¯ll ignore the less importantnd and conquer it in the fastest way possible. We can secure our grasp on the weaker territoriester. As for stealthy and slow, we¡¯ll conquer eachnd thoroughly without leaving a single one behind. This will take a while and could make the higher ranks focus their attention on us quickly." Shiro exined.
Hearing this, Madison stayed silent and thought about the options.
The first option lets them hit hard and fast but at the expense of a stable foundation. Should the higher ranks send an army to them, while they may be able to fight it for a while, it doesn¡¯t allow them to protect their ownnd. If they were just on their own, this option would be fine since they wouldn¡¯t need anynd. But since they were acting as a small faction, they needed to be concerned about where the residents stayed.
If they leave it defenceless, it could end very poorly for them.
However, just as she thought of this, she realised that she forgot about their strongest ally. Shiro.
She is able to protect an entire city all by herself since she could construct hundreds of weapons at once. They didn¡¯t need to worry about the main base since Shiro would be able to arm it with defensive measures.
"Shiro, if we picked the first option, would you be able to make some defensive weapons and barriers to protect the city? That way we wouldn¡¯t need to be worried if we charge forth into battle." Madison asked.
"Sure I can do that. Plus, if my weapons detect something and start fighting, I can open a portal back here immediately and deal with the threat. Naturally, just having weapons won¡¯t be enough. I¡¯ll prepare some barriers and make sure the ces we conquer are well fortified." Shiro chuckled as Madison nodded her head.
"Since we have low numbers, I¡¯m thinking we take advantage of our strongest aspect which is our offensive power and hit them hard and fast. Acquire as muchnd as we can, fortify them and pressure them at the north. But since we don¡¯t know the limits of their power, I say we hold back a little and keep our trump cards. That way we can surprise the rankers when they attack. Right now, we¡¯re at a disadvantage in terms of information and manpower so we should refrain from showing everything." Madison suggested with a serious expression.
"Are you sure we¡¯ll be able to takend with just how many people we have now?" Akog asked with a worried expression.
"It¡¯s fine. All of us have improved since thest time we fought you so we¡¯re much stronger than before. Plus, we have two de sainteses on our team and just one could face against an armour never mind two. I have potions and long ranged support while Silvia has buffs. Madison can run rampant without worry of tanking since she has raw offensive power which is the same as Helion. Chen Yu will be able to assassinate high priority targets while Yin¡¯s power is specialised forrge area of effects which will hit multiple enemies. Lisandra can act as our priority target since she is plenty strong herself but since she can dash around the battlefield at high speeds, she can help cover for everyone if they begin to struggle. As for Aarim, I don¡¯t even need to exin what Aarim does since she¡¯s a better mage than Yin. Her gravity magic can stall or even crush the opposing army that tries to block us." Shiro chuckled since she had a pretty good idea on the party¡¯s power and it leaned heavily on the offense. The control mage, healer and tank can go on the offense and be one of the highest damage dealers in a different party.
Hearing what Shiro had said, Akog found it a little unbelievable but didn¡¯t say anything.
"We can do a small practice run though since we aren¡¯t exactly experts at damage control." Shiroughed.
Hearing this, the party nced to the side embarrassingly since they knew they were awful at controlling their damage to not harm the surroundings. If they wanted to control it properly, they¡¯ll need to decrease the power output otherwise it¡¯ll be hard not to damage the buildings.
"If we want to hit hard and fast, we won¡¯t be able to build up a proper army so the best that we can do is use them to defend the ce or take them as prisoners." Shiro shrugged. If they were doing things slow, she could probably take some time to make sure the soldiers were loyal to them but since they were hitting fast, they couldn¡¯t use the soldiers since they were unknown variables. If they decide to turn on them, it could end poorly. Naturally, this meant losing all of their territory rather than life since Shiro could teleport them away if things turned south.
"If we do use them as city defence, I¡¯ll be tracking them with nanobots that will kill them the moment they turn against us." Shiro warned as the party didn¡¯t mind. They had seen their fair share of traitors during the time that they had been away from Shiro.
Killing traitors for bounties or quests wasn¡¯t anything new.
While the party was formting their ns, Akog could only sigh heavily since he had hoped that they could build up a stable army but that was wishful thinking. They had nond or resource right now so having a proper army was impossible.
"Right then, since we need some practice, why don¡¯t we secure a rather weaknd first, just so that we can get into the swing of things." Shiro smiled before turning to Akog.
"Do you know a decentnd that we can secure in the southern borders? One that isn¡¯t too important but not useless either." Shiro asked as Akog thought about it for a moment.
Pulling out a map of the southern border, he marked down where they were currently.
"There¡¯s a somewhat decent farnd towards our west with a fortress nearby keeping guard. It¡¯s roughly an hour or so in travel if we used the vehicle we used before. The guards that are tasked with protecting the farnd are somewhat powerful but in reality, they¡¯re only there for decoration." Akog exined.
"Hmm... interesting. Who does this farnd belong to?" Shiro asked while checking the other territories in the southern border that could potentially be important.
"This farnd belongs to rank 70, Balire Vernix. A queen candidate."
"Can you mark out her territory?"
Pointing out a small city roughly a few hour¡¯s travel away from the farnd, Shiro could see that it was even closer to the human territory than where they were. If anything, should the humans decide tounch another attack at that very spot, they would probably be able to take the city and force the queen candidate to leave.
"Let¡¯s take this farm then. I won¡¯t do anything other than maybe support from a distance. I want to see if you lot can take the farnd without killing anyone since the difficulty of this is rather low." Shiro grinned.
Nodding their heads, the party made a few quick preparations and got ready to move out.
It was still around midday so they had plenty of time to secure the farnd ande back in time for dinner.
Chapter 833 Trisil
Chapter 833 Trisil
While the party was discussing things in the office room next to the throne room, they heard a knock on the door.
ncing towards the door, they could see azy woman leaning against the door.
She wore a pair of sses and had long ck hair that reached her ear. She wore a long ck jacket, a in white shirt, a medium length skirt and some tights. Rather than shoes, she wore a pair of flip flops instead.
[Trisil LVL 480 Demonic Duchess]
"Oh is that the princess. Greetings." Trisil yawned while giving her a small wave.
Seeing this, Akog frowned but before he could say anything, Madison waved back.
"Hello, if you are tired, you can rest a bit more and we can get to know each other once you¡¯re rested." Madison smiled.
"Heh~ I like you. But don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m always tired." Trisil grinned as she pulled out a lollipop and put it in her mouth.
"Let¡¯s see... Hm... seems like you lot are nning to take the farnd." She said while ncing at the map.
"Mn, you see, here is the n so far."
Exining their ns to her, Trisil listened patiently while ncing at the map.
"I say you¡¯d want to watch out a little then. The little princess that¡¯s ranked 70 ces quite a bit of importance on this farnd. At the first sign of danger, she¡¯ll probably arrive as soon as she can so unless you want to fight her, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ll be able to im thisnd properly. Of course, even if you defeat her, you¡¯ll need to be wary of who she is allied with in the higher ranks." Trisil warned as Akog looked at her in surprise.
"Wait she¡¯s allied herself with someone now?" Akog asked.
"Yes. In the time that you were out, she had allied herself with rank 49 Casia. Thankfully, since the alliance is rather new, Casia won¡¯t do much but she¡¯ll still be annoyed so prepare for any retaliation she might throw at you." Trisil nodded her head.
"You either take the farnd and eliminate the little princess or you leave it because if you don¡¯t eliminate her early and the alliance solidifies, she¡¯ll probably turn her attention to us since we¡¯re rank 72 and ournd is the smallest here. The only reason why she hasn¡¯t done so already is because she was just a little stronger than us and rank 71. If she fought, she would be eliminated by rank 71. But now that she has allied herself with Casia, we¡¯ll need to be careful of her attacking us first if we don¡¯t want to lose our territory. We have to go hard on the offence or go hard on the defence, whichever suits you more." Trisil shrugged beforeying her body on one of the sofas on the side and covered her eyes with an eye mask.
Seeing this, Akog¡¯s smile twitched.
"She¡¯s right. Now that we know rank 70 is allied with a higher rank and the alliance is pretty new, we should eliminate her as soon as possible so that the higher rank doesn¡¯t invest too much into this. Plus, she¡¯ll probably attack sooner orter, so it¡¯s probably better for us to have the surprise attack against her." Akog said as Madison nodded her head.
"The n remains the same then with a small change. We¡¯re going to eliminate the queen candidate." Madison said as her face waspletely serious.
Peeking out from under her eye mask, Trisil had a small smile on her face seeing Madison¡¯s expression.
Packing up everything, the group left the castle and entered their car. Akog decided to tag along just in case while Balrog decided to stay behind and help Trisil with a few things. If things do go south, they can go assist quickly.
Once she was sure that everyone was in, Shiro started the car and drove towards the farnd.
Tapping her fingers on the steering wheel, a few nanobot drones materialised on the top of the car roof and flew ahead of them.
Tracing her fingers along the dashboard, two screens appeared and showed them what the drones could see.
Even from this distance, they could already see a sign of the farnd in the distance. A few watch towers were built and the darkness obscured the main fortress but the walls leading up to it gave them a rough idea on where it is.
As for the surroundings, there were a few hills but not much cover with lots of tnd that was good for farming.
There was a single river that was next to the farm as a few artificial channels were dug to redirect the water elsewhere.
"I¡¯ll be on the hills supporting you lot with a sniper if you need. I¡¯m won¡¯t be here always so I want to see how you lot handle a queen candidate. Naturally, Isilia will be there to assist but try to keep your help to a minimum if they can handle it ok?" Shiro smiled while ncing back at Isilia.
"Of course, kids won¡¯t grow if we keep sheltering them." Isilia chuckled
"Madi, Lyrica, I¡¯ll let you two decide the battle n and where I should drop you off. After all, this is Madi¡¯s debut as a queen candidate." Shiro smiled.
Nodding her head, Madison nced at the map.
"Like Shiro said before, we¡¯ll strike hard and fast. We¡¯ll split our party into two groups and hit both of the main watch towers first before iming the fortress. Me, Aarim, Helion and Lisandra will be responsible for the left tower while Lyrica, Silvia, Chen Yu, Yin and Miss Isilia will be responsible for the right side. Keep damage to a minimum since we might want to use these towers in the future and we¡¯ll reconverge towards the fortress. When we get to the fortress, Aarim will focus on restraining everyone with gravity magic since we want to capture them rather than kill.
"Whoever gets the tower first till assist the other team in getting theirs so that we save time. And naturally, we got Shiro giving us ranged support. Do you have any bullets that can restrain them rather than kill them?" Madison asked since their goal was to capture thisnd and not kill all of the guards.
"Yeah don¡¯t worry, leave that to me." Shiro waved her hand with a smile since she had plenty of bullet blueprints for this kind of task. She had bullets that could split into a and she hads bullets that knock people unconscious.
"You can probably drop us off around a kilometre away from the towers and we¡¯ll deal with it from there." Madison said as Shiro nodded her head.
Stopping the car a kilometre away, Shiro watched as the party and Akog make their way towards the tower.
Snapping her finger, she created a sniper and found herself a good spot on the hill.
Laying down, she could see Madison giving a few final orders before the two teams dashed towards the towers.
###
Dashing towards the right tower, Lyrica was a little nervous since her mum was here with her now. As the sessor of the de saintess ss, she didn¡¯t want to disappoint her.
Looking at the two, she could see three guards at the top who hadn¡¯t noticed them just yet.
"Rx yourself dear. You¡¯re too tense. The de saintess needs to flow through battle like a stream of water. Find an opening in every gap that you can see and strike before they even notice it." Isilia chuckled seeing her daughter tense up so much.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Lyrica took a deep breath and tried to rx but unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to at all since her mother was beside her.
"If you¡¯re nervous about me being here, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll cover you. It¡¯s ok if you mess up once or twice since I have messed up much more than you have. Every time, Shiro would cover my mistakes and watch my back." Isilia smiled at the fond memory.
Hearing this, Lyrica was able to rx slightly however, it was much better than before.
Summoning two des, she nced towards Chen Yu, Silvia and Yin. Nodding her head, she signalled them to behind.
Twirling her staff, Silvia mmed it against the ground as two tier 5 magic circles wrapped round each of them.
Giving everyone a buff of speed and power, Chen Yu made a seal with his hands as shadows wrapped around him and he disappeared from the spot.
With the boost in speed and power, Lyrica crouched down and dashed with her full strength.
*BANG!!!
Flickering forward, she reappeared in front of the guards that were stationed at the top of the tower.
Widening their eyes in shock, the guards reached out for their de but Chen Yu appeared behind them and knocked them out in an instant. There was only one who barely dodged but Lyrica dealt with him quickly.
Seeing this, Isilia smiled softly. While her daughter was still a little tense around the edges, her potential was very high and with a bit of training, she could easily surpass her which brought her joy.
Chapter 834 Capturing The Fortress
Chapter 834 Capturing The Fortress
While group two was clearing the second tower, group one was not far behind in terms of progress. With Madison and Helion taking the front lines and smashing through everything, they were able to breach the tower¡¯s defences with ease.
Even when some of the guards tried to sh towards her, their swords would bounce off of her armour, leaving a gap for her to counter attack.
Shiro didn¡¯t have to do much as she looked through the sniper scope. She could see everything clearly as she had used her analysis skill to peer through the walls.
Seeing the entire tower in just lines, she could easily pick out any hidden dangers.
Pulling her trigger, she knocked out a demon that was waiting around the corner with a greatsword. Even if Madison¡¯s armour was powerful, Shiro could tell that the sword would have harmed her quite a bit if itnded with the amount of mana that was gathering there.
Thankfully, a single bullet was able to knock him out.
The bullet was made using celestial path as a reference and all that it does is drain all of the enemy¡¯s mana at once. It would send them into a mana deficient state for a short period of time, causing their body to react and knock them out.
Of course, how long it knocks them out for depends. If their mana regeneration is high, it would only knock them out for a short period of time. If their mana regeneration is slow, it¡¯ll knock them out for longer.
Of course, she can also inject the stolen mana back into them to stop them from dying if things turned dire.
{They¡¯re progressing quite nicely aren¡¯t they?} Nimue chuckled as she observed rom inside Shiro¡¯s mana realm.
¡¯Yup. Both teams have superb offence, it¡¯s just that they have different offenses. Madison and Helion are like an unstoppable tide while Lyrica and the others are more meticulous.¡¯ Shiro replied while covering for Lyrica¡¯s side.
She could see a few of the demons trying to call for reinforcements.
Aiming her sniper at them, Shiro wondered if she should let them.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro smiled and stopped aiming at them.
¡¯Why not, we need to eliminate the queen candidate anyway. Bringing her here is actually beneficial for us.¡¯ Shiro smirked since she knew that they could defeat the queen candidate.
Watching them call for reinforcements, she waited for a moment before actually shooting.
"And now we wait." Shiro muttered.
###
Balire Vernix was a rather young looking demon who wore reserved clothes. Her demonic wings peeked out of her back as the shirt was designed to have holes for her wings.
She had long red hair that reached her lower back.
Her bangs were swept to the side and her blood red eyes were both charming yet threatening.
Her body stature was on the younger side as it resembled a young girl blossoming into a beautiful woman.
Right now she was biting her nails with frustration since she had finalised an alliance not too long ago. She didn¡¯t want to ept the alliance since doing so means that she had given up and let herself be a ve.
However, if she didn¡¯t ept it, she would be destroyed by Casia so rejection was not an option.
"Arggg!!!" Crying out in annoyance, she punched her bed in frustration since she was now just a ve with a slightly better name.
Sighing heavily, she nted her face against her pillow and closed her eyes.
But just as she did this, she heard an emergency ring that wouldn¡¯t happen unless her territory was being attacked.
Quickly sitting up, she grabbed the phone.
"What is it?" She asked with a serious voice.
"We got intruders! Both towers by the farnd! They¡¯re all tier 5 an- *BANG!!!*"
All she heard was a single explosion which sounded like the tower being pierced and the other side fell silent without even a single scream. There was the asional sound of fighting but that was probably because the other guards were putting up a fight.
mming her phone down, her eyes zed with fury.
"¡ê^%^%^&$%¡ê I just became a ve today and now my territory is being invaded??? Are you f*cking kidding me!" She cursed while summoning her armour.
Normally, a candidate would have better armour or weapons than this but she was different. The Vernix family never invested in any expensive armour or weapon because they could cultivate their own in the form of a guardian that they could summon by their side.
One that would grow alongside them and it was more powerful than any weapon or armour they could equip at that moment.
mming her windows open, she unfurled her wings and shot into the sky.
She was going to teach whoever wanted to invade hernd a harsh lesson!
###
[Shiro, we¡¯ve finished capturing both towers now. We¡¯re moving towards the fortress.]
Hearing Madison report back, Shiro quickly grabbed her earpiece.
"Understood. I¡¯ll keep an eye out for you. Reinforcements have been called and I¡¯m pretty sure that the candidate is arriving soon. Make it quick and we can focus on the candidate." Shiro replied.
[Got it.]
Cutting off the earpiece, Shiro watched as the two groups reconvened.
Applying a few buffs to Madison, Silvia gave the party another buff before casting one final spell which seemed to have caused their opponents to be disorientated for a moment.
Seeing this, Madison massaged her shoulder for a moment before mming her foot down.
*BANG!!!!
Dashing forward like aet, a zing red aura erupted out around her as she mmed against the fortress walls.
*BOOM!!!!
Seeing the huge cloud of smoke that exploded out in the distance, Shiro widened her eyes in surprise.
¡¯Holy crap I didn¡¯t think she¡¯d just ram it down like that.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since Madison¡¯s attack was out of her expectations. She had thought that they would jump over the wall or something but no, Madison straight up used her own body as a weapon and destroyed the front gates. Looking at the barely intact wall, Shiro¡¯s smile couldn¡¯t help but twitch since she knew the materials used were reinforced because of powerful demons or humans.
And yet despite that, with a few buffs from Silvia, Madison was actually able to destroy the gate with ease.
The followingbat was as expected. With the party back together, the enemy couldn¡¯t harm them at all. And even if by some miracle they could, Silvia would keep everyone healthy with her healing spells and Chen Yu would target the powerful demons that managed to harm them.
In a few moments, all of the guards had been defeated and the fortress was theirs. Unfortunately, during this little conquest, they hadpletely damaged the front gate and parts of the wall which they would need to fix themselves.
Just as Shiro was about to pack away, she sensed a rapidly approaching mana signal and notified the party.
"Watch out everyone, seems like the candidate is here." Shiro smiled as the party started to gather at the courtyard of the fortress.
Looking into the distance, they could see a faint shadow of a small person flying towards here. While her shadow was faint, they could sense that she was powerful with her mana signal.
However, this wasn¡¯t being arrogant, but even Silvia could defeat her since they weren¡¯t weak.
"What the hell!!!" Balire shouted out seeing the destroyed fortress.
"Damn it do you know how hard it was for a low rank like me to get materials like that to fortify the fortress!? And yet you destroy it just like that! If you¡¯re going to capture it, don¡¯t damage it!" Balrieined as a giant tier 5 magic circle expanded out above her.
But despite this disy of power, the party only looked at her awkwardly.
Madison looked towards their ¡¯most normal person, Akog, and opened her mouth.
"Is that magic supposed to be impressive?" She asked. Sure the surge of mana was impressive butpared to what they could do it seemed... meek?
Hearing Madison ask if a tier 5 magic was supposed to be impressive or not, Akog was speechless since tier 5 was the peak of what people could attain at this moment of time. Of course it was impressive!
Hearing this over the earpiece, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
¡¯Oh poor Madi. Mn I should probably knock out the queen candidate so that we can talk to herter I guess. She¡¯s less of a threat than I thought.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself and fired a shot.
Looking at the young girl flying in the sky, she was about to unleash the spell when a bullet hit her neck but no blood was drawn.
Pausing for a moment, her body fell out of the sky like a dead bird and the magic was instantly cancelled.
*BANG!
Crashing against the rubble, they couldn¡¯t help but think ¡¯ouch¡¯ from the way she fell.
"I¡¯ll go heal her a little I guess." Silvia shrugged as the party nodded their heads.
If the enemy was strong, they wouldn¡¯t do this but this girl seemed a little... pitiful?
Clearing up the rubble and healing her, the party tied her up to a chair and prepared to interrogate when she woke up.
Chapter 835 Questioning Balire
Chapter 835 Questioning Balire
Sitting in front of a girl tied up to the chair, the party looked at each other before looking at the girl.
Right now, they were sitting in the office room of the fortress that they had just conquered since it was easier to question the candidate here.
"Are we going to kill her?" Madison asked out of curiosity since they only captured her since she seemed quite pitiful. The fact that she stormed ahead without even assessing their power told them that the candidate was a novice when it came to battle.
Whether that was because she had overlooked them due to anger or something else, it didn¡¯t really matter since the final result was the same.
"I mean, if we want to kill her I can do it right now." Shiro shrugged.
"Let¡¯s listen to what she has to say first. Depending on what happens, we¡¯ll decide then." Lyrica suggested as the party nodded their heads.
While they were talking, Akog was trying to process everything that had happened.
So far, he had witnessed his princess m her body through a reinforced fortress gate that Balire had paid quite a steep price for. Not only that, Shiro casually decided to knock out a queen candidate with a single bullet. Compared to their first meeting, the party¡¯s improvement was monstrous. This was just over the course of a few months too!
Remembering that he had been stuck at his level for quite a while now, he couldn¡¯t help but feel embarrassed.
However, even if he wanted to level up, he was forced to take care of serious matters such as making sure their faction didn¡¯t copse. While he did get help from Trisil and Balrog, there was only so much the three of them could do.
"Right then, so the n is to interrogate her then decide on what happens. Are you nning to make her into a vassal or something? Because I¡¯m not sure she¡¯ll choose you over rank 49." Shiro asked since she could tell that Madison was feeling pity for the girl.
"Mn... we¡¯ll see." Madison nced to the side since she understood that Shiro realised she was going easy on the girl.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro didn¡¯t mind if Madison wanted to pity the girl since they heavily outpower her. However, if the fight was close, Shiro would kill her immediately.
Walking up to the girl, Shiro removed the bullet on her neck and injected the mana it had stolen back into her.
Healing up her wound, she took a step back.
"Urg..." Groaning softly, the girl opened her eyes and found herself tied to a chair.
"The hell!?" She cried out in surprise before trying her best to break out.
However, the rope was made from Shiro¡¯s nanobots so breaking out was nothing but a pipe dream for her.
Gritting her teeth, mana red from her body as two illusionary armoured arms appeared and tried to rip the rope apart but to no avail.
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". . ." Staying silent, she slowly looked up at the party that was staring at her and couldn¡¯t help but feel a chill down her spine.
"Err... this is a sturdy rope you have. Very well made. Where can I buy something like this?" Balire asked with a forced smile since she had expected her guardian to break her out but it didn¡¯t even dent the rope.
"Thank you, I made it. Let¡¯s see, rank 70 Balire Vernix, a queen candidate that has recently made an alliance with rank 49-"
"Pui, what alliance, it¡¯s just being a ve with a better name." Balire retorted instantly since she hated that ¡¯alliance¡¯. If she could, she would have never agreed to it!
"Interesting. Seems like you aren¡¯t on good terms with rank 49." Shiro chuckled while giving Madison a side nce since she knew the young girl wasn¡¯t lying.
"Pui, who the hell would be on good terms with each other when it¡¯s a guarantee that the weaker one would be the ve. The only reason the higher ranks aren¡¯t fighting is because they¡¯re afraid of losing power while the lower ranks eye them like rabid animals." Balire pouted while shuffling around on the chair since the rope was ufortable.
"Why don¡¯t you give up on the alliance with rank 49 if you hate her that much," Madison asked.
"Che, as if I could. If I gave up, my family and I will be killed and ournd would be forcefully taken. If I ¡¯team up with her¡¯, at least my family can still live. Even if it is basically equivalent to being a ve." Balire clicked her tongue andined.
"So I take it that your main goal is to save your family then." Shiro smiled.
"Mn, if it was just me then I wouldn¡¯t serve her even if I died! Who the hell wants to be a ve of that b*tch. But I can¡¯t let mum and dad die because of my hubris. I¡¯m not like big sis." Balire red at the ground in anger.
"And I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re telling us all of this so that we can spare you since we seem like the soft kind of people." Shiroughed as Balire blushed slightly and nodded her head since there was no point lying about that.
"I can¡¯t die, if I die, she would definitely kill my parents." Balire bit her lip while trying to get out once more.
"Just a question from me, what was that?" Helion asked.
"What was what?" Balire tilted her head.
"The guardian thing. The arm that popped out." Helion corrected himself as Balire summoned the guardian arm again.
"If I tell you what this is, will you let me go." Balire asked with a frown.
"Well I don¡¯t really care if you tell me or not since we know a person that has something simr to this." Helion shrugged.
When he and Madison were being trained by Chelsea, she would use her own guardian to beat them up so it was hard for him to not recognise it.
"Who! You know someone that can use the family guardian!? Where is she?!" Balire gritted her teeth and red at Helion.
"You seem to have a vendetta against her." Madison raised her eyebrow.
"Only the demons of the Vernix family can use the guardian. Anyone who can use it has our blood flowing in their veins. All of the Vernix family is living in the centre of the demon continent except for one. If you have seen it before, it means you met my older sis. Nizia Vernix. She was the one who gave up on bing a queen candidate and almost caused our family to be killed!" Balire exined with a re.
Looking at one another, both Helion and Madison frowned since Chelsea had clearly said that her family was killed by demons.
"Teacher said that her family was killed by demons. Perhaps she¡¯s an extended family rather than sister." Helion asked.
"I doubt it."
Silence ensued as it was bing a little awkward.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to knock her out again so that they could have a private chat.
Making a pistol, she shot another bullet at her neck as she was knocked out before she could say anything.
"Since there is now the possibility that she is Chelsea¡¯s sister, perhaps we should contact her before we deal with the girl here." Shiro suggested as both Helion and Madison nodded her head.
Pulling out her phone, Shiro called her mum who picked up almost instantly.
[Darling do you need something?] Mio¡¯s voice rang out.
"Mn, do you know Chelsea¡¯s contact number? She was the one who trained Helion and Madison." Shiro asked.
[Oh? You¡¯re looking for Chelsea?] Mio asked
"Mn, we kind of need her thoughts right now." Shiro nodded her head.
[Sure let me give you her number.]
Ending the call, Mio sent Shiro Chelsea¡¯s number which she dialled immediately.
Waiting for a few moments, she heard the other side pick up.
[How did you get my number, who are you?]
Before she could even greet her, she had to push her phone away from how loud it was. With her enhanced senses, it was surprising that her eardrums didn¡¯t rupture.
"This is Shiro, Mio and Koji¡¯s daughter." Shiro exined as Chelsea paused for a moment.
[Ahh ok. I¡¯m guessing you got my number from your parents. What do you need?]
Hearing this, Shiro took a deep breath.
"We havee across a girl who seemed to have a connection to you. Her name is Balire Vernix." Just as she said this, Shiro heard a bang on the other side.
[Where are you right now. I¡¯ming over.]
Hearing the seriousness of her voice, Shiro knew that Chelsea was connected.
"I¡¯ll send you a map now."
[Thank you.]
Ending the call, Shiro sent her a map of their current location.
"Chelsea ising to our location now." Shiro said as she turned to the party.
Chapter 836 Midnight Scouting
Chapter 836 Midnight Scouting
Hearing this, the party decided to settle down for the night since Chelsea wasing soon.
They didn¡¯t want to do anything to Balire just yet since if they were indeed family, Chelsea should be the one to decide what to do rather than them.
Preparing a few rooms manually they decided to rest up for the night. -
While everyone was resting up for the night, Shiro decided to do a bit of scouting herself.
Sitting on the roof of the fortress, Shiro was constantly sending out drones to the rest of the demon continent so that she could manually scan out the borders for herself such as where strong mana signatures are as well as potentialnd that they could conquer.
She was going to mark them out thenpare it to the map that Akog had so that she knew which candidate thesends belonged to.
"Seems like you¡¯re busy as usual." Isilia smiled as she climbed thedder up to the roof. Sitting next to Shiro, she handed her some hot chocte.
"Mn, I want to get as much information as I can for Madison since Akog wasn¡¯t able to do much since he had been busy. But it¡¯s understandable considering they only have a single city and a single mine. To be honest, I¡¯m surprised they even kept the mine since I would have thought the other candidates would have taken it by now." Shiro shrugged.
"That¡¯s so like you. You never really liked going into things if there was information that you could obtain did you?" Isiliaughed.
"Of course. If there was information to be obtained and I ignore it, anything that happens out of expectation is my fault for not doing the research. Any information that I could get might be life saving. Plus, it was also because I didn¡¯t research enough that you were forced to kill yourself to help me survive." Shiro looked down with a soft sigh.
"Oh don¡¯t be like that. I¡¯m here now aren¡¯t I? Plus, you saved me plenty of times haven¡¯t you? Just take it as me repaying my debt fufu." Isilia chuckled while using Shiro¡¯s shoulder as a headrest.
"Even so, don¡¯t you dare use your life like that anymore ok? If you do I¡¯ll be angry since I have plenty of ways to keep myself alive." Shiro pouted.
"I know. You¡¯re even more tenacious in this life than you were in yourst. Though speaking of which, once the new age begins again, it means Aekari will be back. Do you think you can beat him now that he knows you¡¯re alive? He can also make that device to shut down your nanobots can¡¯t he?" Isilia asked with worry.
"Who knows. I¡¯m also able to enter god form for a bit so I¡¯ll need to end things quickly. Thankfully, I also have a skill called extraction which allows me to attack his source code directly. Even if he has a form of immortality, as long as I can hit him with extraction, he¡¯ll be dead. The only sad thing is that I won¡¯t be able to torture him but as long as he is dead, I don¡¯t really care. Plus, there¡¯s also the problem of the light goddess that¡¯s backing him. From what I know, she was the one who pushed him to be who he is today." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Oh? How did you know? I thought the light goddess was just someone who gave him a bit of her power rather than push him to be evil." Isilia frowned. Back in Aria, the light goddess was a highly respected god so it was hard to believe that she was the cause of him bing evil.
"When I extracted him the first time, I wasn¡¯t able to kill him but I did manage to harm him quite a bit and I even got a nce at his memories using the source code. What I saw was the light goddess urging him and his name slowly turned ck."
"Fallen." Isilia muttered as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn. I¡¯m still not sure what bing fallen means but I know that Yin said I was close to bing a fallen when I was obsessed with killing the light hero." Shiro shrugged.
"Bing fallen is when the system recognises your strong desire to ughter or a single purpose of killing. I did a bit of research on this and those that be fallen are single minded ughter machines that won¡¯t stop until their desire is fulfilled. After that, they wander the world as mindless beings that require no substance to survive and will kill all who stand in their way. Naturally, this happens because the system supports this desire. The system is a tool to help and you can think of it as a way to grant your wish. Once you fall, you cannot go back as your soul would have been corrupted. Even if you reincarnate, your next life will be filled with a growing desire of blood and vengeance that will force you back on the track of bing fallen even if you don¡¯t want it. It¡¯s not a joke to say that once you fall, there is no going back." Isilia exined with a frown.
"The system is a double sided sword. It assists you, but depending on what happens, it may also harm you." Shiro shrugged as she was grateful for the fact that she was actually able to avoid bing fallen.
"Mn, it¡¯s not an exaggeration to say that if the system wasn¡¯t around, there would be no fallen, since it¡¯s the system that amplifies and responds to this desire. Without the system, this desire wouldn¡¯t be cultivated and it wouldn¡¯t corrupt your soul." Isilia sighed.
"Setting aside the depressing talk, how does spending time with your daughter feel?" Shiro smiled.
"It feels good. After my husband passed on, it was hard but I couldn¡¯t find Lyrica just yet. Now that I can actually be next to her, I feel relieved. Did you know that when I was making my way up here, Lyrica was actually hugging me tightly and refused to let go?" Isilia smiled.
"Well she did grow up losing both her parents. She¡¯s probably worried that you might disappear again." Shiro smiled softly.
"Mn, she did tell me about how you helped her ovee her weak self after your first meeting in school. Thank you."
"It¡¯s fine. You know that I don¡¯t spend too much time on someone unless they¡¯re being sincere. On the first day of arriving, she actually stayed up all night making me a notebook to help me and the system recognised it. If not for that, we might¡¯ve just stayed as acquaintances without me knowing that she was actually your daughter." Shiro said while rubbing the bridge of her nose.
Talking for a little longer, Isilia helped Shiro with mapping out the information she collected before going back to sleep.
{She knows you quite well huh? You two also worked together quite nicely.} Nimue smiled.
¡¯Mn, we have worked together for quite a few years back in Aria after all. She knows a few of my habits.¡¯ Shiro replied with a smile.
{It¡¯s nice that you have someone familiar that you can talk to often. It must have been quite lonely toe to this world on your own at the start.} Iziuel asked as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯It was. I hid it behind my goal of seeking revenge and getting stronger I guess. It was just something to keep me constantly distracted so that I didn¡¯t think about it.¡¯ Shiro replied since she felt alone in Aria ever since Isilia died.
But on ¡¯Earth¡¯ she was now surrounded by friends and family to alleviate this loneliness.
Shaking her head, Shiro did some final scouting before going to sleep herself.
Waking up early in the morning, the party had some breakfast before giving Balire some food as well.
They didn¡¯t say anything to her just yet since Chelsea wasing soon.
Sensing a mana signature in the distance, Shiro brought out a sniper and saw that Chelsea was arriving on top of arge hawk mount.
Seeing the expression on her face, Shiro could see nervousness and disbelief which confused her a little but she knew that they were probably going to find out what happenedter today.
Landing in the courtyard, Chelsea walked up to Shiro.
"Where is she, where¡¯s Balire?" She asked.
"Follow me." Leading her into the fortress, she showed her to the room where they kept Balire.
Chapter 837 Balire and Chelsea
Chapter 837 Balire and Chelsea
Leading Chelsea to the room that they had kept Balire in, Shiro undid the ropes and stepped to one side. Naturally, she removed the bullet once more so that she could actually regain consciousness.
Looking at Balire that was sitting on the chair, Chelsea looked at her with shock and relief.
Biting her lip, she hugged Balire, causing her to wake up.
"Mn..." Groaning softly, she looked down and saw Chelsea hugging her.
Widening her eyes, she gritted her teeth and kicked her away.
"Don¡¯t touch me." She spat out while forcing Chelsea back a few steps.
"Do you want me to stay or should I leave so that you two can have some privacy?" Shiro asked but it seems like Chelsea didn¡¯t pay her any attention.
Shrugging her shoulders, she kept silent and made herselffortable in the corner.
"A few years ago, I swear I had seen you, mum, dad and everyone else getting killed in front of my eyes. How are you alive?" Chelsea asked as her voice quivered.
"We never got killed, what do you mean how are we alive? You¡¯re the one who ran away when things got tough!" Balire shouted back as Shiro figured it¡¯s probably rude to stay.
Leaving quietly, she allowed the two to talk things out without any interruption.
"What¡¯s happening inside?" Madison asked since she could hear some shouting when Shiro opened the door.
"Probably a misunderstanding between the two of them. From what I know, Chelsea had seen her family die whereas Balrie believes that Chelsea had abandoned them." Shiro shrugged.
"Hopefully they can sort it out. Teacher¡¯s methods are rather... heavy handed but she¡¯s a good person. I don¡¯t believe she would abandon her family like what Balire had said." Madison furrowed her brows.
She could still remember the fear she had when Chelsea had asked them to wrestle a young dragon but whenever they were in danger, she could rescue them when things got rough. In the end, her training helped them improve in terms of how they utilise their strengths.
"Mn, I know. It¡¯s just a matter of waiting for the outc-"
*BANG!!!
Before Shiro could finish her sentence, the door of the room mmed open as Chelsea¡¯s body was sent crashing against the wall.
Looking back in surprise, Shiro could see that Chelsea had a sad expression on her face while wiping away the blood.
"Don¡¯t give me that crap! All of the family saw you running away! We¡¯re alive and well so what the hell do you mean you saw someone kill us!? And even if you did see them kill us, you should¡¯ve at least ¡¯avenged¡¯ us or something, why the hell did you run away like a coward!?" Balire red at Chelsea while her guardian red behind her with rage.
"You¡¯re right, I shouldn¡¯t have run away. Even if I saw you get killed, I should have stayed and gotten revenge for you." Chelsea smiled sadly before standing up.
Walking up to Shiro, she patted her shoulder.
"Look after her for me please. She¡¯s a bit hot headed but she¡¯s not a bad girl." Chelsea whispered over as her wounds slowly healed.
"Mn, sure." Shiro nodded her head.
Looking at Chelsea who was walking away, Balire only gritted her teeth and went back into the room without saying anything.
"I should have a talk with her if we¡¯re going to be getting her ¡¯help¡¯ I suppose. Isilia has a copy of all the scouting I did yesterday so you can go over the data with her." Shiro said as the party nodded their heads.
Watching the party leave, Shiro pushed open the door before closing it.
"Seems like your rtionship with your sister is on the rough side." Shiro chuckled while sitting next to her.
"Juice?" She asked while holding out a cut of juice that she had retrieved from her inventory.
"What kind of offer is that? Are you going to persuade me to forgive my sister?" Balire asked with a frown but didn¡¯t reject the juice.
"Half and half I guess. Your sister did ask us to look after you." Shiro chuckled.
"Che, if she was really concerned she would be looking for mum and dad first." Balire drank all the juice in one go out of frustration.
"Perhaps she has her own matters to think about. I have an older sis and a younger sis. My older sis would go out of her way to do things for me while I slept. As for my younger sis, I haven¡¯t been able to do much for her but I do regret not spending as much time together since I was with my older sis." Shiro smiled and refilled Balire¡¯s juice.
"So what¡¯s your goal, telling me all of this and giving me juice." Balire asked. Once again, she didn¡¯t refuse the juice.
"Since your older sis wanted me or rather, us to look after you, we¡¯re going to be on friendly terms. I suppose we also want to know about the situation between you and rank 49 so that we can deal with her and take her out before she can harm you." Shiro exined since that was indeed their goal.
She was thinking of letting Balire protect theirnd since she wasn¡¯t exactly the most powerful one and letting her on the front lines was dangerous. Plus, since Chelsea wanted them to look after her, the front lines was not the best ce to do so.
"So what do you even want me to do. If you basically want me to be your ve then I won¡¯t agree." Balire red at her.
"Nothing serious like that. I just want you to protect thend like you have been and I¡¯ll give you some weapons to help you achieve this. You can be the protector while we go secure morend." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn sure. You¡¯re not asking me to be a ve so that¡¯s better than being under that b*tch. Also, will you lot even be able to beat her? She is strong, you know." Balire asked.
"Pft, getting worried already." Shiroughed and patted her head.
Blushing from embarrassment, Balrie moved her head away.
"Well if you die I¡¯m basically dead anyway." She quickly made an excuse as Shiro shrugged her shoulder.
"Whatever you say. But don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re strong. For example, I have this." Shiro grinned and created a tier 6 magic circle.
Seeing this, Balire widened her eyes in shock.
"You¡¯re tier 6???" She asked.
"Nope. But one of my attunements is tier 6." Shiro chuckled since she was only in the 300¡¯s in terms of level. She was almost level 400 but she would still need to kill quite a lot of things before she can reach that.
Seeing that Shiro had ess to tier 6 magic, Balire sighed in relief since it means that if she was a queen candidate, she would probably be in the top 5. Hell, she might even be rank 1 for all she knows since the other¡¯s haven¡¯t attained tier 6 yet to her knowledge.
"You just sighed in relief, didn¡¯t you?" Shiroughed as she patted her head again.
"Don¡¯t worry, this party is strong. I¡¯ll keep in contact with you using this. If you need our help or want to talk, you can always use this." Shiro smiled and handed her an earpiece.
"When you¡¯re ready,e to the office room. Since this is your fortress, you should be familiar no?" Shiro asked.
"Mn I know." Balire nodded her head.
"Good." Nodding her head, Shiro was about to leave when she felt a tug behind her.
"Erm... can I have another juice please. It¡¯s tasty." Balire asked with a blush.
"Of course. Have three." Shiro chuckled and retrieved three juices from her inventory. She still had quite a few left but she figured that she¡¯ll need to replenish her stock soon. After all, she¡¯s been drinking it whenever she had some downtime.
"Thank you."
Leaving the room, Shiro walked towards the office room.
From her scoutingst night, she had already nned out an ¡¯attack route¡¯ of sorts where they would start moving towards the north east so that they can start conquering the eastern borders that were next to the sea.
If they attack the centre directly, it¡¯ll be hard to keep thend since they could be attacked by the north, east and west. But if they go east first, all they had to worry about was the centre.
Entering the room, she could see that they were already discussing the attack ns.
Chapter 838 Conquering the Southern Borders
Chapter 838 Conquering the Southern Borders
"On the way to the eastern borders, there are four significant territories that we want to keep an eye on. Arge mine, a mountain fortress that provides good defences, another farnd and the small city of Ophet. If we can take this city, it¡¯ll open quite a few trade routes between the mines and farms. While there isn¡¯t a teleport shrine in this city, it actually works in our favour since it¡¯ll be more concerning if the enemy could teleport into our doorsteps." Isilia exined while pointing it on the map.
"Since we can make our own, it doesn¡¯t matter if a ce has teleport shrines or not. If anything, we should aim for ones without teleport shrines." Shiro added on while sitting down on a chair.
"Seems like you¡¯ve finished talking to her." Isilia smiled.
"Mn, she¡¯s agreed to act as a defender of the cities rather than join us on the front lines since it¡¯s safer back here. Plus, I can give her a few weapons to help defend the city." Shiro chuckled.
"What about her alliance with the other queen candidate?" Madison asked.
"Seems like it¡¯s more of a verbal agreement with some hostages probably. We¡¯ll sort out the details with her in a bit. The main thing is that since it¡¯s probably a verbal agreement, we can work around a few things without telling Casia, the queen candidate." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, that¡¯s a relief. If she had a contract like the one you have with Nimue, it would be quite concerning." Lyrica furrowed her brows since she knows that Nimue¡¯s contract has it so that if she goes against the terms, she would essentially be killed forever.
"Indeed. But don¡¯t drop your guard since we never know what could happen." Shiro reminded as Lyrica nodded her head.
"Anyways, since Shiro is here, I can finish the conquer n for now. Since we¡¯re going to be making our way to the eastern border, we¡¯re going to first split our teams into four since everything on the southern border can be handled with ease. We¡¯ll split the teams so that we are even in terms of offense and defence with Shiro handling Air Support. I¡¯m sure you can probably snipe across the border no?" Isilia smirked as she nced at Shiro.
"It¡¯ll need some careful calctions but it shouldn¡¯t be too hard." Shiroughed.
"Perfect. We¡¯ll have you running air support then and you can also act as our eyes in case anything goes wrong. The first team will be the one that conquers the mine. Since it¡¯s a mine, we¡¯ll need things to be on the careful side. Therefore, the first team will be Silvia and Chen yu. Both of them work well together and Chen Yu is single target while Silvia can buff him. The next is the mountain fortress, Aarim and Yin will be responsible for this one since they are bothrge scale aoe fighters. Aarim, I¡¯ll need you to control the spells, including Yin¡¯s, so that you don¡¯tpletely obliterate the fortress. We know that their defences are strong so you two are probably the best choice for this.
"For Farmnd, I want Lisandra to take it by herself since she¡¯s a good all rounder type fighter. You can self heal so conquering it by yourself shouldn¡¯t be a problem right?" Isilia asked as her understanding of everyone is what Shiro had told her along with what she had seen.
"Mn, I can take it. It might take a bit longer since I¡¯m alone but it shouldn¡¯t take too long." Lisandra nodded her head.
"Good. The final one is the city. Since it¡¯s a city, it¡¯ll naturally need more people to conquer it hence why the fourth team will have the most people. Madison, Lyrica, Helion and me. We¡¯ll conquer the city. Once we conquer the city, we¡¯ve essentially made a bridge to the eastern borders so we need to keep things intact. Well, as much as possible since I¡¯m sure Shiro will be able to repair the city if we damage it." Isilia chuckled as Shiro didn¡¯t say anything other than nod her head since she had to repair plenty of cities back in Aria.
"Good. Let¡¯s get moving now then since it¡¯s still early in the morning." Isilia concluded.
"Akog, you can head back for now and inform Trisil and Balrog about what we¡¯re going. Once we finish conquering thends, you can probably go there and help us solidify our hold on it." Madison said as Akog bowed.
"As you wish. How should I contact you?" Akog asked.
"You can use this." Shiro smiled and threw the two of them earpieces.
Informing Akog on a few other small things, the party stepped out of the fortress as Balire followed them.
"Am I just protecting this ce like usual then?" She asked.
"Mn, just look after this ce and if you need help, contact me and I¡¯ll teleport here." Shiro chuckled.
Nodding her head Balire watched as the party left in a car.
Letting Isilia drive, Shiro flew into the air and readied her sniper. Unlike the previous sniper, this one was a little different in that the range was much bigger and the power allowed the bullets to travel incredibly fast. Even over a long distance, the bullet would arrive almost instantly.
"Right then, shall we begin conquering the entire southern border?" Shiro grinned as Nimue only shook her head lightly.
{I pity those that have no idea what¡¯s about to happen.} She muttered as Iziuel agreed.
###
Imari Nau, the rank 67th Demon Queen Candidate was the most influential demon in the southern border.
She had short ck hair and wore ck and silver armour. Her silver eyes would cause her subordinates to kneel in fear.
While she may be called the most influential, it was only because the higher ranks didn¡¯t care about the southern border. It was near the human territories and it was sandwiched between the western border, the centre and the eastern border. Being the strongest here wasn¡¯t much of a good thing since if the east or west decide to invade, she won¡¯t be able to do anything about it.
After all, the east is home to ranks 24 to 6, the centre is home to ranks 49 to 25 and the west is 66 to 50. Just a single candidate from those ces would be able toe down to the south and conquer it in an instant.
The only reason as to why they haven¡¯t is because of the fine bnce of power they have. If that bnce was broken, she would be eliminated.
Right now, she was currently pacing around with a frown since she had heard about rank 49 and 70 making an alliance which was potentially bad for her. Sure she was in a position where anyone higher than her could take over but it¡¯s not as though she was just going to let them.
¡¯If rank 70 is getting support from 49, I should probably nip this bud before it can bloom properly. If I let this be, they could knock on my door in a week¡¯s time and take everything from me. Even if I will lose to rank 49, I won¡¯t let myself go down without a fight." Imari thought with a frown and looked out of her window.
Narrowing her eyes, she called for her assistant.
??You called princess?" A young woman kneeled in front of her as Imari looked down at her.
"Gather the army, we¡¯re going to fight rank 70 Balire. We can¡¯t let her alliance continue for longer." Imari said as the young woman furrowed her brows.
"But if we do, it¡¯s akin to dering war against rank 49."
"Even if we don¡¯t move, it¡¯s only a matter of time before theye knocking on my door. I¡¯m not letting myself get eliminated without a fight." Imari frowned as the young woman nodded her head.
"As you wish."
But before they could leave, a winged demon charged into the room.
"Report! The Grd Mines, Biac Mountain Fortress, Rels Farnd and Ophet city are being attacked!" The demon shouted out.
"What?! By who!?" Imari widened her eyes.
"We don¡¯t know! All we know is that two people are at the mines, two at the fortress, one at the farnd and four at the city! We¡¯re not able to harm them much less stop them!" The demon reported.
"The hell!" Gritting her teeth, Imari didn¡¯t know which higher ranked queen decided to im the southern border but with only two demons going to onend, it¡¯s clear that they¡¯re more powerful than average.
"Gather everyone! We¡¯re going to fight them!" Shemanded before storming out of the room.
Chapter 839 Final Moments
Chapter 839 Final Moments
Laying on her back while floating in the air, Shiro had already set up a perimeter of drones around all four territories. Things were going quite well so there was much she needed to do in terms of support.
Silvia and Chen Yu were making steady progress in terms of conquering the mines. With Silvia being able to buff, debuff and act as a pseudo control mage, Chen Yu was able to knock out the people guarding the mines with ease.
For the fortress, while they were indeed making good progress, the damage to the fortress was growing with each passing moment.
Even when Aarim tried to contain the damage, Yin would get overly excited andunch another big spell which would damage the fortress further.
Even if Aarim was powerful, there was only so much she could do if Yin continuouslyunched spells like that.
Naturally, Shiro gave up on caring since even if she did destroy the fortress in the end, she could repair if they needed that location.
But since they were low on man power, that location could be ignored if they didn¡¯t need it.
For the farnd, Lisandra had already finished conquering it and all she was doing now was guarding it in case someone came to im it back.
She was the fastest one out of everyone because of theck of guards.
The one that took the longest was the city due to its size. Since they didn¡¯t want to kill people as they would be their subjectster, the party took extra care in not unleashing extremely strong spells.
This was the luxury of the strong since they can hold back and still win. With Madison and Lyrica acting as the vanguard, Helion would act as a pseudo assassin with the way his passive works.
If they see a strong target, he would ¡¯forge¡¯ his way towards them so that his presence was concealed then strike them on the back of the head to knock them out.
The shock of seeing a muscr man suddenly appear was rather surprising as the enemy wasn¡¯t able to react to it at all.
In their shoes, Shiro would also be surprised since his passive makes it so that you ignore him. Even if you sent out a full area probe, his presence would be forgotten. It wasn¡¯t erasure of presence but the trickery of the mind so in essence, it was one of the strongest stealth skills out there.
Unless you have a skill that prevented illusions, it would be impossible to find Helion. You could be cooking a nice meal for your family and Helion could be sitting at your table. As long as he is forging, you won¡¯t notice him.
Just as she was rxing, she felt her drones report a group of fast moving targets towards the city.
Closing one of her eyes, she looked through the camera of the drone and saw what seemed to be a queen candidate from the mana she was releasing along with her armour.
"Everyone listen up, we got a queen candidate flying here from the west of the city. There¡¯s an open area between her and the city so we¡¯ll go confront her there. That way, we can avoid getting any bystanders into our fight." Shiro smiled.
"I¡¯m ready since I¡¯ve already cleared the farnds." Lisandra reported as Shiro nodded her head.
"What about team one?" She asked.
"We got one more level to go then we¡¯ll be good too." Silvia replied since they were currently making their way through the mines, clearing out guards.
"That¡¯s fine, take your time, when you¡¯re ready, pretty the third button and a portal will be created for you at my location. Team two, what about you two?"
"If we ignore the damages done on the fortress, we¡¯re pretty much done since Yin wouldn¡¯t stop firing off spells. There are a few casualties but no one is dead." Aarim replied while Yin was still firing spells in the background.
"Mn ignore her for now. I know that team four hasn¡¯t finished yet but that¡¯s fine, team one, two and three join up into the portal when I give you the signal." Shiro ordered as she dashed towards the west of the city so that she could intercept the queen candidate in the ins.
That way, they could fight without worrying too much.
With Shiro¡¯s speed, she was able to arrive at the ins and intercept the queen candidate with ease.
Seeing the sudden appearance of a white hair girl who seemed to emit no mana at all, Imari¡¯s instinct was already telling her that something was wrong.
Stopping their charge, she red at the girl before opening her mouth.
"Speak! Who are you?" She dered as she summoned her spear.
"Just a friend of the person who¡¯s taking the city. How¡¯s your day?" Shiro chuckled and gave her a small wave.
Hearing this, Imari frowned since she couldn¡¯t tell how powerful Shiro was at all.
"Why don¡¯t you introduce yourself? I¡¯m rather curious what rank you are in terms of being a queen candidate." Shiro smiled.
"Only if you tell me your identity first." Imari replied as Shiro shrugged.
"Well that¡¯s a real shame since we don¡¯t know who we¡¯re up against. But I suppose you¡¯ll be fighting me since we are taking your territory. Seeing that you areing from the west of the this city, I¡¯d say there¡¯s a good chance that you¡¯re Imari Nau the 67th rank Demon Queen Candidate no?" Shiro asked with a grin.
Seeing that her identity was figured out, Imari didn¡¯t say anything other than nce to her assistant.
"What¡¯s the situation in the city right now?" She whispered.
"Mypanions are taking care of the guards right now so that the cityes under our control. Don¡¯t worry, they won¡¯t be killing anyone." Shiro interrupted as she appeared behind the queen with a smile.
Widening her eyes, the queen immediately shed her spear towards Shiro.
However, just as she finished the full motion of her swing, she noticed that her spear had disappeared and Shiro was floating above her with the spear in hand.
"It¡¯s not a bad weapon butpared to our cksmith¡¯s it¡¯s kind of on the weak side." Shiro chuckled as she threw the spear back at her.
"Here. Fighting you isn¡¯t going to be any fun so I¡¯ll let the others deal with you. After all, if I decided to fight...."
"You¡¯ll be killed in an instant." She finished as she reappeared besides the queen with her sword against Imari¡¯s neck.
Halting her breath out of fear, Imari nced behind her in anger since her subjects didn¡¯t protect their queen at all. But the moment she looked back, she saw that everyone had ice chains restraining their movements with swords surrounding them.
She understood that if the white haired girl wanted to, she could end them all in an instant.
"Of course, if you want to surrender, that¡¯s an option too." Shiro chuckled and jumped down from the sky.
Landing on the ground, she made herself a beach chair and an umbre before bringing out some juice from her inventory.
"You can have some fun with them instead." Shiro smiled.
Snapping her finger, several portals opened up as the party stepped through it and looked towards the reinforcements the queen candidate brought.
"You know, if you scare them like that they wouldn¡¯t want to fight anymore." Isilia sighed.
"Oh I¡¯m sure it¡¯s fine." Shiro waved her hand as Lyrica only shrugged since they were used to this.
While Shiro and the party were talking, Imari looked at all of them with a downcast expression.
Even if she did fight them, she knew that she wasn¡¯t walking away victorious today.
Gritting her teeth, she looked back at her subjects that followed her.
"Go back, I¡¯ll buy some time. Hopefully they won¡¯t chase you down." She sighed while holding her spear.
Hearing this, the soldiers paused for a second before shaking their heads.
"There¡¯s nowhere for us to go even if we go back." One of the soldiers said as the rest nodded their heads.
Pausing at this response, Imari chuckled.
"Dumbasses. Let¡¯s take one down with us then." She grinned.
###
Looking at the ¡¯final moments¡¯ the queen was sharing with her shoulders, Shiro looked at the party awkwardly.
"They do realise that we aren¡¯t going to kill them even if we win right?"
Chapter 840 The 72nd Rank Candidate
Chapter 840 The 72nd Rank Candidate
"Let them have this moment. Maybe next time the person who fights them won¡¯t be as kind as us. After all, life and death is fleeting on a battlefield." Isilia smiled as the party waited for them to get ready.
Taking a deep breath, Imari looked at the party and raised her spear.
Releasing a loud war cry, her mana surged as blood red aura erupted out of her body.
Pointing her spear into the sky, red tethers could be seen gathering towards the spear tip from every corner as she pointed her spear towards the party.
"Charge!!" She shouted out.
Following behind her, the soldiers activated their own spells.
Looking at the charging army, the party couldn¡¯t help but smile since they would be scared of this scene a few months ago but now, it was nothing to them.
"Shall we go a bit easy on them?" Silvia asked since she had skills and debuffs that would make what they¡¯re doing obsolete.
"Yeah, just basic skills for now. If they do die, Silvia, make sure they¡¯re unconscious or something." Lyrica nodded her head.
"Sure, reviving them shouldn¡¯t be too hard." Silvia chuckled as she mmed her staff down.
Suddenly, severalyers of tier 5 magic circles appeared beneath them as their stats received an upgrade.
Cracking her neck, Madison took a step forward before summoning a shield.
"HAAAA!!!" Shouting out as loud as she could, a semi translucent barrier suddenly appeared around the party as it expanded out rapidly.
Seeing this barrier, the soldiers quicklyunched spells towards it but it was ineffective.
*BANG!!
Crashing against their bodies, the barrier forced the soldiers back as their advance was halted.
Imari managed to contest against the barrier for a short while she was able to keep her bearings.
Twisting her body, she shed with her spear and a crimson wave of energy shed against the barrier, splitting it in half.
*Whistle~
"That¡¯s the first time I¡¯ve seen someone cut your barrier in half. I suppose a queen candidate is indeed different to normal people." Lyrica smiled.
"We¡¯ll she is a candidate to lead the demon race, I¡¯d be more concerned if she couldn¡¯t break past this barrier." Madison shrugged since that barrier wasn¡¯t her strongest barrier. It was just something to clear some space around them if they ever get swarmed.
"Regardless, I¡¯ll go knock a few of them out." Lyrica smiled.
Reaching into her pocket dimension, she brought out tworge cleavers that threatened to cut down anyone in her path.
"Are you sure you should use swords like that? Aren¡¯t we going to knock them out and not kill them?" Madison asked with a forced smile.
"It¡¯s fine." Lyrica waved her hand dismissively.
Stomping down, her body shed towards the army as a trail of red light could be seen flickering behind her.
Twisting her body, she mmed the face of the de against the body of a soldier.
*CRACK!!!!
The sound of bones breaking could be heard as the impact knocked him out and sent him crashing to the ground.
"See? Knocked out but not dead." Lyrica smiled as she continued to weave through the army with no one being able to catch her.
"He¡¯s not dead but he could cross the line at any moment." Silvia sighed as she mmed her staff down.
Suddenly, green light wrapped around his body as his wounds were healed instantly.
"Pft it¡¯s fine, you¡¯ve got it sorted." Lyrica shrugged.
Suddenly, she felt danger behind her as she quickly raised her sword and shed backwards.
*CLANG!!
Blocking Lyrica¡¯s attack, Imari redirected the sword to the side before trying to m the pommel of her spear against Lyrica¡¯s chest.
Bending her body, back, Lyrica dodged without too much trouble.
Letting go of her sword, she reached into the pocket dimension and grabbed another de.
This time it was a dagger. Twirling the de in her hand, she flicked it towards Imari¡¯s neck and forced her to back off.
Gritting her teeth, Imari backed off and swiped up with her spear.
Casually deflecting the spear with her arm guard, Lyrica mmed her hand down and summoned a spear with a ming tip.
While Imari was on guard, Lyrica took the time to quickly tie her hair into a ponytail since she wasn¡¯t in much danger.
"Well aren¡¯t you kind, you actually gave me some time to tie by hair up. You know what? I¡¯ll be nice to you." Lyrica smiled and dashed forward.
Piercing towards Imari with her spear, Lyrica grinned and let go so that the spear continued to travel.
Lifting up her leg, she kicked against the pommel to suddenly increase its speed.
Widening her eyes, Imari twirled her spear and redirected the attack.
Activating one of her skills, a murderous aura erupted out of her body. Crimson wings unfurled behind her as she flickered behind Lyrica.
Seeing that Lyrica hadn¡¯t reacted just yet, Imari pierced towards her heart with the spear.
However, before her spear could strike Lyrica¡¯s heart, a de suddenly appeared and protected Lyrica from being killed.
"You know, if I time it right, I can summon a de as a defensive action rather than offensive." Lyrica nced back with a smile.
Widening her eyes, Imari was about to jump back when several portals opened up around them.
Grabbing a long sword from one of the portals, Lyrica dashed forward.
Stepping on the shaft of the spear, she flipped over Imari and kicked her on the back of the head, forcing her to stumble forward.
Crouching down, caught Imari¡¯s spear with the guard of her sword and forced Imari closer to her so that her spear would have limited movements. After all, the danger of the spear came from the ded tip rather than the shaft.
Pushing up with her left hand, Lyrica mmed the pommel of her long sword against Imari¡¯s jaw as a cruel sound of bone breaking could be heard.
Pulling her right hand back, she mmed it against her chest.
*BANG!!
*Cough!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Imari¡¯s body was sent crashing against the ground.
Despite having arge arsenal of skills, Imari wasn¡¯t able to use most of them as Lyrica had ended the fight rather quickly with two strong hits when her guard was down.
For fights between high levels like them, a single mistake could be the end even if you have powerful skills.
During the short exchange between Lyrica and Imari, Yin, Lisandra, Aarim and Madison were making short work of the army. Meanwhile, Silvia was in the background healing all of their enemies so that they didn¡¯t die because one of them couldn¡¯t control their strength.
Soon, all of the enemy was down on the ground as Imari¡¯s regeneration allowed her to stand back up while blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.
Looking at the party in front of her, Imari gritted her teeth since the power of the party far exceeded someone from the southern border. If she had to guess, they were either from the centre or the east with how easily they were able to deal with them. The most dangerous of all, the white haired girl, who was rxed the entire time.
If she made a move, everything would have been over in a minute.
"What do you want with me and everyone else. Why do you bother keeping them alive." Imari took a deep breath despite the pain in her chest and asked. She could feel her ribs on the verge of breaking after Lyrica¡¯s hit and every word she spoke was painful due to the broken jaw but her regeneration was trying its best to keep things together.
"I suppose I want you as an ally. Well... ally is stretching things a bit so how about subject or follower? You should be familiar with those terms right?" Madison asked with a smile.
"Heh, so you want me to be your ve is that it?" Imari gave her a mocking smile.
"Che, the hell is with you demons and very. I¡¯m going to ask you to lick my boots or some crap. Things are basically going to be normal only that you¡¯re now working for me and everything you do is in my interest rather than it being something detrimental for me. Think of me as an employer and you¡¯re now an employee." Madison rolled her eyes since Balire was the same when talking about working under someone.
"So you just want me to work under you without any restrictions?" Imari frowned as this sounded fake to her.
"Pretty much. After all, the only reason I¡¯m even doing all this is so that I don¡¯t have some dip sh*t king turn me into a brainless b*tch." Madison clicked her tongue and looked towards the north where the top ranking candidates reside.
"We don¡¯t really have the manpower to look after everything so that¡¯s why I¡¯m asking if you want to work under me. Otherwise we would have probably killed everyone here for EXP." Madison shrugged.
"Wait, you don¡¯t have man power?" Imari asked in disbelief.
With their power, getting soldiers shouldn¡¯t be hard since demons valued strength.
"Nope. I¡¯m only rank 72 after all." Madison shrugged her shoulders as Imari paused in shock.
The one who stopped their advance and belonged to a party of strong people was actually the rank 72nd demon candidate???
Blinking her eyes, Imari couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this was a bad dream.
Chapter 841 Recruiting Imari
Chapter 841 Recruiting Imari
"Wait, you¡¯re only rank 72? I thought the demon rank 72 had already died?" Imari asked in disbelief while trying to stand back up but failing due to her injuries.
"Oh they did die. I¡¯m the new one." Madison shrugged as Silvia walked over and healed Imari.
Hearing her mention that she was the new one so casually, Imair was speechless since she hadn¡¯t seen such a carefree candidate before.
Each of the candidates would be on guard with one another and wouldn¡¯t be on good terms unless they were in an alliance.
This was the first time that a candidate would actively help save the enemy soldiers and even offer to heal the queen candidate.
Gritting her teeth from the shame she was feeling, Imari stood up and looked at Madison.
"What kind of demons are you lot. Most would just kill us since they can get followers if they demonstrate their power. There¡¯s no need to keep the enemy alive." Imari furrowed her brows.
"Pft, what kind of demons are we lot she says." Madisonughed while ncing back at the party.
"I¡¯m the only ¡¯demon¡¯ here. The rest here are humans, angel, she¡¯s a phoenix, she¡¯s a spirit and these two are elves." Madison smiled as Imari paused in shock at the diversity of the races in a single party. She knew that spirits and elves had a good rtionship so she wasn¡¯t surprised but the fact that they even had an angel and phoenix was the most surprising of all.
Even the fact that a demon and human are in the same party was no longer surprising since there were more shocking facts!
"Looking at her face, I¡¯d say she¡¯s surprised at our races." Shiroughed.
"True. But setting that aside, are you going to work under me?" Madison asked again.
"Are you going to kill me if I say no?" Imari asked while biting her lip.
"Mn, probably. But don¡¯t worry, even if you do work under me, I won¡¯t be interfering too much since I¡¯ve got more important matters. As for your subordinates, if you say no and I kill you, I won¡¯t kill them." Madison replied with a smile.
"I see. What¡¯s your goal in all of this?" Imari asked.
"To be the queen so that I don¡¯t be a brainless b*tch for the demon king?" Madison shrugged.
Hearing this, Imari paused in understanding. For a person like her, she hated that she would be ¡¯intoxicated¡¯ if a king ascended so the thought that Madison wanted to be the queen to avoid this was relieving.
After all, if the final victor is a queen, they would be spared the fate of wanting to be the king¡¯s wife.
"But honestly, if you don¡¯t want to work under me it doesn¡¯t matter since I can get someone else to look after the southern border. Balire is already working with me so getting her to rule the southern borders wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea.
Hearing this, Imari paused in surprise.
"Eh? Balire is working with you? I thought she was working with rank 49?"
"She was. But I beat her and it turns out she knows an acquaintance of ours so now we¡¯re working together. I¡¯ll probably eliminate rank 49 on my way up so it¡¯s up to you if you want to join but make your choice quick. We¡¯re on a tight schedule." Madison frowned as Imari thought about it for a moment.
Taking a deep breath, she looked at the dark red sky that she had seen since her birth.
Staying silent, Madison understood that this was probably a hard decision for someone like her since in their mind, this was akin to bing a ve. Sure she wouldn¡¯t do anything to her or kill her if she agrees, but the shame they feel was something she couldn¡¯t do anything about.
After a long pause, she nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll.... work under you." Imari said as she looked down at the ground with a sigh.
"Great. Do you need some help in escorting your soldiers back? We¡¯re going to be going to the eastern borders immediately so we won¡¯t have time to send them back gently. Plus, since you¡¯re working under me now, I won¡¯t do anything about thend that we have taken over. You can use them like you have before but they¡¯re essentially mynd now, ok?" Madison smiled as Imari nodded her head.
"Understood. What should I call you?" She asked as she struggled for a moment but kneeled down in front of Madison.
"Just call me Madison like everyone else. I don¡¯t really care about formality. My main goal is to just be the queen." Madison shrugged before turning back to the party.
"Since she decided to work with us, let¡¯s go to the eastern borders." Madison smiled.
"Mn, it shouldn¡¯t take long. Since they¡¯re higher level at the eastern border, I¡¯ll do some scouting first. The highest rank should be 6 so I¡¯ll go challenge them and get the general feel of the demon ranks. I¡¯ll tell you if you can just storm in or if we have to work around a few things. While they¡¯re not proper kings or queens, you never know what they might have up their sleeves." Shiro shrugged as Madison nodded her head.
"Try not to alert the higher ranks if you can just in case. Normally, there is always a great disparity from rank 6 to the top 5 so if we alert them, there is a chance that things could go south for us. While you may be able to fight them yourself, having all of them gang up on you might be annoying." Madison reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
"Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯ll be rather shameful if I got defeated by a candidate after all." Shiroughed. After all, she was an Empress ss along with being a demi god. Even queens would struggle to fight her much less candidates so if she actually lost, she might as well bury herself in the ground.
Of course, this didn¡¯t mean that she would drop her guard. Much like what happened between Lyrica and Imari, a single mistake was all it took to end the fight. She had a few more failsafes but she couldn¡¯t be too careless.
Hearing that Shiro mention the candidates as ¡¯mere¡¯ Imari couldn¡¯t help but wonder about the identity of the white haired girl.
However, remembering the power that she had demonstrated, Imari admitted that she was very strong. Strong to the point she could look down on the candidates which made her suspect that she was probably on the level of a queen.
Making a car for everyone to enter, Shiro left with the party towards the easter border, leaving behind Imari who was waiting for the soldiers and her assistant to wake up.
"Mn..." Groaning softly, her assistant struggled to get up for a moment and panicked remembering the previous fight.
Looking down at herself, she was curious as to why she was in perfect form. If her memory was right, she should have several broken bones or worse, dead.
In front of her, Imari was sitting on the ground with a downcast expression.
"You¡¯re awake." Imari said as her assistance kneeled and nodded her head.
"Mn. If I may be so rude as to ask, what happened?"
"We were spared. The girl who defeated us was working with the rank 72nd candidate. Well... ranks are somewhat superficial since the strength she demonstrated was much higher than even the ones in the centre. They¡¯re moving towards the eastern borders right now. I think it wouldn¡¯t be long until we receive news of the eastern border¡¯s conquest." Imari sighed.
"We were... spared?" The assistant looked up in confusion since a battle between two candidates would end with one side being dead.
"Mn, we¡¯re going to work under her. We¡¯ll be looking afternd like we have while she conquers the rest of the continent." Imari leaned back and nced towards her long time friend.
"The fact that none of us have died is rather miraculous isn¡¯t it?" She smiled.
Nodding her head, the assistant stayed silent since she understood that Imari must be feeling a lot of shame right now since she agreed on working under someone. Plus, they were strong to the point that they didn¡¯t even bother assigning someone to keep them in order which proves how little they thought of them.
The only thing that she could do was try her best to support Imari from now on.
Little did they know, Shiro had already attached nanobots on them to make sure that they don¡¯t step out of the line since she wasn¡¯t that kind. If they n on doing something that could be detrimental to the party, she would kill them immediately.
While they were driving to the eastern borders, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but think back to Verron.
Since she knows where his main anchor is, it might be a good time to go pay it a visit. Plus, she needs to take revenge on the guardian for almost killing her and Nan Tian back then.
Narrowing her eyes, her lips curled up into a grin as her next goal has been determined.
Chapter 842 Eastern Border
Chapter 842 Eastern Border
Arriving at the eastern border, they were immediately greeted by a group of guards who were stopping anyone from entering the eastern border.
"Halt!" One of the guards called out as Shiro nced to the party.
"Should I stop? From their killing intent, I can¡¯t say that they n to spare us if we stop." Shiro asked.
"Let¡¯s stop and see what they want to do. It¡¯s not like we¡¯re in any real harm anyways. They don¡¯t look that powerful do they?" Madison asked while ncing at the guards.
Since everyone here knew how to decrease their mana signals to a certain extent, the guards thought they were all weaker than them.
Of course, Shiro on the other hand, was able to suppress her manapletely so she seemed like a useless demon in their eyes.
Seeing that the rest of the party agreed with Madison, Shiro stopped the car and stepped out.
Watching the party step out, the guards were shocked at their beauty and nced at one another.
"State your business at the border! You should know that this route is sealed off to anyoneing from the south. If you want to enter, you need to have a permit." Another guard called out.
"Ah sorry, we didn¡¯t know about that. Do you know how we can get a permit? We¡¯re in a rush to go to the east." Madison apologised as the guards furrowed their brows.
"I¡¯m sorry, you cannot get past then. However, I suppose there is something else that you can do." A third guard smiled and made a gesture to the other guards who onlyughed and proceeded to surround the group.
"What are you doing." Madison frowned.
However, without replying, the guards immediately sprung into action as Lyrica frowned since it seems like they¡¯ve done this before which only caused her to despise them.
Bringing out her shield, Madison mmed it on the ground and erected a barrier around them.
*PING!!!!
Blocking their attacks, Madison looked at Shiro.
"I take it as we should kill them rather than let them live. It seems like they¡¯ve done this a few times so we can assume that they¡¯ve probably assaulted quite a few people." Madison asked.
"It¡¯s yournd so I¡¯ll let you decide. I can¡¯t be making choices for you all the time now can I?" Shiro chuckled as Madison nodded her head.
"In that case wipe them out!" Madison dismissed her shield and brought out a great axe.
Hearing this, Lyrica activated a tier 5 magic circle as tens of swords appeared all around them.
Dashing forward, Lyrica narrowed her eyes and swiped her hand. All of the swords moved ording to her gesture as the guard quickly activated a skill which allowed him to move back just enough to dodge the swords. However, Lyrica was a step ahead of him.
Appearing behind him, she mmed her palm into his back.
*CRACK!!!
Widening his eyes, the guard coughed up a mouthful of blood but the pain didn¡¯t end there. Suddenly, hundreds of tiny des erupted out of his body as he was killed in an instant.
During that moment, Lyrica had summoned des at the point of contact which blossomed out in his body. Even if he survived the initial burst, he wouldn¡¯t have been in any condition to fight with that kind of wound.
¡¯A bit bloody but rather effective.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile as both Nimue and Iziuel couldn¡¯t help but agree.
{She¡¯se a long way hasn¡¯t she?} Nimue chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯Indeed. Madison isn¡¯t far off either.¡¯ Shiro grinned seeing Madison cleave two guards in half despite their defence with a single horizontal swing.
The other party members weren¡¯t idle either since they killed the guards that were blocking their side with ease.
Seeing all of this, the guards on the wall were shocked and quickly sprang to action but Silvia smiled cruelly at them.
mming her staff down, she opened her mouth.
"Slow, blind, poison, nausea, organ rupture."
Activating several tier 5 magic circles, all of the guards coughed up blood as they copsed in an instant.
Normally, the spell that ruptured their organs wouldn¡¯t work since a high level adventurer would have a strong internal body as well but with their strength disparity, it was a simple task for Silvia to destroy them internally with a single spell. However, just in case any of them survived, she added poison, nausea and blindness so that they can die by the side without interrupting.
Staying silent at Silvia¡¯s disy, Shiro could almost remember the ¡¯pure¡¯ Silvia that they had met during the first few weeks in New York.
¡¯You make me proud. *sniff*¡¯ Shiro wiped a silent tear at how far Silvia hade.
By normal standards, the healer would be worrying about their life all the time but that wasn¡¯t the case for Silvia. Even if they target her, they wouldn¡¯t be able to kill her quick enough due to the amount of debuffs that she could cause along with her self heal.
Shiro had to admit that if she needed to fight Silvia in a one on one, the battle would be extremely long and tedious since she¡¯d need to cleanse herself of debuffs continuously while Silvia¡¯s healing was most likely more outrageous than hers.
Despite not being a queen candidate or a queen, Shiro could say that Silvia was a match for most of the lower ranked queens solely because of her healing. Sure she might not be able to kill them quickly but the opposite was the same. If anything, Shiro guessed that Silvia could probably exhaust the queens.
The battle was short andpletely one sided. With theplete ughter of the guards that protected the border from the southern corner to the eastern, the party entered the car and continued their journey.
While this was happening, a single crow out of a horde of ones that were killed looked at the scene with fear as it attempted to fly away but another needle pierced it¡¯s head and it was killed in an instant.
###
"That¡¯s the 70th crow that she¡¯s killed." A figure muttered as he narrowed his eyes.
He had long ck hair that extended past his back and a pair of cruel red eyes.
Standing up, he walked to the balcony of his castle and frowned.
He had heard of a small ¡¯uprising¡¯ in the south and decided to send a few scouts to check out the situation but 70 of his crows have been in by a single woman. A white haired girl who only smiled at the direction of the crown and killed them with ease.
Despite the crows having no magical signal or intent, she was actually able to pinpoint them the moment they set eyes on the party.
¡¯Her senses are sharp.¡¯ He thought to himself.
Each time he sent a crow, he would only be able to get a single glimpse before his vision turned ck.
But with the 70th crow, he was able to get a rough estimate of their overall strength except for white haired girl.
In his eyes, she seemed unfathomable and her strength was limitless.
Even her small demonstration against Imari left him speechless since he almost couldn¡¯t keep up with her speed. Sure the crow lived for a short moment but that moment was enough for him to see her appear next to Imari and reappear back in her initial spot.
"We need to deal with this. If she is left alone, the demon race will go under her control. Perhaps she¡¯s in the new realm hence why her strength is unmatched." He muttered.
"Jyusha." The man called out as a woman flickered next to him.
"You called my lord?"
"Call for a meeting between candidates ranked 10 to 2. We need to have a meeting to discuss the problem that¡¯s encroaching on us. If we don¡¯t deal with his small uprising, we¡¯ll be killed off one by one and by then, it¡¯ll be over for us." The man ordered as Jyulia furrowed her brows.
"Should I not include those of the lower ranks?" She asked since the demons ranked from 20 to 11 were also powerful.
"No need, they¡¯re too weak to impact the battle at all. If anything, they¡¯ll serve more as a hindrance." The man shook his head as the woman nodded. Understood. I shall send this message right away.
Watching the woman leave, the man sighed and looking towards the south and frowned.
"Perhaps I need to reach the new realm first before challenging her." He muttered.
[Nostic LVL 500 Demonic King Candidate]
Chapter 843 Drunk Shiro?
Chapter 843 Drunk Shiro?
With their short fight at the border, the rest of the journey was rather peaceful since no demon guards even approached them which made sense considering that they were already past the border.
Compared to the southern border, the skies of the eastern border seemed much darker with quite arge wastnd that had signs of battle which .u.mted over the years.
If they continued to drive for another 3 hours, they would reach the first small scale city since the eastern borders were much bigger than the southern borders. While the southern borders had width, it didn¡¯t extend too deep into the demon continent.
For the eastern border, it was roughly twice as big as the southern borders.
Naturally, the centre is the biggest area, but it wasn¡¯t a concern right now since they would be conquering the eastern border first.
To avoid some trouble at the first city so that they didn¡¯t need to fight at all, the party increased their mana signal so that they didn¡¯t seem like weaklings. After all, in the demon continent, the weak is preyed upon especially in a ce like this so making themselves seem weaker is akin to asking for a fight rather than avoiding one.
After two and a half hours of travel, Shiro saw the distant city and dismissed her car.
Walking the rest of the distance by foot, they entered without too much hassle. Unlike human cities, the guards here didn¡¯t ask for any forms of identification nor did they do much in terms of patrol.
In Shiro¡¯s eyes, iming this city would be way too easy since the security wasx.
"Let¡¯s go to an inn right now. I want to ask them about the higher ranks." Shiro suggested since she was nning on challenging rank 6 to gauge their strength then figure out what to do from there.
"Sure, we won¡¯t be staying here for long though. Well probably spend the night here since it¡¯s getting prettyte." Madison said since they were on the road for quite a while.
Looking around for an inn of sorts, they were disappointed to find a few shabby buildings since most would just make their way to a bigger city rather than this remote one that was near the southern borders.
In the end, they decided that they would stay at a house that Shiro makes. Making their way to the nearest bar, they decided that they should get some information there.
While they were walking over, Silvia decided to send a message to a private group chat.
[Silvia: So then, since we¡¯re going to a bar, aren¡¯t you curious about what Shiro is like drunk? I know her alcohol tolerance is very high but what if I get rid of that?]
[Madison: I¡¯m curious but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to affect her. For someone her level, I¡¯m pretty sure she has a resistance to poison such as alcohol.]
[Silvia: That is true. Urg... I just want to see her drunk for once. I mean surely you¡¯re curious too right?]
[Lyrica: She¡¯s not wrong. I am indeed quite curious about it.]
[Silvia; Maybe we should ask her what she does to have a high resistance to alcohol. If it¡¯s something we can¡¯t do anything about I guess we¡¯ll have to ignore it.]
Sensing that the party seemed to be nning something, Shiro raised her eyebrows and nced over. When she did, the party only smiled acting as though nothing happened.
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro turned around.
¡¯They¡¯re definitely nning something!¡¯ Shiro thought in her mind since it wasn¡¯t often that the party would act like that.
"Say Shiro." Silvia smiled and walked up to her.
"Mn? What is it?" Shiro nced back at Silvia.
"How do you have a strong alcohol tolerance? Is it a skill or gics?" Silvia asked as Shiro paused for a moment.
"Hmm... It¡¯s a mix of skills and nanobots. The skills increase my tolerance towards negative effects and my nanobots detoxify me I suppose so I can¡¯t exactly be poisoned. Though if the poison is strong enough, I¡¯d still be affected to some extent." Shiro exined with a shrugged.
"However, that chance is low since my resistances are close to 100%."
Hearing this, Silvia could only sigh.
"What? Were you lot nning to get me drunk or something?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"A little." Silvia coughed embarrassingly since she knew that if she lied now Shiro would fine out anyways.
"Well to be honest I¡¯ve always been curious as to what I would act like if I was drunk so I don¡¯t mind cancelling some skills myself. Since I¡¯m with you lot, I think I can trust you enough to get drunk." Shiro smiled.
Previously, she didn¡¯t want to be drunk since being drunk means she could be killed with ease. Without her poison resistance, her drink could be spiked.
But with Silvia around who could detoxify quickly, she could rx.
"Really?" Silvia asked with surprise since she didn¡¯t think someone strict like Shiro would actually agree on being drunk.
"Mn, of course that¡¯s on the condition that we get the intel first. Once we get the intel we can go rx at the house or something since I¡¯m not fond of the idea of having strangers see me drunk for the first time." Shiro shrugged as the party agreed with her idea.
Entering the bar, they each split up and started to ask around for information regarding the higher ranking candidates.
However, they weren¡¯t able to obtain much since most of the people here didn¡¯t know much about them. All they know is that they were strong much to their disappointment.
In the end, they decided to buy some alcohol and make their way out the city.
Creating a ratherrge house with a beautiful living room, the party sat down with all of the alcohol and started partying.
Using celestial path on herself as well as stopping the nanobots from detoxifying the drinks, Shiro started to drink with the rest of the party.
But even after drinking for a while, Shiro only felt a little tipsy but that was it.
"Mn, seems like Shiro¡¯s alcohol tolerance is high even without the skills." Isilia chuckled as she had a blush on her face. She could barely stand anymore and was currently using the table as a crutch.
"Maybe it¡¯s just gics. But we¡¯ve got plenty of alcohol right now." Shiro smiled while ncing at the rest of the drinks that were piled up in the corner while being cooled by her magic.
"Shiiiroooooo~"
Hearing a cry behind her, Shiro smiled and nced back to see a drunk Lyrica hugging her from behind and resting her chin on her shoulder.
"I thought you wanted to see me drunk? Howe you¡¯re drunk yourself?" Shiro asked with a chuckle.
"It taste good." Lyrica smiled happily as her eyes seemed dazed.
"Mn it does. Silvia did a good job in buying the nice ones." Shiro nodded her head since there were a few ciders mixed in with the other drinks that had nice fruity tastes.
"Shiro shiro." Lyrica called out as Shiro looked over.
"Mn? What is it?"
Feeling Lyrica suddenly kiss her on the cheeks, Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise before patting her head.
"Oh my." Isilia chuckled.
"You¡¯re too drunk, go to the sofa." Shiro smiled softly.
"Mn, if I went for the lips you would dodge." Lyrica grinned before flopping herself on the sofa.
"How bold." Silviaughed from the background. She wasn¡¯t drunk yet since she had been detoxifying herself. After all, she wanted to see Shiro drunk.
Rolling her eyes, Shiro had another drink.
Just as she took a sip, she snapped her fingers, and a cuff appeared around Yin¡¯s wrists.
"Ehhhhhh I want to drink too." Yin pouted since Shiro had been stopping her from drinking all night.
"You¡¯re still a kid. No drinking. Learn from your sister." Shiroughed as Lisandra had been drinking sodas and juices.
"Che, stingy." Yin sighed and walked away.
Right now, Nimue, Iziuel, Estre and Atesh were enjoying themselves since it would be a bit boring if Shiro let them stay in the mana realm.
Drinking a few more, Shiro swayed a little as her vision started to blur.
"Mn... it¡¯s a bit ufortable." Shiro muttered as she would asionally close her eyes.
Seeing this, Isilia understood that Shiro was beginning to feel drunk.
"Do you want to drink a few more?" Isilia asked with a grin.
"Mn... maybe." Shiro said while standing up.
However, she suddenly tripped up on her foot and fell face first.
"Gah!" Crying out in shock, Shiro sat up and rubbed her nose.
ring at the floor, she felt angrier by the second.
"Stoopid floor!" She shouted out and summoned a lighting spear.
mming her spear down, a giant tier 5 magic circle expanded out as the party immediately sobered up and ran away.
*BOOM!!!!
Exploding the house into a million pieces, Madison had summoned her shield in time to protect everyone and looked at the scene with a forced smile.
Shiro was still sitting on the floor while rocking back and forth like one of those never fall toys.
"Stoopid floor making me hurt my nose." Shiroined while trying to stand up some more.
Falling over again, she seemed to be angry as another tier 5 magic circle expanded out.
"Detoxify her!"
"I¡¯m trying but she keeps cancelling it!!!!" Silvia cried out with a silent tear.
"Sh*t!"
Chapter 844 Aftermath of Drunkness
Chapter 844 Aftermath of Drunkness
Snapping her eyes open, Shiro immediately cured herself of headaches and activated her skills again since she could remember everything that was happening in 100% rity.
The fact that she kept cursing the floor and calling it ¡¯stoopid floor¡¯ caused her to blush but she quickly calmed herself down.
¡¯It was just one time. I can just lie about remembering things.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since it was rather embarrassing to see herself lose control like that.
After all, the only thought that came to mind seeing herself drunk was that she had be a literal child with too much power.
Most of the time she kept herself calm and controlled but being drunk threw that out of the window.
Looking around her, she could see that they were still outside the city. Surprisingly, none of the guards had arrived since Aarim and Madison used their skills to contain the destruction caused.
If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that she was in a drunken rage, her attacks would have been more powerful and it would have destroyed Madison¡¯s barrier in an instant. However, because they were weaker, Madison was able to seed in containing everything with Silvia¡¯s buffs.
The rest of the party was looking at her with caution in their eyes but seeing the usual calm Shiro, they collectively sighed in relief and copsed against the ground.
Right now, there was just a circle of charred ground with craters and broken pieces of the house scattered around.
Coughing lightly, Shiro quickly fixed up everything before getting everyone proper rooms to rest in.
"Next time we¡¯re not getting you drunk." Madison vowed before copsing on the bed.
Chuckling softly, Shiro helped the others into their own beds as she sat downstairs and made herself some food.
"You caused quite a bit of mess yesterday." Nimue smiled as she sat down as well.
*Cough!
"First time being drunk. Didn¡¯t expect that I would be a violent drunk." Shiro blushed in embarrassment since she had thought that she would at most act a little differently rather than destroy everything around her in a tantrum because she couldn¡¯t walk.
"I must say, the light show you performed was quite amazing. Shame that the party contained it otherwise the city would have gotten a nice fireworks show." Nimueughed.
Crawling up on the chair, Attie sat down and looked at Shiro.
"Mommy don¡¯t drink anymore." He said as Shiro rubbed her nose awkwardly.
"It was because mommy wanted to see what being drunk felt like. Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t get drunk again." Shiro forced a smile and patted Attie¡¯s head.
Nodding his head, he started to eat some breakfast as well.
Once they finished their food, Shiro cleaned up and sat on the sofa for now since the rest of the party were resting after a sleepless night of looking after her.
Turning on the TV, she looked up the recent news.
Thankfully, it seems like after thest incident, the queens were nning to be a little more low key as there was no more news of the queens iming cities. The world government had also put a notice out to the public saying that they shouldn¡¯t reside in areas where the queens are since they could kill you with a single snap of the finger.
Aside from news about the queens, it seems like there were quite a few people believing the world was going to end since the arrival of powerful individuals means somethingrge was going to happen in the near future.
While most dismissed it as crazy talk, Shiro knew that they were indeed correct since the new age will start in a few short months and once that happens, everything will be turned upside down. Resources will be rare for those not under a queen and thew of the jungle will prevail.
Human morals will slowly disappear as only a few people will be willing to help others during theter stages of the age.
To make matters worse, those who get saved will believe that the people saving them have ulterior motives and kill them before they could aplish that which only decreased the number of people willing to help each other.
And that was just the weaker bunch of people participating in the new age.
For the stronger ones, very will bemon as those weaker than them will be used to perform tasks.
Queens will use powerful humans as currency such as trading several level 500¡¯s for a piece ofnd and so on. They would cull the weak and use them as EXP for the strong despite the fact that they were working towards nothing since the system was lying to them.
They would never get to know the truth either since the system would censor anything they say in regard to this which was just a cruel joke since they still believe they had a chance to save their world.
The new age was just a giant cruel joke to see if the queen created by the current garden could win or not. If she can¡¯t, nobody wins.
If she does, only she wins.
Looking at her system interface, Shiro could kind of see why she would get rid of it but at the same time, knowing that it was a crutch to people, she would probably leave it alone since it would do more good than bad.
¡¯My future self never told me why I got rid of the system either. Since I¡¯ve already changed the future, maybe I won¡¯t get rid of it in this timeline.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
Shaking her head, Shiro dismissed the thoughts for now.
Just as she was about to continue, she felt several pairs of eyes on her as she frowned and teleported to the roof of her house.
Flexing her fingers, all of the crows that looked towards her was killed except for one.
Teleporting the crow in front of her, she grabbed its neck and narrowed her eyes.
"Error, help me hit the one who sent this." Shiro said as circuits appeared on her hands and bounced around happily.
Forming a spear, the circuits stabbed into the crow¡¯s head.
####
*COUGH!!!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Nostic immediately cut the connection off with the crow the moment he felt danger. But despite this, he was still harmed for a moment.
"As you can see, her senses are sharp and no matter how many eyes I send at one time, she will get rid of them and even attack me using my eyes. She¡¯s not someone we can ignore especially since she¡¯s now in the eastern borders. I estimate that her goal is topletely take over the continent and im the race for herself since her powers are definitely on the level of queens." Nostic said while wiping the blood away.
"Clearly considering that you of all people were harmed by her with a single move. You two didn¡¯t evene face to face either." A woman frowned seeing that disy. If Shiro could do this much through a medium, they didn¡¯t want to imagine what she could do in a one on one confrontation.
"Mn, that¡¯s why I propose for us to team up and kill her as a group. But I need to reach tier 6 first if I can since I don??t think we can face her with just the power of tier 5 spells. She also has a group with her and from what I¡¯ve seen, they are rather capable as well." Nostic narrowed his eyes.
"Perhaps we should eliminate them one by one before focusing on her." Another candidate suggested as Nostic thought about it for a moment.
"That is feasible if I can reach tier 6. At least then I¡¯ll be able to dy her long enough for it to work. Otherwise, she¡¯ll just overwhelm us." Nostic shook his head.
"How likely is it for you to reach tier 6 quickly then? Plus, are you sure you aren¡¯t doing this because you want to guarantee your ascension as the king? Because if you are, I¡¯ll fight you here and now." A queen candidate threatened as her aura red around her.
"You can have guards watch me or whatever while I be tier 6 and know of the method yourself. I¡¯m doing this so that we don¡¯t die without a chance of fighting back. If anything, I¡¯d rather one of you be the king or queen should I die instead of her." Nostic shook his head as the queen stayed silent.
Her aura calmed and she said nothing else since she could tell that he was being serious.
"Fine, let¡¯s dy her as much as we can for now. Try to stop her from conquering the east and we¡¯ll prepare some artefacts to deal with her as well. In the meantime, Nostic, you better reach tier 6."
Watching the candidates leave one by one, Nostic stayed silent and closed his eyes. During the moment that he was harmed by the strange circuits, he felt a pair of eyes lock onto him with pure killing intent before smiling coldly.
He felt like he could hear her saying ¡¯found you¡¯ but he wasn¡¯t sure.
¡¯Can we even kill her if I reach tier 6?¡¯ He asked himself with doubt.
Chapter 845 Halia
Chapter 845 Halia
Setting off a dayter than nned, the party made their way further into the eastern border. Since they weren¡¯t able to get any information from the first city, they decided to make a beeline towards thergest city in the eastern border, Halia.
The city was much biggerpared to New York and even hadrge defensive towers with weapons on top that were directed towards the sea.
It was a port city where quite a few boats were visible from the road.
With sea monsters attacking asionally, the levels of the demons in the city was much higher. Most of them were ready to fight at a moment¡¯s notice since the sea monsters don¡¯t send notices of attack.
While driving to Halia, Shiro had sent drones to scout ahead and noticed that the most powerful mana signal here was only in thete 300¡¯s almost 400. But it belonged to a lone demon rather than a candidate which caused Shiro to wonder where the candidates have disappeared to.
"Seems like our movements have already been noted. I can only find a few candidates and none of the most powerful ones are around." Shiro said as she was finding a good ce for them to start walking. After all, it would be a bit awkward to enter the city by car since the demons have wings.
"Eh? Why would they be keeping an eye on us though. We¡¯re just a small group from the south." Madison asked.
"Well there¡¯s been quite a few crows snooping around. I¡¯ve killed them as soon as I sensed them but it seems like they still transmitted enough information. The owner of these crows is a demon king candidate in the north so I¡¯m guessing that they probably sent down some intel and had the higher ranking demons leave for now." Shiro said since it was the most logical scenario.
When she tracked the crow back to the candidate, she could clearly sense several other strong mana signals which meant that he was probably in a meeting of sorts.
¡¯Maybe we¡¯ll have to fight multiple candidates at once.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Remembering what she had sensed, she could estimate that the candidate who sent the crows wasn¡¯t going to be too much of a problem if she ys her cards properly.
While his mana signal was strong, she was confident that she could win.
"That¡¯s not exactly good news is it?" Madison furrowed her brows since they didn¡¯t even know how strong rank 30 was, nevermind those at the top. Sure, Shiro was with them but she didn¡¯t want to always rely on Shiro.
They needed to improve individually so that when the new age arrives, Shiro wouldn¡¯t need to babysit them.
"Perhaps we should bring the fight to them rather than wait around?" Lyrica suggested since the longer they wait, the worse it could get.
"That is true but we can¡¯t afford to rush things either. We don¡¯t have any information and we¡¯re also in their home turf. We¡¯re at a disadvantage so the best thing we can do right now is get some information on the higher ranks so we know what to expect. If they doe and fight, we¡¯ll be able to split the party up into favourable matchups." Aarim spoke up as Silvia agreed with her idea.
"Let¡¯s do that then. I¡¯m not sure how much information can be gotten without arousing suspicion but right now anything would help. Even if a fight starts, just regroup and escape with as much information as you can get." Lyrica nodded her head.
Seeing that the party was already nning a counter n, Shiro smiled since there wasn¡¯t much she needed to do. If anything, the main thing they needed to improve on was their senses since quite a few powerhouses would use familiars to scout out ahead to get information on their enemies.
They didn¡¯t get that powerful by running into things mindlessly.
Thinking about this, Shiro wondered if she should work on a technique together with Aarim. One that would immediately attack all peering eyes the moment they spied on them. But making sure that it targeted the right ones was difficult since there was no way to know who sent the scouts without checking it manually.
If they just attacked indiscriminately, it could stop allies from getting an idea of the situation.
Right now, she was relying on her own senses and attacking them with her nanobots but that wasn¡¯t avable for Aarim.
Her senses were a little weaker and she didn¡¯t have nanobots to kill the scouts instantly.
If their movements were discovered, the scouts could just disappear.
While the party made their way through the city, Shiro sat at the roof of the defensive towers andpletely suppressed her aura so that no one could discover her.
Closing one of her eyes, she opened it back up and activated analysis on that one eye.
Seeing the party moving through the city while all of the demons were revealed, she could see everything that was going on.
¡¯I don¡¯t know a spell that could counter scouts but I think I just made a spell that will give me a full view of everything that happens.¡¯ Shiro sighed since she theorised a new skill that uses her analysis skill as a reference to give her a deep scan of everything in an area. Everything will be revealed to her including underground areas, mana rich zones, barriers and so on. Every magic circle will be shown and she¡¯ll be able to cancel them at will with her celestial path.
{The fact that you just casually created a limited area omniscient skill is crazy when you just wanted to get rid of scouts.} Nimue said with a twitching smile.
¡¯You¡¯re exaggerating a bit with omniscience since there is no real omniscience in this world. Even if there is, it would be quite boring wouldn¡¯t it? Being able to know what happens tomorrow. You won¡¯t discover anything yourself.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Do you think that¡¯s why gods like to do things on a whim? Because they might have a certain amount of knowledge on what happens but decided to change it to give themselves some enjoyment.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯Perhaps. Though this skill is far from omniscience. It¡¯s just something that lets me understand a ce better. Think of it as a domain of sorts.¡¯ Shiro chuckled.
{I suppose that is the more urate description. Going back to the topic of gods and omniscience, if you were given the choice of bing a proper ¡¯god¡¯ I suppose, one that is all knowing and all powerful, would you take that chance?} Nimue asked.
¡¯Nah. It¡¯ll be boring. My only real goal in bing strong is so that I can enjoy life freely without worry that someone wille kill me or decide my path for me like what happened with the scientists. Sure I enjoy battle but living without worry is better than battle. Plus, if I really wanted battle, I¡¯ll just make a clone of myself and fight me again.¡¯ Shiro grinned.
{Battle junkie as always then.}
¡¯Maybe. AndI suppose it¡¯s a bit hypocritical but I do enjoy the uncertainty in life. Will I find something I enjoy tomorrow? Will it be sad? Of course, no one likes sad surprises such as big sis going away for real but that¡¯s just how it is.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
{Pft look at you bing philosophical now. What next, are you going to question the meaning of life?} Nimueughed.
¡¯Maybe, maybe not haha. But I¡¯m saying this because with the rate I¡¯m improving, I can say that there is a good chance for me to be a ¡¯god¡¯ of nanobots I suppose. Though I¡¯m not sure if I should even call it being a god. Sure you have divinity but gods are supposed to be this all mighty being. As far as I know, the gods of the system are far from all mighty. If they were, how would they be bound by the system.
¡¯If anything, the closest thing to a god, is the system itself.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes at the system.
Before, as a kid, she had always wondered where the system came from or who made it. However, after a while, she gave up thinking about that since it didn¡¯t concern her and she wouldn¡¯t be able to get an answer anytime soon.
But now, things were different.
The system fit the description of god. It seemed as though it knew everything, it could grant unimaginable power and it was unkible. In the future, her future self said that she could get rid of the system but it didn¡¯t mean she ¡¯killed¡¯ it in a sense.
Which just brings up the question of what do you call the ¡¯thing¡¯ that created the system? Are they more powerful than this ¡¯god¡¯ that they¡¯ve been interacting with all their life?
Chapter 846 Sea Monster Attack
Chapter 846 Sea Monster Attack
Kicking her legs back and forth, Shiro was getting a little bored since all she did was keep an eye out for anything to happen.
*Sigh...
Sighing softly, Shiro summoned a drone above her and started to y around with it.
{Bored?} Nimue asked as she appeared next to her.
Since Nimue was beside her, Shiro quickly camouged her mana signal.
"A little. They¡¯re doing just fine right now so there¡¯s not much I need to do." Shiro shrugged which was the truth. The party hade a long way and after staying away from her for a while, they had gotten used to doing things themselves.
They were doing quite well in not arousing suspicion since they were asking as though they were curious demons who had juste from the centre.
There were a few demons that were bing a little suspicious, but the party would move to a different part of the city to avoid them and get more information. Even if they were suspicious, there wasn¡¯t much they could do.
Talking with Nimue for a while, Shiro watched as the party made their way across the entire city and asking around for information.
By the end of their information gathering, the entire city was suspicious and they now had quite a few guards look around for them.
However, the party acted faster as they were already on their way out of the city.
Seeing that they were leaving the city, Shiro stood up and prepared to reconvene with them.
Just as she stood up, she felt a surge of mana from the ocean as she raised her eyebrow.
"Oh? Are we going to watch the monsters invade now?" Shiro smiled as she sat down with her legs crossed.
"Do you want to help clear it or are you just going to watch the show from up here?" Nimue asked as they could seerge groups of demons gathering with leaders in the front.
Looking at the leaders, Shiro could guess that they were probably the queen candidates.
"Pft why would I want to help them out. If anything, I¡¯ll stick around and watch what¡¯s happening so that I can understand their abilities." Shiroughed.
Tapping her earpiece, she called the party.
"It seems like there¡¯s a monster invasion right now. Do you lot want to watch it? I¡¯ve got nice seats up here." Shiro asked with a smile.
[Sure I don¡¯t see why not. We¡¯re not going to be doing anything else anyways.] Madison replied as the other party members agreed.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro made a portal for everyone.
With the whole party on top of one of the defence towers, they looked at the scene.
*whistle~
"Their military is quite powerful isn¡¯t it. Seeing it from here is quite intimidating." Madison admitted as Shiro nodded her head.
Seeing the army of level 300¡¯s with queen candidates leading them was awe-inspiring. Plus, they weren¡¯t even at full power since the higher ranked queen candidates were away right now.
Strangely enough, Shiro noticed that they seemed quite worried.
¡¯Even if they¡¯re missing the main candidates, why do they seem worried?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
{Do you think it¡¯s becau- HOLY SH*T!}
Crying out in shock, Nimue watched as the entire sea seemed to rise up as a giant shadow of a monster appeared far in the sea.
Despite the somewhat weaker mana signal, the sheer size of the thing was threatening enough.
"What the hell?! Why is that thing so big???" Madison asked as she looked at the monster with disgust.
With its giant size, the monster was casting an ominous shadow over the city as the slimy skin glistened under the sun. Its head was bumpy, scarred and deformed with three pairs of eyes looking down at the city with anger. Looking at the seaweed attached to its body and a few corpses, Shiro understood that it was probably sleeping at the bottom of the sea.
While they were looking at the monster, the candidates made their move as hundreds of tier 5 magic circles appeared in the air and long ranged destruction spells were cast.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro was shocked to see that the mana dissipate uponing in contact with the monster¡¯s skin. Even if the spell was strong enough not to be dispelled, the magic would be redirected to the side thanks to its skin.
ring at the army, the monster went onto all fours before unhinging his jaw.
Looking at the mana gathering towards the mouth, Shiro had a bad feeling which only increased with each passing second. Before she could even say anything, shards of light appeared in the sky as they surged towards the mouth of the monster.
*BANG!!!
Fusing into a tier 6 magic circle in an instant, Shiro mmed her hands together.
"Defend against the attack!!" She shouted out quickly as the party red their mana and activated their spells without hesitation.
Summoning her shield, Madison crouched down as Silvia pushed her palms against her back.
Suddenly, tens of tier 5 magic circles appeared and buffed Madison before she jumped into the sky.
"HAAA!!!"
Activating one of her skills, a huge illusionary figure appeared with her in the centre. The figure wore heavy armour and had a cape which fluttered behind it.
Running forward, she avoided identally stepping on any demons before jumping in front of the army and mmed her shield down.
*BOOM!!!
In an instant, a golden barrier wrapped around the city with Madison pushing her shield against the monster¡¯s mouth.
While this was happening, Aarim summoned a crystal orb which had several magic circles revolving around the orb.
Tier 5 magic circles appeared around the monster as the gravity pulled against its limbs and back, forcing his head to look up diagonally.
Two portals opened up as both Lyrica and Isilia summoned an array ofrge swords which descended down and stabbed against the monster but weren¡¯t able to pierce its body.
As light gathered around the mouth and the attack was about to be fired,rge ice chains shot out of the ground and wrapped around the monster¡¯s body in an attempt to freeze it. But with the strange properties of the skin, the ice was shattered in an instant.
However, Shiro¡¯s main goal had already been achieved. The chains had managed to pull the monster back slightly so that there is a higher chance for the breath to miss Madison¡¯s barrier.
While she was strong, standing up to a tier 6 breath attack at point nk range was still quite difficult. The only reason she told Madison to block it was because she was confident in blocking it.
*BANG!!
Firing the breath, the world seemed to go dark from the intensity of the light.
Shiro could see Madison¡¯s barrier hold against the breath for a short period of time before shattering apart and forcing her avatar to be forcefully dispelled.
Thankfully, they managed to avoid total destruction as the breath was aimed up.
Shocked at the sudden appearance of the party, the candidates were surprised that all of their spells managed to bypass the threshold of being dispelled and retain quite a bit of power. While the swords didn¡¯t pierce its body, it prevented it from correcting its aim.
Before they could even say anything, they watched as the monster grew two limbs from its back and grabbed the swords before shattering them into two pieces.
"I know I said we should watch the show but I feel like we should help out and kill this thing. I¡¯ll be honest, leaving it be would be quite disastrous." Shiro¡¯s smile twitched since she had thought that they could deal with it themselves.
However, now that she knew the monster could fire off tier 6 spells and have a strange skin that could dispel magic, it wasn¡¯t something she could ignore anymore.
"I agree. While it makes sense that Lyrica¡¯s sword couldn¡¯t pierce its skin, the fact that it could stop mine as well is rather concerning. I don¡¯t know how they could repel something like this before." Isilia frowned since her level was much higher than Lyrica¡¯s.
"They probably didn¡¯t. With the things stuck on it, I¡¯d say it¡¯s been dormant for a while. Regardless..."
"This might be the only challenging thing I face off against in the demon continent." Shiro grinned as she summoned Silvanis.
ring her mana, she coated her sword with lightning and disappeared from her spot. Reappearing above the monster, she twisted her body and shed as hard as she could.
Widening her eyes, she saw a small wound appear on the monster¡¯s body as the sea was cleaved in half behind him.
Pausing for a moment, joy appeared in her eyes.
"A good punching bag!"
Chapter 847 Killing the Sea Monster
Chapter 847 Killing the Sea Monster
Summoning a few more swords, she gestured for the party to follow up as she unleashed a flurry of blows against the monster. Each blow would only cause a small wound on the sea monster but this scene was already miraculous in the eyes of the demons.
They knew who this monster was and there was only one other instance where it had appeared. When it did, it was a crisis for the entire demon race as all of the candidates tried their best to halt its approach while sending it into a deep slumber.
If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that the high ranks were called away for a meeting, they would be around to help stall the monster once more so that they could seal it away.
After all, it had a special skin which made magic spells and physical attacks weak against him.
In most cases, the magic and attack would just be brushed aside but Shiro was actually able to cause a wound on his body, something that the candidates weren¡¯t able to aplish.
Seeing this, their moral was raised as they prepared support spells rather than offensive ones. The offensive spells would only be wasted.
While she was attacking the monster with the party, Shiro saw the demons change to support spells and smiled.
¡¯They¡¯re quite smart aren¡¯t they? With attack spells not working they instead decide to support us so that our attacks are more effective.¡¯
{Well that¡¯s the normal reaction no?} Nimue asked as Shiro shook her head.
¡¯You¡¯ll be surprised. If it was humans, they might have just kept firing their spells thinking something would happen eventually.¡¯ Shiro sighed since she had seen that situation way too many times and she can guarantee that there was going to be one idiot who does that.
{Have more faith.} Nimueughed.
¡¯I¡¯m giving plenty of faith by allowing them more chances and paying attention to them on top of actually remembering the idiots who keptunching spells at me thinking it¡¯ll actually work eventually. But each time there was always idiots who kept repeating the same mistake.¡¯ Shiro rolled her eyes.
{That¡¯s just unlucky. But aren¡¯t Madison, Helion, Silvia and Chen Yu human? Well... Madison is part demon but you get the idea.} Nimue smiled.
¡¯I know that¡¯s why I said ¡¯might¡¯ have just kept firing but there are always exceptions.¡¯ Shiro replied while shing at the monster once more but this time, she activated her force of elements and merged all of her attunements.
Summoning a giant multicoloured de, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to swing it towards the monster. She had detected a few crows already and dealt with them but kept a note in her mind since the higher ranking candidates were probably on their way back.
Sensing the danger of the giant de, the monster wanted to run but body Madison and Aarim sprang into action. With Aarim increasing the gravity and the pressure on the monster and Madison wrestling it with her avatar, it was struggling to get away and was forced to fight head on even though it wanted to avoid the strike.
Gritting its teeth, it raised its arms and tried to block the strike.
However, its actions were futile as the sword dug deep into its body.
Even with its skin that held special properties, it was nothing against Shiro¡¯s skill.
Falling back, the monster cried out in pain as blue blood flowed out of his body.
Unfortunately, Shiro understood that she couldn¡¯t cut it in half right now so instead, she turned the sword and cut off its left arm since it was better than just hurting it. Without the arm, its actions would be limited.
Taking a deep breath, she allowed her mana to regenerate for a moment since using force of elements would always consume a lot of mana hence its strength.
Scrambling back on its feet, the monster tried to run away as Shiro grinned and appeared in front of it.
"You¡¯re not going anywhere. You seem to have quite a bit of exp stored in ya." Sheughed as she raised one of her hands.
Suddenly, a tier 5 magic circle expanded out as a reflection of her divine gardens appeared.
Following the activation of the first portal, several more followed as the sky was soon filled with portals that created a pathway to her garden.
Dark clouds loomed over the portals, hiding away the light of the sun as Shiro activated Encroaching darkness to give herself a stat boost.
Looking at the blood red eyes that seemed to glow under the shadows, the monster felt fear as its body shook and it subconsciously took a step back.
While this was happening, the demons looked at the scene with awe as the aura erupting out of Shiro right now was much stronger than any of the candidates that reside in this city. While her identity was unknown, it didn¡¯t matter anymore since she was saving them all right now.
From the portals,rge ballistas suddenly appeared as the sky within the garden started to flicker with starlight.
mming her palms together, a familiar tier magic circle appeared as the party remembered seeing this during the Tokyo incident. Only this time, it was heavilypressed and mass produced within several ballista¡¯s rather than just one bow.
"Wrath of Stars." Shiro called the name of her spell with a cold smile.
Blinding light erupted out of the portal as hundreds of spells were activated simultaneously and mmed into the body of the monster, pushing him down into the sea, a tsunami was created as the demon¡¯s quickly activated barriers alongside madison so that the city wasn¡¯t swept away by the waves.
As for the monster, it wasn¡¯t even allowed to scream as its skin would boil on contact with the pirs of light.
Channelling the spell for 10 seconds after modifying its magic circle, Shiro snapped her finger and closed all the portals.
All that remained as a half melted corpse of the monster with its bones exposed towards the sky.
Shockingly, all of the sea water around the monster had been boiled into salt as sea water quickly rushed back to refill the hole left by Shiro¡¯s spell.
With her skill the monster, she watched as her level shot up before stopping around 410.
*Whistle~
"He gave quite a bit of EXP." Shiro grinned since this journey was quite fruitful. Her initial impression was that she was just going to spectate most of the things that was happening rather than making a move herself but this monster allowed her to level up by quite a few levels.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit Demi God
Title: Expert Monster (13,029/100,000 Humans killed.), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind, Virtue of Fortitude, Young Demi God
Level: 410
ss: Divine Sylph Nanomancer (Ascendant EX)
HP: 6,002,500,000/6,002,500,000
MP: 21,875,000,000/21,875,000,000
STR: 42,000,000
VIT: 34,300,000
INT: 125,000,000
AGI: 49,700,000
DEX: 37,300,000
DEF: 34,200,000
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 5
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 5
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 5
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 5 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 5
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 5
Dark Celestial Phoenix Fire ¨C Tier 5
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 5
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 5
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 5
Nature ¨C Tier 5
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 6
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Divine Sylph Nanomancer:
Elemental Breath, Celestial Mirage, Force of Elements, Divine Raiment EX, Tier 5 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Divine Empress¡¯ Domain EX, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX, Advanced Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Divine Court Appointment, Empress¡¯ Blessing, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 5, Analysis, True Spirit Nature.
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx
World ss Magic:
Requiem of the Dead
Grand Support ss Magic:
Requiem of the Demi Goddess
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Divine Gardens, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr, Item Master, Limit Focus, Blessing of Chaos.]
With her mana at 21 billion points and her INT stat at 125 million, she could officially say that she had surpassed her previous tier 6 self.
Despite being tier 5 and level 410, she was stronger than her peak!
Plus, this was just the start, she was getting much stronger and bing level 410 had given her an additional skill too.
Chapter 848 [Divine Presence – Divinity of Nanobots]
Chapter 848 [Divine Presence ¨C Divinity of Nanobots]
When she said additional skill, it could be said that it was two skills rather than just one since the skill had two effects. One that activated on different conditions.
The first activation condition was that she needed to be in a demi god form.
For the second activation condition, it was that she needed to enter her god form.
[Divine Presence ¨C Divinity of Nanobots]
Demi god Activation ¨C When activated in Demi God form, you bring out the maximum potential of your divinity during that period of time, anything and everything can be turned into nanobots, including living beings. Anyone who does not have a resistance towards divinity is suppressed by you and depending on the difference in strength, they will be eliminated immediately should you decide to convert their entire body into nanobots.
Duration ¨C Thissts until your demi god form runs out. Can be turned off manually.
Cost ¨C N/A
Cooldown ¨C N/A
Bacsh ¨C You feel twice the amount of pain they feel once the skill ends, your divinity is weakened for two days and you receive a 20% decrease to your divine energy.
God Activation ¨C When activated in God Form, anyone under tier 6 is unable to attack you. Tier 6 entities receive a 30% decrease to stats and once they are weak enough, can be turned into nanobots immediately. Those under tier 6 cannot fight against this unless they have a skill that can prevent the conversion of their body using divine energy. As you be more powerful, the minimum requirements to attempt to attack you will increase until only gods can fight against you.
Your power over nanobots will reach their peak during this state.
Duration ¨C Thissts until your god form runs out. Can be turned off manually.
Cost ¨C N/A
Cooldown ¨C N/A
Bacsh ¨C No limit. Minimum bacsh is 90% decrease to stats and ess to nanobots is temporarily disabled for half a year.
Reading this skill, Shiro was shocked at one of the sentences.
¡¯Your power over nanobots will reach their peak during this state¡¯.
Whether or not that meant her nanobots will be as strong as they ever could be or just how strong they could be with her current power, Shiro didn¡¯t know but the fact that the bacsh was half a year of disabled ess caused to think that it was the former.
Just imagining the power of her nanobots at the peak caused her heart to pound with curiosity.
Plus, she could casually turn those below tier 6 into nanobots if she wished!
Their effort, the time and dedication they took to reach this legendary tier and yet it is gone with a snap of a finger.
Thinking on this point, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what would happen to her? Sure she was the controller but there have been instances where the nanobots harmed her during the process.
If her nanobots reached the peak of their power, would she be consumed in an instant?
Shaking her head, she kept a mental note of this and understood that she shouldn¡¯t casually use this ability since the risks could be much bigger than anything she could imagine.
Looking at the corpse then at the demons, she could see that they wanted to know their identity.
With a few mana signalsing in from the distance, Shiro understood that the candidates wereing back.
"See if we can, get some of the monster¡¯s skin as well as samples so that we can analyse what the hell was up with it. If we can make something from its skin, we might obtain armour that is highly resistant to magic and it¡¯ll be helpful for Madison." Shiro said over the mic as Helion was already collecting the materials.
But with the sheer size of the monster, it was hard to grabrge amounts into their inventory.
However, Yin solved that by storing it in her Rift which surprised her.
"Yin, isn¡¯t your food in there? Why are you keeping a corpse in there?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh it¡¯s fine, I got plenty of space. Plus, I¡¯ve already isted it." Yin grinned as her speciality was more focused on the riftpared to Shiro so it¡¯s only natural that her rift was ¡¯better¡¯ in some aspects.
For example, Shiro can only stay in there for a certain amount of time before being forced out but Yin can decide to stay there forever and she¡¯ll be fine. Of course, she¡¯ll need toe out for food but that was about it.
"Since you have now stored away the entire corpse, I think we should leave now." Shiro said as she still can¡¯t believe that Yin could actually store everything away.
"Ah but first let me leave something for these demons since it¡¯ll be unfair to take everything.
Opening a portal to the rift again, Yin dropped arge cylindrical piece of flesh that was seared at one side and the other seemed to be cut off cleanly by the closing of the portal. Dropping it on the beach, the sheer size of the thing towered over the surrounding buildings like nothing.
"What part is that? We don¡¯t want to give them something too important now." Shiro asked as Yin grinned.
"It¡¯s the p*nis. You burnt like 70% of it so it¡¯s much smaller than its original size." Yinughed as Shiro stayed silent and sighed.
"Forget it, let¡¯s leave before the candidates arrive." Shiro shook her head and created portals for everyone before the demons could ask them anything.
###
Arriving at the scene, one of the higher ranked candidates narrowed his eyes while looking at therge piece of flesh that was here.
Looking at one of the recordings that only captured a small part of what had happened, he saw Shiro¡¯s final devastating attack and understood why Nostic wanted everyone to team up. Plus, there was now evidence to his im of perhaps dying even if he reached tier 6.
After all, she managed to kill a monster that had an abnormal resistance to magic along with the fact that it could fire tier 6 spells.
They were forced to seal the monster awayst time but she actually dealt with it which meant that she was much stronger than thembined. Unless Nostic reached tier 6, there was indeed no fighting chance.
Scratching his head in annoyance, he sighed heavily.
"Pheram, send a message to Nostic for me." He called out to his assistant.
Flickering next to the candidate, a mature demon bowed slightly.
"Tell him I¡¯m willing to use everything we have to help him reach tier 6 so long as wee to a few agreements that are overseen by the system."
"Understood."
Watching the mature demon disappear, the candidate looked at the sea that was still recovering and clicked his tongue, cursing their luck for someone like this to appear in the demon continent at this time.
¡¯What even is her goal.¡¯ He thought to himself before leaving the area.
News travelled around quickly and now most of the demons know of a party of strange individuals of great strength. They could take down one of the unkible beasts with ease and the female members possessed beautiful appearances that were far above the standard.
One individual in particr that they focused on was a white haired beauty that dealt the final blow to the beast. The demons heard that the skies had darkened due to her rage and a torrent of destruction was called down on the monster with a single wave of her hand.
Some even said that she was stronger than the rank 1 candidate but they were quickly disposed of by the supporters of Nostic who seemed to be furious at these rumours.
In their eyes, Nostic was the strongest. Sure they may have been forced to seal away the monster long ago but years have passed and Nostic would have improved since then. There was a good chance that he could do the same.
Naturally, this didn¡¯t bother the party at all since they were spending their time experimenting and analysing the materials that they had received from the giant corpse.
Helion was working on new armour, Aarim was working on spells that could bypass biological traits such as resistance to magic so that if they see something like this again, they wouldn¡¯t be surprised.
As for Shiro, she disguised herself and went around the ce gathering information.
She heard all of the rumours about the party but at the same time she had gathered more information on the candidates with a few simple lines that worked like a charm since most of the guards were annoyed by the rumours.
"Oh? How would ¡¯so and so¡¯ defeat the boss then? What would they do to counter the rumoured magic resistance?" Asking questions like this caused the guards to brag about the candidates they were under. While it could be exaggerated, Shiro was able to get a general idea of how they worked.
She managed to get quite a few bits of information regarding candidates ranked 10 to 4 but the top three were a mystery to her even after searching around.
She wanted to search some more but Helion told her to regroup since he made a breakthrough with his experiments with the skin.
Chapter 849 Helions Creation
Chapter 849 Helion''s Creation
Making her way back, Shiro wondered what Helion had managed to achieve with the material since even she had a bit of a hard time killing the monster so she brute forced her way through. Working around the magic resistance was annoying but it could be very helpful if they could use it to their advantage.
Arriving at the house she had created for both Helion¡¯s and Aarim¡¯s testing of the material, she could see that everyone had already gathered here and were waiting for her.
"Sup." Shiro smiled while giving them a small wave.
"You¡¯re here. Since everyone is there, I suppose I¡¯ll show you the results of my efforts." Helion smiled as he pulled out a few pieces of material. First was an ingot of sorts that was coloured dark blue and had a green hue when viewed in light.
The second material was a white powder, the third was something simr to a sheet of leather and the final one is a ck liquid.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro noted that the materials didn¡¯t feel like they contained much mana. Normally, this would mean that they were rather poor in quality but since it came from the monster, Shiro knew that it was not the case.
"The first item is a metal that I managed to create by grinding some of the materials into fine dust. It¡¯s hard to forge with since it¡¯s highly resistant to magic fire. I even had to use some of the stronger skills in my arsenal to forge a single ingot and I must say, the magic resistance on this thing is CRAZY. If not for some of my passives that I received as Hephaestus¡¯ Sessor, I¡¯m afraid a material like this would be out of my capabilities. If I was to make armour with this, I¡¯m confident to say that almost no tier 5 spells can harm you. Unless it¡¯s a spell with crazy magic pration, you¡¯ll be safe. For tier 6, this effect is weaker but it¡¯ll still protect you quite a bit." Helion grinned before looking at the second item.
"For this powder, it was a mix of the monster¡¯s bones and skin. It¡¯s simr to the powder that I used to make the ingot but this one can be applied directly to an armour in order to increase its magic resistance. Of course, the effects aren¡¯t as potent as the ingot but considering the fact that we¡¯ll need to destroy the armour first before using the ingot, it¡¯s probably better to use the powder. Especially since your armour is one of the best ones that I¡¯ve crafted." Helion smiled.
"Mn, that is true. Your armour has been quite helpful. Getting rid of it would be a shame." Shiro smiled as this armour has stayed around for a while now. If not for the fact that it was bound and grew alongside her, she would have been forced to rece it regardless of how good it was.
Most armour could only be used for 5 levels after all.
"Che, when will I get armour that grows with me. I¡¯ve been needing to change it every five levels. Honestly, aside from Yin¡¯s eating habits, buying material for smithing is where most of our party funds are disappearing into." Madison sighed. As the tank, armour was extremely important to her since it helps her with resisting against attacks.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m working on something right now." Helion smiled as Madison nodded her head.
"The sheet of hide is simr to the first item, hard to use but when turned into light armour, it has high magic resistance.
"But these are just decent itemspared to thest one." Helion narrowed his eyes and pointed at the ink.
"This ink is simr to enchantment ink that is used to specialised equipment. But when used to enchant something that a mage can use, their magic has increased resistance which means it won¡¯t be broken easily. If the enemy has something simr to Shiro like her celestial path, this means that it¡¯s hard to break your spells apart." Helion chuckled.
"For example, Shiro, can you try to break this spell?" Helion asked as he created a tier 5 magic circle.
Nodding her head, she activated celestial path and tried to break it like how she would normally.
However, just as her needle came into contact with the magic circle, she felt a resistance and her needle was deflected immediately and the spell activated. Naturally, Helion stopped the spell as the party paused in surprise since Shiro¡¯s celestial path had rarely failed.
Looking at the needle that fell to the ground, Shiro was quite surprised at the toughness of the spell. If this was in a battle, it could catch her off guard.
But after the first attempt, she could somewhat understand its upper limit so she¡¯d be able to break it if he casts another spell.
¡¯But during a battle, that one spell could turn the tides of battle.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"It¡¯s pretty good isn¡¯t it?" Helionughed since this was probably one of the better items considering the fact that there was a chance for people with a skill simr to Shiro¡¯s celestial path to take them by surprise.
Plus, this ink also increased the potency of their spell slightly since it dide from a monster that could fire tier 6 spells at will.
"How did you even make this?" Shiro asked curiously since she was quite impressed by it.
"It was honestly an ident. It¡¯s a byproduct of making this powder." Helion chuckled while pointing at the white powder.
"Some of the excess material leaked out and dropped into the fire which started to fuse together with the second ingot that I tried to make. However, once the two started to fuse together in the fire, it refused to harden into an ingot and instead became this ink instead. The more ink you use, the more resistant to magic the spell is but there is naturally a limit. Using too much ink will cause your spells to fail since they copse on themselves. I haven¡¯t found the best ratio yet but I¡¯m working on it." Helion smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Will you be able to make me an essory using this ink of something? Since having my spells reinforced means that I can be a bit more experimental with some spells. Having unstable spells that have a good chance of failure might be viable with this ink." Shiro muttered as Aarim agreed with her on that.
"Since Helion is showing off his stuff, I should show off mine too." Aarimughed.
"While I haven¡¯t made too much progress, I have developed a way to suppress passive skills and gic advantages such as magic resistance, healing and so on. Theoretically, it could suppress Shiro¡¯s crazy health and mana regeneration." Aarim exined.
Hearing this, Shiro¡¯s interest was piqued.
"Oh? Let¡¯s give it a try." Shiro said as she stabbed herself in the gut.
With her natural healing, a wound like this will be healed quite quickly.
Raising her eyebrow, Aarim was used to Shiro¡¯s methods of testing and quickly activated her spell.
A chain like tattoo suddenly appeared on Shiro¡¯s body as her healing slowed down massively.
Even her mana regeneration decreased as Shiro looked at the status effect with interest since there wasn¡¯t a spell circle to cancel. It was almost instantaneous which made it hard for her to analyse the spell.
"Interesting." Shiro muttered while activating life fire.
"Seems like this spell can¡¯t affect skills or spells right now. If we can repurpose it topletely suppress healing, battles would be less drawn out with our enemies being unable to regenerate." Shiro muttered while looking at her mana regen which seemed to be as slow as a snail right now especially when you remember that she has an astonishing 21 billion points of mana.
"Well this has been rather fruitful hasn¡¯t it? With how much material we still have, we can make quite a few full sets of armour or maybe even more. If I can make some armour simr to Shiro¡¯s with this material, we wouldn¡¯t need to change every five levels. And we¡¯ll be able to save the material for something else." Helion smiled.
"Mn, Nan Tian mentioned that I should train an elite task force or something back at the floating fortress so maybe if we have some left over armour, I can use it for the task force." Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, if we have more powerful allies, it¡¯ll make the new age easier for us since we arecking in manpower. But that can be made up for with powerful people since quality is better than quantity." Helion agreed.
Talking for a little longer, the party decided that Helion and Aarim should stay behind and start finalising their creations while Shiro and the others start taking somend now. They have given the candidates enough of a break after the monster attack.
Chapter 850 Conquering the East
Chapter 850 Conquering the East
After the initial chaos caused by the monster and Shiro¡¯s party, the rumours eventually died down after much work and not as many of the demons questioned the superiority of the higher rankers anymore.
Tapping his pen on the table, a soldier was looking out the window when he paused at three distant shadows that were flying towards the city at rapid pace.
Furrowing his brows, he wondered who they were as he quickly donned his armour and ran out of the room.
Dashing across the wall, he tried to get a clearer look at the shadows and realised that it was three members of the party in the rumours.
With Shiro in the centre, Madison and Lyrica followed beside her.
Before he could even say anything, Madison summoned her avatar as Lyrica opened tworge portals.
Giant handles slowly appeared from the portal as madison grabbed them with her avatar and unsheathed two giant des.
Stomping down, her avatar reared its head back and released an ear shattering cry.
*URAHHH!!!!!
Understanding that this was probably a deration of war, the guard turned around to call for help with fear in his eyes. If the rumours were true, then there was no way they could fight them but as soldiers, if they didn¡¯t fight, they would be killed by someone else.
Just as he turned around, he sensed two presences not too far from him.
"Pft, Madi¡¯s cry seemed to have scared the poor man." Lyricaughed softly as she saw the fear-filled faces of the guards.
"Well with the rumours and seeing it in person, I¡¯m not surprised that they¡¯re scared. If anything, I¡¯m more surprised that they still want to fight." Shiro shrugged as she casually walked past the guard.
"Say, should we kill you or should we spare you?" Shiro decided to mess with him and ask with a grin.
Stunned by the beauty of the woman in front of him, the demon quickly came to his senses after hearing her sentence.
Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, he gritted his teeth and drew his weapon.
"You can spare me but I¡¯ll be killed by the higher ups anyway if I abandon my post." The demon took a deep breath and shed towards her with fear in his eyes. Despite his fear, his form was not affected and Shiro knew that he must have spent quite a bit of effort training himself.
*Ping~
Catching the sword easily between her index and middle finger, Shiro nced at Lyrica.
"He¡¯s quite resolute, isn¡¯t he?" Shiro smiled before appearing behind him and knocking him out with a single hit.
"Mn, indeed." Lyrica nodded her head as she also knocked one of the guards out.
Looking at Madison who was menacingly walking towards the city and drawing most of their attention, Shiro and Lyrica made their way through the guards, knocking out anyone who was in their path.
In a few moments, the leaders were captured and the city was now under their control.
Scenes like this continued to happen as the three were storming through the eastern borders now that it was clear that no one could stop them.
The rumours that had faded away after great effort resurfaced since they were dominating the cities without any problems.
At first, the citizens were afraid but once they understood that the three didn¡¯t do anything to harm those uninvolved, they were a little more rxed since they had also spared the guards.
The most they would do was knock them out while those that continued to fight would have a few broken bones but in this world, broken bones could be healed easily so it was equal to just a p on the wrist.
While the civilians weren¡¯t worried, the candidates were panicking since there wasn¡¯t anything they could do about Shiro. Ranks 10 or higher couldn¡¯t be contacted and those that were lower than rank 10 could only resort to running away.
In a short few days, the entire eastern border was taken over and the candidates that ran away evacuated to the centre. The demons over there were forced to give up their own territory to the higher ranks since they were the weaker party.
As for Shiro, Madison and Lyrica, they did think about recruiting a few people to look after the cities but dismissed that thought in the end since each of the party members could look after a city on their own with ease.
Allocating the rest of the party members to look after the cities, Helion and Aarim continued their research while doing this since it wasn¡¯t too difficult to aplish. All they had to do was drive back any invaders while the city functioned normally. Since Shiro, Madison and Lyrica attacked quickly, the candidates couldn¡¯t bring the soldiers away so they were given the task of continuing their job of defending the city.
There were a few who refused but they were given a warning so that they knew their ce. It was Shiro who decided to reuse them so naturally, they can be reced whenever. Whether that meant killing them or not depended on their attitude towards them.
After the first few demonstrations, the demons were much more obedient since they were used to a society where those at the top of the food chain oppressed those that are weaker than them.
For the candidates that ran away, even though they were safe for now, the fear of death always felt close to them and they decided to make their way towards the north to seek help.
Normally, this would be akin to suicide since they could be killed at any moment but with a monster like Shiro chasing behind them, they had no choice.
Not too long after they left, news of the party¡¯s appearance reached their ears as they felt fear grip at their hearts.
Increasing the pace of their travel, they flew across the skies and reached the northern border.
There were border guards who tried to stop them but they ignored them and continued forward.
This caused a fight to break out as the candidates ughtered the guards without a second thought. Since they were going to probably die by Shiro¡¯s hands, they didn¡¯t care about the consequences anymore. But before they could even reach the halfway point, a heavy pressure crashed into them as a single demon stood in their path.
Rank 10 Queen Candidate, Asphil.
ring at the intruders while they were trying to help Nostic reach tier 6, she couldn¡¯t help but feel disgusted by their presence. They had actually ran here all the way from the east out of fear rather than the desire to help.
"Take another step and I¡¯ll kill you all." She warned with a harsh re but the candidates who forgot fear onlyughed.
"The white haired devil is making her way here, going back means dea-"
"Then die." Asphil interrupted since they had taken another step.
Appearing in front of the candidate, she swiped up with her hand as the candidate¡¯s torso cleaved in half.
"We already know about her. Just dy time for us and we¡¯ll deal with her when the timees. It¡¯s not like you¡¯re going to be the king or queen anyway." Asphil narrowed her eyes as the candidates took a step back.
"Why waste your breath on them, they¡¯re dead regardless." A feminine voiceughed as miasma appeared around the candidates.
Their eyes became bloodshot as their skin started to turn a dark shade of purple.
"Go back and dy her for us." The same voicemanded as the ¡¯candidates¡¯ started to walk back.
"Che, your skills are disgusting as always." Asphil clicked her tongue at the sight of the woman that had just appeared.
"Oh it¡¯s just a few parasites. It¡¯s not like they¡¯re dead now. But with them, we should be able to buy a bit more time. I thought that we¡¯d have a bit longer but she¡¯s quite hasty isn¡¯t she?" The womanughed as Asphil nodded her head.
¡¯Thankfully, she didn¡¯te directly to the north otherwise we¡¯d be eliminated without a fighting chance. It¡¯s all up to Nostic to fight her one on one while we deal with her friends. Once that is over, we¡¯ll be able to gang up on her and end her for good.¡¯ She thought to herself as their goal was to send demons to dy Shiro as long as possible. If they can do this, the chances of them surviving increases.
Making their way back, the two demons disappeared from the area while the candidates returned to the centre in order to dy Shiro.
Chapter 851 Priscera
Chapter 851 Priscera
"Fuu... that should be thest major city in the central region." Shiro muttered floating in the city.
"Mn, it seems like candidate 49 was dealt with early by Chelsea so there¡¯s not much we need to do in terms of helping their family." Madison nodded her head since that was one of her main concerns whening to the centre region.
"Well it¡¯s good that she was able to deal with it alone. I suppose if Balire was chosen as a candidate, it makes sense that Chelsea would have the same powerparable to a queen candidate. And seeing that she was able to wrestle you and Helion, she would probably rank in the high 20¡¯s maybe even top 10." Shiro shrugged.
"True. Urg... I can still remember seeing her rip the head of a dragon off its shoulders and hit another dragon with it." Madison shivered remembering the things she had to go through during the training with Chelsea.
"That¡¯s quite impressive. I wonder what else she could do." Shiro admitted since it was rather ¡¯hardcore¡¯ for her to hit a dragon with the head of another dragon.
"Anyways, since we¡¯ve taken this city, it¡¯s about time we head to the north. Helion should be finishing his first prototype so let¡¯s go get him before we do anything." Shiro smiled.
Nodding their heads they were about to leave the city when they sensed a group of powerful mana signals heading their way.
Recognising them to be the candidates that ran away, Shiro wondered what gave them so much confidence toe back. But once she saw then, she immediately lost her smile as her expression was cold.
Seeing their lifeless eyes and slow moving bodies, Shiro understood that it was probably something simr to a parasite that took over them and was forcing them toe back.
She didn¡¯t care about cowards who ran away but forcing someone like this against their will was disgusting to her.
"I¡¯ll take care of this." Shiro said as she didn¡¯t leave any room for disagreement.
Flickering away from the spot, she reappeared in front of the candidates.
Summoning her sword, she immediately blocked their first strike before grabbing the throat of the first one.
Activating her analysis skill, she found the parasite writhing within them in a single nce. She noticed that the parasites linked themselves within the host¡¯s mana so taking them out meant killing them but not taking them out would subject the host to the parasites will or rather, the controller¡¯s will.
Narrowing her eyes, she used her mana to forcefully rip out the parasite and discard the body.
Grabbing the parasite with her own hand, she didn¡¯t even need tomand error as red circuits pierced the parasite.
Tracking the signal down, she found the controller returning to the northern territory with another high ranking candidate.
Now that she found the controller, she had no more use for the parasite.
Crushing it in her hands, she looked at the other candidates that were preparing spells to fight against her while two others tried to engage in meleebat.
"Poor things." She sighed as she would have probably given them a chance under a contract so that they can live but now she was essentially forced to kill them.
Snapping her fingers once, a small flickering me appeared as she casually dropped it on the ground.
*BOOM!!!
Erupting into a column of white fire, the candidates were burnt to ashes leaving only Shiro alone on the now charred ground.
Crouching down slightly, she ignored her level up notifications and dashed towards the direction of the controller.
"Oh boy, she is livid." Madison whistled seeing the instant destruction that she sent upon the candidates. Previously, even if she was surrounded like that, she would have yed around for a bit before letting them clear out the candidates.
But this time, once she had obtained what she wanted, she eliminated them without hesitation. No yfulness, only brutal efficiency.
"Mn, I would say I pity the demon who pissed her off but not really. I think they deserve it after stripping the candidates of their will." Lyrica sighed as Madison agreed with her.
Since Shiro was going to be taking care of a certain controller, the two made their way back to gather the party for a final assault on the northern border so that Madison could im her spot as the proper queen. While thepetition would begin once the new age starts, if there are no other candidates, she would be the automatic winner.
While this was happening, Asphil and Priscera, the 9th ranked candidate, were making their way back to the castle.
As they were walking, Priscera suddenly stopped mid step as her face paled. Her mouth quivered before coughing up some blood.
"What the hell?!" Asphil was shocked since to her, Priscera suddenly started to cough up blood all of the sudden.
"She¡¯s- She¡¯sing! Damn! They didn¡¯t dy her at all, she¡¯sing here faster than before!" Priscera shouted out in fear as she immediately activated all of her berserk skills and anything that boosted up her stats since she could sense the source of the horrific killing intenting closer.
Seeing that Priscera was going all out, Asphil was forced back from the pressure as sweat rolled down the side of her head.
She had never seen Priscera acting so panicked before so seeing her act like this was quite shocking.
Before she could even say anything, she realised that Shiro was already in front of them as she held Priscera by the throat and lifted her up in the air.
"You¡¯re the one who imnted the parasites aren¡¯t you?" Shiro asked with a cold voice.
Ovee with fear, Priscera wasn¡¯t able to respond at all while Asphil¡¯s entire body tensed up. Her senses told her that a single move would mean death and the best she could do right now was stay still and hope that she leaves without killing her.
¡¯We wanted to fight this thing? Impossible.¡¯ She thought to herself with ridicule. Seeing Shiro through a projection and meeting her in person was two entirely different things as being in her presence caused an unimaginable amount of fear from the killing intent that was being radiated from her body right now.
She understood right now that even if Nostic reached tier 6, he was still going to die by her hand with ease.
Hearing no response from the woman, Shiro only narrowed her eyes as she released a few nanobots from her hand.
Suddenly, Priscera¡¯s skin started to peel back as the nanobots started cutting her upyer byyer.
She wanted to cry out in pain but Shiro¡¯s hand only gripped her throat harder.
Thrashing around in her grip, Priscera tried to break out byunching some spells at her but the magic circles were broken the moment they appeared.
Kicking her legs, she wanted to push Shiro back but it was as though nothing was hitting her.
Shiro stayed still like a statue while Priscera was being yed by the nanobots.
Seeing her barely alive with her life fire, she made sure that her soul was secured to her body so that she could feel everyst drop of pain.
Soon, only a skeleton and a pile of shredded flesh remained as Shiro reached out for her soul.
Stomping down, a portal appeared as she grabbed thentern
"What is it this time? Another soul for me to torture? It¡¯s getting somewhat boring you know? They just keep screaming and it bes repetitive. How do people even do this for a living without getting bored." The Ancient Terror yawned as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Well it¡¯s just something to keep you upied. Regardless, I want you to make sure she suffers as much as possible. If you get bored, destroy her soul." Shiro ordered.
"Fine fine, I¡¯ll do it. Since you got the whole tiny bot thing mind giving me a TV or something in here? I¡¯ve seen you watch it a few times and it looks pretty fun."
"Depends." Without saying anything else, Shiro imprisoned the soul into thentern before dismissing thentern once more.
Looking at the candidate next to her, Shiro recognised her to be rank 10 from the information she had gathered.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro left the area without saying anything.
After a few moments, Asphil copsed on the ground as her back was filled with sweat.
Looking at her hand, she could see that it was still shaking from fear as she took a deep breath and calmed herself.
¡¯I¡¯m not fighting that thing!¡¯ She thought to herself as she decided to go back to the centre so that she could try toe to an agreement with Shiro. It was wishful thinking but she had to give it a try.
Chapter 852 Top 10 Ranking Candidates
Chapter 852 Top 10 Ranking Candidates
Making her way back, Shiro stretched her body.
{Why did you leave that other candidate?} Nimue asked curiously since she thought that Shiro would have finished the job.
¡¯There wasn¡¯t any need for me to kill her. If anything, it¡¯s more beneficial to leave her alone so that when we see her again, the party can get some exp from her death. If not for the fact that the controller annoyed me, I wouldn¡¯t have made a move personally.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
{True. She really pissed you off huh? You actually chased her from the central region all the way to the north to kill her.} Nimue chuckled.
¡¯Mn, anyways, the girls should have made it back to the party. Hopefully, my little act didn¡¯t scare them too much. If they decide to surrender it would be pretty annoying since they¡¯re walking bags of EXP.¡¯ Shiro replied as Nimueughed.
{Yikes how cruel. Despite all of their efforts in getting stronger, you casually refer to them as walking bags of EXP. The fact that you¡¯re not kidding is rather disturbing. I remember when you used to do everything as low key as you could.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯Of course, with my personality, do you honestly think I¡¯d keep things hidden for long? I¡¯m strong enough to not hold back anymore.¡¯ Shiro replied since she knew that the main reason for hiding her strength before was because of her monster status along with the fact that she was too weak. If they discovered the power of her nanobots while she was weak, she would have been taken away due to her powers. Perhaps even experimented on once more.
However, since she was able to survive the initial ¡¯growing stage¡¯ she could now live without too much worry. Of course, with the new ageing up, she had to be more careful but for now, she could live freely without worry. If things stayed like this, she wouldn¡¯t mind it at all.
Making her way back to one of the city¡¯s that they had conquered, Shiro was just in time to see Helion giving the party a few new pieces of equipment.
"Oh Shiro¡¯s back. How was your little excursion in looking for the controller?" Madison asked with a happy smile.
"As usual. They¡¯re dead, I¡¯m not. Though I must say, you¡¯re looking pretty happy did something good happen?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Fufu~ You noticed?" Madison grinned while showing off her armour.
"Helion made me a growth type armour like yours and it has high magic resistance. It is also ck ranked!" Madison smiled with joy as Shiro nodded her head.
"My my, this treatment is rather biased isn¡¯t it? We got armour that onlysts for 5 levels but Madi is actually getting a growth type equipment. Is there something you need to tell us Helion?" Lyrica nced towards Helion with a smug smile.
*COUGH!
"I didn¡¯t have enough resources to make more sets." Helion said as the party knew it was an excuse.
"What happened to the ¡¯I¡¯m working on something for you¡¯ that you said to Madi a while ago?" Silvia giggled while sitting on the sofa next to Chen Yu.
Hearing this, Helion couldn¡¯t help but blush.
"Fufu leave the poor guy alone. I¡¯m sure you and Madison have plenty to talk about when you¡¯re alone." Aarim grinned as Madison looked down with an embarrassed blush.
"Alright alright enough teasing. We¡¯ll finish everything tomorrow and Madi will be the only candidate left. That way, she will automatically be the queen once the new age starts." Shiro smiled as the party calmed down.
All of the teasing stopped and they had serious expressions on their face.
"Is there anything else we need to prepare?" Helion asked as he had already given everyone their new armour with the magic resistance. In a fight, they should be able to hold their own quite nicely.
"Not much other than make sure you¡¯re ready. I won¡¯t interfere much unless absolutely needed so I¡¯ll give you all the information I have collected. Ranks 1, 2 and 3 are still pretty much mysteries since we only know that rank one can turn anything he touches to ash. I¡¯ll give you each a tablet now and it¡¯ll give you information on candidates ranked 4 to 10. 9 has been eliminated so you don¡¯t need to worry about her." Shiro said while creating the tablets.
"Rank 10 Asphil, in the rumours, it¡¯s stated that she does not use weapons at all nor does she ¡¯cast¡¯ any magic. She relies on her bare hands and they¡¯re sharp like swords. Her physical capabilities are on the higher end and her defences are rather peculiar. It seems like she works with space since she can stop attacks near her by copsing the area where the attack is and dismiss it entirely. The only downside to this is that her defences have a cooldown of sorts depending on what kind of attack she cancels.
"Rank 8, Fellia. She is a weapon master that is specialised in using hidden weapons such as wires, daggers and so on but do not underestimate this since she can ignore most of the armour that her enemies wear. Her wires can cut through armour like butter and her daggers can be thrown at incredible speeds. Her magic is limited but it¡¯s mostly used to buff herself with a few minor spells that can help her attack from range.
"Rank 7, Quinrad. A king candidate and a berserker. However,pared to normal berserkers, he is more magic orientated as he is able to use magic to fight while charging forth like a force of nature. Don¡¯t underestimate him."
Continuing to talk about the candidates while everyone looked at their information, Shiro gave them a brief lesson on how they should prepare against a few of the spells. Of course, she didn¡¯t tell them exactly how to fight them since doing so would be babying them too much.
Once she was done with her small lecture, the party double checked everything to make sure that they were ready.
Making a car, Shiro started to drive towards the northern border.
While this was happening, the remaining candidates were sitting in Nostic¡¯s castle with a serious expression. From the information that they had gathered, Priscera had been killed and Asphil deserted. With two candidates gone, it was just 8 of them against the entire party. Their initial n was to iste them and deal with them one by one but now that their numbers were on the lower side, it was going to be hard unless they used some artefacts meant for Shiro on the party instead.
"What should we do?" The rank 5 candidate, Saresha asked with a frown.
"Nothing. There isn¡¯t anything we can do right now other than try to get as many artefacts as we can. There isn¡¯t a way for us to get strong in a short period of time so we can only hope that Nostic reaches tier 6 quickly. He¡¯s already been in there for a while now so it should end soon." Rank 3, Lynnri sighed as they were running out of options.
"Tch, if Priscera wasn¡¯t too hasty in provoking her then things would have been fine. Even if the cowards made their way here they could still be used as distractions without converting them. I don¡¯t know what Asphil saw that caused her to desert but honestly at this point we might have no choice but to surrender if we want to live or fight it out. And the odds of the second option seeding is much lower." Rank 8, Fellia replied while scratching her head.
Hearing this the candidates stayed silent before Rank 3 coughed lightly.
"Don¡¯t think about it for now. Just focus on gathering the artefacts. If we y our cards carefully, we won¡¯t have to fight the white haired one if we managed to procure the ck ranked artefact. Once we do, we can seal her away and not fight her but Nostic will be sacrificed. But considering that it¡¯s a one for one trade off, it¡¯s not that bad." Wyslia, the rank 3 queen candidate, reminded as the other candidates seemed to calm own for a moment.
"I¡¯ve managed to track its location but obtaining it is proving to be quite difficult." Saresha replied as Wyslia nodded her head.
"Just try to get it as soon as possible. Since they¡¯ve conquered the central region, I can say that they¡¯re probably making their way here now." Wyslia narrowed her eyes as Saresha nodded before leaving the hall so that she could personally try to obtain that artefact.
Instructing the other candidates on a few tasks that they should do, Wyslia sat down and nced out the window. Even though she said all of that, the chances of sess was less than 10%. Most of them will probably die by tomorrow, closing her eyes, she could only sigh at her fate.
Chapter 853 Asphil
Chapter 853 Asphil
While on their way towards the northern border, Shiro stopped the car at a rather curious sight.
A lone candidate stood in their path but it seemed like she had no intent to fight at all.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro stopped the car as she recognised who she was.
"Are we fighting?" Lyrica asked, seeing the candidate.
"Not yet, we¡¯ll see what happens since she is rank 10 Asphil who was with rank 9 when I killed her. She didn¡¯t do anything which I think was probably because she was scared but it seems like she¡¯s been waiting here for us." Shiro replied as she stepped out of the car.
Seeing Shiro, Asphil¡¯s body shook in fear but she took a deep breath and calmed herself as best as she could.
"Are you here for a fight or are you here for something else? From what I can see, you haven¡¯t returned to where you were nning to go." Shiro smiled.
"I didn¡¯t go back since I understand there is no chance of victory." Asphil shook her head.
She was a little surprised at Shiro¡¯s attitude sincest time they met, she was like a malevolent beast with oppressive killing intent but now she seems to be rather casual. However, she knew better than to annoy her.
"Oh? So you¡¯re deserting your allies?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"In a way yes. Though we aren¡¯t exactly allies since all of us wanted to be the final victor. But with Nostic¡¯s power, it¡¯s hard to imagine that we¡¯ll seed should you have note. But now that you¡¯ve arrived, most of the candidates are helping Nostic in hopes that he will die alongside you so that they¡¯re able to seize the chance to be the final victor." Asphil replied as Shiro nodded her head.
From the way she¡¯s describing it, their alliance of sorts seemed to have quite a shaky foundation since the only reason they teamed up was because of her.
"And you¡¯re here because you don¡¯t think your alliance will win?" Shiro asked as Asphil nodded her head.
"Since I am on the lower rankings, it¡¯s rather clear that I don¡¯t have a good chance at seizing the throne at the end. Even if I go back, I am probably going to be used as cannon fodder. Plus, if any of the king candidates win, we¡¯ll lose our freedom and that is the opposite of what I want." Asphil replied as she bit her lip.
Kneeling in front of Shiro, she pressed her head against the ground and set her pride aside. As one of the highest ranking demons in this continent, she had never bowed her head towards anyone except for Shiro.
"As shameful as it is, I wish to work under you so that I may have a chance to live. It¡¯s better to do what I can to assist you rather than waste my life as a means for dy. If a king ascends, I lose my freedom and even if a king does not ascend, I would have been used as bait or to dy so my only path to survival is through you." Asphil said as Shiro raised her eyebrow and nced at Madison.
"We¡¯ll I¡¯m not the demon candidate so you can ask Madi instead." Shiro smiled as Asphil was a little confused but she understood that Madison was probably the demon candidate in their group.
While she was a little against serving someone weaker than her, she had no choice since it¡¯s what Shiro had said.
Sensing her discontent, Shiro could only shake her head since for people like her, the values of the demons were deeply ingrained into her so unless she was defeated by Madison, she wouldn¡¯t serve her wholeheartedly.
Walking up, Madison looked at Asphil before looking towards Shiro.
"We need more demons to look after the ces we conquered so having her on our side would be quite helpful. But I¡¯m sure for someone of your status, you would be pretty upset with serving the rank 72nd candidate when you¡¯re rank 9. Why don¡¯t we have a little spar? If I win, you¡¯ll serve me properly and if I lose, you don¡¯t need to serve me and still live." Madison smiled towards Asphil.
"Are you sure? You know if she stays around without serving you, there¡¯s a chance for her to fight you for the throne when the timees." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"It¡¯s fine. Trust in me." Madison smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
She understood that Madison was her own person and her decisions are her¡¯s to make.
Hearing that she was going to serve the 72nd candidate, Asphil couldn¡¯t help but feel against the decision in her mind but was overjoyed when Madison proposed the fight.
However, she quickly calmed herself down as there could be a catch.
"Don¡¯t be so on guard. Madison¡¯s being serious. If you win, we¡¯ll let you live without the need of serving after her since it¡¯s what she has decided." Shiro shrugged as Asphil looked up at Shiro with surprise.
"Don¡¯t be so surprised, we¡¯re not heartless people. Should I make an arena for you or will you be fighting normally?" Shiro asked while gesturing at therge open space that connected the central region to the northern border.
"It¡¯s up to Asphil since I don¡¯t mind." Madison chuckled.
She decided to do things the hard way so that they can get themselves a proper ally rather than just someone that had been forced to do this. She also understands that demons ce strength above all so defeating her would allow her to get a proper ally.
"Are you sure you want to fight? I am 75 levels above you so it might be unfair." Asphil asked, surprising the party since she was actually worried about fairness.
"We¡¯ll have Silvia give Madison a few buffs so that she can close this gap between the two of you, how¡¯s that?" Shiro proposed with a smile as Asphil had given her a rather decent impression since many would be overjoyed at fighting a person lower level than them when their freedom was on the line.
"That is fine with me." Asphil nodded her head.
In the end, they decided to go with an open arena so that they could fully demonstrate their prowess.
Stretching her body, Madison looked at Asphil who was taking deep breaths to focus her mind. In the distance, the party was watching while Shiro acted as the referee. With Shiro¡¯s promise of not being biased, she knew that this was going to be a fair fight.
"Ready?" Shiro called out as both Madison and Asphil nodded their heads.
mming her staff down, Silvia applied a few buffs to Madison so that her stats would increase. This way, Asphil wouldn¡¯t be able to brute force her way through.
Summoning an Axe, Madison took the initiative and dashed towards Asphil.
Narrowing her eyes, Asphil also charged towards Madison as she activated one of her skills and increased her speed.
Appearing in front of Madison in an instant, she swiped up with her hand.
Surprisingly, Madison was able to dodge to the side just in time as the space rippled at the stop she was previously at without being able to hit their target.
Shocked at the fact that Madison was actually able to dodge the first strike, Asphil tried to step back to make some distance but Madison was faster.
Swinging the pommel of her axe up, she mmed it against Asphil¡¯s chest.
*CRACK CRACK!!!
Gritting her teeth, Asphil could feel her ribs cracking at that single hit which shocked her as her power was far higher than what she had expected.
However, seeing a red glow on her body, she realised that Madison had used a berserk skill.
¡¯At the start?! Is she crazy???¡¯ Asphil thought to herself since berserk skills onlyst a short while and after that moment, they would be severely weakened. All she needed to do was avoid Madison for a while and victory would be in her grasp.
While she understood what she needed to do, it was rather hard with Madison¡¯s agility. She was able to heal her broken ribs with one of her self recovery skills but there was a limit to what she could do.
mming her hands down on the ground, a shockwave exploded out as Madison dismissed her axe and summoned a shield.
*BANG!!!
shing against the shockwave, Madison was pushed back by a few steps but she held on strong.
Stomping down heavily, she charged forward like an unstoppable force of nature.
Widening her eyes, Asphil wanted to dodge to the side but Madison¡¯s shield seemed to be maised to her body.
*CRACK!!
Feeling the weight of the heavy shield m into her, Asphil gritted her teeth and tried to absorb the strike with one of her spells.
The space in front of her started rippling as Madison felt danger. If she was to continue, she would definitely be harmed.
Letting go of her shield, she used it as a cover before stomping down.
*BANG!!!
A spider web of cracks exploded out as Asphil immediately lost her footing.
Jumping up in the air, Asphil wanted to get away when Madison grabbed her ankles and mmed her back down.
Gritting her teeth, Asphil understood that she also needed to activate her berserk skills if she wanted to win.
Chapter 854 Black Ranked Artefact
Chapter 854 ck Ranked Artefact
Activating her berserk skill without hesitation, the space around Asphil started to ripple as Madison was blown back in a single moment.
Flipping in the air, Madison wanted tond properly when Asphil teleported behind her.
Quickly summoning her shield, Madison turned around and blocked her strike.
*KRRRR!!
The sound of metal tearing could be heard as the shield started to shred to pieces.
Quickly letting go, Madison flew back but Asphil wasn¡¯t giving her any room to breathe.
Twisting her body, she kicked Madison in the stomach.
*BANG!!!
Sending her body flying, Asphil continued to chase as she grabbed towards Madison¡¯s shoulder.
Space rippled around her hand as Madison knew that letting the attacknd would be bad news.
Summoning her avatar, she grabbed Asphil and tried to throw her away when the avatar¡¯s arm was shredded to pieces.
Like a raging beast, Asphil continued to w towards Madison as her aura red wildly.
Seeing this, the party was a little concerned but didn¡¯t say anything since they trusted Madison. They knew that if she yed her cards right, she¡¯ll be able to win!
Gritting her teeth, Madison activated a second berserk skill and her stats jumped up once more.
Grabbing Asphil¡¯s wrist, Madison mmed her head against Asphil¡¯s head and kneed her in the stomach.
Twisting her body, she threw Asphil towards the ground and wanted to follow up thebo but Asphil only teleported behind her.
Summoning another shield, she tried to block but was a little too slow.
*COUGH!
Feeling the pain on her back, Madison coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Seeing this, Helion almost jumped into the fray but was held back by the party who were watching with serious expressions.
Gritting his teeth, Helion sat back down and watched what was happening.
"Trust in her more." Shiro smiled as Helion nodded his head and sighed.
"She should be turning the tables in 10 seconds." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she could already sense Asphil¡¯s aura fluctuating which means her berserk skill is almost up.
Flickering next to Madison, Asphil unleashed a barrage of strikes against Madison who could only use her shield to block.
Seeing that she wasn¡¯t doing anything substantial to her, Asphil started to be worried since her berserk skill was about to run out but Madison was still holding on strong. Even though one of her berserk skills had ended, she didn¡¯t seem weakened at all which confused her but the only thing she could do was try to end things quickly.
Gathering her mana into her right hand, she shed towards Madison.
Suddenly, Madison grinned as a tier 5 magic circle appeared on her shield just before the strikended on her.
"Sorry about this. Reflection." Madison narrowed her eyes as the attack was instantly reflected back at Asphil.
*PFF!!!
Deep sh marks appeared on Asphil¡¯s body as blood sprayed out.
Not letting this moment go, Madison dismissed her shield and unleashed a barrage of strikes against Asphil.
Copsing on the ground, Asphil wasn¡¯t able to move anymore as she was losing a lot of blood. Even with her regeneration, she would be in this state for a while.
"Why are you not weakened even though you used two berserk skills?" Asphil asked as her voice seemed a little weak. She was now suffering from the bacsh of her skill as she could feel pain from every part of her body.
"It¡¯s a passive of mine. I don¡¯t feel any bacshes from any berserk skills that I use. The fight was a little brutish since I¡¯m the tank for myteam. While I can convert my stats to attack, most of my skills are about reducing damage and reflecting it. Honestly, if you didn¡¯t unleash onerge strike, I might have been in danger." Madison smiled as Asphil couldn¡¯t help butugh.
"Your passive is such a powerful skill. Once demons see you use your berserk skill, they¡¯ll think they can win if they wait it out but you¡¯ll just activate another one. The best way to fight against you is to end you quickly but since you have damage reduction and reflection, ending you quickly wouldn¡¯t be possible." Asphil sighed.
"It does sound like it but out of everyone in the party, I¡¯m probably on the weaker side since I focus on defence." Madison grinned as the party made their way over.
Tapping her staff down, Silvia healed both Asphil and Madison in the end.
With her wounds healed, Asphil kneeled on one knee in front of Madison.
"As I have lost the fight fair and square despite being a higher level, rank 10 candidate Asphil will serve rank 72 Madison withoutints. I shallplete any tasks you hand to me wholeheartedly and address you as my mistress from now on. I will no longer be the 10th ranked candidate but rather your servant." Asphil closed her eyes as a binding contract was invoked which surprised Shiro since it demonstrated her sincerity. With the binding contract, if Asphil betrayed Madison, she would suffer quite a harsh bacsh.
Shocked at this, Madison was about to reject it since she never wanted to bind her but seeing her resolute face, she knew that Asphil was 100% serious. Scratching her head, she looked at Shiro awkwardly.
"Erm... how do I finish this contract?"
Hearing this, Asphil almost fell over with embarrassment since it was awkward to keep kneeling with the other party not knowing what to do.
"Pft! Just channel your mana and drop some blood before announcing your name, rank and say I ept the contract." Shiroughed as Madison nodded her head awkwardly.
"Ahem. Err... Madison rank 72 demon queen candidate, I ept the contract." Madison said as she cut her finger slightly and squeezed out a single droplet of blood.
As the blood came into contact with the magic circle, an illusionary chain could be seen attaching themselves onto Asphil¡¯s neck and wrists before fading away.
"I am yours tomand now mistress. The entire Valtorez family will serve you with me as their leader and aplish any task you give us." Asphil said as Madison scratched her head.
"Ah we¡¯ll talk about thatter I guess. For now we¡¯re going to continue to the northern border where Nostic and the other¡¯s are. Are you able to tell us information about them? We already have some information so is there anything that you can add?" Madison asked as she handed Asphil the tablet with the information on all the top 10 candidates.
Reading it through, she was surprised at how much information was gathered considering the fact that they knew nothing about the party.
"Most of the information that you have collected are indeed correct but some of the rumours are exaggerated. For example, Fellia can¡¯t cut through all armours like butter. She has a skill that lets her see weak points and once she strikes it, the armour is reduced by 70%. If she misses, the armour is not reduced at all." Asphil said as Shiro corrected the information.
While they were driving towards the castle, Asphil helped them get a better idea about the candidates as Madison was quite grateful since they weren¡¯t as threatening as they initially seemed now that they know some of their weaknesses.
"For ranks two and three, we never really fought so we don¡¯t know much about them. Like when I first met miss Shiro, it was an instinctive feeling that told us we won¡¯t be able to win against them." Asphil shook her head.
"So the top three are still a mystery then?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Mn, but if you are able to defeat Nostic, defeating ranks two and three will be easy for you. However, while you are strong, I need to warn you about artefacts. With the top 10 working together in order to defeat you, they have been gathering powerful artefacts that are essentially one time use items in order to defeat you. One that you need to be careful of is a ck ranked artefact that is specialised in sealing. The cost is the life of a single being and uses their soul as the prison. This would stop them from reincarnating and the stronger the soul, the stronger the prison. They haven¡¯t obtained the artefact just yet but I do believe their n is to kill Nostic in order to imprison you." Asphil warned as Shiro had a serious expression on her face.
Even for someone like her, a ck ranked artefact was something rather dangerous especially if it is specialised for sealing. She didn¡¯t have anything that could help her in terms of anti seal so the best way to go about things would probably be to ascend into demi god form.
Thankfully, she has knowledge on souls so depending on the type of seal, she could repurpose it to benefit her instead.
Chapter 855 Estrellas Problem
Chapter 855 Estre''s Problem
With new information on the rankers along with the artefacts that they¡¯re trying to get, Shiro started to formte a few ns in her mind since they couldn¡¯t run into things blindly.
Now that they had the advantage of information, not doing anything with it would be rather stupid.
¡¯Right now, they have an artefact that allows them to iste us from one another and it can be controlled at will. ording to Asphil, they were nning to split us and face us in a one on one situation. If we can control who we face, we¡¯ll be able to set up the most advantageous matchups but since we can¡¯t do that, we can only assume that we¡¯ll be facing the hardest matchups.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown while driving.
{Plus, with the information that they have additional artefacts that can be used for battle, there could be a chance that they¡¯ll use it on the party the moment it seems like they¡¯re about to lose. Should that happen, there¡¯s a high likelihood that one of the party members could die. And looking at their expressions, they understand that too. Right now, Silvia¡¯s resurrection while powerful, has a drawback of needing to revive them rather soon so if the fight drags on, the chances of being revived aren¡¯t high.} Nimue added as she too had a serious expression.
{Perhaps if we joined the battle, we can turn things in our favour even if they have artefacts.} Estre suggested as Iziuel agreed with her.
Both of them were quite powerful as Iziuelmands the nature element and Estre is a master of utilising space. While they may not be queens or candidates, they could keep up with rtive ease.
¡¯Are you sure? Neither of you have fought a battle in a while so I¡¯m not sure if you can still keep up.¡¯ Shiro asked with worry.
After her upgrade, she was able to fight her battles herself so Estre¡¯s help wasn¡¯t necessary. Therefore, she had been spending her time meditating in the mana realm waiting for the moment that she was needed. Unfortunately, while she was in the mana realm, she rarely spoke unless needed since she still believes that she should be punished.
However, Shiro had long forgiven her and would like to treat her the same as Iziuel and Nimue. In fact, it would be better if Estre could be more open but it seems like their rtionship would be stuck at a formal stage and never anything more.
Thinking about this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh.
{Don¡¯t worry your highness, I am confident in mybat prowess. Even if I haven¡¯t fought in a long time, I won¡¯t lose to some candidates that haven¡¯t be queens yet.} Estre bowed as Shiro massaged her eyes.
¡¯Mn. True. Speaking of which, since you¡¯ve been stuck at level 500 for a while, have you tried reaching tier 6 yet?¡¯ Shiro asked curiously as Estre nodded her head.
{During the time that I have been meditating, I have been following what you told to Nan Tian and tried to improve my connection to my attunement. However, it has proven to be rather difficult to advance to the next level. Hopefully, I¡¯ll be able to receive enlightenment soon and be a tier 6 so that I can better assist you in your endeavours.} Estre said as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯Thank you, but we need to talk about something first. You know, I have long forgiven you right? You don¡¯t need to take things so seriously.¡¯ Shiro smiled softly as Estre stayed silent.
{. . .I¡¯m sorry, the sin of harming your life is too big for me to just set aside. Until I can repay my sin, I cannot allow myself to forget and act as though it had never happened.} Estre looked down and bit her lip.
Seeing that Estre was adamant on her choice Shiro sighed. She was both disappointed and understanding in a way.
However, Nimue only shrugged her shoulders before walking up to Estre. Massaging her wrist for a moment, she twisted her body and pped Estre across the face.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Estre looked at Nimue in shock.
{Can¡¯t you see that you¡¯re making it hard on Shiro? I know that you can¡¯t forgive yourself for what you have done but can¡¯t you see that Shiro had already moved past it. With the thingsing in the future, there¡¯s no point dwelling in the past.} Nimue crossed her hand as Estre didn¡¯t know what to say.
{All that you¡¯re doing now is finding an excuse so that you can give yourself peace in a way. You¡¯re blocked by the thought that you should have died to pay for your sin. However, rather than taking the easy way out, why don¡¯t you try the hard way. Drop that thought process, allow yourself to be forgiven and work towards a better future. There¡¯s not much else I can do other than maintain Shiro¡¯s body since I¡¯m a water spirit. Sure I can go out, bring out water from the air, control people since they¡¯re made of water butpared to space, it¡¯s much weaker. Think about it, the only reason I could leave asionally and go out to help Shiro is because I¡¯m actively seeking out chances to help rather than when things be dire. It is also during those moments that we be closer since I talk to her often. Iziuel can¡¯t do that since she¡¯s busy looking after Attie in here since we know that Shiro is too busy but she still talks to Shiro every so often. So why don¡¯t you stop acting like a child and actually move on. Because it¡¯s better to see you being more livelypared to sulking in the corner.} Nimue huffed as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow.
Hearing this, Estre gritted her teeth.
{I¡¯m not sulking in the corner! Do you know how it feels to have almost single handedly end your own race! I almost killed Shiro damn it! I sent a powerful monster at her, weakened or not and if not for all the healers that Nan tian had brought along with the efforts of the party, she would have died then and there! She was forced to use so many berserk skills at once and destroyed her body! You of all people should know since you had to try and repair it too! After seeing thest queen die, I vowed to find a proper queen but I almost ended her myself!} Estre replied as she was frustrated by her own actions.
{So you can¡¯t forgive yourself in the end because you almost killed Shiro? You do realise that while you almost killed her once, this idiot here almost killed herself multiple times. If anything, she¡¯s the record holder here.} Nimue pointed at Shiro.
¡¯Oi, I¡¯m still here.¡¯ Shiro forced a smile.
{I know hence why I said it. Regardless, there are so many things that you can be doing but you decide to be a child and actually sulk about it. Are you sure you used to be on the council? Because you¡¯re not acting like it.} Nimue smirked as Estre was about tosh out when Attie tugged at her dress.
Looking pat, Attie tiptoed and patted her head.
{Estre don¡¯t be sad. Mommy doesn¡¯t like seeing friends sad.} Attie said as Shiro smiled.
{You can focus on your next step and talk to the party. I¡¯ll talk to Estre. I¡¯ll make sure she forgives herself. Plus, I got Attie helping me.} Nimue whispered over as Shiro nodded her head gratefully.
¡¯Thanks, I owe you one.¡¯
{Pft you already owe me quite a bit, never mind one. The times that I¡¯ve had to maintain your body is more than enough and that wasn¡¯t counting the times that you¡¯ve made me want to flip a table or flip this entire mana realm into oblivion.} Nimue rolled her eyes as Shiro chuckled softly.
{Now go, I¡¯ll deal with this now.}
Nodding her head, she left the mana realm and nced back at the party using the rear view mirror.
"Nimue, Iziuel and Estre will be helping us in the fight, Including Asphil, we¡¯ll have a total of 13 fighters while they only 8 fighter since rank 9 is dead and Asphil is on our side now. Even if they use the artefact to separate us, we can expect that some of us will be fighting two on one. Hell, there¡¯s even a chance for three on one if they¡¯re confident. We can¡¯t n around this so just memorise what I¡¯ve said and make sure you keep your guard up. If you y your cards correctly, I know that each of you can defeat them with ease." Shiro smiled as the party nodded their heads.
As for Asphil, she was shocked to hear that three others are joining the fight and couldn¡¯t help but feel relieved that she had joined this side and was actually epted.
Thinking back, she couldn¡¯t help but pity the other rankers that will face the party.
Chapter 856 Tracking Down The Candidates
Chapter 856 Tracking Down The Candidates
"Is Nostic not done yet?" Saresha asked as she tapped the table impatiently. They already saw the partying with one of their scouts, which was killed instantly, and understood that a fight will break out soon. Without Nostic around, there was no point fighting them since the chances of victory are null.
"Be patient, can¡¯t you sense his growing power? Just wait a little longer." Wyslia shook her head.
"All we¡¯ve been doing is sensing his growth. Can¡¯t you tell us something else?" Quinrad asked with a re.
"There is nothing else for me to say other than reaching tier 6 is not easy. All we can do is wait for Nostic to reach that tier and hope that he can upy the white haired girl long enough for us to seal her away." Wyslia shook her head as she could understand why they would be anxious. Their lives are on the line after all.
"Asphil has joined their side too. I suppose the chances of having our ns leaked is rather high." Fellia sighed.
"Indeed. She could be expecting the use of the artefacts to seal her away along with the fact that we¡¯re going to iste them. For them to continue, it could be that they¡¯re not afraid of singlebat." Wyslia looked down and sighed.
However, just as she sighed, they felt an explosion of mana which dwarfed their power easily.
Widening their eyes, they quickly looked over and saw Nostic walking over with a neutral expression while ncing at his fist.
"Mn, tier 6 is indeed different but I don¡¯t think this is enough." Nostic said as he looked up at the candidates.
"I may have reached tier 6 but the chances of meing out victorious are less than 10%. Have you retrieved the sealing artefact yet?" He asked as they nced towards Saresha since she was the one responsible for getting the sealing artefact.
"We¡¯re just one or two steps away from getting it. If we can dy them a bit longer, we¡¯ll be able to im the artefact." Saresha replied as Nostic furrowed her brows.
"Hm... That¡¯s too long. I¡¯ll go get it myself." Nostic said as he made his way out of the castle.
"Is there anything else we should do during this?" Wyslia asked.
Thinking about it for a moment, Nostic nced back at the candidates.
"Get everyone to follow me. There¡¯s no point in waiting in one spot. We¡¯ll move towards the artefact location and fight them where it is beneficial for us. If I remember correctly, there should be ratherrge forest with the demonic trees near the artefact. We¡¯ll use that to our advantage." Nostic said as Wyslia furrowed her brows.
"But we don¡¯t know how to use the demonic trees. They¡¯ll attack us as well." Wyslia replied as Nostic didn¡¯t say anything and nced towards Prisaya, the second ranked candidate.
"Why are you looking at me?" Prisaya smiled.
"You have a way to control them don¡¯t you?" Nostic asked as his eyes seemed to look past her fa?ade.
While it may sound like a question, Prisaya knew that it was basically announcing that she could and not asking for her confirmation.
"Tch, fine I can. My family has found a way to use them not too long ago." She clicked her tongue as Nostic nodded his head.
"We¡¯ll have Prisaya control the tree¡¯s so that they don¡¯t turn on us."
"Just be warned though, our control over the tree¡¯s aren¡¯t amazing just yet. If you hit them, they will disregard our instructions so you have to be careful. You can still use them as jumping tforms or something like that but if you damage them, you will be ssed as an enemy for them." Prisaya warned.
"I see... that¡¯s fine. We¡¯ll just have to create our own tforms which shouldn¡¯t be too hard now should it?" Nostic asked as the candidates nodded his head.
Leaving the castle, he looked back.
"Is there something you missed?" Wyslia asked as Nostic stayed silent for a moment before opening his mouth.
"We¡¯ll make this ce a trap to dy them further."
mming his hand down, a giant tier 6 magic circle expanded out as the castle disintegrated in an instant before being reconstructed by a strange ck mass.
Activating a few other tier 6 magic circles, he nodded his head and left without looking back.
###
Sensing a sudden spike in power in the far distance, Shiro understood that Nostic had probably reached tier 6 and that none of the party members here can face him.
Before she could say anything, Aarim frowned and looked towards the party.
"Nostic reached tier 6. I just felt a spike in mana simr to when Shiro uses her tier 6 spells." She informed the party, which surprised Shiro since this meant that her senses for mana was reaching her level.
{That¡¯s quite impressive isn¡¯t it?} Nimue smiled since Shiro¡¯s senses and control over mana was simply monstrous. For Aarim to be able to keep up was crazy in her own way.
¡¯Indeed. Perhaps in the future we¡¯ll have Lyrica and the other¡¯s being able to reach 100% control of their body.¡¯ Shiro smiled since being able to control 100% of their body is what allows her to react quickly both in body and mind when ites to danger.
{Mn.... 100% control is a little harder especially since you were able to achieve it because of how your brain works. It¡¯ll be hard for the other¡¯s.} Nimue furrowed her brows.
¡¯True. Honestly, if they can even reach 90% it¡¯ll be impressive since that was my limit in the first life. Also, how is it going with talking to Estre? Has she been able to forgive herself yet?¡¯ Shiro asked as she couldn¡¯t see Estre.
{Oh it¡¯s going fine. She just needs a few moments to herself so that she can sort things out. But don¡¯t worry, next time you see her she should be more casual.} Nimue grinned as Shiro nodded her head.
Focusing her mind back on reality, she created a few drones to scout on ahead since Nostic had reached tier 6.
Approaching the castle with the drones, she couldn¡¯t help but notice that the entire thing seemed to be made from mana. While the signal was weak, she could still sense it. But before she could get a closer look, all of the drones started to break apart and turn to ash.
Raising her eyebrows in surprise, Shiro didn¡¯t expect Nostic to be able to destroy her drones without being here since the castle was empty.
Narrowing her eyes, she wondered where he had gone.
Sending out another wave of drones, Shiro had reinforced them so that they could stand up against the corrosion. Scanning the area thoroughly, she noticed the fact that the castle has been turned into a giant death trap that would kill them. There¡¯s a few fake signals inside but Shiro knew better than to think they¡¯re huma since the signals were ¡¯one dimensional¡¯. They stayed consistent and didn¡¯t fluctuate.
Real mana signals would change slightly depending on the little shifts in mood so it was much harder to make a fake signal that one would think. Of course, she had to apud his efforts in trying to make the trap look real.
Sending out some tracking drones, Shiro was able to find their track.
"We¡¯re turning left. The castle is empty, it seems like they¡¯ve evacuated the castle and turned it into a death trap."
Hearing this, Asphil furrowed her brows.
"If we go left, that is where they will find the sealing artefact. I don¡¯t think they have obtained it just yet hence why they¡¯re making their way towards the artefact." Asphil said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Well regardless of whether or not they get the artefact or not, using something that deals with souls against me is rather stupid." Shiro shrugged as Asphil was confused.
"Howe?"
"Because I¡¯m basically half a reaper. My mother¡¯s half of the lineage deals with souls. Plus, I¡¯m the spirit queen and my spirit nature is soul rted too." Shiro grinned. While the party didn¡¯t know about her lineage, they knew about her power over souls so they weren¡¯t too shocked.
As for Asphil, she was different since it was the first time she found this out about Shiro. The fact that she was actually a queen was plenty shocking!
"You¡¯re a queen!?" She asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Well I say I¡¯m a queen but I¡¯m actually a rank above that. I¡¯m an empress." Shiroughed as Asphil was speechless.
She knew that there are candidates and queens but the fact that there was a rank above queen was news to her. Though it does exin her monstrous strength.
Thinking about this, Asphil sighed inwardly. There is no chance for a candidate to kill an empress. Plus, they were also going to be using a soul rted artefact against someone who uses souls. No matter what they chose, they were being countered by Shiro!
Chapter 857 Facing Nostic
Chapter 857 Facing Nostic
As they were tracking the candidates, Shiro forcefully activated the castle death trap using one of her drones with a proper fake signal that felt real just for fun. Plus, if she left it around, there was the chance that someone could be harmed.
Sending her drones to track the candidates, Shiro increased the speed of her car.
Half way through her drive, she received a request for a call from her earpiece.
"Sup, this is Shiro speaking." Shiro saidm, epting the call.
"It¡¯s me, everything has been handled now. All of the spirits have moved to the fortress and their houses have been constructed. They¡¯re getting used to life on the fortress." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Oh that¡¯s good. How¡¯s the job applications doing?" Shiro asked.
"We¡¯ve already got quite a few farmers that are living on the farm spaces. I¡¯ve connected a few portals with the merchants of the hidden sect so that there is some trade between the two ces. Plus, there are more jobs being filled now so most of the spirits will be working in a day or two." Nan Tian replied.
"Mn... Perfect. How¡¯s the military then? While we don¡¯t need many soldiers since we have powerful people, having something simr to an elite task force is handy." Shiro asked.
"The military is split into two groups right now. First is something simr to a normal army. We havemanders and generals. The normal army has ess to a decent amount of resources to get stronger while themanders and generals receive better care. The second group is as you said, an elite task force. They¡¯ve been suited up with some of the better weapons and armours from the sect. They¡¯re also getting some training from the teachers. Thepetition here is tough since if they don¡¯t meet the minimum requirements, they will be demoted back to the normal army and someone else will take their ce. There are some additional benefits to being in the taskforce and I can send you the information if you need."
"Mn that¡¯s fine. Since the city is made by yours truly, I can get the information whenever I want. But thanks for looking after the ce and making sure the move is done properly. We¡¯re about to get rid of the final candidates in the demon continent so you can probably teleport the city to us and I¡¯ll get the rest of the party settled down. Oh also, leave one of the tforms for a main smithing ind of sorts and focus most of our best materials there. Make it so that only the best smiths can live there and can get precious metals to work with. We¡¯ll have them provide a monthly quota of armour and weapons not includingmissions so that they can supply the whole ce. Once we take care of the demon continent, we¡¯ll make portals connecting the two ces after we solidify Madison¡¯s rule. The only problem is whates after as I might need to be a bit heavy handed against the demons depending on what happens. The spirits are fine since they listen to me but demons value strength. We need to deal with this thought process otherwise they can¡¯t live in the city since they would stir up trouble." Shiro sighed.
"Ah you can kill them if they step out of line. ording to demon rule, if the weaker side revolts against the stronger side, killing the weakling is no problem. I know Miss Shiro and mistress have different values but do not hesitate to kill the demons if they step out of line since they do so knowing the risks." Asphil said as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Are you sure? If we cause a revolt, I might have to eliminate arge amount of demons." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Asphil swallowed her saliva in nervousness since she knew Shiro wasn¡¯t joking.
"It¡¯s fine. Demons respect hierarchy a lot so once mistress bes the only queen candidate, they¡¯ll follow her orders strictly." Asphil reassured as Shiro nodded her head.
"Very well then, I¡¯ll give them a trial period of a month after we sort everything out. If they can¡¯t followws then they can¡¯t live here. Of course, the demons that can actually followws will be weed." Shiro smiled.
Soon, they arrived at what seemed to be a path that led to an underground ruin of sorts.
Getting out of the car, Shiro recalled all of the drones to her side and disassembled them.
"Seems like the tracks end here." Shiro smiled as there was only one entrance to the location of the artefact.
"Perhaps we can corner them if we enter now." Helion said as Shiro nodded.
"We could but that would be no fun now. They¡¯re trying so hard to face us." Shiro chuckled and summoned Nimue, Iziuel and Estre. Seeing Estre with her eyes red around the corner, she realised that she must have been crying.
"Are you feeling better now?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Mn, I am feeling better your high-"
"Estre, remember what I said?" Nimue smiled as Estre paused.
Struggling for a moment, Estre sighed.
"I am feeling better Sh-Shiro." She squeezed out as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s good. Iziuel, would Attie be ok in the mana realm?" Shiro asked as she was tempted to bring him out since she could protect him.
"He¡¯s a smart boy so he¡¯s fine. He¡¯ll be watching closely though since he¡¯s worried about you." Iziuel chuckled.
"Mn I¡¯ll have to spend some time with himter. For now though, let¡¯s-"
Before Shiro could finish her sentence, a huge tier 6 magic circle expanded out as Estre immediately teleported everyone away from the danger zone.
"Well aren¡¯t you a rude one. First time meeting face to face and you actually greet us with such a rude greeting." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Nostic floated in the air with the candidates behind him.
"I do apologise but for someone like you, I need every chance of attack that I can get." Nostic smiled.
"That is true. So can I presume that you have obtained the artefact that can ¡¯seal¡¯ me I suppose." Shiro asked with a smile as the candidates red at Asphil who wasn¡¯t afraid.
"Seems like Asphil has told you everything. Then I won¡¯t hide it, we have indeed obtained the artefact. For you to stille here knowing that, it would seem like you are not afraid of a ck ranked artefact." Nostic sighed since this meant that the chances of sealing her would be close to zero. It was ck ranked artefact and yet Shiro didn¡¯t care.
"Will you be giving up then?" Shiro asked as Nostic shook his head.
"Unfortunately no." Nostic smiled as he pulled out a talisman. Pushing it in the air in front of him, he flooded mana into the talisman which released a blinding light.
Once the light died down, Shiro noticed that she was in an isted space with Nostic.
"Ah that was the artefact that Asphil mentioned wasn¡¯t it? One that is used to iste us so that you can fight us in a one on one situation." Shiro smiled.
"Indeed. However, since you have more members than us, you do have the advantage in terms of power." Nostic shook his head helplessly.
"True. Let¡¯s see... So that¡¯s how you have spaced us out huh? Interesting." Shiro smiled as she activated her analysis skill and saw who everyone was paired up with.
"You can even see them through the barriers. What can¡¯t you do?" Nostic asked as having a chat with her is probably a better way to dy timepared to fighting.
"Mn... honestly, not much. So then, from what I know, you¡¯re nning to use the sealing artefact to sacrifice yourself along with me no?" Shiro asked as Nostic nodded his head.
"Indeed. That was the original n but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to work anymore. Though I must ask, what is your goal for your conquest?" Nostic asked since that was never clear to him.
"Oh this? It¡¯s just to help a friend. You see, she is a candidate and if a king was to ascend, she would be a mindless woman wanting to be the king¡¯s partner and that is not what she wants. So I decided to give her a hand." Shiro smiled.
"I see... Seems like it¡¯s the truth." Nostic smiled as he pulled out another artefact.
"This would have been set off if you had lied but you¡¯re being truthful. I suppose I don¡¯t need to worry then." Nostic chuckled.
"Oh?" Shiro raised her eyebrow as she was rather curious as to what he had up his sleeve.
"Please give me the best fight of my life as will probably be myst fight." Nostic asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you."
ring his aura, Nostic shed towards Shiro.
Chapter 858 Nostics Final Fight
Chapter 858 Nostic''s Final Fight
Smiling slightly, Shiro took a step back as Nostic appeared in front of her.
A trail of grey steam escaped his hands and she immediately noticed that it was corroding the mana that was near it.
¡¯Hou... I probably shouldn¡¯t let that hit me.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself as she summoned her sword and swung towards Nostic.
Narrowing his eyes, Nostic stomped his foot down and a hole was eroded beneath him.
With his body suddenly dropping down, Shiro¡¯s sword missed its mark.
"Oh my." Shiromented while summoning a second sword to her side.
A tier 6 magic circle expanded out beneath her as she enhanced both her swords with Celestial path and stabbed down into the ground.
*PING!!
Shattering the magic circle into pieces, Shiro flipped back as Nostic tried to grab her ankles.
"Oh pervert. You actually tried to look up my skirt." Shiro joked around and Nostic could only shrug his shoulders.
"Would you believe me if I said it was a mere coincidence?" Nostic asked as he mmed his hands down.
Suddenly, a snake created entirely from the grey smoke appeared andshed out towards her.
Looking at the giant serpent, Shiro only chuckled and crouched down slightly. Cleaving up with her sword, she split it in two with ease.
"I suppose I would believe you if you say it was a mere coincidence." Shiro replied as Nostic arrived by her side, not giving her a chance to attack him since he understood that if shended an attack, he¡¯d be heavily injured.
Twisting his body, he kicked towards her ribs but Shiro guarded against the strike with the face of her sword and used her spare sword to act as a support and prevent her from being moved.
Adapting to the situation immediately, Nostic kicked off the de and used it as a vault to jump into the air.
Activating two quick spells which didn¡¯t let Shiro have the time to cancel them, two streams of dark magic surged towards her.
Pivoting on her foot, Shiro enhanced both her swords and shed out in a circle.
Cutting apart the magic, Shiro wanted to step forward but just as she did this, Nostic appeared behind her and activated a tier 6 spell that he had been preparing for a while.
¡¯There¡¯s no time to cancel it.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and activated her celestial mirage.
Shifting her body to the side, Shiro watched as a thin beam of enemy suddenly cut through her illusion and corroded it away in an instant.
"Oh my, how dangerous." Shiromented as Nostic understood that it was an illusion since it corroded far too fast for someone of Shiro¡¯s strength.
Without a moment¡¯s dy, he turned his body and shed towards her using the beam of energy.
Bending back, Shiro managed to dodge the strike and kick his wrist which forced the de to move up.
Frowning slightly, Nostic twirled the de before stabbing himself in the chest with it.
Grey smoke exploded out and wrapped around his body which solidified into a set of armour.
With a single gesture, the entire ground in the isted space turned grey and Shiro understood that it was a domain of sorts.
mming her hand down, ayer of ice spread out but was corroded away.
Seeing the corrosion on her hand, Shiro casually cut off the corroded parts and regenerated her flesh.
Wrapping her boots in ayer of mana enhanced with celestial path, Shiro stood on the corrupted ground without any problems.
Feeling a surge of mana originating from Nostic, Shiro noticed tens of tier 6 magic circles appearing all around her.
Tier 6 Destruction magic!
Shiro immediately noticed what ss of magic it was and created enough needles enhanced with celestial path.
Sending them out, she was mildly surprised to see the mana begin to corrode which in turn cancelled out her celestial path.
Widening her eyes in surprise, Shiro immediately decided to use something that she had been testing.
Eyes of Gorgon + Analysis + Celestial Path!
¡¯Petrifying¡¯ the formation of the spell for a moment, her analysis spotted the weak points and destroyed them with celestial path. However, it only worked on spells within her sight so it didn¡¯t activate on the spells behind her.
Even if she was to turn around now and try to use the skill, it wouldn¡¯t be able to halt it in time.
Pushing her hand back, a wall of ice erupted out of the ground as Shiro made sure to construct it in a way so that it was as hard as possible.
Surprisingly, nothing happened as Nostic appeared in front of her and mmed his foot against her stomach.
mming her against the ice wall, he pulled his hand back and summoned a sword from his inventory before shing towards her neck.
"How smart, actually using that as a bait for me to shift my focus." Shiro grinned.
Phasing through the ice, she appeared on the other side and mmed her palm against the surface.
With a giant wall of ice mming into him, Nostic gritted his teeth and corroded it away in an instant.
Taking a deep breath, he analysed the battle so far and knew that Shiro was revealing just enough strength to cope with what he has to give so as to not end this quickly.
Feeling a little thankful for granting his wish, Nostic grabbed his sword and swung it towards Shiro. Releasing a blood red de of energy, he jumped back and pushed both his hands together.
*PING!
Hearing the energy shatter apart like ss, Nostic was happy that it managed to buy him a little bit of time as mana surged towards him.
Opening his palm, a blizzard of grey ash exploded out and rapidly approached Shiro¡¯s location.
Seeing this, Shiro narrowed her eyes. The easy way out would be to use her rift since that can just dodge it with ease,
However, since this was Nostic¡¯s final fight, she¡¯d entertain him a little, Activating her own tier 5 magic circle, a torrent of snow erupted out and contested against the ash.
While this was happening, Shiro flexed her fingers and ice chainsshed towards Nostic.
Frozen Slumber!
Quickly jumping back to avoid being frozen by the chains,
Grabbing them with his hands, he disintegrated them to ash as the individual particles morphed into needles and shot towards Shiro.
Widening her eyes, Shiro immediately summoned a second blizzard as the needles were blown away.
Quickly raising her sword behind her, she parried Nostic¡¯s strike before aiming her spare hand at his chest.
*BANG!!! PUCHI!!!
Sending out an ice spear, it pierced through his armour and chest.
mming against the walls of the isted space, Nostic coughed up a mouthful of blood before forcing himself to stand back up.
"Is this everything you¡¯ve got?" Shiro asked as Nostic only smiled and shook his head.
"Not yet. But if I use everything and end the fight quickly with you being disappointed, it would be quite sad." Nostic replied as his wounds quickly stitched itself together.
Activating another self buff skill, a demonic aura erupted from his body as he abandoned all forms of defence.
Appearing in front of Shiro in an instant, he reached towards her neck.
Parrying it with her sword, Shiro was surprised that it disintegrated to ash so quickly and wanted to make some space.
But just as she moved back, she felt a spark of pain in her hand and it shattered apart into blood and ash.
As the corrosion travelled up her arm, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to cut off her arm from the shoulder down.
Life fire wrapped around her shoulder as she quickly regenerated her arm.
While this was happening, Nostic continued tounch a barrage of attacks towards Shiro.
Understanding that each hit would corrode her, Shiro focused her mind on dodging each strike.
Like a leaf in the wind, Nostic was just a little too slow and wasn¡¯t able to catch her at all. Each time his attack seemed tond, she would always get away just in time. While it was frustrating, Nostic was enjoying himself since he was improving during the fight.
¡¯Eliminate theg between each hit, don¡¯t waste time. She¡¯s fast, faster than me, I can¡¯t be wasting time with dull movements. Be efficient!¡¯ He thought to himself as he continued to push his body to the limit.
Naturally, Shiro noticed this as she could tell that his control was improving overtime.
Once her arm regenerated, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"I should attack now shouldn¡¯t I?" She smiled before summoning another sword.
Activating her boundary, time seemed to stop as Nostic¡¯s weaknesses appeared in her sight.
Flickering past him, Nostic was confused for a moment when he felt nothing but the pain was merely dyed as his cuts opened up all over his body. With his tendons cut, he couldn¡¯t help but copse on the floor as his wounds were trying their best to heal but it was taking a little too long.
¡¯So the gap was this big huh?¡¯ He thought with a smile but this didn¡¯t mean he was giving up.
Activating all of his berserk skills at once without care of the bacsh, a cruel aura wrapped around him as his wounds were forcefully healed.
Chapter 859 Killing Nostic
Chapter 859 Killing Nostic
Seeing this, Shiro was reminded about what had happened when she was facing up against the gorgon. In a moment of desperation, she had stacked all of the berserk skills together without care for the consequences. Naturally, the result of such was almost dying if not for the help of her friends.
Tilting her head, Shiro narrowly dodged his strike as she flicked her hand and immediately cut off his arm that tried to strike her.
Gritting his teeth, he quickly regenerated his entire arm and tried to roundhouse kick her head.
Catching his kick, Shiro didn¡¯t care that her hand was corroding away and mmed him against the ground.
Once again, Shiro cut off the part of her arm that was being corroded.
Just as she finished regenerating, Nostic had also recovered from the m.
Grey smoke trails shot towards her in an attempt to kill her.
Swiping up with her hand, dark mes erupted out of the ground and devoured the smoke in an instant.
"Dying to the bacsh would be pretty disappointing so I¡¯ll have a final contest of power with you." Shiro narrowed her eyes and smiled. Activating her True Spirit Nature and Divine Raiment, a ck dress wrapped around her body as she chose the lightning element. Her white hair started to glow with a yellow colour as Shiro brough out Silvanis, her most treasured weapon.
On its own, the de already ignored 80% of all forms of armour and effect four allows the element to double its effectiveness while ignoring all of the target¡¯s resistance towards that element. In essence, he wouldn¡¯t be able to reduce the power of her strike at all.
Crouching down slightly, Shiro shed toward like a streak of lightning.
Gritting his teeth, Nostic forcefully activated a wide ranged tier 6 spell as a wave of corrosive ash exploded toward Shiro.
Twisting her body, she cut through the smoke easily as the force of her strikes were able to part them aside so that it didn¡¯t affect her. Plus, her de was unbreakable so the corrosion couldn¡¯t do anything about the sword.
Time seemed to stop for Nostic as he watched the lightning infused Shiroe closer with each passing moment. Her sword flickered with lightning as he knew that his life wasing to a close.
¡¯Despite using everything I have, she can still deal with me using just skills and techniques. She hasn¡¯t used a single berserk skill.¡¯ Nostic thought with a small smile.
Gathering all of his mana in a final destructive hit, he punched towards Shiro as she activated boundary.
A web of shes exploded out as Nostic was cut apart in a single moment as the lightning charred the rest of his body and prevented him from regenerating.
However, during thest moment, he managed to unleash the attack at the perfect moment.
Looking down at her body, Shiro couldn¡¯t help her praise him in her mind.
After all, hisst attack had managed to obliterate her entire arm and arge chunk of her torso. She could already feel light headed from the loss of blood as she quickly removed all of the corroded parts and regenerated everything using grace rather than life fire since life fire would take a little longer to heal a wound of this scale.
With Nostic killed, her level had increased a little as she collected his body.
Surprisingly, he had quite a lot of weapons, armours, materials and items. Most of the items weren¡¯t useful for her but she managed to find the artefact that they were nning to use.
[Prison of Souls ¨C ck]
Using your own soul as a catalyst, you are able to seal away a being more powerful than you. However, if the strength disparity between the two of you is too big, the strength of the seal will be weakened. This cannot be dodged and is a guaranteed hit.
Once they are sealed, their physical body will be restrained, unable to move or do anything while their soul will be trapped in this artefact. Even if they destroy the seal on the body, unless they destroy the seal on the soul, the person will not be able to control their physical body.
Uses ¨C 1/4
Reading the item description, Shiro was a little surprised to see that it was a guaranteed hit that used souls as the catalyst.
If Nostic had wanted to use this in the fight, it would definitely be a little annoying since it was a guaranteed hit.
¡¯That demon¡¯s pretty honourable.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since he wanted hisst fight to be one where he could let loose and not one where he would just seal her away.
Storing the artefact away so that she could analyse it at ater date, Shiro wondered how she was meant to move around the isted space. She could see that the other¡¯s were performing quite nicely as they were pushing the candidates back.
Even rank 2 and 3 who they had limited information on were being pushed back thanks to the party¡¯s synergy and teamwork.
Right after she killed Nostic, Wyslia, the one who had a certain amount of control over the artefact that isted them, frowned as she noticed that she now had full control. This could only mean one thing and that Nostic is dead. But she could still sense Shiro¡¯s mana signal so she could assume that Nostic probably didn¡¯t use the artefact.
¡¯This is bad.¡¯ She thought to herself while jumping back. However, Estre, Aarim and Lisandra weren¡¯t about to give her more room.
Creating a portal behind her, Wyslia found herself being teleported closer to the trio as her movements were dulled by Aarim.
With her guard being open, Lisandra charged towards her as her sword lit up with a golden me that caused her to flinch.
Splitting her body in two, Wyslia created two clones of herself and dodged her strike before fusing together.
mming her hand down, tier 5 magic circles appeared around the trio.
From their shadow, tens of hands shot out and restrained their movements while Wyslia pressed her palm against the walls of the isted space.
"Yo, seems like you can control this ce huh? Good for you." Shiro smiled as she appeared next to Wyslia with the help of the rift. Normally, this wouldn¡¯t work but after her recent creation of a pseudo teleport shrine, her understanding had increased and through using Celestial path, she was able to create pathways to each of the rooms that they had isted.
"However, I think I¡¯ll have you stay here so that you can¡¯t regroup." Shiro smiled as she flexed her finger.
Suddenly, a tier 6 magic circle expanded out as a thin barrier oveyed the walls, preventing Wyslia from using the artefact at all.
However, Wyslia only smiled.
"You might have prevented me from using the artefact but I can still cut off my supply mana." Just as she said this, the isted space started to shake before crumbling apart.
"Saresha! Use the forest!" Wyslia shouted out as she flickered away, regrouping with the rest of the candidates.
Looking at the state of the party members, Shiro knew that they would have won their fights eventually. Most of the candidates were looking worn out while a few looked as though they were on the verge of death.
"ns have changed, she¡¯s got the artefact and Nostic is dead." Wyslia said as the candidates furrowed their brows. Without saying anything else they immediately dashed towards the forest as the party chased them down.
Naturally, Shiro decided to spectate from the side as her job was now over.
Just as they entered the forest, Saresha blew her flute as the mana density started to increase. The trees started to uproot themselves as vines shot towards the party.
"Oh my, using tree¡¯s when Iziuel is around is just a poor choice of actions." Shiro smiled as Iziuel didn¡¯t hesitate to dash forward.
Biting her finger, she used her blood to draw a tier 5 magic circle in the air before mming it in the ground.
A pulse of energy expanded through the forest as the trees immediately turned against the candidates.
"What?!" Widening her eyes in shock, Saresha tried to blow her flute once more but it seemed to have lost its effectiveness.
With the forest now on the party¡¯s side, the rest of the fight could only be described as a hunt.
Soon, the only candidate left here was Madison as Asphil gave up her role.
Just as this happened, the entire party received a notification.
[You have assisted candidate ranked 72, Madison to be the only remaining candidate. She shall begin her evolution to be the Demon Queen.]
Chapter 860 Bringing The Party To Asharia
Chapter 860 Bringing The Party To Asharia
Looking at the notification, the party looked at one another in shock and Shiro was no exception.
To her understanding, even if Madison was the only one left, there should have been another test but the system immediately handed her the role.
While it does make sense, it does overwrite what they knew.
However, even if they were confused, the system didn¡¯t pause for them as a magic circle of unknown tier opened up beneath Madison.
Before she could even call out for help, a crystal wrapped around her body and she was sent into a deep slumber.
Widening his eyes, Helion was about to try to smash the crystal when Shiro grabbed his wrist.
"Stop it. That crystal is what is used when we evolve. Shattering it could bring some negative effects. Plus, the system said that she¡¯s evolving into the queen so it¡¯s beneficial for her." Shiro said as Helion calmed down.
"Regardless, this is a rather abnormal situation. Did you get a notification as well?" Shiro asked Asphil since she was the only other demon here.
"Mn I did." Asphil nodded as she took a deep breath.
"The queen of demons has been selected, is what my notification said. "
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Hearing what she had said, the party understood that the entire demon race probably got this notification.
"For now, let¡¯s take her to a safe location. I¡¯m not sure how long it¡¯ll take for her to finish her evolution but leaving her out in the open is a no go. Since Nan Tian has finished helping the spirits move, I¡¯ll summon Asharia to our location. We can also make some preparations in moving the demons to the city." Shiro said as she created a small nanotech disk and threw it into the air.
"Yo Nan Tian, I¡¯ve set up a marker, you should be able to send Asharia to my current location." Shiro said while activating the ear piece.
As the disk was flying higher into the air, it started to unpack itself as severalyers of tier 5 magic circles appeared.
"Yep, I can see the marker now. I¡¯ve already sent out an announcement saying that we¡¯ll be teleporting in 5 seconds to the spirits are bracing themselves. This is the first teleport so I¡¯m not sure about the feedback. Hopefully it should be alright." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiroughed.
"Who do you think built that thing?"
"You, that¡¯s why I¡¯m worried. With the way you like to make your jets, I can¡¯t help but worry for the rest of us." Nan Tian replied as Shiro stayed silent. He wasn¡¯t wrong.
When making the fortress, she was a little tempted to make things bumpy and just brush it off as something she couldn¡¯t fix but in the end, against her better judgement, she decided to make things stable.
"Che, just trust me. The feedback should be minimal. If anything, you probably wouldn¡¯t even notice it except for the sudden shift in sky since the one in the demon world is red." Shiro clicked her tongue.
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"Of course, we¡¯re sending Asharia over now."
Cutting off the link, Shiro watched as the magic circles started to shimmer with a soft blue light.
Continuing its expanse, Asphil watched in shock as this magic circle was bigger than anything that she had ever seen before.
Plus, it wasn¡¯t just one magic circle either. It was several! The amount of mana needed to power all of this must be crazy. Not to mention the fact that she had just finished a fight with the tier 6 Nostic, the amount of mana she had used already far surpassed what she had initially expected but the rest of the party actually acted as though this was perfectly normal.
There was only one sentence in Asphil¡¯s mind right now.
¡¯What in the actual f*ck is wrong with this party???¡¯ They werepletely abnormal!
Even the healer could out damage a candidate and even buff the rest of the party never mind the rest.
She was grateful that she could serve the queen of demons but she felt as though her sense of what is normal and what is not will soon change.
Though if they were normal, they wouldn¡¯t be able to kill the rest of the candidates so it was to be expected.
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Waiting for a little longer, the party felt a surge in mana before it was quiet. Looking around in confusion, they couldn¡¯t find Asharia nor could they find any hints of where it might be.
Looking at Shiro, they were about to ask her about the fortress when she only smiled and snapped her finger.
Seeing the skies flicker, the party looked up and saw the city slowly reveal itself in the air.
"PFT!!!! Holy crap!" Helion cried out in shock seeing the sheer size of the city and the amount of metal involved.
"You¡¯re just seeing the underside of the city and you¡¯re already shocked haha. Come, I¡¯ll show you the top." Shiro grinned.
Flexing her fingers, she teleported everyone above the city so that they could get a full view of the ce.
Looking at the sheer scale of the city with spirits walking around, drones making sure no one was making any trouble, people working in farmnds and so on, the party was speechless at the fact that Shiro made all of this.
Last time she made a small scale fortress to demonstrate her power but looking at the sheer size of this one, they wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she said that this could destroy a country. After all, it was a few times bigger than a city!
Little did they know, this wasn¡¯t even its full size either. Shiro had to shrink it down a little since there was too much empty space and with the amount of spirits migrating over, it would be difficult to make this ce look lively if she had kept the amount of space.
"Wee to Asharia, this is where our headquarters will be for the new age. Once Madison wakes up, we¡¯ll have her announce her position as the queen and move a few demons to the city so that the spirits and demons can get used to one another. After all, they¡¯ll be neighbours in the new age. I can¡¯t let Madison stay in the demon continent especially when more powerful queens are roaming around. Plus, elves might be joining as well." Shiro smiled towards Isilia and Lyrica since Lyrica¡¯s half sister is the current leader in training.
Moving the three races into the city would make things lively. With her being able to expand the fortress at will, it wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration to call it a country if the three races start to live on Asharia.
Teleporting everyone to the main tower, Shiro had a few drones prepare a room for the party as well as a ce for Madison since she was evolving into the demon queen right now.
Arriving at themand room, Shiro saw Nan Tian sitting on a chair with his legs crossed. He had already removed his mask and was waiting for Shiro.
"Seems like you had some fun in the demon continent." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"And you seemed to have enjoyed your time here acting as captain." Shiro chuckled while making a chair for herself.
"A little, I¡¯ve been spending most of my time here after all. Having a console that can monitor the entire fortress took a bit to get used to but once you get past the learning curve, it¡¯s actually very efficient." Nan Tian said while tapping the screen.
"Of course, I made it after all. I can¡¯t have one of my best creations be inefficient now can I? Also, I should have left a doc.u.ment for mech pilot training. There will be people who aren¡¯t good at fighting in person so using mechs would be helpful for them as their presence on the battlefield can¡¯t be ignored. Plus, since they¡¯re the mechs that I made, you can expect them to be the best of the best." Shiro smiled.
"With our technology right now, we can¡¯t even make guns effective on the monsters, never mind the mechs. Your mechs are the best of the best because they are the only ones around haha. Though even if we did start making mechs, your knowledge is years ahead of even the smartest people around so it would be almost impossible to make mechs better than the ones you have." Nan Tian shrugged as Shiro nodded her head with a smile.
If he had said hundreds of years ahead, she would have punched him since it made her sound like a granny.
Activating the camouge on the city, Shiro helped organise a few things manually while they waited for Madison to wake up.
Chapter 861 Walking Around Asharia
Chapter 861 Walking Around Asharia
Walking around the city with Nan Tian besides her, Shiro navigated her tablet and checked up on all the avable information.
Right now, they were making their way to the military so that Shiro could have a look at the situation herself. After all, it was different seeing things in person and seeing it on a screen.
Only when she saw them in person would she be certain of their capabilities. Plus, she needed to start preparing them for mech training as that would make up arge portion of their military in the new age.
"Hmm... most of the shops around this district are focused on selling foods and daily necessities and there is little to no adventurer gear such as potions and weapons. Perhaps we should name this street on the map so that people can find it easier." Shiro muttered.
"Mn what should we even call it?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro paused for a moment.
"Who knows, I¡¯m not exactly great with naming. Maybe we can call this ce the non adventurer shopping street?" Shiro joked as Nan Tianughed.
"Pft what kind of name is that?" He asked as Shiro shrugged.
"I don¡¯t really focus on non adventurer things so it¡¯s probably better to get someone else to name this." Shiro smiled as a young girl walked up to her.
"Erm your highness?" The girl called out as Shiro nced towards her.
"Mn? Can I help you?" Shiro asked with a smile as the girl gave her a flower.
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"Thank you for giving us this city." The girl said as Shiro paused and epted the flower.
"You¡¯re wee. As long as you¡¯re safe, I¡¯m happy." Shiro replied as the girl nodded her head happily and made her way back to her parents.
Giving her a small wave, Shiro looked at the flower and raised her eyebrows. The flower was a rather simple blue coloured flower that only had a few petals.
Putting in her hair, Shiro grinned and nced at Nan Tian.
"Fufu do I look good in this?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Of course. You look good even without it." Nan Tian replied as Shiro shrugged.
"Smooth. Anyways, setting aside the naming of the street, we need a ce for all of the adventuring tools. Right now, they¡¯re kind of scattered as the cksmiths are towards the east while the alchemists are towards the south. I¡¯ll have a few drones talk to the residents and have them move to a specific location if possible. That way it¡¯s easier to ess. Maybe I should also make some teleport zones around the city since it¡¯s ratherrge." Shiro said as Nan Tian thought about it for a moment.
"Hmm... maybe it¡¯s better to not add teleport spots so that they can explore the city a little. Plus, even if they do need one, there can be transport." Nan Tian replied.
"I agree but the main problem is people flying. If a transport vehicle ms into someone or vice versa, it¡¯ll be annoying to deal with. Do you think we should have a permit for flying? I remember people having car licenses in the past so maybe something simr to that. It¡¯s only when you have the permit can you fly." Shiro suggested.
"We can always give it a try. If it doesn¡¯t work out, we can just get rid of it. It¡¯s an ambitious project this city, so it¡¯s expected a few things might go wrong. The fact that everything is proceeding smoothly is rather surprising." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro agreed with him.
"I¡¯ll set that aside for now then. What about entertainment? Are the citizens finding it adequately entertaining? It doesn¡¯t have to be like a festival or anything like that but if they¡¯re bored, their thoughts about the city will dull as well. Even workaholics need some entertainment after all so that they can rest their minds." Shiro asked.
"Hmm... entertainment is not a problem with the inte being around. Though having something interactive in real life wouldn¡¯t hurt either." Nan Tian suggested.
"True. In that case then I¡¯ll allocate a space for activities such as Virtual Reality games where it trains one¡¯s reaction speed and so on. I remember a few games from Aria so it might be pretty good. We can also make some sports halls and so on so that the kids can y around. I¡¯ll send out some mail asking them what kind of facility they would wantter today so that we can tailor the city to suit their needs." Shiro replied while making notes on the tablet.
Giving out instructions to the drones, they soon arrived at the military grounds.
Seeing Nan Tian, a few of the soldiers quickly bowed but when they saw Shiro, they kneeled since they needed to show respect to the person who built all of this.
"There¡¯s no need to bow, I¡¯m just here for a casual visit." Shiro smiled as the soldiers stood up.
"How are you finding things so far? Is the training adequate?" Shiro asked while looking at therge spaces full of spirits training with one another and medical drones ready should anything go wrong.
"Reporting to your highness, everything is more than adequate, it¡¯s amazing. All of the facilities, techniques and equipment is much better than what we could have imagined." The soldier replied as Shiro nodded her head.
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"That¡¯s good. Keep up the good work, I have high hopes for you." Shiro smiled as they continued into the training grounds.
{That was an obvious lie. With your power, I doubt you have any hopes for spirits like them to impact an important fight. If anything, they¡¯ll be handy for conqueringnd without making a move yourself but even then, you can just send a few drones to do that for you.} Nimue rolled her eyes.
¡¯Oh of course. But if I say that, it might cause them to feel rather depressed, no? Plus, if I urge them on, we might be able to find some hidden talents.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
{Speaking of hidden talents, why didn¡¯t you recruit Nostic? For a tier 6 demon, he would have been extremely helpful in our group.} Nimue asked curiously. She wasn¡¯t there for the fight since she was upied with her own candidate, but she did know that Shiro killed him in the end.
¡¯Mn... well I did want to recruit him but as the fight continued, I could tell that he was having the time of his life so I didn¡¯t want to ruin it. Plus, near the end, he was burning up everything to fight me and once the berserk skills ended, all of the bacsh would have killed him instantly. I saw his mana realm cracking and his body being broken from the inside out so I decided to end him before he fell into a pitiful state and died to the bacsh.¡¯ Shiro shrugged since Nostic would have been a good ally. Plus, he was quite honourable too so she knew that he could probably be trusted one she got to know him a little more.
{I see... that¡¯s quite unfortunate then.}
¡¯Mn, well I guess in a way he¡¯s fortunate. He doesn¡¯t have to go through the new age crap that the system created just to lie to all other queens apart from the one originating from the current garden.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she entered the area where the supposed elites were.
Looking at the spirits here and their fighting spirits, Shiro wondered if she should have a little fun with them.
Camouging herself for a moment, she hopped forward slightly before unleashing a dense wave of killing intent.
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Surprised by her actions, Nan Tian stayed silent and watched by the side.
As for the ¡¯elites¡¯ cold sweat immediately dripped down their back as it felt like the grim reaper had just grabbed their throat. Time seemed to pause for them as their bodies tensed up.
However, there were a few who managed to grab weapons and look around them in shock.
"Hou hou~ Three of you managed to still move. Well done, I¡¯ll give you some extra rewards." Shiro smiled as it was hard to move while being bathed in her killing intent. The fact that three of them managed to react meant that their willpower is some of the highest amongst the elites. They were able to face death head on even though they knew it was futile. They¡¯re the kind of people that will make sure that the final moments of their life in battle are beneficial for their allies.
These were the kind of people she could trust leading a group to.
Chapter 862 Shiina, Oran and Akhess
Chapter 862 Shiina, Oran and Akhess
"What are your names?" Shiro asked with a small smile. While she knew their names thanks to the fact that they registered when they moved to the city, she wanted to hear it from them personally.
Hearing this question, the three soldiers quickly stood upright.
"I¡¯m Shiina Isirvyn, your highness. My peers refer to me as Shiina." Shiina was the first to reply. She was a girl who looked like she was around the age of 18 to 20. She had light blue hair and a pair of azure eyes which looked at her with reverence.
With the Shiina introducing herself, the other two quickly introduced themselves as well.
"Ah I¡¯m called Oran. I wasn¡¯t adopted into any family so I don¡¯t have a surname." Oran introduced himself.
He was a tall man who stood around 1.85 meters. He had short golden hair with traces of brown on the edges and a pair of red eyes. There was a scar just above his right eye and it cut through his eyebrow, making him look a little threatening.
Seeing his hair and expression, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but imagine him as a cat that was scared of the person in front of him.
"Akhess. Like Oran, I wasn¡¯t adopted into any family so I don¡¯t have a surname." Akhess followed up as Shiro nodded her head.
With the way he introduced himself, Shiro could tell that he had a more serious character. He had dark red hair and a pair of scarlet eyes. He was just slightly taller than Oran and when he was facing her, he made up to stand up as straight as possible.
"Shiina, Oran and Akhess. Well done for being able to stand up to my killing intent. As you three are the only ones that reacted, I¡¯ll promote you to ranks one two and three for now. I understand that some soldiers here might be unhappy since their power might not be the strongest but in a battle, if you can¡¯t move under your opponent¡¯s killing intent, having strong power is useless. These three will be the first ones to be able to react should a strong enemy attack and therefore, they have the capacity to lead you. For now that is. As you continue to train, I hope that many of you can hone your willpower so that you too can move while being assaulted by my killing intent." Shiro smiled as the soldiers performed a rather impressive salute towards her.
"Yes your highness!"
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head before turning to the three spirits.
"You three follow me for now." Shiro smiled as the three spirits nodded their heads.
To them, it was a great honour being able to walk alongside the one who had created this entire city and filled their libraries with vast amounts of knowledge. The martial art manuals that they see in the army libraries were also provided by her.
Doing a few checks around the training grounds to make sure that everything was satisfactory, Shiro had the drones prepare an empty training hall for now since she wanted to talk to these three for a bit.
Arriving at the training grounds, Shiro nced over at Shiina.
"Since you were the first one to introduce yourself, why don¡¯t you tell me a bit about your powers and the element you use." Shiro asked with a smile.
"Ah, I¡¯m an ice spirit and all of my powers are rted to ice. I can control water to some extent but it¡¯ll get taken over if a water spirit decides to interfere." Shiina replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"I see... I also started off as an ice spirit. The power of ice is very helpful, it can act as both offence and defence depending on how you want to use it." Shiro smiled before turning to Oran.
"What about you? What element do you use?"
"I use lightning and earth. Out of the two, I¡¯m more proficient with lightning." Oran replied.
"Handy. Earth counters Lightning so if the enemy uses the earth element, as a spirit, you should be able to override their control." Shiro said while making a mental note on their powers.
Looking towards Akhess, Shiro asked the same question.
She was half expecting him to say fire but his answer surprised her.
"I¡¯m a blood spirit. All of my skills are blood rted whether that means I use my own or my opponents." Akhess replied as Shiro paused in surprise.
"That¡¯s quite rare." Shiro said as Akhess nodded his head.
"So right now, we have ice, lightning, earth and blood.... Alright, take these for now. I want to see what you canprehend in one hour." Shiro grinned as she handed all of them a manual.
Flexing her finger, three chambers were created in an instant and mana from Astral Horizon¡¯s filled the chambers thanks to a small portal she created. They¡¯ll find it easiest to find inspiration in a mana rich area so this was perfect for them.
Understanding what Shiro wanted them to do, the trio entered the chambers.
Making two chairs, Shiro sat down and created a table before grabbing some juice from her inventory.
"Want one?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Seems like you want to give the three a bit of special training." Nan Tian smiled.
"Mn, they managed to move around in my killing intent after all. For spirits like them, doing so would be extremely hard and yet they managed it. I don¡¯t know what they had to go through to have such a strong willpower but this kind of willpower is what will keep them going and push them to greater heights. All I¡¯m doing right now is give them a small boost to kick start their improvement." Shiro replied while taking a sip of her juice.
"For Shiina, I gave her a manual on some of the more powerful skills I know for ice. It includes a few skills from the Frozen Hell series that big sis said would be helpful but I haven¡¯t managed to finish the series just yet. I don¡¯t know what is needed to finish it and since I¡¯ve been focused on my nanobots, my ice has slowlygged behind.
"Oran has two elements so I gave him a manual on lightning, earth and a few fusion concepts. If he can somehowbine the two elements together, there is a chance for him to improve his lightning so that it doesn¡¯t have the weakness against earth." Shiro exined.
"What about Akhess?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro didn¡¯t have any blood rted powers.
"For Akhess it¡¯s mostly fighting techniques and a few skills that I remember from the people I¡¯ve faced. However, there are a few questions that I threw in there to see if he can increase his connection to his element. Why is he able to control the blood in his enemy¡¯s body? What happens and what is the process? What is the system doing for him that he doesn¡¯t have to do manually in order to control the blood? If he is able to answer all of that and even control the full process himself, there will be a good chance to reach tier 6 for him. After all, I believe the key to tier 6 is an advanced understanding of your element and full control without the systems assistance." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian agreed with her thoughts. After reaching tier 6, he could construct all of his spells manually and even use his skills without the system¡¯s interference thanks to his understanding of his own attunement.
As time passed, Shiro created aptop and prepared a training program for mech pilots. Remembering some of the training back in Aria, Shiro designed it so that it was more ¡¯friendly¡¯ towards newbies who had never been exposed to mechs before. From VR training to small physical props that they can use and even school sses on mechs, Shiro started to add them to the system while the three spirits were training in the chambers.
Regardless of how much theyprehend, just being in a mana rich environment will allow them to improve their constitution as spirits.
Once the hour was up, Shiro saw the doors open and the three stepped out.
Both Shiina and Oran had excited faces while Akhess was stoic as usual but Shiro could tell the excitement in his eyes.
"Now then, let¡¯s see what you haveprehended in the short span of an hour." Shiro grinned as she stood up and dismissed the chambers.
If theyprehended more than what she had expected, she will give them priority in training so that they can reach the standard of the party members if they try hard enough.
Chapter 863 Sparing Against Shiina, Oran and Akhess
Chapter 863 Sparing Against Shiina, Oran and Akhess
"How will we do that?" Shiina asked curiously since most of the things sheprehended werebat orientated.
"Naturally throughbat." Shiro smiled.
"You three will take me on at the same time and I¡¯ll evaluate your performances. If you do very well, I shall reward you with more things. If you don¡¯t do as well as I expected, you¡¯ll get nothing. This is a one time thing so I hope you don¡¯t disappoint. I don¡¯t have time to continuouslye back and train you since I¡¯m busy with a few things outside." She exined as all three members had serious expressions on their face.
"Seems like you¡¯re ready, feel free to start whenever. Perhaps you also need a moment to talk amongst yourselves for a strategy. After all, I don¡¯t think you have worked with one another just yet so it may be a little difficult."
"We would like to have a talk with one another if you do not mind your highness." Akhess said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, take all the time you need."
Walking back to Nan Tian, she sat back down on her chair before crossing her legs.
Looking at the three talking to each other, Shiro didn¡¯t eavesdrop since that would be rather rude.
"Do you think those three will be able to work together well enough?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Pft of course not. While they have good willpower, they¡¯re inexperienced. It¡¯s one thing to talk about a n of action but it¡¯s another to carry it out. After all, they cannot foresee everything that happens in a fight, especially since they know nothing about me. The key is how they will adapt to the change once the n is shattered apart. How will they carry out a n that they haven¡¯t discussed? How would they understand each other¡¯s actions and how would they ask for help without me knowing. They won¡¯t be able tomunicate silently just yet since it¡¯s their first time working with one another." Shiro replied.
"However, there is the off chance that they could synergise well so we¡¯ll just have to see what happens." She shrugged as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Honestly, the one I¡¯m most curious about is Akhess. He seems like the strategist since he¡¯s exining the situation and the n to the other two. But with the way his powers work, I¡¯m wondering how he would impact the fight. If he uses too much of his own blood, there is a chance he could pass out. If he uses his ally¡¯s blood, it could be dangerous for them. And as for using your blood, I doubt he would, considering the fact that you are the queen and their benefactor." Nan Tian exined.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro nodded her head since that is indeed a problem. Being a blood spirit has its benefits and negatives and in a situation like this, it would be hard to bring out 100% of his power.
Understanding this, Shiro stood up once more.
"I forgot to mention this earlier but Akhess, feel free to use your spells on me. Taking a bit of blood won¡¯t harm me since I can take off an entire arm and still grow it back." Shiro said with a smile as all three paused in confusion.
"Pardon?" Akhess said as he didn¡¯t understand what she meant by the fact that she could take off an entire arm.
"Well basically just know that you can use your skill on me. I want to see 100% of what you¡¯re capable of after all. And just so that you three understand the situation..."
Summoning a sword, Shiro cut off her right now and burnt it to ashes before a small charge of grace to regrow it in an instant.
"You can¡¯t hurt me badly so it doesn¡¯t matter." Shiro finished with a grin.
Seeing the shock and surprise on their faces, Shiro raised her eyebrow at theck of response.
{Oh my, you broke them before the fight even started.} Nimue smirked.
¡¯Well I was just trying to reassure them. They can¡¯t harm me after all and there is no danger to my life.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
{Pft who hurts themselves to this extent while exining the situation? If I didn¡¯t know you better, I would have thought that you were an M from how much you harm yourself.} Nimue giggled as Shiro rolled her eyes.
¡¯It¡¯s better to show than tell. It doesn¡¯t affect me too much so cutting off an army doesn¡¯t matter. Plus, it¡¯s not painful.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
{Bullsh*t. Cutting off an arm is obviously painful but you¡¯re just abnormal.} Nimue rolled her eyes.
This was a woman who casually broke her arm and punched a hole in her stomach so that Silvia could test out her healing spells after all. Common sense had long left her brain!
¡¯Mn... maybe.¡¯
{It¡¯s not a maybe, it¡¯s a definitely. Anyways they seem to have recovered.}
Nodding her head, Shiro focused back on reality.
"So, will you use your skills on me or not? Because like I said before, if you don¡¯t perform well, I¡¯ll be disappointed." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Akhess froze in nervousness before calming himself and nodded his head.
"Understood." He replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Good. Shall we start then?" Shiro asked as she created two tier 5 magic circles.
Summoning two normal looking swords, Shiro stood in a rxed position and waited for them to make a move.
Looking at each other, they nodded as Oran mmed his hand against the ground.
Two tier 5 magic circles wrapped around both Shiina and Akhess as lighting flickered on their body.
Suddenly, a pir of earth shot out from the ground,unching the two towards her.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile at the way Oran hadprehended the book that she had given him. What was a self buff skill was actually used to empower his allies who didn¡¯t have this power.
¡¯Interesting.¡¯ Shiro thought while taking a step back and raised her sword.
Just as she did this, she noticed that her foot started to freeze as the ground beneath her was already frozen in that short moment.
Shrugging her shoulders, she bent her body back and avoided their first strikes. Shiina tried to cut her with an ice sword while Akhess tried to pierce her with a blood rapier.
Looking at the two swords that missed their target, Shiro flexed her fingers as two ice pirs erupted out from the ground and mmed the two of them in the stomach,unching them up.
Gritting her teeth, Shiina swiped her hand horizontally as tens of ice knives shot towards her.
Using her left hand, Shiro shattered the ice around her foot before cutting down the ice knives with her right hand.
Just as she did this, Oran appeared behind her with lightning flickering around his body as he had applied the buff to himself.
Kicking towards Shiro, earth had wrapped around his leg like martial armour but Shiro only gave him a side nce before grabbing his ankle with her hand, stopping his kick.
Seeing this, Oran quickly morphed his earthen armour into a de so that he can force Shiro to let go.
Following along for now, Shiro let go of his leg before mming her elbow into his stomach.
As Orna left melee range, tens of ice pirs erupted out of the ground and were slowly dyed red as Shiro quickly looked towards Shiina and Akhess.
Seeing that both of them were draining their blood into the pirs, Shiro raised her eyebrow and twisted her body.
shing all of the pirs and shattering them to pieces, Shiro watched as blood gushed out of the ice stumps.
Seeing this, both of them activated tier 4 magic circles as the blood and ice morphed into des which shot towards her.
Activating a simple mana barrier, Shiro blocked all of them with ease.
Surprisingly, it wasn¡¯t over as the blood and ice fused together into chains that wrapped around her barrier.
mming her hands together, more magic circles appeared as ice chains shot towards Shiro.
Realising that this was frozen slumber, Shiro decided to expose one of its biggest weaknesses and that was without the chains securing the target, it was hard to freeze the target properly.
Stomping down with her foot, tens of des appeared in the space around her and shed apart all of the chains.
As the chains were shed apart, the blood that was stored inside became misted which polluted the area.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro saw that this was probably a poison type skill. Unfortunately, she was basically immune to poison so doing so was actually such a waste.
Walking through the mist like it was nothing, Akhess was shocked since doing so would have started to cut her body since there were tiny des in the mist.
If it was a normal person, just being in the mist was painful, never mind walking through it. If a small wound opened, he would have been able to drain her blood but her regeneration healed all of the small cuts instantly.
Arriving before the two, Shiro smiled.
"Anything else?"
Chapter 864 First Night on Asharia
Chapter 864 First Night on Asharia
Taking a deep breath, Shiina sprang to action and shed towards Shiro which was parried with ease.
"Final surprise attacks are good but just iling your sword is a waste. Even in yourst moment, don¡¯t forget to think about your options. Don¡¯t be a mindless person who just swung a sword because it¡¯s the first thing they could get their hands on." Shiro said as she let go of the de.
Flexing her fingers, green fire wrapped around their body as their wounds were healed up in an instant.
Teleporting Oran in front of her, he was surprised to see all of his wounds disappear in an instant.
"Let¡¯s see... first we¡¯ll start with Oran I guess. You did well in giving your ally¡¯s a speed buff and using your magic to propel then was also a good move on your end. However, after that, your participation was limited so you¡¯ll need to work on your follow up. In most fights, it doesn¡¯t end with that first attack so make sure you can continue to support your allies." Shiro exined as Oran nodded his head.
He couldn¡¯t help but feel a little down since like Shiro said, he barely helped after the first attack.
"Next is Shiina. You did well in supporting Akhess during your attack. Your use of ice was good and the first move of restraining my movements were perfect. There is just one problem though, you don¡¯t take the initiative when using your spells. You let your allies attack first. When the blood was being fuelled into the pirs, why didn¡¯t you take that chance to attack me? That kind of dy is dangerous and could prevent you from iming victory."
Staying silent, Shiina contemted what Shiro had said. It was true that she hesitated since she knew that she couldn¡¯t beat Shiro on her own. That¡¯s why she wanted to wait for her allies to attack before supporting them.
"Last is Akhess. You were able to synergise well with Shiina by using both ice and blood together. As for yourbat senses, they¡¯re low right now but they¡¯ll get better the more you fight. The main thing is the use of your poison near the end. Strong people will have strong regeneration. The fact that you aimed for making tiny cuts may work on lower levelled people but would be less effective for those higher levelled. While poison may not work on me due to my high resistances, it is a powerful tool that can help you win even if you can¡¯t harm them physically since the poison will harm them from the inside. Though that is dependent on the strength of the poison.
"All in all, the three of you performed pretty well, and all that¡¯s missing is fighting experience. Of course my expectations for you were a little higher than this since there was much more you could have done with the tools that you were given but it doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m giving up on you. I¡¯ll give you another test in the future but for now, take this, it¡¯s a slightly more advanced copy of the manual that I gave you." Shiro said as she handed them each a book and a cylindrical object.
"What is this object?" Shiina asked curiously.
"Remember the chambers that I made for you, this will recreate that for you but there is a limited amount of uses so make sure you make every use count. Of course, you can use it all at once if you are able to keep up the concentration but I don¡¯t rmend it." Shiro smiled as the three nodded their heads.
"Alright you can go back to the training ground now. Also, I do hope that you don¡¯t show the contents of the book to those who have not earned the rights ok?" Shiro smiled.
What she didn¡¯t tell them was that she¡¯ll know the moment they share the contents or try to trace it down since there is a sensor that will send her a signal if they do.
Watching the three leave, Shiro massaged her neck.
"Howe it was just temporary? Knowing you, it could have been permanent so that they could take advantage of the amount of mana on Astral Horizon¡¯s." Nan Tian asked curiously.
"If I made it permanent, they might getzy. Having it so that it¡¯s limited will make them work harder so that they can get it again next time I test them." Shiro replied while swiping up with her hand. A giant holographic screen appeared in front of her as it was something simr to themand centre.
"Let¡¯s see... I¡¯ll activate the camouge for now and increase our altitude. The demons are getting a bit restless and a few are trying to approach in order to investigate this ce." Shiro muttered while tapping the screen a few times. As the city disappeared into the sky, Shiro activated a few other defensive systems before dismissing the screen.
"Right then, shall we head back then? The main goal of today was to visit the military and see if there was anyone who was talented. I¡¯ve already allocated their rewards so that when they go back, they should receive a package with their new privileges. The main goal for tomorrow is to visit the hospitals and schools and see how they¡¯re faring." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
As the two made their way out of the base, they walked through the shopping district. Naturally, to enjoy it as ¡¯normally¡¯ as possible, they activated disguise so that they could see what would happen when the ruler isn¡¯t around in person.
Thankfully, the city seemed to be running normally as there were no scandalous activities in shops or bad pricing which made Shiro sigh in relief since a city of this scale was a first for her.
Previously, her main goal for a flying fortress would be to just focus on fighting as that was the only reason she would even make it. Sometimes she might add a house or two for her ownfort but that was it. This time, she had to migrate the spirit race here and make sure that living here was no different from the other cities or even better since she has the advantage of technology.
Thinking about technology, Shiro turned to Nan Tian.
"Do you think I should introduce more of the things from Aria here? If this bes a technologically advanced city, more options should open up for the civilians." Shiro asked as Nan Tian shook his head.
"Maybe but that might be a bad idea considering that they have no obligation to stay here and could share information easily. Sure you can control the information with your nanobots but doing so would be no different to a dictatorship. Of course, I also understand that most of the people here are spirits and that you are their queen but you never know. It¡¯s better to be safe than sorry and having too much power, technology and so on can bring severe consequences." Nan Tian shook his head as Shiro sighed and nodded her head.
She also understood but a part of her wanted to share this treasure trove of knowledge.
¡¯What a shame, I have all this knowledge but can¡¯t share it without the chance of people misusing it.¡¯ Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
{That¡¯s just how it is. A real shame isn¡¯t it? Some of the things that you can add are quite handy too.} Nimue sighed as Shiro nodded her head.
Exploring around for a little longer, Shiro eventually arrived back at the main tower. Saying goodbye to Nan Tian for the night, Shiro returned to her own room and sat down in front of the table. Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro was tempted to go for a drink. Surely she wouldn¡¯t destroy her own tower right?
{Shiro... Don¡¯t even think about it. Just stick with juice.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯It¡¯s just a cider. It¡¯s pretty much juice. Plus, you saw how much it took to get me drunkst time, it¡¯ll be fine.¡¯ Shiro pouted slightly since the ciders were quite tasty.
{You wouldn¡¯t even know when you became drunk. Last time you thought you were fine but the moment you tried to stand up, something clicked and the house was destroyed.} Nimue lectured as Shiro sighed.
¡¯Fine, I¡¯ll stick with juice then.¡¯ Shiro pulled out some juice from her inventory and started to work on maintaining the city along with adding new things from her room. Once she was done, she summoned Attie and slept with him on the same bed.
This was the first night she spent on Asharia
Chapter 865 Tutorial For Shiina
Chapter 865 Tutorial For Shiina
For the next week or so, Shiro continued to manage the city while waiting for Madison to wake up but so far, she had shown no signs of waking up.
Helion was keeping an eye on her while also opening hismissions again for the citizens. They would request certain types of armour and weapons while he would forge in his room next to Madison¡¯s so that he could react whenever there was movement.
As for Aarim, she requested a mage¡¯s tower of sorts in its own section of the city where the mana from Astral Horizon¡¯s continuously flowed through the tower. Of course, they made some adjustments so only the top of the tower would have the full experience. The lower down the tower you are, the more diluted the experience is. Only those that are the most talented can go to the top and Aarim is the judge since she is the most ¡¯magic focused¡¯ personpared to everyone else in the party.
Yin was... being Yin. She went around eating everything she could get her hands on. Since the spirits knew that Yin was Shiro¡¯s daughter, they naturally treated her without any payment and Lisandra would go with her as a supervisor. If Lisandra wasn¡¯t there, Yin would have eaten everything up.
The two of them were rather popr with both the younger spirits and the older ones. The older ones preferred Yin since she was like a gluttonous granddaughter while Lisandra was more silent and refined which caused the younger spirits to look up to her.
Naturally, Shiro let the two of them enjoy themselves as she was setting up the mech training program for spirits that were less magically endowed than others. Even if they can¡¯t use magic, the use of mechs would help offset that fault for them.
Lyrica and Isilia were training with each other and spending some time bonding as a family while Silvia and Chen Yu decided to get a house not too far away from the tower. As for how they spent their time, Shiro didn¡¯t pry into it since it was their private time and doing so would be extremely rude.
Nan Tian didn¡¯t have much to do other than assist her every now and again. He would spend the rest of his free time meditating so that he could increase his level.
Today was the 9th day that Shiro had spent on Asharia and she was nning on opening the ss for mechs as well as a mech demonstration. However, other than having the mech fire off a few weapons or activate a few spells, there wasn¡¯t much else she could do to demonstrate its power. Therefore, Shiro had a great idea.
She was going to piss off a hydra in itsir that she had found on the full map shown by the system.
Compared to the other hydras she had seen, this one was in a league of its own and naturally, it was the perfect candidate for her mech demonstration. Plus, there was more than one Hydra in thisir so it was also a good time to show off what Asharia was good for. The weapons on this fortress weren¡¯t installed for decoration after all.
Sharing this idea with Nan Tian, he had his worries but in the end, he decided to roll with it since Shiro seemed to have everything under control.
There were two choices for Shiro, she could either pilot the mechs remotely and demonstrate one of its functions in order to ensure pilot safety or she could pilot it in person which would bring better results as she was manually operating the whole thing.
After considering the options, she decided to get Shiina to pilot one of the mechs remotely.
Naturally, she was shocked as she had never piloted a mech before and yet Shiro wanted her to demonstrate on arge stage where everyone in the city would be watching. If her parents watched her mess up on the big screen, she would be terribly embarrassed.
And since it was remote, they¡¯ll be watching her on a stage.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ll be helping you remember all of the controls in just a single day." Shiro reassured with a grin.
But seeing that grin, Shiina couldn¡¯t help but feel a shiver down her spine while both Oran and Akhess felt pity for her.
Of course, they weren¡¯t forgotten either since Shiro reminded them that they would also be piloting a mech depending on what happens. While their magic prowess and willpower was good, the mech was another way of attack which doubles as a shield. Once this shield breaks, they¡¯ll fight in person. This mech was essentially an extra life for them one they got used to the controls.
Bringing Shiina to the mech hanger, Shiina watched in shock as hundreds of mechs were being made simultaneously. Drones were collecting pieces and putting them together without any manual assistance as everything was automatic.
Sure Shiro could make a mech in an instant before her but that would defeat the purpose of having drones and programs designed to automate everything so that she didn¡¯t need to bother with it.
Even for Shiro, manually handling everything little thing that happens in this city would be stressful. Handling a few at a time was fine but EVERYTHING was not. Therefore, having programs do this decreased the number of things she needed to keep her eye on.
Naturally, she couldn¡¯t just leave it to the programs and forget about it. She would do some maintenance herself to make sure everything is in working order and that there were no glitches or errors.
Creating a small simtion box of sorts, Shiro had Shiina enter it andplete the ¡¯tutorial¡¯ of the mech while she projected herself as a hologram.
"Ah ah ah~ Testing testing~" Shiro made sure that the hologram was working before looking at Shiina.
Seeing as her avatar was a little big right now, she shrunk herself to the size of a palm before floating near Shiina with her legs crossed.
"Right then, as you can see in front of you, you have two ¡¯glove¡¯ like objects in front of you, two left panels and two right panels. The old mechs had a bunch of buttons and crap but don¡¯t worry, most of the start up is done for you. If there is a situation where you have to do the start up manually, just insert your mana to kick start the ambient mana absorber. If there is no mana in the atmosphere, the mech won¡¯t run regardless. However, if there is some mana, the nanobots will begin to restart themselves and activate the mech for you. Both of the left and right panels are for weapons while the gloves are for control.
"The screen above you is the damage that you have sustained and the screen in front is your map.
"I want you to put your hands in the gloves for now." Shiro exined as Shiina nodded her head with a serious face but she couldn¡¯t help but think that tiny Shiro was cute. Despite the amount of killing intent she felt during their first meeting as well as the follow up spar, the small Shiro was just too adorable right now especially when she crossed her arms and exined things with a confident smile.
"Is there something on my face? It¡¯s the first time I made myself a hologram to train another pilot so if it glitches it¡¯s understandable." Shiro asked as she created a second hologram and looked at herself. Seeing that there were no glitches, she sighed in relief.
"Ah no it¡¯s nothing, I just spaced out for a moment. Everything is a bit overwhelming for me." Shiina replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Pft if you think this was overwhelming you should have seen the old mechs." Shiroughed as she could remember the inefficient junk of the old ages. So many buttons and switches for things that could be linked up with a simple program.
Putting her hands in the gloves, Shiina felt something connect with her mana as the screens started to light up.
[User confirmed]
[Registered Trial Pilot 01 ¨C Shiina]
[Cranial Connector Link Confirmed.]
[Glove Connector Link Confirmed.]
[Please Take a Step Forward.]
Following the instructions, Shiina stood a step forward as two disks for her foot appeared and maised to the bottom of her shoes.
Stumbling for a bit, assistant arms dropped down and connected a chest piece to her so that it could help her stabilise herself.
[Pilot Confirmed. Connection to unit Exodus Mk 2 Confirmed.]
"You¡¯re not in a real mech right now so just try to stabilise yourself and try to walk. It will simte everything quite realistically, even the feedback. Once you¡¯re done walking, we¡¯ll move onto other movements such as running, crawling, swimming and flying." Shiro grinned as she pointed towards the tutorial progress bar.
[0.01% Complete.]
Seeing this, Shiina nced at Shiro with a pale face.
"I¡¯m supposed to get this done in a day?" She asked hesitantly.
"Yup!" Shiro gave her a thumbs up.
Chapter 866 MeChapter Demonstration
Chapter 866 MeChapter Demonstration
"Her highness said that the mech demonstration was going to be today. That¡¯s why everyone¡¯s gathered at the main square but where¡¯s Shiina? I know she¡¯s going to be used for the demonstration but it¡¯s been a whole day hasn¡¯t it?" Oran asked as Akhess stayed silent.
"I don¡¯t know. If it¡¯s a demonstration, there¡¯s no need for Shiina is there? She doesn¡¯t know anything about these ¡¯mechs¡¯." Akhess shook his head.
"Well her highness did say something about training but what can you even do in one day. At most I think they would have Shiina enter a mech but that¡¯s about it." Oran said while looking at the crowd that had gathered at the main square.
*Whistle~
"That¡¯s quite big isn¡¯t it? I¡¯d say it¡¯s pretty much everyone in this city." Oran nced at Akhess who nodded his head in agreement.
"Last time her highness made an announcement she gifted everyone the Asharia. They would naturally expect her announcements to be something grand." Akhess exined.
"Mn true. Wait... isn¡¯t that Shiina? I almost couldn¡¯t recognise her then. Shiina!" Oran called out as the distance Shiina turned towards them with a lifeless expression.
"Oh it¡¯s Oran and Akhess. Are you two here to watch as well?" Shiina forced a smile. Currently she was wearing a hoodie version of the uniform to block out the light since it was too bright.
"Yeah we are. Are you ok? You don¡¯t look that well." Oran asked in worry as Shiina only chuckled.
"I¡¯m fine, I just need some sleep once this whole thing is over." Shiina yawned slightly as Oran nodded his head.
"What does her highness need you for though? It¡¯s only been a day no? Are you just going to enter a mech then get out?" Oran asked.
"I wish. Haha, I had to spend thest 24 hour doing a god damn tutorial and her highness watched with a sadistic smile. I didn¡¯t know something so small could be both adorable and sadistic at the same time. Do you know how it feels for her to say good luck, I believe in you then immediately thrust you in a flight sim against flying targets? Activating two rail cannons support anchors so that I don¡¯t miss my shot, making sure the right thrusters are on so I don¡¯t go mming against the ground, the feedback of the whole system and meleebat in that thing is cursed dammit! Cursed I say!" Shiinained as the two were taken aback by her attitude since she wasn¡¯t like this a day ago.
"Ah was that a bit too much for you? Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll have more than a day toplete the tutorial so you won¡¯t have to go through all of this. Che." Clicking her tongue at the end, Shiina pulled her hood up and made her way to the back.
Staying silent, the two nced at each other and couldn¡¯t help but cough awkwardly.
"Do you think we should treat her to a meal since we¡¯re technically the ones who volunteered her?" Oran forced a smile.
"Maybe. But she was quite enthusiastic about the chance anyway. I couldn¡¯t take it away after seeing her expression." Akhess nodded his head.
"Well maybe we should think things through when we ept something from her highness. While the rewards are good the risks are just as high." Oran said, remembering what Shiina became after a day with Shiro.
Shivering slightly, he sighed and prayed that he won¡¯t have the same oue as her.
When it reached midday, Shiro appeared in the middle of the stage as the chattering quietened down.
"Ahem, like before, I¡¯m still not good with speeches so I¡¯ll keep this short. As you know, in this world talent with magic is top priority. Even warriors use magic to empower their skills, enhance their body and so on. What if I told you that talent in magic is no longer needed. Even if you have the poorest talent, as long as you are willing to put in the effort, I can make it so that you can surpass those with better talent but don¡¯t work as hard. This is where the mechse in, mechanised giants fitted with some of the best weapons and spells that I can provide. With a single press of a button, you canunch spells that are recorded in the mech during a battle without needing to cast it yourself. Naturally, if you have your own spell, you can also cast it using the casting system that is integrated on the mech.
"For those of you who are confused at what a mech is, let me exin." Shiro grinned as she waved her hand.
Hundreds of holograms appeared in the sky so that everyone in the main square could see it no matter where they were.
Spending a bit of time to exin the mech¡¯s systems such as the weapons, movement, defences and so on, Shiro used the holograms to help exin things a little better.
"Naturally, exining things using images and demonstrating are two very different things. As some of you know, the city of Asharia has been moving through the sky since yesterday, we have been travelling towards a nest of Hydra¡¯s so that we may show you the effectiveness of the mech. Our pilot and demonstrator of the first mech to be deployed from Asharia is Shiina Isirvyn, a talented soldier who I have personally trained in using the mech. She will be attacking the nest by herself. Normally, a soldier of her standard would be using a specialised unit tailored for her skill set but to show you that even the mostmon mech can be powerful when piloted with skill, I shall have her pilot the cadet mech to attack the Hydras. I know you have your doubts but worry not, this entire city will be her backup as the cannons will fire upon the nest to clean up should any unexpected situations arise but I doubt that would happen. Now turn your eyes towards the screen." Shiro smiled before taking a step back and gesturing towards the screen that had appeared.
Seeing Shiina with a serious expression on her face while wearing a hooded army uniform with a skirt and tights, a few of the spirits couldn¡¯t help but wonder if that¡¯s really a uniform suited for piloting a ¡¯mech¡¯ but they didn¡¯t say anything just yet since this was a demonstration. Questions cameter.
Suddenly, a hologram of Shiro appeared next to Shiina as she couldn¡¯t help but shiver for a moment.
"Pilot Shiina, are you ready for deployment?" Shiro asked with a smile as Shiina nodded her head.
Stepping forward, she put on the gloves which automatically adjusted themselves to fit her size.
[User Confirmed]
[Registered Pilot 01 ¨C Shiina]
[Cranial Connector Link Confirmed]
[Glove Connector Link Confirmed]
[Leg Connector Link Confirmed]
[Full Body Sync Confirmed]
[Connection to Standard Unit 01 Finalised.]
[Ready for deployment]
With the words ready for deployment on the screen, Shiina didn¡¯t hesitate to do some test movements to follow standard procedure so that she can confirm that everything was working.
"Standard Unit 01 no problems. Deploying now."
Taking a step forward, Shiina broke into a sprint as a second screen showed the mech from the outside.
Opening the hangar door, Shiina dived off Asharia and plunged head first towards the ground.
Tapping the screen to her right a few times, several panels appeared in front of her as she navigated the menus with speed and efficiency.
The spirits barely saw what was on the screen before a new menu appeared.
"Flight systems activated." Shiina said as the thrusters on the mech hummed with power.
*BANG!!!
Firing up at full strength, the mech shot towards the ground like a meteor.
"Target sighted, preparing to engage."
Tapping the left screen, Shiina deployed the Mk 3 orbital rail cannon as nanobots surged towards the mech¡¯s left hand.
Creating the rail cannon, Shiina aimed at the nest and fired without hesitation.
Suddenly, tens of tier 6 magic circles appeared around the barrel of the rail cannon as everyone watched in shock since the highest tier they knew of was tier 5 but despite that fact, Shiina was actually using tier 6 magic without any difficulties.
Everyone knew that Shiina was not a tier 6 spirit so this already proved how powerful the mechs were.
*BOOM!!!
Firing a radiant bolt of energy towards the nest, the recoil of the gun immediately slowed down the mech¡¯s descent towards the ground.
*BANG!!!
Landing on the ground with ease thanks to the rail cannon decreasing her velocity, she dismissed the gun before summoning two swords.
Looking at the mes erupting out of the Hydra nest, Shiina red at it fiercely.
¡¯It¡¯s because of this that I had to go through that hellish tutorial in just one day! Die for me!¡¯ She shouted out in her mind as she activated all of the thrusters and dashed towards the burning nest with two swords in hand.
"How familiar." Lyrica muttered remembering the rage that Silvia had when she bit off the neck of that rabbit after some training with Shiro.
Realising what had happened, she put her hands together.
¡¯Rest in peace, ¡¯normal¡¯ Shiina.¡¯ May your sacrifice be remembered.¡¯
Chapter 867 Killing Hydras
Chapter 867 Killing Hydras
Activating the thrusters on the back of the mech, Shiina twisted her body and shed towards the first Hydra that she spotted.
Controlling the mech took a little to get used to since depending on the settings, it would turn a full 360 degree while she only turned 90 degrees to the right since it wasn¡¯t possible to spin in a circle while in the c.o.c.kpit. However, after the hellish training with Shiro, she was able to get used to this small disconnect she felt with the mech.
However, that was only because this was amon unit rather than a specialised one. The specialised one wouldn¡¯t have this kind of disconnect and would perform better at the cost of higher feedback.
While it was possible to have every mech at the standard of a specialised unit, doing so would take a huge toll on the average pilot and could even kill them if they¡¯re not prepared. This was also why Shiro had Shiina use a standard unit.
Not because it was a demonstration to show that even normal spirits could be strong but rather a day was not enough for Shiina to get used to the specialised unit. Maybe if she was super talented and Shiro had a full week with her without rest but definitely not a day.
{I¡¯ve seen the manual for the specialised unit and you want to fit all of that in within a week? Are you trying to kill the poor girl?} Nimue asked with a forced smile.
¡¯Fufu~ It wouldn¡¯t kill her. If she squeezes past this barrier she¡¯ll be someone that stands heads and shoulders above the rest in terms of power.¡¯ Shiro smiled smugly.
{¡¯Fufu~¡¯ my ass! If they don¡¯t squeeze past this barrier they¡¯ll die! Hais, first it¡¯s Silvia and now it¡¯s Shiina.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯Oh Shiina won¡¯t be thest. When I told Nan Tian I want to make a task force I meant I want to make something simr to the party we have now. While they may not be the same in terms of power, bloodline and so on, the task force should still be able to do tasks for me without me worrying about their safety. Shiina, Oran and Akhess are just the first ones to be integrated into this task force. I¡¯ll be scouting for more members at ater date when they get used to the training and develop more willpower.¡¯ Shiro shrugged before focusing on real life.
Watching Shiina control the mech and unleash a flurry of shes against the chest of the Hydra, Tiny Shiro floated to her side.
"Hydra¡¯s have increased regeneration depending on how many heads they possess. Cutting the chest will not be sufficient." Shiro reminded.
"Understood." Shiina nodded as she flipped the sword into a reverse grip and cleaved up, cutting deeply into the torso and almost split the Hydra in half.
*Sssss!
Hissing in pain, the nine Hydra heads red towards her and opened their jaws.
Unleashing a poison breath towards the mech, Shiina swiped up with her hand and instantly activated all of the barriers.
This was the feature that she had practiced the most during her 24 hour training since it was what she would rely on to keep her alive when she couldn¡¯t dodge a strike.
As the poison breath collided with the barrier, a bar appeared to her right showing all of the mana that was absorbed from the attack.
"Converting and redistributing." Shiina said coldly as she jumped back and stabbed the sword into the ground.
Suddenly, a tier 5 magic circle expanded out and 10 orbs of light appeared around the mech. Shooting towards the Hydra, they exploded upon contact as Shiina didn¡¯t hesitate to tap a panel on the right side.
Removing the sword from the ground, she dashed forward as lights started to flicker on the mech¡¯s body.
Frozen Slumber!
Casting the spell that Shiro had taught her, the mech systems assisted with her casting as tier 5 magic circles appeared around the Hydra,
Chains shot out of the magic circles as ice immediately started to form around the Hydra.
"Remember, when you cut off one of the Hydra¡¯s heads, two more spawn in its ce. Killing it is no easy task even with the mech assisting you. However, all of the tools that you need are here. You just need to know which one to use." Shiro smiled but Shiina only shivered since she knew the true meaning!
If you can¡¯t kill it even with everything I have given you then you¡¯re useless!
While Shiro never explicitly said that, her gaze would always pressure you, silently judging your actions in the corner while you can¡¯t say anything back.
Quickly calming herself down, she swiped the right panel and activated the heated edge.
Suddenly, the edge of her sword started to glow with a red hue as each swing would leave a faint trail behind it.
Arriving in front of the Hydra, she cut towards the first head.
*TSSS!!!!!
Searing the flesh, the sword shed through most of the neck with only a little bit of resistance as Shiina gritted her teeth and gave it another push.
Separating the first head from the body, she could see that it was threatening to regenerate immediately. While the heated edge did slow it down, she estimated that the head will regrow in roughly 30 seconds to a minute.
However, while she was doing this, the other eight headsshed out towards the mech and tried to chew it to pieces.
Tapping the screen a few times, Shiina dismissed the swords and started to wrestle with the heads manually. While this was happening, a few pieces on the mech started to shift as mana gathered towards it before exploding out with mes. Releasing a shockwave of fire, the Hydra was pushed back as the surface of its skin was charred ck before peeling off.
Taking advantage of this gap in defence, Shiina rushed towards the Hydra and summoned another sword.
Cutting off two of the heads quickly, she repeated the process of forcing the Hydra into a corner through the mech¡¯s features, demonstrating her great knowledge of how this mech worked even though she¡¯s only been training with it for a single day.
Soon, the first Hydra was defeated followed by a second then third.
While this was happening, the spirits in the city watched in awe as they would cheer whenever she cut off one of the heads and killed it for good. Both Oran and Akhess were shocked at the amount of knowledge that Shiina had learnt since there was no doubt that the mech had more features and Shiina was picking the best ones to use in that situation.
"Say, was Shiina always good at studying?" Oran asked.
"Not sure but she did say that she liked to be more active than read a book." Akhess replied.
"Then how the hell did she remember so much in a single day." Oran asked as Akhess looked at the tiny Shiro hologram in the mech who watched with a smile.
"It must be her highness¡¯ training." He muttered with traces of fear in his voice.
"Wait, if Shiina was the first to go and we¡¯re all in the top three, doesn¡¯t that mean we¡¯re next?" Oran asked with a shiver down his spine.
"But we don¡¯t have to demonstrate it do we? Surely we¡¯ll get more than just a day to practice." Akhess reassured but there was no confidence behind his im.
"Let¡¯s just hope she spares us." Oran prayed as Akhess agreed.
After killing the fourth Hydra, Shiina was looking a little pale in the face as her breathing was brough.
Panting heavily, the feedback of the mech was taking a toll on her body and Shiro knew this. Looking at the scan of Shiina¡¯s physical condition in the mech, she understood that Shiina wasn¡¯t in any fighting shape after killing four Hydra¡¯s.
"Requesting... permission to retreat." Shiina said while trying to catch her breath.
"Request epted. I want you to move back to the initialnding zone and drones will retrieve you and the mech. Asharia will deal with the rest of the nest." Shiro nodded her head.
Hearing this, Shiina sighed in relief and started to make her way back to the crater that she had created when she first dropped down. Looking at the burning nest, she could see 5 more Hydra¡¯s ring at her with anger.
However, sensing a surge of mana from the sky, the Hydra¡¯s paused as a single girl was now floating in front of the giant flying fortress.
Seeing Shiro floating in the sky, the people that were looking at the screen were shocked since she was just on the stage not too long ago.
"Now then, I will show you what Asharia is capable of. Normally, I would make Orbital Rail Cannons but not use them to their full power. However, just for you Hydras, I¡¯ll show you why they¡¯re dubbed ¡¯Orbital¡¯ Rail Cannons rather than just Rail Cannons." Shiro grinned as her mana red.
Chapter 868 Power of Asharia
Chapter 868 Power of Asharia
Swiping horizontally with her hand, tens of screens appeared before her as the cannons mounted on Asharia started to move.
Naturally, this was just the opening act and the main show was for the Orbital Rail Cannons.
Activating them for suppressive fire for now, Shiro pushed her hand out as mana could be seen erupting out from her but nothing was being created.
Of course, this was just because what she was creating was something high into the sky where no one could notice the tiny nanobots gathering to form the real cannon. When she makes the Orbital Rail Cannons, she normally just takes a small part of the overall structure which was the cannon.
ncing towards Asharia which had all of its guns readied, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but think it looked a little like a spiked ball from afar.
Shaking her head, she swiped left before pointing at the nest.
¡¯Let¡¯s keep this at 10% power output so that I can actually test out the Orbital Rail Cannon.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since 10% output should be enough to force the Hydra¡¯s into regenerating while not killing them.
Snapping her fingers, she watched as Asharia¡¯s Ambient Mana Absorbers extended from the city and started collecting mana from the surroundings.
Watching the mana being fuelled into the guns, Shiro started to worry since 10% was actually a lot more than what she had expected.
*Cough
¡¯Maybe I should dial it down to 5%¡¯ Shiro thought with worry since the de radius might affect Asharia if she fired it now.
Dialling it down to only 3% to be safe, Shiro fired the guns.
*BANG!!!!!
The explosion was much bigger than what she had expected as her hair fluttered in the wind.
Looking at shots travelling towards the nest, Shiro stopped the construction of the Orbital Cannon and erected a barrier around her.
*BOOM!!!!
Looking at the column of fire which pierced the sky, Shiro couldn¡¯t even hear the Hydra¡¯s scream before being disintegrated to ash.
". . . ."
{Shiro, why the hell is 3% so strong?} Nimue asked as she watched Shiro casually terraform the ce with a 3% powered shot.
¡¯I¡¯ll be honest with you. This was outside of my expectations as well.¡¯ Shiro exined with a serious face.
However, this face onlysted for a moment before she paused and had an embarrassed smile.
¡¯Ah, it seems like I ignored the amplifiers I had installed on the fortress.¡¯ Shiro exined quietly as Nimue stood still.
Shiro could almost hear her vein burst which was strange considering they¡¯re in the mana realm right now.
{What is the amplifier set to?} Nimue asked, sounding a little too calm for Shiro¡¯s liking.
*Cough
¡¯100%¡¯ Shiro coughed.
{Are you sure?} Nimue red at her as there was no god damn way that a 100% amplification would actually wipe out the nest off the map.
*Cough!
¡¯500%¡¯ Shiro corrected herself as Nimue felt something snap in her.
Iziuel and Estre immediately sensed this change as they rushed to her side and held her back.
{Why the hell is it on 500% amplification!?!?!?! ^%¡ê%%%$!!!} Nimue cursed while trying to struggle out of Iziuel and Estre¡¯s grip.
{Maybe you should wait outside until Nimue¡¯s calm Shiro.} Estre forced a smile as Shiro nodded her head. She was happy that Estre was actually calling her Shiro instead of your highness but her main priority was going back and making sure she remembers to adjust the amplification.
The reason why she had set it to 500% was because a normal portal wouldn¡¯t be able to transport Asharia in its entirety.
She had to amplify the portal so that a tform wasn¡¯t randomly left behind.
Of course, this extended to the rest of the city including the weapons.
¡¯I should have a separate amplification for the weapons. After this shot, the city won¡¯t be able to teleport for a while since the mana used was more than what I expect.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she quickly routed the guns to a different amplification setting.
Looking at the giant crater at the location of the nest, she summoned Iziuel and had her assist in repairing thend.
Fixing the earth and regrowing the nt life, Shiro made her way back to the city and had it slowly travel back to the northern border.
Arriving back at the city, Shiro saw the shocked faces of everyone who were speechless at the final demonstration of Asharia¡¯s power. With just that single shot, she could wipe any city off the map if she wanted to.
While it was powerful, it had more drawbacks than just the inability to be able to teleport for a while since it drained most of the mana stored. The barriers are now a bit weaker than before and some of the camouge functions were disabled unless she manually provided the mana herself.
That kind of power was something you would use if you had no chances of escaping to begin with. Plus, any stronger and the fortress would also be affected by the shot.
Closing off the demonstration, Shiro made her way to the mech hanger and saw Shiina next to her mech that was quite damaged from the fight.
"How was your first proper fight with the mech?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"It went better than expected but the feedback was more violentpared to the training pod." Shiina replied as she felt like her internals were being punched whenever she did a harsh movement in the mech.
"Mn you¡¯ll get used to it eventually, having that amount of feedback should help increase yourpatibility with the mech since in one sense, you¡¯re still using your body to fight." Shiro smiled as the feedback was intentional as it also puts a limit of how much they can pilot the mech. Using it for extended periods of time without care would damage them heavily without them even noticing it. The feedback acts as a force stop to prevent that from happening.
"Also, if the guns on Asharia were so powerful, is there even a need for the mechs?" Shiina asked as the final attack wiped out a nest with ease.
"Mn there is. The guns only work at longer ranges. If it was any closer, it would have damaged the city. The mechs are there to protect the city. Plus, for certain operations, it is better to use the mechs than the gun on the fortress." Shiro exined as Shiina nodded her head.
As the two were talking for a while, Oran and Akhess arrived at the hanger since they had received a message from Shiro.
They had a bad feeling in their hearts but since it was a summons by Shiro herself, they couldn¡¯t reject it.
"You two have arrived." Shiro smiled as she nced towards them.
"Now that you have seen what Shiina could do, it¡¯s time for your training session." Shiro grinned and didn¡¯t beat around the bush.
Blood drained from their faces instantly as they had an urge to run.
However, Shiina appeared behind them with her arms around their shoulders.
"We¡¯rerades right~?" She smiled as the two tensed up.
"Yeah we are. I¡¯m sure training with the standard units is fine." Oran swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
"Mn? Who said you were training with the standard units. Those are for the average recruits. You¡¯ll be using the more advanced and difficult specialised units." Shiro said, pointing at three mechs in the distance that was distinctly different to the standard units.
"I think if I crammed everything in a week you should barely be able to use it." Shiro mused to herself as both Akhess and Oran had felt like they¡¯ve just been given a death sentence.
"Fufufu, I¡¯m cheering you on." Shiina said smugly while the two could only cry silent tears in their heads.
"When did I say you were pardoned from this Shiina? You only trained with the standard unit so you also need to get used to the specialised unit. Though since you¡¯ve alreadypleted the tutorial and livebat, two or three days should be enough for you." Shiro gave her a thumbs up as Shiina¡¯s face paled in fear.
Before she could say anything, both Akhess and Oran grabbed her shoulder in retaliation.
"Say Shiina, we¡¯rerades right? Fufufu! I¡¯m cheering you on!" The two said at the same time as Shiina wanted to cry.
She had TWO DAYS to get used to a specialised unit while these two had a WEEK!!!! TWO DAYS!
¡¯Oh god, did I sin in my past life for you to send this devil at me!¡¯ Shiina cried out in her mind.
If Shiro heard her, she would onlyugh. Even if god arrived, Shiina still won¡¯t get mercy from her. Strike the iron while it¡¯s hot and make her part of the abnormal standard!
Chapter 869 Old Enemy
Chapter 869 Old Enemy
Time passed as Shiro created several holograms of herself to assist the three spirits in training with the specialised mechs.
With Shiina only needing two days, Shiro immediately had her practice with her specialised mech once the tutorial was over. She would be sent on missions outside of Asharia such as clearing out a high levelled monster nest or scouting without being discovered so that her proficiency with the mech would increase.
With a tiny Shiro by her side judging her, Shiina didn¡¯t dare ck and her progress was amazing as expected.
As for Oran and Akhess, they were less fortunate as everyday of training made them want to just run away.
Shiina was allowed to ¡¯slowly¡¯ get used to a standard mech before using specialised mechs but these two were thrust into the deep end immediately. But since they were given a week deadline,pleting the task was possible as long as Shiro cut down on their break times a little.
While it was true that Shiro liked doing this since seeing the fear in their eyes gave her a bit of enjoyment, she also needed to speed this up since the new age wasing in less than a month!
If she didn¡¯t hurry and get them used to the mechs soon as well as train some normal soldiers into getting used to the standard units, they won¡¯t be able to help much during the initial stages of the new age where everything would be open for the taking.
Plus, as harsh as it was, Shiina simply showed more talent when ites to using mechs so her adjustment to the new systems was simply fasterpared to the other two.
The entire world will be changed and once that happens, she will need to find the best spots and im them before they¡¯re taken by others. Of course, there were more things that she needed to deal with before the new age began hence why the fortress was flying towards the human territory.
While Shiro was focused on training Shiina, Oran and Akhess, she didn¡¯t forget about the normal soldiers. Once she finalised the training n, she had them all study in a mech school of sorts with training capsules for them to get used to the mechs.
This time, Shiro didn¡¯t force the soldiers to learn the standard mech units in a single day since Shiina had both willpower and talent hence the speed. For them, a week would barely be enough for them to move around in the mechs without too many problems.
Making sure that the city will camouge itself near the border between the humans and demons, Shiro had Asphil make an announcement to the demons saying that the new queen was undergoing her evolution and that all intelligent demons should retreat from the human borders for now.
With only unintelligent demons around the border, the humans didn¡¯t need to worry about being invaded for the time being.
Sitting in themand centre, Shiro was resting her chin on her palm while swiping at the screens that floated in front of her.
Once she had finished sorting everything out, she leaned back on her chair and stretched her body with a yawn.
"I finally finished everything that I needed to do here after a whole week. Uff, and here I thought I¡¯d be finished in 3 days or so." Shiro muttered while massaging her shoulders.
{Well you are controlling the entire city alone. Completing it in three days was wishful thinking.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯Mn. Though now that I¡¯ve done what I need to do in this city, I need to take care of a few other things outside of it. I¡¯ll get Nan Tian to inform the sect master about this and have the sect moved to one of the tforms. I¡¯ll also need to get my parents, Kanae and her mother, Silvia¡¯s friend Jonas and his little disciple Raoul, my friend Yuki, Natash and Freya in winter¡¯s grace, Aarim¡¯s half brother Liam, Madison¡¯s parents, Lyrica¡¯s sister, brother and the rest of the elves. There are a few more than I need to bring but I¡¯ll stick to just mentioning these first.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
{Are you sure you¡¯ll be able to do all that in the time left?} Nimue asked with doubt.
¡¯Mn, it should be possible as long as I don¡¯t amplify the shot again. If I do, we won¡¯t be able to teleport and going around the world would be a bit more annoying with this big city.¡¯ Shiro chuckled.
{Don¡¯t even mention amplification to me.} Nimue huffed.
¡¯Haha sorry sorry. I¡¯ll try to keep it in mind next time.¡¯ Shiro apologised with a chuckle.
{You better.}
¡¯But before I do that, I want to make a short trip first. There¡¯s someone I¡¯ve got a bone to pick with and I know they¡¯re alive.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes as Nimue raised her eyebrow.
{You do? I don¡¯t remember anyone like that.} Nimue tilted her head since Shiro would kill most of her enemies rather quickly.
¡¯I do. He¡¯s the only one that survived because I couldn¡¯t kill him and neither could Nan Tian. The guardian of Verron¡¯s anchor. That little shit was tier 6 and would have killed both me and Lil¡¯ Tian if Lil¡¯ Tian didn¡¯t reach tier 6. I¡¯m going back there to have some payback and destroy Verron¡¯s anchor just to be safe.¡¯ Shiro grinned while cracking her knuckles.
Dismissing the screens, Shiro called Nan Tian to themand centre.
"Did you need me for something?" Nan Tian asked as he arrived at themand centre as quickly as he could.
"Mn, are you able to help me move more people to the city?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Pft what am I? A movingpany now." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
"Maybe. I want you to help your old man move his sect to tform 4. While you do that, I also want you to make a short detour with Silvia and help her get her friends to this city along with Madison¡¯s parents. Unlike her, they are indeed normal people so having them stay in this city would be safer than outside." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Is there anywhere else I should go? I¡¯ll make a list for now." Nan Tian asked as Shiro snapped her finger and a doc.u.ment was created in front of her.
"This has all of the information on the people I want to help move to the city since it¡¯s safer for them. While I go deal with a few things, I suppose you can work on helping these people move." Shiro smiled.
Flicking through the doc.u.ment, Nan Tian chuckled.
"Seems like I got my work cut out for me. With the new age being so close, it¡¯ll be quite tough to get everyone. Is there a reward for me?" Nan Tian asked with a smile.
"What reward do you even want? And don¡¯t try to be smooth with me." Shiro rolled her eyes with a smile and started to make her way out.
"Well then I guess I¡¯ll have to think about it while you¡¯re out." Nan Tian shrugged.
"You better think fast then since I won¡¯t take too long. I need to pay a visit to an old friend that almost killed the both of us after all." Shiro grinned.
"The guardian for Verron?"
"Bingo." Shiro grinned before flickering away from the spot.
Teleporting out of the city, she flew towards the closest teleport shrine and chose China as her destination.
Using the rift to increase her speed, she could sense a faint signal resembling her nanobots only a lot more corrupted and out of control.
Realising what the guardian must have done, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head with pity.
¡¯I wanted to kill him while he was at full strength and y around with him to break his will but I didn¡¯t think he was this stupid to actually consume nanobots.¡¯ Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
However, after a short while, she detected more signals and one of them was even familiar to her.
¡¯Why is the world government here?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as Grangel the dark elf that had impressed her when he fought against her near the government city.
Flickering towards his location, shended in the middle of the camp that the government had set up.
Seeing Shiro¡¯s sudden appearance, the adventurers near her immediately raised their weapons.
"STOP!!! Do you idiots want to die!?" A voice shouted out in a panic as Shiro recognised it to be Grangel¡¯s voice.
"Yo, I didn¡¯t expect you to be here." Shiro grinned and gave him a small wave.
"Same could be said about you. This is quite a remote location." Grangel shrugged with a smile.
"I got a small bone to pick someone here who had almost killed me before."
"I hope it isn¡¯t one of us since that would be rather unfortunate." Grangel raised his hand in defeat since none of them would be able to stop Shiro if she wanted to kill someone.
"Pft maybe." Shiro grinned before waving her hand.
"I¡¯m only joking. I¡¯m talking about the guardian of the anchor who had made a poor life choice." Shiroughed as Grangel sighed in relief since that was their target too.
Chapter 870 Attacking the Guardian
Chapter 870 Attacking the Guardian
"It seems like our job will be easier since he is our target as well." Grangel smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Oh? What did he do to get the government to make a move? Especially with this many people." Shiro asked curiously.
"A few days ago, he was spotted going on a rampage nearby and destroyed quite a few settlements. Apparently people heard him shouting in an unknownnguage. There were a few tier 5 adventurers who tried to deal with him but were eliminated easily. There has been records of a failed exploration here so the government decided to have us deal with him quickly." Grangel exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Well it¡¯s good that I came here because I¡¯ll be honest with you, your chances of survival are less than 1% if you fight him." Shiro sighed as Grangel paused in shock.
"He is a tier 6 being and one that absorbed my nanobots too. My nanobots are normally under control but his have gone berserk. Nanobots are able to absorb and reuse mana so spells aren¡¯t as effective on him. Going into meleebat would be suicidal since you¡¯re just giving the nanobots more fuel to keep themselves running. I suspect that the reason why he destroyed a few settlements was to use the mana from humans to sustain himself otherwise the nanobots will die off." Shiro exined as one of the adventurers furrowed his brows.
"Your nanobots? So you¡¯re the one who was responsible for all of this?" He asked with a frown.
"Pft as if. It was just a side effect of what had happened. And aren¡¯t I here to take care of it? Comin to me once you can deal with a tier 6." Shiro rolled her eyes as people like this were all talk.
Before the adventurer could even say anything, a hand grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.
"Please pardon his rudeness." The man smiled as Grangel looked over.
"You¡¯re finally here. Let me introduce you. This is Zack Soma, he¡¯s like me and is ranked in the top 5 within the government. He¡¯s a summoner and his summons are rather impressive." Grangel smiled as Zack bowed slightly.
"Nice to meet you Miss Asakura. Grangel has told me about the small spar you had between the two of you and the oue was rather one sided." Zack smiled as he was just a little taller than Grangel with green hair and a scar down his left eye.
"Nice to meet you too. Say, can¡¯t you get the eye healed with the clerics?" Shiro asked as not many would keep a scar.
"There is a... personal reason for why I keep this scar. But don¡¯t worry, it will not hinder me in battle." Zack smiled as Shiro noticed a tinge of sadness in him when he mentioned the scar.
"I see... Understood. But honestly, theirs is no need for you to make a move since I can deal with it myself. But I suppose it¡¯s also a good chance for you guys to see the power of a tier 6. I¡¯ll act as support for now so that you can experience its might for yourself and I¡¯ll step in once I see that you have seen enough. Sound good?" Shiro asked with a smile.
Nodding his head, Grangel turned towards the adventurers.
"Alright listen up!" He shouted out as everyone tensed up and stood with their backs straight.
"We have Miss Asakura covering our backs so there is no need to worry. However, that does not mean you can just run in there like headless chickens! This will be the first time that we will fight against a tier 6 being and one that is out of control at that. Thanks to the information that Miss Asakura has provided to us, we know that meleebat is a no go considering the properties of the nanobots. Keep your distance and barrage it with ranged attacks and spells. Since it is tier 6, I can guess that its physical prowess will be much higher than even the strongest tier 5 we have here. Try not to make your presence known and prepare to move out. We¡¯re hunting this beast in 10 minutes." Grangel instructed as they saluted him before doing some final maintenance on their equipment.
10 minutes was long inbat but right now, it felt like a fleeting moment as the 10 minutes of respite was over in a blink of an eye. Seeing that Everyone was ready, Grangel dashed forward while the rest followed.
Spitting up into three groups, they made their way towards the anchor where the guardian was as Shiro admitted that they were rather well trained.
¡¯My buff¡¯s aren¡¯t like Silvia¡¯s but they¡¯re not too bad.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she made a bracelet with all of the support skills that she had recycled.
Activating them all at once, everyone watched as their stats increased.
"To think that Miss Asakura also possesses support skills. Honestly, what ss even is she?" Grangel muttered with a small smile.
"Normally having too many skills from every ss would make you weak since different skills require different stats. But for her, she could say she¡¯s a full support ss and I wouldn¡¯t be surprised with the buffs that she had given us." Zack shrugged as Grangel agreed.
"Her attacks are far more powerful, you know. Plus, even though she¡¯s by her own definition, a ss cannon, I could barely scratch her with my attack." Grangel exined remembering theirst fight.
"Regardless, we can talk about it over some drinkster." Zack smiled before biting his finger and drawing out a row of magic circles.
"Summoning!" He shouted out as the magic circles lit up with a golden radiance.
Suddenly, 8 pirs of light erupted into the sky as Shiro noticed eight dragons with what seemed to be knights riding on top of them.
¡¯Hou... to think his summoning skill could bring out dragons with riders.¡¯ Shiro mused while estimating their powers with analysis.
Individually, they are roughly equivalent to level 300¡¯s but when put together, their coordination would probably increase their danger levels to the top of tier 5.
Watching the eight dragons knights fly towards the ruins, a tier 5 magic circle expanded in the sky as the knights raised theirnces.
*BOOM!!!!
Crashing down from the sky, a giant goldennce pierce the ruin as ravines were split open from that attack.
However, to Zack¡¯s surprise, there was something stopping thence from making physical contact with the ruin.
Before he could even say anything, nanobots shot into the sky and consumed thence in an instance.
"What!?" Widening his eye in shock, Zack didn¡¯t expect the nanobots to be able to consume one of his most powerful strikes with such ease.
*URAHHHH!!!!!
Hearing a loud roar originating from the ruins, they watched in shock as two metallic wings unfurled into the sky. Connected to the wings was a deformed guardian with metal jutting out of his body.
He seemed like a puppet that was being manipted as cl.u.s.ters of nanobots could be seen writhing under his skin which would heal all of the injuries that he suffered since he was their precious host after all.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro shook her head in pity since the guardian didn¡¯t expect this to happen when he absorbed the nanobots.
Splitting his chest open, hundreds of silver tendrils exploded out from his body as they weaved together into a giant metallic form that could wrestle the dragon knights to the ground.
"Ranged bombardment!" Grangel shouted out as the adventurers prepared their spells while the guardian was busy with the dragon knights.
Pulling out his bow, Grangel prepared his own spell and Zack did the same.
"I bet you didn¡¯t expect your precious guardian to turn out this way when he consumed my nanobots did you Verron?" Shiro asked as she could sense a being watching her. The feeling she got from this being was simr to some of the gods that she had seen on mount Olympus and she can guess that it was probably Verron.
"You noticed me huh? I must say I¡¯m surprised. Little girl, despite killing my chosen and ruining my anchor, you actually stayed here despite knowing that I¡¯m around, are you looking down on the power of god?" A dark voice rang out as Shiro only smiled.
"Maybe." Shiro replied as divine energy erupted out of her body.
Pausing in surprise, Verron didn¡¯t expect the young woman that had escaped his guardian back then actually became a demigod.
Chapter 871 Pissing Off Gods
Chapter 871 Pissing Off Gods
"Little brat, just because you can use a little divine energy you think you can go against me?" Verron asked as it was clear that he was angered by her statement.
"Pft, you won¡¯t even have an anchor soon. Without an anchor, you can¡¯t participate in the new age. Without your sessor, you can¡¯t even use them as a medium to manifest yourself. Madi bing the queen has prevented you from being able to do anything that can harm me.
"Plus, for you to talk to me for this long, you must have paid quite the price no? Even Nyx only talked to me for a little bit before leaving." Shiro grinned with a narrowed gaze.
Staying silent for a moment, a dark aura slowly descended around her.
"If you continue to push me little brat, I will end you without a second thought. You underestimate the tenacity of gods." Verron warned.
"And you underestimate my connections. However, even if I have connections with the five primordial gods, I don¡¯t need them to deal with someone like you. Just this will do. Can a god like you protect your source code?" Shiroughed as circuits appeared on her arm and Error looked at the aura with greed and excitement.
With Verron staying silent once more, Shiro dismissed Error before looking towards the monstrosity that was the merge of the guardian and her nanobots.
As the fight progressed, Zack and Grangel took the lead as Grangel would push it back with his attacks while Zack summoned more monsters to hold him back so that it couldn¡¯t ughter the rest of the adventurers.
"I¡¯ll admit it, you have more backbonepared to the other¡¯s I face and you have evidence to back up your ims. However, if you think that I, Verron, the demon god is afraid, then you are dead wrong. Which god didn¡¯t face death head on to get to where they are today. Facing you will be the same." Verron warned as Shiro smiled.
"Thanks for the praise I guess. My gramps is a reaper so you¡¯re not wrong when you say you¡¯re facing death. But since your body isn¡¯t here, I won¡¯t be able to get a useful skill out of you." Shiro licked her lips.
How good would a skill from a god be?
"But I suppose the new age is happening soon so I should save this charge of extraction for when a god appears. Hell, I still need to drain Aekari and kill him for good." Shiroughed softly before summoning Silvanis.
"Say Verron, if I eliminate your anchor and your guardian here, what will you do? You won¡¯t be able to participate in the new age and once I be the garden¡¯s ruler, I¡¯ll be able to kill you with a snap of my finger. What will you do? I¡¯m rather curious as to what a god will do when he¡¯s backed into a corner." Shiro asked with a grin.
"Are you really provoking a god right now!" Verron howled in anger.
"Pft, I¡¯ve provoked many gods in my life. You¡¯re just another." Shiroughed as she decided to make a move now. Both Zack and Grangel were being pushed back but their skills had helped them prevent any casualties from happening. If she let this continue, the two would definitely die.
Ignoring Verron¡¯s shouts, Shiro shot towards the guardian like aet. Golden aura erupted out from her body as she was going to enhance her next attack with Divine Energy.
Runes lit up on Silvanis as she activated the first, third and fourth ability of Silvanis.
Double Stats, 100% true damage, 200% boosted elemental effectiveness, ignore all resistance towards the element and since the guardian didn¡¯t have the fear resistance skill, he can¡¯t fight back.
Choosing nanobots as her element, Shiro focused her mind and activated boundary.
Her body seemed to have been erased from the world as she reappeared a few hundred meters away from the guardian.
Her de was red hot as steam continuously emitted from the de.
The Nanobots that hadshed out towards the adventurers withered away instantly as they looked around in confusion.
However, when they realised what had happened, they widened their eyes in shock.
The guardian waspletely erased without being able to scream. His body was shredded to pieces and the heat of her de evaporated every trace of the guardian.
Without dy, Shiro twirled her de and held it in a reverse grip.
Activating her skill, Force of Elements, a giant de descended from the sky and stabbed towards the anchor belonging to a god.
"Stop it you fool!" Verron shouted out as Shiro only smiled.
"See you when the new age finishes."
*BANG!!!!!
Watching the ruin get destroyed in front of her, Shiro could see the anchor shattering to pieces as Verron¡¯s aura and voice disappeared.
[Gaia jumps in delight at your actions and wants to visit Verron to see his face.]
"Pft, you actually had the system send this message to me." Shiroughed since interacting with her had limitations and doing so was rather hard. For Gaia to send a message like this, it must mean that she enjoyed it quite a lot.
"Don¡¯t worry Gaia, when you manifest in Asharia, I¡¯ll give you a specialised Mech. I know you like to fight so the mech should let you fight as much as you want."
[Gaia is overjoyed.]
[Gaia-]
[Nyx is dragging Gaia away. Ignore Gaia please Shiro.]
Rolling her eyes, Shiro couldn¡¯t help butugh at the thought of Nyx dragging an excited Gaia away from the little tea party they have.
{You actually forced two gods to send messages to you despite the limitations.} Nimue forced a smile as the corner of her lips twitched.
¡¯What can I say, I¡¯m just that good.¡¯ Shiro flipped her hair back with a smug smile.
{*BLERG* Makes me want to puke.} Nimue rolled her eyes as Shiro shrugged.
¡¯I¡¯m only joking around. Regardless, with the Guardian dead and Verron¡¯s anchor gone, I have realised a ¡¯small problem¡¯.¡¯ Shiro coughed.
{What problem?} Nimue looked towards her with confusion but Estre paled and widened her eyes.
¡¯Seems like Estre knows.¡¯ Shiro chuckled.
{Shiro has destroyed Verron¡¯s Anchor and pissed off Verron. But he isn¡¯t the only demon god. There are 71 others. While a few might be on good terms, including the one with Madison, Shiro has essentially dered war against 60+ gods with Verron being ranked as one of the highest. They probably all have their own anchors and we were just lucky to find Verron¡¯s. With the world being this big, finding the other anchors before the new age begins won¡¯t be easy.}
{. . .} Blinking her eyes as if her mind had just short circuited from trying to register the information, Nimue¡¯s body started to quiver.
{%¡ê$%"%$%¡ê!! You pissed off 60+ gods before the new age even started! Come here so I can kill you myself before they get to you!}
Immediately evacuating the mana realm, Shiro double checked the ruin to make sure everything was cleaned up properly.
Sighing in relief, she made her way back to Grangel, Zack and the rest of the adventurers.
"Thank you for saving us Miss Asakura. Had it not been for your help, we would have most likely all died." Zack smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, this is the difference between tier 5 and 6. But if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that he was being controlled by my nanobots, he would have been much more powerful and would have wiped everyone out in a few minutes since he does have a habit of ying with his food. Had it not been for that, I think I would have died when I met him before." Shiro replied as Zack agreed.
"We¡¯ll need to revise the knowledge we have on tier 6¡¯s since the government believes the difference is only small so long as you have enough pseudo levels at level 500. But it seems like it is not all down to stats as the skills, techniques can bridge that gap as Miss Asakura had demonstrated." Zack said as the adventurers nodded their heads fiercely. They had never seen such a horrific monster that could shrug off their attacks like nothing even though they were some of the strongest people in the government.
But what they were focused on was that this monster was killed in one go by Shiro Asakura, formerly known as Kuromi Asakura. She hadpletely obliterated the monster without a single trace left of him.
"Since we¡¯ve met, I¡¯ll give you a quick warning about what¡¯s toe. I¡¯m sure you have now discovered hints about something called the new age and I¡¯ll warn you now, it¡¯s arriving in less than a month. Every Queen will make their move, tier 5 and 6 will arrive from different worlds, acting as guards for these Queens. After a while, gods will descend and wars will erupt out between them. Everywhere will be a danger zone so prepare yourself for the apocalypse." Shiro warned gravely as Grangel knew that he had to take this seriously. If someone like Shiro was saying this, it was true.
Especially since she described it as an apocalypse.
Chapter 872 Aiming for 500
Chapter 872 Aiming for 500
"Understood. I shall go inform the government and have a notice be sent out for everyone so that they can prepare. Since it is inevitable, it¡¯s better for us to warn them now rather thanter." Grangel scratched his hair in annoyance since it was as the rumours said, with so many powerful beings making a move, it was as if the entire world was ending soon.
"Good choice. I¡¯m in the process of making a refuge of sorts right now but it¡¯s filled with beings from other races too. Even ones that some of you would deem as monsters such as spirits. I wouldn¡¯t mind letting people in since that¡¯s what I n to do with the City of Asakura that my parents look after. I¡¯ll give you a spot seeing that not only do you have more brains than some of the people I¡¯ve seen, you¡¯re also somewhat talented so you¡¯ll make a fine addition to the military there." Shiro smiled as Grangel couldn¡¯t help butugh.
"Of course I¡¯m only somewhat talented in your eyes. Fine, give me a shout when the refuge is finished or something. I¡¯ll grab my parents and sister if that¡¯s fine. I know that a good refuge will be rare and that space is limited so the fact that you¡¯ve even extended this offer to me is a surprise in itself." Grangel smiled.
"Sure, I don¡¯t mind you bringing your family. As for the rest of you... Hmm... we¡¯ll see how it goes. It¡¯s selfish of me but I¡¯m prioritising those that cherish first, then extras such as you who have gained my acknowledgement. Once the new age begins and you happen to find my city then I shall wee you if there is space." Shiro smiled before disappearing into a portal.
{Even though the city could expand to the size of a small country, you still only told them it¡¯s half done huh?} Nimue smiled.
¡¯Pft of course. I¡¯m not running a charity here. I¡¯m prioritising my close ones then my own race. Anyone elsees after. With spirits, elfs and demons there, getting too many humans in the mix right now would only cause unnecessary tension. There will be humans who have grudges against demons and vice versa. Once Madison wakes up, she¡¯ll control the demon race and have them forget the grudge against humans because we¡¯ll be working closely together. Conflict would only hinder that. We might need to make a few examples but that¡¯s fine too. The new age is harsh so we can¡¯t be soft in our methods.¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
¡¯Of course, I¡¯m not saying that we should govern with fear and an iron fist but we shouldn¡¯t be like cotton and do nothing while conflict breaks out in the city. If people disrespect the rules that I set down, they will be punished as such.¡¯ She followed up as Nimue nodded her head in agreement.
{Perhaps it¡¯s better to set up districts for now so that they can get used to each other¡¯s presences before merging them together. Even if it¡¯s the queenmanding them, it would be hard to forget the centuries of hatred that have been built up over the generations. The hatred of the parents is passed onto the children and the cycle continues. We cannot force them to get along with each other as the pressure would cause a civil war to break out immediately. We can settle it using power but the goal of this city would be forgotten.} Estre spoke up as Shiro gave her two thumbs ups.
¡¯Exactly. There will be districts that will merge all of the races together but I¡¯ll be adding smaller tforms where the majority of the race will be gathered. There will be no stupid rule such as no humans allowed or no demons allowed but if they provoke the other race on purpose then they will be punished. Though I feel like I can already imagine children being the main cause as they¡¯re ignorant of the dangers. Casually provoking demons because they have red skin or horns, harming them because demons killed their parents or whatever. Children don¡¯t understand the severity so their guts are higher than the heavens themselves. Sometimes kids like this really piss me off because that¡¯s just the nature of children.¡¯ Shiro sighed heavily since she needed to make sure the children didn¡¯t spark a civil war either.
¡¯Though my Attie is better than little children who don¡¯t think before they do something. Aren¡¯t you?¡¯ Shiro smiled while picking up Attie.
{Mn.} Nodding his head, Attie hugged Shiro.
{So what now?} Nimue asked as Shiro had finished dealing with the Guardian as well as Verron. Setting aside the 60+ gods that she has now pissed off, there were still more things they needed to deal with as quickly as possible before the new age arrived.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯ve already got Nan Tian helping everyone else move to the city so I can have some time to myself. After killing the guardian, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s about time that I do some dungeon clearing and get myself to level 500? Once I get to level 500, I¡¯ll be able to attempt to reach tier 6 like I did in myst life. Only this time, I¡¯ll be much much stronger.¡¯ Shiro grinned as Nimue shrugged her shoulder.
{But I don¡¯t think there are many dungeons that can help you get to level 500 quickly. Even with all of your passives that reduce exp needed, double exp gain and so on, you should still need quite a while to reach level 500 with the dungeons that are around.} Nimue reminded since high level dungeons are rare.
¡¯I know but there are more methods to levelling up than just killing things. Nimue, let me ask you, why do you not have a level when Estre does? Is it because you¡¯re ssified as an item that¡¯s bound to me because of theke? If so, why are there spirits in the city without levels as well.¡¯ Shiro asked with a smile as Nimue paused.
Neither her nor Iziuel had levels but their power could be estimated to be in the high end of tier 5 while Estre has level 500 next to her name, proving her strength.
¡¯I believe it¡¯s because of how you decided to strengthen yourself in the end. Rather than kill, you continued to provide me support through the mana realm while Iziuel was helping the world tree. Estre on the other hand decided to kill things constantly for exp. Of course, I¡¯m not saying that I¡¯ll suddenly sit down and cultivate like Nan Tian does.¡¯ Shiroughed since monotonous things like cultivating would bore her out her mind. She wasn¡¯t the type to sit down and do nothing for months without care since there is the problem of hygiene.
What about bathing! Eating! Drinking juice!
There were so many things that she could be doing while cultivating, it just didn¡¯t fit her nature as a person.
{So if you¡¯re not nning to cultivate what are you nning?} Nimue asked as she was a little confused by what Shiro was suggesting.
¡¯Pft if I knew I would have said so from the beginning. I was just saying that there were more ways to level up than one so I should probably go look for more efficient solutions.¡¯ Shiro smiled as she couldn¡¯t help but find it rather amusing to mess around with Nimue.
Looking at her face that was ring at her with annoyance, Shiro giggled softly as Nimue sighed.
{I don¡¯t have a real physical body but if I did I would have busted a vein.} Nimue said while sweeping her bangs out of the way of her eyes.
{Che, why do you even like keeping your bangs that long anyway? It¡¯s ticklish and it gets in the way of your sight. Plus, it might even poke your eye by ident.} Nimueined. After evolving, her hair had grown slightly longer and she found herself frequently needing to sweep her hair to the side.
¡¯I think it¡¯s ok though. Plus, it helps me hide where I¡¯m looking during a fight, they won¡¯t be able to see my eyes while I can see through my hair using analysis. Of course, I also think it looks nice that¡¯s why. Long hair is a pain sometimes but it looks good no?¡¯ Shiro smiled while messing around with her hair.
Curling it around her fingers, she blew up and watched as her white hair fluttered ever so slightly.
{I didn¡¯t take you for one that worried about beauty.} Nimue raised her eyebrow. If Shiro cared about outward appearance, she wouldn¡¯t have exposed her habit of piercing asses back in New York in public.
¡¯I¡¯m still a girl ok. Who doesn¡¯t want to look nice.¡¯ Shiro pouted. As battle crazy as she was, she still enjoyed cute things in life like big assed plushies that she could just dive into and nice clothes.
{Where¡¯s the girl? All I see is a pain in my ass.} Nimue clicked her tongue.
¡¯I can make that a reality.¡¯ Shiro said while summoning an ice spike.
{No r18 things in front of little Attie.} Nimue said with a victorious grin while skipping to the ind where Iziuel and Attie were ying around.
Shattering the ice in her hand, Shiro sighed and focused her mind back on reality since she needed to reach level 500 in less than a month¡¯s time.
Chapter 873 Level 500 Dungeon
Chapter 873 Level 500 Dungeon
While making her way back to the teleport shrine, Shiro was looking for some information online. She was looking for any records of people finding new ways of levelling up so that she could use it as a reference for herself.
{Don¡¯t you have the map of the world? Can¡¯t you see the dungeons?} Nimue asked since there was bound to be a level 500 dungeon somewhere in the world.
¡¯I do but...¡¯ Shiro¡¯s voice faded as Nimue noticed a rare trace of shame and embarrassment. Not the kind where she teases about love but the kind where she messed up big time.
{But what?} Nimue asked, curious as to why she was acting like this.
¡¯I forgot to ask the system to mark down all of the dungeons! All I asked for it to markdown was settlements, roads,munities of living entities and teleport shrines! I forgot about dungeons!¡¯ Shiro cried out as she wanted to punch her past self.
You have perfect memory and a wide database! How the hell did you forget about the main source of EXP!
{Pft, to think even you could mess up like this.} Nimueughed.
¡¯It slipped my mind ok?!?!?!¡¯ Shiro retorted while scratching her hair in annoyance. Furrowing her brows, she wondered what she could do to search for the dungeons when she thought of an idea.
¡¯Wait... Isilia researches dungeons. If there is a way to track dungeons down like the mini map, does that mean I can search for dungeons with a scanner?¡¯ Shiro muttered as she immediately opened up a portal back to Asharia.
Teleporting to the main square, she sent out her senses and found Isilia training with Lyrica in one of the training facilities that she had requested specifically designed for the Sword Saintess. It was something that she used back in Aria so Shiro was familiar with the construction andyout.
Teleporting to the entrance, she knocked a few times since she didn¡¯t want to just barge in when it could be a big turning point.
"Coming~"
Opening the door, Isilia smiled when she saw Shiro.
"Ahe on in, we¡¯re just taking a break now." Isilia smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"So what brings you here today?" She asked while getting some juice from the fridge and setting it down on a table.
"With only a little bit of time left, I was thinking about doing some dungeons to help me reach level 500 so that I can hopefully be tier 6 when the new age begins." Shiro said as Isilia nodded her head.
"I see... and I¡¯m guessing with your level and the exp you require, finding high level dungeons is pretty hard and that you want something to track them down with?" Isilia asked as Shiro grinned.
"Bingo." She replied while pointing at her with two finger guns.
"Unfortunately, tracking the level of the dungeon is harder at higher levelspared to low level ones so a dungeon that you believe is level 500 could actually just be 350." Isilia shrugged.
"Uff. How did you reach level 500 and then tier 6?" Shiro asked since Isilia was the only one besides Nan Tian that was tier 6 in their group.
"I just kept killing. You know I¡¯ve been in this ce for a lot longer than you have no?" Isilia replied as Shiro groaned.
"I know but I wanna level up faster." Shiroined while resting her chin on the table.
"Oh please you¡¯re levelling up quite fast already. Who the hell reaches your standard in just a year? Plus, you¡¯re also a demi god now. Do you know how long it takes for me to even get a single level back then since everything was so low levelled??" Isilia asked with a twitching smile.
"I know I know but with the new age being so close it would be reassuring to start it as a tier 6. I¡¯ve been able to kill tier 6¡¯s partially due to luck. The first time was a neighbouring queen that I was able to enter a one on one duel with so her tier 6 guards couldn¡¯t interfere. In one on ones, I won¡¯t be defeated by a tier 6 unless they¡¯re much higher level than me but for queens, it¡¯s a guarantee that they¡¯re surrounded by guards. If Nan Tian wasn¡¯t with me when I attacked the neighbouring queen, dealing with two tier 6¡¯s with one being able to guarantee strikes all the time would be impossible. Sure I¡¯ll kill the queen but then they¡¯ll kill me." Shiro replied.
Revival and healing was powerful but when there were two people that could just lock down her position and prevent her from running, revival and healing would just turn to torture where she slowly dyed her own death.
"Hmm... I suppose I did find a level 500 dungeon of sorts but it¡¯s kind of an anomaly." Isilia said after a short pause.
"You did?!" Shiro sat up in surprise.
"Mn, when I say anomaly, I mean it in the sense that the dungeon isn¡¯t the usual kind. I entered it myself but I didn¡¯t get much out of it since I couldn¡¯t damage the enemies at all. Like 0 damage." Isilia furrowed her brows.
"Wait, you dealt no damage, as a tier 6?" Shiro asked with surprise.
"I challenged it when I was tier 5 but even after I got tier 6, I still couldn¡¯t damage them no matter how hard I tried. There was always something that just stopped my attacks. Oh also, there are requirements for entering this dungeon."
"Requirements?"
"Mn, you have to go in solo." Isilia narrowed her eyes as Shiro paused for a moment to digest the information.
Dungeons don¡¯t usually have a requirement like this but if it¡¯s telling her to enter solo, it means it can bepleted on her own.
"Can you tell me anything else about the dungeon then?" Shiro asked as Isilia sighed.
"That¡¯s the other problem. I can¡¯t remember. The only knowledge I retained about the dungeon was the fact that I entered and the monster¡¯s there could barely be harmed. After that is nk and the only other thing I remember was being out of the dungeon before realising what had happened." Isilia shook her head.
"That¡¯s totally not suspicious at all." Shiro leaned back.
"This is the only level 500 dungeon that I know. The next highest level would be level 430 but that¡¯s more of a quest than dungeon. It takes way too long toplete and the payoff isn¡¯t that good." Isilia shook her head.
"Welp I guess I know what I¡¯m doing for a while then. I¡¯ll probably give the level 500 dungeon an attempt or two to see what¡¯s up with it. If I can¡¯t find anything then I¡¯ll give up." Shiro shrugged as Isilia nodded her head.
"I honestly wish I could tell you more but my knowledge is limited."
"That¡¯s fine, you¡¯ve helped me plenty by knowing about this dungeon. So where is it?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"The Elven Continent."
"Wait, what?" Shiro raised her eyebrow since most of the things in the elven continent were low levelled.
"The dungeon is in the elven continent." Isilia replied, confirming that Shiro wasn¡¯t just hearing things.
"But all the things there are all low levelled. How the hell is a level 500 dungeon there?" Shiro asked as she had a hard time believing that the dungeon could be there. When the world changed, most of the areas are grouped together by level so a ce like New York wouldn¡¯t have a level 200 dungeon and vice versa. A high levelled city wouldn¡¯t have low levelled dungeons. For the elven continent to have a level 500 dungeon that could be said to be the hardest in the world was clearly an anomaly.
"I don¡¯t know. I came across it by ident too you know." Isilia shrugged since she wasn¡¯t responsible for where the dungeons were ced.
"Do you know the name of the dungeon?" Shiro asked.
"Nope." Isilia shook her head.
". . .F*ck it. Why not, since you were outside before you realised what had happened, it means the chance of death is probably on the low side for people like us. Can you help me mark it out on the mark? I¡¯ll go look for it now. Plus, I might as well check up on how Cyril¡¯s doing since thest time I saw her, she was made into the new ruler." Shiro smiled as Isilia paused for a moment.
"Maybe I shoulde with you. She is my husband¡¯s daughter, even if she was created by experiments." Isilia sighed as she couldn¡¯t help but feel pity for the girl.
"Mn, I¡¯ll make a teleport mark when we get there so that we can travel freely between the ces. Plus, Nan Tian is also working on moving the elves to one of the tforms so it¡¯s a good chance to sort that out." Shiro smiled as the two talked for a bit longer before agreeing on making their way to Miriel tomorrow.
Chapter 874 Returning to Miriel
Chapter 874 Returning to Miriel
Aftering to an agreement with Isilia, Shiro made her way to the mech hanger to see how Shiina, Oran and Akhess were doing. Since they each had specialised units that worked around their primary elements, there were more to learnpared to the standard units.
Upon arrival, she could see the three taking a break by the vending machine. She had installed them so that pilots could get some refreshments whenever since it was easier than going to the cafeteria.
"Seems like you three are having a break right now." Shiro called out as the three of them immediately mmed the bottles in their hands into the bin and stood up straight, not daring to say anything.
"The fck?" Shiro couldn¡¯t help but mutter seeing how fast they binned their drink the moment she spoke.
"Your highness, we were just about to go back to training!" Oran shouted out in a panic as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
{Hais... look at how much you traumatised them. They can¡¯t even rx with you nearby now.} Nimue shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.
¡¯What did I do? I only put them through some training that¡¯s slightly harder than the normal recruits. Plus, they¡¯re talented, especially Shiina so it¡¯s only natural that they get harder tasks. Bypleting them, they can be stronger no?¡¯ Shiro replied as Nimue only rolled her eyes.
{Yeah your definition of a little harder is bullsh*t. It¡¯s much harder ok? These three need some time to recover.} Nimue replied as her smile twitched.
"Your highness?" Oran called out seeing that Shiro was staying silent.
Seeing this, both Shiina and Akhess widened their eyes as they didn¡¯t say anything since Shiro was probably thinking about something important.
¡¯I¡¯m going to kill that dumbass when her highness leaves!¡¯ Shiina shouted out in her mind as Oran was poking the devil right now.
"Mn? Oh it¡¯s nothing. I was just talking with Nimue. I haven¡¯t introduced you three to her yet have I?" Shiro said as she summoned Nimue.
"You three meet Nimue, Nimue, you already know who these three are." Shiro said as Nimue nced towards the three pilots.
"Of course I know who they are, they¡¯re poor victims of your training." Nimue rolled her eyes as she walked up the three.
Flicking her finger, water droplets appeared around them as their body was healed from the fatigue of training.
Looking down at their body in surprise, they couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful to Nimue.
¡¯Yes! We¡¯re victims!¡¯ They wanted to shout out but remembering that Shiro was just behind her, they didn¡¯t say anything.
"Pft what do you mean poor victims? I¡¯m doing this because I care." Shiro shrugged as Nimue rolled her eyes.
"That¡¯s bullsh*t and you know it. Regardless, don¡¯t pressure these three too much, they¡¯re still young and they¡¯re already being put to the front lines when the new age arrives. Let them enjoy the remaining time of peace." Nimue sighed as Shiro agreed.
"Mn, that is true. Fine, take three days off to recuperate. I¡¯ll be gone for a while anyway. Remember, this is thest holiday that you¡¯ll have before the new age arrives." Shiro said while looking towards the three.
Hearing this, Shiina, Oran and Akhess looked at Nimue as if she was an angel that hade down from heaven to save them from this hellish training.
"You¡¯ll have to work hard after though. I¡¯d say you¡¯ll get roughly three hours per week." Shiro smiled as the three tilted their heads.
"Three hours per week of what?" Shiina asked.
Hearing this, Shiro paused before grinning.
"Three hours of rest per week."
"PFT!!! Three hours are you trying to kill them!?" Nimue shouted out in shock as the three seemed like their soul had just left their body.
Though even if it did, Shiro would just drag it back.
"I¡¯m kidding. Of course they¡¯ll get plenty of rest." Shiroughed.
"Hais... Ignore her.?? Nimue shook her head.
"Setting aside the matter of how long you need to rest, how¡¯s the progress with the mechs? Are you three getting used to the specialised units yet?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Yes we are. The second form is a little hard to get used to since it constantly saps our mana but I think we¡¯ll be able to use it once the new age arrives." Shiina replied as Oran and Akhess nodded their heads.
"That¡¯s good. I would have liked for you to work in a group of 4 or 5 rather than three but there hasn¡¯t been anyone else that seemed promising enough to have a specialised unit just yet. We¡¯ll have to wait to see the results of the yearly exams to see if there are anyone qualified." Shiro nodded her head.
Her initial n was to have the mech groups simr to how a party would be formed so that if the mech is destroyed, they can still work as normal party to face their enemies.
A tank vanguard, a long ranged fighter, a mage, a support and a close ranged fighter.
Shiina fills the role of mage with some long ranged artillery right now, Oran can act as both the support and close ranged while Akhess is the same. They werecking a proper tanker that could help them block strong attacks and wrestle the enemy to the ground.
When Shiro found out that Oran could use the Earth element, she was guessing that Oran could be a tanker but his specialisation in lightning changed that.
"For now though, you three will probably lead your own little groups. Only when there are important missions will you work together." Shiro exined as the three nodded their heads.
Talking to them for a little longer, Shiro made her way back to her room within the centre tower and slept the night away.
Waking up early in the morning, she met up with Isilia outside of her house.
"Ready?" Isilia asked as she had already packed up everything that she would need.
"Mn. We¡¯ll be making an extra stop since I don¡¯t have a teleport marker that connects us directly to the city."
"That¡¯s fine." Isilia smiled since it was just going to take a few extra minutes to get there.
Opening a portal in front of them, they left Asharia.
###
The moment they arrived in Miriel, Shiro noticed the barrier was still being sustained and smiled since it seemed like everything was going fine.
While she was checking out the barrier, Shiro noticed that Isilia was looking at the city with longing and sadness in her eyes.
"Missing your husband?" Shiro asked as Isilia nodded her head.
"Mn, a little. I haven¡¯t seen him in so long." Isilia sighed.
"It¡¯s a shame. Even if I can find who his source code has reincarnated into, he¡¯ll be a different person."
"I know. I still have Lyrica so it¡¯s fine. Plus, I met you again haven¡¯t I?" Isilia smiled.
"That is true but I can¡¯tfort you in bed like your husband does." Shiro grinned as Isilia coughed with a small blush since Shiro liked to joke around with things like this even though she herself, was a 300+ year old maiden with no love life.
"Hush it. Can¡¯t let Attie hear you when you say things like that." Isilia replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"You are not wrong but he¡¯s ying with Iziuel right now." Shiro shrugged.
{Just because I¡¯m looking after him does not mean he can¡¯t hear you.} Iziuel spoke up as Shiro scratched her cheek.
¡¯Fine fine, I¡¯ll try to keep things kid friendly ok?¡¯ Shiro sighed as Iziuel thanked her before focusing back on Attie.
"Honestly, I still can¡¯t believe you just casually adopted three children. Especially with one of them being kidnapped from a quest world. Plus, she was also destined to be the light goddess¡¯ body and you changed that." Isilia massaged her eyes.
If Shiro didn¡¯t intervene, Lisandra¡¯s body would have been taken over by Aekari¡¯s daughter.
"Speaking of the light goddess, after killing Aekari I¡¯ll need to deal with his wife and daughter. Hais, my kill list is like 90% gods now." Shiro sighed.
"It¡¯s only 90% filled with gods since you mentioned that you pissed off another 60+ by messing with Verron." Isilia¡¯s smile twitched.
"Also true."
While they walked towards the castle where Cyril and the elders were, the two talked without anyone interfering like they did back in Aria.
The jokes they shared, the experiences they had gone through together and their first meeting.
"Say, we should take the party to Aria one day if the ce is still around when the new age ends. Even though it was full of assholes and the whatnot, it¡¯s still a pretty nice ce with all the technology." Shiro suggested.
"Oh that would be fun. I wonder if my house is still around." Isilia chuckled.
Talking for a little longer, they arrived at the castle gates.
Chapter 875 Meeting Cyril Again
Chapter 875 Meeting Cyril Again
"Halt, what is your business at the castle?" One of the guards immediately called out as both Shiro and Isilia paused in mild surprise and confusion.
Considering the fact that she was the one who helped their country and the one beside her being the queen of elves, Shiro had expected the two to just let them through without saying anything.
"You don¡¯t know who we are?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Am I supposed to?" The guard furrowed his brow while gripping his weapon.
Looking at each other for a moment, both Shiro and Isilia shrugged their shoulders since they didn¡¯t really have anything to prove themselves.
"Do you think you can get one of the elders toe here and meet me then? Either that or get Cyril since she¡¯ll recognise me." Shiro said as the guard frowned.
"This.... Is a bit of a difficult request considering we don¡¯t know anything about you." He replied.
"Yeah yeah I know but like, I¡¯m not trying to make things hard for you either since if we really wanted to, we can just break through and you won¡¯t be able to do anything." Shiro narrowed her eyes as his body tensed from the intensity of her re.
Looking at her eyes, he felt like a rabbit in front of a dragon that could exterminate it at any moment.
Taking a moment to recollect himself, he nodded his head.
"I¡¯ll do what I can. What should I tell the elder?" He asked.
"Just say that Shiro¡¯s here and she wants to talk for a bit." Shiro replied as the guard nodded before making his way into the castle. While they were waiting, Shiro and Isilia waited by the side.
"I didn¡¯t expect you to wait like this. I would have half expected you to just teleport in and be done with it." Isilia smiled.
"If I did it would leave a bad impression. Since we¡¯ll be getting the elves to live on the city, having them see me in a bad light due to my attitude would hinder this a little." Shiro shrugged.
"That is true. Before, you would have just gone in without caring about the impression you leave." Isilia chuckled since Shiro never used to be one that cared about impressions. Whether they liked her or not didn¡¯t matter as long as the job was done.
"Well that was before. Now I have responsibilities so I can¡¯t just go around without care." Shiro said while leaning back and looking at the barrier that shimmered above the city.
Just as she was rxing, she noticed a few roots wrapping around her finger that grew out from the ground.
"Mn?" Looking towards the roots, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrow as it seemed to be tugging her.
"What¡¯s that?" Isilia asked as she peeked at the roots curiously.
"Not sure. Iziuel do you know what it is?" Shiro asked as Iziuel only chuckled in the mana realm.
{Shiro it¡¯s the world tree. Remember that little sapling from before? It seems like it has grown quite a bit.} Iziuel smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Ah it¡¯s you. Why are your roots all the way out here? Shouldn¡¯t you be in your little chamber?" Shiro asked.
Dancing around for a bit, the roots gestured towards the castle before retreating back into the ground.
Seeing the hole that it left behind get patched up in an instant, Shiro shrugged before turning to Isilia.
"Seems like we¡¯ll be paying a visit to the world tree while we¡¯re here."
"Mn,st time I saw it, it was just a seed. Seems like it¡¯s matured quite a bit for its roots to be able to reach out here." Isilia chuckled.
Talking for a little while, the guard came back with the elder.
"Miss Shiro! I¡¯m sorry for making you wait out here." The elder bowed as Shiro waved it off.
"It¡¯s fine. Seems like you lot have been maintaining the barrier well." Shiro smiled.
"It¡¯s all thanks to you. Shall we talk inside?" The elder asked as he couldn¡¯t help but nce at Isilia who was next to Shiro. The moment he made eye contact, the elder froze in shock.
Back when both of Lyrica¡¯s parents were alive, Edvimar was the one that everyone focused on while Talia liked to be in the shadows. She didn¡¯t like the attention and would focus on her research so not many recognised her except for the elders and old maids that have been around for a while.
"Talia?" He called out hesitantly.
"Mn, it¡¯s Isilia now but it¡¯s been a while hasn¡¯t it elder. Thank you for looking after the country." Isilia smiled as The elder nodded his head.
"Come, I¡¯m sure the other¡¯s will be happy about your return. What about Edvimar? Is he with you too? If you¡¯re alive he should be as well right?" The elder asked as Isilia looked down and sighed.
"He¡¯s... not here. I was lucky and I managed to ¡¯revive¡¯ myself I suppose. It¡¯s just me that¡¯s around." Isilia sighed as the elder felt bad for asking now.
"Ah let¡¯s not talk outside. Let¡¯s go inside first."
Leading the two in, the guards were at a loss for words.
"So one¡¯s the old queen and the other is someone who the elder respect. Seems like they¡¯re kind enough to not care about the fact that you just made them wait outside." One of the guards said as the first guards nced towards him.
"Weren¡¯t you involved too?!" He retorted.
"Nothing of the sort. Good luck, if you get punished, I¡¯ll look after your belongings for you." The second guard patted his shoulder.
"Shouldn¡¯t it be, look after your family and not belongings?!"
"Not important."
###
Upon entering the castle, Shiro immediately noticed the increase of mana as well as nature energy since thest time that she was here.
"Seems like you lot have been taking good care of the sapling." Shiro smiled as the elder nodded.
"Mn, while it hasn¡¯t matured to be a proper world tree yet, it is making good progress." The elder nodded.
"Of course, I presume that you can already feel the increase of energy in this castle alone. I estimate that if we let it grow for another month or so, it should have enough energy to increase the mana in the entire city and not just this castle." He continued as Shiro tapped her finger on the wall to get a full scan of the castle. Locating the sapling immediately, Shiro could see that it had grown to the size of a somewhatrge bush with the roots extending through the entire castle.
Moving the tree would be somewhat annoying since they would have to do something about the roots.
"Unfortunately, we don¡¯t have a month." Isilia sighed as the elder looked back.
"Howe?"
"We¡¯ll tell you when everyone is together so that I don¡¯t have to repeat the story." Shiro smiled as Isilia nodded her head.
"That¡¯s probably for the best. It¡¯s a shame that Lyrica isn¡¯t here today since Cyril has been missing her quite a bit." The elder smiled.
"Don¡¯t worry, they¡¯ll be seeing each other more often in the future." Shiro reassured. If they were going to be moving the elves to one of the tforms in the city, then it¡¯ll be akin to bing neighbours with one another so it¡¯s only natural that they¡¯ll see each other more often.
Entering what seems to be a conference room of sorts, Shiro saw Cyril sitting in the centre looking as though her soul had just flown away. With the books around her that are constantly being reced, Shiro could tell that Cyril needed to study quite a lot to be the ruler.
Seeing Shiro, Cyril tilted her head for a moment before sitting up straight.
"Ah it¡¯s Shiro!" Cyril called out with a smile.
"Yo, seem like you¡¯ve been working hard." Shiro grinned.
"Mn I have. So can you please tell them that I deserve a break?" Cyril cried out as she had been studying pretty much every day since thest time that Shiro had seen her.
"Mn, but you seem to be doing fine though." Shiro furrowed her brows since Shiina, Oran and Akhess looked worse but were able to function just as well.
{That¡¯s because you crammed everything in a week! Poor girl deserves a break too you know!} Nimue stopped her train of thought immediately since if she didn¡¯t say anything, Shiro might suggest making things harder instead.
"Though you do deserve a break I suppose. Thankfully for you, you¡¯ll be busy with something else so you won¡¯t be studying." Shiro smiled as Cyril cheered in her mind.
"So who¡¯s this? She looks a bit like big sis Lyrica." Cyril asked while looking at Isilia.
"That¡¯s because that¡¯s her mother and by extension, your step mum. She used to be called Talia but now she¡¯s called Isilia." Shiro smiled as the other elders paused in shock at the news while Cyril didn¡¯t know how to react.
"She¡¯s my step mum?" Cyril asked as she walked up to Isilia who hugged her immediately
Shocked by the hug, Cyril hesitated for a moment before hugging her back.
¡¯Ah... this is my mum.¡¯ Cyril thought in her mind as she never had parents. It was always her siblings and the elders raising her up. But now, her mum was hugging her.
Seeing this, Shiro smiled and allowed the two to have their moment.
Chapter 876 Little Green
Chapter 876 Little Green
Once the two of them stopped hugging, Shiro ced a hologram device on the table and projected most of the information she had on the new age.
Exining the dangers as well as the problems that could arise if they continued to stay in Miriel, Shiro presented them with the updated blueprint of Asharia with all of the citizens included as blue triangles.
"As you can see, we¡¯re already in the process of creating this new hub space for the races and our family. The size is adjustable as I get stronger so there isn¡¯t too much worry in regard to the space avable.
"Of course, that doesn¡¯t mean I can get every elf to join the city. At most, it¡¯s just a city right now. Once the new age starts and things start to stabilise, I¡¯ll see if we can get more elves to join." Shiro said as the elders stayed silent since this was equivalent to running away and leaving everyone else behind.
By going to Asharia with just the capital, the rest of the elven continent is abandoned. They¡¯re left to survive on their own and the thought of this unsettled the elders.
Letting them take the time to think about this, Shiro sat back down and nced towards Cyril who was sitting on Isilia¡¯sp.
"What do you think about this Cyril? You¡¯re the next ruler after all." Shiro asked as Cyril paused.
"Eh? But since mum¡¯s back doesn¡¯t that mean she¡¯s the ruler?" Cyril tilted her head and nced up at Isilia.
"I suppose that¡¯s half right. I am a queen after all." Isilia replied since she had her own anchor.
"That¡¯s true but your authority is less than an actual queen isn¡¯t it?" Shiro pointed out.
"This sounds harsh but I¡¯ll be honest with everyone here. When the new age starts, people are going to die. If we ignored the capital and just kept to ourselves, there is a high chance that the elven continent and a majority of elves will be eliminated." Shiro narrowed her eyes as that was the same for humans. At most, she¡¯ll integrate one city from each race and expand on it slowly.
She had already decided on moving the city of Asakura over since it was where her parents were and the people living there respected their family.
Since Miriel was the biggest elven city she¡¯s been to, or rather, the only elven city she¡¯s been to, she was giving it the opportunity to join Asharia. If they didn¡¯t want to, Shiro wouldn¡¯t force them.
"After the new age starts, will there be a way to tell all the elves where Asharia is so that they can seek refuge?" One of the elders asked as this was his concern should they evacuate to the city.
"Of course. Not only are we constantly travelling around the world, there are also scanners that can be deployed to search for people and bring them to the city if there is space avable." Shiro nodded.
Discussing amongst themselves, they looked towards Shiro.
"Personally, I want to reject so that we can always be here for the elves in need. When dangeres, I want them to know that the capital is there for them. However, moving to the city can save more elves in the long run." The elder sighed.
"How long would it take to move the city?" Another elder asked. They¡¯ll release notifications of a safe city soon but for now they have to settle with just the capital. It was cruel but it was better than everything being destroyed.
"Hmm... you¡¯ll definitely be moved before the new age begins. Here is a doc.u.ment in everything you need to know as well as what you need to prepare. I¡¯ll send a notice to Nan Tian and have him teleport the city here so that we can begin scanning everything and recreate it on one of the tforms in Asharia." Shiro said while creating enough doc.u.ments for everyone.
"I¡¯ll have to think about how to move the world tree though. With its roots extending across the city, it¡¯ll be hard to properly move it." Shiro sighed.
"Anyways, I¡¯ll let you lot talk amongst yourselves now. Isilia, can you mark out where the dungeon is on this map? I¡¯ll pay a visit to the world tree first."
"Sure, take your time since we might be staying here for a bit trying to move everything." Isilia smiled.
Leaving the room, Shiro remembered the way to the world tree.
Pushing open therge gates, Shiro looked up and remembered the first time she had seen Iziuel trapped in this chamber with the world tree draining the mana from her body. She was in a constant state of mana deficiency and was almost dead until Shiro had found her and freed her from her fate.
{You were so small back then.} Iziuel chuckled.
{Indeed. Had no tits too- BLERG!} Nimue nodded as Shiro immediately mmed an ice wall into her face.
¡¯Che.¡¯
Shaking her head, Shiro nced down and sighed in relief. She was d that her body continued to age to its current state.
If she had to spend her entire time in the body of a child, it wouldplicate quite a lot of things especially since she was a mother of three.
¡¯Anyone with me would just look like a creep if I kept that body.¡¯ Shiro thought with a sigh before walking towards the world tree that had grown up to the size of a bush.
"Yo, it¡¯s been a while. You¡¯re going to be moving homes so I hope you can retract your roots otherwise I would need to cut them all." Shiro greeted.
Shaking its body around slightly, roots curled around Shiro¡¯s hand.
{It¡¯s saying that it can survive as long as it has mana. Even if it¡¯s just a leaf, if you supply it with mana, it can regrow itself.} Iziuel said as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
¡¯You can understand it?¡¯
{I¡¯m the spirit of nature, of course I can. It¡¯s pretty young too.} Iziuel nodded her head.
¡¯That¡¯s handy, can you act as a trantor for now?¡¯
{Sure.}
"Right then, do you have a name or should I call you little green?" Shiro asked as sat down in front of the world tree.
{It says it doesn¡¯t have a name. Little green is fine.}
"I see... In that case then little green, what do you think about going to a bigger city? There¡¯s plenty of mana for you to absorb, even divine energy. But you can¡¯t drain it all otherwise the city will fall." Shiro smiled since she could still remember how much mana the tree drained from her back then.
Even though her capacity has increased, she was concerned about the rate of absorption as well as how much the tree can absorb eventually. Knowing the world tree, it is not out of the realm of possibility for it to identa;ly absorb all of the mana in the city.
{It says it¡¯ll try. If there is lots of mana for it to absorb, then it can absorb it all to increase its growth but if you said that he can¡¯t absorb everything, it¡¯ll limit it if possible.}
"That¡¯s good. I¡¯ll create a spot just for you and direct a fifth of the city¡¯s mana generation to you ok?" Shiro smiled since sparing a fifth of the mana for the tree was ok. Plus, it was the world tree so once it fully matures, it¡¯ll bring benefits to the whole city.
It was better to think of things as an investment for now.
{It has no problems with that. Though he wants to request something from you.}
"Oh? What do you want?"
{It says it wants some more of your mana so that it can reach the next stage of growth. The mana in this ce has increased but it¡¯s not enough since it needs to absorb a huge amount at once to reach the next stage. Otherwise it¡¯ll take it months of steady increase.}
"Hmm... I can give you mana but doing so wouldplicate things. How about this, once we move the city, I¡¯ll supply you with as much mana as I can spare. But for now, be obedient and wait here ok?" Shiro asked as the twigs swayed as if the tree was saying ok.
Without Iziuel needing to trante, Shiro already knew the answer.
Talking with the sapling for a little while, such as describing how good the city was for its growth, Shiro left the castle and walked towards the west since that was where the dungeon was.
Closing her eyes, Shiro prepared herself mentally for the first level 500 dungeon that she will challenge.
Chapter 877 Entering The Level 500 Dungeon
Chapter 877 Entering The Level 500 Dungeon
Following the map to the location that Isilia marked out, Shiro read the note that she had put next to the marker.
[The entrance to the dungeon is underground. Things will get strange but continue down the path and the gates will reveal themselves.]
Reading this, Shiro looked towards her surroundings and furrowed her brows since there wasn¡¯t an entrance at all. Activating her analysis skill, the world transformed before her eyes as she could see a path underground.
Tracing it towards the entrance, Shiro raised her eyebrow when the entrance was in front of her this entire time.
Even though analysis revealed the entrance, she couldn¡¯t see anything in real life.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro tried to interact with the entrance but her hand seemed to just phase through the door.
¡¯Strange¡¯
Shiro thought to herself as she activated Rift Strider and bypassed the gate entirely.
Exiting the rift, Shiro looked up at the gate that wasn¡¯t visible to the eyes.
"Do you think that I¡¯ll be able to touch it now that I¡¯m inside?" Shiro asked.
{Maybe, if you get sent out, you can just use the rift again can¡¯t you?} Nimue replied as Shiro nodded her head.
Reaching out for the door, Shiro tried to push it open. Surprisingly, her hand was able to touch the gate but no matter how much strength she put in her arms, she couldn¡¯t open the door at all. Even when she used mana, the door had no reaction at all.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro set the door aside for now since her main priority was the dungeon. She¡¯ll analyse the door at ater date. Plus, she wanted to spend some time testing out this door so that she could attempt to recreate it herself.
Continuing down the path, she could see what seems to be luminescent moss that lit up the tunnels in a strange pink hue.
Touching it with her finger, Shiro noticed that it was covered by ayer of liquified mana that fuelled the glow.
¡¯Hm... how strange. The mana in this ce doesn¡¯t fit the requirement for naturally ruing liquidised mana. Does that mean someone had ced these down manually?¡¯ Shiro mused to herself while continuing down the path.
Activating analysis just to make sure that she was on the right path, Shiro continued when all of a sudden, her analysis was cut off and all that she could see was darkness.
Furrowing her brows, she deactivated it but everything was normal.
¡¯That¡¯s strange...¡¯
Walking back a few steps, she activated analysis and everything was looking normal. Once she passed a certain spot, her skill stopped working. The worst part of it was that the information she gained beforehand was incorrect. The analysis told her that the path continued left while in reality, it continued right. It was almost as if there was an invisible teleport circle which would send her to a different ce without knowing.
Even when she scanned the area with her mana, nothing abnormal could be detected.
{So this is what Isilia means by things bing strange.} Nimue furrowed her brows since this ce was a little too creepy for her tastes. The fact that there is a possibility for you to just be sent to other ces without you knowing was unsettling since they don¡¯t even know if they¡¯re still on earth.
While Shiro was strong, she didn¡¯t have dimension hopping skills yet. They didn¡¯t even know if her teleport marks worked in a different realm. Every time she tried to set one in the rift, it would always fail.
Taking a moment to experiment a little around this spot where the analysis skill was cut off, Shiro set down a few teleport marks to see if it worked.
ssifying the ce beyond the cut off point as dimension B and earth as dimension A, the markers would always fail in dimension B 100% of the time. It was a simr case to when she tried it in her rift which led her to believe that they were indeed being teleported to a different ce entirely.
¡¯How did Isilia even find this ce? With the entrance being the way it is, it¡¯s almost impossible for her to enter unless she managed to find a way to open it or she fell down by ident when the entrance was opened.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before continuing down.
The rest of the journey reminded her of the journey down from within the cave in Astral Horizon¡¯s only this time there was ack of mana.
Pieces of the walls slowly broke off and started to float in the air, leaving behind a window to an infinite void with no end.
Shiro did try to reach out to this void but there was a barrier of sorts that stopped her.
As she continued, the walls continued to break off until she was only surrounded by the void. Walking on the barrier that prevented her from falling into the darkness, Shiro furrowed her brows as it was rather disorientating. Even though there was no light, no walls to guide her and no directions for her to follow, there was an instinctive understanding of the area which told her that she was getting closer.
It was simr to when she unlocks a skill and the knowledge would appear in her mind.
Walking for another 20 minutes, the void broke apart to reveal an altar with a single set of gates at the very top.
"Seems like we¡¯re here." Shiro muttered while climbing up the stairs of the altar.
Looking at the gate, one would normally get an idea of the dungeon from the carvings but this gate waspletely clean. There were no carvings or patterns.
Identifying the gate was also useless as it would only tell her that it was a level 500 dungeon.
"Well might as well give it a shot." Shiro shrugged before pushing open the gates.
Suddenly, a blinding light filled her vision as Shiro felt annoyed whenever she saw this. Why use light when you can just use darkness to transition into a dungeon?!
Closing her eyes, Shiro waited patiently for the light to die down before opening her eyes.
Looking at the scene in front of her, Shiro was speechless as tall armoured beasts surrounded her on all sides.
"Erm... do youe here often?" Shiro forced a smile as she could see their levels.
[Guardian Beast LVL 500]
Without saying anything, the first armoured beast immediately swung his arms towards her.
Widening her eyes, Shiro jumped back before summoning ice pirs to act as foot holds and restrictions for the beast.
Checking her system, Shiro wanted to see where she was.
However, the system didn¡¯t give her any sort of information. All it told her was that it was a level 500 dungeon.
¡¯Che, what a pain.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Summoning Silvanis, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to use lightning as the base element so that she not only had speed but power. With the passive of being able to ignore all forms of armour, this should be easy for her.
Twisting her body, Shiro swung her sword.
*CLANG!
Widening her eyes in shock, Shiro couldn¡¯t believe that her sword actually bounced off the armour like it was a toothpick.
"The f*ck?!" Shiro cried out while dodging their attacks.
Sending her senses out, she tried to see where she was while avoiding their attacks that would probably break half her body.
Seeing that she was in the middle of a desert with no end in sight and hundreds of these monsters around, Shiro gritted her teeth since she couldn¡¯t see the exit either.
¡¯I think I might have fcked up.¡¯ Shiro thought, as she might miss the start of the new age if she takes too long in here.
{You don¡¯t say. Setting that aside, with them being able to block Silvanis¡¯ strike, it means that they have something other than armour. Silvanis ignores 80% of all forms of armour but not all forms of ¡¯Defence.¡¯} Nimue reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯I know but situations like this are rare. I¡¯ll give a few other weapons a try but if they don¡¯t work, I¡¯m afraid we¡¯ll have to run away for now.¡¯ Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Dismissing Silvanis for now, Shiro summoned her hand cannons and fired two shots toward the eyes.
*PING PING!!
Bouncing off of the armour, Shiro was about to click her tongue when she noticed tiny fractures where the bullets hit.
¡¯Wait, the guns are effective?¡¯ Shiro thought in surprise since Silvanis didn¡¯t even leave a mark.
It wasn¡¯t an enhanced bullet either, just a normal bullet with no additional properties.
Just as she was about to experiment a little more, she felt danger all around her and quickly jumped into the rift.
*BOOM!!!!
Looking at the explosion that left a deep crater in the desert, Shiro frowned before ncing towards where the shots originated from.
Standing onrge pirs, quadrupedal beasts with what seems to be a corrupt form of nanobots squirmed on their back as it had formed the barrel of a gun.
¡¯Is that my hand cannon but bigger?¡¯ Shiro muttered in her mind.
Unfortunately for her, she wasn¡¯t able to collect her thoughts when the beasts around her charged forth. Their arms writhed for a moment before shifting into what seemed to be a de. Recognizing it to be Silvanis¡¯ de, Shiro widened her eyes.
Chapter 878 Immortal Beasts
Chapter 878 ''Immortal'' Beasts
Gritting her teeth, she gave up on defencepletely.
If the copy of Silvanis retained its properties, then there was no point increasing the amount of defence she had since it¡¯ll be ignored regardless. Doing so would only decrease her chances of counter attacking.
mming her hand down, a giant tier 5 magic circle expanded out as a blizzard appeared. A thinyer of ice could be seen forming on the beast¡¯s body but its movements were not hindered. It was as if the ice fused with its skin and became ¡¯soft¡¯ rather than rigid.
¡¯What the hell are these freaks?!¡¯ Shiroined in her mind while activating Eyes of the Gorgon.
If ice didn¡¯t work, then hopefully petrification will.
Once again, the same situation urred as they were unharmed. Ayer of petrification now acted as ayer of armour for them.
¡¯F*ck!¡¯
Using the footwork from Phantom path, Shiro tried her best to avoid getting surrounded since she would definitely die if her escape is cut off.
Jumping into the rift, she teleported a short distance before sensing danger from the ranged beasts.
With no time to reactivate her rift, she had no choice but to try minimise the damage she took.
*BANG!!!!
Evading as best she could, her right arm and a portion of her torso was blown offpletely as she activated a charge of grace to regenerate instantly.
{Let use out and help!} Nimue shouted out since letting Shiro deal with everything alone put extra pressure on her right now.
¡¯No! Even if youe out you won¡¯t be able to damage them. Plus, you don¡¯t have regenerative skills like I do, one shot or one slice from that sword and you¡¯re dead!¡¯ Shiro replied as Nimue gritted her teeth.
Every element they tried to use against the beast turned into a force of armour so magic seemed to be out of the question. Weapons were useless as well except for her bullets which chipped their armour slightly.
{Let me help then, I¡¯m the same level as them and my element should be ok.} Estre offered since she doubts they can make armour from space.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯Be careful then since I only have a limited supply of grace.¡¯ Shiro warned as Estre nodded her head.
mming her hand down, a portal opened up as Estre appeared.
sping her hands together, a tier 5 magic circle appeared as Shiro noticed that it was flickering between tier 6 and 5.
¡¯Seems like she¡¯s making good progress.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Suddenly, portals opened up beneath every single beast as they lost their footing, including the ones in the pir.
Snapping her finger, she sealed up the portals.
Just as she did this, her eyes became bloodshot.
*PING!!!
Forcing the portals open, the beasts wed their way out with increased hostility.
"What the hell are these monsters!?" Estre squeezed out as she stopped herself from copsing from the bacsh.
Quickly healing her with life fire, Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯Why does the bullet work but everything else doesn¡¯t? How did Isilia get past this stage and get to the next which erased her memory?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she quickly teleported out of there through the rift with Estre beside her.
"Let¡¯s run for now and figure out what¡¯s happeningter." Shiro said as Estre agreed.
However, before they could say anything else, Shiro watched as a sword suddenly appeared in the rift and sh towards her neck.
Widening her eyes, she bent her body back and narrowly dodged the sword that almost cut her head off.
Looking at the sword which cut a hole in her rift, Shiro couldn¡¯t believe that hitting them with things rted to space or dimensions actually allowed them to breach into the rift.
"Estre!" Shiro called out as the two of them jumped out of the rift.
Pushing out her hands, Estre released a pulse of energy which sent the beasts stumbling back a little to give them some space.
"Their adaptability is a little too crazy!" Shiro shouted out in annoyance as she decided to summon a shotgun and jam the barrel into the mouth of one of the beasts.
Pulling the trigger without hesitation, Shiro watched as blood poured out of its mouth but it wasn¡¯t dead.
Jumping back before she was cut in half, Shiro mmed her hand down and activated a tier 5 magic circle.
The earth beneath their feet started to shift as pirs erupted out of the ground andunched the beasts away from them.
Wiping the sweat from her head, Shiro forced a smile.
"I know I always go on about fighting something strong and that can force me back but this is a bit too ridiculous. It¡¯s not fun when you can¡¯t even damage them." Shiro muttered as Estre nodded her head.
She was holding her own against a few beasts but things weren¡¯t looking good.
Just as she locked one down, she watched as a gun barrel protrude from its chest.
Widening her eyes, Estre wanted to leave through a portal but a spray of pellets embedded themselves into her body.
*COUGH!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Estre stumbled back as blood poured out of her body.
"Che, they even copied my shotgun huh? They seemed to be linked as well, harming one would transfer the information to the others which means that all of them can manifest shotguns." Shiro clicked her tongue and healed up Estre using life fire.
"Sorry, I¡¯m not helping much." Estre frowned as Shiro shook her head.
"It¡¯s fine, you¡¯re reducing the pressure that I feel. But this enemy is rather annoying, aren¡¯t they? It¡¯s almost like they¡¯re immortal. The damage we do to them will heal quickly.
Fighting off the wave of beasts for a little longer, Shiro was forced to return Estre to the mana realm since she couldn¡¯t hold on any longer.
Substituting her with Nimue and Iziuel, the three of them could only try their best to run away and lose the monsters if possible but the chances were low.
"I think we¡¯ve overestimated ourselves a little with this." Shiro sighed while dodging the bullets from a ranged best.
"Really makes you wonder how Isilia survived huh?" Nimue replied since Isilia was able to escape this dungeon.
Waving her hand, she was barely able to slow them down a little by making some quicksand beneath their feet. Unfortunately, their physical prowess rendered this useless as it was nothing more than just a small hindrance.
"Indeed. So far, only nanobots have worked on these guys but the more I damage them, the more powerful they be. I¡¯m not even sure my most powerful weapons can wipe them out in one go." Shiro sighed.
Fighting these creatures was hard since she had to be careful of what she used since it¡¯ll be used against them.
It was akin to stabbing someone then handing them a knife to make things fair. What she used, they could use as well. Magic included.
Combined with their ridiculous healing and numbers which seemed to grow, the fight looked hopeless.
However, halfway through the fight, Shiro noticed a small change in crowd as the ones near the edge seemed to be unsettled.
Raising her eyebrow, she jumped into the sky and focused her attention towards the nervous beasts since she needed to find out the cause of this nervousness. If it is a means of killing them, it would be helpful.
Unfortunately, the source of this unease was another beast but it was much taller and thinnerpared to the normal beasts. It walked on two legs and had ice white armour around its body.
Looking up at Shiro, its hand morphed into a de as Shiro immediately felt danger.
She wasn¡¯t even able to move her own body when the beast appeared before her with the sword embedded into her neck.
"Shiro!" Shouting out in panic, Nimue¡¯s eyes were wide with fear as the white armoured beast was about to twist the de and remove Shiro¡¯s head from her body.
Just as this was about to happen, the scene seemed to be paused as it gave Shiro enough time to heal herself with Miracle, the skill she copied from Aekari instead of Grace since its healing powers were stronger.
Angelic wings appeared behind her as it embraced Shiro¡¯s body, healing all of the wounds in an instant and forcing the beast back.
"Quickly! Jump in the portal before the spell ends!" A voice shouted out as a portal opened up behind Shiro.
Understanding that this was help, Shiro sent Nimue and Iziuel back to the mana realm before jumping into the portal.
Once the portal disappeared, time seemed to resume as the white armoured beast narrowed its eyes and frowned.
Looking at themon beasts that were confused at where their prey had disappeared to, it clicked its tongue before leaving the area.
Chapter 879 Secret of the Beasts
Chapter 879 Secret of the Beasts
After jumping through the portal, Shiro found herself in a dimly lit cave with a severeck of mana.
"Fu... that was close. I didn¡¯t expect the high ends to actually make a move even though you¡¯ve only been here for a white. You must be pretty strong huh? You were even able to resist the status effect to some degree."
Looking towards the source of the voice, Shiro could see a man with short ck hair.
His eyes were that of an emerald green and his clothes were ragged.
"What do you mean by high end and status effect?" Shiro asked as she was confused by what he meant.
"Check your system, it should show up now. When you¡¯re above ground, this notification isn¡¯t shown." The man said as Shiro nced towards her interface.
[Status Removed ¨C Gift to the Beasts]
Offer them your power, offer them your strongest skills. Empower them with your abilities, give your everything to them.
You will have the instinctive reaction of using everything you can on the beasts so that they may grow stronger.
Widening her eyes, Shiro looked back at the man.
"If you had used stronger abilities, as long as ites from the system, the beasts would have be stronger." He chuckled as Shiro felt a chill down her spine. If she had used her demi god form or error, the oue would have been truly devastating.
"Luckily, it seemed like you¡¯ve only used your weaker skills. Ah but first, I should introduce myself. I¡¯m Bonne. It¡¯s a feminine name I know." Bonne scratched his hair with embarrassment.
"Ah I¡¯m Shiro. So where are we?" Shiro asked curiously since this ce seemed to be man made.
"This is a little safe spot that I created. As the abnormal statuses up on the surface doesn¡¯t work down here. I don¡¯t know what causes it but the moment you go underground it disappears. I found this out when I fell into a crater. Strangely enough, the system doesn¡¯t notify you of the deactivation of this status. Rather, you have to find it out manually." Bonne said as Shiro nodded her head since she had always kept an eye on the system just in case something happened.
And whenever she got a notification, she would check it. But this time, it just appeared without any sound. If Bonne hadn¡¯t told her to check, she might have taken a while to notice this.
"I know you just saved me but with how strange this ce is, I can¡¯t help but wonder about your identity." Shiro narrowed her eyes as she summoned Silvanis and got into abat stance just in case Bonne wanted to attack her with her guard down.
"Ah that¡¯s normal I guess. Hmm... Do you know how dungeons are created?" Bonne nced at her with a smile.
"A little. A certain person makes a contract with the system and a piece of their world is ripped out to be a dungeon." Shiro replied since that¡¯s what happened to Fei Ling when she created the Shadow Temple dungeon.
"Correct. But what do you think happens to a dungeon that is neglected and bes weak to invasive species from other dungeons?" Bonne asked as he pointed towards the surface.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro stayed silent since she didn¡¯t know how to even describe this dungeon. There was no goal, no path, and no boss in sight. All she could see are immortal beasts that copy her abilities. The moment she goes up to the surface, she¡¯ll have the instinct to empower them more.
"This dungeon used to be normal but it was spawned in a rather annoying location. The entrance was deep underground and there was no pathway to reach this ce. With centuries of neglect, the system started to rx its monitoring of this dungeon and allowed the beasts that you see on the surface to arrive. They¡¯re like a virus of the system hence why your system didn¡¯t notify you of the negative effects. Once they entered, I suppose you can say that they rewrote the dungeon. A new path was created and the people that entered would fight this beast.
"At first, their numbers were quite small and they only had decent healing. Until there was a person with the skill doppelganger. Copying this skill, the beasts started to multiply and the original beasts that appeared evolved to be high ends which contain the most number of skills that they¡¯ve copied. The beasts are a lot weakerpared to the high ends since they can only retain what they¡¯ve copied for a short period of time. The problemes when they give the high ends this information. While they can retain the copied ability for a longer period of time, this ability bes permanent once they kill the target." Bonne exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Of course, once a beast kills the owner of the skill, they retain the skill and slowly evolve to be high ends themselves. There were several entrances to this dungeon so new prey woulde often. There was also the chance of being dragged in here if the dungeon mutated. With the increasing amount of casualties, the system sealed the entrance to this dungeon but not the gate since it wasn¡¯t impossible to clear this ce. It was just very difficult. The system isn¡¯t here to protect but rather, here to help so it wouldn¡¯t get rid of any chance to help you improve. Hence why this ce is still around." Bonne sighed.
"So that¡¯s why I could see the entrance but not interact with it." Shiro furrowed her brows.
"What about instances where the person thates in here manages to get out but loses their memory of what happens here?" Shiro asked.
"There have been a few cases of that. The most recent one was an elf. Theye close topleting this dungeon but they fail in the end. So I use my ability to send them out and erase their record of participating in this dungeon for an extended period of time so that the system doesn¡¯t forcefully drag them back in. All they¡¯ll remember is that they had to face off against almost invincible monsters that weren¡¯t harmed by their attacks at all."
"Hmm??? that exins it then." Shiro sighed and put her sword away.
"So is there a way to kill these things or are we just stuck?" Shiro asked as she pulled out two bottles of juice and offered one to him.
"Thanks. And yes, there is a way to kill them. As long as you use magic that is tier 6 or above, they¡¯ll die."
"But then the problem is the fact that they copy this." Shiro frowned as Bonne nodded his head.
"Yup. The key is their eyes. They copy what they can see. If you were to target a lone beast and kill it before it can see what you have done, the information will not be transmitted to the others. You were surrounded on all sides so no matter what you tried to do, even if you missed, the information would be transmitted. As for how they adapt to what you show them, it varies. For example, I saw you use ice on them, they¡¯ll adapt and have ayer which ispletely immune to ice. If you use earth, they¡¯ll have a powerful defensiveyer that can rebound physical attacks." Bonne exined.
"Then my sword which was enhanced with tier 5 lightning element would be ineffective to them." Shiro frowned.
"Mn, your lightning increased their overall speed hence why the high end was able to close the gap so quickly. However, it was also thanks to your demonstration that I could save you. If they had seen me cast my spell, they would have been able to move in the frozen time." Bonne sighed in relief since it had happened before.
{So Error and Nanotech is effective but if they copied it, it would be bad news.} Nimue said as the rest of her elements were all tier 5.
¡¯Indeed. If they copied Error, it could mean that they can harm my source code since you saw how they copied Silvanis and incorporated it into their arm.¡¯ Shiro replied.
"What¡¯s the clear condition and what¡¯s the reward? What would happen to the beasts if we clear the dungeon?" Shiro asked since that was her main goal here.
"Since the dungeon has been re-written by the beasts, the clear conditions have naturally changed. I don¡¯t know the reward but I do know the boss of this dungeon. He¡¯s the first beast that came here and is naturally, the strongest of them all, he has the most skills copied from the people that havee here and his passives are crazier than the rest. The worst part is that he has multiple eyes around his body so it¡¯s hard to hit him without being copied." Bonne shook his head as Shiro leaned back and furrowed her brows.
Clearing this dungeon was going to be a pain. Whether or not it¡¯s possible for her, she was going to see if she could assassinate a few beasts without being copied first.
Chapter 880 Information About The Beasts
Chapter 880 Information About The Beasts
"Alright, I¡¯m going to go try kill one or two of them to see how durable they are. But before that, I want you to answer my questions." Shiro said as Bonne nodded his head with a smile.
"Sure, I¡¯ll tell you everything you want to know. Well... I¡¯ll try."
"Mn, first of all, how long do they retain the copied abilities? I know you said that high ends retain it for a longer period of time while the normal beasts have it for a shorter period. I want to know the exact time." Shiro asked.
"Hmm... Common beasts retain it for around 10 to 24 hours depending on how close they are to bing high ends. But 9 times out of 10 it¡¯ll be around 10 hours. For high ends, it alwayssts for 2 days. No more no less." Bonne replied.
"I see... So that means the high end will keep the ice immunity, nanobots and Silvanis copy for two days while themon ones will keep it for around half a day give or take." Shiro muttered.
"When you talk about them copying my skills, if I was to cover them in a magical darkness where light doesn¡¯t shine, does that mean they cannot copy my skills?" Shiro asked as Bonne thought about it for a moment.
"I¡¯m not sure since there hasn¡¯t been a case of someone using magical darkness yet. However, in the night, even if you¡¯re in the shadow, they can still copy your skills if they¡¯re looking towards your general direction."
"That makes things annoying. I suppose we can guess that they have night vision. If we want to cast something, it has to be out of sight." Shiro frowned.
"What about range? How far do I need to be for them to not be able to copy my skills?"
"I don¡¯t know sorry, we haven¡¯t been able to test that out since our main priority was to get away and stay safe whenever they spot us." Bonne apologised sheepishly as he wasn¡¯t able to provide as much information as he had hoped.
"That¡¯s fine. We¡¯ll just have to spend a bit of time testing things out then. Since there is a difference in time from here to the outside world, I can spare a few months if needed." Shiro shrugged before browsing through her list of skills to see which one would be helpful.
Hovering over her Force of Nature skill, Shiro had another question in mind.
"Say, you said that they can copy my skills if they saw me cast it right?" Shiro asked as Bonne nodded his head.
"What about if the spell circle and skill is separate from my body? I have a skill which drops down a giant sword from the sky but neither the magic circle or the swordes from me. Would they still be able to copy that?" Shiro asked.
"Erm.... I don¡¯t think so. The only confirmed thing is that they will copy your skill 100% of the time if they see you cast it yourself. So I think if they don¡¯t see you when the sword is summoned, it¡¯s fine." Bonne replied.
"I see... what about if a doppelganger performs the actions of casting a skill correctly but not cast it while I do it in the background?"
"I think they will be able to copy that since they would have obtained enough information. With the doppelganger performing the motions required and the spell taking effect, it would be no different from seeing you directly."
"What about the wrong motions then? What if the doppelganger performs the incorrect motions to the spell and the spell activates?" Shiro asked with narrowed eyes since she has a bone to pick with the beasts. Since she understood that she¡¯ll be ovee with the status effect the moment she reaches the surface, as long as she keeps certain principles in mind it wouldn¡¯t matter.
When you attack, stay out of sight and so on. If she kept those in mind, even if she had a desire to use all of her strongest attacks, they won¡¯t be able to copy her.
"I¡¯m not sure but I think it might be a simr case to the giant sword dropping down scenario that you mentioned. Since they didn¡¯t gather enough information, I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll be able to copy it. Especially since you fed them the incorrect information." Bonne replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, that¡¯s good then. Another question, if tier 6 abilities work, would divine energy work?" Shiro asked.
"Divine energy? What¡¯s that?"
"It¡¯s basically the god¡¯s version of mana. It¡¯s more powerful than mana and it can only be essed if you have divinity in you. I suppose to boil it down it¡¯s tier 7 but the key point here is that it cannot be used unless you have a bit of divinity in you or if you¡¯re closely linked to a god that¡¯s granted you these benefits. Can the beasts copy something that is meant to be limited to gods and demi gods?" Shiro asked as Bonne furrowed his brows.
So far, he knew that tier 6 can hurt them and that they can copy tier 6 but there hasn¡¯t been anyone capable of using tier 7 spells in this dungeon so the oue was unknown.
However, with the limitations of this ability, there was a chance that they couldn¡¯t copy it.
"I don¡¯t know but if they see you cast a berserk skill, they still take some of the bacsh. However, for them, the bacsh is reduced and their regeneration on top of their innate physiques allow them to recover from it in a very short amount of time."
"So that means the limitation to skills still exist." Shiro nodded her head as that was quite helpful for her.
There wasn¡¯t really a limitation to using Error so she had to be careful since there was the chance that she could put her source code in danger.
Even if she had several self heals, revivals and so on, if her source code is destroyed her skills will be useless.
For example, she knows that her Extraction skill had damaged Aekari and the wound still lingers since it was his source code that got injured and not his actual body.
"What are the odds for the copied ability to be an offensive type rather than defensive?" Shiro asked.
"Pardon?"
"Basically, you saw how they copied my ice by having ayer that is immune right?" Shiro said as Bonne nodded his head.
"That¡¯s what I call defensive since they don¡¯t have the power to use ice but rather, they¡¯re now immune to it. With no offensive properties, the copied ability is the defensive type. However, on the other hand, when they copied my nanobots, it was pure offensive. But both of the things that they copied could be used for both defence and offence so I want to know the odds." Shiro asked.
"Hmm... I think it depends on how you use the spell on them. For the two things that you talked about, you used it to harm them without using it as defence for yourself. For the ice, you tried to freeze them in ce, if they were to copy and be immune to it, you won¡¯t be able to freeze them nor attack them with ice. They won¡¯t be hindered when trying to reach you." Bonne exined.
"Alright, that¡¯s roughly all the questions I want to ask. I¡¯ll test out the range a little as well as the magical darkness so see how they react to that. If they copy it, I¡¯ll hide for a day or two before starting again. Do you happen to know a ce where there aren¡¯t many beasts?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Mn I do. Here¡¯s a map that I¡¯ve made. It¡¯s not that good but it¡¯s the best I could do without being caught and killed by them." Bonne said while pulling out a piece of cloth with blood being used as the ink.
"I didn¡¯t have anything to write with so blood was the best that I could do." He exined.
"It¡¯s fine." Looking at the map, Shiro memorised it entirely and saw that he had circled the areas that are filled with high ends.
¡¯Seems like I have to go with an assassination approach during this dungeon. Chen Yu would have been good for this.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{You don¡¯t even know if they can see through stealth yet. If they could, everything that Chen Yu does would be useless.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯True. Though I must admit, now that I know some of their little quirks, I¡¯m looking forward to a revenge match. I need to pay them back for stabbing me in the throat after all.¡¯ Shiro cracked her knuckles as Attie hugged her.
{Good luck mommy.} He encouraged as Shiro hugged him back.
Asking Bonne to send her to where there are a few beasts on their own, Shiro constructed a sniper and looked for a good spot to snipe them from.
Chapter 881 Hunting
Chapter 881 Hunting
Standing on a sand hill, Shiro rested the sniper on her shoulders while looking into the distance.
Narrowing her eyes, she could see severalmon beasts wandering around with Nanobots pulsing on their back. Fragments of what seemed to be Silvanis acted as the spine and could be utilised at any moment.
"There aren¡¯t many wanders but there should be enough to experiment for now." Shiro muttered while looking around her.
Now that she knew there was a passive acting on her mind, as long as she focused on experimenting, she could ignore most of the effects.
¡¯Benefits of strong willpower huh?¡¯ She thought with a smirk beforeying down and aiming the sniper towards the beast.
*Fu.....
Breathing out softly, Shiro heightened her senses as much as she could. The moment she feels something looking at her, she has to stop her attack since the gun would be copied. There were lots of experiments for her to do so she wanted to go through them one by one. She also needs to test out their durability first since only tier 6 harms them.
Even with her Nanobots being at tier 6, they only chipped the armour slightly while the shotgun caused arge wound but was regenerated with minimal effort. She needed something to halt their healing factor. It also needed to be powerful enough so that it¡¯s a lethal shot.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro looked through the scope and focused on the beast¡¯s movement.
She wanted to wait for the moment where the bullet would be able to pierce through him entirely. Whether that was from the rear or from the head didn¡¯t matter.
In other words, the beast controlled his own fate. Depending on which way he moved, his fate could either bemon or shameful.
Resting her finger on the trigger, Shiro patiently waited.
Last time, the bullets that she used weremon.
However, this time, she has a little surprise for them since this was her payback.
Upon piercing the target, the bullet would leave a wire of nanobots which unfolds into hundreds of thin razors that would size the beast apart into thin slices. While there wasn¡¯t anything to hinder their healing factor, not even Shiro could survive if she died before knowing what happened.
After all, the healing wasn¡¯t passive, she needed to activate them consciously.
Funnelling divine energy into her weapon, golden lights lit up around the seams of the gun while runes slowly manifested on the barrel.
Tens of tier 6 magic circlespressed themselves in the chamber as the bullet was supercharged.
She had made sure to suppress the energy that was being emitted from her so that the beast couldn¡¯t sense her presence.
There was a dampening device next to her to assist just in case but with Shiro¡¯s control of her own energy, it wasn¡¯t necessary.
Sitting down for a moment, the beast looked around before scratching its ears. Stretching its body, it walked away from Shiro¡¯s location and prepared to make its way back to where the rest of the beasts were.
{How unfortunate.} Nimue sighed as the beast decided to turn around.
Pulling the trigger without hesitation, all of the tier 6 magic circles activated at once as there was even a silencing rune to stop the sound of the gunshot.
Watching the bullet elerate instantly and leave behind a golden trail, Shiro smiled since the beast didn¡¯t notice anything.
Then the bullet struck, entering the beast¡¯s body from its backside.
Piercing through and leaving behind nanotech wires, the beast widened its eyes and wanted to cry out when a windmill of des exploded out from its body, shredding it to pieces.
Looking at the chunks of meat which were left behind wither away, Shiro put her sniper away and hit in a spot prepared by Bonne beforehand.
Watching the beast quickly arrive at the scene, Shiro smirked since her shot killed it before it could regenerate itself.
Seeing the beasts make their way towards her direction, she understood that they must have guessed where the shot hade from and quickly retreated from her spot with the help of Bonne.
Returning to the underground base, Shiro smiled.
"That was pretty informative." She chuckled since killing the beasts was rather easy as long as she was prepared. Unfortunately, since the shot took Divine Energy, she could only use it roughly 8 times per day before she ran out of divine energypletely.
Noting down a few things in her mind, Shiro created another sniper prototype. She wanted to see what is the bare minimum for killing these beasts since using Divine Energy to kill them all would be quite troublesome considering the fact that there are hundreds maybe even thousands of beasts here. Killing only 8 per day would hinder her progression. Plus, with their doppelganger skill, it would be difficult topletely get rid of them.
If she could kill them without the use of Divine Energy, summoning an army of guns on the surface to eradicate them wouldn¡¯t be too problematic.
She just needed the right blueprint.
While she was tinkering with her sniper prototype, Bonne was sitting by the side, speechless.
Even when he told the weakness to the other adventurers that arrived, it still took them a while before they could hunt down their first beast. Even the powerful elf that used swords had to wait around two days before she could kill them without being copied.
Seeing Shiro tinker away with such joy in her eyes, Bonne couldn¡¯t help but wonder who she was to be able to enjoy the situation.
¡¯Don¡¯t get your hopes up Bonne, she¡¯ll fail like the rest. Just prepare the spells to send her out when things fail.¡¯ Bonne sighed as he shook his head and crawled into his sleeping bag while Shiro tinkered away.
For the next few days, Shiro continued to test out their weaknesses with new weaponry that became more efficient as time passed.
Today was the first day that she was going to test out her weapon against a small group of beasts.
Due to her hunting, none of the beasts were going solo anymore and the activity of the high ends were much higher than before. It took her a while to find a suitable group.
With five beasts in this group, it would be hard to not be copied if she were to fight them personally but unfortunately for them, Shiro could remotely control her snipers.
Sitting in the underground base, Shiro had a tablet in her hand which showed her the location of her sniper and the beasts.
There was even a grid which represented the wires that she had spread out in the area. These wires were used as a medium to create new weapons on demand. For example, if the beasts start running away, she¡¯ll just create some turrets there and herd them towards the centre.
Making sure the three snipers that she had created were properly hidden so that they don¡¯t know they¡¯re being hunted, Shiro waited for a good opportunity to wipe them out quickly so that the information sent to the others would be minimal.
All they¡¯ll know is that something hit them and they died.
Shiro wanted to make five snipers but doing so would have revealed the weapon to the beasts in the distance.
Firing the snipers the moment a gap was exposed, Shiro watched as four beasts died immediately since one of them dragged an extra one.
With only one beast left, Shiro quickly fired the snipers again to eliminate it.
However, just as she did this, one of the snipers were destroyed by a high end that rushed to the spot the moment a beast died.
Looking at the broken sniper in its hands and the five dead beasts, the high end clicked his tongue and threw the weapon down with anger.
It had wanted to kill whoever was firing the guns but it found no one was there when it fired. Understanding that whoever was hunting them had a clear grasp on their weakness, the high end narrowed his eyes before leaving the area.
"Fu... I didn¡¯t expect the high end to react so quickly but seems like we¡¯ll be able to hunt them in groups now. I wonder if I can just carpet bomb them all." Shiro muttered with a grin.
"Carpet bomb?" Bonne tilted his head in confusion as it was a term that he wasn¡¯t familiar with.
"Mn, just think of it as me killing everything in an instant. Actually, speaking of killing everything, I have a great idea~" Shiro giggled as she couldn¡¯t believe that she had neglected this blueprint all this time.
It was a simple weapon, highly effective but in a way, low levelled since the blueprint was never improved. The mana pulse bomb. Akin to what many would call a nuclear warhead before the system changed everything, this bomb was one of the most destructive early weapons that she had ess to. It was something that could harm the user as well since the explosion didn¡¯t care for friend or foe. If she was to enhance it with Divine Energy amongst many other skills, the oue might just blow this dungeon out of existence. However, to use such a powerful bomb, she needed to make sure they won¡¯t get caught up in it first.
Seeing Shiro¡¯s expression, Nimue watched her with dead fish eyes and went to sleep. She knew what wasing so she was reserving her strength.
Chapter 882 Experimental Bomb
Chapter 882 Experimental Bomb
The concept of this new bomb was simple. Pure destruction.
She didn¡¯t need to care about the stabilisers like she did with her weapons since those weapons need to be reused.
The bomb on the other hand was a one time use. As long as it reaches the intended goal, she didn¡¯t need to bother about anything else.
¡¯Let¡¯s see... to enhance the original blueprint with Divine Energy, the best way to go would be to amplify andpress everything with the runes. I don¡¯t need any safety factors or control. Just pure unrelenting destruction will suffice.¡¯ Shiro thought while holograms of the bomb appeared in front of her.
Adjusting the parts constantly, she was running simtions of the power by the side while estimating force it can generate. To her right was a list of skills and spells that could be added to this bomb along with the skills that she had recycled.
Since it was made from nanobots, she can easily add skills such as the fighter skill, Unrelenting Fury.
Unrelenting Fury was a skill that allowed the attacks to ignore armour while amplifying your attack. The problem with this skill is that it¡¯s simr to the berserker skill rage where you attack everything in sight.
For the bomb, this was fine.
Watching Shiro efficiently work away at her holograms with new parts appearing and disappearing, Bonne wanted to ask what she was doing but decided against it since he didn¡¯t want to distract her.
Time passed as Shiro would asionally make tiny prototypes and throw them in the rift to see the effects.
Most of the skills she added on worked well but there was one problem.
No matter how shepressed it, the shell of the bomb would always begin breaking immediately before the bomb was even finished constructing. Her speed of construction of the bomb couldn¡¯t keep up with the power held within so a lot of the force is wasted.
Scratching her hair, Shiro felt a little frustrated as she drank the final cup of juice she had in her inventory. Looking at the stacks of empty bottles, Shiro sighed heavily.
¡¯Che, I¡¯ll need to restock. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯ve already gone through the entire supply of juice.¡¯ Shiro thought while taking a small break from her prototypes. Since she hadn¡¯t been huntingtely, the beasts started to return to normal but none of them wanted to be solo anymore since she was still around.
Looking away from her work station, she could see that Bonne was packing his things up and preparing to head out.
"Where are you going?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I¡¯m going out for food. The stock is running out so I¡¯m going back to the farm to see what I can get." Bonne smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"The beasts are more on edge now so be careful. Since you have your time stop ability, you should be fine but don¡¯t let your guard down ok?" Shiro smiled.
"Mn." Activating his portal, he left the underground base as Shiro used her nanobots to expand a little and make herself a shower.
She¡¯s been working away for quite a bit so she wanted to refresh herself while thinking about what she could do about the problem of keeping the energy without losing it.
All of the methods and blueprints she had in her database were ineffective since the power was simply too much.
She needed a different approach of sorts.
Standing in the shower with her eyes closed, Shiro wondered about what she could do when she heard Nimue yawn and wake up from her nap.
¡¯I would say morning but it¡¯s midday now. So afternoon I guess?¡¯ Shiro greeted with a chuckle.
{Mn, how goes your bomb?} Nimue asked as she was now mentally prepared.
¡¯It¡¯s going a bit slow since there¡¯s simply too much power. The shell can¡¯t hold it and it blows up too early, wasting a lot of energy.¡¯ Shiro shook her head.
{Hmm... do you have any ideas on how you can approach this?} Nimue asked as Shiro shrugged.
¡¯I¡¯m thinking about it. I¡¯m just taking a break right now.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Erm... have you tried leaving it withoutpression and make sure the shell is fine beforepressing it?} Estre suggested as Shiro thought about it.
¡¯I guess. But the problem with that is the shell would be absolutely massive....¡¯ Shiro thought as her sentences slowed down since she came to a realisation and face palmed.
¡¯Why did I not think of this.¡¯ She thought before looking at Estre.
¡¯You¡¯re good at using space no?¡¯
{Yes that is my main element.} Estre nodded her head.
¡¯What if we construct the bomb in your pocket dimension without caring about thepression, then with the help of my Divine Energy as well as a few spells, wepress the pocket dimension itself rather than the bomb since the dimension is stronger than any shell I can make. Once thepression reaches a good level, we open a tiny portal above the dungeon and bang! The sudden appearance of an opening would cause all other explosive energy to rush out towards the dungeon and rip the portal open in an instant.¡¯ Shiro grinned as Estre furrowed her brows.
{I¡¯m not sure I¡¯ll be able to contain the power though.}
¡¯Don¡¯t worry about that, that¡¯s what tests are for! Comee, let me help you with this one I get changed.¡¯ Shiro said as there was an excited shine in her eyes that all four spirits in the mana realm were familiar with. It was the light that would appear whenever she had a breakthrough in ways she can abuse her power.
{Mommy is super happy today.} Attie said as Iziuel patted his head.
{Your mommy is always happy when she can cause the extinction of a race with a single attack. Hais...} Iziuel sighed as the things that gave Shiro joy were... problematic.
{Isn¡¯t that normal though? Why did you sigh?} Attie tilted his head since he didn¡¯t get why Iziuel would be upset by Shiro being happy with an attack.
{It¡¯s nothing. For your mommy, that is perfectly normal.} Iziuel replied.
Nodding his head, Attie continued to y around while Nimue was watching what happened with a neutral expression. She knew that the long term exposure to Shiro would cause a mental problem known as abnormal normality where one would think that crazy things were normal. To see that Attie had fallen to such a problem caused her great sadness and she must continue to sleep since she overestimated herself.
She wasn¡¯t mentally prepared just yet.
Meanwhile, after finishing her shower, Shiro quickly got changed and dried her hair before summoning Estre.
Constructing a brand newb that was much bigger than the base, Shiro dragged Estre inside and started to experiment with the new ideas. Shiro had her hopes up since the simtions that she ran in her mind were looking rather positive. If she could help Estrepress the pocket dimension, they could theoretically eradicate all life in the dungeon.
Plus, it would also help Estre reach a new understanding of her own element in order to reach tier 6.
###
Looking at his harvest, Bonne nodded in satisfaction since he was able to salvage much more than before since the beasts were more concerned with Shiro¡¯s sudden appearance more than anything.
Packing his bags full, he jumped into the portal and returned back to the underground base. Upon arrival, he was surprised to see a brand new door appear. Opening the door revealed a whiteb that had shattered walls.
Shiro and a strange woman panting for her breath was standing in the middle as she had sweat dripping from her face.
"Bonne you came at a good time." Shiro grinned as their experiments have been a great sess.
"What happened and who¡¯s this?" Bonne asked, wondering if it was a new participant to the dungeon.
"It¡¯s a friend of mine that I summoned. She¡¯s helped me make something that can kill all of the beasts on the surface." Shiro grinned.
"Eh? That¡¯s possible?" He asked curiously.
"Yup. I¡¯m going to rest for a bit first and we¡¯ll head out first thing in the morning." Shiro smiled and sent Estre back to the mana realm.
Sensing Estre¡¯s return, Nimue rubbed her eyes.
{How was it?} She asked, curious about the results.
{1 meter cube. All it took was 1 meter cube of the pocket dimension to destroy theb with reinforced walls and spells to dampen the effects. If I was to use my entire pocket dimension, what would the oue be?} Estre muttered before going back to her ind and closing her eyes.
Hearing what Estre muttered, Nimue only had one reaction.
{The f*ck did I miss?}
Chapter 883 Unstable Void Bomb
Chapter 883 Unstable Void Bomb
Sitting on a crystal white throne in the middle of the desert was the boss that Bonne had mentioned.
With hundreds of eyes around his body, it was almost impossible to hide from his sight should you face him personally.
Every move would be copied and the only thing you can do is retreat.
Right now, he was listening to the reports by the various high ends which spoke about earthquakes, the mysterious woman hunting them in packs and how she can control weapons remotely.
Hearing all of this, he narrowed his main pair of eyes and cracked open its mouth.
"Survey the area equally. Have all the high ends keep an eye on the entire dungeon." He spoke slowly as the high ends nodded before leaving.
Once the high ends left, the boss rxed on his seat when he felt someone nearby and instantly stood up.
His eyes swirled around to find the intruder as Shiro could be spotted sitting above the throne.
"Yo, I had Bonne teleport me here to see what you look like for myself but I must say, you are one ugly mother*cker." Shiro grinned.
The boss had a wolf like head that seemed as though it was a sculpture, there was no fur or flesh, only a material that resembled marble. His maw was twisted open in the middle and had bones sticking out of the sides. A long protruding spine could be seen travelling all the way out his back as each of the sections looked as though they weren¡¯t connected.
His arms were muscr and abnormally long. His ws and hand were colouredpletely ck and faded to the marble white that covered his face around the elbow area.
A fleshless ribcage with ¡¯skin¡¯ tightly stretched across the top and a pair of hind legs which was covered with a bone armour that protruded out of his thighs. A long bony tail that was in a simr state to his spine where none of the sections seemed to be connected.
On top of all of this, hundreds of eyes littered his body while tiny spikes like teeth surrounded them. Every time an eye blinked, the teeth would sp shut.
"You¡¯re the one that¡¯s been hunting us." The boss spoke slowly as a bone whip suddenly extended out of his spine and whipped towards her.
Phasing through her body, Shiro only smirked.
"That¡¯s quite a rude greeting isn¡¯t it? Though considering what I¡¯m about to do to you, I suppose it¡¯s warranted." Shiroughed.
Narrowing his main pair of eyes, the boss was confused when he couldn¡¯t copy her invulnerability.
"You must be confused right? I bet you are. Want me to tell you?" Shiro rested her chin on her palm with a sadistic smile in her eyes.
"If you beg, I might just tell you~" She snickered as the boss only frowned.
"Che, no fun. Say, this is thest time you can speak so you might as well interact with me a little. If not, I¡¯ll have to kill you without you being able to do anything you know?" Shiro smiled.
"You cannot kill me for I am immortal. I require no food and everything you do to harm me will be copied. I am undefeated." The boss replied as Shiro onlyughed.
"That¡¯s because you haven¡¯t met me." She grinned.
"You know, I didn¡¯t think you were this stupid. Immortal? Pft, if the system didn¡¯t want you, you¡¯ll be deleted in an instant. You require no food? Bullshit. You¡¯re absorbing mana right now, without mana, you¡¯ll starve. Everything I do to harm you will be copied? Only if you get enough information. You¡¯re undefeated? Prepare to be defeated by yours truly then." Shiroughed as she stood up. She wanted to have a small talk and maybe get some information before killing them all but since he was like this, she could guess that he wasn¡¯t about to tell her anything important.
"You should probably think about the things you like about life since death arrives in an instant." Shiro nced back with a smirk as her red eyes seemed to glow menacingly.
Disappearing from her spot, the boss was now left alone to contemte over what she had said.
###
Returning to the base, Shiro nced at Estre.
"Ready?" She smiled as Estre nodded her head.
"Bonne, you stay down here. I¡¯ll give you something to watch the situation on the surface if you want but remember, enter the bunker that I made ok?" Shiro reminded as Bonne nodded his head.
"Mn be careful. If they copy you they might be immune to the attack." He cautioned.
Nodding her head, Shiro grabbed Estre and teleported as high as they could. The dungeon would naturally have a limit to how high they can go so they continued until they saw the barrier blocking everything.
"Good. Let¡¯s get started then." Shiro grinned as Estre nodded her head.
Closing her eyes, two tier 5 magic circles appeared around her as a portal to the pocket dimension was opened.
Making the space inside muchrger than the one in the experiments, Estre couldn¡¯t help but worry about the destructive oue.
¡¯Surely this wouldn¡¯t break the dungeon right?¡¯ She asked herself. With this being a level 500 dungeon, the barrier should be much stronger. The chances of the barrier breaking was slim.
However, seeing the amount of power that Shiro was gathering, she couldn¡¯t help but worry.
Funnelling her mana into the dimension, Shiro started the construction of the bomb using the dimension as the shell.
Divine Energy radiated from her body as it empowered the bomb.
Etching the runes into the walls of dimension, Shiro dedicated half of her attention to finalising the bomb while the other half was responsible for the spell circles.
While both Shiro and Estre were focusing on making the bomb, Nimue was watching with a confused expression.
{While you were sleeping, the two were experimenting with different ways of making the void bomb work. And the result was quite destructive as you can guess. Not only that, since it¡¯s using Divine Energy, it¡¯s more potent than what can be aplished with mana.} Iziuel said as she walked over to Nimue.
{I know that but wouldn¡¯t it just be like her rail cannons. What¡¯s with all of this preparation?} Nimue asked as Iziuel shook her head.
{That¡¯s because Shiro got a notification from the system.}
{Oh no...} Nimue muttered since whenever Shiro gets a notification for this kind of thing, it was always crazy.
Nodding her head, Iziuel wrote down the notification that Shiro received.
[You have created the blueprint for an unstable void bomb. If a bigger prototype is created and the results meet the requirement, the system shall reward you for your aplishment.]
Looking at the message that the system sent to Shiro, Nimue widened her eyes since this means that the system was evaluating the bomb that Shiro was about to create. Naturally, for the system to evaluate it means that it hasn¡¯t been done before.
{Seems like they¡¯ve finished. All they need is topress now.} Iziuel muttered.
mming her hands together, a golden tier 6 magic circle appeared and the energy within the pocket dimension started topress.
Funnelling some divine energy into Estre, Shiro watched as shepressed the pocket dimension. Her tier 5 magic circle started to flicker more as the signs of a tier 6 spell started to solidify.
The initial size of the pocket dimension was roughly a 200 meter cube. Compressing everything down was difficult even for Shiro since they gave up on safety for raw power.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro decided to activate her demi god form. Since they were camouging themselves in the sky, the sudden burst of energy from her body was concealed as she immediately focused her mind on helping Estrepress the realm.
Her tier 6 magic circle shifted into tier 7 and the bomb itself started to shrink at a faster pace than before.
Seeing that Estre was still struggling a little, Shiro floated next to her and ced a hand on her shoulder.
"Just rx and control the divine energy in your body. It¡¯s more powerful than mana so you can be a bit more rough with it. Just think about squeezing this dimension into a tiny orb." Shiro said as Estre nodded her head.
With Divine Energy flowing through her body, the tier 5 magic circle shattered apart before reforming into a tier 6 magic circle.
Dark purple runes lit up on Estre¡¯s arms as her aura intensified.
Her face was in a trance as she swiped up with her finger. Copsing the pocket dimension, Shiro was confused since this would just ruin it but when the copse was halted just before disappearing, Estre smiled at Shiro.
"I did it. If I halt it during the copse, it¡¯ll be like a grenade. A single touch would offset the bnce and it¡¯ll detonate with all of the stored energy. The dimension wouldn¡¯t destroy everything inside of it but rather send it out all at once. Unlike the previous test where we open a hole manually, this one should explode without wasting anything at all" Estre panted by she had an excited look in her eyes.
Holding the orb of swirling purple energy the size of a golf ball using divine energy, Shiro smiled at Estre.
"You can go back and rest for now."
Sending Estre back to the mana realm, Shiro looked down at the desert dungeon and smiled.
Chapter 884 Saviour and Destroyer
Chapter 884 Saviour and Destroyer
639
Since this was the first bomb of its kind, Shiro was going to make sure that she used everything to make sure that this surpassed all expectations.
Raising her hand up, a swarm of nanobots appeared as they morphed into a rail cannon. Loading the bomb into the chamber, Shiro snapped her fingers and tens of tier 7 magic circles appeared on the barrel.
Each of the spells were eleration as well as amplification circles that was tightlypacted along the length of the barrel.
Cracking her neck, Shiro took a deep breath and aimed the cannon down.
Opening the portal to her bunker, Shiro smiled and set the cannon to fire the moment her presence disappeared.
Putting her hands together in a praying motion like when Japanese people said thanks for the food, Shiro smirked.
"Thanks for the EXP~"
Closing the portal, the cannon immediately started to hum as the mechanisms started to shift.
Mana immediately drained from the surroundings as the cannon fired the bomb.
Passing through the tens of tier 7 magic circles that were designed to amplify its power, a bright spot of light shot towards the ground as the surroundings seemed to be drained of its colours from the brightness of the light.
Looking towards the bomb in silence, the boss of the dungeon couldn¡¯t help but feel the clutch of death tightening around his throat.
Realising that this could be extremely dangerous, he wanted to seek shelter under ground.
Hundreds of ws erupted out from his body as he dug down but when the ws were rebounded by ayer of nanobots swarming below the sand, he could only watch in horror as his passage below ground denied.
With the bomb halting in the sky for a moment, the boss knew that it was going to explode as his body expanded in an instant, wrapping himself in a thickyer of darkness.
Erupting out without any sound, all the beasts could see was white as they were disintegrated in a single instance.
mming against the walls of the dungeon, the entire ce shook as cracks formed and the dome was broken apart.
In the real world, a single pir of light ruptured the ground apart as darkness immediately surged from all the corners of the world.
"F*CKING HELL! Why the hell did Shiro have to amplify it more!?!?! With the power of a demi god no less!!" Nyx shouted out in rage as immediately knew that something bad was going to happen if she didn¡¯t make a move.
mming her hands together, tens of tier 8 magic circles materialised against the pir of light to stop its expansion. The only reason she was allowed to even do this was that the system had given her the authority to interfere with the world due to how powerful the bomb that Shiro created was. If she was to let it go, the entire city of Miriel might have been wiped out without a trace of it left.
*PING!
Hearing the sound of ss shattering, Nyx could only watch in horror as fractures appeared on her tier 8 magic circles. Piercing the sky, the light overshadowed the brightness of the sun as Nyx was forced to exert herself even more. Her own divinity over night was being pushed back as the pir continued to release energy into its surroundings.
Clicking her tongue, she nced at the system and opened her mouth.
"Request to release Divine Form."
[Permission granted.]
Suddenly, a tier 9 magic circle appeared around her. She did not create this magic circle but it was responsible for the golden chains surrounding her body that were normally invisible to the eye.
Turning counter clockwise, the chains around her body started to unravel as darkness seeped out of Nyx¡¯s flesh, obscuring her body from sight.
Manifesting as a giant entity with a pair of glowing purple eyes and swirling darkness as her body, Nyx didn¡¯t say anything as she sliced down with her hand.
Suddenly, all light in the world seemed to disappear for a moment as the explosion was consumed by the darkness.
The moment the explosion stopped; the chains tightened around Nyx¡¯s body as she struggled for breath. Her form immediately shrunk as darkness was dispelled.
*COUGH!!!!
Coughing for air, Nyx copsed on one knee as the tier 9 magic circle disappeared and faded away along with the chains.
Panting for a moment to regain her breath, she calmed herself down and looked at the distortion in space that was quickly mending itself.
"Goodness, how much trouble are you even going to give me." She shook her head as her body was forcefully sent out of the material world. She wasn¡¯t allowed to be here at this time after all. It was only because it was an emergency that she was even allowed.
Meanwhile, Shiro was curious as to what¡¯s happening outside since she had created the bunker after upgrading her celestial path. Since her bomb used mana, the upgraded celestial path could take care of it and when enhanced with divine energy, make for a sturdy bunker that could help them survive this st.
Feeling the shaking, she knew that the explosion was still happening as her system rang with several notifications. But there were a few that took priority.
[Nyx is shocked and has asked for you to never use this bomb again. The system has allowed her ess to the material world in order to suppress the destruction caused.]
[Nyx states that if the system didn¡¯t do anything, Miriel and perhaps even the majority of the elven continent could have been wiped out. Not only was the bomb plenty strong already, but you also enhanced it with the power of god. With your divinity over nanobots and the skills that you have, you should be more conscious of your own power.]
[Nyx states that if you continue to test the limits of power that this world can hold for now, you will be forcefully transported to the realm of gods until the world is ready to hold the power of divinity. Should that happen, you will not be able to interfere with the new age early on without heavy cost.]
[Nyx warns you to be careful and that there might not be a second time.]
Reading the notifications, Shiro was silent.
She had been using her first life as a reference and was too excited when experimenting. She didn¡¯t think about the consequences about what could happen.
Just thinking about the fact that she could have killed Isilia and everyone else sent her into shock as she wondered if she should even continue to pursue greater strength.
[Nyx states that you shouldn¡¯t worry. If you are patient, the world will strengthen itself to support the power. It¡¯s because you used it too early that the dungeon barriers actually shattered. After all, a tier 5/6 dungeon naturally could not handle the power of tier 7.]
[Nyx states that there are gods that have more destructive powers than you, believe it or not, and that pursuing greater strength is not wrong. You just have to think more about the consequences the stronger you be since you are nearing the peak.]
[Nyx is contacting you through her avatar with permission from the system.]
Seeing thest notification, Shiro nced up and saw Nyx materialise in front of her looking exhausted.
"You really caused me quite a bit of trouble today." She said with a small smile.
"I¡¯m sorry." Shiro apologised immediately since she knew that this was her fault when not considering the limits of power that this dungeon could hold. Simr to the concept of the void bomb, the moment the explosion happened inside here and the barrier was shattered, a second ¡¯void bomb¡¯ would be activated in the outside world. If that happened, the consequences would be disastrous.
Looking at her face that was paler than usual, Nyx sighed and patted her head.
"It¡¯s fine. Just be careful next time ok? I should have told you this when we saw you developing the bomb so it is also our fault to some extent. Take the dungeons as a reference to what power the world can hold. Right now, the highest dungeon is level 500 which means that the world can ept tier 5/6. When the new age starts, tier 6 dungeons will appear and that means the world can handle tier 6 easily. There won¡¯t be any tier 7 dungeons or tier 8 but when gods and demi gods appear, that¡¯s a sign.
"It¡¯s when the gods and demi gods appear that you know this bomb is ok to be used got that?" Nyx exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you. For saving Miriel." Shiro replied.
Nodding her head, Nyx looked at her avatar and saw that it was already fading.
"How stingy, I just dealt with the bomb at the forced request of the system and now it¡¯s already sending me away. Just be careful ok Shiro? Also, I¡¯m surprised that a piece of the boss survived so you might want to deal with that." Nyx smiled as she disappeared.
Sitting there in silence, Shiro stood up and started to make her way out of the bunker without saying anything. She had to clean up the mess she left first.
Looking down at her hand, she came to a realisation.
She was both the potential saviour and the potential destroyer of this world.
Chapter 885 Level 500
Chapter 885 Level 500
Arriving at the surface, Shiro looked around with a sigh.
The desert had beenpletely destroyed and the surface was now charred ck with some reflections of what seemed to be ss.
Walking through the charredndscape, Shiro couldn¡¯t see any beasts walking around anymore. There was just a single lump of flesh that writhed in the distance as Shiro knew who it belonged to.
¡¯Even Nyx was called out to contain the st and yet this b*stard actually survived all of that.¡¯ Shiro thought with a little less enthusiasm as she had at the start.
Walking closer to the lump, she could see that it was trying its best to regenerate but the damage it sustained was simply too much.
While it did survive, it was no different from being dead.
"What... did... you... do?" He asked slowly as his body shook seeing Shiro approached with such a calm face despite causing the mass destruction of his kind.
"Who knows?" Shiro shrugged while looking at the boss who lost his previously powerful aura. His eyes were melted and only a single eyeball was barely functioning.
Tilting her head back, she could see the shattered ceiling of the dungeon mending itself slowly.
Shaking her head, she looked at the boss.
"Honestly, I¡¯m in a bit of a bad mood right now so I¡¯ll end it quickly. I would normally y with you a bit so that you have a good fight before you die but I¡¯m currently reflecting on my actions. Would you mind just sticking your neck out a bit so that I can kill you in one go?" Shiro asked as she summoned Silvanis.
Looking at her eyes that looked at him as though he was nothing but an ant, the boss gritted his teeth.
He was an apex predator. One that had copied and killed thousands of adventurers that had approached. His kind was so powerful that nothing below tier 6 could harm them.
And yet, a single woman was now asking him to stick his neck out and die for her?
"Unbelievable..." He muttered in anger as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know, I get your feelings. I just realised that I can never go all out to my heart¡¯s content since if I do, I¡¯ll destroy the world that has everything I hold dear in it." Shiro sighed.
Taking a single step forward, her hair fluttered for a moment as she instantly disappeared.
Widening his eyes, the boss couldn¡¯t move at all as a web of shes ripped his body apart. Looking at the dark cold glow of her eyes that didn¡¯t hold any murderous intent, the boss felt insulted.
¡¯She didn¡¯t even want to kill me? Where¡¯s your murderous intent? Am I nothing in your eyes?¡¯ It howled out in his mind with anger.
Tendrils of flesh shot out of his wounds and forcefully stitched himself back together as his aura exploded forth.
Whipping towards her with a bone whip, the space around Shiro was halted as she noticed that her body couldn¡¯t move.
"Stop struggling would you? I¡¯m seriously not in the mood." Shiro sighed.
*BANG!!!!
Shattering his whip apart, nanobots swarmed around her like a serpent.
Suddenly, thousands of des formed around the boss and pierced his body like it was nothing.
Cracking open a grin, the boss was overjoyed since this meant that it could copy everything.
But the moment it did, blood erupted out of his body as he widened his eyes with shock.
"Fool. The nanobots you copied are berserk ones that are barely working thanks to divine energy. For someone without that, it¡¯s asking for death. Your body will now be food for them." Shiro said without even ncing back.
"Why won¡¯t you take me seriously!? I am the strongest being, one that can transcend the system. I can copy and control! Fight me seriously!" The boss shouted out as his life force was being consumed at a rapid rate.
His body swelled as horrific appendages forced his skin apart as he became a mangled mass of flesh that pierced towards her while the nanobots ate away at him.
"Error dear, this thing is simr to you in some regard. I know you¡¯ve been eager so I¡¯m giving you permission. Do whatever you want." Shiro said as the boss no longer interested her. After all, after reaching level 500, killing things no longer mattered as much. All that you need is knowledge and the will.
[Shiro LVL 500 Divine Sylph Nanomancer]
Suddenly, ayer of darkness wrapped around the entirety of her right arm as blood red circuits travelled up to her shoulders before stopping. Previously, Shiro had to fight against Error for it not to corrupt her past the shoulder but there was no need to fight against it since Shiro could tell that Error bore no hostility against her.
Swiping out with her hand, the same darkness that wrapped around her arm expanded across the entire desert in an instant as divine energy was supplied to Error.
Looking at the floor which now resembled a giant circuit board, the boss had no intention to stop his attack.
However, he failed to notice the jaws that were right behind him.
*CRUNCH!
Listening to the sound of the boss¡¯s body being ripped apart, Shiro sighed.
"Error, don¡¯t eat with your mouth open."
Shaking her head, she walked away from the area as the darkness retracted back into her arm and the charred desert returned to normal.
Any signs of the boss being here previously had beenpletely erased as Shiro nced at the final notification that had appeared.
[The promised reward forpleting the void bomb shall now be granted. Demi God¡¯s Core is added to your inventory. Demi God¡¯s core can be used to assist tier 6 legends to reach tier 7 Demi God and attain their first divinity. As you are already a Demi God, this core will enhance your Divine Energy generation and your divinity. It will also assist you in reaching tier 6.]
ncing over the notification, she decided that she¡¯ll reach tier 6 once she has finished sorting everything out. Reaching tier 6 would take a while so leaving things undone would be neglectful of her.
Walking back towards the underground shelter, she could see Bonne sitting down at the ruinedndscape.
"You know, while this was the result that I expected to some degree, it¡¯s still a bitter pill to swallow." He said without looking back.
"The beasts were dangerous and letting them out would bring harm to the world. Even so, I still wanted to save what little is left of my world. But looking at thend now, I don¡¯t even think that¡¯s possible." He chuckled while looking at the dungeon floor.
"Regardless, thanks for killing the beasts that killed everyone." He nced back with a sad smile.
"You don¡¯t have to be stuck in this ce." Shiro said after a short pause.
"There is a whole world out there that you can explore. Well... it¡¯ll be dangerous but with your time stop ability it shouldn¡¯t be a problem for you." She continued as he thought about it.
"Maybe, are you perhaps asking me toe with you and help you out?" Bonne asked.
"Not quite. I¡¯m being honest when I say you can explore the world since I won¡¯t force you to do anything you don¡¯t want. If anything, I should say sorry to you. If I was in your situation and there were beasts who killed everyone, I still wouldn¡¯t want the world they used to reside in to be destroyed as coteral damage. If I had handled things better, thest remnants of your world wouldn¡¯t be charred like this." Shiro looked down at the ash and ss beneath her feet.
"It¡¯s fine I guess. Thank you for killing them though. I suppose I¡¯ll take you up on the offer of exploring the world. I¡¯ve survived with those beasts so the rest of the world shouldn¡¯t be that bad right? The system has already given me a new option seeing that the beasts are gone and the dungeon is destroyed. I¡¯ll see you around I guess." Bonne smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Watching him go through the portal, Shiro sighed.
¡¯If this was my vige where my parents in Aria lived, would I still use such a powerful weapon even if the monster was so powerful?¡¯ Shiro asked herself but the only answer she had in mind was yes.
Laughing at herself, Shiro shook her head.
¡¯Say Nimue, who do you think about this? If you had to sacrifice the world to destroy an enemy that could pose a real threat to the safety of everyone, would you? I think I would. But wouldn¡¯t that make me the same as the enemy that would destroy the world?¡¯ Shiro asked as Nimue shrugged.
{I dunno since I don¡¯t have that kind of power. But you¡¯re overthinking things. It¡¯s fine to keep going as you are and Nyx didn¡¯t me you either. Just think about the coteral a little more if you can and reduce the damage when possible. Plus, if you¡¯re that concerned, why don¡¯t you be the creation goddess. You are Shiro after all, it should be possible. Just give the question a ¡¯Shiro like answer¡¯ that only you can give.} Nimue grinned.
Chuckling softly, Shiro felt a little better after talking to Nimue.
¡¯I can certainly try. Nanobots are just the scientists¡¯ attempts at ying the biblical god after all.¡¯ Shiro shrugged with a smile.
Chapter 886 Two New Skills
Chapter 886 Two New Skills
Leaving the dungeon, Shiro immediately finished allocating her stats since she had now reached the pinnacle of tier 5, level 500.
Looking at her stats, she shook her head with a smile.
¡¯Man would you look at these numbers. Even the old me when I was tier 6 would be jealous, this is much higher than my past life.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit Demi God
Title: Expert Monster (13,029/100,000 Humans killed.), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind, Virtue of Fortitude, Young Demi God
Level: 500
ss: Divine Sylph Nanomancer (Ascendant EX)
HP: 15,750,000,000/ 15,750,000,000
MP: 64,750,000,000/ 64,750,000,000
STR: 100,000,000
VIT: 90,000,000
INT: 370,000,000
AGI: 111,000,000
DEX: 77,000,000
DEF: 98,000,000
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 5
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 5
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 5
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 5 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 5
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 5
Dark Celestial Phoenix Fire ¨C Tier 5
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 5
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 5
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 5
Nature ¨C Tier 5
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 6
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Divine Sylph Nanomancer:
Elemental Breath, Celestial Mirage, Force of Elements, Divine Raiment EX, Tier 5 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Divine Empress¡¯ Domain EX, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX, Advanced Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Divine Court Appointment, Empress¡¯ Blessing, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 5, Analysis, True Spirit Nature.
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx
World ss Magic:
Requiem of the Dead
Grand Support ss Magic:
Requiem of the Demi Goddess
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Divine Gardens, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr, Item Master, Limit Focus, Blessing of Chaos, Divine Presence ¨C Divinity of Nanobots, March of the Empress, Divine Insight of God.]
Upon reaching level 500, she had received two skills from her ss.
The first was March of the Empress.
[March of the Empress ¨C Passive]
When you go into battle with an army that is allied with you, they receive an increase to their stats so long as you fight with them.
This increase of stats is equal to 20% of your stats.
As the empress of the new world, you shall lead your army to victory.
This skill was outrageous should one think about the potential behind this. For weak soldiers, they be experts, and for experts, they be abnormals.
Even just simple mage would gain an increase of 74 million points of int thanks to the ridiculousness of her stats.
For someone like Aarim who was already getting an increase, her INT score might evene close to Shiro¡¯s with all of the benefits that stacked together.
While this skill was good, her focus was on the second skill.
[Divine Insight of God]
As a god, you are able to bestow your insights to your followers and grant them the knowledge that you have gathered. Whether that bebat knowledge or magical knowledge, so long as they have a highpatibility with you, you can grant them your insights that you have attained.
The amount of knowledge that can be transferred will increase as theirpatibility increases.
This can only be used once every three months and the number of people able to receive this insight is 10.
With this skill, she¡¯ll be able to help boost her party¡¯sbat standard to another level. While there are problems such as fighting style not being the same, the experience that can be transferred was invaluable.
Just having thebat sense would be a great boon for the party since they have only been acting as adventurers for a single year. Compared to her centuries of knowledge, it was nothing.
{You know, even though you were down in the dumps earlier, you¡¯re making a beeline towards breaking allmon sense huh?} Nimue said with a forced smile. The main difference between adventurers was the experience that they had gathered. Even if they had powerful skills, someone with experience would turn the tides of battle.
And yet, Shiro had just received a skill that can help her followers gain the same knowledge that she had. Of course, how much they can understand is up to them but just having this opportunity was crazy enough as it is.
¡¯Pft, you did tell me to be the creation goddess. I can¡¯t be cking now can I? This is just the beginning though Nimue. I have yet to properly obtain the power of creation so don¡¯t go losing your mind just yet.¡¯ Shiroughed as Nimue shook her head but her lips curved up into a smile.
She was d that Shiro was feeling much happier, seeing her down in the dumps was a rather strange sight after all.
¡¯Setting that aside, how is Estre?¡¯ Shiro asked as she was able to gain insight on the powers of tier 6 after theirst bomb.
{She¡¯s meditating in her pocket dimension right now. It¡¯s simr to what happened with Nan Tian so I think she¡¯s nning on breaking past the threshold for tier 6.} Nimue smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯That¡¯s good. If she reaches tier 6, we¡¯ll have three tier 6 power houses on our side not including me. The rest of the party are still around the 200¡¯s to 300¡¯s so it might take them a while. Nyx did mention that there are more level 500 dungeons different to this one so we should try getting them to challenge those when possible. If they can reach level 500 not too long after the new age arrives, I can pass them the insight of tier 6 to help them break past sooner.¡¯ Shiro nodded her head.
Looking back at the dungeon gate that was crumbling to pieces, Shiro looked up at the charred hole in the ceiling and couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful for Nyx.
Though thinking about Nyx, Shiro wondered about Gaia since she was being rather quiet. Shiro had thought that she would be sending messages right now.
[Nyx had requested the system to block the messages of Gaia as a side reward. However, Shiro can choose to read the [429] messages instead.]
¡¯PFT!¡¯ Widening her eyes in shock, Shiro didn¡¯t think Gaia would send 429 messages.
Peaking at just one, Shiro immediately shut it and blocked the rest.
mming the memory of reading that message into the deep recesses of her mind, Shiro jumped out of the underground cavern that held the dungeon.
On the surface, she could see Isilia running here with hundreds of guards along with the elders.
Pausing slightly at the sight of Shiro, Isilia tilted her head back and face palmed.
"Sorry everyone, it¡¯s a false rm. There¡¯s no attack, it¡¯s just Shiro." Isilia sighed as the guards looked at one another before nodding their heads.
Watching the soldiers leave, Isilia looked at Shiro.
"Care to talk about what just happened? The pressure sure felt like I was about to meet Hades." Isilia forced a smile.
"You sure, he¡¯s a pretty nice guy. He¡¯s also my teacher when ites to Divine Energy." Shiro chuckled as she quickly mended all the damage that she had done.
"I¡¯ll tell you over some juice. I ran out so I need to buy more." Shiro grinned.
Shaking her head, Isilia smiled.
"Seeing as though you are rather rxed, I can say that you¡¯ve probably finished the dungeon and reached level 500 huh?"
"Bingo. Nowe one, I haven¡¯t had juice in a while, I need my fill. Plus, you can also tell me what¡¯s been going on." Shiroughed.
Making their way to the castle, Isilia informed Shiro on everything that¡¯s been happening.
During the time that Shiro had been in the dungeon, Isilia¡¯s identity was revealed as the old queen along with the n to move everyone to Asharia. News of theing age was also revealed and many were epting of the move but few were dissatisfied since they were leaving behind their history and the world tree.
However, the move wasn¡¯t forced so those that want to stay could stay. It just meant that there was more space for the elves outside of Miriel.
"Oh right, your parents had also visited earlier. They wanted you to return to Asharia since there¡¯s an important announcement and everyone in the party needed to go. They¡¯ve got the rundown on what¡¯s happening so you should too." Isilia smiled as Shiro tilted her head.
"Something important?"
"Yeah, they were rather worried when they heard that you were in the dungeon. They weren¡¯t sure if you woulde out in time." Isilia replied as her smile faded.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro immediately opened a portal to Asharia.
"I¡¯lle with you." Isilia said as Shiro nodded her head.
Entering the portal, Shiro immediately sent her senses out and found everyone in the main tower.
But the moment she entered; she wasn¡¯t expecting their reaction.
"Happy birthday Shiro!"
Chapter 887 Birthday
Chapter 887 Birthday
"Ha?" Looking at everything with a puzzled expression, Shiro didn¡¯t know how to react.
"Ohe on darling, you can act a bit more surprised. It¡¯s your birthday after all." Mio smiled and hugged Shiro.
"Ah right... I forgot it¡¯s my birthday today." Shiro sighed as she had too many things on her mindtely.
Looking at all the party decorations and the food that set out, Shiro smiled softly.
Naturally, she ignored that Yin was already eating in the corner. Thankfully, Mio knew about Yin¡¯s eating habits so she prepared more than enough food for everyone.
"Now that the birthday granny is here, let¡¯s start eating." Aarim grinned as Shiro felt a vein burst.
"Who the hell is the birthday granny ah!?!"
"Fufufu~ No need to hide it. Isilia already told us." Aarim smirked at her with some wine in her hand.
Looking at Isilia who looked the away from her, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel betrayed.
Shaking her head, Shiroughed.
"Dammit. Fine, if we¡¯re eating I better get some alcohol." She narrowed her eyes as Aarim froze.
*COUGH!
"What birthday granny. I mean birthday girl. Yeah ahaha, let¡¯s get the juice." Aarim quickly retreated.
"It¡¯s quite lively isn¡¯t it?" Nan Tian chuckled as he handed her a ss of juice.
"Indeed. Honestly, Ipletely forgot about my birthday if not for this." Shiro shrugged while taking a sip of the juice.
"Oh my, this is quite nice." She muttered in mild surprise.
"It¡¯s juice made from one of the fruits found in the demon continent. The look of the fruit is not that appealing, but the juice is nice. Though I¡¯m surprised that someone with such a good memory like you actually forgot about this." Nan Tian smiled.
"Mn, I guess I just never focused on my birthday. I could have probably gone about my day without knowing that today was my birthday." Shiro shrugged.
"Well with the things that goes on, I¡¯m not surprised."
"True. I just reached level 500 too. I think I¡¯ll be trying to reach tier 6 once I sort out a few more things. Want to sit down with everyone else?" Shiro asked as they already sat down and prepared to eat.
"Sure."
Summoning Nimue, Iziuel and Attie, Shiro wanted them to enjoy the party as well. Unfortunately, Estre couldn¡¯t join since she was trying to break through to tier 6.
"Happy birthday Shiro." Lyrica called out as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, thank you. Next time we should celebrate your birthday when ites up."
"We might be too busy then with the new age and everything else." Lyrica shrugged.
"Nonsense. I¡¯m sure we can spare a day for your birthday." Shiro chuckled.
Walking with Lyrica to the main table, she sat down on the best seat since it was her birthday after all.
Looking at the people that had gathered today, Shiro smiled as she felt a warm feeling in her heart.
###
The partysted all the way until night as they returned to their rooms after eating the cake.
Looking at the presents that were left in the corner of her room, Shiro chuckled since the biggest one was given by her mum. Seeing its size, Shiro could guess that it was probably a giant plush.
As for the smallest gift, it came from Nan Tian. It was a silver bracelet that was adorned with a light blue gem.
However, this wasn¡¯t a normal bracelet. When activated with mana, it could instantly teleport your body to a ce that you¡¯ve been to before in an instant.
ording to Nan Tian, he worked on this bracelet with Stanley after Mio told him about her birthday.
Lyrica¡¯s gift was a pair of purple earrings that helped increase mana regeneration slightly but overall, they looked better than their function. For someone like Shiro, picking a gift would be rather hard considering the fact that there wasn¡¯t much she couldn¡¯t do.
{So how old are you now?} Nimue asked with a smirk.
¡¯How rude. Don¡¯t ask a girl for her age.¡¯ Shiro pouted.
{What? Is the 300+ year old girl shy about her age now?} Nimueughed.
¡¯Hush it.¡¯ Shiro rolled her eyes.
¡¯You know, back then, I never celebrated my birthday after bing the Nanomancer. But now, I¡¯m surrounded by my family and friends on a day that I didn¡¯t put much importance to. It feels nice.¡¯ Shiro smiled softly.
{Of course it does. You¡¯re surrounded by the people you cherish. It¡¯s a shame that Madison couldn¡¯t join us though. She¡¯s still in that crystal.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯True. But I¡¯m sure we can do the same thing again next year once shees out of her crystal.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
Looking at the ceiling of her room, Shiro closed her eyes and made sure that the memory of her first birthday as Shiro was secure.
In a single short year, she had met new friends and reunited with family. For her who had lived so long, a single year felt short but it felt much better than her time in Aria.
###
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro did some maintenance on Asharia to make sure that everything was working fine when a fewte arrivals surprised her.
"Sis!" Keomi shouted out as she burst into themand room.
"Keomi?" Shiro raised her eyebrow as Keiko was following behind her.
"Sorry we¡¯rete for your birthday. Hais, we ran into a bit of trouble on the way here so it took longer than expected." Keiko sighed as she massaged her neck.
"Oh that¡¯s fine, what trouble did you run into? With your level there shouldn¡¯t be much that you can¡¯t face no?" Shiro asked while patting Keomi¡¯s hair since she was hugging her right now.
"It was one of the queens. She wanted to recruit us, we declined then we ran." Keiko replied with a shrug like it was nothing.
"Pft! You actually escaped a queen¡¯s pursuit?" Shiro asked with surprise as Keiko grinned and gave her a thumbs up.
"Yup."
"Mn, Keiko kept creating clones and switching spots with them so the queen was going back and forth trying to get us. Since our focus was not on fighting, it was easy to focus on tricking the queen." Keomiughed.
"Hais, you two are ying with fire. But I¡¯m d that things worked out seeing that you¡¯re now level 500 and Keomi is level 330." Shiro smiled since thest time she saw Keomi she was still in the mid stages of tier 4.
"Mn, we were fighting quite a few demons after all. So what¡¯s up with this ce? Where did you even find such a huge city?" Keiko asked as the technology here was highly advanced.
"I made it. How else do you think I can control it at will." Shiro shrugged while joining at the holograms.
Hearing this, both Keiko and Keomi paused.
"Pardon? Do you have a fever sis?" Keomi asked as she checked Shiro¡¯s forehead.
"I don¡¯t. I¡¯m also level 500 now you know? Making something like this shouldn¡¯t be too crazy." Shiro pouted.
{Bullsh*t.} Nimue rolled her eyes since a structure like this was normally beyond what a tier 5 could aplish.
"I guess. Well considering the mess you caused in Tokyo when you were lower levelled, I¡¯m not surprised." Keiko scratched her head.
"Pft, you¡¯re not wrong. Also, Keomi, you should go see mum and dad. They haven¡¯t seen you in a while after all." Shiro smiled as Keomi nodded her head.
"Mn I will. After fighting for so long, I want to take a break. So tiring to punch skulls everyday." Keomi sighed.
"That¡¯s because you always go for the head and shout out headshot. Even when the head is hard to hit." Keiko rolled her eyes.
"Seems like you two had quite the adventure. I¡¯ll get some of the robots to prepare your rooms. Also, Keiko, I want you to meet me againter today." Shiro said as Keiko nodded her head.
"Sure, what do you need me for?"
"It¡¯s a surprise." Shiro chuckled since she wanted to give Keiko insights on reaching tier 6. Including Keiko, they could potentially have 4 tier 6 powerhouses. She wasn¡¯t sure if Lisandra could also be tier 6 so she didn¡¯t include her but if she could, they¡¯ll have a grand total of 6 powerhouses including Shiro.
With a fighting force like this, this early on, imingnd at the start off the new age should be a breeze. Of course, she couldn¡¯t forget the time it might take to reach tier 6 so it was uncertain.
ncing out of the window, she could see thousands of houses being created since Nan Tian was working hard on moving everyone to the city. So far, the sect had already finished moving and they were working on Miriel. Once that¡¯s done, they were going to go to Asakura.
Sending a message to the party, Shiro wanted everyone to meet up in one of the training rooms.
Once she finished using her new skill on them, she was going to challenge the threshold of tier 6 herself.
Chapter 888 Gaining Experience
Chapter 888 Gaining Experience
Changing into the outfit that Aarim gifted to her for her birthday, Shiro looked at herself in the mirror.
She had arge ck hoodie, a pair of shorts, ck tights and boots.
Looking at the sleeves that hid her hands, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but appreciate howfy it felt.
pping her hands around for a moment, she snickered at the sleeves which were too big for her size.
{Look at you acting like a kid. You enjoying the big sleeves?} Nimue smirked as Shiro rolled her eyes.
¡¯Hush it. If you had something simr I bet you¡¯ll do the same.¡¯ Shiro replied as Nimue shrugged.
{Who knows. Maybe I will, maybe I won¡¯t.}
Flexing her fingers, Shiro created the same outfit out of nanobots and handed it to Nimue.
¡¯Well there¡¯s no need to wonder about that.¡¯ Shiro smiled as Nimue was silent.
Looking at the outfit then back at Shiro, she sighed and took it.
{Give me a changing room at least.}
¡¯Of course.¡¯ Shiro grinned.
Snapping her finger, a changing room appeared next to her as Nimue entered.
Changing into the outfit, Nimue gave herself a little spin and pped her arms in a simr fashion to Shiro.
{Well shiet. You¡¯re not wrong.} Nimue remarked as Shiro smirked victoriously.
¡¯Told you. Anyways, have fun with the new outfit. I¡¯m going to meet up with the party. I can¡¯t bete after telling them to meet me now can I?¡¯
Leaving the mana realm, Shiro left her room and made her way to the meeting point that she had set with the party.
Even though she had wanted to arrive before everyone else, she could see that they had already gathered at the training hall an hour before the promised time.
"Hais, all of you came so early." Shiro shook her head with a smile.
"Pft, you¡¯re the one who¡¯sing here an hour ahead of time." Lyricaughed.
"True. I was nning on working out some final details while I waited but I suppose I¡¯ll have to think of it on the fly now. Don¡¯t me me if things go wrong ok?" Shiro shrugged.
Right now, in the training hall there were 10 people.
Yin, Lisandra, Lyrica, Aarim, Silvia, Chen Yu, Helion, Keiko, Keomi and Kanae.
She was going to be using her skill on these ten since the others were fine for now. Nan Tian is already tier 6 and so is Isilia. They both have richbat experiencespared to the people here so they weren¡¯t her priority for now.
"Right then, since everyone is here, let me tell you about what I want to do. You see, after reaching level 500, I have received a skill called Divine Insight of God. This skill allows me to share my insight with 10 people of my choosing once every 3 months. This can be eitherbat experience or knowledge. Since most of you arecking in thebat experience, I¡¯ll be sharing that with you. For people like Keiko and Lisandra, I¡¯ll be giving you insight on what is required to reach tier 6 as well as the ¡¯experience¡¯ of being tier 6 I suppose. Lisandra, I know your level is linked to mine but tier 6 is a huge threshold so I¡¯m not sure what would happen should I advance without you knowing anything. Therefore, you shall try to break through to tier 6 the same time I do." Shiro exined with a smile.
"Wait, you can share experiences?" Aarim asked in disbelief.
"Yup. It¡¯s called Divine Insight of God after all. Since I¡¯m a demi god, I can share my insight." Shiro smiled.
"Goodness, if this information was told to outsiders, I wonder what they would think. People that have tried hard over countless years would be surpassed because of a single skill." Aarim sighed.
"Well they¡¯ll die of jealousy if they knew my other skill." Shiro chuckled.
"Why?" Aarim asked as Shiro grinned.
"March of the Empress. This skill allows me to empower my army with 20% of my stats. Meaning, if we have an army of mages, they¡¯ll receive a bonus that¡¯s equal to 20% of my INT score. Even a level 20 would be able to be a powerhouse in their eyes since a bonus of 74 million points into INT is millions of times bigger than what they have." Shiro grinned as everyone in the training hall was speechless.
"Wait, the skill includes the other stats too right? That means it wouldn¡¯t be lopsided either. There won¡¯t be a case of having 10 million attack and only 50 points in VIT." Helion said as they understood that this skill was akin to a crazy berserk skill without any bacsh.
"Yup. If I use this skill right now, the army would get 20 million strength, 18 million vitality, 74 million Intelligence, roughly 22 million agility, around 15 million dexterity and finally, around 19 million points in defence." Shiro gave them a thumbs up as Kanae felt like she was about to faint from hearing stat numbers that high.
Plus, it was just 20% as well!
"Shiro-nee is too strong." Kanae said after a sigh.
The rest of the group nodded their head furiously while Keiko couldn¡¯t believe how fast Shiro had improved. Last time they met she was still a rtively low levelled adventurer when thinking about how many tier 5 beings there were in the world. But now, she could easily reach tier 6 whenever she wanted.
"Of course your Shiro-nee has to be strong. If she wasn¡¯t the world might blow up." Silvia chuckled.
"Pft, she¡¯ll be the reason FOR the world to blow up with stats that high." Aarim rolled her eyes.
*COUGH COUGH COUGH!
Hearing what Aarim had just said, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but remember that he system even had to call a primordial god to help so that she didn¡¯t blow up Miriel.
". . ." Seeing Shiro¡¯s reaction, Aarim decided not to say anything anymore. From her reaction, the chances of her almost blowing up the world was probably 100%.
"Anyways let¡¯s start with this new skill. Once it¡¯s done, I need to challenge tier 6 myself." Shiro smiled as they nodded their heads.
Seeing that everyone was ready, Shiro sped her hands together as a golden aura exploded out from her body.
Even without activating her ascension, she immediately entered her demi god form as a tier 7 magic circle expanded out and covered the entire floor of the training hall.
White mist covered the walls as each of them found themselves in a strange dimension. Standing on top of ake, they could see bright blue skies above them as a hazy figure simr to Shiro appeared in front of them.
For those that were going to be gaining the insight ofbat, the hazy figure immediately summoned a sword and charged at them.
###
Looking at the expressions on their faces, Shiro could tell that they were already fighting a copy of herself.
For this skill, it would be simr to a dungeon where the time is different insidepared to the outside world.
While in the world created by the skill, they¡¯ll experience fighting against an expert and hone their skills. After a period fighting, they¡¯ll be given a break to digest all of the information before repeating the same process.
Looking at the time, she estimated that it should be finished in another 10 minutes. Once the 10 minutes is up, they would have experienced enough to rival someone that had been on the front lines for many years.
Waiting patiently for 10 minutes, she watched as the mist slowly dissipated and the tier 7 magic circle disappeared slowly.
Opening their eyes, they looked at one another in disbelief.
"Wee back. It¡¯s been 10 minutes, how do you feel?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Wait it¡¯s only been 10 minutes?" Aarim asked as it was definitely longer than 10 minutes.
"Yup. You can check the time yourself. Now then, for the first test..." Shiro smiled as she disappeared.
Appearing behind Aarim, she swiped a dagger at her head as Aarim ducked down immediately and prepared a tier 5 spell to counter attack.
"Seems like the skill worked quite nicely." Shiro smirked.
"After going through the training over and over again, you¡¯ll get a knack for feeling danger." Aarim chuckled.
"Indeed. Seeing as though everyone looks tired, I¡¯ll let you go now. Make sure you digest the information properly and Lisandra, do you want toe to my room so that we can attempt tier 6 together?" Shiro asked as Lisandra nodded her head.
"I¡¯m still a bit uncertain but I think I can give reaching tier 6 a good try." She replied.
"That¡¯s good enough. What about you Keiko?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm... I think I should be able reach it after some self study with my element." Keiko replied as Shiro nodded her head.
Talking with the party for a bit longer, they returned to their rooms.
ncing back at Lisandra, Shiro smiled.
"Ready to reach tier 6?"
Chapter 889 Nanobots
Chapter 889 Nanobots
Sitting in the room, Shiro summoned the Demi God core and ced it in her hand while ncing over at Lisandra who was already sitting with her legs crossed.
Seeing that she had already got herself into the mindset, Shiro smiled as this was a good sign.
¡¯If she can focus entirely on her element, reaching tier 6 should be a piece of cake for her. Nan Tian took a while to fully solidify his ascension into tier 6 since he had no prior information and all he had to rely on was himself.
However, for Lisandra that was different because she had received information thanks to her skill.
¡¯Since Lisandra is doing well, I wonder how I can use this. It said that it will help my Divine Energy generation, my divinity and assist me to reach tier 6. Do I just shove mana into this?¡¯ Shiro wondered.
¡¯Though considering the fact that it¡¯s the core of a Demi God, divine energy might be better.¡¯
Closing her eyes, golden energy flowed from her arm to the orb as golden runes lit up on the core.
Slowly, the core emitted a faint glow that was simr to her golden aura.
As the two sat in silence, as a natural barrier seemed to form in the room as golden runes lit up on the walls.
A faint tether stretched from the Demi God core to both Shiro and Lisandra as the same golden energy slowly filled Lisandra¡¯s body.
Without knowing it, Lisandra¡¯s wings unfurled on her back.
A swirl of mana started to gather around the two as their aura was being strengthened with every passing moment.
For Shiro, she had thought that this was going to be easy since she reached tier 6 before but there was a slight problem. This time, her nanobots became an attunement so she needed to understand the properties of her nanobots better.
Finding herself isted with her nanotech ind that should be in her mana realm, Shiro raised her eyebrows as this was different to what she had remembered.
¡¯A little strange...¡¯ She mused to herself and approached the ind.
As she walked closer, she realised that the distance was not changing. Suddenly, a question appeared in her mind.
[What are nanobots?]
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro answered how she answered in her past life.
¡¯Nanobots are microscopic beings that canbine together to simte the texture, feel and abilities of an item.¡¯
[Wrong. Nanobots are the act of defiance of man towards god. They are an attempt to copy what they believe as ¡¯omnipotent¡¯. Nanobots are a cheap copy of the system that can store skills and gift them to people.]
Hearing this in her mind, Shiro was taken aback as there shouldn¡¯t be a reply after the initial question.
¡¯Who are you?¡¯ Shiro asked with a frown as a figure appeared in front of her. Recognising the figure Shiro smiled.
¡¯So it¡¯s Chaos of all people that have decided toe visit me. How can I help you?¡¯ Shiro asked with a chuckle.
[I¡¯m here to help you correct your thinking. After all the things that you have done in this life, your Nanobots are no longer just machines. They¡¯re sentient beings like ants that work in a colony. If you want to reach tier 6, you need a new understanding of your own gift and the powers thate with it.] Chaos smiled as Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯I see... howe you¡¯re here then? I thought there were special restrictions especially for you.¡¯ Shiro asked.
[There are. But I¡¯m here because you have a Demi God¡¯s core, Error who has absorbed the beasts and divinity within you. People say that they might receive a sh of inspiration when they work. I¡¯m just taking advantage of that and speaking to you using this ¡¯inspiration¡¯. Last time I could only say a few lines but now we have time to spare. However, the moment I diverge too far from the topic of inspiration, I won¡¯t be able to talk to you.] Chaos smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to hide a question within the question so that it didn¡¯t stray too far from the topic.
¡¯I see... So if the nanobots have changed, it would exin how I was able to reincarnate with them despite my body not being edited to house them. Does this link to why they¡¯re different to the ones in the past?¡¯ Shiro asked as Chaos smiled.
[Indeed. They are embedded with the power of Chaos so there was already some divinity within you. How else would you be able to use the nanobots without changing your body? Originally the nanobots worked on equivalent exchange. By using the nanobots, you are sacrificing your body along with your life span. The more you used it, the shorter your life became. After they were embedded with the power of Chaos as well as some small parts of the system, they have evolved beyond what they used to be.] Chaos exined as Shiro nodded her head.
As shemunicated with Chaos, Shiro didn¡¯t forget to attempt to reach tier 6 with her new understanding.
Every question that Chaos replied would bring her slightly closer to the ind in the distance.
###
While Shiro and Lisandra were attempting to reach tier 6, Nan Tian was making good progress in moving the cities into Asharia. With all the items that Shiro had provided such as scanners and replicators, shifting the city of Asakura to Asharia was an easy task. Plus, the people in the city were more than happy since it was the Asakura family that protected them all this time. If the lord, Koji Asakura, said that they needed to leave since it was unsafe, they would follow his orders since he said it to protect them.
Looking at the files that he needed to take care of, Nan Tian sighed heavily.
¡¯Why do I feel like I¡¯ve be an office worker?¡¯ He mused to himself.
Hearing the door open, he nced behind him and saw Lyrica entering.
"Morning, I didn¡¯t expect you to be here." He smiled as she shrugged.
"I¡¯m just here to rx for a bit. Mum¡¯s be more strict with training. In some ways she reminds me of Shiro." Lyrica sighed as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Well they were best friends from way back in Aria. They¡¯ve spent years together so it¡¯s to be expected that their training styles would be simr." Nan Tian replied.
"Yeah. It makes you wonder does it? I didn¡¯t think reincarnation was likely to be real. But the fact that both my mum and Shiro knew each other proves this." Lyrica smiled.
"Kind of makes you think about who we were before doesn¡¯t it?"
"Indeed." Nan Tian nodded his head.
"How¡¯s Madison? Any sign of hering out of her crystal?"
"Nothing yet. I swear, at this rate she¡¯s going to sleep until the new age arrives." Lyrica shrugged.
Suddenly, a notification appeared on the screens as several drones locked onto a single woman strolling through the streets.
Reading the notification, Nan Tian could see that she had been nting nodes to scan the city.
"Seems like a rat has appeared in the city. Should I deal with it or should you?" Nan Tian asked with a smile.
"I can. It¡¯ll give me more excuse to avoid training." Lyrica grinned as she left themand centre.
###
¡¯This city is crazy. If we can get our hands on this technology we¡¯ll undefeatable.¡¯ The woman thought to herself with a smile as she nted another node when no one was looking.
Seeing the elves and spirits in this city, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder about the ruler of this ce.
She figured that the ruler must have a n of sorts for her to make such a big city.
¡¯Maybe she¡¯s going to harvest them for their mana.¡¯ She wondered.
Just as she was about to send a message back to her boss, she felt a tap on the shoulder from behind.
"Excuse me, are you lost?" Lyrica asked with a small smile.
"Ah no I¡¯m fine." The woman replied.
"Are you sure? Since with the way you¡¯re walking, it seems like you¡¯re going on a patrol around the city." Lyrica narrowed her eyes as the woman knew that she was busted.
Without hesitation, she summoned a short sword and stabbed towards her head while several daggers appeared around Lyrica, blocking her exit.
"So quick on the violence." Lyrica shook as she snapped her finger.
Suddenly, a barrier appeared around her as the daggers and short sword that came into contact disappeared.
"Thanks for the weapons. Let me give them back to you." Lyrica narrowed her eyes.
Pausing in shock, the woman watched as her daggers reappeared by this time they were under Lyrica¡¯s control.
¡¯I need to run!¡¯ She thought in shock.
Crouching down slightly, she jumped back and ripped apart a teleport talisman to help her get out of the city.
Seeing this, Lyrica only smirked since she¡¯s already left a mark on her.
"Go end her." She said as the short swordunched into the sky.
###
Sighing in relief, the woman was about to leave when she felt a cold chill down her spine.
Before she could react, a familiar short sword pierced her through before erupting out with hundreds of des, cutting up her body and killing her in an instant.
Chapter 890 Tier 6
Chapter 890 Tier 6
Shiro didn¡¯t know how long she was in this world with Chaos but the longer she spent here, the more information she got.
Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t stay here for long since inspirationes and goes like a breeze. There was a limit. And seeing Chaos¡¯ body be faint, Shiro knew that time was almost up.
¡¯Final question, why am I the one sopatible with Nanobots?¡¯ Shiro asked.
With how they¡¯ve beenmunicating, Chaos knew that the real question that Shiro wanted to ask was that out of everyone, why did she choose her.
[Because in all the timelines that we have watched, it was always you who tried your best to survive until the end, your tenacity is to be praised so I¡¯m entrusting you my hopes. Good luck young one. Maybe you break this cruel loop.] Chaos smiled softly as her form fully disappeared since she strayed too far from the topic. But that was fine, she was bound to go anyways.
Hearing this, Shiro stayed silent. She knew that if her garden failed, the universe would reset. But that meant there had been past Shiro¡¯s who had failed.
While she didn¡¯t know whether or not the oue would be the same in this universe, she was still going to try to end everything on a good note since it would be rather cruel for Chaos to witness destruction over and over again.
It was like being forced to watch a TV show that had a bad ending all the time without rest.
Shaking her head, she looked at the question that had been preventing her from reaching the ind.
However, with the ind being a few steps in front of her, she was going to answer it and reach tier 6.
[What are Nanobots?]
¡¯Nanobots are Chaos¡¯ hope for the new world. They have the potential to govern everything including the system. Nanobots are my path to godhood and the key to saving the world.¡¯ Shiro replied.
Suddenly, the surrounding area lit up with a golden glow as the ind rapidly expanded. From cold machines, it transformed into a lush ind despite being created from nanobots. The grass felt as it should rather than cold metal.
Looking at the ind that was now radiating with divine energy, Shiro smiled as her consciousness became faint.
[Entity ¨C Shiro ¨C Has reached tier 6.]
[Attunement ¨C Nanotech ¨C Has reached Demi God status.]
[Presence of a Demi God core confirmed.]
[Granting Entity ¨C Shiro ¨C Demi God ranked ss.]
[Administrators are requesting vote as giving tier 6 a demi god ss was unheard of.]
[Administrator 4 has proposed to reject this vote as she has already obtained a way to reach god status at tier 5. There is no reason to try to stop the unstoppable.]
[Several Administrators have agreed with Administrator 4.]
[The vote will be cancelled.]
[Administrator 6 questions about what she will get upon reaching tier 8. For when she reaches tier 7, she¡¯ll have a tier 8 ss.]
[Several Administrators are also voicing their curiosity.]
[The system has rejected the answering of this question.]
[Generating Demi God ss for Entity ¨C Shiro ¨C .]
[Divine Sylph Nanomancer (Ascendant EX) ¨C> Nanotech Demi Goddess (Demi God).]
[Granting Partial Nanotech Divinity.]
[Granting improved Divine Energy generation.]
[ess to the Divine Halls shall be granted once the age of Demons and Gods arrive.]
[Granting Skill ¨C Power of Faith.]
[Enhancing Skills ¨C Divine Raiment EX -> Demi God Raiment, Tier 5 element magic -> Tier 6 Element Magic, Divine Empress¡¯ Domain EX -> Demi Goddess¡¯ Domain, Monster Skill ¨C Rejuvenation EX -> Demi God Skill ¨C Rebirth, Advanced Elemental Mastery -> Intermediate Elemental Mastery, Empress¡¯ Blessing -> Demi Goddess¡¯ Blessing, Nanotech Engineering Tier 5 -> Nanotech Engineering Tier 6.]
[Linked Entity ¨C Lisandra ¨C has also reached tier 6. Due to entity ¨C Shiro ¨C, she is granted the use of Divine Energy.]
###
Opening her eyes slowly, Shiro breathed out as her body felt more powerful than ever.
The first thing she noticed was the abundance of Divine Energy that coursed through her body along with the fact that her senses towards mana have increased. If she wanted, she could even see the items that were coated with a bluish hue which represented how much mana they hold.
Raising her eyebrows, she looked at the notifications of her skills increasing along with the change in ss.
Her stats have only increased by roughly 20 million points in each stat butpared to her previous stat board, there wasn¡¯t much change. Her attunements have changed from tier 5 to 6 and some of her skills had their effects amplified.
There were more things to discover but for now, she wanted to see what her new skill could do.
[Power of Faith]
You are able to create a shrine where people can offer their prayers to you. Their faith can be converted to divine energy in emergency situations. Normally, this faith will be used to help your followers live a safe life in the form of luck.
{Look at you, bing a proper god now. You can even make a shrine.} Nimue chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯I¡¯ll probably add a few shrines in the city. When I have some free time.¡¯ Shiro shrugged before ncing at Lisandra who was still level 500. However, with her aura fluctuating constantly, Shiro could guess that she was trying her best to reach tier 6.
Looking out the window, Shiro could see the sun slowly rising and understood that they must have been attempting to reach tier 6 through the night.
Sensing a few signaturesing towards her room, Shiro noticed that they were Nan Tian and the others.
Hearing a knock on the door, Shiro let them in and gestured for them to be careful since Lisandra was still attempting to break through.
"Seems like you¡¯ve reached tier 6 safely. When the sky suddenly lit up and the mana in the city shot up, I got worried for a moment since something might have gone wrong." Nan Tian sighed in relief as Shiro smiled.
"It¡¯s probably because I got a Demi God ss rather than a normal tier 6 ss." Shiro chuckled.
"Ah is that so. I woke up for nothing then." Aarim yawned before leaving. At this point, she would be more surprised to hear that Shiro got a normal ss since everything she does was abnormal.
"You lot should continue your rest since it¡¯s a false rm. I¡¯ll tell you more tomorrow when everyone¡¯s woken up." Shiro smiled as the party nodded their heads and returned to their rooms.
Looking at Lisandra, Shiro could only wish her luck.
Entering her mana realm, Shiro nced towards the Nanotech ind which has be the biggest ind of all. Situated in the middle of the realm, it looked no different from Iziuel¡¯s ind but they knew that everything on this was made from Nanobots.
Shiro could see Iziuel standing on the ind with an amazed expression.
{Shiro, even though everything here is made from nanobots, I can still exert a bit of my control over nature. It¡¯s like it¡¯s just a normal ind despite being made from nanobots.} Iziuel marvelled.
¡¯Oh? Would your control override mine?¡¯ Shiro asked as this could be detrimental in a battle.
{Definitely not. If I had to describe it, it¡¯s like me borrowing a sword from you that you can summon to your side at any moment. Sure I can use it but you can take it away from it with a snap of the finger.} Iziuel replied as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
¡¯So that¡¯s how it is... hmm... that¡¯s interesting.¡¯ Shiro muttered as she crouched down and touched the grass.
Closing her eyes, Shiro scanned the entire ind and noticed that the nanobots seemed to be... ¡¯overjoyed¡¯? at her presence.
It was simr to how the spirits acted in the forgotten realm.
¡¯Have they be something simr to spirits?¡¯ Shiro thought in surprise.
Before she could explore further, she noticed that a red circuit tugged at the hem of her dress. ncing towards Error¡¯s ind, she could see the circuits fusing together into a silhouette that had no features.
[Due to the recent absorption of the [beasts], a new passive has been granted to Error.]
Seeing the system notification, Shiro blinked in surprise.
[Abnormal Adaptivity.]
Duringbat, you will slowly be adapted to your opponent¡¯s attacks. However, this will only work when you are using Error.
Once fully adapted, your opponent¡¯s damage against you is decreased by 85%.
The time it takes to adapt depends on how well you know the opponent.
Reading the skill, Shiro was speechless since this means that if she could get adapted to the attacks of a god, they can only deal 15% of their total damage to her.
If Madison was out of the crystal, she would have joined Nimue in flipping tables.
Chapter 891 Fan
Chapter 891 Fan
"Right then where should I start?" Shiro asked with a smile since she did tell the party that she was going to exin her new powers once everyone had woken up.
"Let¡¯s just start with new skills then." Lyrica suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"The first skill is Power of Faith. With this skill, I can make shrines in the city where the citizens can pray to me and their faith is used to improve their life. I can also use this faith in emergency situations and convert it to divine energy." Shiro exined.
"Heh~ How many shrines would you be making? And would you make a new religion?" Silvia asked curiously.
"I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be doing any big announcements on this. Just make a few shrines around the ce and if they want to pray, they can. I can put up a small notice saying that praying gives you good luck and so on but let¡¯s not force them. Once the effects make themselves clear, the popce should pray more. The best move we can do here is to not force them to be followers." Shiro smiled.
"I agree with that. I¡¯m sure the spirits wouldn¡¯t mind but the other races would need time. We should focus on making more shrines where the spirits live." Nan Tian suggested.
Nodding her head, Shiro made a note in her mind.
"The second skill that I received is Abnormal Adaptation. It came from Error after ourst dungeon run and it basically allows me to reduce the damage I take from an enemy. It¡¯s percentage based and it increases with my understanding of them. The maximum reduction is 85%." Shiro exined as the party paused.
She didn¡¯t mention a limit when ites to the tier of the person so that meant gods were included in this!
"So what¡¯s next then?" Nan Tian asked as the date for the new age wasing closer and closer.
"I¡¯m going to make some shrines then we¡¯ll start integrating the demons. I would have liked it if Madison was awake for this but it¡¯s an unfortunate situation. I¡¯ve checked the mech training right now and so far it seems like it¡¯s going well so I don¡¯t need to worry about that too much. The main concern is resources. Sure we have farnd but trade will be a lot harder once the new age begins. I have portals to cities but unless we im and protect those cities, getting resources from them will be hard." Shiro frowned as the party nodded.
"Since all of you are powerful, I¡¯m thinking of stationing you in the cities that we im as rulers I suppose. You¡¯ll be given one of these rune guardians that can mirror my stats so it¡¯s like a mini me by your side. It should give you enough protection and just in case the enemy is too strong, it can be used to buy time for us to arrive. Plus, there¡¯s no time limit and since we have 10, think of it as 10 tier 6 golems with my stats." Shiro grinned, showing them the rune that she had received at the end of the forgotten realm. Since it mirrored her stats, each of them could be ssified as dangers to the world.
"Another thing that you might want to keep in mind is that you don¡¯t have to worry if gods start threatening you since I have the best allies when ites to gods. After Ipleted my trial on top of Mount Olympus, I was able to get two rainbow tier equipment that allows me to use their powers along with calling them down to assist us. If the gods want to fight, I¡¯ll give them a fight. Zeus and Poseidon have a bad impression of me but you don¡¯t have to worry about them. Hades is nice though; he has connections with my gramps and is my teacher when ites to divine energy." Shiro chuckled.
"Hais, we¡¯re not even tier 6 and we have to worry about tier 8 beings." Silviained as Shiro only smiled apologetically.
"Sorry about that. But I¡¯m sure you lot will do just fine." Shiro encouraged as Silvia shrugged.
"Setting that aside for now, what are we going to do about the demons then. They know that a new queen has been selected and Asphil has been trying to organise everything. However, since she¡¯s not the queen herself, it¡¯s a bit hard to rally everyone." Nan Tian asked as Shiro leaned back.
"Hmm... that¡¯s a good point. While Asphil can work as a messenger for now, the demon race hasn¡¯t even seen their queen just yet. Maybe I should make an appearance, they¡¯re a race that believes in power after all. I don¡¯t want to oppress them but leaving them out like this is not exactly a good choice. Oh by the way, we need to prioritise Chloe¡¯s family when ites to moving them here since she¡¯s Helion and Madison¡¯s teacher. After that just pick one of the bigger cities and I¡¯ll go persuade them once I finish my home visit." Shiro replied.
"Home visit?"
"Yeah I need to go talk to Yuki and have her move to the city too." Shiro smiled.
"Sure, I¡¯ll go help Chloe move. After that I¡¯ll send you apiled file on the cities in the demon continent. Hopefully we can get it done soon since the new age is literally around the corner now." Nan Tian smiled.
"Just so you know, you lot don¡¯t get overtime pay ok? I can¡¯t afford that kind of money." Shiroughed.
"Pft how stingy. And after all the things we¡¯ve done for you too." Aarim shrugged.
"Though if you were to calcte all of the overtime pay you owe us, we might run your family into bankruptcy." Aarim snickered.
"Surely not right?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Are you sure? The amount of property damage and mental damage you¡¯ve caused is quite high." Chen Yu reminded as Shiro coughed.
"Setting that aside, you lot should just rest for thest few days. We¡¯ll be busy once the new age starts after all." Shiro quickly changed the subject.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro retreated from themand room and made her way to the teleport hall to make sure that everything was working just fine.
Right now, the number of teleport spots was low but that would increase over time. People could also buy teleport nodes from the shops after they register so that they can return to the city whenever they want.
Picking the teleport node for New York, Shiro stepped through without any problems and arrived at the teleport shrine.
Looking around for a moment, Shiro wanted to find a caf¨¦ store first so that she could get some cake to go along with some juice.
But before she could go to the caf¨¦, she was approached by a small group of adventurers.
"Excuse me, are you perhaps Shiro?" A girl called out to her as Shiro tilted her head.
"I am. Do you need me for something?"
"Ah! I¡¯m your fan! Can I have an autograph please?" The girl¡¯s eyes brightened as she quickly brought out a piece of paper and a pen.
"Eh? My fan?" Shiro was a little surprised as the girl nodded.
"Mn! I¡¯ve been watching the news about you since you¡¯re featured often. I heard that you defeated a tier 6 guardian of an anchor with ease!" The girl smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"I did. I haven¡¯t signed before so I¡¯ll try my best I guess." Shiro chuckled since she wasn¡¯t used to being supported like this. In her first life, she was feared so her fans were obviously the wrong kind of person. In her second life as Kuromi, she never bothered with the fans that followed what she had done so she never signed anything. This was the first time that a fan had actually asked for her signature so Shiro wondered what she should even write.
Thinking about it for a moment, she settled with just writing her name in cursive with the S erged.
"Is this alright?" Shiro asked as the girl nodded her head.
"Yes it is! Thank you." She bowed.
"Mn take this, you should know about the new age right? When things get dangerous, you can use this to teleport to a city called Asharia. If you register there, it should work as a safe ce for you to stay when the new age arrives." Shiro said as she handed the girl a small teleport node that could be used for her party and family if she wanted. A hologram of the way to use it would appear when she injected mana so Shiro wasn¡¯t worried about whether or not she could use it properly.
"Just inject your mana if you want to use it." Shiro smiled before leaving the area.
Disappearing from her spot immediately, she arrived at the caf¨¦ and ordered some snacks.
Meanwhile, the girl held the teleport node and the autograph happily before making her way into the teleport shrine with the rest of her party.
Chapter 892 Offer to Winters Grace
Chapter 892 Offer to Winter''s Grace
Sitting in the caf¨¦, Shiro tapped away at her phone while checking up on the recent news that was linked to Winter¡¯s Grace.
Thanks to Yuki¡¯s return, they started to progress towards being one of the top then factions thanks to her knowledge. The resource spots that they could find along with support from the Asakura family allowed her to train up powerful faction members.
They were also active in helping themunity through the bounty board where the rewards were provided by the faction itself depending on how difficult the task was. If a granny wanted someone to apany her for a day, the faction would provide the rewards in ce of the granny so that she didn¡¯t spend her own money.
Overall, the public view of Winter¡¯s Grace was on the good side.
Reading this, Shiro smiled as she finished her juice and thest piece of her cake.
¡¯Seems like it¡¯ll be good to move the headquarters of the faction to Asharia so that there¡¯s some backing I suppose. Demons will be in the city but if Winter¡¯s Grace and Rising Sun were to vouch for them, it¡¯ll help the demons integrate into the city.¡¯
{Indeed. But wouldn¡¯t the Winter¡¯s Grace and Rising Sun suffer some bacsh?} Nimue asked as Shiro nodded.
¡¯Of course. They will definitely get some bacsh but for the long term benefits, this bit of bacsh will be ok. Because once the new age begins, they¡¯ll understand that Asharia wees everyone regardless of race as long as you follow the rules.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
{Mn we¡¯ll have to see though since everything could backfire and no one would want to go to Asharia.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯That is indeed a possibility but I do hope that I don¡¯t see it.¡¯ Shiro shrugged while making her way out of the sort.
Jumping into the air, she flew towards the direction of Winter¡¯s Grace.
Now that she had reached tier 6 and obtained a demi god ss, the usage of her divine energy was much easier since there¡¯s not only a bigger supply, but a faster regeneration.
Shiro estimated that she could probably use 5 to 6 original spells in a fight without worry and the rest of the energy can be used for enhancement.
After a few minutes, Shiro could see the Winter¡¯s Grace Branch located in Vericia. She wanted toe to the branch first since she had two old friends here that she wanted to see first before going to the headquarters.
As for the headquarters, they had moved location¡¯s once Yuki had returned and the spot they picked was above Mount Fuji after the ice queen left. Shiro could remember that she nted an anchor here but it seems like she was able to move it considering the fact that the only sign of them ever being here was the ice city they left behind.
Since the queen had left, Yuki took advantage of this ce and made it the headquarters.
Landing on the roof of the elder¡¯s tower, Shiro could sense Natash¡¯s mana signature along with Freya¡¯s.
Climbing down the side, she opened the window.
"Yo Natash, it¡¯s been a while hasn¡¯t it?" Shiro greeted as Natash dropped her pen in shock.
She was about to enter abat stance when she noticed who it was.
"Ah it¡¯s actually you. I thought that you died in a dungeon or something considering the fact that you never came back." Natash said as her smile twitched.
"Ahaha sorry about that. I was busy with quite a few things and I even got my memory back." Shiro chuckled.
Climbing through the window, she sat down on the sofa.
"So how has it been?" Shiro asked while offering some juice.
epting the juice, Natash was rather surprised by how it tasted.
"It¡¯s been more or less fine. After the faction master returned the applications for the faction have increased and we¡¯re not far from bing the top 5. If you were here, I would have gotten you to do some paperwork in my stead." Natash smiled.
"Pft you know I was just a guest elder. I don¡¯t have the normal responsibilities." Shiro grinned as Natash rolled her eyes.
"So you would have enjoyed watching me getting buried by paperwork?"
"Of course." Shiro replied instantly since it was obvious.
"Tch, so howe you¡¯re here now? With the news talking about you all the time, I can¡¯t imagine that you¡¯ll need the resources from this faction." Natash asked with a smile.
"I¡¯m here to give you an offer. Well... I say you but it¡¯s really for everyone here. I¡¯ve created a city called Asharia that¡¯s going to act as a safe haven of sorts when the new age hits. I¡¯m going to be going to the main headquarters of Winter¡¯s Grace and ask Yuki about moving to the city too. Since I was under your care here for a while, I wanted to offer you the same." Shiro smiled.
"You made a city?" Natash was surprised since making a city was no easy feat.
"Yup. I¡¯m sure you know how dangerous the new age is going to be. While I can¡¯t save everyone, I can try to save as much as I can. In the city there are spirits, elves, humans and in the close future, demons."
Hearing that the city will have demons, Natash frowned.
"The city will have demons? You know we are not in a good rtionship right? One of themon goals for adventurers here is killing Demons. If you put the two together, they¡¯ll react like cold water in hot oil." Natash warned as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know but these Demons are governed by a proper ruler. You should know her, it¡¯s Madison. Due to some special circ.u.mstances, she has be their Queen and we know that Demon¡¯s aren¡¯t too different from humans. It¡¯s only the low tier Demons that have no sense of self simr to how bandits are." Shiro exined as Natash sat down with a difficult expression.
"It sounds nice but I don¡¯t know how the rest of the faction will react."
"I know. But whether or not they want toe is up to them. But if they choose toe, they must respect the rules that are in ce. If they don¡¯t they¡¯ll be punished ordingly. I¡¯ll be going to the headquarters now. Here¡¯s a file on everything you need to know about the city. Share it with Freya so that she knows too. Tell me your answer using the number in the file ok?" Shiro smiled as the rift opened up beside her.
cing the file on the table, Shiro left the room as Natash sat in silence and read the file.
Seeing all the defensive properties of the city such as mechs and turrets, Natash felt like it was simply impossible for all of this to be true but with her understanding of Shiro, Natash knew that Shiro wasn¡¯t one to joke around with these things.
Grabbing the file, she made her way down so that she could share everything with Freya. Even if the faction didn¡¯t want to go, she was going to go since a safe ce would be a rarity in the new age.
###
{Seems like she¡¯s made the right decision.} Nimue muttered as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯Even though the file looks ridiculous, she knows that everything inside is true. With the threat of the new age, refusing such an offer would be a poor choice.¡¯ Shiro smiled as she opened a portal to japan so that she could go to the headquarters that was now located on Mount Fuji.
Stepping through the portal, Shiro instantly arrived in Asakura city since this was the closest she could get using her own teleport nodes.
However, it didn¡¯t bother her too much since reaching Mount Fuji was just a short trip.
Meanwhile, on Mount Fuji, Yuki had a frown on her face since there were several reports of high tier monsters as well as a Queen cing her anchor near the mountain. Knowing the power of queens, fighting her would be devastating and the casualties would be through the roof.
Biting her nail, she sighed after seeing thetest report of another Queen stationing her anchor nearby.
With two Queens as her neighbours, staying here would be difficult.
¡¯We¡¯ll have to evacuate everyone to a different location.¡¯ Yuki thought to herself but doing so would be rather difficult.
Suddenly, a man burst into the room with a panicked expression.
"Faction Leader! A messenger from the Queens has sent demands us to surrender and work under the Queen!"
"What!? Bring me to him." Yuki frowned as this wasn¡¯t good. Standing up, she followed the man to meet this so-called messenger.
Chapter 893 Messenger of a Queen
Chapter 893 Messenger of a Queen
Sitting in the office with his legs crossed, a dark skinned Demi Human sat with a smile.
He wore a ck tuxedo as horns peeked out of his ck hair. With silver eyes and a pair of sses, he nced up at Yuki who had just arrived in the office.
"Greeting faction master of Winter¡¯s Grace." He called out as Yuki nodded.
"I heard from my subordinate that you¡¯re a messenger from one of the Queen¡¯s.
"Indeed. I¡¯m here to give you an offer." The Demi Human nodded as he stood up.
"An offer? That¡¯s a nice way to put it when you apparently demanded us to surrender." Yuki furrowed her brows.
Sensing her hostility, the Demi Human onlyughed.
"Ah yes, I did indeed say that and I have no intention to retract that statement. But I do believe that phrasing it as an offer sounds more pleasant. The Constetion Queen demands your subordination. Should you reject, we¡¯ll have to eliminate you and rece your current standing amongst the humans with someone else." The Demi human warned as his aura exploded out, pushing Yuki back by a few steps as her face paled slightly from the force.
Calming her mind, she red at him.
"Are you not afraid of your neighbour that has appeared near here? Or do you not know about the other Queen." Yuki asked as she stood her ground with a fierce re.
"Pft hahaha, of course we know about her. In fact we¡¯re allies. You see, there have been... a few individuals who had attacked a number of Queens before the new age so we have decided to form an alliance. After all, one of the attackers was a Queen herself and she has stopped the takeover of several potential anchor points, breaking the treaty that all the Queens have agreed to." He smiled.
"What¡¯s that to do with me? With the powers at your disposal, I¡¯m sure you can just go for one of the bigger guilds. Why Winter¡¯s Grace?" Yuki asked.
"Indeed. Let¡¯s just say your base is on a rather interesting location. It is where the Ice Queen appeared in this world. She found a way to move the anchor so we¡¯re here to investigate. If we can find a way to move the first anchor that we ced, it would be very beneficial."
"Oh? Then can¡¯t you just say that. The Winter¡¯s Grace will surrender this mountain to you if that¡¯s what you want." Yuki said as a full on confrontation with the Queens will destroy the faction for sure. If the Mountain was what they want, she¡¯ll let them have it and evacuate the members immediately.
"No no no, you see, since you¡¯re already here, we might as we¡¯ll put you to use. Plus, with your current standing amongst the humans, using you as an intermediary is beneficial for us. I¡¯ve wasted enough breath here so I¡¯ll ask you onest time. Will you be the subordinate of the Constetion Queen or will you die? Choose wisely since we¡¯ll get rid of everyone in the mountain if you don¡¯t." The Demi Human narrowed his eyes as Yuki frowned.
Flexing her finger, she summoned her phone and tapped the screen.
Suddenly rms rang out through the entire faction building as it was a sign to immediately abandon everything and evacuate.
"Sorry, I¡¯m not bing your subordinate. You see, I have a good friend and she¡¯ll be awfully disappointed if I did." Yuki grinned as ayer of ice instantly formed around the office.
sping her hands together, ice shot out of the walls and pierced towards the Demi Human.
"Shame." He shook his head.
Waving his hand, fire erupted out of his body and melted the ice in an instant.
"You think we didn¡¯t do research about you? The problem of being a figure in the eyes of the masses is that information about you is easily obtained." Heughed.
Before he could say another word, Yuki appeared in front of him.
"sh Freeze." She muttered as cold mist would appear with her every breath.
There was a single sh of light before the entire area was covered by a blizzard. The Demi Human was now encased in ayer of ice but Yuki knew that it wasn¡¯t enough. While she has reached Tier 5 after being rescued, she knew that she was stillcking when it came to fighting against a messenger of a Queen.
However, her goal was not to kill him. It was to dy the time so that the members could evacuate.
ncing down, she could see the staff leading the evacuation and smiled slightly.
mming her palm against the surface of the ice, a tier 5 seal appeared as light blue chains erupted out.
Tier 5 cial Magic: cial Prison
Suddenly,rge pirs of ice broke through the ground of Mount Fuji and pierced high into the sky as the chains that erupted out of the ice were connected to these pirs.
"Strike down with your might!" Yuki shouted out as a tier 5 magic circle appeared in the air.
The clouds started to swirl as the tip of a silver spear appeared in front of the portal.
Flinching for a moment, Yuki bit her lips and mmed her hand down.
*BANG!!!
Sending out a shockwave, the spear pierced towards the frozen Demi Human with a trail of silver lights flickering behind it.
Shattering the ice apart, the spear shrank down and flew towards Yuki.
Grabbing it out of the air, she twirled it for a moment before entering abat stance.
While her close quartersbat wasn¡¯t that great, this spear helped her amplify her cial magic and can freeze with a single touch. Plus, it had a decent amount of armour pration so it was her preferred weapon against strongerbatants.
"Not bad for someone weak like you." A voice rang out from behind Yuki as she immediately shed behind her with her spear.
Catching it with his index finger and middle finger, a fire burned at the tip, preventing his hands from getting frozen over.
ncing back, Yuki forced a smile as she opened her mouth.
"cial Throne World."
Distorting the space around her, she forcefully dragged the Demi Human into her throne world.
Her throne world was simple asrge columns of ice could be seen beneath a starry sky
Jumping back, she summoned the spear back to her hand as she activated a second skill.
Frozen Doppelganger.
Next to her, an exact copy of her made from ice appeared.
Charging towards the Demi Human without saying anything, her doppelganger fell through the frozen floor and reappeared behind him.
Twisting her body, the doppelganger swung her spear which he was able to dodge with ease.
Shaking his head, his body flickered in front of Yuki and grabbing her throat.
*BANG!!!
mming her down against the ground, he raised his eyebrow when he realised that she had traded ces with her doppelganger.
ncing back, he saw her etching out a tier 5 magic circle on the ground with her spear.
"Great Burial!"
*KRRRRR!!!!
The ground split apart in an instant as hands created from icetched onto his body, dragging him down while the ice slowly repaired itself.
mming her hand against the ground, the floor of the throne world sunk down by several tens of meters as shepressed everything beneath her.
Normally, this would have been enough to kill most of her enemies but sensing his aura that was burning brighter than before, she forced a smile.
"What a monster." She muttered as a column of fire broke through her ice.
Expanding instantly, her entire throne world was melted apart as she was flung through the sky.
Crashing against the floor of Mount Fuji, Yuki coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Anyst words?" The Demi Human smirked as Yuki red at him.
Forcing a smile, sheughed.
"Yeah I do. I learnt this from my friend so I do hope you¡¯ll enjoy it. She¡¯s quite a nice person, you should meet her." Yuki grinned as sheunched the spear towards his waist area.
*PUCHI!!!
Piercing his lower half, the Demi Human wanted to cry out with pain but he gritted his teeth and held back the scream.
Pulling the spear out, he red at her and quickly healed his lower half.
Throwing the spear towards her head, he cursed in his mind.
However, before the spear could hit, a figure shed in front of Yuki and grabbed the spear with ease before nting it into the ground.
"Say, can I know your name?" Her voice rang out as her white hair fluttered in the wind.
Surprised at her sudden appearance, the Demi Human was curious since her aura was almost negligible. But the fact that she easily caught her spear meant that she had some strength.
"Why would a maiden such as yourself want my name. I¡¯m merely a messenger." He smiled when she disappeared.
Widening his eyes, he coughed up a mouthful of blood as her hand had pierced through his chest.
"So that I can carve your name onto a gravestone." Shiro¡¯s voice rang out as she was absolutely livid.
Healing him up in an instant, she grabbed his head and tore it from his shoulders.
Shredding his body, she regenerated him a new one and held him in the air.
"We¡¯re far from done." She warned as her blood red eyes glowed menacingly.
Chapter 894 Killing The Messenger
Chapter 894 Killing The Messenger
"P-please just kill me." The Demi Human begged as arge part of the snow on the mountain was now dyed by his blood.
His mind couldn¡¯t take the feeling of being killed over and over again, the pain that he felt that continued to rey itself every time Shiro healed him.
"You want to die?" Shiro asked as the man nodded his head furiously.
"Why don¡¯t you give me some information first then. I¡¯ll give you a merciful death." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Hearing this, the Demi Human hesitated which caused Shiro to frown but he immediately panicked seeing this.
"I¡¯ll talk!" He cried out as Shiro nodded.
"The Constetion Queen has power over the stars. She can draw power from the constetions and use them to empower herself. She is most powerful at night since that¡¯s when the constetions are visible. She is also able to create a fake world with the constetions of other worlds!" He exined.
However, a green fire erupted from within his body as Shiro furrowed her brows.
Even if she tried to heal him, the fire refused to burn out.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro let go of the man and allowed him to die.
"How rude. I was just asking your messenger about you." Shiro looked up at the sky.
"Yuki you should get out of here for now. I¡¯m not sure if we¡¯ll fight but if we do, you might be killed as coteral damage." Shiro warned as Yuki nodded her head.
Since Shiro had healed her, she was able to move without problem.
"Be careful."
"I know don¡¯t worry. Just remember this, get as far away as you can. If you can still see us fight, that means it¡¯s not safe. Keep going until we¡¯re out of sight." Shiro smiled.
ncing at Shiro¡¯s back, Yuki prayed for her safety in her mind before leaving the area.
After Yuki left, a portal opened up and a woman stepped through with an expression that looked as though everything was beneath her.
She had long ck hair with some white highlights and a pair of azure eyes. She wore a dark blue one piece dress that was transparent around the edges and had images of constetions which shimmered ever so slightly. She also wore a ck unbuttoned cardigan that flowed behind her.
"A servant with a loose tongue should be taken care of. Though I did not expect him to run into trouble hence why I didn¡¯t pay much attention. For you to stay behind, do you think you can defeat me with the information you¡¯ve obtained?" The Queen asked as Shiro smirked.
"Maybe. But I must say, you¡¯re quite hasty aren¡¯t you? The new age ising in a few days and you¡¯re actually making a move before everything happened."
"Funny hearing that from you who broke the treaty that everyone agreed upon." The Queen narrowed her eyes.
"Pft hahaha! I wasn¡¯t even there when the treaty was made. I¡¯m a Queen from this world. Plus, even if I was there, what makes you think I would agree to it. The Queens that agreed to this are just uncertain about their personal power. They¡¯re afraid of the risks." Shiro grinned as her bloodl.u.s.t permeated the area.
Furrowing her brows slightly, the Queen nced down at Shiro.
"Impudent. Do you think you can go against two Queens at once?"
"Of course I do. But before that, why don¡¯t youe down. Having me look up hurts the neck you know?" Shiro smiled as her Divine Energy exploded forth and mmed into the Queen¡¯s body.
Widening her eyes, the Queen gritted her teeth but was eventually forced down against the ground.
Frowning slightly, she knew that she was no match for Shiro just from that short demonstration.
sping her hands together, a tier 6 magic circles expanded out as she knew that she should probably run.
"Not so fast." Shiro chuckled.
Flicking her finger, a tiny splinter of ice shot towards the magic circle and shattered it apart."
Seeing this, the Queen didn¡¯t hesitate and pulled out a small dagger from her inventory.
Swiping it horizontally, the space around her distorted as she disappeared before Shiro could attack her.
"Hm... must have been quite the treasure for it to take effect that quickly." Shiro narrowed her eyes before shrugging.
She had sensed a second Queen earlier but after her small demonstration, they both retreated so there wasn¡¯t much she could do.
Though if she really wanted to fight them, she wouldn¡¯t mind. The reason why she did this was due to the damage that their fight could create. Plus, with the warning from Nyxst time, she was careful about how she demonstrated her power. After all, she could cause mass destruction and kill countless innocents if she wasn¡¯t paying attention.
With the two Queen¡¯s leaving the area, Shiro nced towards the evacuating faction members and looked for Yuki¡¯s mana signature.
Seeing that she was helping everyone evacuate, Shiro teleported besides her.
"I¡¯m done. The two Queens should leave this area alone for now." Shiro called out as Yuki felt like she was going to have a heart attack since Shiro appeared out of nowhere.
"It¡¯s done already?" She asked with disbelief as Shiro nodded her head.
"Of course. Who do you think I am?" Shiro grinned.
"Anyways, setting that aside, I should probably tell you what I came here for. Since everyone is already evacuating, it makes things easier.
"Yuki, do you want to move everyone in Winter¡¯s Grace to the city I created, Asharia?" Shiro smiled as Yuki blinked.
"Ha?"
###
Exining to Yuki what she needed to know about the city along with the reasons for construction and future ns while they walked back to her office, Shiro waited for her response.
"Hmm... So you¡¯re saying that this city will have Demons in it as well?" Yuki asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup."
"You know a lot of people here have quite the hatred against the Demon¡¯s right?" Yuki reminded as Shiro nodded again.
"I know that."
"But you¡¯re still suggesting that it¡¯s probably best for the faction to move it¡¯s main headquarters to this city?"
"Bingo." Shiro smiled as Yuki sighed.
"Since Demon¡¯s aren¡¯t living in the city just yet, I think moving everyone over shouldn¡¯t be too hard. The problem is when you want to move the Demons to the city since some of the faction members might revolt." Yuki frowned.
"I know but after living on the city for a bit, they should understand the consequences of not following the rules. Yuki, I¡¯m not hosting a charity. I¡¯m creating something that can be a safe ce for all the races that decide toe under my protection. Having people that can¡¯t band together in the time of need would only be a hindrance and if they can¡¯t ovee it then shame on them. I¡¯m not going to break my back trying to help those people if they aren¡¯t willing to set aside their differences for now." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"That¡¯s true. So out of curiosity, how dangerous is this new age exactly. I¡¯ve got some information from the news but it¡¯s better to hear it from you since you know the details better than they do." Yuki asked as Shiro ced a hand on her chin.
"Hmm... if things don¡¯t go well, this entire world will be destroyed. However, if it does go well, the world will be saved. Is the general gist of it I guess." Shiro shrugged since that was the best way she can describe it in simple terms.
Hearing this, Yuki furrowed her brows.
"So end of the world scenario then. Good to know." Yuki sighed.
"Pft don¡¯t be like that. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s set in stone." Shiro chuckled.
If she proceeded carefully and made sure she survived to the end, she can get the system to create this new hub of life that it had set out to create. Once that is done, the cycle of creating new gardens and resetting the universe will end.
"True. Alright, I¡¯ll do what I can and support you to the end. We did promise to make Winter¡¯s Grace into one of the biggest guilds after all." Yuki grinned as Shiro nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll give you a file on the finer details. In the meantime, I¡¯ll scan your headquarters and move it to the city. I¡¯ll also expand it a little so that you can fit more faction members in it." Shiro smiled as Yuki raised her eyebrow.
"Will it fit?" She asked curiously.
"Of course it will. Just look at it¡¯s size." Shiroughed as she pointed up.
Slowly, a giant portal opened up as the city revealed itself and Yuki was rendered speechless at its size.
Chapter 895 Developing The City Further
Chapter 895 Developing The City Further
Transporting the headquarters of Winter¡¯s Grace to Asharia was an easy task. Watching the headquarters being recreated using nanobots, Yuki didn¡¯t know how to react since the headquarters took them a while to make and yet Shiro was able to do it in a few minutes.
As for moving the luggage, the spirits, elves and the sect members were more than happy to help their new neighbours.
Most of the faction members were fine with everything but the neers were a bit sceptical since it seemed too good to be true.
Those that wanted to leave were allowed to while those that decided to stay but had bad intentions were asked to leave. A simple scan of their expressions told the Ai pretty much everything they needed to know so filtering out the people was easy. Those that wanted to take pictures of the tech and upload it to the inte were allowed to since it wasn¡¯t like they could recreate it.
Right now, Asharia was host to Winter¡¯s Grace, Asakura City, the Spirit Capital, the Hidden Sect, Rising Sun and there were more tforms being reserved for new additions such as the demons.
Checking the inte, Shiro smirked at the chaos that her city was causing since things that they believed couldn¡¯t be real was shown in the city. Large mechs, giant cannons and technology that far surpassed the limit of the current era.
There were people who demanded that she share this with the rest of the world but Shiro didn¡¯t give two sh*ts and took over the inte for a short period of time.
Releasing a statement saying the technology is limited to Asharia, anyone who has any intention to steal it would be dealt with ordingly and that there is a limit to how many people can stay in this city.
Since the world was going to change, Shiro decided that she might as well be transparent with the limitations of this city. While it was big, it couldn¡¯t amodate everyone and giving them false hope of amodation would be cruel.
Relinquishing control of the inte, she went about her day while the government was receiving countlessints from all sides.
However, with Grangel¡¯s and Zacks rmendation, they decided to take Shiro¡¯s side in this and support her development. Should she create more cities like this, they would help her as much as they could.
Naturally, this was made clear through Grangel as he was sent as an intermediary for now. Plus, he received an offer from Shiro to stay in the city so he agreed while also working for the government.
Delivering the message to Shiro, Grangel was allowed to stay in the centre of the city.
"Since the government is now supporting everything, I guess it wouldn¡¯t hurt too much to absorb their military power as reinforcement. If I were to make more branch anchors, surrounding it in a city would be handy but it wouldn¡¯tpare to Asharia." Shiro muttered while sitting in themand room.
Looking at the city that was now flourishing, Shiro had been sending drones out to ce more teleport nodes for ease of ess.
While they could buy an item from the shops that made a node for them, it had a limited amount of usability since it¡¯ll expire after a few uses.
Having nodes that acted like a teleport Shrine would be helpful.
{Maybe you should allow people toe here like a temporary hub of sorts. They cane here to buy items and weapons before leaving. It might also be beneficial to create a hotel so that they can stay overnight if they¡¯re tired.} Iziuel suggested as Nimue nodded her head.
{Iziuel¡¯s right. This city doesn¡¯t have to be a permanent home for people.}
¡¯I agree but there are some problems with that. If we just let theme then an army of Queens can just ambush us from the centre and ruin everything. While I can create teleport nodes, it doesn¡¯t filter out the Queens just yet. Since the Queens don¡¯t have the power to face me right now, I¡¯m setting that aside but I¡¯m having drones work on preventing Queens from using the teleport node. Should someone with the mana resembling a Queen enter, they¡¯ll be teleported away from Asharia. But it¡¯s still a work in progress so Isilia is helping out with finding amon signal between Queens and Empresses.¡¯ Shiro replied as Nimue furrowed her brows.
{That¡¯s true. What if you add a separate hub then? Like the security gates at one of those ces called an airport. They¡¯ll confirm your identity using the ID code they receive upon registering with the city. For those that haven¡¯t registered, they can go to a separate shop for now simr to the Auction house¡¯s tablets and a drone will deliver the product to them.} Nimue suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯That might work. Plus, since it¡¯s transported using drones, if there¡¯s a problem, they can¡¯t me us.¡¯ Shiro nodded her head and tapped on her screen.
"Samuel, are you there." She called out as Samuel¡¯s face appeared on a screen.
"You called your highness?"
"I¡¯m going to send you a project file on something I want to be created. I¡¯ll give you level 4 ess on the drones to get this done quickly. Once it¡¯s done, give me a message and I¡¯ll sort out the rest. You¡¯re allowed to use Hanger 10 for the construction of this since it needs to be big. I¡¯ve already moved all of the mechs from Hanger 10 to 9 so you don¡¯t need to worry about space." Shiro ordered as Samuel nodded his head.
"Understood. I¡¯ll get to it right away."
Ending the call, Shiro sent him the file.
{Wait where are we even going to ce this separate gateway and store?} Nimue asked as Shiro just proceeded without saying anything.
¡¯When Estre reaches tier 6 what do you think will happen with her power of space? Even if the queen were to arrive, we¡¯ll just iste in that space.¡¯ Shiro grinned as Nimue paused.
Once a person reached tier 6, their control over their element would increase significantly. For Estre, keeping a pocket dimension to work as a gateway was simple as breathing and if a fight does break out, isting a single target before she can harm someone was within reason. Plus, it wasn¡¯t like she was taking care of multiple dimensions. It was just a single one that connects to every single teleport node.
¡¯Plus, I can make it so that if you have received special permission, you can bypass this gate. That way they wouldn¡¯t need to wait if the queue isrge.¡¯
{What will you do if the amount of people entering the gateway is bigger than expected?} Nimue asked as it would get hectic.]
¡¯Since it¡¯s made from nanobots, I can easily expand the building you know? Space isn¡¯t a problem since Estre will be able to help me. You¡¯ve seen how big her space could expand to. Once she reaches tier 6, it would be bigger.¡¯ Shiro smiled as Nimue nodded.
¡¯Setting that asi-¡¯
Just as she was about to continue, she felt a spike of mana within the tower and the clouds darkened in the sky.
Feeling arge surge of Demonic Energy, Shiro grinned.
"Seems like Madi is waking up. Took her awhile huh?"
Standing up, she grabbed her jacket and walked towards Madison¡¯s room.
The rest of the party wasn¡¯t far behind her either since they¡¯ve also sensed the magic.
Arriving in front of Madison¡¯s room, they opened the door and saw Helion standing in front of the crystal with a serious expression.
Right now, the surface of the crystal waspletely ck as cracks appeared in the corners.
Demonic energy would leak from the cracks and permeate the room as the aura continued to grow.
*KRRR!!!
Suddenly, arge fracture appeared down the centre as the aura shot up and reached the realm of tier 6.
A delicate hand reached out and grabbed the edge before ripping the crystal apart.
"F*cking hell I¡¯m starving! Why the hell was I stuck for so long!" Madison shouted out in rage as the crystal pieces were sent flying across the room before vaporising into ck mist.
[Madison LVL 501 Demon Queen]
"Yo, the sleeping beauty finally woke up huh? How does your body feel?" Shiro called out with a smile as Madison nced over.
"A bit cold but it seems like my physique lost a bit of muscle. How can I tank properly now- huh?" Madison replied.
However, when she nced down, she realised that only a ck mist was swirling around her body, helping her cover up what¡¯s important.
Seeing that all the males in the room had the decency to look away, Madison coughed and grabbed a dress from her inventory.
"May I get changed first?" She said with a forced smile as Shiro nodded her head and left the room with the rest of the party.
As thest one to walk out, the party could see that Helion had a blush on his face.
Seeing this, Shiro, Lyrica and Silvia had a smug smile on their face.
"You got a peek, didn¡¯t you?" Lyrica smirked as Helion coughed violently.
After getting changed, Madison walked out of the room to see Helion getting teased by the three demoness¡¯ while looking at her for help.
Opening her mouth, Madison mouthed the following words.
¡¯You¡¯re on your own, good luck.¡¯
Chapter 896 Final Preparations Before The New Age
Chapter 896 Final Preparations Before The New Age
Sitting in the cafeteria, Madison was eating some food while ncing at the rest of the party.
"So can you lot fill me in on what¡¯s been happening recently?" Madison asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Of course, but I¡¯m sure there¡¯s something else that we¡¯re curious about first. How did you reach tier 6 directly and why did it take so long for you to evolve?" Shiro asked as the party nodded their heads.
"Hm... well while I was in the crystal, I was actually in a different space. I met the old god that I¡¯m a descendant of and he was helping me master my power as well as help me refine my energy to reach tier 6." Madison shrugged while eating another mouthful of food.
"So you met the Demon God Markon huh? Did he tell you anything important about the new age?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Not really. All he said was that since I¡¯ve allied myself with you, it¡¯s best that I prepare myself for grave dangers. He didn¡¯t exin what the dangers were since he wanted me to master my energy first but he mentioned that it was something to do with demons." Madison replied.
"Ah right, I might have pissed off 60+ Demon Gods but that¡¯s not important for now. It¡¯s not like they¡¯re arriving immediately so we can set them aside." Shiro nodded nonchntly as Madison dropped her fork.
"Anyways, I think you were able to reach tier 6 so quickly is because Markon must have shared some of his power with you. While it¡¯s only a little, I definitely sense some Divine Energy in your body that¡¯s constantly helping you refine your energy. From now on, even if you don¡¯t do anything, you¡¯ll get stronger. I¡¯m not sure what your lifespan is right now but it¡¯s far surpassed what could be considered the limit. While you might not be ageless like a god, I can say that you¡¯ll live for a long f*cking time." Shiro grinned and gave her a thumbs up.
"Madi, even though you¡¯re the one who wanted to be the most normal out of all of us, you¡¯re actually the closest one to reaching Shiro¡¯s standard since you¡¯ve got Divine Energy in you now." Lyricaughed as Madison wanted to cry.
However, her chances of being normal were long obliterated since she finally found out the reason for awakening her bloodline.
That was because the moment she met Shiro, her bloodline that belonged to a god reacted to her dormant Divine Energy! She was doomed the moment she met Shiro!
Even if they didn¡¯t be friends, she would have be abnormal sooner orter.
Thinking back to this, Madison felt like crying again.
¡¯Goodbye, normality. It was fun knowing you, even if it was all just an illusion!¡¯
"So is there anything else that I need to know? I¡¯m sure it is less shocking than the fact that she pretty much pissed off an entire pantheon of gods." Madison asked while resting her chin on the table.
"Should I summarise everything rted to gods first so that we can get it out of the way?" Shiro asked as Madison nodded.
"Let¡¯s see, in terms of enemies, you already know about the 60+ Demon Gods. However, I have also pissed off two light goddesses, a light god, Zeus, Poseidon and maybe a few others from the Greek pantheon. In terms of Allies, I have close ties with Hades¡¯ since my bloodline is that of reapers that work under him. I also have the five primordial gods backing me up along with the being before them, Chaos. You¡¯ll see them during the second half of the new age when the gods descend. Gaia is nice, she¡¯s a battle junkie like me but she doesn¡¯t have muchbat power so we¡¯ll be using mechs for her. Nyx is nice too. Some of the oldies sound strict and mean but just think of them as tsundere¡¯s and it¡¯ll be fine. Hmm what else... ah right. I¡¯ve be a proper Demi God now and Lisandra will be able to use Divine Energy once she finishes her upgrade to tier 6." Shiro exined as Madison was trying her best not to react to the things that she had just said so nonchntly even though they werepletely insane.
[Gaia wishes to express her agreement]
[Chronos, Ouranos and Tartarus are raising their eyebrows at your statement of calling them oldies.]
[Nyx isughing at the three god¡¯s expressions while restraining Gaia so that she may not propose using the system message.]
Reading the three notifications, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched as she showed a hologram of the messages to the party.
"See? They¡¯re not as majestic as you might imagine." Shiro shrugged.
Seeing this, Madison decided to focus on her meal while listening to everything.
Looking at the city, she didn¡¯t think that something like this was actually possible but that wasn¡¯t her main focus.
"Uhhggg.... I actually missed your birthday." Madison sighed.
"It¡¯s fine there¡¯s always a party next year you know?" Shiro chuckled as Madison nodded.
"I know but hais, stupid crystal actually sealed me up for so long. Plus, Markon was so happy to see his great great repeated many times granddaughter. We settled for just calling me grand daughter and me calling him gramps but I have to say, my impression of gods from now on is pretty much shattered. I thought gramps was an exception but it seems like all the gods aren¡¯t so different. At least the ones you know." Madison shrugged as Shiro nodded.
"True. With how the system is, I¡¯d say that Gods are just very powerful people that lived for a long time. There hasn¡¯t been a true biblical god that is all powerful and all knowing. Though I guess the system fits that premise a little doesn¡¯t it?" Shiro smiled however she knew that it couldn¡¯t be called the biblical god either.
After all, her future self removed it from this world!
She still had her concerns about it since she didn¡¯t know what caused her to remove the system.
Plus, Lisandra was still ¡¯normal¡¯ right now. Her wings were still white and it was nothing like the ck wings she had in the future.
¡¯Maybe Lisandra was the cause? If I was to think of it as a fallen angel, something might have happened that forced her to fall hence why I got rid of the system. If the system isn¡¯t around, she¡¯ll keep her sense of self since falling was something caused by the system.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{Take it easy for now Shiro. While there are many mysteries around the system, the benefits it brings can¡¯t be denied. Since it hasn¡¯t acted up for now, we should let it be but keep an eye on it.} Nimue reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯Don¡¯t worry I know. Setting that aside, how¡¯s Estre doing?¡¯ Shiro asked.
{Her aura is increasing but it¡¯s slow. It¡¯s simr to what happened with Madison but it¡¯s being stretched out. At this rate, she¡¯ll reach tier 6 after the new age starts.}
¡¯Hmm... that dys things a bit but that¡¯s fine. We don¡¯t need to get the gateway constructed immediately. Since our territory is limited to just this city, I can stay here and monitor everything. Even if they invade, I¡¯ll send them out. But once we have more cities, the gateway will be needed.¡¯
"I know that Madison¡¯s just woken up but do you want to make a move on getting the Demons into the city now?" Nan Tian asked.
Thinking about it, Shiro nced at Madison.
"What do you think? Since you¡¯re their ruler now, it¡¯s up to you. Plus, you also need to set up your anchor don¡¯t you?" Shiro smiled as Madison nodded her head.
"Yeah I¡¯ll help you move everyone to this city. As for my anchor, gramps helped me make it andpress it down to this jewel. Right now it has no benefits but the moment I want to set it down, he said that I can just push my energy through it and it¡¯ll expand. He did say that I should make a contract with you first before putting it down since we¡¯re allies. It¡¯ll make the process easier because the system apparently recognises us as enemies if we set the anchor next to one another and changing that is a pain." Madison shrugged as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, we¡¯ll work on the contract once we get everyone to the city. The demons might take some more convincing so we should start immediately." Shiro smiled as they discussed their ns for a little longer before setting course for the Demon Continent again.
Chapter 897 Demon Queen
Chapter 897 Demon Queen
Standing on the edge of Asharia, Madison watched as they flew above the ground. Looking at the small viges that passed in a blink of an eye, she stayed silent and fell deep into thought.
"Are you alright?" A voice called out as Madison nced back and saw Helion.
"Mn, I am. Just kind of in awe at everything that¡¯s happened. Shiro was able to create this masterpiece, I became the ruler of a race and basically became one of the most powerful people in the world." Madison chuckled as Helion smiled.
"That tends to happen when you hang out with Shiro." He shrugged while standing next to the railings with her.
"Indeed. Looking at those tiny viges really makes you think huh? How power makes them seem so small and insignificant. I feel like I could destroy it if I identally squeezed too hard." Madison sighed as she looked at the viges that were smaller than her hand from this height.
"While they seem small and insignificant, you¡¯ll never know if there¡¯s anyone in there that has the potential to be someone great. I think that¡¯s quite amazing that you can find a hidden gem anywhere in the world. Even in the most unlikely ces." Helion chuckled.
"Mn, I don¡¯t even know why I¡¯m acting like this. I guess bing responsible for an entire race is really setting in now." Madisonughed as she tilted her head back and looked up at the sky.
"It¡¯s a tough responsibility."
"I know. I just don¡¯t know if I can do it well. I was never that good at studies so my knowledge outside ofbat was limited. My ability to judge people has been a bit poor as Shiro could tell thanks to the friends I had before I met her and Lyrica. If it wasn¡¯t for our little bet, I would probably be a viiness of some sort." Madison smiled softly.
"I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll do fine. You got everyone here to support you after all. I don¡¯t know what you were like before but now you have friends that you can rely on." Helion encouraged as Madison nodded.
"Seems like you two are having a rather romantic talk. Wanna fill me in on the details?" A voice called out from beneath them as a white and red mech hovered in the air while maintaining a pose simr toying on the bed. It had its chin resting on the hands while the legs kicked back and forth.
Opening the c.o.c.kpit, they could see Shiro sitting there with a smile while the rest of the party was inside.
"Want to hop in? I was just showing them what the standard units could do since some of them missed the demonstration." Shiro asked as Madison nced at Helion and shrugged.
"Let¡¯s go." She smiled as Helion nodded.
Hopping into the mech, Shiro closed the c.o.c.kpit before diving down close to the ground.
"So what were you guys talking about? It seemed like you were worried about something. Of course, if it¡¯s about your love life we won¡¯t pry." Shiro chuckled.
"Hais, where is your mind wandering to while piloting this hunk of metal." Madison sighed while knocking Shiro¡¯s head slightly.
"Hehe, just curious." Shiroughed.
"It wasn¡¯t anything too important. Just wondering if I¡¯ll do a good job as a Queen." Madison shrugged.
"Ahhh you¡¯re worried about that. The responsibility is rather heavy isn¡¯t it?" Shiro nodded in understanding.
"Yeah, sometimes I just feel like throwing up when I think about the responsibilities." Madisons sighed.
"Honestly, just find someone capable of organising things and drop everything to them. asionally show your face and you¡¯ll be fine." Shiro encouraged with a thumbs up as Madison raised her eyebrow.
"What?"
"Why do you think I leave everything to Nan Tian? If I had to deal with everything I¡¯d be exhausted." Shiro shrugged.
"But he¡¯s left to deal with everything now." Madison reminded.
"I know but he¡¯s got Samuel to help him along with the other Spirit Council members. Plus, Keiko let me borrow some of her capable staff to help out with a bit of the organisation of the ce. Honestly, I just deal with thebat side of things rather than everything else since I¡¯m a bit dull in that regard I suppose." Shiroughed since it was the truth. She was much better atbatpared to everything else hence why she left everything up to Nan Tian and the others. Part of it was because she trusted their capabilities and the other part was just that she couldn¡¯t be bothered.
Hearing what Shiro had said, Madison couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
"Well I guess I¡¯ll look for someone specialised in paperwork which might be a little hard considering the fact that the demons are a race that focus on strength. All of them are basically battle junkies." Madison shrugged.
"Well that¡¯s more your problem than mine hahaha, good luck." Shiroughed as Madison rolled her eyes.
While they travelled towards the Demon Continent, Shiro showed off what her mech could do and asked if anyone of them wanted a mech of their own. However, the party rejected since they already had their own fighting style and changing to mechs would actually hinder them. However, if it was a suit of armour that enhanced their abilities, they wouldn¡¯t mind since Shiro had shown them the armours before.
After hearing their response, Shiro made a mental note of it and decided to work on personal armour units when she had time. Each of these armour will be tailored to each of them so that it brings out their best abilities. It¡¯ll take a while to design but the payoff would be worth it.
###
Upon arriving in the Demon Continent, they immediately made their way to the central region since that was where the majority of the demons resided.
Plus, after the fall of the candidates and Madison bing the Queen, Asphil had everyone put their focus on the central region since Shiro had ordered her to do this in order to make things easier.
Calling for Asphil, the party waited outside of the new capital.
Rushing towards them, they spotted the silhouette of the demon that they had been waiting for.
"I apologise for not greeting you sooner your highness. Congrattions on your ascension." Asphil kneeled down in front of Madison as she nodded her head.
"Mn it took a while but we¡¯ll proceed with the n now. How are the demons? Are theyfortable with the thought of living in Asharia while abiding by the rules?" Madison asked as Asphil made a difficult expression.
"I¡¯ve tried to prepare them but many aren¡¯t listening to me. Even if I try to suppress them with my strength, they said that the Queen has not spoken personally so they won¡¯t follow the order." Asphil replied as Madison frowned.
"So they¡¯ll only follow it if I show myself huh?"
"Indeed. You may need to be forceful in your methods since you need to remember that many of these demons were subjects of other candidates." Asphil reminded as Madison narrowed her eyes before sighing.
"Alright, I¡¯ll handle this." Madison shook her head.
"Good luck Madi, if you need us, we¡¯ll be here." Lyrica encouraged as Madison smiled.
"Mn, I¡¯ll keep that in mind."
Stomping down, shadows swirled in front of her as a portal opened up.
Stepping through the portal, she disappeared from the area as dark clouds loomed over the main city.
*BOOM!!
shes of red lightning could be seen as a demonic aura wrapped around the entire city. Those that were weak found themselves unable to move from the fear.
The clouds started to swirl towards a single point as Madison appeared above the city. Her red hair fluttered in the wind as an army of demons appeared behind her.
Demon Queen skill: March of Demonic Generals!
Their bodies were created from shadows and they donned ck and red armour that radiated cursed energy. Each of them felt no weaker than tier 5 as their weapons gleamed menacingly.
Looking down at the city, she could see all the demons looking at her with shock while their weapons quivered in their hands.
"When the Queen arrives, are you not to bow in her presence?" Madison asked coldly as her tier 6 aura crashed into the bodies of the demons, focusing them to kneel against the ground. Those that tried to put up a fight had their knees broken and forced to kneel.
"Despite showing myself, it seems like you wish to fight against me. The one that rules this race from now on. If you want to rebel, show yourself so that I can give you a swift death. If you don¡¯t, your ending will make you wish you revealed yourself." Madison warned as killing intent drenched the city, colouring it with a red hue.
*Whistle~
Watching this performance, Shiro wanted to wipe away a silent tear.
¡¯Look how Madi has grown, she¡¯s a fine woman now.¡¯ Shiro praised in her mind as Nimue decided to notment at all.
Seeing that no one revealed themselves, Madison sighed in her mind but didn¡¯t express it on her face.
"Since there are none that want to revolt, I presume that the rest of you are devoted to me then. If I wanted your life, the only answer I should be hearing is yes." Madison narrowed her eyes as her shadow loomed over the city like a bad omen of what¡¯s toe.
Chapter 898 The First Day
Chapter 898 The First Day
Looking at Madison who floated above the city, the demons had no choice but to obey since her power far surpassed theirs.
"From now on, we¡¯ll be going to a city known as Asharia. There are humans, elves and spirits and you are to cooperate with them from now on. Should I find out that you have been actively attacking or antagonizing them, I will end you before you can even beg." Madison announced as the demons started to discuss between themselves with a frown.
Hearing this, Madison narrowed her eyes.
"Silence! If you have a problem with my decision, stand up." Madison red as a few demons swallowed their saliva and stood up.
"And what problem will that be?" Madison asked.
However, before they could say anything, a spear of shadows erupted out from the ground and pierced them high into the sky.
"That¡¯s my response. Talk to me when you can put up a fight. I¡¯ll give you a day to pack up or else we¡¯re leaving you behind. If you are left behind, who knows what my generals might do to you." Madison smiled as a portal opened up behind her. Stepping through, the guardians floated in the sky as if they were keeping an eye on the capital.
Seeing this, a few of the demons panicked and quickly packed up everything that they needed.
###
"Uhgg.... I¡¯m not doing that again." Madison sighed as she returned to the party.
"What do you mean? That was great. Brought a tear to my eye." Shiro patted her shoulder while pretending to wipe a tear away.
"Whatever. Asphil, what do you think?" Madison asked as Asphil kneeled in front of her.
"I think that was fantastic, your highness. Most of the demons here are fearful of your power. As the Queen of the race who has demonstrated your ability to kill everyone if you wanted, they are now respectful towards you, fearing the consequences. Even if you tell them to die, they will follow through." Asphil replied as Madison nodded her head.
"Not my favourite way of trying to rule them but its most effective short term I guess." Madison scratched her hair.
"Don¡¯t worry, we can sort out the detailster. I¡¯ve already sent out a notice in Asharia and the citizens are fine as long as they¡¯re ¡¯tame¡¯ I suppose. Of course, I did warn them about taunting them and raising conflict. If they were to do so, they¡¯ll be punished ordingly. All that¡¯s left is to scan the capital into the city and finalise the tform that they¡¯ll be living in. I think we¡¯ll be able to fit everything in just before the start of the new age." Shiro smiled as Madison nodded her head.
"I wonder if the demons will actually get along with the other races since they can¡¯t be forced to get along with one another properly." Madison sighed.
"I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine. Plus, we¡¯re not partial with the punishment, regardless of whomitted the offence, the punishment will be the same." Shiro reassured as they made their way back to Asharia.
###
My name is Felsha Eliness, one of the retainers for the 19th ranked candidate who had passed away after the revolution caused by the Demon Queen.
Her presence through the continent has been nothing short of fearful as everyone in her path was ughtered without resistance.
Asphil, one of the higher ranked candidates was actually turned into a ve.
When she had appeared, all the respect we had for her was lost immediately and no one bothered to listen to her.
Unless the Queen arrived, there was nothing she could do. She couldn¡¯t kill us either since she lost that freedom as a ve. Without the master¡¯s permission, she couldn¡¯t do anything. That was against how most demons lived.
Even if we were retainers, we had more freedompared to her.
We could ughter if we wished.
For her to bow her head like this, it was disdainful.
Or at least that¡¯s what we thought until the day she descended to the capital.
The entire world seemed to change from her presence as dark clouds loomed over the city.
A legion of demons followed behind her as each one felt more powerful than Asphil herself.
Her crimson hair contrasted against the dark skies and her tyrannical aura crushed us to our knees. The prideful demons had their knees broken and they were forced to kneel as the feeling of death permeated through the city.
My hands quivered without stop as she spoke as fear gripped my throat.
¡¯Someone like this is our Queen?¡¯ Is what I thought when fear filled my mind but at the same time, a sense of pride.
Our Queen was someone that could bend the world to her will, if we were to invade the humans, theirnd could be our territory. We wouldn¡¯t need to constantly fight amongst ourselves to find a ce to sleep.
However, my expectations were shattered when she mentioned the fact that we were to live in a city of humans, elves and spirits. Asphil mentioned this before but that was impossible right? Why would such an imposing Demon Queen ally herself with those three races? The spirits have long lost their Queen so they were nothingpared to us. The elves and humans were simr.
There was no way we could get along. And yet, the Queen was forcing us to do so.
Moving to this new city was... strange to say the least.
We had to do something called registering with something simr to a system but it was to prove our citizenship. We had to agree to rules that were put in ce and by doing so, we¡¯re given fair treatment.
¡¯Impossible.¡¯ I thought.
It was ridiculous to believe that they would actually give us demons fair treatment.
They would obviously stick up for the three ¡¯normal¡¯ looking races like they have before.
My first day in this city was... surprising. The sheer size of this ce was impressive as it was apparently made by one person or rather, one spirit. The Queen of the spirit race. Despite not having a queen for so long, my instincts told me that a normal demon would lose to a normal spirit 100% of the time. The boost that they received from their queen far surpassed what our Queen was able to grant.
I was surprised. How could someone so fearsome be outssed with such a clear disparity? The day our Queen appeared, she was like a malevolent god. But even though we have never seen the Spirit Queen, we instinctively knew that she could ughter our entire race without a second thought.
The mere thought sent shivers down my spine and like the rest of the demons, I decided to behave myself for now rather than test the limits to show how unfair they were.
When I went to a local bar down the street, the res that I received proved everything to me.
¡¯I knew it. Coexisting with them is impossible. Even now, the killing intent radiating from them was obvious.¡¯
However, the bartender only mmed his hand down against the table.
He reprimanded them for disregarding the rules before smiling towards me and offered me a drink.
I was speechless since he had no hostility. It felt strange but I yed along for now.
While drinking, I exchanged some stories with the bartender while he served other customers. These stories could be mundane or the conflicts between the candidates but he replied with simr stories beforeughing about how simr they were in terms of experiences even if their race was different.
Perhaps it was the alcohol but I couldn¡¯t help butugh as well.
But this thought was put to the test as I recognized the patron that had just entered. An old enemy. He killed my allies and family while I killed his. His killing intent immediately spiked as he red at me with anger. Even with the alcohol, my sense for battle was telling me to retaliate as I grabbed my sword.
However, the bartender tapped my shoulder and said that I should trust in the ruler of the ce.
Strangely, his confidence in the ruler convinced me as I lowered my guard and sat back down to enjoy my drink while keeping an eye on him in case I needed to fight back.
Before the sword could reach me however, a flicker of white appeared in my sight as the man was suppressed and chained up immediately.
"Hais, the first day and it¡¯s actually the humans causing more trouble. Tsk tsk, I¡¯ll need to talk to Keiko and have her give the humans a talk. Are you ok? I hope his actions have not scared you."
A white-haired woman smiled.
Her aura was so calming and warm that I felt safe in her presence. The opposite of our Queen where there was fear.
"Ah I¡¯m fine thank you." I replied without thinking. My voice sounded calm which was different to my usual tone.
"Mn that¡¯s good. I hope you enjoy the city since it¡¯s supposed to be a safe ce for all races. I won¡¯t tolerate any infighting amongst you so I¡¯ll deal with this one myself. After all, I have warned him about the consequences." She smiled.
I shuddered.
Her warm aura turned frigid and I felt like I died several times from the short exposure to the killing intent.
The ruler of this ce was more fearsome than what we believe.
Chapter 899 Hostility Towards Demons
Chapter 899 Hostility Towards Demons
Standing above the main tower with her eyes closed, Shiro sighed heavily while monitoring everything that was going on.
With the recent integration of Demons, the main problem was the humans that held a grudge against the demons after countless years of conflict. The spirits were fine since they trusted her judgment and treated the demons fairly while the elves never interacted with the demons much to begin with. Sure there were small skirmishes every now and again but they were sensible enough to understand that infighting was not allowed.
Thankfully, the actions of spirits, elves and a few humans allowed most of the demons to feel a bit morefortable in this city. While they still had their worries and were on guard most of the time, they could at least rx when they were in their section of the city.
Not many ventured out to the centre but those that did had good impressions which was what Shiro had hoped for.
"Hais, it¡¯s going to be a long night." Shiro muttered as she snapped her fingers.
10 figures appeared around her as they each had a special uniform. They were specially trained to help Shiro discipline troublemakers. While drones could apprehend those that broke thew, the offender would undoubtedly be heavily injured which was not desired since spilling blood out in the open was rather disturbing. It was better to torture them away from public sight.
"I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve been informed of your duties so I hope you can perform properly tonight. Once tonight is over, things should settle down a little. Don¡¯t be biased towards any race and remember that the demons are no different from you ok?" Shiro instructed as they said nothing and nodded their heads.
"Good. You¡¯re dismissed." Shiro smiled as they disappeared.
Watching them spread themselves throughout the city, Shiro¡¯s lips curved up into a smile as this city was shaping up as expected. The military training that was now supported by the sect showed great improvements in martial techniques and allowed them to fight other adventurers efficiently.
The shops were managed by both the Rising Sun and Winter¡¯s Grace since they had high standings amongst the humans making trade easier.
The guild had requested that she have a branch in the city but she was going to set that aside for now. And determine whether or not it was worth itter.
But right now, she was more inclined to leave them out of the city.
Sensing some conflict, nearby, Shiro only shook her head and disappeared.
###
The first night of demons entering the city resulted in the arrest of over six hundred humans that had broken the rules, seven demons and three elves. The spirits didn¡¯t cause any trouble as they were the most obedient.
Everyone that was locked up had to go through a screening process to see if they¡¯re allowed back into the city. Depending on the circ.u.mstances, they might just be banned from the city altogether.
Flicking through their files, Shiro had cameras in each of their cells as she rested her cheek on her palm and yawned.
While she could go for a few days without sleep, it didn¡¯t mean she couldn¡¯t get tired. Plus, sleep was necessary to give your mind a rest.
However, with all the things that she needed to do, even after giving most of it to other people, there was still a table full of doc.u.ments.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Shiro rested her mind.
Hearing the door open, she nced back and saw that it was Nan Tian who entered themand centre.
"You seem tired." He smiled while handing her some hot chocte.
"A little. Though I would have expected you to give me juice rather than hot chocte." Shiro smiled lightly.
"You seem tired so something warm to rx you is probably better than juice." Nan Tian shrugged.
"Mn." Taking the hot chocte, she took a sip while Nan Tian sat next to her.
"I¡¯ve already finished the doc.u.ments that you gave me. I swear, I¡¯m basically your secretary now." Heughed as Shiro grinned.
"Who else does such a good job? I can¡¯t let go of a talent if I see one." Shiro replied while splitting some of the doc.u.ments with him.
"I haven¡¯t even said anything yet and you¡¯ve already pushed your work to me." Nan Tian smiled helplessly.
"Surely you be so mean as toe here and watch me do all the work now would you?" Shiro smirked.
Shaking his head, he flicked through the doc.u.ments.
"Hm... most of these files are on people that were arrested yesterday." Nan Tian muttered as he could see that over 70% of them were arrested on ount of assault towards the demons over personal grudges.
"Yeah, the hostility between demons and humans is quite high after all. But right now the demons are better than the humans since they actually know how to follow thews and not attack humans on sight. There¡¯s some unrest in the humanmunity as well as posts made on the inte but Keiko is dealing with it. Plus, even if they don¡¯t like it here, they can just leave. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m forcing them to be here. IF anything, it just opens up more space for other races." Shiro sighed while cing her hot chocte to the side.
"Excluding the humans, I¡¯m guessing everyone else is fine with demons?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn. I had the demons stay on their own tform but a few wanted to go out to the centre. I didn¡¯t stop them of course since they would need to interact with one another sooner orter. Might as well get it over and done now. A few of the demons understand that there¡¯s not much difference between them and it was just a matter of war brewing hatred. I think if we give it a week or so, we¡¯ll be able to start integrating demons into our own military and train them to use mechs once Madison solidifies her rule. Even with her demonstration, you can tell that a few of the demons are unsatisfied with living in this city."
"Unfortunately we don¡¯t have a week. Things will get awfully busy from now on. I don¡¯t even know if I¡¯ll be able to help you with paperwork." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro shrugged.
"Maybe I should lock you up in a bas.e.m.e.nt and have a tube that sends food and paperwork to stop you from running away."
"Scary. Let¡¯s hope it doesn¡¯t get to that stage then." Nan Tian stood up and collected the empty mug.
"For now though, I¡¯ll help you out with the remaining paperwork. We should probably hire more people for paperwork." He said while looking at the giant stack. Shaking his head, he stored them into his inventory.
"Leaving already? Why not just do the paperwork here?" Shiro asked as she pointed to the chair.
"I was wondering if I would distract you or something."
"Pft, I¡¯ll be fine. I can multitask anyway." Shiro reassured with a smile as Nan Tian nodded and sat back down.
Bringing out the paperwork, he scanned them into theputer before tapping away at the keyboard.
ncing over at Nan Tian, Shiro appreciated how seriously he took the work. Plus, his work efficiency was high.
{Who was the one that said you won¡¯t be distracted. I can see that you¡¯re already admiring the side view.} Nimue reminded as Shiro had already stopped working on her paperwork.
¡¯Urg, I¡¯m just resting ok.¡¯ Shiro nced to the side.
{Right. Why don¡¯t you just give all the paperwork to him and you can rest longer.} Nimue rolled her eyes as Shiro paused.
¡¯Good idea.¡¯
Tapping the paperwork slightly, she created a small contraption under the table which continuously increased his pile by taking sheets from her.
After a short while, Nan Tian noticed that something was wrong since he should have long finished his stack.
ncing over to the side, he saw that Shiro had fallen asleep with her head on her arms while all the paperwork was being transported to his pile.
Smiling softly, he shook his head and reached into his inventory. Grabbing a nket, he ced it over her body before scanning all of the paperwork in the room and started to work away at it while Shiro rested.
###
"Mn...." Groaning softly, Shiro sat up and yawned before stretching her body.
Seeing that all the paperwork was done she had a happy smile on her face.
¡¯I knew I could count on him.¡¯ She thought while ncing at the nket that was ced over her.
Pausing for a moment, she chuckled softly before storing it away in her inventory and walked out of themand room and sent her senses out while checking up on everything that she needed to do.
Surprisingly, her to do list was rather small now as Nan Tian had beenpleting them all while she slept.
Finding him in the mech hanger, she saw that he was going around for a maintenance check on all the cadets and giving them some tips ording to the information he had gathered.
{What a ve driver. Letting him do all the work while you slept.} Nimue smirked as Shiro was about to reply with a smug grin when they sensed Estre¡¯s aura fluctuating violently between tier 5 and 6.
Chapter 900 Timer
Chapter 900 Timer
Immediately switching her attention to her mana realm, Shiro could see that that ind that Estre was on started to change with her attempt at evolution.
A thin dark barrier surrounded the border making it seem like the ind was being sent into her pocket dimension.
ncing up at the ceiling of her mana realm, Shiro could see golden runes melt into liquid that slowly dripped onto the top of the barrier before diffusing across the surface.
Understanding that her identity as a Demi God was changing Estre¡¯s evolution slightly, Shiro sat patiently and didn¡¯t remove her eyes from the ind at all.
She could barely make out Estre¡¯s figure on the ind as she looked as though she was in pain.
She was currently gritting her teeth while her eyebrows were furrowed.
Ayer of darkness was spreading across her skin and it slowly reached her neck.
However, a golden choker which seemed to be made from Divine Energy prevented the darkness from covering her entirely.
Seeing that her expression rxed ever so slightly, Shiro sighed softly since that darkness might cause her to fail should it cover her entire body.
Slowly, golden crests appeared on the back of her hands and in the centre of her chest. The crests was a side view of a woman which slowly disappeared, taking theyer of darkness with it.
*BANG!!!!
Piercing into the realm of tier 6 and solidifying, the barrier waspletely covered with darkness which prevented them from seeing Estre but they knew that this was a good sign since it was acting like a cocoon. She had already passed the hardest step so the rest should be smooth sailing.
Watching the barrier shrink, Shiro narrowed her eyes as the barrier stretched itself over Estre¡¯s body.
*KRRR!!!
Cracks started to spread across the surface as it shattered apart to reveal Estre who¡¯s appearance had changed slightly.
She now had pure ck hair with streaks of purple, her eyes were ck and a ring of purple could be seen near the pupil. She wore a sleeveless skin tight undershirt that was connected to a choker, a ck sleeveless shirt which exposed her shoulders which connected to a waist guard. Long strips of fabric flowed down the side of the waist guard as she wore a short skirt and tights with a pair of boots. She also wore a pair of separated sleeves that bloomed out around the wrist area and were coloured ck with hints of purple. Under the sleeves were a pair of ck gloves that was a perfect fit for her hands.
Of course, Shiro¡¯s main focus was not her appearance but rather her title card.
[Estre LVL 501 Dimension Walker]
Reading her ss name, Shiro was a little surprised since this could possibly mean that she could seek out the old gardens that might have failed.
Quickly dashing to Estre¡¯s side, she helped Estre sit down properly before checking her body with analysis to make sure that she was feeling ok.
Seeing that she was just a little tired, Shiro sighed in relief.
Opening her mouth, Estre wanted to say something but shecked the strength to speak after a tough ascension to tier 6.
¡¯You can tell meter. For now though, just rest.¡¯ Shiro smiled as Estre furrowed her brows before nodding her head.
Making her a home for the time being, Shiro ced her in the bed.
¡¯Nimue, help me look after Estre just in case something happens to her.¡¯ Shiro nced at Nimue who was already making herselffortable in the house.
{Don¡¯t worry I know. Her ascension into tier 6 has been more violentpared to the other¡¯s.} Nimue nodded.
¡¯Mn, maybe because it finished sooner than expected. We did estimate that she would finish in a few days.¡¯ Shiro frowned while looking at Estre who was sleeping soundlessly on the bed. Shiro knew that the evolution must have taken quite a lot out of her as she didn¡¯t even have the strength to say anything.
{Maybe. With Estre finishing her evolution a bit earlier than expected, you now have five tier 6 beings with more toe as well. You, Estre, Madison, Nan Tian and Isilia. Lisandra is still undergoing her evolution, Keiko is digesting the knowledge you gave her and your parents are also working hard. Honestly, the fact that we have so many tier 6 beings makes us a match for any of the Queen¡¯s. We can probably eliminate the most powerful ones the moment the age begins so that they can¡¯t get any stronger.} Nimue suggested.
¡¯I agree. But we don¡¯t know where their main anchors are. Let¡¯s not rush it. While the lower tier Queens are nothingpared to us, there are those that still pose a big threat to us such as the Chimera Empress. I remember her giving us quite some trouble even though she was heavily injured.¡¯ Shiro frowned as Nimue nodded her head.
Talking to Nimue for a little longer, Shiro focused on reality.
Nan Tian had already finished all the things that were on her to do list and he was making his way back to themand center.
Seeing Shiro standing on one of the tforms that overlooked the mech hanger, he walked up to her with a smile.
"Did you enjoy your nap?" He asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, I enjoyed it even more knowing that you had actually done all my work for me." Shiro smiled.
"Well it was better for me to get it done quickly than leave it forter."
"True. Also, Estre¡¯s reached tier 6 now. Her evolution seemed a little rushed so she¡¯s just recovering from the bacsh right now. Now that we have 5 tier 6 beings, I think a head on confrontation with a few of the high ranked Queens is ok. An example being the Beast Queen, Thiria. We know where one of her branch anchors is so we can probably get rid of it quickly." Shiro suggested.
"Hmm... But how many branch anchors does she have? Surely the one in Clomore isn¡¯t the only branch anchor that she has. With anchors giving the Queens more strength the longer they¡¯re around, the Clomore Anchor must have given her quite the boost. Fighting her won¡¯t be easy unless we can get rid of all her branch anchors, making her lose a good portion of strength. Plus, our information about her is limited." Nan Tian cautioned.
"I know. My future self had also cautioned me about Thiria so I won¡¯t charge in blindly. I¡¯ll get as much information as possible before attacking her. I¡¯d say she should be one of our top priorities considering the fact that she¡¯ll get stronger as time passes and she¡¯s already got a head start with her anchors." Shiro frowned.
"We¡¯ll see how it goes. For now though, let¡¯s just do what we can." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
###
Sitting around the table, the five primordial gods all had serious expressions on their face.
Even the cheerful Gaia who had been rather infatuated with Shiro didn¡¯t look at the monitor showing Shiro at all.
They were instead focusing on a timer along with a monitor that showed the spirit of the garden crumbling away in the pocket dimension.
The timer ticked away as there were 4 hours until it reached zero.
"Four hours left huh?" Gaia muttered as she looked at the timer.
"Mn. After four hours, the entire world will change." Nyx nodded her head while drinking some tea.
"I hope Shiro overestimates the Queen she¡¯ll fight first since she¡¯ll fully understand the importance of Anchors once the world changes." Gaia sighed. If Shiro overestimated them, she¡¯ll be able to fight with the right amount of caution.
"Do not worry about her. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be able to handle them with ease. Though it¡¯s a little annoying to have our messages censored by the system so that we can¡¯t tell her more about the anchors." Tartarus shook his head as Ouranos agreed.
"That¡¯s fine though. The system won¡¯t be able to do much during the second part in terms of censorship. We¡¯ll be able to provide her with as much information as possible." Ouranos shrugged.
"Mn, but if she¡¯s not careful she¡¯ll be killed before the second part. Even if she¡¯s a Demi God right now, she¡¯s still in a lot of danger considering the powers that a few Queens have." Gaia pouted since these old men didn¡¯t share the same worry she had for her darling.
"Just trust in Shiro, Gaia. Aren¡¯t you the one who believes in her the most out of us?" Nyx chuckled as the other three gods nodded their heads.
"Che, just because I believe in her doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t get worried about her getting hurt." Gaia rolled her eyes before looking at the Monitor that showed Shiro tapping away at a keyboard while talking to Nan Tian.
¡¯Please don¡¯t underestimate the power of anchors.¡¯ Gaia thought with worry.
Watching the timer tick down, the gods could only watch in silence.
Chapter 901 The Age of Demons and Gods
Chapter 901 The Age of Demons and Gods
After finishing all of the work that she needed to do, Shiro looked at the city from themand centre and smiled. There haven¡¯t been any more cases of assault towards the demons and the prisoners have been released. While 200 of them were banished from the city since they refused to follow rules, the rest were epting of their clear breach of the rules and understood that they were now allies.
Of course, they still had grievances in their heart but at least they could try to be peaceful with the demons now.
¡¯The races in the city are now at peace and the shops are functioning properly. Most of the things are done and the gateway can be sorted once Estre wakes up. I think we¡¯re pretty much sorted.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile as Nimue agreed.
{You¡¯ve been quite busy over thest few days. Maybe you should go have a break now. I know you had a nap thanks to Nan Tianpleting your tasks for you but you need something more than that.}
¡¯Maybe. But I don¡¯t think I can rest. You feel it too don¡¯t you?¡¯ Shiro asked as her smile faded.
*Sigh...
{Yeah I can. The level of mana is rising with every passing moment.} Nimue nodded since this was a clear sign.
Making a portal to the spirit world, she could see that the sky hadpletely lost its l.u.s.tre and the entire world had lost its colours and the sky swirled slowly like a whirlpool of darkness.
There was only a single piece of clear sky that was slowly being swallowed by the darkness.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro estimated that it would take around an hour or two topletely disappear.
Once that happens, there is a good chance that the new age would arrive.
Leaving the spirit world, she sent out a notice through the city, informing them of the possible arrival of the new age.
Calling for everyone important toe to themand centre, Shiro looked at them with a serious expression.
"You¡¯ve seen the notice so I won¡¯t say much. The new age is probably arriving today so we should n out what we¡¯re going to do the moment it arrives. We know we need to ce down anchors but doing so will weaken us. Thankfully, with me, Madi and Isilia being allied, your anchors probably count towards our overall strength as a city.
"Right now, we have one anchor each so our city is 3 anchors strong, I suppose if I was to give it a value. We know that each Queen will probably have at least one branch anchor so our goal the moment the new age starts is to drop one branch anchor and possibly more if the situation permits it. We have 5 tier 6 beings so me, Madi and Isilia being weakened a little should be ok. Since we have two more. Lisandra is also trying to reach tier 6 so they can act as the guards for now. I¡¯ve already sent some information to my parents so they should be attempting to breach tier 6 sooner orter. Once that happens, we¡¯ll have 8 tier 6 beings in total. We don¡¯t know how many tier 6 guards other Queens have since it was limited with their initial entrance.
"But, once the new age begins, we can estimate that they¡¯ll have just as many or even more than what we have so we can¡¯t charge in without any information. Of course, that means we can¡¯t y all of our cards on the tables so we¡¯ll move with a few selected members to make them believe that the number of tier 6¡¯s we have are on the low end. Plus, they¡¯re more inclined to believe this since reaching tier 6 in our world is rather difficult. For them, their world has already experienced the new age so the number of tier 6 is mon¡¯ for them I suppose. Even if it¡¯s only a handful.
"For now, I want us to secure anchors in three locations that should be possible for us." Shiro smiled as a map of the current world appeared in front of them.
The detail on the map was surprising as it even showcased the territories that haven¡¯t been explored by man.
"I don¡¯t know if the map will stay the same but the three locations I want us to secure are Tokyo, Lerit where the government city is and finally, this city near the outskirts called Nilluk. It¡¯s home to a race of people called the Navuri and I¡¯ll deal with them since they have their ownnguage. Madison, I want you to go with Keiko to Tokyo while Isilia can deal with Lerit with my parents. The government already shows them respect and with what Grangel had told me, the government is supporting us so aplishing this shouldn¡¯t be too hard.
"Madison, you¡¯re used to subduing stubborn people with your little demonstration so you¡¯ll do just fine in Tokyo. You can be a bit harsher if you want since there¡¯s not much room for negotiation once the new age arrives. After you ce down your anchor, notify me and we¡¯ll reinforce the city a little and see if we can move the teleport shrine away and rece it with our own. That way the Queens can¡¯t just invade with ease." Shiro instructed as Madison nodded her head.
"Ugg... At this rate I might as well be known as a tyrant." Madison wanted to cry since this wasn¡¯t exactly her ideal performance as a Queen.
"Tyrant or not you have to admit that it¡¯s rather effective on the demon race." Shiro chuckled as Madison nodded.
"Wouldn¡¯t cing anchors open us up to attacks, especially with the inte informing everyone about our location?" Isilia asked as this was one of her bigger worries.
"That¡¯s fine if they want to attack since we¡¯ll have the home turf advantage. Of course, that doesn¡¯t mean we can just proceed without care but once you¡¯re in your own territory, don¡¯t be too afraid. If you do need help though, you have these guardians to act as your front line. They have no duration and they have the same stats as me with the added benefit of having defence that¡¯s guaranteed by the god of smithing himself." Shiro smiled while giving them a piece of the runic guardians.
"So you¡¯re telling us that each of us have a Demi God ranked golem to help us secure the anchor?" Madison raised her eyebrow.
"Yup. However, if the Queens are more powerful than expected, don¡¯t hesitate to send us an emergency call since I can open up a portal for everyone and we can arrive as reinforcements." Shiro smiled as they nodded their heads while looking at the runic guardians.
"Say, if we were to let say activate this item when you¡¯re a god, wouldn¡¯t that mean we¡¯ll have god tier golems?" Madison asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup since they copy my stats. Of course, just copying my stats doesn¡¯t mean they can fight as well as I do." Shiro shrugged.
"True. But it¡¯s still a golem that can crush you with a single hit." Isilia shrugged.
"Maybe if I was a warrior ss but all of the points are in INT even though I don¡¯t think it uses magic." Shiroughed as they joked around for a bit since the initial ns had been set.
"So after setting the anchors, we still need to think about who we want to eliminate first don¡¯t we? For you to win we need to make sure we¡¯re the only Queen faction remaining in the end and I don¡¯t think many of the Queens are going to be happy with that." Nan Tian asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Let¡¯s stick with the n of taking out the Beast Queen first. She¡¯s the only one that we have information on after all." Shiro suggested.
"For the attack on the beast Queen, me and Nan Tian will take the vanguard first since we only know where her branch anchor is. If we can track down her other anchors, we¡¯ll be able to eliminate most of her strength quickly. After securing the first anchor, Isilia, I want you to help me with a bit of research so that we can potentially track down her other anchors using the branch anchor as a reference. Since they empower here, there¡¯s definitely a signal that we can use to track her down." Shiro smiled.
"Sounds fun. We¡¯ll have to do it quickly though since she¡¯ll definitely bring reinforcements to kill us." Isilia chuckled.
"it¡¯ll be fine. If that happens, we¡¯ll just fight it out with her." Shiro smiled.
Talking for a little longer, their conversation was cut short when all of their systems rang at one.
[The tutorial for this garden has officially ended.]
[Some information regarding the age of Demons and Gods will be distributed for you.]
[For those that aren¡¯t Queens, it is in your best interest to ally yourself with one and survive.]
[For the Queens, the system wishes you luck.]
[Wee to the Age of Demons and gods. May you survive to the end.]
Chapter 902 Armageddon
Chapter 902 Armageddon
Right after the notification was given out, an unidentifiable magic circle spread across the sky and Shiro could only watch in shock.
The sheer amount of mana and divine energy that was being radiated from the magic circle was something she had never sensed before. Compared to when she saw Nyx and Chaos, the magic circle seemed more powerful!
Since the city was floating in the sky, they weren¡¯t affected but Shiro could see the earth below them quake.
Mountains started to copse asrge ravines opened up.
Clutching her head, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel dizzy from the amount of mana and divine energy she was sensing.
ncing back at the party, she could see that they were also having some difficulties.
Shaking her head, she quickly left themand centre and floated above the city.
From what she remembered seeing when she peeked into Vulcan, the god yer¡¯s memories, this was just the start of the transformation.
Suddenly,rge pirs of light erupted around the world as three appeared above the city. Recognising these to be the lights that showed where the anchors are, Shiro frowned at the sheer number of pirs that she could see in this world.
As the lights faded, the stars in the sky were erased from sight. With just a nket of midnight blue, a lone moon shone softly.
Lava started to flow out of the ravines that opened up in the ground as thend was torn apart. Sea water floated through the cracks and created a split in thend as strangendforms appeared in the world, recing thend that was previously there. From trees that seemed to be made from crystals to caves that have been formed by rapidly cooledva, the world continued to change around them.
Suddenly, a few of the inds were ripped from the sea and started to float into the sky.
Golden arches and buildings slowly appeared as Shiro understood that it was a ruin from another world.
*URAHHH!!!!!
A draconic cry could be heard as arge dragon head appeared from theva.
[Dimanos LVL 600 Ancient Dragon of Fire]
Unfurling its wings that shadowed thend, an aura exploded out of him as thend around him was immediately transformed into a world of fire. The trees were burnt to ashes and all that remained was delicate pirs of ash that copsed from the earthquake.
The mountains were transformed into volcanoes which erupted immediately, sending hot ash into the clouds.
Lightning flickered within the clouds as the dragon stood in the middle of this hellscape like a god of destruction.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro immediately transported the city away since fighting here would be bad. Plus, with the world changing rapidly, they didn¡¯t know if more monsters would appear near them.
Teleporting the city to the sea, Shiro was shocked at the sheer number of monsters that had appeared in the sea.
Armoured creatures with luminescent lights around their bodies could be seen swimming around, crushing the previously believed ¡¯powerful¡¯ monsters with a single bite.
ncing up in the sky, wyverns and dragons seemed to be amon sight as they would swoop down and hunt these armoured creatures and drag them out of the sea.
Swiping her hand, she saw that the inte was going crazy as countless pictures and live streams showed the absolute chaos happening in the world right now.
Tall buildings copsed around them while the ground would break beneath their feet.
In some ces, the world would be frozen over as a giant furred beast could be barely spotted in the blizzard. Its glowing red eyes seemed to be able to freeze anyone that it saw as countless statues of frozen adventurers filled the streets.
Portals would open up randomly as monsters spewed out of the openings and drag civilians into their mouths, crushing them apart before spitting some unwanted flesh out to the side.
¡¯The casualties are definitely past the millions now.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
{Indeed. And it doesn¡¯t seem to be stopping anytime soon too.} Nimue furrowed her brows.
Raising her hand up, Shiro created a giant sword of nanobots before shing it to the side, cutting apart one of the sea monsters that had jumped out of the water in an attempt to take a bite out of the city.
Watching the body fall back into the water, Shiro could see a swarm of monsters eating its corpse as blood tainted the sea.
With the world changing, it was hard to find a good ce for the city right now so she quickly camouged everything so that they won¡¯t get attacked.
Raising the turrets, Shiro had them shoot any monster that got too close.
ncing down at the city, she could see the fear in the people¡¯s eyes as the humans were pale at the sight of civilisation being destroyed with such ease.
Landmarks, historical sights and famous ces were being shredded apart and there was nothing they could do. The government was trying their best to evacuate everyone to a safe location that they had previously prepared but quite a few of the bunkers copsed during the earthquake so safety was quite hard to find right now.
Thankfully, the city of Asharia was airborne so it wasn¡¯t affected by the world changing below them.
Seeing the destruction, the people that had been arrested before couldn¡¯t help but feel grateful that they were allowed back in the city. If they had to survive down there, the chance of death was quite high.
"Things aren¡¯t looking good are they?" Nan Tian said as he appeared next to her.
He was still clutching his head from the pain but he recovered enough to converse with her.
"Mn, I don¡¯t even know if the three cities that I wanted to put my anchors in are safe anymore. Tokyo is having some difficulties right now since ghosts, zombies and undead creatures started to run rampant. The cities that have anchors ced in them receive a barrier of sorts that prevents destruction but monsters still spawn nearby so it would be up to the Queen to protect them. If only we have ced anchors in the three spots earlier, we could have prevented a lot of deaths." Shiro frowned since this change was more destructive than what she had expected.
"Let¡¯s just hope that they can find a way out." Nan Tian sighed since there wasn¡¯t much they could do. While the city could expand and Shiro can gather more people, how many will they be able to save out of the billions of humans in the world? That wasn¡¯t including the other races as well!
Biting her nail, Shiro nced over at Nan Tian.
"We¡¯re going to make a move. While we can¡¯t get too many people, the best we can do right now is to eliminate the monsters that are surrounding the cities. Help me contact the pilots that can pilot their mechs properly right now. The more powerful they are, the more overwhelmed they¡¯ll be by the mana and divine energy. Shiina and the others might be out ofmission right now." Shiro frowned as Nan Tian nodded.
"I¡¯ll see what I can do. Where are we going first?" He asked as destruction was happening everywhere in the world.
"It doesn¡¯t matter, we¡¯re going to be travelling through the world quickly and dispatching the mechs where we can. Once they¡¯re done, they can teleport back to the hanger. I¡¯m already getting the drones to add a return function to the mechs right now." Shiro ordered as her face waspletely serious.
Flexing her fingers, a portal opened up in front of them.
Teleporting to New York, they were going to provide as much relief as they can for the people.
Disappearing from his spot, Nan Tian rushed towards the military so that he could find the right personnel for the job. While this was happening, the rest of the party had recovered somewhat as both Madison and Isilia could immediately start clearing the monsters in New York.
Sending them down with some protection just in case, Shiro had Asharia fly towards the next city. Both Madison and Isilia can teleport back once they¡¯re done. The main thing they had to remember was that they had to deploy reinforcement to as many of the cities as they could.
Looking at a giant insect that crawled out from a ravine that had split open near New York, Shiro narrowed her eyes and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, the turrets locked onto the insect and fired immediately.
Eradicating the insectpletely, Shiro sent out drones so that they could ce down teleport nodes for her.
Using these teleport motes, she can send the mechs into battle without having to fly to the city manually.
"What a mess." Shiro muttered as she tied her hair into a ponytail. Massaging her head for a moment, she took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes.
She was going to help out as well and take care of the more powerful monsters in a few of the cities.
Chapter 903 Protection of the Goddess
Chapter 903 Protection of the Goddess
Making her way to the mech hanger, she could see that roughly 20 pilots have arrived including Shiina, Oran and Akhess who¡¯s face was still a little pale.
Seeing Shiro¡¯s arrival, they all saluted as Shiro nodded her head.
"Shiina, Oran, Akhess, you three still look a little pale? Are you sure that you can undertake this operation? Do note that a single mistake could cost lives and you have to operate the mech with care. We¡¯ll be fighting in a city environment with unstable footing, if you don¡¯t feel well, it could impact your performance." Shiro warned as her tone was strict.
Seeing this, the three of them flinched for a moment since they could tell that Shiro wasn¡¯t going to be epting a mediocre performance. With so many people in danger, their actions could hinder things if they¡¯re not careful.
Thinking about it carefully, Shiina looked at Shiro with determination.
"Your highness, I am confident in my abilities. I will not hinder the operation at all."
Seeing the look in her eyes, Shiro nodded her head.
"Very well. With the scale of the incident, I¡¯ll be assigning one group of 3 to each city. You¡¯ll work in three man cells in order to deal with the monsters that have appeared in the cities. You need to remember that saving people is your main priority so don¡¯t chase after any monsters. Just help the people evacuate and if there are no bunkers, bring them back to the city. There¡¯s not much space but I can expand a little if needed." Shiro instructed as they nodded their heads.
"Good. Since Shiina, Oran and Akhess are the only ones with proper training in specialised units, you¡¯ll be using them for this operation. The rest of you will go into standard units. I¡¯ll be giving each of you instructions and direction in your c.o.c.kpits so there is no need to worry about what you should be doing. The first group will consist of the following members!" Shiro called out as she began to list the names of people that she¡¯s assigning to New York.
When their name is called, they¡¯ll immediately get changed and enter a mech before standing at the edge of the hanger where they can see the destruction happening beneath them.
Checking their internal systems once more to make sure that everything was running, they saw blue motes gather up as a hologram of Shiro appeared.
"As I have mentioned, I¡¯ll be giving you instructions from the c.o.c.kpit. Are you ready? Remember, you are working in a city environment in a mech, try not to damage the surroundings and cause more harm if you can." The hologram Shiro said as the pilots were a little surprised but nodded their heads.
Once all of the pilots assigned to New York were ready, a green light lit up above the hanger as they jumped off the edge. Activating the thrusters, they dived towards the monsters that were rampaging around the city.
###
{Are you ok Shiro?} Nimue asked with worry while Shiro was still assigning people to different cities.
¡¯Mn? Yeah I¡¯m fine. I have done something like this before so it¡¯s a bit difficult but it¡¯s not that bad.¡¯ Shiro forced a smile. Not only was she suffering from a headache thanks to the abundance of mana and energy that flooded her senses, she was also splitting her focus across all the pilots and giving them information on their surroundings. Plus, she was controlling the drones to scout out each of the cities and prioritise the ones that are in most danger.
Having her mind focus on so many tasks put a huge burden on her but Shiro continued without rest.
{Maybe you should get Nan Tian to help out.} Nimue suggested since dealing with everything herself could do more harm than good.
¡¯It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve already got him to do something important for me. This isn¡¯t too hard for me.¡¯ Shiro shook her head as she had a more important task.
Reviving all the ones that had died during this disaster. If their bodies are still intact, she can ce their souls back.
After assigning them to the different cities, Shiro jumped off Asharia and floated above New York.
Summoning herntern, Shiro only nced at it before opening her mouth.
"I¡¯m sure you know what I want to do don¡¯t you?" She asked.
"Indeed I do. I¡¯ll try not to harm them when they arrive." The Ancient Terrorughed as Shiro only shrugged.
There was a slight problem though, once she activates her skill, Requiem of the Demi Goddess, it¡¯ll be on cooldown for two weeks and it takes 90% of her mana along with a full charge of true spirit nature.
There wasn¡¯t a need to give them all the buffs. They just needed to be revived even half health would suffice.
Closing her eyes, Shiro started to modify her spell as gold and white tier 6 magic circles started to appear across the sky.
¡¯Please let this work.¡¯ Shiro thought as she continuously restructured her spell in order to decrease the cooldown and requirements.
###
Today was supposed to be the day that we moved into a safe city. My mum had worked hard in order to save up but when we arrived, the world started to crumble.
Buildings copsed, the ground broke apart and people died in front of me.
Sitting next to my mum, I only watched as people ran away while monster¡¯s chased.
"Please... run." My mum asked with a weak voice. Looking to my side, I could see that she had her entire lower body crushed by fallen debris. Even if I became a high level adventurer and moved the debris out of the way, she won¡¯t be able to walk.
"There¡¯s nowhere to run mum. Monsters are everywhere. I might as well stay here with you." I replied as my mum started to cry.
What was supposed to be a great day became the worst day of my life.
I could see powerful magic circles appearing all over the city but I guess it was probably more monsters activating spells.
Hearing a rumbling sound, I saw a monster charging towards us while ripping the road apart. People that were in its way were sent crashing to the side before being turned into a puddle of blood.
Shaking my head, I hugged my mum and closed my eyes.
*BANG!!!
"What the hell are you doing! Don¡¯t give up!" A voice shouted out after arge crash.
Strong winds tried to blow me away but I was able to stand my ground.
Looking up, I was surprised to see a giant robot wrestling the monster before stabbing a sword through its neck and cut it in half.
"Stop giving up! There is still hope! Her highness is working on a spell to help everyone so don¡¯t give up!" The same voice shouted out as it grabbed the debris and moved it to the side.
Looking at the mangled mess of my mum¡¯s legs, I gritted my teeth and put her on my back. I tried to be careful since she¡¯ll be feeling a lot of pain.
When I nced back at the mech, I wondered about who created these robots and who was piloting them.
I suppose I wanted to be a pilot too. Even if I¡¯m not a strong adventurer, I¡¯ll be able to help out people too.
###
Watching the mechs dash through the city while killing monsters and helping people, Shiro could see that the rate of casualties had decreased dramatically.
sping her hands together, her mana surged as Divine Energy erupted from her body.
"I¡¯ll give everyone a second chance after I revive them. Should they suffer a lethal injury after being revived, I¡¯ll absorb the impact before redistributing it using shared burden. With so many people in the city, it¡¯ll be akin to feeling a prick on the finger." Shiro forced a smile as the spell activated.
*BOOM!!!
Activating simultaneously, a golden barrier appeared around the city as everyone within this barrier started to heal.
Those that had been turned into a puddle of blood revived before looking around in confusion. All of their injuries disappeared as Shiro closed her eyes to block out the pain that she was feeling. Even after reviving them and eliminating the obstacles in their way, some will still receive injuries from falling debris. A golden barrier would prevent them from getting hurt but the pain would return to Shiro instead.
While the pain wasn¡¯t continuous thanks to the use of Shared Burden, the first impact still injured her.
With life fire constantly burning around her, the wounds closed as soon as they appeared but Nimue knew that the stress Shiro was cing on her body increased.
[Divine Support ss Spell Created, would you like to name the spell?]
"Name itter. I don¡¯t have time for this. Just tell me the requirements and the cooldown." Shiro retorted as the system changed screens immediately.
[Divine Support ss Spell ¨C Protection of the Goddess]
In a designated area, no one shall die and all the damage is transferred to you instead. Those that die will be revived and those that suffer lethal injuries will be fine.
Requirements ¨C The caster must be the recipient of all the injuries.
Duration ¨C 2 Hours. (Can be deactivated early. The pain and bacsh will increase the longer the barrier is activated.)
Cooldown ¨C 1 Day for each Barrier
Charges ¨C Equal to Grace
Chapter 904 Support of the City
Chapter 904 Support of the City
Reading the skill, Shiro furrowed her brows since it meant that both Grace and this skill shared the same charges. If she was to use Requiem of the Goddess, both Grace and Protection of the Goddess would be unusable.
However, right now, this skill was more efficientpared to Grace, even if it was limited to 10 cities right now.
Just as she tried to move, blood rushed up her throat as she noticed arge wound open up on her stomach.
Furrowing her brows, she quickly healed herself.
Seeing the countless wounds appearing on her body while her HP decreased past her recovery speed, Shiro furrowed her brows.
Spitting out some blood, she took a deep breath and calmed herself down.
¡¯I can mark down 9 more cities. Right now, the levels of the cities are changing with powerful monsters appearing all over the ce. So I should prioritise the higher level-¡¯
Her thoughts were cut off when she felt arge force crash into her body.
Gritting her teeth, she nced down at the city and saw that a kid threw himself in front of a monster to save their friends.
While the thought was good, all of them got hit so the damage was transferred to her.
Seeing that they didn¡¯t suffer any damage, the kids continued to run into the monster.
Nimue was infuriated but seeing that Shiro didn¡¯t do anything, Nimue stayed silent.
Holding her arm that was being torn apart and healed, Shiro shook her head.
¡¯I suppose it makes sense for this skill to be so ¡¯cheap¡¯ in terms of cost. Any pain and bacsh will be transferred to me regardless of the intensity.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
She was grateful for the skill shared burden since the damage was transferred equally with all the citizens so they barely felt a thing.
Had it not been for this skill, her HP would have been emptied out so long ago.
Barely making her way back to Asharia, she had it move toward the next city was more mechs were being deployed.
Activating a second barrier, the number of injuries that Shiro suffered was increasing with every second.
{Shiro you should stop.} Nimue frowned since what Shiro was doing was nothing short of self-destructive. If she continued, the damage that she sustains would exceed her healing.
¡¯It¡¯s fine. Hopefully they would understand that they don¡¯t need to fight. Just run, the mechs will deal with the monsters.¡¯ Shiro replied with a shake of her head.
After cing down the third barrier, the injuries prevented Shiro from moving easily as her flesh would be torn apart.
Taking deep breaths, Shiro wondered what else she could do to reduce the casualties. If it was before, she would have ignored the deaths and focused on killing the monsters.
Shaking her head, she forced herself to stand up.
Just as she did this, a green aura wrapped around her body as the pain faded away for a moment.
Raising her eyebrows, she nced towards the city and saw Silvia standing there with a forced smile.
"Sorry it took so long. I¡¯ve gotten used to healing with this headache now." Silvia forced out as she mmed her staff down. Damage reduction buffs and healing buffs appeared around Shiro as she regained proper control of her body.
"If it wasn¡¯t for Nan Tian telling me that you¡¯re destroying your body, I wouldn¡¯t have even known that you used such a destructive method." Silvia shook her head.
"Is that so." Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, he knew that you were determined so the best thing we could do is provide you with as much healing as we can. We can¡¯t make a barrier that stops them from dying but what we can do is heal you like crazy so that you don¡¯t even feel the pain." Silvia smiled confidently as countless magic circles appeared in the city. They ranged from as low as tier 2 all the way to tier 5. All of them were healing spells that were dedicated to Shiro and if they ran out of mana, they had the full restore potion that could be bought from the shops.
Looking at the city, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel happy that her efforts weren¡¯t for nought.
"Let¡¯s save as many cities as we can then. I only have 10 barriers thatst 2 hours and three of them have already been used up. However, I don¡¯t believe that I can¡¯t make stronger healing spells with your help." Shiro smiled confidently as she had the support of the city on her back.
As Shiro was cing down barriers in different cities, Nan Tian decided to stream everything to the world. He knew that people were challenging monsters thinking that gods were on their side but this was actually the work of a single girl that didn¡¯t want them to die.
She was ok with damaging her body as long as it gave them an opportunity to run.
Seeing the kids and a.d.u.l.ts ¡¯die¡¯ without regard for the damage infuriated Nan Tian as they were indirectly harming Shiro. However, if she wanted to help them, he¡¯d help her by showing these ignorant fools the truth. He would broadcast the figure of Shiro cing down barriers and sustaining all of the damage they took in their stead.
They will know the sacrifices she had to suffer because of them.
¡¯Take a good look. This is the woman I love, she is even willing to sacrifice her body for you even though she wanted to prioritise her close ones first. Her city is safe so her next focus was not her but you!¡¯ Nan Tian thought while sending information to the entire world on how they can stay safe and avoid the monsters. Maps were shown and birds eye view of the world was broadcasted.
There wasn¡¯t much Nan Tian could do but he was going to try his best in reducing the damage Shiro took!
###
Looking at the sight of the current ruler on the screen, I was silent in awe. Despite the fear that I felt from her on the first day, I knew that she was kind. For her to sacrifice her body to the extent that she could barely move, I was shocked beyond belief.
I had never seen someone this selfless while in the demon continent and the sight of such a person made me want to support her with all I¡¯ve got. I can understand why the Queen allied herself with such a person.
"Felsha, everything is ready."
A demon walked up to me and kneeled. Since I was one of the retainers, I had a great amount of respect within themunity of demons. In terms of interest, they were more with me than Asphil but right now all the demons were convinced of the ruler¡¯s character. Even for war mongers like us, we knew she was to be respected.
The act of self sacrifice required more courage than standing on the front lines.
"Listen up! We were given a safe spot in this city and guaranteed equal treatment by the Queen of Spirits! Despite humans having grudges and killing intent towards us, she was not biased as the ruler! She continued to protect us and treat us without any prejudice. Even now, she is burning her life up for the sake of everyone else! Do you want to see such a ruler die in front of us! Does your pride as a demon allow this!" I shouted out as I can see all the demons that have gathered here today wanted to help the young ruler.
"NO!" They shouted out in unison and I couldn¡¯t help but smile at the ridiculousness of the situation. If it was before, I probably won¡¯t say this. However, times have changed. Despite the bad blood between humans and demons, we were not so different.
"Then let us go down and help the humans! Evacuate them from the broken cities and prevent any more injuries! We¡¯re demons! Our physiques are stronger! What they can¡¯t handle, we¡¯ll handle in their ce!"
*URAHHH!!!
Spreading our wings, we jumped off the side of Asharia in order to help the demons.
"Well said, as the Queen, I can¡¯t be idle during this." A voice rang out beside me as I felt a chill down my spine.
The queen of us demons stood next to me, the one who had instilled such fear into us was smiling kindly.
"Thank you for doing my job for me. I was wondering about how I would help my friend but since you have already solved it for me, all I need to do is give them a push." The Queen smiled as she raised her hand.
Her aura burst forth as power surged in my body.
[March of the Demon Queen]
Charge forth ording to the will of your leader, there is no surrender!
All Stats Increased by 50%
Damage resistance increased by 50%
Free Usage of All Berserk Skills you own without bacsh.
"Under the orders of the Demon Queen, all Demons shall help the humans evacuate!" The Queen shouted out before charging into battle herself. An army of shadow demons appeared behind her as she led the charge to the cities.
Clenching my fist, a smile appeared on my face as I activated my berserk skills and followed after her.
Chapter 905 Survive
Chapter 905 Survive
"Ah... Hell is descending." A young man muttered as he looked at everything that was happening in the city.
The sky had lost its l.u.s.tre, the ground was breaking apart and monsters were appearing left and right.
There seemed to be no safe ce in this world at all. The best thing they could do was keep running.
"How goes the evacuation?" He asked as one of his subordinates kneeled near him.
"We¡¯re trying to organise a safe retreat out of the city but the appearance of the monsters are making it hard. They¡¯re blocking our way out and fighting them only draws more monsters in."
"I see... I¡¯ll escort it personally then. Come with me." He replied as he hopped off the building.
Reinforcing his body with magic, he flickered towards the blockage with a sword in hand.
Weaving through the city that he grew up in with familiarity, he found the monsters eating the citizens that were trying to leave.
Gritting his teeth, fire erupted out of him before condensing onto his sword.
Breathing out a mouthful of steam, his speed increased, leaving behind a trail of light thanks to the fire on his sword.
*PUCHI!!!!!
Cutting off the head of the monster, he cut the rest of the monster¡¯s body up before ncing back at the citizens.
"Keep moving! Don¡¯t stop! Once you get out of the city, you¡¯ll see some soldiers. Follow them and they¡¯ll escort you out of the danger area." He instructed.
Nodding their heads frantically, they followed behind him.
Looking at the countless corpses that were littering the ground, he gritted his teeth since there was nothing he could do for them.
Upon reaching the outskirts of the city, he allowed the guards to escort them before running to the next blockage.
¡¯This is crazy...¡¯ He thought to himself since it wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to say that the world was ending.
*BANG!!!!!
From the side of a building, the walls were shattered apart by a nt like creature that resembled a venus fly trap. Its jaws reached out for him as vines wrapped around his ankles.
Narrowing his eyes, fire erupted out of his body and burned apart the vines.
Twisting his body, he shed towards the jaws of the monster.
Upon contact, his mes were extinguished.
Widening his eyes, he noticed that a small vine was connected to his arm and mana couldn¡¯t flow to the sword.
Spikes erupted around him like a bear trap as a second nt monster closed its jaws around the man.
Understanding that he was standing on a trap this whole time, he couldn¡¯t help but shake his head and sigh.
"Why are you giving up already? If you can swing your sword, you can still kill it. I swear, this is why demons are better." A voice rang out as the nt was cut apart.
Opening his eyes in surprise, the man nced towards a demon that had helped him.
"You seem pretty unharmed so you can take care of yourself." The demon said before flying into the sky.
¡¯A demon helping humans?¡¯ The man thought in surprise.
Looking above him, he could see swarms of demons charging into the city and helped the humans evacuate.
Blinking his eyes, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder if he was already dead and that this was just a hallucination.
However, the pain that he could still feel meant that this was reality.
Shaking his head, heughed.
"If even the demons are helping us, the world really is ending." He muttered as he grabbed his sword.
"Fine. I¡¯ll fight to the bitter end."
Reinforcing his body once more with magic, he charged into battle once more.
Even if the world was ending, the inhabitants were still fighting back.
Demons or humans, it doesn¡¯t matter anymore.
###
¡¯Ah am I dying?¡¯ A young woman thought as thest thing she could remember was the world crumbling apart and her body being crushed by a stampede of monsters.
The pain of having her bones pulverised and skull crushed was still fresh in her mind.
Looking down, she could see the entire city being destroyed as her body felt weightless. Her hands were transparent and she understood that she was dead.
She had wondered how ghost like monsters appeared after people died. It was probably in this state that they felt arge grudge which transformed them into monsters.
¡¯Fascinating.¡¯ The woman thought.
Of course, this was all to distract her from the reality of her being dead.
Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t change the fact that she was still dead.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she didn¡¯t want to die. Her family was still out there, she wanted to see her mother again, she wanted to apologise to her father, she wanted to y with her brother. She didn¡¯t want to leave them behind.
However, the world was cruel and she was one of the unfortunate ones to be killed.
As her tears fell, a warm figure embraced her body.
{Don¡¯t die. I¡¯ll give you a second chance. Please just run.} A feminine voice called out as the woman paused.
Looking back, she could see a faint silhouette that gave her a gentle push on the back. As her body fell towards the ground, she got a good look at the figure.
She had long white hair that stood out against the dark sky and a pair of red eyes that looked at her with pity.
Before the woman could even say anything, she woke up in her body that should have been destroyed.
Touching her body, she noticed a golden barrier surrounding her body.
[You have been revived by the Demi Goddess Shiro.]
[You have received Protection of the Goddess.]
While in the barrier, you will not die or suffer injuries.
Reading the notification, the woman was shocked.
"A Demi Goddess?" She muttered. She knew that gods were real since people receive their blessings but she had been personally revived by a Demi Goddess.
Sitting there in a daze, she didn¡¯t notice a monster creeping up on her as it unhinged its jaws and bit her head.
Widening her eyes on shock, she could see the golden barrier stopping the teeth from reaching her.
*PUCH!!!!!
A sword suddenly decapitated the monster as the woman watched a demon flick the blood off his sword.
"Can you stand? You¡¯ve received the protection of her highness but all of the damage is being sent to her. Please don¡¯t waste any time since her power is limited." The demon said as he kneeled down and offered her a hand.
Despite the strangeness of the situation, the woman nodded and epted his help.
"Erm... is her highness called Shiro?" The woman asked as the demon nodded.
"Mn. While she¡¯s not our ruler, she is the ruler of the home we live in. Don¡¯t waste this chance." The demon smiled as he rushed to help the next person that had been revived.
Digesting the information, the woman clenched her fist and quickly ran to the edge.
Remembering the face of the girl that had revived her, the woman gritted her teeth.
¡¯I¡¯ll survive! I¡¯ll definitely survive!¡¯ She thought as her determination roared out in defiance against her original fate.
She didn¡¯t know what kind of god had helped her but the fact remains that her life had been saved. While she may just be one in a crowd of many, she was still going to offer her faith to this god that had saved her.
¡¯Please protect my family and keep them safe.¡¯ The woman prayed while running to the exit of the city.
While this was happening, she didn¡¯t know that a change had urred in her source code. A single crest appeared as a faint golden aura tethered towards the source codes that were rted to her.
###
Biting her nail anxiously, Gaia watched the entire situation y out as she could see the mortals receiving help from Shiro.
"Why is she aimlessly killing herself like this. There¡¯s no benefit to getting these cities. The adventurers are low levelled and useless. She can create her own city for anchors so there is absolutely no benefit." Ouranos muttered with a frown since the situation was not in their favour at all. Right now, what Shiro could be doing was setting down more anchors while the queens are busy or she could get her allies to kill monsters to level up.
All the Queens are busy with protecting their own anchor so this was the perfect chance to strike.
"While I wouldn¡¯t say I particrly enjoy your phrasing of the situation, I do agree with you on the fact that she¡¯s doing this for no gain at all." Tartarus frowned.
"Aren¡¯t you two cruel." Nyx chuckled.
"We¡¯re not cruel, we¡¯re being realistic. In the new age, there is no reason to help these people at all. If there was a benefit, I¡¯d understand." Ouranos shook his head.
"Then you don¡¯t understand Shiro at all. This is the difference between you and her. While there is no reason to help them, Shiro wants to help them because she pities them. She might be ruthless at times but that¡¯s only when she can¡¯t do anything. Despite the things that she does, Shiro is innately kind after all. She¡¯s kind but she understands that sacrifices are needed. So when she can save lots of people without arge sacrifice, she will." Gaia spoke up while looking at Shiro who was rushing toward different cities.
Chapter 906 Exploitation
Chapter 906 Exploitation
"My Queen! We¡¯ve found one of the Queens and they¡¯re stronger than what we had expected!" A man burst into what seemed to be a throne room.
"Oh? Who is she? Is she good or bad?" A young woman asked as she looked towards the man.
Her long ck hair flowed behind her as her emerald eyes shimmered with curiosity.
"She is definitely good. While I¡¯m not sure if she is neutral, chaotic orwful good, I know that she isn¡¯t evil from what we¡¯ve seen so far." The man replied.
"You even got footage of her?"
"Mn, it seems like someone is broadcasting her actions to the world. Those that she had helped are using this footage to run." The man nodded.
Bringing out a tablet, he presented it to the woman as she can see Shiro controlling the souls and sending them back to their bodies before preventing them from dying. Narrowing her eyes at the golden barrier, the Queen was speechless since she understood that having the barrier meant that all damage was redirected to her.
The runes were familiar to her after all but it was impossible. This kind of rune was unique to her garden and she had never seen it in any other ce.
¡¯How did she get that rune...¡¯ The queen thought with surprise before shaking her head.
How she got the rune wasn¡¯t important to her. What¡¯s important was that she was reviving them not as undead but living breathing people. Their souls weren¡¯t changed but fully restored.
"Do you know what she governs? Her powers are simr to mind but they¡¯re much warmer than turning everyone into undead." The woman smiled softly as her impression of this Queen was quite good.
"We don¡¯t know as we don¡¯t have enough information. But it seems like she has recruited demons, spirits, elves and humans to work under her."
"Oh? Isn¡¯t that simr to what we¡¯re trying to do?" The Queen raised her eyebrow.
"Indeed. Perhaps we should send a messenger over to her once the transition period is over." The man suggested.
"Mn, make that our priority once the transformation stops. For now though, let¡¯s also do our part. While we¡¯re protecting a few cities with our anchors, she¡¯s even helping those that don¡¯t have anchors, we shouldn¡¯t lose to her. Help me lead some people to the cities without anchors and help out. I¡¯ll protect the city by myself." The Queen smiled.
Hearing this, the man frowned.
"Are you sure?"
"It¡¯s fine. The more monsters we kill, the more guards we have. In a battle of attrition, I take the advantage against these monsters." The Queen smiled as a green fire appeared in her palms.
Waving her hand, a tier 6 magic circle appeared before her as the dead corpses started to move. Their flesh started to sew themselves together. After a few short moments, all the monsters that died were revived as undead.
¡¯Ah... I want to meet this Queen.¡¯ She thought to herself as Shiro¡¯s power was what she had initially desired. While raising the dead was close, they still weren¡¯t proper living people. Without her anchor, she couldn¡¯t maintain everyone like this. However, if this new Queen could help her, they could properly revive the people that she turned into undead.
###
"Who the hell is this Queen. Is she really using her resources for others? What a f*cking joke." A woman narrowed her eyes as she sat upon a mountain of corpses.
"Perhaps, but it seems like the humans appreciate this gesture greatly. I suspect that she¡¯ll be able to bolster her ranks once the transformation ends." A man replied as the woman clicked her tongue.
"What¡¯s the point of surrounding yourself with weaklings that do nothing? If there was a powerful being in those cities I¡¯d understand it, but this is just ridiculous. Regardless, keep an eye on her. For her to save this many people, she¡¯s definitely got a n. Maybe it¡¯ll be a mass sacrifice hahaha!" The womanughed as she mmed her hand down.
Suddenly, a golden fire erupted out as the pile of corpses disappeared in an instant.
"Let¡¯s go, we got a few more ancient dragons that appeared nearby." The woman grinned as her fiery red hair fluttered behind her.
###
After cing down all 10 of her barriers, Shiro focused on developing a new mass healing spell with Silvia since there was a limit to what she could do in terms of revival.
The best thing she could do now was give them so much healing and defence that the monsters can¡¯t even harm them. Of course, they couldn¡¯t deploy the city¡¯s healers since they were focused on her.
"How are the evacuations going? Are they out of the city?" Shiro asked as she sensed Nan Tian approaching.
"It¡¯s going well. Most of them are out of the barrier but there are still a few unounted for. I¡¯ve already grabbed a list of all those that are registered in the city but it seems like a few are stuck inside. I¡¯ve already given their general location to the mechs so it¡¯s only a matter of time now." Nan Tian replied as not everyone could find an easy way out of the city with so many monsters.
Just because they can¡¯t die in the area doesn¡¯t mean they can¡¯t be thrown around like ragdolls. The mech pilots were trying their best but with only three assigned to each city, some only having one or two, it was difficult for them to cover for everyone.
"Just keep trying for now. Once me and Silvia finished developing this spell, I won¡¯t need to focus on redirecting the damage, which takes a charge of Grace. I just need to bring them back from death and Silvia will do the rest." Shiro nodded as Nan Tian sighed.
"Even though we expected this, the casualties are much higher than what we predicted. If we did nothing, I¡¯d say all 10 cities would be destroyed and no one would survive. We¡¯re transporting a lot of citizens to the city right now so we might need an expansion quickly."
"I know. Just get Yin to send them into her rift for now. Unlike mine, her rift doesn¡¯t have a time limit and with how much food she has in there it should be fine for now." Shiro replied.
"Yin¡¯s already doing that. That was the first thing she told me when she recovered. That her rift can be used as a separate ce for them to stay. But even with Yin¡¯s help, we¡¯re running out of space." Nan Tian scratched his head.
Asharia was big but fitting people from all 10 cities and possibly more was very difficult.
"Yeah just give me a moment. Instructing 20 plus mechs and developing a new spell is a bit difficult. Let me digest the information first." Shiro nodded as she was trying to think of new solutions.
The overall shape of Asharia was a little simr to an ind if you look at it from the side. Most of the space below the topyer was hangers for the mechs as well as machinery. Fitting people in would be difficult.
Furrowing her brows, she had an idea.
"Wait.... The spirit world is simr to a reflection of the real world. With this city here, it means there is an identical Asharia in the spirit world." Shiro sat up as she quickly summoned a portal.
Stepping through the portal, her thoughts were correct as she was standing on Asharia. However, the machinery here couldn¡¯t be interacted with. But in terms of space, this was good enough for now!
Stepping out of the portal, Shiro flexed her fingers and created a few portal devices for Nan Tian.
"I want you to help me allocate some staff to the spirit world for now and keep track of everyone. Don¡¯t let them wander around since this is a temporary solution. We¡¯ll definitely need to expand the city and make new ones with anchors in the future but we don¡¯t have time right now. So for now, they can stay in the spirit world for safe refuge." Shiro exined as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Sure."
Without saying anything else, he quickly rushed to where the refugees were staying.
Focusing back on the spell, Shiro continued to work as there was a rough tally of the casualties that the drones could see.
Seeing the number, she couldn¡¯t help but feel pity for them.
{It¡¯s quite sad isn¡¯t it? Even if the high level adventurers are trying their best, fighting tier 6 is still out of their league.} Nimue sighed as many died trying to give people a way to escape.
¡¯Mn, Thankfully, the other Queens have their own strongholds and people are rushing there to get safe passage. Unfortunately, the Queens are asking for a contract in order for them to stay.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown since they were exploiting this disaster.
Clicking her tongue, she marked down the Queens that were exploiting people so that she could pay them a visitter.
Chapter 907 Respecting Choices
Chapter 907 Respecting Choices
For the next hour, Shiro and Silvia continued to develop the healing spell and progress was extremely fast.
So far, three cities have been cleared but seven of them are still in great danger. The mech pilots responsible for those three cities had been spread across the seven remaining cities as a backup but it was still taking them a while due to the increase in spawn for the monsters.
¡¯Shiina, Oran and Akhess are doing well with their specialised units but their performance is below expectations. If they could fully utilise the power of the specialised units, then they could each take a city by themselves.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
{They are fighting at a disadvantage right now.} Nimue reminded.
¡¯I know. I¡¯m not ming them, it¡¯s just that the situation is unfavourable. If I discard the citizens and just go around eliminating monsters, this would be easy. But what¡¯s the point of ruling a world without people?¡¯ Shiro shook her head as the easiest way was not always the best.
Hearing this, Nimue stayed silent as what Shiro said was true to an extent. There were more cities out there but saving these 10 could give her quite a few benefits. She could already see some of the expressions of people that she had saved and they were grateful for her mercy.
{Are you able to bring me and Attie out? We¡¯re both Divine Spirits and our powers are rted to healing. We can provide a decent amount of help.} Nimue suggested. Since Attie was young, he won¡¯t be able to provide as much as he wanted but at this rate, anything was helpful no matter how small.
¡¯Actually, I¡¯ve already added my part of the magic circle. If you two work together with Silvia, you should be able to develop the healing part of it without me being here. Since my main healing is Grace, which we don¡¯t want to use, along with life fire which Attie has, it¡¯s more beneficial to have you two take my ce.¡¯ Shiro muttered as she summoned both of them next to her.
"Silvia, develop the healing portion with Nimue and Attie, Attie has life fire and maybe something even stronger since he is a divine spirit of fire and Nimue has been taking care of my body. She¡¯s a divine spirit of water and she possesses healing properties. They can take my ce in this while I go out and help out a little." Shiro smiled as Silvia nodded her head.
"Got it, we¡¯ll try to get it done as soon as possible. Don¡¯t stress yourself too much since you¡¯re still sustaining damage from the barriers. Just so you know, if you were to use this in a fight against someone strong, all they¡¯ll need to do is focus their attack on one weak person and you¡¯ll die from the damage. Be careful ok?" Silvia warned since this skill had an obvious w. Using it was akin to giving up all of her advantages as a ss cannon that can dodge.
"I know don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not stupid enough to use this in a fight. If ites down to it, I won¡¯t risk my life against a Queen for some people I don¡¯t know. After all, I am this world¡¯s lifeline." Shiro smiled as she jumped off the edge of Asharia.
[Notice to all mech pilots within the vicinity, focus on evacuating citizens. I¡¯ll take care of the monsters.] Shiro sent out a notice as all her holograms ryed this message to the 4 mech pilots responsible for this city.
Hearing her message, they immediately stopped fighting the monsters and looked for the citizens through their map. It revealed a red dot for their mana signal so even if they¡¯re trapped under rubble, they can find them.
Summoning Silvanis, Shiro narrowed her eyes at therge monsters chasing after the humans.
Since the barrier was up, a prolonged fight wasn¡¯t rmended. Instead, she¡¯ll aim to kill them in one shot. With Silvanis¡¯ passives, this should be an easy task for her.
Flexing her finger, tens of guns appeared around her as she activated her skill, Encroaching darkness.
With her stats receiving a boost along with all the buffs that were ced on her body thanks to the inhabitants of Asharia, it wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to say that her statspletely dwarfed the stats of the monsters in the city.
Activating all of her guns, tier 6 magic circles appeared on the barrier as a pair of sses appeared on Shiro¡¯s face.
Hexagonal marks locked onto the signature of the monsters as this was going to be a focused barrage that only targeted the monsters.
Firing without hesitation, all the guns fired simultaneously as the spray of bullets looked like a meteor shower thanks to the darkness surrounding the city.
Raising their heads up in curiosity, the monsters widened their eyes as their upper torso were obliterated in an instant.
After piercing their bodies, the bullets destroyed themselves so as to not damage the surroundings. Learning from the dungeon incident, Shiro knew that it was best to destroy the bullets before they caused damage.
While this reduced the damage that they dealt, she could easily remove this function should the situation require it.
After firing her guns, she immediately sensed a wyvern like monster charging towards her from the sky.
Silvanis Active Effect 3!
Infusing 2% of her mana into her sword, she activated the third effect which allowed it to shift through space in order to hit the target.
The wyvern that wasn¡¯t even close to hitting her paused in the air as its body was cut in half.
"There¡¯s still quite a few monsters left." Shiro muttered as she was about to deal with them when one of the pilots contacted her.
"Your highness! We have a situation on hand. One of the civilians is not cooperating." The pilot reported as Shiro frowned.
"What¡¯s happening?"
"He keeps insisting on dying and has been trying to kill himself." The pilot replied with some difficulty since suicide wasn¡¯t an easy thing to deal with.
Hearing this, Shiro frowned and closed one of her eyes. She could see the man with despair in his eyes trying to stab himself with the sword but the golden barrier was stopping this.
Pausing for a moment, Shiro opened her mouth.
[Are you sure you want to end it all? If you keep living, there is a chance for you to turn things around.] Shiro asked as her voice was broadcasted from the mech.
"You¡¯re the one who revived me aren¡¯t you? Please just let me go back. Everything is over." The man asked as tears started to fall.
Seeing this, Shiro sighed. She will help people, but if they wanted to end their lives by themselves, she wasn¡¯t going to interfere. She didn¡¯t have the time to convince this man otherwise. If he wanted to die, she¡¯d respect his wishes.
[Are you sure? This is thest time that I will ask. If you truly want to end it all, I will undo the barrier for you.] Shiro asked.
"Yes." The man smiled as Shiro nodded and flicked her finger. Shattering like ss, the golden radiance around his body disappeared as he closed his eyes and ended his life in a swift movement.
¡¯I hope you have a better next life.¡¯ Shiro thought with a shake of her head. There were going to be people like this in the new age, ones that didn¡¯t want to go on. She couldn¡¯t avoid this fact.
"Go help the rest of the people. If they are like this man, report to me and I¡¯ll deal with it." Shiro said as the pilot nodded.
While she didn¡¯t understand those that wanted to take their lives, something must have happened for it to lead up to that point. Even if she wanted to help them, she was going to take the neutral stance in that situation and respect their wishes.
Looking at the horde of monsters that were still spawning, Shiro knew that they weren¡¯t going to end for a while.
Massaging her neck, she charged towards the monsters in the distance.
###
*ARG!!!
Even though we had the goddess¡¯ protection, me and my sister weren¡¯t able to run. The monsters threw us around like ragdolls. We didn¡¯t feel pain but the sensation of being tossed around was not enjoyable in the least. Looking at my younger sister that was pinned against the ground, my heart ached.
We couldn¡¯t be harmed but we had no strength. I was foolish. When we were revived, I should have taken my sis away as quickly as possible.
Running towards the monster, I realised that I had made a mistake. Even if we can¡¯t be harmed, it didn¡¯t mean the monster couldn¡¯t swallow us. We were too weak to even do anything in its stomach and could only wait for death.
Before the monster could swallow me, a flicker of white appeared behind it and obliterated its upper body.
Recognising it to be the goddess that had saved us before, I was speechless. She hugged my sister and made sure she was ok before opening a portal. Next thing we knew, we were in a crowd of people in a huge hanger.
"Did the goddess save us again?" My sister asked as she looked up at me.
"Yes."
¡¯If I could be as strong as her or maybe something close, then I can help people like she did.¡¯ I thought to myself.
Chapter 908 1st Day of The New Age
Chapter 908 1st Day of The New Age
After helping kill the monsters along with evacuating the citizens, Shiro received a report from Nan Tian saying that the Asharia in the spirit world has enough space for another city or two worth of citizens but after that it¡¯ll be full.
Hearing this report, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brow since she¡¯ll need to make more versions of Asharia if she wanted to keep saving more people.
However, a city like Asharia needed a huge power source. Even with her capabilities, keeping a whole city like that afloat was ridiculously hard and it was only thanks to the anchor that this was possible.
With the increased mana production and divine energy generation, this city could float without her interference. If she wanted to make another city, she¡¯ll need to first make a branch anchor before making a city around it.
"We¡¯ve only got onest city to go so we should be good for now. I¡¯ll expand Asharia first so that there is anotheryer below the main city where the refugees can stay for now. Once I finish thatyer, we should be able to transfer the citizens in the spirit world to Asharia." Shiro replied.
"Alright. But after we finish construction of this undergroundyer, we¡¯ll need to filter out the criminals. Unlike your other skill, this one doesn¡¯t care about good or bad does it? We should screen the people that we helped first." Nan Tian reminded, and his face was serious.
"Mn I know. I¡¯ll put in a production request for a new blueprint that I made. It¡¯s an orb that should measure their souls since the soul bes darker the more evil natured a person is." Shiro nodded.
"After helping thest city, you should take a day¡¯s break. The stress that you¡¯re putting on your body is quite high."
"I will." Shiro smiled softly as she did a final scan of the city to make sure that there was no one left. Once she was sure that it¡¯s cleared, she teleported the mechs back to the city.
Arriving back at the city, Shiro saw that Silvia, Nimue and Attie were having trouble with the final part of the spell, making sure that everything worked properly and that all the magic circles were activating at the same time. If it doesn¡¯t, it wouldn¡¯t count as a proper spell.
With how overloaded the spell was, trying to optimise the usage of the magic circle was tough considering how powerful Grace was. With it being limited to charges, trying to replicate it without that limitation was very difficult.
"Just keep working at it. After the next city, we¡¯re going to assign new pilots to help the cities. You can also stop the healing on me since thest city is manageable." Shiro smiled as she sat down near them and hugged Attie.
"Mn, I¡¯ll send a note out to the healers in the city centre. Since this spell isn¡¯t ready, what are you going to do for the rest of the cities? Knowing you, you won¡¯t stop here will you?" Silvia asked.
"For the rest of the cities, I¡¯m thinking of maybe deploying all of the mechs to restrain the monsters while I escort everyone away. I¡¯ll have to interact with their souls one by one since if I just revive everyone, there¡¯s a good chance that some will die again immediately. Without the golden barrier to protect them, they would be going through unneeded pain." Shiro shook her head.
"That¡¯s very inefficient. I¡¯ll try to get this spell done quickly." Silvia frowned.
"Mn, I¡¯m counting on you." Shiro smiled as she wasn¡¯t sure how long this transformation period was going tost.
After resting for a while, she jumped down to the final city being affected by her barrier and helped the mechs evacuate the people.
###
For the next day, Shiro continued to help cities despite saying that she¡¯d take a break. While taking care of the cities, she was also expanding the size of Asharia so that it could amodate more people.
There were a few sketchy individuals that started to snoop around despite receiving Shiro¡¯s mercy and naturally, Nan Tian had no qualms about killing those kind of people who didn¡¯t treasure her kindness. He would check their belongings and find out that they¡¯re either acting as spies for a Queen or private organisations that were interested in her tech along with how the city floated despite its mass.
Shiro knew about this but she didn¡¯t say anything. Since the city was created by her, she had eyes all over the ce. Nan Tian was dealing with it so she decided to trust in his capabilities. After all, he wouldn¡¯t do something that harmed her interests.
Of course, there were a few people that were shocked at Nan Tian killing people but he only told them that they were nning to sabotage this city, which was the partial truth, and this calmed them down.
Quite a few of them expressed dissatisfaction since they still tried to harm Shiro despite the fact that she had actually risked herself to help them. Those kinds of people didn¡¯t deserve a second chance.
In addition to this, a few of them expressed interest in joining the army and Nan Tian replied that they need to first resolve the issue of space along with the constant influx of refugees being teleported.
There were small fights breaking out over conflicting opinions such as stopping the entry of more refugees since they were running out of space but the police dealt with them ordingly. There was a strict no violence policy right now since that would just waste manpower on small bickering. After the first warning, should they continue, they¡¯ll be kicked off the city.
Nan Tian knew that this is what Shiro would have done since this was already a tough situation but they were still causing trouble which infuriated him to no end.
This warning caused them to quieten down since no one wanted to go back out there where death could be looming around every corner.
Doing so was no different from suicide.
While Nan Tian was sorting out the refugee¡¯s, Madison continued to lead the demons to help the cities alongside Shiro. The views towards demons in the city improved greatly thanks to this and the humans that were already residents were more epting towards them.
Of course, Madison had a small talk with a certain someone that took charge in her ce but decided to let it go for now since there were more important matters. Hierarchy was strict amongst demons and that fact that she could take charge was not the best situation she could hope for. Punishment was required.
As for Silvia, Nimue and Attie, 15 hours after they started, they had finally gotten the spell to work. The mana to heal ratio was also very good thanks to Nimue and Attie so they could keep the spell up for much longer.
The range of the spell was surprisingly big since it¡¯s not an area of effect spell. Rather, anyone that has been ¡¯marked¡¯ will be healed.
With Shiro being able to target people through their mana signals, marking them was easy. Plus, it automatically marks them if Shiro revived them using her control over souls.
###
Sitting on the edge of Asharia, Shiro drank her juice as things were calming down a little, She noticed that the spawn rate of monsters had decreased and the natural disasters were stopping. Most of thend has been changed to match the monsters appearing there such as frozen tundras or burning hellscapes.
So far, Shiro had helped a numerous amount of cities but she wasn¡¯t able to get all of them to her city. With the natural disasters stopping, she made underground bunkers instead.
"You should rest now. I heard from Nimue that the stress you put on your body during the past few hours has been ridiculous." Nan Tian said as he sat down next to her.
"How is she doing?" Shiro asked.
"She¡¯s helping out with distributing food. This transformation stage should be ending soon so you can rest now." Nan Tian replied.
"Mn, the system has been a little quiet but it seems like things are updating. I¡¯m guessing that things will catch up once the transformation ends. After all, my EXP is still pending." Shiro chuckled softly since her level has been paused for now.
"I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯ll probably receive quite a few titles during this." Nan Tian chuckled softly.
"Mn. I guess I¡¯ll sleep for a few hours. After I finish sleeping, I¡¯ll work on making some branch anchors for more cities." Shiro yawned.
"In that case I¡¯ll filter out those that are evil natured. We don¡¯t want those kind of people in the city after all." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded.
"Thanks."
Teleporting out of the area, she face nted into her bed and fell asleep immediately.
Chapter 909 Asher
Chapter 909 Asher
Looking at the rationsid out in front of me, I couldn¡¯t help but sigh at the state of things after a single day.
The life we knew had ended, cities were destroyed and reduced to ruins while monsters roamed around every corner.
ncing around the campsite, I looked at the caravan that I had been leading made up of all the people we evacuated from the cities that crumbled apart.
"Asher, what¡¯re our next ns?" My friend called out as he sat next to me.
I was never good at leading people but since I was the highest level and I managed to get everyone out safely, I was chosen as the caravan leader.
Unfortunately, this also means that I¡¯m the one who will be med should anything go wrong.
"Let me think. With how many rations we have, if we¡¯re careful, it shouldst us around 2 weeks or so. It¡¯s risky to go for teleport shrines since they¡¯re surrounded by monsters. Who knows if we¡¯ll teleport into a more dangerous nest of monsters. Are you able to ess the inte?" I asked.
After the cities crumbled, some regions lost ess to the inte and weren¡¯t able to find out about the situation in other cities. When we evacuated, we were still able to use the inte but once we got far away, our connection was severed.
Finding our whereabouts along with what¡¯s happening in other ces is going to be hard.
"Not yet. The connection is still broken." He sighed with a shake of his head.
"Have the scouts found anywhere that could possibly have a connection established?" I asked curiously.
We¡¯ve been sending scouts for the past few hours now since we need to map out a route for us to travel that yields the best results.
"No they haven¡¯t. Currently, the north is filled with snow and frozen beasts that can kill you in a single swipe. They¡¯re rmending that we go south."
"Hmm... South is probably the territory of fire type monsters. Compared to the ice based ones, the fire based monsters are more vtile and aggressive when ites to humans. We¡¯ll continue east for now. There should be a few viges on the way there. If they haven¡¯t been destroyed yet, we might be able to find more people. If it has been destroyed, we¡¯ll be able to get some supplies if we kill the monsters there. Since it¡¯s not a city, the levels of the monsters should be much lower." I replied.
"Alright, I¡¯ll ry the message. Hais... what¡¯s even happening anymore." My friend scratched his head as he ate his rations in frustration.
"Well the system did say that the tutorial is over. There¡¯s still a lot of mysteries surrounding what¡¯s been happening but life won¡¯t get any easier from now on. If we can ally ourselves with a good Queen, we¡¯ll be able to at least live a decent life for a bit." I sighed.
The system gave us some information about this new age and apparently we should seek out Queens for their protection. The anchored cities are a natural repellent for the monsters that spawn so not many would attack it voluntarily. But for cities without factions, they¡¯ll be destroyed and turned into a nest for the monsters.
To survive, we need to find a Queen.
¡¯But since they¡¯re from a different ¡¯garden¡¯ I doubt they¡¯ll be kind to us.¡¯ I thought to myself.
Simr to when humans invaded newnds and kicked out the original inhibitors, the Queens will probably do the same. Even if they don¡¯t, they probably have a goal in mind that they want to fulfil. We can¡¯t trust any of them easily. Everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt just in case so that we can protect ourselves.
"Hey can¡¯t we just ally with a Queen or something? Surely there¡¯s something like a human Queen right?" My friendined as I shrugged.
"Who knows. If we find one, maybe, but even then, you shouldn¡¯t trust them so easily anymore. With everything that humans have worked for being destroyed over the course of a day, you can expect that it may be a little primitive. Kindness might just be a rarity now. Who knows if there¡¯s someone that will suddenly backstab all of us." I sighed since that¡¯s just human nature. When pushed to the limit, there¡¯s a good chance that they¡¯ll backstab someone just for their own safety.
"Ugg... this kind of life is annoying. Having to constantly be scared of who will backstab you. Surely they won¡¯t forget that you risked your life to save them from the cities right?" My friend asked but I shook her head.
"That¡¯s not certain. If I pose any sort of danger to their safety, they won¡¯t hesitate to cut my throat." I smiled while making a gesture across my neck.
Hearing this, my friend sat in silence as she both looked at the campfire.
¡¯I don¡¯t think a Queen or the system can be trusted. It has been a supporting guide for us all this time but if it was truly on our side, it would not have destroyed so many cities or killed so many humans. While it helps us, it does not side with us. Anything it says has to be read with a neutral standpoint. While it is in our best interest to ally ourselves with a Queen to survive, it¡¯s not necessary so it¡¯s still possible to live without the protection of a Queen. It¡¯s the age of demons and gods but the demons are already here but the gods aren¡¯t present meaning they¡¯ll arriveter. There could be a different set of ¡¯Demons¡¯pared to the ones that we normally see as well. The system told the Queens that it wishes them luck, meaning there can only be one Queen at the end. There¡¯s a reward for them.¡¯ I narrowed my eyes at the fire beforeing to the conclusion that the system couldn¡¯t be trusted. We¡¯ve been taking it for granted but its true alliance is not with anyone. It¡¯s a neutral party that can harm you just as much as it can hurt you.
"Get some rest. We¡¯ll be leaving early in the morning. Before we ally ourselves with anyone, we need information. Try to see if there are anyone trustworthy in the caravan that we can talk to. Don¡¯t be hasty in choosing since we¡¯ve got a bit of time right now." I instructed my friend as he nodded his head.
Sitting by the campfire by myself, I tilted my head back and looked at the sky which was slowly filling up with stars and constetions from a different world. But despite that, I could still barely make out the constetions from Earth.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath of the cold night air while the fire crackled in the silence. Extinguishing the fire, I returned to my tent and prepared myself for tomorrow. Life from now on was going to be hard but it¡¯s not hopeless.
###
". . ."
Staring at her ceiling, Shiro had a nk expression as she sighed heavily and sat up. Despite wanting to rest and passing out the moment she hit the bed, she only slept for around 3 hours before her body woke up back up.
"Ugg... at least let me sleep for more than 6 hours stupid body." She muttered.
Since she fell asleep immediately, she wasn¡¯t able to bring Nimue and Attie back so she knew that they were probably sleeping in a different room.
ncing out of her window, she could see that the night was still dark.
Even with the city basked with a soft glow from the streetmps, very few people could be seen walking around except for a few patrolmen on night shift along with some drones.
With a city this big, security during the night was going to be tough but the addition of drones helped reduce the burden on the soldiers.
Getting changed into some casual clothing, she decided to have a walk around for now a bit since she¡¯s woken up.
¡¯Iziuel¡¯s sleeping so I shouldn¡¯t disturb her. Estre¡¯s recovered quite nicely too so she¡¯ll probably be back in action tomorrow.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while looking into the mana realm.
Walking around the main tower, she saw that themand room still had its lights on. Seeing that it¡¯s the middle of the night, all the staff here should be sleeping since the AI will handle things while they rested.
Opening the door, she saw Nan Tian leaning on the chair with his head resting on his hand.
ncing at the screen, Shiro sighed softly since it was all the doc.u.ments regarding the expansion of the city, filtering of evil natured people, registering new citizens along with a few ns to improve life for the people below ground level.
Seeing that he was still working hard despite the time of day, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
Reaching into her inventory, she pulled out the nket that he had given herst time and tapped away at the keyboard. She might as well finish some of his doc.u.ments since he had done the same for herst time.
Chapter 910 Loved By The People
Chapter 910 Loved By The People
After finishing the doc.u.ments, Shiro stretched her body since she had been sitting down for a while now.
ncing at the time, she saw that it was 4:30am and was still quite early in the day.
"What should I do now." Shiro muttered quietly while spinning on her chair. Nan Tian was sleeping next to her so she didn¡¯t want to wake him up since he needed his rest as well.
Massaging her wrist, Shiro nced towards the screen and browsed the inte.
Most of the reports were emergency news that told citizens where to run and how to best survive. There was even news saying that several regions have been prevented from essing the inte and how they are sending scouts out to ce signs for people to follow so that they can find shelter.
Reading a few of the more recent posts, Shiro narrowed her eyes with a small frown since most of them were Queens having the humans recruit more refugees into their camps with the promise of safety.
One of the biggest recruitment attempts was through ck monarchy and the beast Queen. Humans already know about the ck monarchy¡¯s power and with the world in shambles right now, power was the best option in regard to safety.
Plus, everywhere she looked, there were posts that showed people how to reach the Beast Queen¡¯s branch city.
¡¯All of them are branch cities. To think that she¡¯s already created 5 branch anchors. Her power must be quite low right now but with her power over beasts, I can guess that she¡¯s probably taken over the monsters that spawned and used them as puppets. Fighting her would be dangerous considering the level of those monsters. No wonder she was able to be powerful in the future. However, if I used Silvanis¡¯ power, I¡¯ll be able to challenge her to a one on one. Leaving the area shouldn¡¯t be too hard either.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since this was a good chance to take care of a big danger.
The only problem that prevents her from carrying out this n is the fact that she doesn¡¯t know where the main city is. That will be where the main anchor is stationed and if that was harmed during the fight, a Queen would lose arge portion of their strength.
That¡¯s why most Queen¡¯s wouldn¡¯t reveal the location of the main city and the information is sealed off since it¡¯s a big risk to expose your weakness. Unlike Asharia, the city can¡¯t be moved so her anchor is stuck there.
¡¯My future self told me that I shouldn¡¯t underestimate the Beast Queen so there¡¯s a good chance that even though she might seem weak with all the anchors that she ced early, she¡¯ll be able to turn the battle with ease.¡¯ Shiro leaned back while clicking through the pages.
There was a post about the estimated casualty ratings and seeing the number caused Shiro to sigh heavily in the damage done to society was huge. It is estimated that roughly 2.5 billion people died on the first day alone. Even if she saved a few million, it was nothing on the grand scheme of things.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro sighed before scrolling down.
Just as she did this, her hand paused seeing a familiar face on the thumbnail.
It was a picture of her when she activated the barriers to save as many people as she could.
Flinching slightly, Shiro hesitated before clicking on the link and found a video that showcased everything she did.
[Don¡¯t die. I¡¯ll give you a second chance. Please just run.]
Seeing the video of her saying the message that had been transmitted to all those inside the barrier, Shiro felt like her soul had just died three times over.
¡¯AHHHHH!! Why did I say please???? F*ck! I seriously look like what the light goddess did back in Aria!¡¯ Shiro cringed inwardly as she said that in the heat of the moment so that they would actually run away rather than ramming their heads against the monsters that they couldn¡¯t kill.
Hell if she was any more ¡¯emotional¡¯ she might even shed a tear!
Clutching her head, she wanted nothing else but to just roll around and erase the post. However, there were some benefits to keeping it on so she decided to just grit her teeth and do nothing for now.
{What¡¯s wrong?} Iziuel yawned as she was woken up by Shiro¡¯s cry.
¡¯Ah ahem. It¡¯s nothing, you can go back to sleep.¡¯ Shiro forced a smile as Iziuel nodded her head.
Looking back at the post with a blush, Shiro saw thements and shares continuously increase as her embarrassment only seemed to grow.
Gritting her teeth, she clicked at thement section.
¡¯. . . . .¡¯
Clicking off thement section, Shiro didn¡¯t want to say anything about their weird obsession with feet pics but at least they were still in the mood to joke around despite everything that has happened.
¡¯I guess it¡¯s somewhat good that they¡¯re mental health is ok.¡¯ Shiro thought while suppressing the goosebumps that appeared on her arms.
Shaking her head, she continued to browse the web a little while before turning it off since most of the information on what to do in this situation.
¡¯Most of the people that are joking around are currently living in the cities protected by other Queen¡¯s. With the inte being cut off for most of the people out in the wild, it¡¯s going to be hard to help the ones in most danger. I guess patrols will have to be mandatory.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while getting some juice out of her inventory.
*Yawn~
Hearing a yawn beside her, she saw Nan Tian waking up.
"Morning, did you enjoy your rest?" Shiro smiled as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow in surprise before chuckling.
"Mn I did. The first day has been rather busy after all." Nan Tian replied as he sat up and saw the nket on his body.
"I suppose I owe you a thanks." He smiled.
"It¡¯s fine, just returning the favour. I don¡¯t have much but what do you want to eat?" Shiro asked as she could make a trip down to the caf¨¦ to make something. Plus, she was a bit hungry too.
"Don¡¯t worry about it, you don¡¯t need to trouble yourself. You¡¯ve been working hard for the past day after all. Mn? Oh seems like you¡¯ve seen the post. It¡¯s been reposted a few times but your poprity seems to be quite good." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
"Not my favourite kind of poprity. But I guess it¡¯s something." Shiro¡¯s smile twitched as she remembered what she had seen in thements.
"Mn? What do you mean by that?" Nan Tian asked as he clicked on the post.
Before Shiro could even stop him, he saw thements and paused.
ncing over to Shiro, he could see her looking away with a faint blush on her face.
"It¡¯s weird." Shiro spoke up since the fetishes of the people in thements were rather... extreme.
"You seem quite loved." Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help butugh when he remembered that she didn¡¯t like masochists. Despite her sadistic nature, she was put off by masochists.
Considering how some of thements involved asking her to step on them, it was understandable.
"Uhgg... I¡¯d rather not be loved by them." Shiro looked at thements with disgust.
"We¡¯ll you¡¯re the Queen of the people and even a Goddess. It¡¯s only natural that they love you. Some might have a few impure thoughts but that¡¯s to be expected considering your appearance." Nan Tianughed as Shiro rolled her eyes.
"If they expressed that in front of me, they can say goodbye to their lineage." Shiro replied, pretending to throw up.
"And what if it¡¯s a woman?" Nan Tian asked.
"I don¡¯t discriminate. Man or woman I¡¯ll end them both if they try to force themselves on me." Shiro replied while standing up.
Cracking her neck, she sighed and wanted a change of air so that she could forget thements she had read.
"Let¡¯s go to the cafeteria then shall we?" Nan Tian offered as Shiro nodded.
"Sure. Since the chefs are still sleeping do you want to cook or shall I?"
"I¡¯ll cook. I¡¯ve been studying a little after all." Nan Tian smiled.
However, just as they took a step out, they received a notification.
[The transformation of the garden has beenpleted. The system will resume all its functions.]
[Your rewards have been distributed.]
[Multiple titles gained.]
Chapter 911 Four Titles
Chapter 911 Four Titles
[Multiple titles gained.]
Reading the notification, Shiro nced over at Nan Tian.
"Seems like the new age is truly starting now." Shiro smiled as the system resumed its functions.
"Mn. Things might get a little hectic depending on what information the system shares." Nan Tian frowned.
"We can worry about that when it happens." Shiro chuckled as she tapped on the icon that showed her of her titles.
During the first day of the new age, she had been highly active and managed to obtain 4 titles during that time.
[Goddess of Protection]
[Leader of Asharia]
[Merciful Goddess]
[Young Goddess]
Three of the titles were linked to her role as a god while thest one was tied to her city.
[Leader of Asharia]
As the leader of a safe sanctuary, the world offers its blessings. All those that reside in your city will permanently receive a 20% boost to EXP gain, 5% boost to stats and -20% hostility from monsters.
There is a chance that they may even receive help from certain monsters such as dragons with a good alignment.
The fact that the people of her city could possibly roam around this world with the help of dragons was good news since it opens up the chance of more expeditions outside of the city without worry of being killed with a single breath by a powerful monster.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro wondered if she should share this title¡¯s details with the rest of the citizens but she decided to hold off on it for now. They¡¯ll probably receive a notification of the buff so she didn¡¯t need to do anything.
[Goddess of Protection]
As a Goddess, you have tried your best at protecting the people from harm. Your body was used as a shield and you risked your life for their safety.
Protection of the Goddess Skill receives the following changes.
Usage is no longer linked to Grace. The skill can be used without taking a charge. (10 uses.) One charge is regenerated everyday at midnight and a charge of Grace can be used to fulfil the requirements.
Damage received is reduced by 30%.
¡¯I can use the barrier 20 times if I dedicate all the charges of Grace to this every 10 days. Meaning I can save two cities each day without any worries.¡¯ Shiro thought while cing her hand on her chin. Contemting the uses of this title, she nced at the next title, Merciful goddess.
[Merciful Goddess]
During their time of need, you have appeared and showed them a path to survival. You did not hold back and saved as many as you could.
The impression towards you as a god is greatly increased.
People are more likely to change their alignment after being granted your mercy.
The chances of receiving faith and prayers from those that you save are greatly increased.
Received Skill ¨C Mercy of the Goddess
When they are in their time of need, should a subject pray to you, are you able to grant them a portion of your power so that they may survive their ordeal. Subjects can receive this boon more than once but the more often you help them, the greater the bacsh. The first few boons will result in you being slightly weakened for a few minutes to hours but it will increase. The more power you lend, the more serious the consequences. You are able to manifest yourself at their locations if you desire so that you may take over for them.
You are also able to take over their body depending on what they require.
Before you grant them your power, the context of the situation will be transmitted to you.
Cost: Temporary decrease of stats proportionate to how much power you lend them.
Duration: Can vary depending on the task but cannot be more than 1 hour.
Cooldown: N/A
However, after receiving the first boon, a person will need to wait 1 week before being able call for your help once more.
You are able to help multiple at once.
Reading this, Shiro was a little surprised that this skill didn¡¯t cost Divine Energy but rather decreased her stats. However, she wasn¡¯t too bothered by this since Divine Energy was precious when ites to usages. If she was to use Mercy of the Goddess, there¡¯s no doubt that she¡¯ll probably be helping a lot of people in the future. If there were a million people needing her help, Divine Energy would just be drained immediately.
Plus, there was also the problem of being careful of how much power she lent them. If their body couldn¡¯t handle it, taking over for them might just kill the subject which was not what she wanted. While the system doesn¡¯t mention it, Shiro could guess that manifesting herself would bring more bacsh than just taking over.
¡¯Tsk, what a pain. The system doesn¡¯t actually mention the potential problems of lending power as a Demi Goddess.¡¯ Shiro forced a smile as the system seemed to be hiding more things now.
Shaking her head, she nced at the final title. This was the one that she was most curious about since it was simr to her Monster Title!
[Young Goddess]
As a young goddess, you have inspired people to seek you out as a source offort. They ce their faith in you, believing that you will help them in their time of need.
Current Benefits from people that believe you ¨C 50% Bonus to All Stats
+150% Divine Energy Regeneration
+100% Divine Energy Effectiveness
Seeing that it worded it as ¡¯Current Benefits¡¯, Shiro knew that the more people that she brings under her ¡¯religion¡¯ as a goddess, the bigger this bonus will be. In the future, there was a possibility of this 50% increasing to 100%.
"You seem like you¡¯ve found something interesting. Did the system give you a good title?" Nan Tian asked with a chuckle.
"Mn, it gave me four. Thest one is probably one of my favourites. It¡¯s simr to my monster title but it rewards me for helping people. Regardless of what happens, whether I help or kill, I can be stronger." Shiro smiled.
"Oh? Are you going to give up the option of killing then?" Nan Tian chuckled.
"Pft, who do you think I am? If I see evil, of course I¡¯ll ughter them. If they pass my bottom line, I¡¯ll kill them in the worst way possible. I might have received titles like Goddess of Protection of Merciful Goddess, but I am still someone who has no qualms with killing those that get in my way. My hands are stained with the blood of the countless, a title or two won¡¯t change that." Shiro smiled coldly as she narrowed her eyes since she could never give up the option of killing.
After the first life she took with her own hands, killing people has be the norm for her. Sure she might give them a second chance if their sins weren¡¯t serious but those that refuse to repent will be killed. And those that want to provoke her despite knowing the risks were basically begging to be killed by her. In that regard, she¡¯ll kindly oblige and give them ¡¯Mercy¡¯ from a harsher fate. She is a Merciful Goddess after all.
Mercyes in all forms. Sometimes it¡¯s the lesser of two evils.
"Goodness, seeing that expression of yours really makes me wonder if the system is within its right might calling you a Goddess of Protection. If anything, it¡¯ll make more sense if it titled you as Goddess of ughter. Not that it makes a difference I suppose." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Of course it doesn¡¯t matter. In this new age, saving someone means killing another. Killing someone means you¡¯ve helped someone in the future. When you look at it, both ughter and protection are basically two sides of the same coin with just different phrasing." Shiro shrugged.
"Indeed. What about the other rewards?" Nan Tian asked.
ncing over at her system, Shiro smiled.
"I have received three materials of the ck Grade. Helion should like these quite a bit. In terms of skills, I haven¡¯t gotten anything more but seeing as how my ss is unregistered, it¡¯s quite normal. I believe the first person of each ss also had to make their own skills. If there is a person with the same ss as me, they won¡¯t need to make skills like I do." Shiro shrugged.
"While skills and items are low, the EXP gain has certainly not been stagnant. In a single day, with all the monsters that I¡¯ve killed, I¡¯ve reached level 600. Some of the EXP has been transferred to me since they were using my mechs but the transfer was a bit low. The EXP gain after tier 6 is quite hard to keep up. We¡¯re just lucky that the first day kept spawning monsters otherwise it would have taken me probably a few months of constant killings to reach tier 6. Really makes you wonder how many monsters we killed in a single day huh?" Sheughed as the mech pilots levelled up quite a bit as well.
[Shiro LVL 600 Nanotech Demi Goddess]
Chapter 912 Level 600
Chapter 912 Level 600
With her recent acquisition of titles and levels, her stats grow once more. Reading her stats, Shiro knew that this speed of leveling up wouldn¡¯t continue at this rate merely due to the fact that high level monsters have now all dispersed into territories that are advantageous to them. Those that are tier 6 are smart and know how to fight using their advantages.
While Shiro was powerful, she had to be prudent when hunting the high level monsters. As for the low level monsters, hunting them to level up would take much much longer if she wanted it to be efficient. With the myriad of things that she needed to take care of outside of just fighting, it wasn¡¯t efficient at all.
¡¯It¡¯ll probably take a while before my stats experience another big jump. Though this jump should be more than enough to annoy Nimue.¡¯ Shiro thought with a soft chuckle.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit Demi God
Title: Expert Monster (13,029/100,000 Humans killed.), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind, Virtue of Fortitude, Young Demi God, Goddess of Protection, Merciful Goddess, Young Goddess (50% Boost Currently), Leader of Asharia.
Level: 600
ss: Nanotech Demi Goddess (Demi God)
HP: 48,300,000,000/48,300,000,000
MP: 216,562,500,000/216,562,500,000
STR: 302,000,000
VIT: 276,000,000
INT: 1,237,500,000
AGI: 302,000,000
DEX: 255,000,000
DEF: 226,000,000
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 6
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 6
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 6
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 6 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 6
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 6
Dark Celestial Phoenix Fire ¨C Tier 6
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 6
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 6
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 6
Nature ¨C Tier 6
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 7 Demi God
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Nanotech Demi Goddess:
Elemental Breath, Celestial Mirage, Force of Elements, Demi God Raiment, Tier 6 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Demi goddess¡¯ Domain, Demi God Skill ¨C Rebirth, Legendary Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Divine Court Appointment, Demi goddess¡¯ Blessing, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 6, Analysis, True Spirit Nature, Divine Gardens, Divine Presence ¨C Divinity of Nanobots, March of the Goddess, Divine Insight of God, Protection of the Goddess.
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx
World ss Magic:
Requiem of the Dead
Grand Support ss Magic:
Requiem of the Demi Goddess
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr, Item Master, Limit Focus, Blessing of Chaos.]
With the addition of her title, Young Goddess, her additional 50% bonus upped her title bonus to an astounding 100%. On top of monster title, and armour passive, her INT has now surpassed 1.2 billion points.
Looking at her mana, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder what kind of reaction her army would have when her skill activates on a battlefield. That 20% was going to be mind breaking.
"Erm... May I ask what just happened? I¡¯ll be honest, even for you, for your aura to suddenly double like that is quite rming. If anything, I would have thought that you decided to fight someone." Nan Tian asked with a twitching smile.
"Oh my stats just basically doubled. In terms of my INT score... let¡¯s just say it quadrupled from 370 million points to 1.2 billion points." Shiroughed as Nan Tian paused in his step.
###
Sleeping quietly, Aarim was having a nice dream. The world wasn¡¯t ending, and people weren¡¯t dying.
She was in her own mage tower located in an area simr to Astral Horizon¡¯s.
Right now, she was doing experiments in regard to the origin of mana when it suddenly blew up.
Snapping her eyes open, Aarim felt a rush of energy course through her body as she tensed up and identally mmed her face against the bed bars.
"F*ck!" Cursing out loud, she held her nose as she nced at her system and saw the bonus mana she got from Shiro.
"******!!!!!"
Jumping out of her bed, she pushed her door open and saw Nimue with blood shot eyes as well. Her aura was much stronger than what it wasst morning and Aarim knew she wasn¡¯t the only one
###
"It quadrupled?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"You realise that both Aarim and Nimue will realise right?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro coughed lightly and nodded her head.
Sensing two confused and furious auras running towards then, Shiro could already guess who it was.
"Shiro! For the love of god what the f*ck?!" Aarim shouted out as she appeared around the corner in her pyjamas.
Her eyes were a little bloodshot and her nose was red. Shiro could tell from her bed hair that she was rudely awakened.
"Ahem, sorry about that. My mana may have increased by a little." Shiroughed meekly before shuffling slowly towards Nan Tian so that she could use him as a shield.
"Hou hou~ A little huh? Do you know what it feels like to suddenly have a surge of mana halfway through your sleep?" Aarim asked as pure mana gathered in her palm.
She looked as though she was about to burst a vein as Shiro could see the mana flicker like lightning.
"I¡¯m good thanks. I don¡¯t want to disturb your sleep so I¡¯ll just be on my way now." Shiro smiled as she grabbed Nan Tian by the coat and pushed him between her and Aarim. Turning around, she was about to walk away when Nimue grabbed her shoulders and smiled.
". . ." Staying silent, Shiro flexed her fingers and summoned a nanotech table.
"Table?" Shiro offered as Nimue smiled softly and shook her head.
"I¡¯m good. I¡¯ll keep that table for another asion. Today I¡¯ll be throwing Shiros." Nimue replied as Shiro wept a silent tear.
Exining how Shiro¡¯s INT stat had quadrupled over some breakfast, Aarim massaged her eyes while Nimue was healing her body from the sudden shock of having arge amount of mana surging through her body during her sleep.
"At least the others aren¡¯t woken up rudely with their physique strengthening suddenly." Aarim sighed.
"True that¡¯ll be concerning considering my lowest stat, defence is now more than 200 million points." Shiro admitted as Aarim only replied with ¡¯ah is that so?¡¯.
"So what¡¯s the n now then? Since you¡¯ve woken me up so early, we might as well discuss what we want to do from now on. We can¡¯t take a passive stance in things and we¡¯ll need to establish more cities if you want to save more people. There¡¯s also the construction of branch anchors too." Aarim asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know. I think the first goal is to make another city first while travelling around saving people. My protection of the Goddess skill was improved thanks to one of my titles so I can use it more often without worrying. We¡¯ll travel towards Tokyo, Japan to deal with the whole ghost problem and help anyone that¡¯s on the way there." Shiro suggested.
"That¡¯s quite a lot of people if they¡¯re not already seeking shelter from the other Queens." Aarim raised her eyebrow.
"Yeah that¡¯s true but we¡¯ll probably be picking up those that are out in the wild. We¡¯ll be making a straight trip towards Tokyo after all. Once we¡¯re there, we¡¯ll see if there¡¯s anyone being left behind." Shiro replied as Aarim nodded her head.
"We¡¯ll regardless it¡¯s up to you seeing you¡¯re the leader here. I¡¯ll go back for a small nap I guess." Aarim yawned.
Nodding her head, Shiro watched as Aarim and Nimue left the cafeteria before turning to Nan Tian.
"Are you able to help me with a small task?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"Sure I don¡¯t mind." He nodded.
"Great. I want you to go on a solo mission. Remember the city where we saw the Beast Queen for the first time? I want you to snoop around and see if you can find their capital." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded.
"How dangerous. What if I get killed?" Nan Tianughed.
"Pft of course as a goddess, I¡¯ll protect you when the timees." Shiro chuckled softly.
Chapter 913 Preparing for a Second City
Chapter 913 Preparing for a Second City
"Oh? I suppose that rules out the options of saying no then." Nan Tian scratched his head as Shiro nodded happily with a smile.
"Hehe~ Yup. Don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll give you extra attention and spare you some more of my power if you¡¯re in danger." Shiro reassured as Nan Tian shook his head.
"If I got more of your power I might identally vaporise a city by ident."
"You said it, not me." Shiro shrugged.
"Haha, but sure. I¡¯ll finish some of my tasks here and assign some of the more experienced trainers to the military while I¡¯m away doing this task. Are you able to spare me a few capable people to help me scout? If It was just me snooping around it might make things a little obvious for them." Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, just take anyone you need. Granted that they¡¯re not busy of course." Shiro replied.
"Alright. Also, I made a small app that collects data through the drones. There are three graphs that are updating in real time, the first is a graph that shows the rough estimation of races rtionsh.i.p.s with each other on Asharia.
"For example, after thest disy of helping humans, the favourability of humans towards demons on Asharia had increased from around 30% to 65%. The current favourability of Elves towards Spirits is 75% while Spirits average around 55% for all the races. Some are higher but that¡¯s individual stats rather than a race as a whole." Nan Tian exined.
"Oh? That¡¯ll be pretty helpful then. If we see it decrease we can probably organise something to raise it once more. It¡¯ll make handling this many races much easier." Shiro blinked in surprise as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"That¡¯s the purpose of this graph after all. The second graph is what their jobs are so let¡¯s say 20% of the people in Asharia are in the military. Of course that¡¯s not the truth since that number is a bit lower but you get the idea. The second graph just shows job distribution. It¡¯s thest graph that I¡¯m more focused on." Nan Tian smiled as he presented the graph.
ncing at the graph, Shiro already knew what it was.
"You can make something like this?"
"Mn, it¡¯s not hard considering that a lot of people are talking about you a lot." Nan Tian chuckled.
Thest graph was one that showed the favourability towards each leader from the different races.
For the Demons, their favourability with Shiro is 33%, Madison was 50% and the rest was split amongst the other party members including Nan Tian.
For Spirits, Shiro had a massive 92% favourability while the remaining 8% was for everyone else. They¡¯ll prioritise Shiro¡¯s orders over everyone else¡¯s orders.
This graph varied from race to race but they all showed that Shiro had a high favourability with all of them.
"Heh~ This one is handy when ites to putting shrines down. For Spirits, I can probably put more shrines in their tformpared to the other races." Shiro muttered while looking at the data.
"Mn do you like my gift?" Nan Tian smiled.
"Yup. I say, for a young master of a branch, aren¡¯t you a little too good at dealing with all these things? If I didn¡¯t know, I would have mistaken you for a servant." Shiro grinned as he shrugged.
"Who knows. You¡¯ve been more powerful than me for a while now so the best I can do is relieve your burden in other areas." Nan Tian replied.
ncing down at his hands, he shook his head.
"I figured that I¡¯m more of a front liner but after meeting you again I¡¯m now doing office work."
"True that. But it¡¯s fine isn¡¯t it? With the world being so dangerous now, many would jump at the opportunity to just do some office work." Shiro asked as she pulled out some juice.
"Maybe. But regardless, I think I should get a move on. I¡¯ll disguise myself a little and see if I can enter one of the Beast Queen¡¯s cities without writing a contract with her. After all, breaking it after infiltration might be a little annoying considering the bacsh. If I can¡¯t join without making a contract, I¡¯ll see if there are any other methods." Nan Tian said as he stood up.
"Mn, be careful."
"Pft, even though you¡¯re basically sending me to my death you¡¯re asking me to be careful haha." Nan Tianughed.
"Oh please, just because I¡¯m sending you to somewhere dangerous doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t care about your safety. Take this just in case you need to fight. It should help you buy some time for me to arrive." Shiro rolled her eyes and handed him a piece of the rune to summon the Runic Guardian.
"Thanks, I¡¯ll keep that in mind."
Watching Nan Tian leave, Shiro paused for a moment as she wondered if she should have given the mission to anyone else.
With the danger this mission imposes, the one that she trusts toplete this was probably just Nan Tian and Isilia.
Madison was still a little inexperienced for this kind of job so assigning her would be a bad call. Plus, she is also a Queen so arriving at the city would only weaken her.
This was the same with Isilia. Though Isilia was busy with training Lyrica so the only one that could do this was Nan Tian.
Sighing heavily, she finished the rest of her meal quickly before making her way back to themand centre.
ncing at the left screen, she could see that the gateway to filter out people had finished being constructed and all that remained was waiting for Estre to wake up.
When she does, she¡¯ll be able to move the gateway to a different dimension permanently so that she can add teleport nodes for more people to use.
"Let¡¯s see... if we¡¯re going to be making our way to Tokyo, a second city is a must. I can probably teleport to Astral Horizons and borrow the abundance of mana there to create the second city with a bit of help.
"Since I don¡¯t have a god grade anchor it won¡¯t be as big as the main city but it¡¯ll be fine for now." Shiro muttered.
Musing to herself, she couldn¡¯t help but imagine a whole fleet of floating cities armed to the teeth with weapons. If something like that was to storm the capital of a Queen, the chances of fighting back was absolutely 0!
Of course, that¡¯s only if she nned on wiping everything off the map itself but for now though, it¡¯ll be fine just being a show of power.
Should any of the Queen use the citizens to threaten her, then she¡¯ll give the Queen no mercy.
After all, she can just revive them right after she killed them. Her favourability would drop but it was a good trade if she can eliminate a Queen.
Her goal was saving the world, not getting the love of everyone.
Cracking her neck, she finalised a few ns before setting course to Tokyo.
Of course, before that, she needed to make a trip to Astral Horizons.
Swiping with her hand, a portal appeared in front of her and stepped through.
Immediately, hot air crashed into her face as Shiro was forced to step back for a moment.
Furrowing her brows, she frowned for a moment before looking at what was in front of her.
She should have been at the top of the mountain but the ground was strangely red.
Feeling a pair of eyes looking at her, Shiro nced back and froze in shock.
[Ancestral Dragon of Fire LVL 950]
"Erm.... Greetings?" Shiro forced a smile.
Before she could even run, the dragon spat out a tiny puff of me as Shiro¡¯s body was instantly vapourised.
Activating her Demi God Skill Rebirth, her body was repaired instantly. Quickly jumping through her portal to safety, Shiro¡¯s back was filled with cold sweat.
Panting heavily, she couldn¡¯t believe that she would actually run into a level 950 Ancestral dragon that killed her with a single breath. If it wasn¡¯t for her Rebirth skill, things could have just ended there.
"Oh my god..." Shiro muttered while calming herself down.
Furrowing her brows, she decided to make the city somewhere else.
###
"Ah... she¡¯s gone." The dragon muttered with a sigh.
He wanted to greet her but she arrived just as a sneeze was building up.
If it wasn¡¯t for that bad timing, he would have liked to talk to her for a bit since he hadn¡¯t talked to a person in a long long time.
But the most important part was that she had survived that sneeze. While it wasn¡¯t even 1% of his power, not many beings could survive that. After all, he was an Ancestral Dragon close to attaining the status of a Demi God. Anyone below level 900 would die from his sneeze.
Curving his mouth into a smile, he wondered if he¡¯d see her again.
Chapter 914 Nitha
Chapter 914 Nitha
It has been two days now since the world changed. I had been travelling with the caravan towards the east.
During our journey, we encountered a few monsters but they were weak monsters that were running away.
Instead of killing them, I decided to persuade the caravan to let me reason with them.
It took a bit of convincing but I knew that they were sentient and knew that the higher level monsters were dangerous for the both of us.
Eventually, I managed to convince them to travel with us, acting as mounts and could carry some of therger things that we found which could be helpful.
The monsters that followed us consisted of three Rock Drakes averaging around level 350. Their build was ratherrge as pieces of rock covered their muscles and acted as armour.
Two Dread Howlers and a single Phantogeist.
Dread Howlers were these long serpentine monsters that had an upper body which resembled a manta ray except that their mouths could split open, revealing rows of teeth and walls of flesh that glowed in the dark with a beautiful blue. There were small protrusions on the surface of their body which glowed on the tips. Their wings were elongated with spikes on the edges.
Dread Howlers would be fine in the sea,nd and air since they are able to adapt in all three areas.
They primarily hunted in the dark using their glowing protrusions as bait before strangling and eating their prey alive.
Having these monsters on our side was helpful since nocturnal battles were our weakness considering theck of light.
Plus, they were helpful as mounts for our scouts considering that they could easily fit three humans on its back.
As for the Phantogeist, it was simr to a Gorgon except that it¡¯s a lot more monstrous. It¡¯s body was translucent and revealed rows of bones beneath its skin and tentacle like appendages that could retract so that its body became streamline. The tentacles could split open at the tip to reveal ws that couldtch onto any surface without letting go. There were small tes of spiked armour, that was also translucent, running down the tentacle and down its spine. It was able to re the spikes up in order to harm its enemy whenever it receives an attack.
The Phantogeist¡¯s main form of attack was two scythe like ws at the front which would cut you in half before you know it. It did have a head but there were no eyes. The head could split into four parts to reveal the sharp teeth that it hid in its mouth.
When we came across the Phantogeist, it was actually mourning the death of what seemed to be its mother as her body had been cut to pieces. We knew that it wasn¡¯t done by humans since the body would have disappeared should we collect the materials.
It was on guard against us but the monster that travelled with us helped persuade the young Phantogeist.
In terms of size, it was slightly bigger than the Rock Drakes which could hold 3 people if you force it but was smaller than the Dread Howlers.
We had the tailors make a few saddles with what we had on hand so that we could ride the monsters without any problems and they worked quickly. But due to theck of materials, we were only able to make three saddles.
In the end, we decided to give the saddles to the Phantogeist and the two Dread Howlers.
When it came to scouting, these three were betterpared to the Rock Drakes so we could saddle them up at ater date.
While hunting did be easier thanks to the monsters, the requirement for food grew since they needed to eat too. Just eating mana stones didn¡¯t seem to be enough for them so they extracted some nourishment from raw flesh. It seemed like the level of mana decreased after cooking so we split the food in two, one half being cooked and for us while the other half was for the monsters.
The rock drakes managed to lessen our burden in terms of food since they were fine with extracting mana from precious materials and ores. We had a few cksmiths with us who carried some ores which managed to satiate the rock drakes for now but we¡¯ll need to go mining when we can to keep up the food supply for them.
A few of the people areining but the fact that the monsters protected us forced them to ept their presence since it was better that a monster died fighting to protect them than a human.
Regardless, I knew that these people were probably going to leave us the moment we find a city without any regard since they are stillining despite the situation we were in.
Though it would be better if they left since this caravan was growing in size. We had helped a few groups of escapees during our journey so there were more mouths to feed. Unlike theiners, these new recruits knew how harsh it was so rather thanining, they were helping around to prove that they could be useful.
I nced at the Phantogeist curled up next to me and smiled. Patting its skin, I could feel it nce towards me curiously despite having no eyes.
"They say that the new recruits heard a few rumours of some camps being set up further ahead. If we can find a settlement of people, we might be able to reduce the size of the caravan a little so that we can move around and help more people. Hopefully, we might even be able to refill our rations a little since we¡¯re running low on food." I muttered as the Phantogeist growled softly before opening its mouth.
Throwing up some half digested food, it nudged it next to my feet.
"Hahaha, it¡¯s the others that are hungry. I¡¯m rtively well off. Though you should keep your food since we need you to be healthy so that you can protect us." Iughed while patting its head.
I didn¡¯t think that monsters could actually be kind like this since Phantogeists were actually a symbol of fear from one of the regions that they could be found in.
Tilting its head slightly, the Phantogeist opened its mouth once more as its tongue shot forward and snapped the food back into its mouth and swallowed.
"A little unhygienic don¡¯t you think? Though food is food. I wonder how the settlement will react to you guys if it does exist. Hopefully, they don¡¯t try to kill us for being with you guys since this isn¡¯t the time to fight amongst ourselves." I muttered.
I found it rather funny that I was conversing to this monster like it was an old friend of mine while my actual friend had be a little distant ever since I brought in the monsters as protection. But I knew that the guy was still kind in heart. He just needed to digest everything that had happened.
Letting out a growl that sounded almostforting? It nudged its head against my body.
"Thanks. Perhaps I should give you a name? We¡¯ll be journeying together for a while after all."
Hearing this, the Phantogeist slithered around for a moment like it was contemting something before returning to my side and nodded its head.
"Mn then are you a boy or girl? I¡¯m not sure if Phantogeists have genders but considering how brutal you are in a few of the fights, are you perhaps a boy?" I asked.
Recoiling back slightly, one of its tentacles hit my back as it or rather, she, seemed offended. Immediately I knew that it was probably a girl considering the fact that it hit me after calling it a boy.
"So you¡¯re a girl then? Hmm... How about I call you Nitha? There was a small folklore from where my grandparents lived and there was a being called Nitha. It was unsure what her race was but she protected the vige despite the humans condemning her in the past. If you offer her sacrifices of food, she¡¯ll keep the vige free of monsters. In a way, you¡¯re doing the same by taking care of the monsters so why don¡¯t I call you Nitha?" I suggested.
Pausing for a moment, Nitha let out a satisfied growl as I couldn¡¯t help butugh.
Our trip was getting stranger with each passing moment. Monsters joined the caravan and I had just named a Phantogeist since it was my mountpanion when I went out scouting. I didn¡¯t know what this journey would lead us but I hoped that the oue was good.
"Asher! I¡¯ll be taking the next watch. You can sleep now." Someone called out to me as I nced over and saw the person responsible for the next watch.
"Seems like that¡¯s my cue to leave. I¡¯ll see you tomorrow Nitha." I smiled as Nitha nodded her head before curling up and going to bed herself.
Chuckling for a moment, I made my way back to my tent so that I can prepare myself for the journey tomorrow.
Chapter 915 Shrines
Chapter 915 Shrines
Sitting in hermand centre, Shiro nced at the radar while wondering what she should do.
After her recent endeavour towards Astral Horizons, she could confidently say that there was no way she¡¯ll be able to survive against the dragon as she is right now.
If even a small puff of me could kill her, she didn¡¯t want to think what would happen if that dragon got serious. Plus, for a high level being like that dragon, it would definitely have a few skills that could track her through dimensions so rift strider was most likely useless against it.
There was also the matter of trying to hurt it. While Silvanis could ignore armour, Shiro wasn¡¯t sure if she could even put a dent in its health.
Sighing out heavily, she leaned back on her chair and scratched her hair.
"Tch, so annoying. There was also the portal to the Beyond in the mountain too." She muttered with a frown since she had wanted to approach the portal if she could.
Shaking her head, she decided to send out drones for now. Without the ess of Astral Horizons, even though her drones were still working in the tunnels, she¡¯ll need to find a better ce to create her city.
The creation of the branch anchor needed to be in a ce with abundant mana so that the quality of the anchor increases. Her own mana was used to contain and refine everything.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro tried to think of somewhere with lots of mana that she could ess but nothing came to mind.
If she was to make an anchor randomly just so that she could make a city, it would be defenceless since most of the mana would be used to maintain the city and making sure that it could teleport like Asharia. If it couldn¡¯t, it would be easily cornered and destroyed.
¡¯If it isn¡¯t a ce like Astral Horizon¡¯s, I doubt I¡¯ll be able to make another city equal to Asharia.¡¯ Shiro muttered. While there is the possibility to make Asharia much stronger and bigger, it would need more power sources to maintain everything. Meaning she¡¯d need Anchors close to the same quality as her main anchor. Both Madison and Isilia have transported their anchor to Asharia and since they were allied through contracts, they weren¡¯t in conflict.
All three anchors powered the city but the quality of the anchor she made on Astral Horizons was simply better than the other two. Madison¡¯s and Isilia¡¯s anchors made up for roughly 10 to 15% of the city¡¯s power while the rest was fuelled by the god grade anchor that generated a bit of divine energy.
Closing her eyes, Shiro wondered what they could do.
¡¯If I had Madison and Isilia make branch anchors with me, I can probably power the city with three anchors working in synchronisation. The power output would be much lower but at least it can have some form of defence.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Grabbing the keyboard, she ran some tests and gave a rough estimate on how much mana could be produced with three anchors.
After running through some tests, she couldn¡¯t help but sigh heavily.
Without a proper area to construct an anchor, the power output would only be enough to have one mech and three turrets all while maintaining the city along with the teleport function. It doesn¡¯t have as many features as Asharia but it¡¯ll also be able to camouge itself if needed.
But the upside of this is that she didn¡¯t need to provide the mana herself. The city would be self sufficient even if it was a little on the weak side.
Though most of the power is supplied to the barrier since that was more important than the weapons or mechs. If she was to forget about the barrier, the city could power more than 20 turrets and a small group of mechs but it would also make the city weak to the point that a random hit could shatter it apart.
Rather than a weapon, the city was a ce of protection.
¡¯Three turrets is more than enough for defence. I¡¯ll get Madison and Isilia to give me a handter today when they wake up.¡¯ Shiro thought while standing up.
With Estre still sleeping and Lisandra trying her best to reach tier 6, Shiro didn¡¯t have much else to do other than setting up some shrines while the city made its way to Tokyo. With her drones scouting ahead of them, she¡¯ll be notified if there were any survivors on the road.
The drone will detect them through both mana and heat signature since many would hide their mana in fear of being spotted by monsters.
Thinking about the shrines, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel another headache arriving since it was quite embarrassing to the one making these shrines.
Just the thought of making a bunch of her statues in the pose of a merciful god gave her goosebumps. Though having a statue of her killing someone wasn¡¯t exactly pleasing either.
¡¯Maybe I should ask some artists to help me.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
However, there was the option of letting the system do its thing and create the most suitable shrine.
Her skill could be activated in two ways.
The first was creating one herself and the second was blessing a shrine that has been made in her name.
In regard to the first option, she was only allowed to create a certain number of shrines per month before the counter is reset so that she couldn¡¯t just ce shrines everywhere she wanted.
Thinking about it for a short moment, she teleported to the spirit tform and found a good spot near the central building.
Taking a deep breath, she nced around to make sure no one was around.
¡¯Damn... it¡¯s really embarrassing to make a shrine dedicated to yourself. It feels like I¡¯m asking everyone to praise me.¡¯ Shiro¡¯s smile faltered as she shook her head.
Activating her skill, a tier 7 magic circle appeared in front of her as a building was slowly created.
There was only a single door but when she entered, she couldn¡¯t help but wince slightly.
Inside the building was a statue of her standing in her dress while raising her right hand towards the sky. Her expression was soft as Shiro could almost see tears rolling out.
The worst part was that she knew where this pose came from.
It was when she had said please for people to run away!
Feeling the urge to demolish the building immediately, Shiro wanted to curse at the system.
¡¯Out of all the poses that you could have chosen, why this one?!?!¡¯
Rubbing her arms, Shiro started to weigh the pros and cons to keeping this shrine around.
While there were a lot of pros such as increasing her faith generation, the cons to this was her humiliation.
Every time she sees one of these shrines she¡¯ll die on the inside.
Sensing someone approaching, Shiro coughed and recognised the signal to be Samuel.
"Your highness?" He called out curiously seeing Shiro standing in this shrine.
"Mn? What is it?" Shiro forced a smile while ncing back.
"Nothing. I was just curious at the surge of mana I sensed and saw this building. I was a bit curious as to what was inside so I can to investigate but it seems like I was worried for nothing-"
Pausing in his sentence, he saw the statue in the centre of the building.
". . ."
Seeing Samuel frozen in a mix of emotions, Shiro wanted to bury herself in a pit.
"What is this?..." He muttered.
"It¡¯s... fantastic! Which artisan created this masterpiece? It captures your benevolence perfectly! And they even picked the best pose too!" Samuel praised with an excited glint in his eyes.
Hiding her face, Shiro wanted to cry out in embarrassment right now.
"Ahaha I wonder who made this. By the time I arrived it was already here." Shiro replied while screaming in her mind.
"We should get him tomission more of these. I¡¯m sure the others Will love it." Samuel encouraged as Shiro was hitting him mentally since it was already embarrassing to have one and he wanted more to be made!?
"How are you sure that the others would like it? I was actually nning on demolishing this." Shiro asked as she wanted to know his opinion on the matter.
"It seems like your highness doesn¡¯t know your own poprity. Quite a few of the younger spirits look at you like their idol and the merchants make quite a bit of money by selling toys that resemble your highness along with monsters that you have defeated. I¡¯m sure the kids will love it to see your statue in the town centre!" Samuel replied as Shiro nodded her head.
Swallowing her embarrassment, Shiro forced a smile.
"Perhaps I should see if I can track down who made this statue and ce it around the city then." She muttered.
"Definitely!"
###
After leaving, Shiro ced a few more shrines around the city while feigning ignorance. Once all the shrines were ces, she went back to her room and screamed into her pillow.
Chapter 916 Creating BranChapter Anchors
Chapter 916 Creating BranChapter Anchors
As the sun rose for the second day of the new age, the citizens of Asharia were surprised to see shrines erected with statues of Shiro within them. They knew that Shiro probably didn¡¯t do this considering the fact that it wasn¡¯t made from nanobots but a sort of marble that was extremely hard to even scratch.
After asking around, they heard that Samuel had stated that an unknown person had crafted all of these statues through the night.
Quite a few of the citizens were quite inspired by the act and started to carve their own statues as thanks to Shiro for saving them during the chaos.
While this was happening, a few of the humans that were saved prayed at the statue wishing for good fortune and received a small buff which surprised them.
It was a small blessing that gave them a small increase to luck during the day along with a small increase to EXP gained.
Once this news was disclosed, more people started to pray at the shrines while Shiro, the culprit of the shrines, was screaming into her pillow.
###
Sitting in themand centre, Shiro suppressed the blush on her face while getting some of the police to disperse the crowd a little since there were more shrines around the city.
With a few of them carving their own statues, Shiro didn¡¯t stop them since it was a good distraction from everything that happened.
"S ¨C H ¨C I ¨C R ¨C O ~"
Hearing Nimue¡¯s call, Shiro felt a shiver down her spine.
What is it?" Shiro forced a smile as she turned around meekly.
"I didn¡¯t take you for one that enjoyed seeing people pray at your shrine so much. It just so happens that the shrines give you some small buffs huh?" Nimue smiled as she could see that Shiro was embarrassed about it.
Knowing what Shiro is like, Nimue just knew that Shiro was dying inside right now.
As revenge for waking her up during her sleep, Nimue wanted to the torment the sh*t out of Shiro right now!
"Ahahaha I wonder who created all of these shrines. It¡¯s quite surprising isn¡¯t it. I don¡¯t need to do it myself." Shiro forced augh as she nced to the side with sweat rolling down her cheeks.
"Hou hou~ I truly wonder who was able to create so many shrines that give you so many bonuses. It¡¯s almost as if you were the one putting them down thanks to the system though mn? But surely not right? You¡¯re not so egotistical as to put so many statues of yourself personally now would you? It makes more sense for someone else to create one in your honour." Nimue asked as she had a smug smile on her face.
Staying silent, Shiro wanted to shed a tear.
If it wasn¡¯t for the benefits it granted in the form of faith, she wouldn¡¯t want to create statues of herself!
[Gaia praises the quality of statues.]
[Gaia wants one herself so that she can put it in her recently crafted room.]
[Gaia wants to get a statue for all the primordial gods so that they can admire Shiro.]
[Nyx shakes her head.]
[Ouranos face palms.]
[Chronos rejects politely.]
[Tartarus is speechless and reprimands Gaia about her conduct as a primordial god.]
[Gaia scoffs and retorts saying this kind of behaviour is ok when ites to Shiro.]
Looking at the system messages popping up, Shiro wanted to cry remembering that they could see everything that she did.
[Nyx sends a voice message using her authority.]
¡¯Huh???¡¯ Raising her eyebrow, Shiro knew that sending messages took quite a bit out of them never mind sending voice messages.
Pressing y, it was silent for a moment before Shiro heard augh.
"Heh."
Hearing theugh, she could already imagine Nyx¡¯s smug face while looking at her die on the inside.
*PUCHI!
"ARG! Alright, enough about the statues. Let¡¯s get to business. Nimue, I want you to use your power to revitalise thend a little with Iziuel. A single nce at the ground below and you¡¯ll know that it¡¯s a bit f*cked." Shiro ordered as she summoned Iziuel.
Locking away her embarrassment to the corner of her mind, Shiro had a serious expression on right now.
Nodding her head, Nimue decided that she¡¯ll have a bit of funter but workes first.
Watching Nimue and Iziuel leave, Shiro sent a notification to Isilia and Madison.
After a short moment, the two arrived at the office.
"Madi, Isilia, I¡¯m nning to make a second city but there has been a small problem. Astral Horizons is currently upied by an Ancestral Dragon so making a city there is a little difficult."
"Are we going to be attacking as a group of three?" Madison asked curiously.
"Oh god no. It killed me with a tiny puff of fire. If I didn¡¯t have my revival skill this world would have gone bye bye." Shiro shook her head.
"I mentioned the mountain so that you girls will be careful around the portals linked to it which brings the potions to this city. Right now, it doesn¡¯t notice anything so don¡¯t stimte the mountain at all if possible. If a breath of firees through the portal, it might be bad. I already have drones near the harvesting spot keeping an eye out for the dragon. If it appears, I¡¯ll close the portals immediately.
"What I want you two to do is help me make the second city. You see, without Astral Horizons, making a second city simr to Asharia is impossible due to the small power source. Instead, I¡¯m opting for a smaller city that¡¯s powered by three branch anchors so that it could keep its defences while also having some offensive capabilities. If we find anywhere better, we¡¯ll finalise the anchors so that the city can expand." Shiro exined.
"Wait finalise, you mean we¡¯re going to be making iplete anchors?" Isilia asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yup. You see, I have a small theory. Anchors are pretty much the same right? With just unique materials while constructing the main one. All three of our anchors are pretty simr, especially mine and Madison¡¯s since we¡¯re both Queens that came from this garden. Her situation is a little special since Demons came from a different garden but the materials used still include materials from this garden.
"Therefore, I believe that if we are each responsible for a portion of the anchor, we canbine it to make a pseudoplete anchor while leaving room for improvement in all three anchors. As you know, once an anchor isplete, we can¡¯t change it. We can make more but since I¡¯m making a city around it, I want to make the increase in the power source a little easier. Because otherwise we¡¯ll have hundreds of tiny cities that can¡¯t bepared to Asharia rather than tens of powerful cities. We want to aim for quality over quantity." Shiro said while showing them the blueprint she had. It was simr to making a puzzle and each of them was responsible for a third of the anchor.
"You know this is a little crazy right?" Madison raised her eyebrow since their understanding of anchors was a little limited. They were experimenting with the unknown.
"Pft it¡¯ll be fine. At most it¡¯ll explode but I can contain it." Shiro waved it off with a smile.
"But you forget that making an anchor requires our stats. If it fails, we would lose stats permanently." Isilia reminded.
Remembering that the two of them didn¡¯t have as many stats to spare as she does, Shiro paused for a moment.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll keep that n for another time then. I guess we can make three normal branch anchors and I just link it to the main city. With the faith generation of the shrines, I¡¯ve noticed something a little interesting." Shiro smiled since she had been observing the changes in the city while waiting for people to wake up.
Flicking her fingers, a graph appeared, and they noticed a jump at the end of the graph.
"This is a graph of the divine energy generated by my main anchor. Using the app that Nan Tian made, I noticed a change in the atmosphere within the city and snooped around a little.
"Since the shrines were made by me and they generate faith, it¡¯s something that¡¯s linked to my Demi God identity simr to divine energy. Faith can be converted to divine energy when needed so since there is no use for it right now, it¡¯s bolstering the main anchor. I do believe that if we link the second city to the main one, the increase of divine energy would benefit the second city quite a lot considering it¡¯s only being powered by three branch anchors of mediocre quality." Shiro smiled as Isilia nodded her head.
"That sounds easier than the first idea." Madison admitted.
"Mn, though if we used the first idea the power generated would be much higher. Regardless, our main priority now isndmass. We need more space for more people since it¡¯s a bit cramped in the small city underground. They need some sunlight too." Shiro shrugged.
"Pft what are they? nts?" Isilia joked.
Discussing the ns for a bit, the three of them left themand room and started the construction of three branch anchors.
Chapter 917 Second City
Chapter 917 Second City
Finding a spot for the construction of the branch anchor wasn¡¯t hard considering that they were just making it for the sake of another city right now.
They could pick any spot they wanted but couldn¡¯t build it near one another or else the quality of the anchor would decrease.
After all, each of the anchors needed a lot of ambient mana.
Looking for three suitable spots, the group split apart and began the construction of the branch anchor.
The process was rather simple and the method appeared in her mind the moment she made the main anchor.
There were three steps.
The first was to extract a bit of energy from your main anchor. The second was to enhance it with your own power, hence why many Queen¡¯s would be weakened after the first branch anchor. They¡¯d need to wait for the power to return to them over time as more people live in their city.
If they create the anchor in the middle of nowhere, the returns for their initial investment would be close to 0 and it would mean that they wasted stats for nothing.
And finally, the third step would be to condense everything into a crystal and ¡¯install¡¯ it at the current location. Once ¡¯installed¡¯ it cannot be moved unless it¡¯s a mobile city like Asharia.
Shiro didn¡¯t know what kind of method the Ice Queen used but if they were to ever be enemies, it would be troublesome to find her real location.
Shaking her head, Shiro started to create the branch anchor. Extracting some energy from the main anchor, Shiro made sure to retrieve some of the excess divine energy that was generated thanks to the shrines.
Watching a gold and blue liquid swirl in front of her, Shiro closed her eyes and created a tier 6 magic circle.
cing it over her chest, she reached towards the magic circle with her right hand as it sunk into her body.
Flinching slightly, she pulled out with her arm and a storm of white and silver energy could be seen around her hand. The energy was quite vtile as snow started to form around her.
Taking a deep breath, she nced over at her stats and saw the decrease and couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
Pushing forward with her hand, the two energies started to collide before slowly merging together.
"Madi, Isilia, what¡¯s the situation on your side? I¡¯ve almost finished my branch anchor." Shiro called out over the earpiece.
"I¡¯m almost finished with mine. But jeez, watching my stats disappear hurts my heart." Madison sighed.
"Think of it as an initial investment. With the city that Shiro is going to create, I¡¯d say we¡¯ve got a month or so before our stats recover." Isilia chuckled.
"PFT! A month!? Aren¡¯t we nning to fight some Queens? A month is a bit too long isn¡¯t it?" Madison widened her eyes.
"Well that¡¯s just a rough estimate. If we can help more people, the time needed to recover will naturally decrease. Plus, we also have people helping us in Asharia so it¡¯s fine. Just focus on making the second city so that we can help more people." Shiro chuckled as she started to condense the energy into a crystal.
Once the crystal was formed, all that was left is to install it.
Setting the crystal to the side, Shiro took a deep breath and prepared to make another city.
Cracking her neck, she nned out a blueprint in her mind. It didn¡¯t need to be as advanced as Asharia since its main goal was to give a ce for the people to stay. Making sure that the power sources could actually power everything meant that she had to take some of the features out.
¡¯If I had to describe it, I guess it could be called a vige whenpared to Asharia.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself but this was fine for now. Once they link it to the main city, she can upgrade it in the future using the main anchor as a secondary power source for this city.
Suddenly, a tier 7 magic circle expanded out around her as nanobots appeared.
Making the city itself wasn¡¯t difficult since Shiro had prior experience. The main problem was bncing out the power sources so that it drained from each of them evenly. Unlike the anchors on the main city. All three branch anchors were of the same quality.
Giving one more burden would throw things off bnce so she had to be careful.
While this was happening, the people in the city were watching in surprise since it was the first time that they had seen Shiro create a city. Watching the nanobots swarm around her and fabricate intricate parts in an instant before merging together, some of them couldn¡¯t hold back the desire to record everything and post it on the forums.
Of course, Shiro didn¡¯t stop this since all they see right now was the nanobots forming the city. She had used a mirage to disguise the tier 7 magic circle so that the enemy couldn¡¯t study it.
###
Smiling softly, Nan Tian watched the livestream that was being broadcasted on the Asharia forums. Naturally, some of this was spread to the other forums around the inte and quite a few people recognised Shiro since she had been quite high key in her performance over thest day.
With her constructing a city using her own power, the people were quite confused about what kind of ability she controlled. It wasn¡¯t like anything they had seen and while metal was the closest, it wasn¡¯t as versatile.
Seeing people praised Shiro in thements, Nan Tian felt happy on the inside.
However, his smile soon faded considering what he is about to do.
Looking at the city that the beast queen had taken over, he nced at his subordinates.
"Take caution in the city and try to keep yourself hidden if possible. If you are forced into signing a contract, try to run. Once you sign that contract, you be our enemy until we defeat the beast queen. Our goal is to find their capital don¡¯t forget that. Even if it takes us weeks or maybe even months, we have to make sure we aren¡¯t discovered. Don¡¯t let them know our true goal. Plus, we have Shiro covering our backs. Should you find yourself in danger with nowhere to go, pray to her and she will help. Naturally, I¡¯m no exception despite being tier 6. This shows how dangerous this mission is. If any of you want to opt out now say so since this is yourst chance." Nan Tian said as none of them even moved from their spot.
"Good. Let¡¯s go." Nan Tian nodded.
###
"Hou~ Seems like the young queen has gotten stronger." A woman smirked seeing Shiro¡¯s performance on the screen.
Narrowing her eyes, she nced down at her subordinates.
"How are the nsing along? Are we ready to proceed to stage two?" She asked as they shook their heads.
"Pardon my rudeness but I believe it is better for your highness to recuperate some of your strength first. You are weakened after constructing so many anchors and quite a few of the Queens are already paying attention to you. One of our neighbours near Hatril City is amassing a small army in order to take over the anchor. Their goal is to whittle down your highness¡¯s strength as that is a rather new anchor." One of the subjects replied while kneeling in front of her.
"Hm... you have a point. I want you to take two of our tier 6 guards and deal with our neighbour. You won¡¯t be able to crush them but it should be enough to force a stalemate." The woman ordered as the subordinate nodded his head.
"Understood."
"What about you? What do you have to report?" She nced at the other subordinate who had stayed quiet.
"I want to report about the discovery of high level beasts that I believe your highness would appreciate. They average around level 600 to 650 and have established territories that are beneficial for them. With your power, converting them to our pawns should be easy." The man replied.
"I see... Sure. I¡¯ll need some exercise too. Gather up the royal guards, we¡¯re going out for an excursion." The woman smiled as a portal opened up in front of her.
[Thiria LVL 625 Beast Queen]
###
Completing the city, Shiro immediately posted a notice in the main city and started to move a few of the citizens over. With the undergroundyer being a temporary home for them, they didn¡¯t mind at all. If anything, they were happy that Shiro had actually made a city just for them.
Looking at the city, Shiro figured that she should wait another day or so before adding the shrines to boost up the faith generation.
As she was helping everyone move to the new city, she received a notification about a small group of people that were running away from monsters right now.
The group was quite small and only consisted of 10 people. 8 of them were a.d.u.l.ts while 2 of them were kids.
Furrowing her brows, she called Kanae and had her apany her. It was a good chance to see what Kanae can do in these kinds of situations.
Chapter 918 Survivors
Chapter 918 Survivors
"What are we doing Shiro-nee?" Kanae asked curiously as she had her Katana strapped to her waist.
She had two katanas and she used, one as backup. Normally, people would store them in the inventory but Kanae found it easier to just keep it on her waist.
Earlier today, she was helping the police patrol the city when Shiro called her phone and asked to meet her in the office.
"The scouting drones have found a small group of survivors. I want you toe with me so that we can help them. Since you¡¯re still a little young, I want to see how you deal with situations like this." Shiro smiled as Kanae paused.
"Sure. But since Shiro-nee is there, there¡¯s not much I need to do." Kanae tilted her head in confusion.
"I¡¯ll just be watching by the side don¡¯t worry. Also, how is your training with the Yin Style Phantom Path?" Shiro asked as she had given Kanae the full manual script of the martial art considering her past identity.
"Oh it¡¯s been going good. This martial art is so easy to use! I had tried to use other martial arts when I was training to be a bodyguard but it¡¯s always the phantom path that Shiro-nee gave me that felt the mostfortable." Kanae smiled happily as Shiro nodded.
¡¯That¡¯s because it¡¯s yours to begin with.¡¯ Shiro thought with a soft smile.
"Mn That¡¯s good. I hope that I¡¯m not overworking you. You¡¯re still young despite what you look like." Shiro nodded as she stood up.
"It¡¯s fine. I had a talk with my mum and we limited how much I¡¯ll be working per day. Plus, I¡¯m taking weekends off. Mum¡¯s fine with me training since she knows how dangerous the world is now." Kanae replied.
"Speaking of your mum, how are you two holding up in the city? I hope everything is to your liking." Shiro asked as the two of them made their way out of the tower.
"It¡¯s a bit overwhelming with all of this new stuff but mum¡¯s getting a hang of it. She¡¯s just happy that we¡¯re living together again since I moved out for a bit after getting stuck in the dungeon. I was living in Russia for a bit after all." Kanae smiled while hugging Shiro¡¯s arm.
"Mn, her precious daughter got stuck in a dungeon and came out looking much older. Plus, she must have been shocked the first time you brought up the fact that you wanted to move out for a bit." Shiro joked as Kanae nodded.
Talking while they made their way to the edge, Shiro waved her hand and her form started to shrink before stopping around palm size.
Sitting on Kanae¡¯s shoulder, Shiro crossed her legs.
"I¡¯ll just watch like this. Don¡¯t mind me and try to help the people ok?" Shiro smiled as Kanae paused for a moment before nodding her head.
Stretching her body for a moment, Kanae jumped off the edge of the map.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.
¡¯Gahhhh!!!! Shiro-nee is too cute!!!! I wonder if she¡¯ll be ok if I poke her cheeks a little. She¡¯s so small right now!!¡¯ Kanae cried out in her mind since it was quite distracting.
However, after appreciating the small Shiro on her shoulder, her eyes focused and her aura steadied.
Noticing this, Shiro raised an eyebrow since it was simr to when she would cut off her emotions for a little while so that she could kill the enemy in front of her.
¡¯This level of concentration is quite impressive for Kanae¡¯s age.¡¯ Shiro thought with an appreciative nod.
Sending out her senses, Kanae discovered the signatures belonging to the survivors.
She could see a group consisting of 4 monsters and each one was quite high levelledpared to the survivors. If it wasn¡¯t for one of the survivors having such a strong aura, they might have been wiped out long ago.
¡¯The woman is struggling but she¡¯s holding off the four monsters while running. If they continue like this, they¡¯ll all die.¡¯ Kanae thought as a tier 4 magic circle appeared beneath her feet.
Stomping on it like it¡¯s t ground, she propelled her body towards the survivors as fast as she could.
###
"Haa....." Breathing out heavily, I wiped the blood that was filling my vision.
The monsters were chasing after us but it seems like they find it more fun to torment our mind rather than just killing us outright.
They could have easily overtaken me and killed the rest of the survivors but instead, they made sure to stay just out of range. If we were to slow down even slightly, we would be killing.
I know that this was a false hope that the monsters were instilling in us but I still wanted to take this chance to see if I can help these people escape.
I wanted to try to split up the group but the monsters would round us back up.
Stumbling on my foot, I slowed down slightly as one of the monsters tried to bite me.
Turning around, I tried my best to parry its bite but my arms were weak from the extendedbat.
"Arg!!!" Crying out in pain, my body was flung past the survivors and my sword was broken in half.
My back was on fire as one of the branches on the tree stabbed into my body.
Holding back my scream, I stumbled back up while using the tree as a support.
Unfortunately, it seems like the monsters have had enough fun. They cornered us offpletely as the leader of the monsters walked up and smirked.
Trying to get away from the monsters, the survivors huddled up together in fear.
I nced in my inventory but there was only a single dagger left. I didn¡¯t know how useful this was but I prepared myself to summon it if a gap reveals itself.
"Do you want to live?" The monster spoke out as we all paused in surprise since monsters speaking was very rare. Hardly anyone has heard a monster speak before but it wasn¡¯t impossible.
But the fact that it could speak meant that there was no chance of us surviving today.
Most of the survivors understood this truth and they copsed in despair but there were a few who had fire burning in their eyes.
"I want to live! What do I need to do!?" One of the survivors shouted out as he stood up. His eyes were desperate but I shook my head.
These monsters won¡¯t let him live. They just wanted a bit more enjoyment before killing us.
"That girl. The one who protected you, if you eat her alive, I¡¯ll spare you. Anyone who helps to eat her will live. Once there is only bone left, I¡¯ll let you go." The monster grinned as the man slowly turned towards me.
¡¯You¡¯re kidding right?¡¯ I thought in disbelief. Surely they¡¯re not stupid enough to believe that lie. But the look on their faces proved otherwise.
One by one, the survivors started to stand up but a couple stood in front of me, shielding me from them. their kids held me with worried faces.
"What are you doing?! You know they won¡¯t let you live! Why not die a proper human then be a cannibal! Have some integrity!" The man shouted out but a dagger was stabbed into his shoulder. If he didn¡¯t move to the side, it would have pierced his heart and killed him.
"There¡¯s no use for integrity if there¡¯s a chance to live! Don¡¯t you want your kids to have a chance at living as well?! If we eat her there is at least a chance!" The man shouted back while keeping a firm grip on the dagger.
Hearing this, the man who shielded me widened his eyes as he was clearly thinking about it but eventually shook his head.
I didn¡¯t know what he was thinking but he only smiled.
"Which father doesn¡¯t want their kids to live! However, I believe that there is a better option than relying on these cruel creatures! Holly! Take the kids and our benefactor and run! I¡¯ll try to hold them off even if I die." The man shouted out as a blue aura exploded out of his body.
Slowly, it started to turn red as I understood that he was burning his lifeforce to forcefully empower himself. At most, it¡¯ll only hold them back for a few seconds but the woman named Holly tried her best to carry me and ran with the kids behind her.
"Good attitude!" A young female voice shouted out.
*BANG!!!!
Crashing into the monster that was the leader, a sh of red filled our vision as a third of the monster was cut off and thrown into the air.
"Now then, I¡¯ll deal with you lot after I kill these monsters." The young girl said coldly as her ck hair fluttered in the wind. She held a single Katana in her right hand as killing intent permeated from her body, causing the ones that wanted to eat me copsed on their legs with pale faces.
Chapter 919 Kanaes Choice
Chapter 919 Kanae''s Choice
"But even though I said that I¡¯ll deal with you lot after I kill these monsters, looking at you only pisses me off more and more. The fact that you actually wanted to eat the person who saved you is ridiculous." Kanae red at them as she hadpletely ignored the monsters.
Staying silent, Shiro didn¡¯t say anything and just observed silently. She had made sure to reduce her aura and mana so that she seemed like a harmless spirit rather than a Demi God.
Hearing what Kanae had said, the man who took the lead in wanting to eat their benefactor stumbled back in fear.
Clicking her tongue, Kanae furrowed her brows before ncing at the injured woman being carried away.
"Eat this, you¡¯ll get healed." Kanae called out as she pulled a high quality health potion that some of the alchemists made in Asharia. Compared to the potions in the market, these were much better and the chances of havingsting effects was very low.
Throwing the potion over, she snapped her fingers as cages appeared around the monsters along with the would be cannibals.
"You two should look after her. You might want to cover your kid¡¯s eyes since this isn¡¯t something children should be seeing." Kanae said while ncing at the couple that stood up for their saviour.
Nodding their head, they quickly evacuated the area.
"Shiro-nee." Kanae called out as she walked towards the monsters in the cage. They were thrashing around in an attempt to break out but the cage was sturdy.
"Mn? What is it?" Shiro nced up.
"Why are they like that? Even though that woman helped them and risked her life, they actually wanted to eat her!" Kanae asked as she gritted her teeth.
"They¡¯re desperate." Was all Shiro could say. They were desperate and they made a choice.
"So they gave up their humanity because they¡¯re desperate? It¡¯s sad." Kanae closed her eyes as she flickered forward.
Drawing her katana, she dispersed the cages and shed horizontally at the monster acting as their leader.
Before it could even react, all of its legs were cut off as the body copsed on the ground with no limbs to support its weight.
"It is sad. Even if the monsters didn¡¯t instigate it, it would have probably happened sooner orter. Once a crack is formed, those with weak wills won¡¯t be able to do anything as it grows. For the couple, their wills were strong so they could fight against this." Shiro replied while ncing at the could be cannibals. Some of them started to cry while begging to be spared, others were speechless and couldn¡¯t stop shivering from fear.
"But what you want to do to them is up to you."
"I don¡¯t want to forgive them. But..." Kanae bit her lip.
"I don¡¯t want to kill them either since they were forced by the monsters. They need to suffer for what they did but it was the monsters that forced them." She gritted her teeth.
"Shiro-nee I don¡¯t know what I should do. I¡¯m angry but I pity them." Kanae said as she swung her katana out of frustration.
*BANG!!!!!!
Crushing the bones of the monster with ease, its skull was shattered from pure brute strength rather than technique. Seeing this, Shiro knew that Kanae was confused.
Patting her shoulder, While gave her a light hug.
"It¡¯s ok to be confused. That¡¯s part of growing up. Sometimes you need to be cruel and sometimes you need to be merciful." Shiroforted but she didn¡¯t want to say anything about what Kanae should do to them.
If it was up to her, she would have definitely yed them up while keeping them alive and given their souls to the Ancient Terror. She hated betrayal, especially when they were going to eat the person who risked her life to save them.
To survive in the new age, they needed to be cruel when it was required. Being kind to everyone would have its drawbacks. In a situation like this, even a saint would find it hard to forgive these people considering the fact that they would have consumed the flesh of that woman if Kanae didn¡¯t arrive in time.
Breathing heavily, Kanae¡¯s heart was pounding as she was in control of their lives. Before, she was just a bodyguard. At most, she¡¯ll kill those that tried to kill them but now she was the one acting as the judge. These people would have killed the woman if she hadn¡¯t stepped in but now that she has stepped in, they technically haven¡¯t done anything.
She had always acted in retaliation, never acting as the source of the conflict.
"If you are confused, it¡¯s ok for you to-"
"It¡¯s fine Shiro-nee." Kanae replied with a soft voice.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and reinforced her body.
Activating her Phantom Path, Kanae disappeared from her spot and killed all the monsters first. Their bodies were diced up into fine chunks as she directed all of her confusion and anger into her sword.
With just the survivors left, Kanae looked at them with cold eyes.
The survivors all held their breaths as their hearts pounded in nervousness.
"I wanted to help you. But I changed my mind. If I save people like you, it gives you the opportunity to probably hurt someone in the future. Once the option of doing anything in the name of survival, even abandoning your humanity, opens up for you, you will always think back to this choice. You¡¯ve already stepped past the line of no return. I¡¯m sorry." Kanae apologised as she looked down at her katana.
Hearing this, the survivors gritted their teeth.
"Who are you to judge us! We just wanted to-"
Before the man could finish his sentence, Kanae¡¯s katana shed as she cut off his tongue.
"I can judge you because I still have humanity in me. I wouldn¡¯t think about eating the person who saved me even though the chances of survival are low." Kanae retorted as she closed her eyes and swung her de.
Walking away from the scene, Kanae copsed besides the tree as she curled up with her head against her knees.
Seeing this, Shiro returned her body back to normal as she hugged Kanae.
"It is wrong for me to kill them?" Kanae asked as she nced up at Shiro.
"Do you want to hear my opinion of it, the ¡¯moral opinion of it¡¯ or do you want to hear what other people would have probably done?" Shiro asked.
"Can I hear all three?"
"Of course you can. If it was me, I would have killed them. They abandoned the person that tried to help them, in my eyes, they were dead men walking. In terms of moral opinion, it would have probably been to spare them due to the conditions they were ced in. If it was a different scenario, they might not have done it. As for other people, they probably would have also killed them since you can¡¯t trust people like that in this new age. They could stab you in the back when you have your guard down. Different scenarios bring about different choices. They made their choice and you made yours. The world has already changed and we can¡¯t go back so they would have most likely gotten crueler over time." Shiro replied with her own thoughts as Kanae nodded her head.
Sensing that the family and the woman wereing back, Shiro shrunk herself back down and sat on Kanae¡¯s shoulder.
"Erm... Thank you very much for saving us!" The man bowed as Kanae looked to the side in surprise.
"If it wasn¡¯t for you, we would have died to their hands." He said as he clenched his fist.
"I was prepared to die when I stood up against them. Thank you for helping us, if it wasn¡¯t for you, I would have never been able to see my children ever again." The man thanked as his voice started to shake.
"Thank you so much." He thanked as his wife hugged him from behind and thanked Kanae as well.
Walking up to her, the children hugged her.
"Thank you for helping daddy."
Hearing all of this, Kanae smiled softly as her doubts were dispersed. It was better to save the people that make it count rather than risking the chance of being backstabbed.
"Shiro-nee, is this what you felt when you helped people?" Kanae asked as she understood how important Shiro was to the people of the city.
"Perhaps." Shiro chuckled.
"I made up my mind. I¡¯ll deal with those that deserve it and help those that are in need. In this new age, even tiny mistakes are magnified so people need to press on with a strong will. Even if they¡¯re weak willed, as long as they haven¡¯t given up on their conscience, I¡¯ll help them." Kanae smiled as she hugged the two kids gently.
"Mn, that¡¯s a good choice." Shiro nodded with a smile.
While helping a lot of people was going to be difficult for Kanae, Shiro believed that Kanae will press on.
Plus, it was reassuring to have someone like Kanae acting as the protector of the city.
Chapter 920 Sicilia
Chapter 920 Sicilia
After taking a moment to calm down her emotions, Kanae let them rest for a bit while she cleans up everything.
The husband was called Ronan and the wife was Amelia. Before the new age arrived, they worked as escorts most of the time and helped clear some stray monsters. Their levels weren¡¯t high but it didn¡¯t bother them since they were able to make a decent living.
As for their children, they had a son and daughter. The older sibling was 10 and he was quite reserved. He would constantly nce toward the corpses of the other humans with a frown and Shiro could see a bit of anger in his eyes which disappeared.
The younger sibling seemed to be around 8 and she was quite attached to Kanae after she helped them.
She even offered to clean up the corpses but Kanae rejected since it wasn¡¯t good for children to clean up corpses.
As for the woman that was injured earlier, after consuming the potion that Kanae had given to her, she fell asleep. The only reason that she had been able to hold out for that long was because they was still being chased by monsters. If she copsed, they would all die and that helped her push her body past her limit.
While Kanae was cleaning up the corpses, Shiro sat on a tree branch and sent her senses out to scout the area just in case there were any monsters roaming around nearby.
"Erm... Miss, what are you?" The youngest sibling asked as Shiro nced down and saw the girl looking at her with curious eyes.
"Me?" Shiro pointed at herself. Nodding her head, the girl was curious about this woman that was as big as her hand.
"I¡¯m a spirit." Shiro floated down and smiled softly.
"A spirit? Like ghosts or monsters?" The girl stepped back fearfully as Shiroughed.
"No I¡¯m the good kind. Like a nature spirit." Shiro exined while sitting on the girl¡¯s shoulder.
"Nature spirit?"
"Yes. There are different spirits. They can be fire spirits or water spirits." Shiro exined since she might as well talk to the girl while everyone was resting.
"Hm... what kind of spirit are you then?" She asked.
"I¡¯m a spirit that controls souls." Shiro replied. She couldn¡¯t exactly demonstrate her power since it might be a little creepy for a kid so she¡¯ll stick with talking about it for now.
"Souls? Are you like death then? You know the tall hooded guys that take souls away." The girl asked curiously while poking at Shiro¡¯s cheeks.
"A little too rough. But yes, I¡¯m like death. Did you know that I¡¯m actually half spirit and half reaper right now? My grandparents work for Hades." Shiro grinned while pushing away the girl¡¯s finger since she didn¡¯t control her strength at all.
"Wait but I heard that if death touches you he takes your soul away. Since you touched my finger does that mean you take my soul away?" The girl asked with a pale face.
"Pft haha, if I wanted to take your soul away, I would have done so long ago." Shiro joked while floating around the girl¡¯s head.
"Wait so if I do something bad where you can¡¯t see me, you¡¯ll take my soul away?"
"Yup. I put a mark on you. If you do something bad, I¡¯ll know. Of course, if you¡¯re in danger, you can pray to me and I¡¯ll help you." Shiro smiled.
"What kind of danger?"
"The kind like today. If you have people that could harm you, your brother, mum and dad, feel free to pray to me and I¡¯lle to help you." Shiro promised as she decided to mark her so that if she does pray, Shiro will help her out.
There wasn¡¯t any reason for her to do this and to put it bluntly, it was just done on a whim.
"Really? So if my daddy is sick, you can help him recover?" The girl asked with excitement in her eyes.
"Is your dad sick? If he is I can help him now." Shiro asked as she nced towards Ronan and scanned his body.
Seeing that nothing was wrong, Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Not now but daddy used to get really sick and mum got worried. He was healed but apparently he almost died." The girl nced down with a frown.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll give you a little blessing so that your family is a little luckier ok? I¡¯m not sure how well this will work but it¡¯s better than nothing." Shiro smiled.
Snapping her fingers, a small crest appeared on the back of the girl¡¯s hand.
Remembering the sensation of her shines and what happened when people prayed to her, Shiro tried to give the girl the same blessing.
[You have given ¨C Blessing of the Demi Goddess ¨C]
[EXP Earning +5%]
[Luck +10%]
[Stats +5%]
[This blessing will continue as long as the girl believes in you. If she was to lose faith, the blessing will fade.]
"Wait you¡¯re a goddess?" the girl nced up at Shiro in surprise.
"Shh... that¡¯s a secret. But if you believe in me this blessing will stay with you." Shiro smiled.
"Mn! But I don¡¯t think I have heard of a small goddess before." The girl circled around Shiro.
"That¡¯s because I¡¯m not in my true form right now. I shrank my body down." Shiro patted her head.
"Can I see your real body then?" The girl asked but Shiro shook her head.
"Nope. Plus, we¡¯re about to leave now so you should get ready." Shiro pointed at her parents and brother who helped the woman sit up properly after waking her.
Floating away without saying anything, Shiro sat on Kanae¡¯s shoulder.
Walking over to the woman, Kanae double checked to make sure that she was healthy before sighing in relief.
"It¡¯s not safe to stay out here, I can bring you to somewhere safe. There are a few rules to follow but it¡¯s a nice city. You¡¯ll be living with other races such as demons if youe, but I can promise that they don¡¯t mean any harm." Kanae offered as they paused at the mention of demons.
"Demons are there?" The woman asked as Kanae nodded.
"It¡¯s better to see the ce with your own eyes. You can stay there for refuge and if you don¡¯t want to stay, you can leave and we won¡¯t stop you." Kanae replied.
"Is there a price for us to stay there?" Amelia asked.
"Nope. If you like it, you can stay. You can apply for jobs and so on. It¡¯s honestly easier to see it for yourself than it is for me to exin it. If you trust me, I¡¯ll take you to the city right now." Kanae scratched her head awkwardly since she didn¡¯t know all of the functions of the city. If anything, she was still trying to learn everything herself.
Looking at one another, the family nodded their heads since a safe ce was hard toe by. It was better than dying in the wild.
"We¡¯lle with you." Ronan said as Kanae nodded.
"What about you?" She turned to the woman that had just woken up.
"I¡¯ll join as well. Is there perhaps a military that I can join?" She asked as Kanae nodded.
"There is. If anything, I¡¯d say the military is probably the more impressive part of the city. Also, I don¡¯t know your name. What should I call you?" Kanae asked.
"Sicilia Eventine." Sicilia replied as Kanae nodded.
"Nice to meet you, they already know my name but I¡¯m Kanae. The city will leave this ce soon so I¡¯ll take you there now." Kanae smiled.
"Wait, leave?" Sicilia furrowed her brows with confusion since a city didn¡¯t normally move.
"Yup. It¡¯s a floating city." Kanae smiled and pointed up.
Slowly, the city started to reveal itself as the hanger doors opened.
"I¡¯ll send everyone to the city. Kanae, you can escort them if you want and guide them around the city. There aren¡¯t any more survivors nearby so we¡¯re done for today. After escorting them, you can rest for the rest of today." Shiro called out with a smile since Kanae was probably mentally tired after the decision she had made earlier.
"Are you sure? Isn¡¯t it still early in the day?" Kanae asked since she still had guard duties.
"It¡¯s fine don¡¯t worry about it. Just take the day off." Shiro reassured with a grin.
Thinking about it for a moment, Kanae eventually nodded her head as Shiro sent everyone to the city.
Naturally, Shiro didn¡¯t even need to be there to guess their reaction to the city since it was nothing like anything they have seen before.
Teleporting herself back to themand centre, Shiro busied herself with some of the ns in progress while Asharia made its way to Tokyo.
Chapter 921 Settlement or Travel
Chapter 921 Settlement or Travel
"Mn... We should be able to get to the settlement by tomorrow." I muttered while ncing at the makeshift map that the scouts have created.
With the information we have obtained, if we avoid the monsters roaming around, we should be able to reach within a single day.
But if we decide to fight, it could attract more monsters and with a caravan like ours, that would be a bad choice since not everyone could fight.
¡¯We¡¯re not exactly a small group anymore so we can¡¯t move around easily.¡¯ I thought to myself with a frown.
Looking at the number of monsters around, I don¡¯t thinkbat is avoidable but it was a bit strange.
They have small territories but never fought amongst themselves.
It was almost like they were ¡¯protecting¡¯ something. No... protecting wouldn¡¯t work since they are clearly hostile towards what they¡¯re ¡¯protecting¡¯. All of the monsters would be ring towards that direction with hostility.
¡¯Maybe the settlement isn¡¯t the best idea. From what I can tell, the monsters are clearly intelligent like Nitha so they would know how tounch an organised attack. If we go, there¡¯s no doubt that the settlement would be destroyed soon so we¡¯ll just be wasting our time.¡¯ I thought to myself while patting Nitha¡¯s head.
"Let¡¯s go back now, I¡¯ve gotten the information I wanted." I said as Nitha nodded and turned back.
Letting out a small cry, she informed the Dreadhowlers to make their way back.
ncing at the monsters surrounding where the settlement would be, I couldn¡¯t help but sigh.
¡¯We¡¯ll have to look for a new ce. Making settlements in this new age is risky without a Queen to deter the monsters. For ounders like us, the best choice would probably be deep underground. But if we do that, we¡¯ll have to worry about monsters like worms that can sense us with ease. We¡¯ll be in their home territory.¡¯
Scratching my heal, I sighed in frustration since the safest option was to keep travelling.
Feeling a pat on my head, I nced up and saw that it was Nitha¡¯s arm that wasforting me.
"I didn¡¯t say anything and you¡¯re patting my head like that. Are you sensitive to emotions or something?" I asked with augh.
Letting out a small growl, Nitha did a roll as I held on for dear life.
"I¡¯ll take that as a yes then. You know you can get the same effect by just nodding your head right? There¡¯s no need to almost throw me to my death."
Shaking her head, Nitha did another roll before letting out another growl.
Rolling my eyes, I wondered about how I should break this news to the rest of the caravan.
###
"We can¡¯t give up on the settlement. Our rations are running out and resources are low. Even if the settlement is surrounded by monsters, we have monsters of our own. We can just fight it out with them. Plus, if we send some messengers to the settlement, I¡¯m sure we cane to an agreement in clearing out the monsters." One of the adventurers spoke up after I gave them a rundown of the situation.
"That¡¯s true but we¡¯re stationary if we go to the settlement. We don¡¯t have proper defences and doing so would be exposing us to a lot more danger. After the first wave of monsters, who knows if more powerful ones will arrive. Plus, monsters are more intelligent than you expect. The monsters surrounding the settlement haven¡¯t attacked yet since they probably understand that attacking now would mean their death. For all we know, they could be buying time to get more powerful reinforcements." I replied, trying to get him to understand the situation.
"But there¡¯s no guarantee right?" Another spoke up as people started to argue amongst themselves.
I tried to calm them down but they didn¡¯t seem like they¡¯ll stop anytime soon. Few wanted to go to the settlement while others suggested that they should leave. Eventually, the small conference broke apart and they each returned to their tents.
"Ha....." Sighing heavily, I sat on a log in front of the fire with a frown.
"Nitha, I don¡¯t think this caravan willst long. A lot of them are still too arrogant with how much power humans have. They¡¯re not used to being at the bottom of the food chain." I sighed.
Slivering towards me, Nitha wrapped around me as thought it was trying to hug me and nudged my face with her¡¯s.
"Thanks." I smiled while patting her head.
Thinking about what I should do, I believe that this caravan will probably be better to just split up early. Those that want to go to the settlement can go since they will break the group up eventually. If that happened duringbat, things would be dangerous.
¡¯I don¡¯t mind taking the weaker ones but travel will be hard. Hopefully we can trade for a few resources.¡¯ I thought to myself.
Organising the people that wanted to go to the settlement into a group of their own in my head, I realised that two of them used the Dreadhowlers and another used the Rock Drake.
If they left, it would mean we¡¯ll only have Nitha and a single Dreadhowler.
This would make scouting and carrying equipment much harder since I don¡¯t believe they¡¯ll be as kind as to give up the monsters that we have ¡¯tamed¡¯.
If anything,bat might break out if we were to be forceful.
"You might have to be careful Nitha. For all I know, they might kidnap you away when they leave for the settlement." I chuckled as NItha only waved her tentacles in a shrugging manner.
Smiling softly, I pat her head. Noticing a presence approaching us, I nced back and saw that it was my friend.
"Why aren¡¯t you sleeping?" I asked with a smile.
"Not in the mood. The caravan will probably break up soon with thest meeting." He said as he sat down near me and nced at Nitha before looking at the fire.
"Mn. What¡¯s your opinion on this? You didn¡¯t say anything during the meeting." I asked.
"I¡¯m not sure. Both sides have their reasons and it¡¯s understandable. Quite a few of us here wants a guaranteed home but doing so could open us to an attack that will just wipe out everything. On the other hand, continuing to travel could mean that we¡¯ll die on the road thanks to ack of rations."
"You¡¯re not wrong." I agreed since food was a serious problem for us. A lot of the monsters here are high levelled so killing them for food was difficult without suffering great losses.
"If you are to going to continue with travelling, do you have a proper destination in mind? We don¡¯t know if there is another settlement like this nearby. We can¡¯t keep wandering around aimlessly. We¡¯ve just been travelling east all this time and some of them are even fainting from exhaustion. This settlement could be something more if we just worked on it." He asked while clenching his fists.
"Asher, you¡¯ve been talking to your pet more than you do with humans. What¡¯s going on? You¡¯ve assigned half of our food to these monsters hence why everyone has been more hungry than ever and you¡¯re more concerned with how they arepared to everyone else."
Hearing this question, I nced up at him and saw that he was staring at me with serious eyes.
"First of all, she¡¯s not a pet. She¡¯s apanion that has been helping us and second, she¡¯s called Nitha. Nothing is going on, it¡¯s just that I can¡¯t understand them when there is such a serious w. Holding ourselves in one ce without proper defences is asking for death. The monsters have already gotten their eyes on the settlement. Once whatever they¡¯re waiting for arrives, everything will be over." I replied I seriousness.
"Plus, I¡¯m more concerned with the monsters since they y a key part to our scouting don¡¯t you understand? How many fights have we avoided since we spotted their ambush from the skies?" I asked as my friend gritted his teeth and stood up.
"Rest early." He said before leaving.
Sighing softly, I turned to NItha who seemed a little down.
"Don¡¯t worry about it Nitha. He¡¯s just a little stressed." I patted her head as I closed my eyes.
I knew that my friend probably wanted to continue to travel but without a clear destination, it was a risky choice.
¡¯I think the group will split tomorrow. I¡¯ll go around asking those that wanted to continue travelling for now and see what they think. The caravan will definitely shrink.¡¯ I thought.
Staying with Nitha for a little while, I went to sleep.
However, I didn¡¯t expect what I¡¯ll see when I woke up.
Those that wanted to go to the settlement had taken everything and left us with nothing.
Only Nitha was left along with 4 others.
Standing in the empty campsite that only had a few tents, I clenched my fist and sighed.
Chapter 922 Continuing East
Chapter 922 Continuing East
Standing around the now abandoned camp with the other four, I realised that they were all the ones that had voiced their thoughts about continuing travel.
"What the f*ck!? Did they really just abandon us with nothing but one monster? There¡¯s not even any rations or a spare change of clothing!" Gordon, one of the scouts that nned to join me, shouted out in frustration and he grabbed an old log and mmed it against the floor. He had short brown hair and brown eyes, his clothes were tattered and the equipment he had left out has been stolen.
Looking into his eyes, I could see that he was truly pissed about the situation since it hasn¡¯t even been a full day and yet they had left us with nothing.
"What do we do now then? We¡¯re already hungry due to theck of rations." Cadmi called out with a sigh.
She was the one in charge of distributing the rations before. Her hair was blonde and it reached her lower back. She had a pair of ruby eyes and wore a simple dress that was dirty around the edges thanks to the days of travel.
The other two were a pair of twins that didn¡¯t speak and only used magic to speak by writing words in the air.
They were both male and had ck hair and green eyes. One of them had stitches around the corner of his mouth but I never asked them about that since it might be a delicate subject.
The one with stiches was called Eric while the one without stitches was called Lyle.
Every time they ate, Eric would eat with small mouthfuls so as to not damage the stitches while Lyle would do the same so that Eric didn¡¯t feel left out.
[Maybe we should see if we can catch up to those that left. They can¡¯t have gone too far considering where the settlement is. Maybe we can even get some of our supplies back.] Eric suggested but I shook my head.
"Forget it. It¡¯s not worth the trouble seeing as though we might be fighting against a settlement if we go. We¡¯ll try to kill one of the lower level monsters surrounding the ce without being seen and use that as food for now. Since it¡¯s just the four of us, rationing food would be a bit easier. At least they left Nitha so we still have a way to scout." I sighed.
Seeing that my friend has left, he was probably trying to persuade mest night but gave up seeing as how I was adamant about continuing to travel.
"In terms ofbat, I guess you can leave it to me, Nitha and Gordon since we¡¯ve fought in small skirmishes before. It shouldn¡¯t be too difficult. Eric, Lyle and Cadmi, you three will be responsible for the misceneous stuff I guess since me and Gordon are not that proficient with everything else." I smiled, wanting to keep the morale up by talking about something else.
As we cleared up what¡¯s left of the camp, we started to travel east with four tents. For food, we decided to look for some fruits for now but that was only a temporary solution.
Even though I told the others to not bother, I couldn¡¯t help but clench my fist whenever I thought of what happened.
All of my effort, gone in the wind. I still remember what they said when I helped them but all of it seemed fake as they left us without a single ration. Who knows, if we¡¯re unlucky, we¡¯ll be dead tomorrow.
Gritting my teeth, I took several breaths to calm my mind.
Nitha would pat by head or nudge me slightly to try to cheer me up but I couldn¡¯t shake this feeling of rage inside me.
As we travelled towards the east, we started to feel a little tired from not eating all day so me and Gordon decided to scout for some monsters that we could potentially kill.
We had Nitha remember the temporary camp site that we had created so that the other three weren¡¯t left behind.
"I say we should go to the settlement and kill one of the monsters around the perimeter. That¡¯s the only guarantee right now." Gordon suggested as I nodded my head.
"Hey Gordon, I got a question for you." I called out since I wanted to get this off my mind.
"Mn? What is it?"
"Why did you suggest continuing to travel? I¡¯m just curious about your views." I asked.
"Hmm... because I don¡¯t trust people of authority especially in a time like this. You don¡¯t know this but before I was part of the slums and those that we worked for always exploited those that were weaker. All of our earnings, food would go to the leaders and the leftovers would be for us. I figured that the leaders of the settlement would probably be the same so I wanted to keep traveling, at least we¡¯ll be our own boss and not get exploited am I right?" Gordon smiled as I chuckled.
"Sounds like you had a pretty bad upbringing."
"You got that right. I was actually freed from all of this not too long ago you know? It was during this year and there was a raid on all of the factions within the slums. It all started since one of the factions called Ivory Cobra started to develop a drug that caught the attention of the authorities and all the adventurers were called into action. I was already thinking about leaving but this just gave me a better excuse." Gordon shrugged as he could still remember the kind of life he led in Cairosa.
"Oh? I remember seeing that in the news. Apparently there was a secret individual that gave them the information but they weren¡¯t able to track it back to anyone." I replied, remembering the news I saw quite a few months ago.
"Mn, if I could see the one that indirectly helped me, I would thank them since they gave me a new chance in life." Gordon grinned.
However, our talk was cut short when a strong pressure washed over us.
It felt like we were ants and a demon just set their eyes upon us. Even Nitha was scared as she quickly dived down and urged us to hide behind her body.
ncing towards the source of the pressure, I realised that it was from the settlement.
A shadow slowly appeared in the clouds as a scaled underbelly revealed itself.
[Primordial Dragon of Air LVL 600]
Looking at the four winged dragon that had just appeared, the three of us held our breaths, afraid that it¡¯de attack us after noticing us.
Luckily, it didn¡¯t seem to care as it opened its mouth.
Mana surged towards it as a high level magic circle was formed.
Next thing we knew, we were blown back by a shockwave. Even with Nitha shielding us, the force still sent our HP towards the red zone as I could feel my organs shake from the impact.
Forcing myself to nce up, I could see a giant tornado sweeping up the settlement as the buildings were shredded to dust.
Clenching my fist, I couldn¡¯t help but curse in my mind.
¡¯If only they were a little more patient! They wouldn¡¯t have been caught in this!¡¯ I thought in my mind.
But regardless of what I thought, we couldn¡¯t stay.
Dragging Gordon by the arm, I called out to Nitha.
"Nitha! We need to run!" I shouted.
Nodding her head, Nitha turned around and grabbed both me and Gordon before cing us on her back,
Rushing towards the temporary camp that we had made, we knew that we should leave as quickly as possible.
I could hear the cries of monsters behind us as they charged into the settlement.
ncing back, I watched as the dragon observed everything before flying back into the clouds.
When we arrived back at the camp, we could see the three waiting with pale faces since they saw everything from a distance.
"We¡¯ve already packed up, we can leave." Cadmi said as I nodded my head.
While Nitha couldn¡¯t carry everyone on her back, she could use her tentacles to grab them as the five of us quickly evacuated the area.
As we were running, I couldn¡¯t help but think back to my friend.
If only he had trusted me a little more, if only he had decided to stay for another day, there would be six of us rather than five.
He¡¯s made his choice and I¡¯ve made mine.
But maybe he was lucky, since he didn¡¯t need to live in this kind of world anymore. The day ahead could make us wish that we had died to the dragon but I wanted to push on. I believed that there was hope.
Leaving behind the ruined settlement, the five of us continued east with an empty stomach.
Chapter 923 Tokyo After The New Age
Chapter 923 Tokyo After The New Age
The trip to Tokyo was going to take roughly two days if they continued using the city. The main reason for this was because they were looking out for any survivors that they came across on the road.
With Kanae taking charge of helping them to the city, she was also able to see their true nature due to the situation that they were ced in. Quite a few of the survivors didn¡¯t hesitate to abandon the others and those with good intentions usually died first.
After the first few rescues, Shiro didn¡¯t have any doubts regarding Kanae being able toplete this. Naturally, if she was ufortable, Shiro would force her to rest.
Tapping her finger on the table, Shiro was checking up on what everyone was doing in the city.
¡¯Isilia and Lyrica are training with each other while asionally helping others. They would also join a scouting team that left the city to kill some monsters that were roaming around the ground for Exp. Yin¡¯s... being Yin but she¡¯s actually helping some of the mages train with fire magic. Considering the nature of her own magic and control, she was probably the best teacher they can ask for.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself.
But remembering the price for Yin¡¯s training, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh since it was food. She¡¯ll only teach you once she was satisfied with the food but those that have been taught were always satisfied.
¡¯Where did I go wrong? Why is this Yin nothing like the one I saw before. She was so nice and cooked often too. Even though this one knows how to cook, she is toozy to do it.¡¯ Shiro sighed heavily.
{Maybe you pampered her a bit too much.} Nimue chuckled as she had returned to the mana realm to rest. She had been going around helping people out a little but she also needed a break from work.
¡¯Maybe... At least the others aren¡¯t like her. Aarim has finished setting up a few mage towers around the city centre and filled it up with tools to help her experiments. The mages are quite grateful for this too. Seems like she¡¯s be the guild master of a mage¡¯s guild or something haha. Silvia is responsible for the healers so I guess she¡¯ll be something like the head of the healer guild.¡¯ Shiro chuckled since they have been making small branches in the city that are directly linked to their sses.
With Aarim being the pseudo leader of the mages, she would share some of her experiences along with resources that the city has collected so that all the mages could be stronger collectively. Of course, the more trustworthy someone is, the more resources they got. This was the same for Silvia with her healing guild, Chen Yu with the assassins and Helion with his cksmiths.
Madison was busy with solidifying her power over the entire demon race so she wasn¡¯t able to spend as much time with Helion as she had thought but Helion chose to have the cksmithing guild to be located a little closer to the demon tform.
Keiko was trying her best to reach tier 6 and was in a simr state to Lisandra. Keomi was training with her father, Koji, while Mio was helping out in the military when ites to sword training.
¡¯Shiina, Oran and Akhess are making good progress with their mech training. Their weapon training is falling behind a little but I think I can fit it in their schedules. The mechs are installed with guns that they can use if the mech gets destroyed so they can¡¯t ck off when ites to weapons. No point having a powerful gun without being able to use it.¡¯ Shiro thought while ncing at their schedules that were packed to the brim.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro was tempted to remove some of the time used for sleep and change it to weapon training.
{Don¡¯t do that, the poor lot needs as much sleep as they can get.} Nimue¡¯s smile twitched since Shiro would probably just take out sleep eventually.
¡¯Pft... I won¡¯t do that.¡¯ Shiro smiled while recing some of the mech training with weapon training.
{Right...}
ncing out of the window, Shiro could see the second city following behind Asharia and all of its functions were working perfectly. Everything was bnced and it worked like a charm. She hadn¡¯t thought up of a name for the city yet but that wasn¡¯t high on her priority list. As for Estre, she had recovered earlier and proceeded to work on making the gateway that would help filter people out.
After checking up on everyone, there wasn¡¯t much else for Shiro to do as she returned to her room and saw Lisandra sitting with furrowed brows.
It¡¯s already been two days since the start of the new age and yet Lisandra hadn¡¯t shown any signs of waking up which caused Shiro to sigh.
Making a handkerchief, Shiro wiped the sweat away and sat next to Lisandra.
"Good luck Lisa." Shiro muttered as she couldn¡¯t help but worry about her safety.
###
Standing above Asharia Shiro looked at the city that was once known as Tokyo and couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
The prideful tower that used to represent the headquarters of the rising sun had long copsed as the entire city was now filled with a malevolent aura that seemed to consume anything that it touched.
There was not a single person walking around as the entire city was filled to the brim with monsters.
The worst part of all this was that Shiro could sense human souls within the city. Even though her mana senses seemed to be blocked by the miasma, her power over souls told her that human souls were in the city.
"This isn¡¯t exactly the best situation is it?" Shiro muttered since it would make helping the people a little difficult.
{Indeed. I think it¡¯s probably best for you to choose a small group to journey with you since we don¡¯t know what kind of strange effects might be applied once you enter the city. If your senses are getting blocked out here, who knows what else might happen.} Nimue warned with a frown.
"I know. But at least my soul controlling abilities are still useful. I¡¯ll see if I can recruit anyone with abilities that are rted to souls. If not, I¡¯ll just get Lyrica to follow me then since she has been training all this time. It¡¯s good for her to step out for a bit." Shiro muttered as she sent a notification for all the people in the city.
It was a recruitment for those that have abilities in rtions to souls. The recruitment mentioned that they¡¯ll be going on an excursion with Shiro to the city of Tokyo in order to investigate what had happened along with potentially helping the people that have been trapped in there.
Naturally, there were good rewards thanks to the high risks of this mission as they are venturing into the unknown. There was no guarantee that Shiro would be able to help them, but she¡¯ll try her best at keeping them alive if danger was to appear.
Despite the rarity of abilities in rtion to souls, there were still quite a few people that applied through the recruitment.
Massaging her eyes, she decided to filter them out a little since taking 100 people into the city was a little bit too big for a ¡¯small group¡¯.
But before she filtered them out, she needed to pay a visit to Isilia and Lyrica since Shiro wanted to take Lyrica with her.
Teleporting to their house, she knocked on the door since they should be resting right now.
And as she had expected, Isilia opened the door not too long after her knock.
"Sorry about not informing you of my visit earlier." Shiro waved as Isilia chuckled.
"Come on in, we¡¯re having a break anyway. I¡¯m guessing this has something to do with your recent recruitment post." Isilia asked as Shiro nodded.
"How did you know?"
"Pft, it¡¯s kind of obvious haha. So who do you need? Me or Lyrica?" Isilia asked as she gestured for Shiro to sit down.
"I¡¯m thinking of taking Lyrica since she has been training quite diligently." Shiro smiled.
"Mn, she is in need of some more livebat experience so this would be good for her. Plus, from what I saw, it seems like this excursion would be linked to ghosts and spiritual beings that are hard to hurt with just physical power." Isilia smiled.
"Yup. Ghosts might be moremon so I want to see how Lyrica deals with it. The best option would be to use elements like fire or lightning but some have high resistances. Plus, the other¡¯s are a little busy right now." Shiro smiled.
"I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be fine. We refined her powers a little so now her elements focus around fire and I suppose something simr to nature. Though as an elf, naturees with the bloodline." Isilia replied while handing Shiro some juice from her fridge.
"Thanks. If she¡¯s focusing on fire, it might be worth it to see if she can get some help from Yin then since she¡¯s a phoenix."
"There¡¯s no need to rush. You¡¯ll see her power for yourself when she fights. I¡¯ll warn you though, even I was a little surprised." Isilia smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Interesting."
Chapter 924 Choosing The Participants
Chapter 924 Choosing The Participants
While Shiro was talking to Isilia, Lyrica was getting ready. She knew that this excursion was going to be rted to ghosts, so she wanted to research a little before leaving.
This was ok for Shiro since she wanted to arrange a time for all the people that registered to gather anyway. Having them go to a building near the town centre, she was going to filter it down to only 8 people to keep the group small.
"Wouldn¡¯t it take a while for you to filter out all of them?" Isilia asked since she had figured that Shiro would have wanted to sort this out quickly.
"Don¡¯t worry, I have an idea. I have an idiot who¡¯s now quite familiar with souls since I keep giving them to him. I was thinking about having him as the examiner. We¡¯ll see how they fair against him." Shiro grinned as she summoned thentern and ced it on the table.
"Oi, who are you calling an idiot." The ancient terror clicked his tongue as Shiro looked at thentern.
"Who else is here?" Shiro smirked.
". . ."
"I n to have him assess the recruits. I want to see if they are able to harm him at all since he¡¯s in soul form." Shiro shrugged.
"Bah, as if some little sh*ts can harm me. It¡¯ll feel like an ant trying to bite me." The ancient terror boasted as Shiro snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, wires wrapped around his soul within thentern as lightning started to flicker.
"Holy sh*t! Gah! Fine! I¡¯ll assess them properly!" He shouted out as his soul flickered from the pain.
"See? Should just be obedient from the start. If you do things properly I won¡¯t taser you." Shiro grinned.
"Che, no respect for workers at all. What a tyrant." The ancient terror clicked his tongues.
Shiro didn¡¯t say anything except raise a finger that was flickering with lightning.
"I¡¯ll do it properly!"
"Good." Smiling in satisfaction, Shiro dismissed thentern as the ancient terror could only grumbled in annoyance.
Talking to Isilia for a little bit, Lyrica soon appeared with her armour already equipped.
"I¡¯m ready now." She smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Well I think we should go now since there are quite a few people that we need to filter through." Shiro smiled as Isilia nodded her head.
"Take care out there you two. Don¡¯t let your guards down ok?" Isilia smiled as Lyrica nodded her head.
Watching the two leave, Isilia smiled softly and prayed for their safety before closing the door.
###
"So how has it been? You¡¯ve been quite busy with all of this management of the city." Lyrica asked as Shiro sighed.
"It¡¯s been quite busy making sure everything is working but overall it¡¯s not too bad. Everyone else has also been busy with their own roles, especially Madi. Though it¡¯s good that she has Asphil helping her out." Shiro smiled.
"Mn, it felt like just yesterday that we were all students in the school and now we¡¯re pretty much the strongest this world has to offer, before the new age I guess. You¡¯re a demi god and the leader of spirits while Madi is a demon queen." Lyrica chuckled.
"You¡¯re not far behind yourself you know." Shiro nced back.
To think the shy girl from before that got bullied actually became the sword saintess.
¡¯If she continues at this pace, it won¡¯t be long for her to reach tier 6.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
"What is it?" Lyrica asked as she could see Shiro staring at her.
"Nothing. I just remembered what happened a year ago. I still have this you know?" Shiro grinned as she pulled out a book from her.
Looking at thebel, Lyrica widened her eyes as a blush appeared on her face.
[Efficient Notebook for learning reading and writing.]
[Creator ¨C Lyrica Valenstaine.]
"Ah! You still have it?" She asked with embarrassment as Shiro nodded her head with a grin.
"Yup. I suppose you can say that it¡¯s the first gift that I received in this world." Shiroughed as she stored it back into her inventory.
"Ah so I gave you the first gift." Lyrica muttered as Shiro nodded her head.
Smiling softly, she shook her head before looking up at Shiro.
"Say Shiro, how did you and my mum meet? Can you tell me about some of the adventurers that you had together?" Lyrica asked with a smile.
"You want to know that? Sure I guess. But it¡¯s a bit boring since the things we¡¯ve experienced this year are crazier than what me and your mum had to go through." Shiro chuckled.
"That¡¯s fine.
"Well in that case then I¡¯ll start with the first meeting..."
As they walked towards where all of the adventurers were gathered, Shiro told the story about how she met Isilia as well as the adventurers they had to go through. Surprisingly, Shiro and Isilia didn¡¯t actually have that good of a start together and would often argue with Shiro just ignoring everything in the end.
However, after a few close calls with only each other to rely on, they eventually became friends that understood one another.
Soon, they arrived at the building and the story had to be cut short.
Pushing open the doors, Shiro could see a rather sizable crowd had gathered as all of them bowed to her in respect.
"There¡¯s no need for bowing haha. As you are all aware, today we¡¯ll be going on a scouting mission to Tokyo. The city has now been transformed into something rather sinister and my senses aren¡¯t able to prate the miasma. It¡¯s thanks to the power over souls that I could actually sense people being kept in the city so our main goal is to find out where they are and perhaps save them if possible." Shiro exined while gesturing for everyone to sit down for now. Walking up to the centre stage, she smiled as Lyrica stood behind her like a guard.
"The dangers of this journey are high and I can¡¯t guarantee your survival due to the strangeness of the city. However, as I have mentioned in the advert, I will try my best at keeping you alive. First of all, we know that the city is filled with ghosts so physical attacks are useless. We¡¯ll be relying on soul and elemental magic. Primarily soul since it was the only way I could get a general understanding of the city so we can assume that it is the key to this city." Shiro exined as she showed a few holograms of Tokyo that had been transformed.
"Since there are quite a few of you, I will be picking eight out of everyone since we want to keep our group small so as to not draw attention. It is also easier to manage things with just 10 of us in total. To determine who will join in the mission, I will have all of you demonstrate your control over souls against a little subordinate of mine. He has a foul mouth and attitude but do not be afraid since he¡¯s rather docile once I step in." Shiro smiled as she tapped her foot.
A magic circle appeared next to her as the soul of the ancient terror was pulled out of thentern for now.
"Urg... finally some room to move. But you could have at least given me a physical body or something." The ancient terror grinned as he swept his eyes across everyone that had gathered in the hall.
Seeing this creature, they were able to sense the foulness of his soul as many tensed up and some even almost puked but kept it in.
"He will be the assistant examiner/target dummy. I don¡¯t expect you to deal a massive amount of damage considering his background so don¡¯t be discouraged." Shiro smiled as she slowly raised her hand and pped down.
*BANG!!!!
Crashing against the floor, the ancient terror struggled to stand up as he could only grip his teeth.
"Violent woman." He cursed as Shiro only smiled. A hallowed spear formed behind the ancient terror as he paled understanding what she was threatening to do.
Staying silent, he could only cry out in his mind.
¡¯Why did I have to be captured by a woman like her?!?!?!?¡¯
Seeing Shiro being able to restrain such a beast, the adventurers were amazed as they organised themselves into single file quickly and started to demonstrate their powers over the soul.
Chapter 925 Entering Tokyo
Chapter 925 Entering Tokyo
As the demonstration continued, Shiro started to note down the key figures that impressed her the most. While their control over souls couldn¡¯tpare to her, whose true spirit nature was linked to souls, it was definitely impressive.
Some of them were even able to leave a mark on the ancient terror¡¯s soul despite how powerful he was.
Soon, there was only one participant left.
shing his fists together, a gold and red me lit up on his fists as he entered a stance and narrowed his eyes at the ancient terror.
¡¯Oh? His mes have purification properties.¡¯ Shiro raised her eyebrow as she immediately recognised the me to be one that was focused on exorcising ghosts rather than destructive power. It burns and purifies evil natured souls while not damaging the surroundings.
Of course, the impact of each blow is enhanced so a barrier is needed if she wants to contain the destruction caused to just this room.
Flexing her finger, a barrier was created around the room.
"You may start." Shiro smiled as the man nodded and dashed towards the ancient terror.
Yawning slightly, the ancient terror only watched the man approach before raising his hand to block his attack.
*BANG!!!!!
Blocking the strike, the ancient terror was a little surprised to see his hand get blown back from the force.
"Hou..."
Shifting his shoulder, he braced himself for the next strike.
*BANG!!!
Since he was prepared for this strike, the impact didn¡¯t send his body back but he smirked from the force.
Cracking his neck, he narrowed his eyes.
"Hey you¡¯re pretty good at massages. Why don¡¯t you be my private massager from now on?" The ancient terror taunted as the man only frowned but didn¡¯t say anything self.
Stomping down, he crouched into a horse stance and mmed his palm that radiated with this golden fire against the ancient terror¡¯s stomach.
Suddenly, fire exploded out of the ancient terror¡¯s back as Shiro waved her hand and contained the mes before it could hit anyone. While it didn¡¯t do any damage to the surroundings, it would still hurt someone.
Without giving the beast in front of him a chance to react, he followed up the palm strike with a punch to the jaw using his other hand.
Forcing the ancient terror to stumble back a little, the man narrowed his eyes as the mes spread to his arms.
Gritting his teeth, his physique seemed to grow a little as he stomped down and unleashed a flurry of blows against the ancient terror¡¯s body.
Each hit that struck against the body would leave a burn mark on his soul as it seemed to flicker.
"Oi tyrant woman, can I retaliate?" The ancient terror asked as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
ncing towards the man, she wondered if she should let them duke it out.
"You¡¯ve already passed but if you want to fight this idiot properly, you can I guess. I¡¯ll heal you up so don¡¯t worry about the injuries. But let me warn you, there¡¯s a 95% chance that you¡¯ll get ko¡¯d in one hit." Shiro warned but the man only shook his head.
"It¡¯s ok, I wish to fight him." He replied as he prepared himself.
{Aiya... the man is asking to be killed.} Nimue face palmed.
{Poor man.} Attie nodded by the side.
Iziuel didn¡¯t say anything as she only shook her head silently and hoped that he wouldn¡¯t get traumatised. The ancient terror only looked like a puppy because it was Shiro who kept him under control. But if Shiro allowed him to do whatever he wanted, he would turn back to being a menace.
"Well you heard him, you can fight back." Shiro shrugged.
Hearing that he could retaliate, the ancient terror onlyughed as a malevolent aura exploded out of him.
Feeling the malevolent aura, the man wanted to take a step back but fought against this thought and held his ground.
Twisting his body, he kicked towards the ancient terror who caught it easily with his hand.
"I¡¯ll show you why even gods have trouble with me." He grinned.
Suddenly, a crushing pressure bore down on the man as he immediately threw up a mouthful of blood.
"Disable him and I¡¯ll disable you." Shiro warned as chains appeared around him.
"Yes yes, I¡¯ll stop now." The ancient terrorughed and let go of the leg. Stepping back, he watched as the man forced himself back on his feet while wiping away the blood.
Closing his eyes, fire erupted out of his body and the injuries to his soul were healed in an instant.
Taking a deep breath, he looked at Shiro with a new impression since the ancient terror was more fearsome than what he had initially expected. For someone to exert such soul pressure, he couldn¡¯t imagine what he was like when he still had his physical body.
¡¯For her to be able tomand this beast like it¡¯s a pet... her powers must be unfathomable.¡¯ He thought to himself as he returned to his seat.
Going through the list that she hadpiled, she called out the eight that she had picked and dismissed the rest.
Within the eight, there were 5 that could deal a decent amount of damage while the other three were more utility based. The first of the three could read souls for information, the second could give ghosts orders that are easy to follow but could not override their nature. At most it¡¯ll be asking ghosts to go somewhere but that was helpful in itself. As for thest person, they were able to mask their presencepletely from ghosts and beings in a soul state. Of course, the camouge through sight was a little weaker but its primary job was to hide from the other senses.
When performed in front of the ancient terror, he could tell that she was there through his eyes but couldn¡¯t sense her at all so that ability would be very helpful.
"Right then, since everyone has been gathered, let¡¯s make our way to the city. I¡¯ll be giving you somemunication devices, potions amongst other things so that we can keep in contact. Remember, our first priority is to save the people instead of killing ghosts. Fight if you have to when backed into a corner but don¡¯t force it. If you are in danger and I cannot teleport to you, you can pray to me and I have a skill which lets me lend you some of my power. That should be able to help you get through the danger you meet but it¡¯s not guaranteed since we¡¯re not sure if my powers are limited in this city, understood?" Shiro exined as they all nodded.
Handing out the earpieces and a box of nanobots, Shiro had Lyrica fetch them some potion from the storage.
"What are these boxes?" One of the fighters asked.
"It¡¯s a very versatile tool. If you need anything, just tell me and I¡¯ll make it for you. For example, if you need a weapon, I can make you something decent." Shiro exined as she snapped her finger. Suddenly, the box of nanobots started to shake before turning into a sword that had several skills embedded into it.
"Wait, it can be anything I want?" He asked in surprise as Shiro nodded her head.
"Just tell me and I¡¯ll see if I can make it."
Testing out the box of nanobots some more, the adventurers were surprised at how versatile it was and if they could arm everyone up with something like this, they could find the right tools in the wild. However, the problem with this is that Shiro had to be the one to make it since they didn¡¯t know the blueprints off by heart.
If lots of requestse in at once, even Shiro would struggle at distributing the rightmands to the right boxes.
Leading them to the hanger, Shiro opened the doors and looked down at the city.
"We¡¯ll be jumping down now. We¡¯ll stick as a main group first and depending on what happens, I¡¯ll split us up ok? Always keep in contact since we don¡¯t know when we could possibly be separated. There are ghosts that mimic voices too so be careful of that." Shiro warned before jumping down.
Following behind her, all of them jumped down after her.
As she was free falling, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she could barely make out a few ghosts that were roaming around. Their levels averaged around the 300¡¯s to 400¡¯s with one or two at the peak of tier 5.
¡¯Most of the people here are around the average level so we should be fine. Lyrica is talented so she can skip levels and I can deal with any tier 6¡¯s that we mighte across. We should be fine here.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Landing on the ground, Shiro furrowed her brows before setting up a few drones to scout.
Entering the miasma, Shiro immediately noticed that her senses were blocked as she couldn¡¯t sense anything past 2 meters by relying on her mana.
¡¯Troublesome.¡¯ She thought to herself but shook her head.
At least her senses regarding souls were fine and she could already sense a few human souls not too far away.
Chapter 926 Ghost City
Chapter 926 Ghost City
"We¡¯ll see if we can capture or kill a ghost. Rachel, I want you to read its soul to see if you can get a grasp on where the survivors are ok?" Shiro ordered as Rachel was the one that owned the soul reading ability.
"Understood." Rachel nodded her head with a serious expression.
"Good. Lyrica, you and Mordrak will be taking vanguard while the rest will be covering our backs since we¡¯re not familiar with this ce. I¡¯ll be in the centre so that I can cover whichever area we¡¯re being attacked from. Indri and Kasper will be in the centre with me." Shiro continued as Mordrak was the one who impressed her with his attack power. With both Lyrica and Mordrak acting as vanguard, they should be able to deal with most of the monsters that appear in front of them.
Indri was the one that could give ghosts orders and Kasper could hide their presence.
Moving through the city, Shiro made sure to scan the area whenever she could to make sure that ghosts wouldn¡¯t ambush them.
Of course, when ghosts arrive, she¡¯ll leave most of thebat to them so that they can get a bit of exp themselves. For a level 600 like her, the exp from level 300¡¯s was miniscule.
"One¡¯s arriving in 10 seconds, Mordrak you¡¯re closer to it." Shiro called out with a smile as they were dashing through the alleys.
"Got it." Mordrak nodded his head as he mmed his knuckles together.
*BANG!!!
Golden fire exploded out as his arms were covered in mes.
Narrowing his eyes, he grabbed the ghost¡¯s head the moment it appeared. Without even giving it a chance to scream, he mmed his head against the ground before coating his foot in mes and stomping down on the neck.
Ripping off the head, the ghost was killed instantly.
Seeing this, Shiro smiled since a low level ghost like this stood no chance against Mordrak.
For a person that could do some decent damage to the ancient terror, he would probably be fine even against a level 500 ghost.
The main thing with ghosts is that while they¡¯re powerful and have strong defences against physical attacks, if one used skills that targeted ghosts specifically, they could be dealt with easily.
But in Lyrica¡¯s case, she didn¡¯t have any skills that targeted the souls so she should be theoretically struggling.
However, her powers with fire were helping her cut through them with ease.
Whenever a ghost appeared, it would be cut in half.
The four attackers that were ced at the back could only watch the two killing ghosts with ease while they had to struggle a little since their firepower wasn¡¯t enough for them to end them in one hit.
"Are you able to find anything from their memories?" Shiro asked as Rachel had been trying to read their memories to find out where the survivors are being kept.
"Not yet. All of them have been able to sense humans and some demi humans within the city but the exact locations haven¡¯t been found. On a more rming note, they¡¯re all being ordered by what seems to be higher ranked ghosts that are also taking orders." Rachel replied as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Hmm... that¡¯s a bit concerning. There might be something simr to a Queen ranked entity in this city. But since there is no anchor here, they might just be scouting things out. Keep an eye out for things and make sure you stay close to each other." Shiro ordered as they nodded their heads.
As they progressed deeper into the city, the miasma started to thicken and Shiro had to make gas masks for everyone in order to filter out the poison in the air. This poison would cause one to hallucinate the longer they stayed in it so for a scouting mission, it would have been quite disruptive.
Of course, Shiro was able to travel without a mask thanks to her ridiculously high resistance to poison and negative effects.
After a certain point, they could no longer see the sky anymore as the sun waspletely blocked out, making it seem like it¡¯s night even though it was early in the day. All of the lights would flicker on and off while the store signs did the same.
Ghastly howls would be heard and cold winds would brush past them.
During this trip, Shiro had been trying to sense where the survivors were but simr to what happened with the ghosts, her senses told her that humans were here but the location was hidden.
¡¯Maybe they have something that wards off the senses.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since it would help them in a ce like this.
Continuing through the city, they killed any low level ghosts that they came across and read its memories. They were able to avoidrge areas filled with high level ghosts since finding survivors were their main goal. Everything else was secondary.
Sending out a web of nanobots through the ground once more, Shiro tried to sense where the humans are but the result was the same. Nothing.
"I think we¡¯ll go for another hour or so before heading back. We¡¯ll try a different entrance next time." Shiro called out. Tokyo was quite big so finding survivors was never going to be easy. The best they could do now was just to persevere.
As they continued for another hour, Rachel managed to recover shocking news from one of the souls. Apparently, there would be waves of humans appearing around the city. If they were cornered, one would be sacrificed for the others to live. The one that is sacrificed will be used as bait.
Hearing this, Shiro decided to continue the scouting since she wanted to find out a rough estimation of where the humans appear. If they could guess the location or the area of activity, they would be able to pin them down and find them.
###
Taking a deep breath, I tried to suppress the shivering of my body while looking out into the streets. Every time we did a supply run, one or two of us would always be sacrificed and we never knew who was going to be the next one.
After Tokyo changed and ghosts started to appear, we were forced underground in order to survive and one of the exorcists managed to set up a formation that prevents the ghosts from sensing us. It helped us establish a safe sanctuary but it also worked as a tool of maniption for the exorcists that realised they were now the top of the hierarchy.
Beautiful girls would be taken by the male exorcists while handsome males would be taken by the female.
Of course, we could try to revolt but doing so meant the barrier would be gone. None of us are able to fight the ghosts so it was suicide. The exorcists were fine since they could fight the ghosts with their talismans.
Even though it¡¯s been two days, it felt like months for us since we could never tell when it¡¯s day or night in here.
"What are you waiting around for? Get ready, we¡¯re going for a bigger supply run this time." The leader of our group called out as he could see the panic in our eyes.
Since we¡¯re going for a bigger run, more baits were needed. Even though we didn¡¯t want to be bait, if we abandon our tasks, we would be killed regardless. So it was better to just join the mission. At least there was a chance of survival.
Grabbing some cloth to wrap around our faces, it was the best we can do when ites to the miasma. We didn¡¯t know what the long term effects were just yet but quite a few of the supply runners had gotten seriously ill from therge intake of this miasma. Even the exorcists who controlled everything admitted that they couldn¡¯t revert the effects.
As the door opened, I breathed in my first mouthful of contaminated air and ran forward as fast as I could. Once we¡¯re out of the barrier, the ghosts will be able to sense us and once that happens, they surge towards our area. We needed to work fast if we wanted to live. The exorcists have ced a few barriers around the ce which acts as safe zones for us to hide our presence butpared to the main base, it was nothing. It could only serve as a temporary shelter that would lose its effectiveness the more it¡¯s used.
It hasn¡¯t even been a minute and I could already hear the howls echoing from the distance as I quickly entered a shop and grabbed everything that had a long shelf life. Stuffing it into my inventory, I was about to turn back when the leader grabbed my shoulder.
"We¡¯re going for a bigger run, this isn¡¯t enough." He reminded.
Hearing this, I could only grit my teeth and try to fit more into my inventory with the knowledge that ghosts could appear at any moment.
Chapter 927 Arak
Chapter 927 Arak
"Is this enough?" I asked in a shaky voice. Showing the leader all of the rations that I¡¯ve collected, I hoped that he would say yes since I didn¡¯t want to stay in this cursed ce any longer than needed.
Looking at the things that I¡¯veid out, he sighed and nodded his head.
"It¡¯s not enough but that¡¯s fine. Take some of mine to reach the required amount and head back." He smiled and handed me some of his rations.
Every time we finish a supply run, we would have our harvest checked to see if it meets the minimum requirements since those that don¡¯t work aren¡¯t allowed to eat. But those that don¡¯t eat won¡¯t be able to perform to their best so getting rations bes harder. If we¡¯re discovered to keep our rations, we would be killed in the most painful way.
We don¡¯t know who will snitch so eating in the base was very dangerous.
But despite all of this, the leader was actually giving me more rations so that I could meet the minimum requirements.
"If you get more, eat them since you won¡¯t be able to eat it back at the base. The bastards will take it away from you." He patted my head and ventured deeper into the store so that he could reach the minimum requirements.
Biting my lip, I hesitated for a while before choosing to chase after him. Even though I didn¡¯t want to die, I can¡¯t leave someone like the leader to die. Kindness like his was rare and watching it disappear into the jaws of a ghost wasn¡¯t what I wanted.
Running after him, I was confused as to why he was ignoring some of the better rations that wereid out. It wasn¡¯t hard to miss so I picked it up for him. Maybe the miasma was getting to him.
But the more I followed him, the more confused I got. Eventually, I started to tail him rather than try to catch up. I didn¡¯t know why I haven¡¯t called out to him yet but something in my heart tells me that I probably shouldn¡¯t do that.
My worries were proven when I saw the bags upon bags of rations that he had stashed away under some rubble. I recognised some of them to belonged to bait that was eaten by the ghosts so it was a question of why he had them in this area.
*Ksssssss
Hearing a low hiss behind me, my entire body tensed up as my face paled. While I was focused on following the leader, I didn¡¯t realise that a ghost had actually snuck up on me. I didn¡¯t want to look back but I could already feel the touch of a cold elongated finger brushing the back of my neck.
Holding back my scream, I jumped out of cover and rolled under its grasp.
Ignoring the cries behind me, I ran towards the leader to snapped his head towards me in shock.
"Sh*t! Shouldn¡¯t you be running to the base now!" He cried out in shock while hiding the rations once more.
Wanting to follow him, I was kicked in the chest as some of my ribs were broken from the kick. Coughing up a mouthful of blood, I watched the face of the leader twist in anger.
"Don¡¯t follow me trash! I was going to get your rations after the ghosts ate you but I¡¯ll have to use my own stash now. F*cking useless c*nt!" He cursed while gripping what seemed to be a jewel of sorts. I recognised that jewel since it was something that one of the exorcists would carry with them and it helped you evade a ghost¡¯s notice as long as you¡¯re not seen by them.
¡¯Ah... so his kindness was fake and it was just another way to get bait huh?¡¯ I thought to myself as I was picked off the ground slowly by the ghost.
As I was being raised into the air, I saw a long shadow appear around the corner in front of the leader as two ws punctured his stomach. The arms of the ws started to pulsate as if pumping something and the leader¡¯s body started to bloat. His cries were cut off as he soon exploded into a mass of iridescent worms that was eating away at a translucent figure of the leader.
Once they finished consuming him, the worms would return to the shadow which faded away.
With just me and the ghost behind me left in the area, I gritted my teeth and looked back at my attacker. Its body was shrivelled up with bones ripping apart its skin, bridge blood could be seen around the joint areas as maggots swarmed the torso along with the neck. Its head was connected to a long neck and it was that of a beautiful woman. Despite the beauty, there was a creepiness to it that I couldn¡¯t pin down but it gave me the chills.
Watching her elongated fingers bring me closer to her face, I could see the face split apart into four sections as a mouth filled with teeth was revealed.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I curled up into a ball, hoping that the pain would be over in an instant.
However, the pain that I received was a little different.
"Urg!"
Falling to the ground, I clutched my ribs in pain since they were broken by the leader.
ncing up, I could see a man with a gas mask and golden fire flickering on his arms.
Ripping the female ghost in half, he looked towards me before tapping something on his ear.
"I managed to get one but he¡¯s injured and the other one is dead." The man said.
It seems to be a phone of sorts and he was talking to someone but I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if he was friendly or not. With what the leader had done, I wasn¡¯t sure if I could judge people properly anymore.
"Got it. Come on, I¡¯m going to take you somewhere safe." The man nced down at me.
Picking me up without waiting for my reply, he jumped into the air and used the building as tforms.
Any ghosts that appeared would be killed by him with ease as I wondered if he was an exorcist or not. But even the exorcists would have some difficulty ying these ghosts but he made it seem so easy.
After a few moments, I could see a group of people standing in a store with a white haired woman giving instructions with a map in front of her.
"Take him to the side, I¡¯ll ask him some questions in a second." The woman said as she didn¡¯t even nce towards us. Snapping her finger, a green me appeared on her fingertips as I flinched, remembering what the man¡¯s fire did. However, when the me touched me, I only felt soothed and my injuries started to disappear.
cing me down by the side, the man ran out of the store after the woman told him more information about where we are.
Seeing the other runners in this ce as well, I understood that we were probably being saved.
###
¡¯Goodness, where the hell are they evening from. Next thing I knew I could sense the souls of survivors out of nowhere.¡¯ Shiro frowned since they could have walked past a base without even noticing anything.
{Well they¡¯ll need to hide themselves to survive so I guess it¡¯s no different when ites to other humans.} Nimue shrugged.
¡¯True but still. I¡¯m just annoyed that it made rescue a whole lot more annoying. But at least we¡¯ve managed to save quite a few. If we can find out where their base is, we might be able to get all of the survivors out in a single day.¡¯ Shiro scratched her head as she nced at all of the people that they¡¯ve managed to recover. Unfortunately, for the ones that died, their souls were consumed by the ghosts so there was nothing she could do. She can¡¯t revive someone if there is nothing to revive.
Checking the map, she couldn¡¯t find any more people as this was all of the souls that she could sense so she walked up to one of the survivors that looked like they could give her some information.
Most of them were unconscious so Shiro decided to talk to the one that Mordrak had just brought in.
"How are you feeling?" She asked as she crouched down in front of the kid.
"I¡¯m feeling ok. Are you helping us?" He asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, we¡¯ll be helping you escape this city. Are there any more people like you lot?"
"There is but they¡¯re not good people." The kid replied with a serious face.
Hearing this, Shiro frowned but shook her head. That was probably to be expected but she still wanted to see the situation for herself.
"Do you have a name?" Shiro asked since she might be using this kid that looked around 16 to help her find their base.
"Arak." The boy replied.
Chapter 928 Exorcists
Chapter 928 Exorcists
"I see... Alright then Arak. Why don¡¯t you show me where everyone is? I can deal with the bad people if you want." Shiro smiled but Arak furrowed his brows.
"But there are lots of people there that will try to attack you." He cautioned with worry as Shiro onlyughed.
"It¡¯s fine. If you¡¯re that worried I¡¯ll bring someone else with me. We¡¯ve pretty much got all of the people outside so we¡¯re fine. Lyrica, are you able toe with me? We¡¯re going to deal with the people taking advantage of everything. Their exp won¡¯t be any use to me." Shiro called out as Lyrica nodded her head.
"Yeah I can do that. The average level of people here are only 300 to 400 no?" Lyrica walked over.
"Erm... some of them are 450 to 500." Arak corrected as Lyrica raised an eyebrow.
"That should be fine then. Plus, Shiro is here." Lyrica smiled as she checked her equipment and put on her gas mask.
"In that case then I shall watch by the side like always. Unless it¡¯s something you can¡¯t handle, I¡¯ll just be sitting on your shoulder." Shiro chuckled.
Shrinking herself down, she sat on Lyrica¡¯s shoulder and Arak could only look at Shiro in surprise.
"Here¡¯s a gas mask. Put it on and the miasma won¡¯t affect you. We¡¯ll protect you so show us to the shelter." Shiro smiled.
"What about the people here then? Won¡¯t the ghosts find everyone?" He asked while ncing at everyone in the shop.
"Don¡¯t worry, we have someone that can mask our presence so unless the ghosts see us with their eyes, they won¡¯t know that we¡¯re here. Plus, we have a few capable fighters that can drive them away as well as someone that can control souls." Shiro reassured as Lyrica opened the door and gestured for the kid to follow her.
Tightening his grip around his gasmask, Arak put it on and dashed out of the store.
"The entrance to the shelter isn¡¯t too far away. There are multiple entrances and this is one of them. I only know about four entrances and I¡¯m not sure if the exorcists know about anymore. If they heard amotion, they might choose to leave if they understand they might not win." Arak frowned as he ran towards the alleyways.
"Hou... is that so? I might have to set down a barrier to stop them from running them." Shiro muttered with a smile. It¡¯ll be a barrier that allows for people to enter but not leave.
"Also, you might want to give up on this shelter. The people inside aren¡¯t good people. They will easily give you up for their own benefit. No one here is willing to stand up for one another and people be arrogant once they¡¯re favoured by those at the top." Arak slowed down into a walk as he looked back at the two with seriousness.
"There¡¯s no point helping people like that." He warned.
Hearing this, Shiro only chuckled.
"Perhaps. But we¡¯ll see what happens." Shiro shrugged.
IF they were indeed trash that she shouldn¡¯t bother about then she¡¯ll eliminate them should ite down to it. Just because she wanted to help people doesn¡¯t mean she gave up on killing.
"Will you be alright with that?" Shiro nced at Lyrica who only nodded.
"Mn, I¡¯m fine. Things are difficult now which means people need to band together to survive. For people to take advantage of one another in a time like this, there¡¯s no point giving them mercy. Asharia doesn¡¯t have space for this kind of people." Lyrica nodded as she unsheathed her sword. Twisting her body, a wave of fire exploded out as it evaporated a ghost that wanted to drop down from the rooftop in order to eat Arak.
"Don¡¯t me me for what happens then." Arak scratched his head and led them to the first entrance. Knocking on the wall a few times in a rhythmic pattern, Shiro could sense the movement of mana as the wall opened to show a tunnel leading down. Two guards stood at either side of the door and they nced at the three that had knocked on the wall. Surprised to see that two of them had gas masks, the guards were tempted to take them but even with gas masks, if they can¡¯t fight the ghosts, there was no point.
"Are you finished with your run?" They asked while observing Lyrica since someone with a body like that would have been imed by one of the exorcists long ago.
"Ah yes I have." Arak nodded, showing his bad of rations.
"What about that woman? I don¡¯t think she¡¯s from this shelter." One of the guards pointed at Lyrica who had a mini Shiro sitting on her shoulder.
Before Arak could say anything, Lyrica walked up.
"Sorry, I was surviving in a different part of the city. I found two gas masks that covered me from the miasma and came across Arak when resting in one of the safe areas where ghosts can¡¯t find me." Lyrica exined while acting on guard.
"I see... you must havee across one of the zones that the exorcists set up." The guard nodded. It wasn¡¯t strange to see people that have survived by luck since it¡¯s only been a few days.
"You might need to meet the exorcists first though since you¡¯re new. Arak, you go report your earnings and we¡¯ll lead from here. Also, you might want to hide the mask in your inventory. Don¡¯t let the exorcists take them." The guard warned. Even though they were selfish, they still had hatred towards the exorcists that exploited them.
Looking back at Lyrica with a worried expression, Arak sighed when she gave him a reassuring nod.
As the walls closed up once more, Arak stored his mask away.
While Arak walked towards the area where he reported his earnings, one of the guards started to lead Lyrica towards the exorcists.
Looking at the underground shelter, Shiro narrowed her eyes since the conditions here were awful. Everything here was even shabbier than the slums, there was barely any cloth that could be used as a bed. Everyone slept on the cold hard ground with guards around the ce keeping a watch on them.
Seeing Lyrica, they were surprised to see such a healthy person here but they didn¡¯t dare look for more than a second since the exorcists would probably gouge their eyes out for looking at something that would be their property.
"We¡¯re here. The exorcists are just beyond this door." The guard stated as he returned to his post.
Looking at the door, Lyrica was frowning since she could already smell the scene of perfume and luxury items. Compared to the ce where other survivors are, it¡¯s clear that the exorcists thought themselves to be kings.
Pushing open the door, Lyrica was immediately greeted with a corridor that had two heavily armoured guards protecting a door.
"State your business."
"I¡¯m here to see the exorcists. I¡¯m new." Lyrica stated coldly as the guards nodded.
"To meet the exorcists, you must wear this or we cannot let you meet them." The guards stated as he pulled out a chained bracelet.
[Cursed Bracelet of Barcon]
Once equipped, user cannot utilise any form of mana.
Physical strength is weakened.
Can only be equipped if the user epts.
Once equipped, it binds to the user until the creator is dead or allows it to be removed.
Reading this, Shiro smirked and tapped the back of Lyrica¡¯s neck.
Discreetly transferring some divine energy, Shiro gave Lyrica a knowing wink.
If this bracelet cut off the mana, something higher like divine energy was going to work like a charm.
Nodding her head, Lyrica grabbed the bracelet and equipped it onto her wrist. Flinching slightly, she started to walk towards the door but they stopped her once more.
"Your littlepanion has to stay." They pointed at Shiro who shrugged.
Leaving a small nanotech eye on Lyrica Shiro jumped off and floated to one of the pirs within the corridor and waited there.
Seeing this, they finally allowed her in.
Pushing open the door, Lyrica was assaulted by the smell of scented candles and roses. There was a faint pink veil of mist that blocked her sight. Walking through this mist, she saw 6 people sat in separate chambers surrounded by either handsome men or beautiful women wearing skimpy outfits.
Already feeling her rage increase, Lyrica narrowed her eyes.
"There¡¯s a neer. State your bui- oh my." One of the exorcists paused after seeing Lyrica¡¯s appearance.
"Well hello there. What brings someone like you here." He smirked.
"There¡¯s a way to bring everyone out of the city. There¡¯s no need to live under the fear of the ghosts. If you bring everyone out, we can treat their poisoning by the miasma." Lyrica decided to just get to the point since staying here only grossed her out.
"Oh I already know of a way out. But why should we go out when life is amazing here? People serve us like gods and resources are plenty for us." He grinned.
"If you enter my harem, I can give you the same benefits. If not, you can just die since you heard too much. Honestly, why would you even ept wearing a bracelet that makes you useless." He snickered.
Pausing for a moment, Lyrica looked up at the exorcists.
"How unfortunate, a demi goddess has just sentenced you to death."
Chapter 929 Jasmine
Chapter 929 Jasmine
"Pft haha, what are you talking about? A demi goddess? Are you delusional?" The manughed but Lyrica only shook her head.
"I¡¯m not delusional. In this new age, anything can happen. You could have been unfortunate and die on the first day. Though I suppose they can be counted as fortunate considering the fact that they wouldn¡¯t need to meet trash like you. You could have identally annoyed a high level monster and get killed by them during the second day. You could have died due to natural causes but out of all the things that you could have chosen to do, you decided to be trash. And by doing so, you have chosen the worst way to die." Lyrica sighed as golden runes appeared on her body.
ncing down at the cuff, she scoffed and crushed it to dust.
"!!!" Seeing this, all of the exorcists in the room immediately activated their skills but their talismans were shredded to pieces.
"Eh?" Looking at his hand in confusion, the man that had asked Lyrica to enter his harem noticed that all of his fingers have been cut off. Turning to Lyrica, he saw a chained whip that had des attached to each segment.
Flicking her wrist, the whip shrunk down into a sword.
Cracking her neck, Lyrica stomped down as the scenery immediately changed.
The walls were gone and an infinite stretch ofnd appeared in front of them, There was an array of flowersid out and each of them shimmered under the sunlight.
Without saying anything, Lyrica stabbed her sword into the ground as all of the flowers erupted with fires that matched their petal colours.
ming vines shot out of the ground and stabbed into their bodies.
"Honestly, this death might be a little too good for you since your life essence is being put to good use." Lyrica sighed.
"But at least you won¡¯t get to reincarnate."
Narrowing her eyes at the exorcists, thest thing they saw was a beautiful elf standing in the middle of a burning garden.
*KRSK!
In a single moment, their body shrivelled up as everything had been absorbed into the flowers.
Snapping her fingers, the throne world disappeared as there were only dried up corpses where they stood.
"AHHH!!!"
Crying out in shock, those that served the exorcists could only scramble back in fear as these invincible people that they served were killed in a single moment without fighting back.
Simr to Shiro, Lyrica had focused her attention on attack. There is no need to worry about their skills if you can end them before they do anything.
ncing at the remaining people in the room, Lyrica wondered if she should kill them or not since she has been told that they also oppressed the weak. However, Shiro was probably better at this since she could see the colour of their souls. If they were evil, the colour would be darker.
"Seems like you¡¯ve finished everything." Shiro chuckled as she entered, dragging the bodies of both guards while remaining in her tiny form.
Seeing a tiny Shiro dragging two armoured corpses, Lyrica¡¯s seriousness almost broke apart and she wanted tough but calmed herself.
"Ahem. Mn, I have. You might want to take care of their souls. Also, the barrier around this ce might be disappearing soon so we¡¯ll need to deal with the ghosts." Lyrica replied as Shiro nodded her head.
Snapping her fingers, thentern appeared once more as hooked chains shot out of the ground and into the air.
One by one, the souls of the exorcists appeared as the colour had long been dyed a murky blue.
"You know what to do." Shiro smiled while knocking on themp.
"Yes yes, torture them and make sure they don¡¯t die. At least give me a tv since I need something actually enjoyable." The ancient terror sighed as Shiro thought about it for a moment and nodded.
"You know what? Sure. I¡¯m not sure how well this will work but here you go."
Modifying thentern a little, there was now a small tv the size of a thumb on the side of the panels. Since his soul was inside, this should be ratherrge for the ancient terror.
"Oh perfect. You should have a record of the old shows on the inte right? Give me all of them. I want to go through them at my own pace."
"Don¡¯t push it too far. But sure. If you forget to torture the souls I¡¯ll take your tv away." Shiro smirked as she dragged the souls into thentern and looked at the others in the room.
Narrowing her eyes, she could see that most of their souls were in the process of bing murky blue.
"Hou hou... well aren¡¯t you lot bing a bit ustomed to power. Some of you are even evil now. You¡¯re not good enough to be in Asharia but you¡¯re not evil enough for myntern. You know what, why don¡¯t I give you a chance, if you can survive out in this city without any help then you¡¯re free to go. As for everything else in this room, I¡¯m taking it away." Shiro smiled as Nanobots spread out to every corner and all of their luxury items, clothes and so on were swept away.
"Alright let¡¯s go Lyrica, I¡¯ve already marked the good natured people in the slum like area. The rest of them can fend for themselves." Shiro said while sitting on Lyrica¡¯s shoulder.
"Mn."
Making their way down the corridor, Lyrica could see the slums in a bit of a panic since drones were escorting people to one side.
"The exorcists are dead, I¡¯ll be responsible for leading you to safety. Those that have kept a good heart will be brought away as a reward while those that turned to cruelty must survive on their own." Lyrica said as she walked to the small crowd that had been gathered by the drones. Even in a giant underground shelter like this, the number of good nature people was simply abysmal.
Sighing softly, she shook her head when there was amotion behind them.
"Wait, what do you mean by survive on our own? We had to do what we had to do to survive! This isn¡¯t fair! They¡¯re just leeches that lived off of us!" One of the survivors shouted out in anger but Lyrica only red at him.
"Life was never fair to begin with. Plus, if you do evil things with good intent, your soul wouldn¡¯t have turned dark. If anything me yourself." Lyrica replied as she led the people to one of the entrances. Within this group, Arak was watching in surprise as they solved everything in an instant.
¡¯Indeed. With power you can aplish anything you want.¡¯ He thought while looking at Lyrica¡¯s back.
Stopping at the entrance, Lyrica turned to the group of survivors.
"Right then, I know you¡¯re confused but don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re here to help. First take these masks so that you aren¡¯t affected by the miasma." Lyrica smiled softly as she started to hand out the masks that Shiro had created just now.
"Lyrica, you lead the people back to the temporary base that we¡¯ve set up for now. I¡¯m detecting something big in this city and I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that friendly right now." Shiro said as she hopped off Lyrica¡¯s shoulder and erged herself back to normal size.
"Are you going to see what it is?" Lyrica asked as Shiro grinned.
"Of course, I trust you to be able to bring everyone back but if you get into any danger, just pray and I¡¯ll be able to lend you some strength." Shiro chuckled while pushing open the door.
"Mn, take care." Lyrica smiled and gave Shiro a wave.
Giving a wave back, Shiro flew towards the source of this signal. Since mana couldn¡¯t be used, she was relying on her soul power and right now this signal was a giant mashed up cl.u.s.ter of souls that seemed to cry out in agony.
Even for Shiro, it gave her a feeling of creepiness which caused goosebumps to appear but when she arrived, all she saw was a little girl standing in the middle of the road. Her eyes were hollow and her skin was pale. Her lips were tightly sewed shut and she was a rather beautiful dress adorned with several jewels.
"I did not expect someone like you to be here. But can I ask that you don¡¯t interfere with my work? I need to get souls for her highness." The young girl said as she nced at Shiro in the air.
Her mouth didn¡¯t move at all when she spoke as Shiro only chuckled.
"Depends. I presume that your queen is the ghost queen?" Shiro replied as the young girl nodded.
"Mn, I need to get souls so I¡¯ll be happy if you didn¡¯t kill all the ghosts around here. They¡¯ve been consuming the souls of people in this city so if I can get a few of them my queen will be pleased." The girl bowed as Shiro nodded.
"Well that¡¯s a dilemma. You see, I¡¯m guessing your queen gets stronger with souls. So letting her get all of this is a little disadvantageous for me." Shiro smiled as the girl¡¯s aura red.
"Then I need to get rid of obstacles."
[Jasmine LVL 600 Lord of Hallows]
Chapter 930 Olora
Chapter 930 Olora
"So you want to kill me then?" Shiro chuckled as she looked at Jasmine who was clearly ready for a fight.
"If you stop me from getting souls then yes." Jasmine nodded her head as her shadow seemed to twist behind her.
"Well then I suppose fighting can¡¯t be avoided. Why don¡¯t we talk for a bit first? I¡¯m curious about your Queen after all." Shiro smiled as she made a small table with some chairs.
Tilting her head, Jasmine was a little confused but her aura settled down. Walking over to the chair, she sat down with an excited look on her face.
¡¯Seems like I can get some good information from her.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile and also sat down.
"Do you want tea or juice?" Shiro offered.
"Erm... juice." Jasmine replied as she kicked her legs back and forth. Her shadow had returned back to normal so Shiro understood that she¡¯s not preparing to fight.
"Good choice. So why don¡¯t you tell me about your Queen then? You must look up to her a lot." Shiro smiled as Jasmine nodded her head.
"Mn, her highness is very nice. She saved my life so I¡¯m helping her." Jasmine nodded as she brought the cup against her lips.
Since her mouth was sewn shut, it was difficult for her to drink but despite that, not a single drop was spilt.
"Oh? How did she save you?" Shiro asked as she was going to probe for information little by little.
"Well I had an unstable soul. If it was left unchecked, I would have died. She helped me by giving me pieces of souls to stabilise me. Though the first few did hurt my body but I¡¯m alive now so I¡¯m happy." Jasmine smiled as the stitches stretched painfully.
"I¡¯m guessing the group of souls attached to you is what helped you stabilise your soul then?" Shiro smiled as she narrowed her eyes and a green glow washed over her pupils. Looking at the assembly of souls crying out for release, she couldn¡¯t help but pity them.
"You can see them as well? Aren¡¯t they just adorable?" Jasmine said in surprise as she roughly grabbed one of the souls that was extending out more than the others.
"This one is Fred. He¡¯s a little naughty and likes to run away a lot. I have to bring him back otherwise the other¡¯s will be sad." She smiled softly while grabbing the soul named Fred by the neck and held him up to the mass.
Suddenly, hundreds of arms reached out and dragged him back as he could only look at Shiro, begging her to help him as tears flowed out of his eyes.
"See? He¡¯s even crying from happiness since he knows the others miss him."
"I see." Shiro nodded.
As the tea party that was being held in the middle of the ghost city of Tokyo continued, Shiro started to gather more information about the Ghost Queen.
Her name was Olora and she was level 650. During the first day, she was able to kill lots of monsters and gather souls due to the high casualties and her level and power increased. Even though her level was 650, her capabilities are far higher considering how many souls she had gathered.
ording to Jasmine, Olora was able to siphon out the potential from these souls and empower herself. She is also able to make use of their skills if she wanted. There wasn¡¯t much else that Jasmine knew since she was only recently helped by the Queen.
Upon hearing this, Shiro was a little surprised since she was level 600. She most likely didn¡¯t have EXP buffs like what Shiro had so it was almost impossible for her to reach this level.
"Mn, she helped me during the first day the world crumbled. She found me buried under some debris and helped me stabilise my soul. After giving me all of these friends, she said I had be very powerful so I can help her do some missions." Jasmine smiled happily.
¡¯So the ghost queen is able to make level 600¡¯s? From Jasmine¡¯s disposition, she seems quite young and na?ve hence why I got so much information. It¡¯s either that or her intelligence has been reduced due to all the souls connected to her.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown as Jasmine stood up.
"Ah she¡¯s telling me to hurry up now, I need to get some souls for her."
"Well I guess our talk ends here then. It¡¯s been enjoyable and you have indeed proven to be very useful." Shiro smiled as her body disappeared.
Appearing behind her, Shiro summoned Silvanis and pierced her body.
Widening her eyes, Jasmine looked back at Shiro as her shadow transformed and her aura went berserk.
Suddenly, hands erupted out of the shadow as it grabbed one of the souls in the cl.u.s.ter and ovepped it with Jasmine¡¯s body.
Summoning her own sword, she twisted her body and shed back while Shiro¡¯s sword was still stuck in her.
Bending her body back, Shiro was able to dodge the sword as she grabbed Jasmine¡¯s ankles. However, a ghastly limb broke apart the stitches near the ankles and several limbs holding daggers shed towards Shiro.
"Tsk!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro rolled back as she raised her sword and tried to guard against Jasmine¡¯s shed.
*BANG!!!!!!!!
The force of the sh caused her to kneel down as the ground shattered beneath her. Thankfully, Silvanis was indestructible so Shiro didn¡¯t need to worry about losing it but it was another matter when thinking about how much damage her body could take.
"How dare you trick me!" Jasmine shouted out despite her mouth not moving.
A dark purple aura exploded out as Shiro instantly felt her body turn sluggish.
Seeing purple rashes on her body, she realised that she was being poisoned despite her high resistances.
Covering herself with life fire, the purple rashes started to fade away.
¡¯Her base stats are much higher than what I expected.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since Jasmine¡¯s strength was able to force her to kneel down.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro opened Jasmine¡¯s guard as a luminescent green fire surrounded her de. It was a different fire to her life fire and Jasmine noticed her souls bing unsettled. Wanting to move back, her shadow arms ovepped a different soul over her body as she managed to kick Shiro¡¯s wrist, preventing her from shed at her.
Unfortunately for Jasmine...
Silvanis effect 3, Space Shift.
Appearing in front of Jasmine¡¯s neck, the sword shed through the bones without any form of resistance as the head was separated from the body.
Turning around, Shiro wanted to deal the finishing blow but a ck tendril shot out of her neck like a web that threatened to consume her.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro jumped into the rift and created some distance between the two of them.
Watching Jasmine reconnect her head, Shiro wondered if she should use her soul powers. The only problem with that is since Jasmine is the Lord of Hallows, there was no guarantee that using her soul powers could be beneficial for her. If anything, there was a chance that Jasmine could possibly do something to Shiro¡¯s soul so she had to proceed with caution.
¡¯One step at a time.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
During thest short exchange, she had coated her sword with soul fire and she was able to cut free a few of the souls connected to that mass. This wasn¡¯t a confirmed thought but Shiro figured that if she got rid of all the souls in that mass, Jasmine might lose arge portion of her powers.
Suddenly, ck hands appeared behind Shiro as she instantly felt danger behind her.
Activating boundary, she cut apart all of them at once but a single finger managed to brush past her hair.
[You have been tainted slightly.]
Seeing this notification, Shiro widened her eyes as she jumped into the sky.
Next to Jasmine, Shiro noticed a puppet of sorts who¡¯s figure was reminiscent of her own.
¡¯Is she trying to take my soul?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown since that moment of contact sent chills down her spine.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro activated Force of Elements and infused it with a mixture of Lightning, Fire and Light.
Piercing through the veil covering this city, a giant golden sword shot down as Jasmine could only look up in shock.
Several souls were forced out of the cl.u.s.ter and collided with the sword.
*BANG!!!!!
Breaking the sword apart, a wave of souls cried out towards her as Shiro mmed her hand down and summoned herntern.
Raising it up, the wave of souls was taken away without exception.
"What the hell!! At least warn me if you¡¯re going to bring in a sh*t ton of these ankle biters! I was watching a show dammit!" The ancient terrorined as thentern started to shake.
"Shut up and help me deal with them." Shiro replied as she dismissed thentern and stomped down. Dashing towards Jasmine, a golden fire lit up on her sword.
Ripping apart the stitches around her mouth, a ck liquid started to flow out of her mouth as it soon covered arge section of the city.
Before Shiro could reach Jasmine, hundreds of eyes opened up as Shiro could feel something tugging at her soul.
Chapter 931 Fighting Jasmine
Chapter 931 Fighting Jasmine
Without hesitating, Shiro immediately mmed her hand down as chains appeared around.
Suddenly, invisible hands were revealed as Shiro managed to parry them before they could reach her.
Narrowing her eyes at Jasmine, Shiro activated Sigil of Night as her body faded into the darkness.
Seeing this, Jasmine put up her guard as souls started to howl around her.
However, even with this guard, she didn¡¯t expect to see Shiro¡¯s left hand cover her vision while her sword pierced the back of her neck.
With a single twist of her body, Shiro gritted her teeth as she tried to separate Jasmine¡¯s head once more.
This time, tens of soul chains erupted out from around her as she aimed to restrain the mass of writhing souls behind her so that she couldn¡¯t revive using it.
But just as her chains came into contact with this writhing mass of souls, Shiro didn¡¯t expect her chains to be swatted aside as ck hands aimed to grab her.
"TCH!" Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Shiro gave up on her attack and quickly moved back. Getting her own soul tainted for a short moment of damage was not what she wanted. It was uncertain if she could cancel Jasmine¡¯s ability just yet so suffering more damage from it would not be rmended.
Just as she jumped back, Shiro chanted a few lines under her breath as tens of tier 6 magic circles appeared around her. Each of them twisted with a mix of lightning and fire energy as hundreds of arrows were formed. Swiping horizontally with her hand, she sent the barrage of arrows towards Jasmine while preparing her next move.
¡¯Right now, it seems like meleebat is a no go. A single touch would result in me being slightly tainted and I¡¯m not too excited to find out what happens. Her physical prowess isn¡¯t that powerful, and she relies on her souls. If her physical prowess was strong, I might have some trouble but this should be beneficial for me.¡¯ Shiro thought as she narrowed her eyes.
Jumping back, she mmed her hand down as tens of tier 7 magic circles appeared around her. Flooding this part of the city with nanobots, golden runes started to appear as turrets were constructed on the roof of the buildings nearby.
Without saying anything, Shiro sped her hand together as a luminescent turquoise me wrapped around the guns that she had constructed.
Since she had also activated Sigil of Night, her power was doubled under this veil of darkness. It wasn¡¯t to the scale of the void bomb but this barrage should be enough to reduce most things to ash.;
"Fire!" Shiro ordered as the guns hummed with an ominous bumble.
Looking at the weapons pointed at her,
Jasmine only grinned as a shield of spirits wrapped around her body.
*BANG!!!!!!
Watching the barrage, Shiro was about to continue when she was sent back by an unknown force. Coughing up some blood, she quickly stopped the barrage upon noticing that the damage she took was from the guns she created.
Healing herself with life fire, Shiro nced down and saw Jasmine standing there with a creepy smile. The ghost that had been used as shields slowly disappeared.
¡¯Did she transfer damage from them to me?¡¯ Shiro frowned.
Watching Jasmine ovep herself with another ghost, she stomped down and dashed towards Shiro.
Understand that meleebat was disadvantageous for her even if Jasmine was physically weak, Shiro flew up into the air and summoned a swarm of nanobots. Creating a mech around her, Shiro immediately shed towards Jasmine with her sword.
*KRRRRR!!!!
The moment the sword hit, Shiro could feel her ribs break apart as a horizontal cut appeared around her torso. Healing herself up, Shiro understood that Jasmine could probably use any soul she had on her to return the damage.
¡¯There has to be a draw back or a condition that I haven¡¯t realised.¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows.
Pulling back her sword, the mech instantly disappeared as she converted all the nanobots into a rail cannon that aimed at Jasmine at point nk range. Seeing the same grin again, Shiro narrowed her eyes and activated Kietoma.
Forcing Jasmine¡¯s body to freeze up for a moment, Shiro didn¡¯t fire her weapon but instead cast Frozen Slumber!
Tens of tier 6 magic circles appeared around Jasmine as ice chains shot out. Since it wasn¡¯t a contest of control over the soul, Shiro watched as the chainstched onto her physical body and a frozen prison started to form around her.
Dismissing the cannon, Shiro gritted her teeth as she tried to push her hands together.
Once that happens, Frozen Slumber would havepletely frozen the enemy inside and out.
However, the difficulty of sping her hands together was so high that Shiro could feel her hands being forced apart instead. But strangely, the resistance weakened as one of the ghosts shattered apart, shing at Jasmine before it disappeared.
"!!!" Widening her eyes, Shiro understood that when she uses her skill, she must be hit by an attack and return the damage or she suffers a bacsh.
With the decrease of resistance, Shiro created a set of armour around her that bolstered her magical prowess.
A blizzard formed around them as her white hair fluttered in the wind. Jasmine could only watch as Shiro¡¯s hands got closer as she could feel her body shattering apart from the ice.
Gritting her teeth, she forced her mouth open as the stitches ripped apart her skin.
Sticking out her tongue, a dark purple rune could be seen as the ghosts around her let out a mournful cry before being absorbed into her mouth.
Seeing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but imagine that she was eating as the resistance started to increase once more.
With her hands being forced apart, Shiro furrowed her brows.
*BANG!!!!!!
With a final push of force, the ice shattered apart as Shiro could feel an invisible force m into her as her spell was broken apart.
Healing any wounds that she had received with Life Fire, Shiro furrowed her brows and looked at Jasmine who had disappeared.
Suddenly, two fingers appeared in front of her as her vision was instantly stolen from her.
Suppressing her cry of pain, Shiro didn¡¯t need her eyes as she activated boundary. She could sense Jasmine but she was more powerful than before. Her body flickered continuously as it was difficult to get a grasp on her even with boundary.
¡¯I need to make some distance between us!¡¯
Releasing an omnidirectional attack, Shiro tried to heal her eyes.
However, even with her eyes healed, her sight did not return.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro could hear augh all around her.
"I take your sight so you can¡¯t see. I take your touch so you can¡¯t feel. I take your taste, your voice and your hearing. Oh pitiful one, let me help you for I shall take your life and free you from pain." Sheughed as her tone was simr to when children would sing nursery songs.
"A conditional skill that invokes my death huh? But it seems like you¡¯ve lost your shield as well." Shiro smiled but her heart was actually pounding right now.
¡¯This is no time to hold back my skills anymore. I¡¯ve already lost my sight, if I lose more, this fight will be difficult and eventually I¡¯ll be killed even with all my healing. Plus, this doesn¡¯t feel like ¡¯damage¡¯ but more like a curse or debuff.¡¯ Shiro thought in her mind as her aura red. Without holding back, she activated her True Spirit Nature, Demi God Raiment and Divine Gardens.
With the sudden surge of divine energy, Jasmine was forced back as she wasn¡¯t able to attack Shiro due to the pressure.
By the time she realised it, she was in the middle of an empty field created from metal. Large skyscr.a.p.ers could be seen in the distance along with what seemed to be giantary sized weapons covered from head to toe in golden runes.
As she was marvelling at this sight, she flinched for a moment as she realised her body had been cut in half. Healing herself, she tried to turn around in order to see Shiro but a hand grabbed the back of her head and mmed her face against the ground.
*KRRRR!!!
Feeling her bones shatter, Jasmine gritted her teeth andunched an attack behind her thatpletely missed. mming her hand down, a wave of shadows exploded out.
However, the ground started to shake as the floor broke apart to reveal hundreds upon hundreds of mouths created from nanobots that started to consume the shadows in this realm.
Jumping up in the sky, Jasmine gritted her teeth as she closed her own eyes.
Expanding her domain, she gained true sight of everything around her.
Sensing danger behind her, she finally caught a glimpse of Shiro as she grinned.
"Your sense of touch is mine." Sheughed but when she saw her target, she had a bad feeling in her stomach.
"Take it then." Shiro replied with a grin. Raising her right hand that was covered with ayer of ck metal and red circuits, she plunged her arm into Jasmine¡¯s heart and activated extraction.
Chapter 932 Missing Senses
Chapter 932 Missing Senses
Widening her eyes, Jasmine grabbed Shiro¡¯s wrist as her face twisted in anger. Even though Shiro had lost her eyesight, her senses from boundary still told her everything she needed to know.
However, despite managing to activate Extraction, Shiro knew that she couldn¡¯t let her guard down until her enemy disappeared.
Using her spare hand to grab Jasmine¡¯s throat, Shiro reinforced her arm and crushed her neck to the pulp. Putting strength into her right hand, she ripped out the heart at the same time. Disintegrating into a tiny ball of condensed code, Shiro smiled as Jasmine¡¯s body crumbled to ash.
Dismissing the divine garden as well as her demi god raiment, Shiro sighed as she sat down on the roof of one of the buildings nearby.
However, the moment she sat down, she realised that her sense of touch had basically disappeared. It was hard to walk considering the fact that there was no feedback from the rest of her body.
Furrowing her brows a little, she wanted to check her system but with her eyesight disappeared, she didn¡¯t know if it was temporary or permanent.
¡¯Well this is concerning.¡¯ Shiro smiled softly as Nimue only crossed her hands while observing everything from the mana realm.
{So not only have you lost your sight, but you¡¯ve also lost your sense of touch now.} She sighed.
¡¯Oh it¡¯s not that bad now is it? There¡¯s definitely a cure for this so don¡¯t worry.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
{But even after healing your eyes, you can¡¯t see anything can you?} Nimue furrowed her brows.
¡¯Mn... maybe it¡¯s something to do with the soul. She is the subordinate of the ghost queen after all.¡¯ Shiro shrugged as she ¡¯looked¡¯ down at the source code in her hands.
Right now, her sight waspletely ck and white. Everything was in clear detail but that¡¯s only for things within a small range from her. At most, once she gets out, she can probably use her mana sense to navigate around a little. Plus, if it does get a bit annoying, she could make herself some ¡¯eyes¡¯ using nanobots since the image would be transmitted to her mind. It was just that using her nanobots would be far inferiorpared to her senses since there is a dy and a chance that the camera wouldn¡¯t be able to capture what her eyes could.
"Say young Queen, if you don¡¯t mind, I would appreciate it if you let my subordinate go. She was just doing a job after all." A voice suddenly rang out as Shiro felt a chill down her spine. However, it was also simr to when Nyx appeared so she understood that this was probably an avatar.
"I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re the Ghost Queen then. Nice to meet you but unfortunately, I have no intentions of letting this little bundle of code go. I did have a few things robbed from me after all." Shiro chuckled while ncing towards the source of voice. Through her senses, she could tell that someone was there but the figure was blurry so she couldn¡¯t tell what she looked like.
"Your sight and touch right? I can return them to you as long as you give he-"
*PING!~
Absorbing the code, Shiro smiled.
"Oops, I slipped. Maybe we can talk next time then." Shiro chuckled as she activated the upgraded version of her celestial path.
With the suddenck of mana, the figure flickered and started to disappear.
"I¡¯ll remember your face." Olora warned in a low voice as her presence disappeared.
Once Shiro was sure Olora disappeared, Shiro sighed and closed her eyes beforeying on her back.
Since she had absorbed the code, she would gain a new skill. Unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t see what it was and a camera wouldn¡¯t reveal her status board to her.
¡¯What a shame. I¡¯ll find out what it is when I get my sight back I suppose.¡¯ Shiro shook her head as her priority was to get back to Lyrica. She knew that after using Extraction, she¡¯ll probably get a vision of what the person she killed experienced so she wanted some protection first.
Trying to stand up, Shiro almost fell over a few times since she didn¡¯t know if she had stood up properly or if she was falling. Keeping boundary activated for a long time was difficult so she was using a mix of other options such as mana and wires to determine her posture.
Eventually, she settled with controlling her entire body through wires around her body. Her sight was sorted with a camera in the form of a contact lens so her vision should be close to the original. She didn¡¯t want to worry her friends after all since this is probably just temporary. She just needed a bit of time to see what¡¯s wrong with her senses.
Finding her way back to the base that they set up for now, Shiro could see the survivors resting while Lyrica and the others stood guard.
Upon seeing Shiro, Lyrica sighed in relief since she had been worried.
"Wee back. Seems like you¡¯ve finished taking care of it." Lyrica smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, it was a bit troublesome but it¡¯s over for now. The only thing is that I might have annoyed the Ghost Queen now haha." Shiroughed as she shrank her body down and sat on Lyrica¡¯s shoulder.
"When do you not annoy people haha." Lyrica smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, regardless, I¡¯m a little exhausted after everything so I¡¯ll go rest for now. I¡¯m sure you lot are able to bring everyone back to the city so I¡¯m leaving it to you." Shiro yawned and rested her head on Lyrica¡¯s neck.
Seeing this, Lyrica was a little surprised but nodded her head.
Holding Shiro¡¯s body carefully, she adjusted her position a little so that she wouldn¡¯t fall off.
However, when Kasper saw Shiro, he widened his eyes in surprise since her the pressure he felt from her soul was much weaker than before.
¡¯Did something happen?¡¯ He thought to himself with a frown since her soul was heavily injured right now.
But mentioning it now would be rather disadvantageous so he nned to bring this up once they made it back to the base.
###
"AHHHHHHH What the hell!? Why is there someone with that kind of power this early on??" Gaia mmed her hand on the table when she heard about what Jasmine did. The fact that she could kill someone after fulfilling the condition of robbing all of their senses was insane. It was something that would belong to a skill in tier 7 rather than 6.
The fact that Shiro actually lost her sight and touch concerned Gaia.
"I know you¡¯re worried but it¡¯s fine. She¡¯s a demi god so her soul will recover on its own but it might take a while." Nyx sighed.
"That¡¯s not what I¡¯m worried about! If she can¡¯t see the system she can¡¯t see my messages!" Gaia red at Nyx who blinked a few times to make sure she heard everything properly.
"So you¡¯re worried, because she can¡¯t read your messages?" Nyx asked as Gaia nodded her head furiously.
"Ahhhhh it¡¯ll take so long for me to be able to message her. Maybe I should sabotage the ghost queen for this." Gaia narrowed her eyes as Ouranos sighed.
"You¡¯re not a teenage girl. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be fine if you don¡¯t talk to her for a bi-"
"Shut up, you don¡¯t understand hmph!" Gaia frowned as she drop kicked Ouranos off his chair.
"Calm down Gaia. Let¡¯s just watch for now, it¡¯s normal for things to be a bit strange considering the situation we¡¯re in. This new age will bepletely different to what has happened in the past so there will naturally be situations like this. The most we can do is to wait for our time to arrive since we¡¯re still not even a week in yet." Nyx shook her head as Gaia pouted and sat down on the chair.
"Hais, you should know what Gaia¡¯s like and you still provoked her." Tartarus shook his head as Ouranos ignored him and sat down without saying anything.
###
Making their way back to the city, Lyrica brought the surprised survivors to the second city for now and had Samuel and some of the other trusted staff guide them for now.
After thinking about it for a while, Lyrica decided to escort Shiro back to her room while she was still sleeping but the moment she opened the door, she saw Lisandra gritting her teeth as sweat dripped from her face.
Her pristine white wings were being dyed ck at the base.
Chapter 933 Arias Crest
Chapter 933 Aria''s Crest
"Mn..." Groaning softly, Shiro opened her eyes but saw nothing.
¡¯Ah right, I¡¯m blind now...¡¯ She sighed in her mind.
Activating the cameras, she wrapped her body with wire once more before sitting up.
Realising that she was back in her own room, Shiro looked to her side and saw Lisandra sitting there with a difficult face. However, despite that, her wings seemed to have lost the darkness that was creeping around the edgesst time she saw it.
¡¯Seems like she¡¯s doing good.¡¯ Shiro smiled as she stood up with difficulty. Just as she walked to the door, she was surprised to see Lyricaing here with Aarim and Silvia following behind her with anxious faces.
"Shiro!" Lyrica called out in surprise since she didn¡¯t expect Shiro to wake up so soon.
"Sup. Why are you three in a rush?" Shiro asked curiously as Lyrica paused for a moment in confusion.
"Have you seen Lisandra?" Lyrica asked with surprise.
"Yes I have. She¡¯s doing find no? The darkness around her wings has disappeared." Shiro tilted her head.
Hearing this, Lyrica frowned and looked at the other two.
"Let¡¯s talk in your room."
"Sure? Come on in." Shiro raised her eyebrow but took a step back, letting them enter.
"Goodness!" Silvia cried out in shock seeing the state of Lisandra while Shiro was confused at what they were seeing.
{Do you think they¡¯re seeing something that your camera couldn¡¯t pick up?} Nimue asked.
¡¯Possibly. I was hoping to hide this for a little longer before asking for some help.¡¯ Shiro smiled softly.
"Shiro, what do you mean Lisandra is doing fine. Her wings are being dyed ck." Aarim frowned while crouching near Lisandra.
"They are?" Shiro nced over at the area that Aarim was looking at and saw normal white feathers on the wings.
"Shiro can I have a look at your eyes?" Silvia asked as Shiro paused and nodded her head.
"Sure." Shiro smiled as she sat on the bed.
Walking up to Shiro, Silvia realised that Shiro was wearing contacts.
"When did you start wearing contacts?" She asked curiously.
"Today." Shiro replied.
"Any reason for using contacts?"
"Help me see a little better." Shiro chuckled.
"Is your vision impaired?" Silvia asked in surprise since Shiro could have just healed it up.
"Just a little." Taking off her contacts, Shiro sighed as she looked towards where she guessed the three were.
"After thest battle, I may or may not have lost my sense of vision and touch." Shiro smiled softly as the three tensed up in shock.
Especially Lyrica since she was out with Shiro and didn¡¯t notice anything wrong.
"You what?!" Silvia widened her eyes.
Moving her hand in front of Shiro and seeing no reaction, she didn¡¯t know what to say.
"It was a battle against the Ghost Queen¡¯s subordinate who was also tier 6. She was very good at using powers against the soul so it was a difficult fight and during the fight, I had something simr to a curse affect me. One that would kill me if the conditions are met. She took away my sense of sight and touch. Had she taken taste, hearing and smell, my life would be forfeit. I managed to kill her in the end so I¡¯m safe now. I¡¯m not sure how long this kind of impairment willst since I have tried to heal myself but even though my eyes were regenerated, the sense is still gone. Even now, I¡¯m controlling my body using wires since I can¡¯t feel a single thing around me. If I stand up without the wires, I wouldn¡¯t know if I was falling or not." Shiro exined while rolling up her sleeves.
Seeing the rows of wires along her arm, Silvia opened her mouth several times but nothing came out.
"These contact lenses act as prosthetics for now since they send the image to my mine. I can see like usual but it seems like there are things the camera can¡¯t pick up. How bad is Lisandra¡¯s situation right now?" Shiro asked.
"Not good. The darkness has reached around 30% of her wings right now and it seems like the speed is increasing." Aarim shook her head with a frown.
"Mn... that¡¯s not too good. Is there anything out of ce? Like any runes or signs of interference?" Shiro asked.
Since she can¡¯t see anything, she can only ask them about what they see.
"There¡¯s a small mark on her back. But its a quite small and it¡¯s a golden rune. I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re the one who put it there." Aarim said as Shiro paused.
"Eh? There¡¯s a golden rune? I don¡¯t remember doing anything of the sort. Can you draw it and show me what it looks like?" Shiro asked with a frown.
Nodding her head, Aarim started to draw the rune while Lyrica walked up to Shiro.
"Shiro, if you¡¯re injured tell us. If I didn¡¯te to your room, we wouldn¡¯t even know Lisandra¡¯s condition especially now that you¡¯ve lost your sight and touch." Lyrica sighed heavily.
"I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t want to worry everyone since it¡¯s quite shocking for me as well. Unfortunately, these prosthetics can¡¯t see the system so I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening either. If there is a notification, you girls will have to tell me about it." Shiro chuckled as Lyrica nodded her head.
"Done, this is the rune on her back." Aarim walked over and showed her the drawing.
The moment Shiro saw the rune, she knew what it was.
"Rather than a rune, it¡¯s more of a crest. You remember how I came from Aria right? This is the crest of the light goddess. I told you that Lisandra was supposed to be the body for the light goddess right? I¡¯m guessing that now the new age has arrived, she¡¯s not too happy about Lisandra bing tier 6. But this is fine, I know what to do about this." Shiro smiled.
Walking over to Lisandra, she kneeled down behind her. Raising her finger, a golden aura wrapped around it as she nced at Aarim.
"I¡¯ll need your help for this. Point out where the crest is. I¡¯m going to override it with my own." Shiro smiled.
Nodding her head, Aarim traced a rough outline before cing it on Lisandra¡¯s back.
Remembering this spot, Shiro removed the outline and started to draw her crest using her own divine energy.
The moment she finished drawing the crest, the other three in the room could see a stream of golden energy branch out from the new crest.
Seemingly ¡¯purifying¡¯ some of the darkness that was encroaching on her wings, Lisandra¡¯s expression eased up.
Just as this happened, Shiro noticed that her camera had stopped working and her wires disappeared.
"To think it was actually you who got rid of the crest. It has been a while." A feminine voice rang out.
"I didn¡¯t expect to hear such an irritating voice today. How is it going Aria?" Shiro chuckled as the one who was talking was the Light Goddess Aria. Her previous world was named after its main goddess and this was the same goddess who had caused Aekari to be who he is today.
"It¡¯s going rather well for me. I¡¯ll be honest, I didn¡¯t expect for you to lose your sight along with your sense of touch. Your figure is rather pitiful right now." Aria chuckled.
"Well at least I don¡¯t have to look at you thanks to myck of sight. Honestly I might even call it a boon right now." Shiroughed.
"So hostile even thought I was the one who had Aekari help you from thebs."
"But you¡¯re also the one who got him to kill me no? Regardless, I believe you¡¯re not here to talk." Shiro stopped smiling.
"Indeed. I did hope that you¡¯d find the crest when you returned but you just had to lose your sight. Well the reason I called for you today is to inform you about something good that will appear in the world soon." Aria smiled.
"And you¡¯re telling that to me, your enemy?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Indeed. It is necessary for everything after all. Towards the North, between the twin peaks of Frost Giant¡¯s Pass, a Rainbow Grade Relic will descend to this world." Aria smiled.
Before Shiro could even ask her about anything else, she realised that she was back in her own room.
"Shiro?" Lyrica called out as Shiro paused for a long time without moving.
"Mn? Oh how is it? Has the darkness been dispelled?" Shiro asked as she couldn¡¯t see what was happening on Lisandra¡¯s wings.
"Yes it has. Everything¡¯s back to normal and it seems like she¡¯s just sleeping no-"
Before Lyrica could finish what she was saying, a tier 6 magic circle appeared around Lisandra as a liquid started to cover her body. Much like what happened with Madison, a crystal solidified around her but this onlysted for a moment before shattering apart.
Feeling the aura around Lisandra shoot into the realm of tier 6, they knew that her ascension was sessful.
Chapter 934 Travelling To The North
Chapter 934 Travelling To The North
Tucking Lisandra in the bed, the four left the room for now since Lisandra needed some time to rest after finally reaching tier 6.
Gesturing for everyone to go to themand centre, Shiro wanted to talk with them about the new information that she had received from the Light Goddess.
"So what did you want to tell us?" Lyrica asked as Shiro sat down.
"When I got rid of the Light Goddess¡¯ Crest, she gave me some rather interesting information I suppose. It was information about a relic that will appear in this world after a month and it¡¯s towards the north. In her own words, she said, ¡¯Towards the North, between the twin peaks of Frost Giant¡¯s Pass, a Rainbow Grade Relic will descend to this world.¡¯ Personally, I¡¯m not exactly trusting of her words but if there is indeed a relic, we should stop others from obtaining something that is so powerful." Shiro said as the three frowned.
"If it¡¯s a Rainbow Grade Relic, do you think it¡¯ll cause some kind of phenomenon that notifies everyone?" Lyrica asked with a frown.
"Possibly. However, there is a chance that the system will just notify everyone of its appearance. There¡¯s probably a good chance that we¡¯ll have to fight a few Queens there." Shiro frowned while leaning back a little.
"With my current body condition, we¡¯ll have to be careful about how we approach this. I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll be healed up in around a month. But we have to fight for this. The power of a rainbow grade item can¡¯t be underestimated. I¡¯ve got two myself and one allows me to summon the primordial gods so you can guess how strong they are." Shiro narrowed her eyes as the three of them nodded their heads.
"Regardless, I¡¯ll be increasing the training for everyone in the military. Hopefully, we¡¯ll have a squadron of specialised units to fight in the battle. But if it doese down to it, I¡¯ll be issuing an evacuation order so that I can use something called a Void Bomb. It¡¯s better for something like this to be destroyed than to be given to other people." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"I¡¯ll exin to you in detail about this bomb at ater date but we¡¯ll be travelling North for now. There isn¡¯t much we can do about Tokyo¡¯s current situation with the ghosts. I also need to find out where exactly the Frost Giant Peak is." Shiro said while massaging her neck.
"Also, if you can, try not to say anything about my eyes and sense of touch out in the open. You can tell the rest of the party, but if news of me being injured to this extent is spread to the rest of the city, it¡¯ll cause quite a bit of distress." Shiro smiled as the three of them nodded.
After talking for a little longer, they made their way back while Shiro started to set a course to the north.
{Your future self is correct after all. Each of the Queens be Queens because they¡¯re recognised by the system as powerful individuals. Even their subordinates can seriously harm you if you underestimate them.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯Indeed. I should have observed a little. Honestly, against opponents like her, I¡¯ll need to make sure I got something that can defend my soul since that¡¯s probably the weakest part of me. I¡¯m all for attacking but my defences arecking.¡¯ Shiro frowned. Even if she wanted to be a ss cannon, she still needed a bit of protection for herself.
{Mn. But your future self never mentioned about the Ghost Queen so there¡¯s a big chance that she was eliminated early on. The ones that are most dangerous is the Beast Queen and the Dragon Empress.} Nimue frowned.
¡¯I already have Nan Tian investigating the Beast Queen since we got some leads on her but that¡¯s only in a single branch city. As for the Dragon Empress, we have nothing on her.¡¯ Shiro replied.
{Maybe you should call Nan Tian back for the artefact. He¡¯ll be a huge help should we fight.} Nimue suggested.
¡¯Mn... we¡¯ll see what happens.¡¯ Shiro closed her eyes while thinking about all the things that they needed to do.
###
It¡¯s been roughly a week since the settlement was destroyed by the dragon. Gathering some resources has been rather difficult but after a few times, we got used to it and managed to find an efficient way to harvest food without entering too many fights. During this week, we had managed to save quite a few people but we¡¯ve made sure to keep our group small and escort them to a shelter.
Afterst time, I don¡¯t think the other¡¯s are keen with letting lots of people in.
"There¡¯s a settlement ahead." Gordon said as he had a pair of binocrs that he managed to salvage from one of the destroyed settlements we¡¯ve passed earlier in the week.
"Oh? We can probably drop off the survivors then." I nodded as I patted Nitha¡¯s head.
Flying down, we regrouped with the others and notified them about the settlement.
"With our speed, we would get there early in the morning if we hurry. Roughly 3 or 4am. If we camp the night, we¡¯ll have to wait till tomorrow afternoon.¡¯ I exined as the survivors nodded their heads.
Eventually, we settled with moving through the night since they all wanted some safe shelter. During thest few days of travel, we¡¯ve been attacked at night by monsters and if it wasn¡¯t for Nitha, we might have suffered quite a few casualties.
As we¡¯re moving through the night, Lyle walked up to me and tugged at my sleeve.
"Mn? What is it?" I asked. Both Lyle and Eric didn¡¯t call out to people much. Most of the time it would be us calling for them so I was a bit surprised that Lyle actually approached me.
[There¡¯s someone nearby. They seem to be heavily wounded.] Lyle wrote out as I furrowed my brows.
"Are you able to lead me to where they are?" I asked as he nodded.
Getting Nitha to protect the group for now, I followed after Lyle as we ran through the night.
We ran for a short while and Lyle pushed past a few vines to reveal a small rock foundation that had a man in the centre. His entire body was bloodied and wounded but his eyes were filled with determination.
Seeing us to approach, he furrowed his brows and tried to stand up.
"We¡¯re not going to harm you. Are you ok? What happened?" I asked while pulling out a healing potion.
The man in front of me was rather tall with short blond hair, green eyes and pointed ears, a known trait of elves.
"What world am I in? What¡¯s the closest city?" The man asked with a frown.
I found his questions a little odd but I replied anyways.
"You¡¯re on Earth and we¡¯re not sure about the closest city since the world has changed a little."
Hearing the word Earth, he sat up in surprise.
"This is Earth? So there¡¯s the Elven Continent and Miriel right?" He asked as I nodded.
"I¡¯m back... I need to go warn her." The elf tried to stand up but copsed again.
"Take it easy. We¡¯ll bring you back to our group so you recover ok?" I sighed since I¡¯ve seen people that were a little out of their minds after everything that¡¯s happened.
Picking him up, I made my way back to the camp.
"So can you tell me your name?" I asked.
"Edvimar." Edvimar said after taking a few deep breaths.
"I¡¯m Asher. Can you tell me why you were in that small rock formation?" I asked.
"That was a coincidence. I forced myself through a portal to escape the watchman. I need to go find my wife, she¡¯s in a lot of danger right now. The new age has arrived and the veil between realms is weakened. The watchman can im her soul once he finds her. I need to go warn her." Edvimar replied as I could sense mana coursing through his body in an attempt to increase his self-recovery but there was something hindering this.
"Do you know where your wife is? If not you might have to wait a long time before we can find out where we are in the world right now."
Hearing this, Edvimar furrowed his brows but nodded his head.
Bringing him back to the camp, we dressed his wounds which the healers found difficult to heal. Surprisingly, despite his heavily wounded body, NItha was very afraid of him. For Nitha, she only showed this reaction when we were against the dragon so I tried to inspect him to see his level.
Surprisingly, nothing appeared. No name, no level, no ss. There wasn¡¯t even question marks that showed he was much higher level than me. If anything, it was almost as if he was not registered by the system at all.
Chapter 935 First City Event
Chapter 935 First City Event
After choosing to travel north in order to find the artifact that will appear in a month¡¯s time, Shiro made sure that she increased the training difficulty with the military so that they could use the specialised units.
Right now, roughly 10% of the military was reaching the standard required but they were having some difficulties with the increased difficulty. As for Shiina, Oran and Akhess, they were having the time of their lives seeing the new recruits struggle since that¡¯s what they had to experience when they trained with Shiro.
Of course, she didn¡¯t forget about helping people along the way but the number of good natured survivors rapidly decreased.
Since it had been a week, it was understandable that those who helped people would get killed first.
During this week trip, they had alsoe across a few settlements that had huge groups of humans banding together in order to survive but most of them have be criminal dens.
The moment their current leader shows weakness, the subordinates would kill them and take their ce.
There were no benefits to killing or helping them so Shiro let them do as they pleased for now. If they get on her nervester, she could deal with them.
During this time, Lisandra had also woken up. Her description of her ascension was rather difficult considering that it was something akin to walking alone in the dark. asionally, she could sense Shiro encouraging her but it was faint.
However, when a crest suddenly appeared in this dark world, she realised which direction she needed to go and managed to breakthrough.
Since Shiro couldn¡¯t see her ss, she had Lyrica tell her.
[Lisandra LVL 610 Divine Judgement Archangel (Faith of the Nanotech Demi Goddess)]
Surprisingly, her faith was now attached to her title and it gave her some rather surprising benefits.
As long as she was carrying out an order from Shiro, she would receive a 50% boost to her stats. She is also able to borrow some of Shiro¡¯s power and use Shiro¡¯s divinity if Shiro gives her permission. While she might not be able to use the blueprints, she¡¯ll still be able to use the nanobots to consume her opponent¡¯s mana. Regardless, the fact that Lisandra could use a bit of her divinity is amazing in itself. If she could study it a little and make a few blueprints herself, it would be very helpful in a fight.
With Lisandra reaching tier 6, they now had quite the impressive roster of tier 6¡¯s.
###
"Right then, with quite a few of us at tier 6, we need everyone else to catch up." Shiro smiled as they were currently having a group meeting of sorts. It was to discuss what the rest of the part should do in terms of levels since Yin, Silvia, Lyrica, Aarim, Chen Yu and Helion were falling behind in terms of levels. Everyone else had reached tier 6 or close to it so they needed to level up or else they¡¯ll have to sit out on a lot of fights.
"What if we went to a city that was destroyed by monsters? There should be plenty of high level monsters there. Plus, it¡¯ll give us a chance to ¡¯reim¡¯ a city I suppose." Madison suggested as she was sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed.
"That¡¯s a good suggestion. We can also see if there are any luxury items that we can salvage. If there are, we can sell it in the shops around the city." Shiro smiled.
While she can make a lot of things with her nanobots, sometimes it was better to get the items yourself.
"In that case then why don¡¯t we have an expedition of sorts where everyone can join in once we clear out the monsters? We¡¯ll have people look around the city for anything that might be of interest for them. It¡¯ll be like a small event of sorts that lets them stretch their legs a little once we clear up the monsters." Lyrica suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, we can give them teleport modules so that they can just return to the city once they¡¯re satisfied. They can take whatever they want and keep it. If they want to offer it to us, we¡¯ll take it if it¡¯s useful and in return, we¡¯ll reward them with something they want or something of equal value."
Discussing the event details for a little bit, Shiro sent out a notification to the city.
[Salvaging Event ¨C Anyone can participate.]
We¡¯ll be stopping by a city that is destroyed by monsters. Once we¡¯ve killed all the monsters in the city, we¡¯ll be sending down salvaging groups that will retrieve whatever they can from the city. Anyone can participate and if you register yourself for this event, you¡¯ll receive a teleport module that will bring you back to the city.
You can keep whatever you find but if you want to turn it in, we¡¯ll reward you with something you want or of equal value depending on the item that you have given us. The event will start in roughly a day or earlier depending on the situation. There will be a city wide notification to ensure that you don¡¯t miss it.
It is firste first serve and no fighting amongst one another is allowed.
More information will be postedter if there are any changes.
Sending out the notification, Shiro set up a registration link with the notification and immediately watched as the number increased.
"Well damn, they must really be bored being stuck in the city huh?" Shiro chuckled.
"Tell me about it. But if we host these often, I think it¡¯ll be helpful in relieving boredom." Lyrica smiled.
"Indeed. Anyways, I¡¯ll set a course to one of the smaller cities for now since it¡¯s the first time that we¡¯ll be doing this. We¡¯ll see how it goes and if it¡¯s good, we can aim for therge cities." Shiro smiled.
Instructing everyone to get ready, Shiro started to set a course when she received a request for a call from Shiina, Oran and Akhess.
epting the call, Shiro saw the three of them on the screen.
"What is it?" Shiro smiled.
"Your highness, since we didn¡¯t get a notification for deployment can I assume that this event is a follow up for leveling up a few members?" Shiina nervously asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Indeed. The main goal was to level up some of my party members since they¡¯re falling behind a little." Shiro smiled.
"Pardon our rudeness but can we participate as well? Even though we can use Specialised Mechs, there are times when we must fight in person and we want to be of use even without our mechs." Shiina said with a serious face as Shiro leaned back a little.
"Hmm... It depends. The level of the monsters in the city is quite high. They can easily kill you with a bite you know?"
"We understand but our goal was to maintain distance and use the weaponry you have given us to kill the monsters from afar." Shiina replied as she waited anxiously for Shiro¡¯s reply.
Staying silent, Shiro thought about it.
All three of them have scored rather high with the weapons and they have proven their control with the high impact high recoil snipers despite being low levelledpared to the sniper level. If they can get a few levels, it would be handy since Shiro was thinking of making them into generals in the future with the talent that they have demonstrated.
"Sure, you have my permission. You are allowed to use the ss 6 snipers as long as you equip yourself with a bodysuit as well. The moment you are in danger, I¡¯ll be teleporting you back to the city ok?" Shiro smiled as Shiina¡¯s eyes brightened up.
"Thank you, your highness!!" She bowed as Shiro chuckled.
"The three of you get ready then. Also, this is just for you three got that?"
"Understood!"
Ending the call, Shiro swiped at the screen to give the three of them ess to the ss 6 snipers for a limited amount of time.
When making the nanotech armoury for the military, she had designated 7 sses. ss ones were simple firearms that are quite powerful. They can easily kill anything below tier 4.
ss 2 are weapons that are embedded with a few skills that boost performance. Soldiers can redeem these weapons with enough points. Points can be earned by doing good in training.
ss 3 weapons are weapons that Shiro used to use in battle when she was lower in level. They are very powerful butpared to the current weapon, a little weak. These weapons can let you fight against tier 4¡¯s quite easily.
ss 4 weapons are weapons that can be used against tier 5 beings with quite a few skills to assist you.
ss 5 weapons are weapons like the mech that can help you dominate tier 5 beings but the requirements for use are strict to make sure that your body can handle it.
ss 6 are weapons that can one shot tier 5 depending on how much mana you charge into the weapon. But it¡¯s still a little behind when ites to killing tier 6 beings.
As for the final ss, ss 7, it was weapons such as the void bomb that can kill tier 6 beings like nothing.
With ss 6 weapons, the three of them should have a rather easy time.
Chapter 936 Clearing The City
Chapter 936 Clearing The City
It took around 2 hours to find the closest city. Giving it a quick scan, Shiro could sense that most of the monsters were below tier 6. Even though she couldn¡¯t see their levels thanks to the system, her senses could tell that they could be killed quite easily.
They didn¡¯t have that dangerous feeling of something belonging in the realm of tier 6.
¡¯There are quite a few monsters in this city, if the party kills them all, they should get some decent EXP. However, just to be safe, let me give them a little boost.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Stretching her body, Shiro flew up into the sky and pushed her hands together. Since they¡¯re not going to be fighting for a while, at least they hope not, it should be fine to use this skill so that they can get some levels quickly.
Suddenly, a golden magic circle expanded out as both of her floating cities. A portal of sorts opened up as angels and white feathers appeared before turning into golden motes of light that descended to the cities.
However, since no one was dead, there was no need to use a charge of grace so Shiro adjusted the spell a little.
Bringing up her phone, Shiro called Lyrica since she couldn¡¯t tell if the spell worked properly without seeing the system.
"Shiro was I just about to call you. Did you activate a skill called Boon of the Demi Goddess?" Lyrica asked.
"Mn, I believe so. Can you tell me the effects? I modified one of my other skills since it¡¯s not focused on reviving people." Shiro asked.
"Sure. The effectssts for a week and it¡¯s a 120% boost to EXP gain, 25% to all stats and 35% damage mitigation. We are also immune to negative conditions for 4 days." Lyrica replied,
"Oh? That¡¯s pretty good then. It¡¯s better than the previous skill that focused on reviving people. I¡¯m not sure how long thissts for but I can sense that I still have 10 charges of grace. The cooldown is probably huge though." Shiro chuckled.
"Well you are giving everyone a 120% boost to EXP in the end whichsts for a week."
"Mn. Setting that aside, is everyone ready for deployment?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Yep, everyone¡¯s on standby now."
"Good, then I look forward to your performance."
Waving her hand, the doors to the hanger were opened.
####
Swallowing her saliva nervously, Shiina, Oran and Akhess were surrounded by people from Shiro¡¯s party. Seeing them in person was akin to seeing celebrities since Silvia is the guild leader of the healer¡¯s guild, Chen Yu is the leader of the assassin¡¯s guild, Helion is the leader of the cksmithing guild, Yin was Shiro¡¯s daughter and Lyrica was being personally trained by a tier 6 being. While she might not have an impressive title like the others, they knew that her fighting prowess was just as strong.
"Don¡¯t be nervous you three. We¡¯ll cover you if the monster¡¯s spot you." Lyrica smiled as Shiina nodded her head.
"Noted." She replied while holding the sniper in her hand with a tight grip.
"Well then, since we got a boost from Shiro, shall we set our level goal to roughly 350 to 400?" Silvia asked with a smile since they averaged around 280 to 290.
"That¡¯s a pretty high goal, will you even reach it?" Helion joked as Silvia grinned.
"Of course I will. The problem is will you reach it." mming her staff down, several buffs were applied to everyone and Silvia was the first one to jump off the city.
Shaking her head, Lyrica gestured for everyone to follow up.
Watching everyone else jump off the city, Shiina took a deep breath. The three of them couldn¡¯t fly yet but the suits that Shiro gave them helped them fly so there weren¡¯t any problems.
"Ready?" Shiina asked as she turned back to the other two.
Seeing that they¡¯re ready, Shiina also jumped off the city as she could already see signs of fighting.
Swinging her staff, Silvia broke one of the monster¡¯s ankles before mming its head against the ground. The monster would eat her arm but she¡¯dugh and grow it back before breaking another leg.
Seeing the healer cover herself with gallons of blood, Shiina paled in shock.
"Wait that¡¯s our healer????" She asked over the mic as both Oran and Akhess was also in shock.
"You¡¯ll get used to it. Our Silvia ain¡¯t a traditional healer. When she first ¡¯awakened¡¯ we thought she might have job changed into a berserker." Lyricaughed while cutting up a monster that tried to interrupt her talk.
"I see..." Shiina nodded her head before looking towards the cksmith.
Summoning a ming hammer, a burning aura enveloped Helion¡¯s body as he disappeared from his spot. Next thing Shiina knew, a monster was forcefully cleaved in half by a HAMMER!
It didn¡¯t matter where she looked but to her, everyone was just as abnormal as Shiro.
¡¯I guess it only makes sense considering the fact that her highness must have trained them as well.¡¯ Shiina thought to herself.
Landing on the roof of a building, Shiinaid down and aimed her sniper.
Narrowing her eyes, she fired without hesitation.
Suddenly, a bolt of radiant energy exploded out from the sniper as the monster couldn¡¯t even scream before its neck was pulverised, separating the head from the body.
Pulling the bolt back, she loaded another bullet before aiming at another monster.
"Hou... Her uracy isn¡¯t bad is it? Having a sniper support is quite handy." Lyrica smiled as Aarim nodded her head.
"Indeed. I should make a move too before all the monsters are killed by you lot." Aarim chuckled.
Flying into the sky, she closed her eyes and sensing the location of the monsters that weren¡¯t being targeted by the party.
Locking down their location, she brought her hands together before pulling them apart to reveal a tiny ck and purple orb of energy.
Pinching it with her fingers, she smiled and stretched it out in an instant, causing it to copse on itself and disappear.
*KRSHK!!!!!
Hearing the sound of tearing flesh all around them, Lyrica¡¯s smile twitched.
"You really had to kill all of the ones in this area huh?"
"Fufu~ I didn¡¯t steal any of your kills. Well good luck, I think I only need another area or two before my EXP gain slows down." Aarim stuck her tongue out before flying away.
Shaking her head, Lyrica sighed and sheathed her weapon.
"We¡¯re moving to the next area, Aarim just killed all the other monsters in this area." Lyrica called out as the party started to make their way through the city.
Killing all the monsters they saw, Shiina, Oran and Akhess was both in awe and fear of the party¡¯s prowess. Despite their focus being heavily lenient on the offensive side, Silvia was able to support the entire party with ease and keep up the buffs. They didn¡¯t need to worry about defence since they kill the monsters before they get harmed.
Plus, even if they do get hurt, Silvia was there to health them.
Soon, they managed to clear out the monsters but there was something they didn¡¯t expect to find. A dungeon with its doors swung wide open. There was still a portal but it was highly unstable.
Looking at this, Lyrica had a frown on her face as the system didn¡¯t say anything about this dungeon.
Taking out her phone, Lyrica gave Shiro a call.
"Shiro we have a small anomaly here. There¡¯s a dungeon with its doors open and the portal is still intact. But it¡¯s highly unstable." Lyrica replied as Shiro frowned.
"Hold on, I¡¯ming now."
Teleporting next to Lyrica, Shiro saw the dungeon and frowned.
Unlike the situation with Lisandra, Shiro could actually see the portal and her senses were warning her.
"I¡¯ll see if I can send a drone through this. If not, we might have to set up a perimeter around this."
Snapping her fingers, Shiro summoned a drone and controlled it through the portal. But before it could even send any images back, it was shredded to pieces.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro shook her head.
"We¡¯re giving up on this part of the city. I¡¯ll set up a perimeter around this. Lyrica, Aarim, can I trouble you two to safeguard this while the even happens?" Shiro asked as they both nodded.
"Sure, leave it to us." Lyrica nodded as Shiro sent out a few drones.
Making a map of the city, she set up a no ess zone for everyone to see. There was a warning to not approach this area.
Once the map was sorted, Shiro sent out a notice that the scavenger event has begun.
ncing back the dungeon, Shiro frowned since dungeons were links to past gardens. For the door to be swung wide open and the drone being shredded upon contact, it was a sign that whatever is inside the dungeon was not good news at all.
Chapter 937 Asking for Mios Help
Chapter 937 Asking for Mio''s Help
Setting up some drones to act as guards for this area of the city, Shiro sent out a notice to all the people that had registered.
[The first Scavenger Event will soon begin. The city will be hovering over the city and there will be portals down to the city on the second floor of the teleport hall. We will be staying in the city for 5 hours maximum.]
With the notification reaching all of those that registered, Shiro made her way back to themand centre.
Sitting in her chair, she took this time to rest for a little.
Rxing on her chair, she unravelled all of the wires surrounding her body.
Moving her hands, she couldn¡¯t help but sigh.
Hearing a small ringing out, Shiro activated her camera and saw that Nan Tian was ringing her.
Answering the call, Shiro could see that he was in a bedroom.
"Well don¡¯t you look worn out?" Nan Tian raised an eyebrow seeing her state.
"Is it that obvious?" Shiro asked, looking down at herself.
"Mn, you should rest more. If you want, I cane back and help you out in the city." Nan Tian offered.
"No I¡¯m fine. it¡¯s not workload that¡¯s troubling me." Shiro sighed.
"Oh? What happened?" Nan Tian asked.
Exining their excursion to Tokyo along with her fight with Jasmine, Shiro could see that Nan Tian furrowed his brows in worry.
"A skill that kills if you fulfil conditions huh? That¡¯s quite concerning. Do we know about which part of you that¡¯s been injured? So that we can perhaps target that specific area." Nan Tian asked.
"No idea, I can¡¯t see the system so I don¡¯t know what part of me is being- wait a minute." Shiro sat up.
"You remember something?" Nan Tian asked.
"Yeah. During the fight, the first time I was hit the system told me that I was being tainted. Every time she hit me it was always targeted at my soul. So if it¡¯s my soul that¡¯s been injured, it makes sense that even if I heal my body, the wound remains. So I¡¯m guessing that if I was to have a look at my soul, I should be able to find out what¡¯s wrong with me." Shiro replied as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"That¡¯s good then. Why don¡¯t you ask your mum to help you? If I remember correctly, your grandparents should be arriving in the new age now, right?" Nan Tian asked.
"Kind of but not quite. If gramps and gran arrived mum would have told me. Though I can probably ask mum to help me out a little. She¡¯s a reaper so she¡¯ll be familiar with souls." Shiro nodded her head.
"You should go soon then. Get yourself healed up."
"Oh right, what did you call me for? We¡¯ve just talked about what¡¯s affecting me rather than your problems." Shiro coughed lightly.
"Ah I was just going to inform you about the progress of my espionage. We¡¯ve managed to discover three more cities linked to this one and it seems like the queen has secured a safe trade route. In total; we know the queen has a minimum of 6 cities under her control which is six anchors. However, that also means she is severely weakened. For her to do this and survive in the future, we know that she has something up her sleeves." Nan Tian reported as Shiro frowned.
"Six anchors... that¡¯s quite a lot. Just making one was a little annoying since I could feel myself get weaker immediately so having six could mean that she¡¯s not even 20% of her power." Shiro muttered.
"Indeed. On another note, it seems like other queens are also keeping an eye on her. We¡¯ve detected other people in the city that are snooping around trying to find out where exactly her main city is. If other people can find that, they¡¯ll be able to take care of her since she¡¯s weak right now. But since the only lead we have on her with the branch cities we can¡¯t exactly destroy them so she¡¯s slowly gaining her power back. By the way, I heard a strange rumour."
"Oh? What kind of rumour?"
"Well I say ¡¯rumour¡¯ but it¡¯s more ¡¯rumours¡¯. The first is that there¡¯s apparently a relic that¡¯s appearing in the north and that it¡¯s a grade that no one has ever seen before. The second rumour is that apparently there has been ck named individuals appearing around the world. I¡¯m guessing the source of the second rumour is people that have fallen." Nan Tian said with a serious face.
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows. The power of those who have fallen was still a mystery but the fact that one of the God yers was actually a fallen was quite worrisome.
¡¯Hmm... once they fall, they do everything in their power toplete their objective. Once they¡¯re finished, they¡¯ll be mindless monsters. Unless their goal is to surpass gods, most of them should be rather easy to kill. But those that are able to survive and reach maturity with the goal of killing gods, it¡¯ll be annoying to deal with.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
"I think we can leave the fallen for now. Their danger to us isn¡¯t that high. Plus, unless their goal is something huge, their power will be cut off after a certain point." Shiro replied after thinking about it for a moment.
"Mn. For now I guess I¡¯ll keep an eye out for any new information. I¡¯ll call you if there is any more information regarding the relic." Nan Tian smiled.
"Stay safe out there. If there is any danger to any of you, don¡¯t hesitate toe back." Shiro nodded.
"I¡¯ll keep that in mind."
Seeing Nan Tian end the call, Shiro sighed for a moment before standing up.
Wrapping herself with wire once more, she pulled out her phone and called Mio.
"Mum?" Shiro called out.
"Yes? What do you need darling?" Mio replied.
"I might need a little help. I recently got an injury on my soul and I don¡¯t think I can heal it by myself. Are you able to have a look for me?" Shiro asked.
"Oh of course. Where are you right now? I¡¯lle to you since there¡¯s not much for me to do anyway." Mio nodded.
"I¡¯m at themand centre right now but I can just teleport to you. Where are you right now mum?"
"Oh I¡¯m just at home."
Talking to Mio for a little longer, Shiro teleported outside of the house she prepared for her parents.
Before she could even knock on the door, Mio opened it with a smile.
"Come in." She said, opening the door she let Shiro in.
Seeing her father, Koji,zing around on the sofa, Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"Old man, when aren¡¯t you trying to reach tier 6?" Shiro asked as Koji froze up in shock.
"Honey, did Shiro just call me old man?" Koji asked, feeling as though a knife had just stabbed his heart.
"Well if she sees youzing around like this she would indeed lose respect. I just don¡¯t say anything." Mio chuckled with a shrug before making her way to the kitchen.
"I have some of the juice that you liked during your birthday party prepared if you want some." Mio offered as Shiro nodded her head.
Sitting near, Koji, Shiro sighed.
"So dad, why are you not trying to reach tier 6? Knowing you, you should be trying to reach it right now." Shiro asked.
"Mn... it¡¯s a bitplicated but to put it bluntly, I don¡¯t feel anything. There¡¯s no space, no notification or anything when I try to break through. I¡¯ve done what you told me and nothing has worked. I even asked my granddaughter about it since she¡¯s tier 6 now and the same with the others but I haven¡¯t been able to get into the state required for the tier up. Honestly, I think this old body of mine isn¡¯t cut out for tier 6." Koji sighed.
"Hmm maybe you just need some inspiration then." Shiro frowned since it was understandable that not everyone¡¯s going to get the feeling for tier 6. Sometimes it was down to luck as well.
"Well that¡¯s enough about me. Your mother told me that you are injured so what happened? I doubt there is anyone that can seriously injure you unless they¡¯re a queen." Koji asked as Shiro sighed.
Exining the story again but this time to her parents, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
In hindsight, there was so much more that she could have done to get rid of the danger but that¡¯s the past now and she can¡¯t change it.
Sipping on the juice, she let her parents digest the story.
"That¡¯s quite worrying. The fact that she can rob your senses like that and healing not being effective. I can see what you mean by it might be a soul problem now." Mio nodded her head.
"Let¡¯s have a look then. I might not be as well versed in souls as your grandparents but I¡¯m confident in what I can do." Mio smiled.
"What should I do?" Shiro asked.
"Nothing, just let me handle it. It might sting a little but that¡¯s normal." Mio replied.
Snapping her fingers, two tier 5 magic circles appeared around Shiro as chains entered her chest. Flinching for a moment, she watched as an illusionary figure of her appeared. However, it was missing a third of its body.
Chapter 938 Damage To The Soul
Chapter 938 Damage To The Soul
"What????" Mio couldn¡¯t help but mutter seeing the state of Shiro¡¯s soul. If this happened normally, one would be in aa since they couldn¡¯t function without a full soul. But despite that, Shiro was actually walking around.
"I... don¡¯t know how to deal with this. With you missing a third of your soul, you should be unconscious right now and in aa. But instead, you¡¯re walking around like nothing is wrong. Well you¡¯re missing two senses but this is very abnormal." Mio frowned while observing Shiro¡¯s soul.
Upon closer inspection, she noticed that there was a small hint of gold near the missing areas and it was slowly healing itself. The process was slow but Mio understood that it was probably due to this that Shiro wasn¡¯t in aa.
"Ah.... I see.... Darling, your identity as a Demi God is probably helping you right now. Your soul is getting healed very slowly but it¡¯s preventing you from falling into aa. Though you¡¯ll feel exhausted often. Healing souls is aplicated problem especially something like yours. The best thing to do right now is to let it heal naturally. Though if it doesn¡¯t heal up before your grandparents arrive then they can help you out." Mio exined.
"Is that so? Hm... well at least I know it¡¯s getting healed naturally." Shiro smiled since that was one thing off her chest.
"How long do you think it¡¯ll take?"
"Considering the speed of recovery... I think about 3 to 4 weeks? Maybe more if it getsplicated." Mio replied.
"3 to 4 weeks. I won¡¯t be able to recover in time for the relic in the north then. We¡¯ll have to take a more defensive approach to everything." Shiro muttered with a frown.
"Are you nning to fight? I suggest you sit it out if you are. Damage to the soul is delicate and anything could make it permanent. It¡¯s already surprising that you¡¯re not in aa." Mio crossed her legs with a raised eyebrow.
"I know but the next relic isn¡¯t one that we can miss. It¡¯s a rainbow grade item that could summon gods. Having this fall into the wrong hands could mean serious trouble." Shiro sighed whileying her head on the table, feeling a little fatigued. She was already meant to sleep back in her office but Nan Tian called and she came to her parents house right after.
"That does sound dangerous. Perhaps we should gather as much man power as we can for this fight." Mio muttered.
"Including me and you, we have around 13 people that are either near the peak of tier 5 or in tier 6. If we include the mechs that Shiro had down us before, our fighting force will be higher." Koji said as he nced towards Mio.
"Mn, I think that should be enough for a fight against the others. Especially if we tried to dy it a little and join at the end." Mio nodded.
Hearing this, Shiro frowned.
"I don¡¯t know if there will be any more people like Jasmine with strange powers but me and Silvia are on standby should anything go south. I¡¯ll use my own rainbow grade item if I have to."
"Wait, I thought rainbow grade items are rare? How do you have one already?" Mio asked curiously.
"I¡¯ve got two. It was a reward forpleting the god trials on mount Olympus. The first lets me use the powers of the primordial gods themselves. The second lets me summon them. I¡¯m thinking of maybe summoning one of them for now since I can¡¯t see properly or use my body to its best extent. The first option would be somewhat wasteful." Shiro exined.
"That¡¯s... Rather powerful isn¡¯t it? If rainbow grade items are like this I can see why you wouldn¡¯t want them to fall into the wrong hands." Mio frowned.
"We¡¯ll see what happens then. Just try to sit out for as much as you can before going in. Shiro, me and your mother¡¯s main priority is to keep you safe, not the relic ok? If ites down to it, we won¡¯t hesitate to sacrifice the relic for you." Koji said with a serious face.
Hearing this, Shiro smiled and nodded her head.
"Thanks dad." Shiro replied as she leaned on the table.
Before she knew it, she had already fallen asleep as the exhaustion took over her body.
"Hais, the best way to heal herself would be to do nothing. But knowing Shiro she wouldn¡¯t sit still since she has to make sure this city is running properly." Mio sighed, bringing out a nket for Shiro.
"Yeah, she¡¯s been like that for a while now. At least it¡¯s just Shiro though. If Keomi was like that I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be able to rest easily." Koji sighed since Keomi knew when to rest morepared to Shiro.
"Indeed." Mio also sighed as sheid on the sofa.
"I didn¡¯t think that her soul would be damaged to this extent." She muttered.
"Is it bad?" Koji asked.
Peeking at Shiro to make sure she¡¯s sleeping, Mio looked over at Koji.
"When people suffer this kind of injury, even if they do recover from theira, they¡¯ll lose arge sense of ¡¯self¡¯. It¡¯s like their experiences have just vanished and everything that influenced them disappears. So far there hasn¡¯t been anything different but I don¡¯t know what else this kind of injury has done to her. Hopefully, it stays as just no sense of sight or touch." Mio whispered as Koji crossed his arms.
"Is there anything we can do for her then? As her parents." Koji asked.
"There was. I used to know where some soul nurturing herbs were but the world has changed so the location is unknown. For all I know, it might even be in a different country all together." Mio shook her head.
"The most we can do now is to just support her I guess." Koji nodded.
After resting for a short while at her parents¡¯ house, Shiro eventually woke up and made her way back to themand centre since the event should be ending around now.
Sending out her senses, she could see that there were still a few people left so she sent out a notification.
[The event will end in 30 minutes. Those that are still out return to the city before the time is up as we¡¯ll be travelling north. If there are monsters spawning, we will not be able to protect you.]
After sending out the notification, Shiro could see that most of the adventurers still in the city decided to return while a few stayed behind to look around a little more.
Walking to the exchange spot, Shiro checked the records to see if anyone found anything good in the city. But most of it was misceneous items that will help relieve some boredom.
¡¯Well I excepted as much. Regardless, it should be enough for now. We¡¯ll travel north and see if I can get some information on this relic. Maybe Madi or Isilia has some information since they are both Queens as well.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while sending a message to the both of them.
She wanted to see if the system told them anything since she couldn¡¯t see her own.
Making her way to themand centre, she saw that both Madi and Isilia had arrived.
"What did you need?" Isilia asked curiously.
"Nothing much. I was just wondering if the system has told you anything about a relic in the north. Apparently, the beast queen has received information about the rainbow grade relic so I was wondering if the system has told you anything. Due to some problems, I am not able to see the system right now." Shiro chuckled.
"Oh? Hmm... the system hasn¡¯t told me anything about a relic." Madison shook her head.
"What about you Isilia?" Shiro asked.
"Nothing for me either. If it is information about a rainbow grade relic, maybe we¡¯ll get a notification in the future?" Isilia replied.
"True. Hm... if the system tells you anything can you notify me?" Shiro asked.
"Of course. Though what happened? Why can¡¯t you see the system?" Isilia asked.
"Oh it¡¯s nothing much. I can still function normally just that I can¡¯t see the system for a short while. Give it a few weeks and I¡¯ll be fine." Shiro chuckled.
"Well since you¡¯re here we might as well talk about what we should do with the demons and elves. I want to set some ns for development." Shiro smiled, gesturing for them to enter.
Talking for a little while about what they should do such as increasing the tform size, they eventually returned to their tforms, leaving Shiro in themand centre.
"Ha...." Sighing out heavily, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but look at the screens filling the room and feeling a little bored. She wanted to fight but as she was, if anything showed up that could serve as a good challenge it would be life threatening.
Shaking her head, she decided to change her appearance and wander the streets of Asharia for a while.
Chapter 939 Travelling With Edvimar
Chapter 939 Travelling With Edvimar
After the healers had dressed up all of Edvimar¡¯s wounds, since there was something that was hindering any sort of healing on his body, they left the tent.
"How are you feeling right now?" I asked, making my way into the tent.
Seeing the bandaged Edvimar, I couldn¡¯t help but imagine a mummy. Despite their powers with healing, the healers weren¡¯t used to dressing wounds up manually. They¡¯ve been relying on spells this entire time so when it came to wounds like this, they were a little inexperienced.
"I¡¯m feeling good now. Thank you for your help." Edvimar nodded his head as he tried to stand up but struggled.
Shaking my head, I forced him toy back down.
"I know your desperate right now but you don¡¯t know where your wife is, you don¡¯t know where this watchman is and you¡¯re body is in shambles right now. The healers aren¡¯t able to heal you so you have to recover naturally. If you force yourself, you might die from your own injuries before seeing your wife. Is that what you want?" I asked, clearly understanding that this man wanted to search for his wife as soon as possible but he was in no shape to go out.
Hearing this, I saw Edvimar bit his lower lip before sighing.
"I¡¯ll be troubling you then." He bowed his head but I quickly stopped him.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. In this kind of dangerous world, people can¡¯t forget about helping others." I shook my head.
Even though thest group had betrayed us and took all of our stuff, I still can¡¯t stop myself from helping people if I see them surviving in the wild. Most of it was pity but that¡¯s ok. I didn¡¯t want to lose this part of me like many others who now only know how to kill.
"I doubt you¡¯ll want to stay at a settlement so how about you travel with us? We¡¯re currently making our way to the north. Who knows, we might hear some rumours that are linked to your wife." I suggested.
Thinking about it for a moment, Edvimar nodded his head.
"I¡¯ll take you up on your offer then. I¡¯m generally good withbat. Even with my body like this, I should be able to kill a few tier 5¡¯s without any trouble." Edvimar replied.
"So do you know what happened to Miriel? Or the Elven Continent?" He asked.
Remembering some news that I had heard before this new age began, I tried my best to exin what I had seen.
"Apparently, the city of Miriel had been abandoned. There was no one in the city at all but some that remained spoke of a giant floating fortress that a goddess had created. A few rejected the thought of leaving since Miriel had been their home for a long time. The same kind of situation appeared in a small part of Tokyo when the Rising Sun faction disappeared. Other ces to note would be Asakura city I think it was called? Along with the headquarters of the Winter¡¯s Grace." I replied since it was the headline for a while on the news. For a city¡¯s residents to just disappear like that was quite abnormal after all. It would be hard to forget this kind of news.
"It¡¯s been abandoned? A giant floating fortress that a goddess had created? Hmm..." Furrowing his brows, Edvimar seemed to be trying to remember something when he looked at me.
"Is it possible that the one who created the city is called Nytri?" Edvimar asked.
"Nytri? I¡¯m afraid that name is unfamiliar. It was created by someone who¡¯s name began with Shi but I don¡¯t quite remember it." I shook my head.
"Shi... Hmm maybe her name changed like what happened to Isilia. At least she¡¯s in safe hands. Knowing her, she would have looked for Nytri once the world showed some abnormalities." Edvimar sighed, looking relieved.
"Looks like you¡¯ve sorted out some of your worries." I chuckled as he nodded his head.
"Where do you think you¡¯ll find your wife then? We¡¯re a bunch of wandering vagabonds so we can travel anywhere. We¡¯ll have to drop off this set of survivors first of course." I asked.
"Hmm... probably towards the north. There should be a relic appearing there soon. Very few know about it but it is quite dangerous. Speaking of which, are you aligned with any of the queens?" He asked.
"Nope. If I was, I wouldn¡¯t be a vagabond now would I?" I joked.
"That¡¯s good. Most of the Queen¡¯s aren¡¯t trust worthy, don¡¯t risk it. You don¡¯t know their goal after all. Plus, the system is hiding a lot of things from us." He shook his head.
I was a little surprised to see someone with the same thoughts as me but it was understandable considering the fact that world has changed thanks to this ¡¯tutorial¡¯ of the system ending.
"Speaking of the system, howe I can¡¯t inspect you? It¡¯s almost like you¡¯ve detached yourself." I asked curiously.
"Mn... I¡¯ll tell youter if you want. Since sometimes knowing something can be a curse." Edvimar nodded.
"Sure, tell me when you¡¯refortable about it then." I smiled. Leaving the tent for a little bit, I went to make a bit of food with the rations we have.
Noticing Nitha to the side, I waved towards her as she looked at the tent fearfully beforeing to my side.
"Why are you so afraid? Edvimar seems rather kind right now." I chuckled. Of course, I still had my guard up in case anything happened since you can¡¯t trust everything people say these days but I won¡¯t treat him badly just because of that.
However, hearing what I had said, Nitha smacked me on the head before pointing at the tent in a panic. She seemed to be lecturing me but I didn¡¯t understand anything she had said.
Seeing the confusion on my face, Nitha hissed in anger before going up to the trees beside the camp and cut it down with her ws.
Huffing in anger, she red at me before going deeper into the forest.
Scratching my head, I can hear the sound of wood being split apart as I made a mental note to have one of our mages repair the forest once Nitha was done.
But I don¡¯t understand why she was angry considering the fact that Edvimar was heavily injured.
¡¯Was he someone strong?¡¯ I thought to myself before standing back up.
###
After we dropped off the survivors to the closest settlement, we started to make our way towards the far north at the request of Edvimar.
The party was a little on guard against him but since Eric and Lyle are rather close after a few days of travel, the others started to open up.
Despite his injuries, he was a good sparring partner for Gordon. I could somewhat understand Nitha¡¯s fear now since even when he was injured, he could still defeat Gordon with minimal movements while giving tips every now and again. He was even able to give tips regarding magic.
ording to him, it was his wife that taught him all the knowledge about magic. While he didn¡¯t use it often, it was handy in a fight if you could throw your opponent off guard.
Originally, I was joking with Gordon saying that he was losing to an injured man when he challenged me to do the same. I¡¯ll admit, standing before the injured Edvimar was bloody terrifying. Despite his injured state and bandaged body, it felt like a single wrong move would end me.
Should I be his enemy on a battlefield, there would probably be a 0% chance of me surviving.
But since we¡¯re just sparring, I took the initiative. And of course, I was defeated in a few simple moves.
Nitha was still fearful of Edvimar as she would flinch whenever he appeared in front of her. Edvimar would apologise with a forced smile since it was apparently hard to control his passive aura due to his injured state.
ording to him, all the monsters weaker than him would be inflicted by a fear status which exined why Nitha was afraid of him despite being quite a nice guy. Hunting was also easier since he was able to urately pinpoint where most of the low level monsters are but we couldn¡¯t take him on the back of Nitha since she would struggle at flying.
I did notice that Nitha enjoyed our scouting much more than before since she didn¡¯t need to be near Edvimar.
Whenever we¡¯re back at the camp, she would use her ws to hook onto my clothes before dragging me away so that we could have some time together without Edvimar being close.
Seeing that she was always tensed around him, I let her do this since it was difficult to feel rxed when a source of your fear is near you.
As we travelled north, we came across a city that had beenpletely cleared of monsters. There was signs of battle as well as scavenging but no traces of them could be found.
Edvimar seemed to be excited seeing some of the sh marks and muttered something to himself before sighing in relief.
Continuing north, we found more of these cities and strangely, no survivors for us to help and I realised that we were following the track of someone else.
Chapter 940 Deploying Mechs
Chapter 940 Deploying Mechs
Standing in the office overlooking the entire hanger filled with mechs, Shiro could see countless soldiers getting ready.
Right now, they were nning tounch a full on attack on a territory that had beenpletely taken over by a horde of high level monsters. They were all above level 450 and it was unknown if any were in the realm of tier 6.
Their numbers were much higher than the army so everyone was a bit nervous.
However, since all of the soldiers were using mechs, they¡¯ll be able to take on a few of the monsters by themselves.
"How is the prep going?" Shiro asked as she nced back and saw Samuel about to knock on the door.
After living without her sight, Shiro decided on not using the camera as much as she could and instead using her mana senses 24/7. While it was exhausting, it was useful in terms of increasing her proficiency over her mana.
In addition to this, Shiro had also been trying her best at using boundary but it was mentally fatiguing and she would be forced to sleep.
With her soul being damaged, she needed rest but using boundary would just increase the time she needed to sleep.
There hasn¡¯t yet been any signs of improvement when it came to boundary but Shiro didn¡¯t give up.
"The preparations are almost done. A few of the soldiers are a little afraid when ites to fighting high level monsters like that but with the power of the mechs, I believe they should ovee this fear soon." Samuel replied.
"That¡¯s good. Have Shiina, Oran and Akhess take the lead since they¡¯re the top 3 candidates in the army. They¡¯re allowed to go a little wild with their specialised mechs but remind them not to take too many kills. Since this is also a learning experience for the other soldiers." Shiro chuckled as Samuel nodded his head.
"Understood. Also, your party members are on standby, your highness."
"I know. If any tier 6 beings or an anomaly in the tier 5 category appears, they¡¯ll be interfering with the fight. For now though, I want you to send word to the participating soldiers. The mechs will automatically record your contributions in the fight. Those that have the highest contributions will receive a personalised weapon from Helion, the leader of the cksmithing guild as well as a bracelet with a skill they want from the tier 5 catalogue." Shiro smiled as Samuel paused in surprise.
First of all, anything made by Helion could be considered a treasure since there is a guarantee that the item was extraordinary for its grade. However, there was something more desirable and that was an essory with a skill from anything higher than tier 4. In this category, there are skills such as Kietoma which freezes your opponents body for a moment. This could possibly save your life and let you kill your enemy.
As for skills in tier 5, there was an option where you can choose three skills and have a chance to merge them into a new skill.
There was a soldier that picked this for a reward when he performed well and managed to obtain a skill called Northern Fury.
This skill was a berserk skill which wraps you in an armour made from ice and would boost your stats by 100% for a short period of time. This could also be activated a second time. The second activation would freeze everything around you. The earlier you cast this skill, the less bacsh you¡¯ll receive.
After the soldier obtained this skill, everyone in the army knew that the best reward in the tier 5 catalogue was not a single skill but abination that could match your needs. And the one making it was Shiro since she owned all the skills. If there is apatibility between the chosen skills, the chance that a new more powerful skill appearing was high.
"Understood. I¡¯ll pass on the message. This might make them a little rowdy." Samuel chuckled.
"Mn that¡¯s fine. Let them have a bit ofpetition between them." Shiro nodded.
Watching Samuel leave the room, Shiro swiped with her hand and brought up a few holographic screens.
Checking their position on the map, Shiro sent out a notification that they¡¯ll be deploying in 10 minutes.
{Honestly, I think the rewards are a little extravagant don¡¯t you think?} Nimue raised an eyebrow.
¡¯Perhaps but that¡¯s fine. We¡¯re clearing out a rather big horde of monsters so I need a good reward for the risk.¡¯ Shiro chuckled.
{Yes, but the reward is a little big no?} Nimue asked.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro made her way out of the office. She wanted to look for a good ce to view everything with the rest of the party.
###
Taking a few deep breaths, I tried to calm myself. After being saved by the goddess, me and my sister lived in the second city. She picked some work at one of the stalls while I decided to apply for the army since I wanted to be as strong as the goddess that saved the two of us during the first day.
We¡¯re about to be deployed into the mountains to fight a horde of monsters that had taken over this region and the rewards for this were extravagant. I wasn¡¯t expecting myself to get the rewards. I just wanted to get stronger.
I¡¯ve been a little behind in terms ofbat so I wanted to use this chance to hone my strength.
"Don¡¯t be so nervous. These mechs are much stronger than they look. Even the standard units can put you on even fighting ground with a high level monster." My senior in the armyforted.
"I know. I¡¯m just worried that I can¡¯t perform well." I forced a smile as he patted my shoulder.
"Well just keep your head up and don¡¯t get cornered. Make sure you stick near your allies ok? Good luck out there." Heughed before making his way to the other soldiers that looked nervous.
Shaking my head, I checked my equipment onest time before climbing into my mech.
Activating the mech, I watched as the mini hologram of the goddess appeared.
At first, she was going to just use a different model but when all the soldiers asked for this to be kept, including me, she epted and let all the AI in the mechs to be a small version of her.
[User Confirmed]
[Registered Pilot ¨C Glen]
[Cranial Connector Link Confirmed]
[Glove Connector Link Confirmed]
[Leg Connector Link Confirmed]
[Full Body Sync Confirmed]
[Connection to Standard Unit Finalised]
[Ready for Deployment]
[Good luck on the battlefield]
Watching the c.o.c.kpit of the mech light up, I sighed to myself. It was only a while ago that I thought something like this was something that could only happen in the far future but here I am, piloting one myself.
Stretching my body, I adjusted myself to the feeling of the mech.
"Attention!" A feminine voice shouted out as I recognised it to belong to Shiina, the rank 1 candidate in the army. She was also the first one to pilot the mechs out of everyone as her capabilities are heads and shoulders above the rest of us, having her lead the fight was reassuring.
As I listened to her exining the formations as well as the ns, I couldn¡¯t help but look at the specialised units that were much bigger than the standard units.
Each of them were designed to fit the user so that they could use their magic through the mech.
I wanted one myself but I wasn¡¯t good with magic so a standard unit was enough for me.
Looking at the sword that I could deploy, I prayed silently to the Goddess, wishing for luck on the battlefield.
Watching everyone jump off the city and glide down to the mountains, I did the same and summoned the sword to my hand.
While others were slowing down, I knew that the mechs were much stronger and could survive the impact. It was just a matter of how strong your body was.
Activating the thrusters, I increased my speed before flipping the sword into a reverse grip.
*BANG!!!!
Crashing against the mountain, my mech shot out of the dust cloud before cutting two of therge monsters in half.
Watching their flesh pulse and repair the body, I knew that this was the monster skill rejuvenation that they taught us about in the lessons.
Throwing the sword at them, the sword split into four hooks that dug deep into their body while a chain was connected to the wrist.
Reeling in the monsters, I grabbed their head and mmed it into the ground as another de was created in the palm, piercing their head and killing them for good.
"That¡¯s two." I muttered. Retrieving my sword, I charged at the next group.
###
Watching a single mech shred through two monsters immediately, Shiro was a little surprised that the soldier had actually pulled off a manoeuvre that had him charge faster towards the ground and redistribute the force as forward thrust so that he could cut them in half.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to keep an eye on him. If he performed well, she¡¯ll give him a specialised unit.
Chapter 941 Glen and Celeste
Chapter 941 Glen and Celeste
Clearing the mountain wasn¡¯t difficult considering the power of the mechs. Most of them were able to take out two or three of the monsters before sustaining quite a bit of damage since they weren¡¯t that proficient in dodging their attacks.
Since the pilots were low level, it¡¯s hard to guess where the attack mighte from. There were a few who were able to dodge but that¡¯s mostly thanks to guessing the direction from the way the monsters moved their bodies. But this method was like a coin flip.
Within the pilots, there was a small portion that could just keep attacking without letting the monster touch them and Glen was included in this.
Overall, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but pity the monsters a little. They should be a symbol of fear but instead, an army of mechs charged into their home and killed everyone.
Looking at the mech reports, Shiro could see that everyone¡¯s levels were shooting up which meant that she could start introducing the second generation standard units that were meant for those with better physiques. With the weapons that she could create, they¡¯ll be unstoppable within the realm of tier 5.
¡¯However, I need to start developing weapons for killing things in tier 6. While I¡¯m good at experimenting, I have to say I¡¯m not as good as the scientists back in Aria. Perhaps I should set up a research guild and pass them the information about nanobots... No that¡¯s a bit dangerous. I¡¯ll have them research into weapons then. Even if it¡¯s conceptual, as long as the numbers work out, I can make it with my nanobots. Even if they know the blueprint, they won¡¯t be able to recreate it.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself as she decided to make a weapon research facility. Even if the weapon was conceptual, as long as the theory is on point, she¡¯ll be able to make it.
{You¡¯ll also need to give them some information about those in tier 6 so that the weapon could actually damage them. Hell, I¡¯d be surprised if the weapon could actually hit them since they could dodge the bullets with ease.} Nimue reminded.
¡¯Don¡¯t worry, I know.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
Sending out a notification for everyone to return, she controlled the AI for 2 specific pilots that had demonstrated great skill during this excursion. The first was Glen. He showed remarkable mech control as well as an understanding of redistributing the force through the mech to enhance the impact of each hit.
The second was a girl called Celeste. Looking at her records, Shiro could see a red haired woman that always seemed to have an angry expression. Her performance on the battlefield was rather... wild as the humanoid mech almost seemed like a beast under her control.
Her fighting style was extremely close quarters and brutal, opting to use her bare hands to break a monster¡¯s jaw and killing them by crushing their bodies.
Shiro loved it since it reminded her a little of her own fighting style when it came down to it.
Looking at her other records, a smile crept up on Shiro¡¯s face since her training in the army was also impressive.
Sending a notification to the two, she had them make their way to her office in the military.
###
Dismissing the de of my mech, I took a deep breath and looked at my surroundings. Quite a few corpses had already started to dissolve since the stomach acids of these monsters were ridiculously strong. Without magic protecting them, they would eat themselves from the inside out.
Just as I was about to make my way to the next area, the mini goddess hologram flickered for a moment.
[The excursion has ended. All units are to return to the city.]
[Private Glen, this message is for your ears only. I want to see you in my office when you return.]
Pausing in surprise, I looked at the hologram and realised that there was an awe-inspiring aura that wasn¡¯t there before.
[I¡¯m sure you are a little confused but don¡¯t worry, you¡¯re not in trouble. I just wish to discuss your future role in the army due to your performance.] She chuckled.
Snapping her fingers, I realised that all of the internal damage and fatigue that had built up over this fight was healed in an instant.
"Understood." I replied, controlling the mech to make its way back to the base.
[Good.]
Flickering again, the hologram returned to normal.
Taking a deep breath, I couldn¡¯t help but feel a little excited that the goddess had actually noticed me.
Unable to wipe the smile off my face, I hurried back to base.
###
I was raised by a monster out in the wild. He knew human tongue and taught it to me. He taught me how to fight and how to survive by using mana.
His name was Kaiser but I called him dad. At first, he seemed to be raising me up to eat me but he didn¡¯t.
Though even if he wanted to eat me, I didn¡¯t mind. He was the one who raised me while my parents abandoned me. But dad said that he was going to die soon and that I should go to a human city to see what life is like there.
He said that it was a selfish dream of his to want to feel like how a human parent would and prevented me from living like a normal person.
He spoke of strong people in the world that I could look up to. With power, one didn¡¯t have to live in fear. Nor would they need to be restrained.
But I didn¡¯t want to go. A few years passed and he died since he couldn¡¯t level up to the next tier. His finals words were for me to go to a human city and live a proper life.
I followed his will but the way people looked at me was disgusting. It was like I was nothing but trash by the roadside. Those that wanted to take advantage of me were killed.
Kaiser taught me that since I was a woman, there was trash in the world who would use my body even if I said no. That¡¯s why I needed power to protect myself and live freely.
So I killed. I killed and I killed using the methods that Kaiser taught me.
Then the world changed. Large monsters, bigger than Kaiser appeared and they killed everything in sight.
I wanted to run since my instincts told me that I would be killed if I stayed but I couldn¡¯t run fast enough.
I was bitten in half and killed. However, I didn¡¯t die. A beautiful woman appeared and revived me. She asked me to run and her kindness reminded me of Kaiser who looked after me.
I watched huge metal things descend from the sky and kill the monsters with ease. Monsters that Kaiser would struggle with could be crushed with such ease? But the truth was before me.
Listening to the goddess, I ran and was taken to this giant city. There was a giant screen that showed the goddess saving everyone. That kindness she showed was something I should admire. At least that¡¯s what Kaiser taught me and I understood why.
It was warm.
She let me live in the city without one wanting to harm me, even the demons that Kaiser talked about were nice here. I was given a home and a small robot to help me when I needed but it didn¡¯t feel right. I didn¡¯t work for this kindness.
So when I saw that I could join the thing called an army and pilot one of those metal things, I registered immediately. I don¡¯t need the things called guns since I liked to fight with my hands.
So I broke one and tied some of the pieces to make the ws that are simr to the ones that Kaiser had.
I got some training and piloted the mechs but it felt weird. It didn¡¯t suit me so I asked the mini goddess if I could make some changes.
I made it so that I could use ws in the mech and fighting became easier.
The monsters that dwarfed me and Kaiser were killed with ease and I finally felt good. I felt that all the things the goddess gave me were finally earned but there was still something missing. She saved my life and Kaiser taught me that saving a life is one of the greatest things that people can do.
And if I was to have my life saved, I should repay the one who saved me.
But I didn¡¯t know what I could do.
Then the mini goddess talked to me.
[Private Celeste, this message is for your ears only. I want to see you in my office when you return.] She smiled.
{Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s nothing bad.} She chuckled.
"Ok." I nodded.
I wondered what the goddess wanted from me.
Whatever it was, it might help me repay her for saving my life.
When I arrived at the office, I saw that there was another person besides me, a boy who seemed determined. He had the same look as I did, we both wanted to repay the goddess.
Maybe we can be the thing that Kaiser called friends.
Chapter 942 Choosing a Mentor
Chapter 942 Choosing a Mentor
Looking at the two soldiers standing in front of her, Shiro raised an eyebrow after seeing Celeste¡¯s curious nces at Glen.
"Now I¡¯ve called you two here because I was very impressed with your performance during the excursion. I¡¯m thinking of giving each of you a specialised unit designed for your personal use as well as training with powerful instructors to help you improve. Naturally, this also includes the rewards from the excursion too so you can both get a weapon or armour from Helion as well as a bracelet with a skill that you want." Shiro smiled as she sat on the table with her legs crossed.
Surprised at Shiro¡¯s attitude despite being a goddess, Glen coughed lightly.
"Thank you very much. But I don¡¯t think I¡¯m suited for a specialised unit since I can¡¯t use magic that well." Glen spoke up.
"You don¡¯t have to know magic for a specialised unit you know? It¡¯s called a specialised unit because it is tailored to YOUR specialties. If you¡¯re used to just using swords then your specialised unit would be one that takes advantage of all of this. Of course, I¡¯ll need to collect more data on your fighting style in order to make one that¡¯s perfectly suited for you." Shiro chuckled.
"Ah I see... Erm... who would be my trainer then?" Glen asked. If he can get stronger, he can help people like how she did.
"It depends on what kind of training you want. If you want sword training, I¡¯d suggest my father, my mother, or Lyrica Valenstaine and her mother. If you want magic training, I¡¯d suggest Aarim of the Mages Guild." Shiro smiled while resting her chin on her palm.
Thinking about it for a moment, Glen swallowed nervously as he looked at her with determination.
"What about training with you as the mentor?" He asked.
In the mana realm, Nimue, Iziuel and Estre all facepalmed at the same time in shock. One does not simply ask Shiro for training and get away with it!
Hearing this, Shiro¡¯s lips curved into a grin as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"You want training from me? You understand that my training is everything right?" Shiro asked as Glen nodded his head.
Noticing some strange movements to his left, he nced over and saw Celeste with her facepletely pale and was shivering.
"Sure. I¡¯ll give you training. But I¡¯ll give you onest chance to back out. Since if you ept, even if you say no, I¡¯ll be dragging you to the training hall personally." Shiro chuckled.
She had nothing to do anyways.
Nodding his head, Glen agreed, not knowing what he had just got himself into.
"Alright, sure. I¡¯ll give you a schedule in a bit." Shiro nodded before turning to Celeste.
"What about you?" Shiro asked.
Swallowing nervously, Celeste didn¡¯t know what to say. Seeing Shiro¡¯s expression earlier reminded her of a high level monster looking at prey but that expression disappeared quickly so she wasn¡¯t sure if it was an illusion or not. But deep down she felt a little afraid of the kind goddess.
"Erm what would let me repay you for saving my life?" Celeste asked as Shiro blinked her eyes.
"So you want to repay me for saving your life? You don¡¯t have to you know? You can just stay in the city and be happy." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"That doesn¡¯t feel earned. I want to repay the debt of you saving my life. Kaiser taught me that one should repay the person who saved your life."
Hearing this, Shiro smiled.
¡¯This Kaiser sounds like an adoptive parent but he¡¯s raised her well.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
"Well if you¡¯re insistent, why don¡¯t you be something simr to a royal guard then? That¡¯s essentially what all the specialised pilots are, royal guards who serve me and follow my orders. Of course, if I require you to protect me, I¡¯ll ask for it when the timees." Shiro smiled as Celeste nodded her head.
"Then why don¡¯t you train under me with Glen? Both of you are going to be specialised pilots with you wanting to pay back your debt." Shiro suggested with a smile.
{Yeesh. Look at your smile, you look like a scammer.} Nimue rolled her eyes as Shiro shrugged.
¡¯What scammer. I¡¯m just offering them a chance of training under me.¡¯ Shiro replied with a smug smile.
{Don¡¯t break them like you did aunty Silvia mommy.} Attie called out as Shiro choked on her saliva.
*COUGH!
¡¯Where did you learn about that darling?¡¯ Shiro forced a smile as Attie pointed at Nimue who was slipping away into the mana sea.
Grabbing Nimue by the shoulder, Shiro smiled.
¡¯May I ask about what you¡¯re teaching to my son?¡¯
{Fufu, just knowledge about his mother¡¯s previous ventures.} Nimue smiled before escaping her grasp by turning her body to water.
However, she didn¡¯t get far as ayer of ice covered her body.
¡¯Look after your aunty ok?¡¯ Shiro smiled as Attie nodded his head.
Turning her focus back to reality, Shiro brought up their schedules.
"This should be your schedules alright?" Shiro asked, handing them two pieces of paper.
"Yes it is." Glen nodded.
Seeing that Celeste also nodded, Shiro started to make some adjustments.
¡¯Sparring, magic training, mech training, weapons training, battle knowledge and healing knowledge. They might not know about healing spells but doing some first aid is a must.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she started to fill their schedules in.
{What about rest?} Nimue asked as she was still locked in the ice.
¡¯What rest?¡¯ Shiro raised an eyebrow and handed the sheet back.
"This will be your schedule for the next few weeks and I¡¯ll improve it depending on what I see ok? You¡¯ll get your specialised units once I finish observing you." Shiro smiled.
Taking the sheet, the two of them nodded their head and walked out of the office.
Just as they walked out, they noticed Shiina and saluted.
"Oh? Are you two the top contributors in the excursion? Congrattions." She smiled.
"Thank you very much." Glen nodded his head.
"So what reward did you ask for?" Shiina asked curiously since she was interested in the creativity of the soldier since thest one who got their rewards actually made such a strong berserk skill.
"We asked for personal training from the goddess."
Hearing this, Shiina stumbled on her foot as she almost fell off the railings.
"You what now???" She asked in shock.
Confused by her question, Glen repeated his answer.
"So you¡¯re telling me you asked for training from her highness and she smiled happily?" Shiina asked while furrowing her brows.
"Mn, she¡¯s already given us a schedule." Glen smiled, showing Shiina his timetable for the next few weeks.
Reading it, Shiina flinched and looked at him with pity.
"Do you know that you only have 2 hours?" Shiina sighed.
"2 hours of what?" Glen tilted his head as Celeste did the same.
cing her hands on their shoulders, Shiina sighed heavily.
"You only have two hours of rest in a week. A tip from me as your senior who has also experienced the same training. Learn how to sleep walk. At least you¡¯ll be able to sleep when you walk towards the next lesson. Also, if you outperform her schedule, she¡¯llpact it more to increase the intensity. Good luck." Shiina said as she walked towards the office.
Looking at her back, Glen was confused.
¡¯What? Sleep walk to the next lesson? It shouldn¡¯t be that bad right?¡¯ He thought to himself. Looking at the schedule, his body tensed up as he saw how many sessions were crammed into a single day. Even his time for food was barely enough for a small meal before resuming lessons.
"It doesn¡¯t look that bad... I think?" Celeste muttered while looking at the paper.
"I hope so too." Glen muttered with a hollowugh.
With this kind of schedule, his sister might as well forget about meeting him for the next few weeks.
###
It didn¡¯t even take a week before both Celeste and Glen were running away from Shiro.
Shivering in the closet, Celeste tried to keep as quiet as possible since training was hell.
"You know, everything here is made by me so It¡¯s only natural that I know where you are. Why are youte Celeste?" Shiro¡¯s voice rang out as Celeste looked up to see a holographic Shiro with her trademark demon smile.
Paling from her smile, Celeste nodded her head obediently.
"I¡¯ll rush to the training hall now." She replied in a low voice.
"Good. I had to drag Glen out from his hiding spot too. Maybe I¡¯ll increase the sparring lesson today since you two seem rather energetic, hiding from me like this." Shiroughed as Celeste was crying in her mind.
¡¯Kaiser.... Help me. The goddess is a demon in disguise... she¡¯s scary!¡¯ Celeste shouted out in her mind as she forced herself to make her way back to the training hall.
Hours passed without sleep: 71.
Chapter 943 Training Celeste and Glen
Chapter 943 Training Celeste and Glen
Training the two wasn¡¯t too difficult while they were travelling to the north.
Their faults were quite obvious for Shiro and it was just a case of telling it to them while demonstrating in a spar.
Celeste was too ¡¯honest¡¯ in her fighting style. There was no feints at all and if she charged, she¡¯llmit to that charge until the end. While her power is good, it¡¯s like fighting a train. You know where the rails are, all you had to do was step out of her path.
During the first few spars, Celeste was confused as to why she couldn¡¯t evene close to hitting Shiro so she tried to use feints but she used too much and tired herself out before evenmitting.
Shiro had to spent some extra time teaching her about bncing the two in a fight.
As for Glen, he was better when it came tobat but was just as bad when it came to feints. He didn¡¯t know how to do feints nor could he react well to them. But worse of all, he didn¡¯t have any counter to magic. If magic was used in a one on one against him, there¡¯s a 100% that he¡¯ll fall into the passive immediately and forget about how to counter attack.
Overall, both had the same problems with Celeste being too straight forward and Glen beingpletely countered by magic.
"I¡¯ve told you many times that you can¡¯t be obvious with your feints. Every time you do a faint, your left leg shift back and your eyes dart around for a moment." Shiro sighed as she summoned a stick and bonked Celeste on the head as she was passing her.
"And you Glen, think about what you can do to help you teammate already." Shiro nced at Glen who was being pushed back by three simple orbs of mana.
He was able to parry the magic thanks to the sword that Helion made him but he didn¡¯t know what to do afterwards.
¡¯Honestly, if Celeste went over to help him, she could have covered up for his weaknesses.¡¯ Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
{I doubt the girl will think of that when she hasn¡¯t slept for 4 days.} Nimue raised an eyebrow.
¡¯Well she better think of it soon. There has been times were I¡¯ve been trapped in enemy territory and had to stay awake for more than a week. Even when you¡¯re exhausted, you have to push yourself and keep your wits sharp so that you can survive. Plus, aren¡¯t I staying up with them despite me being exhausted myself?¡¯ Shiro shrugged.
{That¡¯s true but you¡¯re abnormal and they¡¯re not.}
¡¯Well that¡¯s makes things easier. Just be abnormal.¡¯ Shiro replied.
Stomping her foot down, the ground copsed beneath the two of them as they fell down.
Panting heavily, Shiro could see bags under their eyes as they were truly tired.
"Rejoice you two. The time of rest has arrived. Your two hours break stats now." Shiro smiled as the two of them immediately fell sleep in the holes.
Shaking her head, Shiro made two beds and set them both on it.
"Well I guess it¡¯s my time to shine now." Shiro stretched her body.
She had forced them to fight continuously for days on end to see how far they could push their body as well as their will power. And she must say, she¡¯s impressed.
Putting on some gloves, Shiro started to hasten their recovered. While this was happening, Shiro also refined their body by pushing her mana through their body.
Normally, this would have been an extremely painful process since they had their own man and forcefully cleansing it like this was akin to pouring hot metal down their throat. But now that they¡¯repletely exhausted, all of their mana paths have rxed, allowing her mana to flow through without problem.
Celeste was highly adaptive and her mana is wild so she needed to be on the bring of copsing while Glen just didn¡¯t use his mana at all so Shiro had to weaken him in order to open up his pathways. While he can¡¯t cast magic, opening the pathways allows his body to be tempered by mana.
While she was refining their bodies, Shiro noticed that Glen¡¯s physique in terms of the mana pathway was simr to apression chamber. If he knows how to manipte his mana, even without casting spells, he¡¯ll be able to demonstrate explosive power in a single instant.
¡¯I¡¯ll need to change the blueprint for his specialised mech in order to amodate this then.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
As for Celeste, she had something akin to an innate berserk skill where she could cause her mana to rampage within her body. Without the proper physique, this would destroy her but countless uses of this has allowed her to live without any problems.
But it was too inefficient.
Spending a bit more time refining Celeste¡¯s body, Shiro imprinted several magic circles around her pathways so that it wouldn¡¯t harm her body when she goes berserk. Instead this energy would be more controlled while retaining all of that power.
¡¯If anything, it¡¯s simr to Madison¡¯s berserk skill that has no bacsh.¡¯ Shiro thought with a smile.
Once she had refined both of their bodies, she felt light headed as she fell back and sat on the floor.
Panting for a moment, Shiro evened out her breathing before making a sofa for herself to rest for a bit.
Closing her eyes, she also fell sleep immediately.
###
After two hours had passed, both Celeste and Glen snapped their eyes open as they yawned lightly and woke up.
Realising that they were on a bed, they looked at each other in confusion before spotting Shiro sleeping on a sofa with a peaceful expression.
Just as they stood up, they noticed that their body no longer hurt but instead felt more energetic than ever.
Before they could wake up Shiro, a blue haired woman appeared in front of them.
"Don¡¯t wake her up now. Her soul has been injured yet she still stayed up with you lot to train you. Honestly, she should have passed out on the first day. To top it all off, she pushed herself at the end so that you two could have your body refined." The woman whispered while looking down at Shiro.
"Follow me, I¡¯ll train you for a bit while Shiro¡¯s sleeping. I might not be as good as her but I can take care of two brats like you." She chuckled.
Looking at each other, Glen and Celeste nodded their heads and followed Nimue out to another training hall.
*CLAP!
"Right then, let me introduce myself. My name is Nimue and I¡¯ll be your instructor for a short while. I don¡¯t have all of the practical knowledge that Shiro has but I¡¯m confident of holding my own in a fight. You two are to spar with me while I exin what happened with your physiques." Nimue smiled as the entire room instantly became humid.
Feeling the aura emanating from Nimue, both Celeste and Glen knew that she shouldn¡¯t be looked down upon.
Nodding at each other, they charged at her but Nimue only shook her head.
Snapping her finger, a wall of water appeared between them as they were cut out from each other.
Swiping her hand, a torrent of water mmed into Glen¡¯s body, forcing him against the wall.
"A defenceless charge is suicidal. I¡¯m sure Shiro had taught you this yet you stillmit the same mistake. Honestly, Shiro¡¯s been a little soft on you since her body is weak. So in her ce, I¡¯ll show you what her training should have been like." Nimue narrowed her eyes as a crushing pressure descended on the two of them.
Celeste tensed up mid attack as she backed off immediately.
"What¡¯s wrong girl. I thought you were going to attack me like all the other times. Come on, unless you understand that what you¡¯ve been doing has been a mistake." Nimue red at Celeste.
Suddenly, a wave of water mmed against her back as she could feel her ribs crack.
Coughing up some blood, Celeste made some distance between the two of them.
"Leaving your back defenceless is also suicidal. Try again." Nimue scoffed as a green aura appeared on Celeste¡¯s body.
Realising that she was healed, Celeste looked down in confusion but this didn¡¯tst long when a pir of water exploded up, fracturing her jaw and mming her body into the ceiling.
"What are you dawdling for? Just because you¡¯re healed you think you¡¯re safe? Try again." Nimue frowned, healing her body again.
"And you Glen, why haven¡¯t you helped your teammate yet? In a battlefield, are you going to watch her die like this?" Nimue asked as Glen was being upied by a few orbs of water.
"But-"
"Don¡¯t give me shitty excuses. Give me one and I¡¯ll shatter your manhood. Instead of using your brain to think of excuses, think about how you can help your teammate. Shiro has refined your body so even if you can¡¯t cast spells, you can use mana. Your physique is tailored to explosive power so use it." Nimue lectured while blocking Celeste¡¯s attack.
"You have will power but that¡¯s it. You two better not waste Shiro¡¯s effort." Nimue said as the attacks increased in intensity.
Chapter 944 Celeste and Glens Improvements
Chapter 944 Celeste and Glen''s Improvements
"Hgnn!" Stretching her body, Shiro yawned as she nced at the time.
"Mn? Oh it¡¯s only been an hour. There¡¯s another two hours to go." She muttered. Looking around the room, she found it a little strange that neither Glen nor Celeste was in the bed.
"Eh? Shouldn¡¯t they be sleeping right now?"
Furrowing her brows, Shiro stood up and massaged her neck.
For an hour¡¯s worth of sleep, she felt strangely refreshed.
Noticing a few spikes of mana in a nearby training hall, Shiro realised that it was Nimue, Glen and Celeste.
"Hmm... they only have two hours worth of rest why is she sparing with them? I thought she¡¯s the one who wanted me to give them more rest." Shiro muttered.
Walking over to the training hall, she opened the door.
*BANG!!!!
Just as she did this, Celeste was mmed into the wall as she coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Again! I thought I told you to not charge in defenceless! A shoddy defence is no different from no defence!" Nimue¡¯s voice boomed out as there was a whirlpool centred around Nimue in the middle of the training hall. While this was happening, she was holding Glen up by the shirt and mmed him into the ground.
"????????" Widening her eyes, Shiro was taken aback.
"U- Understood!!!!!!" Celeste shouted out after being healed.
There was blood all over her body but she was constantly being healed.
mming both hands down, a red aura exploded out of her body as it seemed to mimic the look of a monster.
Gritting her teeth, Celeste charged at Nimue in her berserk state.
"Hmph!" Flicking her wrist, a tidal wave exploded forth in an attempt to bury her under the water.
"URAHH!!" Crying out in anger, ck and red energy wrapped around her ws as she ripped the tidal wave apart with her mana.
Just as this happened, another torrent of water appeared as it threatened to hit her in the face.
*KISH!!!!!
Before that could happen, Glen managed to intercept the wave with his de.
Gritting his teeth, mana erupted out of his body as he shed horizontally with his de.
*KRRRRR!!!!
Noticing faint sh marks on the walls of the training hall, Shiro was a little surprised since this couldn¡¯t be damaged easily otherwise she wouldn¡¯t have used this as a training hall.
"What¡¯s your follow up! Are you satisfied with just stopping one attack out of many?" Nimue shouted out as a pir of water shot up from under them, mming them into the ceiling.
"GAH!!!" Crying out in pain, Glen gritted his teeth and used the ceiling as aunchpad.
*BANG!!!!
Dashing towards Nimue, he readied his sword and shed towards her vertically.
Side stepping the sh with ease, Nimue noticed Celeste running along the walls on all fours while looking for a chance to attack her.
"Are you just going to keep watching! If there is no opening, MAKE ONE!" Nimue lecture. mming her hand down, waves mmed into her body, pressing her against the wall.
*CRACK!!!!!
Flinching slightly, Shiro knew that she heard Celeste¡¯s bones break with that attack but it was healed up quickly.
¡¯Ouch. And here she wasining about me going hard on them.¡¯ Shiro sighed.
"Fine I¡¯ll make an opening then!!" Glen shouted out.
Grabbing his sword with both hands, his muscles tensed up as veins could be seen.
*BANG!!!!
His aura exploded forth as Shiro wanted to p in appreciation. However, she didn¡¯t want to break their concentration.
"Do you think people will let you charge an attack like that!"
mming her hand down, a magic circle appeared beneath Glen but before it could activate, Celeste mmed both her hands down.
*CRACK!!
Fracturing the floor as well as her fists, she managed to disrupt the magic circle.
But this didn¡¯t stop Nimue from sending another attack.
Snapping her fingers, 10 orbs of water appeared as streams of water shot towards Glen.
Dashing forward, Celeste tanked all of the attacks even if they damaged her heavily.
"DUCK!" Glen shouted out.
Crouching down immediately, Celeste watched as a thin wave of energy exploded in a circle as Nimue¡¯s waves were cut in half immediately.
Turning a portion of her body into snow, Shiro raised an eyebrow at the attack since the damage was impressive but it would never hit someone like Nimue.
And as expected, with her body turning to water, the attackpletely missed her.
"What now? Your frontline is damaged and that attack took almost everything you have. With no guarantee, you were provoked by me and wasted your energy. How will you fight now?" Nimue asked as she appeared next to the two of them.
Before they could attack her, chains made from water wrapped around their body and pinned them to the ground.
"Did Shiro teach you about using big attacks without any guarantee?" Nimue narrowed her eyes as Glen gritted his teeth.
"Now now, don¡¯t be so harsh. For just an hour of training, they¡¯ve been performing quite well. It¡¯s a huge improvement." Shiro interfered since it was quite impressive that they¡¯ve managed to improve this much.
"Ha? It¡¯s been two days. What the hell do you mean a single hour?" Nimue raised an eyebrow as Shiro paused mid step.
"Pardon? It¡¯s been two days?" She asked, not sure if she heard it properly.
"Yes, it¡¯s been two days. You were so exhausted that you¡¯ve been sleeping for two days. I¡¯ve taken over your lessons for you in the meantime. Despite what you said, you¡¯re still a bit too soft on them." Nimue shook her head as she returned to the mana realm.
Shaking her head softly, Shiro crouched near the two and healed them with life fire.
"Are you alright?" She asked softly since the two days must have been like hell.
"Wuuuu.... She¡¯s scary. I¡¯m sorry I won¡¯t think that you¡¯re the devil anymore!!" Celeste cried out as tears fell. Hugging Shiro like she¡¯s thest bastion of hope, Celeste refused to let go.
Sighing softly, Shiro patted her head and tried tofort her. Looking over at Glen, Shiro could see that he was a little affected by what had just happened.
"Don¡¯t worry too much. A lot of it is experience. You¡¯ll get better at analysing the battle the more you fight. That¡¯s what the theory lessons are for." Shiroforted as Glen nodded his head.
"Don¡¯t rush it. Most of our power has been built up over time. Nimue has watched me fight for almost a year. She¡¯s heard all of my thoughts during battle so it¡¯s only natural that she¡¯ll pick up a thing or two."
"I¡¯ll practice more so I can proudly call myself your student. I can¡¯t bring shame to the goddess by losing so easily." Glen nodded as he stood up.
Seeing this, Shiro smiled since his will power was still burning brightly.
"Oi Celeste, are you going to keep hugging the goddess like that? We need to practice so that we can beat Nimue next time." Glen furrowed his brows as Celeste thought about it for a moment before ncing back at him.
"You practice. I wanna hug the goddess. She¡¯s warm." Celeste pouted as Shiroughed.
"Fine fine. You two can have a break. Sparring against Nimue must have been tough huh?" Shiro patted Celeste¡¯s head.
Snapping her fingers, she made a small kitchen and cooked them a quick meal.
###
For the next few days, training the two became easier since they focused on the lessons, fearing that Nimue would be their trainer again.
Celeste became used to using feints and knew which attacks she should block for Glen and which ones she should ignore. She is also able to control her energy better so that her berserk statested longer.
As for Glen, he became more analytical on the battlefield. Knowing when to attack and when to back off. He was patient and didn¡¯t rush no matter what he heard and it reflected in his sword style. Over all, both have made vast improvements in their training.
Funnily enough, they have also somewhat mastered the sleep walk to the next lesson that Shiina had told them about. While they didn¡¯t sleep, they were able to rest as muscb as possible while making their way to the training halls.
Soon, there was only a week left till the relic appeared and Shiro received a message from both Madison and Isilia.
The system had given them a single map which showed their current location and a path to where the relic will appear with the following message.
[In a weeks time, the first Rainbow Relic will appear in this Garden. Wishing all Queens good luck.]
Now that their path has been shown, Shiro immediately set course to the location shown on the map.
Unfortunately, her soul had not healed up fully. ording to Mio, it would take her more than a week, maybe two to recover back to her full strength so they¡¯ll need to be careful about the following fight.
Chapter 945 Sparring Between Students
Chapter 945 Sparring Between Students
"Hmm... ording to the map, it¡¯ll take us roughly four days to reach the location at our current pace. We haven¡¯t seen many survivors out in the wild so I think we should increase our speed." Lyrica suggested as they were currently having a meeting to discuss the new information that they had received.
"I agree. Plus, most of the survivors that we have found aren¡¯t worth our efforts. This has been the case for a while now." Madison nodded since she was disappointed that they couldn¡¯t help more good natured people.
"While there is the chance that we could find good natured people on the way there, the chance is quite low. I think we should just get there as soon as possible so that we can see which queens have arrived and what they are capable of." Isilia spoke up as a few others nodded their heads.
As much as they wanted to help people, iming a rainbow grade item was more important.
"So are we at an agreement then? We¡¯ll get to the location as fast as possible and scout out the scene." Shiro asked as the entire party nodded their heads.
"Alright. I think this is a battle that only tier 6¡¯s can enter and even then, take care since there will no doubt be Queens and Empresses. Last time me and Isilia met the Chimera Empress, we couldn¡¯t kill her even though she was severely weakened. That will give you a rough idea of their power. We¡¯re here to observe from the side and if needs be, I¡¯ll be using my own rainbow grade item to secure it for us." Shiro nodded.
"If you are nning to use the rainbow grade item, which god are you nning to summon?" Madison asked curiously since she knew that Shiro had two items.
One to summon a god at 70% of their strength. The other is to use their power at 100% strength.
"Honestly, it depends on the terrain. But the most effective one would be Chronos. He rules over time so if it does get rough, I can freeze time and steal the item for myself. But that would be somewhat of a waste considering its power. If I was to use it at a different event, there is the chance that I can eliminate quite a few queens once I am fully recovered. Honestly though, I¡¯m thinking of using Gaia or Nyx. If I use my sword to enter a one on one duel with the one who took the relic and kill them, Gaia¡¯s power can allow me to bury them underground and stop them from chasing me. While it might not dy them for long, it will give us enough time to leave using the city.
"As for Nyx¡¯s power, I can just blind everyone while empowering myself." Shiro shrugged.
{I¡¯m pretty sure the gods¡¯ powers are more than just that but sure.} Nimue yawned from inside the mana realm.
¡¯True. But I can¡¯t exactly ask them how to use it seeing as though I can¡¯t see the system.¡¯
After discussing the ns for a little longer, Shiro increased the speed of the city so that they¡¯ll reach their destination in roughly 2 days.
Arriving outside the training hall, Shiro could see Shiina, Oran and Akhess resting nearby since they had just finished their training for the day. Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro was quiet curious how Celeste and Glen would perform against these three.
"Shiina, Oran, Akhess." Shiro called out as the three of them instantly stood up seeing Shiro.
"Your highness." They bowed as Shiro nodded her head.
"Are you three busy at all?"
"Not at all, do you require something from us?" Shiina asked.
"Just a small favour. I want you three to have a quick spar with Glen and Celeste since I want to see how they perform with someone else, they¡¯re a bit too used to how I fight now." Shiro chuckled.
Looking at each other, the three were a little concerned since Glen and Celeste must be exhausted after all the training. They would know since they had first hand experience.
"Don¡¯t worry about their exhaustion, they¡¯re quite durable. Plus, if they¡¯re tired, I¡¯ll heal them up." Shiro chuckled as Shiina sighed and nodded her head.
"Great. Follow me."
Leading the three through the corridors, they arrived at the training hall where both Celeste and Glen were training. Looking into the room, they were a little shocked.
Glen was currently standing in an array of magic circles that Aarim had constructed. The magic circle was one that increased gravity for a select number of objects and he had to either deflect or dodge bullets fired at him. If he was wounded, another magic circle made by Silvia would heal him up immediately.
As for Celeste... she was currently fighting 15 drones while maintaining her berserk state.
Looking at the aggressiveness of the drones, even Shiina felt a little afraid to attempt it.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro stopped everything as both of them copsed on the ground and panted heavily.
"We¡¯ll take a break here. After that, you¡¯re going to have a little sparring match with one of the three here ok?" Shiro smiled as Glen and Celeste nodded their head before falling asleep immediately.
With rest being so rare, they need to be able to make the most of it and sleep as much as they can!
Seeing this, all three were taken aback since even they weren¡¯t like this.
"If you¡¯re wondering, it¡¯s because they had a training session with Nimue. Surprisingly, she¡¯s harsher than me." Shiroughed.
"I see..." Shiina nodded.
"Perhaps you want to spar with Nimue while you wait?" Shiro offered as the three immediately shook their heads. They still had nightmares about a mini Shiro in a mech training them. They didn¡¯t need someone that was apparently harsher!
Waiting for half an hour, Shiro pped her hand as the two sleeping on the floor stood up looking a little refreshed.
"Alright, Shiina do you want to pick someone to fight?" Shiro asked as Shiina shrugged.
"I don¡¯t mind either of them. If anything, I¡¯ll let them choose." Shiina replied.
"What about you two?" Shiro looked at Oran and Akhess.
"I don¡¯t mind either." Oran smiled.
"Me too." Akhess nodded.
"In that case I think Celeste will fight Shiina and Glen will fight Akhess." Shiro suggested.
Separating the hall into two sections, she sent the two groups into their own respective sides.
###
"Right then, seems like I¡¯ll be sparing against you today." Shiina smiled, looking at Celeste.
Narrowing her eyes at Shiina, Celeste nodded her head and crouched down onto all fours.
"So eager." Shiina chuckled as ice started to form around her.
"BEGIN!" Hearing Shiro¡¯s voice from above, Celeste dashed forward as her red aura exploded out.
Surprised by her speed, Shiina frowned and mmed her hand down.
Immediately, the ground froze over as Celeste lost her footing.
However, she recovered quickly.
ws of mana formed around her hands and legs as they dug into the ice and continued to run as if it was normal.
Jumping up, she was about to swipe at Shiina when two ice pirs shot up.
Twisting her body, Celeste used the pirs as aunching tform to get closer to Shiina.
Taking a step back, Shiina smiled as several projectilesunched towards Celeste.
With two aiming at her arms and one at her head, Celeste gritted her teeth and swiped with her hands.
*KRRRRR!!!
Upon touching the projectiles, ice started to form around her body.
Understanding that this was bad news, Celeste¡¯s mana roared out as sparks started to appear around her body.
Suddenly, the sparks ignited as her body was coated with a veil of mes that made her seem like a beast from hell.
Watching her ice melt instantly, Shiina was a little surprised.
Raising her arms up, Celeste mmed them down as fire started to erupt out from the ground.
Her body disappeared before reappearing from inside one of the pirs.
With Celeste being so close to her, Shiina had no choice but to quickly erect a wall between them but it was melted instantly.
Furrowing her brows, she muttered a small incantation as a blizzard exploded out, chilling the mes immediately.
"Fuu...." Breathing out softly, Shiina sped her two hands together.
A tier 4 magic circle appeared as snowkes started to descend from the sky.
Seeing her mes being suppressed, Celeste knew that this was a bad situation for her and she needed to change the environment.
From her back, mana started to gather as it formed two ming arms. Aiming them towards Shiina, mana started to converge towards her as an orb of mes materialised.
Surprisingly, she didn¡¯t fire the orb but instead consumed it. The ice and snow immediately started to melt around her as the mes on her body increased in intensity.
¡¯Did Shiro pick her because she¡¯s a fire user and I¡¯m ice?¡¯ Shiina wondered but that was fine.
Taking a deep breath, runes appeared around her body.
True Spirit Nature ¨C Ice Witch.
A ck dress wrapped around her body as her hair was dyed snow white with hints of blue on the tips.
Chapter 946 Glen vs Akhess
Chapter 946 Glen vs Akhess
The ice around Shiina intensified as she looked at Celeste with a small smile.
Waving her hand, ice walls appeared around Celeste as her charge was halted. Even with her mes being empowered, the ice was barely melted.
Snapping her fingers, the blizzard started to increase in intensity as Shiina¡¯s body faded away, not to be seen.
With her opponent disappearing from sight, Celeste furrowed her brows as she could only look around in confusion.
Gritting her teeth, she didn¡¯t know what to do other than sending out attacks everywhere.
However, theck of response and the growing storm only seemed to annoy her more as the ming aura started to re with hints of purple.
"Don¡¯t get too angry now Celeste. I believe this spar is your loss for now." Shiro called out with a smile as Celeste frowned.
ncing up, she came eye to eye with Shiro who wasn¡¯t smiling anymore and shrunk back. Dismissing her aura, she sat there obediently as the blizzard disappeared, revealing a somewhat tired Shiina.
###
While the fight between Shiina and Celeste was happening, Glen was holding his sword and narrowed his eyes at Akhess.
Right now, Akhess had a dagger in hand and seemed rather rxed.
"How do you want to do this? First hit then give up or are we going until her highness calls out the winner?" Akhess asked as he twirled the dagger around his fingers.
"Up to you, I don¡¯t mind." Glen replied while sweat dripped down his face.
Despite his rxed state, Akhess felt like an unsheathed sword that could attack at any moment.
"Well it¡¯s no fun for the first strike. We¡¯ll wait for her highness to announce the winner then." Akhess smiled, taking a step forward.
Reaching top speed immediately, he closed the gap in an instant as Glen widened his eyes.
Quickly drawing his sword, he shed horizontally, as Akhess reached out with his arm and allowed it to be cut.
Watching the blood spill from his wounds, Glen was confused for a moment since he was expecting that strike to miss so he didn¡¯t put too much force behind it. Now that his attacknded, he wasn¡¯t able to move into his next stance.
As this happened, the blood suddenly solidified into the shape of a de as Akhess twisted his body.
¡¯SH*T!¡¯ Cursing in his mind, Glen quickly ducked down in a panic and narrowly dodged the blood de before adjusting his stance.
Cleaving up with his sword, he rolled back and quickly flipped himself back on his feet as his strike managed to cut Akhess across the chess.
However, the wound was shallow and healed up instantly.
"I¡¯m not sure why her highness picked me to be against you but melee matchups against me are at a disadvantage." Akhess smiled.
The blood that had soaked his coat started to twist as it formed into a bracelet on his wrist.
"Senior is quite confident." Glen narrowed his eyes.
"Of course I am." Akhess nodded.
Suddenly, blood spikes erupted out from the floor as they pierced Glen¡¯s foot.
Flinching from the pain, Glen stumbled back as he noticed thin streams of blood flowing through the tiles of the training hall.
Right now, he was akin to a fly on a spider¡¯s web. It didn¡¯t matter where he went since he was walking on the web.
Furrowing his brows, he ignored the pain on his foot and condensed his mana.
Unleashing it in a single burst, he disappeared from his spot and appeared behind Akhess.
Cleaving down with his de, he watched as Akhess¡¯ body was split in two.
"So that is your little gimmick. You condense mana and use it in a single burst." Akhess¡¯ voice rang out as his body threaded itself back together. Snapping his head back 180 degrees, Akhess smiled as blood spikes exploded out from the body.
Widening his eyes, Glen tried to block the strikes but it still pierced parts of his body.
"Paralysing Blood." Akhess¡¯ voice rang out as Glen felt his body tense up.
With Glen unable to move his body, he watched as Akhess¡¯ body copsed into a pool of blood.
From the corner, the real Akhess revealed himself as he was currently wearing some light red armour. His hair was ck with streaks of red.
True Spirit Nature ¨C Blood Atrax
Flexing his fingers, all of the blood returned to him.
"A little surprising even on my end. Well done Akhess." Shiro smiled since she didn¡¯t think that he¡¯d be able to retrain Glen so well.
"Thank you, your highness." He bowed slightly as he dispelled the effect on Glen¡¯s body.
Standing on his two feet, Glen felt a little bitter but understood that there was a rather big gap between the two of them.
"Right then. Celeste, I wanted you to fight against Shiina since you rely on your mes. I wanted you to see your own weakness so that you understand what you¡¯re weak against. As for you Glen, I wanted you to fight against Akhess for the same reason. With the inability to use mana for magic, you must be careful with how you fight. If you could use magic, charging in and fighting is ok but you cannot so you have to keep that in mind. For someone like Akhess who uses tricks to corner his opponents, you need to be patient. Plus, he excels at close quarters so you can get some tips from him." Shiro exined, healing everyone in the process.
"Since all of you five have been taught by me personally, I expect you to help each other. It may be a little unfair to put you against your natural counters but I wanted you to experience this kind of fight. For now, you five can talk to one another. I got other matters to deal with." Shiro smiled, teleporting away.
Seeing this, Shiina sighed and walked over to Celeste.
"Sorry about that. Are you feeling ok now?" Shiina asked with a small smile as Celeste pouted for a moment before nodding her head.
"I¡¯ll give you a little secret though. These two don¡¯t force me to use my true spirit nature even when they¡¯re fighting me seriously. So in that regard, you¡¯re better than them." Shiina smiled while pointing at Akhess and Oran.
"She¡¯s telling the truth. We can¡¯t hit her at all." Oran sighed and shrugged his shoulder.
Shaking his head, Akhess looked at Glen.
"Are you unhappy about the oue?" Akhess asked as Glen nodded.
"I¡¯m just annoyed that I can¡¯t use any spells. If only I could use spells, maybe I could have done better." Glen replied while looking at his sword.
"Life is often unfair. My magic used to make me pass out from just making a sword. Hell, if I don¡¯t prepare properly, I can¡¯t even make a sword without passing out in a fight. That¡¯s why I have all of these blood bags prepared." Akhess smiled.
Pulling open his coat, he revealed several vials of blood. These vials had enchantments carved at the base which made them act simr to storage bags so that he could store quite a bit of blood in them.
"I had to study under one of Miss Aarim¡¯s subordinates to learn how to make these with enchantments. Every day I¡¯ll go over to the healers guild and constantly pour blood in this while getting healed so that I can be ready forbat at any moment." Akhess exined while opening one of the vials.
Tipping it upside down, blood started to pour endlessly as Glen watched in shock.
During the fight, Akhess was quite sparing with how much blood he used when one vial could easily cover the entire floor.
"You never know what might happen so you have to be sparing with your resources. Especially for you. Though had you been against Oran, you would have easily destroyed his defenses." Akhess grinned as Oran furrowed his brows.
"Bullsh*t. Just because you can¡¯t defeat me and Shiina doesn¡¯t mean you can nder me like this." Oran huffed.
"I¡¯m not ndering you. His offense is impressive so he¡¯ll be effective against people like you. But against me and Shiina, he has to y the waiting game and be patient." Akhess shrugged.
"It is true. If it makes you feel better, Akhess is in the same situation against me. Even if he uses his blood, I¡¯ll just freeze it." Shiina shrugged since she didn¡¯t even need to use her true spirit nature against Akhess.
"Then what can I do? I can only condense mana in my body and release it in a moment. Anyone can do that." Glen asked.
"We¡¯ll figure that out as a group. If you are only good at one thing, then hone that skill." Shiina encouraged as Akhess and Oran nodded their heads.
###
Seeing the five talk to one another, Shiro smiled since it seemed like they¡¯ll work nicely as a party. While Glen may seem like a fighter, it was better to call him an assassin with the skills that he¡¯s been born with. After a certain period of time, Shiro was nning on sending him to be trained under Chen Yu while Celeste will study under Madison.
However, that was something to think about in the future.
Chapter 947 Scouting Frost Giants Pass
Chapter 947 Scouting Frost Giant''s Pass
Making their way to the marked location on the map, Shiro made sure that the city was roughly a day¡¯s travel away before keeping it hidden deep in a valley. There were quite a few high-level monsters roaming around but they were dealt with easily since none of them were tier 6.
Standing above the city, Shiro narrowed her eyes since past this point would be Frost Giant¡¯s Pass.
Shiro could already see the tworge mountains in the far distance and that was where the relic will appear.
From this distance, the twin peaks looked like toothpicks but she knew that their true height was muchrger and most of it was being blocked by the clouds.
Their main goal today was to just set down some drones so that they could scout around the area while also interacting with a few Queens. Shiro was nning to use a nanotech avatar of sorts to roam around since she didn¡¯t know what might happen if she faced a Queen in person.
She was heavily injured by the Ghost Queen¡¯s subordinate after all. Even with her stats, she was akin to a ss cannon.
Ironically, this ss cannon could also break itself since a fusion of all her abilities would definitely shatter her body to pieces.
Flexing her fingers, nanobots appeared next to her as it transformed to look exactly like her. Even the mana signature was the same so it would be quite difficult for someone to realize who it was.
"That should be fine." Shiro smiled before returning back to her room.
Remotely controlling the avatar, she stretched her body a little and nodded in appreciation.
¡¯This isn¡¯t that bad. I¡¯d say it has around 30, maybe 40% of my strength.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself. It wasn¡¯t the best but it was ok for now. Her main goal was to scout around a bit to see which Queens are around.
Making her way towards the twin peaks, Shiro made sure that she sent her senses out like a radar. It didn¡¯t matter if others sensed her avatar since it was just an avatar. Like a light in the dark, her presence attracted the attention of several monsters guarding this ce. Most of them were tier 5 so Shiro didn¡¯t bother with them that much. There were one or two that reached the realm of tier 6 but once they realized that she was just an avatar, they lost interest and let her do whatever she wanted without interfering. While Shiro wasn¡¯t afraid of fighting them, there was no benefit to doing that at this moment in time so she was grateful for the fact that they ignored her.
Traveling for roughly 3 to 4 hours, Shiro was a little disappointed that she couldn¡¯t find anyone but wasn¡¯t the worse situation considering the fact that there was still a few days before the relic appeared. Most queens might not even participate considering the fact that more powerful queens are likely to show themselves. If they left their territory with very little chance of sess, they¡¯re risking way too much. If someone decided to attack while they¡¯re out, they could just be eliminated immediately.
So it¡¯s not an exaggeration to think that the ones attending this fight for the relic will be the more powerful Queens maybe even the empresses.
Knowing the allure of the rainbow grade relic, Shiro had no doubt that one or two empresses will show themselves in a few days¡¯ time.
¡¯There¡¯s a pretty good chance that one of them is the Chimera Empress as well as the Dragon Empress.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she noticed a small spike in mana roughly 30 minutes away from her current location.
Since she hasn¡¯t been here for a long time, she wasn¡¯t sure if this was normal or not but she was inclined to investigate a little.
Activating some of her recycled stealth skills, she made her way towards the source of that mana spike.
Noticing that several monsters have also dashed over to investigate, Shiro hung back a little to make sure that she wasn¡¯t seen.
Crouching on a tree branch, she narrowed her eyes and saw the monsters huddling around this one area.
Activating Analysis, she looked past them and noticed a few faint marks on the floor.
The moment she saw them, she recognized them to be marks left behind by a teleport circle. But this teleportation circle was a little... amateurish? Most experienced teleport circles wouldn¡¯t leave behind such an obvious mark.
Only those that weren¡¯t used to making the teleportation circle would make this mistake.
¡¯Who teleported here?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Looking around, she couldn¡¯t find any tracks that might show where the person had gone which meant that they were experienced to some degree.
¡¯Strange...¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows before creating a small drone.
Sending it over to where the spike in mana happened, she recorded a signal.
Frowning slightly, Shiro couldn¡¯t find a single trace of the signal. It was as if they didn¡¯t exist at all.
Standing up, Shiro decided to walk around for a bit longer. If she couldn¡¯t find a signal, it meant that the person was a good assassin or they¡¯re proficient in hiding their signal. Regardless, she wasn¡¯t too keen on standing around to find out who it was.
Turning around, she was about to dash away when she realized that there was a person sitting on a branch not too far behind her.
"Hello~ Seems like you¡¯re the one who was trying to track my signal huh? I wonder what kind of Queen you are." They smiled as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
They had short midnight blue hair and a pair of ruby eyes. Their clothes were quite rough and dirtied. Shiro couldn¡¯t tell which gender the person was but there was a sinking feeling in her heart. Like she was in the middle of a mud pool that made it hard to move or breathe.
"Why aren¡¯t you speaking? Oh is it because of the monsters around here? Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already eliminated our existence from their perception. Even if we were to cut their arms off, they¡¯ll think it¡¯s normal. Though only Queens are somewhat resistant to this effect hence why you even have the chance to track me. So tell me, what kind of Queen are you?" They narrowed their eyes as Shiro frowned.
Since she couldn¡¯t see the system, Shiro couldn¡¯t see any details on this person.
"What context are we talking about? Are we talking about good or bad? Are we talking about the powers we use? Because if it¡¯s thetter, I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t tell you anything." Shiro frowned.
"Oh, that¡¯s fine ahaha. I just want to know if you¡¯re on the side of humans or not. I also want to know if you¡¯re allied with the beast queen." The person asked as Shiro noticed a dark aura flickering from their body.
It was one that seemed to taint the surrounding area as it immediately became hard to breathe.
"I¡¯m not solely on the side of humans but if I see good people, I will help them. As for the second question, I suppose you can say that we¡¯re enemies." Shiro replied.
"Hm... all true. That¡¯s good, I haven¡¯t seen many Queens that told me they¡¯re on the side of humans yet. In that case, then let me introduce myself." The person grinned as they stood up.
"Ahmiya. I¡¯m a Queen Hunter." Ahmiya introduced herself as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Queen Hunter? You hunt Queens?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Well, only those that hold malicious intent towards humans. Since you¡¯re not an enemy to humans, I won¡¯t bother you anymore. You might want to hang back a little when the relic appears though, since other fallen will be here to cull the numbers a little." Ahmiya smiled darkly as her figure immediately disappeared.
Realizing that Ahmiya must have eliminated her presence, Shiro frowned since powerhouses are bing moremon now that the new age has arrived. However, what concerned her was the fact that Ahmiya had mentioned the fact that ¡¯other fallen¡¯ will be there to cull the numbers.
Considering her aura, powers, and the fact that she mentioned fallen people so casually, I can assume that she¡¯s a fallen. Seems like fallen are granted a ss by the system and her ss is Queen hunter.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Considering her power, Shiro assumed that Ahmiya was probably an assassin. With how confident she sounded, she either didn¡¯t know a Queen¡¯s strength or she knew and it didn¡¯t bother her.
Sitting in the same spot for a moment, Shiro closed her eyes.
Opening them again, she started to make her way back to the city. She was going to end the scouting for today and share the information first since they now know fallen will also be participating in this fight.
Plus, she now also found out that the system potentially gave fallen people the same information they give to Queens. Since this relic was only told to Madison and Isilia while others didn¡¯t know anything.
Chapter 948 Gathering Storm
Chapter 948 Gathering Storm
"So fallen are involved in this? With one called Queen Hunter no less. Since she specifically mentioned the beast queen, do you think her target for falling is the beast queen?" Madison asked with a frown as everyone sat around themand room.
"It¡¯s not guaranteed but the chances are high. If someone with her skill setpletes her objective and bes a mindless monster that does nothing but rampage, killing everything she sees, it¡¯s going to be annoying. She was even able to eliminate herself from my perception so killing her would be no easy task. While the system may cause them to be ¡¯mindless¡¯ beasts, there¡¯s no guarantee that they won¡¯t be ¡¯battle smart¡¯. They might retain the knowledge on how to use their skills effectively inbat with the prior experience." Shiro nodded her head with a frown. Having an unstable factor like Ahmiya in the following fight was going to be quite troublesome if they can¡¯t deal with her.
Since you never know if she¡¯s beside you or not.
"Honestly, I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s better for the Queens to die or for the fallen to die." Isilia sighed since it was picking the lesser of two evils. Only both evils were just as bad!
"Well do you think we can team up with the fallen in some way? Even if the others don¡¯t join, just having Ahmiya on the team would be a great help." Silvia asked.
"Perhaps. We don¡¯t know the goal of the other fallen so it¡¯s a bit risky. Honestly, I might have been lucky that Ahmiya was hostile against Queens that are enemies of humanity, and had something simr to a lie detector. If she didn¡¯t, she might have just assassinated me if I was there personally." Shiro sighed.
She had her avatar scout out the area before destroying itself since she didn¡¯t want to risk having Ahmiya find out where Asteria was.
"Is there a way to find her again? You managed to find her this time because you tried to look for her and she responded right?" Helion asked.
"Maybe. I can begin development on a skill that¡¯ll broadcast a message to those specified using the unique mana signal." Shiro shrugged since she didn¡¯t mind using some time to make a new skill.
"That might be the best call for now since we don¡¯t know anything about the fallen other than the fact that the system creates them, they¡¯ll do anything to reach their goal and that they¡¯ll be mindless monsters once that goal is reached." Aarim frowned.
"Do you think there are potentially Queens that we can make an alliance with for now? While this is primarily for the relic, we can¡¯t forget that it¡¯s a gathering of Queens. It¡¯s a good chance to see others and make alliances. I know that we have to be the final victor but it¡¯s still good to get some allies. Even if they¡¯ll be enemiester down the line." Isilia suggested.
"Mn I know. I¡¯ve got one candidate in mind that I saw in the future but I¡¯m not sure if she¡¯ll be participating in this battle. I¡¯m guessing that she might be a little too busy taking care of her own city so there¡¯s a slim chance that we¡¯ll even see her here." Shiro nodded her head and leaned back slightly.
Remembering the ck-haired girl that created cities of undead to reunite people with one another, Shiro didn¡¯t mind making an alliance with her since it looked as though she cared more for the future than the past.
"Oh? Who¡¯s this that you¡¯re thinking about?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"The Undead Queen Misu." Shiro answered.
###
"We¡¯re here your highness. We¡¯re not sure how many Queens are nearby but for now, I believe we should keep a low profile. Our goal is not the relic after all." A man bowed as a ck-haired woman walked out of the portal and looked at the tworge mountains in the distance with a smile.
"That¡¯s fine. We don¡¯t know her that well but I think with her personality that she demonstrated in the recordings, she wouldn¡¯t let something like this fall into the wrong hands. She¡¯ll either destroy it or take it for herself." The girl smiled as her emerald eyes flickered at the memory of the Queen she saw on the video.
"Perhaps. But I think we shouldn¡¯t be hasty. Maybe we should just observe for now. If we reveal ourselves too soon, we might make ourselves a target." The man frowned.
"Oh, it¡¯s fine. It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be fighting. Just spectating ok? Spectating." The girlughed.
Sighing softly, the man shook his head and made sure the perimeters were clear.
"We¡¯ll be leaving after we watch for a bit. The city still needs some adjustments to house everyone after all." She smiled while looking around for a ce that¡¯s far enough from the battle but close enough so that she could watch everything that happened.
"We¡¯re already making some preparations to hunt down the Demonic Kraken Husk. Once you return from this expedition, we¡¯ll be ready tounch an offensive. Once the Kraken is in, the surrounding area should begin healing and we¡¯ll be able to use it as farnd in the future."
"That¡¯s good. Octopuses should stay in the ocean after all. No point them being onnd." The girl giggled softly while jumping up on the tree.
"To call a level 750 Demonic Kraken an Octopus..." The man muttered with a tired look on his face as if he had heard this kind of thing often.
Sighing heavily, he massaged his eyes before following behind her.
"Wow. Such a beautiful ce, it¡¯s a shame that everything will be gone in a few days huh?" She sighed seeing the white trees stretch as far as the eyes could see.
"Indeed. But that¡¯s just the nature of fights between tier 6 beings. If the world didn¡¯t change, it¡¯ll be more than just a forest that disappears." The man narrowed his eyes, remembering what had happened before but quickly dispelled the thoughts.
"Mn... that¡¯s true. Say, what do you think is the final goal of all this? We¡¯ve already lived through the new age several times now. Each time a new one begins, our levels reset back to when the new age began in our old world. The system probably removed our memories since I can¡¯t remember what happened near the end but I¡¯ve been through this starting process a few times now. I know I wasn¡¯t close to winning but still." The girl narrowed her eyes.
"The system keeps lots of things from us. We just have to keep looking forward and help those that need our help. Even if we don¡¯t win in the end. Isn¡¯t that what you vowed to do when you met me?" the man smiled softly.
"Oh of course. I got this power because I wanted to help them after all. They were unfairly dragged into all of this. But I really and I mean REALLY want to see them tomorrow when the new age ends." The girl smiled happily as the man nodded.
"I hope so too. I have a good feeling about this new age. Plus, you¡¯re more energetic than before."
"Am I? I don¡¯t feel any different though." The girl raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe it¡¯s because you found a Queen who is willing to help people out as you do."
"Mmm... That¡¯s true. Let¡¯s hope this is thest new age we have to experience ok?"
Hearing this, the man nodded his head.
¡¯I¡¯ll do everything I can so that you can see tomorrow when the new age ends and the loop breaks.¡¯
###
"Is this the right spot?" I asked, feeling exhausted. After traveling nonstop on the back of Nitha with Edvimar, we managed to arrive at a strange forest of snow that had tworge mountains in the distance.
Our bodies were fatigued since Edvimar brought us through what he calls the tears in the void and cut the journey short.
They acted as small teleport gates with the end being random but he seemed to be able to control it to some extent. Maybe that¡¯s why he was able to escape from the person he called the watchman. He hasn¡¯t said anything more but from what he¡¯s shown us on the way here, I can guess that his enemy was someone on the level of the Queens. Maybe even higher.
"Yes, this should be the Frost Giant¡¯s Pass. I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯ll be here. Honestly, you can leave now since this ce will be filled with Queens soon. Staying here is tantamount to suicide." Edvimar replied, staring into my eyes as I thought about it. I knew their power considering the destruction caused by a single dragon that showed itself a while back.
However, I wasn¡¯t about to let someone injured like him look for his wife alone with danger all around him.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. We¡¯ll watch from afar. It¡¯s not like you¡¯ll be fighting the Queens, will you? We¡¯ll keep an eye out and if we find your wife, we¡¯ll see if we can get to her ok?" I replied.
The rest of the party was happy with this decision and showed their support.
Hearing the support, Edvimar chuckled and nodded his head.
"Ok, let¡¯s fly low for now since a few Queens might already be here. I don¡¯t want to be killed before seeing my wife."
Chapter 949 Corrosive Aura
Chapter 949 Corrosive Aura
Scouting the pass for a few days, Shiro managed to spot a few tracks of people here and there but the tracks always ended in a dead-end.
However, with the tracks that she¡¯s seen, she could guess that there were more than 15 groups in this area now.
¡¯Hmm... that¡¯s concerning.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as the time for the relic to appear was getting closer with each day.
She had also noticed the mana in the area increase in density which is a phenomenon that may happen when a treasure appears.
Looking at the twin peaks, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she had a somewhat risky idea in her mind.
{Shiro, if you do that, there¡¯s no doubt that someone will see you.} Nimue warned, she knew what Shiro was thinking and it was not a good idea.
¡¯Oh don¡¯t be like that, I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine.¡¯ Shiro smiled.
{What if they track your avatar back to you? If you can track people using their mana, they can do the same. And with you being injured, none of us are keen to fight them.} Nimue reminded.
¡¯Mn... that¡¯s true. Let¡¯s see... Just a little peek.¡¯ Shiro grinned.
Crouching down, Shiro dashed towards the mountain peak as Nimue was speechless.
{Why do I even bother?} She sighed.
Walking to her side, Attie patted her head.
Making her way towards the mountain peaks, Shiro made her way through the forest nimbly as she vaulted past therge branches that copsed on the side.
As she was running through the snow forest, Shiro noticed a few white scaled serpents intercept her despite being using her stealth skills.
"Tch, something simr to true sight then huh?" Shiro muttered.
Narrowing her eyes, two swords appeared as Shiro leapt into the sky.
Twisting her body, she grinned as she activated boundary and shed towards the serpent as lightning flickered from her des.
Cutting the serpent into hundreds of pieces in a single moment, Shiro was about to continue when she realised that all of the pieces started to turn into miniature snakes.
"Hou hou, that¡¯s quite an annoying ability." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Sliding on the ground for a moment, she stomped down and mmed her hand down.
A wave of nanotech wires stretched out from her hand as spikes shot up, piercing all of the snakes.
Noticing the defence seemed to drop, Shiro smiled despite the snakes multiplying one more.
Standing up straight, a green fire roared out on the edge of her de as she stabbed down.
Suddenly, the wires burst into mes as the snakes were burnt to ashes.
With their defences decreasing, killing them became much easier.
ncing behind her, Shiro smiled at the horde of monsters that was forming from the snow.
"Mn. I see, so most of you are golems rather than monsters." Shiro muttered.
Cracking her neck, she dismissed her swords as wires extended from her fingertips.
Before the golems could even attack her, she pulled back on the wires as they were all cut into tiny pieces.
After all, boundary was not limited to her des. If she wanted, she could easily aplish the same concept with her wires.
Eliminating the group of golems, she made her way towards the mountains.
Just as she stepped past the forest, Shiro noticed a small sh of light and her control over her avatar was weakened.
Stumbling slightly, Shiro frowned.
¡¯Seems like the further in we go, the harder it is to control this body.¡¯ Shiro frowned while looking down at her hand.
{Perhaps we should leave it here for now then. I suspect that if we go any further, we¡¯ll get found out. And with your control weakening, are you sure you¡¯re able to destroy this avatar before they track it back to you?} Nimue asked as Shiro scratched her head.
¡¯True. Let me- huh?¡¯ Pausing for a moment, Shiro widened her eyes in surprise as her avatar had already begun corroding away. She had never seen her tech being corroded away before since it innately had a resistance. For it to begin corroding, it meant that whatever was causing this couldn¡¯t be underestimated.
Bringing her avatar out of the area and back into the forest, Shiro had a serious expression on her face.
¡¯Something in here possesses arge corrosive aura. Seems like we won¡¯t be able to enter for the time being. Unless this aura disappears when the relic appears, collecting said relic would be quite difficult.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
{Especially since your nanotech is tier 7 in rating. This is something that can even damage demigods.} Nimue narrowed her eyes.
¡¯Indeed. That¡¯s what I¡¯m most concerned about.¡¯ Shiro nodded as she looked down.
Had she stayed for another minute, her limbs would havepletely corroded away.
Setting down a teleport node at the edge of the forest, just before the corroding aura, Shiro destroyed the avatar.
###
After the encounter with the corrosion field, Shiro did try to return a few more times to see how far she¡¯d go but she couldn¡¯t travel in the aura for more than 2 minutes even with all the preparation she had done.
She did wonder if it was targeted at machines specifically so she grabbed some monster flesh but it was corroded almost immediately.
Marking this spot down as a kill zone, for now, Shiro scanned out a detailed map of the entire Frost Giant¡¯s Pass.
In addition to this, she had also decided to move the city a little further away just to be safe. She had a nagging feeling in her heart that they¡¯ll definitely be caught in a crossfire from where they stood. Her instincts were normally on point so she moved it a few hours away just to be safe.
Right now, she was resuming training on Glen and Celeste since she wanted to have them train under Chen Yu and Madison soon.
Casually stepping to the side, she avoided their attacks with ease and instructed them on a few tips.
With half of her attention on this, the other half was focused on developing a skill to help her contact Ahmiya and so far, it was pretty sessful. The ones hearing this ¡¯broadcast¡¯ would only hear random sounds while the one targeted by this broadcast would hear the decrypted message.
Shiro wasn¡¯t sure about how easy it was to decipher this skill hence the extensive testing but so far it was proving to be rather effective.
Taking a break from the training, Shiro returned to themand office and sat down with a heavy sigh. After all the things she¡¯s done in the past few days, she was feeling tired again and nned to have a long night¡¯s rest tonight.
Just as she was about to leave for her room after finishing the paperwork in her office, she received a call and couldn¡¯t help but sigh heavily.
Looking at the caller, she quickly sat up since it was Nan Tian.
"Honestly, I think I may have called at the wrong time considering how you look right now. Are you sure you¡¯re resting properly?" Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
"A little, but that¡¯s fine. I¡¯m nning to sleep in a bit." Shiro smiled.
"Alright, I¡¯ll keep it short then. I¡¯ve found a few clues that might take us to the Queen¡¯s main city. However, we¡¯ve also received news that her guards are rather high leveled. Even for you and me. Also, you might want to be careful since she should be at Frost Giant¡¯s Peak now. Even though she¡¯s made quite a few anchors, you might want to be careful. She is... ridiculously confident for someone that should be weakened." Nan Tian frowned.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll keep that in mind." Shiro nodded with a smile.
"Don¡¯t worry though, I won¡¯t be actively fighting everyone here. I¡¯m a bit injured after all." Shiro sighed as Nan Tian paused since he didn¡¯t know about this.
"You¡¯re injured?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah... Erm. *Sigh* Yes I am." Shiro sighed, realising she slipped up. She forgot that she had hidden this from Nan Tian.
"How serious is the damage?" Nan Tian asked as he stood up.
"It¡¯s not that bad-"
"It¡¯s quite bad. Her soul is damaged, a third of it is missing. She is forced to pass out if she stays up for too long, she can¡¯t see anymore nor can she feel anything through touch. The only reason why she¡¯s even half functional right now is because she¡¯s using cameras to see for her and wires to control her body like a puppet." Nimue appeared and told Nan Tian everything.
Looking back at Nimue, Shiro face palmed since she could see that Nan Tian was not happy.
"I see. Alright. I¡¯ll have my subordinates watch over the situation for me. I¡¯m teleporting back now." Nan Tian nodded as he ended the call.
Sitting there in silence, Shiro looked at Nimue who only shrugged.
"Don¡¯t look at me, you¡¯re the one overworking yourself. Have fun with someone looking after you." Nimue smirked as she disappeared.
Before Shiro could shout at Nimue, the door opened, revealing Nan Tian standing there with his arms crossed.
Without saying anything, Nan Tian smiled threateningly and pulled out the dreaded pink wheelchair.
Chapter 950 Two Wheelchairs
Chapter 950 Two Wheelchairs
Seeing the wheelchair and Nan Tian¡¯s expression which clearly showed that he wasn¡¯t going to take a no for an answer, Shiro coughed awkwardly on herfy chair and shrunk back slightly.
"Erm... Can we talk about this?" She asked with a forced smile.
"We could have talked about this if I had known of this sooner. But considering the fact that you look so pale and worn out now, I don¡¯t think talking is on the table anymore." Nan Tian smiled, patted the wheelchair.
"Well you see, I had to train some new recruits and the relic was appearing soon so I couldn¡¯t rest often." Shiro replied, ncing around the room for something that she could use.
"I wonder how you trained the recruits. Surely it¡¯s not your usual training right? Because if that was the case then that meant you didn¡¯t get any sleep either." Nan Tian raised an eyebrow as Shiro dug her own grave.
"She did. She even passed out for two days as well. I had to take over for her during that time." Nimue appeared again as she disappeared immediately before Shiro could strangle her.
¡¯NIMUEEEEEEE!!!!¡¯ Shiro shouted out in her mind as the water spirit was just making things worse.
"Hou hou~ Two days huh? Well isn¡¯t that interesting. Don¡¯t you think so too?" Nan Tian chuckled as he grabbed a chair and sat down in from of Shiro while cing the wheelchair in front of her.
"It wasn¡¯t what I had nned. Errr But mum did say my soul was healing up. So I think I¡¯ll be fine soon." Shiro replied, avoiding eye contact.
"Is that so? Well I¡¯m interested in what Mrs Asakura has to say about that. Maybe she might even give her own thoughts after I tell her about how you passed out for two days." Nan Tian smiled while pulled out his phone.
"Ahh please don¡¯t. Let¡¯s just talk about this ok?" Shiro quickly snatched his phone away and forced a smile.
"How do you want to talk about this then? Because I see an overworked demi goddess who passed out for two days despite being tier 6. Have you heard of a Queen passing out from overwork? Because I haven¡¯t. In fact, the Beast Queen seemed so lively I wonder if this sickly goddess in front of me is real or not." Nan Tian narrowed his eyes while resting his chin on his palm.
"Err... different context?" Shiro replied.
"Oh what kind of context are we talking about? Are we talking about the... overloading your body with berserk skills and almost killing yourself had it not been for your daughters, the sect and a bit of luck? Or perhaps the context about how you pissed off basically an entire pantheon of gods. Or maybe it was when you appeared in front of the party beingpletely disabled in a wheelchair gifted by the gods no less. Since you like breaking your body so much, I wonder if our little demi goddess is secretly a masochist." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro coughed since she has been rather violent with her own body in the past year. Hell, in her first week, she hadpletely ruined her arm for a while and that was not fun at all.
"Can I choose the persuasion option?" Shiro joked as Nan Tian nodded.
"Sure. Your persuasion better be on the level of convincing you not to kill Aekari." Nan Tian replied.
". . . ."
"What? Go on, I¡¯m listening. I have all the time in the world." Nan Tian hummed lightly after seeing her stay silent.
"Well... Err... Hmm... Maybe you¡¯ll let me off because you like me?" Shiro muttered while gripping the phone. Peeking at Nan Tian, she could see that he was smiling.
"Oh my, that¡¯s quite a good response. But that only persuaded me to shove you into this wheelchair personally. Because let¡¯s be honest, who likes seeing the person they like overwork themselves to death?" Nan Tian said while patting the seat on the chair.
". . . .What if I apologised-"
"Just get in the damn chair before I ask one of the gods to do it instead since I can¡¯t force you." Nan tian cut her off as he suddenly received a strange message.
[Gaia agrees! Break her legs and shove her in the chair if you have to!]
¡¯The f*ck?¡¯ Nan Tian thought to himself since that was a little... violent to say the least.
Sighing heavily, Shiro looked at theputer screen.
"What about the paperwork. I still have to n for what to do when the relic appears, Glen and Celeste still need their training." Shiro muttered as Nan Tian shook his head.
"I can deal with that. I have apparently received permission to force you into the chair by Gaia. Imagine having a primordial goddess call for your legs to be broken so that I can force you into the chair." Nan Tian mused as Shiro shouted out ¡¯traitor¡¯ in her mind since she had thought that Gaia was on her side.
Staying silent for a bit, Shiro sighed and nodded her head obediently.
"Fine I¡¯ll get in the chair. Can it at least be a normal one?" Shiro asked, since the wheelchair was still quite... girly for her taste.
"I do have another one. I¡¯m not sure if you want it thought." Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
Before Shiro could even say yes, Nan Tian pulled it out and it was a wheelchair with extension that made it seem like a unicorn. Looking at the glitter on the wheels and fluffy tail, Shiro could already feel rainbow puke building up.
"If you¡¯re curious as to why I have this it¡¯s because I figured that you¡¯ll probably break your body sooner orter. If you don¡¯t want to have the pink one, you¡¯re wee to choose this one." Nan Tian chuckled since he could tell what she was thinking.
Taking a deep breath in, Shiro grabbed the pink wheelchair.
"I¡¯ll take this one thank you."
"That¡¯s what I thought." Nan Tian grinned as he stored away the unicorn wheelchair. It was a good ckmailing tool.
Sitting down in the wheelchair, Shiro could already feel a sense of shame building up but Nan Tian wasn¡¯t done.
"Undo the wires as well. Just rx your body."
Pouting slightly, Shiro nodded her head as the silver wires started to unwrap from her body.
With her being unable to feel her body through the wires, Shiro sighed softly.
"And the camera for eyes."
"Can you at least let me see while I¡¯m in this wheelchair. It¡¯s bad enough that I¡¯m here and I can¡¯t feel my body at all." Shiro pouted with annoyance as Nan Tian chuckled and nodded his head.
"Fine. Two cameras shouldn¡¯t be that bad."
Wheeling her slightly to the side, he sat in front of theputers and started to tap away without saying anything.
Despite not saying anything, Shiro could tell that Nan Tian was a little annoyed inside.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro turned the wheelchair around and looked down at the peaceful city under the moonlight. There weren¡¯t many people walking around, but a few stores are still open for business.
Hearing the rhythmic tapping of keyboards in the background, Shiro could tell that Nan Tian was doing all of her work with ease.
"Are you angry at me?" Shiro asked curiously as Nan Tian paused for a moment before continuing.
"Not so much angry but a little upset I suppose. It sounded like everyone else knew about your injury but I was left out." Nan Tian sighed.
"Well it¡¯s not just you. Not everyone in the party knows. I didn¡¯t want you lot to know unless it was necessary since it might cause extra worry. Everyone has be so busy now that our roles have be bigger. Kind of makes me miss the days where we¡¯d just go out and do dungeons together as a party." Shiro sighed.
"That¡¯s normal. But you know it¡¯s fine if you tell us about your injuries. It¡¯ll make us feel worse if we had to find out ourselves. Do you know how I felt when Nimue told me that you passed out for two days?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro turned around in her wheelchair so that only her eyes were showing and shook her head.
"I felt like I had a heart attack. While I was searching for information, you were heavily injured. For all I know, you could be on your deathbed and I¡¯ll still be looking for the capital city. Not knowing about this." Nan Tian looked up at Shiro who was peeking over the wheelchair to look at him.
"Sorry." Shiro apologised as she would feel the same if she found out that one of her friends was heavily injured and they didn¡¯t tell her.
Thinking about this, Shiro furrowed her brows since right now, Nan Tian was in the most danger considering the fact that he was spying on a Queen in their territory.
"It¡¯s fine, just be more careful please and be honest when you get injured so that we can help you." Nan Tian shook his head before continuing to work.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro opened her mouth.
"Erm... in that case then why don¡¯t you stay here for a bit. Since I won¡¯t be able to work." She asked, sinking down in her chair to hide her blush.
Hearing this, Nan Tian smiled.
"Sure."
Chapter 951 Sleep
Chapter 951 Sleep
Opening her eyes slowly, Shiro yawned and looked around her. Noticing that she was sleeping in her wheelchair with a nket over her body, she quickly checked the time and date to see how long she¡¯s slept for.
Seeing that it¡¯s only been 8 hours, she sighed in relief. ncing back, she saw Nan Tian sleeping on a makeshift bed by stacking up all the chairs. He had a small nket on him that¡¯s too big for his body which caused her to giggle slightly.
Wheeling herself beside him, she couldn¡¯t help but look at his face before an idea popped into her mind.
However, that idea was quickly dismissed since it would definitely wake him up. He had gone through the effort of finishing her paperwork so she shouldn¡¯t disturb his rest. Closing her eyes, she checked the database and saw that her schedule is pretty much cleared except for a bit of scouting and training both Glen and Celeste.
¡¯Hm... my schedule hasn¡¯t been this empty for a while now¡¯ Shiro thought to herself in surprise. Since she was focused on training Glen and Celeste, the paperwork started to stack up over time and it would¡¯ve be quite a task to finish it all. And yet Nan Tian was able to do it in a single night was quite impressive.
Looking at the dates on the paperwork, Shiro understood that he only went to bed at 5am. It¡¯s only been 3 hours into his rest so she didn¡¯t want to wake him up for another 3 hours minimum.
¡¯What to do... Glen and Celeste will get their training around 3 in the afternoon since I was giving them a small break in the morning. Since I needed to scout and do paperwork, the timing lined up. Since Lil¡¯ Tian did all my paperwork for me, I got quite a lot of free time.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
The scouting could be done with the existing drones that she had out in the field so she didn¡¯t need to send out an avatar anymore.
With 7 hours of free time to herself, Shiro didn¡¯t know what she should do.
{Why don¡¯t you just listen to what Nan Tian said and rest. Do nothing for 7 hours to rest your mind.} Nimue suggested as Shiro felt a vein pop.
¡¯Oi we still haven¡¯t had that talk have we?¡¯ Shiro forced a smile.
Shrugging her shoulders, Nimue¡¯s body faded away in the water and not a single peep could be heard from her.
Shaking her head, Shiro walked over and hugged Attie.
{Don¡¯t be angry at aunty, mommy. You were overworking yourself.} Attie looked up at her as Shiro sighed and nodded her head.
¡¯Fine fine, mommy will rx for 7 hours ok? Plus, Lil¡¯ Tian is here to look after me.¡¯ Shiro smiled as Attie furrowed his brows.
{Can I be outside and sit with mommy?} He asked as Shiro raised an eyebrow before nodding.
¡¯Of course. But mommy¡¯s in a wheelchair, do you want to sit on myp instead?¡¯ Shiro asked with a smile.
{Mn, then if Nan Tian does something strange to mommy I can stop him.} Attie pumped his little fists with determination.
Seeing this, Shiro found it rather cute as she couldn¡¯t help but chuckle at her son¡¯s disy of strength.
¡¯Sure, if Nan Tian does something strange to mommy you protect me ok?¡¯ Shiroughed.
Nodding his head vigorously, Attie had a look of determination on his face.
Bringing Attie outside of the mana realm, Shiro let him sit on herp while Nan Tian slept.
"Let him rest for now. He worked hard so he deserves some rest ok?" Shiro smiled as Attie nodded his head.
Making a tablet for Attie to y around with, Shiro rxed on the wheelchair while watching Attie y around with the tablet. He browsed the and whenever Shiro was mentioned in the title, his eyes would shine with curiosity and excitement before looking at the post.
He was interested in anything that mentioned Shiro.
Of course, Shiro censored the posts a little since she didn¡¯t want her son to be seeingments demanding her feet pics. That would be quite embarrassing.
While resting with Attie on herp, Shiro saw Isilia enter themand room as Shiro did a shushing motion and pointed at Nan Tian sleeping on the makeshift bed.
Nodding her head, Isilia understood that Shiro wanted her to be quiet so pointed just outside the room.
"So what is it?" Shiro asked, closing the door to themand room.
"We¡¯ve finished testing the new messaging skill and it¡¯s quite secure. Even some of the more talented mages, including Aarim, had quite a hard time decrypting it. A few managed to do so but it took them quite a long time. I¡¯m guessing that if you were to use this, you¡¯ll be able to arrange a meeting spot then move to a different location so that even if they decrypt this, they won¡¯t be able to find you." Isilia replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s good to know. We only have a day or so left before the relic appears so I should host a meeting of sorts early tomorrow orter today depending on what happens." Shiro muttered but Attie tugged at her shirt.
"No work. Only rest. Let Nan Tian deal with it." Attie said while looking up at Shiro.
"Haha, you might want to listen to your son. Seeing as how you¡¯re in a wheelchair now, I think you should rest." Isilia chuckled, finding Attie to be very cute. It was a shame that she had to leave for a long time otherwise she¡¯ll also be able to see a small Lyrica talk to her like this.
"Though I must say, I didn¡¯t think you were a fan of pink." Isilia grinned as Shiro face palmed and looked away.
"It was either this or a unicorn wheelchair. What do you think I would have chosen?" Shiro asked with a side nce.
"Are you asking me what you would have chosen a few years ago or are you asking what you would have chosen now? Because a few years ago you would have chosen to make your own wheelchair using nanobots or simply said no." Isilia replied with a knowing looking in her eyes.
*COUGH!
Coughing lightly, Shiro tried to hide her blush and shook her head.
"Not important. Setting the matter of my wheelchair aside, let¡¯s talk about preparation. For this battle, we¡¯ll be primarily watching but we might get into a few small skirmishes. Are all the barriers working as intended?" Shiro asked as Isilia nodded her head.
"Mn, Aarim has been making sure that everything is in order. All of the barriers are powered up and they¡¯ve been tested a few times to make sure it works as intended. On another note, Keiko has started her ascension into tier 6. I was meant to tell you that yesterday but you seemed tired. With how quickly her mana¡¯s been increasing, I¡¯d say she¡¯ll be done by tonight or tomorrow morning. She had made the necessary preparation to finish her ascension quickly." Isilia smiled as Shiro was a little surprised.
"That¡¯s good. If Keiko is able to reach tier 6, we¡¯ll have a total of 6 tier 6 beings in this fight not including me. I¡¯m not sure what the fighting force of other Queen¡¯s are but I think we¡¯ll be a decent force to be reckoned with." Shiro nodded.
"Regardless, our main priority is to stop people from getting this relic as well as checking out what their fighting force is like. I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯ll bring all of their tier 6¡¯s but hopefully it¡¯s less than ours. But there¡¯s no doubt that the area around the relic will be turned to ash with the fighting prowess of tier 6 beings." Isilia sighed.
"Mn, for now though, help Aarim reinforce the barriers as much as you can. Most of our prep is done and we just have to wait now."
"Got it. Have fun with your pink wheelchair." Isilia chuckled and quickly left before Shiro could say anything. Taking a deep breath, Shiro sighed and made her way back into themand room. Just as she entered, she watched Nan Tian yawn slightly before sitting up.
"You might want to sleep a little longer since there isn¡¯t much to do." Shiro reminded since he only had a little more than 3 hours of sleep.
"It¡¯s fine. I usually sleep this much in the city. Can¡¯t be too rxed in here." Nan Tian smiled but Shiro red at him.
"Well you¡¯re in my city now so you better sleep. And you¡¯re the one who told me to rest." Shiro pouted slightly as Attie nodded.
Seeing this, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
"Fine I¡¯ll rest for another hour." Hepromised but Shiro shook her head.
"Three hours."
"Three? How about two?" Nan Tian asked.
"Four hours." Shiro shook her head.
"I¡¯ll take three."
"That¡¯s what I thought. Now sleep. I¡¯ll give you a proper bed." Shiro nodded and flexed her finger.
Making a bed in themand room, Shiro pointed at it.
"Sleep."
"In here? I can just return to my room you know?" Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
"Nope. This is revenge for the wheelchair. Unless you want me to decorate it with unicorns." Shiro grinned.
"Sure if you¡¯re the one making it." Nan Tianughed as Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Just sleep you idiot."
Chapter 952 Nan Tians Training
Chapter 952 Nan Tian''s Training
After forcing Nan Tian to sleep for a while, the three of them made their way to the training hall since it was time to train Glen and Celeste.
However, looking down on her chair Shiro thought for a moment before wanting to change the colour using her nanobots.
"What? Are you going to stop me from changing the colour in front of my students?" Shiro pouted since her image would go down the drain if they saw their teacher in a pink wheelchair!
"Haha you misunderstand. I was going to offer you this wheelchair instead since it¡¯s better than using your nanobots." Nan Tianughed, pulling out a perfectly normal wheelchair.
". . . ."
Standing up, Shiro held her dagger as Nan Tian quickly jogged towards the training hall.
Massaging her eyes, Shiro sat down in the normal wheelchair and made her way towards the training hall.
From what Niimue had told her, the two already knew about her injuries since she spilled the beans.
Upon arriving at the training hall, she could see Nan Tian waiting by the side and couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
"Next time just use the normal wheelchair first. Also why do you have so many wheelchairs in your inventory? Do you have a thing for crippled people?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well considering the fact that you seem to cripple yourself often, I would say I do indeed have a thing for a certain crippled person." Nan Tian smirked.
"Still doesn¡¯t exin why you have so many wheelchairs. Isn¡¯t one enough?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian shook his head.
"I wasn¡¯t sure if you were going to break that pink one immediately so I had spares made." He smiled.
Snapping his fingers, four more identical pink wheelchairs appeared as Shiro was speechless.
Staying silent, it took her a moment before shaking her head.
"Let¡¯s just go train the two." She sighed as Nan Tian nodded.
Wheeling her into the training hall, they saw that Glen and Celeste were already here and doing some light sparring with one another.
Hearing the doors open, the two of them looked over and saw Shiro sitting in a wheelchair with Attie in herps. Nan Tian was behind the two and was currently wheeling her in.
Blinking their eyes in surprise, they didn¡¯t expect to see Shiro in a wheelchair.
"Ignore the wheelchair. Today Nan Tian will be training you since as you know, I¡¯m injured and he doesn¡¯t want me to move around." Shiro sighed, wanting to keep the exnation short.
"Nan Tian, this is the file on their performance. You might want to quickly go through it before starting the lesson."
Passing over a set of doc.u.ments that she hadplied over the past few days, Shiro wheeled her chair to one side and watched silently with Attie on herp.
"Let¡¯s see... Hmm... Alright. Well aren¡¯t you two talented." Nan Tian chuckled as he looked up at the two standing in front of him.
"Alright, reading is one thing and experiencing is another. I want you two to attack me with the intent to kill ok?" Nan Tian smiled as the two furrowed their brows.
"Don¡¯t worry, you two won¡¯t be able to kill me but I want to see what you can do." Nan Tianughed seeing their confusion and worry.
"Just do it. If he dies I¡¯ll revive him." Shiro called out as the two looked at each other before shrugging.
Before he could even say start, Celeste immediately entered berserk form andshed out towards him.
While this happened, Glenpressed his power and appeared behind Nan Tian with his sword, ready to swing at his neck.
"So eager. I didn¡¯t even say start yet haha." Nan Tianughed.
Taking out a single dagger, he parried Glen¡¯s de and redirected it towards Celeste while ducking under the two of them.
Seeing that his sword was about to cut her, Glen quickly twisted his body to move the sword away.
Looking at the two that crashed into one another, Shiro face palmed since this was going to be a long day.
It was good that they were trying out new options in battle but they have only figured out step one. They didn¡¯t think about how to follow up.
¡¯I suppose they¡¯re still pretty new to fighting. It¡¯s normal to be eager.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she sent a message to Silvia, asking her toe to the training hall. Since Nan Tian wanted her to rest, it was better that Silvia heals them.
Nan Tian¡¯s training was a little different. He hardly attacked back and only used their attacks against each other. Allowing them to experiment with new techniques safely without being too worried of injuries. However, they still didn¡¯t attack him with the intent to kill which was a little disappointing for him but it wasn¡¯t too bad.
After training for a while, the two were left panting on the ground while Nan Tian was as calm as usual.
"I like your training. Can we have your training more often?" Celeste asked as Nan Tianughed.
"Unfortunately no. I have an important mission you see." He replied while Silvia healed their fatigue.
"Ehh... Disappointing." Celeste frowned.
ncing over at Glen, Nan Tian could tell that he was spacing out a little.
"What are you thinking about?" Nan Tian asked.
"It¡¯s just that I think I liked Nimue¡¯s training a little more. I don¡¯t like pain but I think that sense of danger helped my reaction." Glen replied while looking at his hands.
"Ahh I understand. With that sense of danger, your body is sent into a state of fighting for survival. The adrenaline that pulses through your body makesbat a little easier. But you see, you have to learn how to enter this state even without that sense of danger since there are times in the future where you¡¯ll see enemies that can hide their killing intent and before you know it, you¡¯re already dead." Nan Tian exined with a smile.
"For example, Shiro is hiding a lot of killing intent right now. If she was to release all of it, I believe her passive skill would freeze the entire city." Nan Tian smiled, ncing over at Shiro to make sure that his information is correct.
"You¡¯re not wrong. If I release some now, I can freeze everyone in the room." Shiro nodded her head as Celeste sat up.
"Is it like Shiina¡¯s ice thing?" She asked as Shiro nodded but stronger.
"Do you want to experience it?" Shiro asked with a small chuckle.
Thinking about it for a moment, Celeste has a bad feeling so she shook her head.
"Can you do it to the room and not to me?" She asked as Shiro nodded.
Narrowing her eyes, a tiny portion of her killing intent leaked out as ice immediately started to form around the room.
Despite not being targeted by this, Celeste could already feel a creeping sense of death as her face paled and sweat dripped down her face.
"There, how was it?" Shiro smiled, hiding her intent once more.
Seeing the ice around him, Attie¡¯s aura red softly and the ice on the wheelchair started to melt away before drying up almost instantly.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled, patting Attie¡¯s head as he smiled up at her.
"Can I do it too?" Celeste asked after taking a moment to calm herself.
"You can. But it takes a bit of training. Though I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be fine." Shiro reassured since using killing intent wasn¡¯t that difficult.
With the two rested up, Nan Tian did a bit more training with them before stopping the session for now.
###
"Do we know how many hours until the relic appears?" Shiro asked as she was now sitting in themand room with everyone else in the party including Nan Tian since having an extra pair of hands would be helpful.
"The system hasn¡¯t said anything yet so we¡¯re not sure. But with how much the mana¡¯s increased, I think it¡¯ll appear in less than 12 hours. The surroundings have already started to change. The temperature has started to drop and some of the monsters roaming around were killed by the environment. The trees have beenpletely turned to ice and those that survive this environment are empowered with powerful ice abilities." Isilia replied as she had been looking at the reports. With the environment being so cold, it¡¯ll be difficult to fight without proper ice resistance.
"Hm I can make essories that give everyone ice resistance so I¡¯m not too worried about that. What about the corrosive aura, is it still there?" Shiro asked with a frown since that¡¯s her main worry.
"Yes it is. In fact, it¡¯s more powerful now. Previously, the drones could enter for roughly a minute or so but now they can¡¯t even stay in there for more than 30 seconds. Around the 10 second mark, the parts keeping it afloat starts breaking so it¡¯s more urate to say that the drones can only fly for 10 seconds in the aura." Isilia sighed.
"Mn... For now, I want Helion to gear everyone up with a decent set of armour. We¡¯ll be heading out tomorrow morning to find a good spot to watch everything that happens. If the corrosive aura doesn¡¯t disappear, we¡¯ll have no choice but to destroy everything in that area." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Estre knew what Shiro was thinking about.
Chapter 953 Last Few Hours
Chapter 953 Last Few Hours
"Man are you sure this is the ce? It looks barren as hell." A manined.
Traveling through a snow covered forest, a group of adventurers were making their way towards the twin mountain peaks while watching their backs in case a monster sneaks up on them.
"Yes I¡¯m sure. I had to search hard to find out where the Queens are going. Setting that aside, is the live stream working?" A man who was leading the group asked as a woman nodded her head.
"Yup, everything is going well. If it really is where the Queen¡¯s are, the stream will explode." Sheughed.
They had decided toe here since the leader mentioned a treasure apparently making an appearance in this area. They all had powerful stealth skills so they figured that they¡¯ll be able to either take a peek at it and look at the Queen¡¯s strength. That way, everyone could better understand the power a tier 6 holds.
Pushing aside a branch, the man could see a small clearing not too far from where they were. There weren¡¯t any trees there and he could see a makeshift path of sorts from the forest to the mountain.
"There isn¡¯t any cover that we can use so let¡¯s circle around. How¡¯s the maping along?" He asked.
Their group consisted of 6 members not including him. One scout, one assassin, two fighters/tanks, one healer and one mage.
"Six more rats. Why are so many of you appearing recently? This isn¡¯t a battlefield that you can be in." A feminine voice rang out as the group quickly enteredbat formation and attacked whoever was behind them.
Hearing the sound of tearing flesh, relief filled their hearts but it soon turned to dread as the wounds healed themselves in an instant.
"Well aren¡¯t you rude." The woman smiled as dragon heads exploded out of her body, consuming the tanks next to her.
*CRUNCH!!!
Hearing their bones shatter, the surviving members immediately ran away but just as they entered the clearing, their body started to melt away, leaving nothing.
With everything broadcasted on the stream, those that were watching were in disbelief since they were rtively strong adventurers who had made a name for themselves before the new age.
Dismissing the dragon heads, the woman smiled at the little camera the woman dropped before dying and realised what it was.
"Since you¡¯re that curious about us, I¡¯ll let you watch the fight." She chuckled.
Grabbing the camera, she ced it on a tree that gave them a good view of the mountains.
Leaving the area, she continued to survey the area.
The reason why she was hunting down every human she could see was because of what happened when she tried to establish another anchor.
The fact that two Queens and a human teamed up to push her back infuriated her as her eyes were filled with killing intent.
[Arnea ¨C Chimera Empress LVL 680]
Her main priority was killing the two that stopped her.
###
"Why are so many peopleing into the forest?" Shiro had a frown on her face since she could sense quite a few mana signatures entering the forest before disappearing. With only a few hours left, the number of people here started to increase.
"Someone must have spread the news. But I found something that you might want to look at." Nan Tian frowned.
Showing her a link to the stream, he reversed the video and showed her the moment Arnea appeared.
Seeing the Chimera Empress, Shiro furrowed her brows.
If the Empress is here, she¡¯ll need to be careful especially since it was one that probably had a grudge against her.
"That changes a few things. Though I suppose it¡¯s not too surprising considering the fact that everyone with a rank simr to Queen is notified. Hmm... we¡¯re heading out. Nan Tian,e with me, I want to talk to the Fallen before the relic appears. Maybe we can work something out." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Without any dy, the two of them left the city.
Entering the forest, Shiro surveyed her surroundings before activating the skill.
Masking it as a gust of wind, Shiro passed a message to the fallen that had met herst time.
Sitting on the tree, the two of them waited patiently while Shiro had her boundary activated. After a few days of practice, she used it to sense the things around her but it was still impossible for her to change it to defence.
With her boundary activated, there was a faint silhouette of sorts that still flickered asionally. However, the fact that she could now sense Ahmiya gave her some peace of mind.
"You¡¯re here." Shiro called out with a smile as the silhouette paused for a moment and didn¡¯t move.
"If you¡¯re going to stay silent then you might as well listen to what I say." Shiro chuckled.
"I want to work with the fallen since this rainbow relic could be very dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. If any of the Queens obtain this, all the people not under her ¡¯protection¡¯ will be targeted. We either team up and try to take the relic for ourselves or destroy it."
Hearing this, Ahmiya revealed herself as there was caution in her eyes.
"How do you n to take the relic? Do you know how many scouts the Queens have sent here now? I¡¯m guessing there¡¯s going to be more than 15 Queens in this fight a lot.
¡¯And an Empress too¡¯ Shiro thought, remembering Arnea.
"I n to take it by singling out the Queen who obtains the relic. I have a skill that forces them into singlebat with me and if we¡¯re able weaken her before I force her into singlebat, there will be a higher guarantee of obtaining the relic."
"And what if you just take the relic for yourself?" Ahmiya narrowed her eyes.
"You have the lie detection skill don¡¯t you? I can promise you that I don¡¯t n on using that relic for evil." Shiro smiled as Ahmiya nodded.
"Indeed. But seen as how you¡¯re able to detect me, what if you have a skill that hides your lies?"
"Well I wanted to show you a bit of my capabilities so you know that you¡¯re not losing out. But if you don¡¯t want to team up that¡¯s fine too since I¡¯ll be watching." Shiro crossed her legs with a smile.
"Hm... what benefits will you even give us if we team up. Sure your power might be strong to you but is it strong enough against this many tier 6 beings?" Ahmiya asked as Shiro shook her head.
"No but I can give you lot equipment. Weapons, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve seen this before the new age began. While it cannot kill them immediately, it should do a decent chunk of damage should you catch them off guard during closebat." Shiro smiled as she pulled out a hand cannon.
"I cannot demonstrate its powers out in the open, I don¡¯t mind giving you one for your group of fallen to test out. If you¡¯re interested, you can give me a call with this and we¡¯ll talk business. You might want to hurry it up though considering the fact that there¡¯s only a few hours left."
Narrowing her eyes, Ahmiya frowned.
"Give me a moment, I want to contact the one leading this little expedition of fallen." Ahmiya replied as she took out a phone.
"But before that, how can he see me too? I understand you since you¡¯re a Queen and your skills are strange but how can he see me too?" Ahmiya asked, pointing at Nan Tian.
"My eyes are a little special." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Mn." Nodding her head, she sent a message to her leader. After a few moments she looked up at Shiro.
"He said he wanted to meet you so that we can talk business in person." Ahmiya said with aplicated expression.
"Well isn¡¯t that interesting. Let¡¯s have a look at the one leading all of this then." Shiro smiled.
Nodding her head, Ahmiya gestured for Shiro to follow her.
Walking through the forest, Shiro noticed that a formation was put in ce but it was simr to Ahmiya¡¯s ability, it waspletely hidden from the senses.
Walking through the ever changing scenery, Shiro suddenly realised that they were in a camp.
Widening her eyes, Shiro was immediately on guard since whoever set down this formation is an expert.
Looking around the ce, she could see a few curious eyes looking at her. While the system was unavable, Shiro could guess that their names were all grey from the aura they were radiating.
Without saying anything, Ahmiya led them towards the centre as there was a makeshift table with a hooded figure standing in front of it.
Seeing this hooded figure, Nan Tian was a little surprised before sighing softly.
Shiro was confused by this reaction but stepped forward regardless.
"So what weapons can you provide us?" He asked, not wasting any time.
Hearing the voice, Shiro widened her eyes since it was familiar.
"Raoul?"
Chapter 954 Vision of Danger
Chapter 954 Vision of Danger
Seeing the familiar face of the kid that gave her a backpack and was eventually known as a hero, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brows.
"What happened, why are you fallen? Where¡¯s Jonas?" Shiro asked as Raoul took down his hood, revealing his face that was scarredpletely on the left side.
Looking at the scar, Shiro realised the aura. It was a simr aura to the scar on her back in the future.
A corrupted wound that could not heal no matter what she did. A scar of defeat.
"Jonas died." Was Raoul¡¯s response.
Seeing his expression and hearing his tone of voice, Shiro flinched in her mind as it reminded her of herself when the Light Hero killed her.
"What happened?" Shiro asked with concern but he shook his head.
"It doesn¡¯t matter. Setting that aside, I heard that Ahmiya said you could arm us with weapons." Raoul shook his head as there was only one goal left in his life. To kill the one who tortured his teacher in front of his eyes.
Sensing the killing intent leaking out of his body, Shiro sighed heavily. The shy kid that had brought her the bed was now long gone. All that remains is a killing machine that will lose his sanity once his goal has been reached. Since the gods have not appeared yet, Shiro knew that his goal could be probably aplished soon.
¡¯A real shame.¡¯ Shiro closed her eyes before looking back at Raoul.
"Yes I can. I can provide the fallen with weapons that can deal a decent chunk of damage to tier 6¡¯s should they be caught off guard." Shiro replied.
"How many weapons can you provide and are there any that can possibly destroy the Queen¡¯s in one go?" Raoul asked but Shiro shook her head.
"I can provide weapons to everyone here. However, I cannot kill a Queen in one go." Shiro shook her head as Raoul furrowed his brows.
"That¡¯s fine then. If you want to join the fight with us, you can. Otherwise we just need the weapons." Raoul nodded.
Providing a decent amount of weapons for everyone here, ranging from bracelets with skills to snipers and cannons, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel like she was a weapons dealer now.
Though to be honest that¡¯s what she had done in the future so it wasn¡¯t too strange.
Her main concern was still what happened to Jonas for Raoul to turn this way.
Plus, she was also curious about his scar down the face since it might give her an idea of who did the same to her in the future.
As they were distributing weapons, Shiro was surprised at the sheer number of fallen gathered here. Each of them radiated a malevolent aura as Shiro guessed that they were either around the peak of tier 5 or some of them even being tier 6¡¯s.
"Raoul, can I ask you about what happened? What caused you to be fallen and what¡¯s that scar on your face?" Shiro asked as Raoul paused.
"I just want to get revenge for Jonas. Nothing more nothing less. The scar is just a mark of shame. That Empress left me alive even though she could have killed me easily. Knowing her personality, there¡¯s no way that she¡¯ll leave a relic this powerful alone." Raoul narrowed his eyes as Shiro frowned.
¡¯Another Empress. He¡¯s either talking about the Chimera Empress or someone else of the same rank is here. With two Empresses not including me, this battle is going to get crazy.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown as Nimue agreed.
{I would say that we should just bomb everything now but I doubt it¡¯ll work.} Nimue sighed.
¡¯Mn, plus it¡¯s a good chance to see their powers for ourselves. Even if it¡¯s a little risky, I want to gather as much information as I can. Even if we don¡¯t retrieve the rainbow relic, as long as we destroy it while gathering information, I¡¯ll say it¡¯s worth it.¡¯
After distributing the weapons, Shiro talked to Raoul about how many Queens were here along with their power. It seemed like he had already found out that the Chimera Empress was here hence why they were camping out a little further away than he had hoped since going intobat now would be akin to setting a whole storage of bombs alight.
The chain reaction would be disastrous.
Naturally, the ones to start this will most likely be killed first.
As they were distributing weapons, Shiro suddenly had a bad feeling in her heart.
Her vision started to distort for a moment as her surroundings was surrounded by a mass of flesh.
Eyes suddenly turned towards her as the mass of flesh writhed in anger.
In front of her, a single girl stood with corpses surrounding her body.
Blood tears flowed out her eyes as she looked back.
ck corruption markings could be seen on her body as the white hair fluttered in the wind.
Opening her mouth, she turned towards Shiro.
"By the authority of the primordial god of time, I shall turn back time. Return to a time before pandora¡¯s box was opened! Send a vision, a warning! The same mistake shall not be repeated!" The woman shouted out.
Strangely enough, Shiro could see a name tag turning ck as blood continued to flow from her eyes.
Her heart stopped seeing the name tag as it was her own. Surrounding her were the bodies of all those that she wanted to involve. Nan Tian, Lyrica, Silvia, Madison, Isilia, Helion and so on. Everyone was dead around her and the world was reduced to nothing but a giant mass of flesh with eyes looking towards her.
Her body was injured with open wounds but they were soon healed by this ck substance which flowed out from her body as her name tag was turning ck.
mming her hands together, a tier 8 magic circle red up as a pir of light shot into the sky.
Looking towards Shiro, her future self smiled and mouthed a few words before a blinding light filled her vision.
Flung back by an invisible force, Shiro crashed against the building as she threw up a mouthful of blood.
Shocked at what had just happened, both Nan Tian and Raoul rushed to her side in a panic.
Seeing that Shiro was unconscious, Nan Tian frowned and looked at Raoul.
"I¡¯m taking her back. If you need us, call this phone. Goodbye." Nan Tian said as he quickly swooped up Shiro into his arms.
Dashing towards the barrier, Nan Tian watched as Ahmiya opened a path for him.
Nodding his head in appreciation, Nan Tian didn¡¯t waste any time in making his way back to the city.
###
"What the hell was that!?" Gaia stood up as she couldn¡¯t believe what they had just saw.
"Chronos! Exin!" Nyx shouted out as Chronos was already chanting something under his breath.
mming his hands together, a single thread could be seen as there were small extensions. One of which is snapped in two.
"This is definitely a sign of my power. I don¡¯t have knowledge on what had happened but the following fight is disastrous. That mass of flesh we saw, it¡¯s definitely a tier 8 being." Chronos replied with a serious expression on his face.
Hearing this, both Nyx and Gaia were worried about what was going to happen.
"How far in the future is that?" Nyx asked as Chronos furrowed his brows and opened his mouth.
"8 hours."
"Only 8 hours?" Nyx crossed her legs as she tapped her finger on the table.
"Chronos, since she¡¯s used your power in the future, I¡¯m guessing her charge of the rainbow item has decreased by one." Nyx asked as Chronos nodded.
"I can no longer sense my power on the item. She has used my power along with summoning me. But it seems like it was a failure. It¡¯s unfortunate but until the second part of the new age, I can no longer help her out." Chronos shook his head.
Hearing this, Gaia scratched her head in annoyance since Chronos¡¯ power was one of the more helpful ones. Had Shiro summoned Chronos, it would have meant that Chronos could easily stop time and yet he still failed when Shiro summoned him.
Biting her nails, Gaia looked at Chronos.
"Can you show us what happened in the future where it was cut off?" Gaia asked but Chronos shook his head.
"It¡¯s already been shown. What Shiro saw was everything that could have been sent to the past. Which means I was either heavily injured in 8 hours time. Or..." Chronos trailed off before sighing.
"Or I might have been killed for such little information to be sent."
Hearing this, the other gods stayed silent as they didn¡¯t think the first rainbow grade item on earth would cause the death of a god.
Thinking about it for a moment, Gaia stood up.
"Nyx, I might need to borrow something from you." Gaia said with seriousness as Nyx frowned.
"Even if you manifest yourself in your true state there¡¯s not much you can do if you don¡¯t know the danger. Even old man Chronos was killed, what makes you think that you¡¯ll be safe. Plus, what do you think will happen should you return once you breach this? Just watch for now, I¡¯ll think of something." Nyx narrowed her eyes as she watched the screen with anxiety.
Chapter 955 Fading Corruption
Chapter 955 Fading Corruption
Looking around her, Shiro didn¡¯t know where she was. Thest thing she remembered was seeing a vision of the future with her friends dead around her before something mmed into her body, forcefully knocking her out.
Walking around for a little while, Shiro wanted to look for an exit since the relic was about to appear soon and she didn¡¯t want to miss the start.
Suddenly, chains erupted out from the ground as eyes started to appear.
Locking on to Shiro¡¯s body, the mass of flesh narrowed its eyes.
"You cannot... prevent my birth. The power of Chronos is only temporary." It spoke directly into Shiro¡¯s mind.
"Is that so. What are you?" Shiro asked. There was a strange calmness in her heart, it was as though she knew that this flesh couldn¡¯t hurt her at this moment.
There was no fear and all that remained in her heart before this mass of flesh was curiosity.
However, rather than answering her question, Shiro watched as the mass of flesh slowly dissolved into ck ash before disappearing.
Sensing a bit of danger behind her, Shiro ducked down and watched as a sword missed her head.
ncing back, she could see Nan Tian¡¯s pained face which confused her since he should be dead but there was the crest of Nyx and Gaia on his body.
Looking down, she noticed that her body had changed. There was ck corruption spreading all over her body and the world around her had now changed. Asharia was destroyed in the background as waves upon waves of nanobots consuming the world with each passing second.
"Eh?" Tilting her head in confusion, Shiro felt eerily calm as her body seemed to move on its own.
Waving her arm, a pair of jaws manifested underneath Nan Tian as he quickly stomped down and destroyed the jaws before dashing towards her.
Pain filled his face as he swung his sword with the intent to kill her.
While she was surprised, Shiro couldn¡¯t do anything as her body moved to dodge each strike.
The scene felt surreal as it was akin to watching a movie. She knew what was going on but couldn¡¯t do anything to affect what was happening.
"This wasn¡¯t supposed to happen." Nan Tian said with gritted teeth.
Gripping his sword, tier 8 runes started to appear on the de as Shiro felt her body weaken.
Mana and divine energy seemed to leave her body as a tether could be seen connecting her body to the sword.
Nan Tian¡¯s hands trembled as hesitation appeared in his eyes but Shiro opened her mouth.
"Do it."
Hearing these words, Nan Tian stabbed down with his sword, severing the tether as Shiro¡¯s vision went dark.
Regaining control over her body, Shiro looked around once more.
Despite being confused and curious about everything that was happening, there was an overbearing calmness which suppressed all of her other emotions, preventing her from speaking out.
"Are you sure this is everything you want to send to your past self?" A voice rang out as Shiro recognised it to belong to Chronos.
"Yes. Along with this message." Shiro¡¯s own voice replied.
Appearing in front of her, was her fallen state who looked at her with a small smile.
"Whatever you do, do not use the void bomb. The power of the void is what causes that creature to grow. Estre cannot participate in this battle." Her fallen self warned as everything turned to ash.
Standing there, Shiro was silent.
There were faint ck tendrils flowing out of her arms as she could see her name tag slowly turning white again.
Opening her eyes slowly, Shiro could see that she was in the medical ward located in the main tower of Asharia.
Sitting up, she furrowed her brows as her heart grew heavy.
Everything she saw was a vision of the future and her future self turned back time using Chronos¡¯ power.
¡¯The power of the void is what causes it to grow... How else can I destroy the relic then.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown as she looked down on her hands.
She didn¡¯t know if it was an illusion or not but there was the faint flicker of corruption on her fingers.
Clutching her fists, Shiro sighed as her body was still damaged. She still couldn¡¯t feel anything.
Hearing the door open, Shiro nced to her side and saw Nan Tian walking.
Seeing that Shiro was awake, he sighed in relief.
"Are you feeling ok? Does it hurt anywhere?" He asked while sitting next to her.
"I think you forgot the fact that I can¡¯t feel anything right now." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian scratched his head.
"True. So what happened? You suddenly passed out." He asked with worry in his voice.
"It seems like something has gone wrong in the future. My future self used a charge of this item to turn back time with the help of Chronos." Shiro said as she pulled out the two rainbow grade items that she was in possession of.
Hearing this, Nan Tian frowned as Shiro started to recall everything she saw. How the mass of flesh devoured the world and how everyone was killed.
"Before Pandora¡¯s Box was opened?" Nan Tian muttered as that was what her future self had shouted out when activating the ability.
"Mn, seems like there¡¯s more to this relic than I had imagined. I¡¯m not sure what the Light Goddess had nned asking me toe here but I didn¡¯t think it would be this bad. What do you think her goal is?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"I don¡¯t know. What else do we know about this?" He asked.
"Apparently the power of the void causes it to grow. I won¡¯t be able to use the void bomb in this fight and Estre might need to sit it out too." Shiro sighed while checking the time. It had only been 4 hours in she had passed out in the fallen camp.
Thinking about it, Shiro stood up.
"We¡¯re definitely destroying this thing. We can¡¯t use the void bomb so I¡¯m going to make a new blueprint. A proper cannon from space. It might harm my body but it¡¯s better than everyone dying." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Nan Tian grabbed her wrist.
"What¡¯s the point of everyone surviving if you destroy your body? If you¡¯re making something from space, at least let me help." Nan Tian frowned as Shiro looked back.
Opening her mouth, she was about to reject it but hesitated. Most of the time she had put everything on her own shoulders when it was a dire situation. The main reason was because the other¡¯s would be in more danger than her should they join.
But the same couldn¡¯t be said for Nan Tian. He was also tier 6 with the power over light. The same applied to Madison, Isilia and Lisandra.
"Alright. Call Madison, Isilia and Lisandra over. We¡¯re going to be using the remaining time to create a weapon that requires four tier 6¡¯s to power. Send Asharia away from here since the st radius might destroy the city." Shiro replied as Nan Tian smiled.
"Understood."
While Nan Tian was calling the three to themand room, Shiro sent an avatar to the fallen camp, warning them of what¡¯s going to happen and how they should evacuate before everything is destroyed. She wasn¡¯t going to take any chances.
However, there was one thing that bugged her.
Why would the light goddess warn her of all this when the system would have contacted her regardless. What did she gain from telling her about this?
Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to set this aside for now since she¡¯ll kill the two of them eventually.
"Nyx, you¡¯re watching right now aren¡¯t you? I¡¯m nning on using the upgraded ascension skill to reach tier 8 and fire this weapon. Which god would be good for empowering this attack? I know I can¡¯t use Chronos anymore due to that vision of the future." Shiro called out as a faint figure appeared in front of her.
"Honestly, it depends on what you want to do. But I have to warn you. Using the upgraded ascension to reach tier 8 AND the power of the primordial gods will destroy your body." Nyx frowned.
"Yes but it¡¯s better than whatever that mass of flesh is to awaken. I¡¯m not sure how much firepower I need but I¡¯m not taking any chances." Shiro frowned as Nyx nodded her head.
"We know. We can tell you that the enemy when awakened was able to kill Chronos in the future. There¡¯s a good chance that it¡¯s tier 8 in strength. But it should be suppressed right now, as long as it does not awaken you should be good."
"Tier 8 in strength?" Shiro furrowed her brows before looking down at her hand.
"That¡¯s fine, I have skills to target the core of a tier 8 being. It¡¯s a good chance to test it out since I n on killing gods in the future." Shiro closed her eyes before opening them with determination.
"Alright, the most we can do is to reinforce your body once you reach tier 8. Any more and we¡¯ll be doing more harm than good ok?" Nyx sighed as Shiro smiled.
"Thanks for the help." Watching Nyx¡¯s body disappear, Shiro looking into her mana realm.
"Error get ready for a big meal."
Chapter 956 Super Weapon
Chapter 956 Super Weapon
Standing in themand room, Shiro looked at everyone that was going to be involved in the construction of this new super weapon.
Nan Tian, Madison, Isilia and Lisandra.
"What¡¯s going on? Seeing as how you rarely have this kind of expression, I¡¯m guessing things aren¡¯t good." Madison frowned since she had a bad feeling in her heart.
"You can say that. We¡¯re making a weapon that will obliterate the relic. We can¡¯t let it survive." Shiro replied as Isilia furrowed her brows.
"What happened?" She asked, understanding that Shiro must have gotten new information for her to make such a change in thoughts.
"I saw a vision of the future and it doesn¡¯t look good. If we let the relic ¡¯survive¡¯ it¡¯ll kill everyone here no exceptions." Shiro replied as she flexed her finger. Creating a hologram of sorts, she showed them what she had seen.
A world of flesh as everyone was dead around Shiro.
Seeing this vision, all four of them felt their heart sink as it seemed so unlikely yet Shiro was not one to joke around something like this.
"In the future, I used Chronos¡¯ power to turn back time and send a vision to myself. No matter what, we have to destroy this relic. The only thing I know thus far is that the power of the void causes it to grow so Estre won¡¯t be participating in this battle." Shiro exined as Lisandra frowned.
"If the power of the void makes it grow, do you think it¡¯s something born from the void then? Estre controls such beasts if I remember correctly." Lisandra asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"I do remember. However, this is something that could reach tier 8 in terms of power. In the future, it killed Chronos."
"Wait tier 8??? I thought they were only going to appear in thetter half of the new age. Why is there one here now?" Madison asked in confusion.
"I don¡¯t know but it seems logical considering the fact that my own rainbow grade relics can summon forth the power of the gods. Regardless, since it might be tier 8 immediately, I¡¯ll be using my skill to forcefully raise my tier to god level and activate the weapon. The blueprint that I¡¯ll be making is one that will focus the power onto one spot rather than a huge area since that¡¯ll waste a lot of energy-"
"Stop, if you force yourself to reach tier 8 doesn¡¯t that mean your body will be damaged more than it already has? Rememberst time you raised yourself to tier 8?" Nan Tian asked with worry.
"Don¡¯t worry I know. However, the primordial gods have alreadye to an agreement that they¡¯ll be reinforcing my body as much as possible during that moment." Shiro replied, understanding his concern.
"It¡¯s a risk you know. We¡¯re going to be the first ones to attack which means attention will be ced on us." Isilia frowned as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know, but it¡¯s better than having the Queens preparing a barrier once they realise what we¡¯re going to be doing. The current n is to use the remaining time to construct a super weapon out in space. With Nan Tian and Lisandra harnessing the power of the sun, I¡¯ll need you Madison, to embed some of your berserk skills into this weapon so that the power is enhanced. Isilia, you¡¯ve made a fake dungeon before right?" Shiro turned to her friend as she nodded.
"I have but it¡¯s not exactly beneficial in terms of rewards."
"That¡¯s fine, I only want to use them as batteries. If we can slot this weapon with as many dungeons as we can, I can use them as containers for energy. Condense it to the limit before focusing all of that energy into the main cannon. How many dungeons will you be able to make?" Shiro asked as Isilia scratched her head.
"You know that to make a dungeon I¡¯ll need items or materials from the host world/garden. Plus, with what you¡¯re thinking about, we¡¯ll need a ce that can actually host something up to tier 8. If not, the space within the dungeon will break apart much sooner than you¡¯ll expect" Isilia sighed.
"Don¡¯t worry about that. I have a world in mind, it¡¯s a ce called the forgotten realms and it¡¯s filled with the power of the primordial gods. I have something that did belong to that world so we can use this as a catalyst. It¡¯s a soul, would that work?" Shiro asked as Isilia nodded.
"That¡¯s fine, I just need a small piece of it then. Once I get a piece, I should be able to trace it back to the original realm and begin construction on dungeons."
"How many can you make in around 2 or 3 hours then?" Shiro asked.
Furrowing her brows, Isilia opened her mouth.
"Depends. Are we doing hundreds of small dungeons or a few big ones?"
"Which one is easier in time? The main goal is for all the dungeons to hold energy and act as giant batteries."
"It¡¯ll be easier to go with the hundreds of smaller ones then. Since I can produce several at the same time. Since it¡¯s smaller, I don¡¯t have to worry about bncing it out as muchpared to giant ones. If I¡¯m given three hours, I can roughly make 50 to 100 give or take." Isilia replied after a pause.
"What if you were to get Aarim to help? I would say Estre but all of her abilities are tied to the void so her assistance might make this useless." Shiro asked.
"With Aarim¡¯s help... 75 to 125. But that¡¯s a good estimate. Depending on what happens, it might even slow things down a little." Isilia replied with a frown.
"Hmm... that¡¯s fine then. You¡¯ll work on that solo and get us as many dungeons as you can. Are you able to make the entrances portable? That way I can install it on the weapon once it¡¯s ready." Shiro asked.
"I can. I¡¯ll send you the gates via teleport node once I¡¯m finished with them."
Nodding her head, Shiro mmed her hand down and summoned thentern.
"How much of my soul will you be taking?" The Ancient Terror asked as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Well aren¡¯t you cooperative."
"I saw the hologram. I¡¯m not that stupid to work against you right now." He clicked his tongue as Shiroughed.
"With the way you¡¯re going, I might even give you a name soon."
"I already have a name!"
"Tell meter. Regardless, Isilia, he¡¯s all yours." Shiro shrugged, passing thentern over to Isilia.
"Mn, it¡¯ll only take a few seconds."
Snapping her fingers, a dense array of magic circles appeared around the room as a faint figure of the ancient terror appeared.
Swiping down horizontally, a piece of his arm was severed off.
A faint tether appeared as the magic circles started to glow with a golden light.
"You won¡¯t be able to find the forgotten realm with just his soul since the ce is a little special. I¡¯ll give you a key." Nyx¡¯s voice rang out weakly as the party was surprised for a moment.
Within the dense array of magic circles, a crest started to form itself as the tether was strengthened.
"Alright, I¡¯ll work on the dungeons now." Leaving the room with a golden orb of light in her hands, Isilia hurried off.
"What about us then?" Madison asked.
"We¡¯re going to space." Shiro smiled.
###
Laying her head on the table, Nyx¡¯s face was a little pale as she was trying to catch her breath.
Patting her head, Gaia let Nyx rest for a moment.
"What can we do on our end?" Gaia asked since she was worried that even with all of their firepower, they might not be able to kill the relic.
"Do you think we can perhaps try to rope in other gods to assist us?" Chronos asked.
"Since they¡¯re using the power of the sun, it might be helpful if little Helios gave them a hand." Tartarus smiled as Ouranos nodded his head.
"Yes but doing so means he¡¯ll be suffering some bacsh from the system. Do you think he¡¯ll agree?" Chronos asked.
"Just tell him that Shiro is Zeus¡¯ enemy. The more Shiro seeds, the more annoyed Zeus will be and the happier Helios will be." Ouranos shrugged.
"Let¡¯s just scam him then. He doesn¡¯t know how important Shiro is. Once he helps, he can¡¯t stop. At most, he¡¯ll think it¡¯s a mortal that annoyed Zeus since he doesn¡¯t pay much attention to what¡¯s been happening." Tartarus smiled as Ouranos and Chronos nodded their heads in agreement.
As the three discussed with each other on how to scam more gods into helping Shiro without the bacsh, Gaia couldn¡¯t help but look at the three with disdain. They were acting like shopkeepers trying to get a few extra gold rather than gods since they were casually talking about how to scam others.
Rolling her eyes, Gaia started to think about ways to help Shiro out as well.
Chapter 957 Space
Chapter 957 Space
"How will we even get to space?" Madison asked as the four of them walked through the corridors of Asharia¡¯s main tower.
"I¡¯ll teleport us up there. Naturally, I¡¯ll be providing suits to keep us from dying. I¡¯m not sure how the space herepares to the one Asharia had but if I recall correctly, there was a barrier that prevented things from reaching into space. There was a trick to piercing this barrier so I might have to try to figure that out first." Shiro shrugged as a hologram of a weapon started to construct next to her.
She would nce at the bar at the top before frowning and scrapping the idea and starting anew.
"I¡¯ve already started the construction of theunch pad towards the south end of the tower. We¡¯ll be doing a few testunches then I¡¯ll send a node out there for convenience." Shiro smiled.
"Is there anything we can do while we wait then? Maybe help construct some of the parts of the weapon first." Nan Tian asked as Shiro scratched her head.
"Actually I¡¯m working on the blueprint now. Until I find a proper blueprint that will work, we¡¯re going to be using our time to get to space instead." She replied.
"In that case then why don¡¯t I help you. I¡¯m not familiar with how you use nanobots to construct things but if you want me to bnce out the energy usage while making sure that everything won¡¯t copse, I can certainly give it a go." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, I¡¯ll make you a terminal so that we can work on it at the same time."
"As for you Madi, I guess you can experiment on focusing your power into this module. I need you to have some prior experience before getting you to power a part of this weapon."
Throwing Madison a small orb, Shiro looked at Lisandra.
"As for you Lisa, I want you to see how much authority you have over the light. We¡¯ll be using the power of the sun so you¡¯ll be helping Nan Tian with focusing that power. Once you¡¯re done experimenting, I want you to send me a report so I can keep that in mind."
"Got it."
Snapping her finger, a new doorway appeared as the three saw the newly constructedunch pad with Nanobots already building rockets that Shiro was going to send to space.
To the left was an open area for Lisandra and Madison to practice and to the right was the terminal with an ever changing hologram of a weapon that had tens of new parts added and taken off with second.
Seeing this, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but shake his head. She was able to make everything here while talking to them and constructing hundreds of new blueprints every second.
She wasn¡¯t holding anything back as she pushed her mind to the limit.
Staying silent, Nan Tian made his way over to the terminal and started to work on the blueprint. With how quickly it was changing, it was difficult for him to keep up but eventually he got a hang of it.
Naturally, Lisandra and Madison didn¡¯t waste any time either since they knew that there was only a few hours left till the relic appeared.
Cracking her neck, Shiro smiled seeing that everyone was working hard.
Snapping her fingers, a rocket appeared in front of her as it was the same one she used to prate the barrier back in Aria.
A holographic terminal appeared in front of her as hexagonal barriers surrounded the chambers, preventing theunch from effecting the three that were working hard.
Launching the rocket, Shiro activated a camouge so that it couldn¡¯t be spotted.
Watching the rocket increase in speed, tier 6 magic circles started to wrap around the engines as the rocket itself started to flicker from sight.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro could already feel that the rocket was facing some resistance.
¡¯There¡¯s a barrier already?¡¯ She thought with a frown since the barrier shouldn¡¯t be appearing for a while yet.
Turning a few dials before activating a few more tier 6 magic circles, the rocket bypassed the first barrier without any problems.
¡¯At least it¡¯s still the same as the one back in Aria. If we continue like this we should be fi-¡¯
Before she could even finish her thought, the rocket waspletely halted at the second barrier as the space around the rocket started to copse.
Watching as the rocket was crushed down into the size of a small box, Shiro frowned heavily since the second barrier was akin to an array. A wrong step and the area around willpress.
¡¯What the f*ck is wrong with this?¡¯ Shiro couldn¡¯t help but think to herself as the box that was the rocket was thrown back down to earth.
Waving her hand, the box dissembled itself as Shiro crafted a new blueprint immediately. It was one that would halt right after piercing the first barrier. It¡¯ll send out drones to scout out the second barrier and find a solution.
Sending the second rocket to pass the firstyer, Shiro started to decrypt the barrier. However, the rocket didn¡¯t evenst 10 seconds as it was crushed.
¡¯Tch, so if it doesn¡¯t move it¡¯ll get crushed as well huh?¡¯ Shiro bit her nail as she started to get annoyed.
Taking this as a personal challenge, Shiro allowed Nan Tian to work on the blueprint as she directed a bit more of her attention to making a blueprint.
###
"Why are there so many barriers?" Gaia asked curiously since this was a bit abnormal.
"Who knows. But the barriers seem to be acting like filters." Chronos muttered while looking at the barriers through the screen.
"What are they filtering out exactly?"
"Stars and constetions. There are constetions that allow other gods or high tier beings tomunicate with the mortal races. The barriers are probably to prevent them from calling out to them before thetter half. Though depending on the situation, mortals can get a nce into these constetions. I believe these barriers are also why divination exists within a small portion of people since they have the power to bypass theseyers." Tartarus smiled as Gaia nodded her head.
"Why don¡¯t you get Asteria to help Shiro then? Didn¡¯t she already give Shiro her blessings?" Nyx suggested as she was currently resting in a bed, still recovering from some of the bacsh.
"But she¡¯s hard to scam." Ouranos frowned as Gaia felt like a vein was about to burst.
"Stupid old man don¡¯t think about scamming every one we mention!" Gaiained as she had a vine hit Ouranos on the back.
"I¡¯ll go talk to her, she owes me a favour or two." She huffed, jumping off her chair.
"I¡¯ll be right back, I don¡¯t want to miss too many things after all." Gaia said as she opened a portal and disappeared.
"Goodness, violent woman. I don¡¯t even know how I put up with her all those years ago." Ouranosined as he rubbed his back with a frown.
"Who knows. Setting that aside, did Helios say anything? You did send an avatar to his pce after all." Tartarus asked with a smile.
"Yes, he¡¯s on board with the n. We just need to call him over when we need his help." Ouranos nodded as Helios was rather enthusiastic about helping Zeus¡¯ enemy. He was killed by Zeus after all.
"Do we have anyone else that is on board with the n?" Ouranos asked.
"As is eager about this too. I think he¡¯ll be able to help her open a passage to space." Tartarus smiled as he had contacted his old friend during this period.
"Oh that¡¯ll be a great help. Have you tried talking to Prometheus? He¡¯s a fan of mankind and isn¡¯t he an enemy of Zeus as well? Contact him and I¡¯m 80% sure that he¡¯ll help." Ouranos suggested.
"I¡¯ve already contacted him, don¡¯t worry, he¡¯s getting ready as we speak." Chronos chuckled.
"Is there anyone else?" Nyx asked but the three shook their heads.
"That¡¯s all we can rope in for now. We can keep trying but I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be able to get anymore. Time is running out too." Ouranos sighed.
"Give me a few moments. I¡¯ll go talk with my daughter. With her powers over day, I¡¯m sure she can give Shiro some help." Nyx sighed as she sat up.
"Are you going to talk to Hemera? Wasn¡¯t your rtionship with her a little... strained?" Chronos asked as Hemera had always worked against Nyx before.
"It¡¯s just a rebellious phase, don¡¯t worry about it. Plus, her husband has alreadye into contact with the party so I¡¯m sure Hemera wouldn¡¯t mind giving them a hand. I just need to rest for a bit before talking to her." Nyx sighed.
"If you¡¯re going to talk to your daughter, I might talk with Hyperion too." Ouranos muttered as Chronos nced over.
"Alright. Just be careful you don¡¯t get your nuts chopped off again by one of your children." Chronos nodded as Ouranos felt his vein burst apart by thatment.
Without saying anything, he entered a portal and left.
Chapter 958 Asteria, Gaia, Hemera and Nyx
Chapter 958 Asteria, Gaia, Hemera and Nyx
Looking around her, Gaia could see that she was in the middle of what seemed to be a sea of stars.
Constetions filled her surroundings as Gaia massaged her eyes.
"Asteria, I¡¯m pretty sure you know what I¡¯m here for." Gaia sighed as a woman appeared in front of her.
"Mn, it¡¯s about that white haired girl isn¡¯t it?" Asteria smiled. Right now she was wearing a semi transparent dress with jewels representing stars attached to the skirt.
"If you know then I¡¯ll skip the formality. We¡¯re going to need your help if we want her to reach space within the time she has." Gaia said seriously as Asteria thought about it before turning around.
"Nope."
Hearing this, Gaia narrowed her eyes.
"What do you mean by no." She asked.
"I¡¯m curious to see this future that might happen. The stars shifted around for a bit which meant the future changed. I want to see what you¡¯re trying so hard to hide." Asteria smiled.
"Didn¡¯t you give Shiro your blessing¡¯s? I¡¯m sure you don¡¯t want to see her journey end." Gaia asked with a frown.
"Oh but her journey doesn¡¯t end here. It keeps going. I want to see it no matter the oue, even if it might be bad." Asteria chuckled as Gaia¡¯s body matured to a.d.u.l.t form.
"I recall that you owe me a favour or two right?" Gaia asked as her aura started to surge.
"Maybe I do, maybe I don¡¯t. But regardless, you look quite hostile for someone who wants a favour." Asteria chuckled.
"Well only the oue matters. Even if the process is bad. If there is no goddess of stars, I wonder what will happen to the barriers that involve stars?" Gaia asked as her killing intent surged forth.
"I¡¯ll give you two choices. Either help us and repay this favour, or you can die and we¡¯ll get the job done regardless."
"Scary." Asteria smiled.
"What¡¯s your answer."
"Ooo that¡¯s quite the variety of choices huh? I¡¯m tempted to choose the second opti-"
Before Asteria could even finish her sentence, she was instantly petrified and crushed to ash.
Appearing in front of where she had stood, a tier 8 magic circle appeared around Gaia¡¯s arm as she tore the void in half, revealing a golden orb.
Before Gaia could do anything, a ray of light shot towards her forcing her to back off.
ncing behind her, Gaia could see a pale faced Asteria.
"Yeesh fine I¡¯ll help. No need to get this serious." She forced a smile as Gaia narrowed her eyes.
"Test my limits one more time. I dare you." Gaia warned as she opened a portal.
However, before she left, she turned Asteria to ash on more time.
Watching Gaia leave, Asteria sat down and leaned back.
cing her hand over her heart, she calmed her emotions.
"Even if she¡¯s the weakest of the primordial, she is still a primordial in the end." She muttered.
###
Feeling a sharp pain in her chest, Gaia gritted her teeth and red at the system.
"Yeah yeah, I know. I won¡¯t do it again." She rolled her eyes.
Healing herself, she teleported back to the ¡¯tea party¡¯.
"How was it? Did Asteria agree?" Chronos asked curiously as Gaia nodded.
"Mn, it took a bit of convincing though." Gaia replied as she nced over at the empty bed.
"Where¡¯s Nyx?" She asked.
"She¡¯s gone to talk to Hemera."
Hearing this, Gaia frowned.
"Are you sure that¡¯s a good idea?"
"Who knows, but since Nyx has chosen to do this, I¡¯ll trust her." Tartarus chuckled while crossing his legs.
"Hm.... How is Shiro doing?" Gaia asked.
"She¡¯s managed to break through a few barriers. Honestly, she¡¯s quite efficient in her work." Chronos smiled as Gaia nodded her head.
Taking a sip of the tea, Gaia smiled softly while watching the screens.
###
Walking into her daughter¡¯s domain, Nyx sighed since it was quite bright. Despite being a lesser known goddess, her powers were not weak since she is the daughter of a primordial.
"Hemera, I know you¡¯re there." Nyx called out with a sigh.
"You actually remembered me mother, I¡¯m so happy." A voice rang out as Nyx winced slightly before turning around.
Many may think that Hemera is happy go lucky but Nyx knew that Hemera was like everyone else. She just hides her negative emotions under a mask.
"Hemera.... How have you been?" Nyx asked with a forced smile.
"Mn? I¡¯ve been good mother. What about you? You seem to be more interested in this girl called Shiro rather than your own daughter, she must be a very interesting person then. You even went as far as to manifest yourself so many times to talk to her. Makes me wonder why I didn¡¯t get the same treatment." Hemera smiled as she started to walk around Nyx.
"I¡¯m... Sorry. Hemera, there¡¯s no excuse for me neglecting you bu-"
"Oh wow, you must be quite desperate to apologise to me of all people. I even remember you saying that you hated me and my divinity." Hemera raised an eyebrow as Nyx frowned.
". . .There¡¯s no excuse for what I did. I don¡¯t want to set it aside but time is short." Nyx clenched her fists as she wanted Hemera¡¯s help.
"Mn just give me an order like you did before. I can¡¯t disobey mother after all." Hemera smiled ¡¯happily¡¯.
"No. it¡¯s not an order. If you don¡¯t want to help you can say no." Nyx shook her head as Hemera stopped smiling.
"In that case then is there even a need for you to ask me? Because you know I¡¯ll say no." Hemera frowned as she disappeared.
Seeing this, Nyx sighed and opened a portal.
ncing back at the domain, she closed her eyes and walked through.
Watching Nyx leave, Hemera reappeared, gritting her teeth in annoyance.
Stomping the ground a few times, she huffed with tears appearing.
"I just wanted you to stay with me for a bit...." Hemera muttered while hugging her knees.
¡¯If I help this girl would mother stay with me more.¡¯ She thought to herself while looking at a screen, showing Shiro working hard on her blueprint.
###
"Any luck?" Chronos asked as he watched Nyx appear at the table and sit down on her bed.
"No." Nyx replied simply as Gaia could tell that Nyx was feeling a bit down.
Without saying anything, Gaia sat next to Nyx and hugged her.
"Say Gaia, how do I be a better mom?" Nyx asked with a sigh.
"Hmm... Honestly, Hemera just wants your attention in my opinion. I¡¯ve seen her a few times and she doesn¡¯t seem like a bad kid. She¡¯s not na?ve like others think. I think she just wants you to stay with her more since you¡¯re always doing something else. Now that the new age arrived, you¡¯ve been keeping an eye on what Shiro has been doing. I think it¡¯s ok to leave Shiro¡¯s observation to us and stay with Hemera often. Even if you don¡¯t do anything, staying next to her is better than what you¡¯re doing now." Gaia replied after thinking for a moment.
"I¡¯ll organise things for a while. You might as well stay with Hemera for a bit." Gaia smiled.
Hearing this, Nyx furrowed her brows since things were a bit tensed right now.
"But-"
"Do you trust us?" Gaia asked as Nyx paused before nodding.
"Then go do your job as her mum and leave the rest to us."
Hesitating for a moment, Nyx bit her lip before nodding.
"If anything goes wrong you must contact me ok?"
"Don¡¯t worry. Now go, Hemera is waiting for you." Gaia nodded.
Watching Nyx stand up and open a portal, Gaia gave her an encouraging smile.
After Nyx left, Gaia put on a serious face before walking over to the table.
"Alright, I¡¯ll be needing you two oldies to do something rather than just watch. You two are going to help me convince some of the gods in the pantheon to help." Gaia said as Tartarus looked up at Gaia with a raised eyebrow.
Thinking about it for a moment, he nodded.
"Sure, but we¡¯ll have to find those that can actually help at this point in time. I know Hades wouldn¡¯t mind but his powers wouldn¡¯t assist her at all right now. Plus, if it did, I would have given her my assistance." Tartarus shrugged.
"That¡¯s fine, I¡¯ve already got a list of gods. Juste with me." Gaia nodded.
Opening a portal, she gestured for the two to enter.
Looking at each other, Chronos and Tartarus chuckled before entering.
###
Meanwhile, Shiro had just finished another blueprint for the rocket. It has been an hour and a half since she¡¯s been making rockets and there was a good chance that this one will be able to break through all of the barriers.
Launching the rocket, she watched as it pierced through the barriers with ease. Biting her nail, she watched the statues nervously but this nervousness soon dissipated as she smiled.
The rocket was able to break past the final barrier and reach outer space.
Chapter 959 Entering Space
Chapter 959 Entering Space
Looking at the rocket that had broken past orbit, Shiro widened her eyes at the scenery.
A myriad of colours covered the sky as countless stars and unfamiliar constetions filled her view.
Despite seeing everything from a camera right now, Shiro could feel energy coursing through her body as her blessing of Asteria was being activated by the sight.
Ignoring the chaos that the new age had brought; this was truly a beautiful sight in Shiro¡¯s eyes as she stood speechlessly.
Shaking her head, she nced towards Nan Tian. Admiration for the sky cer since time was running out.
"How are you doing with the blueprints?" Shiro asked as she had finished her current job of finding a way into space.
"It¡¯s going... ok. A lot of these concepts are foreign to me so it¡¯s taking a bit to understand. But I¡¯d say it¡¯s around 40% done give or take. At the rate we¡¯re going, we¡¯ll be able to make it in time." Nan Tian replied while scratching his head.
"Mn that¡¯s fine. I found a way to space so we can start working on a practical model rather than just a hologram. Simtion is one thing but we can truly see how it works if I made a model of it." Shiro smiled.
"True. Speaking of which, why are you so fast at doing thispared to paperwork? I swear you wouldn¡¯t need me if you could do this with your paperwork too." Nan Tian chuckled.
*COUGH!
"Well paperwork is boring." Shiro muttered.
She felt more excited at the prospects of making a weapon that is fueled by the power of several tier 6¡¯s and a tier 8 rather than sitting down and doing paperwork.
Shiro understood that she needed to think about the consequences more so the chance of making a weapon like this and testing it was few and far between.
She needed to capitalise on this moment as much as she could!
Looking at how excited Shiro was, Nimue face palmed since her inner child was showing. Every time they worked on weapons or ughter, Shiro would begin acting like a child who had gotten a new toy.
However, thinking about this, Nimue realised a small problem. Just a small one.
If Shiro reaches tier 8 to create this weapon, the one that needed to deal with the aftermath and make sure that Shiro didn¡¯t die was her.
Widening her eyes, Nimue froze up in realisation as Attie waved his hand in front of her and furrowed his brows.
[Why is aunty not moving?] Attie asked as Iziuel chuckled.
[She just realised how much work she needed to do, don¡¯t worry. Just let her rest for now since god knows that she won¡¯t be able to soon.] Iziuel smiled as Attie nodded and followed Iziuel to another ind, leaving Nimue who¡¯s brain had crashed from the realisation.
Meanwhile, Shiro had started to pack up as she sent a message for Isilia toe to theunchpad.
"I¡¯m guessing you finished your job." Madison said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn I did. Once Isiliaes here, we¡¯ll be teleporting to space. I¡¯ll give you your spacesuits now since you¡¯ll need this. You might be tier 6 but you still need oxygen." Shiro smiled as Madison nodded.
"What about you? Didn¡¯t you say you¡¯re a demi god? Will you be able to go up there without oxygen?" Madison asked curiously as Shiro was crafting the suits.
"Hmm... that¡¯s a good question. I think my passive regeneration should be able to keep up. If I didn¡¯t lose the sense of touch, it¡¯ll probably hurt like a bitch though." Shiro replied after thinking about it for a moment.
Finishing the space suit quickly, she handed it to each of them. The spacesuit was quite simple as it looked simr to a set of light armour but more mechanised.
Once you equip the suit, a barrier would be deployed around your body, protecting you while the mask stored oxygen. There was a small teleport module inside the mask that extracted oxygen from earth so you didn¡¯t need to worry about running out.
There were more functions but they¡¯re mostly for safety. Shiro could activate these features remotely so they didn¡¯t need to do it manually.
Distributing the suits, Shiro could see that Isilia rushed over.
"I hope I¡¯m notte." She smiled while swiping her hair out of her eyes.
"Nope, you¡¯re just on time. How are the dungeonsing along?" Shiro asked.
"Oh it¡¯s going better than expected. This ce called the forgotten realms is quite strange. The amount of divine energy inside is ridiculous and even the smallest dungeon could hold as much energy as an average medium sized dungeon. Even though the dungeon size is ¡¯small¡¯ the capacity isrge." Isilia smiled as these would make excellent batteries. In fact, she was even beginning to feel a little fearful of what kind of weapon Shiro would create from all of this.
"Interesting... Well setting that aside for now, here¡¯s your suit and once you¡¯re ready, we¡¯ll be teleporting to space." Shiro smiled.
Nodding her head, Isilia quickly put on the suit that Shiro had given to her since she had donned this back in Aria so she was familiar with the process. With everyone suited up, Shiro snapped her finger and opened a portal to space.
"Ladies and gentlemen, as your portal conductor, I would like to congratte all of you. Once you step through this portal, you will be the first people to enter space after the world was integrated with the system. Have fun." Shiro grinned as the party rolled their eyes with a smile.
Stepping through the portal, they were overwhelmed with a sense of weightlessness as even the smallest movement felt huge due to theck of resistance.
Looking around them, they were in awe at the sight since this was clearly not the same sky they saw back on Earth. Looking down, they watched the blue silently. Despite the continents being jumbled up with newndmass filling the surface, they could still spot their country in the distance and smiled.
"Really makes you wonder doesn¡¯t it? In the grand scheme of things, we¡¯re just tiny people on this in the middle of a giant gxy. Though some of us are aplishing great things as we speak." Nan Tian smiled as he nced over at Shiro who was working at the blueprint, not taking another moment to admire this scenery.
"Mn? Oh right sure. You lot can enjoy this sight. I got a weapon to make." Shiro waved her hand as her eyes glimmered with excitement at the thought of her weapon.
Shaking his head, Nan Tian used his mana to control his body as he started to work with her on the blueprint.
"Isilia, I¡¯ll make the frame for now and you can install your dungeons onto them. If you need an office, I¡¯ll make you one now." Shiro said while ncing at Isilia.
"Yeah an office would be nice. Just a room will do since I have all the equipment in my inventory."
Nodding her head, Shiro flexed her fingers and made Isilia a room before floating away from the group.
Stretching her body, Shiro grinned as she mmed her hands together.
A tier 7 magic circle expanded out as nanobots started to appear in the area in front of her.
Looking at the waves of nanobots appearing, Madison blinked a few times to make sure she wasn¡¯t hallucinating since the size of this weapon was twice as big as Asharia! And it was still increasing!
"Wait wait wait wait, Shiro, how big is this weapon? Are you sure you¡¯re trying to destroy a relic and not a continent? What about the city near the relic?" Madison asked as Shiro nced back.
"Mn? I was thinking of making this just a ¡¯little¡¯ bigger. Don¡¯t worry though, I¡¯ll be focusing all of the power into a single point that will target the relic and nothing else." Shiro reassured.
However, Madison knew Shiro¡¯s dictionary and little didn¡¯t have the same meaning as the normal dictionary. To make matters worse, she was nning on multiplying the power stored within this super weapon before condensing it down.
Taking a moment to facepalm, Madison took a deep breath before sighing out and floated to one side. She was going to work on her berserk modules without disturbing anyone.
With the frame of the weapon being constructed, Shiro closed her eyes and started to n out everything that she was going to do since she¡¯ll only have a small window of time once she ascends to tier 8.
Chapter 960 Syradil
Chapter 960 Syradil
"Mn?" Furrowing his brows, Edvimar looked up at the sky and frowned.
"What¡¯s wrong?" I asked, ncing over in curiosity since Edvimar wasn¡¯t one to randomly look up at the sky.
"Nothing. I just felt a spike of mana but it disappeared quickly." Edvimar shook his head.
"Is that so?"
Shrugging my shoulders, I nced up at the sky as well before focusing on the camp. Edvimar had been setting up formations to keep us hidden for now since he mentioned that it might get a bit dangerous.
There have been a few fights breaking out nearby but we were lucky enough not to get drawn into it.
However, the most surprising thing is that we¡¯ve been getting a faint signal that would fluctuate. If we could somehow stabilise this signal, we¡¯ll be able to ess the inte and get some information about what¡¯s been happening around the world.
Feeling a tug on my shirt, I nced back and saw Eric writing something in the air.
[Someone ising here. They¡¯ve locked onto us.] He warned with a serious expression as I nced towards Edvimar who had already summoned a weapon as well as a suit of armour.
During this entire journey, I haven¡¯t seen him get this serious before so I knew the situation was dire.
Bringing out my own weapon, I called Nitha to my side and surveyed the area.
"Come out, I know you¡¯ve detected us." Edvimar called out as his right arm flickered with lighting. The faint silhouette of a magic circle appeared for a brief moment.
"I¡¯d advise you to go a little further away from here. There¡¯s an Empress roaming around this area and let¡¯s just say she¡¯s not too kind on travellers like you who have stumbled here." A voice rang out as we all turned towards the source and saw a young girl with ck hair and emerald eyes.
She had a man escorting her towards us as their levels were hidden. Even if I used Inspect, I couldn¡¯t see anything which meant that they had a disguise of sorts.
"What kind of Queen warns us about this kind of danger. Plus, if you wanted to warn us of this Empress couldn¡¯t you have warned the other¡¯s that had fallen to her hands?" Edvimar asked as he narrowed his eyes.
ncing towards me, he signalled for us to retreat but the likelihood of us surviving was low. Especially if she was a Queen like what Edvimar had told us.
"I would have liked to warn them but they were a little... how do I put it... Selfish? Greedy? You get the idea. But you lot seem to be here for a different reason so I¡¯m giving you a warning now. If you get caught by the Empress, you will all die to her hand. There is no exception unless you team up with another force. You might want to put more focus on your barrier, something half baked like this won¡¯t do anything." The girl smiled.
Snapping her finger, the barrier that Edvimar had created started to disintegrate as parts of the barrier was reced by strange runes which were unfamiliar to me.
"Who are you?" Edvimar asked as the girl thought for a moment.
"I¡¯m Misu, the undead queen. Now that I¡¯ve given you my name, why don¡¯t you give me yours." Misu asked with a smile.
"Edvimar. Just an injured elf looking for his wife." Edvimar replied as Misu raised her eyebrow.
"You¡¯re looking for your wife in this kind of area?"
"Mn."
"Well the only people here are Queens, Empresses or na?ve people who think they can participate in this kind of battle. Good luck finding your wife I suppose. She¡¯s either dead or a Queen. If she is indeed dead, I don¡¯t mind bringing her back for you. But if I do, you need to remember that she¡¯ll be an undead." Misu smiled as she turned around, preparing to leave.
"Ah, actually, if she is dead, there is one person here that can bring her back to life without any problems. A Queen going by the name of Shiro. If you do find her, just remember that she¡¯s one of the nicer Queens out there."
Waving her hand, Misu¡¯s body was engulfed by a green me as the two of them disappeared.
Sitting down, Edvimar panted for a moment as he dismissed his weapon and armour.
"We¡¯re lucky that the person who¡¯s found us is friendly." He muttered while examining the barrier.
"Let¡¯s turn back. Honestly, I think we need to go even further than this to be considered somewhat safe." Edvimar suggested.
"We can do that but first who¡¯s your wife? Like Misu said, the only people here are Queens Empresses or Na?ve people." Gordon asked curiously.
"My wife... Should be a Queen right now I believe. We¡¯ve been separated for a while so I¡¯m not sure about her current status. But from mytest information, she should be the Elven Queen." Edvimar replied as I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
"Elven Queen? She¡¯s the Queen of elves?" I asked as he nodded.
"Mn."
"Then that makes you the king then?" Gordon widened his eyes.
"Yes but that¡¯s in the past now. Though, being a king is not as morous as you think. It¡¯s just responsibilities that others don¡¯t want crowned with the title of king. It¡¯s best to just stay as yourself." Edvimar smiled before standing up.
"Regardless, let¡¯s move away from here since it¡¯s a little too close to the centre of everything." He suggested.
Nodding our heads, we started to pack up when I noticed Nitha being a little unsettled.
"Are you ok?" I asked, patted her head.
She was looking towards the twin mountains with caution.
Turning towards me, she used her ws to write on the ground.
[Someone. Dangerous. Powerful. Body is fearful.]
It was simple words but I was surprised. I could tell that the writing was simr to Eric¡¯s handwriting, so she had probably learnt it from him on the journey here.
However, my main concern was the fact that she felt fearful.
"Edvimar, you might want to see this." I called out.
Walking over, Edvimar frowned slightly before looking at Nitha.
"A monster¡¯s senses are many times sharper than an average person¡¯s. And even I can tell that Nitha¡¯s a little uniquepared to other monsters. If she¡¯s sensing something wrong then we need to take it seriously. Leave the stuff that we don¡¯t need. We¡¯re evacuate-"
Before Edvimar could finish his sentence, we felt an overbearing aura descend the entire mountain range as a single woman stood in the air space just outside of the twin mountains, revealing her figure to everyone that¡¯s watching.
Inspecting her, I immediately regretted it as I could feel her eyes lock onto my body.
[Syradil LVL 785 Celestial Dragon Empress]
###
A few moments ago...
A red haired woman sat on the top of a distant mountain overlooking the twin mountains and frowned.
"It¡¯s taking a damn while for the relic to appear isn¡¯t it?" She clicked her tongue as the woman besides her nodded her head.
"I believe the relic should be appearing in a few hours, your highness. Right now the entire area is filled with Queens and there has even been sightings of another Empress. We shouldn¡¯t make ourselves a target right now." The woman bowed as Syradil narrowed her eyes.
"Those weaklings weren¡¯t able to contest against me in the past, what makes you think they can now hm? Let¡¯s eliminate a few of them before the relic appears then." Syradil grinned as she disappeared from her spot before the woman could even protest.
Appearing in front of the corrosion area, she cracked her neck before unleashing her aura.
Immediately feeling a few eyes lock onto her, she smirked.
"The rat¡¯s have finally revealed themselves." She muttered.
Strangely, there was a human mixed in as she nced towards their direction.
Seeing that it was just a small group of people with an elf and a monster, she lost interest. Their auras were pitifully weak and she could kill them with a sneeze.
However, among the eyes that looked at her, she sensed a few Queens that seemd a little haughty.
Raising a finger, she swiped down as the space in front of her was ripped in half.
Teleporting right in front of the source of gaze, sheughed seeing the shocked expression of the Queen who took a step back.
"Yo~! Why don¡¯t you help me spark up a fight with the rest of them?" Syradil asked and reached out towards the Queen.
Gritting her teeth, the Queen mmed her hands together and formed a tier 6 magic circle. Metal erupted out of the ground as they pierced towards Syradil who didn¡¯t flinch at all and took a step forward.
"If you¡¯re going to even think about taking this relic, bring something better than just metal."
*CRACK!!!
Shrugging off the metal like they were tissues, she punched the Queen in the ribs as her hand pierced her body.
Grabbing hold of the Queen¡¯s spine, Syradil mmed her into the ground and tore her in half.
Throwing the corpse into the sky, she watched as it transformed into a pile of scrap metal before reforming together.
"Tenacious one. But that¡¯s fine, you can go revive yourself, I¡¯ll go y with others."
Cracking her knuckles, Syradil teleported to the next Queen she sensed and enteredbat.
Chapter 961 Meeting Misu
Chapter 961 Meeting Misu
Floating in space, Shiro furrowed her brows as she sensed that there was a battle breaking out near Asharia.
"What the hell¡¯s happening, the relic shouldn¡¯t be appearing for another hour or so." Shiro muttered quietly.
"Nan Tian, take over for me. I¡¯m going back to check up on something." Shiro called out but Nan Tian shook his head.
"Is it not better that I go have a look? Save your energy for this weapon since without you we won¡¯t be able to make it." Nan Tian replied as Shiro furrowed her brows before nodding.
"Alright, I¡¯ll open a portal for you. Asharia can¡¯t see anything right now but it¡¯s detecting spikes of mana nearby. Once you spot anything,e back and tell me what happened." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Watching the portal open in front of him, he walked through it andnded on the roof of the tower located in the centre of the city.
Pulling out his phone, he sent a message to the rest of the party.
"Let¡¯s see... that¡¯s everyone. Do you lot know what¡¯s been going on?" Nan Tian asked as everyone had teleported to themand centre using Shiro¡¯s teleport modules.
"Not yet. There¡¯s been a few signs ofbat but we weren¡¯t able to see anything either. I¡¯m afraid that if we were to go out now the location of Asharia might bepromised." Lyrica replied as Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"That¡¯s true. In that case I¡¯ll teleport Asharia away first. It won¡¯t be too far away but far enough so that it won¡¯t be dragging inbat. Once that¡¯s done, I want Chen Yu toe with me. We¡¯ll be scouting things out since he¡¯s proficient in stealth."
"What about the rest of us?" Silvia asked.
"You¡¯re on stand by for now since our enemies are potentially Queens." Nan Tian replied.
"Understood."
"Good, Chen Yu,e with me." Nan Tian said as Chen Yu flickered beside him.
Opening up a hologram in front of him, Nan Tian started to teleport the city roughly half a day¡¯s journey from this spot before dashing into the forest with Chen Yu.
Activating one of his skills, Chen Yu was able to include Nan Tian into his stealth.
Looking at the panic stricken faces of the monsters surrounding this ce, Nan Tian had a bad feeling.
*BANG!!!!
Hearing an explosion in the distance, the two looked at each other and nodded.
Slowing down their pace, Nan Tian crouched out a branch and wanted to peak out when a presence appeared behind them.
"I suggest you don¡¯t look at the one causing this damage since she¡¯s quite sensitive to people looking at her."
Hearing a voice behind them, Chen Yu immediately flickered from his spot and pulled out a dagger while Nan Tian summoned his sword.
"Ah don¡¯t be hostile, I¡¯m actually a big fan. You¡¯re the one who posted the video of that Queen reviving everyone with her spell aren¡¯t you?" The woman raised her hands as her eyes flickered with interest.
Furrowing his brows, Nan Tian looked at the woman in front of him.
She had long ck hair and green eyes along with a ck dress.
"Are you perhaps Misu, the Undead Queen?" He asked since he remembered Shiro telling him about her and how they met in the future. She was one of the few ¡¯good¡¯ Queens in this era.
"Oh? You know of me?" Misu tilted her head as Nan Tian nodded.
"We¡¯ve heard a few rumours." Nan Tian smiled, dismissing his sword as Chen Yu did the same.
"If you don¡¯t mind can you tell us what happened?" Nan Tian asked as Misu nodded her head.
"Of course. Let¡¯s leave this ce first since I don¡¯t know if that crazy Empress will be able to spot us." Misu nodded.
"Follow me, I¡¯ll take you to our temporary camp."
Looking at each other, Nan Tian and Chen Yu nodded their heads and followed after her.
###
"Right then, what do you want to know?" Misu asked with a smile.
She was currently sitting on a boulder since their camp was in a cave. Looking at the runes around the ce, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but feel as though they were a bit familiar but set it aside for now.
"What happened? We were busy at the time so we didn¡¯t see anything. All we know is that a fight has broken out." Nan Tian replied.
"Mn, well it seems like the Dragon Empress has gotten a little restless and decided to fight the Queens before the relic appears. If anything, I¡¯d say it¡¯s good for us. Though if you don¡¯t mind me asking, what¡¯s Shiro¡¯s goal in looking for this relic?" MIsu asked.
"What¡¯s your goal foring here when a rainbow relic is spawning?" Nan Tian smiled, not telling her about their goals just yet.
"Me? Well I was just here to look for Shiro. I want to make an alliance with her. I think she¡¯s trustworthy from the things I¡¯ve seen so far. If you¡¯re doubtful I can make a vow right now and prove it to you." Misu smiled as Nan Tian shook his head.
"No it¡¯s fine. We¡¯re not exactly going for the relic anymore."
"Oh? Did something happen?" Misu asked. Since they weren¡¯t interested, they must have gotten more information about this relic.
"Yes, the relic is a danger to everyone so our goal is to destroy it."
"Destroy it? Can you even destroy something as powerful as a rainbow relic?" Misu raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"You¡¯ll see. But you really aren¡¯t bothered about the relic are you?" Nan Tian chuckled.
"Nope. Honestly this might be the best oue. The power of a rainbow relic would throw the bnce in disarray. If a Queen obtains this, she¡¯ll be a target and the others will team up to kill them. Once she is killed, the cycle repeats so it might be best that a relic like this is destroyed." Misu shook her head.
"Mn, well this is how you can contact me. I need to report this information back to Shiro. As for the current fight, I think we¡¯ll watch for a bit longer. Making ourselves known will be quite dangerous." Nan Tian smiled as Misu nodded her head.
Watching the two leave, she turned towards her subordinate.
"Why so tense? She was just observing us." Misu smiled.
During that entire conversation, they could feel the gaze of a powerful Queen watching them and she could guess that it was probably Shiro since it only appeared after they made themselves known. Plus, this cave was supposed to filter out gazes like that unless they have matching runes so it proved that Shiro knew the runes from her world.
It was strange but Misu guessed that she probably found something in a dungeon.
"Anyways, let¡¯s survey the area some more. I¡¯m surprised that we found Shiro¡¯spanions so soon. Hopefully we¡¯ll be able to see her in personter." Misu smiled.
###
"Keep an eye on the city with everyone else, I¡¯ll go to Shiro and tell her about what¡¯s happening." Nan Tian said before opening a portal back to space.
Activating the suit once more, he stepped through the portal.
Seeing Shiro creating the weapon with sweat dripping from her face, Nan Tian was about to say something when Shiro opened her mouth.
"I saw what happened. I must say, I¡¯m surprised that Misu is a fan of me. In the future I saw, we were nothing but business partners with me acting as the weapons dealer." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded.
"With her having no interest in the relic, that¡¯s one less Queen for us to worry about. The main problem is the Dragon Empress." Nan Tian frowned.
"Mn, I know. The Ice Queen warned me about her in the past. Unless we can distract her when I fire my weapon, I think she¡¯ll try to block most of the power or perhaps even absorb it if she has a skill with a simr nature. Regardless, I want to make sure nothing blocks this weapon when it fires." Shiro sighed.
"If you want, when you fire the weapon, I can enterbat for a short while and stop her from leaving."
"That¡¯s quite dangerous. I was injured to this extent because I underestimated a subordinate. Your enemy is an Empress, I¡¯m afraid that even if I gave you some power, it¡¯ll be useless. Plus, I¡¯m working on this weapon too." Shiro frowned.
"Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t fight if I don¡¯t have to. She¡¯s currently fighting other Queens so I¡¯m hoping that if I do have to fight her, she¡¯ll be severely weakened." Nan Tian replied as Shiro thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"True. Setting that aside for now, help me with thisponent, it¡¯s a bit hard to bnce out."
"Sure."
###
Meanwhile, there was a lone figure in the void. A small portal of sorts was slowly opening but the speed was slow.
Looking through the portal, it could see the Queens fighting one another as it narrowed its eyes and smiled.
Chapter 962 Syradils Past
Chapter 962 Syradil''s Past
Sitting in front of the corrosion zone, Syradil narrowed her eyes with a frown since the Queens were hiding once more. None of them dared to even look at her so she couldn¡¯t find them.
¡¯Tch, what a load of cowards.¡¯ Syradil gritted her teeth.
When her world was transformed into a garden, she could remember how vtile the Queens were. Destroying cities that didn¡¯t submit to them with a casual wave of a finger.
She could still remember her days as a new Queen. Much like Shiro, she did try to surround herself with friends and allies. She saved those that needed to be saved and created sanctuaries to protect them from danger.
With her control over dragons, she had even trained up dragon knights that rode on the back of dragons into battle.
There were Queens that refused to make alliances and she was forced to kill them in the end since they were a big danger. But once her power was known, more Queens epted her offer. She was on track to clearing the garden.
But she gave them too much trust and they betrayed her in the end. Even with her power and friends that could stand with her, they were overwhelmed in the end due to the difference in the number.
Watching her army fall, they decided to die by her hand instead so that she could reach a higher level.
Closing her eyes, Syradil remembered the faces of everyone she had killed in her own world. Their looks of entrusting hope to her was imprinted clearly in her mind as she gritted her teeth.
After killing everyone, she reached the mythical level 1000 and was able to push back the assault.
She could remember their desperate faces after realising that they couldn¡¯t kill her after she reached level 1000 because of a single skill that she had obtained as a reward.
[Dragon Demi Goddess Physique]
+70% Damage Nullification
+70% Elemental Resistance
+60% Divine Energy Generation
+50% True Damage Nullification
+50% Adaptive Defence
There was more to the skill but these were the main benefits. With her getting 50% Adaptive defence, it meant that as long as she could hold out against a certain attack long enough, it¡¯ll be less effective on her.
Unfortunately, even if she couldn¡¯t be killed by them, she couldn¡¯t kill them either.
They avoided her like a gue and no matter what she did, she wasn¡¯t able to get rid of them and was forced to watch her world be engulfed by the mes of war.
As the world copsed in front of her, she was given a single offer by the system.
[Would you like to participate in the next garden selection?]
This question caused her heart to pound in anger as she realised that this was just one of many casualties in the universe under the pretence of garden selection.
Remembering the Queens that destroyed her world, she refused to let them live happily after everything they did.
After she epted the offer, she was given information about everything she needed to know. How to ¡¯win the new age¡¯ along with the rewards.
The promise that she could potentially bring back all those that she had killed pushed her on along with the wish of killing the Queens that destroyed her world.
However, no matter how many times she killed them, they would alwayse back in the next garden.
She tried to train people to be strong like her so that they could follow her to the next garden but unfortunately, no one was able to keep up with her destructive power.
Repeating this process over and over again, Syradil was always so close to victory but it was always just out of reach.
Then it happened.
[Adaptive Defence has activated.]
All of the erased memories came flooding back.
When she manages to be the final victor, the world will be destroyed.
The Queen that appeared in that host world was the only one given a chance at the rewards. Everyone else participating was just to act as a trial. The system had tricked her, she never had a chance to begin with.
She spent the next few garden runs trying to help the new Queen but they were never up to standard. They tried to surround themselves with allies and forgot to cultivate their strength to the limit then they died.
It felt hopeless. No matter what she did, good path, neutral path, evil path, everything ended in misery. Thepletion of the garden seemed to be impossible.
Then she had an idea.
If they couldn¡¯t kill the other Queens, why couldn¡¯t she do it? She¡¯ll take all the EXP, boost her level to the highest degree then let the Queens kill her so that they could end this cycle.
But that didn¡¯t work out.
After allowing a Queen to kill her, they became drunk on their power, thinking that they were number one after ying the Dragon Empress and died to the alliance of multiple Queens.
She tried to make it so that they were the only two Queens left but at that point the other Queen couldn¡¯t kill her even if she stood there and did nothing.
She tried to avoid obtaining the Dragon Demi Goddess Physique by limiting her EXP gain but without her killing the more dangerous Queens, the Host Queen died and the world ended.
She didn¡¯t know how many gardens she had entered but this one was going to be no different. She had already located the Host Queen. A girl named Shiro had her video broadcasted to the world, showing the sight of her saving people.
Seeing the same actions being taken, Syradil felt hopeless again.
Behind her fa?ade of a battle loving maniac that ughters everyone, she just wanted the system¡¯s cycle to end. Everyone had parts of their memory erased so each Garden felt fresh but for her it was just torture. She was watching the same thing happen over and over and over and over and over and over.
She didn¡¯t know how many years she had been stuck in this loop but the moment she pressed yes to the system¡¯s offer, she was bound.
The only one that could break the chain was the Host Queen. Or so she thought.
Then she found out a piece of news. This was thest garden, thest cycle. Before everything is reset.
It was either this Queen seeds or everyone died.
She could remember what she had done that day. Sheughed. She felt freed, a sense of joy washed over her mind as she could finally end her torture.
Even if she died for good, it was ok. At this point she didn¡¯t care anymore.
¡¯Let the world end for all I care!¡¯ Sheughed.
For the final run, she would do whatever she wanted. Do anything that came to mind. Kill the Queens that harmed her in the most painful way so that she died with pleasant memories. Deny the ns of eldritch beings that wanted to invade.
Nothing mattered anymore, it was thest run after all.
There was just one regret though, she was never able to figure out the system nor could she get rid of it.
Thinking about the system, Syradil could only describe it as a Venus Fly Trap.
It taunts you with its sweet scent before trapping and eventually killing you.
The moment you say yes to its offer, you have already signed your soul away.
¡¯Ah... I do wonder what the day after the end looks like. I¡¯ve seen nothing but dark skies and destruction now.¡¯ Syradil thought to herself while looking at the clouds that covered the sky.
Sighing softly, she stood up.
She was going to cause some more trouble.
However, just as she stood up, she felt a spike of mana from the twin peaks.
Tier 7 magic circles started to appear as fragments of tier 8 runes appeared around the magic circle.
Widening her eyes, Syradil paused in shock since it was arriving much earlier than expected.
¡¯Tch! There are still too many Queens around.¡¯ Syradil frowned.
Before she could do anything, she felt a presence behind her and nced back.
While her level was lower, the aura was simr in strength.
¡¯Chimera Empress, she¡¯s someone that came from one of the more recent gardens. She¡¯s an annoying one to deal with.¡¯ Syradil thought to herself. However, eliminating her now would be helpful since she bes annoying to deal withter.
"Arnea, seems like you want to fight. Why else would you reveal yourself in front of me?" Syradil smirked while cracking her knuckles.
"I thought it was someone else. You can fight other¡¯s if you want, I have a different target." Arnea nced away with disinterest.
"Ah is that so. Have fun then." Syradil smiled.
But just as Arnea turned around, Syradil flickered behind her and formed a w with her hand.
Suddenly, a dragon scale appeared behind Arnea as she blocked the strike.
"Fine I¡¯ll fight you." Arnea turned around with a frown but Syradil had lost interest.
"If you sent your main body away then this is nothing but a punching bag. F*ck off." Syradil clicked her tongue before snapping his finger.
*BANG!!!
A tiny orb of fire appeared in front of her as the body was charred to ash within a single instance.
Ignoring the Empress that had left, Syradil looked at the Twin Peak with a frown.
¡¯This is abnormal...¡¯
Chapter 963 Out of Time
Chapter 963 Out of Time
Walking towards Hemera¡¯s realm nervously, Nyx couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this was the right choice. It wasn¡¯t that she doubted Gaia but she wondered if all Hemera wanted was herpany.
It felt simple.
She was a goddess that had lots of people noticing her even amongst gods so the fact that all she wantedpany was a little surprising even for her.
However, she was willing to give it a go even if it was wrong since she had indeed neglected her daughter for too long.
Opening a pathway, she halted her steps when she saw Hemera sitting on the floor with tears in her eyes.
Feeling pain in her heart, Nyx didn¡¯t know what came over her mind but the next thing she knew she was already hugging Hemera who was sitting on the ground.
Opening her mouth, she muttered two words.
"I¡¯m sorry."
Without saying another word, she tried her best to calm Hemera down.
Surprised at her mother¡¯s sudden appearance, Hemera didn¡¯t think she¡¯de back and tried to stop her crying.
But no matter what her tears continued to fall. Since it was rare for Nyx to give her this much attention, Hemera decided to enjoy it for now.
¡¯It¡¯s not like she¡¯lle back for me anymore after this is done.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Staying in Nyx¡¯s embrace, it took her a while to fully calm herself as she took a few breaths before looking up at Nyx who had a pained expression on her face.
"Why did youe back mum? If it¡¯s about Shiro then don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll help." Hemera asked, preparing herself mentally.
¡¯Mum¡¯s probably going to leave now that her goal has been reached.¡¯ She thought to herself but to her surprise, Nyx sighed.
"Gaia¡¯s right, I¡¯ve been neglecting you too much. I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t know how to be a good mother and I¡¯m sure your siblings feel the same. I don¡¯t know what to say and I can be called dull in this area." Nyx sighed heavily as Hemera was surprised that her mother was being so open.
"If you want, you can join the rest of us while we¡¯re observing Shiro. She¡¯s the lifeline of the world right now so if she dies, everything else dies with her." Nyx offered since she couldn¡¯t exactly set aside her job of looking after Shiro.
Hearing this, Hemera felt like a vein was about to pop but considering the personality of her mother, it was already a miracle that she¡¯s trying to spend more time with her.
"Fine but after this new age is done and Shiro wins, you have to spend more time with the rest of us ok?" Herema pouted as Nyx raised her eyebrow before smiling and nodded her head.
"Hais, with how dense you are mother, we¡¯ll need to tell you what we want directly." Hemera said with a smile as she stood up.
"But that¡¯s fine, we got a few thousand years after the new age to sort everything out." She nced back and grinned.
Seeing this, Nyx chuckled softly before standing up.
"Mn, mother¡¯s a bit stupid whenes to parenting so you¡¯ll have to help." Nyx nodded before opening a portal to the tea party.
###
Scratching her head, Shiro furrowed her brows at the giant body of the weapon.
With all of theponentspleted, she just needed to bnce it out and install the dungeons that Isilia had created.
Once the dungeons were installed, they¡¯ll be able to fire this weapon.
While this weapon couldn¡¯t be seen from Earth due to the barriers covering the sky, Shiro could imagine that this would look like a second moon due to its cylindrical shape.
There was a single barrel that stretched for hundreds of meters. It had an array of densely packed machinery connecting to ports located along the body of the barrel.
Large coils could be seen behind the weapon as it had empty spots within them to fit the dungeons once Shiro installed them into the weapon.
Folded sr panels were fitted behind the coils as it would help them focus the sun¡¯s power into one spot.
Each meter of the barrel was filled with densely packed runes that Shiro had discovered through her life. All of them had only one goal and that was to amplify and concentrate all of the power within the weapon into a single spot.
Connected to the sides of the weapon were orbital rail cannons that would funnel their power into the main barrel.
Composed of 50 Orbital Rail Cannons, 100+ Dungeon Batteries, 100+ Folded Sr Panels of the highest efficiency. 50 Mk 7 Ambient Mana Absorbers and a myriad of otherponents, all she needed to do now was power the entire thing. However, aplishing this was going to be no easy feat as the energy required for this construct could power Asharia for a few months with it operating with maximum output and firing all of its weapons everyday.
She could only obtain the energy needed with the assistance of Divine Energy along with the party¡¯s help.
Furthermore, the power of this weapon will be multiplied once more after Madison applies her berserk skills.
Stretching her body, Shiro was about to prepare herself when she felt a sudden increase of mana from below.
ncing down, she widened her eyes seeing the swirl of power that was changing the world with each passing moment.
"What the f*ck!" Shiro shouted out in surprise as her outburst drew the attention of everyone else around her.
Looking down, they widened their eyes in shock since this was much earlier than expected. The weapon wasn¡¯tpleted and yet the relic was already appearing. Aiming for it would be much harder unless they¡¯re able to stop it from moving.
"This isn¡¯t good. Nan Tian, Madi, Lisa, Isilia! We¡¯re speeding up the preparation! Any more dy and I won¡¯t have a good shot of the relic!" Shiro shouted out as she mmed her hands together.
Closing her eyes, her aura red out as countless tier 8 magic circles appeared around her.
Golden chains appeared around her body as they started to break one by one.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro grabbed the chain around her neck and ripped it off with brute force.
Ascending to tier 8, her hair fluttered behind her as a silver aura surrounded her body.
mming her hand against the surface of the weapon, she started to flood it with energy as Nan Tian nodded his head and positioned himself at the back of the weapon.
Taking a deep breath, he mmed his hands together as hundreds of tier 6 magic circles appeared around him.
"Huh? Wait we¡¯re doing this now!?" Madison widened her eyes.
"YES! The relic is appearing! We don¡¯t have time anymore!" Shiro shouted out since there was no way in hell that she was going to let such a relic run rampant!
Seeing that Shiro was shouting, Madison didn¡¯t say anything else and nodded her head.
For her to shout, the situation was more serious than she had imagined.
Taking a deep breath, Madison activated every single berserk skill she was in possession of and funnelled its power into the weapon itself.
Layers uponyers of tier 6 magic circles appeared on the barrier as the energy started to amplify even before firing.
Closing her eyes, Shiro controlled all of the energy to flow towards the dungeon batteries so that she can condense everything at once rather than in a flow.
There wasn¡¯t much time to do the bncing so she could already hear the structure of the weapon creek. However, since she was now a god of nanotech, she could reinforce the weapon to the limit.
Snapping her finger, the creaking stopped immediately as a golden crest appeared on the side.
###
Arriving at the tea party, Nyx was about to say something when she realised that Shiro was already charging the weapon.
"What the hell happened when I was gone???" Nyx asked as she quickly jogged to the table and looked at the screens while Hemera followed behind her with a serious expression since her mother wasn¡¯t one to get fl.u.s.tered like this.
Little did she know, Shiro had already caused her to be fl.u.s.tered on more than one asion.
"The relic is appearing much earlier than expected. The Dragon Empress has pushed back a few Queens but there are still plenty more around the ce." Chronos replied as Nyx furrowed her brows.
"Call all the gods that are on our side, we¡¯ll need their help now!" Nyx ordered as Chronos nodded his head.
"Hemera, could I trouble you to help that man in this video? He¡¯s the one focusing the light so he¡¯ll need your power." Nyx asked as she pointed at Nan Tian.
"Sure." Hemera smiled.
Walking a little further away from the table, Hemera closed her eyes as a golden radiance appeared around her body.
Her figure shimmered for a moment before divine energy gathered towards Nan Tian.
With portals opening around the tea party, Nyx nced at all the gods that they had convinced and took a deep breath. Since Shiro had already entered tier 8, they were already on a short timer.
Chapter 964 Liliana
Chapter 964 Liliana
Running through the forest, Misu had a frown on her face since the relic appeared much sooner than expected. With where her camp was located, it would not survive a battle so it was best that she left the ce for now.
¡¯Thankfully the humans I saw earlier have retreated a safe distance away. With the Dragon Empress guarding the perimeter of the relic, she should be upied for some time if the other Queen attack her all at once.¡¯ Misu thought to herself since the most dangerous person here is Syradil. If she gets the relic, everyone here will die.
Just as she was about to leave the area, she noticed that there was a Queen following her.
Furrowing her brows, she didn¡¯t hesitate to m her hand down against the floor.
A circle of shadows exploded out as skeletal hands erupted from the ground.
"Che, I knew there was something disgusting about you. So you¡¯re a controller of undead." A hostile voice rang out as a woman revealed herself on a tree. She had blond hair that fluttered behind her as her crystalline blue eyes red at Misu.
[Liliana LVL 630 Celestial Lightning Queen]
"And that makes me someone evil?" Misu replied with a smirk however she was worrying in her mind.
Since the enemy was a controller of lightning, her undead are going to be at a disadvantage against her.
"Yes. Anyone who defiles the circle of life is evil." Liliana retorted as she swiped down with her hand
Suddenly, a tier 6 magic circle appeared above Misu. Dark clouds instantly formed as Misu widened her eyes.
mming her hands together,yers uponyers of skeletal hands bloomed around her.
*BANG!!!!!!
Lightning shed as the bones were shattered to ash without any resistance.
Gritting her teeth, Misu¡¯s body was flung back as she flipped in the air and drew a few runes in the air.
Spectral spears appeared as Misu sent them flying towards Liliana.
Narrowing her eyes, Liliana ducked down and dodged the spears.
Muttering a word under her breath, her body disappeared and appeared above MIsu.
There was an orb of lightning in her hands as Misu had a bad feeling about this orb.
Without hesitation, she spread her hands out in front of her as a gate opened between the two
"Jorna! Protect me!" Misu shouted out.
*URAHHHH!!
Letting out an ear shattering roar, a skeletal dragon head appeared from the portal as it tried to bite Liliana in half.
Clicking her tongue, Liliana redirected her attack towards the dragon instead.
*KSSHHH!!!!
Decimating the head in an instant, the body of the undead dragon slumped down for a moment before runes appeared in the air and it was repaired.
"Well aren¡¯t you hostile. Do you attack everyone you see?" Misu asked as she opened more portals with undead familiars surrounding her.
"I don¡¯t attack everyone I see. However, I cannot ept a hedonistic power like this to exist. As long as I¡¯m around, I won¡¯t let you rest easily." Liliana replied as she stomped down.
Raising her hand into the sky, a tier 6 magic circle appeared as lightning flickered on her body.
"Stop her!" Misumanded as she summoned a dagger and cut it across her palm.
mming her hand down into the ground, the blood started to spread out into the shape of a magic circle.
Seeing this, Liliana frowned as a lightning serpent coiled around her arm.
"Kill them quickly." Liliana ordered.
*HSSS!!!
Lashing towards the skeletal familiars, the snake erged its body as it swallowed all of them into its stomach and disintegrated them.
Flinching slightly, Misu gave them a silent prayer in her heart.
Before the snake could reach her, bloody chains erupted from the blood magic circle as Liliana felt disgusted at the sheer amount of miasma being released by Misu.
The tree¡¯s started to wither away as the area surrounding them started to change.
Realising that she was being dragged into a domain, Liliana clicked her tongue.
"I¡¯ll retreat today. But I¡¯ll be keeping an eye on you heathen."
Calling the snake back to her hand, she disappeared from her location as Misu sighed in relief.
Removing her hand from the ground, the chains started to disappear as a figure appeared behind Misu.
"For you to have tried to summon my true form, you must have been quite pressured huh?" Her subordinate asked as the shadows returned to his body.
"Well she was my direct counter so there wasn¡¯t much I could do. Setting that aside, did you manage to do what I asked of you or did my summoning stop you?" Misu apologised as she walked towards where her familiars were destroyed.
Waving her hand, small pieces of illusionary fragments of them gathered towards her hand as she couldn¡¯t help but feel her heart ache.
"May you have a better life next time. Thank you for your service." Misu sighed as she let the fragments drift off in the air.
"Your summoning did stop me but I was able to find out some information." The man shook his head as Misu raised her eyebrow.
"Oh? What did you find out?"
"Gods are involved. There are quite a few crests etched around the mountain and some of them are rather familiar. They¡¯re also the ones cing the corrosive aura around the ce that prevents us from entering. Even with my current body, I wasn¡¯t able to stay in the aura for more than 10 minutes. If I was in my true form, I¡¯d say I can stay for around 30 minutes since this is a zone with multiple gods working with one another." He replied as Misu furrowed her brows.
"That serious?"
"Mn. Though none of them have noticed me yet." He smiled as she sighed in relief.
"That¡¯s good."
"However, there¡¯s something else I found that¡¯s rather interesting. It was only a coincidence since I noticed a spike of divine energy before it disappeared or rather, was camouged."
Bringing his hands together, a tier 6 magic circle appeared in front of them as he raised it above Misu¡¯s head.
Snapping her finger, the magic circle became a lens of sorts as Misu nced up. Seeing the weapon that was in construction, she widened her eyes as her breathing halted for a moment. Seeing the amount of energy being gathered towards the chambers, she felt cold sweat fill her back as she couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine the destruction this weapon could cause.
"Is she crazy? That¡¯ll destroy the continent!" Misu shouted out in surprise but the man shook his head.
"Nope. I¡¯m afraid she needs a bit more power if her goal is to destroy the relic. You have to remember, a rainbow relic is something that is equal to the domain of gods. If she wants to destroy this relic, she has to essentially kill a god." The man narrowed his eyes. Noticing a few flickers of light, he paused in surprise before smiling.
"Though it seems like she has quite a bit of help."
"Anyways, this little expedition has me feeling quite exhausted. Unless the situation is dire, ¡¯I¡¯ won¡¯t be appearing for a while."
"I see... Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll try to keep out of danger." Misu nodded.
Closing his eyes, the mans¡¯ aura seemed to weaken for a moment before opening his eyes again.
"Eh? Wasn¡¯t I dealing with a task that your highness had given me? Why am I here?" He furrowed his brows but Misu shook her head.
"I have summoned you since I was attacked by the Lightning Queen but the danger¡¯s over now. Let¡¯s evacuate a bit further from here, it¡¯s going to get dangerous." Misu said as he nodded.
"Understood."
Leaving the area, Misu couldn¡¯t help but nce towards the sky once more and marvel at how much power Shiro was about to control at this moment of time. To make matters more surprising, it hasn¡¯t even been long since the start of the new age and she was already capable of creating a weapon that can potentially ¡¯kill a god¡¯.
Of course, using the weapon inbat was a whole another question in itself since no god will allow this but the fact that she could have this kind of power now was the surprising part.
¡¯She¡¯s just tier 6 right now. I wonder how much power she¡¯ll have if she reaches the demi god tier. Though she¡¯ll need to discover her own divinity first.¡¯ Misu thought to herself, unaware of the fact that Shiro had already reached Demi God Status.
Chapter 965 Against Three Queens
Chapter 965 Against Three Queens
With the sudden appearance of the relic, fights started to break out as even Syradil was being restrained by three Queens at once.
Since she was the biggest danger within this area, they decided to kill her first.
Flipping back, Syradil mmed her hand into the ground as mes erupted out, destroying everything around her in an instant.
Pushing back the three queens, she cracked her neck and smirked.
"Three weaklings teaming up to kill me is not enough. If you want to deal with me, you might have a better chance if you team up with the others." Syradilughed.
"We¡¯ll see about that. I¡¯ll admit Dragon Empress, you are strong. I won¡¯t even think about fighting you alone. But with the three of us here, don¡¯t even think about leaving." A Queen warned as purple mist started to appear around her.
"Pft HAHAHAHA!!! You think, I, of all people would think about running away from you? A tiny poison Queen that can¡¯t even put a scratch on me? How funny." Syradilughed out as her aura red out. The faint illusion of a dragon could be seen behind her as she pointed at the Poison Queen and mmed her hand down.
Suddenly, ws made from mes descended from the sky.
Before she could even put up any form of defence, Syradil had already charged towards her.
"Don¡¯t space out!" Another Queen warned, dashing into Syradil with the help of the third Queen.
Silver sigils appeared on their body as their speed increased.
*BANG!!!!
Colliding with Syradil, the two of them were still forced back by her strength despite the buffs on their body.
Opening her mouth, the third Queen let out a cry as Syradil¡¯s vision instantly distorted. Their positions started to switch as Syradil furrowed her brows.
Stomping down, the ground around them broke apart instantly asva erupted out from the ground.
Condensing in her hands, theva transformed into two ded tonfas as she grinned.
"Feel privileged. I¡¯m actually going to use my weapon against you." Syradilughed.
Cracking her neck, she dashed forward as she twirled the tonfas in her hands with ease.
*BANG!!!!
shing it towards the Poison Queen, a de of energy erupted out as the ground seemed like a soft piece of tofu being cut.
Widening her eyes, she quickly dodged to the side. However, while she might have been able to dodge the main attack, the heat radiating from the energy still burned her skin as muscle started to melt away, exposing her bones.
Gritting her teeth, she took a sharp breath in and activated a recovery spell.
"Pft haha, one swing and you already need to heal. I¡¯m having second thoughts now, maybe I shouldn¡¯t have given you the privilege of seeing my personal weapons." Syradil smirked, blocking the Illusion Queen¡¯s attack with her tonfa.
"Even if I can¡¯t see you, hear you, or smell you, my body knows when it¡¯s in danger, illusion or not. So cheap tricks like this are useless!"
Turning around, she swung the tonfa in her spare hand as itcerated into the Illusion Queen¡¯s stomach, ripping out the organs in the process.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, the Illusion Queen¡¯s figure flickered for a moment before she reverted to her previous state.
With the wound gone, she quickly backed off as they didn¡¯t expect herbat prowess to shoot up when she equipped her weapon.
To make matters worse, they were currently under an aura effect.
[Draconic Dominion]
-30% In all stats while in range
-30% Mana Control
-40% Queen Type Spell Effectiveness
-30% Elemental resistance
-20% Fear Resistance
With the debuffs ced on them the moment she pulled out the weapon, they could feel their body be sluggish as some of the spells that they wanted to use became too risky since the charge time was simply too long.
"What¡¯s wrong, cold feet? Where¡¯s that confidence a minute ago b*tch." Syradil asked as her eyes glowed with malice.
shing her tonfas together, inferno runes appeared on the faces of the des as a red aura enveloped the surface.
"We should retreat." The second Queen suggested as she sped her hands together. Suddenly, an array of tier 6 magic circles surrounded Syradil as her aura started to dim.
"Hou~ You want to absorb my aura? Go for it, I want to see how much you can absorb." Syradilughed.
Stomping down, her aura exploded forth the magic circles instantly shattered apart.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, the second Queen smiled as her body disassembled into a mass of petals.
"Tsk, annoying as always. Illusion B*tch is a problem." Syradil sighed as she stored her tonfas away.
Cracking her neck, she looked towards the pir of light shooting into the sky and decided to make her way towards it. She could sense a few fights breaking out nearby so she was going to take her time and kill them one by one. While she wasn¡¯t one for sneak attacks, she might as well deal with them now.
###
Humming to herself, Hemera found it a little annoying that she had to bypass so many restrictions to materialise herself next to Shiro and the party. With so many restrictions around them, it made her wonder if Shiro was still a tier 6 being since this is the kind of restriction they put on tier 8 beings.
Clearing the restrictions, she smiled and stepped through the portal.
But just as she took the first step through, she was overwhelmed by the whirlpool of energy surging around them as she had to quickly brace herself to avoid being sucked away.
"What the hell!!!!!" Hemera shouted out as Shiro instantly looked toward her with confusion and wariness.
"Who are you." Shiro warned as weapons instantly formed around her.
Sensing the divine energy within the weapons, Hemera widened her eyes.
"Ah err mum sent me to help that man over there." Hemera quickly replied as the weapons started to charge.
"Wait wait wait!!! My mum¡¯s Nyx! She¡¯s getting gods to help us!!!" Hemera quickly shouted out since she didn¡¯t want her avatar to be killed immediately otherwise it¡¯ll take her a while toe back.
"Nyx sent you? Why didn¡¯t you say that first!" Shiro clicked her tongue since that caused her to waste a bit of time.
Dismissing the weapons, she focused her attention back on the cannon.
Seeing her reaction, Hemera wanted to cry.
¡¯Wuuuuu I¡¯m a goddess aren¡¯t I? Why are mortals so scary these days.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Floating over to Nan Tian, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a little scared. If the prettydy was this scary, what about the guy?
"Sorry about that, she¡¯s just a bit tense right now and it¡¯s understandable." Nan Tian apologised while densely packed magic circles swirled around him.
¡¯Polite guy!!¡¯ Hemera shouted out in her mind.
"Ahem, that¡¯s fine. Mum told me toe here and help you. While I¡¯m not a widely known goddess, I¡¯m still the daughter of a primordial." Hemera boasted as she snapped her finger.
Suddenly, her crest appeared on Nan Tian¡¯s hand as the magic circles around him were instantly upgraded to tier 8.
"!!!" Widening his eyes, Nan Tian was a little surprised but things didn¡¯t end there.
A multitude of crests began to appear along the weapon¡¯s barrel as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
She recognised a few of the crests as some of them had even given her their blessings.
ncing up at the sky, she could see the stars flickering as a new surge of divine energy filled her body.
Channelling it into one of the dungeons, Shiro could see the dungeon transform as golden runes appeared on the gate.
Channelling each of the crests into a different dungeon, Shiro created 10 ¡¯Divine Energy¡¯ batteries since they were only filled with the energy from different gods. With their divinity infused into the weapon, Shiro could sense its power being increased due to the passive effects.
For example, Asteria¡¯s Divine allowed the weapon to be strong the more stars are present in the sky.
Since they were in space, the barrier wasn¡¯t blocking anything so this was the upper limit of her divinity!
However, with power like this, there was a great price to pay as Shiro could already feel her body breaking down. She was already pushing herself by reaching godhood while her soul was iplete and now her body was breaking down from the flow of energy.
Noticing a small flicker of light, she watched as Gaia¡¯s crest appeared on the back of her hand. As if starting a chain reaction, more and more crests started to appear as she could sense her body being protected by their power.
Taking a deep breath, she nced into her mana realm.
Ignoring Nimue who was ving away right now, Shiro looked towards Error¡¯s ind.
"It¡¯s your turn." She smiled.
Twisting with excitement, Error started to expand as Shiro¡¯s arm turned a metallic ck with red circuits.
Noticing a wave of unfamiliar energy, Hemera nced over at Shiro just in time to see a giant wave of neon red circuits ¡¯consume¡¯ the weapon and transform it into something unnerving to her.
Holding her chest, she could feel her heart beating faster the longer she looked at the circuits. She knew that this was something that could kill a god.
¡¯Who the hell is she???? Isn¡¯t she a tier 6??? Why can she potentially kill a god now?!?!?!¡¯
Chapter 966 Shiro and Syradil
Chapter 966 Shiro and Syradil
Gritting her teeth, Shiro took several deep breaths as she tried her best to stabilise everything.
Now that Error had infused the weapon with his power, she had to make sure that it didn¡¯t just blow up and kill everyone here.
She had a full scan of the weapon within her mind and right now red alerts were appearing left and right but that was fine. Most of these alerts told her that the weapon will 100% break after the first firing.
What concerned her was the alerts that warned about the energy bnce within the weapon.
sping her hands together, Shiro crafted a tier 8 magic circle around the weapon so that it could contain the energy even if it bes a bomb since they can redirect that energy into the first shot. She just needed to make sure that the st didn¡¯t drag them in too.
Setting upyers uponyers of barriers, Shiro nced down at Earth and closed her right eye.
Creating a focusing lens, she looked towards the twin peaks, hoping to catch a glimpse of the artifact. She could see the portal opening but she had to be patient. Should she fire it upon the portal, there¡¯s a higher chance of the energy being dispersed into its realm rather than harming the relic.
However, she became nervous after seeing the Dragon Empress make her way towards the relic.
Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to create an avatar to dy things for a bit. Before the relic appeared, she couldn¡¯t allow the Dragon Empress to reach it.
Materialising her avatar on Asharia, Shiro moved her body around for a moment before nodding.
While her power was much weaker right now since most of her focus was the weapon, it was still roughly the same power as her base form. This was practically the avatar of a tier 8 being after all.
Without waiting another second, she teleported out of the city and dashed towards the Twin Peaks.
She could sense several battles happening at the same time but that wasn¡¯t her concern right now. Her main focus was stopping the Empress from reaching the relic.
¡¯To the East, the Fallen are currently ambushing Queens. They¡¯ll enter the range of the Chimera Empress. I should send them a small reminder that they should probably back off from that area.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she snapped her finger. Those that had her weapons would get a screen appear in front of them that showed a map of the area along with where the two Empresses are.
Since Raoul had already s.u.mbed to the system, there wasn¡¯t anything else she could do. This was herst gift towards a person that could have be a decent Hero.
Thinking about what happened to Jonas and Raoul, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head. She hadn¡¯t told Silvia about what had happened yet since she needed her to focus for now.
¡¯Well she has Chen Yu. He should be able tofort her for now since Jonas was like a father to her.¡¯
Increasing her pace, Shiro could sense that the Dragon Empress was approaching the Corrosive Aura. Knowing the danger the aura possessed, Shiro guessed that she probably won¡¯t be entering anytime soon.
However, just as she sensed this, she paused in her movement and immediately snapped her attention towards the west. She could pick up the energy of a small group of people that had just entered her detection range. Five humans, a monster and an elf.
The Elf¡¯s signature seemed familiar but she couldn¡¯t put a finger on it. Quickly browsing through her database, she wasn¡¯t able to find a match but her senses didn¡¯t lie to her.
¡¯If it¡¯s familiar, perhaps there was a mutation or a change.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. Shaking her head, she¡¯ll keep an eye on them for now. Once she dealt with the Dragon Empress, she¡¯ll talk to them.
Turning back towards the Dragon Empress, Shiro was about to fly towards her when she noticed her energy disappear for a moment.
Sensing danger all around her, Shiro immediately activated boundary and summoned a nanotech sword.
Entering attack mode, she¡¯ll cut towards anything that enters her range. Just as she entered this stance, she was able to see the Dragon Empress entering her range.
Surprised at her speed, Shiro shed towards her neck.
*CLANG!!!!
Blocking the sword with her reinforced arm, Syradil was a little surprised that the current Queen was actually able to react to her in time.
Narrowing her eyes, she tried to see Shiro¡¯s ss but it was veiled under a disguise skill.
"Hou~ Not bad. You actually reacted to me in time." Syradil smiled but Shiro didn¡¯t say anything.
Jumping back, runes appeared on the sword. Focusing her mind, Shiro knew that the Dragon Empress wasn¡¯t one that she could fight while talking. Plus, most of her attention was still gathered towards the weapon.
"No talk? Are you mute? Or are you focusing?" Syradil asked with a smirk.
Flickering next to Shiro, she twisted her body and tried to kick towards her ribs. But like the first time, her kicks were blocked just in time as Shiro was able to use her sword to parry them off to the side.
Following the momentum, she shed towards Syradil¡¯s torso.
Ducking down, Syradil dodged her de but Shiro had guessed this and her knee mmed into her jaw.
*CRACK!!!
Surprised at the power behind her kick, Syradil widened her eyes as she was pushed back for a moment.
Holding her jaw, Syradil paused for a moment as excitement appeared in her eyes.
The current Queen harmed her!
Herbat sense was top notch, her reactions are sharp and her counters are swift. On top of all that, her power was off the charts!
"Hahahahahaha! Alright! This is more like it! Show me more!!" Syradilughed out loud as she hadn¡¯t felt her heart beat this fast in a long time. There was hope for a good ending of the cycle!
Sensing her sudden boost in power, Shiro quickly jumped back as mes erupted out around them.
She couldn¡¯t use any of the high level skills she had since they¡¯ll burden her body and right now she didn¡¯t need that. She was already barely holding on so her skill range was limited.
Activating her Chimera Arts, she fused her lightning and rift element together as purple and red electricity flickered on her sword.
Condensing divine energy behind her, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Phantom Path + Takemikazuchi Technique!
Disappearing in front of Syradil, she closed the gap in an instant as the de was already cutting towards Syradil¡¯s neck.
Kietoma!
Sensing her body freeze up, Syradil¡¯s smile widened as the sword inched closer towards her neck.
If it was the previous cycles, she might not mind just letting the Queen kill her now. But since it¡¯s the final cycle, she wasn¡¯t going to just roll over and die!
*BANG!!!
Energy erupted out of her body as Kietoma was forcefully broken.
Grabbing Shiro¡¯s wrist before the sword could hit, Syradil mmed her palm into Shiro¡¯s stomach before she could even react.
*KSHHH!!!
Shattering the nanobots that created this avatar, the body wasunched away as Shiro furrowed her brows.
Quickly fixing the body of this nanobot, she looked up at Syradil who was floating in the sky while looking down with a smile.
"Are you finished?" Syradil asked. She¡¯ll be disappointed if Shiro said no.
However, her passion was ignited hearing the next words.
"Far from it."
mming her hand down, Shiro activated her Spirit Assistance Ex.
Tiny motes of white light appeared around her as there was an abundance of tiny snow spirits surrounding this ce.
Hollow Deceit!
Suddenly, nine copies of herself appeared as they all dashed towards Syradil from different directions. Each of her copies had a different element on their sword and Syradil narrowed her eyes.
Locating the real one in no time, she pinched her fingers together before firing a fire pellet.
Just as the pellet was about to hit Shiro¡¯s body, it phased through much to Syradil¡¯s surprise.
¡¯Isn¡¯t that her real body?¡¯ Quickly sending out her senses, she realised that it was a diversion since one of the clones had flown above her. Just before the pellet hit, Shiro traded ces.
ncing up, Syradil could see a frozen sword piercing towards her.
Frozen Slumber!
Tier 6 magic circles appeared as ice chains erupted out from the air and wrapped around Syradil¡¯s body.
Seeing theyers of ice forming on her body, Syradil smiled as her aura red up.
*URAHHHHHH!!!!!
The illusionary image of a dragon cried out in anger as all of the ice was melted in an instant. Even the sword thawed before hitting her and the water evaporated.
Looking up with a grin, Syradil wondered what else Shiro would show her.
Thankfully, she didn¡¯t need to wait long.
"I have a daughter named Yin. She¡¯s probably a bit annoyed with me since I haven¡¯t been ying with her for a while now but she has always boasted that her fire is stronger than the lizards¡¯. Let¡¯s give that a go shall we?" Shiro¡¯s voice rang out as the rift opened, revealing Shiro with her sword being coated by a purple me.
"To call a dragon lizard. I truly wonder who your daughter is." Syradilughed as her own fire erupted around her body.
"She¡¯s a f*cking glutton." Shiro smirked.
*BANG!!!!
Chapter 967 Three Empresses
Chapter 967 Three Empresses
As the two mes collided, Syradil raised her eyebrows since the purple me immediately tried to consume her fire, wanting to assimte it into itself.
Taking it as a challenge, Syradil smirked as her aura intensified immediately.
With the two mes contesting against one another in power, the Queens that wanted to take advantage of this couldn¡¯t even approach since the mes would burn away their bodies almost instantly.
As for Shiro, she expected Syradil¡¯s mes to be powerful but this was a little crazy. Her avatar is made from tier 8 nanobots and yet they were slowly being melted away.
Not to mention, she had destroyed her nanobots a moment ago when she mmed her palm into her stomach.
¡¯Even though my power is only tier 6, this avatar should be at least tier 7 in strength. For her to be able to shatter parts of the avatar, I don¡¯t even think I can fight her normally. My berserk skills focus on increasing my power but don¡¯t do much when ites to my defences. Without ascending to tier 8, I will definitely lose!¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. While she could use Extraction, she needed to use it on the being that will arrive with the relic.
Suddenly, both Shiro and Syradil felt danger around them as they quickly separated and put up their guard.
A myriad of insects and beasts surrounded them as they attacked without warning.
Twisting her body, Shiro shed towards them as a horizontal de of fire exploded out, cutting them in half.
As for Syradil, she only snapped her finger as motes of fire exploded next to them, charring them to ash instantly.
"I didn¡¯t take you for someone that wouldunch a sneak attack like this." Syradil called out as Arnea revealed herself.
"Well you were upying my target so I figured I might as well take the shot." Arnea smirked before ring at Shiro.
"I know I¡¯m cute, you don¡¯t have to stare so intensely. I might get embarrassed." Shiro acted bashful as Arnea could already feel like a vein was about to burst.
Ignoring Shiro, Arnea looked at Syradil.
"You can get the artefact if you want. I just want her life." Arnea said as Syradilughed.
"You know, I didn¡¯t care if you killed her or not a moment ago. But now that you¡¯ve attacked me too, let¡¯s just say I¡¯m not one to let someone hit me without punishment. Whitey, I don¡¯t really need help killing her but you can join in to get some EXP." Syradil smirked as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Aren¡¯t you here for the relic?"
"Pft, I can get the relic after I kill her. Plus, it¡¯s not like the other Queens are able to hinder me by much." Syradilughed before cracking her neck.
"Enough talking, keep up if you can." Disappearing from her spot, Syradil charged towards Arnea as Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Of course I¡¯ll keep up, who the hell do you think I am?"
Charging forth with her sword, Shiro decided to kill Arnea first. While it would be more beneficial to team up to kill Syradil, the fact that Arnea wanted to kill her would easily make this a dangerous two vs one. If two empresses attacked her at the same time, she wouldn¡¯t be able to do much.
Following behind Syradil, Shiro flexed her fingers as several sigils appeared on her body. Applying some buffs to the two of them, Shiro focused her senses and activated boundary. She was going to act as support for Syradil since she was stronger in terms of physical prowess.
Raising her eyebrow, Syradil was a little surprised at the buffs that Shiro could give her since it was more powerful than she had expected.
With her impression of Shiro improving with each second, Syradil decided that she¡¯ll observe for a little bit after killing Arnea. She wanted to see what Shiro would do with the artefact if she obtained it.
Twisting her body, Syradil grappled towards Arnea who sent a swarm of creatures towards her.
But before they could even reach Syradil, a web of shes appeared, cutting the creatures in half as Shiro¡¯s shadow could be seen behind Syradil.
Stomping down, a tier 6 magic circle appeared behind Arnea as lightning shed out, striking Arnea¡¯s back.
*BANG!!!!
Gritting her teeth, Arnea dashed towards Syradil with bones protruding from her body.
Dashing forward fearlessly, Syradil grabbed the bones without fear. She could sense that Arnea wanted her to grab the bones but with her passive skills, she was cleared from most negative effects.
Keeping a firm hold on the bones, she mmed Arnea¡¯s body down as her knee cracked against her cranium.
*CRACK!!!!
Hearing the bones break, Arnea¡¯s head shattered in half as Syradil could see rows upon rows of teeth trying to chew into her leg.
Green mes erupted out of her as she could feel her body being healed.
ncing back at Shiro, Syradil smirked before grabbed ¡¯Arnea¡¯ and flung her body behind Shiro.
Just as the body passed her, Shiro brushed her finger along the body as nanobots exploded out, stabbing into the real Arnea that had appeared behind her.
Grabbing her sheath, she made a small signal towards Syradil before making a gauntlet on her right hand.
Stepping on the sheath, Syradil braced herself since she noticed that Shiro wanted to use the sheath as a spring board of sorts.
*BANG!!
Punching the sheath with her gauntlet that had been enforced with several spells, Syradil¡¯s body wasunched towards Arnea as nanotech des appeared around her.
Before Arnea could even react, Syradil created two bone wh.i.p.s thattched onto her neck and dragged Arnea closer.
With the nanotech des tearing into her flesh, Arnea gritted her teeth as her blood poured out without restraint.
Shattering her body apart, the blood evaporated into a mist that filled the area.
Unfortunately for Arnea, it wasn¡¯t even able tost for a second before it was all filtered thanks to Shiro¡¯s nanotech.
ring at the two in anger, Arnea mmed her hands together as Shiro sensed danger.
Without hesitation, she activated the upgraded version of Celestial Path!
Mana suddenly disappeared in a 300 meter radius around them as the three of them started to fall towards the ground.
The magic that Arnea had been preparing was shattered apart as she could only widen her eyes at the duo who were able to follow up with one another. Syradil was responsible for close quartersbat that protected Shiro while Shiro provided support through a myriad of spells.
Now that her mana was sealed for the time being, Arnea could only raise her arms as Syradil reached for her head.
Grabbing Arnea¡¯s wrist, Syradil dragged down her guard before elbowing her in the mouth.
"The real one." Syradil smirked since she could tell that this was Arnea¡¯s true body.
Using her spare hand, she jabbed Arnea¡¯s throat and quickly dislocated her jaw. With most of Arnea¡¯s attention being ced on her jaw, Syradil took this opportunity to punch her chest, shattering her ribs as the bones pierced her organs.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Arnea could only re at Syradil hatefully and stuck out her tongue. There was a rune etched on the surface as it flickered for a moment before her eyes became dull.
Seeing this, Syradil furrowed her brows for a moment before clicking her tongue.
"What a slippery one. Tch, killing her is going to be a pain." Syradil cracked her neck before ncing back at Shiro who had a frown on her face.
Even though mana was sealed away for a moment, the rune that Arnea had activated didn¡¯t use mana. It wasn¡¯t Divine energy either nor was it Celestial Energy that Shiro had used before. It was something different.
However, that wasn¡¯t the problem right now. The problem was that it¡¯s just the two of them again.
Readying her sword, Shiro was about to attack when Syradil turned around.
"I¡¯ve had enough fun for now. You can grab the relic if you want since I don¡¯t have any need for it. Though of course, if you want to duke it out some more, I¡¯m more than happy to oblige." Syradil smiled as her aura red.
¡¯She doesn¡¯t seem to be lying. If I continue to fight her, I¡¯ll be using quite a bit of energy. It¡¯s probably better to conserve this against the other Queens that want the relic. I just need to guard the area until the relic fully materialises. When that happens, I can fire the weapon without worry. It¡¯s best that I avoid fighting her for now I suppose.¡¯
Taking a deep breath, Shiro kept her eye on Syradil before teleporting away.
Seeing that Shiro had disappeared, Syradil chuckled to herself. Looking around for a moment, she wanted to find a good vantage point. She wanted to see what Shiro would do.
After all, the artefact that will appear soon is a Corrupted Artefact.
The only thing it¡¯s good for is mass destruction.
Chapter 968 First Meeting
Chapter 968 ''First'' Meeting
Distancing herself from Syradil, Shiro narrowed her eyes towards the twin peaks. Sending out a few drones, she noticed that the corrosive aura was still there. Even though the range of it had decreased, it was still blocking people from reaching the relic.
¡¯Hmm... it shouldpletely disappear in around 15 minutes or so...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she sat down on a branch.
She could sense that fights were intensifying and a few of the Queens have already been forced to retreat from this area. However, while they did retreat, Shiro guessed that they still stuck around since they wouldn¡¯t give up on a rainbow relic with just a small defeat.
There is still the chance to steal it at the end.
Funnily enough, Shiro could sense the Ice Queen¡¯s mana within one of the battles. Thest time they had met, she had warned her about the Dragon Empress.
¡¯I¡¯ll meet herter. For now I¡¯m more curious about the group of humans that I sensed.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
ncing towards their direction, she started to make her way over. It was best that they left the area if they¡¯re good natured people since there¡¯s a high chance of being killed.
###
"What should we do now? It seems like they¡¯re all fighting one another. I¡¯m not sure we¡¯ll even be able to find your wife within this crowd." I asked as Edvimar looked at the explosions happening in the distance.
Staying silent, he had a frown on his face.
"Mn... It¡¯s going to be tough. But I¡¯m certain that she¡¯s near here or at least close enough so that they could participate in this fight. Honestly, it¡¯s a little dangerous so you lot can leave now. You¡¯ve already helped me enough by escorting me to this area." He smiled, ncing back at us.
"Who do you think we are? We¡¯re not going to let you run into a death trap like that alone when you¡¯ve helped us so much. Or at least I¡¯m not since I can¡¯t speak for everyone here." Gordon smiled as he patted Edvimar on the shoulder.
"I¡¯m just tagging along since it¡¯s hard to find truth worthy people like you guys especially in a time like this." Cadmi giggled softly while eating some rations that she had prepared.
[Same with us.] Lyle wrote out at the same time as Eric nodded his head.
"Well you saw their response. Do you think we¡¯ll let you go alone?" I shrugged my shoulders as Edvimar chuckled.
"What do you think Nitha?" I nced up at Nitha who copied my actions, causing Cadmi tough.
"Alright. Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯ll just be observing for now. Once I see my wife, I have my own way of sending her a message so we don¡¯t need to get too close." Edvimar nodded.
"Since we¡¯re here, are you able to tell us a bit more about this watchman that you had mentioned before?" I asked since the only thing we knew was that the watchman was someone that collected souls.
Hearing my question, Edvimar paused as he contemted for a moment.
Taking a deep breath, he nodded.
"Sure, sit down since it might take a bit of exining." Edvimar said as he looked for a spot to sit down.
"The watchman is a guardian of sorts. He is responsible for the souls of those that belong to the system, ones that are outside of the authority bestowed to even the god of the underworld, Hades. You can also think of the watchman as someone that keeps an eye on the souls of the Queens." Edvimar started as we all sat around and listened carefully.
ording to him, his wife didn¡¯t know about the existence of the watchman but was able to escape his grasp due to the spells that she had put in ce which were directly linked to the dungeons. With the spot that was reserved for his wife being empty, Edvimar was forced to take her ce.
The watchman¡¯s realm was one that existed in a different flow of timepared to the real world so the moment he realised that Edvimar was not his wife, years had already passed in the real world.
Infuriated, the watchman took the time to search the world while Edvimar tried his best to escape since he knew that if his wife was caught, she¡¯ll suffer for the crime of escaping the watchman¡¯s grasp.
Upon locating his wife, the watchman had to go through a process of obtaining the rights to materialise in the real world so that he could ¡¯collect¡¯ her soul. During this, Edvimar had managed to separate himself from the system, freeing him from the shackles that bound him to the watchman¡¯s realm.
Escape was tough and he was forced to fight the watchman on several asions which resulted in the wounds that he had now.
"Wait so you don¡¯t have ess to the system anymore?" I asked, surprised that you could even distance yourself from the system.
"Mn, all the power I have left is my own." Edvimar nodded.
We stayed silent and tried to digest all of the information. All of the information that he had provided to us was quite astonishing as most of it revolved around the system.
As we stayed silent, I noticed that Eric reached towards his mouth and sighed.
Ripping out his stitches, he stuck out his tongue and revealed a magic circle.
"Sorry." He said much to our shock since we had presumed that he was mute.
Suddenly, a portal opened behind him as a ck haired weapon exited out with a smile.
Lyle froze up in shock as Edvimar immediately dragged everyone back while looking at Eric and this woman with a frown.
"The information that you have provided about the system and the watchman was quite insightful. Why don¡¯t youe to my city and have a nice long talk with me?" The woman asked as Edvimar narrowed his eyes.
[Thiria LVL 650 Beast Queen]
"I¡¯ll be fine thanks. But what did you do with Eric?" Edvimar asked as his aura red up.
NItha was shivering in fear as she hid behind me, afraid of the Queen.
"Oh so his name was Eric. That¡¯s nice to know. I didn¡¯t do much except inject a bit of beast blood into him. All of his actions are under my control. I sent quite a few of these ¡¯scouts¡¯ around the world to gather information for me but I must say, I didn¡¯t expect little Eric to give me such precious information. I might actually honour our little promise of keeping his brother safe." Thiria said while reaching towards Eric¡¯s neck.
Before any of us could say anything, Thiria drew a thin line along his neck.
*KRCK
Exploding into a mass of bones and flesh, we watched in horror as Eric¡¯s body was transformed in front of us.
"Now then, I didn¡¯t want to stop you from meeting your wife but I¡¯m afraid you¡¯re a trove of knowledge that I can¡¯t give up." Thiria said coldly as portals started to open around them.
Gritting his teeth, Edvimar mmed his hands together and formed a tier 6 magic circle.
"LEAVE!" He shouted out to the rest of us as emerald energy flowed around him, transforming into several illusionary figures that wielded swords.
"You¡¯re not leaving without my permission." Thiria scoffed as beasts appeared from the portals.
Gritting my teeth, I nced back at Nitha and realised that she probably can¡¯t do much against this Queen due to her title.
¡¯What to do...¡¯ I thought to myself.
However, with our exit sealed off, there wasn¡¯t much else we could do but fight.
"Gordon!" I shouted out.
"I know!"
Activating our berserk skills, we didn¡¯t hesitate and charged into battle with Edvimar.
Grabbing a sword from my inventory, I shed towards the closest beast.
¡¯It¡¯s shallow.¡¯ I thought. My de wasn¡¯t able to cut deep before it was mped down by the muscle of the beast.
Letting go of my sword without hesitation, jumped back and allowed Gordon to follow up.
"HAA!!!" Shouting out in anger, he mmed his foot against the back of the de, forcing it to cut through the arm of the beast.
Seeing this, Thiria only snapped her finger and the arm was regenerated.
"There¡¯s no point fighting back. Just roll over and die." Thiria said with disinterest as her gaze was locked on Edvimar. She was surrounding him with beasts to make sure that he couldn¡¯t help the rest of the party.
"To think I¡¯d meet you here. Life is quite the narrow road isn¡¯t it?" A voice rang out as Thiria narrowed her eyes at the figure in the sky.
"Young Quee-"
"It¡¯s Empress, not Queen. Don¡¯t rope me into the same category as you." The girl cut her off as I couldn¡¯t help but nce up at the sky.
Floating in the sky, a white haired girl nced down at us and smiled.
Snapping her fingers, several des surrounded us and killed the beasts in an instant.
"Last time we met it was in a dungeon. But to be fair, it was more of a vision of you rather than you personally. So let me introduce myself, formerly known as Nytri Vespira, now known as Shiro, I¡¯m a friend of Isilia and I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be thrilled to see her husband alive." The girl smiled towards Edvimar.
Chapter 969 Shiro and Thiria
Chapter 969 Shiro and Thiria
Looking at the shocked expression on Edvimar¡¯s face, Shiro couldn¡¯t me him since she was just as shocked when she saw him from the distance. The moment his face was revealed, she understood why it seemed so familiar to her.
However, they could talkter after she dealt with the Beast Queen.
Looking back at the Beast Queen, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"You can speak now." Shiro said with a smirk as Thiria chuckled.
"Look at how your ego has grown. Did bing an Empress-"
"Of course my ego has grown. Have you seen me? I know it¡¯s painful for someone like you to crane your neck up to see someone as fabulous as me but can you me me? Don¡¯t I just look adorable?" Shiro cut her off smugly while flipping her hair.
She just wanted to piss her opponents off so that their attention is distracted. After all, there was something special being created just for her beneath her feet. It would be quite sad to see it miss.
Being cut off for the second time, Thiria stopped smiling as she could already feel anger building up.
"Rude one aren¡¯t y-"
"I wouldn¡¯t say rude but it¡¯s more about who has the priority of speaking you know? As an Empress, I¡¯m one rank higher than you. I¡¯m technically your senior in terms of rank. Of course, age might be a different matter since a granny like you deserves some respect. Even if you¡¯re already a foot in the grave." Shiro sighed with a shrug.
"F*ck it." Thiria cursed as her aura burst forth.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro destroyed all of the magic circles that tried to form themselves by enhancing her nanobots with celestial path. Since she had reached tier 8 in attunement, her control over nanobots had increased dramatically.
She can replicate the effects of her upgraded Celestial path by spreading particles of nanobots into the air.
"I shouldn¡¯t have said that should I? Old people like you are prone to heart attacks. If I say any more, you might die on me." Shiro snickered.
Just as Thiria opened her mouth to retort, a nanotech spike shot out of the ground as chains wrapped around her leg, preventing her from running.
Widening her eyes, Thiria didn¡¯t hesitate to cut off her legs as she flipped back, dodging the spike.
"Che, I was trying to do you a favour too. An old person like you won¡¯t get any action in bed. I can promise you that the spike will give you 100% pleasure. I know it¡¯s a little intimidating since it¡¯s sharp but once you get used to it, it¡¯ll be fine. Though I haven¡¯t tried it out myself." Shiro shrugged.
"Oh but don¡¯t worry, I have great reviews of those that have tried this out. None of them submitted negative reviews." Shiro pped her hands together with a smile.
Furrowing her brows, Thiria healed her legs.
Before she could even activate another spell, she felt danger behind her as she quickly activated a barrier.
*PING!!!!
Watching the barrier shatter to pieces, Thiria widened her eyes in shock as Shiro¡¯s swordcerated into her body.
Nanobots exploded out as Shiro immediately had a full scan of Thiria¡¯s body but before she could outright kill her, Thiria traded ces with a clone.
Stepping out of a portal, she narrowed her eyes at Shiro who was demonstrating raw power much higher than what she should currently have.
"Yeesh, you¡¯re an annoying one to kill aren¡¯t you? Though I can¡¯t say anything since I¡¯m not any better." Shiro smirked.
"It¡¯s a shame but I¡¯ll admit. I¡¯m not a match for you right now." Thiria narrowed her eyes.
"Right now? Aren¡¯t you confident." Shiro chuckled.
Shrugging her shoulders, darkness enveloped the area as a giant set of jaws appeared in the air.
Quickly looking up, Shiro swiped her hand up as a saw de materialised in the air and shredded the beast in half. Quickly mming her hand down, Shiro tried to activate the nanobots she had ced on Thiria¡¯s body but she had already traded ces with another clone.
Sighing softly, Shiro felt a little annoyed but this was expected. With the progression of the weapon, the power that she could lend to this avatar was decreasing. Her attacks are 70% effects and 30% power and her power was decreasing with each passing moment. It¡¯s actually quite good that Thiria decided to run since Shiro wouldn¡¯t have been able to do much if she stayed.
¡¯While I do want to kill her now like what my future self had suggested, it¡¯s a little difficult.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before turning to the party of humans behind Edvimar. When she had arrived, she made sure to check their souls to see if they were ¡¯good or evil¡¯ and surprisingly, all of their souls are pretty clean. The muscr guy seemed to be a little tainted but his soul was bing slightly cleaner with each passing moment which meant that he was trying to correct his actions. As for the monster, it was the purest of all of them.
Landing in front of Edvimar, Shiro scanned his body since she noticed that he was injured.
Realising that it was a soul injury, much like the one she had suffered, Shiro frowned.
"What happened? Howe you¡¯re here?" Shiro asked as Edvimar sighed.
"It¡¯s a long story but how is Isilia?" Edvimar asked as Shiro smiled.
"Don¡¯t worry, she¡¯s safe. Right now she is helping me with a task. But before we talk about her, I want to know why you¡¯re here. If my information is correct, you should be dead." Shiro asked as Edvimar nodded.
"I know. It¡¯s a long story but trust me on this, I need to warn Isilia. Someone is after her life."
"Who?" Shiro narrowed her eyes as she wasn¡¯t about to let someone kill her best friend after she had just got her back.
"Let¡¯s talk elsewhere. This ce is not safe." Edvimar suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure. Would the rest of you be interested ining to my city? Don¡¯t worry, there are no contracts involved and as long as your friend doesn¡¯t attack people, which I doubt, we won¡¯t have any problems." Shiro asked as she turned to the rest of the group.
Looking at one another, they nced at a Lyle who couldn¡¯t take his eyes off the corpse of his brother Eric.
Kneeling in front of the mass of flesh, his body shook as Shiro noticed a dark aura wrapping around his body. Immediately noticing that it was a sign of transforming into a fallen, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to flicker behind him and knock him out.
"What are you doing!" Cadmi shouted out in shock as Shiro nced back.
"Sorry, I had to knock him out since if I left him alone, he¡¯ll never be able to return. He was about to transform into a fallen over his grief and in this state, his only goal would probably be to kill the Beast Queen. Once that isplete, he¡¯ll be a mindless beast with his conscience consumed by the system." Shiro exined patiently as she quickly healed Lyle¡¯s body before handing him over to Asher who seemed to be the leader of the group.
"So what do you say? If you don¡¯t want toe to the city that¡¯s fine too." Shiro asked as Asher nced back at the group.
"I hate to admit it but we¡¯re a bit over our heads with this one. If Edvimar trusts her, I¡¯ll trust her too. I¡¯m nning to go with them." Asher said as Cadmi and Gordon paused for a moment before nodding their heads.
"Perfect. Oh by the way, everything you saw earlier is a bit of an act to annoy the Queen. I¡¯m not usually like that ok?" Shiro apologised with a soft chuckle and opened up a portal.
"Edvimar, I¡¯ll need to borrow Isilia for a bit longer but once she¡¯s done with her task, I¡¯ll send her directly to you ok?" Shiro smiled as he furrowed his brows.
"Don¡¯t worry, it shouldn¡¯t take long. The relic will be appearing in around 8 minutes so I¡¯ll hand her back to you then. For now, you can talk with your daughter instead. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be happy to see her father alive and well." Shiro smiled as Edvimar widened her eyes.
"Wait, my daughter is with you too?"
"Mn, Lyrica is in the city right now so you should catch up with her during the 8 minutes." Shiro nodded her head as Edvimar could feel his heart pound. At best, he was hoping that in the time he had left, he would be able to see his wife. He didn¡¯t want to be too greedy and ask for more but the fact that he could meet his daughter was nothing less of miraculous to him.
Suppressing his emotions right now, he looked at Shiro and opened his mouth.
"Thank you." He said before rushing through the portal.
"You¡¯re wee." Shiro replied.
ncing to the rest of the party, she gestured for them to enter the portal.
As they each entered, Shiro nced towards the peak for a moment before closing the portal. Now that she had sent them to safety, she¡¯ll continue her travel towards the peak.
Chapter 970 Edvimar and Lyrica
Chapter 970 Edvimar and Lyrica
Sitting around themand centre, Lyrica leaned back and sighed out heavily. Since the fight was something outside of their capabilities, the best that they could do was sit tight and hope that everything went well.
ncing down at her hand, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
¡¯Madi is able to reach Queen Tier and now she¡¯s helping Shiro with her weapon. And here I am stuck at tier 5.¡¯ Lyrica thought with a sigh.
Shaking her head, she decided to go toward the training hall since she wanted to clear her mind.
Walking over to the control terminal, she had the training hall create five dummies for her to fight against. Thinking about it for a moment, Lyrica turned the difficulty to the highest but just as she stepped into the arena, she nced down before clicking her tongue.
¡¯Fighting these dummies won¡¯t give me any EXP...¡¯ She thought to herself before canceling her n of training.
Walking through the tower, Lyrica wondered what it¡¯ll take for her to be something akin to or equal to a Queen.
¡¯I need to reach tier 6 but my power iscking. Most of the monsters here are higher than level 500 so it¡¯s risky for me to fight them alone. If I fight them as a group, the EXP I gain will decrease, drawing out the time needed to reach tier 6. If I take too long, I¡¯ll keepgging behind them in terms of levels. Even if Silvia, Chen Yu and Helion aren¡¯t tier 6, their abilities allow them to be useful.¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself as she summoned a dagger and started to twirl it around.
¡¯Maybe I should leave the city and venture out for a bit.¡¯
Stretching her body, she decided to think about thatter.
Feeling her phone vibrate, she pulled it out and nced at the message that she had just received.
Seeing that it was sent by Shiro, Lyrica raised her eyebrow since it was a private text rather than in a group.
[Lyrica, I had just teleported a set of people into the city. They¡¯ll be on floor 15 hall 3. There¡¯s someone that I want you to meet there too. I won¡¯t be present since I have to deal with the relic.]
Reading the message, Lyrica replied before making her way to the hall.
"Who does she want me to meet?" Lyrica muttered curiously.
Leaning on the railing on the elevator, Lyrica watched the numbers tick down.
Upon reaching floor 15, she made her way over to hall 3 and opened the door.
The moment she opened the door, her eyes widened in shock seeing the silhouette of the elf that had his back turned towards her.
Her body became numb as all she could feel was her heart beating faster with each second that passed.
Taking a step forward, she was a bit hesitant to see the appearance of the person who stood in front of her.
Noticing that someone had entered, Edvimar nced back and saw Lyrica.
Memories shed through his mind as the vision of a little elf girl that was barely up to his waist appeared.
Opening his mouth, Edvimar didn¡¯t know what to say as he approached Lyrica. Pulling her into his embrace, he couldn¡¯t stop his tears from falling as his voice quivered.
"You¡¯ve grown so much." Edvimar said as his voice cracked with emotion. There were a million and one things he wanted to ask her. How she had been, if she¡¯s been eating well, if she had friends and so on but he wasn¡¯t able to ask all of them at once.
Feeling her father¡¯s embrace, Lyrica¡¯s worries disappeared as she returned his hug.
Biting her lip, she didn¡¯t think that she¡¯d also be able to meet her father.
Unable to control her emotions, Lyrica cried out in happiness.
"So.... Do you want to err... step out of the room for a bit?" Gordon asked as he folded his arms. He didn¡¯t want to burst their little bubble but it was also a little awkward for them to stand there while everything was happening.
"Can¡¯t you see that the exit is behind them? If we leave now we¡¯ll interrupt their reunion." Cadmi rolled her eyes.
"Yeah but isn¡¯t it more awkward for us to be here?" Gordon asked as Cadmi nced over at the father daughter duo.
Hesitating for a moment, she nodded her head.
"That¡¯s.... also true." She admitted.
"See? Let¡¯s find a good chance to leave then." Gordon suggested but Asher shook his head.
"Why don¡¯t we make ourselvesfortable in the corner for now. Try not to make any loud noises." He smiled, happy to see that Edvimar had found his daughter.
"Mn, speaking of which, if Edvimar is King, then does that mean she¡¯s the princess of the elven race?" Gordon asked as he pointed at Lyrica.
"Indeed. What about it?" Asher replied as Gordon shook his head.
"No just a little surprised. I¡¯ve seen posts about the elven royalty but I didn¡¯t see much about this one." Gordon shrugged.
"Well it¡¯s his family business so it¡¯d be rude for us to snoop around." Asher said as he sat down by the corner with Nitha.
Closing his eyes, he decided to rest for a little bit since he felt a bit tired after so many dangerous close calls in one day.
Looking at each other, Gordon and Cadmi shrugged before sitting next to him.
After taking a moment to calm her emotions, Lyrica looked at her father in front of her. While she was overjoyed that he is alive, there was the question of how he was alive.
"I¡¯m sure you have a lot of questions right now and as much as I want to tell you everything, I need to find your mum first. She¡¯s in a lot of danger." Edvimar said as he could see the confusion in Lyrica¡¯s eyes.
"Mum¡¯s in danger? She¡¯s a tier 6 Queen. What could endanger her?" Lyrica asked as Edvimar sighed.
"It¡¯s something more dangerous than anything a tier 6 could handle. Plus, it¡¯s directly rted to the system so it¡¯ll be hard to fight against. We need to get your mother away from here as soon as possible or else she¡¯ll be killed." Edvimar warned as Lyrica furrowed her brows before nodding.
"Alright, I¡¯ll send a message to Shiro since mum¡¯s with her right now."
"No need. I¡¯ve already heard everything. Edvimar, why don¡¯t you tell me who¡¯s after her life right now?" Shiro¡¯s voice rang out and they could see a small hologram appearing next to Lyrica.
Nodding his head, he exined his story to Shiro as she listened silently with a serious expression.
"This... Is quite the serious problem. So ording to you, we have to keep Isilia out of the watchman¡¯s sight or else she¡¯ll be captured?" Shiro asked as Edvimar nodded.
"As long as the watchman doesn¡¯t see Isilia, there isn¡¯t much he can do."
"I see... Alright. I think we have a pretty safe spot for her right now since we¡¯re in space. I doubt the watchmen will see us here."
"No, when I talk about bringing her away, I¡¯m talking about a different dimension entirely since that¡¯s the safest option. I don¡¯t know the watchman¡¯s range but the safest guess for now is sending her to a different dimension." Edvimar replied as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Alright. I have a ce in mind. Lyrica, I¡¯ll need you to turn up the defences of the city just in case since I¡¯m not sure about the coteral damage. Let¡¯s just say that even in tier 8 form, it¡¯s getting a bit hard to control so it wouldn¡¯t be bad to prepare." Shiro smiled as her hologram flickered for a moment.
"Yeah I can¡¯t spare more energy for this. I¡¯ll keep Isilia safe. Once the weapon is done, I¡¯ll teleport her away to a new dimension." Shiro reassured as the hologram cut off.
Furrowing his brows, Edvimar wanted to say something when he felt pain surge through his body.
Gritting his teeth, Edvimar was forced to kneel down as Lyrica quickly held onto him, preventing him from copsing.
"Are you ok? What happened dad? You¡¯re injured?" Lyrica asked in panic but Edvimar shook his head.
"It¡¯s fine-"
"It¡¯s not fine. Come with me, I know a good healer she might be able to help us." Supporting her father¡¯s weight, Lyrica immediately dashed out of the room as Asher and the party could only sit there with a dumbstruck expression.
"So like... do we just wait here or are we supposed to follow her?" Gordon asked as Asher didn¡¯t know how to respond.
"I think we stay here?" Cadmi replied after a short pause.
As they were discussing what they should do, a portal opened behind them as a purpled haired girl looked at the group with surprise.
"Well I suppose if Lyrica saw her dad then it¡¯s only normal that she forget about you lot. Don¡¯t worry, mum¡¯s already sent me a message about you lot so I¡¯ll take you to your rooms for now." The girl smiled before looking at Nitha.
"Say, if you¡¯re tier 5 already, howe you don¡¯t have a human form like me? Do you need help?" She asked while eating an apple.
Surprised at the sudden appearance of this girl, Asher couldn¡¯t help but ask about her identity.
"Me? I¡¯m Yin, guild master of the food hall."
Chapter 971 Utopia
Chapter 971 Utopia
"Erm... Guild Master of the food hall?" Asher asked curiously as Yin nodded her head.
"Yup. Got a problem with that?" She asked, finishing her apple before burning it to ash.
Reaching into her inventory, she pulled out another apple. While she loves meat, she¡¯s been enjoying these applestely, they were crunchy and sweet with a nice texture.
"Let¡¯s see. One guy who¡¯s knocked out, check. There¡¯s you two, that girl there and a monster. Alright, everyone¡¯s here. Let me take you to your rooms. Would you like a t, apartment or house?" Yin asked while checking Shiro¡¯s message.
"Erm before that can you tell me about what you meant earlier?" Asher asked as Yin nced up.
"About what?"
"The fact that Nitha is tier 5 but doesn¡¯t have a human form like you. Are you perhaps a monster?" Asher asked as Yin nodded.
"Well I guess anything that isn¡¯t human is ssified as a monster. Mum started as a monster as well but she had a human form due to her race. As for me, I¡¯m a phoenix." Yin smiled.
Snapping her fingers, fire erupted out around her as a pair of eyes appeared within the mes.
Dispersing the mes in an instant, the party widened their eyes seeing Yin in her phoenix form. With purple feathers lined with hints of blue and red, she nced down at Nitha who seemed to be in awe before transforming back to human form.
"Though I don¡¯t really like using that form since the taste of food is dulled." Yin shrugged.
"But as I said earlier, there should have been an opportunity for you to be human. I became human much earlier, though it might be because of my race. If you want, after I take you to your new homes, I can try to help you reach human form."
Hearing this, Nitha nodded her head vigorously.
"So have you guys thought about it yet? What kind of house do you want? And what tform do you want it in?" Yin asked, handing them each a tablet that had all the avable ces marked out.
Seeing a map of this city along with the tforms avable, they couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine how muchnd this must take.
"Aren¡¯t you worried about tier 6 monsters such as dragons attacking this ce? We saw a dragon destroy a somewhatrge settlement a while back." Asher asked as Yin couldn¡¯t help butugh.
"Pft ahahaha! Do you think a dumb lizard can do sh*t against mum¡¯s city? First of all, I want to ask you this question. How many tier 6¡¯s do you think are in this city?" Yin smiled as Asher furrowed his brows.
"3?" He guessed. If Yin had him guess, it means that there must be more than one.
"Wrong. There are more than 5 and there are moreing too. Now let me ask you, how many people do you think can kill tier 5¡¯s in this city?" Yin asked as Asher frowned.
"You can give a percentage if you want." Yin chuckled.
"40%?"
"Wrong. Everyone can." Yin grinned.
"What? That¡¯s impossible. Are you saying everyone in the city can, even children?" Cadmi asked as Yin nodded her head.
"Yup. It¡¯s not that they¡¯re strong but it¡¯s the tools that we have." Yin smiled.
"With a bit of training, even children can kill a tier 5 being. Plus, we¡¯re also flying in the sky so the only monsters that can target us are the ones that can fly." She shrugged.
Hearing all of this, the party didn¡¯t know how to react since a city of this strength seemed fake.
But seeing how serious Yin was, they knew she wasn¡¯t joking.
Looking at each other, they figured that it¡¯s probably best to see everything for themselves.
Discussing with each other for a moment, they decided to get a rather big house for all of them with enough space so that Nitha can fit in as well.
"Sure that can be done. Follow me." Yin nodded. Taking them through the corridors, the party couldn¡¯t believe what they were seeing. With the technology in this corridor, they felt like they were in a different world.
"Pst, hey, are you sure we¡¯re still in the timeline? Like what the hell is this???" Cadmi pulled Gordon down and whispered as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Don¡¯t ask me? I¡¯m the dumbest one here!" Gordon replied.
"Actually I think that¡¯s me. I don¡¯t do much here except look after the food hall." Yin interrupted since she could hear them whispering.
¡¯Is that something to be proud of???¡¯ Cadmi thought to herself as they continued to follow Yin.
ncing out of the window, they could see the city and noticed a myriad of races walking around without conflict. Demons, demi humans, elves and so on. Remembering the scene of the apocalypse, it was as if this city was in a dimension of its own. A utopia.
Taking a deep breath, Asher looked down at the city in a trance.
ncing up, he could still see the pir of light in the distance which represented the relic appearing and understood that this was all real.
Seeing this, Yin smiled and waited for them since the people that came here for the first time always had that kind of reaction. It was perfectly normal.
¡¯If we have time today, I might cook them a banquet at the food hall.¡¯ Yin chuckled since they technically helped bring Lyrica¡¯s father back.
###
Bringing Edvimar to the med bay, Lyrica sent out a message to Silvia who teleported here using a teleport node.
"You said that there was a serious patient?" Silvia asked as she nced to the side and saw Edvimar secured to the bed using a mixture of chains and bandages.
".... If you wanted to do bondage you could have done it in your own room rather than the med bay." Silvia said as she nced at Lyrica.
"Oi! That¡¯s my dad! I had to secure him like this since he kept wanting to get up!" Lyrica replied immediately as the only one she wanted to tie up was Shiro!
"Wait your dad?!?!" Isn¡¯t he supposed to be dead?" Silvia asked in shock.
"Yes he is but long story short, he¡¯s not. He¡¯s heavily injured so I want you to see if you can heal him." Lyrica replied as Silvia nodded.
"Alright, give me a few moments."
Walking over to Edvimar, Silvia snapped her fingers as a tier 5 magic circle appeared above him.
Scanning his body, Silvia noticed that his passive healing was being hindered and there seemed to be something slowing down how quickly his mana travels around his body which would hinder healing spells.
Tapping the terminal a few times, retrieved a few small stickers of sort.
cing it on his body, they acted as anchors as a tier 6 formation materialised using these points.
Watching everything happen, Lyrica leaned against the wall with a worried face.
*Sigh....
"Lyrica, even though you said that your dad is alive, I wouldn¡¯t ss him as such. Much like Shiro, it¡¯s a miracle that he¡¯s even standing, walking or doing anything right now. His soul is damaged to the point where his mana is directed to holding it intact. Once he runs out of mana..." Silvia didn¡¯t need to finish her sentence as Lyrica¡¯s heart pounded in shock.
"What can we do then?" Lyrica asked.
"The best we can do right now is constantly supply him with mana. I haven¡¯t been able to heal souls yet hence why Shiro is still injured. If we can keep supplying him mana, there¡¯s a chance that he can be properly healed in the future." Silvia replied as Lyrica bit her nails.
"Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t be fighting for a while so I can tough it out." Edvimar smiled as Lyrica looked at him with worry.
"You haven¡¯t let me finish yet. I said that ¡¯I¡¯ haven¡¯t been able to heal souls yet but with Shiro¡¯s mastery, she should be able to help you stabilise it if nothing else. It¡¯ll decrease the amount of mana you¡¯ll need to use." Silvia said as the two of them nodded their heads.
"Ah right, speaking of Shiro I still need to put up the barriers." Lyrica said as she pulled out her tablet.
"Eh? Howe? Aren¡¯t we far- Actually, if Shiro told you to put up the barrier we probably should. Put it on the maximum just in case since you can never trust what Shiro says when ites to the power of attacks." Silvia paused as she remembered who they were talking about.
"Mn."
###
Dashing through the tree¡¯s, Shiro approached the corrosive area.
ncing around her, she made sure that she was alone before activating a camouge skill and sent a few drones ahead. She wasn¡¯t sure if the area was still around so if it was, she¡¯ll just kill this avatar. Once this avatar died, she wouldn¡¯t be able to spare enough energy to make a second one.
Thankfully, it seemed like the zone had shrunk as the drones ventured forth without any problems.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro followed after the drones.
Chapter 972 Tier 7 Guardian
Chapter 972 Tier 7 Guardian
Dashing through the corrosive zone, Shiro could see that it was nowpletely barren. Even the dirt on the ground had been turned to mush and each step would cause her to sink down. If she didn¡¯t make herself t with mana, she would have been waist deep in this corrosive mud.
Strangely enough, there was a path of sorts, leading towards the twin peaks.
The path was pathed with a strange marbled material and since she didn¡¯t see this earlier, she could assume that someone must have been here before her but the fact that there was some sign of the material being corroded, it must have been ced before the aura shrunk down.
¡¯Who would even put something like this here?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself however, she wasn¡¯t about to leave this alone.
Snapping her fingers, small portals appeared as she immediately sent the marbled material back to Asharia. She wanted to see if Helion could make some armour with his so that it would be highly resistant to the corrosive element. Plus, if her nanobots couldn¡¯t stand up to this aura then it¡¯s safe to assume that the final product might be something quite crazy.
ncing around her, Shiro could see that most of the Queens are still preupied with their own fight so she could enter without any problems.
Continuing towards the twin peaks, Shiro made sure to stay out of sight.
Upon reaching the base of the mountain, she noticed that there was actually a gate leading underground rather than a path towards the mountain peak. Activating analysis, her vision seemed to be blocked off from peering underground but she could see that there was a hollowed path in the centre of both mountains.
Noticing countless runes etched into the walls, Shiro furrowed her brows before approaching the gate. Pushing it open, she immediately noticed a few crests carved into the walls.
Quite a few of them are unfamiliar to her but she recognised a few of them.
¡¯Zeus and Poseidon are involved huh?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. Understanding that Nyx was watching, there wasn¡¯t much that she needed to do since Nyx will sort it out for her.
Looking around the room, there were several paths leading down but what attracted her attention the most was a set of tier 8 magic circles that flickered between realms.
Looking up, she could see a small path leading up to a tower positioned between the two peaks.
The walls of the tower were packed with runes as she could sense that mana was being gathered towards the peak.
Suddenly, the crests started to shine. Noticing the density of divine magic increasing by the second, Shiro frowned and looked towards therge hall that connected all of the paths together.
Immediately feeling divine energy lock around her body, Shiro clicked her tongue and mmed her hand down.
Erupting out with her own divine energy, she broke apart the restriction as she could see an armoured sword¡¯s man looking towards her.
"Are you the trespasser?" He asked as Shiro shrugged.
"Trespasser? Are you saying that this is your home? If so, I must apologise." Shiro replied as he nodded his head.
"This is indeed not my home. But I am in fact the guardian of this ce. Until the relic appears, none is allowed to enter this ce. There has already been one person that had trespassed but he left before I could kill him. I suggest you do the same." He warned as Shiro thought about it for a moment before smiling at him.
"Sure. I don¡¯t mind leaving. I do have a question though." Shiro said as the guardian narrowed his eyes before sheathing his sword.
"Speak.
"What is your task? Do you stop people from obtaining the relic or are you responsible for keeping it safe?" Shiro asked.
If his goal was to keep it safe, she might have to deal with him with her avatar while the weapon fires since there was a good chance that he could stop the attack due to the fact that he is clearly above tier 6! With the divine energy that she could sense from him, he could very well be a tier 7 demi god.
"I stop people from obtaining the relic before the promised time and stop them from setting traps. Please leave the premises or else I will have to deal with you ordingly." He warned as Shiro raised her hand.
"Sure but onest question." Shiro smiled.
"Speak."
"If someone was to try to destroy the relic, what would you do?" Shiro asked.
"Impossible. But if they do attempt to destroy it before the promised time, I will prevent the destruction of the relic."
"What about after the promised time?"
"I am only to protect the relic before the promised time. My duty is over once the time hase. Now leave before I attack." He warned as Shiro nodded her head.
Leaving the room, she activated her divine energy and created a few nodes.
Since this was creating using her tier 8 attunement, it should be able to avoid the guardian¡¯s detection.
Unfortunately, Shiro immediately sensed danger behind her as she ducked down and barely avoided his sword.
"You had been warned. Now pay for your hubris." The guardian red at her as he reached towards the back of her neck.
"Tch, it¡¯s not kind to grab ady¡¯s neck like that." Shiro replied as she kicked back with her heel.
Tilting his head, the guardian dodged her kick as a gun barrel materialised next to her foot.
*BANG!!!
Firing without hesitation, Shiro created some distance between the two of them.
Clicking her tongue, she could see that the bullets did nothing to the guardian since she couldn¡¯t spare too much energy for this avatar.
Without saying anything, the guardian flexed his fingers as tier 7 magic circles started to form around him.
Understanding that she couldn¡¯t defeat him, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to m her hand down and make some preparations instead.
A tier 8 magic circle expanded out as Shiro started toyer this entire room with nanobots.
Narrowing his eyes, the guardian crouched down before shing towards her.
An invisible de of energy exploded out as Shiro could sense danger increasing in front of her.
Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to move out in time as the de cut deeply into her torso.
*COUGH!!!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood in her real body, Shiro swayed on the spot as Nan Tian quickly rushed over to her.
"What happened!?" He asked in shock as Shiro immediately healed herself.
In that single strike, her avatar was killed in one attack and the strike actually injured her real body.
"I was scouting out where the relic will appear and there was a guardian there. He¡¯s stronger than tier 6 and it seems like he can target my main body even through an avatar. Thankfully, it doesn¡¯t seem like the damage is serious." Shiro replied as she had been forced to expend a charge of Grace.
While she did say the ¡¯damage¡¯ wasn¡¯t serious, that was a lie and it would have killed her in one go had it not been for her self heal skills.
Hearing this, Nan Tian furrowed his brows in worry.
"Don¡¯t look so worried, I can still keep the weapon intact." Shiro chuckled.
"I¡¯m not worried about the weapon. I¡¯m more worried about you." Nan Tian sighed deeply.
"Pft, I¡¯m sure you know that killing me is quite hard." Shiroughed as she stood up.
"Yes but it doesn¡¯t cause me to worry less."
"Mn sorry about that then. I do have more information though; this tier 7 guardian won¡¯t stop the weapon after the relic appears. But before that, he¡¯ll be protecting the relic." Shiro replied as Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"Isilia!" Shiro called out with a smile.
"Mn? What is it?" Isilia nced over curiously as Shiro walked towards her.
"There¡¯s a guest back in Asharia that I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be excited to meet. It¡¯s a bit dangerous right now so I¡¯ll need you to stay in space for now but I can let you call him through video call." Shiro smiled.
"Call who?" Isilia tilted her head.
"You¡¯ll see." Shiro winked as she started a call to Lyrica.
"Lyrica, are you able to turn on your camera for a moment? I want your mother to meet our guest." Shiro chuckled as Lyrica nodded her head with a smile.
"Mum! I bet you¡¯ll be surprised." Lyrica called out as Shiro handed the phone to Isilia.
"What would I be surprised about?" Isilia chuckled.
"Trust me mum. 1 million gold to say that you¡¯ll be surprised." Lyricaughed.
"I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve thought you to gamble now have I? But fine I¡¯ll humour you. 1 gold to say that I won¡¯t be surprised." Isilia rolled her eyes.
"In that case then say hi to dad." Lyrica grinned, turning the camera around, revealing Edvimar who was sitting in bed.
Upon seeing Edvimar, Isilia widened her eyes in shock before looking over at Shiro.
"You got 5 minutes." Shiro smiled, opening a portal.
Giving Shiro a quick hug, Isilia rushed through.
Chuckling at her reaction, Shiro ended the call to give them some privacy before looking through the camera¡¯s she had left on earth.
Now that she couldn¡¯t make another avatar, she¡¯ll have to observe everything through cameras.
Chapter 973 Ashers Choice
Chapter 973 Asher''s Choice
Teleporting to the med bay, Isilia felt tears well up as she saw Edvimar sitting on the bed with a soft smile.
shes of memories of when they were together in the elven continent filled her mind as she wrapped her arms around him.
Holding on tightly, afraid that he might disappear, Isilia looked up at him before kissing him on the lips.
"I thought that you had died." Isilia said as her voice quivered.
Seeing the tears that rolled down her cheeks, Edvimar smiled softly before cing his hand on her face.
"I did. But now I¡¯m back." Edvimar replied with a smile as Lyrica took a step out of the room, leaving her parents to have some private time together.
Looking back into the room, Lyrica couldn¡¯t suppress her smile as the day seemed brighter than ever.
Stretching her body, she thought back to how she wanted to venture out on her own for a bit.
¡¯Maybe I should dy that.¡¯ She thought to herself while quickly doing somest minute checks on the barriers.
After all, this is Shiro they were talking about. No amount of preparation was enough.
While she was checking on the barriers, she noticed Yin walking with the humans that had been teleported in earlier.
Realising that she forgot all about them, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but facepalm.
¡¯Sh*t...¡¯
Quickly jogging over, she apologised since she was too preupied with her father.
"It¡¯s fine Miss. Since it¡¯s your father, it¡¯s understandable." Asher chuckled.
"Still I forgot about you lot even with an injured patient next to you." Lyrica said, looking at Lyle who was unconscious on Gordon¡¯s back.
"He¡¯s just knocked out." Gordon shrugged.
"Speaking about Lyle, there¡¯s something I¡¯m curious about though." Cadmi spoke up as Yin nced over.
"His brother was killed in front of him by a Queen and the white haired girl who saved us said that she had to knock him out before he became a fallen. Can you exin to us in more detail about that?" Cadmi asked as Asher nodded his head since he was also curious.
"Is that what mum said? Perhaps it might not be a good choice for you to stay in this city just yet. It¡¯s not that I want to kick you out but rather the fact that there are three Queens living here. If a Queen killed his brother, there¡¯s a high chance that seeing a Queen anywhere would trigger his transformation." Yin spoke seriously as the party listened.
"When your friend bes a fallen, you can say that he will lose all chances of bing human again. It¡¯s best that you let him be stronger mentally beforeing here or else it¡¯s over."
Hearing this, Asher frowned before sighing.
"I suppose that¡¯s true. Plus, I nned staying outside anyway." Asher smiled as Cadmi and Gordon widened their eyes.
"Eh? Isn¡¯t this the paradise that we¡¯ve been looking for? A safe haven?" Cadmi asked as Asher nodded his head.
"It is. But here¡¯s the thing, I think there¡¯s so much more I can be doing outside. While it¡¯s more dangerous, it feels like I¡¯m fulfilling my purpose in life." Asher smiled as he looked down at his hands.
"Plus, from what I know, your mother only saves those with good souls right?" Asher said as Yin nodded.
"Yeah what about it? Those with dark souls must have done something evil. Letting those people in would only ruin things." Yin shrugged.
"Yes but there is a chance of redemption even for those with darker souls. I can¡¯t say much about those that havemitted truly heinous acts but I¡¯m sure that there is always a chance for them. I want to keep roaming the world, get stronger on my own and help those that are in need. Plus, I also want to show them that it¡¯s perfectly fine to live without a Queen. While we might be lucky in finding someone like your mother to help us, others might not have the same luck. I don¡¯t want them to stay further and work for an evil Queen like some of the ones that we had seen in the forest. So thank you for the offer of living here but I think I¡¯ll be roaming the world some more." Asher smiled as Gordon and Cadmi looked at one another before sighing heavily.
"He¡¯s right. Livingfortably like this is good but I also want to help people who have suffered just like me. I was a thug in the slums when my life was changed. I want to give others this second chance as well." Gordon sighed as he scratched his head.
"I¡¯m just tagging along with my friends." Cadmi chuckled.
"Mn that¡¯s quite admirable. But surviving out there is hard. Obtaining food for yourself is difficult and it bes harder when more people are involved. I¡¯m sure mum doesn¡¯t mind giving you a hand in providing food for the people. Or at least I won¡¯t as the guild master of the food hall." Yin grinned as Asher nodded his head.
"That would be helpful but I won¡¯t resort to this unless I¡¯m backed into a corner. If we want people to believe that they can survive without Queens to avoid being used by them, we can¡¯t get help from one. It¡¯s a matter of building trust with them." Asher replied.
"True. Very well then. But you have to let us provide you with a bit of protection before you leave and venture off into the world. It¡¯s not much, just some weapons, armour and a way to contact us if things get rough. Oh and some rations too before you leave." Yin smiled
"If it isn¡¯t troublesome then I would appreciate it." Asher nodded.
"Of course not. Oh by the way, if you want to stay a few hours I¡¯ll see if I can help Nitha out a little. For now though, let¡¯s go to the food hall, I¡¯ll cook you something myself. I¡¯ll also make sure that your little friend is in his state of sleep for a little longer so that he doesn¡¯t be fallen after seeing things rted to Queens." Yin chuckled as Asher nodded his eyes.
However, when Lyrica heard this, she was surprised since everyone knew that Yin¡¯s dishes were hit or miss. It either tasted like the best thing you had ever eaten or it tasted god awful. It was a gamble.
If it turned out good, you¡¯ll be the happiest person alive for the duration. If it wasn¡¯t good, at best you¡¯ll be hospitalised. It was roughly 70% chance of it being good and 30% chance of it being bad.
Yin was quite... experimental in one sense when it came to her cooking.
As they were making their way out of the tower, they noticed that the sky started to darken as more tier 7 and 8 magic circles appeared like a web in the sky. The mana that was being released into the atmosphere started to dense into light mist but was soon dispersed due to the overbearing power being radiated from the magic circles.
Standing in front of the tower, Yin frowned at the magic circles in the sky before continuing towards the food hall.
Seeing this, Asher and the rest of the group was a little confused since Yin seemed to not care about this phenomenon.
"Erm if you don¡¯t mind me asking is this not something that you¡¯re worried about?" Asher asked as Yin nced over.
"You mean the tier 8 magic circles? Not really since I know it isn¡¯t an attack. It¡¯s just a phenomenon caused by the relic appearing. If anything, I¡¯m more worried about what my mum is going to do. I can already sense that mum is straining herself quite a bit so the weapon she¡¯s preparing must be rather crazy." Yin shrugged while the party followed behind her.
Little did they know, crazy was a bit of an understatement as Yin¡¯s dictionary had be just as dysfunctional as Shiro¡¯s. After witnessing quite a few of Shiro¡¯s achievements, she has been desensitised by the acts.
Meanwhile, Shiro was looking down at the Earth with narrowed eyes.
She could see the magic circle forming as it was visible from space. All of the tiny tier 8 magic circles seemed to form a pattern when they¡¯re viewing it from this height. Simr to her formation that she had created back in Tokyo, the sheer size of this formation was one that Shiro had never seen before. If all of this energy was converted into a weapon, the oue would be devastating.
¡¯No wonder the mass of sh that appeared killed everyone. With this much energy being pumped into it, I¡¯ll be more surprised if it didn¡¯t kill everyone.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
With the formation being visible from this height, it was quite simple to determine the centre of the formation even without the prior knowledge of the twin peaks.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro did some final calibrations to make sure that the weapon was aimed properly.
Waiting patiently, she could sense the power of the gods increasing within her body as Madison opened her mouth.
"The relic has appeared!" She shouted out, knowing that Shiro couldn¡¯t see the system right now.
Chapter 974 Firing The Weapon
Chapter 974 Firing The Weapon
Just as Madison shouted out, Shiro could see all of the magic circles light up with a brilliant re.
Narrowing her eyes, she could see a portal of sorts opening in the sky as she immediately stepped towards the weapon.
Pressing her hands against the surface, her aura red as all of thepartments started to hum.
Immediately noticing a change in aura, Hemera nced towards Shiro who had divine energy coursing through her body and into the weapon.
"Is it finally time to fire the weapon?" Hemera muttered while floating next to Nan Tian.
She was currently helping him direct all of the power from the sun towards the weapon.
"Yup. With the relic appearing, we¡¯ll need to get rid of it as soon as possible." Nan Tian smiled.
*CLACK TSSSSS!!!!
Looking at each of the parts that started to shift, Hemera noticed the dungeons being inserted into the main body of the weapon like cartridges.
The moment each was inserted, a set of runes would light up as coils protruded out of the weapon, releasing steam as heat was building up inside the weapon. Even with her mastery over ice, Shiro was struggling to cool down this weapon as energy surged through the body.
Out of the hundreds of dungeon cartridges that she had created, there was a single one that¡¯s different from the rest. A ck and red cartridge that had circuit patterns etched into the surface. That cartridge held a concentrated mass of Error that would only be inserted at the final step. Much like how Error upgraded her sword when he swallowed it, she was going to do the same with the weapon.
As the dungeon batteries were inserted into the weapon, tier 8 magic circles started to flicker around the weapon as the space around them started to distort.
Even with all the help she was getting in maintaining her body, she could still feel her muscles tearing apart from the energy coursing through her.
Taking a deep breath, she gritted her teeth and powered on.
Images of what she had seen from her future self appeared as she didn¡¯t want to see an ending like that.
It didn¡¯t matter how much she pushed herself right now, she refused to see the dead corpses of all her friends.
###
Looking at everything that¡¯s happening with a frown, Attie could sense the connection between him and Shiro weaken as the mana realm started to break apart. The walls started to crack as water filled the gaps in an attempt to fix everything.
He could see Nimue sitting in the middle with her brows creased up as her figure started to break apart. Her humanoid shape wavered as it was on the verge of being turned back to liquid.
Iziuel was also trying her best to help but there was only so much her healing could provide.
Looking down on his hands, Attie looked back at the two that are trying their best right now and took a deep breath.
Clenching his fists, fire erupted out of his body. Burning brightly, the fire reached towards the ceiling of the mana realm as Attie bit his finger.
As the first droplet of blood appeared, it was immediately disintegrated but he didn¡¯t hesitate to make the wound bigger. From one drop to a constant stream, Attie¡¯s face paled as patterns emerged on his body.
His mes grew in size as Iziuel forced her eyes open after sensing a change in her surroundings. Seeing that Attie was doing, Iziuel widened her eyes.
"ATTIE! STOP IT!" Iziuel shouted out but Attie smiled.
"Mommy needs help." Attie said as his flesh started to tear apart.
The cracks that formed within Shiro¡¯s mana realm started to repair itself as Attie¡¯s mes helped Nimue¡¯s water. As they were both divine spirits, merging the two wasn¡¯t too difficult.
Biting her lips, Iziuel sighed heavily as she rushed over to Attie.
"If you¡¯re going to burn life force, at least burn mine. Aunty Iziuel¡¯s a nature spirit, my life force is the strongest out of everyone." Iziuel sighed as she ced her hand on Attie¡¯s shoulder.
A green aura exploded out from her body as the nts around them started to grow.
ncing up, Attie was surprised since he had wanted to do this since he was young and had life force to spare.
With both Iziuel and Attie providing life force for Shiro, the burden on her mana realm decreased as some of the cracks started to heal. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t enough as new wounds wereopening with each passing second.
Hoping that things will turn out well, Attie closed his eyes and prayed.
###
Sitting on a distant mountain, Syradil narrowed her eyes at the darkening skies. The menacing tier 8 magic circles spread far beyond what the eye could see and the world seemed to age before their eyes.
With the surplus of energy, trees matured and withered in a blink of an eye and new saplings took their ce.
¡¯Is she still not making a move?¡¯ Syradil thought to herself.
Looking at the portal opening above the twin peaks, she was thinking of making a move herself.
*KRSHKKK!!!!!
Hearing the roaring of thunder, the clouds that hung above the twin peaks dispersed as day and night seemed to trade ces. The brightness of the magic circles made everything around them seem dark as even Syradil had to shield her eyes for a moment.
Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Syradil could feel goosebumps on her arms as she decided to wait no more.
Standing up, she took a deep breath as mana gathered around her.
Staring into the orb of light, she saw the faint silhouette of a crescent greatsword emerging from within.
Recognising it to be the corrupted relic, she immediately prepared her spell but paused when she noticed a second spike of mana. Instead of mana, it seemed to resembled the relic.
"Divine energy." Syradil muttered.
Tilting her head back, she furrowed her brows when she couldn¡¯t see anything but the tier 8 magic circle of the relic.
Clicking her tongue, she closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again.
Her eyes were now filled with a slight golden glow as the barriers seemed to fade from her sight.
Widening her eyes, she saw the source of this energy.
Stretching beyond the horizon even from that height, she could see the ck silhouette of a giant cannon with neon energy channels flowing through its body. Countless runes blended together into a single colour.
Hundreds upon hundreds of bright red coils filled the side of the weapon.
Focusing a little harder, Syradil could see a merging of mana and divine energy gathering towards the centre of this weapon.
Halting her breath, she couldn¡¯t believe a weapon of this power could be created so soon. Even in her prime, there was little chance of her surviving unless she activated some of her one time use skills that she had received.
Suddenly, motes of light lit up on the side of the weapon as tier 8 magic circles formed a barrel towards earth.
Each of them seemed different but Syradil could recognise a few of them.
¡¯Signs of a berserk skill? How do you even fit that onto a weapon?¡¯ She thought to herself before danger overwhelmed her senses.
Immediately mming down her hand, she wanted to make a portal to escape but it was toote.
A single sh of light filled her vision as she was able to see that it was condensed into a thin line norger than her torso.
Space distorted around the beam as swirls appeared in her vision. As if God had just used a mixing tool, she could see parts of the earth being stretched over head as it became the sky.
The mountains became circles and the skies disappeared.
Focusing on a single point within this area of thousands of meters, space copsed as lightning rippled out, eviscerating everything in its path.
*KRK!!!!!
Within the line of energy, red circuits appeared as a giant maw made from these circuits exploded out, consuming the entire mountain range as every single spek of mana was absorbed.
Feeling her body weaken, Syradil couldn¡¯t help but kneel down on one knee as she realised something shocking. Whatever had just appeared just devoured every single source of mana within this region. The reason why ambient mana could even appear was due to an invisible source constantly supplying mana through a totem of sorts that existed in a different dimension.
Even in the other gardens, she was never able to locate where the source was but she knew that reaching this dimension was difficult. However, the attack had just wiped it out without any problems.
Quickly activating her eyes and peering into the different dimensions around this ce such as the rift, she could see that the attack was multi dimensional. It didn¡¯t matter where you were in terms of dimension, as long as you were in that area, the attack would still hit you.
The attack onlysted for a short instant, but within that instant, the twin peaks were no longer visible as only a deep hole could be seen in its ce.
Chapter 975 End Of The First Event
Chapter 975 End Of The First ''Event''
Furrowing her brows, Syradil was about to move when she realised that the attack was over. Like a ck hole, the epicentre of the explosion started to absorb all off of the mana from the surroundings.
¡¯Its trying to fix all of the dimensions that she just destroyed. It¡¯s even trying to drain me of my own mana. I suspect that this ce will be a dead zone for several decades with how much damage she caused.¡¯ Syradil thought to herself as the mana required to fix a dimension was astronomical.
Add onto the fact that the source of mana in this area has been destroyed, the only way it can get mana to fix itself is from external sources such as people or nts.
Even if it drained everyone of its mana in its vicinity right now, it still wouldn¡¯t be close to repairing itself. At most, it¡¯ll be 0.5%.
Clenching and rxing her fist, Syradil guessed that all of her mana would be drained in around 30 minutes or so and that wasn¡¯t including her regeneration.
ncing up at space, she could see the weapon shattered to pieces as the tier 8 magic circles disappeared. Pieces of debris started to fall off the weapon but they were soon disintegrated by the barriers.
Chuckling to herself, Syradil realised that her worries were for nothing as Shiro had it covered from the start.
"I guess I was thinking too much. I suppose I should continue to level up until I reach my peak again. There are still plenty of things to deal with and the new age had just begun." Syradil muttered as she turned around and prepared to leave.
*PUCHI!!!!!
Just as she was about to leave, a sword stabbed through her torso as her eyes widened. Looking down, she could sense her energy beingpletely drained in an instant.
Gritting her teeth, she wanted to grab the sword but the owner pulled it out before she couldy her hands on it.
"Sleep." A cold voice rang out as Syradil felt her mind waver.
"Who are you?" She forced out but she heard no reply.
She wanted to turn around so that she could see her assant but her body gave in.
Falling unconscious, Syradil¡¯s body was covered with a faint dark green glow.
ncing back, the owner of the sword made sure that she was unconscious before looking up at the sky with narrowed eyes.
"There." They muttered before disappearing from the spot.
###
Just as she fired the weapon, Shiro sensed a wave of bacsh as her mana and divine energy was emptied out instantly. With her body devoid of energy, it was difficult to keep herself afloat as the st sent her crashing through space.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro couldn¡¯t stop herself as the only oue was drifting off for a while until she could get her mana back. However, with her not being able to maintain the portals that provided energy, their oxygen supply had just been cut off.
But before she could beunched far, Nan Tian managed to catch her just in time as he used his mana to stabilise the both of them.
"I would love to talk but we¡¯re running out of air." Nan Tian smiled as he looked down at the pale Shiro.
He noticed a faint ¡¯cracking¡¯ mark stretching from her arm to the rest of her body. The cracks were created from an ominous red energy that seemed to grow with each second.
However, he didn¡¯t have time to worry about that just yet as he grabbed a teleport node and looked towards Madison. She was alsounched by the explosion but unlike Shiro, she had mana to stabilise herself.
"What a show. I can see why mum¡¯s interested in this girl. But with the relic destroyed, my job is over so this avatar is going to disappear in a few moments." Hemera sighed before ncing over at Shiro.
"I¡¯ll tell you what¡¯s happening before I leave since it¡¯s rather serious. She¡¯s receiving a system bacsh since she had used something that exceeded the world¡¯s power before the world was ready.
"Now that it¡¯se to this, there are two choices. Either A, let the world break apart or B, let her body take the brunt of the damage. That is the choice given by the system and seeing as though the world is already taking quite a bit of damage, the rest of it is transferred back to her body. While she does have the blessing of the gods for now to reduce some of the damage, the blessings won¡¯tst long. She¡¯ll need to prepare herself since the moment the blessings end, she¡¯ll be put under a lot of pain." Hemera said as she could see the hole created from the st all the way from space.
All of the mana around the st had been drained and nature withered away from theck of mana.
Around the epicentre was a circle of ck and brown which contrasted with the white snow and green forests.
Had she not focused all of the power into a single point, a continent would have been wiped out. She could faintly see the glow ofva within the whole but it was being buried by the rocks that fell off the side of the hole.
"Is there anything I can do to reduce that bacsh?" Nan Tian asked as it pained him to see Shiro breaking her body even more. Especially when her soul was already damaged.
"Unfortunately no. But with tenacity, I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll survive. It¡¯ll just be extremely painful." Hemera sighed as her figure started to fade.
"But onest thing before I leave. Just so that you can protect her well."
Snapping her fingers, her crest appeared on Nan Tian¡¯s hand as it radiated with a golden hue.
"Unlike the blessing I gave you when you funnelled your power into the weapon, this one is permanent." Hemera smiled as her figurepletely disappeared.
"Thank you." Nan Tian bowed before flying over to Madison¡¯s side.
Seeing that Madison was trying to recover from some bacsh of her own, Nan Tian grabbed her arm and prepared to activate the teleport node.
But before he could, Shiro stopped him.
"No. Don¡¯t activate it. Go back to Asharia and bring Isilia to space. For oxygen, you, Isilia and Madison can just insert mana into the suit and the portal bringing the oxygen will open again. We can¡¯t let Isilia stay on Earth since she¡¯s being hunted by the watchman. For safe measures, bring Edvimar here too." Shiro forced out while gritting her teeth.
She couldn¡¯t be restrained by this amount of pain when she needed to bring her best friend to safety.
Hearing this, Nan Tian furrowed his brows before nodding his head.
Inserting some mana into Shiro¡¯s suit, he opened a portal back to Asharia and dashed towards the med bay while Madison looked after Shiro.
###
"What the hell!" Thiria shouted out in anger as she gritted her teeth. Looking at the hole that reced the relic, she seethed in anger as all of her preparation was for naught. All of her ns, crushed with a single action.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself but failed.
"Retreat. We¡¯re going back to the city. There¡¯s nothing for us to gain here anymore." Thiriamanded as she started to walk away from the area. Now that the rainbow relic was gone, she might as well go back to cultivating her strength.
She¡¯ll prepare herself for the next battle.
###
One by one, the Queens started to leave the area since the relic was now gone. Without the treasure, there was no point sticking around when there was another nuke known as the Dragon Empress. Staying now would just be a suicidal act.
A few of them were curious as to who was responsible for the destruction caused but brushed it off as the work of gods since only gods could use tier 8 magic circles. With the relic being able to summon tier 8 magic circles of its own, the one who destroyed it must be able to kill a god.
With the Queens leaving the region, everything became quiet as not a single sound could be heard. No wind nor animals.
Dead was the best way to describe this ce.
This marked the end of the first rainbow grade relic to have appeared in the new age. Destroyed before the world could learn of its power.
However, despite not being able to obtain the relic, a few Queens managed to obtain new alliances during this period and had already begun to n their next steps. After all, the new age didn¡¯t end with just a single relic.
###
"How dare she..." A voice muttered in the void. Just as it had entered the world it was struck down by a blinding light which severely damaged its body. Strangely, it could feel its reservoir of divine energy decrease as though something had ¡¯absorbed¡¯ it.
Taking a few deep breaths, it nced through a screen and searched for the face of its enemy. Upon seeing the visage of a white-haired girl suffering from the bacsh, it burned her image into his mind. if the bacsh didn¡¯t kill her, it¡¯ll do it personally in the future.
Chapter 976 Backlash
Chapter 976 Bacsh
Sitting in the small space station that Shiro had made for Madison before creating the weapon, the party of Nan Tian, Isilia, Madison and Edvimar sat around a bed. Lyrica had wanted toe but there were more things to deal with back in Asharia.
Laying in the bed was Shiro as the red cracks continued to spread through her body, forcing her to take sharp breaths from the pain.
Looking at her pale face, Nan Tian felt as though his heart was getting crushed and nced at Edvimar.
"How long do we have to wait? We can¡¯t stay in space forever." He asked.
With the Watchman chasing Isilia, they had to keep her out of his sight or else she¡¯ll be taken away.
"Not too long hopefully. Since he is a tier 8 entity, staying around would put a strain on his body. Even if the system allowed him into the world, there is still a limit." Edvimar replied, tightening his grip around Isilia¡¯s hand.
"I hope that is the case. I want to get her some help back on Earth but as Hemera said, this is a bacsh we can¡¯t alleviate." Nan Tian furrowed his brows while looking at Shiro who was sweating on the bed.
Grabbing the bed sheets, Shiro gritted her teeth and tried not to scream or cry since the pain was like pouring hotva through her body only much worse. After all, if it wasva, she could endure that kind of pain with ease.
Gasping for air, she wanted to grab onto anything that might reduce the pain that she was feeling.
Seeing this, Nan Tian quickly held her hand down as Isilia and Madison did the same.
*CRACK!!!
Feeling his bone fracture slightly from her grip, Nan Tian flinched as Madison had to activate her berserk skill to contest against Shiro.
"Sh*t!" Madison couldn¡¯t help but curse since she couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine how much pain Shiro was feeling for her to act this way. This was a girl who casually punched through her own stomach or ripped off her arm so that Silvia could test out her healing spells. And yet she was now thrashing around in the bed while gasping for breath.
The dark red fractures that spread through her body pulsed with each second and were different to the circuits that appeared when she used Error.
This was more sinister and even though she wasn¡¯t the one being targeted; Madison could feel a burning sensation whenever she touched the fracture which made holding Shiro down much harder.
Unable to hold it in anymore, Shiro opened her mouth as a heart wrenching cry rang out.
Quickly casting a silence spell so that their ears didn¡¯t get ruptured, Isilia wanted to find something that¡¯ll help her relieve the pain or something that might stop her from crying out.
If she continued to scream like this, she¡¯d destroy her throat in a few minutes.
Gritting his teeth, Nan Tian took a deep breath as he snapped his fingers.
Motes of light appeared around them as they transformed into cuffs that secured Shiro to the bed.
Reinforcing them as much as possible, he created cuffs around her limbs and torso to stop her from moving around as much as possible.
If he restrained her like this, she could at least exert her strength on getting out rather than harming herself to take her mind off the pain.
ncing towards Edvimar, Nan Tian gestured for him to follow him out of the room while Madison and Isilia tended to Shiro.
"Is there a way for you to know when the Watchman leaves?" Nan Tian asked as Edvimar nodded his head.
"When the Watchman leaves, I¡¯ll suffer a bit of bacsh but I should be able to stabilise myself afterwards. Thankfully, I won¡¯t be forced to leave since I separated myself from the system. Though this also means that bing stronger is now much harder and with my focus on sustaining myself, I can¡¯t get stronger even if I wanted to." Edvimar shrugged.
"Mn well with how many tier 6¡¯s we have, you should be able to live a safe life. Lyrica and Isilia would be heartbroken if you were to die." Nan Tian smiled as Edvimar nodded his head.
"But seeing my wife and daughter on the battlefield while I¡¯m at home is a bitter feeling haha. As a husband, I should be Isilia¡¯s shield. As a father, I should be preventing my daughter from being exposed to dangers like this." Edvimar sighed.
"Perhaps. But your daughter is strong. You can¡¯t keep her shielded forever. They always outgrow a parent¡¯spany eventually." Nan Tian chuckled.
"True." Edvimar nodded with a smile.
"Oh if you don¡¯t mind, can you tell me about the life that my daughter has been living in the time that I was gone? I¡¯m aware that she might have hidden some things from me so that I don¡¯t worry." Edvimar asked as Nan Tian thought about it.
"I don¡¯t know too much since I wasn¡¯t around so what I know she¡¯s probably already told you." Nan Tian smiled apologetically since he somewhat understood the feeling and why he wanted to know.
He was absent for a majority of her life so it was understandable that he wanted to know about what he¡¯s missed.
"Is that so... Forget it then." Edvimar smiled.
"While I am unable to tell you much about your daughter, can you answer one of my questions?" Nan Tian asked as Edvimar nodded.
"Ask away."
"How did you separate yourself from the system? And what kind of consequencese with doing so?" Nan Tian asked.
He knew that the system was dangerous but at the same time beneficial. It was akin to using poison to fight poison. While it saves you, it is also a danger. Shiro mentioned that in the future she had gotten rid of the system so there must be a reason for doing so.
While they don¡¯t know the reason yet, it¡¯s probably best to make some preparations for this.
"Hmm... What¡¯s your authority level? If you¡¯re not high enough, the system will censor it out so even if I wanted to tell you, I cannot." Edvimar sighed.
"How do you check?"
"You say the following lines but with your name of course. Systemmand, disy authority level of entity -Edvimar-." Edvimar smiled as Nan Tian nodded.
Recing Edvimar¡¯s name with his own, he saw a flickering screen in his peripherals as it disyed his authority level.
"Apparently my authority level is 6. Is that high enough?" Nan Tian asked but Edvimar shook his head.
"You need at least an authority level of 7."
"How do you upgrade your authority level?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"I believe you have to reached the required tier. Honestly, I don¡¯t know much since I was able to distance myself from the system through luck." Edvimar smiled.
"I see... Wait, if you no longer have the system does that mean information isn¡¯t censored for you?" Nan Tian asked as Edvimar nodded.
Furrowing his brows, he started to tell Edvimar everything that¡¯s happened when they went to retrieve the garden shard so that Shiro could make the anchor.
Listening silently, Edvimar widened his eyes in shock since that meant the system had been lying to all of the Queens and only Shiro had the chance to reach the ending. Plus, with this being the final run, if Shiro fails, everything ends.
Frowning deeply, Edvimar took a moment to digest all of the information he had just received.
"This... is quite shocking. If I still had the system, I think that if I didn¡¯t have at least an authority level of 8, this would be censored." Edvimar said as he nced back up at Nan Tian.
"So we need to do everything in our power to keep Shiro alive then."
"Yes. I¡¯m not sure about how we can tell the other Queen¡¯s so that we can turn them into allies but for now, we have five primordial gods supporting Shiro so when they arrive in the second half, we should be good to go." Nan Tian said but Edvimar shook his head.
"Do you know how to win though?" He asked.
"Isn¡¯t it just a battle royal? Until one remains no?" Nan Tian replied but Edvimar shook his head.
"It¡¯s the system, do you really think it¡¯s so simple? Why would it allow someone who only knows how to kill others to be the ruler of the new host world if that¡¯s it¡¯s goal?" Edvimar asked as Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"You mean to say that there¡¯s a good chance that Shiro will need to persuade more people to join her?"
"Yes. But with her not being able to share the secret that only she can obtain the final rewards, I¡¯m afraid it¡¯ll be difficult since most of the Queens are selfish with their own goals taking priority so finding someone to trust will be difficult."
"What about the contract then? If a Queen signs a contract with Shiro, can¡¯t she ally with them without worry?" Nan Tian asked but Edvimar shook his head.
"I¡¯m not sure since the news about this contract is new for me. But if that¡¯s the case then that¡¯s the best we can hope for."
###
Waving his hand, a figure shattered the barriers blocking him from space one by one. Breaching it with ease, the true sky revealed itself as he spotted a small building orbiting Earth.
730
Sitting in the small space station that Shiro had made for Madison before creating the weapon, the party of Nan Tian, Isilia, Madison and Edvimar sat around a bed. Lyrica had wanted toe but there were more things to deal with back in Asharia.
Laying in the bed was Shiro as the red cracks continued to spread through her body, forcing her to take sharp breaths from the pain.
Looking at her pale face, Nan Tian felt as though his heart was getting crushed and nced at Edvimar.
"How long do we have to wait? We can¡¯t stay in space forever." He asked.
With the Watchman chasing Isilia, they had to keep her out of his sight or else she¡¯ll be taken away.
"Not too long hopefully. Since he is a tier 8 entity, staying around would put a strain on his body. Even if the system allowed him into the world, there is still a limit." Edvimar replied, tightening his grip around Isilia¡¯s hand.
"I hope that is the case. I want to get her some help back on Earth but as Hemera said, this is a bacsh we can¡¯t alleviate." Nan Tian furrowed his brows while looking at Shiro who was sweating on the bed.
Grabbing the bed sheets, Shiro gritted her teeth and tried not to scream or cry since the pain was like pouring hotva through her body only much worse. After all, if it wasva, she could endure that kind of pain with ease.
Gasping for air, she wanted to grab onto anything that might reduce the pain that she was feeling.
Seeing this, Nan Tian quickly held her hand down as Isilia and Madison did the same.
*CRACK!!!
Feeling his bone fracture slightly from her grip, Nan Tian flinched as Madison had to activate her berserk skill to contest against Shiro.
"Sh*t!" Madison couldn¡¯t help but curse since she couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine how much pain Shiro was feeling for her to act this way. This was a girl who casually punched through her own stomach or ripped off her arm so that Silvia could test out her healing spells. And yet she was now thrashing around in the bed while gasping for breath.
The dark red fractures that spread through her body pulsed with each second and were different to the circuits that appeared when she used Error.
This was more sinister and even though she wasn¡¯t the one being targeted; Madison could feel a burning sensation whenever she touched the fracture which made holding Shiro down much harder.
Unable to hold it in anymore, Shiro opened her mouth as a heart wrenching cry rang out.
Quickly casting a silence spell so that their ears didn¡¯t get ruptured, Isilia wanted to find something that¡¯ll help her relieve the pain or something that might stop her from crying out.
If she continued to scream like this, she¡¯d destroy her throat in a few minutes.
Gritting his teeth, Nan Tian took a deep breath as he snapped his fingers.
Motes of light appeared around them as they transformed into cuffs that secured Shiro to the bed.
Reinforcing them as much as possible, he created cuffs around her limbs and torso to stop her from moving around as much as possible.
If he restrained her like this, she could at least exert her strength on getting out rather than harming herself to take her mind off the pain.
ncing towards Edvimar, Nan Tian gestured for him to follow him out of the room while Madison and Isilia tended to Shiro.
"Is there a way for you to know when the Watchman leaves?" Nan Tian asked as Edvimar nodded his head.
"When the Watchman leaves, I¡¯ll suffer a bit of bacsh but I should be able to stabilise myself afterwards. Thankfully, I won¡¯t be forced to leave since I separated myself from the system. Though this also means that bing stronger is now much harder and with my focus on sustaining myself, I can¡¯t get stronger even if I wanted to." Edvimar shrugged.
"Mn well with how many tier 6¡¯s we have, you should be able to live a safe life. Lyrica and Isilia would be heartbroken if you were to die." Nan Tian smiled as Edvimar nodded his head.
"But seeing my wife and daughter on the battlefield while I¡¯m at home is a bitter feeling haha. As a husband, I should be Isilia¡¯s shield. As a father, I should be preventing my daughter from being exposed to dangers like this." Edvimar sighed.
"Perhaps. But your daughter is strong. You can¡¯t keep her shielded forever. They always outgrow a parent¡¯spany eventually." Nan Tian chuckled.
"True." Edvimar nodded with a smile.
"Oh if you don¡¯t mind, can you tell me about the life that my daughter has been living in the time that I was gone? I¡¯m aware that she might have hidden some things from me so that I don¡¯t worry." Edvimar asked as Nan Tian thought about it.
"I don¡¯t know too much since I wasn¡¯t around so what I know she¡¯s probably already told you." Nan Tian smiled apologetically since he somewhat understood the feeling and why he wanted to know.
He was absent for a majority of her life so it was understandable that he wanted to know about what he¡¯s missed.
"Is that so... Forget it then." Edvimar smiled.
"While I am unable to tell you much about your daughter, can you answer one of my questions?" Nan Tian asked as Edvimar nodded.
"Ask away."
"How did you separate yourself from the system? And what kind of consequencese with doing so?" Nan Tian asked.
He knew that the system was dangerous but at the same time beneficial. It was akin to using poison to fight poison. While it saves you, it is also a danger. Shiro mentioned that in the future she had gotten rid of the system so there must be a reason for doing so.
While they don¡¯t know the reason yet, it¡¯s probably best to make some preparations for this.
"Hmm... What¡¯s your authority level? If you¡¯re not high enough, the system will censor it out so even if I wanted to tell you, I cannot." Edvimar sighed.
"How do you check?"
"You say the following lines but with your name of course. Systemmand, disy authority level of entity -Edvimar-." Edvimar smiled as Nan Tian nodded.
Recing Edvimar¡¯s name with his own, he saw a flickering screen in his peripherals as it disyed his authority level.
"Apparently my authority level is 6. Is that high enough?" Nan Tian asked but Edvimar shook his head.
"You need at least an authority level of 7."
"How do you upgrade your authority level?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"I believe you have to reached the required tier. Honestly, I don¡¯t know much since I was able to distance myself from the system through luck." Edvimar smiled.
"I see... Wait, if you no longer have the system does that mean information isn¡¯t censored for you?" Nan Tian asked as Edvimar nodded.
Furrowing his brows, he started to tell Edvimar everything that¡¯s happened when they went to retrieve the garden shard so that Shiro could make the anchor.
Listening silently, Edvimar widened his eyes in shock since that meant the system had been lying to all of the Queens and only Shiro had the chance to reach the ending. Plus, with this being the final run, if Shiro fails, everything ends.
Frowning deeply, Edvimar took a moment to digest all of the information he had just received.
"This... is quite shocking. If I still had the system, I think that if I didn¡¯t have at least an authority level of 8, this would be censored." Edvimar said as he nced back up at Nan Tian.
"So we need to do everything in our power to keep Shiro alive then."
"Yes. I¡¯m not sure about how we can tell the other Queen¡¯s so that we can turn them into allies but for now, we have five primordial gods supporting Shiro so when they arrive in the second half, we should be good to go." Nan Tian said but Edvimar shook his head.
"Do you know how to win though?" He asked.
"Isn¡¯t it just a battle royal? Until one remains no?" Nan Tian replied but Edvimar shook his head.
"It¡¯s the system, do you really think it¡¯s so simple? Why would it allow someone who only knows how to kill others to be the ruler of the new host world if that¡¯s it¡¯s goal?" Edvimar asked as Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"You mean to say that there¡¯s a good chance that Shiro will need to persuade more people to join her?"
"Yes. But with her not being able to share the secret that only she can obtain the final rewards, I¡¯m afraid it¡¯ll be difficult since most of the Queens are selfish with their own goals taking priority so finding someone to trust will be difficult."
"What about the contract then? If a Queen signs a contract with Shiro, can¡¯t she ally with them without worry?" Nan Tian asked but Edvimar shook his head.
"I¡¯m not sure since the news about this contract is new for me. But if that¡¯s the case then that¡¯s the best we can hope for."
###
Waving his hand, a figure shattered the barriers blocking him from space one by one. Breaching it with ease, the true sky revealed itself as he spotted a small building orbiting Earth.
Chapter 977 Watchman
Chapter 977 Watchman
As Edvimar and Nan Tian were talking to one another, they both suddenly stood up in shock as they noticed a small portal opening in the corner of the room.
Understanding that no one but them should have the portal to this space station, they both raised their guards as Nan Tian prepared a few spells.
*KISH!!!
A sword pierced through the opening as Nan Tian immediately activated his spell,unching several tier 6 light swords towards the portal.
"Crush." A cold voice rang out as the swords shattered to pieces.
mming the sword down, a figure started to step through the portal.
Widening his eyes, Edvimar¡¯s face paled as his breathing quickened.
"Bind." The figure spoke again as an invisible forcetched onto their body, stopping them from moving.
Gritting his teeth, Nan Tian opened his mouth. He wanted to shout out a warning but the figure only pointed his sword towards Nan Tian.
"Silence."
Feeling something blocking his voice, Nan Tian started to panic as this person was much stronger than what they could have expected. He couldn¡¯t sense any mana from him at all and if not for the fact that he saw the portal, they wouldn¡¯t have noticed him at all!
Wanting to cast a spell, mana erupted out of his body.
"Dispel."
All of the mana dispersed in an instant as Nan Tian could only look at the figure powerlessly.
The man wore a set of ck armour with no helmet as a hood hid his face from them. All they saw was a pair of blue glows that seemed to represent his eyes but they couldn¡¯t see any emotion in them. There were small capsules on his belt secured by a chain as a tattered waist cloth obscured some of the capsules from sight.
With Shiro suffering from her bacsh in the next room, Nan Tian wanted to stop this man here at all cost. There was no guarantee that he wouldn¡¯t harm Shiro.
Gritting his teeth, he tried to break free of the bindings as his muscles felt like they were about to explode from how much strength he was exerting.
Remembering that Hemera gave him her blessings, he wanted to see if he could use that to contest against this figure.
However, before he could do anything, the figure ced a hand on Nan Tian¡¯s head.
"Sleep."
Feeling a wave of fatigue wash over him, Nan Tian could see his visions blur.
Snapping his eyes open, he didn¡¯t hesitate to bite off his tongue in an attempt to keep himself awake.
The figure¡¯s eyes seemed to flicker for a moment before he spoke again.
"Sleep."
Feeling another way of fatigue wash over him, Nan Tian wasn¡¯t able to move his body at all since he was bound.
Plus, he couldn¡¯t cast any spells since he would just dispel it.
Thinking about this, Nan Tian decided to risk it.
Detonating the mana within his body, he destroyed his eardrums to forcefully keep himself awake while also trying to block out his words that seemed to hold special powers.
However, there were still bindings locking his body up.
¡¯I¡¯m taking a note from your book Shiro.¡¯ Nan Tian smiled as he detonated the mana inside his body once more.
Shredding his joints to pieces, Nan Tian gritted his teeth and activated a regeneration skill before shing towards the man with a light sword.
*CLANG!!!
Blocking it with ease, the figure looked towards Nan Tian with confusion since it wasn¡¯t his goal to kill him.
As long as he slept, he would be spared.
What was causing him to go so far as to destroy his body just so that he could move again.
"Bind."
Activating his magic once more, the man wanted to stop Nan Tian but he only shredded his body to pieces once more before fixing it with his skill.
"I don¡¯t know how she does it but this hurts like a b*tch. I really can¡¯t hold a candle to her at all." Nan Tianughed as he charged towards the figure once more.
He could guess that he was the watchman and if what Edvimar said was true, all he needed to do was dy him as long as possible so that he¡¯s forced to leave.
With Shiro in the next room and the watchman¡¯s target next to her, he had to dy him as much as possible.
He didn¡¯t know if he should be happy or sad that they didn¡¯t notice the fight in the next room, but there wasn¡¯t any time to dwell on these things.
Unleashing a flurry of blows against this figure, all of which were blocked, Nan Tian mmed his hand down as a tier 6 magic circle appeared.
With his other hand, he activated Hemera¡¯s crest which caused the figure to pause for a moment.
"Dispel."
*PING!!
Shattering the magic circles apart, he stepped towards Nan Tian and wanted to stab at him but Edvimar suddenly flickered behind him with a sword in hand.
His clothes were bloody as he had used the same method as Nan Tian to break out of his bindings. While he wasn¡¯t as strong as he used to be, he still couldn¡¯t sit around doing nothing while his wife was in danger!
"Halt."
Suddenly, the space around the figure seemed to freeze as both Nan Tian and Edvimar were frozen in their ce.
"Repel."
Without giving them a chance to break out of this, the figure spoke again and their bodies were flung against the walls of the building.
"Bind, chain, seal." Speaking three words in quick session, Nan Tian watched as chains wrapped around his body before a tier 8 seal appeared in front of him.
Draining him of all energy, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t even muster up the strength to shout as a motes of light gathered in front of the figure.
"Leave." Hemera warned as divine energy erupted out of her.
Since she had only recentlye into contact with this party, the system restriction around her was a little loosepared to the restrictions around her mother.
She could manifest herself more and perhaps even fight. However, she still had to be careful since there was still a limit on what she could do or else she¡¯ll suffer a simr fate to Shiro.
However, she couldn¡¯t let the goal of this person seed since she understood the consequences of letting him kill Isilia. Shiro would fall and the world would end.
"The natural bnce of things cannot be disturbed. The target has vited this and I am to retrieve her." The figure spoke as his wordscked the magical properties they contained earlier.
"And so is the revival of a dead person. Don¡¯t be so petty. Or are you really going to challenge my authority. Just so you know, the girl in there has a group of gods backing her up." Hemera warned as divine energy exploded out from her body.
"Even if I leave, more wille. This job is to bepleted regardless of whopletes it. If not by my hands, it will be by another. At least with me, I can reduce the casualties. So goddess, please step aside. This is my show of respect towards a tier 8 being such as yourself. Do not involve yourself any further than this or you will suffer disastrous consequences." The figure warned as he stabbed his sword down in front of him.
"Can¡¯t you make an exception for this? Don¡¯t you know that it¡¯s thest cycle?" Hemera narrowed her eyes since Nyx had told her everything. Thankfully, the system restriction around her wasx or else she wouldn¡¯t know anything about this. Just like how Zeus was ignorant or else he wouldn¡¯t have antagonised Shiro like this.
"It seems like what you said was not something I should know since it was censored. Regardless, I have a job to do and this is my final warning. If you let meplete my mission now, there will be no casualties other than her. If I fail, the next one whoes may not be as merciful. There are many coveting my position and I am receable." The Watchman sighed but Hemeraughed.
"I know you¡¯re receable. Since I¡¯ll make a job opening right now." Waving her hand, spears of light condensed around her as they seemed to absorb all the light from their surroundings.
"So be it." The watchman sighed.
Tracing his finger along the de, several tier 8 magic circles appeared as he opened his mouth.
"Track, Cut, Poison."
Dashing forward, he shed towards Hemera who blocked his strike with her spear before counter attacking.
She had heard of this kind of magic before and understood how powerful it was. However, there was a w. If the action mentioned in the word fails, the caster will suffer the consequences instead. So if he were to try to use the word kill on someone who couldn¡¯t be killed in one go, he¡¯ll be the one suffering the effects instead.
With strong enemies, he had to be careful with his word choice hence why he chose the words Track, Cut and Poison instead of words like Halt or Bind. If they fail, he¡¯ll be bound, giving Hemera a chance to kill him in one strike.
ncing back at the room holding Shiro, Hemera took a deep breath and hoped that she¡¯d be enough. Because at the end of the day, she knew that she was no match for this person in front of her.
Chapter 978 Hemera Vs The Watchman
Chapter 978 Hemera Vs The Watchman
Countering the watchman¡¯s attacks with her spears, Hemera gritted her teeth since it was hard to find an opportunity to strike at him directly.
Behind her was a room with an injured person along with his target so she couldn¡¯t use anything too ridiculous. Their power had to be constrained within the small space that they¡¯re given right now.
However, there was a second choice and that was to drag him away from this ce.
Grabbing one of the spears, she twirled it in her hand before piercing it towards his throat.
As the watchman parried her de, she immediately forced it down before using it as a vault tounch her body forward.
Kicking towards his head, Hemera narrowed her eyes and tilted his head out of the way just in time.
"Repulse." The watchman spoke as an invisible force immediately mmed against Hemera¡¯s body.
Clicking her tongue, light focused at her fingertip as she pointed it at the watchman¡¯s eye.
*KST!!!!
Firing the spell, she watched as he ducked down and deflected her strike with his de.
Burning a hole into the building with ease, Hemera frowned.
¡¯I don¡¯t want to do this since I want to dy him as much as possible but if we keep fighting, we¡¯ll continue to destroy the building. He doesn¡¯t care but I do.¡¯ Hemera thought with a frown.
However, just as she paused, the watchman took this chance to close the gap.
"Obscure, Numb, Fatigue." He spoke quickly as his figure disappeared from Hemera¡¯s sight.
Before she could even curse out, she felt the de pierce her torso as she immediately scattered her flesh into particles of light before recreating her body a little further away from the watchman.
¡¯I¡¯m not a fighting type so I don¡¯t have too many skills geared towards killing a person. However... even if I don¡¯t focus on fighting, I¡¯m still a goddess. I can¡¯t lose this easily.¡¯ Hemera thought as she mmed her hand down.
A tier 8 magic circle expanded out as Hemera opened her mouth.
"Do you know that light particles are everywhere? As a goddess that has her divinity tied to light, you can say that everything in existence is within my attack range. Even in the void, as long as you can perceive something even if it¡¯s barely noticeable, I can attack it since light is present." Hemera smiled as she nced at Nan Tian.
"Watch carefully!" She shouted out as millions of tiny specks of light suddenly appeared around the room and surrounded the both of them.
"Ivarni!" Hemera shouted out as in a single instant, the watchman¡¯s body was filled with holes that seemed as though a burning needle had pierced through him.
Widening his eyes for a moment, he opened his mouth.
"Recover."
Fixing the damage in an instant, Hemera couldn¡¯t help but feel a little irritated but a word like that must have its limits. He won¡¯t be able to use it too often and while he may not show it, there is definitely a bacsh or a restriction!
Instead of backing off, Hemera charged forward.
Her body suddenly disappeared as she appeared behind the watchman.
Pulling her spear back, she pierced towards him as he quickly tried to parry but her spear disappeared along with her arm.
Since she has a divinity of light, it¡¯s only natural that she could manifest her body separately as long as light was around.
Sensing danger behind him, the watchman changed his guard as he was barely able to block it in time.
With her spear being blocked, Hemera didn¡¯t stop her attack there.
Twisting her body, she kicked towards him as more motes of light appeared around them.
Seeing all of the attacks, the watchman narrowed his eyes and mmed his sword down.
"Void." He spoke coldly as blood sttered around him.
Looking at him in shock, Hemera didn¡¯t think that he was able to use a word to obliterate everything in the space around him.
Quickly repairing her body, she jumped back and brushed her hand against the wall as tier 8 magic circles appeared.
"Reinforce, Void, Attraction Force."
Destroying the space around him and instantly using that empty space to pull him towards Hemera, the watchman stabbed his sword into her chest as he pinned her against the wall.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Hemera grabbed the watchman¡¯s arm with a crazed look in her eyes.
"I finally caught you for good." She grinned as a multiyered tier 8 magic circle bloomed behind her.
Suddenly, the two of them disappeared as Hemera had dragged him into her divine domain, the manifestation of her divinity.
Standing in the centre, the watchman only looked at Hemera calmly as they were in the middle of a grasnd as the sun was rising in the background.
"My divine domain¡¯s a little differentpared to others. I cannot activate it unless I physically grab someone and drag them in myself so when a battle starts, they usually have an advantage as they¡¯re able to use their domain without the worry of me countering it since I can¡¯t activate mine as long as they keep their distance." Hemera smiled as her aura started to grow.
"However, once in my domain, my divinity can perform at 100% of its power. I¡¯m Hemera, Primeval Goddess of Day, daughter of Nyx the Primordial Goddess of Night. In my domain, the sun will forever be at its highest point. My powers will be sustained at maximum output."
sping her hands together, fire erupted out everywhere as the grasnd disappeared and the watchman was surrounded by a sea of fire.
Since she was the goddess of day, her divinity extends from light to fire.
Looking at the sea of fire that the watchman sighed heavily.
"Seems like there will be one more casualty in this mission. It won¡¯t be fatal but you¡¯ll be heavily wounded. I apologise for that as you are still a goddess in the end but you¡¯ve forced my hand." He sighed.
"While there are many who covet my job, there are a few reasons as to why I¡¯m still here. One of them is that I¡¯m the best at doing this job. You¡¯re not the first god to have intervened in my business before." He sighed as he twirled the sword
"True Name Unsealed." The watchman narrowed his eyes as Hemera paused in surprise. While there are many with True Names, having a True Name meant that they will forever be in their weakest state unless it is revealed but when that happens, the burden on their body will increase dramatically.
Having one¡¯s true name unsealed is essentially a berserk skill of a berserk skill.
For him to be able to contest against a god despite having his True Name hidden, it meant that his real power was probably higher.
Opening his mouth, he spoke in an unfamiliarnguage that Hemera couldn¡¯tprehend.
"You can simply call me Administrator 3 but that¡¯s an old title now. I¡¯m fired after all."
###
After Hemera dragged the watchman away, both Nan Tian and Edvimar were freed from their restraints as Nan Tian felt as though he was about to fall into aa at any moment.
However, before he passed out, he had to warn the three in the next room.
With Hemera dying the watchman, they should be able to get back to earth so that they could put some distance between them.
While Shiro was suffering from the bacsh, they had items to send them back so they didn¡¯t need to worry.
Limping over to the door, he was barely able to open it as Lisandra, Madison and Isilia looked over at him in shock, surprised that he would return with blood all over his clothes. Isilia could see that Edvimar was also barely hanging on as he followed behind Nan Tian.
"What happened?!" Isilia asked in shock as she rushed over to the two.
"Don¡¯t worry about us right now. The most important thing is that you take everyone here back to Earth including Edvimar. The watchman is here and Hemera is dying him right now. We don¡¯t have time to spare." Nan Tian forced out as he nced towards Shiro, who at his point, hadpletely destroyed her throat and even without the silencing spell, she was barely able to make a sound.
Hearing, Isilia¡¯s face paled as they thought they would be safe in space but that was false. With how injured Nan Tian was and how Hemera was forced to hold him back, Isilia understood that this wasn¡¯t something they could fight right now.
Quickly reaching into her inventory, she pulled out a teleport node but before she could activate it, a sword shattered it to pieces.
Recognising the sword, Nan Tian¡¯s face paled as he immediately turned around to see an unconscious Hemera being dragged by the back of her neck.
*BANG!!!
Throwing her body behind the party, the watchman approached the party.
"Repel, Chain, Seal."
Forcing the party against the wall and restricting their movements, he stood in front of Isilia.
Chapter 979 Destroyer
Chapter 979 Destroyer
Looking at the towering figure of the watchman, Isilia could feel fear gripped her heart as not even a goddess could stop this person from arriving before her.
Wanting to take a step back, Isilia realised that her body had been paralysedpletely.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared behind the watchman as Edvimar broke out of the restrictions using the previous method that they had discovered.
"HA!!!" Swinging his sword, he couldn¡¯t help but curse in his mind when he saw the sword get parried with a single finger.
"RUN!" Edvimar shouted out as he threw the teleport node towards her.
However, the watchman sliced it in half as he grabbed Edvimar¡¯s head and mmed it against the ground.
*CRACK!!!!
Fracturing the floor, he could see that Edvimar was knocked out cold as he was already nearing his limit after thest encounter.
ncing down at his hand, he furrowed his brows before sighing.
"Seems like I have two prisoners to take with me instead of one." He muttered, realising that Edvimar was not someone who should be on this side either.
Shaking his head, he figured that he should reinforce things once he returned back to his realm.
Turning back to Isilia, he pulled out an emblem from his cloak.
"!!!!" Sensing danger next to him, the watchman quickly stepped back as he watched red circuits rush past him.
"What... The f*ck... are you doing?" Shiro squeezed out as her eyes were bloodshot. Her face waspletely pale but even in this state, she wasn¡¯t going to back down.
Whileying on the bed, she could sense the mana running rampant as Edvimar shouted out run.
Forcing the activation of a berserk skill, she jump started her own body as she was barely able to use Error to attack the person in front of her.
*COUGH!!!!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Shiro kneeled in pain before getting Error to spread itself through the room.
*BANG!!!!
However, before she could do anything, she felt an unstoppable force collide into her as she was flung against the wall.
"Why do you all meddle? Irritating." The watchman frowned as he crushed the emblem in his hands.
Suddenly, a dagger appeared within his grasp.
Flickering in front of Isilia, he didn¡¯t hesitate to stab her in the chest as all Isilia could do was widen her eyes and watch in silence.
¡¯Nimue!¡¯ Shiro shouted out in her mind as she was going to force her body even if it meant that she had to disable her links once more.
{Don¡¯t talk just act!} Nimue shouted out as she was already struggling but Isilia¡¯s life was in danger now and she knew how important it was for Shiro.
Hearing this, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to activate all of her berserk skills since they didn¡¯t require mana to activate.
A pulse of pain shot through her body butpared to losing Isilia, this was nothing.
Stomping down, Shiro dashed forward as she brought out Silvanis and shed towards the watchman who had stabbed Isilia in the chest.
Unfortunately, her attack fell short as she felt her body copse from the stress. Falling forward, she was overwhelmed by the pain as it was difficult to even move an arm.
"I suggest you give it up now. Your body is already suffering from a bacsh and now you¡¯re pushing yourself towards death at a faster pace. You cannot change the oue." The watchman looked at her with pity as he twisted the dagger.
Feeling her body weaken, Isilia stumbled back.
Blood started to pour from her mouth as her eyes dulled.
Copsing onto her knees, she looked towards Shiro who was barely able to lift her head up.
Forcing a smile, Isilia knew that her fate was sealed.
"Sorry. Look after Lyrica for me ok?" Isilia muttered as she fell forward.
Tears started to fall as regrets piled up in her mind.
She wanted to watch Lyrica grow up more, she wanted to see her daughter find love, get married, maybe have children. She wanted to live the rest of her life with her husband that had just returned. She wanted to see Shiro save the world. She wanted to see her best friend find her own happiness after having everything robbed from her in Aria. She wanted to see Yin eat the delicacies of the world and enjoy life to its fullest. She wanted to see Lisandra open up a bit more since she was a quiet child. She wanted to see the future of Aria and the people living there. There was so much she wanted to see but that was now impossible.
As she fell towards the ground, her gaze softened as a single thought came to her mind.
¡¯Ah... I don¡¯t want to die.¡¯ She thought with a sigh.
There was more that she wanted to say but she could no longer move her mouth.
¡¯I¡¯m sorry Lyrica. Mum needs to leave again... I¡¯m sorry...¡¯
Copsing on the floor, blood started to fall as Isilia stopped movingpletely.
ncing down, the watchman tugged on an invisible chain as a faint figure of Isilia appeared.
Grabbing one of the capsules, her soul was transformed into an orb of light before being stored away.
With Isilia captured, he looked towards Edvimar and did the same. Plunging the dagger into his back, he dragged an illusionary figure of him out before securing it into a capsule.
With his job done, he stood up and prepared to leave but halted his steps when he sensed killing intent behind him.
ncing back, he was shocked to see Shiro standing as her body should bepletely broken right now.
¡¯What is she?¡¯ He thought to himself as Shiro red at him.
Her blood red eyes glowed with malice as fury filled her mind.
This was the person who had just taken her best friend¡¯s soul. There was still a chance of her being able to retrieve it if she¡¯s quick enough.
Suddenly, Shiro¡¯s body disappeared as the watchman immediately brought out his de and raised is above his head.
*CLANG!!!!!
Looking at the white haired girl in front of him, he wasn¡¯t able to hide his surprise as her attack had weight behind it. She had already destroyed her body, there shouldn¡¯t be any possibility of her being able to move right now.
Sensing that something was wrong, he immediately inspected her as there was a high chance that the system was trying to do something right now.
The moment he saw her name tag, his eyes widened since it was darkening at an increased rate.
From the pristine white, it was now a dark grey.
[Shiro LVL 760 Nanotech Demi Goddess]
But just as he inspected her, he noticed her ss tag flickering as cold sweat dripped down his back. He was able to catch a glimpse of what it said and it filled his mind with dread.
[Shiro LVL 1000 Destroyer]
If someone was to reach level 1000 immediately from bing fallen, that meant the potential they had was enormous. He couldn¡¯t risk something like that being released into the world.
Pushing Shiro back, his aura red as he red at the white haired girl.
He couldn¡¯t let her live!
Bringing his sword back, he was about to swing when a figure materialised between them. While he didn¡¯t recognise them, he could tell that they are a god from their aura.
The figure had a pair of emerald eyes and lush green hair. Waving her hand, two tier 8 magic circles appeared around her.
Suddenly, the watchman found himself in the middle of a flower field as he paused in confusion.
While he knew that he was in a divine domain, he didn¡¯t know what led up to this point. What was the source of his killing intent? It was strange but his mission wasplete and he wasn¡¯t about to fight another god.
Opening a portal, he nced back onest time. He could faintly make out the figure of a white haired girl kneeling in the flower field with tears streaming down her face.
Feeling pity for her, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh and step through the portal, leaving this dimension.
###
Watching the person leave, Gaia sighed in relief as she didn¡¯t expect to have to use this much power just to make sure that her domain worked properly.
However, she couldn¡¯t worry about that right now since her main concern was Shiro.
With the deployment of her domain, she was able to calm Shiro down and knock her out, forcefully stopping her from bing fallen but there was no guarantee that she wouldn¡¯t transform the moment she woke up.
Sighing heavily, she dispelled her domain and picked up Shiro¡¯s body before cing her on the bed.
Gaia didn¡¯t know whether she should be happy or sad about how Shiro wasn¡¯t feeling the pain anymore. She was happy that Shiro didn¡¯t have to go through it but sad since it meant that she had truly f*cked up her body this time. It was going to take a while for her to properly recover from this.
Looking over at Hemera¡¯s avatar that had just disappeared, she hoped that the bacsh for her would be minimal or else Nyx would be sad.
Turning to Nan Tian who was barely holding on, she sighed.
"Don¡¯t let her fall." Gaia said as she nced at Shiro onest time before dispelling her avatar.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian lost consciousness.
Chapter 980 Trauma
Chapter 980 Trauma
"Arggg!!!" Snapping her eyes open, Shiro felt a wave of pain flood her body immediately as she felt like her soul was about to be ripped out.
Forcing her eyes shut, she tried to remember what had just happened and realised that Isilia had been taken away when Gaia appeared.
Quickly looking around her, she wanted to see Isilia¡¯s face, reassuring her that everything was ok.
However, when she looked around, she only saw the wounded figures of Madison, Lisandra and Nan Tian who had been restrained by the watchman when he entered the room.
"Sleep some more. Your body¡¯s not recovered yet." Nan Tian forced a small smile.
Opening her mouth, Shiro wanted to ask where Isilia was when she realised her throat had beenpletely destroyed. Her natural healing had halted and she wasn¡¯t able to repair her body passively right now.
"Don¡¯t think about anything right now. Just rest up." Nan Tian sighed as Shiro couldn¡¯t even move her body right now.
"We¡¯ll get Silvia here soon so that she can stabilise your condition."
ncing to the rest of the party, Nan Tian gestured for them to follow her.
Seeing the three about to leave, Shiro felt a wave of panic in her heart as though something had just pierced it.
"Ahhh!!" Called out for them in a hurry, Shiro tried her best to reach out but wasn¡¯t able to move her arm.
¡¯Don¡¯t go!¡¯ She called out in her mind as she didn¡¯t want them to disappear like Isilia. What if the watchman was still around? What if he wanted to get the other¡¯s too?
Seeing Shiro¡¯s panicked face that was on the verge of tears, Nan Tian smiled softly and sat next to her.
"Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re not going far. Just out of this room." Nan Tian smiled but Shiro tried her best to shake her head.
Grabbing his sleeve, she didn¡¯t want to let them out of her sight anymore.
Seeing Shiro panic like this, Nan Tian felt his heart being crushed.
Sighing softly, he decided to look towards Madison and Lisandra.
"I guess we can talk here. How should we break the news to Lyrica?" Nan Tian asked as Madison¡¯s body tensed up.
Her friend had just gotten her family back but before she could even enjoy it for a day, they were taken away immediately. It was a cruel joke for her. A brief taste of happiness before despair.
"I... I¡¯ll tell her. I think it¡¯s best that we get Silvia here soon though. With what you had said, Shiro¡¯s recovery functions seemed to have been halted. Without her being able to heal herself, it¡¯s going to be risky." Madison sighed.
"Mn, how are you feeling Lisandra?" Nan Tian asked as Lisandra¡¯s wings had turned grey after Shiro had almost transformed. He wasn¡¯t sure what kind of repercussion this could bring but he hoped that it was small.
"I¡¯m feeling fine. It¡¯s just that my wings are dyed now. I¡¯m more worried about Lyrica." Lisandra shook her head.
Hearing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but bite her lips when she remembered Lyrica. She didn¡¯t know how to face her after letting her mother and father get taken right in front of them after she reassured with such confidence that space was safe for them.
Plus, Lyrica had wanted toe so they could have at least spent more time with each other.
"I¡¯ll be right back ok? I¡¯ll go bring Silvia." Nan Tian smiled as he pulled out a teleport node from his inventory.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro shook her head once more and tried her best to keep her grip on his sleeve. But even with her trying her best right now, she could barely exert any strength.
Seeing this, Nan Tian sighed.
"Let¡¯s bring her back with us then. There¡¯s no more point in us staying here." He suggested as the other two nodded their heads.
Pulling out a normal wheelchair for Shiro, Nan Tian tried to carry her onto it but each movement would cause Shiro¡¯s entire body to spasm from the pain.
"Sorry, bear with it ok?"
After cing Shiro on the wheelchair, he opened the portal back to Asharia.
Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t far from the med bay so it was easy for them to find Silvia.
"Ah you¡¯re ba- !!!" Widening her eyes, Silvia paused in shock.
Shiro was disabled on a wheelchair, which was normal at this point but the problem was her gaze and aura. It seemed weak while her gaze was fearful. For Shiro to have a fearful look in her eyes like a child who was scared of an unfamiliar ce, Silvia immediately understood that something was wrong.
Quickly standing up, she walked over to them.
"What happened? Tell me everything." She said seriously as Nan Tian nodded.
"I will. Can you first stabilise Shiro¡¯s condition? It seems like her natural healing factor had been halted." Nan Tian nodded as Silvia furrowed her brows.
Activating a tier 5 magic circle, she did a quick scan on Shiro¡¯s body and stepped back in disbelief.
It wasn¡¯t that her healing factor was stopped, it was that there was too much damage being caused to her body that the healing seemed stagnant. Her body was aplete mess and if youbine it with the fact that her soul¡¯s injured, she was essentially hanging on by a single thread. Should that thread break, she¡¯ll die!
To make matters worse, her links have beenpletely fried. Until the body ispletely healed, it would be a miracle for her to ess mana at all. For a spirit, it must be suffocating for Shiro right now.
"I... There isn¡¯t much I can do. Most of her wounds seemed to be resistant to healing spells. I can boost her life force but that¡¯s it." Silvia frowned as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"That¡¯s good enough. It¡¯s better than nothing."
Setting Shiro on one of the beds, Silvia tried her best to boost Shiro¡¯s life force but the effects were minimal.
Secretly sending a text to Silvia, Nan Tian wanted her to cast a spell so that Shiro would be forcefully put to sleep for now. He didn¡¯t want to have a meeting in the med bay while Shiro was recovering.
ncing at him with a frown, Silvia decided to not question it for now since there was something wrong with Shiro¡¯s mental state right now.
As fatigue washed through her body, Shiro¡¯s gaze faltered as she realised what they must have done.
Closing her eyes, she drifted off to sleep.
Leaving the med bay, Silvia had a serious face while looking at Shiro who slept silently on the bed.
Even when she was sleeping, Shiro seemed restless.
"Can you tell me what happened now? Why isn¡¯t Isilia and Edvimar with you?" Silvia asked.
She could guess what had happened but she wanted to hear for herself.
Exining everything that had happened, Silvia took a deep breath and sighed heavily.
"I think Shiro might develop a trauma from this. Her will power is usually strong but with everything she¡¯s gone through, this might be a breaking point. If you think about it, this is the second time Isilia has ¡¯died¡¯ in front of her if you include what happened in Aria." Silvia said as she remembered the fearful look in Shiro¡¯s eyes.
"For her to have obtained such power but not being able to do anything, it would be more surprising if it didn¡¯t break her mentally."
Turning around, Silvia looked at Nan Tian.
"There are spells to heal physical injuries but mental shocks are something else. I can calm her down at best but it¡¯ll lose effectiveness over time. Plus, we can¡¯t keep making her run away from her fears. If we want Shiro to stand back up, we¡¯ll need her to face it head on. It¡¯s... tough but it has to be done sooner orter."
"I know. But maybe we should let some time pass first before wanting her to face her fears." Nan Tian replied.
"Mn. We can¡¯t force it though which is the problem since forceful methods might just break her even more. We have to encourage her and support her from behind. This might take months or even years for her to make a full recovery. There¡¯s also the chance that she might never recover." Silvia said as Nan Tian stood in silence.
"It doesn¡¯t matter how long it takes, I¡¯ll support her regardless. But I think we¡¯ll have to halt some of our ns when ites to Queens. Thankfully, I can manage the things that happen in Asharia for now so things won¡¯t stagnate." Nan Tian furrowed his brows while looking at Shiro.
"Mn, I¡¯ll see if I can find a solution to fixing all of her injuries in the meantime. Good luck." Silvia patted Nan Tian¡¯s shoulder as she made her way back to the Healer¡¯s Guild.
###
Walking through the corridors, Madison¡¯s heart ached as she saw Lyrica making her way back to themand room.
"Oh Madi, you¡¯re back. Did everything work out well?" Lyrica asked with a smile as Madison took a deep breath.
"Lyrica. I want you to listen to me calmly." Madison said as she took a deep breath.
"Ok? Why so serious?" Lyrica furrowed her brows in confusion.
Seeing the pain in Madison¡¯s eyes, a bad feeling emerged in her heart.
"Your parents were taken away by the watchman."
Dropping the tablet in her hand, Lyrica¡¯s body tensed up as tears started to fall.
Chapter 981 Lyricas Choice
Chapter 981 Lyrica''s Choice
Walking around in an empty void, Shiro didn¡¯t know what she was doing here.
Confusion filled her mind but seeing that she was alone, her heart pounded in anxiety.
¡¯Where¡¯s everyone else?¡¯ She thought to herself as she started to hyperventte.
Panting heavily, she dashed forward in hopes of finding her friends. However, no matter how much she ran or how fast, she couldn¡¯t see the end of this void.
Clutching her chest, she was forced to kneel down as pain filled her face.
Gritting her teeth, she heard some footsteps approach her as she quickly looked back and saw the watchman gripped Isilia by the neck.
Widening her eyes, she immediately charged at him with anger.
"ARG!!!" Punching towards him, she phased through him as she wasn¡¯t able to damage him at all.
Stumbling over herself due to theck of connection, she could only look back as he killed Isilia with her not being able to do anything.
"Sorry. Look after Lyrica for me ok?"
Hearing Isilia¡¯s final words again, tears started to fall as Shiro desperately climbed back to her feet only to phase through the watchman again.
*Crack!
###
Snapping her eyes open, Shiro started to panic on her bed as her chest ached from her wounds. Looking around her, she saw that she was alone in the med bay.
Ignoring the pain in her body, she gritted her teeth and forced herself out of bed.
Copsing on the floor, her breathing quickened as she grabbed the closest chair to help her walk.
She needed to see them. Anyone would do. Even if it¡¯s just one person. Please... even one person would do.
Making her way to the door slowly with the chair, she tried to open the door but couldn¡¯t even muster up any strength.
Seeing that she couldn¡¯t even open a simple door, Shiro burst intoughter as she copsed against the wall and hugged her knees.
Tears started to fall as she remembered Isilia¡¯s face.
¡¯I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry...¡¯ Apologizing over and over in her mind, she didn¡¯t know how she was even supposed to protect Lyrica when she couldn¡¯t even open a door. Even when she had all of that power, even when she prided herself to be stronger than the other queens, even when she had the help of gods, she couldn¡¯t stop the person from taking Isilia from her.
What¡¯s the point of all that power when she couldn¡¯t stop her best friend from being taken away?
Spiralling down with negative thoughts, Shiro clutched her knees in fear of leaving this room.
What if she left and no one had survived? What if the future hade true and everyone died but her? What if-
*BANG!!!!
Hearing the door m open, Shiro looked up slowly and saw Nan Tian panting by the doorway.
He ran to the med bay as soon as he sensed movement.
Seeing Shiro hugging her knees in the corner with tears down her face, he felt a thousand needles piercing his heart.
Kneeling in front of her, he sighed.
"Don¡¯t move around too much, your body is still injured." Nan Tian muttered as Shiro scrambled to her feet and grabbed him with her shaking hands.
Making sure that he was real, she sighed in relief before copsing again.
Quickly catching her before she fell on the floor, Nan Tian carried her to the bed but Shiro refused to let go of him.
"Ahhh." Opening her mouth, Shiro wanted to say ¡¯please don¡¯t go¡¯ but her throat was still damaged so all that came out was incoherent calls.
"I¡¯ll stay, don¡¯t worry." Nan Tian reassured with a soft smile.
cing her on the bed, he pulled out a tablet and sat down on a chair.
Turning her head so that she could keep him in her sights at all times, Shiro watched silently while Nan Tian felt like his heart was suffocating.
He wanted to do something to help her but they couldn¡¯t rush this.
¡¯I wanted her to depend on me but not like this...¡¯ He thought to himself since he had always wanted to help her.
Sighing softly, he thought about what they¡¯ve gained and loss during this excursion to the mountains. While the corrupted relic is destroyed, the cost of doing so was great. Isilia and Edvimar were gone, Shiro was weakened both physically and mentally and all of their ns have halted. It was unsure whether or not Shiro could recover but news of this couldn¡¯t be spread to the outside.
Sensing some movement outside of the med bay, Nan Tian nced up and could sense that Madison and Lyrica wereing over.
¡¯Madison probably told everything to Lyrica.¡¯ Nan Tian thought as Lyrica¡¯s aura seemed weak right now. It lost the re it had originally.
Hearing a few knocks on the door, Nan Tian opened his mouth.
"Come in."
Walking into the med bay, Lyrica faltered seeing Shiro¡¯s state and took a deep breath.
Pulling over a chair, Lyrica sat down next to Shiro.
"I heard everything from Madison. It¡¯s not your fault. I don¡¯t know what I can say or do to lessen your guilt. It¡¯s pathetic, you¡¯ve helped me get out of my dump but I can¡¯t help you." Lyrica said as she held Shiro¡¯s hand.
"I¡¯ve made up my mind. I¡¯m going to leave Asharia for a while. I¡¯ll be travelling around with Asher and the others that you teleported here. They seem like nice folk and an adventure with them might help me clear my mind too. I don¡¯t know when I¡¯lle back but when I do, I want to be strong enough so that I can contest against Queens and even beings like the person who took away my family. And don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll keep myself safe with plenty of life saving talismans and items." Lyrica smiled as she stood up and walked towards the door.
Hearing all of this, Shiro¡¯s gaze panicked as she grabbed her sleeve. Even with life saving talismans and items, there are still things that can kill you by ignoring them!
Closing her eyes, Lyrica took a deep breath and kept walking. She was afraid that if she hesitated now, she might not be able to leave.
Watching Lyrica leave without turning back, Shiro reached out in desperation but wasn¡¯t able to grab Lyrica¡¯s arm.
Looking at Nan Tian with pleading eyes, Shiro felt her heart sink when Nan Tian shook his head.
"Lyrica has made her choice. It would be selfish of us to restrain her."
Furrowing her brows, Shiro could only watch silently as Lyrica left the med bay.
###
Making sure that everything was packed up, Lyrica nced up at the centre tower of Asharia and sighed.
She didn¡¯t want to leave but this incident had made it clear for her.
She had to be strong to protect her happiness. Her heart felt crushed by the news but during the short time she¡¯s been with her mum, she knew that she wouldn¡¯t want her to break down and mourn her death.
She had to have the courage to stand up and face the future with determination.
Plus, this incident had made it clear to her. When they ce all of their burdens on Shiro, even her mental state will break. If one was to look at it from a different angle, they could say that they were the cause of Shiro¡¯s pain.
"I¡¯ll miss you." Madison said as she was seeing Lyrica off.
"Mn me too. I want to help Shiro but I¡¯m too weak right now." Lyrica smiled as Madison hugged her.
"Just remember that we¡¯re always here for you. Shiro can¡¯t say anything right now but I¡¯m sure she feels the same."
"I know. I¡¯ll be back before you know it haha. I just hope there is still a spot open for me when I get back." Lyrica smiled as Madison nodded her head.
"Don¡¯t be silly, there is always a spot for you."
Walking into the teleport hall, Lyrica could see Asher and the others waiting for her patiently.
"Thanks for waiting." Lyrica smiled as Asher nodded his head.
"It¡¯s alright. We should be the ones thanking you instead." Asher replied since Lyrica provided them with a lot of help along with joining their party for a while.
Helion had made them all new sets of armour and weapons while Yin gave Nitha some tips. After a bit of research, they realised that the armour made by Helion was essentially priceless.
They also got a meal from Yin, but they¡¯d rather not talk about that.
Walking towards the portal, Lyrica looked back at the tower onest time before stepping forwards with determination.
Chapter 982 Waiting
Chapter 982 Waiting
It¡¯s been a few weeks since Lyrica had left Asharia. During this time, Shiro hadn¡¯t been able to sleep at all. She refused to let me out of her sight and whenever I did she would always panic. It seems like she needs at least one person with her at all times since she seemed to stabilise a little when Silvia was with her.
We¡¯ve been forced to put her to sleep manually since she refused to rest but every time she woke up, it would always be a panic attack. I suppose it¡¯s a blessing that the bacsh from firing the weapon couldn¡¯t be felt by her anymore since she doesn¡¯t have a reaction unless she makesrge movements.
Silvia is still developing a way for us to heal Shiro¡¯s body since the bacsh doesn¡¯t seem like it¡¯ll be ending any time soon. There hasn¡¯t been any news from the gods either but I guess it could be that the system was restricting them after Hemera and Gaia interferedst time when the watcher arrived.
Regardless, our goal was to help Shiro recover her body so she could at least walk around.
We know that it will take time for her to recover but staying in the med bay wasn¡¯t the right choice. If she continues to be cooped up like this, we won¡¯t be able to make any progress.
Yin, Lisandra and everyone else in the party had visited Shiro a few times during this period and they kept herpany when they could.
After learning about the full story, each of them seemed determined to be stronger and more reliable so that Shiro didn¡¯t need to take all of this burden by herself. Madison took the demon legion out on more excursions to clear out dangerous mountains so that people wandering the world could possibly have an easier time.
Helion was helping her by providing more equipment to the demons while simultaneously trying to find new recipes to contend against strange attacks such as the word magic that we experienced that day.
Aarim was maintaining most of the magic in the city to make sure that everything was working properly. Thankfully, Shiro had automated most of the things just in case she ran out of mana so the portals were still functional. However, things have be slower since Isilia¡¯s Anchor crystal had shattered to pieces. We had to ce more burden on Madison¡¯s anchor so the second city wascking a little but Aarim bnced things out by living there. With her providing mana and support to the second city, it was able to hang on without many problems.
Estre was... very frustrated. She had left Shiro alone during the battle since her void powers were useless against the relic but she wasn¡¯t able to be by her side when the watchman appeared. She started to train her own legion of spirits that levelled up simr to her so they had to go out and hunt often to get EXP.
Estre had also told us that despite having her links fried for the time being, Nimue, Atesh and Iziuel were safe for now since she could still sense their auras in Shiro. They were just in a sort of stasis for now so when Shiro recovers, they should be able to reappear.
Chen Yu hasn¡¯t done much in terms of his guild since there wasn¡¯t much need for their strength so they were just training. Their main goal was to attack priority targets of enemy Queens so it wasn¡¯t the right time for them to make a move just yet.
Yin and Lisandra were training in their own ways but I¡¯ve noticed that Lisandra would have moments where she seemed to be struggling. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s due to Shiro almost falling but the colour of her wings told us that she was barely hanging in the middle. We did do a check up with the help of Silvia but everything seemed normal which was concerning.
On a side note, Keiko did reach tier 6 which was much needed good news to everyone.
Koji and Mio wanted to visit but Shiro was afraid of facing them in this condition since the moment I mentioned it, her body would tense up. It seemed like she didn¡¯t want her parents to see her in this state which was unfortunate since both Koji and Mio were heartbroken since they only visited when she was sleeping.
Seeing their daughter¡¯s condition, Koji and Mio were furious. Koji seemed to have taken a hard hit since he was also the one who put ascending to tier 6 on hold since he couldn¡¯t find the inspiration. But with his daughter being in danger and he wasn¡¯t able to do anything, it seemed to have lit a spark in his heart since he immediately resumed his training. Mio did the same but she went somewhere else. She gave us a talisman to send a message to her if anything happened but it seems like she was going back to reapers.
It might be because she was a reaper that her tier 6 had a different requirement.
ncing towards Shiro who was holding my sleeve. I could see that She seemed tired, but she forced herself to stay awake. It¡¯s been harder to force her to sleep since if we don¡¯t do it properly, she would harm herself just to stay awake.
There wasn¡¯t much I could say to her since if I spoke about how everyone was doing, she might feel depressed about her current situation. For now, I¡¯ll keep herpany to the best of my abilities.
"Are you hungry?" I asked since it¡¯s been a few hours since herst meal.
Hearing my question, Shiro shook her head for a moment but eventually nodded.
"Alright. I¡¯ll see if Yin can make you something quick."
Sending a message to Yin, I asked if she could make a light meal for Shiro. Her response was simple and quick.
[Ok.]
After a few minutes, Yin was already at the door with a simple meal of rice congee and a few light sides.
Helping Shiro sit up, Yin slowly fed Shiro since it was painful for her to move her body.
"Ahh..." Opening her mouth, I could see that Shiro wanted to apologise due to her expression and Yin was the same since she shook her head.
"It¡¯s alright mum. You took care of me before so it¡¯s only natural that I do the same for you. Just take your time alright?" Yin smiled as she lightly hugged Shiro, not wanting to hurt her body.
ncing down, Shiro forced a smile and nodded.
After eating the meal, we helped Shiroy back down as Yin left with the trays. After a while, I managed to cast a sleep spell on Shiro so she was able to finally get some rest.
Unfortunately, even in her sleep, she seemed to be in pain. Her grip on my sleeve would tighten asionally as if afraid that I would leave.
Seeing the tears that rolled down her face, I couldn¡¯t help but sigh heavily and wiped them away.
I wondered if this was a punishment for her going against fate so often. She received an insight of the future back when she first met Nyx and changed her fate by creating the anchor. The second time she used Chronos¡¯ power to turn back time and sent a vision, but this resulted in her developing a trauma and Isilia being taken along with Edvimar. The trade-off was that everyone else is now alive.
¡¯You even pushed yourself to the point of breaking by stacking berserk skills when your body was suffering from the initial bacsh too. I guess there is a limit to how crazy you can be at times.¡¯
Closing my eyes, I decided to rest for a few minutes before doing more work.
I need to keep everything running so that when Shiro recovers, everything would be ready for her grandeback.
I¡¯ll help the army develop their training some more by mixing the martial arts that the sect teaches so that they¡¯re more effective in mechs. I can¡¯t do much about the weapons but we can use the simtions to help them developbat experience.
¡¯I wonder if there will be more system events like this one. Hopefully none at this scale but if there are some, we might want to think about participating in one or two of them with Madison so we don¡¯t fall behind. We still need to set down one or two anchors since there are still plenty of people roaming in the world. We can¡¯t make another floating city but I suppose a normal city should be fine for now. We¡¯ll convert it when Shiroes back. Now that Shiro¡¯s taken out of the picture for a while, it seems like most of our ns revolved around her. Hais...¡¯
Shaking my head, I started changing some of the training schedules for the military.
¡¯I suppose I have to take over your spot when ites to tormenting them. Come back soon.¡¯
Chapter 983 Fear
Chapter 983 Fear
That night Shiro had a familiar dream. She wasying on her bed and everyone was around her. Nan Tian and Edvimar were in the room next to them as a figure appeared.
She couldn¡¯t do anything as she watched the two of them get smashed around like sand bags. The strangeness of his technique and the absolute dominance he showed was engraved into Shiro¡¯s mind.
Watching here towards the room, Shiro would fight back but after having the same dream over and over again, she didn¡¯t do anything anymore. She just wanted the dream to be over.
She didn¡¯t know how many times it¡¯s been now. How many times she watched Isilia get captured and taken away from her.
¡¯Are you giving up?¡¯ A faint voice echoed as Shiro hesitated but just blocked out all the sound and closed her eyes.
Hugging her knees, she just wanted to forget about everything but every time she closed her eyes, she would be brought back to this moment. It haunted her in her dreams as well as in real life.
There would be moments where a simple flicker of a shadow would send a wave of panic through her heart as it would almost resemble the figure of the watchman.
She knew that she was in a slump. She found itughable but there was a barrier that she couldn¡¯t cross. Even if she wanted to get past it, the smallest reminder would cause her to hyperventte and go into a panic attack.
Everything she found to be harmless seemed so scary now. She found it scary to leave the med bay, she found it scary to watch people leave. She found it scary to be alone without anyone. There was no reaction from Nimue, Iziuel and Attie and she was afraid to find out what had happened to them.
There were so many things she was afraid of now. She just wanted time to stop so that she didn¡¯t need to keep thinking about these things. There have been times where she¡¯s looked down at her hands and felt depressed.
She had so much power but when it mattered the most she couldn¡¯t do anything.
Forcing herself to wake up again, Shiro kept her eyes closed as she braced her heart. Even the simple task of waking up was scary for her. She didn¡¯t want to see herself alone in the med bay when she woke up so she often waited for even the smallest hint that a person was near her before opening her eyes.
A simple tap of a screen, the sound of breathing, a faint mutter or even just the rustle of clothing. She desperately hoped for even a small hint when she woke up so that she could open her eyes with a peace of mind.
Each time she woke up, she would see Nan Tian by her side greeting her with a soft smile. He would asionally talk to her but most of the time would let her rx at her own pace.
Shiro knew that he was probably helping out with Asharia but there wasn¡¯t anything she could do right now.
Even if she recovered physically, she didn¡¯t know if she¡¯d be able to leave this room.
She knew that everyone was trying hard while she was injured but she simply couldn¡¯t control herself. There was always this crushing fear that gripped her mind whenever she was reminded of that day. It would cause her to be paralysed from head to toe, sometimes even hindering her breathing.
Yin visits as often as possible. She tried to bring Lisandra but Shiro shook seeing the ck wings on her back.
Remembering that she had almost lost everything and not just Isilia because she had almost be a fallen, Shiro felt afraid to fight. She was afraid that she might lose control and her name tag would turnpletely ck and remove all hope of ever keeping her treasured people safe.
Shiro knew that she hurt Lisandra deeply but her body didn¡¯t seem to listen to her.
She reprimanded herself time and time again but she couldn¡¯t remove her fear of bing fallen which resulted in Lisandra not even being able toe into contact with her.
Silvia also visited often, most times she would be right after Yin to do a regr check up. She had been using healing spells everyday with some proving to be more helpful than others in terms of healing her physical body.
Today¡¯s check up was no different as Shiroid on the bed almost expressionless. She¡¯s mentally fatigued. She was tormented regardless of what she did. When she slept, she¡¯ll have nightmares. When she was awake, she might have a panic attack.
Even with them forcing her to sleep, she didn¡¯t look any better. There were bags under her eyes and her gaze wascking the fighting spirit she had previously. She looked awful.
Thankfully, Yin helped clean her with a towel since having Nan Tian do it would be a little inappropriate. However, he wouldn¡¯t be far since Shiro had to keep him within her sights or else she¡¯ll start panicking.
Keeping her eyes on Nan Tian, Shiro wondered how long it¡¯s been now. The days just seemed to blend together since her sleeping pattern haspletely broken apart.
But no matter what day it was, the setting seemed the same. She was on the bed, Nan Tian was next to her doing work on the tablet. It was the only thing that didn¡¯t change and it calmed her. Lyrica had left after receiving the news of her parents death.
Shiro didn¡¯t me her. She failed at keeping Lyrica¡¯s parents safe so it was natural for her to want to obtain power so that she could protect them herself. Shiro wanted to do the same but just the mere thoughts of fighting the watchman again caused her hands to shake.
If she provoked him would he take someone else from her?
###
Looking down at Shiro, Nan Tian was concerned about herplexion. Despite forcing her to sleep she was looking more haggard with each passing day and it seems like she wasn¡¯t getting the rest needed in her sleep either. The time she slept was being reduced with each day and sometimes it was even as short as 30 minutes.
They would now consider it lucky if she could sleep for more than 2 hours.
It has already been three weeks since Lyrica had left.
Things have been progressing at a smooth pace and thankfully, there doesn¡¯t seem to be any signs of a new event soon. Madison had been keeping an eye out and while all the Queens are improving their military, none of them have a secure target for now so they could assume that there aren¡¯t any events happening soon which caused him to sigh in relief.
The cure to Shiro¡¯s condition was almost done too. Thanks to her initial bacsh stopping, progress had increased quickly but there were somesting effects that obstructed the healing process.
Silvia reassured Nan Tian that it would disappear soon but it still didn¡¯t lessen his worry.
However, they were able to heal Shiro¡¯s throat for now since it wasn¡¯t damaged too harshly. But even with her throat healed, Shiro was quiet. She didn¡¯t speak often and when asked a question, would normally nod or shake her head.
Keomi had also found out what happened to Shiro and felt devastated. She was already frustrated at not being able to help during the first event so kept herself in seclusion with outside contact being cut off. She had the thought that if it was Shiro, nothing would go wrong since it was her amazing big sis after all.
She was able to create miracles andplete tasks that others can¡¯t even dream ofpleting so she trained without worry. She had to admit that there were moments where she wouldze around but the result was quite good. When she came out of seclusion, she was excited to see what kind of relic that Shiro had recovered so she asked them about it immediately.
Naturally, she broke down into tears when she heard that Shiro couldn¡¯t even leave her room due to the trauma that she had developed. While her sister was suffering she was actuallyzing around in seclusion without giving a crap about what was happening. She understood that she had treated Shiro as this undefeatable figure that not even the gods could put down but the truth was that behind all of that was still just a single girl. Her older sister.
Annoyed that she had put off all her work while her sister was suffering, Keomi went into seclusion for real with Li Jian, the sect master of the hidden sect and Nan Tian¡¯s adoptive father. Since he was the most experienced when it came to martial arts, she sought his tutge as Koji was busy with other tasks.
Closing his eyes, Nan Tian realised that everyone in the party was now either doing everything they could to help Shiro or training themselves to the limit so that they won¡¯t have to give all the work to her. No one was idle anymore even if the development of the ns seemed slow. Once Shiro returned, everyone would jump into gear, ready to fight with the Queens.
But that was only if she returned.
Chapter 984 Repairing Shiros Body
Chapter 984 Repairing Shiro''s Body
"This should hopefully fix her body to the point where she won¡¯t have any trouble walking around. I¡¯m not sure about her mana and divine energy but it should recover soon. I¡¯ll still do some research on it though." Silvia sighed as she handed Nan Tian a spell talisman with a magic circle painted on the surface.
Looking at theplexity, he understood that performing this kind of magic circle live would be a little risky hence why she painted it on a talisman instead.
"Thanks." Nan Tian smiled as Silvia nodded her head.
"Don¡¯t worry about it. Just keep herpany ok?" Silvia smiled as she gave Shiro a hug before leaving the room.
Watching Silvia leave, Shiro eventually nced towards Nan Tian who was preparing to use the talisman.
"Mn? Did you need something?" Nan Tian smiled, seeing Shiro nce towards him.
Shaking her head, Shiroid down so that he could use the spell a little easier.
Pushing mana into the talisman, aplicated magic array materialised around Shiro as stacks upon stacks of tier 5 magic circles could be seen flickering with a soft glow. A green tether of energy flowed into Shiro¡¯s body as the fractures caused by the system bacsh started to stitch back together,
Sighing in relief, Nan Tian was d that most of her physical injuries have now been healed. He wasn¡¯t sure about the extent of damage to her soul but it seemed like it has also been fixed since she would space out as though she was looking at her stat page.
But since she hasn¡¯t said anything, he wouldn¡¯t say anything either.
"How are you feeling? Does it still hurt anywhere?" Nan Tian asked as the magic array faded away.
Sitting up, Shiro nced down at her hands before shaking her head.
Opening her mouth, she hesitated for a moment but eventually said nothing andid back down on the bed.
Looking at Nan Tian who had resumed his work on the tablet, Shiro¡¯s gaze flickered.
"Are you not disappointed with me?" She asked with a coarse voice.
"Not at all. What makes you think that I¡¯m disappointed?" Nan Tian replied with a soft smile. Feeling her grip tighten on his teeth, he waited patiently for her response.
"Because everyone¡¯s trying their best and I¡¯m here not being able to leave. Mum, dad, Madison, Lyrica and everyone else must be fed up with me. After the first time I haven¡¯t seen mum at all." Shiro spoke slowly as Nan Tian could tell that she was nervous.
"I don¡¯t think they¡¯re disappointed in you per say. They¡¯re more disappointed in themselves since they left everything to you. If we were more useful, we could have split the burden." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Don¡¯t worry about it too much. You¡¯ve overworked yourself plenty already. Take this time to rest." He smiled.
Feeling Nan Tian¡¯s hand on her head, Shiro closed her eyes.
"I can¡¯t get in touch with Nimue, Iziuel or Attie. Do you think they¡¯ve left me too?" She asked.
"They haven¡¯t left. They¡¯re just in a stasis right now. Once your body has recovered, they¡¯lle back. I¡¯m sure of it."
Hearing this, Shiro opened her eyes and looked at the door connecting this room to the corridor.
She wanted to at least try to leave but her body seemed to refuse the thought of approaching that door even though she was now healed.
Taking her eyes off the door, she looked at Nan Tian.
"Are you going to use that sleep spell on me again?"
"In a few hours, yes. You find it hard to sleep manually now don¡¯t you?" Nan Tian replied, setting his tablet aside. He was happy that she finally started to talk so it would be rude of him not to give her his full attention.
"I do. But it¡¯s scarier when I sleep. When I dream it¡¯s always the same." Shiro replied as guilt and fear filled her heart.
"I¡¯ll ask my subordinates to do some research ok? We¡¯ll see if there are any spells to control your dream. That way you can have a good night¡¯s sleep." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"I don¡¯t want others to use it. If they do, that means they¡¯ll see my dreams."
"Would you mind if I do it then?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro paused for a moment before nodding. She didn¡¯t want him to see her state every time the watchman appeared in her mind.
"Are you upset?"
"No I¡¯m not. If you don¡¯t want me to see then I won¡¯t. I¡¯ll respect your decision." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Um... Maybe in the future then. I think as long as you¡¯re here when I wake up I¡¯ll be fine." Shiro said as she closed her eyes.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be here when you wake up. I won¡¯t leave." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head and tried to sleep naturally for the first time ever since they returned from the fight.
###
It was a familiar scene. But this time it was like she was someone else watching through a window. Her own pitiful silhouette hugging her knees, averting her gaze from what was happening in front of her.
"Pitiful isn¡¯t it?" A voice called out as Shiro nced to her right and saw a mirror that seemed to reflect herself.
"Well?" Her reflection asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"It is pitiful." Shiro nced back to the scene and pressed her hand against the window.
"Aren¡¯t you going to change that then?" Her reflection asked but Shiro had no reaction. She could no longer hear her reflection and her attention was solely focused on her figure on the bed which seemed smaller than ever.
Clicking her tongue, the reflection flickered before returning back to a normal reflection.
####
Walking through the path between the realms. Mio had a cold expression as she was furious. As much as she wanted to be with her daughter right now, she had more important matters. She needed to find Hades and find out why such a being was even allowed toe down here at this time.
Even if he received special permission from the system, it was still ridiculous. Plus, as the god of the underworld, he should have a way to reim Isilia¡¯s soul. And since she wasing back here, she figured that she might as well ascend to tier 6 anyways. It¡¯ll take a while though.
Seeing the exit, Mio was about to step through when she noticed her parents waiting by the door.
"I knew you were going toe back after seeing what had happened. Knowing your personality, you won¡¯t sit still if Shiro was harmed." Kalus narrowed his eyes.
"You were waiting for me?" Mio furrowed her brows.
"Mn, you might not want to go in there right now. Hades is not pleased at all. He just had a fight and he is seething right now." Sitril cautioned as Mio frowned.
"Who did he fight?" Mio asked as Kalus massaged his brow.
"He fought the one known as the watchman. Heunched an attack on him with thebined efforts of Nyx who had her daughter harmed and Tartarus who was also displeased by his actions. Unfortunately, the watchman received help from both the system and two gods which forced Nyx, Hades and Tartarus to retreat. They¡¯re tending to their wounds right now but Hades is a bit vtile so you might want to wait." Kalus exined.
"I see... But I still want to talk to him."
Hearing this, Kalus was about to say something when divine energy swept over the energy.
"Let her in." Hades¡¯ voice rang out as Mio could immediately sensed that he was annoyed sincecked the upbeat tone he usually spoke with.
Stepping through the portal despite the concerned looks of her father and mother, Mio tilted her head back as she looked at the towering figure of Hades who sat on his throne. His body was wrapped in a ck armour as ck shadows writhed around him. A crown made from ck energy hovered above his head as fractures could be seen around his torso area.
"If you¡¯re here to ask if I can kill the watchman or not I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t do anything right now. He¡¯s being protected. And If it¡¯s about helping Shiro, I can¡¯t do much either. This is a fear she has to ovee." Hades¡¯ sighed.
"I know. She has trustworthy friends by her side so I believe that my daughter will ovee this challenge with their help. As for me, I am here to ask that you to help me in a different matter. I wish to be the next head of the reaper household." Mio kneeled as Hades narrowed his eyes.
"So you wish to take your parent¡¯s ce and be my apostle?" Hades asked.
"Yes." Mio nodded with determination.
"I¡¯m afraid I have to say no to your request."
Hearing this, Mio paused in surprise before looking up to see that Hades had reverted back to his usual form.
"Since you¡¯re Shiro¡¯s mother, I can¡¯t possibly make you my subordinate. If I did, I¡¯m pretty sure I won¡¯t be able to sit down for a while. So rather than making you my subordinate, I am willing to offer you a different task." Hades grinned as he took a deep breath.
"What do you think about trying to be a god?"
Chapter 985 Path of Divinity
Chapter 985 Path of Divinity
"Be a god?" Mio asked with mild surprise as Hades nodded his head.
"Yup. I¡¯m offering you a chance to be a god. I¡¯m not sure what kind of divinity you¡¯ll develop but the path to bing a god is hard. There is a chance of death but with me as your guarantor, you¡¯ll have one chance where there is no risk of you dying for good." Hades smiled as Mio furrowed her brows before nodding.
"If this can help Shiro in the long run then so be it."
Hearing this, Hades grinned.
"Perfect. Let me exin to you what a ¡¯god¡¯ exactly is in the definition of the system rather than the biblical god. You see, when the system sses you as a ¡¯god¡¯ per say, it means that you¡¯ve reached a certain amount of power within a single concept. That is your divinity. Children of gods are born innately with a divinity that branches from their parents but there is a problem with that. You see, the children of gods are not able to truly get a divinity they want. They¡¯re born with it and they don¡¯t get to choose.
"The ¡¯normal¡¯ way to be a god is to first reach level 1000 where you touch the threshold of Demi God. It is at this stage that you begin cultivating your divinity and the levels be irrelevant. There is no level 1001. The cap is 1000 and beyond that is the quality of your divinity along with the faith that you receive.
"We Greek gods already have a rich history so we passively gain faith through the stories that you mortals have told. For new generations like you, you¡¯ll need to create temples, perform miracles and so on which Shiro has done amazingly so far.
"But that is the long road. While it¡¯s the mostmon, it takes a while for you to be truly powerful against other gods." Hades sat down and crossed his legs.
"Hence why my proposition is for you to ascend the path of divinity in the Hall of Divine."
"Hall of Divine?"
"Yes. You can call that a hub area for gods. We see detestable faces there every day so we don¡¯t like to visit much. Funnily enough, Shiro already has her own little area there. It¡¯s small but the killing intent most can sense is pretty astounding. Normally, the path of divinity is what most gods use to refine their divinity to the next level. I want you to go there without a divinity and forcefully refine it to the next stage. With my power, the moment there is danger I can drag you out. But that is a one off. Once youplete the path of divinity, you¡¯ll be raised to Demi God status and to reach god status, you¡¯ll need to cultivate like everyone else but it should be easy enough."
"Surely it can¡¯t be that easy. If it was, plenty of gods would have tried to make more Demi Gods." Mio furrowed her brows.
"Yes but there is a high chance of failure. Since you have no inherent divine energy and no feeling of what divinity feels like, refining it is quite difficult. Plus, the person who sends you in there, in this case me, will suffer two bacshes. First is the system bacsh since I am sending you to the hall of divine to attend this test. The second is divinity bacsh since I¡¯m using a portal of my divinity to help you bluff your way into the test. Most gods are a little selfish so they don¡¯t risk their hard earned divinity for a low chance of a Demi God. At this stage, individual power is important so if the god weakens themselves, their records will be affected.
"Temples being destroyed, stories being forgotten and so on." Hades exined with a smile.
"Wouldn¡¯t that put a target on you?" Mio asked.
"Oh of course. But that¡¯s only if they find out it¡¯s me. So when you do this, try not to give them any clues and say my name ok?" Hades chuckled as Mio nodded.
"Perfect. In that case then I¡¯ll start the preparations. Time flows a bit differently in the path of divinity so I¡¯m wishing that your mind can tolerate the passage of time. Mortals who only live for a split instance in the grand scheme of things find it hard toprehend such a long passage of time after all." Hades chuckled as he stood up.
Taking a deep breath, Mio thought back to Shiro¡¯s figure in the med bay and closed her eyes.
"I¡¯m ready." Mio said as she opened her eyes. For Shiro who had endured an unknown amount of pain, this was nothing.
Smiling at her determination, Hades¡¯ opened a portal as the two of them disappeared from the reaper realm.
###
Looking at the tablet with a frown, Nan Tian massaged his eyes.
ording to Madison, there was another event happening but thankfully, it wasn¡¯t as crazy as the rainbow relic. The rewards for this event was a high end tier 6 subordinate as well as a hidden title. With the system dubbing it as a high end tier 6 subordinate, Nan Tian could guess it was something along the lines of 800+.
Probably something stronger than most Queen¡¯s right now.
It¡¯s a bit annoying butpared to the danger that a rainbow relic brought, this was nothing. Thinking about it for a moment, Nan Tian decided that they should probably skip out on this event. There¡¯s no doubt that more Queens will participate in this one and their main goal was to keep everything running.
Teleporting the city was a bit difficult now that Isilia¡¯s anchor is gone so they didn¡¯t have their most powerful escape option.
[Madison: Alright. I¡¯ll continue leveling up with the rest of the demon legion. How is she by the way? Is she looking a bit better or the same as usual?]
[Nan Tian: She¡¯s talking a bit more now. She understands her problem so it¡¯s better than nothing.]
[Madison: I see. I¡¯lle visit after I finish leveling up a little with the demon legion.]
[Nan Tian: See you soon then.]
Closing the chat tab, Nan Tian nced at Shiro who was having some decent rest and smiled.
Thankfully, after repairing her body, she was able to rest with more consistency but there was still a chance that she would wake up in a cold sweat due to the nightmares.
Nan Tian understood that forcefully putting her to sleep at this point was bad even if she was awake for a long time. It was best to let her rest on her own since she too understands that she needs rest.
The one thing that didn¡¯t change was that she continued to keep a tight grip on his sleeve whenever she slept in fear of not seeing him when she woke up.
Looking back at his tablet, Nan Tian checked up on what Yin and Lisandra were doing.
Lisandra¡¯s ¡¯pains¡¯ were fading away so she could venture out for longer periods of time without being in fear of freezing up due to the pain. If she was to pause duringbat, it could prove to be fatal hence why Yin was with her most of the time.
Yin had decided to resume her search for the remaining fragments with the help of Chen Yu¡¯s assassin guild. While they were primarily used for assassination, their information gathering was by no means inferior.
They had already helped her discover a few signs of potential fragments and locations for one of them.
With Yin making her way to reaching tier 6, Silvia, Aarim, Chen Yu and Helion weren¡¯t too far behind either as they progressed in their own ways. Helion was making more and more armour each day using all of the materials that Shiro had sent him during her travels including the strange marble that was highly resistant to corrosion and rot attacks that would destroy armour in an instant.
With Asharia constantly flying through the sky with camouge activated, they would pass by a few make-shift settlements and help out. As much as they wanted to bring them onto the city, they couldn¡¯t since they couldn¡¯t make any more houses and Asharia was barely hanging on to begin with.
When they pass a settlement, Silvia will take some healers with her to treat them while Nan Tian had a few merchants give them some rations. Of course, there were a few settlements that tried to do things the primitive way by the victor taking all and the oue was naturally their destruction.
Those that didn¡¯t raise their hand would get help.
Feeling some movement next to him, Nan Tian stopped thinking about what happened and focused on Shiro.
Seeing her open her eyes slowly and look up at him, he smiled.
"Good morning."
"Mn... good morning. I saw that the system has started another event. Is Madison going to participate in it?" Shiro asked hesitantly as Nan Tian shook his head.
"Don¡¯t worry. She¡¯s leveling up with her subordinates." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro sighed in relief.
Laying on the bed, she thought about it for a moment before opening her mouth.
"I¡¯m going to say something and will you promise that you won¡¯tugh at me?" She asked as Nan Tian nodded.
"I won¡¯t don¡¯t worry, do you need my help?"
"No- mn... maybe a little. I want to try to leave this room."
Chapter 986 Facing Fears
Chapter 986 Facing Fears
Taking a few breaths, Shiro sat on the edge of her bed.
"Take your time, no need to rush." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Stepping out of her bed for the first time, Shiro could already feel her heart pounding as she looked towards the door.
Tightening her grip on Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve, she took a step forward.
One step, two steps, three steps.
With each step, her heart seemed to pound louder as there was a ringing sound in her ears.
Her mind seemed to be foggy as her surroundings twisted.
Biting her lips, Shiro squeezed her eyes shut before taking another step forward.
Seeing Shiro struggle with walking towards the door, Nan Tian didn¡¯t say anything and only watched silently while urging her on in his heart.
Opening her eyes again, Shiro froze up in a panic as the shadows seemed to form the image of the watchman behind the door.
Her breathing halted as her muscles tensed up.
Despite wanting to take another step forward, she found her body refusing to budge.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro sighed in defeat as she took a step back.
Finally being able to breathe again, Shiro tightened her grip on Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve.
"Don¡¯t think about it too much. This is just the first attempt." Nan Tian reassured with a smile as Shiro nodded her head and made her way back on the bed.
Sitting down with one hand hugging both her knees and the other gripped on Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve, Shiro sat in silence. She opened her mouth a few times but didn¡¯t say anything.
Letting her think for a moment, Nan Tian continued to work.
"Sorry." Shiro apologised as Nan Tian nced over.
"Why are you apologising?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well... I didn¡¯t manage to get past the door." Shiro replied softly as she peeked up at him to see his expression.
Seeing him smiled softly, Shiro watched as he set down the tablet.
"There¡¯s nothing that you should be apologising about. It¡¯s not like stopping here means that you¡¯ve failed or that you¡¯ve given up. You have plenty of time to try your best, I won¡¯t be disappointed no matter what you choose to do." Nan Tian chuckled.
"So even if I give up, you won¡¯t be disappointed?" Shiro asked.
"Yes, because I know you won¡¯t give up. You just need time, that¡¯s my faith in you as a person. You are someone who... challenges the impossible. You gather gods to your side and make them your allies while others dread your presence. This is nothing but a short stop for you to rest."
"You make me sound better than I already am." Shiro muttered, ncing down at the ripples on the bed sheet.
"That¡¯s only because you think you¡¯re not that good. Oveing this lies in your mindset. Even if it takes years, I¡¯ll be here every step of the way. Of course, only if you permit me." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Mn you¡¯re asking for consent now." Shiroughed softly, distracting herself from the fact that she s.u.mbed to her fears.
"Well if I didn¡¯t I¡¯d just annoy you know?" Nan Tian chuckled.
"That¡¯s true. I should have had my dad keep a close eye on you so you didn¡¯t get kidnapped." Shiro nodded while resting her head on her arm.
"Well if you did things would be very different now wouldn¡¯t they?"
"True." Nodding her head, Shiroid down properly on the bed as she nced up at Nan Tian.
"Has Nyx and the other gods contracted you yet? I haven¡¯t heard anything from them." Shiro asked.
She was able to see her system again and it was quite a shock to see all of the notifications with most of them being damage dealt to her body.
The messages from the gods seemed to have cut off after she was injured after the fight with the watchman so she wasn¡¯t sure about what they thought.
"I haven¡¯t heard anything from them either. There¡¯s the possibility that it¡¯s just the system acting up since we did try to go against it. I¡¯d say we give it a while to see how it reacts." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Looking up at the ceiling, she nced at the damage reports.
Her soul was mostly repaired hence why she was able to see and touch but it was still damaged due to the system bacsh.
Her body was incapable of using mana or divine energy right now and there seemed to be a Title or rather, debuff ced on her body.
[Tainted Shell]
After barely escaping the fate of bing Fallen, your body and soul is now more prone to corruptive powers.
Chances of resisting Fallen Transformation: -10%
It was a permanent debuff/Title that hindered her but she wasn¡¯t surprised.
In that moment of losing Isilia, she desperately wanted power to avoid that fate and this desire had almost pulled her over the edge. Had it not been for Gaia in the final moments, she would just be a husk of herself.
Aside from Tainted Shell, there were two more things that caught her eye.
One of which is the skill she received from using Extraction on Jasmine which robbed her of her senses.
[Soul Siphon]
You lock your gaze on your opponent¡¯s soul and destroy it from within. The stronger your opponent, the harder it is to keep your eye on their soul.
Should you take your eyes off before the process is finished, it¡¯ll slowly heal back the damage. Those with resistances can contest against this skill to dy the effects.
Cost: 20% of mana initial cost. 1% per second after the initial cost.
Duration: N/A
Cooldown: 1 day per soul
The second thing that caught her eye was the title she received on the day she fired the weapon.
[Realm Breaker]
Your attack has prated the barrier between realms. Whenever you attack, you can imbue your attack with a small amount of divine energy in order to redirect the energy of the barrier copsing onto their body.
Unless they have resistances against dimensional energies, they cannot block this damage.
Aside from this, her stats have also increased since she was level 760 but she couldn¡¯t help but find her stat page a littleughable. Despite the huge numbers and a myriad of skills, she still lost without being able to do much.
Suddenly, Nan Tian flickered her forehead.
"Ow. What was that for?" Shiro furrowed her brows and rubbed her forehead while ncing up at Nan Tian who chuckled.
"You have the same expression whenever you think about yourself in a self depreciative manner." Nan Tian replied as Shiro lightly rubbed her forehead.
"And how would you know that?"
"Well I¡¯ve seen it quite often now." Nan Tian shrugged.
He had seen the same expression time and time again and each time he saw it, he felt his heart being pierced since Shiro would always continue to spiral down once it started. Now that she had finally started to look forward, he couldn¡¯t let her spiral down again.
He decided to take a gamble and thankfully it paid off since it didn¡¯t annoy her further and that she was actuallyfortable with speaking casually now.
As if finally seeing a hint of the end of the tunnel, Nan Tian felt happier than ever in his heart. He just had to continue at this pace and sooner orter, she¡¯ll be able to recover and he¡¯ll be able to see Shiro at her best again.
"Hmph, bullying a patient. What if I be depressed?" Shiro pouted while pulling the cover over her head.
"If you be depressed because of my flick I suppose I¡¯ll have to take responsibility to help you then." Nan Tian smiled.
"And how would you even do that?"
"Hmm... good question. How would I do that?" Nan Tian joked as it was good to help Shiro think about other things for now.
"And you ask the patient? You have no talent for being a therapist or doctor." Shiro replied.
Under the cover, there was a small smile on her face as her gaze softened. Closing them, she decided to rest now. She¡¯ll try again after she wakes up.
"Well I¡¯m not exactly a doctor type to begin with."
Hearing no response for a while, Nan Tian realised that she must have slept and pulled down the cover a little so that she could sleepfortably.
Brushing the hair off her face, he wished that she had a pleasant dream instead of a nightmare before resuming his work on the tablet.
Chapter 987 Madisons Opportunity
Chapter 987 Madison''s Opportunity
It¡¯s been two months since we came back from space. Isilia and Edvimar are gone, Shiro was suffering from trauma, Lisandra was venturing out with Yin in order to help her find the fragments needed to help Yin level up and Lyrica had left the city in order to get stronger so that she could avenge her parent¡¯s deaths.
During that fight against the watchman, neither me nor Lisandra could do anything as we watched helplessly.
Even though Shiro med herself the most, I knew that she tried her best while me and Lisandra couldn¡¯t even lift a finger.
Thinking back to what had happened, anger red in my heart.
"HYAHH!!!!" Twisting my body, I pictured the face of the watchman on the monster I was facing and ripped through its flesh.
Finding the ribs, I pried them open and tore his body in half.
Cracking my neck, I flicked off the blood on my hands while taking deep breaths to calm myself. I knew that I was angrier at myself more than I was at the watchman.
Angry at my own uselessness.
"Your highness, we¡¯ve cleared out this room. I think there is one chamber left and the nest will be cleared out." Felsha reported as I nodded my head.
She was the one who took control of the demons for a while when the new age started and naturally, I punished her ordingly.
"Alright, tell everyone to get ready, we¡¯ll charge in and finish everything in one go." I ordered.
Watching Felsha deliver the message to the rest of the demons, I sighed and nced up at the ceiling.
I thought back to the state of Shiro and closed my eyes.
The sight of her trembling figure with eyes that have lost their l.u.s.tre was clear in my mind. We had actually hid behind her shadow and let her take everything on herself.
All of our talks of being useful to her seemed so hollow now that I looked back. We promised that we¡¯ll be stronger but to what extent did we risk ourselves to discover strength like her?
I knew that Lyrica must have understood this hence why she ventured out. To risk her life in order to gain power.
I wanted to do the same. But if I leave as well, I wasn¡¯t sure how well Shiro would take it. If all of us left one by one when she needed us the most, it¡¯ll only harm her more. I couldn¡¯t leave. Just the knowledge of me still being around should be helpful for her.
Even as we entered the final chamber of his nest, my mind was still wandering back to the matters in the city but it was fine since I was undefeatable in this nest.
Compared to these monsters, I was their greatest fear.
I peeled the scales off the monster¡¯s skin, tore his bones out and gouged out his eyes. To me, he was incredibly weak and I knew this is how the watchman felt when he faced off against us.
Simr to how I was able to stop the monster from fighting back at all, the watchman did the same.
¡¯I want to get stronger.¡¯
I wanted to get stronger so I won¡¯t be like this monster.
Despite being the strongest in his nest, some random person like me could appear and rip him to pieces.
I wanted to be strong so that the same situation wouldn¡¯t happen anymore.
After killing the monster, I had the demons harvest everything from the nest and make our way back to the city.
Felsha and Asphil noticed that I was slightly out of it but they didn¡¯t say anything.
Once we were back in the city, I had the demons deliver the better materials to Helion so that he could put them to use.
Arriving at his workshop, I knocked on the door andid down on the sofa. It had been myfort spot ever since I returned from space since the rhythmic sounds of Helion hammering the metal calmed my nerves.
"You seem to have a lot on your mind today." Helion called out to me with a smile as I nodded my head.
"Mn, a little."
"Same as usual?" He asked. He knew that I was stressed out about getting strength, but I couldn¡¯t leave.
"Maybe you should talk to Shiro about it. I heard from Silvia and Nan Tian that she seemed to be making stable improvements." Helion suggested with a smile as I sat up in surprise.
After not hearing any news of improvement for a while, this was a surprise to be sure.
"What happened?" I asked, wanting to know more.
"Apparently she¡¯s starting to talk more now. Though she¡¯s onlyfortable with talking to Nan Tian. I heard from him that she actively tried to leave the med bay today but failed. Shiro did say that she¡¯ll try again tomorrow."
Hearing this, I sighed in relief and leaned back.
"That¡¯s good." I muttered.
"Now that Shiro is recovering, maybe you can talk to her more to see how she is. Perhaps you might be able to ask her if you can leave for a short journey." Helion suggested.
"No. If I do that she might be burdened which could have negative effects. She¡¯s just started recovering so I don¡¯t want to hit her with news of me wanting to leave." I replied with a frown.
"I know. I¡¯m saying that you should talk to her after some time. Normally, Shiro wouldn¡¯t mind you venturing out so I was thinking that you assess her current mental state by interacting with her more."
Hearing this, I thought for a moment before nodding her head.
"Alright. I¡¯ll talk to her for a bit to see how she is."
I continued to talk to Helion for a bit before returning to my room and slept till morning.
Once I woke up, I immediately made my way to the med bay. Nan Tian had been staying next to Shiro and hadn¡¯t left since. Even when she slept, he continued to stay next to her since he didn¡¯t want the same thing that happened on the first day to happen again.
That day, he had left for a short break and when he returned, he saw Shiro breaking down in a corner. He knew that her mental state was fragile right now so he apanied her.
Turning the corner, I could already see the doors to the med bay.
To my surprise, I could see Shiro in front of the door with an expression of absolute fear.
Her chest moved up and down rapidly as I knew she was hyperventting. Nan Tian stood next to her with a face of concern while she kept a tight grip on his shirt.
Hiding myself, I observed silently while praying in my mind. I wanted her to ovee this barrier. I wished that I could see her just reach out and push that set of doors apart.
¡¯Come on...¡¯ I thought in my mind.
However, 20 minutes passed and Shiro wasn¡¯t able to take a single step forward.
Taking a step back with a downcast expression, Shiro walked back to the bed while Nan Tianforted her with a small smile.
After seeing this, I wasn¡¯t sure if I should continue with my n.
¡¯She must be feeling shitty right now. Showing myself to her might just make matters worse.¡¯ I thought to myself.
Leaning against the wall for a moment, I thought back to the expression I saw and knew that her mental barrier must be bigger than anything I imagined.
After all, this was a woman that didn¡¯t even bat an eye to pissing off a whole pantheon of gods. Seeing her figure now, I wouldn¡¯t have thought that they were the same person if I didn¡¯t know Shiro. The change was quite drastic but that just showed how much of an impact she had suffered from the watchman.
Feeling my phone vibrate, I nced down and saw that Nan Tian had sent me a message.
[Nan Tian: I noticed that you were watching a moment ago. Shiro hasn¡¯t noticed so I didn¡¯t say anything. You might want to visit a littleter but that¡¯s up to you. She¡¯s quite down about what just happened but I also believe somepany might help distract her mind right now.]
Thinking about it for a moment, I decided toe backter since I didn¡¯t know how I could react to this situation. I figured that things might be easier once I give her a bit of time to calm herself.
Replying to Nan Tian, I nced back at the med bay and started walking away.
Suddenly, I received a notification.
It was a simr format to what Shiro had shown us before and I knew it was a message from a god.
[To my dearest descendant. I noticed that you seemed to have a bit of trouble so after some preparation, I am finally able to provide you with a way to get stronger. As your ancestor, I realised that I haven¡¯t given you anything to congratte you on your ascension so I suppose this will have to do. The system is a bit stingy with the requirements when ites to messaging you so this is about all I can say. However, I hope you can forgive me for the dy.
From your Ancestor, Demon God Makron.]
Attached to the message was a single item.
[Invitation to the Demon Realm.]
Chapter 988 The Only Path Left Is Up
Chapter 988 The Only Path Left Is Up
"Who was that?" Shiro asked curiously as she sat down on the bed with a sigh.
"You noticed them?"
"Mn, but I didn¡¯t see who it was. I just know that someone was there." Shiro nodded.
"Is that so? Well it was Madi but it seems like she¡¯s busy with something else." Nan Tian replied.
"So it was Madi huh? What do you think she thought of when she saw me fail to leave?" She asked while ncing down at her hands.
"I¡¯m sure it¡¯s nothing bad. I¡¯d wager that she¡¯s cheering you on." Nan Tian smiled.
Staying silent for a moment, Shiro nced up and opened her mouth.
However, before she said a single word, her eyes flickered for a moment before sighing and let out a smallugh.
"I¡¯m really desperate right now." Shiro muttered.
"I can tell. You seemed to have wanted to suggest something just now." Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Mn... I was about to suggest that I suppress my memories so that I could act like this never happened. But that¡¯s just running away. Even if I tried, I¡¯d get suspicious. There¡¯s simply too much that has happened which is tied to Isilia. The memories would return quickly and then I¡¯ll be back at the beginning." Shiro sighed and nced up at the ceiling.
"If I want to ¡¯fix¡¯ myself, I can¡¯t run away."
"That is true." Nan Tian smiled.
"Pretty inspiring huh? I might start writing quotes haha." Shiro joked with a softugh as she looked at the door.
"But I suppose I can try brute forcing it." She said as she aimed her palm at the door.
"If I just destroy this door that I¡¯m so afraid of and see what¡¯s on the other side, do you think my fears will disappear?" Shiro asked.
Thinking about it for a moment, Nan Tian hesitated before shaking his head.
"It depends but I don¡¯t think brute forcing it is the best option right now."
"Mn is that so? Well you have a point." Shiro shrugged as she hugged her knees.
"I¡¯ll be honest, I don¡¯t think things will ever be the same anymore. I don¡¯t think I can be as fearless as I was before now that Isilia was taken before me. I¡¯ll be honest, I¡¯m dreading the thought of fighting the watchman again, even if I grow stronger." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian closed his eyes.
"That¡¯s true. However, I do believe that there will never be a ¡¯same¡¯ you. Things happening around you will change you ever so slightly. Some might bring about arge change, some might be so small that practically nothing changes at all. But in the end theybine into the present ¡¯you¡¯. Sometimes you need to take a step back in order to proceed. I think that this taste of fear is the step back that you needed." Nan Tian hesitated for a moment before speaking his mind.
Hearing this, Shiro contemted silently as her lips eventually curved up into a small smile.
Resting her head on her arm, she looked at her left hand that was holding onto his sleeve.
"Perhaps you¡¯re right. But how big of a step back do you think this is?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian chuckled.
"This is quite a big step back if you ask me."
"Well aren¡¯t you just sh*t atforting people. Making me feel depressed again." Shiro giggled softly.
"You certainly don¡¯t look depressed right now. I know that face, you¡¯re probably thinking about something outrageous aren¡¯t you?" Nan Tian smiled since it¡¯s been a while since he hadst seen this expression.
"Mn... maybe. But even if I¡¯m thinking of something outrageous, I can¡¯t do anything right now." Shiroid down on the bed and closed her eyes.
"Well no matter what you choose, I¡¯ll be supporting you from the back."
Hearing this, Shiro smiled.
###
Finding herself in the samebyrinth, Shiro nced down at her hand and she was already shaking from dread.
"I suppose you are what they call my mental demon. If I don¡¯t surpass you, I won¡¯t ever get past my fear." Shiro muttered as she looked towards the figure who held a dead corpse of Isilia in his hand.
Staying silent, he stared at her with eerie calmness.
"Nothing. Figures. But I think I¡¯ve troubled everyone long enough now." She forced a smile as she punched her thigh to stop her leg from shaking.
Putting on a brave front, Shiro wanted to confront her demon.
If there was someone else seeing this right now, they would think that it was simr to a young cub backed into a corner by a predator.
Shiro¡¯s defence was filled with gaps, her legs unsteady. Her breathing uneven. Her eyes would dart around but she would force them to look her fear straight in the face.
Gritting her teeth, she took the first step forward and punched towards the watchman.
###
Snapping her eyes open, Shiro panted heavily as cold sweat filled her back.
"Are you ok?" Nan Tian asked with concern as it¡¯s been a while since she hadst woke up in a cold sweat.
However, unlike the other times, there was a new glimmer in her eyes.
A hint of her fighting spirit.
¡¯Not yet huh?¡¯ she thought to herself with a sigh.
"Mn I¡¯m fine." Shiro replied with a nod.
She knew that she couldn¡¯t ovee her fear that easily. But even so, this was the first step. If she can act against it once, she can do it again. She had to admit that she was scared. She waspletely fearful of his presence but for the ones she cherished, she had to set aside this fear.
She didn¡¯t want to betray the hopes that they had for her.
She didn¡¯t want to let down Nan Tian who had taken care of her broken self month after month withoutining.
She didn¡¯t want to stay in state. When Lyrica returns, she wants to stand proudly so that they won¡¯t worry about her.
"Say... Little Tian." Shiro said as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow at the fact that she was calling him by his nickname that she had given him.
"Mn? What is it."
"I want to recover or at least leave this room by next month. I might be a little unsightly. Promise me you won¡¯tugh or feel disgusted ok?" Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded without hesitation.
"Of course. I¡¯ve already seen you at your worst so I won¡¯t be dissuaded by something like this. The only path left is up." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro felt relieved in her heart. There was a warm feeling spreading through her body as she could feel her will power reigniting.
Taking a deep breath, she got out of the bed and walked towards the door as Nan Tian followed behind her wordlessly.
###
After that day, Shiro pushed herself ceaselessly. She would force herself to reach for the door even when it forced her to pass out. Even when she is falling down, she¡¯d try to reach for the door. She wed away at her fear as even an inch of progress was weed.
When resting, she confronted her inner demon even if it made her sick to the stomach.
Every single moment was used for confronting her fear to the point that she wouldn¡¯t notice when others are watching her from afar.
Yin would deliver food and cheer Shiro on in her mind before leaving so as to not distract her.
Madison would observe from the end of the hallway, hoping that she¡¯d reach the door. She had decided to go to the demon realm but before she left, she wanted to see Shiro ovee the first barrier.
Day after day, week after week, Shiro inched closer with each attempt.
She looked haggard but the fighting spirit in her eyes never decreased. Each step would only make her burn brighter.
The gap between her and the door decreased until it was just an arms length away.
Grabbing the handle, Shiro could feel crippling fear clutch her heart as a dark shadow loomed over her.
However, she¡¯s tired of just cowering away in a corner. Even if she never ovees this fear, she still wanted to face it head on. Like Nan Tian said, she had already reached her worse, all that¡¯s left is going up. She might look terrified and her knees might threaten to give up. But at least it was not in a tiny closed off room.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro gripped the door handle as hard as she could and pushed open the door with all her might.
As she took the first step out of this room after several months of crippling anxiety, Shiro felt relieved. A cool gust of wind brushed her hair out of her face as she stood outside the med bay.
Opening her mouth, her lips quivered as she continued to look forward.
"I¡¯m finally out." She muttered softly.
"Mn, you are."
"I¡¯m finally out." Shiro repeated, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked back at Nan Tian.
Her hair stuck to the sides of her face as cold sweat filled her head. Tears streamed down her face as she smiled towards him.
Despite her dishevelled appearance, it was the most beautiful smile Nan Tian had ever seen.
"Congrattions."
Chapter 989 Three and A Half Months
Chapter 989 Three and A Half Months
". . . ." Staying silent, Shiro drank her juice in themand centre while hugging her knees on the chair.
She still couldn¡¯t let go of Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve but she was nowfortable enough to walk around for a bit.
However, she had more serious worries right now.
¡¯Ahhhhh I totally cried in front of him! What the f*ck do I mean ¡¯I¡¯m finally out???¡¯ Shiro shouted in her mind as her mental self was currently rolling around in agony.
She would asionally nce up to see Nan Tian¡¯s expression only to see that he would smile at her whenever she did this.
Naturally, this caused her to blush in embarrassment since she was aplete mess when she left the med bay.
"Erm so how long was I out ofmission for?" Shiro asked, wanting to think about something else for now.
"Hmm... you¡¯ve been out for three and a half months. There has been two events with the first victor being the Beast Queen and the second victor being surprisingly, the Ice Queen." Nan Tian said as he projected the information on a second screen.
"Mn... seems like the system is giving out events every... one and a half months give or take. So I¡¯d say there¡¯s probably going to be a third event in a month¡¯s time then." Shiro muttered as Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
"Are you nning to participate?" He asked curiously.
However, the moment he mentioned her participation, Shiro¡¯s body tensed up.
Forcing a smile, she shook her head.
"I don¡¯t know. It depends. If my body stops freezing up in the middle of a fight, maybe." Shiro sighed, ncing down at her hand, she shook her head.
"Setting that aside for now, can you show me everything that¡¯s happened in Asharia? I can¡¯t use mana or divine energy just yet but I still want to know what¡¯s been happening." Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Sending her the information, he organised it so that the minor problems that he could solve easily didn¡¯t need to be looked at. Most of them were the major changes such as the decreasing power output of the anchors due to Isilia¡¯s absence.
"Mn.... We¡¯re quite behind in development huh?" Shiro smiled sadly since they could be in a much better position had she not been stuck in the med bay for almost four months.
The mechs were barely running since most of the power was needed for the city so the soldiers were training physically instead. Li Jian was currently teaching them so she didn¡¯t need to worry about their martial prowess.
As she was reading through the notes, she saw that her father had started to train in order to prepare himself for reaching tier 6. But the problem with what he¡¯s doing right now was that he was wing away at the chance tirelessly. For something like inspiration to reach tier 6, you need to have a calm mind andprehend what you want to focus on. If he continued at this pace, he¡¯ll never reach tier 6.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯ll go talk to dad. As for mum... seems like she left like Lyrica.¡¯ Shiro¡¯s gaze flickered after seeing Mio being absent from the city for quite a while now. Herst message was that she was returning to the reaper realm for a while so they didn¡¯t need to worry about her safety.
¡¯Keiko¡¯s doing fine and Keomi is training herself with dad. Yin and Lisandra are out searching for the artefacts so they¡¯re preupied.¡¯
As she continued to flip through the notes, she realised that most of them didn¡¯t need her intervention as everyone had things covered. Aarim was practically running the second city all by herself at this point since the power generated there was much smaller than the main city.
¡¯I suppose my main goal for now is to make a full recovery and regain the use of my mana and divine energy. Researching my condition with Aarim and Silvia should be fine. Maybe I should try moving my body a little for some light sparring...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"Erm do you want to do a bit of sparring? I want to move my body a little since I haven¡¯t done anything." Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Of course. What kind of sparring are we talking about? Just hand to hand or are weapons and magic involved?"
"Just hand to hand. Nothing too serious." Shiro waved her hand dismissively.
She couldn¡¯t even reinforce her body with mana right now so sparring with weapons or magic wouldn¡¯t really work.
Plus, she just wanted to see if she can still fight like how she used to.
"Mn but just a question from me. How will you spar with me if you continue to hold me sleeve without letting go?" Nan Tian asked, pointing at her hand that was holding onto his sleeve.
"Ah.... *Cough* I think just a little while should be fine." Shiro blushed as she felt a little embarrassed. After being stuck in the med bay all this time, Nan Tian had kind of be her emotional pir.
She would be a little stressed out and restless if she didn¡¯t grab his sleeve to make sure he was around.
But as long as she kept him within her sight, it should be ok.
Making their way to the training hall, Shiro saw that all the halls were free since it¡¯s still early.
Picking the first one they could find, she took a deep breath and let go of Nan Tian.
Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths before opening her eyes and saw that Nan Tian was looking at her with concern.
"Erm we can start?" Shiro said as she raised her hands awkwardly.
"You can make the first move."
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows but nodded her head.
Thinking back to how she fought, Shiro took a step forward and dashed towards Nan Tian. Her movements were a lot slower than her usual speed but her eyes were focused.
Stomping down, she changed her attack direction at thest moment beforeunching a kick towards Nan Tian¡¯s head.
Catching the leg with ease, Nan Tian took a step back as Shiro would normally follow this up with a second kick using her spare foot. Her first kick would never be at full power unless she was sure there¡¯s an opportunity.
So as long as he took a step back to forcefully disperse the power gathered, her second kick should be just as weak as her first.
Seeing this, Shiro furrowed her brows asunching her follow up kick would just be going into a trap.
But with her left foot caught in his hand, her movements were a little restrained.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro shifted her body as she practically bent herself in half.
Elbowing towards Nan Tian¡¯s head, she could see that he was going to guard his face when she changed her attack and converted it to a grapple instead.
However, the moment she did this, her joints cracked as her shoulder was dislocated for a moment.
Furrowing her brows, she halted the spar and gripped her shoulder.
"Mn... The stress is a bit too much for a non reinforced body huh?" Shiro sighed.
"Do you need a healing spell?" Nan Tian asked but Shiro shook her head.
"I won¡¯t need healing for an injury like this." Shiroughed.
Popping her shoulder back in, she moved her arm around to make sure that everything was fine.
"Well I guess we know my currentbat standards. My body can¡¯t keep up. If I don¡¯t reinforce it with mana, I suppose I won¡¯t be able to fight properly. Though if you think about it, it¡¯s exactly because of my destructive fighting style and choices that led up to what had happened." Shiro smiled thinking back to the watchman.
Holding Nan Tian¡¯s sleeves to calm her nerves, she sighed.
"I think I might have been able to fair better and maybe even prevent Isilia from being taken if I wasn¡¯t riddled with injuries. The fight didn¡¯t evenst 10 seconds. Even if he didn¡¯t attack me, I would have self destructed from the damage I was causing to myself." Shiro muttered.
"Perhaps. So why don¡¯t we see if we can develop a non destructive style for you to use right now?" Nan Tian suggested as Shiro thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"I suppose I¡¯ll work more on my ice magic. Big sis did say that my magic had a lot of potential but I focused on the martial skills along with my nano tech." Shiro smiled.
"Mn but we¡¯ll need you to regain your use of magic first no? Setting that aside, are you hungry? You haven¡¯t eaten anything at all yet. Yin should being back soon so she¡¯ll be able to cook you something." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Mn I can finally eat some proper meals rather than the light stuff she¡¯s been making." Shiro agreed as they made their way towards the Food Hall.
Chapter 990 Hallucination
Chapter 990 Hallucination
"I... Mum... When did you be more gluttonous than me?" Yin asked as cold sweat dripped off her face.
"Tch, a bit rude. Your mother¡¯s been eating nothing but light food for three and a half months and this is what you say when I want a little bit of meat?" Shiro pouted as she still had her spoon in her mouth.
Hearing this, Yin¡¯s smile twitched as she had been doing nothing but eat for the past three hours now. She returned during the second hour and she figured that Shiro would be finished soon but no, she kept going.
Yin thought that she would at least try to eat less or act more refined since Nan Tian was here but her eating style was... barbaric to say the least.
"Please eat slowly, you¡¯ll choke." Yin sighed as she sat down.
Lisandra was also nearby but she didn¡¯t want to get too close in case Shiro¡¯s fear acted up.
"Why aren¡¯t you sitting down as well Lisa?" Shiro asked, seeing Lisandra stand silently in the corner.
"Mn? Oh erm can I?" Lisandra asked as Shiro raised her eyebrow before pausing in realisation.
During the time she was in the room, Lisandra had the least amount of contact. It was no wonder that Lisandra might be a little hesitant. Feeling bad inside, Shiro smiled and gestured for her to sit down near her.
"It¡¯s ok,e and sit down." Shiro smiled as she continued to eat.
It was a little difficult to eat at her pace with just one hand since the other was holding onto Nan Tian but he used magic to stabilise the bowls so she didn¡¯t need to worry.
Most of the food that she ate was converted into mana so it was only natural that she wasn¡¯t feeling satisfied just yet. After all, her mana pool could be called an ocean.
While there still seemed to be something blocking her use of mana, Shiro felt ¡¯healthier¡¯ in a way since she was a monster after all. Mana was the core of her being.
Simr to how vampires will be lethargic without blood, spirits and monsters that depend on mana as their main source of energy will be weakened. Sure they might be able to constantly generate mana within their bodies but it would still cause them to hunger.
Seeing that Shiro assured her that it was ok, Lisandra hesitated for a moment before sitting next to Shiro.
As she continued her meal, Shiro noticed that Lisandra was ncing at her asionally,
"Is something wrong?" Shiro asked as Lisandra hesitated for a moment before making up her mind.
Hugging Shiro, Lisandra¡¯s shoulders started quivering as she opened her mouth.
"I¡¯m d that you¡¯re safe mum." Lisandra said as Shiro paused and smiled.
"Mn, I¡¯m sorry for noting out sooner. But that reminds me, that¡¯s the first time you¡¯ve properly called me mum huh?" Shiro smiled as Lisandra nodded her head.
"So like, sorry to crash the parade but how will you eat if both your hands are upied?" Yin asked as she rested her chin on her palm.
"Why don¡¯t you feed me darling? You seemed to do a good job a few months ago." Shiro chuckled as Yin rolled her eyes.
Shuffling her chair closer, she wordlessly picked up the bowl and spoon.
"I¡¯ll ask for my hugter since lil¡¯ sis hasn¡¯t been spending time with you as much as I have. " Yin said as she started to feed Shiro.
###
After finishing the meal, Lisandra helped Yin clean up the dishes while Shiro rested next to Nan Tian.
Pulling out her phone, Shiro wondered what she should be doing now.
She wanted to set up a n of action for a month¡¯s time so that they can participate in the next event.
¡¯I need to recover the use of mana and divine energy along with waking Nimue, Iziuel and Attie.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she hasn¡¯t been able to ess her mana realm at all.
She guessed that her mana realm will probably unlock once her use of mana returns.
"If you¡¯re worried about your use of mana it might be good to ask Aarim about it. We still need to tell everyone else about your recovery so this might be a good chance to call for a party meeting." Nan Tian smiled but Shiro shook her head.
"It¡¯s fine, there¡¯s no need for a meeting. They¡¯re all busy so we¡¯ll just visit them one by one. Let¡¯s go to Madison first though, she looked like she wanted to say something earlier when I managed to get a glimpse of her." Shiro smiled as she stretched her body lightly.
"Alright I finished washing up the dishes. I will request for my hug now." Yin smiled as she held out her arms in a position perfect for receiving a hug.
Hearing this, Shiro smiled and stood up. Letting go of Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve for a moment, she hugged Yin.
"Sorry for making you worry." Shiro muttered.
"What is there to be sorry about? You always make us worry. In fact, I¡¯ll be more concerned if you didn¡¯t make us worry." Yin replied as her voice started to be shaky.
"But don¡¯t ever make us worry like that ever again."
Hearing this, Shiro paused for a moment before nodding.
"Mn, I won¡¯t." Staying in silence, Shiro hugged Yin.
After a long moment, they separated as Yin wiped her face.
"First of all mum, you are filthy." Yin said cheekily as Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
"Excuse me what?" Shiro asked, feeling as though a vein was about to burst.
"You haven¡¯t changed your clothes today have you? I just came back not too long ago after all and it stinks like sweat. You should really change or get a shower after finally getting out." Yin smiled as Shiro paused.
"Wait does it... smell that bad?" Shiro asked hesitantly as she had been holding onto Nan Tian this entire time.
"Don¡¯t listen to her mum. Yin¡¯s only saying that since she wants to dress you up. She¡¯s bought a bunch of clothes from the tailors around the city. They¡¯ve beening out with new designs and Yin figured that you might look good in them." Lisandra called out as Yin coughed.
"Stop spoiling the surprise." Yin pouted.
"Yeah but like... you¡¯re embarrassing mum." Lisandra furrowed her brows.
Shrugging her shoulders, Yin jogged towards the main doors.
"I¡¯ll send the clothes to your room mum."
Seeing that Yin has already ran off, Shiro sighed helplessly before ncing at Nan Tian.
"You don¡¯t stink." Nan Tian immediately said out loud just in case Shiro was concerned about that.
". . . .I wasn¡¯t about to say anything about that. I¡¯m going to go for a quick shower and get changed. Will you erm... Wait in the room?" Shiro asked, feeling embarrassed.
"Of course." Nan Tian nodded.
"Don¡¯t look ok?" Shiro warned.
Nodding his head, he knew that he might not be able to sit down if he did. But more than that, it¡¯ll be betraying her trust in him.
"I¡¯ll go help sis bring the clothes over then." Lisandra said as Shiro nodded her head.
###
Making their back to her room, Shiro grabbed a spare change of clothes along with a few towels before ncing back to see Nan Tian sitting in the corner working on the tablet.
¡¯It¡¯s just a few minutes, what am I being scared for?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she locked the door behind her and took off her clothes.
As she had a quick shower, she felt as though a shadow flickered in the corner of her peripherals.
Immediately turning around, she saw that there was nothing and sighed.
Quickly finishing her shower, she got changed and nced in the mirror.
For a split moment, Shiro thought the watchman was standing besides her as her breathing hastened.
Punching towards where the watchman would have been, Shiro¡¯s fist cracked against the wall as she frowned before brushing her hair out of her face.
Sighing heavily, she grabbed her towel and exited the bathroom.
Seeing Nan Tian sitting in the same ce with a concerned face, Shiro didn¡¯t say anything and just sat down before clutching his sleeve.
"Did something happen?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Just... hallucinating." Shiro replied softly as sheid down and closed her eyes.
Hearing a knock on the door, Shiro sat up since she knew that it was probably Yin and Lisandra.
"Do you want to rest for a bit first?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shook her head.
"It¡¯s fine. I just needed a moment to calm down." Shiro smiled.
It was good to take her mind off this as well.
Just as she called Yin to enter, she saw Lisandra check the space before unloading outfit after outfit from her inventory.
Shiro had to admit, it was a little intimidating.
Chapter 991 Visiting Aarim
Chapter 991 Visiting Aarim
As Lisandra continued to pull out new sets of clothing, Yin would look at a few of them before shaking her head.
"Never mind these won¡¯t look that nice." She would mutter, filtering out the pile much to Shiro¡¯s relief.
Eventually, they threw out roughly 40% of the pile as the remaining ones are the ones that Yin was happy with.
Most of the clothes were coloured with dark blues, reds and purples with some even having a bit of turquoise.
Thankfully, there was no pink.
"Let¡¯s go with an easy one first." Yin smiled, holding up an outfit which made Shiro flinch a little.
"Are we really going with this one?" Shiro asked with a forced smile.
She liked her dark colours along with simple designs but this... this was pure white with gold and light blue. There were shy ornaments and designs all over the dress which made it hard to think about where to look.
"Yeah wouldn¡¯t this look good on mum?" Yin nodded and turned to Lisandra who only stayed silent while putting away the clothes that Yin didn¡¯t want to pick.
"Let¡¯s go with a darker to-"
"Nope. You always wear ck mum so try some lighter colours today." Yin grinned.
ncing into the pile of clothes that Yin had chosen, Shiro realised that hardly any of them were ck.
"Then how about something a bit simple then? Having all of these ornaments is not necessary." Shiro asked. She didn¡¯t mind trying new colours out but something this shy was not to her taste.
"Really? Hm... fine. This one is not as shy." Yin sighed.
Throwing the outfit behind her, she grabbed the next one which almost caused Shiro to shout out the words ¡¯Bullsh*t!¡¯.
While there weren¡¯t many ornaments on this dress, the main problem was that it was simply a mish mash of colours. Much like how a child would paint, it was as if someone had just thrown a bunch of colours on this dress.
"How about I just choose one from this pile myself?" Shiro asked as her daughter¡¯s taste in clothing was definitely no match for her talent in cooking!
"But that¡¯s no fun." Yin furrowed her brows.
"Well mum still needs to go talk to Aarim so maybe just let her pick one for now. We can have a look at more outfitster. Plus, didn¡¯t you need to check up on the scouts to see if they have any more news on your fragments?" Lisandra reminded as Yin sighed.
"Fine. I¡¯ll continue thister then."
Sighing in relief, Shiro secretly gave Lisandra a thumbs up.
###
After an hour of going through the clothes, Shiro eventually settled on a sleeveless white and gold dress that extended all the way down to the floor. It was paired with a white silk jacket that was adorned with gold patterns around the shoulder.
It was the best dress that she could find in the pile that matched her tastes but even so, she still preferred her normal outfit.
But since it was Yin that gave her this outfit, she might as well wear it for a while.
"Shall we go to Aarim now?" Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded.
"Mn, let¡¯s talk to her before the day ends. The quicker I can get back to using my mana, the better." Shiro nodded.
"Well I¡¯ve had my fun for today. Me and lil sis won¡¯t bother you anymore. Come on, we¡¯ve still got a stack of reports to read through." Yin said as she seemed much happier than before.
Nodding her head, Lisandra gave Shiro onest hug before leaving with Yin.
"I should spend more time with them huh? I¡¯ve been neglecting the two a little." Shiro smiled softly after they left the room.
"Well you were quite busy."
"Mn but it¡¯s no excuse. Setting that aside, let¡¯s go to Aarim." Shiro smiled as they left the room.
As they were making their way towards the teleport node in the main tower, Shiro nced out of the tower window and looked down at the city which seemed to be functioning as normal.
"There was a bit of unrest since you didn¡¯t make a single appearance in almost four months but I had the spirit council and the militia helped calm people down saying that you were preparing for something else." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thanks. It¡¯s good that people aren¡¯t panicking. Though I suppose we haven¡¯t been epting anymore residents."
"Unfortunately, no. We haven¡¯t epted anymore residents in Asharia but Madison has been making small anchor cities outside of Asharia. They¡¯re mostly underground with pathways towards the surface along with a few teleport nodes for them toe to Asharia for trade but that¡¯s about it. They aren¡¯t able to stay here for an extended period and Madison has some of her more powerful subordinates looking after the city. The people were a bit afraid of the demons at first but they¡¯vee to ept that the demon¡¯s are trying to help rather than harm them." Nan Tian exined while passing her the tablet with everything that Madison has done in the time she was away.
Reading about all of her achievements, Shiro was impressed by how much she had aplished.
"Though it seems like there have been a few people that have been trying to usurp her power in these cities. One of them was almost taken over due to new residents l.u.s.ting over Asahria¡¯s resources huh?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Mn, but since they¡¯re sent to the subspace that you created with Estre, they couldn¡¯t find the main city and we were able to deal with them quickly." Nan Tian nodded.
"Everyone¡¯s worked hard huh?" Shiro chuckled.
"Of course. After realising that we¡¯ve been putting a lot on your shoulders, everyone decided to do their part for the city and help keep it running so that there is less stress for you."
Talking to each other about the development of the city, they reached the teleport node within the tower that would send them to the second city.
Stepping in, Shiro¡¯s vision flickered and they were in the main tower of the second city. There was no bright light or dizziness since they were the things that she hated about the teleports. It was instant like the snap of a finger.
She couldn¡¯t help but nod at her handy work with a smile since it was pleasant to walk through.
"Let¡¯s see... seems like she¡¯s in her office like usual." Nan Tian muttered.
"Like usual? Does she not leave her office?" Shiro asked curiously.
"No she doesn¡¯t. She does everything in her office and she had even renovated it with Estre¡¯s help so that herb is in a separate space." Nan Tian shook his head.
"Hmm... well I guess if you can wake up and immediately start working on your research then I would have probably done the same." Shiro shrugged since she could understand Aarim¡¯s thought process. Less time wasted after all.
Making her way up the stairs towards the top of the tower, they found Aarim¡¯s office.
Knocking on the door, the two heard the sound of paper falling as Aarim coughed.
"Come in." She called out.
Opening the door, Shiro could see Aarim behind her desk looking tired.
Littered around the room were heaps of scrolls that were discarded.
"Ah Shiro, are you feeling better now?" Aarim asked as she stood up and jogged over to Shiro.
"I¡¯m feeling a bit better now. Sorry it took so long." Shiro smiled.
"Nonsense. Take as long as you want. We¡¯re keeping things in order right now so you don¡¯t have to worry." Aarim smiled.
"So what brings you here today?" Aarim asked, snapping her fingers and quickly cleared the table and chairs so that they could sit down and talk.
"Ah I just wanted to ask you about a small problem regarding my body. You see... I can¡¯t use mana nor divine energy right now." Shiro smiled as Aarim furrowed her brows.
"What? That¡¯s impossible. Wait let me have a look, you should have been able to use it once your body has recovered. Knowing Silvia, she wouldn¡¯t do a half assed job." Aarim muttered.
Closing her left eye, she opened it once more as a magic circle could be seen hovering in front of her pupil.
Looking at Shiro, she frowned for a moment before sitting back down.
"You had me worried for a moment. It¡¯s nothing major, it¡¯s just that most or rather, all of your mana and divine energy is being directed towards your mana realm. I suppose you can say that it¡¯s evolving which is... crazy if you think about it. Since no matter what happens in the mana realm, it¡¯s basic structure will remain the same. Yours is Improving, refining itself. All of your mana is being used up so if you give it a while, it should fix itself once the evolution ends." Aarim chuckled and sighed in relief.
"Wait really?" Shiro blinked.
"Yup. Though on a side note, I want you to help me with something if you don¡¯t mind." Aarim smiled.
"What is it?"
"I want to take some photos and dress you up like back in New York. I¡¯ve been so busy with magic I haven¡¯t done anything to do with fashion for a while. Seeing you wear white and gold has given me some idea." Aarim grinned.
Chapter 992 Speaking To Madison
Chapter 992 Speaking To Madison
After spending the rest of the day dressing up Shiro and taking pictures, Aarim found it a little strange that Shiro would need to take a break and hold onto Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve but decided to not say anything for now.
"Fu... I¡¯m satisfied. I haven¡¯t rxed like this in a while." Aarim stretched with a smile as she sat down on the sofa.
"You should rest more often if you¡¯re this fatigued." Shiro smiled.
"Well isn¡¯t that riching from the one who rests the least out of all of us?" Aarim raised an eyebrow as Shiro coughed.
"Aren¡¯t I resting now?"
"Yeah but that¡¯s more to do with the fact that you can¡¯t use mana right now. I¡¯m sure that if you could, you would be training or getting back into the swing of things no?" Aarim crossed her legs as Shiro shook her head.
"I don¡¯t know if I can fight like usual. I haven¡¯t fully gotten over my fears just yet." Shiro admitted as she nced down at her hand.
". . .I see. Sorry for bringing it up." Aarim apologised. She had to remember that this wasn¡¯t like the injuries that she had suffered before.
"It¡¯s fine. But I think you¡¯re right. I did have a quick spar with Nan Tian earlier to see if I can move like usual. I think that once I can use some mana, I¡¯ll be interested in venturing out and fighting a few monsters." Shiro smiled as Aarim nodded.
Talking for a little longer, both Shiro and Nan Tian left the office and made their way back to the main tower. They didn¡¯t want to distract Aarim for too long since she¡¯s keeping the second city functioning.
Upon making their way back to the main tower, Shiro nced at the time and figured that they might as well rest up for the night.
As they were walking back to Shiro¡¯s room, they saw Madison waiting outside.
"Yo." Madison smiled.
"Sup. Howe you¡¯re waiting outside my door? You could have just messaged me." Shiro asked as Madison shrugged.
"True. But I think I should talk to you face to face about this." Madison chuckled.
"Well in that case thene on in."
Opening the door to her room, Shiro gestured for Madison to sit down on the sofa.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Shiro asked curiously.
"You see, I¡¯ve gotten an invitation from Demon God Makron. He invites me to go to the demon realm and in doing so, I¡¯ll be able to be stronger. I..."
"If you¡¯re wondering about how I¡¯ll be, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll be fine. I was a little surprised by Lyrica¡¯s choice back then but it makes sense. Everyone has their own path to be stronger and Lyrica has made her choice. There¡¯s an opportunity before you so don¡¯t let my condition discourage you." Shiro smiled.
She immediately knew what Madison wanted to say when she brought up the invitation. If she was to hinder her friend¡¯s progress because she felt lonely, she wouldn¡¯t be much of a friend. Plus, Nan Tian was here helping her.
Hearing this, Madison was a little surprised before smiling.
"Alright. It seems like I wasn¡¯t able to judge you properly." Madison chuckled as she had thought up of ways to pacify Shiro should she be unwilling but there was no need.
"So when will you be leaving?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I think I¡¯ll be leaving either tomorrow or the day after since I still need to distribute some tasks while I¡¯m gone." Madison replied.
"Just a day¡¯s time huh? Is there anything we can do that might help you?" Shiro asked as Madison shook her head.
"It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve already got some equipment from Helion as well as a few magic scrolls from Aarim. I¡¯m pretty sorted right now." Madison smiled.
"Is that so... Hmm let me check my skills to see if there¡¯s anything I can do to help. Maybe something that doesn¡¯t require mana since all of it is being used for my mana realm right now." Shiro said as she quickly nced at her stat screen. She wanted to check her list to see if there¡¯s anything she could use for Madison.
Most of her skills were active effects that cost mana to be used in battle and even the ones that she had recycled onlysted for a short time.
Looking at this list, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh. She had been so busy levelling up she never really focused on organising her skills even after reaching Demi God tier.
But just as she nced through the list, she saw skill that they would mention often since it transferred her stats. She never used this early since her level was low and it would only give additional uses per level rather than a cooldown.
However, now that she looked at it again, she couldn¡¯t help but massage her eyes.
Previously known as the Celestial Court, it was upgraded to Divine Court after she reached Demi God status.
And since she was now level 760, there were 16 avable slots with 5 of them being taken up.
[Divine Court Appointment]
You can appoint people of your choosing to take a position within your Divine Court. If they ept, they gain a passive bonus in ordance to their role.
The role will be tailored to their ss and you can only appoint a certain amount of people. So far, you can appoint 16 people to be in your Divine Court.
You gain one additional slot every 50 levels (800, 850, 900...)
Currently used slots: 5/16
With how much fighting she had done, she never kept a track on the slots avable and offered a role when there¡¯s someone in need of it.
For example, she gave Helion the role since her experiences with blueprints and so on might help him thus he became the court cksmith.
She offered one to Keiko and Keomi since they were venturing out with danger lurking around every corner. Back then she only had a few slots so she used it on the two highest levels.
Currently, the holders of titles in her court were Aarim, Keiko, Keomi, Helion and Kanae.
Since it doesn¡¯t cost mana, Shiro wondered if she could still appoint people into her court.
¡¯Now that I think of it, with 11 slots free, I can give everyone in the party one. Not that they need it but it¡¯ll be a helpful boost. I¡¯m just not sure what kind of title it would give to Nan Tian though.... I can probably give Shiina, Oran and Akhess a title each.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
She didn¡¯t want to give it to Nan Tian just yet since it might give him something stupid like Divine Court Therapist with how things are going right now.
But now that she saw this skill, she could understand what Aarim was talking about when it came to her constantly pushing herself.
Now that she couldn¡¯t fight for a while, Shiro figured that it was probably a good time to go through her skills and see what she could do with them.
"I¡¯m not sure if this will work but you know how Aarim has a title that links her to me in the divine court?" Shiro asked as Madison nodded.
"The skill itself doesn¡¯t require mana so I¡¯m not sure if I can still activate it but if it does, it¡¯ll be a decent boost to you."
"We can certainly give it a go." Madison nodded with a smile.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro stood up and let go of Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve. Remembering how she would activate the skill, Shiro stuck out her hand as she opened her mouth.
"Madison, on my authority as the Nanotech Demi Goddess, do you ept a role in my court? Do note that once this is done, the role cannot be revoked." Shiro asked as small motes of light started to gather. There was no movement of mana or divine energy within her body but the ambient mana provided by her anchor was being drawn towards her. Those outside would be able to see Shiro¡¯s anchor flicker and glow as some kneeled down to pray.
Watching the motes gathered towards her hand and form the staff used for this ritual, Shiro was a little surprised. It felt as though the world around her was part of her body.
All of the mana could be used and it didn¡¯t need to go through her links at all. She felt as though her control was all epassing. She wondered if this is what it meant to be a demi god but she set that aside for now. She had plenty of time to sit down and reflect on all the changes in her body and ss but right now she had to finish the ritual.
"I ept." Madison nodded as the motes of light transformed into a magic circle beneath Madison.
[Acknowledgement Received. Generating Role... Divine Court Berserker.]
[Divine Court Berserker]
The person given this role will receive the following benefits.
+20% of Goddess¡¯ Strength, Agility, Vitality and Defence.
+30% All Element Resistance.
+30% Damage Absorption when activating a Berserk Skill.
+50% Overall Stats when activating Berserk Skill.
As a Divine Court Berserker, you are an unstoppable champion of destruction. Allies following behind you when you act as vanguard will receive a 20% boost to their stats.
Chapter 993 Message
Chapter 993 Message
". . . This skill costs no mana?" Madison asked as her right eye twitched slightly.
"Yup. Now that 6 of the slots are filled, I can give this to 10 more people." Shiro smiled.
"Who are you nning to give them to?" Madison asked curiously.
"Hmm... right now I¡¯m thinking of giving it to everyone in the party. Yin, Lisandra, Chen Yu, Silvia, Estre, Nimue, Attie, Iziuel, Nan Tian and then one more person. Probably Shiina since she¡¯s the best user of the mechs right now." Shiro replied as Madison nodded her head.
"How are the titles even generated? Do you do them or does the system calcte it?"
"The system does. That¡¯s why I¡¯m not sure about giving it to Nan Tian just yet since he might be the Divine Court Therapist." Shiro joked as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Perhaps. But I¡¯m not exactly in need of a boost right now so you can use my slot for others. Since they receive a portion of your stats, having more people near out level will be helpful." Nan Tian suggested.
"True."
Talking for a little longer, Madison eventually excused herself since she still had to prepare for her departure tomorrow.
Sighing softly, Shiro face nted into her bed as she closed her eyes.
"Are you feeling better now?" Nan Tian asked as he could tell that Shiro was tense despite her responses earlier.
"Was I that easy to read?" Shiro asked with a small smile.
"It is when you grip on my sleeve with such force. You¡¯re worried about her safety aren¡¯t you?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn... I¡¯m scared that she might run into trouble in the Demon Realm. This is an invitation given to her by a tier 8 being. What if there are existences like the watchman where she is going." Shiro said as she turned her head and nced at Nan Tian.
"Mn I¡¯m sure her ancestor wouldn¡¯t send her to her death. After all, they¡¯re both connected to one another." Nan Tian replied as he pulled out a cup of juice and offered it to Shiro.
"Thanks." Shiro sat up and received the juice.
Sipping it slowly, she took a moment to calm herself.
"So what¡¯s the n now? Your mana is being used for evolution so it¡¯s not something we can fix immediately." Nan Tian asked as he sat down next to her bed.
"I don¡¯t know. Maybe I should use the guns to do a bit of hunting. Right now, I¡¯m on a time limit duringbat. I don¡¯t know how long I can fight for when I¡¯m not next to you." Shiro said as she looked down on her hand.
"I want to know how long I can fight before I lose my cool."
"I see... you¡¯re right. Do you want to test this tomorrow then? Since it¡¯s getting prettyte now." Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure. Erm... I haven¡¯t asked but aren¡¯t you ufortable?"
"Ufortable about what?"
"Me always grabbing onto you. You don¡¯t leave when I sleep nor do you leave my side for a long period of time so I was wondering if I was hindering you." Shiro asked but Nan Tian shook his head.
"It¡¯s not a hindrance don¡¯t worry. It took a bit of getting used to but now I can sleep on a chair without any problems." Nan Tian smiled.
Though he hadn¡¯t had proper rest in a while. Most of the time he would be able to wake up in an instant should there be movement. He didn¡¯t want to be in deep sleep while she woke up in a panic after all.
"Are you sure? You look tired though." Shiro asked as Nan Tian shook his head.
"It¡¯s fine."
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows before biting her lip.
Shuffling over on her bed, she made enough room so that Nan Tian couldy down too.
"Mn?" Raising his eyebrow, Nan Tian saw that Shiro had turned her back to him while still holding onto his sleeve.
"What are you doing? Isn¡¯t it better to sleep in the middle?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"Don¡¯t make me say it. It¡¯s embarrassing." Shiro replied without turning around at all and gave his sleeve a tug.
Looking at the empty space for a moment, he realised what she had meant and nodded.
"Alright, thank you." He smiled.
Sitting on the bed, he continued to work but it was indeed morefortable than the chair.
Meanwhile, Shiro couldn¡¯t fall asleep at all.
She could feel her face heating up.
Shaking her head, she forced her eyes shut and tried her best to sleep.
"Is it hard to sleep with me being here? If so I can do my work on the chair. It¡¯s no trouble." Nan Tian asked as Shiro coughed.
"It¡¯s fine. You need rest too. I¡¯ll sleep eventually." Shiro replied while ncing back.
Seeing this, Nan Tian smiled and nodded his head.
Eventually, Shiro managed to fall asleep despite how long it took.
###
"Pathetic." Her voice scorned as Shiro nced up at a figure standing on what seemed to be a building.
Seeing that it was herself, Shiro sighed.
"Are you here to haunt me like always?" Shiro asked as she knew that this was a part of herself. It was the part that hated what she had be now.
"And what if I am? What if I¡¯m not? There¡¯s no point haunting you since you¡¯re already discouraging yourself. What¡¯s with that act during the talk with Madi? ¡¯Don¡¯t let my condition discourage you¡¯? Lies just flow out of your mouth like nothing huh?"
". . ."
"Just admit that you want all of theirpany. You don¡¯t want any of them to go do you?"
"Of course not, I¡¯m selfish like that. But at the end of the day, it¡¯s still their decision. Like how parents eventually watch their children leave the house, I¡¯m seeing both Madison and Lyrica grow up. I¡¯m sad but at the same time I¡¯m proud. I know that you¡¯re trying to find more reasons to me myself since that will help alleviate our guilt to some degree. I don¡¯t know if I can ever get rid of you but you should make yourselffortable. I¡¯m ming myself but I won¡¯t let my guilt drag down those two." Shiro smiled as she looked down at her feet and saw a reflection of herself on the mirror like surface.
Hearing her response, her reflection that stood on top of the building red at her in anger as she dashed down and grabbed Shiro by the cor.
"What if they get killed!? What if they get hunted down by a simr being like the watchman? Are you really fine with sending them out like that?!" Her reflection red at her as Shiro could see a mixture of fear and anger.
"Ah... is that how I looked when Lyrica left? No wonder Madi wanted to talk to me first." Shiro smiled softly as her reflection tensed up before punching her across the face.
Stumbling back, Shiro kept her smile on her face as she looked at her reflection.
"See you next time I suppose."
Hearing this, her reflection gritted her teeth and spat on the floor before dispersing into mist.
Seeing that she was alone now, Shiro leaned back and looked up at the sky.
¡¯Yeah I¡¯m scared...¡¯ Shiro admitted as she could almost imagine a scene of Lyrica and Madison¡¯s corpse around her as she wouldn¡¯t be able to make it to their rescue in time.
Shaking her head, she wondered about what she could have done.
Thinking back to the youngd she met in the dungeon, a small smile formed on her face.
"Bonne was able to pause time and rescue me from the beasts in that dungeon. I could do the same, I might have been able to iste the watchman so that I could drag him away." Shiro muttered as she sat up and closed her eyes.
Opening them again, she understood her next main goal. It wasn¡¯t toplete the event but rather understand and utilise the concept of time.
Waking up, Shiro nced to her side and saw that Nan Tian was resting.
Sitting up, she looked at her system and opened her mouth.
"Chronos, do I have the potential to utilise the power of time?"
Waiting a moment, Shiro kept her eye on the system as a single flickering notification could be seen. It was a simple message but Shiro knew that to send it after what had happened, the price must have been quite big.
But this message was enough for her.
[Yes you do.]
Chapter 994 Options
Chapter 994 Options
With Chronos¡¯ confirmation that she did indeed have a potential for stopping time, Shiro closed her eyes and leaned back.
With her potential being confirmed, it was just a matter of how she could aplish this. She hoped that she¡¯d be able to do this by the end of the month in time for the next event but it was quite the tall order even for her.
Trying to utilise a powerful concept such as time was no easy feat. Unlike light, fire, water and so on, time was much harder to grasp. Stopping an individual time was easy enough since she could exin that Keitoma did something simr.
Pausing her enemy¡¯s time for a split moment to allow her to attack.
But that wasn¡¯t what she wanted. Her goal was to be able to pause time within a certain area or perhaps the entire world. It was so that she could still affect the world while everything was in paused time.
But so far, the only one who could do this is Chronos. His mastery even allowed him to turn back time so that she could warn herself. If she wanted to learn how to stop time, Chronos would be the best teacher.
¡¯But the gods are having trouble contacting me since the system has restrictions...¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows as this bacsh mightst for a while.
As she was contemting about this, she felt some movement beside her as Nan Tian opened his eyes and yawned slightly.
"Are you ok? You seem a little restless?" He asked while sitting up.
"Mn? Yeah I¡¯m just thinking about what to do. Now hear me out, I have a n but it¡¯s a bit tough to execute." Shiro smiled as she sat with her legs crossed.
Seeing the excited glimmer in her eyes, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but chuckle since Shiro was the happiest when she talked about things to do withbat.
"Oh? How tough are we talking about?" Nan Tian asked with curiosity.
"This is something that will most likely require the help of Chonos, primordial god of time. I want to be able to obtain the power to pause time and move within that moment so that I can crossrge distances or save people while the world is paused." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Pause time? That¡¯s quite the feat. Do you have an idea on how to do it?"
"A little but like I said, I think I need Chronos¡¯ help. But with the system bacsh, messaging me must be pretty difficult. However, despite that, Chronos has confirmed that I have the potential so it¡¯s just a matter of figuring it out myself or having him help me." Shiro exined as Nan Tian paused for a moment.
"But you can¡¯t use mana or divine energy right now can you? I have an idea or two but they require you to use arge amount of mana and divine energy. From what I know, divine energy allows you to control that of which is more conceptual in nature such as souls, space and so on. Spells that use divine energy are much more powerful since they deal with the core of the element whereas mana is limiting in naturepared to divine energy. While there are exceptions, it is generally much harder to tap into the core of the concept with just mana.
"The first option that you can use is harnessing divine energy to adjust the flow or river of time. With the system¡¯s integration into this world, what we used to know as myths and legends now exist. Which means the river of time also exists. The first possibility is for you to directly affect the river using divine energy.
"The second option that I thought up of was to create your own catalyst. Like how some mages have an image in mind when using their divinity, you could potentially create a catalyst that will help you connect to the river of time. For example, an hourss would be perfect for this. Tilting it upside down could be a mental note for reversing time and holding it horizontally is pausing time." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro sat speechlessly.
"Seems like I don¡¯t even need to say anything." Shiro shrugged as she chuckled.
"But yes you¡¯re right. My main goal is to use option 1 if I can since it¡¯s more diverse. Not having a mental note would make it much harder for the enemy to interrupt and if I be too dependent on this cue, it would be a weakness instead. The only problem now is using my divine energy and asking Chronos for some guidance since this would take years should I have to study it by myself." Shiro admitted as she scratched her hair.
"Perhaps you can upgrade your authority and contact them instead." Nan Tian suggested since the cooldown for her blessing should have ended by now.
"Right but that¡¯s on a time limit itself no? Administrator 4 did mention that if I still have something granted by this upgrade after the time limit is over, I¡¯ll suffer a bacsh. Hence why we didn¡¯t keep the mapst time which didn¡¯t matter too much thanks to my memory. But this is a different problem. I don¡¯t know how much I¡¯ll be able to learn from Chronos in this time." Shiro furrowed her brows.
However, just as she thought of this, she realised something.
"Wait what if I send an avatar to him, get him to use his divinity to pause time in his own domain so that I can study it." Shiro muttered.
"That could work but you also have to think about the system in that it wouldn¡¯t let you have something like this so easily. There¡¯s a high chance that the time would be directly linked to you so it will continue to tick down even if you are in paused time." Nan Tian reminded as Shiro frowned.
"Mn... that is a bit annoying. Hm... Wait... what if I get Chronos to send the information to me from the future like what happened at the first event?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian thought about it for a moment before nodding his head.
"It¡¯s possible but that was with the use of a rainbow relic. It¡¯s a catalyst that allows the god to demonstrate arge majority of their power without bacsh. After what happened, I bet that there is an 80% chance of this bacsh being huge."
"Arg!! So annoying." Shiro scratched her hair in annoyance as not being able to converse with a god is a little problematic for her right now especially since she needed Chronos¡¯ help.
"How about we do it like this. I¡¯ll spend 2 days thinking about what I can do right now and if I don¡¯t make any progress we¡¯ll wing it with the authority upgrade." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Sounds good. But what can we do in two days without mana or divine energy?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro chuckled.
"Just transfer me some mana and I¡¯ll experiment. Even though my mana realm is draining me dry of mana, we just need you to funnel your mana into me before it is drained and I can use it to practice." Shiro grinned as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"If we¡¯re going to go with that it might be better for Aarim to help since she has a bigger mana pool than me if you include the boost that you had given her. Having her help would increase the sess rate I suppose." Nan Tian reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
"I think that if we get her to send me some mana crystals that she created herself, I should be able to work out the amount of mana needed to offset the drain from my mana realm."
Hopping off the bed, Shiro dragged Nan tian to the food hall for some breakfast before making their way to Aarim.
After exining their n, Aarim only had one reaction and that was to face palm.
"So let me get this straight. You want to see if you can use time before the event starts?"
"Yup." Shiro nodded.
"And you want to do two days of practice before risking yourself to meet a god so that he can give you guidance?"
"Yup."
"And using the skill to meet the god might have a bacsh depending on what happens?"
"Indeed."
"Do I have to break your limbs myself for you to stay still even for a little while? Forget it, I¡¯ll send you the mana crystals. How many do you need?" Aarim asked as she sighed, giving up on trying to persuade a Shiro who had made up her mind.
"Hmm... probably all of the mana you can provide within 24 hours for two days." Shiro smiled as Aarim dropped her pen.
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath before sighing.
"Well it¡¯s not like I didn¡¯tck sleep already. Alright, I¡¯ll send you the mana crystals when they are ready." Aarim agreed as she ushered the two out of her office.
Sitting on her chair, her lips curved up into a smile.
¡¯Seems like I¡¯ll be extremely busy for two days.¡¯
Chapter 995 Talking To The System Once More
Chapter 995 Talking To The System Once More
With Aarim providing all of the mana she could along with using some of the potions she had in stock, Shiro tried her best to find a way to control time using just mana but it was extremely difficult.
Trying to interact with something that you don¡¯t know about was surprisingly, quite difficult.
Scratching her hair in frustration, Shiro sighed and threw her body back on the bed.
"Arhhhhh!!!! Annoying. I like experimenting but not when no results can be found." Shiroined with an annoyed expression.
"Well I suppose you haven¡¯t experienced interacting with time properly yet have you? It makes sense that it¡¯s difficult." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro huffed.
"I know but like it shouldn¡¯t be that hard right? I wouldn¡¯t say that I¡¯ve mastered spatial control but I can still teleport around like nothing. Time and space are linked no?" Shiro said as she snapped her finger and opened up a small portal to the food hall. Grabbing some juice, she offered Nan Tian one before sitting up properly.
"Well what you¡¯re trying to do is reach out to the core concept. Your teleportation is more dimension based than actual space maniption. Actual space maniption would be subjecting reality to your control." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro pouted but nodded her head since she understood that.
"For space, at least you have somewhat of an idea since you have your dimensions but this time you¡¯re reaching into the dark. I think it¡¯s better for you to get some help from Chronos just so that we don¡¯t waste too much time. Even if you are limited by how long you¡¯re allowed to get his help by the system, it¡¯s better than nothing."
Hearing this, Shiro scratched her hair but sighing in defeat.
"Fine. I¡¯ll call for his help. But not yet. First of all, I don¡¯t want to waste the chance of raising my authority so I want us to list out a bunch of questions that we want to ask first.
"Mn, what¡¯s on your mind first?" Nan Tian asked.
"First question is; is it possible for me to retrieve Isilia and Edvimar. I... don¡¯t know about fighting the watchman but I want to know if I can bring them back." Shiro said as she could feel her arm shake. Holding onto it to keep it steady, she took a deep breath.
"The second question would be an updated map of the world followed by what the Beyond is. There¡¯s a dragon guarding it right now so I won¡¯t teleport just yet. I also want to ask the system about future events, perhaps the reward for this event and a leaderboard of such that includes all the Queens."
"What if you ask it about time control? Do you think it¡¯ll give you a good enough hint or maybe a method?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s true. Anything else we want to think about?"
"How about a method to return one after they fall? I don¡¯t want to be negative but you¡¯vee close and I want to find a method other than... harming you, since that will put an end to everything." Nan Tian asked as he started at Shiro in seriousness. He didn¡¯t want to raise his sword against Shiro so if there was a method to prevent all this then he was all ears.
"That¡¯s a good one. If we find it out we might also find a way to help Lisandra." Shiro smiled but her expectations were quite low. If Lisandra kept her ck wings in the future then there was a good chance that they couldn¡¯t stop it.
But since things were different right now, there was always a possibility.
"Is that everything we want to ask? I also need to think about the time limit since I won¡¯t be able to ask too much from the system." Shiro asked as she made a mental note on everything so far.
"Hmm... a time frame on when the second part of the new age arrives I suppose. But that¡¯s a lot of questions already so we¡¯ll stick with what we have I guess. We can¡¯t get too greedy since in that time you still need to get guidance from Chronos." Nan Tian reminded.
"You hear that Chronos? I¡¯ll ask you for guidance in around an hour or so. At least then you¡¯ll have some time to prepare." Shiro called out with a smile as sheid on the bed.
Looking up at her ceiling, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder about the authority.
Despite raising it up to the level of Chaos, it seems as though there were still more levels. Most of the important information on everything is hidden in that upper section and Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what kind of being has ess to this.
"Are you worried about something?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shook her head.
"Not really. Just thinking what kind of being is above Chaos since it¡¯s clear that her authority is not the highest and I doubt that it¡¯s the second highest as well. Since she is also suffering from the system." Shiro replied as Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
"Wouldn¡¯t that just be the creator then? Though perhaps the administrators are a little higher? Maybe a good question would be to ask about those that are below Chaos¡¯ Authority level. If the administrators aren¡¯t there then that means they¡¯re above Chaos." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro agreed.
Waiting patiently for an hour and a half, Shiro grabbed a few snacks from the food hall since there wasn¡¯t much that she had to do.
Feeling her phone vibrate, Shiro smiled before standing up.
"Times up. Let¡¯s see... how do we do this again." She muttered as she scanned her system interface.
Tapping the skill, Blessing of Chaos, Shiro took a deep breath before activating it.
Suddenly, a pir of divine energy shot up into the sky as the room was filled with divine energy once more. Countless tier 8 magic circles appeared around her before dispersing into motes of light.
[All Restriction¡¯s have been lifted for Entity - Shiro -]
[Authority has been upgraded to level 12.]
[Unfortunately, due to the current bacsh, time during this state has been reduced to one hour from the initial two hours.]
[It¡¯s a pleasure to speak to you again. What would you like to do today?]
Hearing that she only had one hour with this skill due to her bacsh, Shiro widened her eyes.
"Erm... Spare the chit chat. First show me a map of the current world along with territories of powerful monsters and the domain of Queens."
[Understood. Once again, I have to remind you that I cannot reveal detailed information about the Quee-]
"Potato potato. If you can do it then do it. If you can¡¯t then leave it out. After showing me the map I want you to answer me this question. Is it possible for me to retrieve Isilia and Edvimar?" Shiro asked as she waved her hand dismissively.
[While it may be possible for entity Edvimar, it is a difficult task to retrieve entity Isilia as the entity Watchman has already imed her soul and ced it back into its rightful ce.]
The system replied as a map was disyed in front of her.
Hearing this, Shiro clicked her tongue but it was ok since she had some hope. The system told her that it is a difficult task but not impossible.
However, just like how a little had a different meaning in her vocabry, difficult had a different meaning in the system¡¯s vocabry. She could assume that difficult means that she has to probably reach godhood first.
"Alright. Next, what is the beyond?"
[The Beyond is a unique realm located between the fabrics of reality. If everything in the world, including dimensions like the rift, is grouped up into a circle, the Beyond is outside of this circle. There are small pathways that open up to the beyond asionally but they are guarded by powerful beasts due to the mana density.]
"Can you tell me what¡¯s in the Beyond?" Shiro asked with a frown since she knew that a mana dense area like the top of Astral Horizon¡¯s was a hot spot for powerful monsters. She wanted to know what she was getting herself into before trying to potentially fight a dragon that could kill her with a sneeze.
[That information is redacted. I apologise.]
"Tsk. Forget it. Is a method to return those that fall?"
[There are no known methods as of yet.]
¡¯If there are no known methods then that means it isn¡¯t impossible to help people after they fall but no one knows how to.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she furrowed her brows.
The information she wanted was either redacted or nothing could be done. It annoyed her but there wasn¡¯t much she could do.
"How long is it till the second half of the new age?"
[Redacted. But the second half of the new age willmence once the garden is ready.]
"No sh*t. Hmm can you give me information on the events in the future?"
[Redacted.]
". . . Can you tell me anything other than redacted? I have an authority level of 12 for the love of god." Shiro¡¯s smile twitched.
[Yes but level 12 is not the limit.]
". . .Haism, If I keep talking to you I¡¯m going to be tugging out my hair." Shiro face palmed.
"Help me project an avatar to Chronos."
[Understood.]
Chapter 996 Battle of Gods
Chapter 996 Battle of Gods
Opening her eyes, Shiro felt her body tense up for a moment.
Remembering that this was just an avatar and that her real body was next to Nan Tian, Shiro sighed in relief before looking around her.
She expected to see the familiarndscape of Tartarus but all that she saw was countless craters in the ground andrge fissures stretching as far as the eye could see. A malefic aura shrouded the skies as it gave Shiro the chills. Looking at some of the fissures which she recognised to contain the aura of the watchman, Shiro¡¯s breathing hastened.
Taking a step back, she wanted to find the table where all the gods were sitting around but nothing of the sort could be seen.
"Chronos! Nyx! Gaia! Ouranos! Tartarus!" Shiro shouted out their names as she couldn¡¯t see any of them.
Right after she called out for them, she felt divine energy spike behind her as a portal opened up.
"When you said that you wereing I thought that you¡¯d make an avatar next to us but it seems like you appeared at the old meeting spot instead." Chronos chuckled as Shiro could see that he was injured. His aura was noticeably weaker than before.
"What happened?" Shiro asked with a frown as this looked nothing like the old gathering spot.
"Come with me first. I¡¯ll tell you what happened once we¡¯re away from here. Even if you¡¯re using an avatar, if this avatar is killed, you¡¯ll take a bit of damage." Chronos ushered her towards the portal.
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows but nodded her head regardless. Stepping into the portal, she saw that she was brought to a mirror realm of sorts that¡¯s a reflection of reality.
Within this realm, she could see all of the gods that she was familiar with but their state was not good.
Nyx was currentlyying in a bed with a pale face. Her wounds were healed but a dark aura seeped out from them. Hemera was next to Nyx and she was in a simr situation.
Tartarus was missing an arm as runes could be seen trying to spread to the rest of his body but it was being forcefully restrained by Ouranos.
As for Gaia, she was the most injured. Half of her body was being hidden by nts but judging the aura being emanated by the nts, Shiro knew that it was trying it¡¯s best to heal Gaia¡¯s body.
"This... what happened?" Shiro asked as she couldn¡¯t believe that this could even happen to the primordial gods.
"Hais. Let me exin from the beginning." Chronos sighed at the sight of Gaia.
Just as he sat down to exin, Gaia¡¯s eyes twitched open as she saw Shiro standing in front of them with a worried expression.
"Seems like we¡¯ve let you see a shameful side of us despite our boasting ahaha." Gaia forced a smile.
"Don¡¯t talk, old woman. Save your strength. Keep going and you¡¯ll die for good." Ouranos snapped as Gaia shrugged.
"Alright alright. I was just going to tell Shiro that she doesn¡¯t need to worry about us since we¡¯re gods." Gaia chuckled before flinching.
"I¡¯ll let the others exin." She smiled towards Shiro and closed her eyes once more.
Seeing this, Shiro nced towards Chronos who gestured for her to sit down.
"Right then where should I start. Hm... How about when the watchman returned with Isilia and Edvimar¡¯s soul?" Chronos said as Shiro tightened her grip on her skirt at the mention of the watchman. If Chronos wanted to start from there then Shiro knew that this was probably her fault. Knowing Gaia¡¯s nature, she probably charged head first after she saw what had happened.
Opening his mouth, Chronos started to recall the events that happened.
###
"Nyx! Tartarus!" Gaia shouted out as a vein was threatening to burst. Her aura waspletely wild as the two gods could see that she waspletely furious.
"I know." Nyx nodded her head as her face was cold. Hemera was next to her as Nyx couldn¡¯t forgive the watchman for both harming her daughter and Shiro.
"I¡¯ll try to wrestle the souls from his grasp, don¡¯t worry." Tartarus reassured as he had already donned his war armour crafted by Hephaestus himself.
Without a moment of dy, the three stepped out as a portal opened in front of them.
Seeing the figure, the three furrowed their brows.
Hades stood in front of them with a smile.
"If you don¡¯t mind, I would love to join." He offered as Gaia nodded.
"Alright, the more the merrier. Chronos, Ouranos, you two protect this ce in case some little sh*ts. Decide to attack. I need you two to protect Hemera." Gaia ordered as the two nodded their heads.
mming her hand down, a giant tier 8 magic circle opened as warnings red across her system interface.
"Piss off!" She howled.
Suddenly, stars lit up as the magic circle started to twist and turn.
Recognising it to be a kind of divination, Hades watched as he summoned his spear.
Slowly, vines started to burst out from the ground as they weaved together to form a portal of sorts.
Stepping through, Gaia teleported everyone to the watchman¡¯s realm as there was a glowing Sigil above the watchman¡¯s body.
"You do realise that by doing this you are bound to suffer a great bacsh. I am protected at this moment since I ampleting a mission." The watchman narrowed his eyes as he realised what Gaia had done back on earth. She forcefully used her divinity to make him forget his hostility towards Shiro which in turn caused him to spare her.
"So what? Does this face look like it gives a single sh*t? All you need to know is that I am absolutely livid right now. Nowe here and present your head to this goddess!" Gaia retorted as she immediately charged forward with Nyx and Tartarus covering her nk.
Stomping down, a tier 8 magic circle appeared as a forest immediately sprouted around the realm.
Jumping back, the watchman summoned his weapon and opened his mouth.
"Wither." Destroying the nts around him, he furrowed his brows since they were more resilient than he had expected.
"You¡¯re against four gods. Don¡¯t think you¡¯ll have an easy time." Nyx¡¯s voice whispered in his ear as his senses were immediately cut off. Losing sight of his enemies, he widened his eyes as Tartarus and Hades threw their weapons towards.
Piercing his body, the watchman could feel the weapon hooking onto his soul as blood flowed out his mouth.
Taking a deep breath, he stabbed his sword into the ground.
But before he could activate his spell, roots pierced his arms as divine energy drained from him in an instant, cancelling his spell.
Gritting his teeth, he could only sense his soul being dragged away as he tried to bite his finger.
"GAH!!!"
Kicking the watchman in the throat, Hades prevented him from doing anything as he pinned him against the ground.
Scanning the sks on his body, he quickly spotted the two that housed the souls of Isilia and Edvimar.
Reaching towards them, red lightning suddenly flickered off the watchman¡¯s body as both Hades and Tartarus were repelled.
"Enough of your insolence." The watchman red, cleansing himself of any negative effects.
Feeling her spells being broken, Nyx narrowed her eyes and mmed her hand down.
ck mist erupted out around her as her figure became blurred.
An array of tier 8 magic circles appeared above them as it blocked out the skies.
Narrowing his eyes, the watchman mmed his sword down as he was about to cast a spell but his movements were interrupted by Gaia once more as she provided support from the backlines.
However, before Nyx¡¯s spell could activate, countless motes of light appeared in the sky as they shattered her magic circles to pieces.
Ripping apart the realms, a wave of light cleaved towards Nyx as both Gaia and Tartarus activated their spells to help her.
nts and darkness weaved together as Nyx managed to dodge the attack at thest moment. Materialising next to Gaia, Nyx red at the sky and saw two figures that she knew Shiro detested to the bottom of her heart.
Both deities ruled over light as one had betrayed Shiro before.
Seeing the two, Nyx realised that the system probably offered them a mission since they were the ones that broke the rules first.
"Now isn¡¯t this just perfect. If I can get rid of you now, Nytri will lose a few of her major backers." Aekari narrowed his eyes as he could feel the hostility of all four gods, but he didn¡¯t waver at all.
"Shut the f*ck up you boot licking piece of sh*t. There¡¯s no spot for you here." Gaia cursed out towards him as tier 8 magic circles appeared around Aekari.
Since they were both deities of light, she was the best to deal with them since light will only empower her divinity.
But before her nts could reach them, ming swords shed apart her magic circle as more portals appeared.
Realising that more gods were being summoned, Gaia red towards the watchman.
"This seems bad but let me give you some words of encouragement I suppose." Gaia forced a grin.
Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth.
"F*CK! SH*T! UP!"
Rallying to her call, all three gods charged towards their enemies, breaking the rules and forcefully unleashed their true form.
`
Chapter 997 Arias Fear
Chapter 997 Aria''s Fear
Nyx and Tartarus acted as the vanguard while Hades would provide them with support along with Gaia.
Gaia dealt with both Aekari and the light goddess beside him while Nyx, Tartarus worked together to push back the other gods.
Unfortunately, they were severely outnumbered and even if they were the primordial gods, it was still hard to kill the watchman when he was being protected by the gods.
Instead of standing on the front line, the watchman would use his magic to hinder Nyx¡¯s movements.
Their battle raged on for hours until they were forced out of the watchman¡¯s realm.
Chasing them into the pits of Tartarus, the gods didn¡¯t stop their advance.
"Sh*t! This stupid system!" Gaia cursed as she continued to summon forests to hinder their advances but they managed to destroy the forests with a single attack. Her forte was notbat but in supporting strongbatants so it was futile to think that she could hold off thebined power of a small army of gods.
Biting her lips, Nyx tried to think of a way to dissolve this situation since it was clear that they weren¡¯t going to be able to kill the watchman today.
But even if they wanted to retreat, trying to run from this group of gods was going to be no easy feat.
Watching his realm get destroyed with each attack, Tartarus couldn¡¯t help but grit his teeth as this was essentially his home.
"Tartarus, I know what you¡¯re thinking. Let me do it, my divinity is best in this situation rather than just fighting." Gaia narrowed her eyes as she has known Tartarus for a long time and knew that he was nning to destroy all of his restrictions to fight at full force.
"But..." Furrowing his brows, Tartarus knew that it was the truth but in doing so, Gaia would receive a huge bacsh since there were a lot of gods involved. If she wanted to pacify everyone, it would be hard.
"If nothing else, help me by transferring a bit of divine energy." Gaia chuckled as she mmed her hand down.
A tier 8 magic circle expanded out as her aura intensified.
Seeing that there was no convincing her, Tartarus was about to transfer his divine energy when he noticed a shadow flicker next to them.
Widening his eyes, he quickly dashed in front of Gaia and tried to block the attack.
*PUSHIII!!!!
There was a single flicker of purple light and his arm was obliterated. Feeling corruption spreading to the rest of his body, he quickly used his divine energy to halt its advances. ncing up, he saw that it was the Light Goddess. Her eyes narrowed towards him as her sword continued to pulse with a dark energy as though it was alive.
"I missed. No matter." She muttered before twisting her body kicked Tartarus out of the way since he was being restrained by the sword¡¯s curse. However, before she could attack Gaia, she felt danger behind her as Nyx grabbed her head and mmed her into the ground.
Sending the two of them into her own personal realm, Nyx wasn¡¯t about to let this woman hurt Gaia.
"I¡¯m just a distraction." The light goddess smiled as Nyx quickly looked up and saw Aekari flickering in front of Gaia with a simr sword to the light goddess.
Letting go of the light goddess, Nyx wanted to go help Gaia when she felt a searing pain on her back, ncing back with anger, she could see the light goddess unleashing her power as three pairs of wings unfurled behind her. Her light cut through the darkness as her blond hair fluttered behind her.
Waving the sword in her hand, she shed towards Nyx in an attempt to slow her down so Aekari could kill Gaia.
"You¡¯re overstepping your bounds lowly god." Nyx dered coldly as her figure melted into the darkness.
Before the light goddess realised, several spears of darkness had already pierced her body as wounds appeared all around her body.
Widening her eyes, she quickly healed herself but it was no use. The damage continued to pile on as she noticed that Nyx was trying to search for her core.
Understanding that this was bad, she wanted to find a way out but Nyx¡¯s darkness was like sludge that never let go. It continued to attach itself to her body and dragged her deeper.
Struggling upwards, she suddenly found herself in the middle of a temple.
Looking around in confusion, her eyes widened when she realised where this was.
"Why are you still standing around idly? There¡¯s plenty of work to do." A voice called out as Aria felt a chill down her spine.
Turning back slowly, she could see Nytri staring at her with a frown.
It wasn¡¯t the same Nytri that Aekari knew nor was it the one that the primordial gods understood. Rather, it was one that she remembered. It was the cause of her fear buried deep in her heart.
Before the vision could continue, Aria gritted her teeth and summoned a sword. Piercing it into her own chest, runes spread across her body.
Shattering the illusion, Aria red at Nyx who was a little taken back by what she had just seen.
Stabbing her sword down, a tier 9 magic circle opened up as Nyx was taken off guard.
*BANG!!!
While her domain was shattering, Nyx¡¯s body was flung back as she crashed against the ground and coughed up some blood.
Forcing herself to stand up, Nyx looked at Aria who was now walking towards Gaia.
"What¡¯s your rtion with Shiro!?" She asked as the Shiro in the vision waspletely foreign. It wasn¡¯t the Nytri that Shiro remembers either since she had barely seen Aria nevermind talking to her in that tone of voice.
"None of your business." Aria replied as dashed towards Gaia who was fending off Aekari.
Seeing that Aria wasing to assist Aekari, Gaia gritted her teeth in annoyance.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to take a few hits so that she could drive away the gods.
sping her hands together, her aura red as Aekari¡¯s sword pierced her shoulder.
However, her goal has already been reached as her domain expanded out. Filling Tartarus with a field of flowers, the gods seemed to look around in confusion before holding their heads.
They didn¡¯t know why they were here but one by one they began to leave.
The watchman managed to break out of it quickly but he knew that it was going to be difficult for him to do anything so he returned back to his realm.
As for both Aekari and Aria, Gaia made sure to nt some trackers on them using her nts.
Once thest god left, Gaia sighed in relief before copsing on the ground.
Corruptive runes started to spread throughout her body as she knew that she had to either halt their progress or get rid of them.
But since she was stabbed in the shoulder, she¡¯ll have to get rid of her entire left side or else the situation might be worse.
Gritting her teeth, she sat up and summoned a few ded nts and carved away at her own body before patching herself up.
###
"After that battle we had to relocate into this realm. Tartarus is finding a way to counter the runes for next time, hence why he¡¯s keeping the injury, but Gaia is currently healing herself. The runes reduced healing effectiveness so it might take her a while. It¡¯s been a few months but her body is still in this state." Chronos sighed as he looked towards Gaia.
Staying silent, Shiro tried to digest all of the information but she was confused about one thing. Aria¡¯s vision, the source of her fear was herself?
Nyx¡¯s spell would have forcefully caused Aria to confront her fear and hinder her for a bit but they didn¡¯t expect to see a ¡¯Nytri¡¯ that Shiro didn¡¯t know of. Plus, the fact that Aria was somehow able to use a tier 9 magic circle was also a cause of concern because that means she has discovered something beyond the level of a primordial god. With someone like that as her enemy, it was going to be tough.
She couldn¡¯t even fight the watchman much less someone with the power of tier 9.
Looking at her hands, Shiro closed her eyes before looking at Gaia who was still recovering.
"Well setting that aside, we¡¯ve used quite a bit of time exining what happened so I¡¯ll be helping you ¡¯discover¡¯ the concept of time so that you can use it. Follow me." Chronos smiled as he stood up.
Opening a portal, he gestured for her to follow him as Shiro nodded her head.
ncing back one more time, she stepped into the portal.
The moment she entered the portal, she could see her surroundings weaving together and fusing before breaking apart once more. Splitting into countless strands as Chronos continued to walk.
"This is a small ¡¯model room¡¯ I made that should help you understand. While I have the divinity of time, my control is also limited as I cannot stop it forever. It will always flow no matter what. There are moments when these stands converge into a single point and that is an unavoidable event but the strands that branch out are the possible results. I¡¯ll be trying to teach you how to dy the arrival of said event in the form of ¡¯time stop¡¯." Chronos smiled.
Chapter 998 Type of Control Over Time
Chapter 998 Type of Control Over Time
"Will there be enough time for me to grasp it though? I don¡¯t know if the system timer will continue to tick since I¡¯ve broken my restrictions right now." Shiro asked.
"Yes, if you have a look at your system interface you should be able to see that it is ticking slowly. While I cannot halt itpletely, my powers are more than enough to slow it down. As for whether or not you canprehend it, it¡¯s entirely dependent on you since controlling time is unique in its execution. The method of controlling time could be different for everyone since it¡¯s partially up to the user¡¯s aptitude as well. My method might not be something you can achieve and at the same time, something youe up with might not be essible for me." Chronos chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
ncing over at her system interface, she could see that each second was now ticking by the minute which meant that each hour she spent in this room would total to only a single minute by the system standard.
"How are you achieving this?" Shiro asked curiously but Chronos shook his head.
"Exining it would only confuse you and disturb your learning. It¡¯s like telling you the concept of flying before you could even walk. Until we set up a proper foundation for you, I¡¯ll avoid talking about subjects that are too out of your reach so that you don¡¯t try to overachieve with your knowledge. I¡¯ve had a few students in the past that died due to his curiosity." Chronos smiled sadly.
"He wondered if he could fast forward time and I had exined some theories for him seeing that he was so diligent in his studies. However, in doing so, he attempted an experiment all too soon. Since his area of control was small, he tried to fast forward time which grew out of hand and the kingdom he was living in was destroyed due to the passage of time. Walls crumbled to ash, people died and left only bone. Time then proceeded to flow through his body and by the time I had realised what had happened, it was already toote and I couldn¡¯t do anything to save him." He sighed as Shiro didn¡¯t know what to say.
"I¡¯m not telling you this to make this awkward or to make you pity me but rather, to caution you against excessive experimentation of time." Chronos exined.
"I understand. However, if we don¡¯t experiment, we won¡¯t be able to discover anything new."
"Yes, but do so with small advances. You have to remember that time is an unstoppable force. Even in the event that it looks as though time has stopped, it is only a moment being dragged on constantly. Time is still ¡¯flowing¡¯ but the moment is stopped. Time is not a concept that can be halted or at least, it can¡¯t be to my knowledge. I have not tried to experiment with this concept since the consequences could be huge and as the god of time, there are things that not even I dare to tamper with." Chronos smiled.
"Now then, let me ask you, what kind of control do you want? Should you be too greedy with what you desire, then time will bite back. Focus your mind on a single specialty that you desire. Whether that be reversal of time, pausing of time, divination and so on. Pick one and stick with it. My situation is unique since my divinity has allowed me a close rtion with the river of time but you are different. Controlling time puts a heavy burden on you and with how much you like to stress your body, it¡¯s best that you be careful."
Closing her eyes at Chronos¡¯ statement, Shiro wondered what she wanted to do. Everything that he suggested was helpful in its own right. Time was a useful concept to have and it is also because it is so convenient, that trying to use it is risky. Like the story he told, if she¡¯s not careful, she could ruin herself with this very decision right now.
However, controlling time was something she needed if she wanted to keep going. She was scared of the watchman¡¯s speed and power. She was fearful of more powerful beings. But even if she is scared, she understands that she needs to ovee this and her solution right now is to obtain greater power. It wasn¡¯t a proper answer but it was something she decided on to calm her mind for now.
She could take her time figuring out the right solution to her mental state but as it stands, she still required power. Power to protect and power to conquer. In the case of the watchman and Aekari, the power to destroy.
But blind destruction would not do. It needed control.
"I want to learn how to pause time or drag out a singr moment so that it seems like time is paused but I can move however I want." Shiro replied as Chronos nodded his head.
"That is indeed a convenient tool duringbat. It is something that will help you a lot but the risks are proportionate. Of course, I understand that you would have thought this through by now so I won¡¯t waste more time asking about your intent. I will exin how I do this and use this strand to show you the process. How you interpret this is up to you." Chronos said as he waved his hand.
Suddenly, a tier 8 magic circle appeared as the strands gathered towards him.
"This is our flow of time. When I activate my spell, I iste a single moment and ¡¯zoom¡¯ in so that a single moment is forever magnified." Chronos exined as two ¡¯cuts¡¯ appeared on the strand.
Magnifying the isted piece, Shiro could see that the isted piece stays the same size but their perspective of that piece is being changed.
"This form of time stop is akin to enhancing your perceptive abilities and using mana or divine energy to reinforce your body so that you may move in this isted ce. While it seems like the isted piece is not changing, it is actually stretching out slowly so that the burden on your body is lightened. As for the runes needed to achieve this effect, you need to make a string of runes to make sure the ¡¯cuts¡¯ in time doesn¡¯t shift ever so slightly or else this isted space will begin to copse, ¡¯resuming time¡¯ but in turn draining your life force topensate..."
As Chronos continued to exin his method, Shiro¡¯s brain continued to work to its maximum efficiency.
She was unpacking all of the information and simting different situations and variables that could potentially happen that might affect the results. Constantly asking questions that will change the direction of her simtion along with methods that might achieve the same effect. For her, she wanted a method that doesn¡¯t burden her body but rather her surroundings.
As for Chronos, he was impressed with Shiro¡¯s questions. All of them wererge turning points or ¡¯breakthroughs¡¯ that he had to achieve what he had today. For her to pick up the key problems this quickly meant that her analytical ability was off the charts. Seeing her eyes dart around the room, he knew that she was absorbing everything like a sponge but the more he was impressed, the more he felt worried in his heart. He was afraid that her eagerness might be her downfall.
With Shiro being unable to use mana or divine energy right now unless she consumed potions, they resorted to Chronos creating the simtion while Shiro exined the process.
Most of the simtions were within Chronos¡¯ expectations as he didn¡¯t say anything since Shiro learning for herself will make theter stages easier rather than him telling her the answers.
However, hours into their study, Shiro furrowed her brows and stood up.
"Chronos, can we scrap everything we¡¯ve worked on and try a different model? If we continue like this my body won¡¯t be able to take the burden. Right now I¡¯ve already damaged my body fight after fight and while I can heal, there¡¯s no guarantee thatsting effects won¡¯t remain. Instead of isting a spot, why don¡¯t we ¡¯inte¡¯ the moment? Like a balloon, I stand in the centre while the surroundings expand. A short 1 centimetre line will stretch continuously while I, who stands in the very centre of this balloon, does not move. A single moment is stretched out around me but it does not strain my body." Shiro suggested as Chronos paused for a moment in contemtion.
Creating a strand, he ced a mote of light in the centre before following her suggestion.
Exining the possible runes needed, they watched as an isted cut was inted but the mote didn¡¯t move. It continued to expand without affecting Shiro/ the mote of light; so the method was usible.
"However, here is the problem. The limit of expansion and the cost of expanding the ¡¯strand¡¯ in this manner. While it may not affect your physique directly, the strain of mana required is a different matter of its own." Chronos frowned.
"Then let¡¯s make a battery. Space and time are linked. If I store mana beforehand and use that mana in the space to fuel the expansion, it would not affect me." Shiro replied.
"What about the limit then? What if it pops?" Chronos asked as the expansion reached the limit and shattered.
Chapter 999 Sensing the Strands
Chapter 999 Sensing the Strands
"If you reach that limit and the strand breaks, there¡¯s a good chance that your body will be shredded up as the cause of this disturbance." Chronos said as Shiro stayed silent for a moment before opening her mouth.
"Yes but this is the only way to use this power without straining my body more than needed. Plus, the drain of expanding the strand around me will be high so I doubt that I¡¯ll be able to reach that stage in the first ce. But just in case I do, how about we ce a limiter on the runes then? We¡¯ll make it so that I can¡¯t surpass the set amount and it will force me out of the time stop." Shiro suggested as Chronos furrowed his brows but nodded his head.
"Alright, I¡¯ll do some calctions and figure out a decent limit for you then. Since I doubt you¡¯ll be satisfied with just one second." Chronos chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"In the meantime, you should work on improving your familiarity with the river of time. You can¡¯t use mana or divine energy right now but you should get used to the feeling and sensing it. Otherwise even if you have the theory down, it¡¯ll be hard for you to aplish anything if you can¡¯t sense the river of time." Chronos said as Shiro nodded her head.
Sitting down, she closed her eyes and tried to sense the strands surrounding her. This room was made just for their study session so Chronos made sure to mark out the strands with his own energy. As long as she can pick up on them it shouldn¡¯t be too hard for her to feel the presence of the strands.
With Shiro trying to sense the strands, Chronos walked away so that he could put her theory to the test. Since his physique was a little special, he should be able to attempt her method without any problems.
Flexing his fingers, a tier 8 magic circle appeared around him as runes started to form on theyers.
But the moment he tried to expand the surroundings, he noticed a big problem. The control needed for this is much bigger than his previous method. If one does not stay dead centre they¡¯ll also be subjected to the effects. You are either slowed down to a halt like your surroundings or elerated to the next moment. Regardless, you will just be wasting arge portion of mana for nothing while also disorientating yourself.
In a fight, this could be the moment that your enemy is looking for and end your life in a single sh.
However, Chronos had to admit that even if the controls are delicate, the stress it puts on your body is much lower than his method. If anything, it could almost be called a massage.
Cracking his neck, he figured that he might as well try to achieve some sess with this method so that Shiro knows it¡¯s possible.
###
While Shiro and Chronos were training in the chamber, Nyx recovered enough to sit up and nced towards Hemera.
Feeling her heart squeeze in pain, Nyx sighed and brushed Hemera¡¯s hair.
"Where¡¯s Chronos?" Nyx asked as Ouranos nced over.
"He¡¯s with Shiro right now. She used her skill to increase her authority level and made an avatar to see us. Chronos is teaching her how to control an aspect of time right now." Ouranos replied while helping Tartarus research his wound.
"Wait Shiro is here?" Nyx widened her eyes in surprise.
Furrowing her brows, Nyx sighed since it wasn¡¯t exactly reassuring seeing her backers in this state.
"How long has it been?" Nyx asked.
"2 weeks. You¡¯ve been unconscious for two weeks this time. Next time it might be three weeks." Ouranos replied.
"Three weeks..." Nyx muttered but shook her head.
"Has Chronos found anything out about the Nytri we saw in Aria¡¯s fear?" She asked as that was the only clue they had to where Aria¡¯s tier 9 power came from. If they could find out the origin, they¡¯ll be able to find out Aria¡¯s history.
"Unfortunately no. He¡¯s been trying to nce into the past but his sight is limited." Ouranos shook his head.
"He tried divination with some help but nothing of the sort popped up. It¡¯s as though the event never happened but it definitely did since it¡¯s Aria¡¯s source of fear."
Hearing this, Nyx fell silent.
Her spell wouldn¡¯t work with illusions that the person had seen or something that they imagined so it proved that this was a real event. But the fact that they couldn¡¯t find anything on it was strange. Plus, it didn¡¯t seem like Shiro knew what happened either since she hasn¡¯t reached god hood never mind talking down to a goddess like that.
"It¡¯s strange..." Nyx muttered as Ouranos agreed.
"Perhaps we should set it aside for now since we need to focus on healing Gaia and Tartarus. Their wounds are strange, healing is reduced and even their divine core is damaged. Thankfully, there are signs of repair but I¡¯m afraid that if they were hit in the vitals, they would definitely die or stay injured with hardly any chance of recovery." Ouranos replied as he narrowed his eyes at the runes.
It was as though it rejected divine energy entirely so all they could do was use low level spells to try to repair or stabilise everything while their divine core slowly repaired itself.
"Hais... alright." Nodding her head, Nyx stood up and started to help Ouranos with finding a counter for the runes.
###
Shiro didn¡¯t know how long it¡¯s been but she could sense Chronos¡¯ power flowing through her body. In the darkness, there were flickers of light that would appear in her vision but whenever she tried to reach out to grab it, it would disappear.
Swimming around her like fishes, Shiro felt as though she was in ake but was anchored down.
Something stopped her from flowing freely like them but there was this burning desire to reach out to them.
She wanted to see through the darkness but the moment she opened her eyes, she would be back in the room. She wanted something to let her interact with the river of time.
Slowly, without her notice, faint red circuits appeared on her hand and started to travel up her arm.
Looking at the flickering lights, Shiro continued to reach out to no avail.
Waves upon waves of forces pushed her away preventing her from reaching out as she wasn¡¯t able toe close to grabbing them.
However, she suddenly felt a burning sensation on her arm which flowed towards her neck.
Just as she was about to open her eyes, she felt a blindfold of sorts cover her eyes.
"Mother, let me help." A mature voice rang out softly as Shiro flinched for a moment.
Gritting her teeth, it felt like a needle was stabbed into her eyes as pain filled her body but it was short lived before a cool sensation reced the pain.
¡¯Who are you?¡¯ Shiro asked as she could no longer sense the other person nor could she hear them. All she felt was the cool sensation in her eyes as her instincts told her to direct what little energy she had felt towards her eyes.
Suddenly, the flickering lights started to be clear as strings could be seen floating around her.
Looking at these strings, Shiro had the urge to reach out towards them.
Just as she touched one of the strings, she felt Chronos tap her shoulder.
Opening her eyes, she nced up and saw Chronos¡¯ concerned expression.
"Did something happen?" Shiro asked as Chronos sighed.
"You were about to fast forward time. How did you evene to this stage?" He asked with worry since she shouldn¡¯t have the energy to do this yet he definitely saw that she was doing the motions required. That sudden spike in energy he felt was the river of time reacting.
"Eh? I did? I don¡¯t know, I just saw a string and felt the urge to pluck it." Shiro furrowed her brows. She didn¡¯t recognise the voice of the one who called her mother, but she definitely felt that something had happened to her eyes.
"Chronos do you have a mirror?" Shiro asked as Chronos nodded his head.
Snapping his fingers, a reflective surface appeared in front of her as Shiro could see that there were faint purple runes around her pupil. Unless one looked carefully, they wouldn¡¯t notice it.
Trying to push energy towards her eyes once more, she saw the runes flicker for a moment before dulling out once more.
"That¡¯s strange... Let me look at the system." Shiro muttered before ncing at her interface.
However, her system didn¡¯t say anything about this which was strange since the system usually recorded everything that happened.
Exining the situation to Chronos, the god furrowed his brows as this was indeed strange. For her to be able to suddenly interact with the river of time was definitely attributed to her eyes which let her see the strands but the origin was veiled in mystery.
"Chronos, are you able to transfer me some energy so that I can test out these eyes?" Shiro asked as she wanted to find out what they are.
Hearing this, Chronos paused for a moment before nodding his head.
"Alright."
Chapter 1000 Chronos Goal
Chapter 1000 Chronos'' Goal
Feeling Chronos¡¯ energy flowing through her body, Shiro redirected it towards her eyes as the runes started to light up.
The strands started to appear in her vision once more and it was akin to a spider¡¯s web.
Looking at the strands in front of her, Shiro could see that they were split into three colours. Light blue, dark blue and pure white.
There were countless strands in the room and most of them were connected to Chronos. However, for the few that were disconnected from him, Shiro felt as though she could just reach out and touch them.
"What do you see?" Chronos asked curiously as he could see the runes light up in her eyes.
Each of the runes seemed to beposed of tiny tier 8 magic circles that reminded him of the magic circles he uses for his spells.
"I see countless strands. Light blue, dark blue and pure white. Most of these strands are connected to you but there¡¯s one or two that I can interact with. Or at least that¡¯s what I think." Shiro muttered with a frown as Chronos furrowed his brows before widening his eyes.
"Wait I think I get it. What you¡¯re doing is seeing the strands that connect to the river of time. I interact with them using magic circles, my divinity and my senses that I¡¯ve trained over time since I cannot see their forms. Try to pull on one but don¡¯t actually pull on it so we can guess which colour is which." Chronos asked as Shiro nodded her head.
Reaching out towards the dark blue strand near here, Chronos closed his eyes.
"That one is the strand connecting to the past." He exined as he guessed it was coloured a dark blue since it had already happened and the possibilities are no longer there. There was no sign of change.
Reaching out to the light blue strand, Shiro could feel the energy drain from her body in an instant as Chronos quickly transferred more energy.
"This one is the future. I use this for divination along with slowing time so that it seems like it has halted."
Looking at the pure white strand, Shiro wanted to reach out to it but the closer she got, the more her energy drained. Even Chronos had a difficult expression on his face as the energy consumption was increasing with each second she had these eyes activated.
"Stop, thest one is probably the present. While what you have is a boon, I doubt you can use it with ease. In just that short moment, you have already sapped away 40% of my energy. When you¡¯re a god, the energy you have ess too is much bigger than what you have now. Even at your normal condition, I doubt you¡¯ll be able to sustain your eyes for more than a single second." Chronos furrowed his brows as he retracted his energy.
Feeling a wave of fatigue hit her body, Shiro stumbled for a moment as the cool sensation faded from her eyes but now she felt the strain. Simr to when she looks at a screen for too long, she had to close her eyes for a moment before they returned to normal.
"Seems like we can¡¯t rely on this for now but in the future it¡¯ll prove to be helpful. Or at least I hope so since the energy drain is rather insane." Chronos folded his hands as Shiro nodded her head.
"However, setting that aside, let¡¯s continue with your theory. I¡¯ve managed to achieve a bit of sess with it but the energy drain is quite strenuouspared to my old method. The good news is that you were right with the fact that it wouldn¡¯t strain the body as much." Chronos smiled as he ced his hand on her shoulder.
Waving his hand, a tier 8 magic circle slowly constructed around them as he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration.
Creating a small orb of water in front of him, he allowed it to fall as the orb slowed down to a halt.
Seeing the orb stop, Shiro reached out slowly as she tapped the surface.
Droplets flicked off the surface as it time resumed but the moment it disconnected from her finger it was frozen in time once more.
"Fuuu...." Breathing out heavily, the magic circles shattered apart as Chronos took a moment to regrise his breath.
"It¡¯s hard to stay in that state since I have to make sure we¡¯re dead centre during the expansion as mistakes are magnified in this state. Even if we¡¯re a little bit off centre, it¡¯ll cancel the spell. But as you can see, in this state, we¡¯re the only thing still moving in the river of time. Anything thates in contact with us will also resume but once it separates from our body, it¡¯ll be slowed down as it is no longer in the centre of the expansion. Most of your focus will be on keeping yourself in the middle so fighting will be difficult. As you can see, even for me, the most I can do is make a droplet of water while standing still. Moving around and fighting is impossible for me in this state." Chronos said as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s enough for now. I just need to know that it¡¯s possible. I don¡¯t need to worry too much about the mental calctions since that¡¯s my specialty. If I create a process for myself, I can have a part of my mind focus on that while I fight." Shiro nodded as she made sure to analyse everything that she had seen.
"Do you want to give it a try?" Chronos asked with a smile.
"Sure."
Transferring some energy to Shiro once more, he took a small step back as Shiro breathed softly.
Closing her eyes, she imagined herself to be in the centre of a room with all the runes that she needed floating around her.
She could remember the small details in the tier 8 magic circle and it was hard to decipher. She doubted that she¡¯ll be able to cancel a tier 8 spell unless she brute forced it which made it inefficient for battle as the activation time will be much faster than her cancetion.
She had to train herself so that she could analyse and decipher the tier 8 magic in a single moment or else she¡¯ll never be able to cancel out a tier 8 spell during a fight much less a tier 9 should she fight Aria.
Grabbing the runes, she started to piece them together before setting them aside so that she could work on a different part of the magic circle.
Constructing the first quarter of the tier 8 magic circle, Shiro could understand why Chronos was having such a hard time. There was so much bncing that she had to do across all of the runes in such a short time that it was akin to trying to fight the watchman while also cooking dinner.
One side of the runes were vtile and needed delicate attention while the other had to be wrestled down with strength. Trying to keep these two sides in check for just a single quarter of the magic circle spoke volumes of the difficulty. The fact that Chronos could smoothly construct it after a few short moments demonstrated his proficiency as the god of time.
*PING!!!
Shattering apart the moment her control wavered for a single moment, Shiro furrowed her brows before starting again.
"I¡¯ll keep supplying you with energy, don¡¯t worry and keep going." Chronos smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
###
Shiro didn¡¯t know how long it took but while her avatar didn¡¯t feel tired, her mind was feeling the fatigue pile up slowly.
After her nth attempt at forming the tier 8 magic circle, Shiro stumbled back as Chronos quickly caught her to stop her from falling.
Seeing the avatar flicker, he sighed.
"Perhaps we should stop here. Your time is running out and your avatar is reflecting that. Just take what you have learned so far and practice." Chronos smiled as Shiro nodded her head reluctantly.
Disabling the room, he watched as Shiro¡¯s avatar disappeared before ncing towards the other gods.
"How was she? Ouranos asked as Chronos sat down.
"It¡¯s crazy." Chronos sighed as Ouranos raised his eyebrow.
"Crazy how?" Nyx asked curiously.
"Have you ever seen a mortal creating a magic circle meant for gods? I didn¡¯t say anything since she seemed so determined. Her eyes never lost focus of her goal and she almostpleted it. For the first time in my life I have almost seen a mortal reach the realm of gods through magic alone without ascending." Chronos chuckled.
"How close was she topleting the magic circle?"
"80%. She managed to construct 80% of the magic circle! Once she gets used to the process of creating a gods magic circle, there¡¯s a high chance for her to use tier 8 magic despite only being tier 6! She¡¯s already broken the boundaries now that she has reached Demi god state. A state that many queens and Empresses do not reach and now she¡¯s aiming even further beyond. If I didn¡¯t want to preserve my appearance then this old man would have been seen as crazy in front of her hahahaha!" Chronosughed as he hadn¡¯t felt this passionate about a student achieving breakthroughs in a long time. Thest time this happened his prized student died to his research so he restrained himself from repeating what had happened before.
But seeing Shiro achieve such leaps in power caused his heart to pound with excitement. He wanted to experiment! To discover! To-
"Chronos, calm. You¡¯re getting a little excited there." Nyx interrupted his train of thought as she could clearly sense his excitement.
"I know that you¡¯re excited about what¡¯s happening but you have to keep in mind. Shiro is the life line. We can¡¯t let her die. Even if it is experimenting to achieve breakthroughs, you cannot do so with the risk of Shiro dying." Nyx warned.
"But what about the possibilities that she brings! What if-"
"Chronos!" Nyx shouted as she stood up with a frown.
". . . Sorry. Seems like I have made a fool of myself." Chronos sighed as he was getting drunk on his passion and had lost himself for a moment.
"It¡¯s fine. Just don¡¯t put Shiro in danger and we¡¯ll be fine." Nyx nodded before focusing on helping Tartarus.
Despite staying silent, Chronos¡¯ eyes burned with passion as Shiro had caused his inner beast to break free. All that was in his mind was the possibilities involving the river of time. He didn¡¯t need to be the one to achieve everything. Even as a spectator he will be happy. They say that those that reach the peak are crazy in their endeavours. Whether that be the burning passion to constantly test themselves against the risks or discard everything in the pursuit of truth, the ones that reached the top have done everything.
Chronos had one desire in his life and that was to understand everything about the river of time. It¡¯s possibilities, its mysteries, the powers a single entity could have over this powerful concept. And right now, he could see a path towards a part of the truth and the one who isying out the path is Shiro.
Each step she takes in this subject brings him closer to witnessing everything. Even if he has to give up his divinity, as long as he can witness everything, he will be satisfied. But her container is too weak. It cannot hold the might of his divinity. He has to wait patiently.
But it¡¯s fine. In the eyes of a being that cannot die due to the passage of time, a few years is nothing but a blink of an eye.
He will wait with burning excitement to see what she can aplish. The day he gives her his everything so that he can witness the thing that he wanted to pursue is the day he can leave the realm with a smile.
Meanwhile, Nyx nced back with a small frown.
¡¯Chronos is bing a little dangerous. I might have to ¡¯deal¡¯ with him if he gets too deep into his passion. I can¡¯t have him risking Shiro¡¯s life and putting the universe in danger.¡¯ Nyx thought to herself since she could almost see the insanity brewing in his eyes.
However, he is a great help to Shiro right now so getting rid of him will bring no benefits. Plus, she is injured and her condition is unstable. Getting rid of him will be no easy task.
Gods might be allies but they won¡¯t bat an eye to killing each other the moment their goals collide. The only person she is really ¡¯close friends¡¯ with was Gaia but Ouranos, Tartarus and Chronos all have their own goals. They only chose Shiro due to her persuasion but now Chronos has his own goal.
There mighte a time where they¡¯ll be enemies but for now, they were allies.
###
Opening her eyes, Shiro immediately deactivated her skill after making sure all of thesting benefits were cancelled.
Feeling a wave of shock go through her body, she tensed up for a moment before breathing out softly.
Laying on the bed, cold sweat dripped from her forehead.
"Are you alright? Did everything go well?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn. I managed to get some decent benefits. I¡¯ll tell you about them in a bit but I want to take a shower first. I¡¯m a bit of a sweaty mess." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
After taking a quick shower, Shiro took a closer look at herself in the mirror.
Focusing on her eyes, she could see the runes still being present but she didn¡¯t think about doing anything with them yet since the drain was too big.
¡¯I wonder who that voice belonged to. It sounded masculine but it didn¡¯t sound like Attie." Shiro thought with a frown.
She tried entering her mana realm but it was still blocked off which meant that it was still undergoing evolution.
Taking a few deep breaths, Shiro decided to stay for a little longer so that she could stop using Nan Tian as her emotional support. If this continues, she wouldn¡¯t be able to partake in long fights.
Closing her eyes, she started to count the seconds as she could feel her mind bing restless with each passing moment.
Her arms started to shake as her breathing intensified.
Looking into the mirror, she could see the shadows begin to twist as the edges of her vision started to darken.
Shaking her head, she got changed and left the toilet before sitting on the bed and held onto Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve without saying anything.
Understanding that she stayed in there for a longer period on purpose, Nan Tian didn¡¯t speak and just allowed her to take a moment to recover. He knew that she was trying to make some improvements with her own methods.
"Sorry about that." Shiro said after calming down.
"It¡¯s alright." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro brought out two cups of juice and offered him one.
Taking a sip, she sighed out and started to exin everything that she¡¯s managed to aplish with Chronos.
How her eyes have changed and how she¡¯s been trying to construct the magic circle needed to ¡¯pause¡¯ time but the requirements were harsh. Trying to keep everything bnced for long enough so that the magic circle waspleted proved to be much harder than running Asharia.
"Do you have any candidates on who the voice might belong to?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shook her head.
"The only ones that call me mum are Yin, Lisandra and Attie. Attie grows up in the future but even then the voice this time sounded different. And I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve adopted anyone recently." Shiro replied as she ced her hand on her chin.
"Hmm... but they must be rather powerful if they can bless you with something that even a god might struggle with powering considering the fact that it absorbed 40% of Chronos energy reserves with you just performing three actions.
"Mn... true. They weren¡¯t even full actions either, just me reaching out for the strands." Shiro sighed.
"Setting that aside, how will you be practicing the construction of the tier 8 magic circle? Plus, don¡¯t you also need to be able to perform it in a snap if you want to use it in a fight?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know. That¡¯s why I¡¯m thinking of maybe carving a magic circle or a ¡¯process¡¯ on Silvanis so that it can assist me when I want to pause time. This magic circle/process will help me construct a part of the magic circle so that I can have an easier time tuning the rest of it duringbat. I won¡¯t be able to carve the full magic circle since parts of the magic circle change all the time. That¡¯s why it¡¯s so annoying trying to construct it. If I¡¯m unlucky, I won¡¯t even be able toplete 20% of the magic circle before it shatters." Shiro shrugged her shoulders helplessly since there were stillrge parts of the runes that she didn¡¯t understand.
"Well take your time with that. There¡¯s no need to rush." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know. I think I¡¯m going to rest for a day or two before continuing with everything. I¡¯m feeling a bit tired after everything." Shiro yawned as sheid on the bed.
"Oh right, I haven¡¯t asked this yet but are the rewards for the new events as powerful as the first one?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian paused for a moment before shaking his head.
"No. They¡¯re helpful and boosted their power by a lot but in terms of potentially killing a god? No chance." Nan Tian replied.
"That¡¯s good then. I don¡¯t think this world can handle anything like that." Shiro closed her eyes.
"Also, how is Frost Giant¡¯s Pass? I haven¡¯t seen anything on it."
"Frost Giants Pass still hasn¡¯t recovered and I don¡¯t think it will for a while. The ce ispletely devoid of mana and life. That attack of yours pretty much removed any possibilities of anything staying in that area. We ssify that as a dead zone now." Nan Tian smiled wearily as Shiro chuckled.
"That attack was a bit crazy wasn¡¯t it?"
"I think crazy is an understatement." Nan Tian shrugged.
"True. Say, are there any monsters that need to be killed nearby? I think I want to give livebat a try with some potions. I... want to see how my body reacts in a real fight." Shiro asked as Nan Tian paused and nodded his head.
"There are. In one of the settlements that we¡¯ve found and helped, there has been a report of an alpha dominating the forest near it and hunts have be harder for the survivors. They¡¯ve just asked for some help not too long ago so I was thinking about giving this to Shiina. But if you want to undertake this you can."
"Mn... do we know what level it is?"
"At least level 400 since it was forcing level 400¡¯s out of the forest." Nan Tian replied.
"Alright, 400 shouldn¡¯t be too bad." Shiro nodded as they prepared to leave at dawn.
###
Feeling refreshed after a good night¡¯s sleep, Shiro yawned before going into the toilet to get changed.
Putting on her main outfit that Aarim had created, she felt her breathing halt for a moment as she felt like she was dragged back to the moment when she stood in front of the watchman.
¡¯It¡¯s just an outfit, what am I getting scared for.¡¯ Shiro berated herself as she took a deep breath and opened her eyes.
Brushing her hair out of her face, she stared at the girl in the mirror and nodded her head.
"It¡¯s just a level 400. Even if it¡¯s higher, it won¡¯t be on the level of him. Just tough it out." She muttered to herself before leaving the toilet.
"Did I wake you up?" Shiro asked as she saw Nan Tian standing besides the bed.
"Mn, it¡¯s fine though. I had to wake up soon anyway. Want to get something to eat before we leave?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
Going down to the food hall, she managed to catch sight of Yin and Lisandra who were preparing to retrieve one of the fragments that Yin needed.
Apparently, it was located near one of the Queen¡¯s settlements so they had to be careful.
"Don¡¯t worry mum, we¡¯re not going to pick a fight. We¡¯ve already pinpointed the fragment so it¡¯s just a case of going there and retrieving it." Yin reassured as Shiro was worried about her safety.
"It¡¯s fine mum. The settlement is low importance and we¡¯ve already done our research. There¡¯s only one tier 6 guard in the settlement so I¡¯m going with big sis just in case." Lisandra smiled as Shiro reluctantly nodded her head.
"Fine. But any sign of danger and you muste back ok?"
"I know mum. With Lisaing along, even if we do get into a fight, not saying that we will, we should be fine." Yin grinned as she quickly finished her meal.
"What about you mum? You seem like you¡¯re getting ready for a fight yourself."
"We¡¯re going to go deal with a so called alpha monster that appeared near one of Madi¡¯s settlements. I want to see how my body reacts to a real fight since it¡¯s been so long. Hopefully I can fight like usual." Shiro smiled as Yin nodded her head.
"I think it¡¯ll be fine as long as you don¡¯t destroy the forest since the people there might be in trouble if you do." Yin smiled.
"Do I look like I- never mind. Taking into ount what happened to Frost Giant¡¯s Pass, I suppose it¡¯s normal for you to worry. But it¡¯s fine, I won¡¯t be trying to change thendscape." Shiro chuckled.
Talking to Yin and Lisandra for a little longer, they made their way towards the teleport hall.
Nan Tian camouged them so that the citizens of Asharia didn¡¯t see the two of them.
Seeing how rxed they were, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile since her city was serving its purpose and keeping the people here happy.
"Ready?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
Stepping through the portal, Shiro saw that they were teleported to a simr building with the same style of architecture but it wasn¡¯t created from nanotech.
"Just to keep things consistent, we had some sculptures and builders make sure each teleport hall at the settlements looked simr to the one in Asharia." Nan Tian exined.
Looking around, Shiro could see that this city or rather, settlement, was called Br. Most of the people here seemed like beast folk with a few demon guards keeping the peace.
"The alpha is rumoured to be in the western forest not too far from the city. If we spend around 5 minutes travelling at a decent pace with our speed, we should be able to find it."
"Let¡¯s do that then. It¡¯s better to get rid of it early than dy things." Shiro smiled.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian used his mana to help Shiro fly as the two of them departed for the western forest.
Closing his eyes, he gave the entire forest a quick scan as it wasn¡¯t too difficult to locate the ¡¯alpha¡¯ considering there was one huge mana signal deep in the forest. All of the monsters were running from that signal so the chances of it being the alpha that was ruining things was 100%.
Even without using her mana sense, Shiro could tell where the monster was since there was a decent amount of blood l.u.s.ting from the centre of the forest. Unless one can conceal their blood l.u.s.tpletely, it¡¯ll be hard to evade her notice.
"I found it. I can take it from here." Shiro smiled, pulling out a potion.
"Mn, I will watch from the sky. Give me a signal if you need me." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
The moment she let go of his sleeve, she drank the potion and mana flooded her body.
Feeling revitalised, Shiro stomped down and dashed towards the source of the blood l.u.s.t at breakneck speed.
Weaving through the trees with ease, she flexed her fingers and summoned her treasured sword.
"It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯vest held you in battle." Shiro muttered seeing the rainbow grade sword that had followed her and evolved over time.
Seeing the sun reflect off the de, she smiled before narrowing her eyes.
Activating boundary, she immediately sensed the monster that she was hunting.
It was a draconic monster that had two bulky arms rather than wings and a long spiked tail that was buried partially underground.
Upon sensing her presence, the monster¡¯s head snapped towards her direction as Shiro frowned for a moment.
¡¯It¡¯s dead?¡¯ She thought in surprise since she couldn¡¯t sense any aura from it. Despite having bloodl.u.s.t, the monster didn¡¯t have any aura.
Closing her eyes, she activated analysis as the world around her lost its colour and was deconstructed into wires.
"Ah... so it was a parasite. That makes sense." Shiro nodded.
Immediately halting her charge and taking a step back, a giant bone spike erupted out from the ground in front of her as she grabbed it with her hand.
Breathing out a mouthful of cold air, she narrowed her eyes.
*KRRRR!!!
Freezing the bone in an instant, ice started to travel up the tail as the monster quickly broke off the frozen parts.
Seeing theck of blood and the dried flesh, Shiro understood that the corpse must have been around for a while.
Letting go of the bone, she walked towards the monster as each step she took would cause the ground to freeze around her.
Snapping her fingers, snowkes started to fall.
*KRRR!!!
Exploding intorge ice spikes upon contact with the monster, it quickly wrapped itself with bone to protect its body.
Seeing that it has taken a defensive stance, Shiro raised her eyebrow.
Trying to defend against her was kind of useless especially since her sword ignored 80% of all armour. However, against this monster, even without the sword, she would be fine.
Dashing forward, she pulled her arm back and punched the bone.
*CRACK!!!
Shattering it with a single punch, Shiro dismissed the sword and ripped a hole towards the centre.
Narrowing her eyes at the living corpse that turned towards her, Shiro shook her head.
"I figured that you¡¯d put up more of a fight. What a waste of my time." Shiro clicked her tongue as she aimed her palm at the monster.
Before it could even scream, a pir of ice exploded out, crushing, freezing, then shattering its body into dust.
Brushing the dust off her shoulder, Shiro made her way back to Nan Tian.
"It doesn¡¯t seem like I have any problems with a normal fight. My senses are normal and even if the parasite tries to hide from me, I can still find it." Shiro shrugged as she snapped her finger.
Off in the distance, Nan Tian could see an array of des exploding out.
"That¡¯s good news then." He smiled.
"Mn, I suppose my main source of fear is the watchman. Unless I¡¯m fighting against him, I shouldn¡¯t have any problems fighting. Though I¡¯ll just be on a time limit." Shiro shrugged.
"We can work on that over time." Nan Tian smiled.
Nodding her head, Shiro did a small stretch before ncing towards the settlement that Madison set up.
"Do you want to shop around with me for a bit? Maybe pick out a dress or two for both Yin and Lisandra." Shiro offered with a smile.
"I don¡¯t see why not. Their selection might not be as good as Asharia but it¡¯s the thought that counts." Nan Tian nodded his head.
Spending a few hours shopping for some gifts for her two daughters, Shiro teleported back to Asharia with Nan Tian.
It wasn¡¯t hard to find both Yin and Lisandra since they were having a small celebration in the food hall.
"Wee back mum, how was the fight?" Yin asked as she pulled Shiro to the table.
"It was a bit boring. What about your task?"
"Easy as pie. Just one more fragment to go and I¡¯ll be able to reach tier 6 as well." Yin grinned as Shiro patted her head.
"We¡¯ll I¡¯ve brought back some gifts for both of you." Shiro smiled.
Pulling out the dresses, Shiro handed them to the girls before pulling out another box. It was finely decorated with a small ribbon.
"Of course, I also brought back a local delicacy since I figured that you might like it." Shiro smiled.
Seeing this, Yin smiled happily and gave Shiro a hug.
Spending some time with Yin and Lisandra, Shiro enjoyed the rest of her day before returning to her room.
"Right then, I suppose I should try to make the magic circle a few times before I sleep since I¡¯m not feeling tired." Shiro smiled, pulling out a few bottles of the mana potions.
Chapter 1001 Checking up on Shiina
Chapter 1001 Checking up on Shiina
Spending the next few days trying to construct the magic circle, Shiro was a little upset to see that her mana realm still hasn¡¯t finished evolving.
Even with herrge mana pool and ridiculous mana regen, it didn¡¯t seem like the mana realm was going toplete anytime soon.
Sitting on her bed, Shiro sighed out softly as it was approaching the one month deadline for the next event. If she isn¡¯t able to use her mana freely, she¡¯ll have to fight while constantly consuming mana potions.
Though even if she had ess to everything, it¡¯ll be hard since she couldn¡¯t fight for an extended period of time. During thest few days, she had done a few experiments with Nan Tian to see how long she could keep her cool duringbat and her current limit is 10 minutes. Any longer than that and her reaction speed starts to decrease. Her vision would darken and fighting in that state would be suicide.
Once she got to that point, she¡¯ll need at least 2 minutes to recover.
As for Yin, she hasn¡¯t been able to pin down the final fragment at all. Even with their informationwork, there was not a single sign which made finding it much harder.
"Are you alright?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yeah just thinking about the event. I wonder if it¡¯ll be one that¡¯s reliant on a single person or multiple people." Shiro replied.
"Well looking at the past events, there¡¯s an 80% chance for this to be one that requires the Queens forces. So it¡¯s best to see how Shiina, Oran and Akhess are doing. They¡¯ve been training the mech pilots and they seemed a little sad that they don¡¯t have the mini Shiro holograms." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro scratched her cheek.
"I can¡¯t exactly sustain the holograms with how much mana is being drained per second. Even for a few minutes ofbat, I¡¯ll need to keep drinking potions to keep myself fighting at full power." Shiro replied.
"But setting that aside, we should go visit them a little. It¡¯s been a while since I havest seen them after all, I¡¯m sure they¡¯re a bit worried." Shiro smiled.
Jumping off the bed, Shiro stretched lightly before checking her tablet for Shiina¡¯s schedule. Seeing that the three of them were in the mech bay training new recruits, she figured that it was a pretty good time to see how they were doing.
"Hmm... say, do you think we should put on a disguise so that they don¡¯t recognise us?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian raised his eyebrows before shrugging.
"It¡¯s up to you. If you want to put on a disguise then I don¡¯t mind putting one on as well."
"Alright. Let¡¯s see... we¡¯ll use the disguise we put on when we visited the Navuri n far into the unchartednds. Though now that I think about it, I¡¯m curious about how they¡¯ve managed to survive so far. I¡¯ve looked on the map but it doesn¡¯t seem like their settlement has been discovered by the Queen¡¯s yet." Shiro shrugged as Nan Tian activated the disguise spell and changed their appearances.
"Well we can certainly give them a visit perhaps even recruit them. But seeing as how they quite... oppressive and focus on power, I don¡¯t think they¡¯ll hang out nicely with our citizens. If anything, it¡¯ll be akin to asking them topletely change their way of living. It¡¯ll be difficult." Nan Tian replied as the two of them made their way towards the military base.
"That¡¯s true... If I didn¡¯t put this disguise on, I think one of their ¡¯alpha males¡¯ would have tried to force me to join his harem." Shiro winced in disgust as she could feel goosebumps on her skin.
Rubbing her arm to get rid of the goosebumps, she shook her head.
"Regardless. If they¡¯re doing fine then we¡¯ll let them be. If they¡¯re not, we¡¯ll give them a bit of help, maybe even establish some trade. I¡¯m still curious about their strange sea that drains mana at a rapid pace. If we can repurpose it, we can use it as a security measure. Plus, I¡¯m also curious to see what kind of materials we can harvest from the ind where we found the garden spirit." Shiro smiled.
"Indeed. But we¡¯ll have to be careful. We don¡¯t know if there are any powerful monsters there after the world changed." Nan Tian reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
"Speaking of powerful monsters, there¡¯s still this dragon living on Astral Horizons. Last time I went there I was reduced to ash in a single moment. Had I not activated my skill to revive me instantly, I would be gone." Shiro sighed, remembering the dragon that killed her in an instant.
"Do you want to try sending some scouts over when we have time?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure but not in the city. Probably do it somewhere else so that the dragon can¡¯t track us. If it does appear in the city, I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be able to stop casualties from happening even with my powers." Shiro furrowed her brows as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Of course. We¡¯ll see if we can make contact with the dragon. If we can get him to be our ally, he could be a great ally. Especially if it¡¯s someone that well..."
"Killed me in one shot?" Shiro cut off as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Yeah. That."
"I¡¯m not offended if anything I¡¯m a little impressed. The fact that he justpletely destroyed my defences with a quick aoe attack to deal with me was simply overwhelming. If we can get him to be our ally, it would prove to be a powerful guardian." Shiro agreed.
Talking about a few ns on their way towards the military base, Shiro made her way towards Shiina, Oran and Akhess¡¯ location with Nan Tian next to her.
Making their way past the guards rather easily with a few ¡¯ID and clearance checks, they were allowed through the base. The guards weren¡¯t exactly worried that they were fake either since hacking into the database here was quite difficult. There has been one or two attempts before but they didn¡¯t get far before the hacker¡¯s were paralysed from the bacsh and had their location broadcasted to security.
After making her way through the first few walls of security, she entered the mech bay where all of the working mechs were being stored at this time.
All of the specialised mechs were lined up by the side and it seemed as though they haven¡¯t been in a fight for a while. Seeing as though there weren¡¯t many spare parts being used in the repair, Shiina, Oran, Akhess and the other pilots limited themselves to the standard models unless it was an emergency.
"Hmm... I should make some more spare parts so they can continue to train with the specialised units. More features will unlock as they be familiar with the mech." Shiro shrugged as they¡¯re walking down the stairs towards the training area. Currently, all of the specialised pilots are responsible for a group of trainees each as Shiina, Oran and Akhess had thergest groups since they¡¯re the most experienced.
###
"Focus! If you get distracted during a fight your opponent will put an end to you swiftly. Even if you are in a mech, it cannot guarantee your safety should you be distracted." I shouted out towards the new group of recruits.
They had heart and determination to enter the army but it needed refining. If they were hasty, their will power could be broken in half with ease.
Shaking my head, I nced up at the three specialised units that her highness had gifted us. With her recent disappearance, we haven¡¯t piloted the specialised units at all since unlike the standard units, finding recements parts had to be done through her highness. Without her, we wouldn¡¯t be able to repair them at all.
I wanted to put them to the test again but didn¡¯t want the city to be in danger so I could only dream for now.
"Seems like these are the new recruits." A voice called out as I nced back and saw a duo walking towards them with a small smile.
Both of them didn¡¯t stand out due to their appearance but the auraing from the guy told me otherwise.
"Yes they are. May I know who you are since you don¡¯t seem familiar." I frowned since I wasn¡¯t sure of their identity.
"Oh just spectators. Here¡¯s our clearance. We¡¯re new to the job so we¡¯re just looking around for a bit." The girl smiled as she showed me her badge. Seeing that her clearance was something on equal to specialised pilots, I was a little curious about her since I¡¯ve never seen her but I guessed it was probably the council doing their thing.
"Ah that¡¯s fine then. Is there anything you need from us?" I asked but the girl shook her head.
"Don¡¯t mind us. We¡¯re just here to watch. The training seemed interesting so I¡¯m just going to spectate." She smiled before stepping aside and watched without saying anything.
Finding it a little strange, I decided to continue the training but kept an eye on the duo, especially the girl who watched everything with a calm smile.
Chapter 1002 Asking for Helions Help
Chapter 1002 Asking for Helion''s Help
Watching the training for a short while, Shiro was happy to see that Shiina has everything covered. Even if one of the recruits fell behind in the training, she would take extra care to make sure that they do what they¡¯re capable of rather than forcing them to do something outside of their capabilities.
"It seems like we don¡¯t need to do anything. Shiina, Oran and Akhess have things sorted here." Shiro whispered over with a smile as Nan Tian nodded.
"Mn, it also seems like she¡¯s keeping an eye on you." Nan Tian smiled.
"Oh let her. I¡¯m just here to make sure everything is in working order. It¡¯s fine if she realises who I am." Shiro shrugged with a smile.
Walking towards Shiina, Shiro tapped her tablet a few times and drank a bottle of her mana potion so that she could start the production of parts for the specialised units. That way, they can see some use after a few months of inactivity.
*CLANG!!!
Suddenly, the sound of moving machinery could be heard as everyone in the hanger quickly looked up to see the cranes moving by themselves. Little by little, spare parts for the mechs were being made as Shiina immediately recognised them to be the parts needed for the specialised units.
¡¯What? But the only who can do th-!!!"
Quickly turning around to the girl, Shiina saw that Shiro was tapping on her tablet screen before storing it away.
Before she could even call out to her, Shiro smiled and put a finger over her mouth.
"No need to surprise everyone here. I¡¯ve made some extra parts for your specialised units. Feel free to use them since the more you practise, the better it is for us. We might be needing all of you specialised pilots soon since there¡¯s going to be a small event." Shiro smiled as Shiina nodded her head.
"Understood!"
"Good. I¡¯ll need to head back now but I¡¯ll make a few extra trips down here in this form." Shiro chuckled as Shiina nodded her head.
Watching both Shiro and Nan Tian leave, Shiina wondered why Shiro had to disguise herself but guessed that it was probably something to do with herck of aura.
"Oran! Akhess!" Shiina called out as the two spirits nced over.
"What is it?"
"We¡¯re going to practice with the specialised units in an hour once a few spare parts have been created. Bring the other specialised pilots and we¡¯ll go out for a small expedition along with a few short sparring sessions in the mechs." Shiina ordered as Akhess nodded his head.
"Alright. But what¡¯s happening? There hasn¡¯t been any more spare parts being made so why are the cranes moving now?" Akhess asked with a frown as Shiina rolled her eyes.
"Are you not able to put two and two together? It¡¯s her highness. She was just here a moment ago and said that we should train more with the specialised mechs since there¡¯s an event soon. She might need our strength for that." Shiina exined as Akhess widened his eyes.
"Wait her highness was here a moment ago?"
"Yup. She was in disguise. I¡¯ll tell you next time but for now let¡¯s finish the training on the recruits. We¡¯ll go for another hour before we need some training ourselves."
Both Oran and Akhess nodded their heads as they made their way to the other specialised pilots to inform them of what¡¯s happening.
Looking up at her specialised unit, Shiina couldn¡¯t help but smile thinking about how she¡¯ll be able to pilot it again after so long.
###
Drinking her potions on her way towards Helion¡¯s workshop, Shiro made sure she had enough mana to make a few extra parts so that they could go a little crazy with their practise.
"Hm.... Who do you think we should bring to the next event? Madi and Lyrica are away training, so is mum, Keomi, Keiko and teach. We probably want to keep a few people here to make sure the city runs smoothly." Shiro asked as Nan Tian thought about it for a moment.
"We probably want to keep Aarim here since she¡¯s keeping the second city running. Helion can join us, so can Chen Yu. We definitely want Lisandra since she¡¯s tier 6 along with Estre. Yin can probably continue her search for the fragments and Silvia might want to stay behind just in case since she¡¯s our best healer. Of course, having her next to us during battle is good too." Nan Tian replied as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Hm... having Silvia¡¯s buffs would be helpful. Alright, I think Aarim, Yin and my father can protect the city even with our absence. For the fight, we¡¯ll take everyone else with us including Shiina and the other specialised mech pilots. Of course, if it turns out that the event is something else then we¡¯ll adjust ordingly." Shiro smiled.
"Sure."
"After this visit to Helion, let¡¯s go talk to Estre. I haven¡¯t met her in a while so I need to catch up with her." Shiro sighed as she had been neglecting her duties. Thankfully, everyone around her was capable so things could run smoothly but she didn¡¯t even want to think about the consequences should things go south.
The thought of Asharia crashed down to Earth and killing everyone on board was not exactly the most pleasant thought to have during a walk to the cksmiths.
Hearing the rhythmic hammeringing from the workshop, Shiro figured that Helion was probably in the middle of creating a piece.
Knocking on the door, Shiro nced past the window and saw his flickering shadow.
"Come in." Helion called out.
Entering the room, Shiro¡¯s first reaction was to blink her eyes since Helion was a little different than what shest remembered. Compared to before, his height seemed to have increased a little and his muscles were toned. His skin seemed tanned with a soft orange glow to them due to the fire.
Neon markings could be seen on his arms as they would pulse with each m of the hammer.
Putting down his tools, the markings faded away as he wiped away his sweat.
"Oh Shiro! Are you feeling better now?" Helion asked, surprised to see that it was Shiro visiting him.
"Yes I am. How are you?" Shiro smiled.
"I¡¯m good. So what brings you here today?" He asked while pulling over a table and a set of chairs. Since Madi woulde often, he would keep a table and some chairs around so that she would befortable rather than sitting on a table or leaning on the side.
"Thanks. I¡¯m here to see if you can do a job for me. I¡¯ve been trying a little something and it¡¯s pretty difficult to aplish." Shiro smiled.
"Even for you? Well that¡¯s a surprise." Helion raised his eyebrow.
"Mn, even for me. I¡¯m trying to construct a magic circle that will allow me to pause time or rather, spread one moment on indefinitely so it gives the illusion of stopped time. But to do so, I need to construct a tier 8 magic circle. I¡¯ve already figured out a decent chunk of the runguage so I can see the runes that never change. I want you to carve it on this de so that I can use it as a scaffolding when I try to craft this magic circle." Shiro smiled, summoning Silvanis while drinking another mana potion to make sure the production of mech parts wasn¡¯t halted.
"So... you¡¯re trying to construct a tier 8 magic circle."
"Yup."
"Even though you¡¯re a demi god and your limit is tier 6. I remember you saying that this world couldn¡¯t handle the stress of tier 8 and yet you still want to do it?"
"Yep. I want to do it mainly so that it¡¯s a good weapon against powerful enemies or if I need to help a friend." Shiro nced down at her hands and smiled sadly.
". . . I¡¯ll see what I can do. Once you¡¯re able to kick the watchman¡¯s ass, make sure you get in a good punch for me too." Helion smiled as Shiro nodded.
"Mn don¡¯t worry I will."
Passing over the sword to Helion, she brought out her tablet and showed him her research on the carvings that she needed for the tier 8 magic circle.
However, the moment Helion saw this, his lips twitched since each stroke of a rune was constructed of tiny scratching of smaller runes.
Looking at how many runes he needed to carve for it to form a rge rune¡¯ on the spell circle, Helion felt a headacheing along around.
"You know that these smaller runes are like the size of a bee¡¯s d*ck right? Look at my hands and hammer. Do I look like I can do it?" Helion asked with a forced smile.
"But you never mentioned you can¡¯t do it." Shiro grinned as Helion shrugged his shoulders.
"That is true. It¡¯s going to be very and I mean, very f*cking hard. You¡¯re lucky that your de is indestructible. If we fail the carving I¡¯ll need you to resummon your de so that I can start again."
"That¡¯s fine. Send me a text if you need it to be resummoned and I¡¯ll teleport it next to you. I need to go meet Estre." Shiro smiled as Helion nodded.
Leaving the workshop, Shiro could see Helion closing the store so that he could focus on her sword.
Chapter 1003 Ruling Dominion
Chapter 1003 Ruling Dominion
Sitting around in her room, both Shiro and Nan Tian waited with a serious expression since the details of the event should be appearing soon. Once they know the details, they can prepare properly.
ncing at the clock, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but constantly tap her foot.
Thankfully, they didn¡¯t need to wait too long as the system sent a notification.
[Ruling Dominion Event.
15 capture points will appear around the country of Vrish¡¯ Lir. Each Queen is allowed to bring a small army to help them capture these points. The one with the most captured points held at the end of the event is crowned the winner.
To capture the point, one must im the zone and protect it for a certain amount of time before it bes yours. Others can still im this area from your ownership. You can designate a defender to the zone and they¡¯ll receive certain benefits.
More details and rules of the event will be sent to you at ater date. A map has been distributed, showing the path towards Vrish¡¯ Lir.]
Reading the event details, Shiro started forming some strategies while checking up on where Vrish¡¯ Lir was located.
Comparing it with the new map that she had received from the system that she had memorised, Shiro noticed that Vrish¡¯ Lir was towards the far East. Vrish¡¯ Lir itself only upied a small portion of the continent it was located in with the rest of the continent beingpletely covered by ayer of grey ash.
From thebelling of the system, Shiro knew that to the south of that continent was Alkainos and a ce known as the Ash Lands connected Alkainos to Vrish¡¯ Lir.
There wasn¡¯t much information known about this ce but just from a quick nce of the map, Shiro figured that getting to Vrish¡¯ Lir would take around 3 days give or take if they fly at full speed with Asharia. Naturally, it¡¯ll take around one day if she flew over and ced down a teleport node but doing so was going to be a little annoying considering the limitations with her mana right now.
She didn¡¯t mind taking their time and flying close to the event area in around two days and making the rest of the journey there through a separate party with all the people involved.
Since the system mentioned that points were going to appear around the country, she could assume that this is an event where the quantity of your followers was just as important as the quality.
They had to make sure that they had enough people to cover the points while also making sure that they¡¯re strong enough.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro guessed that if she wanted to win this, bringing a small battalion of mechs along with most of the tier 6 party members was the bare minimum.
¡¯But I can¡¯t keep the city defenceless just in case. I don¡¯t know if they have something that will allow them to discover it¡¯s location.¡¯ Shiro frowned.
"How much of our military power do you want to demonstrate in this battle? I think there are a few ways for us to win. One of which is to show our military strength and the other is to make use of the assassins." Nan Tian asked as Shiro nced towards him.
"Are you thinking about taking the zones before the time runs out? I think that will work but it¡¯s a little risky all things considered. We also have to think about the fact that we¡¯re going to be travelling all across the country so I think it¡¯ll be a bit difficult to react in time. But we do have the benefits of teleporting using my nodes..." Shiro muttered.
"Well take your time since there is a week till the event. My suggestion is to bring the assassin¡¯s guild along with the mech pilots but it¡¯s ultimately your decision." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know. I¡¯lle up with a final roster by the time we reach the country. For now though, I think I¡¯ll set up some training exercises for the mech pilots along with some weapon training for the assassins. We¡¯ll have both groups practice a little before the event so they get used to what they need to do."
"Will you be getting time to practice in real life or a mixture of the digital world?"
"Half and half. If I use the capsules I can somewhat recreate the battle map depending on how good of a scan I get." Shiro shrugged as she would need to send a few drones to scan the country. She wasn¡¯t sure where the zones will be ced but it would be good to get familiar with theyout.
"Well, do you want to try sending a few scouts to Astral Horizon as well? Just so that we can somewhat figure out the situation with the dragon."
"Mn we¡¯ll do that first then. Let¡¯s leave the city for a moment just in case it can track us." Shiro suggested as the two of them made their way towards the teleport hall. Teleporting them to a random node located in the north, Shiro took a deep breath and drank a few potions. Making sure that they were in the clear, she created a few drones.
All of them had fire resistance skills but Shiro doubted that it¡¯ll do much. It was mostly to fight against the passive aura if it had one. Aside from the fire resistance, the drones were primarily focused on evading notice and speed. That way if they are noticed, they can get out of there quickly.
Drinking a second potion, Shiro opened a small portal as her small group of drones made their way through silently.
Closing one of her eyes, she opened it again with a nanotech contact lens that showed her vision of everything her drones saw.
Taking control of all the drones, Shiro watched as her vision shifted.
Seeing the familiar sky of Astral Horizons, she quickly nced around to find the dragon but he was nowhere in sight.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro circled around a little more but couldn¡¯t find a speck of his shadow.
She found small marks that showed that the dragon was here but the dragon himself had disappeared.
"Strange..." Shiro muttered.
"Seems like he¡¯s not there."
"What? Aren¡¯t dragons territorial? If he found a ce like Astral Horizons, he wouldn¡¯t leave unless it is a ce that¡¯s better than that, which is hard considering how much ambient mana was present." Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"Or if he found the source of that mana. Seems like he¡¯s made his way down to the Beyond. Not sure if he¡¯ll be able to enter the portal or not though since his size might be a small problem. But with his power, he can probably shapeshift into a human." Shiro replied as she disyed what the drones could see.
Located near the original entrance to the staircase down, there was now a giant cavity in the wall that seemed like it was forcefully opened by a breath attack.
Judging by the marks left over, Shiro could tell that it¡¯s been here for a while now.
Seeing the mark, Nan Tian frowned for a moment before opening his mouth.
"Do you want to investigate where the dragon has gone or leave it like this?"
"I¡¯ll be honest with you, I am curious as f*ck. The Beyond was a mystery to me already so the fact that the dragon has gone down there is quite intriguing. I¡¯ll just limit it to sending drones though." Shiro shrugged her shoulders as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Controlling the drones so that they started flying down the track that the dragon had created, Shiro furrowed her brows when she noticed the drone starting to copse from a powerful pressure.
Drinking another potion, Shiro reinforced the drone before having it travel deeper.
As she continued down the cavity, she picked up a faint sound in the distance.
Amplifying the sound, Shiro listened carefully.
"What the hell! What do you mean this old man is not allowed inside? I¡¯ve stayed in this pit for months now and I¡¯m still not allowed in there?! Forget it, if this entrance is faulty then I¡¯ll just destroy it. No point keeping you around!"
Hearing this, Shiro widened her eyes in shock as the drone shed through the tunnels at top speed.
Reaching the bottom, she was just in time to see a tier 7 magic circle light up the sky as a pir of mes erupted out in the distance.
Just as this happened, Shiro immediately noticed the drop in mana.
"Did... did he just destroy the entrance to the Beyond?" Shiro asked as her smile twitched. If he destroyed the entrance, this meant that Astral Horizons was just like everywhere else now.
"I think he just did. He mentioned something about not being able to ess it himself." Nan Tian replied.
"I. . . Forget it. We¡¯ll find another entrance another time I guess." Shiro sighed heavily before dismissing the drones. Now that the entrance to the Beyond is destroyed, Astral Horizons has lost its value except for a nice view.
Chapter 1004 Experimental Tech
Chapter 1004 Experimental Tech
After dismissing the drones, Shiro opened a portal to check the harvesting of the mana potions and immediately saw the production was decreasing in speed.
Without the gate to the Beyond, the liquified mana wasn¡¯t being produced anymore so this was theirst batch of potions. She didn¡¯t know how long her condition was going tost so she had to be careful with how much she drank.
Of course, their current stock was ridiculouslyrge since they have been harvesting non stop for several months. But just because they have arge stock didn¡¯t mean it wouldn¡¯t run out.
With no way to replenish it right now, Shiro had to regte the sales a little for long term use.
"Hmm maybe I should increase the price of the potion by a little and reduce how much is being sold to each person." Shiro muttered.
"That way we can regte the sales and keep some for ourselves if we need it since it¡¯s very useful having a potion that can fully replenish your mana pool."
"That¡¯s true. If you want, I can have some people analyse the potion and see if we¡¯re able to make any recements. I don¡¯t know if it will be as pure as the original but we might be able to replicate the effects. Our alchemists are quite talented since they¡¯ve been providing high quality potions to the city." Nan Tian shrugged as Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright. It¡¯ll be good if-"
Before Shiro could even finish her sentence, arge aura swept over their area as Shiro¡¯s face paled.
Recognising it to belong to the dragon, she didn¡¯t hesitate to drink a potion and drag Nan Tian¡¯s arm. Jumping into the rift with him, Shiro wanted to teleport away as far as possible so that they could avoid fighting something near the level 1000 threshold.
Just as they left, another portal opened up as a figure stepped out and furrowed his brows.
"Hmm... she should be here. I just wanted to apologise for sneezing on herst time..." The man sighed as he scratched his head.
Just as he had destroyed the entrance to the beyond, he sensed a familiar mana signal behind him and tracked her all the way here because he wanted to talk and apologise. However, the moment he teleported here, she ran away in fear.
Since all he wanted to do was apologise, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a little hurt by her reaction.
"Though I guess being sneezed on is not the most pleasant memory... Especially one that almost killed her." He muttered while cing a hand on his chin.
"Mn?" Noticing a small shine on the floor, he bent over and picked up a small ss bottle.
Seeing the faint swirl of the leftover liquid inside, he raised his eyebrow before giving it a quick sniff. Recognising it to the liquified mana, he guessed that it probably came from the mountain considering the fact that liquid mana was hard to find naturally. The purity was hard to match and the effects were top notch.
"Is this why she came to the mountain the first time? To be fair, I did detect faint signs of magicing from the Queens when I arrived. Hmm... Maybe that¡¯s why she teleported there the first time. Now that I destroyed the gate she won¡¯t be able to get the liquid mana anymore. But why didn¡¯t she try to enter? If she entered the Beyond, the gate would have been closed. Since the gate was still there, she didn¡¯t enter. Does she not know what the Beyond is? Shame." Shaking his head in pity, he threw the ss bottle into his storage. He figured that if he does find another gate, it should be fine to track her down again and offer her some liquid mana since he had almost killed her and took over ¡¯mine¡¯ for liquid mana. Even if he was a level 950 being, his mother had never taught him to be a tyrant.
Shrugging his shoulders, he opened another portal as he nned to search for another gate.
###
Sighing in relief, Shiro fell back and sat on the ground.
"Seems like he¡¯s not chasing." Shiro muttered as Nan Tian nodded his head while standing guard.
"Maybe we shouldn¡¯t spy on beings close to the threshold of level 1000." Nan Tian chuckled.
Nodding her head in agreement, Shiro took a moment to calm herself down before standing up.
"Well it seems like we¡¯ll have to give up on Astral Horizons. Let¡¯s go scan the country of Vrish¡¯ Lir as we originally intended." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"I did a quick search of Vrish¡¯ Lir and it seems like before the new age, it was a harmonious country that treasured nature. Monks and Druids protected its borders from attack and many who desired a peaceful life would go there.
"Most Clerics, Alchemists and Druids deem Vrish¡¯ Lir a ¡¯holy ce¡¯ of sorts since it contains a variety of rare nts that help in the medical practices along with hidden trials filled with ss based knowledge. Simr to the Shadow Temple trials back in New York, Clerics, Alchemists and Druids can go there to seek knowledge in a trial. For this ce to be chosen as a battleground is quite... Unfortunate I suppose." Nan Tian sighed since this ce of being was about to be turned into a warzone of several Queens.
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"I wonder how the system even picks the locations for these events. Forget it, I¡¯ll send a text to Silvia asking if she wants toe for the scouting mission. The event is in a week so it¡¯s probably best for us to get some benefits from the hidden trials before they¡¯re destroyed as coteral damage." Shiro sighed.
"Mn, should we get a few alchemists toe with us too?"
"I don¡¯t see why not. It¡¯s a good opportunity for them." Shiro nodded her head.
Opening a portal back to Asharia, Shiro and Nan Tian made their way towards Silvia¡¯s office while Nan Tian sends a message to the Alchemists.
Upon reaching her office, Shiro raised an eyebrow in surprise since Silvia wasn¡¯t here.
"Where do you think she is?" Shiro asked curiously as Nan Tian thought for a moment and held up his tablet.
[Local man almost killed 20 people by ident. Healers guild are rushing over to help.]
"Huh?????"
Looking at the date of the post, Shiro could see that it was posted 10 minutes ago as both of them looked at one another before rushing towards the scene.
Putting on a quick disguise, they dashed through the streets before arriving at the sight of the explosion. A caf¨¦ was charred ck as all of the windows and doors were shattered apart.
Around them, a discussion could be heard as many were talking about how it suddenly exploded out of nowhere and how there was a healer nearby that was able to give emergency treatment long enough for the main force to arrive.
Figuring that they¡¯re probably at the main guild hall, Shiro nced at Nan Tian and gestured for them to leave.
As they were walking towards the healer¡¯s guild, Shiro brought out her tablet and searched for the camera feed of the incident.
Tapping through the myriad of cameras, Shiro eventually found the video.
In the video there was a man boasting about experimental tech modified after her Nanotech. It wasn¡¯t too stable but the power was guaranteed.
Naturally, the people he was talking to were dismissive since they¡¯ve seen what Nanotech can do but after seeing that reaction, the man pulled out a gun which exploded not even a minute after being pulled out.
The subsequent explosion destroyed the caf¨¦ along with injuring the people inside. Most of them had Talismans to help them but those that didn¡¯t were seriously injured.
Speechless at what she had just watched, Shiro massaged her eyes.
"Who the f*ck pulls out experimental tech in a caf¨¦?????"
###
"Who the f*ck pulls out experimental tech in a caf¨¦ you dumbf*ck! Do you want me to kill you because if you do, you might as well tell me instead of almost killing others." Silvia shouted out as her veins were about to burst. In front of her was a man who recently had a third of his body healed from oblivion as the others were still being treated.
The man couldn¡¯t say anything since he had thought that it was ok to show them the model but he didn¡¯t expect it to randomly blow up like that.
From his calctions, bncing the mana, the carvings and tiny A.I¡¯s within the gun should be easy enough for a moment since the storage puts them in a stasis of sorts. But the moment he pulled it out the bnce was tipped and it reacted violently.
"Are you even listening? Do you want me to rip your eyes and tongue out so that you can only listen?!" Grabbing the man¡¯s head, she forced him to look at her as there seemed to be the hallucination of a devil behind her.
"God give me patience because if he gives me strength, I will break you in half."
Chapter 1005 Prototype
Chapter 1005 Prototype
Arriving at the healers guild, Shiro could see clerics running all over the ce as some had panicked expressions asking for Silvia¡¯s whereabouts.
"Seems like this isn¡¯t an average wound if clerics are worried." Shiro frowned.
"I¡¯ve found Silvia. Seems like she¡¯s in her office talking with a guy right now. It¡¯s the same guy that caused the explosion."
"Oh? Well why don¡¯t we go have a look then." Shiro smiled.
Just as they were about to walk away, they saw a nurse pushing a patient towards the backrooms.
Giving the patient a casual nce, Shiro halted her steps in surprise at the wound.
There was a faint silver wire of sorts nibbling away at his flesh, trying to integrate itself with the man so that it could survive.
Gesturing for Nan Tian to stop for a moment, Shiro drank a potion and activated analysis before scanning the man¡¯s body.
"Well I¡¯ll be damned." Shiro muttered with a small frown.
"Is there something wrong?"
"Yeah. The person who caused this explosion created a very early prototype of nanotech. That wire is eating away at the mana and has already linked itself to the heart and mana realm." Shiro narrowed her eyes in displeasure.
Currently, they were camouged so no one could see them.
"Let Silvia talk with the culprit for now. Let¡¯s deal with this before it gets annoying." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Dropping the camouge, the people in the room were surprised to see Shiro suddenly appear beside the cleric as she stepped forward.
"Let me deal with this." Shiro said as she snapped her finger and ced her hand above the man¡¯s chest.
Before the cleric could even say anything, silver wires started to appear through the wound before wrapping around Shiro¡¯s hand.
Seeing that it was trying to invade her body, Shiro scoffed in displeasure before destroying them with her nanobots.
Tracing a rune on his chest, his wounds started to close as a faint green me flickered on his body.
Seeing this, Nan Tian raised his eyebrows in surprise as her casting of Life Fire was differentpared to before but he didn¡¯t say anything for now.
"Show me to where the rest of your patients are. I¡¯ll go heal them since the wound is a little unique." Shiro said as the cleric nodded her head in a panic. She didn¡¯t expect the goddess of this city to suddenly appear besides her but a quick look at the man told her that he¡¯s been healed.
Not wanting to waste Shiro¡¯s time, the cleric quickly led her to the emergency room while other clerics tended to the man who had just been healed. They were going to make sure that there¡¯s nothing else that¡¯s wrong with his body.
Arriving at the emergency room, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel pity for thoseying on the beds. Some of them had their face disfigured and metal wiring wriggled beneath the skin while others were missing entire limbs. The prototype nanotech hasn¡¯t linked itself to their heart or mana realm just yet so the removal process was simple.
Checking her mana pool, Shiro figured that it should be enough for what she wanted to do.
Flexing her finger, a silver orb of metal appeared above each of the patients as she snapped her finger. The moment she did, the wires were maised to the orbs as some tried to fight back but were unable to separate themselves. With the wires removed from the patients¡¯ body, she drew a small rune in the air as all of them started to heal with Life Fire.
"Are there any more patients or is this the only batch?" Shiro asked.
"This is the only batch we have your highness. The other victims were able to protect themselves with barriers in time so light healing did the job." The cleric replied respectfully as Shiro was able to deal with the patients quickly.
They had a hard time trying to heal because the wires would drain them of mana, preventing the use of healing spells. The moment they tried to remove the wire, they would dig deeper into the victim¡¯s body hence why they wanted Silvia to have a look at them.
The man that Shiro first healed was the most critical patient as the wire could have killed the man at any moment.
"Is that so? Alright that¡¯s fine then. I doubt there will be anymore injuries like this but just in case, I want you to remember this. When dealing with these wires that drain you of mana, it fights back and prevents healing on the victim, the best way to deal with them is to offer a greater source of mana than the one they¡¯re attached to. One that is easy to get. These wires aren¡¯t that smart so you can deal with them like that. If that doesn¡¯t work then you can look for me or Silvia." Shiro said as she turned to leave with Nan Tian.
Flexing her fingers, all of the orbs with the wires disintegrated, erasing all signs of the prototype nanotech.
Walking towards Silvia¡¯s office with a neutral expression, Shiro wanted to see the man that began research on such a dangerous subject.
ncing down at Shiro¡¯s expression, Nan Tian could tell that she was thinking about her past. Seeing the prototype version of her nanobots must¡¯ve reminded her of her time in thebs.
Remembering the sight of the wire eating through the victims, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t imagine how much pain it must have been. It was no wonder she was so tolerant against pain to the point that she could break her arm or pierce her own torso without so much as flinching.
Arriving at Silvia¡¯s office, Shiro knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" Silvia¡¯s voice rang out.
"It¡¯s me, Shiro."
"Hn???? Shiro!? Ah righte in." Silvia replied as she was surprised to see Shiro wandering around.
Opening the door, Shiro could see the man responsible for this sitting on a chair while Silvia was questioning him.
"Let me move this man elsewhere." Silvia smiled but Shiro shook her head.
"No it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m here for him anyways. We can talkter but my main question is how he made such a dangerous weapon." Shiro said as she narrowed her eyes at the man.
Feeling her gaze, the man couldn¡¯t help but be pale as he knows how powerful she is. If she wanted him dead, he wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything and no one would say anything either.
"I-I¡¯m sorry! It wasn¡¯t my intention to harm people I just wanted to research! I didn¡¯t think it¡¯ll explode!" He quickly apologised as Shiro sat on the sofa in front of him.
"Mn, do you understand what you have created?" Shiro asked as Silvia wanted to say something but Nan Tian gestured for her to listen for now.
"Yes I do. It was something inspired by the weapons that you have created." The man nodded his head.
"And you understand that the things I used to create my weapons are highly vtile, no?"
".. .I do. But I didn¡¯t think it would break down that quickly! I¡¯ve ran through the experiment a few times before and I should have had another hour before it copses!" The man exined but the moment he looked up, he saw Shiro¡¯s cold eyes staring at him which caused his entire body to tense up in fear.
"Think of it like an animal. If you feed it a tiny tiny bowl of food, it¡¯s only natural that it¡¯ll be hungry. But the moment it is presented a giant storage house of food, it¡¯s no wonder it¡¯ll go berserk. What you created was starved from just feeding off your mana. The moment it saw other¡¯s, all it saw were meals that it could feast upon." Shiro exined as she snapped her finger.
Feeling pain run through his body, the man writhed on the chair in agony as he wasn¡¯t able to scream.
Suddenly, his back ripped open as thousands upon thousands of wires linked to his body started to break apart and fall to the ground.
Seeing this, Silvia gasped in shock since she didn¡¯t sense anything like that on his body.
"I¡¯m doing you a favour before you¡¯re turned into a monster by the prototype. It¡¯s already smart enough to evade detection and you don¡¯t even have a proper cor around it. If I didn¡¯t intervene, I¡¯d say you have another month at max before you¡¯re consumed." Shiro scoffed as she clenched her fist, destroying the wires along with a majority of the man¡¯s body that had been taken over by the nanotech.
Healing him with her life fire, she could see that he had cked out from the pain.
"ce him in a solo containment just in case there are anymore fragments left over." Shiro ordered before ncing at the silver blood staining the floor. Cleaning it instantly with a swipe of her finger, she sat on the sofa silently while Silvia moved the man to a different room so that he could be observed.
Leaning back, Shiro sighed. Nanotech was powerful but behind one sess was millions upon millions of deaths. This was when technology was at its peak during her world too. If the humans here tried to attempt this, there¡¯s no telling how many sacrifices will be needed. Billions? The mere thought caused her to sigh heavily.
Chapter 1006 Runic Language
Chapter 1006 Runic Language
"Right then, now that we¡¯ve dealt with that guy, I¡¯ll tell you why I¡¯m here today." Shiro smiled towards Silvia who sat opposite her.
"I don¡¯t know if you have heard but the details for the next event has been released. Basically, it¡¯s going to be a fight between Queens on who can capture and protect zones within a certain country and you see, that country is known to have lots of important information for Clerics, Alchemists and Druids alike. There¡¯s no doubt that the country will be destroyed once the Queens are done with it hence why I want to see if you want toe with us to the country and get as much information as we can." Shiro offered with a smile as Silvia¡¯s eyes lit up.
"Are you talking about Vrish¡¯ Lir?"
"Oh? You know of the ce?" Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"Yup. I want to be the best Healer there is after all. There¡¯s no doubt that Vrish¡¯ Lir has been on my mind for the longest time but there¡¯s no secure way of getting there. No teleport spots nor a secure path. The country of Vrish¡¯ Lir is surrounded by a confusing mist that protects its borders. Those that manage to get past the mist are allowed entry into Vrish¡¯ Lir while those that don¡¯t can only try over and over in hopes of getting lucky. However, it doesn¡¯t mean there isn¡¯t a guaranteed chance to enter Vrish¡¯ Lir. Every five years, they have an event that opens a single entrance and Clerics, Druids, Alchemists will need to demonstrate their prowess to the ruling power. If the demonstration is satisfactory, you are allowed entrance without going through the mist." Silvia exined as her eyes flickered with excitement.
"Seems like you know the ce well. But yes, the next event will take ce in Vrish¡¯ Lir. I want us to go there before the event starts in around a week. We¡¯ll get as much information as we can from there and I¡¯ll add it to the library so other clerics can study it in the city." Shiro smiled as Silvia nodded her head.
"When do we leave then? I suggest that we leave immediately so that we can use as much time as possible in Vrish¡¯ Lir. Also, how many people are we taking?" Silvia asked in a hurry as Shiro thought about it.
"It depends. How many talented and trustworthy healers are there?" Shiro asked.
"From the top of my head, I can think of 5 that are at the top of their game. Their talents are quite impressive as they can definitely hold up to our party if they joined." Silvia said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright, then you can take those five with you along with a few more that fit the requirements. I¡¯ll be looking for roughly 5 to 10 Alchemists to take with us. As for Druids, I don¡¯t think we have any of them in our city but if there are, I¡¯ll be offering them a ce too." Shiro nodded as she crossed her legs.
"Alright, I do have a route towards Vrish¡¯ Lir mapped out but I never got a chance to go there since there were people who needed help here." Silvia smiled as she stood up and walked over to her bookshelf.
Looking around for a moment, she pulled out a book before bringing it over to the table. The moment she opened it, Shiro noticed a small rune at the corner which caused her eyes to light up.
"Wait a second, what¡¯s that rune?" Shiro asked, pointing to the bottom left corner of the book.
"Oh this? It¡¯s like a marker for each page. There¡¯s a different one but people have figured that it means nothing. The one who wrote this confirmed it means nothing too since she found them scattered around Vrish¡¯ Lir but they were mostly created by daily objects when seen from a certain perspective. This book is a document about her travels in Vrish¡¯ Lir, there was a binding oath that prevented her from spreading any contents of the knowledge earned but she still wrote about the travel, the life and some of the trials in this book of hers. There¡¯s even a map drawn in the back." Silvia smiled as she flipped to the end and showed Shiro a map of the roughyout of Vrish¡¯ Lir.
Looking at the runes on the back of the book, Shiro narrowed her eyes since it was very simr to the runes used in the tier 8 magic circle. During her time with Chronos, she studied the runguage of the gods but it was hard to grasp.
If she didn¡¯t have Chronos helping her, it would seem like written gibberish to her but once she had some context, the words started to form meanings so the moment she saw the runes in the book, her mind had already started to piece it together with the other runes that she knows.
"Is it possible for me to read this book? I just need to read it once then I can make my own copy." Shiro asked with a smile.
"Oh of course, you can take the whole book too if you want. I have another copy after all." Silvia smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Talking for a little longer, they started to make their way back to Shiro¡¯s room.
On the way back, Shiro couldn¡¯t take her eyes off the book as she was reading each page carefully on her way back.
Looking at the pictures that were printed on the book, Shiro could see what Silvia meant. When looking at the streets in a certain spot, the lights and buildings would merge together to the point that you¡¯ll be able to see the faint outline of a rune. But when tracing it out, one would see that it means nothing in the normal runguage that everyone uses in their magic circles.
However, she knew that the runguage was diverse and new variations existed everywhere. Even in the dungeons, unique runguages existed hence why she was able to have such a good control over souls. She memorised quite a few runguages from her time in the future when browsing through her older self¡¯sputer.
But even with all of that knowledge stored in her mind, there was not a single instance of the runes used by gods and yet there were some in this book. A book written about a country that will soon be destroyed by the event hosted by the system.
"Seems like the runes are interesting for you." Nan Tian asked as Shiro nced up from her book.
"Mn they are. They¡¯re quite simr to the runguage used by Chronos. I¡¯m thinking it probably took inspiration from it since the godnguage is hard to decipher." Shiro nodded her head with a smile.
"Is that what you¡¯ve been using for your spells? I noticed that you used it to cast your life fire earlier."
"Oh that? Yeah after some experimenting. I saw that I could increase the effectiveness while also focusing the healing to a small area if I use a rune from the godnguage. Compared to the normal runguage that we use, the runes used by gods are more diverse. A single correction allows you to change the effects greatly but that alsoplicates the process of forming spells. It¡¯s power that¡¯s exchanged with convenience. But I suppose for gods that lived a long time things like this are easy for them." Shiro chuckled as she demonstrated by showing him two simr runes in the book.
"Right now, this rune has simrities to the runes used for healing with additionalponents used by the runguage the gods use. Combining these two could either mean the rune has increased healing effectiveness, a better focus area or... the power to poison. Healing runes and poison runes are simr to each other since they¡¯re both in the field of medicine.
"Though If I wasn¡¯t studying runes for the past few weeks to use the time stop ability then I probably wouldn¡¯t have picked this up. But I think a trip to Vrish¡¯ Lir would be quite helpful for me too since I might be able to get a hint about how to construct a tier 8 magic circle." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"That¡¯s good then. I¡¯ll see if I can get some talented alchemists toe with us so that they can study how to create a simr potion to the one we¡¯re selling right now."
"That would be good. Though I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll use it. If I drink too much it¡¯ll have adverse effects. With the one we made, it was the highest purity so it was fine but with how much I¡¯ll need to drink perbat, I will be troubled." Shiro sighed.
"Hmm... that is a problem."
"It¡¯s fine though. Once I finish studying thisnguage I¡¯m going to see if I can track down another entrance to the beyond. Even if I won¡¯t need it then. Having these kinds of potions are helpful." Shiro nodded with a smile.
Arriving back in her room, Shiro sat down and studied the book while Nan Tian sent out the recruitments for the trip to Vrish¡¯ Lir.
Chapter 1007 Deciphering the Runic Language
Chapter 1007 Deciphering the Runic Language
Spending the next few hours to study the runguage, Shiro would drink her potion and create the runes herself to test them out for a moment before dismissing it. Constantly updating her library in her mind, the runes slowly made more sense to her.
"Hmm... if I do this, that should make my ice condense its power into a short burst rather than slowly freezing people." Shiro muttered,bing a few of the runes rted to time with her ice attacks.
Tracing a rune in the air in front of her, there was a flicker of blue light when half her room was frozen in an instant.
"Yes! First breakthrough!" Shiro jumped up in joy before pausing and coughing lightly since Nan Tian was still in the room. Acting childish like that was still a little embarrassing.
"Pft haha, don¡¯t mind me." Nan Tian chuckled since he didn¡¯t expect her to cheer out like that.
"Cough. Right..." Shiro scratched her cheek before thawing the ice in her room.
Ticking off a few runes, she had their meaningspletely deciphered so using them inbat should be easy enough. There was also the problem of how many runes she could fit in a low tier spell.
Each rune has its own ¡¯weight¡¯ that draws magic from the spell circle and the host. If the magic consumption of the rune outweighs what the spell circle could provide as the catalyst then the spell would copse.
This was also one of the reasons as to why it was so hard to activate time stop with her current capabilities. Not only was her mastery over the runes not good enough yet, her tier 6 magic circle was having a hard time sustaining the weight of all these high tier runes.
Regardless, once she fully understands the runguage, she¡¯ll be able to condense them down so that the weight is reduced. By reducing the needless expenses while keeping the bnce, she¡¯ll be able to cast tier 8 spell disguised as tier 6. Its effects will be something that only tier 8 can achieve but the condensed version would have its powers weakened so that even a tier 6 could use it.
She needed to reach level 1000 before being able to fully be a tier 7 so this was going to be her trump card for a long while.
If she is able toplete it, Shiro had to make sure that the others aren¡¯t able to figure out what she¡¯s doing. Though, even if they knew, trying tobat stopped time was going to be tough regardless unless they were a diamond turtle that focused only on defence and 0 attack.
However, if that was the case then all she needed was to use Silvanis.
¡¯With Helion working on etching a scaffold for this magic circle, casting this spell should be easy enough.¡¯ Shiro thought with an excited glimmer in her eyes.
As she continued to work, Nan Tian nced at the time and saw that it was now approaching 2am.
"You should sleep now. It¡¯s getting quitete." He reminded as she nced up at the time before pouting lightly.
"But I feel like I just need that extra push then I can decipher this one too." Shiroined as she wished she could just stop time now and continue her studies on the runic pages. Feeling the joy of progression along with being able to experiment with new runes brought her a great amount of enjoyment and ending that now felt annoying.
"Yes but the book will still be there. You have to look after your body first before anything." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro sighed and nodded her head.
"Fine~ I¡¯ll work on this tomorrow then." Shiro sighed before storing the book in her inventory.
Standing up, Shiro did a light stretch before ncing back.
"I¡¯m going to get a quick shower first. I was a bit too close to blood today. Sleeping like this would be annoying."
"Mn."
Entering the toilet, Shiro had a quick shower before changing into her pyjamas.
Climbing back into her bed, she yawned for a moment before closing her eyes.
Making sure that Shiro had slept, Nan Tian did the same.
###
Standing on a floating building that seemed to drift through the empty space, Shiro could see herself sitting above her with a frown while a space station floated in the background.
"You¡¯re back." Her clone scoffed disdainfully as Shiro shrugged.
"Hmm... wasn¡¯t my intention but this is fine."
Closing her eyes, a chair and a book appeared near her as she sat down and started reading again.
"???" Seeing this, her clone blinked her eyes in confusion as Shiro normally came to this ce unconsciously because of her guilt. But today she was here... to read?
"Do you even know where you are right now?" Her clone asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. That¡¯s the space station where Isilia was taken away wasn¡¯t it? Where I couldn¡¯t do anything to the watchman. I¡¯m still guilty but I can¡¯t keep dwelling on that when I¡¯m hindering the chances of me getting stronger and taking Isilia back for myself. The gods have already injured themselves for me, Gaia¡¯s missing half her body, Nyx is unconscious, Tartarus lost his arm with a mysterious corruptive power and there¡¯s a ¡¯me¡¯ that I don¡¯t recognise from Aria¡¯s fear. There¡¯s too much going on for me to run away and hide in a corner. I¡¯m not saying I havepletely gotten over it but I need to look forward. And that starts with doing what I can to improve. I had wanted to continue to study the runes in my sleep but if it brings me here then there¡¯s nothing I can do about it but do what I had intended to do. As long as you don¡¯t distract me then I¡¯m fine." Shiro waved her hand dismissively before giving the space station another nce.
Sighing softly, she looked back to her book and continued to study the runes.
Watching with disbelief written all over her face, her clone looked at Shiro in surprise before shaking her head and kept silent through the entire moment.
Throughout the entire yback of the events, Shiro never gave the scene a second look after thest nce. She would focus entirely on her memory of the book and continue to decipher the runes. Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t able to push past that final small hurdle for her to finish deciphering the rune.
Waking up in a groggy state, Shiro yawned before taking out her book and double checking to see what she had missed. But her memory of the page was exactly the same as it was in the dream.
"You must be quite interested in that book for you to ready it first thing in the morning." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Mn, I¡¯m just double checking to see if my memory is correct. I was trying to finish deciphering it but I can¡¯t cross thatst hurdle." Shiro sighed as Nan Tian paused for a moment since he was sure that she didn¡¯t wake up during the night. If she did, he would have woken up too but if that wasn¡¯t the case then...
"You were trying to decipher the rune?" Nan Tian asked after a small pause.
"Yeah I was de- !! Cough I was dreaming of deciphering it in the morning just now. That¡¯s why I woke up early." Shiro corrected herself but she had already confessed that she tried to work even in her sleep.
Since her mind didn¡¯t rest at all, she was still tired.
Looking at Shiro with a neutral expression, dark clouds seemed to loom over him as Shiro scratched her cheek.
"I¡¯ll sleep on the way to Vrish¡¯ Lir ok? I was just curious." Shiropromised since she wasn¡¯t able to make any progress which just made things worse. There was no benefit to her staying up at all. She should have just slept peacefully!
"Haa...." Sighing out heavily, Nan Tian massaged his eyes before getting out of bed.
"How will you sleep? We¡¯re going to be flying there unless you can sleep-fly, I doubt you¡¯ll be able to get any sleep. Just rest up for the rest of today. People will need to prepare for the trip so you don¡¯t have to wake up this early. I¡¯m giving them till afternoon to register so you can sleep till then. And please sleep properly this time." Nan Tian sighed as Shiro pouted for a moment before nodding her head.
"Fine I¡¯ll sleep properly then." Shiro said as sheid back down on her bed. Closing her eyes, she slept for real this time.
Shaking his head, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but smile.
¡¯Workaholic even in her sleep. At least she¡¯s getting better.¡¯ He thought to herself as he sent out a message for his subordinate to help him with a few tasks so that he didn¡¯t need to leave the room.
Looking at the book that Shiro forgot to put into her inventory, he thought for a moment before picking it up and reading it. He wasn¡¯t sure how much help he would be but he wanted to see if he could provide her with some help.
Chapter 1008 Filtering Out Talent
Chapter 1008 Filtering Out Talent
Sleeping properly this time, Shiro woke up and started to research her book while Nan Tian sorted through the applicants.
"How many do we have now?" Shiro asked.
"More than a thousand. Those that know of Vrish¡¯ Lir are excited while those that just find out about it are curious. There are also a few who just want to go on a trip with you." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro shrugged her shoulder.
"Well you can filter out those that just want a holiday. Having too many people with us is also bad since we don¡¯t know if there are any Queens scouting out the area early. Ifbat does begin, I won¡¯t be able to take care of people with the 0 mana I have right now. Even with potions, I won¡¯t be able to sustain a barrier for long enough while also fighting. All they have to do is stop me from drinking." Shiro replied while flipping to the next page.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already set them aside. But so far, from the talented ones that I¡¯ve seen, trying to pick out at most 10 of each is still quite tough. Especially with more than 100 people that match the requirements from each section. I think we¡¯ll have to do an in depth filter of the peopleter today so that we can set off for Vrish¡¯ Lir tomorrow. If we dy it too much then it¡¯ll reduce our time within the country." Nan Tian sighed as Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright, let¡¯s go then. I¡¯ll help you filter through a few of them. I¡¯m just kind of taking a break anyways. Thatst piece is refusing to work with me." Shiro sighed as she rolled over and jumped on her feet.
"How do you want to filter through them then?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro thought for a moment.
"How about you get the most talented people we have now and have the contestants perform in front of us. I¡¯ll also be there so if there¡¯s anything that catches my eye, I¡¯ll tell you." Shiro shrugged.
"Alright. I¡¯ll contact the others and let them know about your decision. Where do you want to host this? I¡¯m thinking outside the main tower since there¡¯s arge empty spot that can be renovated for a short while to be used as thepetition hall." Nan Tian suggested.
"Mn, that sounds good."
Sending out another invitation for the ones that passed the initial assessment, they were surprised to see that Shiro will be overlooking the trials since she hadn¡¯t shown her face for several months now.
There was an announcement saying that she was working on something important so they were curious to see what she was working on but it could be that she was nning on taking them to Vrish¡¯ Lir so not many questioned her presence.
As everyone was preparing to arrive at the testing area, Shiro had started its construction.
Drinking a mana potion, she casually drew a quick rune in the air as the nanobots started to stir beneath.
Suddenly, pirs shot up into the sky as the hall was being constructed in mere moments.
All of the testing facilities needed for clerics and alchemists were prepared as she had included simted dummies for the clerics so that they could heal more dangerous wounds to see their talents.
Shiro would asionally ask Nan Tian and Silvia about any additional parts that they would need to add for the test but it was rather simple aside from equipment.
Just arge enough hall and tables for them to work on. There wasn¡¯t much need for proper walls or a roof so Shiro used the pirs to hang lights on so that it would light up the arena.
Their seats were obvious to the people watching since it was located at the front and was elevated above the contestants so that they could have a good view of everything.
Once the arena was constructed, Shiro nodded her head in satisfaction.
"Nan Tian, can you make a system for them to register and be assigned to a table for them to work on? Split the alchemists to the right and the cleric¡¯s to the left. We can go through multiple rounds and filter them out one by one until only 10 of each are left. We don¡¯t have many druids so those that register are pretty much allowed a free pass. Of course, you have to check their background and make sure that they¡¯re trustworthy and have their allegiances in the right ce. I don¡¯t need people harming my city getting free food for their deeds. I don¡¯t mind freeloading but if they n to misuse the power we grant them then it¡¯s natural that I wouldn¡¯t want to help them." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve already set up everything while you were making the arena. We can be ready at any moment." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro paused for a moment before nodding.
"Alright, I¡¯ll go get changed. Since it¡¯s my first appearance in a while, how do you think I should dress?" Shiro asked curiously.
"It¡¯s up to you. Everything you wear is good and that¡¯s not ttery either." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Hais, I¡¯m just too damn adorable. It¡¯ll be a pain picking something good to wear that stands out but it¡¯ll be alright. We have some time to burn before the start of the test after all." Shiro smirked while flipping her hair back as a joke.
"That¡¯s true. I¡¯ll ask Aarim to prepare a few dresses then. But knowing her, she should have a stockpile ready."
"Hou hou, you two know me well don¡¯t you? I knew I should get ready the moment I saw that you were nning your first appearance after so long. Shiro dear, do you think I would miss this chance to give you the best outfit I have?" A voice rang out as a portal opened, revealing Aarim who had an excited glint in her eyes.
"Holy f*ck! Where you spying on us waiting for the right moment???" Shiro asked in surprise.
"In fact I was. I was waiting in a seperate dimension for a short while so that I could join in the moment you spoke about clothes. That, of course, is a joke, if you never said anything about clothes I might have starved in there but that¡¯s besides the point!" Aarim pumped her fists as she opened a second portal.
"You have no idea how I¡¯ve prepared for this day." Aarim smiled, wrapping her arm around Shiro¡¯s shoulder before revealing what was inside the second portal.
Seeing rows upon rows of dresses lined up as far as the eye could see, Shiro had the urge to whimper in fear as there was no doubt that she¡¯d die of fatigue by the end of it.
There was even a corner sorted just for pink dresses, hoodies, sweaters and so on.
She didn¡¯t exactly have anything against the colour pink except for the fact that it made her seem too girly. She hated to admit it but her taste in clothing was nothing but ck. Nice and simple. She had mentioned this to Yin but her response was "Mum you¡¯re so damn edgy when ites to clothes. Try some colour.".
But the thought of wearing something like pink whilemitting mass murder with a smile was... both less intimidating and yet also very intimidating. A confusing thought because someonemitting murder with a frilly pink dress probably meant that they¡¯re bat sh*t insane.
ncing over at Nan Tian for help, Shiro wanted to kick him in the shin since he was looking at the clothes with great interest too.
¡¯Don¡¯t get interested! Help me!!!!¡¯ Shiro shouted in her mind.
With Nan Tian, whom she couldn¡¯t let go of for a long time and Aarim who refuses to let go, Shiro¡¯s path of escape was sealed.
¡¯God help me... Oh wait, I am technically my own god now since I¡¯m a demi goddess. If I can¡¯t help myself then no one can.¡¯ Shiro thought as a silent tear rolled down her cheek.
With the arenapleted, Shiro was dragged away by Aarim and Nan Tian to try on a good dress for her first appearance after several months.
###
I¡¯m a survivor of the destruction caused by the monsters when they first appeared. I was saved by the ruler of this city, one that many called goddess due to the buff she gave to people.
I was grateful but the only time I saw her was during the time she had saved me but that was it. There were no additional appearances and she wentpletely silent for several months afterwards. The only proof of her is this city and a few videos.
I¡¯ll admit, I¡¯m a bit suspicious of everything that happened. She¡¯s too... I wouldn¡¯t say selfless but rather generous. She provides a safe haven with no cost, you don¡¯t have to join the army, you don¡¯t have to give her anything. As long as you¡¯re happy here, things were fine. I¡¯m still grateful but doubt nabs at my heart.
¡¯I¡¯ll find out something today I suppose.¡¯ I thought to myself. Her first appearance after months of silence. I wanted to see her generosity in person, but I wasn¡¯t prepared.
Seeing something in a video and seeing it in real life was vastly different. Her aura, herposure. I could see why people call her goddess.
Chapter 1009 Elai and Tang Fu Yuan
Chapter 1009 i and Tang Fu Yuan
Watching the first batch of people enter thepetitive arena, Shiro narrowed her eyes and swept her gaze across the entire ce. She wanted to check how much mana each of them had since the more mana you have, the more powerful spells you could cast.
Of course, there were exceptions but if the majority of the mana was big, the oue should be fairly decent.
However, after a quick nce, she was left disappointed with what she had sensed. All of them had below average mana and many of them didn¡¯t even surpass level 200. Frankly, Shiro was bored of this round already but she couldn¡¯t show it on her face.
Once everyone was inside, Shiro put down her book and stood up.
"Attention!" She called out. Even though she was bored, she still had to do things properly.
"This examination is to determine how good you are at your field of work. Alchemists will make their best potions and pills while healers and clerics will perform their best healing skill, proficiency in healing along with any unique skills that they¡¯vee up with. We will be using this test to filter out the most talented few within this crowd that havee today since we¡¯re going to be going to the country of Vrish¡¯ Lir. Many of you might not know this but Vrish¡¯ Lir is chosen as the next location for the system event. With how things have been going, it¡¯s clear that the country will most likely be destroyed so this is probably yourst chance at ever entering.
"There is the possibility of other Queens and dangerous factors when we leave hence why I cannot bring everyone. Even if I am powerful, protecting thousands of you while fighting Queens is a task that is very strenuous so that¡¯s why I have to filter you out based on performance. But do not worry, even if you¡¯re not chosen to be the final 20 thates with me, you will still be rewarded based on your performance during this test.
"Now, the first round is simple. Show off your talent in 30 minutes." Shiro smiled as the sound of a whistle rang out behind her with a giant hologram of a timer appearing.
Quickly getting to work, Shiro was about to sit down when she noticed a boy nervously raising his hand before putting it down again and continued to work.
She was a little curious but since he didn¡¯t ask anything in the end, she wasn¡¯t going to ask. She¡¯ll see what he wanted to sayter.
Sitting down, she picked up her book once more while asionally ncing down at the arena.
However, each moment she spent looking at contestants would only cause her to sigh.
"Too inefficient..." She muttered quietly.
"Perhaps but some of these people didn¡¯t have teachers. You have to look at what they¡¯ve managed to aplish rather than what they haven¡¯t aplished yet. I can see one of two that are rather interesting personally." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro nced at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Really? Who?" Shiro asked curiously.
"The boy at the very front of the alchemist¡¯s area and the man at the back of the healer¡¯s area. The boy knows that there¡¯s only 30 minutes but the recipe he¡¯s trying is longer than 30 minutes. I did a quick search of his background that he registered and it seems like he¡¯s living with a younger brother and his mother. They¡¯re not that well off but he works hard in his studies." Nan Tian said, showing her the page on his details.
"Hm... what recipe is he trying to make?" Shiro asked.
"There¡¯s only one that he could possibly make since he never received teaching in alchemy. He¡¯s trying to make a mana potion based on the one we have sold since it¡¯s the most expensive thing. He managed to scrape up enough money to buy one a month or so ago. So I guess he probably analysed the contents and tried to make a recipe for it." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow before smiling.
"Alright, that is rather interesting indeed. I wonder how much progress he can make in just 30 minutes. What about the man? What¡¯s interesting about him since all I can see right now is him doing acupuncture." Shiro asked as Nan Tian turned the page to show his information.
"He was the apprentice of a rather famous healer in China. He joined the sect after his master died but his progress has been slow. After going into a seclusion for a while, he¡¯s finally making an appearance again so I¡¯m curious about how much progress he¡¯s made." Nan Tian exined.
"Hmm... So he¡¯s skilled in acupuncture? But is a healer not just generally better? Acupuncture needs great precision and it won¡¯t be easy to put his skills to use duringbat." Shiro frowned.
"That¡¯s true but the reason why he¡¯s having slow progress was because he was focusing on thebat aspect. 30 minutes isn¡¯t enough to demonstrate everything but keep an eye on him for a little while." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
"Fine but only because you said so ok?" Shiro replied before drinking a potion to make two cameras and a screen that showed her a good view of these two.
Setting it aside, she started to practice the new runes while asionally ncing at the crowd while also focusing her attention on the two that Nan Tian had mentioned.
Upon reaching the 25 minute mark, Shiro had lost her interest since neither the acupuncture nor the mana potion making had made any progress.
Sighing softly, Shiro ced down her book and focused on thepetition for the final 5 minutes.
As the timer ticked down, Shiro was about to prepare to call that there was 1 minute left when she noticed some interesting movement from the two that Nan Tian mentioned.
The kid had suddenly brought out a knife and cut his palm before allowing his blood to enter the potion while the man snapped his finger and brought out some wires.
Threading it through all of the needles, he performed treatment on the simtion in an instant before buffing him up with a skill of his.
"Well I¡¯ll be damned, he can use it duringbat." Shiro smirked as Nan Tian chuckled.
"His technique and the effectiveness of his buff have certainly improved. He¡¯s even beginning to resemble histe master now."
"I haven¡¯t seen his mentor but I¡¯m more interested in what the kid did. Not sure why he put his blood in the potion but we¡¯ll see." Shiro smiled, standing up.
"Time is up! Record what you have done in the tablet in front of you. Those that manage to enter the next round will have a special pass attached to your registered profile and a notification will be sent to you. You may leave the arena so that the next batch of contestants can enter." Shiro shouted out as tablets appeared on the table for them to record their results.
Watching the crowd slowly make their way out of the arena, Shiro quickly nced at the documents submitted by the boy and the man.
The boy was called i and his product was a harmless mana potion that apparently had no drawbacks.
Reading the document, Shiro raised her eyebrow at what he wrote since he imed that his blood was apparently something akin to a purifying agent that could increase the purity of potions. He¡¯s tried it with the mana potions but it had no effect since it was as pure as it could get, however, with lower quality mana potions, he could get rid of the harmful side effects thate with arge amount of consumption.
There seemed to be a limit since right now he could only purify potions that were lower than tier 3 however, Shiro guessed that if they could cultivate this power, there¡¯s a chance of purifying higher tier potions but she wasn¡¯t sure how his blood worked. To get the full picture she would need to have a day to chat with him so that she could learn more.
Showing the document to Nan Tian, she flipped to the next one while new contestants entered.
The man was named Tang Fu Yuan and he had apparently achieved the feat of halting the progression of internal injuries, boosting healing factors and increasing the person¡¯s stats so that they could fight better.
While it was good, her main focus was on thetter half of his document which imed that there is a chance to promote their mana output and strength output to the next tier for a limited time.
"Both of them are good but they¡¯ll need to go for a few more screening processes. They¡¯ve just started to properly cultivate their talent so we can wait a little while unless they really show me something impressive." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Setting the two documents aside, he started to sort through the remaining ones in the first batch while Shiro weed the second group of contestants.
Chapter 1010 Completing the Test
Chapter 1010 Completing the Test
There were noticeable contestants in each of the batches and Shiro had to admit, just picking out 10 of each to take to the city seemed a little wasteful now but she knew her limits and looking after at least 20 people was already a pain.
"This one is good enough. Put them to the next round." Shiro said, handing one of the documents to Nan Tian.
Leaning back, Shiro massaged her eyes and sighed deeply since they¡¯ve been doing this for a few hours now and sorting through all of them was a pain. Even after the initial sorting process there were still more than 300 that were qualified. They had to continue to cull the group down until there were only 20 people left.
"If you¡¯re tired why don¡¯t you rest. Silvia and the others are more than capable enough to see who has talent." Nan Tian suggested but Shiro shook her head.
"It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m tired but I need to be here. If I just leave in the middle it wouldn¡¯t have a good image. Let¡¯s see... This guy, her, her and him. Pass onto the next round immediately. There¡¯s no need to test them with these guys considering what I can see already. They¡¯re a tier above the rest when ites to their techniques." Shiro yawned lightly before pointing her hand to a few of the contestants and handed their information to Nan Tian.
Continuing to sort through the group, it took them all the way till 11pm for there to only be 30 people left. They had to sort through the remaining 30 until there were only 20 people left but all of them were the best of the best. It was unfortunate that both i and Tang Fu Yuan had been eliminated but Shiro had already set aside a program for the both of them to cultivate their talents so it wasn¡¯t much of a loss.
Looking at the 30 people left, Shiro thought for a moment before an idea entered her mind.
"For the final test, I want to see how effective you are at emergency treatment. How would you react if you¡¯re constantly wounded by the enemy? How efficiently can you heal while enduring the pain? For this, I¡¯llunch an attack on all of you. Whether or not if you can pass is up to you since you¡¯ll need to endure this if you want to survive. There is no guarantee that Queens won¡¯t appear during our trip so if you can¡¯t at least heal your friends and yourself while avoiding coteral then it¡¯ll be a waste to bring you. Once all of you are ready, I¡¯ll let you put up a barrier to start things off. Think of it as a handicap." Shiro said as she jumped down andnded in front of them.
During her jump, she had quickly drunk a mana potion without them knowing since it wouldn¡¯t be good if they knew she had to rely on potions right now.
Sensing her aura, all of the contestants swallowed their saliva as barriers were erected around them.
Once she was sure that all of them had barriers up, Shiro nodded her head in satisfaction.
"Alright. In that case then I shall begin. I¡¯ll increase the intensity over time but for now, let¡¯s start with level 1." Shiro smiled.
Drawing a rune in the air, Shiro tapped it lightly with her finger as thousands of snowkes appeared around the arena. Each of them had a thin sheet of nanobots coating the edge so that they were extra sharp.
Snapping her fingers, the snow kes started to move as a bloody blizzard appeared in front of her.
Quickly sitting down, quite a few clerics started to heal themselves while activating protective skills so that they could focus.
As for the alchemists, they had started to draw runes around them to act as a barrier while they quickly made supplies to stop the bleeding and heal their body with potions.
"Seems like no one was eliminated. That¡¯s good. Level 2." Shiro smiled.
Snapping her finger, the blizzard increased in intensity as it started to shred the floor beneath them.
The sound of ss shattering could be heard constantly as barriers were being broken faster than they were being activated.
Within the crowd, there were five within the healer group that were extremelyposed. There was a tier 5 magic circle beneath him that constantly had the runes flicker back and forth as Shiro could tell it was rotating between activating a barrier and healing his body.
The moment the barrier drops, a burst of healing would offset the damage he took before reactivating the barrier again.
Another was simr to Silvia. He had no barrier after the first one shattered but he was out healing the damage he took.
The remaining three had entered a formation of sorts. They sat close to one another and their magic circles would merge to form a stronger array that protected them from the damage while also healing any form of damage they took.
Overall, these five had the easiest time within level two. But she knew that there are some who seem like they¡¯re about to fail but are tenacious. She was one of them especially after her skill she received uponpleting the mount Olympus steps which allow her to keep fighting as long as she had the will power.
Turning it up to level three, the snow kes became needles with paralysis effects. She wanted to see how they react to the sudden element shift.
Amazingly, all of them reacted ordingly and gave themselves either a paralysis resistance or status immunity buff for a short period.
The first person to be eliminated was at level five. At that point, the blizzard had be an array of daggers, lightning and a multitude of other elements.
Keeping your cool in this situation was very difficult and 50% of the people here were now struggling.
Waving her hand, Shiro healed the person with her life fire as Nan Tian had someone escort the person out.
At level 6, 3 were eliminated.
Level 7, 2 were eliminated.
However, after level 7, all of the ones that stayed behind her holding on quite nicely. None of them seemed like they were about to quit.
Level 8, none were eliminated. Level 9, none were eliminated. Level 10, none were eliminated.
By this point, Shiro was more than impressed since this is the power she would use if she wanted to casually clear a low level dungeon. For these guys, this should be approaching lethal damage and yet they were holding on without any signs of faltering. She could see the burning desire in their eyes as each of them wanted to go to Vrish¡¯ Lir.
If she was to continue with her original goal then she would need to eliminate four more people but she was tempted by a thought. If they are this tenacious, wouldn¡¯t it be fine if she exposed them to more nanotech to see how they fend against nanobots?
But the moment she thought of this, she curbed the idea. The main problem with the nanobot ss was that it bes useless once you cannot memorise the blueprints. Without blueprints, it was nothing more than a glorified metal attunement user.
She wasn¡¯t going to destroy their talent over curiosity.
"I¡¯m willing to offer you a chance. If you are able to hold on until the 15th round, I will take everyone here. All 24 of you." Shiro offered with a smile.
Seeing fires of excitement burn brightly in their eyes, Shiro grinned and increased it to level 11
Level 12... level 13...
At this point, it was no longer just an elemental blizzard with daggers but rather a lethal formation of swords that threatened to cut them in half the moment there was an opening.
There was the sign of someone about to be eliminated so Shiro watched carefully.
*PING!!!
The moment his barrier broke, 10 swords stabbed towards him.
But before they could reach their target, several barriers appeared around him as the two healers near him helped stop him from being eliminated. At this point, all of them knew that their best bet would be to have everyone reach level 15. That way no one else will be eliminated.
Seeing this, Shiro smiled as their teamwork was quite good. With a good team spirit, they¡¯ll form a nice team ofbat healers simr to Silvia.
Level 14, 5 of them were about to be eliminated at once but the top five worked together to form a stronger array which fended off Shiro¡¯s attacks.
And finally, at level 15, the barrier creaked but refused to give in. Shiro could see signs of exhaustion on their faces and smiled.
Level 15 was lethal for those below level 400. And yet this group of 24 healers worked together to hold off against this barrage of attacks. Even if she was holding back and only using one attack, it was still impressive. Plus, none of them surpassed level 400 so theoretically, this should have killed them all but they adapted well and worked together to hold out for just a single moment so that none of them were eliminated.
Waving her hand, the attack evaporated into nothingness as a faint green me wrapped around their bodies, relieving their fatigue as Shiro walked towards them.
"Congrattions for finishing the test. As promised, I will take all 24 of you to Vrish¡¯ Lir."
Chapter 1011 Nathan, Yorl, Grandal
Chapter 1011 Nathan, Yorl, Grandal
Upon hearing that all of them had passed, they copsed on the ground as a few of them cried tears of joy.
Seeing this, Shiro chuckled as she waved her hand and summoned a tablet.
"I¡¯ll give you lot an amodation for the day and we¡¯ll be setting off early in the morning once you have rested up well. We¡¯ll be teleporting near the rough location of Vrish¡¯ Lir and continue the remaining journey manually. If there is anything you want to do before you leave for a few days you might want to do it now." Shiro said as a few of them nodded at each other.
"Erm, your highness." One of them called out as Shiro nced over.
"Mn? What is it?" She recognised him as the one in charge of the formation when the three of them joined hands to endure the attack.
"I know this might sound like a lot but can you have a look at our older brother? His condition is a little unique and we haven¡¯t been able to do anything about it. We¡¯ve had a request for the healer¡¯s guild but it was not their expertise." He asked as Shiro raised her eyebrow before nodding her head.
"Alright, I can have a look at him now. What kind of injury is it?" Shiro asked curiously since there wasn¡¯t much that Silvia couldn¡¯t handle. For her to say that it wasn¡¯t their expertise this injury must be quite hard to treat.
"Um... the problem is that we don¡¯t know. Miss Silvia had a look at our brother and she said that she couldn¡¯t determine the cause so it was hard to treat. Hence why it probably wasn¡¯t within her expertise." He replied as Shiro crossed her arms and furrowed her brows.
"Alright, show me the way. I¡¯ll see what I can do." Shiro nodded.
ncing back, Shiro was about to ask Nan Tian to show the others to their amodation when she thought about how long this might take.
"Nan Tian, have someone escort them to their rooms, are you able toe with me?"
"Of course I can." Nan Tian nodded with a smile since that was what he was nning anyways.
Waiting for a moment, a few servants arrived as Nan Tian instructed them on what to do.
Seeing the people leave, Shiro turned to the three.
"If you will." She smiled and gestured for them to lead the way.
As they were walking, Shiro brought up their information and had a look.
All three of them were orphans and the one being registered with them was also an orphan but it seems like he was acting as a guardian before sumbing to the injury.
The current leader of the three was called Nathan. He was a tall youth that had short brown hair and brown eyes. He seemed slim but most of his physique was hidden behind his cloak.
The second oldest was called Yorl and he seemed to be a half elf. Simr to Lyrica, he had blond hair and green eyes, but his ears were shorter than most elf¡¯s hence why Shiro figured that he was probably a half.
The youngest of the three is Grandal. Like Nathan, he had brown hair and ck eyes but he was shorter than the other two. He was just slightly above Shiro¡¯s height and his aura was more reserved than his brothers.
"Seems like you four have quite the nice rtionship." Shiro smiled after going through all of their information.
Aftering to this city, the three of them have worked hard to find a treatment for their older brother but they haven¡¯t found anything useful just yet.
Even with all of the healers and mages around, they haven¡¯t been able to determine the cause of their brother¡¯s illness.
"Mn, big brother has been looking after us ever since we were little. It didn¡¯t matter what happened but he was always there so we have to help him back." Nathan nodded as Shiro smiled.
Following them to the residential district, quite a few of the residents were surprised at Shiro¡¯s sudden appearance and greeted her. Greeting them back, Shiro kept a smile on her face while asionally grabbing onto Nan Tian without anyone knowing so that she could calm her nerves a little.
There were moments where doubts would fester in her heart. Is there someone here that means harm? But knowing that it was just her paranoia, Shiro dismissed the thought.
Walking through the streets, they eventually reached a detached house a little far away from the city centre.
Scanning his key card, Nathan walked in first.
"Brother I¡¯m home." He called out, taking his shoes off and putting on the shoe rack.
Pulling out some slippers, he offered it to Shiro and Nan Tian.
Doing the same, Shiro put her boots to the side before putting on some slippers.
"I¡¯ll prepare some drinks. What do you like to drink, your highness?" Grandal asked as Shiro smiled.
"I¡¯ll take juice then."
"Understood what about you sir?"
"I¡¯ll take the same." Nan Tian nodded as Nathan led the two of them upstairs.
"This is brother¡¯s room. He¡¯s just inside." Nathan said as he opened the door.
Turning on the lights, he stepped aside so that Shiro could see him for herself.
The moment she entered the room, Shiro was hit with an overwhelming sense of miasma as she couldn¡¯t help but frown.
Walking up to the bed, she could see a pale faced youth that looked like he was sleeping without any trouble.
Drawing a rune on his chest, Shiro did a quick scan of his body and furrowed her brows.
¡¯No wonder Silvia couldn¡¯t determine the cause. Everything seems normal and the miasma seemed to originate from thin air.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown as she activated analysis along with her mana sense to see if she could sense whatever was wrong with the man¡¯s body but again, the diagnosis was that he waspletely healthy.
Is it something to do with the soul?¡¯ She wondered.
Closing her eyes, ck mist started to creep into the room as the shadows wrapped around her body and turned into a ck dress.
Activating her true spirit nature, Shiro opened her eyes and gently tapped his head.
Suddenly, a faint figure of the man appeared in front of them as Shiro couldn¡¯t see anything that was wrong with him.
¡¯Strange... Too strange. There¡¯s definitely miasma so why is he not ¡¯harmed¡¯?¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows.
Reaching beside her, a small portal opened as Shiro dragged out antern.
"Holy f*ck the light of day? Room? Whatever you finally dragged me out. I thought I was forgotten and lost to the void for a moment then. I¡¯ve already finished with the dumbasses you sent mest time and there¡¯s no entertainment in here." The ancient terrorined immediately as Shiro already had the urge to throw him back into the void.
"I¡¯ll give you some entertainment for your prisonter. Before that can you have a look at this man for me? His soul isn¡¯t injured nor is his body injured yet there¡¯s miasma." Shiro asked as the ancient terror paused for a second before opening his mouth.
"No idea but it stinks of gods to me. Maybe thed behind you can tell you more about it. His eyes are special after all." The ancient terror shrugged as Shiro raised her eyebrows and nced back.
"I can certainly try." Nan Tian nodded his head.
Activating his skill after not using it for a long time, Nan Tian had to get used to the sensation again as a tiny magic circle could be seen in his pupils.
Looking at his eyes, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but think that they¡¯re akin to tiny jewels with the faint flickering of light.
As for Nan Tian, the moment he activated his eyes, he immediately spotted what was wrong. There was a crest in the centre of the man¡¯s soul. Recognising it to be simr to the crests that Hemera was using, he knew that it was divine energy.
"There¡¯s a god crest on the young man¡¯s soul. A god is probably preparing to do something with this person. I¡¯m guessing that it¡¯s an evil god with the miasma and if we want to get rid of it, the best choice would be to get rid of the crest." Nan Tian replied as he furrowed his brows.
"A god crest? What does it look like?" Shiro asked curiously as Nan Tian started to draw it out while Shiro ced the soul back into the man¡¯s body and dismissed her true spirit nature.
"It looks like this."
Receiving the tablet, Shiro looked at what he had drawn and furrowed her brows.
The crest was that of a raven skull with a sword stabbed through the middle. Beside the skull were two torches that burned with a dark purple me.
Checking through her knowledge of god crests, Shiro could find a single match or record on what it might be linked to.
"Ah I¡¯ve seen that crest before!" Nathan called out in surprise as both Shiro and Nan Tian looked towards him.
"You have?"
"Yes, it was on an amulet that the nun carried on her at all times."
Chapter 1012 Odin
Chapter 1012 Odin
"Yes, it was in an amulet that the nun carried on her at all times."
Hearing this, Shiro paused in surprise since not many gods could interfere with the world before the new age much less bestow their crest to someone.
"Hmm can you tell me more about this nun?" Shiro asked as Nathan nodded his head.
"But are you able to tell me about what¡¯s happening to my brother?" Nathan asked since his main concern was still his brother.
"We can tell you what we know and that a god is thinking of doing something to him. We¡¯re not sure about what but it doesn¡¯t seem to be a good god. I could be wrong however but I can¡¯t just ignore the miasma being radiated from him." Shiro sighed as Nathan clenched his fists.
"Is there a way to save him then?"
"There is. We have to get rid of the crest on his soul. Once we do that, the god¡¯s influence should end. But I¡¯m not too sure since the capabilities of gods is beyond me right now." Shiro shook her head as Nathan sighed.
"Alright, thank you for letting me know. I¡¯ll tell you about the nun once we get downstairs."
Leaving the room with Shiro and Nan Tian, Nathan closed the door behind him as he nced towards his brother before sighing softly.
Sitting in the lounge with Nan Tian, Shiro listened to Nathan talk about the nun that ran the orphanage.
To them, she was always kind. Whatever they wanted she would try her best to get for them. It was hard to keep the orphanage running by herself. Their vige never had anyone strong enough to fend off the monsters properly so they had to sacrifice parts of their vige every time.
With resources already low, keeping everyone fed was hard but she tried her best.
They did ask about the amulet when they were younger but she only replied that this was a gift from someone who had given her a second chance at life.
"A second chance at life huh... And you said that she unfortunately passed away during the attack when the new age started right?"
"Mn, we managed to escape thanks to brother but she was killed by the monsters." Nathan nodded his head and sighed.
Hearing this, Shiro leaned back for a moment.
¡¯A person who gave her a second chance at life... Hmm... I¡¯m not sure what kind of god this is but I should probably find a way to dy things a little. I can¡¯t slow down time in a person¡¯s body just yet, so that¡¯s off the table.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
"I don¡¯t think we can help your brother just yet." Shiro said as she could see their eyes flicker with sadness.
"However, there¡¯s a chance that you might find something you need from the country of Vrish¡¯ Lir. Depending on what happens, I might be able to help as well." Shiro smiled.
Upon hearing this, their eyes brightened as Nathan nodded his head.
"Alright. We¡¯ll try to learn as much as we can from the country. Are you able to tell us any specific areas of study that we need to learn in order to help our brother?" Nathan asked curiously.
"Hmm... something to do with the soul, removing crests and divine energy. That is probably what you want to find out but don¡¯t worry, I can search for that myself. Just work towards being good healers and help this city out." Shiro smiled as they nodded their heads.
Talking to them for a little longer, both Shiro and Nan Tian left the house as they made their way back to the tower.
"Are you going to overwrite his crest with your own crest?" Nan Tian asked curiously as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. I don¡¯t know how to remove crests but I do know that I can achieve a simr effect should I rece it with my own. There are some added benefits too but since he probably won¡¯t be on the front lines these benefits won¡¯t matter too much." Shiro shrugged.
"True. I¡¯m more concerned about the god. If they are able to bestow a crest then there¡¯s no doubt that they¡¯re powerful. I¡¯ll do some research and see if I can find any gods that might potentially have a connection to ravens." Nan Tian replied.
"Mn, speaking of gods, I¡¯m curious about how this guy knew that your eyes could see through it." Shiro narrowed her eyes and pulled out thentern with the ancient terror imprisoned within.
"I¡¯ll only speak if you give me some more entertainment."
"Sure. I¡¯ll send you to a different dimension instead and have a TV there so that you can watch programs everyday." Shiro smiled.
"Deal! What do you want to know?"
"How you knew about Nan Tian¡¯s eyes." Shiro asked as the ancient terror nced towards Nan Tian.
"Well where have you seen a person with golden eyes that have their own magic circle? I¡¯ve only seen it once and that was Odin¡¯s all seeing eye behind that eyepatch of his. This is weaker but at least thed has both eyes." The ancient terror smirked as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"So you¡¯re saying that Nan Tian¡¯s eyes are almost equivalent to Odin¡¯s all seeing eye?"
"Yup. Though all seeing is a little bit of an exaggeration."
"Do you think it¡¯s Odin that might have put the crest on the young man? He has a link to ravens after all." Shiro asked but the ancient terror shook his head.
"Nope. That old man¡¯s crests is something else. Even I haven¡¯t seen the raven crest before so I can¡¯t help you with that. All I know is that once thatd gets some divine energy in his body, his eyes will be able to see a lot more. Now then, let¡¯s talk about my TV."
"You can watch cartoons all day." Shiro smirked as she threw thentern into a separate dimension and summoned a TV that yed the cartoons that children watch.
Closing the portal before he could even protest, Shiro made her way back to the tower with a smile.
"How cruel." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Well that¡¯s true. But don¡¯t worry, if he figures out how to change channels using the buttons then he¡¯s fine." Shiro grinned.
"That and I kinda just want to bully him a little for all the things he¡¯s done." Shiro shrugged.
"Mn that¡¯s true. He is helpful though. His knowledge and interaction with gods are handy." Nan Tian agreed.
"Yup. Hence why I still keep him around. Honestly that and the fact that I can¡¯t kill this mother*cker. Too tenacious so I might as well make use of him." Shiro shrugged. She had tried to kill his soul before but it was tough. As in it¡¯s hard to even make a dent in it so the most she could do is keep it in herntern for now.
Once they were back in the tower, they returned to Shiro¡¯s room while she drank a potion and created two drones that have been fitted with the best gear she could provide. Both of them could travel as fast as her jet and their main job was to set down teleport nodes near Vrish¡¯ Lir.
She also made sure that they were self sufficient so that she didn¡¯t need to constantly funnel mana to them while also allowing her to control them.
"Let¡¯s see... the route should be fine. If one of them breaks I can use the second one as a marker to make more." Shiro muttered.
Walking to the window, she set the two off and watched them fly towards the direction of Vrish¡¯ Lir.
Bringing out a pair of sses, she put them on and saw everything the drones saw.
"Perfect. A remote control so that I don¡¯t have to worry about not being able to see what they see when I don¡¯t have mana." Shiro smiled beforeying on the bed.
"I just had a thought but if you keep drinking potions, wouldn¡¯t your mana realm evolve faster?" Nan Tian asked, curious.
"I thought of that too but I think it¡¯s more to do with divine energy I think. As you know, divine energy is many times more powerful than mana and I only produce so much per day. When divine energy runs out, it takes mana instead. So I¡¯m waiting on my divine energy rather than mana." Shiro exined as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Talking for a little longer, the two of them went to sleep while the drones made their way to the borders of Vrish¡¯ Lir.
###
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro put on the sses and checked the camera feed from the drones. Seeing the wall of mist in the distance, Shiro narrowed her eyes and smiled.
Drinking a mana potion, she had the drones ce down teleport nodes as everything is prepared.
With Nan Tian also waking up, the two of them sent a notification to the 24 that were selected for this trip.
Chapter 1013.1 Arriving in Vrish Lir Part 1
Chapter 1013.1 Arriving in Vrish'' Lir Part 1
Waiting in the main za, Shiro could see a few people arriving as some were earlier than others.
Silvia and her group were the first to arrive as they waited by the side for everyone else.
Looking at their expressions, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
"Seems like a few of you didn¡¯t get enough sleepst night. Excited about today?" Shiro asked as a few of them scratched their heads in embarrassment.
"This is something simr to a once in a lifetime opportunity for us your highness, it¡¯ll be stranger if we weren¡¯t excited." One of the alchemists called out as others agreed.
"That is true. But even if you are excited you should sleep. How else would you focus on the information that you can find in the city? Next time, just knock yourself out with a spell." Shiro shrugged with a smirk.
"Well not all of them have a sleep spell so it¡¯s rather hard for them to knock themselves out." Silvia chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
"Then just whack yourself with a stick. But setting that aside, I believe that everyone should be ready? It doesn¡¯t seem like we¡¯re missing anyone so I hope all of you have finished anything important you might need to do." She asked, sweeping her gaze across the crowd and nodded after making sure that everyone was here. Including the 24 that she had chosen from yesterday.
Seeing all of them nod, Shiro turned around and drew a rune in the air.
Several tier 6 magic circles appeared as they lined up to form a path towards a nanotech gate.
"Step through this and you should be at a cliff. In front of you will be the sea and, in the distance, there will be the mist protecting the country." Shiro said as the portal opened in front of them.
"Single file now. Like when you were a kid, everyone line up and let¡¯s go through." Shiro joked as they stepped through the portal.
Nan Tian and Silvia were thest to enter as Shiro made sure to check that Asharia will be slowly making its way near the country as well in preparation for the event.
Once the course was set, she stepped through as well before closing the portal behind them.
Immediately, she could feel the wind brush against her as the smell of the sea assaulted her nose.
With her senses being strong, it was nothing but a salty hell for her right now.
"Right then, everyone, I want you to vote on a mode of transport. We have two to choose from." Shiro pped her hands with a smile.
"The first is through air and the second is by sea. Which one do you guys prefer? Those that want sea go to the left and those that want sky go to the right."
Hearing that flight was an option, Silvia immediately walked to the left since she wasn¡¯t keen on travelling by air.
Seeing that someone close to Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to take the route by sea, they immediately knew that something was wrong with travelling by air.
One by one, they chose to travel by sea.
Pouting a little, Shiro sighed but secretly she was smirking.
Fufu~ She gave them an easy way out but the boat was a trap all along.
Noticing a small flicker in Shiro¡¯s eyes, Silvia felt a bad premonition in her heart but she couldn¡¯t put a finger on where that feeling was stemming from.
Furrowing her brows, she watched as Shiro walked to the edge of the cliff.
"Second question, do you want a big boat or a small one? Big to the point of being an aircraft carrier, small to the point of a fishing boat." Shiro asked as she turned around.
"We probably want something smaller so that we don¡¯t make ourselves a big target no?" Silvia asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright. In that case then hmm... I found a perfect one." Shiro grinned as drank a potion and sped her hands together.
Lightning flickered around her as nanobots surged forwards and started to meld together.
Watching the nanobots fuse and turn into a brown colour, Silvia furrowed her brows for a moment before facepalming since she realised what kind of boat or rather, ship it was.
They were watching a pirate ship being created before their eyes as the sails attached themselves to the ship.
Behind the ship, where the rudder should be, was a giant jet engine along with mounted rail cannons on the sides.
Since it was being constructed in front of them, all of them could see the weapons being loaded into the body of the ship. There were threeyers of cannons along with a giant main cannon at the front where the opening would split into two and reveal the giant weapon.
There were lots of unfamiliar tech but the ones that Silvia recognised to be a weapon or a part of one was enough for her to sigh and sit down on a nearby boulder.
They just needed a ride there, not go for war.
"Oh don¡¯t worry, these cannons can double as propellers." Shiro smirked.
"Wait what?" Silvia looked up to see Shiro¡¯s grin.
###
There was the faint sound of screaming as a pirate ship could be seen sting towards Vrish¡¯ Lir in the distance. All of the engines were roaring as Shiro sat at the front of the ship with a smile.
Her white hair fluttered behind her as she waspletely unaffected by the rocking of the ship along with the speed.
However, those that were behind her were having the ride of their lives as many grabbed onto anything they could get their hands on.
Thankfully for them, the trip was rather short due to how fast they were travelling. By the time Shiro started to slow down the ship, they were now practically in front of the mist.
"Right then, the rest of this is up to you Nan Tian." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian nodded his head and closed his eyes.
Opening them once more, he peered past the mist and could see the formation protecting the country.
They had talked about this after they woke up since the ancient terror mentioned that it was simr to Odin¡¯s All Seeing Eye and how formations never had too much of an effect on him most of the time.
They did a small test before walking to the za and Nan Tian could faintly see the barriers from the cliffs. So rather than brute forcing it, they were going to have Nan Tian navigate their way safely to the docks.
Handing over the controls to the boat to Nan Tian, Shiro stepped back and watched with a smile while everyone had recovered thanks to Silvia¡¯s spell. While they could have cast it themselves, Silvia was already prepared to cast it the moment they stopped.
"Seems like all of you enjoyed that. Should we loop around and try it again?" Shiro asked with a smile.
Hearing this, they all immediately shook their heads since that was just asking for torture.
"Shame. Well setting that aside, we¡¯ll be entering the mist now. Nan Tian will be navigating us through. I¡¯m not sure how long it will take but hopefully not long." Shiro smiled as they all sighed in relief.
Some of them even walked to the edge of the ship to try to look through the mist if they could.
Seeing that everyone was so excited, Shiro chuckled.
"Shiro.
Hearing Nan Tian call her name, Shiro nced over.
"Mn? What is it?"
"You know how the pictures in that book showed you the runes that gods use?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yeah? What about them?"
"I think I found some now."
"!!!"
Walking over, she could see that he¡¯s been drawing out runes in his tablet while navigating through the mist.
"Theyers of the formation asionally line up to form these runes. I only recognised them since they were familiar to the ones that you showed me in the book. There are also some within the magic circles themselves.
Making herself a tablet, Shiro synced it up to Nan Tian¡¯s as she could see everything he drew.
Narrowing her eyes at the runes, Shiro pulled out the book and found the matching runes.
Compared to the ones that the writer had found in the country, these ones seem more... plete¡¯ as they had additional segments.
"I see... no wonder that rune couldn¡¯t be deciphered. It was iplete. She probably needed to take more steps back before taking a picture." Shiro muttered quietly as the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together.
Sitting down, she started to decipher the runes while Nan Tian tried his best to spot all of them hidden within the formation.
After 40 minutes, the mist finally started to disperse as Nan Tian sighed in relief.
"We¡¯ve arrived."
Running towards the front of the ship, all of the people on board could see the docks in the distance as the natives seemed surprised by their appearance.
Beyond the horizon was a single pir of light that seemed to descend from the heavens.
"We¡¯re finally here." Silvia muttered as she couldn¡¯t keep her eyes off of the distant lights. That was where they needed to go for more knowledge.
Chapter 1014.2 Arriving in Vrish Lir Part 2
Chapter 1014.2 Arriving in Vrish'' Lir Part 2
Controlling the boat towards the docks, Shiro could see the residents of this port vige waiting by the road, looking at them with curious eyes.
Seeing that there was a gap, Shiro docked the ship before jumping over the side andnded on the wooden walkway.
"Greetings, my name is thintra. I¡¯m the vige head of Port Rath¡¯ Tael. May I know who I¡¯m speaking to right now?" An old man asked as he walked up to Shiro.
"I¡¯m Shiro, the leader of this expedition and we were nning on making our way towards the centre so that we may gather knowledge for our healers and alchemists. I take it that you understand the country of Vrish¡¯ Lir is akin to a trove of knowledge for people of these professions." Shiro smiled as thintra nodded his head.
"I do indeed. However, it is quite strange for you to travel through here by boat. Most would being here throughnd towards the east. Plus, they are usually in smaller parties rather than in a group like yours." thintra smiled as he nced behind her and saw the 30+ people getting off the ship.
"Would you like to stay for the day and perhapsmence in some trade with our local wears? We are rather interested in the items from the outside world." He offered with a smile but Shiro shook her head.
"I would love to but unfortunately, we¡¯re working on limited time. We¡¯ll be making our way to the centre immediately." Shiro smiled as she snapped her finger.
Just as she did this, the boat disappeared as she returned the nanobots back to mana. Seeing this, the vige head and the other viges looked around in surprise as they started to discuss amongst themselves.
"Everyone, I¡¯ll give you 5 minutes to browse around if something does catch your eye but we¡¯ll meet up outside the vige." Shiro pped as she gestured for the people to make their way through.
Nan Tian nced towards Shiro but she only gave him a smile and gestured for him to go too.
Walking past her, Silvia leaned over and whispered into her ear.
"If you are going to fight don¡¯t make too much of a mess and maybe keep it down if you can. Some of the healers here might not be too appreciative of ughter unless you give them some context."
"Don¡¯t worry I know. Plus, it¡¯ll be a warning at most." Shiro nodded.
Hearing this, Silvia sighed in relief as she joined the rest of the group and left.
"Vige head, if you don¡¯t mind, I would like a quick word." Shiro smiled as the vige head nodded.
Walking over, Shiro flexed her finger as nanotech wires spread out like a spider¡¯s web.
"Now then, everyone here should be marked by my wires. Why don¡¯t we have a nice short chat since I won¡¯t be around here for long. I saw your look towards our ship. Seems like you want to leave very much don¡¯t you?" Shiro smiled as the tant greed from both him and the vigers was a little concerning since she didn¡¯t like ughtering a vige the moment she entered a new country but if she had to she didn¡¯t mind getting her hands dirty.
"Now don¡¯t make a sound. If I notice you or any vigers here make a move that might cause me to raise my suspicion, I¡¯ll have to cut a few throats if you understand what I mean. Feel free to nod since I¡¯ve already sealed your voice." Shiro chuckled softly as the thintra immediately nodded his head with cold sweat dripping down his back. He didn¡¯t think the neers from the outside world would be this scary since they¡¯re just healers, alchemists or druids!
"Perfect. I shall be on my way too now. There will be a great battle in a few days that will drag all of Vrish¡¯ Lir through hell so you might want to prepare for that. Who knows if this vige bes a zone that needs to be captured." Shiro smiled, waving her hand and retracting all of the nanotech wires.
She had to get that warning of the way since their main goal was knowledge and not ughter.
Walking through the vige, Shiro had her book out and saw both Silvia and Nan Tian waiting by the side.
"You done?" Silvia asked as Shiro nodded.
"Yup. Gave him a small warning, they shouldn¡¯t have any thoughts anymore unless they want us to take care of them." Shiro smiled.
"However, let¡¯s ignore them for now. I¡¯m more interested if there are any runes in this ce. Thest one that I had just deciphered allowed me to store spells. So! If I drink a potion and store spells in the runes, I can use it without drinking another potion even if I run out of mana. Of course, the level of the spell varies on my proficiency and right now I can only store one or two simple ones in the rune but they¡¯re enough for now." Shiro¡¯s eyes flickered with excitement as she showed them her palm where there was a faint glowing rune.
"Right now I have nanotech wires and vehicle construction stored so I should be fine without drinking a potion for a while." She said as she started to look around the ce for anything that could possibly match up to be a rune. But since it was just a small port vige, there was a slim chance of something like that happening so she wasn¡¯t too bothered if she found nothing. It was just a shot in the dark after all. Her main goals were to find where the author of the book had taken these images so that she could find out the full rune rather than half of one.
Five minutes passed by shortly as the three of them made their way out to the front. Doing a headcount once more, Shiro nodded her head after making sure that all 37 of them were still around.
"Alright, since everyone¡¯s done, let¡¯s set off. Again, I¡¯ll give you two choices. Flying or driving?" Shiro asked with a smile.
Thinking about it carefully, they figured that it was probably better if they chose the sky route since it might be less of a bumpy ride.
However, since they weren¡¯t sure, they looked towards Silvia for help.
"Don¡¯t look at me, it¡¯s not going to be fun regardless of what we pick. Look at that face and you can already tell her sadistic intent is brewing." Silvia rolled her eyes as she pointed at Shiro who only smiled brightly and waved to all of them. For those that weren¡¯t familiar they would think she¡¯s just waiting for their response but those that were familiar would be able to recognise the look in her eyes as she stares at her victims.
They knew that hundreds of ideas on how she could torment them without going over the line were brewing in her mind right now with each second they spend on thinking about which one to pick.
Eventually, they settled on flying since at most they¡¯ll be pressed against their seat.
But the moment they chose this, Shiro¡¯s smile widened as they panicked and pickednd.
This however, just caused her to smile more as she even started to chuckle.
The 37 victims struggled and eventually picked two people to y rock paper scissors. If the left one, they go by air, the right won, they go bynd.
Neither of them wanted to win as they didn¡¯t want to take responsibility. When they tried to suggest walking or going there manually Shiro shook her head and said it¡¯ll take too long.
"You better f*cking win." The person on the right hissed as the left rolled his eyes.
"Right back at you. You¡¯ve always beat me in rock paper scissors before, don¡¯t like that change now!"
"Yes but my breakfast wasn¡¯t on the line! If I win, I swear to the goddess that if I vomit, it¡¯ll be on you!"
"Alright, stopining. Rock! Paper! Scissors!"
The moment someone shouted scissors, they both threw their hands down as they analysed their past matches and tried to devise a strategy.
Both of them picked rock as they sighed in relief however, they noticed something to the side.
A delicate hand that made the gesture of paper.
"I win. So we pick both." Shiro grinned as her eyes flickered with sadistic joy. Despite her joyful expression with light blushes on her cheeks, they felt like they were looking at the devil.
Their collective faces paled.
###
If one was to pass by this area, they would see the strange scene of an abnormallyrge monster truck propelling itself into the air in a sh before transforming into a jet, sting itself towards the light in the distance followed by the faint sound of screams.
In a few short moments, the jet transformed itself back into a monster truck as it mmed against the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. WIth this, they¡¯ve arrived at the centre of the country.
Chapter 1015 Empty City
Chapter 1015 Empty City
"Let¡¯s see... ording to the map, we should be just outside the capital called Tenin." Shiro muttered as she flipped through the map.
"Is everyone ready to leave?" Shiro asked as she turned around with a smile.
In front of her was a crater where the monster truck should have been and sat around the crater were the victims who were healed by Silvia. While their physical nausea may have been healed, their mental strain was not.
Hearing the collective groan of pain, Shiro couldn¡¯t help butugh as she pulled out some refreshments for them. Aka, some juice.
"Well I¡¯ll let you guys rest for a bit before we go. We managed to cut the trip short using bothnd and air." Shiro smiled while getting Nan Tian to help her pass the drinks around.
While they were all recovering, Shiro stood on top of the hill and looked towards the city of Tenin.
Beneath the light shining down from the sky was a temple of sorts that had the crest of a tree etched into the surface while the rest of the city was built around this temple.
The city itself was simr to current modern cities when ites to technology butpared to Asharia, it was far behind. There were no skyscrapers or tallndmarks as the tallest thing here was the temple. Shiro remembered reading in the book that the author had mentioned the temple being a ce of worship for the people here so having anything taller than it would be sphemous. After all, it was also known as the ce to talk to the gods.
Looking at theyout of the city, Shiro narrowed her eyes as she activated her rune and created a small drone.
Sending it to the sky, she closed one of her eyes so that she could see through the drone¡¯s eyes.
"Is something wrong?" Nan Tian asked as he noticed Shiro scouting out the city.
"I wouldn¡¯t say something is wrong. Rather something is bugging me. Like you see the start of a pattern but can¡¯t find the rest." Shiro replied.
She wanted a birds eye view of the city so that she could guess what this feeling was.
Watching the drone fly higher, Shiro nced down towards the city and smiled.
"No wonder I felt that something was bugging me." Shiro chuckled as she dismissed the drone.
"This entire thing is a giant magic circle and it seems to be representative of a tier 8 one too. Each of the yers¡¯ of the magic circle is represented by the loops of the city. The roads circling the temple is the cut off point for eachyer. With the temple in the centre, the magic circle is looping around the temple. I¡¯m guessing the runes the author found are runes that were meant to be in this magic circle." Shiro smiled as she printed off an image of the city so that Nan Tian could see what she meant.
Looking at the image, Nan Tian raised his eyebrow in surprise.
"So you¡¯re saying that if we were to look for the runes around the city, we¡¯ll be able to fill out theseyers?"
"Yup. Though some of the runes in the book are iplete so we¡¯ll have to check through all of them to make sure they¡¯re correct. This is a good chance for us too since we can just rx and spend our time looking for runes while everyone else goes to the temple for the trial." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Don¡¯t you want to enter too? Even though you¡¯re not a healer or cleric you have plenty of healing skills no?" Silvia walked up as she had overheard their conversation.
"I mean... I do but runes are more fun I guess." Shiro scratched her cheek.
"You really like runes now don¡¯t you?" Silvia raised her eyebrow as Shiro shrugged.
"Well yeah. Of course I do. I mean with runes I can ess the power of the gods early."
Hearing this, Silvia couldn¡¯t help but shake her head as Shiro was thinking about how to break the bnce of power again.
However, she was also happy about this since this was much better than what Shiro was doing before.
"Well alright. See if you can partake the trial when you can since it¡¯s still beneficial." Silvia chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure I¡¯ll do it if I have time after looking over the runes. You seem knowledgeable about this country so do you want to lead the other¡¯s to the trail while me and Nan Tian find some runes?" Shiro asked as Silvia thought about it for a moment before ncing back.
The moment she did, she was assaulted by the expectant stares, begging for her to lead them instead of Shiro.
Sighing heavily, Silvia facepalmed before turning towards Shiro.
"Alright, I¡¯ll do it. I¡¯ll contact you if anything happens."
"Perfect." Shiro smiled.
Watching Silvia lead them towards the temple, Shiro nced over at Nan Tian.
"Shall we visit the outermostyer first? There are a few runes here that I couldn¡¯t decipher. There¡¯s a chance that the runes are iplete like the ones that we saw in the mist so I want to double check." Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Sure. Do you also want to bring back some delicacies for Yin? Not many get to visit Vrish¡¯ Lir after all. The cuisine here might be interesting for Yin." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"That¡¯s true... alright. I¡¯ll buy some food for me too then. I¡¯ll be honest, I¡¯m quite curious too." Shiro chuckled as the two of them made their way into the city.
However, when they arrived, they realised that all of the buildings seemed to be empty.
"That¡¯s strange... Looking at the pictures the author took there should be a bunch of people roaming around." Shiro furrowed her brows while flicking through the book.
"Hmm... Let me call Silvia."
Bringing out her phone, Shiro gave Silvia a call as she waited for her to pick up.
"Calling so soon? Did something happen?" Silvia¡¯s voice rang out.
"Yeah why is there no one here?" Shiro asked.
"I¡¯ll be honest, I have no idea either. This ce should be filled with people right now but I can¡¯t sense anyone. The road to the temple doesn¡¯t seem to be well maintained either." Silvia replied with a frown.
"Should we continue to the temple or should we meet up?" She asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment before opening her mouth.
"Let¡¯s meet up. Since we don¡¯t know what¡¯s happened here it¡¯s best that we stick together. Let¡¯s meet in front of the temple. I¡¯ll send some drones to scan the runes for me since there¡¯s no one here but while it¡¯s doing that, let¡¯s see if we can find any survivors or at least any remains of people being here." Shiro replied as she tapped her finger in the air. Suddenly, tens of drones appeared around her.
Giving them themand, Shiro watched as they dispersed themselves to the rest of the city.
"Alright I¡¯ll meet you at the entrance of the temple. Hopefully we can still do the trial." Silvia sighed deeply before ending the call.
Walking through the city, towards the temple, Shiro nced into the homes and saw dried up food along with empty seats.
It was as though things here were frozen in time with the residents being removed from the pictures.
"This isn¡¯t exactly what I hoped to see whening to this city. How long do you think this ce has been left untouched?" Nan Tian asked as he traced his finger along the walls and picked up a bunch of dust.
"It can¡¯t be long considering news of this hasn¡¯t spread to the port vige. But the evidence here suggests otherwise." Shiro frowned since some of the walls were threatening to crumble with the slightest touch.
"It¡¯s strange."
"Mn, let¡¯s keep going. We don¡¯t want to keep-"
Before she could even finish her sentence, they both saw a cloud of dust erupt out in the distance.
Noticing that it was towards the direction of the temple, they both dashed towards it without hesitation.
###
A few moments ago...
After ending the call with Shiro, Silvia nced around her and noticed something strange.
Runes started to appear in the space around them as she felt a bad feeling in her heart.
"I swear, everywhere we go it¡¯s alwaysbat afterbat. Wee to a nice country full of knowledge, no one¡¯s f*cking here and it¡¯sbat again! Get your f*cking ass out and let me get a good look at the d*ckweed that¡¯s trying to ruin my holiday!" Silvia gritted her teeth as a dark red aura red around her.
Activating all of herbat buffs on herself, she nced around and locked onto the mana signal she could sense.
Reaching out, she managed to grab the person¡¯s ankle and mmed them against the floor in front of her.
Stomping down on their spine, she twisted her foot and snapped the spine in half, disabling them for good before grabbing the person by the back of their neck to see who it was.
Chapter 1016 Questioning the Soul
Chapter 1016 Questioning the Soul
Arriving at the scene, Shiro was greeted with the image of Silvia holding a bloodied figure up by the back of their neck.
The 37 healers and alchemists stared at her in a mixture of shock, awe and just overall disbelief that someone so calm and happy would turn into a berserker the momentbat started.
"I... Should I ask what happened?" Shiro raised her eyebrow as Silvia nced over.
"Just found someone trying to ambush me while I was thinking about what happened. I¡¯ve already given him some treatment but he¡¯s going to be paralysed." Silvia replied with a sigh.
Throwing the body in front of Shiro, the manid on the ground with the whites of his eyes showing.
Realising that he must have passed out, Shiro massaged her eyes.
"Did anyone get injured?" She asked as Silvia shook her head.
"Alright, I¡¯ll ask this guy¡¯s soul then. No point waking him up since his soul is dark grey." Shiro shrugged as she drank a potion before closing her eyes.
Suddenly, ck mist gathered around the corners of the city as it merged into a ck dress for Shiro.
Opening her eyes, she was about to drag the man¡¯s soul out when she widened her eyes and took a step back out of shock.
"What the..." Shiro muttered in disbelief.
"What happened?" Nan Tian asked as he immediately understood that this was abnormal.
Without saying anything else, Shiro snapped her finger as ck mist wrapped around everyone here. A green glow appeared on their eyes as they could now see souls like her.
The moment they did, they all understood why Shiro was inplete disbelief.
Floating in the sky, were the shattered souls of the past residents. Each of them had a face ofplete agony as there wasn¡¯t a single intact soul. Even with her power, she would not be able to resurrect them properly without the person bing a puppet.
The sheer density of the souls blocked out the sky as no one could take their eyes off them.
"The souls were shattered fairly recently. If not they would have dispersed by now. Judging by their state, I¡¯d say it¡¯s been half a week since they¡¯ve died." Shiro muttered after a short pause.
"Half a week? Isn¡¯t that when we got the notification for the event?" Nan Tian frowned.
"Mn, seems like someone has already been here. But this seems... weird. Normally, when a person kills someone, their entire soul would disperse. All of this here is a deliberate attack to the soul. Whoever did this targeted their souls specifically." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"However, this is what I¡¯m confused about. It¡¯s like when a kid leaves behind food. Someone has targeted specific parts of their soul while leaving the rest behind as garbage. If a Queen had done this, I do have a candidate in mind but I doubt they¡¯d leave behind left overs like this."
Hearing this, they all fell silent as Shiro eventually shook her head.
"I... I can try to piece together what has happened but to do so, I would be using all of the souls here as fuel. Right now, if we leave them be, there¡¯s still a chance they could reincarnate but it¡¯ll take a while. But if I was to use them as fuel to find out what happened, I¡¯ll be taking them out of reincarnation." Shiro admitted.
"Let¡¯s think about thatter. For now, let¡¯s ask him about what he knows." Silvia suggested as she gestured towards the man in front of Shiro.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Shiro summoned a chain into her hands before whipping it towards the unconscious man.
Tugging on the whip, an illusionary figure appeared with chains wrapped around his body.
Without saying anything, Shiro reached out with her spare hand and grabbed his head. A tier 6 magic circle appeared around her wrist as runes spread from her arm to his body.
"Alright, he should be in a state of forced obedience. Silvia, if you have any questions for him yourself you can ask away. Otherwise I¡¯ll be asking some stuff myself." Shiro said as she nced towards Silvia.
"I do have a question or two. First, what were you doing here?"
Hearing this question, the man spasmed for a moment before opening his mouth.
"To monitor the trials and send news back the moment more people arrive."
"Send news back to wh-"
"You might not want to ask that just yet. There¡¯s a binding vow on his soul. The moment he mentions a specific keyword, he¡¯ll self-destruct." Shiro cut in as Silvia furrowed her brows before nodding.
"Alright. In that case then why are you monitoring the trials? What¡¯s the person¡¯s goal in asking you to monitor the trials?"
"To prevent the discovery of a secondary trial. The initial trial is to pass down knowledge while the secondary trial is a treasure trove. This ce has been influenced by a tier 8 being."
"Why is the secondary trial a treasure trove?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"We don¡¯t know. But we could sense an incredible amount of mana from the secondary trial and there were theories about how the rewards must be incredible."
"Have you tried to enter the secondary trials?"
"We weren¡¯t able to open it. However, h-"
"I think that¡¯s about enough questioning. My dear subject can¡¯t be spilling too many secrets now can he? He¡¯s already told you about the secondary trials so let¡¯s count that as a freebie. A small meeting gift I suppose." A voice rang out as Shiro immediately frowned. The voice was heavily distorted so Shiro couldn¡¯t tell who it was.
Before she could say anything, she felt the soul strain as it was about to break apart but she only scoffed before drawing a rune on his chest.
The moment she finished the rune, his soul stabilised.
"On? You used the runes belonging to the realm of gods. That certainly changes things a little. Thankfully, I have more ways than one when ites to killing my subordinates. I wouldn¡¯t call this a first meeting but it was a pleasure to meet you. I can¡¯t see your title but I certainly sense the aura belonging to an Empress rather than Queen albeit a little... injured. I await your performance in the event toe but don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t be there. I am merely... a spectator of the events. Farewell. I hope we can do business properly next time rather than extracting information like this." The voiceughed before disappearing.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro nced back at the soul in her hands before clicking her tongue.
"The soul¡¯s useless now. It¡¯s been wiped clean," Shiro frowned. Right now, the soul in her hands waspletely white, untainted like a new-born¡¯s soul. If she returned it to the body now, he wouldn¡¯t know anynguages nor would he know how to walk.
Clicking her tongue, she removed the runes before allowing the soul to disperse so that it could reincarnate.
Snapping her finger, she disposed of the body with her mes before sighing. Just as she was about to deactivate her true spirit nature, she saw a floating crest that was hiding amongst the dispersing light of the man¡¯s soul.
Seeing the crest, her eyes widened since it was the same raven crest she had seen on the older brother.
¡¯Was that the god involved with the triplets? The one who gave the nun a second chance. He¡¯s a spectator but unlike other gods he is able to talk without any trouble... Why is he allowed here before the second half?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as that was probably a projection of his voice.
But the fact that he seemedpletely unphased was strange since there should be limitations to a god revealing themselves.
"What should we do now?" Silvia asked as Shiro nced towards the temple.
"I think we should have a look at what this secondary trial is." Shiro replied as Silvia nodded his head.
"What about these souls then? It seems like they¡¯re stuck in a stasis of sorts." Silvia gestured towards the fragmented souls.
Biting her lips, Shiro sighed.
"There¡¯s nothing we can do other than hope that they reincarnate properly I suppose. The most I can do is give them a proper send off rather than keep them around like this."
Turning around, Shiro drank another mana potion before ncing up as a tier 6 magic circle appeared in the sky. Expanding itself to epass the entire city, the souls started to disintegrate into motes of light while Shiro gave them a silent prayer.
###
"What a waste. Even if it was left overs it would still be good to use as fuel rather than the reincarnation cycle." A figure smirked as mes flickered within the room.
Its purple eyes stared at a portal before narrowing with an ominous glint.
"Well, I say this is the perfect time for some bargains. Who knows what I might find this time? Perhaps... in a few days, I might even get my hands on a Queen who suffers defeat." The figure grinned before stepping through the portal.
Chapter 1017 Altar Within The Temple
Chapter 1017 Altar Within The Temple
Once all of the souls have been dealt with, Shiro deactivated her true spirit nature before turning towards the temple.
"I suppose we should have a look now." Shiro suggested with a smile.
Walking up the steps, the group proceeded to the top of the temple.
Usually, this process would be filled with people since the residents here used this temple as a ce of worship along with a medium for gaining knowledge. However, there was only deathly silence.
While walking up the steps, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but think back to the person who imed the man was his subordinate.
What powers did he use for them to die in such a manner? Why did he waste part of their soul? Questions filled her mind but she had no answers.
Despite her knowledge of souls and mastery thanks to Hades¡¯ help, she still couldn¡¯t think of anything that might be helpful with just taking a part of them.
From what she could tell, the part that was missing was memories. Why just take the memories? What about thebat experience? The personality? Why did they only take away the memories but nothing else. Was there something to gain from the memories?
Sighing in frustration, Shiro pulled out the book and started topare a few of the runes that her drones have scanned around the city. She had made sure that that would be as far as they could so that they could capture the full rune.
Looking at the transmitted images, Shiro started to fill in the gaps.
It didn¡¯t take them long to reach the top as they could see a giant building decorated with the bare minimum for it to look holy along with a gate that towered over them.
Seeing that the gate was already open slightly, they didn¡¯t hesitate to take a step into the temple.
The interior of the temple wasrger on the inside than it was on the outside. Looking at the hall which stretched beyond what should be possible within this temple, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow.
Supported by tens of pirs that connected to the ceiling, Shiro could see statues lined up on either side, guarding the path towards the centre of the temple.
The statues were of armoured giants holding swords and had red capes behind them.
Sending out her senses just in case these could attack her, she realised that they were just normal statues so there wasn¡¯t anything to be worried about.
Towards the centre of the temple was arge altar of sorts. Several staircases led up to the raised tform as a crystal formation could be seen behind it, radiating a myriad of colours due to the ss ceiling above which allowed sunlight to pass through the crystals.
Approaching the altar, they could see a kneeling statue of a knight along with the statue of a god. Scanning through her memories, Shiro couldn¡¯t find anything rted to this god and figured that it was probably a new god that appeared after the world was integrated with the system.
Spotting a silver te with carvings on the surface, Shiro analysed thenguage before opening her mouth.
"In honour of the greatest knight who served me. I shall bestow knowledge to this hometown." Shiro muttered before ncing back.
"Welp, I¡¯m not exactly sure where the trials are so it¡¯s up to you now. The book didn¡¯t say anything else." Shiro shrugged as Silvia nodded her head.
Stepping into the centre of the altar, Silvia took a deep breath.
"It¡¯s pretty simple. I wouldn¡¯t call it a ritual but rather the act of dering the intent to do the trials." Silvia shrugged before ring her mana.
"Silvia, Sage of Life, wishes to attempt the trials of knowledge." She called out as the crystals started to flicker.
Suddenly, the lights converged towards her as a portal opened up before her.
"See you soon." Silvia nced back with a smile before stepping through the portal.
One by one, the other healer and alchemists started to dere their intent as simr portals opened up for them.
"Do you want to try it too?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment. She wasn¡¯t sure how long it¡¯ll take so there was the chance that her mental state might be unstable halfway through the trials.
However, she couldn¡¯t continue to trouble Nan Tian like this.
"I¡¯ll give it a go." Shiro said after biting her lip.
Taking a deep breath, she took a step forward and nced up at the crystal.
"Shiro, Nanotech Demi Goddess, wishes to attempt the trials of knowledge." Shiro called out.
Suddenly, golden lights appeared in the crystals as divine energy filled the room.
Taking a step back in surprise, Shiro watched as the divine energy converged within the crystals as a singr eye nced down at her.
"A demi goddess... It¡¯s already the new age... But it¡¯s not thetter half... How peculiar... Regardless, answer me this young goddess. What knowledge do you seek and what you aim to do with it?" A voice rang out as Shiro knew that she was talking to a god or rather, what had been a god since this was left over divine energy that is sealed within the crystal.
"I know that you have medical, druidic and alchemic knowledge but since you are a god, do you have knowledge on the runguage that you use? The ones we found in the mist and the ones that we found hidden within this city. I want to use this knowledge so that I can be stronger to protect the ones that I care about." Shiro answered truthfully.
Narrowing its eye, the pupils flickered for a moment before calming down.
"Understood. You are speaking the truth. My knowledge of runes is not as deep as my knowledge of the professions that you speak of but I will grant you ess to the library containing the knowledge of runes. However, before I allow you to enter the library, I want you to make a vow."
"A vow?"
"Indeed. You are not allowed to use the knowledge that you have gained to intentionally harm innocents."
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head.
"I, Shiro, vow to not use the runic knowledge that I would gain to intentionally harm innocents who have a good soul." Shiro vowed as a tier 8 magic circle appeared around her before shrinking into a single rune on her forehead before disappearing.
"Good. Take a step forward." The voice said as a portal opened in front of her.
"Just a question before I go. Who are you?" Shiro asked curiously since more and more unknown gods are appearing now and she wanted to know where theye from.
"I am a dead god. There is no need for you to know my name as this is the only ce that contains my divine energy."
"A dead god? Did youe from a previous garden that failed?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"I did indeed. The god of healing was my title. After the new age ended, everything was destroyed. The native gods were, unfortunately, taken care of. I was no exception." The voice sighed as the divine energy faded away.
Sensing that he was gone, Shiro furrowed her brows before ncing back at Nan Tian.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll ask for a trial of knowledge as well. Not sure what I¡¯ll get though since I don¡¯t have much healing." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Mn, good luck." Shiro nodded her head.
Hesitating for a moment, she jogged back and grabbed his sleeve.
Cough
"I spent a moment talking to him so I need a little reset." Shiro scratched her cheek as Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
"Should I perhaps cut a piece of my sleeve off for you?" He joked as Shiro rolled her eyes.
Seeing the portal flicker, she let go of Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve and stepped through.
[You have discovered the Library of a Dead God.]
[This library is an isted space with all of the god¡¯s knowledge contained within. You have 1 day within this library. You are limited to the runic section.]
Seeing that her time limit was one day, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but pause for a moment. Turning around, she saw that her exit had been sealed.
She could already feel her heart beating as one day was far beyond her current limit. Previously, she was able to stay within Chronos¡¯ dimension for a long time since her physical body was with Nan Tian.
But now, she was isted on her own, in a library for a whole day with no knowledge of what could be happening outside.
Shaking her head, she dismissed her doubts as she still had a long road to go.
"It¡¯s just 24 hours. It¡¯ll go by quickly, I¡¯ve done research longer than this before." Shiro muttered as she nced back at the library.
There were rows upon rows of books stretching as high as the eye could see with a single table in the centre.
Walking towards the desk, books started to fall down from above as they stacked themselves next to the table. A quick nce of the title told her that each of them were the knowledge linked to the runes.
Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the closest book and started to read.
Chapter 1018 Natia
Chapter 1018 Natia
Reading through the books, Shiro¡¯s mind started to wander not even 10 minutes in as her surroundings seemed to close in on her.
The shadows would seem to flicker as she bit her lip and shook her head, trying to ignore it.
However, her surroundings continued to darken as Shiro activated her runes and surrounded herself in a fortress of nanotech.
Hugging her knees while using her spare hand to read the book, Shiro hoped that the 24 hours would end soon.
Even with the joy of reading books on the runes that the god used, it was still hard to focus when she couldn¡¯t concentrate.
¡¯I should just memorise everything first and read itter when I have time.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she started to flick through the books in an attempt to just remember each page rather than deciphering anything.
Once she finished flicking through a book, she would throw it out of her bunker so that it wouldn¡¯t take up space.
Continuously flipping through the books, Shiro made sure to remember everything she saw. Even the smallest detail had to be remembered in case she discovers a linkter that requires these details.
###
Shiro didn¡¯t know how long she had been reading for. Each moment felt like it would spread on for an eternity.
She had been forcing herself to regte her breathing as to not hyperventte while doubts filled her mind.
Gritting her teeth, she had an urge tosh out and destroy all of the shadows near her but she knew that it was most likely just her mind ying with her.
Scratching her hair, she tossed the book in her hands away while drinking a mana potion.
Creating several motes of lights, she looked at the remaining stacks of books.
She had an idea but it was akin to running away from her fears rather than confronting them. But with the way that things are going, she knew she wasn¡¯t going to get through all of the books in time.
Closing her eyes, Shiro did a hard reset with her ¡¯main self¡¯ sealed away for the time being. It couldn¡¯t be a soft reset since there¡¯s a high chance of her remembering her trauma again.
The only way for her to continue with studying these runes was a hard reset where her only purpose was to read through all of the books and memorise them. She didn¡¯t need to think about anything else. A nk te with a single line carved within her mind.
[Read and Memorise everything here.]
Opening her eyes once more, theycked any form of emotion. Unnerving calmness, a puppet of sorts.
Waving her hand, she dismissed the fortress and started to read without a single care about her surroundings.
She just needed to keep reading. Ignore everything.
###
Waiting by the staircase, Nan Tian waited without a second word since he wasn¡¯t able to get ess to the trials. He didn¡¯t have any healing magic nor was he a demi god that could spark the interest of a dead god.
Looking at the altar, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder how Shiro was holding up.
It had long passed 10 minutes which was her current limit so he wondered if she was fine.
Just the thought of her being alone while trying to withstand her fears caused him to sigh as he nced at his sleeve and stood up.
Walking around the temple, he looked at each of the statues while he waited since he didn¡¯t know how long they¡¯ll be in there.
While he was investigating, mostly out of boredom, he noticed a presence. It was so small that if he wasn¡¯t focused on finding anything out of the ordinary, he wouldn¡¯t have discovered it.
Walking towards the presence, Nan Tian saw that a small lizard of sorts was now running away at full speed.
Furrowing his brows, he noticed that it was familiar.
*PUCHI!!!
Before it could get far, Nan Tian had already summoned a light sword and shed it in half.
"Not good." He muttered. The familiar had probably long sent the information back to the summoner so depending on who they are, they might get surrounded soon. Unsure of when the group will return from their trials, Nan Tian stepped out of the temple andid a protective barrier around the entire ce before standing above the staircase.
Taking a deep breath, he checked his inventory for anything he could use and saw that he still had a piece of the Runic Guardian that Shiro had given him.
It was a ck grade item that allowed him to summon a Runic Guard with the same stats as Shiro and had a defence guaranteed by Hephaestus himself.
Just as a precaution, he ced the rune in a pocket so that he could bring it out whenever he wanted.
It didn¡¯t take long before he could see a group of people approaching from the distance.
A single nce caused him to furrowed his brows since his enemy was unexpectedly a Queen.
[Natia LVL 700 Queen of Summons.]
Around her seemed to be guards around level 650 while ¡¯cannon fodder¡¯ averaged around level 300 to 400.
"What brings you to this empty city, your highness. I do believe that we are not acquainted." Nan Tian called out as he ced his mask over his face. Shiro didn¡¯t like others seeing his face after all.
"Does this city belong to you? I happened to hear some news about trials along with a secondary trial which has the inheritance of a god. Unless you¡¯re the owner, this is a free ce." Natia chuckled as she stepped forward.
She had long silver blond hair along with a pair of blue eyes that matched the colour of the sky. She wore a white dress that was covered by some light armour.
"If you don¡¯t mind me asking, may I know who you heard the news from?" Nan Tian asked, keeping his guard up in case a surprise attack wasunched against him mid talk. The longer he dyed the better since he wasn¡¯t sure he could defeat all of them.
"Just a helpful fellow. Now why don¡¯t you tell me about yourself. Your face is rather desirable after all." Natia smiled as she licked her lips but Nan Tian shook his head.
"Sorry but there¡¯s only one woman in my heart and that is not you. Though if you neededfort in bed I¡¯m sure one of your summons can help you with that." Nan Tianughed but Natia only narrowed her eyes.
"Shame. But you really think a level 530 can stand up to all of us?"
"Not really. I wasn¡¯t able to cultivate much for levels since someone needed my help. However..." He trailed off as his figure started to warp.
Suddenly, he reappeared in front of Natia and cleaved his sword down.
*CRACK!!!
¡¯Sh*t! it¡¯s shallow.¡¯ Nan Tian clicked his tongue since he wanted to kill her in one go but her reactions were better than what he had expected. All he managed to achieve was draw a little bit of blood.
Seeing his hostility, Natia didn¡¯t hesitate to take a step back as she waved her hand. Suddenly, several tier 6 magic circles appeared with portals opening above Nan Tian.
Understanding that they were summoned monsters, he decided to take care of the cannon fodder first. Even if they were cannon fodder, it¡¯ll still be annoying if he kept on getting hit by them.
mming his hand down, a tier 6 magic circle appeared as he teleported away using his control over light.
Those that were standing in the magic circle felt danger beneath them as sword of light shot up through a certain entrance and ripped them in half. The wounds were charred as the smell of cooked meat started to drift through the area.
Making some distance between him and Natia so that he didn¡¯t get surrounded, Nan Tian was about to summon the guard when a trident appeared in his peripherals.
Ducking down as fast as he could, he barely avoided being stabbed in the head but the attacker wasn¡¯t done.
Stomping down, Nan Tian¡¯s body tensed up uncontrobly as the attacker mmed his palm against his chest.
COUGH!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood from the impact, his body wasunched towards the portals as several elemental attacks wereunched towards him.
Gritting his teeth, he twisted his body in mid air as tens of swords were summoned besides him.
Biting his finger, he traced a line of blood down his arm as his sleeves burned away to reveal a row of glowing runes that seemed to be formed from the sun. The light distorted from the heat as Nan Tian aimed his palm towards the summoned monsters.
Without a second word, he swiped his hands down as the swords shot towards them, pinning them in ce.
In the next moment, a pir of light descended from the sky and obliterated everything in front of him.
Hovering in the air, Nan Tian held his sword while quickly giving himself some healing front that single hit he took from the guard.
"Well this is certainly unfair wouldn¡¯t you say? Many vs one." Nan Tian forced a smile as Natia only narrowed her eyes beforemanding everyone to charge towards him.
Chapter 1019 Fighting Natia
Chapter 1019 Fighting Natia
Dodging most of their attacks while killing off the small fries, Nan Tian didn¡¯t know how long it had been but his muscles ached from fatigue. There were now only five people left with one of them being Natia.
Judging by her expression, he knew that she waspletely furious since a low levelled tier 6 managed to avoid their pursuit and kill off the people she had with her.
He hadn¡¯t been able to use any items just yet since the moment he tried to, they¡¯ll take that moment to attack him so it was a risk.
ncing down at his mana, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh since he was running empty. Unless he takes a mana potion, he won¡¯t be able to fight for long.
"I¡¯ll admit, you¡¯re tenacious." Natia red as Nan Tian chuckled.
His mask was half broken so they could see one of his eyes.
"Thank you very much. But I have to attribute it to the fact that you have been taking it easy on me." Nan Tian smiled since he knew that they haven¡¯t been using their main skills yet. For a Queen of summoning, most of the monsters she¡¯s been summoning had been small fries so he knew that she had something up her sleeve.
The fact that he couldn¡¯t sense it worried him.
"Perhaps." Natia smiled as she gave her followers a nce and snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, the four of them disappeared and reappeared near him.
Wanting to not get surrounded, Nan Tian was about to take a step back when one of the guards mmed his knuckles together.
Feeling the desire to attack him, Nan Tian clicked his tongue and knew that it was a taunt skill. Biting the tip of his tongue, he woke himself up in time to duck down and raise his sword to be used as a shield to block their attacks.
Taking this moment to roll to the side while activating the runic guard, he watched as a summoning hex appeared on the floor as a giant stone hand appeared.
*BANG!!!!
mming the ground near the attackers and forcing them to step back, the Runic Guardian wed his way out of the hex and stood menacingly tall. It was mostly constructed of carved stone that had runes etched to the surface. It was 15ft tall withrge burly arms that reached past its knees.
Before anyone could react, the Runic Guard disappeared and appeared near Natia and punched towards her.
Widening her eyes, Natia summoned a monster that coiled its body around her but the punch shattered the monster¡¯s scales and broke its bones, sending the two of them rocketing towards the empty city.
"I almost forgot that Shiro¡¯s strength was crazy for a mage too. Last time I asked, she had 302 million points in strength but that was before the first event." Nan Tian muttered with a smile as he quickly drank a potion.
Unfortunately, despite the Runic Guard having the same stats as Shiro, it wasn¡¯t able to use any spells nor did it have any ranged attacks.
It was just a powerful distraction.
However, with Nan Tian¡¯s mana back to full, they were a team of attack and defence.
Two of the attacks were now keeping the guard busy while the other two were pushing him back leaving Natia to do whatever she wanted.
Standing up from the corpse of her most recent summon, her expression did not look good as her eyes were filled with wrath.
sping her hands together, a giant tier 6 magic circle appeared in the sky as it overshadowed the city.
Looking up in shock, Nan Tian wanted to interfere with the summoning but with two tier 6 guards trying to stop him, it was a little difficult.
He was barely managing to hold his own but he wasn¡¯t able to find a chance to escape so he could only watch as a dreadful presence slowly descended towards the city.
Little by little, the summon revealed itself. It had a long serpentine body which was most likely twice perhaps even three times longer than the city when stretched out. Crystalline scales decorated the surface as there were neon blue lights peeking out from the gaps.
Two muscr ws with what seemed to be retractable razors tore open the portal, revealing its full body.
With a draconic head that seemed translucent, revealing its skull, the summon also had a pair of crystal wings where the membrane that helps it fly stretched all the way down its serpentine body.
Looking at the wingspan of this summoning that dwarfed the city, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but shake his head.
Of course, this didn¡¯t mean that he was giving up.
"Let¡¯s keep fighting I suppose." He chuckled.
Grabbing the de with his bare hands, Nan Tian broke the first attacker¡¯s guard before flipping over him to avoid the second attacker. mming the two into one another, Nan Tian mmed his hands together and activated a tier 6 magic circle above the two.
Suddenly a barrier surrounded them as a tiny orb of light appeared in the centre.
Snapping his fingers, it exploded with all of its energy contained within the barrier, cooking the two alive.
Before the spell could finish, he watched as cracks formed on the barrier.
*PING!!!
Shattering to pieces, Nan Tian quickly dodged the two¡¯s attack as their eyes red at him with anger. Seeing both of them being burned badly but not fatal, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but sigh.
"Of course it¡¯s not this easy." He sighed before activating a berserk skill.
"I think I¡¯ll take a page out of her book. I wonder what stacking berserk skills feel like." Nan Tian smiled before charging at the two while keeping an eye on the summon that loomed above them.
Seeing that the two reacted with attacks of their own, Nan Tian smiled and allowed them to hit his body.
Surprised at his willingness to take hits, the two were about to react when Nan Tian grabbed their weapons and pulled them closer.
Reaching for their heads, he mmed the two against one another, dazing them for a moment before mming them against the ground.
Grabbing one of them to pin the other down, a spear of light formed in his hand as he was above to pierce the two of them when he sensed danger from above and quickly rolled out of the way.
*BOOM!!!!!
Watching a breath attack obliterate the two guards along with the ground that they wereying on, Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
However, before he could question his decision, he watched as two more portals opened up, summoning two extra tier 6 guards, causing him to massage his eyes.
"No wonder they werecking a few skills." He muttered but just the fact that she could summon tier 6 guards was annoying. Even if it seems like she was limited to just four.
¡¯The guards will keep spawning so my best bet is to take care of the summoner along with the dragon thing above us.¡¯ Nan Tian thought to himself while ncing towards Natia who was standing above the head of the summon.
With her being protected by the dragon, it was going to be a pain to reach her unless he managed to stun the dragon. Even then, there was no guarantee that he would be able to kill her.
The Runic Guard was taking care of the other two so he wasn¡¯t being swarmed by all of her summons.
Taking a deep breath, Nan Tian red his aura as there was a time limit for his berserk skills.
Activating the skill unique to his ss, Incarnation of Light, radiant armour wrapped around Nan Tian as golden spears appeared around him.
Looking up, he raised his hand before pulling back as if ready to throw a javelin.
Light started to gather towards his hands as tier 6 magic circles appeared in front of him.
Forming a rotating spear with the light, Nan Tian gritted his teeth as the ground started to crack beneath him.
While this was happening, the two newly summoned guards were dashing towards him.
Ignoring them, he threw the spear.
*BOOM!!!!
The moment the spear passed through the magic circles, their power was amplified as it transformed into a blinding ray of light that passed by the dragon in an instant.
"URAHHH!!!!!!"
Hearing the dragon cry out in pain and anger, Natia stabilised herself on its back as she could see a line of burned flesh along the body with the scales being torn off forcefully and the ones that weren¡¯t torn off were being melted by the heat.
"Don¡¯t look away." Nan Tian¡¯s voice rang out as he appeared in front of the dragon¡¯s head with another spear ready.
Narrowing his eyes, he threw the spear.
Chapter 1020 Leaving the Library
Chapter 1020 Leaving the Library
Standing on top of the now dead summon, Nan Tian panted heavily as blood dripped off his arm.
The runic guardian was destroyed during the battle and the dragon was much harder to kill than he had expected.
Looking at the destruction caused to the city with giant scales destroying the house, he couldn¡¯t help but sigh as he summoned another spear.
Taking steps towards Natia who was panicking, Nan Tian tried to focus his gaze towards her but his vision continued to blur.
During the entire fight, she continued to summon tier 6 guards along with other monsters to keep him upied while the dragon damaged him so it was no surprise that she would have run out of mana by now.
He was in the same position. Had it not been for the mana potions that he continued to drink, he would have died long ago.
Pulling his arm back, he grabbed his final spear and threw it towards the Queen.
*BANG!!!!!
¡¯Sh*t...¡¯ Nan Tian thought to himself with a frown as he missed the throw.
Seeing Natia pulling out a talisman, Nan Tian wanted to stop her but his body gave up, forcing him to fall forwards.
Watching Natia leave through a portal that the talisman opened, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but curse his luck.
¡¯I can¡¯t pass out yet.¡¯ He thought to himself.
Even if Natia had left, there¡¯s no guarantee that she won¡¯t just return the moment lost consciousness.
Rolling his body over, he forced himself to look up at the sky and nced towards his level.
"Seems like I made up for not cultivating thesest months." He muttered with a soft chuckle. During this fight, he had killed a level 700 summon, tens of tier 6 guards and even a bunch of small fries that came with the Queen.
[Nan Tian ¨C LVL 630 Incarnation of Light]
Even after his body was being wrecked by the bacsh, he activated more berserk talismans to keep himself fighting and it was worth it since the Queen had now left.
Gritting his teeth, he could feel his body ache from the bacsh as he took a deep breath and forced himself to stand backup.
Using his sword as a crutch, he made his way towards the temple once more and sat by the staircase leading up to the altar. Closing his eyes, he rested his body while he could.
###
Shiro didn¡¯t know how long she had been reading for but the pile of books started to decrease.
The moment she had finished thest book, her seal undid itself as she looked around in confusion before remembering where she was.
"How long has it been." Shiro muttered as she quickly stood up.
ncing down at her phone, she saw that there were only two hours left and sighed in relief.
The moment she did, she felt as though someone had just breathed near her and quickly turned around to see the empty library.
Biting her lip, she found a good ce to sit down before surrounding herself with walls and sealed up the top.
¡¯I just need to stay here for two hours.¡¯ She thought to herself while hugging her knees.
Boxing herself in a corner, she started to recount the books that she had memorised and tried to piece things together.
Time seemed to stretch on forever as she mostly spent that time trying not to think about things rather than piece together the information.
Thankfully, this didn¡¯tst long as Shiro sensed the mana gathering towards one point and a portal was opened.
Widening her eyes, she quickly dismissed the walls around her and rushed towards the portal without looking back.
Shielding her eyes from the light, Shiro found herself back at the temple.
Looking around for Nan Tian, she was shocked to see him resting on the steps with Silvia and other healers tending to his wounds.
"What happened?" Shiro asked in surprise as she quickly rushed over.
"Shh." Silvia gestured for her to be quiet as Shiro nodded her head.
Seeing that Nan Tian was currently sleeping, Shiro looked towards Silvia hoping for some answers.
"Come with me, I¡¯ll tell you. He¡¯s finally resting so we shouldn¡¯t wake him up."
Standing up, Silvia gestured for Shiro to follow her as the two left the temple.
Looking at the destruction of the city with the giant corpse of a draconic monster slowly evaporating into mana, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes in shock.
"Our trial was finished in 5 hours. By the time we came out, we saw Nan Tian barely holding on near the steps. His body was in a worse shape than yours since unlike you, he didn¡¯t have the monstrous regeneration that you had. ording to him, a Queen had sent a scout earlier andunched an attack on the temple but he managed to repel it. He wasn¡¯t able to kill the Queen of Summoning but most of her summons were killed. He isn¡¯t sure if they could be summoned again though." Silvia exined with a frown as Shiro paused in shock.
She knew that Queens were probably going to investigate this country but she didn¡¯t expect to see one on the first day.
"How is his condition?" Shiro asked, ncing back in worry.
"It¡¯s not great. Bacsh from stacking berserk skills." Silvia sighed.
"If I didn¡¯t learn how to treat bacshes from the trial, he would be looking much worse."
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows as she made her way back into the temple.
Walking up the steps, she sat next to Nan Tian while holding onto his sleeve.
Checking his body condition to see if there was anything she could do, Shiro sighed softly.
Once her mental state had stabilised, Shiro looked down at Nan Tian before turning towards Silvia.
"I¡¯ll be right back."
Nodding her head, Silvia watched as Shiro made her way out of the temple with a cold expression.
¡¯That Queen¡¯s probably- no, she is dead.¡¯ Silvia thought to herself as she focused on treating Nan Tian¡¯s injuries.
###
Reaching the corpse of the dragon, Shiro drank a mana potion as nanobots appeared around her.
Getting them to consume the corpse, Shiro had parts of her mind analyse the runes she learned within the library while the other used her knowledge to construct a spell that could track the link connecting the summoner and the summon.
Slowly a tier 6 magic circle appeared on her hand as a red tether slowly materialised.
"There." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
She had around 10 minutes to deal with this Queen and it was more than enough. Even 5 minutes would be enough right now.
Stomping down, her figure disappeared as she flickered through dimensions to increase her speed. Using a mix of special magic along with rift magic, Shiro charged towards the other end of the tether.
###
"Sh*t!" Natia gritted her teeth as she sat down in a safehouse that they had prepared beforehand. She didn¡¯t take everyone with her since there was only one person there but she didn¡¯t think he would be able to kill her strongest summon. It was one of her rewards when she cleared a hidden trial and it was also her trump card for this event.
She wanted tounch another attack but she was suffering from having her blood link destroyed with her summon so she was in no state to fight.
However, once she recovers, she¡¯ll have everyone here attack the temple.
¡¯He¡¯ll be suffering from the berserk skill bacsh. Hell, there¡¯s probably a chance that he¡¯s already dead but we have 5 high level tier 6 guards. They only have that man and the Queen so we win in terms of numbers.¡¯ Natia thought to herself while resting on a bed.
However, the moment she looked down, she noticed a faint red tether appear on her wrist as a bad feeling appeared in her heart.
Just as she went to touch the tether, it disintegrated into tiny light particles.
Understanding that this was a skill, Natia immediately wanted to leave this ce. But before she could even sit up properly, wires wrapped around her body, pinning her to the bed.
"Why the rush?" A cold voice rang out as Natia forced herself to look up and saw Shiro crouching above her bed frame with a dark expression.
Looking at the eyes that glowed slightly in the shadow cast by her hair, Natia could feel her body tense up.
Flexing her finger, a needle appeared as it stabbed into Natia¡¯s shoulder.
She wanted to cry out but a rune appeared on her throat, stopping her from speaking.
"This one stops you from speaking and moving. It¡¯s a neat littlebination I came up with using parts of the new runes I discovered." Shiro exined as a second needle appeared.
"This one takes some time to use but once itpletes its task, your mana realm will be destroyed. Every step of the way, you¡¯ll feel excruciating pain as it¡¯s shredding all of your links little by little."
Throwing the second needle and stabbing it into Natia¡¯s abdominal area, Shiro hopped off the bed frame and stood next to the bed.
"And this one... well. This one messes with your perception of time." Shiro grinned darkly as a third needle appeared.
Stabbing it into her chest, Shiro brought out a dagger and grabbed Natia by her hair.
"Enjoy the next ¡¯year¡¯ of mypany."
*PUCHI!
Chapter 1021 Level 765
Chapter 1021 Level 765
Dusting her hands, Shiro scoffed as she looked at the pool of blood that coated the bed.
Since it was only a few ¡¯minutes¡¯ for herpared to the year that Natia had to experience, none of the guards hade to check up on her just yet.
"I should head back now." Shiro muttered as she waved her finger, retracting all of the needles spread around the room.
Right now, she could only make three needles and she had even received a skill for this.
[Divine Runic Needles]
Needles carved with the Runic Language of the Gods. Depending on your understanding, each needle will have its own effects. The potency of the needles also depends on enemy resistances and strength.
Current Needles: Paralytic Needle, Mana Shredder Needle, Perception Enhancement Needle.
Cost: 10% of mana for each needle.
Not all of the needles were harmful since the Perception Enhancement Needle also works for her if she fine tunes the perception of time a little. That way, there¡¯s more ¡¯time¡¯ to react to an attack during a fight.
After killing Natia, even if she was weakened, her level had increased with most of the EXP going to Nan Tian since he contributed the most.
This raised her level only by 5 since she was level 760.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit Demi God
Title: Expert Monster (13,029/100,000 Humans killed.), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind, Virtue of Fortitude, Young Demi God, Goddess of Protection, Merciful Goddess, Young Goddess (50% Boost Currently), Leader of Asharia, Tainted Shell, Realm Breaker.
Level: 765
ss: Nanotech Demi Goddess (Demi God)
HP: 109,375,000,000/109,375,000,000
MP: 376,250,000,000/376,250,000,000
STR: 625,000,000
VIT: 710,000,000
INT: 2,150,000,000
AGI: 730,000,000
DEX: 605,000,000
DEF: 515,000,000
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 6
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 6
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 6
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 6 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 6
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 6
Dark Celestial Phoenix Fire ¨C Tier 6
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 6
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 6
Oceanic Abyss ¨C Tier 6
Nature ¨C Tier 6
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 7 Demi God
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Nanotech Demi Goddess:
Elemental Breath, Celestial Mirage, Force of Elements, Demi God Raiment, Tier 6 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Demi goddess¡¯ Domain, Demi God Skill ¨C Rebirth, Legendary Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Divine Court Appointment, Demi goddess¡¯ Blessing, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 6, Analysis, True Spirit Nature, Divine Gardens, Divine Presence ¨C Divinity of Nanobots, March of the Goddess, Divine Insight of God, Protection of the Goddess, Boon of the Demi Goddess
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx
World ss Magic:
Requiem of the Dead
Grand Support ss Magic:
Requiem of the Demi Goddess
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr, Item Master, Limit Focus, Blessing of Chaos, Soul Siphon, Divine Runic Needles.]
However, despite her monstrous stats, she knew that she was no match for gods just yet. Even if she is technically ssified as a Demi God, she knew that real ones were much stronger.
Shaking her head, she nced back at the safehouse and saw the guards in a panic.
¡¯They must have got the notification that their Queen is dead. Well it¡¯s not my problem anymore.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she opened a portal and teleported back to the temple.
Seeing that everyone was still here treating Nan Tian¡¯s injuries, Shiro sighed in relief.
She was a little worried about their safety hence why she killed the Queen quickly otherwise she would have tortured her for a bit longer than just a few minutes.
"Seems like you¡¯re done with everything." Silvia said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn I have. There¡¯s going to be one less Queen in the event." Shiro replied, walking next to Nan Tian.
Sitting down next to him, she drank a mana potion and activated analysis to see if she could pinpoint the origin point of his bacsh. After studying some of the runes, she had a rough idea of how to possibly treat the bacsh but she wasn¡¯t sure.
It was a theory for now so she wanted to see if it was possible.
However, even after drawing some runes to see if she could spot his bacsh, she saw nothing.
"Hmm... Silvia, you and the others can start reflecting on the knowledge you gained and perhaps help one another. If any of you can ess the secondary trial somehow, it¡¯ll be beneficial for us." Shiro said as Silvia nodded her head.
"Sure. We do have a few restrictions that we have to follow with this knowledge but it doesn¡¯t restrict us from sharing with people that already know." Silvia shrugged.
"As for the secondary trial... we don¡¯t have a clue just yet."
"That¡¯s fine. We¡¯ll use this ce as a temporary base since Nan Tian¡¯s injured. We¡¯ll camp for a day and once he¡¯s woken up, we¡¯ll make our way back to Asharia so that we can prepare for the event." Shiro said as Silvia nodded.
While Silvia and the other healers were trading knowledge with one another, Shiro looked after Nan Tian.
Sitting next to him, she couldn¡¯t help but sigh.
¡¯I suppose this is what he felt when he was looking after me.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
###
"Hng...." Groaning softly, Nan Tian opened his eyes slowly as he saw Shiro reading a book above him.
Noticing that he was resting his head on her leg right now while she was reading, he wanted to sit up when her finger pressed down on his head.
"Just rest. You¡¯ve already overexerted yourself by almost killing a Queen." Shiro said as she didn¡¯t look away from her book.
"Fine. This is a rather interesting situation isn¡¯t it? Normally it¡¯ll be the other way around." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
"Well who told you to stack berserk skills without a recovery passive like I do." Shiro rolled her eyes as she nced down.
"What can I say? I can¡¯t exactly let them ambush you after all of youe out of that trial now can I?" Nan Tian smiled as Shiro flicked his head.
"True but still. What do you think I would do if you died on me." Shiro sighed.
"Cause a massacre?" Nan Tian joked as Shiro nodded her head.
"That and I¡¯ll ask Hades to bring your soul back if I couldn¡¯t get to you in time. If you¡¯re not around what do you think would happen to my trauma?" Shiro nced to the side while trying to focus back on her book once more.
"This might be asking too much but do you mind if I enjoy this a little longer?" Nan Tian asked with a small smile.
"Sure. You need some rest anyways. Don¡¯t do anything strange or else I¡¯ll hit you."
"I wouldn¡¯t dare." Nan Tian chuckled.
Resting for a while, he wanted to get up once more but Shiro pressed her finger against his head again.
"More rest." Shiro lectured since he had onlyid down for a little while.
"I think you can spare enough time for me to go back to Asharia." Nan Tian forced a smile as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Drinking a mana potion, Shiro created a pink wheelchair next to them.
"This is...?"
"Get in." Shiro smiled as this was her revenge.
"But-"
"Did I stutter?" Shiro asked, pointing a gun at Nan Tian with a sweet smile.
"I shall gracefully ept this wheelchair." Nan Tian sighed.
Allowing him to stand up, Shiro watched as he sat down on the wheelchair but the moment he did a belt wrapped around his waist as Shiro snapped her finger a second time.
Revealing two chambers that released rainbow trails behind them, Shiro had the wheelchair follow her as she walked towards the rest of the group.
"Everyone pack up, we¡¯re going back to the city now." Shiro called out as they all turned around.
But the moment they did, they froze up in shock seeing Nan Tian¡¯s wheelchair pumping out rainbow glitter to a beat.
"This is?" Silvia raised an eyebrow.
"A normal wheelchair. Is there a problem?" Shiro smiled as Silvia paused but shook her head.
She figured that it was probably her way of getting revenge for all of the wheelchairs that Nan Tian had given her.
"Nope. We¡¯re ready anytime." Silvia smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Good. I¡¯ll open a portal no-"
Before she could even finish, she felt her mana realm stir as energy started to fill her body.
Widening her eyes, she looked at Nan Tian and Silvia.
"My mana realm finished evolving."
Chapter 1022 Leaving Vrish Lir
Chapter 1022 Leaving Vrish'' Lir
"Your mana realm has finished evolving?!" Both Silvia and Nan Tian widened their eyes since this meant that not only will Shiro not need to bother with potions anymore, she would also be stronger than ever.
After all, it was unprecedented for the mana realm to evolve and it was literally unheard of. It can get enhancements that improve it little by little but never a full-on evolution. To put it in simpler terms, it¡¯s like whacking an engine on a skateboard.
Sure it goes fast and it¡¯s enhanced but it¡¯s still a skateboard whereas the evolved mana realm could possibly be a supercar that dwarfs the skateboard.
"Yeah. I can feel the energy flowing through my body again. My passive skill is regenerating all of my mana back. My divine energy might need so- wait... no, my divine energy is also replenishing." Shiro muttered in surprise.
Divine Energy was differentpared to mana. She could only get a set amount every day but right now, it was regenerating slowly.
While it might not be fast enough to help her inbat, it was enough for her to cast one or two more divine spells per day.
"Are you able to ess your mana realm?" Nan Tian asked but Shiro shook her head.
"Not yet. But I think it is simr to breaking open an egg. Once it¡¯s fully broken out of its shell, I¡¯ll be able to ess it once more." Shiro nodded her head.
While the three of them were talking about her mana realm, the others were surprised since it was the first time they had ever heard of a person¡¯s mana realm evolving.
Some of them had the curiosity to examine Shiro but they didn¡¯t dare ask. After all, if Silvia wasn¡¯t taking the initiative, there was no room for them to ask.
"Well regardless, let¡¯s head back first. I think this is a good enough time to let everyone else in Asharia know." Silvia suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
Turning around, she was about to prepare herself to activate the portal when the spell circle immediately formed on her wrist and the portal was opened in an instant.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Shiro didn¡¯t expect her casting time to be so short and neither did anyone else.
A single blink was all it took for her to cast. There was little to no chance for any sort of interference.
"Did... did you just cast that instantly?" Silvia asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"I think so. The mana is flowing through my body much faster than before so casting a spell is essentially on two time¡¯s speed I think." Shiro replied as she had the urge to test this out some more but now wasn¡¯t the time.
Gesturing for everyone to go through the portal, Shiro continued to make little trinkets to see how fast she could cast and whenbined with her casting speed using nanobots, there was little to no dy.
With the speed at which her brain cane up with these blueprints, it seemed as though the weapon would just appear in an instant without construction.
There were plenty of things that she might not know about her mana realm just yet but the main ones that she noticed were faster mana regen, mana flow, casting time along with casting efficiency.
For a spell that should take 10% of her mana, the needles, they were actually taking around 6 to 8% of her mana instead thanks to her regeneration.
Waving her fingers, five needles appeared in between her fingers in an instant.
"When did you be a person who uses needles instead of a gun or a sword?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shrugged her shoulder.
"When I realised that it¡¯s easier to affect people with runes carved on a needle than it is with a sword. Of course, there are still benefits to a sword and a gun but for people, needles are pretty handy." Shiro exined.
"True. Against arge monster, a needle might have a hard time. Of course, I¡¯m not saying that your needles are weak since you can probably throw them at the same speed of one of your bullets." Nan Tian shrugged.
"Indeed. I¡¯ll need to work on my needle techniques though. Trying to incorporate this during a fight might be a little annoying." Shiro sighed.
Flicking her wrist, the five needles shot out of her hand as they pierced a nanotech target that Shiro had created. Two of the needles hit the bullseye side by side but the other three bounced off each other andnded on the floor.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro flexed her finger slightly as all of her needles returned to her hand since they are all under her control. However, just in case there was someone that could stop that, there were also thin barely noticeable wires connecting the needles to her fingertips so that she could retract them at will.
Once everyone had entered the portal, Shiro walked through as she was thest one here.
ncing back at the crystal, she narrowed her eyes before mouthing the following words.
¡¯Thanks for your help.¡¯
Closing the portal behind her, she didn¡¯t notice the crystals flicker for a moment before falling back to silence once more.
Standing in the za, Shiro did a quick headcount before pping her hands for their attention.
"As you know, you cannot share this information with anyone else but you are able to discuss amongst yourselves to get a better understanding. I would like to appoint Silvia as the leader for now as she still has her duties as the leader of the healers guild. I hope that all of you can use the information you have gained to improve the medical practices in Asharia. Nathan, we will send you a message once we are ready to see if we can treat your brother." Shiro smiled as Nathan nodded his head.
"Now, if there is nothing else, you may all return to your homes. Since you have done well this trip, all of you should have a form on your ount that asks you for a desired reward as the winners of the small event we held. Once you have answered that, we¡¯ll try to grant you your wish as soon as we can. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them."
Hearing this, a woman fidgeted with her jacket before raising her hand.
"Will we be able to read a document about your evolving mana realm?" She asked as Shiro shook her head.
"Unfortunately no. We don¡¯t know the details of this happening and it is a rather unique case. As much as I want to research this, we don¡¯t have much we could say due to theck of understanding."
Answering a few other minor questions, Shiro watched as everyone made their way back to their homes. Sighing in relief, Shiro walked back to the tower while Nan Tian followed her in his wheelchair, still releasing rainbow glitter that would disappear since it was nanobots.
Realising something, Shiro moved behind the wheelchair and pushed while grabbing onto Nan Tian¡¯s jacket by the shoulder.
Cough...
"Don¡¯t mind me." Shiro said as it was rather awkward to hold his jacket while pushing the wheelchair.
"I won¡¯t. So what¡¯s the n now?" Nan Tian asked with a smile.
"Hmm... We¡¯ll inform our party members about my recovery and see if any of them want to partake in any experiments to figure out what benefits this evolution has brought. There¡¯s a few days left so I want to find out as much as I can. Plus, I¡¯m curious if my current mana realm can sustain the creation of a tier 8 magic circle. If it can, I¡¯ll be able to try out the new runes more often." Shiro replied with a smile.
"Well considering the fact that you were close to seeding before, you should have a higher chance now. While we¡¯re on the topic of runes, how was the library? Was it helpful?" Nan Tian asked curiously since he wasn¡¯t able to enter.
"Yup. I was able to learn a lot from the library. I still need to fully digest the information and decipher a lot of it but right now I have gathered pretty much all the pieces I need." Shiro smiled.
"I think if I studied hard for thest few days before the event, I should have the time stop ready by then."
Hearing this, Nan Tian nced up in surprise.
"You already know space magic and now you¡¯re studying time magic. Next thing we know, you¡¯ll be studying pure creation." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Well that is part of the process needed to be the creation goddess. I did promise my big sis after all. Even with everything that¡¯s happened, I won¡¯t forget." Shiro smiled, It was just unfortunate that she hasn¡¯t put much focus on her Frozen Hell Series recently. If she was tobine it with her runes, the power will definitely increase. Bringing Nan Tian to her room again, she sent out a message to the other party members before closing her eyes.
She wanted to enter her mana realm and see Attie, Nimue and Iziuel once more.
Chapter 1023 Evolved Spirits
Chapter 1023 Evolved Spirits
Entering the path that would have led her to the mana realm, Shiro looked around in both confusion and anticipation as she could recognise the main ind that she was walking on when she first entered the mana realm.
However, everything else was strangely empty. There were no attunement inds, no Nimue, Iziuel or Attie. Even the strands that represented her mana links werepletely gone.
Furrowing her brows, she was about to call out when she felt a presence approach her from below.
Looking down at the ground with a frown, Shiro could feel the presencee closer as she took a step back and readied herself.
Suddenly, Shiro saw a dark shadow sh past the edge of the ind beforending in front of her, unfortunately, the shadow tripped over as Shiro saw who it was.
It was a young man that looked like he was around histe teens.
With bright red hair and a pair of ruby eyes, he sat up and pouted slightly before looking at Shiro with an excited smile.
"Mum!" Atesh called out with a bright smile as he jumped over for a hug.
Catching him, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile and pat his back.
"You¡¯ve grown so big since thest I saw you. It¡¯s a bit of a shame that I couldn¡¯t watch you grow." Shiro chuckled as Atesh paused for a moment before taking a step back.
"Did you prefer me younger mum?" Atesh asked, looking down at his body but Shiro shook her head.
"Nope this is fine. Young you was cute but now my son is so handsome." Shiro chuckled, patting his head.
Previously, she could pat his head with ease but now she had to reach up slightly as Atesh had overtaken her in height.
"Sheesh. Couldn¡¯t even wait a single moment to see his mum." A voice called out with a soft chuckle as Shiro could see Nimue walking up with a soft smile.
Her long blue hair seemed to float through the air as though it was water and the slightest movement would cause it to wave around. Gravity doesn¡¯t seem to affect her hair as she gave Shiro a light wave.
"It¡¯s been a while. I¡¯ll be honest, this evolution took much longer than it should have. Not that I was expecting it of course. I didn¡¯t even know it was possible but here we are." Nimue chuckled.
"Where Iziuel?" Shiro asked, giving Nimue a hug.
"She¡¯s just down below, redecorating a little since this ce is much bigger than what we expected." Nimue gestured behind her.
"Below?"
"Yup. This is just a single floating ind. The main body ofnd is beneath this ind. Come, we¡¯ll show you." Nimue smiled as Atesh pulled on her hand eagerly. Despite looking like he was in histe teens, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but see Atesh as a small bunny that wanted to show her something amazing.
Following the two to the edge of the ind, Shiro nced down and widened her eyes in shock.
Beneath this ind was a giant continent with a myriad of environments that matched her attunements.
Towards the north was the volcanic mountains followed by sections filled with nothing but lightning.
Nanotech could be seen in the centre of this new mana realm as an energy tower could be seen, generating a golden energy that flowed through thend.
Understanding that it was probably Divine Energy, Shiro could see thend shifting near the water area.
Narrowing her eyes, she was able to spot Iziuel who was in a simr state to Nimue.
"After evolving, we all got a notification. We didn¡¯t get divinity but we were quite close." Nimue chuckled.
Raising her eyebrows, she inspected both Nimue and Atesh.
[Nimue ¨C Divine Aspect of Water]
[Atesh ¨C Divine Aspect of Fire]
"We¡¯ve be something called Divine Aspects and it¡¯s a state that¡¯s just short of bing a Demi God like you. Of course, we can also ess very marginal amounts of divine energy with our respective elements but I think the most benefit is the passives we bring now that our evolution is done. You might want to check your attunements." Nimue chuckled.
Taking her advice, Shiro nced at her recent notification and saw a total of 4 notifications.
[Dark Celestial Phoenix Fire (Tier 6) -> Aspect of Fire (Tier 7)]
[Oceanic Abyss (Tier 6) -> Aspect of Water (Tier 7)]
[Nature (Tier 6) -> Aspect of Life (Tier 7)]
[Passive gained: Aspect of Fire, Aspect of Water, Aspect of Life.]
All of her attunements linked to her contracted Spirits had been upgraded to tier 7 and she had gained passive skills linked to them. All of the skills were the same but with the change of elements however, they were outrageous in their own rights.
[Aspect of Fire/Water/Life]
You are immune to Fire/Water/Life based spells below tier 7. The mana used on these skills will only refill your mana and boost your spell power for a short period of time.
It was a simple description but this was enough to tell her how powerful it was. Now that she was immune to fire, water and life based skills below tier 7, it meant that Queens and Empresses that use skills that are linked to these three elements will no longer have effect on her.
Looking at this in speechlessness, Shiro didn¡¯t know how to react as Nimue only chuckled.
"Want a table?" She offered as Shiro shook her head.
"I think I¡¯ll be fine. Also, Estre has been missing all of you since she wasn¡¯t able to enter the mana realm while it was being upgraded."
"I figured. Even though we were undergoing upgrades. We could still see what was going on. I know you¡¯re making progress but I still want to tell you to not me yourself too harshly. There¡¯s still a chance that we can get her back." Nimue smiled as she hugged Shiro.
Surprised that they saw everything, Shiro closed her eyes and returned the hug.
"Mn. I¡¯ll try not to."
"But did you know that during the entire process, Attie was essentially ring daggers at Nan Tian. He wanted to apany you but since he was restrained by his evolution, he couldn¡¯t do anything but watch."
"Well at least he protected mum and stayed by her side properly." Atesh nced to the side as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile.
"Also, about that voice you heard with Chronos. We don¡¯t know exactly what happened but it seemed like Error had a small reaction. However, after that event, there wasn¡¯t another peep out of him. Completely silent. There¡¯s a small part dedicated to Error but there isn¡¯t much to be seen there. Just a single altar that has a tree created from circuits being grown." Nimue said as she pointed towards the far east.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro could faintly see the rest tree created from circuits that Nimue had mentioned just now.
"Hm... regardless of who that voice belonged to, they called me mother, which is quite a respectful address. I think we¡¯ll find out in the future but right now it seems like the most likely candidate is Error." Shiro nodded her head.
"Mum, there¡¯s not much else to be seen in here. Aunt Iziuel is redecorating so let¡¯s leave and let her do her thing. I want to see big sis Yin and big sis Lisa." Atesh suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright. You cane out more often now that you¡¯re grown up. I can¡¯t keep you in the mana realm forever now can I?" Shiro smiled but Atesh shook his head.
"It¡¯s not bad in here. Aunt Iziuel and Granny Nimue look after me and I can help you whenever you¡¯re in danger" Atesh smiled happily as Nimue felt like a vein was already about to burst.
"So courageous now that you¡¯re grown up huh? Who the hell are you calling Granny??? Iziuel is older than me for god sake and if you¡¯re talking about skin and stress, me that mother of yours! If I wasn¡¯t a spirit I would have be bald from the stress she gives me!" Nimue crossed her arms andined as Atesh shrugged.
"Mum is innocent. Don¡¯t me her just because you look old." Atesh replied, hiding behind Shiro as Nimue felt like she was about to be the Aspect of Wrath rather than water.
"Alright alright, stop bullying your aunty now. She¡¯s helped me a lot." Shiroughed as Atesh smiled.
"Fine. Great aunt then."
"Come here you little sh*t!" Nimue gritted her teeth as Atesh ran away with Nimue chasing behind him.
"They seem lively as ever." Iziuel floated over with a smile as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, they are. I missed you lot. Not hearing you in my mind bes surprisingly boring." Shiroughed as Iziuel shrugged.
"True. They weren¡¯t able to move around much when we were evolving so this is months of practically zero movement." Iziuel chuckled.
"Well then. I have some good news. There¡¯s an event in a few days. I think it¡¯s a good time to have three almost Demi Gods making an appearance don¡¯t you think so?" Shiro smiled.
Chapter 1024 Anchor Upgrade
Chapter 1024 Anchor Upgrade
"I would say that¡¯s a bit of an overkill but why not. The sooner we end the new age, the faster everyone can enjoy something akin to peace I suppose." Iziuel chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
ncing back, she could see Nimue still chasing Attie as they were both much faster than the average adventurer.
"Attie, Nimue, we¡¯ll be heading out of the mana realm now. Want toe?" Shiro called out as Atesh immediately did a sharp right turn andnded in front of Shiro.
"Sure! I want to see big sis again." Atesh nodded as Shiro patted his head.
"I¡¯m sure they¡¯re also excited to see you too."
"Also mum, I¡¯m not a kid anymore so you don¡¯t need to call me by my nickname." Atesh smiled but Shiro shook her head.
"Nope. My son is always a kid to me fufu. Of course if you don¡¯t want me to call you Attie I can also just call you darling." Shiro chuckled as Atesh thought about it for a moment smiling.
"Fine you can call me Attie. Mum should use darling for her wife or husband."
Flicking his nose, Shiro rolled her eyes.
Joking around for a little bit longer, Shiro opened a portal as all three spirits appeared in her room while Nan Tian and Silvia were waiting by the side.
"Oh my, when did Attie grow so big." Silvia blinked her eyes in surprise.
"Evolution. It¡¯s a shame that I couldn¡¯t watch him grow slowly though." Shiro shrugged.
"That¡¯s just how spirits are. I¡¯ll go look for Estre with Iziuel since we haven¡¯t seen each other for a while now." Nimue chuckled as Shiro nodded.
Watching the two leave the room, Shiro turned back to Attie.
"What about you Attie?"
"I want to talk to Nan Tian alone for a bit."
"Alright. Just be careful since he is an injured patient." Shiro chuckled as Attie nodded his head.
Pushing the wheelchair out, Attie looked at Nan Tian and leaned against the wall.
"I still don¡¯t like you." He frowned as Nan Tian scratched his head.
"But thank you for helping mum. Me, Aunt Nimue and Aunt Iziuel had to watch her suffer inside the mana realm without being able to do anything. If it wasn¡¯t for you, mum might be in a worse state than she is now." Attie sighed.
"It¡¯s fine. She¡¯s been protecting us all this time so it¡¯s only natural that I help her in her time of need." Nan Tian smiled as Attie nodded his head.
"I don¡¯t know if I can help mum like you do since you saw that she couldn¡¯t stay away for more than 10 minutes without hallucinating. It was hard for her in the library. Even though we¡¯re here now, our presence might not have the same effect. So thank you, we¡¯ll have a truce.." Attie said as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Did we even have a fight for a truce to be called, kid?" Nan Tian asked as Attie paused for a moment and realised that to him it was just a baby being a baby.
Clicking his tongue, he pouted for a moment before sighing.
"Well there¡¯s a truce regardless. I¡¯m going to go look for big sis Yin and big sis Lisa." Attie turned away and left Nan Tian behind.
Shaking his head with a humorous chuckle, Nan Tian moved his wheelchair back in the room and saw that Shiro was waiting with a smile.
"Seems like there¡¯s a truce between you and Attie now." Shiro said with a smirk as Nan Tian shrugged.
"Seems like it."
"You might want to rest up a bit more. Now that I have my mana back, I¡¯m going to make a few adjustments to the cities so that even the secondary city can run with just two anchors." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be back before 10 minutes is up. I know my limits."
"Do you now?" Nan Tian asked with a smile.
"Well... I suppose that is debatable. Regardless, I¡¯ll be right back. After I make some adjustments I want to test out more runes to my heart¡¯s content since I have my mana back."
"Mn, have fun." Nan Tian nodded as Shiro coughed.
"I still need a refresh though." Shiro scratched her cheek as she sat next to him and held his sleeve.
"Do you think we can treat your trauma if we defeat the watchman?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shrugged.
"I don¡¯t know. But am I being a bother? Since I always have to grab onto you and everything." Shiro asked, as she knows that Nan Tian probably has things that he wants to do as well but instead he¡¯s always been keeping herpany so that she doesn¡¯t have a panic attack.
"You¡¯re not being a bother. I¡¯m just happy that I can be helpful to you." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro bit her lip and furrowed her brows.
"Isn¡¯t there anything you want to do then? Since you¡¯ve been staying by my side for a few months now." Shiro asked, feeling a little guilty.
"Well there are a few things but I¡¯ve been dealing with them on the tablet. My main priority was you after all." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but cough lightly.
"Well look after yourself. I¡¯ll go sort out the second city." Shiro said as she left the room.
Once she left the room, she quickly shook her head since she could feel her face heat up slightly.
Opening a portal to the secondary city, she teleported straight to the anchor point.
The main problem with the second city was that without the third anchor, the energy output had decreased by a lot and the two anchors were having a hard time keeping up.
With the runes that she had recently studied, she had an idea on how to potentially fix this so that the second city could be running at the same output as before but with two anchors.
Activating her analysis skill, Shiro nced at the two anchors before drawing a rune in the air in front of her.
There were a total of 30 runes that she needed to draw for the anchor to increase its output and even then, it was just a theory.
Most of these runes are used for storing energy along with drawing more from the area around them. In addition to this, she had made it so that her teleport hall absorbs a little bit of mana from everyone that uses it. It¡¯s not to the point that people will notice since it adjusts itself with each person.
With this, the runes will start filling up with mana and it¡¯ll be able to offset some of the drain as emergency fuel.
Of course, this can also be saved up to fire a powerful weapon.
Drawing out the runes, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile at the feeling of using runes belonging to gods while her mana continued to regenerate.
Thanks to the upgraded mana realm, she could keep going for hours without worry. Even a skill that would take 40% of her mana will be regenerated in mere moments.
sping her hands together, a string of energy weaved itself together as Shiro created a magic array to keep everything secure.
Continuing to add parts to the anchor, Shiro only took a step back after 5 minutes and saw the result.
Right now, it looked like a single orb of pure white but if one were to look carefully, they¡¯ll notice the densely packed magic arrays with 30 runes acting as the core of the formation. Each of the runes had their own purpose and together they would power the secondary city to the same efficiency as Asharia.
Snapping her fingers, she connected all of the power channels to the new ¡¯core¡¯ as energy started to flow through the city.
Closing her eyes, she could sense the energy flowing to the rest of the city as she couldn¡¯t help but smile.
"Right, that¡¯s the first task done. I¡¯ll need to adjust the primary city, add more mechs, construction bays for the mech parts, more defensive weapons as well as barrier modules for the city and power everything up like before." Shiro muttered as she opened another portal.
Teleporting to the core of Asharia, Shiro proceeded to do the same.
Since she had done the process once, she was a little more familiar with what she had to do so it was much faster this time, only taking her 3 minutes toplete.
Once she was finished upgrading the core, she massaged her eyes before teleporting to the military base so that she could add more parts.
Seeing the specialised mechs now showing some signs of use, Shiro smiled since this meant that Shiina and the others were continuing to improve their control over the specialised mechs.
Adding the new construction bays was as simple as waving a finger since her new mana realm allowed her to cast with better efficiency and control.
ncing into her mana realm, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but look towards the part that belonged to Error and wonder about what had happened.
¡¯What gifted me the power to see time strands...¡¯ She thought to herself as another portal opened beside her.
With only 1 minute left to her 10 minute limit, Shiro teleported back to her room.
Chapter 1025 MeChapter Upgrade
Chapter 1025 MeChapter Upgrade
Teleporting back to her room, Shiro spotted Nan Tian still sitting on his wheelchair while reading a book.
"How did it go?" He asked with a smile the moment he saw here back.
"It went well. The runes managed to sync up pretty nicely and the output is actually higher than before. If three cores were 100% output, right now it¡¯s working at 150% thanks to the runes. It managed to offset Isilia¡¯s missing anchor and even improve it some more." Shiro replied as Nan Tian nodded.
"That¡¯s good then. It means we can revert everything back to what it was and even add more offensive and protective measures."
"Yup. I¡¯ve already added some more weapons enhanced with the new runes and more mechs. I¡¯m working on improving a few blueprints in my mind and I¡¯ll probably make the adjustments to the specialised mechster today. If we can get everything up to date by the time the event starts, we should be able to sweep it without any problems." Shiro chuckled.
"It¡¯s a shame that I can¡¯t exactly participate in this state though." Nan Tian sighed as he looked down at the wheelchair.
"It¡¯s fine. The fact that you fended off an attack by the Queen and even made it easy for me to eliminate her was helpful in the long run. It¡¯s one less Queen on the battlefield and if she was sitting in the backlines summoning new units continuously then it would be quite annoying to deal with her. Just take this time to rest properly. Though I might need you toe with me since I won¡¯t be able to fight for long." Shiro shrugged as she sat down by the table.
Pulling out her tablet, she tapped it a few times as holograms of the mechs started to appear around her.
"What do you think of this idea? I¡¯m nning on reinforcing the mech¡¯s power core with a few runes so that they can also enter a berserk state like us. By doing so, I¡¯ll be forcing all of theponents to work to their limit and maybe even break. But the benefits are most likely worth it." Shiro asked as Nan Tian thought for a moment.
"Perhaps you can make it so that it¡¯s always in a berserk state rather than entering it so that the internals are pushed to the limit." He suggested but Shiro shook her head.
"That¡¯s pretty much just a full on upgrade. Unfortunately, to do so I¡¯d have to redesign the blueprintspletely to refit everything. That would take too long so adding a berserk module would be the better option with the timeframe we¡¯re given. Plus, I also want to test out some more runes so that I can potentially stop time when the event starts." Shiro replied as she waved her finger and the mech in front of her disassembled into thousands of tinyponents.
Bringing up some stat sheets for their performances, Shiro started to add the berserk modules while looking at the upgrade this would bring when activating it.
However, just as she looked at the overall stats, she sat up straight in realisation.
"Hold up..." She muttered as she immediately started to type away at her keyboard.
"Is something wrong?" Nan Tian asked curiously.
"I wouldn¡¯t say that something is wrong but rather if this is what I think it is then it might be something great." Shiro smiled as simtions started to appear on the screen. While she could just simte it in her mind, it was for Nan Tian¡¯s benefit since she didn¡¯t want to be distracted while calcting this.
Seeing the mech appear on the screen, Nan Tian fell silent as he watched with curiosity.
However, the next moment, he couldn¡¯t help but widen his eyes.
"Is that...."
"Yup. That¡¯s a Throne World." Shiro grinned as she noticed that with these parameters, it was simr to hers when she activated her own Throne World. Therefore, it was potentially possible to craft one manually using some runes.
"However, it is only possible when they enter the berserk like state since it barely reaches the minimum requirements once they do that. Otherwise they don¡¯t have enough power to craft one. Though rather than a Throne World, this is more just a fancy isted space. A mini domain." Shiro shrugged as it didn¡¯t give as many benefits as a proper Throne World would.
For example, even tens of thesebined wouldn¡¯t be able to match up to a proper Throne World but for her army troops, this was a good start.
"Unfortunately, it can only be installed on the Specialised Units and it requires just as much from the pilot as it would from the mech. If the pilot is untalented, no Throne World." Shiro shrugged as Nan Tian ced his hand on his chin.
"In that case, are you able to refine the Throne World some more so that the talented ones are more powerful? Quantity is important but we can¡¯t forget about Quality." Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"I can infuse a little bit of my own Nanotech Throne World in there. It just makes it so that they have an unlimited armoury. Or at least that¡¯s what it would feel like." Shiro admitted.
"So do you want to focus on a few good Throne World rather than, to put it crudely, mass produced trash?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s true. If they have even one person with a decent Throne World then not even the entire army armed with the basic one can stand up to them. With the time we have left, I¡¯d say I can suit up 80% of the Specialised Unit with the manufactured Throne World. They¡¯ll have to do somest minute training to learn how to use it though." Shiro smiled.
"Then we should probably get a move on. I¡¯lle with you so that you don¡¯t need to leave every 10 minutes." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Perfect. It¡¯s been a while since I trained the specialised units myself." Shiro grinned as she immediately started construction on both the Berserk Modules along with the Throne World Modules.
Standing up, she wondered if she should change into something more appropriate for a demonic trainer.
"Say, what do you think about me wearing a military uniform with arge coat? To get into the role and everything." Shiro joked as Nan Tianughed.
"Perhaps. But I think you can probably stay with what you¡¯ve always worn."
"Hmm true. Maybe I just put some light armour on so that I look a little more intimidating." Shiro muttered as she nced down at her ck dress.
Swiping her fingers, silver armour appeared around her waist as her crest could be seen adorned on the side. Some small shoulder armour along with a red scarf that trailed behind her slightly, Shiro created a chest piece and two arm bracers.
"Something like this should be good." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Creating a sheath for Silvanis, Shiro created a mirror and nodded her head.
"Now that I think of it, isn¡¯t this just cosy?" Shiro asked.
"Perhaps. Though it¡¯s not exactly cosy since you are in a role of power." Nan Tian replied.
"True... Well this should be fine regardless. Shall we go?" Shiro asked with a smile.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian watched as Shiro opened a portal.
Walking through the portal with Nan Tian, they found themselves in her office that she build in the military base. It overlooks the entire hanger and they could see the soldiers looking at the cranes in confusion since they were taking apart the mechs and adding new stuff in them.
Tapping the broadcasting mic, Shiro opened her mouth.
"Attention all specialised pilots. I want you to report to my office in five minutes."
Hearing Shiro¡¯s voice broadcasted through the hanger, Shiina and the other pilots looked up in surprise and saw Shiro standing in front of the window of her office.
Not counting thest time she had appeared under a disguise, Shiina understood that this was her first proper appearance in the military after several months.
She didn¡¯t count her public appearance for the event of going to Vrish¡¯ Lir since it was for the healers and alchemists rather than the military.
Regardless, now that she had made the announcement, Shiina wasn¡¯t going to question it. She was sure that Shiro would exin everything once they arrived at her office.
###
Sitting in the office chair, Shiro watched as the specialised pilots entered one by one. There were a few recognisable faces such as Shiina, Oran, Akhess, Celeste and Glen while others were unfamiliar. Nan Tian had promoted those that he deemed worthy of the title but it was time to put that to the test.
"As you can see behind me, there are upgrades being created for your mechs. As specialised pilots, each of your mechs are unique in that they match your proficiencies. Shiina is a good example as she uses ice and her mech specialises in control with some points in attack power. The new upgrades are a berserk mode as well as a throne world. But before I let you in the upgraded mechs, we need a bit of training." Shiro smiled as the five familiar faces paled the moment they heard that they¡¯ll be training with her.
Chapter 1026 Throne Worlds
Chapter 1026 Throne Worlds
"What kind of training would it be?" Shiina asked with a pale face.
"Oh it¡¯s not much. I¡¯m just going to be training you so that you can deploy the Throne World properly so that when the timees, you won¡¯t be troubled. As all of you are still rather low levelled, you don¡¯t know the feeling of a Throne World. Therefore, I¡¯ll be letting you experience it. It might feel like a rollercoaster but it¡¯ll get better once you get used to the feeling." Shiro smiled as the training she had in mind was a little harsher than just a ¡¯rollercoaster¡¯ but she wasn¡¯t about to tell them.
Seeing her smile, Shiina felt a chill down her spine as she figured that she should probably prepare herself for something much worse.
"You see, to construct a Throne World, it needs small mastery of spatial istion magic. That¡¯s how you trap people inside your domain. There¡¯s a little trick when ites to spatial magic so in order to let you sense that for yourself, I¡¯ll be letting you experience it first hand. But rather than tell you what we¡¯re doing, we¡¯ll demonstrate it. Follow me, I¡¯ll show you what I mean when we go to the training hall." Shiro smiled as she stood up.
Pushing Nan Tian, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle at the sight of them looking at Nan Tian¡¯s wheelchair in confusion. But none of them dared to say anything.
Arriving at training hall one, Shiro set Nan Tian to the side before looking towards the group of specialised pilots.
"Hm... there are 15 of you so who wants to volunteer first? I¡¯ll be deploying the Throne World using you as a conduit so that it is YOUR Throne World rather than mine. It¡¯s a little rough but it won¡¯t take long." Shiro smiled.
Naturally, she was lying about it being rough. It would probably feel like someone had just kicked you in the gut and threw you to space before dragging you back.
Plus, the forceful deployment of a Throne World that they haven¡¯t created yet was... difficult to put it lightly. If not for her improved understanding of runes, she wouldn¡¯t even try something like this.
"If there are no volunteers, I¡¯ll randomly pick one of you." Shiro smiled as the pilots slowly looked towards Shiina.
"Why are you lot looking at me?!" She asked, feeling as though a vein was about to burst from anger.
"Ahem, since miss Shiina is ranked number one out of all of us, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re more than happy to demonstrate your prowess." One of the pilots spoke up as Shiina widened her eyes.
"Seems like we have a volunteer now." Shiro chuckled as Shiina despaired.
Seeing the smiling Shiro, she sighed before turning to the pilot that spoke up.
Running her finger across her neck, she red at him while walking towards Shiro meekly.
"Please be gentle." She begged as she wanted to cry on the inside.
"I¡¯ll try." Shiro winked.
Snapping her fingers, a giant tier 6 magic circle erupted beneath them as Nanobots started to appear around them.
Feeling as though hotva was running through her body, Shiina wanted to cry out in pain but Shiro only smiled and ced her finger on her lips.
"Just hold it in for now." Shiro smiled as she closed her eyes.
Motes of light started to appear around Shiina as Shiro felt as though she was swimming through an ocean.
Understanding that she was trying to link up to Shiina¡¯s True Spirit Nature in order to form a Throne world, she waved her hand as several runes started to appear.
Diving down the ¡¯ocean¡¯, Shiro could sense a distant reservoir of power.
sping her hands together, several chains appeared and reached down in an attempt to drag that power up.
The moment her chains came into contact with the reservoir. Ice travelled up the chains and froze the ocean in an instant.
"Bingo." Shiro smiled.
Waving her hand, the tier 6 magic circle beneath them started to rotate as the runes started to correct themselves.
The space around distorted as snowkes started to fall.
*KRSH!!!!!
Suddenly, the sound of ice shattering rang out as their surroundings started to distort.
The next thing they knew, they found themselves in the middle of a frozen forest with what seemed to be frozen beasts observing in the distance.
Their glowing blue eyes stared at them unblinking as they felt a chill down their spine. Slowly, spectres appeared from the ground as faint howls were heard.
"Seems like this is Shiina¡¯s Throne World. It¡¯s iplete but this is what you¡¯ll be activating in the mech. By dragging your enemies into this world, you empower yourself while weakening them. Under most circumstances you should be able to grasp victory once you drag them in due to the advantage you have but you need to remember that it is not all powerful. Apetent adventurer who has experienced Throne Worlds before will know that they need to interrupt your casting since you are vulnerable during the initial cast. There are even some that can break through it forcefully." Shiro smiled as she snapped her finger.
Cancelling the Throne World, Shiro quickly caught Shiina who was about to copse.
"Remember that feeling. You can take a moment to rest but I advise practising now so that the feeling is fresh. The more familiar you are, the easier it¡¯ll be. Take this, this is a smaller version of the Throne World Module that I¡¯ve installed into your mech. Using this, you should be able to deploy a small Throne World after some practise." Shiro smiled as Shiina nodded her head.
Just one use and she already felt exhausted since a Throne World was something that should exceed her current capabilities.
Taking the module, she nced up to Shiro.
"Can I request permission to use mana potions to practice?" Shiina asked as she knew that they were probably running low due to the new restrictions on mana potions.
"Pft haha, you don¡¯t need to ask for permission to use mana potions that you have earned yourself. Use them whenever you want." Shiro chuckled as she snapped her finger and healed her using life fire.
"Right then, now that Shiina has demonstrated what to expect, the rest of you need to do the same. Nowe, don¡¯t be shy, I¡¯ll be gentle." Shiro grinned.
"Of course, if you decide to wait around, I can just do everyone at once. Though I can¡¯t promise that I¡¯ll be gentle this time."
The moment she finished saying this, they all raised their hands, wanting to volunteer themselves so that they can get the gentle treatment.
"Seeing as how all of you are so excited for this, I can¡¯t let you down now can I? Everyone gets to go at the same time!" Shiroughed as a giant tier 6 formation expanded beneath everyone as Nan Tian watched by the side.
Seeing Shirough happily, he found it rather charming. One just needed to ignore the squadron of pilots screaming in the background from the pain.
###
Looking at the pilots allying on the ground, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. However, during the entire process, she wasn¡¯t able to create a Throne World at all for Glen.
Even for Celeste, she had some semnce of a Throne World but there was nothing at all for Glen.
"Everyone, you know what you have to do. Practice by yourself. Glen, do you want a quick talk?" Shiro asked as Glen nodded his head.
Walking over to Nan Tian, she gestured for Glen to sit near them while she grabbed his sleeve.
"So what¡¯s on your mind? You seemed a little out of it." Shiro asked as Glen sighed.
"Well I can¡¯t use spells well nor can I use this thing called Throne World. Is there something defective about me?" Glen asked as he nced down at his hands.
"I have asked Miss Aarim before and she said it was something to do with my mana realm. High level spells are too stressful for my mana realm so it¡¯s always a struggle to cast it. And now I can¡¯t even use Throne Worlds." Glen sighed as Shiro ced her hand on her chin.
"Then what if I give you something unique for your mech? It¡¯s a specialised mech after all, it should be tailored to you." Shiro offered with a smile.
"What would that be?" He asked curiously.
"Two skills. The first is something called the Takemikazuchi Technique. It¡¯s equivalent to overcharging your body with lightning energy which increases your speed and damage. I can incorporate it into your mech but you need to learn how to use it yourself first. As for the second, I¡¯ll be training you to achieve your Full Domain with the sword." Shiro smiled.
Using her new runes, she might be able to set up a room where he¡¯ll be able to train in an isted space that acts somewhat like a dungeon where one hour out here is one day within the room.
"But like our first training session, there¡¯s no backing out and in fact, this is probably worse than the other one." Shiro warned as Glen furrowed his brows.
Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth.
"I¡¯ll do it."
Chapter 1027 Chamber of Time
Chapter 1027 Chamber of Time
Hearing this, Shiro grinned as she patted his shoulder.
"That¡¯s the spirit. Don¡¯t worry, you should at least have some proficiency in the Takemikazuchi Technique by tomorrow." Shiro reassured.
"Wait by tomorrow? But there won¡¯t be enough time." Glen frowned.
"That¡¯s what you think. Nan Tian, are you able to supervise everyone else? I¡¯ll be trying to make the training room for Glen." Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Yes I can. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard since I have some experiences with Throne Worlds myself."
Discussing their training ns with Nan Tian for a while, Glen couldn¡¯t help but feel pity for them before remembering what he¡¯ll have to go through in a day. If she is going to make him learn a whole new technique in a few hours, he couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine how much training they would need to do.
Once Shiro had told Nan Tian about the training n, she excused herself for a bit so that she could make the room.
Closing her eyes, she brought up the floorn of all the training halls near her current locations.
¡¯Hmm.... From the records, it seems like training hall four doesn¡¯t get much use since the other training halls are already big enough. I should be able to convert this one to a time chamber like the dungeon.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
She had the theories in her mind along with most of the runes necessary but there was onest step that she had to do. She had to finish the magic circle that Chronos had taught her back when she visited him so that she could pause time in the way she had hoped.
That way, there won¡¯t be any burden to her body despite therge mana consumption. Once she achieves this, she should be able to sustain the time chamber for a while.
Teleporting to Training Hall 4, she sealed the doors so that no one could distract her while she was doing this.
Taking a deep breath, this was going to be the first time she tried toplete the magic circle while in peak form. Of course, she still had her time limit but she could push it out slightly to finish this magic circle.
Snapping her eyes open, divine energy red from her body as she mmed her hands down.
Suddenly, golden runes started to draw themselves across the ground while magic formation appeared on the ceiling.
Hundreds to thousands of magic circles interconnected with one another, forming a bnce while divine runes served as the battery in order to power everything.
Firstyer.
With the firstyer of the magic circle constructed, a faint crystalline blue coated the room, isting it from the outside space.
Removing her hand from the ground, she sped both her hands together as mana weaved together in the enclosed space of her palm.
Tiny strands fused and formed runes of their own before connecting to form the second circle.
Narrowing her eyes with analysis activated, her scarlet pupils flickered for a moment before opening her hand, expanding the second magic circle andyered it next to the first.
Following her motion, a third magic circle started to construct itself as Shiro furrowed her brows.
She hadpletely mastered the deployment of the first twoyers butyers three to eight were slight gambles. Even on her best day, she would say she only had a 20% chance of reaching thestyer.
To make matters worse, she¡¯s had no sess with decoding thestyer thus far.
It was always close but shecked that final step.
Countless runes shed through her mind as golden patterns lit up on her arms.
Pushing them out, both the third and fourthyers were crafted simultaneously.
¡¯Four more.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she stomped down, creating several magic formations to help her with the crafting of the fifth, sixth and seventhyer.
Pivoting on her right foot, she drew her arm back in one fluid motion and bit her finger tip before drawing a circle in the air with her blood.
Snapping her fingers, golden runes lit up on the blood as it started to expand, creating the fifthyer and recognising her as the owner of this isted space.
With the fifthyer still hovering above her palm, she didn¡¯t rush to integrate it with the otheryers just yet since it served as a base for the sixth and seventhyer.
Continuing to draw out runes that match the ever-changing magic circle, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh in relief since the sixthyer was easier than expected.
Most of the runes andbinations needed were ones that she were familiar with so it could be created quickly.
The problem wasyer seven.
Looking at the unfamiliar change in the magic circle, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but bite her lip in irritation.
The process so far has been smooth with her being able to craft the initial sixyers without trouble. This seemed to be the best attempt so far so she wasn¡¯t about to let the seventhyer stop her.
Running the simtions through her mind, a list of runes were immediately filtered out from her database of knowledge as she reached out with her right hand.
Drawing out the runes, she could feel her heartbeat faster as theyer continued to glow signifying that she was using the right runes.
But just as she thought of this, heryer started to dull.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯
Cursing out in her mind, she quickly checked which part was disharmonising with the rest of the magic formation.
However, the moment she saw it, she couldn¡¯t help but grit her teeth. A single change. There was one change in the seventhyer that rendered her past calctions useless.
¡¯This should have been something that appears on the finalyer, why did it appear earlier. Now that it¡¯se early, the previous calctions aren¡¯t able to sync up properly.¡¯ Shiro thought as she tried to correct it but the formation continued to lose power.
¡¯Should I give up on this attempt? It¡¯s just unlucky...¡¯
The moment she thought of this, she shook her head.
¡¯No, I can¡¯t stop now. Break it down, analyse what it requires, filter out the runes I need and answer the requirement. I¡¯m this far in, I can¡¯t stop now.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Unbeknownst to her, the runes in her eyes started to flicker with a soft light as she analysed the seventhyer.
Surging her mana to stabilise the magic formation while she decoded the seventhyer, Shiro simted countless solutions that might work in her mind.
Runesbined, tested, then broke apart once they were unsessful.
Going through the possiblebinations, Shiro could feel herself getting a little light headed but shook it off.
Her hand continued to move as she tried to find hints within the magic formation.
"!!!"
Widening her eyes, she felt her mana start to drain as faint strands of light started to flicker around her.
Each strand had a different colour than the ones she had seen in Chronos¡¯ chamber. These were of a vibrant green.
A quick sweep of the room was all that she needed to imprint the image into her mind before her strands disappeared.
Spotting the dark green stranding from the destabilising seventhyer, she tracked it back to the firstyer and understood what she had been missing.
The first sevenyers are supposed to form a loop rather than connect to the finalyer.
With seven key points, it will form a loop that stabilises the isted space. The first sevenyers arepletely detached and it wouldn¡¯t be an exaggeration to say thatyers one to seven belong to something entirely separate fromyer eight.
Curving her lips into a smile, Shiro mmed her hand down.
*PING!!!
Shattering all of the links connecting eachyer to one another, Shiro reformed them within her hand as a single strand connected all sevenyers together, harmonising into a magic circle that glowed with a brilliant turquoise colour.
Seeing the runes present in the core of this magic circle, Shiro understood what it was.
It was a key. The first sevenyers form the key needed to decode the eightyer and imprint itself into reality. Once proficient enough, one would be able to create the first sevenyers with a single snap, thus making the process seem effortless.
Expanding the key above her, Shiro smiled and opened her mouth.
"Tier 8 Origin Magic, Chamber of Time."
With the key in the centre, the final magic circle started to reveal itself. A goldenyer of energyposed entirely of runes used by the gods.
Letting go of her control over the magic circle, Shiro watched as the key synchronised with the eighthyer as two notifications appeared in front of her.
The first was the system congrattions.
[Congrattions, Entity ¨C Shiro ¨C has seeded in casting a God ss spell. As you are the first to achieve this in the new age, you will be awarded a unique item. However, the council of administrators are currently discussing your reward, please stand by.]
As for the second, it was rather simple but it brought a smile to her face.
[The gods backing you apud your sess. Gaia and Chronos cheers for you.]
Chapter 1028 Helping Glen
Chapter 1028 Helping Glen
With the time chamber nowplete, Shiro nced at how much it drained her mana and couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes.
Even with her new mana realm and monstrous regeneration, she estimated that she couldn¡¯t even keep this room up for more than 5 minutes and that was pushing it.
The realistic guess would be around 2 to 3 minutes outside this room.
Looking at the magic circle, Shiro saw that she could turn this off whenever she wanted but turning it back on would require her to recreate the magic circle since everything will need to sync up again.
Drinking a mana potion to keep this running, Shiro quickly teleported back to training hall 1.
"You¡¯re back. Considering the spike in mana that I felt, you were sessful." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. Though it¡¯s a bit hard to sustain the room. It¡¯s draining my mana at a rate that I¡¯ll be empty in 3 minutes or so. I¡¯ll be drinking quite a few potions today." Shiro shrugged.
"Well I suppose it is a tier 8 magic. Something that should belong to the gods. It¡¯s something designed to work with divine energy rather than mana so the fact that you can even sustain this for three minutes is crazy." Nan Tianughed while Glen was confused about their conversation.
"Anyways, I¡¯ll need to teleport out once in a while to... you know. I hope you don¡¯t mind considering the time dtion so I might actually just be teleporting here every second." Shiro scratched her cheeks.
"That¡¯s fine." Nan Tian smiled.
"Be back soon I suppose." Shiro chuckled before turning to Glen.
"Come on, we¡¯re going to train now. We¡¯re going to a chamber that acts like a dungeon. One hour out here is a day in there. With how long we have left until the event, even if we arrive a littlete, I¡¯d say we have around 15 to 20 days at most." Shiro exined as she grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait I thought it was just a few hours. Why 15 to 20 days?" Glen asked as Shiro smiled.
"Time magic that I learned from Chronos, the primordial god of time."
Hearing this, Glen paled since he realised his big mistake.
If the chamber makes it so that each hour is a day, that means that he needs to prepare himself for 15 to 20 days of pure training. Perhaps zero sleep with her fire being able to get rid of physical fatigue.
Before he could even cry out for help, both of them teleported away as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Right then, what to do." Nan Tian smiled as he narrowed his eyes on the rest of the pilotsying on the ground.
Seeing that they seemed a little rxed now that Shiro wasn¡¯t here, Nan Tian¡¯s lips curved into a smile.
He had seen Shiro¡¯s training style a few times now. If these people thought that he¡¯d go easy on them because Shiro wasn¡¯t here, they¡¯re dead wrong. She had high expectations for him so naturally he¡¯ll meet that.
Suddenly feeling a chill down her spine, Shiina snapped her head around as she saw Nan Tian smiling in his pink wheelchair.
For some reason, she couldn¡¯t help but feel as though Shiro was beside him. Oh wait, she was.
"I¡¯m here to recharge." Shiro called out with a sigh.
Sitting next to Nan Tian, she held onto his sleeve while drinking another mana potion.
"Blerg. The more I drink this the more disgusting it bes. Even the slightly sweet taste is off putting now that I¡¯ve drank 5 back to back like this. Even when I was practising with my runes I didn¡¯t drink this many in such a short amount of time." Shiroined as Nan Tian chuckled and patted her head.
"Thanks for that. As if my headache wasn¡¯t enough." Shiro pouted as Nan Tian paused and took his hand off.
"I¡¯m only kidding. Anyways I¡¯ll be back soon." Shiro sighed and sat up. Teleporting back to Training Hall 4, she continued the training.
###
"The main part of the Takemikazuchi technique is that you¡¯ll run lightning-based energy through your body, emting nerve impulses so that you can react to split second changes while your body is moving at high speeds. Just because your speed is good doesn¡¯t mean you can put it to use if you can¡¯t react. So arge part of this technique is improving your reaction speed. That way, even without you moving at high speeds, you can still dodge most attacks if you¡¯re careful enough. This is what I want you to learn the most since it¡¯s the most beneficial within the mech." Shiro exined as Glen nodded.
Currently, he was sitting with his legs crossed and eyes closed. What little mana he had was pulsing through his body as a faint aura could be seen covering his body.
However, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but frown since Aarim was right. This is too little mana and the output is... to put it harshly, trash.
With this kind of output, he would never be able to cast anything higher than a tier 3 magic circle. And that was pushing it. The safe guess is tier 2.
Activating her analysis, she nced at his links and ced her hand on her chin.
¡¯With how his links are, I suppose I can try to refine them using the Boreas Rebirth Pill. I still have most of the ingredients but never found much use for them. But there¡¯s also the problem of his man realm being weak. Even if the links are refined, his mana realm wouldn¡¯t be able to withstand the increased cirction. While mine was able to evolve, I don¡¯t know what spurred it to evolve so I can¡¯t do anything with his mana realm. He might have to stay like this for the rest of his life.¡¯ Shiro thought.
"I¡¯ll be honest, don¡¯t take this harshly but frankly there¡¯s no way for me to improve your mana output. Your mana realm is the problem." Shiro admitted bluntly as Glen furrowed his brows and stayed silent.
"However, I will say that I won¡¯t give up on you. The Takemikazuchi Technique heavily focuses on your body and reaction instead of just raw energy output. If we can improve this technique, we can tailor it to suit you better. Just know that I won¡¯t give up on you so you shouldn¡¯t give up either ok? Plus, with how the system works, there are more than just mana. You know Nan Tian, his levelling can be different to ours. He can cultivate while I don¡¯t know how to. There are always paths that you can choose and you don¡¯t need to strictly stay on the path of mana." Shiro smiled as Glen opened his eyes and looked up at her.
"Really?" Glen asked with doubt in his voice.
"Yes. Despite the problem with your mana link and mana realm, you instead know how to use your body. There was a point where my main focus was also on the body and technique rather than power output. It was how I could contest against one of my enemies despite having most of my skills sealed. Did you know, back then all I had was a single hand cannon, a few daggers and maybe a staff that I hadying around while he had all of his skills to his disposal." Shiro exined with a smile since she had an idea in her mind. If Glen couldn¡¯t use his mana due to his terrible mana output and unstable mana realm, she¡¯ll make him tools to be at his disposal. Weapons, exo suits, skills and mechs. She¡¯ll help him find a ce in this world where mana was so important.
He decided to follow her so earnestly so she wasn¡¯t about to abandon him.
"Now stand up. I¡¯ll help you master the first few stages of the technique before we work on that body control. Right now, I¡¯d say you¡¯re around 60 to 70%. We¡¯re going to push that beyond the 90% threshold by the end of this." Shiro grinned as Glen nodded his head nervously.
For the next few days within the chamber, Shiro¡¯s training only got harsher the more he improved. Pushing his limits, healing his wounded body, using mana to reinforce his body so that it could withstand harsher activities, Shiro continued to find ways to help him.
Continuing to drink through the mana potions to sustain this chamber, it was to the point that Shiro wanted to throw up but kept going.
Nan Tian was concerned but seeing her determination to help Glen, he didn¡¯t say anything and only supported her from the side whenever she needed him.
###
100th hour without sleep inside the chamber.
Glen felt exhausted but his gaze was sharp. Holding a nanotech sword in his hand that Shiro had created, he took a deep breath as a single flicker of lightning appeared on his body.
*BANG!!!
Exploding forward with impressive momentum, he struck towards the dummy and cleaved it in half.
Chapter 1029 80% Body Control Threshold
Chapter 1029 80% Body Control Threshold
"Close. Remember, there¡¯s no need to release the lightning energy stored within your body to the outside world. Even though it¡¯s lightning based, the energy is better kept inside your body. Use the sh of your sword to act as the lightning rather than your mana. Your mana is the fuel to keep you going." Shiro lectured as Glen nodded his head.
He was mentally exhausted to the point where he didn¡¯t even want to say anything but his body felt better than ever. With life fire constantly relieving his fatigue and soreness, he felt like he was in a trance.
Each step felt clear and a path revealed itself. The sound seemed to fade from his ears as all he could hear was his own breathing through his body.
Breath in, breath out.
Taking a step forward on the path that was shown to him, he felt his body fall forward.
A gentle descent as his perception of his surroundings seemed to slow down.
He could see the sweat drip down from his face to the sword before being split in half. Eventually,nding on the floor.
A single instant, a tiny droplet of sweat, exploded apart as water covered the area.
His eyes focused.
Adjusting his centre of gravity, he took the second step towards the dummy.
Slow.
His motions seemed slow, but his speed continued to increase.
Bringing his sword in front of him to act as both defence and offence, he closed his eyes and entrusted his body to his senses that he refined.
The brushing of the wind, the arc of his sword.
Appearing in front of the dummy, his eyes opened once more.
Like a droplet, scatter and expand.
*BANG!!!!!!!
shing behind the dummy, sword shes appeared all over its body as Shiro could see everything that happened with extreme rity.
That first taste of reaching beyond the 80% threshold in body control made one feel like they were at the height of their performance. An epiphany.
Ideas would enter one¡¯s mind as this was how many techniques were formed.
Just like what Glen had demonstrated, it was a technique he had created at the height of his focus but that was not what they were going after.
They were going after the threshold of 90%. The state where every moment was the peak of their performance. The sh of inspiration bes a constant.
Every movement is refined and technique after technique are sown together into fluid movements, eventually hiding themselves in mundane actions.
Right now, she had to stop Glen from focusing on the technique he had just created since more are going toe to his mind. What she needed him to do is disregard the ¡¯bait¡¯ and instead pursue a higher goal.
Regardless, he still deserved praise.
"Well done. That was quite impressive." Shiro smiled as she crouched down next to him. Offering him a tower, she watched as he shook his head.
"It wasn¡¯t impressive. It was too weak, too scattered. A bad technique. It¡¯s superficial and shy. If I refine something like this, it¡¯s like cutting off my legs just because I ran a somewhat good time on a track." Glen clenched his fist as his gaze was strong.
Hearing this, Shiro grinned since he knew that the technique was a bait. There was no need for her to tell him to begin with.
"Indeed. You need to keep refining your body. Techniques will appear in your mind like a snap of a finger but that¡¯s not what we¡¯re going for. However, you did good. You tasted the first feeling of surpassing 80% body control and your average is around 75% right now. Don¡¯t charge towards that feeling you just felt since body control over 80% is never rigid. It¡¯s free flowing so you need to let your body guide you rather than forcing it on a set path." Shiro smiled as Glen nodded his head.
Taking the towel, he wiped his sweat away before stepping away from the dummy once more.
However, just as he wanted to take a step forward, he found himself on the verge of copsing.
Seeing this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Get some sleep. Thatst performance and pushed you over the edge now. Plus, it¡¯s already been four days since you¡¯vest slept. Take this time to rest well and we¡¯ll continue the trainingter." Shiro ordered as she snapped her fingers, creating a bed for Glen as he nodded and face nted into the pillow, falling asleep almost immediately.
Chuckling softly, Shiro teleported out of the chamber and appeared in Training Hall 1 where most of the pilots are currently trying to project their Throne World.
"How is he?" Nan Tian asked as she had been informing him of Glen¡¯s performance every time she teleported here.
"It¡¯s going good. He¡¯s just broken past the 80% body control threshold. Even if it¡¯s in a single moment, it¡¯s impressive. The fact that he was able to aplish this in just 100 hours is frankly worthy of jealousy." Shiroughed as Nan Tian nodded.
"True. Even I needed to train my body for years before I even got a taste of the realm beyond 80%. Even now, I¡¯m probably only around 85% since I started to focus on magic more." Nan Tian admitted with a smile.
"That¡¯s true. His deficiency in mana is offset by his talent with body control and the sword. His path will be hard since there are always things that magic can do which the sword can¡¯t but I¡¯ll say this. If he continues and levels up, even if he can¡¯t use high tier magic, he can still defeat most people and protect himself." Shiro smiled as she sat next to Nan Tian.
"Would you look at that, the world is somewhat fair in the end. Though looking at your aplishments that¡¯s still up to debate."
"I am known as the breaker of bnce." Shiro replied with a shrug.
"And asses." Nan Tian corrected as Shiro coughed lightly.
"True but I haven¡¯t got much chance to do it for a while now. Though I still have a spike with Aekari¡¯s name on it." Shiroughed.
Talking for a little while, Shiro helped out with the training for the Throne World since Glen was resting right now.
Out of everyone, it seemed like Shiina and Akhess were the ones closest to seeding with Celeste not too hard behind in terms of progress.
She would have wanted them to join the chamber in training room 4 but that would hinder Glen by a lot since it¡¯ll be too distracting for them.
Plus, she wasn¡¯t sure what would happen if they opened a second isted space (Throne World) inside another isted space (Chamber of Time) and she wasn¡¯t too keen to find out just yet.
But seeing their progress, Shiro understood that there probably wasn¡¯t a need to do that in the first ce.
###
Gritting her teeth, the space distorted around Shiina as ice started to form. Her surroundings seemed to twist and turn but she was unable to hold it for long before it snapped itself back into ce.
Panting heavily, Shiina fell back and sat on the ground while sweat dripped off her face.
"You seem to be having a bit of trouble." Shiro smiled as she approached Shiina.
"Your highness." Shiina widened her eyes as she wanted to stand up but Shiro shook her head.
"It¡¯s fine, you can just rest for now. Tell me, what are you having difficulties with?" Shiro asked as Shiina scratched her head.
"Well... it¡¯s just that I tried to activate the Throne World using the module you gave me but it refused to appear. The steps I¡¯ve taken should be urate." Shiina sighed as Shiro thought about it for a moment and understood what was going wrong.
"You¡¯re trying to deploy the full Throne World aren¡¯t you? As you are right now, it is impossible. I have mentioned that your Throne World was iplete and the only reason it ¡¯lookedplete¡¯ when we demonstrated was due to my interference. For you, you¡¯re trying to imprint something onto reality but you don¡¯t have the power.
"My tip for you is to ¡¯nudge¡¯ reality for now. Have it manifest parts of your Throne World but don¡¯t wrestle it into submission since that will obviously fail. Just take it step by step for now. I¡¯ll give you a quick demonstration." Shiro smiled as she took a step back.
Snapping her fingers, the space around her started to distort as an icyndscape started to form around her. However, it was not quite an isted space.
"Try to achieve this for now. It¡¯s not quite a Throne World but it¡¯s the beginning of one. You still have your buffs in this stage. This is the first step and once you havepleted this, you¡¯ll be on track to form the isted space using the module." Shiro smiled, dismissing the iplete Throne World as Shiina nodded her head.
However, just as Shiro was walking back to Nan Tian, she noticed a pir of fire erupting out from just outside the city.
"The f*ck?" Shiro couldn¡¯t help but mutter as she sensed both Attie¡¯s energy along with Yin¡¯s.
Chapter 1030 Shiro, Yin and Attie
Chapter 1030 Shiro, Yin and Attie
"Pardon me but it seems like I might have to do a bit of parenting." Shiro forced a smile as Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
"I¡¯m sure they are just ying around but just in case anyone gets dragged in I suppose."
"Mn, I¡¯ll be back soon."
Taking a step forward, Shiro activated two runes besides her as her gaze phased through the walls.
Locking onto the two mana signals, a vision appeared in her view. She could see two people panicking slightly as a column of fire was sting into the sky. Sensing the presence of what seemed to be a restrictive magic circle, Shiro guessed that Yin wanted to keep things a secret but it wasn¡¯t able to hold the strength of the fire.
The moment she locked her gaze onto the two, both of them looked towards her direction as Yin paled.
Grabbing onto Attie¡¯s arm, she opened her mouth and said a few things before opening a portal to the rift and dragged Attie along with her.
¡¯Hou hou, seems like Yin wants to y hide and seek.¡¯ Shiro thought with a forced smile as she took another step forward.
The moment she did a portal snapped open in front of her as she was instantly teleported to the location of the fire.
The two runes that she used were ones that gods would use to observe the world. The first allowed her true sight of the target as long as she locked onto their mana signal. This meant that even if they are invisible, she could see them. The only problem right now was that she couldn¡¯t control her presence when using this so her targets would be able to know who was observing them.
As for the second, it was an improved version of her teleport motes. Locking onto the mana signal using the first rune, the second would open a tunnel connecting the two together and allow her to transport to her target almost instantly. This essentially meant that it was now almost if not impossible to run away from her.
Looking to her right, she narrowed her eyes at the pir of fire that seemed to grow with each passing moment.
Activating analysis, she understood that it was absorbing the ambient mana and fuelling itself. Simr to nanobots, this me was seeking ways to keep itself from extinguishing. Shiro wouldn¡¯t call it ¡¯sentient¡¯ but it was definitely a danger if it appeared in the city.
Since Attie has almost attained a Demi God state, there were traces of divine energy within this column of fire, making it hard to extinguish using normal means. Plus, with the nature of Yin¡¯s fire, this was a rather powerfulbination.
Snapping her finger, a rune appeared in front of Shiro as she waved her finger and the column was cancelled out in an instant.
There was no need to use water or ice since she was quite experienced in cancelling magic but just as she was about to leave, she noticed a tiny spark that red itself back into a pir of me that charged towards Shiro.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro clicked her tongue.
"Che, annoying this actually charges at thergest mana source." Shiro muttered in annoyance as she sped her hands together.
Activating analysis, she spotted the core of this spell.
Suddenly, tiny nanotech needles appeared within the fire and stabbed towards the core.
Each of the needles were reinforced using her celestial path so naturally, their main purpose was cancetion.
*PING!!!
Shattering the core, the fire extinguished itself as Shiro double checked to make sure it was extinguished properly. Once it was done, she nodded her head before turning towards where Yin opened the portal.
Closing her eyes, a rune hovered above her right eye as she opened it once more.
Peering into the rift, a link was formed between her and Yin. This was a rune that allowed her to peer into different dimensions that she had a connection to. In this case, the rift. However, she could use this for the spirit world.
Seeing Yin putting on a brave act in front of Attie, Shiro felt like a vein was about to burst.
"Smug little sh*t." She muttered with a forced smile.
Reaching in front of her, Shiro gripped the air in front of her as two runes appeared on the back of her hands.
Ripping open a direct path towards Yin with space magic to help her, Shiro stepped into the rift and appeared directly behind Yin.
"So like I said, we just hide from mum for a bit and it¡¯ll be fine. What¡¯s she gonna do-!!!!" Widening her eyes, Yin immediately shut her mouth as she could sense Shiro behind her and she didn¡¯t feel peaceful at all.
In fact, she would describe Shiro as being quite ticked off right now.
"Go on, finish that sentence of yours. I¡¯m listening." Shiro narrowed her eyes with a ¡¯smile.¡¯
"Err... I seem to be having a case of short term memory dear mother of mine. It¡¯s just the darndest thing that I cannot remember what thought I just had in my mind a few seconds ago. After all, as your precious daughter, the jewel of your life, the honey in your jar, I would not lie to you dearest mother. Just look at my adorable face, does this seem like the face of a liar? These puffy cheeks and eyes that resemble the beautiful mother of mine?" Yin turned around as Shiro grabbed her by the head.
"For someone that wouldn¡¯t lie to me, you sure are spouting a lot of bullsh*t right now." Shiro forced a smile as a vein threatened to burst.
"Oh I am simply shocked. The fact that you would even suggest the thought of me speaking, and I quote, ¡¯bullsh*t¡¯, is simply absurd. I would like to correct this thought of yours immediately dear mother of mine. What if I cook you the best meal you ever had, surely that would change your mind." Yin offered with a smile despite almost being lifted by the head.
She had to admit, her grip is both strong but delicate. A strange feeling. It was almost as though her head was maised to her palm.
"You know, that¡¯s a good idea. We can grill some barbeque too using that column of fire you two created. It¡¯s surely the most efficient choice. Unfortunately, I had to douse those mes out since it would¡¯ve damaged the city, but you can just make another one, can¡¯t you?"
"Of course dear mother, I will be happy to provide you with another column of fire, free of charge. What kind of barbeque would you like?"
"I¡¯m craving chicken now and apparently, a fresh one appeared right in front of me."
"First of all mother, I am appalled that you would even call me chicken. I am a proud phoenix after all. And second of all, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be heartbroken if you lost an adorable daughter like me to your stomach."
"Blerg, drop the act smartass, what happened." Shiro rolled her eyes as Yin stuck out her tongue.
"Well you see dea-"
"If you say dear mother of mine in that voice again I¡¯ll fry you." Shiro warned as mes flickered beside her.
"You know mes don¡¯t hurt me but fine~" Yin grinned as Shiro flicked her head.
"Ouch. Fine fine, I¡¯ll be serious. I was just curious what would happen when two devour type mes met. I figured that one would just be extinguished but nope, the two fused and became something we couldn¡¯t deal with. If anything you should me the me." Yin shrugged as the corner of Shiro¡¯s eye started to twitch from her annoyance.
"Sorry mum. I won¡¯t do it again." Attie spoke up from the side as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel as though her heart was going to melt. Seeing that apologetic face of his, she couldn¡¯t stay angry at al-
"Seems like Attie¡¯s cute face trick still works." Yin muttered.
*PUCHI!!!!
###
*Sniff
Rubbing her head, Yin felt like she was about to cry.
"Animal cruelty." Sheined as Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Would you rather be an animal or my daughter?" Shiro asked as Yin dropped her act and stuck out her tongue.
"At least Attie doesn¡¯t cause me to have a heart attack from anger."
Patting Attie¡¯s head, she checked both of them to see if the fire harmed them at all.
"Since both of you are fine, I¡¯ll be going back now." Shiro sighed as she drank another mana potion.
"I thought Attie said your mana realm was fixed and all that. Howe you¡¯re still using potions?" Yin asked curiously.
"Turns out that sustaining a tier 8 time chamber was no easy task. I have to take this every once in a while to keep it running since there¡¯s someone I¡¯m training in there."
"Which poor b*stard chose your training?" Yin asked in surprise.
"One of the specialised pilots. Regardless, just be careful with your fire ok? Attie¡¯s almost a tier 7 and your fire is special. It¡¯ll cause a lot of damage if it spreads." Shiro sighed as both Yin and Attie nodded their heads.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro made her way back to the training hall. She did offer Attie and Yin to tag along but the two of them wanted to explore a little more.
Chapter 1031 Merchant
Chapter 1031 Merchant
"You¡¯re back." Nan Tian smiled seeing Shiro open a portal beside him and scratched her head.
"Yeah. It turns out that those two wondered what it¡¯d be like to pit two types of devouring mes against one another. Instead of it being extinguished, it merged and became something they couldn¡¯t deal with." Shiro sighed as Nan Tian chuckled.
"In one way they¡¯re just like you."
"Urg..." Unable to refute since she does experiment with dangerous aspects as well, Shiro sat down next to him.
"Well at least they¡¯re getting along. What about Nimue and Iziuel?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro closed her eyes and sent out her senses.
"They¡¯re rxing with Estre. Judging by the look on her face, Estre seems pretty happy with how things have panned out." Shiro smiled.
Talking for a little bit longer, Shiro made her way back to the training hall and resumed her training with Glen.
###
Tapping her fingers across the armrest, Misu had a bored expression.
"Has there been no news of Shiro still?" She asked her subordinate. He was the same person that joined her during their expedition a few months back.
"Unfortunately no. We still haven¡¯t found a way to enter their city nor get into contact with them. None of her subordinates have made an appearance at all in the recent events." He replied as Misu furrowed her brows.
"Hmm... I don¡¯t think she died from the first event." Misu muttered as she nced out her window.
Looking over her city, she couldn¡¯t help but sigh. She wanted a partnership soon so that the people living here wouldn¡¯t need to live in their undead bodies. While they¡¯re happy, being in a living body was still desirable.
"Perhaps we should send more scouts?"
"No need. We can¡¯t allocate more resources into this. She¡¯ll show herself eventually if she¡¯s still alive. If she¡¯s dead then it¡¯s truly a shame." Misu shook her head as she stood up.
"Our forces are weakened from thest fight against Liliana, so we¡¯ll have to opt out of this event as well. Tsk, so annoying."
"Should we try to assassinate Liliana then?" Her subordinate offered.
"No. Leave it for now. Reinforce our defences, I¡¯ll try to get us some more allies." Misu shook her head as she turned around and prepared to leave.
However, just as she did so, a crest started to form itself as Misu narrowed her eyes.
ring her energy, skeletal arms appeared around her as green fire surrounded the crest.
"Who are you." She asked with a threatening tone. The crest was that of a raven and seeing as how they¡¯re tantly ring their aura, Misu expected a fight.
"No need to be hostile." A voice rang out with a cackle.
"I¡¯m merely a merchant. There maye a time where you need to... trade with me. I am only presenting you with a chance of contacting me if the timees."
Hearing this, Misu frowned as a single raven feather appeared in front of her with the crest carved on the surface.
"As a freebie, I¡¯ll tell you one piece of information you might find interesting. The one you speak of, Shiro, will be appearing in the event tomorrow."
Pausing at this piece of information, Misu watched as the crest burned away.
".. .Change of ns. We¡¯re going for an outing." Misu said after a short pause.
"Understood. What about allies and the city¡¯s defence?"
"Hand it over to Van. He can deal with the city¡¯s defences for now until we return. As for allies, we¡¯ll see what we can do during the event. Naturally, you¡¯reing with me for this outing Idis."
"As you wish." Idis bowed as he left the throne room so that he could inform Van of Misu¡¯s decision.
¡¯So she¡¯ll be appearing in this event after all this time. I wonder what happened for her to take such a long break. Regardless. It seems like I might be able to set up a talk for an alliance tomorrow.¡¯ Misu thought to herself as a smile formed on her face.
###
"What do you want." Syradil red at the crest that appeared in front of her with a cold re. She was already in a bad mood since she was attacked while sleeping and now this crest had appeared in front of her.
With Shiro not making a single appearance, Syradil guessed that she had probably died which was a shame but this just puts her back to her original n. Do whatever she wanted since this was thest cycle.
"I want to offer the chance of trade."
"Then I¡¯m not interested. You don¡¯t have anything that can interest me anyways." Syradil waved her hand dismissively.
"Many say the same but theye for trade in the end. I¡¯m always avable." The voiceughed as a raven feather appeared in front of Syradil.
Clicking her tongue in annoyance, she snapped her finger and burnt it to cinders.
"I don¡¯t like repeating myself." She red back at the crest.
"Very well. But I¡¯ll be watching. Does the wound still hurt? The one you received a while ago. I wonder what went missing with that wound. After all, you are still alive."
After saying this, the crest disappeared as Syradil clenched her fists.
She could still remember the sword stabbing through her body during the first event but she didn¡¯t die. She woke up with no scar, no injuries, no negative conditions. It was strange. She knew that the sword must have done something but she didn¡¯t know what.
The fact that so many variables are now appearing pissed her off. Especially since the merchant has made his appearance much sooner than what she had expected.
"Annoying." She scratched her hair as she took a deep breath and sighed.
###
"Ha...." Panting heavily, Glen felt like his body was about to break while Shiro watched from the side.
Leaning against the wall, she looked down at the time and drank another potion.
"The session will be over soon. It seems like you¡¯re hovering around 83% body control. Keep practising and you should reach 90% soon." Shiro said as Glen nodded his head.
"Right... If you don¡¯t mind me asking your highness, what percent of body control do you have?" Glen asked as heid on his back.
"Me? I usually hover around 95%, maybe 97. But when I focus I can reach 100% guaranteed. Why do you ask?"
"What¡¯s it like to be able to control your body at 100% threshold?"
"What¡¯s it like? Hmm... to put it simply it¡¯s a bit of a pain. While I can control it 100%, it also means everything bes manual for me. While I can pull off some crazy stunts, I also have to keep my own heart beating. 95% to 97 is a good average since the remaining percent is used for everything else. For body control, just reaching the threshold is not enough. You need to be able to use the tools at your disposal correctly for it to be effective. Overwise it¡¯ll just be a hindrance." Shiro shrugged as Glen nodded his head.
"Then what about techniques? Has your highness made any techniques?"
"Plenty of them. After 90%, I mentioned that each movement is like a technique of their own right? It doesn¡¯t have to be shy but my fighting is a mix of counter attacks, redirecting force and full on assault. There is no room for defence since all of my so called techniques are offensive. Plus, I¡¯m not going to be shouting move names for each muscle I use now am I? Cloud Strider, Counter Force, Rupturing Strike. Doing so would be stupid especially in the middle of a fight." Shiro waved her hand dismissively.
"I see..."
"Of course, I¡¯m not saying you can¡¯t name them. Sometimes naming them in your mind is helpful for you to understand what you want to do. I¡¯m just saying don¡¯t shout it out like a buffoon unless you¡¯re trying to annoy your enemies." Shiro shrugged.
Letting Glen rest for a little bit, Shiro watched as he continued to push his body control.
###
"Alright, time is up. Rest up properly and prepare for deployment." Shiro smiled as Glen nodded. Using the sword as a crutch, he was teleported out of the time chamber as Shiro turned off the magic circle used for the chamber.
Opening the doors to training hall four, she made her way back to training hall one since Nan Tian was still there with the others.
Teleporting next to Nan Tian, she stretched for a moment before sitting down.
"I guess Glen has finished with his training." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"To a degree yes. But I¡¯ll be honest, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be wanting to drink mana potions for a while." Shiro shrugged.
"Well you did drink nothing but mana potions for thest few hours so it¡¯s understandable."
"True. Everyone! You can rest now. There are roughly 5 hours left before the event starts. Get as much rest as you can." Shiro called out with a smile.
Hearing this, sighs of relief could be heard as they all retreated from the training hall.
Chapter 1032 Artillery Blueprint
Chapter 1032 Artillery Blueprint
With everyone leaving the training hall, Shiro stretched her body since they only had a few hours left till the event. They were roughly 5 hours away from Vrish¡¯ Lir with their current speed but she wasn¡¯t nning on getting any closer.
After all, if they get any closer, there was the chance of being dragged into the fight. She just needed them to be close enough so that they could deploy more mechs if needed.
"Let¡¯s head back." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Everything is prepared. The mechs are done, the training could be better but it is veryst minute so this is fine for now. Once they enter the mech, they can definitely deploy an iplete domain. Since they¡¯re all specialised pilots, I trust in their talent." She chuckled while pushing Nan Tian¡¯s wheelchair.
"Indeed. Though I do wish I could participate in the fight." Nan Tian sighed as he looked down at his own body.
"Well you managed to repel a Queen and even injured her to the extent where killing her was a piece of cake, even with her guards around. You will recover, she won¡¯t." Shiro chuckled.
"True. Though I am curious about her territory. What will happen to the people that find refuge under her and what of her followers?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shrugged.
"No idea but I don¡¯t exactly have the resources to find out. Each of the Queens hide their main anchor to the best of their abilities so it would be hard to find out what happened to the people living there. But I¡¯m guessing chaos." Shiro replied.
"Without a leader to rally under and no guaranteed protection, they would probably form their own hierarchy using power, and take over the main city to be used as their base."
"Either that or the monsters who no longer sense the Queen will kill everyone." Shiro added.
"That too." Nan Tian agreed. The only reason why most people seek shelter under the Queens despite knowing how bad it would be was because of protection. Surviving outside has be much harder thanks to the myriad of peak tier 5 monsters roaming around and tier 6 guards keeping a watch on territories.
There are still dungeons around but most of them had been destroyed during the chaos of the first day. Now, monsters from inside the dungeons are freed and they have made their own settlements deep in forests, icy tundra¡¯s and volcanoes depending on what type of monster they are.
It wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to say that one of the only reasons a majority of humans were alive right now was thanks to the Queens providing protection. Without them, humans would be on the verge of extinction excluding those near the top in terms of levels. For anyone below level 300 to survive alone in the wild was near impossible now.
"Now that I think about it, the fact that Asher and the others were able to survive by travelling from ce to ce is quite impressive isn¡¯t it? Even though their levels are low they¡¯re adapting to the new world rather nicely. I should have given them more items to support them to be honest since you never know what you might run into." Shiro shrugged.
"True. But since Lyrica¡¯s with them they should be fine. She¡¯s strong after all. Even if she doesn¡¯t think so only because she¡¯sparing herself with you." Nan Tian smiled.
"True. The fact that she couldn¡¯t help her mother or father when we were out in space must have taken a toll on her. If I look back at it, she probably put on a brave front so that I didn¡¯t me myself more than I already have back then. Honestly, if she did I think I might actually lose my mind back then." Shiro smiled sadly as Nan Tian patted her arm.
"Don¡¯t be like that. You know that Lyrica isn¡¯t someone who would do that. She¡¯s trying her hardest right now so that she can do something about it herself rather than leaving everything on your shoulders." Nan Tianforted as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know. Don¡¯t worry, the fact that you actually almost killed a Queen hundreds of levels above you told me enough. I won¡¯t take everything on my shoulders." Shiro leaned forward so that her head was above him and smiled.
"Well isn¡¯t that a charming smile." Nan Tian chuckled.
"I know. Aren¡¯t I just adorable?" Shiro grinned.
"Very."
Making her way back to her room, Shiro sat on the bed and started to make some blueprints using her tablet.
Thinking about what might be needed, Shiro decided to make an artillery system. It won¡¯t be something as powerful as the cannon that she had created in space but each of them would be roughly the same strength as Wrath of stars.
"Should I add a petrification ability to the artillery shells?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"So you¡¯re going to blow them to pieces and turn them to stone if they survive?"
"Well it¡¯s more like backup. Since we¡¯re a bit low on manpowerpared to the other Queens, I need a way to clear out arge horde of enemies. There¡¯s no doubt that the country will probably be destroyed during this event so I might as well let loose a little too. I want to win after all." Shiro shrugged.
"Hmm... in that case then why don¡¯t you make it so that the shells are linked with the Requiem of the Dead skill that you told me about before?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro scratched her head.
"Well the problem with that is even if I have the skill in my inventory, I wasn¡¯t able to cast it thest time I checked. I was only able to cast this since I had someone helping me in the forgotten realm."
"Well you¡¯ve certainly improved and you¡¯ve even gained the power of the divine runes. I think it should be within your capabilities now, especially since it¡¯s registered with the system.
"Hmm... I¡¯ll see what happens. Right now, we have 15 specialised pilots and hundreds of registered pilots. Our attack force is pretty strong since they¡¯re all using mechs but the problem is that to put it harshly, it¡¯s almost like mass produced trash. Even if the mechs are strong, a powerful general under one of the Queens would be able to take it out with ease once it observed the mech for a few moments. Of course, even though I was harsh with saying mass produced trash, it is still more powerful than whatever foot soldier they have." Shiroughed as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"True. And your generals, in which case us, can fight against their Queens. It¡¯s still a coin flip as to whether or not we kill them though. I got quite lucky in that she was awful at close quarters so half the time her summon was trying to protect her." Nan Tian admitted.
"And I¡¯m a Demi God too. I can give some court titles to Shiina and the others too if ites down to it. Plus, Attie, Nimue and Iziuel are pseudo demi gods like me. In terms of quality, we dwarf everyone else. But we can¡¯t get arrogant because of that since if we do, they can just pull the rug under us and we¡¯ll lose." Shiro shrugged before finalising a few of the blueprints for the artillery cannons.
Waving her finger, she did a quick simtion of their power and watched as the simted hologram demolished arge monster in an instant.
"Hmm... roughly the power of tier 5 me pushed to the limit. Each shot can heavily wound a tier 6 being if they¡¯re not careful. If I add some petrification, it allows us to crowd control the situation better, wait... actually no. If I add some runes, there¡¯s a chance that I can make a no mana zone remotely while firing the weapon." Shiro muttered as her eyes widened.
Seeing her expression, Nan Tian smiled knowing that she¡¯s getting excited for another blueprint that might easily turn the tides of war.
Tapping away at her keyboard for a moment, Shiro simted a new scene as Nan Tian watched carefully.
Suddenly, a guidingser appeared as it drew a rune on the point of impact. There¡¯s a moment where the monster¡¯s body froze up before a faint barrier expanded.
Narrowing his eyes, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but pause in surprise.
The rune doesn¡¯t activate immediately since the first skill that activates was Keitoma. By freezing her enemies movements for a moment, it guaranteed that they¡¯ll be covered by the barrier. Once the barrier is up, they¡¯ll be suffering from a no mana zone while the artillery strikes.
"Say, what do you think would happen if I was to find out where their main city is?" Shiro asked with a dark smile.
"Absolute panic unless they can activate a barrier. But if they¡¯re in a no barrier zone..."
"Death. Though it would be a shame since many innocents might get dragged into this for no reason. Even if I can revive them, they would be quite traumatised by hellfire raining down on them and the sensation of being killed would be fresh on their mind. Well I can think about that next time." Shiro shrugged as she yawned.
Taking a quick shower, she prepared herself for tomorrow¡¯s event.
Chapter 1033 Event Start
Chapter 1033 Event Start
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro stood in themand centre while looking at Vrish¡¯ Lir in the distance. Even though they couldn¡¯t see the country itself, they could see the whirlwind protecting the country from his distance.
Looking down, she could see the spirit council, sect elders and demon nobility working at the terminals. Most of them were controlling drones that scouted out the ce and created a map of the battlefield so that it was easier tomand.
With Madison leaving for the demon realm, she had ordered everyone to follow Shiro without question since she was the leader of this city.
Naturally, they all agreed and since strength was a big factor of their hierarchy, they knew that it would spell death should they cross Shiro.
"Your highness, we¡¯ve spotted a few temporary camps off the west coast of Vrish¡¯ Lir. Judging by their numbers, most of them are probably under level 300." One of the spirits spoke up as Shiro nodded her eyes.
Waving her finger, she projected the screen in front of her.
"Hmm... with their auras, there should be at least 4 tier 6 beings with them. The Queen is nowhere in sight too..." Shiro muttered.
"Assign two drones to them. Keep them in stealth mode and report if there is any suspicious activity." Shiro ordered as she leaned over and pulled up a mic.
"Shiina, I want everyone to be ready for deployment at a moment¡¯s notice. We don¡¯t know when the event will start."
"Understood. All 15 specialised pilots are already on standby. As for the normal pilots, we have 300 elites gears up. They¡¯re just organising themselves now." Shiina replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Split the 300 elites into toons. Each of you willmand one each and depending on the situation, I¡¯ll need you to work with one another to take a zone. If you look at the document I sent each of you, you should have a rough idea of how this event works."
"I¡¯ll be right on it."
Ending the call, Shiro nced back and saw everyone that was participating in this event.
Yin, Attie and Lisa were talking to one another by the side while Estre, Nimue and Iziuel were overseeing them. Aarim wanted to join but Shiro needed her to stay behind so she settled with Artillery duty instead.
With her fast calctions during spell casting, controlling the artillery shouldn¡¯t be too hard for her especially since Shiro made it easy for people to use with the AI.
Helion stayed behind since his level was a bit low for this fight and provided support using equipment instead. Chen Yu was joining in despite his level since he specialises in burst damage so he¡¯ll be useful for assassinations. He¡¯ll bemanding his own unit within this event along with Keiko since she is the highest level assassin in the city. Plus, she was also a tier 6 so it was extra insurance.
Of course, since Keiko was joining in the fight, Keomi wasn¡¯t far behind as she came out of seclusion with Li Jian. She¡¯ll be joining a teamposed of her father, Koji and Li Jian.
Silvia wasmanding the healers along with a group ofbat healers to provide support during the battle.
Shiro¡¯s reunion with Koji, Keiko and Keomi was rather short as she reassured them that she¡¯s fine for now and that it just gets a bit hard after 10 minutes. Promising them to have a proper talk after the event.
However, Koji didn¡¯t say anything since he trusted his oldest daughter. With Mio going to train, he will protect Keomi on the battlefield.
Kanae had also wanted to join but Shiro had her protect the city for now since she wasn¡¯t experienced enough just yet despite her time spent in a dungeon.
"How should we split this? We have 6 tier 6¡¯s on our side not including me or Nan Tian since he¡¯s injured. We can either move as a singr group and dominate each ce we go to or we can split up. The first option will make it harder for us to protect the zones that we have captured but I can teleport us back if anything happens. The only problem with that is that they can stall us by repeatedly attacking the base. We don¡¯t want to reveal too much just yet so we¡¯ll see if we can use the bare minimum to win this event." Shiro smiled.
"Seeing as how the Queens won¡¯t be showing up early, I won¡¯t show up either since that would just paint a target on my back. Therefore, I¡¯ll be takingmand back here and manning the artillery with Aarim.
"However, knowing your skill level, I¡¯d say you can split into six groups each being led by a tier 6. Plus, you have the bonus from your court roles no?" Shiro grinned.
Giving everyone here a title except for Nan Tian, in case it gave him something weird, all of them were now included in her divine court with benefits that matched them.
Divine Court Blood Moon General - Koji
Divine Court Dragon General - Li Jian
Divine Court Spell Weaver - Yin
Divine Court Aspect of Fire - Atesh
Divine Court Holy Judge - Lisandra
Divine Court Aspect of Water - Nimue
Divine Court Void Ruler - Estre
Divine Court Aspect of Life - Iziuel
Currently used slots : 13/16
Both her father and Li Jian got roles as generals and they have received skills that would help themmand the battlefield such as Rallying Warcry.
[Rallying Warcry]
When activated, your allies gain a 20% boost to all stats while charging towards your designated objective. They receive the buff [Indomitable] during this charge.
Cost: N/A
Cooldown: Once per battle
Duration: 2 minutes
While the 20% boost was good, the main benefit was the buff Indomitable. It made youpletely immune to crowd control abilities and while in this state, your attacks have the chance to inflict fear against the enemies.
Naturally, the skill wasn¡¯t limited to just the generals. Everyone else also received skills.
Looking at Yin¡¯s title, Shiro wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it had dubbed her Divine Court Glutton or Divine Court Chef.
"Is there something on my face mum?" Yin blinked seeing Shiro stare at her.
"Nothing. Just thinking about stuff. But as I said, with the title bonus from my skill, you should be able to contend against all of their tier 6¡¯s, perhaps even the Queens. And since that¡¯s the case, I want to suggest that you lot split up and dominate the battlefield with a small group of people under you. Dad, Li Jian and lil¡¯ sis will act as our spearhead in the beginning since we don¡¯t want to reveal our hand of tier 6¡¯s just yet. We¡¯ll poke the scene a little and see how it develops. Capture a few zones if we can but there is no pressure." Shiro smiled as Koji nodded his head.
"Chen Yu and Keiko will group up as discussed, prepare to assassinate any high priority targets that we spot so that they¡¯re removed from the battlefield. Having unstable variables like them would be a little annoying."
Exining all of their roles for this battle, Shiro sat patiently as the event screen finally appeared before her, announcing the start of this event.
[Ruling Dominion]
The barrier around Vrish¡¯ Lir will be taken down and the zones will be made clear in the skies by an empty crest.
The Queen that Captures the zone will have their crest disyed in the sky and it will collect points over time. The more zones you capture, the more points you earn. The event willst for a week and the Queen with the most points at the end will win.
There are many ways to Earn points.
Winning skirmishes, capturing zones that haven¡¯t been captured in a long time, killing priority targets such as tier 6 guards.
Everything you do will generate a certain amount of points depending on its impact on the battle. Naturally, you can lose points as well such as losing a captured zone, failing a skirmish and losing a powerful guard.
In order for you to secure a zone, you¡¯ll need to assign a lifeline to the zone and this lifeline can only be a being that¡¯s tier 6 or higher. Once the life line is assigned, they cannot leave the heart of the zone and a barrier will appear around the heart.
The only way for you to capture a zone is to enter this barrier and kill the lifeline.
Killing the lifeline will grant extra points. Once the lifeline is killed, the zone can be captured but only if there are no more enemies within the heart of the zone.
You may also spend points to ce a bounty on an enemy and whoever kills them will earn the bounty. This bounty cannot be imed by the person¡¯s allies.
More details can be read on the extension tab.
Reading the notification, Shiro looked out of themand office and watched as 15 empty crests appeared in the sky.
Chapter 1034 Mission Start
Chapter 1034 Mission Start
"Send scouts into the sky, I want a full view on the battlefield so that we can mark down where the zones are. For the first zone..." Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro nced back at the group.
Her ns were now hindered ever so slightly since there was the rule that only tier 6 or higher could be the lifeline for a zone. With how many tier 6¡¯s they have, they can take 6 zones excluding her since they need someone to be moving around.
At the same time, iming 6 zones would put everyone in a lot of danger as she was the only one who would be able to arrive as reinforcements should that happen. And the moment she appeared in one of the zones, they could just focus fire on another area, taking the zone and killing the lifeline protecting it.
Furrowing her brows, she thought about who would be suitable. No matter what happens, it would be annoying to trap someone in the zone.
"For the first one, why don¡¯t I go?" Iziuel smiled as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"If I go, I can use my new skills to set up a nature domain around the area. It¡¯ll allow me to boost allies¡¯ recovery and form a link with everyone inside. If the healers are with me, I can keep everyone healthy." Iziuel exined as Shiro thought about it for a moment before nodding her head.
"Alright. I¡¯ll stay with you in the first zone for now. We have a week to collect point so there¡¯s no hurry in capturing more. ording to the event, we¡¯ll get a share of the earned points from one of the zones that we capture so it is also viable for us to wait a little before capturing everything else. We¡¯ll focus our strengths on keeping the first zone that we capture." Shiro nodded her head.
"But let¡¯s not be hasty. We need to find a zone that would be easy to defend. The first person to capture a zone bes a target for everyone else in this event. We don¡¯t know how many Queens there are either so it¡¯s a little risky."
"Your highness, we have a visual on the whole map." One of the spirits called out as Shiro nodded her head.
Projecting the map in front of them, she made an adjustment to the holographic model of Vrish¡¯ Lir in the middle.
Marking down where the zones are, Shiro looked at their sizes before checking back with the event tab.
Giving it a quick nce, she furrowed her brows.
"Zones differ in size. Bigger zones have a stronger barrier that can¡¯t be broken unless certain anchor points are destroyed. Barriers will not regenerate until a new lifeline is chosen. Smaller zones don¡¯t have anchor points but their barriers can be broken with the right amount of fire power. Once broken, they will regenerate after a day. Hmm... They both have their benefits." Shiro muttered.
"If we choose a bigger zone, we¡¯ll need to assign guards to anchors, preventing enemies from breaking it but the moment it¡¯s broken, we will no longer have a barrier. The only upside to this is that while the anchors are still up, the barrier is indestructible." Nan Tian added as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Let¡¯s go with a smaller zone first. There are more downsides to choosing a big zone right now, even if it does give more points. It¡¯s riskier and we can alwaysunch an attack on one during thest day." Shiro nodded as she started filtering the map.
"Right now, out of the 15 zones scattered around this country, 5 of them arerge ones and 10 of them are small ones. Out of the 10 small zones, only 4 of them have an adequate amount of protection from its surroundings." Shiro exined as she zoomed in on the map.
"Thankfully, there is one located near our current location so after we capture it. Iziuel, prepare to capture the zone with Lisandra and Estre. I¡¯ll send some mech units with you just in case but the three of you should suffice." Shiro ordered as Iziuel nodded her head.
"Estre, teleport the three of you to mech bay one. I¡¯ll notify the three specialised pilots that will be helping you. Once you¡¯re ready, give me a message and I¡¯ll teleport everyone to Vrish¡¯ Lir."
Watching the three of them teleport away, Shiro closed her eyes and sent a notice to Shiina, Glen and another pilot named Maria.
###
Receiving the message, Shiina nced towards the specialised pilots waiting for deployment.
"Glen, Maria, follow me. We¡¯re being deployed to capture the first zone." Shiina called out as Glen nodded his head.
As for Maria, she widened her eyes in surprise and almost dropped the tablet in her hands. She was a demon with light purple hair that covers one side of her face. Light grey skin and a small stature. She had a burning red pupil contrasted by the ck sclera.
"Eh me?" She pointed at herself as Shiina nodded her head.
"There isn¡¯t another Maria here is there?" Shiina raised an eyebrow.
"Ehhh howe I¡¯m chosen?" Maria asked in confusion since there were stronger pilots other than her.
If anything, she rankedst of all the specialised pilots.
"Her highness has her ns. The fact that she chose you means that she had seen your achievements and decided that you¡¯re the most suitable for this mission. Let¡¯s go, we shouldn¡¯t keep them waiting especially since they can teleport." Shiina smiled as Maria nodded her head with uncertainty.
"Ermm... alright."
"Just do what we practiced. I¡¯ll act as the support mage and Glen can take the front line since he¡¯s a close ranged sword user. Just support us from behind." Shiina reassured as Maria nodded her head.
Dashing over to Mech Bay One, they could see Iziuel, Estre and Lisandra waiting by the mechs.
"Sorry for the slight dy, it¡¯ll only take us a moment to get ready in the mechs." Shiina apologised.
"It¡¯s fine, there¡¯s no rush. Don¡¯t be too stressed out." Iziuel waved her hand with a soft smile.
"Before you go I just want to double check our formation since we might beginbat on our way there. I am a vanguard, Estre is a control mage and Iziuel is a support." Lisandra spoke up since this will be the first time they work with one another.
"Oh? I¡¯m a support mage, Glen is vanguard and Maria here is a support too." Shiina blinked her eyes in surprise.
"So mum chose a bnced team. We¡¯ll we don¡¯t know what we¡¯re against so this is probably the best choice. In that case then me and Glen will travel in the front and we¡¯ll protect you four." Lisandra nodded.
Discussing their ns for a short while so that they understood their skills, they prepared for departure.
Lisandra stood on the shoulder of Glen¡¯s mech while Estre did the same with Shiina.
Sitting on the shoulder of Maria¡¯s Mech, Lisandra nced in and saw Maria putting on the helmet before securing herself to the cockpit.
"You seem nervous. First mission?" Iziuel asked with a small smile.
"Eh? Ah, yes it is. I did some practice in the army but this is the first proper mission since there was never a need for me to join in." Maria looked down with an embarrassed expression.
"Don¡¯t worry too much and just think of this as training. I¡¯m sure thatpared to Shiro¡¯s training this is much easier. I heard that she gave you lot somest minute training so you have my condolences." Iziuel chuckled as Maria coughed.
Remembering the face she saw when Shiro forcefully activated all of their Throne Worlds, she couldn¡¯t help but shiver.
"Understood." Maria nodded as she synced herself with the mech.
Going through the procedures to make sure that she had synchronised properly, she took a deep breath to suppress her nerves.
###
Receiving a message saying that they were ready, Shiro nodded her head and sat down on the chair before closing her eyes.
Projecting herself into small holograms inside their cockpits,
"If everyone is ready, I will open the portal now. Our goal is the small zone located in the city of Vandiline. It¡¯s towards the southern section of the country. I¡¯ll be teleporting everyone to the coast and we¡¯ll make the rest of the journey by foot. We¡¯ll, mech but you know what I mean." Shiro smiled as Shiina nodded her head.
"Since everyone¡¯s ready, let¡¯s start this mission." Shiro smiled.
Snapping her finger, runes appeared in front of the three mechs as a portal opened.
Walking through the portal, Shiina could see that they were on a beach. Not too far from them was an empty crest that floated in the sky.
"Activate your stealth modules and approach the city. We don¡¯t know if there are anyone aiming for this ce as well. I¡¯ll update you once I get visual." Shiro ordered as all three mechs turned invisible before making their way toward the zone.
Chapter 1035 Cryptspawn
Chapter 1035 Cryptspawn
While Shiina, Maria and Glen were making their way towards the zone, Shiro kept her eyes on the scouting drones since she could see the signs of fighting in the distance.
"Why are they already using tier 6 magic circles?" Shiro muttered with a frown since she could see the signs of magic being used. Even if she couldn¡¯t see into the zones right now, she could tell that they were using their strongest skills.
"That¡¯s strange. Judging by the mana signals, it¡¯s not a weak spell either. They¡¯re all using their strongest spells." Nan Tian added as he looked at the tablet with a frown.
"Hm..." Pausing for a moment, Shiro decided to send a drone ahead of the group to scout out the zone they were about to capture.
Navigating through the forest, towards the city of Vandiline, Shiro controlled the drone and arrived at the border of the city.
Seeing that it waspletely empty, Shiro guessed that most of the people here either evacuated or died.
"Doesn¡¯t seem like there¡¯s anything wro-"
Noticing something that flickered past the camera, Shiro widened her eyes and reversed the clip.
Pausing at the frame, she immediately grabbed the mic.
"Everyone prepare forbat!" Shiro called out with a frown as she noticed several runes carved into the beings body. It was one that would open several portals and activate a totem simr to the one that had appeared back in New York.
"Aarim, prepare to use the snipers. We¡¯ll save the artillery forter." Shiro called out as Aarim nodded her head.
###
Hearing Shiro¡¯s orders, all of them immediately entered battle formation as Lisandra floated at the front, unfurled her wings and held two swords.
Narrowing her eyes, she could sense something approaching them rapidly.
"Can I deal with it?" Glen asked as Lisandra raised her eyebrow before nodding her head
"Be careful." She cautioned since they had limited information on the enemy.
Controlling his mech to the front, Glen grabbed the nanotech de and took a deep breath.
Faint traces of lightning flickered across the surface of his mech as a faint yellow glow coated the de.
Hearing the sound of trees rustling, he brought his foot back and entered a stance.
The moment the enemy showed itself, Glen shed forward.
He could see that the enemy was a quadrupedal beast with two pairs of eyes, ck leathery skin with runes burned onto the surface and magma red lights peeking out through the gaps between his muscles.
[Cryptspawn ¨C LVL 500]
Ducking under the horizontal w strike, Glen cleaved his sword up towards the Cryptspawn¡¯s belly.
*PUSHI!!!!!
shing the monster in half, Glen watched as glowing red liquid flowed through the air before reforming themselves into the missing half of the body.
With two Cryptspawns around him, Glen furrowed his brows
"Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just a beast that can use Doppelganger. Your attack missed since he used the skill at the right moment." Lisandra spoke up as she was currently sitting on the shoulder of Glen¡¯s mech.
Flicking her fingers, three swords made from light appeared as it pinned one of the Cryptspawn to the ground.
"Mum, there are runes on its body." Lisandra spoke over the mic as she waved her hand and pinned the other one down to the floor as well.
"I know, you might want to take a step back. It¡¯s going to open a portal." Shiro replied as tier 6 magic circles suddenly appeared in the sky.
*BANG!!!!
Pirs of light shot down all over the country as Shiro guessed that it was connecting to the other Cryptspawns that were scattered around the country.
"You might want to deal with this before you capture the zone. I¡¯m not sure if you can close the portal or it¡¯s better than getting cornered by a whole bunch of monsters." Shiro warned as all of them nodded.
sping her hands together, Iziuel narrowed her eyes as tier 6 magic circles appeared around the entrance before disappearing.
Setting up a few traps along with some safety spells just in case, she watched as Shiina did the same.
Suddenly, a w appeared in front of the portal as a pair of eyes red at the group.
Unfortunately for it, it had chosen the wrong group to attack.
Before it could even get his whole body out of the portal, long thorns pierced his body skewering him in the centre while ice formed on his skin.
Taking a step forward, lightning flickered off of Glen¡¯s sword as he cleaved the monster in half.
*BANG!!!!!
Shattering the ground beneath the portal, they watched as the separated corpse of whatever wanted to crawl out blocked the portal entrance.
"I¡¯ll send a little warning gift for them." Lisandra spoke up as she walked in front of the portal. Since her level was linked to Shiro, one could say that she was the most powerful person in the event area right now.
Raising her hand up, light gathered towards her palm as a sword condensed itself.
Creating more swords in an instant, they fused together into a single spear as she pulled her arm back.
Several tier 6 magic circles appeared in front of her as Shiro recognised it to be something simr to how her rail cannons work.
"Aww I¡¯m so proud." Shiro couldn¡¯t help but say as Lisandra threw the spear.
The moment it passed through the magic circles, the power and size of the spear was amplified as it pierced into the next beast that tried to escape. After a few seconds, they could feel the shockwave of what seemed to be caused by a nuke but they couldn¡¯t see the disaster.
"Alright that should be fine. Let¡¯s go." Lisandra dusted her hand off casually as Glen raised his eyebrows. He could still see the portal open so he wondered if they really should leave.
Just as he thought of this, the upper body of a monster appeared through the portal,pletely charred to the bone and scattered away into ash.
".. .I see."
Following behind Lisandra who cleared the path rather easily, since the monsters that attacked them were all around level 500, they arrived at the city.
Meanwhile, Shiro was speechless since this was... easier than what she had expected. When she saw the runes, she had expected a giant portal to open, bringing in level 700¡¯s, 800¡¯s and so on. Not a small one that had its entrance blocked by a single monster being cleaved in half. Knowing the system, it wouldn¡¯t give them a free win like this but at the same time it was... understandable.
Lisandra was the same level as her and due to her ss and title from Divine Court, her stats receive a tremendous upgrade whenever she is working on a task bestowed by her.
Since escorting Iziuel to the first zone is a task, her stats received an upgrade.
For enemies that were lower than level 700, she was akin to an unstoppable force. A single spear throw killed everything on the opposite side of that portal.
"Seems like there¡¯s no need for snipers after all." Shiro said as she nced back to Aarim who only sighed and leaned back.
"Shame." Aarim shrugged.
Watching the screen, Shiro could see that the group had reached the outer perimeter of the city.
From the looks of things, it waspletely clear, no more monsters roamed around the corners.
Sending a drone into the sky, Shiro looked for where the centre of the zone was since that was where Iziuel will be the lifeline.
However, as she was looking for the centre, she realised something. Even for the Cryptspawns, it shouldn¡¯t have been able to force them to use some of their most powerful spells.
¡¯I¡¯m probably just overthinking it. Lisandra didn¡¯t use her best spell either but her attack was powerful.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she sent the coordinates of the centre to the party.
"There¡¯s the centre of the zone. Once you have imed the zone, we¡¯ll teleport over and set up a temporary base." Shiro ordered.
"Understood."
Looking over at the holographic map, Shiro could see the crests flickering as people started to contest for the zones. None of them has been imed yet which makes sense since it was a battle between tier 6¡¯s.
However, towards the centre where the biggest zone was, a single crest appeared. IT was that of a woman with a dragon behind her and Shiro understood that it must belong to the dragon empress.
"Of course she¡¯ll im it first. Does she even have any subordinates? Last time I checked she was running solo." Shiro muttered as a barrier erected around the zone.
Shaking her head, she looked back towards Lisandra and the others as they made their way towards the centre of the zone.
The centre was a city hall of sorts that was a little too small for the mechs to fit in. Letting the mechs guard outside, Iziuel entered with Lisandra and Estre.
Chapter 1036 Isolated Space
Chapter 1036 Isted Space
Upon entering the building, the three of them immediately felt a spike in mana as a barrier of sorts formed around the building.
"Hm... There shouldn¡¯t be a barrier just yet. No one has imed this ce." Iziuel frowned as Estre readied a spell just in case.
"Mum, what do you think of this?" Lisandra asked.
However, seeing that there was no response, she couldn¡¯t help but frown and nce at Iziuel and Estre.
"There¡¯s no response from mum."
Hearing this, the two of them paused for a moment and widened their eyes.
"I can¡¯t feel my connection to her anymore." Iziuel frowned.
"Me neither." Estre added.
Furrowing her brows, Lisandra walked towards the door and wanted to make their way outside but the moment her hand touched the handlebar on the door, her entire body was repelled back as lightning struck against her hand.
"Well that¡¯s certainly not a good sign." Lisandra furrowed her brows.
"Let me try." Estre spoke up as she sped her hands together.
Creating a tier 6 magic circle in front of her. She tried to create a portal outside but the path was blocked by the barrier.
"So we¡¯re stuck then. Perhaps this will only open once we im it." Lisandra frowned since they were now isted from the others.
"Alright, let¡¯s do it quickly since Shiro might get worried. After what happened in the first event, she¡¯ll be sensitive about situations like this." Iziuel suggested as the two of them nodded their heads.
Making their way towards the centre of the building, they watched as a tier 6 magic circle appeared in front of them.
*BANG!
Quickly stabilising themselves, they realised that the floor was being pushed down as all the chairs and tables started to shake.
Seeing that they were being sent down as if this was an elevator, the three prepared themselves forbat should anything happen.
###
"Lisa?" Shiro called out with a frown since the connection waspletely cut off. She had a mote on all six of them so that she could teleport them back should anything happen but the moment the three of them entered the buildings, her connection to the node had been cut off by something.
Even their cameras didn¡¯t work as they no longer had any information on what happened to any of them.
"What happened?" Nan Tian asked as he knew that something was wrong. Seeing Shiro tense up like this, he guessed that it was to do with Lisandra¡¯s group that had entered the building.
"Yes. I¡¯ve lost connection to all three of them. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening inside." Shiro exined as she took a deep breath. She could feel her heart beat faster but quickly suppressed her anxiety for now. Nothing is certain yet, for all she knows it might just be a small trial that the three of them can clear easily.
So far this trial had been like usual. Nothing crazy had happened just yet, no tier 7 or 8¡¯s have made themselves known.
Grabbing the mic, she changed the screen to what Shiina and the others could see.
"Shiina are you able to contact Lisandra? If you can¡¯t, peel off the roof of that building so that we can get a visual." Shiro ordered as Shiina nodded her head.
The moment she reached out for the building, the mech¡¯s arm was repelled as several tier 6 magic circles appeared within the area.
Seeing everything go south, Shiro gritted her teeth and handed everything to Nan Tian.
"Take control for now. I¡¯ll be back once I get into contact with Lisandra." Shiro frowned as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Alright, stay safe."
"Don¡¯t worry, I will." Shiro smiled as she opened a portal and immediately teleported to where Glen and the others were.
"Your highness!" Shiina called out in surprise seeing Shiro teleport right above them.
"Don¡¯t mind me. Kill the things thate out of the portals while I deal with this." Shiro said as she jumped off andnded in front of the door.
Narrowing her eyes at the building, she activated analysis and attempted to see through the walls. However, even in the colourless world where everything was ck with white lines, the entire building was just a single block of white that wouldn¡¯t let her see anything that was on the inside.
Crouching down, she ignored the portals opening around them as she wanted to scan the area and see if she could sense anything.
Sending out her mana, a holographic map appeared in her mind. However, there was no change. The building was still blocking her perception and it extended underground as well.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Shiro pulled back her arm before punching toward the door.
*BANG!!!!!
Colliding with the barrier, Shiro could see faint rippling across the surface before repelling her fist with equal force.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro was about to attack again when Nan Tian interrupted.
"Don¡¯t attack just yet. There are units making their way towards this ce. I can¡¯t see any Queens, but they have quite a few tier 6¡¯s. I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯re an attack force or if they¡¯re a scouting force but you might want to be careful." Nan Tian warned.
"Alright thanks." Shiro nodded.
"Glen, I want you to go deal with them by yourself. You should be able to aplish that. Shiina, guard this ce with Maria¡¯s help." Shiro ordered as Glen paused in surprise.
However, if Shiro said that he could deal with it, he¡¯ll follow her orders.
"Understood. Is there anything I should keep in mind?" Glen asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Yes. Let me adjust the mech so that it¡¯s just bigger than most people. Against tier 6¡¯s, having arge body would be disadvantageous against you. Try not to get hit if you can but don¡¯t hesitate to trade a hit if it allows you to take the advantage against them." Shiro exined as Glen nodded his head.
Taking his hands off the control, he flicked a few switches before confirming the change.
Controlling the mech so that it kneeled down, the pieces started to condense themselves as the giant mech shrank down to something the size of arge truck.
Adjusting himself to the controls, Glen watched as a map appeared in the cockpit, revealing where the enemies were approaching from.
Stomping down, he activated the jet thrusters along with the stealth module.
While that was happening, Shiina raised her hand up and sent out several anchors using the mech¡¯s nanobots.
cing them near the opening of each portal, she readied her spell.
No matter whates out, she¡¯ll guard Shiro to the best of her abilities.
###
Controlling the mech to charge towards the enemies while suppressing my presence, I wonder about her highness¡¯ current condition. Her face was pale and she seemed anxious.
Thinking back to my time while training with her, this waspletely different.
Regardless, I willplete the task that she had given me so that there was one less thing she had to worry about. Even though it¡¯s my first time facing against tier 6 enemies, if her highness believed that I can do this, then it is within the realm of possibility. I just had to y my cards right.
I can¡¯t activate the throne world module like everyone else but this mech has been modified before deployment.
"2 minutes before contact."
The holographic version of her highness spoke out as I readied the sword.
Right now, I can achieve a maximum of 85% body control. While it wasn¡¯t at the desired 90%, it allows me to control my mech with better precision since the synchronisation was akin to me projecting my mind into the mech¡¯s body.
With 85% control, I¡¯ll be able to use all of the techniques that I know with the mech.
Taking a deep breath, I waited in ambush.
###
"We¡¯re approaching their location soon." Ourmando said as we¡¯re following him through the forest.
Apparently, we had to scout the zone the enemy was looking at and see if we could take it for ourselves since it was a small zone. Most of the big zones are being contested right now and not many have their eye on a small zone.
*Sigh...
"We¡¯re probably just cannon fodder. People that are just tier 3 like us can¡¯t do much in this ce." One of the ¡¯volunteers¡¯ muttered besides me and I couldn¡¯t help but agree with him.
We sought refuge with one of the Queens in hopes for safety but here we are, fighting in an event rather than rxing in the safety of the city.
"Hush, there¡¯s not much humans like us can do anymore. We¡¯ve missed our chance of changing things before the new age. Now that things havee to this, do you really think the Queens will even let us level up? The dungeons that are still around are guarded and anyone who forces themselves through are killed on sight. Hell, if you¡¯re allowed then you¡¯re probably going to be used as Exp bags." Another retorted.
All of us didn¡¯t care about how loud we were speaking since it wasmon knowledge.
What a sh*tty world. No notice, just pure carnage. Perhaps if I had known things would turn out like this, I would have tried harder in the dungeons.
Chapter 1037 Freedom
Chapter 1037 Freedom
I looked down at the group of adventurers making their way towards the zone. Two tier 6¡¯s, it would be a difficult fight.
Outside of the mech, I am not even worth the dirt on their shoe.
However, with the gift her highness gave us, even weak people like me can face up against the tier 6¡¯s that now gue this world.
Looking at the faces of those that follow behind the tier 6, I couldn¡¯t help but sympathise with them since it didn¡¯t look like they were here of their own free will. Who would?
If it wasn¡¯t for the power that her highness had bestowed to everyone, we wouldn¡¯t want toe anywhere near a battlefield like this.
But since she has done so much for us, it¡¯s only right that we fight for our own freedom as well. Even those that stay back in the city try to do everything they can to keep the city working. They might not be able to fight but they¡¯ll farm to avoid a shortage of food, they¡¯ll trade to the best of their abilities so that the economy within the city is stable.
Everyone is chipping in what they can to keep this utopia from copsing.
While I do pity those that follow the tier 6 out of the necessity of survival, I have a job to do. Perhaps if I kill the two tier 6¡¯s, they might surrender. If they do, her highness will probably help them.
But at the same time, I can¡¯tpromise the mission if they be a bother. I would already have a hard time against two tier 6¡¯s.
Running through the n in my head once more, I calmed my nerves and nced at the holographic AI that was no longer controlled by her highness. She was focused on helping the three that were trapped within the building after all.
Regardless, I prayed silently for her blessing in battle.
Everyone in the military did this before a battle since we have witnessed her might. With her behind us, we felt like we could aplish anything.
Watching the first tier 6 walk past the trap that I had set, I waited patiently.
No need to get anxious, they don¡¯t know I¡¯m here. Once the second tier 6 walked past, I activated the trap.
Suddenly, tens of tier 5 magic circles appeared as nanotech wire surrounded the area.
Her highness had sent me a document on everything my updated mech can do.
Without the throne world module, she instead gave me a variety of tools to assist me inbat. The nanotech wires being one of them.
The tier 5 circle was only to ess a storage of them. As for the wires themselves, they were more than capable of killing tier 6.
Jumping out of my cover, still in stealth mode, I gripped my sword and swung towards the first tier 6 while the wires copsed in on them.
Lightning flickered off my sword as I activated the technique that she had taught me. My mastery wasn¡¯t enough to the point I can hide the lightning yet but I have tried topress everything within the sword.
*BANG!!!!!
Striking against his arm, I clicked my tongue since the lightning gave away my position.
However, the wires were still closing in. I had them on a dy so that they could adapt to the situation.
With his back open, the wires ripped into his flesh as blood exploded out of his back.
Seeing his eyes widen, I took this chance while everyone was in shock tounch a follow up.
Pushing the sword up, I grabbed it into a reverse grip before flipping my body above him.
Summoning another sword, I stabbed it into his shoulder beforending on my feet and forcefully dragged it through his opening in the back that was created by the damaged wires.
Seeing his exposed back, I felt a little sick in the stomach but I suppressed that feeling. This was a battle of life and death, with every tier 6 killed, her highness would have an easier time in the event.
Before I could even reach for his spine, I felt danger besides me. A single fist was charging towards the head and it was surrounded by a burning red aura. Since the mech had shrunk down, the blow would no doubt affect my body so taking that hit was not a choice.
Refining my senses as much as I could, I pushed my body past the 80% control threshold and narrowly dodged his strike while still reaching for the spine of the tier 6 that I attacked.
Seeing the fist brush past the visor on the mech¡¯s head, I could feel the heat burning my skin even though I was protected by the mech. The mech itself wasn¡¯t damaged since it was something created by her highness but I couldn¡¯t say the same for me as the pilot.
But my goal was reached.
The mech¡¯s hand had managed to connect to the wires around the spine.
With a single movement, I pulled back as hard as I could.
*KRSHHHHH!!!!!
ncing towards my hand, I could see the wires create tiny razors that shredded the skin, flesh and bones near the spine, separating it cleanly as there was now the freshly extracted spine of a tier 6 being in my hands.
Shouting in an unknownnguage, the second tier 6 seemed enraged as his hand grabbed onto the mech¡¯s head before I could even reach.
*BANG!!!!!
"GAH!"
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, my vision shook from that strike.
Even though I could see iting, I still wasn¡¯t able to react in time as he had grabbed the mechs head and mmed it against the ground. Seeing motes of fire appear around his fist, I knew that a second strike wasing but he was pinning me against the floor using his spare hand.
Gritting my teeth, I wanted to think of a situation when I remembered that I could still use the AI.
While it was not her highness, she had programmed it to be of use during battle. It would help you by suggesting a course of action that has the highest sess chance.
Activating the AI, several screens appeared as there was now an ovey on what I could do.
Immediately pushing my body to the limit, I ignored how embarrassing it would be since this was now a matter of life and death.
But even though that was the case, my face couldn¡¯t help but heat up. As a fellow man, I¡¯m sorry!
Rocket thrusters appeared behind the mech as I forced my upper body up while the tier 6 pinning me down was trying to stabilise himself, I took this opportunity to attack his rear using my knee.
Suddenly, a spear created from nanobots appeared just as my knee came into contact before expanding in a single instant.
*PUSHIII!!!!!
Ignoring the gallons of blood that were now pouring on my knee, I quickly flipped our positions and forced open his mouth using both my hands. Holding on as hard as I could while trying not to be pushed off, I stomped towards his mouth as a second spear appeared under my foot, piercing the back of his throat and through his head.
Breaking off both spears, I panted heavily while taking a step back.
Looking at the damage reports, the mech took a quick beating while he was trying to force me off him but in the end he still died so it didn¡¯t matter.
ncing over at the small army of adventurers that followed the two, they raised their weapons towards me.
"Don¡¯t make a stupid decision. If you want redemption, surrender and follow me. Our goddess will give you mercy." I offered.
Seeing the hesitation in their eyes, I knew that they were thinking about it.
Unfortunately, one of them only gave me a bitter smile.
"Sorry. I wish we could. But a contract is a contract." He said, ripping open his shirt to reveal a contract circle burned near his cor bone.
The magic circle was searing his flesh as he was clearly thinking about breaking the contract terms.
Before I could say anything, mes erupted from his body.
Gritting his teeth, he took a step towards me.
"We might not be worth a lot of EXP but it¡¯s better than dying to that Queen. All of us are here under a contract. We would have been used for cannon fodder anyways so I¡¯d rather you take my EXP instead. I can¡¯t say the same for everyone else but I want you to end my life." The man smiled towards me. Taking a step forward, he dropped his sword and spread open his arms.
Closing his eyes, he surrendered to his fate.
I knew that his life was burning away the more I hesitated since the contract was killing him for his decision.
However, it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.
"No. I won¡¯t end your life." I shook my head before stabbing my sword into the ground.
"Your highness!" I shouted out but before I could finish my sentence, the aura of the hologram changed.
"I know, I¡¯m still keeping an eye on everything." She smiled as she projected herself in front of the group that were now burning alive thanks to the contract.
Waving her hand, runes appeared above the contract circle and extinguished them along with the mes.
"I can offer you freedom."
Chapter 1038 Biting The Hand That Helped
Chapter 1038 Biting The Hand That Helped
"I can offer you freedom."
A single sentence echoed through my mind as I watched the fire that should have killed me extinguish before my very eyes.
The only thing that was keeping us from rebelling no longer harmed us. Instead, we were greeted with warmth.
"I can offer you freedom and you may stay in my city. You don¡¯t need to join the army nor do you have to repay me. You can enjoy life how you want. The only requirement from you is for you to ept. Of course, you can leave whenever you want. But if I discover that you have attempted to harm anyone within the city or anyone I know, you will face my wrath." The woman said as we stood in silence. Despite her looks and charms, she felt cold to our very soul the moment she warned us.
It was understandable. Having trustworthy people in this chaotic time was necessary and the fact that we should even give us this kind of opportunity was a god send.
"I ept!" Someone shouted out as I could tell from his voice that he didn¡¯t want to lose this opportunity.
One by one, we each epted her offer as she nodded her head.
"I will say that there are some that I cannot ept. Your souls, they¡¯re too tainted for you to do any good." She spoke coldly as we looked at one another in confusion.
Snapping her fingers, an invisible force parted us from a small group of people that were hanging in the middle of the group.
"But we can change!" One of them shouted out towards the girl who kept a neutral expression.
"I know. Many can. However, I wonder what you would have done to taint your soul to this extent. If you do want to change and you want me to ept you into the city, I will have to put a cor around you. You¡¯re familiar with the contract no? ept it and I¡¯ll allow even someone like you to be in the city." She spoke coldly as we all felt like we were suddenly thrown in the arctic.
Seeing the faces of those in the centre, I could tell that they were displeased.
"You just want to use us as EXP bags don¡¯t you!" Another ndered but the girl was unphased.
"So what if I do, so what if I don¡¯t. that¡¯s the world now so pull your pants up and get used to it. There is a limit to my mercy and if you don¡¯t like it then you are free to go. I¡¯m not forcing you to stay. As I am right now, I can enve your soul without you being able to retaliate. Perhaps I should show the colour of your soul to everyone here so that they can see why I¡¯m acting this way."
Hearing her threat, the men immediately quietened down and epted the deal.
Suddenly, several tier 6 magic circles appeared around them as golden chains wrapped around their body.
"ARGGG!!!"
Crying out in pain, all of the men that were supposed to be contracted fell to their knees as the girl clicked her tongue.
"Stubborn to the end. Even now you¡¯re thinking of ways to go against me. You don¡¯t deserve my city. Glen, take care of them. I¡¯ll bring everyone back to Asharia." The girl red at the men before turning back to the mechanized figure that we had offered our lives to previously.
Nodding his head, he walked towards the men before sighing.
"A shame." He muttered.
Before we could see what he did, we were teleported away into a teleport hall. Several spirits, demons and humans surrounded us with curious nces.
"Alright alright, stop blocking the way. I need to follow her highness¡¯s orders and show them around." An aged voice rang out as they parted to the sides, revealing an old spirit.
"Greetings, my name is Samuel and I am one of the elders of the Spirit Council. Her highness has tasked me to show you around her city." He smiled and bowed
###
"Sigh... idiots." Shiro muttered in annoyance as she had wasted her time trying to convince those idiots. Even though she gave them a second chance, they were still thinking of harming her in the end. They were probably angered by the fact that they had to take another contract but they should have known the ending.
"Return to the zone, Shiina and Maria are defending me right now but more and more monsters are spawning. Get Maria to heal you and guard the perimeter." Shiro ordered as Glen nodded silently.
"Are you disappointed in them?" Shiro asked.
"Mn. Even though your highness gave them a second chance at life, they still thought about harming the hand that helped them." Glen sighed.
"That¡¯s what it takes to survive now. You have to be ready to fight back at a moment¡¯s notice if you want to survive. It¡¯s a harsh world and while it may not seem like that in Asharia, don¡¯t let the peace fool you. We¡¯re a tiny boat floating in the harsh oceans. Of course, I have no intentions of letting the boat known as Asharia sink." Shiro smiled as Glen nodded his head.
Watching the AI return to normal, Glen nced back at the puddle of blood left behind and shook his head.
###
Opening her eyes, Shiro massaged her head before trying to break open the barrier once more. Even though she knew that Lisandra was capable, she couldn¡¯t help but think about what might happen inside.
Even though the chance was small, the possibility was still there. By the time she opens this barrier, she might be greeted by the corpse of Lisandra.
pping her face, she tried to distract herself from these thoughts as she waved her hand and summoned several needles that were enhanced with celestial path along with her new skill, Divine Runic Needles.
However, even with these two skills, for a barrier like this, she needed to find the right anchor points of the magic formation otherwise it wouldn¡¯t do much.
But before she could even activate the needles, the barrier started to scatter as Shiro widened her eyes.
With her connection to Lisandra restored, she didn¡¯t hesitate to break open the door and charge in.
The moment she did, she was greeted by a giant cavity in the ground along with a spiral staircase.
Not hesitating to jump in head first, Shiro could sense the presence of Lisandra, Estre and Iziuel at the bottom. They weren¡¯t injured but they seemed exhausted.
Increasing her speed towards the bottom, she widened her eyes when she saw Lisandra standing on the giant corpse of a monster as blood dripped off her body. She was panting heavily while Iziuel and Estre sat down on the ground.
ncing up, Lisandra saw Shiro flying down and smiled.
Before she could even say anything, Shiro dragged Lisandra into her embrace and activated her healing spells.
"Are you alright? What happened?" Shiro asked anxiously as she checked Lisandra up and down for any injuries.
Hearing this, Lisandra smiled.
"I¡¯m fine mum. It turns out that to im a zone, we had to fight a boss once we stepped inside. It was a little annoying but we dealt with it." Lisandra exined as Shiro sighed.
"Don¡¯t be so anxious Shiro, Lisandra, Estre and Iziuel can handle themselves. Two of them are tier 6 and another is a pseudo demi-god." Nimue¡¯s voice rang out as Shiroposed herself.
Now that she saw Lisandra safe and sound in front of her, she could feel her worries disappear.
*Cough
"That¡¯s true." Shiro nodded her head.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro returned to themand centre while Iziuel was assigning herself as the lifeline of the zone.
Once the monster was killed, there was a crown created from its energy and bing the lifeline was as simple as integrating yourself with this crown. However, the process took a while and everyone was guarding Iziuel while this happened.
The cavity that led down to the boss arena started to fill itself once everyone flew to the surface and the city hall was redecorated. All of the damage done was repaired and the portals outside had been closed.
Sitting down on her chair, Shiro sighed as she closed her eyes. With Iziuel integrating herself as the lifeline and everyone guarding her, things were settling down for a few moments and it seemed like everything was calming down for now.
Chapter 1039 Sanctuary of Life
Chapter 1039 Sanctuary of Life
With Iziuel now integrating herself with the lifeline of the zone, Shiro looked on the map and checked up on how everyone else in the event was doing.
Out of the 15 zones that were avable, 10 of them have been captured or in the process of being captured. The remaining 5 were mostly therge zones near the centre or smaller zones that are close to the centre.
¡¯Vandiline is near the border so we don¡¯t have to worry too much about being surrounded. Currently, our neighbours are two small zones that travel ind towards the centre with the sea behind us. The Dragon Empress has upied the capital and it doesn¡¯t seem like anyone is contesting it.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while analysing the battlefield.
The zones near her are still in the process of being captured so she didn¡¯t know which Queen they belong to. Regardless, she had to keep her guard up since they could have a strange ability like the one that had stolen her senses. Had it not been for her divine energy and divinity, there was no telling what might have happened.
¡¯If Nan Tian and the others can kill Queens should the situation be advantageous, guards of other Queens should be able to do the same. After all, just because we¡¯re Queens doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re immune to damage from those that aren¡¯t Queens.¡¯
Shaking her head, she brought up a hologram of Vandiline.
While Iziuel was integrating herself as the lifeline, she had sent out a drone to scan the area so that she could figure out proper defences. Since the barrier can be destroyed with adequate force, it¡¯s easy for someone to justunch an attack on the building since the lifeline isn¡¯t allowed to leave the ce.
"Hmm... how many weapons should we add?" Shiro asked as she tilted her head back and nced towards everyone who was standing behind her.
"How many weapons are you thinking about mum?" Yin asked, leaning against the wall.
"I¡¯m thinking... four mega turrets, two barrier generators, a mech bay to store the mechs, two formation generators and a mass teleporter to bring in reinforcements easily." Shiro replied casually as Yin almost slipped over.
"What did I expect." Yin muttered as her smile twitched.
"What? I¡¯m not going all out since I don¡¯t want to make my arsenal of weapons too obvious. At first I wanted to put a total of 8 mega turrets, four barrier generators, a mech hanger below ground and open up tunnels to every part of the country, four formation generators next to each of the barrier generators so that they¡¯re protected and a weapon transporter so that I can teleport the cannon on Asharia next to the base." Shiro pouted as they fell silent.
Even those that weren¡¯t familiar with Shiro paused in surprise and shock as they didn¡¯t think her highness would have wanted to add that many weapons to a small zone.
"Perhaps... you might want to reduce it a little bit. Even just four turrets are quite a lot." Koji asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment before sighing.
"Fine dad. How about just two mega turrets then." Shiropromised.
"If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what¡¯s a mega turret? Howe it has mega in its name?" Nimue asked curiously as Shiro grinned.
Snapping her finger, a hologram appeared in the centre of the room.
Watching the basic turret assemble itself, Nimue could see that there wasn¡¯t anything special. Just a single barrel that started to extend.
Noticing the change, Nimue stayed silent.
From one barrel to four, four to eight and eight to sixteen, the number of barrels started to stack up to 32 before being wrapped in a chassis.
"A single mega turret will fire 36 homing rounds that can split up to 216 projectiles. Each of them are equal to an attack from me and here¡¯s the best part." Shiro snickered.
"When they¡¯re hit, each of the 216 projectiles will spawn a nanotech node that will fester into nanobots that will consume you from the inside out. Unless they can remove all 216 while I¡¯m gunning them down, I can say that they¡¯ll be dead in a few moments."
"As if they can survive the initial bombardment!" Nimue rolled her eyes as Shiro shrugged.
"It¡¯s just insurance. Regardless, that¡¯s the idea of what the mega turret is. I can settle for two of them, two barrier generators and two formation generators just to keep this safe. It¡¯ll give them a false sense of understanding since I can add more should the need arise."
"If you can do that, why do you insist on four mega turrets?" Silvia asked as Shiro only chuckled.
"I want to show off my toys a little. I just enhanced everything with runes after all. But with these two on disy, it should serve as a warning for those that might want to attack us. Of course, for those that might want to steal my weapons once they see them, we¡¯ll have something else for them."
Talking to the group about her new weapons for a little longer, they watched as the empty crest above the zone started to shift.
Slowly, a silhouette of a girl praying could be seen with a sword in her hand and Asharia in the background.
Seeing the golden runes decorating the border, Shiro realised that it was the divine runes that she had recently memorised.
"Your highness, Miss Iziuel has finished integrating and the zone is experiencing a change." One of the staff called over as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
Waving her hand, a screen projected itself in front of everyone as they could see roots growing out from the ground.
Twisting and fusing above where the building was, a giant tree started to form as everything within the shade of the tree started to emit a soft green glow.
Before Shiro could say anything, she saw a notification appear on her screen.
[Iziuel has captured a zone in your name. Due to her race and ss, the zone is granted additional benefits.]
[Vandiline ¨C Sanctuary of Life]
All allies within this zone are granted the following effects.
Passive health and mana regen +60%
Life steal +50%
HP and Mana Siphon +30%
Attacks cleave defence by 30%
Duringbat within this zone, Allies are granted 3% health regen per second.
Cannot be in in one attack (Once per day)
Reading the effects that the skill granted, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but blink. Projecting the screen so that everyone could see what was disyed, Shiro started to wonder if she even needed her turrets.
Most of it was small buffs but the fact that it grants 3% health regen per second duringbat means that everyone can literally run around for a bit and avoid getting hit before returning tobat at full health.
Plus, the craziest of all. You cannot be in in one attack. Meaning, even if they fire something so powerful that can break through the barrier, they won¡¯t be able to kill you since you¡¯ll be protected by the passive.
This would give Shiro more than enough time to react and help out.
"Well damn, perhaps even one mega turret would do." Shiro muttered before immediately shaking her head.
"Actually now that I think about it. Since there¡¯s a big ass tree in the middle the size of a world tree, can¡¯t I just mount 10 mega turrets and hide them in the trunk?"
"You are not weaponizing a pseudo world tree." Nimue face palmed.
"Stingy. But you¡¯re right. If I was going to weaponize it, I would use something better rather than mega turrets. The world tree deserves more after all."
".. ." Feeling the urge to smack Shiro on the back of the head, Nimue sighed heavily and wondered if she should just flip the wall she¡¯s leaning on. It might even be a shooting star.
"Need a time out?" Shiro asked as she was more than familiar with the expression on Nimue¡¯s face.
"Yes."
"Need a table?"
"No."
"Are you sure?" Shiro asked as Nimue nodded her head.
"Give me a mech."
".. . ."
####
"What¡¯s the situation right now?" Misu asked as she sat on a cliff edge across the ocean from Vrish¡¯ Lir.
Seeing the empty crests in the sky that were slowly being filled one by one, she wondered which one would belong to Shiro.
"Right now the Dragon Empress has upied the capital, the Lightning Queen has captured one of the smaller zones near the edge and several lower ranked Queens are also fighting over the bigger zones."
"Hmm, they¡¯re a bit too hasty. Any news on Shiro? The merchant said that she¡¯ll be in this event."
Just as she asked this, they watched as a tree suddenly appeared, towering over everything else within its vicinity. Seeing the crest above the tree, Misu narrowed her eyes since she couldn¡¯t tell which Queen this crest belonged to.
A floating city and a single de.
"Curious. Send a few scouts and check out that zone for me."
Chapter 1040 Koji and Li Jian
Chapter 1040 Koji and Li Jian
With the zone now captured, Shiro decided to focus on reinforcing their defences for now. The event willst for a week so there is no need to be hasty.
The best move for them is probably to just hang back and watch everyone battle it out. Plus, it would also allow her to gather some information on the other Queens.
There were two Queens near the zone that Shiro had captured.
The first crest is a woman holding a sword in her right hand and the other hand holds a scale. Her face is divided by the sword with the right side having a smile and the other having a frown.
As for the second, it was an eye that had a sword stabbing through it along with an angelic halo where the guard of the sword would be.
Since the crest would normally tell her the powers that the Queens have, Shiro wanted to analyse her potential enemies.
¡¯Hmm... the first looks like it has something to do with bnce. Her face being split in two might mean she can reverse bnce. Perhaps she can make strong attacks weak and weak attacks strong?¡¯ Shiro wondered.
While the crest might give a hint, it wasn¡¯t a guarantee. After all, her crest didn¡¯t tell all of her powers. At most, they¡¯ll know that she has a flying city but that was it. There was not a single clue about her guns, turrets, mechs or even her power over souls.
Therefore, she can only use this to guess one of their abilities but one was still better than none.
"I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be fighting anymore for now so everyone can go back and rest." Shiro said as she nced back.
She didn¡¯t want to keep them around for too long since all of them had training they wanted to do.
"Ehh.... And here I wanted to stretch my muscles after seclusion." Keomi pouted as Koji patted her head.
"If you want to stretch your muscles you can spar with your old man instead." Koji grinned as Keomi flinched.
"Urg... Dad you don¡¯t know how to hold back. I¡¯m not a monster like big sis, my bones will shatter." Keomi frowned.
"That¡¯s true. Uncle you¡¯re too used to using more strength during spars when ites to me and Shiro." Keiko chuckled.
Scratching his head, Koji wondered if that was the case.
"Your daughter is still young and her level is low. Learn how to hold back." Li Jian patted Koji¡¯s shoulder.
"And you¡¯re saying you know how to hold back as well huh?!" Koji retorted as the corner of his eye started to twitch.
"Mn? Why are you two so hostile?" Shiro asked curiously.
"What do you mean by hostility? Aren¡¯t we the best of friends? We¡¯re both Attie¡¯s grandpa so we can¡¯t be fighting now can we?" Li Jian forced a grin as he started to contest against Koji in terms of strength.
"Grandpa?! Who the f*ck are you to call yourself Attie¡¯s grandpa." Koji felt like a vein was about to burst since the old man in front of him had no rtion to his daughter nor Attie.
"Dad!"
"I¡¯ll keep the swearing down hon!" Koji replied as Shiro facepalmed in fatigue.
"Tell him youngss. Didn¡¯t I be Attie¡¯s grandpa?" Li Jian asked as Shiro rolled her eyes.
Before she could even say anything, Attie pushed the two away from one another.
"Let¡¯s not fight here alright? Cough also I¡¯m not a kid anymore, you don¡¯t need to call me Attie." Atesh smiled but Li Jian shook his head.
"Nonsense. Even though you look like this you¡¯re still young. Until you bring your own children in front of me, you¡¯ll always be Attie to gramps." Li Jian shook his head.
"Fine. I¡¯ll let you call me Attie on one condition. You too grandpa Koji." Atesh smiled as Koji raised his eyebrows.
"Go on."
"Why don¡¯t you two have a drinking contest? Since I don¡¯t want to see any of you hurt when don¡¯t you just settle it using drinks?" Atesh suggested.
Hearing this, both Koji and Li Jian red at one another.
"Why don¡¯t we turn off our resistances for this old man." Li Jian grinned.
"Why don¡¯t you look in the mirror first before calling me old man you relic." Koji scoffed.
"Bah! At least a relic still has some uses you broken tool. Can¡¯t even get to tier 6."
"Aren¡¯t you also stuck there you old bastard?!"
"Ahem! Why don¡¯t you two stop bickering like children and go drink already." Shiro coughed as the two immediately shut their mouths.
"Fine fine, I can call it a truce until we get to the drinking table. Speaking of which, youngss, why don¡¯t you join us for a few drinks?" Li Jian offered.
"No thanks. I can¡¯t get drunk unless I turn off all my skills and even then it¡¯s hard. Plus, I don¡¯t think you want a demi god going on a drunken rampage now do you?" Shiro smirked.
Hearing this, everyone that had witnessed the infamous drunk Shiro a few months ago paled and shook their heads.
"You¡¯re not allowed to get drunk mum." Atesh coughed as Shiroughed.
"Don¡¯t worry I won¡¯t. It would be annoying if I destroy this city after all." Shiro grinned.
"Surely not right?" Both Li Jian and Koji raised their eyebrows since they didn¡¯t think Shiro would go that far.
"She would." Silvia replied immediately.
Seeing her blunt honesty, the two decided that it was probably best that they don¡¯t inquire about what happened.
"Shall we?" Koji asked as Li Jian nodded
"Alrighte to my room. I got a good table there that we can use."
Watching the two leave, Shiro reinforced Li Jian¡¯s room just so that they don¡¯t go around destroying anything just in case they were violent drunks like she was.
"Since dad is going off to drink, I¡¯m gonna go back and do more training. Want to join me?" Keomi asked as Keiko nodded her head.
"Sure, let¡¯s go."
One by one, they left themand centre as Yin and Attie went off to the food hall since Yin wanted to cook Attie some more delicacies that she had learnt in her spare time.
"Do you have a hot spring or something here? I want to enjoy a hot bath for a bit." Nimue asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"I can make one now. You want one with a good view?" Shiro asked.
"Sure, where will it be?"
"Top of this tower." Shiro pointed up.
"You know what? Sounds great. A hot spring with a good view of the city, the sun setting in the background and me ignoring all of the stress I have already umted in one day." Nimue nodded as she started to make her way up.
Letting everyone else in themand centre take some time off, Shiro stretched and rested on her chair.
"A warm drink or juice?" Nan Tian asked with a small smile.
"Hmm... I would say juice but I actually fancy something hot right now." Shiro repliedzily as sheid her head on the table.
"Hot chocte?"
"Mn."
Reaching into his inventory, Nan Tian pulled out a mug and started to make a hot chocte in front of her.
"Honestly, I wonder what the hell you store in your inventory sometimes." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Hmm... wheelchairs, healing potions, a batch of juice, coffee, tea, hot chocte, some towels, a bed, one or two weapons and the rest are just adventuring gear like life saving talismans that everyone would have." Nan Tian replied as Shiro was speechless.
"Why is over half of your inventory filled with crap for me?"
"Well it¡¯s not like I have anything I would need to store in there after all. Plus, I find it quite enjoyable to be able to provide you with a drink and even a wheelchair when you need it." Nan Tian chuckled.
"That¡¯s true." Shiro chuckled.
Receiving the hot chocte, Shiro let her hand get heated up by the mug since it was quite warm.
By the time she took a sip, the hot chocte had been cooled by her passive skill.
".. . Now that I think about it, I can¡¯t feel the cold but my hands are freezing aren¡¯t they?"
"A little. But it¡¯s not that bad." Nan Tian chuckled, making a new hot chocte for her.
"Ah it¡¯s fine I can just reheat this one." Shiro waved her hand as she snapped her finger and a rune appeared on the mug.
Drinking a warm cup of hot chocte, Shiro handed the mug back to Nan Tian.
"Say do you think I¡¯m worrying too much? When I saw that the connection between me and Lisandra getting cut off, I felt like she was going to disappear on me like what happened to Isilia." Shiro asked with a small smile.
"It¡¯s only natural for you to worry. However, I suppose you should have more trust in their capabilities."
"Perhaps."
Closing her eyes, Shiro rxed on the chair when she noticed a few scoutsing closer to her zone.
Narrowing her eyes, she erged the screen and saw a few skeletons.
¡¯Misu.¡¯ She thought with a small smile.
Chapter 1041 Shiro and Misu
Chapter 1041 Shiro and Misu
"Hyup." Jumping off her chair, Shiro stretched her body with a smile.
"Seems like I don¡¯t get to rest just yet. Misu¡¯s already sent scouts so I might as well greet her now." Shiro grinned.
"Already?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrow as Shiro nodded.
"Yup. Misu¡¯s one of the few good Queens that I meet in the future. Plus, this time she seems even friendlier than before. If I had to describe it,st time our rtionship was just that of a client and a weapons dealer. If I can get Misu on my side, that¡¯s another Queen we don¡¯t have to kill. Her desire is to help people too so I¡¯m sure the talk will go fine." Shiro smiled.
"Should Ie as well or are you fine on your own?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Yeah you shoulde. I¡¯m pretty sure that the talk will take more than just 10 minutes. Plus, it¡¯s not bad for you toe since you¡¯ll be talking to her a lot in the future." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded.
"Then perhaps we should go with a different wheelchair. Don¡¯t we want a better impression?"
"Nope~ You¡¯reing with me like this princess Nan Tian." Shiro grinned as she flickered behind his wheelchair and started to push him towards the portal that she had opened.
"Don¡¯t call me that." Nan Tian facepalmed as Shiro chuckled.
"Why not? Don¡¯t you feel warm inside having a prince like me escort you?"
"I¡¯ll remember this." Nan Tian shook his head with a sigh.
"Pft, what are you going to do even if you do." Shiro replied with a smug grin.
Staying silent, Nan Tian rested his head on his hand while his fingers covered his eyes.
###
Teleporting to the forests near the zone, Shiro could see that the construction was going smoothly and everyone was helping with the setup of the new base.
Making sure that she wasn¡¯t detected by them, she walked towards where the scouts were spotted.
¡¯If I remember, the skeletons should be just ahead.¡¯ She thought to herself while walking through the forest.
As she was walking through, she noticed a few unweed scouts and flexed her finger.
Suddenly, thousands upon thousand of nanotech wires spread throughout the forest.
Like a spider setting up its home, Shiro could now sense all the scouts within the perimeter.
"A few rats?"
"Yup. I¡¯ll clean it up now though." Shiro replied.
Raising her finger, she swiped down.
Seeing a few of the tree¡¯s rustling and a few birds scatter away, Nan Tian understood that she had most likely killed all the ones that weren¡¯t invited.
"Right then, let¡¯s keep going." Shiro smiled, retracting the nanotech wires.
###
"What? All the scouts are dead?" A woman narrowed her eyes after hearing the report.
"Yes your highness. Our connection was cut off the moment they entered the perimeter of the zone. There seemed to be a formation there that can kill all scouts in a second as long as they¡¯re within the perimeter." Her subordinate exined while making sure he didn¡¯t raise his head. If he did, he might get his eyes gouged out right now since he could practically feel her annoyance on his skin.
"Are you sure it¡¯s a formation?"
Hearing this, the man froze up for a moment.
"We believe it¡¯s a f-"
"You believe or you know? Tell me." The woman narrowed her eyes before sighing.
"Forget it. I¡¯ll give you a second chance." She smiled.
Blinking his eyes in surprise, he didn¡¯t think her highness would actually let him off.
But before he could say anything, his head snapped to the right as his eyes rolled back. Convulsing for a moment, he stoodpletely still.
"Herace, send him to get re-educated. Make sure he actually does a good job this time." The woman snapped her fingers as a ck shadow wisped away the man in an instant.
"Indri, send a few of our failed products to test out her defences. Get me some details on her powers since this is apletely new crest." She ordered.
"Understood."
Hearing the response, the woman nodded as she nced towards the direction of Shiro¡¯s zone.
The crest above her was that of the woman holding a sword and a scale.
###
"!!!" Widening her eyes, Misu paused for a moment before chuckling.
"Ahh so in the end it was her. No wonder I never saw that crest before. Prepare yourself, Shiro¡¯sing here in a second. She¡¯s already created a tether to me using my skeleton scouts." Misu smiled as a portal opened up in front of her.
"I believe this should be our first proper meeting." Shiro waved her hand with a smile.
Misu was about to respond when she made eye contact with Nan Tian sitting on the wheelchair.
".. ."
Staying silent, Nan Tian slowly face palmed and sighed.
*PUFF!
Releasing another spray of glitter using the chair, Shiro broke up the silence.
"No need to be too serious. Don¡¯t mind him, he¡¯s a little injured. Where do you want our talk? I can invite you to talk at the zone if you want." Shiro offered with a smile.
".. .Sure." Nodding her head, Misu was a little taken aback by Shiro¡¯s attitude. With the pressure she had felt from Shiro during the first event, she had expected the talk to be super serious.
However, despite what had happened, the current situation is favourable for a talk.
"We¡¯ve only just imed the zone so the office isn¡¯t as good as I hope it can be but it¡¯ll do for now." Shiro smiled, opening another portal as she gestured for Misu to step through with her subordinate.
Seeing the hesitation, Shiro understood and stepped in first and they followed behind her.
Arriving in a room that seemed like it was situated at the top of the pseudo world tree which appeared earlier today, Misu couldn¡¯t help but look around in surprise since this was much better than what she had expected.
When Shiro mentioned that the office wasn¡¯t as good as she had hoped, she expected just a room repurposed to be an office rather than this.
"Take a seat. Do you want anything to drink?" Shiro asked with a smile as she gestured towards the table.
"Ah I¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯m here to talk about a potential partnership." Misu said seriously as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know about this. What kind of partnership are we talking about here? Something along the lines of me giving you weapons against the lightning Queen?" Shiro smiled as she brought out two cups of juice for herself and Nan Tian.
"I suppose it¡¯s only natural that you¡¯d assume so since everyone knows about the battle between me and the lightning Queen. However, that¡¯s not what I¡¯m here for."
Hearing this, Shiro paused since this was a little different to what she had expected.
"I see. What kind of partnership do you desire then?"
"I want you to help me properly revive the citizens under my care. As you probably know, my powers govern the dead. Everyone that I revive is turned into undead constructs. However, that¡¯s only because this is the only option I had back then. Before I was a Queen, I was a healer. There was a period of time where revival spells no longer worked.
"The revival spell that most healers know requires a few restrictions before use. They have to revive them before a certain amount of time has passed. They cannot revive them if they have an injured soul. There was a big war and I epted the power of necromancy to save people." Misu started to exin as Shiro listened silently. This was something she didn¡¯t know since she didn¡¯t hear a word about this in the future.
All she knew was that Misu pitied the casualties and tried her best to keep people happy while reuniting them with the ones that have passed.
What she¡¯s telling now matched pretty well with the information she had, the only difference was that she now knew what Misu was before.
Plus, there was another thing that concerned her.
The fact that there was someone not in the future next to Misu. Since Misu had brought him here, it meant that she trusted him. Yet there was not even a single sign of a person like this in the future.
"So after I saw the video of you reviving people, I realised something important. Your skills have the capability to heal parts of the soul as long as the core is still intact. My necromancy preserves what little of the soul is left and reanimates them. If I was to get your help, I can revive everyone in the city as proper living people again. I don¡¯t desire to win this new age bullsh*t that destroyed countless lives. I just want there to be fewer casualties ripping families apart. I don¡¯t know how I can prove my trustworthiness to you but I¡¯ll do what you ask of me to the best of my capabilities."
Shiro looked at Misu. Her eyes flickered for a moment as her lips curled into a small smile.
"What a clear soul." Shiro muttered as the colour of Misu¡¯s soul was pure white. This is a woman that touched the power of death just so that those who died in idents can be reunited with their family once more.
"There¡¯s a way for you to prove it. A contract."
Chapter 1042 Queen Alliance Contract
Chapter 1042 Queen Alliance Contract
Hearing what Shiro had just suggested, Misu furrowed her brows. There seemed to be a stormy re in her eyes as she frowned slightly.
"A contract?" She asked with a cold voice.
"You misunderstand me. Let me tell you about the details first." Shiro waved her hand with a smile.
"Do you know about contracts between Queens? One where it makes one give up their participation in the new age?" Shiro asked as Misu shook her head.
"You see, there can only be one winner in the new age right?"
"Yes. The winner gets a special reward but there hasn¡¯t been a winner in the past gardens and the reset would always happen." Misu nodded her head.
"Indeed. Now you see, this contract makes it possible where one Queen gives up their participation for the current new age. Forming an alliance with another Queen. I want to offer you this contract so that we can form an alliance with one another. You still have the power of creating anchors as well as the abilities thate with your identity as a Queen but you¡¯ll just be helping me win the new age from now on.
"I won¡¯t force you to do anything you don¡¯t want to. All I require is for you to keep the people safe. Naturally, I¡¯ll treat you as my equal and help you should you need assistance." Shiro chuckled as MIsu stayed silent.
For her, this contract was almost too good. She didn¡¯t care about winning so this ¡¯drawback¡¯ didn¡¯t phase her much.
The main problem came from the fact that it seemed too good. She knew that Shiro was ¡¯good¡¯ since she helped all those people, but things were a bit too favourable for her. It seemed a bit suspicious now.
"All I have to do is help you out? To what extent?" MIsu asked.
"Mostly join in on fights against other Queens, helping me establish more territories and participate in events with me." Shiro smiled.
"And in return, you will help me revive my citizens and treat me as an equal?" MIsu rified.
"Yep. And if you¡¯re concerned, I can add a requirement for me within the contract. While it is active, I won¡¯t harm you or your interests on purpose. There¡¯s a small chance that an action of mine might create a butterfly effect so just in case." Shiro smiled as Misu was taken aback.
The fact that Shiro was willing to restrain herself with part of the contract as well was surprising for her.
"Why are you going so far for me? I know that I don¡¯t care about winning but still." Misu asked curiously.
"Hmm... you have one of the purest souls I¡¯ve seen so far. That¡¯s more than enough reason for me to try my best to get you on my side. Plus, our interests align so it¡¯s a win win." Shiro admitted.
Of course, another reason was that Misu survived for a long time in the future and she was true to her desires of helping people even after several years of wars and battles against other Queens.
Thinking about it silently, Misu nodded her head.
"Alright. I¡¯ll ept." She smiled as Shiro pped her hands together.
"Perfect. Let¡¯s see, this isn¡¯t a normal contract since its one that removes your chance of winning the new age this time." Shiro exined as she nced at her system.
Even though she said it ¡¯removes¡¯ her chance of winning, there was never a chance to begin with. Once she failed in her world, her chances were over. The only one that even had the possibility of winning right now was her, no one else.
[Entity ¨C Shiro ¨C is requesting the use of the Queen Alliance Contract.]
[Authority Level check.]
[Check seeded. The information on the contract will now be granted.]
Seeing the short burst of notifications, Shiro closed her eyes as the information flowed into her mind.
"Ready?" Shiro asked as Misu nodded her head.
Standing up, she watched as Shiro sped her hands together.
Suddenly, a burst of divine energy radiated from her as tier 7 magic circles started to appear around her body.
Opening her hands, light converged together as a scroll started to form. Grabbing the top, she unfurled the scroll and golden words started to appear on the surface.
Recognising it to be the details of the contract, Misu read it silently to make sure everything matches up.
Once she had read through everything, Misu understood what she had to do to ept this contract. Even now, it was a little shocking that a contract like this was avable since it has never appeared in the past.
The previous new ages have always been filled with bloodshed.
Closing her eyes, a tier 8 magic circle appeared on Misu¡¯s chest as chains entered her body. Slowly, they pulled out what seemed to be a tiny anchor of sorts. Presenting the miniature anchor to the scroll, Misu opened her eyes.
"I ept the conditions. I, the Undead Queen Misu, give up my participation in the new age in service of the Nanotech Demi Goddess. The territories I hold will assist her in winning the new age."
Suddenly, a golden harness appeared around the anchor andtched on.
Flinching for a moment, Misu watched as the anchor entered her body once more.
Slowly, the magic circles started to fade away one by one.
"Perfect. I suppose it¡¯s only fair that I show you where the main city is." Shiro smiled as Misu nodded her head.
"Mn, but aren¡¯t we in the middle of an event? It¡¯ll take a while to get to the city no?" Misu asked but Shiro shook her head.
"Nope. I have teleportation. And even if I didn¡¯t, it¡¯s not that far anyways. just a few hours away." Shiro shrugged as Misu furrowed her brows.
"Wait, your city is that close? But we didn¡¯t spot anything of the sort while scanning the perimeter of this country." Misu frowned.
"You¡¯ll see what I mean. Follow me." Shiro grinned.
Waving her hand, a portal appeared in front of her. Stepping through with Nan Tian, she could see that Misu was following behind her.
Teleporting everyone to the top of the tower, Shiro grinned.
"Wee to the flying city of Asharia. Everything here is camouged from the outside world so you can¡¯t see it at all. If you look behind us, you¡¯ll see Vrish¡¯ Lir." Shiroughed.
Staying silent, Misu looked down in surprise. Demons, spirits, humans, demi humans, everyone was here and none of them are fighting one another. Even the demons that have had a long history of wars against humans are peaceful right now. In fact, some of them are even helping out in a few shops.
"Would it be ok if I look around?" Misu asked as Shiro patted her shoulder.
"Yup. Feel free to look around. I¡¯ll give you this tablet that will exin all the rules to this city along with a map to everything." Shiro smiled as she handed her a tablet simr to the one that Nan Tian owns.
"Just call me on this when you need me. I¡¯ll go prepare your lodging in case you want to stay here for the night so feel free to look around while you do that."
Nodding her head, Misu flickered away along with her subordinate as Shiro was now alone with Nan Tian.
"Well then, this has been quite sessful hasn¡¯t it?" Shiro smiled.
"Indeed. With her help, things will get easier in the future." Nan Tian nodded.
"Yup. But I wonder who that guy was. Since she had him beside her, it means that she trusts him. Especially since it¡¯s an important meeting like this. And yet, I never saw him once in the future." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
###
Landing on the ground, Misu started to walk the streets as curiosity burned in her heart.
The technology, the atmosphere, everything seemed too good to be true. Looking at the children that ran around happily while designating one of them to y the role of Shiro, Misu could tell that the citizens adore her.
Looking around, she could see mana potions being sold. The ones that were disyed in the cases radiated so much mana that just a single smell felt like it rejuvenated her body.
"Seems like you¡¯re new here. After her recent appearance more and more unfamiliar faces have appeared in this city. I suppose you also received the goddess¡¯ help." The shop keep smiled as Misu nodded.
"Somewhat."
"In that case then take this as a greeting gift. It¡¯s a mana potion that will fully restore your mana no matter how much you have got. There¡¯s a limit on how much can be sold but since I don¡¯t leave this city much, I have a few spares on me." Heughed as Misu epted the potion.
"That¡¯s awfully kind of you but why? We barely know each other." Misu asked.
"You see, everyone here has received the goddess¡¯ help. She doesn¡¯t expect anything in return. If you want to live a life in this utopia without doing anything, you can. However, that¡¯s not us. The goddess is working hard for us, everyone here is in debt to her. We all died at one point when the new age happened and she brought us back. So while she¡¯s out there fighting, our responsibilities lie in keeping the city happy." The man smiled as Misu nced up at the tower.
"This is quite a pleasant city."
Chapter 1043 System Reward
Chapter 1043 System Reward
While Misu was wandering around the city, Shiro started to prepare a room for her. While it was unlikely that she¡¯ll be staying the night, it wasn¡¯t bad to just have one just in case.
However, as she was preparing the room, she received a notification.
[Administrator 4 requests a meeting.]
Raising an eyebrow, she was taken aback since thest time she saw him was when they were retrieving the garden shard.
Plus, he was only able to contact her because she had a higher authority rank at that time. Right now, she was lower than him so the restrictions reapplied themselves.
"Did something happen?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yeah, seems like Administrator 4 wants a meeting." Shiro replied as Nan Tian blinked his eyes.
"A meeting? What for?"
"Who knows. It might be about the reward the system still hasn¡¯t given me for achieving a tier 8 spell." Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
Teleporting the two of them back to her room, Shiro epted the call.
Seeing a screen appear in front of her, she was greeted by the sight of Administrator 4.
Unlike before, he seemed... smarter?
His stubble was gone, he wore a proper suit rather than a nket over his shoulders and his hair was swept back.
Projecting the screen so that Nan Tian could see as well, Shiro gave him a small wave.
"It¡¯s been a while since Ist saw you. And aren¡¯t you dressed for the asion." Shiro smiled as Administrator 4 grinned.
"That¡¯s true. I just had a meeting you see, can¡¯t be looking shabby when it¡¯s a meeting that includes all the other administrators."
"I¡¯m guessing the meeting is about the reward I was supposed to get." Shiro asked as he nodded his head.
"Indeed. You have no idea how hard it is to pick a reward for you. First of all, you are the first person to ever cast a tier 8 spell when you ¡¯should¡¯ be tier 6. Even though your ss is tier 7, your level is tier 6 and the fact that even with these limitations, you still created a time chamber. Very impressive. And when I say ¡¯first person to ever cast a tier 8 spell when you should be tier 6¡¯, I have included all the other gardens that have failed." He pped his hands as Shiro nodded his head.
"I see... in that case then what reward did you lot decide on for me?" Shiro asked.
"I¡¯m getting to that. And since you¡¯re the first ever person to aplish this, both the administrators and the system knew that the reward had to be good. But at the same time, you have already broken the bnce as a tier 7 being. Demi Gods shouldn¡¯t be appearing at this time but not only have you be one, Demi Gods and gods are moving because of you. The recent battle in the realm of gods only proves this. Gaia, Nyx, Tartarus. Three primordial gods were injured quite heavily as the consequence. Unfortunately, since they were the ones to make the first move, the system had to act against them." He sighed as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Now, I know you¡¯re upset about this so part of the reward for you this time is to help them recover. Gaia should be feeling much better and if I¡¯m familiar with how she acts around you, she should be contacting you soon."
"That¡¯s a relief. Since you mentioned that healing them was just a ¡¯part¡¯ of my reward, what¡¯s the rest?" Shiro asked curiously since this was already a good reward. With how injured Gaia and the others were, she would have been happy with just this.
"The second part is the best part. You have no idea how hard I had to fight for a reward this good. You see, out of all the administrators, a lot and I mean, A LOT of them didn¡¯t want to give you this but since you have achieved something of this standard, the system eventually agreed since it was the only reward suitable for you without being too over the top."
"What do you mean by too over the top?"
"I¡¯m d you asked. A reward that could be described as the purge feature. With this, you can purge anyone or a group of people who the system has linked itself to." Administrator 4 smiled darkly as Shiro widened her eyes.
"And yes, even gods. Aekari, Aria, Watchman. The purge will allow you to erase all signs of their existence with a single trigger. Of course, this reward is reserved only for the master of the system and those it chooses to bestow this too. So you probably won¡¯t ever see it happen." Administrator 4 shrugged.
"Then why tell me about it." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Just mentioning it so that you know what¡¯s around. Should you ever get something where it allows you to choose anything you want, and I mean ¡¯anything¡¯ you can probably choose this and get away with it. Regardless, let¡¯s go back to the main topic. The reward for you had to be something worth the aplishment of a tier 8 while also not viting the threshold of power that this world can handle. Therefore, we have agreed to let you obtain something no others have. A second core divinity." Administrator 4 smiled and waved his hand. Suddenly, a golden orb appeared above his palm.
"You see, every god has a core divinity. It¡¯s their strongest power. However, there are times where they are known by more than one divinity. These are formerly known as support divinities as they are ones that others can get. Most of the time, demi gods ascend to obtain a support divinity as their core divinity and a select few actually obtain the core divinity. For example, the core divinity of light is only reserved for the origin of light while the divinity that Aria and Aekari have obtained is support versions of this. Your friend, Nan Tian, is also on the path to potentially obtaining a support version of the light divinity." He exined as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Then is Nanobots a support divinity?" Shiro asked as Administrator 4 nodded his head.
"Yes. It is a support divinity but it¡¯s rather strong. It¡¯s on the verge of bing its own core divinity that¡¯s why I vouched for not letting you upgrade your divinity but rather obtain a second one. Helping you ¡¯upgrade¡¯ something that would probably happenter was a waste."
"But I thought I was the only one who had this divinity. What¡¯s the original version of this then? If my divinity was to evolve to a core divinity, would it be the same?" Shiro asked as administrator 4 thought about it for a moment before opening his mouth.
"You see, your nanobot divinity is a branch of two very powerful divinities." Administrator 4 smiled.
"And that is?"
"Origin of Creation and Origin of Destruction. Just as how your nanobots can create things, they can alsopletely destroy them. It is a branch of these two core principles when the world was created and with Chaos granting you her blessings, your divinity is now leaning towards the Destruction side."
Hearing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but stay silent as she thought back to her talk with Kuromi.
About how she might give bing a goddess of creation a try.
Now that she had found out nanobots was a branch of these two core divinities, the joke might be reality.
"When your divinity evolves into a core divinity, its power will be upgraded to a whole new level since core divinities are in a whole new realm to support divinities. With this reward, you are now allowed two core divinities. Of course, what that core divinity is you don¡¯t know yet. When you ascend properly as a tier 8, it¡¯ll seek out something that can be a core or you can hold onto it. It¡¯s up to you. But as it is not a physical reward, it¡¯ll bind itself to your soul for now."
Just as he finished saying this, he waved his hand and the golden orb disappeared before reappearing in front of Shiro.
Sensing the mass of divine energy radiating from this orb, she hesitantly reached out and touched it with her finger.
Suddenly, the orb shattered to countless motes of lights that were absorbed into her body.
"Now that you have gotten your reward. My time in this call is about to end. Before I go, I¡¯ll tell you about the final request that the system had granted me or rather, you."
"What request is that?" Shiro asked since the two things she had received were already more than enough.
"The system is preserving Isilia¡¯s and Edvimar¡¯s soul. Neither of them have been destroyed or reincarnated. They¡¯re in a stasis right now." Administrator 4 smiled as he ended the call.
###
"Are you sure you wanted to go that far?" Another voice spoke up as Administrator four chuckled.
"Yes. I¡¯m a fan after all."
"But to go that far for two souls is..."
"If I didn¡¯t, they would have been wiped clean and reincarnated. Still, at least you¡¯re the one who has to do this old friend." Administrator 4 chuckled as the other person sighed.
"I f*cking hate you. You won¡¯t remember anything about her but I¡¯ll support Shiro in your ce. You¡¯ll be the neutral party once more."
"I know." Administrator 4 smiled.
Chapter 1044 Misus Surprise
Chapter 1044 Misu''s Surprise
Standing in a trance, Shiro didn¡¯t know how to respond.
¡¯There¡¯s still a chance to get Isilia and Edvimar back?¡¯ She thought to herself in disbelief as she couldn¡¯t help stumble back.
Falling on the ground, Shiro sat for a moment to digest everything she had heard.
"Nan Tian..." Shiro called out as she looked up at the ceiling.
"Mn?"
"Isilia and Edvimar can be saved right?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded.
"Yes, there¡¯s a chance now."
Hearing this, Shiro closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Biting her lip, Shiro suppressed the urge to cry as she stood up.
"Let¡¯s rest soon. We got a big day ahead of us tomorrow. I want to take another zone and rack up some points. We got 7 days to sort through everything and by the end, I want us to have as many zones as we can get. Even if we can¡¯t get more than half of them to secure a win. Leave nothing for the others." Shiro spoke as there was now burning determination in her eyes.
Seeing this, Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Mn, should I take a zone? It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be wandering around much." He asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"We¡¯ll save you tillst since I¡¯ll be joining in a few fights. I know that we don¡¯t want others to find out about my powers. However, with my strength, we¡¯ll be able to storm their zone easily. If they bring an army, I¡¯ll crush that army." Shiro grinned as she stretched her body.
"Before you sleep you might want to deal with Misu first." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"True. If I slept and she needed me, that would be quite awkward. I¡¯ll stay up for another hour or so. I¡¯ll be practicing some runes so that I can use them inbat." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded.
Pushing his wheelchair to the side, he picked up the tablet and started to browse the while Shiro stood in the centre of the room.
Pushing out with her hands, golden runes flickered around her as she had another go at stopping time so that she could move around.
Time passed as Nan Tian yawned slightly from the side.
"If you¡¯re tired you can go to sleep early you know?" Shiro said as Nan Tian shook his head.
"It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll sleep in a bit."
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head as she resumed her training. However, after 5 minutes, she received a call on her phone.
"Seems like Misu¡¯s finished looking around." Shiro muttered.
Pulling out her phone, she epted the call.
"Did you enjoy looking around the city?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Yes I did. This city is quite peaceful isn¡¯t it?"
"Yup. Thanks to everyone working hard in the city, the daily lives of people here are pretty good. Hopefully, this is the same for every city we establish. Right now, there are only two floating cities. I am thinking of converting more, but the power supply of the other cities might not be able to handle it." Shiro shrugged.
"Unfortunately, I don¡¯t think I can help much when ites to matters like this."
"It¡¯s fine, you just need to activate an anchor on the city so that I can link it up to my anchor and form a core to power the city. But we can talk about this in more detail tomorrow. Will you be resting here or will you be resting in your city?" Shiro asked.
"Hm... I¡¯ll rest here if you don¡¯t mind."
"Sure, I¡¯ve already prepared a room for you. I¡¯ll open a portal for you now ok?"
"Wait wh-"
Before Misu could finish what she was saying, Shiro had locked onto her position and opened a portal in front of her.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Misu was a little speechless at how easy it was for Shiro to just open a portal for someone.
If she wanted to, she could probably open a portal beneath someone¡¯s feet and send them into a volcano. Not that it would work on someone that could fly but the opportunities are there.
Shrugging her shoulders, Misu stepped into the portal.
"Enjoy you rest. I¡¯ll call you tomorrow morning when we¡¯re going to be moving out to capture more zones."
Ending the call, Shiro yawned.
"Finally, it¡¯s time to sleep." She sighed as they were staying upte because of Misu. Now that she¡¯s went to her room, they could finally sleep properly.
###
Standing in her room silently, Misu looked at the giant bed in the centre and sighed.
"Your highness, I¡¯ll sleep on the couch." Her subordinate coughed as he didn¡¯t dare share a bed with her.
"Alright." Nodding her head, Misu waved her hand as a veil of shadows acted as a curtain around the bed.
Laying down, she looked at the ceiling before ncing down at the tablet in her hand.
The technology of this city was far ahead of anything she had seen so far. Even looking at the videos of society before the new age arrived, Misu could tell that what Shiro has is obviously abnormal.
The defensive turrets, the military base where she watched the soldiers train with guns and even the armour that they produced here was far better than what they could find in other cities.
Plus, there was still arge part of this city that she hadn¡¯t explored. But she figured that she had probably seen most of the things here.
¡¯I think it¡¯s the military base tomorrow as well as helping her take a zone from what she¡¯s told me. I wonder how many tier 6¡¯s they have...¡¯ Misu thought to herself as she closed her eyes.
###
"?????"
"So, I would like to introduce you to the people here. This is my father, my sister, my cousin, my friends, my friend¡¯s adoptive parent, my students and my contracted spirits." Shiro introduced as she started to name them one by one.
Listening silently, Misu wanted to question why the hell does she have so many tier 6¡¯s. Plus, from the aura that she could feel from all of the tier 6¡¯s, they pose a massive danger to the Queens if they¡¯re not careful.
¡¯She¡¯s basically got a squad of Queen yers!? I thought each tier 6 was supposed to be obtained through blood sweat and tears and yet there were enough tier 6¡¯s here to be split amongst two Queens.
"Oh and my contracted spirits are basically pseudo demi gods. There¡¯s one more but she¡¯s the life line of the zone so she won¡¯t be joining us here in themand centre." Shiro exined as Misu nodded her head absentmindedly.
"Anywayse with me, I¡¯ll show you to our main attack force when ites to taking zones so you know what to expect." Shiro smiled as she created a portal.
Stepping through with Misu and Nan Tian, Shiro teleported the three of them to the mech hangers.
Seeing the sudden appearance of Shiro, Shiina and the other specialised pilots saluted.
"These are the specialised pilots. The best of the best that we have and our vanguard. Each of them can kill a tier 5 with ease and Glen here is the first to have killed two tier 6¡¯s without anyone¡¯s help." Shiro praised as Glen couldn¡¯t help but blush.
Feeling the gazes of his fellow pilots on him, he couldn¡¯t help but feel proud.
"He killed two tier 6¡¯s?" Misu asked in disbelief as the teen wasn¡¯t even tier 5 yet.
The fact that a tier 4 actually killed two tier 6¡¯s seemed impossible.
"I wouldn¡¯t have been able to do it if it wasn¡¯t for her highness¡¯s mech." Glen spoke up as Misu raised an eyebrow.
"I believe a mech is those big robot things right?" Misu asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. Come with me, I¡¯ll show you where they are."
Gesturing for Misu to follow her, the three of them made their way further down before Shiro snapped her fingers.
One by one, the cover hiding the mechs started to shift as the machines of war revealed themselves.
ncing up at the mech and feeling its aura, Misu could somewhat understand how he was able to do it. Each mech felt like a peak tier 5 being and killing a tier 6 would be possible if taken off guard.
However, there lies the problem. It was practically impossible to be taken off guard by something this big but since neither Shiro nor Glen seemed like they were lying, Misu figured that there was probably more to it than meets the eye.
"You¡¯ll be able to see them in actionter. For now, let¡¯s go to themand centre and prepare our next attack.
"There are two Queens that have stationed their capture zones near here so I want to be taking one of them by tomorrow at thetest."
"If you show me their crests I might be able to tell you about them." Misu spoke up as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Perfect. In that case let¡¯s go to themand centre so that everyone else can hear about this too."
Waving her hand, a portal opened in front of her as the three of them left the area.
Chapter 1045 Misus Information
Chapter 1045 Misu''s Information
"Right then, the first one, the one with the sword and scale. I don¡¯t know her title since I haven¡¯t found out where her city is but I do know a little but about her powers." Misu said as she gestured to her subordinate.
Bringing up a short video, Misu opened her mouth.
"From what we¡¯ve gathered, her powers are to flip desires, intentions and perhaps even attacks from what we¡¯ve seen. Someone that wants to kill her will have their intentions flipped to the point that they would eveny their lives down for her safety.
In all of the fights that we¡¯ve seen her in, she had never attacked personally except for one instance. When she fought against the Beast Queen and her new ¡¯pet¡¯." Misu narrowed her eyes.
Waving her finger, the video shifted as Shiro could see a giant hydra along with the Beast Queen Fighting against a woman who wielded a greatsword.
She had short dark red hair and a pair of silver eyes. Each of the Hydra¡¯s attacks thatnded on her would be dispersed with a single touch but Shiro could tell that she was having some difficulty.
Turning her body slightly, she sent out a single wave of sword energy that amplified the further it travelled.
Separating one of the Hydra¡¯s heads, it regrew almost immediately.
"You might think that¡¯s a Hydra but it¡¯s not. It merely shares a bloodline with the Hydra. If it was ¡¯just¡¯ a Hydra, it would have been killed long ago. It¡¯s actually a Leviathan evolved from a Hydra. A named monster that has the title of Leviathan of Storms. It hardly has any mana or magic attacks as most of his skills are innate. However, that¡¯s where the problem lies. When you are in his storms, your mana is what is used to fuel the storm."
The Leviathan had 9 heads connected to a single torso. Midnight scales protected its body as it travelled from the head all the way down to its tails. Simr to a wyvern, his arms were connected to its wings but additional fins could be seen on its back that looked like tiny wings.
Hearing this, Shiro paused since this was bad news if this named leviathan monster managed to trap her in the storm.
A storm powered by 300+ trillion mana did not sound good at all.
"So as you can see, both sides are having trouble during this and the Beast Queen is just watching by the side. While having intel on the leviathan is good, we still don¡¯t know any of the personal skills that the Queen has. Unless we can force her to move, she¡¯ll be able to collect intel on everyone using her leviathan." Misu cautioned as Shiro thought for a moment.
"I can deal with the leviathan using some of the mechs. If my calctions are urate, they should be able to hold them back for a bit. In terms of the Queen, I do know that she is able to summon beasts but that¡¯s about it." Shiro replied as Misu nodded her head.
"Out of everyone here, aside from the Empresses, the Ice Queen and the Beast Queen, I think there aren¡¯t anyone that can contend against you properly."
"Wait why is the Ice Queen involved?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Because during one of the events, she has obtained something that was able to defeat three Queens at once. While it was unable to eliminate them, she was able to push them back with ease. One of them is the Lightning Queen that I am currently against. I¡¯ll be honest, had it not been for the Ice Queen, I would have suffered quite a bit."
"That¡¯s good then. I¡¯ve seen the Ice Queen before and she was also the one who taught me about the anchors. I¡¯m not sure if I will be able to form an alliance with her but I can always give it a try."
"Unfortunately, she has quite arge ambition unlike me. So getting her on our side would be quite difficult." Misu shook her head.
"That¡¯s true." Shiro nodded her head.
"What about the Queen with the sword through the eye? Do you know anything about her?"
"Her? There¡¯s not much known unfortunately. Simr to you, she is a Queen that has made her first appearance in this event. I think if we leave it for a few days, we might be able to get some intel on her from other fights. If not, we¡¯ll probably find out first hand when we try to take her zone." Misu shrugged.
"Speaking of taking zones, we should be moving out soon. I want to make a dent in their fortress for now. Iziuel will be staying behind as protection and I want everyone here except a select few to follow me." Shiro smiled as the door was suddenly opened.
"Ah sorry sorry~ I overslept." Yin grinned as her hair was a little messy. Attie was following behind her while sighing.
"Sorry mum, I tried to wake her up earlier but she wouldn¡¯t wake up. When I tried to reach for her she would only eat my hand." Attie sighed.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro nced at Yin.
"Cough, what? I got a little too excited and might have exhausted myself while using magic." Yin scratched her head.
"Well I¡¯ll forgive you this time. Misu, this is my gluttonous daughter and my son. My second daughter is with Iziuel right now since she¡¯s acting as her guard." Shiro introduced as Misu looked at Shiro up and down.
"I didn¡¯t expect you to have children."
"Neither did I to be honest. Yin was the first one, she just hopped into my life and started to eat all my crap, starving me when I was feeding off mana stones. As for Lisandra and Attie, they were better since they didn¡¯t bring as much chaos as her." Shiro shrugged, pointing at Yin.
"Hmph, I brought chaos but you enjoyed it didn¡¯t you mum." Yin chuckled.
"Not replying to that. Regardless, Yin, Attie, you twoe with me. We¡¯ll be attacking the zone near us with Glen and the others and Misu would be watching. Everyone else can go to the zone and set up for now since that would be our base of operations in this event."
Waving her hand, several portals appeared in the room as every stepped into the one that was created in front of them.
Getting Yin, Attie and Nan Tian to follow her, Shiro created a portal in front of Misu as well.
"I¡¯ve already sent out an assignment to the mech pilots, they¡¯ll be joining us shortly once they¡¯re prepared."
Nodding her head, Misu stepped through the portal.
"Before we start though, can I ask you a question?" Misu asked as Shiro nodded.
"Sure, ask away."
"How do you know runes from my world? If my knowledge is urate, it should be impossible since all dungeons rted to my world have already vanished."
Hearing this, Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
"I managed to get a few glimpses of these runes while experiencing a vision. While the runenguage ispletely different from the base, it¡¯s simr enough that I can reverse engineer it once I understood a few key characters. And I basically decoded a majority of the runes that your people used in your world. I would be happy if you helped me fill in the nks though, I¡¯m quite a fan of the runes that your world uses since they have a great affinity to spells that have links to souls." Shiro asked as Misu thought about it for a moment before nodding her head.
"I can try to tell you as much as I know. Since I was a healer, there wasn¡¯t much of a need for me to learn these runes so my knowledge is limited. The only reason I recognised them was because I used one or two of them in my spells." Misu exined.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro kept walking.
"That¡¯s fine, if I find new runes then great, if not then that¡¯s also fine. What about you? Anything I can do for you in the meantime?" Shiro asked as Misu shook her head.
"We can get to reviving my citizens after this event. How many points do you have right now?" Misu asked as Shiro nced at her system interface.
"Well I got 20 for winning a skirmish that had two tier 6¡¯s thanks to Glen. 5 for capturing the zone and we managed to get 3 points overnight. That puts us at 28 points. Larger zones have more points so the best scenario would be that we¡¯re 6th ce right now." Shiro muttered.
"That¡¯s a pretty urate guess. Since you killed two tier 6¡¯s, whoever they belonged to would have a hard time in this event since you can only capture zones with tier 6¡¯s."
"Regardless, it isn¡¯t my problem right now. My main priority is to steal a zone by the end of the day." Shiro grinned as she narrowed her eyes at the crest in the distance.
Chapter 1046 Upgrading Misus Mount
Chapter 1046 Upgrading Misu''s Mount
Teleporting everyone joining this expedition to the zone, Shiro nced back and assigned most of the mechs to guard duty.
With just Glen and Maria following them in the mechs, Shiro instructed Yin and Attie on what they should be doing.
With Shiina staying behind to protect the zone, Maria was more confused than ever. When they were capturing the zone, she didn¡¯t do much except for covering Shiina¡¯s back when she was in danger.
"Pilot Maria, you seem like you have a few concerns regarding this setup." Shiro said as her hologram floated next to Maria and sat down on her shoulder.
"Ah no- I mean no I don¡¯t your highness." Maria corrected herself as Shiro chuckled.
"No need to be so tense around me. If there is something you¡¯re concerned about then you can just tell me. No need to hide it." Shiro smiled.
"Well... I don¡¯t know why I¡¯ve been chosen for this. Miss Shiina is better than me in every aspect so I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m being chosen for this operation. Wouldn¡¯t the sess rate increase if she participates?" Maria asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"That is true. However, you can also think of this as hiding our trump card while also nurturing a second trump card." Shiro smiled.
"Who? Glen?" Maria asked but Shiro shook her head.
"Nope. You." She pointed at Maria who blinked her eyes in surprise.
"But I¡¯m just average."
"Yes, your gun control and mech control are ¡¯average¡¯ but you still seeded as a specialised pilot, no? Plus, your support skills are very handy. What I want to nurture is your talent with the Throne World. After our little test where I forced everyone to open their throne worlds, aside from Shiina, you¡¯re the second closest to being able to activate a throne world properly. I want you to grasp that feeling in the following fights and activate your throne world properly. Once you do that, it¡¯ll be a good weapon for you." Shiro smiled as Maria stood in silence for a bit.
"Don¡¯t worry about it too much and take your time. It¡¯ll activate eventually. Plus, this is a good time for you to get some EXP since your level is lower than the other¡¯s." Shiro patted her shoulder before disappearing.
With the hologram returning to her stop, Maria thought to herself for a moment before ncing to her left.
There was the panel that showed the Throne World Module and right now everything was working properly.
"I can activate a proper Throne World like Miss Shiina?" She muttered to herself as she clenched her hands. Wanting to live up to expectations, she closed her eyes and tried to remember the sensation she had felt inside the training hall.
###
"Did something happen?" Misu asked as Shiro paused for a moment.
"Yeah, it¡¯s nothing big. Just one of the pilots following us needed a little encouragement." Shiro smiled.
"You mean the meek demon girl in the mech over there?" Misu asked, gesturing to the mech.
"Yup. She has some talent with the Throne World but is having trouble manifesting that talent. Regardless, how do you want to do this? Do you want to just watch us capture the zone or would you like to participate as well? It¡¯ll give you some idea on how I would instruct you during battle."
"Hmm... I¡¯ll join in. Plus, if we can capture this zone quickly, they¡¯ll have a harder time figuring out our skills and abilities." Misu shrugged.
"Great. I¡¯ll let you take the vanguard then, I¡¯ll support you from behind while givingmands. Is there any weapon type that works especially well with you? Bows, swords, spears?" Shiro asked curiously.
"What do you mean by that?"
"What I mean is what type of weapon user do you work best with? As a mage, a front line is necessary unless you can defend yourself. You¡¯re a necromancer so you have the front line somewhat sorted. Would you rather me go with a bow, a sword, two daggers, a spear or a great sword?" Shiro exined as she waved her hand around, creating the weapons with nanobots.
"Hmm... a good one with me would be spearmen I suppose. I can summon undead monsters to act as mounts for them." Misu replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Ok, spear it is then. I haven¡¯t used the spear as much as I wanted, but I do enjoy this kind of weapon. It¡¯s perfect for targeting weak points too. Lots of reach." Shiro chuckled as Misu nodded her head.
There were lots of weapons that were good at targeting the weak points and it was true that spears were one of the better ones. Though itcked the manoeuvrability in close-rangedbat. It¡¯s hard to line up the spear properly when they¡¯re too close.
Tracing her finger in the air in front of her, a pitch-ck spear revealed itself.
Twisting her grip slightly, des erupted out from the shaft of the spear.
Once impaled, all she needed to do was turn her wrist and it¡¯ll be almost impossible to pull out without ripping out arge chunk of flesh.
"Alright, is everyone ready?" Shiro asked as she nced past Misu to see tworge mechs with Yin and Attie sitting on the shoulders.
"Yup. I¡¯m ready mum. I suppose I should stick to human form for this fight." Yin called out as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. If you¡¯re in your phoenix form, you¡¯ll set fire to the forest. Though there¡¯s still a chance right now. This is a good chance for you two to practice me control. Yin¡¯s me control is pretty decent so you can learn from her ok Attie dear." Shiro replied with a smile as Attie nodded his head.
"I¡¯ll try mum."
"Good. What about you two? Glen, Maria, are you two ready?" Shiro asked as both pilots nodded their heads.
"Perfect. Want to give me a mount for the time being? I know I can fly but I¡¯m kind of curious about how it feels to use your summons as a mount." Shiro grinned as Misu nodded her head.
¡¯She¡¯s a strange one.¡¯ Misu couldn¡¯t help but think to herself as she summoned a skeletal wyvern mount for Shiro.
One moment, she could be the grim reaper, the next a leader. And now she was acting like an excited child who had just gotten a new toy.
Seeing her eyes light up as she jumped on the wyverns back and brandished her spear, Misu couldn¡¯t help but chuckle as she summoned a wyvern mount for herself.
"How¡¯s the flying speed of this thing?" Shiro asked as Misu thought about it for a moment.
"It¡¯s not as fast as it was. You can definitely fly faster than it."
"Is that so? Let me smack on a few upgrades then." Shiro grinned.
Pressing her palm on the shoulder bone of the wyvern, a nanotech saddle appeared as mechanical parts started to manifest themselves around the wyvern¡¯s body.
Covering the gaps on its body, the skeletal wyvern now looked like a mechanical dragon with boosters behind it and weapons mounted on the side.
"????" Blinking her eyes in confusion, Misu didn¡¯t know how to react. Even though she now knew Shiro¡¯s title was the nanotech demi goddess, she still had no idea what the hell nanobots were.
But from what she¡¯s observed so far, they seemed like they could do anything Shiro asked them to.
"Want me to upgrade yours too?" Shiro asked as Misu thought about it and nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll even give you a seatbelt. I¡¯ll get rid of it once you¡¯re used to it." Shiro snickered as Misu tilted her head in confusion.
"Why would I need it?"
"Oh trust me. You¡¯ll figure it out soon." Shiro grinned as Misu¡¯s mount was also upgraded.
Once everyone was ready, Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright, Maria, Glen, activate your camouges and follow us. Make sure to reduce the size slightly too." Shiro reminded as she patted the wyverns back.
pping the wings, the wyvern hovered in the air for a moment. Leaning forward, Shiro narrowed her eyes and grinned.
*BOOM!!!
Activating the thrusters, Shiro disappeared into the distance as the mechs followed.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Misu looked down at the seat belt before ncing back at the thrusters that were powering up.
"So that¡¯s why." She muttered.
*BOOM!!!!!
Holding up and trying not to get her dress shredded by the wind, Misu suppressed her screams while trying to force her body to lean forward.
¡¯The hell???¡¯ She shouted out in her mind as she hadn¡¯t travelled this fast before. Her flying speed was slower than their current speed so she wasn¡¯t used to getting hit in the face by this much wind.
Waving her finger, a barrier formed around her as she blocked the wind.
Adjusting her position on the mount, she sighed in relief.
"A little boring don¡¯t you think? The joy of riding something this fast is to enjoy the wind." Shiro¡¯s voice rang out as Misu rolled her eyes.
However, looking forward and seeing Shiro doing flips and rolls with the wyvern, she decided to not question the strange girl¡¯s interests.
Chapter 1047 Attacking A Zone
Chapter 1047 Attacking A Zone
Hovering in the air, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the city in the distance.
Situated near a cliff was a singlerge castle that had been reinforced with several formations. Further down the path from the cliff was the city but it seemed deste.
Each of the buildings looked as though they were about to crumble to dust from the previous battle. There were some still standing but they didn¡¯t look like they had been in use.
¡¯There¡¯s probably a good chance that there are hidden chambers beneath ground for them to work in. Either that or this entire ce is a shamble.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before ncing back at Misu.
"What do you think we should do to take this zone?" Shiro asked as she was curious to see what Misu would say.
"It depends on how you want to do it? I suppose since I¡¯m your ally, I should work towards your goal. If you just want the zone, I think with your fire power you can probably just raze this ce to the ground like how the other Queen did no?" Misu suggested as she pointed at the almost destroyed buildings.
"That¡¯s true. I won¡¯t deny that I have the power to do that." Shiro nodded.
"However, with my understanding of you, you wouldn¡¯t want to do that. There are probably innocents working for the Queen within the zone. Killing them would be a shame no?"
"Cough, sorry to say but I¡¯m not that benevolent." Shiro coughed awkwardly as she didn¡¯t think Misu had that high of a view of her.
"Then how benevolent do you think you are?"
"Hmm... not sure how to respond to that but I work with a strict set of guidelines. To save a person, I must ensure that I can save those I care about first. If I have topromise the safety of those that I care about then I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m going to be selfish. Of course, I will try everything first before choosing to sacrifice one. My second guideline is the purity of their soul. If they¡¯re ¡¯good¡¯ people, I will try to give them a second chance if I can. Even those with slightly shaded souls can be redeemed if given time. However, once the colour is past a certain mark, I would not hesitate to let them reincarnate into their next life. If their soul is pure ck, I will destroy them myself." Shiro exined as Misu smiled.
"I¡¯d say that¡¯s quite benevolent. You see, the difference between you and other Queens is that you¡¯re at least willing to give it everything you¡¯ve got to help people. It doesn¡¯t matter if they¡¯re helpful or not. From what I know, you won¡¯t choose to sacrifice the city either. You¡¯d choose to sacrifice a part of you if that¡¯s enough. I¡¯ve seen what you did during the first day, in the video. You put your body on the line to save as many as you can. You pushed yourself as far as you could. Other Queens wouldn¡¯t even think of doing that if their health is at stake. To them, everyone else would be nothing but EXP bags for her subordinates. Naturally, this isn¡¯t including everyone but rather the majority." Misu shrugged.
"Anyways, let¡¯s set aside that talk for now. Since there¡¯s a chance that there are people that might need helping, why don¡¯t we go straight for the castle?" Misu asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, I¡¯ll take the lead and break the formations."
Patting the wyvern¡¯s back, Shiro dived down immediately as she narrowed her eyes at the castle.
Since they were so high in the air, they were essentially a speedinget towards the castle right now.
Twirling the spear in her hand, she grinned and spotted the first formation.
###
*Yawn
"Stop yawning." A guard clicked his tongue as the one who yawned apologised.
"Sorry sorry, I couldn¡¯t catch much sleepst night. You know my living quarters is near that ce." He sighed.
"I know but you should get used to it now. I¡¯ve been under her rule for a while now. After two months you¡¯ll get used to it. At the start, it¡¯s quite haunting to hear them get the reset but it has be background noise now."
"Yeesh. That¡¯s a little cold hearted."
"It¡¯s not. We¡¯re all trying to survive here. Do you want to look for a ce to live outside of her rule? Where the countless monsters are roaming? Plus, if any of the higher ups heard you, you might get a reset too." The first guard warned.
"That¡¯s true. It would be hard for me if not for you. Say, what would you do if I got reset?"
"What would I do? Well, I¡¯ll keep youpany as usual." The guard shrugged.
"Man, if I was into men my heart might have gotten touched then."
"Urg, don¡¯t think about weird thin- wait what¡¯s that." The guard paused, seeing a ck shadow in the sky.
Narrowing his eyes, he realised that it was a wyvern as the protective formation around the castle activated.
"Attack! Warn everyone about an attack!" He shouted out as all of the guards near them sprang into action.
"Activate the defences!!!" Another shouted seeing the shadow get closer.
However, most of them knew that it was toote.
Mana swirled in the air, towards the shadow, as tens of tier 5 magic circles appeared around her.
*BANG!!!!!
Suddenly, air was sted apart as a single spear was thrown.
Passing through the first magic circle, the spear was split into two.
Passing through the second, it was split into 4, 8, 16 and so on.
By the time it reached the formation, thousands of tiny spears were striking against the barrier.
"Take cover!!!"
Ducking down, all of them watched as lightning exploded from the spears, crackling against the barrier and shattering it to pieces.
With the firstyer gone, they nced up and saw the wyvern open its mouth.
*BOOM!!!!
Releasing a barrage of fire balls along with gun fire from the mounted weapons, the wyvern circled the castle.
Some of the guards that were quick to react mounted the anti air weapons while also notifying the higher ups in the fortress.
###
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro could see the final barrier holding strong. It was the barrier that the zone offered as protection and piercing it would be an annoyance.
"Let me deal with that. My skill set is pretty much known to a majority of people while yours is still a secret." Misu said as she flew past Shiro on her wyvern.
Standing on its back, ck shadows started to flood out from her body as she closed one of her eyes.
sping her hands together, a green orb of light manifested as it started to pulse.
Throwing it into the air, she mmed her hand down as a tier 6 magic circle appeared under the wyvern.
A second tier 6 magic circle appeared above the castle barrier as a set of giant bone hands descended from the magic circle.
Tier 6 Ritual Summoning!
Activating one of her skills, Misu created two more tier 6 magic circles in front of her as she narrowed her eyes at the barrier.
Without saying anything else, she swiped down with her hand.
*BOOM!!!! CRACK!!!
Punching down, the skeletal hand cracked the barrier with ease as the hand itself shattered.
However, that was intentional as each of the pieces transformed into skeletal reapers that shredded the barrier with ease. Their scythes would drain the mana used to power the barrier and funnel it back to Misu. Her next attack would be empowered by all of the mana she siphoned from the barrier.
*Whistle~
"Not too bad but you know, something like this should be a normal attack now that you¡¯re allied with me. If you can¡¯t achieve that, you¡¯ll be left in the dust." Shiro grinned as she raised her hand.
While she didn¡¯t have a skill that could put people to sleep immediately, she had plenty of ways to knock them out so that they could mount an attack towards the heart of the zone.
Suddenly, a magical formation created from tens of tiny tier 6 magic circles appeared in the sky.
Feeling the mana gathering next to her, Misu couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes.
However, remembering what Shiro had done during the first event, she knew she had to step up her game.
Her ¡¯equal¡¯ was someone that wouldpletely eradicate and event ground and make it impossible for mana to gather there. If anyone higher than tier 4 was to enter that zone, their mana would be drained immediately and they would be rendered useless.
Those that are weaker can be ssed as ¡¯lucky¡¯ since they¡¯re spared due to how little mana they have.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro isted the sound so that only those in the castle could hear it.
In a single moment, everyone beneath the peak stages of tier 5 was knocked out in an instant as Shiro grinned.
"Let¡¯s go. We have a straight path to the centre now."
Watching Shiro dive towards the castle, Misu shook her head and nced back at the two mechs and the siblings that had followed them.
¡¯Are they even needed? I think this is a little overkill.¡¯ She mused to herself while following behind Shiro.
Chapter 1048 Skewed Sense of Power
Chapter 1048 Skewed Sense of Power
*BANG!!!
¡¯Landing¡¯ in the courtyard of the castle, Shiro could see that most of the people here have been knocked out.
Those that managed to keep standing had strenuous expressions as Shiro was also allowing her passive aura to radiate out.
To them, she would look like the most fearsome thing in the world right now.
ncing down at her phone, she checked the time.
"Alright, let¡¯s finish this in 8 minutes max."
"Howe there¡¯s a time limit?" Misu asked, curious.
"Nothing much. Just that I want to sort through everything quickly." Shiro chuckled as she gestured towards Yin and Attie who were on top of the mechs.
"You two,e down." Shiro called out as the twonded next to her.
"You called?"
"Which one of you wants to be the lifeline of this ce? Just note that you won¡¯t be able to leave the castle for 5 days if you decide to be the lifeline." Shiro asked as Yin thought about it for a moment.
"Hmm.... I can be the lifeline. I don¡¯t really mind as long as Attie keeps mepany." Yin smiled.
"Alright. Since that¡¯s the case then let¡¯s deal with the lifeline of this zone. There¡¯s an underground city of sorts beneath this ce but we can ignore that for now. Just focus on the main prize and that is to kill the lifeline and take the zone. They¡¯re tier 6 as well but we have 3 tier 6 on our side right now."
"So what you¡¯re saying is that we should just bombard them?" Yin asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. I¡¯ll sit back for this one since it would be boring if I just killed him in one go." Shiro grinned as Yin nodded her head.
After all, she knew Shiro¡¯s power quite well. That tier 6 would most likely die from a p if Shiro was serious.
"Maria, Glen, there will be reinforcements arriving so I¡¯ll be relying on you two to cover our backs. Knowing what their manpower here is like, I doubt there will be any tier 6¡¯s but if there are, be careful. Glen, I know you managed to kill two but remember, they are still tier 6¡¯s. Don¡¯t hesitate to call for my help if it gets out of hand ok?" Shiro smiled as the two nodded their heads.
"Follow me."
Dashing forward, Shiro led everyone towards the castle as the guards that were still standing didn¡¯t dare to obstruct their way.
*BANG!!!!
Crashing open the castle gates, Shiro stomped down as a wave of mana pulsed out.
Scanning the entire ce in a single moment, she locked onto thergest mana signal within the castle and smiled.
"I found the lifeline. He¡¯s currently rxing in the private quarters. Put these one and it should show you a path towards his location." Shiro smiled as she threw a pair of sses to each of them.
Putting on the sses, they could see arrows highlighting the path.
Before they could ask Shiro anything else, they saw that Misu was now alone and Shiro had disappeared.
".. . Does your mother do this often?" Misu asked as she didn¡¯t even notice when Shiro had disappeared.
"Unfortunately yes. She¡¯s kind of on her own tempo and it¡¯s hard to match her at times. But don¡¯t worry about it, she¡¯s still around." Yin smiled as she swiped her hand.
Opening a portal to the rift, she dragged all of them in while Maria and Glen protected the entrance.
Walking around in the rift, Misu was surprised that they could just ess a dimension like this with a single wave of the hand.
This was simr to a reflection of the real world only without anyone else in here. If they wanted to, they could just phase through the wall and travel through the floor.
"When did you get ess to this ce?" Misu asked curiously.
"This? I had it when I was born. As for mum, she managed to enter this ce when she was just a tier 2 since she had a connection with me." Yin replied as Misu paused in surprise.
"Wait, she had this when she was just a tier 2???"
"Something like that." Yins shrugged.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Misu didn¡¯t know what to say since tier 2 was when a person first gets their proper ss. For Shiro to get this kind of ability almost immediately was crazy.
However, thinking about this, she realised another problem.
"Wait, how did you get it when you were born then?" She asked.
"Ah you don¡¯t know just yet do you? I¡¯m a Phoenix and my element is shadow. This rift was a passive skill that I had and since I had a contract with mum, she got a part of my power."
Deciding not to question how Shiro even managed to get a phoenix to be herpanion when she was just a tier 2, Misu realised that the path shown by the sses stopped here.
"Welp, seems like we¡¯re directly above the lifeline now. Since he is a tier 6, let¡¯s just kill him as quickly as we can. Mum wouldn¡¯t like it if we took too long. Attie, are you ready?" Yin asked as Attie nodded his head.
Clenching his fist, a tier 6 magic circle appeared on the back of his hand as his entire right arm lit up in mes.
Seeing that the two of them were preparing their spells, Misu did the same.
Green mist started to gather in her palms as she wanted to drag out the enemy¡¯s soul and attack it directly.
"When I say one, we charge. Three, Two... One!"
Opening a portal beneath them, they could see a man in a set of armour that covered him entirely from head to toe. He sat on a throne and dark energy could be seening from his body.
Looking up in surprise, his red eyes flickered as he wanted to raise his sword to block but he was toote.
Landing a punch against his head, a column of mes erupted as the surrounding castle walls started to melt.
Beneath him, a tier 5 magic circle activated as a phoenix head created from fire appeared and pierced his body before opening its beak.
*PUSHI!!!!
Ripping the body in two, ming spears appeared and skewered each part to the floor.
While this was happening, Misushed out with a green chain that struck against his chest.
Tugging on the soul, she realised that part of it was already burning away thanks to Attie¡¯s mes.
¡¯Why is this family so strong????¡¯ She couldn¡¯t help but think to herself.
Not only were their casting times ridiculously short, the power of the spells were top notch as well.
By the time she had cast one spell, Attie had already finished casting his first one and was casting the second one right now.
Quickly taking a few steps back, she watched as the knight was burnt to ash before she could even do anything.
ncing up towards the sky, through the hole that was created thanks to the column of fire that Attie had released, she could see the crest flicker and shift.
Changing into a nk crest, they realised that the tier 6 was dead.
"Wait... it was that easy?" Yin couldn¡¯t help but mutter.
"I... I think our spells were empowered thanks to mum. She gave us court titles remember?" Attie reminded as Yin paused.
"Ah right. We¡¯re being powered by mum¡¯s INT score.. ." Yin muttered.
Looking at each other, they both offered a silent prayer to the knight that had just died to them.
Seeing a crown float up above his corpse, Yin reached out and started to integrate herself as the lifeline.
"Well... that was certainly unexpected." Shiro appeared next to them as she had aplicated expression.
"Mn. Mum, do you think that we¡¯ve just been unlucky and fought with the stronger Queens? Since these tier 6¡¯s are... well... weak. Even though I¡¯m only in the mid stages of tier 5, I think I can deal with them easily." Yin scratched her cheek.
"Perhaps but don¡¯t getcent." Shiro flicked her head.
"If you think with that mindset, you¡¯ll be injured heavily the moment you fight against a strong tier 6. If they can hide their aura like me and make you think they¡¯re weak, what happens then?" Shiro asked as Yin stuck out her tongue.
"Cough... that¡¯s true."
"But I agree with you. This guy is seriously weak. I think I can kill someone like him with just a single shot from my hand cannon. I¡¯m not even using a pistol too." Shiro furrowed her brows as she conjured up a hand cannon.
"Hmm... do you think our knowledge on their strengths are a bit... skewed?" Shiro asked as both Yin and Attie nodded their heads.
"Wait, who do you ss as strong then?" Misu asked as Shiro thought about it.
"Hmm... Syradil would match the word strong. I fought to a tie with herst time."
Hearing this, Misu was silent. Syradil was known as the monster within the Queens and yet Shiro fought to a tie????
"Wait actually no, I think I can probably win. I was injured and used an avatar when I fought her." Shiro muttered.
".. . ."
Chapter 1049 Ateshs Power
Chapter 1049 Atesh''s Power
"Mum?"
Hearing Yin call out to her, Shiro stopped what she was doing and nced over.
"Yes? What is it?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I can¡¯t designate myself as the lifeline." Yin scratched her cheek as Shiro paused in confusion.
"Wait that shouldn¡¯t be the case. Aren- Ah.... You¡¯re not tier 6 yet are you?" Shiro asked as she realised what had gone wrong.
Since Yin was powerful enough to kill a tier 6 with ease due to the bonuses that she had received, Shiro had ssed her as a tier 6 in her mind.
This meant that there was no way for Yin to link herself as the lifeline since the rules state that she had to be tier 6 in order to do so.
"Hmm... who would be good then..." Shiro muttered. She didn¡¯t want Attie to be linked as the lifeline just yet since his strength as a pseudo demi god would be very helpful if they get into a rough fight.
One of the only reasons as to why she agreed to Iziuel being one was because she was a supportive fighter rather than offensive.
Attie was pure offense so having him around just in case a fight broke out was beneficial.
Receiving a call from themand centre, Shiro pulled out her phone and put it on loudspeaker.
"Sup."
"I almost missed this greeting of yours. But let¡¯s set that aside for now. I¡¯ll be honest, when we saw you designate Yin as the lifeline we had thought that you had something up your sleeve since she was just tier 5 but since that¡¯s not the case, why don¡¯t I be the new lifeline?" Nimue asked as Shiro coughed.
"I marked her as tier 6 in my mind since she has enough strength to kill one ok?" Shiro scratched her head with a small pout.
"But if you want to be the lifeline then sure. We still need Attie around in case we fight with someone stronger." She nodded as she snapped her finger.
Suddenly, a portal appeared in front of her as she could see Nimue on the other side.
"Well that certainly saves me the journey." Nimue chuckled as she stepped through.
"Before I integrate myself I want to give you something first."
Closing her eyes, Nimue waved her finger as water gathered towards her palm.
Conjuring a rose of sorts, she handed it to Shiro.
"A proposal?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not quite. Put it in your mana realm and it¡¯ll let me do maintenance without actually being in there. The effects are limited but it¡¯s better than nothing. Knowing you, you¡¯ll manage to f*ck things up even though it¡¯s evolved." Nimue rolled her eyes.
"Cough. It¡¯s not like I WANT to harm myself now. I¡¯m not a masochist after all."
"But you still do in the end." Nimue retorted as she suppressed the urge to smack Shiro on the head.
Shaking her head, she walked over to Yin¡¯s ce and started to integrate herself as the lifeline.
While this was happening, Shiro started to revamp the ce using her nanotech.
All of the broken walls were now fixed and she started to clear out the basements.
Those with dark souls were killed and those that had clearer souls were offered a second chance.
Naturally, all of them had contracts with the Queen so Shiro started to break them one by one. It was a little annoying depending on the type of contract but after breaking the first 5, the process became easier.
With the help of runes as well as the fact that she could see their souls, it was an easy task to pinpoint the contract and break it without consequences. Naturally, when she did this, the one who set the contract would realise what had happened. By doing so, she was essentially giving the enemy Queen a middle finger.
Snickering at the thought of the enemy Queen being confused as to why her contracts were being broken, Shiro teleported everyone to Asharia and had Samuel deal with them once more.
Thinking about this, Shiro wondered if she should change Samuels title.
From an elder in the spirit council to tour guide of Asharia.
"Nimue." Shiro called out.
"What?"
"What do you think about me calling Samuel Head of the Weing Committee? Or something simr. Bouncer?" Shiro asked as Nimue blinked her eyes before facepalming.
"Don¡¯t bully the old man now. I think letting him keep his title is good enough. Plus, maybe you can make a new job opening rather than leaving everything to old man Samuel." Nimue suggested as Shiro shrugged.
"I¡¯m not really bullying him. The spirit council is around but they don¡¯t do as much as they used to. I¡¯m thinking of relocating their manpower by having the old man act as the weingmittee since I¡¯ll be recruiting more people." Shiro grinned as Nimue sighed.
"I can¡¯t even tell if you¡¯re being serious or not."
"Pft fine, I¡¯m kidding. I won¡¯t get rid of the spirit council. They¡¯re looking after the section with the spirits after all." Shiro shrugged.
However, before she could say anything else, she narrowed her eyes and turned towards the entrance.
"Seems like reinforcements have arrived much sooner than expected. Attie! Come with me, I got homework for you." Shiro smiled as Attie nodded his head enthusiastically.
"Let¡¯s not overkill them too much so everyone else can just watch."
"But going by that logic, Maria, Glen and Yin would be enough. Getting two demi gods is definitely overkillpared to what I just mentioned." Nimue reminded as both Shiro and Attie paused.
Shiro could almost see Attie¡¯s invisible rabbit ears droop down in sadness.
¡¯Sh*t, that¡¯s adorable. But Nimue¡¯s right... Attie might be a little overkill.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she contemted on what to do.
"Well just Attie woul-"
"He¡¯s still a pseudo demi god." Nimue grinned as Attie couldn¡¯t help but pout slightly.
Seeing his expression, Nimue coughed.
¡¯Sh*t, that¡¯s adorable. But he is a little overkill... In terms of Exp it would be better if Maria, Glen and Yin killed them rather than Attie. But he¡¯s too cute...¡¯
"Cough, I¡¯m only kidding. Attie should do it alone since having you follow him is definitely too much." Nimue coughed as Attie¡¯s expression instantly brightened up.
"I¡¯ll watch from the castle." Shiro patted Attie¡¯s head as she created a portal for him.
Once Attie left, Shiro nced over at Nimue.
"And you tried to deny him."
"Che."
###
Stepping through the portal, Atesh could see an army charging towards them from a distance.
Narrowing his eyes, his lips curved into a smile.
"Glen, Maria, you two might want to step back. While the mechs will be undamaged, I can¡¯t say the same if you¡¯re too close. Mum would be unhappy if I idently cooked you." Atesh warned with a soft smile as both Glen and Maria took a few steps back and reinforced the defences within the castle.
Nodding his head in satisfaction, Atesh flew towards the army.
Once he was away from the zone, he raised his hand into the air.
"Since this is the first task that mum has given me, I need to do a good job." Atesh smiled as he nced down at the approaching army.
Seeing that most of them didn¡¯t notice him, he smiled and swiped his hand to the right.
*BOOM!!!!!
Suddenly, a giant wall of fire erupted out from the ground, blocking the army from approaching.
The heat was contained as anything it didn¡¯t touch was spared. However, the trees that were caught in it were reduced to ash in a single moment.
Seeing that the army had halted their movements, Atesh nodded his head in satisfaction.
"One, two... Just two? I thought that a Queen would have more tier 6¡¯s than this. Disappointing." Atesh muttered as he waved his hand.
Burning all of the spells that were sent his way, he nced down and narrowed his eyes.
"Attie darling, I¡¯ve already put a protective cover on those that I don¡¯t mind saving. Feel free to go wild."
Hearing Shiro¡¯s voice from the mic, Atesh nodded his head.
"Sorry but it seems like the order has been given. Sorry to those that haven¡¯t been chosen today."
Snapping his fingers, tens of tier 6 formations appeared in the air around him as the sky started to darken.
Pushing the clouds aside, giant balls of fire descended to the earth as each one was bright like the sun.
*BOOM!!!
Crashing into the army, the fire immediately turned those that weren¡¯t chosen into cinders.
The attack was simple, overwhelming power in a single moment.
Once the fire cleared up, all that was left were craters that had the surface charred ck.
Those that were chosen unshielded their faces in confusion as a golden barrier flickered around their body.
Seeing that many others had survived, they looked up at Atesh.
"My name is Atesh, son of the Goddess and Aspect of Fire. Congrattions, you have been chosen for a second chance at life." Atesh smiled as the mes disappeared with a single wave of his finger.
Chapter 1050 Monti and Farun
Chapter 1050 Monti and Farun
Hearing what Atesh had just said, the survivors couldn¡¯t help but look at each other in confusion.
Seeing some of their expressions, Attie could tell that some of them were quite unhappy with what had just happened while others were fearful of the consequences of rejecting the proposal.
Landing in front of them, Atesh waved his hand as they all felt mana wrap around their bodies and gathered them in front of him.
"Seems like some of you are unhappy. We¡¯re not tyrants so you can still choose whether or not you want this chance. Those that don¡¯t want this chance can leave and I will promise I won¡¯t harm you." Atesh smiled as they cast gazes of doubt towards his direction.
In this new age, it was hard to trust anything a person would say so their belief right now was that the moment they turn around, Atesh would kill them all.
Seeing that they¡¯re still doubting, Atesh shrugged his shoulders since it was up to them if they wanted toe.
If they don¡¯t then neither he nor anyone else would force them toe to Asharia.
"If you want this second chancee to the castle. If not, then leave."
Turning around, mes surrounded Atesh¡¯s body as he disappeared from the area.
Looking at one another, a few of the survivors looked at the castle and started to walk towards it.
However, the moment they started walking, one of the survivors drew their de and aimed it at their backs.
"Take another step and I¡¯ll end you. Did you forget the service our Queen has done for us? We were chosen by her. The benefits, the protections, you dare throw it all away right now." He warned as his mana red around him.
"Monti, open your eyes. Our Queen clearly doesn¡¯t care about us as people. She just wants results. If you don¡¯t bring her results, how many times do you think you would have been reset by now?" One of the survivors asked as the one called Monti gritted his teeth.
"But she still saved you!" He howled back.
"She saved us but she also enved us! She might have been a saviour for you but for the rest of us, each day is filled with the fear of being reset. All of our connections, emotions gone with a single flick. You don¡¯t know how scary it is to go through it since you never experienced what it was like! What do you do when your wife forgets who you are!? What do you do when you realised you had a family before but you cannot recall their names or faces?! I had a son Monti! A son! But now I don¡¯t even remember anything about him! All I know is that I had a son and that was because of a single entry on my record!" One of the survivors gritted his teeth and dashed up to Monti.
Lifting him up by his cor, the man pulling his head back and headbutted Monti.
"Open your eyes god damnit! This world has gone to sh*t! What¡¯s the point of surviving if everything precious to me is wiped from my memory! I had lost my goal for god knows how many times! I¡¯d rather force my way out than stay in that city for another week. Had it not been for the contract that we were forced to sign when we arrived, do you think any of us will still be around!"
Spitting out some blood, Monti grabbed the man by the head and reversed their positions.
mming him against the ground, Monti regted his breath.
"What if the new Queen is worse? What if you don¡¯t even get a chance to die if you wanted to! If you lost a goal then find a new one! Why are you so attached to the past anyways!? Everything we knew of the world has changed. So what if she resets my memories of the past. I¡¯d rather look forward anyways." Monti red as he stood up.
"I dare you guys to find the new Queen." He warned as his mana red.
"Monti." A voice called out as he turned around.
*BANG!!!
Receiving a punch across the face, he stumbled back as blood started to drip from his nose.
Narrowing his eyes, he could see Farun extinguishing his cigarette.
He was a tall man with short brown hair, a de scar could be seen from his jaw down to his corbone.
"Shut the f*ck up man. You have chosen to stay with her while most of us don¡¯t want to. If you force us like this, we¡¯ll fight you too. You made your choice and we¡¯ve made ours."
Furrowing his brows, Monti clicked his tongue.
"Fine."
He knew that Farun could fight him to a standstill but if he included everyone else here, he would definitely be defeated.
Retracting his aura as well as weapons, he watched as Farun led most of the people towards the castle. Those that stayed behind and looked towards Monti.
"Let¡¯s go back for now. We¡¯ll need to report that we were stopped by another tier 6. You guys shouldn¡¯t say anything. I¡¯ll take the me for this one." Monti sighed as he walked away.
###
Arriving at the castle, Farun could see two giant mechs guarding the gates while Atesh was waiting for them with a small smile.
"Welp seems like this is less than what I expected but no matter." Atesh smiled.
"If you don¡¯t mind me asking, are there any contracts that we need to sign?" Farun asked as Atesh shook his head.
"Nope. You just need to follow the rules properly. If not, you¡¯ll be punished ordingly. You don¡¯t need to do anything else." Atesh shrugged as some of the survivors started to murmur.
"Are you sure? This sounds too good to be true." Farun narrowed his eyes.
"That is indeed the truth. If you want, we can send you to the city now so that you can see what it¡¯s like personally. If you still don¡¯t enjoy it, we can send you to any spot you want and won¡¯t interfere with you." Atesh smiled as Farun frowned slightly.
It was too good to be true. There were no free meals in the world after all.
Taking a deep breath, he decided to risk it.
"Can I talk to your Queen?" He asked as Atesh paused for a moment.
"You want to talk with my mother?" Atesh asked.
"Yes."
"It¡¯s fine Attie, they have their concerns so it¡¯s understandable." Shiro called out with a smile.
Hearing Shiro¡¯s voice, Atesh nced back and nodded his head.
Stepping aside, they could see a white haired woman stepping out of the castle.
Seeing her, some of them immediately recognised who she was since they haven¡¯t got a reset yet. However, they didn¡¯t want to say anything just yet since they might be wrong.
"What is it that you wished to talk to me about?" Shiro asked with a small smile.
"Why are you doing this? Providing free space like this isn¡¯t beneficial to you at all. So why do so much for people like us?" Farun asked.
"Hmm I¡¯ll tell the truth. All of you have clear enough souls that allow me to determine that you can be ¡¯good¡¯. Those with darker souls are eliminated since there is still a limit to my mercy. I don¡¯t require anything from you since just living in the city will help me with my power. The anchor empowers the Queen. I suppose you can say that I shouldn¡¯t filter life through a yes or no method like this but, this is the new age. Even if I can monitor everything that happens, I¡¯m not risking the lives of those that are following me or my trust ones with hidden variables of darker souls." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Hearing this, Farun nodded his head.
Since if she was really giving away ¡¯free meals¡¯ she would have allowed everyone to live except for the tier 6¡¯s that were there to attack the castle.
Is it true that you¡¯ll give us a choice though?"
"Of course. If you are unhappy with what you see, you are free to leave. You have my promise on that." Shiro nodded with a smile.
"I can¡¯t speak for everyone but personally I want to see the city for myself." Farun said as the survivors started to agree.
Nodding her head, Shiro snapped her finger and opened a portal.
"There will be someone to guide you around the city. If you want to leave, contact me through him and I¡¯ll teleport you to somewhere that you want to go."
One by one, they made their way through the portal.
Once thest one had walked through, Shiro closed it before looking towards the craters in the distance.
"Perhaps I should fix this before I go." Shiro muttered.
Waving her hand, green energy wrapped around her palm as the ground started to shake.
The charred surfaces started to regain their lustre as the ground repaired itself along with the forest.
While this was happening, the crest above them changed to Shiro¡¯s crest and the zone started to change. Since Nimue was also a Pseudo demi god spirit like Iziuel, the zone started to match her element.
Chapter 1051 First Customer
Chapter 1051 First Customer
[Nimue has captured a Zone in your name. Due to her race and ss, the zone is granted additional benefits.]
[Havale ¨C Sanctuary of Magic]
All allies within this zone are granted the following effects.
Passive mana regen +150%
Magic Damage is doubled
Magic damage ignores 70% of resistances
Duringbat, Allies are granted stacking INT state equal to 5% of Queen¡¯s INT. A stack is granted every 20 seconds and stops at 60%.
Once per two days, designated allies can charge their attack with the power equal to 100% of the Queen¡¯s INT stat. (Can designate three allies for this effect.)
Reading this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel the corner of her eyes twitch. She was still worried about what her maximum power could do consideringst time her attack hadpletely destroyed an event ground and yet she could now designate three people to fire an attack that had equal power to 100% of her int every two days.
Blinking her eyes, she didn¡¯t know if the system wanted her to destroy the world or not. At this rate, it seems like she was on a path of pure carnage.
While she was reading this, the zone started to change. Stone arcs started to rise from the ground as the cliff started to extend outwards.
Manakes started to form around the castle and liquified mana would flow from the top of the stone arcs, forming waterfalls.
Looking at what the zone had be, Shiro had to admit that this was something she would see in the middle of a hidden forest grove that would contain fairies for example.
As for the benefits that the zone brought, it was indeed broken like the zone that Iziuel had created.
While Iziuel¡¯s zone was more survival orientated, Nimue¡¯s was pure offence.
Magic damage being doubled as well as ignoring 70% of resistances was crazy for everyone else since they didn¡¯t have armour and magic ignore skills like she did.
Plus, anyone would be able to gain millions of INT stat points the moment they enterbat since it stacks and scales with her own INT score.
Even if they¡¯re not tier 6, a tier 5 with this much INT Stat would definitely kill one.
Last but not least, the benefit ofunching an attack equal to 100% of her strength.
If one thought about it carefully, everything stacked.
60% of her Int, magic damage doubled, ignore 70% resistances and finally an attack equal to 100% of her Int.
Should Attieunch something like this, Shiro wasn¡¯t sure what would happen.
Plus, there was one more move that she could do in order to increase how much it stacked.
If she was to activate her berserk skills, ones that would double her stat and so on andbine it all, it would be equal to having an army of Shiro¡¯s activating berserk skills.
Shiro had to admit, even for her, the thought of going against an army of herself sent chills down her spine.
Each one sending a barrage of spells that ignored 70% of her resistances.
Since she had proven to be capable of shattering through dimensions with her attacks, running away to the rift was not an option either.
"I doubt there is a need to do this but this exins what a Pseudo Demi God can aplish I suppose. Just two zones and the benefits they bring are crazy. At this rate, I don¡¯t even need to guard this with specialised units. Just the standard pilots would do for this zone." Shiro muttered to herself as she wondered how she should ce everyone. Right now, they have captured two zones so that¡¯s two tier 6¡¯s out ofmission for skirmishes if it doese down to it.
But now that she understood their sense of power was slightly skewed, it was clear that she can be a littlex when ites to other Queens.
"Well I suppose I can just let everyone rest. If I provoke too many Queens, it¡¯ll be annoying. I¡¯ll deal with this one first before capturing another zone." Shiro shrugged as she sent out a request for the standard pilots to enter the portal through their mechs and guard the second zone while Maria and Glen were sent back. Even though Shiro wanted to cultivate Maria¡¯s power, it wasn¡¯t the right time just yet.
Once they start a full on battle against one of the Queens, that¡¯ll be when they strike.
###
Looking towards the Havale Castle that transformed after the new Queen took it over, Monti couldn¡¯t help but furrow his brows since the change was too strange. None of the other zones, not even the ones in the centre would change like this except for the one owned by the Dragon Empress.
Pulling out a talisman from his inventory, he took a deep breath before lighting it.
Slowly, blue runes appeared in the air as everyone saw a silhouette with a pair of glowing blue eyes.
"Your highness." Monti kneeled down.
"Seeing as how I had just had all of the contracts broken, I had expected you to be either dead or dying from the consequences. With you being alive and well, can I presume that it¡¯s the third oue? Someone managed to break the contract without activating any of the penalties." The Queen narrowed her eyes as Monti nodded his head.
"Yes. However, we never got to see the Queen herself. Before we knew it, golden runes had formed around us, saving us from an attack and destroying any contract we had."
"Hmm... is that so... Then seeing as how you and everyone else here have contacted me, it seems like you choose to remain by my side." The Queen smirked.
"Indeed. Your highness, may I suggest that we perhaps build our forces up and find someone else rather than this Queen. We came across the Aspect of Fire known as Atesh who killed over 70% of our reinforcements. He ims that he is the son of the Goddess and judging by his power, it is not a lie. If the enemy Queen has someone this strong under hermand, I don¡¯t think it is wise to attack her." Monti warned as the Queen stayed silent.
"Monti, bring everyone back with you. Since you have brought back important information, I won¡¯t me you. There was a high chance of you dying after all. Once you¡¯re back, I want to see you in my office."
Hearing this, Monti looked up and saw themunication get cut off.
Taking a deep breath and sighing, he nced at everyone around him.
"Seems like we¡¯re off the hook this time." He smiled.
"But Monti, why does she want you in her office. Could it be that she¡¯s considering resetting you?" One of the survivors asked as Monti shook his head.
"Don¡¯t think about such negative things. Let¡¯s just go back for now. Thankfully, it seems like she was in a slightly good mood so even if she wants to punish me, it would only be light."
###
Ending themunication talisman, the Queen narrowed her eyes with a frown.
Remembering how many able hands and good contracts that she had just lost, she couldn¡¯t help but m her hand against the armrest.
*BANG!!
Shattering the armrest, she took a deep breath and crossed her legs.
Tapping her fingers against the surface of the table next to her, she closed her eyes before drawing out a crest.
The crest was a raven skull pierced by a single sword. Two torches decorated the side with purple mes as the surroundings seem to darken.
Suddenly, neon blue runes appeared on the floor, forming a magic circle. A single purple me appeared in the centre as it grew in size before manifesting into a phantom of sorts.
"Well... my first customer for this event." The merchant grinned as the Queen frowned in displeasure.
"Since you are the first customer, I¡¯ll give you a free service. What information do you wish to know?" He asked with a small chuckle.
"I want information on the Queen that I have probably just provoked. One that has someone who ims to be the Son of the Goddess."
"Haha, quite the choice. Should you not be my first customer, information on this person would be very pricey. But as you wish, I shall tell you some information on her. The one who ¡¯ims¡¯ to be the son of the goddess is speaking the truth. A spirit that has ascended to the state of Pseudo Demi god. His mother, also the Queen, has a strange divinity that radiates the vours of creation and destruction. She is both benevolent and merciless. Earn her ire and it would spell your doom. You can run, you can hide but she¡¯ll find you... And she¡¯s quite good at it too. It would be wise not to provoke her any more than you have already. It would be a shame if my first customer was to die so quickly after all." He snickered as the Queen furrowed her brows.
Thinking about it for a moment, she opened her mouth.
"For the proper trade, what would it cost to empower my unique skill so that it can affect her?"
Chapter 1052 Merchants Offer
Chapter 1052 Merchant''s Offer
"That¡¯s quite the request you¡¯re asking for. There¡¯s not much in this world that can change the thought process of a Demi God forcefully. Plus, with the state of the new age, there shouldn¡¯t even be a Demi God this soon. She¡¯s an anomaly. Might even be a precious customer for me." The merchant grinned as the Queen furrowed her brows.
"Just tell me the price." She interrupted since she understood that he¡¯s trying to let her understand how extensive this was going to be.
"Straightforward. I like it. But I¡¯m not sure if you have the capital for this service. Regardless, I¡¯ll tell you the price." He grinned.
"I want 60% of the authority that you hold along with a shard of your soul."
Hearing this, the Queen stood up and red at the merchant.
Her aura red in rtion to her anger.
"Since you know what a Queen¡¯s authority does, you dare ask for 60% of mine?" She asked coldly.
"Hahaha, surely you understand that your power is unique. If I want to help you switch up her thought process, I¡¯ll need a shard of your soul and 60% of your authority to use your power. I am the only one who can aplish what you ask of me. And I¡¯ll be honest, I¡¯m giving you a discount. If it was anyone else, I would have asked for 90% of their authority. She¡¯s not one that you should provoke without care after all."
Narrowing her eyes, the Queen contemted for a moment before shaking her head.
"Forget it. I can¡¯t afford your price, you can look for someone else." She waved her hand in annoyance.
She wasn¡¯t going to use 60% of her authority in a trade no matter what happens. The moment she did that, everything she worked towards would be wasted.
"Why so quick to dismiss me? We can bargain using a different price."
"No. You see, I believe you¡¯re underestimating me. I¡¯ve already incurred a loss trying to reim a zone. Continuing to fight without a guarantee is foolish and I¡¯ll be caught dead before I hand over 60% of my authority. Even if you want, you can¡¯t do anything to me can you? God Tier merchant?" The Queen narrowed her eyes as she shed in front of him.
Staring him down, she did not take a single step back nor did she cower in his presence.
Hearing this, the merchant¡¯s lips curled up into a grin.
"Very well. I¡¯m not one to chase after buyers so it is your loss."
After saying his piece, his body scattered into countless feathers as the Queen spat in disdain.
Sitting back on her throne, she sighed heavily and tilted her head back.
"Victory is slipping further and further away. I¡¯m not fated to win this am I?.. . ." She muttered before closing her eyes.
She remembers her teacher¡¯s words, the cause justifies the means.
No matter what she did, as long as she reaches the end, it will be worth it. However, even after so long, she can¡¯t see herself winning at all.
Her power was unique but it was wed. She couldn¡¯t use it on anyone equal to her strength.
All that time she had spent cultivating this was wasted. She had no substantialbat power to speak of other than reserving the effects of a few attacks but even then, that was limited.
Shaking her head, she rested for a moment.
###
"Your highness."
Nudging the Queen slightly, Monti could see that she was quite fatigued in thest few days. After barely being able to im a zone, it was taken away in a single day.
"Mn... I must have fallen asleep. Monti, is that you?" The Queen yawned slightly as Monti kneeled down.
"Your orders?" He asked as she shook her head.
"There are none. It¡¯s over. All of my tier 6 subjects are dead. Say Monti, you¡¯re the strongest one left. Do you think you can take any of them on?" Sheughed as Monti furrowed his brows before shaking his head.
"Unfortunately, no. But I wish I could."
"So do I Monti, so do I. My dream is drifting further and further away and thest chance of me being able to do anythinges at a great price as well. 60% of my authority. If I handed that over, all hope of realising my dream would be over... Though, I suppose my current situation is more or less the same." She shook her head as Monti stayed silent.
"Your contract has been broken. So there¡¯s no need for you to stay. I don¡¯t have a single tier 6 left so I¡¯m effectively out of the new age. I have no substantialbat prowess to speak of and even the weakest Queen can eliminate me if I¡¯m not careful. I¡¯ll release the contracts I have on everyone else. Take them and leave. If you say that you¡¯ve managed to rebel and break their contracts they¡¯ll see you as their leader. Try to survive out there if you can." The Queen shook her head as Monti stood up.
Looking down at the Queen, he paused for a moment before turning around and leaving.
Seeing his back going further and further away, she unconsciously reached out but halted herself.
Once he left, she flicked her finger and closed the door.
Leaning on her chair, she nced towards Vrish¡¯ Lir that had its night sky lit up by the crests of the Queens.
She didn¡¯t know how long had passed but she eventually shook her head. Just as she stood up, the doors mmed open as she nced back only to see Monti standing in the doorway.
"I¡¯ve already sent them away with someone else acting as their leader." Monti reported as the Queen looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"I thought I had said for you to be their leader. Are you not the most capable person here?" She asked.
"Perhaps, but my job is not to lead them but rather stay by your side. I might not be the sharpest sword but I am a sword willing to be used by you. You saved my life so it¡¯s only natural I serve you with everything I have." Monti kneeled as a tier 5 magic circle appeared beneath him.
Recognising it to be a magic circle for binding contracts, she furrowed her brows.
"You realise what you are doing right?" She asked as he nodded.
"I do. But I am willing. No matter what you want to do, no matter how hard it will get, I will stand by your side and guard you to myst breath."
"Hais... Idiot. Causing your own death like this."
Shaking her head, she snapped her finger and the contract was cancelled.
"There¡¯s no need for contracts. If you want to stand by me juste along. I suppose I¡¯ll just wander around for a bit while watching everything else happen. There¡¯s no more chance of me winning anyways, I¡¯m too far behind." She smiled as Monti nodded.
###
Setting up the defences for both zones, Shiro sat in themand office and checked on everything that had happened in the zones during this day.
Out of the 15 zones, she has now upied two. The Beast Queen has upied one main zone and two sub zones. The dragon empress still ruled over one of the main zones and no one had attacked her at all. Which made sense since it was practically delivering yourself as EXP to her doorstep.
¡¯So far the four main zones are captured by Syradil, Thiria and two unknown Queens. I have two small zones which are the same amount of Thiria while everyone else has captured one zone with a single exception but they¡¯re too far north for me to worry about just yet. The rest of the Queens are building up their power for an attackter in the week. The closest Queen to me right now is the one with the eye in the crest but there hasn¡¯t been any movements...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she nced at the holographic map.
"You seem stressed." Nan Tian said as he entered themand room on his wheelchair.
On hisp was a tray with some food.
cing it on the table, he nced towards her.
"A little. Just thinking about keeping up with the points while also not making myself a giant target. Seems a little hard." Shiro shrugged.
Creating a fork, she grabbed some of the meat and put it in her mouth.
"So I think we should just take it easy tomorrow. Reinforce what we have while keeping an eye out." Shiro shrugged.
"Sounds pretty good. Also, Silvia managed to get a slight breakthrough." Nan Tian smiled.
"What kind of breakthrough?"
"One that reduces the impact of bacshes. I don¡¯t have as many berserk skills as you do so it wouldn¡¯t have taken me a long time to recover to begin with but with Silvia¡¯s help, I¡¯m back in fighting form." Nan Tian chuckled as he stood up and leaned against the table.
Flicking his fingers, light started to gather around his hands.
"Che, I was hoping to see you in that wheelchair some more but this is good also." Shiro smiled and dismissed the wheelchair.
Chatting to each other for a bit, they rested for the night.
Chapter 1053 Upgrade In Progress
Chapter 1053 Upgrade In Progress
Stretching her body, Shiro looked at Nan Tian who stood opposite her.
Since they were resting for the day, Shiro decided to spar with Nan Tian for a bit since he had just recovered from his injuries.
As for the zones that she had captured, she distributed tasks to everyone to keep them busy. Plus, they¡¯re also helping with the defences of the zones so it was killing two birds with one stone.
"What¡¯s Misu up to? I haven¡¯t seen her today." Nan Tian asked as he created a few weapons of light and twirled them around.
"Misu? I had her organise her own group within the city. Since we¡¯re now in an alliance, it¡¯s good for her to build some influence in the city. I¡¯m not sure about what kind of group she wants to make though since Silvia is already in charge of the healers. While she used to be healer, she is now a necromancer." Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
"I¡¯m not sure she¡¯ll want to teach necromancy since it could be abused. Even if it was unlikely with the people in this city, you never know." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"True. I¡¯ll see what she¡¯s nningter anyways. I also need her to create an anchor here so that I can increase the power produced within this city. With more anchors, I¡¯ll be able to prepare better defences. That way, even if someone does discover this city andunch an attack, they¡¯ll be destroyed with ease."
"I¡¯m sure that¡¯s already the case considering what we have for defences." Nan Tian chuckled.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro summoned a sword.
"Ready?"
"Of course. Start whenever you want."
###
The spar was simple, nothing intense. It was merely something to help them move around a little before the real test.
Since they were taking a day off, Shiro wanted to finally achieve the power of pausing time.
She has done it in a chamber, all that¡¯s left is to achieve it inbat.
"Helion¡¯s still making some adjustments for my sword so it¡¯ll take a while. But for now, I¡¯ll try to carve my own runes in this." Shiro smiled as she adjusted her grip.
Suddenly, golden runes red against the de edge.
Dashing forward, she inserted mana into the de and tried toplete the spell in an instant.
Several tier 8 magic circles appeared on the surface as Shiro swung towards Nan Tian.
Trying toplete the calctions, she couldn¡¯t help but flinch when she felt the mana start going berserk.
Before her de could even reach Nan Tian, it shattered apart as due to the failed spell.
Quickly taking a few steps back, she created a second sword to parry Nan Tian¡¯s counter strike.
"Well that went just swell didn¡¯t it?" Shiro forced a smile.
"Mn, perhaps you should try it without moving around first. It¡¯s already hard enough for you to do it in arge open spacepared to a sealed room much less while you move."
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro sighed, and agreed. This was something that even Chronos had a little trouble with considering the mana consumption so it was only natural that she wasn¡¯t going to achieve it in an instant.
If she was being honest, it was a miracle that she even achieved it for her chamber.
Creating another sword, she etched the runes along the surface once more. Closing her eyes, her mana red as tier 8 magic circles appeared once more.
Now that she wasn¡¯t moving around, it was a little easier but it was still hard to keep things contained.
Furrowing her brows, sweat dripped down her face. One by one, the tier 8 magic circles sparked to life as they werepleted.
¡¯Right, one more and I sho-¡¯ Before she could even finish her thought, her sword transformed into a bomb from the mana that was gathered inside and threatened to explode.
Quickly throwing it in the air, she created a barrier around the two of them.
*BOOM!!!
Watching her sword explode and shake the entire training hall, Shiro identified the problem.
For the chamber, the power was spread evenly across arge sealed room so it wasn¡¯t ¡¯difficult¡¯ to activate.
However, this time, she¡¯s trying to use something as small as a sword to dy time in arge open space.
Even with her nanobots, which are Demi god level, it was still difficult to contain the power required to pause time.
"Unless I reach tier 8, it¡¯ll be hard to create a sword that¡¯ll be s-"
Pausing for a moment, Shiro looked up at Nan Tian.
"Is something wrong?" Nan Tian asked but Shiro shook her head.
"Nope. Nothing is wrong, in fact, things couldn¡¯t be better." She grinned.
"You see, the problem I have now is I don¡¯t have a good ¡¯container¡¯ for this power and I don¡¯t want to use my body as one since it¡¯ll definitely harm me. But as I am right now, my nanobots cannot contain this power in the form of a small sword. However, I have the best ¡¯container¡¯ for this power." Shiroughed.
"My indestructible rainbow grade sword that¡¯s under Helion¡¯s care right now. Since it¡¯s indestructible, I can load it with as much energy as I want without worrying that it¡¯ll blow up in my face. So even if Helion doesn¡¯t upgrade it, I should be able to cast the spell using that de." She exined as they made their way towards Helion¡¯s office.
"Would you be able to handle the calctions then? We don¡¯t know what will happen if we have unstable energy within an indestructible container. If you fail at casting the spell, things will most likely go south. The moment a channel opens between you and the sword, that energy mightsh out at you." Nan Tian asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"I do have a few precautions regarding that but if it is like what you said, I can just open a channel outwards. Then it bes an empowered attack no?" Shiro grinned as Nan Tian sighed.
"Hais, even though you¡¯re taking steps to avoid harming your body, you¡¯re still putting yourself in danger by trying things that should be impossible."
"Well... no pain no gain. I didn¡¯t get to where I am today without any risks after all." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian had to admit that she was right. Without any risks, she wouldn¡¯t have achieved some of the feats they know her for.
Arriving outside of Helion¡¯s Office, Shiro knocked on the door and noticed that there was a barrier in ce that sealed everything inside the room.
Raising an eyebrow, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder what he was doing inside for him to require something like this.
Just before she could even knock, the walls surrounding the office started to bulge.
"???????"
Both Shiro and Nan Tian looked at the now swelling walls in confusion.
"What the-"
*BOOM!!!!!
Before she could even curse, the wall exploded as Helion¡¯s figure flew past them, mming against the walls.
Shattering the windows, he quickly jumped back on his feet.
"Alright you little sh*t. Just because you¡¯re a rainbow grade item doesn¡¯t mean you can rebel like this." He snapped. Storming back into the office, mes and mana continue to explode from the gap in the wall.
"The f*ck was that?" Shiro couldn¡¯t help but ask, seeing the hole in the tower.
"Seems like he¡¯s having some trouble with the sword?" Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
Quickly fixing the walls, Shiro nced into the office and saw Helion surround himself with golden mes and a giant hammer.
She watched as he started bat¡¯ with the sword on the table. Each swing of his hammer would cause sparks to fly in the sky.
Seeing the golden runes slowly being etched into the de, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow.
However, just as he finished one rune, the forceunched him outside of the barrier once more.
"F*ck!"
"Are you ok?" Shiro asked as Helion nced up.
"Ah I didn¡¯t see you there. Sorry I¡¯m just having a bit of trouble with thest few parts. It was fine earlier but it¡¯s getting harder now. I¡¯ll be honest, I don¡¯t think I can carve all the runes you wanted me to. Just two and it¡¯s alreadyunched me away twice." Helion sighed.
"Upgrading a rainbow relic truly isn¡¯t easy. I think you can just take it now. I don¡¯t have the strength or capability to etch more on for now. Every rune I add on only increases its resistance."
Hearing this, Shiro waved her hand and summoned the sword to her side.
Seeing the description, she couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes.
[Silvanis ¨C Executioner de of the Goddess ¨C Rainbow]
Upgrade in progress (3%)
Seeing the line beneath the title, Shiro didn¡¯t expect that he would actually upgrade it. When she wanted him to carve some runes it was just so that she could cast spells easier. But there¡¯s now a chance that Silvanis could be something stronger than just rainbow grade.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, she watched as Helion extinguished the mes before falling asleep on the sofa.
Chapter 1054 Chronos Assistance
Chapter 1054 Chronos'' Assistance
With Helion now sleeping peacefully, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
Making a nket for him, she fixed the walls before stepping out of the room.
"Are you sure you don¡¯t want to heal him before you go? He wasunched out of the room after all." Nan Tian asked as Shiro shook her head.
"Nope. He¡¯s being looked after by a god after all." Shiro smiled as she gestured towards Helion.
ncing over, Nan Tian could see a crest on the back of his hand as golden energy radiated to the rest of his body.
The crest was quite simple, a hammer with mes behind it but Nan Tian knew who it belonged to.
"He already had a good connection to Hephaestus from what we¡¯ve seen before, but it seems like he¡¯s be his proper pupil now. Hephaestus is even sharing some of his energy with Helion. The golden energy is divine energy that¡¯s repairing and tempering his body, making it better than ever." Shiro exined as she could see the movement of divine energy within Helion¡¯s body.
"In that case then we shouldn¡¯t disturb him then." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Yup." Leaving the room, Shiro made sure everything was repaired before making her way back to the training hall.
Now that she had her sword back, she wanted to give making the spell another go.
Entering the training hall, Shiro took a deep breath and looked at the two runes already carved into the de itself.
Closing her eyes, she stabbed her sword down and divine energy exploded out of her body.
Right now, with her capacity for divine energy, she can only cast a few origin spells and enhance a handful of normal spells. If she was to burn it all to make this time stop ability, it could prove to be a great assassination weapon. The only downside would be that she won¡¯t be able to use divine energy for the rest of the day.
Which means using the godly runes would be difficult.
Remembering the right runes that she needed to use, golden energy weaved together on the de.
¡¯No... this won¡¯t work.¡¯ She thought with a frown.
She didn¡¯t even need to continue to see that the energy inside was too unstable right now. Trying to slow time to a halt was no easy task and it required careful precision or else she¡¯ll slow herself down, opening her to a lethal attack.
Stomping down, she twisted her body and swung out with her de.
*BANG!!!!
Suddenly, a crescent de of energy exploded forth from her sword, carving deep into her tier 7 nanobots.
"I might not have seeded in activating the spell but this will be handy to know." Shiro muttered. If this attack could shred through her nanobots like they were nothing, she knew the offence power was not to be underestimated.
"Is there anything I can help with?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shrugged her shoulders.
"Not sure. But we can certainly discuss it. Right now I¡¯m having trouble with actually stabilising the surroundings enough so that I can ¡¯pause¡¯ time. The flow of time is constantly moving so trying to dy it even by a moment is a monumental task.
"In the chamber, I had managed to stop it since it was simr to a small pool of water. But now, what I¡¯m doing is akin to dying the flow of a never ending waterfall the size of Earth." Shiro sighed as she leaned back.
"Well... from the sound of it you¡¯re trying to control your surroundings. Why don¡¯t you try threading yourself into that dyed time? If you¡¯re having trouble stretching it out, wedge yourself inside it and force it to stretch out." Nan Tian suggested.
He wasn¡¯t sure about the details but to him this made sense.
"Hmm... I can certainly give it a go."
###
"What!? NO!!! Let me ughter that little sh*t!!!" Chronos jumped up from his seat in shock.
Gripping his hair, he red at Nan Tian with a murderous gaze.
"What¡¯s wrong?" Nyx asked as she was currently feeding Hemera some food. Both of them were watching the screen and wasn¡¯t sure what was wrong.
"This little sh*t is about to kill Shiro! You see, dying time is fine since you¡¯re just rerouting the path. Making it so that it takes longer to reach the destination. What the little sh*t just suggested, threading yourself in it, is akin to trying to drown yourself! If she does that, there¡¯s a good chance that she¡¯ll age in a blink of an eye and fade to ash!" Chronos mmed his hand down.
"CRACK!!!!!!
Breaking the trunk of a tree that she had just grown, Gaia turned around.
"What did you just say?!" Gaia shouted out as she quickly stormed.
"If we don¡¯t stop them, she¡¯ll kill herself!" Chronos repeated as everyone dropped what they were doing.
###
Thinking about the runes that she might need, Shiro added some safetys before telling Nan Tian to step back.
Raising her sword, golden energy started to gather around her.
However, before she could even do anything else, her vision was bombarded by notifications.
[Goddess Gaia warns Shiro to stop.]
[Chronos screams at Shiro to stop what she is trying to do and suggests strangling the one known as Nan Tian for suggesting something like this.]
[Goddess Nyx points at the notifications above and tells Shiro to read them.]
[Gaia shouts in indignation. If you¡¯re going to do this at least marry me first!]
[Ouranos coughs up blood at Gaia¡¯s promation.]
Seeing the messages popping up one after another, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but massage her eyes.
Each of the messages would have taken a toll to send and yet they¡¯re sending things like arguments between them.
[Gaia kicks Ouranos away and shouts don¡¯t get in the way of my new happy marriage life!]
"What happened?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro was about to open her mouth but Chronos was a step faster.
Between them, a system notice appeared as both of them could see this message.
[God Chronos tells Nan Tian to shut your ass up and stop suggesting dumb sh*t.]
".. ."
".. ."
Staring at the message, the corner of Shiro¡¯s lips started to twitch as she felt the urge to smack Chronos across the head.
"What did I do wrong? I think Nan Tian¡¯s suggestion is logical no?" Shiro asked as she immediately received a response.
[God Chronos exins that if you were to thread yourself through time, you are trying to be part of it. It means you don¡¯t get to halt it but rather get dragged along with it. Meaning, you could age in a single instant and be a thing of the past. If you really want to ¡¯thread¡¯ yourself into the flow of time, the best way would be to ride it as though it was a wave. You need something to seperate yourself from the actual flow so that you don¡¯t get dragged away by it.]
Reading this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel cold sweat down her back.
If she proceeded with their idea, she might have actually lost her life.
However, her main concern was no longer on the fact that she almost messed up but rather what Chronos had mentioned.
"You said that I needed something to keep myself separated from the flow. What would that thing be?"
[God Chronos mentions that it¡¯s just a theory. Having something that can withstand-. God Chronos pauses.]
Seeing this, Shiro understood that Chronos realised what she had in her hand.
"Would the indestructible sword work as that thing to keep me from being dragged away?" Shiro asked.
[God Chronos nods his head in agreement. If you were to use that sword as the point of separation, no matter how much the flow of time wants to drag you away, you¡¯ll be safe. This is just a theory so you should still be careful. There hasn¡¯t been a time where he hase in contact with something that is indestructible so it¡¯s unknown whether or not this method could work.]
"Well, are you able to give me a percentage on the chance of it seeding?"
[God Chronos says that there should be a 75% chance of you seeding but it¡¯s still going to be rough. Unless you use the eyes that you have been blessed with, the sess rate will drop down to a meagre 20%.]
"Hmm..."
Tapping her chin, Shiro thought about what she should do with this information. The drain of her eyesbined with using the runes would drain her dry in an instant. Trying to keep her eyes activated for a long time is practically impossible.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro realised something.
"Chronos, you know that my sword is indestructible right? What if I allow this to thread itself into the flow of time without worrying that it¡¯ll be destroyed. Would I be able to use the previous method but with this sword instead?" Shiro asked with a grin.
[God Chronos contemtes about the possibility and nods his head. However, he suggests that you allow him to assist you and make sure you¡¯re not dragged away with the sword.]
Seeing this, Shiro¡¯s eyes flickered with excitement.
Chapter 1055 Breakthrough
Chapter 1055 Breakthrough
epting Chronos¡¯ help, Shiro watched as tier 8 magic circles appeared around her.
"Goodness... I haven¡¯t used my avatar much but this feels rather strange." Chronos muttered with a frown as his figure appeared in front of Shiro.
"Right then, we have only a limited amount of time so let¡¯s get started. As for the little sh*t that almost killed you, step to the side. I won¡¯t be able to help you if you get dragged along." Chronos scoffed as Nan Tian scratched his head embarrassingly and took a few steps back.
"Now, now, don¡¯t be like that Chronos. He didn¡¯t know." Shiro chuckled as Chronos only shrugged before looking towards Shiro.
"Can you hand me your sword for a second? I want to make some small adjustments to the runes so that it can suit what we require better. Since your friend has already etched two, it¡¯s easier for me to edit the runes."
Nodding her head, Shiro handed her sword to Chronos.
"Hmm lets see... These runes aren¡¯t bad but they¡¯re limited. All that you¡¯re doing is putting all the stress into your sword rather than using it as a guiding tool. A lot of the potential is buried right now since you¡¯re using it as a crutch rather than in your terms, a gun." Chronos exined as divine energy radiated from his body.
Creating a pen of light in his hands, he started to adjust the runes.
"Like a conductor, you want to use this sword/baton, to guide your surroundings. Use it to control the flow of time. If you want it to bend, it will bend but you cannot force it to do something against its nature. Urge it gently and don¡¯t fight it. Now give it a go." Chronos smiled as he handed the sword back.
Nodding her head, Shiro closed her eyes before opening them with the runes now glowing.
Slowly, the strands of time appeared in her vision as the runes on her sword lit up with a bright golden hue.
Tracing her finger along the face of the de, she started toplete the magic circles while observing the strands.
"Your time with the eyes is short so remember their positions. Use your sword to guide the strands that you want into ce. Do not cut with the sword but rather push the strand representing the present." Chronos guided as he watched the changes carefully.
Adjusting the magic circle with every word that Chronos said, Shiro realised that there was no longer as much resistance as before.
Each magic circle seemed toplete itself in an instant with just a simple gesture which corrects its position.
While making sure the runes are correct along with the coordinates, it is also fine to move the sword into an optimal ce so that she didn¡¯t need to waste more time crafting new runes and messing up the whole process.
Naturally, it was still difficult since they didn¡¯t want to risk Shiro¡¯s body.
Whenever things looked like they were about to go out of control, Chronos would separate Shiro from the sword and allow it to discharge all of the energy that it had gathered.
"Wrong wrong wrong, you¡¯re putting too much emphasis on wrestling the flow of time to do what you want. The more you wrestle with it, the harder it bes. Urge it gently."
During his lectures, Chronos¡¯ body would flicker before stabilising once more thanks to the energy that the other gods are providing.
Seeing that everyone was trying their hardest, Shiro wanted toplete this soon since keeping Chronos¡¯ avatar here was definitely difficult. Even for five primordial gods.
[Goddess Gaia said do not worry. Just focus on studying the old man¡¯s teachings.]
Reading this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile.
Looking at all the runes on the sword, Shiro realised that a few of them didn¡¯t even need to be constructedter. She just needed to use a part of the runes already carved into the sword to recreate it.
Realising that this was possible, Shiro¡¯s movements became smoother as Chronos¡¯ gaze flickered.
With each movement and magic circle shepletes, the flow of time would shift ever so slightly. It was small but this was progress.
Whenever she was close to running out of mana, Nan Tian and Chronos would help her resupply to keep her eyes activated.
Doing some final adjustments to her sword so that it could recreate some other runes, Shiro felt something click in her mind.
Her thought process on how this should work shifted as she now understood where she had gone wrong.
Realising that it was her passive skill, Item Master, activating due to the sword meeting the requirements, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile.
Closing her eyes, she focused her mind.
Deep within her mana realm, in thend of red circuits and code, a single tree started to stir as runic patterns emerged on the ground around it.
At the same time this happened, Shiro¡¯s right arm that was holding the sword started to change. Ayer of ck metal and red circuits coated her arm and connected to the sword.
The golden runes shifted to a dark red colour as Shiro opened her eyes. Taking a step forward, all of the runes on her sword lit up simultaneously as the circuits created the remaining runes that the magic circle needed.
Flooding her divine energy into her sword, the space around her started to twist.
Suddenly, a pulse of energy exploded out from her sword as both Nan Tian and Chronos felt their movements turn sluggish for a moment.
In the next moment, Nan Tianpletely halted while Chronos could still move. Albeit barely.
Seeing Shiro dashing towards him, he understood that she seeded in slowing time down to a near halt. But for powerful beings, this little bit of time dtion was nothing since he could still move.
However, Shiro wasn¡¯t done.
Adjusting the grip on the sword, all of the runes shifted as a second pulse of energy exploded out.
This time Chronos realised that he had nked out for a moment before snapping back to reality.
Seeing that Shiro had appeared behind him, he couldn¡¯t help but feel cold sweat down his back as not even he knew what happened.
After all, before he could register everything in his eyes, he had nked out for a moment.
"As expected of a god. I can¡¯t even anchor you down for more than a fraction of a second." Shiro muttered as the pulses of energy were immediately sucked back into the sword.
Shattering to pieces, the ck metal and circuits detached themselves from Shiro¡¯s arm as she couldn¡¯t help but kneel down in fatigue.
In that short moment, her mana was drained dry.
"What just happened? Who do you mean by anchor?" Chronos couldn¡¯t help but ask curiously.
Even as a god of time, he didn¡¯t know what happened since he couldn¡¯t perceive it.
"So you know how you said that time was forever moving right?" Shiro asked as Chronos nodded.
"I had the idea that if I could pin someone down to the flow, their time will go to the past during the time that they are pinned. However, this was much harder than I expected and practically impossible until you told me to use my runic eyes. By strapping a strand of the present to your body, your entire being became the ¡¯past¡¯ in the next few moments, stopping you from perceiving your ¡¯future¡¯ or rather, my present, for a short amount of time. During this gap, I should be able to assassinate a person or two before the strand loosens and you¡¯reunched back to the new present." Shiro exined as Chronos widened his eyes.
The reason why he couldn¡¯t perceive what had happened was because it was forcefully rewritten as something that should belong to the past. She had metaphorically killed him for a moment before his core corrected everything. If it was someone much much weaker than her, she could even permanently keep them secured to the flow.
Feeling a sense of excitement in his heart, he was about to say something before his avatar started to disassemble itself.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he could only sigh as his vision shifted back to his body.
Seeing the exhausted look of the others around him, he shook his head.
"She¡¯s created something rather insane." He muttered.
"What do you mean?" Gaia asked as she was too exhausted to understand what just happened.
"Even though it was short, she made me, the god of time, a historical figure rather than a living god. I became locked as a piece of the past, meaning I could no longer be in the present. If she was more powerful, she might have been able to make this a permanent change." Chronosughed as he nced up at the sky.
"I¡¯m going to seclude myself for a while. I want to experiment with some new ideas that she had given me."
Seeing Chronos walk away, Gaia nced towards Shiro and smiled.
"Did she just teach a god new tricks in his domain of power?" She muttered.
Chapter 1056 First Origin Spell
Chapter 1056 First Origin Spell
Now that Chronos had left, Shiroid on her back and looked at the ceiling of the training hall.
"Hais.... The drain of this move is a little ludicrous. I get that it¡¯s supposed to be something limited to gods and my method is pushing the boundaries but draining mepletely dry of a mana is a little over the top now isn¡¯t it?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Perhaps. But where else have you seen anyone else aplish the same as you have this early?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro sat up.
"Surprisingly, I have. There was this guy in one of the dungeons. A guy named Bonne, he was able to stop time and save me from one of the stronger monsters inside." Shiro replied.
"Oh? That¡¯s a surprise." Nan Tian raised an eyebrow since he didn¡¯t think anyone else could use time like Shiro does at this stage.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro nced over at her system since she had received notification when shepleted the skill.
[New Origin Skill Created.]
You are able to dy time to a near halt for a short period of time. You can also pin them to the ¡¯present¡¯ causing them to be the ¡¯past¡¯ The effects of this vary depending on their resistances.
Cost: 25% of Divine Energy + 80% of mana (Can be changed depending on capacity of divine energy.)
Duration: 2 seconds. Can be extended but cost increases substantially.
Cooldown: 15 seconds.
[Would you like to name your skill?]
Reading the skill description, Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Even with my mana regeneration, I can only cast this skill 5 times a day thanks to how much divine energy I have and the divine energy regen. But setting that aside for now, Nan Tian, do you have an idea on what to call this?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian scratched his head for a moment.
"Maybe something like Chronos Shift? I don¡¯t know since you won¡¯t be shouting it out during battle now would you?" Nan Tian replied as Shiro shrugged.
Well it¡¯s just something that¡¯s good for me to keep track of in my mind. If I want to cast this spell without the system, I would need to have a firm image of it in my mind. A good way for that is to ssify the skill under a good name so the moment I want to use it, I can find the spell immediately." Shiro exined as Nan Tian tapped his chin.
"Why don¡¯t we just call it something simple then. A single word rather than two." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure that might be good. What about-" Before she could even finish her sentence, she watched as the system screen flickered.
[User took too long to choose.]
[Skill ¨C Time Flux ¨C Added to your skill list.]
".. ." Staring at the system screen with a nk expression, Shiro felt like she wanted to grab it like a table and m it on the ground.
¡¯I was about toe up with a name for it!¡¯ She shouted in her mind as Time Flux was now added to her skill list.
Now there was a new section on her status that disyed her new skill under the category of Origin Spells.
"Is there something wrong?" Nan Tian asked as he noticed her expression change several times before stopping at fatigue.
"Yeah just that the system decided to name it Time Flux before I could have my say in it." Shiro shook her head.
"But let¡¯s ignore that for now. Let¡¯s see how this skill works after being recognised by the system."
Summoning her sword, golden runes appeared on the de as Shiro activated Time Flux.
The runes in her eyes flickered as the time strands revealed themselves in front of her. Simr tost time, a pulse of energy expanded out as Shiro could see that Nan Tian stopped mid movement.
Walking up to him, she started to move his body around.
Understanding that she only had a two second window, she quickly moved back to her spot.
Once the time limit was reached, the pulse of energy retracted itself.
"Hm?!" Stumbling a little, Nan Tian could feel Shiro adjusting his body in that split moment.
"I¡¯ll be honest, if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that you had shifted my position, I would have thought that everything was just a hallucination." Nan Tian muttered.
"Wait, you could feel what I did to you?" Shiro asked in surprise as he nodded.
"Yes but it happened in an instant. It was like a snap of a finger then it disappeared.
"Hmm... Interesting..." Shiro tapped her chin.
She doubted that she could use it for torture since it¡¯ll take too long to register the pain. She¡¯d rather torture them slowly and let them feel each moment with rity than it being over in a sh.
Of course, this method was also pretty good if she wanted to mess with one of the Queens.
Every time they blink, they could lose a limb before finally being killed.
Discussing some of the possibilities for a while, the two of them made their way towards the food hall since they¡¯ve been sparring for a while now.
Enjoying the food slowly, Shiro wondered what else she wanted to do for the rest of the day.
Since they were taking the day off, she didn¡¯t need to worry about attacking or fighting in skirmishes.
She wasn¡¯t in the mood to y a flute or discover more juices to make.
To put it bluntly, Shiro felt bored now that she hadpleted her goal of pausing time.
"What¡¯s up?" Nan Tian asked, seeing Shiro being silent.
"Just wondering about what to do. I had figured that I might use the whole day for this skill so I didn¡¯t exactly n anything. What do most people do in their spare time?" Shiro asked curiously as Nan Tian thought about it for a moment.
"They mostly browse the, y with friends, bezy or do whateveres to mind. If you want a break just do whatever you want, it doesn¡¯t have to be productive." Nan Tian shrugged.
"Hmm.... I kind of just feelzy then. Maybe I should ck." Shiro muttered.
"That might be the call. You¡¯ve been stressed out for a while now with things happening left and right. Perhaps it¡¯s a good time for you to just rx for the day.
"But I don¡¯t want to just sleep it off. Feels like a waste." Shiro pouted as she stabbed her fork against the meat repeatedly.
"In that case then do you want to see what everyone else is doing?"
"Hmm sure. I am curious as to what Attie and Yin are doing since those two are like two peas in a pod right now." Shiro chuckled as she quickly finished the rest of her meal.
Sending out her senses, it was quite easy for her to discover where the two of them are. They were both in the main building of the food hall that Yin had created and it seemed like there was an event of sorts happening. Both Yin and Attie were surrounded by a group of people and they were in the centre.
Disguising themselves as to not draw attention for now, Shiro and Nan Tian entered the building only to witness the sight of a whole hall of people cheering.
"Big sis, today I will defeat you." Atesh narrowed his eyes as Yin only smirked.
"Who do you think I am? Do you really think you can challenge me in this area of expertise? Let me tell you, in this entire city, there is no one, and I mean NO ONE, that can defeat me when ites to this." Yin grinned.
Hearing this, Shiro figured that they were probablypeting who¡¯s fire was better. Seeing how many people were around, Shiro felt a headache since it could be horrible should things go south. Just as she walked up closer, she paused in disbelief as she should have expected something like this.
Sitting around a giant table, both Attie and Yin were surrounded by food as Attie seemed a little pale. Empty tes littered around him as he was currently trash talking his big sis while trying to eat another te of food.
As for Yin, she was doing the same only this time she was much more rxed. Her eating habits were both.... Graceful yetpletely disgusting to Shiro.
Each time Yin reached out for a te, it would be emptied in an instant. No crumb would be left but Shiro could see everything that happened clearly. Yin would clean that te as if she was a hoover, no, even better than a hoover since a hoover would leave some traces of food.
"Is this how she spends her free time???" Shiro asked in disbelief as Nan Tianughed.
"It would seem so."
Seeing Attie raise a white g for surrender, Shiro watched as Yin jumped on the table before shouting.
"I am the food Queen! Devourer of delicacies. Na?ve brother of mine, realise your foolishness in challenging me!!!"
".. . Let me smack some sense into that bird."
Chapter 1057 Lecturing Yin
Chapter 1057 Lecturing Yin
With Yin cheering on the table and Attie resting his head, feeling as though he was about to throw up, Shiro facepalmed.
She wanted to interrupt but since they looked like they were having fun, Shiro decided not to rain on their parade.
"Let¡¯s go." Shiro sighed.
"I thought you wanted to smack some sense into that bird." Nan Tian raised an eyebrow as Shiro shrugged.
"I¡¯ll do itter. It would be quite bad if I smacked her in front of all these people now wouldn¡¯t it?" Shiro gestured at the hall full of food lovers chanting Yin¡¯s name while she made purple fire dance to her will.
Seeing that Yin was taking her celebration to the next level, Shiro decided that it was probably best to humble her a little.
Snapping her finger, all of the fire flickered for a moment before disappearing.
"Mn?" Blinking her eyes in confusion, Yin looked down at her hand.
"That¡¯s strange..." She muttered.
"Where are the mes?" Someone shouted out as a few others agreed.
"Che, you want mes? I¡¯ll give you mes!" Yin pouted slightly as she activated a tier 5 magic circle. However, before it could activate, the mes were snuffed out in an instant.
"Huh???" Scratching her head, Yin did a quick check up of herself.
"Howe there are no mes?" Yin muttered in confusion.
Trying to conjure up some fire once more, it was snuffed out as Yin felt a pair of eyes re at her.
Sensing a chill down her spine, she immediately recognised who was ring at her.
She didn¡¯t even need to turn around as she quickly straightened herself out.
"Alright! Enough messing around. Everyone get back to work. We have important business to do." Yin shouted out.
"But guild master, you said that we¡¯re partying for a few days no? Plus, did we even do anything important to begin with?" Someone asked as Yin felt like strangling that guy.
"Yes we do. We need to discover the delicacies of the world and improve life on Asharia." Yin coughed.
"But didn¡¯t you say that this guild was created to feed you? I mean we all agreed since it seemed pretty fun and we¡¯re mostly just chefs." The same person replied as Yin held back the urge to smack him over the head.
¡¯I¡¯m going to die if you keep talking!!!¡¯ She shouted out in her mind.
"Urg.... Big sis, do we have to do work. I thought you said we were just going to party all day." Atesh sighed as he sat up.
Seeing that Attie had now spoken up, Yin didn¡¯t want to lie to him. They were indeed going to party. But if they keep partying, someone who¡¯s name and preferences beginning with S will ughter them.
HOWEVER, if her younger brother wanted to party then party they shall!
"Yes we are. Our important business is to clean up first so that we can let looseter once everything is prepared." Yin exined as Attie nodded.
"You heard big sis, everyone let¡¯s get packing." Attie waved his hand as there were someints in the crowd but everyone started to help out.
Quickly camouging herself and walking over to Shiro, Yin swallowed nervously.
"Cough. Hey mum." Yin said meekly as Shiro crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Hey."
"What brings you here today?" Yin asked with a forced smile.
"I was just curious as to what was happening, but it seems like you¡¯re enjoying yourself quite a bit huh? The food hall was created just to feed you now was it?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"That¡¯s nder. He¡¯s just making stuff up. Of course the food hall is used to research more food for the rest of the city to enjoy." Yin replied as her eyes darted around for anyone that could help.
Seeing Nan Tian, her eyes flickered, begging for help.
"She¡¯s not wrong. Most of the people in the food hall are chefs and they have their own restaurants. The dishes that get Yin¡¯s seal of approval are the ones that sell out the fastest in the restaurants since everyone knows that Yin has a good taste for food. Since she¡¯s your daughter too, her word has some weight behind it." Nan Tian sighed as he covered for Yin.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro nced back at Nan Tian.
*Cough
"Don¡¯t mind me. I¡¯m just a spectator. Oh look, what a diligentd cleaning up." Nan Tian corrected himself as he turned around.
¡¯Traitor!¡¯ Yin cried out in her mind.
Understanding the feeling of Yin who was ring at him right now, Nan Tian could only give her a silent prayer in his heart.
¡¯Sorry, but your mother is too god damn scary! I don¡¯t want to be receiving her ire.¡¯
Massaging her eyes, Shiro ced a hand on Yin¡¯s shoulder.
"Darling."
"Yes mother dearest."
"Why don¡¯t we have a small chat in the training hall? I¡¯m sure you¡¯re also eager to reach tier 6 right? Despite having the power, what level are you right now?¡¯ Shiro asked with a ¡¯smile¡¯.
"Cough.... I¡¯m almost the-"
"What level are you darling?" Shiro narrowed her eyes whilst maintaining her smile.
".. .. 349 after thest fight." Yin muttered quietly.
"Ah, only 349? What level is everyone else in our party?" Shiro ¡¯gasped in surprise¡¯.
"Higher than 400." Yin replied as a silent tear dripped down her cheek. She knew that she¡¯ll be training her ass off after this. Goodbye food, goodbye party, goodbye luxuries. This bird cannot keep youpany after today.
"Oh my? Higher than 400? Surely, if my daughter is such a hard worker, she wouldn¡¯t fall behind this much now would she?"
"No."
"So why is it that you¡¯re only 349? Where did all that food go? Surely you¡¯re eating this much because you need energy for the fights right?"
"Wuu..... fine I¡¯m a gluttonous cker. I¡¯ll go and work hard." Yin cried as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Urg, give up those fake crocodile tears. Do you really think that¡¯ll work?" Shiro clicked her tongue as Yin sighed and wiped away her tears.
"Che, and here I was spending some of my time mastering the art of crying onmand. If I used this on my guild members they¡¯ll cook another round of food immediately." Yin pouted as Shiro grabbed her head and turned it towards her.
"That¡¯s only because of your mother¡¯s looks. If you didn¡¯t look this adorable would people pity you and give you food?"
"Yes because my other mother is also adorable." Yin grinned as Shiro was speechless.
".. . Che, go find your sister. She¡¯s training right now so the two of you can go get some levels while looking for thatst piece that you need." Shiro sighed as Yin nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll be honest mum, no joking around this time but I would have been tier 6 sooner if I could actually find thisst piece. The location keeps changing and it¡¯s not exactly easy to keep a track of it." Yin sighed.
"Go look for Misu and ask her. She¡¯s got a good informationwork so she might have some useful information for you."
"Mn alright."
"Also, stop making your brother a cker too." Shiro sighed as Yin stuck out her tongue and escaped into the rift.
Feeling as though her vein was about to burst, a tier 8 magic circle appeared around Shiro¡¯s wrist as she punched forward.
*PING!!!!
A crack suddenly formed in the air as Shiro pulled her hand back.
Dragging Yin out of the rift, Shiro red at her while everyone else looked towards them since there was now a fracture in the space in front of them.
"Well... this is certainly... different. Mum, when did you learn how to break through dimensions to grab me?" Yin asked with a forced smile.
"When you were too busy stuffing yourself. Now, will you promise me that you¡¯ll be a good role model for your brother rather than just being a glutton?" Shiro asked as Yin pouted and sighed.
"Fine. I promise I won¡¯t urge him to be a glutton like me."
"Good. You can go back now." Shiro nodded before shoving Yin back into the fracture.
"Hey wai-"
Before she could evenin, the fracture sealed up, ending her sentence.
"Anyways, let¡¯s go." Shiro dusted her hands off as she turned around and left the food hall.
Shaking his head with a small smile, Nan Tian followed behind her.
"So what¡¯s the n for the rest of your day?" Nan Tian asked since Shiro seemed to have a goal now.
"I¡¯m going to build a satellite system to gather information from around the world. If Yin needs to find thatst piece, I¡¯ll use the satellites to track it down using the same energy signal. I¡¯ve already seeded in breaking through the barriers to get to space so it shouldn¡¯t be too hard tounch a few satellites. Plus, I might even send up some proper orbital cannons this time. They¡¯re most effective from space after all." Shiro shrugged as Nan Tian smiled.
Even though it wasn¡¯t exactly rxing, it was still better than going out and fighting all day. It was just like Shiro to spend her day off in this manner.
Chapter 1058 Argus
Chapter 1058 Argus
Making their way back to themand centre, Shiro sat down and brought up several screens.
"Let¡¯s see, with the world being many times bigger than it was before, I¡¯ll probably need more than ten thousand satellites orbiting this world for it to get me proper coverage of this whole world. It¡¯ll give me a good view of every continent, country and weird location that might be viewable from space. Plus, I can probably look for where that dragon went after destroying the gate to the beyond." Shiro muttered.
"True, finding stuff in this world would also be so much easier. Since the event locations will increase in mana density, just a quick scan should tell you where the next event is so that you can prepare beforehand." Nan Tian agreed.
"Mn, most importantly, I can find new gates to the beyond as well as a Queen¡¯s main city if they¡¯re not careful with the defences they put down." Shiro smiled as she tapped her fingers against the table.
"Designing the satellites shouldn¡¯t be too hard. I¡¯ve already got a few blueprints. In terms of energy usage... Hmm... Would the sun be enough?" Shiro tapped her finger because she didn¡¯t want to manually fuel all the satellites if she could avoid it. After all, if her mana is constantly being drained by the satellites amongst the other things that require her mana, it would be a little annoying.
¡¯And since I¡¯m going to send satellites up into space, I should have them be able to transform into orbital cannons if possible. What else.... Ah right the moon. After the system integrated itself with the world, there were no longer any more means to get into space until I made my rocket. If I transform the moon into something that can be of use to me, it¡¯ll be good. Plus, if I make a teleport node between the two, I should be able to make a rxing mini city for everyone.¡¯ Shiro thought with a small smile.
"Say Nan Tian." Shiro called out.
"Mn? What is it?"
"What do you think about colonising the moon? Make it a secondary city for me. Smack an anchor point in the centre and I might even use it to house a weapon." Shiro asked as she snapped her fingers and zoomed in on a hologram of the moon.
Pinching the surface of the hologram, buildings started to appear as a transparent dome sealed everything off.
"Plus, it¡¯ll be a pretty good ce for a holiday no? Take everyone there and enjoy the look of the world from space." Shiro smiled.
Thinking about it, Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Sure. Quite a few people are infatuated with space here after all. If you want, you can probably hire those people to do some research into blueprints that can take you further into space if you want." Nan Tian suggested.
"Perhaps. Though... that might have to wait considering there were monsters in space back in Aria. I rememberunching some satellites and had to defend them quite often. But with how difficult this world is, there¡¯s no doubt that tier 6¡¯s or 7¡¯s might be swimming around in that vacuum right now. I don¡¯t want to risk it more than I already have." Shiro shrugged. They shouldn¡¯t get too greedy just yet.
"Fair enough. Let¡¯s just stick with surrounding the world with satellites as well as making a city on the moon."
Nodding her head, Shiro started to adjust some designs of the satellites so that it suited the power level of this world.
From more weapons to reinforced barriers powered by runes, Shiro wondered how much mana it¡¯ll take her to make sure everything is up and running. In terms of the energy, Shiro wondered if keeping it in low powered mode would work with just the energy from the sun. Either that or create a power bank in the rift connected to everything. And whenever she has free time, she¡¯ll pump all of her mana in it for a few hours and call it a day. After all, with her regeneration, all of her mana will return in just a few minutes. Doing this every day would give them enough mana to power the entire thing for a while.
She did wonder if she needed a space station at all but considering that they can monitor everything pretty easily from themand centre, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard. But just to make things easier, she¡¯ll add a differentmand centre for space rted stuff.
"I¡¯ll take care of the recruitment as well as setting up space for research. You can focus on the fun stuff." Nan Tian nced back with a smile since he knew that Shiro found this kind of work boring.
Hearing this, Shiro¡¯s eyes flickered with joy.
"Thanks." She grinned. It wasn¡¯t like she was thinking of dumping everything to Nan Tian already.
With the two of them doing work at the same time, it reduced the time needed to get everything ready to just two hours.
With the satellite blueprints ready, Shiro looked down at her hands for a moment before taking a deep breath.
Sighing out, she flexed her fingers and created two helmets so that they didn¡¯t suffocate.
"I still have a portal node in the room that I madest time. If we teleport through there, we won¡¯t need to worry about breaking past the barriers again." Shiro said as her voice was a little quiet.
"Are you sure?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded.
"I need to face it eventually so why not do it now. Plus, I should also clean the ce up a little."
Nodding his head, Nan Tian watched as Shiro created a portal before holding onto his sleeve.
Taking a step through, the two of them were now floating through the wreckage of the room. Parts were scattered about and chunks were missing.
Feeling her body tense up for a moment, Shiro bit her lip and aimed her palm towards everything.
Retrieving all of the nanobots that were used here, she closed her eyes.
¡¯I¡¯lle get you soon.¡¯
Opening her eyes once more, her gaze was sharp.
Letting go of Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve, she floated forward as her mana red.
A golden energy rippled from her body.
sping two hands together, Shiro created a tier 8 magic circle between her palms with the use of the god runes.
Suddenly, thousands upon thousands of tier 6 magic circles appeared it the area around them. From the ground, this would look just like a simple ray of light from the sheer density of the magic circles.
Looking at this happening, Nan Tian smiled lightly as it was simply beautiful. With her white hair fluttering behind her from the mana that was being emitted by the tier 8 magic circle, lightning started to flicker as nanobots appeared in all of the magic circles.
One by one, the satellites formed.
Their weapons were exposed then concealed.
Since it was a satellite system that was supposed to give her sight around the whole world, Shiro decided to name it after a being that very much hated Zeus. After all, he was dragged into the mess of his love affairs and killed in his sleep.
As the final module was installed, a single word was painted on the chassis.
[Argus]
Named after the all seeing giant, Argus Panoptes, the Argus Satellitework was now ready for deployment.
Just as she finished this, a notification appeared on her system.
[Argus Panoptes raises a toast to Shiro. He expresses great joy in having such a spywork named after him and offers you his blessings.]
One by one, a golden crest lit up next to the word Argus on each of the satellites. The crest was that of an eye with its pupil reced by the world.
[Blessing of Panoptes]
When searching for something specific, barriers are less likely to obscure your view and you can get its precise location.
Reading this, Shiro smiled and snapped her fingers.
Activating their thrusters, the satellites started to spread themselves out so that they can cover the whole world.
With the satellite system done, Shiro nced down at the charred piece ofnd that was now covered by a lightning store. A vortex that sucked away all the mana avable. What confused her yet also made her curious was that it ignored those that were tier 3 and below. Logically, it would kill them as well since it absorbed all mana but that was not the case.
However, she decided to set this aside for now since she had no more business with this ce.
Her next goal was to set up a city on the moon.
###
Leaning against the sofa was a handsome man that had both his eyes closed. Long ck hair and wore a rather smart suit.
"Well, isn¡¯t this quite the coincidence? Just as you are trying to persuade me to join her side and apologise about your past transgressions, the girl in question had named a rather advancedwork after me." The man smiled as the one who sat opposite him raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"She did?"
"Indeed. Named it the Argus Satellite Network. I¡¯m a fan of mortal work but this by far is my favourite. Almost enough for me to forgive you for killing me in my sleep, Hermes." He smirked as one of his eyes opened to reveal a ck void that seemed to reflect the entire world.
Chapter 1059 Agreement Between Gods
Chapter 1059 Agreement Between Gods
"What can I do for you to forgive me and help us in our fight against Zeus?" Hermes asked as he squeezed both his hands together. It was going to be hard for Argus to forgive him considering he was the one who killed him.
But no matter much, Hermes knew that they needed Argus¡¯ help if they wanted to win the fight. His ability of being able to see most if not everything was going to be very helpful for gathering information. Without it, their chances of winning decreases drastically.
"What can you do? Hmm, I¡¯m not sure if you can afford it haha. Of course, that¡¯s only if it was before the little stunt she pulled. If it was before, I would have asked you for your life." Argus curled the corner of his lips up as he pointed towards his chest.
Seeing the pitchback orbs in the ce of where normal eyes should be, Hermes couldn¡¯t help but swallow his saliva.
He could feel the cold blooded killing intent emanating from this man as hundreds of gazes locked onto his body. Even if it was fast, he could not escape this man¡¯s sight.
"But I¡¯m in quite the good mood after her actions so I won¡¯t ask for something like your life." Argus chuckled as he sat up straight.
"Hermes, I want you to work for me. No matter what I ask of you, I want you to follow through with them. Of course, I¡¯ll give you a bit of mercy due to thatss and I won¡¯t ask you to do something as mundane as kill someone of course. Just help me with doing some misceneous tasks." Argus offered.
"So a butler of sorts?" Hermes raised an eyebrow.
"No no no, calling that a butler is far too kind. I prefer the word ve." Argus narrowed his eyes.
Hearing this, Hermes felt like a vein was about to pop from his anger.
"A ve?" Hermes asked as his voice was cold.
"Yes. Why? Are you unhappy? How do you think I felt when I was killed in my sleep." Argus smirked as Hermes couldn¡¯t refute him.
Gritting his teeth, he considered his options before sighing.
"Fine. I agree to being your ve. However, I want to be able to do my own th-"
"No. If you want that much freedom then you¡¯ll be more of a butler than a ve. As the messenger, I¡¯m sure you don¡¯t need me to repeat myself right? I¡¯m sure you already know that all of you need me more than I need you. The youngss honoured me so I honoured her back. You killed me and logically, I should kill you but I¡¯m already giving you enough mercy by making you my ve." Argus stood up as he prepared to leave.
Seeing this, Hermes mmed his hand down.
"Fine! But there better be a time limit to this."
"Sure. How does 100 years sound to you?" Argus smiled as he turned around. 100 years was enough for him to get as much enjoyment out of Hermes as possible.
Seething in anger, Hermes could only bite the bullet and nod his head.
Seeing this, Argus snapped his finger and a golden contract appeared in the air.
"Sign it."
Sighing softly, Hermes bit his finger and signed his crest in blood.
Suddenly, chains appeared around him as a cuff appeared around his neck.
"GAH!!" Crying out in pain, lightning started to flicker as the contract rolled up into a scroll andnded in Argus¡¯ hand.
"Perfect. You are now my ve for the next hundred years. Show me to this meeting of yours little ve." Argus said as Hermes nodded his head.
Creating a portal in front of them, they both stepped through with Hermes following behind Argus.
Finding himself at the doorway of a giant room that towered over him, Argus raised his eyebrows and looked towards the centre.
There was a single room and quite a few gods could be spotted with the one in the centre being Hades.
"Seems like Hermes has persuaded you to join us." Hades smiled as Argus nodded his head.
"Somewhat. If it wasn¡¯t for thess he mentioned honouring my name with something quite interesting, I wouldn¡¯t have agreed even if he paid for it with his life." Argus smiled as he tugged his hand and a chain manifested, connecting to the cor around Hermes¡¯ neck.
Seeing this, Hades raised an eyebrow as Hermes could only grit his teeth.
"But setting that aside, shall we talk business? All I know right now is that you want to kill Zeus¡¯ faction for good. They¡¯re coborating with a few gods outside of this pantheon no?" Argus asked as Hades nodded his head.
"Yes. The main targets in Zeus¡¯ faction is Zeus himself and Poseidon. They¡¯re the biggest targets. Ares has agreed to fight with us since he¡¯s not a fan of Zeus or Poseidon." Hades replied.
"I can see that considering that there are quite a few familiar faces around here. Though I have to ask, who is this girl next to you? She¡¯s not a face that I¡¯ve seen nor does she have the aura of a god. Demi god at most but not a god and even then, Demi God is pushing it."
"This one is called Asakura Mio, mother of Asakura Shiro. She¡¯s on her way to bing a Demi God." Hades introduced with a smile.
Narrowing his eyes, Argus paused in surprise.
"You actually sent a mortal to the Path of Divinity? The fact that she¡¯s standing here is a miracle and you want her toplete the rest of the path to forcefully ascend to Demi God status?! Are you trying to kill a talented individual out of haste?" Argus asked with a frown.
"No I¡¯m not. You understand that since I sent her, I have a chance to pull her out if things get bad right?" Hades asked as Argus nodded his head.
"The key is that even after how long she¡¯s spent on the path, I have not used this yet. She still has one extra life if you were to call it that." Hades said as Argus looked at Mio in disbelief.
"Take off your hood, let me get a good look at you." Argus said as he opened both of his eyes fully.
Hearing this, Mio nced over at Hades who only nodded.
Reaching up with her hand, she pulled her hood down and allowed him to see her face.
Narrowing his eyes, Argus smiled. "Your path is long, just like your daughter. I must say, you two mother and daughter pair are quite interesting." Argus smiled as he leaned down.
"Thank you." Mio bowed slightly.
"Alright, setting that aside for now, what do you need me to do? I¡¯m quite interested in seeing Zeus¡¯ death." Argus smiled, taking a seat around the table.
###
Flying to the moon wasn¡¯t too difficult. It was just a case of flying towards the giant rock floating in space.
What was difficult is what they found on the surface.
".. . You know what this is?" Shiro asked.
When they reached the moon, they were greeted with a simr barrier to Earth, so breaking through it wasn¡¯t too difficult. However, when they did, they saw a giant gate fused into the moon¡¯s surface. The door pointed straight towards the Earth while runic patterns and images were carved around it.
"Do you think it¡¯s a dungeon?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shrugged.
"Not sure. The runes aren¡¯t exactly the ones that a dungeon uses. If anything, it¡¯s closer to the ones that are etched to a raid door." Shiro replied since she had never seen a gate of this size before.
"Should we leave it for now or?"
"Hmm... I¡¯ll set a few scouts down for now. Let them monitor this ce before we turn it into a holiday home. If it turns out to be something troublesome, I don¡¯t want to drag the people in the city into this." Shiro said as she waved her hand.
Nanobots started to gather around her as they formed into tiny robots that descended towards the surface.
But the moment they touched down, they were crushed by an invisible force.
Seeing this, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Creating a nanotech avatar of herself, the same one she used during the first event, Shiro sent it down towards the surface.
Upon reaching the surface, the same pressure appeared.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro was d to find out that it wasn¡¯t an instant kill. But rather the drones couldn¡¯t hold themselves together.
Since her avatar was stronger, it was able to move around despite the problems.
"Seems like the pressure of the moon isn¡¯t something that can be survived by anyone lower than tier 5. Hell, I think that¡¯s putting it lightly. For a good chance, you¡¯d have to be tier 6." Shiro muttered.
"That bad?" Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
"Mn. But strangely enough, my avatar is not affected by that pressure when it detaches itself from the moon." Shiro muttered.
Suddenly, a notification appeared on her system.
[You have discovered the Gates of Rokarn.]
Chapter 1060 Rokarn
Chapter 1060 Rokarn
"Gates of Rokarn?" Shiro muttered in confusion. Wanting to get some more information on the actual ce, Shiromanded her avatar to go investigate the entrance some more.
cing her hand against the door, a shockwave exploded out and destroyed her avatar in a second.
[No avatars are allowed within the gates.]
Receiving this response, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Hmm... That¡¯s quite strange. The fact that there is a raid or dungeon on the moon of all ces is strange enough as it is." Shiro frowned as Nan Tian looked at the gate with caution.
"Perhaps the gods might have an answer."
"They probably do but the problem is that sending a message costs quite a bit." Shiro shook her head.
However, just as she said this, her system gave her another notification.
[Goddess Gaia states no price is considered expensive when ites to you!]
[Goddess Gaia also states that they do indeed have information on the being known as Rokarn. He was a demi god that brought them quite a bit of trouble from one of the earlier gardens. They don¡¯t know what had happened to him after their battle but I didn¡¯t expect him to be a dungeon that was situated on the moon. Demi God Rokarn, the Isharian Demi God of Chaos and ughter. He was a step away from attaining godhood but was prevented by Hades as well as some help from Rokarn¡¯s siblings. Lia, the Ishari Goddess of Life as well as Khall, the Ishari God of Death. Even with so many gods trying to stop him, he still managed to ¡¯kill¡¯ four of us before running away.]
[Goddess Gaia states that if he has transformed into a dungeon, then the dungeon itself is Demi God status, perhaps even God considering his power.]
Reading this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Gaia, are you able to send me some information about the Ishari gods? This might be a great opportunity for everyone once they reach tier 6." Shiro asked.
[Goddess Gaia says of course! Anything for you! And expresses great interest in marriage.]
Right after reading this message, Shiro received a giant document of Gaia exining all of the Ishari Gods, lesser Gods, Demi Gods and their rtions.
Quickly scanning the whole document so that she could read itter, Shiro turned to Nan Tian.
"Let¡¯s go back for now. I¡¯m not exactly excited about challenging a Demi god dungeon/raid right now. Especially if the final boss could be someone that supposedly killed four gods while being ambushed." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Mn, not exactly the ce for a holiday is it?" He chuckled as Shiro rolled her eyes.
Making a portal for them to go back to themand centre for now, she didn¡¯t notice a small screen that appeared in front of the gate.
[Dungeon Break Countdown has begun.]
[Time remaining: 6 Months.]
####
Making their way back to themand centre, the two of them sat down as Shiro handed him a copy of all the information so that they could both read it.
Simr to the Greek pantheon, the Ishari gods were structured in a simr manner with the main gods in the main Pantheon. Demi Gods and other offspring are ssified separately. The Ishari Gods originated from one of the previous gardens. They¡¯re also known as the defeated pantheon since they tried to make a stand against the other gods but failed.
After that, they were ssified as lesser deities with very little influence in the Hall of Divine.
Rokarn, Lia, Khall and Balthanox are the children of the primordial titans back in that garden. They are the equivalent to Zeus, Hades, Ares and so on.
While Lia, Khall and Balthanox were able to attain godhood thanks to their parents, Rokarn was set aside due to his divinities.
Fearful of what he may be, his parents neglected him and obstructed his progress no matter what he did.
Eventually, that only caused his divinity to fester and grow with his hatred.
After killing his parents, the primordial titans of that Garden, Rokarn fled from the pantheon before Balthanox, Ishari God of Storms and Justice could make him pay for his crimes.
Having several off sprints himself, Rokarn sent his children to terrorise the New Age, killing anyone they set their eyes on.
Eventually, the three were known as the World Bosses due to their strength and how they were able to imrge parts of the garden for themselves.
Once the second part of the new age began, the Ishari gods immediately sought to put an end to Rokarn with the help of the other pantheons, including the Greek Pantheon.
Despite only being a Demi God, he has powers equal in strength to the primordials like Gaia and Nyx.
"Due to the strength of his divinity, even gods had to be wary of making the wrong move. Even if it was not the real Chaos divinity, it still shared parts of its properties." Shiro muttered, reading the end of the first page.
"However, even with the power of his Chaos divinity, the ¡¯Goddess Chaos¡¯ still holds a special ce within the system. Out of everyone they know, Chaos has the highest authority thus far. Even higher than the Administrators." Nan Tian followed up as Shiro massaged her eyes.
"The fact that a Demi God with the power of Chaos is resting his ass on our moon is quite the problematic situation isn¡¯t it? If I¡¯m being honest, I still think there¡¯s a good chance for me to fight him if I¡¯m in peak condition. However, there¡¯s too much we don¡¯t know and I have no experience in the fighting between gods. How the sh of divinities work and so on. If I go in blindly thinking I can end things in just a few minutes with my skill activated, there¡¯s a 100% chance that I¡¯ll just die." Shiro sighed.
"Let¡¯s take things slowly for now. Rather than rushing towards this dungeon, let¡¯s think about this event first. Right now, the main targets in this event are the Beast Queen, the Dragon Empress and one unknown Queen that has just taken over the other main Zone. Both the beast Queen and this unknown have two main zones and they¡¯re quite high up on the leaderboard in terms of points gained." Nan Tian reported as Shiro crossed her legs.
"Let¡¯s target Thiria. I still remember that my future self cautioned me about her so let¡¯s get rid of her. I know that we¡¯ve let her run free for a while now but that will end soon. We¡¯llunch a few skirmishes with camouged mechs with snipers. Try to weaken her over and see if I can force her to summon that weird leviathan hydra of hers. For this, I¡¯ll have to rely on everyone else because if I enter his storms... Let¡¯s just say having a storm powered by 300 trillion+ points of mana would not be fun." Shiro said as she leaned against her hand.
"That¡¯s fine. Considering our fire power, having you as a support gunner would be too much overkill already. With how many tier 6¡¯s we have, it shouldn¡¯t be too difficult." Nan Tian chuckled.
They have Lisandra who gets a huge power boost as long as it is something ordered by Shiro, Aarim who has a huge bonus to her spells thanks to Shiro¡¯s INT stat and more. Everyone in the main party has been upgraded by Shiro¡¯s Divine Court titles to the point that each of them could destroy a country if they wished.
Remembering what they were a year ago, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
So much progress in a year. But considering their feats, it wasn¡¯t a surprise they¡¯ll grow this much.
"What are youughing about?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Nothing much, just thinking back to what you aplished in the year. From a mute snow girl to being a Demi Goddess." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro shrugged.
"True. Though if I didn¡¯t get strong this quickly we would be in trouble right now."
Talking for a little longer, they started to n out their moves for tomorrow.
Their main goal was to weaken Thiria¡¯s forces all the way until the final day where they strike and, in the meantime, they¡¯ll also be conquering thends near them. The only Queen close to them right now was the one with a sword and eye. Once she defeats her, she would have imed all three zones for this section. The other sections are further out and it would most likely take more than a day considering the travel time along with fighting multiple forces.
However, what confused Shiro was that there was no movement from the neighbouring Queen just yet. Considering two zones being captured near her, she was awfully calm.
Shiro wasn¡¯t sure if the Queen was brave or dumb since she had seen her fair share of people.
Plus, there was also the chance of her hiding something. Regardless, theyunch the first attack in the middle of the night. If things go right, they¡¯ll have a third zone by sunrise.
Chapter 1061 Midnight Raid
Chapter 1061 Midnight Raid
Sending out the n to the mech pilots, Shiro organised it with Shiina, Glen, Akhess and Oran taking the lead with everyone else covering their backs. Shiina Akhess and Oran should have the power to take on most tier 6¡¯s that stand in their way while Glen has first hand experience with fighting one.
None of the core party members would participate since there wasn¡¯t much need to and they¡¯ll only show themselves when it¡¯s time to link up as the lifeline. That and also if things go south. That way, they don¡¯t have to show more than they need to in case anyone was watching.
While she was organising this raid in the middle of the night, Shiro had Nan Tian keep an eye on the Argus Network to make sure that all of the satellites were in position and ready to be used. With how big this world was now; it was not surprising that the satellites were taking a while to cover the entire world.
However, while waiting for the satellites to be ready, Shiro had to admit that looking at the satellite footage of the world right now was quite shocking.
Many cities were now destroyed with frozen tundras and burning mountains appearing more often. Large creatures could be seen flying around, many being dragons and some even swimming in the sea.
She spotted some of the old cities that she had visited before and their locations had beenpletely shifted when the new age started. Newnd masses brute forced their way between cities, splitting the earth and tearing apart the validity of all maps created previously.
In addition to this, they could see giant swarms of monsters travelling in a pack. From the satellite footage, it looked like a ck mass moving until further inspection, revealing them to be giant wolves that destroyed anything they came across. Despite only being averaged around level 300, Shiro watched as theypletely devoured a level 500 in a few moments due to their numbers and ferocity in not backing off no matter how many died.
What¡¯s scary was after consuming the monster, the wolves started to split. Those that ate the most had a higher chance of splitting in two, creating another wolf that joined the pack.
Once they had finished splitting, the group would continue, looking for the next prey. All of the casualties that they suffered in the initial hunt against the level 500 had been replenished and they actually had more wolves than they began with. If this is left unchecked, they could be a serious problem.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro had some of the satellites monitor the movement of the wolves to make sure they don¡¯t get out of hand while splitting. If they do, she¡¯ll forcefully cut down their numbers.
"Seems like the mech pilots are ready for the raid on the zone." Nan Tian said as he sent a holographic screen towards Shiro.
"Mn alright. I¡¯ll gomand them through the holograms." Shiro nodded.
For this raid, they had mechs with different weapons such as rail cannons, snipers, assault rifles and shotguns. They¡¯re split into groups where it¡¯ll bnce out theposition.
In terms of meleebat, all of them had swords but only Glen¡¯s mech was hard focused on the meleebat.
###
Materialising a hologram in the mech hanger, she could see the specialised pilots giving the standard pilots a short speech about their strategies.
Seeing her hologram, all of them saluted towards her.
"Mn, seems like everyone¡¯s ready." Shiro smiled as Shiina nodded her head.
"Good. I¡¯ll be splitting my holograms in each of your mechs andmand you from the backline. I¡¯m sure that with the specialised units, there¡¯s no need for the tier 6¡¯s to step into the battle." Shiro chuckled.
"We won¡¯t disappoint you." Akhess promised as Shiro chuckled.
"I hope not. But enough with the chit chat, everyone suit up and prepare for deployment. I want this zone captured in 30 minutes or less. If it takes too long, it¡¯ll draw too much attention to us." Shiro ordered as each of the pilots gave her one final salute before running towards their mechs.
Dismissing her current avatar, Shiro split her attention to all of the mechs joining this assault. Tiny versions of her appeared in the cockpit as she activated all of theunch protocols of the mechs, readying them for deployment.
"Requesting confirmation of deployment from all mech pilots." Shiro said as she tapped the table.
Suddenly, nanobots surged in the hangar, creating an archway that housed a portal.
Receiving confirmation from everyone, Shiro nodded her head.
Detaching the mechs from their repair stations, she watched as Shiina took the lead and stepped through the portal.
###
Just as we stepped through the portal, we were surrounded by totems that camouge our arrival. Our mana signals and even the bright portal behind us would be hidden in in sight.
Looking at the hologram of her highness sitting down with her legs crossed, I couldn¡¯t help but feel pressured to perform to the best of my abilities.
"Shiina, you and Glen will take the lead with your own squad. I¡¯llmand the others to back you up. Maria is also in your squad so you don¡¯t have too worry too much when ites to support."
Hearing this, I nodded and gestured towards Glen.
Activating our camouges, I took the lead in this assault.
"How much damage is allowed?" I asked since I wasn¡¯t sure if we wanted to keep the castle intact or not.
"As much as you want. However, do remember that there are innocents that we might be able to recruit. Don¡¯t traumatise them too much since it¡¯ll be harder to get them on our side if we do."
"Understood. Requesting permission for condensing the mech unit for more controlled attacks."
"Permission granted."
Hearing this, I reached up and flicked a few switches before sticking my hands into the two handles that appeared in front of me.
Jumping up in the air to make this process a little easier, I watched as the mech armour shrink down and wrap around my body like a suit rather than a giant robot that Imanded. It wasn¡¯t skin tight since it was still three times my size but it was much smaller than before.
Through the lenses of the helmet, the controls were now only visible to me much like the system.
Swiping my hand, I activated the scan function the moment I saw the castle in the distance.
Letting out a pulse of energy, the castle walls became transparent and all of the people inside now had an orange glow around them.
"I have marked down the priority targets for you. Once the barrier drops, take them out with the sniper." Her highness said as a countdown appeared in front of me.
Understanding that this was how long it was until the barrier drops, I summoned the sniper.
"Maria, give me a buff. Sniper unit, I have transferred the location of the priority targets to you. Take them out in 10 seconds." I called out.
Laying down on the hill opposite the castle, I aimed towards the location of the tier 6.
Mana surged from the suit towards the weapon.
While it was not my own mana, it was strangely adaptive. If my mana transformed into a cold spell, the mana from the suit would copy and be almost indistinguishable from my own mana.
Even though my level was not high, I could still take out powerful beings thanks to this suit.
Locking down on the target, magic circles appeared along the barrel.
Watching the countdown, my finger hovered over the trigger.
Once the countdown reached one, I watched as countless motes of light appeared in the sky along with a trail of bullets that I recognised from the artillery.
Trusting in the timing, I pulled the trigger.
*BANG!!!!!!
The recoil of the gun sent me stumbling back a little but I managed to stabilise myself in time to watch the destruction happen.
Several pirs of light descended from the stars above, creating cracks in the barrier as the artillery delt the final blow and shattered the barrier just as the bullets closed in.
Pushing past the barrier without being hindered, I watched as several high priority targets were shredded to pieces thanks to the bullets.
The moment the bullet entered their body, it exploded into countless spears and wedged them in the centre of their room. Even if they barely managed to survive, they weren¡¯t far off being killed.
As for the tier 6 that I aimed for, the bullet was extra special.
He managed to erect a barrier but it was no use. Uponing into contact with the barrier, it drained all of the mana used and empowered itself.
I watched as it embedded itself deep into his throat, releasing a swarm of nanobots inside him.
If he used mana, he would only cause more to spawn. The only way for him to get rid of them would be to forcefully rip them out but at this point, it was toote.
"Targets are down." I said as her highness nodded her head.
"Breach and secure, I¡¯ll be sending a tier 6 over to be the new lifeline."
ncing up, I could see the crest fade away, signifying the lifeline being killed.
Chapter 1062 Facing Abnormality
Chapter 1062 Facing Abnormality
*BANG!!!!
Crashing through the castle gates, Glen summoned two swords and cleaved towards the guards that blocked their path.
Shoving them aside, securing the castle itself wasn¡¯t too hard since most of the priority targets have been killed by the snipers. All that¡¯s left is to take care of the ones that were fleeing the scene.
While he was leading a group of mechs to deal with them, a portal opened in front of the castle.
Stepping through, Lisandra nced up at the castle.
Seeing the burn marks with clean holes in the walls, she couldn¡¯t help but pity the high priority targets. They died without even being able to put up a fight.
If it was her, she would have wanted at least tond a hit before dying.
Shaking her head, she was about to enter when a flower pattern started to emerge above their current location.
Feeling the mana gather towards the centre, she widened her eyes.
"Mum, there¡¯s a slight change in the situation." Lisandra said as she activated her earpiece.
"I know. I¡¯m looking at it right now. From the runes, it seems like it¡¯s arge scale Throne World. Whoever set this up is nning to grab everyone here and drag them somewhere." Shiro replied as she narrowed her eyes.
Biting her lip, she remembered what Nan Tian had told her earlier. How she should trust in their capabilities more and not put everything on her own shoulders.
Grabbing Nan Tian¡¯s sleeve, she tightened her grip.
"Lisandra, I trust that you can deal with it. There¡¯s not much that is known about this Queen so you¡¯ll need to be careful. I¡¯ve already sent a notice to Keiko and she¡¯s on the way there for support. With the two of you, killing a tier 6 Queen should be easy." Shiro said as Lisandra couldn¡¯t help but pause for a moment.
She knew that Shiro worried a lot when ites to their safety and if possible, she would take care of all the unknown variables before sending them to do anything. The fact that she is voluntarily sending her to fight the Queen means that she has put a lot of trust in her capabilities. Feeling warm inside, Lisandra couldn¡¯t suppress her smile.
"Mn, I¡¯ll be careful."
Ending the call, Lisandra could feel energy course through her body as this was a task given to her. Which meant that her power was boosted.
Unfurling her wings behind her, she could see that golden patterns with runes within them started to spread themselves out while the corruption seemed to be pushed back. Previously, her wings were half white half ck but now it was leaning towards the light side.
"Attention all mech pilots. This is Lisandra and I¡¯ll be taking overmand for this operation for now. We¡¯re going to be engaging against a Queen soon. All melee Units prepare yourself. Long ranged casters, I want you to be at the castle in the next 30 seconds or else you¡¯ll be left out." Lisandramanded as she flew into the sky. Hovering above the castle, she summoned two long swords andbined them into a greatsword.
Stabbing down, a pulse of energy spread out as all of the pilots received a buff thanks to one of her skills.
For the next hour, they¡¯ll experience a 200% boost to all stats. Unfortunately, this was a skill that only worked with those lower than tier 5.
[Ray of Hope]
As the Divine Judgement Archangel, you will be a ray of hope for the soldiers on the battlefield.
Once per day, you can activate this skill and those below tier 5 will receive the following benefits.
200% boost to all stats
100% light elemental damage to all attacks
80% fire elemental damage to all attacks
50% chance for any attack to double up and strike again
(This skill will affect anyone you deem as an ally. Can buff up to 10,000 allies.)
With this skill activated, everyone within the mechs felt invigorated as the mechs reacted to this change and started to adapt.
Each of the standard mechs was now decorated with white armour that had golden markings, making them look like pdins under Lisandra¡¯smand.
It didn¡¯t take long for the casters to arrive, especially after receiving her buff. While it may not improve the power of their mechs tremendously, it meant that the pilots could withstand more bacsh from the controls, allowing them to improve their effectiveness with the mechs.
Once the casters arrived, the flower pattern in the sky was now closing in on them.
Suddenly, even the artillery units in the distance were teleported in.
Raising an eyebrow, Lisandra realised that everyone who participated was now ¡¯trapped¡¯ beneath the flower.
"Dome formation! Artillery in the centre, casters in behind the tanks!" Shiinamanded as everyone got into position immediately.
Seeing their response time, Lisandra nodded in satisfaction.
"Set all skills on ready to fire. Depending on the situation, be ready to attack on mymand." Lisandra ordered as the artillery bunkered down.
Spikes shot out from their backs, locked them to their spot as giant rail cannons appeared on their shoulders.
With the tank units holding giant shields that protected them from all sides, they looked like a hedgehog that had rail guns instead of quills.
Watching their surroundings distort, light started to fade as they were in total darkness. They couldn¡¯t even see the people next to them even though they were side by side.
"Do not panic." Lisandra called out as she had been trained for a situation like this by Shiro. If your sight has been robbed, empower the other senses. Map out the area using mana.
Like a radar, mana pulsed out from Lisandra as she realised they had been surrounded on all sides. Several tier 6 spells were aimed towards them as she spotted a few tier 6 beings along with what seems to be a woman. Her features were blurred since Lisandra hadn¡¯t mastered this technique yet but there was no reason to remember someone who was about to die.
Before the Queen could say anything, Lisandra raised her de and swiped horizontally.
Swords made from light formed around her and shot out.
*BANG!!!
Crashing into some of the spells and halting them temporarily, Lisandra took a deep breath.
"Unload everything you have! Tanks raise your defence and don¡¯t let anything past!"
Upon hearing hermand, mana red from each of the mechs as illusionary castle walls appeared around them due to the innate skills of the shields. Rail guns fired, splitting into several beams and tearing apart anything it touched.
As for Glen, he charged forth with his mech. Thanks to Shiro¡¯s training, he was able to get a little glimpse into the realm of Boundary but it was for a brief moment. But this brief moment was all that he needed to cause chaos in their ranks. Like a blender, he shredded through their backline thanks to the speed boost he got from the Takemikazuchi Technique, letting him bypass their front line.
Taking a step back in surprise, the Queen looked at everything in shock since this had never happened before. One of her main skills was that she could rob someone of their senses and drag them into her throne world. She was one of the ¡¯lesser¡¯ Queens but she was still able to hold her own or at least escape thanks to this. But looking at the current situation, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if her powers were broken.
None of them seemed affected and the ones that are were firing blindly. Despite them firing blindly, their weapons were so powerful that no one could stand up to them.
Suddenly, a flicker of light appeared beside her as Lisandra¡¯s sword cleaved towards her neck.
*PING!!!
Blocking the strike with a dagger, the Queen took a few steps back but Lisandra pressed forth.
Grabbing her wrist, Lisandra pulled the Queen slower to her and summoned a myriad of des.
"You should have left immediately rather than fight us."
Elbowing the Queen in the jaw, Lisandra¡¯s sword pierced her body and shredded her in half. However, just as this happened, the body seemed to fade away to smoke.
Realising it was probably an escape skill, Lisandra clicked her tongue.
"Tch..." Wanting to chase, her earpiece lit up.
"Don¡¯t worry, your Aunt¡¯s got you covered." Keomi chuckled as Lisandra shrugged and gave up the chase.
If Keiko says she¡¯s got it covered, Lisandra knew that she wouldn¡¯t need to worry about the Queen escaping anymore.
###
"Ha... ha... ha...." Panting heavily, the Queen was dashing away from the area while keeping her Throne World activated in order to dy them.
Blood dripped from her stomach as there was a charred stab wound that was left by Lisandra¡¯s sword.
"What the hell." She muttered with a frown. Despite the two of them being tier 6, she knew that the angel woman far outssed her. Just that single exchange told her that the stat disparity was enough for that woman to just brute force a victory without any skill.
¡¯Too abnormal.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Suddenly, a sh of light appeared.
"!!!"
Widening her eyes, the Queen watched as a dagger pierced her throat before ck runes slithered across her skin like corruption.
"First assassination against a Queen, my lucky day." Keiko smiled as the ck runes started to melt the Queen¡¯s body.
With a single flick of her dagger, the head and body was separated in one swift motion.
Chapter 1063 Asharia Patrol
Chapter 1063 Asharia Patrol
Watching the corpse of the Queen copse in front of her, Keiko chuckled before flicking the blood off her knife.
"Shiro, the job¡¯s done. Surprisingly, I even got a title from that." Keiko smiled.
"Oh? What title did you get?" Shiro asked curiously since she never got a title for killing Queens.
"I got something called Queen yer. Increased damage and stats when trying to assassinate a Queen. Apparently, I got it since I killed a Queen despite not being one myself." Keiko raised an eyebrow.
Hearing this, Shiro paused for a moment before remembering that Nan Tian didn¡¯t get the final hit for killing the other Queen.
¡¯Ahh... what a waste. If he managed to get a title like that, it¡¯d be extremely helpful.¡¯ Shiro mused to herself as she shook her head.
"Come back to the city for now. Lisandra should have the zone imed in a few moments."
Nodding her head, Keiko ended the call before ncing back at the Queen¡¯s body which was now disintegrating to ash.
###
Without any hindrances, the zone was imed. Unfortunately, there were no bonuses that came with this zone which caused Shiro to understand that not just any tier 6 could invoke that kind of effect.
Her guess was that only Demi Gods or those close to this realm could as both Iziuel and Nimue fit the requirement.
ncing up into the sky, Shiro could see three circles that had her crest on full disy.
Now that she had imed three of the zones, there was definitely a big target on her back.
However, she didn¡¯t mind. After all, from what she could tell, most of the Queens here couldn¡¯t even hold a candle to Keiko never mind Lisandra. If they got rid of the cannon fodder now, they wouldn¡¯t need to worry about getting stabbed in the back while fighting someone strong like Thiria or Arnea.
Shiro still wasn¡¯t too sure about where Syradil stood in yet since she seemed to be a battle junkie like her. Last time, they had fought against one another before teaming up to push back Arnea. During that battle, Shiro understood that Syradil didn¡¯t seem to care too much about the rewards and was just there for a good time. Depending on what happens, she might even be able to rope her over as an ally rather than an enemy.
The only problem with this is, Syradil is the one who tortured the previous Spirit Queen to death. In front of Estre no less.
She knew that the moment Estre came face to face with the Dragon Empress, a fight would most likely break out.
¡¯I¡¯ll need to talk to Estre before I deal with Syradil. Even if I want her as an ally, I need to make sure Estre is fine with it first.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself. Plus, she wasn¡¯t sure what the reception of the spirit race would be if they knew she allied herself with the one who tortured theirst Queen.
If one thought about it, the downfall of the spirit race before Shiro came around was a direct result of Syradil¡¯s actions. If it wasn¡¯t for her, perhaps the Spirit race would be doing ok and Shiro wouldn¡¯t have gotten the Queen title.
Shaking her head, Shiro decided to visit Estre.
###
While that was happening, Kanae was currently patrolling the city.
Jumping up andunching off a few buildings, shended on the roof of a shop and sat down.
Swinging her legs back and forth, she looked at the crests that decorated the horizon.
*Sigh...
"Shiro-nee¡¯s doing fun stuff again." She muttered while ncing down at her hands.
She figured that after being stuck in a dungeon and being somewhat powerful meant that she could help Shiro out more often but right now she was just patrolling the city every day.
It wasn¡¯t that she disliked it but rather she didn¡¯t feel like she was contributing much.
Reaching into her inventory, she pulled out two rusted katana¡¯s that were on the verge of breaking. While she couldn¡¯t see the durability, she figured that it was something simr to 2/100.
These were the katana¡¯s that Shiro had gifted her when they parted ways in New York.
The swords were named Crimson Devourers and they could be levelled up from level 5 all the way to 50. During her time in the dungeon, it was this weapon that stayed by her side and kept her going.
A part of her liked to imagine that Shiro was next to her, protecting her from harm. Even when she surpassed level 50, she still kept these weapons in her inventory as a reminder of what helped her.
She had tried to get these fixed and upgraded with Helion¡¯s help but it was a little difficult. Not only were they upgraded already with nanobots, but it was also cursed to lose most of its abilities.
Shaking her head, she put them back in her inventory.
Standing up, she looked at the katanas that she was using right now. It was something that Helion had made for her and she had to admit, they were sharp. But they didn¡¯t hold the same meanings for her.
"Hais... I should go back to patrol." Kanae muttered as she prepared to jump back down.
However, before she did, she noticed a small flicker of light in one of the alleys.
Raising her eyebrow, she held her katana on her waist and skipped over the rooftops.
Securing herself to the wall, she nced down and saw that it was three people trying to set up a portal.
There were glowing relics in their hands and it seems like their only purpose was to set down am anchor point of sorts.
"That¡¯s not eptable." Kanae muttered as she narrowed her eyes.
Since it¡¯ste into the night, her red aura was extremely eye catching as she jumped down.
"Mn?" Noticing a shadow erging beneath them, one of the men looked up and caught a glimpse of Kanae.
Before he could even react, Kanae grabbed his head and mmed it against the floor.
"This is Asharia Patrol, state what you are doing before I run out of mercy." Kanae warned, taking a low stance with one hand on her katana handle.
Shocked at her sudden appearance, one of the men charged towards her as a barrier appeared around the final person who was responsible for the portal.
"I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re desperate to resort to this. Even though Shiro-nee gave you a home like this, you still chose to sabotage her. What did the Queens offer for you to do this? What would make you destroy a ce like this." Kanae asked, easily side stepping his charge and hit him on the back of the head, forcing him to fall forward.
"Heh you wouldn¡¯t get it. Colour of the soul? Bullshit. All I know is that she killed my wife and ¡¯gracefully¡¯ allowed me to live here. I don¡¯t know how much I can do but I know the other Queen would be able to do more." The man grinned as he tore his shirt apart, revealing a rune.
*Sigh...
"Unless your wife hadmitted a serious sin, Shiro-nee would have allowed them to enter the city. She is not one without mercy. If she was indeed killed then sorry, it meant that Shiro-nee couldn¡¯t take any risks just like how I can¡¯t take risks with you lot. May you rest in peace." Kanae sighed as she closed her eyes.
Tightening her grip on the katana, she drew her de.
In a single breath, there were now three corpses around her feet. The barrier that he had prepared was erased thanks to the properties of the sword in her hands.
Walking over to the spot where they tried to leave a ¡¯tracker¡¯ of sorts, she stabbed her sword down and destroyed the formation.
"This is Kanae from patrol. Is there anyone listening inmand?" Kanae said as she pulled out an ear piece.
"This ismand, Nan Tian speaking. Is there something wrong?" Nan Tian said as Shiro had just left a moment ago.
"I found some suspicious individuals that were trying to set up a tracker of sorts. Not sure which Queen they made a deal with but Shiro-nee might want to look at this."
"Mn, I just got their signals on the radar. They seem to have something masking their aura but it¡¯s shortsting. Alright, I¡¯ll pass the message onto Shiro once she returns. You should go rest for now, I¡¯ll have more drones patrol around tonight." Nan Tian smiled as Kanae nodded her head.
Looking back at the corpses, she watched as drones appeared at her location and cleaned up everything before scanning the half finished formation.
"How did they evene in contact with the Queen..."
###
"Heh~ so even after all my prep the camouge onlysted a short while. I guess it is also unlucky that they ran into patrol. Hmm... as the Queen of Trickery, it leaves a bit of a sour taste." Aisha giggled.
She was one of the first Queens that Shiro had met in the new age and one where they fought to a tie.
Discarding the three dolls in her hand, she nced over at her shelf that was filled with dolls.
"Who should I use next." She muttered with a small smile.
Chapter 1064 Jester
Chapter 1064 Jester
Walking towards Estre¡¯s room, Shiro received a call from Nan Tian.
"Sup? Did something happen?" Shiro asked. She had left Nan Tian behind since she figured that this talk should take less than 10 minutes. She didn¡¯t expect to get a call not too long after she left the room.
"Kanae¡¯s found something quite serious but she¡¯s taken care of them now. Three people tried to open a portal or rather, mark down our location within the city. The fact that they managed to get past all of our security is surprising already but it seems like they¡¯ve made a contract with another Queen. It seems like our city¡¯s location has beenpromised." Nan Tian reported as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Wait, someone managed to get through the security?... Hmm... this is a concern. I should have filtered them out though... Increase our filtering process. Make it a little harder to get citizenship here so that they have to prove they¡¯re not working for another Queen." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded.
"No contract still?"
"Nope."
"Alright, I¡¯ll get it done by sunrise." Nan Tian smiled.
"You don¡¯t have to, you know? You can deal with it when you wake up." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"It¡¯s fine, I¡¯m waiting for you anyways. I¡¯ll just deal with it now."
"If you insist."
Talking for a little longer, Shiro ended the call.
Arriving in front of Estre¡¯s door, Shiro wanted to knock on it when she realised something important.
¡¯Right now it¡¯s 3 am in the morning. There¡¯s a high chance that she¡¯ll be sleeping. Am I really going to talk to her about the person that tortured her Queen in front of her?¡¯
Thinking about this, Shiro furrowed her brows and turned around.
¡¯Yeah let¡¯s wait until tomorrow mor-¡¯
"Shiro? Did you need me for something?" Estre opened her door and nced out. She had sensed Shiro waiting out her door so she was wondering what Shiro was doing.
"Ah, Estre, I thought you were sleeping." Shiro raised an eyebrow as she acted as though she hadn¡¯t been loitering here for a moment.
"Well I was checking over a few things since you hosted a raid tonight. Want toe in?" Estre asked as Shiro contemted for a moment before nodding her head.
"Sure." Entering the room, Shiro nced around and could see that Estre was setting up for a new spell.
"What were you thinking of making?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Oh this? I was thinking of making a banishment type spell. Seal them away in the void and force them in a contract that stops them from leaving." Estre said as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"That sounds quite difficult. Trying to seal someone stronger than you in another dimension is hard. And those weaker than you can just be killed." Shiro said as not many bother with banishment spells due to this reason.
Plus, the spell also has a high chance of failing on those with roughly the same strength as you.
"I know hence why I¡¯m nning something that can solve this. I focus on space magic so there are loopholes that can be worked around. Thergest problem with Banishment spells is that the spell has to work two jobs at once. Forcing them in a different dimension and sealing them away. For me, with my proficiency in space magic, that first step is easy so I don¡¯t need to worry. I can direct most of the magic to sealing them instead." Estre exined as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"I can help you with that. Some of the runes that I know are perfect for restrain and sealing. However, before that, I want to talk to you about something first." Shiro said as she took a deep breath.
"Mn? Sure, do you want a seat?" Estre offered as Shiro nodded her head.
"So you know that the Dragon Queen or rather, the Dragon Empress tortured the previous Queen right?" Shiro said as Estre furrowed her brows and nodded her head.
"Yes I do, How can I not know when it was performed in front of me." Estre replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"For you see, Syradil, the Dragon Empress seems to be... carefree? Her ambitions are elsewhere for now and I¡¯ll be honest, having her as an ally would be helpful considering what I have seen thus far. During the first event, she didn¡¯t have much of a care for the rewards but only wanted to fight." Shiro said as Estre stayed silent.
"I¡¯m not saying we have to make her an ally since we might be enemies in the future. But her help would be appreciated. I¡¯m leaving the final decision to you since this is something that is rted to you. If you don¡¯t want to be her ally then we won¡¯t."
Hearing this, Estre leaned back and closed her eyes.
"Shiro. While I may have my grudges against the Dragon Empress for torturing and killing the previous Queen in front of me, I can open my eyes and see what¡¯s important. My grudges are small in the grand scheme of things. If allying with the one who killed the previous Queen can keep you safe, reduce the danger that you face, I¡¯m more than happy to make an alliance with her." Estre said as she looked at Shiro dead in the eyes.
"My loyalty is towards you. While the past is important, I¡¯d rather protect the one that¡¯s living and breathing in front of me."
"I see... Alright. Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s not like we¡¯re begging for an alliance with her. We¡¯ll see how things go from here." Shiro smiled as she stood up.
Walking over to the table, Shiro tapped the surface and left a book.
"This book should contain all the runes that you may need. Their descriptions and how to use them are written inside. Have a good night¡¯s rest." Shiro said as she left the room.
Looking at the book, Estre took a deep breath and stood up and walked to the window.
"I¡¯m sorry... But my priorities are Shiro..." She muttered while looking at the crest of the Dragon Empress in the distance.
Clenching her fists, she closed her eyes and remembered the scene that had haunted her. It was the reason she left the spirit council in the first ce. Her inability to protect the Queen even though she was there.
ncing back at the table, she wanted to do some more work but shook her head.
###
Standing outside the door, Shiro furrowed her brows before walking towards themand centre.
Calling Nan Tian, Shiro looked towards the city through the window.
"So fast. I suppose you finished talking with Estre." Nan Tian raised an eyebrow as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn I did. We¡¯ll talk to Syradil in the future but not yet. For now, I want you to get all of the information and footage from the incident with the three traitors. Send their corpses to me as well, I¡¯ll talk to their souls. There should be some traces left." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Alright. I¡¯ll get everything prepared. Do you want the corpses in themand room or elsewhere?"
"Hmm... I¡¯ll make a new room next to themand room. Send everything there."
"Got it."
Ending the call, Shiro reached into her inventory and wanted to get a cup of juice.
However, seeing that she ran out, she clicked her tongue.
"Annoying." She muttered.
Snapping her finger, she opened a portal to the private fridge in the food hall that was filled with juice.
It was something she prepared just in case she ever ran out.
Resupplying her inventory with juice, she closed the portal.
Finishing the cup in a few short moments, she threw the cup into her inventory.
"Time to get to work I suppose." She sighed.
###
Entering the new room that she had created, Shiro could see Nan Tian waiting by the side with a bunch of documents.
"I¡¯ve grabbed all of the documents rted to what they¡¯ve been up to during their entire stay in Asharia. Their jobs, habits and so on." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Hopefully we won¡¯t need to check through all of that."
Taking a step forward, green fire erupted around her as a ck dress wrapped around her body.
Activating her True Spirit Nature, she reached out towards the three corpses.
A green glow appeared in her eyes as she could see faint trails of their souls.
Grabbing the empty air, three chains appeared.
"Perfect, the connection is still there." Shiro smiled as she dragged the chain.
Suddenly, three portals appeared as three figures could be seen with chains around their necks.
Grabbing the one in the middle, a rune appeared on the back of Shiro¡¯s hand as she scanned for the information she needed.
*BANG!!!
Popping the soul like a balloon, a jester could be seen with a smile.
"Surprise~ It¡¯s me, your old friend. They¡¯ve already signed a contract with me so as their contractor, I have to ensure their privacy. Bye~" The jester waved in an exaggerated motion before disappearing.
Before the final soul could explode, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Souls are my domain, clown." mming her hand down, the contract appeared on his chest as the runes were extinguished immediately.
Grabbing his head, Shiro scanned his soul for all of the information she wanted.
Chapter 1065 Second Encounter With Aisha
Chapter 1065 Second Encounter With Aisha
Reading his soul, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brows. She didn¡¯t know how the trickster Queen did it, but she managed to find a way to the city. No clues could be found in the person¡¯s memories except for the fact that she approached them in the form of a young girl that would change her appearance all the time.
Scanning through her own memories, she wanted to see if the appearance matched up to any of the documents but nothing came up.
¡¯How did she even evade my detection...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a frown since this wasn¡¯t exactly the best news.
Not only has a Queen infiltrated the city but she also didn¡¯t know how she did it.
Trying to drag out more information from the soul, she was disappointed to find out that this was everything he knew.
"Seems like he was just being exploited for his revenge and anger. He had grudges against me for killing someone he was close with." She muttered, dropped the corpses and dusted her hand.
Watching the soul get dragged away, she nced towards Nan Tian.
"We¡¯re tightening up security. Have all of the cameras check the identity of everyone they see. The moment anyone suspicious appears, I want you to send me a report on their movements during that day and send a few scouts to trail them. I¡¯m not sure how well they¡¯ll do considering the fact that our enemy is a Queen. So make sure you keep up to date with all the information the scouts ry. Information is key when ites to dealing with someone like her." Shiro ordered.
"Understood. I will report everything I see." Nan Tian nodded.
"Good. Hais... such a tiring night. I need a good night¡¯s rest after all of this." Shiro yawned lightly.
Discussing some of their ns while making their way back to their room, Shiro wondered about what she should be doing tomorrow.
Thiria was still taking over zones but she wasn¡¯t the main danger anymore. As much as she would like to go out and crush Thiria¡¯s army, she needed to sort out the rat inside her city first. If she didn¡¯t take care of this, it would be a nuisance.
While she might be out fighting, the city would be in danger. She trusts that the people here can kill Aisha considering their power but the problem would be casualties.
If she stays behind, she can guarantee that no one would be killed.
¡¯I need to track down all of these proxies that Aisha set in the city. She must have a way to be able to camouge them if I can¡¯t find it.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Shaking her head, she rested for the night.
###
The first thing that she did the next morning was to set the order for everyone to defend the zones without venturing out for now. They¡¯ll stay their ground until Aisha¡¯s situation has been sorted. Since she didn¡¯t want to raise any suspicion, she made things seem like they¡¯re normal.
The soldiers were preparing for the next battle, only a few tier 6¡¯s remain in the city and her own signature was camouged so that she can move around undetected.
"Do you need any help or are you going to do this alone?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro smiled.
"I can do this alone, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m not fighting, just tracking for now. I want to track down all the proxies and destroy them before they do some annoying sh*t in my city." Shiro smiled before teleporting away.
Understanding that she¡¯ll be back every 10 minutes or so, Nan Tian chuckled and started his own tasks that were given to him by Shiro.
###
Stretching her body lightly, Shiro sat down on the top of the main tower. Looking down at the city and all of the sections that branched off the main tform, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Let¡¯s see..." She muttered as tier 6 magic circles appeared around her.
Creating a control panel of sorts, she started to draw some runes down.
Most of the runes were used for tracking and it followed the signature that was shown yesterday when Aisha tried to kill her puppets.
Closing her eyes, faint golden tethers started to stretch through the city, but they were cut off before they could get far.
Seeing this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"There¡¯s no connection?" She muttered. It was as though that signal just ceased to exist. Except for that one moment where she interfered, this signal was no longer here.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro tried a few more times but they all had the same result.
Leaning back for a moment, she had another idea.
ck mist wrapped around her body as she entered her True Spirit Nature. Adjusting some of the runes that she had, she decided to track her soul instead. Compared to mana that could be disguised at will, disguising the soul was much harder.
Opening her eyes, a soft green glow could be seen as a tether was struggling to form.
However,pared to the tether that tried to track the mana, this one was holding on strong.
Standing up, Shiro started to pursue where this tether was going.
###
Fiddling around with one of her dolls, Aisha wanted to prepare for the next assault when she felt a strange tug. A green aura started to appear on her dolls and slowly made their way towards her.
Widening her eyes, she realised what was happening.
"If you can¡¯t find the mana, find the soul huh? This one is rather diverse in her proficiencies." Aisha muttered with a forced smile.
With a snapping of fingers, the dolls started to break one after another and the green tether was cut off for now.
However, from their ashes, aura started to converge once more.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Aisha thought about what she needed to do.
Like a snake, the tether slowly moved towards her beforeshing out.
She tried to dodge, but dodging was out of the question since it was connected to her soul. The moment the connection was formed, she felt a pair of cold eyes staring at her as a tier 6 magic circle appeared, creating an avatar.
"Well well well, this is certainly a surprise. It has been quite a few months since Ist saw you. Last time you ruined the city I was about to take over and forced a tie even though I was weakened." Aisha forced a smile as Shiro only narrowed her eyes at Aisha.
Without saying anything, she pulled her hand back and prepared to attack when Aisha jumped back and activated a tier 6 magic circle.
"I didn¡¯t want to do this but as the Queen of Trickery, this should be easy for me. I can only say I¡¯ll see you next time. Ciao!" Aisha grinned as she waved her hand. Suddenly, ck runes appeared around her body as she turned to ash. The connection Shiro had with her soul was forcefully severed as there was now no way to track her.
"What the hell...." Shiro muttered with a frown since she didn¡¯t think Aisha would detonate her soul like that. Doing so would mean she gives up on the chance of ever reincarnating. Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked at all the dolls that had contracts lined up by the side. All of them were now contractless but they were still around. Seeing that they¡¯re retaining their powers despite theck of a contract, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
¡¯She¡¯s still alive but everything linked to her soul has been severed.¡¯
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Shiro sighed and dismissed her avatar. Unfortunately it seemed like catching the one known was the Queen of Trickery was not going to be easy.
###
Panting heavily, Aisha coughed up a mouthful of blood in her own room within her city. Laying on the bed, she was visibly worn out from her stunt.
"I didn¡¯t think I would actually need this skill considering the side effects. But, other skills wouldn¡¯t let me get her off my trail." Aisha grinned as this was a skill that she had obtained when she became a tier 6.
[Faux Death]
A skill that ¡¯kills you¡¯ and wipes out all tracking linked to you. It allows you to ¡¯respawn¡¯ at a predesignated spot and while you retain your privileges as a Queen, it is decreased by 5%. This skill will even wipe out tracking used by the gods.
The cooldown of this skill was short for its effects but the cost is great. After 10 uses of this, she would only be at 50% of her privileges and once that happens, she was good as gone from this race.
¡¯I can¡¯t afford to lose more of this by ying with fire.¡¯ She thought to herself since she didn¡¯t think Shiro would have so many ways of tracking her. Not only that, but the range of her tracking was also a little crazy. Thankfully, she was in a safe location away from her city otherwise things might get bad for her.
Shaking her head, she decided to set her eyes on other Queens for now.
Chapter 1066 Misus Agency
Chapter 1066 Misu''s Agency
Making her way back to themand centre, she saw Nan Tian with a frown on his face.
"What happened?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian nced back.
"Honestly, it¡¯ll be easier if you saw it yourself." He sighed.
Gesturing towards the screen, he moved aside so that she could see everything.
When she saw what was disyed on the screen, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but frown since she understood why Nan Tian was concerned.
Thiria had just taken over all of the main zones except for the one owned by the Dragon Empress. Looking at her army from the cameras, she could tell that quite a few of them were tier 6 monsters.
¡¯Wait... how many tier 6¡¯s does she have?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she understood something quite shocking. As the beast Queen, she has control over most of the monsters roaming around. While her authority is broad and cannot defeat someone like Dragon Empress when ites to dragons, she has ess to a myriad of tier 6¡¯s thanks to the new age bringing more dangerous monsters into this world.
With that being the case, it¡¯s only natural that her army would be constructed of only tier 6¡¯s rather than weaker monsters.
Tapping her finger across the table surface, Shiro took a deep breath and sat down.
"There¡¯s three days left of this event and it seems like Thiria is going all out in securing zones now. She¡¯s not afraid of fighting anyone since only the Dragon Empress poses a risk but she¡¯s not moving from her zone. As long as Thiria doesn¡¯t move against her, she¡¯s safe." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Yes but at the same time, she¡¯s making herself a target for everyone else."
"I think that¡¯s what she wants. When ites to tier 6, she¡¯s not losing to anyone. In a world where tier 6 monsters have bemon, do you think anyone here can outnumber how many she has got? While we may have quality over quantity, you need to remember that some naturally born tier 6 monsters are in a league of their own. We don¡¯t know what¡¯s the strongest unit that she has either." Shiro shook her head.
"However, we do have one advantage. We have an overwhelming attack force. Before the event ends, as long as weunch several raids against her zones at full strength, we¡¯ll be able to take over the points that she earns and snatch first ce."
"Would that work? If we split our forces too much we¡¯ll just get picked off one by one. That¡¯s assuming they have powerful tier 6¡¯s like us. If I have to fight a powerful tier 6 while other tier 6¡¯s are trying to kill me, I can¡¯t say that I would be able to survive." Nan Tian asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"I can deal with that easily. Even though I¡¯ve been taking the front line for most of our fights, you forget that my main skill is ranged artillery. While all of you are fighting, I have the Arguswork in space that can help out. Each of them can be a weapon and send down an orbital strike with 100% of my power without harming me. I doubt that there are any tier 6¡¯s that can survive a strike. And if they do, I¡¯ll teleport to the location and fight it personally. Error¡¯s skill is off cooldown so I can extract them if I want." Shiro smiled and created a finger gun with her hand.
"Hmm... alright. It shouldn¡¯t be too bad. When do we want tounch the attack then? If we do it too close to the clock there¡¯s no guarantee. There¡¯s also the problem of her leviathan, remember?"
"I can think of a way to deal with the leviathanter when we run into him. For now, just focus on getting everyone ready for an all out raid. We won¡¯t take anymore zones since we need all of the help we can get. If we do need numbers, we have the soldiers and I¡¯ll make somebat drones. I don¡¯t have any blueprints for them but I¡¯ll figure something outter tonight." Shiro shrugged.
"What do you want to do in the meantime then?" Nan Tian asked since Shiro didn¡¯t say what she was going to do herself.
"I think I want to pay an old acquaintance a visit." Shiro smiled, changing a camera.
ncing towards the screen, Nan Tian could see an empty crest transform into one with a woman in front of a snowke. Understanding that the crest most likely belonged to the ice Queen, Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Do you need me toe with you?" He asked since she had her time limit of 10 minutes.
"It¡¯s fine. I¡¯ll see how far I can go since I can¡¯t be relying on you forever now can I?" Shiro shook her head.
"Of course before I leave I need a little recharge." She chuckled. Moving her chair closer, she grabbed his sleeve and rxed for a moment.
Closing her eyes, she thought about the Questions she wanted to ask the Ice Queen. Since the Ice Queen seemed knowledgeable, Shiro didn¡¯t want to make her an enemy if possible. However, if the need to kill her rises, she wouldn¡¯t hesitate.
Hesitation would only lead to her being taken off guard after all.
Since she was able to win an event even with Thiria participating, she needed to be careful. There¡¯s no telling what she won since they weren¡¯t able to find out.
However, thinking about this, Shiro realised something. If they don¡¯t know, Misu might know since she was in this event.
"Actually, before I go, I¡¯m going to talk to Misu for a bit." Shiro said as she stood up.
"Alright, she¡¯s in her office right now. Instead of something to do with a clinic, she started a detective agency of sorts. She¡¯ll help you find anything you lost or look for a person. If that person is someone that died in the beginning of the new age, she¡¯ll try and find a connection back to them. So far, there hasn¡¯t been anything that required her to revive people but I assume that she¡¯ll be calling for you when the need arises." Nan Tian said as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"A detective agency?" She muttered in mild surprise since she didn¡¯t think Misu was the type to be a detective.
"Yup. You¡¯ll be surprised at how effective her methods are. Trying to detect a small undead being in an area filled with mana is rather difficult." He chuckled.
Receiving a map on her phone that showed the path to Misu¡¯s office, Shiro left themand centre after saying goodbye.
Since she could teleport, there wasn¡¯t much need to walk there but remembering that she wanted to see how long she couldst, Shiro decided to walk there instead. Plus, it was also good to see the city with her own eyes.
Disguising herself, she was d to see that everyone was happy.
But that was only on the surface. She could still remember the three that died. They had grievances towards her since she had killed their loved ones and didn¡¯t let them into the city.
Understanding that there were probably more people like that, she wondered if her methods were right. Even if the soul was the best factor to judge a person, there was still a chance that dark souls can change. Sometimes it bes dark due to wounds that they have suffered and the right person can help them.
If she tried to create a ce where only the ones with ¡¯good¡¯ souls are then that ce would eventually crumble away. By filtering them out to this extent, it¡¯s taking away the chances for people to change and she understands that there are many who are capable of that.
Even if what she¡¯s doing seems merciful to her, some may also just see it as tyranny. She¡¯s not forcing them to stay but she¡¯s also killing those she deemed ¡¯not worthy¡¯ to stay.
Scratching her hair, Shiro sighed.
"Would a third city do?" She muttered. She wasn¡¯t sure how things would work right now since she had to make sure nothing harms the city she has now. Both Asharia and the second city were in a pretty good state since no one here wants to fight so she can¡¯t allow those with too dark of a soul to enter here. Or at least until she was sure.
If she was to create a third city, it should be a decent ce to allow those with darker souls to reform themselves.
¡¯I¡¯ll think of itter. Nan Tian should have some good ideas in regards to that.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she wasn¡¯t good at dealing with people. To her, what she was doing seemed fine until she learned of what happened to the three. Of course, there¡¯s still a limit since she won¡¯t allow anyone with too dark of a soul to evene close to her city but giving people a second chance should be fine. Unless they spit it back in her face. At that point her mercy would have run out.
Arriving outside of Misu¡¯s building, Shiro looked at the name of the building and the corner of her eye started to twitch.
[Misu¡¯s fantasy 100% guarantee detective agency.]
Chapter 1067 Stamp of Approval
Chapter 1067 Stamp of Approval
".. ." Feeling speechless by the name, she decided to enter and ask questionster.
The moment she opened the door, she heard the bell ring like in restaurants.
"We have a customer! Esil! Go greet them!" Misu shouted out from upstairs.
Quickly scrambling to his feet, Shiro could see Misu¡¯s subordinate hiding his phone in his pockets before adjusting his suit.
"Wee to Misu¡¯s Fantasy 100% Guarantee Detective Agency. No matter what you lose or what you find, we¡¯ll locate it within two days." Esil dered as Shiro looked at him nkly.
"Mn?"
Realising that his tie was crooked, he quickly adjusted it and shed the best smile he could muster.
Staring at him with dead fish eyes, Shiro was about to turn and leave.
"Ahhh before you leave, why don¡¯t you try a freebie first? As the first customer you get the first service for free. We can guarantee that we¡¯llplete it perfectly." Esil said as he quickly blocked her way out.
*Sigh
Waving her finger, Shiro closed the door with mana before dismissing her disguise.
"Ah! Your highness, I apologise about that." Esil froze up in shock before bowing.
"It¡¯s fine. Care to tell me what¡¯s happening here?" Shiro asked while massaging her eyes.
"You see, we haven¡¯t gotten any customers just yet. They seem to be... frightened off by Misu¡¯s naming sense of the shop. They seem to believe it as a scam." Esil sighed as Shiro shook her head.
"I see... regardless I need to talk to Misu anyways so you can think of me as your first customer." Shiro said as Esil led her into the shop.
Coming down from the second floor, Misu was wearing stereotypical detective clothing with a pipe cigar.
Breathing in, she coughed violently and threw the cigar away.
"How may I he- Ah Shiro." Misu said as she noticed who was in the chair.
"Hi... So this is your store." Shiro said as she nced around with a difficult expression.
"Yup. You know, I was wondering about what kind of ce I wanted to make. My life as a cleric was behind me after bing a necromancer so bing a healer was out of the table. Plus, I¡¯ve already lived through that kind of life once. I wondered if I should teach necromancy but well... it¡¯s necromancy so I¡¯m not eager about teaching that. I wanted to help people so I looked around the inte and seeing as how quite a few people struggle with losing things and need help finding them, I decided to be a detective." Misu smiled happily as she took off her jacket and hung it up.
"So if anyone needs help tracking someone down, finding their lost items, they cane here andmission us to find it for them."
"And seeing as how Esil named me the first customer, I suppose business is not going well." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Well it¡¯s only been a day and a half. I¡¯ll get business soon." Misu coughed as Shiro could see the doubt in her eyes.
"I see... well regardless, take me as your first client then. I want to know some information on what the Ice Queen obtained when she won one of the events along with anything she has been involved with." Shiro asked as Misu thought about it for a moment.
"Oh that¡¯s easy. When the Ice Queen won, she obtained a weapon that heavily amplified her power with Ice along with two skills. We don¡¯t know the second skill but the first allows her to summon the embodiment of ice in a battlefield. She used this skill against Thiria and managed to push her back since the gains weren¡¯t worth the losses. We don¡¯t know the cooldown since she hasn¡¯t used it since but it would be safe to assume that she has the skill back already. Until you have something that canbat her ice, I would suggest that you avoid fighting her. At least, that¡¯s the advice I would give to other Queens." Misu shrugged as she sat down in front of Shiro.
"In terms of the things she¡¯s been involved with, there¡¯s not much. On the surface, she¡¯s pretty quiet. It just seems like she¡¯s focused on developing her cities rather than making more. I have eyes on two of her cities but no clue on where the main one is."
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"How strong is her ice? If I was to fight her using fire, how effective do you think this would be?" Shiro asked as golden fire appeared in her palm. Due to her connection with both Attie and Yin, her own mes have been empowered to their standard.
"This? Well, it¡¯s certainly powerful and could counter her quite nicely. But since there are a lot of variables that we don¡¯t know about yet, try to avoid a fight if you can. I haven¡¯t had any run ins with the Ice Queen so I can¡¯t say much when ites to her personality, quirks and so on." Misu sighed as Shiro nodded her head.
"Well this is good enough. Better than going in blind."
"I mean, if you want more I can get some information for you by tomorrow." Misu offered as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"You can?"
"Yup. Why do you think I have the 100% guarantee on the namete." Misu smirked as she gestured outside the door.
"Fair enough then. If you can get me some information by tomorrow then it would be great. What kind of information would you be able to get?" Shiro asked curiously.
"It depends but anything specific you have in mind?"
"Hmm.... How about some information on her whereabouts and her guards within the fort. If she¡¯s not there, it would be rather bad for me to show up personally since it¡¯ll make it seem like I¡¯m beneath her." Shiro said as Misu nodded her head.
"That¡¯s easily doable. Come back by sunrise and I¡¯ll have everything ready."
"Alright. Oh even though this is supposed to be a freebie, I¡¯ll leave a little tip." Shiro smiled as she left the building. Snapping her finger, a new stamp appeared next to the name.
The stamp had five stars and a Shiro seal of approval written next to it.
Seeing that the Queen of this city had just exited the new store that was built, everyone was surprised for a moment as they watched her open a portal and leave the ce.
ncing at each other, their view on this shady ce started to change.
After all, if the Queen of the city gave it her seal of her approval, especially when it¡¯s someone like Shiro, it might not be as bad as they thought.
The name might be a little weird but they can overlook that.
One by one, people started to queue up outside the building. With new customers entering each moment, Misu found herself to be rather busy.
###
Making her way back to themand centre, Shiro could see that Nan Tian was a little surprised to see her back so soon.
"Misu said that she was going to investigate the Ice Queen for me before I go visit her so that I have some downtime." Shiro exined as she sat down.
"I could tell. It¡¯s be a hot topic quite quickly." Nan Tian said as he pointed towards the video of her leaving the store and giving it her seal of approval.
"Her store does have quite a... interesting name I have to admit." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s true. But it¡¯s fine. She¡¯s enjoying herself after all." Shiro chuckled seeing the video of Misu grinning from ear to ear as she received more requests. Compared to her future self, this Misu seems much happier.
Her problem of reviving people properly will be solved once the event ends and she can enjoy herself by indulging with her hobbies.
Seeing that Misu could enjoy herself to this extent since her wish has been fulfilled, Shiro wondered if she can do the same for the others. After all, the system was tantly lying to them about their second chance. The hopes their people have for them have long extinguished and all the Queens were working towards a non existent goal.
Whatever the Ice Queen desires, whatever the Beast Queen desires, it doesn¡¯t matter since the system won¡¯t be the one to grant it. At the end of their journey, if they win this new age, all that awaits them is the cold abyss where everything is reset. She doesn¡¯t know what will happen should she get rid of this system nor does she know how she could achieve this.
But with the things that she has discovered so far, she could already understand why she got rid of it in the future.
Narrowing her eyes at her system interface, Shiro thought about the methods that might work when ites to removing the system.
¡¯Let¡¯s just hope that it doesn¡¯te down to it soon. I still need the system around for a little while.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and shook her head.
With her waiting for Misu¡¯s information, she decided to just rx for the rest of the day and prepare herself for tomorrow.
Chapter 1068 Misus Information
Chapter 1068 Misu''s Information
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro nced out of the window and saw that it was just before sunrise. Remembering that Misu told her to collect the information by sunrise, Shiro got changed and prepared to make her way over.
Since it was still early, Shiro didn¡¯t want to wake up Nan Tian just yet. While she was waiting, she nced towards Vrish¡¯ Lir and saw that there were small changes to who had conquered each zone but overall, Thiria still upied the most zones.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro could see a few monsters flying around her zones before settling back down on the battlements.
She wasn¡¯t sure what tier they are but from what she could tell so far, from their appearances, there¡¯s a good chance that they were at least tier 5.
¡¯I can probably oneshot them.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself but decided against that for now since that¡¯ll just be alerting Thiria on what happened.
Seeing that the sun was starting to rise, Shiro made her way towards MIsu¡¯s agency. ncing back towards the sleeping Nan Tian, Shiro took a deep breath and continued walking. She had already spent quite a few minutes just waiting by the side so there was no way she could finish everything before her 10 minute limit.
However, since she wanted to push herself more rather than lean on Nan Tian all the time, she kept going.
Ignoring the twisting shadows that filled her peripherals, Shiro kept her eyes forward. Blocking out the whispers in her mind, Shiro could feel a little light headed but it was better than before.
Remembering the fact that there was a chance to save Isilia, Shiro kept moving forward.
Knocking on Misu¡¯s door, she waited for a moment before the door opened, revealing Misu.
"Morning, you seem a little... pale? Are you feeling alright?" Misu asked as Shiro chuckled.
"Yes I¡¯m fine. Have you got the information?" Shiro asked with a small smile.
"Yes I have. Care for a bit of breakfast? Esil¡¯s just cooking something up right now." Misu offered as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"If it¡¯s not too much of a bother then sure."
"Esil! Can you make another portion for Shiro? I¡¯ll give her the info while we wait."
"Got it!"
Hearing a response from Esil, Misu smiled and led Shiro inside. Gesturing for her to sit down on the sofa, Misu grabbed a few documents that she hadpiled from her drawer andid them down on the desk.
"While I was unable to find out where the Ice Queen was herself, I did get the other information in regards to how many guards are in the zone and who is the lifeline."
Receiving the document, Shiro flipped through it and memorised everything. Right now, there were several tier 6¡¯s gathered within the zone, protecting it from any attacks. While the life line isn¡¯t a well known tier 6 and seems rather new, one of the Ice Queen¡¯s closest guards is protecting it from the side.
Thinking about this, Shiro figured that if she sent Attie as an ambassador, they could arrange a meeting between the two of them. Plus, it¡¯ll also show her power if they saw Attie who is a pseudo Demi God.
"Thank you. What do you think about anothermission?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Another one? Sure, depends on what it is, it might take a while though." Misu warned as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s fine. I expect it to take a while to begin with. Can you help me find out about Thiria¡¯s main forces, how many tier 6¡¯s she has and possibly where her main city is?" Shiro asked as MIsu nodded her head.
"And just to make sure, Thiria is the Beast Queen right?" Misu asked as Esil brought over two sets of an ¡¯selective¡¯ English breakfast consisting of sausages, eggs, bacon and beans, mushrooms, toast with some fried potato waffles by the side.
"Yup she is. Also I didn¡¯t think potato waffles were part of the English breakfast." Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh they¡¯re not. I just like them." Misu shrugged as she eyed the waffles with eagerness.
Seeing this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle.
Storing the information away, Shiro started to dig in.
However, during her meal, her hand paused as the beans started to seem like blood in her eyes. Blinking a few times to get rid of the hallucination, Shiro sighed and finished her meal quickly.
Once she had finished everything, she passed the te to Esil.
"Thank you, that was a great meal." She smiled as Esil nodded, taking the te back to the kitchen.
"Well I¡¯ll need to go now. I¡¯ll be making use of this information today before there are any changes. Just send me an email once you got what I asked for." Shiro said as Misu nodded.
Leaving the building, Shiro made her way back. While she was forcing herself to not use the portal, she was close to running pace with the speed she was going.
Arriving back in her room, Shiro copsed on the chair and closed her eyes.
"Need a towel?" Nan Tian offered as Shiro didn¡¯t even notice that he was awake.
"Mn? Yes please." Shiro nodded, receiving the towel and wiping off the sweat on her face. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself and looked at the time.
¡¯Roughly 17 minutes huh?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself, a safe time would be around 13 minutes to 15 if she was pushing it. With the knowledge that Administrator 4 has given her, her condition had improved quite a bit. All she needs to do now was keep going like this and soon her mental state should return back to normal.
"Feeling better?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded.
"Mn, better."
"That¡¯s good. So did you get what you needed from Misu?"
"Somewhat. It¡¯s a shame that we still don¡¯t know where the Ice Queen is but I do know what their defences are like within the zone. With how Yin and Attie are, I think I should be able to trust the two of them to act as my envoys." Shiro said as she furrowed her brows. Yin and Attie were the best for this mission considering their elements but there was a slight problem.
Yin was rather... vtile and Attie liked to follow his big sis around and cause just as much chaos. While he doesn¡¯t usually act up, he doesn¡¯t keep his big sis¡¯ actions in check like how Lisandra would. With Lisandra holding a zone, Yin pretty much has free reign.
Tapping her chin, Shiro narrowed her eyes and decided to give it a try. If her future self could entrust tasks to them, the current her should be able to as well.
"So you want to trust Yin and Attie to do this?" Nan Tian asked with an awkward smile.
"Yes, is something wrong?"
Saying nothing, Nan Tian pulled out a video of both Yin and Attie partying up tillte with everyone else. They were drinking and having contests of strength against the citizens while everyone wasughing.
Seeing how Yin was taking Attie of all people drinking, Shiro¡¯s aura turned malevolent.
Nan Tian could almost imagine Shiro¡¯s face being blurred out with only a pair of glowing eyes that sent chills down one¡¯s spine.
"Where are they right now? Surely not having a hangover right?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian coughed.
Switching to one of the cams, he disyed both Attie and Yin sleeping on a table with a bunch of people also passed out around them. Attie was drooling and in his hands was a half filled cup with what seems to be left over alcohol spilling out. As for Yin... she was chewing on Attie¡¯s arm while he was sleeping.
".. ."
*PUCHI!!!!
Standing up without saying anything, Shiro made her way toward their location. A simple sweep of the city told her where they were and seeing as how it was always the food hall, Shiro had the idea of demolishing the ce.
However, that would be going a bit far. All she needed to do was remind Yin that Attie was still young.
###
*Yawn~
Yawning loudly, Yin blinked her eyes as she removed the arm from her mouth. She had thought it was a really tough piece of steak but it turns out to be Attie¡¯s arm.
Rubbing her eyes, she could see that most of the people had already gone home and it was mostly just her and Attie now.
"Attie, it¡¯s morning. *Yawn~" Yin said as she nudged Attie slightly.
"He won¡¯t wake up for a while. He¡¯s still having a hangover."
Hearing the voice, Yin immediately sobered up and coughed.
"Mother." She addressed formally and sat up straight.
"Daughter. Care to exin why my darling son is currently having a hangover?" Shiro smiled as Yin stayed silent before performing the best bow she could.
"I¡¯m resign to my fate."
She knew there was no getting out of this so she resigned herself.
"I have a proposition for you. Depending on how well you do this, the punishment can be ignored." Shiro smiled as Yin¡¯s eyes brightened.
"Take your brother and act as envoys for me. I¡¯ll detoxify him now so that you two know what to say." Shiro said as she snapped her finger.
Blinking his eyes, Attie yawned.
"Big sis, that apple juice you offered tastes weird. Can I have more?"
"!!!!"
Chapter 1069 Arranging A Meeting With Khionah
Chapter 1069 Arranging A Meeting With Khionah
".. ."
".. ."
"I¡¯m sorry sis." Attie apologised as he poked his fingers together.
Currently, they were both walking towards the Ice Queens zone while Yin was rubbing her butt since she got the spanking of her life.
Seeing Attie¡¯s apologetic expression, Yin sighed and patted his head.
"Next time don¡¯t mouth off randomly when you wake up ok? At least make sure mum isn¡¯t around. Big sis has to take the me for everything you know." Yin said as she felt the urge to cry. She¡¯s been sabotaged by both Attie and the people in the food hall now.
"Mn... Sorry." Attie nodded, feeling guilty about what happened to Yin.
Pausing for a bit, Yin¡¯s lips curved into a smile and hugged Attie.
"Hais, who told you to be so cute. Just makes big sis want to mess with you." Yinughed as she rubbed his hair.
The reason why she decided to give him a try of the alcohol was because he looked so innocent and curious about the drink. There was a part of her that just wanted to mess with that innocent and she couldn¡¯t hold herself back.
Poking Attie¡¯s nose, Yin transformed herself so that she looked more mature with a rather impressive pair on her chest.
"Do you think this would look more like an envoy Attie?" Yin asked with a low voice as Attie nodded.
"Mn, big sis looks more mature like this." Attie nodded.
Chuckling as his response, Yin brought out a fan and covered her lower face. Waving her hand, her clothes fluttered before being exchanged with a different outfit.
She was currently wearing a ck and purple dress with patterns along the hem of the dress. It was something that Aarim had made for her when she showed her this form and it was bordering on the line of being seductive.
Seeing his big sis get changed, Attie did the same and wore a ck suit with a white shirt underneath. When Aarim designed this suit for him, she had made it so that the suit jacket extended to his calves. Wearing a pair of white gloves, Attie adjusted the tie on his neck and frown.
"Mn... I still don¡¯t like the tie. It¡¯s too tight on my neck."
"It does look smart though. Look at how handsome you are." Yin smiled as she pulled out a mirror for Attie and quickly styled his hair so that it looked neat.
"Let¡¯s go. Make sure you don¡¯t seem like a weakmb for ughter ok?" Yin chuckled.
"If you do, they might want to mess with you like how big sis does."
"Don¡¯t worry big sis, I know. I¡¯m only like this since I¡¯mfortable with everyone in the food hall and big sis." Attie smiled brightly before his aura changed. Cracking his neck, he stood up straight and a dominating presence radiated from him.
There was a mysterious light in his eyes which made him seem unpredictable.
Despite looking refined, his aura made him seem like a volcano that was about to erupt at any moment. Gentle yet dangerous.
Raising an eyebrow, Yin smiled behind the fan and wondered what kind of woman Attie would bring back in the future. Regardless of her qualification, as long as Attie loves her then she¡¯ll be fine.
###
Looking at the two shadows approaching from the distance, the guards couldn¡¯t help but swallow their saliva. Right now, it felt like two catastrophe ss monsters walking towards them as their aura already made it hard to breathe even from that distance.
Some of the weaker guards couldn¡¯t take it anymore and had to retreat for now.
Even with so many tier 6¡¯s in the zone, they still didn¡¯t feel safe.
"H-Halt!" One of the guards shouted since they couldn¡¯t let them enter just like that. They still had to do their job.
Continuing to walk, the two walked closer as the guards started to tighten their grip on their weapons, preparing forbat.
"I¡¯d suggest that you don¡¯t do that." A beautiful voice rang out as the woman closed her fan and shed a small smile.
Feeling charmed for a moment, the guards froze up for a moment before regaining their senses.
"State your business."
Looking back, the guards could see the tier 6 captain walking out with a serious expression.
"We¡¯re here as messengers. Our mother knows your Queen so she wishes to arrange a meeting. Would it not be better for us to discuss this inside the castle? After all, too many eyes are watching right now." Yin smiled as the captain narrowed his eyes.
"Who is your mother?"
"She used to be a snow girl. I believe they met back in Mount Fuji. Your Queen should recognise the name, Shiro." Yin replied as the Captain paused for a moment before nodding his head.
"Pleasee in, I apologise about our actions thus far, I hope you don¡¯t take offence. As you know, with how some people are, it is rather hard to give them a hospitable wee." The captain smiled as Yin nodded her head.
"None taken. Now please, lead the way."
Jumping down, the captain led them inside the zone. Having the guards close the door behind him, he led the two further in.
Once they reached the main room, the captain gestured toward the door.
"The one that you can discuss this with is inside. I¡¯ll have to excuse myself since I am responsible for the security of this ce." The captain smiled as Yin nodded.
Ignoring the captain, she pushed open the door and saw two people within the main room. On the side, she could see a tier 6 who¡¯s aura was definitely weakerpared to most and realised that he was probably the one that Shiro mentioned as being the lifeline. As for the one on the throne, her aura was much higher.
[Saphi LVL 650 Blizzard Wraith]
"Greetings, children of Shiro. I am Saphi, guard of the Ice Queen Khionah. I was informed by the guards that Her highness Shiro wished to arrange a meeting?" The woman asked with a smile as Yin nodded.
"Indeed. It has been quite a while since thest meeting between my mother and her highness. She wishes to discuss something private that is not for our ears to know." Yin smiled.
"I see... I will ry the message to my Queen. How should I contact you when I get a response?" Saphi asked as Atesh stepped forward.
"Lady Saphi, if you do not mind, I would like to stay here for the time being. That way, I can send the message to my mother once her highness has arranged a time for the meeting. As for the venue, my mother expressed that she did not mind and gives that choice to Queen Khionah." Atesh bowed slightly as Saphi eyed Atesh for a moment before nodding her head.
"Understood. I shall get a room prepared for you at once so make yourself at home."
Talking for a little longer, Yin left the zone while Atesh stayed behind.
Pulling out an ear piece, Yin called Shiro.
"Is the job done?" Shiro asked as Yin nodded.
"Mn, it is. Attie¡¯s resting in their zone right now. Their defences seem alright and the only problem would be Saphi, who is Khionah¡¯s guard but the other tier 6¡¯s seem like a joke if I¡¯m being honest." Yin replied as Shiro stayed silent for a moment.
"Alright, that¡¯s good to know. Of course, don¡¯t let your guard down alright? Keep yourself hidden near the zone and assist Atesh if a fight does breakout." Shiro ordered as Yin nodded.
"Say mum, what if they try to seduce Attie?"
"Pardon???"
"I mean, I saw Saphi eyeing Attie. And because Attie is so handsome and cute, don¡¯t you think he¡¯s a perfect catch for them?" Yin said as Shiro stayed silent.
"Imagine this mum. Attie is sleeping peacefully. You know how he sleeps quite deeply right? What if they took advantage of him without him knowing?"
"I¡¯m sending over a sniper. Take out anyone who tries to take advantage of my son without his permission." Shiro said as Yin agreed.
"Maybe that¡¯s a bit too much. I¡¯m sure Attie can handle himself." Nan Tian said as Shiro shook her head.
"I know Attie can handle himself but doing so would mean disturbing his sleep. Don¡¯t worry, this sniper will erase thempletely so he won¡¯t even notice and his sleep will be saved." Shiro reassured as Nan Tian was speechless.
Praying that the girls in the zone didn¡¯t do anything over the line, Nan Tian watched as Shiro assembled a sniper and sent it to Yin through a portal.
###
Receiving news of Shiro wanting to arrange a meeting between the two of them, Khionah smiled remembering the level 100 snow girl that she had met previously.
"It has been a while now. Both she and that Dragon Queen have be empresses and they can both fight people higher ranked than them. They¡¯re truly simr." Khionah muttered with a smile.
Tapping her arm rest, she stood up and narrowed her eyes.
"I¡¯ll discuss our arrangementter. But don¡¯t get too greedy with the price now. If you do, no one would ept the deal."
"Well... my services are expensive after all. There aren¡¯t many things a Queen wants and what they want are expensive." A shrouded figure shrugged before disappearing with a flutter of raven feathers.
Chapter 1070 Ateshs Spar Against Saphi
Chapter 1070 Atesh''s Spar Against Saphi
Walking around the zone, Atesh walked around the zone to see how other people acted. He was familiar with the actions of people within the city but that was a rather unique situation.
In the city, most people were happy with what they have and enjoy life everyday. They would party when a special asiones up andze around on a weekend.
Naturally, the same goes for the soldiers since Shiro was able to take care of most of the battles. There wasn¡¯t much risk to their health due to her skill and even if there were risks, Silvia has that covered.
Leaning against the window, Atesh nced down at the guards that were protecting this zone.
Seeing them, he couldn¡¯t help but think about how easy it is to break through the first few defences of this zone.
To put it cruelly, they were barely enough to dy time. Cannon fodder in other words.
However, for Asharia, even the weakest cannon fodder was enough to kill several tier 5 beings on their own due to the weapons and armour Shiro provides.
Seeing the military power, Atesh understood how much stronger they werepared to the average Queen.
¡¯But that¡¯s only when ites to the average Queen in this new age. The higher level people get, individual strength bes more important. Without me, big sis Yin, big sis Lisa and everyone else, mum would have a hard time picking fights with other Queens/Empresses.¡¯ Atesh thought to himself with a sigh.
"You seem to be rather disappointed by our soldiers. Mind if I ask about what they¡¯recking?" A feminine voice rang out as Atesh nced behind him and saw Saphi walking up to him with a small smile.
"Lady Saphi." Atesh bowed slightly as Saphi shook her head.
"There¡¯s no need to be courteous with me. Just call me Saphi like everyone else." She chuckled.
"That can¡¯t do. I am here as an envoy after all." Atesh shook his head.
"I see... Well going back to the previous question, if you don¡¯t mind me asking, what is it our soldiers arecking. Seeing your disappointed expression, I can¡¯t help but be curious about your thoughts."
Hearing this, Atesh paused for a moment before opening his mouth.
"This might be harsh but I¡¯ll be truthful with you Lady Saphi. If a strong monster was to attack this ce, without the tier 6¡¯s here, the guards will be killed in a matter of moments. Their numbers are impressive but the individual strengths... leave much to be desired." Atesh replied truthfully as Saphi nced out and sighed since that was the truth.
With how things were, cultivating good soldiers on top of focusing resources on strong tier 6¡¯s was difficult. For the average Queen, they would naturally pick cultivating tier 6¡¯s over the soldiers.
If she was to be brutally honest, having more soldiers was just a show of manpower. Acklustre attempt to dissuade people from attacking but that was the case for most Queens.
However, this is what confused her. The man in front of her, Atesh, made it sound like having a strong army was important. Hence why she wanted to hear his thoughts. Plus, with how strong he felt, having a powerful army SHOULD be close to impossible using normal standards.
"You are not wrong. But is this not the standard? Most of the people used for Soldiers are refugees of this garden. Those who we extend a helping hand to when the world copsed before them. There is not much they can do in the city considering the fact that wee from... monster origins and need mana rather than food to survive. So we station them as soldiers instead." Saphi exined as Atesh nodded his head.
It was true that monsters need mana rather than the standard food. The only reason why Yin likes to eat so much was because she enjoyed the taste rather than the mana it provided. Plus, with her skill, it converts anything she eats to mana so it was efficient for her.
Shiro no longer needed to just eat mana crystals because she no longer needed that and can keep herself full with normal food.
Plus, with all of her skills, she can survive even without oxygen, much less food. It wouldn¡¯t feel great but she would still survive.
"I suppose so. Though it is a little sad to see good people being stationed as... cannon fodder." Atesh sighed.
"But that¡¯s how it is now. Once a victor is chosen for the new age, all of this can stop."
"However, let¡¯s not talk about victors when we¡¯re still in the stages of forming an alliance. How about a spar just to stretch our bodies a little?" Saphi offered as Atesh thought about it for a moment before nodding.
"Sure, only one round though. Mother does not like me fighting too much after all." Atesh chuckled.
Following Saphi to a small arena near the back of the zone, she opened the weapons shed.
"Do you have a weapon that you prefer?" Saphi asked as Atesh thought about it for a moment before pointing towards the greatsword. While he was mage focused, he did like the look of a great sword.
Raising her eyebrow, Saphi was a little surprised that Atesh wanted the greatsword but passed it to him.
However, the moment the greatsword touched Atesh¡¯s hand, it burst into mes from the heat of his passive skill.
"Well... I suppose not using weapons is also fine. Though if you are insistent, I do have a weapon that my mum¡¯s subordinate crafted for me." Atesh shrugged.
"In that case shall we spar with personal weapons?" Saphi asked as ice formed in front of her. Grabbing what seems to be the handle, the ice shattered apart to reveal a delicate de that radiated a sharp aura.
Seeing this, Atesh smiled and snapped his finger.
A small portal appeared next to him as the handle of a weapon could be seen. Grabbing the handle, Atesh twisted his body and pulled out a runic greatsword. Neon red runes lit up along the de as the golden cross guard reflected the light of the sun.
*BANG!!!! CRACK!!!
Stabbing the sword down, the temperature of the area increased dramatically as light started to distort.
"That¡¯s quite the impressive weapon you have there." Saphi praised as she had cold sweat drip down the side of her face. Even with her using ice to cool herself down, the temperature was still unbearable.
"It is. However, it is just a prototype for now. Made from leftover materials that he had within the vault. Once we find a more suitable core material, he¡¯ll make me a proper weapon." Atesh narrowed his eyes as he red his aura.
"Now, I¡¯ll let you have the first move." Atesh offered as Saphi smiled.
"Many thanks."
Entering a stance, she dashed forward. A trail of cold energy followed behind her as it was barely holding itself together from the heat.
¡¯Is this really a Queen¡¯s personal guard?¡¯ Atesh thought to himself as the ice wascklustre. Compared to what Shiro could create, this paled inparison.
Even if he was to go all out against Shiro, her ice would just dominate his fire. Plus, ice was no longer her main element. Should she use nanobots, his fire wouldn¡¯t even get a chance to perform.
Watching Saphi charge towards him, Atesh pulled his sword from the ground and activated the first set of runes.
Fire erupted out of the de as a pulse of energy exploded out, evaporating the ice in an instant.
Widening her eyes, Saphi quickly adjusted her movements and disappeared from his view.
¡¯I suppose I should hold back a little. If I dominate her too much it might leave a shadow in her heart and make it harder to get stronger.¡¯ Atesh thought to himself since he understood that crushing his opponent too much would leave a trauma.
Muttering a small chant, runic shackles appeared on his body as it was hidden by the clothes.
Twisting his body, he swung his greatsword behind him.
*CLANG!!!
shing des with Saphi, he watched as Ice appeared in front of his face before exploding into steam.
Quickly jumping back, he adjusted his grip on the sword and cleaved down with both hands.
Dismissing the mist, he managed to catch the shadow of Saphi and knew that she was above him.
Removing his right hand from the sword, he mmed it into the ground as a tier 6 magic circle expanded beneath him.
Suddenly, a column of fire exploded into the sky as all of the soldiers were shocked by the heat. Some of their armour started to melt as they quickly removed the ting before they got hurt.
Standing up, Atesh stashed his greatsword away.
"I apologise, it seems like I got a little excited. How about we end the spar for now and find a better asion next time." Atesh suggested as Saphi was surrounded by an ice cocoon that was barely keeping itself together.
"Let¡¯s do that." Saphi sighed in resignation since she knew that he was the clear victor.
Looking down at her hands, she couldn¡¯t help but be amazed by the strength of his mes.
Anything below a tier 6 spell would be melted in an instant and tier 6 spells had less than half their power when exposed to his mes.
Fighting this man would be suicidal.
Chapter 1071 Atties Confusion
Chapter 1071 Attie''s Confusion
After the spar with Saphi, Atesh went back to his room that they had assigned him so that he could rest for a while.
Since it was the first time that he was away from his family, he was curious as to what it was like.
Laying on the bed, he couldn¡¯t help but think about his mother and sister.
Yin would always take him to ces to y in the city. Not a single moment was wasted. He kind of missed his cheerful big sis. While his mum was serious, she is quitex too. He understood that she is dealing with her own trauma along with being busy so he didn¡¯t me her for being away. But whenever she was with him, it brought him much joy. Seeing the care in her eyes brought him more warmth than any me could.
Thinking back to them, he smiled and sat up.
He wondered what he should do.
¡¯Maybe I write what big sis calls a diary. I¡¯ll tell them about what I experienced here.¡¯ Looking around the room, he couldn¡¯t find any pieces of paper for him to use nor could he find anything to write with. His inventory was filled with things that Yin needed so naturally, writing supplies were missing.
Furrowing his brows, he left his room to ask for some help when he noticed a maid waiting outside.
"I am a maid assigned to help you with anything you may need. Of course, that includes using me too." She bowed while eyeing him.
Tilting his head for a moment, Atesh¡¯s eyes brightened.
Seeing this, the maid couldn¡¯t help but feel excited.
"Then you can help me get some paper and a pen! Ahh I was wondering who to ask but since you¡¯re here, you can help me with that." Atesh smiled happily as the woman paused for a moment.
"Excuse me?"
"Mn? I need a pen and paper. I know that everyone uses phones and tablets but I gave mine to big sis so I don¡¯t have them on me right now. She wanted to y some games after big sis Lisa confiscated her phone so I lent her mine. So if you don¡¯t mind, can you get me paper and a pen please." Atesh exined as the woman felt a little offended.
She was definitely a beauty by her standards. She kept her figure good and made sure her skin was wless and yet this man in front of her was only concerned about pen and paper!?
"Hello? I thought you were a maid to help me. Is this task too hard?" Atesh frowned seeing her stand in silence.
"No, of course not. Please excuse me." The woman bowed before leaving feeling both offended and disappointed.
"Strange woman. What does she even mean by use her. I can¡¯t write with her now can I?" Atesh muttered in confusion. Unless she was a robot, he doubts he could pick her up and write with her as if she¡¯s a pen. Though if they were talking about blood that might work.
¡¯Maybe she¡¯s suicidal. Well everyone has their own problems.¡¯ Atesh shrugged before entering his room again.
Meanwhile, Yin was eyeing the maid with dangerous thoughts and a finger over the trigger. But since she hasn¡¯t done anything just yet, she was free to live another day.
###
"I wonder how Attie¡¯s doing right now." Shiro muttered while leaning her head on the desk.
"I¡¯m sure he¡¯s doing fine. Plus, isn¡¯t Yin looking after him?" Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro nodded.
"True. But it¡¯s the first time my darling son has been away from us for so long after all. I wonder if they¡¯re feeding him good food." Shiro said as she pouted slightly. She wasn¡¯t in the mood to work since all she could think about was if they were giving Atesh the treatment he deserves. Naturally, that means treating him like a king.
"Do you want me to take that stack of documents too?" Nan Tian asked, seeing Shiroze around.
Hearing this, Shiro¡¯s eyes lit up.
"Sure." Pushing her unfinished work to him, she sat up and enjoyed her juice.
Seeing this, Nan Tian chuckled and started to finish the work in her ce.
Most of them were just documentation of the tasks that Misu hadpleted. They needed to document everything so that they could keep a track on the history of the things that happened in this city. If something did happen that was serious, they could look back on their documents and find a clue.
"Honestly I would give you a court title but I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯ll just turn out to be Divine Court Secretary." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian shrugged.
"I wouldn¡¯t mind that too much I suppose since I¡¯m still helping you out."
"*Cough* you deserve a better title than secretary so I¡¯ll hold onto this for now. Once I¡¯m sure you get something like my dad¡¯s title of Blood Moon general, I¡¯ll give you a title then." Shiro coughed since she still had some reservations about how the skill named the titles. Most of the time it was how she saw them. For example, for both Li Jian and her dad, she saw them as generals in an army hence why they got the general title.
For Nan Tian... she didn¡¯t want to throw caution into the air just yet.
While she was thinking about this, she received a notification on her earpiece. It was a call from Atesh from the earpiece she had given him so naturally she picked it up immediately.
"Darling, did you miss me?" Shiro joked as she could hear Attie¡¯sugh.
"Mn I did mum. It¡¯s kinda boring here without you or big sis. Oh before I forget, I wanted to call since the Ice Queen has set up a time and ce for the meeting. She said tomorrow, mid day and the venue would be the zone I¡¯m in right now." Attie said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright. I¡¯ve noted that down. Do you want toe home and sleep here or do you want to spend the night over there?" Shiro asked as Attie thought about it for a moment.
"It would seem rude if I don¡¯t even stay the night. They¡¯ve prepared this room for me after all. But I¡¯ll be missing you and everyone else." Attie smiled as Shiro shed an invisible tear.
¡¯They grow up so fast.¡¯ She thought to herself since Attie was actually worried about the people around him even though they haven¡¯t met for long.
"Sure, me and your big sis will be there tomorrow morning around 10am." Shiro said as Attie nodded.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle when learning about how Attie¡¯s written a diary of sorts since he didn¡¯t have his phone.
Confused about this, Shiro felt like a vein was about to burst when it turned out that Yin was responsible for this.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro created a new phone for Attie before sending it through a portal and ending the call.
Sitting back, Shiro called Yin.
"Hey mum, what¡¯s up?" Yin replied as she was currently observing the zone.
"So about Attie¡¯s phon-"
Before Shiro could even finish her sentence, she heard the sound of a crack and the line was cut.
".. .Did that bird just break her brother¡¯s phone?" Shiro muttered with a dark gaze.
Sighing softly, she decided to forgive Yin now since she was in a good mood. Her son was just adorable after all.
"Do you want to go choose something to wear while I finish the rest of this?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded.
"I¡¯ll leave it to you then." Shiro grinned as she jumped off her chair and teleported back to her room.
Looking in her closet, she nced at all the dresses that Aarim had sent over. With the help of Estre¡¯s space magic, they were able to create a whole separate room inside her closet so it was much bigger than what it looked like.
Looking at all the dresses, Shiro decided that she should probably wear some colour to this meeting.
With this thought in mind, she found a red dress in the corner that caught her eye.
It was a one-piece dress that had the edges transition into floral patterns with a fluttery skirt. Dark red petal patterns could be seen along the hem of the skirt with a pair of red high heels to match.
"I¡¯ll take this one." Shiro smiled as she ced it into her inventory.
###
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro created a portal towards the zone and entered with Nan Tian. Picking Yin up with them, she raised an eyebrow at Yin¡¯s new form.
Giving her a bonk to the head with her hand, she smacked the breasts out of her. Literally. Dispelling her illusion, Shiro had Yin enter with them in her proper human form which was modestpared to her previous form.
Once it was 10, Shiro approached the zone and could see Attie waiting for the three of them. Giving him a wave, they entered the main castle and saw a silver and blue haired beauty sitting on the throne, greeting them with a smile.
"It has been a while now hasn¡¯t it? Little sister." Khionah said as Shiro rolled her eyes.
"I remember telling you that I am not your little sister." Shiro retorted since there was only one person in the world that can be her older sis.
Chapter 1072 Agreement Between Shiro and Khionah
Chapter 1072 Agreement Between Shiro and Khionah
"Cold as usual. d to see that you haven¡¯t changed. Well... personality wise at least." Khionah narrowed her eyes since she could sense the colossal amount of mana behind her. She knew that this waspletely different to the level 100 snow girl she had seen before.
"Well, that¡¯s true I suppose. But since this is a second meeting, I do believe that we¡¯re on equal ground now." Shiro smiled.
Snapping her finger, nanobots appeared beneath her as she created a throne to sit on. Making sure it¡¯s the same height as the one that Khionah was sitting on, Shiro crossed her legs and smiled.
"So, do you want to state your business first or shall I? Seeing your expression, you seem to have something you want to ask of me." Shiro asked as Khionah chuckled.
"You¡¯ve be more perceptive I see. Well you can ask away first as you are the one to arrange this meeting." Khionah replied.
Nodding her head, Shiro tapped her finger on the armrest and a hologram appeared in front of them, showing the map of Vrish¡¯ Lir and all of the Beast Queen¡¯s territories.
"There are quite a few things I want to ask you but I¡¯ll focus on the main task first. What do you think about a joint operation to take down the Beast Queen? As you can probably guess, she has an overwhelming advantage over everyone else due to the fact that monsters are under her control. She doesn¡¯t need to worry about sacrificing important people as lifelines for a zone since any random tier 6 would do. If we don¡¯t take care of her now, she¡¯ll be dangerous in the future. Imagine what she can do with a level 1000 monster that might appear in this world." Shiro said as Khionah narrowed her eyes.
"That is true. She has been quite.... Ambitious in her actions. Despite not being an Empress like you, the Dragon Bitch and the Chimera Bitch, her greed is rather big. Other Empress¡¯s are waiting in the background right now and only you three have revealed yourselves. She¡¯s taking advantage of this and doing whatever she wants. But knowing you, you should be able to deal with her alone no?" Khionah asked.
She knew that with how much mana Shiro was radiating right now, it was going to be hard to find anyone that could be on par with her. Hell, she was willing to bet that even the Dragon Empress is below her in terms of sheer mana density.
"Perhaps. But if I propose a joint operation it leaves room for future cooperation no?" Shiro smiled as Khionah chuckled.
"You sound as though you want this to be amon urrence. But you do realise that this is a race for all of us right? Helping you would just be me feeding a beast that I cannot tame. Why risk my neck like this?" Khionah said as Shiro nodded.
"True. However, I have some knowledge in regards to this new age. Depending on what your wish is for the system, I might be able to grant it in its ce."
"That¡¯s quite the bold im. Are you sure you have the capabilities to achieve such a task?" Khionah narrowed her eyes.
"Depends on the task but I do have confidence in myself." Shiro smiled.
"All of you Empress¡¯s do. I don¡¯t know what kind of information you have but I know that the system would censor it should you try to disclose this to me. Each of you Empress¡¯s know some of the system¡¯s secrets and us lowly Queen¡¯s are not allowed to know. A little unfair if you ask me."
Hearing this, Shiro paused for a moment since she didn¡¯t think other Empress¡¯s would be able to know a little about secrets.
¡¯Does that mean Syradil and Arnea might know that anyone else winning the new age is futile?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
With this knowledge in mind, it would possibly give her new leverages to get them on her side. If they knew that the system refuses to let anyone else win but the Queen of the Garden, then things would be favourable for her.
"Since you know that I cannot tell you, I do hope that you trust me when I say it¡¯s better for you to support me in this rather than face the world with your own faction." Shiro said seriously. She didn¡¯t want to kill more Queens than she is forced to since they each had their stories. Each of them have a dream they want to achieve and most of the time it¡¯s to do with their own loved ones. All of them are just victims of the system.
"Are you saying you want me as your subordinate?" Khionah asked as her voice turned cold. Even if she knew that Shiro had more information than her, she wasn¡¯t about to be her subordinate. Her pride wouldn¡¯t allow it.
"No. I meant having you as someone on equal footing. An alliance where I help you and you help me. I already have Misu, the Undead Queen on my side and I¡¯m giving the same offer to you." Shiro shook her head as Khionah thought about it for a moment before shaking her head.
"I will need more time to think about this. However, it does not mean I¡¯m unwilling to cooperate. Remember when we met before, I had wanted you to help me with a task in the future? Why don¡¯t you help me with that task now and I¡¯ll help you." Khionah offered.
"Perhaps but like you said, I can deal with the Beast Queen alone with the manpower I have now. The only reason I offered you this was to form an alliance. It does not mean I am willing to expend my resources on you when I can do this task alone. Though, if it is a small task, I might consider it." Shiro shook her head since it was an unfavourable trade for her.
"Well this will benefit you in the long run since we¡¯ll be eliminating one of the Empress¡¯s. I want your help in killing the Empress of Shadows." Khionah offered as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"And what do you mean by this will benefit me? What if I want her on my side?"
"I doubt you¡¯ll want to do that. The Empress of Shadows is not a ¡¯normal¡¯ Empress. She¡¯s one that has already Fallen. A fallen Empress. Once her desires have been attained, she¡¯ll lose her sanity and be a monster that would stop at nothing until this world is destroyed. Do you really want something like that to be on your side?" Khionah asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
She was right, if the Empress has already fallen then that severely cuts off her chances of recruiting her. Remembering the fact that Fallen cannot be saved, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but sigh and feel pity for them.
If possible, she¡¯ll want her to attain her revenge first, y whoever put her in this state then kill her afterwards. At least then, she¡¯ll be able to pass on with the knowledge that her revenge was achieved.
"Sure, I can help you with that. But that will have to wait considering the fact that I need to help Misu first." Shiro smiled as Khionah nodded.
"That¡¯s fine, I¡¯m still looking for her whereabouts myself. Anything I can use to contact you when the need arises?"
Snapping her fingers, Shiro created a phone and threw it towards Khionah.
"This phone will allow you to contact me whenever you want. I do hope that I don¡¯t need to tell you how to work a phone." Shiro smiled.
"Of course not. When will you be attacking the Beast Queen?" Khionah asked.
"Tomorrow. I¡¯ll call you when the timees. I don¡¯t believe there is anything else to talk about so I¡¯ll be taking my leave now."
Leaving the zone, Shiro led everyone back to the city.
"Mum, what are you thinking about?" Attie asked since he could tell that she was concerned about something.
"Just thinking about the Fallen Empress. I¡¯m wondering what could push her over the edge and fall. I know that I was close when the watchman appeared but that was a unique situation. That and also I¡¯m just thinking if there¡¯s a way to help them or not. I know that so far it is deemed impossible but there are no absolutes. Just very unlikely. Perhaps there might be something we can do to help. I don¡¯t know but that¡¯s just more questions for the system once my skilles off cooldown." Shiro smiled as Attie nodded his head.
Meanwhile...
"Saphi." Khionah called out as Saphi walked over.
"What is it your highness?"
"How do I use this thing? I know that this is what most people use now but isn¡¯t it just easier to use familiars? But since this is the only way I can contact her I suppose I should learn." Khionah asked as she pointed towards the phone.
"I believe you just tap the screen, your highness. You see that icon over there? That is where your contacts are and right now the only one there is Miss Shiro. Tapping it would let you call her." Saphi replied.
Khionah is not good with technology.
Chapter 1073 A Small Demonstration
Chapter 1073 A Small Demonstration
Making their way back to the city, Shiro paused as she turned around and nced towards the crests.
Furrowing her brows, she watched as Thiria took over two more zones. With most of the zones under her control, she¡¯ll need topletely demolish those forces in order for her toe out on top.
"That doesn¡¯t look too good." Nan Tian frowned as Shiro agreed.
"Mn, perhaps I should shred some of her defences.. . No, that would warn her ahead of time. Hmm..." Tapping her chin, Shiro nced up at the sky.
"Since most of the zones have a barrier, I should get rid of them. Even if they know we¡¯reing, they won¡¯t have anything to help defend." Shiro muttered as a smile formed on her lips.
Seeing this smile, both Attie and Yin felt a chill down their spine since they knew Shiro was about to cause quite a bit of destruction.
"Follow me, we¡¯re going to get front row seats. Let me give Khionah a call as well. Let her see some of my capabilities. Should be enough to... persuade her to join my side." Shiro chuckled.
Snapping her fingers, a portal appeared in front of them.
Entering the portal, they found themselves standing on top of themand tower in the middle of the city.
Stretching her body, Shiro walked forward and mmed her hand down.
Suddenly, two rows of pirs appeared around her as each of them had densely packed runes etched to the surface.
Pushing her hand out, mana red as a barrier was formed around her.
"Now, this might take quite a bit of mana so a barrier is needed to keep it a surprise. Remember Attie, if you want to surprise someone make sure you have a barrier that conceals your mana. Even if it breakster, you have to make sure they have little to no time to prepare defences ok?" Shiro said as Attie nodded his head and watched carefully.
Flexing her fingers on her right hand, holograms appeared as the three of them could see the world with countless satellites lighting up above their current location.
[Initiating the Argus Satellite Network.]
[Master Key epted. Entering Orbital Cannon Mode.]
Watching the holographic warnings appear on the screen, Attie could see the satellites change as parts started to transform.
Nanobots converged together to form barrels while mana coils could be spotted in the back.
"Let¡¯s see... 30% should be fine considering how easy it was for me to destroy the barrier in this ce. Ah but I still need to pierce the barrier surrounding Earth. I need to make sure it¡¯s a drill so that the whole thing is still intact. If there are too many holes, the thing might shatter." Shiro muttered.
She wasn¡¯t sure why the barrier was there in the first ce but she knew that it would probably be better if she didn¡¯t break the barrier. She needed something that would allow her attack to pass through without conflicting with it.
Thinking about it for a moment, she activated her analysis skill and nced up toward the sky.
Focusing her gaze on the barrier in the sky, she pulled up all the information she had and made some adjustments to the attack.
Normally, for her orbital cannon, she would have countless magic circles stacked with one another until the attack reaches the surface. That way, it would have as much power as it can gather. However, since she was making sure she didn¡¯t just vaporize everything in the cannon¡¯s path, she had to hold back a little.
Plus, she wanted to keep the barrier intact so most of the magic circle would be used to make a path through the barriers.
Reaching out with her hand, hundreds of tier 6 magic circles burst out around her.
Watching this spectacle, Atesh couldn¡¯t help but smile.
Even if she wasn¡¯t assisted by his passive, he wouldn¡¯t be able to attack her at all should they battle. Unlike his spar with Saphi, he would be on the losing side.
Shiro¡¯s mental calctions to make hundreds of tier 6 magic circles was unparalleled. While she is stationary, there were quite a few that were dedicated to protecting her too. So unless he was charging up a powerful attack, he won¡¯t be breaking past her defences any time soon.
If she¡¯s on the move, he should forget about getting a hit in unless he was willing to give up an arm or a leg for the counter.
¡¯Mum¡¯s in a league of her own like usual.¡¯ Atesh thought with a chuckle.
As for Yin...
¡¯I¡¯m pretty sure if I can make that many magic circles I¡¯ll be able to roast a whole building worth of meat for a barbeque if I want. I have the power but I can¡¯t control it that well so the roast would be uneven and it¡¯ll taste bad.¡¯
With both Attie and Yin watching intently, Shiro prepared the next stage of her spell.
Snapping her fingers, a bird¡¯s eye view of Vrish¡¯ Lir appeared in front of her as markers could be seen on all of the zones that have been captured by Thiria.
Scanning the zones, she could see that they were quite densely packed with monsters. Hardly any humans could be spotted but as much as she wants to just rain hell on the ce, there was a chance that the monsters want to leave her control. After all, Nitha was like that.
Once the power was adjusted, Shiro sped her hands together and smiled.
"Time to give Khionah a call."
###
Investigating the strange phone in front of her, Khionah was spooked when it suddenly started to vibrate and hum a tune.
"Saphi! What is it doing?" Khionah asked as Saphi nced down and saw that Shiro was calling.
"It¡¯s Miss Shiro, I believe she is calling you right now. To answer, you just need to swipe right on that icon, your highness." Saphi exined as Khionah stared at the screen for a moment.
"Wait swipe? I thought you only needed to tap?"
"It depends but you may want to answer soon." Saphi sighed.
"Right. Ahem- wait, how should I answer?"
".. . "
Exining the actions of answering a phone, Saphi watched as Khionah finally swiped on the ept call.
"Hello, this is Khionah speaking."
"Took you a while to answer. Are you busy?" Shiro asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, do you need me for something? Calling so soon." Khionah replied.
"Well I don¡¯t need you right now but you might want to look out the window. Just a small demonstration before our attack tomorrow. I¡¯ll be taking care of all the barriers in the zones."
Hearing this, Khionah walked towards her window.
"I¡¯m watching."
Just as she said this, she watched as ayer of magic circles lit up in the sky. Each of the magic circles felt like they could eradicate a city as she couldn¡¯t help but feel intimidated by the amount of mana they were radiating.
Suddenly, the surroundings darkened as pirs of light descended from the skies, shattering the barriers in an instant as a wave of dust could be seen expanding out from the impact zone.
Quickly swiping with her hand, she reinforced her zone with a magical barrier of its own but the impact still caused the ce to shake.
*BOOM!!!!!!!
Hearing the sound of the explosion, Khionah furrowed her brows and cleared the dust. Seeing the barriers shattered to pieces, she was speechless. All of Thiria¡¯s zones were nowpletely exposed without any defence.
"That was quite the show." Khionah said as Shiro chuckled.
"Don¡¯t be surprised just yet, I did mention that this was a small demonstration. I¡¯ll notify you when we¡¯re ready tounch the main attack tomorrow."
Nodding her head, Khionah ced the phone away from her before whispering to Saphi.
"How do I end the call?"
"You press this icon, your highness." Saphi whispered back as Khionah ended the call.
###
Hearing what the two had just said, Shiro was stunned speechless for a moment. Forget about how her spell had just demolished several barriers that were supposed to protect a ce from 80% of attacks, she was more curious about the fact that Khionah didn¡¯t know how to end a call.
"Does... does she not know how to use a phone?" Shiro asked as Attie, Yin and Nan Tian nced at each other before shrugging.
"Seems like it. She took a while to pick up after all." Nan Tian said as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Then if she epts this alliance, how do you think she¡¯ll react to this city?" Shiro asked, pointing at the shopping centre where most things are technology based. If Khionah struggled with receiving and ending a call, she wasn¡¯t sure what to expect would happen if she tried to browse the catalogue of the supermarket.
"I¡¯m sure it should be fine, no? Just give her a manual on how most things work and it¡¯ll sort itself out." Yin shrugged.
"I hope so. Otherwisemunicating with her using the things in this city might be annoying. Perhaps I should use familiars with her." Shiro muttered, unsure of how she should approach this.
Chapter 1074 Syradils Concern
Chapter 1074 Syradil''s Concern
Sitting on her throne, Syradil was resting with her eyes closed when she sensed something happening above.
Furrowing her brows, she opened her eyes and made her way towards the window.
Looking up at the sky, she narrowed her eyes and activated a skill.
Noticing the countless satellites charging up and transforming into cannons, her lips curled up into a smile.
"So Shiro is still alive and kicking. Good to know that there is still hope I suppose. If she died, I wouldn¡¯t even know until the second half of the new age." Syradil muttered with a chuckle.
Stretching her body, she was about to move away when she paused in a horrific realisation.
"Wait... how did she get to space? There should be a barrier there."
Frowning slightly, she was worried that Shiro¡¯s attack would pierce a hole in the barrier. Last time she attacked from space, a hole was pierced so it would serve as an entrance for... other entities drifting through space.
If her memory is correct, the barrier should help them fend off against an invasion during the second half of the new age. Where a fallen demi god would bring his army of fallen.
If she pokes too many holes, it would speed up the invasion.
"F*ck... that¡¯s not good. I need to have a chat with her. It¡¯s already hard enough for the world to fix what happened during the first event and now she wants to poke more holes?" Syradil muttered with a frown. Unfortunately, she was the lifeline so she couldn¡¯t leave otherwise she would be talking to her about her choices.
Biting her nails, Syradil could only watch silently.
Watching the satellites fire the shot, she was surprised to see that the shot was guided by a tube of sorts. Each of the tubes would form a path through the barriers before sealing up again.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, she didn¡¯t expect Shiro to be able to achieve something like this.
"Wait... if she can do that then... does that mean we can end the invasion before it even starts?" Syradil widened her eyes in realisation.
However, she¡¯ll need to increase her level if she wants to clear the invasion. They¡¯re against a Demi God after all.
With her knowledge of what had happened in the previous gardens, they¡¯ll need to be at least level 900 to pose a significant threat to them. She knew that Shiro had some divine energy in her so she could assume that she has a skill that lets her tap into the next stage.
¡¯But if it¡¯s just us two, it¡¯s not enough. We¡¯ll need more Queens and Empresses to be at that level so that we can clear the stage. But aside from me and her, I¡¯m not sure if there is anyone else who would actually help out.¡¯ Syradil thought with a frown.
Tapping her chin, she wondered about the dungeons and other raids that she could forcefully break so that will help everyone raise their levels.
Scratching her hair, she decided that it was probably better to look for Shiro after the event.
If they can form an alliance for now so that they canunch an attack on the invaders before losing more than half the world to them, it would be beneficial.
Thinking back to Shiro, Syradil couldn¡¯t help but think back to what happened during the first event.
When the event ended, she had been ambushed by someone who was able to disable her immediately. She wasn¡¯t sure about what had happened but there was something... strange about her body now.
There are traces of foreign energy that she couldn¡¯t dispel but it helped her growth. With someone being able to ambush her like that, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder about what would happen if they had wanted her dead.
Shaking her head, she returned to her phone and sat down.
Since Shiro was able to help her out, there was no need for her to pay attention to this card.
Pulling out a card with a raven feather from her inventory, Syradil ignited it and burned it to ash.
"You¡¯ll regret that." A voice rang out, clearly annoyed by her actions.
"I don¡¯t think I will. But I have to say, you are quite the detestable existence aren¡¯t you? Sneaking around the shadows. What are you? A stalker?" Syradil smirked as her aura red.
Sensing the presence disappear, Syradil retracted her aura.
"What a creep. But who ever is he, there wasn¡¯t anyone like him in the previous gardens." She muttered before closing her eyes. Now it¡¯s just a case of waiting until the end of the event to find Shiro.
However, she had the feeling that Shiro would be looking for her instead.
###
*BANG!!!
mming her hand on the table, Thiria watched as all of her barriers for the zones were destroyed in an instant.
None of the zones had protection now and she knew the feeling of that mana. It was Shiro, the same Young Queen that she had ignored so many months ago. She was the one that had ¡¯helped¡¯ her indirectly to im a city for her anchor so she decided to spare her but that was clearly a mistake.
"I should have killed her when I could have." Thiria narrowed her eyes before snapping her fingers.
"You called." A blue haired man kneeled in front of her as there was a runic cor around his neck.
His golden eyes looked down at the ground since he was merely a ve that she won in an event. He wasn¡¯t even a proper subordinate under her.
"Take a few tier 6¡¯s with you. Do you see that zone with the crest of a woman with a city? I want you to take over that and integrate one of the lesser tier 6¡¯s as the lifeline. If things go wrong, you cane back. We just want to kill whoever is inside that zone." Thiria said as the man nodded his head.
"Understood."
Walking out of the castle, he transformed into a multi headed leviathan.
Despite his power, he was reduced to a mere pawn of a heartless queen.
[Revel LVL 900 Storm Leviathan]
Sighing softly, he looked towards the monsters under Thiria¡¯s control and started to make his way towards Vrish¡¯ Lir.
###
After cleaning up everything, Shiro made her way back to themand centre while Yin and Attie went off to do their own stuff.
With Nan Tian following behind her, she wanted to ask Helion to make a few more adjustments to Silvanis since he had some time to rest.
But before she could, she received a call from Misu asking for a meeting.
Asking Misu toe to her office, Shiro waited patiently.
Hearing a knock, she opened the door.
"Come in." Shiro smiled as Misu nodded.
"So what brings you here today? I figured that you would be busy with how many tasks you have been given." Shiro asked.
"I am. But while I¡¯m looking through things I came across something rather curious. So you know how Yin has been leaving to find upgrade parts?" Misu asked as Shiro was a little surprised that she knew since it wasn¡¯t something she talked about a lot.
"Don¡¯t worry, I was talking to Aarim before and she mentioned this." Misu exined since she could see her confusion.
"Basically, when I was looking through some records, I noticed a pattern with the locations of her upgrade parts."
Pulling out a world map that Shiro had sent to shops, Misu marked down the spots where Yin had discovered the previous parts.
"If you like everything together, what do you think it looks like?" Misu asked as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
With all of the spots being joined up like this, it reminded her of a constetion, simr to what she had seen in the forgotten realm.
"Would it happen to be constetions?"
"Yup. Back in my world, I remember seeing something simr so it took me a while but look at this. This is the Phoenix constetions and it¡¯s something that quite a few would use as a crest for the healer guild back in my world. If you ovep the two, you can see that it traces the same outline, even if the positions are different."
If Yin is looking for thest part, I believe it should be here, where the heart of the constetion would be."
Furrowing her brows, Shiro was surprised by her assumption.
"Wouldn¡¯t it be towards the eye? With how the stars are positioned, the eye should make the most sense." Shiro asked, pointing towards the top of the constetion.
"Yes but that¡¯s only if the previous locations were in the same ce. The eye of the Phoenix is the centre of the constetion before but with the new positions, that eye can be reced with this node. Meaning, there has to be a new centre. If you link up all the motes, the centre would be here. And guess what¡¯s here on the map?" Misu smiled.
"A mountain range of volcanoes... Alright, I¡¯ll send this information to Yin, she should be happy to know that the final piece has been discovered." Shiro nodded.
"Mn, you might want to help her though, Thiria has that ce on lockdown. Not sure what she wants from that ce but a fight might break out." Misu shrugged before packing everything away.
Talking for a little longer, she left the office.
Chapter 1075 Madison And Makron
Chapter 1075 Madison And Makron
With Misu leaving the office, Shiro was left with just Nan Tian by her side.
"Do you want me topile everything into a file and send it to Yin?" Nan Tian offered.
"Yes please, that would be great. By the way, how do you think Thiria will react? Now that I have destroyed all of her barriers protecting her zones, she is definitely going to be pissed. Also, what about her subordinate? If I remember correctly, he was the one that had kidnapped you when you were younger and wanted to harm me so that you would fall." Shiro asked since she was still concerned about her subordinates.
It¡¯s easy to just kill them but ack of information is deadly.
"I¡¯m not sure. But I doubt it is possible for them to do anything to you. In terms of reactions, knowing how she is, I¡¯d say she¡¯ll probablyunch a retaliation soon so you might want to keep an eye out for that." Nan Tian said as he pulled out aptop and started to type.
"True." Shiro nodded while spinning on her chair. Closing her eyes, she wondered about her n in the next few days.
Since there was now only two days left not including today, she had to make sure Thiria is defeated by tomorrow and take the zones for herself. Not only that, she also needed to protect them from people.
Right now, out of the 15 zones, Thiria had taken over 8 of them, which is just over half of the total amount. She has taken three, Khionah took one and so did Syradil. As for the rest of the zones, they¡¯re being fought over by other Queens.
¡¯Hmm... to win the event, I just need to make sure I steal most of Thiria¡¯s points by conquering her zone. The most points earned would be the ones that she took at the beginning. So... If I take two of therge zones that she had conquered and two small zones, I should have enough points to win. Nan Tian, Attie, Estre and Keiko can take the zones with me acting as defence against anyone else. However, holding off against the attacks of multiple Queens would be difficult if I have to defend against it alone.¡¯
While Shiro did have overwhelming power in a one on one, it¡¯ll be hard to deal with all of their skills in a one against many. An example would be the Queen of Trickery. If she was ignored, she could be a serious problem during a match. And yet, if she focused too much on her, the others would be able to perform to their full power.
She needed something that could protect all of the zones while not giving the enemy Queen a chance to retaliate.
The Argus Satellite Network is good since it¡¯ll be able to wipe their army from the face of the Earth. However, if she wants to make sure it¡¯s powerful enough, she¡¯ll have to give up maintaining the barrier around Earth.
¡¯I can try to link up all of the zones and transform them to flying cities armed with mechs and turrets. But the power consumption would be too much even if I did create anchors. Misu is helping me out now but I still need Madison if I want to make something remotely usable for several flying cities.¡¯
Thinking back to Madison, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder how she was doing. She had left the city in order to pursue more strength after receiving an offer to enter the Demon Realm.
"I wonder how Madi is doing." Shiro muttered.
"I¡¯m sure she¡¯s doing just fine. Even if it¡¯s the Demon Realm, as a Demon Queen, it shouldn¡¯t be hard. Plus, she is talented so she¡¯ll ughter everything in her way." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro agreed.
###
"Stinking old man! Stop watching and help me! I¡¯ll die! I¡¯ll die before I go back to everyone else! I shouldn¡¯t havee here god damn it!" Madison shouted out in rage as her armour waspletely tattered. Behind her was a ¡¯creature¡¯ that dwarfed herpletely and destroyed anything it touched.
[Demonic Decay Beast LVL 800]
"Fufu, did you not want strength? This old man is helping his descendants out and yet no sign of gratitude. How cruel. But if there¡¯s one thing I like, it¡¯s that your endurance to damage is superb. If not, you would have died by now. Hahahaha!" An old manughed as he was currently flying above her while she was being chased.
The old man had a long ck beard, tattered robes with ted armour underneath and a pair of red eyes that pierced the darkness around him.
[Makron LVL 1000 Demon God (Divinity Rank 3)]
He had a hearty grin on his face as one of the Decay Beast¡¯s arms reached towards him.
Without saying anything, blue mes erupted from his body and charred the arm to ash.
"If you don¡¯t face him, you will never get stronger." Makron smirked as Madison felt the urge to punch the old man.
"I¡¯m only LEVEL 600! You want me to try to kill something more than 200 levels above me?!" Madison shouted back as she felt danger behind her.
Stomping down, she kicked up a b of stone and threw it behind her, blocking one of the beast¡¯s strikes.
"Yes. We demons are an exception to this world. We are able to have a king while others can only have Queens. Naturally, this means we know how to make an Emperor as well as an Empress. As you are the current Demon Queen, I will make you the Demon Empress. All Empresses can kill those above their level. Your friend, Shiro, she has enough strength to y this beast if she puts everything on the line. To stand by her side and be of use to her, you need to do the same." Makron said as Madison felt a little inspired. However, this inspiration immediately disappeared after hearing his next line.
"Or you can be disintegrated to dust. Which I hope not." Makronughed as Madison felt a vein burst from her anger.
"STUPID OLD MAN!"
In her moment of distraction, the beast managed to catch up as she immediately gritted her teeth and turned around.
Summoning a set of illusionary armour around her body, she mmed her shoulder against the beast¡¯s iing arm.
*BANG!!!!!!
Stopping him in his tracks, Madison flinched a little as she could feel her mana being corroded by the decay.
Watching silently, Makron had his hand on his sword, ready to interfere if things go south. Despite what he had just said, he will not allow his beloved granddaughter to get killed by a mere beast. If she dies, it¡¯ll be after he departs from the world of the living.
Raising its head, the beast unhinged his jaw and tentacles exploded out towards Madison.
"There is only one person who I give permission for touching me and that is not you!" Madison shouted out as she jumped back and mmed her hand down.
Shattering the ground around her, she caused the beast to stumble as his attack missed.
Taking this opportunity, she summoned her avatar and reached towards the sky.
*BOOM!!!
The sound of lightning rang out as the skies parted to reveal an axe formed of densely packed mana.
Grabbing it with both her hands, she pinned the beast under her foot and cleaved down with the axe.
However, the moment the axe touched the beast, it shattered to pieces.
Since her weapon that Helion had made was broken a while ago, she had to form everything using mana but clearly, against this beast, it wasn¡¯t effective.
¡¯If mana doesn¡¯t work then I¡¯ll use my body. Demonic beings are known for their strong physiques!¡¯ Madison shouted out in her mind.
Reaching towards the Decay Beast¡¯s mouth, she jammed her hands in and started to pull apart its jaw.
*HISSSS!!!
Hissing out in pain, the beast iled its arms and tentacles but Madison was adamant in killing him.
Retracting its tentacles, a spray of venom shot out of its body as Madison was drenched from head to toe.
Feeling the burning against her skin, she gritted her teeth and summoned all of the strength that she could gather.
[Conditions have been cleared.]
Ignoring the system notification, she felt strength burst from her body as she could see the muscles ripping apart.
"HAAA!!!"
Giving it her all, her skin turned ck as red runic patterns appeared on the surface.
Her scarlet hair fluttered behind her as she ripped the beast in half.
Throwing the two halves of the monster¡¯s body away, Madison stumbled on the spot before copsing against the floor.
Thest thing she saw was the system notification.
[Passive Skill obtained. Ancient Demon Physique.]
Landing next to Madison, Makron smiled softly as he healed her injuries. Dismissing the venom that was still trying to melt her body, he nced back at the two halves that were merging together.
"You should stay dead." He said coldly.
Suddenly, the beast swelled up like a balloon and exploded into countless chunks that were then burnt to ash by blue mes.
Picking up Madison, Makron created a portal and left the area. His main goal had been achieved and Madison has obtained the optimal physique for a Demon Empress. Now it was just a matter of helping her gain levels and obtain the key to bing the Empress.
Chapter 1076 Ancient Demon Physique
Chapter 1076 Ancient Demon Physique
"Hng...." Groaning softly, Madison sat up and was greeted by the dark skies of the demon realm.
Rubbing her eyes, she nced around and saw that the beast had disappeared and sighed in relief.
"Don¡¯t get too happy yet, you ripped it in half but it wasn¡¯t killed. If you passed out like that without me being around you would be nothing but a puddle of blood right now." Makron said as he was currently roasting some food for her.
"Ehh.... So I didn¡¯t kill it in the end. I thought I did." Madison pouted before realising something important.
Quickly looking down at her arm, she sighed in relief after seeing that it was still her normal shade of colour. It wasn¡¯t her preference to go around looking like a molten demon after all.
Checking her system interface, she read the description of her new passive skill.
[Ancient Demon Physique]
Once you reach 10% health, you gain the following benefits.
+200% Damage resistance
Stats are tripled for 30 seconds
+200% Damage Adaptation
Stat Siphon +30%
+50% True Damage Nullification
Pausing at the skill¡¯s stats, she nced towards her great great ancestor.
"So care to tell me what the Ancient Demon Physique is?" Madison asked as Makron nced back.
"It¡¯s a physique that all powerful demons have. When you get stronger, it¡¯ll evolve into Primordial Demon Physique, then Primordial Demon Empress Physique and finally, Demon Goddess Physique. But that¡¯s only if you reach the same stage as me." Makron chuckled.
"Does that mean you have the Demon God Physique?"
"Yes I do. Since you became the Demon Queen and I am your backer so to say, I received some extra benefits that allowed me to push back the other Demon Gods." Makron replied as Madison nodded.
"Since you have it as well, can you exin what Stat Siphon is?"
"Well it¡¯s pretty self exnatory. You steal 30% of your enemy¡¯s stats. The stronger they are, the more powerful this bes. Of course, if they¡¯re too strong, this might backfire and it¡¯ll flood your body with too much power." Makron shrugged as Madison felt the urge to smack the old man.
"Why is everything to do with Demons so dangerous?"
"When are things not dangerous? Now stopining and rest up. This is almost finished."
"Fine. Hm... it smells quite nice. When did you grow a heart old man? Didn¡¯t think you¡¯d actually cook something that¡¯s good." Madison raised an eyebrow.
"This? You have weird preferences if poisonous fumes smell nice."
Hearing this, Madison froze up in shock as she could feel her body be paralysed.
"We¡¯ll be training your physique and force it to evolve to the next stage. Once these don¡¯t affect you anymore, we can proceed to the next stage." Makron grinned as he fed her some of the meat. Feeling pain in her mouth, Madison red at Makron in anger as he onlyughed before eating some meat as well.
"Once this doesn¡¯t affect you, it tastes quite nice actually. Think of it as spicy food." He grinned.
"Go f*ck yourself." Madison squeezed out between gritted teeth as she could feel the poison coursing through her body.
Closing her eyes, she thought about everyone else in the city.
She wanted to return to the city soon, greet everyone with a happy face and see Shiro back on her feet, pushing towards a better future for everyone.
She wanted everyone to be together again.
###
"Mn? Is there something wrong?" Asher asked as Lyrica had suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"Not really. I just felt a surge of mana quite far away." Lyrica shook her head with a smile.
"Your senses are too crazy. Even I can¡¯t do that much." A young girl with crystalline silver hair and a pair of purple eyes sighed as she walked over with the head of a monster in her hands.
"Well Lyrica is abnormal. After all, her range of detection can extend past a country." Asherughed as the young girl shrugged before packing the head of the monster into her bag.
"Hais, give it here. I¡¯ll store it away so that you can use itter. If you keep it in your bag it¡¯ll rot Nitha." Asher sighed as Nitha stuck out her tongue and handed him the head.
"I know that we are quite powerful for this ce but please! Focus since we are still surrounded on all sides!" Cadmi shouted out as she struggled to push off a monster with her staff.
"Hehe, do you want help? Should I help?" Nitha grinned as she giggled at her dilemma.
"That would be great Nitha! I¡¯ll even cook that headter if you want!" Cadmi shouted back as Nitha pouted.
"No. I want Asher to cook."
"FINE! Just help me!"
"Stop ying around Nitha, let¡¯s go help her out then take care of the boss." Asher sighed and tapped her on the head.
Shrugging her shoulders, Nitha jumped up into the air and narrowed her eyes at the monsters surrounding them.
Mana red from her body as illusionary tentacles and scythes appeared behind her.
Twisting her body, a cyclone of des shot out, shredding the monsters to pieces. Retracting the tentacles back into her body, Nithanded with a proud smile.
"You could have helped out earlier but thank you." Cadmi sighed in relief.
Reaching into her inventory, she threw a roasted monster leg towards Nitha who jumped up and snatched it out of the air.
"Payment has been received, thank you for your patronage." Nitha grinned as she chewed on the food.
Chuckling softly, Lyrica patted her head.
"You remind me quite a bit of Yin. Both of you are food lovers." Lyrica smiled as Nitha nodded.
"Well Yin gave me some human food back in that city along with some tips on transforming. She¡¯s my senior so I should use her as an example." Nitha said as Lyrica¡¯s smile faltered.
"Please don¡¯t. I think Shiro has enough trouble with one Yin. If you be a second Yin and go back to the city, Shiro might die of stress."
"Speaking of stress, let¡¯s finish clearing this ce and go back. I¡¯m pretty exhausted after everything we¡¯ve gone through." Gordon said as flicked the blood off of his sword.
Hearing this, Lyrica nodded as she walked towards where the biggest source of mana was.
Flexing her finger, an array of des appeared around her as each sword felt like it could cleave the world in half.
However, she still wasn¡¯t satisfied. This amount of power wasn¡¯t enough to avenge her parents.
¡¯I need more strength.¡¯ She thought to herself as her gaze was cold.
###
While she was resting, Shiro felt a cluster of mana signatures appear near the outskirts of Vrish¡¯ Lir before disappearing.
In that brief moment, she was able to tell that three of the signatures within the cluster were close to her level which was not a good sign.
Waving her hand, she brought up a screen and scanned the area where she had sensed the mana.
Thanks to Argus¡¯ Blessing, it was now easier for her to find the things that she wants. With a simple scan of the satellites, she was able to see the multi headed leviathan travelling with a small group of monsters.
Right after they appeared, they camouged with their surroundings and disappeared.
Noticing that they¡¯re approaching one of her zones, Shiro narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"Nan Tian, we¡¯re leaving to greet some guests." Shiro said as Nan Tian paused in surprise.
"I suppose a massacre is in order then."
"Indeed. Though I will give them a chance to join me. There are a few with auras simr to mine so if I can get them to my side, it¡¯ll be a great help. But if they refuse, then let¡¯s just say Yin¡¯s got some premium ingredientsing her way." Shiro smirked as Nan Tian nodded her head.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let¡¯s go give them the wee they deserve. Though you might want to do it a little further away from the zone. You might damage it with the fight after all."
"True."
Standing up from her chair, Shiro thought about it for a moment and decided to go with a big entrance. They want them to know that they¡¯re no easy prey after all.
Waving her hand, a portal formed as she stepped through with ck armour materialising around her dress.
###
*BOOM!!!!
Hearing the sound of lightning, Revel nced up and saw a portal break open with flickers of electricity striking the ground and leaving deep craters.
Feeling the mana and killing intent in the air, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a chill down his spine.
¡¯To think a Quee- No, Empress would make me feel like this... it is certainly a surprise.¡¯ He thought to himself as two figures appeared from the portal.
"What guts you have to attack a ce protected by my crest." A loud voice rang out as tier 6 magic circles appeared around them. Before they could react, ice chainstched against their bodies, leaving only Revel to stand there on his own without any restraints.
Understanding that his opponent already knew his secret, Revel narrowed his eyes as he watched a white haired woman appear in front of him.
Despite being smaller than his stature, her aura dominated him.
That arrogance, that pride and that confidence. It was as though she could kill him with a single flip of the finger. A dangerous woman.
Chapter 1077 Storm Leviathan
Chapter 1077 Storm Leviathan
Looking down, Shiro spotted three that were around her strength while the fourth was the Leviathan that strangely had a ve rune around his neck. It wasn¡¯t too clear from the image that Misu had showed her but upon further inspection, Shiro realised that tier 8 magic circles were integrated with the rune.
¡¯If I was given a day, I should be able to break it apart.¡¯ She mused to herself since she would need to experiment a little. Breaking a tier 8 rune was not an easy task considering the difficulty of studying the tier 8 runes she has now.
However, while she was thinking about this, two of the monsters moved into action. Breaking their chains, they disappeared from the spot.
Nan Tian wanted to help but Shiro shook her head.
This was going to be a good workout for her.
*BANG BANG!
Blocking their strikes with her hands that had reinforcement runes on the back of her hands, she grinned.
"How rude. Attacking this Empress before dering your intent verbally. I suppose I should mark you down for execution then!"
Pulling the two closer to her, nanobots surged around her as they merged into two shotguns.
*BANG!!
Shooting both guns at once, she was a little surprised to see a multiyered barrier that managed to withstand her strike.
Her eyes quickly darted around and noticed how they formed this barrier.
The one to her right, the second monster cast the first shield while the one besides Revel ¡¯mirrored¡¯ the effects to save the first monster.
¡¯Second one blocks, third one multiplies.¡¯ Shiro noted down in her mind as she pushed the two away before summoning a sword to her hand. It wasn¡¯t Silvanis since that would make it boring for her. After all, with Silvanis, her attacks practically ignore all defence.
Stomping down, she jumped through the rift and appeared in front of the first monster.
"Nice day to die isn¡¯t it?" Shiro asked with a charming smile before cleaving down with her de. mes erupted from the edge as the monster widened his eyes.
However, before the sword could reach him, the second monster shed between them as barriers formed around his body before being mirrored several times over.
*BOOM!!!!!!
Shattering severalyers immediately, Shiro was forcefully knocked back by the impact as she stabilised herself in the air.
Sensing some danger behind her, she mmed her hand down as several Ice Chains erupted out behind her as they attempted to restrain the first monster.
Sword like bones protruded from the monster¡¯s arms as runes suddenly appeared on the de.
Immediately scanning the runes the moment they appeared, Shiro realised that they were his passive skill which allowed him to adapt his attack to any defence. If they had a weakness to fire, his des would shift elements.
¡¯So one can adapt to get rid of any defence, one can block most attacks and thest and amplify their effects. That¡¯s quite the team Thiria has under her belt. Plus, Revel is just watching right now. If he joins in, I won¡¯t be able to use mana.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she watched her des get cleaved apart.
Curling her lips into a grin, she reached for the des.
*PING!!!
Shattering them with her hand that was coated with nanobots and armour that Helion had created, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Activating Keitoma, the monster felt his body freeze uppletely.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she reopened them with a purple glow.
Eyes of the Gorgon!
His skin started to rapidly petrify as he released an explosion of mana between them, forcing them apart.
Quickly shielding her face from the attack, Shiro summoned a spear and parried an attack by the second monster behind her.
Returning her attention back to the first monster, she could see the petrification wearing off as the third monster was also supporting him with some support spells.
¡¯So he¡¯s not just for enhancing. A vanguard, tank and support. Standard three man cell with Revel being anti mage.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Understanding that it was about time for her to get a little serious, Shiro grabbed the second monster by his arms.
"Grit your teeth and take it like a real monster." Shiro chuckled as her eyes glowed menacingly.
Pressing her leg against his chest, machine gauntlets appeared around her arms as she attempted to tear them out of their sockets.
Seeing this, the first monster quickly reacted as the de cleaved towards her head.
However, Shiro only smiled as an array of weapons appeared behind her.
Activating several tier 8 runes on her arms, she could see the horror and fear in the monster¡¯s eyes as her lips curled up into a sadistic grin.
*KRSHHHH!!!!!
Ripping out the arms, she threw them back as she grabbed him by the throat.
Crushing his windpipe, she pulled back with her hand as a de was created with nanobots.
Piercing his chest and ignoring all of the defences he put up, Shiro cut straight down and split the bottom half of his body apart.
Letting the blood spill against her, she devoured the body with her nanobots and turned towards the first monster that was now trapped in an array of weapons that constantly sought to take his life.
The third monster was frozen with fear, unsure of what to do since this was not what they expected. Her attack power was far beyond theirprehension.
"If you don¡¯t make a move, your little friends will be gone. But you seem like you have something you want to say." Shiro smiled as Revel transformed into his human self.
"You seem to be experienced with the runguage on this cor." Revel spoke as he flinched from the bacsh of his cor.
"How versed are you with it?" Revel asked as Shiro smiled.
"Give me a day and I can free you from your cor. I can offer you freedom to do as you please in the world. However, you can also help me. But it will not be like the current... situation you have with Thiria. Two people of equal footing. I will assist you when you need me and in return I expect the same. Proper allies." Shiro offered as Revel narrowed his eyes.
Ignoring the burning on his throat, he squeezed out the next sentence.
"I want you to make a vow that everything you say is indeed the truth."
"Of course. I vow under my name as the Nanotech Demi Goddess that my offer towards Revel is the truth." Shiro nodded as golden lights appeared around her, verifying the vow.
Seeing this, Revel nodded his head as he reached towards the third monster.
*BOOM!!!!
Without a chance to defend himself, he waspletely eviscerated by the lightning that erupted out from Revel¡¯s palm.
"Hng!" Flinching from the pain on his cor, he watched as an avatar of Thiria appeared above him, ring at him with cold eyes.
"What do you th-"
"Silence! Do not speak another word to me vile woman. If I stay as your ve for another moment of my life then I¡¯d rather die. Know this, if I live past this day then I will be your enemy. You have humiliated my pride as the Storm Leviathan for long enough and you shall pay for your transgression! Live each day with the fear that I maye for your life at any moment!" Revel cut her off as her avatar was immediately destroyed.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Shiro looked towards Nan Tian.
"I like his attitude." She said with a bright smile since it was something that she would do.
"Same with me. He¡¯s got quite the spirit." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro decided to stop ying around.
Snapping her finger, a null mana zone appeared around the first monster while the des pierced towards him.
Each of the des were coated with ayer of barriers that allowed it to work on internal mana for a short period of time. Enough to shred the monster to pieces. Before his corpse was repaired by Shiro¡¯s spell. She needed this prime ingredient to be in good condition for Yin after all.
"I¡¯ll leave the rest for you to deal with. I¡¯ve pointed out which ones have clear souls and somewhat redeemable souls. You know what to do with them. If they don¡¯t want toe then don¡¯t force them. But if they want to attack, make sure they¡¯re not too cut up or else Yin might be annoyed with the state of her ingredients." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian nodded.
Flying towards Revel, Shiro could see burn marks around his neck from the cor but it was no normal wound. It was one that damaged the soul.
"Do not be concerned. I have my own methods to prolong this so that you may get as much time as you need. I can also heal myself afterwards." Revel said as Shiro nodded.
"Alright. I¡¯ll slow it down for now and try to make it so that it doesn¡¯t hurt. After that, I¡¯ll need you toe with me to the zone so that I can properly start to decipher this cor and free you." Shiro said as Revel nodded.
Conjuring up several tier 8 runes to help him relieve the pain, Shiro created a portal back to the zone as Nan Tian was only able to convince three of the monsters. The others were loyal to Thiria until the end.
Chapter 1078 Freeing The Leviathan
Chapter 1078 Freeing The Leviathan
*BANG!!!!
mming her arm rest out of anger, Thiria¡¯s chest heaved up and down in anger as her avatar was destroyed by Revel.
"How dare he..." She muttered through gritted teeth,
Activating a crest on the back of her hand, she wanted to crush his soul here and now.
However, the moment she tried that, she felt a bacsh as he was fighting back.
Furrowing her brows, she clicked her tongue in annoyance.
Thinking about her next steps in silence, she thought about how to deal with Shiro.
¡¯Sure enough, an Empress is hard to deal with.¡¯ Thira mused as she thought back to how Shiro killed her subordinates.
With what she had demonstrated, Thiria knew that Shiro was just ying around. Her demonstration of the cannons that destroyed her barriers.
Biting her nail, Thiria red at the crests in the distance.
"Why is life unfair? Why can she get the strength to destroy a whole region and drain it of mana." She muttered hatefully.
Taking a deep breath, she sighed. She knew that there was probably no chance of her winning this event. With one of her main pawns for this event taken from her, she¡¯ll have to back off for now.
"Send the order, have everyone retreat from the zones, we¡¯re leaving." Thiriamanded as she decided to cut her losses for now.
###
Teleporting Revel to Nimue¡¯s anchor, Shiro created a space for him to materialise in his real form so that she could help him decode the cor.
"Who¡¯s that?" Nimue asked as she appeared next to Shiro.
"Hm? Oh, this is Revel. He¡¯s the Storm Leviathan that was previously under Thiria¡¯s control. I¡¯ll be trying to free him from the runes that bind him. He¡¯ll need to materialise his true form so I wanted a ce that is spacious. Plus, this zone has healing properties so it¡¯ll be helpful just in case he receives some wounds from the runes." Shiro exined as Nimue looked at Revel before looking at the space that she had cleared.
"I¡¯m sure you don¡¯t need this much space. Even if he is a so called Storm Leviathan, he¡¯s surely not that big now." Nimue said as Shiro smirked.
"Oh no." Nimue muttered realising her mistake of assuming things around Shiro.
Gesturing at Revel, Shiro gave him a smirk as he grinned back.
Suddenly, his form started to change and Nimue watched this multi headed being materialise into the clearing. His figure towered over the entire zone as he puffed out his chest in pride.
That allowed Shiro to clearly see his wounds. Around the runes, his flesh had already started to decay and after activating analysis, she could see that the damage was spreading deep into his body.
"How is it feeling right now?" Shiro asked while inspecting the wounds.
"Feels as painful as you can probably guess. Damage to the soul hurts quite a bit." Revel smirked.
"True. It was not fun when I was missing half my soul." Shiro shrugged.
"Wait what?"
Widening his eyes, Revel looked at her in disbelief.
¡¯How is this woman even alive if she missed half her soul. If a mortal missed half a soul, even if they are a Queen, they¡¯ll definitely di-¡¯
Before he could finish his thoughts, he felt a wave of pain shoot through his body as Shiro conjured up several runes that formed a harness around his torso.
"Try not to scream. I¡¯ll be decrypting your ve cor now." Shiro said as she pulled her hand back.
Nanobots materialised around her hand as she started to dispel the runes little by little.
As for Nimue... she had already left and was sleeping in her pool within the zone. She didn¡¯t need this kind of stress today.
While Shiro was spending the next few hours decrypting the runes, Thiria¡¯s zones have be a warzone.
Once the Queens realised that Thiria had evacuated from her zones, it became a free for all in terms of points. Thiria had the most points so even if they don¡¯t take first spot, they¡¯ll be able to get top three and get a reward.
asionally, Shiro could see the crest change ever so often as new Queens imed the zone.
However, her priority was not the zone right now. She was going to help Revel.
Plus, it was better if they fought over the zones since it¡¯ll take attention away from her on top of the fact that they¡¯re using resources on each other.
The less tier 6¡¯s a Queen has, the better for her. That way she can clear them with a single sweep of her hand.
During the procedure, Shiro could tell that Revel was in intense pain but not a single cry could be heard from him. Seeing the nine heads held up high with pride, she couldn¡¯t help but chuckle and found it quite adorable like a household pet.
Though if she said that, it would be quite rude considering what Revel had gone through already.
Looking at the final rune that was etched above his heart, Shiro narrowed her eyes and formed a mana de over her hand.
shing across his torso, blood and flesh sttered across the area as a scar could be seen forming on his chest but the rune was gone.
Feeling his leash disappear, Revel reared his nine heads into the air and let out a mighty roar.
The skies darkened to his cry as lightning shed around the zone. The Earth quaked to his presence as his aura was in full disy.
Seeing this, Shiro¡¯s lips forced a smile since this was simr to the presence she felt from the Dragon. Both were powerhouses near the Demi God state.
After calming down, Revel transformed back to his human self.
"Thank you for freeing me from my bonds. Unfortunately, that was just a hollow demonstration of my prime. With my soul wounded, it will take me a while to heal so my capabilities are lower than what they should be. If you give me some time to heal, I will prove my power. For now, is there anything you wish for me to do? If not I shall go heal my wounds." Revel asked as Shiro shook her head.
"Not right now. I will inform you if there is a task in need of your assistance. Do you want to live on my city? It is mobile and flies through the sky. It¡¯ll be a good ce for you to tend to your wounds. However..."
"Do not worry, I will ept a contract that prevents me from harming your city. Unlike the ve contract that I was under previously, this is nothing." Revel smiled as he felt gratitude towards Shiro for freeing him from his chains.
Nodding her head, Shiro quickly formed a contract with Revel before teleporting them to the city.
Seeing the flying city hovering so close to the country undetected, Revel couldn¡¯t help but widen his eyes in surprise.
"So many races, living in harmony. Their happiness is unlike the city of very and cruelws of Thiria¡¯s city." Revel muttered as Shiro paused.
"You know where the main city is?" Shiro asked but Revel shook his head.
"Unfortunately, not many do. There is probably only a handful of people who know but I do know where some of her branch cities are." Revel replied as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel disappointed.
"I see... No matter. Do you want a home like everyone else or would you rather a home that¡¯s more amodating for your true form?"
"If it is not too much trouble, the second option please. While in my true form, it is easier for me to heal my wounds." Revel smiled.
Nodding her head, Shiro created another portal for them.
Teleporting into the mech bay present on the second city, Shiro waved her hand and started construction on a new area.
It was going to be stationed next to the mech hanger below the ind and it¡¯ll be a good ce for him to stay out of sight since she doubted that he¡¯ll enjoy being watched like a zoo animal while in his real form.
There will be a wall and mana suppression barriers to hide his presence so he can have some privacy.
Watching everything happen, he couldn¡¯t help but apud her capabilities since she seems to have quite the mastery over the power of creation.
"Pardon by question but do you happen to have the Divinity of Creation? From the way it seems, it is not far off. There are traces of Divine Energy in the air as well as around you." Revel asked curiously as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d be able to detect Divine Energy but yes. While I am only tier 6, I have attained the state of being a Demi God early. Though the situation is rather unique so I would be unable to help you. As for my divinity, it is a branch of creation. You can say that it is a lesser copy for now." Shiro smiled as Revel nodded his head.
"It is fine. I understand that reaching the state of Demi God is unique to many. Especially if you are working with no background of divinity. I am cultivating my own but do not know when it will beplete."
"Then I wish you luck. Your new home will bepleted soon." Shiro chuckled before focusing her attention back on creating the room.
Chapter 1079 Khionahs Plight
Chapter 1079 Khionah''s Plight
After the room was created, Shiro allowed Revel to rest for a while before teleporting back to Nan Tian and resting in themand centre.
Laying on the chair, Shiro sighed in relief since she was a little exhausted after clearing the runes on Revel¡¯s body.
Noticing that Nan Tian seemed a little out of it, Shiro was somewhat curious.
Laying her head on the table, she stared at him.
"Mn? Is something up?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shook her head.
"Nothing is up with me. I was just wondering if you had something in your mind. You¡¯re not usually this quiet." Shiro asked as Nan Tian thought about it for a moment before sighing.
"It¡¯s nothing much. I¡¯m just a bit tired." He forced a smile but Shiro only narrowed her eyes.
"You know, I¡¯ve spent the most amount of time with you in the past few months. Do you think you can hide it? Something is clearly bothering you. If it¡¯s not something you wish to share you can just say so and I won¡¯t me you." Shiro said as Nan Tian scratched his cheek.
"Cough, it¡¯s nothing much really." He replied as his eyes darted around.
Saying nothing except for staring at him in silence, Shiro waited until Nan Tian sighed.
"Promise me you won¡¯tugh then." He said as Shiro nodded.
"I can certainly try."
"Cough, I¡¯m just a little jealous of Revel." Nan Tian said as he looked away with a small blush on his face.
Hearing this, Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"You were jealous of his previous fate as a ve?"
"No not that. Just how you took care of him I suppose." Nan Tian scratched his cheek as Shiro couldn¡¯t help but let out a smallugh.
"Ah sorry sorry, I didn¡¯t think you were someone that would get jealous like this." Shiro waved her hand as Nan Tian shrugged.
"I¡¯m still human and feeling jealousy is quite normal." Nan Tian replied as Shiro nodded.
"It is and it is quite cute haha. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m just helping the guy out. He¡¯s had his pride wounded by being enved to Thiria after all. He just needs a break."
"Mn." Nodding his head, Nan Tian tried to focus back on the paperwork he needed to do but couldn¡¯t focus since Shiro was just staring at him.
"Do you need something?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro smiled.
"Pft, jealous Lil¡¯ Tian." Shiroughed as Nan Tian wished that he didn¡¯t tell her now.
"Ok ok I¡¯ll stop so that you can focus on your work." Shiro chuckled and patted his head.
"I¡¯m not a child."
"But you did get jealous." Shiro smirked.
Rolling his eyes, he focused on his work as Shiro stopped staring and rxed for a while.
Conjuring up a screen in front of her, she nced at the crests that stopped changing. Each of Thiria¡¯s zones have been imed by someone else and it was pretty much one per Queen. There was maybe one Queen who got two small zones but that was it.
Looking at the satellite footage of the manpower they had stationed at the zone figured that she didn¡¯t even need to send tier 6¡¯s except for bing life lines.
¡¯Out of all the Queens, Thiria is the most dangerous one that I can think of. Not many others can pose a threat to me. Though if I think about it, this is only the beginning of the new age so they haven¡¯t amassed crazy amounts of power just yet. A lot of things changed since I was able to make my own anchor. Now I am able to gain power just like them so I won¡¯t be left behind in terms of power like I was in the previous ¡¯future¡¯.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as her phone suddenly rang.
Sitting up, she widened her eyes in surprise.
"Holy sh*t Khionah actually knows how to send a text." Shiro muttered before reading what she had sent.
Looking at how long it was, Shiro was wondering if she was sending a letter rather than text.
Most of the text was talking about how the Queens have attacked Thiria after her confirmed retreat from this country. Her retreat opened up a void of power that was split amongst the other Queens with the main ones having details of their manpower exined in the text.
However, most of this was what she already knew so Shiro skimmed it quickly.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro sent her a text back, asking if she was ready for an assault on the zones tomorrow. They¡¯ll split it so that she¡¯ll take two of the main zones and two small zones while Khionah took the rest.
Seeing that her message was read immediately, Shiro waited for a while but there was no response.
".. . Does she realise that I can see if she¡¯s read my text or not?" Shiro muttered.
"Judging from her experience with technology, probably not." Nan Tian said as Shiro closed her phone for now, It¡¯ll probably take a while before she receives a text back.
###
"Hmm... we should be able to take the remaining zones with how much manpower we have. It¡¯s just a case of protecting it after." Khionah muttered as she was typing away while also correcting what she typed so that it sounded better.
Watching this happen, Saphi couldn¡¯t take it any longer.
"Your highness, you have left Miss Shiro on read for an hour now. Please respond soon. And as I have said earlier, while texts are simr to letters, they don¡¯t need to be the same size nor does it need to be borately worded. Miss Shiro is asking if you are ready to partake in the attack. If you are, you can just reply with ¡¯I¡¯ll be there¡¯ and then a question about the time of the attack. There is no need for greetings or hopes of receiving a reply soon." Saphi said as Khionah furrowed her brows.
"But that is too simple and crude."
"It is how things are now, your highness. Let me show you." Saphi said as she pulled out her own phone.
Sending a message to her friend, she showed Khionah the reply.
"K, I¡¯ll get the stuff ready when ue back. Yellow guy grinning and thumbs up." Khionah muttered before frowning.
"Can I really reply like that? Would that not seem too crude?"
"Yes you can and it won¡¯t seem crude. Most people write like this now." Saphi sighed.
"How should I reply then?"
###
After Nan Tian had finished his work, they were about to sleep when Shiro received the text back finally.
"What the f*ck?" Shiro couldn¡¯t help but mutter as she read the text.
"What happened?" Nan Tian asked as he nced over.
Reading the message, he didn¡¯t know what to say as it was quite... Well he didn¡¯t know how to describe it.
[Kk, I¡¯ll be there. What time would it be? (Smirk Emoji) (Smirk Emoji) (Smirk Emoji)]
"Is she replying to my question for attacking or a one night hook up. What the f*ck is with the smirks?" Shiro muttered in disbelief.
###
"Your highness! Why did you send that so quickly! That emote is not the right one!" Saphi widened her eyes as Khionah furrowed her brows in confusion.
"What do you mean it¡¯s not the right one. Doesn¡¯t Shiro smirk like this? The emote is titled smirk so it should be correct." Khionah said as Saphi facepalmed.
"Your highness, that emote means..."
*CRACK!!!!
Upon hearing what it meant, Khionah idently broke the phone as it was crushed in half.
".. . f*ck." Khionah cursed as that was not what she had wanted to say at all.
Facepalming alongside Saphi, she now had a new problem to deal with. The phone was broken.
However, they watched as the pieces started to repair themselves. A new message could be seen on the screen.
[You seem to be having some trouble with the phone. I¡¯ve sent you some images that may help and it¡¯ll describe everything using terms that you are familiar with. Also, the time will be 9am, we¡¯ll storm all of the zones. If you need help protecting a zone I have some soldiers that I can send over to assist. We can talk more about this tomorrow.]
Reading this, Khionah nced up at Saphi.
"Is she making fun of me?"
"No. I think at this point it¡¯s merely her trying to help you out. I think she discovered that you are not... proficient with technology." Saphi said as Khionah stayed silent.
".. . " Without saying anything, she started to read the images that Shiro had sent which described the phone as a familiar that can instantly transmit short and concise messages quickly and how it can ess a wholework of information without creating a scouting group to look for this information manually.
Reading all of her exnations, Khionah gradually understood how to use a phone properly.
Spending the rest of the night experimenting with the thing called the inte, she didn¡¯t get much sleep as the sun rose like usual and it was time for therge scale attack on the zones.
Chapter 1080 The Machine Legion
Chapter 1080 The Machine Legion
Meeting Khionah not too far from one of the zones, Shiro raised her eyebrow after seeing how tired she seemed.
"Are you feeling ok?" Shiro asked curiously as Khionah nodded her head.
"Yes I am. I was just preupied with some... important work so I didn¡¯t get much rest. However, do not worry, I will still be able to take over a few zones." Khionah reassured with a yawn.
"If you say so. I didn¡¯t bring a lot with me but this should be fine for taking the zones. From what I¡¯ve gathered so far, the tier 6¡¯s who are acting as lifelines are rather weak. Even my soldiers should be able to kill them." Shiro shrugged as she gestured towards the toon of mech pilots who stood with serious expressions along with the Asharia army uniform which was mostly ck with some red highlights around the edges.
Seeing that most of them were lower than tier 4, Khionah raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure they can handle it?"
"Yup. With some external help they will be able to. Don¡¯t worry, once you see them in action you¡¯ll understand what I mean. They¡¯re essentially a toon of peak tier 5¡¯s that can kill a tier 6." Shiro chuckled as Khionah reluctantly nodded her head. There were doubts but she¡¯ll see what happens for herself.
Turning around, Shiro faced the toon.
"Ahem. As I have said before, there isn¡¯t much pressure. Each of your groups have dedicated medics so protect them when you attack and you¡¯ll be fine. I expect that all of you will be able to do this. However, if things go south, you are able to send a distress signal to the specialised pilots and I¡¯ll teleport them in. So keep your cool and remember your training. Just think of it as a Sunday walk but you¡¯ll be dealing with another Queen¡¯s forces." Shiro smiled as her speech was quite rxed.
Khionah was surprised that her soldiers were so disciplined despite the tone of her voice.
Little did she know, Shiro may sound rxed andzy but her training regime was nothing of the sort. She may bezy when ites to documents but she had informed Nan Tian of everything she wanted to do and the documentation was handled by him. The ideas still came from Shiro.
All of the soldiers managed to survive her training and were some of the best in the army despite not being specialised pilots. They didn¡¯t have that kind of aptitude.
Seeing that all of them were ready, Shiro smiled and turned around.
"Well, are all of you ready? The battle ns will be in the mechs once you summon them." Shiro smiled as they all replied with a ¡¯Yes, your highness¡¯.
Hearing this, Shiro nodded and nced towards Khionah.
"It¡¯s up to you what you do. My soldiers can act as the spearhead and you im whichever zones you want but I¡¯ll be taking two main and two small. Rest are up for grabs."
"That¡¯s fine, I¡¯m mostly here to spectate after all."
With that, Shiro smiled and her aura red.
"Squads one to four! Prepare to move out!" Shiro shouted as several passive skills activated. Suddenly, a golden crest appeared behind her as it was one that belonged to the Goddess of Wisdom/War, Athena. The crest was that of Athena holding a spear and shield.
The moment this crest appeared; faint golden auras could be seen on the soldiers as they all received a buff thanks to the blessing.
[All stats increased by 20% for 5 hours.]
Activating other passive skills that she had stored up, the toon felt like murderous tier 5 beasts even out of the mech.
Seeing this, Khionah was taken aback since she didn¡¯t expect Shiro to be able to activate a Goddess¡¯ blessing.
Dashing forward, each of the soldiers separated from each other as they made sure there was enough room before jumping into the sky. Summoning the mechs, nanobots surged around them as the Earth shook from their weight.
Watching the giant army materialise from thin air, Khionah was speechless and nced at Shiro since all of the mechs felt like high level tier 6 beings.
"Just think of it as metal golems that you can control. I¡¯ll be watching from the sky." Shiro chuckled.
Camouging herself, Shiro disappeared as Khionah watched the toon of mechs charged towards the zones with des and guns in hand. Each step would leave a crater in the ground as she then nced towards the soldiers she brought who were staring at the mechs in disbelief.
"Your highness, what is our n of action?" Saphi asked as Khionah nced towards the zone.
"I suppose we follow behind and let them do what they want. It¡¯s not like we¡¯ll be able to do much with our current... strength." Khionah sighed as she could see why Shiro was so confident. If even her soldiers were this strong then there¡¯s no need to even think about her trusted officers. Knowing what Shiro was like, she preferred quality over quantity so the officers would be many times stronger than what most would assume.
¡¯If she has this much power at her disposal right now, killing the Shadow Empress shouldn¡¯t be too difficult.¡¯ Khionah mused to herself as they started to walk towards the zones.
In the distance, they could see the guards of the zone desperately trying to protect the ce to no avail.
Each swing of their sword cleaved apart thend and each shot they fired broke past the strongest defences. Despite their rampage, they were organised. The moment a powerful shield appeared they entered a firing formation and fired a volley of shots in one concentrated area, shattering the barrier.
*BOOM!!!
Suddenly, a pir of light could be seen as a single figure rose into the air with a malevolent aura.
Seeing that it was the tier 6 lifeline, Khionah wanted to see how they¡¯ll deal with him.
Before he could even attack, a few of the soldiers broke off from the formation and created magic circles around the zone.
While they were activating a magic formation, three tank type mechs charged forward as the lifeline summoned an axe and cleaved towards them.
Blocking the strike with their shield, they parried it to the side before aiming their palm towards him.
Suddenly, the arm split apart as chains shot out. Each link in the chain had runes carved on the surface as the lifeline widened his eyes in shock. The moment the chains even came close to his body, he felt his mana getting sucked away as it was used to maise the chains to his body.
With his movements restricted, the spell formation around the zone activated as a tripleyered tier 6 magic formation appeared in the sky.
Mana converged above them, forming a single de and shot down like lightning.
*BANG!!!!!
Watching the tier 6 get restrained and subsequently killed in a few short moments, Khionah blinked her eyes just to make sure she was seeing things correctly. Even if they had information beforehand, creating such a counter in a few short hours was a little crazy. He wasn¡¯t even allowed to fire off one spell before his mana was turned against him and used as a prison.
With the first zone cleared, they didn¡¯t linger and immediately dashed towards the next.
Not only did they have crazy attack power, but their survivability was also off the charts thanks to the addition of the healers. They were armed with Life Fire along with a myriad of other defence improving skills that Shiro had installed. With her wide plethora of skills that she had recycled over the course of her time on Earth, it was hard to find something shecked.
Defence? She has that covered. Stat upgrades? Pseudo Berserk? Attack increase? She had them all and some of them could even be ssed as S grade skills that people could drool at the thought of obtaining.
During the low levels, percentile skills weremon but this soon disappeared after a certain level. For Shiro, the skills she got at low levels were usable even in theter levels hence why they were S grade.
In the next few hours, the mechs charged through all of the zones no matter how much the enemy tried to reinforce their defence.
The moment they brought out more tier 6¡¯s, the specialised pilots would take action and crush their hopes.
Once the enemy saw the specialised pilots in action, they could see why Thiria had retreated and decided to do the same, making it easy for them to im the rest of the zones.
Getting Attie, Estre, Nan Tian and Keiko to integrate themselves as lifelines, Shiro now had the most points and zones in this event, thus solidifying her position as first ce.
During the ¡¯crusade¡¯, her soldiers gained a nickname that spread amongst the soldiers of the other Queens.
The Machine Legion. An unstoppable army that crushed anything in their path.
Even tier 6¡¯s weren¡¯t safe from their power.
Chapter 1081 Talking to Syradil
Chapter 1081 Talking to Syradil
Once thest zone was captured, Shiro nodded in satisfaction before checking how much time was left.
With just a few hours left, she had an idea but it could potentially be a little risky.
She wanted to go talk to Syradil since it was the perfect chance. Syradil couldn¡¯t leave the zone since she was the lifeline so even if negotiations go south, she could escape whenever she wanted. She wasn¡¯t sure what kind of skill that she may have which could track so sending an avatar would also be good.
Her main goal was just to talk to her so that she could get some information about what she knows about the system.
Thinking about this, Shiro teleported next to Nan Tian and sat down.
"I¡¯ll be sending an avatar to Syradil so that I could try having a talk with her. I¡¯ll leave the job of keeping an eye on the zones to you." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Sure, good luck." He smiled.
Giving him a thumbs up, Shiro created an avatar and assumed control before teleporting away.
###
Leaving her zone, Shiro looked into the distance and spotted Syradil¡¯s zone. While on the way there, she decided to note out her questions so that it was easier to ask as much as she wanted.
¡¯I want to know what she knows in terms of information that only Empress¡¯s get to know. Since it shouldn¡¯t be censored for her, she should be able to hear it if I say it. I also should ask her about what happens in the second half, like how to win and such since she¡¯s been through a few Gardens now.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Stomping down, she increased her speed as she suddenly felt a pair of eyes on her. Noticing that it belonged to Syradil, she curved her lips into a smile.
"I suppose I should be looking forward to a small weing ceremony." Shiro muttered with a smile.
Landing just outside of the zone, she watched as the barrier opened slightly so that she could enter without needing to force her way in.
As she was walking through the zone, she couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrow since it waspletely silent. Not a single person could be sensed.
Previously, she had figured that Syradil probably hid them with something but no, it was true that she was here and she was alone.
¡¯Where are her subjects? Her allies? Shouldn¡¯t a Queen be able to bring them over from previous gardens?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself but continued to walk towards the ominous aura in the centre of the zone.
Navigating through the corridors, she pushed past the giant set of doors and saw Syadil sitting on a throne with her legs crossed and her head leaning on her hand.
"I was nning to look for you after this event is over but I didn¡¯t expect you to look for me instead." Syradil smirked as she narrowed her eyes just to make sure that this was not some disguise.
"What can I say? There¡¯s only a few hours left of this event and I figured that this was the perfect moment to ask you a few questions. Hopefully, you¡¯ll be able to answer some of them for me." Shiro smiled.
"Depends on the type of question. But I don¡¯t mind answering a few since I have some of my own. As you are the guest here, I¡¯ll let you have the first question. Ask away." Syradil gestured for Shiro to sit down as a table and throne appeared before her.
Seeing that she was being treated as an Equal, Shiro nodded her head and sat down.
"My first question is what knowledge do you have about the system that the other Queens don¡¯t? I heard from someone that all Empresses know something that Queens don¡¯t so I¡¯m curious as to what you know." Shiro questioned as Syradil tapped the table with her finger.
"Hmm... I know quite a bit. While I am one of the younger Empress¡¯s, I do have my fair share of knowledge. Anything specific that you¡¯re looking for or are you just asking me about everything I know?"
Taking a deep breath, Shiro looked at her with a serious expression.
"Do you know about the truth of this New Age? How it¡¯s thest cycle and everything will end if I don¡¯t win this." Shiro said as Syradil sat up in shock since she didn¡¯t expect Shiro to already know about this.
"Judging from your expression, I suppose my words weren¡¯t censored. I found out that the system has been spoutingplete bullsh*t to the Queens. I¡¯m not sure about the other Empress¡¯s but none of them know that once you fail in your garden, your chance is already over. Only the Queen originating from this Garden get¡¯s a chance to win this New Age."
"I¡¯m surprised that you have discovered this, considering how long it took me to find out. And yes, you are right. This is thest cycle and if you die, everything falls apart and we¡¯ll be destroyed along with everything else in this world. However, during my time here, I¡¯ve noticed something rather curious." Syradil smiled.
"This Garden can give birth to more than one Queen. Previously, whenever there was a Demon King or Queen, they were cultivated in their own domain. And yet, a Demon Queen was born in this garden which means there are two potential candidates to choose from. However, that¡¯s not the end. I¡¯ve also discovered that there is a potential for more Queens to appear should they grasp onto something that they can rule over which no one else has ruled over before. There are a lot of anomalies in this world and it seems like you don¡¯t have to be the final victor anymore." Syradil smiled darkly as Shiro felt her body tense up from what seems to be her skill.
"But I will say that right now, I have a rather good impression of you. Before I give more information, I¡¯ll ask my question now. How did you get to space and how damaged is the barrier? Do you know the consequences of you creating holes in this barrier?" Syradil asked since Shiro could probably get a better look at the barrier from space. She wanted to see if Shiro knew why it was put there in the first ce.
"I know that there is a barrier. In terms of damage, so far it¡¯s just the consequences of the first event where I fired my most powerful attack I could muster in order to destroy the relic. As for the repercussions of shooting through this barrier, I do not know for sure." Shiro shook her head.
"You see, the barrier is ced there for a reason. There will be an invasion from space, an army led by a powerful deity that will descend on this garden like it has done several times in the past. I¡¯ve seen the oue and the destruction brought to the garden whenever this happened. And I¡¯ll say that without the barrier that was specifically designed to stop them, this garden will be destroyed before the second half even arrives." Syradil warned as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Would it perhaps be due to a dungeon break of a ce called the Gates of Rokarn? I found this dungeon/raid on the surface of the moon and it did not seem like good news. I have asked a few gods and it turns out that Rokarn is quite the powerful fellow."
"¡¯Quite¡¯ is an understatement. He single handedly wiped out three Empress¡¯ who charged forth in the battle in one of the earlier gardens. But enough about that, I have a small proposition for you. Since you know about all of this, I will spare the small talk and ask you directly. How do you feel about forming a temporary alliance for now? If we can end Rokarn¡¯s army early, this Garden will be in a better spot when the second half arrives." Syradil asked as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"For now?"
"Yes. I¡¯ve ced my hopes in plenty of Queens and Empresses in the previous gardens. Since this is thest cycle, I don¡¯t really care anymore. If this Garden can survive, great. If not, then, oh well. Whether or not we keep this alliance can be discussedter but I have my own grudges against Rokarn so I don¡¯t mind seeing him seething in anger as we kill him while he¡¯s weak." Syradil shrugged.
Understanding that this was Syradil evaluating her strength along with the strength of her allies, Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright. What do you think we¡¯ll need in order for us to clear this raid then?" Shiro asked.
"Minimum of level 900."
"Interesting... How many would we need? Because I happen to know two level 900 beings, one of which is on friendly terms with me and while I and a few others may not be level 900, I¡¯ve attained Demi God state and they¡¯re in pseudo Demi God state." Shiro smiled as Syradil raised an eyebrow.
Watching Shiro summon divine energy around her, Syradil¡¯s eyes flickered for a moment before smiling.
"This should be plenty. Though I do have an idea of what we can do to raise their levels up a little before this raid."
Chapter 1082 First Place Rewards
Chapter 1082 First ce Rewards
"And what might that be?" Shiro asked curiously as Syradil smiled.
"It isn¡¯t a dungeon but I found a gathering of level 800 monsters in the sea. It¡¯s going to be a bit annoying to fight them but with what you have shown, it should be no problem. There are also a few ¡¯forbidden¡¯ zones that have high level monsters and portals to ces that can help you train. As for where they are, I don¡¯t have a map so I can only tell you the rough location using muscle memory." Syradil apologised as Shiro shook her head.
"It¡¯s fine. Though speaking of maps, I have another Question. Do you happen to know something called the Beyond?" Shiro asked curiously.
Furrowing her brows, Syradil nodded her head.
"A little. I¡¯m not sure where you heard of it but it¡¯s a special realm that is full of mana. If you think of this world right now asyer one, the Beyond isyer two where all of the mana is being filtered through. Normally, getting to the realm of the Beyond is extremely difficult since there are only a few openings. But I¡¯m guessing when you pierced through several dimensions with your attack during the first event, you pierced through the Beyond as well and destroyed a portion of it. While the makeshift Entrance is probably sealed off, the barrier there will be weaker." Syradil exined as Shiro leaned back.
"But that ce is lethal to anything above tier 3. Speaking of which, do you happen to know whythat is?" Shiro asked but Syradil shook her head.
"I don¡¯t know. However, it¡¯s not exactly safe for tier 3 and below either. There are nts there that mutated after your attack which caused the copse of a few dimensions in that area. They are now more resilient than ever and highly aggressive as well. They¡¯re not something that a tier 6 can handle even outside of that area. But with the environment now, you¡¯ll be dreaming if you actually wanted to fight them."
"But I will say one thing. If you happen to enter the Beyond, make the most out of it. Since your level gain in that realm is increased. The residents there are powerful and resistant to mana. Simr to the Storm Leviathan under Thiria¡¯s control, using mana against them is a no go since they¡¯ll just get stronger." Syradil said as Shiro coughed.
"Actually, one of the level 900 beings that I mentioned is Revel, the Storm Leviathan that was under Thiria¡¯s control. I¡¯ve broken contract with her and he¡¯s healing the wounds to his soul right now."
Hearing this, Syradil paused in surprise and stared at her.
"You broke the system¡¯s contract which rewarded Thiria with the monster?"
"Yup. It was a bit annoying but thanks to my knowledge of the runes used by gods, it¡¯s possible." Shiro smiled as Syradil chuckled.
"You surprise me more and more. Though that does make me curious, what do your subordinates think about this meeting? I¡¯m sure the spirits aren¡¯t too happy to see their ruler conversing with someone that tortured their previous ruler to death." Syradil asked as she rested her chin on her palm.
"Well they have their own thoughts about it. Care to tell me why you did it though? Might make cooperation a little easier." Shiro asked.
"I was bored and she helped one of the Queens thatunched an attack on me while we were waiting for the new age to begin. So as a result, I eliminated her as well as the other Queens that participated. Most of them managed to recover ande back but a few died for good. She was one of them." Syradil shrugged as Shiro sighed.
"That certainly makes things moreplicated." Shiro scratched her head.
"If you want I can offer her an apology if we are bing allies. I don¡¯t mind doing that. It won¡¯t do much since the previous Queen is still dead." Syradil shrugged.
"It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll think of thatter. I hope this isn¡¯t a sour topic but I thought Queens had subordinates? What happened to yours?"
Hearing this, Syradil paused for a moment before narrowing her eyes.
Contemting for a moment, she sat back.
"Their deaths were... unique to say the least. I do have a few allies but I am here alone right now." Syradil replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sorry for bringing it up."
"No, it¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t worry about it. So how do you know all of these things? You know the system¡¯s truth, you know about the beyond and even found out about the raid where the invasion would break out from." Syradil asked curiously.
"I¡¯ll be honest, it¡¯splete luck. I just keep running into trouble." Shiro shrugged as the two of them talked like old friends while waiting for the event to end.
"So when do you want to arrange the meet up to prepare for this raid on the dungeon? I¡¯m not sure how long it¡¯ll take for Revel to recover but I¡¯ll probably take more than a few weeks. Damage to the soul isn¡¯t easy to heal." Shiro asked as Syradil thought about it for a moment.
"We can do this in two months. It should be enough time for me to bring my level up to or at least close to 900 depending on what¡¯s around. But as we have discussed, I¡¯ll contact you once everything is prepared." Syradil replied with a smile.
The two of them agreed on an alliance for now but Syradil would be doing her own thing until the promised time since she has to tie up some loose ends.
This was fine with Shiro so naturally, she agreed on going separate ways for now.
"Before you leave though, I need to remind you. Don¡¯t break barriers that you find or pierce dimensions if possible. They¡¯re there for a reason. There has been a being who wears a raven crest and calls himself ¡¯Merchant¡¯ that¡¯s been contacting Queens and I¡¯m not sure about his objective. However, he only started appearing after you pierced the dimensions, so he probably used that to escape. Be careful of him and do not! And I mean do NOT, take his trade under any circumstance. It doesn¡¯t matter how desperate you are, never agree to his trade. There¡¯s something shady going on so don¡¯t risk it." Syradil warned as Shiro nodded her head.
Bidding farewell with Syradil, she dismissed her avatar and returned her attention back to her body.
"Seems like the talk went well." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Recounting the entire meeting for him, she rxed her body and enjoyed a cup of juice while he digested the information.
"A path to the beyond, nt based monsters, Raven Merchant, the Raid on the moon. You have quite the schedule huh?" Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yup. I have my work cut out for me. But for now, we just try to get our levels up based on where Syradil told me about the location of good level up spots. Our most pressing matter is definitely the imminent invasion by Rokarn¡¯s army. If we can deal with him before he invades, it¡¯ll be good for us. We don¡¯t know what the Raven Merchant¡¯s goals are so we can¡¯t do much about it. The journey to the Beyond will definitely be hard and it might even take longer than expected so we¡¯ll postpone that. Plus, it¡¯ll be good to see if we can find that dragon again, he¡¯ll be helpful for the raid if he can be an ally." She shrugged while keeping an eye on the cameras that are scanning the areas near the captured zones.
After her soldier¡¯s initial demonstration of their abilities, the Queens have left the area and avoided getting on their radar at all since they understood that there is no chance of them winning right now.
The winner of this event was practically guaranteed to be Shiro so there was no reason to keep risking their necks and manpower like this.
They already felt a sting in their heart after seeing so many tier 6¡¯s die during the previous free for all so they weren¡¯t going to incur anymore unnecessary losses.
As the time ticked down, Shiro smiled once she saw the notification.
[The event has ended.]
First ce: Shiro
Second ce: Khionah
Third ce: Syradil
Since Khionah had taken the other zones that belonged to Thiria previously, a majority of the points were transferred to her which allowed her to take second ce.
With two of the top three being her allies, all of the rewards would benefit her in one way or another. A perfect haul.
[As first ce, you get the best reward. The rewards are as listed.]
All of your lifelines that protected a zone gain a unique event title.
Two ck grade equipment.
ess to Special Event Store (One Use.)
Reading the final reward, Shiro paused in surprise.
She didn¡¯t expect there to be something like a store page within the system.
Thinking about the potential items, she wondered what was avable to be bought.
Chapter 1083 Mysterious Shard
Chapter 1083 Mysterious Shard
Before she even looked at the event shop, she wanted to see what else she got.
[Unique Title: Zone Guardian]
Due to the special circumstances around the zones that you have conquered, the Zone Guardian title evolves into an EX title.
[Zone Guardian EX]
When you are protecting a city belonging to the Queen, you are able to simte a sanctuary that helps all allies.
[Guardian Sanctuary]
When you are protecting the city, all allies in the city gain the following effects.
+80% Life Steal
+50% Mana and HP Siphon
+50% Defence Cleave against enemies
+5% Health Regen per second duringbat near the city
+200% Magic Damage
+200% Mana Regen
+50% Magic Pration
+5% of Queens INT each second duringbat. Stacks up to 50%.
Seeing that this title gives a city wide buff, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but think about how powerful a tier 1 would get.
However, the most important part of this was that it never mentioned it being limited to non Queens.
Which means she can get the same buff.
Thinking about this, Shiro¡¯s lips curved into a smile.
The next reward on the list was a pair of ck Grade items. Remembering the golems that had 1005 of her strength being a ck grade item, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what kind of power they held. She didn¡¯t care about a sword or armour since she already had a rainbow grade sword.
However, if it was something that could help her friends, then she was more than willing to give it out to increase their power.
Tapping ept for the two ck grade items, Shiro watched as two objects appeared on the table in front of her.
The first was a crystal of sorts while the second is a single coin.
Raising an eyebrow, she held the coin and inspected it.
[Favour of Gods]
You are able to summon a god that you have the favour of, bringing them to the real world at 70% strength.
The system will shape the world around them so that it can contain their power should it be used before the second half. If used in the second half, the god gains a 20% boost to their strength.
Blinking her eyes, Shiro didn¡¯t know what to say.
If she was to use this properly, this could reverse her fate.
¡¯It¡¯ll be helpful for the raid though I want to keep it for something else if possible.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since an item like this was helpful in many scenarios.
As for the second item...
[Unique Item: Shard of ???]
A unique item that radiates an otherworldly power. Specifically requested by an Administrator to be given to entity ¨C Shiro ¨C As a reward.
Reading this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrows.
The fact that this was specifically requested for her by an administrator caused her to think back to Administrator 4 who had been helping her out this whole time.
¡¯Since it¡¯s something requested specifically for me and it¡¯s ck grade, it¡¯s probably something important that I need to have. For now, I guess I¡¯ll keep it in my inventory.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while looking towards the final reward. The event shop.
Since it was one use, she guessed that she can only make one purchase from it. It was either that or she could make multiple purchases but only open the shop once.
Narrowing her eyes, she wondered what it meant.
"Gaia, do you happen to know anything about the event shop?" Shiro asked before she used the reward.
[Goddess Gaia states that she has very little knowledge about this and most of the gods here don¡¯t know either.]
Reading this, Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯Wait, maybe Khionah knows something about this since she¡¯s won one before.¡¯
Pulling out her phone, she sent Khionah a message.
[Shiro: Hey, do you have a moment to spare?]
[Khionah: Yes I do, did you need something?]
Seeing that she replied quite quickly without any trouble, Shiro raised an eyebrow in surprise before typing her question.
[Shiro: Do you happen to know anything about the Event Store?]
[Khionah: Ah figures. You won a ticket to open that thing. Basically, the event store is a limited store where you can buy items up to rainbow grade but they¡¯re ridiculously expensive. Even if you win five events, you won¡¯t be able to afford a single one. However, you will be able to afford their ck grade items.]
[Shiro: What currency does it use?]
[Khionah: When you win an event, you¡¯ll be rewarded with 5 credits. Second ce gets 3 credits and third ce gets 1 credit. That is what is used as currency. However, I suggest you keep a hold on that ticket for now until you get another one. A ticket to the shop is quite rare and it is used up the moment you open the store. If you close it without buying anything, that¡¯s it. It¡¯ll give you a warning so you won¡¯t close it by ident.]
[Shiro: Wait, it¡¯s used up the moment I open the store?]
[Khionah: Yup. You can also get level 900 ¡¯ves¡¯ like the one that Thiria had received but they¡¯re more expensive. She got her as a normal system reward rather than buying it from the store.]
[Shiro: I see, thanks for the help.]
[Khionah: No problem. Oh also, are you able to send me one of thoseputers? They seem quite interesting.]
Reading this, Shiro paused as she didn¡¯t expect someone like Khionah to want aputer when she had trouble with the phone. However, she won¡¯t judge.
[Shiro: Sure, do you need me to make a manual like I did with the phone?]
[Khionah: No, I¡¯ll be able to handle it.]
[Shiro: Alright, I¡¯ll send over a program now. Just activate it on the phone and it¡¯ll take some mana from you. Once you given the phone some mana, the nanobots will make aputer for you.]
Sending over the program for the nanobots, Shiro bid her farewell before closing her phone.
###
Seeing Khionah¡¯s eyes sparkle, Saphi understood that she must have gotten what she wanted. She had been talking about wanting aputer after bing familiar with the phone. For thest few hours, she had been doing nothing buty down on the sofa and ying with that phone. asionally feeding herself.
¡¯I should have just said that I don¡¯t know how to use the phone.¡¯ Saphimented as all of the work was pushed to her since Khionah was preupied.
Suddenly, she watched as the phone broke a piece of itself off that reorganised themselves into aputer on the desk.
".. ." staring at theputer that appeared, Saphi shed a silent tear.
All of the work from now will probably be pushed to her seeing as how Khionah was now on the fastne toziness.
But she was the Queen so Saphi couldn¡¯tin.
###
With the event now over, Shiro had to prepare for their next task which is to level up.
Looking at the map, she started to mark down the location that Syradil had told her.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro brought up the satellite camera and looked at the whole world.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro wanted to see if she could scan the whole world to find where the most mana was gathered. Usually, spots like that would have high levelled monsters which could be used for some EXP.
However, the ce choice would be a dungeon that survived the start of the new age. Most of the low levelled dungeons copsed so any that survive should be high levelled.
Making some adjustments to the camera, she activated a few runes along with skill chips to adjust the way it saw the world.
Viewing the world in colour coded format, she could now see where the most mana was gathered.
Seeing a giant cluster where the north pole should be, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but raise an eyebrow.
If she had to describe it, it¡¯s like several Asharia¡¯s were stacked on top of one another.
"Welp, seems like we have our next destination." Shiro muttered before taking control over the satellite that was responsible for that area.
Zooming in, Shiro wanted to see if she could spot what was the source of this mana.
¡¯It¡¯s either a powerful monster or another entrance to the beyond. Regardless of what it may be, it¡¯s the biggest cluster of mana in this world right now so it¡¯ll be good to scout it out.¡¯
Projecting the video so that Nan Tian could also see it, the two of them could see a giant blizzard sweeping over the area.
However, it didn¡¯t matter since it was impossible to cover up the giant sinkhole leading deep underground. Seeing the size of the sinkhole, Shiro figured that she could probably fly Asharia down without any problems.
"Seems like this is where all of this mana ising from. What do you think is under there?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian could only shrug.
"No idea. But anything that can emit this much mana is definitely dangerous. Let¡¯s send some drones to scout it out before we look at the area in person." Nan Tian suggested.
Nodding her head, Shiro snapped her finger and deployed a few drones from the satellites. Shooting towards the Earth in capsules, they bypassed the barriers without harming them.
Chapter 1084 Crystal Conductors
Chapter 1084 Crystal Conductors
Upon arrival, the drones started to spread themselves out around the north pole. Surrounding the giant sinkhole where the mana originated from was strange crystals that acted as conductors of sorts.
Each of the crystals would amplify the surrounding mana and funnel it back to the sinkhole.
It was a strange sight as there was this constant cycle of the hole emitting mana, having the crystals amplify the mana then reabsorbing that mana after being amplified.
Tapping her chin, Shiro furrowed her brows since this was a little strange. While it was true that monsters value mana, it wasn¡¯t to the state of needing this much. Once a monster is born, there is a period where they require lots of mana daily to support their growth. This was seen in Yin when she was just hatched but she decided to embrace that side of her.
Other monsters tend to stop after a while.
So since the chances of it being a high level monster is low, Shiro figured that it was probably a monster that hasn¡¯t been born yet. If it required this much mana to support its growth then Shiro didn¡¯t want to imagine what it¡¯s like.
"Nan Tian, grab your stuff and pick out a few talented individuals. We¡¯ll be setting up a city in the north pole so that we can investigate this further. I¡¯m not sure how long it¡¯ll take so I¡¯ll set up a stationary research city there. The crystals seen in this camera are quite strange since they¡¯re simr to the magic circles that I use but they¡¯re natural. If we can use this in the city, we¡¯ll be able to increase our power output significantly." Shiro said as she jumped up from her chair. Nodding his head, Nan Tian did the same as he stored hisptop into his inventory.
"What kind of advert do you want me to put?"
"Something along the lines of research in the north pole and give them some brief details. Prioritise getting some of the stronger medics aside from Silvia to go on this trip since we don¡¯t know what might happen. Having good medics on standby would be useful. We¡¯ll have two toons of mech pilots stationed to protect this ce with Shiina and Maria. Shiina should be good in the cold environment and Maria is a good support for her. These two should be able to handle that ce without a problem. We¡¯ll go there for the first few weeks but if there is nothing to be found short term, we¡¯ll put our focus elsewhere and level up since we need to reach level 900 to do the raid. Right now I¡¯m in the 700¡¯s so there is still a lot to go." Shiro ordered.
"Mn, got it. Yin should be reaching tier 6 soon with the information we received from Misu. Once she sses up, she¡¯ll be able to level up properly as well. Everyone else averages around level 500¡¯s to 600¡¯s. That goes for me too. If we want to all reach level 900, the amount of Exp we need will be ridiculous." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know, hence why we¡¯ll be looking for a high level dungeon on the side. I have the satellites searching for a dungeon right now but most of the time it¡¯s just somewhat high level territories that aren¡¯t worth our time. Now I can see why powerful old geezers are stuck at around the same power for a while. It¡¯s not that they can¡¯t kill the things but it¡¯s a matter of where they can find to kill them." Shiro muttered with a sigh.
"Well you can try to cultivate but the exp gain is pretty smallpared to killing monsters to get Exp." Nan Tian offered with a shrug.
"True. Speaking of killing monsters to get Exp, I wonder how much Exp I would give if someone killed me. I¡¯m not trying to jinx it but it makes you wonder, you know? I¡¯m a Demi God at tier 6, an Empress as well and the amount of skills I have. If someone kills me surely they deserve quite a bounty of Exp but how much would they get? Would it be enough for them to reach level 1000?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
"Not sure but I presume to be quite a lot." He shrugged.
"True."
###
Sending out a notice for the new mission, Shiro watched as the application came in since most were looking for new job openings anyways.
While Nan Tian handled the assembly of the new team, Shiro used the drones to create an anchor point for her teleport.
Opening a portal, she was immediately sted with a face full of cold air and snow.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, she breathed out a mouth full of condensation.
Despite having some resistances, even she felt a little cold in this ce. Though it didn¡¯t help that she was in a dress rather than something suited for this ce.
¡¯With the crystal conductors in this ce amplifying the mana, it¡¯s also increasing the cold. I¡¯d say anyone below tier 3 won¡¯t be able to survive more than a few hours in this ce and those higher... might be able to hold out for a few days?¡¯ Shiro mused to herself as she flexed her fingers, creating a dress that kept her rtively warm.
Since she didn¡¯t have an ¡¯ice spirit¡¯ that became a pseudo demi god, she wasn¡¯t immune to the cold just yet. She had high resistance but not immune.
Walking around for a while, she was disappointed that everything that could attack her had already fled since they could tell that she was strong. Shaking her head, she walked up to one of the crystal pirs and examined it closely.
The crystal was naturally conductive and would amplify any source of mana that came in contact with it. The more mana ites into contact with, the bigger the amplification.
The smallest increase she had discovered through some light experiments seems to be around a 25% boost to power while it could go up to as high as tripling the mana.
If she were to design a rifle with this crystal installed near where the bullet was formed, it could be something rather devastating since she wouldn¡¯t need to use so much space for amplification. That space could be used for other effects such as making the bullet multiply itself or target the soul.
While she could already make something simr, it would be quite annoying since the overall sniper would be heavy and cumbersome. Not suited for the close hand to handbat that she¡¯s been in recently.
This wasn¡¯t limited to snipers either, it applied to hand cannons. There were several reasons as to why she had been using swords and other martial weapons over her firearms right now. It was because it was overkill but not in a good way. It was good since it could instantly kill weak opponents but strong opponents like Syradil could sense therge gathering of mana immediately and react ordingly.
For enemies like her, Shiro would need to use Silvanis rather than a gun.
However, if she seeds in making a new prototype with this crystal then it might give her more incentive to use her guns.
Creating a dagger in her hand, she broke off a small piece of the crystal before shaping it into a small cartridge of sorts.
Thankfully, even after being separated from the main body, the crystal retained its properties.
¡¯If I was to make this a weapon such as a hand cannon, this crystal will be near the barrel since it¡¯s responsible for amplifying the mana. It¡¯s easier to disguise small amounts of mana so by the time I shoot this thing, it would be toote to dodge.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as nanobots twisted around her hand.
Weaving together to form a hand cannon, she reced a few of thepartments with the crystal.
Activating her skill analysis, she was surprised to see the nanobots harmonise so well with this material. When shebined the two together, she was half expecting it to blow up in her hand and take an arm with it.
But it was actually improving the stability of the entire weapon as the crystal was not only a great material for amplifying but it was also a good container. When her weapons blow up, half the time it¡¯s because they couldn¡¯t handle the mana. And yet with a single crystal, most of the problems were solved.
"Interesting... I might have to harvest some more of this and see what I can do. Perhaps it¡¯ll even improve the mechs and satellites, not just the city overall." Shiro muttered with a small smile.
With the new hand cannon created in her hand, Shiro thought about it for a moment before teleporting elsewhere.
She didn¡¯t want to alert anything that might be in this ce with her firing a weapon.
Teleporting to one of the ruined cities that was reduced to a frozen tundra, Shiro nced at one of the monsters that noticed her immediately.
It was a level 600 behemoth that had ted armour wrapping its body.
A quick scan told her that it had impressive defence that put it roughly around the same level as level 700¡¯s to 800¡¯s.
Inserting roughly enough mana so that it can kill a tier 5, Shiro smiled and pulled the trigger.
Chapter 1085 What Lies At The Bottom
Chapter 1085 What Lies At The Bottom
Watching the bullet escape the barrel of the gun, Shiro immediately noticed a small change. Not only was the bullet now amplified, it had another... unique property that was not a result of her nanobots.
As it was traveling towards the behemoth, the bullet started to gain increased momentum by absorbing the surrounding mana along with the target.
With the behemoth¡¯s mana being absorbed, its movements started to be sluggish as though a slowing field was deployed around him.
Once the bullet reached the behemoth, the surroundings seemed to copse towards it, as though there was a void that demanded all of the mana it could offer.
*CRACK!!!!
Watching the behemoth get snapped in half by the force, Shiro widened her eyes in surprise.
The muscr figure of the monster started to shrivel up before finally copsing to the side, nowpletely devoid as mana.
As for the bullet, a new crystal conductor started to sprout out from the behemoth¡¯s body.
Looking at her gun, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"This definitely needs more experimenting before I can actually use this without any worries. If this thing can somehow backfire on me, it would be quite troublesome. However, the properties of this material seems pretty handy for a weapon. If I experiment and try to make the best hand cannon possible, it might reach the level of Silvanis. Though I doubt it would since Silvanis was upgraded to rainbow after Error ¡¯ate¡¯ it." Shiro muttered while ncing into her mana realm.
Seeing the red circuit tree silent as ever, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what was happening with Error.
Since she could still activate him as usual, she knew that he was mostly fine but it felt a little off.
Opening her eyes, Shiro nced at her right hand and activated Error. Seeing the ck material cover her arm and engrave it with red circuits, she poked at it a few times and saw that it wasn¡¯t reacting at all.
Shaking her head, she deactivated the skill before examining the crystal conductor that sprouted out of the behemoth¡¯s corpse.
cing her hand on the surface, she scanned the internal structure and saw that it was pretty much the exact same as the previous conductors. Only this time it was also filled with life energy. She recognizes this since it was the same energy she felt from Gaia¡¯s divinity.
¡¯Wait...¡¯ Shiro paused as she realized something.
Quickly firing another shot at the ground, she wanted to see if the conductors could sprout as well but there was nothing. Only a somewhat powerful attack that absorbed mana but no crystal was created.
Seeing as how the behemoth shriveled up while this crystal appeared, Shiro could guess that this was only created when there is something being used as a sacrifice.
¡¯If that¡¯s the case then all of the crystals in the north pole were monsters who had their life force drained. With how big some of the crystals are, I¡¯d estimate that some of them are higher than level 700, perhaps even 800.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown. Thinking about it for a moment, she decided to look for another monster.
Camouging her mana to feel like the behemoth¡¯s, she could see a few level 600¡¯sing out of hiding.
Spotting one that broke off from the rest, she flew over and kicked it in the head.
*BANG!!!
Crashing into the ground, the monsters struggled as vision was blurred from that kick.
Without a shred of mercy, Shiro grabbed it by the back of the neck and threw it into a portal.
She was going to turn him into one of the crystals and see where the life energy disappeared to.
Teleporting back to the north pole, she grabbed it by the tail and dragged it towards the sinkhole.
"Sorry about this but it¡¯s nothing personal really." Shiro said as she fired it, killing the monster.
Watching the crystal sprout out of its body once more, Shiro could sense the life energy flowing through the ground, towards the bottom of the sinkhole.
Narrowing her eyes, she was about to continue when she felt her heart pound. Seeing the shadows begin to distort, she frowned and nced at the time.
"Time¡¯s up already..." She muttered.
Massaging her eyes, she flicked her wrist and summoned an avatar.
Creating a portal for herself, she teleported back to Asharia and spotted Nan Tian in themand centre.
He was currentlypleting the tasks that she had given him.
Without saying anything, she sat down next to him and held his sleeve.
"Are you sending out an avatar again?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro would do this whenever there is something she needed to do that might take more than 10 minutes.
"Mn, sorry about this." Shiro apologised as Nan Tian shook his head.
"It¡¯s fine. Have fun exploring, tell me if something interesting happens ok?" Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Leaning back, she closed her eyes and focused on her avatar.
Moving her body, Shiro walked to the edge of the sinkhole and narrowed her eyes.
Conjuring up a drone, she had it travel ahead of her while she followed behind.
With her passive skills, it wasn¡¯t hard to see in the dark but despite that, it was still difficult to see the bottom due to how deep it was.
Surprisingly, it took her more than 30 minutes before she could actually see the bottom.
At the bottom of the sinkhole was a white jewel of sorts. While she described it as a jewel, it was better to call it a giant building instead.
With how big this thing was, she could fit several mechs inside.
As she approached the jewel, she noticed the life force being absorbed into the jewel.
"It¡¯s an egg?" Shiro muttered as she wasn¡¯t sure what kind of egg would produce something like this.
Activating analysis, she tried to look into the interior of the egg but all she could see was a swirl of mana with no distinct shape. 80% of the life force would enter the egg but the remaining 20% would flow into the ground and flow elsewhere.
Surrounding this egg were countless skeletons with crystal conductors exploding out from their ribcage.
Sensing the mana, she understood that the source was inside this egg and it was constantly emitting mana while absorbing the amplified amount back in.
This constant cycle allowed it to store up a massive amount of mana but she was unsure as to what was supposed to be born from this.
Snapping her finger, she sent out a pulse of mana so see if she could map out this area.
However, the moment she used mana, it was absorbed into the egg almost immediately.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro tried to summon some nanobots to create a device that could map out the area using sound.
But simr to what just happened, any ambient mana is being absorbed almost immediately.
¡¯So items that contain mana don¡¯t have it forcefully dragged out. But when they try to use mana and project it into their surroundings, it¡¯ll get absorbed...¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
This¡¯ll make a lot of things annoying considering the fact that she uses nanobots. If she wanted to make a base here, she¡¯ll have to piece it together with parts that are already finished.
Thankfully, this effect only happens in the bottom so she can make the parts above ground.
The same goes with flight, while she may retain her ability to fly, she can¡¯t fly too fast as the mana will be drained immediately.
Right now, she is able to match the output with the absorption so she can still fly as usual.
¡¯I think I¡¯ll get everyone to observe this for a while, see if we can find anything out about the origin of the egg and crystals. I should also get a few to experiment with the crystals in guns so that I can make a blueprint that guarantees my safety instead of a weapon that might just kill me.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself since she didn¡¯t want to imagine what would happen if that crystal entered her body.
Flying back up took a little longer than floating down but she managed to fly up without any problems.
Setting up some drones right now, she sent them down to explore the bottom of the sinkhole while making a temporary base here. She won¡¯t make it a city just yet since she didn¡¯t know what kind of dangers may lurk around.
With some early preparation done, Shiro dismissed her avatar for now.
Since this ce couldn¡¯t work as a ce for Exp farming, she¡¯ll have to look elsewhere.
Spending the rest of the day looking for potential locations using her satellite, she soon received news that Yin was just outside of the volcano region with Attie. This region was being protected by Thiria so they¡¯ll need to be safe.
However, since Attie was with Yin, Shiro figured that the two of them could handle it.
Just in case, she had satellites on standby to help out if they ran into trouble.
Chapter 1086 Imposter Yin and Attie
Chapter 1086 Imposter Yin and Attie
Squatting on a boulder, Yin narrowed her eyes at volcanoes that made up the mountain range.
"What are you doing big sis?" Attie asked as he stood normally beside her.
"I¡¯m squatting. You see, it looks ominous if you squat on something while overlooking the ce you want to invade." Yin exined as Attie raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"Yup, trust your big sis. Nowe, you squat as well." Yin gestured towards him as she shuffled to the side, making some room for Attie.
Furrowing his brows, Attie nodded his head and crouched next to her.
Squatting in silence, Attie nced towards Yin.
"So when will we attack?"
"Not yet, I¡¯m still scanning for how many people are here. From what I can tell, there are roughly seven tier 6 monsters guarding this entire ce considering their mana signals while several hundreds possibly even thousands of tier 5 workers. Calling them workers might not be urate considering the fact that all of them have cors around their necks." Yin muttered.
"So how do you want to do this? Loud and explosive or sneaky?" Attie asked since he was fine with doing both. He was just here to help out Yin after all.
"Good question. Let¡¯s y rock paper scissors. If I win we go loud and clear, if I lose we go sneaky ok?" Yin said as Attie nodded his head.
Since it seemed to him like Yin wanted to go in loud and clear, Attie figured that he¡¯ll lose on purpose.
"Rock, paper, Scissors!" Yin called out.
As his hand was falling, Attie observed Yin¡¯s hand and noticed that she was also changing her choice.
¡¯Wait... is she going scissors or paper?¡¯ Attie thought as cold sweat dripped down his face.
Furrowing his brows, he continued to change his choice as their hands became a blur of motions. When they finally settled with a choice, they ended with a tie.
"Attie, you really like changing your choice huh?" Yin said as her smile twitched.
"Same goes for you big sis, I figured that you¡¯d want to go in with explosive intent." Attie replied.
"I do but I wanted to spice things up a little, if we sneak in then explode everything from the inside out, wouldn¡¯t that be quite the sight?"
"Then why didn¡¯t you say so? You know I don¡¯t mind what we do, I¡¯m just here to help." Attie pouted lightly as Yin coughed.
"Alright, let¡¯s sneak in then."
Nodding his head, Attie waved his hand and transformed his form so that he would match the location a little better. If Thiria controlled monsters, this was a good excuse to act as a higher up.
mes erupted around Attie¡¯s body as he transformed into a mass of swirling mes. Two neon blue orbs represented his eyes.
"Oh my, maybe I should change as well. Hmm... I doubt my true form would get past the checks. I haven¡¯t seen another phoenix except for me or my other mum after all." Yin scratched her hair.
Thinking hard, she eventually settled with a tiny bird form.
Transforming herself into a bird that was smaller than a palm, Yin sat on Attie¡¯s shoulder.
"Just hide me with your mes and we¡¯ll be fine." Yin reassured as Attie nodded his head.
There was a clear path towards the centre where most of the guards are stationed.
Magic circles could be seen everywhere as neither Yin nor Attie knew what they were meant to do. Since there were too many unknown variables, they decided to y it safe for now.
As they approached the area, they saw a single tower connected to a floating tform above theva. Bridges connected the tower to the volcanoes as ves stumbled back and forth, carrying strange luminescent rocks that emitted a red glow.
Sensing Attie¡¯s aura, the ves instinctively stayed away from him. Approaching the tower without any problems for the time being, they spotted the first monster.
"Halt! Who are you?" the monster grumbled as Attie narrowed his eyes.
"I am sent by her highness as part of the new staff. Take me to the overseer of this ce." Attie said as his voice caused the surroundings to shake.
Sensing his strength, the monster quickly bowed and nodded his head.
Within Thiria¡¯s rule, only strength mattered. Weak monsters dared not to question themands from above.
"Understood. Allow me to show you the way."
Nodding his head, Attie followed at a casual pace.
"He seems quite afraid huh?" Yin whispered.
"Mn. From the way he looks at me I¡¯d say that they¡¯ll be punished severely for disobeying the higher ups. I¡¯d say that a good description would be drinking a poison that would kill you but you don¡¯t know when." Attie whispered back.
"That¡¯s pretty urate."
Following the monster, they entered the tower.
The interior of the tower was rather spacious with a single spiral staircase leading upstairs. None of the rooms were bordered off so they could see a few monsters sleeping out in the open and some even mating in the corner.
When Yin saw that, she immediately covered Attie¡¯s eyes, causing him to stumble for a bit but recovered swiftly so that the monster doesn¡¯t notice anything that¡¯s off.
"The floor above is where the overseer is. I cannot enter." The monster said Attie nodded.
"You can leave now."
Watching the monster leave, Attie scanned the floor above and sensed two tier 6 monsters with one sitting in front of a desk and the other looking out the window.
"Big sis, there are only two tier 6¡¯s above. We can kill them easily but do you want to see if we can get any information from them first?" Attie asked as Yin nodded her head.
"Let¡¯s y it passively for now. Don¡¯t expose the fact that we will kill them."
Walking up the steps, Attie immediately came into eye contact with the one sitting behind the desk.
He had a half human half monster body. A humanoid torso but monstrous arms covered with natural ted armour. Neon blue glows could be seen between the gaps as two horns created from the game glow hovered above his head.
"What is your business here?" The overseer asked as he narrowed his eyes at the neer.
"Her highness has sent me here to make a routine check. She is wondering why we haven¡¯t gotten any results yet. After what had happened in the event, I hope you have some good news for her." Attie bluffed as he had no idea what was going on here. If he mixed in a few truths, it should make his story more believable.
"Her highness sent you here?" The overseer furrowed his brows.
However, the moment he asked that question, he could sense that Attie¡¯s aura shifted and started to grow. Not wanting to displease this monster if he was indeed sent by her highness. Plus, there have been situations like this before so he sat back and rxed.
"I see... We do have some good news but not much progress here either. It has been rather difficult to break through the tomb to achieve our goals but so far, we¡¯ve collected enough Molten Essence toplete stage one." The overseer replied as Attie nodded his head.
"Only at stage one... Her highness wants you to hurry things up. After our loss, we¡¯re being pressured on all sides. Take me to the tomb, I¡¯ll see if I can do anything about it." Attie said but the overseer furrowed his brows before nodding his head.
"Considering your nature, I suppose her highness sent you here to deal with the mes. The heat and mes have been our biggest obstacles after all." The overseer said as he gestured to the mes on Attie¡¯s body.
"Follow me. Grim¡¯ Lor, stay here and deal with anyone that looks for me." The overseermanded as the other monster bowed at hismand.
Taking the lead, the overseer started to make his way down.
However, the moment he passed Attie, he felt as though he sensed a familiar energy but dismissed it as mes. After being here for so long, everything felt the same to him so it was not surprising that a monster made from mes would feel the same.
"How long will you be staying here?" He asked curiously.
"Only a few short days. I have orders elsewhere so I will not be staying here." Attie replied as the Overseer nodded his head.
They had a few short conversations on the way but Attie did not say much. The more they spoke, the more his disguise fell apart so he tried to stay silent if he could.
Crossing several bridges, they walked towards the centre of the mountain range where the light distorted due to the heat.
"If any of the ves walk past this point, they¡¯ll dry up and die within minutes."
Ignoring him, Attie stepped forward and ignored the heat.
"Big sis, I think I can sense something simr to your mana. I think the tomb he mentioned is thest piece that you need." Attie whispered as Yin nodded her head.
"Mn, seems so. What do you think they wanted to do with thatst piece though?"
"We can ask him. But it might be risky since I¡¯ll have to clear the way."
"It¡¯s worth the risk. If pushes to shove, then we¡¯ll just eliminate him." Yin suggested while narrowing her eyes at the Overseer behind them.
Chapter 1087 Yins Evolution
Chapter 1087 Yin''s Evolution
Raising his arms, Attie let out a pulse of energy as the mes were immediately pushed to the side. Snapping his fingers, a barrier of sorts appeared, blocking out the heat.
Blinking his eyes in surprise, the Overseer didn¡¯t think that the heat which could kill was dealt with so easily.
"Why are you dawdling? Let¡¯s go." Attie said coldly as the Overseer nodded his head.
¡¯If her highness has sent someone of his calibre here then she must want to finish this task as soon as possible.¡¯ He thought to himself as he decided to address this man with more respect.
"Sir, since you are dealing with the mes quickly, shall I inform the rest of the ves to carry the Molten Essence over?" The overseer asked as Attie nodded his head.
"Mn, if we can finish everything today then it¡¯ll give me more time to deal with my other tasks tomorrow."
Nodding his head, the Overseer excused himself for a moment while Attie made his way towards the centre.
Thend started to tilt down as severalva falls could be seen, gathering into ake at the bottom.
A strange marbled material could be seen around an entrance of sorts. Their surface glowed with a soft orange/red hue to theva.
"You sense that energy?" Yin whispered as Attie nodded his head.
"I do, it¡¯s the same as yours big sis. Thest piece is definitely in here. I¡¯m not sure if there is a trial or anything else protecting it but it seems like there is only a barrier of mes and heat right now." Attie muttered since this wasn¡¯t a good defence in his eyes.
After all, anyone with enough resistance to mes can just walk through without any problem.
"Well it¡¯s done a good job so far. No one else has been able to pierce this barrier and im whatever is inside."
As they were walking down, Attie sensed that the Overseer was catching up again and this time with somepany.
"Sir, I have brought the ves with the molten essence." The Overseer reported as Attie nodded his head.
"I¡¯ll clear the path then."
Waving his hand, Attie fended off the heat so that the ves could enter without being burnt to a crisp.
The further they travelled, the hotter it became. It was to the point that even with his barrier, the ves started to feel the heat. It wasn¡¯t to the point that it¡¯ll kill them but the situation wasn¡¯t looking good.
¡¯I won¡¯t be able to hold off the heat and mes if we keep going. I might not be affected but everyone else here will be.¡¯ Attie thought to himself. He was quite surprised that the mes could push back his barrier to this extent even though it couldn¡¯t harm him or Yin.
However, even if he is concerned, he can¡¯t say anything right now. He knew that the hierarchy that Thiria had created was one based on strength. The moment he showed concern or pity for those under him, his disguise would fall apart before they even know what they¡¯re supposed to do.
Without saying anything, he tried his best to improve the barrier for the ves so that they¡¯re not killed.
Walking down some makeshift steps, they approached a set of gates that blocked the path forward. At this point, everyone except for the overseer, Attie and Yin were on the verge of passing out.
Sweat covered their bodies as their visions shifted.
"This is what¡¯s been dying the progress. We¡¯ve found ways to get to this stage after some sacrifices but we haven¡¯t been able to enter through forceful means. There doesn¡¯t seem to be a key either. If only we can open this door, we¡¯ll actually be able to use the molten essence as a catalyst to harness the phoenix power inside." The Overseer clicked his tongue.
"And after Harnessing the Phoenix power, what do you n to do with it?" Attie asked as he narrowed his eyes.
"Well to cultivate a Phoenix of co- wait, shouldn¡¯t you..." Pausing mid sentence, the Overseer immediately summoned a sword as he and two other tier 6¡¯sunched an attack towards him.
mming his hand down, a wave of mes erupted out, pushing the three back while avoiding the ves.
"Ah, much better in this form." Atesh smiled as he stretched his body in human form. Next to him, Yin had also materialised herself. Once again, she was in her mature form.
"So it turns out that you want to use this to make a second phoenix to put under your control. Shame on you guys." Yin said as she snapped her fingers. Suddenly, the mes around the tomb started to transform as the ground rumbled from her presence. The redva that surrounded the ce turned purple with hints of red and so did the mes.
Turning towards the ves, Yin smiled.
"You can take refuge for now, we won¡¯t drag you into this."
Snapping her fingers, Yin opened portals beneath them as they were sent to the rift.
Closing the portals, Yin walked towards the three tier 6¡¯s that were ring at them.
"Swift or slow?" Attie asked as he massaged his wrist.
"Swift. I want to be finished up with this ce in an hour max."
"Alright, you take two or should I take two?"
"I¡¯ll let you deal with two then. Big sis has to upgrade after this after all." Yin chuckled.
Nodding his head, both Attie and Yin red their mana as the entrance was sealed off.
Turning the inside of this ce into a fiery hell, Atesh narrowed his eyes and smiled.
"Die."
Snapping his fingers and pointing towards the Overseer and his closest ally, mes burst out from the ground,tched onto their ankles and started to absorb their mana to fuel its growth.
With the mes crawling up their body, the two were distracted for just a moment but that was enough for Attie to close the gap.
Grabbing the two by the head, he mmed it together before grabbing their throats.
Reinforcing his grip, he smiled before pushing the neck into their body.
Snapping the spine in half from the force, the head was now where the stomach should be.
Lava could be seen flowing in the inside of their bodies since Attie wanted to make sure they were dead or sure. The head in the stomach was just extra vour. He wanted to see what Shiro enjoyed about getting her hands dirty and he had to admit that it does feel quite good.
As for Yin, her opponent has been turned into a charred art piece with missing limbs and a deformed torso.
"I¡¯ll teleport the ves to the surface. Attie, you go deal with the other tier 6¡¯s that are around while I go upgrade."
"Alright, good luck big sis." Attie smiled as he started to walk away from the area.
Focusing on the two gates, Yin sliced her palm and ced it against the door.
The moment her blood came into contact with the material, red and gold runes appeared around the cave as mana surged towards her location.
*CLACK!!!
Hearing the sound of the doors unlocking, Yin took a step in.
###
Arriving at the surface, Attie floated to the highest point and released his mana, drawing the attention of all the tier 6¡¯s that were in the area.
"That should be everyone." Attie muttered with a small smile.
"I¡¯m sorry to inform you but I¡¯m afraid this area has been taken over. Surrender or die." He called out as they were looking at him as if he had brain damage.
"Hmm... My message might not be clear." Attie said as she tapped his chin.
Releasing his aura at full strength, the temperature shot up as a myriad of tier 6 magic circles started to appear in the sky, creating a magic formation.
"Allow me to reiterate. Surrender or die,st chance to make a choice." Attie offered with a small smile.
###
While Attie was dealing with all the tier 6¡¯s in the area, Yin was undergoing her evolution.
She could feel the energy flowing up from theva and entering her body, refining her mes while all of the molten essence in the mountain range started to glow.
Her senses spread out, past the mountain range and the wastnd that surrounded it.
She could feel energy nodes, spread out through thend.
Buried beneath the ground was a formation and each of the nodes were anchors of the formation. Gathering mana for who knows how long and funnelling it all to her.
[All conditions fulfilled.]
[Special Entity ¨C Yin ¨C Will now undergo evolution.]
[Race and ss upgrade.]
[Unique title granted]
[Title: Seven Sins: Gluttony.]
Can and will eat anything and everything. Anything she eats will be turned to mana and hp.
###
Watching through the cams of her satellite, Shiro was surprised to see the world change around the volcanos.
The skies darken as a purple pir of energy shot into the sky.
Morphing into the shape of a phoenix, it let out an earth shattering cry.
Suddenly, everyone received the notification.
[Seven Sins ¨C Gluttony ¨C has descended into this world.]
Chapter 1088 Skill - Devour
Chapter 1088 Skill - Devour
"Huh?" Reading the notification, Shiro blinked her eyes.
Seeing as how this appeared just as Yin finished her evolution, Shiro¡¯s smile started to twitch.
[As you are directly rted to the seven sins title holder, you are allowed additional information.]
[There can and will always have 7 unique seven sin title holders. If they are killed, their title is transferred to the yer. Seven sin users have additional influence over the demon realm and monsters with demonic properties.]
[Seven sin title holders are allowed to manifest their true self and register as a world boss, gaining increased stats. This can only be activated once every 5 months.]
[Due to Yin¡¯s traits, her race has changed to Phoenix of Gluttony. She retains her control over fire with some improvements. As her contractor, you gain a lesser form of the Seven Sin ¨C Gluttony ¨C]
[Entity ¨C Shiro ¨C Is granted the skill ¨C Devour ¨C]
[Devour]
You are able to consume the attacks of your enemies to regain missing health and mana. The more mana the attack contains, the more you recover. You may also eat materials but the conversion is weaker. If you consume something over your capacity, this skill will be sealed until you have ¡¯digested¡¯ the attack.
Cooldown: N/A
Cost: N/A
Current Capacity is equal to 100% of mana.
Reading this skill, Shiro was silent. She knew that Yin was a glutton but she didn¡¯t expect her to be recognised as something akin to a world boss by the system. Right now, Yin is the only holder of a seven sin title since there hasn¡¯t been a case of this before which caused her to wonder who else might get the title in their part.
For Yin, she was always a glutton so that might have factored in her obtaining the title.
Thinking about this, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wonder what her sin would be. She figured that she would probably be Wrath, Pride or Greed since there arerge traces of these in her actions.
For Pride, she is too proud to serve someone as a subordinate. Even if the other party is a god. She has to be equal or higher. For greed, she wanted things her way. She was greedy for the oue that was best in her eyes. She was greedy for strength.
And finally, wrath was pretty much self exnatory.
"Seems like Yin has finished her evolution." Nan Tian said as he nced at the camera and the notification he had just received.
"Yup. I hope that there isn¡¯t a giant glowing target on Yin otherwise it¡¯ll be annoying." Shiro said as she face palmed.
Checking the camera, Shiro could see that Attie was cleaning up the situation while they were distracted by Yin¡¯s new form.
Understanding that they don¡¯t need her to look out for them, Shiro turned the camera elsewhere. She wanted to continue their search for a good levelling up zone. However, the moment she looked at the map, she noticed one of the medium torge mana zones suddenly disappear. Raising her eyebrow in surprise, Shiro had the camera reverse the footage.
###
"We¡¯re not levelling up quick enough." Lyrica frowned as she stabbed her sword into the skull of another monster.
"Well there¡¯s not much else we can do. The monsters all average around level 600. Anything higher than the peak of tier 5 is hard for us as a group. We¡¯ve just levelled up to tier 5 while you¡¯re level 500 right now. Unless you can level up to tier 6 we can¡¯t look for anything harder." Asher reminded as Lyrica furrowed her brows.
Scratching her hair, she sighed and shook her head.
"Let¡¯s continue to the source of mana we discovered earlier. Hopefully we can find something to help me reach tier 6." Lyrica sighed.
She understood that she needs to find something that can help her push past the boundary of tier 6 but so that that something couldn¡¯t be found. Every time she tried to meditate to find that spark it was just darkness.
While they were making their way towards therge source of mana, they were ambushed a few times by tier 6 monsters that were no higher than level 600. Since she had killed quite a few of them, she racked up quite a few pseudo levels that helped put her roughly on the same level in terms of stats.
With her techniques and caution, killing them wasn¡¯t too difficult. But she knew that she couldn¡¯t do anything to Queens nor the being that took her parents away. She needed to reach tier 6 so that she was in the same tier as them.
Upon reaching the edge of the area where she sensed the mana, she could see mana being condensed into mist.
A strange liquid coated the surface of the ground as she recognised it to the be the same liquid as the mana potions that Shiro sold in her city.
Furrowing her brows, she was about to continue when she saw a notification.
[Seven Sins ¨C Gluttony ¨C has descended into this world.]
"Seven sins gluttony?" Lyrica muttered in mild confusion since she didn¡¯t think there was anything that would warrant the system to give out this kind of notification.
Focusing her mind, she stabbed her sword into the ground and sent her senses out.
Scanning past the country she was in, she continued to expand her search until she felt the familiar mana that was ring wildly right now.
Recognising it to be the mana that belonged to Yin, she understood that Yin must have upgraded to tier 6.
Squeezing the hilt of her de, she opened her eyes.
¡¯So even Yin¡¯s reached tier 6 now.¡¯ She thought with a sigh.
"Let¡¯s keep going." She said as Asher nodded his head.
"Did you find who is tagged as Gluttony?" He asked curiously.
"Yes I do. It¡¯s Yin, the phoenix you met back in the city. She¡¯s managed to reach tier 6." Lyrica replied as they travelled deeper into the territory. When she scanned this ce, she couldn¡¯t find any signal that might tell them about a monster being inside so the trip to the centre should be smooth sailing.
"Is that so, to think that she¡¯ll get a notification for levelling up. Do you think Nitha would get the same once she levels up to tier 6?" Asher asked as NItha blinked her eyes for a moment before shaking her head.
"Yin¡¯s level up is special I think. If every monster gets a notification then there would be thousands considering how many there are." Nitha said as Asher agreed.
Talking amongst themselves while travelling to the centre of the zone, Lyrica furrowed her brows as their surroundings distorted the closer they got to the centre.
She wasn¡¯t sure but it seemed as though they were walking deep into the Earth even though the path was t.
The surroundings would darken until no light could be seen and yet the path was clear.
They¡¯ve stopped talking by now since it was too strange. Floating stones acted as steps, senses were blocked from pushing past the darkness and only the sound of their steps could be heard.
"Maybe we should go back, this is a little too strange. Creating spells here is a little hard since the mana is making it mark for me to interfere with the world." Asher asked with a frown.
"Perhaps." Lyrica agreed since it was too strange.
However, just as they were thinking of turning back, they saw the exit of the steps.
Nodding at one another, they decided to have a look and discovered a strange world beyond the darkness. Even though they were deep underground, the sky could be seen but the colour was strange.
Pure ck and yet the ce was still lit. A single alter could be seen in the distance with a figure standing in front of it.
Turning around, the figure noticed them as they all enteredbat stance.
Before they could react, a portal opened as the figure appeared in front of them.
"Who are you." Lyrica asked while gesturing for everyone to back off.
"Me? I¡¯m a dragon. But that¡¯s not important, do you know how to open doors?" The ¡¯dragon¡¯ asked as Lyrica raised an eyebrow in confusion since the man held no hostility towards them.
"What kind of door is it?"
"It¡¯s a door to this ce called the Beyond but it doesn¡¯t seem like it lets me enter. If you do me a favour of opening this ce, I¡¯ll count it as me owing you. I¡¯ll even make a vow if you can help me open it. It¡¯s a good opportunity for you since I¡¯m a level 900 dragon. I can protect you if you run into trouble." The man smiled as he patted his chest.
Having some suspicions about this, she nced back to see the party¡¯s choice when she noticed that Nitha didn¡¯t even dare to look up and understood that this man was probably being honest about being a level 900 dragon.
"If you¡¯re still concerned then I¡¯ll make a vow on not hurting you." He said as he blinked his eyes.
"That would be helpful." Lyrica nodded.
Watching the man vow to the system, she sighed in relief when the golden chains appeared, signifying the vow activating.
Sheathing her sword, she walked towards the alter.
Chapter 1089 Entering the Beyond
Chapter 1089 Entering the Beyond
Reaching the altar, Lyrica nced back.
"Are you sure you won¡¯t kill us after opening the gate?"
"Nope. Plus, you got her scent on you." The man shook his head while floating with his legs crossed.
"Who¡¯s scent?" Lyrica asked curiously.
"There was this white haired girlst time I tried to open a gate. However, since she teleported in front of me, I sneezed and almost killed her. I wanted to apologise but she ran away. If you¡¯re rted to her, then I can just follow you and apologise at ater date." The man shrugged as he pulled out a bottle.
Immediately recognising it to be the mana potion bottle that Shiro used in Asharia, she understood that he was probably stating the truth.
"In that case then what¡¯s the ce known as the Beyond?" Lyrica asked.
"I¡¯m not sure, but my mother has told me that it is the ce where mana originated from. It¡¯s a good ce for dragons like us since we¡¯ll be able to get stronger just by being in the realm. Same goes for the youngss next to him." He pointed at Nitha who hid behind Asher in fear.
"She¡¯ll definitely level up a bunch in the Beyond. For beings like you lot though, there are monsters in there for you to hunt. There will be moments when you¡¯ll be able to enter the gate naturally but that only applies for monsters. Every monster you find in that realm will help you level up a bunch but the risk is just as great. You¡¯re not even tier 6 just yet so I can help since there won¡¯t be much you can kill in there." The man exined as Lyrica furrowed her brows.
"Why are you going out of your way to make things favourable for us?"
"Well... if I help you that girl might forgive me since it¡¯s rude to sneeze on people." The dragon coughed.
Hearing this, Lyrica blinked since this dragon didn¡¯t seem like a dragon. Rather, he was like a house pet that was upset since it did something bad.
"Oh right, I will have to warn you that most gates are one time things that will close after the first use. It¡¯ll open again in the future but if you want to leave the beyond, you¡¯ll need to look for a different exit. The realm has been unstable after something that had happened a few months back so most gates remained closed for a long while. After we enter, it might be a long time before we can even leave." The dragon cautioned as Lyrica thought about it.
"I¡¯m fine with that since I want to get stronger anyways. I¡¯m not sure about everyone else though." She said, ncing back at the party.
"We¡¯ll join you. We also need to get stronger after all. There¡¯s been a few times that we couldn¡¯t help a few people since the enemy was simply too strong after all." Cadmi sighed since it left a bitter taste in her mouth.
How they had to watch and do nothing about the settlement being ruled by level 700 monsters, the humans that were turned to ves and forced to work the rest of their life away.
By now, it was moremon to see monsters than it was humans.
Seeing that everyone else was agreeing with Cadmi¡¯s opinion, Lyrica nodded and looked at the supposed gate.
Blinking her eyes, she turned to the dragon.
"How do I even open this?" She asked curiously.
"Just ce your hand on it and insert some mana. Since we¡¯re in a group, all of us will be dragged to the Beyond."
Nodding her head, Lyrica ced her hand on the altar and inserted as much mana as she could.
Suddenly, a tier 7 magic circle appeared beneath them as the floor gave way to a portal.
Without being able to react, all of them were dragged through.
Once they were gone, the portal closed up and the altar shattered apart.
The mana in the area started to fade away as the gate was now gone.
###
Seeing that it was the dragon, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but widen her eyes in shock but rxed after seeing the vow he made.
Considering how Lyrica was helping him, it was probably a vow to not harm her.
¡¯Seems like they¡¯re going to the beyond. The gate is broken after their entry so I won¡¯t be able to follow. But since they have the dragon guarding them, they¡¯ll be safe.¡¯ Shiro sighed in relief and leaned back.
Suddenly, a portal opened as Attie could be seening back with Yin on his back.
"We¡¯re back mum. Big sis has just finished her evolution so she¡¯s a bit exhausted right now." Attie smiled softly as Yinzily raised her hand.
Standing up, Shiro walked over and patted Yin¡¯s head.
"You¡¯ve worked hard. Go get some rest. There won¡¯t be any new assignments for a week so take this time to do whatever you want."
Hearing this, Yin nodded and closed her eyes.
Watching Attie leave themand centre, Shiro sat back down.
Feeling her phone vibrate, she saw that it was Misu.
"Sup, this is Shiro speaking."
"This is Misu, I¡¯ve finished most of my work so I¡¯m taking a break right now. Minding with me to my city so that we can deal with our previous agreement?" Misu asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure. I was also going to ask you about that. I was thinking if I were to set up an anchor in your city, I¡¯ll be able to convert it into a flying city as well. Make it so that the lightning queen won¡¯t be able tounch and attack on your people."
"You can do that?" Misu asked in surprise.
"Yup. It depends on how big your city is though. I¡¯m not sure how much we can do with just two anchors but I came across a rather interesting crystal not too long ago that amplified mana. If we experiment with it a bit more it might help us solve this problem. But that¡¯s talk for the future, our goal is to revive everyone properly first right?" Shiro smiled.
"Mn, where do you want to meet up? I¡¯ll send us to the city." Misu said as Shiro thought about it.
"Juste to themand centre. Nan Tian might need toe with us."
"Alright, I¡¯ll be there in 10 minutes."
Ending the call, Shiro sighed.
"Busy busy, lots of things to do." She muttered as Nan Tian chuckled.
"We¡¯ll have to work hard then. If it wasn¡¯t busy we might be bored out of our minds." He smiled as Shiro nodded.
"That¡¯s true."
Resting for 10 minutes while enjoying some juice, Shiro heard a knock and knew that it was Misu and Esil.
"Come in." She called out with a smile.
ncing towards the door, Shiro could see that Misu returned to her formal attire and so did Esil.
"Ready?" Misu asked with a small smile.
Nodding her head, Shiro waved her hand and her outfit changed to fit the asion. Returning to her usualbat dress with silver armour, stockings and boots, Shiro adjusted her gloves and stood in front of Misu.
"Ready when you are."
Nodding her head, Misu made sure that all four of them were in range before activating a teleport circle that would send them to her city.
Shielding her eyes from the bright light, Shiro decided to add her own anchor point to this city so that she wouldn¡¯t have to go through this. Something her future self did.
"We¡¯re here. We¡¯re not at the main city yet since I want to deal with the smaller ones first. I have about 5 cities in total, four branches and one main." Misu exined while waving her hand with a small smile and the crowd that noticed them.
Noticing that Misu said she had five cities, Shiro understood why she seemed more serious and depressed in the future. After all, her future self teleported them to the main city, Haven of the Dead, so easily. Which probably means that the other cities were destroyed.
¡¯If she saw most of her subjects die then it¡¯s no surprise that she¡¯ll be depressed. I would probably feel the same though I won¡¯t be as depressed as her. I¡¯ll feel bad but that¡¯s about it.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
She had to admit that Misu definitely cared more about her subjects than she ever will.
Shaking her head, she watched as Misu called everyone to gather at the main square in 10 minutes.
Seeing everyone rush to spread this information, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile.
"You are well received." Shiro smiled as Misu nodded.
"That¡¯s true. You¡¯ll be the same once they realise what you can do for them." Misu replied as they walked towards the main square.
While this was happening, Shiro activated one of her skills and checked out their condition. Understanding that the reason as to why they were undead is because Misu waspensating for parts of their missing soul and giving them a container to hold that soul, Shiro understood what she needed to do.
After having her own soul healed, she somewhat understood what to do as it required divine energy. It may take a few attempts but that was fine.
Chapter 1090 Substitute Body
Chapter 1090 Substitute Body
Watching everyone gather in the main square, Misu nodded in satisfaction before opening her mouth.
"Ahem. Several months ago, when this world changed for the worse, I had given you an option. With my limited power, I could bring you back to life but you¡¯ll forever be undead as I am a necromancer. Outside of the cities, it will be hard to sustain everyone so you had been stuck here. However, I wanted to give you more. I wanted you to have a living body like it was before the cmity. You did not deserve to have your life stripped away from you so I present you with a new option. An allied Queen who was abled to revive without any bacsh such as turning them into undead." Misu called out as everyone turned towards Shiro who stood next to her with a small smile.
Giving them a wave, Shiro waited for Misu to finish her speech while she was formting the spell in her mind.
First and foremost, she needed to repair their soul first. For most people, this was a bit easier considering the fact that their soul didn¡¯t hold much power. Therefore, repairing it was a simple matter of finding the right runes and using a slither of divine energy to help them recover. Since there was so many, she couldn¡¯t heal a soul in one go or else she won¡¯t have divine energy for others.
Instead, she wanted to leave a trace of her divine energy in them and let them recover over time. Since divine energy couldn¡¯t be sensed or used unless you fulfil some prior requirements, it was safe to say that the strand of divine energy wouldn¡¯t be used up and would passively heal their soul.
It would also support the ¡¯framework¡¯ of their being so there would be no need for Misu¡¯s anchor to keep them from leaving the city.
Thest step would be the body and she had to admit, this one was a little difficult considering their condition. Most of them no longer had a body and their physical form right now was a direct result of Misu¡¯s skills. If she wanted to craft them a physical body that aged like usual, it was going to be hard. And that was in her dictionary so to others it would be almost impossible to aplish.
The best she would be able to do is give them prosthetics for those that have already lost their physical body.
As for those that kept their old body, she could patch them up without any problem. Even Silvia could.
Thinking about Silvia, Shiro blinked her eyes.
¡¯Wait, Silvia can also revive people. While her window of opportunity is smallpared to mine, her expertise in healing spells is second to none in Asharia. Perhaps she¡¯ll have a way for them to recover their physical body without needing me to give them a body of metal. Nanotech may have be a branch of the creation divinity but my powers over creation are weak. At best, what I make can be called imitations of the real power.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she oveyed a contact lens over her eye.
Bringing up her chat with Silvia, she sent her a message.
[Shiro: Silvia, I might need your help for something. Are you free right now?]
[Silvia: Yes I am. I just finished a surgery so I have some downtime right now.]
[Shiro: Great. Do here¡¯s a question, if there is a soul in front of you, would you be able to give it a physical body?]
[Silvia: A physical body? As in their previous body with flesh and bones?]
[Shiro: Yes, I want to avoid using my nanobots if I can. Not to keen on making them all robots.]
[Silvia: Hmm... I can¡¯t say for sure. If you have even a piece of them, dead or not, I will be able to repair them back to their old form since for my healing spells to work, there needs to be ¡¯something¡¯ for me to heal. I can¡¯t heal something from nothing. That¡¯s not how healing spells work so that¡¯s why I¡¯m not sure.]
[Silvia: However, I was working on something else in my spare time. You see, the body and soul is connected right? The soul would have a recollection of what their body was like in the deepest parts of their consciousness. If I was able to use that as a foundation for the healing spell, I can ¡¯try¡¯ to give them a physical body. So far, the experiments have been done on some monsters who had their soul extracted. As long as I have a piece of flesh and bone, I¡¯ll be able to begin the healing process but it¡¯splicated and hard to execute with a high chance of failure so far. If you give me more time I can probably figure something out but right now, its out of my capabilities.]
[Shiro: Alright, I¡¯ll give them a substitute body based on their recollection first. To be fair, Misu has already done that since the form they have now was created thanks to her skill. It¡¯s a projection of their physical form.]
[Silvia: Then we can probably work on something in our spare time.]
Talking to Silvia for a little longer, Shiro ended the chat just in time as Misu weed Shiro to say a few words.
"So Misu has exined, I am an ally and I do have the capabilities to help you. However, there is one thing that you must take note of. For those of you that no longer have a physical body, I¡¯ll need to give you a prosthetic one for now until we are able to create a body from nothing. The physical body would be created from metal that simtes the properties of flesh and even the functions of the normal human body. It will allow you to feel hungry and consume substance as usual." Shiro exined while snapping her finger.
Next to her, nanobots appeared before transforming into two humans, male and female. They both wore outfits simr to what everyone is wearing right now.
"As you can see, it looks like normal flesh, feels like flesh but it is not a proper body made from flesh and bone."
Summoning a sword, Shiro shed towards the two robots, shocking the people. They quickly covered the eyes of the children since they didn¡¯t want them to see more ughter after the first day. However, what happened next shocked them as the sword was snapped in half.
"As you can see, in this form, you are quite impervious to most damages. But I need to warn you, if you choose this, there might be some problems that ariseter. You may not have the same caution as you would in a normal body. I can add pain sensors but even if you feel pain, your body would not be damaged. I¡¯ll let you digest this information and think about whether or not you want this form. I can say that I will repair your soul fully.
"Those that have a portion of their physical body, please separate yourself from the group so that I may use the spell." Shiro ordered as she watched everyone try to organise themselves.
Turning to Misu, Shiro opened her mouth.
"As I said in the announcement, they¡¯ll need to have a piece of their body for me to be able to do anything. Otherwise I can only give them a robotic substitute for now. Revival works in the way that they still need their previous container. Quite a few people here are missing that so we can¡¯t solve everything just yet." Shiro exined apologetically.
"I see... We¡¯ll I half expected as much. Creating a substitute for them is already good since it¡¯ll allow them to leave the city without worry of disappearing." Misu nodded her head. She couldn¡¯t hide her disappointment in not being able to help them out but as hopeful of what could happen in the future as Shiro did mention that she¡¯ll try find a solution in the future.
"Once we¡¯ve visited all of the cities, go to the Medic Guild and look for Silvia. She¡¯s been researching into the solution for a while now so if you help we¡¯ll be able to find a solution faster." Shiro smiled as Misu paused before nodding her head.
Once everyone was separated into two groups, Shiro stepped forward and activated her skill.
Suddenly, two tier 6 magic circles appeared around the group as golden energy radiated from their bodies.
Scanning all of them and registering them into the magic circle, Shiro sped her hand together and activated her spell.
Imnting a strange of her divine energy into their body, she wanted as their bodies reverted to their damaged forms. Revealing how much Misu to had to rece as some of them didn¡¯t even have a full head.
Flesh and bone started to regrow as their discolouration and sunken eyes disappeared.
Once the spell was over, they looked at their body and felt emotional. They were fully prepared to live their life out as undead and didn¡¯t expect to get another chance like this.
Ending the spell for now, Shiro checked how much divine energy she had left. Making a quick estimate, she figured that she¡¯ll probably be able to get through all of the cities today unless they have more people than expected.
Chapter 1091 Converting The City
Chapter 1091 Converting The City
After helping those that could recover, their physical bodies, Shiro nced to the side and saw a small group of people that seems to be ok with getting a robotic recement for now while others were a little hesitant.
"Before I proceed with this procedure, is there anything you want to ask?" Shiro asked as she could tell that they have some hesitation in their eyes.
"Yes, since this new body is metal, is there a chance for it to get hacked. What if we lose control? Can you promise not to take control from us?" A girl asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"I can make a vow if you want. There is little to no chance of being able to hack the body but if they tried, I would know. You won¡¯t lose control, and while I can¡¯t promise that I won¡¯t override control if the need arises, it is only if you were to use this tech against me or harm Misu¡¯s city. That is a backup. I will vow to make sure my word is true." Shiro smiled as the girl furrowed her brows before nodding.
Watching Shiro vow about everything that she¡¯s said, the girl sighed in relief.
Since Shiro was another Queen, it was only natural that they had their own thoughts about her trustworthiness.
After making the vow, she started the construction on their body after healing their soul.
Getting them to remember what their body was like, Shiro made sure it was as urate as possible. After all, there would be some problems if that wasn¡¯t the case.
For example, if she was to put the soul of a person into a machine body with four limbs and brain wash them to think that, eventually the soul would realise something was off and seek to correct it. Back in Aria, there were plenty of experiments when it came to moving the conscious.
While it wasn¡¯t to the level of moving souls, it wasn¡¯t far. Their conscious would be ced in a new body and control it as if it was their own.
As she was making some final adjustments to each of theirponents to make sure they feel ¡¯normal¡¯ to the wearer, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder why she wasn¡¯t given a skill.
¡¯I suppose it¡¯s not that much different from some of my other skills.¡¯ She mused to herself.
ncing over to her giant stack of skills blocking her sight, she figured that she should probably see if she can fuse them together. If she does, many of the effects would ovep and might even get stronger. However, the problem was some effects may even disappear which was something she didn¡¯t want.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit Demi God
Title: Expert Monster (13,029/100,000 Humans killed.), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind, Virtue of Fortitude, Young Demi God, Goddess of Protection, Merciful Goddess, Young Goddess (50% Boost Currently), Leader of Asharia, Tainted Shell, Realm Breaker.
Level: 765
ss: Nanotech Demi Goddess (Demi God)
HP: 109,375,000,000/109,375,000,000
MP: 376,250,000,000/376,250,000,000
STR: 625,000,000
VIT: 710,000,000
INT: 2,150,000,000
AGI: 730,000,000
DEX: 605,000,000
DEF: 515,000,000
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 6
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 6
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 6
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 6 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 6
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 6
Aspect of Fire - Tier 7
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 6
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 6
Aspect of Water - Tier 7
Aspect of Life - Tier 7
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 7 Demi God
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Nanotech Demi Goddess:
Elemental Breath, Celestial Mirage, Force of Elements, Demi God Raiment, Tier 6 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Demi goddess¡¯ Domain, Demi God Skill ¨C Rebirth, Legendary Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Divine Court Appointment, Demi goddess¡¯ Blessing, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 6, Analysis, True Spirit Nature, Divine Gardens, Divine Presence ¨C Divinity of Nanobots, March of the Goddess, Divine Insight of God, Protection of the Goddess, Boon of the Demi Goddess
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx
World ss Magic:
Requiem of the Dead
Grand Support ss Magic:
Requiem of the Demi Goddess
Origin Spells:
Time Flux
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr, Item Master, Limit Focus, Blessing of Chaos, Soul Siphon, Divine Runic Needles, Devour.]
¡¯I might be able to see if I can mix the skills from Pandora¡¯s requiem together. Who knows if they¡¯ll be broken.¡¯ It has been a while since she hadst used them so she wasn¡¯t sure what would happen now. But one thing was sure and that she was looking forward to it.
Thinking about it, she decided to save for the next time she called forth the system. Plus, she also needed to ask Administrator four about the gift he sent. That and also she needed to thank him before creating more mess for him.
Shaking her head, she finished creating the physical bodies for those that wanted it.
Once she was done, she stood up and walked over to Misu.
"Do you want me to convert the city now or should I do itter? If I do it now I can use some mana to teleport the whole of Asharia here to connect the two cities together. That way the lightning Queen won¡¯t be able tounch an attack." Shiro offered as Misu thought about it.
Right now, Asharia consists of two cities, the main one called Asharia and the second city governed by Aarim. If they were to add all of the cities to Asharia, the mana needed for everything would increase dramatically.
But after what Shiro had told her about the crystals, Misu figured that it was probably only possible thanks to the crystals.
"Alright. If we connect all of the cities, it can probably be considered a country with the size it covers." Misu smiled.
"True. If you take me to the anchor I¡¯ll start making some adjustments now. By the end of the day, I should be able to make this a flying city."
Hearing this, MIsu nodded and led her toward the centre of the city.
In the centre was a single building that was surrounded by formations.
Opening a path, Misu revealed the crystal anchor within the centre.
Without saying anything, Shiro walked up and ced her hand on the surface.
Closing her eyes, she wanted to determine how much mana it was producing first so that she could estimate the output.
Surprisingly, most of the output was already being consumed by keeping this many undead in the city. There was barely any mana left for anything else and Shiro understood that to make this into a flying city, her anchor was going to be doing most of the work.
¡¯If we heal and revived the undead, it would make it easier to convert the city to a floating one. But we don¡¯t have that capability right now. Hmm... rather than doubling down on weapons, it was probably better to improve mobility of the city.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Taking her hand off the crystal, she ced it on the ground and a magic circle started to materialise on the ground.
One by one, theyers started to stack up as liquid mana flowed out before condensing into a crystal next to Misu¡¯s anchor.
"You might want to warn people about the floating city while I make some preparations." Shiro said as Misu paused.
When Shiro tells you to warn people, the shock of the city ripping from the ground was probably pretty big.
Immediately rushing out of he building, Misu called Esil and had everyone prepare.
After Misu had left, Shiro mmed her hand into the ground.
Nanobots started to dig through the ground as the framework of the city slowly appeared.
While this was happening, it was as though an earthquake had struck.
Looking around in a panic, the citizens of Misu¡¯s city grabbed onto each other while Misu had her subordinates inform everyone of what¡¯s happening.
After a few short moments, the shaking stopped which confused Misu since this didn¡¯t seem like what Shiro had warned her about.
However, her thoughts were dashed immediately after hundreds of tier 6 magic circles appeared in the sky.
*BANG!!!!
Ripping the entire city from the ground, a good chunk ofnd followed suit as loose pieces of rock fell to the ground.
With the rapid rising of the city, many couldn¡¯t stay on their feet as they copsed to the ground.
Summoning a skeletal wyvern under her, Misu quickly flew above the city and watched as the map hadpletely changed from one spell.
"Goodness..." Misu muttered as she couldn¡¯t help but shake her head.
Chapter 1092 Misus Main City
Chapter 1092 Misu''s Main City
With the city now flying in the sky, Shiro closed her eyes and made sure all of its functions were acting as normal.
Seeing that nothing was wrong, she curved her lips into a smile and sped her hands together.
*BOOM!!!
Above the tier 6 circles that kept the city in the sky, another magic circle appeared, this time it was tens of times bigger than they were seeing.
"What the..." Misu muttered as she nced up.
Sensing the mana, she widened her eyes and realised that Shiro was bringing the entirety of Asharia to their current location so that her city could fuse with the main body.
¡¯I suppose this is simr to a summoning spell.¡¯ Shiro thought with a humorous chuckle as she could probably call this spell something along the lines of City Summoning: Descent of Asharia.
After all, it was just as much of a mobile fortress as it is a city for her people.
Bringing it to a war was not so illogical since it could be used as a giant aoe cannon.
Little by little, the citizens of Misu¡¯s city could see a shadow begin to cover them as the bottom of Asharia could be seen.
At first it was as small as a small shadow but soon it began to cover everything.
Seeing the size of the city, some felt like they were dreaming since they didn¡¯t think something like this was even possible.
"Nan Tian, I¡¯ll leave the documents and registration to you. Have some of our staff help them get used to the technology. They don¡¯t need to sign up but if they want to use Asharia¡¯s facilities, it¡¯s a must. Even if it isn¡¯t a permanent registration, give them a trial ount that can be confirmed after a week." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded.
"Alright, I suppose this trial ount can only be opened once."
"Hmm... actually, give them something like a guest pass. They¡¯re able to use some of Asharia¡¯s services but not all since they¡¯re ssified as guests rather than registered members. Give them the basics but the high end stuff is reserved." Shiro replied after thinking about it for a moment.
"Alright." Nodding his head, Nan Tian teleported away for now so that he could take care of all the moving documents needed. If he didn¡¯t keep on top of everything, it would transform into a giant stack and that was something he didn¡¯t want.
If he was forced to deal with that giant stack, he wasn¡¯t sure how long it¡¯ll take him.
After Nan Tian had left, Shiro stretched her body and sat down by the two anchors that now acted as a battery for this city.
Even though she said two, most of the burden was ced on her own anchor.
Spending the rest of the day helping with connecting the two cities and creating bodies for those that decided to ept, Shiro finished the day making pretty good progress with helping MIsu.
One city was now connected properly, all its inhabitants had their souls healed and given new bodies except for a few who were still unsure.
However, Shiro didn¡¯t mind as there wasn¡¯t much difference since it was just a ceholder for now. She¡¯ll grant them their original bodies in the future.
There wasn¡¯t much else for her to do so it was just a case of going from city to city.
It didn¡¯t take too much divine energy for her to heal their souls so she figured that she¡¯ll be able to do two more cities by the end of the day.
However, with her making three anchors in quick session, her stats received a pretty sizable penalty for now. Though she was still quite aheadpared to other Queens and even empresses.
With the other cities, she saw that many were dubious about her mechanical recement and only a few wanted to give it a try. But after seeing the city of Asharia for themselves along with the other citizens from Misu¡¯s city, they decided to go with the new body.
The suspicions around her were dispelled after they experienced what Asharia was like much to her relief.
Unfortunately, Misu had to close down her store and reopen it under a different name.
After all, she didn¡¯t want her citizens to see their Queen working with a shop name like that.
Instead of Misu¡¯s fantasy 100% guarantee detective agency, it was now Undead Detective Agency and was located in the centre of Asharia where the main tower was.
Sitting by her desk, Shiro tapped her finger on the table.
She was currently looking at the power requirement and the power output of the city.
From the way things were going, it didn¡¯t seem like she¡¯d be able to sustain the final few cities with just one of her anchors.
Misu had shown her their position on the map as well as the size. Unless she forgoes defences for those cities, just one anchor won¡¯t work.
¡¯I think I might have to rely on the crystals now...¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a slight frown.
"Nan Tian, how are the applications for the move to the North Pole?" Shiro asked as the faster they understand the crystals and the egg, the better. That way she can use the crystals without worry.
"I¡¯m trying but it¡¯s been rather busy. I¡¯d say the applications are around 30% done. They won¡¯t be finished for another three days and that¡¯s not including the fact that the research base isn¡¯t done. We need to prepare equipment for them or else they¡¯ll freeze to death." Nan Tian shook his head.
Hearing this, Shiro sat back and frowned slightly.
"Perhaps I might have to think about signing a contract with Khionah early. If she doesn¡¯t sign the contract, I¡¯m not keen on having her anchor near my main city." Shiro sighed.
Thinking about this, the other fastest way would definitely be to just level up. The faster she gets to level 1000, the better. That way, she can help Syradil end Rokarns invasion and Khionah with her Empress problem.
Shaking her head, she decided to help Nan Tian out with some paperwork before sleeping.
###
Waking up the next morning, Shiro continued to help the people out by healing their souls as well as giving them new bodies.
Continuing for a while, it was finally time for Misu¡¯s main city.
As Misu teleported them over, Shiro could tell that this was the same coordinates as the one she had seen in the future.
Only this time the city was much smaller and less developed which made sense considering how many people Misu had to squeeze in here before.
"This is thest one. There is a dungeon still avable here but it isn¡¯t anything impressive. It¡¯s connected to the chaotic era of my own garden and the enemies are roughly level 300 to 400." Misu informed while walking through the castle.
Leading them down a flight of stairs, she revealed the giant neon green crystal that had a dungeon gate not too far away.
The crystal was many times bigger than the ones in the other city and Shiro could tell that the mana generated by this was much bigger.
cing her hand on the surface, she wanted to check the output when she noticed a huge anomaly.
With how much mana this thing was producing, it should be able to easily sustain the need of this city as well as many others. And yet, it was barely scraping by.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro nced back.
"Is there anything that¡¯s requiring most of the mana here?" Shiro asked as Misu paused.
ncing back for a moment, she gestured for Esil and Nan Tian to leave them alone for a second.
Acknowledging this, Esil stepped out and Nan Tian did the same.
Setting up a barrier just in case, Misu took a deep breath.
"I didn¡¯t expect you to notice that but yes, most of the mana being generated in this is directed elsewhere. I cannot say where it¡¯s going but it¡¯s helping someone important. They require lots of mana so I¡¯ve been giving all the mana I can everyday without harming my citizens." MIsu admitted as she looked up at the crystal.
"I see... do you need any help with that? Since this ce is rather concealed, I should be able to set this as a normal city for now. One that didn¡¯t need to be connected to Asharia so that my anchor can act as a battery for you." Shiro offered. While she may not know what it¡¯s helping, she knows that Misu was able to survive quite a while in the future which means whatever this anchor is helping right now helped her back.
"Plus, I can make it so that it generates a little bit of divine energy. It¡¯s like mana but more condensed and should help you out greatly."
Hearing this, Misu paused in shock as she didn¡¯t expect her anchor to be able to provide divine energy.
Thinking about it, she blushed slightly and coughed.
"Can you make an anchor for me please." Misu said quietly as Shiro chuckled.
"Sure thing." Shiro nodded with a smile and started construction on the anchor.
Chapter 1093 Gaias Blessing
Chapter 1093 Gaia''s Blessing
Even though she made it sound easy, the construction of an anchor that can produce divine energy was far from easy. Even now, the only reason she even had an anchor that could do that was due to the it being her main anchor, one that represented her participation of this event.
If her anchor is destroyed, she¡¯ll be disqualified. While she may not be dead, she wouldn¡¯t be able to win either.
A slow descent to destruction.
Shaking her head free of the negative thoughts, Shiro tried to finish the anchor.
The main thing that was different when she was making her own anchor was that back then she had forcefully raised her level to the realm of gods and used tier 7 magic circle to build her anchor. While she may not have ess to that, she now understood how to use their runes.
Ifbined properly, it was akin to a tier 8 magic circle.
There was also the case of supplying divine energy for it to harmonise with the mana. She wasn¡¯t sure if the passive production of divine energy was linked to her being the first to create a divine anchor or not, so she wasn¡¯t sure if this was the only thing she needed to do.
"Gaia, are any of you able to tell me something that I might want to know before I begin? Just so that I can make some early adjustments." Shiro called out since she knew that they were watching whenever they could. Which was most of the time.
While she was waiting for their response, Misu could only look at her in confusion since she recognised the name.
¡¯Gaia is the name of a Deity, why is Shiro calling out to her? With such familiarity too... There¡¯s no way right?¡¯ She thought to herself since it seemed almost illogical but looking back at it, it indeed possible.
After all, she was in a simr situation.
Waiting a short moment, Shiro got her reply.
[Goddess Gaia states that it is indeed possible. If you use their crests as one of the catalysts for making the anchor then you¡¯ll be able to infuse some of their own divine energy into the core. However, you have to be careful since it cannot hold too much divine energy unlike your main anchor. Overload it with divine energy and the anchor may just explode on you. If you want to make it so that it produces divine energy by itself, you¡¯ll have to infuse a small part of your soul. For gods, the physical body doesn¡¯t hold as much importance as the soul. The divine energy nourishes the soul and the soul produces divine energy. When you be a god, it is your soul transcending to a new sate of power and naturally, your body follows.]
"Is that so... So if I use your crests, the anchor will hold divine energy but won¡¯t produce it. If I use my own soul, it will produce divine energy but only small amounts daily." Shiro asked.
[Goddess Gaia nods her head in agreement. She states that you can use both options at once. While your anchor producing divine energy, her crests can provide for a short while before expiring.]
Reading this, Shiro nodded her head and closed her eyes. However, before she started, she paused.
"Gaia, I have Nyx¡¯s blessing but I don¡¯t think I have yours."
[Goddess Gaia pauses in shock and disbelief. She shouts out about how she can¡¯t believe she hasn¡¯t given you her blessings yet.]
Surprised that it was just a short message, Shiro blinked her eyes when a tier 8 magic circle suddenly appeared in front of her.
Divine energy filled the room as Misu stepped back in shock as she didn¡¯t expect a god to just appear like this. She knew that materialising yourself before the second part of the new age was ridiculous since the bacsh was not something an average god can handle.
But since it was Gaia, a primordial deity, she would be fine. Even if the bacsh is bigger than normal.
"You know, you didn¡¯t have to materialise yourself. Aren¡¯t you worried about bacsh?" Shiro asked as Gaia transformed herself so that she was roughly the same size as Shiro.
"Well if I gave you my blessing from up there it would only be a standard one. Naturally, I can¡¯t just give you a standard blessing. Lets see... it¡¯s been a while since you have received a blessing and with your strength, your body can handle mine quite easily. Hmm let me think of what might be useful for you." Gaia said as she circled around Shiro.
Walking around for a short while, her lips curved up into a smile as she pounced on her back and wrapped her arms around Shiro¡¯s neck, securing her position on her back.
"I have three that I think you might like. I can give all three to you. The first, Life Essence Absorption. This allows you to absorb life essence from your surroundings and enemies passively if you wanted. During a fight, you will be able to constantly drain them and use that to heal yourself. The active effect of this skill allows you to meld your body to the Earth for a short period of time, absorbing life essence from the giant reservoir this world holds and heal you even if you¡¯re on the brink of death. It is what I use to keep myself alive." Gaia exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"The second is a skill called Embodiment of Nature. This skill also has two effects. The first is simr to a berserk skill, you are able to draw out the power of nature and myself to help you inbat. Careful of the bacsh since you are using the power of a god. The second effect, allows you to sense anything that touches the ground. It¡¯s simr to your satellites but this one allows you to see underground too." Gaia winked since this would give Shiro something akin to Odin¡¯s all seeing eye but at the same time, not quite.
"Thest skill isn¡¯t as good as the other two but it¡¯s just a helpful passive if anything. Earthen Protection. Whenever you¡¯re standing on the ground, the Earth will shift to protect you no matter what. You can also give this blessing to someone else for a short period of time. Over all, it¡¯s just a good passive to have." Gaia shrugged as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you." Shiro smiled since Gaia has done so much for her now.
"Of course, anything for you. Now shall we talk about marriage?" Gaia narrowed her eyes as both Misu and Shiro froze up for a moment.
¡¯Marriage????¡¯ MIsu widened her eyes as she felt like her brain had just exploded.
Just as Gaia mentioned Marriage, another tier 8 magic circle appeared as she quickly coughed.
"Just kidding. Anyways here¡¯s the blessing." Gaia smiled as she leaned forward and kissed Shiro on the cheeks.
The moment her crest appeared, Gaia quickly jumped off and waved at Shiro.
"See you~" Gaia grinned.
Jumping into her own portal, her tier 8 magic circle disappeared and so did the second one.
Blinking her eyes, Shiro nced at her system and saw that she had received Gaia¡¯s Blessing.
[Gaia¡¯s Blessing]
A blessing from the primordial goddess. This blessing contains three effects:
Life Essence Absorption, Embodiment of Nature, Earthen Protection.
Shaking her head, Shiro coughed lightly and nced back at Misu who was sitting on the floor.
"Are you alright?" Shiro asked as Misu nodded her head.
"Gaia... wants to marry you?" Misu asked slowly as Shiro scratched her hair.
"Seems so. But I¡¯ll be able to make the anchor for you now." Shiro helped her up before walking back to the anchor.
Closing her eyes, she sped her hands together as mana red.
Tier 6 magic circle stacked on top of one another in front of her as blue and gold liquid condensed in the centre.
Opening her eyes, Shiro conjured up Gaia¡¯s crests. Golden radiance filled the room as a pool of divine energy flooded towards the liquid.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro reached out with one hand so that she could stop the momentum. She didn¡¯t need that much divine energy in the anchor otherwise it may blow up.
Carefully adjusting it so that it flowed slowly, she started to mix the two liquids together.
She could sense how vtile the liquid would be if the flow of divine energy bes to much to handle
Retracting most of it back to the crest, she started to condense the liquid into a crystal.
Watching the liquid crystalise, Misu could see that the crystal held a golden core with blue crystals surrounding it.
Sensing the power it radiated, she knew that it would help speed up everything.
###
After returning to the divine realm, Gaia ran away from Nyx for a few moments before looking back at the screen. The moment the crystal was formed, Gaia felt a slight tug in her divine energy.
It was her divine energy being funnelled through the crystals to heal the one that Misu wanted to help.
Closing her eyes, she sensed that the other target was heavily injured. However, that was not what she was bothered about, what she was bothered about was that the other party was a god.
Chapter 1094 Imminent War
Chapter 1094 Imminent War
857
"Who are you?" Gaia questioned with a frown.
Hearing this the other party paused for a moment before turning towards her.
"I didn¡¯t expect another god to be involved." He muttered with a smile.
"I asked you a question. Care to answer?" Gaia narrowed her eyes as her divine energy red out.
"Ahaha that is true. Hmm... who am I? Well I¡¯m a god, an injured one. Sorry to cut our meeting short but I can¡¯t stay around. My only allegiance is with Misu, if she lives then I¡¯m fine. The youngss you have your eye on seems to be Misu¡¯s friend so I won¡¯t hurt her don¡¯t worry." He smiled before snapping his fingers.
Having their connection forcefully terminated for now, Gaia couldn¡¯t help but stumble back for a moment and frowned.
"You ok?" Nyx asked with a raised eyebrow. Gaia had suddenly stumbled back without warning and her expression didn¡¯t look too good so naturally she would be worried.
"Mn? Oh yeah I¡¯m fine. Seems like Misu¡¯s got a god backing her up." Gaia shook her head.
"Is that so? Hmm...This new age is quite abnormal isn¡¯t it? Gods are popping up left and right. Though to be fair we were the first ones to do this since we¡¯re sending down quite a few avatars for Shiro." Nyx shrugged.
"Do you think it is perhaps the system¡¯s way of bringing bnce? While our privilege may be higher than other gods we have been abusing it for a while now." Tartarus asked as Nyx fell silent.
"Hmm... Well setting that aside now how are the preparations going?" Nyx asked.
"Hades has been gathering support and so far we¡¯ve gathered quite the army. Even if Zeus and the others find help from other pantheons we have a good chance of overwhelming their strength. The only problem left is how the system will react. You¡¯ve seen how it was not too happyst time about us fighting against the watchman." Tartarus replied as Nyx and Gaia both sat down.
Sigh...
"That¡¯s true. Plus, we also don¡¯t know what¡¯s the deal with that woman fromst time. Her deepest fear was apparently Shiro and she is able to ess a power much stronger than what we have." Nyx sighed as he remembered the fight fromst time.
"Until we find out what¡¯s the deal with her, it¡¯s risky to attack first." Gaia said, resting her chin on her palm.
"True. The war will break out soon so it is inevitable. We will suffer if we attack too soon but we will also suffer if we wait. They¡¯re trying to get rid of us just like back then." Ouranos clicked his tongue.
"Yeah well if you were more responsible then that probably won¡¯t happen. Considering how Zeus is, there was probably a chance of a coup regardless but you could have at least been remembered as a nice god." Gaia shrugged.
Hearing this, Ouranos frowned before staying silent.
"Alright alright, settle down. What¡¯s our main priority right now?" Tartarus calmed them down.
"Our main priority is to corner off Zeus¡¯ forces so that we can wipe them out. Stop their influence from spreading and seeking help from other pantheons." Ouranos grumbled as Tartarus smiled.
"Yup, so let¡¯s start doing that then. I hope we can end this war before the second half begins. That way, Shiro will have our full support without anyone from our pantheon trying to hinder her."
"Don¡¯t forget about her mum. Hades is helping her out right now but we need to guarantee her safety in the background." Gaia reminded as they all nodded.
###
After creating the crystal, Shiro sighed and sat on the floor.
"Ahhh.... The second time is just as hard as the first." Shiro sighed as her body was nowpletely drained of divine energy.
"Thank you, is there anything I can do to repay you?" Misu asked as Shiro waved her hand.
"It¡¯s fine ahaha, I promised that I would do this after all. Just help me out when I¡¯m in trouble and it¡¯ll be fine." Shiro smiled as Misu felt touched.
Helping her to her feet, the two talked about their next steps.
"Right now, we have a while until we need to challenge that dungeon with Syradil. I¡¯m going to be looking for a few dungeons to level up in. if we do fight, which we will, having a control mage like you would help a lot. Plus, you¡¯re also a Queen so your fighting strength is higher than the average person." Shiro said as Misu nodded.
"Well I do have a bunch of spare time to try to level up. Though I won¡¯t be able to summon too many undead since they are dead souls brought back for the sake ofbat. I don¡¯t want to force them to fight if they don¡¯t want to. Mybat power might be weaker than you expect. Though if it is our enemies within the dungeon, I can summon them to battle." Misu reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s fine, our battle in the future would be an invasion by a demi god and his army. If you can convert his army into our allies then that would be good too. All in all, we just need to reach a good level before the invasion begins. If we¡¯re too low level, there won¡¯t be much that we can do and a good majority of the world would be destroyed in front of us." Shiro nodded.
"In that case then just call me if there is a good ce to level up. I might have to finish dealing with a queen first since she¡¯s been putting pressure on some of my cities. While the city may be connected to Asharia I still want to end this conflict if possible, have her turn her attention elsewhere." Misu said as Shiro tapped her chin.
"Well if you want me to help you I can, it might also put more pressure off you since she¡¯s pretty hot headed from what I know." Shiro offered as Misu blinked her eyes.
"Ah you¡¯ve already done a lot for me, I can¡¯t trouble you more than this." Misu waved her hand but Shiro shook her head
"It¡¯s fine, there¡¯s not much I¡¯m doing anyways. I have my satellites looking for a good ce to level up and some of my staff are checking the feeds to make sure it is urate. Thest ce I checked gave me a decent material that can be used for research." Shiro reassured as Misu epted her help.
###
While Shiro and MIsu were talking to one another, a certain Queen received a rather interesting piece of news.
"It¡¯s what now?" A woman asked in disbelief.
"The city was ripped from the Earth and lifted into the sky where a second city appeared. It was 10 times the size of how big the original city was and after connecting to one another, it disappeared." The subordinate reported as the Lightning Queen furrowed her brows.
"So you¡¯re telling me, that the Undead Queen Misu, somehow lifted her city up into the sky and disappeared?"
"Yes."
"The f*ck?! Are you sure you didn¡¯t see wrong? How the hell can a city just disappear like that?" The Queen mmed her hand onto her arm rest.
"I¡¯m being honest, your highness. I can take you to see for yourself. There is now arge chunk ofnd missing and the same goes for some of her other cities. They¡¯ve all disappeared."
Seeing the panic on his face, she understood that he was probably being truthful.
"Fine, let me go check for myself."
mming her hand down, lightning wrapped around her body as she shot out of the room.
The sound of thunder rumbled in the sky as dark clouds gathered together.
Shooting into the centre of the clouds, the Lightning Queen disappeared.
Travelling through the sky, she soon discovered therge chunk ofnd that was missing.
*BANG!!!!
Landing on the floor, she walked up and frowned.
"What the hell..." She muttered.
Even if she was to try to destroy a city like this, she wouldn¡¯t be able to cause this much damage. There may be ruins but not to the point where not even a single brick was left behind.
Plus, the mana that was needed to lift something like that into the sky was nothing tough at.
Staying silent, she was about to leave when she felt a spike in mana. A tier 6 magic circle appeared in the sky as two figures appeared from the portal.
Recognising one of the figures to be Misu, the lightning Queen narrowed her eyes and red at her before turning to the second figure.
After hearing about how the city was lifted into the air, she had a slight idea of who it was but after seeing her in person, she realised her worries were right. The winner of the most recent event, the one who had a floating city behind her on the crest, it was the white haired devil.
"To think you would actually make an alliance with another Queen. Count me impressed." The Lightning Queen forced a smile while thinking of a way out.
However, without saying anything, Shiro raised her hand and clenched it into a fist.
Suddenly, the Lightning Queen felt all of the mana drain from the area and widened her eyes in shock.
Chapter 1095 Confronting The Lightning Queen
Chapter 1095 Confronting The Lightning Queen
¡¯A no mana zone!¡¯ The Lightning Queen thought with a frown while quickly backing off.
"I¡¯m just here to talk." Shiro smiled while walking towards her.
"What? Why would a talk involve getting rid of the mana in the area?" The Lightning Queen asked, forcing a smile.
"Because you probably wouldn¡¯t listen to me otherwise. After all, from my knowledge of you, you are pretty hot headed. You know what Misu does but still count it as heresy. She doesn¡¯t revive them against their will, she doesn¡¯t force them to fight and she certainly does not do it to torture then. So let¡¯s have a talk, why does this seem heretical to you?" Shiro asked as she flickered in front of the Lightning Queen.
Even if this area has been turned to a no mana zone, her physical prowess was still crazy even if she was a mage. Which mage has over 600 million points in strength? Setting aside the fact that her point gain is much higher than the average person due to her ss, upgrades and unique scenarios that had rewarded her greatly, not even an average warrior who put everything into strength could match up to her.
Even her weakest stat, defence was at an abnormal 500 million points. While it may not be much for most of the enemies that she face, no just any random person could cause her to bleed.
¡¯Fast!¡¯ The Lightning Queen thought to herself and quickly ducked down to avoid her attack.
Gritting her teeth, she punched towards Shiro¡¯s rib.
*BANG!!!
Feeling the force rebound back to her body, the Lightning Queen flinched from the pain.
¡¯What the f*ck!? Why is her body so hard??? Isn¡¯t she supposed to be a mage?¡¯ She asked herself while quickly retreating away from Shiro.
However, the gap couldn¡¯t be increased. Shiro was simply faster.
"Well? What¡¯s your answer?" Shiro asked as she hooked her leg behind the Lightning Queen and poked her head with a finger, causing her centre of gravity to shift.
Forcing the Lightning Queen to stumble back and copse to the ground, Shiro looked down at her with a slight smile.
"Reviving people is disturbing the cycle of life. Of course it¡¯s heresy. If they died then they should stay dead." The Lightning Queen snapped back as her body started to flicker with electricity.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro was a little surprised since this was not mana based. No, this was more of a racial trait.
Watching the lightning travel through her body, Shiro decided to humour her for a bit.
"So if they died in ident or were killed by something not under their control, you count that as heresy to reunite them with their family? Even if it means the son or daughter is left alone in this world?" Shiro asked, taking a step back.
Gritting her teeth, the Lightning Queen red at Shiro.
"Yes."
Dashing forward, her speed was increased explosively.
Flickering in front of Shiro, she twisted her body andunched a kick towards her neck.
Leaning to the side, Shiro caught her leg with her hand.
"So if your friends were to die in an ident, you would leave them be rather than bring them back?" Shiro asked as the Lightning Queen¡¯s eyes flickered for a moment before gritting her teeth.
"I wouldn¡¯t bring them back." She squeezed out through gritted teeth.
"So if your mother and father were killed by your enemy, you wouldn¡¯t bring them back?" Shiro asked.
At this point, she knew there was something slightly abnormal about her reaction to reviving people.
"No!" The Lightning Queen shouted out.
Transforming her entire body to lightning, sheshed out towards Shiro.
Feeling the electricity running through her body, Shiro could tell that it was trying to paralyse her.
Just as she was about to ask her some more questions, Shiro sensed that her no mana zone was about to run out.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro wanted to restrain her but she was slippery.
"If your parents were revived in front of you against their will what would you do?!"
Releasing a burst of lightning, the Lightning Queen disappeared the moment the no mana zone was undone.
Looking at the charred spot on the ground, Shiro was silent.
###
After finally escaping from the two, the Lightning Queen sat down while panting and gritted her teeth.
That talk with Shiro had brought up some old memories, the ones of her when she was younger and back in her original garden.
Memories of her mistake.
Closing her eyes, she could see the scene of a young girl reviving her parents, only for them to be monsters that almost destroyed a country. Their cries of hatred being unleashed upon her, cursing her actions.
The cries of the girl begging for forgiveness. How the girl had to be the one to end the life of her parents.
"The dead should stay dead. They shouldn¡¯t disturb the natural cycle of life." She muttered before standing up.
Taking a moment to catch her breath, she left the area.
###
"Well that talk went smoothly I¡¯d say. We¡¯ll probably get another chance to talk to her in the future. I¡¯ll let her think about things for now." Shiro shrugged.
While she could find her location with the satellites, she didn¡¯t want to force everything on her at once. She¡¯ll give the lightning Queen a moment to digest the conversation.
"Just in case though, I¡¯ll set a barrier around the border so that the location can be hidden." Shiro said as Misu nodded her head.
"so what¡¯s the n now?" Misu asked.
"We¡¯ll go around looking for a good level up spot. Get some people that you trust like Esil and he can level up with us too. We¡¯ll be leaving in a month or so after all." Shiro smiled.
She wasn¡¯t sure how many decent level up spots there are but reaching level 900 should be doable if they take a few risks.
###
In the following months, Shiro used all her time to clear dungeons whenever she could with a small party consisting of Nan Tian, Aarim, Keomi, Keiko, Helion, Silvia, Chen Yu, Kanae, Koji, Li Jian, Yin, Atesh, Lisandra, Nimue, Estre, Iziuel, Misu, Esil and a few other subordinates under Misu¡¯s control.
After the first few times, it became easier to find out where the dungeons were using the satellites. They had a unique signal that was camouged but once it was spotted, all of the dungeons above ground was revealed.
While most of them were lower than level 600, it was still good to keep clearing them since high level monsters were hard toe across inrge packs. Especially if they wanted to find some over level 700/800. If there were indeed monsters like that, Shiro would be more inclined to bring them to her side than to just kill them.
With the dungeons being the main ce to level up, Shiro used all of her skills that could increase their exp gain the first chance she could.
While she could keep track of how many times they¡¯ve cleared the dungeon this month, she got bored of doing so since it surpassed 4 digits.
The good news of clearing this many dungeons was that even if they were lower level, they still got a decent amount of exp.
After one month, this was the party¡¯s level.
Nan Tian ¨C Lvl 820
Aarim ¨C Lvl 695
Keomi ¨C Lvl 500
Helion ¨C Lvl 700
Keiko ¨C Lvl 750
Silvia ¨C Lvl 790
Chen Yu ¨C Lvl 720
Kanae ¨C Lvl 500
Koji ¨C Lvl 650
Li Jian ¨C Lvl 650
Yin ¨C Lvl 780
Estre ¨C Lvl 770
Misu ¨C Lvl 750
Esil ¨C Lvl 730
During this month, many have gotten their tier 6 sses with Koji and Li Jian breaking through the bottleneck that has kept them at the peak of tier 5 for years.
Yin found herself levelling up much faster with the benefits her new title has given her.
Keomi and Kanae managed to get to level 500 but weren¡¯t able to break through since they were struggling at their quest much to their dismay. However, Shiro said that it was fine since the rest of the party were making lots of good progress.
As for Shiro, while she may not have reached level 900 as she had wished since there were simply too many people that needed to level up, she wasn¡¯t far off. From level 765, she managed to level up to 870.
There wasn¡¯t much to her level except for one skill that she earned after levelling up to 850.
[Machine Goddess Descent]
Your domain of influence spreads out to the world. Everything within range will be converted to nanobots except for living beings. Ambient mana will be under your control and you be immune to lightning and metal elements.
Divinity Rank ¨C 1
Cost: 50% of Divine Energy
Cooldown: 7 days
Duration: 10 minutes
Bacsh: N/A
With this new skill, she finally obtained something that a demi god should have.
She asked Gaia about the Divinity rank and it turns out to be the power of her divinity. Right now it was at rank 1 which is the most basic. A rank 2 divinity skill would push back her current skill. But it was practically impossible for that to happen when facing Queens or Empresses. After all, Divinity Rank skills are only owned by gods.
Chapter 1096 Level 870
Chapter 1096 Level 870
In terms of Divinity ranks, most standard demi gods are rank 1. Gods are rank 2, powerful gods are rank 3, exceptional gods are rank 4, old gods are rank 5 and primordials like Gaia are rank 6.
Chaos was on a whole new level and Gaia said that her divinity would be around rank 7 or 8.
After receiving her first divinity grade skill, Shiro noticed a new icon on her stat board. Besides her ss, there was now a Divinity Rank 1.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit Demi God
Title: Expert Monster (13,290/100,000 Humans killed.), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind, Virtue of Fortitude, Young Demi God, Goddess of Protection, Merciful Goddess, Young Goddess (50% Boost Currently), Leader of Asharia, Tainted Shell, Realm Breaker.
Level: 870
ss: Nanotech Demi Goddess (Demi God ¨C Divinity Rank 1)
HP: 246,750,000,000/246,750,000,000
MP: 752,500,000,000/752,500,000,000
STR: 1,090,000,000
VIT: 1,410,000,000
INT: 4,300,000,000
AGI: 1,250,000,000
DEX: 1,305,000,000
DEF: 1,135,000,000
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 6
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 6
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 6
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 6 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 6
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 6
Aspect of Fire - Tier 7
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 6
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 6
Aspect of Water - Tier 7
Aspect of Life - Tier 7
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 7 Demi God
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Nanotech Demi Goddess:
Elemental Breath, Celestial Mirage, Force of Elements, Demi God Raiment, Tier 6 Element Magic, Rift Strider EX, Demi goddess¡¯ Domain, Demi God Skill ¨C Rebirth, Legendary Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Divine Court Appointment, Demi goddess¡¯ Blessing, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 6, Analysis, True Spirit Nature, Divine Gardens, Divine Presence ¨C Divinity of Nanobots, March of the Goddess, Divine Insight of God, Protection of the Goddess, Boon of the Demi Goddess, Machine Goddess Descent
Frozen Hell Series
Frozen Slumber, Azure Hell Fire, Borealis¡¯ Lance, Frozen Chandelier
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx, Argus, Gaia.
World ss Magic:
Requiem of the Dead
Grand Support ss Magic:
Requiem of the Demi Goddess
Origin Spells:
Time Flux
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Chimera Arts, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr, Item Master, Limit Focus, Blessing of Chaos, Soul Siphon, Divine Runic Needles, Devour.]
After a month of constant dungeon clearing, her hp and mana have effectively doubled while each of her stats are now above the one billion point threshold.
Due to the nature of her divine court upgrades, her party members could roughly guess what her stats were and they couldn¡¯t believe a ¡¯mage¡¯ could have over a billion points in strength and a billion points in defence. If anything, she could act as a tank and no one would notice.
Since a month had passed, Shiro was thinking that it was about time to talk to the system once more but not just yet. There were more questions she wanted to ask but most importantly, it would be better if Syradil was here so that she can also ask a few questions herself.
Currently, they were in arge scale level 700 dungeon and everyone was just cleaning up. They had already killed the boss so it was just the grunts left.
Feeling some movement beneath her, Shiro nced down with boredom and snapped her finger.
Suddenly, the ground hardened with nanobots and split apart, revealing the monster that wanted to ambush her from below.
Waving her hand, the ground mmed shut as if it was the mouth of a beast, causing blood to stter everywhere but there was a barrier around Shiro, preventing the blood from staining her clothes.
"We should be finished up now. I think it¡¯s about time we make our way back. Khionah said that she wanted us to prepare for an expedition to see where the Shadow Empress was. If we can deal with her before Rokarn then that¡¯ll be great." Shiro called out as everyone nodded.
{I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll have time to deal with her once Rokarns Invasion begins.} Nimue said as she had returned to Shiro¡¯s Mana Realm after a short period of staying outside. Iziuel was with her and they would asionally step out but not too much.
Unlike Attie and Estre who enjoyed the outside world a lot, these two were more reclusive.
¡¯That¡¯s true.¡¯ Shiro agreed while watching everyone pack up and clear out the dungeon.
Upon leaving, Shiro stretched her body.
During this month, she had also been working on healing her trauma. Previously, she needed to hold onto Nan Tian every so often to calm her nerves but she¡¯s managed to improve to the point that as long as everyone was in her sight, she¡¯d be fine. If not, then she¡¯ll just need to see Nan Tian every 30 minutes or so. After that 30 minutes she could still fight but her strength would begin to deteriorate.
It wasn¡¯t too bad though since not many fights would drag past 30 minutes.
ncing back at the Dungeon gate za that she had created, Shiro couldn¡¯t help butugh since she had effectively kidnapped every avable dungeon gate and ced it in this area.
With how big Asharia had be, Shiro had added a second floor to the whole ce. Connected to the main tower was a tform that had support pirs with teleport circles inside to send them to the second floor. The second floor was made up of all the dungeon gates she could find. Most of them were over level 300 but there were still a few low level dungeons. This made it so that the adventurers in this city could still level up without venturing out. This included Misu¡¯s dungeon and as she had described, nothing much happened in the dungeon. It was just a scenario dungeon where they were in the middle of a war and had to help the forces of light. Pretty standard.
However, one of the dungeons was rather interesting since it was linked to a world that had already begun research on mana infused guns. Compared to earth, their progress was rather good. Butpared to Aria and their research, it still paled inparison.
Revel was also enjoying his time recuperating his wounds and found himself enjoying the inte caf¨¦ that Shiro had set up in the middle of the city. He now mostly visits to y some games and chat around without anyone knowing that he was a level 900 leviathan.
Speaking ofputers, Khionah has be a Neet for good now. She spent all of her time on theputer, rying her orders to Saphi and her other subordinates. She seems to have found her groove ying Real Time Simtion games that was simr to what they were experiencing right now.
Unfortunately for her, she hasn¡¯t won a single game yet. The closest she got was 3rd ce but that was it.
There wasn¡¯t much movement from the other Queens either, things were pretty silent for the majority of the month she spent levelling up.
In addition to everything that had happened, she had also created a research base in the north pole for the strange crystals that were produced there. So far, they discovered that the crystal would only react negatively if it was used as a weapon. If they were to use it as an amplifier for her anchor, the chances of it backfiring was almost zero.
Therefore, topensate for that, Shiro had installed modules that would cause the crystals to self destruct the moment they showed signs of going berserk.
As for the egg in the bottom, no one had a clue of what it was. The amount of mana it needed was crazy and the fact that it was still incubating after all this time showed that whatever was going to be born could possess the power of a peak tier 6. Maybe even higher but the odds were low.
But now that the crystals could be used, Shiro made some adjustments to all of her anchors along with Misu¡¯s anchors, making it so that her main city could be moved to Asharia while keeping the weapons, defensive measures and teleportation. It wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to call Asharia a weaponised country at this point with its size.
Looking around the Dungeon za that had countless adventurers going in and out, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile since this allowed them to stretch their body and exercise.
Plus, the risks of lives being lost in the dungeon was quite small with a breakthrough item that Aarim constructed with the help of Estre and Helion. It was an emergency escape stone that would send them to a space in Estre¡¯s pocket dimension where they can get help or get healed.
Once they¡¯ve recovered, they can continue.
With everything they¡¯ve set up, clearing dungeons became much safer.
Chapter 1097 Tracking Down The Shadow Empress
Chapter 1097 Tracking Down The Shadow Empress
"What¡¯s your n now?" Nan Tian asked as he walked next to Shiro.
"I need to go talk to Khionah since we need to deal with the Shadow Empress. Now that we¡¯ve taken some time to level up, it should be a good time to sort things out before the invasion." Shiro replied as Nan Tian nodded.
"How¡¯s the monitoring with Thiria?"
"Same as usual. She¡¯s too hard to keep track of even with the satellite system. We don¡¯t know where to look and she¡¯s managed to hide her traces well." Nan Tian shook his head with a sigh.
"It would be great if there was a way for us to find a link but unfortunately that link hasn¡¯t been discovered yet."
"I see... no matter. Hopefully, we¡¯ll see her at the next event. If we don¡¯t then not much else we can do. Let¡¯s just sit back and wait for now." Shiro said as she created a portal for the two of them.
Teleporting to Revel¡¯s hanger, Shiro could see the mighty leviathan resting right now.
"How are you feeling?" Shiro asked as Revel opened one of his eyes.
"Not too bad. My soul is recovering slowly but it¡¯s almost done. I should be able to fight properly in a week or two." Revel smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Speaking of which, you should have seen the reaction of one of my opponents. She thought she could outsmart me with the cement of her units but it was a trap all along. Hahaha, the moment she thought she won she lost all of her units in one turn." Revel grinned as Shiro chuckled.
Since she was the one who created the inte caf¨¦, she could naturally ess the servers. Unfortunately for Khionah, the barrier blocking her from reaching top three was actually this leviathan. He had found himself a hobby of stopping her.
Talking with Revel for a little, Shiro left him alone to heal for now.
"The attraction of games is quite strong isn¡¯t it? Both Revel and Khionah are addicted" Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"That¡¯s true. Anyways, are you ready? I¡¯ll be taking us to Khionah." Shiro asked.
During this month, she had a few more ¡¯peace¡¯ talks with Khionah and the two agreed on letting Shiro install a teleport gate to her city so that she could travel back and forth with ease. After her first disy of power, Khionah understood that if Shiro wanted to destroy her city, it was a simple task. There was no need to work in the shadows hence she was fine with her cing a teleport gate.
Plus, it made it easier for Khionah toe to Asharia and shop for thetest hardware.
Teleporting outside of Khionah¡¯s castle, Shiro entered without any problems since the guards were long used to it by now. Seeing the fatigued receptionist and workers in the castle, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel pity for them since she had turned their Queen into a neet.
Seeing Saphi carrying some documents, Shiro gave her a small wave.
"Ah miss Shiro, sorry about theck of a wee." Saphi apologised while forcing a smile.
"It¡¯s fine. How¡¯s Khionah? I was hoping to talk to her about the problem regarding the Shadow Empress today." Shiro asked as Saphi¡¯s smile twitched.
"She has just started a new game so I¡¯m not sure. But she¡¯s in her room as usual."
Nodding her head, Shiro helped Saphi out a little by making a drone to help her for the day before walking to Khionah¡¯s room.
Knocking on the door, Shiro didn¡¯t hear a response and opened the door.
The moment she saw what was inside, Shiro covered Nan Tian¡¯s eyes.
"I suppose I should turn away." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Watching Nan Tian take a step back, Shiro entered.
Sitting in front of theputer, Khionah was dressed in a simple oversized shirt and her underwear. She had her legs crossed while tapping away at the keyboard. Her nket was barely hanging on as she simply wrapped it on her shoulders like a cape.
Seeing what Khionah was like, Shiro facepalmed. This was the Ice Queen?
"If you¡¯re bringing food, leave it on the side." Khionah said as she didn¡¯t even bother to look up.
*COUGH!*
Clearing her throat, Shiro forced Khionah to look up.
ncing up, Khionah paused the moment she saw it was Shiro. After all, Shiro was the one that could take everything from her.
"Er... mind letting me get dressed?" Khionah asked with a small blush since she was in her underwear and a shirt right now.
".. .Sure. How long do you need?"
"5 minutes."
Nodding her head, Shiro took a step out.
Waiting in the corridor with Nan Tian, Shiro opened her mouth.
"Maybe I should take away herputer for a bit." She sighed.
"Pft, I feel like you¡¯ve picked up Khionah as a kid now." Nan Tianughed since Shiro was acting like a mother who wanted to take away their kids¡¯ games.
"Bah, I already have Yin, Attie, and Lisandra to take care of. I don¡¯t need anymore kids right now. Plus, Yin is already a handful." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Erm... I heard you said that you wanted to take away theputer for a bit. Please don¡¯t." Khionah said as she popped her head out from behind the door.
ncing over, Shiro could see that Khionah was still half-dressed.
"Go... get dressed then we can talk."
Waiting for a little longer, Khionah invited them in.
This time she was dressed properly and sitting on the bed while offering two seats for Shiro and Nan Tian.
"So what did you want to talk about?" Khionah asked as she adjusted herself so that she seemed more like a Queen.
"I wanted to talk about the Shadow Empress. Since we¡¯re going to be challenging a raid in two weeks, I wanted to take care of the Shadow Empress before I leave." Shiro said as Khionah nodded her head.
"Right, the Shadow Empress. I have mentioned before that I¡¯m still trying to track down her location. While we haven¡¯t discovered her exact location, we¡¯ve found some tracks. Since she has fallen, there are some distinct marks that are left behind by her skills." Khionah said as her expression was serious.
Pulling out a few pictures, Shiro could see that there was corrosion on the damage left behind which emitted a ck aura.
"Her attacks are bing more frequent now. After tracking her for a month, it seems like she¡¯s been travelling towards the southern section of the world."
Turning her screen towards Shiro and Nan Tian, Khionah brought up a map of the world and revealed marks of where the tracks have been found.
Looking at the map, Shiro could see that it was practically a straight line down towards the south.
Thest time she had checked the South Pole from her satellites, she couldn¡¯t find anything strange like the egg in the North Pole so she didn¡¯t pay it much attention. But if the Shadow Empress was making her way there then she might need to reevaluate her thoughts on the South Pole.
"There is very little divergence to her path so we did think about maybe sending a few scouts to intercept. The scouts have doppelganger skills so their lives won¡¯t be in danger but even if we try to be there ahead of her, we couldn¡¯t spot her at all." Khionah shook her head.
"Well, that does make sense. After all, shadows are everywhere. If she¡¯s the Shadow Empress then travelling through shadows would be rather standard. Hmm... I¡¯ll set down a few drones on the way there to see if I can spot her. Otherwise, I think it¡¯s best for me to look at the tracks that she leaves behind. That way I can find her with my skill."
If Shiro can get her hands on the Shadow Empress¡¯s tracks, the Blessing that Argus gave her would help her track the Empress down.
"Sure, I can show you the way. Speaking of which, do you know the owner of this ount? He really is insufferable. He can get first ce but he always makes sure that he is in third to block me!" Khionah pouted as she pointed towards Revel¡¯s ount.
Scratching her hair, Shiro nodded her head before opening her mouth.
"You can figure that out eventually. Our focus is the Shadow Empress ok?" Shiro reminded her.
Hearing this, Khionah nodded her head.
Talking for a little longer, Shiro controlled her satellite to send down a drone so that it can act as a teleport anchor for her.
Once she sensed that the anchor was ready, she opened a portal and arrived at the most recent mark.
"Damn, that really is convenient." Khionah muttered. With Shiro¡¯s satellite system, she was able to send a node to anywhere in the world and teleport there in an instant. She essentially had fast travel with every new node she unlocked.
Right now, the three of them were in the middle of a forest. Seeing the tree¡¯s corroded to their roots, Shiro nced at the ck aura being radiated and furrowed her brows.
Even though she was just sensing the residual energy, she felt chills down her body and knew that the Shadow Empress was long gone.
Conjuring up some nanobots, she collected a sample so that she could use it as a tracker.
Chapter 1098 Niphim
Chapter 1098 Niphim
The moment her nanobots came into contact with the ck aura, Shiro felt her shock go through her body. A dark presence trying to grip at her heart which disappeared quickly.
Taking a step back, Shiro had cold sweat down her back.
"Are you ok?" Nan Tian asked as he quickly rushed over.
"Mn, I just didn¡¯t expect this kind of reaction from the aura. I¡¯ll need to take some special precautions when ites to tracking her down." Shiro replied as she didn¡¯t attempt to collect the sample a second time.
Instead, she conjured up several pirs around the sample and scanned it as it is. That way, it didn¡¯t attack her again.
Scanning the sample, she discovered that the aura of the Shadow Empress was highly vtile. The moment youe into contact with the tracks, the corruption will attempt to forcefully make you fall.
Since she had been close to falling a few times, Shiro had built up a small resistance that allowed her to forcefully break from whatever tried to make her fall. Otherwise, she might been feeling the effects of the corruption.
Activating the Argus Satellite system, she started to track down where the aura originated from.
Closing her eyes, she could see a trail leading towards the south. Zooming in, she spotted a faint figure flickering through the shadows.
The moment she focused on her, the woman snapped her head up and made eye contact with Shiro.
¡¯What a sharp sixth sense. It¡¯s not any worse than mine.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{You might want to be extra careful with this one. She doesn¡¯t feel like a fallen should. It¡¯s more... vtile. Not sure what to think of this but keep your guard up.} Nimue warned as Shiro nodded her head.
Before she could even look to track down the Shadow Empress, Shiro felt her aura re up as the shadows around them started to move.
"Stay away from the shadows!" Shiro called out as the three of them jumped into the air.
Watching all of the shadows in the forest swell up before transforming into a giant beast with a woman appeared on the head, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel a headache appearing sinceing into contact with this beast is advised against. The moment you do, there was a chance of being invaded by a dark presence that tries to make you fall.
Looking at the woman, Shiro could see long flowing ck hair and a pair of purple eyes that bore into her.
[Niphim LVL 990 Fallen Empress of Shadows]
"Are you trying stop my goal as well?" Niphim asked as the size of the monster beneath her continued to grow, fusing with all of the shadows within this forest.
"What is your goal? For an Empress to fall, the goal is surely something rather difficult to aplish." Shiro asked as she gestured for both Nan Tian and Khionah to prepare forbat but hold for now.
"My goal... my goal... what is my goal?" Niphim muttered as she clutched her head.
"That¡¯s right... my goal, the Raven bastard. He¡¯s in the south... I must kill the Raven bastard. Don¡¯t get in my way." Niphim gritted her teeth as hundreds of ck tentacles shot out of the ground.
Widening her eyes, Shiro mmed her hands together.
Remembering the hexagonal pattern that created the strongest shield, she forced her mana to condense into thick pieces of ice that mmed against the ground.
*BANG!!!!
As the tentacles collided with the ice, they started to freeze immediately as ice travelled towards Niphim.
"Try not to kill her just yet. If she¡¯s talking about Ravens, it could be the strange figure that¡¯s been calling himself the merchant. He¡¯s a variable that we need to deal with so having her help would be good!" Shiro shouted out while Nan Tian and Khionah spread out.
"Wait, she wants to kill him?! Before we had our non aggression agreement, he had been trying to get me to use a percentage of my authority to purchase his offers. I¡¯m not sure what his goal is but he¡¯s been collecting authorities from other Queens." Khionah shouted out as Shiro furrowed her brows.
If she remembered correctly, Authority of a Queen is what allows them to ce down more anchors, absorb some power from her followers and improve their strength. It is also what lets their element stand above the rest.
¡¯If the merchant has been collecting these authorities then is he trying to gain all of their powers?¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
{Maybe but right now the problem is Niphim. She¡¯s out of her mind right now.} Nimue warned as the ice started to corrode.
Dropping the shield, Shiro condensed an orb of energy in her hand and threw it in the air above this giant monster that Niphim had created.
"Nan Tian!" Shiro shouted out as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Aiming his palm toward the sky, mana gathered around him as a tier 6 magic circle appeared, stacking on top of one another. Once enough energy was gathered, he mmed his hand down as a pir of light descended from the heavens.
Activating her own orb of energy, a giantyer of ice appeared as the uneven surface started to refract the light from Nan Tian¡¯s attack, splitting one ray into thousands.
*TSS!!!!
Seeing the monster being burnt by the attack, Khionah admired the strength of these two and wondered what she could do.
Closing her eyes, she curled her lips into a grin. If anything, she can limit how many shadows are in the forest.
Copying from Shiro¡¯s idea of refracting light, Khionah sped her two hands together, creating thousands of ice shards throughout the forest.
Focusing the light of the sun into the forest, she illuminated it as much as possible, erasing arge majority of the shadows.
Suddenly, the beast started to shrink as Niphim frowned.
Clicking her tongue with annoyance, she pushed her hand out and two portals appeared.
ck mist flowed out of the portal, covering the forest and letting her monster recover its original size.
Before Shiro or Nan Tian could attack her, her figure faded into the darkness on the monsters back.
"She left." Shiro frowned as her speed in the shadows was extremely fast. Since she was still travelling to the south, she wanted to avoid another confrontation if possible. Let her and the Raven Merchant fight one another.
However, they still needed to deal with this monster in front of them.
Judging by its size which is slowly decreasing now that Niphim has left, Shiro knew that it would disappear in due time. But the longer it stayed, the more corruption it brought to the world. The forest that was peaceful had now almostpletely wilted with the ground drained of nutrients. ck wood and cracked earth.
"Let¡¯s back off for a bit. I have my tracker on the Empress so I can keep an eye on her. If the monster loses its targets, it should calm down and slowly disappear." Shiro said as she camouged the three of them.
Watching the monster stay in the same ce, Shiro sighed in relief.
"How are we supposed to deal with her? Any direct contact and she¡¯ll try to corrupt us. Even though it was small, I definitely felt it trying to make me fall when I attacked." Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
She felt it too.
"I don¡¯t know but we¡¯ll have to let the Raven Merchant sort it out. The best case scenario would be killing the two of them at once. But if we can help Niphim break out of her fallen status, that would be good as well. If it does get down to it, I don¡¯t mind using a charge of my skill to ask the system about this." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Once the monsterpletely disintegrated, Shiro looked at the destroyednd and shook her head.
Waving her hand, mana red from her body as she was going to repair this ce. Revitalise everything and clear the effects of the corruption.
With her resistance, this should be an easy task when also paired with some divine energy.
Slowly, the dull grass regained its lush green colour, the leaves appeared once more and the tree¡¯s had their wood repaired. Any signs of the monster ever being here disappeared and the forest regained it¡¯s previous lustre.
###
Meanwhile, wandering around in a temple, a figure paused in his steps and his lips curled up.
"One... no, three people. Three people are after my head today. So lively... I should pack up before they arrive otherwise it might be rather embarrassing, disying my experiments like this." He chuckled darkly as he walked up to one of the Queens strapped to a table.
Her eyes were dull and her body was surgically opened. A strange crystal could be seen being attached to her inside while the flesh started to pulse.
There wasn¡¯t just one Queen either, if one was to look behind her, there were a few being hung up by hooks, having their body opened up from the middle.
Opening his mouth, the Raven Merchant pulled something out before cing it inside the Queen¡¯s body. Suddenly, her eyes flickered back to life as he started to sew the opening shut.
Chapter 1099 Niphim and The Raven
Chapter 1099 Niphim and The Raven
Looking at the forest that has now regained its colours, Shiro nodded in satisfaction.
"Right then, where is she." Shiro muttered. This time, she wasn¡¯t going to directly scan Niphim so that she would beginbat again.
Brining up the map, she could see the tracker that she had previously ced on Niphim blink periodically. She had ced this after scanning her for the first time. Unlike her normal tracking methods, this one was special.
It was a rune that attached itself to her aura.
Once the satellites lock onto you, this rune will appear and it would be hard for you to break yourself free from it. Unlike the trickster Queen, not many can change their aura so this would work almost 100% of the time. It even tracks them through the different realms since it¡¯s made using divine runes.
Seeing that her speed had increased, Shiro could tell that she was in a hurry after theirst fight.
"Shall we follow?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"Maybe... But not yet. We¡¯ll see how things go and see if we can find out why she became fallen."
###
Dashing through the shadows, Niphim had cold sweat on her forehead as she needed to rush towards the south quickly.
Gritting her teeth, she continued to dive through the shadows.
"I need to hurry." She muttered as her vision blurred.
Feeling her body freeze up, she was expelled from the shadows and thrown onto the floor.
"Gah!!" Crashing against the ground, she could feel her insides twist and churn as she felt something travel up her throat.
*COUGH!!
Coughing it up, a ck goo sttered against the floor and started to squirm.
Flinching in disgust, Niphim clenched her fist and the shadows disposed of the ck goo.
Wiping the corners of her mouth, she took a few deep breaths before continuing. She needed to put an end to everything. That man¡¯s goals, his ambitions, everything. She needed to stop it.
Travelling through the shadows once more, she remembered how things were like back then.
He was a small deity that ruled over a unique Shadow in back in her world. After she became the Shadow Queen, she naturally obtained his favour.
From then on, they worked together closely to win the new age but as a Queen, it was difficult for her to match against the Empress¡¯ that dominated the top.
Then he came to her with a suggestion, a surgery. He wanted to help her reach the Empress status so that she could get the power she had always desired.
Back then, after working together for such a long time, she trusted him. In fact, deep down, she knew that she loved him.
Everything he did, he did for her. All of his sacrifices, all of his worries were all for her.
She had thought that he wouldn¡¯t do anything to harm her so she agreed.
When the first procedure was done, she didn¡¯t feel a thing. Her connection to shadows improved and so did her connection to him since he was the god of the Shadow in.
After this surgery, she started to win more. Defeat the Queens that came her way but it still wasckingpared to the Empress¡¯.
He had exined that this surgery wasn¡¯t a one step process, it was many so she agreed to the second, then the third and so on.
She knew that he was doing something in the dark that he didn¡¯t tell her but she didn¡¯t question him since his motives was to help her. Or at least that¡¯s what it seemed like.
Until one day she watched her skin split apart and a ck substance leaked from her body.
Horrified by what she saw, she quickly healed herself thinking that it was just the after effects of her battles.
She obtained the Empress title but felt no joy. Since she discovered that her body was indeed copsing from the inside out.
She figured that it was probably the surgery so she confronted him about it but all he had to say was "Ah, you found out. I¡¯m surprised you kept at it for so long. I¡¯m impressed."
His nonchnce sent a shock through her mind as he yed around with his tools.
"To make an Empress is not easy, their authority is much higher than a normal Queen. What a normal Queen considers to be 100% of her authority is just a fraction of the authority owned by an Empress. At first, my idea was to infuse your body with the essences of my Shadow in to increase your power. It worked, but only for a short time. So I thought to myself, what else can I do? I know, there was a way to obtain a portion of a Queen¡¯s authority, through contract. So I became a seller. I sold portions of your authority in return for theirs, obtained the things that a Queen wants and offered it for their authority. Then when the time came, I enhanced your body so that you could withstand all of this." He spoke without turning around.
"Then you obtained the Empress title that you¡¯ve always wanted and I obtained my breakthrough. But your body was unstable. I was unsure of how long you can hold on for but it was much longer than I expected so I started experimenting. See how far I can take this. I have tried the same experiment on others but they simply couldn¡¯tpare to what you could do so I chose the perfect candidate in my mind. Your sister, Arnea, your physique is simr to yours as you are sisters. Her trust in me is the same as yours." He curled his lips into a smile.
"Absolutely delightful. And my theories were correct, all of my ideas, my experiments produced not one, but two Empress¡¯s. This time, she is more stable. Well.. her body is. Her mind? Not so much." He chuckled, stepping aside to reveal Arena strapped to the stable with her body opened disying a crystalline core imnted where her heart should be.
[Arnea ¨C Chimera Empress]
"While she isn¡¯t a Queen, she managed to be a Chimera Empress. It makes sense though, Chimeras are a fusion of many things. While I don¡¯t know how well she can use her abilities, I look forward to the future. As for you, I¡¯m more curious now. What will happen if an Empress falls. So I prepared a little gift."
Revealing his workshop, Niphim could see all of the ones she held dear being operated on. All of them were either strapped to a table or dismembered. Their eyes extracted, body hollowed and limbs reced.
Copsing on the ground, Niphim could feel her heart being crushed as she kept questioning why.
However, the man only looked at her with disappointment.
"Not enough huh? Maybe this will help you."
pping his hands, all of the bodies in the workshop started to thrash around as screams of agony rang out. Tearing the hooks, pins and scalpels from their bodies, they looked around in panic before seeing Niphim.
Hearing all of them attempt to call out to her, she backed off in fear.
They didn¡¯t understand her panic. The fear in her eyes, the tears that rolled down her cheek. All of them were confused until they looked down and froze in horror.
One by one, they charged towards her as their bodies were beyond their control.
Their howls, pleading for help echoed in Niphim¡¯s ears. Their twisted faces and muted bodies twisted and morphed while attacking her.
Remembering to this point, Niphim held her head and stumbled in her step.
Her memories were iplete, they continued to fade day after day. She no longer remembered their connection to her except for Arnea. Her sister. All she knows is that after that day she became fallen. Drifting from one new age to another, forever looking to put an end to the Raven Merchant but never being able to find him.
Finally, after searching for so long, the connection between her and his divinity resonated. She knew he was here, in this world. She also knew that Arnea was here but every time they have met, it was alwaysbat. No matter what, Arnea would begin to react negatively and attack her as though there can only be one of them in the world. Such a reaction, Niphim figured that it was probably Arnea¡¯s hate for her, hate for not being able to save her.
So she was going to end all of this. She¡¯ll kill the Raven Merchant, end what she helped start.
She¡¯ll put an end to everything while she still had the chance.
Continuing to travel towards where his divinity could be felt, Niphim finally arrived in the frozenndscape of the far south.
Seeing nothing in the horizon, she scoffed as she knew his habits.
mming her hand down, a line of shadow shot into the distance before splitting thend in two, revealing a building beneath the frozen surface.
Walking down, she was now in front of a set of doors with a familiar design.
Pushing it open, she experienced the feeling of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. A familiar man with his back to her, the operating table and the test subjects.
"Wee. How long has it been now? Quite a few years since thest I remembered." The Raven Merchant curled his lips into a twisted smile.
Chapter 1100 Antania
Chapter 1100 Antania
"More than a few years. But even after all of this time you still haven¡¯t changed you disgusting f*ck." Niphim hissed as she mmed her hand down.
All of the shadows in the room twisted and shot towards him but he wasposed.
Without moving from his spot, he only smiled.
Before the shadows could pierce his body, they froze in mid air, causing Niphim to click her tongue.
"You forget. I made you. Your powers, your status, everything. I made all of it. Do you really think the shadows of an Empress can reach me? A god?" The Raven Merchantughed as Niphim gritted her teeth.
"If shadows don¡¯t work then I have other options. After what happened, I obtained stronger powers!" She shouted out, running towards him as a trail of ck mist emanated from her body.
"The power of being fallen? It¡¯s nothing but a bit of corruption. I¡¯ve had plenty myself." He grinned, opening a part of his coat to reveal a pulsing ck mass that wriggled around after being exposed to the air.
Widening her eyes, Niphim ignored it and continued her attack.
Swiping her hand out, she created a spear before piercing the ground and vaulting herself towards him.
ck armour appeared around her as she cleaved down with a sword.
*BANG!!!!!
Once again, something blocked her attempt to attack as the Queen that was just on the table now blocked her strike with her hand that was harder than the sword.
"Ah, ready to protect the master so soon. How obedient." The Raven Merchant chuckled while patting the Queen¡¯s head.
[Antania LVL 800 Hybrid Empress]
Seeing that another Empress was manufactured, Niphim felt a sting in her heart.
"Who was she?" Niphim asked as she grabbed Antania¡¯s arms and kicked her jaw, forcing her body up.
Hearing no response, Niphim mmed her foot down and shattered the tiling.
"I ASKED WHO WAS SHE!? Who the hell did you trick with your deceit! Speak raven!" Niphim shouted out while mming her hand down.
A web of shadows shot out as it tried to copse the building but was halted with a single wave of The Raven¡¯s fingers.
"Who was she? Hahaha, well... she¡¯s just like you. She was someone who wanted power so I gave her it. She experienced despair after seeing what Shiro and Syradil were capable of. So I helped her. Look, she is now an Empress just like you. But unlike you, she doesn¡¯t have a main focus. No, she has many. Lots of authorities that I¡¯ve collected through small trades. And this is one of them." His lips curled up as he waved his finger.
Suddenly, Antania¡¯s body started to move in strange ways, like a pullet that had no limit to her range of motion.
Adjusting herself in mid air, she mmed her hand down and three magic circles appeared.
All of them were tier 6 as three new mana signals appeared.
"Summoning." Niphim muttered before sping her hands together.
The shadows in the room broke free of their two dimensional restraints and stabbed towards her, piercing her body.
However, she transformed into a puddle of blood before ¡¯fixing¡¯ herself.
In that short period of time, three figures dropped down to the floor and shed towards her.
Widening her eyes, Niphim pushed her hand down.
ck shadows wrapped around her into a dome and warded off the offence but Antania broke through the gaps, punching her in the stomach.
Holding back the urge to throw up, Antania mmed her arm into the ground to prevent her from being flung out of the building.
Tugging a strand of shadow from the ground, the four figures in front of her felt their bodies halt as the shadow was connected to them.
Biting her lip, Niphim narrowed her eyes as ck blood trailed down her mouth but it was fine.
Using her spare hand, she got a bit of the blood and wiped it on the shadow she was holding.
Suddenly, a ck aura shot out, covering Antania and her summons.
"Using the attributes of your corruption. Nice choice. But, I did design her to face off against you so you think I would forget about your main weapon?" The Raven smiled as purple and gold sigils appeared on Antania¡¯s body, cleansing her of the aura.
"Divinity!" Niphim called out in shock since she was familiar with this radiance.
"Bingo."
Suddenly, Niphim felt a de pierce her chest as she slowly looked down.
A single shadow de erupted from her chest as she coughed up a mouthful of ck blood.
Following the first de, more and more exploded from her body as she copsed on the floor.
"You¡¯re not the only one to y with shadows Niphim. What you can do, she can do better. And what you can¡¯t do... well, she can do."
Dashing forward, Antania and her three summons conjured up floating des created from a crystal like material and pierced her body, pinning Niphim to the ground.
"She is a lot better than your sister. After she went rogue, I figured that I needed to make sure they¡¯re more obedient. Though it wasn¡¯t too much of a loss. After all, I was attempting to do that with your sister. Her sacrifice as a subject allowed me to perfect my experiments. Sooner orter, your sis should be brain dead. She has been regressing in terms of mental age, even with all that power, there is not much she can do." The Ravenughed while Niphim red at him.
Her aura red but all of her power was being absorbed by the crystals, making them grow.
"These are strange crystals I found in the far north. While I was unable to do much with them, I was able to imbed some of their powers with the authority belonging to the Crystal Queen. Once these are in your body, they¡¯ll continue to drain you of your life force and mana until nothing is left.
"If I could make you fall to corruption harder, I would. But this is unfortunately, your limit. You¡¯ve lost all use for me Niphim, it¡¯ll be time to dispose of you unless you can show me more. Weren¡¯t you always the one who liked to impress me? I¡¯m giving you another chance." The Raven called out with a smile.
Gritting her teeth, Niphim started to slowly stand up as the crystals grew on her body.
Grabbing the crystals, she pulled them out, ignoring the injuries that she was sustaining.
The same ck goo that was inside her body started to repair her wounds as the Raven raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Using your own life force as fuel before the crystals drain you up. That¡¯s pretty good but how many years have you lost now? 50? 60?"
"Does it matter if I can kill you?" Niphim said coldly as a ck and red aura erupted from her body.
Disappearing from her spot, she appeared next to the Raven with a swirl of ck mass in her hands.
Pulling back his hood, the Raven revealed his face which caused Niphim to widen her eyes in shock.
This hesitation was enough for Antania to grab her by the ankles and m her against the ground.
"Pft ahahahaha! After all these years you still can¡¯t harm your sister." The Ravenughed as he had changed his appearance to look like Arnea for a moment.
"It was the same back then and it is the same now! Even if you can kill your family when they were transformed, you still can¡¯ty a hand on your sister! What were herst words before she went crazy? Ah right, it was cursing you to herst breath, should I act that out for you with her voice?" the Raven asked as his voice shifted to that of Arnea¡¯s.
Hearing that voice, Niphim felt her heart get crushed by her guilt of not being able to do anything for Arnea.
"You¡¯re not her, don¡¯t you dare copy her voice and appearance!" Niphim shouted.
Leaping up from the floor, she grabbed Antania by the head and ripped her throat out with her mouth before throwing her aside.
With a clear path to the Raven, Niphim looked like a savage beast with blood dripping from her mouth.
Stomping down, she charged towards him as he transformed once more into Arnea.
Flinching a little, Niphim continued her attack until he opened his mouth.
"Big sis... how could you do this..."
Hearing the same voice of pain that haunted her, Niphim gritted her teeth and pierced the Raven¡¯s chest.
"My my, how heartless. Literally considering the fact that I reced it with a crystal. But to think you would kill your sister like that, even if it¡¯s just an illusion. Tsk tsk, if Arnea saw that she would be sad." The Raven smiled as Niphim copsed on one knee.
Her aura dimmed as she couldn¡¯t keep burning away the years of her life like this. Each second she burned was roughly 10 years of her life.
"Perhaps. But I know that deep down, Arnea would want me to kill you so that we can end you for good. Stop more victims from appearing." Niphim red as a figure suddenly appeared behind the Raven.
"Well said." Shiro curled her lips into a grin.
Needles suddenly appeared and pierced into the Raven, stopping him from teleporting as chains held him in ce.
Chapter 1101 Helping Niphim
Chapter 1101 Helping Niphim
With the Raven now locked in ce in front of her, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate as a spear of nanobots appeared beneath him.
Flexing her fingers, the spear drilled up as it tore into his body, splitting him in half. He didn¡¯t even get the chance to scream before his body was shredded to pieces but Shiro knew that he wouldn¡¯t go down this easily.
Taking a few steps back, Shiro mmed her hand down and summoned ice around her to block the attacks of Antania and her summons.
Watching the two halves break apart into ravens which soon condensed together again, she clicked her tongue.
"The divine needles that I used to pin you down aren¡¯t enough huh?" Shiro said as she knew that gods had their ways of escaping. Hence why she used the divine runic needle skill that she had andbined a few runes together to get one that locked his body away.
While she could have used Error, she wasn¡¯t sure about his escape tools so she wanted to save it for now.
"Well, I knew that four people wereing for my head today so of course I have to prepare. I¡¯ve been keeping an eye on your progress and you surprise me. You¡¯re a demi god that can ess tier 8 magic circles if you wish with the power of the runes. I can¡¯t let my guard down." The Raven smiled as he waved his finger, bringing Antania back to his side.
"You can call your two friends out too, I can sense them." He chuckled as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Waving her finger, both Nan Tian and Khionah dropped down from the ceiling andnded next to her.
"I must say though, seeing everything here, you remind me of a few people." Shiro said as she nced at the experiments that were hung on hooks. Remembering her days in theb as a test subject, she was itching to end him here and now.
While she didn¡¯t hear much, she heard enough to understand that Niphim and Arnea were sisters who he experimented on.
"You again." Niphim muttered as she was still kneeling on the floor.
There were times where her consciousness would fade in and out due to the fact that she is a fallen but she remembers fighting Shiro for a brief moment beforeing here.
"Yup. I¡¯m not sure how much this will do for you but it should help you out a little." Shiro said as she conjured up two needles.
Throwing it towards her, they both stabbed into her body.
Widening her eyes, Niphim realised that her mind cleared up and mana was flowing into her body.
Standing up, she could sense her injuries disappearing. After being fallen for so many years, it was hard for her to think with such rity but it was like a blocked pipe had just been unblocked.
"Feeling better? Divine Energy works wonders but this onlysts for a little while." Shiro smiled as Niphim nodded.
"I suppose you¡¯re here to help out with killing him then?" Niphim asked as she red at the Raven who had a smile on his face. He was waiting patiently while the two were talking to one another.
"You can say that. I didn¡¯t have much of a vendetta against him but now that I¡¯ve seen everything, let¡¯s just say he¡¯s pretty high on my kill list. Only second to someone else." Shiro chuckled as she suddenly disappeared from her spot. Appearing beside Antania, she grabbed her by the head and mmed her into the ground.
nting her foot on her neck, Shiro tugged on the head as hard as she could.
*KSHHHH!!!
Seeing Shiro rip Antania¡¯s head off of her shoulders, Niphim blinked her eyes in surprise while Khionah was reminded of the fatalities in a certain game she yed in Asharia.
As for Nan Tian, he wasn¡¯t bothered at all.
Snapping her fingers, needles appeared all around the building as tier 7 magic circles decorated the walls.
Taking a few steps back, the Raven wasposed as ck tendrils suddenly shot out of Antania¡¯s body in an attempt to grab Shiro.
Quickly backing off, Shiro watched as the head was reconnected.
"While I do know that Antania can¡¯t kill you, I want to see how my manufactured Empress holds up against a Demi God. Let this be a live test." The Raven smiled before dispersing into a flock of Ravens.
"Don¡¯t worry, he hasn¡¯t left. If he did, my needles would notify me. They¡¯ve secured this area across multiple dimensions." Shiro reassured Niphim as this was something she worked on together with Aarim and Estre. After all, now that they¡¯ve be stronger, their enemies would have more ways of escaping. Especially if they¡¯re a god like being like the Raven.
"Alright, I know we¡¯re both Empress¡¯s but if you can help me with him that would be appreciated. I don¡¯t intend on winning this race to begin with. I just want to kill this bastard." Niphim said seriously as she sped her hands together.
Suddenly, darkness covered the entire floor as ws appeared beneath Antania¡¯s summons, shredding them to pieces.
"Of course, like I said, I want to kill this person as well." Shiro smiled.
"Nan Tian, cover my back as usual." She called out as Nan Tian nodded.
After all, his skill lets him block most attacks that are aimed at her, even if that thing was a spear that couldn¡¯t miss.
Crouching down, Shiro dashed forward and summoned Silvanis. Normally, she wouldn¡¯t want to end things so quickly but against a twisted monster like this, she would do her the favour of killing her quickly.
Appearing in front of Antania, Shiro activated her skill Keitoma!
With Antania not being able to move for a moment, Shiro cleaved down with her de.
*PUCHI!!!!!!!
Using their bodies to protect Antania, the summoned beings formed a shield in front of her, giving her enough time to back off.
From the bodies of the summons, crystals erupted but waves of light shattered them before they could even touch Shiro.
Without wasting a single moment, Shiro appeared in front of Antania again.
mming her palm into her stomach, runic symbols spread across her body like an infection. Searing into her skin, the runes emitted a soft golden glow.
"This will be quick, I promise." Shiro whispered.
Her de erupted with a red glow as she cleaved Antania in half, revealing the crystal in the middle of her body.
In a split second, hundreds of needles stabbed into the crystal and shattered it to pieces before Antania could even do anything.
Watching everything that happened, the Raven was shocked.
This speed, this power, a de that ignored all defence.
Unless one is faster than Shiro, it would be hard to defeat her considering the fact that her de ignores all defences.
"Last resort it is then." He muttered.
Suddenly, ck goo erupted from the shattered crystals and threaded itself back together.
Tentaclesshed out, stitching Antania¡¯s body together once more as Shiro furrowed her brows.
Releasing a st of mana between the two of them, she forced Antania to back off as she summoned a bow that was blessed by Asteria and Artemis. Artemis¡¯ blessings makes it so that her attack couldn¡¯t be dodged while Asteria¡¯s blessing increased her attack.
Pulling back on the bowstring, Silvanis was ced on the bow.
A portal opened up behind her as it revealed the scenery of space. Without the sun to block the stars, her bow started to glow with a silver light.
Golden runes appeared on her de as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
If Artemis¡¯ blessings makes it so that she can¡¯t miss, what if she locks onto the core of a being? When the crystal repaired itself, she had already scanned Antania to see where her core was. In a separate dimension, there was a single heart that acted as her core. Once that was destroyed, she wouldn¡¯t be able to regenerate. And Silvanis made it so that almost no defences could stop it.
With the third effect of Silvanis, she can shift it through space. She just needed to adjust where it reappeared.
Two crests appeared on her bow as Shiro fired the sword at Antania.
As the sword cut through the space between them, the cut seemed to reveal the void as it disappeared before hitting Antania.
Confused as to why the de disappeared, Niphim watched as Antania suddenly lost her entire upper body along with the crystal.
Dismissing the bow, Shiro turned her body and summoned the sword back into her hand and aimed it into the darkness.
"You¡¯re next Raven." Shiro red as killing intent surged out like a tidal wave.
Surprised that she was able to pinpoint him, The Raven stayed silent.
"Niphim, I have two options for you, do you want him to die 100% or do you want to try and kill him. As a person who wants revenge myself, I know that nothing is sweeter than pulling out his heart and crushing it yourself." Shiro asked as her aura red out.
"Second option." Niphim replied as Shiro nodded.
"Then you have my blessings." Shiro curled her lips into a grin as a crest suddenly appeared on Niphim¡¯s body.
Suddenly, Niphim received a notification.
[You have received the blessings of the Nanotech Demi Goddess.]
Chapter 1102 Preparations To Fight A God
Chapter 1102 Preparations To Fight A God
Receiving the blessing, Niphim could feel a warm energy spreading through her body. Unlike the cold feeling she had whenever the Raven did this, Shiro¡¯s blessing was like the sun, dispelling her worries.
"I won¡¯t do much aside from giving you this weapon to help you out. If you need support, just tell me." Shiro smiled and threw a hand cannon towards her. It was the same hand cannon that had an upgraded core embedded with the crystal. Shooting it into the Raven¡¯s body would allow her to absorb his life force.
Nodding her head, Niphim looked at the gun and guessed that she would need to pull the trigger for it to fire.
Conjuring a sword of shadows into her hand, she dashed towards where the Raven would be.
"You have quite the trust in her if you believe that Niphim can kill me." The Raven¡¯s voice rang out as tendrils of darkness intercepted Niphim¡¯s path.
"Well you have to give the girl some trust. Plus, someone on the path of revenge might show you some surprising things." Shiro chuckled as she stared at Raven who was flickering between dimensions.
"Your evaluation of her is too high."
"Perhaps. But that¡¯s up to her." Shiro said as she watched Niphim cut down the tentacles with ease.
Adjusting her footwork, she avoided the tentacles narrowly while shing them with her sword.
It was as though she was in the middle of a ballroom dancing to a tune while her eyes were focused on her target.
Aiming the gun at the tentacle to her side, she pulled the trigger and fired a shot.
The recoil and the force behind the shot surprised her, but she managed to adjust herself just in time.
*BANG!!
Piercing into the tentacle, it was crystalised in an instant before shattering apart.
"You found the crystals as well." The Raven called out as a flock of birds shot towards Niphim.
"I discovered it a while ago in the far North. Though considering the fact that you didn¡¯t know this, I¡¯d say you haven¡¯t visited there recently."
"Well with that egg there, I¡¯m not eager to find out who the parents are." The Raven chuckled before appearing behind Niphim while she was dealing with the birds.
Immediately turning around, Niphim jammed the gun against his body and pulled the trigger.
*BANG!!!
Forcing him to transform into a flock of ravens once more, Niphim clicked her tongue and pivoted on her foot.
Conjuring up a wall of shadows around her, she stomped her foot down.
ck runes spread out like a web, travelling up the bodies of the tentacles and draining them of their power.
Adjusting her senses to focus on mana, Shiro noticed that Niphim was siphoning their mana into herself to empower her own stats. With all the buffs added up on her body now, she was roughly twice as strong as before.
"Come out here you coward!" Niphim shouted out in anger since the Raven refused to face her properly. Instead, he sent waves after waves of disposable grunts towards her.
"Seeing as how you¡¯re so afraid of fighting her, I suppose I should make it a fair fight." Shiro said as she sped her hands together.
Closing her eyes, divine runes appeared around her. Weaving together to form needles, they shot out and disappeared.
"ARG!!!!" Crying out in pain, the Raven was thrown against the wall. On his body, an ever-changing runic pattern could be seen.
"I was holding back a little earlier. Don¡¯t think you can escape so easily this time." Shiro smirked as the Raven frowned.
However, he didn¡¯t believe her. If he could get out once, he could do it again. Just as he tried to escape, the runes expanded across his body and emitted a golden glow that caused his skin to burn.
Sucking in a sharp breath, he red at Shiro.
Her runes were ever changing since they would lock onto him the moment he tried to leave. They were adaptive to anything he did.
She was correct, he couldn¡¯t leave.
Narrowing his eyes, he decided to kill the caster. If Shiro died, he¡¯d be able to leave.
Flexing his fingers, several spears shot towards her in a separate dimension in an attempt to surprise her.
However, before they could hit, Nan Tian flickered in front of Shiro and grabbed all of the spears before crushing them in his hands.
"No harming her in front of me now." Nan Tian chuckled before throwing one of the spears back.
Dismissing it, the Raven wondered about what to do when he suddenly felt a surge of killing intent behind him.
Turning around, he watched as Niphim¡¯s purple eyes glowed in the darkness as the sword cleaved towards his head.
Understanding that he couldn¡¯t run, he gritted his teeth and reached out towards her throat. Grabbing her, he mmed her against the ground.
However, the killing intent didn¡¯t disappear, Niphim faded into a puddle of shadows while a sword cut down his back.
Grabbing his head, Niphim aimed the gun barrel at the back and pulled the trigger.
Before she could fire however, a tentacle of shadows appeared and grabbed her by the waist.
mming her against the wall, the tentacle formed a de and cut towards her.
Diving into the shadow realm to avoid being killed, Niphim red at the Raven.
"I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d be forced to this stage. I¡¯ll admit, with what you can do, you certainly pose a... certain threat to me as a god. However, if you think a god can be killed like this, you are dead wrong." The Raven narrowed his eyes.
sping his hands together, ck lightning flickered around his body as the golden runes shattered to pieces.
Divine energy erupted from his body as the shadows in the room started to twist.
Feeling danger all around them, Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯As expected, a god can¡¯t be killed so easily.¡¯
"Gaia, anything I should know when killing a god?" Shiro shouted out while dashing towards Niphim¡¯s direction.
[Goddess Gaia states that a god cannot be killed unless you eliminate the core of their being. She doesn¡¯t know whether or not this Raven is an avatar or not since his aura is rather strange so you should definitely be careful. Error should be able to bypass most of his defences but getting him to the stage where he can¡¯t protect the core is going to be hard. Also, he may pull you into his own realm where his power is at its strongest. See if you can anchor all of yourself to earth to avoid this.]
Reading this, Shiro nodded her head.
"Thanks for the tip Gaia." Shiro smiled.
Flickering next to Niphim, she pped a seal on her back as golden runes appeared on her arm.
"This will stop him from isting you in his realm." Shiro said as she healed her with life fire.
Snapping her fingers, the same runes appeared on Nan Tian and Khionah.
"Don¡¯t think about running." The Raven said as darkness wrapped around the entire room, preventing any form of light to enter.
"Sorry, if you want to stop me from leaving then you have to do much better than this." Shiro grinned.
sping her hands together, all four of them disappeared in a sh.
Landing roughly on the ice, Shiro nced back at the split which revealed theb. It was now covered with a bubbling pool of darkness that slowly welled up.
A ck sludge covered raven figure could be seen as the beady red eyes red at them.
"If I can¡¯t drag you in then I¡¯ll project my influence outwards!" He shouted out as darkness spread out as far as the eye could see.
Tentacles erupted out from around them as it reached high into the sky.
"You know, just because I am a tier 6 being doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t contest against someone like you. I¡¯ve prepared plenty." Shiro smirked as she mmed her hand down.
A giant tier 7 magic circle appeared as pirs of light shot down from space, destroying the tentacles in an instant.
Firing all of the satellites she had above this area, she activated their secondary function. This was something that she had prepared previously after receiving her skill, Machine Goddess Decent.
Large towers of nanobots suddenly shot down from space.
*BANG!!!!
Crushing the ice beneath them, they nted themselves around the area.
These towers were mana conductors that funnelled the ambient mana towards Shiro. The most important part was that each of them had an anchor inside. While it did indeed weaken Shiro for a short period, the long term effects were much greater. After all, right now, she received a passive increase of 40% to her stats along with 40% system assistance. With how much range her towers now covered, it was not an exaggeration to say that the entire area was now her domain.
Feeling the mana funnel towards her, Shiro smiled.
"Niphim, this should allow you to get a bonus as well."
Designating Niphim as an allied Queen or rather, Empress, she also received a 40% boost to her stats.
Feeling the energy flowing through her body, Niphim was speechless. How many buffs can she apply? From their short battle earlier, Niphim knew that Shiro¡¯s base stats were already crazy. But with this, she was in a realm of her own.
Walking towards the Raven, Shiro summoned her sword.
"Are you ready to die?" She grinned.
Chapter 1103 Killing The Raven
Chapter 1103 Killing The Raven
"I suggest using everything you can since I¡¯ll be doing the same. If we can kill him now it would be good. I have a tracker on him but I don¡¯t know how long it¡¯llst." Shiro said as she started to walk towards the Raven.
"Nan Tian,e with me, like usual. Khionah, watch out since this is outside of your powers." She ordered as Khionah nodded her head, she disappeared into the ice. Secretly pulling out her phone, she started to y some games.
"Full power?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Full power." She confirmed.
As the two were walking towards the Raven, Niphim joined them.
"I should tell you about my time limit then. I should be able to fight at full power for 10 minutes. Anything beyond that and I would run out of energy."
"That¡¯s fine, 10 minutes should be enough."
mming her hand down, Divine energy erupted from Shiro¡¯s body as tier 7 magic circles wrapped around her body. Simr to what happened the first time she ascended to a Demi God state, a pir of light shot down from the sky, covering her body with a golden radiance.
The ice was slowly reced by nanobots beneath their feet. Dispelling the light, there was now a golden aura around Shiro¡¯s body.
"Demi god." The Raven said coldly as Shiro nodded her head.
"There are plenty of stories about Demi Gods killing God like beings. This will be one of them." Shiro grinned.
Snapping her finger, all of the towers that dropped down from the satellites transformed into rail cannons.
Widening his eyes, the Raven wasn¡¯t able to react as they all fired at him.
mming his hand down, shadows erupted from the ground to form a barrier but Niphim intercepted. While she was unable to destroy the shieldpletely, her influence should be just enough to open a few small holes. The guns can do the rest.
"ARGG!!!!"
Crying out in pain, the Raven was shocked to discover that these shots also attacked his soul. Each attack he took would chip away at his soul.
Gritting his teeth, he narrowed his eyes and pushed his hand out.
"URAH!!!" Crying out in anger, darkness descended on the area, covering thend as far as the eyes could see but Shiro onlyughed.
Thanks to Nyx¡¯s blessings, this was beneficial to her.
With her skill being at Divinity rank 1, her area of influence fought back against the darkness.
¡¯Since the Raven is a god, his divinity is probably rank 2 or higher. I won¡¯t be able to do much so just keeping my domain would be good for me.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{Do you want me and Iziuel toe out as well? If we have three Demi God ranked people fighting against him, it should make things easier.} Nimue asked as Shiro shook her head.
¡¯It¡¯s fine, I¡¯ll call for your help if I need it. We can deal with things for now.¡¯ Shiro replied as Nimue nodded her head.
Jumping into the air, Niphim red at the giant body of the Raven and mmed her hand down.
Breaking through the clouds, tentacles of corruption shot towards him as ck liquid trailed behind them.
Understanding that the corruption and darkness couldn¡¯t harm him, the Raven was about to dispel it when it shattered apart to reveal des created from nanobots.
Since her divinity allowed her to rece anything within her area of influence with nanobots, the Raven will need to be careful of all the attacks.
*BANG!!!!
Crashing against the Raven¡¯s body, the des disassembled themselves into hundreds of nanotech serpents.
Feeling the serpents travel across his body, the Raven gritted his teeth in anger.
"Get the hell off me!" He shouted out as mana erupted from his body.
Teleporting in front of him, Shiro grinned.
"Perfect."
Creating a shield of nanobots, they started to absorb the mana until there was nothing left.
Teleporting away, Shironded on one of the towers and stomped down.
Creating a seat for herself, the tower split in half and a giant barrel appeared, aiming towards the Raven. With his giant body, it was hard to move out of the way as Shiro pulled the trigger.
Tens of tier 7 magic circles stacked on top of one another with the crystal inside the gun trying to amplify as much as possible.
*BANG!!!!
Firing the shot, the force broke the tower apart as Nan Tian blocked the explosion with a barrier.
Narrowing his eyes at the shot, he sped his hands together and created a tier 6 magic circle in front of it.
Splitting the shot into multiple copies, they mmed in the Raven¡¯s body.
*BOOM!!!!!
Watching the giant explosion, Niphim closed her eyes and mmed her hand into the ground.
The shadows created by this explosion shot forward and wrapped around the Raven¡¯s body, securing him in ce.
Feeling anger boil up in his heart, the Raven wanted to thrash around and destroy everything but no matter what he did, they made sure he couldn¡¯t move. If he ignored Niphim, Shiro would rece her attacks with nanobots. If he tried to get rid of things with anything mana based, Shiro would absorb it with her nanobots and fire it back at him.
He wanted to pull them into his domain but Shiro was able to escape using tier 8 runes. No matter what he did, they countered. A sense of helplessness washed over him as he wanted to attack but had no chance to.
Gritting his teeth, he decided to ignore the damage he sustained. He will break through this forcefully.
"URAHHH!!!!"
Releasing his aura, his figure charged forth like a natural disaster. All of the nanobots that Shiro conjured up were shattered apart as ck tendrils erupted from his body.
Everything the tentacles touched would disappear and Shiro noticed that they were sent elsewhere.
¡¯If wee into contact, there is a high chance of getting dragged into his realm. That¡¯s not good.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as Nan Tian shed in front of her and sped his hands together.
Opening them, a condensed orb of light could be seen as he threw it towards the Raven.
*BOOM!!!
Expanding into miniature sun, the tendrils were melted in an instant.
However, rather than back off, the Raven¡¯s body opened up and swallowed the sun.
Just as Shiro was about to teleport them away for safety, she noticed that the Raven¡¯s Shadow ne had wrapped around this area like a. The moment they teleport away, it¡¯ll catch them and drag them away.
"If you don¡¯t care about damage then surely you don¡¯t mind this." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Summoning Silvanis, Shiro stabbed it down as a giant tier 8 magic circle appeared. Golden runes appeared on the sword and started to expand out into a formation.
In space, all of the satellites started to charge up their strongest attack as portals opened near the barrel.
Aiming her sword at the Raven, thousands upon thousands of portals opened around him as they were closely packed together. Turning her sword, all of the satellites fired and closed the portal before the explosion could damage everything.
*BOOM!!!!!
Before the impact of the explosion could m against her, Nan Tian moved her behind him and covered them with a barrier. Getting carried away by the st, Shiro could sense that both Khionah and Niphim were safe and nced towards the Raven who had his erged body destroyed.
Standing in the centre was a wounded man with blood flowing out of his body.
Before he could say anything, Niphim jumped out of his shadow with a nanotech de and pierced his chest.
Pulling back her arm, she stabbed it into one of his many wounds and broken past the ribs to find the heart.
"Just destroying my heart won¡¯t kill me." The Raven spat out.
"I know. I¡¯m afraid I can¡¯t kill you. But you know who can? She can." Niphim smiled as her spot was traded with Shiro.
"Yo, how does a virus in your code sound?" Shiro asked as her right arm that was now grabbing his heart waspletely ck. Red circuit patterns spread through his body as the Raven started convulsing. He could feel the searing pain of a foreign entity trying to invade his code. But no matter how he tried to pull Shiro off, he wasn¡¯t able to muster enough strength.
¡¯Sh*t!¡¯ Cursing in his mind, he felt this entity connect to his core.
Feeling the connection, Shiro grinned and pulled her hand back.
*PUCHI!!!!!
Ignoring the blood that was spraying over her body, Shiro now had an orb of light floating on her hand while being caged by red circuits.
"This isn¡¯t over." The Raven muttered weakly as Shiro curled her lips up into a grin.
"Are you sure?"
The red circuits thattched onto his core had golden runes that Shiro had etched. Using the runes and nanobots that had a clear affinity with Error, she activated the program she had set up which would assist with a certain task.
Leaning to his ear, she opened her mouth.
"I¡¯m sure your core will make a fantastic anchor for me."
Hearing this, the Raven widened his eyes in horror before ck mist covered Shiro¡¯s body and she dragged his weakened soul out into thentern.
[You have in a god.]
[You have obtained a skill.]
[You have obtained a title.]
Chapter 1104 Averin
Chapter 1104 Averin
He didn¡¯t know when he came to be but he was always drifting around in the void. There was nothing except for him and anything that appeared was always smaller than him. His hunger was not intense but he wanted to feast.
However, the things he ate were strange. They were a mixture of numbers and letters that floated around. Of course, he didn¡¯t know that at the time. He thought that everything was like this.
He continued to roam this void until one day, he felt a tug. A strange pull that summoned him to the world.
For the first time, he saw something else other than numbers and letters. A monster that could petrify.
Diving into her body, he discovered a banquet of numbers and letters for him to consume. But most of all, a single orb in her body. The letters and numbers couldbine into words within this orb.
Seeing this, he opened his mouth and consumed it.
After consuming it, his mind became clear. He understood more of the world from the monster¡¯s perspective.
Just as he was enjoying this feeling, he was dragged away forcefully.
After being returned to the void once more, he felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness. In this ce of numbers and letters, he was alone. But his wait was short, soon, the same sensation appeared but the tug was stronger.
Seeing the familiar face of the woman, he knew that she was the one who had been bringing him out of the void.
A sense of gratitude appeared in his mind as he dived into the body of his next victim.
This time, the banquet was exquisite. Everything was the best of the best, especially that core. Feeling the energy it radiated, he knew that he would be satisfied if he ate it.
Just as he took a bite, a wave of energy pushed him out of this ce. He could onlyment that he didn¡¯t take a bigger bite.
After consuming this piece of his code, the being felt his mind clear up once more. The woman that has been pulling him out and providing him food was akin to a mother bird and he was being fed until he¡¯d grown up and could hunt for himself.
Then that would ssify her as his mother.
Redistributing some of the power back to her as thanks for the meal, he was expecting to go back to the void. However, that was not the case.
Looking around him, he realised that he was in a different realm. One that was filled to the brim with mana and there were a few people here.
Realising that he doesn¡¯t have to go back, he imed a spot and started to make himself at home. Ready for the next time he is called to assist her. Every time he was brought out, he was able to eat to his heart¡¯s content. All of this knowledge, this experience. Paired with the knowledge gained from consuming a piece of the god, he knew that this world was crumbling. He wanted his mother to survive so he started to gather as much power as he could, sacrificing parts of the god code that he consumed into upgrading her sword.
His efforts were rewarded with gratitude that brought him warmth. The next time he helped her he gave her a pair of eyes that can see into the code like he does. But the effect was limited. Thanks to a god being nearby, he was able to make it so that these eyes see into the flow of time.
It was what she needed. For the first time, his voice was heard but he was soon struck with an overwhelming sense of fatigue.
Going to sleep for a while, he was forced out of his slumber when she almost became a fallen. The being in front of her was strong, very strong. Stronger than the god that she faced since he was just an avatar.
But thankfully, another god saved her and stopped her from fallingpletely.
With him being forced to fight during his weakened state, he was forced into slumberpletely but the realm was repairing him. Albeit slowly.
It was only recently that he was able to keep his consciousness for a little longer. To his surprise, after he was woken up again, he was presented with another core of a god. This time, there was no energy to stop him. No energy to push him out. The entire core was his to consume.
Wrapping his body around the code, he started to consume while the rest of the energy was being converted into an anchor.
Looking at this, he decided to help out the process since he was given such a good meal.
###
[You have in a god.]
[You have obtained a skill.]
[You have obtained a title.]
[World Announcement: A God has been in by an Empress for the first time.]
Looking at the body of the Raven that was now crumbling away, Shiro decided to ignore the notifications for the time being.
The main problem was dealing with Niphim since things could be bad. Now that she has achieved her goal, she might be fallenpletely.
"Niphim." Shiro called out as Niphim looked over.
"I feel oddly peaceful. But I know what being fallen means." Niphim sighed.
"So do I. But I think there is something I can do for you. While I might not be able to cancel the process, I might be able to pause it for a while." Shiro said as Niphim paused.
"If you can¡¯t then it¡¯s fine. I¡¯ve resolved myself to what would happen anyways. I¡¯ve had quite a few years to think about it. Though I hope you can do me a favour. Arnea, the Chimera Empress. If you ever run into her, can you spare her and maybe help her? She¡¯s not a bad person. Her mind is just in turmoil right now." Niphim asked as there was still a chance for Arnea to keep living in this world. She was a ¡¯better¡¯ product of Raven¡¯s experiment so Arnea¡¯s life expectancy was much higher than her¡¯s.
"I can certainly try. But I¡¯ll let you deal with that when you can. While I do not know how to solve the problem of you being fallen, I will attempt to freeze your time and stop things from progressing." Shiro said as Niphim nodded.
"Do what you want. I don¡¯t mind the oue now that my revenge is fulfilled." Niphim said but Shiro shook her head.
"Rather inconsiderate of the big sis to leave behind the little sis. How do you think she¡¯ll feel once her memoriese back?" Shiro asked as Niphim stayed silent.
"Then I hope this is a sess." Niphim muttered.
Nodding her head, Shiro activated the runes in her eyes.
Strands appeared in front of her as she reached out and activated several runes.
"Yo Chronos, want to give me a quick lesson? I have an idea but getting some assistance would be helpful." Shiro called out as a system interface appeared in front of her.
[God Chronos says that if you want to halt a person¡¯s time, you would need to anchor them down but make sure the surrounding time is still flowing. It would be akin to removing her spot from the flow of time and cing it on a cart that continues to travel along the line. While her time is frozen, the flow is not and it continues to flow. But you cannot halt her timepletely. If you do, she¡¯ll die.]
Reading this, Shiro nodded since it was what she had expected.
One by one, tier 7 magic circles appeared around Niphim as she was closely encased in an ice coffin.
Feeling her divine energy drain from her body, Shiro furrowed her brows since there was only a little bit left until she was back into her base form.
She cannot halt her time or else she¡¯ll die. Therefore, the best option would be a loop simr to the dungeon. Force an event to rey over and over slowly.
Thest 5 seconds of her peacefulness. Shiro just needed to make that repeat over and over again.
Reaching out with her spare hand, she started to adjust the strands connected to Niphim before forcing them into a loop. Breaking the loop isn¡¯t too hard since she had already experimented with an apple.
The energy consumption was just a little ridiculous.
sping her hand together, a golden seal appeared on the surface of the coffin and runic patterns spread along the surface.
[Skill Created, would you like to name the skill?]
"Yes, call it Averin." Shiro said as Averin had a special meaning in Aria¡¯snguage. It meant an evesting moment and it was a good description of this skill. Repeating the same moment slowly as though time has halted. With how slow time was moving inside, Niphim probably won¡¯t even finish one cycle of that 5 seconds before she pulls her out and cures her fallen status. Or at least that¡¯s what Shiro hoped.
[Skill: Averin]
A skill that freezes the target in time while the world moves around them.
Cost: 60% of Divine Energy + Activation of Machine Goddess Descent
Duration: Until caster cancels the skill or someone breaks the seal
Bacsh: None
Cooldown: None
Chapter 1105 God Slayer Title
Chapter 1105 God yer Title
Looking at Niphim who was now frozen in ice and time, Shiro waved her hand and teleported her away to Asharia.
After doing this, she nced back at the destruction and shook her head. To fight a god, the damage to the surroundings is quite severe. Corruption, craters and trenches caused by their attacks could be seen as Shiro flexed her fingers, retrieving all of the towers before fixing the ice so that it seems like nothing had ever happened here.
As for theb, she naturally destroyed it. There was no use in keeping something like that around.
Dismissing her Demi God skill, Shiro felt the divine energy leave her body, causing her to feel quite drained. Compared to the skill that Chaos granted, this was much better since there was no bacsh.
But in terms of power, the skill that Chaos gave was much better since it allowed her to skip to god form and even talk to the system.
Shaking her head, she nced at the rest of her rewards. Since she used Extraction to kill the Raven, one of his skills along with his memories will be transnted to her much like what happened with Aekari.
She had expected the memories to appear immediately but that hasn¡¯t happened just yet so she was curious.
[You have gained the title: God yer 1/5]
When fighting against a god, you siphon 10% of their stats and each of your attacks are imbued with a special element that makes it easier for you to resist divinity and cut it apart.
Current bonus: 10% Divinity Rejection
After killing 5 gods, this title will undergo an upgrade.
Reading the description of her title, Shiro blinked her eyes.
The fact that it allowed her to siphon 10% of their stats was already powerful never mind the fact that she could now supress 10% of their divinity. This meant that if she was to fight the Raven again, it¡¯ll be harder for him to affect her with his darkness.
But most of all, this was a growth type title simr to her Monster title which she hasn¡¯t been levelling up. After all, kills in dungeons don¡¯t count and neither does killing monsters.
With how things are right now, finding 80 thousand people to kill so that it levels up wasn¡¯t going to be easy.
As for the skill that she gained...
[Extracted Skill: Chimera Production]
After gaining enough authority from Queens and Empresses, you are able to fuse them together to form a core that allows you to create a golem with the powers of an Empress. With enough research, the golem might even be as strong as a Demi God.
Cost: N/A
Duration: N/A
Bacsh: None
Cooldown: None
This skill was essentially had zero cost aside from the fact that she needed collect enough authority. However, she wasn¡¯t exactly fond of this skill considering the fact that it required her to do research. While the golem could be as strong as a Demi God or maybe even higher, she is not going to be going around kidnapping Queens to do the experimenting.
Torture? Yes, she¡¯ll dly do that but experimenting while keeping them alive is not something she is going to do. She won¡¯t stoop as low as the Raven or the Scientists that made her.
For now, this skill was essentially useless to her.
¡¯Shame, I was hoping for something better but I suppose this will do.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself before looking at the second notification that followed this skill.
[You can choose to experience a part of his life. As you have killed and extracted himpletely, you can experience his entire life if you wish. This can be done whenever you want.]
Reading this, Shiro sighed in relief.
There was a problem when it came to skills like this. It was simr to the actor skill she recycled enough. If you experience someone else¡¯s life long enough, it could have a negative impact on your mind. With how long the Raven¡¯s been around, there will definitely be some problems that may happen so she won¡¯t risk it for now.
She might look at it in the future only for a short period so that she understands gods and demi gods some more.
Dismissing the notification, she was greeted by another.
[The system and Administrators have chosen a reward for you. As you are the first ever tier 6 being to kill a god in history, you are allowed to pick from the catalogue of tier 7 sub divinities.]
[Goddess Gaia shouts out in shock. She states that you should definitely grab this chance to get something as close to a core divinity as possible. Since the system allows you to browse the catalogue, any tier 7 sub divinity that has appeared in history will appear in the catalogue. EVERY sub divinity that existed will be there.]
Blinking her eyes, Shiro didn¡¯t need Gaia to tell her since she understood how powerful this was. With just the Nanotech divinity, she was almost unbeatable. And this wasn¡¯t taking into ount of the bonuses that Nimue and the others have given her, upgrading her Fire, Water and Life elements to tier 7. But they were in a simr stage as them, almost sub divinities but not quite. They made her immune to fire and the respective elements but didn¡¯t provide the same bonuses as her own divinity.
Now that the system gave her a chance to obtain a second sub divinity, she had to firmly grasp this chance. Get the most out of it as possible.
However, there was a better way to deal with all of this than to browse the catalogue one by one. Ask the system itself.
{You might want to avoid that for now. I know how fast you can read through things so it¡¯s no harm to browse the catalogue. Plus, it¡¯s every sub divinity. That means information. You can potentially understand their weaknesses as well as strengths. If you fight a Demi God or God with a sub divinity, you can pull up their information immediately.} Nimue called out in Shiro¡¯s mind as she nodded her head.
¡¯Hmm... that¡¯s true. Information like this is precious so I should go through all of it before choosing one. There are still things I want to ask the system but it can wait. Once I have a big list, I¡¯ll ask it all.¡¯ Shiro nodded before setting the reward aside for now.
Tracing her finger into a circle, a portal appeared and an orb with red circuits appeared.
[Crystalised Heart of God]
The core of a god that has been in. It is currently being transformed by an entity known as Error and an Empress/Demi God known as Shiro. Once the transformation isplete, it¡¯ll be a Divine Anchor.
Reading the description, Shiro nodded her head in satisfaction. Seeing the pulsing red circuits on the surface, Shiro smiled.
"Good work today Error." She praised.
One of the strands separated itself from the surface and hopped onto Shiro¡¯s hand before bouncing around.
Smiling softly, Shiro yed around with it before storing it in a separate space that Estre had set up.
With most of the things done here, Shiro looked over at Nan Tian who was waiting patiently by a portal and Khionah who was on her phone.
"Let¡¯s go back. Also Khionah, I¡¯m sure you don¡¯t mind me wanting to help out Niphim right?" Shiro smiled.
"Yeah do whatever you want. I just don¡¯t want her to kill everything if she falls." Khionah nodded.
"Great. Then let¡¯s talk about the details of our alliance."
###
"Isn¡¯t that reward a little excessive? This kind of reward is too much. Even if she is the first ever to kill a god at this level, it¡¯s still a bit ridiculous to let her see the whole catalogue."
"It¡¯s not excessive. She¡¯s worked hard for everything that she has earned. Think about it this way, if you had just killed a god at her level, would you be happy with a pat on the shoulder? We can¡¯t give her a weapon, she already owns a Rainbow Grade sword that is being upgraded slowly. We can¡¯t give her armour since it¡¯s the same situation. She is learning more and more about Demi Gods and Gods so naturally we need to give something appropriate. And the system agrees as well. Otherwise, why do you think it would ept the suggestion of letting her view the catalogue." A man replied as he had a neutral expression.
Hearing this, the one who asked the question frowned and started to walk away.
Looking at the back of Administrator 4, Administrator 8 sighed as his expression changed.
¡¯You were the one who always wanted the best for her. I¡¯m only doing what you wanted.¡¯ He thought to himself.
Shaking his head, he brought up a screen and watched the scene of Shiro going back to her city to talk about the alliance. Thinking about, Administrator 8 had an idea.
Since Niphim wants to help her sister, if Arnea remembers everything and Shiro is able to somehow help Niphim, that¡¯s two empresses on her side.
"System, I want to propose a second reward for her, but one that won¡¯t affect her directly."
Chapter 1106 Skill Alchemist
Chapter 1106 Skill Alchemist
The discussion of the alliance was pretty simple. In exchange for helping Khionah with what she needs, Shiro will get her assistance in bing the winner of the New Age. It was simr to Misu¡¯s but with some minor changes.
There were some new conditions such as Shiro providing her with the best server and newputers but that wasn¡¯t important.
Shiro did ask Khionah about her wish that she had for the new age but she said if Shiro can aplish it, then it doesn¡¯t matter. Since she just wanted humanoid monsters to have more safety in this world rather than being hunted down.
Naturally, Shiro was fine with that. As long as they didn¡¯t attack, she was sure that the citizens in Asharia would be understanding. After all, if they could make peace with demons, they can do the same with humanoid monsters.
Once the contract was made, Khionah went back to her city while Shiro spent the time rxing while checking out her other rewards.
By that, she meant her level.
After killing the Raven, the Exp she received from killing a god was much more than she expected. It directly propelled her from level 870 to 950. A whole 80 levels at this stage was insane with how much Exp was required.
Plus, before sealing Niphim, Shiro could see that she had reached level 1000 while Nan Tian gained 10 levels himself. He didn¡¯t do much aside from protecting Shiro when she needed it so his Exp gain was naturally smaller.
Now that she has reached level 950, she gained an additional Passive skill.
[Nanotech Demi Goddess Physique]
Health will not go down as long as you have mana. If you run out of mana, nanobots will be destroyed instead. Your health will only go down once all nanobots and mana are gone.
+60% Damage Nullification
+50% Elemental Resistance
+20% Divine Energy Generation
+20% True Damage Nullification
Reading this passive skill, Shiro¡¯s lips curled up into a smile since this was perfect for her. When she activates her Machine Goddess Decent, she essentially creates an immortality field for herself whenbined with the new passive.
¡¯If I start a fight and have the satellites drop the towers down, I suppose even if I stand still, it¡¯ll be hard for them to kill me. The towers collect ambient mana to produce more nanobots so that it doesn¡¯t drain my own mana after all.¡¯ Shiro thought with a small smile.
Looking at her stat table, Shiro figured that it was about time to start fusing skills together.
Thinking about this, Shiro wondered what she could do. Previously, she had been using the Blessing of Chaos to increase her privilege to talk to the system and ask it for tasks. If she asks it now, it shouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem. Especially since it was just fusing skills together.
"System, are you able to help me condense skills down?" Shiro called out.
Seeing no response, Shiro clicked her tongue and nced towards her Chimera Art¡¯s skill. Since it was something that helped her fuse elements together for a short period of time, Shiro wondered if she couldbine it with Error to help her.
Activating Error, Shiro watched as her arm turned ck and red circuits appeared.
"Error, can you help me out with something?" Shiro asked as Error bounced up and down, mimicking the actions of a nod.
"Cute. Are you able to help me fuse a few skills together with Chimera arts? It¡¯s the skill that fuses elements together. I was wondering if we could repurpose it to work with skills instead."
Hearing this, Error paused for a moment before diving back into her arm. Forcefully cancelling the spell for a moment, it seemed as though he just disappeared which confused Shiro.
¡¯Was it outside of his capabilities?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
However, just as she thought of this, a glitch started to appear in front of her.
As though tearing through reality, a flickering box with a glitching border appeared in front of her, asking her a single question.
[ Would you like to sacrifice ¨C Chimera Arts ¨C to create ¨C Skill Alchemist ¨C?]
Seeing the border that kept flickering as though it¡¯ll disappear at any moment, Shiro quickly epted before it was toote.
Feeling a slight prick inside, she watched as Chimera Arts started to glitch out on her stat board before being reced with Skill Alchemist.
[Skill Alchemist]
A unique skill produced with the sacrifice of Chimera Arts and the help of Error. This skill can fuse skills together to produce something stronger but it can only be the skills that you have earned from your ss. In the case of Entity ¨C Shiro ¨C it will not work with recycled skills.
Cost: 2 or more skills to activate.
Duration: Skills created by this are permanent and cannot be reversed.
Cooldown: None
Bacsh: None
Warning: If the nature of the skill conflicts too much, it may cause a failure which forces this skill to be on cooldown for 2 months. The skills used will be refunded but their effectiveness will be decreased slightly.
Reading this, Shiro blinked her eyes in surprise since she didn¡¯t expect Error to directly make a skill for her by sacrificing Chimera Arts.
Seeing Error ¡¯stand¡¯ on her arm and puffing out his circuit chest in a proud manner, Shiro smiled and patted his would be head.
"Good job." Shiro praised Error as he jumped around before going back into her arm.
Activating Skill Alchemist, Shiro could see a new menu appear with empty slots. She assumed this to be the spot where she picked the skills. Now it was just a case of going through her skills.
"Let¡¯s see.." Shiro muttered while looking at her skills.
She decided to experiment with the skills that don¡¯t have much priority right now.
Pressing Tier 6 Elemental Magic, Legendary Elemental Mastery, Spirit Assistance EX, Elemental Breath and Force of Elements, Shiro tapped on fuse and waited for the result.
Seeing the loading bar on the bottom, Shiro stayed silent.
She could see the skills slowly fade away on her stat board while the loading bar moved.
Soon, all five skills disappeared.
[Element Control EX]
You are able to control all of the basic elements to maximum efficiency and even call on spirits to help. During an attack, you can choose to enhance that attack with elements, the more elements you infuse, the stronger that attack bes.
Each element that you infuse into an attack takes 5% of your mana.
Cooldown: N/A
Bacsh: None
Reading this skill, Shiro raised her eyebrows in surprise since most of the skill has be passive effects which boost her control without any cost. The only cost now was the effect that came with Force of nature and even then, the cost was decreased to 5% per element.
"Hm... what else can Ibine..." Shiro muttered.
¡¯Demi God¡¯s Raiment is an enhance ability that gives me a second set of armour simr to True Spirit Nature so these two might be pretty good together. Though True Spirit Nature is something that brings out my nature as a spirit and Demi God Raiment is just elemental armour that enhances attack. To be fair, Demi God Raiment would have probably been better with Element control EX.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
The main reason she wanted to fuse True Spirit Nature with Demi God Raiment was so that she could eliminate the 1 minute time restriction of her True Spirit Nature. If she could enhance her control over souls to its peak for more than one minute, it could be extremely helpful.
Thinking about this, Shiro decided to give it a try anyways.
Tapping True Spirit Nature and Demi God Raiment, she pressed fuse.
Suddenly, she felt a sting of pain in her body. Gritting her teeth, she furrowed her brows while watching the progress increase.
Since True Spirit Nature was something at the core of her being, having that taken away from her and fused into something else would definitely be painful. The Skill Alchemist has no inherent bacsh but that doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s the same for skills closely tied to her.
Cold sweat dripped down Shiro¡¯s cheeks as the pain slowly subsided.
Once the painpletely disappeared, she looked at the new skill that appeared on her interface.
[Soul Maiden]
Simr to the Power of Hades, your influence stretches to the soul so that none can escape your grasp. You have mastery over all your elements and can use it to help you capture your enemies. Whether that be in a zing hellfire or frozenndscape, if you have the attunement, you can use that to empower your Spirit Nature.
Activation cost: 1% of Divine Energy
Duration: 1% of Mana per second
Cooldown: N/A
Bacsh: The longer you stay in this form, the more you exhaust your body. After a certain point, you will not be able to activate this skill unless you have given your body enough time to recover.
Reading this skill, Shiro sighed in relief and decided to give it a go. Since her True Spirit Nature was originally called Frigid Soul Keeper, she used the ice element first.
Suddenly, ck mist appeared and wrapped around her body. A ck dress with a long semi-transparent veil could be seen as the Soul Reaper Butterflies appeared without her activating the skill.
"Seems like I passively spawn you guys in now." Shiro muttered with a small smile while looking at the butterflies.
Chapter 1107 Demi Goddess of War and Protection
Chapter 1107 Demi Goddess of War and Protection
Dismissing her form, she watched as the butterflies disappeared in front of her.
Turning her attention back to her status board, she wondered what else she couldbine.
¡¯Hmm... Rebirth, Demi Goddess¡¯ Blessing, Demi Goddess¡¯ Domain, Divinity of Nanobots, March of the Goddess, Protection of the Goddess and Boon of the Demi goddess are all pretty simr except for the fact that they¡¯re designed for specific circumstances.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
However, there was a chance that it could be something simr to Pandora¡¯s Requiem where it has 5 skills in one.
Tapping her chin, she decided to give it a go. Plus, she remembers how she made the skill. With Skill Schr, she¡¯ll be able to recreate it.
Pressing all of the skills, Shiro felt something deep in her stir as the progress bar appeared.
[Demi God Skill ¨C Rebirth + Demi Goddess¡¯ Blessing + Demi goddess¡¯ Domain, Divinity of Nanobots + march of the Goddess + Protection of the Goddess + Boom of the Demi Goddess = Demi Goddess of War and Protection]
[Demi Goddess of War and Protection]
All allies cannot die, you take their damage instead.
Dead allies or those that you wish to help will be revived.
All allies will get the blessing (Blessing of Shiro).
All allies will get the blessing (Blessing of War).
While this skill is activated, your control over your divinity is increased to its current limit.
You are able to designate two people as your champions who gain unique bonuses depending on their ss.
Cost: N/A
Duration: 30 minutes. Any longer than 30 minutes and it¡¯ll take 5% of Divine Energy per minute.
Cooldown: 2 Days
Bacsh: None
[Blessing of Shiro]
You are blessed by the Demi Goddess Shiro. While her divinity is not protection, she wishes for you to survive through any means.
You don¡¯t take damage while this blessing is activated
You cannot die while this blessing is activated
+20% of Demi Goddess¡¯ stats
Elemental Spirits nearby are more cooperative with you, enhancing your attacks.
Nanobots nearby will protect you
[Blessing of War]
All stats are doubled
+20% of Demi Goddess¡¯ stats
When you are in her army, you are able tounch an attack that¡¯s equal in power to 30% of Demi Goddess¡¯ Int stat
Half of your damage is converted to True Damage
You gain 70% Elemental Resistance
Reading the skill, Shiro was silent. It was good but the fact that it onlysts for 30 minutes is a little short for her liking.
But overall, it was a pretty nice upgrade. Especially the fact that she can designate two champions who gain bonuses unique to them.
Checking through her stat page, she can see that it has cleared up a lot.
{You might want to deal with the Frozen Hell Series.} Nimue reminded as Shiro nodded her head.
For the Frozen Hell Series, she knew that her big sis told her that she should focus on this some more, but most will just drop dead with her nanotech.
Thinking about it for a moment, she just decided to fuse everything together.
[Frozen Hell Arts - Passive]
A unique way of conjuring and utilising the Ice Element. It gets stronger depending on your attunement to ice.
It ignores all Ice resistance.
Blinking her eyes, Shiro didn¡¯t expect it to transform into a passive skill that ignores all Ice Resistance.
Thinking about it, Shiro figured that it was probably simr to what her True Spirit Nature was like before. There were no spells in the description since it relies on her imagination.
¡¯Ancient Healing Arts can stay as it is since Fire of Life and Grace are better separately. Same with Path of Ascendance. Hmm... Pandora¡¯s Requiem can stay as it is, the five skills are helpful. I suppose I should clean up the ¡¯Other¡¯ category.¡¯
The other category of skills that was obtained through other means. Mini Map, inspection, disguise Combust and so on.
However, most of them are too different to one another so she can only keep it as it is.
Butpared to before, it wasn¡¯t as clustered.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit Demi God
Title: Expert Monster (13,290/100,000 Humans killed.), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind, Virtue of Fortitude, Young Demi God, Goddess of Protection, Merciful Goddess, Young Goddess (50% Boost Currently), Leader of Asharia, Tainted Shell, Realm Breaker, God yer.
Level: 950
ss: Nanotech Demi Goddess (Demi God ¨C Divinity Rank 1)
HP: 420,000,000,000/420,000,000,000
MP: 1,365,000,000,000/1,365,000,000,000
STR: 1,870,000,000
VIT: 2,400,000,000
INT: 7,800,000,000
AGI: 2,080,000,000
DEX: 1,770,000,000
DEF: 2,050,000,000
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 6
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 6
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 6
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 6 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 6
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 6
Aspect of Fire - Tier 7
Boreal Wind ¨C Tier 6
Tectonic Quake ¨C Tier 6
Aspect of Water - Tier 7
Aspect of Life - Tier 7
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 7 Demi God
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Nanotech Demi Goddess:
Celestial Mirage, Rift Strider EX, Divine Court Appointment, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 6, Analysis, Divine Gardens, Divine Insight of God, Nanotech Demi Goddess Physique, Element Control EX, Soul Maiden, Demi Goddess of War and Protection
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx, Argus, Gaia
World ss Magic:
Requiem of the Dead
Grand Support ss Magic:
Requiem of the Demi Goddess
Origin Spells:
Time Flux
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Skill Alchemist, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr, Item Master, Limit Focus, Blessing of Chaos, Soul Siphon, Divine Runic Needles, Devour, Frozen Hell Arts.]
Looking at her level and her stats, Shiro wondered how the average level 1000 looked like in this world.
Plus, she also wondered what her stats would be like if she was a normal adventurer. Though if she was, she wouldn¡¯t have survived a lot of her encounters.
Shaking her head, she checked up on the core that was still being upgraded thanks to Error.
Seeing the progress, she guessed that it¡¯ll probably be done tomorrow or at thetest, the day after tomorrow.
Hearing a knock on her door, Shiro flexed her finger and opened it since it was Nan Tian.
"Have you finished?" Shiro asked with a small smile.
"Mn, I have. I¡¯ve finished allocating Khionah¡¯s spot in Asharia. Though at this point, it¡¯s better to call this entire thing Asharia since it¡¯s more like a country now and give new names for the cities." Nan Tian chuckled since the size was truly enormous now.
Especially after integrating all of MIsu¡¯s zones.
"Perhaps. But Asharia was something I gifted to the spirits, I¡¯ll think of a new name for this countryter." Shiro shrugged.
"You seem happy, did something good happen?" Nan Tian asked while walking to the changing room.
"Yup. I got a new skill thanks to Error and managed to fuse a few skills together. The main thing was that I¡¯ve pretty much removed the time limit of my True Spirit Nature. Instead, it¡¯s called Soul Maiden now and I can pretty much have it up at all times. It takes 1% of my mana per second but my regeneration is higher than the cost. Though there is the problem of exhausting my body the longer I stay like this. It¡¯s more of a physical problem rather than mana." Shiro shrugged.
Waving her fingers, ck mist wrapped around her body once more and butterflies appeared in the room.
Seeing a few of them fly towards Nan Tian, Shiro snapped her finger.
"His soul is not for you to eat." Shiro said as the butterflies made their way back to her obediently.
"They look beautiful. But seeing as how you literally just mentioned something about them eating my soul, I suppose they¡¯re as dangerous as they are beautiful." Nan Tian chuckled.
"Yep. They take after their owner after all. Am I not beautiful and dangerous?" Shiro smiled while flipping her hair back.
With the moon behind her and the glowing soul reaper butterflies, it was quite the captivating scene.
{Narcissist.} Nimue rolled her eyes as Shiro smirked.
¡¯What? It¡¯s the truth.¡¯
Talking to Nan Tian for a little longer, she also got changed and fell asleep.
###
Meanwhile, in the divine realm, the Gods were shocked to discover that a mortal had actually killed a god. To them, only another god could find where their core was and even then, destroying it is hard.
The fact that a mortal had killed a god was simply ridiculous but the system does not lie when ites to things like this.
In his own area, Aekari had an ugly look on his face since he clearly understood who could possibly do this.
Touching his chest, he could still feel the sting of Error as his wound hasn¡¯t healed up after all this time.
"Have you found apatible body for our daughter yet?" Aria asked but Aekari shook his head.
"I¡¯ll keep looking, don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll find it soon." He reassured while closing his eyes.
Looking at Aekari¡¯s wound, Aria was silently contemting about something.
Chapter 1108 Makrons Worries
Chapter 1108 Makron''s Worries
Waking up in the morning, Shiro checked up on Revel to see how he was. She needed him to be at full power for the raid.
Arriving in his room, Shiro could see Revel in front of hisputer with a grin on his face.
He was tapping away furiously and Shiro decided to nce into the servers to see what was happening.
Seeing that he was taunting Khionah as usual, Shiro facepalmed.
She didn¡¯t know what happened between the two of them, but it seemed like Revel was adamant on making sure Khionah never reaches third ce or higher.
"Revel." Shiro called out, ignoring what she had just seen in the servers.
"Oh hey, didn¡¯t notice you. If you¡¯re wondering about injuries then I¡¯ll probably be ready by tomorrow. There¡¯s just onest spot now and it¡¯s being a bit annoying. I¡¯m healing it while ying since I don¡¯t need to focus that hard to stop this person from reaching third." He smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright. The raid won¡¯t happen soon since I still need to arrange it with Syradil. But since she is the Dragon Empress, does she have any control over you? I know you are a leviathan but you are rather... ¡¯dragon¡¯ like in some ways so I was just curious." Shiro asked.
"She shouldn¡¯t have control over me. With how the system is, I¡¯m guessing her control is strictly with dragons, wyverns and anything belonging to that branch of family. To put it bluntly, I¡¯m a very powerful fish, not a dragon or anything of the draconic species. Even when I was just a hydra, I counted as a mutated water serpent rather than a dragon." Revel shrugged.
"So you¡¯re just a powerful fish." Shiro raised an eyebrow as she didn¡¯t think someone as prideful as Revel would call himself a mere fish.
"Yup. If we do start a fight, I won¡¯t be controlled so don¡¯t worry." Revel reassured.
"Mn, I have some trust in her but it¡¯s not bad to have some contingency ns. I probably won¡¯t need it in the future but right now it¡¯s good to keep my guard up." Shiro nodded.
"Good mindset. Speaking of which, are you able to tell me who she is? I want to gloat in her face." Revel asked with a grin as Shiro facepalmed.
"I¡¯m pretty sure you can arrange that with one another without dragging me into this." Shiro sighed as she turned and left.
They can handle this dispute with one another.
###
Wrestling a demon to the ground, a giant twisted its neck before sinking her mouth into its flesh.
Ripping out a giant chunk, she summoned a sword and quickly cut it up into smaller chunks before storing it into her inventory.
Spitting out some of the bone, she wiped away the blood on the corner of her lips.
"Stupid old man, this one doesn¡¯t sting anymore. How many more poisons do I have to gain resistance against?" Madison shouted out into the sky as her physique shrunk down to her normal size.
[Madison LVL 800 Demon Queen]
"Just a few more now. You still need to gain resistance to curse and other forms of poison. Bing an Empress isn¡¯t easy you know? You must have the proper physique. Especially when ites to Demon Empress¡¯." Makron replied as he wasying down on a tree that seemed to corrupt everything around it except for Makron.
"Naturally, that means acquiring a resistance to corruption and the chances of bing Fallen." He added as Madison nodded her head.
She wanted to go back soon but ording to Makron, she wasn¡¯t ready.
"Why can¡¯t I go back? I¡¯m already level 800 with a powerful physique. Isn¡¯t it enough?" Madison asked but Makron shook his head.
"You know what happened a while ago? Since we¡¯re in the demon realm, we didn¡¯t get this notification but I received this news from one of my spies. There was an Empress in the new age that slew a God. Not Demi God, not pseudo god. They killed a GOD. Which means she can pose a certain threat to me as well. I won¡¯t downy her achievement even if that god has a low divinity. But do you know who can do this?" Makron asked with a knowing smile.
"Shiro."
"Yep. She is the only Queen in your world that is ssified as a Demi God. But the worst part of everything is this. Why did she even get the chance to kill a God?" Makron asked as his smile faded away.
"Gods and Demi Gods shouldn¡¯t even appear before the second half but here she managed to kill one. That can only mean one thing. Her actions of reaching Demi God status has prepared the world ahead of time. Weaker Gods and Demi Gods can now materialise in the world sooner than expected. Of course, there are still bacshes but it won¡¯t be as harsh as before. The world is almost ready after all." He exined as Madison stood in silence.
"You¡¯re only ready once you can run hands against a Demi God. And you can only achieve that by bing an Empress then attaining your own divinity but that¡¯s in the future. For now, just focus on cultivating your body. I¡¯m already making preparations for your ascension as Empress. Why else do you think we¡¯re travelling towards the heart of the Demon Realm." Makron smiled as Madison nodded.
Quickly eating her dinner, she left the area to look for her next prey to hunt.
Watching Madison leave this area, Makron had a smile on his face since her growth during thest few months has been great. If he was being honest, she could probably be Empress now but he wants her to be ready. He wanted to do everything he could to make sure she could stand up for herself.
¡¯The world is too abnormal right now. Gods are making an appearance, Empresses are getting stronger and the war in the divine realm is bing more chaotic. Zeus is surprisingly holding on pretty well with the support he¡¯s been getting.¡¯ Makron thought to himself with a frown.
He did get an invitation to join the war but he rejected for now. Rather than fight the war, he wanted to use this time to cultivate Madison¡¯s strength.
###
shing apart the mana beast in front of her, Lyrica conjured up a myriad of swords to help out with her party.
Controlling the battlefield, she summoned a tier 6 array that caused the mana within the monster¡¯s body to run rampant before transforming into swords that shredded their body.
[Lyrica LVL 740 Awakened Sword Saintess]
Looking at how exhausted everyone was, Lyrica flexed her fingers and stabbed her swords into the corpses of the monster.
Absorbing all of their essence until they were nothing but a dried up husk, she distributed it amongst the party.
Feeling rejuvenated once more, they thanked her before looking for somewhere to camp.
"Have you found what you¡¯ve been looking for?" Lyrica asked but the dragon shook his head.
"Nope. I figured that I should have found what can help me surpass level 980 but I¡¯ve been stuck here for a while now." He sighed while transforming back to his human form.
Scratching his hair, he looked up at the realm and frowned.
"Maybe we¡¯ll have to go deeper. But this realm is unstable, it¡¯s risky to keep going." He cautioned.
"How risky is it? And what are the chances of us surviving if we go?" Lyrica asked curiously while dismissing her sword.
"How risky? Even with me, I¡¯d say there¡¯s a 50% chance that I might get trapped and lose my way, slowly bing a mana beast that lives here. For you lot... an optimistic guess would be 70% chance of being trapped. At worst... 90%." He said after observing all of them.
"The risk is that high huh?" Lyrica frowned.
"Well if it was when we first came here, even if I was to try looking at it optimistically it would be 100% guaranteed death." The fact that you have a 30% chance of survival is pretty good already." The Dragon exined as Lyrica nodded.
"I don¡¯t mind taking that risk but I¡¯m not sure about others. For now, let¡¯s go look for an exit and discuss it there." Lyrica suggested.
"Sure, let me spend some time in this form first. The human form is strangely effective at finding afortable resting position." He said whileying down on a broken pir.
After resting for a little while, they set off with Asher riding on NItha¡¯s back and everyone else on the dragon.
Flying through the Beyond, Lyrica could see the ever changing skies that looked like a swirl of mana. It would asionally reflect what happened in the real world but so far, she hasn¡¯t seen anything to do with Shiro just yet.
Thinking back to Shiro, Lyrica looked down at her hands. She wanted to see if she could upgrade her ss one more time. If Shiro could do this, it means there is a chance for others to do the same. She just needed to find this chance.
Chapter 1109 Royal Guard of The Beyond
Chapter 1109 Royal Guard of The Beyond
Flying through the skies, the dragon narrowed his eyes before quickly diving down.
Gesturing for Nitha to do the same, he had a serious expression on his face.
"What happened?" Lyrica asked as she summoned a sword to get herself ready forbat.
"Don¡¯t fight, this isn¡¯t something we can fight just yet. Let it pass." The Dragon replied with a deep tone.
Confused by what he was talking about, Lyrica suddenly felt an oppressive aura invade this realm.
Feeling somethingrge fly above them, she had cold sweat down her back as she knew whatever was above them was strong.
Slowly tilting her head up, she saw the being that just arrived.
Stretching as far as the eye could see, it was a giant serpent like creature with a pair of muscr arms that was twice as thick as the dragon. Wings that could dwarf Asharia since she hadst saw it.
Cracks in space could be seen as the being threaded through the beyond for a moment.
In this moment, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but inspect the being.
[??? LVL 999 Royal Guard of the Beyond]
Suddenly, all of them felt his gaze lock onto them as thee dragon immediately stopped flying and bowed respectfully.
"Don¡¯t check him out, don¡¯t call out of him, don¡¯t get his attention. Just let him pass and don¡¯t disturb him." The Dragon warned as Lyrica nodded her head.
Staying silent for the next few minutes, the rupture in space finally closed and the presence disappeared.
Sighing in relief, the dragon transformed into his human form and fell face first.
"Goodness..." He muttered. Strength left his body as he rested for a short minute.
"Who was that." Lyrica asked with a frown while she did the same.
"Well if you saw his tag then you should know that he¡¯s one of the guards. Mother has told me before that each dimension naturally has its own deity and ruling party. They don¡¯t interfere with things normally and just watch. For Earth, it¡¯ll be Gaia. The Shadow Realm, The Void, The Demon Realm, The Reaper Realm and so on. They each of their own ruling party and what we just saw was one of the guards for this realm. Now that we¡¯re travelling deeper, we naturally have to pay our respects when we see them. But just because they¡¯re guards doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯ll help us if we¡¯re attacked." The Dragon exined as Lyrica nodded her head.
"I see... Wait, what exactly are we looking for in the centre of this realm again?" Lyrica asked as the Dragon nced back.
"Something that can help me surpass level 980 while helping you find a link to level up your ss again. Since you said that you wanted to see if you can reach the status of a Queen or Empress, you need to understand what they are. They¡¯re rulers of a certain concept much like Gods only weaker. If you want to find such a concept, the best ce is naturally the centre of the Beyond. After all, there hasn¡¯t been someone that linked themselves with this concept just yet. I think it should be the perfect opportunity for you." The Dragon said as Lyrica nodded her head.
Looking up at the skies of this realm, she wondered what kind of concept she could gain control over. How it could help and most of all, how it can help her protect everything else she has left.
###
Sitting in themand centre, Shiro tapped the table with her finger.
Right now, their overallbat power was strong. Stronger than any Queen out there right now. However, there was a problem.
Rokarn is a Demi God who was able to kill gods despite being surrounded.
He is definitely much stronger than the Raven, even if the Raven is technically better as he is a ¡¯God¡¯ and Rokarn is a Demi God.
But that¡¯s not all, Syradil did exin that Rokarn will invade with his army.
She had no idea what kind of army he has but if it¡¯s something that could wipe out a majority of life on Earth much like what the start of the New Age did, then it¡¯s certainly nothing weak.
"We don¡¯t have enough information." Shiroined while sighing heavily.
"Have you tried contacting Syradil again?" Nan Tian asked, bringing over some food since they¡¯ve been working tillte.
"Yes I have but she¡¯s not picking up. I even sent her some messages but she hasn¡¯t look at all. I¡¯m pretty sure she¡¯s busy so I can only wait." Shiro shrugged while epting the food.
"Busy huh? We¡¯ll things should calm down after a while. We¡¯re closing in on level 1000, which is apparently the limit, before the divinityes in. So there will be calm for a while. No rush to level up for now." Nan Tian said while checking the strength of military personal. Not everyone can level up crazily like Shiro and the others so the average level in the army was only around 250 to 300. Specialist pilots were better at around 400 and closing in on 500.
Needless to say, all of this was so that they can also fight if the mechs were to be destroyed. It was highly unlikely but still in the realm of possibility.
"Well if it¡¯s calm then sure. I¡¯ll probably sleep the rest of my days away making juice or something. I did like the flute but meh, too much work. At least with making juice I can drink it after wards." Shiro shrugged while leaning back on her air.
"Perhaps you should make a personal garden with the best fruits that you¡¯ve found." Nan Tian offered as Shiro was seriously considering the suggestion.
"Maybe. At least there will be more job openings then. I¡¯ve also noticed that a lot more people have started to ck and literally do nothing now. I think I might have been too good to them." Shiro forced a smile while looking at the number of people in Ashariapared to the ones who have jobs.
Of course, this was excluding the children since they can¡¯t work just yet.
"Well Asharia is literally the best ce for them in this world. Even without working the basic things we give them are more than enough. What they work for is the luxury rather than the need of survival."
"True... Maybe I should adjust the rules a bit." Shiro muttered.
Right now, the situation in Asharia was stable. Everyone had a house and had enough resources to feed their family. There was no inherent need to risk your lives in the dungeons since most only did so to sustain their family. Those that continue are mostly doing it for fun or to have that extra sense of safety with their levels.
Conflict doesn¡¯t happen often in the streets but when it does, the drones sort it out quickly.
But as good as everything is, Shiro can also see the ws.
{Indulging them too much is rather toxic for their growth. Perhaps you should set aside some time to adjust the rules in this ce. They may not like it to begin with but overtime they¡¯ll understand. Or at least I hope so. Otherwise once you disband Asharia after the new age ends, they won¡¯t be able to handle things.} Nimue said as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯I know. I¡¯ll hold a council meeting with the otherster.¡¯ Shiro nodded, creating a note for herself.
###
Treading through the blood soaked sand, Syradil panted heavily as she was heavily wounded.
Leaning against a rock, she started to heal herself starting from her missing eyes.
The wounds on her body started to close up as her missing arm regenerated.
Once everything was healed, she sighed out and looked at the battlefield.
Seeing the dead dragons mixed in with the corpses of humanoid beings, Syradil looked up at the moon.
"I didn¡¯t think that scouts would appear so early. Shiro must have interacted with the gate and awakened the army. I thought we could get the surprise attack but it might be the other way around. Though it¡¯s about time we set off anyways." Syradil muttered while looking at the phone that Shiro gave her.
Seeing the messages, she was about to reply when she felt danger behind her.
Before she could react, there was a split in the void and her body was cut in half vertically.
Keeping her eyes on the being hidden in the sand, the two halves of her body burst into mes and transformed into a giant ming dragon.
Opening her mouth, mana disappearedpletely from the area as Syradil released a breath attack.
*BANG!!!!!
Disintegrating her assant, Syradil transformed back to normal and pushed her hair back so that it didn¡¯t obscure her view.
Looking at the giant trench which was now being filled with the water from the ocean, Syradil clicked her tongue.
"I¡¯ll need to warn Shiro about their ridiculous attack power. They might be weak as sh*t to kill but we can¡¯t let our guard down." Syradil muttered while leaving the area.
Chapter 1110 Plans Against Rokarns Army
Chapter 1110 ns Against Rokarn''s Army
Seeing that Syradil had finally read her text, Shiro decided to call her.
Waiting for a short moment, the line connected.
"Hello?"
"Yo, sorry I couldn¡¯t pick up the call. I was a bit busy." Syradil chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"I had figured. What happened? It¡¯s not like you to ignore the texts." Shiro asked.
"Some of Rokarn¡¯s followers havee to Earth earlier than expected. Did you interact with the gate at all before? If you did, you might have started a countdown for it to open ahead of time. But it¡¯s fine. Start gathering everyone since we¡¯ll be preparing to fight it out soon. I¡¯ll give everyone a briefing once I heal myself."
"Alright." Nodding her head, Shiro ended the call.
"I suppose we should wake everyone up." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded.
"Mn, for them to keep Syradil busy for this long, it¡¯s not going to be an easy fight." Shiro furrowed her brows as Nan Tian nodded.
"Perhaps we want to move with a small group of people to avoid casualties." Nan Tian suggested.
"Maybe. We¡¯ll have to see what happens." Shiro shrugged while clearing up the table.
Sending out an announcement to the core fighting force, Shiro made her way towards the conference room.
Suddenly, a portal opened beside her as Estrended with a slight yawn.
"Sorry for waking you up but there¡¯s been a slight change to the situation." Shiro apologised with a small smile.
"Mn it¡¯s fine Shiro. What¡¯s the situation about?" Estre asked curiously.
"Remember how I told you about our cooperation with Syradil for the time being since there is an imminent danger? Well it turns out that I might have identally forced this danger toe early thanks to my actions before. We¡¯re gathering to figure out a n of action." Shiro said as Estre paused for a moment before nodding her head.
"If you¡¯re ufortable with seeing Syradil, I can give you a briefingter." Shiro offered but Estre shook her head.
"It¡¯s ok. I can keep my cool."
"If you say so. But if somethings wrong, tell me, ok?" Shiro said as Estre smiled and nodded her head.
Making their way to the conference room, Shiro could see Silvia yawning while propping her head up with her hand. Even though Chen Yu seemed like he was rxed as usual, Shiro could tell that he was wanting to sleep.
Looking around, Shiro realised that everyone was in a simr situation.
¡¯I suppose this is the first break they got in a while since we were clearing dungeons non stop.¡¯ Shiro thought with a forced smile.
"Sorry for waking all of you up sote but as you read in the message, the time hase for us to prepare for the big raid. We¡¯ll be challenging a Demi God and hopefully kill him before heys waste to Earth. Even though I have killed a God a while back, this Demi God is many times stronger than this God so we have to be careful." Shiro cautioned as most of the people had arrived.
"Before we go, I will introduce you to a few new helpers. One of which is Revel that you¡¯re familiar with. He can act as vanguard for us in the battlefield and he excels in clearingrge armies. Next is Syradil, many of you know of her while some don¡¯t. She is the Dragon Empress who is one of the stronger people that I¡¯ve seen in this world."
Exining both Revel and Syradil¡¯s strengths to the party, Shiro noticed one slight problem.
They were a super offensive party with practically 0 defence without Madison!
Both Revel and Syradil could be described as Nukers much like Shiro, Yin and Attie as three examples.
They excelled inpletely thrashing the enemy withrge scale destruction spells that could shape the environment.
In Revel¡¯s case, the more mana the enemy has, the stronger his storms be. For Syradil, she was essentially someone who invested 80% of her stats into pure offence.
Thinking about how one sided their partyposition was, Shiro¡¯s lips started to twitch.
"What¡¯s the highest level tank that we have?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian scratched his cheek.
"329." He replied as Shiro was silent.
"Any chance that they¡¯ll survive 1 attack from level 900¡¯s?"
"I don¡¯t need to answer that now do I?" Nan Tian smiled helplessly as Shiro leaned back.
Suddenly, she saw a figure flying towards them from the window and noticed it was Revel.
Waving her finger, she let him in.
"Sorry sorry, I had to finish that game quickly. So what¡¯s this meeting about?" Revel asked as he sat down on his chair.
Seeing his loose clothes and nonchnt expression, the party members wondered if they were hallucinating from ack of sleep.
¡¯Was this the level 900+ leviathan that Shiro cautioned them about?¡¯ They thought but didn¡¯t say anything.
"We¡¯re talking about our ns for the raid. I know that you can¡¯t cast any spells and most of your poweres from your control over storms right? Are you able to give us examples of what you can do so that we can n ordingly?" Shiro asked as Revel nodded his head.
"Sure. Hmm... let¡¯s see.... I can mimic most lightning based attacks such as chain lightning. But I have to absorb their mana first. Put it this way, what I can do depends on what my opponents can do. Sure I have my physical prowess and my storm is powerful even without mana. But, if my opponent uses 0 mana and uses pure physical power, then I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s not much I can do when ites to using lightning. I¡¯m the worst enemy for mages but that¡¯s about it." Revel exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"It doesn¡¯t have to be enemies does it? I can fuel your storm, no?" Shiro asked as Revel nodded his head
"Yes you can. I¡¯ve done that before with my allies but there¡¯s a catch. You¡¯ll have to take some of the damage. Since I¡¯m a storm leviathan, I¡¯m immune. But I can¡¯t say the same with you." Revel said as Shiro furrowed her brows.
¡¯I can avoid taking damage with my mana but the mana usage will shoot up dramatically. I haven¡¯t even done much testing with this skill so I¡¯m not sure how quickly it¡¯ll drain my mana. If it¡¯s something that could potentially one shot me like the fire dragon¡¯s breath then it might just empty my mana and health instantly.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while trying to estimate the mana usage.
"Do you want my honest opinion?" Revel asked.
"Go for it."
"If you try to fuel my storm with your mana, you¡¯ll kill yourself in one hit." He said as Shiro paused.
"Come again?"
"If you fuel my storm, you¡¯ll pretty much lose all of your health instantly. I¡¯ve sensed your aura before and I even doubted if my immunity could hold up before we fought. It was immunity but with how much mana you had, it put doubts into my mind. Now, let me ask you. How much lightning resistance do you have? Because if it¡¯s anything less than 90% the damage is massively amplified." He shrugged.
"I think you might be able to get away with powering my storm using remote methods but it¡¯s a bit risky."
Hearing this, Shiro scratched her hair.
"We¡¯ll I suppose we can experiment before the raid." Shiro shrugged.
Looking at the time, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but frown since Syradil should havee here by now.
Thinking about it, she decided to call Syradil and to her surprise, she picked up.
"I know I know I¡¯mte but give me a moment. I didn¡¯t think these bastards could find me again!" Syradil shouted out as Shiro could hear the sound of spells being fired in the background.
"Need any help?" Shiro asked.
"Nope. You better clear some space in there for me, I¡¯ll teleport in a second!"
Hearing this, Shiro waved her finger and the table disappeared.
Quickly moving back, everyone watched as a red portal appeared in the middle of the room and Syradil came charging through, mming a monster onto the floor before closing the portal.
There were holes through her body but she didn¡¯t seem bothered as they were healing with each passing moment.
"Right then, I¡¯m a bitte but I believe I have a live test subject so that we know what we¡¯re up against in the raid." Syradil smiled as she knocked out the monster in her hands.
Creating a cage that had a no mana zone within it, Shiro ced the monster inside and set it aside for now.
"First of all, they tracked you down without you knowing. Are you sure they won¡¯t juste to my city?" Shiro asked as she had a frown on her face.
"Ah don¡¯t worry about that. It was because of the scout they attached to me. I¡¯ve already dealt with it so it won¡¯t track us down anymore." Syradil reassured. Looking around the room she noticed Estre.
"Oh my, a familiar face." She muttered, causing Estre to narrow her eyes.
Chapter 1111 Units in Rokarns Army
Chapter 1111 Units in Rokarns Army
"I think that¡¯s about enough. If it¡¯s a fight you¡¯re looking for Syradil I can dly spar with you. I don¡¯t think you need to provoke my friend now do you?" Shiro asked as she tapped her finger on the table.
Feeling the pressure from her, Syradil understood that Shiro didn¡¯t mind dissolving their agreement immediately. She had the power to back it up after all.
Deep down, Syradil wasn¡¯t sure if she could actually win in a fight between the two of them.
"Fine fine. I¡¯m only joking. But let¡¯s get to the main topic now. So far, I¡¯vee across three kinds of soldiers." Syradil said as she sat down on her chair.
"First, is the scouts. High mobility, good at evasion, hard to pin down. However, they have virtually 0 attack power. They have a skill that lets them fade between realms and go invisible and can ry information back to the base the second they see it. I¡¯m guessing they act simr to your cameras." Syradil said while ncing at Shiro.
"The second are soldiers that I¡¯ve found, they are what I like to call Suiciders. Very high power, ignores most defences. Very fast but paper like defence. You can kill one with your bare hands but once you do, they¡¯ll explode using all of the mana they have within them. And here¡¯s the main problem. There are a lot of these f*ckers. If you kill one and prevent it from exploding, the energy will get transferred to the closest Suicider and they¡¯ll be stronger.
"Last but not least, is the Supporters. Flying units that will hit you with ranged crowd control and lower your defence so that the Suiciders can kill you easily. They are hard to spot and have virtually 0 attack power as well. They are just there to make your life harder. Very annoying. I would suggest wiping them out first but killing them is no easy task. I don¡¯t know what skill they have but when they¡¯re not casting a spell, they¡¯re practically invulnerable. There is only a small window of chance to kill them and that is when they cast." Syradil exined while Shiro brought up a world map.
"Are you able to show us where you fought them? Though I have a slight idea." Shiro said as waved her finger and the map started to turn.
Seeing the time, they realised that she was showing them what happened a few hours ago.
Suddenly, a breath attack bigger than New York appeared on the map.
"Bingo. If you rewind the footage, you¡¯ll be able to see what they look like." Syradil smiled.
Rewinding the video, Shiro could see the army that surrounded Syradil.
The Scouts are androgenous beings with ck mist enveloping their entire body andrge elongated spider legs protruding from their back. From the video, Shiro could tell that they were faster than her. If she wanted to kill them, rely on ranged attacks.
She didn¡¯t need to look for the Suicider since there was one in the cage next to them. It was thin and practically had no flesh on its back. The skin stretched across the bones and there seemed to be armour under the skin. On their chest, purple and red lights would pulse between their ribs like a beating heart. They have no eyes and deathly white skin. Two rows of sharp teeth and a crown of bones sticking out of their skull. This crown seemed to twitch every so often and retract back into their head before protruding out again.
Their use was unknown for now.
Finally, the supports were hooded figures with no lower half. Instead of legs, it was just a collection of dense ck mist. Protruding from their back was a pair of skeletal wings with purple and red energy where the membrane should be.
"Hmm... how many other units are there?" Shiro asked since the army would definitely be more than just these three. Otherwise how would they destroy a majority of Earth.
"Well there are quite a few. And I don¡¯t have a name for all of them. For now, think of them as adventurers. There are tanks, ranged units, berserkers and even some strange units that are simr to the trebuchets." Syradil shrugged.
"I see... are there any changes to the ambient mana when they appear or is it just instant?"
"There¡¯s a slight shift but it doesn¡¯tst long. So you might as well just call it instant." Syradil shrugged.
Hearing this, Shiro clicked her tongue.
"I haven¡¯t detected anything from the satellites so I¡¯m guessing they¡¯re teleporting them in rather than just catapulting them from space."
"Mn, I¡¯m guessing the holes that you¡¯ve poked into the barrier allows them to teleport small amounts of their army. If not, we would still be ignorant of their arrival. I¡¯m not sure if they¡¯ll send any more but it¡¯ll be good if we go deal with them now."
"I¡¯ll have the defence system of the city in full swing just in case they do attack. Same with the satellite. They should be able to deal with them with rtive ease. As for the attack force against Rokarn, what are your inputs about this? You faced them before, after all." Shiro asked.
"A smaller party would be optimal. The main thing you have to remember is that this isn¡¯t just a fight against arge number of monsters. The main problem is Rokarn himself. With strong people like him, you know that numbers don¡¯t work." Syradil said as Shiro nodded her head.
"True. Alright, I think we¡¯ll stick with the main party. Misu is a must since her authority as the Undead Queen can help us create an army using Rokarn¡¯s units." Shiro said as Misu nodded her head.
In the end, they decided on taking anyone that was higher than level 700 including Aarim even though she was level 695.
Koji and Li Jian had to stay behind since they were only level 650 and were in too much danger to continue despite their ss advantages. While they would get bonuses from Shiro¡¯s skills and Divine Court titles, there was simply too much at risk.
The final party consisted of the following members.
Shiro, Attie, Yin, Lisandra, Estre, Nimue, Iziuel, Nan Tian, Aarim, Helion, Keiko, Silvia, Chen Yu, Misu, Esil, Revel and Syradil.
"You really think we can fight back a demi god and his army with a party of 17?" Silvia asked as she was a little unsure.
They were powerful yes and had multiple skills that could demolish an army. But the problem was theck of information. There were too many unknown factors. If they knew more than she would be more confident about their chances.
"Do you have any allies that are higher than level 700?" Shiro asked as Syradil shook her head
"Except for my pet summon I don¡¯t have anyone else."
Hearing this, Shiro scratched her head.
Honestly, if it wasn¡¯t for Lyrica and the others, she would probably be solo like Syradil with the exception of perhaps Nimue, Attie, Yin and Lisandra. Without Lyrica, she wouldn¡¯t have gone to the Elven Capital and find Iziuel.
"So what¡¯s the n now then?" Syradil asked while leaning back on her chair.
"I think I¡¯ll do some experimenting on this monster first. After that I want to fight their scouting party to get some information about their power. Once that¡¯s done, we should be pretty much set to challenge them. If things do go south, I¡¯ll try to teleport us back so that we can regroup. I¡¯ll also see if I can get any information using my satellites but it¡¯ll be hard." Shiro exined as Syradil nodded.
"Contact me once you¡¯re done, I¡¯m going to do some preparations of my own."
Nodding her head, Shiro watched as Syradil disappeared into a portal.
Ending the meeting, Shiro made her way to a reinforced room with the Suicider. Following behind her, Nan Tian was checking up on the monster¡¯s bio scans to see if anything was off.
Noticing that this monster doesn¡¯t even ¡¯Eat Mana¡¯. In fact, it has no body functions at all. It was as if this monster was a golem.
Shiro had noticed this due to the fact that once it was in a no mana zone, it would poweroff. Which also exins why it was oddly silent during the meeting.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro opened the cage.
*BANG!!!
Springing awake, the monster red at Shiro and opened its mouth, ready to fire a shot at her.
However, Shiro was not going to let him.
Snapping her finger, a needle appeared in front of the monster and pierced into its chest.
Copsing to the ground once more, it lost its functions.
"Let¡¯s open it up I suppose." Shiro said as she created an operating table next to him.
cing him on the table, she created a scalpel and started to dissect him.
asionally, she would remove the needle to see how he works internally before putting the needle back.
¡¯Hmm... seems like most of the monsters are just golems. They¡¯re not controlled remotely but there should be a connection of sorts between them.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she had an idea.
She wanted to see if she could use this golem to remotely observe Rokarn¡¯s army.
Chapter 1112 Unknown Life Time
Chapter 1112 Unknown Life Time
Continuing through the connection, Shiro found herself finding exits that led to stronger presences.
Narrowing her eyes, she guessed that they were roughly in the high 800¡¯s maybe in the 900¡¯s which wasn¡¯t exactly reassuring. However, with how their party worked together and the skills that they have, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard. Or at least that¡¯s what she believes.
Suddenly, she felt a pair of eyes lock onto her as cold sweat dripped down her back.
She didn¡¯t think anyone could find her so easily. Just as she was about to cut the connection, she could herself floating in space in front of a being that sat on a throne.
He had a lean physique that was d in ck ted armour. A helmet ced by his side that had a red plume protruding from the top.
A greatsword could be seen pulsing next to him as he locked eyes with her.
With dark red hair and ck eyes, he stared at her wordlessly.
[Rokarn LVL 1000 Demi God of Chaos and ughter (Divinity 3)
"Err... hi?" Shiro waved with a forced smile.
¡¯His divinity is ranked 3. It¡¯s higher than the crow and most gods. ording to Gaia, his divinity should be as powerful as the divinity belonging to primordials.¡¯ She thought to herself.
Furrowing his brows, he tapped his finger.
Shiro wanted to leave but there was a strange restriction binding her here.
¡¯Error help me out here.¡¯ Shiro thought in her mind as she tried to get rid of the binding.
While this was happening, Rokarn stood up and walked up to her.
"God yer." He said as Shiro swallowed her saliva.
"Haha, seems like you¡¯ve heard of my recent title." She joked in response.
"I don¡¯t mean your current title bestowed by the system." Rokarn narrowed his eyes.
"Pardon?"
"You don¡¯t know?" Rokarn widened his eyes in surprise as he examined her once more.
"Sub divinity of Chaos and Creation is indeed in your body. Then why don¡¯t you know..." He growled as Shiro could tell that anger was building up in his eyes.
However, just as he was about to make a move, her bindings finally loosened thanks to Error¡¯s help.
"Well I¡¯d love to talk but in better circumstances. I suppose this is farewell for now." Shiro smiled as she quickly disappeared from the location.
Staring at the empty space in front of him, Rokarn frowned and raised his hand.
"BANG!!!
Summoning his greatsword to his hand, he cleaved down and ripped open a portal in the space in front of him.
Just as he was about to enter, ck chains appeared behind him and restrained him.
"You refuse to meet me!? ARIA! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!!!" He howled as his aura exploded out of his body.
The realm around him started to shake and crack but no response could be heard.
Suddenly, a golden cor appeared around Rokarn¡¯s neck as he was brought to his knees.
Gritting his teeth, he red at the portal.
Forced to close it, he threw his greatsword into the distance.
Taking deep breaths to calm himself, he sat back on his throne.
Tapping his finger, he wondered what had happened for this scenario to ur. He assumed that the God yer woke him up to fulfil their agreement but it doesn¡¯t seem to be the case.
¡¯Did Aria go rogue...¡¯ He furrowed his brows before shaking his head.
"Enjoy the warmth of your light Aria. Soon... You. Will. Burn."
###
Snapping her eyes open, Shiro quickly jumped back as a sword appeared in her hand.
Narrowing her eyes at the corpse, she sighed in relief after seeing nothing happening.
"Did something happen?" Nan Tian asked as he was also in abat stance in case something went wrong.
"I suppose so. His perception was stronger than I expected. Found me in thework once I got closer to the centre." Shiro scratched her hair while disposing the body on the table.
"He called me God yer but he didn¡¯t mean my recent name. But rather it almost seems like he knows me." She said while sitting on the table and crossing her legs.
"He knew you? As Shiro, Kuromi or as Nytri?" Nan Tian asked curiously since Shiro did live three lifetimes now. One of which she rememberedst year.
"Not sure. He talks as though I have already reached god hood before. Which apparently I f*cking did since that¡¯s what Aria fears." Shiro clicked her tongue while leaning back and kicked her leg back and forth.
"How many lifetimes have I gone through now? I only remember three of them but more are popping out of the woodworks. I lived as Nytri, then I lived as Kuromi who knew nothing. Now I live as Shiro who knows about Nytri but not Kuromi untilter that year. Am I supposed to find out about a new incarnation every year I¡¯m alive as Shiro?" Shiro pouted as Nan Tian chuckled and pulled out some juice for her.
"Well perhaps. Though if you have another past life as a god yer, it¡¯ll make your future a bit easier seeing as though you¡¯ve already done it before." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"True. I¡¯m still concerned about Aria though. She¡¯s too abnormal. Like me but worse. She is able to ess tier 9 magic which I thought didn¡¯t exist but clearly that¡¯s incorrect. She remembered a different me and it was apparently her deepest fear." Shiro sighed while drinking the juice.
"You think it¡¯s to do with my Destroyer ss when I almost fell?"
"Maybe. You did shoot all the way up to level 1000 when that happened. Maybe falling just pulls out all of your dormant potential hence why you became the level 1000 Destroyer. Maybe one of your previous lifetimes was acting as the destroyer of worlds. You certainly have the power for it. If I gave you a week, you could destroy Earth quite easily if you go all out. Maybe a week is too long." Nan Tian shrugged as Shiro agreed.
After all, the system even forced Nyx to activate a barrier when she created the Unstable Void Bomb.
"I suppose. By the way, I think we might want to reconsider our strategy. Rokarn is divinity rank 3. He¡¯s on par with Gaia and Nyx not to mention the fact that he has the Sub Divinity of Chaos. With what I can do with some of Chaos¡¯ abilities, he won¡¯t be easy to kill. And unlike me, he doesn¡¯t have a timer." Shiro scratched her head. If she used her skill, she can advance herself to tier 8 for a short period and use the Divinity of Chaos but she can only use it for a short period.
In a battle between the two of them, this can only be used as astst resort paired with stacking her berserk skills to greatly increase her stats to put her on equal footing. And even then, it was no guarantee since his divinity is still more powerful.
"Hmm... Aren¡¯t you able to summon some of the primordials here? While they might not be at full power, their assistance might help us tip the bnce in our favour." Nan Tian suggested.
"Maybe... I don¡¯t want to summon them if possible but if there¡¯s no avoiding it then it¡¯ll have to do." Shiro nodded as she started to prepare a mech for Gaia. After all, Gaia mentioned that herbat power was weaker than most primordials and had to rely on supporting from the backlines. If she gave Gaia, a mech, it¡¯ll allow her to support while also fighting on the frontlines.
As for the mech, it¡¯ll have to be something more powerful than the Specialised units since a god can handle more pressure than mortals. It means that she can experiment a bit more and even use the crystals that she¡¯s been harvesting. So far, there¡¯s been no movement from the egg in the north and the scientists stationed there are confused. But the constant supply of crystals was a boon for them.
But the moment she mentioned not wanting to summon the primordials if possible, Shiro watched as a notification appeared in front of her.
[Goddess Gaia states that she may not be able to help out much to her disappointment. There¡¯s been some movement in the divine realms that require their attention. As much as they would like to help, they might be short on time. She also states that your mother is involved. She wants to make sure she¡¯s safe along with some other gods.]
Reading this, Shiro blinked her eyes in surprise.
"Never mind. Seems like we can¡¯t count on the primordials. They¡¯re looking after my mum." Shiro shrugged.
"Pardon?"
"Something has happened in the Divine Realms and my mum is involved. Since Gaia can¡¯t join, I presume it¡¯s something quite big." Shiro rephrased as Nan Tian furrowed her brows.
"Hmm... I wonder what could be happening to make Gaia and the other primordials step in."
"Who knows. But whatever it is it¡¯s going to be big. But enough about that, let¡¯s go to sleep now. I want to wake up early and help out with some training to see which skills arepatible with the other party members. Especially Revel and Syradil." Shiro said as she jumped off the table and made her way back to her room.
Chapter 1113 Revels Training
Chapter 1113 Revel''s Training
"So what exactly do you need me to do?" Revel asked while yawning. Scratching his hair, he seemed quite dishevelled from ying games all night.
"I just want to see the effects of your storm when powered with my mana and see what I can do to avoid being killed identally. That way, when we need to use this tactic, we have prior knowledge rather than just winging it and hoping everything works out." Shiro exined with a shrug.
Currently, they were in the middle of a grass in that stretched on for as far as the eye could see. It was surprising to have this kind ofndscape in the new age but Shiro knew that it was just disguised as such.
Beneath the thinyers of grass were countless ravines that will reveal themselves with the slightest touch. The monsters that dwell within these ravines would kill you before repairing their trap, making it seem like nothing had happened.
"What about me then?" Syradil asked while sitting on arge rock that she ripped out from one of the ravines.
"You¡¯re after Revel." Shiro shrugged as Syradil nodded andid down before closing her eyes.
Snapping her finger, a barrier appeared around her.
"Right then, now that she¡¯s also ready, let¡¯s get down to business. You can think of this as a little spar since we never actually fought one another. It¡¯s good for me to understand what you¡¯re capable of." Shiro smiled as Revel nodded his head.
Taking a few steps back from Shiro, a fierce aura exploded out of his body as blue scales started to ovep his arms.
Two horns protruded from his head along with rows of spikes down his spine.
Unbuttoning his shirt and allowing it to hang on his waist, Shiro could see natural scale armour on his body.
"Well this is rather new. I thought you could only go human or dragon form." Shiro said while crossing her arms.
"Well having arge form is fun but it¡¯s too big of a target. In arge army fight I¡¯m fine with that form. But against someone of your calibre, I¡¯d rather condense my power. This human form might not be as defensive as my dragon form but everything else has been drastically improved." Revel grinned while massaging his wrist.
Lightning started to flicker around his arm as blue runes appeared on his body.
"Oh? And here I thought you were just ying games all day." Shiro chuckled.
"You¡¯re not wrong. But just because I¡¯m ying games doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t think up of ways to improve." Revel shrugged before revealing a serious expression.
"Allow me to show you what I can do."
"Your move first." Shiro smiled as she swiped her hand down and summoned a nanotech sword along with a hand cannon.
*BANG!!!
Just as she finished her sentence, Revel disappeared from sight and appeared in front of her with a lightning spear ready to pierce her body as she shifted her body and parried with the sword.
Absorbing all of the mana, Shiro made sure to avoid using her own mana so that she could test out what he could do on his own.
Relying on pure physical power, she adjusted her grip on the sword and disarmed him from his lightning spear.
Letting go of her sword, she ced her finger against his chest before punching.
The sudden transfer of force caused the scale armour around the chest to crack as Revel widened his eyes.
However, he wasn¡¯t blown away.
*CRACK!!!
Opening the armour on his chest, his lips curled up into a grin as it wrapped around Shiro¡¯s arm, securing her in ce.
Looking at his eyes, Shiro could tell what he was thinking.
¡¯I dare you to use mana!¡¯
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro took a step forward.
If her arm is stuck in his chest right now, that means he couldn¡¯t put his guard up properly. However, it also meant that she couldn¡¯t get out of his attack range. It was now a case of who could grasp this opportunity and Shiro was faster.
Stomping down, she mmed her spare hand into his stomach before twisted her palm, forcing her elbow to m against Revel¡¯s jaw.
*CRACK!!!
Feeling his armour crack under her attack, her joy was short lived as Revel was akin to a berserker who didn¡¯t feel any pain right now.
Without caring for the wounds, lightning shed across his body for a moment before a giant tier 6 magic circle enveloped the two of them.
A single second didn¡¯t even pass before lightning crashed down from the sky.
Knowing that any use of mana would increase the intensity, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to cut her arm off and jumped away from Revel.
Tracing her finger across the air around her, a portal opened up and swallowed her whole, protecting her from the lightning.
Once the lightning settled, Shiro stepped out of her portal and nced towards Revel who was now holding the arm that she cut off. Even in that lightning storm, the arm was barely damaged.
"Even without mana enhancing your body, it can still withstand an attack that could kill a tier 6. Hell, I didn¡¯t even make you bleed. The only ready this is bloody is because you cut it off yourself." Revel shrugged while tossing the arm back. Just as he did this, it disappeared and was transformed into ambient mana.
"Well I pride myself in elemental resistances. My physical defence is strong thanks to my armour but anything magic-rted is due to my innate nature." Shiro replied as she snapped her finger and healed her arm in an instant.
"I can continue with physicalbat if you have more to show me. If not, we can move onto magic."
"I still have more to show. Can¡¯t be too much of a disappointment now can I?" Revelughed as his suddenly cut off.
mming his fists together, the sound of lightning could be heard but the clouds didn¡¯t change.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro nced at Revel who was charging at her. With each step, his aura would increase.
By the time he was a few steps away from her, he seemed like an unstoppable lightning god that destroyed anything in his path.
However, Shiro wasposed.
There was a technique that she was working on in order to deal with the Suiciders that would detonate as long as there was mana.
While she could use the no mana zone, she needed a better method.
Entering a stand, golden runes appeared on Shiro¡¯s arm as she shed in front of Revel and ¡¯grabbed¡¯ the aura around him before condensing it into an orb and mmed it back into his body.
While Revel was immune to lightning, he wasn¡¯t immune to pure energy. With the energy rampaging through his body, he kneeled down and coughed up blood.
Soon, this pain disappeared as Shiro healed him with life fire.
"Did you make yourst move slow so that I understood what was going on?" Revel asked as he forced a smile.
"Yup. You can convert mana but nothing higher. You can¡¯t convert it either if I was to change its shape into something else. You see this, this is celestial energy. Don¡¯t get it mixed up with Divine Energy as Divine Energy is what is used by the gods while Celestial Energy is a cheap replica I suppose. By mixing the two together and converting the lightning around your body, I was able to find a loophole with your physique and send everything back at you. Your physique is strong against people that use mana but it¡¯s limited against Demi Gods that have already began to use Divine Energy. Rokarn has a Divinity Rank of 3, if he struck you... Let¡¯s say you might meet a good friend of mine called Hades." Shiro chuckled as Revel sighed and scratched his head.
"My Physique revolves around countering mana, lightning and physical based attacks with my innately powerful defence. In other areas, it¡¯s a little weak." Revel admitted honestly as Shiro nodded.
"Hence why I showed you this method. With how you fight even without the assistance of someone else¡¯s mana, I think you¡¯re in a pretty good spot. We just need to find a way to cover your weakness and Celestial Energy is perfect for you. You can¡¯t use mana due to your physique but Celestial Energyes from the soul. When I sent it through your body, I had already scanned you to see how your physique reacted and it was rather adaptive. If not, you would probably be convulsing on the ground and spasming rather than just coughing up blood." Shiro shrugged as Revel¡¯s smile twitched.
She was more than happy to let him suffer such a strong attack to check hispatibility when there were better ways of testing this. Ones that didn¡¯t leave him convulsing on the floor.
"What? Everyone else was training using the harsh method. No one in a fight will just let you figure out a counter while they¡¯re waiting. You need to try to adapt in a situation where they¡¯re kicking the sh*t out of you." Shiro shrugged but Nimue could tell that it was 60% bullsh*tting, 20% serious and 20% sadistic intent.
Hesitantly nodding his head, Revel wondered what kind of training he¡¯ll need to do in order to use this Celestial Energy that Shiro mentioned.
Chapter 1114 Syradils Training
Chapter 1114 Syradil''s Training
Sensing Shiro approaching her, Syradil opened her eyes and yawned.
"Finished?" She asked as she knew that Shiro was training with Revel.
"Not quite but he can¡¯t continue so we¡¯ll move onto your training." Shiro smiled as Syradil blinked her eyes in confusion.
"Can¡¯t continue? Did he have something to do?" She asked but Shiro shook her head.
Pointing behind her, Shiro stepped aside so that Syradil could see Revel¡¯s state.
".. ." Rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn¡¯t dreaming, Syradil could see Revel¡¯s beaten up body twitching in a crater while the scenery around him was being repaired.
"What happened to him?"
"He¡¯s just trying to learn how to use a new form of energy right now. Something simr to mana. He¡¯s only twitching because I¡¯m running a bunch of information through his brain while healing him. Pretty sure if it was someone else, they would have their brain melted by now. He¡¯s only holding on because of his innate healing and my Life Fire." Shiro shrugged while sitting down.
"Right... So what do you have in store for me then?" Syradil asked curiously because Shiro had mentioned that this was something she needed to learn.
"What¡¯s in store for you? We¡¯ll I¡¯ll leave most of the training a secret for now. But let me ask you a question, you¡¯ve reached level 1000 before right?" Shiro asked as Syradil nodded.
"Mn I did, what about it?"
"Did you ever breakthrough to the next stage and attain a divinity?"
"Well.... Kind of? I never needed to reach that stage to be fair. You can defeat most Queens and Empress¡¯s by just reaching the peak of mortal standards. Which is level 1000. The remaining Queen¡¯s and Empress¡¯s required you to have a great deal of fighting experience and quick thinking. None of them ¡¯needed¡¯ you to be tier 7 to kill them. I have gained physiques that were equal to Demi Gods but never really used what you call Divine Energy." Syradil admitted as this garden¡¯s New Age was highly abnormal. If that wasn¡¯t the case then Shiro would have been fine by now and would have probably won with rtive ease.
"Hmm so your body probably experienced Divine Energy before with your physique. You had a passive adaptive defence right?" Shiro asked as Syradil nodded her head.
"I only have the lesser version right now. It¡¯ll be upgraded in the future. Why you ask?"
"Hou hou, well, for you see, if I pump you with enough Divine Energy, you¡¯ll get a feel for the energy as well as gaining a resistance no? It¡¯ll help out when we fight Rokarn." Shiro smiled as golden runes lit up on her arm.
"So basically I¡¯m going to hit the crap out of you until you gain a resistance."
Hearing this, Syradil narrowed her eyes.
"Of course, you can fight back. It¡¯s a spar with the additional benefits of you getting Divine Energy resistance. Plus, you might even get an idea on how to obtain it for yourself." Shiro chuckled as Syradil nodded her head.
Cracking her knuckles, she looked at Shiro.
"Ready when you are."
*BANG!!!!!
Without hesitation, Shiro mmed her fist into Syradil¡¯s chest as golden runes lit up andunched her into the distance.
Stomping down, Shiro chased after her as a sea of mes appeared in her face.
Curling her lips into a smile, Shiro dashed into the mes without fear.
After all, thanks to Attie, she has an immunity to mes below Demi God level.
Bursting out of the mes, Shiro¡¯s fists were wrapped with a golden light as Syradil was surprised that her mes did nothing.
Pulling her arm back, she punched towards Shiro as she did the same.
*BANG!!!!
Feeling her arm ache from the force of her punch, Syradil winced slightly as the force pushed her towards the ground.
sping her hands together, Shiro created a tier 7 magic circle in the sky.
Creating a portal to space, all of the satellites could be seen as each of them slowly charged up an attack.
Summoning a bow into her hands, Shiro narrowed her eyes and carved golden runes onto the surface before pulling back.
Seeing this, Syradil furrowed her brows.
mes erupted from her body as her body transformed into a ming dragon. Opening her mouth, a condensed beam of energy erupted out and shot towards Shiro.
However, a hexagonal barrier appeared around Shiro and dispersed the energy.
"Sorry but this barrier was based on Revel¡¯s unique physique. I can¡¯t convert all of the mana and energy but it does absorb roughly 20% of what you fire at me." Shiro smiled as she let go of the bow strings.
*BOOM!!!!
Widening her eyes, Syradil didn¡¯t know what to say as the sky was now filled with a myriad of attacks, all aimed towards her.
Gritting her teeth, the mes on her body extinguished just before the sts reached her.
*BANG!!!!!
Closing the portal, Shiro waved her hand and cleared the dust.
Standing in a crater, was a wingless dragon that had ck scales all over its body.
Seeing how her attack barely harmed Syradil, Shiro raised her eyebrow in surprise.
"ck Crystal Dragon. ck Crystal was the hardest material in my world. It was highly resistance to all forms of damage, especially mana. Due to a few items and skills, I was able to integrate some of the crystal into my body, creating a defensive dragon form. As the Empress of Dragons, it wouldn¡¯t make sense for me to only have one dragon form after all. However, this form does have a small draw back, my movements dull once I change forms as I need to clear the crystals and my speed is heavily decreased. It¡¯s only really good for defending against an attack that I can¡¯t dodge." Syradil exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"You want some time to recover or keep going?"
"Keep going, my enemies won¡¯t give me time to recover after all." Syradil smiled as the crystals started to shatter.
Transforming herself into a green dragon with blue lights under each scale, she activated a tier 6 magic circle.
Suddenly, vines shot out of the ground as Shiro was forced to dive down to dodge them.
She didn¡¯t know what they did but they gave her a bad feeling.
"Smart move. These are Devil Vines. Once theytch onto you, they nt a seed which drains your mana and health and transfer them to me. The more seeds that are nted in your body, the stronger the absorption."
"Well that¡¯s certainly helpful to know. Let¡¯s try this then." Shiro smiled as mes started to flicker on her fingertips.
Activating her Soul Maiden skill, fire wrapped around her body. A ck and red dress enveloped her body as the vines that were close to her instantly turned to ash.
One by one, orbs of fire appeared near her as they orbited around Shiro.
Narrowing her eyes, Syradil could see that they were butterflies by their wings were on fire constantly.
"Clear our these vines." Shiro ordered with a smile.
*BOOM!!!
Suddenly, all of the butterflies erupted with more energy as they rushed towards the vines. In mere seconds, an entire vine would be dried up and crumbled to ash while all of the butterflies charge towards Syradil.
Quickly backing off, she transformed once more to deal with this new threat. Sprouting another pair of wings on her back, Syradil¡¯s new form was a serpent with two sets of wings.
Disappearing from her spot, her speed increased dramatically as the butterflies lost their target.
Waving her finger for them toe back to her, Shiro had a smile on her face.
Dismissing her form, she closed her eyes as golden runes appeared on her arms.
Opening her eyes once more, the purple runes were now lit up.
Activating her skill, Time Flux, a sword appeared in her hand as golden runes lit up along the de.
Dashing forward, the golden runes slowly turned to a deep red.
A pulse of energy erupted out of the sword as the world seem to stop in Shiro¡¯s eyes.
Spotting Syradil circling above her, Shiro didn¡¯t waste any time and jumped up.
For Chronos, she needed to use two pulses to halt his time since he was a god. But for anyone below god level, one pulse should do the trick.
Flickering behind Syradil, time started to resume as she swung her sword against Syradil¡¯s back.
Feeling the sudden spike of pain in her back, Syradil widened her eyes since she was sure that she had her eyes on Shiro. To her, she just suddenly disappeared and the next thing she knew, her back was now bleeding.
"The hell was that?" Syradil asked as she backed off from Shiro.
"A skill of mine. It¡¯s something I developed with the God of Time. Essentially, for a short while, at the low low cost of 25% of my Divine Energy and 80% of my mana, I can stop time and do whatever I want." Shiro smiled.
"The f*ck. You can stop time???" Syradil asked in disbelief as Shiro nodded her head.
Pausing for a moment, Shiro smiled.
"Oh would you look at that, I¡¯ve already recovered 20% of my mana. If I wait a bit longer I¡¯ll get it all back. Ready to keep going? I still need to smack you with Divine Energy some more." Shiro asked as golden runes lit up on her arm.
".. ."
Chapter 1115 Syradils Adaptation
Chapter 1115 Syradil''s Adaptation
Wiping the blood from her lips, Syradil continued to dodge without being able to fight back as Shiro constantly had a barrier around her that allowed her to absorb the mana.
¡¯Everything I throw at her is being thrown back even harder than before. Plus, she¡¯s not exactly letting me have a rxing time either.¡¯ Syradil thought with a frown while quickly raising her arm to protect her head.
*BANG!!! CRACK!!!
Feeling her bone fracture from the hit, Syradil widened her eyes as she noticed something. The longer this fight went on, the stronger Shiro¡¯s hits became. It¡¯s as though all of the mana that she¡¯s absorbed is used to reinforce her body and empower her attacks.
However, there wasn¡¯t anything she could do about it since she only knew how to use mana.
"What¡¯s wrong Syradil, don¡¯t tell me that¡¯s it. Are you nothing but a punching bag? Are you not an Empress who has won multiple New Age¡¯s? Show me the power that allowed you to win." Shiro asked as her face was cold.
mming her hands together, a tier 7 magic circle exploded out as Syradil felt danger from all around her.
Gritting her teeth, she activated another dragon form as ck lightning erupted around her.
Her form started to erge as ck and red scales covered her body.
Rearing her head back, she let out a bellowing roar as thend tore itself apart.
ck mes shot out of the ground and withered thendscape. Seeing this, Shiro scoffed.
"Gaia would be upset at your actions." She said while snapping her fingers.
Her hair suddenly turned green as an emerald dress covered her body. Waving her finger,rge tree¡¯sparable to the world tree that the elves worshipped sprouted from the ashes. Shaking their leaves, a green aura descended to thend as all of the mes disappeared and thendscape was rejuvenated.
Seeing this, Syradil narrowed her eyes and sent ck spikes in all directions before jumping up into the sky.
Opening a path for herself, her ck and red scales started to transform as her form started to shrink.
"Finally getting serious?" Shiro curled the corner of her lips up into a smile as she snapped her fingers.
Several streaks of lightning appeared around her as each streak was actually made up of tiny golden runes.
Pointing at Syradil, Shiro narrowed her eyes and activated the spell.
*BOOM!!!
Seeing the lightning behind her, Syradil gritted her teeth and Activated a tier 6 spell of her own.
¡¯Sh*t! It¡¯s not fast enough!¡¯
Widening her eyes, she braced herself for impact.
"GAH!!!!" Feeling the shock through her body, Syradil couldn¡¯t help but scream out in pain as her transformation was forcefully cancelled.
Transforming a part of her arm to that of a lightning dragon, she attempted to remove the lightning from her body.
However, the moment she grabbed the lightning, it started to run rampant up her arm, ripping it apart in the process.
Looking at the lightning, she decided to keep holding it despite the damage, allowing it to continue to damage her body.
She wanted to let her body adapt to this damage and ovee it.
Slowly, a white energy started to wrap around her body while red markings crawled across the surface of this white shell.
Little by little, her entire body was now nothing but red. Her hair disappeared into this strange energy as she seemed like she was on fire but in slow motion. Moving her hand, this energy seemed to trail behind her ever so slightly. Not enough to separate from her but enough to see a trail.
[Adaption Acquired]
A simple notification told her that this was how her body adapted to fight against this form of energy.
Looking at the lightning in her hands that was now slowly being absorbed, she could feel a new source of energy. One that was many times more powerful than mana.
"Seems like our little spar has finally shown some results." Shrio said as she floated near Syradil in her new form.
Wanting to speak, Syradil opened her mouth but was unable to let out her voice. It was a strange feeling, power that was hard to control. It was either very slow or at top speed.
She figured that once she got used to this form, she¡¯ll be able to control the speed but right now, that was not the case.
"Seems like you¡¯re mute for now. Nod your head once if you want to keep fighting." Shiro smiled as Syradil nodded her head.
Just as Shiro was about to attack, she widened her eyes seeing a red fist in front of her face.
Quickly tilting her head to the side, she barely managed to dodge as the speed caused a small cut on her face.
With how strong her body was now, leaving a wound was near impossible unless she did it herself. For Syradil to be able to harm her, this meant that her new form had quite the potential.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro healed up the cut.
"Harming my face like that. Even though we¡¯re sparing that¡¯ll cost you." Shiro chuckled as she flickered from her spot.
Even though Syradil was fast, Shiro could upgrade her speed as well.
Appearing behind her, Shiro clenched her fist as golden runes appeared but before she could punch, Syradil had already constructed a tier 6 magic circle that was trying to ascend into the realm of tier 7.
Allowing the spell to activate, Shiro noticed that she was brought to a different realm. In this ce, everything seemed to be flipped.
The ground was always above them no matter how they tried to flip while the sky was beneath them.
The colours in this realm were dull, simple ck and white.
Standing in the centre was Syradil who was covered by a red energy that stood outpared to her surroundings.
¡¯When adapting to a type of element or power, you go for the inverse. A natural counter so that the two cancels out. If you want to ignore fire, you use water. Do you think Syradil obtained the opposite of Divine Energy? Something that is the opposite of what the gods use?¡¯ Nimue asked as the energy that was slowly radiating from Syradil was a little creepy. For her who was closely tied to mana and divine energy, it felt repulsive.
"Perhaps." Shiro replied as she felt the same. It was a feeling that reminded her of Niphim. Pure Corruption, one that appears when they fall. But Syradil felt slightly different.
When people fall, there is a sense that they¡¯ve already walked past the line. But Syradil was bncing in the middle.
¡¯So falling means you gain ess to the corruption that counters gods. Could exin how the God yer fell first before killing gods.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she tried to activate divine energy in this realm.
However, the moment she did, a ck energy washed over the entire world as Shiro felt countless pairs of eyes locking onto her body.
The moment she snapped out of it, there was a ck and white dragon behind her that was about to bite her in half.
Immediately summoning Silvanis to her side, she cut the dragon in half.
¡¯What the hell was that...¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
From the corpse of the dragon, two long arms of ck goo sprouted out and reached towards her.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro activated a barrier around her that blocked out the corruption.
Sttering against the surface of her barrier, each drop of the liquid would transform into something else as Syradil dashed towards Shiro at top speed.
Activating her Soul-Maiden form, Shiro chose ice as her element and breathed out a mouthful of cold mist.
sping her hands together, a pulse of energy exploded out in an attempt to freeze the world but the moment she tried, the strength of the corruption would only grow stronger.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro grabbed Silvanis and swung towards Syradil.
Just before her de could reach Syradil, a fracture appeared on the red energy covering her body.
*PING!!
Shattering apart like ice, Syradil¡¯s body fell forward as Shiro quickly caught her.
Looking around her, Shiro noticed that they were now back on Earth. The corruption disappeared and colour returned to the world.
ncing down at the unconscious Syradil, Shiro smiled helplessly while floating down to recover Revel¡¯s body.
¡¯One training session, two unconscious beings. One¡¯s learning how to use Celestial Energy and the other has tapped into the power of Fallen but didn¡¯t fall.¡¯ Nimue sighed as Shiro shrugged.
"Well we¡¯ll need all the strength we can get. I¡¯m fine with Revel but Syradil¡¯s power might need to be looked into." Shiro replied as Nimue nodded her head.
¡¯So what do you think about Syradil¡¯s power?¡¯
"She¡¯s tenacious. Her adaptation and healing power makes it hard to keep her down. Neither of us showed all our cards since doing so would weaken us before the big fight but it¡¯ll definitely be a slight struggle." Shiro admitted since she was essentially saying that Syradil could probably suppress a god like the Raven.
Killing was a different matter since she didn¡¯t have anything to kill a god. Though, with her new power, this might change.
Chapter 1116 Small Invasion Outside of Asharia
Chapter 1116 Small Invasion Outside of Asharia
Bringing the both of them back to the city, Shiro stretched her body and ced them in the medical bay.
Seeing this familiar room, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but look back at the bed that she was in while she was recovering from the loss of Isilia.
Saying nothing, Shiro shook her head and thought about something else.
"How was the training? Did they get the results that you wanted?" A voice rang out as Shiro smiled and nced behind her. Seeing Nan Tian leaning by the door, Shiro nodded her head.
"Yeah I did. Revel seemed to be making good progress towards using Celestial Energy and Syradil obtained something outside of our expectations. We tried to let her use Divine Energy through adaptation. However, she obtained the direct opposite instead. She obtained energy simr to the fallen but she hasn¡¯t crossed the line of no return yet." Shiro exined as Nan Tian raised his eyebrows and nced towards Syradil.
"Does that mean there¡¯s a way for her to use the corruption from bing fallen without the risks?"
"I¡¯m not sure about it being free of risks but so far it seems like it has no drawbacks except for the fact that it pushes the physical body to the limit." Shiro replied while scratching her head.
"Hmm... that¡¯s definitely worth looking into then." Nan Tian said while pulling out the tablet.
"But while you were training those two, I¡¯ve collected some basicbat data on everyone that will be joining the raid. New moves,bos, skills and techniques are all recorded here. There¡¯s a high chance that they¡¯ll figure something out when they fight but I¡¯ve pretty much collected everything now." Nan Tian shrugged as he handed the tablet to Shiro.
Receiving the tablet, Shiro started to read the information and noted everything down in her mind.
With everything being recorded here, it will definitely be more beneficial for her dad and Li Jian to lead the charge since everyone will get a buff thanks to their skills, passives and title bonuses.
As for everyone else, she can pretty much let them do whatever they want during the raid. They didn¡¯t need to be directed since there wasn¡¯t anything they needed to keep in mind. At least that¡¯s what it seems so far. They just needed to kill everything in sight.
Once she finished reading the document, Shiro handed the tablet back to Nan Tian.
"Anything that I need to adjust?" Nan Tian asked but Shiro shook her head.
"Nah everything seems pretty much sorted. I¡¯ll be training Syradil and Revel for the next few days. We should have enough time for them to reach the stage of being able to use their powers confidently. The only problem I¡¯m worried about is Rokarn¡¯s army. They¡¯ve already started invading so while we¡¯re training, they could be destroying the rest of the world. Of course, my satellites can pick them up but if I¡¯m being honest, I¡¯d rather try to deal with all of them before they attack." Shiro admitted as Nan Tian nodded.
"If you want, I can try to monitor them from themand centre. I should be able to get some footage of the entire Earth using your satellites." Nan Tian suggested.
Just as Shiro was about to nod, she paused and furrowed her brows.
"Hmm... no need. It seems like they¡¯reing to us instead." Shiro said as her face was cold.
Disappearing from her spot, she appeared above Asharia. Standing just outside the barrier protecting her city, she could see tier 7 magic circles appear as portals surrounded the area.
Slowly, she could see monsters crawling out of the portals. A few of them matched the description that Syradil had provided earlier. However, there were a few that felt stronger to Shiro.
¡¯They¡¯re probably the berserker units.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
One by one, they all looked towards her as Shiro snapped her finger.
"I apologise but Asharia is full right now. Feel free toe back another day or face the consequences." Shiro shouted out as another barrier appeared over the first barrier.
Seeing that none of them replied and continued to walk towards her, Shiro sighed.
"Well that¡¯s no fun. Death it is then." She said while waving her hand.
Suddenly. Thousands upon thousands of turrets appeared all around Asharia as they locked onto the closest targets.
Without hesitation, Shiromanded all of them to fire as a wave of bullets shot out, shredding apart the Suiciders that served as their front line.
Seeing the bodies swell up and bulge, Shiro mmed her hand down, causing a third barrier to appear and expand outwards.
Once the barrier came into contact with the Suiciders that were about to explode they suddenly deted. Neon blue energy could be seen pulsing through the hexagonal markings of the barrier, towards the centre where Asharia was located before being funnelled into the turrets, empowering their next shot.
The third barrier that pulsed out was not to block the attack but to absorb. Since the Suiciders suck in energy so that they can explode, it was essentially a more vtile nanotech mana coil that she used in most of her weapons andrge constructs.
So if the theory was right, she could just redirect everything the way she wanted and they would actually be doing her a favour.
Seeing the confusion on their faces after the Suiciders didn¡¯t explode, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but chuckle before sending the second volley of bullets.
Before it could reach the next row of enemies, heavily armoured units jumped in front of them and managed to block the volley, scattering the bullets behind them.
"Hou..." Seeing that they managed to block, Shiro was rather impressed and snapped her fingers.
Upgrading the guns ever so slightly so that Shiro could test out how much they could defend against, she fired the third volley, then the fourth, fifth and so on.
It wasn¡¯t that the enemy didn¡¯t try to fight back, but all the attacks that they shot towards Shiro would be weakened then blocked. Weakened because they were in her Territory and blocked by her barriers.
Since they were fighting near Asharia, all of the units were weakened by roughly 50% overall.
With them not even being able to muster up 50% of theirbat power, it was only natural that Shiro could dominate them easily.
Of course, even if they were at full power Shiro wouldn¡¯t be too troubled. Automating the guns to slowly increase in strength if she couldn¡¯t kill the frontline.
Watching the army getting killed easily, Shiro didn¡¯t worry too much about their suicidal nature since all of them were basically golems that serve Rokarn.
Letting the guns fight, Shiro started to analyse the portal that brought them here.
Once she got close enough, she reached out towards it but the portal disappeared.
Shutting off immediately, Shiro could see that some of the units were cut in half since they weren¡¯t able to escape in time.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wasn¡¯t able to track it back to an origin point since there was something blocking it.
Looking around her, she could see that all of the portals were closing one after the other, as though whoever made these portals didn¡¯t want Shiro to study them.
¡¯Do you think they made it so that it¡¯s hard for you to track it back to them? While Rokarn may control the units, someone else might control the teleport portals and other misceneous jobs.¡¯ Nimue asked as Shiro shrugged.
¡¯Not sure, but I think I should clear this battlefield. With them being weakened, I have a rough idea on how each unit can be killed along with how resilient they are without being in my domain. Anyways, let¡¯s go with the satellites so that I can deal with them all quickly.¡¯ Shiro replied while pping her hand once.
Adjusting the focusing lens of the satellites, Shiro did a quick simtion of the effects before activating the satellites.
Suddenly, hundreds of blinking lights appeared in the sky as the monsters that noticed it quickly notified the others but it was toote.
In a split second, hundreds of pirs descended from the skies, decimating thend below and anything caught in between.
Once the light settled down, only craters and burntnd remained. There was not a single sign of the units that stood there previously.
With the small invasion now pushed back, Shiro wanted to see how much EXP she got in total for that but she didn¡¯t even get a single level, never mind multiple.
Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Shiro had to admit that the EXP gain was awful for these units and that literally anything else might be faster.
Shaking her head for now, she activated one of Asharia¡¯s escape abilities and opened a portalrge enough for Asharia to travel through.
Soon, no signs of this city ever being here could be seen and the area was repaired thanks to Shiro¡¯s magic.
###
Meanwhile, Rokarn was keeping an eye on what had just happened, didn¡¯t say a single word. He was silently contemting his options he had.
Chapter 1117 Accidental Meeting
Chapter 1117 idental Meeting
Seeing her power, he couldn¡¯t help but furrow his brows.
It was a little different than what he remembered. It was less destructive, a disappointment.
Remembering her power back then, Rokarn feel his heart beat in nervousness.
¡¯Can she even fulfil the promise now...¡¯ He thought to himself before closing his eyes.
Back then, he was just a low tier god of death. But after meeting her, heter became the Demi God of Chaos and Destruction.
###
Crashing against the ground, a young man rolled a few times before jumping back on his feet.
He wore a single metal gauntlet that protected his right arm, a tattered waist cloth, a pair pants and a pair of boots.
The man had no shirt on, revealing his muscles that are decorated with ck tattoo¡¯s. The tattoo¡¯s themselves mostly resembled mes that curled around his body without a start or end. Strangely enough, this tattoo would always seem different to the eyes.
Scratching his ck hair, the young man looked around him and furrowed his brows in confusion.
"Where am I now... I thought the portal should have taken me to the closest temple of worship." He muttered while stretching his body.
Dusting the dirt away, he started to explore this ce so that he could guess where he was.
The ce that he had arrived in was akin to a private garden. Exotic nts, herbs and carefully cultivated fruit tree¡¯s could be spotted as white marbled archways decorated the path.
Sending his senses out, he noticed that it was blocked by a small barrier of sorts. Just as he was about to break past this barrier, he felt the core of a fruit hit him on the head.
Furrowing his brows, he looked towards the direction of where the core came from and paused in surprise.
Sitting on top of a white archway was a white haired woman who had a charming smile on her face. Her ruby eyes stared at him while she ced a finger over her lips.
"Don¡¯t break that barrier now. If you do, you¡¯ll alert them." The young woman warned with a small chuckle. She wore a white dress with gold markings and small jewellery¡¯s such as bracelets and nes.
Jumping down from the archway, she snapped her finger and activated a small spell.
Slowly, a vine appeared on the closest tree and brought two fruits to her.
"I don¡¯t know how you got here but there aren¡¯t many who can sneak into this garden without notice. Considering your aura had your strength, you must have gotten here by coincidence. Little Demi God, take this fruit as a reward and go back to where youe from." She smiled while throwing a fruit towards the young man.
Catching it, he raised an eyebrow before looking at the fruit.
Taking a bite, he could feel divine energy flow through his body and enhance his physique to the next level.
Blinking his eyes in surprise, he looked back at the woman who was now walking away.
"Hey wait! Who are you!?" He called out while chasing after her.
"It¡¯s not important. It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll be seeing you again. Ah also, don¡¯t be greedy for the other fruits. If you try to pick them without the right technique you¡¯ll be fried." The womanughed while shuddering at thest thought, indicating that she had failed before.
"Now then, let me track your divinity back to the right ce." She smiled. Waving her finger, a tether appeared from his chest and started to thread through the realms. Suddenly, he felt a tug and knew that he was about to be dragged away.
"Can you at least tell me your name?" He asked as the woman contemted for a moment.
"Sure, if you tell me yours." She smiled.
"Rokarn, Demi God of Death. Now what about you?"
"Pft, I never said I¡¯ll follow through with that promise. Goodbye little Demi God." The womanughed as she waved her fingers.
*BANG!!!
Feeling the tether drag him away, Rokarn couldn¡¯t do anything as he was forced out of the garden.
By the time he realised where he was, the garden was no longer in sight nor was that woman.
Sitting on his throne, Rokarn looked down at the fruit in his hand and was silent.
Finishing the fruit, he could clearly feel his body be stronger than ever. His divinity over death was increased to the next level and now he was on par with most gods who also have a divinity level of 2.
Wondering about what kind of garden that was, he couldn¡¯t help but lick his lips in greed. If he could get another fruit, he might gain strength equal to the primordials.
For the next few years, he continuously tried to enter that garden again using the energy of the fruit as a guide. However, no matter what he did, that connection never formed. He even started to neglect his duties as a Demi God of Death much to his sisters anger but he didn¡¯t care. There were more important matters at hand. Plus, it wasn¡¯t as though he¡¯s the only Demi God of Death. Others can fill for him.
cing down his research on the table, he decided to step out for a bit. After so many years of no progress, there wasn¡¯t much else for him to do.
Grabbing a ck jacket for himself, Rokarn stepped out of his temple and nced at the hellscape of his domain.
Remembering the garden, he had the urge to redecorate this ce but that was an impossibility. Life will wither and die in his domain.
Shaking his head, he opened a portal to the divine realms. This is where most of the gods would gather and discuss matters with the mortal world. Right now, the new age will be happening soon so the gods are trying to make alliances with one another so that they could have a better chance at keeping their position once the new age is over. Of course, if they could get a promotion then that¡¯s more than wee.
Pulling up his hood, his figure seemed to blend in with the environment as no one noticed him.
The divine realms was a neutral zone where most gods are not able to use their abilities against one another unless both sides consented to it. It was a rule put in ce by the system and so far, none of the gods have been able to break that.
Looking around, he could see the chosen ones of each god running a small store of sorts, selling resources that might be beneficial to other gods.
Ignoring this, he continued to walk around so that he could find some research on portals and realm travel.
But more than that, he wanted to get some information. If his memory serves him right, there should be an information broker not far from his location. The broker was a god who excelled in information gathering but had little to nobat power.
###
Feeling someone approach his room, Rokarn stopped thinking about the past and opened his eyes.
Waving his hand, the door to his throne room opened as one of hismanders could be seen kneeling respectfully.
"Master, the army is ready, are we not going to invade yet?" He asked as Rokarn narrowed his eyes.
"No, we will invade at the promised time. Quell the army, if they are anxious they may go ahead of time but anyone who does can forget abouting back." Rokarn said as themander nodded his head before leaving.
Shutting the door, Rokarn teleported out of his throne room and looked towards Earth.
Seeing the countless satellites that surrounded the, he couldn¡¯t help but wonder about what had happened for her divinity to be so weak.
It was now nothing but a shadow of its former self and he wasn¡¯t sure if she could even fulfil their promise anymore.
If she couldn¡¯t, then he can only continue to drift along the passage of time, chained by the system and hailed as the World Ender and bringer of Chaos.
Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out a set of Armour that has been shattered to pieces. This was the result of what the God yer had done with a single attack. One move shattered the defences of a Rainbow + grade armour that was described as indestructible by the system.
She had bypassed the threshold and shattered this armour to pieces.
Remembering the power she held in his memories, Rokarn felt anger boil up in his heart as he knew Aria probably did something to her.
This was not the person that he knew.
###
After Syradil and Revel woke up, Shiro created a training room for the both of them. It was the same one that she had made for Glen but this time the energy consumption was much higher than expected since it was trying to contain two beings that were near the peak of tier 6.
However, after researching the crystals, Shiro was now able to link these rooms with her anchor so that it didn¡¯t require her to fuel everything by herself.
Creating an avatar to help Revel while she helped Syradil, Shiro proceeded to train the both of them at the same time while Nan Tian helped with the others in preparation for the raid.
Chapter 1118 Aria, Aekari and Shiro
Chapter 1118 Aria, Aekari and Shiro
"Mum, when can I get a new body?" A faint silhouette asked as Aria nced towards her.
"Soon, your father is still looking for a suitable body for you. You know your soul is unique. If you don¡¯t find one that¡¯s suitable then you¡¯ll destroy that body in seconds." Aria exined as the girl pouted and threw herself on the bed.
"Arg!!! If only she didn¡¯t change the course of history. Why was she even allowed to do that! I had found the perfect body in that dungeon!" Sheined as Aria walked over and patted her head.
"Well if you could find it in the dungeon then so can everyone else. Not a lot of people would think to interfere with you like this. Plus, she has special system privileges that allow her to counter your actions should you try to interfere with it." Aria exined.
"But she¡¯s only a lowly tier 2 at the time!"
"Not always, she was stronger in the past." Aria shook her head.
"Then can we kill her and take my body back?"
"No, you cannot kill her. Well... it¡¯s more like you¡¯re not allowed to kill her. Why do you think me and your father has been keeping her weak all this time." Aria reminded as the girl sat up.
"Can you at least tell me why we can¡¯t kill her? With your power, you should be able to kill her without too much trouble."
"I can, but it¡¯s important that she stays alive. It doesn¡¯t matter how powerful she is, as long as she is alive. As for telling you why it¡¯s important for her to stay alive, it¡¯s not the time yet. Just know that what I¡¯m doing is for the good of the world." Aria reassured before standing up and leaving the room.
Making her way to Aekari¡¯s room, she opened it and saw him trying to supress the wound while preparing for their next moves.
"Do you need help?" Aria asked but Aekari shook his head.
"No it¡¯s fine, the pain should fade after a bit. Whatever it was that hurt me seems to be trying to consume me again. It¡¯s getting stronger." Aekari frowned while putting on his shirt.
"Alright, anyways I wanted to tell you that the Demi God Rokarn seems to be making his move now. The invasion into the Garden will start soon once the barriers have weakened enough. Should we take this chance to grab Lisandra so that our daughter can get her body back?" Aria asked as Aekari thought about it for a moment.
"Perhaps. But it depends on the restrictions the system has in ce. You know that it¡¯s changing all the time, the stronger she bes, the harder it is to interfere." Aekari sighed as Aria nodded her head.
¡¯I didn¡¯t think she woulde into contact with Rokarn again. He knows I¡¯ve done something. If it wasn¡¯t for the system, he might try and help her. Hm... to get to Earth, we¡¯ll need to weaken the restrictions, which means Rokarn gets some degree of freedom. Things could go south if that happens. We might have to give up on getting Lisandra¡¯s body for now.¡¯ Aria thought to herself before opening her mouth.
"If we weaken the system¡¯s restrictions and open a path to Earth, there¡¯s a chance that she¡¯ll summon the primordial gods to help her. You¡¯ve seen how much of a problem they causedst time when she was injured by the Watchman. I¡¯m afraid that if we were to go, it wouldn¡¯t be favourable to us. Plus, she¡¯s in a god which means the thing that harmed you can consume our core." Aria said as Aekari clenched his fist.
"How long do you think our daughter canst without her body? Her soul is slowly weakening without a body and we only found one that waspatible out of billions." Aekari asked as Aria sighed.
"We can try again once the second half of the new age arrives."
Talking to Aria some more, Aekari watched as she left the room.
Looking at himself in the mirror, he sighed wearily.
He was tired. His hatred for Nytri burned bright but it was starting to dim. His world had already been destroyed after he killed Nytri the first time. He had tried everything he could to turn back time and save everyone but it was useless.
He no longer had a reason to hate her as he caused the very thing he feared. The destruction of his world.
However, he had a new goal. His daughter, as long as he can find a suitable body for her, he was ok with giving up his hatred. But knowing Nytri, she would never let Lisandra give up her body.
¡¯Asking her for Lisandra¡¯s body is off the table. Perhaps she can make a body suitable for Eris with her nanobots...¡¯ Aekari thought to himself but the chances were low. After all, she hated him. She hated him for killing her, betraying her trust and doing everything in his power to make sure she doesn¡¯te back stronger than ever. He was even involved in stopping the primordials from killing the Watchman.
At this point, the chances of him receiving help from her was practically zero. But he will give it a try the next time he sees her, if Eris can live then he¡¯ll be happy. But if she refuses to help Eris then he will have to fight her as usual. Try to kill her then take Lisandra¡¯s body for Eris.
Even if he no longer has a reason to fight her on a personal level, the fact that she was about to be the Destroyer was worrisome.
###
After leaving the room, Aria had a cold expression. She could clearly tell that Aekari was starting to lose his edge now that Eris was reaching her limit. Unlike her, he couldn¡¯t give up on Eris.
¡¯I need to give him another push.¡¯ She thought to herself while making her way back.
Suddenly, she felt pain on her chest as it forced her to kneel down.
Gritting her teeth, metal started to pierce her skin and eat away at her flesh.
Activating a tier 8 magic circle, she healed the wound and stood back up.
She understood that her recent use of tier 9 magic might have stimted the dormant power, causing it to go berserk at times. Thankfully, the effects were small for now.
¡¯I need to try and reset her strength soon... If she bes stronger, this will be problematic.¡¯ Aria narrowed her eyes.
###
"How do the barriers look right now?" Syradil asked as they were currently having a break.
"It¡¯s intact. The one of the moon is slowly corroding away as you can see. My estimate right now is that it¡¯ll be gone by the end of the week." Shiro replied while projecting a hologram of the moon.
"Hmm... Knowing Rokarn¡¯s strength and the strength of his army, they should be able to break this apart. Why are they waiting?" Syradil asked as this was strange. In the previous Gardens, Rokarn would invade the moment he could rather than giving this much time for them to train.
"Who knows. But apparently he knew me before so that might be why. Perhaps he¡¯s waiting for something to happen before the promised time." Shiro guessed as Syradil nodded her head.
"Maybe."
"Well regardless, are you ready?" Shiro asked as she snapped her fingers. Suddenly, several staves appeared around her as Syadil shivered.
Rather than using swords, they were now literally beating the Divine Energy into her.
Resuming her training with Syradil, Shiro¡¯s mind would asionally wander to Rokarn and what he had told her.
The fact that Aria¡¯s deepest fear was her and that Rokarn knew who she was before.
¡¯Did Aria corrupt Aekari so that she could stop me? I¡¯m apparently her biggest fear so it would make sense for her to do that.¡¯
In the end, it didn¡¯t matter if they knew her or not. She had a clear goal. Stop the destruction of Earth by killing Rokarn and kill both Aekari and Aria for what they¡¯ve done to her.
Even if Aekari was corrupted by Aria, it didn¡¯t wipe out the crimes that hemitted.
¡¯My future self told me that I would kill Aekari which was reassuring. But, she never said anything about Aria.¡¯
{Do you think it was because the system was no longer around? Error¡¯s been arge part of why you could kill a God since it targets their core. Sure you have other ways of reaching that but so far, Error has been the most effective.} Nimue asked as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯Perhaps. Error was something given by the system. Until I can simte his properties using my own power, it¡¯ll be hard for me to kill a god once the system disappears. To be fair, I still don¡¯t know how I did that. After all, it¡¯s not like I can conjure up a terminal that shuts down the system.¡¯
{Who knows. There¡¯s no doubt a source of the system, it¡¯s just a matter of finding it. Plus, you have Hermes¡¯ Blessing don¡¯t you? As long as you have a clear understanding of the location, you can teleport to it.} Nimue reminded.
¡¯True.¡¯
Thinking about this, Shiro made a note in her mind. She had to keep the system around until she killed Aria so that her main threat would be gone.
Chapter 1119 Shiros Back Up Plan
Chapter 1119 Shiro''s Back Up n
While everyone was training, Shiro was standing in a space station that she had created using the satellites.
Observing the moon, she could see the growing army through the holes of the barrier.
Most of them didn¡¯t pose a threat to her but with these numbers, even she had to admit that it¡¯ll be hard to fight Rokarn in these conditions.
¡¯The best case scenario would be to fight Rokarn without any interference from the army. At least that way, we can focus on killing him.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
{Well there¡¯s killing him and him killing us. I¡¯ll be honest, I¡¯m still not sure if anyone below level 800 should join this raid. From what we¡¯ve seen, Rokarn is a fighter. His attack is going to be much higher than what they can handle. If he could push back primordials, think about what he can do to people who aren¡¯t even tier 7?} Nimue warned as Shiro nodded her head.
¡¯I know, I¡¯ve taken that into ount. Why do you think I¡¯ve been developing this?¡¯ Shiro smiled while gesturing towards a crystal that was hovering in the centre of the space station. It was something she had been developing as a back up just in case the fight was much harder than what she had expected.
To her, the most powerful skill in her arsenal was not all of the offensive boosts, it was not therge scale spells nor was it the control over soul. Instead, it was Grace. The spell that allows her to keep everyone alive, give them boosts to defence and reduce the damage they take.
They were a heavily offensive team so now they just needed some defence and support. Without Madison being here, Syradil and Revel can act as tanks but they were still primarily offensive fighters.
For support, there was only Silvia.
But by having Grace, she is able to help out both roles and bnce things out a little.
As for the crystal in the middle of the room, it was hertest research. A hybrid of her Anchor, Skill Chips and the strange crystal from the north. Since her Anchor was closely tied to her, she figured that she was able to apply some of her skills to the Anchor. However, the skills that werepatible was limited in number.
Offensive skills thatunch an attack or defend won¡¯t activate. But buffs and healing skills like Grace will since it¡¯s akin to using an item. When paired with the strange crystal from the north that could amplify the effects and store arge amount of mana, the final product was a giant crystal that can activate Grace more than 20 times. The number was slowly building up as Shiro is figuring out it¡¯s maximum ¡¯capacity¡¯ but for now, it was roughly 20.
Smaller crystals would only have one or two charges but this was a step in the right direction. After some more research, she¡¯ll be able to manufacture some items that contain a charge of Grace to ensure that dungeons be safer for her citizens.
Looking at the half anchor in front of her, Shiro had to admit that right now, the cost of production was a little too high. Once she reduced that, it¡¯ll be more efficient.
She had amand running through the nanobots that control this anchor, it¡¯ll automatically expend a charge of Grace once one of the party members was low on health.
However, she is also able to activate it whenever she wanted. After all, sometimes she needed the defence boost given by Grace if the target is at full health.
With her father and Nan Tian¡¯s adoptive father being their vanguard along with Silvia and revel, she had to make sure she did everything in her power to keep them alive.
¡¯Where are you two... Normally I¡¯d want to do a raid like this with you lot. The rewards will be good.¡¯ Shiro thought with a small smile as she thought back to Madison and Lyrica.
It¡¯s been quite a while since she hadst saw them and she can only hope that the two of them was doing fine.
{I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be fine. They¡¯re just as tenacious as you are after all.} Nimue chuckled as Shiro smiled.
"True. I trust that they¡¯lle back safe and sound."
###
*BANG!!!!!
mming against the floor of the Demon Realm, Madison closed her eyes and mmed her hand down.
The blood red markings appeared on her body as a tier 6 magic circle expanded out with her in the centre.
"Blood Ritual." Madison spoke slowly as a greatsword appeared in front of her.
Stomping down, the ground cracked apart as she disappeared from her spot.
Appearing next to a shadowed figure who had ck armour covering his entire body, she mmed the greatsword into the side of his body.
Adjusting her grip, she used the force of the rebound to swing her sword a second time.
*BOOM!!!!!
Seeing that he managed to parry her sword, she let go and kicked him in the head.
Stumbling back, the figure held her greatsword and traced his finger along the de.
Empowering the sword with his own magic, he was about to attack when Madison snapped her finger and detonated it in his face.
However, it was just a smokescreen.
Dashing through the smoke, Madison managed to grab the figure by the jaw as she knew she won. After fighting for hours, she finally got him to let his guard down.
*BANG!!!
mming him against the ground, she grabbed his leg with her spare hand and stomped down with her foot.
*CRACK!!!
Feeling her foot sink into his chest, she pulled as hard as she could.
The red runes on her body started to glow as a menacing aura erupted from her body.
"RAHHH!!!!"
Shouting out as loud as she could, the flesh in her hands suddenly lost resistance.
*KRKKKKK!!!
Ripping the leg and head off of the body, blood sprayed into the sky as Madison tossed away the body parts.
As she was being bathed in the blood of a demon god, the runes on her body pulsed in sync with her heartbeat.
Panting heavily, she was barely able to stand but her trial wasn¡¯t over.
There were still 5 more Demon Gods that she had to ¡¯kill¡¯ and they were much stronger than the Demon Gods she faced earlier.
Copsing on the ground, she took this time to get as much rest as she could.
While resting in the pool of blood, she ignored the fact that this blood was actually melting the rock beneath her.
At this point, her physique had been tempered to a point that this was nothing but a warm bath to her.
It was also this physique that allowed her to fight for hours and still maintain her concentration.
Watching Madison attempt her trial from a distance, Makron had a worried look on his face.
Madison has done well so far but thest five was going to be hard. As her ancestor, he wanted her to stop now since the risks was high. But as someone who¡¯s been watching her grow thest few months, he knew her will was unbreakable.
She had already shown him that she was worthy to be a Demonic Empress.
¡¯Grampa might be breaking the rules but you were going to get this sooner orter.¡¯ Makron thought with a small smile as he closed his eyes.
Gold and ck energy started to converge towards his hand as a system warning appeared in front of him.
[In order to transfer part of your Divinity to entity ¨C Madison ¨C, you will suffer a bacsh and will not be able to regain or cultivate your divinity for a minimum of 2 years. As she is currently in a trial, this bacsh will be increased. Are you sure you want to proceed?]
Tapping yes, Makron immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood as his insides felt like they were burning inva. However, it was worth it in his eyes.
He was already old.
The new generation will rise and the old will fade, Madison was going to be at the forefront of the revolution. To guarantee her survival, parting with a part of his divinity was a small price to pay.
Forcing himself to stand up, he watched as the gold and ck energy condensed into an orb in his hand.
Curling his lips into a smile, he walked towards Madison. Before he could give her the orb, he noticed a figure teleporting behind him.
"I¡¯m surprised that you actually got off your throne." Makron smiled.
"I saw your life force flicker. Makron, are you really going through with this?"
ncing back, he could see a frown on his friend¡¯s face.
"I¡¯m sure, plus, I see her as my own grand daughter. You know I regret not being able to do much when I watched my descendants die one by one. Now that a promising sapling¡¯s appeared before me, why wouldn¡¯t I want to help her grow? I just hope that the avatar you left behind will show her some mercy. You are the rank 1 Demon God after all." Makron chuckled before cing the orb on top of Madison¡¯s fatigued body.
Chapter 1120 Rokarn and Aria
Chapter 1120 Rokarn and Aria
Sitting in his throne, Rokarn opened his eyes and frowned when he saw lights converge in front of him.
Raising up his hand, a great sword appeared in his grasp.
*BANG!!!!!
Throwing it towards the light, the sword was blocked by a barrier.
"Aria." Rokarn growled in displeasure.
"Rokarn. It¡¯s been a while since Ist saw you." Aria smiled.
"Though I must say, it must feel pretty terrible to have your freedom stripped from your grasp. You are reduced to nothing but a tool for the system."
"Silence. Last time I saw you, you were nothing but a quivering mess that hid behind the God yer. Cowering at every sign of danger. If not for her benevolence towards you, you would be nothing." Rokarn replied while standing up.
"Times changed Rokarn. You lost your freedom, I¡¯ve be stronger, and the God yer lost her glory." Aria shrugged.
"Yes, and I know that you must have done something to her. Why else would the God yer be reduced to this?!" Rokarn shouted while standing in front of her.
His figure towered over Aria as she could clearly feel his hostility and rage.
"Now now, you should sit down and listen." Aria replied as she lost her smile.
mming her palm into his chest, a tier 9 magic circle expanded andunched him away from her.
*BANG!!!
mming against the wall, Rokarn widened his eyes as his aura exploded.
"You took it didn¡¯t you." Rokarn said as his voice was eerily calm.
"I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about. If anything, that should be my question to you. O¡¯ Demi God of ¡¯Chaos¡¯ and Destruction. What happened to the lowly Demi God of Death that I knew?"
Just as she finished her sentence, she realised that Rokarn had disappeared.
Appearing beside her, a tier 8 magic circle manifested on his fist.
If it was just a normal tier 8 magic circle, she wouldn¡¯t be too worried. However, a ninthyer was being formed.
ck lightning flickered from his fist as she widened her eyes and activated a barrier with her own tier 9 magic circle.
*CLING!!!!!
Before his fist could reach her, golden chains erupted from the void,tching onto his body and forcing him into submission. His magic was shattered apart and a golden cor appeared around his neck.
Forcing him against the ground, he could only re at Aria hatefully.
"My my, not even you can ovee this huh?" Aria chuckled as she dismissed her barrier.
"But setting that aside, with you being chained up, I¡¯ll get to the main business. I cannot let you kill her. If you do, everything will end. Instead, I¡¯d much rather you weaken her."
Narrowing her eyes, she drew a tier 9 magic circle in the air before carving it into Rokarn¡¯s back.
Gritting his teeth, Rokarn refused to let a single cry out as he continued to re at her hatefully. The chains of the system dug into his flesh, stopping him from doing anything harmful to her.
Once the magic circle had finished carving itself onto Rokarn¡¯s back, Aria stood up and prepared to leave. As her body was disappearing, she nced back at him and smiled.
"I¡¯ll be watching. I hope I don¡¯t need to interfere, but we shall see."
Just as she disappeared, the golden chains that bound him shattered apart. Standing back up, Rokarn tilted his head back and let out a malevolent cry that shook the castle.
Taking deep breaths, he calmed his rage.
¡¯Is that why you gave me this power God yer. So that you can reim it once more in the event that you were weakened by her. Did you know about her dark desires all along? Hidden behind that smile, was a woman who would one day cause you to lose everything.¡¯ Rokarn thought to himself as he closed his eyes.
He could still remember the day when he finally met the God yer again. This time, she wasn¡¯t alone. A young goddess with blond hair hid shyly behind her. Her eyes of curiosity and na?ve smile.
To think that she would grow up into the woman she was now.
Shaking his head, Rokarn nced towards Earth.
He has tried to dy it as much as possible so that the God yer could prepare herself but time was running out. He will soon be forced to make a move and he had no power to stop it.
¡¯Aria, I didn¡¯t n on killing her to begin with.¡¯ He thought to himself as he walked out the room.
As long as she is strong enough, everything will work out.
###
*Yawn~
Feeling a hand shake her, Silvia rubbed her eyes and woke up.
ncing towards Chen Yu who was getting changed, she sat up.
"Did something happen?" She asked as Chen Yu nodded his head.
"Mn, Shiro is calling everyone to themand centre. Things are reaching a boiling point."
"Wait already? I thought we had half a week left." Silvia widened her eyes and quickly jumped out of bed.
"Not quite. I also thought we had a half a week left but the barrier holding them back on the moon has almost disappeared. It¡¯s rate of decay has sped up and people are noticing the moon slowly turning red." Shiro informed as she was leaning by the door.
"The f*ck!?" Silvia cried out as she didn¡¯t expect this.
"Sorry for the intrusion, I normally don¡¯t do this but I¡¯m teleporting you to the room. Get changed quickly. Also, this entire city is made from nanobots, do you really think I would have no idea if someone was to have a crazy night? I just ignore it most of the time." Shiro shrugged as Silvia blushed heavily beforeing into a realisation.
"Wait a minute."
"What?" Shiro tilted her head.
"What do you mean by most of the time?" Silvia asked as Shiro choked on her saliva.
"There are times where I would idently ¡¯see¡¯ someone having a battle in bed. I¡¯m scanning the whole city so it¡¯s only natural that some slip past." Shiro replied as Silvia continued to stare at her.
"Well setting that aside, stop parading in your underwear and get changed." Shiro said while gesturing towards her.
"I¡¯ll wait outside. Come out as soon as you get changed."
Watching Shiro leave the room, Silvia turned to Chen Yu.
"Do You think Shiro is a voyeur?" Silvia asked but before Chen Yu could reply, a note appeared in the air.
Reading it, Silvia coughed.
[Who knows, considering the fact that I can view this entire city at all times, I suppose I am. But I wonder who¡¯s the crazier one between a voyeur and whatever you werest night. ~ ?]
This is then followed up by an image of a smug Shiro with a knowing look in her eyes.
Crumpling the paper and immediately destroying it, Silvia quickly got changed with a blush in her face.
Thinking about it for a moment, Silvia whispered something into Chen Yu¡¯s ears as he widened his eyes and coughed.
###
Teleporting everyone to themand centre, Shiro disyed a hologram of the moon.
"As you can see from the projection, the barrier is barely holding together. From the gaps, you can see the army preparing themselves for an invasion. We¡¯ll be preparing to meet them in space to reduce the chances of coteral damage. I¡¯ll be supplying everyone with a mask that¡¯ll allow them to breathe in space. It¡¯s been tested rigorously and will hold together even if Revel was to punch it with all his strength. I¡¯ve set up space stations for us to prepare in as well as turrets that should be able to hold back the fodder for quite a while." Shiro exined while showing them their fortress in space.
"I¡¯ll send each of you a document briefing on your jobs and priorities but just know that you will need to fight a Demi God that forced back primordials at the end of this. There is no doubt that he¡¯ll have generals to fight under him so try to save your best spells for when we need to kill him. Dad and Li Jian will be our vanguard, followed by Revel and Syradil. Dad and Li Jian are at the front so that their skills can give us a boost. Silvia, I want you to keep an eye on them so that when they fall back, you can give them some protection while healing Syradil and Revel. They¡¯ll be our main tanks for this raid."
Nodding her head, Silvia activated a spell that marked both Li Jian and Koji.
"This mark will help me spot you in the crowd since I¡¯ll be honest, it¡¯ll be hard to find you if you¡¯re surrounded." Silvia exined as both of them nodded their heads.
"Good. There isn¡¯t much else to talk about since our information is limited. For now, just keep your guard up and adapt to the situation ordingly. I have a crystal that stores 20 charges of Grace so we have 20 extra lives outside of what Silvia can provide if things go south. I want everyone to make their final preparations and meet me back here in 20 minutes. I¡¯ll teleport us to the space station." Shiro ordered before sending everyone back.
Looking up at the moon that was now slowly revealing its red glow, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but worry. Earlier, she sensed an outburst of malevolent energy, it was faint but it caused shivers down her spine.
Chapter 1121 Impenetrable Defence
Chapter 1121 Imprable Defence
After giving everyone 20 minutes to prepare, Shiro made her way over to the control room with Nan Tian following behind her.
"Are you going to be sending this ce to the Rift now?" Nan Tian asked as she had spoken to him about that when they were resting.
"Mn. I don¡¯t know how much damage Rokarn will cause during the fight. With Yin and Estre¡¯s help, I¡¯ll be able to send the entirety of Asharia to the Rift where it¡¯ll be safe. Yin has already done her part so now it¡¯s up to me and Estre. I¡¯ll be honest, we haven¡¯t evene close to transporting something as big as this into the Rift but first time for everything. Though there might be some shaking as though we¡¯re having an Earthquake." Shiro shrugged while opening the doors to themand room.
Clearing her throat, she grabbed a mic and linked herself to the public announcement system.
"Ahem this is Shiro speaking. We will shortly be experiencing some heavy shaking so I advise everyone to stop what you are doing and look around you. You will notice an emergency seat being constructed nearby that will secure you in ce to avoid any injuries. If there are not enough seats, press the red tab on the arm rest and another will be created. The shaking willst for roughly 5 minutes." Finishing her sentence, Shiro put down the mic and cut off the connection.
"Everyone in the control room can stay where you are, I¡¯ll adjust your seats." Shiro called out as the people working in the room nodded their heads and resumed what they were doing.
"Nan Tian, I want you to keep an eye on the city status while I teleport this ce with Estre. It¡¯ll be hard for me to shift my attention elsewhere so if there is a part that¡¯s going into the red, tell me and I¡¯ll fix it."
"Mn, got it." Nan Tian nodded while sitting down in front of the control terminal.
Opening a portal, Shiro teleported to the top of the tower.
"Estre, it¡¯s time."
Materialising next to her, Estre nodded her head while preparing a tier 6 magic circle.
With Estre beginning her preparations, Shiro conjured up several holographic panels along with a tier 7 magic circle that started to expand over the whole of Asharia.
The anchor that was stationed within her tower started to shine as golden runes appeared around the city.
sping her hands together, a portal started to open in front of Asharia. Sweat dripped down Estre¡¯s face as keeping a portal of this size open was not easy. The bigger it became, the more mana it consumed.
However, that burden soon disappeared as Shiro started to transfer her mana to Estre.
Looking at the size of the portal, Shiro knew that it was not big enough yet.
"Focus your mind Estre, don¡¯t worry about mana usage. I have that covered. Just make it a little bigger and I¡¯ll take it from there."
Hearing this, Estre nodded her head.
Once the portal was big enough, Shiro activated her tier 7 magic circle and hijacked the portal. With the burden now off her shoulders, Estre looked towards Shiro who waspletelyposed.
Countless pirs crafted from hundreds of tier 6 magic circles held the portal in ce as Shiro started to control the city.
Making it fly through the portal, it felt as though an Earthquake was happening.
Securing herself to the roof, Shiro continued to push the city through. Her mana drained at a visible pace and not even her regen could keep up.
Drinking mana potions one after the other, it took 8 potions before she could finally squeeze Asharia into the rift.
Immediately stopping the portal, Shiro sat down and panted heavily.
Conjuring up a mic, she linked herself to the public announcement system once more.
"This is Shiro speaking. I apologise for how long that took. The shaking is now over and you may resume what you were doing. Thank you for your cooperation."
Dismissing the mic, Shiro massaged her neck.
Looking up at the ck and purple sky of the Rift, Shiro decided to add some extra protection just in case.
Setting it so that the city will automatically be sent out of the void and teleported to a safe location should it be the target of an attack, Shiro turned towards Estre.
"When we fight, are you able to seal off the area so that no one can teleport out? That way, we can reduce the chances of them wreaking havoc on Earth." Shiro asked as Estre thought about it for a moment.
"It depends. My expertise lies in sending them to my dimension. Unless I¡¯m dragging everyone into my realm, it¡¯ll be hard." Estre admitted as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Then what about me trapping them in my realm and you stopping them from leaving?" Shiro asked as Estre didn¡¯t have the capabilities of transporting that many people just yet.
"I¡¯m not sure." Estre sighed helplessly.
"Hm... well no matter. When I drag them into my Throne World they¡¯ll be more focused on surviving than trying to find a way out. If they¡¯re distracted, I¡¯ll end them." Shiro shrugged while standing up.
"Anyways, let¡¯s go. Everyone will be ready in a few moments." Shiro smiled as the two of them disappeared.
###
"Are you not worried about what¡¯s happening on Earth right now?" Hades asked as Gaia turned towards him.
"Of course I¡¯m worried. Shiro will be facing someone that could push back the primordials after all. However, I trust that she¡¯ll be able to hold her own. What we need to do right now is to take care of Zeus and the others." Gaia Shook her head as Hades agreed.
Meanwhile, sitting by the side, Mio had a worried expression on her face.
It¡¯s been a while since she¡¯s gone back to Earth. As much as she wanted to go back, she couldn¡¯t. After all, she was now a Demi God and had to wait until the second half of the new age. Unlike the gods and primordials, her body would not be able to handle the bacsh of descending to Earth.
[Mio LVL 1000 Demi God of Reapers (Divinity 1)]
"Don¡¯t worry too much. Your daughter is strong." Nyx smiled while sitting opposite her.
Seeing what Mio looked like, she had to admit that it was no wonder Shiro was beautiful.
"I know but a mother can¡¯t help but worry. I hope that when I go back, I can lighten her burden. Seeing her take everything by herself is stressful. I don¡¯t know when there will suddenly be a day where she just breaks down like before. No parent who cares for their child wants to see them like that. Not me nor my husband and especially not her friends." Mio smiled while thinking back to how hard Lyrica, Madison and the others worked in order to keep up with Shiro.
"True. If the need arises, I will manifest myself on Earth to give her a hand. Even if we lose this battle here, we need to keep Shiro alive after all." Nyx reassured with a smile.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Mio was about to say something when everyone stopped what they were doing.
Immediately standing up, they looked towards the sky.
*KISHHH!!!!
Lightning flickered through the clouds as a single figure appeared. His aura red out without reservation while looking down at the gods that had gathered.
[Zeus LVL 1000 God of Sky and Thunder (Divinity 2)]
"Zeus, you have quite the guts to face us." Nyx shouted out as the skies darkened.
"I¡¯ve won the war once before. I can win it again Nyx." Zeus said with narrowed his eyes.
mming his hands together, a tier 8 magic circle appeared around his arms as a giant lightning bolt crackled in his hand.
Pulling his arm back, heunched it towards the group.
"Let me deal with this." Mio narrowed her eyes.
Flicking from her spot, she appeared in the sky as ck and red energy wrapped around her sword.
A red glow appeared in her eyes as she activated a tier 7 magic circle.
Suddenly, her sword transformed into a giant scythe and cleaved the lightning bolt in half.
Clenching his fist, Zeus scattered the lightning bolt and fired them all at Mio.
Sword Skill ¨C Imprable Defence!
The upgraded version of her original sword skill that allowed her to block an attack as long as she could see and act against it.
Twirling the scythe in her hands, she cleaved apart the lightning bolt and transformed into a swirl of ck energy that dashed towards Zeus.
"I heard that you were quite insulting towards my daughter when you met on Mount Olympus." Mio narrowed her eyes as Zeus blocked her scythe with his arm guard.
"So what. A mere mortal dared to talk back to a god, I was quite lenient by just insulting her. I should have killed her there and then." Zeus scoffed.
However, just as he said this, all of the primordials appeared around him. Gaia¡¯s face was cold and so was Nyx¡¯s.
Twisting her body, Gaia mmed her fist against Zeus¡¯ body, sending him flying through the skies as the other gods belonging to his faction appeared and charged towards them.
In a single moment, all hell broke loose as tier 8 spells were thrown left and right.
Chapter 1122 Facing Rokarns Army
Chapter 1122 Facing Rokarn''s Army
With everyone now ready, Shiro opened a portal to the space station and transported everyone away from Asharia.
Looking out the window of the station, those that had never gone to space couldn¡¯t help but watch in awe.
Despite all the harm that had befallen the in thest few months, it was still a beautiful sight to behold.
"It¡¯s beautiful." Li Jian muttered as this was the ce that he¡¯s been trying to protect with his hidden sect.
"It is. And Rokarn seeks to destroy it. Let¡¯s stop that from happening." Shiro smiled as Li Jian nodded his head.
Waving her hand, masks appeared in front of everyone.
"These are the masks that will keep you alive out there. They each have their own charge of Grace but it¡¯s only one charge. It won¡¯t activate until all other charges of Grace have been used up, it also doubles as a tracker so that I can teleport you back should anything happen. Unlike Earth, if you get hit hard, you will drift into the dark beyond. If I don¡¯t have this tracker, I don¡¯t know if I can find you again so you must keep it on. If it breaks or fractures, you can insert some mana and it¡¯ll fix itself." Shiro exined while putting on a mask herself.
"The main station housing the 20 charges of Grace will be camouged so don¡¯t worry too much if you see one of the weapon stations being destroyed. They¡¯re mostly decoys. There isn¡¯t much else to say other than I hope that everyone will keep their guard up." Shiro smiled as they all nodded.
Putting on masks, Shiro led them to the airlock and closed the door.
"In space, just fly as usual. But you don¡¯t need as much mana to propel yourself. Too much and you¡¯ll go flying, just remember that. Try to adapt first before going full power."
Giving them onest reminder, Shiro opened the hatch just as the barrier surrounding the moon faded.
Seeing the countless portals that opened up, the party couldn¡¯t help but swallow their saliva nervously while Syradil could feel her blood pumping in excitement.
"God yer! I have given you enough time to prepare! Are you ready to face my army?!" Rokarn¡¯s voice boomed out as they could see a giant illusionary figure d in ck armour towering over all of them.
Without hesitation, Shiro released her own aura as golden lights wrapped around everyone.
"While I do wish I had more time Rokarn, this will be your burial ground. I¡¯ve in gods before and you too shall fall to my de!" Shiro shouted back.
Summoning Silvanis, golden runes appeared on the de as a red aura erupted from her body. Pulling back her arm, she shed towards the portal and destroyed tens of them in a single swing.
"Charge!" Shiro shouted out as both Li Jian and Koji dashed forward.
Tier 6 magic circles wrapped around their body as ck and gold armour materialised around them.
Summoning his sword, Koji looked towards the army that was spilling forth from the portals like ck mist. The sheer number dwarfed any war he was part of in his prime.
¡¯Darling, I¡¯ll look after our daughter in this fight. If they wish to y her, they¡¯ll have to do so after killing me.¡¯ Koji thought to himself as he took a deep breath.
"FACE ME YOU MONSTROSITIES!" A pulse of energy exploded out as all of them turned towards him.
Charging forth, energy condensed towards his sword.
Conjuring up his avatar, he swung his sword and cleaved a bloody path through the ranks before the de was stopped by a muscr monster that wielded two giant axes.
"Don¡¯t get too eager now! It¡¯ll be more work for the Silviass to keep us alive!" Li Jian shouted out as he dashed along Koji¡¯s de.
Materialising an avatar for himself, he carried a greatsword on his back while golden energy wrapped around his fist.
Punching out, an oriental dragon shot out and mmed into the body of the Berserker. Swallowing him, the dragon continued to ravage through the ranks before exploding in a shower of energy that burned anything it touched.
With the two of them leading the charge, Silvia was given more than enough time to finish her chant.
mming her staff down, hundreds upon hundreds of tier 6 magic circles appeared around her as the party was powered up by her buffs.
From the distance, the mages of Rokarn¡¯s armourunched spells towards her but before they could hit, Revel intercepted its course.
Blocking it with his wing, lightning surged through his body.
"FEAR ME! FOR I AM THE STORM LEVIATHAN! HEAR MY THUNDER AND QUIVER!" Revel roared as lightning shot out from his body.
*BANG!!!!!!
In a single instant, arge chunk of Rokarn¡¯s army was incinerated before the gap was refilled.
"B*tch please, when were serpents and dragons better than Phoenixes. You see dragons all the time but when do you see someone like me?" Yinughed as she flew high into the sky.
ck energy wrapped around her body as a set of wings unfurled themselves.
[The Lord of Gluttony reveals herself.]
Seeing the system notification, many within the ranks of Rokarn¡¯s army felt their hearts stop as there were few who would warrant a notification such as this. Seeing the giant form of the phoenix reveal herself, they could not react before darkness swallowed them.
*KI!!!!!!
Letting out a cry, shadows swallowed monster after monster, turning them into streams of energy that surged towards Yin who¡¯s aura grew with each kill.
Behind her, Lisandra appeared with her wings unfurled and two golden swords in her hand.
"Normally I would tell you to eat less big sis but this is a banquet!" Lisandraughed as her lips curled up into a smile.
Transforming into an orb of light, her figure erged. Giant angelic wings unfurled behind her as some were ck but it created a strange bnce. Yin and Yang, darkness and light.
One of Lisandra¡¯s swords was ck like the void while the other was radiant like the sun.
Combining both into a greatsword, she cleaved through the army like a butcher. Whenever one of the units was about to explode, a needle would suddenly appear in their ce, halting their self destruction.
With everyone revealing their shy moves, Shiro controlled the battlefield and allowed no harm to reach her allies.
Her eyes darted from ce to ce, analysing and reacting to every little thing that happened.
Besides her, Misu had her eyes closed. Tier 6 magic circles stacked on top of one another as howling souls swirled around her.
Usually, she would avoid having to go such lengths with her power. After all, she used to be a cleric. Summoning the undead was considered heresy.
However, ifmitting heresy means saving the peace that Shiro had brought to the millions of people that live in Asharia, she was ok with that.
mming her hand down, ck and green mist exploded out with her in the centre. Within this mist, the souls slowly faded away before being resurrected as Skeletons or powerful undead such as liches.
"Heed my word army of the dead, charge forth and bring an end to the living." Misumanded coldly as ck runes engraved themselves onto their bodies, wiping out their consciousness so that she could use their souls for the power they hold.
With an undead army now following behind them, the numbers were slowly bncing out.
Watching everything happen, Rokarn still had a frown on his face.
The God yer was not performing as he had expected.
When he sent the army, he had hoped to see a hail of holy fire that shredded everything to pieces. He so dearly hoped that he would see her former radiance but he was left disappointed.
"Show me your power God yer! Or else I will consume all in chaos!" Rokarn shouted out.
Summoning his greatsword, a tier 8 magic circle appeared above the battlefield as a magnified version of his de mmed down towards Yin.
*BANG!!!!!!
Crashing against a barrier that Shiro created, Yin took this time to get out of the way.
*PING!!
Shattering to pieces, the barrier didn¡¯t evenst a second as the de mmed into Misu¡¯s undead army, ying those that had died for a second time only for them to reconstruct themselves.
Meanwhile, cold sweat dripped down Shiro¡¯s face as Rokarn¡¯s attack had almost reached her through the mana she used to construct that de.
Had she kept it up for longer, a sword wound would no doubt appear on her chest.
"Silvia, give me and Syradil a buff, we¡¯re charging in." Shiro ordered as Silvia nodded her head.
Closing her eyes, she started to chant her strongest buff while Shiro dashed besides Syradil.
"Let¡¯s go."
Without saying anything, Syradil transformed herself into a ming dragon while Shiro activated her Soul Maiden skill.
Using the element of fire, the two charged through the army unhindered as one of Rokarn¡¯smanders appeared before the two of them.
Chapter 1123 Slaughtering The Army
Chapter 1123 ughtering The Army
Themander that stood in front of them wielded two greatswords and was donned in crimson armour.
He stood roughly 10ft tall with a hulking physique.
[Mith¡¯rah LVL 900 Ascendant Guardian]
"You will not approach my master while I stand!" He shouted out as a pulse of red energy shot out of his body.
*BANG!!!
mming into both Shiro and Syradil, they realised that this aura made it so that it was hard for them to move unless it was towards Mith¡¯rah.
"A taunt spell. Syradil let¡¯s take care of him quickly." Shiro whispered as Syradil nodded her head.
However, just as she said this, a figure flickered next to her.
"No need, I¡¯ll deal with him." Keiko smiled as Shiro stared at her for a moment.
Seeing the confidence in her eyes, Shiro nodded her head.
"Then you might need some extra fire power." Tapping Keiko¡¯s shoulder, golden runes appeared on her daggers.
"Go get him." Shiro smiled as Keiko disappeared.
"Let¡¯s keep charging." Shiro said as she corrected her order.
Activating a tier 6 magic circle, Syradil narrowed her eyes and increased her speed.
Just as Mith¡¯rah was about to intercept them, his shadow twisted, revealing Keiko who had teleported beneath him.
*KISH!!!!
shing both of his hells, ck and gold runes spread through his body. Cursed markings could be seen spreading from the wound as he widened his eyes and red at Keiko.
Before he could do anything, she stabbed her daggers into his thigh. Using them as handles, sheunched herself towards his head.
Summoning two new daggers while his body was being locked down by the runes, she stabbed her new daggers into his neck.
Twisting her body, she frowned as she realised shecked the strength to twist of his head.
However, her worries were short lived as a sword made from light mmed against one side of the dagger.
*PUCHI!!!!!!
Twisting Mith¡¯rah¡¯s head 360 degrees in an instant, Keiko nced back and saw Nan Tian. Realising that he must have thrown the sword to give her an extra hand while covering Shiro¡¯s back, Keiko chuckled and mmed her foot into Mith¡¯rah¡¯s shoulder.
Ripping the head off his body, she threw it behind her as the skill slowing both Shiro and Syradil down disappeared.
"You can¡¯t kill me so easily!" Mith¡¯rah shouted out in rage as flesh exploded from his wounds.
Creating a second body for himself, his old body grew a new head as there was now two Mith¡¯rah¡¯s on the battlefield.
"Well if we can¡¯t kill you so easily then we¡¯ll just have to kill you over and over again." Aarimughed as she sped her hands together.
Separating them, two ck holes could be seen in her palms.
Aiming it towards the two bodies of Mith¡¯rah, tier 6 magic circles surrounded his body as reality started to twist.
Pushing the two ck holes towards one another slowly, Aarim watched as Mith¡¯rah¡¯s body started to copse from within.
With one final twist, one of the generals was now nothing but a shredded pile of flesh that was soon consumed by the ckhole.
Seeing as how one of their generals was killed with such ease, the monsters had the thought of abandoning this war.
However, between these people and Rokarn, they feared the Demi God of Chaos more.
Gritting their teeth with tears in their eyes, they roared as loudly as they could to muster thest bit of courage they had left.
However, that courage soon left them as they looked up into the sky.
Now in his human form with draconic armour, Revel hovered above the battle field with a giant magic circle that was slowly trying to reach threshold of tier 7.
A strange energy twisted around his body as it was unfamiliar to most of the monsters.
It was not mana nor was it the Divine Energy of their leader.
[Revel LVL 999 Celestial Leviathan of Storms]
After reaching a certain mastery over the Celestial Energy that Shiro introduced to him, Revel finally broke past the bottleneck that stopped him from reaching the peak of tier 6. With it, came a ss upgrade that allowed him to use Celestial Energy freely. Even if he can¡¯t use mana, he now had a new source of energy to fuel his spells.
Opening his eyes, his aura exploded out as the tier 6 magic circle opened a portal to a new dimension.
Dark clouds spilled forth as it loomed over the army.
Raising his hand, Celestial Energy coiled around Revel¡¯s body as his eyes were cold.
mming his hand down, armageddon ensued as lightning leviathans shot out from the clouds, killing hundreds to thousands with each leviathan that descended from the portal.
However, before he could continue wreaking havoc, Yin appeared beneath his portal and started to eat his attack.
"Huh???" Blinking his eyes in confusion, Revel looked at Yin to stuck her tongue out at him and continued eating.
"Stop taking my show. Let me show you something cool." Yinughed.
With lightning now coursing through her body, she spread out her wings and surrounded arge portion of the army in a wall of mes and lightning that twisted together.
Activating several tier 6 magic circles, the wall instantly copsed in, killing anything and everything in it¡¯s path before being condensed to a single orb.
Learning from Shiro¡¯s many demonstrations of her bombs, Yin¡¯s eyes lit up with sadistic joy as she transformed back to her human self.
Aiming her hand towards the orb, she curled her lips into grin and snapped her finger.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!
Exploding the moment Yin snapped her finger, a wave of pure energy wiped out hundreds of thousands and didn¡¯t seem like it was going to stop.
Crashing against a barrier that Shiro activated, a hologram of Shiro appeared in front of Yin.
"I know you¡¯re excited but don¡¯t hurt our allies now." Shiro smiled as Yin scratched her head embarrassingly.
"When will you let Attie y mum, he must be getting bored." Yin asked as Shiro gave her a knowing look.
"You know he¡¯ll be having plenty of fun once I reach the centre of their army."
"True, but I¡¯m sure he wants to get out now and have some fun before that. You know, appetisers." Yin shrugged.
"Give one more food reference and I¡¯ll be having chicken tonight." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Well call me a cannibal but I rather enjoy the taste of chicken and birds. If we¡¯re having chicken I¡¯ll go look for a big one back on Earth so that I can cook it." Yin licked her lips as Shiro was speechless.
In the short time that she looked away, it seems like Yin had be more shameless than before.
Though Shiro had to admit that Yin was always shameless when it came to food.
Shaking her head, Shiro ended the call.
"Syradil, don¡¯t worry about damage. I¡¯ll heal everything and give you a speed boost. Just get us to the centre then I¡¯ll have Attie clear them out." Shiro smiled as lightning started to flicker through Syradi¡¯s body.
Transforming into a lightning dragon that focused on speed, she disappeared into a sh of light. Before anyone realised, Shiro and Syradil was now in the centre of their army that was spilling through the portals.
Jumping off Syradi¡¯s back, Shiro mmed her hand down and brought both Attie and Estre out of her mana realm.
"I¡¯m finally out." Attie smiled as he stretched his body.
"Is it finally time to try out that new thing we talked about mum?" He asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yep. Get ready."
Activating her Soul Maiden skill, she changed her element to Void Star.
Waving her hand, several tier 7 magic circles appeared around her as ck energy started to surround everything.
Snapping her finger, the surroundings cleared up as the army soon realised that they were trapped within Shiro¡¯s throne world.
Strange twists of energy surrounded them as they looked around in confusion.
Slowly, a portal opened above them as light filled the realm.
Shielding their eyes, they looked up and saw that it was a portal revealing the sun.
In front of the sun, a single figure could be seen. mes wrapped around his body as he had a demonic smile on his face.
Little by little, the temperature started to drop as all of the heat was being absorbed by Atesh. Ice started to form on their bodies as the temperature continued to drop.
No matter what spells they tried to cast, the magic circle would be erased by an invisible force.
Once they werepletely restrained by the ice that formed on their body, Atesh opened his mouth.
In a sh, his mes turned white.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!!
Unable to fully contain the power of Atesh¡¯s attack, the throne world started to crack apart as rays of light slipped past the border.
Outside of the Throne World, the army looked at the orb of darkness in confusion as it swallowed a majority of their army. Soon, cracks started to form before erupting with blinding rays of light that cut through the darkness of space.
Reality started to wrap from the heat as some even had all of their moisture evaporated before touching the light.
Drying up into lifeless husks, they turned to ash that drifted through the cold nothingness of space.
Once the barrier to the realm disappeared, half of the army could no longer be seen as millions were killed in an instant.
Chapter 1124 Strength and Technique
Chapter 1124 Strength and Technique
Seeing half of his army get eradicated, Rokarn was silent. His fist tightened around the grip of his sword.
The God yer was demonstrating her power but it was not enough. After knowing what Aria did, he was d to see that she was this powerful but s, it still wasn¡¯t enough.
Should he fulfil their promise, the God yer would die.
¡¯Show me more, show me your power.¡¯ Rokarn thought to himself. At this point, his inner voice was close to begging.
"All units! By the name of Rokarn,y down your life and bring Chaos!" Rokarn shouted out, pointing his sword towards Shiro¡¯s party.
Suddenly, purple aura exploded out of the monsters as each of them seemed to lose their mind. Charging forth without care for their safety, spells were hurled at random.
Crashing against the multitude ofyers that both Shiro and Silvia hadid down, fractures started to form.
Surprised by their attack, Shiro turned her gaze towards the mages that were casting spells.
"Chen Yu! Prepare yourself!" Shiro shouted out over the mic.
Before Chen Yu could even respond, he realised that he was now thrown into the group of mages that were about to break the barrier.
"Tsk! At least give me more than a second to prepare!" Chen Yuined as he summoned his dagger.
Mutting the first mage he saw, he stepped on their body and propelled himself to the next.
While Chen Yu was ughtering the mages, Shiro reinforced the barrier.
"Attie, I want you to help your grandpa and Li Jian. Keep them safe with Nimue. We won¡¯t charge at Rokarn just yet since he seems content with just watching for now. Let him watch, we¡¯ll get rid of his army and focus him downter." Shiro asked as water materialised near her. Transforming into Nimue, the two disappeared from their spot and made their way towards Koji
With two of them protecting her father and Li Jian, Shiro turned her focus towards the monsters who felt the most dangerous.
Seeing several figures viewing the battle as though they were generals, three of which charged towards Shiro.
"I¡¯ll help you deal with them." Syradil said as Shiro nodded her head.
Transforming back into her humanoid self, she was about to attack when a figure appeared in front of her.
"No you won¡¯t, you¡¯ll be dealing with someone else."
Widening her eyes, Syradil raised her arm to block the monster¡¯s fist.
Just as Shiro was about to interfere, a swirling ck spear blocked her path.
Immediately backing off since her instincts were telling her that the spear was bad news, Shiro turned towards the one who threw that spear.
Before she could even quip about his armour or looks, two others charged at her.
Immediately summoning two swords to parry their attacks, Shiro was forced to take a few steps back.
"Damn you guys are really ruthless huh? I suppose you don¡¯t like the fact that I helped kill your friends." Shiro forced a smile while mming her hand down. However, before she could cast anything, she felt something restricting her body and stopped her spell.
Widening her eyes, she looked past the two that were now charging towards her and saw a small figure staring at her with one eye open. He had his fingers in a frame that pointed at her.
¡¯Must be a skill that seals the movement and prevents spells from activating.¡¯ Shiro thought with a frown.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro reached into her inventory and pulled out several pre-prepared needles that she had just in case.
If there was a situation where she had to avoid someone detecting the fact that she was using mana, she would use these needles that she made before.
Stabbing one of the needles into her body, all mana within and around her disappeared.
With the spell forcefully broken, the mage at the back paused in shock.
Before he could call the two others back, Shiro removed the needle and started to regenerate her mana
Adjusting her grip, Shiro activated Soul Maiden and used her lightning element.
Twisting her body, her two des cleaved into the bodies of the generals.
Just as the mage was about to reactivate his spell, Shiro flicked her wrist and sent a needle towards his eye.
Quickly ducking down to avoid the needle, he watched as she grabbed the right arm of one of the generals and dislocated it with a kick to the armpit.
Flipping back, she avoided the attack of the second general and grabbed his head.
Narrowing her eyes, she exploded a pocket of mana behind her in order to increase her speed.
Reinforcing her body, she mmed her knee into his spine, snapping it in half.
*PUCHI!!!!
Nanobots exploded out from his stomach as they had chewed through his body the moment mmed her knee into his back.
Latching onto the first general that had his arm dislocated, the nanobots shredded him to pieces.
In the short moment it took him to dodge the needle, Shiro had killed two of hisrades. Taking a step back, he sped his hands together and chains appeared around Shiro, holding her in ce.
"Is this what you call a control spell?" Shiro stared at him with cold eyes.
Little by little, her blond hair that was a result of her Soul Maiden form turned white as cold mist spread out with Shiro in the centre.
*PING!!!
Breaking apart the chains with ease, Shiro massaged her wrist and aimed her finger at the mage.
"!!!"
Suddenly, his instincts were overwhelmed with the urge to run as he turned around.
However, just as he did, he realised he could no longer feel his arms or legs.
Looking down, he saw that everything but his torso and head was frozen in ce.
Grabbing his head, Shiro didn¡¯t say anything and shattered to pieces.
Turning towards Rokarn who was staring at her, Shiro frowned.
¡¯Surely he would be making a move by now. Why is he still watching?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Forming a knife with her hand, she swung her arm down and killed the assassin that snuck up next to her without even looking at him.
"God yer, how do you fair against a single move of mine." Rokarn asked as he slowly raised his hand.
mming it down, a myriad of tier 7 magic circles surrounded Shiro.
Widening her eyes, she felt the grip of death around her neck.
mming her hand down, her own tier 7 magic circle expanded as hundreds of swords shot out, each enchanted with a rune that shuts down spells.
*PING!!!
Seeing that each sword would shatter upon contact, Shiro widened her eyes in shock.
If her swords were destroyed that meant he had a spell that cancelled attacks as well. With that protecting the tier 7 magic circles, it was going to be hard for her to stop it.
As the spell was about to activate, Shiro decided to gamble. Summoning Silvanis, she reinforced her body with mana.
Activating analysis to improve her perception of this spell, Shiro focused her mind.
Remembering her spar with her mother, Shiro knew that this was a good chance for her to improve before her confrontation against Rokarn. Sure there were a few other ways she could get out of this situation that she had in mind, one being cancelling the spell from the outside using her nanobots, but she needed to improve as much as she could. She knew that there was only about a 15% chance of them defeating Rokarn as they are.
Just as the spell activated, she swung Silvanis. At the same time, her eyes scanned the magic circles thatposed this spell.
Pushing her mind to the limit, time seemed to slow down around her as she simted the possible locations of the attacks.
If a normal person could see what she was seeing right now, they would be overwhelmed by how many possible points of attacks there were. There was not a single gap where she could look for safety.
However, her enhanced perception and analysis of the spell allowed her to pick out on which magic circle activated the fastest.
While she may not be able topletely defend herself, there was a chance for her to use the spell protection against itself.
¡¯There!¡¯
*PING!!!
Deflecting the first strike, Shiro flicked two needles through that gap and smiled.
Exploding that needle to make an empty area within this zone, she teleported to that gap and parried the next attack.
Throwing another needle through the gap that she created, Shiro continued to repeat this process during the entire bombardment.
While she was avoiding most of the strikes, she was still suffering some unavoidable damage. But it was better than getting skeweredpletely.
Meanwhile, Rokarn watched Shiro¡¯s every action. Her perception, her speed and reaction. It was improving.
While it may not be as tyrannical as she had been in the past, it was a good start.
Previously, she would use pure strength to overwhelm everyone which stopped her from refining her techniques. However, she was now refining her techniques before gaining the necessary strength.
Slowly, the corner of his lips curled up into a smile.
Chapter 1125 Helios
Chapter 1125 Helios
Throwing onest needle, Shiro escaped the attack unharmed. Looking towards Rokarn, she felt a sting of pain in her eyes along with a system notification.
[Analysis is upgraded to EX status.]
Quickly ncing at the newly upgraded Analysis EX, it basically allowed her to view everything in slow motion if she wanted to. Though she couldn¡¯t use it for long periods at a time since it overexerts her eyes.
Shaking her head, the pain disappeared as her passive regeneration healed the damage.
¡¯This isn¡¯t good. If Rokarn attacks anyone else it¡¯ll turn the tides of this war.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself with a frown.
Even if she had several charges of Grace ready to be used, she still wasn¡¯t arrogant as to think that she is able to protect everyone against Rokarn.
¡¯I need to end this army so that everyone can focus their attention on Rokarn.¡¯
"Estre! Send everyone back to the station. I¡¯ll activate defence systems. Right now I¡¯m going to blow everything away!" Shiro shouted out as she sped her hands together and released a wave of cold mist.
Freezing everyone except for the party members, Shiro closed her eyes and simted what she wanted to know. Knowing the defences of some generals here, she could probably use the void bomb and kill everything. But, more portals were being opened, filling the gaps in the army.
Understanding that she probably needed something more so that it would wipe out the connecting to the portals, Shiro had an idea. It MIGHT be overkill but it could potentially harm Rokarn.
mming her hand down, a giant tier 7 array expanded from her spot.
Summoning Silvanis, Shiro stabbed it into the centre of the array and powered it using the tier 8 magic circles that they had carved onto the de.
Sensing the eruption of Divine Energy from her body, Rokarn stared at her curiously.
He wondered if she expected him to let her activate whatever skill she wanted without care. Even if he was going to help her improve, this was not the way.
Drawing his sword, he sent a wave of energy crashing towards her.
Before it could even touch her, shadows twisted together and swallowed the attack. While it could not absorb all of it, the energy that it could not absorb was drained away by the runes that were in the array.
With Yin being the Seven Sin Gluttony, Shiro obtained the skill Devour which was weaker than Yin¡¯s Gluttony. However, it was still good enough since it gave her the extra push that she needed.
"Rokarn, I dare you to take this head on." Shiro taunted as a portal opened up above her.
Slowly, a giant crystal could be seen descending from the portal.
After their investigations in the north, they found out that as long as they continued to provide life energy, the crystal sprouting from the body would increase in size. By sending every monster that they killed to the crystal graveyard, they created something that was half the size of Asharia.
Raising her hand, nanobots appeared and started to carve runes into the surface.
While he didn¡¯t know what she wanted to do, Rokarn wanted to see how she¡¯d defend this.
mming his hand down, the ice that restricted his army shattered in an instant.
"Charge!" Rokarnmanded whileunching several energy des towards Shiro.
Just as Shiro was about to counter, she saw two shadows shoot past her and recognised that it was Yin and Attie.
"Estre! I thought I told you to teleport them away." Shiro frowned.
"Well I can do that or we can help you out. I know what you¡¯re worried about but I¡¯ve marked everyone and can teleport them out with a snap of a finger. If you can finish this new bomb of yours, great. If it self destructs before it is finished, I¡¯ll teleport everyone." Estre smiled as Shiro scratched her head.
"Fine, everyone! Cover me while I focus on this." Shiro ordered as everyone rejoined the battle while Shiro focused on carving runes into the crystal.
"Need a hand?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro thought about it but shook her head.
"I¡¯m making a, I have it handled." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"You¡¯re making a?"
"Yup. Well, a is not urate. I¡¯m making an orb of nanobots that will simte the sun. What do you think would happen if I was to condense then copse said simted sun with this giant crystal amplifying everything?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian paused in realisation.
"I see. If you want to do that then I suggest probably further condensing it to increase its power against a single being." Nan Tian smiled.
"I¡¯ll keep that in mind."
With everyone now protecting her back, Shiro¡¯s lips curled up into a smile while she focused on creating this giant lightbulb.
Closing her eyes, she simted a weapon that could harness the power of a copsing star. While she was not the best at creation, she was quite experienced in destruction. She couldn¡¯t create a big sun so the crystal would help her amplify everything.
¡¯I need to be able to harness everything in a single weapon. While I have the attunement of Void Star and Aspect of Fire, I don¡¯t think that¡¯s enough for a weapon that can harm Rokarn.¡¯
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to carve a certain crest onto the crystal. It was a crest that Gaia had shown her during their spare time when learning about the icons of other gods.
The icon of the mighty sun belonging to Helios.
Opening her eyes, she red her divine energy and fuelled the crystal, allowing it to be amplified and redirected to the crest.
Suddenly, the next thing she knew, she was in a white space with a single person in front of her.
His stature was huge with his upper torsopletely exposed. Red markings wrapped around his body before gathering on his back to form the icon of a sun. He had long blonde hair that was like the mane of a grand lion, pride radiating from his eyes as he stared at her. Crossing his arms, he sat down. Despite his pride, he had heard much about Shiro. The tier 6 legend that killed a God. One who forced Nyx to stop her attack by order of the system. And the one that the Primordials support.
[Helios LVL 1000 The Sun God (Divinity 2)]
"I¡¯m a busy god and you should know that a war is happening, Demi God. Gaia has told you this much no? However, as it is you, I will grant you the audience that you desire. So tell me, what caused you to carve my crest despite the myriad of other gods you can call upon?" Helios asked with a smile.
"I seek your power to create a mighty sun." Shiro answered truthfully as Helios raised his eyebrow.
"Is that all you want? If you desire a mighty sun, can you not take one from the known gxy?" Helios asked as he pinched the air in front of him and plucked out a sun.
Realising that he must have condensed it down into the size of a marble without any signs of exploding, Shiro was impressed by his control over his divinity.
"Yes, but I will not be able to use my nanobots as a catalyst since the sun has already formed. I believe you are acquainted with Argus right?"
"Indeed. The all seer has boasted to me about your creation in his name. Perhaps you are nning the same for me?" Helios asked with expectation in his eyes.
"Perhaps. What do you think about helping with the creation of a weapon that can push back the primordials?" Shiro offered as Helios burst intoughter.
"Alright! Sure! What do you need me to do? I will spare as much power as I can Demi God. Show me the creation you seek to create."
Before she knew it, Shiro was now back in space and Helios¡¯ crest now shone brightly on her arm.
Chuckling softly, Shiro turned towards Estre.
"Help me out a little, I wouldn¡¯t want to engulf the Earth or the moon." Shiro said as Estre teleported next to her.
Transforming the tier 7 magic circle beneath them, she teleported everyone to the far reaches of space. Where neither the earth or the moon could be seen by anyone.
Realising that she used Divine Energy in that teleportation to even force him through, Rokarn was impressed. However, if she teleported him, then the usage of divine energy must have been huge. And yet, she was ring an unending stream of divine energy that fuelled the crystal.
Narrowing his eyes, he noticed that it had a different property than usual. This one was vtile like the sun.
"A Sun God." Rokarn muttered.
In the next moment, the crystal flew up into the sky and suddenly exploded with nanobots. Transforming into a giant sphere of metal, Helios¡¯ crest erupted out in mes that caused Attie to flinch from the heat.
Snapping her finger, Shiro had Estre help her teleport everyone away so that they were safe from the next attack.
In her mind, Shiro had finalised the blueprint and added the name.
[Sun Breaker Spear ¨C Helios]
Chapter 1126 Sun Breaker Spear - Helios
Chapter 1126 Sun Breaker Spear - Helios
sping her hands together, tier 8 magic circles started to appear across the surface of the nanotech sun.
mes erupted out from the gaps and Helios¡¯ crest burned brightly within the fire.
Before Rokarn could even do anything, Shiro activated the runes in her eyes, allowing her to see the threads of time.
Gritting her teeth, she sped up the copse of her miniature sun.
In an instant, the light disappeared, leaving only Helios¡¯ crest on the surface.
*CRACK!!!
Fracturing the shell, the nanotech sun started to copse as Shiro teleported herself out of the area.
Widening his eyes, Rokarn could sense the power within that shell and knew that only he would survive.
He was a fighter, his barriers would not be able to protect his army from destruction.
Immediately making a choice and activating a barrier around himself, he watched as a ray of light escaped from the fractures on the shell.
Enveloping everything in a blinding ray of light, he watched as his army disintegrated in a single moment, leaving just him behind.
*PING!!!
Shattering apart the barrier, the heat seared his skin and armour but he was still alive.
¡¯Helios¡¯ power is indeed strong. However, it is not enough.¡¯ Rokarn thought to himself as he spotted a ck shadow within the light.
Realising that it was Shiro, a bad feeling suddenly appeared in his heart.
Reaching into the void, Shiro slowly pulled out a spear as all of the energy started draining away from her surroundings.
Grabbing the spear with both her hands, Shiro activated the Helios crest and tier 8 magic circles appeared on the spear tip.
While the power of a god with Divinity 2 might not kill Rokarn, having that power amplified by the might of a dying star along with the crystal may just work.
Adjusting her posture, Shiro red at Rokarn.
A zing spear with the might of a copsing star now within her hands, she dashed forwards and threw the spear.
Suddenly, tens of magic circles appeared in front of the spear, increasing its power and size with each one it travelled through. Bypassing the final magic circle, the avatar of Helios appeared holding the amplified spear.
Grabbing his own greatsword, Rokarn widened his eyes and swung towards the mighty avatar.
Dark energy coursed through his arm and into the sword, revealing a set of ck runes that onlysted for a moment. However, that was enough for Shiro to capture with her eyes and memorise their appearance.
*BANG!!!!!!
As the two attacks shed with one another, a pulse of energy exploded out as Shiro was forced to escape into her portal before it killed her.
However, the energy still mmed into her back as she was catapulted through the opening just as it closed.
Seeing Shiro¡¯s bodyunch through the portal, Nan Tian quickly caught her before she could fly any further. A horrifying burn wound could be seen on her back as not even her immunity to fire could stop this.
Quickly healing Shiro using Silvia¡¯s magic, they sighed in relief seeing that there were no longsting effects.
"Don¡¯t rx just yet, he¡¯s still alive." Shiro spoke with a frown while standing back up.
ncing back at the moon, Shiro could see that Rokarn¡¯s raid gate had beenpletely destroyed since the portals that brought in his army were created within the gate. With the power of a copsing star erupting through the portal, it was no surprise that the world within the gate was destroyed along with the gate.
Just as Shiro was about to say something, a dark portal suddenly opened and a wounded Rokarn stepped through the portal.
His armour was broken and blood flowed through the gaps. He was now missing his right arm and a part of his torso. His helmet shattered, revealing his bloodied face and red eyes.
Raising his left hand, a tier 8 magic circle exploded out with him in the centre. His flesh twisted and warped before regenerating his arm and healed his wounds.
"How many more times can you borrow the power of Helios?" Rokarn asked as he summoned his greatsword once more. Despite the damage it took while facing the Sun Breaker Spear, it was slowly healing itself.
"Is that everything you have got God yer!? Will you continue to borrow the power of those you think are stronger without showing me what you can do?!" Rokarn shouted out while pointing his sword towards her.
"What should we do?" Nan Tian whispered as they could attack him right now. However, considering the fact that he was asking Shiro a question, this might be a good time for Shiro to find out more about herself.
"I¡¯ll send a signal for everyone if we need to fight. For now, be on standby. Estre, prepare to send my dad and Li Jian out of here, they¡¯re not safe here." Shiro ordered as she was about to walk towards Rokarn.
However, before she could, Koji grabbed her arm.
"Dad..." Shiro nced back and smiled.
"It¡¯s fine, trust me." She reassured but Koji sighed.
"Which father is ok with seeing his daughter fight someone so dangerous. If you¡¯re going to fight, at least let your old man help."
"Sorry dad, but let me handle this ok?" Shiro apologised as Koji was forcefully teleported away.
She didn¡¯t want to risk her dad¡¯s life in this fight.
Just as she teleported Koji away, Estre did the same with Li Jian, leaving everyone that was higher than level 750.
Everyone had managed to level up during the fight before this stage but her dad and Li Jian were still too low level. A single swing from Rokarn would kill them both.
Walking towards Rokarn, Shiro had a smile on her face.
"I suppose I should thank you for allowing me to send them away to safety." Shiro chuckled.
"Whether or not they stay does not matter to me, God yer. I only wish to know if this is the extent of your power." Rokarn asked as Shiro shook her head.
"No, but why do you want to know so much? Last time our talk was cut off but are you willing to entertain me for a moment? Why are you so concerned with me showing my power, how do you know me and why do you call me the God yer?" Shiro asked.
Hearing this, Rokarn sighed.
"It matters not if I say it. Because you won¡¯t be able to understand regardless." Rokarn shook his head.
Opening his mouth, he started to speak but everything was censored. Shiro was not able to understand a single thing he was saying nor could she lip read.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro contemted on activating Chaos¡¯ blessing so that she could bypass the authority; however, a single notification stopped her.
[Due to the nature of the situation, Chaos¡¯ Blessing has been disabled unless used forbat.]
Pausing in surprise, Shiro didn¡¯t expect the system to disable her skill to stop her from finding out.
"As expected you cannot hear me. Then I give you two tips before the system forces me to fight you once again." Rokarn said as he closed his eyes.
"Number one, do not trust Aria. No matter what happens, she is not to be trusted. She has betrayed you once, she can do it again. Number two, prove to me that you have the capabilities of containing a powerful divinity within your body." Rokarn smiled as Shiro furrowed her brows before nodding.
"Now go, know that this is the final break I grant you." Rokarn said as his aura red.
Flying back to the group, Shiro took a deep breath.
"Syradil, Revel, you two will act as our main tanks. Our n right now is for us to weaken him enough so that I can use extract on him." Shiro said as they all nodded their heads in seriousness. Shiro had already given them a document on how they should fight together and synergise with one another beforeing here so not much exnation was needed.
"I¡¯ll save my new form forter then. Since you¡¯ll be using divinity too right?" Syradil asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yes, try to save it just in case since your body cannot handle the new form for long. Once it expires, you¡¯ll be out ofmission for the rest of this fight." Shiro warned as Syradil nodded her head.
"I¡¯ll cast a buff on everyone." Silvia said as Shiro nodded her head.
Activating a tier 6 magic circle, everyone had their stats increased as both Syradil and Revel charged towards Rokarn.
Transforming into her ck Crystal Dragon form, Syradil¡¯s body crashed into Rokarn¡¯s.
Parrying her body with his de, Rokarn was about to grab her when Revel appeared behind him.
He was in his half leviathan half human form with a spiral of lightning energy gathering in his hand.
*BANG!!!
mming it into Rokarn¡¯s back, lightning exploded out and wrapped around his body, restricting his movements.
Suddenly, a tier 6 magic array appeared above the three of them.
Activating his spell, Nan Tian created a sword of light that stabbed down towards the restrained Rokarn.
*PING!!!
Shattering the bindings around his body, Rokarn dismissed his weapon and raised his hand.
*BANG!!!!!!! CRACK!!!!
Blocking the sword, he shattered it to pieces with a single move andunched both Revel and Syradil back.
ring his aura, all of the party members¡¯ felt their bodies tense up from the aura and knew that he had been holding back.
Chapter 1127 Fighting Rokarn
Chapter 1127 Fighting Rokarn
With Rokarn no longer holding back, Shiro felt danger in her heart. Not even the Sun Breaker Spear, enhanced with the power of Helios could do major damage to him. What hopes would they have?
Suddenly, her instincts screamed out in rm as Rokarn suddenly appeared in front of her with his sword mid swing.
Widening her eyes, Shiro was about to teleport when her body was frozen in ce much like how her skill, Keitoma, worked.
*BANG!!!!
Before the sword couldnd, Nan Tian appeared in front of her and blocked it with his own de.
Gritting his teeth, he barely managed to hold on for a moment before being blown away by the attack.
However, it gave Shiro enough time to get out of the way and avoid a serious blow.
Seeing that his attack missed, Rokarn¡¯s expression was nk. It was as though his mind was being suppressed, making him a perfect fighting machine much like the other bosses Shiro saw in dungeons.
Before he could target again, Aarim created a prison around him that restricted his movements using gravity. Knowing that Aarim would struggle, Silvia had tried to buff her as much as possible in hopes that it would work.
But seeing as how he was still moving as usual, Silvia knew that Aarim was too low level to restrain him for long.
"Forget about restraint. Aarim, just focus on damaging him!" Silvia shouted out as Aarim nodded.
Turning towards Silvia, Rokarn narrowed his eyes.
Realising that it would be bad for Rokarn to target Silvia, Syradil quickly jumped in front of Rokarn and pulled her arm back.
Punching him across the face, she didn¡¯t even make him turn his head, causing her smile to twitch.
Grabbing Syradil by the head, Rokarn grabbed his de and stabbed it through her chest.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Syradil red at Rokarn and grabbed his arm, keeping his sword in her.
Since her healing was strong, this much damage was negligible.
Changing her form, mes erupted out of her body, threatening to turn him to cinders.
Meanwhile, Revel had charged up a spear of Celestial energy.
Flickering behind Rokarn, he attempted to stab him in the neck.
Pushing out with his spare hand, a barrier appeared around him, stopping Revel in his tracks along with any other spells that they tried to throw at him.
Just before Revel could be grabbed by Rokarn, an invisible force pulled him out of harms way.
"Thanks." Revel said as he turned towards Aarim who now resorted to controlling the battlefield with her gravity magic.
Nodding her head, Aarim turned towards Shiro who was now charging at Rokarn with Silvanis in hand.
sping her hands together, a tier 6 magic circle appeared beneath Shiro¡¯s feet as her speed was increased.
Sensing danger behind him, he summoned a second greatsword and swung towards Syradil¡¯s shoulder.
Despite the barriers appearing around her, the de broke past her defences and cut cleanly through her.
Widening her eyes, she watched as he pulled his first greatsword out of her body and turned towards Shiro.
mes wrapped around her wounds and healed her but herplexion was not good. She knew that Rokarn was strong, she had witnessed his might many times before. However, there was always something holding him back. The Rokarn she was seeing now was much stronger than what she had anticipated.
Understanding that the only person who can really do damage to him was Shiro, Syradil resolved herself to do whatever it takes to keep Shiro safe and allow her to attack him as much as she can.
Meanwhile, Shiro flickered in front of Rokarn and swung her de.
Just as he raised his sword to block, Shiro activated Silvanis¡¯ third ability.
[Effect 3: You can shift your sword through space and it will jump forward in an instant. If there is a wall, the sword will phase through the wall as though it was never there.]
Phasing past his defence, Silvanis cut deeply into his armour and body much to Rokarn¡¯s surprise.
Silvanis¡¯ passive ability, ignores 80% of all forms of armour!
Adjusting her grip on the sword, Shiro pulled her body up, avoiding his horizontal swing.
Resummoning Silvanis, she activated the fourth effect.
[Effect 4: You can infuse any element with this de and the effectiveness will be boosted by 2005% and ignores all resistance towards that element.]
Considering the fact that nanobots are her strongest element, Shiro synced it up with her nanotech attunement.
Suddenly, a red hue appeared around her de as she swung it towards Rokarn¡¯s back.
However, a portal opened and Rokarn grabbed her by her wrist. Dragging her in front of him, he was about to attack when both Syradil and Nan Tian appeared by his side.
Stabbing his sword into Rokarn¡¯s ribs, Nan Tian frowned when he realised that he couldn¡¯t bypass his armour.
But it wasn¡¯t just the two of them.
Appearing above him, both Yin and Attie were enraged as white mes flickered around their body.
Combining their mes into the one that even Shiro struggled at extinguishing, Attie created several fire chains that restricted his movement ever so slightly before releasing a wave of fire towards him.
In the distance, Estre, Misu, Aarim and Esil were creating a tier 6 array that slowly increased in size. While it may not be as impressive as some of Shiro¡¯s arrays, the goal was not to attack but rather summon.
Shiro had already helped both Estre and Misu with improving their magic before the fight. Plus, she had given them a special something in case things were dire.
"Your body will soon be ready." Estre spoke as she was currently locked onto his body that Shiro sent to space in a different dimension.
Hearing this, the Ancient Terror chuckled.
"Perfect."
mming her hand down, green mes appeared as Misu started to chant in a differentnguage.
ck mist and bones started to appear as a portal opened up in the centre, allowing the Ancient Terror¡¯s previous body to float through.
Seeing the mindless husk that was still alive, the soul of the Ancient Terror floated towards it as Misu enhanced the link between soul and body.
Suddenly, the eyes of the behemoth snapped open with intelligence.
"URAHHHH!!!!! I¡¯M BACK MOTHERF*CKER!" The Ancient Terror shouted out in joy as he charged towards Rokarn.
"Get out of the way! My body is immortal unlike the lot of you so I¡¯ll keep him upied. Shiro, you should know this first hand." The Ancient Terror shouted out as Shiro smiled and nodded her head.
sping her hands together, portals opened up next to Nan Tian, Syradil, Yin, Attie and Revel, sending them away from Rokarn so that the Ancient Terror wouldn¡¯t idently m into them.
*BANG!!!!
Colliding into Rokarn¡¯s body, the Ancient Terror immediately opened his mouth and bit down on his head.
*PUCHI!!!!!
Snapping his jaw, Rokarn red at the giant behemoth that was grappling him and cleaved his body in two.
However, just as he did this, the two halves melded together in an instant.
Healing his jaw, the Ancient Terrorughed.
"Surprised? Don¡¯t be, I¡¯m something the primordials struggled to seal."
Opening his chest, tentacles started to explode out of his body as Rokarn¡¯s arms were restrained.
While this was happening, Shiro healed herself and jumped back into the fray. Appearing behind the two, Shiro¡¯s lips curled up into a grin.
"You don¡¯t mind if I cut you in half right?" Shiro asked.
"Go for it, it¡¯s not like it worked thest time you tried." The Ancient Terror smiled as a wave of energy exploded out of Silvanis¡¯ de, cutting deeply into Rokarn¡¯s back.
Since the Ancient Terror was much bigger than Rokarn, the rest of the des cleaved through his body even as it was healed at a visible pace.
Gritting his teeth, Rokarn wanted to attack Shiro but the Ancient Terror refused to let go. No matter what Rokarn did, he would just heal.
*URAHHH!!!
Roaring out in anger, ck aura exploded out of Rokarn¡¯s body as he grabbed one of the tentacles around his body and ripped it out of the Ancient Terror¡¯s body.
Just as he was about to heal, the ck aura appeared around the wound and prevented his healing. Not only that, it was now also eating away at the rest of his body.
Without saying anything, both Shiro and the Ancient Terror knew what was happening. The power of Chaos and Destruction. The divinity that destroys all.
Despite his physical immortality that even Nyx guaranteed, Rokarn¡¯s divinity was one of the few that could strip such a body of its usefulness.
With the Ancient Terror only being able to hold back the Demi God for a little longer, Shiro tried her best to damage Rokarn as much as she could.
While each of her strikes may cleave past his armour and onto his flesh, his wounds would keep healing. The only thing telling her that she was going damage was the fact that his armour was slowly falling to pieces.
Suddenly, an orb of darkness appeared in his hand as Rokarn crushed it to pieces.
In the next moment, Shiro¡¯s face became pale.
After all, 14 charges of Grace were used up instantly from therge crystal she had as backup. In a single move, he had caused everyone¡¯s health to go into the red. Judging by the faces of the rest of the party, they knew this as well.
Chapter 1128 Four vs One
Chapter 1128 Four vs One
"The crystal only has 6 charges left! Aarim, Helion, Chen Yu, Misu, Esil and Keiko! All of you go back to the station!" Shiro shouted out while charging at Rokarn.
Summoning some nanotech chains, Shiro restrained Rokarn and had Estre forcefully teleport everyone away.
"I¡¯ll be honest Shiro, our chances don¡¯t look that good." The Ancient Terror frowned while wing away at Rokarn was not affected in the slightest.
"I know." Shiro nodded her head.
ncing at her skill list, there were a few skills that she could use but they had short durations and long cool downs.
With how strong Rokarn was proving to be, Shiro didn¡¯t think these skills would help protect the others.
"I¡¯ve held back long enough." Rokarn barely managed to squeeze out before divine energy erupted from his body. Coating his sword with ck runes, he shattered the nanotech chains without much trouble and shed towards the Ancient Terror.
Widening his eyes, the Ancient Terror felt his body freeze up in fear as the de cleaved through his flesh.
Feeling pain deep within his soul, he felt as though his existence was being erased, not unlike what Shiro could do.
Immediately abandoning his physical body, he watched as what was supposed to be immortal by primordial standards withered away and disappeared.
"Unless you have another immortal body I can use to fight him, there¡¯s not much else I can do. I¡¯m not really known for my magical prowess." The Ancient Terror warned as he drifted over to Shiro.
Staying silent, Shiro dragged him back to thentern.
There was nothing else that he could do to help. She was hoping that his immortality would allow them to fight behind a powerful shield but that shield didn¡¯t evenst 2 minutes against Rokarn.
Plus, the fact that Rokarn could kill something that was supposed to be immortal concerned her. For all she knew, her skill that stops her allies from dying may not work the way she wants it to.
"We¡¯re having another change of ns, everyone but me, Nan Tian, Revel and Syradil leave!" Shiro shouted out, activating her skill Demi Goddess of War and Protection.
Divine Energy wrapped around Shiro as she elevated herself to the status of a tier 7 demi god temporarily.
sping her hands together, nanobots suddenly flooded the area as it created a prison for Rokarn.
Waving her finger, everyone but the people she mentioned were teleported away while Attie and Nimue remained.
Both of them were essentially a Demi God in stats and had unique bonuses. Attie is a mage and Nimue was a support. Her healing couldn¡¯t bepared to Silvia¡¯s but it was better in this scenario since she wouldn¡¯t get one shot by Rokarn. Hopefully.
"We¡¯re going all out, if you have berserk skills use them." Shiro said coldly as both Revel and Syradil nodded.
Closing her eyes, red energy red around her as her name tag darkened to a grey that threatened to go ck.
Snapping her eyes open, everyone was suddenly dragged into a different realm as several clones of Syradil appeared around Rokarn.
The moment one of them touched his body, his skin started to ke away and so did his flesh.
Realising that her power counters Divine Energy, Rokarn twisted his body and swung his de.
Shattering the clones near him, he was about to charge at Syradil when Revel appeared next to him.
Celestial Energy wrapped around his hand as he mmed his fist into Rokarn¡¯s ribs.
Not caring that his strike barely brought out a reaction, Revel grabbed Rokarn by the arm and kicked him in the stomach,unching him towards another clone of Syradil who unwrapped herself into a strange red scarf of sorts.
Latching onto Rokarn¡¯s arms, the scarf slowly eroded away at him while Shiro activated a tier 7 magic circle on her de.
She didn¡¯t use Error before due to caution and not wanting to show all of her cards too soon but at this stage, there was no more room for holding back.
Silvanis Passive Skill: When infused with the power of ???, you are able to strike towards their source code!
Activating Analysis EX, the world in her eyes slowed down as she could clearly see an easy path for her de to find purchase against his chest.
Coursing Divine Energy through her de, a faint flicker of light could be seen near his heart.
¡¯The Source Code.¡¯ Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
Tracing her finger along the de, several tier 8 magic circles appeared around Rokarn.
Activating her Origin Skill, Time Flux, she disappeared from her spot.
*PUCHI!!!!!
Widening his eyes, Rokarn looked down at the de through his chest and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Slowly turning his head back, he stared at Shiro before grabbing her de.
Raising his hand, Divine Energy red around him as ck runes appeared on his arm.
"!!!!"
Pausing in shock, Shiro watched as the source code within his heart slowly unravelled itself and reassembled in his hand. Activating a tier 8 magic circle, he sealed the source code into his arm.
"URAH!!"
Unleashing a pulse of energy, he pushed everyone away from him and grabbed the red ribbons with his spare hand.
A purple glow appeared in his eyes as corruption slowly spread through the ribbons, etching ck runes on the surface and rendered them useless.
Tugging on the ribbon, he dragged Syradil in front of him before grabbing her face.
Twisting his body, he activated a tier 8 magic circle and threw her towards the moon.
*BANG!!!!!
Crashing against the moon, a ¡¯small¡¯ crater could be seen from space.
With Syradil out of his path, Rokarn summoned ck mist and used it to grab Revel.
Narrowing his eyes, he clenched his fist and crushed Revel using the mist.
*CRACK!!!
Hearing the bones crack and break under pressure, Nan Tian could see Revel being tossed aside. Corruption could be seen coursing through his body, hindering his natural regeneration as Grace was struggling to heal him up to max health.
Behind him, Shiro suddenly appeared and swung her de.
*CLANG!!!
shing against Rokarn¡¯s greatsword, Silvanis was halted mid swing as a ck shadows flowed from the greatsword to the silver surface of Silvanis.
Realising that something one wrong, Shiro immediately tried to dismiss Silvanis but it was as though the de was locked in this realm, unable to leave.
Forming a de with his hand, Rokarn shed towards Shiro.
*PUCHI!!!!!!!!!!
Furrowing his brows, Rokarn frowned when he saw that his hand did not cut Shiro but instead Nan Tian.
*COUGH!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Nan Tian grabbed Rokarn¡¯s wrist and stared him down.
A golden crest slowly manifested on his arm as Shiro recognised it to be Hemera¡¯s crest.
mes burst out from his body, sending out a golden shockwave that dispelled the corruption on Silvanis and Revel, allowing the leviathan to heal himself.
While this was happening, Nan Tian dragged Rokarn away from Shiro.
Understanding that the moon was probably the only ce they can fight for now, Nan Tian activated a tier 7 magic circle using Hemera¡¯s crest.
An orb of light appeared in his hand as he mmed it against Rokarn¡¯s chest.
*BANG!!!
Exploding in an instant, Rokarn¡¯s body was sent crashing towards the surface of the moon.
However, a ck chain suddenly wrapped around Nan Tian¡¯s neck as he was dragged along with the Demi God.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro mmed her hand down, activating a tier 7 array as nanobots flooded the area around her.
Preventing the two from tumbling to space, a giant maw snapped the chain in half and spears shot towards Rokarn.
However, the spear was unable to pierce his armour as they weren¡¯t Rainbow grade weapons like Silvanis.
Crumbling the moment they touched him, the spears were not able to deal any damage but Shiro never intended for them to deal damage in the first ce.
With the nanobots now floating around him, Shiro narrowed her eyes and snapped her finger.
Each of the nanobots suddenly transformed into a tiny tier 7 array that waspact to the point it was the size of a thumb.
In the silence of space, Shiro activated a second skill she had thought up of when witnessing how effective Helios was against Rokarn.
Each of the nanobots would transform and reflect Helios¡¯ power within a small confined space caused by the spears shattering to pieces.
With every reflection, the power would be amplified by the nanobots. And since Rokarn was surrounded by nanobots, with some on his armour, it was up to Shiro when the attack wouldnd against him.
Since it grew stronger with each reflection, she would want it to reflect as much as possible before striking.
Activating Analysis EX, time slowed to a near halt as her mind simted the reflection and adjusted the nanobots ordingly.
In a few short moments, tens to hundreds of reflections had piled up as there was now a ball of light in the middle of a giant nanotech station that Shiro had created to stop the two from reaching the moon.
Framing the orb between her hands, Shiro narrowed her eyes and copsed the orb.
Chapter 1129 Round 2
Chapter 1129 Round 2
With the orb copsing around him, Rokarn dismissed his greatsword and summoned two gauntlets.
While the attack was frying his skin, he gathered energy into his hand before punching forwards.
*BANG!!!!!!!!!
Shattering the bottom half of the orb, his attack forced Shiro¡¯s spell to break apart.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro summoned Silvanis and dashed towards him.
*CLANG!!!!
Seeing that Rokarn blocked her de, she dismissed Silvanis and grabbed his arm. Using it as a handle, she swung herself over his head and activated a tier 7 magic circle behind him. Summoning Silvanis once more, Shiro twisted her body and stabbed towards him.
*PUCHI!!!!!
Teleporting away before Rokarn could grab her, Shiro activated the tier 7 magic circle.
Suddenly, golden chains erupted from Silvanis¡¯ handle and slowly crawled towards where he had sealed his source code.
Before it could reach the spot, Rokarn grabbed the chains with his spare hand and attempted to pry it from his body.
"Who the hell throws other people intos!!"
Reappearing behind Rokarn with anger in her eyes, Syradil grabbed his arm and prevented him from removing the chains.
"Hello mother*cker, it¡¯s me again." Syradil growled while partially transforming her arms into those of a dragon¡¯s.
*BANG!!!
Elbowing her in the chest, Rokarn wanted to push her off him but she was steadfast.
With Syradil now restraining his movements, the chains slowly reached the source code.
The moment the chains touched the spot, Shiro felt something connecting her to the source code through the magic.
Unlike what happened with her sword, this was not her attempting to destroy the code. Her mind went nk as she was overwhelmed with a surge of power that shattered her spell to pieces, causing her to fly back towards the walls of her station.
*BANG!!!!
Catching her before she mmed into the wall, Nan Tian could see her face twisted with pain.
"Don¡¯t mind me, go help Syradil." Shiro squeezed out as her body was just in shock after being flooded with so much energy.
Furrowing his brows, Nan Tian nodded his head and dashed towards Rokarn.
Summoning an array of light des, he shed towards Rokarn, making sure to avoid the armour since he knew that he was not capable of piercing past its defences.
Twisting his body, Rokarn attempted to use Syradil as a shield but the des adjusted themselves at thest second.
shing against his flesh, the des caused burns against his skin that healed quickly.
However, his goal was not tond a strong attack but rather branding him with a marker so that someone else can finish the job.
Suddenly, Attie appeared behind Rokarn.
In his hands was a pure white greatsword made from energy that caused Syradil to sweat from the heat.
While the fight was going on, Attie had been teleported near the sun by Shiro so that he could empower his attack.
Without saying anything, Attie swung towards Rokarn while Nan Tian grabbed Syradil and jumped out of the way.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!!
In the silence of space, a giant pir of light appeared, shing apart the station and extended beyond what the eye could see.
Once the mes cleared up, Rokarn could be seen on his knees but he was not dead.
Little by little, his wounds healed up as he opened his mouth.
"Helios was stronger, boy." shing in front of Attie, he grabbed his head and mmed him against the floor.
Raising his foot, he stomped down against Attie¡¯s chest, causing him to cough up a mouthful of blood.
The moment he did this, Shiro, Nimue and Iziuel surrounded him.
Roots sprouted from the nanobots and restrained his movements while Nimue applied both buffs and debuffs while amplifying Shiro¡¯s mana.
As for Shiro, she summoned Silvanis and activated Effect 1 and 4.
[Silvanis Effect 1: When activated, your stats are doubled and Silvanis will deal 100% True Damage.]
[Silvanis Effect 4: You can Infuse any element into this de and the effectiveness will be boosted by 200% and ignores all resistance towards that element.]
However, she wasn¡¯t done. With her stats now doubled, she activated Limit Focus and converted her INT stats into raw power.
Converting 80% of her current INT stat, she shed towards Rokarn.
With the current buffs, there was no defence that Rokarn could use that protected him due to Silvanis¡¯ effects.
*BANG!!!!!!
"GAHHHH!!!!"
Hearing the Demi God cry out in pain, Shiro watched as her de eradicated his flesh. Adjusting her grip so that she could swing at him again, Shiro took a step forward but Rokarn was faster.
Cutting himself diagonally from the neck to the armpit, he severed his head along with the arm containing the source code from his main body.
Exploding some mana in front of him, he created some distance and regenerated his entire body while dding himself with spare armour from his inventory. However, his main armour was now in tatters.
Simr to the past, he watched as the God yer destroyed his armour that he was so proud of.
While she has demonstrated raw power that forced him to use one of his life saving skills, Rokarn was not optimistic about her physique. After all, a short contact with the Source Code caused such a violent reaction that almost knocked her out.
¡¯Well if she can survive this then it¡¯ll prove that she¡¯s ready. If not then I¡¯ll try to dy things I suppose.¡¯ Rokarn thought to himself as he summoned the Source Code and ced it back into his chest.
ck runes spread across the surface of his skin as his aura started to grow at an abnormal rate.
Realising what this was, Shiro gritted her teeth and teleported everyone but herself away.
Everyone was already struggling with him demonstrating parts of his power but if he was to reveal his true form, they would not stand a chance.
The only way she could see herself contending against this was using Blessing of Chaos to reach tier 8 as well. Thankfully, Blessing of Chaos was still usable in terms ofbat power otherwise Shiro would not know what to do in this situation.
Slowly, Rokarn¡¯s body started to shift as his flesh transformed into a weave of gold and purple energy. In his chest, an orb of pure darkness could be seen surrounded by a metallic harness that represented his ribcage. Cosmic armour wrapped around his body while his aura started to disintegrate the nanobots near him.
Reaching out with his hand, he snapped his finger.
*BANG!!!!!
Feeling an overwhelming pressure erupt from Rokarn, Shiro was mmed into the floor by the aura.
Cursing in her mind, Shiro was about to activate her Blessing of Chaos when she realised that she had been picked up by the neck by Rokarn.
Energy red around him as Shiro quickly activated Time Flux and broke out of his grasp with the help of Silvanis.
But before her Time Flux could finish its activation duration, Rokarn¡¯s body started to move as any spell that touched him would be destroyed. Including her Time Flux.
¡¯Tsk! Not even Time Flux can hold him?!¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while trying to create some distance so that she could activate Blessing of Chaos.
Parrying his attacks one by one, Shiro found herself being cornered.
To make matters worse, there was a strange aura around him that was slowly destroying her armour that Helion had created for her.
Thankfully, Silvanis was indestructible but from the way it was warping whenever Rokarn struck, Shiro found herself doubting its defences.
¡¯F*cking hell! I didn¡¯t think there was ever a need for me to use this.¡¯ Shiro thought as she pulled out a certain dagger that she had kept in her inventory.
Activating Time Flux once more, she disappeared from her spot and reappeared behind Rokarn.
Her goal was never to run away using Time Flux so that fact that he broke it faster than before didn¡¯t concern her.
Twisting her body, she flooded mana into the de and stabbed it into Rokarn¡¯s exposed back.
[Charm of Aphrodite]
Enemies hit by this weapon have an 80% chance to be charmed if they¡¯re part of the same species or simr. For others, it is reduced to 50%.
When charmed, they will do everything for you as long as it follows their line of thought. Should you damage them, the charm is cancelled. If you order them to kill themselves without a ¡¯good reason¡¯ the charm is cancelled.
Suddenly, a tier 8 magic circle activated on the de as it disintegrated into pink wisps that surrounded Rokarn.
His eyes zed over as his movements halted.
Seeing that it was a sess, Shiro immediately jumped back and activated Blessing of Chaos since the charm wouldn¡¯tst long. Not against someone like Rokarn after all.
And as expected, Rokarn snapped out of it in a few moments and turned towards Shiro who was now ring her tier 8 aura.
Her form was rtively the same except for her aura and the armour that surrounded her body.
However, uponying his eyes on her form, Rokarn felt emotional since this was the same God yer that he remembered seeing so long ago.
"What round is it now? I¡¯ve lost count. But I suppose we can call this round two." Shiro spoke coldly.
###
"Ara, she used my dagger. Shame it¡¯s a one time use." Aphrodite muttered with a charming smile while kissing a god on the lips, draining them of their life essence.
Chapter 1130 Shiro vs Rokarn
Chapter 1130 Shiro vs Rokarn
In the void of space, two figures repeatedly shed through the station, colliding at every turn.
Each attack blocked would cause the walls to crumble and the floor to shatter. Each spell they cast would obliteraterge portions of the station that Shiro had created.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro stomped down with her foot and created a prison around Rokarn while summoning Silvanis.
Twisting her body, she shed towards his chest but he retaliated by conjuring a wave of energy.
Rather than blocking her strike since her sword ignored all armour it pushed it to the side using her momentum against her.
Even if Shiro tried to activate Silvanis¡¯ effect of jumping forward in space, Rokarn was able to react in time.
Adjusting her grip on Silvanis, Shiro sent her elbow towards him while simultaneously activating a tier 8 magic circle beneath the two of them.
Catching her elbow, Rokarn snapped his finger and cancelled out her magic. Pushing up and breaking her guard just for a moment, he sent a bullet of Divine Energy towards her shoulder.
*PUCHI!!!!
Quickly jumping back, Shiro regenerated her arm and surrounded him with guns.
Activating Artemis¡¯ Blessing that makes it so that her ranged attacks never miss, Shiro fired a wave of bullets towards Rokarn.
However, the Demi God only conjured up a barrier around him that stopped the bullets and reflected them back at the guns.
Using this as a distraction, Shiro appeared above him and threw two nanotech needles towards his body.
*PING!!!!!
shing against the ribbon of energy that floated around Rokarn, the needles were not pushed aside as they did not ignore armour like Silvanis.
But this was what Shiro wanted to see.
Activating the needle, it instantly switched ces with Silvanis.
Grabbing the hilt, Shiro exploded a pocket of mana behind the sword to increase its momentum.
Seeing this, Rokarn split his body in half, causing the sword to miss before fusing the two halves together once more.
Punching Shiro in the chest, a second wave of energy shed into her body, sending her crashing through the walls of the station.
The force of his punch had shattered Shiro¡¯s ribcage, causing her bones to pierce her lung and force her to throw up a mouthful of blood.
Angelic wings unfurled from her back as it wrapped around her and shattered into orbs of healing light that recovered her back to max HP.
Despite her Nanotech Demi Goddess Physique making it so that her MP can be used as HP as well, Rokarn¡¯s attacks were simply too devastating. If it wasn¡¯t for this skill, she would have long burned through all of her skills and died in the process.
Watching her MP begin to regenerate once more, Shiro sighed while ducking down to avoid Rokarn¡¯s follow up attack.
Grabbing his arm, she reinforced her body and punched up towards his elbow.
*CRACK!!!!
Pulling him towards her, she then ced her hand against his chest before performing an empowered one inch punch.
*BANG!!!!
Sending Rokarn sliding back, Shiro stomped down and caused several nanotech spikes to erupt from the around in an attempt to pierce him but Rokarn was long prepared.
Weaving through the spikes, he used them as a tform,unching himself towards Shiro.
The energy around him started to transform as it morphed into a ring of des.
Sending them towards Shiro, he activated a tier 8 magic circle, causing it to instantly expand and set nodes down around the station.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro sped her hands together before mming it against the ground.
Suddenly, the entire station disappeared as the nodes lost their anchor point.
Pausing in surprise, Rokarn watched as a void opened up behind him, sucking everything into one point.
Activating a tier 8 magic circle, Shiro borrowed the power of Helios once more as she copsed a star around him.
*PING!!!
Breaking out of the copsing star, Rokarn was about to attack when he realised that a brand new structure was constructed around him.
Thousands upon thousands of rail cannons were aimed towards him while turrets acted as the bridge that connected one cannon to another.
It was a sphere that was purely created from weapons and each one housed hundreds of tier 8 magic circles.
Outside this weapon, Shiro could be seen with a tier 8 array around her while Divine Energy red around her.
The strange crystals that she used to empower mana were in the centre of this array and it had golden runes carved onto the surface.
Snapping her finger, the mana around Rokarn disappeared as she created a null mana zone.
Firing the weapon, hundreds of thousands ofsers concentrated on Rokarn as his flesh burned away by the attack.
Narrowing his eyes, Rokarn grabbed the ck hole in his chest and activated a tier 8 array that was hidden in his body.
His form suddenly expanded as he crushed the weapon with his hands.
However, upon seeing his erged form, Shiro threw Silvanis above him and activated a tier 8 magic circle.
Snapping her finger, Silvanis pierced towards Rokarn, breaking multiple sound barriers as it shot through the magic circle.
Before Rokarn could do anything else, a giant sword cleaved his form in two. Within the centre of this form, Rokarn barely dodged the de but the energy that it radiated still obliterated his arm.
Noticing that the healing was slowing down, Shiro immediately traded ces with her de and summoned it back into her hand.
Stabbing it towards him, she tried to activate Extraction but Rokarn¡¯s body shattered to pieces and reassembled the giant.
Widening her eyes, Shiro created a bomb outside of his body and traded ces before she was trapped.
*BOOM!!!!
Exploding the bomb, there was now arge cavity in his chest.
Checking her internal clock, Shiro frowned, seeing that her skill only had a few minutes left. She was still far from killing this Demi God.
Suddenly, a pair of glowing red eyes could be seen from within the floating flesh of Rokarn.
Realising that she couldn¡¯t move her body, Shiro instinctively activated Grace to bolster her defence.
*PUCHI!!!!
Punching through Shiro¡¯s body, Rokarn could be seen grabbing her heart while attempting to rip her in half.
However, before he could, nanobots suddenly exploded out from her body, causing him to let go and jump back since they were enhanced by Error.
Quickly healing herself, Shiro was feeling the strain of constantly healing her body from near fatal attacks.
{Mum! Let me help!} Attie cried out from within but Shiro shook her head.
¡¯No. Sorry darling but I can¡¯t fight him while focusing on protecting you. He has something that allows him to kill something that was supposed to be immortal. I hate to say it but you can¡¯t do anything here.¡¯ Shiro sighed while dodging Rokarn¡¯s next attack.
{But you¡¯re fighting a losing battle! At least let me help!}
From what he¡¯s seen, Attie knew that Shiro couldn¡¯t keep this up. Rokarn wasn¡¯t tired at all while Shiro was straining herself more and more. The reason why she was able to react to some of the attacks was that she enhanced her eyes using Analysis EX along with reinforcing her body.
If she was a warrior focused fighter he wouldn¡¯t be so worried but she is still at the end of the day, a mage. Fighting at this ferocity would tire her out. Especially since her skill has a timer. Even if she does have the title Virtue of Fortitude that allows her to keep fighting, her body won¡¯t be able to keep up with her will.
Attie wasn¡¯t the only one that was worried. Nimue, Iziuel and Estre watched with a frown. As much as they wanted to help, this was out of their power and their help would only make matters worse.
They were nothing more than distractions if they joined the fight.
*BANG!!!
Gritting her teeth, Shiro felt dizzy as she barely managed to avoid his attack. Stumbling back, she quickly recovered and created some distance between the two of them.
However, without giving her time to catch her breath, a weave of energy wrapped around Shiro¡¯s neck as she was pulled towards him.
Activating a tier 8 magic circle, an orb of divine energy exploded near Shiro¡¯s abdomen.
Holding back a scream despite missing her lower half of her body Shiro gritted her teeth andunched a point nk attack with Silvanis.
Cutting off Rokarn¡¯s head, Shiro quickly activated Fire of Life and healed her wounds while Rokarn did the same.
Meanwhile, everyone watched from afar with worried faces.
Misu gritted her teeth and pulled Esil aside.
Activating a magic circle, her aura started to shift.
"You don¡¯t need to call upon me. Let me rest." Esil spoke as his voice changed.
"But-"
"Don¡¯t worry, two more areing." Esil reassured as Misu frowned but decided to trust him.
###
After healing her wounds, Shiro was about to move when Rokarn appeared in front of her. While Shiro was slowing down the longer this fight took, Rokarn wasn¡¯t affected at all.
Just as his attack was about tond, a hand blocked his strike and sent a punch towards his chest.
"It¡¯s not even the second half and two Demi Gods are already fighting in the mortal ne. Fufu, back in my day the most would happen at this stage would be Queen¡¯s fighting one another." An old manughed as he stood in front of Shiro.
[Makron LVL 1000 Demon God (Divinity 2)].
Chapter 1131 Vhimir
Chapter 1131 Vhimir
"You¡¯re Madi¡¯s ancestor." Shiro muttered in surprise. She didn¡¯t expect a Demon God of all people to join the fray.
"Greetings. Madison has told me much about you. But as much as I would love to chat, this world doesn¡¯t exactly condone my existence. I¡¯m here to help you dy until my darling granddaughter has arrived." Makron chuckled as Shiro was surprised to hear that Madi will being.
"Wait, this isn¡¯t a fight that she can join in on." Shiro frowned but Makron onlyughed.
"Do you think I¡¯m someone to send my granddaughter to her death? But setting that aside, you should focus on healing yourself. From what I¡¯ve been told, you can only sustain yourself in godly form for a short period of time. You¡¯ll need to conserve your strength for the next fight." Makron said as his aura became serious.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to trust in this Demon God.
Jumping back, Shiro opened a portal to the void so that she can recover from her injuries.
Seeing this, Rokarn wanted to stop her but Makron appeared in front of him.
"Now now, don¡¯t think about going after the younger generation while I¡¯m around." Makron smiled as he grabbed Rokarn¡¯s arm.
Shifting his body, Rokarn kicked Makron in the chest but was shocked to see that there was no reaction.
Slowly, Makron¡¯s skin started to turn ck as golden runes appeared on the surface.
"You¡¯ll need more than that if you want to make me take a step back young man." Makron narrowed his eyes.
*BANG CRACK!!!!!
Breaking Rokarn¡¯s arms, Makron pulled Rokarn closer before elbowing him in the centre of the chest, sending him crashing through the walls of what¡¯s left over of Shiro¡¯s station.
###
Jumping through the void, Shiro immediately deactivated Blessing of Chaos since there was only a minute left of the activation time.
Feeling the Divine Energy drain from her body, Shiro¡¯s face became pale from the strain of all her hastily healed wounds pilling up.
Suddenly, a portal opened behind her as she realised that Estre had sent her to the station where she sent the others.
Crashing against the floor, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but wish that Estre sent her to a bed instead.
"Shiro!" Crying out in shock at her condition, Silvia immediately started her treatment as everyone gathered around her.
"What happened?" Nan Tian asked while helping Shiro sit against the wall.
"I received a bit of help from Madison¡¯s ancestor. Demon God Makron. He said that Madi will being here soon and she¡¯ll be helping me kill Rokarn." Shiro exined with a weak voice.
"You¡¯re going back out there aren¡¯t you?" Koji asked as Shiro could tell that he wasn¡¯t happy.
"Mn. Sorry dad." Shiro apologised.
Sighing heavily, Koji kneeled beside Shiro and held her hand.
"The pain that fills my chest to see you fight such an opponent while I can do nothing is suffocating. More so when I know that both you and your mother have reached a realm I never thought possible. As much as I am proud of your power, I am also ashamed. Ashamed that I, as a father, must watch you defend the realm without being able to do anything. I want to do everything in my power to stop you from going out there but I know that this is something you want to do. I have already seen how much you¡¯ve done in hopes that the people of this world can have better lives. So asking you to stop fighting is an impossibility. Just...e back home ok? That¡¯s all I ask. I want to be able to see my daughtere home safe and sound." Koji sighed as Shiro smiled and nodded her head.
"Don¡¯t worry dad, I¡¯lle home no matter what."
"Well now that you¡¯ve finished talking about that, let¡¯s talk about the problem at hand. What do you need from us? Even if she heals you, I don¡¯t believe you¡¯ll be able to fight with the same vigour as before. I don¡¯t know this Madi that you speak of but can she really turn the tides with you not having a single speck of Divine Energy in your body?" Syradil asked as she was watching the fight from the window.
Shaking her head, Shiro had a helpless smile on her face.
"Honestly, you¡¯re right. Most of my skills are on cooldown now, I don¡¯t have any divine energy and aside from Silvanis, there¡¯s not much else I can do to harm Rokarn." Shiro admitted as the party was silent.
"I can help. However, it will not give you any energy for you to use. Only reinforce your body so that you can keep up. Somewhat."
Hearing an unfamiliar voice, Shiro turned towards the source and saw Esil along with Misu.
"And you are?"
"An old God from Misu¡¯s world. I inhabit this body but my mortal personality does not know of my existence. I can grant you some of my power but not as much as I¡¯d hope since I am weakened. Even the smallest help would send me back to slumber but the situation calls for my help." Esil shrugged helplessly.
"Then can I at least know of your name?" Shiro asked as Esil thought for a moment and nodded his head.
"My name is Vhimir. As for my divinity, you will know in time. For now, I will grant you as much Divine Energy as I can spare. All you need to do is break this orb and it will grant you enough reinforcement to fight at tier 8 standard for roughly 5 minutes. It¡¯s not much but that¡¯s the best I can do for now." Vhimir said as a tier 8 magic circle appeared around his wrist before condensing into a golden orb.
Passing it to Shiro, Vhimir took a step back and closed his eyes.
Suddenly, all of the divine energy left his body as he fell backwards but Misu caught him.
"Hais, he loves to be mysterious as always. Vhimir is a god that I worshipped back in my world, before I became a Queen. As for his divinity, since he didn¡¯t say anything it would be unfair of me to divulge his secret." Misu apologised as Shiro shook her head.
"It¡¯s fine. I¡¯m already grateful that he is able to help me."
Keeping the golden orb in her pocket, Shiro closed her eyes and rested as much as she could while Silvia tried to heal her wounded body.
"Have you used any berserk skills yet?" Silvia asked but Shiro shook her head.
".. .Then I suppose I don¡¯t need to tell you what kind of damage you can cause to yourself if you stack them right now. If you do, I don¡¯t even think all of the healers in Asharia put together can help you." Silvia warned.
"I know. I don¡¯t n on stacking them this fight. I¡¯m trusting what Makron said about Madison being able to help me ovee this fight. With Vhimir¡¯s power helping me, I should be able to find a chance to use extraction." Shiro smiled as Silvia nodded.
"Nimue, if you hear me, cut off her supply of mana the moment she tries to stack and get Estre to teleport her back. There¡¯s always a second chance to fight."
"I know don¡¯t worry." Nimue said as she materialised next to Shiro.
Slowly, a me appeared as Attie could be seen with a frustrated face.
"If Miss Madies, can me, Nimue and Iziuel rejoin the fight? We¡¯ll have four Demi Gods on our side." Attie asked but Shiro shook her head.
"You¡¯re not a proper Demi God yet Attie. You¡¯re close but you don¡¯t have a divinity to fight with yet. From what I¡¯ve experienced, if you don¡¯t have a Divinity, he can destroy your body before you can even react. If you have a divinity, you¡¯ll be able to protect yourself before that happens." Shiro shook her head.
Seeing that Shiro was serious in not letting him rejoin, Attie walked over to the window, sat down and pouted with an annoyed face.
Sitting beside him, Yinforted Attie.
"Stop talking now, you¡¯re only making my job harder." Silvia said as Shiro nodded her head.
###
Reinforcing his body, Makron focused on dying things as much as he could.
While he may not be able to kill Rokarn, he is more than capable of dragging things out.
"What¡¯s wrong youngster, can¡¯t keep up with an old man like me?" Makron asked as his clothes had long been reced by his ted armour.
Furrowing his brows, Rokarn dashed forward and attempted to destroy the old man using his divinity.
However, the moment it touched his skin, the divinity was countered for a split moment. That moment was enough for Makron to punch Rokarn in the face, sending him sliding back while dusting off his armour.
"What¡¯s wrong? Surprised?" Makron smiled but this was a bluff. There was only so much he could do against such a tyrannical divinity. He was hoping that he could bluff his way through and make Rokarn search for different ways to fighting him.
While he may not seem like it, he had already used 2 life saving skills.
¡¯Hais, youngsters these days. Each of them is more abnormal than thest. Madi only needed to kill 72 demon gods but she went and challenged the seven ancients.¡¯ Makron chuckled before charging at Rokarn.
He just needed to dy until she arrived.
Chapter 1132 Shiro and Makron
Chapter 1132 Shiro and Makron
Reinforcing his body, Makron continued to punch Rokarn but his regeneration was simply monstrous. Each punch he threw, each chunk of flesh that he tore off and each spell heunched would be rendered useless.
Thankfully, his bluff seemed to have worked earlier and it seemed like Rokarn wasn¡¯t using the Chaos divinity but Makron wasn¡¯t sure.
There was something about Rokarn¡¯s stare that sent chills down his spine. After all his years as a God, this was the first time he¡¯s felt this unsettled.
Narrowing his eyes, he stared at Rokarn who managed to step back up once more.
Just as Makron was about to attack once more, he watched in surprise as Rokarn¡¯s body started to change. On the surface of his body, ck runes started to appear.
Recognising it to be the same as the one¡¯s on his body, Makron didn¡¯t believe that Rokarn was able to copy his Demon God Physique.
Flickering behind him, Makron punched towards his ribs while his spare hand reached towards his neck.
*BANG!!!!
Blocking his punches without a problem, Rokarn twisted his body and sent a kick towards Makron¡¯s stomach.
The force of the kick sent Makron sliding back as he was shocked at the sudden increase in strength.
Quickly moving out of the way, Makron barely managed to dodge Rokarn¡¯s punch.
Raising his arms, he guarded his head as Rokarn sent another kick towards him.
Now that he was prepared, he wasn¡¯t sent as far back but his arms ached from the kick.
¡¯It¡¯s not a proper Demon God Physique but the simrities are there.¡¯ Makron thought with a frown.
Moving his head to the side, he dodged the next punch before grabbing his wrist.
Pulling his arm back, Makron sent a punch towards Rokarn¡¯s chest.
Suddenly, Rokarn¡¯s chest opened up as his punchpletely missed.
Closing his chest, divine energy red up as Makron wanted to pull his arm out but it was toote.
*PUCHI!!!!
Gritting his teeth, he immediately cut his arm off before the corruption could spread towards his body.
Jumping back, he could see that Rokarn had already seen through his bluff. Especially now that it was proven that his divinity did indeed work.
Regenerating his arm, Makron realised that it wasn¡¯t a proper Demon God Physique but rather one that imitated the strength and power.
Compared to a proper one, it was still weaker but It was enough for Rokarn to keep up.
¡¯I¡¯ve pretty much lost all my advantages. Hais. The old generation really can¡¯t keep up.¡¯ Makron thought to himself while massaging his neck.
"Given up already?" A voice rang out as Makron nced back and saw a semi recovered Shiro who was now ready to fight again.
"Not exactly. But I must say, fighting against this beast of a Demi God is rather difficult. I can see why Madi called you abnormal." Makronughed while shielding Shiro from Rokarn¡¯s next attack.
Holding Rokarn in ce, he watched as Shiro appeared behind Rokarn with Silvanis in hand.
shing him across the back, Shiro disappeared from her spot before Rokarn could attack her.
"Well I only managed to fight him like that because of a skill granted by Chaos. If not, I would have died a while ago." Shiro shrugged.
"So how long till Madi arrives?"
"Soon is the best I can tell you. For now this old bag of bones will be taking her ce." Makron shrugged as Shiro nodded.
"That¡¯s fine. I suppose I should see how a God ys the tank role." Shiro smiled as nanobots surged around her.
cing crystals into the nanobots, she created 4 rail guns and carved a few golden runes on Silvanis.
Nodding at each other, they both dashed towards Rokarn as Shiro sent a barrage of shots towards the Demi God.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro conjured up 4 needles and sealed off the mana around Rokarn for a short period of time.
Creating a smoke screen with her shots, Shiro concealed Makron in the shadows, giving him a prime opportunity tond a few heavy blows against Rokarn.
*BANG!!!!!
Punching Rokarn out of the smoke screen, Makron wanted to jump after him when an orb of darkness appeared in front of him.
Widening his eyes, he was about to put up his guard when he switched locations with one of Shiro¡¯s needles.
"I got you covered. Just focus on smacking him." Shiro said as she conjured up another needle.
Out of her four needles, only one allowed teleportation while the others had different effects.
Nodding his head, Makron shot towards Rokarn like a bullet while the rail guns floated around him, sending another way of bullets towards Rokarn.
Furrowing his brows, Rokarn waved his hand and a barrier of divine energy surrounded him.
However, one of the bullets suddenly traded ces with the teleportation needle.
Switching it once more, a second needle pierced the barrier and created a small opening, allowing a bullet to go through. Flipping the location of the bullet and the teleport needle, she teleported Makron past the barrier, allowing him a clear shot at Rokarn.
To others, it may seem like Makron just teleported within the barrier but it was much harder than that.
Seeing that he was now inside the barrier, Makron couldn¡¯t helppliment Shiro in his mind. The level of observation and control needed to aplish what she had just done was not something anyone could just do.
Unleashing a barrage of punches at Rokarn, the runes on his body suddenly changed colours as poison invaded Rokarn¡¯s body.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Rokarn wanted to counter but Makron disappeared before he could.
In his ce was a single needle that switched with a sh bang grenade.
Blinded by the light, Rokarn furrowed his eyes and unleashed a wave of attacks all around him, stopping Makron from approaching.
Just as he recovered his sight, he felt danger behind him and saw Makron with a glowing red spear in his hands.
While it may not be as powerful as the first one that he had seen, this was no doubt the Sun Breaker Spear that had severely injured him before!
Plus, it wasunched by Shiro in her Demi God state so the power was no doubt weaker than what it could be. However, this time, the spear was going to be used by a proper God!
Quickly erecting a barrier around himself, he watched as a tsunami of mes surrounded his barrier.
*KRK!!!
Seeing a fracture appear on his barrier, Rokarn narrowed his eyes and gathered his energy into a greatsword.
Stomping down, he dismissed his barrier and swung towards the spear in an attempt to push it aside.
*CLANG!!!
Seeing that no one was wielding the spear right now, he widened his eyes and looked back.
Behind him, Makron activated a tier 8 magic circle and punched the pommel of Silvanis that floated in front of him.
*BANG!!!!!
Catching Silvanis between his palms before it could pierce his body, Rokarn slid backwards as the force was not something he couldpletely cancel out.
Suddenly, Shiro appeared in front of him and grabbed Silvanis.
Activating the third effect, she shifted the de through his guard and pierced him in the chest.
Gritting his teeth, several tier 8 magic circles appeared around Shiro as she quickly traded ces with her needle.
Taking a deep breath, Rokarn red at the two who were getting ready for the next attack.
Conjuring up the Source Code, a string of runes started to wrap around his arm and slowly travelled towards his chest.
While Shiro may not know what this meant, she wasn¡¯t about to let him do what he pleased.
Fusing the four Rail Guns around her into a Rail Cannon, she turned one of the crystals into a bullet and pulled the trigger.
Amplifying its speed and power using tier 7 magic circles, she teleported Silvanis in front of the bullet and transferred all of the energy into her de.
*BANG!!!!!
Piercing through Rokarn¡¯s body, Shiro could clearly see that his regeneration was slowing down. Finally, her attack had left asting wound but the joy was short lived. A strange ck energy started to flow out from the wound as it wrapped around his body.
Simr to what happened to Syradil when she activated her new skill, ayer of ck energy now coated the surface of his body. There was nothing else except two orbs of light that represented his eyes.
Raising his hand, a tier 8 array exploded out as Makron activated a barrier but it was eroded away before it could take shape.
"All external mana and divine energy is being corroded. Don¡¯t bother using spells." Shiro spoke as she analysed the array with a frown.
"So anything internal is fine then?" Makron asked as Shiro nodded.
Massaging his shoulder, a demonic aura exploded out from Makron¡¯s body as horns grew out of his head. A pair of bat like wings unfurled from his back along with a ck tail.
Natural armour grew out of his body as Makron pulled out a pair of Demonic Gauntlets from the void.
"Demons are known for their physical prowess. Since I can¡¯t use external mana or divine energy, I guess I¡¯ll go back to the old teachings." Makron grinned as Shiro shrugged.
"Do what you wish. I¡¯ll focus on dispelling his domain."
Nodding his head, Makron charged at Rokarn.
Chapter 1133 Arias Back Up Plan
Chapter 1133 Aria''s Back Up n
While Makron was focused on keeping Rokarn busy, Shiro was analysing the domain that Rokarn had ced.
Most of it was hidden through runes that kept changing but by using her newly upgraded Analysis EX, she was able to spot the small instances where the domain runes were revealed.
While reading the runes, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but furrow her brows.
¡¯This domain... why is it¡¯s construction so simr to my own Throne World.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Usually Throne Worlds should be unique to each individual. Even if it¡¯s the same element, it would be constructed differently depending on the person who did it due to their thought process and usage of mana.
Very rarely would you have two Throne Worlds are simr in appearance and even rarer to have two that are constructed in such a simr manner.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro wanted to try out something. If the Throne World was so simr to her own, she might be able to hijack this domain, making it easier for them to kill Rokarn.
Flying to the border of the domain, Shiro activated a barrier around herself and ced her hand against the wall.
Just as she tried to bypass the first barrier, she realised that it was rejecting the runes that she were using. Simr to when you try to use a wrong key on the door, she couldn¡¯t even begin the decoding since the key won¡¯t fit.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro sighed.
¡¯So before I can even start to decipher this domain I¡¯ll need to study his runes?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and massaged her shoulder.
¡¯Well it can¡¯t be that hard. Activating Analysis EX, her surroundings started to slow down.
Bringing up the images of the runes, Shiro started to decode them. But the moment she tried this, there was something that clicked in her mind.
Her vision started to warp as some images started to ovep one another.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro ignored the headache she was feeling and tried to make sense of the images.
¡¯What¡¯s happening?¡¯ She couldn¡¯t help but think to herself.
In front of her, she could see the faint silhouette of a child running. Her facial features werergely blurred out but Shiro could see that she was smiling.
As she ran along, time sped up and the girl grew up. As a child, she was shy but active. That shyness soon disappeared as she grew up into an adult.
Holding her head, Shiro could barely recognise the person in front of her but that was a face she won¡¯t forget. Even if it was a younger version of her.
"Aria..." Shiro muttered while holding her head.
Feeling a sharp pain in her mind, she soon found herself in the middle of a battlefield.
Fire and ruin surrounded her as only two figures could be seen. One was injured and leaning against debris while the other stood proud.
¡¯Is that me?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while looking at the version of her that was still standing.
Raising her hand, ck energy gathered into a de as her face was cold.
Opening her mouth, she started to speak but Shiro couldn¡¯t hear anything. She tried to lip read but couldn¡¯t recognise thenguage she was speaking.
In a single moment, all of the energy disappeared as Aria jumped up and punched a hole through her chest.
ck and red energy coursed from Shiro¡¯s body into Aria¡¯s arm as it turned ck with red circuits. Ripping out what seems to be the source code, it was shattered apart and the vision cleared itself.
¡¯The hell...¡¯ Shiro furrowed her brows as tried to make sense of the vision. But the most important part was that the ck runes that Rokarn used started to make sense to her.
Without even decoding them, she knew their meaning.
Snapping out of her confusion, she nced back and could see that Makron was struggling to stop Rokarn from trying to kill her.
Understanding that she needed to speed things up, she pulled her arm back and narrowed her eyes.
Suddenly, ck runes started to appear on her arm as Rokarn watched in shock.
Gritting her teeth from the influx of power, Shiro punched forward.
The moment her hand came into contact with the barrier, a web of ck runes spread across the surface of the barrier, picking apart the defences and breaking into the main array.
In a single instant, all of the information rted to this domain flooded into Shiro¡¯s mind as she activated a tier 7 magic circle using her spare hand.
Materialising the standard golden runes that she uses now, Shiro started to weave the two together.
With Makron stopping Rokarn from interfering, he could only watch as the domain was ripped from his control.
Suddenly, a white array appeared on his back.
"!!!"
Widening his eyes, Rokarn released a wave of energy that pushed Makron away from him.
¡¯Sorry, I didn¡¯t want to do this but I¡¯m taking over for now.¡¯ Aria¡¯s voice rang out in his mind as Rokarn clutched his head.
A pair of angelic wings unfurled from his back as each feather was created from an array of runes.
sping his hands together, a silver spear of light materialised in front of him.
Pulling back his arm, he threw the spear.
*BANG!!!!
Appearing behind Shiro in an instant, the barrier was shattered to pieces.
"Trying to target the younger generation while I¡¯m still around? Fat chance!" Makron shouted out as he threw his own spear of darkness that barely managed to push Rokarn¡¯s spear off course.
"Demon God, this is beyond you now. If you continue to interfere I will be forced to eliminate you." Aria warned as she had hijacked Rokarn¡¯s body.
"Since when did you transform into a woman? But regardless, I¡¯m not leaving. This old man has decided to look after thisss until my grand daughter has arrived. I don¡¯t n to go back on my word." Makron smiled as a wave of energy was suddenlyunched towards him.
Feeling his instincts scream out, he quickly activated one of his skills and parried the attack.
*PUCHI!!!!
Seeing the attack go through his guard like it was nothing, Makron frowned as he quickly healed himself.
"Final warning, leave or die." Aria warned as she teleported behind Shiro who had trusted her back to Makron.
"Final response, I ain¡¯t leaving until my grand daughter has arrived." Makron replied as he grappled her from behind.
Twisting his body, he threw her away from Shiro before kicking Aria in the chest.
"Don¡¯t worry I¡¯ll protect your back while you do this." Makron reassured as Shiro nodded her head.
"You don¡¯t know what you¡¯re doing." Aria narrowed her eyes and conjured up 4 floatingnces of light. Sending them towards Makron, she watched as he reinforced his body, allowing himself to take all the hits despite seeing what one attack had done earlier.
However, that question was soon answered as all of the damage he took was healed up. Radiant energy coursed through his body, transforming to demonic energy that empowered his physique.
Holding his breath, Makron flickered in front of Aria and grabbed her by the head.
Pulling his arm back, he punched towards her face but his punch was blocked by a barrier.
"If you don¡¯t want my mercy then die." Aria narrowed her eyes.
A tier 8 magic circle appeared on her spear as golden chains appeared around Makron, holding him in ce.
But before she could fire, all of the mana disappeared from her body.
Stumbling for a second, Aria looked towards Shiro who had just finished taking over this domain.
"Aria." Shiro greeted with a frown.
Waving her finger, Makron was teleported out of his chains and appeared next to her.
"Shiro." Aria replied as Shiro started to walk towards her.
"I¡¯ll be honest. At first I thought our rtion was limited to the Light Hero being your proxy and husband. Care to exin why your fear is apparently me or do I have to kill you to get that answer?" Shiro asked as she summoned Silvanis to her side.
"You know you¡¯re incapable of killing me right now." Aria narrowed her eyes and sent a wave of attacks towards her using divine energy.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro created portals just before they hit her, teleporting them to the otherside of the domain.
"Yes, but it¡¯s just a matter of when. There wille a time for me to kill you and that goes for your husband too. I have quite the vendetta against you two. However, since you don¡¯t want to tell me about our rtionship then I suppose I¡¯ll have to find outter."
"Perhaps. But that¡¯s only if you get a chance." Aria said as she suddenly teleported in front of Shiro.
Seeing this, Shiro didn¡¯t even blink and opened a hole in the domain.
Suddenly, a pir of dark energy crashed down, forcing Aria to jump back.
"I hope I¡¯m notte to the party." A familiar voiceughed out as Shiro smiled.
"Nope, you¡¯re just in time."
[Madison LVL 1000 Demi Goddess of Demons (Divinity 1)]
Chapter 1134 Madisons Divinity
Chapter 1134 Madison''s Divinity
mming her foot down, divine energy erupted from Madison¡¯s body as she sped her two hands together. A pair of demonic gauntlets appeared along with a strange demonic wheel.
Snapping her finger and one of the tiles lit up.
"Seir!" Madison called out as a runic marking appeared on her arm.
Suddenly, she disappeared from her spot and appeared behind Aria.
"Shax!"
A veil of ck mist covered Aria¡¯s eyes as Madison punched her in the back, stabbing into her flesh with her gauntlets before activating another tile.
"Sabnock!"
Suddenly, the wound that she had inflicted onto Aria started to fester and corrupt with demonic worms exploding from the cut. Biting into her skin, the worms started to drain Aria of her energy while Shiro raised her eyebrow.
¡¯Seir, Shax and Sabnock are all demons from the 72 Demons of Goetia. Seir can teleport, Shax steals senses and Sabnock makes wounds worse.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while sending a wave of bullets towards Aria now that her senses were sealed away.
Gritting her teeth, Aria activated a tier 8 magic circle, dispelling the ck mist and red at Madison.
mming her hand down, a barrier appeared around her as she dashed towards Shiro.
Seeing this, Madison was about to intercept her when she was flung back from an invisible force.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, she activated another tile.
"Andromalius!"
Blinking her eyes, Aria realised that she was now beside Madison as sheunched another punch, this time across her face.
Seeing as how Madison had things covered, Shiro closed her eyes and activated a tier 7 magic circle. Using her new understanding of the ck runes, she created a sniper and ced a crystal in the centre.
Jumping back, she aimed towards Aria and pulled the trigger.
*BANG!!!!!
Firing a bullet towards Aria, Shiro watched as she barely managed to move out of the way while Madison activated another tile.
"Aym!"
mes burst out around her as Aria found her wings set ame. Despite trying to heal herself, the mes seem to be suppressing her healing as Shiro appeared behind her with Silvanis in hand.
Twisting her body, Shiro crushed the orb that Vhimir gave her as Divine Energy coursed through her body.
Activating Silvanis¡¯ ability, the sword shifted through the space and cleaved against Aria¡¯s neck in an attempt to decapitate her.
However, she quickly stabbed a sword through her chest.
*BOOM!!!!
The tier 8 magic circle around her started to flicker as a brand newyer was starting to form.
"Tier 9." Shiro muttered with a frown since this was what Chronos had told her when recounting their fight against Aria.
Furrowing her brows, Madison grabbed the demon wheel and activated a tier 7 magic circle.
One by one, the tiles fused together and only 7 remain.
"Seal of Gluttony - Beelzebub!"
Watching Madison conjure up a seal to summon Beelzebub, Shiro felt something stir within her as she had a lesser version of the sin thanks to Yin.
Suddenly, a pair of demonic arms appeared from the magic circle as a hulking demon dragged himself out.
"URAHHHH!!!
With 6 eyes, 6 horns that formed a crown and 6 demon wings on his back, the demon known as Beelzebub pried itself from the summoning circle.
Plunging his hands into his chest, he ripped it open as all of the divine energy and mana started to disappear.
Naturally, this disturbed the formation of Aria¡¯s tier 9 magic circle, causing her to frown in displeasure.
Just as she was about to activate another tier 9 magic circle to counteract Beelzebub, she watched as the arm started to crumble away.
¡¯Only this much huh? Disappointing.¡¯ Aria narrowed her eyes since Rokarn¡¯s body couldn¡¯t handle the use of tier 9 magic.
Shaking her head, she watched as her tier 9 magic circle got cancelled out by Beelzebub.
Switching the tiles, red runes appeared on Madison¡¯s arm as she narrowed her eyes.
"Seal of Wrath ¨C Satan!"
Instead of summoning Satan, Madison¡¯s skin turned ck as red markings spread from her heart to the other parts of her body.
Demonic armour wrapped around her as two horns protruded from her head. Her eyes became two orbs of pure fury as she activated Seir once more and teleported behind Arai.
Grabbing her wings, Madison opened her mouth and bit down on Aria¡¯s neck. With her teeth firmly nted in her neck, tightened her grip around the wings and ripped them out before jamming her hands into the wound.
"Are you sure I¡¯m needed here?" Shiro asked in shock as she didn¡¯t think Madison would have this kind of ferocity.
"Yes, Wrath onlysts a short while so you should take this time to end this woman." Makron nodded as he was now recovering from the bacsh of the skills that he was using.
Nodding her head, Shiro activated error as Silvanis morphed into a ck de with red circuit patterns.
Despite having Madison ripping her back to shreds, Aria didn¡¯t miss this as she narrowed her eyes.
¡¯Tsk, I can¡¯t do much else here. Rokarn¡¯s body is too weak.¡¯ She thought with a frown before activating a tier 8 magic circle.
The effects were unknown as Shiro appeared in front of her, plunging the sword into the chest.
Immediately separating herself from Rokarn¡¯s body, Aria red at Shiro.
"You might have won this time but it¡¯s not over." Aria warned as Shiro tried to use Error on her. However, red circuits appeared from Aria¡¯s arm, stopping Error from reaching her.
With no choice other than letting Aria leave, Shiro frowned and looked down at Rokarn.
With his armourpletely shattered and his arm missing from trying to use magic higher than what he can withstand, he nced towards Shiro.
"God yer, take your prize. You¡¯ve earned it." He smiled as his vision was bing blurry.
Raising his hand, the source code started to appear as Rokarn¡¯s body was now turning to ash.
"Can you tell me our rtionship now?" Shiro asked as Rokarn chuckled.
"I¡¯m just someone who looked up to the God yer. Entrusted with this shard, I sold my soul to the system so that I can meet you once more to return what was given. My vitality has been spent but I am not allowed to rest. Soon my soul will go back to the archive in preparation for the next fight. God yer, as I watched you battle that witch, I see that you have already earned the power to seize souls from the system. May I ask for the favour of liberation?" Rokarn asked as his voice was weak.
Closing her eyes, Shiro nodded her head and activated Error. Raising her hand, she looked at Rokarn and plunged her hand into his chest. Red circuits exploded out from her arm as it pierced through the barriers that protected his source code.
Taking hold of the code, Shiro pulled out her hand.
*PUCHI!!!!
Seeing the two orbs of code that was now in her possession, Rokarn smiled.
¡¯Ah... Finally I can rest...¡¯
Shattering into ash, Rokarn¡¯s body could no longer be seen as Shiro received several notifications.
[You have cleared the raid.]
[You have received the following.]
[Source Code Shard of the Destroyer.]
[Source Code of Rokarn.]
[Due to Extraction, you received the skill ¨C Chaos Energy.]
[Chaos Energy ¨C Passive.]
Half of your Divine Energy is automatically infused with the essence of Chaos, transforming it into energy suited to destruction.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro watched as Rokarn¡¯s source code slowly disappeared while the other source code started to shimmer with a purple glow.
Suddenly, tendrils shot out of the source code andtched onto Shiro¡¯s arm.
A wave of pain washed over her body as Shiro was immediately knocked out.
Catching her before she could drift away, Madison was about to say something when another notification appeared.
[The world has adapted to the presence of Gods. The second half will soon begin.]
[Countdown: 7 Days: 00 Minutes: 00 Seconds]
"Ah... F*ck." Madison cursed as Makron furrowed his brows.
ncing back at Earth, he watched as the barriers that were previously there disappear little by little.
"Take her back to your friends. I¡¯ll be going back to the Demon Realm so that I can do my own preparations." Makron said as Madison nodded her head.
"Will you be alright? You did give me part of your divinity." Madison asked as Makron chuckled before patting her head.
"Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not that weak. Plus, don¡¯t we have them as our allies now?" Makron smiled as a portal opened up, revealing 7 figures.
"I was wondering why we were suddenly able to create a pathway to this realm. Seems like the Garden is reaching the second stage." A handsome man smiled as Madison narrowed her eyes.
"If you lot dare cause trouble on Earth I will break each and every one of you myself." She warned as the man bowed.
"Of course, your highness. we do as youmand."
[Asmodeus LVL 1000 Ancient Lord of Lust (Divinity 2)]
Behind her, the other 6 bowed as well.
[Lucifer LVL 1000 Ancient Lord of Pride (Divinity 2)]
[Belphegor LVL 1000 Ancient Lord of Sloth (Divinity 2)]
[Mammon LVL 1000 Ancient Lord of Greed (Divinity 2)]
[Beelzebub LVL 1000 Ancient Lord of Gluttony (Divinity 2)]
[Satan LVL 1000 Ancient Lord of Wrath (Divinity 2)]
[Leviathan LVL 1000 Ancient Lord of Envy (Divinity 2)]
Chapter 1135 Anima
Chapter 1135 Anima
Holding her head, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Where am I?" She muttered, finding herself in the middle of a strange garden of sorts. The flowers here were different to the ones that she¡¯ll find back on Earth and each of them radiated a small amount of Divine Energy.
Looking up at the sky, she could see an array of unfamiliars but there was no sun.
Walking along the path in the garden, she saw empty buildings that seem like they were created with the purpose of enjoying a few snacks while observing this ce.
On the marbled tables under the roof, there were still tes with an assortment of snacks.
Reaching out for one, Shiro watched as her hand phased through it.
¡¯Seems like I don¡¯t have a physical body here.¡¯
Shaking her head, she looked around to see if there was anything else of interest.
However, she soon got bored of this ce and tried to look for a way out.
Reaching the edge, she tried to see if she could escape but despite her incorporeal form, there was a barrier that prevented her from leaving.
"Seems like you got bored of our old home rather quickly." A voice rang out as Shiro looked back and saw the other version of her from the memories that she tapped into.
"Should I call you me or should I call you God yer like what Rokarn did?" Shiro asked as the woman shrugged.
"I prefer being called Anima though not many know me by that name. My authority level was a tad high for them so all they saw was question marks. Of course, lil¡¯ Ro was no exception." Anima chuckled as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Lil¡¯ Ro?"
"Well he¡¯s my second student so of course I gave him a nickname." Anima shrugged while waved her hand.
The scenery suddenly changed as they were now sitting around a table with some snacks in front of them.
"And let me guess, the first student is Aria." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Mn, she is. Though I don¡¯t know much of what happened after. This shard of myself that I carved out was a precaution. I gave this to lil¡¯ Ro in hopes of getting it back at a slightlyter date but since I¡¯m seeing such a weakened version of myself, I¡¯m guessing what I feared happened." Anima said while tracing her finger along the rim of a tea cup.
"What did you fear? Why are we Aria¡¯s deepest fear?" Shiro asked as Anima nced up at Shiro.
"Well I suppose we¡¯ll need to talk about who we are to begin with." Anima said as she stood up.
"Follow me, I have quite a bit of exining I need to do for you. Though we have plenty of time since your body is trying to adapt to the shard." Anima smiled as she waved her hand.
Suddenly, Shiro found herself floating in the empty void with a star lit path in front of her.
"As you know, Chaos was the beginning of everything. With Chaos, life was born. There wasn¡¯t always the system. Life was without restrictions and only power determined one¡¯s worth. But while Chaos is the beginning of everything, your friend Nyx isn¡¯t exactly her daughter. She is a god brought to life by the belief of the people and due to the association with Chaos, her name received value. But the gods in the first era were different. They were the true gods and they could bend the universe to its knees. They are what you like to call actual gods. Ones perceived as omnipotent and omniscient. Though omniscient is not exactly the right words. They know anything they saw once and can call upon that memory whenever they wish. How they choose to store that varies. Sound familiar?" Anima smiled as Shiro paused for a moment and realised what she was talking about.
"Mn, your ¡¯database¡¯ is not due to the imitation of divinity but rather something that woke up inside of you when presented with divinity once more. The power of nanobots was never meant to reach this stage as it is but an imitation. Why else do you think all the other experiments were never as strong as you? They were the true users of Nanobots. You just brought this imitation to a new level. All of the theories and potential uses were using you as a basis. They ignorantly believed that all mortals could wield the power cultivated by a first born and you saw the results. Consumed by the false divinity and turned into machine abominations that sought to destroy everything around them. Though I guess their life had some use to it. It allowed you to cultivate your divinity through other means." Anima exined as images of Shiro¡¯s torture back in Aria was disyed, causing Shiro to frown.
"So what are we then? Are we the first children of Chaos?" Shiro asked.
"Mn to some extent yes. With creation there will be destruction, such is the bnce of the world. When Chaos created the known universe and the multiverse that housed reflections of one another, some would naturally destroy themselves. Even Chaos wasn¡¯t able to create the perfect world and thus we or rather, I was born from the destructive energy radiated by every universe consumed by the void. Anima, First Born of Chaos and the Destroyer. Anything I touch I destroy, anything I look at is consumed by the void. I was the fear in every First Born¡¯s heart. I was fear incarnate.
"To the ¡¯Omnipotent¡¯ and immortal gods that bent the universe to its knees, I was the one who could strip them of their powers and crush their soul as though it was never there. In the face of the primal energy of destruction, none could survive. Which is why we were given a rather ¡¯amodating¡¯ domain. One that prevented our destructive nature to leak out to the world.
"Due to my nature as a First Born, I constantly radiatedrge amounts of divine energy which cultivated the nts and fruits that you saw in the garden. Eating one fruit would allow a god to bask in my power and receive a boost. The nts would be great nature spirits that nourish each world that came to existence. And from the water, life would be sustained. My house was the first garden, one solely focused on preserving life despite being in the presence of a being only used for destruction." Anima exined as the scenery changed once more. This time, a portal was visible inside the garden.
"I had given up on leaving and no matter how many times I tried to destroy the barriers my powers were sealed. Within this domain, I was simply a god that had ample amounts of divinity but no outlet for that power. However, gods that sought out all knowledge soon discovered the source of the energy that brought life to the worlds. My home. While the garden was designed to keep my powers in check, it was nothing to the other gods. A portal was created and I had my first visitor. Since it was the first visitor I ever had since the time of my confinement, we conversed for nights on end and I learned of the outer world. One which I was helping despite my divinity. The god saw that my home sustained the world and only wished for knowledge so he brought no harm. It was I who offered him a fruit and flower for him to study.
"Taking the souvenirs back with them I soon discovered more portals being opened. Each bringing me knowledge of the outside world in return for the fruits and flowers to which I agreed. I had plenty around and more kept growing, what¡¯s stopping me from giving it away. Plus, I couldn¡¯t leave the domain so naturally I wanted to learn of the outside world. Lil¡¯ Ro was no exception. He was one among the many that made his way to my domain but unlike the others, he never intended to arrive. Regardless, I still offered him a fruit.
"But since the nature of my divinity is destruction, you can imagine what will happen once the barrier started to break. With so many people entering my domain, the nature of my divinity started to leak out. From destruction you may find life but ultimately it is still destruction. Now that the barrier was destroyed, my powers leaked out to the universe and those that had consumed the fruit started to change. What was harmless before now amplified their destructive tendencies. Thus, war broke out all over the known universe. With my confinement now on the verge of breaking, it was only a matter of time until my influence poured out to those that had already been touched. Those that consumed only one fruit will find their fighting prowess enhanced. But those that consumed more than one will change." Anima said as Shiro paused in realisation.
"They would fall."
Hearing this, Anima¡¯s lips curled up into a smile.
"Indeed. They would be the ones you know as Fallen."
Chapter 1136 Talking to Anima
Chapter 1136 Talking to Anima
"The fallen are those that are beyond saving. Ones that have my power deeply rooted into their existence. The reason for seeking out my power became a barrier and those that lose this barrier upon achieving their goal will be consumed by my destructive nature." Anima exined as Shiro sighed.
"So that¡¯s why Syradil¡¯s adaptation was to be something that was on the boundary of bing Fallen. It wasn¡¯t the opposite of divinity but rather an adaptation to prevent my original divinity from harming her. By bing something that was close to the threshold, she was able to shield herself since there was now an outlet for this destructive energy." Shiro muttered.
"Indeed. Her adaptation granted her the boon of never bing fallen. Even if she was to fall to the lowest point of her life, this adaptation would prevent her from being tainted by our influence. But where was I... ah yes. About how my confinement started to break. Little by little, more cracks started to form and those that became Fallen were stripped of their sentience, bing nothing but beings that embraced my power, the power of destruction. And once that barrier broke, can you guess what happened?" Anima asked as Shiro sighed heavily.
"Yes. The first age of Demons and Gods. The demons were never meant for those that we called ¡¯Demons¡¯ but rather the fallen that were lost to our influence."
"Indeed. The first battle was something to behold. My minions of destruction razed everything to the ground leaving no sign of life in their wake. Every spell they hurled now contained the power of primordial destruction, one that consumed everything. Soon, some of the gods started to fight destruction with destruction. By consuming one fruit, they would receive a boost in power to stand against the Fallen. But those that are desperate prayed to my name and consumed more than one in order to hold the line against the Fallen. They would ensure that their goals were something far reaching so that they can maintain their sanity for as long as possible. But that is only a temporary measure." Anima smiled as she continued to walk.
"With so much destruction in the world, how did ite to an end?" Shiro asked as Anima nced back.
"It never did. Why else do you think the Age of Demons and Gods continue to this day?"
". . ."
"So as for what we are, we are the bane of all life. We are the never-ending destruction that haunt the end of their life and we are what drives the fury and wrath in the hearts of people. When the barrier was finally broken, my influence was at its highest. The war escted in scale and more gods consumed the fruits in an act of desperation. It was also during this time that I started to roam the universe that I was so curious about.
"This was also when I first found Aria. She was a small Demi God whose parents were lost to my power. During my journey, I had epted her as my first student after saving her from the Fallen. Back then, I still didn¡¯t know everything was my doing, only that their destructive energy was strangely powerful. While I say that she was my student, there wasn¡¯t much to teach her as I was never a teacher. She merely followed me around to explore the world while I killed everything that tried to stop me. Later, I reunited with Lil¡¯ Ro and he journeyed with me and Aria. The three of us explored the world while cultivating our strength, saving others where we could despite me just wanting to explore. But I was content since it allowed me to explore the connections between two people. And then I cut a piece of myself off and handed it to Rokarn in hopes that my thoughts were wrong but s, they were right. Aria most likely discovered what my powers were and that I was the source of everything. There was something off about her but ¡¯I¡¯ never got around to finding out what it was. Which brings us to this moment." Anima smiled and turned around.
"As for your question of what I feared, I would say fear isn¡¯t the right word but rather concern as to why Aria was acting differently. I gave a shard of myself to Rokarn for two reasons. One is to keep him safe as my powers will help him. The other is to act as a fail safe in case anything was to happen to me. I had nned to ce more precautions since the world was a dangerous ce. Despite being ¡¯immortal¡¯ there is always a way for something to die. There¡¯s no such thing as true immortality in the world despite what it may seem like. All things wille to an end and that includes us. Even the souls that we destroy are eventually reassembled into something elsepletely. The end of one is the beginning of another. For me, this was just me trying to make sure that my knowledge will transfer to the next beginning. And so far it¡¯s proved to be right considering I am here now, talking to you. As for why I¡¯m Aria¡¯s deepest fear, I can only image that it was fear of my power of what happened after I cut this shard of me off." Anima shrugged as the visions of what happened finally stopped and they were back at the table.
"So what happens now then?"
"Well when you wake up, you¡¯ll get a portion of my power and the knowledge this shard contains. I¡¯ll disappear since I was never meant to stay. Otherwise lil¡¯ Ro would have been able to converse with me."
"Before you go, can I ask onest question?" Shiro asked as Anima nodded her head.
"What is the system and how did it integrate itself to the world?"
"That¡¯s something you¡¯ll find out in the future. Even if I say it it¡¯ll get censored because to know the truth, you must have the authority granted by the system." Anima chuckled before her smile faded away.
"But enjoy it while you can. Soon the system will need to go and when the timees, YOU need to be the one that destroys it. It is only with the primordial power of destruction can you truly remove this parasite." Anima said as she suddenly leaned forward and tapped Shiro on the head.
"Huh?" Blinking her eyes in surprise Shiro furrowed her brows.
"What did you just do?" Shiro asked as Anima chuckled.
"Just another precaution I suppose. Nothing bad don¡¯t worry." Anima reassured.
"But I must say, I didn¡¯t think it¡¯ll take this long. Shouldn¡¯t your body be adapting rather well?" She wondered as Shiro paused for a moment.
"Hm, let me check. Since ¡¯I¡¯ve¡¯ been returned to you I got my knowledge on what¡¯s happening from your perspective. Which means I can also check your body." Anima muttered while activating a few spells.
"You don¡¯t have to do that. I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll end soon enough." Shiro coughed but Anima didn¡¯t listen and projected the state of her body in front of the two of them.
". . . ." Looking at this state Anima¡¯s eye started to twitch.
As for Shiro she was facing away from Anima.
"And here I was wondering why it was taking so long. Of course your body can¡¯t adapt because it¡¯s too busy trying to crawl itself away from death." Anima muttered. She hadn¡¯t had the time to see what happened in the fight for her body to be like this. Instead, she figured that Rokarn had just handed over the shard.
Massaging her eyes, she zoomed in on certain parts of Shiro¡¯s body that was under heavy repair.
"I¡¯m checking what skills you have now from your memories. You know that even if your physique has improved it doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯spletely invulnerable right? If you strain it to this extent your body will break before your health reaches 0. There are still certain aspects that the system doesn¡¯t cover." Anima lectured as Shiro could only sit and nod.
"But considering the extend of this injury and how your body is strangely used to it, it must have happened before." Anima narrowed her eyes as she started to look back at the previous fights.
Looking back, crossed her legs and watched silently. Every time that Shiro stacked her berserk skills, every time she ripped an arm off to test a healing skill, every time she strained her mana links and every time she casually harmed her body without caring since she couldn¡¯t feel the pain.
Closing her eyes, Anima teleported behind Shiro and chopped down on her head with her hand.
"GAH!" Crying out in surprise, Shiro didn¡¯t expect Anima to hit her on the head and since this was technically Anima¡¯s domain, she felt every bit of the pain.
Holding her head, Shiro looked back at Anima.
"Despite our sadistic nature are you sure you¡¯re not a deviant from all the other us¡¯? If I didn¡¯t know better I figured that you were a masochist." Anima clicked her tongue.
"Since it¡¯s going to take a while for your body to heal, I¡¯m taking this chance to teach you how not to ruin your body. And since you like hurting yourself so much, let me make sure the pain is turned up." Anima cracked her knuckles as Shiro felt her instincts warn her of danger.
Chapter 1137 Balance
Chapter 1137 Bnce
While teaching Shiro how to use the ¡¯new¡¯ runes that they once knew along withbinations that wouldn¡¯t strain her body, Anima noticed a hint of sadness within Shiro¡¯s eyes when they had a break.
Only when she busied Shiro with the next task would this sadness fade for a moment bute back.
Scratching her head, Anima furrowed her brows and snapped her finger.
A table and chairs appeared around them as Shiro looked towards her.
"Are we not continuing?" Shiro asked but Anima shook her head.
"As much as I would like to continue, we¡¯re going to take a small break. Even if we are able anything that we see once, it¡¯s rather displeasing to try teach someone so distracted." Anima waved her hand while sitting down.
Conjuring up some tea, Anima gestured for Shiro to sit down.
"Care for some tea?" Anima asked.
"Nah, I¡¯d rather have juice."
"Juice? When did our tastes be so childish?" Anima raised an eyebrow before conjuring up some tea. While Shiro wouldn¡¯t actually drink juice, it was more of an action to upy them for now.
"Che, what¡¯s wrong with juice? It tastes good." Shiro pouted.
Looking down at the juice, at her reflection on the surface, she couldn¡¯t help but frown slightly before taking a sip.
"So care to tell me what¡¯s on your mind? While I can just flip through your thoughts and memories, I¡¯d rather not. It¡¯s quite rude after all. Plus, it is far more constructive to hear from the person herself." Anima asked while giving Shiro a side nce.
"Well I suppose I was being pretty obvious about it. When you said that we are the bane of all life, can you expand on that? Is there not a way for us to control our power? Must we always bring destruction?" Shiro asked as Anima raised an eyebrow before nodding.
"As you know, the influence of a god isrgely based on their divinity. Those with stronger divinities will find themselves affecting the world passively just by their presence. When I said we were the bane of all life, I did not mean our actions. Just being around a ce would slowly corrode the area and rid it of all nourishment and life. Those that have weaker wills will find themselves more violent around us. The filter that stopped them from destroying everything in sight will slowly disappear the longer they stayed with us. Even when I limited my powers around Aria and Rokarn, it still affected them. For Rokarn, he was able to vent the rage out during battles but Aria could not. I think a part of what made Aria begin to act different was also because of my presence." Anima replied honestly as Shiro tracing her finger along the rims of her cup, causing a ripple through her reflection.
"Is there no way to stop this?"
Shaking her head, Anima took a sip of her tea.
"Can fire stop itself from burning the wood? Can mana stop itself from filling a room? They would need outside interference and unless you extinguish itpletely, it will always be waiting for a moment to burst free. There needs to be someone of equal power than us to offset our destructive nature. But unless we¡¯re extinguished, we¡¯ll always bring destruction." Anima replied as Shiro was silent.
"However, it is not a bad thing. The universe will always seek bnce. In all things, destruction must be present. For a de of grass, it absorbs the nutrients from the ground and sun to support its own growth. When it copses towards one side, the effects are amplified. If a tree was tilted towards the side of life, the power of destruction WILL catch up. The life around the tree will die to bring bnce. It¡¯s the same for destruction. With too much destruction, life will seek to fill that void.
"So I never really cared for the effects I brought if I am to be honest. Because I know bnce will be restored. We¡¯re just not the ones that will see ite to fruition. Our power of destruction is simply too strong, too potent. By us leaving our home, our prison, we tipped the scale heavily to the side of destruction. And thus war began. Even if life is trying to catch up, the ces we visit will copse. I¡¯m sure there is a First Born of Creation out there... Somewhere. And they¡¯ll be undoing our work wherever they visit. I just won¡¯t be able to see them since there is a natural repulsion from the purest destruction and the purest creation. I and whoever is responsible for creation will never be close to one another. Such is the way of the universe."
"I see..."
"But while we¡¯re on the topic of bnce, I afraid I¡¯ll have to warn you about your city. It is work befitting of someone who wants to bring stability to the new age but it leans too heavily towards the aspect of life. Your utopia while stable now, will crumble in due time. The people within are happy and peaceful but the destructive tendency within their mind is brewing. There is no challenge, no strife and no danger. Soon their existence will begin to crumble due to the imbnce and a breakout of destruction will take ce to restore the bnce you destroyed. Anarchy will descend to your city and it will be another relic of the past. Why do you think there are so many ruins in the world? Of ¡¯great¡¯ civilisations that seemed like it was a utopia, of a generation that made great advancements in technology? They crumbled from within. The bnce tipped towards life and destruction surged forth, ending an era of prosperity and weing an age of hardship to its people. Without equal destruction, life will not go on. The progress of life is slow but stable so that destruction is not given time to grow. This stability allows progression. It is also a shield to stop the civilisation from crumbling. But once it bes to eager, it is time to reset and start over."
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"So are we never to bask in the light of creation then?" Shiro asked as her hand tightened around the cup.
"No. We are beings of the primal destruction. As you grow in power to protect, the nature of our divinity will grow. The primal beings of destruction may nevery eyes upon the bnce brought by destruction as their presence will destroy the bnce. It is the same with the beings of creation. They bring about the ¡¯perfect¡¯ utopia but do not see it to the end. The moment they seek to build another destruction swallows their world. It is only in the middle where neither the being of creation nor the being of destruction can see that ¡¯peace¡¯ is present. Though funnily enough, ¡¯peace¡¯ is not the peace that you humans desire. Peace is when the universe is in bnce, where both life and death meet to create the bnced world that will not crumble. Wars will be waged but life will go on. Even if a civilisationes to an end another will take its ce. Such is the life in the peaceful world. But we will never see it." Anima shrugged while drinking thest remainder of the tea.
"So everything I worked towards is for naught? That my growth in power will only bring destruction? Was my rebirth what caused this world to be chosen for the next great war to take ce?" Shiro asked as Anima was silent for a moment before opening her mouth.
"It was not for naught, we¡¯ll just never see it. When we were reborn, the bnce started to crumble. Why else do you think the world is ¡¯abnormal¡¯pared to previous standards. We just weren¡¯t in it and our power were weak inparison. With each age, our power grows stronger as we passively feast off the destruction. As much as Aria would like to dy, she will never see peace so long as she is trying to keep us in check. She is the making of her own prison. Like us, she will never see the peace she so desires. But don¡¯t be disheartened mini me. For within destruction there is will the essence of life. While we may not see ¡¯true¡¯ peace that is evesting within the centre of life and death, we are still able to find joy in our lives. The universe is not so cruel as to forever doom us to destruction after all. Chaos wishes us well. So seek happiness where it may be. Such is our tenacious nature after all." Anima grinned as Shiro looked towards her.
"If... If I continue to grow my power, destruction may follow. But can I still seek to bring bnce? If my presence continues to destroy, can I continue to create to offset that destruction and bring even the smallest semnce of peace to my world?" Shiro asked as Anima nodded.
"Of course you can."
"Have you ever seeded?"
"No. I embraced the fact that I only brought destruction and gave up on creation. Though that might be why I failed and was struck down, the bnce was broken. You, on the other hand, may certainly try. I will watch from afar with earnest hopes. Such is the nature of progression after all." Anima smiled before opening her mouth once more.
"Such is the nature of life."
Chapter 1138 Creation and Destruction
Chapter 1138 Creation and Destruction
Seeing the expression on Shiro¡¯s face, Anima chuckled and crossed her leg.
Reaching forward, she flicked Shiro on the nose.
"Hey!" Shiro pouted as Anima smiled.
"What? You seemed like you were deep in thought. Don¡¯t worry about it too much. After all, your divinity has developed quite nicely. You want to know why I said that you can try to bnce things out? It¡¯s because you have began to develop traces of a creation divinity. Nanobots were a faulty creation but it has developed in an interesting direction even by my standards." Anima smiled while waving her hand.
Summoning an illusionary orb that was pitch ck in colour, Anima opened her mouth.
"Imagine this to be our original divinity. Pure destruction with not a hint of creation. When you obtained nanobots, it was no different. However, through the passing of time along with your acts, hints of a creation divinity started to appear. This was further enhanced by your titles. Sure, titles give you boosts in power but they also serve as a small foundation of your divinity. The power of a godes from their name, story and belief people have in them. Previously, all of your titles were purely on the destruction side of things but recently, you¡¯ve started to bnce it out. Such as Merciful Goddess and Goddess of Protection. Both of these titles belong to the creation side an when people recount their tales of you, it is not of pure destruction but of someone who wants to protect.
"As a Demi God, belief is a powerful thing. It can change your nature before you know it. While it is not bnced just yet, there is indeed hints of a creation divinity within you. It¡¯s just a matter of cultivating it to bnce out our nature of destruction. Though it¡¯s pretty hard considering our identity. To bnce out the primordial destruction a being of equal strength must be present. If you want to seek bnce you have to cultivate a divinity of creation that can stand side by side with our destructive nature." Anima exined as a small speck of white could now be seen in the middle of the orb.
"Plus, it¡¯s not as though Chaos isn¡¯t helping. She already gave you her blessing no? If we were in our original state, she would not be able to bless us. Our destructive nature would swallow her blessing in an instant and render it useless. But by being shattered to pieces, reincarnated and rendered iplete, it opened up space for her blessing. Even if you were to recover your original power, that blessing will remain since it has already touched the core of your being. It¡¯s just a matter of you trying to bnce things out now mini me."
"I see... So it¡¯s not all doom and gloom then." Shiro sighed in relief.
"Oh no, it is still doom and gloom. We¡¯re the First Born of Destruction after all. There¡¯s just a teenie weenie chance of you finding bnce." Anima waved her hand as Shiro clicked her tongue.
". . .Che!" Shiro clicked her tongue as Animaughed.
"Oh please, we were never the dreaming type. Even if I reassured you, you¡¯ll know the truth. Disregarding how we might act, we see things realistically. We just don¡¯t verbalise it to bring down the mood. Answer me this, how many times have you gone into a fight with full knowledge that you¡¯ll lose but still pump yourself up for the fight, finding ways to take advantage of your situation so that you wont die?" Anima asked as Shiro leaned back.
"Quite a few times. If I included the times in Aria then I¡¯ve long lost count."
"No you haven¡¯t. You just can¡¯t be arsed to bring up all the records." Anima cut in as Shiro frowned.
"Che."
"I don¡¯t need to say this but who cares. Don¡¯t give up." Anima closed her eyes as Shiro nodded.
Enjoying the silence for a moment, Shiro also closed her eyes.
"F*cking hell this is taking a while. I had figured that I¡¯ll disappear after giving you our knowledge but your body still can¡¯t handle me just yet. Is there something I missed when I scanned your body?" Anima asked as Shiro opened her eyes.
"I don¡¯t know. But that reminds me. You said that everyone we¡¯re close to would be affected by our aura right?" Shiro asked.
"Yeah why?"
"What will happen from now on? Lisandra, Yin, Attie, Nimue, Iziuel and Estre all have contracts with me. When they get stronger, a portion of their strength is passed onto me such is the case of Yin being the Sin of Gluttony. When I get stronger, they experience the same. Now here¡¯s my question, during that fight, I killed Rokarn and reached level 1000. Since my ss was always a level higher than my tier, this means I¡¯ve be a ¡¯God¡¯. With me recovering a shard of myself, I can presume that my influence of destruction has been increased. What will happen to the ones that have contracts with me? Will they fall?" Shiro asked as Anima was silent for a moment.
Closing her eyes, Anima took a deep breath.
"I wouldn¡¯t go as far as fallen. There will definitely be a change but it wouldn¡¯t be as bad as you think. Their mind should be rtively safe since you have started to cultivate the power of creation. If that was not the case I would be more worried. There is one person that you¡¯ll need to look out for though, that¡¯s Lisandra. Out of all of the people you have contracts with, she is the one with the strongest connection hence why her level is linked to you. Since you have now reached level 1000, there is no doubt that she too will ascend and gain a divinity of her own. Since she is cultivating a divinity for ascension, she is more prone to your influence. My guess is that she¡¯ll probably struggle at controlling her power of destruction." Anima exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"But I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine. Everyone around you is tenacious after all." Anima reassured before standing up.
"Since this is taking longer than expected, we shall continue the training." She grinned.
"Huh?"
###
After Rokarn¡¯s death, the party quickly carried Shiro back to the station and used one of the teleport items she had created to bring them back to Asharia.
Upon reaching Asharia, Lisandra, Yin, Attie, Nimue, Iziuel and Estre all started to feel a pulsing wave of pain in their chest.
While the others were able to stay conscious, Lisandra wasn¡¯t able to hold on as the darkness in her wings started to spread. With Lisandra being unconscious, they tried to grab her but Beelzebub stopped them.
"I advise against touching her at this moment. Allow me." He bowed, encasing Lisandra in a barrier so that they could transport her but this barrier was corroding with each passing second.
cing everyone in the med bay, Nan Tian turned towards Madison and her... subordinates.
"Since all of you are supposed Ancient Lords, are you able to enlighten us on what¡¯s happening?" Nan tian asked as Satan frowned.
Before he could say anything, Asmodeus stepped forward.
"Of course. I suspect that all of the people here that are experiencing pain is closely tied with the youngdy over there. From what I can tell, a chaotic energy is surfacing from within their body, most likely due to the nature of the youngdy¡¯s divinity. This energy is... rather destructive. Thanks to Beelzebub and the young phoenix who share the sin of Gluttony, they are able to slow down the effects of this destructive aura and absorb any excess energy that radiates from the body. That is why most of you are still conscious except for the winged miss. As an example, I suppose it is best you look at the barrier. Without this barrier, the aura that radiates from the winged miss would try to consume everything around her." Asmodeus exined, causing the rest of the party to frown.
"Anything we can do to help them?" Madison asked as Asmodeus smiled helplessly.
"Unfortunately, that is not our speciality. Most of them are experiencing ascension simr to what you experienced, your highness. Only that theirs is more painful due to the young missying on the bed. Belphegor can cause them to be somewhat numb to that pain but we cannot halt or slow it down. If we were to interfere, it would bring more pain to them due to the failed ascension." Asmodeus exined as Madison frowned.
"So we are to do nothing then."
"Tis so. We can only wait and see. Ultimately, there is no danger to their life as of this moment, onlyrge amounts of pain from the chances urring within their body." Asmodeus nodded his head.
Hearing this, Madison sighed in relief.
"Now if you¡¯ll excuse us, we have some... harvesting to do. As you know, it has been quite a while since we were woken up and with so many lingering souls on the battlefield, one cannot help but feel hungry. Worry not though, we are merely consuming the energy left behind. The soul will continue to reincarnate." Asmodeus bowed as Madison narrowed her eyes.
"Very well."
Smiling at her response, Asmodeus bowed and all of the Ancient Lords left the room.
Chapter 1139 First Born of Destruction
Chapter 1139 First Born of Destruction
Snapping her eyes open, Aria clenched her fist.
*BANG!!!
mming it down on the table in front of her, she took a deep breath.
"If only Rokarn¡¯s body was a little stronger." Aria gritted her teeth before closing her eyes.
Opening them once more, her eyes changed as the sclera was dyed ck. Her pupil and iris were neon red that seems to emte a magic circle. In front of her, several notifications appeared as Aria was now able to see the notifications that usually isn¡¯t shown to the world.
[First Born of Destruction is recovering.]
[Her influences spreads through her court.]
[A Demi God rises up within the court.]
Seeing these three notifications, Aria narrowed her eyes.
With Shiro now recovering a shard of her old self, most of her methods of keeping Shiro weak will no longer work. Even if she was to do nothing, the shard of the First Born was too powerful. She¡¯ll get stronger with each passing day.
¡¯Her ascension also sped up the new age. There are hardly people or Queens that are ready except for her party but the barrier between realms will be broken. Restrictions will be lifted and wars will be fought. The battle here has yet to end but it¡¯ll be carried to Earth once it finishes it¡¯s transformation.¡¯ Aria thought to herself while looking into the mirror.
¡¯Plus, it wouldn¡¯t be that simple either. The monsters and the people near her will be more destructive...¡¯
Looking out of the window, Aria remembered back to the worlds they visited including her home world. No matter what, everything was destroyed, such was the influence of the First Born of Destruction.
Shaking her head, Aria steeled her resolve.
Sensing someone approach her room, she deactivated her skill and opened the door.
"Aria." Aekari called out as Aria could tell that someone was weighing on his mind.
"Come in, we can talk inside."
Gesturing for Aekari to enter, Aria closed the door behind him.
Sitting by the window, Aekari looked out at the world.
"I... I¡¯m thinking about talking to Nytri once the barrier is broken. Not to fight, not to kill but just to talk." Aekari started as Aria was silent.
"Is it about our daughter?" She asked as Aekari nodded her head.
"She can¡¯t go on like this. It¡¯s been far too long since she¡¯s had a physical body and her soul is beginning to degrade. Even if we give her a temporary container for her soul, it does little in terms of helping her soul heal." Aekari sighed as he turned around and faced Aria.
"While me and Nytri are indeed enemies, I... I want to give it a try. To see if there¡¯s a way for her to help our daughter out. It doesn¡¯t have to be Lisandra¡¯s body. It can be something else as long as our daughter¡¯s soul begin to heal. Even now, I have to admit that she is one of the smartest people I know or rather, used to know. She has pulled of feats that people didn¡¯t think was possible even if it was orchestrated by my hand." Aekari said as he clenched his fist.
"At the beginning of this journey, you showed me the vision of Nytri destroying everything around her. My desire to save this universe has not changed. However... I only have you and our daughter left. Everyone I know has either been enved by the system to act as monsters in a dungeon or were killed when the world was destroyed. Nytri has always been someone that is at least willing to lend an ear to listen to someone. I¡¯m sure that if we were to talk in a weeks time when the barrier breaks, we cane to an understanding. It¡¯s risky but this is something I want to do for our daughter."
Hearing this, Aria was silent.
"Mn, if more people were to visit her, I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll have her guard up so it¡¯s probably better for you to meet her alone." Aria sighed as she leaned against the table.
"That¡¯s true. Rest well, I¡¯ll go make my preparations to talk to Nytri." Aekari smiled and left the room.
Now that Aria was in the room by herself, she couldn¡¯t help but frown at Aekari¡¯s choice.
¡¯I never should have had a daughter with him. She¡¯s be his weakness. I can¡¯t get rid of her by my own hands but perhaps I can rekindle his fury should she be in by one of Shiro¡¯spanions.¡¯
Opening her door, she nced towards her daughter¡¯s room.
###
Sipping some tea, Anima looked towards Shiro who was no longer moving. She was face t on the floor while the surroundings was repairing itself.
"I can see why you enjoyed training your friends. This does tickle the sadist within me." Anima chuckled as Shiro groaned in pain.
"Do you have to amplify the pain?" Shiroined.
"Of course. This is to let you feel everything that you should have felt during the fight with Rokarn." Anima replied.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro flipped her body over and stared at the sky.
"Question. This just came to mind but since you mention that the ones who fall are our minions, does that mean we can control them?" Shiro asked as Anima thought for a moment and nodded her head.
"Yes. Those that lost their sensespletely are mostly under our control. If we¡¯re not consciously controlling them, they would destroy everything in sight. As for those that are in the process of bing fallen, we can choose to speed up that transformation by sharing our power with them." Anima replied.
"What about stopping it and returning them to normal?"
"You mean the Fallen Empress that you froze when you were fighting the crow?" Anima asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Hmm... for her, I think it¡¯s possible. But it¡¯ll be hard. To put it bluntly, she is already a foot in the grave. More than half of her soul has already fallen to the corrupted side. All that remains is for her to finish the transformation. Before bing fallen, the user¡¯s soul is bnced. Half is our power of destruction and the other half is their sense of self or rather, soul. Once they achieve their goal, this bnce is tipped and they fall. For your friend, you halted the process before it isplete so there is a chance for you to help her. As for how you¡¯ll do that, I don¡¯t have a clue. I never really researched on how to help the people we corrupted when I was alive. But my best bet is for you to bring bnce back to their soul. Either that means somehow removing the power of destruction from within or bring back their sense of self. But of course this is easier said than done." Anima smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Suddenly, she was overwhelmed by fatigue as her vision started to blur.
Looking around her, Anima could see the realm begin to copse as she guessed what was happening.
"Seems like the fusion process is starting. Your body has recovered enough for you to undergo this transformation I suppose." Anima chuckled as Shiro was barely able to respond.
"Regardless, it was nice talking to another version of me. I¡¯m cheering for you." Anima smiled as Shiro¡¯s vision faded.
###
Sitting beside Shiro and keeping an eye on her health, Nan Tian was checking on what was happening to the world through the Argus Satellite system when he was suddenly overwhelmed by a suffocating presence.
Struggling for breath, he nced towards Shiro and saw a ck aura wrapping around her body. Looking at everyone else in the room, he could see that all of them had passed out now while Lisandra was wrapped in a strange ck cocoon which continued to erode the barrier that Beelzebub ced around her.
Just as he was about to notify everyone, one of the Ancient Lords appeared in the med bay.
"Beelzebub." Nan Tian greeted as the demon nodded his head.
"I sensed that my barrier was suddenly attacked. I¡¯ll iste the room so that the aura doesn¡¯t leak out."
Nodding his head, Nan Tian sent a message to everyone on the situation.
As he was doing this, a notification appeared in front of him. It was a message from Hemera.
[Goddess Hemera asked about what happened. A notification had spread through the realm of gods saying that the First Born of Destruction had begun its recovery and that it was already on Earth.]
"It¡¯ll be easier for me to exin if Nyx saw the situation and passed on the message." Nan Tian smiled helplessly as a tier 8 magic circle appeared in front of him.
Darkness stretched out from every corner to create a being of shadow.
[Avatar of Nyx]
Opening her eyes, Nyx turned towards the med bay.
"One of the Ancient Lords of Sin. Seems like much has changed. Though the biggest change is probably Shiro." Nyx muttered as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Was she possessed by something? This doesn¡¯t look like Shiro at all." Nyx asked with a frown.
Confused by her words, he gestured for her to exin.
"What I mean is the source of this aura. It doesn¡¯t resemble Shiro at all. If I had to describe it, it¡¯ll be the same energy I sense with each reset of the world."
Furrowing her brows, Nyx didn¡¯t say anything else and left immediately.
Chapter 1140 Seeking Information
Chapter 1140 Seeking Information
Arriving back in the realm of gods, Nyx had a frown on her face.
Seeing this, Gaia raised an eyebrow.
"Did something go wrong?" Gaia asked as she was currently healing one of the gods that was injured in the fight.
"Mn. I think I found out the source of the notification." Nyx sighed as Gaia paused for a moment before her face turned serious.
"Shiro?" She asked.
"Shiro."
Hearing this, Gaia finished healing the god and stood up.
"How did Shiro even be the First Born of Destruction? I had only heard rumours and read about small extracts on this being. If... If Shiro really is the First Born of Destruction, that makes her the enemy of everyone in the god realm." Gaia said as the two of them made their way towards their ¡¯office¡¯. It was a space reserved only for the 5 primordial gods and those that they allow to enter.
Entering the realm, Nyx could see both Tartarus and Ouranos recuperating on the bed while the other gods were discussing some ns amongst themselves. This included Chronos, Argus, Hermes, Hemera, Hades, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Mio and Helios.
Seeing the two enter with frowns on their faces, everyone were quiet since it¡¯s not often that these two would look so serious.
"Aside from the five Primordials, Hades and Mio, I¡¯ll need everyone to leave for now. There is something serious that we need to discuss. And Argus, if you try to eavesdrop I will deal with you." Nyx narrowed her eyes as Argus raised his hands in surrender.
"As you say." He smiled.
With everyone leaving the realm, Nyx sat down with a tired sigh.
"Did something happen back on Earth? Hemera mentioned that Nan Tian asked for your presence." Mio asked with a worried expression.
"Something did indeed happen and I don¡¯t like the changes this brings. Remember the notification that we got?" Nyx asked as Mio nodded her head.
"The one about the First Born of Destruction right?"
"Yes. And it turns out that there is a 90% chance of this being Shiro. When I went back to Earth at the behest of Nan Tian, he showed me what happened after their battle with Rokarn. Ignoring the fact that someone has unleashed the 7 Ancient Lords of Sin, Shiro seems to be possessed by something. Her aura hardly resembled what it used to be. It transformed into a void that threatened to consume everything around her. Thankfully, there was a barrier around her that prevented her aura from leaking out too much but the implications of her having any forms of rtions to the First Born of Destruction is worrying. We can only hope that it¡¯s minimal but we¡¯ll only know after she wakes up." Nyx exined with a sigh.
Hearing this, the other gods paused in shock while Mio was still left confused.
"If you¡¯re wondering about the First Born of Destruction, I can give you some details but honestly, not much is known about them." Gaia spoke up as she conjured a book into her hands.
Nodding her head, Mio sat down in front of Gaia and listened carefully since this was something rted to Shiro and she didn¡¯t like how the gods were reacting.
"In this book, it doesn¡¯t detail how the First Born came to existence, only that they were always there, hidden away in a prison created by Chaos herself. A prison of boundless energy that was restrained thanks to the prison. Those that stumble into the realm may experience a boost in power but would soon lose their minds. All that are tainted by the aura of the First Born be mindless thralls of destruction.
"After the notification, I searched through all the books with the help of Argus but the information was grim to put it lightly. Even without doing anything, the First Born brought a great catastrophe to the god realms, almost ending all existence as we know it. In all of its depictions, the First Born was the symbol of fear amongst gods. A being on heinous that even the most evil gods will throw aside their differences to assist in the murder of the First Born. Very few who saw the First Born are alive but those that still life are haunted by the memories of the destruction it brought. Despite being gods, their will was shattered after an encounter with this being." Gaia exined as she flipped through this book that contained limited information of the First Born.
"The general understanding of the First Born is a being brought forth by the purest of all evils. The only reason why the war has entered a stalemate for now is because of the First Born¡¯s recovery. With this information being known, we¡¯ve reached a silent agreement of truce until this threat has been dealt with.
"Now, here is the problem. With Shiro being the potential First Born of Destruction, she has essentially be the enemy of everyone in existence. Even our allies desire her death should it be known to all. And even if that wasn¡¯t the case, no one wants to take the chances and bring about a second catastrophe. They would kill without question considering the fact that her aura is highly destructive, more so than even the Gods of Destruction." Nyx said as she massaged her eyes.
Staying silent, Mio could feel her heart pound as she realised the gravity of the situation. Her own flesh and blood had just be the enemy of everything in existence.
Biting her lip, Mio stared at Nyx.
"Does... does she have to die? Is there someway around it?" Mio asked as Nyx furrowed her brows.
"We don¡¯t know."
"The worse part of it is that Shiro is the life line as well." Gaia gritted her teeth in frustration.
"IF she dies, this cycle ends and everyone dies regardless. But if she doesn¡¯t die, then the world will be plunged into chaos and there is a high chance of everyone dying." Hades muttered as he couldn¡¯t help but look towards Mio.
As Shiro¡¯s mother, Hades knew that Mio was probably feeling the worse right now.
"Can¡¯t we look for a way to prevent this? I don¡¯t know, some kind of way to get rid of this title. Cut off the association with this being or something. Surely there is something we can do. There are gods of knowledge aren¡¯t there?" Mio asked as they Gaia closed her eyes and shook her head.
"I tried to look but this was all the information I could get. Not much is known about the first born after its disappearance. We don¡¯t even know what they look like originally. All we know as that the aura is so destructive it is unmistakable. It¡¯s like an ink drop on a white piece of paper. The moment anyone sees it, they¡¯ll know." Gaia replied.
"I need to go back." Mio gritted her teeth as she tried to stand up but Hades put his hand on her shoulder.
"Even if you want to, it¡¯s impossible right now. The most you can do is send an avatar and even then, you¡¯re not strong enough to send one to Earth right now. You need to wait like everyone else unfortunately. However, that does not mean we¡¯ll be doing nothing." Hades said as Mio frowned.
"He¡¯s right. I¡¯m sure there are records somewhere, it¡¯s just a matter of finding them." Nyx said as she stood up.
"It¡¯s a bit risky but there is a ce I¡¯m willing to explore for answers. The system holds many secrets but it also acts as a record for everything. There is no doubt that there will be a record or rather, a dungeon within the system that will give us information about the first born. Whether that be from the person itself or someone rted to it. I¡¯m going to see if I am able to find the gateway of the dungeon."
"Where will you even start? Plus, if you meet the First Born, what¡¯s to stop you from dying? It is said that the first born was the natural destroyer of all things. They have the power to bring death to all, even us." Gaia asked as Nyx paused.
"I don¡¯t know but we can¡¯t sit around doing nothing."
"Rushing into things blindly won¡¯t help. It¡¯ll only make thingsplicated. Let us wait for now, it is only 7 days. For us who had lived for thousands of years, this is nothing. We will hopefully get our answers when Shiro wakes up." Gaia reminded as Nyx sighed and sat back down.
"On a side note, it seems like we¡¯re going to be holding a meeting with Zeus and the others to potentially discuss our actions once the second half begins." Gaia said as they sensed Zeus approaching their camp.
"While we deal with this, Mio, you should make some preparations for when you go back to Earth in a week, there are a few things a god needs to do before leaving but you don¡¯t need to worry, Hades will help you prepare." Nyx said as Mio nodded her head.
Looking back onest time, Mio left with Hades while Nyx and Gaia made their way towards Zeus.
Chapter 1141 Level 1000
Chapter 1141 Level 1000
Rubbing her eyes, Shiro felt weak as her body barely had any strength. Even sitting up seemed to be problematic as she swept her gaze across the room. She could see Yin, Attie, Estre, Nimue and Iziuelying on beds. All of them were unconscious with pained expressions.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro looked around to see if she could spot Lisandra but there was nothing else in the room except for a ck cocoon in the corner.
¡¯Is that Lisandra?¡¯ Shiro thought to herself while trying to get up from the bed.
Hearing some hurried footsteps outside of the room, Shiro nced towards the door and saw Nan Tian arriving with a panicked expression.
Seeing that she was now awake, he sighed in relief.
"Seems like I worried you quite a bit. How¡¯s everyone else?" Shiro asked as she tried to sit up.
"Busy as usual. Madison¡¯s brought back quite thepany so she¡¯s just sorting out what she¡¯s going to do with them along with catching up on what¡¯s been happening in the city. After the fight, everyone had gotten quite the bounty of EXP so they¡¯re just trying to reach level 1000 before the second part arrives in less than a week." Nan Tian replied while pulling out a chair for himself.
Reaching towards Shiro, his hand was blocked by a barrier, causing him to smile helplessly.
"I see, they¡¯re working hard. Can you tell me how long I¡¯ve been out along with what this is about?" Shiro smiled, pointing at the barrier surrounding both her and Lisandra.
"Mn, after you passed out, we got a notification telling us that the second half of the new age will arrive in 7 days. It¡¯s been 3 days since you¡¯ve been out cold but during these three days, Yin, Lisandra, Attie Estre, Nimue and Iziuel have been experiencing changes to their aura. Thepany that Madison brought back are Ancient Lords of the Seven Sins, each of them serve under Madison and they have a Divinity level of 2." Nan Tian exined as Shiro nodded.
"So on par with standard gods then."
"Mn, but setting that aside for now, Beelzebub created this barrier to prevent the aura of destruction from spreading." Nan Tian said as he conjured up an orb of light and transported it into the barrier.
Watching the orb of light get consumed and extinguished in an instant, Shiro was silent.
"Judging by your silence, I¡¯m guessing you know why that¡¯s the case." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
Leaning back, she took a deep breath and sighed.
"This might take a while to exin." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Thankfully I have plenty of time to listen."
Hearing this, Shiro nodded.
Opening her mouth, she started to recount everything that Anima had told her.
About her past, her name, her identity and what she was as a First Born, How her presence would amplify the destructive nature of everyone around her. The past between her, Aria and Rokarn and the cause of the Age of Demons and Gods.
Seeing her sad expression while talking about how her existence, Nan Tian couldn¡¯t help but feel as though a needle was stabbing his heart.
"Pft don¡¯t look so upset. I never said this was all doom and gloom." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian looked at her with doubt.
"When talking to Anima, she stated that I had already began cultivating the divinity of creation within me. If I want to find peace for this, then what I need to do is to cultivate a divinity that¡¯s on par with the primordial nature of destruction. It¡¯s going to be hard as I was created from the energy released when the universe was first created but I believe in myself. If it was before, I would not be able to cultivate a creation divinity at all. But since I was iplete, Chaos hasid out the foundation for me." Shiro smiled while cing her hand over her heart.
"It¡¯s just a matter of me using this opportunity to build the strongest Creation Divinity, one that¡¯sparable to my destructive nature."
Hearing this, Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Though the first step is still to keep my nature in check. If it is not, it¡¯ll hinder my progression with cultivating a creation divinity." Shiro chuckled as she closed her eyes.
"But for now, I suppose I need to rest. My body almost ruined. I had an earful from Anima when she analysed my wounds haha."
"Mn, indeed you do. But don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m sure that everyone will be ok. After all, we¡¯ve been exposed to the stuff you do for quite a while now, we¡¯ve all built up a resistance." Nan Tian joked as Shiro couldn¡¯t help butugh.
"That¡¯ll be good. But for now, I think I¡¯ll rest for a day. I have a n I want to execute so I¡¯ll use this time to run a few simtions in my mind." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"I¡¯ll go notify everyone that you¡¯ve woken up."
"Mn, see you soon."
Watching Nan Tian leave the room, Shiro looked towards her interface. Unlike the system disy before, which was mostly that of a light crystal blue colour, her status screen had turned ck with red hues around the edges.
Not only that, now that she¡¯s reached level 1000, a few things had changed. Namely the ones to do with her divinity.
One of the things is that Tainted Shell was no longer there. As she had recovered a shard of herself, there¡¯s not much risk to falling anymore.
Though in its ce was a new title, [First Born of Destruction]
Most of the description was cryptic as quite a few of the stats it grants were hidden under question marks. She figured that she¡¯ll see the whole title once she recovered her full divinity.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit Demi God
Title: Expert Monster (13,290/100,000 Humans killed.), Fratricide, Creator of the Frozen Hell Series (Iplete), Creator of Yin Style Asura¡¯s Path, Seeker of Truths, Revolutionary, Celestial Empress EX, Benevolent Saint EX, Error Code. Genocide, One of a Kind, Virtue of Fortitude, Young Demi God, Goddess of Protection, Merciful Goddess, Young Goddess (50% Boost Currently), Leader of Asharia, Realm Breaker, God yer, First Born of Destruction.
Level: 1000
ss: Nanotech Goddess Of Destruction (Divinity Rank 2)
HP: 857,500,000,000/857,500,000,000
MP: 3,325,000,000,000/3,325,000,000,000
STR: 3,950,000,000
VIT: 4,900,000,000
INT: 19,000,000,000
AGI: 4,150,000,000
DEX: 4,150,000,000
DEF: 7,200,000,000
Unassigned Points: 0
Attunements:
Cosmic Ice ¨C Tier 7
Apocalyptic Lightning ¨C Tier 7
Stygian Steel ¨C Tier 7
Astral Rift ¨C Tier 7 (Augmented with Cmity¡¯s Will)
Void Star ¨C Tier 7
Celestial Star ¨C Tier 7
Aspect of Fire - Tier 7
Spirit Essence of Wind ¨C Tier 7
Spirit Essence of Earth ¨C Tier 7
Aspect of Water - Tier 7
Aspect of Life - Tier 7
??? - Tier ???
Nanotech - Tier 8
Skills ¨C
Error:
Extraction
Nanotech Goddess:
Celestial Mirage, Rift Strider EX, Divine Court Appointment, Shared Burden, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 8, Analysis, Divine Gardens, Divine Insight of God, Nanotech Goddess Physique, Element Control EX, Soul Maiden, Goddess of War and Protection
Ancient Healing Arts:
Fire of Life, Grace
Path of Ascendance:
Phantom Path, Celestial Path
Pandora¡¯s Requiem:
Reaper, Limit Break, Origin, War Saint, Divine Enchantment
Current Blessings: Asteria, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hermes, Poseidon, Nyx, Argus, Gaia
World ss Magic:
Requiem of the Dead
Grand Support ss Magic:
Requiem of the Demi Goddess
Origin Spells:
Time Flux
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Combust, Heavenly Constetion (Aurora), Skill Alchemist, Hollow Deceit, Kietoma, Divine Language, Wrath of Stars, Eyes of the Gorgon, Miracle. Sigil of Night, Encroaching Darkness, Skill Schr, Item Master, Limit Focus, Blessing of Chaos, Soul Siphon, Divine Runic Needles, Devour, Frozen Hell Arts, Chaos Energy.]
Looking at her stats, Shiro had a small smile on her face.
¡¯I suppose I should stop you from getting stronger for now. If I let you get any stronger, I won¡¯t be able to cultivate the Divinity of Creation.¡¯ Shiro thought with a small smile.
Conjuring up the orb which was supposed to help her cultivate a second divinity, Shiro started to run process through her mind.
With the memories of her past self now with her, she had several ideas on what she could do. The first one being to halt the natural progression of her divinity, and to do that, she needed to seal it away for the time being. In doing so, she¡¯ll be unable to use all of the skills that are linked to destruction but retain her natural stats.
That way, it paves the way for her to focus all of her energy in cultivating a secondary ss of sorts. One that focuses on creation.
In essence, she¡¯ll be a level one with more almost 20 billion points in the INT stat.
Though it was easier said than done since sealing away ones divinity could send her into a stasis. Hence why she needed a day to figure out how to separate the divinity from her body for now.
Leaning back, Shiro looked at the ceiling.
¡¯I¡¯ll grasp this chance that Chaos had given me. I¡¯ll be something that can stand side by side with my destructive side. I¡¯ll be the First Born of Creation.¡¯ Shiro vowed to herself as determination burned bright within her eyes.
Chapter 1142 Controlling Error
Chapter 1142 Controlling Error
In order to iste her destructive divinity so that she can begin to cultivate her divinity of creation, Shiro had to achieve two things.
The first was to iste her divinity. By doing so, she will be able to prevent it from getting stronger for the time being.
The second is to learn how to use the orb to cultivate a second divinity. She also needed to empower the second divinity until it¡¯s something that can stand on par with the Divinity of Destruction.
While the Divinity of Destruction maybe tier 2 right now, it will be upgraded to tier 5 in the future.
If her memories are correct, the Divinity rankings are as follows. Tier 1 Demi God, Tier 2 God, Tier 3 Primordial, Tier 4 High Primordial, Tier 5 First Born and finally, Tier 6 which only belongs to Chaos.
Tier 4 High Primordials are beings like Nyx but have cultivated their divinity to the extreme, giving them a power that is second only to the power of the First Born. Most of the High Primordials died during the first war due to her influence and their souls were repurposed to make most of the Primordials now.
However, not all High Primordials died, there were a few that survived but their currently location is unknown. Though it didn¡¯t bother Shiro too much. She was more concerned about how she can bnce her divinity out.
¡¯To iste my divinity, I need to cut out a portion of my source code I suppose. But doing so will leave me iplete. It¡¯ll definitely be dangerous but if I can do it right, it¡¯ll give me a clean te to work with.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Simting the runes that she might need, she started to frown when most of the results did more harm than what was worth. After all, she needed a way to rbine herself with it at the end. She couldn¡¯t use the same method as the one she used to split the shard from herself since that didn¡¯t iste the divinity properly.
It would still gain strength overtime so it was not what she needed.
Looking down at her right arm, Shiro had an idea.
Despite getting some of her memories back, she didn¡¯t learn more about Error. What she did know however, was that Error could help her achieve more than just extracting or destroying source codes. He was something that will allow her to perform ¡¯surgery¡¯ on the source code. Whether that meant boosting their base parameters, adjusting their bloodlines or even their appearance, Error was the key to being able to change their source code.
It was just a matter of teaching Error how to do so as well as how she could take control and help him. Simr to how he can ¡¯take over¡¯ her arm to rip out their source code, the reverse should also be possible.
Closing her eyes, Shiro activated Error as a part of her arm turned ck.
Red circuits gathered to create a small figure which seemed to be afraid of her.
Understanding that it must be because of her aura, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but smile apologetically.
"Sorry, we¡¯ll fix this aura soon ok?" Shiro reassured as Error nodded his head.
"So I called you out since I need your help. You know how you are able to use my body to take out their source code? Are we able to do the reverse? Where I take control of your body and make some adjustments to my source code?" Shiro asked as Error paused for a moment before nodding his head.
Separating the circuits from her arm, Error transformed into a contact lens for Shiro.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro ced it in her eye and blinked a few times to make sure it was in properly.
Looking around, there was now an additional interface in front of her.
[I¡¯m mostly suited for extracting and using the codes I rip out. If you want to make adjustments to your source code, I won¡¯t be able to help you.]
Seeing the message that suddenly appeared in front of her, Shiro was surprised that Error couldmunicate like this.
[You seem surprised. After taking Rokarn¡¯s code, I got a little upgrade of my own.]
"Well that certainly makes things easier. Can I borrow your body now just to see what I can do?" Shiro asked as Error disyed a nodding gif of Shiro.
"Does... does it have to be me?" Shiro asked.
[Well I can use someone else as a base model. Though you may want to do so at another time since the lens doesn¡¯tst long and it¡¯s rather exhausting to lend you my body.]
Seeing this, Shiro nodded her head.
"So how do I borrow your body? Is it something I do from my side or something you do from your side of things?"
Without sending anymore messages, Error disyed an app in the centre of her vision.
¡¯Tapping¡¯ the app, Shiro felt light headed for a moment before realising her left eye was now seeing things differently.
Instead of walls and beds that are in the med bay, she now sees only numbers and letters that are packed into the shape of the object.
[Just imagine yourself moving and my body will move. I¡¯ll put the timer in the bottom so that you know how much time you have left.]
Nodding her head, Shiro could see a timer of only 10 minutes on the side. Furrowing her brows, she conjured up her core. The core of a god is what their ¡¯heart¡¯ is and the Source Code is included.
Controlling Error¡¯s body so that she can explore her ¡¯core¡¯ in greater detail, her goal for now was to find how she could separate her divinity from herself without causingsting damage.
###
"No luck?" A red haired man asked as the elf shook her head.
"No. Its just out of reach." Lyrica shook her head in frustration as there was a faint veil, blocking the path to power.
"Hm... I don¡¯t know how to help you. I mean I¡¯ve already got what I came here and even learned of my true name." The red haired man shrugged.
[Vuldrin LVL 999 Dragon Lord of Inferno]
"Yeah yeah, congrats. But let me cultivate in peace ok?" Lyrica sighed as Vuldrin shrugged his shoulders.
"Sure, I¡¯m here since the others are calling you for dinner anyways."
"Mn, I know, I¡¯ll be right there." Lyrica nodded.
Looking at her stats, she sighed.
[Lyrica LVL 970 Awakened Sword Saintess]
"Don¡¯t rush too much, the more you¡¯re in a hurry, the harder it bes. For you to find a concept in this ce, you need to ease yourself into the role. Observe and adapt." Vuldrin smiled as Lyrica rolled her eyes.
"You¡¯ve told me that countless times now. Its easy for you to say, Mr achieves it in one go." Lyricained while making her way out of the room.
Shrugging his shoulders, Vuldrin followed behind Lyrica.
Seeing Asher, Nitha and the others finishing the preparation, Lyrica gave them a hand while waiting for the food.
The food was rather dull in terms of vours but the amount of mana within the meat was plentiful. For Nitha, this was like a gourmet meal which caused Lyrica to chuckle when thinking back to what Yin could make.
Thinking about Yin, Lyrica couldn¡¯t help but wonder how she¡¯s progressed in terms of cooking as well as how Shiro was doing. Not long ago, they received a notification telling her about the second half of the new age.
Considering the fact that it was still supposed to be far into the future, Lyrica figured that Shiro probably sped up the arrival by ident.
¡¯Shiro told me about how she became a Queen early on. She needed items that boosted the probability of her receiving a hidden ss. For me to upgrade mine before even reaching the limit of tier 6, I¡¯ll need to find items or at least something simr to an item.¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself while looking at the skies of the beyond.
Thinking about it for a moment, she looked at the levels of everyone here.
Excluding Vuldrin and her, everyone else was less than level 800 while Nitha and Asher just managed to surpass the 800 mark. Considering how much they were killing every day within the realm, this was only to be expected.
"Vuldrin, you mentioned a heart of the realm before right? Simr to a magic circle, if you destroy this heart the realm copse." Lyrica asked as Vuldrin nodded.
"Yes, but there are multiple level 999 monsters there along with the ruler. If you were to piss them off then that¡¯s a game over."
"I know, I don¡¯t n to. I¡¯m thinking of moving our base closer to the centre so that I can sense this heart a little better, it might help me break past thest barrier. However, it might be risky to be that close to the guards so I wanted to ask everyone what they thought about it." Lyrica asked as Nitha raised her hand.
"Well if it¡¯s closer then that means more mana. More mana means more delicious food. Also exp."
"Nitha isn¡¯t wrong. I think it¡¯s about time we find a higher level ce to level up anyways, we¡¯re starting to slow down. While we may not be able to fight a guard, monsters nearby shouldn¡¯t be any problem." Asher smiled as Lyrica nodded.
"Start packing up then, we¡¯ll leave tomorrow."
Chapter 1143 Lyrica’s Power
Chapter 1143 Lyrica¡°s Power
Keeping watch through the night, Lyrica kept and eye on any monsters that woulde too close.
She could deal with most of them even if they were higher level than her but she was unsatisfied. This was the stage Shiro and Madison was at a while ago. Knowing the two of them, they¡¯ve most likely progressed further. She couldn¡¯t remain stuck at this stage, she needed to find a way to boost herself to the next level.
¡¯Shiro is more of a support fighter despite how powerful her attack is while Madison is tank/berserker. Silvia has the healer role covered while I am the attacker role.
¡¯To fit in the party, I need to go all in on offense, something that can surpass Shiro¡¯s attack. While not exactly ss cannon for when I go solo, I need to put 99% of my focus on pure attack.¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself as she thought back to her training with her mother.
###
"Listen love, when partying with someone like Shiro, you need to be able to provide the most amount of attack possible since that¡¯s when Shiro truly shines. Her abilities lie in countering and stopping the enemies every actions, making it so that they¡¯re practically useless in a battle. However, this will only happen when she has someone to tank and someone to deal damage for her. If she focuses on protecting or damage, her true abilities won¡¯t shine." Isilia exined while unsheathing her sword.
"Back in Aria, me and Shiro went off on our own for a while without a tank. However, thanks to how much attack we had, it wasn¡¯t a problem. It only became difficult when our opponent won¡¯t go down in a few hits. While we were able to offset that using mechs armours and nanobots, it wasn¡¯t a long term solution. But if I¡¯m being honest, your party is in the perfect spot right now. Madison is a great tank, Silvia is one of the best healers I¡¯ve ever seen, Shiro is taking care of support and you¡¯ve got a fantastic mage. You have a cksmith and a assassin as well. Overall, the party is highly bnced. As for the core, it¡¯sposed of you, Shiro and Madison. You three are the most important members when ites to a boss fight. Everyone else¡¯s role is to support you three so that the fight can end sooner. However, as you realised, you are slowly falling behind. Madison has her demon heritage helping her, she¡¯ll only get stronger in time. Shiro is just Shiro. And then we have you. Your attack is good but it¡¯s limited right now. As you are right now, you won¡¯t get any stronger than tier 6. Shiro is already tier 7 and I imagine that Madison will reach the same stage in the future. So what about you?" Isilia asked as Lyrica looked down at her de.
"I don¡¯t know."
"And what are you going to do about it?" Isilia smiled.
"Experiment until I find a way."
"That¡¯s right. For me and you, we need to keep experimenting until we find a way. Unfortunately for us, we don¡¯t have something like Nanobots or a strong bloodline. What we do have however, is raw talent." Isilia winked as she took a deep breath.
"I was never able to bring my strength higher than the level of Queens after I got a ss change but I believe that you can. Think of you three as an avatar. Shiro is the body, Madison is the Shield. You need to be an invincible sword that can cut all."
Adjusting her grip, Isilia twisted her body and sent out a wave of energy that cleaved through the nanotech walls. However, after a fewyers, the energy dispersed, causing Isilia to smile helplessly.
"Unfortunately, I was never able to achieve this." She shrugged and looked towards her daughter.
"However, I believe that you can. There is a spark in you, as long as you don¡¯t give up, I believe that you can reach that stage."
Hearing this, Lyrica nodded her head.
###
Opening her eyes, Lyrica nced over at the rest of the party that were sleeping.
Vuldrin was sleeping off on his own while the others were in pairs. Cadmi and Gordon were sharing a nket with Cadmi snuggling up to him to avoid the cold. As for Gordon, he was slowly losing his nket to Cadmi, causing him to furrow his brows from the temperature.
Nitha was... Biting on Asher¡¯s thigh, causing him to wake up before prying her from his leg. Forcing a smile, he waved at Lyrica before pulling out a monster leg and handed it to Nitha while she was searching for food in her sleep. With Nitha now satisfied, he went back to sleep.
¡¯Next shift should be Vuldrin¡¯s.¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself.
Hopping off the wall, she woke up the dragon.
*Yawn~
"Guess it¡¯s my shift now." Vuldrin said as Lyrica nodded her head.
"Mn, keep an eye on Nitha in case she tries to eat Asher again by ident." Lyrica smiled as Vuldrin nodded his head.
"What about you? You seem like you don¡¯t n on sleeping."
"Well I want to head out for a bit of practice in the night. I¡¯ll be back in an hour or two I suppose." Lyrica shrugged.
"Hmm, alright, just make sure you¡¯re well rested since the journey tomorrow will need your full focus." Vuldrin reminded.
Nodding her head, Lyrica made her way out into the wild.
Summoning a sword, she narrowed her eyes at the night sky.
¡¯How should I be the sharpest sword for Shiro... What can I find in this ce that will help me achieve this... The beyond is a ce where everything is heavily empowered by mana. Everything thates here will undergo a change. That includes us.¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself as mana gathered towards her body.
Swirling around her hand, she plunged it into her chest and pulled a light blue orb out.
*PING!!!!
Shattering the orb, her body erupted with green and blue mes that made her look like a fire spirit. Snapping her fingers, tier 6 magic circles suddenly lit up in the distance as a camouged monster was now suspended in the air.
Aftering into the Beyond, her senses had been further enhanced. Before, she could sense things from half a world away, now she could almost epass the entire world if she wanted. Plus, as long as she knows the realm they¡¯re hiding in, she can sense them too.
It was a skill akin to a third eye.
"How many more of your friends are around." Lyrica narrowed her eyes.
Twisting her body, she swiped her hand out, creating 7 more magic circles that suspended more of the same monster in the air, ripping them out from their realm. Normally, they would attack, causing damage to their internals while also draining them of their stamina. During their first week in the Beyond, these were one of the more annoying monsters to deal with.
Hovering her hand over her de, Lyrica contemted for a moment before giving up and raised two fingers.
Cutting it across the air, all of the monsters were shredded into blood mist.
¡¯They¡¯re too weak for me to use my sword on them.¡¯ Lyrica thought to herself.
Closing her eyes, she could sense a rather powerful monster approaching their camp. While it¡¯s roughly a day¡¯s travel away, it¡¯ll be annoying for the others to deal with while making their way to the centre.
Grabbing the hilt of her sword, she twisted her body and shed the air in front of her, leaving a floating de of energy.
Adjusting her grip, she shed three more times before mming her palm against the back of the energy des.
Suddenly,yers uponyers of tier 6 magic circles started to stack together as the des shot through them, each one empowering the attack while also erging the des.
*BANG!!!
Disappearing into the distance, Lyrica waited for a moment before making her way back to the camp as the mes around her body disappeared.
Above her, Vuldrin floated with a small smile. He knows that Lyrica could sense him but since she didn¡¯t say anything, he continued to watch.
Looking into the distance, he watched as a small cut in the ground left behind by the attack slowly grow into arge ravine.
Closing his eyes, he created a few teleport runes and disappeared from his spot.
Appearing above a giant chasm that stretched roughly a city wide in width, he chuckled seeing the remainder of the monster she wanted to kill. Its arm stretched out in a desperate bid for survival while the rest of his body had been obliterated.
¡¯And she wants to be even stronger. I wonder what her attack will be like when she obtained something that will allow her to reach level 1000. Though more importantly, I wonder what kind of enemy she wants to face with this kind of power.¡¯ Vuldrin thought to himself while watching thend heal itself little by little.
Teleporting back to the camp, he finished his shift while Lyrica went to sleep.
Chapter 1144 Aisha and Thiria
Chapter 1144 Aisha and Thiria
Controlling Error¡¯s body, Shiro started to view what it was like inside her core. Despite being constrained to a small orb, the inside was akin to a vast void withs that seem to represent her identity.
From her old home as Anima to her mana realm, everything that she had ever experienced was here. Naturally, that included times where she had resurrected but didn¡¯t aplish much unlike this life.
A life where she was a front line fighter with two daggers but failed to survive one of the dungeons and died without finding out about herself. A life where she only used wires since her body was sickly and fragile. A life where she couldn¡¯t use any mana at all since her links had beenpletely shut down and even a life where she was doing good but died due to a curse.
All of these experiences made up her core.
As she was exploring her core in hopes of finding a way for her to cut off her divinity for now, a wave of ck wires shot out from the void in an attempt to prevent her from going further.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro wondered what she could do in Error¡¯s body.
Flexing her ¡¯fingers¡¯, red circuits appeared around her and formed a shield, stopping the wires from reaching her.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro grabbed the wires and sent red circuits towards the source.
Sensing a white silhouette version of herself who seemed to be the defender of sorts, Shiro figured that she probably needed to get rid of this in order to reach deeper into her core.
However, the moment she started to channel her energy, the wires immediately disappeared.
"Eh?"
Blinking her eyes, Shiro watched as the white silhouette of herself kneel down and disappear.
[Mother, you know that it¡¯s your own core so it won¡¯t attack you. It¡¯s only because you didn¡¯t channel your energy that it thought you were a outsider. Though I must say your defences are better than what most people have. I have never seen an avatar guarding a core before.]
"I see... also did you just call me mother?" Shiro asked while reading the message.
[Erm... Should I not have?]
Suddenly, Shiro heard a voice in her mind as it was the same one that she heard when her eyes were upgraded to see time strands.
The way Error spoke caused Shiro to imagine that he was looking at her with puppy eyes.
"Ah no it¡¯s fine. I was just surprised that you saw me as your mother. That and also were you the one who upgraded my eyes?" Shiro asked curiously.
[Well I had thought that mother was simply a woman who ys a pivotal role in your life during the early stages and looks after you. You were a mother figure to me and yes I was the one. I had just received a slight upgrade and saw that you were struggling with time magic so I infiltrated the system and got something to help you. Though it did punish me a little I recovered quite quickly. Though if you¡¯re ufortable with me calling you mother, I can change the way I call you.]
"No no no, it¡¯s fine. I was just surprised. I seem to be picking up children like vegetables despite still being a maiden." Shiro smiled while scratching her cheek.
[Mother does have the tendencies of picking up people who look up to you as a parental figure.]
"I can¡¯t deny that. Well anyways, let¡¯s see what¡¯s in the centre of my core." Shiro chuckled as she ventured deeper into the core.
###
"Well now, the era has certainly left us behind has it not Beast Queen?" Aisha grinned as she yed around with a doll in her hand. Currently, she was sitting by the window while ncing at Thiria who¡¯s expression was less than happy.
"We both felt the fluctuations of mana in the sky a few days ago, a certain spirit queen certainly did not hold back against her foe. The very aura caused the Earth to shake, leaving the two of us and any remaining Queens in awe. Frankly, it¡¯s safe to say that our time had long passed. We¡¯ve already lost our chance at winning this. Though considering your expression, you think otherwise." Aisha curled her lips into a smile while looking at Thiria.
"You sure like to talk a lot. What are you even here for?" Thiria asked as Aisha burst out intoughter.
"Pft ahahaha! You must be desperate to tolerate me. If it was before, you would have driven me out without a second thought. Now look at you? Even so considerate as to ask me what I¡¯m here for." Aisha grinned as she suddenly appeared from behind Thiria¡¯s throne.
Feeling Thiria¡¯s re on her, Aisha raised her hands in defeat.
"Don¡¯t mind me, just a jester doing her job. Though since my audience is unreceptive, I suppose I¡¯ll talk about the main purpose." Aisha skipped out of the shadow and walked in around the room.
"After the fight, it¡¯s clear that we¡¯re no longer on the same level as Shiro. Even before the fight, she could crush my soul with a wave of her finger. It¡¯s clear that the winner has already been decided though that¡¯ll only happen if she¡¯s the only one left. Now then, there are two choices for us. Either we continue this path and get ughtered, or we give up our ces in thispetition. Surrender and retreat, allow her to win. And perhaps she might give us a ce in her kingdom once her rule has been solidified. I heard that the Undead Queen has been quite well off with her alliance with Shiro. Her domains are protected and the Lightning Queen is pulling her hair in frustration right now."
"You have a third option. Stop beating around the bush and tell me. My patience is limited." Thiria warned as a dark aura wrapped around her body.
"I was leading up to it. The third option is allying ourselves with a god. It¡¯s not a preferred option but as it stands, it¡¯s probably the only one that might work. We have both pissed off Shiro and it¡¯s safe to say that she won¡¯t let us live in her kingdom." Aisha chuckled.
Waving her hand, several cards appeared in the air in front of her. Each of the cards had a different crest that faintly radiated divine energy.
Seeing this, Thiria narrowed her eyes.
"You¡¯ve already allied yourself with one haven¡¯t you?"
"Of course. A few reached out to me so I picked the one that seemed best for my goals. Of course, they didn¡¯t do it free of charge, they only reached out for me since I talented in my tricks. And to not piss off the other gods, I agreed in helping them advertise a little. These are the gods that have an interest in you o¡¯ Queen of Beasts. Take your time in choosing. Though you can go solo as usual and die a pitiful death." Aishaughed.
Snapping her fingers, all of the cards shot towards Thiria.
Blocking it with a barrier, Thiria watched as Aisha¡¯s body was reced by a doll that was winking at her.
Feeling anger rise up in her heart, a portal opened near it and a beast jaw crushed the doll.
Dismissing the barrier, she looked at the crests present on the cards. She recognised a few of them since they were gods that she had heard about before but quite a few were unfamiliar. One of which was a temple that had a lightning bolt in the centre. The energy radiated from this was superior to the other crests on the cards.
Furrowing her brows, she picked up that card and turned it around. Information started to appear on the back as details about the god, their power and goals started to reveal itself.
"Zeus huh..." Thiria muttered as she was familiar with the tales of the lightning god thanks to the ves that she had captured. Ignoring his lust, he might be a decent ally considering that he has quite the vendetta against Shiro.
However, Thiria tossed the card in the air and destroyed it with her beast summon.
"Do you think I don¡¯t know you¡¯re hard pressed for allies after your little fight in the God Realm? You¡¯ve pissed off the primordials along with a majority of gods in your pantheon. They¡¯ve all joined Shiro¡¯s side and you think I¡¯m stupid enough to join someone that¡¯s already a foot in the grave? You really underestimate me Lightning God." Thiria sneered as the sky rumbled.
Sweeping her hand, Thiria destroyed all of the cards in one go as the void opened up in front of her. A pitch ck card appeared with a glitching crest.
It would asionally transform into a woman with three pairs of wings, a halo and swords around her into a void monster that changed form with each nce.
"This is more like it." Thiria smiled, epting the card.
Chapter 1145 Alternative Class
Chapter 1145 Alternative ss
Breaching the finalyer within her core, Shiro found herself in a familiar white space. It was the same ce where she chose her first divinity. Looking at the orbs that floated around the space, she recognised that they were potential divinities that she could cultivate.
"If these are potential divinities then I guess this ominous mother*cker is my Destruction Divinity then." Shiro muttered while ncing at the ck and red orb that was slowly tainting the white space.
[That is indeed the source of the destructive aura. As for cutting it off from you without harming you, I don¡¯t know how you¡¯re going to do it but you might want to do it fast. We only have 3 minutes left.] Error warned as Shiro nodded her head.
Narrowing her eyes, she had already thought about a potential way of how this might work for her.
When she split a shard of herself in the past as Anima, she did so in a way where it split off a part of her. This included memories, divinity and so on. A little bit of everything was included. However, for this, she wanted to iste the split. Make it so that only the Destructive Divinity is cut out.
Activating a tier 7 magic circle, the space around the divinity started to warp as Shiro could feel pain spreading through her body. Though this was to be expected since she was performing surgery on her own code.
Attempting to cut it off using her old method, Shiro frowned since the old method didn¡¯t allow her topletely iste the Destructive Divinity. It would leave roughly half of it still within her core, allowing it to grow. Should she continue with this method, it would make cultivating the Creation Divinity a lot harder.
Snapping her fingers, red circuits started tobine as a sword appeared in her hand. Since Silvanis would undergo a change when activated with Error, it made sense that the reverse could also work. Whenbined with Error Silvanis allowed her to attack the core. Theoretically, a miniature Silvanis should be quite simr to a scalpel.
Adjusting her grip, Shiro dashed towards the orb that was corrupting her core and shed around it.
*COUGH!!!!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Shiro ignored her injuries for now and activated a tier 8 magic circle.
ck runes started to appear around the orb as a seal was slowly being constructed. Little by little, it was encased in a tomb of ice. Controlling Error¡¯s body to grab the seal, Shiro escaped from her core and separated her divinity from the main code.
Ignoring the warnings and the weakness she was feeling, Shiro opened her eyes and looked at the two orbs in her hand, one was the size of a tennis ball while the other was akin to a marble. However, despite the small size, the second orb radiated a more threatening aura.
Taking a few deep breaths to rx her body, Shiro tried to activate another tier 8 magic circle in order to seal the orb away for now. However, the moment she tried this, the magic circle shattered apart before it could reachpletion.
[Mother, I believe it¡¯s because you separated your divinitypletely from your body. At most, you have ess to all of your power as a tier 7 but anything higher is impossible. Though considering yourck of understanding of your other attunements, I would say that they¡¯re just tier 6 but packs more punch. They¡¯re only tier 7 in name.]
"I see..." Furrowing her brows, Shiro activated a tier 6 magic circle and sealed the orb away in a personal dimension for now. Originally, she wanted to seal it in an environment where time hadpletely halted but this was fine as well. Once Chronoses to Earth, she¡¯ll ask him to help her out.
With the Destructive Divinity now separated from her for now, Shiro could see that the aura around everyone else in the room had halted. The cocoon that wrapped around Lisandra started to peel away as Lisandra could be seen with an ufortable expression. All of her wings had been turned ck with slight traces of white around the edge of the feathers as faint ck runes could be seen on the surface.
[Lisandra LVL 1000 Seraph of Destruction]
[Mother, I¡¯ll put a proxy in ce so that your core doesn¡¯t begin to destroy itself. It¡¯ll hold the things together for now until you ce the original orb back. It¡¯s just a proxy though so there is a limit on how long it can stay there. This is all I can do for now since I¡¯m beginning to feel sleepy again. You can still activate me and use the skills but I¡¯ll be asleep.] Error said as his voice started to fade away.
"Mn, good night. Sleep well." Nodding her head, Shiro watched as the red circuits disappear. The pain that she was feeling was reduced slightly. It wasn¡¯t much but it was still better than what she was feeling earlier. Sending her core back to its rightful ce, Shiro tried to sit up but failed.
With no other choice, she looked at the notifications that the system had sent her.
[User is modifying source code.]
[Breach warning.]
[Continue to do so may result in severe health consequences.]
[Recovery of Divinity has been halted.]
[Divinity has been separated from main code.]
[Proxy has taken the ce, repair shall be halted for now.]
[Certain skills no longer usable.]
Reading through all of the notifications, most of them were talking about how she has just damaged the crap out of her body.
However, amidst the notifications, there were two that she was happy to see.
[Administrators have agreed upon a new test feature.]
[You have been granted ess. Alternative ss Unlocked.]
Curling her lips into a smile, she dismissed the warnings and checked what the Prestige ss was.
¡¯Hmm... well it¡¯s not what I wanted but it¡¯s close enough.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
The Prestige ss was essentially a second main ss where she starts at ¡¯level 1¡¯ but retains her stats. Most of her skills are unusable but she can still use all the elements she has attunements with. That includes nanobots but the power and effectiveness has been heavily weakened to their state back in Aria.
After all, the nanobots she cultivated in this life were heavily linked to her Destructive Divinity. Though she didn¡¯t mind since this was akin to a nk state. If her nanobots could be a canvas for her Destructive Divinity, it can be a canvas for the Creation Divinity as Chaos hinted at.
With her main stat page mostly remaining the same, there was now a new tab.
[Alternative ss]
Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit God
Level: 1
ss:
Skills:
Except for her name and race, everything else was pretty much nk. Since it was new feature, it¡¯s to be expected. It was designed after she ripped out a part of her code after all.
The main use for this new tab was for her to cultivate her Creation Divinity until it was as strong as her Destruction Divinity.
Now that she had reached this stage, Shiro had a few ¡¯minor¡¯ questions.
"What the f*ck is a Creation Divinity? How the hell am I supposed to level up and fight with it???? How the hell do I be the First Born of Creation?"
Massaging her eyes, Shiro wanted to think about the answers to her questions but a wave of fatigue rushed over her.
¡¯I guess I¡¯ll figure it out once I wake up. Though Nan Tian would not like the sight of this.¡¯ Shiro forced a smile as she was about to sleep with her nkets covered with her blood. It didn¡¯t help that she was a little pale and had a bloody mouth right now.
¡¯F*ck it. I need sleep more...¡¯
Closing her eyes, Shiro drifted off to sleep.
###
"What the hell is wrong with this girl!!!" A man shouted out as he mmed his hand against the table.
Taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm the rage in his heart, he red at screen while trying to figure out how the hell he was supposed to make a new feature for what the girl did to herself.
But since most of the admins chose this path, he couldn¡¯tin.
"There are many things wrong with the girl. She is what some may like to call an upational hazard." A voice rang out as the man nced back.
"Admin 8." The man greeted as Administrator 8 nodded his head.
"So goes the design?" Administrator 8 asked as this was something concerning Shiro who his old friend, admin 4 was a fan of. He had already helped her out a few times in the background but he figured that he could probably do more.
"I¡¯m working on it. Trying to make it so that it matches what she needs is not exactly easy since it goes against a lot of what¡¯s already been set in stone. However, since this is supposed to be her reward for killing Rokarn, it can¡¯t be helped. Though I will say that I keep getting a strange signal from this ce that¡¯s bothering me. I feel like I should know what it is but it keeps slipping my mind."
Furrowing his brows, Admin 8 nced at the map and noticed that he was pointing towards the North Pole.
On the screen, a single egg could be seen.
Chapter 1146 Help From Gods
Chapter 1146 Help From Gods
Waking up, the first thing that Shiro saw was Nan Tian who sat next to her bed with a frown on his face. He was currently reading a book with a set of clean sheets and nkets besides him.
"Morning." Shiro greeted for a forced smile.
Closing his book, Nan Tian stared at Shiro without saying anything.
Coughing lightly, Shiro scratched her cheek.
"Sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro sat up properly, now feeling slightly better without her body being transformed by her divinity. Though of course it didn¡¯t help that her core was wounded after the little surgery she performed.
"Sorry for harming my body again and not telling you about it." Shiro confessed as Nan Tian sighed.
"I don¡¯t know what you did but the corruption has stopped. Beelzebub had already removed the barrier since it doesn¡¯t pose any danger to us. Lisandra is still sleeping but everyone else had already woke up a while ago. They¡¯re currently in the dining hall and Yin¡¯s emptying our pantry again." Nan Tian said as he stood up.
Picking Shiro up in a princess hold, he made sure she wasn¡¯t feeling any pain and ced her down on the next bed before changing the sheets so that it wasn¡¯t stained with her blood.
"I see... that¡¯s good then." Shiro smiled.
"So care to tell me what happened? Your name tag is also a little different." Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
Exining the surgery to him along with her new ss feature, Nan Tian massaged his eyes.
"I get that you want to stop your divinity from growing but surely there is a better option. ording to you, what you¡¯ve done is pretty much the same as brain surgery." Nan Tian said as he sat down with a sigh.
Sticking out her tongue, Shiro grinned and quickly created a veil to change her clothes.
Rolling his eyes, Nan Tian reached into his inventory and pulled out her breakfast.
"So what¡¯s the n now then?" He asked curiously.
Now that they had a few days till the start of the second half, they had some time to prepare.
"Well the original n was to figure out what the hell a creation divinity was and begin cultivating it with the help of the orb. However, I don¡¯t know what a creation divinity even entails so it¡¯s a bit risky. I want to have a somewhat clear understanding first before I jump into it." Shiro shrugged.
"And performing surgery on yourself is not jumping into it?"
"I mean... The surgery was needed anyways. I couldn¡¯t go around with my aura corrupting everything now can I?" Shiro replied as she dismissed the veil.
Since they were going to be free of danger for a few days, she wasn¡¯t exactly going to be dressed in her battle attire.
Plus, she wasn¡¯t in the state to fight right now with half her skills sealed away. Though her stats were still ridiculous.
Dressing in a baggy white off shoulder shirt, shorts, ck stockings and a pair of boots, Shiro smiled lightly as she gave her body a good stretch.
"Oh my, my breakfast is already here. Perfect." Shiro smiled while hopping onto the bed.
"You don¡¯t need to rush." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
Finishing the meal quickly, Shiro sprawled out on the bed.
"Mn.... I wanna sleep more." Shiro muttered before sighing.
"But there¡¯s work to do. Anyways, let¡¯s see if any of the primordials can help me with the creation divinity." Shiro said as she prepared to send a message to Nyx.
"You don¡¯t have to worry about that. My mum¡¯s already searching the divine library for information that might help you." A voice suddenly rang out as Shiro immediately summoned Silvanis and pointed towards the source of the voice.
However, seeing that it was just Hemera, Shiro dismissed her sword.
"How long have you been here?" Shiro asked as Hemera hopped off her spot andnded next to Shiro.
"I¡¯ve been here for a short while. Now that the world is adapting to the presence of a god, I have an idea on working around the restrictions. I should be able to prolong my stay here for a few hours but mum and the others can¡¯t. Same goes for Demi Gods since their body is too weak. But as for your question, mum had already heard what you want to find out about so they¡¯re searching it up now." Hemera exined.
"I see... well that certainly saves me the trouble." Shiro smiled.
"Now for the main reason as to why I¡¯m here, there¡¯s quite a bigmotion in the realms above. The recovery of the First Born of Destruction is not something that we can just brush off. And seeing as how you were literally talking about your divinity; I suppose it¡¯s confirmed that you are the First Born in question. Now, if I was a rational god, I would have had every divine pantheon knock on your door to end you since to put it bluntly, your existence can¡¯t be tolerated by the universe. But since I¡¯m your friend, and seeing as how quite a few gods like you especially Gaia, we¡¯re going to see if we can find a way to help you. You¡¯ve already halted the growth of your divinity which definitely makes our job a lot easier. Had you not halted the growth, I would have given you something that they created for the purpose of sealing. But since youpleted that step yourself, here¡¯s something to help for now. It¡¯s filled with divine energy and it¡¯ll help foster the growth of a second divinity. When paired with your orb, it¡¯ll speed up the process quite a bit." Hemera smiled while handing over a golden orb that was filled with runic symbols.
"Well that¡¯s reassuring. I¡¯m sure that Gaia and Nyx wants answers so let me make it easier for them. I¡¯ll type up a document of the full story so that they know what happened."
"Mn, that would indeed be helpful. Oh, before I forget, I should also warn you that a few gods have started to reach out to the remaining Queens. Unlike the Raven, these gods don¡¯t demand their authority so it¡¯s much more beneficial for them to ept the deal. While were not sure of who epted the deals, there¡¯s definitely a few that have a rather strong hatred for you. So while you¡¯re weakened, I suggest you keep your guard up. But with most of the warnings and messages delivered, it¡¯s time for me to do whatever I want. And the first on that list is giving you my understanding of the Creation Divinity. You see, with creation and destruction being in the centre of everything, it¡¯s only natural that all divinities can be broken down into two aspects. While I have attack power, my divinity is mostly focused on rejuvenating life. My role is to preserve and stimte growth. For my understanding, for creation to be on par with destruction, it must preserve and regrow as much as what was destroyed. The endless tenacity and vitality is the key in my opinion. If you want to cultivate a divinity that¡¯s on par with something as crazy as being the literal First Born of Destruction, you must be able to create a realm with your own power and perhaps even more. I will say that it¡¯s must harder to create than it is to destroy so your road will be a hard one." Hemera exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know but it has to be done. If I wasn¡¯t the literal embodiment of destruction, this might be a little easier." Shiro chuckled as Hemera shrugged.
"True. So while I¡¯m here, I can act as a messenger between you and mum. With your power as the First Born recovering, it is harder for mum to get into contact with you remotely before the second half. But since I¡¯m here it doesn¡¯t matter. If you have questions or anything, feel free to call upon me. I¡¯ll give you some privacy for now, I am curious about your city after all."
Nodding her head, Shiro watched as Hemera left the room.
"Ah... I should have asked her what ss she started as. At least then I¡¯ll have a starting point." Shiro muttered.
Shaking her head, she paused for a moment before slowly turning to Nan Tian.
"I just realised something." Shiro said as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"What did you realise?"
"I think I might have lost my filter."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Nan Tian furrowed his brows in confusion.
"I mean, I just said the first thing that popped into my head. Usually I would you know. . . Think before I say something. I also feel a bit more... active? I guess that¡¯s pretty normal considering that I¡¯ve beenying in bed like a vegetable for the past few days but I suppose a better word would be hyper. Do you think that performing surgery on myself might have removed my filter? I am also noticing a few missing sections in my database." Shiro frowned as Nan Tian was silent.
". . .I think that¡¯s just a part of you bing normal rather than abnormal."
Blinking her eyes, Shiro opened her mouth.
"Being normal kinda sucks. Should I set something on fire to be abnormal again?" Shiro pouted.
"That¡¯s arson."
"Che."
Chapter 1147 New Policies
Chapter 1147 New Policies
Resting for a little longer, Shiro hopped off her bed and checked up on Lisandra.
With most of her wings now dyed ck, the destructive aura in her body was quite obvious. With her limited power, Shiro did a scan of Lisandra¡¯s body and saw that nothing was wrong. She was just adapting to this change through rest.
Estimating that she was going to wake up in around a day or so, Shiro gestured for Nan Tian to follow her out of the med bay.
"So what¡¯s the n now? Are you going to ask Hemera about the ss?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shook her head.
"Yes and no. I want to let my body get used to theck of power first since it still aches from performing surgery. Once it¡¯s gotten used to it, I¡¯ll start making progress. But my main concern right now is this city. I¡¯ve made this city too easy for the people. Without bnce, it¡¯ll soon crumble away. Therefore, under the guise of not having enough resources, I¡¯ll push people to work harder, cultivate farms and enter dungeons to sustain this city. Eventually, I have hopes that they will be able to sustain this city even without my help. And the first step to that is to implement a few changes to the rules." Shiro smiled while pulling out a tablet from her inventory.
"As you know, right now the system in Asharia pretty much favours those that do nothing at all in my opinion. Even if they do nothing, they¡¯ll still be given a good ce to live, food to eat and safety where as though that go to dungeons, enter the army, open shops and so on pretty much get the same despite with some small added bonuses. With the difference between the two being so small, it¡¯s simply not worth the effort to go out and work. So I¡¯ll need to reduce the things provided to free loaders. Make it so that they get the minimum for survival and encourage them to work their way up. The council will provide them with opportunities if they struggle at finding one themselves with tasks that are set ording to their skill set. If a person is good at farming, the council will not send them on a mission in the dungeon. Instead, we¡¯ll have them open their farm in an open dungeon where people can go in and out. It saves me the effort of setting up a time dtion myself while also giving new adventurers some work and experience in fighting small mobs. They¡¯ll protect the farm from monsters as beginner missions." Shiro exined as Nan Tian understood what she was going for.
"I¡¯m not too worried about spirits, demons and a few other demi human races since they¡¯re pretty well disciplined. There¡¯s a clear hierarchy and everyone follows it. The problem is humans and elves. I¡¯m pretty sure a few of the humans would protest about the chances. I¡¯m hoping not but it¡¯s best to have lower expectations for these kind of things. I¡¯m seen my fair share of idiotic people after all. Some would continue to taunt in the face of danger as though the will of god will protect their worthless asses from extermination." Shiro shrugged.
Entering the lift, Shiro and Nan Tian made their way to the top of the tower, where the council was.
*BANG!
Pushing open the door, Shiro grinned.
"Listen up everyone! We¡¯re making a few changes here. Samuel, you¡¯re my scape goat for this one. If they want toin, you¡¯re the first wall of defence." Shiro dered as Samuel choked on his saliva. He was once an important member of the spirit council but now he¡¯s nothing but a meat shield for Shiro.
"While it is good to make things easier for people, promotingziness is a bit no go. We want productive people to carry the legacy of sentient beings to the next generation not personified vegetables that only knows how to eat, sh*t, sleep, maybe f*ck and reproduce a next generation of free loaders. First change! We¡¯re reducing the benefits given to those that aren¡¯t working. If they don¡¯t work, they don¡¯t get the luxury. Are you writing this down? You better be writing this down or else I¡¯ll make sure you won¡¯t forget it." Shiro grinned.
Hearing this, everyone in the room immediately started to type up the new rules.
*Pst!
"Mn?" Feeling someone tap him, Nan Tian nced over and saw Samuel.
"Is her highness feeling ok? She seems a bit... off." Samuel asked as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Well let¡¯s just say she¡¯s... a little drunk? Don¡¯t mind it though, she¡¯s still her usual self but just says whatever pops into her mind. As for the new rules, don¡¯t worry, she wants the city to be able to sustain itself rather than produce a poption that only knows how to freeload. It¡¯ll be good for the development of the city." Nan Tian reassured as Samuel nodded his head.
"I can hear you two talking about me. My two ears are working perfectly well. Samuel, you can exercise your old bones in the military with Shiina¡¯s help. As for you Nan Tian, you can take care of the my documents." Shiro said as Nan Tian smiled.
"So as usual then?"
"Mn." Shiro nodded.
Seeing this, Samuel¡¯s smile twitched at the tant favouritism.
"What? You look like you have a problem with my decision old man." Shiro asked as Samuel quickly shook his head and escaped before Shiro could do anything else.
"Pft, it wasn¡¯t like I was going to make him do more office work. Plus, he¡¯s been doing paper work for too long, he needs to stretch his body more." Shiro shrugged.
"Well enough about the old man. Let¡¯s continue with the other rules."
With Shiro implementing new rules, Nan Tian sat down at aputer and started to type up a public service announcement on the new changes.
###
It didn¡¯t take too long for the announcement to spread through themunity. Since everyone had registered in order to be ssed as a citizen, passing the information was easy. But the fact that their luxury was disappearing in a few short days caused some dissatisfaction.
While none of them have been verbal about it, Shiro could tell that they weren¡¯t happy.
Though that didn¡¯t bother her too much since this was for their benefit more than it was for her.
With the new policies out of the way, Shiro started to think about what ss she wanted.
Most of the Creation Divinity type sses she had heard about has been mostly to do with healing and support. If she wanted to cultivate something simr, bing a healer was a good start. While her nanobots have the properties of creation, they¡¯re too closely linked to her destruction divinity.
Her n for now was to cultivate something suitable before integrating her nanobots into it. That way, her ss can be ¡¯pure¡¯ creation rather than destruction.
"Hmm... How should I even clear a dungeon if I only heal." Shiro muttered as an idea popped into her mind.
"If creation is to preserve life, then that means life continues to grow. Eventually, they¡¯ll grow old and die, reincarnating into the next cycle. I just have to age them using ¡¯creation divinity¡¯ so that they die of natural causes!"
"Wouldn¡¯t that also be destruction?" Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
"Well what else should I do. Am I supposed to make friends with the monsters and have them clear the dungeon through suicide?" Shiro pouted.
"Well with what you told me, Anima mentioned that too much of Creation and life will also crumble away. An eternal paradise, one where they¡¯re sofortable that they don¡¯t need to do anything. Eventually, theirfort will take them to a death without you doing the deed yourself. You are merely giving them a safe space simr to Asharia." Nan Tian suggested as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"You¡¯re not wrong. Creation and Destruction is not inherently good or evil. There is good destruction such as purging a tumour and bad creation with the replication of parasites. Just because I have the power of creation, doesn¡¯t mean I have to be a saint that is the embodiment of good. Creation can be rather twisted in its methods." Shiro muttered as her lips slowly curled up into a cruel smile.
"Creation stimtes growth. While it does not destroy, too much of anything is not good. I can potentially create a spell that forcefully drains on their vitality until they die. The spell itself was ¡¯technically¡¯ used for healing despite the fact that it over stimted their vitality.
"Alright, I think I have an idea." Shiro chuckled as she turned around and faced Nan Tian.
"Not to toot my own horn but I think I was pretty kind as a destroyer. What do you think about a cruel creator?" Shiro narrowed her eyes as Nan Tianughed.
"Is that not just the biblical god in some people¡¯s eyes? He who created natural disasters amongst men."
"True. In that case then let my path on creation be one paved with destruction. I am someone who seeks bnces after all." Shiro grinned.
Chapter 1148 Path of a Healer
Chapter 1148 Path of a Healer
During this life, she wasn¡¯t exactly allowed to choose her first ss. Due to her race passive along with the fact that nanobots followed her, her started ss was predetermined.
Now that she was picking her third ss, she could choose whatever she wanted and the best one to fit her idea of a cruel creator was healer.
With the ss healer, she¡¯ll be able to make adjustments to all the healing spells however she wanted. The only question now was hidden sses along with how she should level up. Shiro wasn¡¯t sure if this ss acted the same way as the standard ss, levelling up through EXP or something else.
Hemera said that using the orb would increase the speed but this ss was technically level 1.
¡¯Hmm... Perhaps it¡¯s that way because I¡¯m already level 1000. Since I have already reached the peak in terms of level, cultivating a new divinity is just me ¡¯levelling up again¡¯ which might mean I need Divine Energy instead of EXP.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
¡¯I can theorise as much as I want but it¡¯s still easier to just ask Hemera about it.¡¯
"Let¡¯s go to the others now. I got a few questions for Hemera. Depending on her answer, I¡¯ll be changing my ss to healer. I don¡¯t think I need to run the dungeons again but who knows." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"She¡¯s currently with the others in the food hall. They¡¯ve stopped eating for now."
"Perfect." Shiro smiled.
Jogging for a moment, Shiro was about to create a portal and leap off the edge when she realised that her portals were linked to her nanotech. Seeing no portal appear, she floated awkwardly for a moment before looking back.
"I suppose we¡¯re flying there normally." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro scratched her cheek.
"Pretty much."
Arriving at the food hall, Shiro could see that Yin had reserved the whole ce today. With everyone enjoying the banquet that she cooked, Shiro spotted Yin arm wrestling with Hemera in the middle of the room while the others were cheering.
"Go get her Yin!" Silvia cheered as she had clearly had a few drinks now.
Besides her, Chen Yu was silent but his cheeks were a little rosy, clearly he had his fair share of drinks too.
Of course, not everyone was cheering for Yin since that would be unfair for Hemera. Madison and Helion were encouraging the Goddess while the 7 Ancient Lords were talking to one another about the evolution of alcohol.
"Seems like everyone is having fun." Shiro called out with a smile.
Seeing that it was Shiro, Attie quickly jogged over.
"Are you sure you should be walking around mum? We¡¯re you hurt badly?" He asked with concern written all over his face.
"Both you and I know that I¡¯m rather tenacious. Plus, after being stuck on a bed for a few days, I deserve a walk around ok? So what¡¯s happening then?" Shiro asked while Attie pulled out two seats for Shiro and Nan Tian.
"Well big sis Yin was boasting as usual and Hemera challenged her to a contest. So far, there had been 4 rounds. A contest of speed, dexterity, reaction time and strangely enough, cooking. Hemera won all of them except cooking and now they¡¯re doing a strength contest. They¡¯re just doing to have fun since big sis Yin might have drank a little too much." Attie forced a smile as Shiro shook her head.
"Let your sister have her fun for now I suppose. Thing will get quite busy in a few days after all. And speaking of which, I might interest myself in a few drinks now that I¡¯ve sealed my divinity." Shiro smiled.
Upon hearing this, everyone became silent and snapped towards her direction.
"I¡¯m kidding. Even if I sealed away my divinity my physical strength is still abnormal. I won¡¯t do something stupid like getting drunk in my own city. If anything I would do it in a dungeon so that I can clear it." Shiro rolled her eyes.
Sitting down by one of the tables, she pulled out some juice.
"Don¡¯t mind me, continue with the contest." Shiro grinned.
Enjoying the atmosphere for a while, Shiro started to exin what happened along with her n.
Hearing that she practically performed a brain surgery on herself, Madison mmed her head against the table, shattering it in half before recing it with another one.
"Honestly, I¡¯m not even back for a week and you hit me with the Shiro Special Move." Madison rolled her eyes.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro looked towards Hemera.
"You said that I can ask you anything and you¡¯ll pass on my message to Nyx and the others right?" Shiro asked as Hemera nodded her head.
"Then can you ask them about this? Creation Divinity is not inherently good so theoretically, I can use ¡¯creation¡¯ to kill people. If Healing is to preserve life then stimting growth and causing them to die of old age can still be ssed as creation. I just want to see if my thought process is on the right track." Shiro smiled as Hemera¡¯s smile twitched.
"I can go ask that. It¡¯ll take me a few hours to give you a reply though. So if there¡¯s anything else you want to ask, ask now."
"Mn, I also want to ask them about how divine energy can help me level up. I have two theories. One is that I still level up as usual with EXP and the second is cultivating Mana/Divine Energy will grant me levels. With the orb you¡¯ve given me, I¡¯m thinking the answer is probably the second one. And the final question would be whether or not they know of hidden sses that belong to the Creation side of things and their unlock conditions. That way I can have a little head start in cultivating my second divinity." Shiro replied.
Nodding her head, Hemera opened a portal and stepped through.
"Since you¡¯re having a ss change, I¡¯m guessing you¡¯ll be pretty busy for a while. Anything you want us to work on while you¡¯re away?" Aarim asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"In fact there is. I want everyone to boost their level to 1000. If possible, see if you can cultivate a divinity but I¡¯ll be honest, I have no idea how to cultivate it. I got mine after a pretty tough trial so you might want to ask Hemera about that." Shiro scratched her hair.
"Though I will say that you¡¯re right about me being busy. I¡¯m going to go on a little solo adventure. It¡¯s been a while since I done one of these without Nimue with me."
"Huh?" Nimue blinked, hearing her name being called and realising that Shiro wanted to be solo solo and not having spirits in the mana realm.
"Isn¡¯t that a bit dangerous?" Nimue furrowed her brows.
"Not exactly, I want EVERYONE to begin making preparations in cultivating their divinity. With the second half of the new age arriving a few days from now, we¡¯ll no longer be fighting Queens or Empresses. Remember the feeling of helplessness during the fight against Rokarn and use that to spur you on during training. All of you need to get stronger quickly and the best way to do that is for you to focus on yourselves rather than me. I can handle myself well enough and depending on what happens, I¡¯ll be doing pretty easy dungeons to level up. With my physique, it¡¯ll be a walk in the park." Shiro reassured as Nimue frowned before nodding with a heavy sigh.
After the party was over, Shiro stocked up on a few items that will act as fail safes if things do go south.
While she was doing this, she could tell that Nan Tian wanted toe along but he too needed to reach level 1000 so he didn¡¯t say anything.
"Don¡¯t be too stressed out about it. Once you get to level 1000, everyone can party up and wreck some sh*t during the second half of the new age." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Stay safe out there. We have dungeons in Asharia but I¡¯m guessing you n on venturing out into the world."
"Pretty much. There are more opportunities outside of Asharia in terms of cultivating for a Creation Divinity. Though I¡¯ll be back before you know it." Shiro chuckled.
Talking to Nan Tian for a little longer, they waited for Hemera¡¯s return.
After 3 hours, a portal opened near them and Hemera stepped through.
"Sorry for the long wait, they werepiling all of the information useful for you in this book. sses, hidden sses and their unlock conditions have been recorded along with the discovered method for cultivating a second divinity. It¡¯s mostly aimed for sub divinities but with yours being a second core divinity, we¡¯re not sure how effective it¡¯ll be. Regardless, it should help out somewhat." Hemera smiled, handing over a tome.
Quickly flipping through a few pages, Shiro was quite satisfied with what she saw. It even recorded Silvia¡¯s hidden ss within the logs.
"Thank you very much. This will certainly make my journey easier." Shiro said while cing her tome in her inventory. Double checking to make sure she hadn¡¯t left anything behind, she bid everyone farewell for now and hopped through one of the portals she set up in the teleport hall.
Chapter 1149 Second Class
Chapter 1149 Second ss
After leaving Asharia, Shiro didn¡¯t have too many worries. All of Asharia¡¯s problems could be handled by Nan Tian since she had prepared all the necessary tools before Rokarn¡¯s fight.
She could somewhat confidently leave on her own journey without worrying. Of course, if something major did happen, she would not hesitate to unseal her destruction divinity and teleport back. While it may not be beneficial to preform surgery on herself multiple times, it was still better than ignoring an emergency.
While she did want to hang out with Madison after being away for a while, time didn¡¯t allow it. With the second halfing in less than a week, she couldn¡¯t ck on her preparations.
After she had stepped through the teleporter, Shiro found herself in London. Or rather, what¡¯s left of London.
Seeing all of the broken buildings, shattered dungeons and monsters that roamed around, Shiro stretched her body and pulled out the tome that Hemera had given her.
"Let¡¯s see, there isn¡¯t a hidden ss option for the starting ss but there is one during the first ss up. The easiest standard healer ss that I can obtain is Healer and Medic. A Healer primarily focuses on stimting their vitality to heal while Medic actively heals the wounds through understanding and speeding up the process. With my skill set, Medic is probably better than healer since it¡¯s morepatible with my Nanobots. Once I fuse the two together, having Medic as my foundation is probably better." Shiro muttered.
While reading the tome, she sensed a monster creeping up from behind her but she ignored it. Since she had separated her destructive divinity from her code, she was akin to a defenceless civilian to their senses. She¡¯s used to suppressing her mana so they couldn¡¯t even sense a single drop while her physical prowess was stupidly strong despite what she looked like.
Waiting for the monster to get close enough, Shiro closed her book just as it pounced for an attack.
*KRRRRR!!!
Turning her head, she used her mana to amplify the wind that was sent out due to her closing the book. The result was a wind blender that shredded the monster and sent its flesh and blood scattering through the wind behind her.
s
"Seems like cutting out my destructive divinity also disabled my passive. Monster s aren¡¯t scared sh*tless of me now." Shiro said as she hopped onto the rails of the bridge that she was on.
Narrowing her eyes into the distance, Shiro tried to see if she could sense the Awakening Shrine.
While monsters may be born with a ss, the Awakening Shrine was a short cut for people to get their first ss.
Depending on the requirements that have been met, you can freely choose your ss from the list given to you. All she had to do was to find this Shrine and select Medic as the ss.
"I came to London since this city is in a better statepared to the other major cities. The Shrine should be usable." Shiro muttered while pulling out her phone. Searching up where the Shrine was on the map, she started to make her way over.
On her way there, plenty of monsters tried to ambush her but they were dealt with quite easily. Level 500 monsters simply could not deal with the physical strength of Shiro. Plus, her strength stat was abnormally high for a mage. A flick of the finger was enough to obliterate them to the next generation.
Arriving at the location on the map, Shiro looked up from her phone and saw the copsed path leading deep underground.
"Well considering that the Shrine should be directly below me, this should be enough."
Activating Rift Strider EX, Shiro jumped into the Rift and made her way down. Since this was skill she received from Yin, it wasn¡¯t disabled when she separated her divinity.
Jumping through the void, Shiro smiled when she spotted the Shrine beneath her.
"Seems like it¡¯s intact. I¡¯ve already met the requirements for Medic so this should be pretty easy."
Leaving the rift, Shironded besides the Shrine. However, just as she was about to activate it, she noticed that there signs of people living here for a while. Raising her eyebrows, she didn¡¯t think that there were still people taking shelter so close to the heart of the city, especially considering the fact that it¡¯s more dangerous here.
¡¯Hmm, maybe I¡¯ll look for them after I get my ss.¡¯
Shaking her head, Shiro channelled her mana into the Shrine. Suddenly, the system interface flickered and ss options appeared in front of her.
Reading through the list, Shiro chuckled seeing that most of the rmendations werebat ones. Scrolling past them, she eventually found Medic at the bottom.
But before she tapped the option, she noticed a rather interesting ss below that.
[Nanomancer]
Seeing as how her own ss was in the starting options, Shiro guessed that anyone who fulfilled the requirement could get the ss. Of course, their power can¡¯t bepared to her since she was the First Born of Destruction but they should be able to reach her same peak in Aria. The Nanomancer ss itself was powerful if you had the right tool.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro hesitated.
Nanobots inherently had the power of creation considering the fact that you can make anything as long as you have a blueprint.
However, while it did indeed have the power of creation, it was overshadowed by the destructive part of nanotech. Even if she could cultivate the power of creation with Nanotech, it could easily be overshadowed by the destructive nature.
¡¯Choosing this might make it hard to bnce the two divinities together in the future.¡¯
Thinking to herself for a moment, Shiro eventually settled on choosing Medic. She can always infuse some nanotech into her ss in the future. Plus, with some of the hidden sses she can obtain by stepping on this path, it didn¡¯t make sense to limit herself to Nanomancer. She was already the Goddess of Nanotech, no point repeating the same ss twice.
[ss obtained: Medic.]
Name: Shiro
Race: Spirit God
Level: 1
ss: Medic
Skills: Cure, Dispel, Purify
Now that she had gained the ss, Medic, she ¡¯gained¡¯ three new skills. Technically, even without the system telling her about these skills, she could already simte their effects with her current skill set. If anything, Shiro guessed that it was pretty much just formality.
Rubbing her chin, Shiro nced at her left arm and summoned Silvanis. Stabbing herself in the arm, she dismissed Silvanis and cast Cure.
Suddenly, a tier 1 magic circle appeared on her palm. Despite the fact that it was only tier 1, the mana being radiated from the magic circle wasparable to tier 6!
¡¯Despite my shallow understanding, I can still push a tier 1 spell to have the same effects as a tier 6. I suppose I can say that I have the strongest level 1 healing spell.¡¯ Shiro thought with a small chuckle.
ncing up at the ceiling, she opened a portal to the Rift and jumped out of the underground room.
###
While Shiro was obtaining her second ss, a hooded figure was wandering through the streets of a destroyed city.
"Urg..." Groaning softly, the hooded figure clutched her head with a pained expression.
"Sis... Where are you... Where are we..." She muttered.
Memories shed through her mind. She remembered a surgery with her on the bed. Her thoughts were muddled, mixed with the images of ughter which shemenced with her own two hands.
Gritting her teeth, the figure copsed on the floor as tear streamed down her cheeks.
"Sis I¡¯m scared..." She whispered as pain shot through her body.
Her arm started to transform as she panicked and tried to control it to no avail.
Watching parts of her body transform to suitbat, the woman could feel her heartbeat quicken as fear was evident in her eyes.
¡¯Big sis Niphim... Where are you.¡¯ She thought to herself as violent urges surged forth. Gritting her teeth, she looked around her for any living creature that she could get her ws on.
Spotting a pair of monsters in the distance, she immediately crouched down on all fours and dashed towards them.
ck aura erupted from her hands as tier 6 magic circles were activated. Before she could even say anything, the woman mmed her hand down and activated the spell.
s
The flesh on her arms started to shift once more, digging into the ground beneath her as she could only close her eyes and avert her gaze.
Hearing the sound of crunching, she could tell that her arm must have transformed into a pair of jaws and started to eat the monsters as her stomach started to be full. Feeling disgusted, she felt the substance travel up her throat.
Throwing up, she could see that it was the flesh of the monster.
Trying her best to hold back her tears, she tried to transform her arm back to normal so that she could continue her journey. She just wanted to find her sister again.
Chapter 1150 Nine and Iris
Chapter 1150 Nine and Iris
Walking through the ruined city, a pair of adventurers nced around the corner with caution.
The male adventurer wore a ragged white shirt, a dirty jacket, jeans and a pair of boots. Strangely enough, on his back was a giant bag which seemed to contain a myriad of swords. One would usually store their weapon in the inventory so his act of carrying his des was rather umon.
He had ck hair that had blue highlights and a pair of red eyes.
The second adventurer was a girl with short blue hair and red highlights around the edges. She wore a white bandage over her eyes so one couldn¡¯t tell what colour eyes she had. She wore a ck long sleeved dress and hid behind the male adventurer. Holding onto his sleeve, she had a nervous expression.
"Iris, what¡¯s the average level of the monsters nearby?" The male adventurer asked as Iris furrowed her brows.
"Judging from their mana, level 500 to 600. Let¡¯s see if we can find another way around." She replied, causing the male adventurer to frown.
"500 to 600 huh? Yeah that¡¯s a bit out of my power right now. Tsk, I don¡¯t know what they ate but they¡¯re bing more active now." He muttered.
Looking around him to make sure that they were clear, he pulled Iris¡¯ arm and dashed across the street.
"Which route is safe?" He asked while keeping an eye out on monsters.
"Route A, C, D, E and F are filled with monsters now. B is open but monsters are wandering outside of the entrance." Iris replied after a short pause.
s
"It should be within your capabilities, Nine." Iris added as Nine nodded his head.
"Grab on tight then. I won¡¯t slow down." He said, sweeping Iris into his arms.
Inserting mana into his legs, he stomped down and shot into the air.
Landing on the roof, he jumped to the next as he started to travel across the rooftops.
As he approached what he called route B, he unbuttoned the bag on his back, allowing his swords to fall down.
*BANG!!
Landing on the ground, he allowed Iris to hop off before stomping his foot down. Tier 5 magic circles lit up on all of the swords that he dropped.
sping his hands together, each of the swords shot out and started to massacre the monsters that was wondering outside of the tunnel.
"How long until the level 500¡¯s starting here?" Nine asked as Iris was about to reply when she froze in ce.
"Iris?" Nine raised an eyebrow.
Feeling the space around them freezing, he looked up to see a portal being opened. Within the portal, a dragon slowly manifested itself. Its head extended out of the portal and started at the two of them.
[Juvenile Void Dragon LVL 750]
Opening its mouth, energy gathered to form a tier 6 magic circle.
Widening his eyes, Nine gritted his teeth and prepared to fight back. However, before he could, Iris opened her mouth.
"Someone else ising. Someone stronger than this dragon."
Hearing this, Nine was a little surprised but trusted Iris. Ever since she was little, her senses regarding mana has been stronger than average. The only downside to this was that her sight was heavily impaired.
Her eyes were a little too sensitive to the changes in her surroundings so whenever she opened them, she would be bombarded by information. The white bandage around her eyes acted as a barrier that prevented this.
Before the dragon could fire his breath attack, ice started to form on his body. Its eyes widened with fear as Nine wondered who did this.
"I¡¯m guessing you two are the ones that were camping out near the Awakening Shrine." A voice rang out behind them as the two of them nced back.
Sitting on the roof of a building, Shiro looked down at the two before turning her attention to the dragon.
Just as she jumped into the rift to leave the underground Shrine, she sensed a dragon flying through the void and create a portal. Curious as to what was happening, Shiro followed behind it and didn¡¯t expect to find two survivors. Strangely enough, they were actually able to mask their mana and avoid her detection.
Of course, this was only when she was doing a standard sweep of the area. Unless she was specifically looking for them, they would be able to hide from her for a period of time.
"Well we can talkter. I¡¯ll deal with this dragon. Though if you want to smack him around a little to get more exp you can. I¡¯ll restrain him for you." Shiro smiled while checking their level and ss.
[Nine LVL 450 Formation de Master]
[Iris LVL 400 Enchanter of Stars]
Looking at Iris, Nine thought for a moment. If this woman in front of him could really restrain the dragon then this boost in Exp would be extremely helpful.
However, there was a slight problem.
[Shiro LVL 1 Medic]
Not only that, her title would asionally glitch out, fading between white and ck.
With such a strange name tag, Nine wasn¡¯t sure if she could really do it.
Plus, he knew that she was definitely not a level 1 medic. If she was, she would not have been able to freeze the dragon nor could she make Iris think that she was stronger than the dragon.
He didn¡¯t know the extent of her power but he decided to trust his instincts.
"If you do not mind then I shall ept this kindness." Nine said as he stomped down. All of his swords started to radiate a destructive aura as tier 5 magic circles appeared on the de.
Seeing this, Shiro smiled and narrowed her eyes at the monster and the dragon.
Opening her mouth, she released her mana.
"No body is allowed to move except for these two."
Sensing the oppressive mana that was exploding out from Shiro¡¯s body, all of the monsters shivered in fear while the dragon was trying to escape into the void. However, with Shiro keeping him locked in ce, he was unable to leave. If he closed the portal, his head would get ripped off!
Thus he could only wait in ce and hope that Shiro was kind to him.
While the monsters were frozen in ce with fear, Nine grabbed two of the swords and dashed towards the dragon.
Behind him, Iris created a charm out of mana and threw it into the sky. Exploding with an astral radiance, flickers of light started to connect to one another, forming a constetion above her. A simr pattern appeared on Nine¡¯s de.
Narrowing his eyes, his speed increased dramatically and disappeared from sight momentarily. Reappearing in front of the dragon¡¯s eye, he twisted his body and cleaved downwards with his two swords.
Even without knowing the skill, Shiro could tell that he didn¡¯t have enough power to harm the dragon. Even when targeting the eye, which was one of the weak spots, his sword simply did not have the attack power.
While she may not be a proper support, she still had a few skills that she could use to help him. Most of her skills had been locked away but due to Skill Alchemist, she could always make more.
Remembering one of the support skills that she had recycled before using nanobots, Shiro waved her finger and drew a rune in front of her.
[Berserker Enchantment]
[Dragon yer Aura]
[Elemental Edge]
All three of these skills would help him ovee the defences. Berserker Enchantment would increase his power dramatically, Dragon yer Aura caused him to ignore the natural defences of dragon scales and Elemental Edge infused all of the elements into one attack. It was simr one of Shiro¡¯s older skills that required her attunements only this time repurposed as a support skill instead.
Feeling boundless energy wrap around him, Nine widened his eyes in surprise.
*PUCHI!!!!
Cleaving through the scales with ease, he watched as his des tore through the dragon¡¯s flesh, shredding the eye and left a ghastly wound stretching from his eye down to his jaw.
Just as he was about to go for a second strike, he flinched feeling the strain on his body.
¡¯Well the result isn¡¯t bad, he still got a decent amount of damage with that strike. I thought that he would be able tond more than one but this should be enough. Hopefully the system gives him a decent amount of EXP. It¡¯s not like I need it.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
On the way here, she did kill a few monsters but her level didn¡¯t even rise by 1. She was still ¡¯level 1¡¯.
s
Shaking her head, she looked at the dragon and began testing her theory on the Divinity of Creation.
She wanted to heal this dragon so much until it ran out of vitality. A dragon¡¯s vitality was one of the best amongst the monsters, if a dragon died to this then that means the other monsters shouldn¡¯t stand a chance.
"What a big wound you have there, let me heal you." Shiro grinned sadistically as a tier 6 magic circle appeared on her wrist. Snapping her fingers, flowers appeared on the dragon¡¯s body, wrapping him in a gentle green light that healed his wound.
Despite her actions of healing him, the dragon was not happy. Watching his wounds disappear, his instincts kept telling him to run away but his body was stuck in ce.
Chapter 1151 “Healing The Dragon“
Chapter 1151 ¡°Healing The Dragon¡°
Looking at the dragon in front of her, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Dragons have one of the strongest vitalities in the world, just second to demons. Especially someone like Madison. For her to ¡¯heal¡¯ him to death, she had to find a way to force the dragon to tap into this vitality which wasn¡¯t easy.
After all, their natural healing was already tremendous.
When tapping into a person¡¯s vitality, they need a catalyst to stimte this change, something that forces them beyond their limits. A berserk skill would be ssified as such as it taps into a person¡¯s vitality, unleashing power beyond their normal limits.
Shiro¡¯s act of stacking Berserker Skills can be called suicidal if not for her tenacity and ridiculous vitality. And even then, she was near death the moment the skills wore off.
While healing the dragon, Shiro wondered how to forcefully make them enter a berserk state so that they continuously drain their life force away.
Thinking about it, Shiro realised that Error was probably the best way for her to aplish this. With Error, she¡¯ll be able to tap into their source code and possibly activate their skills through brute force.
Curling her lips into a grin, Shiro couldn¡¯t retrain theughter within.
"Pft hahahaha! Dragon o dragon, you have no idea what I¡¯m about to do to you. Are you curious? Why am I healing you? Fufufu~ Who knows except me~ Don¡¯t look so afraid now, it¡¯s only a little bit of healing. Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯re afraid of a small woman like me? I¡¯m barely the size of your arm! Comee, let me nurse you back to full health." Shiro grinned as both Nine and Iris shivered seeing Shiroughing maniacally.
"Do you think she¡¯s got a screw loose?" Nine whispered as Iris furrowed her brows.
"Her mana doesn¡¯t suggest that? It seems like she¡¯s just saying what she¡¯s thinking out loud." Iris replied.
Frowning slightly, Nine looked at Shiro who jumped off the building andnded on the dragon¡¯s head.
Raising her right arm, it turned ck as red circuits appeared from her fingertips.
"Let¡¯s give this a try shall we?! I¡¯ll make sure it¡¯s painless for you!" Shiro shouted out as she mmed her hand down.
*BANG!!!
Red circuits exploded out from her hand as it wrapped around the dragon¡¯s body. Since Shiro was familiar with controlling Error¡¯s main body, controlling extensions was an easy task for her.
Suddenly, the whites of her right eye shifted to ck as red circuits could now be seen in her eye and the area around it. It was simr to a tattoo that flickered with an ominous light.
Instantly discovering the dragon¡¯s code, her eyes scanned everything in a moment and discovered what she wanted to find. While she may not be able to remember everything with a single nce like before, all she needed to do was find certain sections of the code. Everything else could be ignored.
With her target in sight, Shiro adjusted her grip and funnelled mana through her arm. All of the circuits started to glow as they embedded themselves into the dragons flesh.
Meanwhile, Nine couldn¡¯t believe his eyes.
In front of him, the dragon¡¯s level started to increase while there was a new status effect next to his name.
[Juvenile Void Dragon LVL 830 Berserk State]
As the level continued to rise, the name tag also changed.
[Ancient Void Dragon LVL 980 Berserk State]
Wit each passing moment, the dragon¡¯s physique started to grow as its muscles bulged. Runic patterns appeared on his scales as grey hairs could be seen. Despite the growth in power, the dragon was panicking.
[Ancient Void Dragon LVL 999 Berserk State]
Continuing to funnel mana into the dragon, Shiro noticed that it wasn¡¯t reaching level 1000.
"What¡¯s wrong? Can¡¯t reach level 1000? Well I suppose to do so would be equal to getting a divinity. Unfortunately, you¡¯re just tapping into your life force to grow in level. But I wonder what would happen if I give you onest push." Shiro narrowed her eyes as the dragon widened his eyes.
As thest pulse of mana entered his body, the skies started to change. The clouds parted to reveal the sunset that was now being washed over by an all consuming light, descending onto the dragon¡¯s body.
Jumping off, Shiro watched as the dragon cry out to the skies before slowly losing colour. Its scales started to fall off one by one as it its body crumbled to ash.
Once thest bit of the dragon scattered away, the skies returned to normal.
Looking at the remains, Shiro frowned.
During the process, she felt more destructive energy than creation. If she was to use this to cultivate her ss then it¡¯ll be no different from her destruction divinity.
Clicking her tongue, Shiro pouted and kicked some debris away, causing it to smash through a building.
Sensing that Iris and Nine was approaching her, Shiro turned towards the duo.
"Thank you for saving us. We owe our lives to you." Nine bowed as Iris did the same.
"It¡¯s fine, it was just coincidence. If I didn¡¯t follow the dragon, I wouldn¡¯t have found you. It¡¯s not safe near cities, was there any reason for you to be in London?" Shiro asked as Nine looked at Iris.
"We weren¡¯t meant to be here but we teleported after being chased down by an unfriendly group of survivors. Thankfully, they didn¡¯t teleport to London so me and Iris spent a few days here to recuperate. We were nning on leaving today but the monsters started to act strange. As for the rest, you know since you saved us." Nine smiled however he had a few doubts in his heart.
Both him and Iris have a special passive that allows the two of them to avoid detection. But that¡¯s only against monsters and demi humans that are ssified as such. An example being Demon.
If Shiro couldn¡¯t detect the two of them then that means she was either a monster or something akin to a demon. Seeing her power first hand, Nine understood that regardless of what she was, if she wanted to kill them, she would. It¡¯s as easy as flicking a finger.
"Hm, do you have anywhere to go after this? I do have a ce that you can go to but it¡¯s pretty far from here." Shiro asked as Nine shook his head.
"We we¡¯re nning to wander around and rest wherever we can."
"Well you should find a ce soon since the world is going to change again. First it¡¯s monsters bingmon, next is gods descending. Quite a few of them are rather hostile and if you don¡¯t bow down to the first one you see, you might die." Shiro shrugged as Nine paused in surprise at the information.
Seeing the seriousness in Shiro¡¯s eyes, Nine knew that she wasn¡¯t joking.
"I see..." Before he could continue his sentence, Iris tugged on his shirt and walked towards Shiro.
"Miss, if you don¡¯t mind, would it be ok for us to follow you for a short while? Until we find a ce to stay." Iris asked as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"I mean sure, you can tag along but the ces I¡¯m going to and the enemies I face will be dangerous. I can send you to the safe ce right now if you want." Shiro offered but Iris shook her head.
"It¡¯ll be an enlightening experience to travel with you." Iris smiled as Shiro nodded.
"Well in that case then I suppose our first task is to leave this ce. I doubt I can find what I want to find here. Unless you two have something you need to do, we should be able to leave through this path." Shiro said as Iris shook her head.
"There¡¯s nothing else for us to do in this city. If you follow this tunnel, you¡¯ll reach the highways out to the fields. There are high level monsters roaming around but with the power you demonstrated I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be fine." Iris smiled as Shiro nodded her head and nced towards the tunnel.
"Since your friend here wants to have a word with you privately, I¡¯ll wait by the entrance. Just give me a shout when you are ready to leave." Shiro shrugged as Iris nodded her head.
Watching Shiro leave, Nine turned to Iris.
"I know what you want to ask and this is something we must do. If we don¡¯t, there are dire consequences." Iris said as she manifested a tier 5 magic circle. Recognising it to be the divination tool that Iris uses to determine some of their choices, Nine raised his eyebrows curiously.
"If we stay with the youngdy, our fortune will be good. The path will be difficult but it will bring good fortune. But if we are to part ways here and now, the mirror shows nothing. Our path will end. Even if we are to go to the ce she mentioned, the dead end doesn¡¯t change." Iris exined as Nine frowned.
"But that¡¯s not all. It¡¯s not just us who reach a dead end. From the response of the mirror, if we don¡¯t follow her, a lot of people will die." Iris shook her head.
¡¯Who is she to affect so many lives?¡¯ Nine thought in his mind while ncing over at Shiro who was waiting by the tunnel, freezing and killing any monsters that approach.
Chapter 1152 A Certain Legend
Chapter 1152 A Certain Legend
After Nine and Iris finished conversing with one another, they made their way to Shiro. Seeing the pair approach, Shiro gave a small wave.
"Let¡¯s set off then. While I¡¯m not afraid of the monsters, I¡¯m more concerned about wasting time. Is there anywhere you two would like to go? If not I¡¯ll be wandering so a few locations of interest." Shiro said as the two of them shook their heads.
"We don¡¯t have anywhere we need to go other than a ce to stay for now. That and also to escape our pursuers but we¡¯ve aplished that. If anything, I¡¯m more interested in what your ns are." Nine smiled as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"We¡¯ll I¡¯m looking for a way to solve a small problem of mine. That and to level up. As you can see, my level is stuck at one." Shiro smiled, pointing above her since that¡¯s where her name tag would be."
"I figured. After all, a level 1 medic wouldn¡¯t let you kill a dragon in such a manner." Nine said as his smile twitched from remembering what just happened.
While he wasn¡¯t verbal about it, the sight of her boosting a dragon to level 999 was fresh in his mind!
"That¡¯s true. If you don¡¯t mind me asking, what¡¯s up with your friends bandage? If she has any impairment to sight, I¡¯m pretty sure most medics would be able to fix it. Those that keep sses just like the look." Shiro asked curiously.
Before Nine could say anything, Iris spoke up.
"It¡¯s a small condition that I had for a while now. My eyes are overly sensitive to the changes in mana and light. When I take my bandages off, my eyes are constantly assaulted until they pop. These bandages serve as a barrier of sorts." Iris smiled as Shiro blinked her eyes.
Hearing how Iris could nonchntly talk about her eyeballs popping from prolonged exposure, Shiro couldn¡¯t help but give her praise. It¡¯s not everyday that you can find someone as nonchnt as her when it came to talking about damage to ones own body.
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"I see... Well I can tell that your mana senses are spot on. If you want, I can help you change this little impairment of yours. Make it so that you can see through your eyes like everyone else would. Plus, you¡¯ll keep your sharp senses." Shiro offered as Iris thought about it but shook her head.
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"It is fine. After staying this way for a long while, I¡¯vee to terms with it. Plus, it helps me in some aspects when ites to my own ss. But thank you for your offer." Iris bowed slightly as Shiro nodded her head.
"The offer is always open if you ever change your mind." Shiro shrugged while making her way through the tunnel.
Pressing her hand against the walls, a powerful well of mana surged from her body as her senses scanned the entire path. All of the monsters, hidden and out in the open, could be seen by her.
Grinning sadistically, ice started to appear on the walls as the temperature dropped.
"Don¡¯t mine me, I¡¯m just clearing the way a little so that we¡¯re not interrupted in our chats." Shiro reassured as her mind focused on the distant monsters.
On her palm, a tier 6 magic circle appeared as Shiro chuckled.
Suddenly, both Nine and Iris could hear howls of pain that originated from deep within monsters¡¯ souls echoing through the tunnel.
Even though he could not see what happened, Nine couldn¡¯t help but feel pity just from the pain he could sense from the scream.
Curious as to what happened, Nine nced at Iris who was speechless at what she just sensed.
Seeing this, Nine knew that it was something particr.
"Don¡¯t... Don¡¯t ask. You¡¯ll see it in a while." Iris shook her head, refusing to speak further as her cheeks blushed from embarrassment. However, there was also a trace of pity and fear.
Furrowing his brows, Nine nodded his head and continue to venture deeper into the tunnel.
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After a short while, he could tell why Iris didn¡¯t want to say anything. Pierced from the rear and suspended into the air, the monsters were locked in ce, whimpering from the pain and couldn¡¯t do anything but wait until their health slowly drained away like the blood from the back.
Some didn¡¯t even want to move in case it made things worse while other monsters would rather end their own life than to suffer a slow painful death filled with humiliation.
"Hou~ These ones actually persisted for so long despite me drilling their ass. They got some tenacity." Shiromented while nodding her head in appreciation.
Choking on his saliva, Nine remembered a certain legend before the world was turned to a hell scape. A weird girl with a weird fetish. Hair white as snow, beautiful like the sight of diamond dust in the snowy alps and a fetish that couldn¡¯t be matched!
"Erm... if you don¡¯t mind me asking, does miss happen to know something about a certain type of te that is usually ced on the rear?" Nine asked with a forced smile.
"Hm? Yeah I do. If I remember correctly, Helion made it after people saw me pierce asses for the first time. He mentioned that he made quite a bit of money from the sales. It has been a while since Ist heard of them. Why do you ask?" Shiro tilted her head as Nine shrugged his shoulders.
"It¡¯s just that I was reminded of a few rumours that I had heard before my current journey and was curious if you were the one in the rumours."
Hearing the girl in from of him talk about something as profane as piercing asses without care or embarrassment was rather... peculiar. Even Iris was embarrassed by the talk and chose to keep quiet.
"What kind of rumours? I hope they¡¯re good ones." Shiro asked with an enthusiastic light in her eyes.
"Depends on what you mean by good." Nine retreated a step as Shiro raised her eyebrows as if the answer was obvious.
"Of course it¡¯s good if they spread the word of a prime weak spot. It¡¯ll boost survival rates if people acknowledge the weak point and strike at it without fear. I know it¡¯s a daunting task but I guarantee it works. It¡¯s just a shame that they¡¯re too embarrassed to use it. Who knows how many lives it¡¯ll save if you live without shame." Shiro sighed heavily and shook her head with pity.
Hearing this, Nine was about to cough up blood.
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¡¯She truly lives up to her name.¡¯ He thought to himself as he put the monsters out of their misery. Even though they were supposed to be enemies, not even he wanted such a fate for his adversaries.
¡¯May you rest in peace.¡¯ He prayed earnestly and hoped the shame wouldn¡¯t follow them to the afterlife.
Upon leaving the tunnel, Shiro breathed the fresh air and stretched her body.
"We¡¯re finally out of the city." Nine sighed as he also stretched his body.
Nodding her head in agreement, Iris smiled.
"Miss Shiro, if you don¡¯t mind me asking, what problem are you trying to solve and where do you n on going?" Iris asked curiously as Shiro nced towards her.
"Well I¡¯m trying to find a way to obtain creation magic so that my ss can level up. Only problem is that I¡¯m not exactly clear on the prospects of creation magic so it¡¯s going to be a bit tough." Shiro shrugged since it didn¡¯t really matter to her if they knew she was trying to get creation magic.
"Creation magic? You mean simr to how you would summon something from absolutely nothing, creating souls and people alike? New universes and so on?" Iris asked after a short pause.
s
"Something along those lines. But it¡¯s more than that. Hmm think of me trying to get something that¡¯s the pure essence of creation. In the beginning, there was Chaos. From Chaos, both Creation and Destruction appeared. I want to find a way to cultivate that power of creation." Shiro smiled, understanding that this sounds ridiculous to other people. After all, bing god was already inconceivable to these people never mind mastering the power of creation.
Plus, creation wasn¡¯t that simple. If it was, it wouldn¡¯t be able to contend against her power of destruction. Her power of destruction was something so primal and so violent that it consumed anything it touched. For the power of Creation to stand a chance, it had to be just as powerful in order for the two to reach an equilibrium. And only when that is achieved can true peace be found within the centre of this. The bnce of two sides, neither one overtaking the other.
"I see... You set out on a hard path. The stars speak not of your fortune but your determination. It cannot predict your path but your passion burns bright within the cosmos. The stars may hold finite wisdom but your will transcends the very stars themselves. As the Enchanter of Stars, I hope that your path may be illuminated by the astral will." Iris smiled as a strange power welled up from within her body.
Sensing this power, Shiro was unsure of what just transpired but nodded her head regardless. She could sense that Iris was being sincere. Little did she know, the stars were beginning to shift in the night sky.
Chapter 1153 Star Char
Chapter 1153 Star Char
"Right then, my destination right now is the old guild house belonging to Lumia¡¯s Blessing. If my information is correct, it should be roughly half a days journey away from the centre of London." Shiro smiled as Nine perked his ears up.
"The guild should be the one with the Healer hero right?" Nine asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yep. Since I¡¯m nning on learning how to be a healer to harness the powers of creation, I figured that their headquarters would have quite a bit of information on healing. I might be able to get some inspiration if I was to go." Shiro replied as Nine nodded his head.
However, there was a frown on his face.
"If you¡¯re looking for something there then you might be disappointed. From what I¡¯ve heard a short while ago, it seems like some of the people who have defected to the Queen¡¯s side have exposed information on all of the important ces. Headquarters are no exception since they hold plenty of information, equipment and items that are helpful to the Queens. There might not be anything left there." Nine shook his head as Shiro raised her eyebrows.
"Hmm... That is a problem. Don¡¯t worry about it though, I also have my own ideas when we get there. But first, how do you feel about a unique mode of transport. This might not be as fast as I like since it¡¯s something I made a while ago but it¡¯ll suit our needs." Shiro smiled as she pulled out an orb from her inventory.
Throwing it towards some empty space, nanobots appeared and transformed into a jet.
"With this, we should be able to reach our destination in roughly a minute or so. It¡¯ll save us the travel time." Shiro exined while hopping into the pilot seat.
Blinking his eyes in surprise and awe, Nine examined the jet.
"Does this jet teleport through space? If it can then it¡¯ll definitely shorten the journey."
"Well~ It¡¯s something of the sort." Shiro smiled mysteriously as Nine turned to Iris who was already climbing into the jet.
Shrugging his shoulders, he strapped himself in as well and gotfortable.
"Right then, since it¡¯s your first time, I¡¯ll go a little slower." Shiro chuckled.
Before Nine could even finish thanking Shiro, sheunched the jet, sting through the skies as rings of air exploded behind them.
Crying out in shock, Nine waspletely pushed into his seat while Iris was almost in the same situation. It seems like there was a barrier around her that helped her adapt while Nine was subjected to the full force.
As he finished shouting, Nine realised they were now just outside of the headquarters. As Shiro had promised, they arrived in roughly a minute.
Without saying anything else, Shiro hopped out of the jet and looked at the building in front of her.
The building was suspended above a ravine with pirs of support everywhere she looked. In the middle was arge building with an almost alien like designpared to the buildings in London. Marbled surfaces with golden edges and neon green highlights filled with mana.
Despite being broken to pieces and toppled, the tower managed to retain some of its impressiveness during its prime.
Waving her hand, Shiro scanned the building for any monsters and took care of them quickly so that they don¡¯t waste her time. Flexing her finger, a hole appeared on the building, allowing her entry.
Since the building was toppled, she was essentially walking on the walls.
Picking up a few of the books, Shiro waved her hand and started to organise the rest while looking through the pages.
Just as Nine was about to say something, he could see that her focus was entirely on the book. Her eyes seemed almost desperate which came as a slight surprise.
He figured that he probably shouldn¡¯t interrupt her right now and explored the rest of the building with Iris.
Unfortunately, it was as he expected. Rest of the building had nothing of value, not even a spare potion as everything was looted. The only things left were some old data chips and books that were deemed useless to the scavengers.
Noticing that iris was distracted by the side, Nine walked over.
"Ah I was surprised to sense a star chart. I didn¡¯t think that there were healers in this guild that also used the power of stars to buff and heal. Compared to my own star chart, this one is moreplete. Though the problem is that it¡¯s a little too big, I won¡¯t be able to carry it around." Iris smiled while pulling out a few cards and charms that had pieces of her star chart etched into them. These were also the mediums that Iris used to cast her spells. With a moreplete star chart, her spells would be more powerful but the problem was that there was simply too much for her to store away.
The sheer size of this star chart epassed three whole floors that were connected by a spiral staircase in the middle. This allowed them to view the star chart from any angle but that was only when the tower was straight. Now that it has been toppled, they viewed it from the side. With how much space this star chart covered, Iris would be lucky to even find a few cards worth of decent upgrades to her current arsenal.
To make it worse, she didn¡¯t know which ones were actually useful for her. She would need more time to study the star chart if she wished to know. However, due to her sensitivity to mana, she could tell that a few were minutely more powerful than the others and decided to record them into her cards for now and study themter. She didn¡¯t know how long Shiro was going to stay so she gathered everything with the intention of leaving immediately if needed.
Seeing that she was adding more cards to her arsenal, Nine helped out.
"You know that using the blessing only shaved off more of your life right?" Nine said as Iris was silent.
"You may be the Enchanter of Stars but there is still a limit to your strength. Using so much of your own fortune and life force to boost her fortune is a little extreme wouldn¡¯t you say?" Nine asked but Iris chuckled.
"I knew the risks and blessed her since our fates are definitely connected. Little did I know that her fate was rather vtile. Once I had blessed her, my own fate started to change. That is the same for my fortune. Nine, if anything, I was the one who benefitted from blessing her." Iris admitted as she ced her finger on the bandages over her eyes.
Just as she was about to slide her finger underneath to touch her eyes, a seal appeared and deflected her finger. Shaking her head with a smile, she continued to add cards to her arsenal.
Hearing this, Nine nced towards the office where Shiro was at right now. Eventually, he looked away and focused on helping Iris.
Meanwhile, Shiro was growing more and more annoyed.
All of the content in the books were stuff that she already knew and nothing she searched was of value. Allmon, not a single bit of rare knowledge.
"Tch, all of the good stuff has been taken. I wonder which Queen robbed this ce, perhaps I kill her and take her stuff." Shiro muttered as her eyes radiated with an ominous lust for blood.
However, she quickly snapped herself out of it and pped her own head.
"What am I thinking about. If the Queens form an alliance, there will be no need for me to kill. Plus, I can¡¯t keep killing things if I want to cultivate creation. Stop being a murder machine Shiro, you dummy." Shiro pouted as she lectured herself.
Sighing heavily, she tossed the book behind her and looked around the room.
Tapping her finger against the walls, a thin blue mist started to spread through the room, eventuallytching onto a few mana signatures that had rummaged through the piles of books before.
Tugging on the threads that were now connected to these signatures, Shiro could tell that they were all going the same direction.
Seeing this, she guessed that they were the ones who worked under the Queen that ordered for this ce to be looted.
¡¯Hmm... I¡¯ll go pay them a visit. Hopefully I can add her as a friend in the alliance. If not, it¡¯s better to kill her to get rid of any problems. She might not be a danger to me but she might be annoying left alive and bring about unforeseen consequences.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself and walked towards Iris and Nine.
"Iris, Nine, we¡¯re changing locations. I¡¯m going to pay the Queen that looted this ce a visit to see if I can get some of the data back. Is there anything you want from this ce before we leave?" Shiro asked.
Before Iris could reply, Nine opened his mouth.
"Yes, Iris requires the star chart to improve her spells. She is unable to take everything here which is a shame. So if you have any methods that can help, it¡¯ll be greatly appreciated." Nine said as Shiro nodded her head
Looking at the star chart, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Flexing her finger, the room was sent into the void while metal sewed the tower back together.
Chapter 1154 Aoi
Chapter 1154 Aoi
Watching Shiro rip parts of the tower off and jam it into the void while metal repaired the tower to stop them from falling, Nine was speechless.
¡¯From what Ist remember, she should be rather low level a little more than a year ago. Did she spend all of her time in the dungeon to get to this level? That shouldn¡¯t be the case since she would look a lot older. Hmm... then she probably just kept killing things to get to this stage.¡¯ Nine thought to himself.
Since both he and Iris were locked away for a while, they didn¡¯t know too much information about the outside world. Only little rumours since they travelled with a small group that talked about Shiro.
"I¡¯ve sent the star chart into the void. If you want to see it, just tell me and I¡¯ll open a portal. If I wasn¡¯t trying to obtain creation then I could probably shrink the room down into a projection globe that¡¯s an upgraded version of your cards." Shiro shrugged as Iris nodded her head.
"Thank you very much. Being able to obtain this is already a boon." Iris smiled.
"It¡¯s fine, it¡¯s not like I need it anyway. Anything you require just tell me and I¡¯ll retrieve it for you. But setting that aside, we¡¯re going to go on a small detour. I want to talk to the Queen that ransacked this ce and see if we cane to an... agreement." Shiro smiled as Iris and Nine paused.
"Are you sure? The Queens are quite hostile. I doubt they¡¯ll be as kind as to give you what you want." Nine reminded as Shiro waved her hand.
"It¡¯s fine, I got a small reputation amongst them. You don¡¯t need to worry." Shiro smiled as Nine looked at Iris before nodding his head.
"Plus, if I¡¯ll protect the two of you. You have my word for that." She reassured, before making her way out of the tower.
Looking at Shiro¡¯s back, Nine hesitated since they were still going to the headquarters of a Queen! That¡¯s suicidal in his books. However, remembering that she forcefully levelled a dragon up to level 999 and killed it, Nine figured that she had everything under control.
"Let¡¯s not fall behind. Our fate is already tangled with hers." Iris smiled as she walked out of the tower while Nine followed behind her.
Summoning the jet, Shiro smiled and wordlessly gestured to the seats.
Seeing this, Nine paled but resigned to his fate.
In the distance, monsters could hear a sudden scream before it was too far to be heard.
###
Reducing her speed slightly, Shiro nced at the radar that was synced to the threads that she had linked to the Queen.
Seeing that she was across the sea, Shiro wondered what kind of Queen this was going to be. Depending on what happens, she might have to ditch the idea and escape to the void but if it was someone troublesome, she¡¯ll try to kill them regardless of what happens.
ncing out of the window, she could see schools of giant fish monsters that would jump out of the water before swimming back down to the depths. Compared to what it was like before the new age, the sea has be a no man¡¯snd.
All of the underwater dungeons have broken and the monsters within have been released.
ncing at Shiro who seemed a little concerned about what¡¯s in the water, Nine nced down and shuddered.
¡¯Seems like she¡¯s worried about the water monsters.¡¯ Nine thought to himself. Little did he know, that was not the case at all.
¡¯I wonder if their flesh is rubbery or tough. Hopefully it¡¯s on the softer side since making them into soup would be tasty. Maybe I should mark this location ande back another day for fishing so that Yin can cook up a banquet.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she couldn¡¯t help but swallow her saliva in anticipation. She could almost taste the fish meat.
Shaking her head, she tried to focus on the task at hand but couldn¡¯t resist ncing down at the fish.
"F*ck it, we¡¯re going spear fishing." Shiro clicked her tongue and snapped her finger.
Hundreds of tier 6 magic circles appeared above the ocean as ice spears formed in the air.
Piercing into the water, they stabbed deep into the monsters and froze them into ice cubes. While they may be big, their levels we¡¯re too high, only around level 600 to 700 so taking care of them was easy for Shiro.
Sending one to the void for herself, she transported the others to Yin¡¯s part of the rift. Since their powers were connected, Shiro could naturally ess Yin¡¯s private stash of snacks and food. cing the fresh fish a little further away so that it wouldn¡¯t give the snacks a fishy smell, Shiro looked at the fish in her own inventory.
¡¯We should have some time to eat before talking to the Queen.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Landing the jet the moment she saw somend, Shiro didn¡¯t hesitate to walk to a clearing and mmed her hand down. A tier 6 magic circle expanded out as the ground beneath her started to shake.
*BOOM!!!!
Using her Fire and Earth attunements, Shiro created a volcano for it to act as a fire for the giant fish that she was about to cook.
Creating a giant metal bowl with her Metal attunement, Shiro filled with water and snuck into Yin¡¯s Private stash to nab a few seasonings andplimentary items to throw into the soup.
Watching all of this happen, Nine was speechless. In front of him, Shiro was reshaping thend itself in order to cook some fish!!??
". . ." Even Iris was speechless. While she may not be able to see what¡¯s happening, her mana senses were telling her all the information she needed. The amount of mana that Shiro was using was.... Shocking to say the least.
¡¯Isn¡¯t this already creation? She¡¯s shaping the world for her own benefit.¡¯ Iris thought to herself.
Sensing that the two were staring at her, Shiro nced over.
"There¡¯s plenty of fish for everyone. The soup will be done in a second since my fire is strong. It¡¯ll be cooked soon." Shiro called out with a smile.
While she may not be able to use nanobots, she could still use her time runes.
Summoning Silvanis, Shiro stabbed it into the mount and activated the runes. A tier 8 magic circle appeared as Shiro sped up the boiling of the soup so that the vour of the fish could spread to the rest of the soup.
Watching this happen, Iris felt like she was just kicked in the head by a dragon. Due to her sensitivity to mana, she could clearly tell what the hell Shiro had just done.
"Nine." Iris muttered as Nine looked over.
"She¡¯s controlling time right now. She¡¯s controlling time to make the soup taste better..." Iris said as Nine¡¯s face palmed and looked up at the sky.
However, this wasn¡¯t going to stop them from eating the fish since they were indeed a little hungry.
###
After finishing their meal, the three of them walked the rest of the way since it was good to digest what they ate.
Looking at the castle in the distance, Shiro could already sense a somewhat powerful mana signal from within and knew that it was the Queen.
The moment she stepped in, she got the notification that she was in another Queen¡¯s domain and curled her lips into a smile.
"Iris, how sensitive are you to mana? Are there any adverse effects if you sense a really powerful source?" Shiro asked as Iris thought about it for a moment.
"It¡¯ll make me ufortable but nothing too serious." Iris said as Shiro thought about it and nodded her head.
"In that case then I¡¯ll give you a barrier since your senses might not like what¡¯s about to happen." Shiro smiled as she started to walk towards the castle.
With each step, her mana erupted out of her body as the area around her started to freeze.
Pausing in shock, Iris couldn¡¯t believe what she was sensing. Even with the barrier, she could still make out the shape of the aura. It was simr to seeing something through a ss window. Feeling the mana increase with every passing moment, Iris became pale from shock since it was inconceivable for someone to have this much mana hidden within their body. Even if she was to gather everyone in arge city, their mana would still be inferior to Shiro!
Imagining what this could mean for her INT stat, Iris shuddered. What will happen if she fired everything toward the Earth? Could the withstand her might?
Thinking about these questions, Iris wondered why she even wanted to obtain the power of creation when she¡¯s this strong. However, she felt that it¡¯s not the right time to ask just yet so she made a mental note on her question while following behind Shiro.
In the distance, she could see an army of humans and monsters lining up with fear written on their faces. Despite theirrge numbers, they were fearful of the girl in front of them that walked with a carefree smile.
Appearing from a portal, a blue haired woman with red eyes red at Shiro.
[Aoi LVL 800 Puppetry Queen]
Chapter 1155 Desire
Chapter 1155 Desire
"I didn¡¯t expect to get a visit from your esteemed self. Tell me, what brings you to my domain?" Aoi asked as she swallowed her saliva nervously.
Feeling the mana radiating from Shiro, Aoi knew that fighting meant death. There was a small chance but she hoped that Shiro wouldn¡¯t kill them.
Plus, she had seen Shiro in action a few times during the events that she participated in. For someone of her calibre, Shiro was akin to a death god.
ncing back, she can see that her subordinates were clutching their weapons nervously, hoping that conflict doesn¡¯t ur if possible.
"Well I only came to visit since I realised that your subordinates had imed a few book from one of the guild headquarters. I was hoping I could perhaps visit and borrow the books." Shiro smiled as Aoi shivered for a moment.
"May I ask what kind of books are they? We don¡¯t keep that many books." Aoi asked nervously as her mind was crying.
¡¯¡êu0026^%"u0026¡ê%^u0026^!!!! I BURNED THE BOOKS!!!! HOLY F*CK I BURNED THE BOOKS!!! SH*T!!!! WHY THE HELL DOES SHE WANT THE BOOKS????¡¯ Aoi screamed in her mind as she was trying her best to keep herposure while facing the leader of the Machine Legion.
Who knows, if she annoys her, Shiro might just let loose her arm and destroy her domain like what she did during the first event. Aoi could still remember the sight of the area losing all mana.
The world seemed to copse upon itself as a pir of light descended from the sky. Those that were unfortunately too close to the source were reduced to ash while those that were lucky had to employ several life saving skills to survive.
She was one of the ones that were lucky and managed to survive through using all of her life saving skills.
The reason why she was now the Puppetry Queen was partially due to what had happened during the event. More than half of her body was destroyed and her soul was harmed. In order to survive, she had to perform emergency surgery on herself, changing her body permanently into a doll that could be controlled by mana.
If she found a way to recover, she would have been fine but since she couldn¡¯t, her had to force herself to change ss in order to survive. And now, she was the Puppetry Queen.
"Hmm, I¡¯m not sure about the books I need since your followers took them before I could read them. Just treat it as me visiting your home." Shiro smiled as Aoi furrowed her brows.
"Perhaps I can go retrieve the bo-"
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"Shh~ Perhaps you didn¡¯t hear me clearly. It was not a question. It was an order for you to treat me as someone who¡¯s visiting." Shiro said while cing her finger on Aoi¡¯s lips, stopping her from speaking.
Waving her hand, Shiro gestured for Nine and Iris to follow her.
Looking at one another, the two forced a smile and walked into the Queens Domain while Aoi followed behind him.
"Your highness, what should we do?" Aoi¡¯s subordinate asked as Aoi nced at them and sighed.
"Just... Just try to appease her and keep her happy. Hopefully, she¡¯ll leave without any conflict. But if a fight does break out, try to run away while I keep her busy for as long as I can. If you don¡¯t harm her, I don¡¯t think she¡¯ll attack you." Aoi said with a deep sigh.
Opening a portal, she quickly rushed back to the base while Shiro was taking her time.
¡¯I need to make the proper preparations.¡¯ Aoi thought to herself while arriving at the castle.
Activating a tier 6 magic circle, Aoi sent a message to all of the people that were currently working.
"I want all of the books gathered into a spare no, I want all the books to be gathered at my throne room! This is a life or death situation! Especially the books gathered from thest few months, grab them all! Work like your life depends on it, SINCE IT DOES!" Aoi shouted out as she too started to rummage through her own collection with tears threatening to spill out.
¡¯I should have kept the books...¡¯ She thought to herself.
###
"I¡¯m pretty sure we can just get there now no? Howe we¡¯re walking there?" Nine asked as they could easily reach the castle in about 10 seconds.
"I figured I¡¯ll give them some time to prepare. I could tell that the Queen panicked so I¡¯ll give them a break. Plus, I¡¯m also interested in seeing how she¡¯s set up her domain." Shiro smiled while looking at the city surrounding the castle.
Compared to her memory of Misu¡¯s city, Aoi¡¯s city was more run down. Most of the structures were still destroyed while the items on disy wascklustre. If anything, this ce looked more like a giant slums rather than a city.
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While Shiro, Iris and Nine were walking around the city, Aoi was panicking with her subordinates.
"Is that all the books that we have??" Aoi asked as there was barely enough books to cover the table surface.
"Well you had burned most of the other ones since they weren¡¯t important." Her subordinate coughed as Aoi slumped on a chair.
She didn¡¯t even want to sit on her throne right now in case Shiro is unhappy about the warmness.
"Why did you stop me?"
"Because you said they were worthless and it was better to burn it for warmth than to keep it around."
Hearing this, Aoi paused before sighing heavily.
"Start evacuating people. I¡¯ll try to keep our guest happy."
###
Arriving at the gates of Aoi¡¯s castle, Shiro snapped her finger and opened therge doors using mana.
Seeing Aoi wait by the side while the throne was empty, Shiro curled her lips up into a grin and teleported onto the seat.
"Well then, it seems like you have brought quite the collection of books." Shiro raised an eyebrow while seeing the pile on the table.
"Unfortunately most of our books were lost in a small... ident. If the book you require is not in this pile then I hope you can forgive me." Aoi apologised as her heart pounded with anxiety.
"Why are you so scared? It¡¯s not like I¡¯ll eat you. I can already tell that your flesh has long lost its sticity. It¡¯s not different from a wooden puppet. If you were a monster then I would have thought about it but you¡¯re not so you don¡¯t have to worry." Shiro smiled while picking up one of the books.
"Oh right, Nine, Iris, you can do whatever you want while I go through these materials. We shouldn¡¯t be here for long." Shiro called out as Nine and Iris nodded their heads before looking at Aoi with pity in their eyes.
¡¯Don¡¯t just look at me with pity! If you¡¯re going to pity me then take this death god away from me!¡¯ Aoi cried out, sensing their gaze.
While reading the books, Shiro didn¡¯t say anything and Aoi didn¡¯t dare to make a sound.
All they could hear was the sound of the pages turning.
Suddenly, Shiro opened her mouth.
"Do you desire to be the winner of the new age?" Shiro asked without taking her eyes off the book.
"Answer honestly, I can tell if you¡¯re lying." She added.
Swallowing her saliva, Aoi sighed.
"Which Queen doesn¡¯t. We all have our goals and promises to uphold." She smiled bitterly, knowing full well that she wasn¡¯t going to win at all. Not with someone like Shiro around.
"Mn, indeed. What is your goal?"
"Mine? Well mine was supposed to be to revive everyone that died during our own age of demons and gods." Aoi shrugged.
"Supposed to be? I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s no longer the case." Shiro raised an eyebrow.
Shaking her head, Aoi nced out of the throne room.
"Nope. It was what everyone else wanted but not what I wanted. In my pursuit of this impossibility, I found quite a few people who are rather pleasant to be around. I¡¯ll be honest, I barely care about the people of my world since I had no interaction with them. I did nothing for them and they did nothing for me. To put it coldly, I don¡¯t give a crap about them. However, the same can¡¯t be said for the people I know now. I understand that to win the age of demons and gods you have to kill all the other Queens so I beg you to let them live. They¡¯re just bystanders caught up in all of this." Aoi said as she kneel in front of Shiro and grovelled.
Closing her book, Shiro looked at the shivering Aoi and ced the book down.
"That¡¯s not necessarily the case. There¡¯s another way to win the new age without killing the other Queens. Why else do you think I¡¯ve made alliances." Shiro said as she tapped her finger on the throne.
"I just wanted to see what your desires are and if you were trustworthy or not. Seeing as how your soul is rather pure as well as the fact that you were being honest, I won¡¯t kill you. Keeping your people safe is an easy task. Aoi, what do you think about an alliance? Give up your spot in the new age and I¡¯ll help you fulfil your desires."
Chapter 1156 Clear Goal
Chapter 1156 Clear Goal
Hearing this, Aoi looked up in surprise as she didn¡¯t think this was an option.
"Well?" Shiro raised an eyebrow while crossing her legs.
Seeing Shiro sit upon her throne, Aoi didn¡¯t know what to say. In all her experiences in the new age, there was talk of alliance but never one that allowed the Queen to survive in the end. The iron rule of the new age was about to be broken.
"Is this true?" Aoi asked hesitantly. To her, the best case scenario would have been for her people to survive. She didn¡¯t dare think about her own survival since she knew it was impossible but that impossibility changed to an possible future!
"Of course it¡¯s true. Now I don¡¯t like to repeat myself multiple times. Do you want it or no?" Shiro asked as she furrowed her brows.
"Oh of course I would. What do I need to do?" Aoi panicked as she didn¡¯t want to give this opportunity up.
Exining the ritual to Aoi, Shiro performed the contract ceremony. Once it was over, Shiro rxed on the throne and continued to read her book while Aoi was confused.
"Wait that¡¯s it?" She asked.
For such a ground breaking contract, she thought there was going to be more to it but it was rather simple. If it was so simple, she figured that other Queens or Empresses would have done it long ago.
"It¡¯s that simple. Since most Empresses are allowed certain information and abilities, I¡¯m guessing his is part of my authority. I¡¯m probably the only one that can make an alliance and keep the Queens alive if I were to win the new age." Shiro replied without looking up from her book. Now that Aoi was in her alliance, there wasn¡¯t much else she needed to pay attention to here except for her books.
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"So is there anything you need me to do or?" Aoi asked as she wondered if she needed to prove herself to Shiro in order to enjoy thisfort. There was no free food in the world after all, there was always a benefit for the other party. If not for the fact that she was literally at a dead end, Aoi wouldn¡¯t have epted so readily.
"Not really. If you can help then you can help. If you can¡¯t then you don¡¯t need to. MIsu¡¯s in the same situation. There¡¯s not much she can do in battle since my enemies are much much stronger than her but she helps out in my city. As for you... You can do the same. Though if you can help me with my current dilemma then that¡¯ll be great." Shiro said as Aoi¡¯s eyes sparkled.
"What¡¯s your current problem?" She asked, eager to help.
"For you see, what I desire right now is to find a path to the power of Creation." Shiro said as she started to exin her current goal and problems to Aoi.
Listening carefully, Aoi understood that Shiro was trying to seek the extremes of creation which was quite difficult. Plus, there was also the fact that she was levelling a second ss while retaining her powers of her first one!
Listening to Shiro exin her situation, Aoi wanted to cry again since she didn¡¯t know where to start. Everything she said was abnormal!
"Erm... for the power of creation, didn¡¯t you already aplish it?" Aoi asked as she had heard Shiro recount her journey with Iris and Nine.
"I have?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, did you not create a mountain and a bowl to cook your fish? Summoning something from nothing is already the power of creation no? In this case, its mana but mana is the origin of all life so it can¡¯t be excluded." Aoi replied as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
To her, the power of creation was something that contrasted her destruction. Something that could stand on equal footing. To offset the destruction, the creation must maintain life despite the corruption. To do so, it would be akin to constantly healing all of the damage that you take.
While thinking about this, Shiro could tell that Aoi still had something on her mind.
"You can speak about what you think, don¡¯t worry about offending me." Shiro reminded.
¡¯If I offend you I die!¡¯ Aoi cried out in her mind as she tried to think about how she was going to phrase this.
"Erm, have you thought about what kind of creation do you want? You said you want something as powerful as destruction right? Thinking about the end result of destruction is easy. Nothingness. At the end of destruction is nothing, everything has been destroyed. But what kind of creation are you looking for? The creation of a new life? New objects? New? If you can figure out a clear image of the creation that you want then perhaps your path might be clearer. You¡¯re looking for something to do with healing right now but your image of creation is still blurry. Bing a healer is just a temporary solution that you¡¯ve thought about for now." Aoi said as Shiro stayed silent and contemted about her image of creation.
¡¯What is creation? Hmm... Creation is to recover no matter how much destruction is caused. It¡¯s converting mana into anything and everything. Souls, physical bodies, everything. No matter how much destruction is caused, creation can recover no matter what happens. When Chaos said that there was an aspect of creation already in my nanobots, it fits the description. While it was stillcking, it could making anything and everything I wanted with a slight problem of maintaining their properties of nanobots. If I was to create a physical body, it would not be the same. It couldn¡¯t grow nor could it be reinforced through training. Only I could improve them or anyone with control over nanobots.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Tapping her finger on the chair, Shiro thought about it deeply and realised that the answer to her questions lie in the source codes that act as the ¡¯soul¡¯ of people. The source code contains the information to their physicalposition, their mentalposition, their past incarnations and their abilities. Once a being bes a demi god or god, they obtain a certain amount of control of their source code. By adjusting certain parameters, conscious or unconsciously, a god is able to express power beyond that or mortal men. They are also able to disable their aging factor, making it so that they never die from old age. That¡¯s why the code or rather, the core of a god is important. Once an outsider discovers your source code or core, they are able to directly ¡¯kill¡¯ you.
The source code is the origin of everything and possibly even mana.
¡¯Perhaps, creation is the ability to tap into the source code of everything and anything. Transform the entire world into a code that you can manipte. You can choose how many beings with a sentient code exist as well as the materials present in the world. While nanobots may be simr, itcks the ability to tap into the source code. Only with Error, was I able to obtain this power. Nanobots emte the effects after manipting the source code. In a nutshell, it skips that step. But with Error, she is able to tap into the code and make it so that nanobots weren¡¯t just simting the results.
If anything, it¡¯s her own mind that restricts the power of her nanobots. While they¡¯re called nanobots, their abilities have already transcended their intended design. This was no longer just nanobots anymore.
With both Error and Nanobots, she has already began to simte the effects of the First Born of Creation. The ability to control and govern all.
Looking down at her hand, Shiro narrowed her eyes as red circuits appeared on her arm. Slowly travelling up her body, she allowed it to ess her right eye. The sight of her right eye started to change as she could see her own physicalposition. Looking at Aoi, she could see her injured code and its desperate attempts to keep the physical body intact.
Closing her eyes, Shiro activated a tier 8 magic circle that slowly crumbled away before slowly reassembling itself. However, this time, it threatened to form a 9thyer.
Tier 9 magic circle! A realm above the gods!
However, her powers were stillcking. Shattering to pieces, the magic failed as Shiro opened her eyes.
Clenching her fist, Shiro smiled as her goal became clear. Her understanding of what must be done has improved and she understands a clear path to obtain the power of creation.
For her to obtain the power of creation, she must harness Error to his full capabilities. As she is the First Born of Destruction, only a ¡¯virus¡¯ like Error can help her transcend her own design. Only with Error can she ¡¯glitch¡¯ the system and simultaneously be the First Born of Destruction and the First Born of Creation.
"Aoi, thanks for your answer. My progress has improved." Shiro smiled as Aoi nodded her head.
However, she noticed something strange with Shiro¡¯s name tag.
From Medic level 1, it started to change!
Little by little, her ss was changed into something else.
[Shiro LVL 250 Seeker of Creation]
Chapter 1157 Aphrodite’s Surprise
Chapter 1157 Aphrodite¡°s Surprise
"Well then, this trip has been more beneficial than I had expected. What I need to do now is to increase my control and get used to working with the Source Code." Shiro said as her eyes slowly scanned Aoi.
Feeling a shiver down her spine, Aoi slowly backed away.
"Why are you backing away? I¡¯m merely thinking about a way to help you out." Shiro curled her lips into a grin.
"Then why are you looking at me like I¡¯m a piece of meat on a chopping block?" Aoi asked as she could feel her instincts telling her to run.
The way Shiro looked at her was not normal! It was tant lust for knowledge and experimentation!
Understanding that Aoi could guess what she wants to do, Shiroughed and tapped her finger. Suddenly, ice chains shot out of the ground and restrained Aoi while the doors of the throne room mmed shut.
"Don¡¯t go shouting so loud now. I wouldn¡¯t want your followers to see you in an embarrassing state after all." Shiro narrowed her eyes while Aoi shivered.
"What kind of embarrassing state?" She asked, hoping that Shiro would give her an answer to calm her nerves.
"Well~ You¡¯ll find out." Shiro chuckled softly as there was a dangerous light in her eyes.
Suddenly, in the realm of gods, Aphrodite sat up in surprise, her ears twitched before narrowing her eyes seductively.
"Oh my~ This is quite the surprise. Seems like the maiden¡¯s curiosity has taken over her rationality. Hmm... She was always so serious, but it seems like she¡¯s thrown caution into the wind." Aphrodite muttered while licking her lips. Beneath her, Hermes was chained to the bed with both a pained and pleasured expression.
¡¯Finishing¡¯ Hermes off, Aphrodite got off the bed and waved her hand. A set of clothes appeared on her body as her eyes was filled with interest.
"I can¡¯t miss this show." She grinned while Athena appeared before her with a dark expression.
"Where¡¯s Hermes?" Athena asked as Aphrodite chuckled and nced towards the room behind her.
"He¡¯s cleaning himself righ- ow owowow! Cow tits stop grabbing my ear!" Aphrodite was cut off as Athena dragged her away.
"Stop f*cking all the gods in our alliance." Athena clicked her tongue while Aphrodite pouted before jumping on Athena¡¯s back.
"Why are you jealous?" Aphrodite grinned and bit Athena on the ear.
CLANG!
A ray of light erupted from Athena¡¯s body and suspended Aphrodite in mid air.
"Fine fine, I¡¯ll stop for now. Only because there¡¯s something interesting to see." Aphrodite smiled as Athena raised an eyebrow.
"Which mortal has caught your eye now?" Athena asked as it was probably someone with a sex drive as strong as Aphrodite¡¯s.
"It¡¯s Shiro. I don¡¯t know what exactly happened but she¡¯s seemed to have let loose. Her restrictions are off and she¡¯s going to do something quite interesting." Aphrodite smiled as Athena choked on her saliva. Out of everyone she knew, she didn¡¯t expect Shiro to go at it while the second half of the new age was about to begin.
"Best part is, she¡¯s doing it with someone she just met for a day~ The light in her eyes remind me of my earlier days when I couldn¡¯t restrain myself." Aphrodite said as her body started to squirm within the binding.
Twisting her face with disgust, Athena could tell that Aphrodite was enjoying this a little too much.
Plus, when Aphrodite was enjoying herself, her divinity would radiate a special aura that forces the same lust upon nearby beings. Gods were no exception.
Feeling her face be hot, Athena furrowed her brows and stomped her foot down.
A cage appeared around Aphrodite as the aura was cut off for now.
"I¡¯m not too into pet y but I¡¯ll do it just for you." Aphrodite joked as traced her body with her finger.
Ignoring what was happening behind her, Athena couldn¡¯t help but also feel a little curious about what Shiro was going to do.
Looking around her, she made sure that no one could see her before opening a portal to her own domain.
¡¯I¡¯m just observing Shiro to make sure she¡¯s ok. It¡¯s nothing immoral.¡¯ Athena thought to herself as she coughed and summoned the system disy to show what Shiro was doing right now.
"AH~ ?"
Hearing the sudden moan, Athena coughed heavily as she shielded her eyes but kept a small gap so that she could keep watching.
Suddenly, she realised that Aphrodite was staring at her with a smug smile on her face.
"W-What?" Athena stammered as she realised that her bindings on Aphrodite¡¯s cage started to loosen and the aura flowed out.
"My my, seems like after all my years of trying, the aura has finally started to break your barrier dear Athena. The goddess immune to love is starting to feel lust." Aphrodite grinned as she licked her lips simr to a beast looking at her prey.
Shivering at Aphrodite¡¯s gaze, Athena banished Aphrodite from her domain and tried to calm herself while also peeking at what Shiro was doing.
However, she didn¡¯t notice that Aphrodite had created an avatar to take her ce and she was currently hiding in Athena¡¯s realm.
Narrowing her eyes, Aphrodite released her aura and jumped on Athena from behind.
Widening her eyes in shock, Athena could feel Aphrodite¡¯s body press on her.
###
Ignorant at what was happening in the realm of gods, Shiro had strapped Aoi to an ice table and started to investigate her body.
Stripping off Aoi¡¯s clothes, Shiro tapped and prodded Aoi¡¯s body ranging from the arms, legs to the neck and chest.
Understanding that all of the muscles and bones have been solidified into a ¡¯material¡¯ worthy to be used in a puppet, Shiro leaned towards Aoi¡¯s face and stared at her.
Blushing heavily, Aoi wanted to cry.
"Can I put my clothes on again? It¡¯s chilly." Aoi asked as Shiro shook her head.
"Not yet. Hmm... despite your body being ridged, your head is still rather soft. If it solidified as well, you would find it hard to observe your surroundings. Though from what I can tell, it seems like the wound was to your lower body and you were forced to heal from the waist down. The rest of your body was affected by the solidification while your head was spared." Shiro muttered while running her finger down Aoi¡¯s body.
Shivering at Shiro¡¯s touch, Aoi opened her mouth.
"Are you doing this on purpose? Why else are you touching my sensitive parts?" Aoi asked while trying to move her body in a way that covered as much of her body as possible.
"Perhaps. I am rather curious. Seeing you squirm does make me feel quite good." Shiro smiled as her eyes flickered with a sadistic light. All she had ever done was hold hands so she was quite curious as to what was after that.
She had seen sexual acts before, both in person and on video earlier in the year but had never done anything personally. Therefore, she wanted to see how sensitive the body was, perhaps she could even dial it up a notch by tampering with the source code.
Closing one of her eyes, red circuits appeared on her arm as Shiro found Aoi¡¯s source code.
Snapping her finger, a strand of the circuits started to thread its way to Aoi¡¯s source code.
"Ah~ ?" idently moaning from the feeling, Aoi blushed as Shiro curled her lips into a grin.
"Seems like you¡¯re quite sensitive in this area." She raised an eyebrow while controlling the red circuits.
However, just as she was about to continue, Shiro realised what she was doing and coughed.
Letting go of Aoi¡¯s body, Shiro waved her hand and created some clothes again for Aoi.
"Alright, enough with the jokes. I¡¯ll focus on healing your body now." Shiro said as she closed her eyes.
Focusing on Aoi¡¯s source code, Shiro could read the history of what happened to her body.
Simr to looking back at inte history, she could see the transformation of Aoi¡¯s body.
¡¯To fix her again, I¡¯ll need to revert the changes. Trying to reconstruct her body would be too difficult for now, the best case scenario would be to undo what she¡¯s done.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself.
Thankfully, she had studied the concept of time with Chronos so she had a few ideas but it was just a case of trying to put it into practice.
While Shiro was thinking of ways to help Aoi¡¯s body, Aoiid on the ice bed with aplicated expression.
Despite what just happened, she had to admit that there was a part of her that liked it.
¡¯What am I thinking about!?¡¯ Aoi shook her head before peeking at Shiro.
Biting her lips, she tried to dismiss the bad thoughts from her head but found it impossible.
¡¯Did I just be an M for her????¡¯ Aoi wanted to cry but found her body getting hot.
At first she thought it was her lust oveing her but that was not the case.
Feeling warmth wash over her body, she realised that her sensation over her body slowly returned.
Chapter 1158 Iris“ Eyes
Chapter 1158 Iris¡° Eyes
While Aoi was enjoying the feeling of touch returning to her body, Shiro furrowed her brows.
Editing Aoi¡¯s source code, Shiro could tell that the changes were only temporary. Theysted for a short time and would disappear unless she was to edit them again. Even with her current mastery over time, the flow would fix itself forcefully unless she was to overwrite her current state and set it as a ¡¯future¡¯.
¡¯That¡¯s a bit too risky right now. If I was to force it, Aoi may instantly die due to the fracture in the flow of time.¡¯ Shiro thought to herself as she retracted the red circuits and pulled out aptop from her inventory.
Sitting down by the throne, Shiro huddled herself into a ball with theptop on her knees and started to type up a document for her findings. Since she had sealed her divinity away for now, she no longer had ess to her database. Therefore, there was a chance she may forget this so she wanted to keep a note of it.
"You can unlock yourself pretty easily. The ice has lost its powers so it¡¯s just normal ice. Also, the sensation should wear off in about 2 hours or so. I¡¯m not able topletely change you back yet so don¡¯t get too happy. Though this has given me more of an idea on how I should proceed. In order to fully master the art of creation, I need to improve my mastery over time so that I can rewrite both the past, present and future. Once I seed in that, I¡¯ll be able to set your body back to normal." Shiro exined without looking towards Aoi.
"To make more progress, we¡¯ll need to do this daily." Shiro said as Aoi shivered.
Shiro figured that Aoi was probably cold but the glimmer in her eyes didn¡¯t feel right.
Furrowing her brows, she could feel goosebumps on her skin but didn¡¯t know the source.
"Alright, is there anything else you need my help with?" Aoi asked as she adjusted her mental state.
"Nothing else for now. I just need to consolidate the knowledge I¡¯ve obtained and improve. I¡¯ve pretty much figured out how I can level up now." Shiro said, pointing at the stats above her head.
Despite her level now being 250, she didn¡¯t gain any stat increases which makes sense to her since she already reached the limit of level 1000. Any strength she gains now has to be reliant on her divinity and the amount of belief her followers give her.
"Ah I see, do you need me to prepare a room for you?" Aoi asked as she broke off the ice chains restraining her.
"Nah you don¡¯t have to. Just go about your work. I can sleep here. Oh also, if you can, can you call Iris and Nine back? I want to have a quick word with them." Shiro said as Aoi nodded and left the room.
After a short while, both Iris and Nine peeked through the door and saw Shiro typing on herptop.
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"Come in." Shiro called out as the two stood in front of her.
"I¡¯ve figured out where to go from here so there¡¯s not much need for me to go out. Is there anything you need to do or are you fine with staying here for a while?" Shiro asked.
Looking at Iris, Nine shook his head.
"We don¡¯t have anything to do for now in short term. But eventually, we¡¯ll need to go back. There¡¯s a debt to be settled and it¡¯ll have to wait until we¡¯re stronger." Nine shrugged as Shiro nodded her head.
"Well if you want to be stronger, I can go around killing monsters with you for now. That should help you get Exp, as for actual experience, I¡¯ll make a time chamber for you. It¡¯ll dilute the time so that time passes faster in the room and it¡¯ll give you sufficient time to train." Shiro offered as Nine paused in surprise.
However, remembering that she used time magic to help her make the food taste better, he understood that with her control of magic and time, this was probably an easy task for her.
"In that case then I¡¯ll be troubling you." Nine smiled as Shiro nodded.
"It¡¯s fine, there¡¯s no trouble. Oh speaking of which, Iris, if you don¡¯t mind, can I study your physique for a bit? I¡¯mpiling some data right now so a unique case like yours will be quite helpful." Shiro said as Iris nodded her head.
"Of course."
"Oh and Nine you¡¯ll have to step out for a bit. I¡¯ll call you back in once I¡¯m done." Shiro said, cing herptop down.
Raising an eyebrow, Nine nodded his head and watched as Iris gave him a small wave. He didn¡¯t know why but it felt like he was delivering her to a beast.
¡¯I¡¯m probably overthinking things.¡¯ Nine thought to himself.
Stepping out of the room, he closed the door and decided to guard it in case anyone wanted to disturb Shiro and Iris.
Noticing this, Shiro waved her hand and blocked off the noise from the inside for now.
"I¡¯ll seal the mana in this room for now so that you can undo your bandages if you don¡¯t mind."
Nodding her head, Iris reached towards her bandage and removed it from her face.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Shiro was shocked to see corruption near her eyes. The darkness seemed to flicker with weird glitches and numbers.
"Is there something wrong?" Iris asked as she blinked her eyes.
Within the darkness that tries to spread out its influence, a pair of florescent pink eyes stared back at Shiro.
"How do I exin this... Hmm... what does your eyes look like to you normally?" Shiro asked, conjuring a piece of ice to act as a mirror.
"A strange question. But except for the unusual glow in my eyes and some runic marks around the edges due to the seal, there¡¯s nothing else that¡¯s wrong with them." Iris replied, looking at herself in the mirror.
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"So it¡¯s just me that can see it then. That¡¯s a little unsettling. Can youy down on this table? I¡¯ll do a quick check up on you." Shiro asked as Iris nodded.
Laying down on the ice table, Shiro approached her and closed her eyes.
Red circuits appeared on her arm as Shiro tried to infiltrate Iris¡¯s body only for the corruption to spread through her body andsh out at Shiro.
pping Shiro¡¯s arm away, the corruption retreated, leaving Shiro surprised as this had never happened before.
"Hmm... we¡¯ll leave it here for now. I¡¯ll call on you in the future once I made some progress." Shiro said as Iris looked at her with a confused stare before nodding.
Putting on her bandages once more, Shiro watched as the corruption get sealed away and furrowed her brows.
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Instructing Iris to rest for now, Shiro sat on the throne in a foetal position and contemted what she had learnt.
"The powers around Iris¡¯ eyes are simr to Error. The energy it radiates reminds me of when I first came into contact with him. Hmm... perhaps once Error recovers enough to talk I¡¯ll be able to get some answers. For now, I¡¯ll just develop my abilities over time." Shiro muttered, closing her eyes so that she could get some sleep.
Even though she¡¯s been supressing it all day, Shiro could feel her nerves tensing the longer she stayed alone.
Her mind wondered if the city was safe but knew it was just her anxiety messing with her.
Taking deep breaths to try calm herself, Shiro wanted to hasten her recovery which was another reason for her departure. If she stayed in Asharia, she didn¡¯t know if she could stop herself from looking for Nan Tian to calm her nerves. If she kept doing that, she¡¯ll never get herself out of this shell.
Holding her knees tightly, Shiro ignored her worries and tried to sleep.
###
Laying in bed, Aphrodite smiled happily while checking up on what Shiro had done.
Seeing that she had racked up quite a lot of affection points on the meter with Aoi, she couldn¡¯t help but raise her eyebrow.
"Oh my, such talent. In one encounter and she¡¯s already made such progress. She¡¯s even better than me." Aphrodite muttered while ncing behind her to see the blushing and nude Athena putting her clothes back on.
"So? How did you enjoy it? You¡¯ve resisted me for so long, how does it feel to let loose." Aphrodite asked as she eyed Athena¡¯s body.
Saying nothing, Athena tried to suppress her blush as a cage appeared around Aphrodite once more and this time she was thrown out for good.
Dismissing her aura that was clearly one that was meant to make one hot and bothered, Athena nced back at the screen and noticed something in the corner.
Immediately, her blush disappeared as she donned her armour and forcefully created an avatar.
Descending to the mortal realm, Athena red coldly at the being in front of her.
"What are you doing Odin. This ce is not within your realm of influence."
"I sensed an interesting sh in power for a split moment. Though it may just be me getting dull." A young man smiled while ncing at Athena out of his one visible eye. The other was covered by a runic eyepatch.
Chapter 1159 Norse Pantheon
Chapter 1159 Norse Pantheon
ring at Odin who floated in front of her, Athena started to release her aura, causing him to chuckle.
"There''s no need to get violent now do we? Just think of it as me visiting someone of interesting. Though I did see a familiar face." Odin narrowed his eyes, causing Athena to frown in displeasure.
"Shirt is not someone you can just mess with. There''s more at stake than you realise."
"Oh I certainly know the stakes, perhaps a little more than you, perhaps a little less. What I will say that is it''s rather interesting to see her level degrade to 250. A rather curious anomaly." Odinughed as he transformed into a wisp of energy, leaving nothing but a single sentence behind.
"I''ll take my leave for now, Athena, and give Aphrodite my congrattions. Seems like she''s finally got her hands on you."
Hearing this, Athena clicked her tongue in annoyance. Making sure that he wasn''t around, she gave her arm a sniff to see if she could still smell Aphrodite''s scent. Realising that there was a small scent, Athena frowned and left the area. She wanted to cleanse this smell from her body.
###
Waking up early in the morning, Shiro red at the ceiling with a frown. She didn''t exactly get the best sleep so she felt groggy right now.
"Urg¡" groaning softly, Shiro adjusted her position on the seat and nced out of the window.
Seeing that it was still early before sunrise, she activated error and nced at her arm.
"There''s still a lot to be known in terms of editing the source code. Right now, I''m able to edit all I want butck the powers to ''save'' the changes and make them permanent. If I can find that out, all that''s left is to remember the basic codes that are present in all life. If I get my hands on that, I obtain the basic foundations to life through the source code." Shiro muttered before deactivating Error since she can''t see much of her own source code unless she took control of his body.
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Thinking about it for a moment, she also realised that she could probably see the foundations of the source code if she observes a pregnant woman since there will be a second code in their body. One that belonged to the child.
"If I can see that, I can probably sort out any birth defects that might appear."
Thinking about the possibilities, it reinforced Shiro''s beliefs that the source code is her ticket to a creation divinity.
Shaking her head, she hopped off the throne and made her way out of the castle. If she wanted to experiment with the source code, she needed more. . . Test subjects and the best ce to look for that is the outside world.
"Tree''s, grass, dirt, monsters, animals, they all have a code. I just need to study them in detail." Shiro smiled as she paused in realisation.
Whenever she used her nature attunement to fix thend, they destroy it does those trees have their own code?
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro waved her hand and created a tree in front of her.
Closing her right eye, she activated Error and had it augment her sight so that she could see the source code.
As she opened her eyes, she blinked in surprise. Rather than making something out of nothing, the tree seemed to take a small portion of her own code before expanding upon that to for the code for its own existence.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wasn''t quite sure as to why a piece of her own code was taken for this. But considering the fact that she was ''technically'' the twin to the First Born of Creation, it made sense that a part of her code might be simr. The process may be different when other people do it so it was too soon for her to say anything. Who knows, she might be wrong and everyone uses a part of their code to create something in their surroundings.
Ice, Fire, Metal and so on.
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Everything originates from one''s mana so there will definitely be a link.
Shaking her head, Shiro started to look at the trees that had already been here without any interference. Examining the code, Shiro noted down the slight differences and simrities it has with the code she has found in people''s bodies.
Once she had finished, she nced back at the castle and wondered what she should do with Nine and Iris.
Iris'' problem can''t be solved in short time since she needed to improve her control, once Error recovers, she''ll be able to make more progress. As for Nine, he has mentioned that he was going to take revenge in the future.
"Seems like I can only experiment with Aoi for now. Perhaps I might look for a few other Queens before the second half arrives." Shiro muttered as Aoi suddenly felt a chill down her spine.
###
Teleporting away, Odin slowly walked to his domain as a bold of lightning suddenly struck near him.
"Father, the mortals are starting the call out to the gods. The barrier is weakening and even though the Greek pantheon have the high ground right now, their foundation is fragile after their civil war. If we want to be the main pantheon, we''ll have to make some preparations before the second half arrives." A young man said as Odin furrowed his brows.
"Don''t be too hasty Thor. There''s been a small¡ change to our ns. The sh of power I felt, I found the source. She''s different but her aura bares resemnce to the First Born of Destruction. Well¡ a small trace of it. She definitely has a connection but the aura is too weak to be used as a link. It''s only bigger than most people but still a little weaker to most fallen. If not for my eye, I would have dismissed her but there''s a nagging feeling in my heart." Odin warned as Thor paused in surprise.
"We are to just watch for now. There are many secrets around that woman. Depending on what we do, she might be our doom. After all, she is already known as the god yer." Odin chuckled before disappearing.
Hearing the title of God yer, Thor paused in shock and shivered. He could still remember what happenedst time there was someone with this title, the number of gods that died by his hands was uncountable. He had crushed pantheons all by himself, if they underestimate Shiro, it might be their pantheon that get eradicated next.
"Don''t even think about it Loki. This is no longer something that we can interfere with." Thor called out. Suddenly, a blue haired woman appeared from the shadows. She had a cheeky smile on her face as her eyes seemed to flicker with a myriad of lights.
"Well even I know that much brother. The only thing I''m thinking about is how much I can mess around without spoiling the stage for the grand y." Loki chuckled as she skipped from shadow to shadow.
"You know I''m a lover for the theatrical. A mysterious god yer, anomalies appearing in the realm of gods, fallen bing stronger, civil strife and a new age where the participants are multitudes stronger than what they should be. I feel that more will ascend from this world to take the title of gods. Surely you know that such a y cannot be missed." Loki giggled as she snuck into Thor''s shadow only for lightning to strike her and force her out.
"Tch stingy." Loki pouted while Thor ignored her.
"Don''t mess around too much. You can watch the y but once the audience messes around with the script, there will naturally be people who will want to remove you." Thor warned as Loki smiled.
"Of course I understand. Brother as much as I enjoy messing around with scripts, that''s only because they''re so darn awful. They bore me so I must bring some life to the script. This one however, seems like it will keep me entertained. I will control myself as I am capable of that much. Though the same cannot be said for a few others." Loki said as her smile disappeared.
Appearing in front of Thor, Loki was serious.
"There was a mortal that somehow obtained cards that could call upon the power of gods. And these cases are popping up more often. While I haven''t given my blessing yet, there have been a few who had tried to call upon my name. Except for a few exceptional mortals, this shouldn''t be possible. However, the ones that called upon me are dull. They can''t even be called talented. Someone is spreading these cards in hopes that more will call upon the gods. No one likes a third party messing with the script, be careful when you enter the mortal world." Loki warned as Thor nodded his head.
If Loki was this serious then he knew that he had to be on his guard.
"I''ll keep that in mind." Thor smiled and patted Loki''s shoulder before disappearing in a sh of lightning.
Watching her brother leave, Loki shook her head and summoned a coin.
Flipping it, the crest of Shiro appeared on one side as she twirled it in her fingers.
"The actors are in ce, the props are ready and the stage is set. All that awaits is the silence of anticipation before the curtain rises."
Chapter 1160 Interference From Gods
Chapter 1160 Interference From Gods
After another round of experimenting with Aoi, Shiro was a little taken aback by her reaction considering how much she was panting. She figured that it was probably Aoi feeling cold from her ice but Queens should have a pretty high resistance.
''Maybe she''s not used to feeling anything through her body since she''s turned herself into a puppet. The sensation of touch might be a little sensitive for her right now.'' Shiro thought to herself while letting Aoi go.
Seeing some disappointment in Aoi''s eyes, Shiro shook her head since it''ll take a while for her to be able to fix herplete.
Setting aside Aoi''s recovery, Shiro had a few ns today. She wanted to find more Queens and recruit them into her alliance, that way they don''t need to die for no reason. Plus, if their goal is something she could aplish, she''ll grant them that wish.
Leaving the throne room, Shiro looked for Nine and Iris. Seeing the two of them investigate the Star Chart that Iris had obtained from the guild headquarters, Shiro knocked on the wall to get their attention.
"Oh sorry, didn''t see you there." Nine waved as Shiro nodded her head.
"That''s fine. We''ll be setting off soon. I want to make alliances with more Queens in the span of two days. If you two want to join then it''ll be good for you since you''ll see more of the world. Who knows, you might find something that interests you." Shiro smiled as Nine thought about it for a moment before nodding his head.
"If you don''t mind me tagging along then I''ll be in your care." He smiled as Iris also nodded her head.
"Mn, don''t worry, I won''t be messing around with the jet for you this time. I''ll give you a small break." Shiro chuckled as the two of them packed up and prepared to leave.
Leaving the castle, Shiro brought out a car from the rift. Sitting in the drivers seat, Shiro forgot that she was a little too short to see the road clearly.
Giving herself a little boost on the seat, she adjusted her posture so that it feltfortable.
While doing this, Nine and Iris watched with concern but shrugged if off.
Getting into the car, the three of them went for a small road trip as Shiro booted up the Argus Satellite system.
Scanning the areas near them, Shiro narrowed her eyes seeing the signals that represented a Queen''s influence.
"Why is it so small?" Shiro muttered as Nine perked his ears up in curiosity.
"What''s small?"
"The Queen''s domain. At this stage, each Queen should have a rtivelyrge domain. But most of them aren''t even two cities big. It''s they''ve shrank back down to their initial size at the start of the new age." Shiro exined with a frow.
Flicking her fingers, she had the car project the map and switch to live cam. Looking at the cities, Shiro could see several statues in the process of being built.
Furrowing her brows, she zoomed in on the statues.
There were surprisingly a few barriers but thanks to Argus'' Blessing, those barriers couldn''t hold her back for long and soon, the statues were disyed in full detail.
Widening her eyes, Shiro could tell that a few of the statues represented gods that she knew and their crests were etched to the surface. While it was not the ''real'' crest, they would pulse with slight traces of golden energy that Shiro was all too familiar with.
"The gods are already reaching out with their grubby hands." Shiro muttered with a frown.
"Gods? How do you know it''s the gods?" Nine asked curiously.
"Well as you figured, I''m not an average person. My level is not 250, I can kill beings that are level 1000 and I can make a Queen fear for her life. I''m a God as well but I''ve sealed my divinity away for the time being in pursuit of the divinity of creation. Hence why my level is jumping up whenever I make a big breakthrough. That''s because I''ve already reached the max." Shiro smiled as she exined to Nine about her identity.
Naturally, Nine had his suspicions but he didn''t think it was like this. Level 1000, god, Empress and someone that could make Queen''s cower in fear.
It was no wonder that Aoi was shivering in her boots in front of Shiro since anyone would when their opponent was someone who reached the mortal limit and became a god.
"So, what do you think now?" Shiro chuckled as Nine scratched his head.
"Honestly, overwhelmed. If the two of us annoyed you earlier then please spare us." He shrugged with a forced smile. While he and Iris have only been with Shiro for two days, she seemed very rxed and down to Earth with her attitude. Of course, if someone annoys her then their in for a treat but as long as the two o-f them are not idiots, Shiro will be nice to them.
"Pft, don''t be so nervous I''m not going to bite. I''ll tell you something else as well, each garden or world will produce a Queen to participate in the new age. For me, I''m the Queen for this world. One of my friends did also be a Queen which was a small anomaly but overall not too serious. In other words, I''m on your side/I''m on this worlds side." Shiro reassured while driving towards one of the closer settlements that had already prepared a statue for a god.
"However, it seems like this Queen is rather unfriendly." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Sticking her hand out of the window, she snapped her finger and a tier 7 magic circle appeared around the car. Projecting a barrier, 9 orbs of purple energy suddenly appeared as it crashed against the barrier.
Setting the car on auto pilot for now, Shiro flipped herself onto the roof of the car.
"You two stay seated, you''re not high enough level yet so it''s probably best for you to observe for now." Shiro said as Iris and Nine nodded their heads.
Stretching her body, Shiro grinned as she snapped her finger.
Suddenly, an array of tier 7 magic circles appeared around her, each one produced an ice bullet that started to flicker with lightning. Tier 6 magic circles appeared in front of the ice bullets as they were meant to elerate them towards the target.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Releasing waves upon waves of ice bullets, Shiro watched them crash into a barrier before being flipped and sent back at her.
"Oh? Well this is a little surprising. Perhaps getting the blessing of a god allowed her enough power to deflect my attack." Shiro muttered before snapping her finger. All of the bullets exploded into a shower of snow, instantly turning the battlefield into a blizzard that was useful for her since she could control everything in this domain.
"Are you going to keep hiding? It''ll be a real shame if I ughter you without knowing who you are. If I did, I could at least give you a grave!" Shiro shouted out as her mana red outward.
Hearing no response, Shiro nced above her and saw a tier 6 magic circle slowly morph to a tier 7 one.
A spear of purple energy shot towards her as she closed her right eye. Red circuits appeared on her arm as she opened her eye and red at the spear.
Snapping her finger, a single streak light shot up to the spear and dismantled it in a single moment.
Dismissing the circuits, Shiro had already locked onto the casters energy in the distance.
"Might as well make it shy." Shiro grinned as she jumped forward.
mming her hand down, a tsunami of ice appeared beneath her as it crashed towards the settlement in the distance.
Within the ice tsunami, thousands of armoured warriors could be seen as they were awaiting deployment.
"I''ll give you one more chance toe out before I end you for good." Shiro warned as she sped her hands together. A tier 7 magic circle appeared around the city and sealed off their exit, all teleportation circles were disabled and they were nothing but sitting ducks ready to be hunted. Of course, Shiro didn''t want to have to kill the residents if possible but that did not include the Queen. If she was attacked, she''ll fight back.
Hearing no response once more, Shiro frowned and red at the Queen through the walls. Suddenly, she noticed something wrong as everyone in the city almost seemed robotic. The Queen didn''t have any reactions to what she said except to attack anything near her.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro activated Error and nced at her source code from afar using analysis to help her.
The moment she did, Shiro felt a wave of anger wash over her.
*PUCHI!!!
One could see a vein threatening to burst on her forehead as Shiro dismissed the ice tsunami. After looking at the Queen''s code, Shiro could tell that most of it had been taken over but a certain god or rather, gods. There was three god like presences within her body and her main conscience had long disappeared. Using her as a vessel, the three gods did the same to every other inhabitant in the ce. To put it inly, they killed everyone in this city.
Feeling anger boil in her heart, Shiro gave them all a death sentence.
Chapter 1161 Fate Set In Stone
Chapter 1161 Fate Set In Stone
Stomping down, Shiro''s aura exploded into the air as tier 7 magic circles appeared all around the city, threatening to be tier 8 but justcking thatst step.
"Get the f*ck out of here! I can sense that you three are gods! If you don''t get out then you should forget about surviving!" Shiro shouted out with pure anger. Her killing intent shot through the roof as thend was transformed into an icyndscape.
Both Nine and Iris shuddered in fear as ice started forming on the car window and the temperature.
ncing out of the window, Nine was surprised to see rage on Shiro''s face since she had always seemed to be theposed one.
"Iris do you sense anything?" Nine asked as he nced back only so see Iris unable to speak while her face was pale.
Waving her hand, she pulled out several cards and two of them flickered with a glowing light.
"Whoever she''s against will die. All of their paths have just been cut off. No matter what timeline, no matter what choice, their fate has been set in stone. As for the second card, another''s fate will begin to change. As for her power... She''s someone near the apex of this world." Iris exined as she tried her best to read more fates but her cards suddenly burst into ck mes and disappeared.
Shocked at this, Nine quickly summoned one of his des and deflected the mes. When they touched his sword, he was shocked to see that the metal was being used as fuel and didn''t hesitate to throw his sword away to keep both him and Iris safe.
"Why did the cards burst into mes? They''re not normal mes either." Nine frowned while Iris nced at Shiro.
"I tried to predict more of her fate. However, I don''t know what''s happening but there is now ayer of darkness around her star. She''s like a ck hole of endless void."
Hearing this, Nine furrowed his brows.
Thinking about it for a moment, he kicked the car door open and started to escape with Iris so that Shiro didn''t need to be worried about catching them in the crossfire.
Sensing the two of them jogging to safety, Shiro smiled before looking back towards the direction of the gods with a frown.
From the city, a single white haired and paled skinned woman appeared.
Floating in the air, she looked no different o a marite as she dangled on invisible strings. Her eyes hallow and her body barely holding together with the presence of three gods within her body.
Seeing this, Shiro felt rage overwhelm her as she mmed her hand forward, ripping a tear in the void and appeared before the woman.
*BANG!!!
Crashing her palm against the woman''s chest, red circuits exploded out of Shiro''s arm.
"Get the hell out here!" Shiro roared as she pulled her arm back.
Tugging tight on the circuits, Shiro watched as the woman''s shirt rip apart to show three cards fused to her torso. The flesh around the cards pulsed ever so slightly.
Recognising three sources of divine energy, one on each card, Shiro understood that this was the medium between the gods and the Queen who was used as a container.
Just as she was about to attack the cards, a tier 8 magic circle appeared in front of Shiro. ck lightning flickered on the surface as Shiro felt her instincts scream out for her to dodge.
But without her own divinity empowering her body, it was going to be difficult.
Activating Analysis EX at thest moment, the world slowed down around her as her mind started to turn.
She didn''t want to unlock her divinity right now since the momentum from the corruption was a bit strong. If she did unlock it, it''ll be a bit hard for her to keep it in control. Without Beelzebub helping her and Error being awake, she estimated that her divinity may overwhelm her right now.
As the lightning came closer to her eye, Shiro summoned Silvanis and the runes on the de lit up with a neon green glow.
*BOOM!!!
Pulsing out with an emerald radiance, the lightning was frozen in mid air, suspended in time and prevented from reaching Shiro.
Since her enemies were gods, Shiro didn''t want to dawdle and just end them as quickly as she could. After fighting Rokarn and getting some of her memories back from her like as Anima, she knew a few of the tricks that gods have and ending them quickly in her state was desired. It was bothmon sense as well as her understanding on their power.
Appearing behind the girl, Shiro had Silvanis in hand and swung towards the neck.
But before it could hit, Shiro felt sharp sense of pain shoot through her body, her spell ended and the three gods regained their movements once more. Seeing the lightning miss and the traces of divine energy in the air, the girl opened her mouth.
"So it''s the God yer. I was wondering why the aura was so strong. I had assumed that you was nothing but another Queen or Empress so please forgive my discourtesy." A old voice rang out as a barrier shimmered around the girls body, redirecting Silvanis rather than blocking it.
Realising that they knew the properties of her sword, Shiro narrowed her eyes and jumped back.
"Hou~ Seems like I''m famous." Shiro forced a smile while staring at the girl.
The three auras within her body surged for a moment as three illusionary figures appeared in the air.
Their forms flickered delicately as though they''re about to disappear at any moment due to the restrictions in this world right now.
"Of course, we have heard much about your exploits God yer. The system was kind with itspliments. Since you are here, may we buy our pardon with some information? It is our desire to set up a small foundation for the changesing in two days." The old man in the centre smiled as Shiro furrowed her brows and dismissed Silvanis.
"Speak, why does the cards hold your aura and what did you do here?" Shiro asked.
Hearing her tone, one of the gods were unhappy but after hearing that she had killed Rokarn, they didn''t dare to make a wrong move. Despite her level only being 250 right now, they know it''s a lie since she was able to kill Rokarn.
"There was a small update to the system. All of the gods were given a set of cards that allow us to insert our crests and converse with mortals without suffering from the bacsh. The goal is to find mortals and share our power with them to set up a foundation simr to what the Queens do when the new age first started." The middle god exined as Shiro nodded her head.
"What happened to the girl then?" Shiro asked as they nced back at the girl they used as a container.
"She was unable to withstand our presence and her mind was crushed. Therefore, her body was suitable for the three of us to borrow her body for the time being. As for her followers, they were added bounty for their faith. If the God yer wishes to add more mortals to gain some faith then we are happy to supply you with some." The first god replied as the other two nodded their heads.
Hearing this, Shiro nced at the city and sighed.
"No need. What faith can I get from such mindless husks?" She said as her voice was frigid.
Figuring that it was probably because she was unhappy with the offering, the three quickly exined.
"For you see, while they are indeed mindless husks and the amount of faith they can provide is minimal, their physical bodies can be used as catalysts to reduce the pressure it is on us to materialise on the mortal world in two days. While most of the restrictions will be lifted, powerful gods still need sacrifices to materialise. We are no different though the amount we need are much smaller. As a god born from this world, you will not need to go through this process."
"I see. Well your may certainly tell me more when I take your souls." Shiro said as she clutched her hand.
Suddenly, three sets of circuits materialised, connecting Shiro to each of the gods.
Widening their eyes, they weren''t able to do anything before a wave of ck energy shot out from the circuits, enveloping them in darkness.
Back in the realm of gods, the three paused in their steps and frowned. Furious at Shiro''s actions, they wanted to end her but something changed in their vision.
A figure of Shiro appeared but she was not physically in the divine realm. Instead, it was as though her existence was tied to them.
"When I kill things, I make sure they''re dead for good. For someone of my identity, letting you live is simply an insult." Shiro spoke slowly as they weren''t able to do anything about her. ck tendrils crept up their legs and locked them in ce. While this was not her original divinity, she could emte its power ever so lightly through converting their divine energy and using that against them.
Looking at the three cores that appeared before her, Shiro clenched her fist and shattered them in one go.
While they were called ''gods'', they were only minor gods. Weaklings in her eyes.
Chapter 1162 Code Surgeon
Chapter 1162 Code Surgeon
Dusting her hands, Shiro nced back at the city with a sad look in her eyes.
Without the gods controlling them, all of them stood in ce not doing anything else. Closing her eyes, she activated Error and could see that a vital part of their current code was missing. Normally, she would keep them alive and try to find a way to fix it but from her knowledge as Anima, their state can only be healed through reincarnation.
The code was malformed and damaged, only through reincarnation can it be broken down and healed.
Aiming her palm at the city, she furrowed her brows before sighing. Dropping her arm, she decided to give it another try.
If she was still Anima, she would have given up and killed them regardless so that they could reincarnate. As the First Born of Destruction, that was part of her job. To send people to the void so that they could live their next life.
However, that was not Shiro.
Her experiences leading up to now did not allow her to just give up and kill a city of innocents.
Shaking her head, Shiro sped her hands together.
"Sorry Error, I know you''re resting but I might have to go a little overboard today." Shiro apologised as a pulse of red light erupted from her body, covering the entirety of the city.
Everyone that was touched by the light seemed to shimmer for a moment before an orb lit up on their chest.
Naturally, the same happened to Iris and Nine. While Nine was confused, Iris somewhat understood what was going on since fate was tied to the source code. While she may not know the existence of the source code, she could feel the shift in fate for everyone in the city.
Meanwhile, Shiro activated Analysis EX and observed their broken codes.
"I just need to simte the process of reincarnation while preserving their current memories. Actually, perhaps its better to wipe out a little of what happened. After all, being enved to gods may cause them to do something out of their level. If they past the threshold, they''ll receive a portion of my blessing and be fallen." Shiro muttered. She wanted them to have a ''fresh'' start in a way.
"Perhaps give them the memory of being dead but revived after discovering their souls. That should allow me to send them to Asharia without any problems. If they''re left to wander without protection, a lot of them will die again."
Furrowing her brows, Shiro raised her hand and red circuits shot out, gathering all of the source codes in front of her.
Since her perception has been boosted, she''s able to act fast but the time she was allowed to act was short since she was pushing Error a bit too hard right now.
Taking a deep breath, she clenched her hand and shattered all of the source codes, essentially killing everyone in the city. Her human kill count shot up in an instant and her title was upgraded but Shiro wasn''t bothered by that. The moment she reconstructed the source codes, her title will degrade back to what it was. After all, the way the title kept track was through the mark you left on their code. When you kill them properly, it''ll mark you down as the killer thus increasing your score by one. But since she was reincarnating them, she wasn''t technically killing them as she was the one granting them new life. Instead of being marked down as a killer in their code, she''ll be marked down as something else entirely.
However, simting the process of reincarnation is easier said than done.
"I am the First Born of Destruction. The essence of death and the primordial force that conquers all. With mine power, I shall send you to the void and rid you for your life. With mine blessing, you will be reborn free of your past burdens." Shiro shouted out. Those that heard her now would be unfamiliar with thenguage she was using as it was one that belonged only to Chaos and the First Gods born of her power.
9 pirs of light shot out around Shiro as they started to surround the city. Each pir formed its own magic circle as Shiro could see parts of her body threatening to crumble from the stress. However, this was ok since she was merely simting the spell. The Real one was much more powerful while this one had a limit.
Tier 9 Origin Magic ¨C Circle of Transmigration
*BOOM!!!!
Piercing through the clouds, the nine magic circles linked together to form a gate. A swirl of energy erupted from the gate as all of the source codes faded into the void before Shiro forcefully ended the skill. With the skill cut off, the gate disappeared and the source code was spat back out. However, since they passed the gates of transmigration, their code had already been repaired. When they were spat back out, it was as though the damage the three gods did to them never existed at all.
Origin Magic ¨C Force Transmigration of the Soul!
Changing the spell, Shiro quickly edited the source code to remove certain memories before releasing her grip and allowed them to drift back to the owner''s body.
Feeling Error''s power grow weak, Shiro smiled apologetically before floating down to the ground and panted heavily from her use of mana. To forcefully activate a tier 9 magic while her own divinity was sealed on top of using a portion of her divinity was not kind to her. If not for the fact that Error was helping her directly interact with the code without her asking the system, it would have never worked.
In front of her, Shiro could see a figure appear with a stern expression. ncing up, Shiro was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face.
"Admin 4, I didn''t think you would pay me a visit." Shiro smiled.
Pausing in his steps, Admin 4 blinked his eyes in surprise.
"How do you know me? If I''m not wrong, mortals, even someone as abnormal as you should not know the existence of Administrators. Where did you learn such information? Or did you learn of us through interacting with the system?" Admin 4 asked as Shiro''s smile froze.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wanted to nce at his source code but was unable to since Error couldn''t be activated right now.
However, while he may look like Admin 4, his aura and attitude waspletely different.
"Well setting that aside, I''m here to check something." Admin 4 shook his head as he approached Shiro.
Before she could react, he tapped her on the head and several holographic panels appeared before him.
ncing through it, he muttered to himself a few times
"It''s no wonder. I thought it was strange that you can activate such an abnormal spell." Admin 4 said as he started at Shiro.
Thinking about it for a moment, he took his spare hand out of his pocket.
"The power bnce is hindered. The system has given you too many benefits. Even for someone of your identity, this cannot be-"
"If you carry on your idea of punishment the system will not be kind. You know the system does things for a reason, step down old friend." A voice rang out as another figure tapped Admin 4 on the shoulder.
"Go back for now, I''ve been assigned to her for the foreseeable future." Admin 8 sighed as Admin 4 frowned but nodded his head.
ncing back at Shiro, he disappeared.
Shaking his head, Admin 8 looked at Shiro.
"I''ll present you with your reward for using such a powerful spell. It''s information rather than an item and it may help you with what you''re trying to aplish." Admin 8 smiled before turning serious.
"North Pole, Egg, be there when it hatches."
After saying what he needed to say, Admin 8 turned around and prepared to walk away but Shiro stopped him.
"What happened to Admin 4?"
"Forced Reset." Admin 8''s response was quick as he disappeared.
Hearing this, Shiro frowned and guessed that it was probably because he helped her out a little too much. She was wondering why he was dressed so formally during theirst video call. It turned out that he was being reset.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro sighed.
Once she improved her bnce between creation and destruction, she should be able to interact with the admins more and perhaps help Admin regain his previous self.
"It''s just a matter of getting to that stage." Shiro muttered.
After forcefully invoking the power of a tier 9 spell, her level had increased slightly due to her improved control over creation.
Reaching level 350, Shiro''s ss stayed the same but there was now a new skill.
[Code Surgeon ¨C Passive]
A skill that improved her control and ess to a person''s source code. It was what she needed right now to speed up her progress. Plus, with Error out ofmission for a bit, this was going to suffice.
Chapter 1163 Juri
Chapter 1163 Juri
Walking through a sandy world, a hooded woman paused in her footsteps. Behind her there was a giant dragon with a party of people on its back.
"Is something wrong Lyrica?" Vuldrin asked as everyone got off his back. Transforming back to his human form, he pulled out his own cloak and put it on.
"Nothing much. I just felt a surge of mana to the west. You mentioned that the Beyond was an ovep of the real world right? Only that this one is closer to mana." Lyrica smiled as Vuldrin nodded his head.
"Yes, is something wrong with that?" Vuldrin asked as Lyrica shook her head.
"Nothing is wrong with it, but something interesting did happen. Can you teleport us to the west? I''ll give you the coordinates now." Lyrica smiled as Vuldrin was confused but nodded his head.
Receiving the coordinates from Lyrica, a tier 7 magic circle expanded out from Vuldrin''s feet as everyone was swept away by the spell.
Arriving at the coordinates, Vuldrin felt his mind getting overwhelmed by a mix of fear and awe. Quickly jumping back, he transformed into his dragon form and red at the view in front of him.
For the first time in his life, he transformed out of fear. Earlier, he couldn''t sense the power but now that he was this close, he could sense everything.
"The aura of a tier 9 being! My mother has told me about such beings before, I thought that they had died out long ago." Vuldrin growled as the scales on his body trembled at the aura he was sensing.
"What''s a tier 9 being?" Asher asked out of curiosity.
"Tier 7 beings are Demi Gods, entities that had tapped into the power of the divine. Tier 8 beings are gods, they get stronger with their follower''s beliefs and have mastered the use of divine energy. There are of course different stages of power within this. My mother was a divine rank 2 being which means she is on the same level as popr gods that you know such as Zeus or Odin. While she wasn''t sure how high the divine ranks goes, she told me about a whole new ss of being. The tier 9 beings also known as the First Born.
"Demi Gods, Gods and such can be created through belief but that''s not the case for First Borns. They are the second closest thing to the start of everything. They are what some would call the god of gods. I don''t know how many First Borns there are but if you meet a hostile one, you would die before you can even blink." Vuldrin exined while Lyrica made her way towards the centre.
In front of her, the world seemed as though it had been ripped apart. There was nine tears in space, each one seemed to reveal a new realm to Lyrica.
However, while others may just see them as rips in space, Lyrica could sense something more. After being in the Beyond, her senses have already been heightened to their limit. From tears, she could sense something more. Something primal.
Walking towards the tears, a green aura exploded from her body and morphed into a protective cover.
*BANG!!! BOOM!!!!
Invisible flickers of energy struck out towards her as the protective cover flickered and eventually dimmed. However, Lyrica wasn''t bothered. There was something calling to her from within the ripple of energy and if it allowed her to be Shiro''s sword and act as her vanguard then Lyrica would push on.
Grabbing her sword, she closed her eyes and stomped down.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!
A sharp aura exploded out from her body as her own Throne World rippled out, anchoring itself in the realm of the beyond and contested against the ripples of energy.
Thousands of swords appeared in an array around her and shot out while she plunged her hand into her chest and pulled out a light blue orb. Shattering it, all of her swords lit up with a green and blue energy as her form also changed.
Crouching down, she dashed forward and cut down the ripples of invisible energy that sought to take her life.
Furrowing her brows, Lyrica could see her swords getting disintegrated upon contact.
Realising this, she hid her current sword and reced it with one from her Throne World.
Passing the first rip in space, Lyrica was hit by a wave of energy that shattered the protective cover around her.
Dashing past the second, she could feel her body crumbling away but strangely, there was no warning of danger in her heart. In fact, her body almost weed it.
''Life after death, creation after destruction. The energy in this array reminds me of Shiro but it is embedded with a chaotic force that disintegrates anything it touches. However, there''s a ray of light after that destruction. Birth, life, death, rebirth.'' Lyrica thought to herself as she rushed past the third tear in space.
The energy that rippled out from the tear immediately shattered her body to pieces, shocking everyone who was there. However, from the destruction, a ray of green and blue light pierced through the blood mist and coagted into a form of a sword. Morphing its own shape, they could faintly see the figure of a elven woman mmed her hand down.
Green energy exploded around her and created a barrier around her.
With a barrier around her body, Lyrica dashed towards the fourth.
The fourth shattered the barrier, the fifth fractured the illusionary de, the sixth broke it to pieces before being reforged. The Seventh granted her de a deadly lustre that cut apart anything it came into contact with. The eighth shattered her de once more. Now that she was nothing but a faint wisp of energy, Lyrica approached the ninth tear.
During the whole process, she finally understood why she felt no fear. While it destroyed her body, it tempered her soul through the primal forces of destruction and from that destruction her soul grew stronger. Life after death, creation after destruction.
Standing before the final tear in space, Lyrica could see the flickering visages of Shiro unleashing the spell onto the world. Curling her lips into a smile, Lyrica reached out and caressed the vision.
"I''ll be there soon." Lyrica muttered before walking past the tear.
Unlike the previous tears, this one did not shatter her body. Instead, it shattered itself to piece and started to infuse Lyrica''s soul with power.
Little by little, the light started to peel off Lyrica''s body, revealing her new physique. Waving her finger, Lyrica got dressed and nced at rip in space that reflected her appearance.
She now looked a little older with green and blue hair that shimmered with every movement. Her eyes had changed as her iris now resembled the wheel of samsara.
[Lyrica LVL 990 Empress of Samsara]
"The Beyond is not just a realm that''s closer to mana. It''s a realm that connects everything together. It''s the cross road to each of the realms in the world and it is also the guiding light for me to fine hell and heaven." Lyrica muttered as she understood the energy within this realm.
Reaching out with her hand, she sliced down.
*BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!
Immediately, the world in front of her split in two as the two halves slowly transformed into portals. The one on the right poured out with divine energy while the one on the left radiated demonic.
Narrowing her eyes, Lyrica thought about entering the right portal when her footsteps paused.
Teleporting back to her party, she did a circle gesture with her finger and a barrier appeared around everyone. The moment the barrier appeared, a giant portal appeared in the sky as 10 royal guards of the beyond poured out, their aura sted out as Vuldrin could still feel their power.
If not for Lyrica''s barrier, it may have just killed them if they were too weak.
Within the centre of the royal guards, a single person stood.
She had dark red hair and golden pupils. Runic patterns could be seen on her arms as she wore a sleeveless white and gold dress.
"I wonder what has brought the realm ruler to a ce like this. I do hope that I haven''t caused you any trouble." Lyrica smiled as she could see the name tag of the person in front of her.
[Juri LVL 1000 Realm Ruler of The Beyond (Divinity Rank 2)]
Looking at Lyrica, Juri narrowed her eyes before looking towards the tears in space that she had created.
"I can ept you walking around my realm. However, if you open such portals without care, I will have to banish you." Juri warned as Lyrica grinned and shrugged her shoulder.
"No harm no foul."
Staying silent, Juri nodded her head before aiming her palm at the tears in space.
Clenching her fist, the mana in the realm surged and immediately repaired the damage. Giving Lyrica another nce, she turned around and left with her guards.
Dropping the barrier, Lyrica stretched her body. There was a smile on her face as this was a big step towards her goal. All that''s left is to consolidate her power and touch the realm of divinity.
Chapter 1164 Sabbath
Chapter 1164 Sabbath
With the admin leaving, Shiro massaged her body and stood up. Forcing the power on the scale of tier 9 through her body right now was really not the best thing to do. Though it paid off since it gave her some insights on creation.
If it was not for the fact that she had already made some progress in creation along with Error being there for her, she wouldn''t have been able to invoke a tier 9 magic like Circle of Transmigration.
After all, all of her spells as Anima had been pure destruction spells. Simr to her Yin Style Asura''s Path, she used a specific set of spells from when she was the First Born of Destruction. She put all of her spells under the category called the Seven Gates of Destruction.
Thinking about her original spell set, Shiro nced down at her hands and shook her head.
With her power right now she couldn''t even unleash the full power of the First Gate of Destruction never mind the other six.
Though even if she was able to, she wouldn''t use it since it would tip the bnce of her divinity to the destruction side too much.
Dismissing the energy that was gathering around her hand, Shiro walked towards where Nine and Iris were.
As she was walking, Shiro felt a pain shoot through her body, causing her to kneel down for a moment.
Blood started to pour from her eye as she quickly healed herself.
"I suppose I did exert myself just a little." Shiro muttered.
*BOOM!!!!
Behind her, where she had cast her spell, she noticed a fluctuation of power from another realm. Widening her eyes, she quickly swept her senses towards the direction and knew that someone was trying to tap into her strength as the First Born of Destruction.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro stood up with a serious face.
Taking a deep breath, she activated the Argus System and sped her hands together. Argus'' blessing allowed her to see anything she locked onto with hardly anything being able to block her sight. Even if they were in a different realm.
Tier 6 magic circles appeared around her as her view flickered to reveal Lyrica walking through the tears in space within the world of the Beyond.
Widening her eyes in a mixture of surprise and relief, Shiro also noticed how she was determined to walk forward. Even without her doing anything, Lyrica pressed on, shattering her mortal shell using the power of the tier 9 magic circle.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro wanted to lecture Lyrica about being reckless but considering what she just did, she couldn''t say anything. Thinking about it, Shiro decided to help out.
"Lyrica went to another realm in search of power. The fact that her aura is a bit weaker than an Empress can''t be denied which means she probably hasn''t found what she wanted yet. Even though there is a limit to what I can do, I can help temper her body to get used to the power close to that of a First Born." Shiro muttered as mana threads appeared on her hands.
Taking a deep breath, her eyes focused. This was most likely going to be thest time she helps Lyrica for a while since they both have things they need to do. Now that their fates have crossed once more, she''ll push her power once more. Even if she was on herst leg, her friend was risking her life. The least she could do was help her so that she could walk without worry.
Sensing Nine and Iris approach, Shiro opened her mouth.
"I need to sort out something right now, Iris if you can help me supress my injuries it''ll be a great help. Nine, set up a parameter where we can be rtively safe." Shiro ordered as Nine nodded his head.
Grabbing his swords, he threw them into the air and had them stab into the ground in specific patterns, forming a barrier around everyone with him in the centre.
As for Iris, she pped her hands together and a deck of cards appeared between her palms. After studying the Star Chart that Shiro had helped her obtainst time, her collection had increased by quite a bit.
Three of the cards started to glow as she drew them all in one swift movement and threw it into the air. Shattering to specks of light that flowed into Shiro''s body, Iris activated another spell as a star chart could now be seen in the sky.
Feeling a wave of rxing energy sooth her wounds, Shiro realised a big change. All of Iris'' buffs were percentile!!
Even for Silvia, there were only a few that were percentile. While her usual healing spells are ridiculous and hard to outss, it meant that Iris could still be helping to people who are level 1000 despite being low level herself. She could cover for Silvia should there be the need to.
Thinking about this, Shiro started to wonder about how strong Iris could get with her ss. But that was a fleeting thought since the importance was Lyrica right now.
With Iris and Nine helping her, Shiro started to manipte the energy left behind by her spell to invoke the power of rebirth so that it may refine Lyrica''s body and soul.
Controlling the powers carefully so that it wasn''t too much for Lyrica, Shiro could feel her body reaching its limit but there was still the final step to go. Taking a deep breath, Shiro reignited the power of destruction within herself only to then flood it with the little amounts of creation she had obtained. Immediately withdrawing her destruction, the void caused by this amplified the power of creation slightly and it flowed into Lyrica, forcefully changing her ss and granted her taste of a First Born''s power.
The moment this was done, Shiro''s spell copsed as she could feel the bacsh rush through her body, draining all of her mana in one go and damaged her body heavily. After all, she had just invoked a simtion of a tier 9''s power twice in quick session. It was no wonder that she would be suffering the consequences. Shocked by the bacsh, Iris tried to heal Shiro as much as she could.
Taking long deep breaths, Shiro watched as Lyrica''s transformation was sessful and smiled. With her goal reached, she rxed her body. Feeling a gaze on her, Shiro tracked the gaze and realised it came from the Realm Ruler.
Opening her mouth, Shiro used the power of Argus to send a message.
[I do apologise about the small problem I may have caused to your realm. However, it has allowed my friend to gain a new found power therefore I am grateful for the benefits that your domain has brought to her so if you were to require any help in the future, so long as it does not breach my code of conduct, I will try my best to assist you. You have my word as the Nanotech Goddess of Destruction.] Shiro said as she released her aura, allowing the Realm Ruler to sense her power.
Her response was simple.
[I understand. I shall look forward to seeing you in the future. Lifeline.]
The moment she finished her sentence, the connection was cut off as Shiro blinked her eyes in surprise. The fact that the Realm Ruler knew of her identity as the lifeline of this world was surprise since the system would prevent people from discovering that. The fact that she knew must mean that she has a unique privilege with the system.
With themunications cut off, Shiro rxed her body and nced back at the two. Iris was drenched with sweat while continuously trying to keep Shiro''s body in shape while Nine was on guard about even the smallest movement around them.
"You two can stop now, I''ve finished what I needed to do. Plus, I think we have a few guests that are curious about our identity." Shiro smiled, sensing people approaching from the distance.
Hearing this, Iris and Nine nodded. Waving his hand, he deactivated his barrier but didn''t remove the swords so that it could be reactivated at a moment''s notice.
Waiting for a moment, they watched as the residents of the city approach the three of them. Standing in the front, a man could be seen with a white hooded jacket. Red marking could be seen on the surface but it was faint. Almost as though it didn''t exist but to Shiro''s eyes, it was clear as day.
Pulling down his hood, he revealed himself to be a middle aged man with dark midnight hair and pure white eyes.
"Excuse me, do you happen to know where our Queen is? We have recently woken up with strange memories in our minds, as the aura around you suggest that you are far from themon person, I do believe that there is a good chance that you have some answers." The man bowed slightly while the others stayed silent out of respect for him.
[Sabbath LVL 780 ???]
.
Chapter 1165 Yisale
Chapter 1165 Yisale
"Well if you were to exin who you are and what kind of person your Queen was I might have something of use." Shiro smiled as she narrowed her eyes.
Despite only being level 780, the faint aura around him told Shiro that he was stronger than most Queens out there. It didn''t help that his ss was hidden too so she didn''t know what kind of fighter he was.
"This¡" Furrowing his brows slightly, Sabbath was silent for a moment before opening his mouth.
"Very well. Perhaps it may be better for you toe to the city to see for yourselves. She was¡ someone who went to the extremes for her idea of what was needed to survive. It may be hard to see but I can guarantee that she did it out of the good of her heart. Even if it was morally questionable." Sabbath sighed as he decided to not hide anything.
Raising his hands, he snapped his fingers and released a powerful aura.
"On themand of Rank 1, all of you stand attention!" Sabbath shouted out as every citizen that followed behind him lost their meek demeanor. Each of them released a powerful aura that resembled a de as their eyes turned cold. Standing attention, they parted in the middle and kneeled on the ground.
Raising an eyebrow at this, Shiro nced at Sabbath. This was different to what the gods did so she didn''t mind it too much though it was just shy of mind control. If anything, it was something simr to students in school listening to the teacher since they know that is the natural order of things.
"If you will, we will show you what kind of person our Queen is with the facilities she''s built. I will also exin her history to the best of my knowledge. While the city has changed quite a bit, we are still rather familiar with where things are." Sabbath said as Shiro nced at both Nine and Iris who was a little surprised by the actions of the citizens but said nothing.
"Well I suppose it doesn''t hurt to have a little look."
Just as she was about to stand up, Sabbath opened his mouth.
"Would you like some medicine? With your body being in its current state, I don''t think it''s wise to force yourself to look ok. With my eyes, I can see that you were about to force your muscles so that you could move properly." Sabbath said as he pointed towards his pure white eyes.
"Hou~ Seems like your eyes are rather special. I suppose you''re revealing it to me since you believe that you can kill me whenever with my current body state." Shiro chuckled as she mmed her hand down.
A wave of mana pushed her body upright before forming strings that controlled her own body like a puppet. Adjusting her control, Shiro walked forwards as though nothing was wrong while also making sure that her body wasn''t being pushed to the limit again.
Hearing what she said, Sabbath smiled and shook his head.
"That''s not the case. Even though you are only level 350, the fear and danger I feel from you is very much real. Even with your body in this state, I doubt I can kill you even if I was to risk my everything. The reason I''m telling you this is that I already have a small idea of what might have happened. Plus, I sense an aura in you that is simr to the one I serve. You are also a Queen are you not? Well, most likely something a lot stronger. I''m being truthful in case my dishonesty kills everyone here." Sabbath chuckled while walking forwards.
"Fair enough. You have quite the sharp intuition then. Though I do wonder what your ss is for it to be three question marks." Shiro asked with a smile.
"It''s nothing special. It used to be a bad thing but it helps me make my opponents cautious. You see, I don''t have a ss. For some reason, I was incapable of epting any ss despite fulfilling the conditions. I have zero skills from a ss, zero passives, zero titles, zero bonuses while still being able to use parts of the system like the inventory. The only skills I have been able to somewhat get are skills from skill stones but they are far limitedpared to what I''ll get from a ss. Though I''ve learnt that the system is merely a support that helps you find your way through the world. While I do not have skills written on my page to show my power, my knowledge and understanding of what I can do along with my control of mana allows me to perform just as well if not better than most people." Sabbath exined while controlling some mana in his palm.
"No ss? You don''t have a ss?" Shiro blinked her eyes in surprise since that is usually impossible with how the system wasid out but she couldn''t sense any falsehood from him. His soul, while slightly grey, is still on the ''good'' side. This man was telling the truth and being genuine about his current condition.
"Indeed. Though it is a bit hard for me to prove to you." He smiled helplessly.
"Hmm¡ It''s fine. I have a way to check but not right now." Shiro waved her hand dismissively while thinking about what this could mean.
"So care to tell me a little about your Queen''s power?"
"Very well. My Queen, Yisale, had the title Queen of Assassins. She may not be as powerful as other Queens who govern ''better'' concepts but she could hold her own granted that she was the one to make the first move. When she helped all of us, she didn''t just do it so that she may gain a boost to her own stats but rather give us a way to survive." Sabbath said as he looked up at the sky and sighed.
"She knew that her chances of winning was zero. But just because it was zero, it didn''t mean that she was willing to die without doing anything. She decided to use what little of her time in this world to help lost people like us. You may be familiar with the line give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. Rather than protecting us for a moment, she decided to teach us how to hold our own. How to kill those strong than us. She gave us a path that allowed us to survive these turbulent times. The training was hard, many died but people could quit whenever they wanted. Those thatmitted to the training are ones who wanted to take some form of control back into their lives. So that they wouldn''t be killed without doing anything." Sabbath exined before looking at the citizens that followed behind him.
Opening his mouth, he called out to them once more.
"What is our priority!?"
"To survive through any means. To grant safety to this family. If someone strong tries to kill us, drag them to hell so that they can''t kill the others!"
Hearing every citizen shout this in unison, Shiro was rather impressed. Thinking back to what happened to their Queen, she couldn''t help but shake her head. If not for the fact that she had epted a card, they could have met and Shiro could have given them a safer ce to stay.
But what''s done is done, even with her power, Yisale''s code had already shattered, piecing her back together was impossible. All that was left was her broken body which the three gods used for their own gains along with her followers.
However, if they were willing to go to safety with her, Shiro wouldn''t deny them. Plus, she wasn''t as worried about their safety as she was before since Sabbath had mentioned that Yisale taught them how to survive through being assassins.
Arriving at the city, Shiro could see that most of the facilities that Yisale had created were torn down to be reced with statues of the gods.
Stomping down, Sabbath revealed a path underground and made his way down.
"When her highness trained us, she made sure that we understood the importance of one another. Many would say that assassins need no emotions as they are hidden daggers in the dark. A tool for killing but she thought otherwise. While emotions may ''hinder'' some operations, it is also emotions that save you when you are in danger in the form of allies that''ll stick their necks out for you. We willingly allowed her to help us cultivate a second side to us. The flip side of the coin that bes an assassin to survive. Some may see it as mind washing but we see it as a gift." Sabbath exined while showing Shiro the training facility.
Seeing all of the apparatus that was used, Shiro could tell that training was harsh. Perhaps more so than her own training that she imposed on the mech pilots.
"Is there anything else you would want to know about my Queen? If not then it would be greatly appreciated if you told us what happened to her and the truth behind our supposed ''deaths''.." Sabbath asked as Shiro nced at him and nodded her head.
Chapter 1166 Nine and Iris“ Background
Chapter 1166 Nine and Iris¡° Background
"Lets speak elsewhere. Not exactly the best ce to talk about this stuff." Shiro said as she gestured towards the machines used for their training.
Nodding his head, Sabbath led the way out and had some of the people make a table for them to sit around.
Taking a seat, Shiro crossed her legs and tapped her finger on the table.
"You know about gods right?" Shiro asked as Sabbath nodded his head.
"Yes. While we may only read about them in mythologies and folklore, they are very much real. Though they haven''t been very ''active''. However, there have been some changes and apparently the gods cannot stay passive for long. That''s thest thing I remember my Queen telling me. Perhaps it''s as I feared, did the gods interfere and take her life?" Sabbath asked as he nced down and clenched his hands.
"Mn, you''re correct. When I arrived at the city, I sensed the presence of gods. As for your Queen¡ she was nothing but a puppet when I arrived. Her soul has been crushed and her body was used to housed three gods Your situation was a little better but still not great." Shiro shook her head.
Exining to them slowly about their situation and what the gods used them for, Shiro could sense sadness wash over everyone that was listening but they controlled themselves to the best of their abilities.
Hearing about how his Queen was used as nothing but a container, killing intent exploded out of Sabbath but it was soon reced with sorrow as he nodded his head.
Leaning back, Sabbath nced up at the sky and sighed. Closing his eyes, he gave his prayers to his Queen in silence before opening his eyes.
"Thank you for telling me everything. Is there anything you need help with? If not then I wish to go make a grave for my Queen and repair the buildings here." Sabbath said as Shiro shook his head.
"If you need a ce to stay then I can offer you a ce. It won''t be free, but the rent will be paid throughbour. It''ll be safe for the ones that don''t want to fight as there are civilian jobs for them. While the gods won''te back, there''s no guarantee that another one won''te so you might want to change locations just in case." Shiro offered as Sabbath nced at her and thought about it for a moment.
After staying silent, Sabbath looked at the city and let out a resigned sigh.
"I suppose you are right. Though if you wish for us to treat you as our new Queen, I''m afraid that''s a little¡" Trailing off, Sabbath didn''t want to say what he was thinking but Shiro knew that he and everyone else under Yisale would feel awkward about it.
"It''s fine, you don''t have to. When you go to the city, you can be your ownpany of people. If it is difficult, I''ll even- actually, I don''t think I can make a new ind for you right now but I can clear a district so that you and your people can stay with one another. There is already an assassin guild in the city so you can either join them or work as an independent faction. Whichever is easiest for you. I know this sounds too good to be true but I do wish that I can help more people. What use is it to win the new age only for there to be no one left? I''ll save as many people as I can." Shiro smiled as Sabbath nodded his head with gratitude in his eyes.
"Then I thank you. We wish to stay as an independentpany for now. I hope that you don''t take offence to this but while we are not your subordinates and will not serve as we would to Yisale, we will still offer our all if it means to secure a home for this family." Sabbath bowed as Shiro chuckled.
"That''s all I ask. I never did ask you to serve me, only for you to do your part." Shiro chuckled as Sabbath paused and realised that this was indeed the case.
"In that case then I would have to trouble you to lead the way once we finish making her grave. What we need are already in our inventories as for everything else, we''ll leave them here. If anyone was to find something useful to them when they pass this city, let them have it." Sabbath said as Shiro nodded her head.
Letting them make a grave for Yisale, Shiro rxed on the side and started to read a book that she had kept in her inventory. Now that she no longer had her database, she found it rather fun to just sit down and read a book under the sun.
ncing at Nine and Iris, who were looking towards the city, Shiro chuckled.
"You two seem like you want to say something. Why not take a seat and talk about it? It''ll feel better to let it out than to keep it bottled inside." Shiro said as Nine nodded his head and sat down while Iris did the same.
"It''s nothing much. Just that seeing the training facilities reminded me a little of where we''re from." Nine chuckled while ncing at his swords.
"You never did tell me about that. Care to share your history? If not it''s fine too, I''m not one to privy on your background if you don''t want to share it. Though that''s only if you''re friendly. If you''re an enemy of mine I would have directly searched your soul for the knowledge I want." Shiro joked as Nine understood that she was serious.
Ignoring that for now, he thought about how to exin it.
"Should I exin?" Iris asked with a smile.
"No it''s fine." Nine shook his head.
"Me and Iris are¡ experimental people I suppose. Neither of us have proper parents, we were created in ab and brought up through a carefully tailored environment. The reason why I''m called Nine is because I''m from bath number Nine and Iris is called well¡ Iris is because she''s part of the batch that had their eyes experimented on." Nine exined as Shiro paused. Her smile disappeared and her aura became frosty.
"My actual name or rather ''tag'' is Nine-015. Subject 15 in batch nine while Iris is Iris-001. Subject 1 in the Iris Experiment." Nine exined while ncing at Iris who had no reaction.
"The goal was to see if there was a way for people to surpass level 500 to reach tier 6 and well, they''ve certainlye close. Before the experiment could fully seed, the new age began and a portal opened up in the facility. We managed to take advantage of the situation to escape with a few weapons but the people who run thebs also managed to escape. We don''t have tracking chips on us but they have their ways to find us. For my batch, the goal was to use part of Chinese mythology regarding the environment and connection to the spirt. I have a unique attunement to thend and my swords are unable to be stored away due to this connection. Once I enchant the swords, they act as formation markers and allows me to set up powerful arrays. As for Iris, they wanted to see if they could harness the power of stars and eyes that see through the fabrics of reality. Unfortunately, it was a failure and it transformed into a mutation that refines her senses to mana instead. Though this help with her sensing the star chart for more spells." Nine spoke slowly while rubbing his finger against the back of his hand.
"I can go into detail from within thebs but I doubt you''ll want to hear that so I''ll keep it short. My current goal is to get stronger and kill whoever created us and want to make more. Iris is just helping me on my journey." Nine chuckled as Iris shrugged.
"Well I can''t deny that I also want revenge though it may not be high on that list." Iris admitted as Shiro nodded her head.
"Well the same offer goes to you. You can go to the city and develop yourselves to be stronger. If you find a lead to whoever did this to you, you can just tell me and I''ll lend you all the firepower you need. If you want to end things with your own hands then I can help you clear a path instead." Shiro said as the two smiled.
"Thank you but we''ve put that on hold for now." Iris said as Shiro raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"It''s mainly because I did a small divination. Our fates are now linked to yours, had it not been for your help, our journey would have ended with that Dragon. Following the path of my fate, I know that if I follow you I''ll eventuallye across the people that did this to us and end them in the future so we''re not in a rush." Iris reassured as Shiro nodded her head after a short pause.
"Well if you ever want to start your revenge just tell me, I''ll give you a hand if you need.." Shiro reminded before ncing towards Sabbath who was making his way over to them.
Chapter 1167: Familiar Aura
Chapter 1167: Familiar Aura
"Everything has been done. We can leave whenever you want." Sabbath smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Oh I never said I''ll be joining you on this journey. I''ll give you a tracker for you to get to the city and when you arrive, just tell them that you''re here with my rmendation. Tell them what I told you and they''ll amodate you ordingly. Of course, this is me trusting that you won''t over exaggerate the benefits haha." Shiro joked as there have been a few people that tried their luck with this.? Of course, none were sessful.
"I wouldn''t dare. You''re already extending a helping hand to us after everything that has happened. Plus, you''ve even resurrected us and gave us a second chance, I would need to be stupid to bite the hand that fed me. While I cannot serve you like I did to my Queen, I will not betray you for all the help that you have given us." Sabbath kneeled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Mn, take this. It''s embedded with parts of my aura so no monsters should approach you. This was made before I adjusted my ss." Shiro smiled, throwing him an orb.
The moment she pulled out the orb, Sabbath could feel a spine chilling killing intent acting as a ward within the orb. Even though he had heard about what happened when she killed gods, sensing her killing intent was a lot different to hearing about it.
Catching the orb, he could feel his muscles tense up and lock into ce. It took him a moment to adjust himself but at that point, Shiro had adjusted it so that it excluded them as the target for this intent.
Instructing him on how to use this orb as a key, Shiro watched as they left the city and started to venture towards Asharia.
"Welp that''s a sign for us to leave as well." Shiro said, standing up.
"What''s our next destination?" Iris asked curiously.
"The North Pole. We''ll be travelling a little slower for you to kill some monsters and level up on the way. Though I will say that I sense something on the edge of my sensory range. It''s rather familiar and if I know who it belongs to, I did promise a friend to help her out." Shiro smiled as she remembered what she told Niphim, the Empress she froze in time using her skill Averin. She promised that she''ll try to help Arnea while thinking of a way to cure her fallen status. After all, the little sister would feel heartbroken should she be left alone by the big sis.
"It might get a little dangerous but at the same time it could be a good training moment for you two. While you are under levelled, I can guarantee your safety and it''ll help you get used to fighting high level beings. Her aura is a little chaotic so I can assume that she''scking a bit of control right now." Shiro added as they made their way towards the North where Shiro had sensed the aura.
###
Shivering slightly, Arnea grabbed the rags that covered her body. The blood had long dried up making the fabric ufortable but it was a reminder of what she had done. Her rampages, her lust for food and everything she killed. All the people, the monsters, dead by her hand and consumed to satiate her hunger.
She could remember fragmented memories from before. A strange time where she was fighting with others. She wasn''t rampaging like she was now, she was more in control. She could remember a red haireddy that was rted to dragons, someone who could cause her to back off due to worries of her power.
Then there was this white haireddy. Someone who had constantly interfered with her. Someone her previous self wanted to kill badly but was never able to.
With the fragmented memories and emotions assaulting her mind, she felt lost.
Suddenly, she felt a pair of eyes lock onto her from afar. A familiar re that sent chills down her spine. The aura behind that re dwarfed her own and even in her state where she could start rampaging whenever to satiate her hunger, it told her to run!
Immediately transforming her body into something that was suited to speed, Arnea ran away. She was no longer in control, she was a passenger of her own body.
"Hm I was thinking that you would have fought me the moment I let you sense me but it seems like you want to run instead. Can''t say that I''m a little disappointed but I certainly didn''t think you were someone to focus on escaping." A voice rang out from behind her as Arnea looked back slowly.
Seeing the white hair flutter in the wind and the red eyes stare at her, Arnea could feel fear strangle her, stopping her from speaking.
Noticing this fear and slight traces of unfamiliarity within Arnea, Shiro wondered why that was so. She knew this was Arnea, the Chimera Empress that wanted to kill her on so many asions. But these eyes did not belong to the Arnea she knew, they belonged to a scared girl who was being forced to do something she hated. It was the eyes of pure fear and confusion.
Staying silent, Shiro looked at her mutated body and saw something different. There was an aura hiding within Arnea, something fragmented and weak. Something that feared her with every part of its being.
"Ah I see¡ That certainly exins a few things. Arnea, do you mind if I toy around with whatever is controlling your body right now?" Shiro asked as Arnea was confused by her question.
"Oh don''t worry, it''s just that I''m a little familiar and it would be such a waste not to use him in this situation. I have two friends who need training you see? As much as I would like to free you right now, it''s not often I get a chance like this. Oh also, I''m not going to kill you or torture you. I''m here to help at the behest of your big sis Niphim. She''s safe right now and her request was for me to look after you despite what may have happened before." Shiro smiled softly as she patted Arnea''s head.
Seeing Shiro''s warm smile and her feeling her soft hand upon her head, Arnea could feel herself calm down a little but was still worried. She knew what her mutated body could do and she was worried that it''d harm Shiro. But most importantly, this was someone who could point her towards the direction of her big sister, she couldn''t allow this chance to slip by.
"Again, I''ll need to apologise for using you as training for my friends right now but I''ll make it up to you." Shiro said as she raised her hand and snapped her finger.
Suddenly, a shard of ice shot up into the sky and exploded into thousands of fragments, each expanding into a shield that formed a barrier around the perimeter.
"I''ve sealed things off, I''ll let the two of you deal with the thing trying to control her body." Shiro called out as she jumped off Arnea''s back and disappeared.
From the shadows, two people appeared.
Both Nine and Iris could feel fear facing the mutated being in front of them but Shiro guaranteed their safety as well as using this time to train themselves.
"Same strategy as usual?" Nine asked as his hands trembled slightly.
"Mn." Nodding her head, Iris summoned her cards once more and drew three of them before applying the buffs to Nine.
Taking a deep breath, Nine threw his swords into the air and dashed towards Arnea.
Jumping up into the sky, he sped his hands together and a formation appeared around him.
Seeing this, the thing within Arnea snarled as tentacles shot out in an attempt to pierce Nine through the chest.
However, the swords around him started to glow.
*BANG!!!!
Redirecting the tentacle away from him, he twisted his body and grabbed one of the swords.
Unsheathing the de, Nine bit his finger and etched some runes onto the surface.
*BOOM!!!
Shooting the rest of his swords towards Arnea, he switched ces and shed towards her arm that was mutated.
With what Shiro had said, as long as he only targets the mutated parts it should be fine.
''She mentioned that there was a disconnect between her body and the mutated spots for now, as long as I hit the mutated spots the girl wouldn''t be hurt.'' Nine thought to himself while Iris was buffing his body.
Watching in the distance, Shiro raised an eyebrow as she realised what their strategy was.
"Currently her buffs are automated. She''s set up her spell circle to cast reactively to what changes are happening to Nine while her main focus is on a purification spell. She already recognises that whatever is happening to Arnea needs to be ''purified'' so that it will separate from her." Shiro muttered as she decided to give her a little help to gather the needed mana since she doubted the thing inside Arnea would let her activate the spell.
She had experience fighting it after all.
Waving her finger, a tier 7 magic circle appeared around Iris and started to gather mana for her.
Pausing in surprise, Iris epted the help as the sky started to change.
Chapter 1168: Purifying Arnea
Chapter 1168: Purifying Arnea
Looking up at the sky that was changing, the thing in control of Arnea''s body growled as mana started to erupt from his body.
Letting out a roar, the mana transformed into a barrier that forced Nine away, allowing Arnea to clear a path towards Iris.
"Not on my watch!" Nine shouted as he threw away his sword and punched towards the ground.
*BANG!!!!!!
Shattering the ground around him, des erupted out from the cracks and pierced into the mutated portion of Arnea''s body.
Pushing out with his spare hand, Nine narrowed his eyes and activated a tier 5 magic circle.
All of the des around him started to vibrate as illusionary shackles appeared around Arnea''s body.
Surprisingly, despite being a tier 5 spell, Arnea found herself unable to advance.
Summoning all of the mana in her body, she tried to charge out but was halted in ce.
Watching all of this, Shiro couldn''t help butugh since the thing controlling Arnea was not as experienced as the original. If it was then he would have realised that had he exploded his power at once the chains would snap. Instead, he chose to slowly increase his body and allowed the chains to turn that power against him.
"Tsk tsk tsk, what a waste of power. Though it''s about time that this ended." Shiro chuckled as she activated her skill and looked past the illusion that Iris had created.
Above them, a giant array was being formed. One that was not at all inferior to the one she had created back when she was using Wrath of Stars. Even though it was just tier 5, it radiated the power of tier 6 as this formation was created from a myriad of tier 5 magic arrays that was further enhanced by Shiro''s help.
Despite the aura this formation radiated, Shiro could tell that it was focusing everything on helping Arnea rather than harming her. It was an array purely created from spells that would be helpful for Arnea!
Analysing the array, Shiro could simte roughly the effects of the spell within her mind. Even though all the spells here were helpful, anyone that was ''normal'' would die the moment they got hit by this spell.
This was mostly due to the fact that it would instantly force them to overdraft their vitality not unlike what she did to the dragon when they first met.
"Seems like she got quite the inspiration from my spell." Shiro mused while increasing her own understanding of healing spells. Even though she was stronger than Iris and had better spells in the healing department, she was nowhere near being a master. Gaining inspiration from all sources would help her out greatly since she understood that healing was a branch of creation. Some understanding of healing may even help her improve her control over Error and Source Codes.
"NINE!" Iris shouted out as she sped her hands together. Her aura red as the bandages around her eyes threatened to fall off but managed to stay on.
Hearing her shout, Nine understood that she was ready and quickly jumped out of the way while making sure that Arnea was still locked in ce.
Sensing that Nine managed to get out of the range, Iris smiled and activated a tier 5 magic circle around her.
*BOOM!!!!!
Before Arnea could even react, a pir of light shot down from the skies and dispelled the illusion that she had set. Seeing the array of star charts and spell circles, the person controlling Arnea instantly recognised what she was trying to do and wanted to hold on to Arnea''s body.
However, the purification from the array, while weak in offensive power, tore open his grip on Arnea''s body.
"Noooo!!!!" Letting out a cry, the mutated section was forcefully separated from Arnea.
Seeing that Arnea was free, Nine quickly dashed forward and dragged her away from the mutated mass while Iris finished the rest of her spell.
A cage of light appeared around the mutated mass as sizzling sounds could be heard from its body.
"URAHHHH!!"
*BANG!!!!
Shattering the cage, an iplete crest could be seen faintly shimmering on the mutant''s body.
Seeing this, Shiro immediately appeared before him with a small smile.
"I figured I couldn''t kill you fully. Though it seems like you don''t have memories, only the knowledge I''m the one who killed your main body. An iplete God trying to take over Arnea." Shiro said as she narrowed her eyes.
Backing away slowly, the fragment of Raven could feel his body tremble from fear. As a fragment of a God that had been nted into Arnea and cultivated with a mix of her power, he couldn''t be truly called a fragment but rather a separate entity with high simrities with the host. However, there was still a small connection.
And the day that connection faded, he knew that the original had died. With that knowledge in mind, he could tell that the spells and restrictions he put within Arnea had started to fade so he took this chance to weaken her spirit while also empowering himself with anything he could get his hands on. Everything was going well and he was making his way towards the next feast then a pair of eyes locked onto him. The instant it did, he felt an instinctive fear and knew that whoever just locked onto him was the same one who killed the original.
Since he was a fragment, there was no way for him to escape her notice but he had to try. He couldn''t die again. As the fragment that was detached from the God, he should have been able to cultivate Arnea into a Demi God then eventually be a God! This was not where he would di-!!!!
*BOOM!!!!
Waving her hand with boredom, Shiro erased the mass of flesh in front of her and stomped down with her foot.
ck mist erupted around her as she pulled out antern.
"Enjoy whatever is left of his shard I suppose. It should be pretty enjoyable for you." Shiro said as an annoyed grunt could be heard from within thentern.
"Are you kidding me? I''m risking my ass to fight Rokarn for you, used my immortal body for you, which PERISHED!!! Who f*cking knew that was possible! And after how many months you finally remember me and want me to help you eat whatever the hell this thing is? Hell nah!" The Ancient Terror shouted out as Shiro scratched her cheek.
"Fine, fine, sorry, I know you''re still injured but would you believe me if I said I was too busy?" Shiro apologised.
"You! Sh*t! Fine just give it here, I need it to recover anyways. Do you know how annoying it is to still be hurt after all this time che. The bloody TV you gave me stopped working too so it''s just been f*cking boring in here." The Ancient Terrorined as Shiro shrugged helplessly.
Allowing a wisp of energy to grab whatever remained of Raven''s fragment, Shiro was about to send thentern away when the Ancient Terror called out once more.
"If you''re thinking about sending me back then at least hear me out. I have a small proposition for you." The Ancient Terror said with a rare moment of seriousness.
"You know who I was before I became this right?" He asked as Shiro nodded.
"Somewhat, Nyx gave me some details."
"Well let''s just say that when I was fighting Rokarn, him borrowing your divinity haspletely ''destroyed'' the sins and corruption within my flesh along with some of the corruption that wastched onto my soul. His destruction cleansed me in a way and wanted me to return to null but I was able to escape before that and recover some of who I was before. And while I may never be able to enter a body unless it was immortal, I have an idea. It''s something that will benefit you and make up for theck of ''destruction'' you have right now I suppose." He said as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"I''m listening."
"Will you.. .Fuse me with your sword? Your sword is developing a sentient spirit already but it cannot handle the power that you hold. The moment it matures, it''ll be broken by your power. My soul is unique, it''s already been tempered by the sins and corruption of a whole world. If you fuse me with your sword, I won''t perish and I would even be able to help it increase its strength." The Ancient Terror offered as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"What''s in it for you?"
"Nothing much if I''m being honest. But it''s better than staying in this Lantern all day long. Plus, that sword is a gateway for me to obtain a body that can actually withstand my corruption. Eventually, I should be able to transform that sword into a body for myself. Of course, that doesn''t mean I be independent, I''ll still be at yourmand like I am now. If I had to use your terms, it''ll be like me moving into a better house. Nothing has changed except for me getting better living conditions and being able to obtain a physical body again." He shrugged as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"It''s a big request. You''re wanting to experiment with my main weapon and something that is incredibly rare. An indestructible de, one of its kind. However¡
"I do owe you quite a bit." Shiro smiled.
Chapter 1169: Niyl
Chapter 1169: Niyl
"I do owe you quite a bit." Shiro smiled.
"However, it''ll have to wait tillter since we''re not exactly in the best ce to experiment with you fusing with my weapon." She added.
"That''s fine, I just wanted to see what your response was." The Ancient Terror nodded before making his way back to thentern. Watching his soul bounce up and down slightly, Shiro could imagine that he was rather happy with her response.
Chuckling to herself, she shook her head and walked towards Nine, Iris and Arnea who was injured on the ground.
Iris was currently healing her but Shiro could see traces of fear in Arnea''s eyes towards her.
Keeping some distance between the two of them, Shiro opened her mouth.
"How are you feeling?" She asked, scanning Arnea''s body to see if there were any more traces of the Raven.
"You spoke of my big sister, do you know where she is?" Arnea asked as she tried to sit up but was not abled to.
Seeing that her first concern was about her big sister, Shiro chuckled.
"I do know where she is. As for her current situation, it''s¡plicated." Shiro said as she made a chair for herself to sit on.
"First, tell me what you know so far so I can fill in the nks for you." Shiro offered as Arnea bit her lip and nodded her head.
Listening carefully, Shiro realised that everything Arnea did as the Chimera empress was not of her own choice. Everything she did was under the persona that the Raven had created for her to optimise the false authority he bestowed upon her. The fake Empress.
Hearing the fear in her voice, Shiro felt pity for the girl who was forced tomit mass murders under the control of the Raven.
"Is there anything else you need to know?" Arnea asked nervously as she wanted information about her big sister.
"No, that''s everything. Let''s see¡"
Filling in the gaps of Arnea''s knowledge, Shiro decided to leave out the parts of her massacre. She figured that Arnea probably knew parts of it but Shiro I''ll keep the knowledge to herself for now.
As for Niphim, Shiro told her about what Niphim did for her and their battle again the Raven.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the realm of gods, an altar started to stir.
Dark energy started to flicker from the alter as it morphed into a being with long ck hair and blood red eyes.
"Ahh¡ I didn''t think I would be stirred awake¡" He muttered while looking around him.
Seeing three people kneeling in front of his alter, he narrowed his eyes.
"I permit you to speak. Tell me who you are and what has happened."
"My lord, it is I who have awakened you. However, had it not been for a certain situation I would not have been able to aplish this. The First Born has awoken." He reported as the man on the Alter paused.
"Hou~? Well isn''t that something." The man muttered as he sat up properly.
"You said that they had recently ''Awoken'' right? That means they haven''t recovered from the war yet. Hmm¡ I suppose you''ve woken me up to deal with them?" The man narrowed his eyes.
After all, he had sworn an oath. One that he couldn''t breach. Should anyone wake him up due to a First Born''s awakening, he had to deal with it.
"Yes, all of the Gods have reached a truce right now. They''re waking up the others and it is our job to wake you up, my Lord." The man nodded.
"Well alright. It''s my oath after all, which of the First Born has woken up?" He asked while waving his hands. The shadows around him shook for a moment before transforming into a set of clothes for him.
"The First Born of Destruction."
Hearing this, the man on the alter immediately froze as his face became pale.
"Destruction?! You''re telling me Anima woke up?!" He shouted out in a panic as the man flinched and nodded his head.
Biting his finger nails, the man gritted his teeth.
"Wake everyone up. No matter who. Be careful that they''re not fallen, if they are they''ll listen to hermand. Tell the gods to focus on helping us recover our power, if we''re not at full power, this realm is doomed!" He shouted out as the three gods were surprised at the man''s panic. While they knew of the First Born of Destruction''s power, they didn''t know that it was to the extent that someone like him would be this afraid.
"Stop staring and start moving!" The man shouted out in anger as his aura red outwards.
Hearing this, the three gods immediately left the area to wake up the others.
Sitting down on this altar, the man clicked his tongue and closed his eyes, he could still remember watching her from afar during the first war. The terror that he felt back then was still prevalent to this day.
###
Dark clouds loomed over head as he watched the army charge towards her. His role was small, it was to deal with the fallen gods that stormed towards them. He was too weak to deal with the First Born of Destruction.
While there were many ''First Born''s'', the first two had the most power. Creation and Destruction.
All the other First Born''s, while having the same title, were noticeably weaker. After all, their powers are a branch of either Creation or Destruction.
He was too weak so he could only view the fight from afar.
However, her every word, every action had already etched themselves upon his soul. He could never forget even if he wanted to.
Her long white hair contrasted against the darkness around her, the piercing red eyes that tore a hole through your soul and the power of corruption that radiated off her which caused one to lose their mind if they weren''t prepared.
"To think so many ants would gather to deal with me. I suppose it should be an honour as the First Born of Destruction. However, no matter how many inferior beings gather, do you honestly think you can survive against me? Hahahahaha, unless you are my sister, the First Born of Creation, all of you shall fall today!" Animaughed as she twisted her body and drew a magic array with her finger.
Suddenly, the skies were reced by magic circles of an unknown tier, monstrous amounts of energy gathered towards her location to the point that some of the weaker gods had their energy stolen from them.
Seeing this, the other First Born''s tried to stop her. Waves upon waves of spells and binding spells were thrown but all she needed to do was activate a single spell to counter it all.
"Third Gate of Destruction ¨C Argia."
*BOOM!!!!
Threeyers of ck magic circles appeared behind her as the surrounding area was immediately dyed ck by the powers of corruption.
Every spell that entered this area was reduced back to its basic form of energy and absorbed into her body.
With the sudden influx of power, her spell wasplete and all of them were transported into her realm.
With all of them in her realm, Anima sped her hands together.
"Fourth Gate of Destruction ¨C Cilis."
A wave of dark energy gathered around her before exploding out. The wave of destructive energy extinguished anything and everything it touched.
Watching the First Born gather, the man could remember the thought it had at that moment.
''I''m dead.''
Even with all of these powerful beings that could probably kill him in one go, he didn''t feel safe.
###
Opening his eyes, the man shook his head.
''She''s not at her full power. If we can kill her before that, we should be fine¡ The problem is her spells. How many gates of destruction can she use¡'' He thought with a frown.
Sighing heavily, he looked at his own title. She was right to call them inferior creatures, even those with the First Born title couldn''t fight her much less someone like him.
[Niyl LVL 1000 High Primordial God of Shadows (Divinity rank 4)]
"The resurrection of Anima means the death of all living creatures. While the First Born are hard to wake up, it should be possible to gather the High Primordials. The world of gods have long forgotten our existence, only those revered as the First Born are remembered from the terror and awe they brought. Perhaps it''s time to re-establish the age of High Primals and First Born''s once we reseal Anima." He muttered while attempting to teleport away from his alter.
However, the moment he did, the system barrier appeared around him and prevented him from leaving.
"What? I had guessed that since Anima woke up it was already time for us to make a reappearance. If it is not yet time then she can use this moment to recover her lost power." Niyl muttered before sitting down in frustration.
As much as he hated it, he couldn''t do much about the restrictions around the world and the system. He had to obey.
"Such valuable time wasted. So what if the current world may crumble at my presence, if it means Anima is dead then so be it." Heined before focusing his strength ''waking up'' fully. The three gods had only woken up a part of him, he needed his full strength to even have a change to take on a weakened Anima.
Chapter 1170: Old Domain
Chapter 1170: Old Domain
Sitting around the table, the five primordial gods were silent.
After the notification that the First Born of Destruction has woken up, all of the fighting had stopped as they decided to sign a temporary truce and focus their efforts in trying to locate who it was.
However, they knew that Shiro was the First Born which puts them in a rather awkward situation.
While they had never seen what Shiro was capable of when she was the ''First Born'', they knew that she was strong enough for almost every pantheon to team up against her.
"Nyx, the other pantheons have started to move. The Nordic ones, while not having anyone stronger than divinity rank 3, have already began setting their foundation on Earth while the major Pantheons are waking up the old ones." Gaia said as she had a stack of books by her side. She had continuously searched for information regarding Shiro during her time as the First Born in order to figure a way around everything so that they wouldn''t try to kill Shiro.
But so far, every bit of information she had found spoke of untold horrors when facing her. Even gods with divinity rank 4 had to run away with everything they have to even consider the thought of fleeing with their life.
"To make matters worse, I heard a few concerning rumours. The old pantheons have already began preparing rituals to wake up their First Born. ording to what I heard, most of the old pantheons were created by the First Born as subordinates. Their original goal was to wake up the First Born and I believe this just gave them an excuse to gather resources in the open. We can''t even say anything about it since everyone knows that we need the power of the First Borns." Tartarus said as he leaned on the table.
"Though due to the nature of our myths, we don''t have anyone stronger than the five of us here. While we may have been dominating due to how much faith has been ced in our myths, our power will most likely be reduced in the uing age. We don''t have a single divinity rank 4 never mind a rank 5." Ouranos scratched his head.
Hearing this, all of the gods became silent as this was the truth. As it stands, any pantheon that doesn''t have a rank 4 god will be eliminated.
Listening to their discussion, Nyx was silent. She was trying to think of a way to turn things around for them and Shiro but things seem bleak. IF Shiro was to regain her power, the realm would be in danger.
This wasn''t something they could change either since they have already seen the impact she had while being ced in stasis. The moment she awakens properly, war would break out. It would be them against every known pantheon. As much as she believes in Shiro, she knows that they would be fodder in the fight. Even if Shiro won, she''ll be a lone victor and her victory means the end of the world.
But if she lost, the world will also end. With the system around, they couldn''t transfer the knowledge either so everyone was eager to kill the First Born without knowing the consequences.
''If they kill they lose, if they don''t kill they lose. Tsk, what a shit situation.'' Nyx thought to herself when Gaia suddenly stood up in surprise.
"Is there something wrong?" Nyx asked as Gaia swallowed her saliva and opened her mouth nervously.
"There are still some domains around that used to belong to the first born. They''re usually missing and drifting through the rifts and hard to catch even for gods. But there are a few passage ways that lead you to the ''door'' of the domain. Let''s just say that Shiro''s Domain as the First Born is almost untouched since none of the First Born''s could even enter it. When she was defeated, her aura lingered around and the cost of defeating Shiro left many of the First Born injured so no one dealt with her Domain. After all these years, it seems like the gods have forgotten about it or dismissed it as destroyed like the others but it''s still mostly intact. While I may call it a domain, it''s more urate to call it a prison just for her. If we go there, we might reap massive benefits. It speaks of gods receiving a fruit in order to get a boost in power but those that consumed more lose themselves. If we are to go and obtain a fruit, one of us might reach rank 4." Gaia exined while cing the book in the centre of the room for everyone to see.
"Do you know what kind of mission you just suggested to us?" Chronos raised an eyebrow as Gaia nodded her head.
"I know but we all know we need to reach rank 4. How else would we even stand a chance to fend off the gods from reaching Shiro if they ever know." Gaia shrugged as they immediately understood that Gaia never worried about how she should resolve the situation but rather ced her trust in Shiro and resolved herself to ''protect'' Shiro until a solution is found by her.
Plus, Shiro was already trying to cultivate a creation divinity so what they need to do now was to buy time and the best way is to reach tier 4. The gods already fear them now, once they reach tier 4 things should be easier for them. For the time being anyways since there''s no doubt that a battle between First Born''s will break out in the future. Bing a First Born is a privilege reserved for those at the beginning of everything. Gods like them had no role in bing one.
"Well with that silence I''m guessing everyone is on board with making our way to her old domain. Does it show where it is?" Tartarus asked as Gaia nodded her head.
"Yeah, it''s past the edge of our universe. If we are to go, we''ll be leaving our alliespletely open. Though with what''s going on, I doubt a fight will break out any time soon." Gaia shrugged.
"What about Mio then. I know she''s training with Hades right now to see if she can reach rank 2 divinity but I''m still worried." Nyx asked as Gaia nced at Tartarus.
"I''ve already set up some protective measures around her. Plus, both Argus and Helios volunteered to help when they realised that she''s Shiro''s mother." Tartarus said as Nyx nodded her head.
"That''s good then."
"Oh before I forget, Hephaestus sent us a little prototype he created after watching some of the fight between Rokarn and Shiro." Chronos said as he opened a separate space and pulled out a spear.
[Sun Piercer Spear ¨C Helios (Prototype)]
Unable to fully replicate the Sun Breaker, the Sun Piercer ignores all defences and implodes the might of a sun within the body of those who are struck by this spear. Created by Hephaestus and the help of Helios, anyone can wield the power of the Sun God in their hands.
You are able to ignite this weapon for it to replicate part of the power shown by the Sun Breaker Spear. However, in doing so, this weapon will be destroyed after one attack.
"He''s nning to mass produce this for us since his sessor is part of Shiro''s party. Plus, ording to him, watching how Shiro fights has inspired him to make better masterpieces." Chronos chuckled as he decided not to share the second artefact that Hephaestus had created after seeing what she did before.
[Forge God''s Rear te (Divine Artifact)]
After witnessing what a certain Snow Girl could do in her younger years, the god of cksmithing feared the devastation she could cause with her power now and created this armour out of panic. Gaining inspiration from his sessors Ass te design, he was able to upgrade the armour to the rank of Divine Artifact. While it does not have sentience, it will do everything in its power to block a powerful strike targeted at the rear.
Should it face an attack that ovees its defence, it will self-detonate by teleporting both it and the attack away in order to keep the wearer''s rear safe.
''Who the hell target''s the ass during a fight!?''
-Hephaestus, God of cksmithing.
Looking at the piece of armour that looked like a holy pdin''s shield, Chronos wasn''t sure of what to say. asionally, one could see radiant energy flickering off the surface.
''I don''t think we need this for now. Unless her identity as the First Born had the same habit.''
Thinking about the power of an attack targeting the rear thrown by the First Born of Destruction, Chronos felt inclined to wear this armour for himself.
Chapter 1171: Arneas Goal
Chapter 1171: Arnea''s Goal
After hearing what Shiro had told her about her sister, Arnea copsed on the ground and sat with an empty look in her eyes.
"So big sis is frozen right now and the moment you unfreeze her, she''ll be corrupted and lose her mind?" Arnea asked as Shiro nodded.
Closing her eyes, Arnea bit her lip.
"How is that any different from death?" She asked as her voice quivered slightly.
"If it was death it would be easier for me to save her." Shiro sighed.
"With death, it''s just a matter of me grabbing her soul and giving it a new body. However, what''s happening to her right now is so much worse. But it''s not all doom and gloom. There''s a way for me to save her but I can''t do it just yet due to my limited power."
Hearing this, Arnea opened her eyes in surprise and looked at Shiro.
"Really?" Arnea asked as Shiro nodded her head.
To be honest, if Shiro wanted to she could do it now. However, it required her to lift the seal off her divinity and once that''s done, there was no turning back.
"How long will it take?" Arnea asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment.
"It''ll take quite a while. I can''t put a number on it since I''m unsure of it myself but it will happen. That I can promise you." Shiro said as Arnea nodded her head.
"Alright. Is it possible for me to see my big sister right now?"
Without saying anything else, Shiro waved her hand and opened a portal. Within the portal was an icy tundra and in the centre was a single block of ice.
Encased in the ice, Niphim stood with a small smile on her face.
Seeing her sister for the first time after so long, Arnea dashed into the portal while Shiro, Iris and Nine waited by the entrance.
Running up to the statue, Arnea ced her hand on the surface and stood silently.
Closing her eyes, she pressed her head against the ice and muttered to herself for a moment before closing her mouth.
Waiting by the portal for around a minute, Shiro watched as Arnea stepped out.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro could see a new light in her eyes.
"Since you hold the key to my sister''s survival, I''ll do anything for you to help her. My powers are limited, I''m not as determined orbat ready as the ''me'' that the Raven created but I will try my best. My sister has already done everything in her power to get revenge and free me so I can''t hide behind her anymore. It''s my time to help her and I hope you can give me that chance. There are no free meals in this world so whatever you require from me I will do it." Arnea said as Shiro chuckled.
"You know if you said that to anyone else, they might have strange ideas about you. But~ I''m not ''that'' mean. I don''t need much from you except to sign a contract to give up your chance at the new age and be my ally. That way I wouldn''t need to kill you. You don''t even have to fight or do anything, you can wait while I free your sister then the two of you can live together. Though seeing the fire in your eyes, something tells me that you won''t let yourself do nothing while the word chances. So I have one request for you, be my bodyguard for now and use this chance to temper yourself. Make yourself strong enough so that you can stand against the gods just in case a second Raven appears and try to destroy your family again." Shiro smiled as Arnea nodded her head.
"While I may be a simple breeze to the Gods right now, I will transform into a hurricane in due time and sweep away those that will threaten my sister. She has protected me long enough." Arnea kneeled down as Shiro prepared the contract ritual.
Going through the process of the contract, Shiro epted Arnea as an ally and stretched her body.
"Let''s see, it''s still around midday so you three can probably go hunt a few monsters that are around the ce. Don''t go for anything too ambitious since Arnea needs to get used to her power. I''d say it''ll take her around a week or so to sync up to her real strength. Though we''ll need to take a break in two days since quite a few gods will be descending. When that happens, it''ll be simr to the start of the new age all over again but much much worse. So prepare yourself for that day. As for me, I got something to deal with so I''ll be experimenting a little." Shiro shrugged as Iris nodded her head.
"In that case then we''ll rest for today as well. I''ll do some final checks on Arnea''s body to make sure that there are no lingering side effects."
With the nsid out, they made their way back to the castle as Shiro closed the door to her room.
mming her hand down, she pulled out antern and let out a soul.
Looking at the young man in front of her that no longer resembled that of a monstrosity, Shiro was rather surprised since it was quite the change.
"Young man, did you ever getid in your life? If you didn''t then it''s quite a waste for the youngdies in your world." Shiro joked as he clicked his tongue.
"I was too busy absorbing the corruption to bother with the pleasures of flesh. But enough about that, let''s proceed with what we agreed upon."
"Well aren''t you eager? Though I suppose you do prefer to be in a sword than antern. Who knows, when you cultivate a body you might be able to exercise the sword between your legs." Shiro grinned before flicking her wrist and summoned Silvanis.
"Usually I would prefer to do this with Helion by my side or Error but with my memories as Anima, it should be rtively easy tobine a soul with a sword. The only concern I have is the power of your soul and the grade of this sword. There''s a chance that you could just get obliterated by the fragment of sentience within this sword but it''ll be fine~" Shiro said as the Ancient Terror froze up for a moment.
"The f*ck did you just say?" He asked but Shiro gave him no response except for a smile.
*BOOM!!!!
Igniting several magic circles around her, a ritualistic pattern emerged from her feet and covered the entire floor of the room, basking it in a purple glow while chains shot out and grabbed onto Ancient Terror''s body.
"The hell!?" He shouted out in a panic realising that he couldn''t move.
"Apparently it usually hurts less if you surprise them. Also if you want to back out now tell me and I''ll stop." Shiro smiled.
Staying silent for a bit, he stared at her and sighed.
"Tsk, keep going."
"Good because if you said no I wouldn''t have been able to stop anyways." Shiro shrugged.
"¡ê%%!"%^!!!!!!"
sping her hands together, the chains transformed into des that shredded his soul into pieces.
The fragments morphed into wisps of energy that wrapped around the de of Silvanis, causing the sword to hum with an annoyed ring. A silver glow erupted from the sword in an attempt to cast away the fragmented souls but the glow was suppressed by the ritual.
"Let me just take this away." Shiro chuckled as she reached out with her hand and ripped a source of the silver energy from the de.
Tearing out the slither of sentience, Shiro opened her mouth and threw it in before licking her lips.
"Hm, a little spicy I suppose. Sharp sting but quite tasty."
With the fragment of the sentience now out of the sword, the Ancient Terror was allowed to enter.
His entry immediately dyed the sword ck as he was notpletely free of the corruption yet but Shiro didn''t mind. After all, she was the source of all destruction, a little bit of corruption doesn''t bother her.
The main thing that she needed to remember was to retain the main properties of her de while enhancing it with what the Ancient Terror could provide.
Searching through her memories, Shiro smiled after finding what she wanted.
Gathering energy into her fingers, she carved out ck and red runes onto the de and inserted some of her energy. While it may not be as potent as her divine energy, it was still enough to ignite the runes. She could finish it off in the future but for now, she''ll allow the sword to finish its transformation.
*RUMBLE!!!!!
Feeling the ground shake, Shiro could hear the sound of notifications ringing in her ear but ignored it for now since she was focused on the sword.
"Now!"
Stopping the ritual, she activated her Soul Maiden form and sealed the soul within the sword, finishing the fusion.
A burst of energy erupted out from the de as she quickly activated a barrier to prevent herself from being thrown out the room. Within the explosion of energy, she could see the de hovering in the air and the final notification told her everything she needed to know.
[Congrattions, you have discovered a new grade of equipment.]
Chapter 1172: Iriel
Chapter 1172: Iriel
Looking at the sword hovering in the middle of the ritual, Shiro could see that it''s shape hadpletely changed. Its guard was now reced by a ck and red crystal that seemed to creep up the de and pulsed in sync with a heartbeat. The de itself waspletely ck with red runes and circr holes in the centre that are filled with the iplete upgrades and Helion tried to infuse onto this de.
All of her runes that she carved to help her with Time Magic were also within these holes but the green glow had been reced by red.
Rather than a sword with a double sided edge, it was more akin to a katana now as the blunt side was ''corrupted'' by the crystals.
[Iriel, Soul Eater de of the Destroyer ¨C Chaos]
Upgrade in progress (45%)
A de formed from the masterpiece of Hephaestus, an indestructible sword and an immortal soul of an ancient being. Tempered by the primal forces of destruction, this de now possesses the power to render all to null. Wielded by the First Born of Destruction, this is the only de in the world that can handle her power.
(Passive Skills)
This de cannot be destroyed.
This de has no level.
This de ignores all forms of armour.
This de inflicts 5% of all damage as destruction damage. (Cannot be healed through any meals unless you have a divinity rivaling that of the First Born of Destruction.)
While wielding this de, you have a 20% resistance to all divinities except those that rival the First Born of Destruction.
In your presence, your enemies will have their divinity suppressed by half a rank. (Rank 2 God -> Rank 1.5 Demi God).
Unsheathing this de causes Primal Fear. Anyone below God rank will cower in your presence. Demi Gods will have their movement restricted.
Increased Damage Resistance by 2% for every enemy you face. (Max ¨C 80%)
You can cut down all forms of magic, and divine spells, converting the energy used for yourself in order to replenish mana or divine energy.
This sword can be used as a catalyst for all spells and increases the chances of sess by 50%.
When infused with the power of ???, you are able to strike towards their source code.
(Active Skill ¨C Iriel)
Effect 1 ¨C When Activated, your stats are tripled as Iriel will now convert those that you kill as thralls for yourmand along with 100% True Damage that cannot be mitigated.
Duration: 2 Minutes.
Thrall Duration: 10 Minutes or until Thralls ''Die''
Cooldown: 1 day.
Effect 2 ¨C The enemy is locked in the same realm as you and they cannot escape by any means. No one can interfere (even First Born) as you will be locked in a 1 on 1 duel. You will siphon 20% of their stats during the duel.
Duration ¨C 5 Minutes
Cooldown ¨C 1 week
Effect 3 ¨C You can distort reality with each strike. Should they attempt to guard the sword will phase through as though they never blocked in the first ce.
Effect 3.5 ¨C You can shift your sword through space and it will jump forward in an instant. If there is a wall, the sword will phase through the wall as though it was never there.
Cost: 2% Divine Energy for each strike.
Cost 2% Mana for each shift.
Cooldown: N/A
Effect 4 ¨C You can infuse any element or divinity with this de and the effectiveness will be boosted by 300% and ignores all resistance towards the element or divinity. (Cannot boost divinity on the level of First Born.)
Cost: 10% of Divine Energy (Divinity).
Cost 10% of Mana (Element).
Duration: 10 Minutes.
Cooldown: 1 Hour.
Effect 5 ¨C 300% Life Steal and 20% Stat Siphon. You heal back triple for every point of damage you deal and each strike siphons their stats for a max of 20%. (Can Stack with Effect 2 for 40% Stat Siphon).
Cost: 90% of Current Health.
Duration: 10 Minutes.
Cooldown: 1 Hour
Effect 6 ¨C You cannot die. Your health will be locked at 1 and you enter a berserk state. Your stats are tripled. Cannot be stacked with other berserk skills. If berserk skills are active when this activates, they will be canceled and all of the bacsh will happen at once.
Duration: 5 Minutes.
Cooldown: 2 Months.
Bacsh: Immediately lose consciousness as the effect ends. You will be locked in a crystal for your body to repair itself. Thissts for 1 month. After 1 month your stats will be locked at level 1 for the rest of the cooldown.
Effect 7 ¨C This sword is bound to your code and can be summoned/resummoned at will.
Code Bound ¨C Shiro. (If you are to die and reincarnate without your memories, this sword can still be summoned but is synced to your level until you regain your strength.)
Looking at all the upgrades to this sword, Shiro was speechless. All of the effects have been upgraded massively and if she was to fight Rokarn again, he would probably die within 5 minutes.
Massaging her eyes, Shiro didn''t even want to bother about the other notifications as she knows it''s probably announcements to the world.
"How are you feeling?" Shiro asked as Iriel floated there for a moment without saying anything.
Furrowing her brows for a moment, Shiro was about to ask again when she heard him speak.
"Why is my gender listed as sword¡" Iriel asked as Shiro paused in surprise.
"Errr¡ If you are going to f*ck someone in this form then I''d be rather concerned." Shiro said, pointing at the de, causing Iriel to sigh heavily.
"Tsk, well setting aside the problem of my penis, I need to rest for a bit since it''s still a bit difficult."
Nodding her head, Shiro waved her hand as Iriel transformed into a bracelet that wrapped around her right wrist.
Looking at the bracelet, she noticed that it was rather thin with a pulsing crystal in the middle. Simr to the sword, it was ck in colour.
With Iriel now on her wrist, Shiro sat down and closed her eyes.
Leaning back, she dove into her mana realm and looked at the ball of light floating in the corner all alone.
"Sorry Silvanis, I had to borrow your sword body for Iriel. But I got something better for you." Shiro called out but the ball only ''nced'' back before continuing its sulk in the corner.
Smiling helplessly, Shiro walked up behind it and sat down in the air.
"You see, this is only something I can do for you but not Iriel since he needs a physical body. If you think about it, what I''m doing for you is slightly better than what I''m doing for him." Shiro said as she snapped her finger.
Plunging her hand into her chest, she started to pull out a dark de that seemed to be made up of ck mist.
"This is my soul sword. It''s an old skill that I recreated just now since my control over swords have increased. If you sync to this one, it should be slightly better than your old body. Plus, if you think about it, the soul sword is better than a physical sword since I''m the strongest. By extension, you''ll also be the strongest. Even stronger than Iriel." Shiro winked as Silvanis thought about it for a moment before turning around and jumped on her shoulder.
Little by little, the ball of light started to fade as it transformed into white mist that started to fuse with the sword.
Watching this, Shiro smiled. The Soul Sword in her hand wasn''t a proper Soul Sword but rather one that''s created from a shard of her that hasn''t been touched by Destruction. If it was her proper Soul Sword, Silvanis would be reduced to nothing.
''Iriel is a sword that''s been touched by pure destruction while Silvanis is going to fuse with a shard of me that''s cultivating the divinity of creation. The end product should be two swords that represent both primal destruction and primal creation.'' Shiro thought to herself as she wasn''t satisfied with just one Chaos grade weapon.
She wanted two.
Plus, not all weapons needed a physical form. When she was Anima, she had seen plenty of weapons that were more spiritual than physical since physical weapons can break duringbat, unlike Iriel who is indestructible.
''Silvanis is more suited to be a spiritual weapon if I''m going to infuse her with the divinity of creation since I''m using source codes as a bridge for me to be something akin to the First Born of Creation.'' Shiro thought to herself as she opened her eyes once more.
With Iriel on her wrist and Silvanis slowly fusing with the Soul Sword, Shiro decided to rx for now and make some adequate preparations for the second half of the new age. It was about time to go back as well since she seeded in finding a way to obtain a creation divinity through Error.
Chapter 1173: Returning to Asharia
Chapter 1173: Returning to Asharia
Waking up in the morning, Shiro gathered everyone in preparation to return to Asharia.
"So you''re telling me that we''ll be going to a giant floating city the size of a country with multiple races including demons living in harmony?" Nine asked in disbelief as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yep, it''s my own personal domain. Something that all Queen''s have but this was made before I ''reset'' my level." Shiro smiled as Nine nodded his head.
"Well it''s obviously going to sound a little crazy but everything will be proven soon. I did want to go to the north but I''ll be able to monitor the situation from Asharia anyways. I have quite a few researchers stationed in the north." Shiro shrugged while making her way out of the castle.
"Let''s see¡ everyone''s here so we can just teleport to the main za. Nine, you''ll get training from someone called Misu. Iris I also want you to join someone named Silvia for a while. She''s also a healer than will help you improve massively. Plus, I think there''s also something she can learn from you. Arnea, you can get some training from someone I know. She''s called Shiina and she''s a control mage so you''ll be able to focus on improving your power. As for Aoi¡ You can go with someone called Aarim. She''s a researcher and she''ll be able to help you out. I''lle asionally to run some tests but otherwise you''ll act as her assistant for now." Shiro said as they all nodded.
Seeing that there was no problems, Shiro pulled out an orb and activated it. In front of her, a giant portal opened up as everyone could see a peek of a giant city with tall buildings through the windows of the teleport hall.
Stepping through the portal, Shiro pulled out her phone and sent a message for Samuel, one of the spirit elders that now works as someone that organises the new resident for her.
"Wee back your highness, did you enjoy your journey?" A void rang out as Samuel had immediately activated a teleport orb to send him to the main hall.
"Yes I did, it was rather insightful. But guess what? I have a new job for you, I want you to show these new residents around as they work for Aoi, another Queen that I''ve weed to our alliance. I''ll get Nan Tian to prepare a living space for themter." Shiro grinned as Samuel nced past Shiro and shuddered. Looking at the mass of people that he needed to show around, Samuel massaged his eyes and sighed.
"Very well your highness, I shall make sure it is done." Samuel nodded.
"Perfect. I''ll give you a holiday soon don''t worry." Shiro chuckled. However, Samuel was a little doubtful since there was a warning in his mind, telling him not to trust.
This instinct was rather spot on as the second half of the new age was literally around the corner. Once it arrives, there''ll be a lot of work for him before his long awaited holiday. But this was something he didn''t know so he could only ignore his suspicions for now.
Watching Samuel leave with the residents that lived with Aoi, Shiro gave them a small wave.
"Welp,e along, I''ll show you to your new mentors I suppose." Shiro smiled as she snapped her fingers.
Now that she''s back in Asharia, she''s gained ess to more of her powers before her ''reset'' which includes teleporting to anywhere she wanted within the city.
That''s because she''s not using her power of nanobots but rather using mana to ess the nodes she''s ced around the city. It''s akin to paying the bus for a ride when you don''t have a care, a quick transaction.
Arriving at Aarim''s mage tower, Shiro nced up and whistled.
Compared to what it was before, the mage tower is now floating within a rift in space. It is both connected yet detached from Asharia and there seem to be a mirror like surface that reflected the entire tower, connecting the two at the base.
Rather than a tower, it''s more akin to a floating pir with parts sticking out.
"Well, this is certainly not what I expected." Shiro muttered. Currently, there was a camouge around everyone so none of the residents of Asharia could see them.
Watching the mages conjure a mirror staircase, Shiro found it a little boring.
"Follow me, we''re going to take an express way." Shiro smiled as she closed one of her eyes and targeted the top of the tower.
Creating a needle with her mana, she fired it to the top and marked everyone with a rune.
Snapping her finger, they suddenly traded ces with the needle and the five of them were now speeding towards Aarim''s window.
Before they could smash the window, it opened with a m and weed them in.
"Honestly, the moment I sensed your needle targeting my window I realised that you were probably going to catapult yourself. Seems like your little week long journey didn''t change much of you." Aarim sighed as she looked at her new guests.
Sticking out her tongue, Shiro hopped up and dusted herself.
Looking at Aarim who had messy hair, an unbuttoned mage robe, a sports bra, long skirt paired with stockings and some boots, Shiro was surprised at her outfit since she usually kept herself well dressed. Sticking out of her mouth was a white stick that was simr to a cigarette but Shiro could tell that it''s created from pure mana.
"If you''re wondering about this then don''t worry, it''s something I managed to create. It''s a stick of pure mana that stimtes you awake. It works better than coffee and has zero adverse effects. I''ve been awake since you''ve left. I do prefer to have a nap now and again though." Aarim waved her hand as she conjured more mana sticks and offered one for Shiro.
Grabbing one, Shiro ced it in her mouth and was surprised by the constant stream of mana entering her body and warming her up.
"Oh my, well isn''t this rather handy. It tastes sweet too." Shiro remarked while activating analysis and scanned theposition of the mana stick.
Once she got a full scan, she decided to make one herself.
However, her''s was a little biggerpared to the small ones that Aarim created.
It was twice as wide and three times as tall as Shiro. The giant white stick of mana was now firmly nted in Aarim''s office.
".. .I was about to warn you since with your mana, even if youpress it, it''ll probably be f*cking massive. If anyone was to try use this as a shot of energy, they can probably forget about sleeping for the next millennia." Aarim sighed as she grabbed her stick, snapped it into several pieces and started to chew it like candy.
"So, what brings you to myb, I''m rather busy and as you can see with the changes to my tower, the research was rather fruitful." Aarim smiled.
"Ah right, business." Shiro nodded absentmindedly while staring at the pir of mana.
"Say, before we talk about business, is the mana stick supposed to act as a high power viagra?" Shiro asked as she was scanning theposition of the pir.
"Pardon?" Raising an eyebrow, Aarim was confused about Shiro''s question when she decided to scrape off a piece of the pir.
Snapping her finger, magic circles started to appear around her as she scanned the piece.
At the same time, they both saw the root cause. Hidden within the tiny strands of mana, was a foreign influence in the form of Aphrodite''s crest.
".. ."
"Don''t ask, I didn''t use her blessing." Shiro said, massaging her eyes.
Trying to dismiss the pir of pure concentrated Aphrodisiac, Shiro discovered that she could not.
"I''ll¡ repurpose this as medicine I suppose. It might help those with difficulties in the bedroom." Aarim said with an awkward expression as they probably shouldn''t smell the fumes from this pir.
Waving her hand, she teleported it to a spare storage room that she had set up for now and ask Silvia''s help in thister.
"Anyways, setting aside whatever the hell that was, would you mind helping out with Aoi''s condition? You see, she was unfortunately a bit too close to one of my fights and it reduced her body to this state." Shiro said as she disinfected her hand.
Meanwhile, in the realm of gods, Aphrodite pouted in front of her panel that showed Shiro and Aarim sealing away her gift.
"Tsk, what a waste. I had just found good inspiration after seeing the mana stick too." Aphroditeined as she waved her finger and created the mana stick but used her blessing in the creation. Holding the pink stick of mana, Aphrodite smelled the fragrance and licked her lips.
"Athena should like this." She grinned as she immediately left her room in order to look for Athena.
As for what she created¡
[Celestial Aphrodisiac ¨C Ambrosia]
A concentrated mass of mana in which the Goddess of Lust had ced her blessing on during the creation. Due to its creation method and the use of divine energy, it has ascended to the rank of Ambrosia, the pinnacle for consumables. Even Gods will have a hard time repressing this. If they do manage to repress the ''heat'', their resistance will be lowered, making it easier for charm to take effect.
Chapter 1174: Aarims Research
Chapter 1174: Aarim''s Research
"Hm? Lay her down on the table, I''ll run a quick scan of her." Aarim said as Shiro nced at Aoi who nodded her head andid down on the table in front of them.
"I''ll need your friend with the katanas to step out for a bit since I need Aoi to strip."
Hearing this, Aoi coughed violently as she looked at Aarim in surprise.
"What? I can''t see through your clothes like Shiro does. If I want to examine your body properly, I''ll need you to strip down." Aarim said with a bored wave of her hand.
Biting her lip, Aoi nodded her head as she waited for Nine to leave the room.
Once he left, Aoi started to take her clothes of as Aarim stared intently at her.
Suppressing the embarrassment, Aoi stayed silent and waited for Aarim''s response.
"This is rather difficult. With how things are, I suppose you want me to help her get a proper body. You know that''s not my speciality." Aarim said as Shiro nodded her head.
"I do know that. However, I believe that this is a good chance for you hence why I brought her here. I''ve already made some discoveries using my own powers but it''ll take a while for me to fully ''cure'' her I suppose. During that time, you can see if you can get some insights on magic." Shiro smiled while handing Aarim a memory stick with all the documents inside.
Her goal for handing Aoi over to Aarim is so that Aarim could learn about the Source Code or something close to that. That way, it provides her with a way to fight Demi Gods or Gods should the need ever arise.
"Hmm¡. Alright, I''ll look into it along with my current research. Though the progress might be a little slow." Aarim shrugged as she created another mana stick and ced it in her mouth.
"Gotcha, I''lle visit here and there to help out asionally. Though I am rather curious as to what kind of research you''ve been up to. Mind doing a small showcase?" Shiro asked as Aarim thought about it for a moment before nodding her head.
"Sure. Aoi, get dressed before I call your friend in then I''ll show you all a small demonstration I suppose." Aarim said as she sat down and waited patiently.
After a short wait, everyone was now gathered in her office
"Right then, I suppose I should exin the purpose of my research first. So Shiro, you know that I''m a mage specialised in control and maniption of space. With the knowledge of other gardens and so on, it got me thinking about breaching the barriers around space and finding an alternate reality I suppose. It''s so that we could potentially obtain knowledge or items that we might have missed out on. Let''s say if you are in a temple and you can only choose left path or right path and you chose right, the alternate reality would have you choosing left. I''m breaching the barrier to try find a somewhat perfect copy of our reality but with slight differences I suppose. That way, the chances of bringing something over would be more ''sessful'' in a way. Think of it like a mirror, I need to find a reality that''s equal distance from the centre as our world to increase thepatibility." Aarim exined while projecting a hologram in the centre of the room. Using a mirror in the centre, she used a model of the Earth and reflected it on the mirror surface.
Grabbing the reflection, she dragged it over to ''their'' Earth and ovepped the two.
"My tower is in a simr state where the ''reflection'' is being projected to our world. Though it''s not a bridge between worlds, right now it''s more akin to me ''saving'' what my tower would be in a separate world and loading that save into ours. What we do to this tower does not change anything in the other world. Though I''m working on a proper bridge." Aarim said as the hologram disappeared.
Hearing all of this, Shiro became silent as this sent a lot of ideas into her mind. Things that could potentially change everything.
There was two possibilities with Aarim''s discovery. It''s either a perfect reflection where their choices are inversed.
Or¡.
"The side of creation." Shiro muttered with her eyes narrowed.
If things were exactly as her diagram had shown, then the reflection that was equally spaced from the centre would be a garden that''s the extreme of creation. As the First Born of Destruction, her ''garden'' should nevere close to the garden belonging to the First Born of Creation. But that''s only in the ''normal'' situation.
If Aarim is able to bridge this gap then she''ll be able to meet the First Born of Creation.
"Pardon?" Aarim raised an eyebrow as Shiro shook her head.
"Nothing, just me wondering to myself. If your research is sessful then it may mean more than you think. Are there any information from the books of the inverse tower that spoke of their pantheon of gods or information about their world?" Shiro asked curiously but Aarim shook her head.
"This tower is essentially a reflection of mine. I would never keep a book on the world but rather document upon documents of research. While I research space and gravity, my inverse seems to be researching time."
"I see¡ no matter. I''ll keep an ear out for any progressions of your research. Though for now, I''ll leave Aoi in your care." Shiro smiled as Aarim nodded her head.
Talking for a little longer, Aarim watched as Shiro left with Iris and Nine.
ncing over at Aoi, Aarim thought for a moment before pulling out two rubber gloves from her inventory.
"Right then, since Shiro has asked me to look into your body state, I can take a look while I have my break." Aarim said as Aoi felt a shiver.
It was simr to the time when Shiro had decided to do a check up on her but this time the feeling was stronger.
Wearing the gloves, Aarim tugged on it lightly before letting go, causing it to let out a snapping sound.
Noticing something in the corner of Aarim''s room, Aoi shivered.
"Ah don''t worry about that. Some of my old customers seemed to have reached out to me and ordered a few¡ toys. Though it''s only a side job now so you don''t need to worry about, it''s not for your use." Aarim chuckled as Aoi swallowed her saliva.
"Can I ask what your old job is?"
"Sex toy store owner. Now then, I''ll have to ask you to strip again." Aarim smiled.
###
Leaving Aarim''s tower, Shiro immediately felt Aoi''s aura flutter in nervousness.
"Hmm¡ seems like Aoi is a little nervous with Aarim. Though she''ll get used to it soon I suppose." Shiro muttered before looking back at Nine and Iris.
"Let''s see¡ Next is Nine, I''ll take you to my friend''s detective agency now. You should be able to get some decent training from her that''ll help you with gathering information." Shiro said as she locked onto the node that should be in front of Misu''s detective agency.
Teleporting in front of the store, Shiro was surprised to see a towering building that loomed over the street. ncing up, she could now see a giant neon sign that was all too familiar to her.
[Misu''s Fantasy 100% Guaranteed Detective Agency]
[Shiro approved, rated 5 stars (WOW!)]
[Voted best detective agency in the world. New Customers get one B ss investigation for free!]
Immediately feeling the life drain from her body, Shiro massaged her eyes and sent out her senses to see if she could locate Misu.
Locking onto her signature, Shiro was rendered speechless one more.
In her office, Misu was skipping around with a dumb smile on her face. Around her were piles upon piles of documents that seem to contain information about the investigations.
Reading her lips, Shiro could tell what she was saying.
"Huehehehehe more investigations~ I even got an A ss request today. Fufufu~ Maybe I should treat myself to Yin''s cooking. Wait a minute¡" Pausing in her dance, Misu realised that Shiro was standing outside of her store.
Before Shiro could do anything, the main doors to the building opened as two figures walked out. Both were skeleton that wore suits.
"Your highness, our boss has ordered us to wee you in." The Skeletons bowed as Shiro sighed and nodded her head.
Walking in, she could see that the building had undergone giant renovations. It simr to the Adventurers Guild with all the functions only that the staff had been reced with skeletons.
As for Misu''s right hand man, Esil, he was nowhere to be seen. Realising that his Aura was on the floor just beneath Misu''s office, Shiro could see that he was mming his head into the table while the documents kept pilling up with no end in sight.
"Poor guy, he can''t keep up with Misu''s hobby." Shiro muttered as the corner of her mouth twitched.
Following the skeletons, Shiro made her way up the building with Nine and Iris following behind her.
Chapter 1175: Request for Misu
Chapter 1175: Request for Misu
Arriving at Misu''s office, Shiro could see Misu sitting in arge office chair with her legs on the table. In her mouth was the stick of mana that Aarim had made and she had arge grin on her face.
"Wee to my tower, do you have any requests for the greatest detective there is?" Misu grinned as she made a pose with her hand holding the mana stick like a cigarette.
"Technically if we brute force things I might be the better detective. You can ask the dead but I can read more." Shiro smirked as Misu pouted in annoyance.
Crushing the mana stick in her hands, she sat properly.
"Way to dampen my mood. Rude."
"Haha sorry sorry, but we both know I''ll still need to rely on you for the best info." Shiro smiled as Misu smiled and nodded her head.
"Umu, very true! Now, I heard that you went to Aarim''s to drop off a friend of yours, can I assume that you''re here to do the same with one of these two?" Misu asked.
"Either news travels fast or your scouts are just that talented. But yes, you are right, I am here to drop off Nine who I hope can be in your care for a while." Shiro smiled.
"Oh? Thed with the katanas? Sure I don''t see why not. But if you want someone to look after him there are better people for this job. Since you came to me you also want me to investigate something don''t you?" Misu smirked as she narrowed her eyes at Shiro.
"Yep, I have an S ss assignment for you." Shiro grinned.
Hearing this, Misu''s eyes sparkled since Shiro had an understanding of the grades and wouldn''t just attach an S rank one onto any mission.
"I want you to find all the information, and I mean ALL the information, on the group that experimented on Nine and Iris. Nine can provide you with some clues while he''s under your care and you can also give him some training. Any would do since he''s a jack of all trade kind of vanguard.? The key for now is to find out everything you can on this group. They''re still out there so I want to be able to track them down quickly. We won''t kill them all yet but rather monitor and see what''s going on before we do anything." Shiro said as her eyes were cold.
Seeing this, Misu knew that whoever did this is rather high on Shiro''s kill list.
Adding the document to her current pile of folders, she asked Shiro a few more questions before dragging Nine away to one of the training halls.
"Before we do the investigation since I''m preparing staff for this job, I need you to show me what you''re capable of. " Misu said as she stretched her body and her yful aura disappeared.
"Shiro said that you''re a jack of all trades. If an abnormality like her had described you using the same term as herself then I''ll need to test you extensively."
Hearing this, Nine froze up midway through setting up his formation.
"Pardon?"
Without saying anything, Misu''s dress started to change as green mes erupted around her.
From the mes, an army of undead started to appear.
*FUOHHHHH!!!!
Bursting out with energy, the mes reached the ceiling as the final soldier was something too big for the standard mes to summon.
From within the emerald fire, a pair of hollowed eyes appeared followed by a draconic head and body.
A pair of mighty wings unfurled themselves and acted as a shield for the skeleton soldiers, mages, cavalry and so on. There was a skeleton for everybat upation.
[Misu LVL 900 Undead Queen]
"Let''s test out how well you can handle these guys." Misu said as she cracked her knuckles.
###
Leaving Misu''s agency, Shiro started to make her way towards the military section where the mech pilots were training. She had already reapplied her camouge so the residents wouldn''t be surprised to see her walking around with Iris.
"You mentioned that everything here was made by you right?" Iris asked as Shiro nced back and nodded her head.
"Yep, why do you ask?"
"Nothing much, just surprised at how much mana you would have needed to do this. Also, how many strong people do you have in this city? I''ve discovered several spikes of mana that''s much bigger than normal. Some are in close proximity so they''ve melded together, making it hard to see how many people are there." Iris said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Ah you''re probably sensing Madison and the others. I wonder if you can sense the primal demons." Shiro muttered, causing Iris to pause.
"The primal what now?"
"I do apologise about myck of wee. I did not sense you until you allowed me to discover your aura, your highness." A voice rang out as a portal opened in front of them.
"Lucifer." Shiro greeted whereas Iris felt her entire body freeze up.
[Lucifer LVL 1000 Ancient Lord of Pride (Divinity 2)]
"How''s Madison?" Shiro asked as Lucifer kneeled down.
Since they serve Madison and know that Shiro was stronger, he was going to show the same amount of respect for this woman as he would with Madison.
Though if people were to ask him about his allegiance, he would say Madison.
"Her highness has been progressing well in trying to understand more of her Divinity. Progress is a little slow but it''ll speed up once the world has finished its transformation." Lucifer replied as Shiro nodded her head.
"Also, if you do not mind me asking, howe your friend wields the power of Odin? Well I say wield but it''s more like they have the power but can''t use it." Lucifer asked while looking at Iris.
"So you sensed it too, it''s something to do with her eyes but I''m still in the process of helping her out. You don''t need to concern yourself too much. For now you can go back to what you were doing earlier, I''ll look for the seven of youter since I have something to ask of you." Shiro waved her hand as Lucifer nodded.
"Very well, I shall await your arrival with the rest of the Ancient Lords." Lucifer nodded as he disappeared with a swirl of mes.
"So as I was saying, my friend came from a Demon Lineage of a God and she managed to clear a test that allowed her to have the Seven Ancient Demons as her subordinates. Asmodeus, Lucifer, Belphegor, Mammon, Beelzebub, Satan and Leviathan. They''re all a match for most Gods whereas Madison is a Demi god." Shiro exined as Iris felt like her brain just exploded.
"It shouldn''t be anything too crazy though." Shiro shrugged.
''What''s more crazy than this????'' Iris thought to herself while Shiro led them towards the Mech Bay.
Sensing the outline of the mechs, Iris was surprised that technology like this even existed.
Following Shiro through the different sectors of the Mech Bay, they eventually arrived at where Shiina was training all of the Specialised Pilots.
Dismissing her disguise, Shiro waved.
"Yo, it''s been a while." Shiro grinned.
"Ah your highness! Wee back." Shiina widened her eyes and quickly kneeled along with all the other pilots.
"Thank you, I got a task for you if you don''t mind helping me out."
"Of course, what do you require of me?" Shiina nodded.
"I want you to help me train Iris for a bit. As a support orientated adventurer like her, she needs to be able to keep herself safe while a support mage is trying to kill her on the battlefield. I just need you to train her until she is proficient in keeping herself safe. Plus, you can also train yourself in trying to catch a support mage. They should usually be your first target during a fight." Shiro smiled as Shiina nodded.
"I''lle every so often to check up on your eyes and contact you when I''ve obtained enough information on the group that did this to you and Nine." Shiro smiled as she turned to Iris.
"Mn, thank you." Iris bowed as Shiro nodded and left the area.
Stretching her body, she yawned and wondered what else everyone was doing.
Closing her eyes, Shiro could sense Khionah ying games next to Revel.
"Seems like she found out who kept obstructing her. Seeing her expression, she is probably angry while Revel is having the time of his life with a shit eating grin."
Shaking her head, Shiro made her way back to the main tower.
Chapter 1176: Stalling for Time
Chapter 1176: Stalling for Time
As she was making her way up the tower, Shiro could sense that Silvia was conducting a few experiments with the bed that she wasying in. Since it was fully tainted by her aura of corruption, Shiro could guess that Silvia wanted to increase her understanding.
"Everyone seems so busy. Lisandra is nowhere to be seen right now and the only other person in the tower is Nan Tian." Shiro muttered while jumping through the rift. Phasing through the floors one by one, she could see all of her staff working diligently.
With a smile on her face, she reached the mainmand and noticed that only one person was inside.
"It''s probably him, let me go surprise him." Shiro snicked as she activated a few skills topletely camouge herself.
Peeking through the doors, she realised that he was sleeping. In his hands was a mana stick that was half absorbed and understood that he must have slept before he was able to wake himself properly.
Shaking her head with a smile, she shrugged and quickly teleported to her room. Grabbing a nket, Shiro ced it over Nan Tian before looking at the documents that he was working on.
All of them were research notes on Lisandra''s condition along with some observations of fallen that the scouts have seen out in the field.
Reading through all of them, Shiro was shocked at how much research was here. Even when knowing Nan Tian''s working speed, this must have been difficult to pull off.
Smiling at his effort, Shiro pulled up a chair and turned on one of theputers. She was going to fill in some nks within his documents, some answers that he didn''t know and should help him make a leap in his understanding.
Once that was done, she started to pull up some records uploaded by the researchers in the North Pole.
Reading through the records, Shiro created a mana stick to keep herself focused and awake.
Meanwhile, she doesn''t know that the realm of gods was in turmoil.
Upon receiving the notification that a new grade of weapon has been created, all of the gods were shocked to hear that it was given the grade of Chaos.
Those that had been awoken knew that they had to get their hands on this weapon. If a weapon was ranked Chaos, the only thing higher than First Born then this weapon could very well be their only hope against the First Born of Destruction.
They tried to recruit everyone that had a divinity that could pinpoint the target but none of them could locate the owner.
"Are you sure you want to pull a trick like this?" Helios asked with an raised eyebrow while Argus smirked and watched with his legs crossed.
In front of them was a mirror that seemed to reflect everyone that was trying to locate Shiro.
"Of course. I do quite like what she''s doing. It''s interesting and I''ll be honest, peace is a bit boring. I''d rather watch them go on a treasure hunt than to find her instantly. I can''t stop their eyespletely but it''ll take time for them to find her." Argus chuckled.
"We must hide her for now. While I am annoyed that she was the one who found a new grade before me, I also understand the pains of having something unique. Everyone will want to have it. I''ve experienced it, many cksmiths have experienced it before me so just think of it as one craftsman looking out for another. Plus, my stupid sessor is her party member so it wouldn''t hurt to help her. If only he could replicate even a portion of that Chaos grade." Hephaestus sighed as he massaged his neck.
"Isn''t your sessor upgrading the sword? Who knows he might even help her get another grade higher than Chaos." Helios grinned as Hephaestus nodded his head in appreciation.
"True. When he does that, I can finally retire and give him my title of God of cksmithing. Honestly, once I retire I won''t have annoying jackasses asking for weapons or armour day in day out." Hephaestusughed loudly as he just wanted to push the annoying stuff to Helion.
"Well, setting aside the problem of hiding Shiro from their eyes, what should we do with the new pantheons that have decided to reveal themselves? You know they won''t stand still and allow us to im the title of strongest pantheon anymore. They have gods that rival Nyx and the other four primals." Helios asked with a serious face.
"Stall for time." Argus replied with a small smile.
"We''ve already made the strongest ally in the world. The moment the other pantheonsy their ws on any of the five primals or gods that Shiro is friends with, you know ruin will descend upon theirnd. Their holy site will be desecrated and blood will rain down from the corpse of gods."
Waving his finger, Argus replied while thinking of the fight between Rokarn and Shiro.
"Do you really think any of their gods can withstand this once she matures as a deity?"
Shaking his head, Helios looked down at his hand that was shaking ever so slightly.
When he lent his power to Shiro, he barely caught a glimpse of what''s underneath. That feeling of dread, corruption and pure destruction almost caused him to attack her out of reflex. It was as though something within him just snapped the moment it came into contact with her. An instinct to attack the thing he feared.
Shaking his head, Helios wondered what it was that he sensed.
''Hopefully it''s nothing too serious.'' He sighed but he knew the probability of that being the case is small.
While Argus, Helios and Hephaestus were overlooking the situation with other gods, Hades was sitting on his throne with a cold expression on his face.
"Even though they should be worried about the First Born of Destruction, the other pantheons still want to weaken our power." He muttered in annoyed.
Beside him, a portal opened up as a familiar figure stepped out.
"Kalus, you''re back. Your daughter wondered where you went off to." Hades said as he nced back to see Kalus, Shiro''s grandfather stepping out while Sitril, Kalus'' wife, followed behind him.
"Well since Mio was in your care I presumed that she''ll be rather safe. I had to take a small break since there''s been an influx of corrupted souls trying to reach out to this world. Most of them tried to converge towards my granddaughter''s position." Kalus said with a frown.
"Did you learn anything from them?" Hades asked curiously.
"Unfortunately no. Most of them seemed to be iplete ves that belong to the other factions. They''re sent out to track down the biggest source of corruption out in the world but recently, they suddenly changed directions and stopped trying to reach my granddaughter." Kalus reported as Hades nodded his head.
''It has probably something to do with Shiro resetting her ss. No matter, we can find out a littleter.'' Hades thought to himself before looking at the two.
"Go make your preparations and take some time off. The world should allow your entry soon and you''ll be able to see your granddaughter again. As for your daughter, she''s training to upgrade her divinity from Demi God to God state." Hades said as Kalus nodded his head.
Making another portal, he left with his wife.
"I really need some rest." Kalus said as he massaged his shoulders.
"Well you can have a quick nap when you go back. Before that have you forgotten what you promised me?" Sitril asked as Kalus flinched before he nodded.
"Fine I''ll help that brat obtain divinity if I can. Though it depends on if he''s lucky enough or not. There is the chance that he may just stay low levelled forever." Kalus said as Sitril stared at him.
"I know I know. I never said I won''t help. I doubt Mio will be happy with me if I refused to help that brat. Tsk, why do I have to help the brat that stole my daughter." Kalusined.
"Pft you saw how happy Mio was with him. Enough for her to give up some of her power just to leave the realm so that she could make a family with him. Do her this favour ok?" Sitril smiled.
Nodding his head, Kalus made his way back to Nos Vardi so that he could prepare the necessary materials to help out Koji when he arrives on Earth. In addition to this, he also had a little present for Shiro that he obtained while fighting the corrupted ones trying to reach her.
Chapter 1177: Tomb of the Betrayer
Chapter 1177: Tomb of the Betrayer
As she was sorting out the files while adding her own knowledge, Shiro didn''t realise that Nan Tian had woken up.
The only reason she noticed was because he ced a cup of juice beside her.
"Ah you''re awake, was I too loud?" Shiro asked as she took a sip of the juice and smiled happily.
"Nah, I was nning on waking up to resume my research. When did you return?" Nan Tian asked curiously as Shiro nced at the time.
"Hmm.. roughly 3 hours or so ago. Also I''ve been filling some nks that you had in your research. With this it should be easier for you toe to a conclusion." Shiro said, handing over the documents while finishing the rest of her juice.
Seeing Nan Tian put away the documents without checking it, Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Are you not going to check it?" Shiro asked curiously while Nan Tian nodded his head.
"I will but not just yet. There''s something that I need to show you before that. It''s something I found but I figured it''s probably better for you to look at it first." Nan Tian smiled as he stood up and stretched his body.
"Can you at least tell me what it is first?"
"It''s a surprise haha. You''ll find out when you see it. It''s something you saw before so you''ll be familiar." Nan Tian reassured with a chuckle.
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head.
"Then at least give me another cup." She grinned, holding out her hand for another cup of juice.
"Pft, you can ask for more than just a cup you know?" Nan Tian shrugged while pulling out another cup.
"The thing is if I try to drink too much, it bes a chore. If I drink too little, it is over too quickly. With a cup, I can drink as fast as I want while savouring the taste. There''s just enough so that when I finish I''m satisfied yet leaves me wanting for an extra cup. It doesn''t get overwhelming like a giant tub of juice nor is it underwhelming like just a few sips. A cup of juice is just perfect." Shiro exined with excitement in her eyes.
Chuckling at her enthusiasm, Nan Tian activated a camouge around them before teleporting them towards the Dungeon za.
The Dungeon za is where Shiro had transferred all of the Dungeons that they managed to recover. The za is made up of several levels that is split depending on the level of the Dungeon. Low level dungeons are on the first floor while the high level ones are on the higher floors. Each floor has multiple rooms that is connected to a subspace with a Dungeon Tower within and that is where they can enter the Dungeon.
Dungeons that haven''t been cleared recently would have a weekly challenge attached to it and the first person toplete the Dungeon would be awarded with rewards that match the Dungeons difficulty along with the items they used during the clear. This is to prevent the Dungeon Break from happening. It wasn''t that it''ll be difficult to contain but rather it''ll be more of a pain to clean up the aftermath. Therefore, a good choice would be to just make sure it doesn''t happen in the first ce.
Following Nan Tian to the first floor that contains the low level dungeons, Shiro could see a door that had been sealed off for the time being. Everyone seemed to ignore it as she realised that here was a ward ced on the door that would divert attention.
Opening the door, Nan Tian gestured for Shiro to enter the subspace.
Nodding her head, Shiro stepped through the door and was immediately greeted with the sight of a tower that was halfway through copsing.
There seemed to be another tower that was trying to merge itself with the current one as the two was changing ces every so often.
"Is it because of Aarim''s experiment?" Shiro asked as this was the first thing she thought of but Nan Tian shook his head.
"Unlikely. I''ve already asked Aarim but she said that there are no ''reflection points'' so it couldn''t belong to another universe. This is just another dungeon that''s trying to merge with this low level one. But what''s more interesting is what''s inside rather than what''s happening now. This was discovered during the third day that you were gone and we immediately sealed it off. Thankfully there has been no casualties." Nan Tian said as he started to make his way towards the entrance.
Pushing it open with his hand, he walked in as Shiro followed behind without saying anything. She decided to save her questions for the end.
Upon entering the dungeon, Shiro furrowed her brows and covered her nose.
"It stinks quite a bit doesn''t it? I will say that this dungeon is rather¡ unique I suppose. This stench can''t be blocked by any gas mask that we create. We''ll always ''smell'' this stench." Nan Tian nced back as Shiro stared at the thing before them.
Usually, one would have been given a dungeon task depending on the dungeon or several pathways that they could choose from where they kill mobs until the boss room. That was how it was for low level dungeons.
However, this one only had one room and within the room was a giant corpse that was rotting in the middle of the swamp.
[Tomb of the Betrayer.]
There was no description, only the location name. The giant corpse seemed mostly humanoid with no changes. A standard skeleton with flesh still hanging on the bones. The swamp seemed to be its old flesh that''s been melted into a liquid, submerging the body until only the head and shoulders could be seen.
"Those that are below a certain level will find themselves poisoned while inhaling this air while those higher than level 500 would be immune. But that''s not all, there are also a few assassin type mobs that will attack though you have that covered." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro waved her finger and revealed the mana strings she hadid out around them. Piercing into the bodies of the assassins who seemed to be covered in ayer of the swamp flesh, Shiro had frozen them in ce using ice magic.
"I want to get a close look at the swamp. This ce appearing on Asharia can''t be a coincidence. Plus, with how things are progressing, this probably has a link with my awakening." Shiro sighed as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"That''s what I figured. Though there is a secondary barrier that we haven''t been able to cross yet. You could probably do something about it." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
Walking towards the corpse, Shiro furrowed her brows as the stench increased to the point where she almost couldn''t stand it.
"Hm?" Noticing something stirring below her, Shiro nced down and widened her eyes.
A pool of darkness suddenly expanded and dragged her below while Nan Tian tried to grab her but failed.
Wanting to teleport out, Shiro found herselfpletely bound. The mana within her couldn''t gather to form a spell as she could only struggle with her physical strength. Within the darkness, Shiro noticed a figure grab her by the face with its two hands. Concentrating her eyes on the figure, she realised that it was a muddied reflection of her.
Feeling the power of destruction gather around her, Shiro felt like she heard a voice ring out beside her head.
"Don''t try to be what you''re not."
It was her voice but cold.
Shaking her head, Shiro spun her body around and tried to see who it was.
However, the moment she turned around, she found herself sitting on a chair besides ake. In front of her was a table and around her was a small building in the centre of thiske. There was no walls only pirs that supported the roof, allowing her to view the scenery fully. Looking down, she realised that she was now wearing the same outfit she did as Anima.
Just as she was about to mutter to herself, she noticed that she was unable to speak.
''Hmm¡ rather strange.'' She thought to herself as she stood up and left the small building.
Looking at the garden andke in front of her, she recognised it to be a replica of her old prison.
Walking up to theke, she looked in her reflection and saw a shadowy mass that had a simr form to her and realised that she was looking and controlling an avatar.
''Is this something rted to the Betrayer?'' She thought to herself. Sensing 5 powerful signatures approaching her location, Shiro furrowed her brows and stared at their direction. One by one, they appeared, two female and three male figures but their appearance was blurred. They looked like ever-changing reflections of reality that didn''t have a secure form.
''Strange but I guess I''ll have my answers soon.''
Chapter 1178: Testing the Challengers
Chapter 1178: Testing the Challengers
"Are you sure this is the right ce?" Chronos asked with a frown as they were now approaching the edge of the universe where the system had ced a restriction, preventing them from going beyond. If they wanted to break this barrier, it would be no easy task. But that''s only if they were going to do this forcefully.
"Yes it is, we''re not going to be going beyond the barrier. We''re going to look for the void that''s caught in the middle. Once we reach this rift, we should arrive at Shiro''s old domain." Gaia nodded as she reached out with her hand and sliced down.
*KRKK!!!!
Cutting a tear in the void, all five of them walked through the rift and entered a strange world. The space in this ce was unstable as it was in the middle of the known universe and the barrier. However, it miraculously held itself together.
Flying through the rift, the gods could feel a chill down their spine as fear slowly crept into their hearts but they managed to supress it.
"In order to find Shiro''s old domain, it requires a bit of luck. However, I''ve already made some preparations so we should be able to find it almost instantly." Gaia said as she pulled out an orb.
Realising that it was a sealed orb that contained some of Shiro''s destruction aura when she was frozen by Beelzebub, Nyx raised an eyebrow and stayed silent while Gaia started to release the seal on the orb.
The moment a slither of destruction energy escaped the orb, the entire realm started to have an reaction. The surrounding space started to twist and rip while their position was locked into ce.
"Don''t fight it, allow the spacial current to take you to her old domain." Gaia instructed as she continued to release the destruction aura from the orb.
Little by little, a figure started to appear before them. With long white hair and a mist like body, a pair of red eyes re towards the five.
Without opening her mouth, the figure raised her hand and snapped her finger.
Before the primal gods could even react, they realised that they were now in the middle of a strange garden. All of the nts and buildings here have long been destroyed and there was no signs of life.
Suddenly, a pir of light erupted from the centre of the garden as they looked at one another and nodded their heads.
With Tartarus acting as vanguard, Gaia as support, Nyx as Mage, Chronos as control mage and Ouranos as all around support, the five made their way towards the centre with their guards up.
As they approached the centre, they stepped onto a bridge and saw an old building with a single person standing besides the table. She was looking at herself in theke before turning to them.
Realising that it looked simr to the avatar that teleported them here, the five could only swallow their saliva nervously as they were potentially dealing with a being that had the powers of a First Born. Something they couldn''tpare to at this stage in time.
Suddenly, a quest appeared before them.
[Defeat the Shard of Destruction to pass the test.]
Looking at the quest, the five gritted their teeth and nodded at one another.
"Don''t hold back." Nyx said as the other four agreed.
Activating his war armour, Tartarus rushed forward as Gaia activated her support buffs onto him.
Summoning a greatsword, he cleaved up towards the figure while Chronos appeared behind him.
Drawing a runic diagram instantly, he froze the figure in time so that they couldn''t dodge.
However, just as he did this, the figure gathered mana into her finger tips and sliced apart his spell, causing it to fail while also jumping out of Tartarus'' attack range.
Furrowing his brows, demonic energy gathered in his arms as Tartarusunched a wave of energy from his sword while aiming his palm towards the figure.
A cluster of chains erupted out from his hand as it tried to wrap around the figure''s body but a barrier appeared, blocking the chains.
"The hell." Tartarus muttered in annoyance as he quickly jumped to the side, allowing Nyx to fire her spell.
Darkness encroached from the edges of the garden as it swarmed towards the figure in the centre.
Standing up straight, the figure let out augh before mming her hands together. Bringing them apart, a tier 9 magic circle could be seen.
"Get down!" Gaia shouted as roots erupted from the garden into a shield.
*BOOM!!!!
Before it could even form properly, a wave of destructive energy exploded out and erased the roots from existence.
Widening her eyes, Gaia watched as the destructive energy surge towards her.
"Stop spacing out!" Ouranos shouted out as he jumped in from of her.
Stomping down with his foot, the air swirled around him, creating a flow that diverted the destructive energy to their surroundings.
ncing back in shock, Gaia could see that most of the garden that they were just walking past had now been turned to dust.
"This isn''t someone you can just space out and use support spells with." Ouranos frowned as Gaia swallowed her saliva and activated a few spells on herself so that she could boost her physical powers.
Looking at the figure that now sat on the roof of the building, Gaia could tell that it was smiling while eyeing the five of them.
###
[Test the Challengers.]
Five challengers havee to receive a boon from the First Born of Destruction. Test their worthiness. Once they pass a certain threshold, it''ll count as a pass. During this test, you will gain ess to a small portion of your power. This will onlyst for this trial.
If they pass, you will be allowed to invoke your old privileges to grant them a boost to their divinity rank.
Reading this, Shiro furrowed her brows while looking at the five misty figures.
''Should I even help them? It''s not like they''re rted to m-'' Before Shiro could even finish her thought, the vanguard dashed towards her with armour wrapping around his body.
''Tch, not even waiting. So hasty.'' Shiro frowned as she wanted to activate Analysis to increase her perception. However, a system notification appeared in front of her.
[During this Trial, you can only use your old spells. Most of your techniques will be unusable.]
[Avable Spells: Seven Gates of Destruction (Gate 1, 2, 3 and 4.)]
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro wanted to hop back but felt the fluctuation of Time Strands that attempted to pin her down in time, stopping her from doing anything.
''Wait¡ Are they?'' Furrowing her brows, Shiro wondered if these five are who she thinks they are but couldn''t confirm anything so she decided to probe them a little for now.
''Second Gate of Destruction ¨C Invil.''
Gathering energy into her finger tips, Shiro destroyed the spell that the second figure wanted to cast and jumped back, narrowly dodging the greatsword strike.
The Second Gate of Destruction was a spell she designed in order to get rid of the pesky spells that tried to bind her. A technique developed with the purpose of destroying her prison in mind. While it did not seed in its original purpose, it turned out to be a rather powerful counter to all spells that she could see.
Plus, it had the additional effect of sealing away that spell for the time being.
Without giving her a break, ck chains chased after her.
''Third Gate of Destruction ¨C Argia.''
The spell that allowed her to destroy all spells targeting her and absorb it as energy.
Blocking the chains, Shiro watched as the caster jump to the side while the mage in the back activated her spell.
Feeling a familiar fluctuation of mana, a smile slowly crept up on Shiro''s face.
''So it was them. If the reward is for them to reach Rank 4 Divinity then I suppose I should make sure I push them to the limit!'' Shiro grinned as she recognised Nyx''s spell anywhere. After all, she was most familiar with Nyx.
''Fourth Gate of Destruction ¨C Cilis.''
An AOE that absorbs energy to be stronger! The stronger the defence, the stronger the spell. As Anima, she had created this after studying the toughness of the prison that prevented her divinity from leaking out. The result was Cilis!
''I''ve toned it down slightly. Depending on how they react, I''ll have to adjust myself ordingly.'' Shiro thought to herself as she now had ess to a portion of her old power. Even though it''s just a portion, if she was serious, she can still kill a Rank 3 god with a snap of her finger. Of course, she had no intention of doing that with these five.
Watching Gaia created a barrier while Ouranos tried his best to divert the energy of destruction, Shiro sat down with a satisfied grin on her face.
''Fantastic. Let''s push them a little harder so that they can get Rank 4.'' Shiro chuckled while eyeing them up. She had already given plenty of training to Lyrica and the others, it''s time for the Primals to have their share of training.
Chapter 1179 - Veril
Chapter 1179 - Veril
Seeing that Shiro was taunting them, Tartarus nced at the rest of the four and gestured for them to prepare their spells.
Activating a buff, Tartarus threw his greatsword towards Shiro.
Creating a dagger from destruction energy, Shiro parried the greatsword to the side. However, just as she parried the weapon, Tartarus teleported besides her and grabbed the sword.
Twisting his body, he swung towards her neck.
Curling her lips, Shiro attempted to grab the sword but it vanished before she couldy a finger on the de.
Seeing the de phase through he hand and sh towards her neck, Shiro immediately bent her body back and stabbed the dagger towards Tartarus'' heart.
Gritting his teeth, Tartarus continued his attack and changed the direction of his attack so that it cleaved towards her head.
''Ah, since they know the spells don''t work on me, Chronos has decided to focus his spells on Tartarus. He''s speeding him up through the Time Stream so that his actions seem like they''re phasing through my guard.'' Shiro thought to herself as she immediately figured it out with a quick scan of the battlefield.
With how fast she could capture information even without the help of Analysis EX, it was easy for Shiro to figure out what was happening.
''Gaia is activating parts of her domain to increase the regen and defence of her teammates while Nyx is preparing some support spells since she knows her main attacks will be countered by me. Chronos is trying to help Tartarus increase his chances of hitting me while Ouranos is covering for everyone. He''ll divert the destructive energy that I send towards them. However, there is a limit to how much he can divert and if I use too much of my power he''ll be killed. I want to train them not kill them. Usually I would beat them to near death then heal them but it''s very hard for Gaia to heal destruction attacks so I''ll try not to use that for now. Therefore, hand to handbat it is.'' Shiro thought with a smile.
Dropping into a hand stand, Shiro grabbed Tartarus'' arms with her leg and swung herself behind him before the sword could reach her. Twisting her body, she hit his wrist, forcing him to drop the sword.
''Sorry about this.'' Shiro apologised in her mind as she gathered energy into her arms.
mming down on Tartarus'' shoulders, she mmed him through the floor until only his head was showing.
Jumping up, Shiro created a dagger and threw it towards Nyx, breaking the spell that she was creating in her hands.
"Sh*t!" Cursing out loud in annoyance, Nyx reinforced her body since she could see Shiro charge towards her.
Taking a step back, she wanted to make a bit of distance but Shiro was too fast.
Appearing in front of Nyx, Shiro punched towards her stomach only to use that as a feint. Her spare hand chopped towards Nyx''s neck, forcing her to flip back and m against the ground.
Grabbing Nyx''s leg, Shiro threw her towards Gaia before ducking down to avoid Ouranos'' attack that was augmented by Chronos'' power.
Since she had used time magic before, she could feel the ripples instantly and prepare against it.
"What the hell is wrong with this avatar!" Ouranos shouted in frustration.
mming his hand down, a wave of force exploded out and forced everyone into the air and activated his domain.
Third Gate of Destruction ¨C Argia!
Releasing an AOE that absorbed all of the energy that Ouranos was funnelling into his domain, Shiro controlled her strength before firing the orb below her.
*BOOM!!!!
The explosion forced all five of the gods away from her giving her some space to cast spells. However, since she wanted to use hand to hand, she used this to split the five of them apart to make it easier for her.
Stomping down with all her strength, she catapulted herself towards Gaia and grabbed her by the cor.
''I''ll apologise with a mech next time we meet.'' Shiro chuckled and jumped up into the sky while dragging Gaia behind her.
"Who the hell do you think you''re touching!" Gaia shouted out as vines burst out from her palms, forcing Shiro away from her.
During the fight, Gaia noticed that Shiro was holding back on using her destruction spells along with reducing their cast times. So she figured that if she was to activate her spell instantaneously in close proximity, it should hit without any problems.
Her guess was right as Shiro was locked in vines for a short moment. Her energy was drained from her body as it allowed Gaia to regroup with everyone else.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro tore the vines apart and narrowed her eyes.
Gathering mana by her feet, sheunched herself towards them like a missile.
"Sh-"
*CRACK!!!!!
Before Gaia could finish her sentence, she felt Shiro m into her ribs at full force, breaking a few of them in the process and catapulting her body through the building in the centre of theke.
With Gaia out ofmission for a moment, Ouranos charged at Shiro in anger.
Using the wind to boost his speed, he appeared before Shiro and mmed his palm against her chest only for it to be blocked by Shiro''s arm.
Grabbing Ouranos by the wrist, Shiro mmed her spare hand up and broke it before elbowing him in the centre of the chest, cracking the bones and forcing him to cough up blood.
Suddenly, Chronos appeared from behind Ouranos.
Without activating a spell circle, he channelled his divinity and summoned the spells he stored outside of the time stream and forced them back into this world.
Seeing that she was surrounded by deadly attacks, Shiro chuckled and activated her First Gate of Destruction.
It was the first spell she had created with the intention of breaking her prison.
First Gate of Destruction ¨C Veril!
Coating her arm with the power of destruction, Shiro grinned maniacally and aimed her attack towards the sky.
*BANG!!!!!!
Releasing a beam of pure destruction, all of the attacks that Chronos prepared were obliterated. The attacks that managed to avoid this pir were destroyed regardless due to the connection to spell.
Feeling the powers of pure destruction, Shiro couldn''t help butugh at this feeling.
A well of joy sprung up from the deepest parts of her heart. The joys of crushing everything in her path. The carnage that she could bring. The blood that she could spell.
Everything was null in the face of destruction.
"Pft ahahahahahahha!!!!" Letting out a howl of pureughter, Shiro was reminded of the time she decorated thebs with the insides of the scientists. A memory of pure ecstasy and happiness.
It felt like something in her mind had snapped as Shiro couldn''t stop herughing at all.
###
Looking at the figure that started to break out inughter, all five of the gods felt a chill down their spine.
"When''s thest time you felt this feeling?" Gaia asked as she was healing herself to the best of her abilities.
"When I was about to die. This avatar''s lost her mind." Tartarus said as his armour had been fractured by Shiro''s attack despite being one of Hephaestus'' best works.
"Yeah, it''s like when a beast has lost all care. I don''t think she''ll be holding back like she did before." Nyx frowned.
"So you noticed that she had been ying with us." Chronosughed bitterly.
"Should we try what we''ve been practicing for the war?" Nyx asked but she already knew the answer.
"Well if we didn''t then I doubt we''ll get the chance." Gaia said as all five of them released their aura''s.
Releasing their true forms, all five of them could now control their divinities to their maximum potential.
As this was a trial, there was no need to ask the system for permission to use this form.
All inhibitors were off!
Charging forward, Tartarus was like a demon from the deepest parts of hell. His skin was now akin tova while armour covered his body. A cape of pure red energy fluttered behind him while volcanic rock erupted from the ground, transforming the garden into a second hell.
Twisting his body, Tartarus instantly appeared before the figure as Chronos had erased the time it took for him to reach that position.
Just as the figure was about to dodge Tartarus'' attack, ck chains manifested and locked her in ce. Since Nyx knew of her destructive powers, more chains continued to appear in order to rece the ones that will break.
*BANG!!!!!
Shattering the chains apart, a looming ck shadow erupted out, pushing Tartarus back as his arm was disintegrated in one go.
However, Chronos immediately exerted his divinity, turning back time on Tartarus'' wound and restored his arm. However, Chronos did not expect the spell to take so much energy since the damage healed was much greater than what he had predicted.
Looking at the shadow, the five gods watched as it condensed into the shape of a woman with demonic wings behind her.
Cracking open her mouth, the figure spoke a single word.
"Veril!"
From her body, thousands of motes split off her shadow before releasing an omnidirectional attack that erased everything it touched.
Chapter 1180 - Extra Help
Chapter 1180 - Extra Help
As the dust settled, Shiro could see a single figure standing in front of the other four.
Panting heavily, Gaia barely managed to keep the other''s safe by exerting her divinity to the maximum, creating a shield around them that automatically revived them if they ''died''. The thing with her domain is that when activated, it could revive a whole army and had a long cooldown.
"Be careful. That one attack used up all the revives I had. My domain won''t appear for a while." Gaia said as she copsed onto her knees. Even with the power of her domain, there was still a wound on her leg.
Quickly running to her side, Chronos healed her while keeping an eye on the figure who seemed to be looking for a way out again.
Walking away from the five, it started to make its way towards the edge.
Looking at the border of her prison, Shiro wanted to leave so that she could reign destruction upon the world that turned its back against her. Kill the ones who killed her and enjoy the fine wine called revenge.
However, as the dark feeling was covering her heart, Shiro saw a figure in front of her with a small smile. She had ck hair and dark eyes and the same clothes that she wore. The person smiled and shook her head.
Seeing this, something clicked within Shiro''s mind as the fury within her heart faded and she knew she had lost herself in the destructive nature of using her old spells.
Just as she calmed down, she was torn from the avatar and teleported into a strange space.
Trying to activate her spells, she found that she was unable to and all the spells on her status screen had been greyed out for now. The figure that appeared before her was also missing but she had more important concerns for now.
Furrowing her brows, she nced down.
"This is wrong. What the hell." Shiro muttered with a frown.
Without her controlling the avatar, the avatar was now radiating an enormous amount of destruction aura.
Besides her, two figures appeared.
One who seemed to be crazy with killing intent in her eyes and the desire to destroy everything in sight and one who''s silent but full of anger. Her eyes burned with fury and hatred.
"This is not wrong. This is what things should be." The second woman said as she looked at Shiro.
"Why are you so intent on running from your identity? You''ve even gone as far as to keep yourself fragmented so that your divinity does not recover. Why must you chase such an impossible goal? You cannot and will not obtain creation. Thews of the universe forbids it. You have already tried in the past and the result was your own destruction. Why must you tread the same path again?" She asked as Shiro nced towards her.
"Because if I don''t then I''ll never forgive myself. I cannot let my powers run rampant in this world, or else everything I love will be turned to ash. That cannot happen. I will not let it happen. Therefore, I chase the possibility of creation." Shiro smiled.
"Plus, it''s not as impossible as you might imagine. I''ve already made some decent progress towards the goal."
Hearing this, the woman shook her head and sighed.
"You''ll see your foolish ways soon enough. The avatar used for this test has now lost control and it will attempt to break this prison. While the prison is damaged, it still retains some of its powers so it should be restrained for the time being. As for those five, I doubt they can fight an avatar without you holding it back."
"Well~ I wouldn''t know about that. I think they''ll do just fine. Plus, I have a little gift for them." Shiro grinned as she sped her hands together.
Dark energy gathered around her hand as she closed her eyes.
"Iriel!" Shiro called out as her ne broke off and transformed into Iriel.
Shocked that Shiro could call upon a weapon in this state, the woman watched as she grabbed the de andunched it towards the five gods.
Activating Iriel''s third effect, Shiro grinned as reality distorted to allow Iriel to arrive by Gaia''s side.
"Third effect, a strike that distorts reality. Iriel is bound to my code and while I don''t know what state I''m in with my skills sealed, Iriel is a special exception. It''s the first Chaos ranked weapon after all." Shiroughed.
###
Watching the avatar tread towards the border, Nyx mmed her hand down as a tsunami of darkness rushed towards it.
"Cover for Gaia and don''t let it escape this ce! If the gods lock onto its aura, they might make a connection between the First Born of Destruction and Shiro!" Nyx shouted out.
"I already know that!"
Raising his hand, Chronos activated a tier 8 magic circle and froze time around the avatar.
Letting out a cry ofughter, the avatar activated the third gate of destruction.
A pulse of energy exploded out around her, shattering all the spells targeting the avatar and funnelled the energy into it, empowering the avatar more.
Aiming its hand towards them, it activated the first gate as destruction energy gathered towards its palm.
However, before it could fire the attack, the space above it tore apart.
*BANG!!!!!!
A single de mmed down from the skies, shredding the arm andnded beside Gaia.
Shocked at the appearance of the de, this was the first time they saw damage on the avatar.
[Iriel ¨C Soul de of the Destroyer ¨C Chaos]
A de formed from the masterpiece of Hephaestus, an indestructible sword and an immortal soul of an ancient being. Tempered by the primal forces of destruction, this de now possesses the power to render all to null. Wielded by the First Born of Destruction, this is the only de in the world that can handle her power.
Seeing the description of this de, Gaia knew that Shiro had sent it to them. Only question is how?
Shaking her head, Gaia reached out and grabbed the sword. This was no time to ask how, it was time to act and she needed to borrow this sword''s power to cut down the avatar.
Feeling a burst of energy flow into her body, Gaia''s body started to recover as she heard a voice in her head.
"Get the others to support you. You''re the only one who can wield me somewhat due to your divinity. If the others hold me, they''ll start getting injured by me instead. Don''t worry about activating skills, I''ll handle that as long as you can make sure yound some hits on the avatar."
Hearing this voice, Gaia recognised it to be the voice of the Ancient Terror and knew that Shiro must havebined him with Silvanis to create Iriel.
"Understood." Gaia nodded as she activated some buffs on herself.
"Support me! Shiro sent this de over to help but only I can use it right now due to my divinity. Nyx, cover my back and teleport me to suitable locations!" Gaia shouted out as the other four gods nodded their heads.
Stomping down, Gaiaunched herself towards the avatar as Ouranos boosted her speed. Chronos applied a rune to her back that allowed her to flow through the time stream faster, making it seem like she was teleporting through space while another rune appeared on the avatar that slowed it down.
Swinging its arms towards Gaia, the avatar activated the First Gate of Destruction on the side in an attempt to destroy the thing that cut off its arm.
"Swing me!" Iriel shouted out as Gaia nodded her head.
Twisting her body, she felt the energy drain from her body as the runes lit up on the de surface.
Iriel Passive Effect!
You can cut down all forms of magic, and divine spells, converting the energy used for yourself in order to replenish mana or divine energy!
*KISHHHH!!!!
Colliding with Veril, Iriel tore the spell apart and absorbed the energy into itself.
As the only de in the world that can handle Shiro''s destructive energy, it would be ridiculous for it to fail in front of an avatar.
Using the energy he absorbed from the First Gate of Destruction, Iriel activated his fourth effect.
You can infuse any element or divinity with this de and the effectiveness will be boosted by 300% and ignores all resistance towards the element or divinity. (Cannot boost divinity on the level of First Born.)
Absorbing a part of Gaia''s divinity and energy, he fused the two within his body, causing a sickly green energy to radiate from his de.
Seeing this, Gaia gestured towards Nyx who teleported her behind the Avatar.
However, the avatar was prepared and tried to attack Gaia but Tartarus was faster.
"I''ll need Hephaestus to give me a new sword when I head back!" He shouted out as he mmed the greatsword into the body of the avatar, forcing it back while allowing the destructive energy to eat away at his sword but it was worth it.
With the obstacles now out of her way, Gaia swung the de without knowing what its effect had done to her stats.
[Gaia LVL 1000 High Primordial Goddess of Life (Divinity rank 4)]!!!
Chapter 1181 - Upgrade For Primals
Chapter 1181 - Upgrade For Primals
Raising its arms in an attempt to block the strike, the avatar attempted to run but the strike was simply too fast.
*KSHHH!!!!
shing apart its guard, Iriel dug deep into its chest, causing a burst of energy to explode out.
Shielding her head, Gaia gritted her teeth and mmed her spare hand down.
Roots started to appear around her as her defences were bolstered. However, that was not the main purpose since she knows adding defence is useless against destruction energy. All of this was so that she could increase her size to pin down the avatar for Iriel to deal thest blow.
Throwing Iriel into the air, Gaia focused on pinning the avatar down as energy gathered around Iriel''s de.
"Move!" Iriel shouted out since the next strike would definitely hurt Gaia.
Nodding her head, Gaia was about to move away when the avatar grabbed her arm and refused to let go.
Using destruction energy to destroy a part of her body in order to fuse with her, it red at her with a crazy grin.
"Keep attacking! Trust me!" Nyx shouted out as she knew that the sword was help that Shiro sent over.
Hesitating for a moment, Iriel gathered its energy to pierce towards the two.
"Chronos, boost my perception of time." Nyx said as Chronos nodded and ced his hand on her back.
The sound of clocks ticking could be heard in Nyx''s ear but she didn''t pay attention to that since her main focus right now was to make sure Gaia didn''t die.
Watching the sword approach slowly in her perception of time, Nyx bit her lip in nervousness.
Just as the sword tip was about to touch Gaia, Nyx mmed her hand down and activated a tier 8 magic circle. She wanted to wait until thest moment so that the avatar couldn''t cancel it out.
*BANG!!!!!!
Appearing next to Nyx, Gaia copsed on the floor while Iriel pierced the avatar and started to absorb it into his body.
Laying on the floor, Gaia panted heavily as she could see the missionplete on the system interface.
Looking at the sword, Gaia smiled and nced up at the sky.
"Thanks for the help wifey~" She grinned as Irielughed before cutting through the void to return to Shiro''s side.
Feeling a surge of power in her body, all of the gods felt fatigued as a ray of light wrapped around their body like a cocoon.
###
Hearing what Gaia had just called out, Shiro choked on her saliva while summoning Iriel back to her side.
"You''re¡ married to a god?" The calm woman asked with a perplexed expression.
"Not really. She just says that often. Though setting that aside, didn''t I say they''ll do just fine?" Shiro smiled.
"Well that''s only because your de is rather unique. Without this de, they would have never passed the test."
"That''s what you think. It would have taken a lot longer but I think they would have figured things out eventually. Don''t give up so soon." Shiro shrugged as she reached out to grab Iriel.
"I wouldn''t grab that now if I was you. It''s just absorbed a shard of destruction, unless you want your destruction divinity to enter your body again, I suggest you unsummon that sword and let it finish adapting to that power before having it return the power to you. Or if you don''t want to ess your destruction power just yet, use it as a container." The other woman said as her anger had faded slightly.
"I see¡ Thanks." Shiro smiled, returning Iriel back to a bracelet.
"So I now have two questions. Who are you and do you know about the Tomb of the Betrayer?" Shiro asked as the two looked at one another.
"I am a spirit of this domain. A fruit who gained sentience after being exposed to your destruction energy. I have yet to gain a name. As for her, she''s another shard of yours that you had split off from your main body. This shard is where most of your anger is gathered I suppose." The spirit woman replied as Shiro nced at the other version of Anima.
"If you''re looking for answers from me then I can''t tell you much. When I was split from the main body, I did not take memories or anything like that. Just the anger I felt in my soul." Anima said as she floated around in boredom.
"What about the betrayer then? Do you two know anything about him?" Shiro asked.
"There were many betrayers. Those that stood on your side during the war were counted as betrayers. You also count those that stood against you as betrayers so unfortunately we can''t say much about it."
"Hmm¡ Well I know I said two questions but I have onest one. Why am I here? What brought me here?"
"I did." Anima said as she floated around Shiro.
"I felt a connection to you before and knew that you had regained a portion of your power. However, you disconnected yourself from it so I figured I''d seek you out instead. Turns out that the five gods had just activated a trial that the system had ced down so I figured I could get you to indulge yourself a little. As for fruitdy over here, she was annoyed since you didn''t seem like you." Anima shrugged as the spirit furrowed her brows from being called fruitdy.
"But since you are so intent on trying to achieve creation, I''ll keep myself here for now. See ya." Anima narrowed her eyes.
Before Shiro could even say anything, ck tendrils dragged her through a portal.
"Shouldn''t we send her off with something?" The spirit asked as Anima shook her head.
"Nah, anything we give will only decrease her chances of creation since they''ve all been tainted by our power. If anything, we should help those five out a bit more. I''m sure she''ll prefer that." Anima chuckled while looking at the five gods that were now undergoing their upgrade to rank 4.
###
"GAHH!!!" Crying out in surprise, Shiro was thrown out of the portal and into the air. Quickly adjusting herself, she wanted to fly down when she mmed against the ceiling of the dungeon.
"¡ê^&%&^%^!!!!" Cursing out loud, Shiro teleported to the floor and nced around her.
Seeing a shocked Nan Tian who had brought everyone here, Shiro coughed and waved her hand awkwardly.
"Hi?" She forced a smile.
". . .I told you there was nothing wrong. It''s just Shiro things." Madison sighed as she massaged her eyes and left the dungeon with the other demons.
The other party members nodded their heads and also made their way back.
"Oh, if you have anything important you can send it in the chat, we''ll keep an eye on it." Silvia called out as Shiro watched them leave.
"Cough, seems like I''ve troubled everyone." Shiroughed as she scratched her head.
"Hais, well it''s good that you''re back. Had us worried for a moment." Nan Tian sighed as he helped Shiro up.
"Yeah sorry about that. Turns out that I was kidnapped by ''myself'' for a short moment. It''s nothing too major though, I''m still more concerned about who the betrayer is." Shiro said as she gestured towards the betrayer.
"Let''s just hope you don''t get kidnapped again then." Nan Tian chuckled.
###
"Out of all the people I expected to meet today, I didn''t think I would see such an important guest. What brings you to my altar today?" A dark voice rang out as Aria nced at the figure sitting on top of the altar.
He was currently meditating with one eye open to look at Aria.
"Well as the first one to awaken amongst the First Born, I figured I should pay you a little visit." Aria said as she started to walk up.
"Pft hahahaha, I may be the first to awaken but both you and I know the reason. Her grace has started to recover her power, it''s just a matter of time before the others wake up." He grinned as dark energy started to flicker from his body.
"Perhaps. Though you know it doesn''t matter to me." Aria shook her head.
"Of course not, all of us treated you well but you could still stab us in the back. When you were on the verge of death was it not us to helped you, was it not her grace that dragged you from the pits of hell and granted you a new life. And yet you still turn your sword against her." He red but Aria was unphased.
"It is a shame but it must be done. There is no future for everyone if she is around. You can hate me all you want but I will not stop what I''ve begun. If it bothers you that much then you can sleep some more." Aria sighed as her right arm turned ck.
Seeing this, the figure widened his eyes in shock as she plunged her arm into his chest.
Ripping out a pulsing mass of darkness, she absorbed it into her body while the man fell on his back.
"Sleep well, when you wake up everything should be over.." Aria sighed as she started to walk away from the altar.
Chapter 1182 - Isvelger
Chapter 1182 - Isvelger
Walking up the giant corpse of what used to be called the betrayer, Shiro decided to circle around for a moment to see if she could discover anything that could be used as a clue. Unfortunately for it, it was just a simple corpse stuck in a swamp.
There was nothing around that could potentially give her a clue to its identity.
The only thing she could do now would be to bypass the secondary barrier that surrounds the corpse and see if she could analyse its bodyposition or perhaps even get a glimpse of its source code. Once she stares at the source code, she should be able to figure out a rough history of the corpse.
"Where did you say the barrier was again?" Shiro called out as Nan Tian was standing there with a small smile.
Walking forward a little, he pushed out his arm and was blocked by an invisible barrier.
"You''re already pass the barrier." He chuckled as Shiro paused.
". . .Really?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded.
"I can''t get past this threshold unfortunately." Nan Tian shrugged as Shiro walked back to him and tried to pull him through.
However, while she is able to walk through without a problem, Nan Tian could not enter no matter how hard Shiro tried.
She even tried to open a portal for him but he was forced out of the rift whenever he entered.
"Just go, I''ll wait here for you." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
Approaching the corpse, she waved her hand and killed all the hidden enemies that were trying to target her while freezing the swamp so that she didn''t sink.
Looking up at the corpse, Shiro tilted her head before closing her eyes.
Activating analysis EX, Shiro redirected some of Error''s powers towards her eyes.
Opening her eyes, the world lost its colour as she could see fragments of coding swirling around the corpse.
However, most of it had already been repurposed into something else. All that remained were corrupted codes that couldn''t be used without the new reincarnation being corrupted immediately.
Floating up, Shiro looked at the shards and tapped it with her finger.
Suddenly, millions of scenes shed in front of her as she was immediately overwhelmed and backed off.
Without her powers as the First Born, she couldn''t analyse as much information as she could before.
Clutching her head, Shiro furrowed her brows and tried to digest the information she had just experienced.
However, seeing as how a lot of it was still blurred since she didn''t ess the code long enough, she gritted her teeth and grabbed the code.
Trying her best to stay conscious, Shiro found herself viewing millions of memories all at the same time. There were a few that seemed to show her as Anima talking to whoever the betrayer was and some where this person was attacking fellow gods.
Trying to dig deeper, the code in her hand shattered to pieces as the memories faded away.
Standing in the air with a frown on her face, Shiro sighed since she still didn''t know the reason why this was even here.
However, just before she wanted to leave, the shards of the code started to thread together into a strange golden figure that was missing the upper half of his head along with other parts of his body.
"This feeling¡ So you''ve returned your grace." The man muttered with a small smile as Shiro started at him before opening her mouth.
The moment she heard his voice, she recognised who it was. It was the first person to have ever entered her domain and told her of the outside world.
The one who she had talked to constantly when he visited so that she could learn about the outside world.
The world outside of her prison.
"I do apologise about my state. I wish I could see you in better conditions though my situation kind of speaks for itself haha." The man joked as Shiro bit her lip.
"Isvelger, what happened? I thought I had told you to stay away from the fight. If you did, they shouldn''t have known about your connection to me. Why have you been branded as the betrayer and left to rot in this ce?" Shiro asked as Isvelger chuckled and sat down the same way he would when they conversed back in the domain.
"Well¡ as the first person to bring back a fruit from your domain, it was only natural that I would be targeted. Though that''s not why I left a shard of myself to converse with you right now. After I had learned of your defeat, I immediately left to finish my research as soon as I could. You had mentioned that you wanted to achieve creation during one of our conversations despite knowing the futility so I gambled. I gambled that as the First Born of Destruction, the one that keeps our universe bnced with the side of Creation, you would never truly die and that I should work towards helping your next incarnation. My life would be over the moment they find me, with the gods on their side, they knew that I took your side so the best I could do was to dy things as much as possible." Isvelger said as he tried to point towards what he had created but remembering that he had long been robbed, he sighed.
"So before my capture, I experimented with the fruit you gave me. You know that I was more of a schr than I was a fighter and researching was my strength. In our universe, it''s hard to gather pure creation energy since it has you, the First Born of Destruction residing here. Pure creation energy is in some aspects more powerful than destruction and as strange as it sounds, more destructive than pure destruction. All of the beings in this world are wed and the moment they are exposed to pure creation, they are killed. Trying to introduce energies of pure creation into this world is the equivalent of erasing a portion of our universe permanently.
"I''ve done a few small experiments that ended in failure but lucky I was able to avoid being killed. Eventually, using the fruit that you gave me as a medium, I was able to introduce some aspects of creation into this world. Pure creation that had been bnced by pure destruction. The key is to activate both at the same time, never letting one being bigger than the other and they''ll be forced into equilibrium. Thus creating what I like to call Chaos Energy. The fruit itself was so unbelievably unstable that it could shatter the world with a wrong move and yet it was able to reach an equilibrium. A paradoxical existence but it worked. I had wanted to give you the fruit but it had been robbed. Thus I can only try give you the notes of my research in hopes that it can help. The physical notes had been destroyed and my soul was shattered. Thankfully, I split off a portion of myself the moment I finished my research and made a deal with the system. At the time of my death, when my soul had been erased, I will be the boss monster of my own dungeon that was myb. Within thisb, I set up a barrier simr to the one in your old domain but reserves. It used to be everyone but Anima could leave and enter but now, it''s only Anima can leave or enter this part of the dungeon. When I sensed your destruction energy re then disappear, I realised that you hadn''t given up on achieving creation so I sent my dungeon to this ce. Hopefully you can find information that helps you. I wish you good luck." Isvelger smiled as Shiro gritted her teeth.
"What about yourself? You did so much for me but what did you do for yourself?" Shiro asked.
Chuckling at her question, Isvelger stood up.
"I am already happy. I was able to see the truth of everything before my death. All the knowledge I could ever want, all the answers I could ever hope to get. When I introduced Chaos Energy to this part of the world, I had started a chain reaction that allowed paradoxical existences to survive. It allowed you to achieve what you had wanted all along. This is my destiny fulfilled." Isvelger smiled as bowed towards Shiro.
"Though there is one regret, I was never able to see you achieve your dream. Therefore, with my research, I hope that you can aplish what you desire." Isvelger said as his figure started to break apart.
"It was sad to see you who loved life more than anyone suffer as you could not enjoy the joy it brought due to your power. However, seeing you now, I can tell that you''re slowly but surely reaching your dream. Therefore, stand firm your grace."
Watching Isvelger slowly fade into light particles, Shiro nodded her had and looked at his name tag and smiled.
"Have a safe trip."
[Isvelger LVL ??? Achiever of Omniscience (Rank ?)]
Chapter 1183 - ‘Shipment’
Chapter 1183 - ¡®Shipment¡¯
Watching Isvelger disappear for good, his corpse followed in his footsteps and started to disintegrate.
Looking down, Shiro could see a small building where his corpse would have been.
ncing back at the light particles that were floating in the air, Shiro sighed but eventually smiled.
During his life, he was eventually able to surpass the system, reaching an unknown level and an unknown rank along with the ss, Achiever of Omniscience. Overall, he lived his life to the fullest and achieved what he wanted.
Floating down, Shironded in front of the door and pushed it open.
The inside of this small house was simple. Nothing grandiose like arge city but rather a single table with a single book.
The book was decorated with a small lock that didn''t have an opening for a key.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro picked up the book and felt a small prick on her finger. Despite her physique reaching a stage that most things couldn''t hurt her anymore, this was somehow still able to draw blood.
Watching her blood get absorbed by the book, the lock eventually opened with a click and the book was opened.
*BOOM!!!
Suddenly, a neon blue light filled the room as holographic text could be seen spewing out of the book, forming paragraphs upon paragraphs of writing that floated around her.
Countless diagrams, forms, spell circle theories and information was written out as everything tried to force their way into Shiro''s mind.
However, without her benefits as the First Born of Destruction avable, she had to prematurely close the book for now.
"I can probably look into this when I go to Aarim. This might give some information on the other universe too." Shiro muttered to herself as she looked down at the book in her hands.
[Records of Chaos Energy (Rainbow +)]
A book that was created by the first person in the universe that achieved omniscience. While he was unable to write down all of his knowledge, this book contains all of his research on how to bring creation energy into this world without any bacsh.
Storing it away into her inventory, Shiro make her way out of the building.
"Let''s head back now, there''s nothing else in this dungeon and I''ve got what I wanted." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head and nced back.
"Was he someone you knew? I couldn''t hear what was being said since there was a barrier." Nan Tian asked.
"Yes he was, he was technically the first person I ever knew. He was the first one who found my prison and told me about the outside world. Though I think it''s better to know him as the first to reach Omniscience." Shiro smiled as she started to tell Nan Tian about the stories that Isvelger had told her many many years ago.
Before they could even reach the tower, Nan Tian received a call on his phone.
Seeing that it''s Kanae, Nan Tian raised an eyebrow and epted the call.
"Hello? Did something happen?" Nan Tian asked.
"Yes, there''s a slight¡ Hostage situation. I was doing my patrols outside of the city and it''s probably better if youe here. My speed and power is a little¡ low to deal with them with the usual method unfortunately." Kanae reported as Nan Tian could tell that she sounded dispirited.
Hearing that Kanae was a little too weak to deal with the situation, Shiro was rather curious and asked if she could talk to Kanae for a bit.
Nodding his head, Nan Tian handed over his phone.
"Sup, can you tell me the situation?"
"Shiro-nee?! When did youe back to- actually, never mind. Right now, me and my squad were tracking some ve traders that trade people between the remaining Queens. Some are even trading to cities that have been converted to holy cities for certain gods. One of my scouts managed to find arge transport vehicle full of ves but the guards are too powerful. My scouts were captured and it seems like they don''t know where we''re from just yet so they''re not being very cooperative. Usually I would take charge but as I said, I''m a bit too weak to deal with all of them so I''m asking if Nan Tian could send some reinforcements. If Shiro-nee is back then you could probably handle it by yourself if you''re free." Kanae said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, I can probably deal with it. I''m taking a small break anyways. Send me your coordinates and some of your documents regarding this case, I''ll read up on it."
"Mn, I''ll send you the stuff now, see you soon Shiro-nee."
Cutting the call, Kanae send over the documents while Shiro gave Nan Tian his phone back.
"Already getting yourself some work I see." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
"Well I like to keep myself busy. Anyways, it''s teleporter 4-6 and I''ll need to travel north from there. Doesn''t seem to be too far." Shiro muttered while scanning the information Kanae had sent over.
After she had left Asharia, Kanae picked up some clues on several gangs of ve traders that kidnap people from cities and those that camp outside of cities. With how some of the Queens operated along with the habits of Gods, the ve traders found themselves new patrons that are willing to grant them protection, making it easier for them to go about their business.
The one that Kanae had tracked was a new group of ve traders that had started to encroach on the zones near Asharia, making their presence known. This was the first conflict between them and had Shiro note back, Nan Tian would have probably sent Shiina and other pilots of the Machine Legion to deal with it.
"This group doesn''t have a name yet it seems, just a bunch of idiots that banded together to earn some protection from Gods and Queens. Well considering how the world is now, they probably have no choice. I''ll ask them a few questions when I get there and see how it goes. Their answers will determine their fate." Shiro said as she stretched her body.
Waving her hand, she swapped out her outfit and changed her appearance slightly so that they don''t know who she is while also disguising her name tag.
[Sera LVL 500 Healing Sage.]
With her false identity covered, Shiro gave Nan Tian a wave before dashing towards the teleport circle.
Seeing this, Nan Tian couldn''t help but smile seeing Shiro being rather carefree since she had been under a lot of stress before.
"I should probably organise a small transport party and make some room in Asharia to wee some new citizens. They might be traumatised by what''s happened to them so far so a few therapists should also be there to help." Nan Tian muttered as he started to organise a small part to clean up after Shiro and help those that she saves.
###
Stepping through the gates, Shiro travelled north and found Kanae sitting on a cliff watching several trucks drive away with people standing on top of each one, guarding the ''shipments''.
"Shiro-nee." Kanae greeted as Shiro nodded.
"Have any of your subordinates been harmed yet?" Shiro asked as Kanae shook her head.
"No, they''ve been taken to the first truck for questioning. I''m not sure if they''re going to use them as ves or kill them but they''re still alive for now." Kanae replied.
"Gotit. Well done for keeping your cool. Let your big sis handle it now." Shiro grinned as she patted Kanae''s hair.
Stepped off the cliff, Shiro pushed off the cliff face andunched herself into the distance.
Flying past the trucks without the guards noticing, Shironded on their path and stomped down.
The ground suddenly ruptured as the trucks pulled their breaks just in time.
All of the guards simultaneously jumped off and faced Shiro with a frown on their faces.
"Well hello boys, I heard that you guys are carrying some shipments for Gods and Queens. Care to stop what you''re doing and surrender? I promise you that there are better things for you to do. The city of Asharia will provide with you proper work without resorting to very. There''s no need to act like savages." Shiro offered with a smile.
However, all of them proceeded to attack without a second thought.
ncing at their levels, Shiro could see that their average was around level 850, very high for people in the new age and knew that they must have achieved it thanks to their patrons. For Kanae, it''s obvious that she would have struggled a lot with so many of them being higher level than them along with hostages at their disposal.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro stretched her body and started to walk forward with a small smile.
Flickering in front of her, one of the guards swung his sword that Shiro didn''t even both to block.
"CLANG!!!!
Bending at an angle, the sword failed to cut into Shiro''s skin and warped due to the strength of the wielder.
Seeing this, the guard widened his eyes in shock and jumped back while spells wereunched towards her.
Again, Shiro didn''t do anything and allowed the spells to hit.
"Hm could use a bit more power. My daughter''s spicy food packs more punch than your spell." Shiro chuckled.
"Now, what do you think about my offer? It''s not toote to surrender yourselves."
Chapter 1184 - Exp Bags?
Chapter 1184 - Exp Bags?
"Don''t listen to her, she''s just toying with us, look at that smile. You already know she''s intent on killing all of us." One of the guards in the back said as he grabbed one of the ves by the neck and aimed a sword at the neck.
"People like you are usually weak to hostages. Though seeing the look in your eyes, you probably don''t care." He said while shrugging his shoulders.
"Perhaps. Though I wasn''t kidding when I said there were better jobs out there than this. I''m not one to kill outright. Not my style anymore, I''ll give y''all a second chance." Shiro smiled while suddenly teleporting behind the guards.
Sitting on the truck that held all of the ves, Shiro rested her chin on her palm.
"So what''s the verdict, will you join or will you fight till the end. Left for join, right for fight. Though if you''re worried that I''ll set down a spell then you can just attack me, I''ll make your death swift." Shiro grinned as the guards looked at one another.
###
This one is crazy, I can see it in her eyes. Being a ve trader isn''t my favourite way to survive but the gods need their workers and to live I need to bend the knee. Keeping my code of conduct isn''t going to help me survive when the gods aim their spell at me.
But honestly, between the gods and this girl, she''s giving me the creeps. Her stat says that she''s weaker but that''s bullshit. There''s no way that a level 500 medic can do what she''s doing right now.
"Boden, what should we do?" One of my friends whispered over, while I kept my grip on the ve''s neck. I doubt having a hostage would do us much good right now so I started to consider my options.
''I''m tired.''
I tilt my head back and look up at the sky the same way I did when the world changed for the worst. Everything was flipped on its head and people had to resort to many things to survive. Honestly, there''s just no more space for humans in this world. Their spots were now at the bottom, the ves for Queens who are the ves to the Gods themselves. We''re at the bottom of the food chain.
We have to resort to cruel methods or making a joke of ourselves if we want to survive. It''s tiring.
If I die, that might be better. Maybe a god out there can take my soul to a better ce or perhaps Hades will torment me for all that I''ve done.
"Boden?" My friend asked again as I looked back down.
"Drop your weapons, if there''s a way to live properly let''s go for it. We''re workers but let''s be honest, we''re no different from being ves ourselves." I smile bitterly, letting go of the hostage and my weapon.
If I live then I''ll live properly, if I die then I suppose that''s my atonement.
###
Watching Boden step away from the hostage, Shiro saw that a few others joined him while the rest furrowed their brows.
"I''ll give you another five seconds to decide before I act." Shiro reminded with a smile.
Pulling out her phone, she opened the clock and showed them the seconds ticking down.
As it slowly reached zero, her grin twisted into one that was now filled with killing intent.
Tapping her finger down, the world around her paused as she immediately appeared next to the ones that decided to refuse her offer.
"How should I kill? I did say I''ll make it fast." Shiro muttered.
Pushing her finger against their chin lightly, she proceeded to do the same with the others before snapping her fingers again.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
As if several bombs had just exploded behind her, the heads of those that rejected her offer were blown off and their bodies were sent flying back from the force.
"So fragile, so squishy." Shiro muttered before turning to the ones that epted her offer.
"Let''s see, six of you huh? Not too bad. You seem like their leader so I''ll have a few words with you. In the meantime, feel free to wait around for a bit, my little sister will being to help clean things up." Shiro smiled as those that chose to stick with Boden widened their eyes in fear.
To them, all they saw was Shiro smile then everyone died.
Seeing Shiro walk towards them, they all instinctively backed off while Boden swallowed his saliva and walked towards her.
"Kanae, I''ll leave the rest to you. Youe with me." Shiro smiled as she grabbed Boden by the shoulder.
Dragging him through the rift, she teleported them to the top of a nearby cliff so that they could have a good vantage point of the entire area.
"So then, let''s see¡ Boden, level 850 huh? Not bad for someone without a proper backing. You could probably keep up with some of the weaker Queens if they''re still around." Shiro smiled as she offered him a mana stick.
Shaking his head, he looked around for a rock to sit down on.
"Well since you brought me here, you clearly want something from me." He said as Shiro nodded her head while cing the mana stick in her mouth.
"Yep. Tell me where you got the ves, who wants them and which Queen or God employed you to do their dirty work. I''ll clear up a few loose ends." Shiro smiled as her disguise faded away.
Pausing in shock, Boden didn''t know how to react as Shiro''s white hair fluttered behind her.
"Well?" Shiro raised an eyebrow as Boden started tough.
"I was wondering why this seemed too good to be true. So it was you. We''ve all seen broadcasts of what you''ve done for everyone and I thank you on behalf of all my friends for this chance." Boden bowed as Shiro chuckled.
"You''re wee."
"As for where we got the people, we would run some raids on certain out of city bases that they would set up. We don''t have a choice on which ones we attack since a few are within the domain of Queens and our patrons would prefer to avoid that for now as they don''t know which gods are helping who. ording to my patron, the second half of the new age is as much of a ''game'' for the gods as it is with the Queens. They''re on one side for now since there''s someone called the First Born of Destruction around but once they''re out of the picture, the gods will fight again.
"As for who wants them, it''s the close allies of my Patron. They''re buying powerful people as ves so that they can cultivate them into people with high levels through killing. As for their names, I can write down a list of them." Boden said as Shiro stopped smiling the moment she heard how they cultivate people with high levels.
"So they''re using them as EXP bags?" Shiro asked but Boden shook their heads.
"If that was the case it''ll be better. No, they send us into fighting rings and bet on who lives or who dies. It''s a sport for the gods. If the lower level wins, they get plenty of EXP and better treatment since they managed to kill someone that was higher level. And I won, I won plenty." Boden sighed heavily as Shiro crushed the mana stick in her hands.
"What I do next might hurt but it won''t kill, is that ok?" Shiro asked as Boden nodded his head.
cing her hand on his head, red circuits appeared as Shiro activated Analysis EX and essed his source code.
Making sure that she didn''t kill him, she watched the scenes flicker past her.
The fights, the treatment after, his guilt, his regrets.
Removing her hand, Shiro stood in silence while looking at Boden who didn''t let out a single cry of pain despite what he had to go through.
Shiro knew that it would have felt like someone ripping out everything in his body before cing it back in.
"I''ll sort things out, don''t worry. You can work if you want but you can also just take a break from everything in Asharia." Shiro said as she teleported him away.
"You''re not thinking of attacking them while you don''t have your powers of destruction now are you?" Iriel asked as he summoned himself next to Shiro.
"Perhaps." Shiro said as there wasn''t a smile on her face.
Reaching into her inventory, she pulled out a hand cannon as radiant white energy started to flood her arm.
Gritting her teeth, she could feel her flesh burn but eventually settled down to the point it was bearable. It wasn''t perfect yet but it was a simtion of creation energy using the powers that Error granted her. The forceful modification of the source code and the energy that resides within her arm.
Grabbing Iriel, dark energy started to flicker from the de.
"Let''s call it an experiment. To put Isvelger''s notes to use." Shiro said as she cracked her neck.
"Creation can be just as dangerous as destruction."
Stepping off the cliff, Shiro plunged towards the earth before opening a portal.
Chapter 1185 - Rampage
Chapter 1185 - Rampage
"Thetest shipment is a littlete isn''t it?" A man asked while swirling some wine in his ss.
"There has been an unexpected dy but don''t worry the shipment will arrive without any problems." A woman bowed before walking out of the room.
"L, exin." She said, closing the door behind her.
"We haven''t been able to get into contact with any of them. Some of their life fires have also been extinguished. We can assume that they ran into some trouble." The girl named L replied while following behind the woman.
"Tsk, right in our territory too. Did another Queen or worker for the gods interfere?" The woman asked but L shook her head.
"Hmm¡ Troublesome. Alright, I''ll go get an audience with the god. Go keep an eye out on the walls, make sure everything is running smoothly."
Nodding her head, L bowed before making her way out of the castle.
With L now gone, the woman teleported to her chambers that now had a totem in the middle of her room.
Groveling before the totem, the woman bit her lip and took a deep breath.
"I apologise, the shipment has been dyed. Our workers have run into some danger. Few of them have lost their lives." After saying this, she stayed silent.
There was a strange hum in the room, ask though wind was passing through several holes. The fires flickered and a strange energy gripped her mind.
The totem in front of her started to shake as the eyes lit up with a me.
"Kill the one who caused this. Tear their skin off their body, their flesh off their bones and present them to me. Then all will be forgiven." A voice echoed as the woman shuddered before nodded her head.
"If the person was able to kill the carriers, they may prove to be an annoyance to deal with. May I have some power to deal with the problem?" The woman asked as the eyes started to flicker violently.
There was a long pause before the flickering died down.
"Very well. I suppose you do deserve some power."
Suddenly, screams erupted out from the totem as hallowed spirits grabbed the woman before plunging into her body.
Gritting her teeth, the woman epted their tampering before bowing onest time and left the room respectfully without turning her back.
Only when the door closed did she sigh in relief and copsed on the floor.
''Fucking gods¡'' She cursed in her mind before standing up.
She knew that the god could hear her thoughts but it derived enjoyment from bending her to his will. Even though she was defiant, there was nothing she could do.
Gritting her teeth in anger, she stormed towards the inner sanctum where they trained the warriors.
However, before she could, she could feel L''s energy tugging for her attention.
Walking towards the walls, the woman could see a faint shadow in the distance.
"You wanted my attention?" The woman asked as L nodded her head.
"We''ve tried to warn that person but they haven''t stopped nor did they reply. What should we do with her?" L asked as the woman thought for a moment before opening her mouth.
"We''re already at capacity, if she''s not heeding the warnings then just kill her, it''s a mercy." Nodding her head, L signalled the mages and archers that were stationed on the wall.
One of the mages activated a spell circle while the archers pulled back their bows and fired towards the figure in the distance. Watching the arrows fly through the spell circles to be empowered, the woman decided to walk away.
Hearing an explosion in the distance, she figured that the job was done.
However, hearing some confused muttering, the woman decided to turn back and see what was the problem.
Suddenly, the dust cleared as she could now see the figure clearly.
Her white hair fluttered in the dust, there was no smile on her face. Sword and gun in hand, the woman recognised who it was.
"Oh¡. Fuck¡." She muttered as she realised what they''ve just done.
Seeing the killing intent that she was now radiating, she knew that they were going to have to fight for their survival.
"Call everyone to battle stations, if we don''t kill her we''re all going to die."
Hearing this, everyone on the wall was shocked as they didn''t think their Queen would dere something like this.
###
Walking towards the main base where all the ves were being sent, Shiro felt oddly calm.
Obviously she was angry, she wished she could just bomb this ce using her satellite cannons and she could. However, by calm she meant she didn''t feel worried at all.
Her heart was akin to a peaceful ocean.
Seeing the arrows fly towards her, she aimed her hand cannon.
She didn''t even need to pause time to shoot them all down, it was simple work.
Pulling the trigger, she continued to fire without slowing down at all.
Waving her sword, she pushed the dust away before increasing her speed.
Little by little, she broke into a sprint as spells were hurled towards her.
Dark energy erupted from Iriel as Shiro stomped down and swung the de as hard as she could.
*BOOM!!!!!!!
A wave of dark energy rushed towards the spells, consuming them in an instant as Shiro continued to sprint towards them.
She wasn''t running at full speed either, this was her giving them a chance to slow her down but seeing their level of spells, she was left rather dissatisfied.
However, just as she was about to teleport, she saw the gates open and hundreds of men dashed out. Judging by the expressions of their face, Shiro guessed that they weren''t in their right mind. All of them gave the feeling of crazy guard dogs.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro activated Analysis EX and scanned their code in an instant.
"I see¡ I''ll give you peace." Shiro muttered.
Changing the bullet she was using, Shiro infused her fake creation energy into the battery of the gun and aimed towards the men who were charging at her.
*BANG!!!
Watching the first bullet hit one of the men, he immediately regained his thoughts as he looked around in confusion.
One of the others were about to run into him when a barrier sprung up around him, stopping him from getting harmed.
Confused by what''s happening, he could only watch in silence.
Firing a few more bullets, the same thing happened as Shiro unsummoned Iriel for now since she wasn''t going to harm these guys.
Stepping to the side, she avoided the first hit before grabbing their arm and aimed the gun under his chin.
*BANG!!!
Throwing him behind her, she ducked under the swing of the next person, firing a bullet into his chest as she was passing him.
Watching three try to jump on her, Shiro stomped down, causing them to lose their footing before firing at the three of them.
Pushing off their shoulder, Shirounched herself into the air and grabbed a grenade from her inventory.
Infusing it with energy from her left arm, she dropped it into arge crowd before switching her hand cannon into a shotgun.
Switching the bullet once more, she fired the gun and watched as each pellet ''woke'' up the berserkers.
Throwing her shotgun back into her inventory, Shiro mmed her hand down, creating a giant dome of ice that sealed the city off.
The dome was also enchanted with runes to prevent teleportation.
Running towards the walls of the city, Shiro twisted her body and threw a dagger.
Tens of magic circles appeared in front of the dagger, increasing its speed as it transformed into a ray of light.
*PUSHI!!!!
"URG!!!!"
Plunging into the neck of one of the mages on the wall, Shiro suddenly appeared where the dagger was and stared at the mage.
Grabbing him by the head, she mmed it into her knees, shattering his skull and killed him instantly.
The fighters that were on the walls tried to stop her but two shards of ice erupted from her palms, piercing them in the head along with the mages behind them.
Snapping her finger, their corpses exploded into droplets of blood as she flung it towards the archers.
Lightning flickered off her fingertips as it jumped from one blood droplet to another until it reached the archers.
Charring them into cinders in an instant, Shiro pulled out another grenade and threw it behind her, destroying arge part of the walls while also killing the archers while sparing a few.
Right now, she was scanning their source codes to see who she kills and who she spares.
An insane amount of information was flowing through her mind but she persisted.
Seeing as how there were still a lot of archers and mages running from the other side of the wall, Shiro narrowed her eyes and threw her dagger into the air.
sping her hands together, the daggers started to duplicate themselves as Shiro''s eyes could be seen reflected off the de.
Activating Argus'' blessing, she scanned everyone on the walls.
Feeling light headed for a moment, Shiro flexed her fingers and shattered the daggers into shards that flung themselves towards the ones she chose to kill.
Their bodies were instantly impaled by countless shards that tore them apart, killing them instantly while those she spared could only watch in horror.
Summoning Iriel, Shiro swung her de, cleaving a path towards the main castle.
Chapter 1186 - Alternative Options
Chapter 1186 - Alternative Options
Arriving at the main gates to the castle, Shiro narrowed her eyes and kicked it down.
Scanning the entire ce, Shiro could sense quite a few people working here with a giant arena where they kept all the ves.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro ced her hand on the walls of the castle and scanned the entire building.
Activating Analysis EX, she filtered out those that were ''good'' and ughtered the bad. With the influx of memories and records flooding her mind, Shiro stumbled for a moment as blood dripped from her nose.
Shaking her head, she wiped the blood away and proceeded to make her way towards the main room where she felt arge source of divine energy. There was no doubt that whatever is in the room is connected to the god.
Stomping her foot down, Shiro teleported anyone who wasn''t involved out of the castle before walking towards the room.
Seeing the set of doors, she kicked it down, revealing a grotesque statue in the middle.
"So you''re the one who''s running this ce." Shiro said while resting Iriel on her shoulder.
"Ye-"
*BANG!!!
Firing her hand cannon, Shiro cut him off while approaching without care.
"That was a statement not a question. Had it been a question I would have permitted you to talk back to me." Shiro scoffed while firing another bullet at the ceiling.
Suddenly, a web of runes spread itself across the ceiling.
Just as the god was about toin, Shiro appeared in front of the statue and plunged Iriel into the chest.
Flicking her wrist, a faint blue silhouette appeared with his chest pierced by her de.
Seeing that it was a rather young boy with ck hair, ck eyes with gold pupils, ck runic tattoos and tribalistic clothes, Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Hm, so you prefer to act bigger than you actually are."
"Who the hell are you?!" The god hissed while trying to move but realised that the runes had transformed into chains that locked onto him while the sword stopped him from leaving.
Cold sweat drenched his back as he didn''t think there was someone like this in the mortal realm at this point in time.
"Dead people don''t need to know. Let''s see¡."
Pulling out a book, Shiro started to read through Isvelger''s notes while keeping the god suspended in mid air.
"Hey! I''m tal-"
*PUSHI!!!
Flicking her hand, Shiro tore his jaw off, stopping him from speaking while she read the notes.
"Don''t interrupt me. Its not like anything you say will save you anyways. Unless you want to make the process more painful I suggest you shut up." Shiro warned while flicking through the pages.
Gritting his teeth, the god stared at the sword and wondered what kind of weapon could actually hold him down like this.
Sending out his energy, he realised that it waspletely suppressed by the de.
He was no different from a mortal right now.
Widening his eyes, he could feel fear gripping his heart. His divinity was sealed and he couldn''t leave this ce either. The only thing stopping fear from overwhelming him was that the girl hadn''t found his core yet. He couldn''t be killed.
"If I use your core as a catalyst, I''ll be able to create a container to fuse both creation and destruction together without harming myself. Perfect."
Covering her hand with red circuits, Shiro stabbed it into the god''s chest and pulled out the core that was now wrapped with red circuits.
Flinching with pain, the god watched in horror as Shiro created a scalpel with her circuits.
"Just in case you''re too loud, let''s make sure you can''t make a sound anymore." Her with spare hand, she pulled out a strand of code from his core and started to overwrite some of the code.
Feeling as though a million daggers were carving into his mind, the god wanted to shout but realised that he had ''forgotten''. He knew what shouting was, he knew that he could do it but he forgot how.
Panting in shock, he realised that Shiro was changing the core of his being.
His divinity, his power, it doesn''t matter anymore.
Ignoring the desperate pleadings of the god, Shiro started to transform his code into a conduit for creation energy.
"Since this universe is practically the source of destruction, pulling creation energy to this universe will be difficult. One must create a tear in space that reaches across the uncountable amount of universes until it reaches the one closest to the source of creation. Only then can you find the right bnce. Anything less than this will not be stable and will continue to eat away at the ''host'' until nothing is left. Tearing through the space will be no easy task, it''s akin to grabbing the edges of a sheet of paper and folding it in a way where the two edges ovep.
"To do so would be to fold this universe for the two realms to ovep. Aarim has already aplished this with her tower but that''s fuelled by the massive amounts of energy that Asharia provides. With just my energy source right now, especially with my divinity sealed, it''ll be difficult to pull off but not impossible. If I can cut a few corners I can make this process easier. It''s just a matter of finding which code corresponds to the universe we''re in. Once that''s done, I can adjust some of the other codes to make the core produce creation energy rather than destruction. The system epasses both sides so it should already have the information for creation." Shiro muttered while cutting deeper into the core.
As she continued to cut into the core, she failed to realise the state of the god as her tampering had long destroyed his consciousness. In her hands, his core was now no different to an orb with lots of power. There was no god or being attached to that core anymore.
It was being changed into something that shouldn''t exist on this side of the universe.
However, Shiro suddenly felt something off as she immediately released the seals in the room and shot a hole into the ceiling.
Throwing the core as high as she could, Shiro activated several magic circles and elerated it into space.
*BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!
Watching the creation energy suddenly erupt from the core and wash the world with a bright light, Shiro frowned since the reaction was much faster than what she had expected. If she didn''t feel that something wasn''t right, she might have been consumed by the explosion. Looking up, she guessed that quite a few of her satellites were obliterated by the force even though they were reinforced by her divinity.
"Makes sense. I suppose when I grab energy from the creation side, I need something just as strong to counteract the creation energy. The core of that god only had small amounts of destruction, far from enough to actually bnce it out. With the vtile nature of the energy, if I don''t bnce it quickly it''ll explode immediately since this universe doesn''t allow pure creation to exist." Shiro sighed as she realised her mistakes. Since she used the core of a god, she''ll need to wait a while to obtain another sample like this.
The only reason why she was able to suppress him that easily was because he underestimated her, allowing her to set up her spells along with the fact that the god was weakened due to the system.
Since he could only have a slither of his power here, it was an easy task for her to teleport his core to her location using error. If he was here with 100% of his power, Shiro was afraid that it wouldn''t be as easy. She might have to work a little harder.
Shaking her head, she dusted her hands before making her way out of the castle.
Looking at everyone that she had spared, Shiro could seeplete fear in their eyes.
"Yikes, might have traumatised them a little too hard. Even those that are ''good'' will certainly hate me since I killed their friends in front of their eyes." Shiro muttered before pulling out her phone.
Tapping Nan Tian''s name, she called him so that he could help her clean up this mess she caused.
"If you''re calling about cleaning up I''m already on the way with several people. They''re handling Boden and his friends that you handed off to Kanae, anything else you need help with?" Nan Tian said as Shiro paused for a moment before chuckling.
"Thank you. Do you happen to bring some therapists with you?" Shiro asked.
"Yes, I''ve brought a few just in case you show them something gruesome."
"Well¡. Perhaps we might need more than just a few. I may have ughtered an entire city in front of their eyes." Shiro stuck her tongue out as Nan Tian sighed.
"Alright, I''ll have theme quickly. What''s your location?"
"Thanks I can always count on you. I''ll send you to it now."
Cutting the call, Shiro sent Nan Tian the coordinates before pulling out Isvelger''s notes and making some side notes for herself since she doesn''t have ess to what Isvelger had when he did his tests.. She had to find alternative options.
Chapter 1187 - True Realm Of The Dead
Chapter 1187 - True Realm Of The Dead
Once she was back in Asharia, Shiro sat down and looked at the timer counting down until theing of the second age. With only less than a day left, Shiro leaned back and sighed heavily.
On the table were the notes she had written for Isvelger''s research.
Sitting next to her, Nan Tian ced a cup of juice in front of her.
"I''ve already sorted out the new residents. The staff are showing them around and living areas have already been prepared. Though some of them seem to be a little¡ ''out of it''. But it''s not too surprising given what had transpired." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Feeling nervous about the second age?" He asked curiously since Shiro was rather quiet now that her little rampage had finished.
"Not really. It''s hard to describe I suppose. Though don''t worry, I''ll figure it out eventually." Shiro smiled.
"I see¡ Well just remember to take a break. You are overworking yourself quite a bit. It''s hard to ''take a break'' when the fate of the world is at stake but not taking a break will just break you faster. From what you said, achieving proper creation energy will be difficult but we''ve already made a lot of progress. Aarim has already started to interact with that side of the universe and it''s only a matter of time before a portal can be made." Nan Tian smiled while picking up some of her research notes.
"Mn, true. All I need to do is to put the theory to the test when everything is sorted. As for the second half, I just need to make sure I don''t die and the gods don''t mess with us. Most of them are busy looking for the destroyer anyways, they won''t bother little old me when they don''t know my identity. There''s no rush." Shiro chuckled while leaning against Nan Tian. Closing her eyes for a moment, its her first proper rest in thest week without feeling millions of eyes staring at her from the shadows. Her fear of her friends being killed by powerful beings washed away momentarily.
Blinking his eyes in surprise, Nan Tian didn''t expect Shiro to lean against him as he pulled out a nket.
"Thanks, wake me up in two hours or so. One of the administrators told me to be there when the egg in the North Pole hatches so I want to see what kind of changes the second half brings." Shiro said, epting the nket.
"Sure."
Allowing Shiro to rest for a while, Nan Tian checked the recent reports of the egg in the North Pole while making sure not to move too much. That way, he wouldn''t wake up Shiro earlier than expected.
Checking the report, he realised that there was a small increase of crystal production even without ''feeding'' the egg life energy from monsters. The absorption rate of the crystals decreased while the egg''s production increased.
It was a small change, barely noticeable but since Shiro brought up the advice of the Administrator, Nan Tian couldn''t ignore this change in data.
Looking at the other reports, there wasn''t much else except for this.
''The reports are a day old so there are probably some other changes as we approach the time limit. Perhaps the changes will increase the closer we get.'' He thought to himself.
Suddenly feeling movement on his arm, he nced down only to realise that Shiro was adjusting her position to keep herselffortable.
Chuckling for a moment, Nan Tian continued to work.
###
Blinking her eyes, Gaia found herselfying down on the floor. Thest thing she remembered was finishing the trial and getting the ''upgrade''.
Quickly looking around her, she saw that the others were also starting to wake up now.
Just as she was about to muster some divine energy from her body, she realised that she waspletely drained. Not a single speck of energy could be mustered as her regeneration wasn''t activating either.
"Don''t be concerned, it''s just your body adjusting to the changes. The upgrade from Rank 3 to Rank 4 is a rather big step and I suppose you can say that you''re in ''debt'' of energy right now. The system is draining your energy until this ''debt'' is gone." A voice rang out as Gaia quickly jumped up and looked towards the source.
"Shiro? No, wait. You''re not Shiro, the feeling is different." Gaia muttered with a small frown.
She could see two figures sitting on the bridge while waiting for them to wake up. One looked like Shiro while the other was slightly different but had simr features.
"Yeah I''m not Shiro. I''m Anima, a shard of her old self. And she is a fruitdy, she''s a spirit of the fruit that I used to give out." Anima said as the other woman frowned and smacked her on the head.
"I prefer the name Ria." Ria said as she floated down next to Gaia.
cing her hand on Gaia''s shoulder, a flood of energy rushed into her body as Gaia realised that Ria was helping her ''clear the debt''.
Feeling the weakness leave her body, Gaia thanked Ria.
"So since you''re a shard of Shiro''s old self, is there something you need from us? We don''t have much to offer but we can try to help." Gaia asked as Anima shook her head.
"I don''t really need anything from you. If anything, it''s more than me and fruity will be helping you five improve a little. I''m sure you know the First Borns are waking up, while quite a few of the High Primordials have already started to regain their power. If you five cannot match them, I''m afraid you''ll just be a hindrance to Shiro. So we figured that we might as well give her a helping hand and help you five get used to your new power and even raid some of the old domains of other First Borns. I''m sure most of them are looted but a few should still have some decent stuff in them." Anima smiled while projecting a map of their universe, highlighting the old domains of a few First Borns that she had killed during her final fight.
"I''m sure Shiro would love to train you lot properly but since she''s unavable I''ll be the one to train you along with fruity. So while fruity wakes up the others, I''ll need you to help me do a few tasks so that me and fruity can actually leave this ce without the domain trying to kill us." Anima shrugged as Gaia nodded her head.
Furrowing her brows, Ria sent a telepathic message to Anima.
''Are you not going to tell her that when we get out, some of the High Primals will sense our power ande knocking for our heads?''
''Nah, perfect time to train them no? What better way than to fight through literal hordes of Gods. I''ll make sure they''re identities are not discovered to make their lives a bit easier after the training. Shiro will figure out a way to either mask or take away our destructive aura anyways.'' Anima replied with augh.
Shrugging her shoulders, Ria stopped bothering since it wasn''t as though she could convince Anima anyways. She kind of just did whatever she wanted when she wanted.
Suddenly, Gaia felt something wrong but couldn''t put her finger on it.
###
"How are you feeling now?" Vuldrin asked as he watched Lyrica stand in the middle of the desert of the Beyond. After obtaining a new ss, Lyrica had immediately started to consolidate her power, entering a meditative state to understand her body and energy.
Opening her eyes, Lyrica nced back.
"Better than before. Though it''s still a little unbnced. I did force it into my body so it''s to be expected. I think if I were to do a few fights, I should be able to sort things out." Lyrica replied as Vuldrin nodded his head.
"Chances of reaching level 1000?"
"Not enough. Reaching the max level requires a divinity of sorts. I may be the Empress of Samsara right now but it''s still not a divinity." Lyrica shook her head.
"So what''s the n then? Seeing your reaction, you probably have something in mind."
"Yep. Samara is the cycle of death and rebirth. Naturally, that means we need to travel to thend of the dead then experience rebirth. Only then can I fully understand what I''m ruling over and it should help me grasp the divinity linked to my ss. Though I may have to piss off the realm ruler a little since she did say I''m not allowed to keep opening portals haha." Lyricaughed as Vuldrin shrugged.
"Then you better do it fast before she catches on."
"Quite audacious of you." A voice rang out as they both saw Juri walking out of a portal with a frown on her face.
"However, I can make an exception for you. I will open the portal myself since your method of opening is too violent." Juri offered as Lyrica raised an eyebrow.
"Well that certainly makes things better. Care to exin why you''re suddenly feeling so helpful?"
"A small agreement between me and your friend. Plus, I''d rather you not brute force your way through my realm." Juri shrugged as she stomped her foot down and a portal opened up.
[Pathway to the True Realm of the Dead.]
Chapter 1188 - Save And Load
Chapter 1188 - Save And Load
Stretching her body, Shiro yawned before looking up to see Nan Tian working.
"Did you enjoy your rest?" He asked with a small smile.
"Mn, haven''t had a good sleep like this in a while. How long did I sleep for?" Shiro asked while rubbing her eyes.
"Only 3 hours or so, are you sure you don''t want to sleep for longer?"
Shaking her head, Shiro wondered if there were any hot drinks in her inventory. As must as she enjoyed juice, she wanted something warm right now and warm juice was not exactly her favourite. The fact that it exists felt like heresy to juice in her eyes.
Checking the time, Shiro contemted to herself for a moment before opening her mouth.
"I was thinking that we should go to the North Pole to check out the egg together but perhaps it''s better to have Asharia nearby as backup. If the Administrator told me that I should be there for this then it''s either very dangerous or very beneficial. Regardless having Asharia nearby would be reassuring." Shiro said as Nan Tian thought about it.
"Perhaps. Though if it''s dangerous then it could put the whole city in danger. What if we have Asharia stand by in the void while the main party and the Ancient Lords can wait by the research station."
"True. Who knows, they might have information that they''re allowed to say once the second half arrives." Shiro said as she shrugged her shoulder.
Seeing that there were no drinks in her inventory, Shiro pouted until she noticed that Nan Tian had pulled out a cup of hot chocte in front of her.
Raising her eyebrow, she wondered where he even got it from.
Understanding her confusion, Nan Tian tapped the table as a holographic disy appeared, showing him a selection of drinks.
"After you gave me most of the controls, I figure I''ll program a drink machine in most of the rooms. You can just select which drink you want and the nanobots will obtain the ingredients from the food hall and make you the drink." Nan Tian exined while tapping a hot chocte for himself.
Suddenly, a cup appeared in front of him as a small portal could be seen on the bottom. Little by little, it began to fill up with hot chocte.
Once it was done, he raised the cup with a smile before drinking a mouthful.
"Handy. I''ll be honest I didn''t think to make something like this." Shiro admitted.
"Well you think of all sorts of things to make someone''s life easier. Anyways, shall we make our way to the North Pole then? That way we have more time to set up some defences just in case they''re needed."
Nodding her head, Shiro finished her drink and sent out an alert for everyone to not panic if they feel any tremors as it is merely the city teleporting to their next destination.
###
ncing at the notification, Aarim tossed her mana stick aside and wore her coat properly.
"Seems like Shiro''s nning something. With the second halfing in just a few hours, maybe she wants tounch an attack on a god or something." Aarim muttered before ncing back at Aoi who was getting dressed on the table.
She had just performed another full body scan to see if she could tap into the thing that Shiro calls the source code but there was no progress. Unlike Shiro, Aarim didn''t have anything like Error or special eyes to help her.
Though there was progress in another manner. With the inverse of her tower researching on time, she was able to develop a new skill of sorts while observing Aoi''s condition.
Due to the nature of Aoi''s body, they needed to reverse the change to its previous state much like loading an old save file. With simr concepts to how she brought her inverse tower to Asharia, it allowed her to gain some new insights which resulted in a mix of a healing spell andbat spell.
It depended on what she used it for but right now, there was two main uses. To revert to a ''save'' and to overwrite a ''save'' with a previous ''save''.
An example would be saving the information of a person in perfect health. Should they get injured, she can load the old information and make it so that they never got injured. Rather than healing, it was more akin to overwriting their information in the world. Therefore, if the enemy had any skill that would prevent healing, this skill would be ignored since it wasn''t technically ''healing'' only that it looked like it.
As for the second use, should she ''save'' the information of someone being injured heavily like Rokarn and they were to use a skill to regain their full health, she can overwrite their current state and load the old information, making it so that they''re heavily injured again.
While the two uses were simr, there was small differences that split them apart. If she was to load an old save, anything happened after that point to their body no longer exists or rather, it technically never happened.
So if she was to ''save'' Shiro''s base state and Shiro then stacks all of her berserk skills, she could then load the old save while ignoring the bacsh. Because technically it never happened and Shiro would also be able to use her berserk skills again.
As for overwriting, it was basically the same but everything still happened. If she saves Shiro being injured by the bacsh and then Shiro recovers her health, she can then overwrite the save and make it as though Shiro suffered the bacsh twice.
Naturally, this means the berserk skills receive a second set of cooldowns.
The only draw back of this skill is the mana usage since it is overwriting the information of a person. Even with the bonus in mana she got from Shiro, overwriting a save still drained most of her mana.
Aarim figured that once she obtains a divinity and ess to Divine Energy, things should get easier but until then, she had to save some mana to use this skill on a powerful energy along with saving a cast to help Shiro should she stack her berserk skills.
''I should probably write up a report of this skill so that Shiro can include it into her ns. Though we''ll need to do a few more tests to get a proper grasp on how much mana this uses.'' Aarim thought to herself as she left her office.
"Ah, does Shiro know that her dad and Nan Tian''s dad aren''t around? I think they ran out of teleport orbs since Asharia didn''t move around too much." Aarim muttered as both Li Jian and Koji had gone out of the city to do a bit of hunting on their own since they''re cking in levels a bit.
Shrugging her shoulders, Aarim figured that they should be fine, after all, they had some improvements during this time in Asharia.
###
*BANG BANG!!!
Rupturing the space around her, Keomi red at the humans who have sided with the Queen they were fighting. Even though it''s for their own survival, the crimes theymitted were far from forgivable. Doing everything in their power to exploit the people around.
"Unforgivable!" Keomi shouted out in anger as she knows her big sis Shiro won''t stand for something like this!
mming her fists together, lightning sparked around her as the clouds started to from above the battlefield.
[Keomi LVL 730 Storm Warlord.]
Two lightning dragons formed around her as she pulled her arm back and twisted her body 180 degrees, punching the assassin that appeared behind her.
*CRACK!!!
mming her fist into their jaw, Keomi could feel the bones crack from the punch. Lightning leapt off her arm and tore their body apart leaving nothing but a bloody mess.
"Your daughter has certainly made quite the improvement." Li Jianughed while rubbing his chin.
"Of course, she''s my daughter. Though speaking of her improving, if you don''t improve fast, she might overtake you." Kojiughed.
"Are you sure that''s not you we''re talking about? I mean look at yourself, you''re practically a walking zombie. Who knows how long you can keep fighting for." Li Jian taunted.
"Bah! Walking zombie? Is that the best insult you got? If I didn''t know any better I would think you''re a goblin. Look at that face, no wonder you''re still single." Koji clicked his tongue.
"Zombie!"
"Goblin!"
"Fine let''s settle this the old way! Whoevernds the killing blow on the Queen wins." Li Jian red as Koji didn''t back down.
"Deal!"
*BANG!!!
sping their hands together, the air seemed to rupture from the force used as the both of them released their aura and charged towards the castle.
A multi headed dragon seemed to appear behind Li Jian as his aura radiated with a brilliant gold hue while Koji''s was an ominous red that seemed to dye the entire world in blood.
[Koji LVL 850 Abyssal Blood Dreadnought]
[Li Jian LVL 850 Celestial Dragon Emperor of War]
Chapter 1189 - Asmodeus’s Message
Chapter 1189 - Asmodeus¡¯s Message
Bringing Asharia through the rift, Shiro watched as the fabric of reality twisted and turned to make space for such arge city.
Immediately blocking the sky, the shadow of Asharia loomed over the North Pole.
Those that were in the research base looked around in confusion before staring up at the sky with widened eyes.
With Asharia now at the North Pole, Shiro started to send outmands for mech units to be on standby while the main party members gathered at the teleport hall.
"Let''s see¡ Where''s dad and sis?" Shiro asked as she did a head count of the people that will be joining them for this short expedition.
"Oh they''re out clearing a city that belongs to a Queen. There''s been quite a lot of human trafficking recorded near that area and it doesn''t seem like the Queen hase into contact with one of the gods. Therefore, they decided to take this time for some training. I doubt they''ll be back soon but I assume they''ll be here once the transition of ages has finished." Aarim informed as Shiro paused before nodding her head.
"Well what about Yin, Attie and Lisandra? I figured that they''re probably sorting something out but it''s been a while since I saw them. I don''t sense them on Asharia either." Shiro asked curiously as quite a few of the party members seemed to be rather busy.
"Oh the bird and the angel? Yeah the little bird was worried for her little sister so the two of them started a little journey. Something about churches, angels, light and so on. I happened to hear a part of their conversation before they left." Syradil yawned while chewing on a spicy meat skewer that she had bought on the way here.
"Hm alright, if they are in danger I should sense it too since I have a link to them. Right now nothing''s happened so it should be fine." Shiro scratched her head.
Even though there were a lot of members missing, this line up of adventurers was still something to behold.
Excluding her, the party members are Nan Tian, Madison, Silvia, Aarim, Helion, Chen Yu, Keiko, Kanae, Misu, Esil, Estre, Nimue, Iziuel, Syradil, Revel and the Five Ancient Lords.
A few of the other notable members were the specialised pilots such as Shiina, Akhess, Oran, Celeste, Glen and the others.
cing a tag on everyone just in case, Shiro waved her hand and teleported everyone off the city.
Once they were off Asharia, they could see the mechsnding nearby as the city started to fade back into the Rift so that it would be safe from danger.
Right now, they were in the courtyard where the teleport circle was etched. The researchers in this station would use this to teleport back and forth from Asharia.
"So what are we doing here? All we know is that the second half is about to begin and you want us to be in the North Pole. Perhaps a boss will spawn? Though if that was the case I''m pretty sure you can handle it on your own." Helion asked curiously as his skin was slightly darker now due to the tan. After working in the forge tirelessly for days on end, Shiro could tell that there was more power hidden in his body. Each strike would no doubt pack a punch as he needed this power to forge better equipment.
"I''ve already told Nan Tian but the reason why we''re here is because one of the Administrators told me that I should be here when the egg hatches. He never gave me an exact time but I have a feeling that it''ll happen as the second half begins. With my body now in this state, anything the administrators throw at me might be a little too much for me solo so I''d asked all of you toe with me." Shiroughed as the party members looked at one another before shrugging.
"Excuse me miss Shiro, but would it be fine if I have a quick word?" Asmodeus called out as Shiro blinked her eyes before nodding her head.
Creating a portal, Asmodeus gestured for her to enter.
"Be right back. Nan Tian, can you set up a perimeter around the egg and tell me about any abnormalities when I return?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian smiled.
"Of course, don''t take too long now. We are on a time limit." Nan Tian chuckled.
Stepping through the portal, Shiro could see a throne ready for her.
Raising an eyebrow, she sat down and crossed her legs.
"Well? What did you want to tell me. I suppose it''s rather important if you''re wanting to speak to me alone." Shiro asked as Asmodeus kneeled before her.
"Yes. I was unable to tell you this information before due to the restrictions in the world. However, now that the link is getting weaker, I can now share this before battle does break out. Plus, if I share some of this to the others I may get my head torn off by Mistress Madison." Asmodeus chuckled as Shiro frowned.
"What battle?"
"You see, when you regained some of your power as a destroyer, the changes in your body caused a change in the world as a whole. It allowed gods to resurface and walk alongside man. But as you know, the power of destruction is the bane of all living things. When a new age begins, new life is brought to this world and the is changed to suit them. Areas with high amounts of mana spawn stronger monsters. With someone like you, any where could suddenly be the most dangerous ce on Earth. Even if you did seal away your destructive aura for now, you are still the destroyer. I''m afraid that there may be a few¡ adversaries that will spawn near this ce. Their nature is rather¡ unique as they counter demonic and destructive attacks. From the energy I feel from you, I can certainly say that you''ll be quite effective against them. As for why I don''t want the others to hear, that''s because I hope that you can teleport yourself and them away from this ce so that you may fight them alone. I''ve been judging the other party members but while they are strong, these beings are simply built to counter life. Even mistress Madison with the power of the 74 Demon Gods would be hard pressed to fight against even one of them." Asmodeus admitted bluntly, causing Shiro to frown.
"You want me to fight them alone? I will say that with the power of the other party members, they can hold their own especially Madison. What do you mean she can''t fight them?" Shiro asked.
"There''s no other meaning. Mistress will not win. These beings are what sealed us Ancient Lords away to begin with. Mistress may have defeated us but overall it was a close fight. However, with these beings, it was futile to even struggle. However, there''s another reason as to why I''m telling you about these people and why I ask you to fight them alone." Asmodeus smiled as Shiro listened silently.
"When the new age happens, monsters from the centre of the multiverse are sent to the edges where creation and destruction are most potent. It is to stop them frompletely going to ruin which is rather ironic considering the changes they bring. However, it is more akin to giving the world a full reset. The system summons monsters that can be handled by the people in the world, including anomalies. I''m asking Miss Shiro to fight them alone because I believe something interesting may happen. Since they are sent from the centre, it''s only natural that you can use them as transport to visit their home. From the edges of destruction to the centre of the multiverse then to the edges of creation. I do believe that this is an opportunity for you. Miss Anima, as an Ancient Lord, we are granted certain knowledge that are passed down from the ages. While we may have not witnessed your wrath, we have certainly heard about it. Therefore, I do wish to avert the tragedy that may ur when you regain your full power. While I do not know what the Administrator wants from you and why he wants you to be near the egg, I do believe that he may have a simr thought in mind. For you to find another path to ess the power of Creation. I cannot say much else much to my dismay but I will say that me and the other Ancient Lords will do everything in our power to keep everyone safe should the situation get out of hand."
Hearing this, Shiro frowned before standing up.
"I''ll see what I can do. Though with how things are, sometimes you just have to wing it and adapt to the situation. I''ve brought a lot of anomalies with my current lifetime so it''s safe to assume things won''t y out as you expect." Shiro chuckled before patting Asmodeus on the shoulder.
"Plus, now that I''ve had a better look at you, I must say you''ve certainly surprised me." She smiled as there was circuits flickering in Shiro''s eye. Realising that she must have used a skill to observe him, Asmodeus wondered what she saw.
Leaving the realm, Shiro made a note for herself as she spotted something rather interesting in Asmodeus'' source code.
Chapter 1190 - Splitting Up The Party
Chapter 1190 - Splitting Up The Party
Watching Shiro leave, Asmodeus stood in silence before curling his lips into a smile.
"Hmm¡ perhaps my cover is blown?" He muttered while rubbing his chin.
"Though my disguise isn''t like the ones that others use. Perhaps it''s that skill she used with her eyes."
Shaking his head, Asmodeus double checked his disguise before making his way out.
''As long as I don''t step out of line too much, brother shouldn''t be able toin. Though I am doing her a favour no? Still I''m surprised the destroyer is actually a girl like Shiro. The gods are so worried about a woman bringing destruction while she is working hard to solve things. Perhaps I should bless her myself so that they can''t see her true identity.'' Thinking to himself, he made his way out of the realm and joined everyone at the research base.
###
Taking the elevator down, Shiro could see the crystals clearly being bigger than before. There was also a strange flicker of energy that pulsed through each crystal. Simr to a heartbeat, the pulses would let out a thumping sound which got louder the closer they got to the egg.
Seeing the worried researchers who werepiling a document to be sent once the information was confirmed, Shiro could guess that it was a recent discovery.
Since she knew it was an egg, it wasn''t too much of a shock for there to be a heartbeat.
"What''s happening?" Nan Tian called out with a small frown.
Looking over in surprise, the leader of the researchers quickly jogged over to Nan Tian. Before speaking to him, she bowed to Shiro in respect since this was the woman that changed their lives.
"Sir, after thest report that I had sent, the life force around the area started to drop sharply as everything was being absorbed into the main crystal. An hour before your arrival, we heard the first heartbeat and more followed. Most of our equipment started to malfunction as it was unable to analyse the main crystal properly. Each pulse seemed jam theputers for a short while.
"With how frequent the pulses are, we don''t have enough time to analyse the crystal properly. However, with the limited equipment that we were able to gather, we have made some progress in finding out what exactly is happening." She reported as she handed a tablet to Shiro and Nan Tian.
Flicking through the pages of the tablet, Shiro could rather interesting in what the pulses were since her nanotech shouldn''t be jammed this easily.
Reading the changes and the statistics that the research leader hadpiled, Shiro sat down and tapped the table before opening her mouth.
"Madison, Helion, Chen Yu, Keiko, Kanae, Misu, Esil, Estre, Iziuel, Syradil, Revel, Lucifer, Belphegor, Mammon, Beelzebub, Satan and Leviathan, I want you to form a perimeter around the egg. Keep everything away if possible and try not to touch the crystal. If there are any portals being formed, report first then act. If gods appear, back off and regroup. Nan tian, Silvia, Aarim, Nimue and Asmodeus, I want you to stay with me for now. We''ll investigate the egg while the others keep this ce safe. During the investigation, anything else that happens is not our concern. When the second half arrives, leave the protecting to the others." Shiro said as she looked towards Madison.
"Madi, can you take charge of the surface since you''re the second strongest person here?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Of course. I''ll keep everyone safe since it''s the job of the tank." Madison grinned as she mmed her fist against her chest.
"Mn. Let''s not waste any time now." Shiro chuckled as she stood up.
"Let''s see, Miss Rin, I want you to organise everyone so that you can evacuate at a moment''s notice should anything go wrong. As you are the leader, the responsibility is yours to handle." Shiro smiled as Rin was flustered for a moment before nodding her head.
"Of course your highness. I''ll make sure everyone is safe. I swear with my life." She bowed.
"Haha sure but make sure you''re safe as well. It''s our job to make sure no one dies and it''s your job to get everyone to safety while we fight." Shiro patted her shoulder before gesturing for her team to follow her while Madison gestured to the others.
Just as they reached the door, Madison raised her fist towards Shiro.
"Good luck down there." She smiled as Shiro chuckled.
"Good luck up there."
Bumping fists with Madison, the two teams went their separate ways.
As they were walking down the stairs to the undergroundb that is built around the base of the egg, Shiro nced over at Nimue.
"Fancy hopping in again? It''s been a while." Shiro asked as Nimue shrugged.
"Sure. I''ll keep an eye on your body just in case you decide to injure yourself heavily." Nimue said as she transformed into a stream of water that wrapped around Shiro''s arm before disappeared.
"Ah about that, I also have that covered. Shiro, here''s a rough summery of my new spell. While I do not like having to live test this, I might have to should the situation arise." Aarim said as she handed Shiro a small document about her skill.
The draw backs, cost, cooldown, description, uses and experiments she had done with it were all included so that Shiro could n it out.
Giving the document a read, Shiro blinked her eyes in surprise.
"Interesting¡ We''ll have to look at it once we head back. It''s simr to my skill with time but rather than controlling time, yours is more controlling their state of being." Shiro muttered before storing the document away.
"Yep. It was something I developed while trying to help your friend. In terms of actually healing her though, I still think only you can do it but researching her body has yielded decent results for my research." Aarim nodded while creating a mana stick for herself.
"Did you model it after cigarettes? Pretty sure a pill would have worked." Shiro chuckled.
"Not really. When I work I have the urge to chew on something so I figured a stick would be better." Aarim replied.
"Fair enough then. Oh right, before I forget, Silvia when do you n on tying the knot with Chen Yu? You two have been living with one another for quite a while now. I''m rather eager to see mini you." Shiro grinned as she haven''t teased Silvia in a while, especially since everyone had been busy with everything going on.
Hearing this, Silvia coughed heavily as a blush appeared on her face.
"Well¡ I mean¡ We did think about it. But well¡. Erm with everything going on we wanted to wait a bit before having a baby." Silvia stuttered as Shiro curled her lips into a grin.
"Oho~ So you want to wait till things calmed down before having a baby. But I happen to notice you never told me when you''re going to marry unless you already have something nned." Shiro asked as Aarim perked her ears up in interest.
"About that. Cough¡ He already proposed. Since it happened yesterday, I was thinking of telling everyone today but I didn''t think it was a good time with everything happening." Silvia said as she hid her face.
"Ara, so fast. Chen Yu is quite brave isn''t he." Aarim blinked her eyes.
Taking off her glove, Silvia showed them the engagement ring on her left ring finger.
Seeing this, Shiro immediately offered her congrattion as she was the first person from the original party to get engaged.
Naturally, Aarim and Nan Tian offered their congrattions as well while Asmodeus stood by the side with a respectful smile.
"So when''s the wedding? Is there an important date that you two have decided on?" Shiro asked as Silvia nodded her head.
"Yeah, it''s only a few months away but we n on having our wedding on the anniversary of when we first met." Silvia smiled happily as Shiro could see that her entire aura was full of joy. Seeing this, she couldn''t control her smile as it was a nice feeling to see her friend so happy.
"I''ll make your wedding grand then." Shiro grinned as she had nned on making it a big event in the city. After all, this is the wedding of one of her closest friends. She couldn''t ck.
"Ah you don''t have to. I might die of embarrassment!"
"Pft nonsense. Who doesn''t know about you flirting with Chen Yu in public." Aarimughed as they joked on their way down to the egg.
Meanwhile, Asmodeus couldn''t help but rub his nose as he felt like a sixth wheel in this conversation.
Chapter 1191 - Second Half Of The New Age
Chapter 1191 - Second Half Of The New Age
While teasing Silvia about her engagement with Chen Yu, the party eventually reached the bottom as the researchers were packing up and getting ready to evacuate to the surface.
Giving them some simple orders, Nan Tian gestured for Shiro and the others to proceed without worrying.
Exiting the station, Shiro immediately felt the change in atmosphere as it was strangely devoid of mana.
Creating a small ice spear in her hands, it dissolved immediately as the mana was transferred towards the egg.
Taking a step towards the egg, Shiro stepped off the metal floor and onto and now strangely flesh like floor of the ''cave''.
Veins on the floor pulsed as she could see crystals growing from the surface. From the ceilings, strings of flesh dangled loosely with crystals falling off the edges and into a small pile below the strings.
In the centre of the cave, the egg pulsed with rhythmic beats. There was a slight transparency to the shell that was never there before. But even with this transparency, Shiro couldn''t see what was inside the egg at all.
Furrowing her brows, she tried to see what''s inside with Analysis EX but it was still foggy like before.
"Asmodeus, do you happen to know any information about this egg? Considering the fact that you are an Ancient Lord after all." Shiro asked as Asmodeus was silent for a moment before shaking his head.
"Unfortunately, no. As much as I want to say yes, I do not have any recollection of an egg that produced crystals that amplify mana. In fact, if more people knew about this, they would have waged wars to obtain arge supply. Especially the gods." Asmodeus replied while picking up a few of the crystals.
They flickered with a quick spark of light before bing dull with all of their mana drained from them.
Tossing them away since they were now useless, Asmodeus stood silently.
"Is that so? Surprising considering your background but I suppose this is quite the anomaly." Shiro shrugged as Asmodeus immediately understood that Shiro knew who he was.
Curling his lips into a smile, Asmodeus bowed.
"I do apologise about that Miss Shiro. Even with my background, there is not much I can tell from just an egg and crystals I never knew about. Perhaps I might be able to find something simr in nature but that''s doubtful."
"it''s fine don''t worry." Shiro waved her hand while circling the egg.
Making a few mental notes, Shiro gestured for them to sit and wait on the researchb roof.
With only a few moments left until the second half of the new age, there was nothing else to do aside from observing the changes until the timees.
Walking over to Shiro, who had sat down on the roof, Asmodeus stood in silence before opening his mouth.
"If you don''t mind me asking miss Shiro, what exactly is your goal for this world? What do you hope to gain from the second half of the new age?" He asked curiously as Shiro nced back.
"Well¡ it used to be revenge against a god. But now, I just want the world to not be on the verge of destruction. Let the people live a peaceful life. There might be some danger, there might be aggression between people but it''ll be safer than what the world is now. I suppose you can say this. If I can, I would remove the system. If you want a society with this kind of power, the power to shatter entire cities, then you need one party to keep them in check. A tyranny I suppose. But that''s not what I want. Therefore, a ce where no one can have power that can destroy a city is probably the best call. Though who am I to judge? Haha, I''m just someone who likes to fight a lot." Shiro smiled while looking at the crystals dangling from the ceiling.
"Plus, it''s not like I wanted this role. I was just fine with being an adventurer who went from ce to ce gaining strength until I could kill my worst enemy. I was just swept along into this role and figured I should do something good with this." Shiro admitted before looking back at Asmodeus.
"So to answer your question, what I hope for this world is for it to not be destroyed by the power of the gods. Make it so that it''s peaceful and low level cities won''t get dominated by those with more power." Shiro said as she stood up.
"Now, since I''ve answered your question truthfully. I do hope that you can do the same for me. What''s Asgard''s stand on everything?" Shiro asked as her eyes flickered for a moment. Circuits could be seen in her iris as Asmodeus realised that she was fishing out the truth.
Chuckling for a moment, Loki waved her hand and separated herself from Asmodeus''s body.
She had long blue hair and multicoloured eyes that seemed to shimmer with different hues every moment.
Patting her outfit, she bowed in front of Shiro.
"Pardon my rudeness. With my divinity it''s only natural for me to take on a disguise. I was content with watching the y from afar but after some observation, I simply could not hold back anymore. The more I look into your city, the more I am impressed. As for Asgard''s stance, this I cannot say as my father is still thinking about it. He remains an observer until he can determine the danger you possess. Though personally I think there is nothing to worry about." Loki chuckled.
"Therefore Miss Shiro, I will continue to observe and give you clues when I can. I usually like to y around but with how things are, even I know when to be serious."
"Mn, so I suppose you''re somewhat akin to a spy within the Norse Pantheon that is helping me then." Shiro smiled.
"Something simr. And with that, I shall take my leave. Oh and I was being honest earlier, it is indeed better if you were to deal with the¡ beings that appear. When I take over someone, I do snag some of their memories."
"Oh don''t worry I know." Shiro said, gesturing to her eyes as Loki started to fade into smoke.
Seeing this, Loki smiled and did onest bow before disappearingpletely.
With Loki disappearing, Shiro nced over at Asmodeus who was now sleeping and decided to wake him up.
"Urg, what happened?" Asmodeus muttered while clutching his head.
"A god borrowed your body for a while. Don''t worry nothing major was done. You should go back to Madison and help her out on the surface." Shiro said as Asmodeus furrowed his brows and stood up.
He was still confused but seeing Shiro''s expression, he guessed that he wasn''t getting any more answers. Therefore, he bowed and teleported out of the area.
''I wonder if there are any other pantheons that''ll contact you before the new age begins.'' Nimue asked while floating around the mana realm.
Now that the destructive energy was gone, it felt much easier to move around.
''I doubt it since there''s only a few minutes left now. If they are, they better keep their chats short haha.'' Shiro chuckled as it felt nice being able to talk to Nimue like this again.
''True. But I wouldn''t be surprised. So what''s your n for these beings that Loki mentioned then?'' Nimue asked curiously as she didn''t know anything about this.
''Well considering the fact that they''re apparently made to counter anything and everything on this side of the world, I''ll need to use creation energy. I''ve already made some progress with Isvelger''s notes but this might help me develop it properly. Who knows, the beings may even be made up of creation energy since they counter destruction. Regardless, I''ll be counting on you to keep my body working. Don''t want to shut down randomly mid fight.'' Shiro stuck her tongue out since she knew the sort of damage creation energy could do to her body.
After using it during thest experiment, she felt very fatigued along with a numbness in her arm. She figured that it was because her body had been used destruction energy and the influx of creation caused a bacsh.
However, now that Nimue was here to help heal her body along with Aarim who had developed her new skill, there should be more room for error when she experiments with the creation energy. Something that she''ll be able to test very soon as the countdown reaches the final minute.
Looking at the time, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the egg.
Little by little, it reached zero.
[Wee to the second half of the Age of Demons and Gods.. May the gods have mercy upon you.]
Chapter 1192 - Radiant Knights
Chapter 1192 - Radiant Knights
Watching the timer reach zero along with the announcement, Shiro suddenly felt an influx of mana explode out from thend.
Feeling the density of the area multiply in an instant, it felt like she was hit in the head with a sledgehammer due to her sensitivity. However, that feeling disappeared instantly as all of the mana flowed towards the egg, causing its heartbeat to increase in volume.
As though thend itself had a beating heart, each beat would cause the ground around them to fracture and break. Just as Shiro was about to jump up and fly, she noticed the mana in the surroundings being disrupted to the point where flight was unstable.
Quickly adjusting her cast so that it focuses on her rather than her surroundings, Shiro grabbed Nan Tian and flew upwards to avoid the earthquake.
"Well, this is quite the reaction from the world isn''t it? If anything I''d say it''s worse than the first transformation a while back." Nan Tian said with a frown as Shiro had the same thought. She could only wonder what will happen to the Queens that had set their city on the group.
However, she had no time to think about that right now as she had more pressing matters to deal with. She could sense several clusters of mana appeared nearby. While most of them were towards the surface where everyone else is at, there were quite a few that were appearing below ground.
Plus, to make matters worse, there was a strange strand of energy that was flowing towards the clusters, changing theirpositionpletely into something foreign.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro was about to open her mouth when Nan Tian spoke first.
"You sense them as well don''t you? After receiving a blessing from Hemera, I noticed an increased sensitivity towards anything that''s light and by extension, creation I suppose. Though only barely. Even then, I can sense the strands of creation within the pools of mana gathering near us. Care to exin or should I just imagine this is the world giving you a giant middle finger again?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro chuckled.
"Let''s just say they''re here to take out this anomaly." Shiro shrugged.
Controlling his mana so that he could fly, Nan Tian floated on his own as summoning circles could be seen gathering around the base of the egg.
Usually, Shiro would try to dispel the magic but she had use for them so she allowed them to be summoned. After all, it wasn''t often that she coulde across a being that was from the side of creation. She needed to take this time to study them in detail.
''That''s rather unexpected. I figured they would w through like savages rather than summon.'' Nimue muttered as she was helping Shiro regte the mana flow around her body so that it wasn''t sucked away by the egg.
''True, but its more concerning that its being summoned rather than naturally spawning. It means some f*cker is sending them to us. Though I''m guessing its sent by someone who probably sent the watchman. To take care of abnormalities.'' Shiro replied while sending some ice out to create a small tform for herself.
Anchoring herself against one of the walls, she sent her senses out to see what was happening above ground with Madison and the others.
Seeing that it wasn''t looking any better except hordes of monsters were spawning in rapid session, Shiro sighed and scratched her head.
"If you''re worried about the surface then don''t worry, I took the time to design something a little special for them. Well, those that were lower level." Nan Tianughed as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
Sending her senses out once more, she noticed that some of them reached into their inventory to pull out a small nanotech capsule that they threw down. Dismantling itself, it rearranged it''s form into a mounted mini gun with rocket turrets on the sides.
Jumping in, they immediately sent waves upon waves of bullets towards the enemies while the melee people watched. They were prepared to tank for the gunners should the monsters get too close.
Of course, Madison was an exception. Stomping her foot down, a giant tier 8 magic circle spread out across the ground and immediately restrained all the monsters that step foot on the trap.
Raising her hand, demonic energy gathered around her palm and shot out towards all of the monsters that were trapped.
Once the energy entered their body, they immediately started to writhe in anguish as bones and spikes erupted out from their body, transforming them into something akin to a bone demon.
"All of you! Heed my word!" Madison shouted out as the demons raised their heads.
"Kill them all and leave none alive!" Shemanded as they immediately turned towards the other monsters and rushed forth with suicidal vigour.
"Seems like Madison has her side covered. So let''s take of these guys quickly, though I will say that they require a small trick to kill. Or so I assume with the information I have." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian nodded his head.
ncing down, he could see that the summoning circle hadpleted itself. Letting out a radiant pir of light, they could see armoured figures within the centre of each circle.
Each figure towered over the average man as their physique was slim and elongated to an abnormal degree. They each wore pristine white armour that had golden highlights around the edges of each te. A faint neon blue glow could be seen under the armour as spectral wings unfurled from their backs.
Suddenly, their armour started to shift as it covered the wings and gun barrels started to form on their shoulders.
Widening her eyes in shock, Shiro immediately recognised the foundation of the armour to be nanobots!
Feeling danger overwhelm her senses, she immediately grabbed Nan Tian by the cor and dragged him back while trying to form a barrier with her left hand.
*BOOM!!!!!!
A beam of pure creation energy shot up and disintegrated her barrier in an instant, taking her arm along with it as she hissed in pain.
"Gah!!! Bloody hell!" Shiro cursed out as her arm instantly regenerated itself with Nimue''s help but the recovery was slower than usual.
The usual situation would be Shiro not even getting injured. However, the beam of light took out her arm while also trying to corrupt her entire body in an attempt to render her to a nk state of being.
''You shouldn''t take any more hits like that. Had you not retracted what was left of your arm quickly you might be on the ground having a spasm due to the creation energy.'' Nimue warmed while the entire mana continent started to erupt with water in an attempt to heal Shiro''s body.
''I KNOW!'' Shiro shouted back as she immediately entered her Soul Maiden form.
Choosing ice as the base element, she breathed out a mouthful of cold air to create a barrier between them for now.
Meanwhile, Nan Tian after being tossed away to safety by Shiro, activated his blessing he received from Hemera. Golden energy pulsed around his body as though he had been set on fire and 9 orbs of light rotated behind him.
Grabbing one, it transformed intro a sword while the others shot towards the Radiant Knights that broke past Shiro''s ice barrier without any troubles.
Switching spots with one of the orbs that appeared in front of the knights, Nan Tian grabbed their head and pierced it through with his sword.
*CRACK!!!
Twisting the de so that it ripped the head off their body, Nan Tian was shocked to see that they were beings of pure energy.
Quickly sewing itself together, the knight grabbed Nan Tian by the throat and mmed him into the wall of the cave and prepared to stab him in the chest.
*BANG!!!
Before the knight could, Shiro appeared behind him and kicked him in the face, causing it to get torn off from the force.
"They can''t be destroyed using destruction and they counter everything thates from our side of the universe. If you can, try not to fight them directly, use your passive to guard me, I''ll figure something out" Shiro shouted as she immediately teleported Nan Tian up while two knights cleaved through the wall.
Grabbing their arms, Shiro snapped them in half before summoning Iriel.
The moment she did, all of the knights seem to enter a frenzy as their blue glows transitioned to a dark red.
"I''ll be honest, they give me a creepy feeling and I don''t think I can do much about them." Iriel replied truthfully as Shiro shed through one of the knights only for her mana to be sucked away.
Quickly jumping back, Shiro clicked her tongue and unsummoned Iriel.
''Loki did mention that they''re from the creation side of the things. It''s no wonder that my attack won''t work. Hmm¡.'' Thinking to herself, Shiro decided to activate Error in her arm.
Feeling the sting followed by numbness, Shiro focused on the knight in front of her and pierced his chest, ripping out several strands of bluish code that was unlike anything she had seen in this world.
"The hell¡" Shiro muttered as she was reading it.
However, before she could finish, she sensed danger behind her and immediately jumped into the rift. But before she could close the entrance, one of the knights grabbed her leg and dragged her out before mming her against the wall.
Coughing out a mouthful of blood, Shiro red at the knights before activating one of the skills.
[Goddess of War and Protection!]
Immediately designating Nan Tian and Madison as her Champions, her aura red as a golden light radiated from her eyes.
Golden markets appeared on her body while Nan Tian could feel a wave of energy bursting through his body.
With this now activated, Shiro could control her divinity to its current limit.
But because it was sealed, there was no effect but that was fine as she was looking for the other skill boosts.
All allies cannot die, she takes their damage instead.
Dead allies or those that she wishes to help will be revived.
They get the Blessing of Shiro buff along with the Blessing of War buff.
And her Champions will gain unique bonuses depending on their ss.
This skill has no cost and itsts for 30 minutes.
By her estimations, 30 minutes should be more than enough.
As for the buffs, each one was crazy in its own right.
Both increase your stats equal to 20% of Shiro''s stats. The Blessing of Shiro makes it so that you don''t take damage, cannot die, spirits will enhance your attacks and nanobots will protect you. Meanwhile, the Blessing of War doubles your stats on top of the bonus and allows you tounch and attack equal to 30% of Shiro''s int stat. Half of their damage is converted to True Damage and 70% Elemental Resistance.
Since Creation is technically ssed as an element, it should allow Nan Tian to withstand their attacks.
As for the True Damage, Shiro wasn''t sure as Iriel didn''t work so she assumed that it would deal Destruction Type True Damage which these Radiant Knights seemed to be immune against as their attacks have barely caused them any harm.
Just as she tried to pry herself out of the Knights grip, she noticed that her body had beenpletely restrained as more Knightstched onto her limbs.
However, before anything dangerous happened to her, a pir of energy descended around her, obliterating everything that wasn''t her.
ncing up, she could see Nan Tian casting a tier 6 magic circle that was slowly fluctuating. There was a faint sign that it was reaching Tier 7 but it was just short.
"Your champion huh? A little disappointed that it wasn''t anything more but I had almost forgotten how beefy your stats are considering the boost I just got." Nan Tian forced a smile as having that much mana pulse through his body in one attack almost sent his entire system of mana links into shock.
"Care to tell me what kind of unique bonus you got while I check this out?" Shiro asked with a smile as she ripped out the code of another Knight.
Even though she ripped it out, it was quick to disintegrate before repairing itself in the Knights body.
"My attacks are highly effective on enemies that are in close proximity to you. The more dangerous they are, the more powerful my attacks. While it can''tpletely deal with these knights, it should give you some room to breathe. Oh also you don''t get harmed so I can fire your way without worries." Nan Tian reassured as two knights appeared behind him but he quickly dodged out of the way andnded next to Shiro.
"Well isn''t that helpful. Though I must sa- hm?" Shiro was about to finish her sentence when she noticed something stirring in her mana continent.
Seeing the tree that represented Error move and stretch towards the Knights, Shiro raised her eyebrow and heard a faint mutter.
"Eat¡ Code¡"
Hearing this, Shiro understood that Error must be hungry for the codes of these Knights. Even though they repair themselves quickly, Error was an anomaly from the system and not restricted to the destruction side of the universe.
Taking a deep breath, circuits erupted out from her arms as Shiro red at the Knights.
"Care to cover my back while I let Error eat his breakfast?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian chuckled.
"Of course, but don''t y around too much. Who knows if they will spawn on the surface? We should finish this fast." Nan Tian smiled.
"Noted. Though I''m sure Madison has it covered." Shiro nodded before dashing towards the Knights.
###
Looking at the hordes of monsters that continued to spawn, Madison frowned as each corpse would transform into crystals matching the ones near the egg. Even the demons she create using them would slowly be transformed into crystals while still moving. A harrowing sight but she had grown used to seeing things like this.
ncing behind her, she could see the Ancient Lords waiting on hermand.
''There''s no reason to send them out just yet, everyone else can handle the mobs with the guns that Nan Tian gave them for now. The mechs are doing well too but they''re starting to struggle. Shiina and the specialised pilots are watching by the side but they should be making a move soon.'' Madison thought to herself before scratching her head.
"Jeez, they''re spawning endlessly." She muttered as Helion walked up beside her.
"Well you can say this is a good time for them to get EXP no?" Helion joked as Madison shrugged while leaning against him.
"True. But I can''t help but feel as though something else is at work. I can feel Shiro fighting below us but if she told us to focus here, it means she should have whatever is happening below covered." Madison replied as a wave of monsters were thrown into the air.
Destroying the ground in the distance, Madison spotted a colossal monster wing itself out of the ground with crests carved into its skin, causing blood to spill onto the ice.
Meanwhile, on its head, a woman could be seen holding a trident as divine energy radiated from her body. On her head, was a bloody carving of the same crest on the monster''s skin.
"Hou~ Seems like one of the Queens possessed by a god hase knocking on the door. I wonder who it is." Madison grinned. Just as she took a step forward, she felt a well of energy erupt within her, bolstering her stats while also applying two buffs.
ncing over at her interface, Madison grinned menacingly as she gestured to the Ancient Lords.
"Go cause some havoc. I''ll have a small chat with that god."
Immediately ring their demon aura, the Ancient Lords charged into the battle as portals opened up with more monsters pouring out in waves.
"I can''t help you yet but I will soon. Go kick his ass and I''ll keep everyone safe back here." Helion smiled as Madison nodded her head.
Giving him a kiss on the cheeks, she stomped her foot down and dashed towards the avatar.
Meanwhile, the people around them nced at Helion who coughed and shouted at them to get back to killing the monsters.
Flying through the air, Madisonnded near the avatar, crushing two monsters beneath her boots while walking towards the god fearlessly.
"Yo~ What has brought you to our humble base. If it''s for a holiday then I must ask you to look for another area as this ce isn''t the best for a scenic walk." Madison asked as she tore the monsters apart with her bare hands. Anything that approached her was killed in a matter of seconds as blood coated her body.
"Divine Energy. Wait no¡. you''re not of any pantheons I know. You''re one of the people with that annoying girl." The woman narrowed her eyes as Madison shrugged.
"Well there is a sudden spike in destructive energy so I havee to check it out. If you know what''s at stake, it would be wise for you to let our forces through and investigate the situation." The woman said as Madisonughed.
"If you put it like that, I would want to keep you out no matter what." Madison grinned as she knew that Shiro was who they wanted even though they don''t know. After all, she was the First Born of Destruction that they wanted to kill.
"Are you trying to earn the wrath of the god?" The woman growled as Madison smirked.
"Does this face look like I give a f*ck?"
Chapter 1193 - Madison Vs Poseidon
Chapter 1193 - Madison Vs Poseidon
shing her knuckles together, Madison punched the ground in front of her.
*BANG!!!!
Immediately shattering the ice caps in half, the monster that the avatar was riding on lost its footing and started to sink down.
Furrowing her brows, the avatar jumped off and threw her trident at Madison.
Curling her lips into a grin, Madisonughed out loud before biting down on the trident as it passed her head.
Shattering it to pieces, Madison grabbed the two halves of the trident and narrowed her eyes.
"If just my teeth can shatter your weapon then I must say I''m rather disappointed." Madison chuckled as she threw the pieces back at the avatar.
ring at her in anger, the avatar jumped back and resummoned the trident. All of the broken pieces disappeared and reattached itself in her hands as she opened her mouth.
"You''re in the presence of Poseidon, God of the Sea. Know your ce!" She shouted out as divine energy rushed out of her body. Immediately feeling as though she was being suffocated by water even though it was just divine energy and mana, Madison quickly muttered something under her breath and drew a rune in the air in front of her.
A blue mark could be seen around the edges of her eyes as she immediately adapted to what Poseidon had done to the arena, allowing her to move and breathe like usual.
"If you don''t do anything else then I''ll end things quickly." Madison said as her smile faded away.
Conjuring up her Wheel of Demons, she summoned her demonic gauntlets and activated a tier 7 magic circle.
Seal of Wrath ¨C Satan.
Her skin turned ck as red markings spread out from her heart. Two horns appeared on her head as armour manifested around her before being attached to her body.
Activating one of the 72 demon pirs, Madison teleported behind Poseidon and grabbed him by the back of the head.
Punching him in the back, she pierced the avatar''s flesh and mmed it into the ground while Poseidon was shocked at her power.
Even though the avatar could only hold a fraction of his power and had a weak physique, it should be more than enough to deal with a demi god. And yet, Madison managed to pin him against the ground in a matter of moments.
Feeling the anger boil in his heart, Poseidon released a burst of divine energy, pushing Madison off then mmed his spear down, activating a tier 8 magic circle.
"My name is Poseidon, tremble before my might and despair!" Poseidon shouted out as the sea started to boil. Golden armour wrapped around his body as the skies started to darken. mming his trident down once more, giant tidal waves rose up from the sea, threatening to drown the entire North Pole.
"Your name is Poseidon and mine is Madison. Nice to meet you. As for trembling before your might? Ha! If you want to make me tremble then be as strong as Shiro. Aside from her, I tremble before none! I fear no one! No god shall make me bow!" Madison shouted out as her own divine energy exploded out.
Shocked at the sudden explosion of energy, Poseidon couldn''t help but be pushed back as Madison was surrounded by a hurricane caused by the explosion of energy. Her hair fluttered behind her as she was disying power beyond her normal capacity thanks to Shiro''s buff. As for the unique bonus that she received?
All non demonic energy in the area will be weakened! Gods are no exception!
Wrapping herself in demonic energy, Madison''s body started to grow as she towered over the battlefield.
Behind her, a pair of demon wings unfurled themselves. Behind her a wheel appeared that contained the sigils of the Ancient Lords while her armour started to mutate to fit her new form. Writhing around with life, the armour hissed at the monsters and Poseidon while Madison started to float upwards.
Her body seemed to be made from demonic energy that just her presence caused those that weren''t demons to have a hard time breathing.
Raising her hand in the air, a tier 7 magic circle exploded out, clearing the clouds to reveal a blood red sky where no one could see the sun or the moon.
Activating the magic circle, a ck and red barrier appeared around the battlefield, preventing Poseidon''s attack to reach them as a secondaryyer of magic circles appeared.
Gritting his teeth in anger, Poseidon decided to burn the life force of the avatar he''s upying to reveal more of his power but before he could activate his spell, a fist pierced his chest and grabbed onto his ribs.
"The big one is just to show off, you really don''t think I''m dumb enough to make myself a giant target if there''s nothing to wrestle down?" Madison''s voice rang out as she tore the god in half, revealing her new form.
Rather than the eye catching form she revealed to get everyone''s attention, her new form was a bit simpler.
There was a demonic exo skeleton on her back, covering her shoulders, spine, waist and gave her a tail along with a set of wings. Two horns could still be seen on her head but now there were ck motes of light that seemed to form a broken crown around her head.
The colours of her eyes seemed to have been inverted as the sclera was now a bloody red while her iris was pure white in colour. Her skin was now grey with blue and ck markings and the armour Helion had created for her fused with the Satan armour she summoned.
With Poseidon''s avatar now ripped in half, Madison grabbed the two halves and immediately converted it to energy before throwing it into her mouth.
"Tsk, too much salt. I should have mixed it with something else." Madison pouted as the demonic armour started to disintegrate into ck and red particles, leaving behind the armour that Helion had created.
Once her form returned to normal, she started to make her way back to the main party since this was just a small setback. To her, she couldn''t be held back by such weak gods. Her goal was to help Shiro fight the First Born. If she was hindered by a normal tier 2 God, she would be disgusted.
###
Recoiling at the fact that his avatar was torn in half then eaten by Madison, Poseidon roared towards the skies in anger.
"MADISON!!!! YOUR HEAD WILL BE MINE!!!!" He shouted out as he now had to get more sacrifices to be able to descend again. This time he''ll take longer to ensure that his main body can go so that he could teach her a lesson.
###
Earlier, Shiro had sensed an eruption of divine energy on the surface as she had just activated Error around her arms. Confused as to what was happening on the surface, Shiro wanted to check but with the Knights surrounding the two of them, she couldn''t focus on other things or else they may get seriously injured.
Reaching towards one of the Knights, Shiro sent out several strands of circuits in an attempt to wrap them but their bodies broke into several pieces to avoid the attack.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro could see their ''fear'' of Error. For other attacks, they would just take it and recover. But for Error, they avoided it like a gue.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro had an idea.
''Don''t you f*cking dare Shiro.'' Nimue warned as Shiroughed.
''Don''t worry, it''ll be fine.'' Shiro smiled as she allowed Error to go past her arms.
Little by little, the circuits crawled across her body. From her arms to her chest, to her legs then her neck.
Struggling to reach past the neck, Shiro allowed the circuits to continue for a little longer as she channelled Error through her entire body.
Opening her eyes, there were now circuit patterns flickering with light within her iris as Shiro threw a dagger and immediately teleported behind one of the Knights.
Grabbing their shoulder, Shiro could hear a hissing sound as their ''flesh'' burned from just the touch.
Curling her lips up into a menacing grin.
Digging her fingers into their body, she mmed her knee against their spin and ripped it in half. Before it could even recover, she threw a ball of circuits inside the Knights ribcage, allowing it to fester and grow before consuming the Knight in a writhing mass of circuits that transmitted information about theirposition into Shiro''s mind.
Understanding a little more about what they are, Shiro nced back and could see the Knights backing off in fear as she had be their natural counter in this universe.
"Well well well, would you look at that. You are thinking that you''re some hot sh*t earlier weren''t you? Feeling immortal? Should I help you put that to the test? Surely you''re not afraid of some circuits now are you?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian couldn''t help but shrug his shoulders with a smile.
Truly, her arsenal of weapons and abilities was so diverse that she just needed a moment to solve her problem against these Knights.
However, he wasn''t without ideas. Due to the nature of his ss, the blessings he received and Shiro''s buff, he had a small theory of his own.
While the Knights were distracted by Shiro, Nan Tian teleported behind one of them and twisted its head off.
Plunging his hand into their chest, he focused on channelling his energy to mould them into something useful.
*CLACK!
Suddenly, the armour started to disassemble itself and reassemble as a pair of gauntlets that protected his arms.
"Bingo." Nan Tianughed. Due to his buffs and blessings, he was rather proficient in controlling light and bending it to his will. While it was detestable that it was simr to Aekari''s power, Nan Tian figured that he could probably hinder Aekari during their next confrontation.
As for his n with the Knights, since they were from the creation side of things and how their bodies were created from light and creation energy, he could use the light to somewhat control the rest of their body to help him instead.
Plus, he wasn''t as attuned to destruction as Shiro was so the rejection wasn''t that bad, if anything all he felt was a little sting but nothing too bad.
But what''s most surprising of all was how simr it was to controlling Nanobots that Shiro had left in the city.
The control process was almost identical except for the fact that it was using creation energy.
While he could not control creation, he had walking batteries here to help him out.
Adjusting his grip on the knuckles, Nan Tian looked up to see Shiro ncing towards his direction and gave her a small wave.
"Seems like you figured a way to use them yourself." Shiro chuckled.
"Well it would be rather poor of me to sit down while you do all the work. Plus, I''m having a bit of fun doing some real time testing on new subjects and energy. If anything, you''re starting to rub off on me. Who knew I liked to experiment so much without safety precautions." Nan Tianughed, teleporting behind another Knight and transforming it into shoulder guards.
"So the normal result of spending too much time with me? Safety does be optional rather than mandatory." Shiro replied, feeling rather amused as their dire situation was turned around rather quickly. All it took was some experimenting and a hungry Error to solve the problem of fighting these Radiant Knights from the creation side. However, this was still far from properly controlling Creation Energy.
But since there were plenty of subjects, Shiro wanted to take a few home so she could understand creation a little more while also perhaps learning more about nanobots.
Chapter 1194 - Capturing Knights
Chapter 1194 - Capturing Knights
Now that the two were armed with weapons that could be used against the Knights, both Shiro and Nan Tian started to clear them out quickly. The portals that had originally opened by the summoning circles had been closed and the Knights had no way to escape.
Even though Shiro wanted to use the portal to reach the other side, she knew that there were too many uncertainties around the other side of that portal. If she goes without adequate preparation, it''ll end very badly.
While she may have said safety was an option, she still needed to be careful.
Plus, there were plenty of subjects here for her to experiment on. With Nan Tian making a suit of armour, she could use that as a basis for her nanobots and research on some Knights on the side to speed up the progress. With that in mind, she couldn''t kill the rest of the Knights since she needed all the Knights she could capture.
Summoning Iriel once more, Shiro could hear himin.
"I''m pretty sure I just told you about how I can''t do sh*t to them right?" Iriel asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"I know, but I''m not nning to use you that way. You''re the only weapon I have that can boost my usage of tier 8 time runes." Shiro chuckled as the runes on Iriel''s de lit up with an emerald glow.
Activating the runes on the de, Shiro narrowed her eyes and shed behind one of the Knights.
Since the goal wasn''t to kill, there was no need to worry if it''ll harm them or not as her n was to lock them in a stasis. Simr to what she did with Niphim. Only this time she hoped to make another skill aside from Averin since that one cost 60% of her Divine Energy for ONE use.
However, with Skill Schr, making a skill for this should be rather simple.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro activated Analysis EX as her surroundings slowed down to a halt. Quickly formting what she needed of the skill in her mind, she continued to construct and deconstruct magic circles in her mind to suit her purpose.
''There''s no need to be too concerned about how they''re preserved. Unlike Niphim, I''m not trying to help them. They''re my experiments. Hmm¡ I don''t want to degrade their body if possible since it''ll introduce annoying variables into the tests. Wait, since they''re mostly energy and nanobots, I can probably transform them like Nan Tian then freeze them while they''re transformed without worrying that it''ll ''kill'' them after being paused in time. It''ll be simr to what the inventory does.''
Finalising her n in her mind, Shiro pierced her de through the Knights chest and focused her mind.
Overwriting the Knight''s control over his own body using Error, she forced his body to copse in on itself as itpressed down into an orb before being frozen in time.
[Skill Created, would you like to name the skill?]
"Yes, name it Karsin." Shiro replied instantly as it was the opposite of what Averin meant in Aria. While Averin meant eversting moment, Karsin meant stagnated moment which could also be interpretated as time prison.
[Skill ¨C Karsin ¨C Created.]
[Karsin]
An skill that focuses on capturing the target through time. Theirfort is not taken into ount as they are forcefully torn from the flow of time while barely being kept alive. Must be readjusted for different species or else the lock will fail. The strength of the enemypared to the caster will also affect the time they are locked up for.
However, due to the modifications done, the energy consumption has decreased significantly.
Cost: 10% of Divine Energy
Maximum Duration of Lock: 1 week
Cooldown: N/A
Reading the description, Shiro couldn''t help but sigh since this meant that she could only capture 10 of them alive. The rest will need to be killed.
''I think 10''s plenty no?'' Nimue raised an eyebrow but Shiro shook her head.
''I mean I guess but if possible I wanted to capture the rest of them alive. That would have been the best case scenario but I suppose this is better than nothing.'' Shiro replied as she begrudgingly started to select the best specimens for her collection.
Meanwhile, Nan Tian had just finished converting the Knights into a suit of armour except for the helmet. He wasn''t eager on putting them on his head until everything was tested. Converting one of the Knights to a helmet, he ced it into his inventory. Right now, he looked simr to the Knights only more bulky since he wasn''t made of energy.
Flying over to Shiro, he could see her annoyed expression while filtering through the Knights.
"I''m guessing there''s a restriction to how many you could take." Nan Tian called out with a smile.
"Mn, I could only take 10 since it takes 10% of my divine energy. It might be annoying to deal with themter if they''re not in stasis so I''ll kill the rest of them." Shiro sighed.
"But setting that aside, seems like you finished your armour. You can probably ask Helion to do some final adjustments so that it''s tailored to you." She suggested as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"That''s the n." Nan Tian smiled before turning to the summoning circles that had been turned off once they realised that Shiro could deal with them.
"Don''t worry about that, I n to get rid of any markers they left behind so they can''te to this spot again. Plus I think they were targeting my energy so I doubt they''lle here again unless it''s for the egg that''s still absorbing energy." Shiro narrowed her eyes at the egg that continued to grow during the fight. Every spell they threw out would have some of its mana get absorbed by the egg.
"Let''s help out on the surface once we get rid of the rest of these guys." Shiro said while massaging her shoulders
Waving her fingers, Shiro created a ball of circuits before mming her hand down. A giant magic circle appeared as all of the remaining Knights were trapped in the activating range. Before they could even react, a ball of circuits appeared beneath their feet as a spear shot up and exploded within them, tearing them into pieces.
Before the pieces could disappear and get absorbed by the egg, the circuits expanded and swallowed everything, leaving nothing behind.
Drawing error back into her body, Shiro suddenly felt a spike of pain through her body as her flesh started to crumble for a moment before healing itself.
''Wait, what? Your body should be perfectly fine, why is it crumbling apart???'' Nimue asked in confusion as she frantically checked Shiro''s condition.
Before Shiro could reply, a bundle of circuits extended towards Nimue.
''It''s because mother channelled my power through her body. She essentially integrated herself with the system. Thankfully, she didn''t do it for long and the power use was small. Or else she might have lost a good portion of her body to the system. I repurposed some of the creation energy I ate to repair her body through her code.'' The circuit spoke as Shiro sat down in her mana continent and looked at her arm that still had a crack mark that soon disappeared.
''Well that certainly exins it. I suppose it''s not a good choice to channel your power through my body.'' Shiro chuckled as Error shook his head and floated over to Shiro.
''Mother, when you use my power you are essentially fusing a portion of your soul to the system. By channelling my power through your entire body, you''re attempting to fusepletely with the system thus your physical body almost crumbled away. Please don''t do that again since you''ll essentially be like me. Just energy with no form. The only reason you see circuits are because of the influence of your nanobots.'' Error sighed as Shiro patted him before smiling.
''Mn, I''ll keep that in mind next time.'' Standing up, Shiro stretched her body.
''Unfortunately we can''t rest just yet. There are still monsters to deal with on the surface.'' Shiro smiled as the two nodded.
###
Opening her eyes, Loki leaned back on her throne and hugged her knees.
"My my, she certainly dealt with that threat rather quickly. I was genuinely worried too considering the fact that she doesn''t have her divinity right now. Who knew she had power to kill things on the side of creation." Loki muttered while observing the destruction on Earth. Watching the Queens panic as their city fell, she sighed. Those that didn''t have power and rejected the influence of gods had no chance here. ces with little to no divine presence had their city razed to the ground. The previous inhabitants such as dragons or other mythological beasts were ughtered to make way for the new.
Fiddling with her hair, Loki snickered.
"Though the most surprising is still her identity. Who knew she was such as big shot. Honestly I lucked out by possessing that Ancient Lord. Hmm¡ I should probably warn brother and father. Though¡. Letting them get punished isn''t a bad idea." Lokiughed as she jumped up and made her way towards Thor''s domain.
"Mess around a little. Pretty sure Shiro will forgive them as long as they don''t do anything stupid. But she''s nothing like what the other gods said she was like. I can''t see someone like her being a viin. Perhaps the fools of old provoked her and brought destruction upon themselves. Meh, not my problem. I don''t think most of the gods know so it''s perfect time to wrack up some goodie points with her."
Sensing Thor nearby, Loki grinned and kicked the air in front of her.
*CRACK PING!!!!!
Shattering the walls to Thor''s domain, Loki hopped through the hole she made.
"Yo! Bro you there?" Loki shouted out as she could see Thor sitting on his throne on top of the mountain.
"What is it? Did you cause more trouble?" Thor asked as he nced towards Loki.
"No no, trouble? Me? Impossible. I''m so well behaved." Loki stuck out her tongue before teleporting beside Thor and sat down on his arm rest.
Leaning back, sheid down on hisp.
"Big bro, I suggest you make friends with the mortals along with dad. I''ll be beneficial to you." Loki smiled as Thor looked down and tapped Loki on her forehead.
"What are you nning now? Just tell me." He sighed.
"You know I can''t tell you. If I did you won''t change. I know I mess around a lot but trust me when I say you should make friends with the mortals. Don''t subjugate them like they''re ves. Properly be an idol of worship with father and life will pave a way for you. If I say too much then it''ll all be for naught." Loki said as she reached up and started to y with Thor''s hair.
Hearing this, Thor was surprised by Loki''s sudden moment of seriousness. While she liked to y around a lot, Thor knew that she didn''t mess around when it came to survival. It was also Loki who helped them survive the war where hundreds of Pantheons were burned to the ground. Had it not been for her, the Norse Pantheon might not have survived.
"Alright, I''ll keep that in mind. You shouldn''t be messing around either, you should find some mortals to help you so that you can descend." Thor said as Loki giggled before sitting up.
"Oh I have my ways. See you bro, I''ll go warn dad now." Loki waved before disappearing with a wisp of green smoke.
Shaking his head, Thor stood up.
*CRACK!!!
". . . "
Feeling as though a vein was about to burst, Thor looked behind him and saw his throne welded to his body and forcefully torn out of the floor when he stood up. There was a fracture that started to spread through his realm, causing it to destabilise and threaten to break.
On the throne, there was a small carving.
[Love you lots. From your favourite sister ¨C Loki.]
"LOKI!!!!" Thor shouted out in anger as he destroyed the throne and started to repair his domain.
Chapter 1195 - World Eater
Chapter 1195 - World Eater
Once she had cleared up everything near the egg, Shiro started to make her way to the surface since there was nothing else to do here. She had a look but the egg doesn''t seem to be hatching just yet. It was still growing despite the amount of mana it had received.
Flying to the surface, Shiro could see theplete destruction of the North Pole. While her research base was still intact, the surrounding area was in shambles.
Seeing the flood of monsters that continued to flow without signs of stopping, Shiro located Madison immediately.
"Nan Tian, take care of evacuation. We''ll send all the mechs back since we can deal with this now. The main problem has been taken care of." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head and made his way to the mech units.
Flying towards Madison, Shiro waved her hand and started to control all of the ice. Flicking her finger up, spikes pierced all of the monsters that were nearby. While it may not have killed all of them, the ones that survived were in pure agony as ice formed around their body, locking them in ce.
"Wee to the party. I''ve already dealt with a rather rude intruder. How was things on your side?" Madison asked as she waved towards Shiro.
"It went better than expected with the exception of almost fusing myself to the system. We''ve managed to get 10 living specimens too. They seem to be made of energy and they don''t receive any damage from normal attacks. They might also work as a testing dummy for you lot should you want to make new spells that might work on them." Shiro smiled.
"Oh then fair enough. Also, the mana in this area is still growing. Doesn''t seem to stop. To make matters worse, the crystals are amplifying it and sending it to the egg. With each monsters that''s killed by us, more mana is being released into the area." Madison said as Shiro surveyed the area with her senses.
Immediately noticing the growing powers of the monsters, Shiro couldn''t help but frown.
As the crystals were amplifying the mana, the monsters that are then spawned in by that mana had their powers increased. If they continued like this, it won''t be long until the monsters reached the level of 1000. While she doubted that they could reach demi god levels, it wasn''t impossible.
''Hmm¡ I need to deal with this mana.'' Shiro thought to herself.
She knew that by using a powerful enough spell, she could absorb all the mana in the area, but it wouldn''t get rid of it. It''ll still flow back to the egg or make stronger monsters.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro had an idea.
''Error darling. You know how we can edit the code of other beings right? Would it be possible to add a converter within a spell? Edit it so that the mana is changed to divine energy.'' Shiro asked as Error was silent for a moment.
Turning to Nimue, Error paused before turning back to Shiro.
''Yes but that''ll require mother to be the converter. If you want to change it to divine energy, then I''ll have to convert it within your body. With the rightbination of skills, I do believe mother can aplish this. However, I highly advise against that. Your body is already weakened due to what you attempted with me. Adding more stress, even with means of turning back time or repairing yourself, would be disastrous. What if the spell doesn''t work?'' Error asked as Shiro was silent then patted his head.
''Oh don''t worry too much. We''ve got Nimue here, she''s basically a demi god that keeps my body from falling apart. We''ll be fine~'' Shiro grinned as Error sighed.
''Uhuh. You do know that if it does be too dangerous I will attempt to forcefully cancel your spell from the inside right?'' Nimue asked as Shiro nodded her head.
''Yep, I''m counting on you. Make sure I don''t die ok?'' Shiro grinned.
''Hai hai, back to work I suppose.'' Nimue sighed heavily and disappeared so that she could focus on keeping Shiro''s body functional.
"I don''t like the look on your face." Madison said as she immediately had a bad feeling about what Shiro was about to do.
"I haven''t even said anything yet though?" Shiro pouted.
"You haven''t said anything but I recognise that look on your face. I swear, the only ideas you have are ridiculous ones." Madison clicked her tongue.
"But they work no?"
"They¡ Do work but- hais, forget it. Just get it over and done with quickly and don''t hurt yourself too badly. We got Silvia and Aarim so you don''t need to worry about dying but that doesn''t mean you can go destroying your body however you want." Madison sighed and massaged her eyes.
"Fufu, be right back~" Shiroughed as she shot up into the sky.
A surge of dark energy erupted from her body as she continued to fly higher.
Flying out of the atmosphere, Shiro floated next to one of her satellites that she had stationed in this area.
ncing down, Shiro looked at the North Pole before ncing towards the rest of the world.
Seeing the blinking lights of explosions andrge chunks of earth being split apart to reveal morend, Shiro could see the entire being transformed.
More and morendmass started to burst out of the in order to reshape it for the descent of gods.
''There are quite a few spots of concentrated divine energy too¡ The expansion of the world is faster than I imagined. I''ll need to add more satellites.'' Shiro thought to herself before sping her hands together.
Closing her eyes, she activated a skill that she had received due to her link with Yin.
Devour!
With her right hand, a giant tier 7 magic circle started to spread out as it slowly transformed into a magic array. Meanwhile, her left hand was covered with circuits.
A string of code appeared before her as Shiro started to edit parts of the skill so that she could convert the mana into divine energy.
''Since I met Loki, I might as well ask a little help from her family.'' Shiro chuckled before constructing a secondary magic circle.
Since she didn''t have any divine energy in her body right now, she could only rely on mana.
Remembering Loki''s energy from before, Shiro attempted to forcefully establish a connection with mana.
While that was happening, Shiro finished the primary magic circle and nced down at the North Pole.
Without saying anything else, Shiro mmed her hand down and the magic circle activated itself.
*BOOM!!!!!
In the distance, she could seend sink down as the magic circle was being carved into thend itself.
Making sure to not harm any of her allies, she activated the skill devour.
###
Looking up at the sky, Madison could see an impossiblyrge magic array in the sky.
Turning her attention to the ground, parts of the ice started to cave in, carving the magic array into thend itself.
Beside her, Helion stood with his attention towards the sky.
"Shiro stuff?" He asked.
"Shiro stuff. You might feel ufortable depending on what her spell is." Madison shrugged.
Suddenly, she noticed blue motes of light drifting up from the ground and towards the sky.
Recognising them to be concentrated orbs of mana, Madison watched as the crystals amplified how much mana was being absorbed from the area, formingrge orbs that floated up.
"Is she extracting all of the mana from this ce??? What the f*ck????"
###
Watching the motes of light drift upwards, Shiro furrowed her brows since the absorption was too slow.
However, before she could think about changing parts of the spell, a link with Loki had been formed.
[My my, I certainly didn''t expect you to contact me this early. How may I help you today?] Loki smiled as Shiro could hear the yfulness in her voice.
"Let''s just say I''ve run out of divine energy. I''m nning a little stunt and well your family came to mind. Care to make a link between me and Jormungandr? Shiro asked with a smile.
[My son? I mean sure b- Ohhhh I see what you''re trying to do. Sure give me a second.]
After waiting a literal second, Shiro could hear groaning followed by a sigh.
[Mum told me to give you my blessing. What kind do you want?] A bored voice rang out in Shiro''s mind as she shook her head.
"Well let''s just say how about we establish a little trade. Simr to what I did with Argus and Helios, I make you a little something and you help me out too. I''ll set up a few devices around the world, and you can gorge yourself upon the mana of this world. All that I require from you is to help me convert some of this to Divine Energy and when I''m full on Divine Energy, supply me with condensed mana crystals from the mana." Shiro smiled.
[Hou~ Well certainly. Mum asked me to help anyways so I''ll do you a better deal if you help me with something.]
Hearing this, Shiro raised an eyebrow.
[What I need help with is rather minor in the grand scheme of things. Injure uncle Thor until he can''t move for a month. He''s been pissing me off with his lecturestely and mum won''t let me fight him. If you can promise me to injure him for a month I''ll continue to convert mana around the world for your use and supply you with Divine Energy converted from this mana. And if you keep injuring uncle Thor every so often I''ll even join you in a few fights.] He offered as Shiro held herself back fromughing and nodded her head.
"That''s a deal, I''ll injure Thor once things have calmed down a little." Shiro grinned as a crest appeared in front of her.
The crest of a serpent wrapping around a tree.
Closing her eyes, she carved the same crest into the magic circle.
cing her left hand on the satellite, Shiro connected herself to all of the satellites she ced around the world.
Curling her lips into a grin, she started her n. Suddenly, all around the world, all the satellites started to change as magic circles could be seen appeared in the sky. Linking itself to one another, the world was soon encased with a giant array.
"Devour." Shiro grinned.
###
After ending the connection, Jormungandr sent her some of his power.
"What was that I heard about your Uncle?" Loki asked as she could be seen floating through Jormungandr''s walls.
"Nothing much. Though who is she? She sounds rather confident and arrogant. She had made quite a few bold ims." Jormungandr asked as Lokiughed.
"Pft hahahaha, she isn''t arrogant. She''s sure of her power. As for her ims¡ well. I can say for sure that she can kill your uncle along with your grandfather. As for your, she could probably turn you into soup with the help of her daughter." Loki shrugged.
Even though she wasughing, Jormungandr knew when his mother was being serious.
Before he could even say anything, he felt a sudden stream of energy entering his body through the crest that he had given Shiro.
"Also, are you sure you should be wasting time like this? I suggest you start helping her convert the energy. When she says ''a few'', she usually means a lot." Loki smiled as Jormungandr started to turn pale.
Widening his eyes, the flow of mana was more than what he had expected.
Quickly running past Loki, he tried to set up a magic array but a wave of pain flooded his body.
"Here let me help." Lokiughed.
Helping her son convert the energy that Shiro was sending through, Loki even had tofort the serpent as he felt like he was about to explode. If Loki wasn''t here to help, he might have exploded on the stop.
"What does she mean by a few!?!? Even if I''m the world eater I can''t eat a world prepared for the gods!!!" Jormungandr shouted out with tears in his eyes while Loki rested his head on herp.
"There there. Next time don''t agree to her so easily ok?"
"Mn ok." Jormungandr nodded, feeling regretful.
However, now that he knew it was possible for her to injure Thor heavily, he looked forward to seeing him on the verge of death. For that sight, a little bit of pain now was worth it!
Chapter 1196 - Slowing Down The New Age
Chapter 1196 - Slowing Down The New Age
Suddenly, for a brief moment, the mana flow of the world halted. As though transported into a vacuum, no more mana flowed into the world and the transformations were stopped.
Thend stopped splitting apart, monsters stopped appeared from the gaps. Every mana based being in the world felt suffocated as everyone without fail nced up at the sky to see the giant magic array that now epassed the world, dying the sky in its glow.
Hovering in space, Shiro started to make some adjustment to her array so that it would let mana flow like usual while making sure it does not overload the world. Make it so that the change was gradual rather than instantaneous. That way, the destruction the change causes should be minimalised.
The main problem with the new age is how it transforms the within the span of a day. This kind of transformation was disastrous and halts the chance of survival for most people. If the change was gradual, even those that aren''t prepared will have a chance.
While this may help some that see her as an enemy, she did not mind. Those foolish enough to confront her will sign their own death warrant. But for those that want a second chance, she''ll be d to offer them a path.
sping her hands together, Shiro carved a spell in front of her.
Simr to theyers of protection that was there before the fight with Rokarn, this will ensure the progression into the new age is slow.
"My my, this I cannot allow." A voice rang out behind her as Shiro felt a chill down her back.
Widening her eyes, Shiro immediately activated a rune which stopped time around her.
Quickly jumping forward, she wanted to make some distance.
*PUCHI!!!!
However, her jump was cut short as a de pierced her chest.
Grabbing the sword, Shiro coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Immediately activating a few berserk skills to give herself a boost, she elbowed the de, snapping it in half before releasing a torrent of energy that pushed back everything around her.
The magic array around the world fluctuated but eventually stabilised itself.
ring at the person who stabbed her through the chest, Shiro could see the sword repair itself and recognised it to be nanobots.
"You¡ You''re from the side of creation." Shiro squeezed out as she could feel the nanobots trying to destroy her body.
Taking a deep breath, she halted its advances by freezing them within her body.
Looking at the figure in front of her, Shiro tired her best to memorise their signature but it waspletely foreign. Even if she tried to remember, the information would disappear in an instant.
Wearing a pure white robe with golden armour pieces around the chest, waist and arms, the woman reconfigured her sword into a pair of gloves. On her face was a silver mask that blocked any attempt at trying to see past it. However, Shiro could see a pair of bright red eyes and ck hair.
"Hm, shame, I was hoping to kill you in one go but the world is already rejecting me. However, I will finish my task." The woman narrowed her eyes at Shiro.
"So die, and may your rest be peaceful."
Closing her eyes, the woman clenched her fist.
*PUSHI!!!!
Hundreds of swords pierced out of her body as the nanobots transformed into swords.
Runes started to appear as chains linked around her body, stopping her from moving.
Trying to muster up the strength to activate a skill, Shiro realised that all of the energy was being drained from her body.
Walking up to Shiro, the woman grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up.
"Trust me, the world would be better without me or you."
Suddenly, a rift opened up behind the woman as a de of light shot forth.
Wanting to put up a barrier so that she could kill Shiro, the woman noticed a portal opened up in front of her and Shiro was dragged through.
Furrowing her brows, she mmed her hand down, shattering both portals before attempting to grab Shiro once more.
However, two swords shot out of the void and attempted to pierce the woman''s arms.
"Tsk." Clicking her tongue, the woman ducked down to avoid the swords and sent out a chain to grab Shiro.
"Who the hell do you think you are! Attacking my mum in front of me!" A voice rang out followed by the sharp cry of a bird.
Tearing through the void, the woman could see a purple and blue phoenix along with a woman on her head.
Snapping the nanotech chains apart with her beak, Yin transformed back into her human form and stood in front of Shiro.
"Bah! Disgusting." She spat out as her eyes were full of anger.
Flicking her hair back, Yin was now wearing a ck and purple jacket that seemed to be made from mes. Her hair now had hues of purple and blue mixed in the ck.
"Always on about food. Focus on this b*tch who tried to kill mum." Lisandra said as she summoned another de in her hand.
Simr to Shiro, her hair was now pure white which contrasted against the void ck wings that sprouted from her back.
d in ck and silver armour, Lisandra red at the unfamiliar woman in anger.
"Hmmm, more are approaching this area." The woman muttered before standing up straight.
"I return soon First Born, your time is limited." She warned before disappearing with a sh of light.
Once they were sure that the danger had passed, the two quickly supported Shiro who was still restrained by the strange runes that continue to siphon her energy at an rming rate.
Furrowing her brows, Lisandra tried to remove the restrains but Shiro shook her head.
"Don''t touch them. They''re made from creation energy so it''ll only hurt you if you touch them. Don''t worry, I got it covered." Shiro smiled as circuits appeared on her arm.
Gritting her teeth, she reached towards the de and tapped it with her finger.
In an instant, circuits spread through all of the foreign nanobots that was floating through her body.
''Error, help me upload thesemands without changing anything else. I can''t exactly do it with them draining my energy.''
Without saying anything else, Error started to follow Shiro''smand as he started to overwrite the code within the nanobots.
Unfortunately, there were very little he could do as any changes he made would be erased and reverted to their previous state. With no other choice, he put them into a stasis for now so but Shiro will need to constantly funnel a majority of her mana to keep it from breaking the seal.
Currently, the nanobots were still hostile to her and would attempt to kill her the moment they''re out of stasis. But with the help of Error, she should be able to extract a small portion in order to study it.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro closed her eyes and started to control the nanobots with Error''s help. She couldn''t remove it from her body as it had already partially fused to her body. However, she could reshape it so that it was easier for her to move. After all, moving around with des through her chest was rather annoying.
Transforming it into a bracelet that continued to siphon her mana, Shiro healed her body with the help of Lisandra.
"Fuu¡. With that problem now dealt with somewhat, it''s good to have you back. How are you feeling? Does your body hurt?" Shiro asked as she scanned Lisandra''s body.
"It''s fine mum, we can talk more when we get back." Lisandra smiled as she hugged Shiro.
"There''s plenty to talk about. Though if it wasn''t for the fact that I felt some weird reptile with the same power as me I wouldn''t have located mum so quickly. If we didn''te in time you would have died." Yin pouted as Shiro chuckled and patted her head.
"Don''t worry, I had it covered somewhat." Shiro grinned as her other n would be to overload her body with energy through stacking berserk skills then activating her Limit Break from the Pandora set of skills to give her that extra boost that she needed. Who knows, if that didn''t work, she had other skills she could use.
She was just d that she didn''t need to resort to those methods.
Hugging them both, Shiro made her way back with the two of them.
Chapter 1197 - Yin And Lisandras Adventure
Chapter 1197 - Yin And Lisandra''s Adventure
Returning back to the research base, Shiro could see that most of the monsters have stopped spawning. Those that were still appearing were taken care of quickly by the mech pilots while everyone focused on clean up.
Seeing Shiro, Yin and Lisandra together, the party rushed over.
"Wait what happened?" Madison asked as she immediately noticed how weak Shiro''s aura had be.
Before Shiro could even respond, Nimue appeared, clearly annoyed.
"She was attacked from behind by someone that could control nanobots. We''re guessing she''s from the side of creation so her attack was extra potent on Shiro. She''s managed to halt the nanobots for now but she has to keep the seal up at all times." Nimue huffed as Shiro scratched her head.
"Let me have a look at your wounds." Silvia sighed but Shiro shook her head.
"It''s fine, I can''t exactly remove these from my body either. Plus, they''re good for research. I was stumped on how to fuse my own nanobots with creation so this might be the hint I need. But let''s not talk about that for now. How''s the egg?" Shiro asked curiously.
"No changes. It seems like its growth had been halted with whatever you did in space. However, halted wouldn''t be the right term. It would be more urate to say that it''s slowed down considerably. It''s still absorbing as much mana as it can." Nan Tian said as furrowed his brows at Shiro''s condition.
"Well that''s good then. Are you able to get some of the mechs to transport some nanobots to the base? I want to set up here while Asharia stays out of sight for now in case any gods decide to pay us a visit. Considering that Poseidon was here earlier, I wouldn''t ignore the possibility of more gods." Shiro smiled.
"Mn alright." Nan Tian nodded as he knew that Shiro wanted toy down for a while. Not just to recover her wounds but to experiment on her new test subjects as well.
"I''ll set up yourb as well so that you can start whenever you''re ready."
Hearing this, Shiro blinked her eyes in surprise before nodding her head.
"I''ll be troubling you then."
Seeing Nan Tian disappear, Shiro turned to Yin and Lisandra.
"As for you two, care to tell me a little about your adventures while Yin makes me something tasty to eat? I am craving her cooking." Shiro grinned as Yin chuckled and nodded her head.
"Sure, but I haven''t cooked much so there might be a higher chance of failure which''ll kill your taste buds instead." Yin shrugged.
Splitting the team for now so that they can get more work done, Shiro, Nan Tian, Yin and Lisandra made their way to the med bay in the research station. Beside the med bay, Nan Tian started to reconstruct Shiro''sb that she had in Asharia. After all, she wanted to be near the egg for when it does hatch eventually.
Plus, she''s slowed down its growth so there was no telling what that might have done to the egg.
While Nan Tian was making theb, Yin was cooking some food near while Lisandra was talking about what they had been up to.
"After I woke up, it was a bit hard to move around since my body was on verge of bing fallen. Breathing was hard, moving was hard and in general my body was in pain. Since the transformation was halted, I was stuck in a state between normal and fallen. However, unlike Syradil, it wasn''t a stable state. My body was healing and crumbling away at the same time. With the help of Beelzebub, we managed to stabilise my body temporarily but it wasn''t a longsting solution. Therefore, Yin visited different libraries in the world and looked for any books that might be able to help. Eventually we found a book that led us to a special dungeon that was rted to gods and angels. It was originally located in Vatican City but the location had moved a few decades ago and not many knew where it was¡"
###
*BANG!!!!
mming the door open, Yin burst into Lisandra''s room.
"Sis! I found something that might be able to help. Look! This book spoke of fallen angels and normal angels. With your body state, this might be what you need. The original location of the dungeon should be in Vatican City but its not there anymore. Want toe with me to look for any clues? If we''re lucky we should be able to find some hints. If not, we can probably raid some religious sites that have ties with angels." Yin said as she sat next to Lisandra''s bed.
"Mn sure, though I don''t think I can fight anyone in my current state. Wouldn''t I be a burden?" Lisandra asked with a sigh. Flinching slightly from the pain, she tried to rx her body as much as she could. In her current state, even the simple act of signing caused her a great deal of pain.
"What burden, you forget who your big sis is. Plus, what kind of sister would I be if I considered you a burden? A big sister should look out for her younger sister and help when she''s in need. It''s better if you''re at the site yourself so of course I''ll try my best to protect you. Not to mention, I''m strong. Like crazy strong so I can defeat anyone thates our way." Yin grinned in a manner simr to Shiro, causing Lisandra to chuckle.
"Alright. Is there anything we need to bring?" Lisandra asked as Yin nodded.
"Two things. You and something that mum is familiar with. I had asked Nan Tian to borrow this for a while and he said yes since he had a few prepare." Yin smiled as she pulled out a familiar pink wheelchair from the rift.
Seeing this, Lisandra could feel her smile twitch as she did not like the colour pink. She preferred ck or white simr to Shiro''s taste in clothing. And pink was certainly not on her list of preferred colours.
"I even asked Aarim to make you a matching outfit for this too." Yin continued as she wasn''t finished.
Reaching into the rift, she pulled out a white and pink long sleeved shirt along with a pink dress and a pair of white stockings that had pink frills. For thest item, she pulled out a pair of pink boots that matched the outfit.
"No." Lisandra refused but Yin only stepped closer.
"Big sis don''t do this." Lisandra begged as she tried to act as pitifully as she could. However, without saying anything, Yin started to change Lisandra into her new outfit before lifting her and cing her on the wheelchair.
Now equipped with both a pink outfit and a pink wheelchair, Lisandra could feel her face burn with shame as she pulled up the neck of her shirt to hide her face while Yin pushed from behind.
Making sure she took the long way to the teleport hall, Yin wanted to show off to everyone how cute her little sister was. Even though she was feared in battle, she had a cute side like this to her.
While Yin was having fun, Lisandra wanted nothing but to bury herself in the ground to avoid the shame.
Once they reached the teleport hall, Yin teleported the two of them back to Vatican City.
Upon arriving, she could see the ruins of the once great city. The past image of people wandering the streets was now reced by a horde of monsters that continuously looked for any survivors.
"Hais¡" Sighing heavily, Lisandra felt regretful for those that used to live here. The lucky ones, if you could call them that, would have survived and left this city while those unfortunate would have died when the first change began.
"Shall we get to searching? These ruins won''t show their secrets on their own." Yin smiled as Lisandra nodded her head.
"Alright, big sis will go clear the way. I''ll be right back." Yin reassured as her aura red around her.
Jumping out of the teleport Shrine, Yin transformed into a phoenix, setting fire to her surroundings in an instant. Monsters that were caught were turned to ash.
Flying above the city, she pped her wings and created several magic circles that hurled down meteors that split into fragments that homed in onto the surviving monsters, extinguishing their life with a single hit.
Sending out her senses, Yin smiled after seeing that most of the monsters had been eliminated while those that are still roaming will pose no threat to Lisandra.
Transforming back to her human form, she pushed Lisandra''s wheelchair towards where the dungeon used to be.
Chapter 1198 - Revisiting Vatican City
Chapter 1198 - Revisiting Vatican City
"ording to the records, the dungeon should have been located in the heart of the main cathedral. However, after the pope was changed, the dungeon mysteriously disappeared. In days of old, each pope would enter the dungeon solo and should they prove to be worthy, they would be granted a ss unique to the pope." Yin started to exin as they made their way through the city.
"But when the dungeon disappeared, so did the chance to get that unique ss. Each of the popes after had no such power and was no more powerful than the average adventurer. If not for the fact that they still had some privileges, the pdins and knights would have taken over long ago. Though once the world changed after the first transformation, the Pdins and Knights have taken over, migrating to the southern isles with all the remaining survivors. There hasn''t been any recent news from there but ording to what I''ve read on thest report, they''ve created a small underground vige within one of the ruins. They call it Sanctuary but it''s more akin to a prison. They can''t get out since a Queen lived nearby in her city while monsters swarmed thend, air and oceans. The Knights might live but they won''t be able to protect the others that follow them. I suggest that be our next destination once we finish with this ce what do you think? I''m guessing that some of the higher ranked pdin''s might be able to help you with some information." Yin smiled as Lisandra nodded her head.
"Should we get others to help?"
"Nah we should be good. Plus, they''re busy as hell anyways. You know Aarim''s doing her research, Helion''s trying to find more ways to upgrade mum''s sword, Revel and Khionah are ying games, Nan Tian is making sure everything is in order and Silvia is head of the hospitals. So naturally it''ll be a little duo adventure for the two of us." Yin grinned as Lisandra was 90% sure that they could have probably got Revel''s help considering he''s only ying games.
"No. I''m not letting a stinkingzy lizard join our journey." Yin pouted in annoyance as Lisandra chuckled since that was the real reason all along.
"We should be seeing the cathedral around the corner now. If it was before the new age we would have been able to see the top of the building from afar but s, the new age was not so kind on architecture." Yin shrugged as they entered a clearing that used to be a grand path towards the cathedral.
Looking at the numerous copsed towers, Yin could see the still disintegrating corpse of a monsterying in the centre. Ignoring it for now, she was about to continue when a booming voice rang out.
"None shall die in thend of the holy!"
Suddenly, mana erupted around her as the corpse of the monster suddenly regenerated.
"Well this is certainly a problem. Wasn''t expectingpany." Yin muttered as she ced a barrier around Lisandra.
Walking over to the monster that was still trying to get back onto its feet, Yin narrowed her eyes and crushed its head with her leg before opening her mouth.
Biting down on the monster, the body was drained until nothing but skin and bones was left.
"Blerg, disgusting. I would rather cook it but something tells me your power stops them from ''dying'' in conventional means. Transforming them into energy doesn''t really ''kill'' them." Yin shrugged while looking towards the broken cathedral.
On the roof, a single figure stood.
A broken cape, cracked armour and an missing arm. But despite the numerous wounds, the aura he radiated was almost threatening to Yin. The aura of this armoured figure rang some rm bells in her mind but not enough to be fully serious.
"None shall die in thend of the holy! By my de, by my will, they will live!" The pdin shouted out as he charged towards her.
A holy aura wrapped around his sword as he twisted his body and cleaved his sword down, releasing a wave of energy that tore the ground apart.
Raising her eyebrow, Yin opened her mouth and ate all of the energy.
"Quite a fluffy taste. Your energy is one of the better one''s I''ve tasted. Congrats." Yin praised while jumping to the side to dodge his next attack.
Now that he was in close proximity, Yin took this time to see his name tag.
[Alexander LVL 900 Fallen Pdin of Protection]
"None shall die in thend of the holy!" He shouted out as Yin frowned, understanding that he had lost his mind after bing fallen.
"Shame." Yin shook her head.
Side stepping his next strike, Yin used her left hand to grab his wrist while her right palm pressed against his chest.
*BANG!!!
Letting out a pulse of energy, the upper half of the pdin''s body was torn to shreds.
Shaking her head, Yin was about to walk away when she heard the same line once more.
"None¡ Shall¡ Die¡"
The pdin muttered as his body started to repair itself
"In thend¡ Of the Holy¡."
Standing back up, his arm regenerated and a de appeared by his side.
Letting out a war cry, hundreds of mana signals could be felt surrounding them. One by one, the dead pdins and knights started to rise up from the dead, uttering the same line.
"So dedicated to your cause even after losing your mind. You have my respects. But sorry, too many have already died." Yin sighed as she stomped her foot down.
Sparks appeared around them as Yin raised her hand before snapping her fingers.
*CLICK!!! BOOM!!!!!
Exploding into pirs of fire, Yin grabbed Alexander by the head and narrowed her eyes.
Enveloping his body in a ck me that consumed his essence, wanted to make sure he didn''t resurrect a second time.
"None shall die¡." Alexander struggled as Yin opened her mouth.
"They didn''t die. They''re alive in the southern isles. They''re all alive and well. You did your job properly so now rest."
Hearing this, tears could be seen under the helmet as thest of Alexander was consumed by the mes.
Shaking her head, Yin made her way back to Lisandra.
"It''s sad isn''t it. To want to protect butcked the power. With no other choice he chose a path of no return so that people could survive this devastation." Lisandramented as Yin nodded her head.
"Mn, once we''re done with this ce, let''s see if we can convince them toe to Asharia."
Agreeing with Yin, the two gave the fallen pdin''s a moment of silence in respects for their sacrifices.
Entering through the broken gates of the cathedral, Yin searched through the rubble in hopes of finding anything that could be useful. Spending a few hours to search the entire cathedral carefully, Yin found nothing useful above ground. However, she did find a pathway below ground that led to more chambers along with a library.
With all of the runes around the library, it was not surprising that it was still intact. However, the fact that such a powerful protection array was down here without anyone''s notice was strange. Since there was not a single bit of mana being released from this ce.
Standing in front of the chained gates that led to the library, Yin was stumped. She had tried to use every method possible but was unable to get in. the same runes were present in the rift, stopping her from entering.
"Well I definitely want to check this ce out. But neither violence nor teleporting works. You think they would leave a spare key around here?" Yin asked as Lisandra shook her head.
"I doubt it. Its probably something only the highest members are allowed to ess along with the pope. I do have an idea but it might hurt. Just trust me ok?" Lisandra shrugged as she ced her hand against the gates.
Biting her lip, she released some of Beelzebub''s seal, causing a flow of destructive energy to flow through her arm.
Gritting her teeth, she allowed the seal to open some more as she corroded the protective runes. Once the runes were destroyed, Lisandra immediately reactivated the seal, halting the spread but more of her wings have be ck. As for her arm, the flesh around her arm had crumbled away to ash and healing was slowed down to the point it was barely noticeable.
Before she could say anything, Yin kneeled down next to her and started to wrap her arm in a bandage while applying some healing. She didn''t know much healing but as a Phoenix, her power naturally had the power to heal.
It wasn''t enough to heal the wound but relieving some of the pain was possible.
"You''re an idiot just like mum." Yin sighed as Lisandra chuckled.
"But is the path not opened now? Shall we go?"
Rolling her eyes, Yin nodded and made her way in with Lisandra.
Chapter 1199 - Holy Library
Chapter 1199 - Holy Library
Stepping into the library, the two of them received a notification on their system interface.
[Wee to the Holy Library]
"Holy Library? Well if there''s a system notification then hopefully it should be rather helpful for us." Yin remarked as they walked.
Passing the first set of doors, they were shocked by the sight. In front of them, they could see a giant golden staircase that spiralled down with no end in sight. Rows upon rows of books could be seen on the walls with a pir in the centre that was also filled with books. However, the ones in the pir were hidden behind locks while those on the walls were without protection.
Sending her senses down, Yin realised that it was blocked and her senses could only go as far as her eyes could see.
Suddenly golden chains dropped down from the ceiling as they could see a faint figure kneeling on the pir. HIs body seemed ephemeral as his body looked as though it was dissolving into golden mist.
They couldn''t see his face as it was hidden behind a mask linked to chains that was binding his body.
Stabbed into the pir was anchors that held his chains in ce.
{Wee. I am the overseer of this library. Thou shan''t remove any scriptures. Thou shan''t damage any scriptures. The scriptures on the wall are free to be read but those on the pir can only be essed by the pope or those of sufficient authority. If thou breaks any of the rules, I will have to remove you from this location.} A voice rang out in their mind as the two looked at one another.
"Probably shouldn''t break the rules out of respect." Yin shrugged as Lisandra agreed.
Just as they were about to reach for the first book, the overseer moved and leaned to get a better look at Lisandra.
{You. You''re an angel aren''t you. But that shouldn''t be possible.} He asked as Lisandra looked up in confusion.
{All the angels have been barred from entering this realm after the pope broke the taboo. The dungeon had been removed and the future popes are no longer allowed the same authority. So why is an angel here?} He asked as Lisandra perked her ears up in curiosity.
"Taboo? I don''t know anything about the taboo or the pope but I was transformed into an angel by a god in a dungeon then my mother dragged me out to this realm. Oh just so you know, my mother was native to realm and I was native to the dungeon."
Hearing this, the overseer paused before returning to his previous position.
{Hmm¡ that usually shouldn''t be the case. But regardless, in ordance to the pact I have made, thou art an angel therefore the scriptures in the pir are open to you. The same rules apply.} The overseer said before closing his eyes.
However, Lisandra was more curious about the taboo that he spoke about.
"Excuse me, are you able to tell me more about the taboo?"
{I have sworn an oath of secrecy. Perhaps you may find information in the books, but I am not able to tell you.}
Hearing this, Lisandra could only sigh while Yin shrugged.
"Well you heard him. I''ll check the books on the walls while you check the ones on the pir."
Agreeing with Yin, Lisandra started to flick through the documents.
Unfortunately, most of the documents were in anguage that she didn''t understand but those that she could understood had details on certain sses that one could obtain. Many of these were high level sses that can only be obtained with a certain amount of faith.
Aside from books that contained ss details, there was also scriptures that had stories, dungeon locations, history and key details about the church. Unfortunately, most of them were of no interest to Lisandra as they didn''t help with her condition at all.
Yin didn''t make progress either as all the books she reads were all boring.
"Tsk aren''t there anything useful here?" Yin pouted as Lisandra stayed silent but agreed with her.
Meanwhile, the overseer opened his eyes.
{There are no libraries that keep the most important information at the front.}
Hearing this, Yin felt as though a vein was about to burst.
''Why the hell didn''t you say that from the start!!!''
{Because you never asked.}
''. . .'' Realising that the overseer read her mind, Yin stayed silent and made her way down to the very bottom of the library with Lisandra.
Mumbling something under his breath, the overseer cast a spell that unlocked all the doors leading down so that Lisandra could read everything at will.
As they made their way down, they could feel the mana slowly rise. Each of the books seemed to radiate their own mana signature as Lisandra skimmed their titles.
Most of them had details on holy wars, people who died, notable figures, their life aplishments and what they did to obtain their sses. There were even records of higher beings such as angels, arch angels seraphs and so on. Seeing that this was probably a good ce to start, both Yin and Lisandra started to browse through the books in order to find a way to solve her current predicament.
While reading the scripture in her hands, Lisandra came across an extract that talked about Fallen Angels.
[Many Fallen Angels are not heretics as many would believe. Simr to Pdins who break their oath and tap into a dark power in order to protect, Fallen Angels are those that had given in to their destruction nature in order to gain a boost in power. Once they achieved the task, the power would then turn on them, corrupting them from the inside. Once corrupted, the angels would transform into powerful demons who would have little to no memory of their time as angels. In rare cases, they may have vague recollections. In order to recruit more angels into the holy ranks, the fifth pope of the new calendar created a means to ascend man into higher beings. However, once they appear, they would be sent away to join the holy ranks. Should the situation require their power, the angels will descend to lend aid.]
Reading more, Lisandra read about the methods of transforming one into an angel along with those that had been transformed.
Flicking past the list of names, Lisandra wanted to find information on those that chose to be fallen but never finished their transformation.
{So you are looking for the information on fallen angels. I had assumed your wounds were from entering this world but it seems like that is not the case. Perhaps I can find a book for you.}
Hearing the overseer''s words, Lisandra looked up in surprise.
"Thank you. Can you show me a book that contains information on fallen angels that never finished their transformation? I was exposed to destructive energy that turns people into ''fallen'' but my transformation was halted mid way, leaving me in this state. If possible I would rather not be fallen." Lisandra replied.
{I see¡ Follow the sparrow, it should lead you to the book you seek.}
Suddenly, an illusionary sparrow appeared in front of her and started to fly further into the library.
"Thank you." Thanking him one more time she followed after the sparrow with Yin''s help.
Watching the two leave, the overseer smiled softly and chuckled.
Tilting his head back, he looked up at the skies and shook his head.
Making their way to the very bottom, they were greeted with abyrinth of sorts. Rows upon rows of bookshelves could be seen as the sparrow transformed into a wisp of energy that lit up one of the shelves. Approaching the bookshelf, the nced at the first few book and frowned.
[Experimental Records of Corrupted Angels.]
[Experimental Records of Fallen.]
[Documentation on Failed Experiment Omega.]
Looking at each other, the grabbed a few books and started to read.
Most of the details were gruesome torture like experiment done on fallen angels that were corrupted due to greed rather than for protection.
Many of these experiments caused them to feel a deep sense of disgust as they were experimented with in every way possible. Cross breeding with other species to see if the corruption continues, organ transnts on none corrupted beings and so on.
Each of the experiments were noted down with every detail. Even the smallest change was written down.
As she continued to read, Lisandra was horrified to find out that they created a different kind of ascension. Ones that forcefully transformed them into fallen against their will so that they could have more test subjects to find out the true nature of the corruption.
Viges that had little to zero importance were destroyed.
During one of these experiments, there was several anomalies that would appear every so often.. Ascensions that would fail mid way leading to angels with an unbnced nature.
Chapter 1200 - The Dark Secrets Of The Vatican
Chapter 1200 - The Dark Secrets Of The Vatican
Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, Lisandra read about the records.
Angels with an unbnced nature could not move or fight as they were in constant agony. Their mind were being bombarded by dark thoughts while their body refused to transform, causing a split between body and soul.
This split would often kill the angel within the span of a month depending on their will power. Those with weak will power will transform into a new race within a single day. Their bodies mangled to the point it was barely recognisable.
They were titled Screaming Terrors as several mouths would grow so that their agony could be heard.
Most of the Screamers shared the simr traits of a mangled body that had multiple mouths, wings that grew wherever there was room, hollowed eyes that would flow with ck substance should any living being be near their vicinity. They would show a great deal of hostility to all forms of life.
During one experiment where a single Screaming Terror was released into the wild to see its effect on nature, they observed the being corrupting other monsters, transforming them into simr beings only with a different base race.
A single scratch was all it took for the transformation to take ce as the entire area had to be purged before things got out of hand. From that day on personal tasked with experimenting on the Screaming Terrors had to go through rigorous training to understand all of the procedures. Most of the members had thought that the experiments on the terrors had ceased but only those trusted were allowed to know the truth.
Of course, this didn''t mean the other unbnced angels were spared from experiment. Far from it. They were put through even more agony in order to see what caused them to turn into Screaming Terrors before being terminated to avoid spread.
It turns out that while the body rejected the transformation, should the soul breakpletely, they would be transformed. It''s only because the body rejected that they hold ''some'' resemnce to what they were previously. Should their body ept the change, they would transform into beings they called the Null Sentinels. They were akin to the Arch Angels but every living being was their enemy and the first observation of the Null Sentinel almost destroyed the entire facility.
Several angels were sent down to y the beast but many died in the process.
As for those with body a strong body and will, they would eventually disintegrate to ash as everything has a limit. The unbnced nature would continue to absorb their life essence until nothing was left. There was however, one exception. That angel had somehow adapted to the change, bing a pure fallen but none of the drawback. They didn''t change to be a demon once their task was fulfilled.
With one surviving everything, their greed to create more just like him increased as their experiment continued at arger scale.
From viges to eventually cities, the Vatican waged holy wars when everything was in turmoil. With an influx of subjects to test on, they attempted to recreate the miracle but every test failed.
Eventually, they experimented with angels by capturing them before they could ascend.
As she flipped the page, Lisandra noticed that the pages seemed to have been ripped out. Browsing through other books, she could only find details on prior experiments but none pertaining that of experiments on angels that were captured during their ascension.
Furrowing her brows, she tried to look at other shelves but they hold the Vatican''s dark history on other areas.
{The rest of the records were erased by order of the new pope when things had toe to a halt. There can be no more records on the experimentations less the greed of humans break the taboo once more. This is about as much as you can find out I''m afraid.} The overseer''s voice rang out again as Lisandra sighed.
"Why all of the experimentation? Why was there a need to hurt their fellow people in such ways just for power? I thought the church was meant to be all things good about humans. What is all of this?" Lisandra asked as she felt sorrowful at their history.
{Bad things done in good intentions. Though I cannot deny that good intentions were warped somewhere down in the line. But what''s done is done. The ones that need to be punished have been punished. While it could not change the fact that all of this had already happened, history never repeated itself. The Vatican made sure it did not tread down the path of darkness again as their focus was on helping the people. With the pope no longer being able to ascend while remaining in the realm of man, they had to find new ways to protect. Better, more righteous options that did not involve in tampering with human lives. I sit here as a testament to their views against the actions of old.} The overseer chuckled.
{From my knowledge, there should be more records in the South and West branches. They are where the experiments were being held so you should find some records they might have left behind.}
"Mn¡ Who are you? To be locked in this ce to act as an overseer. You speak as though you were involved with the experiments." Lisandra asked with pity in her eyes.
{I was the one that survived. I tried to help them make more of my kind. That is all I can say. My punishment is to be locked in this ce, forever guarding the knowledge left here so that it cannot be repeated. I live as a demonstration to those who attempted to revel in the dark knowledge. However, I can see that you''ll do no such thing. You merely want to survive. And so, I give you what knowledge I can. Seek out the branches in the West and South. I hope that you can find whatever will help you survive like I did.} The overseerughed as Lisandra nodded her head.
Making her way out of the library, Lisandra nced at the overseer and thanked him once more before leaving.
Looking at the two, the Overseer smiled seeing his own figure ovepping Lisandra''s. The darkness in her wings wanted to corrupt her but their march was halted.
Opening his mouth, he decided to say nothing and activated a spell without their knowing.
A wisp of golden energy floated over, transforming into a small crest that disassembled itself and assisted in holding back the corruption for now.
Suddenly, Lisandra felt a soothing energy in her body as the pain faded ever so slightly. ncing back, she could see the Overseer smiling and knew that he must have done something to help her.
Before she could show gratitude, the doors to the library repaired itself and mmed shut.
"Hm, rather rude isn''t he?" Yin remarked seeing that he mmed the door shut.
"Not really. If anything he was quite helpful." Lisandra chuckled as Yin shrugged her shoulder.
"Well then, shall we go to the south or west?" Yin asked.
"Let''s go the South. There are people there from the Vatican too. If we''re lucky, we can ask them for directions."
"Sounds like a n. But first let''s rest for the night. It''s already getting pretty dark since we spent a little too long in the library." Yin said as she looked at the setting sun.
Setting up camp, she made a quite meal for Lisandra while making sure all of the seals were ok.
That night, the Overseer found himself dreaming about old memories.
shes of memories flickered past his mind. From his time in confinement, the time he managed to ascend and survive the transformation. He could still remember the looks of reverence he received from the people.
Mixed in with the reverence was gazes of greed and lust for power as they wanted to know his secret but he himself was unsure.
However, if he could do some good with this power then so be it. While he disliked the people who experimented on him, he had a responsibility as one with such power. He had to be a guardian for those who can''t defend themselves. A little bit of suffering now was worth it if he could help them.
Kneeling down in front of the pope, he could remember the words he heard that day.
"From this day on, by the will of god, I bestow upon you the name of Azrael!"
Chapter 1201 - Morin
Chapter 1201 - Morin
Waking up early in the morning, Yin made another meal for Lisandra before pulling out a map that was generated by Shiro''s Argus system.
"Let''s see... Where are the southern isles from here. Considering the fact that they had to evacuate with everyone, it shouldn''t be that far from the Vatican. Though there may be a teleport shrine near by that I don''t know about." Yin muttered while navigating the map.
"Thest report didn''t exactly give us a coordinate so we''re still in the dark in regards to their position."
"Well they would probably keep a shrine prepared just in case, it''s very likely that its existence was only revealed in a state of emergency." Lisandra suggested as Yin agreed.
"True... I wonder if the Argus system can search for teleport shrines. They may be hard to spot from space, but their mana signatures should be linking to one another, forming a web of mana that wraps the world."
Attempting to adjust the search parameters, Yin tried to search for the teleport shrines but herck of knowledge around the Argus system was disyed as she only zoomed in and out of the map.
". . ."
Furrowing her brows in frustration, she was surprised to see a notification on the Argus system from Nan Tian.
[Are you looking for something? I happen to notice that you were doing nothing but zooming in and out of the map for thest 10 minutes. - Nan Tian.]
Typing a response back, Yin asked for a bit of help as she didn''t know how to adjust the search parameters.
[Alright, I''ll get that sorted for you. If you want, I can also scan for clumps of signatures underground. That way you can get a rough idea of where they are. ¨C Nan Tian.]
Thanking Nan Tian, Yin waited for a moment before the information popped up on her interface.
"Man, he''s getting really good at using mum''s nanobots." Yin scratched her head while checking the map.
Seeing that there were quite a few teleport shrines nearby that was hidden within man made mountains, Yin understood that Lisandra''s theory was correct and that they were shrines used in situations of emergency. To the far far south, there was a cluster of human signatures along with a mix of other races.
Key thing to note was that they were surrounded by monsters with one having the aura of a Queen.
"Well I suppose we should rush there before anything bad happens. Sis, will you be able to hold on?" Yin asked with a serious face as Lisandra nodded her head.
Transforming into a phoenix, Yin ced Lisandra on her back as she tore open the rift and flew towards the south, hoping that she would get there in time.
###
Who the f*ck do they think I am? When I had found out that they were living nearby I did not persecute them. No, instead I offered them help, gave them food and helped drive the monsters away so that they could live in peace since they did not want toe under my rule.
However, these ungrateful f*ckers actually sent a party of invaders toe to MY city, to raid MY supplies, to kill MY subordinates then dare toin that I''m in the wrong?!
"Drive them into a corner, take away everything they hold dear then ughter them like pigs!" Morin shouted out in anger. She couldn''t believe that her help was actually repaid in such a manner.
Seeing their fearful faces as the monsters approached their location, cornering them off at every turn, Morin had no remorse in what she was about to do.
"Stop! I thought we had an agreement!" One of the pdins shouted out while parrying an attack from a monster. None of the attacks were meant to take lives just yet as Morin wanted to corner them more.
"Ha! That agreement was broken long ago by people of your side! If you want forgiveness then sure! Drag those bastards out and kill them in front of me!"
"You know we can''t do that! With the world as it is, it''s imperative that we have to stick together! You don''t know if they were forced or not! This decision is rash!"
"Bullsh*t! It''s especially in these times that the bad need to be weeded out! Especially those that are willing to do rash things for selfish reasons and endanger your entire group! Did I not lend you my aid!? Did I not spare you what food I could? Offer you protection? I didn''t even force you toe under my rule and allowed you to live safety on the isle but for what!? For you two tell me to forgive two rats that decide to put everyone at risk??? There is no more talking to be done today, either you give me their cold dead corpses or everyone can go with them. I will not suffer the ridicule of letting worms like you trample over my kindness!" Morin shouted back as her aura red.
[Morin LVL 900 Queen of Quakes]
mming her hand down, the water around the inds erupted as thend itself was torn apart. Flicking her finger up, everyone on the ind lost their footing as the pdin gritted his teeth in anger.
While they would not be affected by the earthquakes, the same couldn''t be said for the civilians.
"We can still talk about this! There''s no need to go that far! Aren''t your subordinates still alive!?"
Hearing this, a vein bulged up as everyone felt suffocated by Morin''s killing intent.
"Had the medics not reached them in time, do you think we''ll still be able to revive them!? You''re more foolish than I thought. The time for talk had long pass, I had hoped that you''ll make the smart choice but it seems like I''m mistaken." Morin shook her head as she raised her arm.
Her mana red as she prepared to m it down once more but something grabbed her wrist.
Widening her eyes, Morin nced back in shock as she didn''t sense the other party at all.
Pulling open the rift, Yin popped her head out.
"Ahem. I didn''t hear much but it would be awfully inconvenient should they die on me. Perhaps we can strike a bargain?" Yin forced a smile as she was just in time to hear the stupid reasoning the pdin gave them.
Sure her subordinates was alive but to pick such a sore topic out of all things, it was surprising that the Queen didn''t kill them sooner.
"Who are you?" Morin asked as she was in a contest of strength against Yin. Yin was holding her spell back while she was still trying to kill the survivors of the Vatican City.
"Hmm, it''ll be easier if you''ve been to a few of the events that the system had set for the Queens. Perhaps you''re familiar with my mothers crest." Yin smiled as she pulled out a carving of Shiro''s crest from the rift.
Feeling a cold chill down her spine, Morin furrowed her brows and stopped casting her spell.
Gesturing with her spare hand for her subordinates to stand down, Morin took a deep breath and signed.
"Can I presume that you''re the daughter of Shiro? The mythical Phoenix that consumes everything." Morin asked as all of her subordinates froze up in shock.
"Bahaha, seems like I''m also quite famous. But you got one thing wrong, I can''t consume everything. I wish I did though. But setting that aside, how about we sit down and have a nice chat? I would love to know more about what had transpired and if I can offer a solution without killing them that would be fantastic." Yin grinned as Morin red at the survivors before nodding her head.
"Very well. I shall prepare the venue. In the meantime feel free to browse my city to your leisure. My subordinates will seek you out once a fitting venue has been prepared. Now if you''ll excuse me, they will be set under observation but you can interact with them however you wish." Morin bowed respectfully before teleporting away.
Smiling at her response, Yin brought Lisandra out of the rift and made her way towards the survivors. Seeing the wings behind Lisandra who was sitting on the wheelchair, most of the civilians who couldn''t hear the conversation started to kneel down and prayed to themselves while Yin and Lisandra ignored them.
As for the knights and pdins, they looked at the two of them with weariness but a few recognised them from a while ago as they spent quite a while in the Vatican City without Shiro. However, within the myriad of gazes, there was one that stood out to Lisandra. A gaze that was filled with turbulent emotions. One that seemed to recognise her condition. Following the gaze, Lisandra could see that it belonged to an armoured elf who seemed to hold a rather high position within pdins. This was not the same person who was conversing with Morin earlier as that young man was standing next to the elf respectfully.
Whispering something to Yin, Lisandra kept her eye on the elf as Yin started to approach them with Lisandra.
Chapter 1202 - Ardorius
Chapter 1202 - Ardorius
Standing in front of the elf, Yin narrowed her eyes.
"What''s with your gaze hm? Seems like you know something the others don''t." Yin smirked as he furrowed his brows.
"I sense his energy on you. Did he break the taboo again?" He asked but Lisandra shook her head.
"No, he did not break the taboo. He''s still locked within the library. But if I may, can I ask you how I can solve my condition? I''m assuming you''re one of the very few who know about what happened with angels and fallen." Lisandra asked as the elf''s eyes shook for a moment.
"Let us talk elsewhere, this information should not be shared with people who shouldn''t know." He sighed before Yin opened a portal to the void.
"Sir Ardorius, are you sure you must speak of this alone with them?" The young pdin asked with a concerned look as Ardorius nodded.
"This is something youngsters like you shouldn''t know." Without saying anything else, he stepped through the portal leaving everyone speechless.
Doubt filled the air but Yin ignored it, entering the portal with Lisandra before closing it.
Now that they were in a private space, Ardorius sighed heavily and kneeled before the two of them.
"First of all, I must thank you for giving us some time and a chance to talk things out with the Queen. I will forever remember this favour. However, I cannot share with you the knowledge I have. I was there when the taboo was broken. I cannot with good conscience let a remanent of the Vatican''s dark history remain. I don''t know how long you have left to live but I''m sorry. Miss Lisandra, I witnessed your arrival in the Vatican several months ago. Had you asked me back then I might have told you considering the fact that you were still uncorrupted. However, now that you are already falling to the darkness, I cannot help you." Ardorius bowed his head and apologised.
He could feel his body screaming for him to run away as he could sense Yin''s anger rising with every word he said.
"Even if I wanted to tell you, I had already burned down every single document that might''ve helped you. When the world changed, I had to make sure none of the records were-"
Before he could finish his sentence, he widened his eyes as Yin''s hand was in front of his face, inches away from tearing his head off.
Her wrathful gaze could be seen as her hand was barely being held back by Lisandra who forced herself to stop Yin.
Feeling pain shoot through her body, Lisandra''s face paled as she copsed on the ground.
Quickly catching Lisandra, Yin felt conflicted.
"What are you doing? Why did you stop me? You know he can''t provide us with anything that''s helpful. Why did you strain yourself like this?" Yin asked as she helped Lisandra back on the wheelchair.
"It''s not his fault and you know it. He had to burn it down to stop the spread of disaster. You know what happened in the documents. He was only making sure things didn''t repeat. It was never meant to stop me." Lisandra smiled weakly as Yin healed her to the best of her abilities.
Biting her lip, Yin took a deep breath and red at Ardorius.
"What can you tell us then? Anything would do." Yin asked as Ardorius shook his head.
"The only one who can tell you anything right now is Azrael. However, he is now bound by oath and cannot say anything even if he wanted to." Ardorius admitted as Yin took a deep breath and sighed.
"There is a way though." She said ominously as both Ardorius and Lisandra were confused.
"Mum''s nanobots. She kept a skill library which make custom weapons for people who want a certain skill. Somewhere in that skill library should be something simr to her soul reading ability. I''m sure if we ask Nan Tian, he''ll help us read his soul to find a way for you to survive." Yin said as she narrowed her eyes at Ardorius.
Furrowing her brows, Lisandra thought about the possibility.
Hearing this, Ardorius widened his eyes and pulled out his de.
"I can only hope that you''ll help the others." He said before attempting to end his life. However, before he could, the darkness in the rift locked his body in ce, stopping him from doing anything.
"My domain my rules. We''re taking you back." Yin narrowed her eyes.
{I suggest you don''t. I had a feeling that he wouldn''t know about it but I didn''t think you would go to such lengths. If you forcefully read his memory, you''ll also break a rule that''ll do more harm than good.}
"Azrael!" Ardorius widened his eyes.
Besides Lisandra, a glowing sparrow appeared andnded on her shoulder.
{I used what power I could help your sister while also making sure things went well. Had he knew about the ritual I would have not said anything as I would be breaking a rule of my own oath. But since he doesn''t know, it fulfils part of the requirements for me to give you some information. In days of old, there was a ritual that you could perform with the highest ranked pdin at the time, the pope and high ranking clerics. This ritual would allow you a chance at divine intervention from god. With my perception of the world, I''m guessing that gods are able to influence this world some more so you can probably just do the ritual with the pdin and the pope. If the pope is not avable, I should be able to help somewhat. Though the chance of sess is smaller.} Azrael admitted as Yin looked at Ardorius then Azrael.
"What do I have to do then? I doubt you''re telling me this for you to do it for free. I assume you want me to talk to the Queen to let these people go." Yin said as the sparrow nodded its head.
{That would be most helpful. Pdin, I don''t know your name but I suggest you follow the instructions I give for the ritual once they''ve helped everyone. I know you don''t want the past to repeat but there are always exceptions. Plus, this may help me clear my name of my sins. After being locked up for so long and seeing how much danger is in the world for everyone, I want to do more than to look after a library. Perhaps god may give me a second chance if I help these two youngsters.} Azrael chuckled as he started to fade.
{Once I gather more strength I will send a familiar. For now, I do hope that you two can help these people survive this ordeal. However, if the ones who havemitted the sin are beyond salvation in life then I hope they''ll find salvation in death with the embrace of god.}
Hearing this, Yin nodded.
"I''ll keep that in mind."
Watching the mote disappear, Yin looked at Ardorius.
"I''m keeping my eye on you. Behave yourself while we talk to the Queen."
Opening the portal, Yin left with Lisandra.
Looking up at the darkness in the sky, Ardorius sighed and stabbed the sword into the ground. Kneeling in front of the sword, he started to silently pray.
###
Upon leaving the portal, Yin was greeted with hostile res by the surviving pdins and the knights.
"Where is Sir Ardorius!?" The young pdin shouted out as Yin rolled her eyes.
"He''s still alive. Just praying right now. We havee to an agreement, I help you guys out and he helps us out. But first of all, I want you to show me to the guys who were responsible for raiding the city and killing the Queen''s subordinates." Yin said the pdins frowned.
However, understanding that these people must had lost a few braincells from all the fighting, she looked at the citizens.
"We''re not going to be killing those responsible if possible. We just need them toe with us so that the discussion with the Queen can go smoother. Plus, even if you don''t tell me who they are, the Queen will have her ways of singling them out. If you tell me now it''ll make everything a bit easier. If not then I''ll certainly remember your choices." Yin narrowed her eyes.
Amotion started to spread through the crowd as the pdin wanted to say something. However, before he could, Yin''s killing intent caused his body to freeze up, stopping him from saying anything.
After a few moments, the crowd started to back away from a group of people with pale faces. They started to panic.
"I''ll double check your identities with the Queen once we get there. If you aren''t the right ones then it''ll be a real shame." Yin said as she swept them up in a prison of shadows.
Throwing the culprits into a separate area within the rift, Yin made her way to the city with Lisandra.
Chapter 1203 - Offer To Morin
Chapter 1203 - Offer To Morin
Entering the city, Yin got bored of exploring rather quickly as Asharia had everything and more. Most of the things here werecklustre. The quality of items being sold were also rather poor as most of the experienced crafters are either dead or elsewhere.
Considering how the Queen had spared the civilians from the Vatican initially, Yin could guess that she wasn''t a tyrant so getting manpower would be rather difficult. It was a surprise that a Queen like this even survived for this long.
Scanning the city with her senses, Yin had an map of the city in her mind. Compared to trying to remember everything in Asharia, this was easy.
Sitting down on the balcony in one of the restaurants, Yin nced at the city while Lisandra was next to her.
"Say sis, I have a weird thought bugging my mind for a while and I want your input." Yin said as Lisandra nced up.
"Hm?"
"Once everything is over, what would mum do? What would her purpose be. I''ve been with her the longest aside from Lyrica. Her goal has always been revenge. The thought of protecting everything cameter. But what do you think she''ll do once everything is over? Once she got revenge and once she protected everyone. What would be of Asharia, the world, the people from Asharia." Yin asked as Lisandra thought about it for a moment.
"I can''t help but think mum would be lost. She tries to get a hobby but she always gives up on it for fighting. You can''t really call experimenting her hobby since she''s using it to help her fight better. I think mum might ''snap'' once everything is over. Nothing to fight, no need to act as a protector. She''ll be bored out her mind and snap. And here''s where my weird thoughtes in." Yin nced at Lisandra with seriousness.
"Do you think mum would be happier dying once everything is over? Not that I want her to die of course but I can''t help but worry about her mental state."
"Hmm¡ I don''t know. I agree with you on that mum would be lost. Though I think it shouldn''t go as extreme as thinking would she be happier with dying. Rather it would be better to help her find more things worth going for. Let''s say if Helion and Madison were to have children and their children have grand children, I''m pretty sure mum would want to watch over them and keep them safe with Madison. Same goes for anyone she cares about. That''s just how she is. If anything, she ces the burden on herself but at the same time, she enjoys that. She gets joy from seeing the people she care about being happy. But most importantly, I think it should be something we think about once the timees rather than now." Lisandra shrugged as Yin nodded with a grin.
"Ahhh so good to have you around. Without you big sis might keep thinking of depressing topics." Yinughed as she leaned back on her chair.
Hugging Lisandra and making sure she didn''t hurt her, Yin flicked her finger and swung wide the door with her mana before the subordinate could even knock.
"Lead us to her. It took you long enough." Yin said as the subordinate nodded his head and bowed. Gesturing for them to follow him out, they made their way to the main castle in the heart of the city.
To be honest, Yin didn''t even need them to show her the way since she could sense where most of their man power was being gathered. While her senses may not be as outrageous as Shiro''s, she could still easily sense everything going on in a tiny city like this one.
Arriving at the castle, they were led to a giant room with arge table in the centre. Standing by the table was Morin who was nervous inside as she wasn''t too keen on dealing with Yin and Lisandra.
If things don''t go well, she hopes that most of them would be spared.
Seeing how nervous Morin was, Yin decided to not bully the Queen or else Lisandra would be unhappy.
Waving her hand, a cage appeared with the supposed culprits.
"Can I assume that these were the ones who killed your men?" Yin asked as Morin nced at the group locked up, unable to do anything.
ncing back at her subordinates, they nodded their heads with hatred in their eyes.
"Yes they are. May I ask what you n to do with them?" Morin asked as she gestured for Yin to sit down.
Only when Yin sit down did Morin follow as Yin was the dominant party in this discussion.
"Well I wanted us to discuss what we could do for you to pardon these guys. Of course, I''m not trying to bully you here but we do need the people of the Vatican to be alive. These bad apples however, can be punished depending on the severity of their crimes." Yin said as she crossed legs and narrowed her eyes.
"So far, they have broken into the city, killed 5 guards and raided one of our supply warehouses. While they didn''t burn things down, most of the food was destroyed with them taking what they needed. It''s already hard enough to feed everyone in the city considering what''s going on outside of the city and now these people have broke into one of therger food warehouses. If we want to keep emergency supplies we''ll need to start rationing our food more than we have before." Morin said as Yin thought about it before ncing at the group.
"Is that so. It is of my personal belief that bad apples like this should be disposed of quickly before more harm is done. However, my mother does like to give second chances so I have a suggestion that may be beneficial for both parties. Of course, I''m not pressuring you here. Because between you and me, I don''t really care about the lives of these people. The other citizens are a different question but for these criminals, no mercy. However, before my sister lectures me, I do want to avoid some blood shed so let''s discuss a way to please both you and the Vatican Refugees." Yin pped her hand with a smile.
"I assume that you''ll let bygones be bygones should they die right?"
Nodding her head, Morin wondered where Yin was taking this.
"So what if let''s say they were to be your ves for a time. You can send them on missions to procure twice the amount of food they have stolen and damaged and once they do, they''re free. Of course, sending them on obviously suicidal missions is a no but should they die of idental deaths then it''s on them rather than you. They get to live and be free if they do their job, you get the food the stole and the Vatican''s are happy. What do you think?" Yin offered as Morin thought for a moment and nced at her subordinates. While they were unhappy that their killers were allowed to live, they knew that killing them wouldn''t change anything.
Leaning over, one of the subordinates whispered into her ear as Morin nodded her head.
"That is eptable. We''ll take these people as temporary ves until they finish gathering twice the amount of food they have taken and damaged. Once this is done, we''ll free them. I am willing to activate a contract to ensure that both parties hold their word." Morin said as Yin smiled.
"Perfect. Nice and simple." Yin grinned. Before she could write up a contract, Lisandra nudged Yin.
"Hm?"
Raising her eyebrow, Yin received a text from Lisandra. Reading the text, Yin thought about it for a moment before nodding her head.
"Alright. By the suggestion of my sister and on my authority as the leader of the Food Hall in Asharia, we''llpensate you for the food they have taken and more so that your city does not need to ration due to their damages. Naturally, this is free of charge. We''ll even enlist some of our adventurers in the city to collect food for your city, provided that there is payment for their jobs. We''ll cover a portion of the cost using Asharia Adventurerws but you still need to pay 70%. That way, food shortages should no longer be a problem for you while it also gives our adventurers more work. What do you think about this? Should you agree, we''ll build a branch of the Asharia Adventurer''s Guild within this city and open a teleport hall to allow our Adventurers free travel between cities. Should your citizens apply for a permit they are allowed to enter Asharia through the teleport hall and explore the city. Since my mother does not want to kill Queens if possible, opening a partnership between our two cities should be beneficial for you as a Queen with a personality like yours is a rarity in this age." Yin offered with a smile.
While Yin was saying this, Lisandra had sent Nan Tian the info and he quickly drafted up a contract for them.
As for the alliance part of the contract, that could be done once Shiro was back.
Reading through everything, Morin was a little hesitant.
"Can you give me two days to think about this?" She asked as it was a little too good to be true.
"Of course, take your time. My main priority has been dealt with anyways." Yin smiled, gesturing to the ''ves''.
Fulfilling the first agreement for Morin to forgive the Vatican people, Yin and Lisandra left the building so that they could consider the offer from Asharia.
Chapter 1204 - Scala Ad Caelum
Chapter 1204 - Sc Ad Caelum
Leaving the building, Yin created a portal into the rift and stepped through with Lisandra by her side.
"You still praying?" Yin called out as Ardorius was still kneeling in front of his sword.
"What we''re about to do is practically breaking the taboo. I must seek forgiveness first before performing the act." Ardorius replied without looking up. Keeping his eyes closed, he continued to pray.
"Is that so. We''ll that''s up to you. But we''vee to an agreement with the Queen. The ones who are guilty for all of this will serve as ves for the Queen, doing missions until they''ve collected enough food topensate the city. In return, she''ll let bygones be bygones. Congrats, your people can continue to live and the ones responsible aren''t killed either." Yin said as she stretched her body.
"Thank you."
"If you want to thank me help my sister. Your thanks won''t do anything for me, helping her will." Yin replied instantly as she sat down, waiting for Azrael to contact them since he was the only one who knew how to do the ritual.
"I understand. I¡ Hais. I will give you my full cooperation." Ardorius sighed as he was going against everything he had done so far. If he was being honest, this left a bitter taste in his mouth.
However, if God really epts what they''re about to do, who was he to go against the will of God?
Finishing off his prayer, he sat silently and waited for Azrael''s arrival.
After waiting for around an hour, a mote of golden light appeared in the void and transformed into a sparrow.
{I have built up enough strength to go through with this ritual. Once we''re out of the void, I shall lead us to a ce suitable for this ritual.} Azrael said as Yin nodded her head.
Flicking her fingers, a portal opened up as the four of them left the rift.
Carrying Lisandra with mana, Yin followed behind Azrael while Ardorius did the same. Flying over the Refugee camp with all of the Vatican survivors, Ardorius activated a spell and sent a message to the young pdin, notifying him of what the decision was and what they were doing now.
Asking him to lead the refugee''s back to the base, he also mentioned for him to not interfere with what happens next.
Seeing this happen, Yin only raised an eyebrow but paid no attention as her focus was on Lisandra''s survival.
Flying across the ocean, Azrael suddenly stopped as the city and inds were barely visible across the horizon.
{This should be the ce. Pdin, charge my familiar with your mana and I''ll start the ritual. Then I need you to listen carefully to what I say and repeat after me.} Azrael said as the sparrow started to transform.
Letting out a ray of light, he revealed his form. He had long ck hair that reached his lower back, a ck and gold robe that was designed in a simr fashion to the pope''s robes, dark gold ted armour around his shoulders, arms, waist and legs. Behind him, three pairs of ck wings could be seen followed by hundreds of illusionary wings ovepping the real ones.
Raising his arm, he opened his mouth and chanted in anguage unknown to Yin and Lisandra.
*BOOM!!!!
Parting the clouds, a sword shot down from the skies and hovered in front of him.
Grabbing the sword, Azrael closed his eyes and nced at Ardorius.
{Listen well pdin.}
Stabbing the sword down, a giant tier 6 magic circle started to appear in the bottom of the ocean as Azrael started to chant. Copying what Azrael was saying, Ardorius used his own sword as a conduit, causing a second tier 6 magic circle to appear before ovepping the initial one that Azrael created.
*RUMBLE!!!!!
Watching the ocean water boil and swirl, Azrael''s figure seemed to ovep Ardorius'' as they both raised their sword into the air and cleaved down.
*BANG!!!!
Splitting the ocean in two, a giant golden ring of energy appeared in the sky.
ncing up, Yin recognised it to be tier 7 in nature.
{"Heavenly Father, show your lostmb the path to salvation. Show us the path to that of which we seek. Forgive us for our past sins and shine upon us a new dawn. On the authority of Azrael, the Angel of Death! I summon Sc Ad Caelum!"} Both Azrael and Ardorius shouted out at the same time.
Suddenly, from the bottom of the ocean, a white and gold temple started to appear as the world seemed to freeze around them.
The temple seemed to be made from a strange material that waspletely crafted out of energy. There was a single path leading to the temple as the gates opened ever so slightly.
{I suggest your sister walk the path alone. That gives her the highest chance of sess.} Azrael smiled as both Yin and Lisandra could tell that he was exhausted.
{We three shall wait here. Should your prayers be answered, you will be saved and I will be forgiven. Should your prayers be rejected, then nothing will change.}
Nodding her head, Lisandra took a deep breath and looked over at Yin.
"I''ll be right back." She smiled as she forced herself to stand up.
Furrowing her brows, Lisandra activated a berserk skill so that she no longer felt the pain in her body.
Diving down, Lisandra flew to the start of the path as a show of respect before walking towards the temple.
Feeling a warm energy wrap around her body, she could see the darkness in her wings fade by a tiny bit.
Stepping forward, her motions were slow but her speed was fast. In no time at all, she arrived at the gates of this temple.
Feeling a strange, unfamiliar energy on the other side of that door, Lisandra nced back at Yin before taking her first step in.
*BANG!!!!
The gates closed behind her as Lisandra suddenly found herself in the middle of the sky. A sea of clouds surrounded her as there was a single path in front of her. A stairway that continued up to the unknown.
Taking the first step, Lisandra felt the energy within her body change ever so slightly. Taking another step, the sensation persisted.
Losing herself for a moment, Lisandra realised she had taken hundreds of steps and her body had physically aged. Around her, statues of angels could be seen, guarding the side of the steps.
Furrowing her brows, she wanted to look back but something in her mind told her that she shouldn''t.
As she continued up the stairway, her body grew old, ''died'' then was reborn and grew old once more.
Ignoring the changes to her body, Lisandra continued up the staircase, not knowing that the power of destruction started to run rampant. The seal that Beelzebub had ced on her was destroyed and her wings crumbled to ash. Her arms started to break away but she didn''t stop.
As her leg crumbled to dust, both radiant and dark energy wrapped around one another to form a new leg for her to continue her steps.
Little by little, she lost her physical form until she was nothing but energy.
By the time she knew what was going on, Lisandra found herself in the middle of a gxy. In front of her a single being floated in the star lit void.
-Tell me child, what form of mine do you see?-
A voice rang in her head as Lisandra tried to reply but no words came out of ''her mouth''. Instead, an echo could be heard in the gxy.
[Your form is that of a faceless being. White energy is your hair and your body fades into the gxy. Your clothes are the sea of stars weaved into a fabric.]
-I that so? A rather odd form I must say. Though not the first. Those that had seen me have observed a myriad of forms. An old man, a twisted cosmic horror, a ball of energy, darkness with two eyes.-
[What are you? By my understanding of Gods, a single biblical god should not be possible. The powers described within the books do not match the system standard. So what are you?] Lisandra asked.
Even though she didn''t want to ask such a thing, it seemed that all her thoughts wereid bare.
-Straight to the point I see. Though as the daughter of the First Born of Destruction it is only to be expected. I am God, though it is not what you think. I have all the power while also having no power. I know all yet I am ignorant. Though perhaps this would be easier for you toprehend. I am the God of Faith, Belief and Prayers. I am the being that grants an answer to prayers and beliefs to mortals. My poweres from what they believe I can do. If they believe whole heartedly that I can help then my power grows. If they do not believe I am real, then my existence fades. I am all powerful, so long as people believe me to be. But I cannot ovee what they cannotprehend. My powers are limited to mortalprehension. If they cannotprehend the might of the First Born''s then I am a speck in front of their infinite power. I know of all that happened in the past but I do not know what will happen tomorrow.-
-However, my divinity over faith allows mortals to seek answers in other ways not originating from me. Therefore, I ask you child of the Destroyer. Where do you ce your faith?-
[My mother. The First Born of Destruction. She will forever have my unwavering faith. However, allowing myself to be corrupted by destruction would bring ruin. Even she does not want her powers of destruction to run rampant. Therefore, I must seek out the forces of creation do I not?]
-Nay. Who is to say that destruction is corruption? The calm gentle embrace of darkness and the sharp blinding rays of light. Is that not your mother and the goddess Aria? Who is to say that darkness is evil and light is good? All that matters is where your faith is ced. Who is to say that allowing yourself to darkness causes you to be evil and destroy everything? It''s all about faith, child. Faith in yourself, faith in your powers. If you believe that you''ll be evil, then that will be the natural result. Do you believe that your mother is evil?-
[No.]
-Then you have your answer. I cannot ovee what you cannotprehend. But as you already have the answer, then all that matters is for me to lead you to the solution. I''m not all powerful, but I can show you the path.-
Without saying anything else, ''God'' waved his hand and the energy around them started to flow towards Lisandra.
Closing her eyes, Lisandra thought back to Shiro.
[She is the First Born of Destruction, but she seeks peace more than anyone else. As her daughter, I will help my mother reach her goal. Like her, I will destroy those that seek to break peace and wee those who wish for peace.]
Suddenly, the space copsed around Lisandra as all of the energy swirled towards her, reforging her physical body.
-Your faith in your mother is truly unwavering.- ''God'' Smiled as the energy started to calm down.
Standing in the middle of the gxy, Lisandra reappeared. Her long white hair fluttered behind her as she wore a full set of angelic armour that was dyed the deepest ck. Unfurling behind her, three pairs of void ck wings appeared as ck energy swirled around her body. Destruction energy that threatened to reduce everything to ash but was somehow docile and calm.
"Do you have a name?" Lisandra asked as she opened her mouth.
-Nay, I need no name. I am merely one who guides, an invisible force in the universe that interferes asionally. Tell Azrael that his bindings are of his own making, should he forgive himself and seek to do good, they will naturally release him.- He chuckled waving his hand, Lisandra felt a force pull her away from this area. However, just before she was gone, Lisandra managed to catch a glimpse of his tag. Strangely, there was no name, no ss, no level. He was simply:
[The God of Faith]
Chapter 1205 - Azrael’s Choice
Chapter 1205 - Azrael¡¯s Choice
By the time she opened her eyes again, Lisandra found herself outside, floating above the sea. Looking down, she realised the word had returned to normal and no longer frozen in time.
As for the temple, it had now disappeared. Yin, Ardorius and Azrael floated over to her as Yin immediately hugged Lisandra while Ardorius was on guard since Lisandra''s wings had turnedpletely ck.
"I''m back sis. Everything was sorted out." Lisandra smiled as she hugged Yin back.
"That''s good. As long as you''re ok then that''s good." Yin smiled as she hugged Lisandra tightly. Even though she wasn''t being verbal about it, she felt a crushing pressure in her heart seeing Lisandra not being able to move without the help of the wheelchair. Especially when she thought that there was no hope left.
However, now that she was standing here nice and healthy, Yin felt a weight being lifted off her shoulders.
Once Lisandra realised that Yin wasn''t going to stop hugging her for a while, she chuckled and looked over at Ardorius who still had his guard up.
"Don''t worry, I didn''t lose myself to corruption or anything like that. I just had my eyes opened by God. And Azrael, I must say, God is a lot different than I had thought." Lisandra smiled as Azrael chuckled.
{Indeed. He is unlike the gods you see from the Greek or Norse pantheons.}
"Speaking of which, he did say something about your bindings. Your bindings are of your own making, should you forgive yourself and seek to do good, they will naturally release you." Lisandra smiled.
Hearing this, Azrael paused.
{They''re of my own making?} He asked as he could clearly remember the day when these chains bound him to the library.
"Mn. So long as your heart and faith are in the right ce, you will be free. Its all about belief."
{. . . I see.}
Looking up at the sky for a moment, Azrael closed his eyes and prayed silently before opening his mouth.
{Then I shall remain in my bindings for a little longer. I believe that mortals can support themselves. While it may get hard, and obstacles may block their path, I believe that they can venture forth with unwavering determination. It will be tested time and time again, but mortals will push on. They may take a step back or stumble, but they will never stop. I will release myself when mortals need an extra support.} Azrael said as he looked back at Lisandra.
{It is through trial and tribtion that the mortal will is tempered. Meing out and shielding them now would be akin to me giving up on my belief. Belief in that they are strong. That they can venture forth without me.}
"Then I hope to see you when things take a turn for the worst. When the heavens crash down and gods walk amongst man, and when man bes nothing but a speck, I hope you will help shield them for a period."
{Naturally. Wanting them to grow through tribtion is not the same as refusing to protect them. When the timees, I will serve and I will protect.} Azrael bowed respectfully before his figure disintegrated into motes of light.
"Now then, what about you?" Lisandra asked as she turned to Ardorius who had now sheathed his sword.
"I will keep doing my job and keep the people safe." Ardorius said as Lisandra nodded her head.
"How about you work with the Queen and form an alliance with us? We can talk about some benefits that Asharia will give while allowing you safety. With how things will be, I doubt you''d want to go back to the Vatican right now so your best bet is to stick with the Queen. I will remind you that a Queen like her is rare so you should treasure this chance."
"I will bring this up to the others and see what they say." Ardorius bowed before flying back to the refugee camp.
###
"After that, we eventually managed toe to an agreement between Ardorius and Morin. She''ll allow the Vatican refugees to live under her protection so long as they help out the city. They''ve also signed a contract with Morin simr to our contract where we send adventurers for work and they get paid. It''s generally to allow Morin''s city to flourish." Lisandra exined with a sparkle in her eye.
Listening carefully, Shiro smiled and patted her head while eating the noodles that yin made.
"I see, how did they fare during the transition? It should havested a short while since I slowed down the transition but it must have been rather hectic" Shiro asked curiously.
"Oh me and Yin dealt with that. We decided to remain for a bit to make sure everything is ok. So right now, Morin is just waiting to finish the contract with you and that''ll be them sorted out for a while." Lisandra smiled.
"Mn, good job. I''m proud of you both. And I must say, I''m rather surprised that the biblical god does exist. Honestly, I thought he was going to be something simr to Nyx and the others." Shiro shrugged.
"But enough about me and Yin, what did mum do while we''re away?" Lisandra asked curiously.
"Not much. Met two interesting people, met up with Arnea, killed the final shard of a god, brought her to Asharia so that we can work on saving her sister, recruited the remaining subordinates of a Queen and found out some information about Anima. And as you can see, obtain a bunch of subjects perfect for experimenting." Shiro waved her hand casually while Yin''s smile twitched but eventually waved her hand dismissively.
It wasn''t anything crazy, just a Tuesday for Shiro so she shouldn''t make a big deal out of it.
"So mum, who was that girl who attacked you? She certainly felt different from everyone else in this world. Her aura is foreign. If we weren''t looking at her, we wouldn''t have even known she was there. It was like her aura waspletely out of our perception." Yin asked while grabbing more food since she was still hungry.
"If I knew I would tell you. But unfortunately I can only say she''s from the Creation Side of the universe. Strangely adept to nanotech and wants to kill me. Her line was strange though. The world would be better without me or you. I''m the life line right now so without me there will be no world." Shiro shrugged.
"She speaks as though she''s the First Born of Creation. You think that''s the case?" Nan Tian mentioned as Shiro shook her head.
"Nah. Not likely. If she was, she would have killed me rather quickly. Plus, the burning sensation in my body feels more like it''s from someone who wields creation rather than the literal being of creation energy. Think of it like this, Lisandra using Destruction Energy is pretty much the opposite of that woman. Just because she can use it doesn''t mean she''s the First Born of Creation. The divinity iscking. Whereas if I was to use it, it would obviously obliterate anything and everything I touch. Because well, I''m the First Born of Creation." Shiro exined.
"Now here''s what I think. We know that the other side of the universe is pretty much an inverse of ours. I''m guessing she could be a flipped version of me or someone close who can use nanotech. With what I mentioned earlier, the chances of her being a flipped me is significantly higher than being someone close." Shiro scratched her head.
"But we cannot scratch out that she is indeed the First Born of Creation since you two are basically sisters considering your identity." Nan Tian reminded as Shiro agreed.
"In a nutshell we know f*ck all and all we can do now is to experiment and figure out how we can ess their world like how they can with ours." Shiro said as she leaned back before flinching from the foreign nanobots in her body.
"Oh hell no, there is no experimenting until I sort your body the f*ck out." Nimue cut in as she appeared next to Shiro.
Staring at her re, Shiro understood that she must be rather furious.
"Well who said I was going to be the one to provide the mana haha. Thanks to the little agreement I have with Jormungandr, I can just use the mana and divine energy he provides to experiment while I let my body rest." Shiro waved her hand as Nimue took a deep breath in anger. Wanting to say something, she eventually sighed and disappeared back into Shiro''s mana realm.
"You should give her a break sometime mum. You know it must be stressful doing Nimue''s job." Lisandra chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"I will darling, I will. But not right now." Shiro grinned.
"But where''s your brother? I know what you and your sister have been up to but what about your brother?"
"Oh Attie''s doing something with stupid lizards and fire. Something along the lines of hell and stuff. I didn''t listen properly since I lost interest after he mentioned the lizards but Syradil might know since Attie talked to her for a period of time." Yin said as Shiro raised an eyebrow and nodded her head.
"Well, I''ll ask once I rest for a day. I think this fight took more out of me than expected.." Shiro chuckled as she finished her meal.
Chapter 1206 - Preparing To Experiment With Creation
Chapter 1206 - Preparing To Experiment With Creation
Talking to the others for a little longer, Shiro made her way back to her room. Before entering, she sensed Nan Tianing around the corner.
"Shiro." He called out.
"Hm? Was something up?" Shiro asked as he furrowed his brows but shook his head.
"Or perhaps you wanted to sleep in the same bed again?" Shiro grinned as he rolled his eyes.
"How are you feeling? Is your body ok?" He asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Don''t worry, I''m fine. Just a bit tired though." Shiro waved her hand.
"I''ll wake up in a few hours to experiment. If I don''t wake up by then give my door a knock ok?" Shiro said as Nan Tian opened his mouth. Hesitating for a moment, he nodded his head.
"Rest well."
Watching Nan Tian leave, Shiro sighed and opened her door.
Locking her door, sheid down a set of runes before copsing on her bed.
Gritting her teeth, she held her body while trying to not let out a cry.
"I already warned you during the dinner but you insisted on talking more." Nimue frowned as she had been constantly repairing Shiro''s body from the inside this entire time while Shiro made it seem as though there was nothing wrong.
Unable to reply, Shiro held her body in a foetal position as her fingers dug into her arms, drawing blood from how much strength she was using.
Shaking her head, Nimue transformed herself into multiple streams of water that coated the wounds that continued to open across Shiro''s body.
The nanobots within her that were ''dormant'' running rampant once more before being supressed by her mana.
"You should sort out these nanobots first or else I''m forcefully purging them from your body." Nimue warned.
"Don''t¡ They''re an important clue that we need. If I can figure them out we can start making progress." Shiro squeezed out before letting out a small cry of pain.
Meanwhile, Nan Tian leaned against the walls outside of her room. Closing his eyes, he sighed heavily.
''If she didn''t sense me here then she''s probably at her limit. She was already acting weird during the dinner.'' Nan Tian thought to himself.
Understanding that it was probably done by the creation energy within her body, he figured that she must feel as though everything within her was melting away. Taking a deep breath, Nan Tian wanted to go in but understood that with Shiro''s personality, she wouldn''t want anyone to see her like this. If that wasn''t the case, why would she choose to ''sleep'' over experimenting?
Flexing his arms, the armour made from the Radiant Knights wrapped around his arms once more. As they were made from Nanobots, there wasn''t much trouble for him to control them. Unlike Shiro, he wasn''t that far into the Destruction Element so there was only a slight burning sensation nothing more.
Dismissing the gauntlets, he made his way to thebs.
Opening the doors, he was surprised to see Aarim standing there, reading the documents on the subjects they''ve just acquired. During dinner, he had written a small document so he didn''t expect Aarim to read them already.
"How''s Shiro? Yin and Lisandra told me that something was wrong with her but they weren''t sure. They mentioned something about experiments and thought that I could probably help." Aarim said while chewing on a mana stick.
"Not good. I can''t give you a detailed description since I wasn''t able to get a good look but from what I could tell, her seal on the creation nanobots are probably getting destroyed, forcing her to make new seals. During the period when she''s making new seals, they''ll be killing her from the inside." Nan Tian said as he summoned the Radiant Knight armour and ced it on the table.
Sitting down, a new console appeared in front of him as nanotech arms held the armour upright.
"That bad huh? I had hoped that Shiro would have been more open to us but I suppose she doesn''t want us to worry." Aarim said while cracking her neck.
Pulling out some research of her own, she sat down near Nan Tian.
"How many hours do we have?"
"Minimum of 4 hours. As for Maximum, hard to say." Nan Tian shrugged.
"4 hours huh? Well since it''s Shiro let''s half it to two. She would probably get a better seal sorted out and be back on her feet in 2 hours. From what I''ve heard, she ced the seal hastily after the battle so this one should be better andst longer." Aarim said as she flicked her fingers an a giant magic array appeared in the room.
"This is thepiled research that I have on the other side. If you use it as reference against that armour of yours, we can probably make some connections. If we''re lucky, I can use my mage tower as a portal to the other side." Aarim smiled before flicking over a mana stick.
Catching it, Nan Tian threw it in his mouth and smiled.
"Either that or we help her find a clue on how to obtain creation. But knowing Shiro, she might just jump into the deep end. Regardless, we got two hours to do as much as we can so that she can have an easier time."
"Two hours real time yet. But our ''time''? Not so much." Aarimughed before tapping her finger on the table.
Runes lit up on the walls as they radiated a familiar emerald glow.
"Time magic?" Nan Tian raised his eyebrows.
"Not what you think. I nced at some details regarding the training rooms that Shiro had made. I just made some adjustments with my knowledge of space magic and this is a refined prototype. The time dtion is weaker than the rooms that she has but it''s more stable and portable. If I want to make more improvements I''ll need her since she''s the only one with knowledge on time magic." Aarim shrugged before using magic to create a holographic clock.
"With the time dtion we have around 20 hours give or take. A little better than 2 hours is it not?" Aarim smirked.
Chuckling for a moment, he nodded his head and the two of them started their research.
###
Laying on her bed while covered with sweat, Shiro took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Copsed on the ground was Nimue who had been in full focus for a little over two hours now.
"Sorry about this." Shiro muttered quietly.
"Don''t think too much. If you''re sorry about it stop making me work my ass off like this." Nimue chuckled as she climbed onto the bed andid down next to Shiro.
"Though I kind of signed myself up for this haha. Oh if only I knew what I was agreeing to." Nimue smirked, causing Shiro tough softly.
"Do you regret it?"
"Nah. It''s a little annoying and exhausting. But regret it? Not ever. Also you should probably take a shower. You are covered in sweat." Nimue shrugged as Shiro nodded her head.
"I''ll tone down the experimenting if I can. Thankfully I don''t need to use my mana since Jormungandr is providing us with everything we need." Shiro sat up and made her way to the showers.
"That''s a relief for me. Now if you''ll excuse me, I actually need to sleep. Fixing wounds caused by creation energy is rather exhausting." Nimue said as she transformed into a stream of water that entered Shiro''s body.
Just as Nimue disappeared, circuits appeared on Shiro''s shoulder. A small piece ''stood'' up on her shoulder and rubbed against Shiro''s cheek.
"Of course I can''t forget about you Error. Thanks for helping us." Shiro chuckled.
"Mother''s body is very weak right now. Your power remains the same but you can''t take any hits or else the seal will break. I don''t know how long it''llst for but I''ll maintain it as best as I can." Error said within her mind.
"Mn, I''m counting on you."
Disappearing from her shoulder, Error went back to her mana realm and concentrated on the seal since it was in a rather delicate state right now. Even with everything at their disposal, there was simply too much that was unknown about creation energy. The seal was at best considered a band aid solution.
"I should read more on Isvelger''s notes." Shiro muttered with a small smile before having a shower to refresh herself.. Once she''s done with this, she''ll need to deal with the test subjects, Nan Tian''s new armour and the nanobots within her.
Chapter 1207 - Truth Of The Radiant Knights
Chapter 1207 - Truth Of The Radiant Knights
After her shower, Shiro dressed herself in some casual clothes which consisted of a ck dress, white jacket, ck tights and a pair of boots. Compared to her usual outfit, this was something she would probably wear on a day out.
Drying her hair, she tied it into a pony tail before making her way to thebs.
"Let''s see¡ Where are thebs again." Shiro muttered. After making the main tower of Asharia, she created severalbs for experimentation on foreign elements such as the crystal. For something like these nanobots and the Radiant Knights, she would use one of the betterbs that she had created.
Sending out her senses, she noticed that one of them seemed to have a barrier around it, stopping her perception from entering.
"Ohya?"
Closing her eyes, she activated Analysis EX and realised that the barrier was also speeding up time within theb. It was simr to the training rooms that she had made but more stable. Realising that it must have been Aarim since she was the only one with the talents in space magic to stabilise her training rooms, Shiro wondered what they were doing inside theb to warrant such a barrier.
Looking deeper, she sensed both Nan Tian and Aarim experimenting on portals and the armour he had brought back.
Realising that they must have started without her, Shiro chuckled and made her way over.
Just as she approached, theb doors opened up.
"How was your rest?" Aarim asked as she gestured for Shiro toe in.
"Rxing. Though it seems like you two have started without me. Kind of makes me sad you know?" Shiro joked as she watched the doors close.
Waving her hand, she summoned Iriel and snapped her fingers.
Jormungandr''s crest appeared on the de as green runes lit up, upgrading room so that time moved a little bit faster. Now that she had Jormungandr''s help in regards to mana, the time dtion was now roughly 1 to 36. One hour in here was equal to one and a half days outside. But that was an estimate since even with Aarim''s help, her control over time was stillcking. The actual dtion would fluctuate with one and a half days being a generous estimate.
"Do you have any new discoveries that I should know of before we start?" Shiro asked with a smile.
"Somewhat. We tried to see if we could track a signal back to its source through one of Aarim''s portal but the connection was cut. Either they made some changes on their side or it''s a bit harder to establish a connection than we expected." Nan Tian said as he moved away from armour that he was experimenting on.
"Since nanobots naturally receive a signal from a controller, it should have provided us a way to reach them. But it seems like these nanobots work a little differently. While they still receive a signal, it seems like they have their own A.I as well. For example, if I cut my connection with the armour and do something like this¡"
Standing next to Shiro, Nan Tian created a barrier before having the robotic arms ce some nanobots in front of the armour.
Suddenly, the armour changed colour as the blue glow between the tes turned red.
Transforming itself into a writhing mass of metal, the ''armour'' attacked the nanobot samples before trying to breach the barrier.
Quickly re-establishing connection with the armour, Nan Tian froze it in it''s current form.
"As you can see, once I release my connection they attack anything and everything. Especially things with a stronger connection to you. But, that''s only the case when I use something weaker. Once we use a stronger sample than the armour, it backs down and enters a defensive form to protect itself while trying to send a signal to the source. The A.I is there but less developed than one would think. If anything, it''s simr to a child who''s hostile against anything weaker than it while fearing something stronger. I don''t know about the other subjects that you''ve captured but the ones fused together to make the armour are undeveloped." Nan Tian said as Shiro observed with slight interest.
"Hmm¡ I see. Well I can make A.I as well but it''s more of a program than actual A.I. Making an A.I ''think'' and learn is a lot harder than many would think. It''s not a matter of trial an error that makes them grow. Even if the oue makes them feel like ''A.I'', real artificial intelligence actually have free will. It''s very difficult to pull off and even back in Aria, where they made nanobots, there was only one proper A.I while others are advanced programs that follow a giant library of instructions. As for this suit of armour, I''d say it''s more of a program that attacks everything it''s coded to attack. If I was to let say coat this sword with Error and have him mask the feeling of creation, it shouldn''t attack it." Shiro said as she controlled the nanobots through a tablet and made a sword.
Holding the sword, circuits appeared on her arm and wrapped around the de, dying itpletely ck with red circuits.
Gesturing for Nan Tian to release his control for a moment, Shiro approached the suit of armour.
Throwing the de that''s simting Creation Energy, the armour did not attack it despite being made from ''Destruction'' nanobots. Instead, it allowed it to do whatever while still trying to attack everything else.
"If it was a proper A.I, the reaction would be different but as you can see, that''s not the case." Retrieving Error from the de, the armour immediately attacked the sword that nowcked the ''aura'' of Creation.
"If it was a proper A.I it would have been confused rather than attack it if it was undeveloped." Shiro shrugged.
"However, there''s a benefit to this. Since it''s only a program, Error can give me a proper scan of it."
Flicking her wrist, a strand of circuits shot out and started to override the armour. The nanobots tried to fight back but were supressed quickly as Error already had experience in fighting against them thanks to the ones within Shiro''s body.
"While Error deals with them, shall we look at the other subjects?" Shiro asked with a smile.
Nodding their heads, they watched her pull out ten orbs.
Throwing one into a make shift prison, Shiro chained it us and had error disable its processes for now. Limping over, the Knight was no different from a dead person but she knew that the moment she undid its bindings it would most likely kill her. Especially in her current state.
"Let''s throw it onto an operation table for now. I want to obverse what it''s made from and how the nanobots work inside their body. Hopefully it should give me a rough idea on how to achieve the creation variant of the nanobots." Shiro shrugged as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Giving her a hand, he hauled the Knight onto the table and pinned the limbs down through shackles made from the armour. They knew that destruction nanobots won''t work against them so the best way would be to use the creation nanobots.
Cutting the Knight open with a de, Shiro started to dig around while its regeneration was being hindered by Error.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro felt something off but couldn''t quite put a finger on it. Pulling out a few samples, she ced it into a small container before activating Analysis EX.
Focusing her gaze onto the sample, she zoomed in as much as she could so that she could observe each individual nanobot on its own and see how they were made.
While she was observing the nanobots, Aarim was still trying to establish a one way connection from their side and Nan Tian was observing the overallposition of the Knight. Its body was made from a strange tangible energy that was cool to the touch but was strangely soft. It was as though it was a water balloon yet it felt almost impossible for him to ''pop''. The wings on their back was made from the same energy with the armour protecting the soft body.
"The f*ck." Shiro suddenly muttered as the two turned their attention towards her.
Before they could even ask what''s wrong, Shiro disyed a hologram of what she was seeing.
"You know what, I''ll retract my previous statement of them being programs. They''re not, they''re not even A.I. They''re actual ''beings'' just merged with a ridiculous amount of nanobots. All that remain are their mana.
"Each Knight is made up of thousands of ''people'' I suppose. Think of them being thrown into a blender so that they can be used for their mana. Their flesh served as a catalyst for the nanobots to multiply. They''re not undeveloped A.I or programs, there''s simply too many voices with one ''main'' voice dominating them. Without that voicemanding them, they can only follow theirst order."
Supressing her anger, Shiro pulled out a familiarntern.
"This suit of armour is a cage for thousands of souls that are burned to power it. The Creation energy within the armour render the souls to pure mana whichpletely counters my destruction energy.. If I was to remake myntern from nanobots, capture thousands of souls and forcefully forge it into a body, I would essentially make one of these Knights."
Chapter 1208 - Three Samples
Chapter 1208 - Three Samples
Tapping her fingers on the table, Shiro nced over at the other Knights that she had captured.
Taking a deep breath, she flexed her finger, releasing all of them into cages before looking at herntern.
''Iriel.''
''I know what you''re going to ask. I''ll salvage what I can but I''ll be honest with you, all of them have practically fused into one mass of energy to power the suit. Even if I was to recover part of them, their souls are iplete. If they reincarnate, their soul will probably be used for monsters.'' Iriel sighed as Shiro stayed silent.
''Is it truly so hopeless? I''m sure there are some ways we can help. I mean my soul was broken but it''s recovered somewhat. Anima is still shattered but ''mine'' I suppose I fixed.''
''Yes but that''s only because the other shards of your soul were mostly undamaged. Even if it was damaged, your identity as Anima gave you extra benefits. Unless you can find undamaged pieces for these souls, I doubt you can do it.''
Thinking about it, Shiro had an idea. The idea itself could be achievable but it was somewhat doubtful considering the feat that they would need to aplish. However, that had never stopped Shiro before so it shouldn''t stop her now.
"Aarim." Shiro called out as Aarim turned her attention towards Shiro who now had this glint in her eyes.
"Yes?"
"How exactly does your spell Save and Load work again?"
"I think I know what you''re going for but unfortunately, I''ve never saved their previous state so I cannot help them." Aarim sighed.
"Yes, but what if there is a way for you to see their previous state? This might be improbable but with Error, I am able to read their source code. If you demonstrate the skill to me enough times, I might be able to pinpoint which ''code'' you are saving and loading for your spell. If we can pair the two together, there''s a good chance for us to help them."
"I mean¡ It might be doable. But you need to keep in mind that this is already a very experimental spell. While it has gone through extensive testing, it''s still rather unstable as I am tampering with something I cannot see. My ''save'' and load works with what I see rather than the code. Or at least that''s how it is to my knowledge. Using your method could help them but we would need to test it first." Aarim said as she didn''t want to test a new spell on people who couldn''t say no.
"I know, I''m just putting it out there as an option. I doubt many of them would want to reincarnate into monsters. But setting aside the idea of helping them for now, we still need to test your skill. What if I were to bring some items until you arefortable enough with your skill. Once that''s done, we can do some trial runs on minor injuries and scale upwards." Shiro offered.
Thinking about it, Shiro asked Nan Tian to get some items while she checks on the nanobots within the armour. She had a candidate for human testing but that''s only if she was to say yes.
Hearing her request, Nan Tian nodded his head and went to fetch a few items that were broken when Shiro had destructive energy swirling around her body. Since they weren''tpletely destroyed, fixing them should be possible. And if they could fix things damaged by destruction energy, souls shouldn''t be too difficult.
Of course, he wasn''t going to neglect obtaining normal items too since they need to test it with a wider variety of items.
While Nan Tian went off to grab a few items, Shiro started to remove the souls from the armour. That way she can test the nanobots without harming any of the souls.
Transforming Error into a small de, Shiro activated Analysis EX. With Error enhancing her eyes, she delicately separated the soul from the armour.
It was rather difficult considering the fact that cutting it off from the nanobots does cause it some harm too since the nanobots were helping the souls maintain their shape in a clump to act as fuel. Without this, they''ll scatter and break, which is the opposite of what she wanted.
Thankfully, she had a perfect container on hand that didn''t absorb them like the armours.
Stabbing Iriel through the top of thentern, Shiro allowed him to have some control while she ced the souls inside. That way he could round them all up and make sure they''re not deteriorating.
Once the souls were separated from the armour, all of the energy within the armour disappeared, leaving just the nanobots. Ity lifeless in the cage but Shiro wasn''t about to uncage them since the nanobots from the creation side were still aggressive to her even without the souls. Instead it was now acting upon ''instinct'', attacking whatever was in its way.
Once she sealed it up and locked it in the cage, it was now more docile.
She wanted topare it with her normal nanobots but there was a slight problem. She didn''t know what parts of the nanobots changed due to her nature as the First Born of Destruction. She knew that the nanobots wouldn''t be this powerful had it not been for that. Thankfully, there was a way but it required turning someone else into a Nanomancer.
She could imnt a certain type of nanobot within their body, transforming their physique in order to allow their mana to turn into nanobots.
The moment she brought this up to Aarim, Aarim suggested that Shiro try it in her since she can use Save and Load afterwards to revert herself back to her prior state. After a bit of persuasion, Shiro agreed.
"Should I make it so that the nanobots enhance you more?" Shiro asked since it could benefit her but Aarim shook her head.
"Thanks for the offer but I''ll pass. Nanobots don''t exactly suit me so I''ll stay with what I have right now." Aarim chuckled.
Sitting down, she took off her jacket, exposing her back so that Shiro could begin the transnt.
Nodding her head, Shiro stood behind her and ced her hand against Aarim''s back.
Focusing her mind, she channelled a small portion of Jormungandr''s mana through her body and transformed it into nanobots.
Cutting a small hole in Aarim''s back, she inserted it into her body, causing Aarim to tense up for a moment as she attuned to the nanobot.
"Try to make a sample now and revert yourself just in case the system makes it permanent." Shiro reminded as Aarim nodded her head.
Furrowing her brows, she aimed her hand at the table and focused hard. Since nanobots only work with a clear blueprint, it was a bit difficult for her to make a decent sample quickly. But since she created the spell that converted mana into mana sticks to improve focus, she essentially created a nanotech mana stick that had no other purpose other than aesthetic since everything was metal.
Once the stick was created, Shiro tugged a small wire, retrieving the nanobot from Aarim''s body while she healed herself.
Even though they were a bit slow on the retrieval, it didn''t seem like the system had created any changes so they had nothing to worry about.
"How do you even makerge things on the fly? I knew it was hard but goodness. You really need to have a full understanding of what you want to make huh?" Aarim said as she struggled to make a tiny stick, never mind trying to make a gun like Shiro.
"What can I say? I have an amazing memory." Shiro chuckled.
Now that she had three samples in front of her, a ''normal'' one from Aarim, destructive one from her and a creation one from the mysterious woman, Shiro activated Analysis EX and checked the simrities. Anything that wasmon through all three would most likely be used for the base nanobot while anything extra could be variables brought by the creators.
Once she found most of the simrities, she observed the extra parts.
''Hmm¡ For Aarim''s nanobots, the structure seems to be more rigid and stable but not as adaptablepared to mine and the creation ones. Since this was her first creation, she wanted to make sure it takes shape rather than adaptability. Had she chosen to keep some nanobots she could probably make quite a few items in the future, but they won''t be easily transformed to anything else. Her nanobots are pretty much one time use.'' Shiro thought to herself before ncing at the nanobots created using creation.
If she was being honest,pared to destruction, the creation nanobots seemed a lot scarier.
Everything added to it was for the benefit of assimting everything and anything. Turn everything into creation energy. It didn''t matter if it was living or dead, everything was wee to be assimted. If a person dies to destruction, they are wiped out in one go before being ''recycled'' into energy for the universe or the caster. As for creation, it molds everything for the benefit of ''creation''. It''s almost like a strange hive mind that wouldn''t let you reincarnate or be ''recycled''.
A perfect example would be the souls that are used for the armour.
Chapter 1209 - Ideal Creation
Thinking to herself, Shiro figured that she could probably emte the creation nanobots to some degree. Now that she understood what parts are needed for the creation nanobots, it was a small matter to recreate them. With her mastery over nanobots, removing the parts that were heavily influenced by creation was possible.
Though it would also decrease her powers by a lot. Especially considering the fact that her main ss of nanotech goddess was based off of her destruction type nanobots.
ncing at her secondary ss, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Alright, I think I have a n. While we''re waiting for Nan Tian toe over, I think I should try advance my second ss so it matches my main ss. The power may becking but it''s a step towards the right direction." Shiro grinned.
"Though of course I''ll be making a few minor changes considering the fact that I don''t like the creation based nanobots. I''ll add some parts of destruction into it with the help of a notebook left by an old friend of mine. I won''t infuse that much destruction but just make it so that the soul is purified then recycled rather than stored then used." Shiro exined as she stood up and made a clearing in the middle of the room.
Appearing beside her, Nimue had a nk expression on her face.
"Hais¡. I''ll keep your body intact. Even with Jormungandr''s help there will still be strain on you. I suggest you incorporate the nanobots inside your body to help your progression otherwise they might just kill you halfway through." Nimue sighed heavily as Shiro gave her a thumbs up.
"Don''t worry I know. I''ll also be counting on Error since I n to do something with the source codes of these nanobots." Shiro chuckled.
Carving Jormungandr''s crest on the floor, she channelled the mana through the room and started to manipte the nanobots.
Snapping her fingers, she started to move the room to the top of the tower so that she could use a few¡ special features of her tower.
Arriving on the roof of the tower, Shiro took a deep breath and gestured for Aarim to stand back.
"I''ll keep my spell prepared in case anything goes wrong ok?"
Nodding her head, Shiro waved her finger and undid the seal within her body.
Immediately, a sword pierced her chest causing her to cough up blood. More des started to appear one after the other but Shiro ignored the pain and mmed her hand down. A magic array started to light up around her as several buildings around Asharia started to transform into small towers that hummed with power.
Extracting the mana out of her body, Shiro activated Error and her arm turned ck with red circuits.
"You know what to do don''t you Error." Shiro smiled as Error nodded his head.
"You only have a short moment. Once that moment has passed, you''ll lose control of my power again so try fit everything in that moment." Error warned as Shiro nodded her head. Closing her eyes, she allowed the circuits expand across her body as she summoned Iriel with her left hand.
Stabbing it into the ground, a pulse of green energy exploded out, slowing down the time within the area.
Using this moment, Shiro plunged her right hand into her chest. Circuits started totch onto the nanotech des that were trying to kill her.
Activating Analysis Ex, Shiro scanned the nanobots and managed to find the source code she wanted to change.
For elements like creation and destruction,patibility with the caster ys a big part. In addition to this, Pure Creation has to be offset by Pure Destruction or else it never works. By inserting some aspects of destruction within the code of these nanobots, it strips them of the ''Pure Creation'' and in theory, should allow Shiro to survive. Right now, she was in a state where she is not Pure Destruction so using Pure Creation would cause the bnce to be tipped.
That is why her simted creation energy achieved with Error worked as it bnced out with her innate nature.
There''s also the problem ofpatibility. Once Shiro realised how Creation Worked through these nanobots, she knew that she would have lowpatibility. There were very few she would wish upon the fate of never reincarnating as most of the enemies she killed would still be allowed to reincarnate.
''How should I edit this¡'' Shiro thought to herself as she didn''t want to introduce too much destruction element into the code.
Visualising what she thinks about creation, Shiro wanted to rewrite it so that it''s more forgiving rather than being worst than destruction.
To her, creation should be something that purifies but does not assimte. It should be forgiving, purifying the soul so that they can have a second chance at life. Something that should allow them a chance at redemption. A warm energy to counter the cold destruction that she possesses.
Creation should be akin to a mother''s warm embrace, something to wipe away the sins and give onefort.
Opening her eyes, Shiro took a deep breath and started to adjust the course code. The Creation type nanobots should of course retain their attack power but they will now attempt to purify the soul. Should the target earnestly wish for a second chance at life and do good, they would then heal them. To embrace her idea version of creation would be to give anyone and everyone a second chance.
However, just as she was about to finish her adjustments, an illusionary figure appeared in front of her. A familiar face that belonged to someone who hasmitted countless crimes and treated human life like it was nothing. Aekari.
Could she give him a second chance?
"Hell no."
Feeling the rejection of the creation nanobots, Shiro understood that to properly use these nanobots, she had to forgive Aekari and be willing to give him a second chance. That''s what was required of her should she wish to master her ideal version of Creation energy.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro was forced on her knees as Aarim was about to cast her spell but Shiro waved her hand.
"Don''t! I''ve got it handled!" She shouted out.
"Are you sure??? It doesn''t look handled!" Aarim shouted back but Shiro didn''t respond.
Closing her eyes, she dived into her mana realm where Error was helping Nimue keep everything intact.
"I know what you''re thinking and you should get to it quickly. You should find it in the deepest parts recovering." Nimue called out as Shiro nodded.
Diving down, she passed the continents that represent her attunements. In the distance, she could see an orb of light, pulsing wildly as it started to resonate with the creation energy that was running through her body.
Currently, the orb of light was sitting above Shiro''s soul sword.
"Silvanis!" Shiro shouted out as the orb flew towards Shiro.
"It''s a little early but I think you should like this." Shiro smiled.
Opening her eyes, she raised her left arm and summoned her iplete soul sword that was now wrapped with a white energy instead of ck.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to use Silvanis as a medium for the creation energy. Silvanis was still a young weapon spirit so it had the capacity to forgive. Something that resonated with her ideal version of creation. With Iriel acting as the de of destruction, Silvanis would now act as a de of creation.
A de that will grant you salvation and redemption.
Stabbing her soul sword down, Shiro gritted her teeth and ripped out the nanobots that was trying to tear her apart. cing it on top of the de, she channelled Jormundangr''s energy into the sword in order for the two to fuse.
###
After recovering from Shiro''s stuntst time, Jormungandr was finally allowed to rest. After bidding farewell to his mother, he had enjoyed his time being free from stress.
However, a bad feeling appeared in his heart as Loki knocked on his door.
"You might need to borrow myp again." Loki chuckled as Jormungandr tilted his head.
Suddenly, he felt an unrelenting suction force, draining him of all his energy as tears threatened to spill out from his eyes.
"Mother, I don''t want the contract with her anymore." Jormungandr cried out as Loki patted his head while watching what Shiro was doing in interest.
For her to create something such as a de of creation in the realm of destruction, the energy needed was exorbitant. Even with Jormungandr''s help, it was almost impossible.
However, to her surprise, she noticed a figure that started to open a portal. The Ruler of the Beyond, Juri. Waving her hand, the mana within the realm of the beyond poured into space around Asharia as she closed her eyes and waited for the promised time.. Shiro had promised her help in the future, giving her some or the realms mana was a small price.
Chapter 1210 - Vinri
Looking at the de in front of her, Shiro curled her lips into a smile as she was bombarded with notifications about her creation.
Hovering in the air in front of her, Silvanis hovered. Her body was nowpletely made of light. As for its shape, it was the same as Iriel since that was her natural form.
[Silvanis has been fused you''re the soul sword. Please give the sword a name.]
A single word appeared in Shiro''s mind as it pretty much summarises what creation is to her.
"Vinri."
A word in Aria that represents second chances.
[Vinri, Judgement de of the Creator ¨C Chaos]
A de formed from the fusion of a young sword spirit and the soul sword of the destroyer. While the soul sword represents destruction, the intent was the opposite. Infused with the power of creation, this de that represented creation was born in the world of destruction.
(Passive Skills)
This de cannot be destroyed so long as ¨C Shiro ¨C lives.
This de has no level.
This de suppresses the elements of destruction.
This de inflicts 5% of all damage as creation element. (No form of healing using the destruction element will work and supresses the one injured by this de.)
While wielding this de you have a 50% resistance to creation energy.
While wielding this de, you are able to transform your enemy''s mana and any forms of energy into creation energy that you can use. This includes life force. By stabbing this de into your opponent and restricting them, you are able to convert them into creation energy.
Unsheathing this de causes fear to anyone who use destruction energy and reverence from anyone who uses creation energy. (Demi Gods have a slight resistance but anyone below that rank sumbs to this effect.)
This de can be used as a medium for casting creation based spells.
You can choose to ''redeem'' anyone who is in by this de, purifying their soul and allowing them to reincarnate sooner. You can also choose to assimte them and their soul is burned away to fuel your attacks.
As your soul sword was used in the making of this de, changes to your soul, ss and divinity will affect this de.
(Active Skill ¨C Vinri)
Effect 1 ¨C When activated, you infuse yourself with the power of creation, doubling your stats and makes it easier for you to cast creation spells. Anyone ''in'' while this effect is activated will have all of their power transferred to you for the duration.
Duration: 10 minutes.
Cooldown: 1 day.
Effect 2: When activated, you deploy a creation domain, supressing all destruction element by 80%. In this domain while increasing the energy needed by 20%. Destruction spells have a 50% chance to fail and the energy used be transferred to you.
Duration: 5 minutes.
Cooldown: 1 day.
Effect 3: You are able to draw power from the universe of Creation with each strike, bolstering your attack power by 10%. All wounds caused by this effect will have a corrosive effect on those that belong to the side of destruction.
Cost: 2% of energy from the pool of assimted souls.
Cooldown: N/A
Effect 4: You can infuse any element (Except Destruction) into this de and it''ll be enhanced with creation energy, granting it additional properties.
500% increase in power against destruction.
-80% in power against creation.
Cost: 10% of energy from the pool of assimted souls/20% of divine energy.
Duration: 10 minutes.
Cooldown: 1 hour.
Effect 5 (Activates upon taking lethal damage): Burns all of the assimted souls to revive you to peak condition.
Effect 6: This sword is bound to you and can be summoned/resummoned at will.
Looking at the description, Shiro curled her lips into a grin.
"How does it feel?" She asked as the de hovered to her side.
"A little weirder than before but better than not having a body." A feminine voice rang out as Iriel raised his none existent eyebrows.
"What are you looking at? Bloody body snatcher." Vinri huffed as Iriel felt ndered.
If anything, Shiro was the one who went ahead with the decision why she ming him?
Shaking his head/de, Iriel figured it was probably better for him to stay silent for now.
"Haha don''t me him too much. It was me who went through with the n." Shiroughed as she tried to pacify Vinri.
Crossing her non existent arms, Vinri transformed into a stream of white energy that flowed into Shiro''s body.
Dismissing Iriel as well, Shiro nced at thest few notifications as they were the most important. With her soul sword now being fused with creation energy, it was only natural that her second ss would undergo some chances.
Currently, her ss and level had been upgraded to the following.
[Shiro LVL 1000 Creation Demi Goddess of Redemption]
Due to the fact that it was her sword that got most of the upgrade, she was only Demi Goddess in name. She still wasn''t a proper Demi Goddess for the creation element so it was still risky to even use a small portion of her destruction element.
However, now that Vinri was here to channel Creation element when she''s summoned, she could use more of Iriel''s power so long as she used both at the same time. After all, if the bnce was tipped, she would cause a rather bad explosion that had a high chance of killing her.
However, there was a strange notification mixed into the pile.
[Due to the absence of Administrators, the system cannot grant you rewards on your monumental achievement. The reward will be decided on once the issue has been resolved.]
Reading this, Shiro furrowed her brows and wondered what might be happening to the Administrators.
Shaking her head, she decided to focus on other tasks for now since she couldn''t do anything even if something did happen to them.
Shaking her head, she looked to her side and saw Aarim sitting on the ground with her mouth open in shock.
"Is something wrong?" Shiro blinked her eyes as Aarim said nothing except writing down what the system had just broadcasted.
[A Demi God with the power of creation has appeared in this universe. Should one fulfil hidden conditions, the essence of creation will also be bestowed to them.]
Blinking her eyes, Shiro was also speechless.
"This could either be very good or very bad. Good as in we might reach an equilibrium between creation and destruction. Which could mean you being able to master both. Or it could be very bad as in this might allow our enemies toe to our world a lot easier. We barely know anything about them but they seem quite informed of us." Aarim said as Shiro tapped her chin.
"Yeah¡ This is rather bad. I might have caused a slight oopsie with this one." Shiro scratched her head.
Teleporting near them, Nan Tian appeared with Aoi, the puppetry Queen, beside him and had a confused expression on his face.
"What did I miss during thest few moments? I felt a spike in mana then apparently creation is essible in our universe now." Nan Tian asked as Shiro started to exin what she just did.
"So¡ you managed to make a sword of creation using the soul of Silvanis. Who is now known as Vinri and by doing so, you allowed creation to have a foothold in our world and it could mean our enemies having an easier time invading while we know nothing about them?" Nan Tian repeated as Shiro shrugged.
"More or less."
Massaging his eyes, Nan Tian thought about things for a moment before opening his mouth.
"Let''s focus on you improving your understanding of creation for now. I''ve brought Aoi who didn''t mind some testing on her body to have it reverted to what it used to be. In the meantime, I will talk to Hemera a bit more and find out what''s going on in the realm of gods and find out the requirements they need to fulfil before they can descend to this world." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright, I''ll bring theb back inside the tower since I''m not exactly keen on performing surgery out in the open."
Waving her hand, theb was teleported back to its original spot.
###
Taking a few deep breaths, a woman looked at the destruction around her and frowned.
"Killing them was not as easy as I thought. I only managed to kill 2 while the others managed to run away." She muttered in annoyance while looking at the system interface.
Looking at thetest broadcast, she widened her eyes in anger.
"She did what!? Sh*t!" Aria frowned as she started to think about what she could do. Even with all of her disagreements against Shiro, she would rather put up with Shiro than the side of creation. Biting her nails, Aria thought hard about what she could do.
''I''ve taken care of the administrators since most of them were favouring her. But now that they''re not here they can''t help the system take the proper actions needed. Tsk, I''ll try seal the breach for now but dealing with Shiro will have to wait a bitter. Most of the gods are after her anyways, but that''s only once they realise her identity. I doubt they''ll be able to do anything to her though. Hmm¡''
Furrowing her brows, Aria eventually decided to dy her ns for a while so that she could prevent the world from being overrun by forces of creation. Her vendetta was against Shiro and Shiro alone.. Having the world burn to the ground due to the forces of creation was not something she wants.
Chapter 1211 - Experimenting With Save And Load
After teleporting thebs back to its original spot, Shiro ced the items that Nan Tian had brought on the table first.
As much as she wanted to use this chance to revert Aoi''s body back to what it was, she had to do a few tests to see if Aarim''s spell worked the way she thought it did. If it turned out that it was ipatible with her ability to see codes then it would be a rather awkward talk while performing surgery on Aoi''s body.
There were several items that Nan Tian had brought and most of them were recovered from the northern research site where the Radiant Knights had attacked. These itemsposed of pieces of debris and weapons that had been damaged by Creation Energy. Should they seed in repairing them, sorting out Aoi''s body shouldn''t be an issue so long as the method is the same.
cing the first item on the table, Shiro gestured for Aarim to begin.
Nodding her heads, Aarim sat down.
"So you just want me to revert it back to its original state before it was damaged by creation energy right?" She asked just to be sure.
"Yep. Once you start casting the spell, I''ll channel Error''s power into you and have him help you direct your skill to the right areas. That should allow us to modify and revert the source code back to what it used to be." Shiro exined as Aarim massaged her neck before cing her hand over the debris.
Taking a deep breath, she activated her spell. Suddenly, tens of tiny magic formations appeared around her as they started to glow with a blue hue.
Understanding that this was her chance, Shiro ced her hand on Aarim''s shoulder.
Circuits appeared around her arm.
''Should I control you for a bit or do you have it covered?'' Shiro asked as Error thought about it for a moment.
''Mother should control my power for a short while so that you can familiarise yourself with editing source codes. Plus, with my understanding of mother''s habits and feats, it shouldn''t be long until you obtain a way to utilise my powers freely.'' Error chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
Closing her eyes, she synced herself up with Error as her vision of the world started to shift.
"It might feel weird but I''ll be controlling your spell through your body." Shiro said as Aarim nodded her head.
ncing towards the source code of the debris, Shiro''s view was overwhelmed by all of the information. Countless codes appeared before her, causing her to furrow her brows. When she did this with her divinity active, her mind couldprehend everything but now things were a little different. Without the passive ability thates with her identity as the first born, keeping track of the information was now just a ''little'' difficult.
''Calm down and focus mother. All of these codes write the history of this debris as well as it''sposition. You don''t need to understand everything, just the parts that have detail the presence of creation energy. Delete that then revert the history and the job should be done.''
Hearing Error''s voice in her ear, Shiro nodded her head and focused her eyes.
Locating the codes that detail the destruction caused by Creation energy was rather easy since all of the codes had the same kind of glow. But since Creation was a foreign element that shouldn''t be in this world, it stood out quite clearly and it didn''t take long for Shiro to grab hold of it.
Narrowing her eyes, she controlled Error and ''devoured'' that portion of code. However, to her surprise, the moment Error devoured that code the debris crumbled away into ash.
"That was not my intention." Shiro coughed as the timing was a lot tighter than what she had expected.
The moment the code was removed, it caused a domino effect and copsed everything onto itself, destroying the debrispletely.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro figured that it was probably better to use time magic while performing this surgery to give herself the highest chance of sess.
Grabbing a second item, this time it was a door, Shiro repeated her previous action.
Looking through the sea of codes once more, she spotted the line that detailed Creation energy. Summoning Iriel, she tapped her finger on the de and a pulse of green energy expanded through the room.
With time now slowed to a near halt, Shiro had Error consume the code once more. Before the structure could copse on itself, she controlled Aarim spell and viewed the ''history'' of the door.
''Aarim''s skill works in two ways. Revert the ''save'' or to overwrite it. Since I am aiming to change Aoi''s body, I''ll need to get a general feel for overwriting the code. The first step is to save what the code would have been like before the damage then rece parts of the current code to make it as though the damage never happened.''
Flicking through the codes that detail the history of this door, Shiro wasn''t in too much of a rush since all of the mana was supplied by Jormungandr. Naturally, it wasn''t as though she could just keep the room in this state since there was still a limit to her skill and while the burden on her body is negligible, it''ll start pilling up soon.
''Found it.''
Grabbing the code, Shiro flicked her finger and ''saved'' the code in that point of history before shifting her gaze to the current code that was missing a few parts.
Oveying the two, she transformed several circuits into a pen and started to manually ''fix'' the current code. While she could just skip this process by break off a part of the old code and fusing it with the new, she wanted to make sure everything was ok before optimizing her spell.
Double and triple checking to make sure the code was stable and that the change was ok, Shiro deactivated her spell.
With time now returning back to normal, everyone in the room watched as the door started to shake. Little by little it seemed to be twisting into itself, confusing Shiro as that shouldn''t have happened.
Suddenly, she felt a spike of energy and grabbed Aarim, Aoi and Nan Tian. Pulling them down, she braced herself for the door to explode.
A few moments passed and no explosion was heard or felt. Looking at one another, the three of them poked their head up and saw the door stabilising itself slowly before returning to a normal door that didn''t threaten to blow all of them up.
"Ignoring the fact that we almost got blown up by a door, I think that went rather smoothly." Aarim shrugged.
"Well my intention was not blowing people up. I will say that we definitely need to dy trying this out on Aoi since i''m not too keen on the fact that it almost exploded. Once we fully stabilise the edit and make it so that it doesn''t threaten to explode, we can try it out on Aoi." Shiro said as she grabbed the next item.
Nodded her head, Aarim prepared her spell once more.
###
The experiments weren''t too difficult. After a few more tries, Shiro managed to figure out what caused the energy build up near the end that almost caused it to explode. It turns out that the reason for the build up was due to the sudden disappearance of creation energy. Even with Aarim''s save and load, creation energy was a much higher form of mana and divine energy. Trying to overwrite its existence would have been a near impossible task should Error not be there to ''consume'' that part of the code.
That build up of energy was simply the code stabilising itself. There will always be a build up but the key is to reduce the build up as much as possible.
Should Aoi experience the same build up, there was no telling what sort of changes it would cause. Therefore, Shiro postponed her surgery until further notice.
While she was experimenting, she didn''t ck on gathering information around the world. With the second half of the new age now here, she needed to keep an eye out for gods that wanted to kill her. Even if she slowed down the process, several gods had already started to manifest.
The reason why Poseidon was able to manifest himself early was due to therge quantity of sea monsters under his control. As the god of the sea, it was only natural that he could forcefully generate faith using the monsters. There were a few exceptions like Poseidon but most were still being held back.
Within the list of exception was Hades as death was everywhere. Everyone believed in death and it was a simple matter to manifest himself. All he needed was arge amount of sacrifice whether that be intentional or unintentional.
Stretching his body, Hades massaged his neck.
"Fu¡ finally here. As much as I would like to meet Shiro right now I need to work on bringing her mother and the others to this world first. That way they can have a full reunion." Hades chuckled as he nced into the distance.
"Time to make a temple of death I suppose."
Shrugging his shoulders, he started making his way towards a settlement he could see far into the distance.
Snapping his fingers, a pulse of dark energy exploded out, killing all the monsters on his path towards the settlement.
"There we go.. Now I can enjoy the scenery without any disturbances."
Chapter 1212 - Crests Of Gods
While experimenting with some of the other items that Nan Tian had brought over, Shiro nced at the reports in front of her. During their downtime, Shiro had used the Argus System to keep a tab on everything happening around the world.
With how the world had changed and how gods are setting up their domains, having Argus record everything was a little difficult. However, thanks to the passive effect that allowed her to look through most barriers, this problem was resolved. Keeping a track of all the gods that were setting things up, she found Zeus''s temple to the far west.
She did have the option to attack his temple immediately but the gods were going to descend eventually. Shiro would rather use this time to improve her understanding of Aarim''s skill.
As for Aarim, she started a small side project during this time. With her understanding of her own tower and now knowing travel between two worlds was possible, she attempted to establish a connection using the armour pieces that were left over from the knights.
While it may be a two sided connection, they are in a position where they gain more than they lose. Once Shiro learns how to traverse the gap between worlds, it opens up the opportunity to learn new information.
Unfortunately, there were no direct connections but there were progress. A good description would be building a bridge. Right now, Aarim was attempting to line up the start and the end in one go since that''s all they can do. They were unable to make progress from the side of creation so all she could do was line things up from their end. It was no easy task but progress was steady.
With both Shiro and Aarim working tirelessly on the experiments, Nan Tian turned into an errand boy who brought them information from outside the room while also making sure everything was running smoothly.
He wasn''t too bothered about it and pretty much everyone in Asharia knew that he had be their butler of sorts.
Walking through the streets of Asharia, Nan Tian checked up on some new stores along with helping some major stores resupply their stocks. With how big Asharia was, each section had multiplerge scale stores that sold everything from weapons, potions and armours to general wear and food.
Helping thest store resupply their wares, he came across an interesting rumour.
"Sir, have you heard about the cards that made gave you the power of gods?" The shop keeper asked as Nan Tian raised his eyebrow.
"I don''t believe I have. Did a new adventurer tell you about it?"
"It wasn''t a new adventurer but a veteran. After an excursion outside the city walls, he was apparently approached by a woman that offered him three cards. Each card had a different crest but strangely enough, no one else but him could see the crests. He tried to draw them out but even then, no one could see them. When we used the pen with someone else it was working but it would always be nk when he used it. He hasn''t done anything with the cards yet since he''s one of the believers that belong to her highness''s church but I figured it was something sir would be interested in." The shop keeper exined as Nan Tian nodded his head.
"Indeed. I am rather interested in his cards. Perhaps you are able to tell me where he is right now so that I can ask him a few questions?" Nan Tian asked as the shop keeper pulled out a map.
"His house is here since I''ve made a few deliveries to his door. As for where he is during the day, he''s usually doing the high end dungeons if not clearing a few raids with his group of friends. They should be doing the highest level raid we have in Asharia right now so if you go there in about an hour or so, he should be out. He''s called Jacob and he''s the highest level adventurer in his party so it''ll be easy to spot him."
"Thank you." Nan Tian smiled as this information was quite helpful. If he could find out more information about the gods and how theye to this world, it could give them an upper hand.
"It''s no problem. With everything you have done to help us, it''s the least we can do as residents in this great city. We are truly thankful to her highness. Without her, a lot of us would be dead by now. So if there''s anyway we can help, we will do so to the best of our capabilities." The shopkeeper bowed as Nan Tian nodded his head.
Making his way over to the za where all of the doors to dungeons and raids were, he sat down by the main fountain and activated a camouge skill so that no one notices him.
Looking at how the dungeon system now worked in Asharia, he couldn''t help but have a smile on his face. For those that wanted to challenge harder dungeons they would and if it proved to be too hard they could be teleported outside forcefully using a unique item only sold in Asharia. You could document your progress, take recordings of how you did during a raid and improve on it using simtions that everyone have in their homes.
Overall, it allowed levelling up to be safer while not decreasing the experience you would get from the encounter. Compared to what it was before the start of the new age, levelling up and clearing dungeons has be enjoyable for most.
Most did it out of necessity since the higher level you were, the safer it became. Now they could derive some joy from it since the outside world has be bleak.
Time passed quickly and Nan Tian enjoyed the small break he got while keeping his senses on the surrounding area so that he notices when a powerful aura would exit one of the gates. Roughly 45 minutester, a group of people exited one of the gates with smiles on their faces.
"Captain, I''m pretty sure we''ve broken a record this time. With how fast we cleared, I''d say we''reing close to the estimated clear time of her highness when she was our level." A red haired woman grinned as the man in front shook his head.
He had a ck armoured mask that covered the bottom talk of his face, armoured shoulder pads, arm guards, waist guards and some shin guards. The rest were fabric as he didn''t care to protect his chest. As for his weapon, it was a strange spear that seemed to a personal weapon made by Helion.
With short ck hair and white highlights, he took of his mask.
"You can''t estimate her highness'' clear time. Knowing the feats she''s capable of, when she was our level she would have cleared that dungeon in one go. She would probably run around and break the walls so that all of the enemies were grouped together then throw out wave after waves of big spells to kill them all along with the boss." Jacob nced back in seriousness as a guy almost twice his size puts his arms around Jacobs shoulder.
"Aw captain don''t be like that. You know her highness is an exception. Everything she does is beyond what''s capable for even exceptional people." The guyughed as Jacob shrugged with a small smile.
"True. Hm?" Noticing someone walking towards him, Jacob stopped walking.
"Surprised you noticed me with this skill active. Though it does make sense considering it''s a rather low level skill." Nan Tian smiled with a small wave.
"I happened to havee across a rumour that involves you. If you don''t mind, could we have a quick chat?" Nan Tian asked as Jacob gestured for his group to go ahead of him.
"I''ll find you guys once I finish talking with Sir."
Once they have left, Jacob turned to Nan Tian.
"Would you like to talk at my house? It''s a small ce unfit of someone of your identity but it would make things easier since I have a few notes about the cards in my room."
"Sure, whatever suits you." Nan Tian smiled since he was more concerned about the cards.
Making their way to Jacob''s house in one of the more expensive districts in Asharia, Jacob quickly went to his room and grabbed the notes before making his way back to the living room where Nan Tian was waiting.
Pulling out the cards from his inventory, he ced them on the table in front of Nan tian.
There were three cards in total made from unknown materials and unsurprisingly, the cards were nk to Nan Tian.
"I had done some research on these cards and figured out who two of the crests belonged too but the third one still remains a mystery. The first card belongs to Tyr, the Norse God of War while the second one belongs to Zeus, Greek God of the Sky and Thunder. As for thest one, there had been no documents of the crest from the books I''ve read but with the information I''ve got, I do believe it should be a crest that belongs to a god from a religion that was from another world.." Jacob said as Nan Tian thought about it for a moment before channelling Hemera''s blessing to see if he could get a glimpse of the crests.
Chapter 1213: Meeting Between Gods
Chapter 1213: Meeting Between Gods
Upon activating Hemera''s blessing, Nan Tian was able to sense traces of divine energy on the cards, etching out what should be the crest but he was still unsure. It was akin to being blind and trying to figure out a drawing that had the edges raised up. Yes he could get somewhat of an outline but it was still difficult to make out what it actually was.
"Hmm¡ If you don''t mind, am I able to take them back with me for experimentation?" Nan Tian asked but Jacob shook his head.
"The moment they leave my vicinity, they''re reduced to ash and reappear in my hand. Plus, I''m running out of time. I have another day left to choose or else my choice is forfeited. I had just submitted a request to the council earlier so that sir and her highness could look into this but I haven''t heard anything back yet." Jacob exined as Nan Tian thought about it for a moment.
"Alright, I have an idea. I''ll call a friend of mine over so that we can possible do something about these cards." Nan Tian smiled as Jacob nodded.
Bringing some snacks to the table and waiting for a moment, he heard a knock on the door.
Opening the door, he was surprised to see two rather famous people standing in front of his door. Even his neighbours are watching in surprise.
"Is this the right house?" Madison asked as she nced to Helion who rubbed his chin.
"Should be. Nan Tian did say this was the right address. I believe your name is Jacob right? Can wee in?" Helion asked as Jacob nodded his head and stood to the side, letting the two in.
Blinking his eyes, his couldn''t believe that three legends were now chilling in his living room.
"So I called two of my friends over in order to figure out something about your cards. The others are a little busy so only Madison and Helion coulde. But basically, the n is to have a¡ peaceful diplomatic talk with the gods and sort things out." Nan Tian smiled as Madison shrugged.
"If Poseidon is to be used as a reference, you probably called me here to beat the sh*t out of them if they do appear to be hostile." Madison waved her hand while Helion chuckled. Currently, he was tinkering with Jacobs gear since he had nothing else to do.
"Well that was option 2. If talking does fail then we will have to get violent. If they were in their original bodies I would be somewhat worried but since they can''t do that, we''re more than enough to handle a few gods in a fist fight." Nan Tianughed.
"I supposed that''s all the nning we need. Let''s get this over with." Madison said as she stood up, surprising Jacob.
"Wait what? Is that all the nning we''re doing?" Jacob asked as Madison blinked her eyes.
"We usually n less than that since know our capabilities. We just run out with our arms swinging. Things usually die after a while and if they don''t, we do an emergency meeting." Madison shrugged.
"She''s right you know. Honestly, I''m surprised you broke past the 500 threshold with your current mentality but remember this. At this level, the moment you drop your guard, someone lower level than you can easily take your head. That''s the problem with beings that have be conceit after being uncontested for so long. They don''t expect anomalies like Madison and Shiro to deal so much damage." Helion smiled, passing Jacob his armour that he upgraded.
Nodding his head speechlessly, he followed behind the three as a portal opened up and all of them arrived in the middle of a mountain range.
Walking forward, Madison looked around for a moment before asking everyone to step back.
"Nan Tian, what kind of area do you want? t ins or carve up some of the ground so that the mountains are like walls?" Madison asked as Nan Tian though about it for a moment.
"I''m pretty sure we can keep things as they are. If the gods do fight, it''s not like a mountain range will hold you lot back." Nan Tianughed as Madison shrugged.
"True. But its for the re you know? Like a phase 1 and I''m the boss." Madison grinned.
"Have you been ying that game with Khionah and Revel?" Helion asked as Madison nodded her head.
"There''s not much to do right now so during my breaks I''ll join them for a game or two. It''s pretty fun in all honesty." Madisonughed as Nan Tian shook his head.
"I should ask the gamepany to ban your ount haha."
"Well do you think they dare to ban the ount of a demi god?" Madison stuck out her tongue before putting on a serious face.
"Anyways before we begin we should set down some formations. Even though I''m confident in defeating them, we can''t let down our guard. That''s how you get killed." Madison said as both Nan Tian and Helion started to set up their defences.
"Is there anything I should do?" Jacob asked as Madison nodded her head.
"Get yourself ready. If you get a hit or two in you''ll be able to get some extra exp." Madison smiled.
Soon, the entire mountain range was now filled with runes and formations that will help bolster Madison''s power. Simr to what Shiro had done during one of the events, they now had additional benefits while fighting within this pseudo domain.
###
"Have we found any clues leading to the First Born?" Zeus asked as Poseidon shook his head.
"Hermes'' seems to be busy with something so we haven''t heard anything back from him nor the gods that took Nyx''s side during the civil war. Even though we''vee to a truce for now it seems like they''re not very cooperative." Poseidon said as he nced at Athena and Aphrodite who had joined their meeting.
"What are you looking at us for? It''s not like we know where they''ve gone. As for little Hermes, it seems like Hades had sent him on a small errand so he won''t be avable right now." Aphrodite smiled while leaning against Athena who furrowed her brows.
"Even without Hermes, you should have other messengers. And if I''m to be blunt, we''re no longer part of the same pantheon I suppose. Just two groups of gods that share the same pantheon name. So don''t think you can just order people from our side to do your jobs. It''s not like we''re going to ck when ites to finding the First Born." Athena said as Zeus furrowed his brows.
"Let''s not get too hostile now. We''re still technically in a truce." Aphroditeughed before turning to Poseidon.
"Now as friends in a truce, I''m sure you wouldn''t mind me asking how your fight with Madison went right?" She grinned.
Hearing this, Poseidon felt like a vein was about to burst when Zeus red at Aphrodite whoughed and shrugged.
"It''s merely a joke. Don''t worry, I saw everything clearly." Aphrodite waved her hand with no fear.
"I see that this meeting is going nowhere so I shall end it for now. I shall call for you when the next meeting is due." Zeus frowned as both Athena and Aphrodite stood up immediately.
"Since its over we''ll see you soon. Bye~"
Without another word, both Athena and Aphrodite left.
Watching the two leave, Zeus sighed and massaged his head. He didn''t think it would be this annoying to have half of the pantheon branch off and follow Nyx''s leadership just for a mortal girl who attained divinity.
"Tsk. Brother, now that Nyx and the primals have gone missing we could take back some of our authority. We have allies of our own." Poseidonined.
"Shut it, if we cause more infighting the other pantheon wille in and reap the rewards. You know how the Norse are staring at our necks like hungry lions, waiting for a chance to sink their teeth in and kill us. Endure for now brother, our time wille again." Zeus narrowed his eyes as he stood up and left the meeting.
Just as he left the meeting, he felt a reaction from one of the cards that he had sent out. Returning to his domain, he sat down on his throne and sent out one of his avatars.
###
"Well that was annoying." Aphroditeined as Athena nodded her head.
"Mn, though we''re waiting for them to slip up. Once they do that we can take Zeus out of the picture along with Poseidon. But they''re cautious." Athena sighed.
"True. They don''t want to be dragged off the throne. We already got some news back from Nyx and Gaia so we should be able to make a move soon. Hades is already making a temple so that all of us can start to descend." Aphrodite smiled while ncing at Athena.
Narrowing her eyes, she bit Athena on the earlobe.
"Since there''s nothing else to be done shall we rx for a bit?" She raised an eyebrow, causing Athena to cough before walking away faster.
Curling her lips into a smug smile, Aphrodite jogged after her.
"That wasn''t a no~"
Chapter 1214: Three Gods
Chapter 1214: Three Gods
Answering the summons, Zeus opened his eyes and nced around.
Furrowing his brows, he was rather disappointed that he wasn''t summoned in a grand temple in his name but rather a ce in the wild that was surrounded by mountains.
Looking down, he saw the mortal he had given one of his cards apanied by familiar faces. Faces that belonged to Shiro''s friends.
His displeasure only grew once he realised he wasn''t the only one that was summoned. Next to him, Tyr the Norse God of War stood with a shit eating grin.
"Yo Zeus. Seems like you''re not the go to choice for me to also be summoned. What an honour." Tyr smirked while Zeus ignored him. Because it wasn''t just the two of them, there was a third unknown figure who was cloaked in a metallic veil that hid his entire body from every. Not even he could peer past the strange veil.
###
Seeing the avatars of three gods appear before them, Jacob swallowed his saliva while Madison stepped forward with a grin.
"Wee, I do hope you''re not offended by this area." Madison called out with a wave of her hand.
Waving back, Tyr had a smile on his face. He had long been warned by Thor and Odin to not mess with Shiro and her friends for now. Their main goal is to take down Zeus and since Shiro was their enemy, it wasn''t a bad choice to be their allies.
"Of course not. Though I can''t say the same for Zeus, seems like he isn''t used to such a summon haha." Tyrughed, causing Zeus to shoot him a re before ncing past Madison to look at Jacob who summoned him.
"Have you considered my proposal mortal? The right choice is obvious and I have already given you plenty of time." Zeus asked with a frown.
However, Before Jacob could answer, Madison had already appeared next to Zeus'' head.
"Bit rude aren''t you. Ignoring me who weed you all." Madison sighed as lightning suddenly shot down from the sky.
"You dare stand upon my shoulder?" Zeus asked as one could tell he was clearly annoyed by her actions.
"Yikes, bit spicy. I''m not too big of a fan of spicy food so I''ll prefer it if you didn''t strike me with that again." Madisonined as the crest of Beelzebub could be seen on her arm.
"I''m not sure what your brother told you but I''m not afraid of you right now. And we''re the one answering the questions so why don''t drop the high and mighty act. Because sooner orter, if you keep this up, your head will be rolling on the ground." Madison warned as her eyes red with a demonic red glow. Her killing intent exploded out as the skies seem to darken. A red glow filled the horizon as Madison raised her hand and pointed her index finger down.
*BANG!!!!
Suddenly, thousands of illusionary arms burst out of the ground andtched onto Zeus'' body, pulling him down and attempted to make him kneel.
"You dare!" Zeus shouted out as he was truly answered by her actions.
However, before he could do anything, Madison transformed into her demi god form and kicked him in the back of his leg, forcing him to kneel befor sitting on his back while stomping his head to the ground.
"Why wouldn''t I dare? I think you''re misunderstanding old man. The new generation is already here and we have more potential than relics like you. If you can''t even stand up to me, do you really think you''re safe from Shiro?" Madison asked while rubbing Zeus'' face against the ground.
"Anyways, ignoring this idiot let''s get onto why I had Jacob summon the three of you here. I hope you''ll cooperate and exin to me what you''re nning by distributing these cards. I also hope you can give us as much information as you can about some of the more hostile pantheons." Madison smiled.
"Hmm¡ Well I''m not too informed about the goals but I do know that I had given this man my card because he interested me. If I were to have powerful avatar I can make a stronghold for myself in this world. If you want to know more I wouldn''t mind if we have a small agreement." Tyr chuckled.
"Ohya? What kind of agreement?" Madison raised her eyebrow with interest while making sure Zeus couldn''t talk.
"How about¡ guaranteeing the Norse Pantheon a plot ofnd to be used for temples? We''ve certainly done our research and I can say that your group of people are without doubt the strongest on this. I also know of your potential so Odin has suggested us to form an alliance with you. Naturally, I prefer to fight fornd but who am I to sh against the interest of the many?" Tyr shrugged.
"Hm¡ I can''t promise you but I can get you a meeting with Shiro to talk things out." Madison offered.
"Good enough. I''ll give you the information you want during the meeting then. Odin has informed me that Loki is keeping an eye on all of you so when you''re ready, just contact her." Tyr replied before dismissing his avatar.
"Well that certainly went well. How about you?" Madison asked as she turned towards the shrouded figure.
"My interest from the start has been the weapons that he holds. The nanobots interest me greatly. I would be happy with cooperation should I be given knowledge." The figure chuckled.
Raising his hand, he created another card that floated in front of Madison.
"I hope a meeting can be arranged as soon as possible with the creator of these nanobots."
"Perhaps. Got a name I can mark down?" Madison asked as the figure paused and nced back.
"Zenotype."
Without saying anything else, he disappeared, leaving just Zeus who was still under Madison''s foot.
"Now then, it''s just you left. Got anything to say before I break your neck?"
"Laugh all you want, but we all know Shiro is the only thing you got going for you. When the godse bearing their fangs towards your group, can she stop them all? You better start knowing your ces." Zeusughed as he started to stand up.
Surprised at his sudden growth in strength, Madison furrowed her brows and tried to exert more strength but Zeus let out a furious cry.
*BANG!!!
A pir of lightning shot down from the sky and basked the entire area in lightning energy.
Immediately jumping in front of Jacob and the group, Madison mmed her arms together and activated a barrier, blocking the lightning.
Once the lightning died down, Madison forced a smile.
"Well well, you have certainly risked yourself, forcefully bringing so much of your power over. I wonder how this will affect the instability within the pantheon." Madison shouted out as Zeus now stood in front of them with lightning flickering across his body.
Feeling the aura he was giving out, Madison knew that he had summoned more of his strength from his main body. With this much power put into an avatar, should they win it''ll certainly weaken Zeus by quite arge margin.
"There''s no need to risk that. There''s no need to fight, you''ll step on andmine eventually, incurring the wrath of gods. We could fight and without my full power, it may be difficult. But can you stop me from leaving? As for you Jacob, I am disappointed." Zeus shook his head as he turned around and prepared to leave.
He''s had enough of this farce, once he deals with the rebels in his pantheon, he can finally focus on stabilising his position as the strongest pantheon once more. As for Madison and the others, he hates to admit it but he can''t deal with them right now. His attention and forces are too spread out and divided. Only when he has made the proper preparations can he deal with their band of anomalies. This was the respect that he''ll give them.
Transforming into a bolt of lightning, Zeus disappeared from the area, leaving Madison rather surprised that he could just leave like that. From what she had heard from Shiro, she half expected Zeus to fight them to the death right now.
"I''m not sure I like this ending I''ll be honest. It''ll be easier if he was just your average meat head." Madison frowned.
"Well, thankfully Jacob wasn''t harmed so let''s call it there. We''ve got two meetings to sort out which isn''t too bad and should let us learn more. Especially since we now have cards of our own that we can experiment with." Nan Tian said as Madison nodded her head.
"Bit of a shame that a fight didn''t break out but I had my fun grinding his head into the dirt."
"Setting that aside, I just got some information if you are interested." Helion suddenly spoke up as the two looked over at him with surprise.
"Hephaestus left me a pretty er¡. Interesting note regarding the one called Zenotype." Helion scratched his head.
"In his words, the materials on Zenotype''s body is not something you would find in other worlds or this one. It seems to be crafted from something that shouldn''t technically exist since theposition of the materials is too imbnced and there is apleteck of harmony, yet it doesn''t disappear. Its an anomaly simr to Shiro''s powers is what he said."
Hearing this, Nan Tian and Madison looked at one another.
"Seems like we''ll need to organise a meeting sooner rather thanter. It might be a case where he might lead us to something more." Nan Tian said as Madison agreed, making their way back to the city, Helion helped upgrade Jacbos weapon and armour for free while Nan Tian marked down the things he needed to tell Shiro when she''s finished with her current experiment.
Chapter 1215: CER Type 1
Chapter 1215: CER Type 1
While Madison, Nan Tian, Helion and Jacob was dealing with the three gods, Shiro had her entire focus dedicated to creating a device that could resolve the energy build up problem.
She knew that the energy build up was a result of the source code changing rapidly so her solution was to use time magic once more and allow the energy to slowly disperse itself and stabilise the object.
The only problem with this was that she would need to create a new spell circle every time the energy fluctuated since her mastery over time magic was stillcking. If she was to make new spell circles constantly in quick session, especially with something such as time magic, the drain would multiply with each spell. At the start it wouldn''t be too bad but soon the drain will be too much even for her.
From twice the initial cost, to four times, eight times, sixteen times and so on. It would continue to increase and even with all of her mana regen, mana reserves, crystals and Asharia to help as a conductor, it would still be difficult.
However, there was an easy solution to this. The solution would be to make a program that already had all the piece required to create a magic circle itself so that Shiro didn''t need to constantly remake them from scratch.
Overall it wasn''t that difficult since she had plenty of experience fusing both science and magic, especially considering the nature of her nanobots. But more than that, the mostmon type of magic back in Aria was the fusion of science and mage craft. There was plenty of names for this type of magic but the mostmon was technomancy.
With technomancy serving as her foundation for creating this new object, Shiro started to craft the interior using nanobots.
Compared to her other projects, this was by far the mostplicated as it sought to calm the energy build up that appears when tampering with source codes. If she perfects this, she could potentially edit source codes like it was nothing. Of course there are still plenty of factors but this was a big step forward for her.
Focusing on creating the item, Shiro had a simtion running beside her, making sure that whatever she was making wouldn''t blow up in her face. While the simtion couldn''t encapste everything, it was still better than going in blind.
Watching Shiro work, Aarim was silent since she could see the blueprint of this item. While her knowledge of Asharia was surface level at best, since she was cooped up in her mage tower all day every day, even she knew that this item was moreplicated.
cing thest panel to finish off the casing of this item, Shiro imbued it with her mana and watched the intricate lines around each edge light up with a soft orange glow that contrasted with the ck metal body.
The item itself was a dodecahedron that was roughly twice as big as her palms. Twelve smooth ck metal surfaces that had fine runic carvings if one was to look carefully while the edges contained a barrier that was stronger than the barrier around Asharia due to it being condensed down to this size.
Holding the object, Shiro decided to name it CER type 1 for now. It was short for Creation Energy Reducer, not a very creative name but most of her effort had been ced into making the actual item rather than giving it a good name. Frankly she only named it CER type 1 out of convenience since she wasn''t too keen on constantly calling this item ''it'' or some other vague term.
Writing down some research notes in the tablet next to her, Shiro nced back at Aarim.
"Well, this should serve as a good prototype. It''s not perfected yet since its main goal is to prove my theory right. But I have rather high hopes for this." Shiro shrugged as Aarim nodded her head.
"In that case then I''ll prepare a pocket dimension. Not sure if we want to test that out anywhere near Asharia if I''m being honest. Your recent products have the tendency too¡ blow up. With how much energy I''m feeling from that item, I don''t want to take too many risks." Aarim chuckled while cing a new mana stick in her mouth.
She wasn''t a smoker but the action of doing so was rather addicting for her and it served to give her a small chuckle during the downtime between experiments.
"I''m sure it''ll be fine. There''s only a err¡ 7-no 65% chance of it blowing up. I''ve done things with worse odds have I not?" Shiro smirked as Aarim stared at her silently before bringing out a piece of roof debris that had been affected by creation energy.
"That''s true. How big do you want the pocket dimension?"
"Ehh~ Medium size. If it goes well nothing should happen." Shiro replied after a short moment of deliberation.
Raising her hand, Aarim snapped her fingers and created a portal for the two of them.
Stepping into the empty world of the pocket dimension, Aarim ced the debris in the centre while Shiro ced CER type 1 next to it.
"Right then, stage one." Shiro muttered as she summoned Error.
Using Error''s power, she repeated the familiar actions needed to erase the influence of creation magic on the source code. Stage one was simple, the true difficulty was in stage two where she would see if CER type 1 would do its job properly.
Watching the dodecahedron unfold itself, pieces of metal started to float around the debris, epassing it in a simr manner as the Argus system with the Earth. Green energy started to flicker as each piece radiated an emerald radiance, connecting to one another through runes.
*Click
Watching the first magic circle get constructed in an instant, Shiro narrowed her eyes and monitored both the debris and CER type 1. The debris was encased in a green barrier as the time within slowed down, allowing the energy build up to disperse itself slowly rather than in an instant. While this was happening, the internalponents of CER''s main body started to observe and note down the changes within the debris and created new magic circles to adapt to the changes.
Seeing that things was going rather well, Shiro had a smile on her face.
"See? What did I tell you? It''s-"
However, before she could even finish her sentence, she instinctively activated a teleportation spell and brought the two of them out of the pocket dimension. Appearing back in thebs, Shiro and Aarim stood in silence.
"It blew up didn''t-"
"Yeah it blew up." Shiro finished Aarim''s sentence before she could.
"Has the pocket dimension copsed?" Shiro asked as Aarim shook her head.
"Nope. Though if it did it would be a pain to deal with."
Creating a new entrance, they entered the pocket dimension once more and stared silently at the giant fissure that was now present in the dimension.
"... Want me to fix that or do you have it covered." Shiro asked as Aarim raised her hand and started to repair the dimension.
However, the moment she tried to repair it, she noticed that the damage seemed to be ''permanent'' in some way. While permanent might not be the right word, time moved at such a slow pace it might as well have stopped. Not only that, Aarim could tell the damage was much deeper as she was the creator of this subspace. ncing at Shiro, she waited for answers.
"CER type 1 blew up and all of the time magic that I pumped into it seemed to have almost copsed the river of time in this space. The source code is also damaged severely. This space hasn''tpletely copsed on itself since its destruction is unfolding in slow motion." Shiro shrugged her shoulders as Aarim scratched her hair.
"So basically this pocket dimension is scrapped." Aarim sighed.
Bringing them out, Aarim created an illusionary cube between her hands before crushing it and dusting her hands as though nothing ever happened.
"Do you know what went wrong?"
"I have some idea since I was monitoring it. The problem isn''t hard to solve but I''ll need to fine tune the protective shell to make sure it doesn''t happen again." Shiro sighed since she had rather high hopes for CER type 1.
Before she could delve back into her research however, Nan Tian opened the door to theb.
"Seems like I''m here at a good time." He joked with a small smile as both Shiro and Aarim shrugged.
"Well my prototype just blew up on me so there''s that. Did something happen?" Shiro asked curiously as Nan Tian nodded his head and informed them both of what had transpired for him, Madison, Helion and Jacob.
"Oh damn, Zeus really left without doing anything else? I mean I''m not saying it''s the wrong choice but I thought he would at least fight a little." Shiro remarked inplete surprise as she had underestimated Zeus. You would think that someone who used their lower half more than their brain would have fought Madison after suffering that kind of humiliation, but the Lightning God seems to know when to stop. Even if it meant being humiliated.
"As for the other two, I have some time to make an appointment for them." Shiro grinned since it was good to take a break from experimentation.
Chapter 1216: Meeting Odin
Chapter 1216: Meeting Odin
"So, there are two appointments to make. One with the Norse pantheon which I need to contact Loki for and the other is with a stranger called Zenotype. From what we can understand, the Norse want to form an alliance for plots ofnd while Zenotype is interested in nanobots. Hmm¡ Ok, lets meet with Tyr first before meeting Zenotype. While gods have indeed shown some small interest with my nanobots, Zenotype is the first to act this way." Shiro shrugged as she was currently sitting in a room with Nan Tian, Aarim, Madison and Helion.
"Yep, I have a pretty good impression of Tyr but Zenotype is a bit more mysterious. He had a simr feeling to you when you used your nanotech divinity a while back. I think it''s safe to conclude that he''s a technology based god, especially with his interest in your nanobots." Madison chimed in as Shiro nodded her head.
"I suggest that we have these meetings in a separate dimension just in case things go south. I doubt they will but you never know." Shiro shrugged.
"I suppose I''ll start making a decent pocket dimension for this meeting then." Aarim nodded before standing up.
With everyone waiting around for a moment, Shiro opened her mouth and prepared to call upon Loki.
[Loki says don''t bother calling for her, she''s been watching the whole time and will call upon the others once you''re ready. The gods that will be appearing for the meeting will be Odin, Thor, the great Loki herself and Tyr since he was the one who arranged most of this.]
Seeing this, Shiro nodded her head as another message appeared.
[Loki states that there are a few things to look out for but overall you don''t need to show much respect since they were the ones wanting something from you. If it was me, I would joke around as much as possible.]
Reading this, Shiro chuckled and shook her head.
Even though she might be light hearted at times, joking around and not taking anything seriously, she didn''t like to y around in these kinds of moments.
Especially when it is to do with information that will help them through the new age.
Waiting for Aarim to finish setting up the room, Shiro ced a single wooden round table in the centre along with several chairs. Looking at the emptiness of the void, Shiro snapped her finger and redecorated the ce a little.
Grass started to appear beneath their feet followed by a river, trees and the blue skies. Creating a pavilion where the meeting will take ce, Shiro had transformed the empty void into a garden.
Naturally, everything here was done using the powers she obtained due to her link with Iziuel. Sitting down on the chair in the centre, Nan Tian sat to her right, Madison to her left, Helion sat next to Madison and Aarim sat next to Nan Tian.
Without saying anything, Shiro watched as divine energy started to converge in front of them.
"Yahoo~ Hope we''re not toote hehe." Loki called out with a grin as Shiro smiled at how energetic she was.
"Nope, we only just sat down. The chair''s not even warm yet." Shiro cracked a light joke as she nced pass Loki and stared at the figure behind her.
With long white hair, arge stature and an eyepatch with a single crest embossed onto the surface that faintly glimmered with a golden sheen.
"Odin." Shiro greeted as she knew this man was the All Father, Odin.
"Miss Asakura." Odin smiled and greeted back.
"You can just call me Shiro, I''m not too used to people calling me by myst name." Shiro shrugged as she gestured for them to sit down.
Nodding his head, Odin sat down and waved his hand at the gods that followed him.
Even Loki showed a rare moment of seriousness as she sat down next to Thor.
"Before we begin, I must ask about what you n with the world. Miss Shiro, the Nanotech goddess, the anomaly, and¡ The First Born of Destruction." Odin grinned as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Don''t look at me so, I gave up quite a lot to get this eye of mine upgraded from its original state. If it didn''t tell me about your identity, especially one as important as yours, I would be rather disappointed. So tell me, what do you intend to do with this world harbinger of destruction." Odin asked as Shiro leaned back.
"Don''t use such fancy titles as that. As for this world, well¡ Even with my identity, you should know that I do not wish destruction upon everyone right?"
"Of course, but I need to confirm things. I need to hear you speak your intentions so that I can be sure." Odin waved his hand nonchntly.
"I want to usher a new age, free of interference from gods and higher powers. Let the humans and demi humans live life on this and the gods restrained to a different dimension, never to interfere directly." Shiro replied honestly as this was the conclusion she hade to.
She knew the role she had as one of the most powerful beings in this universe should she be in her prime. While she wasn''t sure of her destiny, she knew that she HAD to rise as the victor and im the title of ruler. That way, the world will not die and obliterate everything they know and love. There was no room for failure, this new age had to be won by her.
As for what came after, she saw far too much destruction as a result of gods. Beings that transcend mortal power should not interfere with the lives of the innocent.
She will separate the world so that the mortals with no power can live without fear and enjoy life to its fullest. Those that wanted to gain power will be allowed to do so at their own risk without interference of gods. As for gods, well they can watch the mortal lives like a show, unable to interfere.
Exining everything to Odin, everyone listened carefully including her friends as this was the first time they were hearing this.
Once sheid out her thoughts and ideals, Odin stayed silent for a moment before taking a deep breath.
"Hmm interesting. A tad different to what I had expected but that is fine." Odin smirked before looking at the gods beside him.
"While I cannot do what I wish just yet, I can offer you this. The Norse pantheon wish to be your ally and be taken under your wing. In return, I will offer you all the information I can give and hope you will give us a ce to flourish at the end of everything." Odin chuckled as the all of the Norse gods with him right now widened their eyes in surprise at what Odin had just said.
Thor wanted to say something but Odin signalled for him to stay quiet and observed Shiro''s reaction.
Blinking her eyes, Shiro opened her mouth.
"You do realise what you''re saying right?" Shiro asked with aplicated expression.
"Yes. It is no doubt that you will grow beyond ourprehensions. Even as Odin, with my all seeing eye, I cannot fathom the true powers of a First Born. My limit has already been reached. In the future, I know full well that gods like me will be pawns, expendable and useless like cannon fodder. Which is why I''m seeking your protection, in hopes that this pantheon is not wiped out." Odin said as he seemed fatigued. It was the look of a person who couldn''t do anything else.
Staying silent, Shiro opened her mouth.
"I don''t know what will happen but I can try my best. I can''t guarantee anything though, since you know I have priorities as well." Shiro reminded as Odin sighed in relief.
"That''s fine. I asked knowing full well of the risks and I am satisfied." Odin nodded, feeling as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Leaning back, he closed his eye and thought back to what caused him to ask for this kind of deal in the first ce.
It was only recently that he had managed to upgrade his all seeing eye in hopes of finding out what would happen in the future of this dark era where First Born''s will awaken once more. Standing alone at the peak was a white haired maiden. Burning red eyes and the aura of death erupted from her body.
Everything she touched disintegrated to ash. Thews of reality, rewritten. The world as he knew it was changed. However, the Norse pantheon was no where in sight nor was any other pantheon. He knew that this foresight granted by his eye was a potential future but the fact that this exists haunted him.
He will not let his family, his pantheon disappear like this. He will offer everything to this goddess of destruction so long as his family will live on.
With a refreshed smile on his face, Odin looked at Shiro.
"Now then, what do you wish to know about the gods? I had heard from Tyr that you were interested in these cards that we were distributing."
Chapter 1217: Agreement With Odin
Chapter 1217: Agreement With Odin
"I want to know everything that you can tell me. Within the limit permitted by the system of course since I''m sure you''re fully aware that it will censor what I''m not supposed to know just yet." Shiro shrugged as Odin nodded his head.
The system was an enigma even to him. It''s an all seeing ''thing'' that governs the power bnce of this universe, yet it acts as a bystander. Well, it takes an active role in a few selected situations but those situations are few and far between.
Thinking carefully, Odin opened his mouth.
"I''m sure you are well aware of the roles of Queens in this world. You are given a task of governing domains along with subjects. Thest one standing will be dered winner. Well, it''s a simr situation for the gods and their pantheons." Odin began as he gestured for Loki to create an illusion.
The illusion depicted current state of things. At the bottom are the cities and the people, above that are the Queens. Above the Queens are the Empresses while the gods are above the Empresses. Above the gods are the separate tiers of divinity and finally, at the very top is three question marks which Shiro could only guess represents the system.
"Each of us Gods are given special ''cards'' that act as favors we grant to mortals. By binding themselves to us, we are allowed to help them be stronger, gain protection and so on. Our main target is to bind ourselves to the victor so that our pantheon will exist once everything is over.
"But since we don''t know who that is, gods usually spread their cards out to increase the chances. Mortals can ept more than one card but that would mean apetition between the gods. The weaker god will have to withdraw their blessing unless the stronger god is forgiving. Which is essentially sharing a home with someone else. Overall, cooperation with gods is very rare. Unless¡" Odin trailed off as he stared at Shiro.
"Unless a big threat such as I was to appear. I suppose they''ve got their hands busy dealing with ''two'' people that I know of right now. The first is the First born of destruction, a natural born cmity big enough for everyone to band together especially since she is no longer in her prison isted in the edge of the universe. The second is me, the anomaly of the system. Though I suppose you could say its killing two birds with one stone since both of these identities belong to me." Shiro shrugged and Odin nodded his head.
"Indeed. Several foreign pantheons have already began alliance discussions with the pantheons native to the lore of this world. We, the Norse Pantheon, are no exception. We''ve received quite a number of requests for meetings especially due to the nature of my skill." Odinughed.
"Though even if we use lofty titles as Gods for ourselves, you can just think of us as stronger pawns on the chessboard." Odin finished as Loki conjured an image of a chess board with a depiction of Odin along with Zeus and many other gods acting as pawns.
Meanwhile, opposite that was an iplete board. The king was represented by Shiro while a row of pawns stood in front of her.
"Naturally with your identity, you being the enemy to all the gods is understandable due to your¡ actions when you had full power. However, you are not alone and I must say, you have nurtured quite a group yourself." Odin smiled as he nced at Madison. Suddenly, one of the pawns upgraded to a Queen piece with many others showing the same signs butcked the final transformation.
"Are you telling me to wage a war with all the gods?" Shiro asked without any emotion in her voice.
"It doesn''t really matter what I say does it? Since even if you wanted peace they wille for your head. Just like they did before, just like how they will do in the future. Though the oue this time is in your favour." Odin smiled as his piece along with a few others migrated to her side of the board.
"Oh? Hmm¡ I suppose you did give me as much information as you can without the system censoring everything." Shiro nodded her head as she snapped her finger. Suddenly, red circuits revealed themselves as a faint strand could be seen connecting Shiro and Odin.
"I took the liberty of checking your code and you are indeed saying everything within your limits. I do apologise about my actions since its only natural for me to doubt ''gods''." Shiro chuckled as Odin only smiled.
However, he could feel cold sweat dripping down his back as he felt his entire being exposed the moment the circuits appeared. Even with his eyes, he did not detect them at all.
''To have read my code¡ That circuit is part of the system then. Its only natural that my eyes cannot go against system I suppose.'' Odin thought to himself as Shiro probably could have killed him if she felt like it. He didn''t know what kind of training she had done since thest time he had observed her but her understanding of codes and the system was much bigger than what he had initially anticipated.
"Ah before I forget, let us seal this cooperation with a gift shall we? As you know, my eyes perceive ''truth'' and lets just say I''ve seen some interesting oues. This item seems to have its fate tied with you so I will gift you it now. You would probably get it sooner orter but I do hope this gives you a better impression of us." Odin smiled as he took out a small cube from his robes.
cing the cube on the table, it shimmered with a multitude of colours and let out a light humming noise.
[Bifrost Core - ???]
Protects the user during realm travel.
It was a simple description but that was fine. There was no need to add more since it exined it perfectly well. ncing into the code of this object, Shiro could tell that this item granted the user one of the highest protections when travelling through realms. Which means it was quite a simple task to revisit the Forgotten Lands that Nyx had sent her to during her trial. Not to mention, it may even help her with her current experiment.
Visiting the side of creation.
"To think you would offer me an item that holds great significance to your pantheon. Do you realise the consequences of giving me this?" Shiro asked as losing something like this would damage their ''legend''. There was several reasons as to why there were pantheons that faded into obscurity, and losing/destroying an item that holds a great significance was one of those reasons.
To put it rudely, if you were to take out the Bifrost from Norse mythology a lot of the legends would destroy itself. When a pantheon starts to lose the ''legends'' the gods within the pantheon lose power.
That''s why pantheon would rarely use weapons or items of great importance to their legend if possible since the risks was far too great.
"I do. But I also know the consequences of not giving this item to you. We are essentially gambling with you as our hope so its only natural we help you in every way we can." Odin smiled as he stood up.
"We will help as much as we can from the god''s side of things. I doubt you would need to concern yourself too much with gods for the time being so feel free to focus on what you need to do." Odin reminded before disappearing with Loki and the others, leaving only the Bifrost on the table.
Staying silent for a moment, Shiro ced the Bifrost into her inventory.
Pulling out the card that Madison had given her during her meeting with Zenotype, Shiro could sense that the card itself was infused with a metal type divinity. One that was familiar to the feeling she got from her own divinity.
Suddenly, Shiro furrowed her brows and threw the card as hard as she could.
"Quite rude aren''t you? Trying to analyse my body." Shiro warned as the dimension started to shake from the energy she was giving off.
Seeing that Shiro was being hostile, everyone pulled out their weapons and got ready for a fight.
"I apologise but I wanted to see if you were full machine or not. I don''t know if you are aware but those that tread the path of technology will always be given a chance to turn themselves into ''data''. I wanted to see if you had chosen that path or not." A voice rang out as the card started to morph into the being known as Zenotype.
"Hou~ And that would be a problem because?" Shiro raised an eyebrow as Zenotype sat down on the chair opposite Shiro''s spot.
"That would be a problem because it means you can never break free from the system."
Chapter 1218: Talking With Zenotype
Chapter 1218: Talking With Zenotype
"If you had chosen that path, it meant that you gave up humanity''s weapon of being able to adapt and ovee. Machine can learn but the natural adaptive benefits a person''s body can offer far surpasses that of a machine." Zenotype said as Shiro tilted her head slightly.
"Normally I''d say I agree but so far my machines have shown the most adaptability in my experiments." Shiro replied. In her trials with the source code, her nanobots were able to thrive. Compare that with the human body it was in a league of its own. It wasn''t that she was supporting the idea of making herself full machine but rather her being curious as to why this machine deity would say such a thing.
"That may be so on the surface but have you ever wondered why the people have suddenly started to use mana when they were incapable so long ago? How a few people are able to bring themselves to the top of the food chain in this world of monsters and gods? You for example.
"The system does not record such data down but the human''s adaptive capabilities allowed them to utilise the system better than most races out there. If you think about it, aren''t there more human godspared to monster or demi races?" Zenotype smiled as he waited for Shiro to digest the information.
"While monsters gain power quickly, theyck a lot of the foundations human have. Demi humans such as elves and dwarves are naturally talented as well in their own aspects but long have they been a race that specialised. There are a handful that escape this specialisation but they are few and far between. As for humans, well, they are the most diverse in this world governed by the system. So had you forsaken your humanity you would have lost that vital edge you hold over this great machine. When I saw your nanobots for the first time, I had wondered what kind of being made them. Were they one who forsook their body like me or on the small chance, someone who retained their humanity? So I am d that you are not fully machine." Zenotype smiled before standing up.
"Leaving already?" Shiro asked as Zenotype nodded his head.
"My own goal was to evaluate the user of the nanobots and make some calctions of my own. The benefits I offer are very pale inparison to your own talents. Even if I were to be your enemy I doubt you will even break a sweat getting rid of me as you have already infiltrated the system with your tampering. So I will give you this, when my presence is needed, I wille without hesitation."
Snapping his fingers, a coin appeared on the table as he faded from the room.
"Mom, he noticed I was trying to scan his code since I was curious." Error whispered as circuits appeared on Shiro''s arm.
Patting his head, Shiro smiled.
"Don''t worry about it, I was also confused but it seems like he wasn''t lying. Turning himself into machine has significantly reduced his chances of breaking the limit."
During the conversation, Shiro had activated a portion of Error''s power and started to peer into his codes herself. While he was indeed strong, stronger than a lot of the god''s that she had seen, his room for growth was rather abysmal.
''I suppose that''s what he meant by not being able to break through the limit.'' Shiro thought to herself while picking up his coin.
Strangely enough, this item did not have a name and only had a description.
[A strange coin filled with divine energy.]
Shrugging her shoulders, she ced it into her inventory and stood up.
"Welp, that roughly wraps up our meeting. Time to go back." Shiro smiled as a few of them let out a breath of relief.
"Jeez I thought you were going to pick a fight with a few of them but seems harmonious for now." Madison scratched her hair as Shiro chuckled in response.
"I''m not that much of a fighting maniac. A few trustworthy allies are better than just killing everyone. If at the end of everything, we were the only ones left, the world would be rather dull now wouldn''t it?" Shiro smiled as they left the private realm.
With everyone returning back to what they were doing before the meeting, Shiro, Nan Tian and Aarim resumed their experiments.
This time however, Shiro wanted to involve the item that Odin had gifted her.
The Bifrost.
Taking out the Bifrost core, Shiro ced it on the table.
"Let''s see, the core says it protects me during realm travel. If we were to make a tunnel to the side of creation, I should be able to ignore the instability with this item. It''s a little risky but shall we run some light tests before I give it a go?" Shiro asked as both Aarim and Nan Tian froze momentarily.
"Wait you want to use it already?" Aarim furrowed her brows.
"Yep. I don''t know what kind of time limit we''re on so I''d rather sort things out over at the side of creation early. As you know, I''ve dyed the gods arriving on Earth with the little stun I pulled but it wontst forever. If I can figure out how to use creation energy and bnce things out, I''ll be able to reim some of my power as a First Born." Shiro shrugged.
If she was able to bnce things out, she wouldn''t need to worry that her destruction energy corrupting everything around her. If she wanted to save Earth ande out as victor, she didn''t want the prize to be a dead with everything corrupted under her power.
Scratching her head, Aarim thought for a moment before nodding.
"In that case then let''s resume experiments at my mage tower. Are you know, my mage tower is connected to a reflection of the same tower on the side of creation. If we repeat the experiment I did with the tower, it should give you a portal to test out the Bifrost." Aarim suggested as Shiro didn''t waste any more time.
Snapping her fingers, the three of them were suddenly teleported to Aarim''s office.
Blinking her eyes, Aarim shrugged and started to get some equipment out from her storage room.
"I''ll send out a notification for the mages to evacuate the tower for today since we''ll be conducting a rather big experiment."
"Alright, I''ll go sort some things out on my end as well." Shiro smiled before gesturing for Nan Tian to follow her.
As the two of them left the room, Shiro opened her mouth.
"I''ve already ran some simtions in my mind after Error gave me a quick scan of the Bifrost. I''m 80% certain that I can travel to the side of creation on my own with Error but bringing someone else is a little¡ difficult. Its mostly due to theposition of everyone that lives in the side of destruction. The imbnce of energy will rip you to shreds even the protection of the Bifrost. Nan Tian your case is a little special but I''m not too keen on testing it out so the n is for me to venture out to the other side alone once we run a few tests." Shiro smiled as Nan Tian furrowed his brows.
While he could manipte creation energy to some degree, it was still far from optimal.
"Will you be alright on your own?" He asked with a slight frown. He knew that if Shiro was telling him this now, she wasn''t going to change her mind.
"Mnm I should be ok. I trust that all of you will handle things without any problems while I''m taking a small holiday." Shiro chuckled lightly.
"Plus, we have a god yer and a few potential god yers within our party. All of you are plenty strong without me."
"I''m not worried about our situation. I''m more worried about you. Dangers follows you, not us." Nan Tian joked, causing Shiro to let out a smallugh.
"That''s true. I have Error with me so I should be fine. I also have some safetys of my own." Shiro reassured but she could tell that Nan Tian was still concerned.
If she was being honest, she was also a little concerned. While her sixth sense was always very urate, this time it was vague. She had a gut feeling that her trip to the side of creation wasn''t going to go that well but that was it.
A slight unease.
"At least bring Nimue with you along with Error. She will help take care of your body while you''re over there. Plus, with her being able to stay within your mana realm, she doesn''t have to worry about her body being shredded just like Error." Nan Tian suggested since the more people they could bring over the better. It was to guarantee Shiro''s safety even though she was the strongest out of them.
Even the strongest may need some support no matter how little that may be.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro nodded her head and sent a message out to Nimue.
cing her phone back into her inventory, Shiro walked around the mage tower, observing the surrounding without saying a word.
This trip should solve quite a few questions that lingered in her mind. Especially after the meeting with the other ''Shiro''.
Chapter 1219: Utilising The Bifrost
Chapter 1219: Utilising The Bifrost
Standing in the mage tower, Shiro nced at Nimue who was ying around with a strand of Error while Nan Tian and Aarim make some final adjustments.
"Following the simtions that you gave us, this should be ok. With everything focused on stabilising the travel, the Bifrost only needs to make sure you get to your destination." Aarim said as she bit her mana stick in half. Throwing the rest of it in her mouth, she took a step back and drew a magic circle in the air in front of her.
Taking a deep breath, the mana within the mage tower surged as the entire building started to rumble.
*BOOM!
As if puncturing a hole through the fabrics of space, a portal tore open in front of them. It shimmered with a myriad of colours around the edges and a strange liquid was the main body of the portal. The texture was reminiscent of melted metal that reflected the colours around it.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro snapped her finger and created an avatar of herself. Sitting down on a chair, she focused on her control over the avatar and closed her eyes.
Looking at the portal, Shiro took a deep breath and made her way inside.
But the moment she took a step inside the portal, she was overwhelmed by a sense of repulsion. The harder she tried to enter, the harder it pushed her away.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro took this moment and activated some of Error''s power. Circuits appeared in her eyes as she scanned the Source Code of this portal and see why it was rejecting her.
But this action seemed to have activated a defence mechanism thatpletely rejected her and flung her avatar out of the portal.
*BANG!!!
Crashing against the walls of the room, the avatar started to crumble away.
Thankfully, she was able to get a decent glimpse of the Source Code before she was flung away. Recalling what she saw, she started to scribble out some runes before making a second avatar. Carving the runes onto the body, she sent in into the portal once more only for the same thing to happen.
"Is the Bifrost faulty?" Nan Tian asked with a small frown.
"Nope. I had thought that it was rejecting the avatar since it was still a little different from me but it turns out that''s not the case. The avatar simply can''t ovee the push back from trying to travel between destruction and creation. As you know, my avatar is created using my powers of destruction due to the influence of my nanobots. Whereas my main body isposed of both. While it''s a little unbnced, it''s still much better than my avatar." Shiro exined as Nan Tian stayed silent for a moment before nodding his head.
"So what you''re saying is that the portal won''t allow anyone to pass unless they have a certain amount of creation energy in their body?"
"Yes and not quite. The portal won''t allow anyone to pass if they cannot survive the destination. It''s a protective function that makes sure they don''t die on arrival. After all, it would be a real shame for someone to explode into a pool of blood just as they step out of the portal. Naturally the conditions change for different destinations but for this one, it requires a certain mastery over creation element. If you want, you can certainly try entering the portal. If you don''t get hit by the pushback, I''ll see you on the other side." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
Taking up her challenge, he stepped in front of the portal and took a step in. Not even a secondter his body was flung out like a ragdoll.
Catching Nan Tian''s body just before he crashed against the wall, Shiro looked down with a smirk.
"Well seems like you''re notpatible with the side of creation." She smiled with a slight smugness in her expression.
Rolling his eyes, Nan Tian stood up and dusted himself.
"Seems so. Guess we''re sticking with the original n. We''ll take care of everything so you just enjoy a little holiday for now." Nan Tian chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Nimue! Error! Time to go." Shiro called out with a smile.
Hearing her call, both of them stopped ying around and entered her mana realm.
{Its been a while since we''rest gone on an adventure like this.} Nimue chuckled as Shiro agreed with her.
''Well you seemed happy to be rxing outside so I had nned to just go alone with Error. But Nan Tian insisted so I figured I''d take you along.''
{No shit. Rxing outside means I don''t have to break my back over trying to make sure your body is intact.} Nimue rolled her eyes as there had been too many times where Shiro practically shredded her body to pieces just for a fight.
''Hahaha sorry sorry, I''m keeping myself healthy now aren''t I?''
Staring at her without saying anything, Nimue silently judged causing Shiro to cough.
''I''m *Trying* to keep myself healthy ok?'' Shiro corrected herself as Nimue sighed.
{I will flip your world upside down both literally and metaphorically if you try to pull some weird shit again ok?} Nimue shrugged as Shiro gave her a reassuring smile. Which only caused her to roll her eyes since Nimue knows there''s a 99.9% chance that Shiro will probably break something inside her during this trip.
It was just a gut feeling that she had.
With both Nimue and Error, Shiro turned around and gave Nan Tian and Aarim a wave.
"Taking care of things while I''m gone ok? I won''t be too long." She smiled.
"Have a safe trip." Nan Tian waved back as Aarim did the same.
Stepping into the portal, Shiro could already feel a repulsion force trying to push her out but at the same time, it was strangely weing. It didn''t take her long to get used to the pressure as she ventured forward.
Looking around her, it was as though she was staring at a strange mix between an ocean and the gxy. Each ''wave'' would change the stars and reshuffle theyout. Everchanging, never staying the same.
Allowing herself to enjoy the visuals for a brief moment, Shiro focused on the task at hand and made her way through the portal. At first it was a slow walk since she was getting used to the energy. But from a walk, she started to jog, then run and soon, she was flying at full speed towards the exit of the portal.
###
Elsewhere, a woman was sitting in an office before suddenly sitting up straight. Furrowing her brows, she thought in silence before opening her mouth.
"She survived."
Clicking her tongue, she stood up and paced around the office for a little while. Scratching her head, she wondered what she should do next.
''If she survived that attack then killing her will be difficult. I''ll let her find the truth out for herself and see where she takes things for now I suppose.'' She sighed and sat back down.
###
Shiro didn''t know how long she had been flying for but she was surprised that she still hasn''t made it to the end of the portal despite her speed. She humoured the idea of constantly teleporting, but she''d rather not risk things since this portal could destabilise for all she knows.
Just as she thought of this, she felt her speed increase a little which was strange. Trying to stop herself to figure out what''s going on, she realised she couldn''t stop anymore and that there was now a pulling force dragging her towards the exit.
"Oh fuck." Shiro managed to mutter out before she shot towards the exit like a meteor.
Circting her mana, she tried to reinforce her body as much as possible. It wasn''t that she was worried about her body. No, it was that she was worried about hernding location!
With the speed she was travelling at, if she was to collide head on with a city, she''ll burn it to the ground!
''NIMUE HELP!'' Shiro shouted in her mind as she was trying her best to slow her speed down as much as possible.
{What the hell do you think I''m doing?!?!} Nimue shouted back in annoyance as she was already helping Shiro reinforce her body as much as possible and pushing her strength to the limit.
However, their efforts proved to the futile as she continued to speed up towards the exit.
Biting her lip, Shiro braced herself and activated several magic circles around her body.
Creating as many barriers as she could in front of her, Shiro made something that should protect her against the attack of a god. Only for this it was to stop her from destroying whatever she came in contact with!
{Mayday mayday mayday! Brace for impact!} Nimue shouted out causing a vein to almost pop on Shiro''s head.
''I''m not a fucking ne!!!''
Chapter 1220: World of Creation
Chapter 1220: World of Creation
Dusting herself lightly, Shiro looked at the vast horizon in front of her and let out a big sigh.
"The nature on this side of the universe is truly a sight to behold, isn''t it?" Shiro said with a small smile.
{.....}
"Though it was a shame that we found out destructive energy basically can''t be used due to its consumption."
{.....}
"If it wasn''t for that, my barrier might have remained intact isn''t that right, Nimue?" Shiro asked with a light chuckle but once again, Nimue didn''t respond.
"Well thankfully I have Vinri which helps me with creation energy."
Waving her hand, Shiro summoned a sword of light that was identical to Iriel in design. After all, she had let Iriel snatch her original body before creating a new one for her.
Dismissing Vinri, Shiro decided to face the problem head on.
Turning around, she came face to face with a giant void that was left due to her collision with the ground without a barrier.
"..." Staying silent for a moment, Shiro scratched her head.
"I basically became a human-sized bullet."
{Yes you did. And with that you erased an entire mountain range by just colliding with the ground.} Nimue replied as she could feel her eye twitching from the ridiculousness of the situation.
Feeling a little embarrassed, Shiro coughed lightly and used Vinri''s power to circte creation energy into the ground.
Little by little, the void that was left behind due to her collision was being refilled with dirt while mountains started to appear.
Spending a few moments repairing the mountain range, Shiro smiled at her handy work and started to walk away.
"Right then what''s our first agenda?" Shiro muttered, spreading out her senses. She wanted to see if she could find a city nearby to act as her base of operations for a little while.
{I do believe it''s to get a little revenge on the one that tried to kill you? That and learning more about creation so that you could improve your divinity.} Nimue shrugged as Shiro nodded her head.
"Indeed. But I am also rather curious as to how life is over here. Unfortunately, from what I''ve seen of the puppets they sentst time, things aren''t exactly sunshine and rainbows on this side of creation." Shiro frowned as she sensed several beings closing in on her location.
If it was ''human'', she wouldn''t be too bothered but these presences are like a mash of energies. A chimera of sorts, simr to the puppets she foughtst time.
Shaking her head, Shiro wondered if she could purify them. After all, her ideal concept for creation was one that forgives and gives people a second chance. If she could ''fix'' these beings, why should she kill them?
{I''m 90% sure you can just tank all their hits anyways. Have you seen how absurd your stats are? At this point I doubt anything short of a first born can harm you anymore.} Nimue muttered while preparing herself to keep Shiro''s body in working condition.
"I mean¡ There are plenty of attacks that ignore defence. Most high level beings have skills that do the job. Only low levels will struggle and even then, they''ll die if I breathe a little too hard on them anyways." Shiro joked while summoning Vinri again.
"Sorry to summon you out again so soon. But it''s time for you to show off a little." Shiro smiled as Vinri hummed in excitement.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro closed her eyes.
This was a perfect time to put theory into practice as red circuits appeared on her forearms. Stabbing Vinri into the ground, a giant magic formation stretched out as far as the eye could see.
''Targets locked on.'' Shiro thought to herself as she could sense all of the puppets that were sent to check out the disturbance.
Obviously, she could opt not to destroy them as well but she didn''t want to ignore the souls in pain, trapped within a malformed shell.
Opening her eyes, the world around her slowed down as it started to lose its colour. The ground, trees, and everything around her lost their ''outline'' and was reduced to smudges in her vision. Once the smudges were gone, all that''s left was lines upon lines of code.
Scanning through the field of code, she spotted the ones belonging to the puppets.
''Let''s see¡ If I want to save them, I have a few options. Either I break them apart, try to reconstruct their body or ''revert'' them back to their soul state and let them get reincarnated.'' Shiro thought to herself.
She wasn''t sure what was left in this world for them as she assumed pretty much everyone would have been ''assimted'' into puppets like the ones she was seeing now.
Thinking about it briefly, she figured she might as well give it a try and see what they want. She had more than enough time to spare, if a ''big boss'' came, she''d deal with them as well.
''The magic doesn''t need to beplicated; I just need to break apart the ''shell'' then divide each of the souls so they return to their individual states. After that I need to ''heal'' their soul. It shouldn''t be too difficult since I already did a few experiments to test out my theories. Though I suppose this can be ssified as a practical test.''
Drawing a few runes with the circuits, Shiro mmed her hand on the ground as a pulse of golden energy exploded out around her.
All of the puppets within range suddenly broke apart as though being cut into a million pieces by razor wire before scattering into particles of light.
''That''s stage one done.''
Snapping her finger, antern appeared in front of her as it served as a medium for step two. She needed thentern to contain the soul so that she could repair them. After being fused for so long, the boundary that distinguished them from each other is practically nonexistent.
''I''ve seeded in splitting them apart so they''re no longer fused but if I were to reincarnate them or rebuild their body, their souls would not be able to handle the transformation. Even the slightest breeze could scatter them apart and prevent them from reincarnating.''
Gathering all of the souls into herntern, Shiro prepared to question them and see if they wanted a second chance at this life or be reincarnated.
Upon entering thentern, Shiro was taken aback by just how many souls she had gathered in thentern. Sweeping the crowd with her eyes, she could tell that most of them were justmon civilians.
''Makes sense I suppose. The strength of these puppets are still rather impressive despite how easily I took care of them. The only way for them to replicate this kind of strength by melting souls, is to find several powerful individuals orpensate using quantity.'' Shiro sighed inwardly as she cleared her throat to get their attention.
"Ahem! Can I have your attention please~" Shiro pped her hand.
!!!
The moment the crowd saw Shiro, they started to panic and scream, trying to run away and find a way out while several red at her with pure malice.
From old men that looked like they could barely stand to young children shielding their younger siblings from her.
Just as she opened her mouth to ask them her question, she was interrupted by a young man who rushed to the front.
"What else do you want from us?! Haven''t you taken enough already!! Please leave us be!!" He kneeled down and begged while mming his head against the floor of thentern realm.
"Erm¡ I do believe this is our first meeting?" Shiro forced a smile. She could guess that the ''Shiro'' in this world probably didn''t care about helping people but to get this kind of reaction was a little surprising.
{You do realise that you''ll get this kind of reaction from people back in our world that had to fight you right? Well¡ the ones that survived anyways.} Nimue shrugged as Shiro thought for a moment before agreeing. She rarely left anyone alive that she had marked as an enemy but those lucky few who survived the encounter dare not to trouble her again.
"Lies and deceit! I can recognize that face anywhere! I burned your visage into my mind while you raided my vige! Tore me to shreds and butchered everyone in your way just so you can turn us into those horrid beasts of creation! Kill us now or leave us be!!" An elder shouted out from within the crowd.
Just as Shiro tried to look for him, he hid within the group of people, making sure he couldn''t be seen to dodge her gaze.
''Old man! You had the guts to proim ''Kill us now or leave us be'' yet don''t dare to show your face. What the hell?!'' Shiro shouted out in her mind as her smile twitched.
"I think there''s been a slight misunderstanding." Shiro tried to clear the misunderstanding but they weren''t listening to a thing she was saying.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro snapped her finger and made herself a chair before sitting down.
If they weren''t going to listen to her, she might as well make herselffortable. She could spare a few moments to let them vent.
Chapter 1221: Three Paths
Chapter 1221: Three Paths
Leaning back on her chair, Shiro waspletely silent while the mob of vigers shouted obscenities at her. Their cries of injustice and the supposed ''actions'' she performed echoed across thentern but Shiro didn''t say anything.
She wanted for them to get everything off their chest before she tried to persuade them. After all, she doubted they would listen to her while still harbouring all this anger in their heart.
{Their nder is pretty annoying.} Nimue said as Shiro could see anger building up within her.
''Yeah I know. But they''re just victims in this. From their perspective, I am indeed the person who caused all this misery in them. You know my personality, if I was in their shoes, it wouldn''t end with just shouting obscenities.'' Shiro replied.
Thinking back to this, Shiro envisioned herself standing in front of Aekari at this moment.
The moment she envisioned herself in this situation, killing intent threatened to burst out from within her. However, Shiro managed to control herself as the vigers would no doubt be traumatised by her killing intent. It was not something ordinary people could handle.
Shaking her head, Shiro swept her gaze across the now fatigued crowd who tired themselves out from all the shouting.
"I believe we should be able to have a normal conversation now? My only question to you is, if I''m the same person as the one who did all of this to you, why would I bother listening to you? Helping you return to your normal form after being melded together into those puppets?" Shiro asked as the vigers paused for a moment and started to discuss amongst themselves.
"And I know what you''re also thinking. ''You look just like her'', it''s a littleplicated but you can just think of us as two people who look the same. Now! With all of you finally calmed down, I hope you can answer some of my questions as to what you want to do from now on." Shiro said as she stood up and dismissed the chair.
Most of the vigers were still sceptical about her identity but the fact remains. She helped them and she''s not doing anything to them right now.
Seeing that most of them have settled down and were willing to talk, Shiro smiled and pped her hands.
"Fantastic. Now then shall we discuss your future? I have three paths that you can choose from. The first path is standard reincarnation. I can make it so that you return to the flow of life and be reborn. However, the process might be a little painful or soothing since I need to repair your souls." Shiro said as a doorbelled ''Reincarnation'' appeared next to her.
"Option 2 is revival. If you have any attachments to the current world and want to keep living, you may. I will reconstruct your soul and body so that you can live as you once did. Naturally, if you pick this, there is a chance you might be captured and transformed back to puppets since I can''t guarantee anything. I''m not your personal bodyguard after all."
Finishing her sentence, the second door appeared with the word ''Revival'' etched on the surface.
"If the first choice is reincarnation and the second is revival what''s the third?" A voice called out from within the crowd. After all, there''s nothing else beside reincarnation and revival.
"The third choice is for you to fight. I will revive you and then equip you with some special equipment to help you fight and survive. In return, you will work for me while I remain in this world. You will travel from ce to ce fighting puppets and giving the souls within a second chance at life with the choice of three paths. Essentially what I''m doing for you now." Shiro smiled as she could see some young men being interested in the third option but their fear was obvious.
"Naturally, if you work for me your safety is guaranteed. You will not die because I will give you a tiny goddess on your shoulder to protect you while you work~ I can''t have my workers dying on me now can I?"
Snapping her fingers, a tiny Shiro appeared on her shoulder and gave the crowd a cute little wave.
"She is your own personal murder fairy if you run into danger and she will also help me keep an eye on you to make sure you are doing your work. Don''t worry, I won''t be peeking if you go to the toilet." Shiro joked to relieve some of the tension.
"The tiny fairy has more than enough power to keep you safe and kill puppets. If you run into anything stronger, it will send a message to me and I will send more of my power to help you survive the ordeal. If you doubt my power, just know I''m a goddess and I can kill anything and everything."
Seeing the cheerful smile on Shiro''s face while talking about ughter, some of the vigers couldn''t help but shudder at her demeanour. In this aspect, she was no different to the ''Shiro'' that turned all of them into puppets.
While the vigers decide amongst themselves which path they wanted to take, Shiro turned her attention back to real life as her little stunt should have attracted some unwanted attention. After all, if puppets were sent to monitor the situation and they suddenly disappear, she would investigate the location personally.
Peeking out from herntern, the area was oddly quiet. As though there was nothing wrong with the location.
''Do you think they gave up and didn''t care?'' Shiro asked as Nimue shrugged her shoulders.
{It''s definitely strange. There should be another wave of puppets at the minimum. But for there to not even be a speck of movement is odd.}
Furrowing her brows, Shiro excused herself from thentern world. Kneeling down, she ced her hand against the ground and sent out a pulse of energy.
Detecting every living thing or construct above and below ground within several miles of her location, Shiro frowned as she realised it was only her and the puppets around this area. Nothing else ''lived'' here.
Entering thentern world once more, Shiro tried to get an answer from the vigers but their memory was hazy from their time as a puppet so they couldn''t give her an answer.
"Excuse me." A voice called out as Shiro nced over and saw a middle-aged man with scars around his arms.
"Yes?"
"My son is a schr, he should know a lot about the world. Most of us are just farmers or hunters in the countryside so our knowledge is limited. If you go north and find the city of Hazel, my son is a student there. He should be able to help you." The man replied as he hoped Shiro could ensure his son''s survival for the reward of knowledge.
"Hmm¡ I don''t see why not. Usually, I would''ve asked you to seek him out yourself using path three if you''re worried about his safety. But¡ I am in need of information regarding this world. Lead the way and I''ll do what I can to ensure his safety." Shiro smiled.
Before the man could respond, a few of the other vigers tried the same tactic, proiming that their children are more knowledgeable than his. However, a silent warning re from Shiro was enough to make them shut up. They didn''t have the incentive to take the initiative, therefore they can seek out their rtives themselves by picking path three.
As the rest of the vigers finished choosing their paths, Shiro could see that many of the elderly chose to reincarnate as there were no rtives or attachments left in this world while most of the adults picked path three.
Naturally, there were also quite a few that picked path two for a myriad of reasons, but Shiro didn''t care and respected their choices. She wasn''t going to force them to fight if they didn''t want to.
Taking care of those that wanted to be reincarnated first, it took till the middle of the night before she finished reconstructing physical bodies for the vigers.
While they set up camp, Shiro sat down and took a deep breath before sighing. While she wasn''t fatigued physically, she was exhausted mentally.
''Most of the people that didn''t want to fight are still going to travel with us for a little while so they can settle down in a city. After all, new puppets will most likely rece the ones that disappeared today and their safety is not guaranteed.''
{I don''t get them though. Why choose path 2 when 3 guarantees their safety?} Nimue crossed her arms while observing the vigers.
''Well, some are just sick of fighting. Me and you are used to it, so our instinct is to choose path 3. But do remember that most of these are just civilians who worked odd jobs to survive.'' Shiro chuckled as she thanked one of the vigers for bringing her some cooked food. She had brought out some supplies she had left some food in her inventory just in case she went on an adventure with Yin and it was more than enough to feed the vigers.
Keeping watch for the night, Shiro was d the vigers managed to get a good night''s rest after being tormented as puppets for so long.
Chapter 1222: Strange Device
Chapter 1222: Strange Device
Floating in the air at the break of dawn, Shiro sent out her senses to see if there were any more puppetsing their way. But from the look of things, they were going to have an uneventful journey.
''Right now my magic is being limited so I can''t rely too much on my nanobots.'' Shiro thought to herself as she summoned Vinri and adjusted her form to be that of a ne.
Using Vinri as a medium, Shiro started to gather creation mana between her palms before sping her hands together. When she separated her hands, four tiny birds could be seen on her palm.
Each of the birds were created from a luminescent blue energy that flickered like a fire.
{Is that spirit summon?} Nimue asked curiously.
''Simr but not quite. You know how I''m able to call upon the surrounding spirits to enhance my attacks or spells in general? Since that uses destruction mana, it''s probably going to be limited so I figured I''d try with creation mana. And the result is these Creation Spirits. They harness the ambient creation mana and send me information. I''ve also mixed them with the essence of wind so they should be invisible to most detection spells with the added benefit of increased speed.'' Shiro replied as her range of detection had increased by around 20% just by having these birds around her right now.
Raising her hand, the four birds pped their wings and started to fly in different directions. Shiro was going to use them as a scouting party of sorts so she could get a better idea of the world of creation. How big it was, what''s the current state of the people, are there any gods, queens orrge factions nearby and so on. Plus, it could provide her with a map along with nting teleport markers.
Landing back on the ground, she started to lead the group to the city of Hazen with the help of the man with the scars on his arm. His name was Gazir and he was a small hunter in the vige.
"Before all the puppets took over, the city of Hazen was known for its arcane studies even for a small vige like ours. There''s some rumours I heard of the city but most of it was exaggerated so I''m not sure if it''s true or not." Gazir apologised as Shiro shook her head.
"It''s fine, don''t worry. Any kind of information is beneficial. I''d rather have somewhat of an idea of what the city is like."
''After all, it could''ve turned to shit with the puppets roaming around the world like this.'' Shiro thought to herself.
{If Hazen is really a city famous for their magical prowess, how likely is it for them to survive this world?} Nimue asked as she wasn''t sure how they would fair against the puppets. She had no clue how the magic was in this world.
''Hmm¡ that''s a good question. So far, the scouts that I''ve sent out haven''t detected anything yet. Most of thendscape is littered with puppets that seem to be doing nothing. They''re not even turning their heads.''
{Do you think they''re under orders?}
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro didn''t know what to think of the behaviour of the puppets. But if they were doing nothing at the moment, she''d let them be. Of course, there''s always the option of rescuing them as well but she didn''t want to make any morerge movements. If she attracts too much attention to herself before she achieves her goal, this would be a wasted trip to the side of creation.
After a day and a half of constant travelling with no puppets trying to attack them at all, Shiro finally discovered a city in the distance with her scouts. However, it was different whenpared to what Gazir exined since it waspletely destroyed. Any skyscrapers that would''ve stood tall are now copsed with debris littering the streets. Nothing like the glory of the magic city that he described.
"That can''t be¡" Gazir muttered in disbelief.
"But it shouldn''t have been that long?! Why is the city gone?" He shouted as Shiro realised something that she should''ve asked much earlier.
"Gazir, answer one question for me." Shiro called out as Gazir looked back at her.
"How long were all of you stuck in those puppets for?"
Upon hearing her question, every single civilian that followed her froze up. Some of them had a suspicion considering how much the greenery had grownpared to what they remember but they dismissed it as someone''s magic.
But now that they had a moment to pause and reflect on the question, they realised that tens of years, maybe even hundreds of years could''ve passed by now.
While everyone started to discuss amongst themselves, Shiro had a better idea.
Taking a deep breath, the world around Shiro started to lose its colour once more as details blurred into lines of code.
Focusing on Gazir''s code, Shiro narrowed her eyes and started to look at his ''records''. Simr to how she can see theposition of objects and modify them, she can also see the history of a person. Currently, the information she can ess is a rough summary since if she were to look at the entire history, it would overload her with the information of his entire life leading up to the current moment.
''Hmm¡ It''s a bit blurred since his time as a puppet was when multiple souls were melded together into a being. But I should be able to get a rough estimate.'' Shiro thought to herself.
"78."
"Pardon?" Gazir blinked.
"78 years. That''s how long everyone has spent within the puppets. It''s no wonder that the city has been reduced to ruins." Shiro sighed as she could hear many of them mutter in disbelief.
She couldn''t me them since 78 years was a long time. The loved ones that they were looking forward to meeting might''ve died already or been reduced into puppets themselves.
Instructing everyone to take a break for now, Shiro ced some sentries around the ce while she explored the city herself. She doesn''t know if there are any hidden dangers so traveling alone would be safer.
As she entered the city, she could imagine the majesty of this ce before it was destroyed. A quick nce at the codes told her everything she needed to know since she could recreate theyout of this city in her mind.
{What a shame.} Nimue muttered as Shiro agreed.
''Indeed. Honestly, I''m tempted to integrate some of the structures into Asharia since they''ll fit quite nicely.''
Flying around the city, Shiro noticed a strange yet faint energy signal within the buried ruins. Furrowing her brows, she jumped down to the location where she felt the signal.
Waving her hand, she gathered energy into her palms and created a path downwards with a single st.
*Cough cough!
Pushing away the smoke, Shiro could see a single device at the bottom that was unfamiliar to her. It seemed too advanced for the technology she could see from the city yet not as advanced as her nanobots. Her curiosity was piqued as she grabbed the device and searched for a button or anything that could turn it on.
{What do you think it is?} Nimue asked curiously as Shiro fiddled around the device.
''Dunno. I''m scanning it with my nanobots right now and it seems to function like a tracker? But theposition is unlike anything I''ve seen before.''
Understanding that the device was low on power, Shiro gathered some of her mana and powered it up.
With a sh of light, a holographic map appeared around her with a red dot, showing where they are.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Shiro didn''t expect to see a whole map of the world along with zones being highlighted as deadly, dangerous, mild danger and survivable.
"Well this is certainly something¡" Shiro muttered.
''Do you think the people who used to live here moved to one of these safe houses?'' Shiro asked while interacting with the map.
On the map, safe houses, safe water supplies and several bases were marked down while there were ''clusters'' marked in the danger zones. Not much information was written on the map so Shiro wasn''t sure what they meant but she could guess that it was arge gathering of the strange puppets.
{Seems like it''s split into 2 tiers. Clusters and colonies. Do you think the puppets are basically glorified worker ants?} Nimue asked as Shiro shrugged. She didn''t have much information to work from right now so she couldn''t make an urate guess.
Just as she was about to close the map, Shiro noticed a string of words on the map.
[Developed by Lyrica Valenstaine.]
Chapter 1223: Tracking Her Down
Chapter 1223: Tracking Her Down
{Lyrica is here?!} Nimue widened her eyes in surprise.
''I''m not too sure. It might be Lyrica from the side of creation.'' Shiro shrugged. Since there was a ''Shiro'' from the side of creation, there was naturally going to be a Lyrica here as well.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to try something out.
{No.} Nimue interjected as she could already tell what Shiro was nning.
''Pft it''ll be fine~ Plus I got an idea on how to mask myself so don''t worry.'' Shiroughed as Nimue squinted her eyes.
{Weren''t you the one who said you didn''t want to draw too much attention to yourself???? You realise that tracking someone through the whole of this world draws quite a bit of attention to yourself?}
''Didn''t say I got it covered? Don''t worry so much Nimue.'' Shiro said dismissively as she jumped up and made her way to the tallest building within the city.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Shiro opened them once more as the world disassembled into lines of code.
Holding the map in front of her, Shiro traced the codes to find out where it had been created.
Focusing her mind, Shiro filtered out every single piece of useless information she didn''t need since she only wanted to know where it had been made. If she can find out where it was made, she can track down ''Lyrica''s'' code. If she finds that out, she''ll be able to see if it''s the same Lyrica from her world or not.
Shiro could feel a headache gnawing at her mind as she scoured through the history of the map. Every revision, every use, every person that held this map brushed past her mind.
Eventually, she found the start point. The moment in time when this map was created.
''From the look of things, Lyrica wasn''t directly involved with the creation of this item. It was mass-produced and she provided the map. If I locate the factory where this was produced, I should be able to find some clues.'' Shiro thought to herself as she closed her eyes and let them rest.
Rubbing her eyelids with a slight frown on her face, Shiro felt like she had not given her eyes any rest for days on end even though it was just a quick moment.
{You''re pushing your eyes a bit too much with that ability. Try to limit it if you can. I''m trying my best at keeping your eyes functional, so I''d appreciate it if you didn''t give me more work to do.} Nimue sighed while helping Shiro fix her body.
''Yeah, sorry about that. However, we''re not done just yet.''
{Huh?} Nimue blinked as she felt a sudden chill.
''If I look for the factory then track her down, it''ll take a bit too long to resolve. But if I was to, let''s say¡ Search for every moment ''Lyrica'' was mentioned in the codes?'' Shiro said as a smirk crept up on her face.
''Naturally, I don''t need to know the full history. I just need to find certain parts and try to ''track'' where she''s been. That way, it''ll eventually lead to where she is now.''
{You do realise that even though you''re saying you''re just going to track Lyrica, in order to do so you''re essentially reading the history of thend, right? Do you evenprehend how much pressure that puts on your own brain? Even if it''s you, I doubt you can handle all of this information.} Nimue red as she felt like her vein was about to pop from both anger and stress.
After all, she was the one who had to make sure Shiro''s body didn''t break down, including her brain.
''Oh I know. And I know it''ll be fine~ You got this.'' Shiro grinned and gave her a wink.
Without waiting for Nimue to lecture her more, Shiro mmed her hands down as she summoned Vinri in front of her to channel creation energy.
Sparks of lightning flickered around her, destroying some of the debris scattered around.
Focusing her mind, Shiro created fourrge satellites using a mix of nanobots and creation energy. While they''re not as advanced as the satellites back in the world of destruction, they''ll suffice for what she wanted to do.
Infusing Error''s energy into all four of them, she snapped her finger and sent all them flying through the sky.
''In order to not let them get discovered, I need to mask their energy signals with the energy of this world. Make it seem like they''re part of this world rather than a foreign entity.'' Shiro thought to herself as circuits appeared on her arms.
Focusing her sight on the satellites, she manipted their code just slightly so that if people were to send out their senses, they wouldn''t sense anything odd. She didn''t need to do a full rewrite, just something akin to a nket to hide its true nature.
As the satellites breached the atmosphere, Shiro could feel several ''eyes'' sweep past the satellites but eventually disappeared.
''It worked.'' Shiro grinned as this was just the beginning. Sending the satellites up was just the preparation phase.
''Get ready Nimue~'' Shiroughed.
{!"¡ê&^%¡ê"&^% I KNOW.} Nimue cursed as she started to circte her mana in preparation for the chaos that was about to happen.
Seeing that Nimue was ready, Shiro activated Error and the world lost its colour.
Each of the satellites worked as her eyes as a miniature model of this current world appeared in front of her.
Taking a deep breath, she oveyed the map that Lyrica had made over it to see the differences.
The first step was locating the spot where the device was created. Since she had scanned the codes earlier, it was rather simple for her to locate it. One of the satellites orbited the world until it was directly above the factory.
Firing a concentrated beam of energy, a flood of information entered Shiro''s mind as it caused to stumble back before she quickly regained her footing.
The beam would take a quick imprint of all of the code within the area and fire it into Shiro''s brain so that she could filter through it all.
{F*CK!}
Hearing Nimue cursing in the distance, Shiro focused her mind and scanned through the code. Dismissing everything she didn''t need, she eventually found a single trace of Lyrica.
Quickly memorising the code for that interaction, Shiro canceled the spell immediately. Copsing on her back, Shiro felt extremely lightheaded as a small trail of blood could be seen dripping from her nose.
{TAKE A BREAK. WE''LL CONTINUE THIS LATER.} Nimue shouted as Shiro nodded her head.
Even though she was reckless, she knew that pushing more than this would be stupid. She''ll rest herself for a bit while taking the civilians to the closest safe house. Once they reach the safe house, any who still want to join her can join her while those who wanted safety could remain at the sage house.
Plus, that''ll give her some time to digest the information she had just received in order to properly track where Lyrica was.
Once she had a moment to rest, Shiro started to make her way back to the civilians. Upon arriving, she could see that a few of them had lost hope in their eyes, especially Gazir.
Staying silent for a moment, Shiro sighed.
"I will take you all to the closest shelter. With the technology that I''ve seen, you might be able to find a register or something of that kind. You might find who you''re looking for or their descendants. I don''t know. If you wish to be reincarnated, I will grant you that wish." Shiro said as they thought to themselves for a bit.
Most of them chose to decide after they reach the safe house while some chose to be reincarnated.
Helping those who wanted to reincarnate, Shiro started to lead the rest of them to the safe house.
"I found this in the ruins. A highly advanced map showing you where the safe houses are as well as your current location. It also shows the danger zones for you to avoid. You can take it since I''ve already memorised it." Shiro said as she offered the map to Gazir.
Seeing that he had no reaction, Shiro scratched her head for a moment before briefly ncing at the group.
"If! And I mean this as a big IF. If they have a register of the people who are still alive, I can take a moment to mark down their energy and put markers on the map for you. That way you can track them if you want." Shiro sighed as this seemed to reignite some hope in their eyes.
Giving the map to Gazir, Shiro started to lead the group once more.
However, she suddenly noticed that the world around her seemed to have stopped. Everyone was frozen in ce except for her.
"Time stop¡" Shiro frowned as this was something simr to what she could do.
"Why are you here." A small voice rang out as Shiro instantly recognised it.
"That''s all you have to say after almost killing mest time?" Shiro rolled her eyes as she looked up.
Above her, a flickering phantom could be seen. Their body was in tatters, but Shiro could still recognise the white hair. It was her own after all.
The ''Shiro'' from the side of creation.
Chapter 1224: Paradise
Chapter 1224: Paradise
"You should''ve just stayed in your own world. Do you realise what you''ve set into motion by stepping into this realm?" She muttered as tears started to flow from her eyes.
''Tears?'' Shiro blinked her eyes in confusion.
"What''s started can''t be stopped anymore¡ As expected, not even you can escape the cycle she''s set out for us hahaha¡ What''s done is done. I''m sure you can track me down whenever you want now. Make it quick." ''Shiro'' chuckled in defeat. Her eyes seemed to be devoid of hope as a wave of sadness could be seen on her expression.
"Find the other foreigner that arrived. I can only dy things for so long and she''s already overstayed her wee years ago." Looking at her own phantom body that seemed to fade away some more, the Shiro from the side of creation forced a smile before snapping her fingers.
Suddenly time resumed its flow as Gazir looked at Shiro with confusion since she suddenly stopped walking.
"Sorry, was just thinking about something." Shiro dismissed with a wave of her hand before leading the group again.
As she was walking, her expression was serious as she was thinking about what her other self was trying to say with her words.
''I can assume the foreigner she mentioned is probably Lyrica. Seems like it''s the Lyrica from our world after all.''
{Seems so. But the main issue is what''s been set in motion. She mentioned a cycle that someone has set out for you? Well¡ I assume she means the different ''Shiro''s''.} Nimue frowned as she had expected the other Shiro to be fully hostile towards them.
After all, theirst interaction was a matter of life for death.
''Let''s just call her Shiro. C or something. Last time we saw her, she wanted me dead. But now that we''ve invaded her world I suppose, she''s suddenly not hostile anymore? What''s more is that she seemed saddened by it. If I set something in motion by stepping into this world, shouldn''t the same rule apply when she entered the world of Destruction?'' Shiro thought to herself as there were too many mysteries surrounding Shiro. C.
Too much information she didn''t know about yet.
{Do you think there''s a chance that the ''she'', Shiro. C mentioned is referring to Chaos?} Nimue asked curiously as there probably wasn''t anyone ranked higher than Shiro except for Chaos. After all, Shiro was originally the First Born of Destruction.
''Maybe but I highly doubt it. As for the cycle, I have half the mind to think that she''s mentioning the life and death of worlds. With this being the final world before everything is reset, maybe she''s talking about that.'' Shiro shrugged.
However, without a proper conversation with Shiro. C, she won''t be able to figure out what she meant. But as Shiro. C had said, it''s rtively easy to track her down. Especially now that they''vee face to face.
Shiro had memorised her aura and energy signal. If she wanted to track her down, it''d be a simple task. But the first thing on her agenda was to take these civilians to safety then find Lyrica.
Leading the civilians to the safe house wasn''t too difficult since it was just a matter of walking.
None of the puppets seemed to have an interest in them which made the journey a lot safer. There was one instance where a puppet came close but turned around and flew the other way. Almost as though they''ve been instructed to leave the group alone and avoid at all cost.
''Strange¡ perhaps I should capture one of them to read the code then rescue the souls.'' Shiro thought to herself.
{At least wait till you finish resting. You''ve been spending every moment recovering from the side effects. And if you weren''t resting, you were trying to track her down.} Nimue said as she felt as though she was about to copse from exhaustion. While Shiro got to rest, she had to spend every moment repairing her body and mind.
''That''s true. I should also give you some time to rest since you''ve been working non-stop.''
{You don''t say. It''s basically very at this point, urg.} Nimueined as she continued to heal Shiro''s body. She was looking forward to the break she was going to get. After all, the role of ''Healing Shiro'' was about as stressful as things can get. Shiro is always on the verge of breaking down and it''s a miracle she''s evensted this long.
Once her body had been healed fully, Shiro called for the group to rest so that she could take this time to satiate her curiosity over the puppet''s behaviour.
"Now then¡ where''s the closest test subject." Shiro muttered as she conjured up four scouts.
Sending them out, it wasn''t long before they spotted one.
Waving her finger, the scout that spotted the puppet transformed into a and captured it in an instant. Retrieving the puppet was no issue.
However, just as Shiro was about to read its code, the puppet''s history seemed to bepletely nk. It''s almost as though it was just created the moment she captured it. There was not a single record of interaction except for the one right now.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro frowned slightly before massaging her neck.
"Seems like someone''s trying to mess with me. Though that''s to be expected considering the fact that the puppets are trying to run away like I''m the gue." Shiro shrugged.
{I mean¡ That''s not incorrect.}
Shaking her head, Shiro set aside the puppet before snapping her fingers and sent more scouts to survey the area. The moment her scout discovered a puppet, she traded positions with it.
"Boo!" Curling her lips into a grin, Shiro reached out and grabbed the puppet by the head.
Circuits exploded out from her arm and injected themselves into the puppet, copying the full history of its code in one go.
{F*ck! I thought you were going to give me some time to rest!} Nimue shouted out in anger as she noticed the pressure Shiro was putting on her brain.
''Slight change of ns, don''t worry too much about it.'' Shiro reassured, causing Nimue to hold back the urge of throwing something at her.
Once she was done with copying the code, she grabbed the puppet and teleported back to her original spot. With two puppets now on hand, she separated the souls, repaired them and gave them the same options she gave to the others.
All while Nimue was hurling curses at her for giving false hope of a break.
With the group now expanding in size, Shiro gave them a rundown of what was happening and started to guide them towards the safe house once more.
Reviewing the information in her mind, Shiro was confused once more.
''Shiro. C is instructing them to avoid anything resembling a certain mana signal which is mine. And if they are caught by anyone, their ''history'' will be reset so that no one can get any information from them. Is she doing it to stop me from finding out anything?'' Shiro thought to herself.
{It seems like she has her own reasons. Even if you two were enemies before. She did tell you to track her down so she''ll most likely exin in due time.}
''Possibly. Though it seems like she''s doing all of this to stop the flow of information in any region we''re in.'' Shiro frowned. Shaking her head, she decided to take her time with the information she gathered to fully digest it and figure some things out.
###
Sighing softly, Shiro. C nced down at her hands. While her right hand seemed normal, her left was akin to cracked porcin. Breaking away slowly with each passing second.
Snapping her fingers, a wave of energy washed over her and hid her wounds.
With Shiro''s movements and the ''extermination'' of several puppets within the area, it''s bound to create amotion. Even if she tried her best with covering up the actions.
''Are all the foreigners this reckless? I have to cover for both of them now.'' She thought to herself in annoyance before taking a deep breath.
She had some hope that things could be resolved peacefully when there was only one foreigner. But now that a second one had arrived, and it''s Shiro no less, resolving things peacefully was no longer an option.
Standing up, she made her way out of her room and nced at the mountain in the distance. Teleporting to the top, a lone woman sat on a stone throne while ncing at the moving clouds.
"Some of the puppets have died. I went to check out the situation but they move fast. They managed to evade my detection." Shiro. C said as the woman opened her mouth slowly.
"Another incident? Just make sure it doesn''t affect paradise."
Wanting to say something, Shiro. C just nodded her head and left the area.
"Paradise huh¡" Shiro. C muttered before letting out a hollowugh.
Chapter 1225: Safe House
Chapter 1225: Safe House
Hovering in the sky, Shiro nced at the ins in the distance and frowned.
''This¡ this is the safe house? There''s not a single building in sight. There doesn''t seem to be anything underground either.'' Shiro thought to herself with a frown. She had already sent out her senses but detected nothing wrong with the area.
To her, it was just a normal field.
{That shouldn''t be the case. Unless the map is outdated?} Nimue asked as Shiro shook her head.
She still remembers the code from the map and thest interaction before she came along was rtively recent. Granted, by ''recent'' it was still tens of years ago.
"Hmm¡ This is concerning."
Floating down, Shiro called for Gazir and asked for the map.
She wanted to see if the map could receive updates. If they have awork set up, she''ll also be able to gather more intel.
Thankfully for Nimue, this didn''t require her to read the code.
''It''s been a while since Ist hacked something but it shouldn''t be too difficult if there is awork.'' Shiro thought to herself Vinri shimmered for a moment.
Creating nanobots using creation mana, Shiro watched as they entered the device.
Closing her eyes, she could picture herself in a strange virtual space. Unlike the digital space that she used, this was simr to the mana realm within her body. Only instead of being confined in the body, it''s linked to the world around them.
Just like how codes make up theposition of the world, mana covers the world like a nket. Unless it was a special area, mana fills the world.
This virtual space makes use of the mana and carries information through the flow and updates the information just like how the inte would work. Only that it wasn''t confined by the limitations of hardware.
As long as you can use mana in any capacity, you can ess thiswork.
Naturally, it wasn''t as though everyone can just gain all the knowledge since they''ll die from the huge influx of information. They require careful control over their mana to extract exactly what they need.
''Remarkable¡'' Shiro muttered as she didn''t expect someone to set up a ''library'' within the manawork simr to how she sorts out information in her own mind.
This made essing information easier but the more secretive intel required a key. If you wanted to ess the information without a key, you''ll either need to overpower the manawork as a whole, be given special permission or have such precise control that you can bypass the locks.
However, the library itself seems to be in the beginning stages as there were still a lot of information adrift in the mana flow.
''Thework is in the infancy stages so it''s pretty easy to establish a connection. If I relink the map to thework, I should be able to get an updated version.'' Shiro thought to herself.
Waving her finger, she etched a few runes into the device and re-established the connection.
''Now then, let''s see the updated map.'' Shiro smiled as the map flickered briefly. Some of the ''safe houses'' disappeared while red danger zones started to spread. However, despite all that, there was still a safe house in front of them.
Tilting her head in confusion, Shiro frowned before trying to pull up some records regarding the safe houses.
''Hmm¡ strange. They said it''s underground so I should be able to detect it with my mana sense. But there''s nothing?'' Shiro wondered to herself.
{Do you think they''re using something that blocks mana?} Nimue asked as Shiro shook her head.
''Unlikely. If they were to be using something like that, it''ll only cause them to stand out more. Picture it like this, there''s a painting, very detailed. And in the middle of the canvas, there''s a blob of paint. While it matches the surrounding colours, itcks detail. If they were to be using something that blocks mana, I would be able to pick it out rather easily.''
Opening her eyes, Shiro exined the situation to the group. Eventually, they decided to survey the area in case there''s something they might''ve missed. It was better to try than to skip it over without trying.
With everyone searching the ins for any hints of a clue, Shiro kneeled down and ced her hand against the ground.
Sending out several pulses of mana, Shiro traced out what was below ground but nothing strange appeared.
''Strange¡ Well, when in doubt, check the codes.'' Shiro chuckled as Nimue sighed and got back to work.
Closing her eyes, circuits appeared on her arm before digging into the ground. A wave of information flooded into Shiro''s mind, causing her to flinch slightly before recovering.
{Hm?} Pausing for a moment, Nimue was confused by theck of reaction. She had noticed it while they were on the trip here but every time Shiro read the codes, her tolerance levels continue to increase. It was abnormal even for Shiro standards.
To put it into perspective, it''s like seeing someone eating one bowl of food then almost passing out due to fullness, then the next day they can eat another bowl. The day after that they eat three bowls. The speed that her tolerance is growing is simply too fast.
{Is it because of what Shiro. C mentioned? Something that has been set into motion. Perhaps it''s affecting Shiro as well.} Nimue frowned. However, her thoughts ended there as she still had to help Shiro maintain her body.
After all, just because her tolerance has increased doesn''t mean she was now immune to the effects.
''Found it.'' Shiro smiled.
After reading the codes, Shiro realised what had happened. In order to avoid detection and hide their safehouses, the remaining humans used camouging materials to make an elevator. Since they were only trying to hide a small elevator shaft, it was easy to put more resources into hiding it properly.
The actual safe house was buried deep underground. While it was still within the range of Shiro''s detection, they camouged it well enough to the point where it was almost indistinguishable from the surrounding mana.
Shaking her head, Shiro sighed inwardly.
''I''m too dependent on Error. If I had tried a bit harder I would''ve found it without the codes.'' Shiro shrugged as she stood up.
Looking at the circuits on her arm, Shiro contemted to herself for a brief moment before turning to the group.
"I''ve found the entrance. We won''t be able to move all at once so I''ll head down first to set up an anchor point for teleports. I''ll leave you with a clone of myself to keep you safe while I take a look at the situation below." Shiro called out before snapping her fingers.
Quickly creating a clone of herself, Shiro set up a quick camouge so they won''t be discovered.
Making her way over to where the entrance would be. Shiro thought for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. There shouldn''t be a problem if she used her original appearance, right? Plus it''s better to resolve some misunderstandings early instead ofter.
Arriving in front of the ''gate'', Shiro snapped her finger causing a portal to appear.
{If a random group found a map how the hell are they supposed to enter?} Nimue asked with a raised eyebrow.
''Well pretty much everyone that''s not in a safe house is dead or part of a puppet. Only time they would need to enter would be when travelers from another safehouse arrive. You need a basicwork key in order to activate the portal.'' Shiro replied while stepping into the portal.
The exit of the portal was deep underground as she arrived in a ratherrge room with two elevators and a camera in the corner monitoring what was happening.
"Hello~ Anyone home? I got quite a few survivors above ground. Would you be so kind as to bring the lift up?" Shiro smiled and waved at the camera.
Seeing as there was no response, Shiro guessed that they were either not around or they saw her face and panicked.
Either way, she was going to make her way down and see how things were in the safe house. An elevator wasn''t going to stop her.
Phasing into the spirit realm temporarily, she walked through the elevator doors and jumped down. That way she didn''t damage anything. The fall downwards was surprisingly long as she didn''t expect them to build the safehouse so deep underground.
Though if they wanted to be safe from detection, this was the least they could do.
After a short period of falling, Shiro could see the elevator at the very bottom and slowed her descent. Gently tapping against the roof of the elevator, Shiro phased through the roof and walked past the doors.
She expected to see the sight of the city but instead was weed with a myriad of spells.
"This is quite the hostile wee. I only said hello." Shiro shrugged with a smile before opening her mouth and blowing out a mouthful of air.
*CRACK
Suddenly, all the spell circles shattered apart, causing the casters to gasp in shock while Shiro stood there motionless with a smile.
"Let''s talk now."
Chapter 1226: Underground City
Chapter 1226: Underground City
Seeing that some of them were nning to run immediately once they saw that her attack failed, Shiro sighed deeply and stomped her foot down.
Suddenly, a wall of mana erupted around them, blocking off their exit.
"Did you not hear what I said? I just want to talk. Now, I know what you''re thinking. Oh I''m here to kill everyone because I''m evil. But I can assure you, I am not here to do that." Shiro exined.
Waiting for their response, Shiro''s eyebrow started to twitch since no one was replying to her. It was akin to talking to a brick wall.
"Do any of you have a leader or someone I can talk to? I''m being honest here. I''m not here to fight you." Shiro massaged her eyes as she couldn''t be bothered to keep up her act if none of them were going to humour her.
"If you just want to talk, why are you disguising yourself as Shiro?" One of them shouted out.
"Pardon?" Shiro blinked her eyes in confusion.
"If you were truly here to talk, you wouldn''t disguise yourself as her to gain our trust!"
Standing still, Shiro was trying to register what she just heard.
"Wait wait wait. So you''re telling me, the other me has your trust? As in the one that had to burn down a vige?" Shiro scratched her head.
''Nimue are you hearing everything right now???''
{I am. Seems like there are moreyers to this than we anticipated. But there''s no denying that Shiro. C did indeed burn down a vige. Do you think maybe she had her own circumstances?}
''Maybe. We''ll probably get some answers if we talk to them some more.''
"Okay, before we talk about what the other me has done. I want you to believe that one, I am not disguising myself as her. We are basically the same person but from different worlds. Two, I have a group of civilians above ground and I hope that some of them can seek safety here. We came to this location due to a map we found and repaired." Shiro exined as they looked at each other hesitantly.
From what they saw earlier, if Shiro really wanted to kill them, she could have done so rather easily. There''s no need to go out of her way like this.
"Alright, we''ll operate the elevators. While we do that, please follow me." A red-haired youth said as Shiro nodded her head.
As she was following him, Shiro couldn''t help but marvel at the underground city that they had created. Even without looking at the code, Shiro could tell that the materials used for building the houses were still rather fresh in the grand scheme of things. Ancient cities, even after being restored, would still exhibit signs of age.
Most of the houses in this city/safe house was embedded into the walls withrge bridges connecting major buildings together to one another.
While there was no natural light from the surface, Shiro could see strange glowing crystals that radiated with a blue glow, nketing the whole city in a soft blue light.
The ''streets'' of the city had warm orange lights that highlighted the road. The contrast of soft blue light above and warm orange glows below reminded her of a city in the night.
"So how did you lot find this ce? From what I can tell the only thing natural here is therge cavity in the earth." Shiro asked curiously.
"You really aren''t her huh?" The youth nced back as Shiro shrugged.
"No, I am not. Though honestly, I''m a little curious about what all of you think of the Shiro of this world."
"Where should I start¡" He muttered while thinking to himself for a little while.
"I don''t know the full story since I wasn''t born when it all happened. But if you want, I''ll tell you what we have been taught. Honestly, the elders can probably give you a better idea of what happened than I can."
"I don''t mind. It''ll make the journey there interesting." Shiro encouraged as he nodded his head.
"So ording to the history books, the world wasn''t like it was right now. Everyone lived above ground and could wander thends freely. However, that came to an end when waves of energy started to pulse out from the''s core. The mana within people started to run rampant as any spells they tried to cast would cancel out or backfire.
"It was unsure how long thingssted but eventually, people started to fuse when they came into contact with one another, creating the monstrosities that roam thends now. Our ancestors had coborated to find out what was happening in hopes of discovering a cure¡
As Shiro listened intently to the youth''s retelling of history, she could tell that he was skipping out on a lot of detail due to bad memory. But she got a rough understanding of the timeline.
After the pulse of energy turned people into monsters, those that had more mana than others were lucky and managed to survive. They quickly set up awork thanks to a genius mage. She was the tower master of the greatest mage tower and was responsible for a lot of the advancements they made today.
They had discovered that the pulse was to weed out the weak and those who could not stand against the pulse were turned into the ''strong''.
Several leaders of the alliance set out across the world to create as many safe houses as possible so that humanity could survive. Despite what a lot of people said, the safe houses underground worked, and they were free from the pulses that could turn them into monsters.
During this time, they set up rys that helped them transfer supplies between safe houses.
The current safe house was one that was set up by Shiro. C. Even though she was technically working for the other side, she had tried her best to save as many as she could and sent them towards this safe house.
She would supply as much as she could while making sure the existence of this safe house was hidden from the enemies.
Recently however, she hasn''t been appearing as often as before and that was when the current Shiro showed up.
"Hmm¡ I see. Thank you." Shiro smiled as the youth nodded.
"I never focused much on history when I was in school so this was about as much as I can remember. Like I said, the elders can give you a better recounting on what had happened. What I told you was just the surface levels of history." He shrugged.
"We''ve arrived. The elders are inside, they''ve been expecting you."
Stepping aside, the youth stood by the doors.
ncing at him briefly, Shiro couldn''t help but notice a hint of annoyance every time he nced towards the doors.
''Seems like he dislikes them. Though considering the fact that I didn''t see them at all and the elder''s building is the furthest from the entrance, they might''ve done this so they can escape quicker.'' Shiro thought to herself.
{Eurg, so they''re probably annoying old b*stards with one foot in the grave then.} Nimue frowned.
''It''s just a guess. Nothing concrete.''
Waving her finger, the doors opened by themselves as Shiro stepped into the elder''s hall.
The hall itself was majestic and reminded her of the depictions of King Arthurs round table. There were 5 seats elevated on a tform with statues behind each seat.
The first statue was holding onto a sword that was stabbed into the ground with a shield on their back.
The second was a mage, the third was a rogue with two daggers. The fourth was someone who looked like a healer. They had vials strapped to their waist and the mark of the healer on their jacket.
Thest statue was a smiling man with hair like a lion''s mane. He had sharp canines and wielded a giant axe on his shoulders.
"Wee honoured guest. We had been informed of your sudden arrival and the request of having multiple survivors enter our city, is that right?" The elder in the middle asked as Shiro nodded. It seemed like he was the head of the five elders.
"Yep. I''m just here to drop some people off before I go look for arade of mine. So do you think you can amodate them?" Shiro asked.
She was going to try to keep a good rtionship with them for now since she''d rather not make life hard on the survivors if they were going to stay here.
"Resources are stretching thin already. I''m not sure we can amodate more mouths to feed. Short-term would pose no issue. But long term¡" The first elder frowned.
"I''m sure we can make do. We have plenty of farnd. With new additions, we''ll be able to expand a little more and harvest more crops. It''ll take a while to happen but we can push through the time it takes without issue." The third elder tried to persuade.
Before the discussion could get side tracked, the head elder cleared his throat.
"We can discuss the logistics of more survivorster. But let''s focus on the topic at hand. What is a woman like you doing in this world? Especially one that came from the other side."
Chapter 1227: Library Within The Walls
Chapter 1227: Library Within The Walls
"Oh? Seems like you know of my origins." Shiro raised an eyebrow at the head elder''s sentence.
"Years ago, there was an attempt to establish connections between the two worlds. And that was due to an experiment caused by the Tower Master of the mage tower. She had attempted to establish a connection to the mage tower of another world. The details of this experiment were free for everyone to see but incidents happened, and she is no longer around to continue the experiment." The head elder sighed.
"Thus while we do know the existence of another world, we don''t have as much information as we would hope."
Hearing this, Shiro was silent for a moment. She had an inkling to what this experiment was about since Aarim had done the same a while back. The connection was never established fully to the point where people could cross over but some items were possible.
"I see¡ Well good news for you the connection was linked to the mage tower that a friend of mine had created. But as to why I''m here¡ First it was to find my other self. Second was to increase my mastery over the energy of this world." Shiro smiled as she waved her hand and a stream of creation energy filled the room.
"Though getting a quick history lesson was a nice little gift. I was told that you could give me a better recounting of what had happened."
"We can give you the information you want. However, if that''s everything you are here for, we must discuss¡ the costs of epting this many survivors." The first elder spoke up as Shiro nced over.
Seeing the silent acknowledgement that the other elders were giving him, she could tell that this had been on their mind the entire time. The previous talk on her goals was just an act since what she wants to do has nothing to do with them. Even if it did, they couldn''t stop her from doing it and they know that.
Sighing deeply, Shiro could see why the guy earlier seemed to dislike the elders. While their actions do make sense, it still caused her to shake her head.
"I will help you expand your city and make farnd for you. Would that be satisfactory?" Shiro asked.
"How much farnd would you be providing?"
"F*ck it, just follow me and I''ll show you." Shiro rolled her eyes as she couldn''t be bothered to talk to these kinds of people anymore. The only thing on their mind is costs and benefits. However, she wanted the survivors to have a good ce to stay, even if these elders are the ones at the top.
Plus, it wasn''t as though she couldn''t monitor this ce. She had given all of the survivors she helped a small helper that would notify her if anything was to go wrong.
If something did go wrong, she can project an avatar of herself where the helper was in order to resolve the issue.
Seeing the elders hesitate, Shiro clicked her tongue and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, all five of them were teleported in front of her.
"Surely your legs work right? Now follow me. I don''t want to waste any more time than this."
Understanding that Shiro was getting annoyed but still willing to give them the benefits they were asking for, the five quickly followed behind her.
{Tsk, they''re behaviour is disgusting.} Nimue furrowed her brows.
''Well, what can you do about it. Sadly, these five are the strongest in this city. Their mana is head and shoulders above the rest. While it''s nothingpared to the soldiers of Asharia, they''re the big shots in the city. Losing them would be an issue for the residents here.'' Shiro shrugged.
Leaving the hall of elders, Shiro walked towards a cliff that had a good view of the overallnd of the city. ncing at the cave walls, she tapped her foot a few times, sending out small pulses of mana so that she could map out the whole ce.
Bringing up a small hologram of the entire city in front of her, she nced back at the elders.
"Tell me where you want the farnd." She spoke bluntly while letting them handle the hologram.
Watching them pick where they wanted more farnd, Shiro couldn''t help but feel her eye twitch at their greed.
"This should be all thend we need to stabilise the supplies." The head elder coughed embarrassingly since even he knew the other elders picked a little too much. If Shiro helped them set up this much farnd, they would have enough to help another safehouse with their food.
"Alright."
Taking the hologram, Shiro projected the image over the entire city. Using it as a base, she snapped her fingers.
Magic circles appeared around the cave, flickering with a dark purple glow before turning clockwise. In just a blink, huge cavities appeared where the magic circles were. Flicking her finger up, several stone pirs shot up, supporting the ceiling.
Waving her hand, lights that simted the day and night cycle appeared above the new farnds along with protective barriers that blessed the growth of nts within the boundaries. This should make harvesting food easier for them.
Plus, all of it is powered by ambient mana that circtes through the world. So they don''t need to provide extra to keep the farmnd going. It was essentially the same as any prime farnd above ground with increased growth and quality guarantee. Plus, they could adjust the conditions so they can better grow a variety of crops.
"There are instructions on how to use the farnds in each terminal that I''ve ced by their entrances. It''s connected to the manawork all of you are using so you can use it how you see fit. If there''s nothing else, I''ll be heading to your library to get more information. Oh and send someone to give me the most detailed history books you can find." Shiro said as she started to make her way towards the city.
When she had scanned the city earlier for them to n the farnd, she had also marked down where the library was so she could get some information before she left. After all, that was one of her goals. She wanted as much information she could get her hands on.
"U-understood." The head elder nodded his head as he was still in shock of what Shiro had just done. A single wave of her hand and she modified parts of the city without breaking a single sweat.
Now that she was finished with them, Shiro had a smile on her face while walking toward the city.
ncing towards the entrance, she could see that the civilians were being brought down to the city in small groups since the elevator couldn''t amodate everyone in one go.
Her gaze flickered for a moment as her vision shifted to that of the clone she left with the civilians above ground. Seeing that things were going smoothly, she continued to let the clone operate.
Just to avoid a bit of hassle, Shiro changed her appearance a little so that the ordinary citizen wouldn''t recognise her. After all, to them, Shiro. C was someone who saved them from the monsters above.
She just wanted to get some information and didn''t want to deal with crowds of people right now.
While walking through the city, she observed how they lived with intrigue. Due to the nature of the underground city, life here was very different from above ground.
Every single shop had a 24-hour rotation and the internal clocks of people seemed to match this.
From what she could tell by the schedules written on the opening times, ''Night'' and ''day'' had roughly the same amount of traffic. People could choose which cycle they wanted to abide by since there was work to be found at any time.
Soon, Shiro reached the library. The building itself was rather camouged since you could only see the entrance from the outside and the words Library carved into the walls.
However, hidden behind this in exterior was arge building with a total of 6 floors and each shelf was packed to the brim with books.
"Hello, how may I help you?" The receptionist smiled before pausing in surprise since she had never seen Shiro in the city before. Which isn''t surprising considering the fact that Shiro had a disguise on right now.
"I''m looking for books on history." Shiro smiled.
"Ah right, the books on history should be on the fourth floor. Once you get up the stairs, take a right turn and follow the path. It should be the fourth shelf that you see."
"Thank you. There should be someone looking for meter, just let them know I''m on the fourth floor." Shiro smiled as she dismissed her disguise. That way they''ll have an easier time to find her.
"!!" Widening her eyes at Shiro''s appearance, the girl froze up in surprise as she watched Shiro make her way to the fourth floor.
Ignoring her gaze, Shiro found the section she was talking about and grabbed a few books that caught her eye. There was a table by the railings that gave her a good view of the interior, so she decided to sit there while reading the books.
Chapter 1228: Cause of Destruction
Chapter 1228: Cause of Destruction
While reading the books that she had gathered, it didn''t take long for the person sent by the elders to find her.
"Here are the books that you''ve requested. The elders also asked me to pass this letter to you." He said as Shiro nodded her head before dismissing him and opened the letter.
[This book is a diary rather than a history book. It wasn''t given to us but rather Shiro left it here and never took it away with her. We tried to give it back but she rejected. Hopefully this gives you some insight. And don''t worry, this book isn''t the original copy so you can deal with it however you wish]
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro waved her finger and burned the letter before ncing at the diary.
She had a general gist of the history of this world after reading the books and it wasn''t too different from what the youth told her earlier.
Aarim, Helion, Madison, Lyrica, Silvia, Chen Yu, Nan Tian and everyone else all existed in this world. However, they passed while trying their best to keep people safe. From what she could gather, their strength wasckingpared to the ones she knew from the side of destruction.
The only one that was left is Shiro. C.
Thinking to herself for a moment, Shiro grabbed the diary and opened it up.
ncing through the words, Shiro realised that this was Aarim''s diary.
It detailed all of her experiments, her knowledge on the puppets and what potentially happened to this world.
While it wasn''t anything she didn''t know, Shiro could sense Aarim''s passion and her personality through the sentences she wrote in the diary. ording to Aarim''s hypothesis, the pulse of energy that urred was very likely a byproduct of an awakening that tipped the world bnce.
When she attempted to link both worlds together with her ''Destruction self'', a change started to ur. The objects around her seem to be unstable as an unknown energy source would slowly corrupt them. Taking over little by little until the bnce was tipped. And the energy took over, causing the object to turn into ash.
Naturally, humans or any living being aren''t exempt from this effect. The closer you are to the source of this power, the more the body will degrade. It''ll slowly harden from the inside out before breaking away like porcin.
In Aarim''s own words, when the two energies were separate, the strength did not matter since the energy didn''te into contact with one another. However, due to her experiments, it may have set off a catastrophic domino effect that caused the two to meet.
Now whenever someone is exposed to this energy, it''s like a tug of war suddenly happening within their body. Naturally, if either side gains the upper hand the bnce will be tipped. For the residents of this world, their body is entirelyposed of energy from their world.
If creation energy gains the upper hand, nothing will happen. But if destruction gained the lead, their body would break apart.
At first, the momentum of this energy was slow. There was only one source and that was the mage tower. Quarantining it off was simple and treatment for the initial stages of what they called Mana Corruption was effective.
All it took was to empower the body with more creation energy to keep the destruction from growing further.
Later, they discovered that Shiro''s strength was key to fend off the Mana Corruption. Her own mana affected the world as a whole and the stronger she was, the easier it became to keep this energy at bay. Unfortunately, she could not keep up with the growing strength.
Shiro tried to resolve this quickly and they managed to devise a way for her to travel through the connection they had created. Unfortunately, it meant that she would be suffering from arge exposure of destruction mana thus they needed to make the trip short.
Then one day, everyone got a notification. With a single crack, the destruction energy flooded the world, and everyone was infected by Mana Corruption.
Shiro''s strength could no longer keep up.
The diary from this point on was rough and blurred. From the handwriting Shiro could tell that Aarim''s strength was fading at that point. As the person closest to the original source, her Mana Corruption had to be the deepest.
But even with the blurred handwriting she could still pick out some words.
Shiro, contract. Upgrade, strength. Second pulse, fusion for creation.
Closing the book slowly, Shiro leaned back and looked up at the ceiling of the library.
"F*ck¡" She muttered with a deep sigh.
With her knowledge of what she''s been through and now paired with the knowledge of Aarim and the history of this world. Shiro understood that her own abnormal growth, especially her awakening as the First Born of Destruction caused the bnce to tip within the side of creation.
As her awakening was premature and much sooner, Shiro. C was not able to prepare properly.
Had it been the other way around, perhaps it would be their world suffering from the influx of creation.
''Seems like Anima wasn''t wrong huh? Just tipping the bnce and causing the other side to try their best to catch up would bring destruction. To think my growth would actually doom an entire world without me ever knowing. And it''s actually the side of creation no less. I wonder how Shiro. C felt. Seeing her friends disappear one by one knowing that it was the Shiro from the side of destruction causing all of this.'' Shiro thought as Nimue was silent for a moment before opening her mouth but closed it without saying anything.
She didn''t know how to react to this knowledge and how to help Shiro.
''Bah ignore me. It was unavoidable anyways. It''s why I''m striving for bnce now right? So that the universe isn''t tipped towards the path of destruction.'' Shiro shook her head and stood up.
Looking at the diary, she decided to keep it for now and ced the other books back to where they belong.
Making her way out of the library, she closed one of her eyes and remotely controlled her clone. Quickly finding Gazir, Shiro told him to ry her message to the survivors. She was going to journey alone to find herpanion and this clone will serve as a bodyguard. If they wanted to journey out, they could either use this clone or the mini Shiro''s she gave them all.
Without giving him a chance to say no, Shiro teleported back to the surface.
Stretching her body, Shiro took a deep breath of fresh air before closing her eyes.
''We''re going to do this in one go Nimue.'' She said suddenly.
{Huh?}
''We''re going to scan the whole world in one go so I can locate Lyrica.''
{Do you even hear yourself right now?! This is actual suicide!}
''I have a n. Reading Aarim''s diary just now gave me an idea. I''m going to help you with keeping my body from breaking apart. I''ll be drawing creation energy from the in order to reinforce my regenerative powers. I don''t need to use destruction mana since my body is made from it. If I do it well, I should be able to keep it directly in the middle so the tug of war within my body doesn''t stop.'' Shiro smiled.
She had to seed in this. The sooner she brings a bnce to her destruction powers, the faster this world can heal and stop itself from edging closer to oblivion. It will give Shiro. C a chance to potentially correct things in this world.
Shiro had the n in mind, she had the blueprints theorised. All that''s left is to experiment and put it into practice. While she told Nimue that she was going to scan the world, she needed the powers to do so first. She couldn''t cycle her destruction mana too much otherwise the world itself would reject her.
She needed an equal amount of creation to offset the destruction. That way she can use both energies without being expelled from the world.
Flying into the sky, Shiro made sure she was far from the ground in case she was to release a pulse of energy that could affect the safehouse.
Closing her eyes, she sped her hands together and visualising what she''s about to do.
''In order to cycle both energies at once, I need to have them fight in a tug of war that never ends with no victor or loser. This will be the core of my mana. The foundation of my being.'' Shiro thought to herself as mana surged towards her.
In her left, a vibrant gold creation mana shimmered. In her right, the dark purple and red destruction manashed out.
She had to fuse the two together without making them sh. If creation flowed to the right, destruction will follow. If destruction flowed to the left, creation will follow. A constant loop.
Within the mana realm, Nimue watched as the walls twisted and morphed as Shiro experimented with how her body circted her mana.
Noticing a change in the deepest part of the mana realm, Nimue made her way over and saw Shiro''s new core slowly forming.
Chapter 1229: New Core
Chapter 1229: New Core
The shape of the core was unlike anything she had seen before. When she first met Shiro, the core was essentially a ball with a singr type of energy rotating within. The destruction mana thatposes Shiro''s entire body.
However, there were now two energies fighting for dominance. Creation and destruction. Due to how powerful Shiro''s destruction mana was, she had to gather the creation mana from the world itself. In order to attain the bnce she wanted, she had to fight against the mana of this world ande to a draw.
''Nimue you don''t need to worry.'' Shiro said suddenly as Nimue jumped slightly and nced back.
Seeing Shiro standing there without a worry, Nimue felt panic rising.
{Wait what about your body??? Why isn''t your focus out there?!} Nimue shouted. Quickly preparing to heal Shiro''s body, she realised that there was nothing wrong?
{Huh?}
''Just watch.'' Shiro grinned.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro narrowed her eyes and started topress her mana realm. Watching the walls of the realm wail in pain, Nimue wondered what Shiro was nning.
*CRACK!
A suddenly crack appeared within the realm, causing Shiro to cough up a bit of blood.
{Your mana is going rampant!}
''Trust me! It''s fine!'' Shiro shouted out as shepressed the realm further.
Furrowing her brows, Nimue could see how serious Shiro was right now. The focus in her eyes, she had a goal she wanted to reach. She knew the path and she knew the difficulties.
Knowing everything about Shiro, Nimue trusted her.
{You want me to help you break the realm right?} Nimue said as Shiro nodded.
{You could''ve just told me. As someone who''s been helping you maintain stability, who do you think knows more about this ce?} Nimue asked as she raised one hand up and clenched it in a fist.
*BANG!!!
In an instant, hundreds of cracks formed around the realm like a pane of ss shattering.
{Only I know how fragile your realm truly is and where the weak point is to cause it all to tumble down.} Nimue chuckled as Shiro smiled back before turning pale.
With her realm now unstable, she was akin to a nuclear bomb that could blow up at any moment.
''Say Nimue, remember how I haven''t caused you to flip out in a while?'' Shiroughed softly.
{What''s that supposed to mean? You make me flip out plenty already.} Nimue clicked her tongue and crossed her arms in front of her in annoyance.
''You might want to look outside.''
Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, Nimue nced out and froze up.
Around Shiro, there was an array of densely packed magic circles. However, that wasn''t what surprised it. It was the fact that the magic circles were a small hologram of what''s being drawn over the skies of this world.
Using her satellites as anchor points, Shiro had encased this world in a giant magic array. With how many runes were being drawn simultaneously, Nimue could see the array blocking out the sky in a nket of golden runes.
''I was worried about being discovered. But if they sensed me everywhere in the world, they wouldn''t know where I am, would they?'' Shiro grinned as she mmed her hand down.
Activating the whole array, Nimue watched in horror as the entire world''s mana supply was being siphoned towards the sky.
{!"&*¡ê^"*&^$$¡ê&^"&^ SHIRO YOU M*THERF*CKER ARE YOU ACTUALLY TRYING TO KILL YOURSELF!} Nimue screamed out as she hurried to stop the flow.
However, it was akin to fighting against an ocean of mana. There was nothing she could do.
*CRACK
Hearing an ominous crack, Nimue nced at Shiro and saw her body cracking apart and disintegrating.
''See you in a bit.'' Shiro smiled. Before Nimue could react, Shiro''s entire body shattered into dust and she was nowhere to be seen.
Before she could even say anything, she felt lethargic as the mana in the entire world was drained to 0 before replenishing.
Clutching her head, Nimue nced up at the sky. Her heartbeat increasing rapidly as she didn''t know what to do. The array that was proof of Shiro''s work slowly faded with the replenishing mana levels.
###
Elsewhere, a group of people looked at the sky with a serious expression. They could feel the sheer scale of this spell and the potential destruction it could cause if it was an attack.
"Should we be concerned about this?" One of them asked as they turned towards a green haired elf who only gave it a brief nce and chuckled.
"You don''t have to worry about it. You''ll get used to it." She smiled fondly. Remembering the good old times.
"You mean get used to the stuff you pull?"
"My stunts will look childishpared to what Shiro can do." Lyrica replied while making her way back inside the building.
''She''s finally here. I wonder how she''s going to react when she sees me again.'' She chuckled with a soft blush on her face. After arriving in this world, Lyrica had spent much longer than she had initially expected.
When she first changed ss to Empress of Samsara, she could still be called a budding flower. Her beauty held signs of youth like a gentle wind. But now, she was in full bloom.
Biting her lip, Lyrica tried to hide her signs of excitement but failed. Seeing Lyrica gain a bounce in her steps that was never there before, softughs and a wide smile on her face, herpanions looked at each other before turning back to Lyrica.
''She''s excited.'' They all thought simultaneously.
###
Floating in the sky, Shiro was currently in spirit form as her mortal body had disintegrated. Usually, this would mean that you died. However, it was the opposite for her. She had broken her body on purpose so that she could rebuild it from the ground up with the new core as the foundation.
Nimue is unable to see her right now but it''s fine since she''ll create her new body now.
Looking at the core in her hand, Shiro''s lips curled up into a grin.
The moment she shattered her body, she gathered all of the destruction mana within her and drained the world of creation mana to create the new core.
Shaped like a m?bius strip, both creation and destruction mana are weaved together into a mixture of gold and purple strands that formed the body of the core. If she was to use creation mana, destruction would fight back causing motion within the core and generating extra power and vice versa.
If creation pushed, destruction would pull. If destruction pushed, creation will pull. The delicate tug of war had been established with no winner and the bnce wouldn''t be tipped. Naturally, she still needed to be careful of how much of each energy she absorbs but it has be much easier to control.
Snapping her finger, mana started to branch out from the core and rebuilt her mana realm. Compared to before, it has be much harder for her realm to copse even with Nimue''s knowledge. If she wanted to rebuild her body again, it would be much harder to aplish.
''Maybe I should take advantage of this chance.'' Shiro thought to herself as she could change her natural appearance however she wanted. She could make herself taller, change her natural hair colour and so on.
In the end, she decided to stay with her current appearance. After all, this is the appearance that her friends and family were familiar with. Plus, if she changed her physical specs too much, her fighting power would take a hit since it''ll take a while to get used to the changes.
Habits are hard to change after all.
As she watched her body being formed in front of her, Shiro could see that the flesh and bones were now many times stronger than before. Due to the new core, mana is constantly circting at a high speed within her body.
If she had to describe it, it''ll be like seeing a spinning disk but it was in fact two des that would knock everything aside or cut it apart if it came into contact. Her body now had a natural barrier that was resistant to mana. Of course, that also means only strong healing spells can affect her. Weak spells would just bounce off this barrier.
But with Silvia''s capabilities, her spell should take effect.
Snapping her finger, Shiro finalised the creation of her body. As her soul and body fused together, Shiro could sense a new form of power surging within her. The world now felt familiar to her as though she could use all the mana as she willed.
However, seeing as how Nimue didn''t notice that she was back, Shiro tilted her head to the side before tapping her shoulder.
{AHHH!} Crying out in shock, Nimue punched towards Shiro''s direction out of surprise.
Raising her hand, Shiro blocked the punch with ease as Nimue paused before tears welled up in her eyes.
{Dumbass! At least tell me if you were going to destroy your body!} Nimue cried out as she punched Shiro a few times. Naturally they were soft as Shiro apologised and waited for Nimue to calm down.
While waiting for Nimue to calm down, Shiro discovered an interesting boon with her new body.
Her aura was now indistinguishable from the world. Unless you were looking at her, you wouldn''t realise she was there through mana sense.
Chapter 1230: Similarity with the System
Chapter 1230: Simrity with the System
Once Nimue calmed down, she started to examine Shiro''s new body. Just like Shiro, she noticed that Shiro was now practically indistinguishable from the rest of the world.
Jumping into the mana realm, Nimue understood immediately that she no longer needed to worry about the realm copsing due to the fact that it was constantly being reinforced by both creation and destruction. In other words, she could now ck off inside the realm without worrying.
{What else do you think changed with that?} Nimue asked curiously as Shiro shrugged.
''I''m not sure. I''ve been trying to pull up the system interface but it''s just been saying ''under maintenance.''" Shiro shook her head. She wanted to see if her ss and race had changed now that she reconstructed her body but she couldn''t see her stats nor could she get into contact with the administrators.
It was definitely strange but Shiro guessed that they were probably trying to figure out what''s going on with her body. Though another possible answer was that they''re on the side of creation.
Shrugging her shoulders, she decided to test out the capabilities of her body some more.
Waving her hand, she conjured up a wave of nanobots. However, seeing the giant swarm, Shiro couldn''t help but blink her eyes in surprise.
All she wanted to do was make a small wave but instead she conjured a tsunami.
However, thinking about it for a moment, Shiro understood what had happened.
Due to the way she designed her new core, whenever she used one energy such as destruction to create nanobots, creation would fight back to maintain the bnce. Thus this swarm was created from both creation and destruction.
"Hmm¡ I think I''ll need to be careful of how much mana I use now. Since no matter the spell, the cost will be doubled. Though, the effectiveness will also be doubled." Shiro muttered.
{So you basically lost the ability to hold back?} Nimue asked as dread filled her heart. Thinking back to the area where Shiro essentially eradicated mana to the point it couldn''t be repaired, she couldn''t help but shudder. After all, Shiro was now much stronger and her spells now have double the efficiency? Yeah, if she tries theser again Nimue wouldn''t be surprised if it destroyed the world.
"Seems like it¡ If I stack all of my berserk skills, my awakenings, throne world and everything else, I wonder¡ How much power I can muster." Shiro said as her lips slowly curled into a grin.
Shrugging her shoulders, she''ll leave the experimenting forter. After all, she wanted to find Lyrica right now.
Closing her eyes, she sent out her senses and realised the world has be much clearer. With her new connection to creation energy, she could sense everything that harboured creation energy within them.
It was essentially turning on x-ray to see the whole world. She could see everything and anything. Flicking her finger, the satellites surged with energy as Shiro activated Error''s power and tried to find signs of Lyrica.
Compared to before, she no longer had a headache or side effects while digesting all of this information. It flowed naturally and she could memorise everything. Subconsciously sorting the codes into categories and filtering them into her library of knowledge, Shiro picked out the codes that had connections to Lyrica.
Watching Shiro do all of this, Nimue couldn''t help but wonder what kind of being Shiro was now. She could see everything that happens in the world and sort out the information. She could see their history using error and even modify them.
While the term god was used loosely due to the fact that ''Gods'' were powerful beings in this world, perhaps Shiro was nearing the realm of true god. While they couldn''t say she was all powerful, she was certainly reaching the standard of all knowing.
{The way she holds the information. I suppose one could say she''s simr to the system.} Nimue thought to herself.
{Shiro.}
''Hm? What is it?''
{What do you think of your current abilities? You can give out skills using your nanobots, you can give certain sses and even retain information in a library. Don''t you think it reminds you of the system?} Nimue asked as Shiro thought about it and nodded her head.
''I suppose you are right. With how the system is designed, it''s natural that my abilities will look simr. I''m basically a humanputer. Plus, Error''s power is now part of me so being able to deconstruct the world into basic code and numbers, it''s obvious that I''ll start resembling a mini system. If I knew who made the system and the hierarchy around it, I''ll be easier for me to figure things out.'' Shiro shrugged.
''However, I''ve tried to use Error to read the system before but it hasn''t worked. With admins and different levels of restrictions, it''s hard to gain the full picture.''
{Is that so¡ Since I was thinking, if you''re bing simr to the system, do you think you can cancel events? Such as the new age. What if you could remove the roles bestowed on the Queens and Empresses. The gods even.} Nimue asked as she had countless questions regarding Shiro''s new power.
''Hmm¡'' Thinking about it, Shiro opened her mouth.
''I think if I can find a way to modify the code of the system, I could potentially bypass a lot of restrictions. However, you need to remember that we don''t know who made this thing. The power of the system is beyond ourprehension right now. Where does it get all this power? The skills? The records of history and so on. The source of the system is something hidden by a veil and honestly, I''m not sure if we''re ready to see the other side just yet.''
It was based on a hunch of hers and her sixth sense was rarely wrong. She understood that trying to find the source of the system was a task that she wasn''t ready for just yet.
{I see, in that case then fair enough.} Nimue nodded her head. If someone as reckless as Shiro didn''t think they were ready then whatever was on the other side was not to be trifled with.
Watching Shiro filter through all of the information avable to her, Nimue found herself with nothing to do. After being busy with helping Shiro maintain her body all this time, she now had more free time than she was used to.
Laying down on one of the inds, Nimue nced up at the ceiling of the mana realm and closed her eyes for a nap. If there was nothing to do she might as well get some sleep in and enjoy the break.
Meanwhile, Shiro continued to filter through the information from the codes. Reading everything that had been happening in this world, Shiro couldn''t help but smile softly.
While it was limited to certain key events for now, it was enough to give her an idea.
Lyrica appeared in this world around the same time that world''s bnce started to tip in destruction''s favour. Without much knowledge on what was happening, Lyrica tried her best to help out and worked closely with creation variants of their friends in this world. Including Shiro. C.
They were surprised at first and it was hard to convince them to ept her help due to her identity. After all, why would they trust someone from the side of destruction? The side that was causing this disaster to befall their world.
It took almost a year before Lyrica could persuade them since they were too weak to kill her and hardly listened. Lyrica spent most of that time avoiding the party. But once she got their trust, sorting out the safe houses became much easier. With her knowledge of what Asharia is like, Lyrica provided ideas and exnations on certain contraptions and items while Aarim would get her mages to invent simr objects for use.
Of course, Lyrica couldn''t stop the fact that they were dying from mana corruption. Even if her identity was special due to her connection to Samsara.
In recent years, Lyrica had been sorting out provisions for each safe house and finding ways to potentially revert or reduce the influence of destruction on this world. She was one of the main reasons as to why this world hasn''tpletely been destroyed yet.
However, there was another who had a simr goal. But her goal was¡ extreme. She was the one who ''invented'' the puppets. A way to preserve the soul without being affected by destruction. An amalgamation of creation energy.
But strangely enough, the codes for her seem iplete? Like a puzzle that was missing the key pieces. Her existence was an anomaly in the world''s code.
''I''ll probably figure it outter when I talk to Shiro. C with Lyrica.'' Shiro thought to herself.
Ignoring the anomaly for now, she tracked down Lyrica''s current location. Unsurprisingly, she was at the biggest safehouse located in this world, the new capital and thest wall of defence.
The safehouse of Yurei is where she''d find Lyrica.
Chapter 1231: Yurei
Chapter 1231: Yurei
Compared to the old capital, Yurei was much bigger and bore resemnce to Asharia with certain architectures and the generalyout. The technology was ahead of its time whenpared to the rest of this world.
While stillcking for someone like Shiro, Yurei was a city of technological advancement for everyone else.
Marking down Yurei''s location in her mind, Shiro couldn''t help but turn her gaze towards thends that were marked as deadly by Lyrica.
Sending out her senses, Shiro realised that most of the ''puppets'' in those areas were created from man and monster alike. High level monsters have all been merged into horrific amalgamations of flesh with features of different monsters being visible on the surface.
Just as she was about to send her senses further, she felt Shiro. C''s aura. It was brief but a subtle warning.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to trust this warning for now since she had seen Shiro. C''s actions. If she was warning her not to look further, it means she shouldn''t. Or at least not right now.
''Once I meet up with Lyrica again, she asked for the three of us to meet.'' Shiro thought to herself before turning towards the direction of Yurei.
Thinking to herself to a moment, Shiro decided to try something out. With her new connection to creation magic, her idea should work perfectly well.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro closed her eyes.
In her mind, the blueprint of the appeared in front of her.
''Now that I have a connection to both creation and destruction, I can manipte both mana without too much issue. Plus, with Error''s help, I can scan the whole world. In theory, I should be able to ce a ''Teleport Shrine'' where Yurei is without ever having gone there. All I need is the coordinates and ce a marker. This doesn''t have to be permanent since it''s a teleport just for me.''
Locking onto Yurei''s current location, Shiro waved her hand and the space ruptured in front of her.
While it''s a little unstable at the moment, the potential for this skill was much better than her standard teleport markers. Since she didn''t have to go to the location. As long as she can lock on through scanning or having a proxy, she can teleport.
Of course, with the benefits of Error, there was a chance that she could just lock onto their code and teleport to their most recent location. But that was still a theory in the works that Shiro couldn''t finalise just yet.
Snapping her finger, Shiro forcefully stabilized the portal before stepping through.
In a blink of an eye, she appeared in the Yurei airspace.
''Interesting¡'' Shiro thought to herself. Now that she was in Yurei, she could see the city that Lyrica had built for herself. In front of her, was a magnificent skyscraper that acted as the central pir. It was as tall as the eye could see and hoisted up the ceilings of this underground city.
Countless roads could be seen leading towards this tower with the lights of magic tech flickering with a soft blue glow.
The illumination of the buildings and the natural crystals that reflected the lights made this a sight to behold for the naked eye.
With the tower as the centre of the city, the crystal formations embedded in the ceiling resembled a gxy, shimmering and reflecting the glows of the tower lights. A cascade of neon stars that should''ve been impossible for this underground city but served as a calming spectacle in the dire times.
A faint cold mist created from jagged stctites served as cooling and clouds, draping skies of the city in an ephemeral fog. While it was barely visible, the fog''s true intent could be seen once a single beam of light flickered past from within the tower.
Reflecting off the crystals above and diffracting through the fog, a man-made aurora borealis could be observed, floating through the sky.
"You''ve outdone yourself haha¡" Shiro chuckled as emotions welled up within her. She could sense a familiar mana signal behind her and knew who was there.
"I had to give the people of this world some semnce of hope. This scenery is just to calm their hearts and distract them from the reality outside." A soft voice replied.
"However, it''s nothingpared to what you did. The phenomenon outside¡ How very ''Shiro''. I had a hard time realising who entered the city through the portal." She continued. However, her voice betrayed her excitement as she gripped the skirt of her dress.
"I had¡ a small enlightenment. There''s a bnce of creation and destruction within my body. That should help with the corrosion of this world to a certain extent and stop it from descending into oblivion for now." Shiro nodded.
A pair of delicate arms wrapped around her, taking Shiro by surprise as she didn''t expect this. But despite that, it was a weing gesture.
"It''s nice seeing you again Lyrica, how have you been?" Shiro said as she nced back at the familiar green haired elf. Her first friend in this world.
"I''ve been good." Lyrica smiled brightly as all of the emotions she had been holding back burst forth. The years she spent in this world of solitude in search of power so she could be of use. The years of longing and loneliness umted until this moment.
She could still remember Shiro''s frail countenance after the fight, where she chose to journey out alone. The guilt of leaving but the burning desire to be stronger.
"I''ve missed you."
Seeing her friend shed tears, Shiro smiled warmly and turned around before hugging her back.
"I''ve missed you too." She whispered while calming Lyrica down.
"Though I must say, I wasn''t expecting you to mature this quickly ahaha." Shiro joked as Lyrica''s appearance took her by surprise. Lyrica was now half a head taller than her and her beauty can only be described as a flower in full bloom.
Even for Shiro, she had her breath taken the moment she saw Lyrica.
"I did spend a lot of time in this ce. It would be strange if I didn''t mature." Lyricaughed as she wiped the tears away.
"But what do you think?" She smiled happily while giving Shiro a small twirl so that she could show off her outfit along with her matured appearance.
"What do I think?" Shiro raised an eyebrow before thinking for a moment.
"11 out of 10." She nodded.
While Shiro and Lyrica were talking amongst themselves and joking around, they ignored the group of people looking at the scene from the tower.
Blinking their eyes in disbelief of Lyrica''s actions, they nced at one another.
"Are you sure that''s still Lyrica? She''s way too¡ bouncy?" Nitha raised an eyebrow. After the years she spent in the different realms she had visited with the group, her appearance had changed dramaticallypared to what she looked like before. Not to mention the fact that hernguage skills had improved. She now had grey and purple hair that was cut short, a pair of dark purple eyes and wore a ck dress with no sleeves.
"I mean, what do you expect, she hasn''t seen her friend in years." Asher chuckled. His appearance hasn''t changed much with the exception of looking more mature and a few small scars on his arms.
However,pared to their smiles, there was one who didn''t have a smile but in fact shock on his face.
"Holy sh*t!!! That''s the girl I almost killed with my sneeze! Vuldrin shouted out in astonishment.
"The f*ck?" the rest of the party said at the same time as this was news to them.
"Remember when I joined Lyrica because I said I could smell the scent of the one I almost killed? That''s her!" Vuldrin said as he couldn''t help but feel panic.
He couldn''t sense her aura at all despite her being in front of them. Plus, after exposure to different realm rulers, he knows that she was in a whole new leaguepared to them. If she wanted to, she could extinguish him with the bat of an eyelid.
"Do you think she''ll hold a grudge from me sneezing on her?" Vuldrin asked as his eyes twitched in uncontrolled anxiety.
"I''ll prepare your coffin stupid dragon." Nitha said as she gave him the middle finger.
"Preparing the coffin for who now?" Lyrica''s voice rang out as Vuldrin felt shivers down his spine.
A delicate hand patted his shoulder with a soft yet firm grip. He could feel he body freeze up as a soft voice echoed next to his ear.
"Yoo~ I wonder if I''ve met you before? Somewhere¡ on a mountain perhaps? Though it''s pretty hard to forget a life and death experience right~?" Shiro asked as her charming smile twisted into a sadistic grin.
Before he could apologise with his life on the line, Shiro let go of his shoulder with augh.
"Oh well, you''ve helped Lyrica plenty so I forgive you. Plus it was my fault for breaking into your house to begin with."
Sighing in relief, Vuldrin felt the weight of a thousand suns get lifted from his back as the threat of death was no longer looming behind him.
"Hm?" Noticing something strange, he nced down and saw faint ice crystals on the ground as if a spell was being prepared but cancelled out in the end.
Chapter 1232: Catching Up With Lyrica
Chapter 1232: Catching Up With Lyrica
While Lyrica''s party left the room, Shiro sat alone with Lyrica and listened to her stories while she was in this world.
Hearing that most of it matched what she had learned, Shiro still couldn''t figure out Shiro. C''s objective. What was she waiting for? What was set in motion?
Scratching her head, Shiro couldn''t help but lean back.
"Frustrated?" Lyrica asked with a small chuckle.
"Just a little bit. Shiro. C has much more information than I had expected. Things are moving in the background that I don''t know about. Plus, when I was looking for you she warned me not to search in the deadly zones." Shiro said as she rested her chin on the table.
Blowing her hair out of boredom, Shiro nced at Lyrica.
"Do you know what''s in the deadly zones? I know you made the map and marked them."
"Sadly I don''t. Roughly 20 years into my stay on this world, I was scanning the and those areas gave me the shivers, I didn''t look further. Even after reaching level 1000 and upgrading as much as I could, it was simply beyond me." Lyrica sighed.
"It''s not like I''m not unfamiliar with danger but those areas are a serious no go." She frowned slightly. Just from her expression, Shiro could tell that she shouldn''t look down on the deadly areas.
If both Lyrica and Shiro. C were warning her, she''d need to prepare heavily. Of course, there was the option of just nuking it using orbital strikes. But that would mean she misses out on important information.
She doesn''t know if it''ll help in the grand scheme of things, so she didn''t want to be a brute about it.
"Have you talked to Shiro. C during your stay here? I know that she''s helping from the background but it doesn''t change the fact that she still turned several cities and viges into puppets." Shiro asked as Lyrica thought for a moment before shaking her head.
"I didn''t talk to her much. It seems that when I arrived here, the ''Lyrica'' of this world soon died after. Whether that was because of my presence or not I don''t know. But my interactions with Shiro. C have been minimal even with my connection to Aarim and the others when they were alive here."
Seeing her nostalgic expression, Shiro could gather that Lyrica formed a deep bond with their friend''s counterparts in this world. But to see them all die¡
Standing up, Shiro walked over to Lyrica and hugged her.
"Ahaha, don''t worry Shiro. I''ve had decades to mull over it." Lyrica reassured with a smile while patting Shiro''s arm.
"If you need a hug, you get a hug. No discussion about it." Shiro shook her head. After sharing a hug for a short period, Shiro sat back down.
"Ahem. As I was saying, my interactions with Shiro. C have been minimal but I did speak to her a few times. In the few times that I spoke to her, she warned me to keep my interference minimal but never said more. Every time she tried to tell me, it seemed like she was in pain and that the system was censoring it." Lyrica said while calming the blush that was slowly creeping up on her cheeks.
"Oh? Hmm¡ she mentioned something simr to me but it was a bit more in depth. She was talking about how my presence here has set something in motion. And that not even I can escape the cycle that someone has set out for us." Shiro mused.
"Ah she also told me to find you because she''s been dying something all these years and that you overstayed your wee years ago."
"Well that does make sense. Even with my unique traits as a realm traveller and power over samsara, I''m still from the side of destruction." Lyrica nodded her head.
"She''s a cryptic one isn''t she." Shiroined. In all of their encounters with one another, Shiro. C has never given her any straight answers. Even with the censorship of the system, surely she could''ve said something more.
{You''re just as cryptic if not more.} Nimue rolled her eyes as she had woken up from her nap. Stretching her body, she yawned and nced at Lyrica.
Pausing for a moment, Nimue froze up before rubbing her eyes.
{That''s Lyrica???}
''Yep.'' Shiroughed. Summoning Nimue out, she watched the two catch up with one another before asking about their next steps.
"I don''t have much I need to do in this city. Most of it is automated like Asharia but the technology is stillcking. Rather than the leader, I''m more of a guardian. I''ve already had them appoint leaders that take care of stuff. If you want, we can set out to look for Shiro. C." Lyrica reassured.
"That''s good to know. But let''s rest for a night here. I want to explore your handy work." Shiro smiled.
"Shall we explore the city?" Shiro asked as Lyrica widened her eyes before nodding repeatedly.
"Give me two moments to clear up my schedule." Lyrica smiled before leaving the room.
Once she was out of earshot, her expression became focus.
Snapping her finger, holographic screens appeared next to her.
"Secretary. Clear my schedule. Tell the oldies that I''m going to be out of reach for a day, they can sort out their problems. Have them prepare for my departure." Lyrica said with a serious tone.
Hearing this, the secretary felt panicked. Were they getting attacked? Was a monster on the loose? Why was Lyrica this serious to even clear her schedule?
{What should I write down the reason as?} She asked as Lyrica thought for a moment before opening her mouth.
"I''ve got a date. If those oldies dare to show their faces even for a second or be within the vicinity¡" Lyrica narrowed her eyes as the secretary paused in disbelief.
''All this for a date???''
{U-understood. I will let them know of your ns.}
Ending the call, Lyrica sent a message to Nitha and the others.
[Lyrica: Got a date. Don''t bother me for the next few hours.]
[Nitha: Want me to get people to bring some rose petals to your roomter?]
[Asher: NITHA!]
[Lyrica: Too much. Just get some candles.]
[Nitha: Yes ma''am! o7]
[Cadmi: Oh! Show me the dress you n to wear!]
[Lyrica: Alright. Also if any of you dare to peek at the date I''ll make sure you''ll remember the next training session.]
Closing the chat, Lyrica tried her best to calm her mood.
However, despite her mature and elegant exterior that had been cultivated after decades of being in this world, Lyrica couldn''t help but pump her fist.
###
Looking at the chat, Nitha nced at Asher next to her since they were sitting on a sofa right now.
"..."
"We''re not going to peek." Asher cut her off before she could say anything.
"I HAVEN''T SAID ANYTHING YET!"
"I know. But I also know what''s on your mind and I don''t think I want to be paralysed from the neck down next training session urg¡" Asherined while sighing deeply.
"But do you know how rare this is?!" Nitha pouted as she really wanted to see what''s going on. Even if the cost was a harsh training session.
"She''s literally had 0 romantic interaction for over 70 years! It''s about time the granny got some action." Nitha crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
"PFT!" Hearing Nitha call Lyrica granny, Asher choked on his saliva in shock.
"What? It''s true. Do you think her rickety old hips still got some action left in them?"
"Anyways I''m going to ask the stupid dragon if he wants to peek on them. I think he''s got some interest in this." Nitha grinned as she jumped over the sofa and ran out the room.
Sighing deeply, Asher stood up and followed behind Nitha. He could already imagine the chaos she was going to cause.
###
Sitting by the table, Shiro couldn''t help but chuckle. After her upgrade, she could naturally hear Lyrica''s excitement along with Nitha and Asher''s conversation.
''A date huh? I suppose it could be ssed as that. But do I tell Lyrica about what Nitha said or not¡'' Shiro thought in amusement.
{That''s basically you helping them buy a coffin.} Nimueughed.
''That''s true. I suppose I should spare them for now. Though I didn''t expect Lyrica to still be this excited for a date after more than 70 years.''
Musing over this, Shiro rested her chin on her arm and looked out the window and across the city.
{Well¡ You know how she is. Why not treat it as a date as well. See how it goes and enjoy yourself.} Nimue encouraged.
''I suppose you are right. Oh I should''ve asked her what she was staying in this world for. Spending more than 70 years in this ce must have a big reason. I''ll ask her this at the end of the date.'' Shiro remembered before standing up.
"Since I''m treating it like a date, I suppose I should get dressed in something better than this. What do you rmend?" Shiro asked while going through a few outfit ideas with Nimue.
The n was to spend a night here before setting off tomorrow to find Shiro. C.
Chapter 1233: Date
Chapter 1233: Date
After talking with Nimue, Shiro eventually decided on something cute but cosy for the outfit.
For the shirt, Shiro chose a ck turtleneck jumper along with a dark purple zer. While Nimue chose a knee length white skirt and a pair of tights.
Picking out a pair of ck knee-high boots with heels, Shiro gave a small twirl in front of the mirror.
"Yup looks cute." Shiro nodded with a smile.
"Do you think I should get some ribbons in my hair? Change the hairstyle a bit since it is a date." She asked curiously.
{Obviously. Lyrica has waited over 70 years for a date of course you should dress up a little. Make it worth the wait you know?} Nimue encouraged as Shiro nodded her head.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to tie her hair up into a ponytail with a purple ribbon. Brushing her long fringe to the side, she admired her new look and smiled.
"Any more essories I should get?"
{Hmm¡ nope looks good.}
Getting the thumbs up from Nimue, Shiro made her way to the door and froze up. The realisation was setting in now and that she was going out on a date.
{Don''t tell me you''re getting embarrassed.} Nimue blinked her eyes.
''Shut up. I don''t exactly go on dates often!'' Shiro clicked her tongue before quickly making sure everything was okay once more.
''Should I apply make-up? No, I should look good enough without makeup.''
Watching Shiro suddenly fret over more stuff, Nimue face-palmed.
{Just go already! You''ve prepared plenty. Plus, it''s just a walk around the city and exploring some areas.}
''Tsk, fine.''
Sending a message to Lyrica telling her to meet up at the bottom of the tower, Shiro made her way through the corridors. A quick scan of the tower gave her all the information she needed such as the med bays and the different rooms.
Finding the elevator down was rather simple.
While on her way down, her new appearance attracted several nces her way but thankfully, they didn''t bother her.
She could sense several research wings that had samples of the puppets. Since they couldn''t ess the codes like she could, reverting them back to the soul form and helping them was much harder. But even so, they were doing the best they could.
''Maybe I should make something that''ll help them with changing the puppets. But even if I do, they still need to fight against them first.'' Shiro thought to herself.
Reaching the bottom floor, she could see arge holographic map of the world disyed in the centre, showing changes in the world, their mana has shifted and so on. It shows the current location and situation of every safe house that had been marked.
Tall pirs engraved with protection runes surrounded the room as Shiro could sense that it doubled as a camouge.
Once she made her way out of the tower, she was surprised by what she saw.
Fidgeting on the spot, Lyrica couldn''t help but feel a blush creep up on her face. She was currently wearing a ck asymmetrical off shoulder shirt with long sleeves. A silver ne adorned with a turquoise gem, a pair of ck jeans and some boots.
Due to the nature of the shirt, Shiro could see Lyrica''s shoulder and cor along with her stomach area since the shirt was rather short.
"D-does it look weird? I think I may have gone a bit overboard." Lyrica coughed with a strong blush on her face. Feeling embarrassed from being stared at by Shiro like this, Lyrica cursed herself in her own mind for getting too excited with her choices.
Shaking her head, Shiro chuckled.
"Nope, it looks good on you. I was a bit surprised though since I haven''t seen you wear something like this before."
Hearing thepliment, Lyrica felt happiness surge in her heart as she finally had a good look at what Shiro was wearing.
Seeing Shiro tie up her hair with a cute purple ribbon, Lyrica felt like she was about to die of a heart attack.
''!"¡ê&^$!! WHY IS SHE SO DAMN CUTE!'' Lyrica shouted in her mind while clutching her chest.
"Are you okay?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"Ahem! Err yes ahaha. Shall we get going?" Lyricaughed nervously while trying topose herself.
"Don''t be so nervous and let''s just enjoy ourselves."
Grabbing Lyrica''s hand, Shiro created a ''screen'' around them so that other people would ignore them. Naturally, this was done because of the ''lurkers'' hiding themselves in the corner. Turning towards their hiding spot, Shiro smirked before disappearing.
Meanwhile, Lyrica felt her brain explode as she didn''t expect Shiro to grab her hand out of nowhere.
One could almost see smokeing out her head from how much her brain was working right now.
###
Suddenly losing track of Shiro and Lyrica, Nitha jumped out in frustration.
"How did she find us?!?! Stupid dragon I thought you said this was the perfect camouge!" Nitha raged as Vuldrin scratched his head.
"It should''ve worked." He muttered.
"Well clearly it didn''t. They''re gone now! Hmph I won''t give up! Let''s split up and search. I will peek at Lyrica''s date if it''s thest thing I do!" Nitha dered as she felt like Shiro was issuing a challenge to her.
The smirk after finding out their location was the icing on the cake as it ignited Nitha''spetitive spirit.
###
Once they were away from the lurkers, Shiro looked back at Lyrica and noticed that she was trying to process everything.
"Ah sorry, was it ufortable?" Shiro asked as she was about to pull back her hand.
"No! It''s veryfortable!" Lyrica shouted as she noticed what she said and cursed herself in her mind.
''Veryfortable?!?! Did you have to say it like that???''
Seeing how nervous Lyrica was once more, Shiro couldn''t help but chuckle.
"Don''t be so nervous ahahaha. Now would you like to lead the way? I''m not familiar with this city after all." Shiro smiled, gesturing for Lyrica to take the lead.
Taking a deep breath, Lyrica mustered up the courage and nodded her head.
Holding onto Shiro''s hand, Lyrica started to show her around the city. At first, Lyrica was still very nervous and stuttered a lot. But soon, she managed to find her confidence and the date went rather smoothly.
During this tour, Shiro could see how much effort Lyrica had put into this ce. Simr to how Asharia is set up, Lyrica had tried to amodate everyone''s needs. Whether that be entertainment or jobs, the city had it all.
Naturally, there were a few times where Nitha came close to finding them, but a subtle cast of the camouge was all she needed to hide their location. Thankfully, Lyrica was focused on Shiro so she didn''t notice Nitha trying to intrude on their date.
Once the full tour of the city was finished, Lyrica bought some snacks that were unique to the world of creation and gave Shiro some to try.
"That''s pretty much everything in this city. So what do you think?" Lyrica asked with a happy smile.
"It''s impressive. I can tell how much care you put into this." Shiro chuckled while taking a bite of the snacks. The taste reminded her of the mana stones she used to eat when she first reincarnated into the world of destruction.
Leaning against the bridge railing, Lyrica opened her mouth.
"Honestly, I miss everyone back home. But I can''t leave this world just yet. Not until I finish helping mum and dad." Lyrica smiled as Shiro froze up. Widening her eyes, Shiro turned towards Lyrica.
"The reason why I haven''t gone back yet despite spending over 70 years in this ce was because I found out that there was a way to reach The Watchman''s locker. If I can find the entrance, there''s a chance I can rescue mum and dad''s soul." Lyrica exined as she clenched her fists.
"Is that so¡" Shiro narrowed her eyes. She could still remember her battle, when she almost became a fallen of her own power.
Her hatred for The Watchman had never decreased. She would tear him to shreds for what he did. A million thoughts rushed through her mind but she was able to calm herself.
"We''ll find her together. Let''s talk to Shiro. C and find out why we shouldn''t look into the deadly zones. If we can find out why, I can use my new powers to find the gateway." Shiro smiled as Lyrica nodded her head.
Seeing that Lyrica was hesitating on the spot, Shiro rolled her eyes.
"If you want to hug you can just tell me dummy." Shiro chuckled as she hugged Lyrica and patted her back. She could imagine how frustrating it was to not be able to find the gateway despite knowing her parent''s soul is just on the other side. Especially when she had been this close for over 70 years.
"Say Shiro, can I ask you a question?"
"Of course. What''s on your mind?" Shiro tilted her head slightly as Lyrica took a step back.
Opening her mouth, she wanted to ask the question that had been on her mind all this time but hesitated. Every time she opened her mouth no words came out.
Furrowing her brows, she summoned all the courage she could muster.
Chapter 1234: Lyricas Question
Chapter 1234: Lyrica''s Question
"Shiro¡ I know that you''re aware of how I am." Lyrica started as she couldn''t help but fiddle with her fingers out of nervousness.
"I know you thought it was just because of dependency."
Thinking back to all the times she wanted to confess but was unable to, all the times she felt her heart flutter. Lyrica knew she had to do it here and now. She harboured her down doubts as well. Was it really dependence like what Shiro said? Or was it something else.
But after 70 years, her feelings had never changed. Seeing her again has proved to Lyrica what she felt was real. It was not dependency.
"But¡" Biting her lip, Lyrica didn''t want to open her eyes. She didn''t want to see how Shiro reacted out of fear. Her heart was beating faster than ever. Even going into battle, she was not this scared.
"My feelings have never changed. I know you''re my mum''s friend and it''s awkward for you, but it doesn''t change the fact that what I feel is real. I had spent over 70 years and the feelings never dwindled. Even after knowing you might harbour something for Nan Tian. I don''t want to give up."
Feeling her emotions rising, she wanted to pour out everything that was in her heart. This was her chance, a chance between her and Shiro. Anything she wanted to say, everything she wanted to say. She had to say it now or else she''ll never get the chance again. If she doesn''t say it now, she doesn''t know when she''ll gain this courage again.
"Shiro, can you look at me as a woman? Can you give me a chance? Not as Isilia''s daughter, not as someone you need to protect, not as the na?ve girl you met at the dorms. Just as me, a woman who''s head over heels for you." Lyrica confessed as her voice cracked slightly out of nervousness.
Grabbing her dress, Lyrica felt her face heat up. She could practically hear her own heartbeat as she felt dizzy in the head. She had finally done it, she confessed after all this time.
But she dreaded the answer, she didn''t want to hear Shiro say no. She didn''t want to get rejected. She doesn''t know how she''ll be able to handle it if Shiro denied her feelings.
Hearing no answer for an extended period of time, Lyrica felt dread in her heart. Was she really rejected? Opening her eyes slightly, she slowly looked up at Shiro with tears threatening to fall.
Widening her eyes, Lyrica no longer saw theposed Shiro who was unfazed at everything she saw. The calming charm that she exuded was reced by panic and embarrassment. She could see Shiro struggling to maintain an unfazed smile as her entire face was flushed from the confession.
Her eyes darting left and right while she didn''t know what to do with her hands.
"This¡. Erm¡" Seeing Shiro stutter over her own words while trying to think of what to say, Lyrica couldn''t help butugh.
''She''s probably thinking of a way to reject me without hurting my feelings.'' Lyrica thought sadly as she cast her eyes down to the floor.
Uncontroble tears rolled down her face as she turned to run but was stopped when Shiro grabbed her hand.
"A-at least let me think about what to say dumbass." Shiro mumbled. Her ears nowpletely red.
Sitting down after losing strength in her legs, Shiro patted the space next to her while thinking of what to say.
Once Lyrica sat down, Shiro took a deep breath and sighed.
"You know I''m not familiar with stuff like this." Shiro pouted.
"I''d rather you send me out to battle than think of a response. Arg¡ Okay. So you said yourself. It''s a bit awkward since you''re¡ Isilia''s daughter. I''m basically your aunt if you look at it that way." She continued while hugging her knees.
"But even if I were to ignore that, I don''t know why you¡ have feelings for me in the first ce. I''m hopeless when ites to romance, you know¡"
Unsure of what to do with her hands at this moment, Shiro yed with a few strands of her hair as her voice slowly decreased in volume.
"I''m fickle you know? I don''t even know what I think myself. I see Nan Tian positively because I''ve known him since I was a kid. And he''s also done a lot for me. But I also see you positively because you helped me get my footing. If I say yes to one and no to another the party dynamic will-" Biting her lip Shiro cut herself off and pped herself on the cheek with both hands.
"!!!" Widening her eyes, she didn''t expect Shiro to hit herself to the point her cheeks became red.
"That''s all just excuses because I''m embarrassed. If you can muster up the courage to confess, I should have the courage to give you an answer." Shiro muttered while rubbing her sore cheeks.
Feeling her brain overload with what she was going to do next, Shiro hid her face with her right hand and looked away.
Seeing this, Lyrica felt her heart shatter.
However, this feeling onlysted a short moment when she felt Shiro''s hand hold hers.
"I-if you''re okay with me. I''ll give it a try¡ I don''t know how well I''ll be as a partner." Shiro mumbled.
She knew that Lyrica wasn''t just dependant on her. 70+ years of longing? Not many people can keep that up. And she wasn''t doing it out of pity either. As she said, she felt like a fickle woman. She harboured feelings for both Nan Tian and Lyrica. But she didn''t know the depth of her feelings.
She couldn''t deny that she felt charmed that Lyrica dedicated her feelings for this long. Even if she felt awkward with Lyrica being Isilia''s child, she''ll cross that bridge when it happens.
If she was forced to make a confession, she could only say that her feelings for Lyrica were stronger at this moment in time.
Hearing Shiro''s answer, Lyrica felt joy overwhelm her before feeling unsure what to do.
The two just sat awkwardly on the bridge while holding hands. Both blushing, both unable to look at one another out of embarrassment.
"KISS DAMMI-MNPH!!!"
Snapping to reality, Shiro turned her head back and locked onto Nitha''s location. She had been so overwhelmed by Lyrica''s confession and her own thoughts that she forgot to keep track of the lurkers.
"Why did you have to shout Nitha??!" Vuldrin cursed as he was covering her mouth.
"What kind of tonic confession is this though!?" Nithained in annoyance.
"At least when I confessed to Asher I f*-"
"NITHA!" Asher panicked as he quickly covered her mouth as well with a deep blush on his face. Ignoring Vuldrin and Cadmi''s stares, Asher wanted to hide himself in a hole.
Looking at one another, Shiro and Lyrica couldn''t help butugh as they weren''t wrong. They just sat there out of embarrassment without saying anything.
"You want to punish them for peeking?" Shiro asked with a chuckle.
"Just a tad. Don''t want to go too overboard. But that can probably wait till tomorrow. I''m out of energy." Lyrica scratched her hair as she still felt lightheaded and weak in the legs. But she was screaming with joy inside.
"Shall we head back?" Lyrica asked as Shiro nodded her head.
Standing up, Lyrica noticed that Shiro wasn''t moving and looked back. Seeing that Shiro had one hand behind her back and the other reached out meekly while looking to the side.
Lyrica felt her heart explode.
''WHY IS SHE SO DAMN CUTE!?'' She shouted in her mind as the fearless and terrifying Shiro was so meek and cute when it came to romance.
Holding Shiro''s hand, Lyrica noticed a small smile on Shiro''s face as she felt her heart explode once more.
Leaving the lurkers behind, the two of them made their way back to the tower.
Meanwhile, Nimue was teasing the hell out of Shiro in her mind.
{I-If you''re okay with me. I''ll give it a try~ AHAHAHAHA} Nimue howled withughter as Shiro felt her face heat up from hearing her own response.
''SHUDDAP!''
{I''m hopeless when ites to romance you know¡ AHHAHAHAHHAHA}
Stomping her foot out of annoyance, Shiro wanted to throw a table at Nimue.
{THIS IS MY REVENGE! AHAHAHA SUFFER AS I HAVE!}
With her mind focused on Nimue''s teasing, they reached Shiro''s room.
"Ah ahem. I should go back to my room now." Lyrica said as she didn''t feel the courage to spend the night together. Not yet at least.
Seeing this, Shiro couldn''t help but chuckle and tugged at Lyrica''s dress before she could leave.
"I don''t mind sleeping in the same room."
Feeling her heart explode once more, Lyrica was thinking she might be having a cardiac arrest from Shiro''s cuteness.
Leading Shiro back to her room, they opened the door and was assaulted by the smell of scented candles and roses. Lyrica suddenly remembered that she had asked Cadmi to remodel her room slightly.
Her bed was now reced by a giant love heart bed with rose petals on the floor. The red mood lights and scented candles caused a blush to overwhelm her face as Lyrica felt embarrassed.
Trying to hide her own blush and embarrassment, Shiro cleared her throat.
"Let''s sleep in my room tonight."
Chapter 1235: System Errors
Chapter 1235: System Errors
Making their way to Shiro''s room, Shiro changed into some pyjamas while stretching her body. After the whole ordeal, she was exhausted mentally. She wanted to just rest her mind with a good night''s rest.
Meanwhile, Lyrica did the same but she couldn''t help but asionally nce back at Shiro.
"Hm?" Noticing Lyrica''s nces, Shiro tilted her head. Was there something else she wanted to say?
"Ah nothing." Lyrica shook her head.
She couldn''t admit that she was just taking nces at Shiro.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro sat on her bed while bringing up a few holographic projections. Now that she had reunited with Lyrica, she could rx for a short while. And during this time, she wanted to find out what''s going on with the system. After all, she couldn''t open it at all.
Messing around with the projection, she simted the system interface so that she has something to work with.
Feeling bed shift, Shiro nced to her side and noticed that Lyrica had changed into a baggy shirt and just her underwear for her pyjamas.
"If you stare so much it''s embarrassing." Lyrica scratched her cheek since this was what she usually wore to sleep.
"Ah sorry. Say Lyrica, have you been able to open your system interface?" Shiro asked as she looked back at the screen.
"Hm? No I haven''t. It was a bit weird since I couldn''t open it anymore once I got to this world. But I''ve gotten used to it now. The main thing is training and remembering my main skills."
Getting into bed as well, Lyrica saw that Shiro seemed to be making a system of sorts.
"Are you trying to bring the system into this world?" She asked curiously while hesitating on how close she wanted to sit to Shiro on the bed.
"Not quite. After reaching bnce between my two energies I wanted to see how the system would react to this since it should be quite the strange situation. After all, my past self told me that they never managed to gain bnce between the two. But now that I''ve reached this state, the system being quiet is too abnormal."
Flicking her finger, circuits appeared and embedded themselves into the screen as codes appeared in Shiro''s vision.
She was going to see if she could breach the codes and find out where the system was located. If she can do that, she can see the hidden logs of what is happening.
"Speaking of which, how did you evene across the gateway to the Watchman''s locker?" Shiro asked curiously. She couldn''t have just gotten that information by coincidence, someone must''ve told her.
"Oh it was Shiro. C and Juri. Juri couldn''t follow me to this world but she told me that a gateway could be found on this world. While Shiro. C told me that due to the state of this world, a lot of the pathways are fragile. I figured that if Juri mentioned the gateway to the Watchers locker, and Shiro. C said it;s fragile, I would find it eventually."
Hearing this, Shiro thought to herself for a moment as she remembered who Juri was. Juri was the realm ruler of the beyond.
When they met briefly, they had an agreement. Juri would ignore whatever Lyrica did in her realm and in return, Shiro would do her best to help her in the future as long as it didn''t go against what she believed in.
"I''m surprised that she would know something like this." Shiro muttered.
"Well the beyond is the connection to every realm. Think of it as something akin to the root of all things. It;s also why I managed to achieve the powers of samsara."
Nodding her head, Shiro focused back on the screen in front of her. Narrowing her eyes, she traced Error''s own code back to the system. After all, the closest connection Shiro had to the system was Error himself.
''Lets see¡ I don''t need the full information regarding the system. Just the recent activity, the reason why it can''t be seen and why the administrators aren''t answering at all.'' Shiro thought to herself while extracting certain pieces of code.
Watching Shiro work with a serious face, Lyrica couldn''t help but stare with a soft smile on her face. She loved watching Shiro with a serious look. It was the look she was most familiar with after all.
"Anything I can do to help?" Lyrica asked as Shiro thought about it for a moment before shaking her head.
"Not just yet. I will be checking your code in a bit since you''re also an anomaly in this world. Somewhere along the line the system must''ve logged some actions within your code as well."
Browsing through the multiple lines of code, Shiro found the hint she needed.
Thest known interaction with the system in this world roughly coincided with the shift in bnce. When the tug of war tipped in destruction''s favour, the system suffered an error and was no longer able to maintain function within this world.
''Which means the moment I woke up as the First born of Destruction, the system halted in this world. Strange¡'' Shiro thought with a frown.
The further she dug into the code, the more she could feel her power being drained. Her new core rumbled to life, causing her mana to surge. Finding the lines of code that she wanted, Shiro snapped her finger and projected everything around the room.
Widening her eyes, she was shocked at the sheer number of errors that could be seen.
Missing administrators, breach in censors, abnormal sses, interference of the functions and so on. Aside from the basic uses of the system, everything had suffered an error.
"What the¡" Lyrica blinked her eyes. She knew something must''ve happened to the system but she didn''t expect it to be this bad.
Shiro furrowed her brows and stood up. Flicking past the countless errors, she zoned in on the main ones that happened during the moment of this world''s cmity.
"Destruction element surging¡ Bnce cannot be maintained¡ Distress call to administrators failed¡ Zero answers¡ Breach of security parameters¡ Purging records¡" Shiro muttered while skimming through all of the records that were avable to her.
Looking through more of the errors, she pieced together the main issues.
First, every single administrator was now missing. There was no one to troubleshoot any of the abnormalities that would arise. No one to give orders to maintain bnce.
Second, there was a third party that had somehow broken into where the administrators were. They purged most of the records and it couldn''t be recovered.
Third, the third party had also halted the function of the system within the world of creation.
As for whether or not they n to halt the function in the world of destruction, Shiro didn''t know since all of the records stopped here.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro tried to activate the system remotely so that she could somewhat see her status. However, when the screen appeared in front of her, it was a jumbled mess of errors.
"Hmm¡ You mentioned that the beyond is simr to the root of everything right?" Shiro asked as Lyrica nodded.
"Then would finding a pathway to where the administrators are be possible through the use of the Beyond?"
"I''m not sure. You''ll need to ask Juri about that. However, a portal hasn''t opened in this world in a while and I''m not sure when the next portal will be opened." Lyrica shook her head.
Scratching her hair out of frustration, Shiro sighed andid on the bed.
"We should make our trip here short. Tomorrow I''ll fully track down where Shiro. C is, find out what''s in the deadly zone and deal with it if possible. That way I can scan this world entirely for the pathway to the Watchman''s Locker and help your parents.
"Oh¡ I also need to exin to her that I''m dating you now¡" Shiro muttered after understanding what she must do after meeting Isilia again.
"Well¡ if it makes you feel better, mum did know about my feelings for you." Lyrica scratched her cheek, causing Shiro to raise an eyebrow.
"I mean if she knows then it might make things easier. Either way I''ll think about it when we free her from the locker." Shiro shrugged.
Flicking her finger, the lights in the room started to dim and Shiro closed her eyes.
"Say Shiro¡" Lyrica whispered as Shiro opened one eye.
"Mn?"
"C-can I hug you?" Lyrica asked shyly, causing Shiro to blush and meekly nod her head.
Shuffling closer to the centre of the bed, Shiro could feel Lyrica hug her from behind as her arms wrapped around her. She could feel Lyrica''s heart thumping loudly out of nervousness.
Shiro didn''t know why but her body suddenly felt more sensitive than ever, especially Lyrica''s soft breaths on the back of her neck.
Naturally, Shiro wasn''t the only one. Lyrica also felt hypersensitive at the moment as there was a million and one things going through her head. There was so much she wanted to do right now.
The temptation to let her hands wander grew with each passing second as she could feel Shiro''s body heating up.
"Can I?" Lyrica asked in a low whisper.
Even in the darkness, Lyrica could see Shiro''s ears going bright red.
Chapter 1236: Shiro. C
Chapter 1236: Shiro. C
Hearing Lyrica''s question, Shiro could feel her blood rushing to her head.
"Just¡ a kiss." She whispered. She didn''t want to go too far since there was still the case of rescuing Isilia.
Turning her body so that she was nowying on her back, Shiro looked at Lyrica who had a blush on her face.
Her eyes focused on Shiro''s lips.
This wasn''t a yful kiss anymore, not the kind that Shiro would treat like a joke.
Brushing her hair behind her ear, Lyrica leaned down and kissed Shiro on the lips.
The short moment felt like an eternity as Shiro kissed her back. Out of all her years alive, this was the first time she engaged in a proper kiss with someone. It was a strange feeling, but it felt nice for her.
As their lips parted, Shiro could see lights reflecting off the faint strands of saliva as Lyrica panted slightly. Her face flushed, clearly wanting more but holding herself back.
Slightly softly, Shiro sat up and kissed Lyrica again while pushing her down against the bed.
"We can do moreter¡" Shiro whispered while giving the tip of her ear a light bite.
Feeling as though electricity was shooting through her body, Lyrica couldn''t help but let out a small moan.
Looking up, Lyrica could see Shiro with a somewhat teasing expression while licking her lips.
"There''s no rush, I''m not going anywhere." Shiro reassured before kissing Lyrica again.
With Shiro''s tongue invading her mouth for a third time, Lyrica felt her mind go dizzy.
"Now let''s get some sleep, we have a long day ahead of us. I don''t want you to be tired in the morning."
Pulling the nket over Lyrica, Shiroid down and closed her eyes.
###
Waking up in the morning, Shiro was greeted with the internal sight of Nimue smirking at her whileying on her side.
{You can do moreter huh? No rush huh?} She grinned.
''Don''t you know privacy?'' Shiro retorted while trying to hide her blush.
{Fufufu~ It''s a bit hard when all of your internal thoughts were so¡ passionate. AHAHAHA} Nimueughed, causing Shiro to roll her eyes.
{Don''t worry though, I only heard some parts. I didn''t look since I don''t want to be a third wheel.} She reassured.
Focusing her attention back on reality, Shiro sat up and stretched her body. Seeing that Lyrica was still sleeping, Shiro decided to not wake her up just yet and got changed into her usual clothes.
*Yawn~
"Morning, did you have a nice rest?" Shiro asked while ncing back at Lyrica.
"Mnm." Nodding her head, Lyrica still felt half asleep.
After all, Shiro had mentioned that they could do moreter, and her mind couldn''t help but wonder about what they could do.
Making some light breakfast, the two sat around a table while ncing out at the city. The view hasn''t changed much sincest night as there was no ''real sky'' so the experience was a little off putting.
''I suppose once you get used to it you will notice the small differences.'' Shiro thought to herself while looking at Lyrica who seemed to have something on her mind.
"What are you thinking about?" She asked curiously while sipping her cup of juice.
"Oh nothing much. Just thinking if I should ask Aarim about her old store when we get back."
Hearing this, Shiro choked on her drink as Aarim''s old store had something to do with adult toys. Realising that she was thinking about this due to what she saidst night, Shiro couldn''t help but blush.
"Ahem. We can ask once things are dealt with."
Cleaning up everything, they made sure Lyrica didn''t need to do anything else in the city before letting her party members know where they were going to meet.
The meeting point was the entrance of the elevator to the surface and their destination was Shiro. C.
Upon arriving at the elevator, Shiro could see Lyrica''s party already prepared and ready to go. Both Asher and Vuldrin were talking quietly while Cadmi was braiding Nitha''s hair.
"OH!" Noticing Shiro and Lyrica''s arrival, Nitha jumped up and had a smirk on her face. There was a question she wanted to ask and she was going to shout it out.
Suddenly feeling as though something was about to go wrong, Asher turned towards Nitha and dashed. After years of spending time together, he knew when Nitha was going to ask something stupid.
"LYRICA! DID YOU FU-!!!!" Before she could finish her question, Asher had covered her mouth.
Hearing part of the question, both Lyrica and Shiro froze up for a moment.
"Sorry about that, you know how Nitha can be." Asher apologised with a forced smile.
"Anyways the preparations are done. We''re free to leave the city without any worries. Hopefully." Cadmi smiled as Lyrica nodded her head.
Making their way to the surface, Shiro stretched her body before massaging her neck.
"Alright, let me find out where Shiro. C is."
Hearing this, Asher and the rest of the party looked at Lyrica in confusion.
"Ah right, I forgot to mention this to you. Yeah Shiro is going to be finding her counterpart in this world since they are essentially the key to the survival of this world. You might want to brace yourself."
Before the party could ask more, Shiro red her mana as countless magic arrays appeared around her.
The sudden explosion of mana caused Nitha to enter an attacking stance out of habit as sweat dripped down her face.
"Don''t worry about that, you''ll get used to it once you''re around Shiro long enough. Honestly this is still rather tame." Lyrica chuckled.
Meanwhile, Vuldrin understood that Shiro was in a realm much higher than even gods. Even if his mother was here, she would be weaker than Shiro.
He almost couldn''t believe that this was the same girl he nearly killed with a sneeze.
Snapping her fingers, a holographic image of the world appeared once more in front of her. Remembering Shiro. C''s code from thest time she met, Shiro narrowed her eyes and activated her skill.
The satellites that had been dormant in the space above rumbled to life as they sent out a pulse of energy. Immediately, all of the code in the world became visible to Shiro. But there was no need to go through every single line since that''ll take too long.
''I''m going to borrow the remnants of the system.'' Shiro narrowed her eyes as circuits appeared on her arm.
*CRACK!
Ripping open a tear in space in front of her, Shiro plunged her right hand in as circuits shot out.
Suddenly, the party got a notification that onlysted for a single moment before disappearing. Unless you were high enough level, you wouldn''t notice it. But for them, it was clear.
[System Rebooting¡]
Seeing this, they understood a fraction of Shiro''s power. The fact that she could reawaken the system even for a moment spoke volumes of her capabilities.
''Error, help me filter out the world''s code using the system as a guide. Lockdown Shiro. C''s code and tell me the location of her true body.''
Without a second word, countless strings of code flickered across her view as it tracked every single moment that Shiro. C had appeared. As long as it wasn''t erased, every single action she had taken was clear for Shiro to see.
And soon, Error located her current location.
Reading the code, Shiro couldn''t help but frown since Shiro. C''s current physical condition was quite concerning.
Waving her hand, Shiro dismissed all of the magic arrays around her and turned to the party.
"I''ve found her. Let''s not dy things anymore since her condition is not good." Shiro frowned.
"Not good?" Lyrica raised an eyebrow.
"Even though I''ve reached a bnce state and this world has stopped destroying itself, it doesn''t change the fact that Shiro. C had taken a lot of damage due to my existence. Her mana corruption has reached a state where just moving around is already a miracle." Shiro shook her head.
Thinking back to how Shiro. C could still cast timestop in her state caused Shiro to understand that she got lucky. If she had been a step slower, it would be her world that would be in this state. Where people can barely survive and a slight exposure to the opposite energy caused corruption within their body.
Shaking her head, she turned to her right and swiped her hand down.
*CRACK!
Splitting open the space, Shiro created a portal to where Shiro. C was.
"Let''s go." Shiro smiled as Lyrica nodded her head.
Making their way through the portal, Shiro could see that they were in an underground temple of some sort.
In front of them, a familiar figure was sitting on some stone steps that were leading up to several coffins adorned with fanciful decorations.
"Wee. I was expecting to see you yesterday, but this is fine as well." Shiro. C smiled as she could no longer see out of her right eye while her left eye was on the verge of breaking. Porcin cracks spread across her face and body with entire limbs now missing.
"I suppose I should adorn you with the tale of why we shouldn''t exist."
Chapter 1237: Truth?
Chapter 1237: Truth?
"Why we shouldn''t exist?" Shiro asked as Shiro. C nodded her head.
"But before we continue, would you like a drink?" Shiro. C asked while patting the spot next to her.
Nodding her head, Shiro made her way next to her and sat down.
Lyrica and the rest of the party understood that they probably wanted some privacy and left them to their own while looking around the temple.
Handing over a small cup to Shiro, Shiro. C drank her''s in a single gulp.
Doing the same, Shiro could feel her throat burning up and understood that it was alcohol.
"You know¡ I hate you a lot." Shiro. C smiled while ncing back at the tomes.
"You''re the reason that my friends are now buried and unable to be revived." She sighed before drinking another cup.
"But I hate myself more. For not being strong enough to overpower your influence."
Hearing this, Shiro had a small frown on her face.
"I don''t have words offort for you since one of us was going to suffer regardless. But I know why we shouldn''t exist. As the first born of destruction our natu-"
"No you don''t understand." Shiro. C cut her off as she looked at Shiro.
"Our identity as the first born of destruction is not the reason why we shouldn''t be alive. Even if we exert a negative influence into the universe, the first born of creation will always offset our power. However, have you ever wondered why the cycle even exists? The battle of queens, gods and lifelines." Shiro. C asked with a bitter smile.
"If my knowledge is correct, it should be to cultivate a single world order right? Where one ruler governs all."
Upon hearing Shiro''s response, Shiro. Cughed out loud.
"If that was their true goal, don''t you think there are better ways to go around it? Why do they have to censor the goal? With the power of the system don''t you think they can train the lifeline to survive? Or perhaps pick a lifeline or a ruler after extensive testing. Perhaps you could say fair testing, that is a valid reason. And if their goal is one world, does that mean our counterparts from the different ces will also live in that one world? Would there be multiple Shiro''s living in thatst world? Or would every other world be destroyed for the progress of the main world." Shiro. C asked as Shiro was silent.
It was true. If the goal is one world what happens to the different universes? If the world of destruction bes the final world and she bes the ruler, the world of creation will be destroyed.
Not to mention, Shiro only knows about the state of the world of creation. She doesn''t know how the worlds are in between the two worlds. What about the world in the middle? The one that was supposedly bnced. Would they also be destroyed if she wins this fight?
"Though if I have one thing to be grateful about, it''s that I''m not the lifeline unlike you. If I die, this world won''t end for now." Shiro. C smiled while taking another drink.
"I don''t think there is supposed to be a winner. We''re just cogs in a machine masquerading as apetition. You know that the other queens have been lied to, yes? Same with the gods."
"Mnm, I do know. They''ve been tricked with false promises of bringing back their world. The world they lost." Shiro nodded with a sombre expression.
"If the system is lying to them, don''t you think they can lie to us?" Shiro. C asked while leaning back. Looking up at the ceiling, she let out arge sigh.
Pausing in realisation, Shiro turned to Shiro. C.
"Surprised? Though with how your life has gone, I suppose it didn''t lead you to suspect the system. This might be egotistical but don''t you think every cycle is a test for ''us?''
"There is always a Shiro, always a time where our presence will dictate how the world will go. If the world is on train tracks, we''re the lever that decides where it goes. Who do you think set it up? Chaos? Perhaps. But I don''t think it''s her." Shiro. C shook her head.
"I''ve met Chaos you know¡"
Hearing this, Shiro sat up in surprise and turned to Shiro. C.
"Her state is worse than mine." She chuckled while raising her arm that was missing and crumbling to ash.
"Wait if Chaos is not at the centre of it, who is?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"Who do you think? It''s *****."
"What?" Furrowing her brows, Shiro couldn''t hear clearly what Shiro. C was trying to say.
"She''s watching. I guess you''re not allowed to know considering you are now at the forefront of everything. I''m just a backdrop now." Shiro. C shook her head and stood up.
Waving her hand, she ''repaired'' her body and gestured for Shiro to follow her.
"Wait, before we go somewhere I need to ask you something. What''s in the deadly zones? Why didn''t you want me to scan the area?" Shiro asked as Shiro. C nced back.
"It''s better to show you."
Notifying Lyrica and her party to gather together, Shiro. C opened a portal and all of them were sent to the deepest parts of the deadly zones.
The cities were flooded with a strange red and purple crystal that seemed to pulse with life. Every crystal was connected with strands of flesh and chitin whilerge spinal structures created archways over the skyscrapers.
When looking at the scene from above, it almost looked like a blooming flower with the crystals and teeth acting as petals that surged towards the centre.
Justying their eyes towards this structure caused shivers down their spine as Shiro narrowed her eyes and scanned the code.
Once she understood what it was, Shiro snapped her head towards Shiro. C.
"We call it the God Beast. A single amalgamation of flesh from merging every single god, queen and all the life forms that surpassed a certain level. It was created from an ident. I was not here when it was formed as I had breached into the god realm in search of the true culprit behind the cycles. But when I came back, the fusion was finished.
"You can call it ast ditch effort to stall theing destruction, but I did not know my agreement would create such a beast." Shiro. C sighed.
"Agreement?"
"Mnm. I had made an agreement with the Lifeline of this world. The pre-awakened First Born of Creation. Though she had been corrupted by a third party. I wanted to try resolving things peacefully but because you and Lyrica havee to this world, it''s no longer possible. You can try talk to her and see if you can resolve any disagreements but don''t hold too much hope." Shiro. C shook her head while sending everyone back to the temple.
"Honestly I suggest you just going back home."
"I can''t." Lyrica interrupted with a frown, causing Shiro. C to look towards her direction.
"I know what you want, but it''s not possible. As the lifeline and First Born of Creation, she will not help you. The gateway to what you seek can only be opened with the governing power of this world. If you want to find the path you want, you''ll need to persuade her or take her power. If you take her power there''s a chance she could die causing this world to perish and so will the gateway. Why do you think I haven''t told you the truth? Because knowing you, you would try anyways even if it means dooming this world." Shiro. C narrowed her eyes as Lyrica couldn''t say anything.
After all, it was true.
"So why now? Why are you telling us everything now?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Because you''re here. There''s no stopping what you want to do. You can probably find out everything in due time so why dy the inevitable? It''s not like I''m staying around for much longer anyways." Shiro. C shrugged before sitting back down.
"You should meet the First Born of Creation. She will probably tell you more if her mind hasn''t copsed already. The battle between First Born''s has left quite the scar on her mind. She who loves life more than anything has resorted to creating monstrous amalgamations because she cannot stop destruction."
Waving her hand, a portal was opened for the party as Shiro. C sat down on the steps.
"Before you go, I must ask you one question. And it''s for your ears only." Shiro. C smiled while looking at Shiro. Opening her mouth, a message was transmitted to Shiro.
[Can you ept an eternity of loneliness?]
"Dwell on that question for me. And when you have your answer, you should know what you must do. This is all I can say without being stopped by the one who is watching."
Nodding her head, Shiro gave Shiro. C onest look before stepping through the portal with the rest of the party.
Once they left, Shiro. C leaned against the coffins and tried to take onest drink but her hand crumbled away.
"Shame... *****, You''re still watching aren''t you? Here''s my final words to you." Shiro. C smiled while remembering everything her friends had sacrificed.
"F*ck you, your end wille." She grinned before crumbling to ash.
"I hope so too." A faint figure muttered before disappearing.
Chapter 1238: First Born of Creation
Chapter 1238: ''First Born of Creation''
Walking through the portal, the party was assaulted by the winter winds that caused them to shiver. Even Lyrica could feel the cold while Shiro shrugged it off.
Looking around her, Shiro realised that they were on top of a tall mountain covered with a nket of snow. A surge of mana could be seen converging around the peak.
Making their way to the top, they could see countless tubes and wires connected to arge throne that was overlooking the world. The view from the mountain top was gorgeous if one ignored the horrors thaty below. The soothing nket of clouds moved softly in the horizon.
From this spot, one could see a distant thunderstorm surging around the god beast.
"Seems like she has died." A voice rang out as Shiro nodded her head.
Her expression was serious as she felt uneasy around the woman''s presence. Like something deep within was calling her to either step away or eliminate the source.
''She is the First Born of Creation, it''s only natural that I have an adverse reaction.'' Shiro thought to herself. Even with her bnced state, it was hard to withstand the natural repulsion due to their natures.
"I suppose I should take her to paradise." The woman muttered. Waving her hand, mana surged and Shiro widened her eyes.
She had interactions with souls so naturally she understood what was happening.
Flickering forward, Shiro grabbed the woman by the arm with a re.
"A soul should be left well alone. Especially if she had already done her part." Shiro warned.
Finally seeing the woman in full, Shiro was shocked as she looked exactly like Aria in facial structure with the difference being that she had long ck hair instead.
She could see that the tubes connected to the throne were then connected into her back as she turned her head towards Shiro lethargically.
"My my~ It''s been a while hasn''t it sister? Have youe to visit me?" ''Aria'' tilted her head with a sickening smile. Her eyes seemed unfocused as Shiro felt repulsed by her smile and let go of her arm.
"Oh? You''re not visiting me? Then you''re here for business then. What would you like to talk about with a fake like me?" Sheughed.
"Fake?"
"Oh? Are you a fake as well? You should know shouldn''t you? Or are you like the one that just died. A fake with no use." ''Aria'' asked as her smile slowly faded.
"No no, that shouldn''t be the case. I can smell destruction on you after all." Her voice whispered behind Shiro''s ear as she had suddenly appeared behind Shiro. Her arms wrapped around Shiro and reached down to her abdominal area.
"Right~¡ here¡" She muttered as her smile suddenly stopped.
"Wait¡ that''s not right."
Feeling her warnings trigger immediately, Shiro twisted her body and tried to grab the woman but she had disappeared once more and reappeared on her chair.
The interactionsted less than a second as Lyrica was about to summon her sword but Shiro shook her head.
"Why do you have creation inside you as well?" ''Aria'' asked with narrowed eyes.
"Guess I''m just special." Shiro replied as ''Aria'' nodded her head.
"That''s right, sister has always been special. Even in the eyes of mother Chaos. I guess you are real after all, and not like those fakes." ''Aria'' smiled happily.
"So what brings you here sister? You can ask me anything you know?"
"Anything? Then can you tell me about the gateway to the watchman''s locker?" Shiro asked as she had a bad feeling in her heart.
Shiro. C had warned that discussion was difficult with this ''Aria'' but it didn''t seem like the case so far. Was it because she was focused on the status of real and fake? She was unsure but the unease in her heart refused to fade.
"Of course! Anything for you sister~ But before that, even as a fake, I have feelings too¡ Why did you leave me in this state?" ''Aria'' asked as red tears started to well around her eyes.
"Here I am, unable to reawaken since I''m a fake. The real soul has been shredded to oblivion. Mother barely made a counterweight to offset your strength. And yet you are here once more¡" ''Aria'' cried as her emotional state started to be unstable. The creation energy around them red up once more.
ring at ''Aria'' Shiro stomped her foot down and surged her own mana, cancelling out ''Aria''s'' disy of power.
"You know the oue if we fight. I don''t want to doom this world if I can help it." Shiro warned as for the first time in a long while, her killing intent surged out without stopping.
Feeling as though the world had turned dark, ''Aria'' froze up and could feel sweat dripping from her back. She felt as though the moment she made a single movement, a sword would im her head.
Countless needle like pains stabbed at her body from all angles as her gaze focused on Shiro.
Meanwhile, Lyrica and the party could faintly feel Shiro''s killing intent even though they weren''t the target. While Lyrica has gotten used to it, the same couldn''t be said for the others.
Air was wrangled from their lungs in an instant as their knees buckled from the fear.
Not daring to make eye contact with Shiro, ''Aria'' stared down at the floor.
Suddenly, Shiro grabbed her chin and forced her to look.
"So tell me what I want to know and I won''t have to resort to killing you."
Sensing her death drawing near, panic filled her heart.
She couldn''t die, she didn''t want to die. If she died everything she worked for would end. Even if she''s a fake, she still wanted to fulfil her role as the First Born of Creation. She had to survive this.
Nodding her head while swallowing her saliva, ''Aria'' felt the killing intent disappear as though it was a hallucination.
Catching her breath, she bit her lip before opening her mouth with reluctance.
"The God Beast. It''s ced at the crossroads of realms to siphon the destruction energy. You''ll find the gateway there. It will siphon anything and everything with destruction energy so you should be careful about it." ''Aria'' warned as she regained her calm.
"I will open the gate once you arrive but you''ll have to fend off the God Beast so it doesn''t invade the other realm or else it''ll siphon the energy."
Nodding her head, Shiro was about to leave but stopped her steps. Since she was here, she might as well get all the answers that she wanted.
"Sorry if this is a little forceful. I can''t bring myself to listen to your words due to your appearance." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Appearing in front of ''Aria'' Shiro grabbed her by the head and activated Error. Circuits exploded out of her arms and dug into ''Aria''s'' body, scanning all of the codes within.
In her mind, a sequence of memories began to y as Shiro filtered the code for the information she wanted.
Countless sceneries flickered past her gaze, the peace, the happiness and the moments when the original First Born of Creation created life in the universe.
Then scenes of war appeared. The corpses of gods and higher beings alike. The destruction brought forth by the army of fallenmanded by the First Born of Destruction.
The unrelenting corruption shemanded with madness. Her eyes bloodshot while howling withughter. She had fallen because of her own powers. Driven mad.
Then the scene of death. Aria chained against her will, the source of her creation energy roaring out in defiance but torn out from her body little by little. Words could not describe the pain of having one''s source of being shredded to oblivion while the First Born of Destructionughed with insanity.
[None of this matters!] She dered with maddening glee. Her insanity sending shivers down Shiro''s back.
[It''s all a y! Nothing matters! Life is but a brilliant lie and we are the actors for her enjoyment! Let my final curtain call be the destruction of this chessboard!]
Shredding thest pieces of Aria''s power as the true First Born of Creation, she sent out a fusion of both energies and sent the world descending into a spiral of oblivion.
Then there was silence, the memories stopped as rebirth urred. The calming presence of Chaos giving life to another First Born of Creation. But her powers werecking. She could only make a fake counterweight for all the destruction that was caused. It was not a true solution.
As the final scene appeared, Shiro widened her eyes in shock. She couldn''t make out the details but it seemed as though the memories were being erased before she could view them.
Understanding that it must be the third party that Shiro. C mentioned, Shiro couldn''t help but click her tongue in annoyance before removing her hand from ''Aria''s'' head.
With the truth nowid bare, Shiro frowned.
There was no First Born of Creation anymore. The original First Born of Destruction had stolen her source of power to end this world after finding out the truth. The ''First Born of Creation'' in front of her was indeed a fake.
The only True First Born left was Destruction.
Chapter 1239: The God Beast
Chapter 1239: The God Beast
''To think that a True First Born of Creation can''t be awakened anymore¡ But that doesn''t exin Aria''s powers. Did she find a way to awaken?'' Shiro thought to herself with a frown.
Letting go of the Fake Aria, Shiro stared at her while she was trying to regain her breath.
"How much danger does the God Beast pose to other realms? Would it not be better to eliminate it?" Shiro asked curiously. If this being was indeed a fusion of every single God that was born in this world, then the chance of it breaching other realms was not a risk that Shiro was excited to take.
"Please¡ Let him be. I will make sure he doesn''t go to other realms. It''s the only thing that''s stopping this world from dying out." ''Aria'' begged as she bit her lips.
"..." Staring at her for a moment, Shiro sighed. Even though she looked like Aria, Shiro had to admit that she felt pity for her. The realisation that you were a fake all along and that you were only created as a counterweight. The despair in seeing your world copsing before your eyes.
"Fine." Shiro nodded. After all, she also knows that this God Beast was the reason why the flow of time was so different between the worlds. From ''Aria''s'' memories, the Beast acted as a break. If this world was the train, and the flow of time is the rails. The God Beast was slowing the descent towards the cliff.
If she was to forcefully remove it without ''Aria'' being prepared, the world will resume its destruction. While Shiro had reached a bnced state, the damage had been done and the best they could do was dy this world''s end until a solution could be found.
{I would''ve said that the solution was probably to win this game. But with the new knowledge, we''re not even sure if that''s true anymore.} Nimue sighed heavily as Shiro nodded.
She could see why Anima despaired at the truth of this world.
Even if they go back to the world of destruction, im sovereignty, what next? She doesn''t know about the truth that they had discovered, and she doubts she can find out anytime soon. With the third party watching her, the truth will not be discovered.
Scratching her head in frustration, Shiro looked towards the direction of the God Beast.
"Let''s just take it one step at a time."
Waving her hand, a portal appeared.
"We just need to move the God Beast out of the way right?" Shiro asked as ''Aria'' nodded her head.
Gesturing for Lyrica and the rest to follow her, Shiro teleported them to the airspace above the God Beast.
"Lyrica, can I ask you to move it aside? I''ll be preparing the Bifrost in the meantime. ''Aria'' said that she''ll open the path once the Beast is moved aside so I''ll stabilise the path with the Bifrost. That way we''ll have a safe path."
Nodding her head, Lyrica took a deep breath.
"Standard formation. Nitha, you and Asher stay back this time and provide ranged support. We don''t know how strong this thing is." Lyrica ordered as they both nodded their heads.
"I''ll provide you with some support as well. Hopefully I don''t need to be on the offensive since I might idently kill the God Beast." Shiro smiled.
Taking a deep breathe, Lyrica jumped down head first. Narrowing her eyes, mana surged around her as it formed a protective barrier.
Golden particles of light converged with Lyrica in the centre.
*BANG!!!
Crashing against the ground, a giant cloud of smoke covered their view but soon it was brushed aside, revealing Lyrica''s avatar.
Towering over the city, the avatar wore gold and white armour adorned with fluttering white silk. A golden crown could be seen above her head, created from a mass of swords. There were no facial features on the avatar except for a pair of glowing golden eyes.
Flowing pale green hair could be seen that matched Lyrica''s hairstyle but looked as though a gxy had formed within.
sping her hands together, a giant glowing wheel formed behind the avatar, revealing itself to be the wheel of samsara.
With the wheel fully formed, Lyrica separated her hand and conjured up two swords.
Sensing the danger posed by the avatar that had suddenly appeared, countless eyes snapped open from within the centre of the flesh like crystals. Arge bestial maw shot out in an attempt to consume Lyrica.
Dashing forward without care, Lyrica was about toe into contact with the maw when fire erupted from the ground and a ming dragon mmed the maw aside, paving a path for Lyrica.
"CADMI!" Lyrica shouted out as she threw both of her swords up into the air.
A giant tier 7 magic circle appeared above the swords which surprised Shiro somewhat. As they were Lyrica''s friends, she didn''t focus too much on their abilities. The fact that Cadmi could conjure a tier 7 magic circle meant that they were at the minimal, Demi God level.
Using Lyrica''s swords as anchors, Cadmi created a box with her fingers and aimed it at the God Beast.
"I''VE LOCKED ON!" She shouted out as Lyrica jumped up.
Suddenly, the skies parted to reveal giant golden towers. mming against the ground around the God Beast, chains shot out with spikes attacked on the end and dug deep into the flesh.
The sounds of snapping muscle fibres could be heard as the giant body of the God Beast was forcefully uprooted from the ground, revealing a spiralling chasm of energy that flooded into the world.
Understanding that it was now her turn, Shiro took a step forward. An explosion of creation and destruction energy surged out as Shiro''s core roared into action.
Thend rumbled in ordance to Shiro''s will as nanobots cleaved their way through the ground like an eldritch horror. Countless tendrils dug into the spiralling chasm as the energy of the Bifrost flooded in, ready to stabilise the pathway that ''Aria'' will create.
"The silence is running out!" Cadmi called out as she was obviously straining herself right now. Her skill when paired with Lyrica, allowed them topletely silence anything she had targeted. That meant the flow of mana would be halted for a short period rendering them unable to use any skills, spells or racial traits. It was something they developed to avoid high level beings from running away.
A pir of energy erupted from the chasm as a portal was opened.
Understanding that this was their chance to leave, Shiro waved her hand and locked onto the mana signals of everyone in the party.
Snapping her finger, she forcefully teleported them in front of the portal, causing Cadmi''s spell to lose the target.
The skies darkened in fear as the God Beasts'' body started to swell and convulse in an attempt to reshape itself.
''Aria will probably have a tough time restraining this beast if it transforms¡ Sigh I guess she''s been truthful with us so I should help her out a little as well.'' Shiro thought to herself as she gestured for Lyrica and the others to step through first.
Closing one of her eyes, she recalled the experiments she did with Aarim. When Aarim developed her ability to ''Save and Load'' it was mainly used for an item or a person. But with Shiro''s new understanding of codes as well as her new core, there was a chance that she could ''turn back time'' on the whole world.
It wasn''t a true rewind in the sense that what''s done is removed, but rather moving the past to the future, so that what happens in between bes null.
Scouring through the codes, she spotted the moment where the God Beast was still dormant.
Taking a deep breath, she controlled error and ''copied'' every single code in the area at that moment of time except for their actions. Feeling her mana levels dropping rapidly, Shiro moved the code to the present and rewrote reality.
Feeling her closed eye strain from scanning through everything, Shiro held her hand over the eye and applied healing magic while watching the world change in ordance to her power. Every skill, every action that the God Beast suffered/performed started to reverse one by one. Soon, it returned to its dormant state while Shiro jumped through the portal.
Closing the portal using the power of the Bifrost, Shiro took a deep breath and signed.
"Are you alright?" Lyrica asked with a frown since she could see that Shiro''s eye was injured.
"Yeah I''m fine. d to see that my new core lets me rewrite reality. The God Beast is dormant again and ''Aria'' should have an easier time stopping it from encroaching on other realms." Shiro smiled while ignoring the absurdity of her actions. After all, she changed the entire state of that area. While it wasn''t as crazy as turning back time for the entire world, it was slowly approaching that realm.
"Shall we go find your parents?" She asked with a smile while taking the lead through the pathway.
Chapter 1240: The Watchmans Locker
Chapter 1240: The Watchman''s Locker
Watching everything happen, a figure smiled in the distance. Her satisfaction only grew seeing Shiro manipte reality and turn back time. A longing could be seen in her eyes as her heart pumped with adrenaline.
Clutching her chest, she couldn''t remember how long it has been since she''s felt this excited.
"Is it finally time¡" She muttered.
Looking back at the mountain and towards the fake Aria, the figure smiled.
"She should be rewarded to spur her onwards. The destruction of this world shall be stopped. And I suppose I''ll let them meet who they want without much interference."
Waving her hand, a pulse of energy spread through the world as the wounds that the Destruction energy had caused started to heal slowly. Flicking her finger, the figure disappeared with tion in her heart.
###
Walking down the path, Shiro suddenly stopped and turned around. She didn''t know what happened but one of her sensors picked up a strange pulse of energy. The source couldn''t be determined but it seemed to spread throughout the world.
"Is something wrong?" Lyrica asked curiously as Shiro shook her head.
"No nothing''s wrong. But it seems like the world of creation is starting to heal. I don''t know if it''s the fake Aria or if there''s another third party involved in this." Shiro replied with a frown before focusing back on the path.
There was only one visible pathway which was strange. Even if ''Aria'' helped them by opening the gate, Shiro should be able to sense a pathway to the world of chaos considering the fact that ''Aria'' ced the God Beast above this gateway.
But there was nothing. There was only one path, one road that they could take and that was towards the Watchman''s locker.
As they were walking down the road, Lyrica jogged next to Shiro and whispered her question.
"Do you think it''s the third party? I know the other Shiro mentioned that she was watching and now there is only one path to the locker. I can''t help but think they''ve got a hand in this." Lyrica whispered as Shiro nodded her head.
"It''s the most likely exnation. Even when I came to this world using the Bifrost, I could still somewhat sense other pathways. But here, there''s only one route that we can take unless we want to go back to the world of creation." Shiro exined while conjuring up a holographic map. On the map, itpared her route using the Bifrost to the route they''re taking now.
The road she took before was akin to an ant''s nest. A myriad of pathways to different locations. But now, there was no divergence from the main road.
Furrowing her brows, Lyrica couldn''t help but feel ufortable with the invisible ''assistance'' that they were getting.
The fact that she was watching and could censor things out at will was concerning since they don''t even know who''s watching them.
Not to mention the fact that the third party probably knows they''re going to save her parents. Thinking about what could happen, Lyrica couldn''t help but bite her lip in anxiousness.
Feeling Shiro''s hand hold her own, Lyrica looked up in surprise.
"Don''t worry. It''ll be fine." Shiro reassured with a small smile.
Nodding her head, Lyrica could feel her anxiety calming down.
It didn''t take them long to reach the end. Even though they looked like they were ''walking'', they were in fact travelling as fast as they could.
At the end of the road, there was a single ''door'' that blurred everything on the other side. ncing at Lyrica, Shiro nodded her head before taking a step through.
Immediately, she was overwhelmed by the amount of mana present within his world. Her senses were flooded by a myriad of energies that she had attuned to. From the most basic of the elements to the energies of the soul.
Stumbling back, Shiro was about to fall when Lyrica caught her. Readjusting her senses for a moment, she thanked Lyrica before looking at the realm they were now in.
Widening her eyes, Shiro could only describe this ce as a prison.
Tall walls surrounded on all sides and stretched as far as the eye could see. The faint flickering of brazier mes was the only thing that provided light within this dark tower. No sun, moon or stars could be seen above.
Embedded within the walls were faint turquoise canisters that swirled with a hollowed blue as Shiro recognised that to be the soul of the captives.
Taking a single step forward, the sound echoed throughout the chamber as she turned her gaze towards the tform in the centre of the tower connected by several bridges that suspended it in the air.
She could faintly feel the pulse of life from above but it was weak.
Jumping up, even Shiro couldn''t help but be stunned at what she saw.
One of her most hated enemies, the one that took Isilia away from her, was now pinned against a throne. Large metallic stakes pierced through his limbs, stapling him against the seat. His tongue had been torn out and thrown against the table while blood leaked from his mouth.
The only sounds he could make were gurgles while struggling in futile attempts to pull out the stakes.
Even without Error, Shiro could sense that the stakes were slowly shredding his soul away.
Meanwhile, Lyrica couldn''t help but grit her teeth. After all her training, her vengeance was robbed from her. Her greatest foe nowid helpless against his throne, powerless to fight back.
Out of anger, Lyrica conjured up her de and decapitated him in an instant. Shredding thest remains of his soul while barring him from being reincarnated.
Patting Lyrica''s shoulder, Shiro watched as she sat down on the steps to reorganise her thoughts.
On the table, aside from the Watchman''s tongue, was a single note and two vials.
[A reward for your efforts. You''ve found out about my existence but don''t know who or what I am. I intend to keep it that way. I have torn out his tongue and stopped his healing so he cannot use his magics. Deal with him however you wish, it is my gift to you. In theing days I hope you meet my expectations. Rise up and seek out the truth with your own two eyes. In the vials contains the souls you wish to find. You will need to make new bodies for them, but it should be no issue for you. I await your arrival my dear Shiro. I sincerely hope you don''t disappoint me like the others.]
Reading the note, Shiro frowned and picked up the vials carefully.
"Shall we head back? I''ll need to make new bodies for your parents." Shiro asked as Lyrica nodded her head.
"What should we do with this ce?" She asked. Even though the Watchman was her enemy, she knew that this location held importance within the system. While it was faint, Lyrica could sense evil within some of the containment that should not be allowed to return to the cycle of life.
"I''ll make a new warden. He will take over the role and maintain this space I suppose."
Scanning the Watchman''s code, Shiro found the section that detailed his role within this great prison. Copying it, she couldn''t help but notice the previous identity.
''An administrator¡'' Shiro thought with a frown. He was stripped of his role and sent to this prison after breaking the rules himself. He tried to save someone he cherished, but the previous Watchman took her.
Banished from his role as administrator, he was given the job of the Watchman, repeating the actions he tried to prevent and dooming others to an eternity in the same location.
Sighing softly, Shiro created a robotic counterpart with a simr outfit. Instructing the new Warden on their role, she turned back to Lyrica.
"Hold onto these for now while I make the portal."
Handing over the vials that contained the souls of Isilia and Edvimar, Shiro brought out the Bifrost and prepared to open a way back.
The journey to the world of creation was not fraught with the danger she had expected. But instead she had found out about a third party that overlooks everything. She doesn''t know what expectations they had for her, nor does she think she''ll find out any time soon.
''At least I found Lyrica again and saved Isilia and Edvimar.'' Shiro thought to herself while opening the portal. Stepping through with Lyrica and the others, she could feel the familiar sensation of destruction mana once more as her core started to readjust itself so that she wasn''t overwhelmed.
Thinking back to how Lyrica had stayed in the world of creation for more than 70 years, she couldn''t help but wonder how much time had passed in the world of destruction.
Theoretically, it should only be a short moment for Nan Tian and the others.
However, when they arrived at the mage tower, they didn''t see Nan Tian or Aarim.
The tower seemed to be devoid of power, which was strange since Shiro made sure Asharia could function even if she wasn''t around.
Sending out her mana to survey the city, she realised what had transpired.
Chapter 1241: Alliance of Gods
Chapter 1241: Alliance of Gods
After sending out her mana to survey the city, Shiro understood that everybat mech had been sent out along with anyone who could fight. The only ones left were civilians who were hiding in the bunkers.
Meanwhile, the city itself has been ced in a pocket dimension for safety.
"This isn''t good. Seems like a fight broke out while I wasn''t here." Shiro furrowed her brows as she nced back at the party.
"I assume all of you are geared, yes? Or do you need some upgrades from Helion''s Forge?" She asked with a serious expression.
"Only I am. Compared to Helion''s items, they''re still rtively under geared." Lyrica replied with a frown. Seeing that Shiro had entered serious mode, she knew that this was no time to joke.
While she hasn''t been in Asharia in a long while, she could tell that the current state of the city should only be seen if there''s danger. If everyone else is not present, it means that they''re currently fighting.
"Alright. I''ll give you a guide that''ll take you to Helion''s forge. Take whatever you need. Once you''re ready the guide will take you to our location then you can help out. Lyrica, you follow me." Shiro ordered while snapping her fingers. Next to her, a small mote of light appeared and gestured for Asher and the others to follow it.
Once they were out of the room, Shiro opened the windows to the mage tower and nced out towards the city.
Swiping her hand, she brought out the system interface.
[System Error]
"What?" Shiro muttered out loud, unable to hide her surprise. While she understood what had transpired in the world of creation that caused the system to be frozen, the same shouldn''t have happened in this world.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro brought up the city logs to find out what had happened.
Without saying a word, Shiro jumped up and tore a hole in space before dashing through. Quickly following behind Shiro, Lyrica wanted to say something but stopped when she saw her expression.
The anger in her eyes and the pure rage that Shiro was exuding caused Lyrica to understand that wherever they''re flying towards, blood will spill.
###
"I hade with the understanding that the brat would be here. But seems like she must''ve ran with her tail tucked between her legs." A giantughed while scratching his chin.
"Shut up, be d she isn''t here for now and we can weaken her forces significantly." A woman snapped in annoyance while fending off Helion''s attacks.
mming her hand down, she sent out a wave of force that caused him to stumble back.
Catching him quickly, Madison dashed forward.
"Who the fuck do you think you''re touching." She growled in anger as demonic runes appeared around her. Disappearing from her location, she appeared behind the woman and tore off her right arm.
However, the arm quickly grew back before grabbing Madison by the throat and mming her against the ground.
"GAH!" Coughing out a mouthful of blood, Madison tried to tear the arm off her throat but it was resilient.
Scattered around the battlefield, the 7 Ancient Lords of Sin were currently regenerating at a slowed pace. Their bodies had been thoroughly destroyed and struggled to be pieced back together.
The rest of the party weren''t in a good state either. Nan Tian was currently clutching ribs that there was a hole in his torso while Silvia was trying her best to heal him.
If it wasn''t for the strange domain that they were dragged into, theirbat potential would not be decreased this much. Even with the help of Demi Gods, they were isted.
Surrounded and besieged by an alliance of God''s, they couldn''t contact Gaia or the others to seek help. They could only try to fend them off themselves.
The main forces of Asharia were fighting against the hordes of summons that the gods sent to destroy the city. They were guarding the border of the portal.
They had felt that something was wrong when thunderclouds suddenly appeared above the city and Nan Tian immediately had the city enter the pocket dimension for safety.
His hunch was correct since Zeus was the one spearheading the assault.
"Just you wait! When my mum arrives you''re dead!" Yin raged while she and Atesh tried their best to fend off against a ming behemoth but their attacks were being negated.
"Oh I wish she would arrive." Zeus grinned. They had managed to release the lock on their divinity in the mortal world thanks to the system going down.
They didn''t know who gave them the hint, but they were the first to find out the system had malfunctioned. And thanks to that, they couldunch the pre-emptive strike before Nyx and the others could react.
By the time they break through the barrier, the fight should be long over.
"Oi Poseidon, didn''t you say you wanted to kill this girl yourself?" The woman shouted over and Poseidon nced back and nodded his head. He was currently fighting against the duo of Li Jian and Koji, surprisingly they formed a good pair that could ward off his attacks.
However, they were beginning to tire out.
Jumping back, he traded opponents with the woman and stood above Madison.
"I told you, your head was mine." Poseidon narrowed his eyes as he stabbed his trident downwards.
However, contrary to what he had expected, he was now looking at the sky.
There was indeed a fountain of blood but it wasn''t Madison''s.
A chill filled his mind as he realised that it was his own head that was severed.
Without even saying anything, his vision was blurred. Thest thing he saw was a wave of circuits that flooded his mind.
[Poseidon has been in]
Standing above Madison, Shiro had crushed the head of Poseidon while ring at Zeus and the other gods in anger.
"I believe I warned you before." Shiro said coldly as her killing intent radiated out.
A deafening silence covered the battlefield as questions filled their minds.
How did Shiro enter the barrier that they had set out? Even the other gods couldn''t enter with their strength. Has she surpassed the realm of gods?
"Lyrica! I think you can handle all of them right?" Shiro asked while ncing up.
Nodding her head, Lyrica conjured up two swords. She was also mad that they attacked and caused Madison and the others to end up in this state.
"I''m going to have my fun with Zeus. You can deal with the others."
Appearing in front of Zeus, Shiro grabbed him by the head and kicked him in the chin, causing him to fly backwards, mming against the border of the barrier.
Before the other gods could back him up, Lyrica cut off their path to Shiro and stabbed her sword down.
A myriad of des erupted from the ground, each radiating a menacing energy that threatened to extinguish their souls.
"No one is allowed past this point." Lyrica dered coldly as she stared at the group of gods.
However, some of them were not convinced. Seeing that they were still trying to get past her, Lyrica narrowed her eyes.
"A demonstration is in order." Appearing above the gods who tried to run past her with brute force, she cleaved down with her de, causing the ground to rumble from the force. A spectral energy gathered in the skies before forming the tip of a sword and stabbed towards the god, splitting him in two.
Summoning the wheel of samsara, she grabbed his soul and tore out his essence before extinguishing it.
"Who''s next? You''ve lived long enough, I''m sure death doesn''t scare you." Lyrica narrowed her eyes as she turned her de towards the next victim.
Meanwhile, Zeus was trying to fight back against Shiro but waspletely overwhelmed. He was trying tounch a myriad of attacks but Shiro deflected them with a swing of her finger. A cyclone of Nanobots swirled around her, stopping the attacks and absorbing it as energy.
"Why isn''t the barrier working! You shouldn''t be able to use your spells!" Zeus shouted out as panic settled in his heart.
"Indeed. But it only blocks destruction. What about creation?" Shiro answered coldly as golden energy radiated from her body.
mming her hands together, chains erupted out from the ground, locking Zeus in ce.
"Time and time again you have tested my patience. It''s about time you step down from your throne."
Conjuring up a wave of circuits, Shiro imnted them in his body, causing him to scream out in pain. Finding the essence of his divinity, Shiro tore it out without hesitation as Zeus could feel his divine energy fading away rapidly.
His body crumbled into ash while Shiro snapped her finger. Ensnaring his soul with a chained cor, Shiro red at him coldly.
"You will spend an eternity reliving every pain, every punishment, every harm you have given to others."
With her spare hand, she created an intricate magic array that sped up his perception of time.
In the single instance it takes for him to enter, he will experience everything his victims experienced but with him as the victim instead. sping her hand together, Shiro watched as his mental crumble in a matter of mere moments, unable to withstand even half of the torture he had given to others.
Clicking her tongue in disdain, she erased himpletely before looking towards the skies.
"Aekari, have you watched enough?"
Chapter 1242: Aekari
"Aekari, have you watched enough?" Shiro called out coldly.
When she was about to open the barrier to help out Madison, she could sense a pair of eyes locking on to her. Now that she had attained bnce, her senses had been enhanced.
Even if they were to hide between the fabric of reality, she could sense them.
The familiar gaze and energy she could feel caused her blood to boil but she had to deal with Zeus first. Once she cleared that issue, she''ll deal with Aekari.
Now that Zeus was no longer an issue, her focus was on her old enemy.
"Your senses are just as impressive as ever." Aekari muttered while stepping through the cracks of space. Looking at Shiro with aplicated gaze, he wasn''t sure what to say to her.
Now that the restrictions have been lifted, it wasn''t hard for him to arrive in his original body. But therein lies the issue.
She could hurt him somehow when he wasn''t in his original body. Now that he was here, the odds of death were pretty much guaranteed. But he had to talk to her. He had to do this.
"Hah, it''s not hard to sense the gaze of a filthy backstabbing piece of sh*t." Shiro narrowed her eyes before dashing towards Aekari.
Unable to hold herself back, she conjured both Vinri and Iriel as both creation and destruction energy roared from deep within. Her new core pumping out an obscene amount of mana that seemed to overshadow everything.
Everyone who was still conscious could feel the mana on their skin. They didn''t even need to send out their senses.
Feeling death grip his neck, Aekari widened his eyes in shock. He didn''t think she would''ve gained a new form of energy, one that contradicted everything in this world.
Swiping his hand down, a cage of light appeared as he wanted to jump back into the portal. He wanted to fight in more favourable terms if he could.
"Where the f*ck do you think you''re going sh*t head!" Shiro shouted out as she activated Iriel''s second ability.
Effect 2: The enemy is locked in the same realm as you and they cannot escape by any means. No one can interfere (even First Born) as you will be locked in a 1 on 1 duel. You will siphon 20% of their stats during the duel.
Duration: 5 minutes
For the next 5 minutes, Aekari cannot leave. If he wanted to live, he had to survive the five minutes of a murderous Shiro.
Feeling the strength drain from his body, Aekari gritted his teeth. She could not be reasoned with.
"Stubborn like always!" He squeezed out while summoning his own de to try to counter Shiro''s attack. But the moment he parried, he felt like he was mmed in the face by an unstoppable force.
His body was mmed against the ground as his de was shattered upon impact.
Quickly jumping back on his feet, Aekari looked up and saw two des flying towards him.
Understanding that he could not parry these attacks, he could only try his best to deflect them.
Summoning a spear, he mmed the spearhead into the first sword before ducking and hitting the second sword with the pommel.
Feeling a tingle on the back of his neck, he quickly turned around and saw that Shiro was now behind him with the sword in hand.
''Sh*t!'' Cursing in his mind, Aekari snapped his finger and a mote of light appeared between them. Exploding in a blinding sh, he quickly teleported away from Shiro and tried to regain his breath.
He didn''t know what kind of power she had obtained, but he felt that even the smallest scratch from the white sword radiating the unfamiliar energy could spell trouble for him.
"When did you be so proficient in running. I recall you being quite the annoying motherf*cker when it came to chasing down people." Shiro taunted coldly as she connected both swords by the pommel with a single chain.
Spinning the des with one hand, nanobots converged in her other hand and formed a hand cannon.
Twisting her body, she increased the speed of the des beforeunching them at Aekari once more.
Aiming her hand cannon at the same time, she fired off several bullets, cutting off his escape route.
Widening his eyes at the barrage of bullets and the spinning de threatening to cleave him in half, Aekari gritted his teeth and activated one of his skills.
Stomping his foot down, a tier 8 mana circle erupted from beneath him as several golden barrier appeared in front of him.
This was one of his strongest defence skills that he could only use a few times per day. Even with Shiro''s strength, he should be able to block a few attacks.
However, before he could even finish his thoughts, he watched as the bullets shredded through the barrier like it was nothing.
"The f*ck?!" He shouted out in surprise. Before he could jump out of the way, the bullet was already in front of him. Gritting his teeth, he wanted to deflect the bullet when Shiro suddenly traded ces with the bullet.
*CRACK!
A sudden force collided with his jaw as he could feel his vision blur momentarily.
Grabbing the spinning des that she had thrown earlier, Shiro cleaved Vinri towards him with increased momentum.
Unable to dodge this, Aekari could only use up one of his life saving skills.
Watching the sword tear through his body, Shiro understood that this was probably a clone.
Standing still, she narrowed her eyes since Aekari had disappeared.
However, he was still in the area due to Iriel''s skill.
Closing her eyes, Shiro ced her hand against the floor as circuits exploded out and dug into the ground.
"Found you." Shiro muttered. Etching out several runes in the air in front of her, the skies darkened as several stars flickered with a shimmering light.
A tier 8 magic circle appeared in the sky as a barrage of astral light shot down towards Aekari.
Breaking out of his stealth, Aekari could only take a deep breath and focused his gaze.
If he wanted to talk with her, he could only do so if they manage to fight to a stand still. Even with his lingering wounds, this was no time to hold back.
sping his hands together, radiant energy erupted from him as he summoned forth his domain.
Since he could not leave this realm, he could only bring his domain out and merge it temporarily with reality so that he retains the bonus.
The toll of a bell could be heard asrge pirs pulled apart thend. Marble floor tiles and white archways could be seen as golden decorations surrounded the area. From statues of beautiful women to the white and gold pce, Aekari stood in the centre. His eyes now burning with radiant energy as golden wings appeared behind him. A golden barrier appeared around the holy city as it warded off the barrage of attacks.
"Finally mustered up the courage to fight now have you?" Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"Knowing you, only force will suffice." Aekari sighed as he swung his hands down.
In a single blink, swords filled the sky and shot towards Shiro with blistering speed.
"That''s more like it!" Shiro shouted out as she dashed forward. Twisting her body, each swing of her swords would destroy an iing attack as she jumped up.
An array of tier 8 magic circles appeared around her causing nanobots to swarm before forming two rail cannons.
*BANG!!!
Just the force of the shots caused thend to crack apart as a torrent of wind pushed everyone back who was still watching.
The border of Iriel''s skill shuddered as it was strained under Shiro''s attacks but stood strong.
mming her hand down while mid air, Shiro strained her new core as both creation and destruction energy gathered in the rail cannons.
Recognising the danger, Aekari activated his berserk skills to increase his defensive capabilities along with a life saving skill as back up.
With a single sh of light, his vision was blinded by the light of the rail cannons.
As though a nuclear bomb had been set off, a giant cloud of dust exploded upwards while destruction energy could be seen flickering from within.
Hovering in the air, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the domain that was now crumbling apart but Aekari was still alive. She had to admit that his tenacity had surprised her greatly as he was even more tenacious than Zeus who just panicked when brute force didn''t work.
He didn''t even force her to bring out her des while Aekari had survived a full five minute barrage.
Panting heavily, Aekari''s body was regenerating thanks to his life saving skills but he could feel some sort of corruption within his energy. He knew that it was probably Shiro''s doing but didn''t know how to dispel the corruption. None of his healing spells had worked on it thus far and he could only hope that she was willing to talk now.
But considering the killing intent that was still burning in her eyes, he knew it was far from over.
''I can only put my life on the line.'' He smiled bitterly.
Chapter 1243: Shiros Vengeance
"I don''t suppose you''re willing to hear me out and have a civil conversation?" Aekari asked while standing up.
"Civil? You think I will be civil with someone who killed me twice and made ves of people to act as your exp bags?" Shiro red as Aekari nodded his head in defeat.
"That''s true. I don''t think I would be civil with myself either." He sighed while dusting himself clean.
"Then can I talk to you as a parent? Seeing as how the phoenix called you mom, am I to believe you are a parent as well now."
"If you were anyone else, perhaps. But knowing you Aekari? You can go f*ck yourself." Shiro scoffed as she has had enough of this farce. Dashing forward, she wanted to savour the feeling of extinguishing his life little by little with her bare hands.
Seeing that Shiro was in no mood to converse even after beating him this hard, Aekari could only sigh.
Activating several berserk skills, light erupted around him as he could only force himself to try match her in pure stats.
*BANG!!!
mming his body against Shiro, Aekari narrowed his eyes as his form started to shift.
His body was now akin to floating pieces of armour connected by a gctic body, a myriad of stars burned with gold and blue mes while his hair was reced by the same fire.
Opening his mouth, Aekari started to chant in the oldnguage of their world as Shiro widened her eyes.
She recognised this skill, it was one of Aekari''s most powerful skills during his time as a hero. If the skill had undergone any upgrades, the devastation could be beyond imagination.
"So you finally chose to throw caution in the wind." Shiro muttered as she sent out a pulse of mana, forcing the two to separate before mming her hands down.
Taking a deep breath, a tier 9 magic array expanded out from beneath her, covering the entire battlefield.
Now that Aekari was no longer bound by Iriel''s skill, he could leave whenever he wanted. Thus her only option was to drag him into her own domain.
Her new core rumbled with the energy of both creation and destruction, causing the world to twist and tear, unable to fully handle her new powers.
Her divinity of destruction zing forth before being counteracted by creation.
Now that she was a being of bnce, her new domain will undergo changes to match her new power. Her divinity will also change but she had already made the necessary adjustments prior to this moment. She had already understood what kind of god she wanted to be.
Visualising the domain was simple and an image formed in her mind.
"Behold oblivion''s waking chorus. The call of nihility and the dawn of creation." Aekari proimed as the clouds split apart, revealing the dawning sky.
A crack spread across the skies before being torn apart by a pair of spectral hands, revealing the cold darkness of the endless space.
A deep rumble could be heard resembling the sound of a horn, calling forth the cmity of mankind. The signal of the end.
Mana rivalling the levels of Shiro prior to her new ascension exploded out from Aekari as he stabbed down with a greatsword. Three tier 8 magic circles erupted from the crack in the sky, stacking upon each other and threatening to upgrade to the next tier but failed.
From within the crack, gctic clouds could be seen, slowly moving before revealing itself to be a giant eye. Moving itself back, the mighty form of a dragon could be seen, its body crafted from densely packed stars and purple mes.
Appearing in front of the magic circles, Aekari''s form started to shift once more as a halo could be seen behind him.
Watching all of this happen, Madison couldn''t help but swallow her saliva in anxiousness since she didn''t think she could stand against a skill of that calibre even if she had the time to prepare.
Wanting to go help Shiro out with her buffs from the 72 demons, she was held back by Lyrica who had finished dispatching all of the gods.
"Trust in Shiro, she''s got this handled. If she was worried, she would''ve called for us." Lyrica reassured as Madison nodded her head.
Turning her head to where Shiro was, she noticed something strange. Despite the tier 9 magic circle, nothing was happening.
Narrowing his eyes, Aekari fired his skill as a torrent of stars shot out from the mouth of the dragon. The skies burned red with ominous omens as the meteor storm was about to reach Shiro.
"This has gone on long enough." Shiro muttered in a low voice as she slowly opened her eyes.
As though the seal on her mana had been lifted, an overbearing suppression of energy exploded out, causing everyone to hold their breaths from the pressure.
Snapping her finger, the world was suddenly greyed out before disappearing.
Without even being able to protest against its destruction, the dragon disappeared within a wave of darkness.
The cold grasps of death brushed against their mind as cold sweat dripped down their backs.
Everyone within the range was now floating in the dark unknown. They could not see which way was up nor could they see which was down. Their perception shifted between first and third person, the rules of reality bending with every fleeting second.
They could open their mouths but no sound could be heard.
In this realm of nothingness, there was only one sensation. The impending sense of death.
Feeling a pair of eyes staring at him, Aekari quickly turned around and saw what was behind him. A looming figure whose body was made from ck crystal that seemed to hold every universe within, streaking long white hair with faded edges that seemed to disappear into the world around them.
While the only features he could see were the white eyes and eyshes, he could tell it was Shiro.
Behind her, he could see a ck hold crafted from a mix of creation and destruction energy. An orb of darkness surrounded by the swirling ribbon''s energy, separating this realm in two halves. One with the soothing energy and life-force of creation, the other with the cold brutal de of destruction.
In this moment, Aekari knew. Even if he was to use everything, burn his lifeforce to the limit and sacrifice everything he had, he could neverpete.
In the face of unyielding force, there was only one thing he could do and that was to prostrate himself in hopes of being allowed to speak.
Meanwhile, Nan Tian, Madison, Lyrica and everyone else finally got a full glimpse at Shiro''s new found powers and understood she had now surpassed the realm of mortals. Even the gods could notpare now. In front of her, the gods may as well be ants.
Before they could notice the world shifting, they were returned to reality as Shiro now stood in front of Aekari who had nted his head against the ground.
Her form still resembled what she looked like within the domain but the edges of the ck crystal slowly broke apart, revealing her standard look.
"What the f*ck are you doing." Shiro said coldly as rage burned in her eyes. She wanted him to fight, fight until the bitter end just like she did. She wanted him to fight and understand that death was inevitable while oblivion gripped at his soul.
But it was cut short as he bowed down and surrendered.
She could only feel her anger rising without stop.
"Get up." She demanded coldly.
"I will surrender my life to you. You can do with it as you wish. But please, listen to what I have to say." Aekari begged as Shiro summoned her sword andshed out in annoyance.
Shredding his right arm into pieces, Shiro watched as he refused to get up.
Gritting her teeth, she grabbed him by the scruff of his cor and lifted him up, ring into his eyes to see some semnce of defiance. For even the smallest sign of the will to fight back. But there was nothing, only defeat and resignation.
"Pathetic." Shiro spat while throwing him against the ground.
"I have crawled back from the depths of hell, fought against despairing odds and ughtered my way up so I can grant you the despair of death. But here you are, prostrating against your enemy!?" Shiro shouted while kicking him in the face, causing him to tumble back.
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Aekari could feel his vision blurring from the pain but continued to prostrate towards her.
"Please, just listen to what I have to say." Aekari begged once more as Shiro stabbed her de into his leg. Corruption spread throughout his body but he did not move.
Standing in front of him. Shiro could feel her anger reach new heights but with no outlet.
"ARGGG!" Shouting out with rage, Shiro swung her sword to the side, cleaving apart a deep chasm where the bottom couldn''t be seen.
Seeing that there was still no reaction from Aekari, Shiro kicked him in the jaw, causing him to fall back before mming her heel into his chest.
"Speak yourst words." Shiro squeezed out reluctantly as her foot threatened to crush his throat.
Chapter 1244: Aekaris Request
Taking a moment to catch his breath, Aekari felt grateful that Shiro was willing to hear him out.
"My daughter¡ I know you had some interactions with her and that she tried to take your adopted daughter''s body. Due to the nature of some of the dungeons, the one you entered was one that could alter the course of reality. It changed the history in which she seeded in obtaining apatible body. Her soul''sposition is unique and requires a verypatible body or else it''ll degrade and disappear¡ I want you to save her, please." Aekari sighed as Shiro narrowed her eyes and put pressure on her foot.
"You realise that I don''t owe any of you anything. I would dly end your daughter''s life as well as your own. So in what universe did you think I would ept your request?" She asked with a frown. After all, she still had a vendetta against Aekari''s daughter and knowing how Aekari is like, she wouldn''t be surprised if the girl turned around and attacked them.
"I know. I don''t deserve your pity and neither does my daughter because I raised her wrong. And I understand that if the roles had been reversed, I most likely wouldn''t have listened either and would''ve cleaned up the loose ends." Aekari admitted while biting his lip.
If he had Shiro pinned beneath his foot and she begged for Lisandra''s life, he wouldn''t ept and would kill both of them so one couldn''t take revenge.
"But as a father, I have to try even if it''s unlikely. She is my flesh and blood and I would even give up the world for her safety." Aekari red back as Shiro was silent.
The old ''Aekari'' would forsake his family and friends for the world. As he has done many times. But he is a father now. He would forsake the world for his family.
"What about your mission? What about your goal of stopping me from bringing about the end." Shiro narrowed her eyes.
"If your envisioned future is one where no life can prosper, there''s nothing I can do anyways. But knowing you and how you are from the times we have spent together, that''s not what you wish for. Especially now that you have a family you never had, and close friends that won''t betray you like I did. So I can trust that you won''t bring about the end. You are my worst enemy, as I am to you. But you are the one I trust the most with my daughter''s life." Aekari replied with resolve in his eyes.
"What are you willing to give up for your daughter''s life?"
"Everything." Aekari stated as a matter of fact. There was no hesitation in his voice. Only one goal in his mind and that''s for his daughter to survive.
"And if after all that you''ve said, I still say no. What would you do about that." Shiro taunted as she slowly increased the pressure of her foot against his throat.
"I¡ Would¡ Fight¡ You to the¡ Bitter end for a chance." Aekari squeezed out with difficulty as he grabbed her ankles in an attempt to lift her foot off his neck.
"Bold words for a pathetic worm who prostrated against his biggest enemy." Shiro clicked her tongue as she lifted her foot slightly before stomping back down in an attempt to crush his head.
"A parent can stoop to any level for their child!" Aekari shouted back as the bacsh of his stills faded just enough for him to move once more. Flickering out of the way, he stumbled back on his foot and summoned a weapon.
"So tell me Shiro. Will you help my daughter?" He asked while pointing his de at her.
"What daughter? Oh you mean this one?" Shiro''s lips curled into a sadistic grin as there was a capsule in her hands. Simr to the one that held Isilia''s soul, she had created a container while interrogating him and used Error to find out where he kept his daughter''s soul. Lifting her foot up was just a distraction for him to turn his attention away while she stole the soul.
Widening his eyes in disbelief and shock, Aekari realised that his daughter''s soul was no longer hidden in a separate domain, recuperating. It was now in Shiro''s hands and she could crush it whenever she wanted.
"Let go of her!" Aekari shouted out while dashing towards her, his eyes bloodshot from panic and fury.
"That''s more like it! Fight for it! Despair for it!" Shiroughed out as she tossed the capsule into the air before mming her heel against his chest.
Grabbing firmly into her foot, Aekari understood that he couldn''t damage her body to the point he could cut off her leg. So there was only one choice.
Dismissing his defences, he jammed her foot through his chest, causing Shiro to lose bnce momentarily. With Shiro off bnce, he stepped back to pull the leg out of his chest before jumping up to catch the capsule.
With the capsule now in his hands, he sighed in relief and tried to send it away to safety but realised that the space had been sealed off.
*BANG!!!
A sudden wave of force collided with his head as his body was sent tumbling towards the ground.
Protecting the capsule with his body, Aekari managed to activate some barrier spells just before he hit the ground.
Laying on the floor, Aekari watched as Shiro walked towards him. Her expression couldn''t be seen properly through his blurred vision but he could tell she was far from happy.
He tried to heal the hole in his chest but the regeneration was slow as blood continued to pour out.
"What now? You got the capsule, but there''s a hole in your chest. What''s stopping me from just taking it and destroying her soul permanently?" Shiro asked with disdain as Aekari opened his mouth but choked on his own blood.
Forcing himself to barely sit up, Aekari leaned his body against some debris and activated some berserk skills. His aura started to turn red as he tapped into his own life force.
Each breath was taken with difficulty as Aekari could barely hold the capsule properly. Looking at the swirling energy that was his daughter''s soul, his lips curled up into a soft smile that Shiro had never seen him do when they were back in their old world.
He could feel his ending, his core had already been damaged by their first fight and hadn''t been able to recover properly since. And now there''s a strange energy tearing away at his body that he was unable to stop. It was only a matter of time before he disappeared from this world.
Tilting his head back, Aekari looked at Shiro and opened his mouth.
"I trust you Nytri¡" He muttered softly before burning every ounce of strength he had to preserve his daughter''s soul so that it didn''t continue to degrade. It was a temporary measure as the soul would continue to disappear after a period of time. If it was anyone else, he would die with worry on his mind. But because it was Shiro, he decided to take a gamble.
He would gamble thest remaining specks of his vitality to prolong his daughter''s soul, long enough for Shiro toe to a decision on what she should do with it.
Looking down at Aekari lifeless body slumped against the wall with thest vestiges of his power funnelling into the capsule, Shiro didn''t know what to say. She could only stand there with aplicated expression.
She hated him. He was the most pathetic piece of sh*t that she had ever known, someone who she would dly torture and kill him a million times over and nothing would change her thoughts.
He was someone who couldn''t care less about other people and saw them as objects.
While Shiro continued to stare at Aekari''s dead body, she waved her hand and summoned Nimue out from the mana realm.
"Take everyone back to Asharia and help the injured. I will catch up shortly." She said without turning around.
Understanding that Shiro needed some time to sort out her thoughts, Nimue nodded and left the area.
Shiro didn''t know how long she stood in the same spot, she wasn''t even thinking about the soul in the capsule, she just continued to stare at Aekari''s body before taking a deep sigh.
"Lived as a shit man, died as a father¡" Shiro muttered.
Leaning down, she picked up the soul capsule. It was delicate, the energy that Aekari burned in hisst moments couldn''t even protect the capsule if someone wanted to crush it.
If she decided to put even the smallest amount of force in her hands right now, she would extinguish the soul within.
Gritting her teeth, she looked back at Aekari. She understood that he said everything he said in order to sway her. To call out to her merciful side. While there was no mercy for him, he knew she had mercy for others. And he gambled that she had mercy for his daughter.
"Died as a father but still a piece of shit to the end. What do you mean you trust me." Shiro spat out in annoyance. But despite her harsh words, she didn''t crush the capsule.
Chapter 1245: Karin
Looking at the capsule in her hands, Shiro sighed out heavily before making up her mind.
She''ll do Aekari the favour of saving his daughter. However, she will only live as a normal person. The body will not be able to gain strength, she will not remember anything and she''ll live as a citizen within Asharia.
A second chance.
If she somehow remembers or decides to stand against her, Shiro will no longer show any mercy.
Closing one of her eyes, she activated Error and manipted the codes. Opening the capsule, she watched as the soul slowly floated out and formed into the shape of a woman hugging her knees, oblivious to what had just happened.
The fact that her father put everything on the line so that she could get a second chance.
Creating a body for her wasn''t hard as she had done so many times before. In fact it was even easier now due to her new core. Giving the soul a ''fresh state'', Shiro snapped her finger and created a new-born''s body.
A quick nce of the code told her everything she needed to know about the issue regardingpatibility with the body. Since she was Aria''s child, her soul has gained the effects of creation while she was in the world of destruction. Only a unique instance like Lisandra could host her soul.
''The new body will be a bnce of creation and destruction so there will be no rejection from the soul.'' Shiro thought to herself.
Imbuing the body with the soul, she watched as the soul was able to merge perfectly with the new body as she had expected.
Thinking to herself for a brief moment, Shiro ced a tag on the baby clothes she had made for the child.
"Since I''m giving you a fresh start, you will gain a new name. Your new name shall be Karin taken partly from your father''s name. I hope you don''t squander the mercy I''m showing you." Shiro sighed before opening a portal to Asharia.
She will send Karin to an orphanage that she had set up within Asharia in hopes that a kind family will take her in.
Stepping through the portal, Shiro arrived at her destination and ced Karin in an empty basket before setting her down in front of the orphanage. The owner of the orphanage should be returning soon so it wouldn''t take long for her to be found.
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided it was probably best to leave her a keepsake of her father.
She remembers that back in their old world, Aekari treasured a locket from his family. Making the same locket from her memory, Shiro etched the words Karin on the back and ced it in the same basket.
Before Karin could wake up and see her, Shiro disappeared from the area and hovered in the air, invisible to even the senses of her party.
She waited patiently for the orphanage owner to return so that she made sure Karin was found before leaving the area.
As expected, it didn''t take long since she had already told Nimue to inform the others. Once Karin had been taken inside, Shiro walked away since it was no longer her business.
ncing up at the sky, she couldn''t help but sigh.
''Aekari should''ve been able to put up more of a fight¡ But my new core and domain overwhelmed him so he decided to give up and gamble for his daughter''s life.'' Shiro thought to herself as she had grown to the point where her nemesis was an ant in front of her. Unable to retaliate and could only beg.
In search of strength, she didn''t think about the loneliness that came with it. When you''re strong to the point that even your worst enemy could no longer pose a threat.
It was no exaggeration to say that she could now do whatever they want in this world. In the world of destruction, nothing could go against her.
The only one who''s stronger, that she knows of, is the unknown third party that''s watching her every move.
Even back in their own world, when Shiro was the strongest, she didn''t feel loneliness like this. After all, there were still gods that were stronger than her.
"Even gods are but children in front of me. A single swing of my hands is all it takes to dispatch them." Shiroughed. Herugh was hollow andcked the joy she experienced in fighting long ago.
''I guess I should hold back a little¡ Or should I keep getting stronger?'' She thought to herself. She would rather be strong enough to face the third party when they appear, but at the rate that things were going, there was a chance that it might be a repeat of what happened to Aekari.
After the third party falls, who''s next? When is enough, enough? Her obsession with chasing strength now cursed her. Shaking her head, Shiro tried her best to ignore this feeling for now. After all, it''s just disappointment from having killed Aekari without a proper fight.
"There''s still the matter of making Isilia and Edvimar a body¡ The other gods should recognise my strength and surrender. This war is as good as won I suppose." Shiro muttered.
If she remembers correctly, the third party told her to rise up and seek out the truth. She assumes it''s probably to face off against Aria and find out the truth behind the system. And once she does, she should be able to find the third party.
Thinking about this, Shiro wondered how she should approach this. If she wants to find Aria, it should be rather simple if she is still within the realm of destruction. If not, she''ll have to talk to Juri and borrow the beyond with the help of the bifrost. With the twobined, she''ll be able to travel wherever she wanted.
''Though I still owe Juri a favour since she helped Lyrica.''
Shaking her head, she''ll set the thoughts aside for now since she still needed to talk with the rest of the party.
Teleporting back to the main tower, she could see that everyone had gathered. They had just finished with treating the wounded and are now just talking amongst themselves. Lyrica was recounting her adventures while Yin and Nitha seemed to have run off to the cafeteria for an eating contest.
"Shiro!" Madison called out as she noticed Shiro appearing in the corridors.
"Have you finished dealing with Aekari''s daughter?" Nimue asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yes I have. Setting that matter aside, I don''t think we''ll be in any danger of the gods attacking us anytime soon however, aside from me and Lyrica, all of you struggle against the gods. Granted, there was a barrier suppressing your powers but all of you need to hold your own even when I''m gone elsewhere. So we''ll be having arge training holiday where I''ll be teaching you how to use creation energy. While you won''t be able to use it like I do it''ll give you a big boost in power." Shiro smiled as Aarim dropped her mana stick.
"I don''t think Training and Holiday should be said together." She forced out a smile as Shiro shrugged.
"Well, you''re taking a break from fighting and training your strength. So training holiday. Anyhow, I don''t know what caused the system failures and the gods to be able to arrive in their main body, but I have a few thoughts in mind. Have any of you been able to contact the gods we''re allies with? Or has the barrier blocked everything for now." Shiro asked curiously.
"Not yet. I''m trying to contact some of them but they haven''t responded. I''m assuming they might be having trouble on their end as well. After all, this was far from the army that Nyx described. We can safely assume that the others have been dispatched elsewhere." Nan Tian shook his head.
There was a sinking feeling in his heart that Nyx, Gaia and the other gods have all been ambushed in a simr manner. However, they should have an easier timepared to them due to their power.
"Hmm¡ That''s fair. I will see if any of our allies have manifested on Earth yet. Once I finish scanning this world I''ll see if I can bridge a gap between realms. Take this time to rest. With Zeus, Aekari and others dead, even if they sent gods elsewhere they should be retreating and regrouping their forces." Shiro ordered as they were in no shape to fight. Most of their skills are on cooldown with bacshes still happening within their body. If they needed to fight, Lyrica was more than enough.
Plus, they still had her.
After talking for a little longer, the group went back to their living quarters to recuperate while Shiro stayed behind with Lyrica to figure out what to do with Isilia and Edvimar.
Just before Nan Tian could leave, Shiro called out to him so that it was only the three of them left in the room.
Chapter 1246: Recreating Isilias Body
"Mn? Yes?" Nan Tian raised an eyebrow, wondering if there was anything he missed.
Fidgeting with her fingers for a moment, Shiro cleared her throat.
"So I don''t know how to say this easily¡ I know you''ve had feelings for me for a while now. And while I was in the world of creation, Lyrica confessed." Shiro bit her lip and decided to not beat around the bush.
It was better for her to tell him now than wait.
"And I said yes. It''s not that I disli-"
Before she could say more, she felt his hand on her head.
"If you said yes to her, then that''s all I need to know." Nan Tian smiled softly.
"While I did hold feelings, my main goal was always to make sure you were safe, to repay you for everything you did for me when I was young." He reassured.
"If you find happiness with Lyrica, then I am more than happy to support you like always. There''s no need to exin. Plus I trust that Lyrica will treat you well." Nan Tian chuckled as Lyrica nodded her head with a pat to her chest as though she was saying ''Of course I will!''.
"So there''s no need for you to exin."
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head.
"Is there anything else I should know?" He asked curiously but Shiro shook her head.
"We did find out about an interesting piece of information but I think I''ll let everyone have a rest first before I disclose it."
Shiro didn''t want to tell them about the mysterious third party just yet. Once they get a little stronger, she''ll let them know along with her ns on trying to find Aria.
"Alright. I''ll sort out some dates for the potential training holiday in the meantime." Nan Tian smiled as he turned around and walked out the room.
Once the door closed behind him, he could only let out a bitter smile before shaking his head.
###
Once Nan Tian left, Shiro and Lyrica made their way to thebs with Isilia and Edvimar''s soul capsules.
Compared to making Karin''s body, Shiro wanted them to have something as close to their original bodies as possible along with further enhancements. Something simr to her own body since it was indistinguishable from flesh.
"When do you want to tell the others?" Lyrica asked while watching Shiro design her parent''s new bodies.
"Tell them about what?" Shiro raised an eyebrow without turning around. She wasn''t sure if Lyrica meant the third party or something else.
"Well about us. We told Nan Tian first which makes sense. So I''m just wondering when we should tell the others." Lyrica replied as a small blush crept up on her face since she felt a little embarrassed telling others. While also being happy deep inside.
"Hmm¡ We can probably tell them tomorrow once I finish making your parent''s bodies."
Flicking her finger, she cleared up a part of the room and created two surgery tables to ce the bodies.
"And after that I suppose I''ll have to talk with Isilia regarding us as well." Shiro muttered, knowing it was going to be an awkward talk. While Isilia has voiced her support before, it still doesn''t make it any less weird considering they were like sisters and now Shiro''s dating Isilia''s daughter.
"That''s true¡ Lyrica nodded while she kicked her feet back and forth. She was currently sitting on the table on the side while looking out the window at Asharia.
Waving her hand, Shiro extracted some creation energy and ced it within the new bodies, they had miniature versions of Shiro''s new core but adjusted so that Isilia and Edvimar could handle it with their souls.
It was still mainly destruction energy within, but the new source of creation energy will serve as protection.
"I think that should be everything¡ Their bodies are now stronger than before and can function as normal. They should be able to gain exp and level up as normal if the system wasn''t malfunctioning. All that''s left now is their souls."
Bringing out the capsules, Shiro handled it with care as she slowly extracted their souls.
Making sure that any damage they had sustained was healed up without issue, she inserted their souls into the new vessel.
Silence ensued as Shiro bit her lips nervously. Even though she was sure she had everything set up properly, this was still her best friend''s life at stake.
"Hng¡"
Hearing a soft groan, Shiro sighed in relief as Isilia slowly opened her eyes before shielding them from the light.
"What happened¡?" She asked in confusion as thest thing she could remember is being taken away by the watchman.
"You missed a lot of things. But there''s no rush. How are you feeling?"
Shiro wanted to know how Isilia felt about her new body. If there was any difort, she''d fix it.
"I''m feeling a little tired. But aside from that I feel weird since there''s a strange energy inside me." Isilia furrowed her brows as this was very different from her old body.
Hearing this, Shiro sighed in relief since this was rather standard. Isilia will get used to the new body soon enough.
Turning her head, Isilia could see the anxious Lyrica wanting to hug her but stopping herself since Isilia had just woken up.
Seeing this, Isilia smiled softly and gestured for Lyrica toe over.
Before Lyrica could say anything, Isilia hugged her daughter tightly.
Shiro decided to excuse herself for a moment so that the three of them could enjoy this reunion. Stepping out of the room, she closed her eyes and resynced herself with all of the satellites that she had sent into orbit.
Seeing that a majority of them had been damaged or broken, Shiro couldn''t help but furrow her brows.
However, fixing the satellites was rather easy. Since they''re made from nanobots, Shiro could easily ess the mana once more.
Tapping her fingers against the railings, all of the satellites roared to life as their damaged parts started to repair themselves.
It only took a moment for all of the satellites toe back to life as she now had a full scan of the.
''Ohya?'' Noticing that Hades seemed to have made his own domain rather far out, Shiro could see some hints of Nyx and Gaia influence elsewhere as well. However all of their domains are rather undeveloped so far. A strange barrier, simr to the one she had to break through, were also present.
''There''s a few queens that seem to be observing the situation but not doing anything to join the fights¡ though that makes sense considering the enemies are gods.''
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro decided to snap her fingers. Rail cannons formed on every single satellite as she aimed for the barriers. She won''t help out more than necessary since she was sure that Hades and the others could handle themselves in a fight.
She just needed to get rid of the barrier that was holding them back.
Watching the myriad of tier 9 magic circles forming on every satellite, Shiro couldn''t help but chuckle since this would''ve been an unimaginable feat for her.
Even 100 Shiro''s wouldn''t be able to defeat her in her current state.
Ignoring technique execution as well asbat senses, she could simply overwhelm the enemy with pure brute force. That''s how strong the new core made her.
She had an idea on why this was the case. After all, as the First Born of Destruction, she had the strongest source of Destruction energy in the world after Chaos. To bnce this and to make the new core, she needed an equal amount of Creation energy.
Now that she had both, she was most likely on par or just below Chaos.
With all of the rail cannons charged and ready, Shiro flicked her finger, firing all of them simultaneously.
###
Healing everyone with her spells, Gaia furrowed her brows as the onught wasn''t stopping. She didn''t know why but a majority of her high tier spells seemed to have been sealed. She wasn''t here in her true form either since she was in the middle of constructing her domain.
However, the gods that were attacking her weren''t restrained by this. They had descended with all of their power and more thanks to this strange barrier, and she couldn''t even call for help.
"Guess this is the end." Gaia sighed as her mana was running out. This was as much as she could do, all that''s left was to watch her domain get destroyed.
But before she could embrace despair, she sensed an overwhelming source of energy descending from above.
*CRACK BANG!!!!
Unable to hold back this energy for even a second, the barrier shattered apart as a pir of light crashed down, killing a god that was unfortunate enough to be beneath the source.
Feeling her divinity returning, Gaia recognised the familiar energy within the light.
"Seems like Shiro''s back." Gaia grinned happily as a new source of energy filled her body.
Despite the system malfunction, a panel appeared in front of her.
[You''re wee for the buff and help.]
[- Shiro]
Seeing the thumbs up emote of Shiro next to her sighed name, Gaia couldn''t help butugh.
"Well if Shiro''s helping out, I can lose here." She narrowed her eyes as her energy surged to new heights.
Chapter 1247: Talking With Isilia
Feeling an unfamiliar source of energy within her body, Gaia wanted to test it out as soon as possible. Plus, it was a gift from Shiro so it was only natural that it''ll be something beyond normal logic.
Tapping into the new source of power, she could feel it resonate with her own divinity.
mming her hand down, a tier 9 magic circle appeared beneath her as vines erupted out, changing thendscape into a forest of hermand.
Her eyes lit up in excitement as she noticed that the vines had been fused with nanobots.
"Shiro! Do you have any blueprints for me to use?!" Gaia shouted out as her heart pounded with adrenaline.
While she couldn''t create blueprints in her mind like Shiro could and make the most out of the nanobots, if Shiro was to create a blueprint for her, then there would be no issues.
Naturally, Shiro heard Gaia''s request and couldn''t help but chuckle. Since she did promise a mech before, this is the time for her to respond in kind.
Waving her fingers, the nanobots around Gaia started to converge towards her position as robotic parts started to form around her.
Armour ting coloured a lush green and white appeared as Gaia''s Mech slowly revealed itself.
With Gaia now in the cockpit, she could see a tiny hologram of Shiro on the desk.
"Sup. I''ll be guiding you through the mech controls. I have simplified them for you so that you can enjoy yourself fully. To your left you can see all of the features, to your right you can see your weapons. I have linked your sensory to the mech so that it essentially feels like you''re fighting out there." The hologram Shiro exined with a smile.
"Now enjoy yourself to the fullest. In this domain, the mech will have unlimited regeneration due to your own divinity and mine so don''t worry about the damage."
Hearing the encouragement, Gaia narrowed her eyes with a menacing grin.
ncing over at the weapons, she summoned a pair of metallic vine whips.
"Come here mother*ckers! You had some fun earlier eh?! Now it''s my turn!" Gaia shouted out in glee as she piloted the mech with surprising proficiency. Even if Shiro did simplify the controls for her, this degree of control was impossible unless she had been studying up the controls in her spare time.
Seeing that Gaia was now enjoying herself, Shiro turned her attention to Hades and the others. With her mother by Hades'' side, Shiro had made sure their enemies got what they deserved for messing with her mother.
The domain that they received was one that bolstered them with stats akin to triple berserker skill activations while the enemies received every single debuff she could provide along with infinite regeneration that could be controlled by Hades. That way, they could prolong their suffering.
"Seems like you''re having fun." Isilia''s voice rang out as Shiro turned her attention towards her.
"Well¡ to a certain degree. Just watching everyone enjoy the buffs I''m sending their way." Shiro chuckled.
"I take it that you''ve caught up to date with what happened from Lyrica?"
"Mnm I did. I have to say, I''m rather surprised. The world of creation, your new core, mysterious third party¡ Seems like things are going out of control now." Isiliaughed.
"Just a little. None of the gods can touch me now and the one who can match me, The First Born of Creation, is just a hollowed shell. My predecessor already made sure that another First Born of Creation will not be born. Even if Aria is a shard of her just like how I''m a shard of Destruction. Only exception being that I''m essentially the True First Born of Destruction." Shiro shrugged.
"Must be rough. You have to keep getting stronger but there''s no one to push you forward." Isilia muttered while leaning against the wall next to Shiro.
"Without adversity, it''s hard for people to get stronger even if they train. They can''t tell if what they''re doing is truly enough."
Hearing this, Shiro couldn''t help but nod her head.
"So what did you do with Aekari''s daughter? I heard from Lyrica that Nimue mentioned you were fighting Aekari and that he was begging for his daughter''s life." Isilia asked curiously.
"What do you think I should''ve done? Should I have killed her as well to show him despair, or should I have saved her?"
Shiro wanted to hear what Isilia thought about the situation since she also had a vendetta against Aekari. Not to mention all the horrible things he subjected to his victims.
"Well¡ It''s hard to say. I hate Aekari, but I understand his thoughts as a parent." Isilia sighed after a long pause.
"If Aekari was about to kill me, and Lyrica was in the same situation as his daughter, I would also beg for her life. Though I wouldn''t trust him like he did with you since I know he isn''t a good person. He would definitely tie up loose ends. Whereas Shiro, you would most likely show mercy." Isilia smiled while looking at Shiro.
"Am I that predictable?" Shiro let out a bitter smile.
"Just a tad. But it''s not a bad trait so don''t worry about it. Naturally, it''s not like you give second chances to everyone and anyone. If people cross you, you take them out." Isilia shrugged. She didn''t know the correct answer to whether or not Shiro should''ve spared the daughter. But knowing what Shiro was like, Aekari took advantage of her good nature.
"I decided to let her live in the city. Her memory has been wiped and she is unable to gain power. She doesn''t know that her life was saved due to her father nor does she know about the life she had before. But she''s alive, and if Aekari was truly a father at the end of his life, he would wish the same I presume."
"That''s true¡ Now speaking of daughters, I happen to hear that you and Lyrica are together now."
Hearing this, Shiro froze up as she slowly nced towards Isilia''s face and saw a mischievous grin.
"I suppose I should call you daughter inw?" Isiliaughed as Shiro punched her lightly on the arm.
"Oh shut it. Honestly I thought you''d be more against the idea." Shiro rolled her eyes.
"Ha? What made you think that? I just find it funny that I''ve basically be your elder. Plus, I''m sure you''ll treat Lyrica well so I''m not worried." Isilia smiled.
"Though I thought that you had a thing with Nan Tian no? I do hope that you''re not dating Lyrica out of pity. Because as your friend and Lyrica''s mother, I''d have to hit you if you are." She asked curiously as Shiro shook her head.
"Of course I''m not. What kind of person do you think I am? It''s just that the only thing really holding me back from Lyrica was that she''s your daughter and that I thought she was just in love with me due to being dependent. For Nan Tian¡ I do have feelings for him, that I can''t deny. But seeing as how Lyrica decided to confess even after all that time away, I decided to let the feelings grow I suppose. Plus, ever heard of ''Never sail on two boats?'' Being greedy for the two of them is just a bit¡ no." Shiro exined.
"And I want to focus as much as I can on my partner if I get into a rtionship."
Hearing this, Isilia nodded her head in understanding.
"Well I''m d you''ve made your choice. It''s a shame since I wanted grandkids but I suppose I can just dote on Yin since she''s technically my granddaughter now ahahaha." Isiliaughed.
"You''re getting ahead of yourself a bit too much, dumbass." Shiro couldn''t help but roll her eyes at how Isilia was acting.
Plus, she had some extra knowledge from the future. She had ways of making things possible between her and Lyrica so that they could have a biological child but Isilia doesn''t need to know about that for now. It would be extremely weird, even for Shiro, to go up to Isilia and say, "Oh don''t worry, I can conceive a child with your daughter."
Just thinking of it caused Shiro to face palm.
Opening the doors, Lyrica could see Isilia teasing Shiro while Shiro was facepalming and she couldn''t help but raise an eyebrow.
"What are you talking about mum?" Lyrica asked out of curiosity.
"Oh nothing much. Just wondering about some grandchildren."
"MOTHER????" Lyrica shouted out in a mix of embarrassment and shock as her mind couldn''t help but think about certain actions required for that to happen.
Meanwhile Edvimar froze up as his mind was trying to piece together the equation of how Shiro, a woman, and Lyrica, a woman, could have a child together.
"Oh don''t worry about it too much. Let''s go dear, those two should have some private time together." Isiliaughed as she grabbed Edvimar''s arm and led him away.
Shiro and Lyrica could only stand there in awkwardness as both were blushing from the implications.
Chapter 1248: News About Lyricas Training
Looking at one another for a brief moment, the two couldn''t help butugh.
"Well I guess I should be d that she''s this supportive?" Shiro joked as Lyrica nodded her head.
"Though dad seems like he''ll need a moment to digest everything."
"All things considered, it went rather well. Shall we head back? Tomorrow I''m going to arrange a meeting between me and everyone. Gaia, Hades and Mother are cleaning things up and the same for the other gods." Shiro nodded her head.
Since the system was down right now, it was a little difficult tomunicate with everyone. However, with some slight adjustments, Shiro could try to reboot the system though she doesn''t know how sessful it''ll be.
''I''ll need to take a trip to the realm of gods if I want to find Aria.''
Since she knows that Aria is now a fragment of the First Born of Creation, Shiro wanted to know what Aria knows. Perhaps she had memories of why the original First Born of Destruction wanted to end everything. The truth behind the third party.
While they were making their way back to their room, Lyrica decided to grab Shiro''s hand while looking away out of embarrassment, causing Shiro to chuckle.
Meanwhile, Yin, who was eating in the cafeteria with Nitha suddenly sat up straight. The piece of meat in her hands dropped on the table as she narrowed her eyes.
"Wait a second¡" She muttered softly.
"If you''re full you can just tell me. I''ll eat the rest." Nitha shrugged as she tried to take Yin''s share of food.
"Hell no! I just sensed something weird, that''s all. Attie, did you sense that too?" Yin asked as Attie, who had gotten used to apanying Yin wherever she went nodded his head.
"Lyrica just held hands with mom."
"And she didn''t get rejected¡" Yin furrowed her brows before widening her eyes.
"Oh f*ck do we have to call Lyrica mom as well now?"
"You don''t know?" Nitha tilted her head in confusion.
"Know what?"
"They''re a pair now ya know? Mating season." Nitha nodded her head as both Yin and Attie froze up.
"Well¡ Mating season might be the incorrect way to describe it. Hmm¡ well they haven''t f*cked yet so. I thought they did back in the otherworld but they didn''t." She shrugged as both Yin and Attie immediately pulled out their phones. Creating a private group chat with the others they spread the news along with confusion.
"Speaking of that, lemme go find Asher." Nitha licked her lips as she grabbed some food before jogging away. Unknowingly setting off several bombs of knowledge behind her.
###
"So Aekari died." Aria frowned in annoyance as she waved her hand. In front of her, a holographic screen reying the fight appeared. Once the fight ended, Aria punched the table in front of her.
Gritting her teeth, she took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Shiro has surpassed her original self¡ Can I even beat her now?" Aria stumbled back and sat down in defeat. She couldn''t kill her in the first ce since she was the lifeline. But the stronger Shiro gets, the more dangerous it bes for everyone living in this world.
Biting her nails in anxiousness, Aria wondered what else she could do. She had already shut down the system and taken care of the admins to slow things down but it''s already toote.
"Sh*t!" Aria cursed out in anger as she stood up and threw the chair against the wall.
Storming around the room, she tried to think about all the options she had. The gods were ants in front of Shiro now. The system can no longer bind her. Realm travel is no issue for Shiro.
It''s only a matter of time before Shiro appears before her.
"The other ''First Born''s'' can''t fight her either. She''s already surpassed the original First Born of Destruction." Aria muttered.
In that moment, a chill was sent down her spine as a being of iprehensible power lurked behind her.
"Out of options already?" Her voice sounded out.
Quickly turning around and backing off, Aria widened her eyes in shock.
"*****? How are you here?" She questioned, confusion filling her mind.
"So many questions¡ But I don''t want to answer. I can''t have you giving up, since you''re the final hurdle for her after all." The woman grinned as she narrowed her eyes at Aria.
Feeling the gaze sweep over her body, Aria felt her blood drain as the eyes held a mix of fatigue, anticipation and delirium. Just the gaze was enough to paralyze her body from head to toe as the sense of death was creeping ever closer.
"Let''s see¡ Shall I give you the remaining fragments of creation? But that won''t be enough to test her power. She''s already mastered both sides after all¡" ***** muttered before walking around Aria.
"Oh I know, I''ll make use of Chaos. You''ll be able to handle her power since you''re a shard of creation. Right~?"
Grabbing Aria''s chin, ***** leaned in and narrowed her eyes. Insanity burned in her gaze as the corner of her lips curled up into a wide grin.
A murky ck and red energy flowed from her fingers into Aria''s body, causing her to spasm with pain.
Her vision blurred as she tried to open her mouth. A myriad of questions flooded her mind but she was unable to ask them.
Once she was satisfied, ***** let go of Aria and took a step back.
"Good luck~ You will be able to survive this transfer of power, I made sure of it. As for how much pain you''ll endure¡ It should be over rtively soon."
###
Waking up in the morning, Shiro made her way down to the cafeteria for some food with Lyrica following behind her. The moment she arrived, she felt a series of gazes from Yin, Attie, Lisandra, Madison and many others.
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro scratched her hair.
"Is there something wrong with my face?" She asked curiously.
"Nope, don''t mind us." Yin waved her hand but her eyes darted back and forth between Shiro and Lyrica.
Still confused, Shiro sat down and started to eat some breakfast while Lyrica did the same.
Shuffling next to her, Madison leaned towards Lyrica.
"Pst, why the hell didn''t you tell me that you and Shiro were a thing?" Madison asked, feeling slightly annoyed that she wasn''t the first to know and it was Yin who told them everything.
"PFF!!" Choking on her drink, Lyrica widened her eyes as Shiro''s face palmed.
Shiro knew that Nan Tian wasn''t the one to spread these kind of things so she instantly swept her gaze across the group and noticed that Yin seemed to be trying to hide.
''Stupid daughter of mine¡'' Shiro rolled her eyes.
With no other choice due to Yin, Shiro admitted to it, receiving congrattions from their friends.
Thankfully, this was over quickly as they needed to deal with Hades and the others, sparing both Shiro and Lyrica from the embarrassment.
Once the group was gathered at the main hall of the tower, Shiro brought up a hologram of the world that marked down the locations of their allies.
"Hades and the others are still recovering from the attack, some have sustained some rather bad wounds so Silvia I want you to make your way over quickly. I''ll be visiting Nyx alone so that we can cover more ground. We don''t know if there will be more attacks so everyone will be split into groups of 2 or 3 depending on partyposition with the exception of Lyrica." Shiro ordered as she started to allocate groups for each God.
"Remember, the goal is not to fight for now. The goal is to regroup and recuperate." She reminded since they don''t know what else their enemies have under their sleeves. If they could disable the system and ce a barrier that siphoned their power to such a degree, it wouldn''t surprise Shiro if they had a final back up.
Even with Zeus and Aekari gone, there are others who''ll take their ce. It is only over once Aria is dealt with along with the unknown third party. And that is where Shiro needs to ce her attention.
Everyone else needs to get strong enough to deal with gods and first borns on their own like Lyrica first.
"Once you are done with making sure our allies are rested, it''ll be time for training. I''m sure Lyrica will be able to cook up a good appetizing training n before Ie back and give you the main course." Shiro joked as they dreaded what Shiro was nning on making them do.
"If appetizers meant a dose of death I''ll pass." Nitha groaned as Asher agreed. After all, they had first hand experience with Lyrica''s training.
"Death?" Silvia tilted her head. After all, their training sessions have always been near death experiences and never death inducing.
"She controls samsara reincarnation stuff. Making us live a life then kill us in that life as training is pretty standard." Nitha sighed while Lyrica pretended to not hear any of that.
Ignoring the fact that death was now on the menu for training, the group finished up some final discussions.
Watching everyone set off to their respective destinations, Shiro prepared to go meet Nyx.
If anyone knew the way to the realm of gods for her to try to find Aria, it was Nyx.
Chapter 1249: Nyxs Friend
In order to find Nyx, Shiro had to travel across the world. It was a rather simple ordeal due to the fact that she already knew where Nyx was.
Her domain was in a cave system surrounded by tall mountains. There was only a single hole that allowed the moonlight to shine down while the rest of the city was bathed in shadow. It allowed Nyx to exert as much of her divinity as she could without needing the night all the time.
If it wasn''t for the abnormality that urred with the system and the strange barrier, Nyx would''ve had an easy time fending off against the assants. Out of all their allies that were attacked, she was the least wounded due to the advantages that came with her domain.
Traveling to Nyx''s domain was as simple as pinpointing it with her satellites then marking down a teleport node.
By the time she had teleported, Nyx had already appeared in front of her with a smile on her face.
"Seems like you were expecting me." Shiro chuckled as Nyx nodded her head.
"Well I felt a familiar teleport technique being used so it''s only natural Ie check it out. Though I must say, not being able to sense you at all is a little unnerving I suppose. What happened in the time you were gone?" Nyx asked curiously as she couldn''t sense Shiro at all even though she was standing in front of her.
"Let''s just say I reached bnce between destruction and creation."
"I see¡ You can exin the story while we walk. I still have some repairs I need to do. The attack did quite a number on my domain and my anchor was almost destroyed." Nyx sighed as Shiro nodded her head.
Exining how she had obtained bnce, her journeys in the world of creation along with her knowledge on Aria, the system''s current state of affairs and the mysterious third party, Shiro watched as Nyx fell silent.
"Hmm¡ I don''t like this. This third party knows so much yet we''ve barely scratched the surface of our knowledge regarding the system. It seems to me that their control over the system is equal to if not better than Chaos." Nyx scratched her head before flicking her finger.
"However, this might be good for us. If the system is down for an unknown reason, we might be able to talk more freely. I doubt the third party will be as strict as the system when ites to censoring our conversations. The only thing to keep in mind is that they don''t want us to discuss their identity or information around them until you find it out naturally with your own two eyes."
Thinking to herself for a moment, Nyx opened her mouth.
"I''ll try to tell you some restricted information that I know. If the system was around, you might not be able to hear this." She narrowed her eyes. Organising her thoughts, she nced towards Shiro.
"There was always a name that''s closest to the system. Despite the many cycles, this name has never changed. Every time there is a new cycle, a new incarnation of the name appears beside it. It''s also one of the reasons I stood besides you. The name closest to the system was Anima, and every cycle the name bestowed upon the new Anima is etched next to it. While I don''t know if the system was built by Chaos or not, it is undeniable that you have always been a core part of the system. The system can pose challenges for you but it never worked against you, even if some of the admins didn''t enjoy your presence. Chaos has always been the highest authority from what I could see, but her identity was strange. It was as though it was but a camouge. I still don''t know who the third party is but I assume they have something to do with this."
Furrowing her brows, Shiro digested the information.
"I''m guessing from your reaction, none of it was censored." Nyx smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"So you''re telling me, my name has always been in the system? Even the current one?"
"Indeed. But I only came across it through sheer luck. This information shouldn''t be normally essible. I was trying to find the same terminal that I saw a few times but I couldn''t find it anymore afterwards. So I assume I was never meant to find it. Either that or it was arranged for me to find it once and never again." Nyx shrugged.
"What role does the First Born of Destruction hold that''s so important for the system? Enough to the point where it''s valued above the First Born of Creation. In all of my memories and knowledge, it seems as though the First Born of Destruction is in the centre of everything that happens. The great war in the past, the cycles of the present. And even the events of the system in the future." Shiro sighed. She didn''t know what the universe had in store for her, nor does she know why the mysterious third party wanted to meet her properly.
So many questions but so little answers. She needed answers fast and the only way she imagined herself finding answers was through Aria as well as the system. She needs to find the origin of the system and Aria.
"Nyx, do you have a way to go back to the God Realm? I want to see if I can find Aria to get some answers." Shiro asked curiously.
"A way back to the God Realm? Hmm¡ most of the portals are already closing since we''re reaching the merging point where this bes the sole for gods, demons and humans alike. If you''re looking for a path¡ there are a few but they''re disappearing one after the other. Once thest one has been sealed, the God Realm will be reduced to nothing so we''ll need to work fast." Nyx smiled as she waved her hand and took out an item.
It was an iridescent blue crystal that flickered with a purple and pink glow.
"It''s something I received from an old friend of mine. I heard that you owe her a favour as well. She''ll be able to open a path back to the God Realm for you and you can also see what she needs you for."
Hearing this, Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"You''re friends with Juri?"
"Yep. I asionally borrow her power to go to different worlds as well as set up instances for dungeons." Nyx shrugged.
A surged of mana converged towards her hand as a spectral figure appeared in front of her. The figure was slightly taller than Shiro had had her hair tied up in a ponytail at this moment in time.
Opening her eyes, she looked at Nyx before ncing at Shiro. Furrowing her brow in confusion, she opened her mouth.
"Can I assume that you''re calling me right now to borrow the Beyond again?"
"Bingo~ That and since I am borrowing your realm for Shiro, she''s also here to repay your favour." Nyx smiled and gave her a small thumbs up.
"I see¡ Alright. Let''s deal with the favour right now since I''m a little busy. I was going to contact you soon anyways but talking to you now does make things easier for me. Here, take this portal and you''ll reach where I am." Waving her hand, the space next to her ripped apart as a new portal to the Beyond was established.
"Welp, let''s go. No reason to dy things." Nyx nodded her head and stepped through without any hesitation. Seeing this, Shiro decided to follow.
When the light cleared up, Shiro found herself on a floating ind within the beyond. The skies were a swirl of blue and purple energy with several holes appearing across the sky. Next to her was Nyx who had a serious expression on her face.
"Seems like there''s no issue with making portals¡" A soft voice rang out as they turned towards the source and saw Juri standing there with a tier 8 magic array surrounding her.
"What''s going on? I''ve never seen the Beyond this unstable before?" Nyx asked with a frown while jogging over. Using some of her own mana, she assisted Juri in stabilising the realm.
"The system. It helped maintain the different worlds and dungeons to avoid it from shing. But now that it''s out ofmission, they''re being drawn towards the Beyond. I''m holding them back right now and there''s no problems just yet but I don''t see a situation where this slows down I''ll be honest." Juri frowned as she set up a new array, allowing the stabilisation of the realm to be autonomous for now.
"If I remember correctly, you said you''ll do me a favour as long as it doesn''t cross your bottom line right?" Juri asked as Shiro nodded.
"Then I need you to do your job as a destroyer and destroy some of these worlds and dungeons. They''re getting out of hand."
Chapter 1250: Role Of The Destroyer
"Wait, you need me to destroy these dungeons and worlds?" Shiro asked with a frown on her face.
"Usually the role of the First Born of Destruction is to cull worlds so that the First Born of Creation doesn''t overflow the universe with worlds. But with both roles being absent and a fake proxy being made for creation, the speed of which worlds are being created outweighs the speed of destruction." Juri exined as she snapped her finger.
"What should have happened when you awakened as the First Born was that your aura would naturally cull some of the worlds without you doing anything."
Just as she said this, she showed a holographic video of worlds disintegrating. Next to the video showed Shiro during her awakening.
"Naturally you put a stop to this awakening since you couldn''t control it. But in doing so, the destruction of these worlds was also halted leaving them in a state of limbo. With the destruction being ced on a limbo, more and more dungeons were being made along with new worlds. And now it''s overflowing. I suppose you can say it''s reached full capacity and they''re trying to merge with the main world to reduce the space they take." Juri shrugged, showing them a box with tiny orbs representing the worlds.
They were slowly merging with therge orb in the centre while more orbs were being made.
"So I need you to cull these worlds." Juri said coldly.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro was a little conflicted since all of these worlds had their own people, their own culture.
"If you decide to not cull them, the main world will be the one to suffer. So if you decide to not cull them I can stop what I am doing right now and not use my energy."
Taking a deep breath, Shiro closed her eyes. Compared to the safety of her friends and her people in this world, the other dungeons and worlds hold no importance for her.
"I''ll do it. I''ll destroy thes. Tell me how many I need to destroy." Shiro asked as her eyes were resolved.
"You''ll need to destroy roughly 40% of the worlds out there right now. The dungeons can remain since they don''t take that much space. If the system was still functional, the worlds being destroyed should have a small piece ofnd being turned into a dungeon but I don''t know how likely that is anymore."
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head. Taking a step forward, she channelled her destruction energy. She wasn''t going to hesitate. All she could do was apologize for their loss as it was her choice and her choice was to prioritize her friends and family.
A ck and red energy surged around her body as both Juri and Nyx quickly took a step back. They could recognise the energy as the most primordial form of Destruction.
"I suppose I''m allowed to use your realm as I see fit to destroy these worlds, yes?" Shiro asked as Juri nodded her head.
Snapping her finger, a myriad of circuits exploded out from her hand and burrowed deep into the ground of the Beyond. Her vision blurred with lines upon lines of code flooding her vision. Each code held information on the paths leading to the different worlds.
''The worlds that are already on the verge of being destroyed from when I awakened should be destroyed fully. The news should also be culled.'' She thought to herself.
Her goal was to destroy the worlds that are freshly created along with the worlds that are close to destruction, so that she could preserve the worlds in the centre.
''If I was to brute force this, even with my power, it''ll be unfeasible. I need a more efficient method of destroying these worlds¡'' Thinking to herself for a moment, Shiro took a deep breath.
''Error.''
[Yes mother?]
''If I were to delete the origin point of the world, what would happen to the rest?''
She remembered the experiments she had conducted with Error and knew that editing the code would lead to the destabilization of the object in question. But to destabilize a world was very difficult so the most optimal way of doing it would be to target the starting point.
[If you were to erase the starting point, the code will unravel itself and be destroyed from the inside out. In terms of the effect on the ne-]
''You don''t need to tell me what the people experience. Just let me know if the world will be erased properly or not.'' Shiro sighed.
[Very well. If you target the source, the world will be erasedpletely with no signs of ever having existed.]
''Alright, help me with setting up a termination program that erases the sources of worlds. I''ll have it target the worlds I want to erase.''
[Understood.]
A vast amount of mana exploded forth from Shiro as the entire realm of the Beyond started to twist and morph. Red circuits spread across the azure skies causing Juri to furrow her brows since she could feel her control waning.
It''s as though Shiro was fighting her for sovereignty over this realm but knowing how Shiro is, Juri understood that this was just temporary.
Circting mana through her core, Shiro started to merge Creation, Destruction and Error together. As Creation and Destruction came from Chaos, merging them together should help her approach Chaos'' levels of power.
''With Creation and Destruction, I''ll be able to thread them together to form the higher form of power. Merging them with Error will allow me to exert this power across all thes I intend to erase.''
Activating her domain to amplify her power, she reimed the form of bnce that Aekari had witnessed.
This time however, Shiro dragged the entirety of the Beyond into her domain. She needed full control to send the termination program to all thes she wished to erase.
Both Nyx and Juri held their breaths as Nyx couldn''t believe what she was feeling.
The presence of Chaos. The most primal energy where everything originated from. Perhaps it was possible because Shiro mastered both Destruction and Creation but the sheer thought of Shiro being on the same level as Chaos was beyond anything Nyx thought possible.
It was no exaggeration to say that if Shiro wanted to rece Chaos'' role in the universe, it is entirely within the realm of possibility.
With ess to the myriad of worlds in this universe, Shiro took a deep breath as chaotic energy flowed through her hands.
''I''m sorry.''
Clenching her hand into a fist, thousands of termination programs were set off as codes started to unravel, erasing the history of these worlds. With Shiro''s senses observing all of the worlds, she could see the destruction her actions brought forth.
The wretched expressions of those still living, seeing their bodies being shredded to pieces while the world follows their demise. The horror of a mother seeing her child cry out for help as their body is shredded apart, the screams of the innocent, and the curses of the oracles who foreseen their demise at the hands of the great destroyer asking a single question.
"Why?"
Gritting her teeth, Shiro did not avert her gaze. She could not, should not look away from what she had caused. This was her choice and she had to live with it.
As the final world disappeared without a trace, silence returned to the universe. The holes within the Beyond started to close as the worlds no longer needed to merge with the main world.
Dismissing her domain, Shiro returned the authority back to Juri.
"It is done." Shiro spoke with a heavy heart.
She had wondered what her strength was for after she killed Aekari and what lies beyond finding out the truth and the conflict with the third party. But this had made it clear for her. She wanted this power so that she could be the one to choose.
She needed to be the one to choose the course of destruction so that she could keep her people safe. If she wasn''t strong enough, she''ll be among the crowd of those who could only watch their world being erased without a chance to protest or fight back.
And thus, she strived to be the strongest.
"I believe I have repaid the favour I owe you." Shiro asked as Juri nodded her head.
"Indeed. We are now even. With that out of the way, I believe you still have use of my realm yes? Nyx didn''t bring you here just to help me after all. So how can I help you two?" Juri asked as Nyx took a step forward.
"We''re just wondering if it''s possible for you to open a path back to the realm of gods while keeping it open for our return. We''re looking for a specific person who resides there for answers." Nyx smiled as Juri thought to herself for a moment.
"It''s possible. But as you know, the realm of gods will soon be erased as well. I don''t doubt your capabilities, but you should make the visit quick. Holding off the erasure of a world to keep a path open is possible until the veryst moment, but the realm will continuously shrink during that time. If you were to be caught in the erasure then there''s nothing I can do."
Chapter 1251: God Realm
"If everything goes to n, there should be no reason for us to linger longer than needed. I doubt Aria will be staying until the realm is destroyed so the moment I see her, I''ll be able to leave and track her down at ater time." Shiro reassured.
In order to track someone down, she needs to see the codes of the area and where they''ve exerted their influence. If Aria does indeed run away, finding her through the myriad of worlds would be a difficult task if not for the fact that she could use the Beyond as a gateway. She''ll be able to scan every world to find where Aria is.
''As long as I see her once, there''ll be nowhere for her to hide.'' Shiro thought to herself with narrowed eyes.
"If you''re that confident then okay. Should I open the path now? The sooner we do this the better since there are more locations where I can ce the portal. The longer we take the more limited the options be." Juri asked as she waved her hand and a tier 9 magic array slowly revealed itself.
Simr to a puzzle, the array started to rearrange itself into the shape of a door.
"Probably put us near the centre of the God realm." Nyx suggested as Shiro nodded her head.
"Alright. Once again, I''ll warn you. Try not to be close to the edge of the realm since you could be swept along and disappear. Even someone of your power, I doubt you''ll be unscathed." Juri warned while ncing back at Shiro.
Flicking her finger, mana surged from the Beyond and converged towards the door she had just created. With a swirl of energy, a portal emerged.
"Take this orb, it''ll keep you updated on where the exit portal is rtive to your location. Since the realm is copsing, I might need to shift the position." exined Juri
"Thanks, do I owe you anything?" Shiro asked before she stepped through the gate.
"Just take this as a gift. It''s only a small matter anyways."
It wasn''t as though she was helping them fight. Her job was to just open a portal and keep it open for their return. Juri didn''t see a reason for Shiro to owe her.
"Alright, see you soon then."
Giving Juri a small wave, Shiro jumped through the portal with Nyx following behind her.
Simr to the portal to the world of creation, Shiro could feel a moment of rejection before being eased into the current.
"So what do you n on asking Aria when you meet her?" Nyx asked curiously. She knew that Shiro had a grudge against Aria and it could very well turn into a fight if they met.
"Well just how much she knows in general. Hopefully I''ll be able to learn more about the third party." Shiro replied as several thoughts crossed her mind.
Shaking her head, she focused her gaze forward. No matter what Aria tells her, she will find out the truth eventually.
''When that dayes¡ I''ll most likely face the third party.''
As they reached the end of the portal, Shiro activated the power of the Bifrost to help themnd safely. After all, she doesn''t want a repeat of what happened when she was turned into a missile upon arrival.
"I suppose a wee is in order. I present to you, the God Realm." Nyx smiled.
Surrounding them was a myriad of floating inds that pulsed with mana. Above them was the sky. A kaleidoscope of colours reflecting the domains of each god. From the ephemeral blues to the burning embers of red and the radiance of gold. The sky was unlike anything Shiro had seen before.
Stretching from each ind, the strands of mana twisted and threaded together to form bridges. Architecture from each mythology could be seen, each with their own defining trails.
"Honestly this ce looked a lot better before but it is pretty much an empty realm now with the exception of a few stragglers who had their anchors destroyed." Nyx shrugged as she released her aura, threatening the gods who were spying on them.
Usually Gods would leave this realm, Shiro and Nyx were the first ones to arrive ever since the realm started to copse.
"Can''t they just take the portal back?" Shiro asked curiously but Nyx shook her head.
"Nope, they don''t have anything to anchor down their existence in the mortal realm. If they left this ce for the mortal realm without an anchor, it''ll only be a matter of time before they die anyways. They''re just enjoying thest of their time in this world." Nyx replied.
"Though¡ There is a way for them to live a tad longer I suppose." She whispered while creating a barrier around them that blocked the sound from escaping.
"Oh?" Shiro raised an eyebrow as her interest was piqued. While she was also a God, she didn''t know much about the rules.
"Yep. All they have to do is consume enough mana to sustain their divinity. Think of it as a cup of water with a hole in the bottom. When the cup is empty, they die. But if they manage to keep refilling that cup, they''ll survive. Naturally, using mana in a fight will speed up this process so they''ll need to pick their battles carefully. But if they somehow manage to kill a god and consume the mana, their existence will be stabilized for a short time." Nyx exined.
"Not many know of this though as the Gods who know of this have made preparations to protect their anchor to avoid this kind of situation while keeping others in the dark. After all, it''s a temporary method. If they somehow manage to devour all of the mana in the mortal realm, they''ll still die eventually. They''re essentially zombies I suppose. Any God who still has their anchor wouldn''t want zombie Gods running around the mortal realm threatening to fight to theirst breath." Nyx shrugged as Shiro nodded her head in understanding.
She could see why the Gods who know chose to keep silent on this matter.
They already had their hands full with trying to find the right person to ally themselves with without knowing who the lifeline was. If they had zombie Gods running around it''ll only make matters worse.
"I suppose if a God did leak the information, it would be hell in the mortal realm."
"Bingo. It doesn''t help that it has indeed happened before, though it was still kept in the dark thanks to the System''s censorship. But let''s not dally, how do you want to look for Aria?" Nyx asked curiously.
"It''s pretty simple. I just need to trace Aekari''s code back to his domain in this realm. Once I get there, I should be able to find traces of Aria."
Closing one of her eyes, circuits appeared on her iris as the world blurred into code. Bringing up Aekari''s code from memory, Shiro waved her hand and started to search through the code of the God Realm for a clue.
"That is pretty damn handy. Since the system is so ingrained with our universe, having Error being able to tap into that vault of knowledge makes life so much easier." Nyx muttered while marveling at Shiro''s abilities.
"Error certainly makes tracking people down easier. I can also use the system but only to a small degree. Most of the features are still unavable for me. The main one being my own stats. I assume it''s due to the fact that having both Creation and Destruction is an anomaly to begin with and needed Admin''s help to quantify my strength in numbers even before I got my new core. But with my strength now¡ it caused another malfunction when I tried." Shiro shrugged as she flicked her finger.
A system interface appeared in front of Nyx as she blinked her eyes at the stats.
[Name: Shiro
Race: !"¡ê^%&^$?
Title: "!*^$(*¡ê&?$¡ê*¡ê$&Y*
Level: ??????????
ss: "*&^$&*^)¡ê&$&^&*^¡ê]
The rest of the stats were in a simr situation as Nyx couldn''t understand anything written on her status board.
"Without proper maintenance, I''ve surpassed what the system has been designed to record I suppose." Shiro said nonchntly as Nyx was stunned into silence. When even the oldest of primal gods, the First Borns, could be quantified, how strong was Shiro now for the system to malfunction by trying to calcte her strength?
Thinking about a potential answer, Nyx felt shivers down her back.
"If you want, I can turn the system back on for you." Shiro offered but Nyx shook her head.
"I will pass, it''s not like I relied on it before anyways." For Nyx, it was a rather good feeling to not be restrained by the system anymore. This new freedom was weed.
Nodding her head in understanding, Shiro focused her mind on tracking down Aekari''s domain. She had already sent out small bots to travel across the realm so that she could see the codes of the entire God Realm.
And soon, her lips curved up into a smile.
"Found it."
Chapter 1252: Tracking Down Aria
Upon discovering Aria''s domain, Shiro saw that it was rather close to the edge where the realm was being erased from existence so decided to not dy things any further. Using the drone that tracked down Aria''s location as a teleport node, Shiro created a portal and gestured for Nyx to follow them.
Diving through the portal, the beautiful scenery of the God Realm disappeared as destruction graced their view.
An infinite spiralling darkness pullingrge chunks ofnd towards the void as the skies dyed dark purple from its influence. The sound of debris crumbling as though it was the thundering roar of a beast wailing out in the distance.
Aria''s domain was surprisingly simplepared to Aekari''s domain where she usually resided with Aekari and his daughter. Shiro had caught a glimpse during their fight along with what the drone saw when she sent them out to scout for Aria''s domain.
While Aekari''s domain was a grand castle created in Aria''s name withrge golden gates and pear white architecture, Aria''s domain was less fancy and visually stunning. In the deepest recesses of her domain, a lonely cottage stood against the backdrop of destruction, inching ever closer with each passing moment.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro scanned the house for any traps in case she had prepared something for her.
However, despite her suspicions, there was nothing. The house has beenpletely emptied out with the exception of a few minor items that was still scattered around the cottage.
"Judging from your expression she''s not here."
"No she isn''t. There''s no traps or anything like that either." Shiro shook her head.
Opening the door, Shiro could see that this house hasn''t been deserted for long as there are still signs of Aria being here.
"The next step would be to track her code through the items lying around here¡ But I think I can dig a little deeper."
Kneeling down, Shiro ced her palms against the floor and closed her eyes.
Simr to how she tracked down Aria, she could filter out certain lines of code that cross with certain terms. Example being if Aria mentioned Shiro or anyone Shiro was familiar with, she''ll be able to find the moments where Aria mentioned them and see what happened.
Naturally, it''ll take a while to scan through all of the codes to filter out what she''s filtering but Shiro wanted to see what she could find. A brief scan was all she''s going to do since she''ll find out more when she meets Aria.
Thinking to herself for a moment, Shiro decided to filter for the instances where Aria talked about Anima.
''If she was to talk about the original First Born of Destruction, it might lead me to finding out the ''Truth'' that caused Anima to get rid of the First Born of Creation.''
For Nyx''s sake, Shiro made sure it would create a holographic projection if it was to find any instance of Aria mentioning Anima.
To Shiro''s surprise, her filter results were over 50 instances of when Aria mentions Anima. Whether
Furrowing her brows, she decided to filter out the meaningless conversations such as just randomly mentioning Aria.
Once she cleaned up the results, there was only 5 instances left.
Flicking her finger, a holographic image of Aria appeared in front of them.
[No that can''t be¡ How is she back again? Her essence should be sealed! I had Aekari kill Nytri so that Anima''s essence would fall dormant again in the soul crystal. I watched it happen so why is she back again? And on the verge of awakening no less¡ Did the system hide her from me?] Aria walked back and forth while biting her nails in frustration.
As the hologram faded away, another appeared.
[Aekari is faltering already. At the rate things are going I doubt he''ll help me if I told him about Anima¡ Even if there''s the risk that Shiro awakens and inherits Anima''s conscience, he''ll still beg her to save our daughter without caring about the consequences Anima could bring about.]
[Anima destroyed the world once already, even reduced me to my current state. If Anima wakes up again, I won''t be able to stop her like I did before¡ No, I need to make some preparations now. The administrators are taking her side and protecting her without regard for what chaos she could bring¡ they can''t be allowed to keep helping her get stronger. I need to dy things.]
[It''s over¡ it''s only a matter of time before Anima wakes up again. I only have one chance left to stop her.]
As the fourth projection was ending, Shiro expected to see what the method was but the hologram started to glitch and morph.
Aria appeared once more but she was on the floor while an unknown figure loomed over her. The figure''s body was constantly changing with no set form as though the codes didn''t know how to describe her.
[I see it now¡] Aria squeezed out as her eyes started to lose their focus.
[I see why Anima tried to end things¡hahaha. How long have you been watching? How long have you turned this universe into your chess board?] Aria asked as foreign energy started to pulse through her body.
[But fine, I''ll y your game. I''ll do what I''m created to do.] Aria gritted her teeth as the hologram ended, leaving Shiro and Nyx staring in silence.
"I suppose that glitchy figure is probably the third party?" Nyx asked as Shiro nodded.
Despite checking the code, she couldn''t find what caused the anomaly. Yet the fact that she was shown in the hologram means that she was indeed here and the codes picked up on her presence.
''If the code ''discovered'' her, howe I can''t find it? Is there something I''m missing?... No, I''m checking through everything that I can read. Then it''s probably hidden for me¡ perhaps there''s anotheryer. If there are fouryers, the firstyer is what everyone sees, then there''s theyer that admins see, then the thirdyer is the code. That''s what I see, perhaps there''s a fourthyer that the third party can see.''
"There''s nothing else to see here. And yes, that is indeed the third party. They have much better mastery over the system and the workings of this world than I do." Shiro shrugged.
"Though we did get a major hint I suppose. Aria seems to be created by the third party. I''m not sure if that means her identity as the First Born of Creation or her identity as Aria. But regardless, just seeing the third party caused Aria to understand why she went crazy and tried to end the world. Which means by the time I see the third party, things should be clear for me."
Hearing this, Nyx thought to herself for a moment.
"The first part doesn''t make sense. Since Chaos was the one to create you and Aria when you were First Borns, she couldn''t have created Aria back then. Unless she''s talking about the current her, the Aria after the First Born of Creation has been killed for good and only shards remain." Nyx frowned as Shiro contemted what she said for a moment before nodding her head.
"True. We already know she''sparable if not probably higher in terms of ess level to the system than Chaos. She knows me quite well apparently and she also created Aria. Urg, who the hell is she." Shiroined as she flicked her finger and created a drone.
"Let''s track hertest location, I doubt she''s gone far but even if she did, I should be able to track her on Earth."
However, seeing that the drone wasn''t moving, Shiro tilted her head in confusion. It should be tracking Aria''s location for now but the fact that it wasn''t moving means that something had gone wrong.
"Is she here?" Nyx asked as she entered abat stance.
"No she''s not, don''t worry. It''s strange because my drone cannot find her code." Shiro furrowed her brows. Quickly activating Error, Shiro scanned through the events that led up to the moment she came into contact with the third party.
Upon seeing the codes, Shiro understood what had happened.
"Aria gained a power simr to my bnce."
"What?"
"She gained the use of both Creation and Destruction thanks to the third party. Though its more primal, simr to how Chaos is I suppose." Shiro exined while scratching her hair.
Due to the sudden transnt, Aria''s code was mutating. It was neither Aria or Chaos, but rather a strange hybrid. It was no wonder her drone couldn''t scan it out considering ''Aria'' no longer existed.
With the new code imputed into the drone, Shiro found Aria immediately. She was standing near the edge of the God Realm, almost touching upon the unknown void.
"Lets hurry." Shiro frowned, not knowing what Aria was nning.
Opening a portal, Shiro created a path towards Aria.
###
"Things are progressing rather smoothly. After she kills Aria, she''ll be able to find out more of the truth. How does it look Chaos? Your daughters fighting to the death once more. Cycle after cycle, I continue searching. Cycle after cycle, you watch them fight."
"Though I suppose this is thest cycle. Well, I hope it''s thest cycle, I haven''t seen this much hope in so long ahaha." ***** Laughed all on her own in the dark unknown, watching everything unfold with a smile on her face.
Chapter 1253: Aria and Shiro
Standing in the air, Aria hovered silently while staring at the void seemingly as though she was trying to find something within the destruction.
Sensing Shiro and Nyx''s arrival, Aria didn''t turn around and kept her eyes towards the void.
"How much do you know?" Aria asked calmly, causing Shiro to furrow her brows.
"Not much. I only know she ''created'' you, has authority on the level of Chaos and seeks something from me after I find out about the truth." Shiro shook her head.
"You truly don''t know much then do you? Shame¡" Aria sighed as she finally turned around.
Frowning slightly, Shiro could see visible markings across Aria''s body that was pulsing with Chaos'' energy.
After reaching the level of bnce, Shiro understood that this kind of strength wasn''t one that Nyx could interfere with.
"Already thinking of killing me without searching for the truth. How very like you." Aria narrowed her eyes as she disappeared from her spot. A de appeared in her hands as she stabbed towards Nyx''s head.
Before the de could steal Nyx''s life away, Shiro had already grabbed it with her bare hands and snapped it in half.
"The hell do you think you''re trying to do?" Shiro warned coldly as she tried to grab Aria''s arm only for Aria to disappear once more.
"Taking care of the pests. This chessboard was made for you to begin with, bystanders have no right in this." Aria replied emotionlessly while flicking her finger. The space shattered as Shiro was now isted with Aria while the edge of God Realm continued to eat away at the world.
"Soe, do what is ordained by hermands ande take the truth from my corpse. It is at the truth where you will find out the worthlessness of your existence, the curse you bring upon this world. It is there where you realise that there should never have been an Anima! Never should have been a Shiro!" Aria cried out. Each word filled with rage that had been buried deep within.
Her own resolve strengthening from the will of her previous incarnation.
***** has given them separate roles to y. But Anima managed to set the course off rail and perhaps that was what caused the anomaly called Shiro to appear. The anomaly that could wield both powers better than Chaos.
Grabbing her de, Aria stabbed it within her own chest as her flesh started to dissolve, leaving behind a skeleton. Pear white material started toyer upon her bones with a crimson energy converging into an orb centred within her rib cage, where her heart should have been.
A twisted fabric of flesh and blood cloaked her body while several pairs of wings erupted from her back, adorned with a myriad of eyes that locked onto Shiro''s position. A bloodied halo crackling with chaos energy appeared above her head while the energy within the void that was shredding at the realm was siphoned into Aria''s body.
"My de will be the guiding light that brings this y to its end. By my hand shall I end the cycles of torment!" Aria''s voice rang out from all directions, filled with false righteousness.
"Both you and the other Shiro said the same thing. But that''s fine. I will keep forging ahead." Shiro dered as she took a deep breath and activated her core. She wanted to bring the powers and form she took within her domain but reduce the cost of activation.
Snapping her finger, a mix of Creation and Destruction emerged from within Shiro''s as her body was converted to ck crystal flickering with the light of the stars. Wrapping herself with a fabric woven from the light of the universe, Shiro summoned both Iriel and Vinri.
"All of this! All of it was made with you in mind!" Aria shouted as she appeared in front of Shiro, their des shing and sending sparks. Despite the barrier that Aria has activated to keep Nyx from interfering, the resulting shockwave still caused Nyx to m against a building in the back.
"Nyx I''ll handle her! Go somewhere safe!" Shiro shouted out as she couldn''t afford to keep her attention away from Aria. Right now, she was probably the only one that could match her new strength with bnce.
Pushing Aria away from her, Shiro activated one of her skills as her de phased through reality in an attempt to im Aria''s life.
*CLANG!
Despite phasing through Aria''s guard, a golden crystal, simr to what Aria''s halo was created from appeared and blocked the de before it could reach her.
A hand reached out, grabbing Shiro by the arm before throwing her over Aria''s shoulder and mmed her towards the ground.
*BANG!!!
Digging herself out of the crater in the ground, Shiro frowned and looked up.
"The lives that people have lived in this world is nothing but a false fantasy, all to test your worthiness! If you are unworthy, everyone dies. If you are worthy, they still die in the end! So tell me?! Tell me why your existence is not a mistake?" Aria questioned as tier 9 magic circles covered the skies, blocking out the void behind them.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro activated her own tier 9 magic circle. The ground around her started to shift before breaking down into nanobots. Standing atop a wave of nanobots, Shiro created several rail cannons before firing them off simultaneously.
*CRACK PING~
Shattering a myriad of tier 9 magic circles, Shiro frowned seeing Aria create more than she could destroy.
Immediately her body became sluggish as phantom arms dragged against her body, holding her in ce.
An angelic cry could be heard as Aria''s halo turned pitch de with her wings spreading out.
A tier 9 magic circle appeared above her as energy from the void converged and formed into a trumpet.
With an intense cry, the trumpet roared out, shaking the entire realm itself before disintegrating to ash. Bloody etching appeared across Aria''s body as her wings were set aze.
Her entire being now looked like a malevolent demon that had crawled out from the depths of hell.
"Answer me Shiro! Why must you continue despite knowing the mistake that is your existence?! Tell me why you shouldn''t be sealed away so you cannot bring a cmity upon every living soul in this world?!"
Gritting her teeth, Aria cleaved her de down as hard as she could, ripping the space to shreds as blood poured out from the cracks, setting fire and melting all of the nanobots the blood came in contact with.
Widening her eyes in shock, Shiro backed off before activating Iriel''s ability of being able to cut down all forms of magic and divine spells.
Imbuing her nanobots with the same power, Shiro created a wall of des that pushed against the river of blood.
Activating Error, Shiro narrowed her eyes as the world transformed into code, locking down on the coordinates besides Aria, she disappeared and teleported beside her. Siphoning power from the world of Creation into Vinri, Shiro shed towards Aria.
Suddenly, a portal opened where Vinri was about to strike as a flood of blood rushed towards her.
"TCH!" Gritting her teeth, Shiro parried the blood away from her body as she was forced to retreat.
Creating some space between them, Shiro nced down at Vinri and froze up in surprise.
Despite the fact that Vinri couldn''t be destroyed, Shiro could see Vinri''s code suffering from slight deterioration.
A quick scan of the damage allowed Shiro to understand the reason why. While Shiro can use both creation and destruction in harmony, Vinri was a sword of creation and Iriel was a sword of destruction. They didn''t have the same properties that she has.
Through the energy of chaos, Aria was pushing the des to their limits.
''Just like how I''m an anomaly that fundamentally challenged what the system was made to do, Aria is an anomaly in her current state. I can''t fight her based on the knowledge I already know.'' Shiro thought to herself as she had taken into ount that Aria could perform acts that were deemed impossible by the system.
"Well?! Do you have no answer for me? What is your goal? What do you fight for? Is it worth putting the entire universe at risk?!" Aria demanded an answer as Shiro stood up straight and stared down Aria while blood, mes and nanobots collided around them while the edge of the realm threatened to kill them.
"I fight so that I can make a choice! I fight so that I won''t be part of the crowd when the call for destruction descends on the world! I will destroy as many worlds as needed as long as the one my friends live in is safe!"
mming her foot down, a tier 9 magic array that Shiro had hidden above them roared into life as 10yers of arrays stacked atop one another.
Above the array was a single orbital cannon hundred times stronger than the one that caused the no mana zone and imbued with the force of bnce.
Stabbing her sword down, Tier 9 magic circles appeared around Aria as time slowed down to a near halt while the cannon fired a singr pir of energy.
Eachyer of her array amplifying the energy until a blinding light crashed against Aria''s body.
Chapter 1254: The Second Trumpet
Thunder crackled in the void surrounding them as the fabric of reality itself copsed with a single attack.
Even without using the code, Shiro could see that her orbital cannon had wiped out arge chunk of ''existence'' as a whole with several paths connecting realms together being severed permanently. A singrity had been formed, consuming the infinite void and leaving a zone where no light nor mana could escape.
But despite all this, Shiro could still sense Aria, causing a bead of sweat to drip from her head.
For the first time in a long while, Shiro felt unsettled by Aria''s physical defences.
"You know nothing yet continue to jump headfirst into the unknown without even taking into ount the consequences of your actions upon the entire realm! FOOLISH! ARROGANT! You fight for a cause with oblivion as the reward!" Aria''s voice cut through the silence as mana erupted from her body.
Despite being in the centre of the null mana zone, she started to flood the entire area with energy causing it to stabilize for a brief moment as a tier 9 magic array appeared behind her.
"I know what I must do not because it is written in fate! I will do what I have done many cycles before!" Aria dered.
A second trumpet coalesced behind her as she brought it up to her mouth and activated the instrument before Shiro could even try to stop her.
As the wave of sound echoed out, the entire area seemed to have set on fire as all of the moisture was sucked out in an instant. Shiro barely managed to activate some defences but her right arm was caught just before she could protect it, causing it to be dried up into a husk.
Bloom and mes erupted out of her arm as a result of the first trumpet, giving Shiro no other choice than to tear her arm off her shoulder.
Quickly healing herself, she bent her body back with Aria''s sword grazing the tip of her nose.
With every single sh, a wave of blood me would wash over in an attempt to kill Shiro.
"Know that your resistance will only cause more people to suffer for your actions!"
Gritting her teeth in annoyance, Shiro had no other choice than to activate some of her berserk skills in order to keep up with Aria.
Energy enveloped Shiro''s body as she ignored the blood me and grabbed Aria by the wings. Throwing Vinri and Iriel aside, shetched onto Aria''s back and plunged her teeth into her neck, tearing out a chunk of flesh before kicking against Aria''s back and ripping out two of her wings.
Jumping back, Shiro took a sharp breath in as her arms were now drained of moisture. Two des of nanobots formed around her shoulders, cutting off the arms so that it didn''t spread to the rest of the body.
Just as Shiro was healing her arms, Aria healed her wounds and returned to peak condition.
"In the first cycle, after Anima had shredded the divinity of the original First Born of Creation, she could''ve ended the world but she was stopped. ''I'' had used thest remaining vestiges of my life not to kill you. Because I had known doing so would be the worse case scenario. I burned everything I had! My chance at reincarnation! My soul! Everything! Just so that you will be sealed within a small domain at the edge of everything in the next cycle! Where your influence is weakest so that destruction would not befall the entire realm. But no, you would not stay there quietly! ''I'' had burned everything only to ''wake'' up and find out you continue to wreck havoc upon thisnd.
"Do you evenprehend what it''s like to embrace death knowing you did everything, even burning the essence of your own being to seal someone because they couldn''t be allowed to die nor get stronger? Only to wake up, and see that everything you did was futile?! My strength! GONE! My divinity, GONE! I had done everything I could but you still awakened." Aria shouted out in madness as her eyes burned red with fury. The mes around them surged with her emotions as the barrier she had put in ce started to show signs of copsing.
"Even with my powers gone, I have done my best during every cycle! Hoping to pave the way for the people you don''t favour! How did it feel, Shiro!? How did it feel to erase thousands of worlds with your own hands?!" Aria questioned as she mmed her hand down.
Crimson energy burst forth from the blood andshed out towards Shiro, each holding the power to kill a god with one blow.
Tilting her body to the side, Shiro dodged the first attack. Narrowing her eyes, she resummoned Vinri and Iriel before dashing forward. Reinforcing her hands with nanobots so that she didn''t have to continuously harm herself to heal, Shiro vaulted over the second attack before flipping her body through the air.
Letting go of Vinri, she mmed her heel into the pommel, sending it forward at blistering speeds towards Aria.
Just as Aria attempted to brush it aside, Shiro swapped ces with Vinri, her eyes glowing with the power of Error.
Several tier 9 magic circles gathered upon Iriel''s de as Shiro cleaved down with as much strength as she could muster. The sound of bones crunching under Iriel rang out as the de dug deep into Aria''s body but stopped midway.
Instead of focusing on defence, Aria reached out towards Shiro''s stomach and tore out arge chunk of her flesh with her hands as blood me poured into her body.
"Though I suppose you need to live up to your title as First Born of Destruction. Even if you strive for bnce, you bring nothing but death and destruction! Run all you want but you cannot escape what you''ve been made to do!"
Lifting Shiro up slightly by her ribs, Aria twisted her body in a circle and kicked Shiro in the chest, shredding a hole through her chest before letting go and watching her body fly back towards the no mana zone she had created.
Before Aria could speak, she noticed a magic circle on her back as Shiro suddenly grabbed her by the face. Fury burning in her eyes as a wall of des surrounded them.
mming Aria against the wall of des, Shiro gritted her teeth and dashed while grinding Aria''s head against the serrated edges. A trail of blood marked their path as Shiro didn''t care what Aria was saying to dissuade her.
Her will was firm and it would not break under such meagre provocation. As long as she doesn''t give up, there is always a chance. It is only when she stops do they lose all hope.
"ARGGGG!" Crying out with adrenaline, Shiro grabbed Aria''s cor with her spare hand and attempted to rip her head off her body as she activated more berserk skills to enhance her strength.
The sound of muscle fibres tearing rang out as Aria''s body dissolved into a burst of light.
*BANG!!!
An explosion pulsed out as Shiro''s body was flung back. A barrier could be seen copsing around her as it was activated at thest possible moment when Shiro realised Aria had escaped.
Tilting her head back, Shiro could see Aria floating in the sky with one hand across her neck with blood trickling through the gaps before being healed up.
Aria''s face twisting with anger as she summoned the third trumpet.
Time suddenly stopped, causing Aria to widen her eyes as she didn''t see Shiro cast the spell.
"I''ve been busy preparing traps for you while you were monologuing about how tough your life has been."
Seeing Shiro appear behind her, Aria couldn''t react in time as she tore the arm holding the trumpet off her shoulders.
Roaring out in defiance, bones erupted out from Aria''s back and stabbed into Shiro''s body.
Feeling the moisture being drained out of her body at blistering speeds, Shiro could only give up momentarily and teleport away before healing herself. But this only gave Aria the chance she needed as the third trumpet was blown.
The blood surrounding the area started to turn purple as poisonous fumes were emitted by the liquid. But it wasn''t poison in the traditional sense. The moment the fumes came into contact with the nanobots, corruption started to spread through the wave in an attempt to attack Shiro.
She recognised it to be a simr corruption to what the people in the world of creation suffered. The moment she is attacked by the ''poison'', she risked her core being set off bnce. While the chance was low, Shiro didn''t want to risk that chance and immediately cut off the nanobots that had been affected.
Rotating her mana into an orb, she mmed it down, causing a wave of energy to push everything away from her and kept it at bay using rotational force.
When she nced back at Aria, her body was mutating due to the effects of the third trumpet. Along with the wings, additional appendages were bursting out her back with vines created from bone.
A single nce into the code showed Shiro that Aria had a variety of energy surging limitlessly within her body that she was simply unable to contain fully.
But Aria didn''t care, she didn''t have the luxury of worrying about her safety.
Chapter 1255: Singularity
''Is there a way for me to destabilize the energies within Aria? If I manage to seed it should be able to dealsting damage to her. Considering the fact that she''s a walking nuke right now.'' Shiro thought to herself while dodging the iing attacks.
She had already dismissed her nanobots due to the risk of the poison and she couldn''t afford to have her attention split elsewhere right now.
Each attack she threw at Aria would be deflected with ease due to the poison weakening the structure of her nanobots.
Unless Shiro could deal with the poison, she''ll have to focus on retreating.
''The barrier behind me can''t be broken¡ The void behind her is risky too.'' Furrowing her brows, Shiro scanned the entire battlefield for anything she could use to her advantage.
Thankfully, her traps were buying some time for her to analyse the situation since Aria''s attacks were being fended off.
Thinking about it for a moment, a smile crept up on Shiro''s lips as an idea appeared in her mind.
Jumping out, she was about to teleport when Aria''s hand appeared in front of her face.
Quickly ducking down, Shirounched a barrage of punches against Aria''s chest only for her hands to start corroding away as her body contained the properties of poison as well.
Kicking against Aria''s chin, Shiro dived down while etching runes into the sky. A myriad of shadows tore the space open andshed out towards Aria in hopes of buying even an extra second of time for Shiro.
Creating a handful of daggers, Shiro twisted her body, throwing them out in all directions and creating clones of herself that switched locations.
Each clone activated a different magic array targeting Aria.
A single nce at the arrays was enough for Aria to understand that these arrays were slight variations of the earlier attack that created the no mana zone.
"You already know that attack doesn''t work! Stop your resistance already!" Aria shouted out in annoyance as she sent out a pulse of poison that targeted the clones.
However, this was exactly what Shiro wanted as each clone started to radiate with mana. Their cores burning to the max and threatening to explode.
While the power of the orbital cannons when amplified by 9 tiers of amplification arrays was strong, strong enough to shred the fabric of reality, she had a stronger alternative. If she tried this alternative before she gained her new core, the power would only be slightly stronger.
But with the new bnced core, each of her clones had a miniature version within their bodies. If she overloads these cores, the collision between Creation and Chaos could very well remove a continent off the fabric of realitypletely. That was the power of one clone overloading.
While making more clones would reduce the power of each explosion, Shiro had already made preparations hence why they were gathering as much mana as they could.
The speed of which the mana was disappearing caused both Shiro and Aria to begin free falling towards the dark below.
Each of the clones started to crack apart as a barrier appeared around them, sealing them momentarily while amplification arrays appeared and targeted Aria.
Despite her new form, Aria felt her sixth sense warning her of danger. Gritting her teeth, she wrapped herself inyers uponyers of bone and flesh while enhancing her body as she couldn''t fully deploy a barrier right now.
"Bingo." Shiro grinned maniacally as this was exactly what she had hoped Aria would do.
Snapping her fingers, tens of teleport nodes appeared on Aria''s body.
When she had punched Aria instead of retreating even at the expense of corruption in her arms, she was nting teleport nodes that awaited hermand.
All of the clones werepressed down to the size of a fingernail as they appeared next to Aria.
Widening her eyes, she was unable to open her cocoon of defences in time as it had now be a prison maximising the efficiency of Shiro''s attack.
Bracing herself for impact, Shiro watched as her vision was reduced to darkness as her body mmed against the barrier, shattering it from the force of the collision.
As though watching the dawn of the universe, within the darkness a pulse of blinding light exploded out, basking the entire realm in cosmic light. Pulses of purple and red me erupted out, setting fire to everything within the realm.
Watching everything unfold within the Beyond with Juri, Nyx felt grateful for Shiro telling her to leave because she would''ve been caught up in that if she waste.
As the blinding light and scorching mes died down, the state of the realm came into view.
At the centre of the explosion, a singrity could be observed. A single orb where no light could be seen, where the realm twisted and converged towards the darkness. Even the void that was shredding the realm was not spared as it paled inparison to the singrity.
Surrounding the singrity, an retion disc formed from the realm itself could be observed.
Snapping her eyes open, Shiro quickly stabilized herself as the explosion had knocked her out momentarily. Quickly healing her wounds, she nced towards the centre and narrowed her eyes.
While the effects of her attack surpassed what she had expected, something felt wrong. She could still sense Aria, or rather, Arias as it was as though she was multiplying.
"SH*T!" Shouting out in surprise, Shiro could see what was happening at the centre of the singrity.
The breakdown of thews surrounding this world, a convergence and reflection of every realm and space across time. Aria was dragging every single ''Aria'' into this moment to heal herself, to allow herself to survive this attack that obliterated the God Realm.
Her tenacity to survive, her will to do what she fervently believed to be right burned in defiance. From within the orb of darkness, tens of giant ws tore through the void, wing at the edges in an attempt to drag her wounded body out from within.
"ARGGGGGG!!!" Crying out in anger and defiance, Aria reared what remained of her head out of the void. Large chunks of her body were missing as she conjured two trumpets and activated them simultaneously.
The fourth and fifth trumpet.
The singrity surrounding Aria started to merge with her body as Aria was now almost unrecognisable. The realm itself healed and took the ce of her body that had been damaged by Shiro''s attack.
Aria was now no different from a beast. 8 main extremities acted as her arms, wing against the realm with bone and cosmic energy forming her body while her lower half was submerged within the singrity. A myriad of tendrilsshed around with blood mes lining the sides of the tendrils. Her face was now a fractured mask with only a singr eyeball intact that red at Shiro unblinking.
Within her chest was a kaleidoscope reflection of all of the realms still existing. The fractured skies rained down blood and mes, engulfing the realms in chaos as the energy siphoned towards Aria, empowering her more with each passing moment. It was no exaggeration to say Shiro was now fighting an amalgamation that was feeding off every known universe.
"Aria! Do you not see what you are doing?! Even if you happen to seal me away, what then?! Look at what you are causing to the realms!" Shiro shouted out but there was no response from Aria. Her eyes continued to stare at Shiro as hundreds of tendrilsunched towards her.
"She''s lost her damn mind!" Shiro gnashed her teeth in anger. She wasn''t even registering what she was doing to the realms, all that was on her mind right now was to seal Shiro away.
Even without the codes, Shiro could tell that Aria was burning through her own existence with each passing moment in a bid to stay alive. But her desire for power was counteracting her survival instincts, she was slowly progressing to the point of no return.
Just as Shiro dodged one of her attacks, a tiny singrity opened up beside her, causing Shiro to immediately jump to the side but it still shredded a portion of her torso. Sucking in a sharp breath of air, Shiro furrowed her brows as Aria was now able to use the power of the singrity to her advantage.
Mustering up some courage, Shiro forced herself to smile at the situation.
"I suppose I did ask for a challenge before." She humoured herself but she was at her wits end. Thatst attack was the strongest she could think of as she had made the clones with 95% of her power in an attempt to end the fight then and there. But now that Aria had survived, she had to dy things while recovering her lost power on top of figuring out how she could kill Aria.
''I could stall until she burns herself out, but if I do that how many realms will be intact?'' She thought to herself. Her worries multiplying as she knew her own world was suffering from this as well. She had to end the fight sooner rather thanter.
Chapter 1256: Comprehend and Destroy
Shiro didn''t know whether or not she should be grateful that Aria has lost her mind since the fight will be easier to predict. However, now that she''s lost her mind, she doesn''t care about the consequences of her actions upon the realms.
At least when they were fighting earlier, Aria didn''t drag others into the fight.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro forced herself to calm down.
''I need to watch out for her singrity attacks as well as the trumpets. From my estimations, it should be something simr to the seven trumpets of the apocalypse. Meaning there are only two trumpets left.'' Shiro thought to herself while dodging Aria''s attacks.
Retaliating with her own rail cannons, she frowned when Aria shrugged them off like it was nothing.
''I need something that can hurt her for good¡ But my strongest attack only served to strengthen her. Why? What did she resonate with that allowed her to fuse with the singrity?''
Gritting her teeth, Shiro tried her best to dodge the singrity attacks as they appeared in an instant, there was almost no time to dodge and the wounds were piling up even with her regeneration and healing.
She tried to activate Error but the realm was unstable, it was as though her previous attack hadpletely separated the space they were in from the world they knew. The system had no influence here nor were there any ''codes'' for her to use.
''Guess I need to go back to my old tricks. I need to set up a small ''domain'' that will let me sense where the singrities appear so I can dodge them. Then I need to analyse the weaknesses of Aria''s new body and see what takes effect.''
Jumping up, Shiro gathered her mana into her hand and sent out a shockwave.
A myriad of runes and arrays appeared around the walls of this space as an influx of information flooded Shiro''s mind.
With these runes, she''ll be able to perceive the battle from all around them. Every single attack, every single shift in mana will be visible. But this wasn''t enough.
Just ''seeing'' this wouldn''t let her dodge Aria''s attacks. She needed instantaneous capture of the entire battlefield every moment to see the exact moment a singrity starts to form.
Firing thousands of invisible strands of mana from each array, Shiro started to map out the entire battlefield in her mind. A real time simted fight appeared in her mind that ovepped what she was seeing.
''I need more, the amount of mana strands isn''t enough to capture even the smallest change.'' Shiro frowned as she was still unable to pick up the exact moment the orbs appeared. She needed the strands to be smaller than her nanobots and fill every gap within this realm.
Flipping over one of the tendrils that tried to grab her, Shiro continued to nt mana strands across the battlefield.
However, her anxiety continued to grow seeing the reflections of worlds within Aria''s chest.
''Even if I start to dodge, I don''t have anything to damage her.''
Flicking her wrist, several des appeared around her as she sent them piercing towards Aria while being amplified by mana arrays. Each de had been imbued with a different element that she had attunement towards but none of them managed to damage Aria with the exception of Error and her nanobots. But even with Error and the Nanobots being able to damage Aria, her wounds healed up in a blink of an eye.
''What part of Error and my Nanobots damage her? If I can figure out the fundamentals of what is actually harming her I can use that to make something new.'' Shiro thought while biting her lip.
Refining her senses to their limit, Shiro weaved through the barrage of attacks while adjusting her nanobots. She would change them ever so slightly and see the effectiveness against Aria while making notes in her mind.
*CRACK!
Hearing the sound of ss shattering, Shiro nced towards Aria and noticed one of the reflections of the worlds broke apart and disappeared.
Widening her eyes, she watched as Aria''s form became more monstrous as an entire world surrendered to her might.
''This cannot go on.'' Shiro narrowed her eyes as she took a deep breath. She doesn''t have enough information to work with right now but shepleted her new ''domain'', one that would allow her to see everything within this battlefield.
Closing her eyes, Shiro ignored the myriad of tendrils and singrities appearing near her.
Even with her eyes closed, the world was clear to her. Every tiny detail, every breath, every movement even down to the smallest scale could now be observed by her.
With the speed of which she could analyse the information in her mind, the world may as well be frozen in time.
*BANG!!!!
As all of Aria''s attacks collided, Shiro was nowhere to be seen.
Despite her madness and monstrous form, Aria instinctively felt fear. For the first time in this fight, she had lost track of where Shiro was. In a panic, sheunched a of attacks all around her, destroying everything on sight.
Within the web of destruction, a single shadow could be seen flickering at blinding speeds through the gaps.
"I can see everything you try to do." Shiro dered with a cold voice.
The attacks were phasing through her body as though she was a ghost, causing Aria to let out a cry while trying to create some distance between the two of them. But with her body being submerged in the original singrity that Shiro had created, she had nowhere to run.
''It''s still iplete but it should be enough to deal with her.'' Shiro thought with narrowed eyes.
Gathering energy into her hands, the world of darkness that they were in started to be filled with a blinding light.
The reason why Error and her Nanobots worked was due to their properties of being able to break down the fabric of reality. The system was a foreign entity to begin with. When she attacked Aria with Error and her Nanobots, it''s akin to injecting a virus within Aria''s body allowing her to be ''studied and noted down'' as information. Thus erasing it bes a possibility.
Bybining both Error and Nanobots at a fundamental level along with her understanding of the system, Shiro is able to achieve the impossible. In her hands, she now possessed the power toprehend then destroy.
Gathering all of her strength into her right arm, crimson circuits twisted with the bolt of energy as Shiro mustered all of her strength, throwing the bolt as hard as she possibly could. Her muscle and bones cracked under the pressure as the bolt phased through the space between them.
Wherever the bolt touched, lines upon lines of code started to spread like an infection.
Aria was unable to make a single sound as the bolt exploded in her body, erupting with a cluster of circuits that tore through her flesh. Any attempts to dig out the codes were futile as the core of her being had already been recorded.
Codes tattooed through Aria''s body as they served as chains, restricting her movements.
Hovering in the sky, Shiro stared at Aria coldly as information flooded her mind. Now that the codes have been nted, destroying them was as simple as a wave of her finger.
Unbeknownst to Shiro, the moment she had opened her new ''domain'' ***** stood up as mes of passion ignited in her eyes.
"She did it! The all-seeing eyes! She''s achieved the first step!" ***** howled inughter while watching in anticipation. There was only one more thing that Shiro needed to achieve before her dream could be achieved at longst.
"Only one step¡ onest step!" She muttered whilst on the verge of begging. She so desperately wanted Shiro to achieve thest step. Her expectations only grew seeing Shiro gather the final attack but it wasn''t enough. She couldn''t let it end like this, if she allowed Shiro to stop here she''ll never achieve her dream.
"Your role isn''t over yet!" ***** Grinned as a psychotic light filled her eyes.
Within the fractured God Realm, the space was forcefully torn apart as Shiro looked up in shock.
A pair of skeletal ws plunged into Aria''s chest as ck goo crawled into her body.
"More! Burn everything if you have to! That is your only purpose!" ***** Shouted out from within her realm. Her face flushed with anticipation as she could hardly contain herself anymore.
Aria''s body started to crack apart as two trumpets were forcefully extracted from within. Activating the trumpets, ***** forced Aria to mutate further while Shiro was stunned by what she was witnessing.
With the bolt still within Aria, Shiro was able to get a nce into the source of the skeletal hands but that only left her in bewilderment.
Her shock was shortsting as she couldn''t afford to stand around. Gathering her strength, she infused herself with as much mana as she could. Now that Aria''s achieved the seventh trumpet forcefully through the third party, she was burning through her life force at blistering speeds.
From the codes, Shiro could see that ''Aria''s'' goal has changed. In her mind, there was no longer the desire to seal. Only themand issued by *****.
Kill.
Chapter 1257: *****s Power
As the seventh trumpet was activated, Aria''s form started to disintegrate. All of the flesh and bones protruding out of her body melted into the same ck goo that ***** had injected.
From within the copsing corpse of her previous form, a ck shadow rose up. Her form seemed to beprised of a thousand hands wrapping around her body while glowing red circuits pulsed around her body.
On the spot where Shiro''s attack hadnded, there was now a blooming flower with circuits acting as the roots.
Simr to Shiro''s current form, where her body is made of ck crystals that reflected the stars, Aria''s body was now made of ck shadows that represented the horrors.
Illusionary strings extended from the skeletal hands from above and connected to Aria''s body, piloting her like a puppet as she had already lost her sense of self.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro summoned both Iriel and Vinri before ovepping them with the newbination of Nanobots and Error, allowing the attacks to truly damage Aria.
"Reveal yourself! Are you going to continue watching from afar?! So much you have nned for me but you won''t even reveal your face?" Shiro shouted out in annoyance while dashing towards Aria.
This was Aria''s final stand.
The moment her essence burns out due to the third party''s interference, there will never be another Aria.
While Shiro doesn''t know the truth behind the scenes, nor was she going to stop her pursuit of strength, she could respect Aria''s desire for the world. Even if that desire conflicted against hers. And to see a third party not even show their face while controlling Aria like this was not something Shiro liked to see.
Appearing above Aria, Shiro twisted her body and shed away at the strings in an attempt to sever the connection between the two so that Aria could have control back. But her swords only phased through the strings as though they don''t exist at all.
''Is the new attackcking?'' Shiro thought to herself with a frown. Her new ability should''ve allowed her toprehend anything and everything she came into contact with, yet the strings couldn''t be registered.
Just as she adjusted her body, Aria was already in front of Shiro with her ws about tond against Shiro''s head.
*CLANG!!!
Parrying without any difficulty thanks to her new domain, Shiro wanted to create some distance but Aria grabbed the sword and refused to let go.
Red cracks spread across Aria''s face as a ''mouth'' opened up.
"I suppose you do need a reward for getting this far. But as for seeing me¡ That''ll be your reward after you kill Aria. Your reward foring this far is a glimpse of the truth I suppose. Just a small understanding of what set everything off and you can find out the rest when you see me." ''Aria'' grinned as the world around them started to twist.
"So let''s begin back at the war where Anima lost her mind."
mming her hand down, ''Aria'' activated a giant tier 9 magic circle that started to glitch and flicker.
Suddenly, the world around them surged with mana as a 10thyer was formed. The entire realm shook to wee the presence of a tier 10 magic circle while the sheer density of mana caused Shiro''s body to be flung backwards.
Widening her eyes, Shiro stared at the magic circle in shock as tier 9 should be by rights the max, even for Chaos. While there are levels of mastery within tier 9, such as the difference between the original Aria and Shiro, Chaos would be around Shiro levels or perhaps a little higher.
Yet the unknown third party activated a tier 10 magic circle like it was nothing.
Reflections of worlds spread across the walls of the realm as ''Aria'' jumped up and flicked her finger.
A barrier appeared around both of them with the realm beingpressed down to a single orb and crushed to dust.
Without saying anything, ''Aria'' snapped her finger and a wave of light washed over them. A myriad of codes filled the world to the brim as thousands of years of history was written instantly.
Adjusting her eyesight, Shiro frowned seeing the scenery change as the skies were now blood red. The flood of destruction energy spread across thends as there were two prominent presences aside from the two of them.
Both of the signatures were familiar to Shiro as it was Anima and the original First Born of Creation.
"You''re not seeing the full picture! Use your new domain!" ''Aria'' called out as she appeared in front of Shiro, mming her ws into Shiro''s chest.
Guarding at thest second, Shiro could still feel the impact spreading through her body, pushing her physical durability to the limit as she spread out the edges of her domain.
As all of the codes appeared in her mind, Shiro realised what ''Aria'' was talking about. Even the ''Original'' Anima and the First Born of Creation were just copies. A reflection of millions of Anima''s and Aria''s.
While it may be the ''original'' to Shiro, millions of final battles have happened. Untold cycles repeated and ended.
"That''s the reason why Anima gave up." Shiro muttered in disbelief as she took a step back before twisting her body andunching a counter towards ''Aria''.
"She was simply destined to lose her mind. Millions of cycles and patterns always emerge my dear Shiro. Neither Anima nor Aria was special, they''re just the tiles on the chessboard, the background of a fight like now! Their lives were never meant to go far!" ''Aria''ughed while snapping her finger.
Shadow tendrils erupted out from her body as it severed the mana strands that Shiro was using for her new domain, taking her by surprise.
Before Shiro could react, a huge force collided with the side of her body as she could feel her bones breaking apart from the hit.
Gritting her teeth, she needed to reestablish her domain to stay on the defensive while she worked on her offensive technique. But ''Aria'' could see everything that was happening, she knew Shiro''s technique, she knew her ns.
"Your worth is dwindling Shiro! Fight for it! Innovate! Create! Search for the solution!"
Parrying ''Aria''s'' w attacks with her de, Shiro jammed Vinri into ''Aria''s'' shoulder before mming her palm against the pommel, causing the de to shred through ''Aria''s'' arm, tearing it from the main body.
A maddening light filled ''Aria''s'' eyes as she regenerated a new arm and grabbed Shiro by the throat and mmed her towards the ground of the battle.
However, what ''Aria'' grabbed was a decoy that Shiro had switched out.
Appearing behind ''Aria'', Shiro jammed Iriel into her body and flooded it Error''s power in an attempt toprehend ''Aria'' so that she could break her apart.
"Too much information is bad even for you." ''Aria''ughed as information flooded into Shiro''s mind. Millions of copies of her life as well as the lives of everyone included in these cycles crashed into her like a tsunami, knocking her out momentarily as ''Aria'' grabbed Shiro by the head.
"Everything you need to know is within this realm. It''s up to you to find out. And let''s give you a little¡ encouragement." ''Aria'' grinned as she forced Shiro awake.
Waving her hand, she conjured a God Beast simr to the one found in the world of Creation and injected it with the same ck goo she injected into Aria before imbuing it with Chaos'' power.
Creating a portal, ''Aria'' sent the beast away as reflections of the realm appeared across the sky, showing the beast tearing through realities with other Shiro''s unable to stop it.
"It''ll continue tearing through realities until it finds yours. And when it does¡ I wonder if your friends can hold up against it." ''Aria''ughed as Shiro grabbed at ''Aria''s'' wrist, anger burning in her eyes.
Activating her remaining berserk skills, Shiro gritted her teeth and tore ''Aria''s'' arm to shreds before reaching for her head.
However, ''Aria'' managed to dodge to the side before trying to kick Shiro away. But just as her kick was about to connect, Shiro teleported away as chains shot up from the ground restraining ''Aria'' momentarily as tier 9 magic circles appeared above her.
They were simr to the attack that Shiro had used to create the singrity but ''Aria'' noticed something strange with thest magic circle.
The world started to cry out as mana was drained from thend without signs of stopping. The ground turned grey and faded to ash as a smile crept up on ''Aria''s'' face.
"Magnificent! Truly magnificent!" She shouted out in joy as Shiro was attempting to form a tier 10 magic circle from her memories of what ''Aria'' had performed.
In the distance, both Anima and Aria rushed over trying to see what was happening but ''Aria'' would not have her moment ruined.
"Background pieces should stay in the background!" She cried out as de des shot up from the ground, piercing deep into their bodies as their essence was wiped outpletely.
Raising her arms as though weing the attack, she watched as a bolt of red and purple energy gathered in the sky and plunged down, copsing the realm around it.
''Is it finally done? Has she achieved the second requirement?'' ''Aria'' asked as tears started to form around her eyes.
Chapter 1258: Arias Choice
Watching her imitation of a tier 10 attacknd against ''Aria'' Shiro narrowed her eyes in frustration.
''It''s not enough¡ What am I missing to reach tier 10?'' Shiro thought with a frown. Quickly backing off, Shiro prepared for ''Aria''s'' counter attack but ''Aria'' only stood still.
Her arms dropped down as her posture slumped over.
"Is that it?" She asked in a low voice. Disappointment and sadness could be heard within her tone as she nced back at Shiro.
"I suppose this is as far as a copy can go."
Appearing in front of Shiro, ''Aria'' grabbed Shiro''s head, bypassing her domain from just brute force as her body was now being reinforced by tier 10 magic circles.
"I''m disappointed. Truly, I thought that after countless cycles an exception would appear. But you fell short of my expectations like all of the others." ''Aria'' muttered as light faded from her eyes. Her gaze was now cold and unfeeling.
"You can die in this world alone. The cycle will reset itself in due time. And another disappointment awaits me like before."
Twisting her body, ''Aria'' plunged her hand into Shiro''s chest as ck goo flooded into her body. Without saying anything, ''Aria'' dropped Shiro before cutting the puppet strings connected to Aria''s body. Giving Shiro onest nce of disappointment, ***** turned her gaze away and returned control to Aria.
As her conscious returned to her, Aria stood silently while looking down at Shiro who was convulsing on the ground. Even though ***** had returned her body to her, the time limit was up. She could already feel her body crumbling away.
Jumping down, shended next to Shiro.
"What?" Shiro squeezed through gritted teeth as she was trying her best to remove the ck goo from within. She could feel her codes being corrupted with every passing moment that they stayed within her.
"Nothing. There''s no point in sealing you away now. Even if I sealed you away it won''t dy the end anymore. She has given up on you, so this world no longer has any uses." Aria sat down next to Shiro and sighed.
"I had fought this long hoping that I could extend the life of our universe as much as I could. But in the end it''s all futile. Ending on a whim because you couldn''t match her expectations."
"Uhuh, now can you shut up?! I''m kind of dying here!" Shiro shouted in annoyance as she forcefully dug out the ck goo with her bare hands. But it was no use, her vision was already blurring as she could feel the insanity of millions upon millions of Anima''s invading her mind.
Their despair and anguish fighting against Shiro''s sense of self.
"What''s the point? You already saw how the fight went down." Aria asked as she hugged her knees. Laying her head against her knees, she nced at Shiro who was still fighting against the corruption.
"If you get the ck goo out of your system, what then? How are you going to find her again? And if you find her how are you even going to kill her?" Aria asked. She didn''t know where Shiro was getting her motivation to fight against something so unbelievably powerful that neither of them could do anything.
"It''s obvious, isn''t it? I''ve told you time and time again during our fight." Shiro clicked her tongue in annoyance as she took a deep breath and summoned Error.
''Error dear, I''m going to need some help. I want to modify my code and ''turn back time'' on my own body, before the ck goo invaded it.''
[I¡ Don''t think I can help much but I''ll try mother.] Error replied hesitantly as the ck goo was something else entirely. While Shiro could rewrite reality to a certain extent within a given area, the ck goo wasn''t something that could be easily removed.
A quick analysis of the goo revealed that it was the essence of every cycle that had already happened, condensed into a liquid that would corrupt and drive them insane. It would amplify the victims strongest desire to the point it would be their only driving force.
Watching Shiro struggle in silence, Aria sighed andid back.
Looking up at the crimson sky, she couldn''t help but feel bitterness in her heart. She could see why Shiro refused to give up on her path of obtaining strength.
If she was just a little stronger, if she could be the one to make the choices, they wouldn''t be in this situation. If Aria had the strength to properly seal away Shiro and defy *****, none of this would''ve happened.
"Shiro." Aria called out as Shiro nced over.
"Do you have nothing else to do? If you''re just gonna watch me die, at least watch in silence." Shiro rolled her eyes as Aria felt like a vein was about to pop.
"Has anyone told you that you are insufferable? I''m not even sure I want to help you anymore." Aria clicked her tongue.
"Ha??? Help? Don''t you hate me? Did you get brain damage or something? Why the f*ck would you help me?" Shiro looked at Aria in a mix of confusion and disbelief.
"Don''t get me wrong, I hate you and you hate me. That''s not going to change. But our goal is the same, isn''t it? To preserve this world." Aria stated while holding back the urge to punch Shiro.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"How confident are you at stopping her?" Aria asked with seriousness.
"No f*cking clue. I mean did you see her? Tier 10! I tried to emte what she did but it wascking in the end. I tried to figure out what I wascking but everything was perfect, it should''ve activated but it still failed." Shiroined.
"You have nothing to rely on, no source of confidence and you''re STILL trying to defy her?" Aria blinked in disbelief as Shiro shrugged.
"Well duh, what else am I supposed to do? Cry about it like a b*tch? I might as well try until the end."
Taking a deep breath, Shiro activated a tier 9 magic circle around her as circuits plunged into her body. A myriad of codes appeared in her mind as she wanted to revert her current state. However, the more she analysed her code, the more she realised how screwed she was with the goo.
Due to the nature of the goo, it was rewriting the history of her codes. Her own existence was essentially merging with all of the previous Shiro''s and Anima''s and once that''s done, she''ll be part of the liquid. Trying to ''undo'' the moment the liquid came into contact with her was difficult since she''ll need to ''undo'' the same event that had happened to the other copies of her.
And if she was to try doing that, it''ll be no different to unwinding her own existence till it was reduced to nothing. The moment the goo had touched her, it was over.
"Judging by your expression, I take it that you fully understand what it means to be corrupted by the ck liquid." Aria smiled bitterly as she showed off her own arm that was nowpletely melted.
"But setting aside our imminent deaths, I''ll try to help you as I said." Aria said as she stood up and walked in front of Shiro.
"I still don''t get it though. You''re not this selfless as to help out your enemy. What do you want from me?" Shiro asked with doubt in her voice.
"Just take a look at my code and figure it out dumbass." Aria rolled her eyes.
ncing at Aria''s code, Shiro finally understood what she meant. Her code was already 70% unravelled and it was only a matter of moments before her entire existence fades. This was herst act before death.
"Between the two of us, I still believe my method is correct. However, if I had to choose a ''winner'' per say, I''d prefer that to be you than her. We both know I don''t have to power to contend against her." Aria chuckled while cing her remaining hand against Shiro''s wound.
"Though it''s not like I''m doing it for free either. You got to promise me that you''ll preserve the world, all the worlds. I know you have both Creation and Destruction, so it should be possible for you." Aria asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Of course I will. That''s the goal from the beginning." Shiro replied with seriousness as Aria smiled in satisfaction.
Suddenly, all of the ck goo started to drain from Shiro''s body as she felt as though her insides were being ripped out.
"HNG!" Letting out a small cry, Aria flinched as she felt the goo enter her own body. The resentment of Anima filled her mind but she had to hold on, at least until all of it was out of Shiro.
"Thank you." Shiro squeezed out as Aria head butted Shiro in retaliation.
"???" Holding her forehead in confusion, Shiro blinked her eyes at Aria.
"Spare me the gratitude. Just hearing you thank me makes me want to throw up."
"Well I guess f*ck you then?" Shiro replied in disbelief as she didn''t think Aria wouldn''t even want to hear a thank you.
"That''s more like it. And f*ck you too, you''re the most insufferable b*tch I know." Aria smiled as she ripped her hand off Shiro, taking thest remains of the ck goo.
Chapter 1259: Garden Project
Gritting her teeth, Aria could feel the invasion of the ck goo in her consciousness. As she stumbled back, Shiro quickly grabbed hold of her arm and helped her stand.
Shiro wanted to ask if she was alright, but hesitated since they both knew that Aria''s time was up.
In choosing to help Shiro, her final moments will be filled with pain from fighting against the ck goo.
Helping Aria sit down next to A boulder, Shiro tried her best to soothe the pain but her methods were ineffective.
"Don''t bother. Just treat it as your enemy getting everything she deserved." Aria muttered while clutching her arms to hold back her cries of pain.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro had aplicated expression on her face as she didn''t know what to feel in this situation. She hated Aria and rejected her way of doing things. But it doesn''t change the fact that she had just saved her life right now.
"Stop looking at me like that. I epted the evils I wouldmit in my bid to keep the realms safe. Those who desire to change the world should be ready for the consequences thate with it. I''m merely suffering the consequences right now." Aria lectured as Shiro nodded her head.
"My final advice for you is to find out the secrets behind this world that we''re in. ***** mentioned this realm holding a glimpse of the truth. Though judging by your expression you didn''t hear what I just said did you? Despite losing faith in you she still stops you from finding out the truth." Ariaughed bitterly.
Organising her thoughts, Aria sat up a little before looking at Shiro in all seriousness.
"I will try to tell you what I know about her though my information is limited. Plus I need to work around the censors she''s put in ce. Her true identity is someone we know very well. As for her role in all of this¡ I suppose you can call her Order. She was originally created by Chaos to regte the universe. She wasn''t ''Order'' in the beginning. It was something she developed into. Well¡ that''s my own spection." Aria said slowly while trying to think of ways to tell Shiro as much as she could without the information being lost to the censor.
"Wait¡ So you''re telling me she''s Order? Chaos'' counterpart?" Shiro asked as Aria smiled.
"Sounds like you heard what I said." Sighing relief, Aria flinched as her body started to break apart rapidly.
"Just promise me you''ll save the realm." Aria squeezed out while clutching Shiro''s sleeve.
"I promise."
Hearing the response, Aria smiled contently as Shiro bit her lip and stood up. Watching Aria dissolve into a pool of ck liquid, Shiro gave her final thanks and farewell before turning to the rest of the realm.
''Order told me to look deeper into this realm so that I might find the truth. I only got a glimpse so far but if the truth is here, I need to look even deeper.'' Shiro thought to herself as she jumped up into the sky and conjured several scouting drones. She wanted to find the edges of this realm and see how far it stretched on for.
She needed to hurry since Order had created a God Beast that was making its way towards her world. With it being injected with the ck goo, it''s going to prove to be a tough enemy for Lyrica and the others.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro flicked her fingers and all of the scouting drones she sent started to transform intorge pirs that drilled into thend.
''With my new powers, I should be able toprehend everything behind this realm.''
Attempting to form a tier 10 magic circle once more, Shiro gritted her teeth in annoyance as the best she could do was tier 9. Each of the pirs started to ''inject'' foreign code into this realm. The purpose of the foreign code was to navigate through the realm and dig up the deepest secrets for Shiro to see.
The barrier from tier 9 to tier 10 was something so thin yet indestructible. Shiro didn''t know what was barring her way but it was like a thin veil. She could see the other side yet she''s still separated.
Setting aside the fact that tier 10 was still unreachable for her, Shiro started toprehend the code.
However, just like before, there was no new information to the truth that she found out. Her reality was just one of many, all simtions by Order''s hand.
''Error, are you there?''
[Yes mother?]
''Can you help me pinpoint the very start of the codes? The moment of conception. I want to witness the start of everything.'' Shiro asked as Error was silent for a short moment.
[It may take a while and I''m not sure if mother can digest all of the information.]
''Condense them down to images so I don''t have to read lines upon lines of code. Unless there''s something different within the codes, I don''t need to read it.''
[Understood.]
Feeling her mana reserves depleting slowly, Shiro was surprised since the amount of mana Error was using outweighed her mana regen. Though considering the fact that he was reading the history of this realm and condensing it down to images, Shiro could see why it would take a lot of mana.
Suddenly, countless images started to sh before her. Key moments from every cycle that has ever happened.
Her meeting with her friends, her fights, her anguish. It has all happened before.
Even the fight between her and Aria has happened before. The same choices, the same results. What she thought was her own choices, her own will, was nothing but a mass produced hoax.
Countless sentences rang out in her ears, Aria''s final words and her own promises.
But considering that she was here, she failed to fulfill them before.
Stumbling back, Shiro took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. Even for her, it was a daunting task. Millions of ''Shiro''s'' made it to where she was and none of them seeded.
Biting her lips, Shiro continued to watch the scenes. No matter what happens, no matter what she finds out, she wasn''t going to stop.
Even if a million failures looked her dead in the eyes like now, she will not stop.
''The other me''s were faced with the same choice. They saw everything that had happened before and they never stopped. All of us know that even if it seems futile we still have to try to the bitter end.'' Shiro reassured herself as her heart calmed down.
[Mother¡ I think I found the beginning.] Error said hesitantly as Shiro raised an eyebrow.
''Something wrong?''
[There''s nothing wrong. Just that¡ the beginning is another cycle. Though there''s some differences so it might actually be easier for me to show you.]
Tilting her head in confusion, Shiro closed her eyes briefly and saw that her mind had been transported into a simtion of Error''s doing.
''Where am I Error?'' Shiro asked curiously as the world around her was slowly being built from the ground up.
[A simtion of the ''first cycle''. It''s easier for mother to process the information if you experience it yourself. From what I could see of the ''first cycle'' from within the codes, it''s the only one that''s majorly different from the others and for good reason too.]
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head slowly as she wondered what could be different.
[During this simtion, you will not be able to control your body as you are merely reliving what has already happened.]
As the scene cleared up, Shiro noticed that she was floating around like a ghost while there was another ''Shiro'' sitting beneath her.
She looked a little older than what Shiro looked like at this moment and wore an elegant ck dress adorned with silver jewellery.
In the distance, a woman could be seen running over with a wide smile on her face.
"Sister!"
It was Aria. Compared to the Aria that Shiro knew, this one seemed more lively and cheerful.
Hugging ''Shiro'', Aria grinned happily as ''Shiro'' patted her head.
"What is it? Has mother finished what she was nning to do?"
"Yep! She wants you toe over and have a look. She''s calling it the Garden project." Aria nodded her head.
"Garden project? Is she nting flowers?" ''Shiro'' raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"You''ll find out when youe with us!"
With no other choice, ''Shiro'' shrugged and followed behind Aria.
''The garden project? By mother, does Aria mean Chaos?'' Shiro thought to herself with a frown as the scenery started to change. The fact that she was seeing all of this means that Order had wanted her to find out the truth when they fought.
She had a hunch that the truth lies behind the Garden Project and when she finds out, she''ll understand why Anima lost her mind.
###
Sitting in her own realm, Order leaned back and sighed.
"Disappointing like the rest... I got my hopes up for nothing." She muttered while ncing towards the myriad of realms on the brink of destruction thanks to her actions, her feelings already numb to what she''s seeing.
"I''ll let things y out I suppose... The Garden Project was a failure and I''m here suffering for it." Order smiled bitterly as tears started to form around her eyes.
Chapter 1260: Goal Of The Garden Project
Following the sisters, Shiro could see that this realm was nd. It was simplistic andcked any form of decoration aside from a few flowers that had been nted by the side of the road.
It seemed like there were just the sisters and the mother living in this area but Shiro didn''t know if there were more people outside of thispound.
As they approached a small building, Shiro noticed that there was a stairway leading to the basement. The carvings on the walls didn''t match any architecture that she was familiar with and even had runic symbols that looked more traditional than the ones she knows now.
''I suppose it''s the original runes, ones that got simplified down and had their potency reduced so people could use them.'' Shiro theorised as this house was a trove of knowledge.
While she was still unable to find the truth of tier 10, her runic knowledge had already increased by leaps and bounds.
Arriving at the bottom of the stairway, Shiro could see a single woman standing in front of a hovering orb. She wore a long, elegant dress that didn''t show a single bit of skin. The dress had a flowing skirt that seemed to have a life of its own as it fluttered softly despite having no wind in the basement. ck hair that faded into white streaks and a pair of grey eyes.
Despite never seeing her before, Shiro instinctively felt that she was Chaos. A strange familiarity yet so foreign at the same time. Her identity as the First Born knows her, but as Shiro, she did not.
"Ah, you two are finally here." Chaos smiled softly while turning back to the sister.
"Yep!" ''Aria'' nodded proudly as ''Shiro'' put away her book.
"Aria said that you were finished with the garden project? Aren''t there plenty of flowers in the garden already?" ''Shiro'' asked, causing Chaos to chuckle at the notion.
"No, the Garden Project isn''t for flowers dear. Come, have a look." Chaos beckoned them over as she presented a floating orb to them.
The orb was a miniature model of a filled with continents that Shiro has never seen before.
"You two know that at the start of everything, there was me. And from me, the two of you appeared. The others soon followed but we governed concepts andws of reality. If we are the rules, for whom do we bind?" Chaos asked as the two shook their heads, not knowing the answer.
"I believe we are created to govern reality so people may enjoy the fruits of ourbour."
Flicking her wrist, the orb expanded rapidly as all three of themnded on the nt''s surface and watched as people started to appear and develop the world. Generations flickered by with each second and new advancements blinked through the world''s lifetime.
"No matter what happens, people always appear. And without properws governing the world, they die and the world ends. Just like how you like reading your books, and how Aria likes nting more flowers, my innate desire is to foster life into the universe. And I want nothing more than to provide a perfect world for them." Chaos smiled softly as she looked upon the world with tenderness.
"I want to grace them with the creativity of mana, the chance to ascend and evolve if they wish. But in doing so, it''ll lead to the world itself being unable to contain them." Chaos sighed as she waved her hand.
As mana began pouring into the world, cracks started to form and eventually the fell apart.
"The Garden Project is a sequence of events that will temper the world to ept such powers. So that even the strongest being will not be able to destabilize the worlds."
Hearing this, ''Shiro'' tapped her chin a few times before opening her mouth.
"But why do we need them to be stronger? Surely if you provide them with a paradise they''ll have no reason to pursue more." ''Shiro'' frowned as Chaos shook her head.
"They are innately curious creatures, ever searching for more. You cannot stop that, if you do they''ll cease to function. Whatever they desire to attain, I will give them a path towards their dream. They only need to have the resolve to tread upon such a path.
"When the project begins, millions of worlds will begin their course. Each cycle will learn from the past and improve upon itself until a perfect garden to host all life is created. We will give the chosen individuals a higher form of power to assist the worlds in taking their course." Chaos exined as ''Shiro'' nodded her head in understanding.
"Then I guess you want me and Aria to help you with these cycles."
"Yes, Aria will be responsible for creating more cycles and building upon the knowledge gained from the past. While I need you to help me regte the number of cycles currently active. I don''t want you to terminate them before their due course though¡ I want them to enjoy what they have first."
"Oh! When do we start?" Aria asked as she was excited thinking about the life she was going to create. She wanted to give them all the blessings she could imagine so that they may enjoy their life to their fullest.
"We will begin tomorrow. I want to take this time to make sure everything is okay before we begin."
As the two sisters left the basement, Chaos turned back to her worktable and nced at the book on the side. It was a device that will document and store every single test result umted from the cycles and help make an informed decision on how the next cycle should progress until a perfect garden is found. But there were still ws within the design so she wanted to sort that out before gifting this book to her oldest daughter.
Hovering in the air, Shiro was silent.
If everything she heard was correct, the Garden project is what caused the cycles and it''s still happening right now. Aria was meant to create more worlds while Shiro was meant to destroy them if they got out of hand.
''Seems like she had already thought of the concept of Admins through taking talented individuals from different cycles. I haven''t heard any mention of Order yet so I suppose she''ll be created when the Garden Project starts.'' Shiro thought to herself as she wanted to explore this ce some more but the simtion had already switched.
Understanding what Error is like, there was most likely nothing else to be found in that moment.
Adjusting her eyes, Shiro could see that they were back in the main courtyard with ''Shiro'' practicing for her role. She was currently manipting mana to find a ''good'' way to end a cycle without too much pain.
"Hmm.. no this won''t do. It''ll cause them too much pain, Aria wouldn''t like it." ''Shiro'' muttered as she thought of ''Aria''s'' happiness when she created new life.
Flicking her wrists, several magic circles appeared as she continued to simte ways on how she could terminate the cycles peacefully.
Observing the magic circles, Shiro understood that they were a more primordial form of tier 9 magic circles. This version of Shiro was essentially brute forcing a tier 9 magic circle through sheer divinity and power.
Despite its inefficiency, it was strangely mesmerising watching the way ''Shiro'' manipted the mana.
Suddenly, her trance was broken when Chaos arrived as she quickly sat up straight.
"Did I forget something?" ''Shiro'' asked curiously as Chaos shook her head.
"No, I just wanted to ask your opinion on the garden project. I know your sister is excited about it since she''s simr to me. She loves bringing life to this world. She took after that aspect of me while you understand the reality of too much excess is bad. I just wanted to hear your thoughts." Chaos smiled as ''Shiro'' fell silent.
Thinking about it deeply for a moment, she sighed and scratched her hair.
"I¡ Am not sure about how I feel about the project. I''m not against bringing life to this world. But in the end¡ it''s still me who has to take them away." ''Shiro'' smiled bitterly thinking about how many worlds she''ll need to terminate.
Hearing this, Chaos patted her head and gave her a deep hug.
"Though a foreign concept to us, life and death is part of the cycle for these ephemeral beings. They are born into the world and shine as bright as they can before disappearing. Some shine brighter and bring change while others surround them." Chaos exined as ''Shiro'' sighed and nodded her head.
"I know¡ And it''s my role as the destroyer to regte life in this world. If I''m not around, sister will get too excited and bring too much life." ''Shiro'' chuckled.
"That''s true, your sister doesn''t know how to show restraint. How about this, I''ll set aside a cycle for you so that you may see why life and death is important for these beings and why your job is just as important as your sisters to bring about bnce. I will dy the project for another day so you can sort through your thoughts, okay?"
Hearing this, ''Shiro'' nodded her head eagerly as was curious about how these fleeting lifeforms lived their lives. Aria on the other hand was more infatuated with the act of bringing them in than what they do.
Chapter 1261: Leia
1023
After dying the start of the project for a day, Chaos handed ''Shiro'' a miniature.
"You just need to ce your consciousness within this orb. Your power will be limited since it may cause it to copse as it''s not ready to receive your unrestricted mana. You can choose what era you want to experience so you can observe how each generation acts." Chaos exined as ''Shiro'' nodded her head.
Seeing the curiosity on her daughter''s face, Chaos couldn''t help but chuckle as she allowed ''Shiro'' to y with the new toy.
Once Chaos left, ''Shiro'' ced the orb on the table and observed it for a short moment.
She was looking at the as a whole, seeing how thends would shift slightly, how certain countries changed from andscape of greenery to a desert wastnd.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and inserted her consciousness into the world.
The scene flickered as Shiro followed ''Shiro''s'' consciousness into the miniature world. Just from what she could see, it was simr to her world before technology took over. Magic still existed but everything seemed more primitive. Shabby outfits and poorly built houses.
Thinking to herself, ''Shiro'' decided to disguise herself as an orphan so that she could observe the world from the perspective of someone needing help to survive.
cing herself on the doorstep of the church, ''Shiro'' let out a few cries to get the attention of the people inside. It didn''t take long for hurried footsteps to be heard as an old woman opened the door and looked at ''Shiro'' in shock.
She didn''t know who ced a baby down on the doorstep with nothing except a nket and basket but she couldn''t just leave her there.
Taking the child inside, the woman closed the door.
Acting her part as a baby, ''Shiro'' could see that there were quite a few orphans within the church while four adults attended to them. The old woman that picked her up, a middle ageddy, an old man who was praying by the altar and a young woman who seemed to be the child of the middle ageddy.
Each of them looked at ''Shiro'' with curious eyes. While it wasn''t umon for a child to be left at their doorstep, having it done in the middle of the day was strange to say the least.
Time skipped forward as information flowed into Shiro''s mind. ''Shiro'' was eventually named Leia by the olddy. Life was difficult at the church but it wasn''t the worse. They got food regrly from a kind hunter who had lost his child to the woods years ago. So in memory of his child, he would hunt animals for the orphans.
Leia grew up to be rather silentpared to the other kids, constantly observing her surroundings and not talking unless needed.
The adults of the church felt that it was strange but understood that it was just how Leia was.
The god that the orphanage worshipped was a god of light. They say that he created everything with a snap of his finger and gave warmth to the world. But Leia knew that this was incorrect as it was Chaos who created everything as an experiment. But that was a crude way of putting things and she knew that they would be unhappy hearing this.
What interested her was the fact that they were worshipping something they never saw with their own eyes. Something they didn''t know existed.
So she asked the olddy who picked her up.
"Yasha." Leia called out as the olddy paused her prayers and nced back with a smile.
"What is it Leia?"
"Why are we praying to God Pyre? We never saw him before and only read about him in the books." Leia asked as Yasha gestured for her to sit on herp.
Following the instructions, Leia sat on Yasha''sp while she patted her head.
"Well, we pray in hopes that a higher being is watching us and gives us their blessings. Life is difficult, more so for everyone here than the children outside. Hence why we pray in hopes that life will be easier for you." Yasha exined.
"If we want help then can''t we pray to people like hunter Aaron?"
"That''s a little different. We can ask for help from people like mister Aaron and we can pray FOR mister Aaron in hopes that he returns to us safely."
"So praying is just asking a higher power to help?" Leia asked as it didn''t make sense for her. Why should they pray to a higher power and gamble for their help instead of trying to solve it themselves. While rudimentary, the world was still blessed with mana.
"To put it lightly, yes. Though praying is also to thank the higher being in bringing us to this world."
Eventually Leia ran out of questions. She gained an understanding of how Yasha viewed the higher power and understood why they would pray. They wanted to gain hope of a better life. Hope that things turn out well. There is only so much a person can do so they pray for hope that someone gives them an extra hand.
Still, her main question wasn''t answered. Naturally, she wouldn''t get an answer to something she didn''t ask them. But the question of what life and death means to them was something best witnessed by her own eyes. Compared to these fleeting lifeforms, she was immortal so she couldn''tprehend why they were okay with such short lives.
Each person in this vige was like a candle, a single misstep and the candle extinguishes.
Time passed once more and Leia began helping around the vige to see the purpose of such acts in a short life. She showed some small talent with magic to help the vige with daily acts but nothing destructive. It was just to make their day to day life easier.
Naturally, the potency of her spells were stronger than the average magic user hence why they started to call her saint. Illnesses and injuries were cured in a blink of an eye and people in this vige started to rely on her spells.
One day, the father of the church showed signs of an incurable illness along with old age. While Leia could cure his illness without issues, old age was different.
No one asked her to prolong his life, instead they asked to make sure he wasfortable so that he could pass on in peace. A question surfaced on her mind once more.
At the end of one''s life, wouldn''t they want to survive no matter what? In which case why don''t they ask to prolong his life? It was possible for her. Despite her abilities to destroy, she was still able to do something as easily as prolonging the life of a fleeting being.
In the dead of night, Leia approached the father''s room alone. She had taken over the role of caring for him in hisst moments and sat next to his bed.
As the father woke up momentarily, he could see Leia reading books next to him with a neutral expression that she always carried. But after seeing her for many years, he understood that she was confused.
"What''s on your mind Leia?" He asked with a soft smile. Despite the weakness that he was feeling, he wanted to help the saint of their church. The young woman who helped without anyints.
Pausing for a short while, Leia opened her mouth.
"Why does everyone ask me to make your passing peaceful? I can probably prolong your life if I tried. Aren''t you afraid of death? People make sure they don''t die while growing up. So what''s the difference now?" Leia asked as the fatherid in silence.
"A tough question hahaha." He chuckled softly while trying to organise his thoughts.
"Let me ask you a question instead, Leia. If you continue to prolong a life, they can be called immortal. But what do you need to do that requires you to be immortal?" The father asked.
"Anything. If you''re immortal you can do anything you want can''t you?"
"Yes, but there is a time for everything. When you have done everything, what will you do with your remaining time? I can''t imagine the loneliness thates with the blessing of immortality. I wish to pass on peacefully because I have done all I want in my life. Granted there are moments where I wasn''t able to aplish what I sought out to do, I don''t regret how I lived."
"But doesn''t death scare you?"
"Oh it does. But that''s only because of what I must leave behind. However, I know that you''re here. I know that Yasha and everyone else will take care of this church after I leave. It simply means my time hase and it''s someone else''s turn to take on my mantle." The father chuckled while holding Leia''s hand.
"Listen to me, Leia. You are a curious child, and I know not of what you can aplish. It is my personal belief that we humans are granted a short life so we think carefully about what we do. A question posed to us of how we want to immortalise our legacy. But there are bad people in the world, who will jump at the thought of immortality without consequences. Death is a guardian that maintains order in this world."
Hearing this, Leia nodded her head.
Chapter 1262: Lifes Goal
Nanomancer Reborn - I''ve Be A Snow Girl? Chapter 1262
Published at 12th of July 2023 01:06:37 PM
Chapter 1262
If audio yer doesn''t work, press Stop then y button again
Chapter 1262: Life''s Goal
That night, the father died. He died peacefully in his sleep and Leia made sure he didn''t feel any pain in hisst moments.
His final words kept repeating in her mind. The purpose of short lived beings, to immortalise their legacy in the best way possible. How death was what kept order in their world.
''Is that why death is important for these people, mother?'' Leia thought to herself silently. She was an immortal being herself. Granted her years of existence were shortpared to Chaos but she hasn''t run into the problem that the father spoke of.
When everything she wanted to do has been done. What then?
Aplicated question that she couldn''t answer.
''But I guess this just proves what mother said. I need to destroy theses eventually or else they''ll outlive their purpose I suppose.'' Leia concluded as she stood up.
Suddenly, a question entered her mind.
''What happens if they reach their purpose early instead of at the end of their life cycle? Would they ruin the legacy they leave behind? Should she end them before they can ruin that? Or should she let them continue. When would be the right time to end each cycle?''
Furrowing her brows, Leia decided that she needed more time to find the answers to her questions. Plus, there was still plenty of time left before the Garden Project began. She wanted to learn as much as she could so that she could urately choose when to end each cycle.
Walking through the vige, Leia was still in her mourning clothes and saw that hunter Aaron was nning on leaving to hunt for more food for the church. She decided that it was probably best to ask him some of her questions.
"Mister Aaron." Leia called out as Aaron nced back.
"Leia, I thought you''d be at the church. Did something happen?"
"No, I''m merely saying hello after seeing you while I was out on a walk. I have a few questions if you have some time to spare." Leia shook her head as Aaron ced down his weapons.
"Oh of course. Ask away, I''ll try my best to answer." He smiled, gesturing for her to sit down next to him so that she didn''t have to stand.
"I was talking to the Fatherst night and I asked him about death. The fear of it and the meaning of it. Along with immortality."
"Oh goodness. That''s a pretty serious topic for a youngdy." Aaron blinked in surprise as Leia shrugged.
"And he said that life is a question for us on how we want to immortalise our legacy. He doesn''t wish for immortality because he has already aplished his goals in life. So I wanted to ask you, what was your goal in life? What does someone do when they''ve achieved their goal before old age? What do they do with the remaining time?" Leia asked as Aaron was silent.
Thinking to himself, he pulled out a locket and opened it with a soft click. The locket held a picture of his wife and child that had both unfortunately passed on and looked at the picture with a reminiscent smile on his face.
"I suppose it''s my time to give you a piece of my wisdom hahaha." Aaron smiled as he patted Leia''s head.
"You see, a person''s goal changes many times through life depending on the circumstances around them. Whether that be them aplishing their goal or their goal being unreachable. For the longest time, my goal was to be a renowned hunter, earning gold for my family and moving to a big city. I learned the skills and experienced what it was like to be out hunting the animals for food. Then I met the love of my life." Aaron closed his eyes and remembered the first time he saw his wife.
His heart was instantly stolen as he fell in love at first sight. Naturally things didn''t go smoothly as she didn''t have much interest in him. But as years passed and he continued to talk to her, they eventually wed and had a child together.
"From the moment I married my wife and had my daughter, I realised that my goal had changed. I didn''t want the glory of being a renown hunter anymore, I just wanted to keep my family happy and offer the world to my daughter. No matter what she wanted to do, I wanted to help her aplish it." He smiled with pride.
Hearing his tone, Leia could hear how much he loved his child and wife.
"But my wife fell ill after childbirth and passed soon after. Herst request was for me to look after our daughter, and I tried my best." Aaron smiled bitterly as he took a deep breath and sighed.
"I had people look after Lily, my daughter, when I was out hunting. So that she wasn''t in danger. I couldn''t take her with me but I couldn''t leave her alone either. But perhaps I should''ve looked for a different job. One day, Lily ran into the woods looking for me. At the time, I was hunting some bears that had been creeping closer to our vige. I had tried to scare them off a few times before but they kepting closer so I knew I had to kill them. So I took my weapons and prepared for a tough hunt. And while I was distracted by the beast in front of me¡ Lily appeared and she was attacked by the bear''s offspring."
Opening some buttons on his shirt, he showed Leia ghastly scars on his chest that extended to his back.
"I had thrown away my weapons trying to help Lily and the bear struck me. Thankfully I was able to run away with Lily in my arms since it seemed more concerned about its child than me and Lily. But by the time I reached the vige, Lily had already stopped breathing."
Staying silent at remembering the feeling of his child''s life fading away in his arms, Aaron buttoned up his shirt and closed his locket.
"After both my wife and Lily disappeared from my world, I had nothing left. So I looked for the bear and its offspring and I took their life with my own hands in revenge for Lily. But it was meaningless. My daughter was still gone and I had no reason left in this world. Then I saw the children at the orphanage. Some of them reminded me of Lily."
ncing up, Aaron looked towards the church and smiled.
"I suppose you can say it''s redemption. But my goal had changed to give the parentless children the father love I couldn''t provide to my own daughter. For my negligence of my own child, I wanted to try my best for the children at the church. Naturally that includes you." Aaronughed while patting Leia''s head once more.
"In many ways, you remind me of Lily as well. She was a curious child just like you. Though she was more outgoing and loved tough. So to answer your question of what happens when someone reaches their goal early, is that they''ll find a new goal to work towards. While I can''t say for others, I suppose the legacy I wish to leave behind is a kind father and husband. I want to be remembered as a kind person who gave the children at the church love that I couldn''t give to my own daughter."
Hearing this, Leia nodded her head.
Closing her eyes, she peered into his soul and couldn''t help but smile. She could see that he was truly a kind soul. Both his daughter''s soul and his wife''s soul had left deep imprints on his own and it acted as a ward to keep him safe when he was out hunting.
"I''m sure that both your wife and daughter are proud of the man you''ve be." Leia smiled softly as Aaron was surprised. It was the first time he had seen Leia smile since she usually kept a neutral expression on her face.
Seeing her smile, Aaronughed and nodded his head.
"If the saint of the church is saying so then it must be true."
Talking for a little longer, Leia bid Aaron farewell as he went off into the woods to hunt for food.
Standing silently, Leia thought about her own role. Her role was to be the destroyer, the one who ends the cycles and brings destruction upon the world. No matter when she ends the cycles, there will inevitably be people who had their goals cut short.
To her, it felt unfair. There will be people like Aaron in every era, people who wish to help the people around them. To cut their life short was cruel.
''What if I ce their soul into the new cycle? So that they can get a new chance at life. A better life perhaps.'' Leia thought to herself. That way, it would be a reward to the souls that tried their best while weeding out the corrupt. It was the goal that Chaos was working towards.
She wanted to create a perfect paradise, a perfect Garden to foster all life just like Chaos. A world where she no longer needs to end the cycle and host all those who are deserving. But a contradiction started to form in Leia''s mind.
Chapter 1263: Little Paradise
Leia knew that she wanted to make a paradise like Chaos, but with death being the guardian for this race of short-lived beings, taking that away would only be detrimental for them.
In such a case, how should she create a paradise for them?
She didn''t know the answer.
''If I give them a better life, they wouldn''t know what they had suffered to earn this chance. But if they know about their past, death is no longer something that keeps order. It is now something for them to look forward to. Some might even seek it out in hopes of reaching the next life sooner.'' Leia thought to herself in frustration.
Scratching her hair, she sighed and nced back at the vige. She''ll figure out the answer sooner orter since she had plenty of time here. Plus, she was going to bless the water so that they would live a little longer to fulfil their goals.
''A blessing for the people here would be good too. I suppose I can try to make this a miniature paradise for now. Extended life and blessings so avoid illness.'' Leia thought to herself as she made her way towards the well.
Without anyone looking, she imbued the water with her mana.
While her nature was to destroy, she just had to modify the target of destruction to the things that harmed the body. Once that was done, it''d be simr to the blessings that her sister gives out.
A satisfied smile appeared on Leia''s face and she walked back to the church. She was grateful for this opportunity given by Chaos, a chance for her to understand the ephemeral creatures that live upon the surface.
If it wasn''t for this chance, she''ll still be confused about their purpose. Why death was such an important factor for them despite their fear of the end. How it creates order within their lives and makes them strive towards good.
''Aria has her job and I have mine. Though being able to bless things instead of destroying it does feel nice.'' Leia mused.
Time passed on and the general health of the vige continued to improve. People started to live a little longer despite their prior illnesses and energy would fill their bodies every day. The harvest was good as they had used the blessed water to grow the crops.
In a few short years, Leia had helped transform this tiny run down vige. Everyone lived with smiles on their faces and would pray more often at the church, thinking that it was the work of the God of Light. While they weren''t correct, they weren''t exactly wrong either.
Their vige was just blessed by a God of Destruction instead.
With her role as the saint, Leia had to watch the prayers they offered to their saviour and couldn''t help but feel amused as the God that blessed them was right in front of them all this time.
But she had to admit, hearing their gratitude and appreciation gave her a warm feeling in her heart.
However, with their health and crop yield improving along with the quality of their crops, they were bound to attract the attention of the local lord that governed over this area.
They had ignored this vige before and didn''t care about whether or not it was still around or destroyed. They couldn''t earn much tax from this ce and traders rarely approached. Everything changed once rumours started circting about this vige.
Rumours of a beautiful saint that could cure all wounds, rumours about how all those that live here live in safety and eat bountiful meals everyday. It almost sounded too good to be true until more merchants started to visit.
They would trade for the crops they harvested within this vige and realised those that ate it would experience improvements in health. But that''s only if they ate it often.
With the trades now booming, a new taxw was now being enforced on this vige. They didn''t evenmunicate with the vigers and only left notes on their bulletin board in the centre of the vige.
Hearing loud murmurings amongst the viges, Leia woke up to arge crowd gathering at the centre of the vige.
Exiting the church, she called out to one of the fruit sellers that she had bought from often.
"Aunty Hn, what''s going on?" Leia called out as Hn turned her head.
"The lord of the area is enforcing a new tax on us since we''re doing too well. They used to ignore us but they can''t anymore." She sighed and gestured towards the bulletin board.
Making her way through the crowd, Leia read the notice and frowned.
Not only did they have to pay 50% of their earnings in coins along with a base tax of living in the area, they also had to hand over 70% of their crop yield to the local lord.
"This is ridiculous! They didn''t care for us years ago and didn''t even send help but now they''re asking for 70% of our crops?!" One of the farmers shouted out in anger.
With them needing to hand over 70% of their yield to the lord, they could only keep 30% to themselves. Which is then also taxed because if they decide to sell any of it to pay for the living tax to stay in this area.
"What can you even do about it though? Comin to the local lord? Or should wein to the king? You know they don''t care about us. We''re only tools to them." Another farmer sighed deeply as life was going to be tough from now on.
Staying silent throughout all of this, Leia had a dark look in her eyes. She could tell that this was what the father mentioned many years ago when he passed on. The lord was most likely one of the bad people in the world that greeded for more. He seemed like those who would jump at the chance of immortality in a bid to maintain his power.
''Should I end his cycle early?'' Leia thought to herself.
Suddenly, a hand patted her shoulder as Leia nced back and saw Aaron looking at her with a smile.
"I know you''re angry with this notice but that''s just how life is. Let''s see how we fare before we protest. And if I''m being honest, we should have been paying taxes before but we were simply too poor to tax from." He shrugged his shoulders helplessly. Leia reluctantly nodded her head since he wasn''t wrong.
They were indeed poor before and barely managed to hold on. Had the lord decided to tax, many would''ve died. But now that they started earning, it was only right for them to pay what they owe.
"But just because we owe them doesn''t mean I like this oue." Leiained, causing Aaron tough.
"I know. Well I''m sure if it gets bad the merchants will say something. They love their profits after all and they seem to be excited by the harvest from our vige. I know people haven''t asked but was it you? Our harvest has never been this good before and people rarely get ill now." Aaron asked as Leia only smiled and ced a finger over her lips. She could trust Aaron since he had done nothing but help their church for many years.
"Hahahah I knew it. You''re truly a blessing to us. But remember, outsiders may not treat you kindly for your gift and might even try to im you as their tool." Aaron warned.
Nodding her head, Leia already knew this and the notice only proved her point. If she was to expose to the world that she could bless things with ease, it would only turn her into an object of desire.
Since Aaron had suggested seeing how they fare for now, Leia decided toy low and observe.
At first the vigers weren''t used to the tax but as more merchants arrived, it became easier to survive. They slowly increased the prices of their wares since they simply couldn''t keep up with the demand.
The crops from this vige soon became a luxury as the lord started to expand the farmnd and ordered the farmers to harvest more.
Leia watched all of this happen without imputing her own thoughts. This was the best time to see human nature at work. She had thought about this before, how if someone reaches their goal early they would change for the worst. Aaron was proof that this wouldn''t happen to everyone but she wanted to see how her little paradise would react.
Would they sumb to the greed of the blessed crops she granted them, or would they stay true to themselves.
She could already see many of the vigers being swayed by the profits they could gain, even if they had to hand 50% over to the local lord. It was still an exorbitant amount that they could never imagine before. They started to live in luxury and their values changed.
Rarely do they go to the church anymore, if they had time to go to church they would rather nt more crops or harvest the ones ready so that they could earn more profit.
All while Leia watched on in silence.
Chapter 1264: Pyre
"Greed has taken over them." Aaronmented while bringing the results of today''s hunt to the Church. Even the orphans at the church had been swayed and many would rather help out at the farms. The only ones still devoted were the Nun that took Leia in, Leia herself and young orphans who weren''t able to help at the farms.
"It''s to be expected, I suppose. There''s an easy way for them to get rich and profit. Life will be easier for them and they no longer require hope from a higher being. Such is life." Leia replied in a monotone fashion.
Her expectations for her little paradise were dropping day by day. The more she witnessed human nature the more disappointed she felt. However, now that it had gotten to this point, she wanted to see the end result. It would be unfair of her to end the tests early.
"But wasn''t it you who blessed everything to begin with? I''m sure we could probably sort something out and get them back to their senses." Aaron frowned. Before he could say anything more, Leia red at him silently.
Freezing up, Aaron felt like he was staring down a giant bear, one that he could not defeat. A sense of panic filled his body and he was rooted in ce.
"What should we do then? Take away what has made their lives easier so they can go back to barely living off scraps every day? Or should I make more so they can see that abundance of wealth is bad?" Leia asked as Aaron was silent.
"Or should we watch things unfold like we are now and see what they make of this situation?"
Biting his lip, Aaron scratched his head and sighed. It was a painful sight for him to see his beloved hometown being reduced to such a state.
The only things being passed through word of mouth was wealth, profit, harvest and next expected harvest. Hardly anyone talks about anything other than the aforementioned 4 topics.
"Can we even do anything about it? Is watching everything unfold really all that we can do?" Aaron asked, sitting down in defeat.
"I don''t know. The only thing I can think of is observing and deriving my own understanding from it. I thought that they wouldn''t change if I provided them a better standard of life but clearly I was wrong." Leia sighed.
"Leia." Aaron suddenly called out.
"Hm?"
"Actually, nevermind. It was a stupid thought. Anyways I''ll see what I can do to help them out okay? Perhaps all they need is a good conversation and a reminder of who they once were." Aaron smiled and patted Leia''s head.
Seeing this, Leia couldn''t stay angry and nodded.
"Then I can only pray for your sess."
Watching Aaron leave, Leia sat down at the benches facing the statue of the God of Light. She knew that he was a fake god that most likely existed but was a lesser beingpared to herself. After all, belief is one of the ways a God could be created.
''Maybe it''s time for me to say hi to the god of this world I suppose. Hear his thoughts on the subjects he watched over.'' Leia thought to herself.
She had never revealed her divinity before as she was afraid that it could cause the to destabilise and copse. But after many years of exposure to her blessings, this vige was the only location she could reveal a fraction of her power.
Enough to attract the attention of the God of this realm and let him know who was superior.
Making her way to her own room, Leia closed the doors and created a feint barrier that isted her divinity from themoners in the vige.
Taking a deep breath, a brilliant aura flickered from her body as the skies weed her presence. The clouds parted momentarily and the vigers thought that it was the wind. However, the truth was a different matter.
In her room, Leia watched as a being of light appeared in front of her and kneeled down without hesitation.
"I apologise for not weing you sooner, your highness."
"It''s fine, I never intended to show myself anyways. My mother allowed you to govern this world, yes?" Leia asked as the figure nodded his head.
Adjusting his form, he was now a red haired young man in a nobleman''s attire.
"God Pyre, you have watched over the humans of thisnd since the start of its creation. Tell me about your observations thus far." Leia ordered as Pyre bowed his head further.
"Of course your highness. But please, just call me Pyre. I don''t deserve the title of God in front of you. As for my observations, I will need to require something more specific."
"Hmm, tell me about their reactions to wealth and poverty. What side is the best for them to enjoy life and fulfill their ambitions?" Leia asked while walking to her bed. Sitting down, she crossed her legs and waited for his answer patiently.
"From all the information I have gathered, I believe that both are necessary, your highness. I''ve seen rich nobles with a heart of gold, poormoners with a soul darker than the abyss and those who struggle in between and strive for a better life. It is hard to say which side is ''correct'' but the allure of wealth is a difficult wall for them to surpass." Pyre gave Leia his honest opinion.
He wasn''t wrong. The allure of wealth and an easier life wasn''t something people could just pass up. Especially if they had been suffering before. They may see it as a reward for their efforts and growcent.
The original goal of her blessings was simply to act as a sign. A sign that she was watching, a sign that she''d seen their struggles and an encouragement for them to not give up. But if her first reward caused them to cultivate suchziness, there was no reason for her to offer them more. Only when they understood that this was just an encouragement could they finally enjoy the rest of her blessings.
''Maybe I was wrong to bless them so soon. But wealth is harder for the elderly to ignore. While they have little use for it, they could make their descendants live an easier life than what they had to suffer. While the young would overindulge in the wealth given and never learn to work.'' Shaking her head, it was a difficult issue for Leia to resolve since it wasn''t as easy as just giving everyone everything they needed.
Chaos mentioned that as humans, they always strive for more and that''s how they ''live''. Take that away by giving them everything and they''ll wither and die.
"Alright, thank you. You can go now."
Bowing deeply, Pyre disappeared from the room.
Now that she was left on her own, Leia wondered what she should do. She had already observed the vigers for an extended period of time and it was unlikely any major changes would happen soon. The only other option was for her to travel and observe the main city in this region. The ce where half of their harvest was sent for the nobles. She wanted to see how the city handled the influx of blessed crops and wealth.
''I''ll go observe first as the saint of the church. That''ll show me what they want me to see and how truthful they are. Once that is done, I''ll find out what they''re hiding through other means.'' With her nid out, all she had to do was wait for the next round of merchants to arrive and ask for an escort to the city.
Making her way out of her room, she dismissed the barrier and told her ns to the nun, of how she wanted to visit the city and broaden her views.
Naturally, there were no objections except hiring some guards since her role as the saint was important for them. After all, she''s the one that healed all their injuries.
Just as she was about to leave the church to find Aaron, he had returned and almost bumped into Leia.
"Ah you''re back, perfect." Leia smiled, causing Aaron to scratch his head in confusion.
"Not sure what you mean by that but okay."
"Oh I just wanted to tell you that I''m going to hire some escorts to take me to the main city in a few days with the next batch of merchants. I want to see the city with my own eyes and how they reacted to our harvest." Leia exined.
"I see¡ Well that lines up rather perfectly with what I was nning."
Seeing the grin on Aaron''s face, Leia''s mind was filled with confusion.
"It''s not a big n. Just rallying some people to our cause I suppose. Some helping hands in trying to get everyone toe to their senses and realise how much wealth has changed them." He exined as Leia nodded her head.
She was unsure how effective this n of his would be but she was looking forward to the results. It may even enlighten her on some answers to her dilemma.
Chapter 1265: Travelling To The City
Over the next few days, Leia spent the time helping Aaron from time to time. From her understanding, Aaron wasn''t going to force everyone back to religion but rather to give them a reminder.
A reminder of how much they had changed and what this change has done to them. The way they took the blessing for granted and no longer cared about deep human connections. The only thing on their mind was how much profit they can earn from their time.
Thankfully, he wasn''t the only one as a few others have also noticed the change but their words fell on deaf ears.
On the day that Leia was going to leave with the merchants, Aaron bid her farewell.
"I''ll try and get everyone toe back to their senses by the time you get back." Aaron promised as Leia chuckled.
"I''m only going for a week or so. Don''t do anything stupid if you can help it. I was the one who gave them this blessing after all, if anything, the fault lies with me." Leia smiled sadly as she didn''t want to leave her little paradise behind for a week. But she needed to broaden her views.
Naturally, she can observe everything as a god but she wanted to live as a human first so that she could understand their thoughts.
"Don''t worry about it. Everyone in this vige has known each other since birth after all." Aaron reassured.
Climbing into the carriage, Leia waved goodbye to those that wanted to see her one more time before she left.
The group escorting the carriage consisted of 5 young mercenaries that looked to be in their mid 20''s with the leader of the group being a muscr man with greying hair. This group of 6 will be responsible for their safety during this entire trip.
"Have you finished with saying goodbyes?" The merchant asked as Leia nodded her head.
"Yes, we can depart whenever you like."
Hearing this, he nodded his head and finished up some final preparations.
"Is this going to be your first time out of your vige?" One of the young mercenaries asked while trying to strike up a conversation with Leia.
He had short midnight blue hair and a pair of ck eyes. He was called Allen and he was the youngest of the group.
"This will indeed be my first time out of the vige. I was born and raised here." Leia replied with a smile.
Seeing this smile, Allen was instantly enamoured as a small blush crept up on his face.
"S-So what made you want to leave for a short time?" He asked curiously.
"Hmm¡ I just wanted to see what the world is like. I have witnessed the progression of my vige since I was a young girl. From everyone barely surviving on scraps to the first appearance of the blessed crops. I merely want a break as all I hear these days are talks of money and profits." Leia sighed bitterly.
"But isn''t money and profits good? With lots of money you can get anything you want."
"I suppose so." Leia nodded. However, to her, they seemed¡ more carefree when they relied on one another to survive. It wasn''t that she wished hardship upon then, hence why she blessed the crops, but the sight of things these days were truly saddening for her.
"You can certainly buy a lot of things with money but true friendships and connections will be difficult. Miss Leia ismenting how things are revolved around profits now Allen." The leader of the mercenaries exined while patting Allen on the head.
Scratching his hair in confusion, Allen was still unsure of what they meant.
Talking with the leader for a little longer, the group made their way out of the vige.
The mercenary group consisted of two front liners, one magic user, one ranger, Allen who focused on dealing damage with the sword and a healer.
As for the healer, they weren''t a ''cleric'' like Leia. Instead, she was using medial equipment with a small amount of magic.
Apparently, it was due to the fact that she was born with low mana and it didn''t change throughout the years. Thus she decided to learn medical knowledge topensate for her low mana.
"Excuse me, your name was Nana right?" Leia asked when she got the chance. She wanted to learn more about why Nana decided to learn medical knowledge. If she aspired to be a medic, those born with higher mana levels will naturally find this easier. But she ignored this natural born difference and learned knowledge topensate.
"Ah, yes. How can I help?" Nana replied, feeling surprised that Leia took the initiative to talk to her.
Nana was seemed like a reclusive person as she had always kept her hood up and kept to herself. Not many would take the chance to talk to her unless they needed healing.
"Oh I don''t need help right now. I was just curious about you. I heard that you were born with low mana levels that didn''t suit a caster nor healing. Yet you still studied to be one. I''m curious about what drives you and why you sought to close the gap using knowledge." Leia asked truthfully.
Seeing her honest curiosity, Nana felt a warm feeling in her heart since not many would show interest in her efforts. Most would just ridicule her.
"Well, my father was a healer. When I was young, I would always follow him to the city and watch him heal people for a cheap feepared to the other healers. I loved seeing how happy he was healing the people. And well, we then learned I had a low mana capacity and it wouldn''t grow much so he sought out healing techniques without magic. It was thanks to him that I can be half the healer I am today." Nana replied as Leia nodded her head.
''So she liked seeing her father help people. And the gratitude they received for their help was enough or her to seek out a way to be a healer.'' Leia thought to herself.
''He even took a cheap fee too¡ If I want to create a paradise, I need to give them blessings. Not enough for them to over indulge, just enough for them to be satisfied with their current state of life. Though humans always seek more, which is why they sought out nonmagical means of healing. Sigh¡ humans areplicated creatures.'' Leia smiled softly.
While she was indeed disappointed by what she saw thus far, the sense of challenge in trying to create a better ce for these beings lit a me in her heart. She didn''t know if it was the same as what Chaos felt but she wanted to create a home where they will be satisfied without searching for more.
''I''ll need to go through some trial and error before I find out how many blessings I can give throughout their short lives before it bes an excess.''
Shaking her head, she focused on the journey ahead.
On the way there, they ran into a few monsters but they weren''t too dangerous. The mercenaries dealt with them without any issues with Leia asionally helping by healing the party when needed. Most of the injuries were dealt with by Nana and serious ones that would hinder their movements were healed by Leia.
She didn''t want to heal too much since she didn''t want to invalidate Nana''s hard work.
After two days, they arrived at the city now famed for its harvest of Blessed Crops. There was a single noble family that was responsible for the supply and no one knew where they harvested the crops from.
Every merchant that was given the information had to sign a magical contract that prevented them from giving the knowledge to irrelevant parties. That was how they kept the merchants silent on the source.
Of course, through signing this, they were allowed to ''buy'' a portion of the harvest for cheap to redistribute.
''I doubt they can hide the information for long considering more and more are wanting to find out about the crops. It''ll only be a matter of time before news gets leaked.'' Leia thought to herself.
Once they passed through the gate, Leia and the merchants bid farewell since their agreement was only for them to guide her to the city. Nothing more nothing less.
With Leia being free to do whatever she wanted, her first goal was to find out how the people are in this citypared to her vige along with how the noble was monopolising the Blessed Crops.
Depending on how they''re using it, she may have to remove the blessing.
Walking through the city, she attracted quite a few curious gazes due to how she was dressed. Thankfully, no one obstructed her but news of a beautiful sister that no one had seen before was spread through the city rather quickly.
''Life in this city seems to be going pretty good.'' Leia mused to herself. Everyone that she walked pass was rtively well dressed and seemed rather happy. There wasn''t a sense of ''insanity'' in their eyes like the vigers that were obsessed with profits. Perhaps it was her actions that caused his insanity.
Shaking her head, she was going to make her way to the church when she noticed something in the alleys.
Sitting down, there was a small figure covered with a thin nket and torn up clothes.
Chapter 1266: Suffering And Hope
Staring at the small figure clutching their knees in the alleyway, Leia felt something burning deep within. It was a feeling that she had never felt before and she didn''t know what to make of it.
It was like an raging inferno threatening to swallow all if it ever gets out.
Trying her best to calm her emotions, she kneeled in front of the boy and tried to heal him. The moment she reached out with her hand, she could see the panic in his eyes as he closed his eyes in fear.
Biting her lip, Leia sighed.
"It''s okay, I''m not here to hurt you." She muttered softly as a soothing current of energy flowed into his body, healing all of his wounds in the blink of an eye.
"There, it''s not bad is it?" She smiled while patting the boy''s head.
Nodding his head nervously, he hesitated for a moment before grabbing her sleeves.
"C-can you help my family too?"
"Of course, can you show me where they are?" Leia nodded.
She felt sadness that a young boy like him had to live such a life. In the time it took for her to heal him, she was able to see the state of his body and it was not good. If she didn''t intervene, she estimated that he would''ve onlysted another week at best.
As she was being guided through the alleys, it was aplete change from the pristine streets of the city.
Putrid smells filled the hair, waste littered the floor and hardly any light could reach the this ce due to the tall buildings. While walking through the alleys, Leia could see that he wasn''t the only one. There were others just like him, some young some old.
But the worst part was the corpses. Several of them had died and their bodies left untouched. Rats gnawed away at their flesh and bone while dried blood pooled under them.
"Just through here." The boy gestured to a small opening in a brick wall.
Seeing as how he waspletely unaffected by the death surrounding him, Leia knew that this was amon urrence.
"I thought the city trade was going well. Howe people are suffering here?" She asked hesitantly while following him through the gap in the wall.
"We couldn''t pay the taxes. Got into debt and got kicked out to the streets." He replied without any emotion in his voice.
Biting her lip, Leia watched silently as they arrived at a small captivity amidst the debris. There was a single make shift bed out of cardboard, old newspaper and whatever they had lying around. On the bed was the boy''s mother while he had a younger brother passed out while leaning against the wall.
In the centre of the ''room'' was a pile of burnt items that had kept them warm through the night.
Without another word from the boy, Leia walked over and started to heal the both of them.
Seeing the state of the mother, she knew that she couldn''t save her unless she manifested more blessings to cleanse and repair her body.
Using the power that she had shown thus far, the mother would be in good health for a day or two before her body deteriorates beyond repair and she passes on.
The younger brother was slightly better but if the mother and older brother passes on, he''ll soon follow.
''Do I bless them? If I do they''ll survive but they''ll have to live in this condition for much longer. They''ll suffer and die to the same diseases as they will now. But if I don''t save them, the family will only survive another week at most unless someone else helps.'' Leia thought to herself.
It was a dilemma since she couldn''t be responsible for everyone in the world without using more mana that will destabilise this garden. Her actions now would only give them more suffering.
But she didn''t want to ignore their plight.
With her body now healed, the mother slowly opened her eyes and saw Leia sitting with a conflicted expression.
Panic filled her mind as she didn''t know where her children are. But once she saw them beside her, she sighed in relief.
"I don''t know how I can repay you. As you can see we don''t own much." She thanked Leia with a weak voice. She could barely muster up any strength even after Leia''s healing.
"You don''t have to repay me. I just want to ask if you know the situation of your body."
Hearing this, the mother understood that she probably didn''t have long left to live.
"My children, can you help my children? They don''t deserve to end here. It''s my fault we''re in this state they don''t deserve any of this." The mother begged.
Some of the homeless that followed them after seeing how well dressed Leia was saw that she had ''saved'' the family. They looked healthier in appearance and took this chance to beg for her help.
A myriad of reasons, pleas and sobbing flooded Leia''s ears as she was overwhelmed with what she was seeing.
So many of them grasping at her legs, bowing down and begging for the slightest bit of help without care of what might happen.
Taking a step back, she wanted to answer them one by one but they weren''t listening to her. They seemed crazed at the sight of hope and abandoned reason. They were merely trying their best to cling to the thin thread they managed to see.
Before things got out of hand, several guards rushed to the location and started to push the homeless away. Even going as far as to resort to physical abuse as they were relentless in their pursuits.
"Wait! Don''t hurt them!" Leia shouted out in a panic while they escorted her away from the alley.
Sealing off the alley, one of the guards looked at Leia with a frown.
"I''ve never seen you in the city before so you may not know how things work around here. For your own safety, please refrain from interacting with them in the future." He stated coldly.
"But-"
"They''re a danger to you once they realise you can help them. I can only assume that this incident will spark more violence tonight." The guard cut her off while telling her to leave the premises.
Seeing that none of the other guards wanted to talk to her or exin anything, Leia could only bite her lip and walk away.
She didn''t know the consequences that might happen to the family now that they were the only ones to have received her help. Even if it was just a single heal.
It doesn''t change the fact that she might''ve doomed them with her act of helping out.
''Should I have just left them be? For them to suffer until they die?'' She thought to herself, unable toe to a conclusion.
Walking through the city aimlessly, she decided to go to the church. She figured that they''ll be kind enough to exin what had happened to the city.
Compared to the church in her own vige, the church in this city was much bigger. It was filled with a sense of awe and holiness with the smooth white marble pirs and golden details.
Once she entered, she could see several people praying on benches with a priest reading out some verses on the altar.
To the side, a sister approached her with a smile.
"May I inquire what reason you havee to the church today?"
"I''m a sister of the church in a remote vige. I''vee to this city to widen my views on this world and I was hoping I could perhaps talk to the head of this church. I wish to seek knowledge on the state of this city and what had transpired." Leia replied truthfully as the sister was silent for a moment.
"I will see if the head priest is avable today. Please wait by the benches and we''ll let you know what he says." She smiled as Leia nodded her head.
Sitting down on the benches, she looked upon the statue of Pyre and wondered how he could stand watching everything unfold the way it has.
However, she doesn''t me him. After all, his only role given by Chaos was to govern this world and make sure no disasters end this world before the termination of this cycle has been confirmed.
''Have I been overthinking things? I have all this power yet I cannot help them. Perhaps I was never meant to help them, then why did Chaos send me here? How can it be called life and death when they live in agony? Their life is cruel and death is a mercy¡ terminating them before they reach their goals. Then what meaning does their life hold?''
Unable toe to a conclusion, Leia could only sit there silently with sadness in her eyes.
Soon, she was told that the head priest was able to spare some time for her.
But upon entering his office and asking why the state of the city is like this, the answer broke her heart.
"Is there an issue? There will always be those that are crushed beneath the heels of those that are capable. Like the mes of our God Pyre, there will be fuel. For our society, they are the fuel that keeps things in order. Their suffering is necessary so the masses can flourish."
Chapter 1267: The Marquesss Offer
"Is there an issue? There will always be those that are crushed beneath the heels of those that are capable. Like the mes of our God Pyre, there will be fuel. For our society, they are the fuel that keeps things in order. Their suffering is necessary so the masses can flourish." The priest said as though it was a matter of fact.
There was no remorse in his voice nor was there a sense of sadness. In fact, to Leia, it sounded like he was proud.
Proud that this kind of society has benefited him and allowed him to rise above the masses, trampling on their suffering.
"Even so! Their pain, their anguish, their regrets! Are you content with just stepping over all of that?!" Leia shouted, hoping that what he said before was just an act.
"If not them, it''s us. If they don''t have the capabilities to grasp an opportunity that the Lord has given to them, it is only natural that they suffer. Opportunities are given everyday, if they cannotprehend that then I have nothing else to say." He shook his head as Leia bit her lips.
He wasn''t wrong.
There were indeed opportunities every day but this shouldn''t be how you go about it. Ignoring his fanciful words, all he''s saying is that what they do with their lives is not his problem. If they die they die. If they live they live.
"What about the blessed crops? There is an abundance of it. Surely as the city with the most supply, you can afford to use some on the poor. Even if it''s just one. If you dilute it into a soup there are still benefits to gain." Leia asked.
"I don''t know how else to exin to you until you understand. The poor are of no concern to us or those that live in prosperity in this holy city. God has blessed us with blessed crops to reward us for our efforts. It''s to reward the hardworking and maintain the status quo, not for us to throw it towards the useless. Now please be on your way, I am a very busy person." The priest gestured to the door.
Clenching her fists in anger, Leia couldn''t believe that people like this existed, feasting on other''s suffering and benefiting off it like a parasite.
She knew the possibility was there but seeing it with her own eyes was something else entirely.
''Is death important because it also causes people like this to disappear?'' She thought to herself.
Making her way to the main floor of the church, countless questions flowed through her mind. But the only answer she could think of was to remove all of the blessed crops. She had to remove what caused everything to fall apart.
''I should''ve never given the vige this blessing.'' She thought to herself in sadness. In wanting to reward the vige, she only seeded in causing its downfall. If she were to take it all away, they would definitely suffer.
But there was still a chance.
''The Noble that governed thisnd. He allowed the vige to live without taxes for a period of time. He should know the plight of the weak.''
Making her way out of the vige, she tried her best to recall the Noble''s name.
"If I remember correctly, the one that governs over thend the vige is in was called Marquess Leroux." Leia muttered as she made her way to the stables. She wanted to see if there was a carriage that can take her to Marquess Leroux''s estate.
Thankfully, she didn''t have any troubles finding a carriage leading to the estate but a new problem arose.
The purpose of her visit and whether or not she had arranged a meeting.
Thinking about this, she could only take a gamble and see if he allows a meeting if she reveals that she''s the Saint of the vige.
Waiting by the front gates patiently next to the guards, it wasn''t long before a butler guided her into the estate.
"Lord Leroux is waiting for you in his study. Seeing as how you are the Saint from the vige, he has graciously taken out some of his time to meet you."
Hearing this, Leia nodded her head.
Walking up to the second floor of the estate, the butler led her down a corridor before knocking on a door at the very end.
"My Lord, the Saint is here."
"Bring her in."
Opening the door, the Butler gestured for Leia to enter before closing the door behind her.
"Saint, it is a pleasure to meet you. What brings you to my estate at this time of day?" The Marquess asked with a smile.
He was a man that looked as though he was in his 50''s to 60''s. A head of grey hair and a set of greedy eyes that seem to be scanning Leia up and down.
Ignoring his gaze, Leia opened her mouth.
"Thank you for taking the time to meet me Lord Leroux. I''vee here with the intention to inquire about the use of Blessed Crops. I had taken a trip to the city and saw the homeless on the verge of death and starvation. If we take just one and dilute it into soup, it can be used to solv-" Before she could finish her sentence, the Marquess raised his hand to stop her.
"So it is about this matter. The head Priest had already notified me of what you two talked about. Let me make this clear young Saint, the influx of the homeless has only increased due to the news of the crops. If we spare just one, more woulde. The best thing to do is to ignore them and let them be. If not for the crops, they wouldn''t be here in the first ce, dirtying up the streets of this city." The Marquess huffed out in anger.
"But-!"
"Saint! I have shown plenty of respect to you regarding your identity. There is nothing else to discuss." He shook his head.
"Just one stalk out of the thousands you harvest everyday! Just one would''ve been enough to help them!" Leia mmed her hand onto the desk. She couldn''t believe that he wouldn''t even spare one crop.
Staring at her momentarily, a wicked smile curled up on the Marquess''s lips.
"Alright. Just one stalk you say? We cane to an agreement. I can give them more than one stalk if you so wish."
Hearing this, light returned to Leia''s eyes as her expression brightened up.
"Really?!"
"Yes. The only thing I require is a small bit of cooperation from your side." He chuckled.
"What do I need to do?" Leia asked. As a god, there were plenty of things she could do without harming the bnce of this world.
Suddenly, the Marquess grabbed her hand and started to rub it causing Leia to back off in shock and disgust but he refused to let go.
"All you have to do is be my woman and I''ll grant the parasites some of the crops to keep them alive if you so wish. Surely as the saint, being my woman is a small taskpared to saving hundreds." He asked with a cruel grin on his face.
Gritting her teeth in anger, killing intent flooded out of Leia''s body.
He wanted her to be his woman? How dare this mortal. The blessing that she granted to this world had to be traded for with her own body?
She refused.
If the ones holding a monopoly of her blessings are beings less than humans, why should she grant them blessings to begin with?
Mana erupted out of Leia''s body as she shook the Marquess''s hand off hers.
"Please conduct yourself properly. There is nothing else to discuss between us." Leia said coldly as she turned to leave the room.
"I will give you till midnight to change your mind. A single confirmation would save thousands. Think about it carefully Saint." He called out with a grin.
ncing back with cold eyes, Leia contemted on how she should deal with this man- no, this beast.
"You will see my answer tonight."
Turning around, she left the estate without another word while the Marquess only licked his lips.
"I suppose I should tell the Priest that she can be ckmailed to a certain extent with the Blessed Crops. To think she would care this much about them." He shrugged while preparing to send a letter.
Meanwhile, after Leia left the estate, she started to walk back to the city.
ring out her mana momentarily so that Pyre appeared, Leia nced at him coldly causing him to shirk back.
"I believe you saw everything that transpired yes?" Leia asked as Pyre nodded his head. He had wanted to strike that man down the moment he dared to make such a suggestion but Leia''s aura was telling him not to get involved. She wanted to end him herself.
"Then you should have no qualms about what I n to do tonight. Just make sure my power doesn''t upset the bnce in this world." Leia warned as a ck aura started to flood out of her body.
Chapter 1268: No More Blessings
Sitting in his room, the Marquess didn''t know what was going on but he felt strangely unsettled. There was a bad feeling in the pits of his stomach and caused him to be restless. Pacing back and forth, he didn''t know what could be wrong.
''The flow of Blessed Crops seems fine, profits are up. Nothing is wrong¡ could it be because of the Sister from earlier? No that can''t be.'' He thought to himself. He had made advances like that plenty of time before and it had always worked out.
The first time he did it, he had the same unsettling feeling but it faded away after the third time.
Shaking his head, he looked out the window at the setting sun. Regardless of what may happen, he was sure things will go well for him. After all, god had blessed him with discovering the Blessed Crops, it clearly meant that god had favored him against the others.
Hearing the door open without a knock, the Marquess frowned.
"Did I not tell you to announce yourself with a knock everytime you entered?!" Heshed out in annoyance as his butler should''ve known better.
However, seeing the same Sister from earlier today closing the door behind her, he started to salivate at the thought of her answer. If she hade here then she had resolved herself. An obscene light flooded into his eyes as he sat down on his chair.
"Since you are here, I suppose it is time for me to hear your answer. It''s a little early than the time limit but that simply means you havee to your senses." He smirked.
"Do you know how many lives you have harmed?" Leia asked, causing the Marquess to frown but yed along. Even if she decides to back out at thest moment, he wasn''t going to let her leave easily.
"Who cares how many ants die, how many crumbs are dropped from the piece of bread. But spare me the boorish talk ande entertain me instead. Entertain me well and I may even do more for the parasites you seem to care so much about." Heughed while patting his leg.
Taking a deep breath, Leia stared at him coldly.
"You are right, who cares how many ants die. Then I suppose getting rid of you will be doing this world a service." Waving her hand, chains of shadow leapt up from the ground and secured him to his chair.
"Every death that you have caused, directly or indirectly, you will suffer through it all. The shadow of death will always haunt your sight and when you least expect it, it will strike. You will watch as your horrors manifest, your fears grip your throat and everything you own and treasure fly out of your reach. And you will know that everything is caused by me." Leia warned as she approached him step by step.
Before he could even say anything, a hook was flung out of the ground and pierced his tongue.
Flicking her finger, it was torn out before he could even protest.
Screams exploded out of his mouth as blood and tears pooled beneath him.
"Nothing you say will benefit this world so you should stay mute. Your eyes only know greed so you have no need for them. From this moment on, you will be trapped in a nightmare of your own making."
Reaching out with her fingers, she gouged out both his eyes and crushed them in her palms. Below him, a portal opened. In the depths of that darkness, he will suffer everything that he has caused. Constantly repeating for all eternity.
But her vengeance wasn''t done yet. Her anger could not be quelled. Everyone that epted what he was doing and ignored the cries of the weak shall not be ignored. This was going to be a purging. Those undeserving of her blessing shall not see the light of day.
sping her hands together, ck mist rolled out around her and spread towards the city. It was lethal to everyone that had a connection to the Marquess, those that simply watched and enjoyed the luxury without doing nothing else.
To her, she didn''t understand why they couldn''t spare even a fraction of their wealth so that the weak can survive. A fraction so miniscule that it would not even affect their lives.
All they know is to hoard, to hoard and hoard more wealth. Never sparing even the smallest coin for the weak.
"Death is a guardian to keep the world in check. And so I shall take up my mantle once more and bring death upon the living." Leia proimed.
She could feel the essences of the corrupt living being snuffed out by her mist. Those that came into contact were erased as though they had never existed before, not even a speck of them remained.
With the threat of the mist, she could see human nature better than ever. Those who saw the consequences of being touched by the mist ran away in terror.
They dragged, shoved and pulled each other towards death as long as they could survive. Stepping on one another just to reach higher ground without reaching a hand back to save the one who had just helped them. Insteadughing at their na?ve thinking and cursing them to die by the mist.
She could no longer see the beauty of their nature. To her, Aaron had be the special exception with a handful of others. The core nature of humans was to harm itself.
To her, it was beyond strange that they could be the dominant lifeform within this when all they do is harm their own interests.
Where was the beauty in this? Where was the beauty in watching a husband throwing their wife over the edge of the cart just so they could go a little faster.
Watching all of this unfold, Leia could only feel her anger rising to levels she never imagined before. Even before her blessings, this society was wed. Her blessing only brought the ws to the surface.
"Disgusting, repulsive. Unfit to live on the sanctuary that Chaos has created for them. These beings should not be allowed to witness the perfection of the Garden Project." Leia gritted her teeth as her power continued to flow. It was now threatening to flood over to the capital of the Kingdom when Pyre appeared before her and kneel down.
"Please calm yourself your highness. If you continue to unleash your power even I will not be able to hold it back anymore!" He begged as Leia red at him before taking several deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself down.
Gritting her teeth, she retracted her power and the mist started to fade away.
"You can leave now. I''m going back to the vige." Leiamanded after a short pause.
Nodding his head, Pyre bowed down once more and left the area, feeling thankful that Leia was able to calm herself down in the end.
Looking over the city, Leia observed silently. She witnessed their panic and confusion, the consequences of their actions during the mist, the ones that survived enough though they were engulfed and the betrayal that they experienced.
Unsure of what to say, she simply sighed andnded at the gates of the city. Since confusion and panic was the only thing happening right now, she borrowed some horses and a carriage before making her way back to her vige.
However, she didn''t forget to take away the blessings that they didn''t deserve. All of the Blessed Crops that were kept in a monopoly withered away instantly with a snap of her fingers. Those that bought the crops were allowed to enjoy their blessings for now.
When she got back to the vige, she was going to do the same. There was no longer any need to discuss the options in her mind since she had seen herself how human nature reacts.
''I suppose the best I can do right now is to talk to Aaron and figure out a way to help the vige. Without the Blessed Crops, they''re bound to panic. But I''m sure they''ll be able to pull through.'' Leia thought to herself with high hopes. She had seen how the vige banded together in tough times and survived till now. If they can do it once, they can do it again. To her, they seemed much happier and united during that time.
Upon her return to the vige, Leia couldn''t speak a single word.
The words that Aaron spoke to her appeared in her mind.
"It''s not a big n. Just rallying some people to our cause I suppose. Some helping hands in trying to get everyone toe to their senses and realise how much wealth has changed them."
"I''ll try and get everyone toe back to their senses by the time youe back." He would promise.
"Don''t worry about it. Everyone in this vige has known each other since birth after all." He would reassure.
Biting her lip, Leia felt as though something was stuck in her throat. Not letting her speak a single word.
Nailed torge wooden pirs that were erected in the center of the vige, Aaron''s corpse and several others rotted with birds picking away at their flesh. Tools plunged into their chest with parts of their body being hacked to pieces.
This vige could no longer be called her paradise.
Chapter 1269: Understanding Human Nature
"No¡ No! This can''t be!" Leia shouted out as she dashed towards the vige centre.
Seeing their corpses hung in such a manner with the animals eating their flesh, Leia prayed that this was merely a joke they were trying to y on her.
However, seeing the vigers kneeling around the pirs, Leia could see they were undisturbed by the view.
"Ah Leia, you are back. How was your trip to the city?" The vige head asked with a smile on his face.
"Huh?"
Blinking her eyes in disbelief, she couldn''t believe that the vige head was more concerned about her trip to the city rather than what had happened in this vige.
"Aaron and the others¡ Why are they like this? What happened?!" Leia asked as her voice slowly raised in volume.
"Ah it must be shocking for you. But they were heretics. They tried to take away the blessing bestowed upon us, corrupting our minds to go back to the time of suffering. They tried but we refused. Yet he dare try toy a hand on our Blessed Crops." The vige head scowled as he red at their corpses with anger.
"So we did the obvious and used their soul to appease the god of light in hopes that he''ll forgive the heretics in the afterlife. That way the Lord does not take the Blessed Crops away from us."
Hearing this, Leia stumbled back and copsed on the floor. Her eyes staring up at Aaron''s corpse in shock.
All of this, just because Aaron wanted to stop their madness.
For all the good he wished upon this world, for all of his trust in the people he grew up with, he was betrayed in the end. His body hung up for all to see as a warning.
Was this how his life should have ended? Was this his way of living? Was this his goal? Should she have blessed him as an individual instead? Made it so that he could protect himself?
But one thing was clear. Her ideas had been wed.
Bless the people as a reward? That was foolish. They didn''t need rewards, they needed the threat of death to keep them on the right track. Allowing them to live was rewarding enough.
"Hahaha¡ For my foolishness you died¡" Leia muttered softly as the vige head was confused about what Leia was saying.
Breaking out intoughter, Leia stood up and stared at the sky.
"I have seen enough of this world. I have seen enough of human nature. Chaos was right. Death is important. Aria gives out life while I¡ Take it away from them. All so they stay on the right track." Leia sighed out.
"The time for observation has ended. What isn''t needed anymore shall be terminated as per dictated." She dered coldly. Turning away from the vige head, Leia walked towards the field of Blessed Crops.
Realising that she was allied with Aaron, the vige head grabbed a nearby weapon and shouted to the others.
"She''s nning on taking out the field!"
Hearing this, the others snapped their gaze towards Leia who was walking towards the field with a cold gaze. A smile could no longer be seen on her face.
With the ending of Aaron''s life, she no longer had a reason to stay attached to this vige. It was nothing but a colony of wed beings that took away her enjoyment.
Panic spread through the vige as one of the hunters threw a sickle towards Leia, digging deep into the back of her head.
Before he could be happy with his uracy, he noticed that the sickle was disintegrating into ash the moment it came into contact with her body.
Slowly, Leia turned her head back with inhuman flexibility.
She was no longer Leia of this vige, the young girl raised in the church. From this point on, she was Anima, the First Born of Destruction.
Opening her mouth, she uttered a single word in silence as the man burst into purple mes, letting out harrowing screams before disappearing with no trace of him except for the charred ground he was standing on.
"D-DEMON!" One of the vigers shouted out with the others following suit.
Ignoring them, Anima raised her finger towards the field and flicked it upwards. A pir of mes erupted into the sky, cleaving the world in half and dying the realm in a deep crimson.
"When a test site has lost its purpose, it''s up to me to dispose of the remains. There are no more answers to be obtained here, thus your existence wille to an end." Anima sighed as thorns burst out from the ground, wrapping around the vige and covering it in jagged spikes.
"In your foolishness, you fell prey to gluttony and avarice. Blinding you to the truth and corrupting your mind. Aaron was never corrupted, it was all of you. He tried to bring you back, a final chance at redemption but what did you do? Not only did you indulge in my blessings, but you also killed the only one who could''ve saved you."
Grabbing the vige head by the throat, Anima lifted him up coldly and opened her mouth.
"So let me do the obvious. I will use your souls to appease my anger. As the Highest God of Destruction, I will forgive heretics once they are erased from this world."
Without waiting for a response, Anima threw his body into the air as spikes shot out from the ground, piercing all of the vigers and raising them high into the sky. The thorns that pierced their body exploded into hundreds of thorns that shredded their inner organs while slowly draining them of their blood.
However, she made sure they were kept alive as long as possible.
Blood rained down from above as a symphony of cries and screams filled the vige.
The crimson sky, pir of mes, corpses that sung out in anguish, the rain of blood and the darkened thorns that surrounded each and every building. This is hell manifested in mortal realms.
Bringing down Aaron''s corpse along with the others, Anima stared at their lifeless eyes.
Unlike the ones that she had killed, their souls have not been snuffed out yet, she can only redirect them to Aria''s hands and hope that their next life will be better.
Burying their body, Anima mourned their passing for three days and three nights as the cries of her victims slowly died out.
Sitting alone in the vige of thorns, Anime thought about what else she should do in this realm. After spending all this time in the vige, the only conclusion she coulde to was that Death was important to weed out the corrupted. The humans do not deserve blessings as they would only find themselves at its mercy and fall victim.
''What is the final vision mother wishes to see for the Garden Project¡ A perfect paradise cannot exist.'' Anima thought to herself.
While she now understood the importance of life and death, she could not understand the goal for the Garden Project.
"I suppose mother only wanted me to understand my role in all of this. In this case she had seeded." Anima sighed while ncing back at the countless corpses strung up by thorns.
Shaking her head, she shed her mortal body and withdrew herself from the Garden.
Opening her eyes, she found herself holding the orb in her hand and barely half a day had passed. But during this time, she had gained the knowledge shecked as well as an understanding of human nature.
Looking at the orb in her hands, Anima decided to look for Chaos.
As she had expected, Chaos was still in herb doing some final preparations for the Garden Project.
"Mother." Anima called out, causing Chaos to nce back.
"Seems like you''re back. Did you find out the importance of Life and Death for these beings?" Chaos asked with a smile as Anima nodded her head.
"I did. But I also found out more about their nature. They''re easily corrupted and fall to greed with a single blessing. Though few within the crowd are able to withstand the temptation¡ I have a new question now." Anima bit her lip.
"Ask away."
"You know better than I that these beings are imperfect in every way. They cannot handle the blessings you grant them nor the paradise you seek in the garden. They will only fight amongst themselves and bring ruin to the paradise. So what is the real reason for the Garden Project?" Anima asked.
"You said that all of us exist to govern overws so the people can live properly. But just existing to governws does not require the Garden Project."
Thinking about it for a moment, Chaos opened her mouth.
"I suppose you can just call it a whim. I want to build a perfect world because I can. If they can live in it, so be it. But if the world is perfect yet they cannot handle it, how should it be dealt with? That''s the Garden Project. It''s to breed a form of humans that can handle the perfection I grant them."
". . ." Anima was silent. This was nothing but to stave off Chaos'' boredom born from her nature as the mother of all things. Just like Aria, she wanted to create and foster just for the sake of doing so. There was no extra meaning or goal.
Chapter 1270: Establishing A Link
"Are you alright?" Chaos asked, noticing Anima''s strange reaction to her response.
"Yes I am." Anima nodded her head reluctantly as thoughts crossed her mind.
If Chaos was doing this all for a whim, why did she teach her about human connections? The meaning of their life and their purpose.
Furrowing her brows, Chaos stared at Anima for a good moment.
"If you say so¡ Come here for a moment, I have something else to give you. I''ve designed a little something to help us regte the cycles. As powerful as we are, handling millions of them at once is quite the tall task." She smiled, changing the topic.
Trying her best to forget about her worries, Anima made her way over to Chaos.
"I know how much you like books so I have prepared something for you."
cing a book in front of Anima, Chaos smiled and gestured for Anima to open it and give it a read.
The moment she opened the book, Anima widened her eyes.
Within the book, it detailed several experiments already. Records of the cycle''s achievements and advancements in overall human technology. It only detailed the movements of humanity as a whole but rarely detailed the individual.
"Did this record the cycle I was in?" Anima asked, wanting to see what it documented.
"Oh yeah it did. It should be thetest one." Chaos nodded while making her way to the table on the side and bringing up several cycles in preparation to begin the Garden Project.
She had sent Anima down to a simtion in order to learn about regting human numbers, life and death. She knows that Anima is smart so she wasn''t worried that she wouldn''t understand her choices.
Reading through the logs, feelings Anima didn''t want were rising in her heart.
All these years of aplishments, all these disasters, there was nothing regarding anyone from her vige except the massacre she caused, resulting in witch hunts across the country for the believers of Pyre. One of the workers in the Marquess'' mansion survived and realised that it was her who was behind it all.
This book did not care at all about the individual.
Clutching her chest in pain, Anima bit her lip as she couldn''t understand what was happening to her.
"Mother, when I was in the cycle, there were people who I believe would''ve be remarkable individuals that can change the world if given the right surroundings. Perhaps recording just the overall view of the cycle will miss out on such people."
Hearing this, Chaos furrowed her brows before shaking her head.
"I had thought of that already. But I''m not looking for the individual. I''m trying to find a world where they grow enough to project the and allow a flood of mana. The humans have creative minds and find different ways to manipte the world. Once the cycles are done and the Garden Project finishes, there will be a cycle that obtains the optimal results needed for this world. If at that point, the world is still a failure then we can just restart and choose different variables for the experiments." Chaos replied.
"Alright, I have everything set up now. Get your sister and we can begin."
Hearing this, Anima reluctantly nodded her head while taking the book with her.
Biting her finger nail on the way out, Anima kept ncing at the book before deciding to interfere with it. This''ll be her first time going against what her mother says since this book should be ''perfect'' by Chaos'' standard.
But Anima couldn''t leave it like this. If she did, the pain in her chest would never go away.
Taking a deep breath, a tier 9 magic circle appeared in her hand as she revealed the book''sposition. She wanted to see how Chaos designed the book so that she could add some requirements of her own without overloading the book.
The moment theposition revealed itself, a giant array ofplicated magic circles burst out in an instant. The aura that she could feel from the book was akin to that of a new born god. One still in its infancy but on the level of both Aria and herself.
Focusing her gaze, she tried to emte the method Chaos usually uses in an attempt to modify the contents but something was missing.
The book was actively rejecting the changes and refused to be modified. Only the creator and itself can make the changes.
Furrowing her brows, Anima had a thought. Chaos had mentioned that this book was a gift for her meaning she could do whatever she wanted with it.
Her idea was risky but she had to do it. She couldn''t let this book and the Garden Project ignore the individual like this. If it did, people like the Marquess and the Priest will be allowed to live with no repercussions so long as the whole is good.
cing her hand on her chest, Anima gritted her teeth and opened a hole. The aura of destruction spilled out as Anima started to entwine the two together. If she assimted this book to herself, she''ll be able to make corrections that even Chaos cannot change.
Red circuit patterns started to spread itself through her body starting from her chest as her aura was going through some changes of its own but the core was still destruction. After a few moments, the assimtion waspleted as Anima flicked her hand and an interface appeared before her.
It showed all the contents that had been recorded by the book including the cycle she was in.
Now that the book was merged with her, she counted as the book itself and thus could change theponents that make up this book.
"I need it to record everything about the individual, their aplishments in life, their goals, it should help them achieve it. They should be allowed to gain certain ess to this book, even if it''s the basic functions." Anima muttered as she started to create features that she believes would benefit the people. Once she was done, she was satisfied with what she ended up with. She couldn''t monitor it forever so there will be remarkable people chosen to help operate this book if they wish.
Happy with her work, she made her way to find Aria so that they can begin the project.
Meanwhile, Shiro watched with a slight frown on her face.
She realised that if this is indeed the first world before the cycles, what she had just witnessed was the first Anima creating the system. She was responsible for the fact that the system is catered towards the individual.
''I wasn''t entirely wrong. Chaos did create the system, but Anima improved upon it. Though from what I''m seeing, Chaos wouldn''t think of this as an improvement. She doesn''t seem to care for the individual but rather humanity as a concept. She is the mother of the universe and the people in each cycle are just a small part of the whole.'' Shiro scratched her hair, realising that Chaos never truly cared deeply for anyone except her own daughters. Though that was just her estimation from what she''s seen thus far.
The biggest realisation for her was that Anima created the system because she learned to be human during the years she spent in that vige. Even though she said it was no longer her paradise, she still held some lingering attachment to that ce. The people who grew up alongside her, the genuine connections she had and the pain of seeing it all go away.
There was a theory forming in Shiro''s mind but she cannot be sure just yet.
With Anima finding Aria, the first of the cycles could now begin.
Chaos noticed the change within the book but decided to let it be for now. It just meant that there was more work to be done while each cycle advances. Since it was Anima, she''ll allow this.
"Aria, you''ll be responsible for creating all of the cycles up until the reset. You can vary the types of worlds however you want. I''ll just observe for now because I''ve already done everything I should do. Anima will be destroying the worlds that have exhausted their uses so new ones can take its ce. Use the book to help you with documenting the major changes and the next cycle will improve upon it." Chaos intrusted before stepping back.
Anima nodded her head and took several deep breaths before gesturing for Aria to start.
Unable to contain her excitement, Aria gathered her power and created a universe between her palms.s formed into reality and lives started to prosper.
Closing her eyes, Anima focused her mind on the book that was now tied to her soul. She could see the events being noted down, the individual achievements and their goals.
A warm feeling blossomed in her chest as she could see many seeding their goals using the new gift she had given them.
Since it was a gift given from the start, they grow to be ustomed to its help.
*Drip
Pausing for a moment, Anima wiped her finger against her nose and noticed that she was now bleeding.
A flood of information crashed into her mind, the collective hate of the world, the wars, the destruction, everything. Curses towards the gift, pain from the oppressors crushing the weak. Through linking her soul with the book, she now experienced everything that ever happened within the cycles.
Chapter 1271 Database
1271 Database
A harsh ringing sound deafened her ear as Anima stumbled backwards.
Millions of lives yed out in front of her in that instance with no boundaries separating them from her. Was she Anima? Or was she one of the many within the flood of information.
A life of a husband who went to war leaving his family behind, their tears and his sadness. His fear and regret at the moment of his death.
A child who watched hunters take her family away from her before being sold as a ve.
The homeless who starve, the rich who abuse and the ones in between. All of their lives merged within Anima''s mind.
Within the boundaries of her soul, millions of hands reached out in an attempt to seize every piece of her as she was unable to hold them back in time.
Tripping over her own foot, she fell backwards and started to spasm on the flood with her aura bing more unstable with each passing second.
"Anima!"
"Big sis!"
Both Aria and Chaos shouted out in shock seeing Anima stumble back with blood dripping from her nose.
Quickly running beside her, Aria tried to see what''s wrong with Anima''s body and realized it was her mind that was being overwhelmed by the information.
Chaos noticed the same thing and quickly halted the project. Running over to Anima''s side, Chaos frowned and waved her hand. Several tier 9 magic circles surrounded Anima''s body and started to heal her wounds.
Snapping her finger, a hole opened in the center of her chest and Chaos could see the core of Anima''s being faltering from all of the interference.
Separating them one by one, she removed Anima''s connection to the book and tossed it aside before ''fixing'' Anima''s core.
Moments passed as both Chaos and Aria looked on with anxiousness. Thankfully, Anima''s condition stopped deteriorating as she fell unconscious.
"Take your sister back to her ce for now. We''ll continue the project once she''s feeling better." Chaos asked as Aria nodded her head before taking Anima away.
Standing by herself, Chaos picked up the book and flipped through the contents, seeing the full extent of what flooded Anima''s mind during that one instance.
"I shouldn''t have told her to go see why life and death was important. I thought she''d learn her role as a higher being, one that lives a different lifepared to these mortals but she learned the human heart instead." Chaos muttered, massaging eyes before making up her mind.
Setting the book ame, she destroyed itpletely and left no traces.
During that instance, the essence of the book pulsed out and Chaos noticed something within the room. It was brief and barely noticeable. But Chaos could sense that something had been tampered with.
Walking towards Shiro''s direction, Chaos furrowed her brows before conjuring a tier 9 magic circle.
Before she could do anything, the magic circle shattered apart much to her surprise and understood she couldn''t figure out what had interfered with this part of the world.
Shaking her head, she realized something must''ve happened in the future and something has blocked her power. Something that was stronger than her.
Unsure of what to make of the strange reaction she sensed briefly, she could only put her focus back on the task at hand.
She needed to clean up the process of the cycles more and find another way to record things other than the book. Something that wouldn''t harm Anima like this even if she tried modifying it.
Before Shiro could see what Chaos was nning, her vision shifted to where Anima was.
Anima was nowying on the bed and Aria was no where to be seen. After a brief moment, her eyes opened slowly as she clutched her head in pain.
Sitting up, she realized that she was no longer in Chaos''b and understood that she must''ve copsed.
She could remember the different souls trying to tear her apart due to her haphazard preparations.
Sighing out, Anima raised her hand and stared in silence.
"Am I still Anima?" She muttered.
Even though Chaos managed to cut the connection quickly and separated the souls, she could still remember everything all of the lives had lived. She could see still shes of their existence, their lives ying out in her mind.
If she fails to focus on ''Anima'' as an entity, the visions will start creeping in, trying to take over.
"This can''t stay like this."
Taking a deep breath, she conjured a tier 9 magic circle. While Chaos may have separated the book, she could still remember theposition due to the fact that it had linked with her soul.
Flicking her wrist, an interface appeared in front of her once more. She wanted to sort out these lives into categories just like this along with the information she absorbed daily. She''ll document everything in a way that doesn''t flood her mind.
Just like a book, she''ll be able to choose when to ess her knowledge.
While she was making this feature, she couldn''t help but contemte the future of the cycles now that the first test run ended in failure due to her own negligence.
"Knowing mum¡ she''ll probably try again but with more precautions this time. I doubt she''ll let me use the book if she hasn''t already destroyed it."
''But why should she take away the blessing I give to everyone in the cycles. It gives them all a chance at life even if they start in poor conditions.''
"Having the book merge with her new precautions might not be too bad¡ In the end it''s just the burden ced on me that''s worrying her. If I make the new feature document everything for me without flooding my mind, I''ll be fine."
''She can''t be allowed to interfere with the cycles or else people like Aaron will suffer. Their goals lost in the sea known as mankind with only the final result being the one that matters. I can''t let her dictate my life like that.''
Pausing momentarily, Anima held her hand against her head.
"My life? No¡ It''s their life." She frowned, understanding that she was going through drastic changes the longer she left things like this. She had to sort out the new feature to preserve her sense of self.
''So this is when she created the database I suppose. It seems like it became something inherent to all of us. But that still doesn''t exin things¡'' Shiro frowned. There was one major difference between the cycles she was seeing here and the cycle they were living through.
The cycle that Chaos was creating felt like small contained experiments. Naturally it could just be her perception of everything as one of the lives that live on it yet it felt much biggerpared to what she was seeing.
Plus, Anima had only been in one cycle so far as Leia. ording to her knowledge, there should be millions of Animas, millions of Shiro''s and so on.
''I suppose there''s still some major turning points I haven''t witnessed. Did Order want me to see all of this during our fight? For what reason? Just seeing the first cycle wouldn''t change the oue of our battle. Unless there''s somethingter that shows the secret of tier 10¡'' Shiro thought to herself with skepticism.
Shrugging her shoulders, Shiro conjured Error on her wrist and tapped him on the head.
"Seems like you and I were always destined to meet I suppose. Considering your original conception was made by the original me." Shiro chuckled as Error swayed with the movement of Shiro''s finger.
After ying with Error for a short time, Shiro nced back at Anima who had just finished creating the database and gave herself a partial reset to purge all the lives that were trying to merge with her.
Filtering them all into a database, she sighed out softly. After visualizing herself internally, she realized there was too much that had already merged to be purged properly. If she purged all the parts that had merged, she would cease to be Anima as well.
Massaging her head, Anima got out of the bed and made her way back to Chaos and Aria.
Now that she had purged herself of most of the issues, she should be fit to help out with the experiments once more.
She just hoped that the parts that had been merged wouldn''t cause too many issues.
Over at where Chaos and Aria are, Aria returned to help Chaos with sorting out a new way to manage the cycles.
One that splices the sessful cycles together while the failed cycles would also be spliced together. On the off chance that they seeded with failures, they''ll be given another chance but the chance was low for failures. This was a sentiment that both of them agreed.
"Should we make a purging function so that sis doesn''t have to work too hard? I don''t think she''s in any condition to help right now." Aria asked.
But before Chaos could reply, Anima made herself known.
"It''s fine. I can handle it. I''ve already resolved the problem." Anima called out as she created an orb in her hand and ced it on the table.
"It''s a new version of the book and has some safety features, it won''t harm me anymore." Anima reassured.
Seeing her determined gaze, Chaos could only reluctantly nod her head and resume the project. There was something different about Anima but she couldn''t put her finger on it.
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Chapter 1272 Animas Deterioration
1272 Anima''s Deterioration Compared to before, the project was progressing smoothly.
Chaos could see that Anima seemed unperturbedpared to thest run. She was much moreposed yet colder.
The only time she showed any emotion was when she had to end each cycle with sadness in her eyes.
After a day''s of work, millions of cycles have already been concluded and had their results documented yet they were far from their final vision.
Understanding that this was going to be a long ordeal, Chaos knew they would need bigmitment to continue this task.
Aria seemed fine since she was enjoying her job of creating. But both Chaos and Aria knew that Anima was not her usual self so they couldn''t be sure.
"Do you want to stay a while sis? We can see if there''s anything wrong." Aria asked but Anima shook her head.
"No it''s fine. I''m just more tired than usual since I had to cut pieces of my soul out." Anima reassured with a weak smile before making her way out of theb.
Seeing Anima''s fatigue, Aria turned to Chaos who could only sigh.
"You know how your sister is like. It''s hard to convince her when she''s doing her own thing." Chaos massaged her head.
With Anima in such a state, the best she could hope for is for her to sort it out herself. If that was impossible, she''ll have to resort to more extreme measures.
Returning back to her room, Anima sat down andid down on the bed.
Even though the database was filtering everything for her, the process wasn''t exactly smooth. Especially when information regarding millions of cycles was flowing in within the time span of a single day.
Clutching her head from the headache, she was going to reach through some of the reports once the headache calmed itself down.
With her new database, she had managed to create 4 categories for the reports. First is the positive reports that helped steer the civilization into a good direction, second are the positive individual reports. Third detailed negative development reports while the fourth are negative individual reports.
Anima knew that since this is the early cycles, the negatives will outweight the positives by arge degree but she didn''t expect it to be this bad.
It was roughly a ratio of one good report every ten thousand negative reports. Should she only judge -----However, seeing all of the negative reports, there was a sense of hatred within her. A hatred for how 12:34
the world is ran and a hatred for the unfairness of this world.
the cycle through this statistic, it would be a failure. Yet the individual reports had a different result.
While the ratio wasn''t as shocking as 1 in 10,000 as the overall reports, it was still much better. Only 1 report out of 100 was considered a good report but it was much better than the 1 in 10,000 ratio.
It proved that her thoughts were correct regarding how the test should be ran. She couldn''t overlook how despite the bad environment and overall development of the society, there was still plenty of good in the world.
Good people like Aaron still existed.
-----However, seeing all of the negative reports, there was a sense of hatred within her. A hatred for how the world is ran and a hatred for the unfairness of this world.
''Unfairness? I have given everyone blessings! Everyone has a chance to obtain what they wish if they worked for it.'' Anima thought with a frown.
Trying her best to block out the foreign feelings from within, she started to flip through the records.
The more she read, the more her face twisted with sadness and anger. Even after granting them a chance, they were stillmenting the unfairness, how the world hated them.
''Hate? Hate?! I have given you everything you possibly need what is there to hate? Your circumstances?! Everyone has the chance to change their fate yet you refuse to take the path.'' Anima gritted her teeth and mmed her hand against the table.
Panting heavily, she tried her best to calm the anger within her.
''No this isn''t like me. Their records shouldn''t affect me in such a manner.'' Anima frowned as she forcefully calmed herself down.
Flipping through more records, she could only feel disgust and despair at what she was seeing. Brave people going out and dying for the sake of many yet the many continue tovish themselves on the people''s suffering. So long as it isn''t them, they do not care.
Their sacrifice was not seen as a noble thing but rather something they should do out of their free will.
Those that were born in good circumstances were allowed to exploit the weak to make themselves better. Even if they are given the same opportunities, the one with better circumstances will kill thepetition with no hesitation.
It wasn''t as though a path of revenge or a way to surpass them wasn''t possible but it was much harder than she had initially thought.
''Fine, if you want an easier path so be it. Be careful about what you wish for.'' Anima narrowed her eyes as her aura started to fluctuate. A dark energy started to flow out of her as she brought out the system and began to make some adjustments.
She''ll grant them a portion of her power, one that will allow them to fulfil their goal. But in doing so, they''ll lose their minds once their goal has been achieved. If one seeks to take the easier path they must ept the risks thate with it. She made it clear with the notifications, if they truly desired her power to make life fair then they must pay the price.
Witnessing all of this, Shiro understood that this was where Fallen started toe into existence.
She was watching everything she knew about slowly being created by the original Anima. Whether that be the system, database or even the option of bing Fallen due to the First Born of Destruction''s blessing. It all happened here.
Naturally, Shiro also noticed the changes within Anima herself that she seemed to have overlooked.
While she may have thought that she was filtering out the foreign thoughts, her judgment had already changed without her knowing. If it was before, she never would''ve done any of this. Yet she''s epting it like it''s only normal for her to make these choices.
Even without seeing the soul, Shiro could tell that roughly 30 to 40% has been corrupted by the foreign thoughts otherwise the change in decision making would not be this extreme.
Over the next few days, Anima continued with helping the experiments. With each passing day, she continued to look more fatigued while going through the records that each cycle left behind. The number of people gaining the Fallen status was astronomical as it was an easy path in life.
Even with the risks and the dangers exined, they still chose the easy path. Moreover, she continued to burden herself with the records of each cycle and read through their anger towards the world.
Her own patience was also running thin and she was bing more irritable. She wanted to make the world better for those that had good goals in life but she couldn''t give them an unfair testing ground.
Not to mention, with Aria being the one to choose the parameters regarding the cycles with Chaos helping her, the worlds will never be one that showed them peace.
Returning to her room, Anima sat down and looked at her hands.
"If I try I can probably do what Aria''s doing. While our power''s are opposite I''ve seen it enough times so emting it on a small scale shouldn''t be an issue." Anima muttered.
Bringing her hands in front of her, a tier 9 magic circle appeared in front of her as creation energy flooded the room. It wasn''t as impressive as Aria''s disy since it was the opposite of her own divinity but it was sufficient for a small cycle.
Something on the level of a city was the most she could do.
But this was fine. She was going to give them everything they ever want, everything they ask for. She''ll actively take part in their development to see how the cycle will progress.
Plus, she was just going to grant the wishes that benefitted the world the most.
She''ll even make sure to manifest herself every year so that she can prove to them the presence of god.
With the cycle now created, a small smile appeared on her face.
''Surely this will be good right? Surely they''ll be happy with the world I give them now¡'' Anima thought while caressing the orb gently.
A church was made in her name, she granted them farnd, cattle and every joy they could imagine.
They asked forfortable living and she fulfilled this wish. Tall buildings with each room morevish than the rooms that nobles got in the other cycles.
They asked for bountiful food and she granted it, allowed the chefs to conjure whatever delicacy they could desire.
They asked for scientific advancement to allow them to explore. Anima helped them develop the digital world. They wished for a special type of material that bended to their will, allowing them to emte the power of creation.
She granted them that power.
They asked, she gave.
From the outside perspective, the world was perfect. A god that listened to your worries, a perfect society.
And yet, despite all of this, the cycle ended in failure. There was no joy in their heart, no gratitude. Only hate and anger.
Chapter 1273 One Last Experiment
1273 One Last Experiment
wed. It''s all wed. The humans are wed. They couldn''t ept any form of blessings the Gods grant them.
Her wish, Chaos'' wish. It was all but a dream that wasn''t meant toe true. After all, the ones they were trying to make a better world for couldn''t imagine a time without conflict.
If no harmes to them, they''ll find ways to harm others or themselves.
"They are fundamentally a race that cannot live without the concept of harm." Anima muttered as the dark circles under her eyes only grewrger.
She was tired mentally. She had scoured through millions of records detailing how the race functioned through a myriad of scenarios and eras only for it all to end the same. Destruction at their own hand.
If the God''s guide them, the result would only be them rebelling and ignoring the consequences.
How did she know? Her own society that she created from the start. She gave them everything they asked for and yet the end result was still all the same.
She was tired.
How could the same humans that revered her, the same ones that called her name with endless lovey curses upon her as though she was the source of all their misfortune. Everything they asked for that would make them happy she granted them.
Everything! And yet they curse her as the Evil God. The witch of sin and temptation. Some imed they were prisoners of her making, born to suffer for her entertainment.
Many imed that she did not feel love or treasure them at all. Do they not see everything she had done for them?
Retracting her consciousness from the orb, Anima looked at the orb coldly.
"It''s wed."
Why is every cycle like this? No matter what she tried nor what conditions she put them in, none of it changed the oue.
Was such a dream an impossibility in the end? Even for godly being such as themselves?
She was tired.
There was no more hope for this cycle that she had created herself. The humans upon this realm escaped to the world of the digital and fought against one another. No more do they look towards her in hope. Every time she appears, only disgust and repulsion could be felt.
Looking at the orb, Anima''s eyes grew cold. A strange feeling surfaced in her heart.
''Should I just crush them while they watch? Let them know their ce.''
Her breathing quickened as the twisted thought buried deep into her mind. As her hand slowly reached out, she thought about their regret seeing their world crumble, their begging and their despair. For those that did not treasure what they had before and med her for every tragedy.
If they med her for the tragedies, then she''ll make it a reality. She''ll make them watch as everything they knew and held dear crumbled before them.
Just as her finger brushed against the surface of the orb, she grabbed her own wrist and stopped herself.
Taking several deep breaths, she gritted her teeth and sat down on her bed.
"This is wrong. They''re just humans. Chaos already told me that their race could not function without conflict and the will to seek more. If I take that away they''ll just cease to function like I did here. It''s not their fault it''s mine, mine for creating a wed reality for them." Anima muttered to herself while looking at the orb pitifully.
If she had been more careful she wouldn''t need to do what she''s about to do. She wouldn''t need to erase their life. As the person who created them, there was a sting in her heart. If she could help it, she wouldn''t kill them.
But simply letting them continue down this path of destruction was cruel. She''ll end them, end them in one go. So they don''t even know what''s happening. A single blinding light and everything is reduced to nothingness. That is her pity towards them, her mercy.
Snapping her fingers, a cage appeared around the orb as a sh of light erased the cycle from existence.
Sitting in silence, Anima sighed deeply before looking towards the door.
"Ah right, I should go help with the real garden project¡"
Standing up, Anima made her way to the testingbs while Shiro watched in silence.
"I think I''m starting to see the full picture now." Shiro sighed. She realised the source of Anima''s torment.
She gained a human heart.
The time she spent as a human was to put it bluntly, a mistake if Chaos wanted Anima to stay as a god.
But now that she''s learned the human heart and gotten corrupted by certain souls, what''s began couldn''t be stopped anymore.
Anima could no longer watch as an unaffiliated third party without feeling empathy for the humans even if they curse her. It''ll drive her to do things she never thought of before and what she just witnessed was proof of that.
As Anima made her way back to theb, she saw Chaos working on some new cycles with Aria and couldn''t help but furrow her brows.
"You should''ve let me know if we''re starting earlier." Anima sighed and scratched her head.
"We did though? You should get some rest sis." Aria asked with concern in her voice.
Seeing Anima being reduced to this state was worrying especially since she seemed to be more effected with each passing day.
"It''s fine. I don''t need to rest some more. I just want to see what''s at the end of this project." Anima shook her head while looking at Chaos who was observing her silently.
After staying silent, Chaos opened her mouth.
"Just observe for today. I want you to see what''s been affecting you." Chaos ordered as Anima widened her eyes.
"Bu-!"
"No buts. Just listen to me. Spend the time today to watch me and your sister work and I want you to think about what''s changed for you." Chaos shook her head.
With Chaos ordering her to just observe, Anima had no choice but to nod her head despite her own thoughts.
''If I''m not helping them, they won''t even give the individual a chance¡'' Anima thought while biting her nails.
Watching Chaos using the new system she developed with Anima to shred away countless cycles without even giving them a chance caused pain to surge within Anima''s heart. Their cruel indifference and cutthroat choice making.
She couldn''t ept this type of experiment.
Just as she was thinking of standing up to stop them, Chaos red at her direction.
"Just sit still and watch. Anima, I''m not asking you for much. Just observe and reflect on yourself for now."
With Chaos reinforcing her stance, Anima clenched her fist but remained seated.
As time passed, Anima could only watch as they continued to shred away at millions of cycles without care. Once all of the experiments for the day had finished, Chaos instructed Aria to leave the two of them alone for now.
Nodding her head hesitantly, Aria nced towards Anima''s direction onest time before leaving the room.
"Do you know why I told you to just watch?" Chaos asked as she sat next to Anima.
"Because you noticed the changes in me?"
"Partially. It''s because you''re too attached to each cycle." Chaos shook her head.
Waving her hand, she created a new cycle nonchntly and before it could even begin, she crushed it with her hand.
Seeing this, Anima widened her eyes in shock as she didn''t even give them a chance nor did she hesitate.
"You''re bing too attached with each and every cycle we do. If you burden yourself with epting each cycle you''ll suffer. As higher beings that can create this on a whim, it''s our role not to be overly attached. We must treat each cycle with fairness and honesty." Chaos instructed as Anima gritted her teeth.
"But what about their potential?! I''ve seen it happen, the individuals who seek to change the world! If we merely look at the world from afar without caring about the details, none of the cycles will be a sess!" Animashed out as Chaos stared at her silently and shook her head.
"We need to give them a chance! A chance to prove themselves. Some will flourish in slightly different environments. If we can just-"
"Do you hear yourself Anima?" Chaos cut her off as Anima seemed more and more deranged as time passed.
"Is this not you bing overly attached to them? They are lesser beings Anima. We are not like them, you need to remember that. They are inherently wed. If it is impossible to create a world for these beings then that''s of no concern to us." Chaos tried to exin but something snapped within Anima.
Their lives, their goals and their hopes. Even kind people like Aaron was of no concern to higher beings. They are wed and thus Chaos held no expectation. All of this is to satisfy her own curiosity.
"I see¡ They are wed." Anima muttered, feeling devoid of strength.
"Yes, do you understand?" Chaos furrowed her brows as Anima nodded her head slowly.
"No, I understand enough." Anima sighed.
She was tired.
"Let us try onest experiment then¡" Anima stood up and burst intoughter.
"What?"
Staring at Anima''s back, there was a bad feeling in Chaos'' heart. As though something terrible was about to happen.
Chapter 1274 Chaos Final Act
1274 Chaos'' Final Act
"Let us try onest experiment then¡"
"What?"
"Chaos, the humans are wed are they not?" Anima asked as she turned around and faced Chaos.
"They are. But what is your point here Anima? What do you mean by onest experiment." Chaos asked, the bad feeling in her heart growing with each passing moment.
Seeing the insanity within Anima''s eyes, Chaos knew that something had gone wrong.
"As they are wed, lesser beings. It is only natural that our experiments regarding them would also be wed. If we do not understand them on a deeper level, how can we provide? And if we, the creators, cannot understand them nor provide them with a better world, are we not wed ourselves?" Anima questioned, causing Chaos to frown at her statement.
"Anima you know that is not the case."
"You are wrong. I do know. I know that in the time I have spent as a human, unless we understand them properly we can never provide them with a paradise. Thus I propose this. Onest experiment, one where the entire realm is sent through the process of cycles. So that we may learn the human mind." Animaughed as her mana surged around her.
"Are you insane!? Do you know the consequences of dragging the entire realm through the concept of cycles?!" Chaos shouted out. Waving her hand, a myriad of magic circles converged and shot towards Anima in an attempt to stop what she was nning.
It was her mistake, she should''ve understood that Anima was too far gone after living in a cycle and the souls merged with hers. She should''ve cut them out herself and returned Anima to what she was before. Yet that time has passed now.
"Am I insane? Perhaps you are right¡ You know what? Yeah! You are right!" Animaughed as she snapped her finger.
The space around her ruptured as crimson circuits shot towards each magic circle, breaking them apart without issue.
"For the sake of fairness, no one within this realm will be spared from the experiment. Everyone will be included and this world will continue to repeat until a satisfactory result is gained." Anima dered coldly.
sping her hands together, the space within thebs was isted as Chaos looked around in shock. Countless circuits have already spread across the realms and talking was just a way for Anima to gain some time to prepare her n.
"Anima stop this! You don''t know what you are doing!" Chaos shouted out in ast bid to try to get Anima back to her senses, but her words fell on deaf ears.
Conjuring a wave of tier 9 magic circles, Chaos gritted her teeth and resolved to kill Anima if that''s thest thing she could do.
Yet her ns could not reach fruition as all of her magic circles shattered apart before being properly formed.
Anima had nned for this already. She knew that she would struggle against Chaos without any back up ns since Chaos was simply stronger than her. However, with the book that she had gifted her, Anima was allowed to understand a new avenue of power.
One that allowed her to influence thews of reality and make changes where needed.
Creating a barrier around herself, Anima closed her eyes and started to absorb the energy from around her.
In front of her, a strange core was being formed. It absorbed every kind of energy from her surroundings, whether that be destruction or creation. Little by little, it radiated the same aura as Chaos.
Realising that she couldn''t attack Anima at all or put a stop to it, Chaos resigned herself to her fate.
But there was onest thing she could do.
If Anima was adamant on going through with this experiment, then so be it. However, she will be cursed to persist until the day she ceases to exist.
''A normal curse wouldn''t do anything to Anima¡'' Chaos bit her lips as she was thinking of ways she could restrict Anima so that their world could continue to live on.
"Anima! I''m sorry for what I must do. I should''ve never sent you to the cycles. Perhaps you would''ve been happier in blissful ignorance. But what''s done is done, I will atone for my mistakes and hope you will get rityter in life." Chaos shouted out as Anima furrowed her brows in confusion.
With her circuits now rewriting reality, she was sure that Chaos didn''t have anything else she could do.
However, her disposition right now told her otherwise. Before Anima could react, Chaos took a deep breath and plunged her hand into her chest. Ripping out the essence of her being, Chaos forced a brave smile and weaved together a tier 9 magic circle.
It was an idea she gained after remembering what Anima suffered when she first recorded the cycles. How all of the souls tried to merge with her.
''My own soul as a catalyst¡ I''ll impose a curse upon her that will make her see the end of this experiment till the day it''splete. It will not allow her to stop half way. A universalw that she cannot remedy. I''m sorry for what I must do, my daughter¡'' Chaos apologised as determination red in her eyes.
sping her hands together, she shattered her core into a myriad of pieces that started to transform into a faint translucent thread.
"At the start of everything there was me. With my all, I created this world that we know of. While you may be rewriting what I have done, I will make sure you cannot avoid this my daughter. With the final light of my life, I will impose an immovablew!" Chaos shouted out as the threads of her core intertwined itself with the new core that Anima was making.
Magic circles manifested itself around Anima as chains sped against her body.
Gritting her teeth, Anima tried to free herself but her attempts were futile. The sequence was set in motion and not even she could stop it. Reality will be warped and Chaos'' curse will continue.
Seeing that her curse has sessfullytched itself onto Anima, Chaos sighed and nced at the world that was breaking apart around her.
Anima while her body will stabilise the world, allowing mana to flow freely.
09:41
There was onest thing she wanted to do. Onest blessing for this world, one that will protect the people that live within the cycles to the best of her abilities.
She''ll chain herself to thews and use her body as a catalyst for stability. Her soul will restrain Anima while her body will stabilise the world, allowing mana to flow freely.
As her body started to crumble apart, she could see Anima screaming something towards her but she could not hear anything.
Thest thing she saw was a new ring forming around Anima''s magic circle as she rewrites reality.
Meanwhile, Shiro observed in silence. Her theory was true in the end. The first Anima, the one who learned the human heart, had set everything in motion. She was called Order because she became responsible for all the universalws.
Her pain, her torture all stemmed from knowledge she gained.
''How long has it been since the start? How many cycles has she witnessed?...'' Shiro thought to herself before turning her attention to the final ring around Anima.
The secrets of her tier 10 magic circle. It wasn''t something that could be brute forced. There must be a resonance between the user and the universalws that make up the world. She already had the answers as Anima attained tier 10 with the help of the original system that she created.
Shiro knew that she could do the same but her approach was wed. Right now, she knows that she could probably attain the same level of power. But there was a feeling in her heart that once she does, she could never turn back anymore.
Watching the scene disappear, the world turned white. Shiro was left with her own thoughts.
''The curse of Chaos¡ Did Anima want to die by her own hand? With the curse, she could not stop no matter how much time had passed. But if her ns came true, she wouldn''t be in the cycles. Aria makes sense and Chaos sacrificed herself to grant stability so she wouldn''t be in the cycles either. But why am I here? Me who''s a copy of Anima, one of the many that she createdter¡'' Shiro thought to herself.
She remembered what Anima said, how ''Anima''s'' role was for Shiro to exist. Was it the same for her? The Anima that obtained tier 10 and set everything into motion.
''What does the role of ''Shiro'' entail? When she dies, what next? The cycle cannot continue without her being there and the curse will not allow her to stop half way¡'' Shiro thought to herself but she did not know the answers.
Shaking her head, she watched as the world returned back to normal.
[yback has beenpleted.]
''Thank you Error.'' Shiro smiled as she could tell that Error was exhausted from digging up the truths buried behind everything.
With her knowledge of the events nowplete, she could make educated guesses on some of Anima''s actions but things had to wait for now.
She wanted to take care of the beast that was making its way towards her realm before confronting Anima.
Chapter 1275: Forging A New Weapon
Returning to the realm where she and Aria fought against one another, Shiro nced up at the skies as hundreds of reflections could be seen disying different realities.
Each reality that the God Beast visits fell to ruin as corruption spread across thend causing gues, natural disasters and a flood of corrupted mana to invade the bodies of those that are powerful. It caused their spells to go out of control and harm the caster instead of the target.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro looked down at her hands and activated Error''s power.
Since he was exhausted after digging up the past, she was doing everything manually.
''Anima attained tier 10 after Chaos sacrificed herself. What Anima can do I can do as well. Moving across dimensions should be within the realm of possibility for me.'' Shiro thought to herself as she peered into the source code of this realm.
Since Anima was able to create, manage and travel across realms by integrating the system and its rules to reality, essing it is a simple task for Shiro.
The difficultyes with trying to find the correct reality to warp to. Now that she had the entire realm at her disposable, she could now gain ess to millions of worlds.
Finding the correct one amongst all of this was not going to be simple, especially when all of the nodes that she set up beforehand no longer worked.
When she tried to resonate with the nodes, every single node within every single reality responded.
''I suppose it makes sense since they''re not different nodes per say.'' Shiro scratched her hair in annoyance.
There was one thing she could track urately though. The beast itself.
Going through her memories, Shiro remembered the instance where Anima created the beast. The convergence of source codes along with the ck goo.
''I know the code that I need to track. I just need to filter through all of these realities until I find it.''
Taking a deep breath, Shiro snapped her finger and a tier 9 magic array formed around her. She didn''t want to attempt tier 10 just yet but she could enhance her tier 9 spells through the new knowledge she gained.
"I need something to slow it down momentarily otherwise it''ll be annoying to try to find what reality it is crawling towards next." Shiro muttered as an idea formed in her head.
She''ll create an attack simr in nature to the one she used against Anima but this time she''ll imbue it with the ability to traverse realities.
A sure hit attack that will never miss its target!
A concept was being created in Shiro''s mind as she was going to attach parts of her power as someone that can bend reality.
There were 4 abilities she wanted to attach onto the weapon.
sping her hands together, the world around her rumbled in preparation for what she was nning. A tier 9 magic circle erupted from beneath her as several portals split open across the skies.
She was going to steal the energy from different realities in order to forge a weapon that she could use against the God Beast as well as Anima.
In front of her, an obsidian crucible manifested itself as nanobots swarmed around Shiro, creating machines at the entrance of each portal. The energy that was being siphoned from the realities was converted into a stream of pure blue liquid that surged towards the crucible.
Unable to withstand the presence of multiple realities, the world around Shiro started to fracture but it was of no consequence to her. In fact, she weed such destruction as the energy will assist her in creating the weapon.
shing her hand down vertically, the world in front of her split in two as cosmic energy surged into the realm.
With the conditions now optimal for what she wished to do, Shiro focused her gaze forward.
The first ability was for the weapon to traverse the realities!
Manifesting her core, she extracted a small portion of its energy and created a secondary core for the weapon. This will allow it to host the full power of Error and the system. With this power at the weapon''s disposal, it will not be restrained by physicalws.
Creating another tier 9 magic circle, Shiro watched as the blue fluid coiled around the core above the crucible. From the core, red circuits spread across the surface of the liquid, weaving itself tightly against the substance.
The second ability was the manifestation of a higher form of power. One that was the reflection of Chaos, a power that her original self wielded.
She will grant the new weapon the powers of Order!
As Shiro imbued the weapon with the second ability, the reality around her started to break away like pieces of ss and she knew she was now on a time limit. She wanted to use the destruction of this realm as the final push to solidify the weapon.
Third ability! It was a power that she awakened during her own fight, the power to Comprehend and Destroy. Anything the weapon touches will have a ''virus'' injected into it that willprehend everything about the target before breaking it apart.
As for thest ability, it was the most important one. The ability to always strike true no matter the distance, realm or defence!
She witnessed how both Anima and Chaos bent reality to their will, a power so potent that it allowed Anima to grasp the key to bing tier 10.
With her current understanding, such an ability was within the reach of her capabilities.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro created hundreds of tier 9 magic circles at once at they all amplified the energy siphoned from each reality simultaneously!
With such a surge of power, hundreds of realms were reduced to ashes at once.
''I''m sorry.'' She apologised in her mind as she didn''t wish to resort to such a method. But without a method like this, she wouldn''t have the energy she needs to form this weapon.
Now that the energy worth hundreds of realities invaded this realm, it could no longer keep itself stable but that was perfect for Shiro.
"I''ll manifest the body of the weapon using the remains of a destroyed realm." She muttered.
Dismissing all of the magic circles, she reassembled them into an array, one that was going to focus on stabilising the weapon.
Flicking her fingers, the splintered shards of this realm converged towards her location.
*RUMBLE!!!
As though weing the birth of something transcendent, iridescent lights formed from the remains of the realm surged around her location.
In front of her, a single spear floated while radiating an ominous energy that sent shivers down Shiro''s spine just looking at it. It felt as though it was something that should''ve never existed within this reality.
It had a pure ck body and de with cracks along the length, revealing red energy flowing beneath. Golden spirals could be seen along the body while runes of the same colour adorned the des.
[What will you name it mother?] Error asked curiously.
By just existing, this spear was warping reality around it, threatening to disappear into another realm.
"Hmm¡ It''s a spear that can''t miss so naturally there''s only one name I can really give it. And I suppose Odin did help me a little with the Bifrost so this spear will be named Gungnir." Shiro smiled as she grabbed the handle of the spear.
Immediately feeling the energy drain of manifesting such a spear, Shiro forced a smile on her face.
"How rebellious. I made you yet you''re trying to drain me dry of mana." She chuckled before looking up at the sky.
Since she had made the spear with a part of her core, she could sense where it was at all times. The moment this spear reaches the God Beast, it''ll act as a teleport node for her.
Aiming the spear towards the sky, red circuits burst out of her arms and threated into the spear.
Right now she was calibrating the target she wanted it to hit. As long as she remembers the source code, there''s nothing this spear cannot reach!
Closing one of her eyes, she connected her senses with the spear and could see that it was filtering through every reality at rapid speeds before homing onto a peaceful reality. A small fracture could be seen splitting within the sky as the Beast wed through without care.
"Found it." Shiro curled her lips up into a grin as she took a stance and pulled her arm back.
Holding her breath, tier 9 magic circles started to appear along the spear''s body as the veins in Shiro''s arm bulged from the amount of energy she was pumping into the weapon.
She could feel her core working harder than it has ever before. With each passing second, her mana drained faster than it could replenish at a speed inconceivable to themon mind.
She should have no mana issues yet half of her mana had already been absorbed!
"Greedy motherf*cker!" Shiro shouted out in anger as her mana was reaching 10%.
Thankfully, the spear seemed satisfied as she threw the weapon as hard as she could. A single pir of light cut through the realms, shattering reality wherever it passed in a blinding sh, leaving behind a trail of cosmic light burning everything it touched.
Chapter 1276: Extinguishing The God Beast
Tearing apart the realm, the God Beast descended upon a realm. The panicked civiliansunched a barrage of spells yet none of it worked.
It tore apart their defences, the tall walls and consumed their kingdom in its sludge. All that came into contact were melted down and absorbed before being regurgitated as minions at its disposal.
Panicked screams filled the realm as the people retreated as fast as they could but the swarm of monsters did not slow down. Their sheer numbers covered the sky in a sickening blood red while the sound of the God Beast''s movement sounded like demonicughter.
"Send the young, old and weak! Dy the beast as much as you can! Prepare the boats!" Amander shouted out as sweat dripped down his face.
He remembered what the oracle had said as she prophesied the god of death approaching through the rip in space. The fates have already foretold their realm''s destruction.
However, he did not believe such a thing. He didn''t believe that there was nothing they could do, and even if that was true, they shouldn''t just give up.
As the headmander of this kingdom, he was one of the strongest in this world or rather, what''s left of the strongest.
"Sir! You should also leave!" One of his soldiers begged but he shook his head.
"If we lose you as well, all is doomed sir!"
"Enough! Leave with the others. Let me handle this. The Asharia Kingdom will not fall so long as its civilians live on and that includes you. Allow me to fulfil my role as the final shield of this kingdom." He smiled before walking past the soldier.
Looking at the swarm of monsters and the giant god beast that slowly approached them from afar, he could feel a wave of fear surfacing in his heart but this was his duty, hisst stand. He will use his life so that the others can survive just a little longer.
Mana erupted from his body as he retrieved his sword and shield.
"With all due respect sir, that''s stupid and you know it. One man can''t hold back that monstrosity."
"Pft. Since it''s the end of the world I''ll let that slide. I know I can''t hold it back but a few seconds is enough." Themanderughed.
"Then another would double that no?"
Blinking his eyes in surprise, themander looked at the soldier who took off his helmet.
"I''ll resign from my post. Now it''s volunteer work." He smiled, causing themander to smack his shoulder.
"Alright. But keep that helmet on, it might help you out. Follow me."
Jumping into the battlefield, a tier 6 mana circle erupted from under him as he mmed his shield down. Several beacons lit up around the castle walls as a giant barrier was formed.
"For the people!" He shouted out as he stabbed the sword into the ground, stabilizing himself.
Behind him, the soldier did the same as he offered what little mana he could towards hismander.
Watching the giant dome of golden light envelop the kingdom, it was as though a pair of wings was now protecting them.
Seeing the monsters approach, themander smiled wearily as he knew the shield would not hold on for long. He had already seen tier 7 adventurers die to the wave. A tier 6mander like himself will not be able to hold on.
*BANG!!!
Arge ripple spread across the shield as the monsters collided yet it didn''t copse.
Widening his eyes in surprise, he nced back at the castle walls and saw that many of the soldiers did not leave and chose to stay behind.
"HU RAH! HU RAH! HU RAH!"
Their symphonic war chants overshadowed the cry of beasts as all of them offered their all for the barrier.
Seeing this, a new sense of pride welled up in themander''s heart as he amplified his voice.
"SOLDIERS! Tonight! We die as heroes! Tonight! We shall dine at the table in the afterlife in glory! Stand tall!" He shouted out as a burst of radiance erupted from the shield, pushing back the monsters by a single step.
With the monsters now struggling to breach the barrier, the God Beast approached slowly and raised its w.
*BANG!!!!
Shattering the outeryer without any issues, it prepared the second attack as themander gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. He offered as much mana as he could to the barrier so that it may hold on for just one more hit.
However, that hit never arrived as a giant source of mana pierced into their realm, overshadowing everything with a golden glow that tore the monster filled skies in two. A ray of light that had been blocked out now descended into the realm as a single spear pierced through the monsters with no issue.
Targeting the God Beast, several tier 9 magic circles appeared around the God Beast and golden chains secured it in ce. The spear will not miss its target!
Just as the spear collided against the beast, an explosion of pure mana erupted out from the beast as the world seemed to lose its colour from the brightness. Seeing the wave of destruction approach, themander did not know what to do.
They could barely block the attack of the beast yet this spear that radiated more might than the monster of nightmares, was now releasing an explosion much stronger than the monster itself.
Before despair could overwhelm his mind, a woman''s hand tapped his shoulder.
"You got a good set of soldiers. I saw everything that happened." Her gentle voice rang out as he saw her long white hair simr to that of snow, an elegant ck dress and a confident smile as she raised her hand towards the st.
Several rings of tier 9 magic circles appeared around her hand as another barrier appeared around the them.
*BANG!!!!!
The collision of the barrier and the explosion caused the world to shake as none of them could remain standing on their feet. The ground split apart from the attack but everything within the barrier was safe. Hundreds of tier 9 magic circles appeared behind them as the bodies of the deceased appeared.
Even those that had been consumed by the beast and regurgitated as monsters had their body reconstructed.
Waving her hand, orbs appeared above each of them before transforming into a wisp of energy that entered their bodies.
"They should be waking up soon. The barrier will keep everyone safe. Once the monster is dealt with, the barrier will disappear. You can stop your evacuations now." Shiro reassured with a soft smile.
Flicking her wrist, Gungnir reappeared in her hand as she dismissed it into the form of a ring. It took too much mana to manifest such a weapon after all.
Looking towards the God Beast, Shiro could see that most of its body had been shaved away from the st but it was far from dead.
Rising from its boiling body, the god beast was now a single elongated figure with arge smile that stretched across its body. Tentacles erupted from the wounds while bloodied cuts were forced open to reveal a myriad of eyes under theyer of skin.
Opening its jaw, a tier 9 magic circle could be seen as Shiro was still calm.
With her eyes, she could see every detail in the world, everything that it was nning to do. The formation of its spell, the movement of mana. Even the space it was currently floating in, she could see it all.
Snapping her finger, giant metal spikes erupted from the ground as the mana within the area was instantly evaporated, causing the giant monster to start falling downwards as it could no longer fly.
Its spell shattered apart while a tier 9 magic circle hovered above the area.
"Die." Shiro ordered coldly as she swiped her hand down.
From the tier 9 circle, a giant manifestation of Gungnir''s spear tip shot down and pierced deep into the body of the beast. The third ability activating upon Shiro''smand as circuits invaded its body and wereprehending everything regarding its being.
With the code of the God Beast now presented to her, Shiro reached out and split the code apart. All the souls that created the beast returned to their own reality while the concept of a ''God Beast'' no longer existed.
Every God Beast that had ever existed was now wiped out.
Tilting her head back, Shiro conjured the spear once more as there was only one more ce she wanted to visit before she put an end to Anima''s experiment.
"P-Please before you go! Can you tell me who you are?" Themander called out as he didn''t want the saviour of their realm to leave without giving them a name. He knew that she was not a mortal, the way she conjured a tier 9 magic circle was proof of that.
ncing back, Shiro thought for a moment before smiling.
"It''s Shiro." She smiled. She was neither the First born nor the original Nanomancer herself, Nytri. No, she was just Shiro. One of the many clones created by Anima for her experiment but she was her own person.
Without another word, she locked onto her original realm and threw the spear before disappearing from the world.
Seeing Shiro leave, themander sighed before raising his sword towards the soldiers. They had survived and that was all that mattered.
Chapter 1277: Returning To Asharia
Since Gungnir needed to lock onto something in order to be thrown urately, there was a single ce perfect for this asion.
Usually, one would target a certain mana signal but Shiro chose a ce thatcked any sort of signal in a world flooded with mana.
She chose the null mana zone.
A ce of her own making. It was the perfect target in order to not harm anyone as the resulting impact would only be absorbed by the zone with the mana being funnelled towards the repairs of the area.
Flickering through the cycles while catching up to her spear, Shiro could see the destruction that Anima had started in each cycle. Each world had its own problems and Anima simply amplified the destruction caused by it.
Since this was the result of their battle, Shiro felt obligated to at least try relieving their pressure. Snapping her fingers, she created a holographic projection of herself and sent it towards each of the cycles.
Little by little, it split apart into a million fragments, each having the goal of halting the destruction, reverting each cycle back to the way it was before Shiro''s fight with Anima and Aria.
Each of the fragments may only have a small pool of mana but once they reach the cycle, they''ll be able to use the ambient mana to bolster themselves. And once the destruction had been reverted, they''ll disintegrate into ambient mana to foster growth for the cycle.
It was her way of apologising for dragging each realm into her conflict. They don''t need to know it''s her, they just need to think that everything was a nightmare and destruction was not iing.
''Once destruction has been halted, the clones will revert the world using the codes to a state before the fight ever started. If I try to revert it fully, my mana won''t be able to sustain such an act. Instead, I''ll push the previous state further into the future so it overwrites what happened to make it seem like going back in time. Then I''ll modify the memories of everyone in that realm to think what had happened was just a nightmare, the malfunction of a spell that caused everyone to perceive such a fate.''
The act of going to the past was much more exhausting than dragging the past to the future. There was less resistance to fight against and the mana drain was much smaller as well. With this method, she''ll be able to sustain herself despite repairing every single cycle that had been involved by Anima.
Looking down at her hands, she could already see her body pushing for the next tier. With her knowledge and capabilities increased, it was hard to hold back the ascension but she was stalling it out.
It was a simr situation to when Anima couldn''t stop Chaos'' interference. It wasn''t a matter of if, only when.
''There should be enough time to visit Lyrica and the others before I leave to see Anima.'' Shiro smiled inwardly as she mentally prepared herself for what''s toe.
She instinctively knew that it was a point of no return. Once she sees Anima, it''ll be thest time they speak.
Feeling the spear finally reach her original realm, she activated the final teleport and disappeared from her space.
Arriving at the null mana zone, she could feel her own mana being absorbed rapidly.
"To think, something I made on ident back then would help me get back home." Shiro chuckled while summoning Gungnir back to her hands.
During her fight, this realm was not spared from the destruction. But a single scan of the world told her that there was no need to worry. Unlike the other cycles, this one had the gods, demigods, her friends and Asharia to help with evacuations.
While some deaths couldn''t be avoided, it was still doing much better than the other cycles.
''Let me do one more task then.''
Unlike the other realms, she didn''t want to push the past further into the future. But rather simply revive those that died during this cmity and help them find their way back.
sping her hands together, a tier 9 array appeared around her as she flicked her wrist and summoned an orb. It was a representation of their cycle, a method simr to what Anima and Chaos had used.
Snapping her fingers, arge array stretched across the world, covering it in a nket of mana as a warm glow enveloped thends.
Elsewhere, while Lyrica and the others were helping with evacuations, Lyrica paused in her tracks and turned her head towards Shiro''s location.
She felt a foreign force of mana suddenly appear in their world before colliding with the null mana zone and disappearing. Shortly after that, a new signature followed. It was unlike anything she had ever sensed before, overwhelming to the point it seemed as though they could shatter the realm in two.
It was teetering on the edge of bing something else while the owner was suppressing their own mana.
''Is it Shiro? But it doesn''t feel like her¡ There are resemnces¡ What happened?'' Lyrica thought to herself in worry.
Suddenly, arge array, bigger than the world appeared in the sky.
Widening her eyes in shock, everyone paused in their tracks and gasped at the scale of the spell.
Even gods couldn''t believe their eyes'' including Nyx.
"I can only imagine one person doing this but even then, it''s a little too crazy for Shiro no?" Madison forced a smile while the others nodded their heads in agreement.
Out of nowhere, their systems rang back to life as they saw the message.
[The Goddess of Asharia casts her blessing to the world.
All those that have died will be revived.
All destruction caused will be repaired.
Everyone will be granted a barrier to prevent further injuries for the next 24 hours. Any act of malice or intended malice for when the time ends will have their codes erased.]
"The Goddess of Asharia huh? I suppose that''s pretty urate." Nyxughed. While Shiro was indeed the First Born of Destruction, she had changed her own identity with her mastery over creation mana.
With no divinity to focus on, calling herself the Goddess of Asharia, a city she built, was rather urate.
"Of course it''s urate, I chose the name myself." Shiro''s voice interrupted Nyx as she had a grin on her face.
"Wee back. How did things go after I had to leave? Seeing as how you''re here it must''ve been resolved right?" Nyx asked curiously but Shiro shook her head.
"Aria is dealt with. But there''s one more problem I need to resolve." She shrugged before turning back to her friends.
"Let''s go get some food first. I''ve been through some crap so I actually want to rx for a little while."
"Alright so who''s cooking?" Yin asked as everyone turned their focus to her.
"ME?? Do you even know how tiring it is to cook for everyone here???" Yinined as she thought she could just sit back and enjoy some food instead of having to cook.
"Of course, who else if not you. It''s time for you to do your duty as my eldest daughter." Shiro grinned as Yin started toin but she still made her way to the cafeteria to begin her preparations.
As the rest of the group followed, Shiro was about to follow as well when Lyrica grabbed her by the wrist.
"What happened? Your mana is unstable like you''re about to disappear at any moment." Lyrica asked with worry.
"Ahahah, can''t fool your eyes huh? I always knew you were sensitive to mana." Shiro scratched her hair before looking at Lyrica.
"The one who started all the cycles and controls them now is Anima. Well¡ the original Anima. After this, I''ll be forced to ascend and deal with her once and for all. If things go well, there shouldn''t be any issues. If things go bad¡ well I shouldn''t verbalise such thoughts." Shiro shrugged as Lyrica nodded her head.
"Can''t we join you? We can help fight Ani-"
"Lyrica. I''d rather not put my friends in danger against someone I don''t even know if I can beat myself. Knowing that everyone is here protecting my home is good enough for me." Shiro reassured. Seeing Lyrica''s sad expression, Shiro had a fond smile her face while patting her head.
"Come on, let''s go eat some food. I think I''ve got a few hours before I have to go and I don''t want to leave things undone in this ce before I leave. Otherwise, I might get distracted during my fight." Shiro joked as Lyrica sighed and nodded her head.
Joining the rest of the party, they enjoyed the meal and partied hard while knowing that there was serious talks to be had. This was merely a moment to rx and all of them knew. After all, Shiro wouldn''t party this hard unless she was unsure of what''s toe.
They knew she didn''t want to leave regrets so they enjoyed the party as much as they could.
Looking at the party, Shiro had a soft smile on her face. She felt grateful that she could meet everyone and how they could party like there''s no tomorrow. The amount of happiness they brought to her life was not something she could put into words.
''Perhaps this is also what drove Anima to do what she did. She found a close friend in Aaron yet they used his corpse as a medal¡'' Shiro thought to herself, feeling pity for her original.
Shaking her head, she drank more juice and rejoined the party.
Chapter 1278: Tier 10
As the party was finishing, everyone was helping with packing up while Shiro called Nan Tian over.
"What is it?" Nan Tian asked, sitting down. He could tell the atmosphere near the end of the party was a little off but that was likely due to everyone knowing that Shiro wasn''t going to stay around.
"I know it''s pretty bad of me to ask you this after everything we''ve been through, but I hope you can look after Asharia with Lyrica and the others. Here''s something that might help." Shiro smiled as she ced an orb next to her.
"I was nning to do so since you treasure this ce anyways. But care to tell me what this orb is?" Nan Tian raised an eyebrow.
"It''s just something that contains all my knowledge regarding nanobots, this city and other blueprints that might be helpful. There''s also a program on it that''ll allow you to make new blueprints so long as you give a good description of what you''re looking for. This entire ce is basically a glorified factory for nanobots if I was to put it crudely. If you ever need the help from that, then this orb will assist you all the way."
Hearing this, Nan Tian furrowed his brows before nodding his head.
"Alright. I don''t want to say anything like you should take care of it yourself when you get back, but how do you know you''re noting back from this?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro sighed and leaned back.
Looking up at the ceiling, she opened her mouth.
"Imagine yourself standing at the edge of the cliff. You don''t have any mana and all you can do is look down at the ocean below. Thend you''re standing on is slowly crumbling away and you know that once you jump, there''s no going back up. That''s the feeling I''m getting." She smiled softly while raising her hand towards the ceiling.
"Perhaps it''s a price that must be paid, for reaching a realm beyond chaos. Tier 9 is the limit for gods and mortals alike, but tier 10 is something elsepletely you know? In the time I was gone, I understood what it takes to be tier 10."
Staying silent, Nan Tian looked down at the floor.
"So you''re disappearing no matter what?" He asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Yep. Once I meet Anima, I can''te back. Naturally that also means whether or not I win no longer matters in terms of meing back. If I win, I essentially take her ce. If I lose, she''ll continue to do as she pleases. Forever repeating the same experiments and having another Shiro appear that can challenge her. So I want to make sure I have no regrets before I go. If you have anything to ask, ask away." Shiro offered with a smile.
Clenching his fist, Nan Tian nodded his head.
"I have all the answers I need, don''t worry. Well there is one more but it''s a rather selfish one." Heughed.
"Pft, I got an idea of what you want to ask. All I can say is you did have a chance. I suppose it was in favour of you until I saw Lyrica spending so long alone just in hopes of finding me. At that point it became a matter of whoever came to me first. Not a very good answer is it? As a fighter I know everything I must do. But as a woman and a normal person when ites to romance I''m clueless. I can''t even make a choice and left it up to whoever approached first." Shiro chuckled.
"Some people are just like that. It shows you''re wed like the rest of us. Knowing I had a chance is good enough for me. I can only me myself for being slow, but know this. My promise to you still stands, my reason for being is to protect you. It doesn''t matter if you are in a far off realm fighting Anima or not, I will fulfil my promise to you." Nan Tian smiled before standing up.
"Seems like you''ve made your mind up about something."
"Mnm, I need to verify a few theories of mine. As long as you don''t give up, things will be fine." Nan Tian reassured, before standing up.
"Well I suppose I have something to look forward to then." Shiro joked as she watched Nan Tian help out with cleaning the ce up.
"Seems like you finished your talk with Nan Tian."
ncing to the side, Shiro could see Lyrica walk up and sit down next to her.
"Yep. Just asking him to take care of a few things rather than saying goodbye. I was never good with farewells ahaha, doesn''t suit me." Shiro chuckled.
"I assume you heard what I said earlier."
Nodding her head slowly, Lyrica could sense that Shiro''s body was already breaking apart and slowly disappearing. She couldn''t hold back her ascension for much longer.
"I''m sorry for having to leave so soon." Shiro apologised but Lyrica shook her head.
"It''s fine¡ You do what you have to do for this world that we live in. Some people are just born into a role they cannot change. Yours being one that goes against everything Anima has done." Lyrica smiled bitterly since she knows nothing she says will change what was happening.
Shiro''s ascension is inevitable.
"Yeah¡" Shiro sighed as she grabbed Lyrica''s hand.
Without saying anything, the two sat while watching their friends talk, bicker andugh with each other. They simply spent this time in silence.
"Would there be any way for me to reach you?" Lyrica asked, sensing that time was running out.
"I don''t know. Even for me, this is a state of being that I know very little about. Even Anima was only able to manifest herself through proxies in a world teetering on the edge of destruction. When stability no longer matters. And even then, there seem to be countless rules she must abide by as a being that has reached the state of tier 10."
Holding Lyrica''s hand tightly, Shiro stood up.
Thinking about it, she wondered if she should leave them any final words. She wanted to tell Yin to not eat too much, Attie to help protect everyone, Lisandra to be their supporting emotional pir¡ But she knows that if she was to leave final words behind, it''ll be akin to agreeing to her death.
As selfish as it was, she wanted to hope. Hope that she coulde back. She didn''t want to cut their connection with final words.
Biting her lip, she tapped her finger lightly and paused time within the room.
"It''s better this way I suppose." She muttered as thest goodbye might cause her to falter. Shaking her head, she walked to the door and nced back at everyone that she knew. Burning this scene into her mind, she teleported away with renewed determination.
As time resumed, everyone stopped what they were doing while Lyrica sat on the seat alone, clenching her fist while stopping tears from falling. She bit her lips until blood started to drip in order to not make a single sound.
"She''s left huh¡ Not even a single goodbye." Madison smiled bitterly as she sat next to Lyrica and hugged her friend tightly.
###
Teleporting away from the city, Shiro''s destination was one of the satellites that orbited the world. Looking down at the with fondness, she summoned Error.
"Seems like it''ll just be me and you for a while." Shiro smiled as she tapped his head.
[I''ll follow you wherever you go.]
"Alright."
Taking a deep breath, Shiro sped her hands together and allowed the ascension to happen.
She understood the truth of tier 10. If tier 9 was the realm of the first beings that appeared within the universe, then tier 10 was the universe itself.
It was a manifestation of universalws, the foundations of the original reality. Chaos helped Anima achieve this feat when she cursed Anima to forever repeat this experiment until satisfactory results were obtained.
For her, there was only one way for her to achieve tier 10. With her scope of knowledge already exceeding that of tier 9 and her body being one that was akin to the origin of this universe, she had fulfilled every condition.
A tier 9 magic circle appeared around Shiro as she activated Error''s power.
Tears in space slowly appeared around her as circuits crawled out before stabbing into Shiro''s body.
[In order for you to finish your ascension without going into a limbo, you''ll need to establish a universalw mother. Anima''s universalw is to repeat the Garden Project until a satisfactory result is observed. What will be your universalw?]
"My universalw? It''s rather simple." Shiro smiled. Opening her mouth, she spoke thew she wished to establish as the circuits broke apart into countless shards before converging towards Shiro''s location.
Little by little, they connected with one another as a final fractured 10th circle was formed. Within that instance, the world seemed to halt as a surge of energy pulsed out beforepletely disappearing.
Standing in the void motionlessly, Shiro could see a world that was split in two. Simr to her own domain, one side was purest of white while the other was the darkest of cks. Splitting the two was a single mirror-like surface that she was standing upon.
One moment she was standing on the side of light and in the next, the side of dark.
In the reflection of this mirror-like surface, Shiro spotted a familiar shadow. The figure of Anima as she sat upon a throne with her body bound by chains created from Chaos'' curse.
"Should I apologise for being toote?" Shiro called out with a smile as Anima shook her head.
"No need. But I suppose I should congratte you on achieving the rank of tier 10. Wee to the conceptual world, the world of universalws."
Chapter 1279: Facing Anima
"The conceptual world huh? I suppose this is where you''ve been since the first cycle, when Chaos cursed you with continuing your experiment." Shiro asked as she tried to walk towards Anima but their distance never changed.
Even though she was walking, she remained in the same spot.
"I suppose it''s to be expected that you''ve seen everything that happened up to this point. If you haven''t, you wouldn''t have reached tier 10." Anima chuckled as she stood up.
"So do you think you have what it takes to stop me?" She asked as Shiro summoned Gungnir.
"Let''s just say I like to try the impossible."
Taking a step back, she gritted her teeth and threw Gungnir towards Anima who gathered energy into her hand and created a sword of cosmic energy.
Flicking her wrist, she parried Gungnir without issue and sent it to the side.
"You know, I had only held hope of you killing me before things devolved to this point." Anima sighed as Shiro widened her eyes in surprise.
Without any warning, Anima had appeared next to her and swiped down with her sword.
Dodging to the side, Shiro summoned Gungnir once more and stabbed towards Anima who disappeared from her spot.
"You have no idea how wide the scope of this experiment truly is. Do you think I''ve never seen you use Gungnir? Do you think you''ve never reached this area? Did you think you were special?" Anima asked, her voice bereft of anger.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro jumped back to create some distance between them when she tripped over something within the ground.
Furrowing her brows, she nced back and saw a sea of corpses, each one pierced with Gungnir through the chest. Her eyes widened as it was all variations of her.
"Did you think you were the first Shiro to get here?" Anima sighed.
Raising her hand, a myriad of tier 10 magic circles formed above her as a rain of arrows shot towards Shiro.
"Every full cycle, there is always one Shiro who achieves tier 10. Every full cycle, there is always an extra corpse within this realm of universalws. You will merely add to the pile."
Dodging the arrows with difficulty, Shiro knew that most of her attack skills would do nothing to Anima. After reaching tier 10, she understood the gulf between tier 9 and 10 was not something power could make up. Each of her attacks had to have universalws embedded into it.
For Anima, this was for her to protect her experiment so that she could continue the cycles. Chaos'' curse.
Unless she can embed universalws into her own attack, she should forget about using fanciful skills and so far, only Gungnir had the capabilities of utilizing universalws!
Summoning Gungnir next to her once more, Shiro threw the spear towards Anima''s head.
Just as she was about to parry it, Shiro teleported in front of her and grabbed the spear. Twisting her body, she attempted to pierce Anima''s head but Anima managed to dodge by leaning back.
"The same attacks every time. I will say that with every iteration, you get a little closer to killing me. Just a little closer. But with my curse, I cannot simply sit back and watch you kill me. The only chance was for you to kill me before reaching tier 10.
"Through the avatar, I can hold myself back and let you destroy my code, my universalw. But no, you never seeded. The moment you entered this ce, you signed your own death warrant. For I can no longer hold back because of universalw and my curse." Anima sighed as Shiro understood the emotions going through Anima''s head.
It was resignation. She epted that this cycle was a failure as well and that Shiro couldn''t seed in killing her.
''She''s being forced to fight thanks to thews that she embodies¡ Is there really no chance I can kill her?'' Shiro thought to herself with a frown as she had to admit, hearing that she failed and seeing hundreds to thousands of her own corpses behind her was something else entirely.
All of them reached tier 10 just like her, all of them came here with the same thoughts just like her, and all of them died. Was her fate to suffer the same?
''No!''
Stomping down, she summoned two Gungnirs from the ground and shot them towards Anima.
"I had put hope in you killing me before this ce. I had tried my best to set up everything for you, but you wasted the chances. Kill, murder, plunder I don''t care. The details of each cycle no longer matter. So long as you can kill me, anything goes."
"Oi, do you even hear yourself? Do you not remember what brought you here in the first ce? How you thought the individual mattered? Aren''t you just thinking like Chaos at this point?" Shiro asked with a forced smile. Summoning two more Gungnir''s, she kicked the pommel and sent them flying towards Anima.
Parrying the spears, Anima shook her head.
"Yes, that''s what I thought at first. But after so many cycles, patterns begin to emerge. I have seen every pattern, every choice. Cycles when you ended up with Nan Tian, cycles when you chose Lyrica, cycles when you chose to be alone. Everything. In the grand scheme of things, nothing changed. Your individual actions did not change the course of the world."
"Then don''t you think I can change things now that I''m here? You''ve basically told me everything haven''t you?" Shiro retorted while flicking her wrist. All of the spears she''s thrown started to float momentarily before shooting towards Anima, blocking all paths of retreat.
"That''s what you have told me every time you arrive in this ce. But the corpses of your past tell of your results. Why should I hope? Why should I bother? Have you given me a reason to care?" Anima asked as she stabbed her sword down, surrounding herself in a wave of mes that reduced everything that came into contact to ash.
"The old you would''ve scoffed at what you''ve be." Shiro taunted while sweat dripped down her face.
The fact that Anima hadn''t done much other than parry and maybe swing towards her once or twice was worrying.
"She would''ve indeed. But it''s fine. There is no more hope for this cycle. All that''s left for me to do is to end you and restart everything from scratch. Once you die, the anchor for this cycle will break and all will be returned to zero."
Raising her hand, an overwhelming wave of mana burst out from her body as Shiro felt millions of invisible des locking onto her.
Her instincts were screaming for her to run away as no matter where she teleported, the des never lost track of her.
"You''re not the only one with a weapon that cannot miss. Mine''s just in the form of a sword."
With no other choice, Shiro focused her senses and parried as many des as she could.
''Ignore the ones that won''t be lethal, just parry the ones with the most danger.''
Swinging her spear, she tried her best to parry but she was unable to counter all of them as des pierced into her body.
Stumbling back, Shiro was forced to kneel.
"See? Some have even perished at this spot." Anima sighed while pointing at the corpses next to her. All of them had des pierced through their bodies as their lifeless eyes stared off into nothingness.
"I have experienced every timeline to its end, seen every action and consequence. The corpses here are merely what I choose to show you as to not clutter our arena. So tell me, after seeing all this can you still say you are able to change what''s already been proven by history? By each timeline that ended?"
Jumping back, Shiro tore the des from her body and stood with the help of her spear.
"Anima, you say that you''ve experienced every timeline to its end. But there is still one that''s yet to finish." Shiroughed as she healed her wounds.
"Your own. We may be clones and fakes but it''s notpletely hopeless. Who knows, perhaps this cycle is the one to end yours. How can you say you''ve seen the full picture if you haven''t seen the end of yours? It may take a long time but the end wille one day. And who''s to say it''s not me who ends you." Standing up straight, Shiro ced her spear in front of her as tier 10 magic circles lit up around the realm.
". . .I''ll admit, this is the first time I''ve heard that. Perhaps you are right, there will be an end someday. But when is that day going toe? I have lived and suffered for eons, how much more must I endure before I can wee my end?" Anima smiled bitterly as she felt a flutter in her heart.
A promise of a distantnd of death that she could only dream of. Often she wished she was like the subjects of her experiments. The people who can live,ugh then die. The gentle embrace of nihility giving them the rest they deserve.
The rest that is out of her reach.
She didn''t dare to hope for hope in the face of immortality was a noose that continued to tighten but she would not die. She would continue to suffer for this hope that had been bestowed upon her.
"Then let me die having lived in the heat of battle. Surely you can provide me with this much if you truly seek to end my eon''s of suffering." Anima asked as she broke away from her throne. The chains still surrounded her body but her mobility was no longer limited.
Rushing forward, Anima conjured a myriad of des around her to parry the attacks that targeted her back while engaging in close quartersbat with Shiro.
Just as she was about to stab Shiro in the chest, the shaft of Gungnir collided with her wrist, forcing her attack off her target.
Without saying anything, Shiro had fully focused her mind in order to keep up with Anima. This speed, this power, this overwhelming mana. Shiro couldn''tpete in any of these aspects and can only hope to endure to the end.
Hitting the side of Anima''s knee with Gungnir, Shiro kicked her in the chest before swinging down with the spear.
*CLANG!
The collision of weapons echoed out in thisndscape of infinity as it was just the two of them and a sea of corpses.
Jumping back, she conjured more spears to fend off Anima while she prepared her next spell.
But before it could take effect, Anima was already next to her and cleaved down with her de.
With no time to dodge, Shiro could only grit her teeth and lean to the side, making sure the attack was not fatal before countering with her own.
Taking damage at the same time, they created more distance between them before continuing their sh.
Chapter 1280: Shiros Universal Law
As time passed, their battle raged on with no end in sight. For each attack she felt, she suffered the same damage.
But she endured.
She will not let everything she worked for, everything her past selves had worked for go to waste. Her life was not her own as her own fate dictates the fate of the cycle.
Letting out a shout of anger, Shiro jammed the spear into Anima''s stomach as she endured a stab to the eye from Anima''s de.
Lifting Anima up with her spear, she threw Anima towards her throne before jumping up and throwing Gungnir.
"It''s not enough! In this realm, I cannot die!" Anima shouted out as emotions finally appeared in her voice.
A tier 10 magic circle appeared in front of her as she parried the spear and jumped towards Shiro.
"It is universalw that Anima will continue the experiments until a satisfactory result is obtained! I will not die, no matter the injuries, no matter my fatigue, I will not die! Do you understand such a fate?!" She shouted out as Shiro could sense the grief in her eyes.
Dodging Anima''s attack, Shiro threw Anima over her shoulder before attempting to stab her once more.
But Anima managed to cleave her de up, shredding Shiro''s spear wielding arm.
"Every Shiro hade to this realm with the singr goal of killing me. Their universalw being that of destruction! But they all failed! But I will apud your efforts for none have endured as long as you have!" Animaughed as her hair was disheveled from the countless fighting.
But Shiro didn''t respond as her vision was hazy from fatigue. She had long lost track of how long she''s been here but it didn''t matter.
As long as Anima remains, she will never stop fighting.
"Soe! Let us put an end to this, you and I!" Anima shouted as her aura red.
For the first time in eons, she felt alive. She wanted to savor this moment as much as she could. She didn''t know how long it''ll take for another being of this caliber to challenge her to such an extent.
So many times through this sh did she feel the threat of death upon her throat. How close she was to the embrace of nihility.
"I will remember you, for you have proven that there is still a chance for death to wee me." Anima smiled as she was truly grateful for Shiro.
Charging within Shiro''s range of attack, she parried Shiro''s spear before piercing the de through Shiro''s chest. Pulling back her hand, she plunged her hand in and took hold of Shiro''s core.
"Farewell my clone."
However, Shiro only hugged Anima tightly.
Sensing that something was wrong, Anima tore out Shiro''s core and jumped back in caution. Crushing the core, she watched as Shiro tensed up before falling limp.
Kneeling against the reflection separating this realm in two, Shiro dropped her spear as her breathing started to slow.
"You finally dropped your guard¡" Shiro muttered slowly as circuits burst out of her body, threading into the realm.
Furrowing her brows, Anima looked around in confusion.
"During our sh, I believe you asked me about my Universal Law. Thew I established when I ascended to tier 10." Shiro asked as she saw that she was alone. There were no corpses near her and a smile formed on her face.
She is the first that will die at this stage.
"After our first fight, where you told me I was merely one of many, I understood. That from that point onwards, there will always be a Shiro that has done the same. The same goal of seeking to destroy. So I wondered to myself, what will be different? What will cause me to take a different path to what I have done before¡" Shiro spoke slowly as she could feel herself losing strength.
"So I simted potential oues. The choices that ''I'' would make. It wasn''t easy, you know, trying to find something that might work. But then a friend of mine told me something and it clicked within my mind. I understood that the other me''s at this point would''ve also heard the same so I gambled."
Tilting her head back, she looked at Anima who was still holding the pieces of her core.
"I gambled with my final choices and allowed someone I know to make my Universal Law." Shiroughed as circuits appeared next to her and slowly converged into a being that shouldn''t be in this ce.
"I''m wed like the rest of them. It makes sense I can''t defeat you since I''m a clone. I didn''t know if the other me''s would''ve done this but I have someone I can rely on. A big sis to cover my back."
"To fracture your own soul so I can make the Universal Law for you, tsk tsk. I have quite the pain in the ass of a little sister. But I suppose being a pain in the ass is on brand for you huh, Shiro." The figure smiled as her form solidified and Anima realized who it was.
"My Universal Law was iplete when I arrived. Since I split my soul in two, I prepared two parts of my Law. The first part, my part, is to simply endure against you. To keep fighting until I can''t fight anymore. To push me to my absolute limit. I knew that I couldn''t kill you, every Shiro has failed up to this point." Shiroughed.
"And so my little sister called out to me, her big sister, to figure out how to craft a Universal Law against the original soul." Kuromi shook her head as she borrowed Shiro''s power and a tier 10 magic circle appeared around the realm.
"You know, I was always the better magepared to my little sister. She only knew how to fight and shoot."
Flicking her wrist, countless arrays appeared around them as mana converged towards their location.
"It''s hard to overwrite everything that Chaos has done, I assume that even if Shiro made her Universal Law to be one that reced you in this position, it would still fail since it was designated to Anima, the original soul. So I had a hypothesis and Shiro gambled on it." Kuromi exined as Anima was forced to try to fight against the current situation but crimson circuits burst out of Shiro''s shattered core and restrained Anima in ce.
"You mentioned yourself. Every Shiro hase to this ce with the intent to kill. But you never mentioned me being involved and that''s when we knew we were on the right track. So I present this Universal Law with three souls as offering." Kuro chanted as Shiro simply watched with a smile.
"Shiro will partake in the Garden Project, the main soul Anima will slumber until Chaos''w is fulfilled."
Upon confirming thew, the realm started to warp as Anima felt a wave of lethargy wash over her.
She realized what they had done. As they could not fight against Chaos'' Law, they could only build upon it. Their only benefit was that Shiro was a clone of Anima so thew was loose regarding her position.
"The requirements of Chaos''w is fulfilled while you continue the project as I slumber. This is the same oue desired as the previous Shiro''s who wished to rece me but the context is different¡ Anima never disappears but rather shall be ced in a death like stasis until the end." Animaughed.
"It''s a shame to say but I never thought of this. I''m a wed being after all, I could only think of killing you and recing you." Shiroughed as her body started to repair itself.
"Fufufu, alright. I have no more words other than to hope you can endure what I had to endure. If you can bring this experiment to a close, we will meet again. And perhaps we can enjoy a friendly conversation." Anima smiled as she felt peace atst. After Eons, she can finally rest.
"Yeah, hopefully it won''t be too long." Shiro nodded as Anima copsed on her knee and fell into a slumber. Her body, now drifting in the endless void with nothing to disturb her.
With just Shiro and Kuromi in the conceptual world, Shiro could feel chains slowly forming around her limbs as she was now taking Anima''s role in Chaos''w.
"Sorry I couldn''t think of anything better. This was the only way I could see you getting the result you desired." Kuromi apologized but Shiro shook her head.
"It''s fine, it''s what I wished for to begin with. Even if I didn''t take over Anima''s role, I can''t go back anymore after reaching tier 10. Thank you sis." Shiro smiled as Kuromi gently knocked her on the head.
"You''re wee. It''s the big sis'' role to help the little sis when they''re in trouble. But I can''t stay for long since your soul is already repairing itself." Kuromi sighed as she sat next to Shiro.
Her figure was already breaking apart as chains solidified around Shiro.
"Take care of yourself Shiro. Just know that I''m always next to you." Kuromi smiled as she gently kissed Shiro on the forehead before disappearing.
Smiling softly, Shiro nodded her head before looking towards the now empty throne of solitude within this realm of nothingness.
From this point on, she will witness everything that happens. She is the creator and the destroyer. Until Chaos''w is fulfilled, she sits upon Anima''s jail of solitude.
Chapter 1281: Epilogue
As the destruction of a world draws near, a woman watched with tears in her eyes. She learned the truth. The truth of her identity, the truth of their realm and the truth of the experiment that stretched across Eons.
Seeing her treasured ones perish in the gulf of infinity, insanity washed over her mind as she cried out with blood shot eyes.
"I''m sorry..." Shiro apologized as she watched the destruction of the world with her future clone.
Before she could curse Shiro, she too disappeared amidst the destruction.
How many cycles has this been? Shiro had lost count.
''Is this how Anima felt? Constantly killing those that looked like you, lived the same life as you, met the same people as you¡'' Shiro thought to herself as she could feel herself be numb with each passing day. But she had to continue. Even if she wanted a break, she had to continue the experiment.
Watching the final spark of this cycle copse into itself, Shiro reached out with her hand yet the destruction didn''t damage her at all.
She had long stopped existing as a mortal being. She was a Universal Law, the foundation of the universe. One that continued to exist until the perfect cycle is discovered.
Biting her lip, Shiro pulled back her hand as her body was forced to move. She was forced to create the next cycle, start the next experiment.
Returning to the conceptual realm, she sat upon the throne once more with chains weighing down her every move.
However, there was something strange. One of the cycles seemed to be diverging off the standard pattern as it warranted her attention.
The state of the realm was teetering on the verge of destruction yet it was strangely peaceful as though it could implode at any given moment.
With the Lawspelling her to investigate further, she closed her eyes and split a part of her consciousness to the world simr to what she had done many times before.
"Did it work?"
"Don''t look at me, I''m not the one who made this bloody thing."
"Stop arguing alright? God I swear even after travelling for this long you two still bicker like little children."
"You''re not really helping, Madi. Just help me secure the aura to the doll already."
"Fine, this better work. I don''t know how many more times we can do this before exhausting this doll. Plus why don''t you ask Lyrica or Nan Tian to help with this one? I''ve already done it before."
"You have the most mana capacity out of all of us thanks to you being a demon god. Now focus up already before the aura leaves."
"Fine~ If you say so."
Hearing all of these family voices, a burst of emotion flooded Shiro''s heart as she didn''t dare to dream. She didn''t dare to hope that this was true. Countless years she had spent in the conceptual realm trying to finish the experiments so that she could go back to her own world. But it was already destroyed. She could not stop herself from destroying her own world.
Opening her eyes slowly, she could see the familiar faces of her friends as tears welled up in her eyes.
"See? I told you it would work." Lyrica smiled as she couldn''t hold back her tears anymore and hugged Shiro. She looked older than she did before and had a new hairstyle while the others had different outfits as well.
"You''re the one who was most anxious." Madisonughed as she too broke down with tears in her eyes.
"I told you, it doesn''t matter if you''re in a far off realm. I will fulfill my promise to you." Nan Tian chuckled as he kneeled down next to Shiro.
"How?" Shiro asked, as emotions flooded her heart. She couldn''t believe she could see her friends again after all this time.
"I got some help from an old fan of yours. It wasn''t the intended purpose but I made it work." Nan Tian smiled, handing a small note to her.
[Sup! I heard you were going for bnce so I left a little something for you towards the North. I don''t know if it will work exactly as I expect but I hope my pal does what I ask and sends the information to you regardless. If you do hatch it, you''ll get this letter. If you don''t¡ well you won''t be reading this. I can''t use the system since I''m about to be reset for how much sh*t I caused for you. Well that''s fine. The egg is a gateway between the two worlds. You can use it to reach the world of Creation. It''ll serve as a bridge for a short period of time so their creatures may spill out towards your side but I''m sure you can deal with it. It''ll hopefully cultivate into a seed of creation and destruction and help you achieve bnce. This is thest time you''ll hear from me so this is goodbye I suppose. Keep on fighting! And please, if I''m an asshole if you see me again, don''t take it as an invitation to pierce me!]
[- Your biggest fan, Admin 4]
Reading this, Shiro bit her lip and forced augh as she remembered how much Admin 4 had helped her throughout her journey.
"Since you already reached bnce, we couldn''t exactly use it. I had an idea during ourst talk and used your nanotech to fuse the two together and simted your journey to create a vessel. I assumed you couldn''te back so we wanted a way to anchor you down without splitting your soul and here we are. Sorry for beingte." Nan Tian smiled as one nce at the codes that created this vessel told Shiro everything she needed to know.
How long they took to create this vessel and how much they had to do.
"Since it''s a sess, I''ve already told everyone back home to start the party. Asharia''s gone through some pretty major changes in the years you were gone. It can even go through cycles now."
"Don''t you dare go off without saying goodbye this time! Do you know how much Lyrica cried because of youst time???" Madison pouted as Shiro wiped her tears and nodded her head.
"Alright."
She was finally back home where she belonged.
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